BACKGROUND Blinding is a measure in randomized controlled trials (RCT) to reduce detection and performance bias. There is evidence that lack of blinding leads to overestimated treatment effects. Because of the physical component of interventions, blinding is not easily applicable in surgical trials. This is a protocol for a systematic review and empirical study about actual impact on outcomes a...

The decision to use a new test should be based on evidence that it will improve patient outcomes or produce other benefits without adversely affecting patients. In principle, long-term randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of test-plus-treatment strategies offer ideal evidence of the benefits of introducing a new test relative to current best practice. However, long-term RCTs may not always be ne...

This critical review examines the effects of notched-sound therapy on the human auditory system and its’ potential as a novel and effective treatment option for tinnitus. Studies evaluated consisted of one mixed groups randomized clinical trial, two mixed groups pseudorandomized clinical trials, and two mixed groups non-randomized clinical trials. Analyses of these studies revealed moderate evi...

Young children regularly engage in musical activities, but the effects of early music education on children's cognitive development are unknown. While some studies have found associations between musical training in childhood and later nonmusical cognitive outcomes, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been employed to assess causal effects of music lessons on child cognition and no cle...

S t u d y s e l e c t i o n Studies published in English were included if they were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing interventions that included aerobic exercise (treatment group) with interventions without aerobic exercise (control group), lasted ≥ 2 weeks, reported changes in blood pressure (systolic, diastolic, or both) from baseline to follow-up with the corresponding variances...

Sample size calculations are advocated by the CONSORT group to justify sample sizes in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The aim of this study was primarily to evaluate the reporting of sample size calculations, to establish the accuracy of these calculations in dental RCTs and to explore potential predictors associated with adequate reporting. Electronic searching was undertaken in eight le...

BACKGROUND The Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy (HSSS), which contains three phases, is widely used to identify Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) in MEDLINE. Lefebvre and Clarke suggest that reviewers might consider using four revisions of the HSSS. The objective of this study is to validate these four revisions: combining the free text terms volunteer, crossover, versus, and the Med...

Frobenius bimodules are connected with Frobenius algebras and extensions. For instance, a ring extension φ : R → S is a Frobenius extension if and only if RSS is a Frobenius bimodule [1]. Brzeziński and Gómez-Torrecillas studied in [4] certain properties of comatrix corings in relation to properties of bimodules. In particular they showed that the comatrix coring [6] induced by any Frobenius bi...

Many randomized controlled trials in which motivational interviewing (MI) is a key intervention make no provision for the assessment of treatment fidelity. This methodological shortcoming makes it impossible to distinguish between high- and low-quality MI interventions, and, consequently, to know whether MI provision has contributed to any intervention effects. This article makes some practical...

Characterizations of quasi-continuousmodules and continuousmodules are given. A non-trivial generalization of injectivity (distinct from p-injectivity) is considered.