Likelihood ratios are one of the best measures of diagnostic accuracy, although they are seldom used, because interpreting them requires a calculator to convert back and forth between “probability” and “odds” of disease. This article describes a simpler method of interpreting likelihood ratios, one that avoids calculators, nomograms, and conversions to “odds” of disease. Several examples illustrate how the clinician can use this method to refine diagnostic decisions at the bedside.

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Results are reported from a joint analysis of Phase I and Phase II data from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The effective electron kinetic energy threshold used is T eff = 3.5 MeV, the lowest analysis threshold yet achieved with water Cherenkov detector data. In units of 10 6 cm −2 s −1 , the total flux of active-flavor neutrinos from 8 B decay in the Sun measured using the neutral current (NC) reaction of neutrinos on deuterons, with no constraint on the 8 B neutrino energy spectrum, is found to be NC = 5.140 +0.160 −0.158 (stat) +0.132 −0.117 (syst). These uncertainties are more than a factor of 2 smaller than previously published results. Also presented are the spectra of recoil electrons from the charged current reaction of neutrinos on deuterons and the elastic scattering of electrons. A fit to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory data in which the free parameters directly describe the total 8 B neutrino flux and the energy-dependent ν e survival probability provides a measure of the total 8

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) used an array of 3 He proportional counters to measure the rate of neutral-current interactions in heavy water and precisely determined the total active (ν x ) 8 B solar neutrino flux. This technique is independent of previous methods employed by SNO The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory [1] detects 8 B solar neutrinos through three reactions: charged-current interactions (CC) on deuterons, in which only electron neutrinos participate; neutrino-electron elastic scattering (ES), which are dominated by contributions from electron neutrinos; and neutral-current (NC) disintegration of the deuteron by neutri-