Research methods & reporting

INTRODUCTION: Cluster headache is a severe and debilitating neurological condition characterized by intense, excruciating pain with a significant impact on patients' wellbeing. Although different treatment options are available, many patients continue to experience inadequate relief. Therefore, experimental strategies are increasingly studied. One of the more promising approaches is the use of ketamine. We present the currently available evidence and our own data. METHODS: In this mixed-methods paper, we first summarize the available evidence of ketamine for treatment of cluster headache based on a systematic review of literature in MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane library of systematic reviews...

Heterologous production of proteins in Escherichia coli has raised several challenges including soluble production of target proteins, high levels of expression and purification. Fusion tags can serve as the important tools to overcome these challenges. SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) is one of these tags whose fusion to native protein sequence can enhance its solubility and stability. In current research, a simple, efficient and cost-effective method is being discussed for the construction of pET28a-SUMO vector...

The present research delved into the transmission patterns, diagnostic methods, molecular traits, and phylogenetic analysis of Cryptosporidium species. The research was undertaken to enhance comprehension of the epidemiology and the potential for zoonotic transmission. A total of 80 goat-kid samples were tested, 7 were confirmed positive by mZN microscopy and 12 by nested-PCR. By PCR, 18SSUrRNA, HSP70, and GP60 amplicons were tested for Cryptosporidium. The restriction enzymes viz., SspI, VspI and MboII were used to genotype 12 Cryptosporidium positive samples by which C...

Purpose: This scoping review summarizes the literature on suicide-specific psychological interventions among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) people to synthesize existing findings and support future intervention research and dissemination. Methods: Electronic databases PsycInfo and PubMed were searched for reports of psychological intervention studies with suicide-related outcome data among LGBTQ+ people. A total of 1269 articles were screened, and 19 studies met inclusion criteria ( k  = 3 examined suicide-specific interventions tailored to LGBTQ+ people, k  = 4 examined nontailored suicide-specific interventions, k  = 11 examined minority stress- or LGBTQ+ interventions that were not suicide-specific, and k  = 1 examined other types of interventions)...

INTRODUCTION: Non-Hispanic Black women and their infants experience the worst pregnancy-related outcomes in the United States. Social safety is a health-relevant resource found in environments communicating safety, connectedness, inclusion, and protection. Approaches promoting social safety may be particularly relevant to preventing adverse perinatal health outcomes among Black women. However, there remains a lack of conceptual clarity. The purpose of this concept analysis was to provide a theoretical clarification of the concept social safety for Black women within perinatal health care...

Multiparameter flow cytometry data is visually inspected by expert personnel as part of standard clinical disease diagnosis practice. This is a demanding and costly process, and recent research has demonstrated that it is possible to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to assist in the interpretive process. Here we report our examination of three previously published machine learning methods for classification of flow cytometry data and apply these to a B-cell neoplasm dataset to obtain predicted disease subtypes...

BACKGROUND: Preterm infants (born before 37 weeks' gestation) are often unable to co-ordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing for oral feeding because of their immaturity. In such cases, initial nutrition is provided by orogastric or nasogastric tube feeding. Feeding intolerance is common and can delay attainment of full enteral and sucking feeds, prolonging the need for nutritional support and the hospital stay. Smell and taste play an important role in the activation of physiological pre-absorptive processes that contribute to food digestion and absorption...

BACKGROUND: Waiting lists for kidney transplantation continue to grow. Live kidney donation significantly reduces waiting times and improves long-term outcomes for recipients. Major disincentives to potential kidney donors are the pain and morbidity associated with surgery. This is an update of a review published in 2011. OBJECTIVES: To assess the benefits and harms of open donor nephrectomy (ODN), laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN), hand-assisted LDN (HALDN) and robotic donor nephrectomy (RDN) as appropriate surgical techniques for live kidney donors...

INTRODUCTION: Homeopathy is one of most widely used non-conventional supportive care methods used by women with breast cancer. This article aims to describe the routines and practices related to homeopathy as supportive care used by women with non-metastatic breast cancer in France. METHODS: This qualitative study used Grounded Theory. Participants were women with early breast cancer and healthcare professionals (General Practitioner homeopaths & oncologists)...

The Lancet PROSPECT Trial has shown that vaginal repair has dismal cure rates of some 20% at 12 months. Meanwhile 10-year data from collagen creating ligament repair methods (implanted mini-sling tapes), with no vaginal excision, report very high, long-term cure rates. The reason for conserving the vagina, is that the vagina's main function is to transmit the muscle forces for external urethral closure or opening. Ligaments provide the main structural support for the organs, much like a suspension bridge. Collagen is the key structural component of the ligaments which structurally support the organs...

The key messages from the Shkarupa et al. native cardinal/uterosacral ligament (CL/USL) study, was that, in premenopausal women, ligament repair alone is sufficient for cure of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and urgency, achieving cure rates of 85.7% for POP and 81.6% for urgency at 12 months. However, in postmenopausal women, the cure rates were 20.5% for POP and 33.3% for urge at 12 months. The Lancet Prospect Trial recorded 21% for native vaginal repair at 12 months. The poor POP cure rate in the Prospect Trial, and the rapid deterioration in the post-menopausal CL/USL repair group, can be explained by known biomechanics...

BACKGROUND: Poor mental wellbeing is a challenge for societies across the world, as is the increasing threat of climate change, and emerging evidence suggests these challenges are interrelated. Green and social prescribing of non-clinical interventions hold promise as a cost-effective and widely accessible way to improve wellbeing, and interest is growing in whether pro-ecological communal activities have mutual benefits for both people and the planet. OBJECTIVES: Communal pro-ecological activities are growing in popularity, and research is gathering pace into whether participation influences mental wellbeing...

Human chemokine receptor 8 (CCR8) is a promising drug target for immunotherapy of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Monoclonal antibody-based CCR8 targeted treatment shows significant inhibition in tumor growth. The inhibition of CCR8 results in the improvement of antitumor immunity and patient survival rates by regulating tumor-resident regulatory T cells. Recently monoclonal antibody drug development targeting CCR8 has become a research hotspot, which also promotes the advancement of antibody evaluation methods...

Background and objective During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many elective orthopedic surgeries, including anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), were temporarily postponed. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of ACLR in patients who underwent surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic with those in a cohort treated before the pandemic. Materials and methods This retrospective review compared patients who underwent primary ACLR during two periods: March to June 2020 (the pandemic group) and January to December 2018 (the pre-pandemic group)...

INTRODUCTION: Peer review (PR) of palliative-intent radiation plans is an important but understudied component of quality assurance. This retrospective review aims to improve our understanding of palliative PR by examining the characteristics of reviewed plans and peer feedback along with the associated time burden of two different types of PR processes. METHODS: This single-institution, quality assurance project assessed palliative PR between 2018 and 2020...

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL), along with overall survival (OS), is a critical study endpoint for measuring the clinical benefits of cancer drugs. Previous studies have examined the OS benefit of new cancer drugs approved in China. However, their HRQoL benefits have not been systematically evaluated. We aimed to characterise the measurement and improvement of HRQoL associated with cancer drugs approved in China. METHODS: This mixed-methods study comprises of a literature review and a cross-sectional study, including all antineoplastic agents approved in China between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2020...

Halomonas bluephagenesis TD serves as an exceptional chassis for next generation industrial biotechnology to produce various products. However, the simultaneous editing of multiple loci in H. bluephagenesis TD remains a significant challenge. Herein, we report the development of a multiple loci genome editing system, named CRISPR-deaminase-assisted base editor (CRISPR-BE) in H. bluephagenesis TD. This system comprises two components: a cytidine (CRISPR-cBE) and an adenosine (CRISPR-aBE) deaminase-based base editor...

Objectives: Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) has gained increasing attention in supporting drug risk-benefit assessment, pricing and reimbursement, as well as optimization of clinical interventions. The objective of this study was to systematically collect and categorize evaluation criteria and techniques of weighting and scoring of MCDA for drug value assessment. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted across seven databases to identify articles utilizing the MCDA frameworks for the evaluation of drug value...

A 44-year-old male sustained trauma to his foot leading to a 5-cm defect of the first metatarsal bone and infection of the bone by Staphylococcus aureus . Osteotomy is the most suitable method for treating large metatarsal defects complicated with osteomyelitis, however few reports have been published on this challenging approach. In this case, osteotomy and external fixation for distraction were performed. Finally, the osteomyelitis of the patient was well controlled, the bone length was restored, and the patient could carry weight completely, and the treatment effect was satisfactory...

AIM: This study aims to compare the effectiveness of single-skill and multiple skills patient care simulation scenarios in enhancing nursing competency and to evaluate nurses' perceptions of these different simulation scenarios. METHODS: A mixed-method design was used. In the quantitative part, 130 newly hired nurses with less than one year of experience participated in this study. For the qualitative part, a subset of 26 of these nurses was selected for in-depth interviews until data saturation was achieved...