Capillary Agglutination Technology

In medical diagnostic tests, including pregnancy testing and tests for typed red blood cells, a small fluid sample is placed at one end of a capillary channel, which has been lined with a dried reagent. If the sample contains the analyte (the substance being tested for) then an agglutination reaction occurs between it and the reagent in the channel, and the agglutinated complexes progressively slow the flow and may even block the channel, partially or completely, so that the flow only reaches the far end very slowly, or not at all. The aim is that this should give a reliable detection of quite low concentrations of analyte in the sample. Platform Diagnostics asked the Study Group to construct a mathematical model of the process, so that, for known binding forces in the agglutination complexes, we can design the channel size and shape, and the fluid viscosity, to maximize the reliable detection of low concentrations. A key question is how the flow time depends on channel size, fluid surface tension and viscosity, (a) in the absence of agglutination, and (b) in the presence of agglutination

The Focal Account: Indirect Lie Detection Need Not Access Unconscious, Implicit Knowledge

People are poor lie detectors, but accuracy can be improved by making the judgment indirectly. In a typical demonstration, participants are not told that the experiment is about deception at all. Instead, they judge whether the speaker appears, say, tense or not. Surprisingly, these indirect judgments better reflect the speaker’s veracity. A common explanation is that participants have an implicit awareness of deceptive behavior, even when they cannot explicitly identify it. We propose an alternative explanation. Attending to a range of behaviors, as explicit raters do, can lead to conflict: A speaker may be thinking hard (indicating deception) but not tense (indicating honesty). In 2 experiments, we show that the judgment (and in turn the correct classification rate) is the result of attending to a single behavior, as indirect raters are instructed to do. Indirect lie detection does not access implicit knowledge, but simply focuses the perceiver on more useful cues

Effect of a 6-week yoga intervention on swing mechanics during the golf swing:a feasibility study

Recent evidence suggests that participating in physical conditioning programmes can improve golf performance, however, the effectiveness of a yoga intervention has yet to be investigated. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of a six-week yoga intervention on golf swing mechanics. Ten male golfers participated in the laboratory-based-study. Golf swing mechanics were collected from two testing sessions, before and after the six-week yoga intervention, using the Vicon motion capture system. Following the six-week yoga intervention, significant changes were observed between the yoga and control group in X-Factor (P ≤ 0.05) and a medium effect (d ≥ 0.50) observed. No significant changes (P > 0.05) and no effect (d < 0.20) were observed in the X-Factor stretch. Significant changes (P ≤ 0.05) and a medium effect (d > 0.50) were observed for the pelvis rotations following the yoga intervention, however, no differences were observed in torso rotations or hand velocities (P > 0.05). The findings of this feasibility study suggest that yoga may be a promising intervention in helping to improve golf swing mechanics, however, future research is required to confirm the effect of the use of yoga during the golf swing due to the sample size

Are you hiding something from me? Uncertainty and judgments about the intentions of others

We are skilled at reading other’s intentions – until they try to hide them. We are biased towards taking at face value what others say, but it is not clear why. One possibility is that we are uncertain, and make the decision by relying on heuristics. Half of our participants judged whether speakers were lying or telling the truth. The other half did not have to commit to a judgment: they were allowed to say they were unsure. We expected these participants would no longer need to rely on simplified heuristics and so show a reduced bias compared to the forced choice condition. Surprisingly, those who could say they were unsure were more biased towards believing people. We consider two possible accounts, both highlighting the importance of examining raters’ uncertainty, which have so far been undocumented. Allowing raters to abstain from judgment gives new insights into the judgment-forming process

A comparison of sleep assessment tools by nurses and patients in critical care

Aim The aim of this critical care sleep assessment pilot study was to evaluate the usefulness of three sleep assessment tools to identify which, if any, provided the closest comparison between the nurses’ judgement and the patients’ experience of their sleep. The study objectives were to: (i) compare patients' and nurses' assessment of sleep using three different rating tools. (ii) Ascertain patients’ preferences with non-interventional, user friendly, practical tools in critical care. (iii) Recommend changes and improvements to the way that sleep is assessed and documented. Background Sleep is important for promoting critical care recovery and sleep disturbance is known to cause irritability, aggression and increased stress levels. The availability and use of valid critical care sleep assessment tools is limited. Design A descriptive comparative study using three sleep assessment-rating scales were constructed to provide easy to understand tools for completion by both patients and nurses in critical care. Methods Structured interviews were undertaken with 82 patients and 82 nurses using a convenience sample from four multispecialty critical care units in one large teaching trust. Patients were included in the study if they met a list of pre-defined criteria to obtain responses from lucid orientated patients. Results No tool produced a close association between the nurses’ assessment of the patients sleep and the patients’ assessment of their sleep. Patients found two of the three tools easy to use when rating their sleep. Discussion Objective invasive measurements of sleep as well as complex subjective tools appear inappropriate to be used as a part of daily critical care practice. The application of simple rating scores has a high degree of error when nurses assess patients’ sleep, even though high levels of patient observation and assessment are practiced in critical care. Conclusions More research is needed to examine the assessment of sleep in critical care, particularly linking rating scales to alternative methods of physiological assessment of sleep. Findings indicate nurses are unable to accurately assess critical care patients’ sleep using rating assessment tools. However patients were found to prefer two sleep assessment tools, one banded in hours to assess sleep quantity and one as a comparison against normal sleep to assess sleep quality. Relevance to clinical practice This study reviews the importance of sleep assessment and the diverse methods available for assessing sleep focussing on the critically ill patient. More noteworthy it highlights how nurses sole judgements of patients sleep is not a reliable method in clinical practice, however it provides some indication on the application of ‘easy to use’ tools to assist in the patients assessments of their sleep

Communicating Crimes: Covering Gangs in Contemporary Canadian Journalism

In this integrated-article dissertation, I examine representations of gangs in Canadian journalism, focusing primarily on contemporary newspaper reporting. While the term “gang” often refers to violent groups of young urban males, it can also signify outlaw bikers, organized crime, terrorist cells, non-criminal social groups, and a wide array of other collectives. I build on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to probe this ambiguity, seeking to provide context and critical assessments that will improve crime reporting and its reception. In the course of my work, I examine how popular films like West Side Story inform journalists’ descriptions of gangs. Though reporters have been covering suburban gangs for decades, they continue to place gangs in the “inner city,” which fits better with imagery from the Manhattan musical. Meanwhile, politicians and political commentators frequently exploit the ambiguity of gangs, applying its rhetoric to opponents and evoking criminal connotations in mediated debates. Based on these findings, I argue that Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence envelopes contemporary Canadian newspapers and I suggest that journalists must incorporate alternative images and discourses to challenge these problematic communication practices. Consequently, my last chapter explores art projects in Regent Park and Clichy-sous-Bois, where I find techniques that challenge the dominant tropes of gangs within the news media and provoke more nuanced conversations about such groups. I conclude by outlining the implications of my research for journalists, gang scholars, and concerned citizens