True Content Research Articles

Exploring Lightweight Interventions at Posting Time to Reduce the Sharing of Misinformation on Social Media

When users on social media share content without considering its veracity, they may unwittingly be spreading misinformation. In this work, we investigate the design of lightweight interventions that nudge users to assess the accuracy of information as they share it. Such assessment may deter users from posting misinformation in the first place, and their assessments may also provide useful guidance to friends aiming to assess those posts themselves. In support of lightweight assessment, we first develop a taxonomy of the reasons why people believe a news claim is or is not true; this taxonomy yields a checklist that can be used at posting time. We conduct evaluations to demonstrate that the checklist is an accurate and comprehensive encapsulation of people's free-response rationales. In a second experiment, we study the effects of three behavioral nudges---1) checkboxes indicating whether headings are accurate, 2) tagging reasons (from our taxonomy) that a post is accurate via a checklist and 3) providing free-text rationales for why a headline is or is not accurate---on people's intention of sharing the headline on social media. From an experiment with 1668 participants, we find that both providing accuracy assessment and rationale reduce the sharing of false content. They also reduce the sharing of true content, but to a lesser degree that yields an overall decrease in the fraction of shared content that is false. Our findings have implications for designing social media and news sharing platforms that draw from richer signals of content credibility contributed by users. In addition, our validated taxonomy can be used by platforms and researchers as a way to gather rationales in an easier fashion than free-response.

Content determination of phenolic acids in fresh Salvia miltiorrhiza and effect of polyphenol oxidase on content

There is no consensus on the content, accumulation, transformation and content determination methods of phenolic acids in fresh Salvia miltiorrhiza. In order to find out the true content of phenolic acids in fresh S. miltiorrhiza, a variety of treatment me-thods were used in this study to prepare sample solution. The content changes of phenolic acids in S. miltiorrhiza samples with different dehydration rates were investigated during drying and shade drying processes. Polyphenol oxidase(PPO) of S. miltiorrhiza was extracted and purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and dialysis to investigate the enzymatic properties. The content of rosmarinic acid, lithosperic acid and S. nolic acid B in S. miltiorrhiza was determined by UPLC. The results showed that the content of phenolic acids in fresh S. miltiorrhiza was highest when it was homogenized with 1 mol·L~(-1) HCl solution or 1 mol·L~(-1) HCl methanol solution. There was no significant difference in the content of phenolic acids in S. miltiorrhiza with different dehydration rates, indicating that there was no correlation between phenolic acid content and dehydration rate. The optimum pH of S. miltiorrhiza PPO was 7.6 and the optimum temperature was 40 ℃. With catechol as substrate, S. miltiorrhiza PPO had the enzymatic browning reaction which was in compliance with Michaelis equation, with Michaelis constant K_m of 0.12 mol·L~(-1) and V_(max) of 588.23 U·min~(-1). The inhibitory effect of citric acid, disodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate, ascorbic acid and sodium sulfite on S. miltiorrhiza PPO increased with the increase of inhibitor concentration, and sodium sulfite showed the strongest inhibitory effect. The present study proved that there were a large number of phenolic acids in fresh S. miltiorrhiza, which were the secondary metabolite of primitive accumulation during the growth of S. miltiorrhiza, rather than the induced product of postharvest drying and dehydration stress. This study has reference value and significance for the cultivation, harvest and processing of S. miltiorrhiza.

The gastrointestinal clinical trial landscape: A cross-sectional analysis of clinicaltrials.gov from 2007-2019.

468 Background: The burden of gastrointestinal (GI) disease is high, costing over $97 billion annually in the United States (U.S.) alone. Yet the methodological rigor and characteristics of trials leading to guideline development are rarely explored. In 2007, the U.S. mandated that all interventional studies (Phase II-IV) register with ClinicalTrials.gov, the largest international clinical trial database. We characterized registered GI trials to identify features associated with early discontinuation, results reporting and increased methodological rigor. Methods: We employed a cross-sectional study design with descriptive, logistic regression, cox regression, time series and survival analyses. We downloaded data for 327 075 studies registered on the Aggregate Analysis of the ClinicalTrials.gov database from October 1, 2007 to December 31, 2019. Trials were excluded if registered prior to 2007 (n=38 111) or for non-interventional study design (n=69 233). After applying GI specific Medical Subject Heading terms to the remaining 219 731 trials, 22 339 trials were identified for manual review. 20 548 trials were found to contain true GI content, representing over seven million patients. Primary exposure variables were trial focus (disease process, anatomical location) and funding (industry, U.S. government, academic). Results: Of the 20 548 GI trials, 6.1% were funded by the U.S. government, 35.6% by industry, and 58.3% by academic institutions. The most studied disease process was neoplasia (42.6% of trials), followed by viral hepatitis (10.8%). The majority of neoplasia trials were funded by academic institutions (60.3%) and studied colorectal neoplasms (31.5%), followed by hepatic (17.9%), pancreatic (15.5%), gastric (12.8%), esophageal (10.6%) and biliary tract (4.9%) neoplasms. U.S. government funded trials had the lowest risk of early discontinuation (adjusted Hazard Ratio 0.63, 95% CI: 0.48-0.83, p<0.001) and the highest rates of results reporting (25%, X2 p<0.001). Among all trials, the majority did not report Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) oversight (58.6%). Only 12% of phase III trials employed a rigorous methodology, which we defined as being randomized, double blinded, multi-site, overseen by a DMC, and having enrolled ≥50 patients. Government sponsored trials had the highest proportion of trials meeting this definition (19%). Academic sponsored trials, constituting the majority of trials overall, had the lowest proportion (5.3%), in part due to not meeting the multi-site criteria. Conclusions: Despite constituting the minority of trials overall, U.S. government funded trials displayed the highest methodological rigor. Stakeholders can look to U.S. government funded trials as a model of improvement, but nevertheless must commit to increasing methodological rigor and results dissemination to strengthen trial findings that guide GI clinical recommendations.

John Lofland's concept of analytical ethnography

The paper presents a historical and theoretical interpretation of the ethnographic paradigm in the social sciences, its specificity, general principles of application and main research directions. The sources of analytical ethnography, its founders and the period of formation as an independent approach in the structure of interpretive metaparadigm are briefly considered. An ethnographic perspective is defined as a systematic, integral understanding of social processes and the organization of the collective life in the context of everyday practices. The intellectual heritage of the analytical ethnography’s founder John Lofland is presented by characterizing the basic research principles that constitute the essence of his theoretical and methodological strategy: generic propositions; unfettered inquiry; deep familiarity; emergent analysis; true content; new content; developed treatment. An attempt is made to trace the further connections of Lofland's analytical approach with other areas of the ethnographic paradigm.

Сөз бостандығы — демократияның басты талабы

Kazakh media are experiencing difficulties inherited from the Soviet media system. As a result, remnants of the old structures that hinder and restrict independent journalism are still visible. This question is relevant when studying the current state of media independence. In this context, the authors’ main idea of the author of the article is that the exercise of freedom of speech and journalistic independence is a prerequisite for the development of democracy and other rights of citizens. If the state does not allow open and fair competition among different ideas about how to govern the country, there is no guarantee that strong ideas supported by a democratic majority will prevail. At the same time, restricting the flow of information, preventing the independence of journalism - leads to violations of human rights. The authors examine the true content of freedom of speech in international law, provide examples of best practices in other countries and regions, and present concepts developed by leading international and public organizations, as well as experts from around the world.

Aesthetic Resistance Theory: The Use of Mythology in Selected Poems by Nancy Morejón

The present paper first sheds light on resistance theory, aesthetic theory, and aesthetic resistance theory as an attempt to form the term “aesthetic resistance in poetry.” Then, in light of this term, the researcher examines selected poems of Nancy Morejon on the ground of using mythology as an aesthetic resistance instrument to resist oppression against Africans minority. Resistance discourse is any act intended to resist oppression whether a slave master, multinational cooperation, occupying or ruling power, and causes transformation in the existing order to give space for the marginalized groups. Resistance poetry is the poet’s innovations either linguistically or any other innovations which brings ethical and political transformations in the oppressive structure. Resistance literature creates new world that leads to new perspectives and establishes examples that bring ethical and political transformations to oppressive structures. Gail Weiss believes that resistance literature creates space for the marginalized to resist oppression through language to form ethical and political transformation (Weiss 97). Accordingly, the resistance writers across cultures believe that their non-violent struggle and literary historical reclamation are important area of cultural territory. For instance, the poet Nancy Morejon resists oppression and marginalization through her poetry. Aesthetic theory reveals the true content of the work of art and describes art from within. Aesthetic dwells in the work of art that forms opinion and changes the society. Nancy Morejon is a postmodern resistance women poet who represents the voice of the Afro-Cuban experience as they suffer from marginalization. The poet regards her poems as primal instrument of resistance that can act as effective socio-political actor. Morejon does not have any expression of self-pity that might evoke or reinforce the notion of passivity. The poet calls on African slaves for transculturation, to integrate into Caribbean culture and consider it as their new homeland through mythology.

On the Linguistic Analysis of Fake News Texts in German Political Discourse

The article analyzes fake news texts from the perspective of linguistic pragmatics and its key concept, speech act theory. The specificity of fake news lies in the fact that, while ontologically functioning as a carrier of factual information, this type of text contains intentionally false information deliberately presented as real facts, often rendered provocative. Linguistic study of the fake news phenomenon is especially relevant since there is a clear demand for effective tools that would help disclose fake news texts, understand their nature, and describe functional features of such texts in political communication. Analyzing the modern German political discourse, the authors identify a trend of using fake news texts to vilify and destroy the authority and reputation of certain political forces and describe a number of key features of fake news texts. The article outlines issues related to the linguistic study and verification of fake news texts with the hope to develop reliable models for describing this text type and to develop practical guidelines that would enable users to detect fake news in discourse. The study justifies the high explanatory potential of the speech act theory which offers objective means to examine the manipulation mechanism in fake news texts in terms of the illocutionary force and the perlocutionary effect of an utterance. The analysis of the illocutionary struc-ture of fake news messages leads to the conclusion that false propositional content in conjunction with the constitutive rules of the illocution “statement” of the text type “news” is conditional on the high perlocutionary effect of fake news in the modern German political discourse. The article evaluates the prospects of studying fake news texts from within the paradigm of the speech act theory and links them to identifying linguistic markers of deliberate distortion of the true propositional content.

227 Evaluation of mixer performance in cattle finishing diets of varying physical characteristics

Abstract An experiment was conducted to evaluate batch fraction (BF), physical characteristics (DIET), and mixing duration (DUR) on long particle distribution in finishing diets. Diets were mixed in a 2.35 m3 horizontal mixer. The experiment was designed as a 5×3×2 factorial arrangement with nine replications per simple mean. Factors included 1) BF (n = 5), 2) DIET (n = 3) containing no corn-milling by-product (CON), a dry-corn milling by-product [47.45 ± 1.015% DM (as-is basis); DRY], or a wet-corn milling by-product [43.67 ± 1.786% DM (as-is basis); WET], and 3) mixing duration (n = 2) of 20 or 25 revolutions. Diets contained a 1:1 blend of DRC:HMC, the corn-milling by-products replaced the corn blend (20% total diet DM inclusion), grass hay (6% DM inclusion), liquid supplement (5% DM inclusion), and a meal supplement (7% DM inclusion). Data were analyzed as a CRD using the GLIMMIX procedure (SAS Inst., Inc., Cary, NC) using a multinomial approach. Samples of the total mixed ration (TMR) were subjected to separation via the Penn State Particle Separator. The dependent variable of interest was the portion of the TMR retained on the 19 mm sieve. No interactions were detected (P ≥ 0.49). There was an 87.1% (P = 0.01) increase in retention on the 19 mm sieve for last BF compared to the first BF. Diet influenced (P = 0.04) 19 mm sieve retention, there was 10.2% less TMR retained on the 19 mm sieve for DRY versus WET; CON was intermediate. Mixing duration did not influence (P = 0.73) 19 mm sieve retention. These data indicate that as the mixer unloads there can be nearly double the amount of roughage fed; differing physical characteristics of the diet only moderately influence the true roughage content fed. Differing roughage content delivered depending upon the BF could influence daily intake, feed efficiency and alter observed to expected ratios of dietary net energy.

Comprehension of the ideological content of P. A. Oyunsky's poem “The Red Shaman” through the lens of modernity

Over the past decades, public consciousness has undergone reconsideration of the spiritual values. This heightened the interest towards the works of the classics of world literature, including Yakut. Among the compositions of Yakut literature, the dramatic poem by P. A. Oyunsky “The Red Shaman” is of definite interest. This work, as an example of high art, continues to heat the imagination and gives food for thoughts. Since its first publication, “The Red Shaman” arouses interest of multiple literary scholars and linguists. There is an urgent need for revising its ideological content through the prism of universal outlook upon the world as demanded by time. An attempt is made to reveal the true content of P. A. Oyunsky’s dramatic poem The Red Shaman” from the perspective of new generation of the audience, by detection of literary techniques applied by the author, examination of conflict situations, interaction between the images that requires axiomatic method, as well as usage of the method of abstraction within the framework of anthropomorphic principle of research that suggests reference to the primary source for ethical-philosophical interpretation based on the new approach. The attention of both, audience and researchers is currently focused on comprehension of the authentic content of P. Oyunsky's compositions outside the influence of traditional interpretations. For the contemporary audience “The Red Shaman” disclosures the new sides of its ideological-literary content. This work contains the author's profound reasoning on the trends of development of modern society, which requires a different approach towards the artistic heritage of the prominent poet.

In silico benchmarking of metagenomic tools for coding sequence detection reveals the limits of sensitivity and precision

BackgroundHigh-throughput sequencing can establish the functional capacity of a microbial community by cataloging the protein-coding sequences (CDS) present in the metagenome of the community. The relative performance of different computational methods for identifying CDS from whole-genome shotgun sequencing is not fully established.ResultsHere we present an automated benchmarking workflow, using synthetic shotgun sequencing reads for which we know the true CDS content of the underlying communities, to determine the relative performance (sensitivity, positive predictive value or PPV, and computational efficiency) of different metagenome analysis tools for extracting the CDS content of a microbial community. Assembly-based methods are limited by coverage depth, with poor sensitivity for CDS at < 5X depth of sequencing, but have excellent PPV. Mapping-based techniques are more sensitive at low coverage depths, but can struggle with PPV. We additionally describe an expectation maximization based iterative algorithmic approach which we show to successfully improve the PPV of a mapping based technique while retaining improved sensitivity and computational efficiency.ConclusionOur benchmarking approach reveals the trade-offs of assembly versus alignment-based approaches and the relative performance of specific implementations when one wishes to extract the protein coding capacity of microbial communities.

Writing Philosophy from the Periphery: Lixing as Foundational Empty Signifier in Tang Junyi\u2019s Cultural Consciousness and Moral Reason

This article adopts Ernesto Laclau’s notion of empty signifier to discuss Tang Junyi’s uses of the concept of lixing (‘reason’ or ‘rationality’) in his seminal work Cultural Consciousness and Moral Reason (文化意識與道德理性; 1958). My dual goal, in doing so, is to bring to light the relations of power constitutive of the text’s discourse on lixing and relate them to the problematic of writing philosophy from the periphery. I argue that in this work, lixing’s dual referents—as a translation of ‘reason’ and as denoting a Neo-Confucian faculty to intuit moral truths—allow Tang to inscribe himself in a philosophical field designed to exclude non-Western philosophies, while at the same time enabling him to symbolically relegate Euro-American philosophy to a peripheral position by filling in the notion of lixing with a content that legitimizes his own agenda. Tang could thus authorize his Confucian metaphysics by presenting it as the true content of lixing, understood not only as a universal faculty enabling humanity’s access to all that is universal, but also as a condition sine qua non of for one’s inclusion in the philosophical game. By attempting to co-opt the empty signifier (lixing/reason) for his own purposes, I argue Tang employs one of two possible strategies that can be adopted by those situated at the periphery in order to oppose the hegemon; one that leaves the structure of power relations intact but working in favor of the periphery.

Digital Image Encryption Based on Chaotic Cellular Automata

Cellular automata are dynamical systems, discrete in terms of both space and time. Many cellular automata are capable of generating chaos and are well suited for applications like digital image encryption and scrambling. Various cellular automata-based digital image scrambling techniques have been proposed in literature. An adversary may have access to a set of images from which the particular image is scrambled. The problem with these techniques in this particular case is that an adversary may be able to find out the true content of the scrambled image just by comparing its histogram with the histograms of a suspected set of images. In this paper, a secure digital image encryption technique based on outer totalistic cellular automata is proposed that modifies the histogram of the scrambled image so that it is difficult to guess the true content carried in the digital image.

THE CONCEPT OF ACCOUNTS PAYABLE IN THE COMPOSITION OF CRIMES IN THE SPHERE OF ECONOMIC ACTIVIT

The norms of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are in the overwhelmingmajority of a blanket nature. Blanketness implies the need to appeal to other, in addition to criminal,branches of law to establish the content of a criminal law prohibition. However, the criminal law containsdefinitions that are not defined not only in the normative acts of various branches of law, but also in thelegal doctrine. Of course, such a situation significantly complicates the process of understanding the true content of the criminal law norm, as a result, can lead to significant errors in law enforcement. One ofthese definitions is “accounts payable”. The term itself is directly mentioned in the disposition of one normof the criminal law — Art. 177 (malicious evasion from paying off accounts payable). However, the term“accounts payable” must be established when qualifying a number of other acts, for example, such as unlawfulactions in bankruptcy, deliberate bankruptcy, fraud associated with deliberate failure to fulfill contractualobligations (parts 4 and 5 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In this article,the author, on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the economic content, civil law regulation and thespecifics of criminal law application, proposes his own approach to establishing the content of the conceptof “accounts payable”, which can be useful both in developing a model of effective criminal law protectionof economic activity, and and in the process of law enforcement.

Dark-Skinned Servants Through the Eyes of a White Author: a case study of K. Stockett’s Novel “The Help”

If white authors speak on behalf of dark-skinned characters in their texts, African-American critics and writers often accuse them of attempting cultural appropriation. In this case, according to African-Americans, white people describe them only stereotypically and thus deprive them of a voice. Despite this, such attempts continue. In 2009, K. Stockett released her novel “The Help”, which is narrated by three women, including two dark-skinned maids (Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson). These characters tell about their experiences working for white masters in the early 1960s, in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, during a time of severe racial segregation. Newly arising after every release of such literary or film texts (just remember the recent film “Green book”), the ongoing controversy over cultural appropriation determines the relevance of addressing this topic. K. Stockett presents these characters as anti-racism fighters, with the word as their main weapon. Minny bluntly tells her employers what she thinks of them, which is in line with how African-American authors describe in their texts a way of speaking boldly to those you obey, called “to sass”. On the other hand, Aibileen tries not to show her attitude to white people and, in conversations with them, encodes the true content of her statements as much as possible, in fact using the practice of “signifying”, also characteristic of African-American culture: persuading other maids to tell a white girl about the relationship between masters and servants in their city, in order for it to be published. She deems the written preservation of an ethnic group history as a way to fight against racism. The author comes to the conclusion that K. Stockett follows, consciously or not, the traditions of African-American literature, in which many dark-skinned characters appear as tricksters.

On-chip debugging for microprocessor design

This article proposes a closer-to-metal approach of RTL inspection in microprocessor design for use in education, engineering, and research. Signals of interest are tapped throughout the microprocessor hierarchical design and are then output to the top-level entity and finally displayed to a VGA monitor. Input clock signal can be fed as slow as one wish to trace or debug the microprocessor being designed. An FPGA development board, along with its accompanying software package, is used as the design and test platform. The use of VHDL commands ’type’ and ’record’ in the hierarchy provides key ingredients in the overall design, since this allows simple, clean, and tractable code. The method is tested on MIPS single-cycle microprocessor blueprint. The result shows that the technique produces more consistent display of the true contents of registers, ALU input/output signals, and other wires – compared to the standard, widely-used simulation method. This approach is expected to increase confidence in students and designers since the reported signals’ values are the true values. Its use is not limited to the development of microprocessors; every FPGAbased digital design can benefit from it.

제임스의 물자체와 에밀 샤를 랑비네

As Arthur Schopenhauer initiated, thing-in-itself which is essential to the world, the true content of its phenomena is the subject of art, the work of genius that recognizes and represents the innermost essence of every particular thing. Through the pure contemplation of ourselves as pure, will-less subjects of knowing, we can recognize in the object of knowing not its mere appearance or phenomenon, but the inner nature as thing-in-itself. Henry James who believed that the novelist as an artist should catch the colour of life, kept emphasizing and developing the importance of art that recognizes and represents the thing-in-itself as the essence of life. His protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether in The Ambassadors lives in large measure by his impressionist eyes, but eventually develops his painter’s eyes into the original characteristics of Émile Charles Lambinet’s landscape. Lambinet’s landscape that is original in its coexistence of countrysides’s views and figures, guides Strether to move through the exquisite superficial play of light and air around the figures and objects. Through the long-lasting repetitive reflection of the Lambinet’s landscape that no longer lets him stop at the phenomenon, Strether is led on to the thing-in-itself, the phase of Idea.

A teoria da reminiscência em Agostinho: apropriação e crítica

This article aims at receiving the Platonic theory of reminiscence in Augustine and aims to present how the bishop of Hippo appropriates Plato's thesis to build his theory of enlightenment. From the fundamental texts of Plato's theory of knowledge there is a discussion about the validity or otherwise of the so-called reminiscence and what would be its true content. Augustine, centuries later, is faced with the same problem explored by him and needs a different answer: to explain knowledge present in the soul that does not originate from experience and yet does not come from the preexistence of the soul. We shall therefore approach Augustine's movement of reception, criticism, and appropriation of Platonic theory, as well as the Augustinian answer to the problem to which Plato, according to him, does not respond satisfactorily.

Contents of corrective work and problem questions of their applications

The article is devoted to the historical and legal analysis of such type of punishment as correctional labor. In States with market relations, punishments in the form of correctional labor are not applied, and it is not easy to find out the reason for this condition. We see the relevance of our research in finding out the problems of application and execution of correctional labor.&#x0D; The purpose of this article is to analyze theoretical and practical recommendations aimed at improving the legislation and practice of correctional labor, based on the study of the historical development, changes in the political, economic, legal and social situation of the Ukrainian state, to identify the place of this type of punishment in the system of criminal penalties and to determine the true content of correctional labor as a type of criminal legal impact on convicts. Correctional labor is a measure of state coercion that is applied as the main type of punishment to a convicted person who does not have a main place of work, with the deduction of part of his salary to the state’s income.&#x0D; In this work, the author defines the place of correctional labor in the system of punishments of Ukraine, the range of persons to whom this punishment can be applied, as well as the categories of persons to whom it is not applied. The article raises the question of the further existence of punishment in the form of correctional labor. Theoretical and practical prerequisites point to the need to exclude this type of punishment from the system of punishments.&#x0D; Prospects for further scientific research in this direction should be scientific support for the removal of correctional labor from the criminal law, which will not only prove that the legislator takes into account the realities of today, but also a significant step in the modernization of the entire system of punishments. A real alternative to correctional labor in the sanctions of articles of the Special part of the Criminal code of Ukraine may well be a fine and community service.

Promotion or inhibition? Moral norms, anticipated emotion and employee’s pro-environmental behavior

Through applying the dual inheritance theory to organizational context, the study constructed the systematic research model based on the relationship between moral norms, moral values and pro-environmental behavior, and interpreted the influence factors of employees’ pro-environmental behavior from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. The results revealed that effect mechanisms of the congruence between injunctive moral norms and moral values on employees’ intrinsical pro-environmental behavior and extrinsical pro-environmental behavior. Moreover, based on the thoughts that emotions embody the true content of individual adaptation psychology to norms in the process of behavior selection, both anticipated pride and anticipated guilt were incorporated into the above mechanisms and descriptive moral norm as the boundary condition for the congruence of “injunctive moral norms-moral values” to affect employees’ anticipated pride and anticipated guilt. Through investigating 954 employees of firms, the results showed that the congruence of “injunctive moral norms-moral values” promoted employees’ intrinsical pro-environmental behavior positively, anticipated pride and anticipated guilt mediated the relationship between the congruence of “injunctive moral norms-moral values” and intrinsical pro-environmental behavior. Descriptive moral norms negatively moderated the positive effect of congruence of “injunctive moral norms-moral values” and anticipated pride. The moderating effect of low descriptive moral norms was stronger than that of high descriptive moral norms in detailed. The results found some interesting insights, which were of great theoretical and managerial significance.

Rogue stem cell clinics.

Cell therapies hold significant promise for the treatment of injured or diseased musculoskeletal tissues. However, despite advances in research, there is growing concern about the increasing number of clinical centres around the world that are making unwarranted claims or are performing risky biological procedures. Such providers have been known to recommend, prescribe, or deliver so called ‘stem cell’ preparations without sufficient data to support their true content and efficacy. In this annotation, we outline the current environment of stem cell-based treatments and the strategies of marketing directly to consumers. We also outline the difficulties in the regulation of these clinics and make recommendations for best practice and the identification and reporting of illegitimate providers.Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2020;102-B(2):148–154