Retrospective Bias Research Articles

Noise-Compensated, Bias-Corrected Diffusion Weighted Endorectal Magnetic Resonance Imaging via a Stochastically Fully-Connected Joint Conditional Random Field Model.

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MR) is a powerful tool in imaging-based prostate cancer screening and detection. Endorectal coils are commonly used in DW-MR imaging to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the acquisition, at the expense of significant intensity inhomogeneities (bias field) that worsens as we move away from the endorectal coil. The presence of bias field can have a significant negative impact on the accuracy of different image analysis tasks, as well as prostate tumor localization, thus leading to increased inter- and intra-observer variability. Retrospective bias correction approaches are introduced as a more efficient way of bias correction compared to the prospective methods such that they correct for both of the scanner and anatomy-related bias fields in MR imaging. Previously proposed retrospective bias field correction methods suffer from undesired noise amplification that can reduce the quality of bias-corrected DW-MR image. Here, we propose a unified data reconstruction approach that enables joint compensation of bias field as well as data noise in DW-MR imaging. The proposed noise-compensated, bias-corrected (NCBC) data reconstruction method takes advantage of a novel stochastically fully connected joint conditional random field (SFC-JCRF) model to mitigate the effects of data noise and bias field in the reconstructed MR data. The proposed NCBC reconstruction method was tested on synthetic DW-MR data, physical DW-phantom as well as real DW-MR data all acquired using endorectal MR coil. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis illustrated that the proposed NCBC method can achieve improved image quality when compared to other tested bias correction methods. As such, the proposed NCBC method may have potential as a useful retrospective approach for improving the consistency of image interpretations.

Question order bias in retrospective evaluations of item and associative recognition

ABSTRACTPrevious research has demonstrated a retrospective memory bias in metacognitive judgments regarding performance on general knowledge questions: Test-takers rate their own performance more optimistically when tests begin with easy questions than when tests begin with hard questions. An anchoring heuristic has been proposed to explain this finding, in which experience with the early questions constrains global performance evaluations of the test. In the current study we report on two experiments using tasks of item recognition and associative recognition to investigate the generality of question order bias. As predicted by an anchoring explanation, participants’ estimates of performance were higher for item recognition tests beginning with easy items. However, the effect was reversed in the associative recognition task: Participants’ estimates of performance were higher for tests beginning with hard items. Specific recollections, if present, may have a greater impact on test performance perception than more general global impressions.

Plasmapheresis Is Associated With Better Renal Outcomes in Lupus Nephritis Patients With Thrombotic Microangiopathy

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of plasmapheresis in patients with lupus nephritis-combined thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) in a Chinese cohort.Clinical and therapeutic data of patients with lupus nephritis-combined TMA were collected retrospectively. A comparison between those with and without plasmapheresis was performed.Seventy patients with renal biopsy-proven TMA in lupus nephritis were treated with conventional combined corticosteroid and immunosuppressive agents as induction therapy, 9 of the 70 patients received additional plasmapheresis. The plasmapheresis group presented with more severe SLE and renal activity indices, including a significant higher ratio of neurologic disorder (P = 0.025), lower level of platelet count (P = 0.009), higher value of serum creatinine (P = 0.038), higher percentage of anti-cardiolipin antibodies positive (P = 0.001), and higher Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index scores (P = 0.012), than that of the nonplasmapheresis group. However, the plasmapheresis group had a significant higher rate of remission and a lower ratio of treatment failure than that of the nonplasmapheresis group (P = 0.03). As the baseline data were significantly different between the 2 groups, the propensity score match was further designed to avoid retrospective bias. After re-analysis, the plasmapheresis group still had a significant higher rate of remission and a lower ratio of treatment failure than that of the nonplasmapheresis group (P = 0.018). More importantly, the plasmapheresis group had significant less composite endpoints than that of the nonplasmapheresis group (P = 0.005).Our study suggested that additional plasmapheresis on conventional induction therapy may benefit patients with lupus nephritis-combined TMA, which warrants further explorations.

Characteristics of depressive patients according to family history of affective illness: Findings from a French national cohort

BackgroundLiterature is scarce about the characteristics of mood disorder patients with a family history (FH) of affective illness. The aim of the current study was to compare the prominent features of depressive patients with a FH of mania (FHM), those of depressive patients with a FH of depression (FHD), and those of depressive patients with no FH of affective illness (FHO). MethodsAs part of the EPIDEP National Multisite French Study of 493 consecutive DSM-IV major depressive patients evaluated in at least two semi-structured interviews 1 month apart, 45 (9.1%) were classified as FHM, 210 (42.6%) as FHD, and 238 (48.3%) as FHO. ResultsThe main characteristics of FHM patients were a cyclothymic temperament, the presence of mixed features and diurnal variations of mood during depression, early sexual behaviour, a high number of mood episodes and hypomanic switches, high rates of suicide attempts and rapid cycling; diagnosis of bipolar disorder was more frequent in this group as well as comorbid obsessive compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, bulimia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and impulse control disorders. The FHD patients had more depressive temperament, generalized anxiety disorder, and anorexia nervosa. Compared to FHO, FHM and FHD showed an earlier age at onset, more comorbid anxiety disorders, as well as more psychotic features. LimitationsThe following are the limitations of this study: retrospective design, recall bias, and preferential enrolment of bipolar patients with a depressive predominant polarity. ConclusionsIn light of genetic studies conducted in affective disorder patients, our findings may support the hypothesis of genetic risks factors common to affective disorders and dimensions of temperament, that may extend to comorbid conditions specifically associated with bipolar or unipolar illness.

Ambulatory Assessment.

In recent years, significant technological advances have changed our understanding of dynamic processes in clinical psychology. A particularly important agent of change has been ambulatory assessment (AA). AA is the assessment of individuals in their daily lives, combining the twin benefits of increased ecological validity and minimized retrospective biases. These benefits make AA particularly well-suited to the assessment of dynamic processes, and recent advancements in technology are providing exciting new opportunities to understand these processes in new ways. In the current article, we briefly detail the capabilities currently offered by smartphones and mobile physiological devices, as well as some of the practical and ethical challenges of incorporating these new technologies into AA research. We then provide several examples of recent innovative applications of AA methodology in clinical research, assessment, and intervention and provide a case example of AA data generated from a study utilizing multiple mobile devices. In this way, we aim to provide a sense of direction for researchers planning AA studies of their own.

Stakeholder management: a case of its related capability and performance

Purpose– A central claim of stakeholder theory is that the purpose of business is to create value for various stakeholders. However, managing diverse interests of stakeholders can be challenging in a business environment entrenched with different value systems. Lacking of qualitative narratives and complicated nature of corporate governance perhaps have impeded the stakeholder theory to become a major theory of strategic management and organizational ethics on its own. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the strategic values of stakeholder management.Design/methodology/approach– Three stakeholder management case studies, taken in the context of a large corporatized public organization, were conducted in attempting to amplify the underpinning theories of stakeholder identified by Laplumeet al.(2008). Tape-recorded semi-structured interviews were transcribed into texts. To reduce retrospective bias, some typical secondary records were examined.Findings– Stakeholder management can be a core competence that draws resource capabilities throughout a firm for generating desirable triple bottom line results, which also eases the tensions between shareholders and stakeholders of the firm.Research limitations/implications– Stakeholder management is an organizational mechanism tightly embedded in the firms’ strategic organizing and strategizing routines. It is vital for generating desirable triple bottom line results. This conjures up potential linkages between the stakeholder theory and the resource-based view (RBV) theory as pursuing stakeholder management can be a hard-to-emulate strategic asset within the framework of the RBV theory.Originality/value– There is relatively scant literature that pays attention on amplifying stakeholder management theory in the public sector organizations. Through the unlocking of some valuable public sector data sets, this research can make a positive contribution in the areas.

An implicit ambivalence-indifference dimension of childbearing desires in the National Survey of Family Growth

1. IntroductionIt is common in fertility surveys to collect data about the respondents' motivations and intentions regarding future childbearing. It is also common to collect data about the degree to which each of any previous pregnancies was intended and wanted. These data are collected in order to inform fertility forecasts, as well as to provide information about the family planning status of births in the population of interest. Because of society's special concern with preventing the individual and family suffering associated with pregnancies that are not wanted, considerable attention has been devoted to understanding their antecedents and social contexts.In recent years it has become clear that there are two different approaches to determining when a is unwanted. One approach asks respondents whether they wanted to have a baby before the occurred, thereby defining an in terms of their preconception desires. This approach is well represented by the National Survey of Family Growth's (NSFG's) series of questions about intended, mistimed, and pregnancy, where these three constructs all reflect preconception phenomena (London, Peterson, and Piccinino 1995). The other approach asks the respondents what they wanted and felt after the had occurred, thereby defining an in terms of their postconception desires and feelings. This approach is well represented by Miller's (1974, 1994a) series of questions about a pregnancy's intendedness and wantedness, where intendedness reflects the amount of intention that went into the respondent getting pregnant and wantedness reflects the degree of motivational and emotional acceptance or rejection of being pregnant. Numerous other researchers have adopted the postconception approach as well (for example, Adler 1992; Sable and Herman 1997; Blake et al. 2007; East, Chen, and Barber 2012). While in many cases there is little or no difference in the assessment of wantedness between the two approaches, in others, especially when preconception desires are weak, conflicted, and/or largely unconscious but the is welcomed, the difference may be appreciable. This discrepancy raises the question of how the two assessments of wantedness are related to each other. In addition, because both of these assessments are commonly made after the pregnancy, and in most cases after the birth has occurred, the question of retrospective bias is also raised.In previous research, Miller and Jones (2009) used data from the NSFG to test a multivariate model of the relationship between women's preconception desires for a (reported within four years of conception) and their postconception wantedness of that pregnancy. Their analysis showed that preconception desires were the primary predictor of postconception wantedness and completely eliminated preconception intentions from the prediction regression in the general model, as well as in a number of the context specific models. These authors questioned whether retrospective bias may have contributed to this predictive strength. However, they found that inclusion of a time-since-the-pregnancy variable as a moderator in the analysis showed that the length of retrospection had no effect on the predictive strength of preconception desires in their models, leading the authors to conclude that whatever retrospective bias was present, it did not invalidate their findings.Miller and Jones (2009) also discussed how the meaning of the construct of unwanted pregnancy had evolved during the twentieth century. In the first four decades of that period when Margaret Sanger and others in the nascent family planning movement were struggling to legalize birth control and make it available to the poor, the construct had its postconception meaning. During the next six decades the construct progressively assumed its preconception meaning as demographers progressively focused first on predicting family size, then on the determinants of both the number and timing of births, and finally settled on the three category preconception measure with the launching of the NSFG. …

Affective instability, childhood trauma and major affective disorders

BackgroundAffective instability (AI), childhood trauma, and mental illness are linked, but evidence in affective disorders is limited, despite both AI and childhood trauma being associated with poorer outcomes. Aims were to compare AI levels in bipolar disorder I (BPI) and II (BPII), and major depressive disorder recurrent (MDDR), and to examine the association of AI and childhood trauma within each diagnostic group. MethodsAI, measured using the Affective Lability Scale (ALS), was compared between people with DSM-IV BPI (n=923), BPII (n=363) and MDDR (n=207) accounting for confounders and current mood. Regression modelling was used to examine the association between AI and childhood traumas in each diagnostic group. ResultsALS scores in descending order were BPII, BPI, MDDR, and differences between groups were significant (p<0.05). Within the BPI group any childhood abuse (p=0.021), childhood physical abuse (p=0.003) and the death of a close friend in childhood (p=0.002) were significantly associated with higher ALS score but no association was found between childhood trauma and AI in BPII and MDDR. LimitationsThe ALS is a self-report scale and is subject to retrospective recall bias. ConclusionsAI is an important dimension in bipolar disorder independent of current mood state. There is a strong link between childhood traumatic events and AI levels in BPI and this may be one way in which exposure and disorder are linked. Clinical interventions targeting AI in people who have suffered significant childhood trauma could potentially change the clinical course of bipolar disorder.

The Promises and Challenges of Ecological Momentary Assessment in Schizophrenia: Development of an Initial Experimental Protocol.

Severe mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and other psychotic-spectrum disorders, are a major cause of disability worldwide. Although efficacious pharmacological and psychosocial interventions have been developed for treating patients with schizophrenia, relapse rates are high and long-term recovery remains elusive for many individuals. Furthermore, little is still known about the underlying mechanisms of these illnesses. Thus, there is an urgent need to better understand the contextual factors that contribute to psychosis so that they can be better targeted in future interventions. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a dynamic procedure that permits the measurement of variables in natural settings in real-time through the use of brief assessments delivered via mobile electronic devices (i.e., smartphones). One advantage of EMA is that it is less subject to retrospective memory biases and highly sensitive to fluctuating environmental factors. In the current article, we describe the research-to-date using EMA to better understand fluctuating symptoms and functioning in patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and potential applications to treatment. In addition, we describe a novel EMA protocol that we have been employing to study the outcomes of patients with schizophrenia following a hospital discharge. We also report the lessons we have learned thus far using EMA methods in this challenging clinical population.

Compliance to Cell Phone-Based EMA Among Latino Youth in Outpatient Treatment

Outpatient treatment practices for adolescent substance users utilize retrospective self-report to monitor drug use. Cell phone-based ecological momentary assessment (CEMA) overcomes retrospective self-report biases and can enhance outpatient treatment, particularly among Latino adolescents, who have been understudied with regard to CEMA. This study explores compliance to text message-based CEMA with youth (n = 28; 93% Latino) in outpatient treatment. Participants were rotated through daily, random, and event-based CEMA strategies for 1-month periods. Overall compliance was high (>80%). Compliance decreased slightly over the study period and was less during random versus daily strategies and on days when alcohol use was retrospectively reported. Findings suggest that CEMA is a viable monitoring tool for Latino youth in outpatient treatment, but further study is needed to determine optimal CEMA strategies, monitoring time periods, and the appropriateness of CEMA for differing levels of substance use.

Pigmented purpuric dermatosis: clinicopathologic characterization in a pediatric series.

Pigmentary purpuras (PPs) are a group of chronic disorders of unknown origin seldom described in children. With this study we sought to better characterize PP eruptions, including clinical evolution and management. A retrospective chart review from 2003 to 2013 querying characteristics of children with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of PP in the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ste-Justine dermatology clinic (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) was performed. Follow-up was obtained through telephone interviews. Descriptive statistical analysis was used. Of the 17 subjects, 8 were male and the mean age of onset was 9 years. PP was asymptomatic in 11 patients, pruritic in 3, and of cosmetic concern in 3. Schamberg's disease was the most frequent subtype in 12 cases. Resolution of PP was found in 13 cases with a median duration of less than 1 year (range 6 months-9 years). Five patients experienced spontaneous clearing without treatment, and improvement was observed in 75% of cases treated with topical corticosteroids and 100% with narrowband ultraviolet B (nbUVB). No associated disease, significant drug exposure, or contact allergens were found. Those findings support that PPs in children are idiopathic, chronic eruptions that can benefit from watchful waiting, although topical corticosteroids or nbUVB are may be useful if the patient or family desires faster resolution. This study was limited by its small size, its retrospective nature, and selection and recall bias.

Development and Validation of the Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI).

Trait affect scales have been a mainstay of the assessment literature for more than 50 years. These scales have demonstrated impressive construct validity, including substantial relations with personality, satisfaction, and psychopathology. However, the accumulating evidence has exposed several limitations, including (a) problems associated with retrospective biases, (b) lower temporal stability because of enhanced susceptibility to transient error, and (c) reduced self-other agreement. These limitations motivated the creation of the Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI), which uses a traditional personality format (i.e., full sentences rather than single words or short phrases). The 12 TAI scales were created based on factor analyses in two samples and validated in four additional samples. The scales are internally consistent, highly stable over time, and show strong convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity in relation to self-report and interview-based measures of personality and psychopathology. Thus, the TAI provides a promising new approach to assessing trait affectivity.

Relation of project managers' personality and project performance: An approach based on value stream mapping

Purpose: This work investigates the influence of project managers’ personality on the success of a project in a Multinational Corporation. The methodology proposed for analyzing the project managers’ personality is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Design/methodology/approach: Forty projects carried out in 2012 by multinational corporation, concerning new product development (NPD), have been analyzed, comparing the profile of project managers with results obtained in terms of traditional performance indexes (time delay and over-budget of projects) and performance indexes usually used in “Lean Production” sector (waste time and type of “wastes”). A detailed analysis of the most important “wastes” during the project development is carried out using the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) technique. Findings and Originality/value: Relying on the Myers–Briggs personality instrument, results show that extroverted managers (as opposed to introverted managers) carry out projects that show lower delay and lower waste time. Introverted managers often make “Over-processing” and “Defect” types of waste. Moreover, lower delay and over-budget have been shown by perceiving managers. Research limitations: Regarding the limitations of this work it is necessary to highlight that we collected data from project managers in a retrospective way. While we believe that several aspects of our data collection effort helped enhance the accuracy of the results, future research could conduct real-time case study research to get more detailed insights into the proposed relationships and avoid retrospective bias. Moreover we focused on a single respondent, the project manager. This helped us ensure that their interpretations played an important role in product development. But, we cannot examined the opinion of team members that could be different from project managers opinion regarding some questions. Originality/value: This research provides insight useful to develop proactive approaches to prevent project failures, including the creation of more effective messages and methods to help companies to make the best choices during managers´ hiring. Moreover this research would allow organizations to better match the short-term organizational needs with appropriate personality types.

Reoperation for recurrent high-grade glioma: a current perspective of the literature.

Optimal treatment for recurrent high-grade glioma continues to evolve. Currently, however, there is no consensus in the literature on the role of reoperation in the management of these patients. In this analysis, we reviewed the literature to examine the role of reoperation in patients with World Health Organization grade III or IV recurrent gliomas, focusing on how reoperation affects outcome, perioperative complications, and quality of life. An extensive literature review was performed through the use of the PubMed and Ovid Medline databases for January 1980 through August 2013. A total 31 studies were included in the final analysis. Of the 31 studies with significant data from single or multiple institutions, 29 demonstrated a survival benefit or improved functional status after reoperation for recurrent high-grade glioma. Indications for reoperation included new focal neurological deficits, tumor mass effect, signs of elevated intracranial pressure, headaches, increased seizure frequency, and radiographic evidence of tumor progression. Age was not a contraindication to reoperation. Time interval of at least 6 months between operations and favorable performance status (Karnofsky Performance Status score ≥70) were important predictors of benefit from reoperation. Extent of resection at reoperation improved survival, even in patients with subtotal resection at initial operation. Careful patient selection such as avoiding those individuals with poor performance status and bevacizumab within 4 weeks of surgery is important. Although limited to retrospective analysis and patient selection bias, mounting evidence suggests a survival benefit in patients receiving a reoperation at the time of high-grade glioma recurrence.

Patient expectations of acupuncture in pregnancy.

Background:Expectations for treatment have been associated with outcomes. Expectations in acupuncture treatment have rarely been addressed, and due to the unique concerns of pregnancy and childbirth, obstetric patients merit special attention.Primary Study Objective:Assess treatment expectations of acupuncture clinic patients treated for obstetric and related concerns.Methods/Design:Descriptive follow-up involving a patient-completed survey; chief treatment concern and number of treatment sessions were validated against patient records.Participants:Of 265 former clinic patients, 137 (51.7%) completed the internet survey.Main Outcome Measures:Self-reported demographic variables; responses to open-ended questions on treatment expectations; general treatment variables.Results:Using standard qualitative data analytic strategies, we identified five major treatment expectations, for example, affecting labor and delivery, benefiting the whole system, and treating specific symptoms.Limitations:Retrospective method and recall bias may have influenced reported expectations.Conclusion:Obstetric acupuncture patients' expectations overlap with other subgroups in terms of symptom treatment. They also indicate a distinct interest in taking an active role in childbirth and in replacing conventional interventions, warranting further inquiry into obstetric acupuncture effects and safety in childbearing women.

Association of the 3′ region of the neuregulin 1 gene with bipolar I disorder in the Chinese Han population

BackgroundBased on the function of neuregulin 1 (NRG1) in neurodevelopment, susceptibility to bipolar disorder presumably involves this gene. The 3′ region of NRG1 contains the majority of the coding exons, and transcripts from this region encode 8 of the 9 known NRG1 isoforms; therefore, this region is likely to be predominant versus the 5′ region in terms of their relative contributions to NRG1 function. We investigated the association between the 3′ region of the NRG1 gene and bipolar I disorder (BPI) in the Chinese Han population and performed further analyses depending on the presence or absence of psychotic features. MethodsA total of 385 BPI patients and 475 healthy controls were recruited for this study. Thirty tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the 3′ region of the NRG1 gene were genotyped for allelic and haplotypic associations with BPI and subgroups with psychotic features (BPI-P) or without psychotic features (BPI-NP). ResultsIndividual marker analysis showed that 2 SNPs (rs12547858 and rs6468121) in this region were significantly associated with BPI. Moreover, subgroup analyses showed significant but marginal associations of rs6468121 with BPI-P and rs3757933 with BPI-NP. Haplotype analyses showed that 6 haplotypes were associated with BPI only. LimitationsThe sample size was relatively small. The investigated tag SNPs only represented 83% of the information on the targeted region. There might be a retrospective bias in the subgroup analyses. ConclusionThe results suggest that the 3′ region of the NRG1 gene plays a role in BPI susceptibility in the Chinese Han population. In addition, the preliminary results show that BPI with psychotic features and BPI without psychotic features may constitute different sub-phenotypes; however, this finding should be confirmed in a larger population sample.

The application of Experience Sampling Methodology for the study of individual differences in real life

There is a growing interest in the study of individual differences and psychopathology in real life. The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) is a structured dairy method in which participants are prompted at random intervals to report their thoughts, feelings, symptoms, as well as contextual factors (e.g., company) and their appraisal of the context. ESM offers several powerful advantages to traditional assessment procedures: (1) ecological validity, (2) minimizes retrospective bias because the assessment is in the moment, (3) allows for the study of the interaction with contextual factors and variation over time and dynamic processes. The novel studies presented in this proposal have used ESM in young adults to study the experience and expression in daily life of schizotypy, affective temperaments, attachment styles, and trait paranoia. They supported the ecological validity of these psychological dimensions and unraveled both internal and contextual determinants of their variability in the flow of daily life.

Ethics of error disclosure: When to say, “I'm sorry”

Ethics of error disclosure: When to say, “I'm sorry”

How do you feel now? On the perceptual distortion of extremely recent changes in anger

Previous research on retrospective biases in emotion has been largely concerned with mistakes that are made when people are asked to recall temporally distant affective experiences (e.g. those that occurred weeks or months ago). However, far less is known about people's abilities to accurately track extremely recent shifts in affective experience. Across three experiments, we show that people consistently distort perception of a very recent change in anger after being reminded of a historical act of revenge (i.e. the assassination of Osama bin Laden). Consistent with the implications of the “revenge paradox” (Carlsmith, Wilson, & Gilbert, 2008) these reminders made participants more angry. However, participants believed that this act of revenge had made them less angry—the exact opposite of what happened—provided that their psychological allegiance to the ingroup had been primed. We discuss the implications of our findings in previous research on the interconnections between emotional experience and social categorization processes (Mackie, Maimer, & Smith, 2009), as well as the role of revenge in protecting the interests of the ingroup (Fehr & Gachter, 2002).

Ambulatory Assessment in Neuropsychology

Neuropsychological disorders involve a variety of symptoms that often lead to substantial functional impairments in daily life. Research, assessment, and treatment should include a reference to daily life, considering symptoms, personality, and life circumstances of the individual patient. Ambulatory assessment methodology provides progress by avoiding retrospective memory-based bias, increasing ecological validity, and by generating individual time series that permit idiographic analysis. Using multiple sclerosis as an example, we illustrate new findings generated by ambulatory assessment studies in the areas of fatigue, stress and cognitive functions, and we demonstrate future opportunities presented by ambulatory assessment methodology to research and clinical practice with multiple sclerosis patients.