Structural Analysis And Assessment Of Scholarly Style

Does academia encourage an effective academic writing style? Do writers across the disciplines communicate in ways that uphold the values and purposes of liberal arts education? Has the turn in higher ed and scholarship to more public-facing audiences affected how scholars try to reach readers? What stylistic adjustments or improvements would you like to see in the texts you read—and are asked to write—in college? This project asks you to delve into these questions, among others, in relation to a sample of scholarly writing of your choice. Your goal is to analyze and assess how grammatical structures, both in individual sentences and successive sentences in a paragraph, help build a scholar’s style. And whether you deem the passage to be an example of convoluted academese or lucid liberal arts scholarship, you will want in your own paper to communicate logical, precise, well supported ideas and insights about written style as effectively as possible. How can your own scholarly style uphold your values and purpose here

Words Matter: Crafting And Critiquing Rhetorically Effective Styles (ENGL 002W) Syllabus

What does it mean to write an awkward or a clear sentence? Who determines what counts as appropriate or good writing, and how are such notions of standardized English currently being challenged? Can a scholarly voice be an authentic personal voice, too? In this course, we will examine the grammatical building blocks of written style while scrutinizing larger cultural concerns about the effectiveness of distinct styles. While recognizing famous tenets of style in creative writing, we will primarily focus on stylistic features of academic, civic, and professional discourse. We will learn grammatical terminology and apply it in analyzing and evaluating the stylistic impact of a variety of passages while at the same time exploring the rhetorical contexts and sociopolitical implications of so-called norms for writing in English. Throughout, we will seek to equip you to make rhetorically savvy stylistic choices in your own writing for distinct purposes and audiences. Humanities. Writing Course

The effectiveness of packing post incision and drainage among patients with skin abscesses in improved wound healing and reduced recurrence

Introduction: A skin abscess is an accumulation of pus beneath the skin and is among one of the most common skin and soft tissue infections. Skin abscesses can occur in anyone including healthy patients with no comorbidities. They can occur anywhere on the body, but are common in friction-prone areas such as the buttocks, breast and groin. Patients present with tender nodules with fluctuance, induration, and erythema. Definitive management for abscesses is incision and drainage, with or without the placement of packing material. The purpose of this article is to review the necessity of wound packing in the healing outcomes and recurrence of infection after incision and drainage compared to no packing in patients with a skin abscess. Evaluation of this topic has the potential to improve patient care while reducing overall health care costs. First, we will discuss the epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and management options for skin abscess. Then, we will review the most recent literature to answer the aforementioned question at hand.Master of Health Scienc

Resiliency among Widows Who Lost Their Husbands to Suicide: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Over six million people are influenced by the suicide of someone they love yearly; survivors of suicide are at greater risk for suicide themselves. This interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) explored postvention factors that led to resiliency in widows who lost their husbands to suicide, in order to explore the needs and inform the treatment of suicide survivors, who are at greater risk, from attempting suicide themselves. A purposive, self-selected sample of six widows who lost their husbands to suicide at least two years prior and who scored a minimum of 3.8 on the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) participated in the study. The participants engaged in one hour qualitative interviews and completed a reflective journal. In response to the first research question, asking for a description of the bereavement process, participants portrayed the process as a struggle to redefine self, a loss of the anticipated self, and extreme loneliness. In response to the second question exploring what factors participants perceived fostered adaptation and resiliency in the bereavement process, the co-researchers identified three factors that fostered adaptation and resiliency: sense-making and finding purpose in the loss, resolve, and routine. Lastly, one factor was identified as hindering adaptation and resiliency: a desire to protect image from stigma. The co-researchers were able to overcome the impediments caused by stigma as they felt free to share their stories for the sake of helping others. The emergent themes were congruent with existing research and recommendations for future research were provided

Cost and cost-effectiveness of switching from d4T or AZT to a TDF-based first-line regimen in a resource-limited setting in rural Lesotho

Article approval pendingLatest World Health Organization guidelines recommend shifting away from Stavudine (d4T)-based regimens due to severe side effects. However, widespread replacement of d4T by Tenofovir (TDF) or Zidovudine (AZT) is hampered by cost concerns

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: VI. Potentially interesting candidate systems from Fourier-based statistical tests

We analyze the deviations of transit times from a linear ephemeris for the Kepler Objects of Interest (KOI) through Quarter six (Q6) of science data. We conduct two statistical tests for all KOIs and a related statistical test for all pairs of KOIs in multi-transiting systems. These tests identify several systems which show potentially interesting transit timing variations (TTVs). Strong TTV systems have been valuable for the confirmation of planets and their mass measurements. Many of the systems identified in this study should prove fruitful for detailed TTV studies.Comment: 32 pages, 6 of text and one long table, Accepted to Ap

Understanding Views Around the Creation of a Consented, Donated Databank of Clinical Free Text to Develop and Train Natural Language Processing Models for Research: Focus Group Interviews With Stakeholders

BACKGROUND: Information stored within electronic health records is often recorded as unstructured text. Special computerized natural language processing (NLP) tools are needed to process this text; however, complex governance arrangements make such data in the National Health Service hard to access, and therefore, it is difficult to use for research in improving NLP methods. The creation of a donated databank of clinical free text could provide an important opportunity for researchers to develop NLP methods and tools and may circumvent delays in accessing the data needed to train the models. However, to date, there has been little or no engagement with stakeholders on the acceptability and design considerations of establishing a free-text databank for this purpose. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to ascertain stakeholder views around the creation of a consented, donated databank of clinical free text to help create, train, and evaluate NLP for clinical research and to inform the potential next steps for adopting a partner-led approach to establish a national, funded databank of free text for use by the research community. METHODS: Web-based in-depth focus group interviews were conducted with 4 stakeholder groups (patients and members of the public, clinicians, information governance leads and research ethics members, and NLP researchers). RESULTS: All stakeholder groups were strongly in favor of the databank and saw great value in creating an environment where NLP tools can be tested and trained to improve their accuracy. Participants highlighted a range of complex issues for consideration as the databank is developed, including communicating the intended purpose, the approach to access and safeguarding the data, who should have access, and how to fund the databank. Participants recommended that a small-scale, gradual approach be adopted to start to gather donations and encouraged further engagement with stakeholders to develop a road map and set of standards for the databank. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a clear mandate to begin developing the databank and a framework for stakeholder expectations, which we would aim to meet with the databank delivery

Low False-Positive Rate of Kepler Candidates Estimated From A Combination Of Spitzer And Follow-Up Observations

(Abridged) NASA's Kepler mission has provided several thousand transiting planet candidates, yet only a small subset have been confirmed as true planets. Therefore, the most fundamental question about these candidates is the fraction of bona fide planets. Estimating the rate of false positives of the overall Kepler sample is necessary to derive the planet occurrence rate. We present the results from two large observational campaigns that were conducted with the Spitzer telescope during the the Kepler mission. These observations are dedicated to estimating the false positive rate (FPR) amongst the Kepler candidates. We select a sub-sample of 51 candidates, spanning wide ranges in stellar, orbital and planetary parameter space, and we observe their transits with Spitzer at 4.5 microns. We use these observations to measures the candidate's transit depths and infrared magnitudes. A bandpass-dependent depth alerts us to the potential presence of a blending star that could be the source of the observed eclipse: a false-positive scenario. For most of the candidates (85%), the transit depths measured with Kepler are consistent with the depths measured with Spitzer as expected for planetary objects, while we find that the most discrepant measurements are due to the presence of unresolved stars that dilute the photometry. The Spitzer constraints on their own yield FPRs between 5-40%, depending on the KOIs. By considering the population of the Kepler field stars, and by combining follow-up observations (imaging) when available, we find that the overall FPR of our sample is low. The measured upper limit on the FPR of our sample is 8.8% at a confidence level of 3 sigma. This observational result, which uses the achromatic property of planetary transit signals that is not investigated by the Kepler observations, provides an independent indication that Kepler's false positive rate is low.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ on February 7, 201

Chemotherapy vs supportive care alone for relapsed gastric, gastroesophageal junction, and oesophageal adenocarcinoma: a meta-analysis of patient-level data.

BACKGROUND: Second-line chemotherapy treatment of patients with relapsed gastric and oesophageal cancers in comparison with supportive care (SC) alone has been supported by recent phase 3 clinical trials, but a meta-analysis of patient-level data is lacking. METHODS: We searched Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and the Web of Science for phase 3 clinical trials that compared second-line chemotherapy with SC alone for gastric and oesophageal cancers. A meta-analysis of the comprehensive patient-level data from the three identified trials was performed. RESULTS: A total of 410 patients with gastric (n=301), gastroesophageal junction (n=76), or oesophageal (n=33) adenocarcinoma were identified. In all, 154 patients received single-agent docetaxel and 84 patients received single-agent irinotecan, each with SC. SC alone was given to 172 patients. Chemotherapy significantly reduced the risk of death (hazard ratio (HR)=0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.51-0.77, P<0.0001). This effect was observed for treatment with docetaxel (HR=0.71, 95% CI=0.56-0.89, P=0.003) and irinotecan (HR=0.49, 95% CI=0.36-0.67, P<0.001). Overall survival (OS) benefit was greatest for patients who progressed 3-6 months following first-line chemotherapy (HR=0.39, 95% CI=0.26-0.59, P<0.0001). Performance status (PS) 0-1 compared with PS 2 (HR=0.66, 95% CI=0.46-0.94, P=0.02), locally advanced disease compared with metastatic disease (HR=0.41, 95% CI=0.25-0.67, P=0.0004) and older age (HR=0.94 per 5 years, 95% CI=0.90-0.99, P=0.01) were significant predictors of improved OS. Progression of disease during first-line treatment (HR=1.24, 95% CI=0.96-1.59) or within the first 3 months of completion of first-line treatment (HR=1.42, 95% CI=1.09-1.83) were predictors of an increased risk of death compared with progression between 3 and 6 months (P=0.03). Health-related quality of life outcomes were reported in only one of the three trials, precluding meta-analysis of these parameters. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis of patient-level data confirms that second-line chemotherapy treatment results in significantly better OS compared with SC alone in patients with platinum and fluoropyrimidine refractory gastric and oesphageal adenocarcinoma. Health-related quality of life outcomes should be included in future trials in this setting.TJ and CC were supported by the Wellcome Trust Translational Medicine and Therapeutics programme and the National Institute for Health Research.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2015.45

Architecture of Kepler's Multi-transiting Systems: II. New investigations with twice as many candidates

We report on the orbital architectures of Kepler systems having multiple planet candidates identified in the analysis of data from the first six quarters of Kepler data and reported by Batalha et al. (2013). These data show 899 transiting planet candidates in 365 multiple-planet systems and provide a powerful means to study the statistical properties of planetary systems. Using a generic mass-radius relationship, we find that only two pairs of planets in these candidate systems (out of 761 pairs total) appear to be on Hill-unstable orbits, indicating ~96% of the candidate planetary systems are correctly interpreted as true systems. We find that planet pairs show little statistical preference to be near mean-motion resonances. We identify an asymmetry in the distribution of period ratios near first-order resonances (e.g., 2:1, 3:2), with an excess of planet pairs lying wide of resonance and relatively few lying narrow of resonance. Finally, based upon the transit duration ratios of adjacent planets in each system, we find that the interior planet tends to have a smaller transit impact parameter than the exterior planet does. This finding suggests that the mode of the mutual inclinations of planetary orbital planes is in the range 1.0-2.2 degrees, for the packed systems of small planets probed by these observations.Comment: Accepted to Ap