The three steps of a typical forensic statistical analysis are (1) verify that the raw data file is correct; (2) verify that the statistical analysis file derived from the raw data file is correct; and (3) verify that the statistical analyses are appropriate. We illustrate applying these three steps to a manuscript which was subsequently retracted, focusing on step 1. In the absence of an external source for comparison, criteria for assessing the raw data file were internal consistency and plausibility. A forensic statistical analysis isn\'t like a murder mystery, and it many circumstances discovery of a mechanism for falsification or fabrication might not be realistic.

The sagittal plane alignment of ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) and AFO footwear combinations (AFO-FC) has been shown to influence gait outcomes. As such, clinicians often target a particular alignment during the fabricating and fitting of an AFO to maximize outcomes.
How does the alignment of an AFO change during the fabrication and fitting process with respect to the intended, benchmark sagittal plane alignment identified by the consulting orthotist?
Prospective METHODS: The assessment of AFO alignment was performed using a convenience sample of 125 custom molded AFOs from 68 individuals fabricated at our center (57 bilateral AFOs, 11 unilateral AFOs). The alignment of each AFO was measured at 5 distinct steps during the fabrication and fitting process using a recently validated method to measure AFO neutral angle using differential inclinometers.
Prior to fabrication, the intended, benchmark alignment set by the consulting orthotist was 90 degrees for 92% of AFOs, was between 1 and 7 degrees of dorsiflexion for 7% of AFOs and was 5 degrees of plantarflexion for 1% of AFOs. Repeated measures ANOVA showed that AFO alignment changed between all fabrication and fitting steps. Overall, paired t-tests confirmed that AFO alignment was consistently 2-5 degrees more dorsiflexed than the benchmark alignment. Prior to fitting shoes, 55% of fabricated AFOs measured more than 2 degrees from the benchmark alignment. After fitting shoes, nearly 87% of AFO-FCs were more than 2 degrees from the benchmark alignment.
The finding of systematic dorsiflexion bias and changes in AFO alignment throughout the fabrication and fitting process indicates the need to improve AFO fabrication precision. The neutral angle measurement methodology - using differential inclinometers - provides a means to improve this precision by enabling orthotists to precisely quantify and make appropriate adjustments to AFO alignment throughout the entire fabrication and fitting process.

UNASSIGNED: Many studies have found evidence that research subjects engage in deceptive practices while participating in health-related studies. Little is known, however, about how often subjects use deception and the percentage of studies a typical subject will contaminate with false data. This study examined the frequency of use of different types of deception among a sample of subjects who admit to using deception.
UNASSIGNED: A sample of 59 subjects who had participated in at least two health-related studies in the past 12 months and admitted to using deception in at least one were interviewed. Subjects were asked a series of questions about concealing information and fabricating information to gain entry into studies. Subjects were also asked about falsifying data after being enrolled in a health-related study. All study data reported pertains to only subjects who reported using deception in health-related studies and is based on subjects\' study participation only within the last 12 months from the date of the interview.
UNASSIGNED: Subjects who conceal information in order to enroll in trials reported using concealment in about two thirds (67%) of the trials they participated in over the past 12 months. On average, these subjects\' use of concealment was highest for mental health information (58% of studies) and physical health information (57% of studies). The average frequency of fabricating information in order to enroll in trials was 53% with exaggerating health symptoms (45% of studies) and pretending to have a health condition (39% of studies) as the two most widely used strategies. Subjects who falsify study data after enrollment reported doing so 40% of the time. These subjects falsely reported improvement in the health condition being studied in 38% of the trials they took part in. Subjects who admitted to throwing away study medication to create the appearance of compliance reported doing so 32% of the time.
UNASSIGNED: Although this study provides evidence that subjects who admit to using deception contaminate a high percentage of studies, larger and more geographically diverse samples are needed to understand the full extent of the problem of deceptive subjects in research. Regional economic, cultural, or organizational factors may be related to the rate of subjects using deception. It is also possible that this sample underrepresents the use of deception as there are likely subjects who use deception that would be unwilling to admit the extent of this behavior.
UNASSIGNED: Deceptive subject\'s behavior poses a threat to the integrity of research findings. Given that deceptive subjects contaminate a high percentage of studies they take part in by concealing information, fabricating information, and falsifying study data after enrollment, efforts to identify and exclude these subjects is important to the integrity of research findings. Strategies to exclude deceptive subjects from health research should be used to inform study designs. Widespread adoption of research subject identity registries could greatly reduce the scope of studies that a single deceptive subject could contaminate. Technological solutions that provide an objective measure of medication compliance may be valuable tools for limiting fraudulent reports of compliance.

Smallholder farmers provide the foundation for food security in South Asia. However, increasing seasonal labor scarcity caused by rural out-migration has resulted in growing agricultural labor costs, presenting challenges to cash-constrained smallholder farmers that hire manual labor for land preparation, sowing, harvest and post-harvest operations. Technological innovations in small-scale agricultural machinery appropriate for the small field sizes and limited resource endowments of South Asia\'s farmers have been proposed as a potential solution to this problem. An increasing number of development initiatives also promote rural entrepreneurial approaches to mechanization, whereby smallholder farmers can access and use machinery in their own fields on an affordable fee-for-service basis offered by machinery owners. This approach reduces capital constraints for smallholder farmers while enabling entrepreneurs who can afford equipment to enter into business serving stallholder farmers as clients. This approach is now widely practiced in Bangladesh, where machinery entrepreneurs play a crucial role in providing access to productive technologies for smallholder farmers who could not otherwise afford direct purchase of labor- and cost-saving machinery. In order to maintain low machinery purchase costs for emerging yet capital constrained rural entrepreneurs, while also assuring high quality standards, cost-effective domestic production of agricultural machinery is increasingly championed as an important long-term national development objective. With no safety standards or guidelines for best production practices, the few manufacturing workshops that exist within Bangladesh operate inefficiently and without clear rationalization of manufacturing processes. Haphazard copying of prototypes or imported available machinery is common. This leads to inefficient production and poor product quality in an emerging but potentially highly beneficial industry. This paper addresses these problems and presents a case study to increase machinery manufacturers\' capacity while improving manufacturing operations and workplace safety through equipment selection, workshop layout, and usability. Janata Engineering (JE) is a small-scale machinery manufacturing enterprise in Bangladesh, specializing in two-wheel tractor attachments such as bed planters, local derivations of power-tiller operated seeders, and other equipment for planting, irrigating, and processing crops. JE was expanding and setting up a second factory for which the authors provided assistance on its design. Our research question was whether participatory action research (PAR) supported by empirical data could provide improved factory design in terms of functionality, safety and human interactions, when compared with conventional approaches driven by technical efficiency concerns alone. Using PAR, we developed a number of alternative process and layout recommendations for JE to increase the efficiency of labor and machinery through improved workflow, throughput, and output. While immediately useful for JE, the process and protocols proposed in this paper are relevant for emerging agricultural machinery manufacturers in Bangladesh and more widely in South Asia.

Microgrippers are typical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that are widely used for micromanipulation and microassembly in both biological and micromanufacturing fields. This paper presents the design, modelling, fabrication and experimental testing of an electrothermal microgripper based on a \'hot and cold arm\' actuator design that is suitable for the deformability characterisation of human red blood cells (RBCs). The analysis of the mechanical properties of human RBCs is of great interest in the field of medicine as pathological alterations in the deformability characteristics of RBCs have been linked to a number of diseases. The study of the microgripper\'s steady-state performance is initially carried out by the development of a lumped analytical model, followed by a numerical model established in CoventorWare® (Coventor, Inc., Cary, NC, USA) using multiphysics finite element analysis. Both analytical and numerical models are based on an electothermomechanical analysis, and take into account the internal heat generation due to the applied potential, as well as conduction heat losses through both the anchor pads and the air gap to the substrate. The models are used to investigate key factors of the actuator\'s performance including temperature distribution, deflection and stresses based on an elastic analysis of structures. Results show that analytical and numerical values for temperature and deflection are in good agreement. The analytical and computational models are then validated experimentally using a polysilicon microgripper fabricated by the standard surface micromachining process, PolyMUMPs™ (Durham, NC, USA). The microgripper\'s actuation is characterised at atmospheric pressure by optical microscopy studies. Experimental results for the deflection of the microgripper arm tips are found to be in good agreement with the analytical and numerical results, with process-induced variations and the non-linear temperature dependence of the material properties accounting for the slight discrepancies observed. The microgripper is shown to actuate to a maximum opening displacement of 9 μ m at an applied voltage of 3 V, thus being in line with the design requirement of an approximate opening of 8 μ m for securing and characterising a RBC.