Relevant Checks Research Articles

Does responsibility for potential harm attenuate the effects of repeated checking on metamemory and automatization?

Background and objectivesRepeated checking results in large reductions in metamemory variables (confidence, details, and vividness). It has been suggested that the underlying mechanism is gradual automatization. At the same time, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are reluctant to automatize routine processes. The aim was to investigate whether high responsibility for potential harm, typical of OCD, would attenuate the effects of repeated checking on metamemory variables and automatization. MethodsOne hundred seventy-five participants were initially provided with a cover story that put the subsequent virtual checking task in a context of potential harm for not checking properly. Participants were randomly allocated to four experimental groups (varying high and low responsibility, relevant and irrelevant checking) and performed a virtual checking task repeatedly, using either identical stimuli (relevant checking) or different stimuli (irrelevant checking) between the first and final checking trial. Metamemory variables were rated on visual analogue scales, and response latencies were assessed to establish automatization. ResultsLarger reductions in metamemory variables following relevant checking compared to irrelevant checking replicated previous findings. High responsibility did not affect these results. Large reductions in response latencies across the checking trials (automatization) were also independent of the perceived responsibility. LimitationsWe did not include individuals with OCD. ConclusionsSince responsibility did not influence the effects of repeated checking on metamemory variables, findings are consistent with the idea that automatization remains a plausible explanation of the effects of repeated checking on metamemory variables in individuals with OCD.

Sonographic imaging education for sonographers versus health professionals: A literature review

AbstractBackgroundSonographers are tertiary qualified health professionals who acquire, measure, and interpret diagnostic ultrasound images. Ultrasound is also used by many health professionals other than sonographers. As the imaging objectives of these two groups differs, and in the interest of enhancing education, we performed a literature review.MethodResearch questions drove the literature search that initially yielded >4,000 articles: subject and theme relevance checks reduced this to a final selection of 44. Based on dominant themes within articles, the final 44 were placed into 7 categories, 3 in ‘skills development’ and 4 in ‘educational methods’ domains. In each category, articles were grouped by research participant type: 1. Sonographer or 2. Health Professional, and citation frequency used to measure impact.ResultSix sonographer‐focused and 16 health professional focused articles were assigned to the skills development domain. The highest impact sonographer‐focused article emphasised psychomotor skills for optimal development, the highest impact health professional focused article centered on rapid image acquisition and interpretation. Six sonographer‐focused and 16 health professional focused articles were assigned to the educational methods domain. The highest impact sonographer‐focused article identified a limitation of high‐fidelity simulators, the highest impact health professional focused article cited a limitation of education delivery.ConclusionDifferent sonographic imaging skills and educational methods are used for sonographers and health professionals. Sonographers utilise a wide range of imaging skills: teaching methods should be tailored accordingly. Health professionals rely on condensed imaging skills and standardised protocols: this requires a customised approach and may be enhanced by sonographer involvement.

CCN proteins: opportunities for clinical studies-a personal perspective.

The diverse members of the CCN family now designated as CCN1(CYR61), CCN2 (CTGF), CCN3(NOV), CCN4(WISP1), CCN5(WISP2), CCN6(WISP3) are a conserved matricellular family of proteins exhibiting a spectrum of functional properties throughout all organs in the body. Interaction with cell membrane receptors such as integrins trigger intracellular signaling pathways. Proteolytically cleaved fragments (constituting the active domains) can be transported to the nucleus and perform transcriptional relevant functional activities. Notably, as also found in other protein families some members act opposite to others creating a system of functionally relevant checks and balances. It has become apparent that these proteins are secreted into the circulation, are quantifiable, and can serve as disease biomarkers. How they might also serve as homeostatic regulators is just becoming appreciated. In this review I have attempted to highlight the most recent evidence under the subcategories of cancer and non-cancer relevant that could lead to potential therapeutic approaches or ideas that can be factored into clinical advances. I have added my own personal perspective on feasibility.

Rethinking Public Health Pedagogy in Muslim Countries Postcolonially

This article discusses the history of modern education in developing countries and attempts to look at Public Health (PH) education and curriculum from a Muslim and postcolonial perspective. It argues that, since modern PH pedagogical practices in Muslim countries are derived almost entirely from the western educational model and paradigm, they need reconstruction mainly for compatibility and relevance checks. The reconstruction of PH that this paper proposes aims at complementing and enriching the existing syllabi and involves three stages: fundamental, intermediate and advanced. In the first stage, students are equipped with a strong foundation of western and Islamic philosophies; the second one involves the incorporation of Islamic principles into the existing PH curriculum; while the third entails a critical analysis and deconstruction of some PH concepts and approaches in order to nurture students’ creativity in solving complex, emerging problems in the light of Islamic teachings as well as the need of Muslim sociocultural settings.

Project-Based Learning as the Alternative for Distance Learning in Pandemic COVID-19

Distance learning during the pandemic raises many problems such as internet network limitations, bandwidth cap and fully-loaded tasks of teachers and students. This study aims to provide a theoretical illustration of project-based learning for distance learning classes. The researchers used the library method with several stages, including determining problems and research objects, collecting data, classifying and eliminating data based on needs, doing relevance checks, synthesizing findings and describing results. The analysis was conducted qualitatively based on classified data according to the research needs.. The results of the study indicate that project-based learning is suitable to be used as an alternative of distance learning during the pandemic with six aspects of considerations: 1) readiness , 2) safety, 3) monitoring, 4) thematic,

Leaf Area, Relative Water Content and Stay-green Habit of Iranian Landraces (Triticum aestivum L.) under Water Stress in Field Conditions

Water stress is one of the major and challenging abiotic stress that affects the plant mostly at all stages like tillering, booting, anthesis, grain formation and grain filling. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of water stress on relative water content, leaf area and stay green habit of Iranian landraces along with commercial relevant checks under irrigated, restricted irrigation and rain-fed conditions. Iranian landraces were selected based on minimum reduction in vigor index as compared to control lines during preliminary screening experiment in the lab in which water stress is induced by Polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000). A field experiment was carried out at the experimental area of the Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab during 2016-2017. The relative water content of Iranian landraces was calculated at the bolting stage according to the turgid weight by applying the equation of relative water content. Leaf area was recorded by leaf area meter and stay-green habit based on a 1-4 visual scale. Analysis of variance revealed interaction among treatment and genotypes was significant (P≤ 0.05) for the leaf area, relative water content, stay green habit at anthesis and 30 days after anthesis. Leaf area, relative water content and stay green habit of Iranian landraces along with commercial checks reduced under water stress conditions. Based on the performance of Iranian landraces under stress conditions, 5 lines IWA 8600397, IWA 8600567, 8606739, IWA 8606786 and IWA 8600753 were considered as water stress tolerant.

Knowledge-sharing restrictions in the life sciences: personal and context-specific factors in academia–industry knowledge transfer

PurposeKnowledge sharing in research communities has been considered indispensable to progress in science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms restricting knowledge sharing in science. It considers three categories of academia–industry knowledge transfer and a range of individual and contextual variables as possible predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions.Design/methodology/approachA unique empirical data sample was collected based on a survey among 212 life science researchers affiliated with universities and other non-profit research institutions. A rich descriptive analysis was followed by binominal regression analysis, including relevant checks for the robustness of the results.FindingsResearchers in academia who actively collaborate with industry are more likely to omit relevant content from publications in co-authorship with other academic researchers; delay their co-authored publications, exclude relevant content during public presentations; and deny requests for access to their unpublished and published knowledge.Practical implicationsThis study informs policymakers that different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions are predicted by different individual and contextual factors, which suggests that policies concerning academia–industry knowledge and technology transfer should be tailored to contextual specificities.Originality/valueThis study contributes new predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions to the literature on academia–industry interactions, including outcome expectations, trust and sharing climate. This study augments the knowledge management literature by separately considering the roles of various academic knowledge-transfer activities in instigating different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions in scientific research.

Unification of the development of information models of buildings at the demolition stage

The study aims to develop standardized BIM methods for buildings that are part of the Moscow city renovation program. This problem is extremely urgent, since there are no digitized sources of typical projects of the last century, and this complicates the process of calculating the generation of construction and demolition waste and casts doubt on its accuracy. At the stage of high quality and timely dismantling phase (calculation of the weight of construction and demolition waste, scheduling of work and transportation of waste), this process can be automated using information modeling software – Autodesk Revit 2019. This will complement the existing information model by including in it one of the final stages of the building’s life cycle – dismantling, which in transparency, accessibility and completeness will not be inferior to the blocks of design, examination, construction and operation. On the basis of albums of typical building projects, you can get a lot of information to create the necessary project families and specifications, which will greatly simplify and speed up the process of developing building demolition projects in the future, since with each new project libraries of elements, materials, families will be supplemented. The article presents the process of developing a project template for the phase of the dismantling of buildings. A new project parameter has been created, assigned to each material of the project template, the necessary parametric and design characteristics have been assigned for further calculations based on the simulated building design, a design specification has been developed, on the basis of which data on the weight of construction and demolition waste can be quickly obtained, relevant checks carried out for different types of developed and basic project families.

A new approach for sustainable design scenarios selection: A case study in a tunisian company

In design, most of recent researches focused on criteria related only to the product. These criteria do not take into account the context of the organization which is related to the enterprise's system. In sustainable design, the choice of the best product design scenario is more complex. In fact, the number of issues is importantly high, the data is imprecise and the criteria are interdependent. This situation is more critical in an advanced stage of the design process where the decisions and choices will monitor the next steps of this process.The purpose of this paper is to improve the design approaches in a critical stage from an environmental, economic and social perspective. It deals with two main challenges, the first one is the identification of product design scenarios that are coherent with the organization's context, in terms of internal and external issues along with requirements of the stakeholders. The second challenge is the selection of the optimal option from a high number of identified scenarios. To this end, a new model with two main steps is proposed to deal with both challenges.The methodology is based on two steps. The first depends on a trilogy (i.e. Strategic, tactical, and operational). It generates operational scenarios on the basis of value chain-driven sustainable design strategies using SWOT (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity, Threats), PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal), 7S (Structure, Strategy, Shared Values, Style, Staff, Systems, Skills) to identify a multitude of scenarios. The second step is the choice of the optimal scenario that satisfies interdependent criteria using simplified life cycle assessment tools to compute sustainability impacts' indicators, the Choquet integral to minimize the number of scenarios, and the fuzzy analytic network process to select the optimal operational scenario.The proposed model is then implemented in a Tunisian company that manufactures lead acid batteries for motorcycles. The results proved the influence of the organization's context on the choice of the optimal sustainable design scenario. The organization was able to develop strategies and tactics on the basis of its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. The number of design alternatives was reduced using relevance checks based on influence and control criteria. Environmental, economic and social indicators were computed per life cycle phase in order to be used as inputs in the Choquet integral and the analytic network process algorithms. The proposed model guided the organization to adopt a coherent design scenario that respects the sustainable development criteria.

Spatiotemporal pattern of appraising social and emotional relevance: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Social information is particularly relevant for the human species because of its direct link to guiding physiological responses and behavior. Accordingly, extant functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data suggest that social content may form a unique stimulus dimension. It remains largely unknown, however, how neural activity underlying social (versus nonsocial) information processing temporally unfolds, and how such social information appraisal may interact with the processing of other stimulus characteristics, particularly emotional meaning. Here, we presented complex visual scenes differing in both social (vs. nonsocial) and emotional relevance (positive, negative, neutral) intermixed with scrambled versions of these pictures to N = 24 healthy young adults. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to intact pictures were examined for gaining insight to the dynamics of appraisal of both dimensions, implemented within the brain. Our main finding is an early interaction between social and emotional relevance due to enhanced amplitudes of early ERP components to emotionally positive and neutral pictures of social compared to nonsocial content, presumably reflecting rapid allocation of attention and counteracting an overall negativity bias. Importantly, our ERP data show high similarity with previously observed fMRI data using the same stimuli, and source estimations located the ERP effects in overlapping occipitotemporal brain areas. Our novel data suggest that relevance detection may occur already as early as around 100 ms after stimulus onset and may combine relevance checks not only examining intrinsic pleasantness/emotional valence but also social content as a unique, highly relevant stimulus dimension.

Perseveration causes automatization of checking behavior in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Repeated checking leads to reductions in meta-memory (i.e., memory confidence, vividness and detail), and automatization of checking behavior (Dek, van den Hout, Giele, & Engelhard, 2014, 2015). Dek et al. (2014) suggested that this is caused by increased familiarity with the checked stimuli. They predicted that defamiliarization of checking by modifying the perceptual characteristics of stimuli would cause de-automatization and attenuate the negative meta-memory effects of re-checking. However, their results were inconclusive. The present study investigated whether repeated checking leads to automatization of checking behavior, and if defamiliarization indeed leads to de-automatization and attenuation of meta-memory effects in patients with OCD and healthy controls. Participants performed a checking task, in which they activated, deactivated and checked threat-irrelevant stimuli. During a pre- and post-test checking trial, check duration was recorded and a reaction time task was simultaneously administered as dual-task to assess automatization. After the pre- and post-test checking trial, meta-memory was rated. Results showed that relevant checking led to automatization of checking behavior on the RT measure, and negative meta-memory effects for patients and controls. Defamiliarization led to de-automatization measured with the RT task, but did not attenuate the negative meta-memory effects of repeated checking. Clinical implications are discussed.

When more is less: Doubt, repetition, memory, metamemory, and compulsive checking in OCD

Memory and metamemory phenomena associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have received much attention in literature dedicated to a better understanding of the doubt and repetition associated with obsessions and compulsions. Following previous work on repeated checking among nonclinical participants, we asked participants to repeatedly turn on, turn off and check a real kitchen stove (n = 30 compulsive checkers diagnosed with OCD and n = 30 non-clinical undergraduates), or a real kitchen faucet (n = 30 non-clinical undergraduates) in a standardized, ritualized manner, in two connected experiments. Results indicated that following repeated relevant checking, both clinical and nonclinical participants reported significantly reduced memory confidence, vividness and detail; those who completed repeated irrelevant checking did not. The effects of repeated checking on memory accuracy were also explored. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural formulations of OCD and in terms of the effects of repetition on memory and metamemory in association with checking behaviour.

Comment on: ‘An Intervention for Sensory Difficulties in Children with Autism: A Randomized Trial’ by Schaaf et al. (2013)

The purpose of this letter to the editor is to comment on a recently published paper in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 'An Intervention for Sensory Difficulties in Children with Autism: A Randomized Trial' by Schaaf et al. (2013). The authors are commended for undertaking a randomised clinical trial (RCT) examining the efficacy of occupational therapy using sensory integration (OT/SI). The study complies with many of the recommended standards of RCT's including: (a) detailed eligibility criteria, (b) well-matched experimental and control groups, (c) use of gold-standard instruments to measure the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, (d) the use of functionally relevant outcome measures, (e) fidelity checking, and (f) manualization of the intervention. Additional aspects of rigour that could be considered in subsequent research include: (a) independent blinded measure of observational outcomes, (b) treatment and control interventions of equivalent dose, (c) public access to the manualized treatment guidelines, and (d) the use of a comparison occupational therapy intervention to address the same goals as the OT/SI intervention.

Predictive Analytics: The Use and Constitutionality of Technology in Combating Homegrown Terrorist Threats

On April 15, 2013 at approximately 2:50 p.m. as runners completed their journey through the Boston Marathon, two explosions occurred, ten to fifteen seconds apart and 550 feet away from each other, killing three and injuring over 170 innocent Americans. As volunteers, runners, bystanders and emergency personnel risked their lives to aid the injured, no one knew if other explosions were imminent. The improvised explosive devices (“IEDs”) were made of pressure cookers containing nails, ball bearings, and other shrapnel, combined with an electronic detonator. The bombs were designed not to kill, but to severely maim innocent bystanders as they watched the race. As the forensics investigation continued, many leads have been generated, and many have been discounted, with disturbing results. State officials reported there were no intelligence assessments revealing credible threats in Boston prior to the attack. On April 18, 2013, the FBI released images of two suspects who were later identified as brothers Tamerlan and Dzhohkar Tsarnev, 26 and 19, respectively. On April 19, 2013, prior to engaging in a firefight and hurling explosive devices against police, resulting in the injury of a Transit police officer, the pair killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer. Tamerlan Tsarnev was shot and killed during the firefight with police and his younger brother was barricaded, and eventually turned himself in after being wounded and barricading himself in a boat in Watertown, Massachusetts. As the terror investigation continues it has been revealed that the brothers were born and raised in Russia and may have had ties to Chechnya where Muslim radicalism has been rampant. According to public photos on the internet documenting the older brother’s training for the Golden Gloves Boxing Competition, the pair fled to Kazakhstan in the 1990s to escape the violence in Chechnya before making their way to the United States as refugees. The photo captions also quote Tamerlan as saying, “I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them.” The pair have been in the United States since 2002 and the younger brother was a second-year medical student in the Boston area. Although it is yet unclear the motivations behind the attack, it has been revealed that the older brother had posted on YouTube, video’s discussing an Islamic prophecy frequently associated with al Qaeda. Additionally, the Russian government allegedly revealed to the FBI concerns that Tamerlan Dzhokar was involved in extremist activities. This led the FBI interviewing Tamerlan, performing a background check, running his name through relevant databases and checking on his communications and overseas travel. However, the FBI missed the threat – there was no chatter, no intelligence revealing the Tamerlan’s intentions.The solution to this incident may, in the future, reside in the use of predictive analytics, which relies on capturing relationships between explanatory and predicted variables from past occurrences and exploiting them to predict future outcomes. An algorithm would data mine through massive amounts of open source data, linking information about a potential suspect from multiple different sources and provide law enforcement with targets to further investigate. Therefore, using a predictive analytical algorithm, combined with open source information, and information from traditional intelligence and law enforcement mechanisms, may allow the security apparatus to predict future outcomes. However, despite the national security implications, such a program would require access to massive amounts of data that would need to be stored. It would also complicate the privacy and legal regime that the law has in currently in place. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use, legal implications, and challenges of utilizing predictive analytics as a tool to enhance intelligence and law enforcement communities with their efforts to combat homegrown extremism. This paper will not, as other papers on the subject of homegrown extremism, focus solely on the threat of extremism propagated by “Jihadi-Salafi” ideology. Rather, this paper will note that extremism results from ideology, not religion, and therefore a broadening definition of extremism is necessary. In this context, this paper will discuss the use of predictive analytics as a tool in identifying, predicting, analyzing, and possibly preventing homegrown extremism propagated from religious, environmental, right wing, left wing, and other persons, located in the United States.

Do people with existing chronic conditions benefit from telephone coaching? A rapid review

To examine the effectiveness of telephone-based coaching services for the management of patients with chronic diseases. A rapid scoping review of the published peer reviewed literature, using Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsychNet and Scopus. We included studies involving people aged 18 years or over with one or more of the following chronic conditions: type 2 diabetes, congestive cardiac failure, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension. Patients were identified as having multi-morbidity if they had an index chronic condition plus one or more other chronic condition. To be included in this review, the telephone coaching had to involve two-way conversations by telephone or video phone between a patient and a provider. Behaviour change, goal setting and empowerment are essential features of coaching. The review found 1756 papers, which was reduced to 30 after screening and relevance checks. Most coaching services were planned, as opposed to reactive, and targeted patients with complex needs who had one or more chronic disease. Several studies reported improvements in health behaviour, self-efficacy, health status and satisfaction with the service. More than one-third of the papers targeted vulnerable people and telephone coaching was found to be effective for these people. Telephone coaching for people with chronic conditions can improve health behaviour, self-efficacy and health status. This is especially true for vulnerable populations who had difficulty accessing health services. There is less evidence for improvements in quality of life and patient satisfaction with the service. The evidence for improvements in health service use was limited. This rapid scoping review found that telephone-based coaching can enhance the management of chronic disease, especially for vulnerable groups. Further work is needed to identify what models of telephone coaching are most effective according to patients' level of risk and co-morbidity. What is known about the topic? With the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases more demands are being made of limited health services and resources. Telephone health coaching for people with or at risk of chronic diseases is seen as a means of supporting people to manage their health and reducing the burden on the healthcare system. What does this paper add? Telephone coaching interventions were effective for vulnerable people with chronic disease(s). Often the vulnerable populations had worse control of their chronic condition at baseline and demonstrated the greatest improvement compared with those with better control at baseline. Planned (i.e. weekly or monthly telephone calls to support the patients with chronic disease) and unscripted telephone coaching interventions appear to be most effective for improving self-management skills in people from vulnerable groups: the planned telephone coaching services had the advantage of regular contact and helping people develop their skills over time, whereas the unscripted aspect allowed the coach to tailor support to the patient's individual needs What are the implications for practitioners? Telephone coaching is an effective means of supporting people with chronic diseases to manage their own health. Further work is needed to embed telephone coaching within existing services. Good linkages with the patient's general practitioner are important. This might be a regular report, updates via the patient e-health record, or provision for contact if a problem is identified or linking to the patient e-health record.

Design of Portable Checking and Ticketing Systems Based on GPRS

GPRS-based portable checking and ticketing systems have been integrated into one based on computer technology, network technology, embedded technology and many other high technologies. According to the specific requirements of passenger transportation, the system has achieved a wireless network which can on time deliver the relevant checking and ticketing data information to the network control center. Meanwhile the center can also transfer the data information to each terminal to complete the checking and ticketing task by using portable devices through GPRS network, and ultimately turn the long-distance bus passenger transportation into automation.

SU‐E‐T‐253: Checklist: A Tool for Safety in Radiation Oncology

Since its inception as a discipline in medicine, radiation oncology has had safety as its cornerstone. There are three separate areas of safety that exist within any department: patient, staff, and general public safety. Many national and international organizations have collaborated to provide a framework for a quality assurance program that will provide the backbone for safety in radiation oncology. As the complexity of treatments and delivery systems has increased, the ability of quality assurance (QA) programs to maintain safety in all three areas has been challenged. Purpose: QA programs need to be reassessed and adjusted continuously to provide the highest level of confidence. Wikipedia defines a checklist as “a type of information job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention”1. This project produced checklists in our department which provide a focused approach to initial physics plan and weekly checks, dosimetry plan checks, and treatment machine resumption checks. Methods: Based on the approach used by the World Health Organization and Dr. Gawande on the appropriate types of checks to be used, our existing checklist were streamlined to include the most essential checks performed2,3. Each of the three checklists has “Do‐Confirm” and “Read‐Do” checks. Results: The inception of the new physics plan and weekly checklist has assisted in discovering multiple types of potential errors. The errors included wrong prescription, no signed consent, IVD measurements not performed, wrong DRR points, and no request for conebeam imaging noted. The new dosimetry checklist has provided more relevant checks associated with more complex treatment plans. The treatment resumption checklist has created a virtual “Timeout” before a treatment is resumed. Conclusions: Checklist provide an important QA tool for overall safety by tailoring them to specific critical checks, and changing the culture by insisting all operators “work the checklist”.

Repeated checking causes distrust in memory but not in attention and perception

Repeated checking to reduce memory distrust seems to be counterproductive: it increases memory distrust. Obsessive–compulsive (OC) patients tend to be uncertain about other cognitive domains as well, like attention and perception. In an experiment with 70 healthy participants, we tested whether perseverative checking induces distrust not only in memory, but also in attention and perception. Participants were administered a computer task in which they had to activate, deactivate, and check threat-irrelevant stimuli, and rate their confidence in memory, attention, and perception in a pre-test and post-test. In between these tests, the relevant checking group performed 20 checks of the same stimuli used in the pre- and post-test. The irrelevant checking group performed 20 checks of different stimuli. Although memory accuracy improved in both groups, repeated checking reduced confidence in memory, vividness, and detail in the relevant checking group, but not in the irrelevant checking group. A trend was found towards a decline in attentional confidence in the relevant checking group only. Perception was not affected by repetitive checking. A replication study revealed similar results of relevant checking on meta-memory, however, the trend for attentional distrust was not confirmed. The results suggest that perseveration may be domain specific, i.e., only the cognitive processes that are subject to perseveration are affected.

Organic chemical reaction mechanisms clarified for deuterium‐ and carbon‐13‐labeled hydrocarbons

AbstractQuestions bearing on just how organic chemical structures are converted to other compounds can be addressed in numerous ways through syntheses and studies of appropriately designed stable–isotope‐labeled analogs. Most of the examples in the present review summarize studies of various thermal isomerizations and fragmentations that have provided information on mechanistic details, determinations of reaction stereochemistry, tests for possible interventions of short‐lived reaction intermediates, and relevant checks of theory‐based predictions and rationalizations. Such work serves either to reinforce generally accepted conceptual constructs for posited reaction mechanisms or to prompt reinterpretations of imperfect mechanistic understandings, as the experimental findings may require. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Repeated checking really does cause memory distrust

Memory phenomena associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have received increased attention in the recent literature. Some debate remains about whether OCD is characterized by deficits in memory per se, or by poor memory confidence. Following from a recent study that demonstrated memory distrust results from repeated checking of a virtual computerized stove, we asked 50 undergraduate students to repeatedly turn on, turn off and check either a real kitchen stove (relevant checking) or a real kitchen faucet (irrelevant checking) in a standardized, ritualized manner. All participants completed a final check of the stove following these 19 checking trials. Results indicated that following repeated relevant checking, participants reported significantly reduced memory confidence, vividness and detail. Repeated irrelevant checking did not produce these decreases. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive-behavioural formulations of OCD and in terms of the effects of repetition on memory and metamemory.