International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis

Background: The 5 years since the publication of the first International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis (ICAR‐RS) has witnessed foundational progress in our understanding and treatment of rhinologic disease. These advances are reflected within the more than 40 new topics covered within the ICAR‐RS‐2021 as well as updates to the original 140 topics. This executive summary consolidates the evidence‐based findings of the document. Methods: ICAR‐RS presents over 180 topics in the forms of evidence‐based reviews with recommendations (EBRRs), evidence‐based reviews, and literature reviews. The highest grade structured recommendations of the EBRR sections are summarized in this executive summary. Results: ICAR‐RS‐2021 covers 22 topics regarding the medical management of RS, which are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Additionally, 4 topics regarding the surgical management of RS are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Finally, a comprehensive evidence‐based management algorithm is provided. Conclusion: This ICAR‐RS‐2021 executive summary provides a compilation of the evidence‐based recommendations for medical and surgical treatment of the most common forms of RS

Genetic factors affect the etiology, clinical characteristics and outcome of autoimmune hepatitis

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is characterized by chronic inflammation of the liver, hypergammaglobulinemia, the presence of serum autoantibodies, histologic evidence of interface hepatitis, and a favorable response to immunosuppressive treatment. Although the etiology of AIH remains undefined, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles have been associated with disease onset for decades. AIH resistance and severity are presumably linked to HLA alleles as well. Individuals in different geographic regions of the world may have varying susceptibility alleles that reflect indigenous triggering antigens. In this review, we describe the influence of HLA alleles and gene polymorphisms on AIH, along with the results of genome-wide association studies on this disease

Two instructional aids to optimise processing and learning from instructional explanations

Roelle J, Berthold K, Renkl A. Two instructional aids to optimise processing and learning from instructional explanations. Instructional Science. 2014;42(2):207-228.Although instructional explanations are commonly used to introduce learners to new learning content, previous studies have often shown that their effects on learning outcomes are minimal. This failure might partly be due to mental passivity of the learners while processing introductory explanations and to a lack of opportunity to revise potential misunderstandings after working on introductory explanations. Against this background, we provided learners with two instructional support measures to optimise the introduction of new principles and concepts by providing instructional explanations in the domain of management theory: (a) prompts designed to induce inferences that are focused on the central content of the explanations, and (b) remedial explanations that are adapted to the learners' knowledge gaps. We tested their effects in a 2 x 2 factorial experimental design with the following factors: (a) prompts designed to induce focused processing (with vs. without), and (b) remedial explanations (adapted vs. random). The participants consisted of 80 psychology students. We found that the prompts fostered both the share of deep-oriented processing and the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. The beneficial effect of prompts on conceptual knowledge was mediated by the number of inferences that learners generated in response to the prompts. In addition, we found that prompts also fostered the instructional efficiency of providing instructional explanations. The provision of adapted remedial explanations, however, fostered neither deep-oriented processing nor the acquisition of conceptual knowledge. We conclude that prompts designed to induce focused processing can foster deep-oriented processing as well as both the effectiveness and efficiency of learning from instructional explanations

The future of the London Buy-To-Let property market: Simulation with temporal Bayesian Networks

We acknowledge the financial support by the European Research Council (ERC) for funding this research project, ERC-2013-AdG339182-BAYES_KNOWLEDGE, and Agena Ltd for software support