PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy of collagen cross-linking (CXL) one year after treatment for keratoconus compared to no treatment by summarizing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using a systematic review. METHODS Trials meeting the selection criteria were quality appraised, and the data were extracted by two independent authors. The outcome parameters included maximum keratometry (Kmax), ...

BACKGROUND Results from clinical studies on acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation are contradictory. The reason for the inconsistent findings especially lie in the transparency and accuracy of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reports. This study aims to analyze the quality of reporting and its correlates in RCTs on acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation. METHODS Quality of reporting for inc...

BACKGROUND Failure to recruit to target or schedule is common in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Innovative interventions are not always fully developed before being tested, and maintenance of fidelity to the intervention during trials can be problematic. Missing data can compromise analyses, and inaccurate capture of risks to participants can influence reporting of intervention harms and ...

INTRODUCTION This systematic literature review was performed to establish the mechanism, methodology, characteristics, clinical application and opportunities of the T-Scan III System as a diagnostic tool for digital occlusal analysis in different fields of dentistry, precisely in orthodontics. METHODS Searching of electronic databases, using MEDLINE and PubMed, hand searching of relevant key ...

This paper considers the performance of a compensation mechanism that has received increasing attention in recent experimental literature. Our purpose is two-fold: (i) to characterize endogenous payments that can induce (mutual) cooperation in prisoner’s dilemma in the absence of social preferences; (ii) using models of quasi-maximin and inequality-aversion preferences to evaluate the possibili...

One reason for the universal interest in Frobenius algebras is that their characterisation can be formulated in arbitrary categories: a functor K : A → B between categories is Frobenius if there exists a functor G : B → A which is at the same time a right and left adjoint of K; a monad F on A is a Frobenius monad provided the forgetful functor AF → A is a Frobenius functor, where AF denotes the...

Research is needed to help identify interventions that will improve the capacity or functioning of health systems and thereby contribute to achieving global health goals. Well conducted, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), insofar as they reduce bias and confounding, provide the strongest evidence for identifying which interventions delivered directly to individuals are safe and effective. Whe...

BACKGROUND Publication bias and other reporting bias have been well documented for journal articles, but no study has evaluated the nature of results posted at ClinicalTrials.gov. We aimed to assess how many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with results posted at ClinicalTrials.gov report statistically significant results and whether the proportion of trials with significant results differs ...

BACKGROUND Rhodiola rosea (R. rosea) is grown at high altitudes and northern latitudes. Due to its purported adaptogenic properties, it has been studied for its performance-enhancing capabilities in healthy populations and its therapeutic properties in a number of clinical populations. To systematically review evidence of efficacy and safety of R. rosea for physical and mental fatigue. METHOD...

OBJECTIVE To test whether the newly developed comprehensive complication index (CCI) is more sensitive than traditional endpoints for detecting between-group differences in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). BACKGROUND A major challenge in RCTs is the choice of optimal endpoints to detect treatment effects. Mortality is no longer a sufficient marker in studies, and morbidity is often poorly...