Plos One
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Systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses generally provide the best evidence for medical research. Authors are recommended to use flow diagrams to present the review process, allowing for better understanding among readers. However, no studies as of yet have assessed the quality of flow diagrams in systematic review/meta-analyses. ⋯ The flow diagram quality was correlated with the methodological quality with the Pearson's coefficient r = 0.32 (p = 0.0039). Therefore, this review suggests that the reporting quality of flow diagram is less satisfactory, hence not maximizing the potential benefit of the flow diagrams. A guideline with standardized flow diagram is recommended to improve the quality of systematic reviews, and to enable better reader comprehension of the review process.
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Vision impairment from corneal fibrosis is a common consequence of irregular corneal wound healing after injury. Intermediate-conductance calmodulin/calcium-activated K+ channels 3.1 (KCa3.1) play an important role in cell cycle progression and cellular proliferation. Proliferation and differentiation of corneal fibroblasts to myofibroblasts can lead to corneal fibrosis after injury. ⋯ Pharmacological treatment with TRAM-34 significantly attenuated corneal fibrosis in vitro, as demonstrated in HCFs by the inhibition TGFβ-mediated transcription of pro-fibrotic collagen I mRNA and α-SMA mRNA and protein expression (p<0.001). No evidence of cytotoxicity was observed. Our study suggests that KCa3.1 regulates corneal wound healing and that blockade of KCa3.1 by TRAM-34 offers a potential therapeutic strategy for developing therapies to cure corneal fibrosis in vivo.
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Recent interest in the study of concussion and other neurological injuries has heightened awareness of the medical implications of American tackle football injuries amongst the public. ⋯ Injuries related to tackle football are a frequent cause of emergency room visits, specifically in the pediatric population, but severe acute trauma requiring inpatient admission or operative interventions are rare. Continued investigation in the long-term health impact of football related concussion and other repetitive lower impact trauma is warranted.
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The trend towards faster acquisition protocols in whole-body positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) arises the question of whether short PET data acquisition protocols in a whole-body multi-station context allow for reduced PET acquisition times while providing adequate PET image quality and accurate quantification parameters. The study goal is to investigate how reducing PET acquisition times affects PET image quality and quantification in whole-body PET/MR in patients with oncologic findings. ⋯ Reconstruction of PET data with different time intervals has shown that 2 minutes acquisition time per bed position instead of 4 minutes is sufficient to provide accurate lesion detection and adequate image quality in a clinical setting, despite the trends to lower image quality with shorter PET acquisition times. This provides latitude for potential reduction of PET acquisition times in fast PET/MR whole-body examinations.
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The present study aims to elucidate the state of gender equality in high-quality research by analyzing the representation of female authorships in the last decade (from 2008 to 2016). ⋯ 29.8% of all authorships and 33.1% of the first, 31.8% of the co- and 18.1% of the last authorships were held by women. The corresponding female-to-male odds ratio is 1.19 (CI: 1.18-1.20) for first, 1.35 (CI: 1.34-1.36) for co- and 0.47 (CI: 0.46-0.48) for last authorships. Women are underrepresented at prestigious authorships compared to men (Prestige Index = -0.42). The underrepresentation accentuates in highly competitive articles attracting the highest citation rates, namely, articles with many authors and articles that were published in highest-impact journals. More specifically, a large negative correlation between the 5-Year-Impact-Factor of a journal and the female representation at prestigious authorships was revealed (r(52) = -.63, P < .001). Women publish fewer articles compared to men (39.0% female authors are responsible for 29.8% of all authorships) and are underrepresented at productivity levels of more than 2 articles per author. Articles with female key authors are less frequently cited than articles with male key authors. The gender-specific differences in citation rates increase the more authors contribute to an article. Distinct differences at the journal, journal category, continent and country level were revealed. The prognosis for the next decades forecast a very slow harmonization of authorships odds between the two genders.