Exercise
Part I. MEDICAL LITERATURE
1. Why is the following statement true? "A longitudinal study usually provides more information than a
cross-sectional one." You may wish to support your answer with a specific example. (2 points)
2. Give one example of a conflict of interest that you would have to declare when you publish a study.
(2 points)
3. Briefly describe the difference between a narrative Review and a Systematic Review. (2 point)
4. Why is randomization necessary in clinical trials? (2 points)
5. A blinded experiment is a scientific experiment where some of the people involved are prevented
from knowing certain information that might lead to bias. Can you list at least two sources of bias?
(2 points)
Part II. READING COMPREHENSION
6. Read the following text and answer the questions on the right. (4 points)
(6a) Write the general research topic (GRT):
Introduction: The incidence of pancreatitis is increasing and about 50% of these cases are related
to gallstone disease.1The role of gallstones in the aetiology of pancreatitis was
first described by Opie in 1901. 2 The passage of gallstones through the ampulla of Vater may
trigger an attack of pancreatitis3-6 with the length of time that the calculus is impacted at the
sphincter of Oddi relating to the severity of the episode.7 The benefits of early endoscopic
retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic sphincterotomy (ES) in acute
severe pancreatitis compared with no treatment8,9 and the role of ERCP and ES in preventing
recurrence of pancreatitis prior to interval cholecystectomy have been well documented.
11,11Despite the benefit of ERCP in acute cases, cholecystectomy is still recommended in the
United Kingdom within 2 weeks of their pancreatitis. 12 In an aging population with increased
comorbidities, however, this treatment is not always appropriate. ERCP and sphincterotomy alone
has been shown to be effective in the prevention of gallstone pancreatitis, and this has
increasingly been used in the elderly and frail, 13-15but these studies are often limited by small
patient numbers or short duration of follow-up. Only the study by Vazquez- Iglesias et al. 13
which followed up 88 patients over a median follow-up period of 51 months supports the
longterm effectiveness of this strategy. We therefore present the follow-up of patients treated in
this way over a 10-year period.
7. Read the following text and answer the questions on the right. (6 points)
The original text from Elaine Tyler May's "Myths and Realities of the American Family"
reads as follows:
Because women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage,
single mothers rarely earn enough to support themselves and their children adequately. And
because work is still organized around the assumption that mothers stay home with children, even
though few mothers can afford to do so, child-care facilities in the United States remain woefully
inadequate.
(6b) Write the specific research question (SRQ) in a single sentence:
(7a) Is Verstion A a legitimate use of May's text or a plagiarism? Justify your reasons.
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Here are some possible uses of this text. As you read through each version, try to
decide if it is a legitimate use of May's text or a plagiarism.
Version A:
As Elaine Tyler May points out, "women's wages often continue to reflect the fiction that
men earn the family wage" (588). Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their
children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home
with children, facilities for day care in this country are still "woefully inadequate." (May 589).
Version B:
By and large, our economy still operates on the mistaken notion that men are the main
breadwinners in the family. Thus, women continue to earn lower wages than men. This means, in
effect, that many single mothers cannot earn a decent living. Furthermore, adequate day care is
not available in the United States because of the mistaken assumption that mothers remain at
home with their children.
Version D:
Women today still earn less than men — so much less that many single mothers and their
children live near or below the poverty line. Elaine Tyler May argues that this situation stems in
part from "the fiction that men earn the family wage" (588). May further suggests that the
American workplace still operates on the assumption that mothers with children stay home to care
for them (589).
This assumption, in my opinion, does not have the force it once did. More and more
businesses offer in-house day-care facilities. . . .
(7b) Is Verstion B a legitimate use of May's text or a plagiarism? Justify your reasons.
(7c) Is Verstion C a legitimate use of May's text or a plagiarism? Justify your reasons.
Part III. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate verb tenses. (5 points)
1. Severe sepsis ____________ (remain) the leading cause of death in non-cardiac intensive care units (ICUs) despite advances in intensive care.
2. This study ______________ (conduct) at the National Taiwan University Hospital, a 2150-bed tertiary teaching hospital in northern Taiwan.
3. In our study, compliance with the SRB for patients who developed eptic shock _______(be) very low, mainly because of the lack of ScvO2 measurement. This finding ________ (be) similar to the reports by
Levy et al. and Ferrer et al., who reported that ScvO2 >70% _____ (be) the least achieved goal in the management of severe sepsis.
Part IV. Eliminate the nominalization and passive voice below! Edit these sentences for clarity, concision, and style. (5 points)
1. The fact is that data analysis must be done immediately subsequent to its collection.
2. Our expectation was to establish new tolerance levels in people.
3. Two types of glaucoma valves were used for surgical therapy of NVG (neovascular glaucoma) in our study.
4. Obviously there was a wide variation in mortality.
5. A total of 128 subjects with epithelial ovarian carcinoma who underwent systematic lymphadenectormy at West China Hospital between 2005.8 and 2007.8 had clinicalpathologic data reviewed.
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