Utility and diagnostic test properties of pulmonary and cardiovascular point of care ultra-sonography (POCUS) in COVID-19 patients admitted to critical care unit.

Background: We conducted this study to assess the diagnostic test properties of point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) of lung and cardiovascular system in prediction of mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 178 Covid-19 patients; POCUS was performed within one hour of admission to the ICU. We estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value for prediction of mortality.

Z-Transform Method for Pairwise Osteometric Pair-matching.

A new pairwise osteometric pair-matching approach based on the Z-transform method is presented. In contrast to previous methods that perform a global t-test on the summed skeletal element pair measurement distances, this approach performs t-tests on each individual distance, facilitating the capture of measurement-specific variation. This new approach is compared to published pairwise sorting methods using a standard reference dataset of postcranial remains maintained by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.