Dheeraj Raju | University of Alabama at Birmingham (original) (raw)

Papers by Dheeraj Raju

Comparison of the Lunar Prodigy and iDXA Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometers for Assessing Total and Regional Body Composition

Journal of Clinical Densitometry, 2015

The objective of the study was to assess the agreement of the Lunar Prodigy with the newer Lunar ... more The objective of the study was to assess the agreement of the Lunar Prodigy with the newer Lunar iDXA dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer for determining total body and regional (arms, legs, trunk) bone mineral density (BMD), bone mineral content (BMC), fat mass (FM), lean tissue mass (LTM), total body mass, and percent fat. Ninety-two healthy adult males (n = 36) and females (n = 56) were scanned consecutively on the iDXA and the Prodigy dual-energy X-ray absorptiometers. For iDXA, relative to Prodigy, paired t tests indicated significantly lower estimates for total body and regional BMD and BMC (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001). Measures of total body and trunk FM, LTM, and percent fat did not differ between the instruments. In regional analyses, estimates of FM and percent fat were greater, and that of LTM was lower, in the arms (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001). In contrast, iDXA estimates of LTM were higher in the legs (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001). All body composition measures were significantly correlated (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001). Bland-Altman analyses indicated that significant bias existed between iDXA and Prodigy for total body and regional BMD estimates (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001) such that iDXA underestimated BMD to a greater extent in persons with higher values. In addition, iDXA overestimation bias existed for FM in total body, arms, and legs, and the overestimation was primarily observed in participants with greater body fat (p &amp;amp;amp;lt; 0.001). When combining or comparing data from iDXA with those from Prodigy, investigators should be aware that certain total body and regional estimates are significantly different. The greatest percent differences were observed for arm BMD, FM, and percent fat.

Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory and Practice

The study used earliest available student data from a flagship university in the southeast United... more The study used earliest available student data from a flagship university in the southeast United States to build data mining models like logistic regression with different variable selection methods, decision trees, and neural networks to explore important student characteristics associated with retention leading to graduation. The decision tree and logistic regression models indicated first semester GPA, earned credit hours after end of first semester, status (full/part time) at the end of semester, and high school GPA as the most important variables. Of the 22,099 students who were full-time, first time freshmen from 1995-2005, 7,293 did not graduate (33%). Out of the 7,293 who did not graduate, 2,845 students (39%) had first semester GPA < 2.25 with less than 12 earned credit hours. Characteristics of student retention leading to graduation can be predicted as early as end first semester instead of waiting until the end of the first year of school.

A statistics course can be a very challenging subject to teach. To enhance learning, today"s... more A statistics course can be a very challenging subject to teach. To enhance learning, today"s modern course in statistics might incorporate many different aspects of technology. Due to advances in technology, teaching statistics online has also become a popular course option. Although researchers are studying how to deliver statistics courses in this new technological environment, there is still much to learn about how to effectively implement these online courses. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an extensive review of the literature conducted across several disciplines from the last decade in an effort to summarize, identify, and understand overall trends and themes in online instruction. A summary of effective practices that might be useful to teachers teaching statistics online concludes this paper.

Effective warning display can help reduce high frequency fatality and injury rates in the constru... more Effective warning display can help reduce high frequency fatality and injury rates in the construction workplace. Warnings should be easily noticeable and readily identified as a potential hazard. This study examined color, signal word, and their combinations on hazard rating and attention rating by measuring response time. The experiment employed 4 background colors × 3 signal words × 2 letter colors to produce a total of 24 different warning configurations. Findings from this study show red background color had less response time with black compared to white. This fact does not support ANSI Z535.4 product safety sign and label standard.

Trust an essential ingredient in collaborative decision making

Characteristics and Outcomes of Persons with Advanced Cancer Associated with Having a Family Caregiver: A Classification Tree Analysis (S724)

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2015

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2015

In China, traditional manufacturing industries have been world leaders in lowcost manufacturing f... more In China, traditional manufacturing industries have been world leaders in lowcost manufacturing for overseas multinationals. It is well-known that these ''traditional industries'' depend on overseas parent firms for innovation. In recent decades, China's desire is to encourage and promote innovation-based emerging industries within its borders. By definition, ''emerging industries'' are composed of domestic Chinese firms without an overseas parent firm. We know very little about the innovation practices in these emerging Chinese industries; we hypothesize that the innovation practices in these firms are quite different from traditional Chinese industries with overseas parents. The Kunshan region in China has attracted both traditional and emerging industries that have contributed to unparalleled economic growth in the region. This is a significantly large region with a population of 1.65 million with a regional GDP of USD 32 billion (2010). In this study, we use survey data from companies in this thriving region to compare R&D and innovation practices of the firms in the traditional and emerging industries in this region. We do not know enough about the innovation practices of emerging industrial firms in China, who may have a profound influence on the industrial China of the future much like South Korean firms such as KIA, Hyundai, Samsung, etc. The findings of this exploratory

Faculty of 1000 evaluation for Predicting visceral obesity based on facial characteristics

F1000 - Post-publication peer review of the biomedical literature

Journal of Operations Management, 2014

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this article is to introduce different types of item respo... more Background and Purpose: The purpose of this article is to introduce different types of item response theory models and to demonstrate their usefulness by evaluating the Practice Environment Scale. Methods: Item response theory models such as constrained and unconstrained graded response model, partial credit model, Rasch model, and one-parameter logistic model are demonstrated. The Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) indices are used as model selection criterion. Results: The unconstrained graded response and partial credit models indicated the best fit for the data. Almost all items in the instrument performed well. Conclusions: Although most of the items strongly measure the construct, there are a few items that could be eliminated without substantially altering the instrument. The analysis revealed that the instrument may function differently when administered to different unit types. Person Parameter Distribution Figure 6. Person-item map for PCM.

International journal of nursing studies, 2015

Pressure ulcers are associated with a nearly three-fold increase in in-hospital mortality. It is ... more Pressure ulcers are associated with a nearly three-fold increase in in-hospital mortality. It is essential to investigate how other factors besides the Braden scale could enhance the prediction of pressure ulcers. Data mining modeling techniques can be beneficial to conduct this type of analysis. Data mining techniques have been applied extensively in health care, but are not widely used in nursing research. To remedy this methodological gap, this paper will review, explain, and compare several data mining models to examine patient level factors associated with pressure ulcers based on a four year study from military hospitals in the United States. The variables included in the analysis are easily accessible demographic information and medical measurements. Logistic regression, decision trees, random forests, and multivariate adaptive regression splines were compared based on their performance and interpretability. The random forests model had the highest accuracy (C-statistic) with...

University of Alabama (UA) retention statistics showed less than 33% of engineering freshmen were... more University of Alabama (UA) retention statistics showed less than 33% of engineering freshmen were retained through graduation. This is 23% lower than the national average of 52% for similar programs. Analyses indicate the primary reason for low retention is an inability of incoming freshmen to perform well in first-year calculus classes. Low performance in calculus was found to impact upper-level engineering classes. To combat this deficit, UA developed a unique informal, interactive, and interdisciplinary summer residence class called the Engineering Math Advancement Program (E-MAP) sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The program aims to increase prepare students to 1) do well in calculus and 2) to excite them about engineering, introducing students to hands-on "Living- Lab" experiences, industry trips and a community service project led by professional engineers. Math Placement Test (MPT) data show that 84% of participants skipped one math course and 41% 2-3 co...

J Nurs Measure, 2014