A comparison of parent-reported wheezing or shortness of breath among infants as assessed by questionnaire and physician-interview: The generation R study

Purpose: The prevalence of asthma symptoms among preschool children is difficult to determine with accuracy because no gold standard is available for diagnosis. The aim of this study was to compare parent-reported wheezing or shortness of breath among infants as assessed by questionnaire and physician-interview. Methods: We studied 1,202...

Adaptive Automation in a Naval Combat Management System

There is a continuing trend of letting fewer people deal with larger amounts of information in more complex situations using highly automated systems. In such circumstances, there is a risk that people are overwhelmed by information during intense periods or, on the other hand, do not build sufficient situational awareness during periods of...

Assessing agreement of observer- and self-annotations in spontaneous multimodal emotion data

We investigated inter-observer agreement and the reliability of self-reported emotion ratings (i.e., self-raters judging their own emotions) in spontaneous multimodal emotion data. During a multiplayer video game, vocal and facial expressions were recorded (including the game content itself) and were annotated by the players themselves on...

Children proxies' quality-of-life agreement depended on the country using the European KIDSCREEN-52 questionnaire

Objective: The aims of this study were to assess the level of agreement and the magnitude of discrepancies between children and their parents, and whether these levels of agreement/discrepancy depend on the country of living, the domains of quality of life assessed, the age and gender of the children, and other background variables. Study Design...

Are national greenhouse gas emissions reports scientifically valid?

While countries have recently been accused of misreporting greenhouse gas emissions for their benefit, internationally agreed procedures minimize such possibilities and allow for new scientific results to be taken into account in a stepwise manner. © 2007 Earthscan.

Level of agreement between patient self-report and observer ratings of health-related quality of life communication in oncology

Objective: To determine the level of agreement between patients and observers regarding the frequency with which health-related quality of life topics are discussed during outpatient clinical oncology visits. Methods: The sample (n = 50) consisted of a consecutive series of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Both the patients and observers...

Validation of the European Proxy KIDSCREEN-52 Pilot Test Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire: First Results

Purpose: The KIDSCREEN project aims to develop a European cross-cultural generic self-administered Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) instrument for children and adolescents. Proxy measures HRQoL should be a useful and practical alternative to assess children's HRQoL. The KIDSCREEN pilot study involved 3988 children and 2526 child-proxy...

Reliability of a semi-quantitative method for dermal exposure assessment (DREAM)

Valid and reliable semi-quantitative dermal exposure assessment methods for epidemiological research and for occupational hygiene practice, applicable for different chemical agents, are practically nonexistent. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of a recently developed semi-quantitative dermal exposure assessment method (DREAM)...

Energie Verslag Nederland 2000

An overview of developments and events in the Netherlands in 2000 inthe field of energy is presented. This edition comprises three parts. In the first part (Chronicle) a chronological overview is given of events in 2000 regarding governmental and energy policy, developments in the sectors natural gas and petroleum exploration, refineries and...

Measuring health status using the Health Utilities Index: Agreement between raters and between modalities of administration

The aim of this study was to evaluate interrater and intermodality agreement in assessing health status using the Health Utilities Index. A random sample from a Dutch cohort of 14-year-old Very Low Birth Weight children and their parents were invited to participate in a face-to-face (n = 150) or telephone (n = 150) interview. All 300...

The multi-sector convergence approach. A flexible framework for negotiating global rules for national greenhouse gas emissions mitigation targets

This report presents an approach, called the Multi-Sector Convergence(MSC) framework, to generate comprehensive sets of national targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. The MSC framework is aimed at facilitating international negotiations on national emission mitigation targets after the first budget period defined in the Kyoto Protocol....

Measuring health-related quality of life in adolescents: Agreement between raters and between methods of administration

The aim of this study was to evaluate the agreement between children and proxies as well as the agreement between methods of administration in assessing Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) using the TNO AZL Children's Quality Of Life (TACQOL) questionnaire. A random sample from a Dutch cohort of 14-year-old very low birth weight children and...

Kyoto mechanisms: the role of joint implementation, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading in reducing greenhouse gas emissions

This study analyses the potential role and impact of the Kyoto Mechanisms- i.e. joint implementation, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading - in meeting the commitments of Annex I countries to limit their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the period 2008-2012. It is based on a quantitative analysis that covers all GHGs, all Kyoto...