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Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based intervention that has proved effective across diverse clinical contexts with clients ambivalent about and resistant to behavioral change. This article argues that the principles of MI can be successfully applied to law enforcement (LE) interviews with high-value detainees (HVDs; i.e., terrorist suspects). Although the forms of ambivalence and resistance may differ from those in clinical contexts, HVDs must make the decision whether to talk or not when they are interviewed. We argue there is likely ambivalence regarding this. We theorized that 4 MI-consistent (MI) skills may be useful for LE interviewers: reflective listening, summaries, rolling with resistance, and developing discrepancies. Using the Observing Rapport Based Interpersonal Techniques coding manual (Alison, Alison, Elntib, & Noone, 2012), we analyzed 804 tapes of LE interviews with 75 terrorism suspects in the United Kingdom. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that MI skills encouraged detainee engagement and subsequent information gain. It also revealed that any approach antithetical to MI had a profoundly negative impact on detainee engagement and subsequent information gain—potentially through creating reactance (a form of resistance based on motivations to regain a freedom when it is threatened). Overall, this research provides unique evidence for the use of specific skills and approaches that can increase or decrease HVD engagement and information provided. Public Significance Statement: This article provides empirical support for using a humane, respectful, and compassionate approach to interrogating high-value detainees (i.e., terrorist suspects) to encourage cooperation and disclosure of information. These findings have potential to improve methods of national security while promoting fair treatment of detainees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During suspect interviews, police will sometimes ask about hypothetical incriminating evidence to evoke a cue to deception – a technique known as a bait question. Previous research has demonstrated such questions can distort peoples' memory for what evidence exists in a case. Here, we investigate whether such memory distortion can also cause people to see the suspect as more likely to be guilty. Across three experiments, we find exposure to bait questions led to participants hold inflated views of a suspect's guilt. Further, we demonstrate bait questions cause reliable, robust memory distortion, leading participants to believe non-existent, incriminating evidence exists. However, we found no evidence to support the speculated mechanisms for this inflation – namely, (1) that source monitoring errors could lead people to misremember false evidence as real evidence and (2) that bait questions provide 'key evidence' to fill in the gaps of an incomplete theory of a case. In sum, bait questions have the problematic potential to shift jurors towards guilty verdicts. We suggest future research directions on bait questions, including the need for different designs to clarify why bait questions inflate guilt, and recommend practitioners avoid the use of bait questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the analysis of the reporting information of international organizations to counteract medical corruption, a review of modern scientific sources on corruption in the healthcare sector, the types of corruption abuses in the medical industry are identified. The classification of corruption abuses is presented taking into account the method of committing the offense and its subject - a certain worker of the medical field. It was found that there is insufficient coverage in world information sources of procedures for investigating corruption abuses in the medical industry. There are revealed features of the investigation of corruption abuses of medical workers committed with the use of their official position, using the preparation of medical documentation, and cases of extortion and obtaining unlawful benefits. There are presented sources for obtaining information and the types of data that are necessary to prosecute a medical worker who committed offences involving corruption. Among the complex of forensic methods for investigating medical corruption, the authors focused on the consideration of key and important for proof procedural actions - examination of medical documents; examination of the place where the medical professional was given of an undue benefit; the work of the accuser (informant) of medical corruption, his interrogation; simultaneous interrogation of participants in a corruption offense in the medical industry. There was proposed procedure and tactics for interrogating the accuser, who reports about obtaining unlawful benefit by a specific medical professional. Caveat has been identified that must be applied when conducting the simultaneous interrogation of two or more persons when investigating corruption in the medical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anos 90 is the property of Anos 90 and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Veritas Luris is the property of Lazarski University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

When confessions are entered into evidence in criminal courts, issues of coercion and voluntariness are important and often contested matters. Occasionally, defense attorneys proffer expert witnesses to testify about the coercive pressures of an interrogation and the risk of a false confession. Such testimony is often ruled inadmissible on the grounds that it does not inform the jury beyond its common knowledge. In our effort to test this judicial assumption about common knowledge, we surveyed jury-eligible laypeople (n = 67) and social scientists specializing in interrogation and confessions (n = 54) regarding their opinions about the coerciveness of prohibited interrogation tactics, maximization techniques, minimization techniques, and suspect risk factors and compared their ratings with a set of independent t tests. Laypeople gave lower ratings to the coerciveness of all sets of items representing interrogation techniques, and lower ratings to the vulnerabilities associated with suspect risk factors, as compared to social science experts. The disparities between laypeople's and experts' perceptions of coercion in interrogations demonstrate that such issues are not fully within the common knowledge of prospective jurors, and suggest the need to provide jurors with expert witness guidance when tasked with evaluating confession evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I have conducted several consultations and interviews with police officers (investigators, detectives, inspectors) pursuing criminal procedures, also with prosecutors, judges and attorneys (hereinafter: criminalists) on what they mean by tactical bluff. I understood, that some criminalists do not differentiate between colloquial bluff and tactical bluff, that can be the source of several mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peirce's semiotic characterization of abductive reasoning in the 1903 Syllabus and in its drafts is related to the interrogative mood of the conclusion of abductive reasoning, both in the light of the Syllabus and in that of Peirce's post-1903 analysis of abduction and speculative grammar. The relevant pages of the Syllabus also present two non-standard logical graphs that are new. We surmise their intended meaning and explain connections to the interrogative construal of abductive reasoning. These three aspects of abduction—its semiotic, speech-act theoretical, and graphical dimensions—are all epitomized on one single page of the Syllabus and its alternative drafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activities of terrorist movements like the Boko Haram and the Al-Shabab in recent times have dealt a hefty blow to the collective stability of the African continent and its multi-pronged socio-economic fortunes. The ensuing debacles and the varying inundating levels of ignominy and infamy wreaked on Africa by these groups have spontaneously elicited reactions from the global community over the years. Though steady progress has been made in this regard, the swinging and vacillating strategies of the sect to adopting unconventional mediums to carrying out domestic and transnational attacks leaves much to be desired. Relying on secondary data, this study undertakes a comparative analysis of the Boko Haram and Al-Shabab. Through a review of existing documents, this article argues in line with policy ramifications that, in as much as policy homogeneity may be essential, and perhaps a sine qua non-alternative to be relied on in the quest for the fight against these anti-social incendiary sects, there is still less fruitful outcome and therefore necessitates the need for further policy options. In conclusion, the research equally entreats a neck turn consideration of experimenting with individual countryspecific policy options as a way to fight terrorism, all within a much stronger broader international community framework. Until this is considered, terrorism may remain an albatross around the neck of Africa, and the international community whiles the fight becomes a façade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documented cases of innocent persons in the United States having confessed to crimes that they did not commit have become commonplace since the emergence of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing as a means for confirming a person's innocence or guilt. The risk of imprisoning any more innocent individuals on the basis of false confessions warrants a closer look at the contingencies that give rise to this kind of tragedy. Using Skinner's (1957, Verbal Behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall) and Palmer's (1991, "A Behavioral Interpretation of Memory," in L. J. Hayes & P. N. Chase [Eds.], Dialogues on Verbal Behavior [pp. 261–279], Reno, NV: Context Press) analyses of verbal behavior and memory, this article explores how verbal episodes between suspects and law enforcement can culminate in a false admission of guilt. In addition, to try to identify the variables that might lead to high rates of false confessions in the United States, this article examines some of the contingencies under which law enforcement investigations operate. Finally, we provide some recommendations for how the behavior analyst can fulfill the role of an expert witness, how to take into consideration a systemic and cultural perspective, and how to incorporate some technological safeguards and additional precautions when interacting with vulnerable populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has addressed the effectiveness of measures to control abuse of Chinese police power in the course of criminal investigations. The present research examined three sets of data from 90 wrongful conviction cases, responses of 557 lawyers to a survey questionnaire, and 125 adjudicative documents related to exclusion of illegal confessions to investigate the effectiveness in stemming police misconduct of the newly established exclusionary rule in China. The findings demonstrate that while the written exclusionary rule represents great progress in Chinese criminal procedure, Chinese police interrogations are still largely unrestrained in practice. Legislative, contextual, ideological, and political factors may account for the disparity between law and practice: first, the police are able to misinterpret vague legal norms so as to minimise the scope of the exclusionary rule; second, the police act in the context of a high burden of proof and poor evidence-collecting tools, which make the usually illegally-obtained confession indispensable; third, the criminal justice agencies are more ideologically tied to the notion of fighting against crime than to the value of due process of law, resulting in the reluctance to exclude illegally obtained evidence; and fourth, the underdeveloped political check-and-balance mechanism among the criminal justice agencies makes the review of police misconduct unrealistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that a comparable truth baseline (CTB) approach elicits more cues to deception and results in higher accuracy rates than a small talk baseline. Past research focused on laypeople's accuracy rates. We examined whether the CTB also has a positive effect on law enforcement personnel accuracy. In this study, 95 police officers judged 10 interviews, whereby half of the senders told the truth, and the other half lied about a mock undercover mission. Half of the interviews included only questioning about the event under investigation, whereas the other half also included questioning aimed at creating a CTB. Total and truth accuracy did not differ, but observers who watched interviews with a CTB obtained higher lie detection accuracy rates than those who watched interviews without the baseline questioning. Signal detection analyses showed that this effect could be attributed to a decreased response bias in the CTB condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though the anthology Jewish Names, often called the beginning of Czech alternative culture, was published in 1995, several central questions concerning this seminal collection from the early 1950s remain unclear: Who initiated it, when was it assembled, and what is its connection with the causa of the ‘Trotzkyites’ in Prague and later anti-semitic show trials? Answers can be found if one appreciates the pivotal role of Honza Krejcarová in this unique project. The article connects dots between Czech history during the Protectorate when young Honza witnessed her mother Milena Jesenská’s resistance activities, and the late 1940s of Stalinist Czechoslovakia when the State Security started surveilling and persecuting Krejcarová. Based on archival studies the article argues for the parallelism between secret service practices (interrogation, the revealing of names in the form of denunciation) and automatic surrealist writing techniques. Drawing on the example of the name of the Author it analyses the paratextual structure of the anthology connected to its literary models, mainly from France. Jewish Names is a rich collection of fictitious ‘Jewish’ pseudonyms attributed to real Czech writers, stressing the vulnerability of the literary intelligentsia, their mineurité. And it is this paratextual construction which can be considered as the most daring and auto-referential aspect of this illegal publishing project. The article reveals problematic aspects of the chosen path of pseudonymy and anonymity. Changing or omitting one’s name is a common trait of female biographies, complicating the attribution of authorship. The article shows how pseudonymy takes its toll on an existential, gender, political, and historical level — precluding until today the proper names from entering Czech literary history

Dans cet article, nous nous concentrons sur la politesse dans l’acte d’interrogation. En analysant les caractéristiques de l’interrogation en langue et culture vietnamiennes, tout en tenant compte des modèles de la politesse élaborés dans les domaines de pragmatique et de sociolinguistique, nous allons répondre aux questions fréquentes chez nos étudiants occidentaux (Français, Américains, Canadiens, Belges, entre autres) lors de l’apprentissage du vietnamien et lors des contacts avec des Vietnamiens : Ces derniers semblent-ils curieux ? Pourquoi posent-ils très souvent des questions privées sur l’âge, sur la famille, sur le travail et, parfois, sur les revenus ? Pourquoi utilisent-ils rarement des formules de politesse comme «S’il vous plaît», «Serait-il possible de…», « Pourriez-vous...» lors d’une requête ? A partir de cette analyse, l’article proposera des solutions quant à l’enseignement de la politesse dans un cours de vietnamien langue étrangère à un public francophone.

Depuis 2012, les récits fictifs ou métatextuels de l’écrivain français Philippe Djian témoignent d’une volonté d’abolir l’usage orthodoxe de la ponctuation. L’auteur pense que les signes épilinguistiques ont une force sémantique aussi importante que les mots et qu’ils sont porteurs d’une signification qui dépasse la logique syntaxique ou l’information tonale. Djian réifie cette conception en abolissant en 2012 dans le roman Love song, l’utilisation du point d’interrogation. Si ce signe était auparavant utilisé avec excès pour traduire l’incompréhension et l’incommunicabilité entre les individus, son absence ne semble pas représenter un refus d’interroger mais plutôt souligner une uniformité visuelle mimétique de l’uniformité sociale dénoncée par l’auteur. Par ailleurs, Djian pense que l’absence de point d’interrogation incite le lecteur à ne plus recevoir passivement le texte mais à le réinvestir de sens.

During the criminal procedure, the process of verification includes the reconstruction of past events for the sake of establishing the statement of facts. When it comes to exploring the events in the past, great significance can be attributed to personal evidence. In order to prevent the influencing of the interrogated person, many provisions of guarantee had been established in the criminal procedure. In such an interrogatory situation, the most difficult practical problem is how to word the question so that the interrogation would aim at the exploration of the mind of the witness or accused, and at the helping of the recalling of the memories. During the criminal procedure however, interrogation with the assistance of an interpreter could also result in the communication of the statements of the accused or the witness about their perceptions and original knowledge with modified contents. Another significant factor at interpreter-assisted interrogations is to avoid the will of either the interrogator or the interpreter being projected on the interrogated person, as that would threaten with the witness, the accused, or the interrogated person giving a confession that is different form their original content of consciousness.

An interrogation is essentially combative and high pressure, and therefore most often a negatively charged monologue of an interrogator trying to work a confession out of a subject. In the following, there should be removed from any ethical, effective investigative interviewing practice: interrogation, combative, pressure, monologue and confession. Effective, ethical investigative interviews should be conversational, non-combative and should not seek confessions as a primary objective. Pressuring subjects (including suspects, witnesses or victims) forces people to lie, go silent or to become uncooperative. Pressure and accusations trigger defensive responses. They also cause panic and fear which impacts a person’s cognitive ability to remember and even to communicate. How often people in shock are left stuttering or unable to form coherent sentences or to remember a question asked seconds earlier? Combine the intimidation of being questioned by police, the fear of going to jail and the humiliation of being judged badly by people in authority or by one’s family and friends, as well as fear of reprisals for informing on other criminals, and one easily ends up with “no comment” interviews or flat out lies. Forcing subjects to admit a version of events in order to overcome “no comment” responses or flat out lies leads to poor conviction rates and wrongful convictions. The alternative, which has proven highly effective when practiced within a well-defined, controlled process, is a managed conversation that relaxes a subject and provides an environment and communication framework that inspires an exchange.

The article is devoted to studying of psychological features of persons influencing the choice of tactics of interrogation of witnesses. In this study 70 students took part with incomplete higher education between the ages of 18 to 21 years. The experimental group consisted of 35 people with type external locus of control, a control group – 35 people with type internal locus of control. Was conducted a multifaceted study of the individual and identified groups of people with hysteroid, schizoid and psychasthenic personal orientation, which were selected ten theory-based, efficient tactic, allowing to improve the effectiveness of testimony. According to the results the efficiency of testimony depends on the type of locus of control, when the person has a internal locus control efficiency response without the use of tactics is significantly higher than in subjects with external type of locus of control. Were given ecommendations to improve the effectiveness of testimony to persons with internal and external locus of control in the process of interrogation depending on the personal profile.

Objective Patients with implanted cardiac devices may wait extended periods for interrogation in emergency departments (EDs). Our purpose was to determine if device interrogation could be done safely and faster by ED staff. Methods Prospective randomized, standard therapy controlled, trial of ED staff device interrogation vs. standard process (SP), with 30-day follow-up. Eligibility criteria: ED presentation with a self-report of a potential device related complaint, with signed informed consent. SP interrogation was by company representative or hospital employee. Results Of 60 patients, 42 (70%) were male, all were white, with a median (interquartile range) age of 71 (64 to 82) years. No patient was lost to follow up. Of all patients, 32 (53%) were enrolled during business hours. The overall median (interquartile range) ED vs. SP time to interrogation was 98.5 (40 to 260) vs. 166.5 (64 to 412) minutes (P=0.013). While ED and SP interrogation times were similar during business hours, 102 (59 to 138) vs. 105 (64 to 172) minutes (P=0.62), ED interrogation times were shorter vs. SP during non-business hours; 97 (60 to 126) vs. 225 (144 to 412) minutes, P=0.002, respectively. There was no difference in ED length of stay between the ED and SP interrogation, 249 (153 to 390) vs. 246 (143 to 333) minutes (P=0.71), regardless of time of presentation. No patient in any cohort suffered an unplanned medical contact or post-discharge adverse device related event. Conclusion ED staff cardiac device interrogations are faster, and with similar 30-day outcomes, as compared to SP.

Стаття присвячена дослідженню актуальної для сучасної правозастосовної практики проблеми, пов’язаної з забезпеченням прав та законних інтересів осіб під час їхнього допиту в режимі відеоконференції на стадії досудового розслідування. Проаналізовано положення чинного КПК України, які регламентують відмову підозрюваного від участі в цій слідчій (розшуковій) дії та виявлено їхні недоліки, що можуть перешкоджати реалізації права зазначеного учасника кримінального провадження не давати показання. На підставі доктринальних підходів та кримінального процесуального законодавства висловлено пропозицію щодо обов’язкового залучення для проведення допиту в режимі відеоконференції спеціаліста, оскільки відсутність цього учасника кримінального провадження потенційно здатна унеможливити проведення такого допиту.

Статья посвящена исследованию отдельных вопросов участия специалиста при проведении такого распространенного следственного (розыскного) действия, как допрос. Анализируются процессуальные нормы, регламентирующие участие специалиста в допросе. Раскрыты проблемные вопросы, связанные с участием специалиста в допросе.

The dialogue is considered as one of semiotic tools of stage text and the development of any stage speech requires the implement of this level, through its trainings, which appear via colors, tones and sounds. In Abdelkader ALLOULA's theatre, the dialogue is varied and do not follow any specific model, even if the narrative character constitutes its general framework, so that we notice it sometimes occupying more time and take the confidential conversation aspect , and other times we notice it in its ordinary aspect by meeting two wills, as it may come out totally of those forms.

This article reveals the interrogative aspect of speculation forms in Japanese and Korean, including the characteristics of -keyss-nya in Korean and darooka in Japanese. -keyss-nya and darooka by definition indicate meanings of both “speculation” and “interrogation”, and thus it is anticipated that the semantic characteristics of these forms will not differ significantly. However, one perceives many differences when examining the semantic characteristics of both. First, a characteristic of -keyss-nya is its with strong communicativity, whereas a characteristic of darooka is its with weak communicativity. Second, based on this characteristic of , -keyss-nya is not made into “question usage that does not solicit an answer” or “exclamation usage,” but it may be made into “strong rhetorical questions.” Meanwhile, based on the characteristic of with weak communicativity, darooka may be derived into “question usage that does not solicit an answer”, “exclamation usage”, and “weak rhetorical interrogative sentences.” As stated above, different semantic meanings of -keyss-nya and darooka result from semantic differences between -keyss- and daroo. The -keyss- meaning of “completion of judgement formation” is reflected in -keyss-nya’s characteristics of , and daroo’s meaning of the “judgement formation process” is reflected in darooka’s characteristics of .

Several self-report studies together with analyses of exoneration cases suggest that suspects with mental disorder are especially prone to making false confessions. The present study asked 153 forensic patients in Germany about their behavior during suspect interviewing by the police. Self-reported ground truth of guilt and innocence was asked for, thereby taking into account that the risk of false confession is present only if a person has ever been interviewed when innocent. Indeed, surveying samples that include suspects who have never been interviewed when innocent may lead to underestimating the risk of false confessions. In the present study, all patients reported having been interviewed previously when guilty; and almost two-thirds (62%, n = 95), that they had also been interviewed at least once when innocent. These participants stated that they remained silent while being interviewed significantly more often when guilty (44%) compared to when innocent (15%). This corroborates laboratory research findings indicating that the right to remain silent is waived more often by innocent than by guilty suspects. Out of all 95 participants who were ever interviewed when innocent, 25% reported having made a false confession on at least one occasion. This result is in line with previous international research showing a high percentage of false confessions among suspects with mental disorder.

The aim of this article is to examine several architectural marks registered during 2013-2015 at the police station that once housed the DOPS, the headquarters of Brazil’s dictatorial police in the city of Belo Horizonte. To understand their importance as archaeological findings, we propose an analysis of ‘scientific torture’. We will examine the phrase’s genealogy and the practices associated with it in the second half of the twentieth century. While practiced by a number of institutions from several countries, it was the CIA that created an entire research program to organize bodies of knowledge about torture practices, producing now declassified documents about ‘interrogation techniques’. First, we will discuss some of the materialized practices developed as a result of those efforts. Second, we will discuss how these practices are reflected in the Kubark interrogation manual, edited by the CIA in 1963, particularly in what pertains to its more architectural recommendations. Finally, we will analyze the building which once housed the DOPS, to expose the notable congruencies between its architectural recommendations and the marks recorded at the DOPS building.

A novel approach to interrogate a fiber grating sensor based on dispersive Fourier transformation method is proposed and simulated. In the system, two chirped fiber Bragg gratings (CFBG), with one used as a reference grating and the other one as sensing grating, are employed to form a Fabry–Perot (FP) interference structure, used as the spectral-shaping filter. The filter can be modeled as a two-tap delay-line filter. An optical pulse from a mode-locked laser source is reflected and spectrally shaped by the FP structure, and then the shaped spectrum is mapped to the temporal domain by a dispersive element. When the sensing CFBG is experiencing a strain, its wavelengths will be changed, leading to different interference spectra. Using Fourier transform, the frequency of the generated microwave waveform can be achieved, from which the wavelength shift of the sensing grating and the applied strain can be demodulated. A mathematical model to describe the microwave waveform generation is developed, by which the interrogation principle is analyzed. Numerical simulations are implemented to verify the proposed approach. The results present that the sensitivity of the system is 0.01 GHz/ μ ε. The influences of key parameters in the system on the microwave spectra are investigated and discussed, including grating length, cavity length, chirp rate and index modulation depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German High Seas Fleet's sorties in strength after the battle of Jutland were few and inconclusive, but as a 'fleet in being' it remained a powerful threat. Britain's Admiralty, alive to the tactical issues thrown up by Jutland's titanic clash, was anxious to learn what had gone wrong. Luckily for the British, German veterans of the battle were progressively posted to U-boats and other units. As they were sunk their survivors began to find their way into the hands of Intelligence Division's interrogators and yield a view from the other side of the mirror. This article identifies the interrogators and their subjects. It examines the quality of their evidence and provides additional insights into the action in the First and Second Scouting Groups and the Third, First and Second Battle Squadrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The need to compute the intersections between a line and a high‐order curve or surface arises in a large number of finite element applications. Such intersection problems are easy to formulate but hard to solve robustly. We introduce a noniterative method for computing intersections by solving a matrix singular value decomposition and an eigenvalue problem. That is, all intersection points and their parametric coordinates are determined in one‐shot using only standard linear algebra techniques available in most software libraries. As a result, the introduced technique is far more robust than the widely used Newton‐Raphson iteration or its variants. The maximum size of the considered matrices depends on the polynomial degree q of the shape functions and is 2q × 3q for curves and 6q2 × 8q2 for surfaces. The method has its origin in algebraic geometry and has here been considerably simplified with a view to widely used high‐order finite elements. In addition, the method is derived from a purely linear algebra perspective without resorting to algebraic geometry terminology. A complete implementation is available from http://bitbucket.org/nitro-project/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clinical guidelines emphasize identifying atrial fibrillation (AF) as a strategy to reduce stroke risk. Cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) interrogation at the point of care may facilitate AF detection, increasing opportunities to identify patients at high risk for stroke.Objectives: This study sought to quantify AF prevalence and assess stroke risk in patients with a CIED who presented to the emergency department (ED).Methods: This noninterventional, retrospective observational study included adult patients who presented at a single facility ED that incorporated device interrogation as a routine standard practice for all patients with a CIED. Interrogations were conducted in 494 unique patients, and relevant demographic/clinical information was captured from electronic medical records.Results: AF was detected via CIED interrogation in 54.8% (271/494) of the unique patient population that presented to the ED. Device interrogation detected the presence of AF in 110 patients without a documented past history or current diagnosis of AF, representing 22.3% (110/494) of total unique patients. Based on CHA2DS2-VASc (Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age > 75 years, Diabetes mellitus, prior Stroke or transient ischemic attack or thromboembolism, Vascular disease, Age 65-74 years, Sex category [female]) risk scoring methodology, over three-quarters of these newly detected AF patients (78.2%, 86/110) were classified in a high stroke risk category that reflected a > 2.2% annualized risk, and over half (57.3%, 63/110) presented to the ED for reasons unrelated to cardiac/dysrhythmia problems.Conclusions: The use of technology-assisted device interrogation of CIEDs at the point of care has promise in identifying patients with asymptomatic AF. Results suggest consideration of routine device interrogation of CIEDs in the ED, regardless of reason for admission or history of AF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Basra Studies Journal is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Contrary to the claims of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that its torture program was scientific, the program was not based on biology or any other science. Instead, the George W. Bush administration veneered the program's justification with a patina of pseudoscience, ignoring the actual biology of torturing human brains. We reconstruct the Bush administration's decision-making process to establish that the policy decision to use torture took place in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks without any investigation into its efficacy. We then present the pseudoscientific model of torture sold to the CIA, show why this ad hoc model amounted to pseudoscience, and then catalog what the actual science of torturing human brains—available in 2001—reveals about the practice. We conclude with a discussion of how a process incorporating countervailing evidence might prevent a policy going forward that is contrary to law, ethics, and evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]