Smith and Glass's psychotherapy conclusions need further probing: On Landman and Dawes's reanalysis.

Critiques J. T. Landman and R. M. Dawes's (see record 1982-30838-001) reanalysis of the M. L. Smith and G. V. Glass (see record 1978-10341-001) psychotherapy outcome study. It is suggested that the Landman and Dawes study has 2 serious sampling problems. The first is the mismatch between the population sampled from and the population to which the sample, after reanalysis, is compared. Also, there is a flaw in the sampling procedure itself. It is further suggested that the conceptual shortcoming of the reanalysis turns around Landman and Dawes's definition of well-controlled studies. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concentric and eccentric shoulder rehabilitation biomechanics

The use of an impulse-momentum (IM) exercise technique was investigated for end-stage shoulder rehabilitation. The objectives of this study were to: (a) quantify the net shoulder joint forces and moments while using an IM system and (b) test the influence of gender and muscle loading type (concentric or eccentric) on kinetic and kinematic parameters. Fourteen healthy adults (eight males, six females) performed a repeated measures experiment on an instrumented device utilizing a cabled shuttle system. While maintaining 90 degrees of shoulder abduction and 90 degrees of elbow flexion, the subjects externally rotated their upper arm from 0 degrees to 90 degrees (concentric acceleration) and then internally rotated their upper arm back from 90 degrees to the 0 degrees position (eccentric deceleration). Shoulder joint forces and moments as well as rotational work and power were calculated using inverse dynamics (free-body forces and moments calculated at intersegmental joint centres). Overall concentric peak forces and moments were greater than eccentric peak forces and moments (P < 0.0001). Joint forces and moments reached a maximum during the initial phase of concentric loading (0 degrees to 45 degrees) compared with any other rotational position in the loading cycle (concentric 45 degrees to 90 degrees or eccentric 90 degrees to 0 degrees). The results also indicate that males experienced higher (P < 0.0001) average resultant peak joint forces (concentric 0 degrees to 45 degrees = 108.0 N and eccentric 90 degrees to 45 degrees = 87.2 N) than females (concentric 0 degrees to 45 degrees = 74.7 N and eccentric 45 degrees to 0 degrees = 56.0 N). In addition, males experienced higher (P < 0.0001) average resultant peak joint moments (concentric 0 degrees to 45 degrees = 30.4 N m and eccentric 45 degrees to 0 degrees = 21.0 N m) than females (concentric 0 degrees to 45 degrees = 19.7 N m and eccentric 45 degrees to 0 degrees = 12.8 N m).     

Psychometric structure of psychiatric rating scales.

This study reports an exploratory principal-components analysis of four common psychiatric rating scales that yield a total of 22 separate scores. Five components were extracted accounting for 78% of the initial variance; oblique and orthogonal rotations produced identical interpretations of the components: (a) minimal functioning, (b) hostility/paranoia, (c) disturbed communication, (d) psychosis, and (e) social activity. Some limits on the present study are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring percentage change: Assumptions underlying unbiased treatment estimates.

Demonstrates that commonly used formulas produce biased treatment effect estimates unless certain complex interrelationships among treatment, extraneous factors, and component structures of baseline dependent variable levels are assumed. It is suggested that these assumptions may rarely be justifiable, and their violation can easily cause erroneous inferences about treatment impact. The issue is salient in both randomized and nonrandomized research designs, although more so in the latter. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of deficient reporting on meta-analysis: A conceptual framework and reanalysis.

Presents a framework for studying the influence of reporting quality on meta-analytic results in which 3 sources of reporting deficiency are identified: quality (adequacy) of publicizing, quality of macrolevel reporting, and quality of the review process in a different way. To assess the influence of reporting quality empirically, 25 reports were sampled from the psychotherapy meta-analysis reported by M. L. Smith et al (1980) and recorded by the present authors. Two sources of information pertinent to reporting quality were established: interrater reliabilities and confidence judgments. Reanalyses incorporating reliability corrections and confidence judgments suggested that deficient reporting injects considerable noise into meta-analytic data and can lead to spurious conclusions. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

MR diagnosis of labral tears of the shoulder: value of T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo images made in external rotation

OBJECTIVE: Because several studies have shown that conventional MR imaging can fail to diagnose a significant percentage of labral tears, some authors have proposed obtaining T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo images with the humerus in external rotation. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the diagnostic accuracy of detecting anteroinferior labral tears by MR imaging would be improved by adding a T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo sequence with the humerus in external rotation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 24 patients for whom axial MR images of the shoulder were obtained with the humerus in both the neutral position and external rotation. Two observers interpreted the images made in the neutral position and then noted any change in their interpretations after viewing findings on the external-rotation images. MR results were correlated with surgical findings. At surgery, 14 anteroinferior labra were found to be torn and 10 were found to be intact. RESULTS: Both observers identified one patient for whom a surgically proved labral tear was seen only on the external-rotation images. The sensitivity increased from 0.43 to 0.50 (p = .35) for observer 1 and from 0.36 to 0.43 (p = .35) for observer 2. The specificity of 0.90 for both observers remained unchanged. The accuracy improved from 0.62 to 0.67 for observer 1 and from 0.55 to 0.62 for observer 2. CONCLUSION: The addition of external-rotation T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo images to the MR examination for tears of the anteroinferior labrum leads to a small but statistically insignificant increase in diagnostic sensitivity. We conclude that the small increase in sensitivity does not justify the routine use of this sequence.     

Bridging distance: Practical and pedagogical implications of virtual Makerspaces

Makerspaces are locations where people with common interests can work on projects, share ideas, tools and expertise to make or create. There is an abundance of “how to” guides and research studies on physical makerspaces, little research focuses on describing the virtual making processes and the experiences therein. This qualitative study explores the experiences of seven participants who engaged in a synchronous virtual makerspace. Meeting once a month over 16 weeks, members of the International Maker Educator Network participated in the making of a robot. This case study describes how the virtual making occurred, the personal experiences of the makers, technology used to support virtual making, and the affordances and inhibitors of virtual making. Data are analysed through the lens of a professional learning community and the People, Means and Activities makerspace framework. The paper concludes with implications for virtual making in practice and future research opportunities.