As more patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are living into adulthood, patients may need to disclose their CF status to others, such as in romantic or professional settings. Patients who choose not to disclose their CF status may be limited in their closeness with others, which may negatively affect their psychological functioning and health-related quality of life. Few studies, however, have examined disclosure in CF, and currently no validated measures of CF disclosure exist. The purpose of this study was to explore CF disclosure in adults and validate a new assessment of CF disclosure, the Cystic Fibrosis Disclosure Scale (CFDS). Results were consistent with prior research in disclosure in CF, with participants disclosing most often to close others and less often at school or in the workplace. Disclosure to close and casual friends was consistently associated with better psychosocial functioning. Factor analyses determined the CFDS was valid and that all questions should be retained. The Count Group subscale emerged as the “best” subscale grouping and coding method. This study contributed to the literature by serving as the first validation study of a questionnaire of disclosure in CF. Additionally, as disclosure in CF is a new emerging area, this study added information to the sparse literature on this issue. The CFDS as it exists now gathers important research and clinical information from adults with CF, and should be examined further with a larger sample size and more descriptive information.

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In the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of hours spent in the workforce, and as a result, work stress has been a prominent factor in the increased health problems found in the working population (Briner, 2000). The Job Content Questionnaire (i.e., JCQ) is a self-administered instrument that implements the Demand-Control and Demand-Control-Support models to assess and measure the social and psychological aspects of the work force (Karasek et al., 1998). Thus, the JCQ provides information as to the health of employees. It has been translated and validated in several languages; however each study has only examined the JCQ in terms of Classical Test Theory methods. The current study accumulated validity evidence for the JCQ using Item Response Theory. The results suggested that each of the scales did not contain items that fully measured the latent trait. The analysis also indicated that more items need to be developed. Future research may want to examine other polytomous models, examine males and females separately, and assess the JCQ by the use of Differential Item Functioning (i.e., item bias).

In the past 30 years, there has been an increase in the number of hours spent in the workforce, and as a result, work stress has been a prominent factor in the increased health problems found in the working population (Briner, 2000). The Job Content Questionnaire (i.e., JCQ) is a self-administered instrument that implements the Demand-Control and Demand-Control-Support models to assess and measure the social and psychological aspects of the work force (Karasek et al., 1998). Thus, the JCQ provides information as to the health of employees. It has been translated and validated in several languages; however each study has only examined the JCQ in terms of Classical Test Theory methods. The current study accumulated validity evidence for the JCQ using Item Response Theory. The results suggested that each of the scales did not contain items that fully measured the latent trait. The analysis also indicated that more items need to be developed. Future research may want to examine other polytomous models, examine males and females separately, and assess the JCQ by the use of Differential Item Functioning (i.e., item bias).

We propose a novel framework based on Bayesian principles for validating clusterings and present efficient algorithms for use with centroid or exemplar based clustering solutions. Our framework treats the data as fixed and introduces perturbations into the clustering procedure. In our algorithms, we scale the distances between points by a random variable whose distribution is tuned against a baseline null dataset. The random variable is integrated out, yielding a soft assignment matrix that gives the behavior under perturbation of the points relative to each of the clusters. From this soft assignment matrix, we are able to visualize inter-cluster behavior, rank clusters, and give a scalar index of the the clustering stability. In a large test on synthetic data, our method matches or outperforms other leading methods at predicting the correct number of clusters. We also present a theoretical analysis of our approach, which suggests that it is useful for high dimensional data.

Administrative data was anonymously linked to a clinical registry, to evaluate the validity of diabetes algorithms in youth. In addition, incident youth with T2DM (n=342) in Manitoba (1-18 years) from Jan.1986-2009 identified from the clinical registry were anonymously linked to healthcare records in order to evaluate complications, compared to youth with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) (n=1011) and non-diabetes (non-DM) controls (n=1710). The algorithm including 1 or more hospitalizations or two or more outpatient claims over two years was the most valid. Youth with T2DM had a 47% increased risk of any complication and a 2.29 fold increased risk of renal complication. Age at diagnosis, HgA1c and ace inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker use (ACE/ARB) were significant risk factors for any complication. Risk factors for renal complications included ACE/ARB use, albuminuria and diagnosis prior to 2000. Survival at 10 years was 91.4% (T2DM) vs. 99.5% (T1DM) vs. 100% (non-DM); p<0.0001.

Administrative data was anonymously linked to a clinical registry, to evaluate the validity of diabetes algorithms in youth. In addition, incident youth with T2DM (n=342) in Manitoba (1-18 years) from Jan.1986-2009 identified from the clinical registry were anonymously linked to healthcare records in order to evaluate complications, compared to youth with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) (n=1011) and non-diabetes (non-DM) controls (n=1710). The algorithm including 1 or more hospitalizations or two or more outpatient claims over two years was the most valid. Youth with T2DM had a 47% increased risk of any complication and a 2.29 fold increased risk of renal complication. Age at diagnosis, HgA1c and ace inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker use (ACE/ARB) were significant risk factors for any complication. Risk factors for renal complications included ACE/ARB use, albuminuria and diagnosis prior to 2000. Survival at 10 years was 91.4% (T2DM) vs. 99.5% (T1DM) vs. 100% (non-DM); p<0.0001.

Much attention has been paid to relationships between supplier and buyer finns, especially in the field of product development and in particular in the automotive industry. There has been a growing debate on the need to increase the responsibilities for suppliers and have a win-win relationship with them instead of an adversarial relationship. Research has been extensive, dealing with issues like location of suppliers, just in time, tiering of suppliers, etc., although little attention has been paid to the issue of specifications and contracts which are an important part of the product development process. The specification flow between the buyer and suppliers is necessary in order to obtain the product. Specifications could be validated' with the help of written contracts and thus can be seen as an important part of the contracts. The objective of the study is to understand the role of specifications and contracts in these companies and thus contribute to knowledge and the understanding of practitioners. One automotive OEM located in Europe was used for the case study. One aircraft OEM, also located in Europe, was used for supplementary data collection. In-depth interviews in five first-tier suppliers, and an open ended questionnaire survey (internal and external) have been used to provide complementary perspectives. The research2 is guided by a qualitative inductive approach and is aimed at developing ideas grounded in field observations. Strauss & Corbin's (1990) method for coding qualitative data has been followed in order to model the role of specifications and contracts. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with various managers in the OEMs and supplier companies, participant and direct observation, internal documents, and questionnaires. Specifications were identified to have a role in guiding outsourcing decisions, function as a means of communication, help decide the time of involvement of the suppliers, help differentiate suppliers, create visions for suppliers and help provide competitive advantage. Contracts were identified to have a role in reaching agreements for continuing supply and help assist in the validation of specifications.

A validation methodology is proposed for natural language software specifications of standard graphics functions. Checks are made for consistency, completeness and lack of ambiguity in data element and function descriptions. Functions and data elements are maintained in a relational database representation. The appropriate checks are performed by sequences of database operations. The relational database manager INGRES was used to support a prototype implementation of the proposed technique. / The methodology supports the development of a scenario-based prototype from the information available in the specification. This permits various function sequences to be checked without implementation of the environment specified. / The application of a prototype implementation of the proposed methodology, to the specification of the GKS software package, demonstrates the practicability of the method. Several inconsistencies in GKS, related to the definition of data elements, have been identified.