How Can We Do Better?

Host Specificity Testing: Why Do We Do It and How We Can Do It Better

Host specificity testing is universally used in weed biological control to predict nontarget effects of potential agents. Despite this, there is some confusion regarding the role of host specificity testing in making such predictions. One possible role is as an assay of field host range. In this case, the ideal host specificity test will simulate conditions encountered in the field, and the res...

Perils of Pragmatic Psychiatry: How We Can Do Better.

Etiologic and pathophysiologic understanding of psychiatric disorders is still in its early stages. The neurobiology of major psychiatric disorders has yet to be fully elucidated. Psychiatric diagnoses are often based on presenting symptoms, lacking reliability and stability. For a variety of reasons, many notable laboratory and clinical observations have not been tested in large trials. Lackin...

Primary Vascular Access: How can we do better?

The long-term survival and quality of life of patients on haemodialysis is dependent on the adequacy of dialysis via an appropriately placed vascular access. The native arteriovenous fistula at the wrist is generally accepted as the vascular access of choice in haemodialysis patients due to its low complication and high patency rates. It has been shown beyond doubt that an optimally functioning...

Spectral debugging: How much better can we do?

This paper investigates software fault localization methods which are based on program spectra – data on execution profiles from passed and failed tests. We examine a standard method of spectral fault localization: for each statement we determine the number of passed and failed tests in which the statement was/wasn’t executed and a function, or metric, of these four values is used to rank state...

We must--and we can--do better.