The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon (Tn) system is a nonviral gene delivery tool that has widespread application for transfer of therapeutic genes into the mammalian genome. To determine its utility as a gene delivery system, it was important to assess the epigenetic modifications associated with SB insertion into the genome and potential inactivation of the transgene. This study investigated t...

Academic journals increasingly request a full disclosure of financial conflict of interest (CoI). The Committee for Publication Ethics provides editors with guidance about the course of action in the case of suspected non-disclosure. No prior study has examined the extent to which journal articles on psychosocial interventions disclose CoI, and how journal editors process requests to examine su...

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) have been promulgated by a variety of sources with differing goals: professional societies, state and federal governmental bodies, third-party payers such as insurers and HMOs, and hospitals. Compliance rates by practitioners are modest at best so that their use as standards of care for "usual and customary" practice is questionable. Some states are experimen...

INTRODUCTION This study aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of using clinical practice guideline (CPG) leaflets as a communication tool between doctors and patients. We will collect basic data on whether using leaflets based on traditional Korean medicine (TKM) CPGs accomplishes the goal of improving clinical decision-making for diagnosis and treatment by TKM doctors. We will also evaluate th...

Observations of the types of female genital cutting and possible associated gynecological and delivery complications were undertaken in 21 clinics in rural Burkina Faso and in four rural and four urban clinics in Mali. Women who came to the clinics for services that included a pelvic exam were included in the study, and trained clinic staff observed the presence and type of cut and any associat...

BACKGROUND Familiarity disorders (FDs) critically impact social cognition in persons with schizophrenia. FDs can affect both relationships with people familiar to the patient and the patient's relationship with himself, in the case of a self-disorder. Skin conductance response (SCR) studies have shown that familiar and unknown faces elicit the same emotional response in persons with schizophren...

A thorough understanding of drug metabolism and disposition can aid in the assessment of efficacy and safety. However, analytical methods used in pharmacokinetics (PK) studies of protein therapeutics are usually based on ELISA, and therefore can provide a limited perspective on the quality of the drug in concentration measurements. Individual post-translational modifications (PTMs) of protein t...

QUESTION Is acute in-hospital physiotherapy with additional progressive knee-extension strength training (ST) of the fractured limb more effective in reducing knee-extension strength deficit at follow-up compared to physiotherapy without strength training in patients with a hip fracture? DESIGN Assessor blinded, randomised controlled trial with intention-to-treat analysis. PARTICIPANTS 90 p...

We investigated the spatio-temporal limits of flicker defined form (FDF) phase contrast thresholds generated from the phantom contour illusion. Random dots (diameter 0.25 degrees, tapered edge) were used throughout the test field. FDF was generated using circular stimuli (temporal frequency 30 Hz, mean background luminance 50 cdm(-2)), the edges being defined by illusory borders generated from ...

In the absence of any highly effective vaccine candidate against Plasmodium falciparum malaria, it remains imperative for the field to pursue all avenues that may lead to the successful development of such a formulation. The development of a subunit vaccine targeting the asexual blood-stage of Plasmodium falciparum malaria infection has proven particularly challenging with only limited success ...