AALAS certification exam study guidance

Recently certified technicians reveal the exam preparation techniques that helped them ace the test

For more than 30 years, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) has been administering a nationwide voluntary certification program for laboratory animal technicians. Depending on educational background and work experience, a technician may sit for an exam to become a certified Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician (ALAT), Laboratory Animal Technician (LAT), or Laboratory Animal Technologist (LATG).

Each of the multiple-choice exams is designed to measure the test-takers' competency in animal husbandry, facility management, and animal health and welfare. Nowadays, many laboratory animal care positions require AALAS certification.

Here we asked several technicians who recently passed the ALAT, LAT, or LATG certification exam what advice they would give to someone preparing to take the test themselves.

“The best study aid I had was a set of AALAS in a FLASH cards. They helped all the way until my test date. Also, we have a training coordinator here at Penn who gives us study sessions once a week.”

Deborah A. Whitehouse, RALAT

University of Pennsylvania

“Have a designated place to study and study a little every day. The designated study area helps you to focus on your task and you can let others know not to disturb you while you are there. Studying a little every day helps you to make steady progress toward your goal and keeps you from cramming right before your test.”

Julia B. Drake, MS, CMAR, RLATG

National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health

Priority One Services Contractor

“Get as much hands-on training as possible. I could read the information and remember most of it but getting to work with the equipment or performing a procedure is what really helped me understand the subject. I would even suggest getting in contact with other facilities to access some equipment/procedures that you may not have the opportunity to be exposed to at your current job site.”

National Institutes of Health

Priority One Services Contractor

“We highly recommend taking a review course—it was a great review of the information in all three AALAS books and provided additional information that was not in the books. Definitely review the Animal Welfare Act, PHS Policy, and the Guide, and pay close attention to the GLPs. Also during the test be familiar with real lab animal facility situations to answer questions, as the test focused less on straight knowledge and more on situational knowledge.”

Karen Keeran, LATG Gayle Zywicke, LATG

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health

“When I received my confirmation letter to take the test I made sure to schedule my test a month before the actual deadline so that I would push myself to study harder. A few days before test date I felt I was not ready and I decided to push back the test date. The new test date was the last chance I had to take the testand I knew that it was all or nothing.”

“Study for the AALAS exams by working in small groups—it is easier to brainstorm, and fosters a team spirit.”

“While reading the books I would take notes on what I read, but instead of writing down what was in the book I would write it down how I understood it or how I could remember it (mnemonic devices).”

Jose D. Chinchilla, LVT, ALAT

National Institutes of Health

Priority One Services Contractor

“Making flash cards while studying from the AALAS Training Manual really aided me in remembering the information that I found to be difficult to understand or remember. I would test myself by randomly picking a card and answering them correctly, which helped me to retain the information. I found this especially helpful with the 'Species Characteristics and Breeding Data' appendix.”

National Institutes of Health

Priority One Services Contractor

“To prepare for any AALAS certification test, you should purchase the study bundle, which will include a manual, workbook, and CD. After each chapter you read, do the related worksheet and if you have any questions ask your supervisor. Next, go to the CD and take the quiz for that chapter. If any of your coworkers are taking the same exam as you, consider forming a study group to help answer confusing questions.”

How Crying Can Help You, Here Is What A Study Says

It may be good to cry out loud. (Photo: Getty Images)

They say that there's no sense in crying over spilled milk. But what do they know? Crying can get you another glass of milk if you do it loud enough. Plus, crying may serve a real physiologic purpose, according to a study published recently in Emotion, meaning the journal and not in an Emo-kind of way.

For the study, three researchers from the University of Queensland (Leah S. Sharman, Genevieve A. Dingle, and Eric J. Vanman) and one from Tilberg University (Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets) recruited 197 female undergraduate students. They said that they choose all women rather than including men because pilot testing of sad videos had revealed that more women than men cried or at least more women revealed that they were crying. This did not account for the men who cried inside or used some bro-language or high fives to hide the crying.

The research team then showed each of the study participants either a video that are supposed to make them feel sad (sad videos) or a video that was not supposed to elicit any emotion (neutral videos) like something from a documentary or a ted talk. Each video lasted for close to 18 minutes. After the video, the researchers noted whether or not each participant had cried while watching the video. Ultimately, 65 participants watched the neutral video, 71 watched the sad video and cried during it, and 61 watched the sad video and did not cry. Presumably, no one cried during the neutral video. But then again, actor Bryce Dallas Howard was able to cry when Conan O'Brien talked about Home Depot in this Conan clip:

Then, each participant underwent a Cold Pressor Stress Test (CPT), which involved placing the participant's left hand, up to the wrist, in cold 0° to 5°C water. Unless you are the Iceman or Killer Frost, this is supposed to be painful. The research team measured how long each participant could stay in this position until pulling her hand out of the water. During the study, the research team continuously measured each participant's heart rate and respiratory rate and periodically measured cortisol levels from saliva samples. Cortisol is a stress-hormone that's produced by the body.

Also, at four points during the study, participants answered questions from the Positive and Negative Affect Scale short form (PANAS). These questions asked the degree to which the participant was experiencing ten different emotions and to rank each on a five-point scale that ranged from a one (very slightly or not at all) to a five (extremely).

When it came to cortisol levels and how long the participants could keep their hands submerged in the cold water, the study ended up finding not much difference between the neutral video watchers, the sad video non-criers, and the sad video criers. So if you are about to dunk yourself in cold water or take a cold shower, it may not help to cry first.

But here's a difference that the study found. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. The difference was breathing rates. While watching the videos, the non-criers tended to have elevations in their breathing rates, whereas, by contrast, the criers tended to maintain their initial breathing rates. In other words, tearing up could have helped participants better control their breathing rates. This provides further evidence that crying may help you better regulate arousal, serving as an emotional release.

Another interesting finding was that right before crying, participants tended to experience decreases in their heart rates, seemingly in anticipation of the crying. Once the crying began, their heart rates then tended to creep back up but not above where their heart rates had been before everything began. This may be further evidence that crying has a beneficial regulatory effect on your physiology.

So perhaps next time you start crying you can tell people that you are regulating your physiology. You've probably heard of people saying that they had a good cry and feel better after they've let the tears flow. It can be important to find reasonable ways to periodically release your emotions. Otherwise, you may end up bottling everything up like a hot air balloon that can explode when you least expect it.

Moreover, crying can be a way of communicating. It's really the only way that babies can express their needs before they learn how to say things like "why you throwing shade on me," or "I'm not Gucci." Crying can help communicate to others that you need more sympathy, comfort, or help. Of course, this can be misused. You don't want to cry every time your order at a restaurant doesn't come out right. And of course, there is the whole concept of crocodile tears: people crying to get something when they don't really mean it.

Crying can also be a way of communicating with yourself. Even when you cry alone, you may be telling yourself about your own state because, like many people, you could be terrible at reading your own emotions and situation. Tears could be your body's way of saying, "hey, take a break," or "something's not right," or "take care of yourself." Tearing up can then be a way of your body literally crying out to you.

Your body is a complex system. Crying can be complex. Your tears can flow when you are very sad, very angry, or even very happy. Better understanding what causes us to cry and what happens as a result could help us better handle our emotions and stress.

AI can help improve breast cancer risk predictions, study finds

Study says AI better at predicting cancer risk

A new study is showing yet another way artificial intelligence is entering the medical field — and potentially improving existing practices for predicting breast cancer risk.

The study, which was published Tuesday in Radiology, a peer-reviewed journal, found AI algorithms outperformed the standard clinical risk model for predicting the five-year risk for breast cancer.

Risk models like the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) clinical risk score, which use self-reported and other patient information including age, family history and more, are typically used to calculate a woman's risk of breast cancer. 

"Clinical risk models depend on gathering information from different sources, which isn't always available or collected," lead researcher Dr. Vignesh A. Arasu, a research scientist and practicing radiologist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said in a news release. "Recent advances in AI deep learning provide us with the ability to extract hundreds to thousands of additional mammographic features."

In the retrospective study, thousands of mammograms were analyzed, and risk scores for breast cancer over a five-year period were generated by five AI algorithms. Those scores were then compared to each other and the BCSC clinical risk score.

"All five AI algorithms performed better than the BCSC risk model for predicting breast cancer risk at 0 to 5 years," Arasu said. "This strong predictive performance over the five-year period suggests AI is identifying both missed cancers and breast tissue features that help predict future cancer development."

While some institutions are already using AI to help detect cancer on mammograms, these findings suggest AI can be a vital tool in helping with a patient's future risk score — which takes seconds for AI to generate, according to the release. 

"AI for cancer risk prediction offers us the opportunity to individualize every woman's care, which isn't systematically available," Arasu said. "It's a tool that could help us provide personalized, precision medicine on a national level."

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