Ethics review boards in South Africa and the need for patient advocacy

The development of new therapies is a major undertaking with the potential for huge profits. Consequently a large industry associated with running of clinical trials has arisen. Many clinical trials are undertaken in the developing world. This creates some unique ethical dilemmas of which ethicists in developing countries need to take cognisance. Some of the regulations for research in developing countries are less stringent than in First-World countries and infrastructure to police such work is often lacking. Developing-world patients are often less informed about their rights and are less likely to have access to legal support in the event that they feel aggrieved. In many ways the situation in the world of knowledge reflects the situation as seen in that of trade, with the developing world being rich in natural resources but poor in infrastructure. Managing research in the developing world is a delicate balancing act in which the rights of vulnerable communities need to be protected while facilitating research that may provide meaningful knowledge and therapies. In South Africa ethics review boards need to be advocates of patient rights and not mere overseers of research. South African Journal of Bioethics & Law Vol. 1 (2) 2008: pp. 44-4

Discourse stylistics and detective fiction:A case study

Pedagogical stylistics concerns itself with the practice of teaching stylistics in the classroom. The principal aim of such teaching is to make students aware of language use in the texts chosen for study. What characterizes pedagogical stylistics is that classroom activities are interactive between the text and the (student) reader, with both the texts and the activities usually chosen by the teacher (see Clark 1996; Clark and Zyngier 2003; Clark and McRae 2004; Simpson 2004). Part of this self-same process of improving students’ linguistic sensibilities has to include placing greater emphasis upon the text as action: the mental processing which is such a proactive part of reading and interpretation, and how all these elements – pragmatic and cognitive as well as linguistic – function within quite specific social and cultural contexts

The effect of mixing entire male pigs prior to transport to slaughter on behaviour, welfare and carcass lesions

peer-reviewedData set for article is also provided.Research is needed to validate lesions recorded at meat inspection as indicators of pig welfare on farm. The aims were to determine the influence of mixing pigs on carcass lesions and to establish whether such lesions correlate with pig behaviour and lesions scored on farm. Aggressive and mounting behaviour of pigs in three single sex pens was recorded on Day −5, −2, and −1 relative to slaughter (Day 0). On Day 0 pigs were randomly allocated to 3 treatments (n = 20/group) over 5 replicates: males mixed with females (MF), males mixed with males (MM), and males unmixed (MUM). Aggressive and mounting behaviours were recorded on Day 0 at holding on farm and lairage. Skin/tail lesions were scored according to severity at the farm (Day −1), lairage, and on the carcass (Day 0). Effect of treatment and time on behaviour and lesions were analysed by mixed models. Spearman rank correlations between behaviour and lesion scores and between scores recorded at different stages were determined. In general, MM performed more aggressive behaviour (50.4 ± 10.72) than MUM (20.3 ± 9.55, P < 0.05) and more mounting (30.9 ± 9.99) than MF (11.4 ± 3.76) and MUM (9.8 ± 3.74, P < 0.05). Skin lesion scores increased between farm (Day −1) and lairage (P < 0.001), but this tended to be significant only for MF and MM (P = 0.08). There was no effect of treatment on carcass lesions and no associations were found with fighting/mounting. Mixing entire males prior to slaughter stimulated mounting and aggressive behaviour but did not influence carcass lesion scores. Carcass skin/tail lesions scores were correlated with scores recorded on farm (rskin = 0.21 and rtail = 0.18, P < 0.01) suggesting that information recorded at meat inspection could be used as indicators of pig welfare on farm.This study was part of the PIGWELFIND project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Ireland

The Symmetry of Partner Modelling

© 2016, International Society of the Learning Sciences, Inc. Collaborative learning has often been associated with the construction of a shared understanding of the situation at hand. The psycholinguistics mechanisms at work while establishing common grounds are the object of scientific controversy. We postulate that collaborative tasks require some level of mutual modelling, i.e. that each partner needs some model of what the other partners know/want/intend at a given time. We use the term “some model” to stress the fact that this model is not necessarily detailed or complete, but that we acquire some representations of the persons we interact with. The question we address is: Does the quality of the partner model depend upon the modeler’s ability to represent his or her partner? Upon the modelee’s ability to make his state clear to the modeler? Or rather, upon the quality of their interactions? We address this question by comparing the respective accuracies of the models built by different team members. We report on 5 experiments on collaborative problem solving or collaborative learning that vary in terms of tasks (how important it is to build an accurate model) and settings (how difficult it is to build an accurate model). In 4 studies, the accuracy of the model that A built about B was correlated with the accuracy of the model that B built about A, which seems to imply that the quality of interactions matters more than individual abilities when building mutual models. However, these findings do not rule out the fact that individual abilities also contribute to the quality of modelling process

Robust kidney perfusion mapping in pediatric chronic kidney disease using single-shot 3D-GRASE ASL with optimized retrospective motion correction

PURPOSE: To develop a robust renal arterial spin labeling (ASL) acquisition and processing strategy for mapping renal blood flow (RBF) in a pediatric cohort with severe kidney disease. METHODS: A single-shot background-suppressed 3D gradient and spin-echo (GRASE) flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) ASL acquisition method was used to perform 2 studies. First, an evaluation of the feasibility of single-shot 3D-GRASE and retrospective noise reduction methods was performed in healthy volunteers. Second, a pediatric cohort with severe chronic kidney disease underwent single-shot 3D-GRASE FAIR ASL and RBF was quantified following several retrospective motion correction pipelines, including image registration and threshold-free weighted averaging. The effect of motion correction on the fit errors of saturation recovery (SR) images (required for RBF quantification) and on the perfusion-weighted image (PWI) temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) was evaluated, as well as the intra- and inter-session repeatability of renal longitudinal relaxation time (T1 ) and RBF. RESULTS: The mean cortical and/or functional renal parenchyma RBF in healthy volunteers and CKD patients was 295 ± 97 and 95 ± 47 mL/100 g/min, respectively. Motion-correction reduced image artefacts in both T1 and RBF maps, significantly reduced SR fit errors, significantly increased the PWI tSNR and improved the improved the repeatability of T1 and RBF in the pediatric patient cohort. CONCLUSION: Single-shot 3D-GRASE ASL combined with retrospective motion correction enabled repeatable non-invasive RBF mapping in the first pediatric cohort with severe kidney disease undergoing ASL scans

A randomized trial to evaluate e-learning interventions designed to improve learner's performance, satisfaction, and self-efficacy with the AGREE II

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Practice guidelines (PGs) are systematically developed statements intended to assist in patient, practitioner, and policy decisions. The AGREE II is the revised and updated standard tool for guideline development, reporting and evaluation. It is comprised of 23 items and a user's Manual. The AGREE II is ready for use.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>To develop, execute, and evaluate the impact of two internet-based educational interventions designed to accelerate the capacity of stakeholders to use the AGREE II: a multimedia didactic tutorial with a virtual coach, and a higher intensity training program including both the didactic tutorial and an interactive practice exercise component.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants (clinicians, developers, and policy makers) will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions. <it>Condition one, didactic tutorial </it>-- participants will go through the on-line AGREE II tutorial supported by a virtual coach and review of the AGREE II prior to appraising the test PG. <it>Condition two, tutorial + practice </it>-- following the multimedia didactic tutorial with a virtual coach, participants will review the on-line AGREE II independently and use it to appraise a practice PG. Upon entering their AGREE II score for the practice PG, participants will be given immediate feedback on how their score compares to expert norms. If their score falls outside a predefined range, the participant will receive a series of hints to guide the appraisal process. Participants will receive an overall summary of their performance appraising the PG compared to expert norms. <it>Condition three, control arm </it>-- participants will receive a PDF copy of the AGREE II for review and to appraise the test PG on-line. All participants will then rate one of ten test PGs with the AGREE II. The outcomes of interest are learners' performance, satisfaction, self-efficacy, mental effort, and time-on-task; comparisons will be made across each of the test groups.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Our research will test innovative educational interventions of various intensities and instructional design to promote the adoption of AGREE II and to identify those strategies that are most effective for training. The results will facilitate international capacity to apply the AGREE II accurately and with confidence and to enhance the overall guideline enterprise.</p

A model for the creation of human-generated metadata within communities

This paper considers situations for which detailed metadata descriptions of learning resources are necessary, and focuses on human generation of such metadata. It describes a model which facilitates human production of good quality metadata by the development and use of structured vocabularies. Using examples, this model is applied to single and multiple communities of metadata creators. The approach for transferring vocabularies across communities is related to similar work on the use of ontologies to support the development of the semantic web. Notable conclusions from this work are the need to encourage collaboration between the metadata specialists, content authors and system designers, and the scope for using accurate and consistent metadata created for one context in another context by producing descriptions of the relationships between those contexts

Repeatability of renal arterial spin labelling MRI in healthy subjects

Arterial spin labelling (ASL) can be used to measure renal perfusion non-invasively. The aim of this study was to determine the repeatability of this technique in healthy kidneys to vindicate its use in clinic