Attention control procedures

Moerman s concept of the meaning effect shows the futility of trying to control for the placebo effect in studies of psychotherapy. Nevertheless, researchers have devised a number of procedures that are intended to do just that. Most commonly, these are referred to as attention control procedures. Their specific components vary greatly. In fact, some of the interventions that have been used as attention-control or placebo procedures have also been evaluated as bona-fide psychotherapies. What they have in common is that they are all supposed to control for the effects of being given attention and treatment by a clinician, which is a component of the placebo effect in medicine. These attention-control procedures differ in their effec-... 

Physical exercise as a treatment for clinical depression has not been studied as extensively as dmgs or psychotherapy, but there are a number of clinical trials evaluating its effectiveness.41 In some of these studies, exercise was compared to no treatment at all. In others, it was compared to psychotherapy, medication or attention-control procedures intended to control for the nonspecific placebo aspects of the exercise programme. Some of the trials also looked at the combination of physical exercise with... 

The change control SOP warrants particular attention. This procedure should clearly spell out how any deviations in instrument operation/per-formance, and hardware/firmware/software updates are to be handled and documented. It should also make clear what distinguishes routine maintenance, minor vs. major changes and what the procedural differences should be. The change control procedure may be a specific SOP, as part of an HPLC system s validation plan, or as part of the corporate validation master plan (VMP) that is established within each company. 

Even once a method is standardized, erroneous results can still be generated. As a result, it is critical to have robust quality control procedures in place. Here, careful attention should be paid to identify opportunity for in-process control measures such as internal standards, calibration, control plates, replicates and so on as opposed to post-processing data review steps. Inline QC approaches allow sources of error to be identified and remedied much more rapidly and help limit costly re-tests, or the possibility of erroneous data leaving the laboratory. 

Ideally, reference ranges consist of biomonitoring values developed according to scientifically rigorous study design and quality-control procedures (see Chapter 4). The utility of reference ranges depends on attention to reference populations and data quality. 

Here the discussion focuses on the analytical procedure adopted to determine trace metals concentration in sea water in the dissolved phase. Particular attention will be given to the procedures preceding the analytical measurement (sampling, sample treatment and storage), the analytieal determination of total concentration by DPASV and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Speetrometry (ICP-MS) the contamination control procedure will also be discussed. The direct DPASV procedure for determining metal complexation in sea water is reported in detail and after a discussion of theoretical aspects an outline of the experimental procedure is presented. Finally, an overview of the distribution in the Southern Ocean of some metals of particular interest is examined and the evaluation of traee metals distribution is carried out also by comparison with results obtained in different geographical areas. 

To support their high standards, sterile products require the greatest attention to detail in the quality of design stage, the highest quality standards and most effective quality assurance and quality control procedures. The fact that the seal is usually based on rubber means that the effectiveness and integrity of the total closure system has to be evaluated at several phases of the product shelf life, i.e. 

The analytical methods used in Australia have been described by Wood (51), Stoloff and Lee (44) gave methods used in studying 73 samples of national stockpile agar. Methods for gel strength determination have been somewhat improved (2, 32, 42, 43) by both stress-strain and threshold concentration methods. The estimation of metabolically important impurities is a matter of routine in one plant (2), as are control procedures applied to raw material and process operations. The detection of agar in mixtures has had little attention since 1939 (19, 20). 

For intermediates or bulk drugs made by contractors, the same approach embodied by the above recommendations should be sought in their operations, with particular attention to their observance of sound change control procedures and drug master file maintenance. 

However, careful attention must be given to calibration and quality control procedures. Limited data on blood lead-ZPP correlations and the ZPP levels which are associated with the adverse health effects discussed in Section 2 are the major limitations of the test. Also it is difficult to correlate ZPP levels with environmental exposure and there is some variation of response with age and sex. Nevertheless, the ZPP promises to be an important diagnostic test for the early detection of lead toxicity and its value will increase as more data is collected regarding its relationship to other manifestations of lead poisoning. 

The usability of the calibration depends on the type of instrument and can last for a period of up to several days or weeks. All tuning parameters, in particular the adjustment of the ion source, affect the calibration as described above. In particular the analyzer scan speed has a strong impact on the mass calibration with many instruments. Special attention should also be paid to a constant temperature of the ion source. Regular mass calibration using analysis conditions is recommended to comply with the lab internal QA/QC (quality assurance/quality control) procedures. 

Structural control of seismically excited buildings and other civil structures has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The objective of this entry is to present how seismic design of structures can benefit from the structural control concepts and applications. For this purpose, control theory as applied in other engineering disciplines is adjusted and appropriately modified, where needed, in order to propose integrated control procedures suitable for civil structures subjected to earthquake excitation. 

Attention should be given to specific nuclear materials accountancy and control procedures necessary to facilitate routine safeguards inspection activities. These will include ... 

Attention should be paid to the sufficiency of the study with respect to determining significance and assessing ha2ard, eg, whether the number of control and test animals is sufficient to allow detection of biological variabiUty in response and for comparative statistical procedures. 

Auxiliary air cupboards have many problems, most of which have been reported in the literature. A main problem that does not receive much attention is coordination of the flow into the opening controlled by the exhaust with the supply flow directed down immediately above the opening. This includes the complex and simultaneous relationships between velocities, flow rates, flow widths, flow directions, flow stability, turbulence, and temperatures. To this should be added the same problems that exist for normal fume cupboards, such as necessary exhaust flow rate and velocity, flow pattern inside the cupboard, working procedures, and the influence of people on the flow pattern outside and into the opening. The auxiliary air outlet may also be a source of noise. 

Methods developed for on-line technological control have to be tested for the variation of the product composition due to process variations. However, if rugged analytical procedures are developed these multidimensional methods may only require minimal attention during on-line operation. Multidimensional chromatography for the analysis of complex polymer and industrial samples offers chromatogra-phers high productivity and efficiency and is an excellent alternative to off-line methods. 

Corrosion tests provide the basis for the practical control of corrosion and therefore deserve a more exhaustive discussion than limitations of space will permit. A detailed description of all the procedures and devices that have been employed in corrosion studies in many countries will not be attempted. Instead, attention will be directed principally to underlying principles and to comments on the significance and limitations of the results of the test methods that are considered. Further details may be obtained from the references and from the comprehensive works by Champion and Ailor ... 

In the common method of electro-gravimetric analysis, a potential slightly in excess of the decomposition potential of the electrolyte under investigation is applied, and the electrolysis allowed to proceed without further attention, except perhaps occasionally to increase the applied potential to keep the current at approximately the same value. This procedure, termed constant-current electrolysis, is (as explained in Section 12.4) of limited value for the separation of mixtures of metallic ions. The separation of the components of a mixture where the decomposition potentials are not widely separated may be effected by the application of controlled cathode potential electrolysis. An auxiliary standard electrode (which may be a saturated calomel electrode with the tip of the salt bridge very close to the cathode or working electrode) is inserted in the... 

Despite the fact that the students do not consider lecture demonstrations as effective as active performance of experiments as discussed previously, there is often the case that during experimental work vital observations are obscured by powerful, but less important stimuli. In such cases, demonstrations, rather than individual laboratoiy work, may be the best procedure. In a demonstration, the teacher has control and can focus attention on the salient observations (Johnstone Shuaili, 2001) and demonstrations can also form the basis for providing a broader technique for assessment of learning (Bowen Phelps, 1997). 

Recursive procedures demand special attention to flow control and data structures. For instance, the flow control within the procedure must correctly handle an error, say missing file information or inconsistent data, that is discovered several iterations deep. Should the procedure break and return to the previous level only Should it force return to the level of the original invocation of the procedure Should it allow an interactive user a choice of supplying missing data, and if so, on any level of iteration If files are opened within the procedures, should they be closed when a recursive call is needed, or are new channel numbers to be requested, using up system resources ... 

In agribusiness and the food industry, management of quality is often assumed to be a rather controllable process. This may be illustrated by the great attention paid to the development and implementation of quality systems in the past decade. These quality systems are commonly based on procedures and control circles as mechanisms to control and assure quality. After implementation, however, it often appears in practice that the intended results are not obtained and exact reasons are not clear. ... 

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