Sources Of Error In Assessment Research Articles

Improving the quality of potentiometric pH measurements

Like all experimentally determined physical and chemical properties, pH measurements are affected by the limited precision and accuracy of the measurement procedures. Fundamental studies of pH standards, based on measurement of the potential of an electrochemical cell without transference, known as the Harned cell, containing a platinum–hydrogen electrode and a silver–silver chloride reference electrode, indicate that vapour condensation phenomena on potentiometric cell walls not immersed in the thermostatic bath are a major source of error in assessment of pH values. In this work a study was conducted on phthalate buffer, 0.05 mol kg−1 KHPhth, and results are reported for the effect of this phenomenon on the assignment of pH values and on their corresponding uncertainties. Identification and quantification of this effect constitute an original contribution to improvement of the primary method of pH measurement and, therefore, more rigorous pH (PS) values.

Controversies and challenges of ritual abuse.

Children who have survived ritual abuse have endured physical, psychological, and sexual trauma; brain-washing; and mind-altering drugs. Their trust in adults has been eroded. Their coping strategies include anxiety, denial, self-hypnosis, dissociation, and self-mutilation. Although reports of ritual abuse initially seem hard to believe, nurses have a responsibility to detect clues to abuse, diagnose the child's responses, and recognize controversial issues regarding ritual abuse. To evaluate ritual abuse, nurses should avoid interview strategies that influence the child's recall (e.g., coaching, suggestions) and recognize that some reports are discounted as false memories because they emerge from fantasy, distortions, innocent deceptions, false beliefs, lies, or adult coaching. Nurses play an important role in case finding and treatment. They can evaluate clues to ritual abuse to reduce sources of error in assessment, build a child's trust, monitor their own attitudes toward ritual abuse, and intervene to increase self-esteem, empathy, boundary establishment, and coping. Nurses have an important opportunity to detect and begin healing the wounds caused by a child's abuse.