Strategies That Facilitate Extraction-Free SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented global demand for in vitro diagnostic reagents. Supply shortages and hoarding have impacted testing capacity which has led to inefficient COVID-19 case identification and transmission control, predominantly in developing countries. Traditionally, RNA extraction is a prerequisite for conducting SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT); however, simplified methods of sample processing have been successful at bypassing typical nucleic acid extraction steps, enabling extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 NAAT workflows. These methods involve chemical and physical approaches that are inexpensive and easily accessible alternatives to overcome extraction kit supply shortages, while offering acceptable test performance. Here we provide an overview of three main sample preparation strategies that have been shown to facilitate extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 NAATs.

Self-esteem depends on beliefs about the rate of change of social approval.

A major challenge in understanding the neurobiological basis of psychiatric disorders is rigorously quantifying subjective metrics that lie at the core of mental illness, such as low self-esteem. Self-esteem can be conceptualized as a 'gauge of social approval' that increases in response to approval and decreases in response to disapproval. Computational studies have shown that learning signals that represent the difference between received and expected social approval drive changes in self-esteem. However, it is unclear whether self-esteem based on social approval should be understood as a value updated through associative learning, or as a belief about approval, updated by new evidence depending on how strongly it is held. Our results show that belief-based models explain self-esteem dynamics in response to social evaluation better than associative learning models. Importantly, they suggest that in the short term, self-esteem signals the direction and rate of change of one's beliefs about approval within a group, rather than one's social position.

Point-of-Care Diagnostic Tools for Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Infections.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a recently emerged and highly contagious virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of August 24, 2021, there were more than 212 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 4.4 million deaths reported globally. Early diagnosis and isolation of infected individuals remains one of the most effective public health interventions to control SARS-CoV-2 spread and for effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases. Currently, SARS-CoV-2 infection is diagnosed presumptively based on clinical symptoms and confirmed by detecting the viral RNA in respiratory samples using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Standard RT-PCR protocols are time consuming, expensive, and technically demanding, which makes them a poor choice for large scale and point-of-care screening in resource-poor settings. Recently developed isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (iNAAT), antigen and/or serological tests are cost-effective to scale COVID-19 testing at the point-of-care (PoC) and for surveillance activities. This review discusses the development of rapid PoC molecular tools for the detection and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Testing the primary and convergent retrieval model of recall: Recall practice produces faster recall success but also faster recall failure.

The primary and convergent retrieval (PCR) model assumes that the act of successful recall not only boosts associations between the item and retrieval cues but additionally strengthens associations within the item (i.e., between the features of an item), speeding the rate of information retrieval from memory. The latter effect is termed intra-item learning and is a unique benefit of recall practice (i.e., the "testing effect"). Prior work confirmed the prediction that recall practice produces faster subsequent recall than restudy practice even if accuracy is higher following restudy. The current study replicated this result, but also examined the downside of recall practice: that after a failure to recall during practice, participants will be faster in their failure to recall on a subsequent recall test. This prediction was confirmed in a multisession cued recall experiment that collected accuracy and recall latency measurements for no practice, recall practice, or restudy, with an immediate or delayed final test. The linear ballistic accumulator model was fit to latency distributions, and model comparison determined that these effects reflect differences in drift rates, as predicted by the PCR model.

Video-Based Patient Education Improves Patient Attitudes Toward Resident Participation in Outpatient Surgical Care.

OBJECTIVE: Decipher if patient attitudes toward resident participation in surgical care can be improved with patient education using a video-based modality. DESIGN: A survey using a 5-pt Likert scale was created, piloted, and distributed in general and colorectal surgery outpatient clinics that had residents involved with patient care at 2 facilities, both with control and intervention groups. The intervention group viewed a short video (∼4 min) explaining the role, education, and responsibilities of medical students, residents, and attending surgeons prior to answering the survey. SETTING: General and colorectal surgery outpatient clinics at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, Texas. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 383 responses were collected, all clinic patients were eligible. RESULTS: The majority of patients (82%) welcomed resident participation in their health care. Eighteen percent of patients did not expect residents to be involved in their care. Patients had favorable views of residents participating during their surgical procedures with 77% responding "agree" or "strongly agree" to a senior resident assisting with a complicated procedure. Patients who viewed the video versus control were less concerned with how much of the procedure the resident would perform (76% vs 86%, p = 0.010). Patients who viewed the video felt less inconvenienced (p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients are welcoming to resident participation in their surgical care but only 54% were expecting resident involvement at their clinic visit. Early explanation with an educational video of resident roles, education, and responsibilities may help bridge the gap and improve patient experience.

Measuring sexual dimorphism with a race-gender face space.

Faces are complex visual objects, and faces chosen to vary in 1 regard may unintentionally vary in other ways, particularly if the correlation is a property of the population of faces. Here, we present an example of a correlation that arises from differences in the degree of sexual dimorphism. In Experiment 1, paired similarity ratings were collected for a set of 40 real face images chosen to vary in terms of gender and race (Asian vs. White). Multidimensional scaling (MDS) placed these stimuli in a "face space," with different attributes corresponding to different dimensions. Gender was found to vary more for White faces, resulting in a negative or positive correlation between gender and race when only considering male or only considering female faces. This increased sexual dimorphism for White faces may provide an alternative explanation for differences in face processing between White and Asian faces (e.g., the own-race bias, face attractiveness biases, etc.). Studies of face processing that are unconfounded by this difference in the degree of sexual dimorphism require stimuli that are decorrelated in terms of race and gender. Decorrelated faces were created using a morphing technique, spacing the morphs uniformly around a ring in the 2-dimensional (2D) race-gender plane. In Experiment 2, paired similarity ratings confirmed the 2D positions of the morph faces. In Experiment 3, race and gender category judgments varied uniformly for these decorrelated stimuli. Our results and stimuli should prove useful for studying sexual dimorphism and for the study of face processing more generally.

Common breaks in sterile technique: clinical perspectives and perioperative implications.

Prevention of health care-associated infections, specifically surgical site infections, is a fundamental responsibility of the perioperative team. Breaks in sterile technique can and do occur, even for the most conscientious perioperative practitioners. Surgical site infections are associated with unnecessary patient pain and suffering and increased lengths of hospital stay and health care costs. Prevention of surgical site infections, therefore, takes on great significance in today's dynamic health care environment. Key responsibilities of perioperative nurses are to recognize and correct common breaks in sterile technique that are made in preparation for and during a surgical procedure and to implement methods to prevent future occurrences.