bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Living Well” After Burn Injury: Using Case Reports to Illustrate Significant Contributions From the Burn Model System Research Program
Authors: Carrougher Gretchen J , McMullen Kara , Amtmann Dagmar , Wolfe Audrey E , Tenney Diana , Schneider Jeffrey C , Yeakley Joseph , Holavanahalli Radha K , Patterson Loren , Madison Christopher , Gibran Nicole S
Published: September 2020

The Burn Model System (BMS) program of research has been funded since 1993 by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The overarching aim of this program is to improve outcomes and quality of life for people with burns in the areas of health and function, employment, and community living and participation. This review reports on BMS contributions that have affected the lives of individuals with a significant burn injury using case reports to associate BMS contributions with recovery. In January 2020, current BMS grantee researchers assessed peer-reviewed BMS publications from 1994 to 2020. Using case report methodology, contributions were linked to three individuals treated at one of the four Burn Model System institutions. With over 25 years of NIDILRR funding, unique BMS contributions to patient recovery were identified and categorized into one of several domains: treatment, assessment measures, sequelae, peer support, employment, and long-term functional outcomes. A second review for significant results of BMS research that add to the understanding of burn injury, pathophysiology, and recovery research was identified and categorized as injury recovery research. The case study participants featured in this review identified select NIDILRR research contributions as having direct, personal benefit to their recovery. The knowledge generation and clinical innovation that this research program has contributed to our collective understanding of recovery after burn injury is considerable. Using case study methodology with three adult burn survivors, we highlight the impact and individual significance of program findings and reinforce the recognition that the value of any clinical research must have relevance to the lives of the study population.
Prevalence and Outcome of COVID-19 Infection in Cancer Patients: A National Veterans Affairs Study
Authors: Fillmore Nathanael R , La Jennifer , Szalat Raphael E , Tuck David P , Nguyen Vinh , Yildirim Cenk , Do Nhan V , Brophy Mary T , Munshi Nikhil C
Published: September 2020

Background

Emerging data suggest variability in susceptibility and outcome to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. Identifying risk factors associated with infection and outcomes in cancer patients is necessary to develop healthcare recommendations.

Methods

We analyzed electronic health records of the US Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and assessed the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in cancer patients. We evaluated the proportion of cancer patients tested for COVID-19 who were positive, as well as outcome attributable to COVID-19, and stratified by clinical characteristics including demographics, comorbidities, cancer treatment, and cancer type. All statistical tests are 2-sided.

Results

Of 22 914 cancer patients tested for COVID-19, 1794 (7.8%) were positive. The prevalence of COVID-19 was similar across age. Higher prevalence was observed in African American (15.0%) compared with White (5.5%; P < .001) and in patients with hematologic malignancy compared with those with solid tumors (10.9% vs 7.8%; P < .001). Conversely, prevalence was lower in current smokers and patients who recently received cancer therapy (<6 months). The COVID-19–attributable mortality was 10.9%. Higher attributable mortality rates were observed in older patients, those with higher Charlson comorbidity score, and in certain cancer types. Recent (<6 months) or past treatment did not influence attributable mortality. Importantly, African American patients had 3.5-fold higher COVID-19–attributable hospitalization; however, they had similar attributable mortality as White patients.

Conclusion

Preexistence of cancer affects both susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and eventual outcome. The overall COVID-19–attributable mortality in cancer patients is affected by age, comorbidity, and specific cancer types; however, race or recent treatment including immunotherapy do not impact outcome.
Optimal Physical Space for En Route Care: Medic Posture and Injury Survey
Authors: Conti Sandra M , Kroening Laura R , Molles Jeffrey J , Davenport Matthew L , Kinsler Rachel E , Lloyd Amy L
Published: September 2020

Introduction

An anonymous online survey was presented to active duty U.S. Army, Reserve, and National Guard Soldiers with experience as en route care medical providers with the intent of identifying factors which contribute to musculoskeletal disorders in U.S. Army en route care medical providers. The survey looked at transport vehicle design, equipment, and awkward postures that could play a role in causing injuries.

Materials and Methods

Survey responses were received from 60 en route care providers regarding postures assumed during administration of en route critical care tasks, routine medical transport scenarios, and patient loading. Care providers reported gender, height, weight, experience, tasks, and awkward postures experienced. They also reported occupational injuries that occurred as a result of performing job duties, such as back, neck, and joint pain, injuries, and discomfort.

Results

The survey was answered by 56 (93.3%) males and 4 females (6.7%) with an average of 7.34 years of experience as en route care personnel. Lower back injuries were suffered by 87% of respondents. The most common causes were awkward positions and lifting patients. There are statistically significant relationships between shoulder injuries and overextending, lower back injuries and overextending, and lower back injuries and reaching backwards, ankle injuries and care provider height, and knee injuries and the frequency at which care providers utilized the postures of kneeling, squatting, reaching behind themselves, and straining to lift a heavy weight. Loading and unloading patients from evacuation platforms was among the top causes of all awkward postures among respondents.

Conclusion

Results of this survey emphasize the need for injury mitigation and prevention strategies to reduce impacts on soldier health and readiness.
Single magnetic white dwarfs with Balmer emission lines: a small class with consistent physical characteristics as possible signposts for close-in planetary companions
Authors: Gänsicke Boris T , Rodríguez-Gil Pablo , Gentile Fusillo Nicola P , Inight Keith , Schreiber Matthias R , Pala Anna F , Tremblay Pier-Emmanuel
Published: September 2020

We report the identification of SDSS J121929.45+471522.8 as the third apparently isolated magnetic (B ≃ 18.5 ± 1.0 MG) white dwarf exhibiting Zeeman-split Balmer emission lines. The star shows coherent variability at optical wavelengths with an amplitude of ≃0.03 mag and a period of 15.26 h, which we interpret as the spin period of the white dwarf. Modelling the spectral energy distribution and Gaia parallax, we derive a white dwarf temperature of 7500 ± 148 K, a mass of 0.649 ± 0.022 M⊙, and a cooling age of 1.5 ± 0.1 Gyr, as well as an upper limit on the temperature of a sub-stellar or giant planet companion of ≃250 K. The physical properties of this white dwarf match very closely those of the other two magnetic white dwarfs showing Balmer emission lines: GD356 and SDSS J125230.93−023417.7. We argue that, considering the growing evidence for planets and planetesimals on close orbits around white dwarfs, the unipolar inductor model provides a plausible scenario to explain the characteristics of this small class of stars. The tight clustering of the three stars in cooling age suggests a common mechanism switching the unipolar inductor on and off. Whereas Lorentz drift naturally limits the lifetime of the inductor phase, the relatively late onset of the line emission along the white dwarf cooling sequence remains unexplained.
Minoritized Criticism of the New Testament
Authors: Benny Liew Tat-siong
Published: September 2020

Minoritized criticism of the New Testament refers generally to academic and critical interpretations of biblical texts by people of color in the United States of America, where they are often called “minorities.” The word “minoritized” signifies that the issue in question is less about number but more about power, as minoritization is a state-sanctioned and ideologically supported process—including using the Bible for justification—of racialization and marginalization against particular persons or communities because of their race/ethnicity and their migration history. With the civil rights movement and James Cone’s development of black liberation theology in the late 1960s, African American biblical scholars began to protest white supremacy by highlighting racial/ethnic relations and tensions in biblical writings and by making their biblical interpretation explicitly contextual to their communities’ histories, experiences, and concerns. Since then, with the model provided by their black colleagues and the emphasis on “social location” within biblical studies, Asian American and Latinx American scholars have also developed their respective hermeneutics to challenge racial discrimination and address issues of identity, representation, inclusion, exclusion, exploitation, oppression, and resistance, among others, both in the biblical texts that they read and in the contemporary situations that their communities face. Given this criticism’s concern with minoritized communities, practitioners often engage African American studies, Asian American studies, or Latinx American studies to inform their work. Because of minoritization’s connection with migration and its dynamics as a form of internal colonialism, there are also often overlaps between minoritized criticism and postcolonial criticism of the New Testament. While minoritized criticism started with a focus on race/ethnicity, subsequent works, upon acknowledgment that there are other identity factors besides race (such as gender, class, sexuality) and recognition that race and other identity factors are often mutually co-constitutive, have been giving greater emphasis on diversities and keener attention to intersectional realities within each minoritized community. Recently, there is a move to understand minoritized criticism as work that engages across racially/ethically minoritized communities (as opposed to scholarship that works exclusively within a critic’s own minoritized community). This understanding emphasizes the reality that minoritized groups are racialized not in isolation but in relation to one another, and the need to decenter whiteness by prioritizing critics of other minoritized communities as one’s interlocutors. Since minoritization as a result of migration may take place in various countries, minoritized criticism of the New Testament can also be practiced and developed outside of the United States.
Political Roles and Activities of Former Presidents and Prime Ministers
Authors: Anderson Lisa
Published: September 2020

Over the last century, thanks to the greater number of independent countries and longer human life spans, there is a larger pool of former presidents and prime ministers than at any time in history. The existence of this unusual collection of political figures—at once publicly renowned and potentially influential yet technically powerless—has triggered several lines of academic research. Scholars have asked whether the prospect of life-after-office shapes policy choices of leaders while they are in office, and if so how. This line of inquiry includes studies of both dictators and democratically elected presidents and prime ministers. In addition, scholars have examined what political leaders who retire, are term-limited, or are defeated in running for reelection—that is, democratic politicians—actually do after they are out of office. Three issues are thought to be uppermost in their minds: the mundane personal question of how to support themselves and their families; the somewhat loftier reputational issue of how to secure their standing and place in history; and the delicate political matter of how to deploy their accumulated skill and experience usefully and tactfully, without causing trouble to themselves or their political allies and enterprises. Finally, an emerging line of research examines how the increasingly large number of ex-presidents and former prime ministers in the world contribute to shaping global policy debates and institutions. In fact, however, all of this together does not constitute a large body of research and the student in this field is obliged to resort very quickly to primary sources, from self-serving memoirs and fawning mission statements to hostile investigative reporting and unfriendly partisan journalism; the compensatory reward is much livelier prose than the conventional academic treatise.
Battle of Salamis: 480 BC
Authors: Krentz Peter
Published: September 2020

In 480 bce, the Greeks defeated the Persian fleet off the island of Salamis in the largest naval battle ever fought in the ancient world. The Greek victory proved to be the turning point in the war, for the Persian king, Xerxes, returned to Asia with his surviving ships and the majority of his land troops. The Persian invading forces, which included a diverse array of infantry recruited from the vast empire and warships and rowers from the peoples bordering the Mediterranean Sea, had advanced from Asia in tandem by land and sea along the coast of the Aegean, without encountering opposition until they reached the pass at Thermopylae in late August. When Thermopylae fell in a matter of days, the assembled Greek navy abandoned its position at nearby Artemisium, on the island of Euboea, and withdrew to the south. The Athenians evacuated their city and took their families to Aegina, Troizen, and Salamis, an island just off the coast of Attica, where the Greek fleet moored. Only some two dozen out of the hundreds of Greek cities sent ships; more Greek cities, in fact, fought for the Persians as subjects of the Persian Empire. By mid-September, Xerxes had advanced through central Greece, looting and burning as he went, and captured Athens. But with summer coming to an end and stormy weather on the way, he decided to attack at Salamis rather than wait for the Greek coalition to disintegrate. After blocking the exits from the straits at night to prevent escape, the Persians were surprised to find the Greeks ready to fight in the morning. In the battle, the outnumbered Greeks took advantage of restricted waters between Salamis and the mainland. The Persian ships became more and more crowded together as the ships in the rear pressed forward, their captains eager to prove themselves under Xerxes’ watchful eyes. The Greek ships, heavier and sturdier, won by ramming the Persian ships, which were designed for greater maneuverability but lacked the open water they needed. Scholars debate just about every aspect of the battle, from the reliability of the ancient sources to the nature of the wooden warships involved, from the numbers of these ships to the topography of the Salamis strait at the time of the battle, from the credibility of Themistocles’ trick to lure Xerxes into fighting to the reconstruction of the fighting itself and its last act, in which land troops played a role.
Peter Paul Rubens
Authors: Honig Elizabeth , Heinen Ulrich
Published: September 2020

Peter Paul Rubens (b. 1577–d. 1640) was an extraordinary figure who inhabited, effected, and even defined many aspects of the early modern European world. Far more than just a hugely successful painter, he was a scholar and a diplomat, a person who could produce allegorical images of the same peace treaties he was negotiating, or who carefully interpreted both material and textual sources—in original languages—when creating a mythological scene. He worked on a political level with the same powerful patrons for whom he painted, spending substantial time in courts and urban centers of the Southern and Northern Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, and England; in every place he absorbed local culture and left his mark on it. Prints after his works traveled to the New World and helped mold its visual culture. Rubens’s relationship to the art of the past was transformative, for he knew and absorbed works both famous and obscure; he redefined the canon, through the lens of his own art, for generations to come. His work spanned painting, printmaking, architecture, sculpture, book illustration, tapestry design, and décor for political pageantry. He executed important works on every kind of subject matter: mythologies, political allegories, portraits, landscapes, hunting scenes. And he was the painter of the Catholic Reformation, filling churches across the continent with devotional imagery and illustrating theological texts. If he did not work in a given genre himself, he collaborated with colleagues who did. The sheer volume of his work in so many media is astonishing, the effect of a tireless inventive mind aided by a workshop so large that it occupied most of the artistic space in Antwerp, employing painters who, in other circumstances, might have been competitors. Internationally famous in his own day, Rubens’s prestige has never faltered. He was the subject of debates in early art academies; his works found homes in Europe’s elite collections; his letters about art, diplomacy, and scholarship were preserved and published. To the primary source material, an immense amount of academic study has been added. Serious overviews of his life and work are relatively rare, however, for Rubens is hard to encompass between the covers of a single book. The attempt to produce a catalogue of all of Rubens’s work, divided into forty-four volumes and multivolume sets, each with its own author(s), has been in progress for fifty years and is not yet complete. The bibliography below is exceptionally long because that is the nature of Rubens studies: immense, diffuse, complicated, and collaborative.
RADIATION PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY DURING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE PROGRAM FOR THE PROTECTION OF POPULATION OF ZHOVTI VODY TOWN
Authors: Molchanov O , Rudenko S , Soroka Y , Soroka M , Brechko K
Published: September 2020

The town of Zhovti Vody is a ‘capital’ of uranium mining and processing industry of Ukraine. The mining and processing of uranium has been carried out in this area for more than 60 y. During this period, due to increasing production activities, the town has grown significantly. As a result of production activities and also due to the human factor, the territory of the town was contaminated by radioactive rocks. In addition, out of ignorance, radioactive rocks were used in the construction of houses and roads. To normalize the radiation situation in the town, a targeted State Programme was adopted in 2003 for a period of 10 y. In 2013, the Programme was subsequently extended until 2022. In accordance with this Programme, decontamination of the urban territory, measurements of radon isotopes in houses and anti-radon reconstructions of the premises have been performed. The results of these works are described in this article.
Secondary Schools and Teenage Childbearing: Evidence from the School Expansion in Brazilian Municipalities
Authors: Foureaux Koppensteiner Martin , Matheson Jesse
Published: September 2020

This article investigates the effect that increasing secondary education opportunities have on teenage fertility in Brazil. Using a novel dataset to exploit variation from a 57 percent increase in secondary schools across 4,884 Brazilian municipalities between 1997 and 2009, the analysis shows an important role of secondary school availability on underage fertility. An increase of one school per 100 females reduces a cohort's teenage birthrate by between 0.250 and 0.563 births per 100, or a reduction of one birth for roughly every 50 to 100 students who enroll in secondary education. The results highlight the important role of access to education leading to spillovers in addition to improving educational attainment.
Validating Molecular Markers for Barley Leaf Rust Resistance Genes Rph20 and Rph24
Authors: Dracatos P. M. , Park R. F. , Singh D.
Published: September 2020

Improving resistance to barley leaf rust (caused by Puccinia hordei) is an important breeding objective in most barley growing regions worldwide. The development and subsequent utilization of high-throughput PCR-based codominant molecular markers remains an effective approach to select genotypes with multiple effective resistance genes, permitting efficient gene deployment and stewardship. The genes Rph20 and Rph24 confer widely effective adult plant resistance (APR) to leaf rust, are common in European and Australian barley germplasm (often in combination), and act interactively to confer high levels of resistance. Here we report on the development and validation of codominant insertion-deletion (indel) based PCR markers that are highly predictive for the resistance alleles Rph20.ai and Rph24.an (both referred to as Rph20 and Rph24).
Distinct Arabidopsis Responses to Two Generalist Caterpillar Species Differing in Host Breadth
Authors: Zhang Zhihong , Schedl Andreas , Sontowski Rebekka , Driscoll Brian T. , van Dam Nicole M. , Bede Jacqueline C.
Published: September 2020

In general, caterpillar herbivores with a narrow host preference (specialists) have evolved mechanisms to circumvent specific plant defenses. In contrast, caterpillars with a broader host range (generalists) may manipulate phytohormone pathways common to many plant species to attenuate induced defenses. Many studies have compared plant responses to specialist versus generalist caterpillars. In contrast, this study evaluates the induced response of Arabidopsis thaliana to two generalist caterpillar species, the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni, and the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua. Although both caterpillars are considered generalists, S. exigua has a broader plant host range, whereas T. ni prefers Brassicaceous plants. Our study shows that most responses to caterpillar herbivory, such as the jasmonate burst, are similar in plants attacked by either insect species; however, we do observe dynamic and temporal differences in specific responses. Expression of AtZAT10, a 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid-responsive gene, is only induced in response to T. ni damage. In comparison, only S. exigua herbivory activates the salicylic acid/NPR1-dependent pathway, as observed by the expression of the marker gene AtPR1. Even though both species induce AtPDF1.2 expression, we found caterpillar-specific temporal differences: T. ni herbivory results in sustained expression over time, whereas gene expression is sharply downregulated at 36 h in S. exigua-attacked plants. Although damage by these two caterpillar species induced AtMYB28 and AtMYB34 expression, specific short- and long-chain aliphatic and indolic glucosinolates accumulate only in response to S. exigua herbivory. These species-specific, plant-induced responses likely reflect differences in effectors found in caterpillar oral secretions.

[Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
The U.S. COVID-19 Testing Failure
Authors: Todd Betsy
Published: September 2020

Without a nationwide strategy or infrastructure, we've missed a chance to control the pandemic.
Traditional therapies of Zhuang medicine improve pain and joint dysfunction of patients in rheumatoid arthritis
Authors: Luo Yehao , Xu Donghan , Cao Zhiyong , Chen Qiuxia , Wang Lizhen , Fang Gang , Pang Yuzhou
Published: September 2020

Background:

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease, which can lead to joint destruction, dysfunction, finally deformity. Currently, Western medicine treats it with disease-modifying antireheumatic drugs, NSAIDs, glucocorticoid, biological agents, etc, which can induce adverse drug reactions. And now, as an important mean of treating RA, Zhuang medicine has been widely used in clinics, and has achieved significant efficacy.

Methods and analysis:

The following databases will be searched for relevant information before July 2020: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Major results: levels of C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, Rheumatoid factor. Secondary results: morning stiffness time, range of motion, arthralgia, joint tenderness index, joint swelling index, total effective rate, adverse event. Data will be collected independently by 2 researchers, and the risk of bias in meta analysis will be evaluated according to “Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions”. All data analysis will be conducted using Review Manager V.5.3. and Stata V.12.0.

Results:

The curative effect and safety of traditional therapies of Zhuang Medicine treatment for RA patients will be evaluated systematically.

Conclusion:

The systematic review of this study will summarize the currently published evidence of traditional therapies of Zhuang Medicine treatment for RA to further guide its promotion and application.

Open Science Framework (OSF) registration number: https://osf.io/c4xv3/.
The impact of COVID-19 on intestinal flora
Authors: Li Fangyuan , Lu Hua , Li Xinyun , Wang Xinxin , Zhang Qi , Mi Ling
Published: September 2020

Background

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) sparked global concern for its outbreak and pandemic. It caused severe respiratory tract infections and a significant proportion of patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Several studies have investigated the intestinal flora of COVID-19. However, so far there has been no evidence demonstrating the evidence on the association of COVID-19 with intestinal flora through meta-analysis. A systematic and comprehensive understanding of their relationship is essential to provide public health prevention or treatment strategy.

Methods and analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis will be reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Observational studies (cohort studies, case-control, and cross-sectional studies) and clinical trials will be eligible. Studies eligible for inclusion must contain participants with COVID-19. Systematic searches will be conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Ovid, EBSCO, World Health Organization COVID-19 database, China National Knowledge Internet, WanFang Data, Chinese Scientific and Technological Journal Database, and Chinese Biomedical Databases. A pre-designed search strategy of medical subject headings and free text terms for COVID-19 and intestinal flora will be used. Two reviewers will independently screen the titles and abstracts, followed by full-text screening. Discrepancies will be resolved by consensus with a third reviewer. The reviewers will then extract data from each eligible article based on PECOS (Population, Exposure, Comparator, Outcomes, and Study design). The risk of bias and quality of included studies will be assessed using an appropriate tool. A random-effects meta-analysis will be considered where there are sufficiently homogeneous studies; otherwise, a narrative synthesis will be conducted. Heterogeneity among studies will be assessed using I2 statistics. If substantial heterogeneity detected, subgroup analyses and meta-regression will be conducted to look for the potential causes.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval is not required as we will use data from published articles. Findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020191640
Comparative efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese patent medicine for anxiety disorders in children or adolescence
Authors: Jiang Zhenyuan , Wang Jiahao , Yu Xiaowen , Li Chuancheng , Shao Yuze , Wang Zhonglin
Published: September 2020

Background:

Anxiety is the most common mental illness among adolescents and children, and its incidence is increasing year by year, which has a serious adverse effect on the academic and growth of adolescents and children. Conventional treatment methods such as oral administration of western medicine and psycho-behavioral therapy have obvious limitations. Chinese patent medicines play an irreplaceable role in the treatment of this disease. At present, there is no comparison of the safety and effectiveness of various Chinese patent medicines curing anxiety in adolescents. So we take advantage of the method of network meta-analysis to systematically compare the efficacy of various Chinese patent medicines curing this disease.

Methods:

We will systematically and comprehensively search the following databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, China BioMedical Literature (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP), and Wanfang database. We will include all RCT trials that meet the inclusion criteria, starting from the establishment of the database until August 2020. Two researchers will independently screen the literature based on inclusion criteria. While extracting data, we also assess the risk of bias in the included studies. All the data and evidence obtained will be evaluated by the method of Bayesian network meta-analysis. STATA and WinBUGS software will be used.

Results:

This study will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of various TCPMs for anxiety disorders in children or adolescence.

Conclusion:

The results of this study will provide valuable references for the clinical application of Traditional Chinese patent medicines, and assist clinicians in formulating more reasonable diagnosis and treatment strategies.

Ethics and dissemination:

This study does not require ethical approval.

INPLASY registration number:

INPLASY202080048.
Plate fixation versus intramedullary nail or Knowles pin fixation for displaced midshaft clavicle fractures
Authors: Li Lang , Yang Xiaodong , Xing Fei , Jiang Jun , Tang Xueyang
Published: September 2020

Background:

Plate fixation and intramedullary nail/Knowles pin fixation methods are commonly used to treat displaced midshaft clavicle fractures. However, the differences between these 2 methods are unclear.

Objective:

This meta-analysis aimed to compare plate fixation and intramedullary nail/Knowles pin fixation for displaced midshaft clavicle fractures.

Methods:

We searched PubMed, EBM reviews, and Ovid Medline online for studies related to comparison of plate fixation versus intramedullary nail/Knowles pin fixation for displaced midshaft clavicle fracture from inception to June 30, 2019. Relevant literature search, data extraction, and quality assessment will be performed by 2 researchers independently. The methodological quality of all included studies was appraised using the Cochrane system for randomized trials. The RevMan 5.2 software was used for heterogeneity assessment, generating funnel-plots, data synthesis, sensitivity analysis, and determining publication bias. The fixed-effects or random-effects model was used to calculate mean difference (MD)/relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results:

This meta-analysis included 839 patients from 12 randomized controlled trials. We found that compared to plate fixation, intramedullary nail/Knowles pin fixation yielded a higher shoulder constant score [MD = −2.43, 95% CI (−3.46 to −1.41), P < .00001] and lower disabilities of the arm, shoulder and hand (DASH) score [MD = 2.98, 95% CI (0.16–5.81), P = .04], and lower infection rates [RR = 2.05, 95% CI (1.36–3.09), P = .003], operation time [MD = 20.20, 95% CI (10.80–29.60), P < .0001], incision size [MD = 6.09, 95% CI (4.54–7.65), P < .00001], and hospital stay [MD = 1.10, 95% CI (0.56–1.64), P < .00001] but with a higher removal rate [RR = 0.52, 95% CI (0.41–0.65), P < .00001] compared to plate fixation. There were no significant differences in nonunion, reintervention, or revision and refracture between these two methods. The limitation is that many studies did not demonstrate the random generated details, and only English articles were enrolled in this meta-analysis.

Conclusions:

Intramedullary nail/Knowles pin fixation might be an optimum choice for treating displaced midshaft clavicle fractures, with similar performance in terms of the nonunion, reintervention, or revision and refracture, and better shoulder constant and DASH scores, infection rates, and operative parameters.
Increasing incidence of prostate cancer in Taiwan
Authors: Lin Po-Hung , Chang Su-Wei , Tsai Ling-Hsuan , Kan Hung-Cheng , Liu Jui-Ming , Chuang Cheng-Keng , Pang See-Tong , Yu Kai-Jie
Published: September 2020

Over the past decades, the incidence of prostate cancer in Taiwan kept rising. Many possible factors including the utility of prostate specific antigen tests, lifestyle remodeling, and patient's comorbidities may contribute to the increasing of incidence or prostate cancer. We aim to use the nationwide Health and Welfare Database (HWD) to investigate possible associated factors.

We used HWD, a nationwide database of medical information, to assess the incidence of prostate cancer, utilization of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, and underlying diseases of patients and to evaluate whether there was a common trend among these factors.

In total, 32,508 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer from 2006 to 2013 were identified. The incidence rate of prostate cancer per 100,000 men increased from 35.47 in 2006 to 52.87 in 2012. The number of patients with prostate cancer and underlying diseases related to metabolic syndrome increased every year. The number of total PSA tests and patients undergoing PSA testing, as well as average times of PSA testing per person in the whole population, increased every year. The average PSA test times of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer within 3 years before the diagnosis of prostate cancer also increased every year. There was a high correlation between the average PSA test times and the number of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer (r
2 = 0.9734).

The trends of incidence of prostate cancer, utilization of PSA testing, and underlying diseases related to metabolic syndrome at the diagnoses of cancer were similar, increasing every year in the study period. The results suggested that increasing use of PSA tests may increase the diagnosis of prostate cancers. Underlying diseases related to metabolic syndrome might also affect the incidence of prostate cancer.
Psychotherapy for depression in college students
Authors: Zhang Xiu , Niu Ming-Ming , Ma Pei-Fen , Du Li , Wan Lin
Published: September 2020

Background:

Depression is a disease with a high incidence and easy to relapse. It not only affects the work and life of patients, but also brings a heavy economic burden. University is the peak of depression, and the prevalence of depression among college students is much higher than that of ordinary people. The purpose of this research is to evaluate depression symptoms, life satisfaction, self-confidence, substance use, social adjustment, and dropout rates of the use of psychological intervention for college students.

Methods:

We will identify relevant trials from systematic searches in the following electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and The Cochrane Library. We will also search Clinical Trials.gov, the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform for unpublished data. Additional relevant studies will be searched through search engines (such as Google), and references included in the literature will be tracked. All relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) will be included. There are no date restrictions. Use Cochrane Collaboration's Risk of bias tool to conduct risk of bias analysis. Use the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation to assess the quality of evidence. All statistical analysis will be performed using Stata (V.15.0.) and Review Manager (V.5.2.0).

Results:

A total of 6238 records were obtained by searching the database and 27 records were obtained by other sources. After removing duplicate records, there are 4225 records remaining. We excluded 3945 records through abstract and title, leaving 280 full-text articles.

Conclusion:

This will be the first study to compare the effects of different psychological treatments on depression in college students. We hope that this study will guide clinical decision-making of psychotherapy to better treat depression in college students.

Protocol Registration:

INPLASY202070134.
Non-pharmacological interventions for depressive disorder in patients after traumatic brain injury
Authors: Xu Mingmin , Guo Yu , Wei Yulong , Wang Lu , Feng Xiumei , Chen Yue , Yan Jian
Published: September 2020

Background:

Depressive disorder has gradually become one of the most commonly reported disabling psychiatric complication that occurs after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Currently classical antidepressant medications may not have the same effectiveness in patients with TBI as in patients without TBI. Non-pharmacological interventions have been considered to be effective for managing depressive symptoms or treating depressive disorder. But to date the comparative effectiveness of various types of non-pharmacological interventions has been synthesized in few studies, the evidence remains inconclusive. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review and network meta-analyses is to summarize high-quality evidence and identify the most effective non-pharmacological intervention when applied to treat the depressive disorder in patients after TBI.

Methods:

The comprehensive literature search in electronic database including PubMed, Ovid Medline, Cochrane Library, Web of Science database, Embase Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Data Chinese database from inception to the search date. Only high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that have used non-pharmacological interventions to treat depressive disorder after TBI will be considered. Two independent reviewers will identify eligible studies, extract and manage data information, and then determine methodical quality of included studies. Overall efficacy will be assessed as primary outcome. Secondary outcomes involved treatment response, remission rate, overall acceptability, tolerability of treatment, social functioning, occurrence of adverse events, and suicide-related outcome. Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool will be adopted to assess the risk of bias. Study heterogeneity will be measured by the I
2 statistic. Traditional pairwise meta-analyses will be performed using STATA, while WinBUGS with GeMTC package of R software will be used to carry out network meta-analysis.

Results:

This systematic review will examine the relative efficacy, effectiveness, safety, tolerability and acceptability of non-pharmacological interventions, and then to identify the most effective non-pharmacological intervention for depressive disorder after TBI.

Expected conclusion:

Our work could be used to give clinical recommendations for practice guideline developers, psychiatrist, neurologist, policymakers, researchers as well as individual with depressive disorder after TBI, and will also identify gaps in knowledge that could be the subject of future research.

Ethics and dissemination:

Neither ethics approval nor patient informed consent is necessary since this protocol was designed based on the existing literature. The results will be disseminated electronically or in print through publications in peer-reviewed scientific journal.

INPLASY registration:

INPLASY202080022.
Retrospective cohort trial protocol of screw fixation compared with hemiarthroplasty for displaced femoral neck fractures in elderly patients
Authors: Qin Boquan , Cui Linxian , Ren Yi , Zhang Hui
Published: September 2020

Background:

There is limited evidence for the evaluation of the efficacy and safety of the hemiarthroplasty versus screw fixation in elderly patients with the displaced femoral neck fractures. Our current investigation aimed at assessing the complications, functional outcome, and revision rate of the patients (over 65 years old) who received internal fixation or hemiarthroplasty via a same senior surgeon.

Methods:

A retrospective study was conducted on elderly patients with displaced femoral neck fractures from May 2014 to February 2018. The current study was carried out at our hospital and it was approved through our institutional review committee of West China Hospital. Inclusion criteria were as follows: the patients were 65 years or older, this is the anesthesia grade. The higher grade of the patients,the greater risk of surgery. level I–III, and the patients with displaced intracapsular fractures of the femoral neck, with the radiographic and clinical follow-up of 12 months or more. The major outcome was the revision rate between the 2 groups. And the secondary outcomes contained the life quality and functional outcome detected via utilizing the interview-administered and self-administered questionnaires, length of hospital stay, surgery time, and hip-related complications (such as hip dislocation, loosening or breakage of implant, wound problems, infection, osteolysis, neurovascular injury, and bone nonunion).

Results:

It was assumed that hemiarthroplasty would result in fewer revisions or complications and better functional scores in comparison with internal fixation technique.
Nomogram to predict risk for early ischemic stroke by non-invasive method
Authors: Chen Shuliang , Ma Chunye , Zhang Ce , Shi Rui
Published: September 2020

Stroke is the acute onset of neurological deficits and is associated with high morbidity, mortality, and disease burden. In the present study, we aimed to develop a scientific, nomogram for non-invasive predicting risk for early ischemic stroke, in order to improve stroke prevention efforts among high-risk groups. Data were obtained from a total of 2151 patients with early ischemic stroke from October 2017 to September 2018 and from 1527 healthy controls. Risk factors were examined using logistic regression analyses. Nomogram and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn, cutoff values were established. Significant risk factors for early ischemic stroke included age, sex, blood pressure, history of diabetes, history of genetic, history of coronary heart disease, history of smoking. A nomogram predicting ischemic stroke for all patients had an internally validated concordance index of 0.911. The area under the ROC curve for the logistic regression model was 0.782 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.766–0.799, P < .001), with a cutoff value of 2.5. The nomogram developed in this study can be used as a primary non-invasive prevention tool for early ischemic stroke and is expected to provide data support for the revision of current guidelines.
Effectiveness and safety of a modified (rib ends fixed under transverse process) thoracoplasty for rib hump deformity in adults with severe thoracic scoliosis
Authors: Yu Bin , Zhao Deng , Wang Fei , Hu Zhengjun , Zhong Rui , Zhao Hehong , Liang Yijian
Published: September 2020

Razor back deformity is one of the most noticeable problems of severe scoliosis. Thoracoplasty has been reported to be a useful approach to correct the rib hump deformity. However, the outcomes of thoracoplasty in patients with severe, rigid, thoracic scoliosis have not yet been evaluated.

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a modified technique of thoracoplasty (rib ends fixed under transverse process) for rib hump deformity in adults with severe thoracic scoliosis and severe pulmonary dysfunction.

Patients with severe thoracic scoliosis and severe pulmonary dysfunction who underwent staged surgical strategy including halo-pelvic traction, spinal osteotomy combined with the modified thoracoplasty were included. To avoid paradoxical breathing result from multiple rib resections and enlarge the capacity of thoracis, the ends after rib resection were fixed under transverse process compared with conventional thoracoplasty. Patients were excluded on the basis of pulmonary diseases and inadequate follow-up. Data on deformity correction and pulmonary complications were reviewed. A t test was performed on the pre- and postoperative data of pulmonary function, height of the rib hump deformity, and total lung area.

Eighteen patients (5 men and 13 women) with a major thoracic curve of >130° were included. The mean age of patients was 25.3 ± 3.6 years (range, 19–32 years), with an average length of follow-up of 30.2 months. After application of halo-pelvic traction, the mean major thoracic curve decreased from 168.2° ± 14.28° to 97.3° ± 10.75° and the thoracic kyphosis decreased from 159.4° ± 20.60° to 94.8° ± 9.58°. On average, 6.3 (range, 4–8) ribs were resected. The height of the rib hump decreased from 84.6 ± 13.3 to 15.3 ± 3.4 mm. The average predicted forced vital capacity (FVC%) before surgery was 37.2 ± 13.30%, indicative of severe pulmonary impairment, with a small but non-significant improvement in the FVC% at the final follow-up. The mean total lung area increased from 2583.2 ± 501.36 to 2890.1 ± 537.30 mL at the last follow-up. No severe pulmonary complications occurred.

Our modified approach to thoracoplasty procedure is effective and safe in correcting a razor back deformity in patients with severe, rigid, scoliosis, and severe pulmonary dysfunction, without causing any significant change in long-term pulmonary function.
Beef Production
Authors: Place Sara E. , Myrdal Miller Amy
Published: September 2020

Interest in sustainability has grown in the general public and in the nutrition practitioner community. Sustainability is a complex balancing act of considering social, economic, and environmental factors, while respecting cultural and lifestyle differences. Animal source foods, beef in particular, have received much attention in the conversation about sustainable diets and food systems. This review describes how beef is produced in the United States and how beef can fit into a sustainable food system and provides key considerations for incorporating sustainability into dietary guidance for clients and patients.
Development of a Self-Assessment Tool for the Nontechnical Skills of Hemophilia Teams
Authors: Brondi Sonia , Palareti Laura , Guglielmi Dina
Published: September 2020

Background and Objectives:

The treatment of chronic illnesses requires health care professionals (HCPs) to master several nontechnical skills to meet patient care needs. This article aims to describe the rationale and the inductive process through which a self-assessment tool for the nontechnical skills of hemophilia teams was conceived, developed, and tested.

Methods:

Starting from an explorative analysis of hemophilia HCP work experiences, the process followed 3 phases: an in-depth analysis of hemophilia HCP skills; the questionnaire development; and a pilot study.

Results:

Using the voice of HCPs as a starting point, the tool proved to be able to identify precise cross-professional and intercultural challenges as well as related required and/or acquired skills in the hemophilia field.

Conclusion:

The proposed tool may contribute to providing HCPs with strategic knowledge to successfully perform everyday practices, to improve the effectiveness of hemophilia teams and the care model adopted by their centers, and to implement intercultural research in this field. It may be used to propose ad hoc training courses targeted by challenge, in order to fill the major gaps reported by the teams, or targeted by medical specialty or country (and therefore health care system) specificity.