NOW AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: Every performance test for completing a home energy audit. If you're a professional in today's fast-evolving industry of high performance construction and retrofits, then you've probably found yourself wondering a few things: Who can show me how to run that test? How do I get the most out of the equipment I own? Why do the tests work, and how do I explain them? What quality control methods should I use? Which tools will make my job faster and easier? With this guide, experienced and new diagnosticians alike will get step-by-step details on advanced testing, complete with best practices, important concepts and pitfalls, ways to present data to the client, Step-By-Step photographs, and time-saving tips, plus quiz questions for each diagnostic!

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

This book presents concepts, methods and techniques to examine symptoms of faults and failures of structures, systems and components and to monitor functional performance and structural integrity. The book is organized in five parts. Part A introduces the scope and application of technical diagnostics and gives a comprehensive overview of the physics of failure. Part B presents all relevant methods and techniques for diagnostics and monitoring: from stress, strain, vibration analysis, nondestructive evaluation, thermography and industrial radiology to computed tomography and subsurface microstructural analysis. Part C cores the principles and concepts of technical failure analysis, illustrates case studies, and outlines machinery diagnostics with an emphasis on tribological systems. Part D describes the application of structural health monitoring and performance control to plants and the technical infrastructure, including buildings, bridges, pipelines, electric power stations, offshore wind structures, and railway systems. And finally, Part E is an excursion on diagnostics in arts and culture. The book integrates knowledge of basic sciences and engineering disciplines with contributions from research institutions, academe, and industry, written by internationally known experts from various parts of the world, including Europe, Canada, India, Japan, and USA.

Detecting influential observations and outliers - Detecting and assessing collinearity - Applications and remedies - Research issues and directions for extensions.

Molecular Diagnostics, Third Edition, focuses on the technologies and applications that professionals need to work in, develop, and manage a clinical diagnostic laboratory. Each chapter contains an expert introduction to each subject that is next to technical details and many applications for molecular genetic testing that can be found in comprehensive reference lists at the end of each chapter. Contents are divided into three parts, technologies, application of those technologies, and related issues. The first part is dedicated to the battery of the most widely used molecular pathology techniques. New chapters have been added, including the various new technologies involved in next-generation sequencing (mutation detection, gene expression, etc.), mass spectrometry, and protein-specific methodologies. All revised chapters have been completely updated, to include not only technology innovations, but also novel diagnostic applications. As with previous editions, each of the chapters in this section includes a brief description of the technique followed by examples from the area of expertise from the selected contributor. The second part of the book attempts to integrate previously analyzed technologies into the different aspects of molecular diagnostics, such as identification of genetically modified organisms, stem cells, pharmacogenomics, modern forensic science, molecular microbiology, and genetic diagnosis. Part three focuses on various everyday issues in a diagnostic laboratory, from genetic counseling and related ethical and psychological issues, to safety and quality management. - Presents a comprehensive account of all new technologies and applications used in clinical diagnostic laboratories - Explores a wide range of molecular-based tests that are available to assess DNA variation and changes in gene expression - Offers clear translational presentations by the top molecular pathologists, clinical chemists, and molecular geneticists in the field

This book explores the status of paper-based diagnostic solutions, or Microfluidics 2.0. The contributors explore: how paper-based tests can be widely distributed and utilized by semi-skilled personnel; how close to commercial applications the technology has become, and what is still required to make paper-based diagnostics the game-changer it can be. The technology is examined through the lens of the World Health Organization’s ASSURED criteria for low-resource countries (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and robust, Equipment-free, and Deliverable to end-users). Its applications have to include: health technology, environmental technology, food safety, and more. This book is appropriate for researchers in these areas, as well as those interested in microfluidics, and includes chapters dedicated to principles such as theory of flow and surface treatments; components such as biomarkers and detection; and current methods of manufacturing. Discusses how paper-based diagnostics can be used in developing countries by comparing current diagnostic tests with the World Health Organization's ASSURED criteria Examines how paper-based diagnostics could be integrated with other technologies, such as printed electronics, and the Internet of Things. Outlines how semi-skilled personnel across a variety of fields can implement paper-based diagnostics

Focusing on spectroscopically-based, spatially-precise, laser techniques for temperature and chemical composition measurements in reacting and non-reacting flows, this book makes these powerful and important new tools in combustion research