TASK DEFINITION: Given a passage classify if the passage has a definite objective/aim/goal or not. Output '1' if the passage has a defininte objective/aim/goal and output '0' if the passage does not have a definite objective/aim/goal.
PROBLEM: To determine whether full-scale simulation (SIM) is superior to interactive problem-based learning (PBL) for teaching medical students acute care assessment and management skills.', 'Randomized controlled trial.', 'Simulation center at a U.S. medical school.', 'Thirty-one fourth-year medical students in a week-long acute care course.', 'After institutional review board approval and informed consent, eligible students were randomized to either the SIM or PBL group. On day 1, all subjects underwent a simulator-based initial assessment designed to evaluate their critical care skills. Two blinded investigators assessed each student using a standardized checklist. Subsequently, the PBL group learned about dyspnea in a standard PBL format. The SIM group learned about dyspnea using the simulator. To equalize simulator education time, the PBL group learned about acute abdominal pain on the simulator, whereas the SIM group used the PBL format. On day 5, each student was tested on a unique dyspnea scenario.', "Mean initial assessment and final assessment checklist scores and their change for the SIM and PBL groups were compared using the Student's t-test. A p < .05 was considered significant. The SIM and PBL groups had similar mean (PBL 0.44, SIM 0.47, p = .64) initial assessment scores (earned score divided by maximum score) and were deemed equivalent. The SIM group performed better than the PBL group on the final assessment (mean, PBL 0.53, SIM 0.72, p < .0001). When each student's change in score (percent correct on final assessment minus percent correct on the initial assessment) was compared, SIM group students performed better (mean improvement, SIM 25 percentage points vs. PBL 8 percentage points, p < .04)

SOLUTION: 1

PROBLEM: Environmental ozone can rapidly degrade cyanine 5 (Cy5), a fluorescent dye commonly used in microarray gene expression studies. Cyanine 3 (Cy3) is much less affected by atmospheric ozone. Degradation of the Cy5 signal relative to the Cy3 signal in 2-color microarrays will adversely reduce the Cy5/Cy3 ratio resulting in unreliable microarray data.', 'Ozone in central Arkansas typically ranges between approximately 22 ppb to approximately 46 ppb and can be as high as 60-100 ppb depending upon season, meteorological conditions, and time of day. These levels of ozone are common in many areas of the country during the summer. A carbon filter was installed in the laboratory air handling system to reduce ozone levels in the microarray laboratory. In addition, the airflow was balanced to prevent non-filtered air from entering the laboratory. These modifications reduced the ozone within the microarray laboratory to approximately 2-4 ppb. Data presented here document reductions in Cy5 signal on both in-house produced microarrays and commercial microarrays as a result of exposure to unfiltered air. Comparisons of identically hybridized microarrays exposed to either carbon-filtered or unfiltered air demonstrated the protective effect of carbon-filtration on microarray data as indicated by Cy5 and Cy3 intensities. LOWESS normalization of the data was not able to completely overcome the effect of ozone-induced reduction of Cy5 signal. Experiments were also conducted to examine the effects of high humidity on microarray quality. Modest, but significant, increases in Cy5 and Cy3 signal intensities were observed after 2 or 4 hours at 98-99% humidity compared to 42% humidity.

SOLUTION: 0

PROBLEM: The effect of inhalational anesthetics on sensory-evoked unit activity in the cerebral cortex has been controversial. Desflurane has desirable properties for in vivo neurophysiologic studies, but its effect on cortical neuronal activity and neuronal responsiveness is not known. The authors studied the effect of desflurane on resting and visual evoked unit activity in rat visual cortex in vivo.', 'Desflurane was administered to adult albino rats at steady-state concentrations at 2%, 4%, 6%, and 8%. Flashes from a light emitting diode were delivered to the left eye at 5-s intervals. Extracellular unit activity within the right visual cortex was recorded using a 49-electrode array. Individual units were identified using principal components analysis.', 'At 2% desflurane, 578 active units were found. Of these, 75% increased their firing rate in response to flash. Most responses contained early (0-100 ms) and late (150-1000 ms) components. With increasing desflurane concentration, the number of units active at baseline decreased (-13%), the number of early-responding units increased (+31%), and number of late-responding units decreased (-15%). Simultaneously, baseline firing rate decreased (-77%), the early response was unchanged, and the late response decreased (-60%).

SOLUTION:
0