Three year retrospective analysis of computer-assisted emergency dental triage in Tasmania, Australia.

INTRODUCTION: Tasmania is Australia's smallest state measuring approximately 68,000 km2 and separated (by approximately 240 km of ocean) from the mainland of Australia, at the south-east corner of the continent. The total resident population of Tasmania is approximately 500,000 people with the greatest population density in the capital city, Hobart. Adult dental care is subsidised for socioeconomically disadvantaged people and are provided through the State government dental clinics. Emergency demand for adult dental care is rationed through a triage system (mainly by telephone contact with trained receptionists), applied across the State based on universal clinically agreed criteria. The aim of this study was to analyse the outcomes of this triage system in delivering effective public emergency dental care services in Tasmania. METHODS: The study population consisted of all patients who approached the dental services in Tasmania for emergency care over a period of 3 years. The data were collected from all four major fixed public dental clinics for the calendar years 2009, 2010 and 2011. RESULTS: A total of 56,298 triage events were analysed over the 3 years (2009-2011) of the study. The proportion of each triage outcome category (ie speed to needing to be seen) was stable. Regarding month-to-month variation, December had the lowest overall number of events (n=3921) and August had the greatest (n=5237). There was a tendency mid-year (winter in the southern hemisphere) for triage events to be above the baseline, while in summer (December to February) there were fewer events. Most triage events occurred on the first day of the working week (Monday), and the least occurred on Fridays. Over half the events were driven from two patient symptom sets: (1) pain that woke patients at night; and (2) pain that required analgesics. CONCLUSION: In order to deal with the current workforce shortage and funding constraints in the public health sector, the peri-operative workforce such as receptionists can be utilized in innovative ways such as triage, and in particular clinical-based systematic telephone-based assistance.

Remote and automated high-throughput powder diffraction measurements enabled by a robotic sample changer at SSRL beamline 2-1.

The general-purpose powder diffractometer beamline (BL2-1) at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is described. The evolution of design and performance of BL2-1 are presented, in addition to current operating specifications, applications and measurement capabilities. Recent developments involve a robotic sample changer enabling high-throughput X-ray diffraction measurements, applicable to mail-in and remote operations. In situ and operando capabilities to measure samples with different form factors (e.g. capillary, flat plate or thin film, and transmission) and under variable experimental conditions are discussed. Several example datasets and accompanying Rietveld refinements are presented.

Visual information processing speed in hypnotized and nonhypnotized subjects.

Using a backward-masking paradigm with a bias-free and ceiling-free psychophysical task, we tested hypnotized and control subjects for speed of visual information processing. Approximately half of each group received visual imagery suggestions in an attempt to influence attention. Imagery produced no significant differential effect. Although an absence of a hypnotizability-performance relationship was in keeping with findings of a previous study, those subjects in the present study who performed under hypnosis were, as a group, significantly superior to the other subjects in speed of information processing.

Persistence of the effects of choice on paired-associate learning.

Four experiments are reported in which half of the subjects were permitted to choose either the stimulus or response members of S-R pairs from groupings of alternative stimuli or responses following the procedures of Perlmuter, Monty, and Kimble. The other subjects were exposed to the materials and were forced to learn the material chosen by their yoked partners. Approximately 24 h later, both groups learned PA lists comprised of either the chosen or forced material. Choosing either the stimulus or the response facilitated performance irrespective of whether the other member of the S-R pair was present at the time of choosing. This finding ruled out an associative hookup interpretation in favor of a purely motivational hypothesis and demonstrated the temporal durability of the effect of choosing.

Visual recognition memory for binary pictures: another look.

Recognition memory for matrices of 0s and 1s was examined as a function of the number of elements (complexity) and density of those elements within the matrix. It was found that with greater density and lesser complexity, recognition performance improved. This result contradicts an earlier finding of Green and Purohit, who concluded that the more complicated matrices led to better performance. The present study suggests that their conclusion was erroneous and stemmed from failure to control the physical parameters of density and number of elements in the matrix. Implications for the general problem of recognition memory and eye movements are discussed.

The effect of set on encoding and rehearsal processes in memory.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating S's preparation for what he will see on a given trial on his ability to mentally keep track of the number of occurrences of each of several different stimuli in a sequence. It was found that, when the same stimuli were used from trial to trial, performance was significantly better than when different stimuli were used. Foreknowledge of the specific stimuli to be used on a given trial did little to improve performance per se, but it did reduce labeling errors. The results were discussed in terms of the "spatial window" model of keeping-track performance.