Definition: In this task, a passage will be given and the goal is to identify an event from the passage. An event is defined as a single word representing something that happened, is happening, or may happen. An event can be factual or hypothetical, positive or negative, certain or uncertain. While most events are based on verbs, an event can also be based on a noun (ex. storm, snow, rainfall) or a copula verb (is, was, been, etc.). The event must not be a pronoun or an adjective. For noun events with multiple words, use the last word in the phrase as event.
Input: Passage: At the time, government scientists had studied the brains of 444 hunting hounds that had died after showing signs of distress associated with BSE, and found abnormalities called fibrils, tiny fibres first noticed by scientists studying scrapie, a spongiform encephalopathy in sheep. The presence of fibrils, said the scientists, confirmed that some of the brains showed signs of a canine equivalent of mad cow disease.

time