OBJECTIVES This study aims to determine the quality and validity of information available on the Internet about osteoarthritis and to investigate the best way of sourcing this information. METHODS Keywords relevant to osteoarthritis were searched across 15 search engines representing medical, general and meta-search engines. Search engine efficiency was defined as the percentage of unique and...

The influence of different cooling regimes (quenching in water and cooling in air) on the residual mechanical properties of engineered cementitious composite (ECC) subjected to high temperature up to 800°C was discussed in this paper. The ECC specimens are exposed to 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800°C with the unheated specimens for reference. Different cooling regimens had a significant influence o...

The goal of this tutorial is to provide an overview of recent systematic constructions to deal with plants having redundant actuators. For these plants, the presence of multiple actuators with overlapping features presents an interesting allocation problem, typically encompassing a suitable performance goal that pertains the selected input pattern. Within the tutorial we plan to cover a number ...

We report three cases suffering from endocarditis caused by pacemaker lead infection. Because of the long interval beginning from implantation to surgical removal and the large vegetations on the leads, the entire pacemaker system was removed under extracorporeal circulation (ECC). Postoperative courses were uneventful and none of these patients have shown recurrent infection to date. The total...

Hard on the heels of evidence-based medicine (EBM) comes evidence-based policy and practice (EBPP). At all levels in healthcare systems there is a hunger for better knowledge to inform policy and practice. Is this yet another of the fashions and fads that continually beset the National Health Service, or does EBPP mark a development that could fundamentally change the way in which health policy...

In the past twenty years, evidence based medicine (EBM) has become a dominant paradigm of the contemporary medical practice. Since the emergence of the significant article by Geddes and Harrison in 1997, this doctrine has become part of psychiatry too. According to the rules of EBM, the most valuable clinical data comes from randomized-controlled trials (RCT). Nevertheless there are numerous re...

BACKGROUND The purpose and effectiveness of peer review is currently a subject of hot debate, as is the need for greater openness and transparency in the conduct of clinical trials. Innovations in peer review have focused on the process of peer review rather than its quality. DISCUSSION The aims of peer review are poorly defined, with no evidence that it works and no established way to provid...

2010 Özek. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons-AttributionNoncommercial-Share Alike License 2.5 Canada (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the re...

BACKGROUND Clinicians are encouraged to practice evidence-based medicine (EBM) as well as patient-centered medicine. At times, these paradigms seem to be mutually exclusive and difficult to reconcile. It can become even more challenging when trying to include the preferences of the patient's family members. This paper discusses the basis for this quandary, providing examples of the real-world i...