Nevertheless, as seen with reference to the finances item, there may be good reasons for retaining some items even though their weighted impact scores are low.
With reference to the 'Slope' item, the null hypotheses states that the gradients are not significantly different from zero.
The manuscript was drafted with reference to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist.
Definitions, suggested questions and other resources within the help were standardised where practical, with reference to the original OPCRIT items, ICD-10/DSM-IV criteria and, using as a model, questions contained within the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID).
Participants were instructed to rate the items with reference to the film fragment they had seen 7 days earlier.
The Bech-Rafaelsen Melancholia Scale (MES) was developed to capture the six HAM-D6 core items with reference to the Cronholm-Ottosson Depression Scale [ 21].
As items in Opper's instruments (1996) were basically selected from tests used in the Western countries, we developed some new items with reference to the Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum (Curriculum Development Council, HKSAR 2006) and relevant literature to better fit the Hong Kong situation and to reflect cohort effects and secular trends (20 items).
Decisions on item removal were made with reference to the degree of any misfit (with statistical significance for overall misfit taken at p < 0.05 and for individual items taken at p < 0.01 because of multiple testing) and the extent to which their removal would affect subject coverage of each test.
Assessment items were set at different levels with reference to the revised version of Bloom's taxonomy (Krathwohl 2002).
Disagreements in ratings were resolved by discussion, with reference to the explanatory statement for the relevant item/s, between the two raters.
Each item can be answered with 'not true' (0), 'somewhat true' (1) or 'certainly true' (2), with reference to the past 6 months.
