OBJECTIVE To identify case definitions for chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), and explore how the validity of case definitions can be evaluated in the absence of a reference standard. DESIGN Systematic review. SETTING International. PARTICIPANTS A literature search, updated as of November 2013, led to the identification of 20 case definitions and inclusion of 38 ...

This study focuses on the relationship between lower-intermediate level EFL learners’ metacognitive awareness and accuracy in self-assessment of a speaking test. We tried to raise the learners’ metacognitive awareness through practice in goal-setting and planning. To do so, 103 lower-intermediate level students took a pretest of speaking, completed a metacognitive awareness questionnaire, and h...

in this article, a multi-objective function for placement of distributed generation (dg) and capacitors with thetap setting of under load tap changer (ultc) transformer is introduced. most of the recent articles have paidless attention to dg, capacitor placement and ultc effects in the distribution network simultaneously. insimulations, a comparison between different modes was carried out with,...

Priority setting of health interventions is generally considered as a valuable approach to support low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in their strive for universal health coverage (UHC). However, present initiatives on priority setting are mainly geared towards the development of more cost-effectiveness information, and this evidence does not sufficiently support countries to make optimal...

High-resolution pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the primary method for staging rectal cancer. MRI is highly accurate in the primary staging of rectal cancer; however, it has not proven to be effective in re-staging, especially in complete response evaluation after neoadjuvant therapy. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy produces many changes in rectal tumors and on adjacent area, as a resu...

BACKGROUND Group therapy and education and support sessions are used within health care across a range of disciplines such as chronic disease self-management and psychotherapy interventions. However, there are barriers that constrain group attendance, such as mobility, time, and distance. Using videoconferencing may overcome known barriers and improve the accessibility of group-based interventi...

Circulating tumour cells (CTC) are identified exploiting their protein/gene expression patterns or distinct size compared to blood cells. Data on CTC in bladder cancer (BC) are still scarce. We comparatively analyzed CTC enrichment by AdnaTest ProstateCancerSelect (AT) and ScreenCell®Cyto (SC) kits, combined with identification by EPCAM, MUC1, and ERBB2 expression and by cytological criteria, r...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate inpatient rehabilitation in public facilities in Australia against a utilization review tool used in the USA. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS Patients identified in the acute wards of a regional referral hospital and subsequently transferred to a public inpatient rehabilitation facility. METHODS The InterQual utilization review criteria were applied to days...

This paper examines how relations of trust are established and maintained in shared virtual environments (VE’s). The paper deals mainly with Activeworlds, an online multi-user desktop virtual reality (VR) system that has attracted many hundreds of thousands of users. We argue that the nature of trust depends on the social setting – in this case, a shared VE that is mainly used for entertainment...