Reliability of a structured method of selecting abstracts for a plastic surgical scientific meeting

There is no generally accepted method for assessing abstracts that are submitted for a medical scientific meeting. This article describes the development and prospective evaluation of such a method applied to the 220 abstracts submitted for the 2000 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Plastic Surgeons. Structured abstracts were evaluated in three categories: aesthetic surgery, basic research, and clinical study. Each anonymous abstract was assessed separately by 10 reputable European plastic surgeons. These reviewers used a structured rating questionnaire which resulted in a score given by each reviewer to each abstract between -6 and +6. The scores of all 10 reviewers were added for each abstract, and the papers were accepted in each of the three categories on the basis of this abridged score. To evaluate the reliability of this structured method of selection, the interrater agreement among the reviewers was tested by means of kappa analysis and the Cronbach alpha coefficient. The kappa values for agreement among reviewers regarding acceptability of abstracts were low, but the alpha coefficient indicated an acceptable degree of reliability of the average reviewers' ratings for all categories. Using a structured questionnaire can be helpful in the objective assessment of abstracts for a scientific meeting and may facilitate comparison of abstracts. Meritocratic dichotomy of abstracts by the reviewers is advocated to further improve reliability of the rating. Even though reliability generally increases with the number of reviewers, the annual increase of submitted abstracts may necessitate a decrease in the number of reviewers for each abstract.     

Improved method for selecting RNA-binding activities in vivo.

RNA challenge phages are modified versions of bacteriophage P22 that allow one to select directly for a specific RNA-protein interaction in vivo. The original construction method for generating a bacteriophage that encodes a specific RNA target requires two homologous recombination reactions between plasmids and phages in bacteria. An improved method is described that enables one to readily construct RNA challenge phages through a single homologous recombination reaction in vivo. We have applied the new method to construct a derivative of P22R17, an RNA challenge phage that undergoes lysogenic development in bacterial cells that express the bacteriophage R17/MS2 coat protein.     

A central location method for selecting random plots for vegetation surveys

A method is proposed for selecting points at random from a Cartesian grid and computing the distance and direction from the center of the field to the chosen point. This represents a convenient method for locating quadrats for vegetation surveys in the field. Two variations of this principle are discussed. One of these selects points from a square array, while the other selects points only from within a polygon of specified dimensions.     

National Center for Biomedical Ontology: advancing biomedicine through structured organization of scientific knowledge

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease.     

A rapid method for selecting fermentative yeasts at high temperatures

A rapid and efficient method for isolating and selecting thermotolerant and sugar-fermenting yeasts was developed. Several samples from sugar cane by-products could be analyzed at the same time. Yeast cultures could be isolated in about 3 d, in contrast to the conventional methods, and its fermentative ability was qualitatively maintained at the desired temperature. A broad spectrum of temperatures can be tested. Yeasts of generaSaccharomyces andKluyveromyces were easily identified.     

A potential method for selecting genetic deletions in Escherichia coli

Summary A method is described for the selection of deletions in those genes of Escherichia coli that can be carried on specialized transducing phages.     

The Bead blot: a method for selecting small molecule ligands for protein capture and purification

We present a new method for selecting peptide ligands that are useful for protein purification, protein targeting and exploring protein-ligand interactions, and which requires no prior protein purification or derivatization. In the Bead blot, a complex mixture containing the target protein, for example, plasma, is incubated with a combinatorial library of peptide ligands synthesized on beads. The proteins are fractionated and purified on their respective ligands and the beads with their bound proteins are immobilized in a gel. The proteins are eluted from the ligands by capillary action and captured on a membrane so that their position on the membrane corresponds to the position of the beads in the gel. The protein is detected on the membrane, generating spots on an autoradiography film, the spots on the film are aligned with the beads in the gel, and the beads that bound the protein are recovered. The ligand on the bead(s) can be sequenced and synthesized at large scale for protein purification. The Bead blot can be completed in several hours with overnight pause steps if desired. On average, 5 prospective ligands are selected per 50,000 beads screened using this method. Unlike other ligand identification methods, the target protein does not have to be purified or labeled, and the Bead blot allows ligands for multiple proteins to be selected in a single experiment.     

DRGs, costs, and outcome for plastic surgical patients

The purpose of this study was to analyze hospital cost, resource utilization, and outcome by age for a large group of hospitalized plastic surgical patients using the DRG format. Hospital cost per patient for all plastic surgical admissions (both inpatient and potentially ambulatory patients) treated (N = 1632) at an academic medical center increased with age and peaked for plastic surgical patients 75 to 80 years of age ($11,585 per patient). Although DRG payment would have produced an aggregate profit of $2,404,854, older plastic surgical patients (65 years of age and above) generally produced losses. Older plastic surgical patients demonstrated a longer hospital length of stay, a greater severity of illness, a higher percent of outliers, and a greater mortality than younger plastic surgical patients. In addition, older plastic surgical patients had higher clinical resource utilization based on a number of clinical parameters such as emergency admission, SICU utilization, need for blood transfusions, and need for plasma product infusions. This study suggests that the current DRG reimbursement methodology may be inequitable vis-à-vis the older plastic surgical patient. As additional pressures encourage the performance of more ambulatory procedures (previously performed as inpatients), our profit margins may decline and possibly affect our ability to provide quality plastic surgical care.     

Rapid method for selecting appropriate solid media for the enumeration of aerobic micro-organisms

A quick and cheap method for selecting appropriate solid culture media has been devised. It consists in the rapid picking of fragments of test colonies with the aid of a rubber strip in which pins are fixed in parallel, dispensing up to 8 colonies simultaneously in the wells of a Microtiter plate and streaking 4 strains at the same time on square Petri dishes containing the media under comparison. The approximate diameters of well-isolated colonies are measured with the aid of a series of calibrated spots. The results corresponded with those given by the spiral plate method used as a reference for colony count and diameter measure.     

Using and reporting the Delphi method for selecting healthcare quality indicators: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: Delphi technique is a structured process commonly used to developed healthcare quality indicators, but there is a little recommendation for researchers who wish to use it. This study aimed 1) to describe reporting of the Delphi method to develop quality indicators, 2) to discuss specific methodological skills for quality indicators selection 3) to give guidance about this practice. METHODOLOGY AND MAIN FINDING: Three electronic data bases were searched over a 30 years period (1978-2009). All articles that used the Delphi method to select quality indicators were identified. A standardized data extraction form was developed. Four domains (questionnaire preparation, expert panel, progress of the survey and Delphi results) were assessed. Of 80 included studies, quality of reporting varied significantly between items (9% for year's number of experience of the experts to 98% for the type of Delphi used). Reporting of methodological aspects needed to evaluate the reliability of the survey was insufficient: only 39% (31/80) of studies reported response rates for all rounds, 60% (48/80) that feedback was given between rounds, 77% (62/80) the method used to achieve consensus and 57% (48/80) listed quality indicators selected at the end of the survey. A modified Delphi procedure was used in 49/78 (63%) with a physical meeting of the panel members, usually between Delphi rounds. Median number of panel members was 17(Q1:11; Q3:31). In 40/70 (57%) studies, the panel included multiple stakeholders, who were healthcare professionals in 95% (38/40) of cases. Among 75 studies describing criteria to select quality indicators, 28 (37%) used validity and 17(23%) feasibility. CONCLUSION: The use and reporting of the Delphi method for quality indicators selection need to be improved. We provide some guidance to the investigators to improve the using and reporting of the method in future surveys.