Facial Identification at a Virtual Reality Airport

Person identification at airports requires the comparison of a passport photograph with its bearer. In psychology, this process is typically studied with static pairs of face photographs that require identity-match (same person shown) versus mismatch (two different people) decisions, but this approach provides a limited proxy for studying how environment and social interaction factors affect this task. In this study, we explore the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) as a solution to this problem, by examining the identity matching of avatars in a VR airport. We show that facial photographs of real people can be rendered into VR avatars in a manner that preserves image and identity information (Experiments 1 to 3). We then show that identity matching of avatar pairs reflects similar cognitive processes to the matching of face photographs (Experiments 4 and 5). This pattern holds when avatar matching is assessed in a VR airport (Experiments 6 and 7). These findings demonstrate the feasibility of VR as a new method for investigating face matching in complex environments

Protocol of the Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion (AMPLE) trial: a multicentre randomised study comparing indwelling pleural catheter versus talc pleurodesis

INTRODUCTION: Malignant pleural effusion can complicate most cancers. It causes breathlessness and requires hospitalisation for invasive pleural drainages. Malignant effusions often herald advanced cancers and limited prognosis. Minimising time spent in hospital is of high priority to patients and their families. Various treatment strategies exist for the management of malignant effusions, though there is no consensus governing the best choice. Talc pleurodesis is the conventional management but requires hospitalisation (and substantial healthcare resources), can cause significant side effects, and has a suboptimal success rate. Indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) allow ambulatory fluid drainage without hospitalisation, and are increasingly employed for management of malignant effusions. Previous studies have only investigated the length of hospital care immediately related to IPC insertion. Whether IPC management reduces time spent in hospital in the patients' remaining lifespan is unknown. A strategy of malignant effusion management that reduces hospital admission days will allow patients to spend more time outside hospital, reduce costs and save healthcare resources. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion (AMPLE) trial is a multicentred, randomised trial designed to compare IPC with talc pleurodesis for the management of malignant pleural effusion. This study will randomise 146 adults with malignant pleural effusions (1:1) to IPC management or talc slurry pleurodesis. The primary end point is the total number of days spent in hospital (for any admissions) from treatment procedure to death or end of study follow-up. Secondary end points include hospital days specific to pleural effusion management, adverse events, self-reported symptom and quality-of-life scores. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The Sir Charles Gairdner Group Human Research Ethics Committee has approved the study as have the ethics boards of all the participating hospitals. The trial results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry-ACTRN12611000567921; National Institutes of Health-NCT02045121.published_or_final_versio

Management of Septated Malignant Pleural Effusions

Purpose of Review: We review recent studies of patients with septated malignant pleural effusions, to understand what the clinical implications for patients are and what evidence-based methods should be used to manage these effusions. Recent Findings: Fibrinolytics improve effusion size assessed radiologically in patients with a chest drain inserted for septated malignant pleural effusions but this does not translate into an improvement in breathlessness relief or pleurodesis success. Fibrinolytics have also been used in patients with septated effusions associated with indwelling pleural catheters, but dyspnoea relief has not been assessed in this population. Patients with septated effusions or extensive adhesions appear to have a worse prognosis. Summary: Patients with septated malignant pleural effusions have a poor prognosis and do not gain clinical benefit from fibrinolytics via chest drain. The role of fibrinolytics for septated effusions associated with indwelling pleural catheters requires further study

Predicting survival in malignant pleural effusion: development and validation of the LENT prognostic score

BACKGROUND: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) causes debilitating breathlessness and predicting survival is challenging. This study aimed to obtain contemporary data on survival by underlying tumour type in patients with MPE, identify prognostic indicators of overall survival and develop and validate a prognostic scoring system. METHODS: Three large international cohorts of patients with MPE were used to calculate survival by cell type (univariable Cox model). The prognostic value of 14 predefined variables was evaluated in the most complete data set (multivariable Cox model). A clinical prognostic scoring system was then developed and validated. RESULTS: Based on the results of the international data and the multivariable survival analysis, the LENT prognostic score (pleural fluid lactate dehydrogenase, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance score (PS), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and tumour type) was developed and subsequently validated using an independent data set. Risk stratifying patients into low-risk, moderate-risk and high-risk groups gave median (IQR) survivals of 319 days (228–549; n=43), 130 days (47–467; n=129) and 44 days (22–77; n=31), respectively. Only 65% (20/31) of patients with a high-risk LENT score survived 1 month from diagnosis and just 3% (1/31) survived 6 months. Analysis of the area under the receiver operating curve revealed the LENT score to be superior at predicting survival compared with ECOG PS at 1 month (0.77 vs 0.66, p<0.01), 3 months (0.84 vs 0.75, p<0.01) and 6 months (0.85 vs 0.76, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The LENT scoring system is the first validated prognostic score in MPE, which predicts survival with significantly better accuracy than ECOG PS alone. This may aid clinical decision making in this diverse patient population

Information transfer: what do decision makers want and need from researchers?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to undertake a systematic assessment of the need for research-based information by decision-makers working in community-based organizations. It is part of a more comprehensive knowledge transfer and exchange strategy that seeks to understand both the content required and the format/methods by which such information should be presented.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional telephone survey. Questions covered current practices, research use, and demographic information, as well as preferences for receiving research information. Three types of organizations participated: Children's Treatment Centres of Ontario (CTCs); Ontario Community Care Access Centres (CCACs); and District Health Councils (DHCs). The analysis used descriptive statistics and analyses of variance (ANOVA) to describe and explore variations across organizations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The participation rate was 70%. The highest perception of barriers to the use of research information was reported by the CCAC respondents, followed by CTCs and DHCs. The CTCs and DHCs reported greater use of research evidence in planning decisions as compared to the CCACs. Four sources of information transfer were consistently identified. These were websites, health-related research journals, electronic mail, and conferences and workshops. Preferred formats for receiving information were executive summaries, abstracts, and original articles.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There were a number of similarities across organization type with respect to perceived barriers to research transfer, as well as the types of activities the organizations engaged in to promote research use in decision-making. These findings support the importance of developing interactive, collaborative knowledge transfer strategies, as well as the need to foster relationships with health care decision-makers, practitioners and policymakers.</p

Letters and telegrams on Andrew Inglis Clark's resignation from the Braddon Ministry, Tasmania, 1897-8

Letters and telegrams on Andrew Inglis Clark's resignation from the Braddon Ministry, 1897-8, from A.H. Aspinall, E.N.C. Braddon, Gilbert E. Butler, William Cooke, P.O. Fysh, G. D'Emden, H.T. Gould, John Gunning, Charles W. Hazell, John Henry, Frederick Lodge, J.H. Macfarlane, Andrew Miller, F.J. Prichard, Richard Ross, W.H. Smith, F. Stephens, C.H. Talbot, Alfred A. Taylor, H. Thomas, G.J. Walford and J.N. Woolnough. C4/C390 (1-22

Individual differences in eyewitness accuracy across multiple lineups of faces

Theories of face recognition in cognitive psychology stipulate that the hallmark of accurate identification is the ability to recognize a person consistently, across different encounters. In this study, we apply this reasoning to eyewitness identification by assessing the recognition of the same target person repeatedly, over six successive lineups. Such repeat identifications are challenging and can be performed only by a proportion of individuals, both when a target exhibits limited and more substantial variability in appearance across lineups (Experiments 1 and 2). The ability to do so correlates with individual differences in identification accuracy on two established tests of unfamiliar face recognition (Experiment 3). This indicates that most observers have limited facial representations of target persons in eyewitness scenarios, which do not allow for robust identification in most individuals, partly due to limitations in their ability to recognize unfamiliar faces. In turn, these findings suggest that consistency of responses across multiple lineups of faces could be applied to assess which individuals are accurate eyewitnesses

Individual differences in the detection, matching and memory of faces

Previous research has explored relationships between individual performance in the detection, matching and memory of faces, but under limiting conditions. The current study sought to extend previous findings with a different measure of face detection, and a more challenging face matching task, in combination with an established test of face memory. Experiment 1 tested face detection ability under conditions designed to maximise individual differences in accuracy but did not find evidence for relationships between measures. In addition, in Experiments 2 and 3, which utilised response times as the primary performance measure for face detection, but accuracy for face matching and face memory, no correlations were observed between performance on face detection and the other tasks. However, there was a correlation between accuracy in face matching and face memory, consistent with other research. Together, these experiments provide further evidence for a dissociation between face detection, and face matching and face memory, but suggest that these latter tasks share some common mechanisms

Feature instructions improve face-matching accuracy

Identity comparisons of photographs of unfamiliar faces are prone to error but important for applied settings, such as person identification at passport control. Finding techniques to improve face-matching accuracy is therefore an important contemporary research topic. This study investigated whether matching accuracy can be improved by instruction to attend to specific facial features. Experiment 1 showed that instruction to attend to the eyebrows enhanced matching accuracy for optimized same-day same-race face pairs but not for other-race faces. By contrast, accuracy was unaffected by instruction to attend to the eyes, and declined with instruction to attend to ears. Experiment 2 replicated the eyebrow-instruc- tion improvement with a different set of same-race faces, comprising both optimized same- day and more challenging different-day face pairs. These findings suggest that instruction to attend to specific features can enhance face-matching accuracy, but feature selection is cru- cial and generalization across face sets may be limited