In the analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), treatment effect heterogeneity often occurs, implying differences across (subgroups of) clients in treatment efficacy. This phenomenon is typically referred to as treatment-subgroup interactions. The identification of subgroups of clients, defined in terms of pretreatment characteristics that are involved in a treatment-subgroup interactio...

BACKGROUND Progress in clinical medicine relies on the willingness of patients to take part in experimental clinical trials, particularly randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Before agreeing to enroll in clinical trials, patients require guarantees that they will not knowingly be harmed and will have the best possible chances of receiving the most favorable treatments. This guarantee is provide...

Objectives. This study aims to assess the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion for the correction of nonvertex presentation. Methods. Records without language restrictions were searched up to February 2013 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing moxibustion with other therapies in women with a singleton nonvertex presentation. Cochrane risk of bias criteria were used to assess the ...

CONTEXT The Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) statement was developed to help improve the quality of reports of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). To date, a paucity of data exists regarding whether it has achieved this goal. OBJECTIVE To determine whether use of the CONSORT statement is associated with improvement in the quality of reports of RCTs. DESIGN AND SETTI...

We introduce a self-dual, noncommutative, and noncocommutative Hopf algebra HGT which takes for certain Hopf categories (and therefore braided monoidal bicategories) a similar role as the GrothendieckTeichmüller group for quasitensor categories. We also give a result which highly restricts the possibility for similar structures for higher weak n-categories (n ≥ 3) by showing that these structur...

Interaction detection methods have led to the discovery of thousands of interactions between proteins, and discerning relevance within large-scale data sets is important to present-day biology. Here, a spectral method derived from graph theory was introduced to uncover hidden topological structures (i.e. quasi-cliques and quasi-bipartites) of complicated protein-protein interaction networks. Ou...

Knowledge generation through randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is critical to advance the medical evidence base, inform decision-making, and improve care and outcomes. Unfortunately, nephrology has typically lagged behind other medical specialties in this regard. The establishment of formal clinical trial networks can facilitate the successful conduct of RCTs and has significantly increased t...

The proposal that dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) enhances neurocognitive functioning in term infants is controversial. Theoretical evidence, laboratory research and human epidemiological studies have convincingly demonstrated that DHA deficiency can negatively impact neurocognitive development. However, the results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of DHA supplementation in human ter...

Stretch marks are a common disfiguring skin condition that can have a deep psychological impact on affected patients. Although there are a variety of treatments available, no consistently effective therapies have been established. In this systematic review, we evaluate 8 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the efficacy and safety of currently available therapies for the treatment of s...