Prior Statements Research Articles

Commentary: The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A national workforce perspective 1

The authors describe historical trends in the profession and nursing education and offer a thoughtful synthesis of many complex and inter-related issues influencing the nursing workforce, nursing higher education, and the nation’s healthcare needs. Their main argument is thatmoving education of all advance practice nurses (Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Certified Nurse Midwives, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses [APRNs]) from the master’s level to the doctoral level at this time is not in the best interest of the public, the national workforce, or the profession. They argue, with convincing evidence, that continuing APRN education at themaster’s level is appropriate and in the best interests of the public, the national workforce, and the profession. Interestingly, in contrast to prior public statements and writings, they do not argue that the clinical, professional practice doctorate, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), should not be added to the armamentarium of nursing degree programs.

ISCB Public Policy Statement on Open Access to Scientific and Technical Research Literature

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is dedicated to advancing human knowledge at the intersection of computation and life sciences. On behalf of the ISCB members, this public policy statement expresses strong support for open access, reuse, integration, and distillation of the publicly funded archival scientific and technical research literature, and for the infrastructure to achieve that goal. Knowledge is the fruit of the research endeavor, and the archival scientific and technical research literature is its practical expression and means of communication. Shared knowledge multiplies in utility because every new scientific discovery is built upon previous scientific knowledge. Access to knowledge is access to the power to solve new problems and make informed decisions. Free, open, public, online access to the archival scientific and technical research literature will empower citizens and scientists to solve more problems and make better, more informed decisions. Attribution to the original authors will maintain consistency and accountability within the knowledge base. Computational reuse, integration, and distillation of that literature will produce new and as yet unforeseen knowledge. We strongly encourage open software, data, and databases, issues that are not addressed here. A prior ISCB public policy statement on sharing software provides very clear support for open source/open access (http://www.iscb.org/iscb-policystatements/software_sharing). We support open database access, standards, and interoperability. We also recognize that databases are complex dynamic entities, with ongoing roles and needs that cannot be treated properly within this statement. In contrast, the publicly funded archival research literature, addressed here, is the static historical record of publicly funded research outcomes. ISCB supports many of the principles set forth in other open-access policies and statements, including the ‘‘Budapest Open Access Initiative,’’ the ‘‘Bethesda Declaration on Open Access Publishing,’’ the Bulletin of the World Health Organization ‘‘Equitable Access to Scientific and Technical Information for Health,’’ the US National Academies of Sciences report on ‘‘Sharing Publication-Related Data and Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences,’’ the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development ‘‘Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding,’’ and the ‘‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.’’ Details on the documents mentioned here may be found in Text S1. Further background material is available in Text S2. The public policy statement (Box 1) put forward here builds upon these principles to elucidate in more detail the public policy position of ISCB and its members on this important issue in scientific dissemination.

American Society of Clinical Oncology Statement: Toward Individualized Care for Patients With Advanced Cancer

Patients with advanced incurable cancer face complex physical, psychological, social, and spiritual consequences of disease and its treatment. Care for these patients should include an individualized assessment of the patient's needs, goals, and preferences throughout the course of illness. Consideration of disease-directed therapy, symptom management, and attention to quality of life are important aspects of quality cancer care. However, emerging evidence suggests that, too often, realistic conversations about prognosis, the potential benefits and limitations of disease-directed therapy, and the potential role of palliative care, either in conjunction with or as an alternative to disease-directed therapy, occur late in the course of illness or not at all. This article addresses the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO's) vision for improved communication with and decision making for patients with advanced cancer. This statement advocates an individualized approach to discussing and providing disease-directed and supportive care options for patients with advanced cancer throughout the continuum of care. Building on ASCO's prior statements on end-of-life care (1998) and palliative care (2009), this article reviews the evidence for improved patient care in advanced cancer when patients' individual goals and preferences for care are discussed. It outlines the goals for individualized care, barriers that currently limit realization of this vision, and possible strategies to overcome these barriers that can improve care consistent with the goals of our patients and evidence-based medical practice.

Out-of-Court Statements by Children: Jumping Through the Concentric Hoops of the Hearsay Rule and the Confrontation Clause

This paper was used as a handout at a presentation given April 3, 2009, in connection with a Widener Law Review Symposium. The Supreme Court has said that the confrontation right applies only to hearsay. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 59 n.9 (2004) (“The Clause does not bar the use of testimonial statements for purposes other then establishing the truth of the matter asserted.”); Tennessee v. Street, 471 U.S. 409 (1985) (defendant's rights under the confrontation clause were not violated by the introduction of the confession of an accomplice for the nonhearsay purpose of rebutting respondent's testimony that his own confession was coercively derived from the accomplice's statement). In the context of children's statements, the confrontation clause would not then bar the admission of testimonial statements, for example, of a child hearsay declarant's when offered as to her credibility only to rehabilitate her after she has been impeached pursuant to FRE 806. See United States v. Stoner, 329 F.3d 859, 867 (D.C. Cir. 2003), cert. denied, 541 U.S. 1018 (2004) (discussing admissibility of prior consistent statements as to rehabilitation of a testifying witness). Cf. United States v. Lechoco, 542 F.2d 84, 89 n.6 (D.C. Cir. 1976) (prosecution's attack on credibility of defendant, on whose out-of-court statements defense psychiatrists relied, permits defendant to present supporting evidence, as by character witnesses to his good reputation for truth and veracity). Nor has the clause yet been held to bar the opinion of a testifying expert, based on inadmissible hearsay, pursuant to FRE 703. But an expert's reliance on testimonial hearsay of nontestifying declarants raises thorny questions.

Overconfidence is a Social Signaling Bias

Evidence from psychology and economics indicates that many individuals overestimate their ability, both absolutely and relatively. We test three different theories about observed relative overconfidence. The first theory notes that simple statistical comparisons (for example, whether the fraction of individuals rating own skill above the median value is larger than half) are compatible (Benoit and Dubra, 2007) with a Bayesian model of updating from a common prior and truthful statements. We show that such model imposes testable restrictions on relative ability judgments, and we test the restrictions. Data on 1,016 individuals' relative ability judgments about two cognitive tests rejects the Bayesian model. The second theory suggests that self-image concerns asymmetrically affect the choice to get new information about one’s abilities, and this asymmetry produces overconfidence (Kőszegi, 2006; Weinberg, 2006). We test an important specific prediction of these models: individuals with a higher belief will be less likely to search for further information about their skill, because this information might make this belief worse. Our data also reject this prediction. The third theory is that overconfidence is induced by the desire to send positive signals to others about one’s own skill; this suggests a either a bias in judgment, strategic lying, or both. We provide evidence that personality traits strongly affect relative ability judgments in a pattern that is consistent with this third theory. Our results together suggest that overconfidence in statements is most likely to be induced by social concerns than by either of the other two factors.

Perioperative β-blockers for vascular surgery patients

Perioperative beta-blocker therapy has been a heavily investigated and controversial topic during the past decade. Prior national consensus statements that recommended the routine use of these medications in patients undergoing high-risk surgical procedures have been called into question because of the results of recent clinical trials that involved heterogeneous groups of surgical patients. This article reviews the evidence for perioperative beta-blocker usage as it pertains to patients undergoing vascular surgery procedures. The weight of evidence suggests that beta-blockers lower the perioperative risk of myocardial ischemia or infarction and cardiovascular death among patients with clinical risk factors undergoing major vascular surgery. However, there appears to be a concurrent risk of adverse events associated with these medications if patients are not monitored properly during the perioperative period. Perioperative beta-blockers should continue to occupy a prominent role in the therapeutic armamentarium for improving outcomes among high-risk patients undergoing major vascular surgery.

Service Versus Education: Finding the Right Balance: A Consensus Statement from the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors 2009 Academic Assembly “Question 19” Working Group

Many emergency medicine (EM) residency programs have recently received citations for their residents' responses to Question 19 of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education annual survey, which asks residents to rate their program's emphasis on clinical education over service obligations. To the best of our knowledge, no prior investigations or consensus statements exist that specifically address the appropriate balance between educational activity and clinical service in EM residency training. The objective of this project was to create a consensus statement based on the shared insights of academic faculty and educators in EM, with specific recommendations to improve the integration of education with clinical service in EM residency training programs. More than 80 EM program directors (PDs), associate and assistant PDs, and other academic EM faculty attending an annual conference of EM educators met to address this issue in a discussion session and working group. Participants examined the current literature on resident service and education and shared with the conference at large their collective insight and experience and possible solutions to this challenge. A consensus statement of specific recommendations and effective educational techniques aimed at balancing service and education requirements was created, based on the contributions of a diverse group of academic emergency physicians. Recommendations included identifying the teachable moment in all clinical service; promoting resident understanding of program goals and expectations from the beginning; educating residents about the ACGME resident survey; and engaging hospitals, institutional graduate medical education departments, and residents in finding solutions.

Substituted misjudgement

Substituted judgement is often used in the absence of advanced directives to guide decision-making when patients lack decisional capacity. We present a remarkable case of family members exercising substituted misjudgement for a 42-year-old man hospitalized with multiorgan failure on life support. Feeling that their loved one would rather die than face severe disability, they elected to withdraw life support. Although this was done, the patient remained alive and recovered enough to clearly indicate his preference for life, even with severe disability. This case suggests that in instances of unusual quality-of-life judgements where the patient's wishes cannot be known with reasonable certainty, families and physicians should be very wary using substituted judgement to refuse life support. Unless there are strong considerations based on the patient's prior statements, actions and values to decline life support, it would seem ethically appropriate to continue treatment, even with substantial disability the likely outcome.

Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108 Disclosures: Descriptive Evidence from the Revelation of Accounting Misstatements

SYNOPSIS: The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive analysis of companies’ previously uncorrected financial statement misstatements using disclosures recently mandated by Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 108 (SAB No. 108). We analyze 355 companies that disclose and correct 792 misstatements in their financial statements filed from November 15, 2006, to February 15, 2008. We present descriptive evidence on the size and industry distribution of companies who disclose SAB No. 108 adjustments, showing that larger companies and those in the banking/insurance/real estate industries are most commonly represented in our sample. We also describe the types of audit firms that are associated with these companies. The results show that the concentration of sample companies in the banking/insurance/real estate industries are most often audited by the smallest audit firms in the market, and there is considerable variation in the application of quantitative materiality thresholds for SAB No. 108 disclosures across audit firms. Finally, our descriptive analyses reveal insights about the nature, direction, and magnitude of specific misstatements corrected by SAB No. 108. For example, we show that the most common SAB No. 108 misstatement corrections involve current liabilities, deferred taxes, revenue recognition, and leases. In addition, many companies in our sample used SAB No. 108 to correct misstatements identified in the current year to avoid restating prior period financial statements.

Comparative Review on the Admissibility of the Witness' Prior Inconsistent Statement

Comparative Review on the Admissibility of the Witness' Prior Inconsistent Statement

Measuring Hypothetical Bias in Choice Experiments: The Importance of Cognitive Consistency

Abstract A choice experiment eliciting environmental values with both real and hypothetical trade-offs is set up in order to test for hypothetical bias. A larger hypothetical bias was found in a between-subject than in a within-subject design, using otherwise identical scenarios, which can explain previous diverging results in the literature. We argue that people strive for consistency between their attitudes and behaviors, leading them to act in ways that correspond with their prior hypothetical statements. People hence seem to prefer to do what they say they would do, although this may not always reflect their true preferences regarding the good being valued.

Witness Intimidation and the 'Double Feature' of Hearsay and the Confrontation Clause, as Manifested in the Constitutional Forfeiture Doctrine and the Related Federal and State Hearsay Exceptions

This paper was prepared as a handout for a presentation at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Witness intimidation - up to and including murder - strikes at the heart of the justice system itself. United States v. Mastrangelo, 693 F.2d 269, 273 (2d Cir. 1982). Without witnesses, without evidence, there can be no trials. Without the possibility of trials, the of the street will supersede the law of the land. Though retaliation as personal payback is as old as time, modem headlines seem to scream more frequently than before of murder and gang violence. Entire neighborhoods are cowed by the constant threat of retaliation against anyone who snitches - or against their loved ones. Families urge their concerned, law-abiding relatives who have witnessed a murder or other crime to stay out of it: Don't put yourself at risk - you can't bring [the victim] back. If any of these folks have initially made statements to the police or prosecution, they often recant their statements at trial! or refuse to testify altogether. When they do not testify at trial, can their prior statements be admitted against a criminal accused? The answer: only if the statements first pass muster under the rules of evidence, and, if they do, if they also do not run afoul of the defendants' constitutional right to confront the witnesses against them. Even then, any conviction obtained must pass the final filter of the due process clause, under which verdicts based on unreliable evidence must be overturned.

Screening for Coronary Artery Disease in Patients With Diabetes

Coronary artery disease (CAD) accounts for a large fraction of the morbidity, mortality, and cost of diabetes. Recognizing this, nearly 10 years ago the American Diabetes Association published a consensus recommendation that clinicians consider a risk factor-guided screening approach to early diagnosis of CAD in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Subsequent clinical trial results have not supported those recommendations. Since the prior consensus statement, newer imaging methods, such as coronary artery calcium scoring and noninvasive angiography with computed tomography (CT) techniques, have come into use. These technologies, which allow quantitation of atherosclerotic burden and can predict risk of cardiac events, might provide an approach to more widespread coronary atherosclerosis screening. However, over this same time interval, there has been recognition of diabetes as a cardiovascular disease (CVD) equivalent, clear demonstration that medical interventions should provide primary and secondary CVD risk reduction in diabetic populations, and suggestive evidence that percutaneous coronary revascularization may not provide additive survival benefit to intensive medical management in patients with stable CAD. This additional evidence raises the question of whether documenting asymptomatic atherosclerosis or ischemia in people with diabetes is warranted. More data addressing this issue will be forthcoming from the BARI 2-D (Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation 2 Diabetes) trial. Until then, for patients with type 2 diabetes who are asymptomatic for CAD, we recommend that testing for atherosclerosis or ischemia, perhaps with cardiac CT as the initial test, be reserved for those in whom medical treatment goals cannot be met and for selected individuals in whom there is strong clinical suspicion of very-high-risk CAD. Better approaches to identify such individuals based on readily obtained clinical variables are sorely needed.

Materiality Decisions and the Correction of Accounting Errors

ABSTRACT: We test conjectures about the determinants of materiality judgments by examining a financial reporting choice made by firms that discover errors in prior years' financial statements. From late 2004 to mid-2006, more than 250 U.S. firms uncovered and corrected operating lease accounting errors either by formal restatement—required for errors deemed material—or by a less visible current-period “catch-up” adjustment. We test the role of materiality considerations outlined in SAB No. 99 as well as factors outside authoritative guidance in explaining the correction method chosen. Although both quantitative and qualitative materiality considerations cited in the guidance explain a large portion of the variation in firms' error correction decisions, we find that the prior actions of other firms also appear to play a major role. We also find that clerical considerations, but not strategic disclosure concerns, help explain cross-sectional variation in the timing of firms' error correction announcements.

Effects of prior knowledge and expert statement on belief in recovered memories: An international perspective

We tested the hypothesis that beliefs in the purported attributes of recovered memories of child sexual abuse (CSA) are associated with knowledge of the “recovered/false memory debate”, and that such beliefs will be related to assessments of the credibility of statements made by participants in a vignette about CSA. Participants from five countries (the United States, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Israel) responded to a questionnaire regarding beliefs about recovered memory as well as self-reported exposure to and knowledge of the debate. In addition, they assessed the credibility of statements made by a daughter (reporting recovery of memories of sexual abuse by her father), her father (denying the allegation and accusing the daughter's therapist of implanting in her false “memories” of abuse), and two experts (each supporting one of the two protagonists). We found that prior knowledge of the debate across countries was linked to beliefs in specific attributes of recovered memories and to a subset of the credibility assessments of statements made by the protagonists and their experts. For individuals, however, credibility assessments were unrelated to knowledge of the debate, but they were related to beliefs about memory recovery. Finally, credibility of the protagonists' statements was differentially associated with those made by the daughter's and the father's experts. The results suggest that whereas familiarity with the debate does not affect the credibility of the statements made by the complainant and the accused, expert testimony does, as has been found in prior research. The psycholegal implications of this conclusion are discussed.

Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease by Cardiac Computed Tomography

This scientific statement reviews the scientific data for cardiac computed tomography (CT) related to imaging of coronary artery disease (CAD) and atherosclerosis. Cardiac CT is a CT imaging technique that accounts for cardiac motion, typically through the use of ECG gating. The utility and limitations of generations of cardiac CT systems are reviewed in this statement with emphasis on CT measurement of CAD and coronary artery calcified plaque (CACP) and noncalcified plaque. Successive generations of CT technology have been applied to cardiac imaging beginning in the early 1980s with conventional CT, electron beam CT (EBCT) in 1987, and multidetector CT (MDCT) in 1999. Compared with other imaging modalities, cardiac CT has undergone an accelerated …

Difficulties in valuing street light improvement: trust, surprise and bound effects

Previous empirical research has demonstrated an internal inconsistency that may occur in response strategies between the first and second valuations made to closed-ended contingent valuation questions. One possible explanation for this bound effect is the surprise of being asked the second valuation question, which may be enhanced where there is a lack of trust. This paper considers the use of closed-ended contingent valuation to estimate non-market benefits for an improved street lighting scheme where there is a lack of trust in the agency responsible for provision. The results provide confirmation that surprise is an important determinant of bound effects; however, efforts to reduce such bias using a prior statement of the bid range were found to be ineffective in increasing trust and reducing surprise. Given the importance of this area of research, directions for future research are considered.

Corporate Reputation: The Definitional Landscape

While interest in the concept of corporate reputation has gained momentum in the last few years, a precise and commonly agreed upon definition is still lacking. This paper reviews the many definitions of corporate reputation present in the recent literature and categorizes these definitions based on their similarities and differences. The purpose of the study is to review, analyze and evaluate prior definitional statements of corporate reputation. The analysis led us to conclude that the cluster of meaning that looks most promising for future definitional work uses the language of assessment and specific terms such as judgment, estimation, evaluation or gauge. Based on this review work and a lexicological analysis of the concept of reputation, we propose a new definitional statement that we think adds theoretical clarity to this area of study. The statement defines corporate reputation more explicitly and narrowly and distinguishes this concept from corporate identity, corporate image and corporate reputation capital. It is our hope that this study and the resulting definition will provoke further scholarship devoted to developing one voice when it comes to corporate reputation as a concept.

Single Crystal to Single Crystal Transformations

The past decade has witnessed escalating interest in solidstate phase transitions that involve significant changes in structure without appreciable loss of crystal mosaicity— single crystal to single crystal (SC-SC) transformation.[1–5] Several factors have contributed to these studies: increased general access to X-ray diffraction facilities, softwareassisted demystification of crystallography, technological developments leading to rapid intensity data collection, and the popularization of crystal engineering as a research field. The two most active areas of interest with regard to SC-SC transformations are the development of porous materials and solventless topochemical reactions. Recent new results representing the current state-of-the-art with regard to both of these topics are reported in the Research Front of this issue of the Australian Journal of Chemistry. In 1988 Dunitz, Schomaker, and Trueblood recounted a prior statement by Nobel Laureate (chemistry, 1939) Leopold Ruzicka, that ‘a crystal is a chemical cemetery’. This was interpreted to imply that, in sharp contrast to liquids and gases, the solid state consists of molecules that are lifelessly interred in fixed geometrical arrangements with little prospect of an interesting existence.[6] However, it has long been known that structural rearrangement can occur in the solid state in response to a variety of physical or chemical factors. Provided that these structural changes are subtle, it is reasonable to expect that the relative absence of mechanical stress would allow individual crystals to retain their mosaicity, both during and after transformation. In most cases, though, changes of the chemical composition and/or molecular conformation and/or packing arrangement within crystals are well known to cause catastrophic disruption of packing continuity. Concomitant fracturing of

The water break test

PurposeTo discuss the validity of the water break test, commonly used as a means of cleanliness determination in the printed circuit fabrication industry.Design/methodology/approachTo examine qualitatively the physics of water‐wetting of solid substrates and their energy levels and the conditions under which cohesion may occur.FindingsIt would seem that conditions could occur, which would render the likelihood of the test being valid problematic.Practical implicationsTechnical managers of fabricators using the test may wish to re‐examine whether it is valid under their particular circumstances. If it were replaced by a more scientific test covering their particular needs, it is possible that the reliability of subsequent operations may be improved, increasing production yield.Originality/valueThe author previously cast doubts on the test validity but this is the first physical analysis of the situation, confirming prior statements. The value of this paper is to demonstrate that a long‐standing practice may be either meaningless or of significantly reduced usefulness.