Word: benign
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...called elasticity imaging and, unlike a biopsy, involves no needles or scalpels. Yet it appears--on the basis of an initial study--to be remarkably good at distinguishing benign lumps from cancerous growths...
...clear to Barr or anyone else, when the elasticity software is applied, the image of a suspicious lump becomes larger if the lump is cancerous. Conversely, a noncancerous lesion appears smaller in an enhanced image. Additionally, cancerous lesions have a characteristic pattern--a sort of stringy network--whereas benign cysts look like a well-defined bull...
...little vague and subjective, but in Barr's hands, it seems to work. In a study of 80 women with 123 suspicious lumps in their breasts, elasticity imaging scored remarkably well. Subsequent biopsies showed that it correctly identified 17 out of 17 cancerous lesions and 105 out of 106 benign lesions. (There was one false positive.) Barr is understandably excited about the results. He envisions a day when this kind of technology might be able to eliminate biopsies altogether...
...much depend on the degree to which it is voluntary (scuba diving), unavoidable (public transit) or imposed (air quality), the degree to which we feel we are in control (driving) or at the mercy of others (plane travel), and the degree to which the source of possible danger is benign (doctor's orders), indifferent (nature) or malign (murder and terrorism). We make dozens of risk calculations daily, but you can book odds that most of them are so automatic-or visceral-that we barely notice them...
...intrinsic connection between Islam and violence, the Pontiff suddenly became a lot more interesting. Even when Islamic extremists destroyed several churches and murdered a nun in Somalia, Benedict refused to retract the essence of his remarks. In one imperfect but powerful stroke, he departed from his predecessor's largely benign approach to Islam and discovered an issue that might attract even the most religiously jaded. In doing so, he managed (for better or worse) to reanimate the clash-of-civilizations discussion by focusing scrutiny on the core question of whether Islam, as a religion, sanctions violence. He was hailed...