Showing papers by "Michael Bass published in 2015"

Bringing PROMIS to practice: Brief and precise symptom screening in ambulatory cancer care

Abstract: Background Supportive oncology practice can be enhanced by integrating brief and validated electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) assessment into the electronic health record (EHR) and clinical workflow.

Utilizing Multidimensional Computer Adaptive Testing to Mitigate Burden With Patient Reported Outcomes.

Abstract: Utilization of patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) had been limited by the lack of psychometrically sound measures scored in real-time. The Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) initiative developed a broad array of high-quality PRO measures. Towards reducing the number of items administered in measuring PROs, PROMIS employs Item Response Theory (IRT) and Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT). By only administering questions targeted to the subject's trait level, CAT has cut testing times in half(1). The IRT/CAT implementation in PROMIS is unidimensional in that there is a separate set of questions administered for each measured trait. However, there are often correlations among traits. Multidimensional IRT (MIRT) and multidimensional CAT (MCAT) provide items concerning several correlated traits, and should ameliorate patient burden. We developed an MIRT model using existing PROMIS item banks for depression and anxiety, developed MCAT software, and compared the efficiency of the MCAT approach to the unidimensional approach. Note: Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01LM011962.

Intrinsic and extrinsic absorption of chemical vapor deposition single-crystal diamond from the middle ultraviolet to the far infrared

Abstract: Optical absorption is reported in high-quality single-crystal Type IIa diamonds grown by microwave-assisted chemical vapor deposition. Laser calorimetry and spectrophotometry were used at wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared. There is minimal evidence of extrinsic absorption on or near the short wavelength side of the middle-ultraviolet (MUV) region (200–300 nm) or in the infrared absorption bands. At the long wavelength side of the MUV and extending into the visible, extrinsic absorption dominates, which is related to the amount of nitrogen and nitrogen-related lattice defects in diamond. In the samples studied nitrogen concentrations were between 10 and 40 ppb. At 10.6 μm, the measured absorption coefficient of a representative sample is comparable with, or less than, those of the highest quality samples previously reported. Evidence is presented showing that our measurements serve as upper bounds on the absorption coefficients and call into question previous calorimetric reports of intrinsic absorption in the visible, near infrared, and at 10.6 μm.

The Dry Season Shuffle: Gorges Provide Refugia for Animal Communities in Tropical Savannah Ecosystems

Abstract: In the wet-dry tropics, animal species face the major challenges of acquiring food, water or shelter during an extended dry season. Although large and conspicuous animals such as ungulates and waterfowl migrate to wetter areas during this time, little is known of how smaller and more cryptic animal species with less mobility meet these challenges. We fenced off the entire entrance of a gorge in the Australian tropical savanna, offering the unique opportunity to determine the composition and seasonal movement patterns of the small vertebrate community. The 1.7 km-long fence was converted to a trapline that was deployed for 18-21 days during the early dry season in each of two years, and paired traps on both sides of the fence allowed us to detect the direction of animal movements. We predicted that semi-aquatic species (e.g., frogs and turtles) would move upstream into the wetter gorge during the dry season, while more terrestrial species (e.g., lizards, snakes, mammals) would not. The trapline captured 1590 individual vertebrates comprising 60 species. There was a significant bias for captures on the outside of the fence compared to the inside for all species combined (outside/inside = 5.2, CI = 3.7-7.2), for all vertebrate classes, and for specific taxonomic groups. The opposite bias (inside/outside = 7.3, N= 25) for turtles during the early wet season suggested return migration heading into the wet season. Our study revealed that the small vertebrate community uses the gorge as a dry season refuge. The generality of this unreplicated finding could be tested by extending this type of survey to tropical savannahs worldwide. A better understanding of how small animals use the landscape is needed to reveal the size of buffer zones around wetlands required to protect both semi-aquatic and terrestrial fauna in gorges in tropical savannah woodland, and thus in ecosystems in general.

Surface losses in the visible governed by Rayleigh scattering in synthetic diamonds

Abstract: Measurements of surface loss throughout the visible and in the near-infrared on a single crystal diamond using laser calorimetry reveal that it is governed by Rayleigh scattering. This was confirmed by Atomic Force Microscopy that revealed surface roughness much smaller than the wavelengths used. There is no detectable contribution from surface absorption on this material as finished and cleaned. Measuring the dispersion of surface loss offers a powerful tool in determining its cause.