A control question test oriented towards students

Control Question Tests were altered for 12 of 24 students who were examined with a polygraph about a mock crime which half of them had committed. The altered tests substituted control questions about students' cheating and plagiarism for the standard questions about crime issues. Responses to the altered tests were compared with those from tests using regular control questions which are usually about criminal issues. All tests were conducted by a professor. Detection scores derived from response magnitudes of skin resistance differed between innocent (M = 2.0) and guilty participants (M = -1.9). Guilt and innocence interacted with the type of test. Those examined with control questions oriented towards students scored as more innocent when actually innocent (M = 4.3) than guilty students examined with the student form (M = -3.0) or the crime form (M = -0.8) of the test and innocent students (M = -0.3) examined with control questions oriented towards crimes. The discussion is augmented by results from a direct analysis of magnitude of scores.     

Chemical control of breathing in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

The authors have studied chemical control of breathing in 37 normocapnic patients with OSA. These patients had increased apnea-hypopnea index (AHI = 51 +/- 22), obesity (BMI = 32.4 +/- 5.6 kg/m2) and normal lung function tests. Control group consisted of 20 healthy subjects with normal weight (BMI = 23.1 +/- 2.4 kg/m2). Respiratory responses (ventilatory and P0.1) to hypercapnic and hypoxic stimulation during rebreathing tests were measured with computerized methods. The obtained results in OSA patients were compared with the data of the control group. The results exceeding mean values of the control group above 1.64 SD were recognized as hyperreactive responses. The majority e.g. 26 patients (OSA-N) had normal respiratory responses during hypercapnic stimulation. delta V/delta PCO2 = 16.8 +/- 4.5 L/min/kPa, P0.1/delta PCO2 = 3.5 +/- 2.4 cm H2O/kPa/. In remaining 11 patients (OSA-H) respiratory responses were significantly increased delta V/delta PCO2 = 39.1 +/- 18.8 L/min/kPa, P0.1/delta PCO2 = 8.6 +/- 3.9 cm H20/kPa). During isocapnic hypoxic stimulation majority e.g. 25 patients (OSA-H) had significantly increased respiratory responses delta V/delta SaO2 = 3.28 +/- 1.63 L/min/%, delta P0.1/delta SaO2 = 0.54 +/- 0.43 cm H2O/%/. In remaining 12 patients (OSA-N) respiratory responses were within normal limits delta V/SaO2 = 1.2 +/- 0.28 L/min/%, delta P0.1/ delta SaO2 = 0.21 +/- 0.07 cm H2O/%/. The above results indicated, that majority OSA patients (67.5%) had increased ventilatory and P0.1 responses to hypoxic stimulation. Among them also 11 patients had increased respiratory responses to hypercapnia. It seems, that increased respiratory responses to hypoxic stimulus in OSA patients are symptoms of protective reaction to hypoxaemia occurring during repetitive sleep apnoea and reveals increased neuro-muscular output.     

Paclitaxel changes sympathetic control of blood pressure

Paclitaxel has become part of standard therapy in the treatment of ovarian and breast cancer. Concern has been raised about the effects of paclitaxel on cardiovascular function. Therefore, this study of the effects of paclitaxel on autonomic cardiovascular control was initiated. Eighteen women treated for ovarian or breast cancer were examined with autonomic cardiovascular function tests, once before the treatment and once after the second course of paclitaxel. Heart rate and blood pressure variability and changes in heart rate and blood pressure responses to the tests were measured. Baroreflex sensitivity was calculated from the Valsalva manoeuvre non-invasively. Paclitaxel did not change heart rate variability at rest compared with the pretreatment level. However, medium frequency variability of blood pressure was smaller after treatment with paclitaxel. Paclitaxel treatment did not impair the heart rate and blood pressure responses to the autonomic function tests. The results do imply that paclitaxel alters sympathetic control of blood pressure. Nevertheless, paclitaxel does not appear to precipitate autonomic cardiac neuropathy.     

Screening and community control of hypertension

Fifty patients were skin tested to hymenoptera venom because of histories of systemic anaphylaxis to a sting. Ten percent had false positive skin tests when a histamine control was placed on the same extremity concomitantly.     

Carpal fractures in children

This study addresses the likelihood of false negative urine pregnancy test results, due to physiological urine dilution as described in some anecdotal reports. In this prospective study 320 pregnancy tests were performed on urine samples of varying concentrations obtained from 40 women, with suspected complications of early pregnancy, who had presented for ultrasound scans. Four different pregnancy tests were used and serum betahCG levels were measured quantitatively. Despite a mean fivefold increase in urine dilution, the pregnancy tests with low betahCG detection limits maintained maximal sensitivity. The detection of betahCG in dilute urine was adversely affected by using pregnancy tests with higher betahCG detection limits and these tests should be used with caution when assessing gynaecological emergencies.     

Appropriate laboratory use of microbiological testing for quality control and nosocomial infection control

Useful information from clinical microbiological tests is required for clinical diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease, whereas concern about the quality of information is still low. To provide reliable information in clinical microbiological testing, it is necessary to control the quality of clinical specimens, because of its random character. Through effective use of laboratory testing database, it will be possible to shift away our vague management of pre-analytic phase of quality control so far to its established system based on objective evaluation. During the past 4 years, after the introduction of microbiological tests and information system in our hospital, the characteristics of sputum have become worse contrary to our expectations. This suggests that quality control needs successive improvements, even in service departments such as clinical laboratories. Application of laboratory testing database to nosocomial infection control is considered to be a performance of post-analytic phase of quality control from the viewpoint of effective use of laboratory data. We presented in this paper our practical application of the database to the short-term and long-term control of nosocomial infection.     

Critical limits (alert values) for physician notification: universal or medical center specific limits?

The concept of critical limits (alert values), defined as an imminent life threatening laboratory result requiring immediate physician notification, has been widely adopted as a standard of good laboratory practice. Although virtually all laboratories have tests with critical limits, surveys have shown that there is no universal alert value list. Recently, nine VA medical centers in the New England region, which now constitute one consolidated entity, were surveyed with the objective of summarizing critical limits. Universal (100 percent) critical limit tests for clinical chemistry were: Calcium; mean low/high, 6.5/12.4 mg/dL: Glucose 48/432 mg/dL: Potassium 2.8/6.1 mmol/L: Sodium 121/159 mmol/L. Universal hematology tests included: Hematocrit 22.2/59.7 percent: Platelet count 61K/983K: white blood count 1.9K/29K. Although there was universal agreement that abnormal coagulation tests (PT, PTT) should be included on the hematology critical limit list, there was wide variation in the reporting of coagulation tests (seconds and INR) and patient therapeutic status (anticoagulant or no-anticoagulant). Universal alert values for microbiology were: Positive blood culture: Positive cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) culture: Positive CSF Gram stain. There was no universal agreement regarding critically high (potentially toxic) therapeutic drugs, with two medical centers declining to notify physicians of any abnormally high therapeutic drug level. No other qualitative critical limits for other laboratory sections, such as physician notification of an unexpected malignancy (surgical pathology) were universal. Medical center specific critical limits, designed to meet the clinical needs of each facility, are the norm in the nine medical centers. Laboratories do need periodically to review their critical limit lists with appropriate clinical input to avoid including critical limits for laboratory tests not required for urgent physician notification and patient evaluation and treatment.     

Immunochemical detection of antibiotics and sulfonamides

To control the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for residues of veterinary drugs in food of animal origin, according to EU regulations, a broad spectrum of sensitive analytical methods is required. One effective approach is the development of immunoassays, particularly for screening purposes. Strategies for the production of specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies against beta-lactams, tetracyclines, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, sulfonamides and trimethoprim, are outlined, as well as methods for the synthesis of the respective enzyme-labelled antigens. The sensitivity and the specificity of the antibodies were characterized, and the immunochemical test systems were designed as quantitative routine tests (microtitre plate format) and as rapid qualitative tests (membrane-based assay formats). The detection limits of the assays were found to be well below the regulatory limits. The range of recovery, for the analysis of artificially contaminated samples, was between 68 and 104%. In principle, the enzyme immunoassays for antimicrobial drugs showed the advantage of sensitivity and speed together with the simplicity of manipulations involved in the procedure. However, because of the results of the specificity studies, as well as the possibility of false positive results owing to unspecific inhibition of the assay, confirmation of immunoassay results is still required for all legal and statutory purposes.     

Do nonclinical checkers exhibit deficits in cognitive control? Tests of an inhibitory control hypothesis

We tested the hypothesis that persons who engage in compulsive checking may do so to compensate for cognitive errors produced by deficient inhibitory control. In two experiments, undergraduates were classified by scores on the MOCI checking subscale as checkers or noncheckers. On self-report measures, checkers were significantly more depressed, more anxious, more prone to cognitive slips, and more likely to engage in obsessive-compulsive behaviors. However, checkers performed similarly to noncheckers on laboratory tests of inhibitory control of cognition. Checkers and noncheckers were equally able to (1) ignore distractors in a selective attention task, (2) suppress inappropriate word meanings in a sentence comprehension task, and (3) inhibit retrieval of to-be-forgotten items in a memory task. These results suggest that compulsive checking does not arise from failures of inhibitory control of cognition.     

Caveats regarding the use of control charts

Control charts are essential tools in the statistical process control armamentarium. Although designed for ease of use in highly structured production settings, they are in fact quite complex in nature; their proper use depends on numerous conditions that may not be clear to newer users. This article briefly contrasts the use of control charts in production and healthcare settings and highlights common sources of problems among novice users. These include misunderstandings of the type of data being charted, nonindependence of samples, the influence of natural cycles, ignoring known special influences, overlooking clear signals that a process is out of control, and calculating control limits before adequate data are available.     

Determinants of the limits of agreement between the sphygmomanometer and the SpaceLabs 90207 device for blood pressure measurement in health volunteers and insulin-dependent diabetic patients

OBJECTIVE: To compare the limits of agreement between the SpaceLabs 90207 oscillometric blood pressure measurement device and the sphygmomanometer for patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) versus healthy control subjects. DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of six simultaneous blood pressure measurements in 106 IDDM patients aged 32.6+/-12.0 years (mean +/- SD) and 92 healthy control subjects aged 27.1+/-8.9 years with the SpaceLabs device and a sphygmomanometer. RESULTS: For both groups, overestimation of the systolic blood pressure occurred with the SpaceLabs device, being more severe for the IDDM group (1.7 mmHg more overestimation, P= 0.009). Mean arterial blood pressure was underestimated for the control group and overestimated for the IDDM group (2.7 mmHg underestimation and 0.8 mmHg overestimation, respectively). Diastolic blood pressures for both groups were underestimated by use of the SpaceLabs device, but less severely so for the IDDM group (4.2 mmHg, P< 0.0001 less underestimation). Multiple regression analysis revealed that these differences were mainly due to the presence of diabetes. Other determinants of these limits of agreement were age (for control group subjects) and duration of diabetes (for IDDM group patients). CONCLUSION: Limits of agreement between the SpaceLabs 90207 device and the sphygmomanometer differ between IDDM patients and healthy controls. These limits are influenced by the presence of diabetes, age and duration of diabetes. Available protocols for the evaluation of automated blood pressure measurement devices of the British Hypertension Society and the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation do not consider limits of agreement in subpopulations such as diabetic patients. Therefore, we recommend that tests for the limits of agreement of blood pressure measurement devices for subgroups should be added to these protocols.     

Learner control versus program control as adaptive strategies for selection of instructional support on math rules.

124 undergraduates completed a self-paced lesson on math rules in which a number of supporting examples was adapted to pretest scores through program control, selected through learner control, or kept constant (nonadaptive). In a 4th treatment, the nonadaptive program was presented through lecture. On immediate and delayed tests of achievement, program control means were consistently highest while learner control means were lowest. Nonadaptive support and lecture treatments produced comparable, middle-range outcomes. Interaction patterns suggested increasing advantages of program control over learner control both across retention intervals and as subject-entry ability decreased. Results support the achievement–treatment interaction framework while elucidating possible advantages of program controlled adaptation for applied individualization models, such as the Keller Plan. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensory afferences and motor control of equilibrium using static and dynamic posture tests

One thousand two hundred posturographic tests have been performed since 1988 at the Laboratoire d'Exploration Fonctionnelle ORL, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Nancy-Brabois, using three complementary protocols (Toennis GmBh, G). Static tests [1] measure over 20 seconds periods the displacement of the center of foot pressure (CFP) on individual standing upright on the platform. Dynamic tests assess the mechanisms of balance control following measured platform movements, using surface EMG after a single sharp and unexpected tilt [2], or CFP displacements during longer regular oscillations of the platform [3]. The latter test enables an analysis of balance strategy adopted to maintain equilibrium. These three programs were applied to series of children, adults, elderly people, sportsmen, and patients suffering from ENT, neurological or traumatic disorders. They were confirmed to be complementary tests allowing a thorough investigation of all balance control mechanisms: visual afferences [1], somesthesy [2] and the combination of visual, somesthetic and vestibular afferences in the third test.     

Disturbed eye movements after whiplash due to injuries to the posture control system

Self-reports after whiplash often indicate associations with vertigo and reading problems. Neuropsychological and otoneurological tests were applied to a group of whiplash patients (n = 26) and to a carefully matched control group. The whiplash group deviated from the control group on measures of eye movements during reading, on smooth pursuit eye movements with the head in normal position, and with the body turned to the left or to the right. Clinical, caloric, and neurophysiological tests showed no injury to the vestibular system or to the CNS. Test results suggest that injuries to the neck due to whiplash can cause distortion of the posture control system as a result of disorganized neck proprioceptive activity.     

Attentional control in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: Attentional control, the ability to maintain goal-directedness in the face of distraction, has been shown to decline in normal aging (NA) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the nature and extent of deficits is under debate. This study investigated attentional control in NA and AD compared to healthy young adults in several tasks such as setting, suppressing, switching, and preparing attention. Method: Fifty-two participants (17 AD, 17 NA, and 18 young participants) underwent the Tower of London, the Zoo map test, the Stroop test, letter verbal fluency, a computerized version of the Rule shift cards tests, the Trail making test, the Plus-minus test, and a reaction time task with variable preparatory intervals. Results: Analyses of variance showed that NA as compared to young participants were impaired in the Tower of London, the Stroop test, and the Rule shift cards tests. AD as compared to NA participants were impaired in all tests except the Stroop test. Principal component analysis in young adults confirmed the modularity of attentional tasks, which was reduced in NA and AD participants. Principal component analysis in all populations showed a decline of attentional control with NA and AD regardless of the tasks, with an increase in between-participants variability only between young and NA participants. Conclusions: Attentional control dysfunction is different in NA and AD: NA affects suppressing attention, switching attention for unpredictable but not predictable events, and preparing attention for unpredictable events, whereas AD affects setting, suppressing, switching, and preparing attention with less specificity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring dysfunction and the schizophrenic symptoms of alien control

BACKGROUND: Frith & Done (1988) have proposed that the experience of alien control symptoms in schizophrenia is related to a failure by such individuals to monitor effectively their own willed intentions, actions and thoughts. METHOD: To examine this hypothesis, a heterogeneous group of 35 patients, all carrying a DSM-III-R diagnosis of schizophrenia (or schizophreniform psychosis) and 24 non-patient controls, completed a battery of neuropsychological and cognitive tests, which inter alia, included four putative measures of self-monitoring. Patients took part in a detailed clinical interview to assess current levels of symptomatology. RESULTS: Patients generally performed at a lower level on most components of the test battery, including the four self-monitoring tests. Moreover, patients currently experiencing symptoms of alien control tended to experience greater difficulty with each of the self-monitoring tests; an effect that was relatively independent of neuropsychological or general cognitive function. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between poor self-monitoring and the presence of alien control symptoms provides support for Frith & Done's account of the origins of these symptoms in schizophrenia.     

Locus of control and social desirability.

Hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between the Edward's Social Desirability Scale and Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale. 102 army mental health clinic outpatients, 218 army stockade prisoners, 99 alcoholic inpatients, and 48 new careers participants were administered both tests. All correlations were negative, ranging from -.7 to -.29, and were significant at the .025 level or greater. It is suggested that since internalizers feel that they have some control over reinforcements, they may try to influence the dispensers of these reinforcers by behaving in socially acceptable ways, while externalizers, who feel they have no control over reinforcements, may not be so motivated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Case control study of diarrhoea and faecal soiling in two- to six-month-old lambs

A case control study was nested within a longitudinal study of faecal soiling on eight commercial farms in the south west of England. Eighty-two incident cases of faecal soiling in lambs between two and six months of age were individually matched with a single unaffected control lamb. A range of variables was examined including sex, neonatal history, trace element concentrations in blood, wool characteristics and faecal bacteriology and parasitology. Odds ratios and their 95 per cent confidence limits were estimated by using Mantel Haenszel methods and conditional logistic regression. Faecal soiling was significantly associated with longer fleeces, lower crimp frequencies, male lambs and multiple births. Significant relationships were also found between faecal soiling and neonatal diarrhoea, blood selenium concentration and the presence of Clostridium perfringens type A in the faeces.     

The effect of ramp-loading on short crack growth kinetics and life behavior of copper single crystals in fatigue

In order to understand the physics of load interactions in fatigue tests conducted with variable amplitudes, ramp-loading a single crystal in the manner popularized by Neumann and coworkers has been explored for its effects on short Stage I crack propagation and life behavior. The fatigue tests were run by first ramp loading to the plateau stress and then changing the mode of control to a constant strain test. The behaviors of crystals with such histories were then compared with those of crystals run entirely in constant strain. Ramp-loading was found to increase the volume fraction of persistent slip bands, to decrease the magnitude of the local strains, to increase the population of cracks and to decrease (within limits) crack growth rates. However, ramp-loading was found to shorten life because it stimulates the formation of secondary dislocations and thereby, enhances the Stage I–II cracking transition.