Incorporating Genomics and Bioinformatics across the Life Sciences Curriculum

Undergraduate life sciences education needs an overhaul, as clearly described in the National Research Council of the National Academies’ publication BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. Among BIO 2010’s top recommendations is the need to involve students in working with real data and tools that reflect the nature of life sciences research in the 21st century [1]. Education research studies support the importance of utilizing primary literature, designing and implementing experiments, and analyzing results in the context of a bona fide scientific question [1–12] in cultivating the analytical skills necessary to become a scientist. Incorporating these basic scientific methodologies in undergraduate education leads to increased undergraduate and post-graduate retention in the sciences [13–16]. Toward this end, many undergraduate teaching organizations offer training and suggestions for faculty to update and improve their teaching approaches to help students learn as scientists, through design and discovery (e.g., Council of Undergraduate Research [www.cur.org] and Project Kaleidoscope [ www.pkal.org])

Phylogenomics of non-model ciliates based on transcriptomic analyses

© The Author(s) 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Research Methods for Psychophysiological Deception Detection

For purposes of this chapter, we accept Vrij\u27s (2000) definition of deception as a successful or unsuccessful deliberate attempt, without forewarning, to create in another a belief which the communicator considers to be untrue (p.6). Deception is a ubiquitous human behavior. DePaulo and her colleagues (DePaulo & Kashy, 1998; DePaulo, Kashy, Kirkendol, Wyer, & Epstein, 1996; Kashy & Depaulo, 1996) studied deception in naturalistic settings and found that during interpersonal interactions of 10 minutes or longer, people lied on average twice a day. Deception is used in quarter of interactions with others, and on average, a person lies to 34% of the people interacted with during an average week. Robinson, Shepherd, and Heywood (1998) reported that 83% of the university undergraduates surveyed said they would like to get a job

Credibility Assessment: Scientific Research and Applications

A dozen years have passed since the publication of Murray Kleiner\u27s seminal work Handbook of Polygraph Testing. The events of September 11, 2001 and heightened concerns about national security and terrorism have resulted in increased efforts to improve existing techniques for the assessment of credibility and develop new techniques for implementation in field settings. We are all aware of the massive expansion of costly government programs, such as the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration programs for screening airline passengers. However, many concerns have been voiced by scientists and the Government Accountability Office about the scientific basis for such programs and their effectiveness for identifying individuals who plan to harm people, property, and society.https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1387/thumbnail.jp

Mental and Physical Countermeasures Reduce the Accuracy of the Concealed Knowledge Test

The effects of a physical (pressing the toes to the floor) and a mental (counting backward by sevens) countermeasure on the concealed knowledge test (CKT) were examined in a mock crime experiment with 40 subjects. Some knowledgeable subjects were informed about the nature of the CKT and were trained in the use of a countermeasure, whereas others remained uninformed. All subjects were offered a monetary reward if they could produce a truthful outcome. Subjects were tested using standard field techniques and instrumentation. The physical and, to a lesser extent, the mental countermeasures reduced the accuracy of the CKT. These results clearly demonstrate that the CKT has no special immunity to the effects of countermeasures

Polygrapher\u27s Dilemma or Psychologist\u27s Chimaera: A Reply to Furedy\u27s Logico-ethical Considerations for Psychophysiological Practitioners and Researchers

We respond to Furedy\u27s article in this journal where he raised an issue he referred to as the “Polygrapher\u27s dilemma” (Furedy J.J. (1993) Int. J. Psychophysiol., 15: 263–267). Furedy claimed that the control question test, the most commonly applied psychophysiological detection of deception test, is inherently subjective and harmful to subjects in both the field and the laboratory. Fortunately, Furedy\u27s arguments were based on inaccurate representations of the control question test and on flawed logic. To correct Furedy\u27s misrepresentations, we present an accurate description of how the control question test is used and evaluated. We then examine the results of empirical research that address Furedy\u27s concerns. Furedy\u27s concerns are found to be lacking on almost all counts. Finally, we discuss the findings from several studies that Furedy failed to mention but are directly relevant to the issues he raised

The Utah Numerical Scoring System

The Utah method for numerically evaluating polygraph charts is a highly reliable and valid method for scoring specific-incident, comparison-question tests. For respiration, electrodermal activity (skin conductance or skin resistance), relative blood pressure (cardiograph), and peripheral vasomotor activity (finger plethysmograph), a score from +3 to -3 is assigned for each presentation of a relevant question. The reaction to the relevant question is compared to the reaction to a nearby comparison (control) question. A positive score is assigned when the psychophysiological reaction is greater to the comparison question than to the relevant question, a negative score is assigned when the reaction is greater to the relevant question, and a zero is assigned when the responses to the relevant and comparison questions are approximately equal. Scores are based on the criteria described in the present report. Common artifacts that may affect numerical evaluations are discussed, as are limitations of this scoring system