Atlas.txt : Exploring Lingusitic Grounding Techniques for Communicating Spatial Information to Blind Users

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Reference blindness: the influence of references on trust in Wikipedia

In this study we show the influence of references on trust in information. We changed the contents of reference lists of Wikipedia articles in such a way that the new references were no longer in any sense related to the topic of the article. Furthermore, the length of the reference list was varied. College students were asked to evaluate the credibility of these articles. Only 6 out of 23 students noticed the manipulation of the references; 9 out of 23 students noticed the variations in length. These numbers are remarkably low, as 17 students indicated they considered references an important indicator of credibility. The findings suggest a highly heuristic manner of credibility evaluation. Systematic evaluation behavior was also observed in the experiment, but only of participants with low trust in Wikipedia in general

Attrition of certified teachers in secondary education during the induction phase

Teacher attrition is generally considered problematically high, with attrition rates of beginning teachers up to 50%. This study shows the problem is not as big as has been claimed before. Previous studies have often focused on the attrition within 5 years, showing a quarter or more of beginning teachers leaving the profession. However, this disregards the fact that teachers leave at later stages as well, and the fact that some beginning teachers are not qualified to work as a teacher. Using administrative data from payroll administrations of schools in the Netherlands for secondary education a reliable measure of teacher attrition was made. Administrative data on diplomas in higher education were used to establish if teachers are certified at the start of their career. The results of this study show that the attrition rate of beginning teachers is only high within the first year of their career. The attrition rate within 1 year of experience is around 12% until the early 2000s, rising to close to 20% in more recent years. In comparison with other countries this seems relatively modest. However, after the first year, a base rate of attrition (retirement excluded) remains fairly constant at approximately 3% to 5% every year, explaining the gap with high attrition rates found in earlier studies. Attrition of certified teachers within one year is about 9%, with very little variation over time, versus the 12% to 20% of all beginning teachers. This 9% attrition rate of certified teachers is much lower than many earlier studies suggest

Pitfalls when comparing COVID-19-related outcomes across studies-lessons learnt from the ERACODA collaboration

Reported outcomes, such as incidence rates of mortality and intensive care unit admission, vary widely across epidemiological coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) studies, including in the nephrology field. This variation can in part be explained by differences in patient characteristics, but also methodological aspects must be considered. In this review, we reflect on the methodological factors that contribute to the observed variation in COVID-19-related outcomes and their risk factors that are identified in the various studies. We focus on issues that arose during the design and analysis phase of the European Renal Association COVID-19 Database (ERACODA), and use examples from recently published reports on COVID-19 to illustrate these issues

Comparison of [18F]DOPA and [68Ga]DOTA-TOC as a PET imaging tracer before peptide receptor radionuclide therapy

BACKGROUND: In treatment of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs), confirmation of somatostatin receptor expression with 68Ga-DOTA somatostatin analogues is mandatory to determine eligibility for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). [18F]DOPA can detect additional lesions compared to [68Ga]DOTA-TOC. The aim of this study was to explore differences in tumour detection of both tracers and their relevance for selecting patients for PRRT. We retrospectively studied eight patients with NENs who underwent both [68Ga]DOTA-TOC and carbidopa-enhanced [18F]DOPA PET/CT, before first-time PRRT with [177Lu]DOTA-TATE. Tracer order was influenced due to stock availability or to detect suspected metastases with a second tracer. On CT, disease control was defined as a lesion showing complete response, partial response, or stable disease, according to RECIST 1.1. CRITERIA: RESULTS: Seven patients with in total 89 lesions completed four infusions of 7.4 GBq [177Lu]DOTA-TATE, one patient received only two cycles. Before treatment, [18F]DOPA PET/CT detected significantly more lesions than [68Ga]DOTA-TOC PET/CT (79 vs. 62, p < .001). After treatment, no difference in number of lesions with disease control was found for [18F]DOPA-only (5/27) and [68Ga]DOTA-TOC-only lesions (4/10, p = .25). [18F]DOPA detected more liver metastases (24/27) compared to [68Ga]DOTA-TOC (7/10, p = .006). Six patients showed inpatient heterogeneity in treatment response between [18F]DOPA-only and [68Ga]DOTA-TOC-only lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Response to PRRT with [177Lu]DOTA-TATE was comparable for both [68Ga]DOTA-TOC- and [18F]DOPA-only NEN lesions. [18F]DOPA may be capable of predicting response to PRRT while finding more lesions compared to [68Ga]DOTA-TOC, although these additional lesions are often small of size and undetected by diagnostic CT

Sex differences in COVID-19 mortality risk in patients on kidney function replacement therapy

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