Will it Ever Become Possible to Prevent Dopaminergic Neuronal Degeneration?

The wishful thinking of indirect mitral annuloplasty: will it ever become a reality?

Currently, the clinical benefits of mitral regurgitation treatment by surgical mitral valve repair techniques are similar to those of mitral valve replacement. However, mortality is significantly lower after mitral valve repair than after valve replacement (0.2% versus 2.1%, P 0.001).1 Reoperation after mitral valve repair is rare (4.7%). Half of the small number of patients who require reopera...

Will Web Surveys Ever Become Part of Mainstream Research?

This journal issue contains two interesting papers on web survey methodology that reach different conclusions about the potential use of web surveys, in particular which of two modes achieves the higher response rate. High response rates are commonly seen as an indicator for the validity of surveys. Leece et al. [1] used systematic sampling to assign half of a list of orthopedic surgeons to a w...

Is it possible to prevent striae gravidarum?

BACKGROUND Striae gravidarum (SG), commonly called stretch marks, is an important cosmetic problem which is not treatable, although preventive measures might be effective. The aim of this study was to determine individual risk factors causing SG and the degree to which preventive measures could be effective. METHODS This prospective observational study included 211 singleton primiparous pregn...

Is It Possible to Become Happier? (And If So, How?)

Although some theory suggests that it is impossible to increase one’s subjective well-being (SWB), our ‘sustainable happiness model’ (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005) specifies conditions under which this may be accomplished. To illustrate the three classes of predictor in the model, we first review research on the demographic/circumstantial, temperament/personality, and intentional/exper...

Will we ever become used to immersion? Art History and Image Science