ENVR 132 TOXC 142 BIOC 142 Spring 2005 Final Exam Guidelines Due on or before 10 AM Tuesday May 10 2005 Send via campus mail to Ivan Rusyn CB 7431 or e mail as an attachment to iir unc edu Original research papers for the final exam available in PDF format on the course website Free Radic Biol Med 2005 38 58 69 Cytotoxicity studies of chromium III complexes on human dermal fibroblasts Shrivastava HY Ravikumar T Shanmugasundaram N Babu M Unni Nair B Environ Health Perspect 2005 113 83 87 Dietary fat interacts with PCBs to induce changes in lipid metabolism in mice deficient in low density lipoprotein receptor Hennig B Reiterer G Toborek M Matveev SV Daugherty A Smart E Robertson LW Carcinogenesis 2005 26 503 509 Gene expression profiling of chemically induced rat mammary gland cancer Shan L Yu M Snyderwine EG Hepatology 2005 41 187 195 Lipopolysaccharide binding protein modulates acetaminophen induced liver injury in mice Su GL Gong KQ Fan MH Kelley WM Hsieh J Sun JM Hemmila MR Arbabi S Remick DG Wang SC For the final exam you are asked to select ONE published manuscript from 4 listed above carefully read the paper and prepare a 3 4 page double spaced review critique of this study using the guidelines provided below The use of textbooks lecture notes and other appropriate material is encouraged Feel free to engage in discussion with your peers advisors However this is not a collective work Each student must submit an independent answer The maximum score for this exam is 105 points or 35 of the total course grade 1 ENVR 132 TOXC 142 BIOC 142 Spring 2005 Guidelines for preparation of the final exam I suggest the following strategy read the paper once or several times to understand the general concept s study design results and conclusions Go to PubMed http www ncbi nlm nih gov entrez query fcgi and search by keywords going back 3 5 years Review the abstracts or if necessary the full text versions of papers that are related to the topic of your selected publication Try to understand what others have done in this area what prior knowledge led the authors to this particular study and how does this study move the field forward It might be also helpful to review recent last 35 years papers by this group of authors to understand how they came to a particular research question that was addressed in this manuscript Please use the sample questions that one might ask him her self while reading a ny research paper that are provided below The list below is not inclusive and feel free to add to it as you see other issues that get your attention Do not simply try to answer each and every question The format of your answers should read as a cohesive essay It is expected that your essay will contain at least three paragraphs sections that address each of the following 1 Summary of the paper 5 7 sentences that capture the highlights of this study 2 General comments critique What is the knowledge base for this study What was the hypothesis of this study Does this paper address a novel question and or uses novel experimental approach What was the experimental approach Is the paper clear and well organized Is the study focused Is the experimental model appropriate to address the hypothesis Is the experimental design sound Does this paper contain new findings ideas Are conclusions supported by the data How this paper advances our existing knowledge i e why is it important How does this study compare with other papers that you have read Is this manuscript appropriate for this journal 3 Comments critique to specific sections of the manuscript Abstract Is it concise and clear Is information provided sufficient to provide general understanding of the work Introduction Is it concise and clear Does it contain enough background information for a reader who is not an expert in this line of research Are references useful and contain additional more extensive information 2 ENVR 132 TOXC 142 BIOC 142 Spring 2005 After reading the Introduction do you feel ready to understand what are the critical gaps in our knowledge that this study will address Methods Contains sufficient experimental detail Would you be able to repeat the experiments in your own lab by following described experimental procedures Results Clarity of presentation Are Figures easy to understand Figure legends provide necessary details to understand what is shown and what the experiment was Are there inconsistencies in data presentation Is data repetitive Is some of the data not shown essential for understanding the study and should have been shown Is there an assay endpoint that you wish have been looked at in this study Discussion Does it repeat the results Are conclusions supported by the actual data Does it address the importance of this study for the advancement of science in this area Did authors think of yet unanswered questions future directions References Too many too few Are references appropriate helpful Are there any additional key papers that you feel should have been included Do the authors cite their own work too often is there an obvious bias presented 3
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