JerMa88/BMC_Womens_Health_Peer_Reviews huggingface dataset:
Title: Assessment of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Women Living in Precarious
Households in a Turkish Urban Area
Version: 1 Date: 24 Oct 2023
Reviewer's report:
I appreciate the opportunity to review this article. Please find a few comments to strengthen the
manuscript further.
Introduction
1. What is the source of your definition of poverty?
Methods
1. “In addition to site visits, administrators in charge of five different municipality-community
centers were interviewed to determine the study population, and a border of 2667 households
was drawn with health affairs manager of the municipality and restricted to women” Why was
there a need to interview administrators to identify the study population? Why did you restrict
the population to women?
2. “One out of every ten houses was visited using the systematic sampling technique, and only
one of the households with common areas such as the kitchen, toilet, and inner courtyard was
included in the study” Where was your starting point? How did you determine that the household
has these infrastructures?
3. “research group was reduced to 215” Do you mean the sample?
4. “Content Validity Ratio (CVR) values for every item were found to be greater than 0.54.”
What does this mean?
5. “Figure 1. The development process of the dependent variables of the study
With a Cronbach's coefficient of 0.78, the WASH-Behaviors scale was compatible with factor
analysis (KMO=0.805, p<0.05). The scale accounted for 54.3% of the total variance.  The
WASH-Conditions in Household Scale had a Cronbach's coefficient of 0.85, and it explained
52.2% of the total variance (KMO=0.787, p<0.001). The items' Spearman-Brown coefficient
was 0.67, 0.62, respectively and the item-to-total correlations were greater than 0.3 for each
scale. As a result, the scale minimum and maximum score were 5-56 and 1-16, respectively”
Shouldn’t this be under results?
Discussion
1. “Due to sociocultural status of study area our findings only apply to women. However, studies
in the literature suggest that women carry a disproportionate share of the burden for WASH
in groups of comparable socioeconomic status” If your developing a scale and want it to be
replicated elsewhere, it is important to collect data from all demographics. Also, literature has
shown that in some settings, men equally participate in WASH activities as women.
2. “As a result, the fact that our study's participants were all women only emphasizes how gender
influences who bears the burden of household duties” You chose to concentrate on women,
unless your questionnaire specifically asked who is responsible for WASH activities within the
household. Also, Maybe I missed it, the water aspect of WASH was not mentioned or talked
about, why?
3. “Given our population's disadvantages, hand washing rates demonstrated a positive situation”
This conflicts literature. Given your description of the study population, if it is a poor population
that lack access to WASH how are they keeping up with hand hygiene? In particular, when
people don’t have access to clean water to drink, how are they keeping up with good hygiene,
and how did you measure
Title: Assessment of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Among Women Living in Precarious
Households in a Turkish Urban Area
Version: 2 Date: 10 Dec 2023
Reviewer's report:
The authors have addressed all the comments well, especially the methods section. The
comprehensive detail provided by the authors ensures that any researcher, regardless of their
familiarity with the subject matter, possesses the requisite information to repeat the research.
Title: Effective Strategies for Increasing the Uptake of Modern Methods of Family Planning in
South Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Version: 2 Date: 11 Jul 2023
Reviewer:  Rita Kabra
Reviewer's report:
This is an interesting and informative manuscript, that aims to review effective strategies for
increasing the uptake of modern methods of Family Planning in South Asia and i would like to
congratulate the authors for completing this review- an important area of work
Some suggestions to further strengthen the paper:
Methodology
The authors do mention the journals reviewed during the period- from 1st January 2000 to 4th
May 2021. However, they do not mention when the search was conducted. This date is more
than two years ago This date is more than two years ago. We suggest the authors to reconsider
including more recent studies as well?
Similarly – it is not clear which countries from South Asia included in the review?  The authors
y only mentions the list of countries in the results section in the included studies,  but does not
include the countries that were searched.
Among the included studies, could the authors add how many of the studies were included
from grey literature and what were the source of these studies? Were any studies included from
snowballing technique?
Some references to the studies are missing in the narrative
Results
Among the included 513 studies, could the authors include how many of the studies were
included from grey literature and what were the source of these studies? Were any studies
included from snowballing technique?
Can the authors add a column in table 1 for the identified interventions. as it easier for the reader
to know what the key interventions were since that is the main objective of this paper.
Discussion
Among the included studies from different countries in South Asia, did you do a subgroup
analysis to compare whether the FP interventions between the individual countries resulted in
improve contraceptive uptake?
I miss the section on limitations, and the disaggregation of demand generation activities, DG
activities encompass a wide range of activities targeted at individual, social media, communities
etc.  suggest the authors make a reference to the range of DG activities and the reasoning to
focus only on  a few  at least under  limitations
Title: Effective Strategies for Increasing the Uptake of Modern Methods of Family Planning in
South Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Version: 2 Date: 11 Aug 2023
Reviewer's report:
Important area of  interventions in FP service delivery considered for systematic review and
very relevant to SEA countries.
1. There is no proper description of systematic review pertaining to the outcomes studied. The
systematic review description of studies must include type of intervention, populations studied
and FP methods accepted, used and outcomes long with side effects. The authors have directly
gone ahead to describe findings of meta analysis
2.Wherever they are quoting studies, references need to be given
3. Were there any studies which had both Community based interventions  and health system
interventions? If yes how were they considered for analysis
4. Maternal and neonatal outcome component was not objective of the search and hence could
be omitted form the manuscript.
6. Results of community based interventions need to be analyzed further to state which of the
listed interventions worked best.
7. Its also important to understand the community context of interventions  and which
interventions are best suited to the type of community being addressed.
8. Sensitivity analysis  needs further details; how did they vary parameters and  how did they
decide which parameters to vary? -High risk parameters?
9. Discussion could elaborate further as to why GRADE evidence showed low certainty but
sensitivity analysis demonstrated  that results remained consistent
Title: Effective Strategies for Increasing the Uptake of Modern Methods of Family Planning in
South Asia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Version: 4 Date: 28 Nov 2023
Reviewer:  Rita Kabra
Reviewer's report:
Have reviewed the revised manuscript- some suggestions-
The authors should include the reasoning for collating experimentally evaluated FP
interventions. It is well known that in practice things work differently, so it is not clear why
we need to do SR on experimentally evaluated FP interventions. Much is already known about
demand generation activities working in experiment /research studies, it would be good to read
how it works in real life situation.
in the discussion section- please review lines 462- 466. it appears irrelevant.
similarly, suggest reviewing limitations- lines 473- 477.
in the end- I would recommend authors need to add- what new knowledge is created?
Title: PHLPP1 inhibits the growth and aerobic glycolysis activity of human ovarian granular
cells through inactivating AKT pathway
Version: 1 Date: 02 Jul 2023
Reviewer's report:
The manuscript submitted by Yang et al. presents the involvement of DHT regulates expression
of PHLPP1 in PCOS.   Although the topic is interesting, it contains flaws that should be
elucidated to reconsider as a suitable for publication in BMC Women's Health.
The main concerns are as follows:
1. The model explaining the role of PHLPP1 in the pathogenesis of PCOS through DHT
treatment of KGN cells lacks rigor. KGN cells are derived from ovarian granulosa cell tumors
and are also used for studying ovarian disease mechanisms. However, the authors did not
demonstrate a decrease in PHLPP1 expression in PCOS patients. Therefore, it can only be
inferred that DHT can regulate PHLPP1 expression, thereby affecting the function of ovarian
granulosa cell tumor cells. To prove that DHT can decrease PHLPP1 expression in PCOS
patients, the authors must use non-tumor ovarian cell lines or provide evidence of decreased
PHLPP1 expression in PCOS patients with hyperandrogenism.
2. LY294002 is an inhibitor of PI3K, not a direct inhibitor of p-AKT. Therefore, the effects
observed after LY294002 treatment are a result of inhibiting PI3K, and should not be confused
with the effects caused by inhibiting AKT.
3. In the results of Figure 4, the authors described that "IGF is an activator of p-AKT."
However, IGF is a ligand that, upon binding to the IGF receptor on the cell membrane,
further phosphorylates AKT through the PI3K pathway. In contrast, PHLPP1 is localized in the
cytoplasm, where it directly binds to AKT and inhibits its phosphorylation. Therefore, using IGF
as an activator of p-AKT to investigate the counteracting effect of IGF on PHLPP1-mediated
inhibition of p-AKT phosphorylation is inappropriate. The authors should use alternative
activators to replace IGF.
4. Statistical analysis was conducted on Western Blot results after at least three experiments.
5. There are abnormalities in the expression of PHLPP1 in Supplemental Figure 2B and D.
The expression levels of PHLPP1 in the control group (Figure S2B) and the overexpression
group (OE) in Figure S2D show little difference. Additionally, the expression level of PHLPP1
in the shRNA group in Figure S2B is similar to the control group in Figure S2D. The authors
are requested to provide an explanation for this phenomenon. It is suggested that the authors
simultaneously investigate the expression of PHLPP1 in the OE, control, and shRNA groups,
which would be more appropriate.
6. The description of the experimental methods is too concise. To ensure the reproducibility of
the experiments, it is recommended to provide more detailed descriptions of the experimental
procedures.
Minor comments:
1. In Figure 2B, the bottom of the images should be aligned.
2. Was an antibiotic used during cell culture? If yes, please provide a description.
3. qPCR “RNA was isolated by TRIzol” ->”Total RNA was isolated by TRIzol”
4. P-values < 0.05 -> “p" italic
Title: PHLPP1 inhibits the growth and aerobic glycolysis activity of human ovarian granular
cells through inactivating AKT pathway
Version: 1 Date: 21 Aug 2023
Reviewer's report:
The authors of manuscript entitled “PHLPP1 inhibits the growth and aerobic glycolysis activity
of human ovarian granular cells through inactivating AKT pathway” investigated the effects of
PHLPP1 on the regulation of glycolysis and human ovarian granular cell proliferation to provide
scientific basis for developing new treatments for PCOS. Overall, this paper proposed a new
mechanism regarding the molecular targeted therapy in treatment of ovarian cancer. However,
some points should be considered before publication:
1. In the discussion part, please provide more information about the possible mechanism of the
studied genes and possible pathways.
2. I recommend providing the studied mechanism in a figure.
3. Why have the granulosa cells of women with PCOS not been used? If these cells were used,
would the same results be obtained? Please explain.
Title: PHLPP1 inhibits the growth and aerobic glycolysis activity of human ovarian granular
cells through inactivating AKT pathway
Version: 2 Date: 28 Sep 2023
Reviewer's report:
While the authors have provided some reasonable explanations, there are still certain aspects
that need further clarification.
1. The inhibitor experiments are a crucial component of this study. It is understandable if one
inhibitor was misinterpreted, but when both inhibitors are reported as being mishandled and none
of the six authors noticed, it is highly unconvincing. As a reviewer, I hold a strong skepticism
towards the experimental results.
2. Please specify the protein loading amounts in the Western blot experiments and provide the
PCR conditions for each target gene in qPCR. Additionally, confirm the specificity of the PCR
products as target gene bands through gel electrophoresis.
3. In the original figure 5B, oeNC either does not show or displays very faint non-specific
bands, while oePHLPP1 exhibits non-specific bands. Is this due to a higher loading amount of
oePHLPP1 compared to oeNC? Please provide an explanation.
4. Kindly provide the results from three independent experiments for statistical analysis in the
Western blot data.
5. Please provide detailed information for the 45 individuals who participated in this study.
6. The Western blot results investigating PHLPP1 expression must include data for all 45
individuals involved in this study.
Title: Transgender Women’s Perspectives on Mental Health Care Related to Vaginoplasty for
Gender Affirmation
Version: 1 Date: 01 Jul 2023
Reviewer's report:
The available information regarding the previous study's findings adequately enables readers
to comprehend the rationale and procedures of the present study. However, it is important to
provide a broader perspective by incorporating insights from other countries in the introduction
and background sections. Additionally, the methodology section currently lacks justification for
the selection of specific methods, techniques, and sampling procedures. It would be beneficial
to clarify the reasons behind these choices. Moreover, it would be beneficial for the authors
to provide a detailed description of the methodology used for participant selection, including
the criteria for eligibility and the process of randomization. This information would allow
readers to assess the potential bias in the sample and the robustness of the study's conclusions.
Furthermore, the handling of secondary data remains unclear. It would be helpful to elaborate
on the inclusion and exclusion criteria employed for the secondary data analysis. Furthermore,
the results paragraph needs to be summarized to provide a more fluent section for the readers.
Also, the most relevant study limitations/shortcomings need to be appropriately described as the
main caveats have been only partially reported. Finally, what is the take-home message of this
manuscript? You need to rearrange the conclusion part for more analysis. The authors should
mention some other countries' perspectives.
Title: Transgender Women’s Perspectives on Mental Health Care Related to Vaginoplasty for
Gender Affirmation
Version: 1 Date: 16 Jul 2023
Reviewer:  Neetu Naik
Reviewer's report:
The reviewed study examines the patients' outlook on mental healthcare facilities and mental
health experts' attitude toward gender affirmation surgery. The study has focused only on trans-
women from the transgender spectrum. This study highlights how obtaining a letter from a
mental health professional is vital to proceed with gender affirmation surgery. Some participants
also found the procedure very concerning. In comparison, most participants faced no issues
seeking mental health care before the surgery.
From the methodological and data collection point of view, the study has made a great approach
and has employed the correct tools. However, the sample size could have been slightly on the
higher side. The study has specific areas for improvement; it could have been more inclusive
such as the targeted group being exclusively from a single study area, which provides very biased
results.
Overall, the study has stuck to its objectives from start to end. Authors have done great work
touching upon the significant part of the transgender community, which is rarely addressed.
As mentioned above, the targeted group should have been heterogeneous for a better result.
Focusing merely on a homogeneous population does not justify the problem this study is trying to
address. The study could have included transgender from different socioeconomic backgrounds
to portray their problems obtaining professional mental healthcare during gender affirmation
surgery.
Recommendations: To compensate for the data related weaknesses, authors can use the data
triangulation method.
Title: Transgender Women’s Perspectives on Mental Health Care Related to Vaginoplasty for
Gender Affirmation
Version: 3 Date: 25 Sep 2023
Reviewer:  Neethu Naik
Reviewer's report:
The authors have filled almost all of the gaps that need to be filled with the required information.
Moreover, heterogeneity in the data is missing, which I understand is difficult to achieve at this
stage of the research. In addition, the major takeaway message is not promising.  However, it is
necessary to shed more light on why this research is essential. A statement like "Almost half of
the patients did not identify any barriers to obtaining mental health care" is a bit contradictory
to the other statement made in the results like ", but a majority brought up concerns for less
advantaged peers, with less access to resources." Try to maintain the flow and consistency of
the results and conclusion.
Title: Identification of genes and pathways associated with menopausal status in breast cancer
patients using two algorithms
Version: 0 Date: 18 Sep 2023
Reviewer:  Shrikant Pawar
Reviewer's report:
How many normal match samples were utilized with 1058 breast cancer datasets?
Was between chip normalization performed?
How was fold change log 2 threshold determined?
Top 50 differentially expressed probes, how was this threshold determined?
Title: Identification of genes and pathways associated with menopausal status in breast cancer
patients using two algorithms
Version: 0 Date: 29 Sep 2023
Reviewer's report:
In this paper, the authors study miR-889-3p. Maybe it is an important work in the area of breast
cancer, and here is my comment:
1. In this paper, the authors used breast cancer cohort that obtain from the GEO to build their
model. However, more information about these cancers is included in other published database.
Why the authors to search the TCGA dataset or other published datasets, like the work of [Yang
et al (Molecular Omics, 2018, 14, 314, DOI: 10.1039/c8mo00128f and Wang et al (BIB, doi:
10.1093/bib/bbaa026; doi: 10.1093/bib/bbaa311)]. The authors should clarify this in the revised
manuscript.
2. The biological meaning of this paper was not very clear. To make the structure of this paper
logically clearer and practically more useful, the authors should stress the biological meaning
of this paper in the introduction.
3. There were a lot of grammar errors in this manuscript. The authors should carefully check
their manuscript and polish the language of this paper.
4. The authors should provide the discussion section about the advantages and limitations of
this work.
5. If it is possible, I would like to suggest authors to provide more description for each figure
in the figure legend. In addition, all of figures are not clear enough, please provide more clear
figures.
6. In this study, the authors conducted many bioinformatics analysis. Is it possible to make this
part of the code available on GitHub so that readers can repeat the steps of processes?
Title: Identification of genes and pathways associated with menopausal status in breast cancer
patients using two algorithms
Version: 2 Date: 05 Nov 2023
Reviewer's report:
It is an interesting systematic computational analysis to identify the associated signaling
pathways, medications/drugs for breast cancer treatment targeting on the MEK5/ERK5 signaling
pathway. Overall, it is a well written paper. Some comments are as follows.
1) It is better to provide a table of all the datasets and key statistic number of these datasets. It
is confusing for audience to understand many different datasets and their functions.
2) For the pathway enrichment analysis, deeper discussion and stronger evidence are needed to
evaluate the top-ranked enriched signaling pathways.
3) the same for the drug prediction part (more details of all the top-ranked drugs), and evaluations
of the selected drugs. The current analysis is too general to decide the efficiency of the proposed
pipeline because of the lack of solid ground truth.
4) The Figures, like Fig. 1 and Figure 3 are illustrative, it is better to put the detailed information
on the figure to make them more informative.