Progression of Pilot Trials to Completed Randomized Controlled Trials in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: Well-designed pilot trials are essential in determining feasibility prior to initiating definitive randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and their implementation into clinical practice. The primary outcome of this study was to identify the number of pilot or feasibility studies in Plastic Surgery that progressed to a definitive RCT. Secondary outcomes included a) number of pilot studies expressing feasibility statements and outcomes and b) reporting quality.

Uncovering hidden treasures: Mapping morphological changes in the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells to osteoblasts using deep learning.

Deep Learning (DL) is becoming an increasingly popular technology being employed in life sciences research due to its ability to perform complex and time-consuming tasks with significantly greater speed, accuracy, and reproducibility than human researchers - allowing them to dedicate their time to more complex tasks. One potential application of DL is to analyze cell images taken by microscopes. Quantitative analysis of cell microscopy images remain a challenge - with manual cell characterization requiring excessive amounts of time and effort.

Progress in cardiovascular bioprinting.

Cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death globally for the past 15 years. Following a major cardiac disease episode, the ideal treatment would be the replacement of the damaged tissue, due to the limited regenerative capacity of cardiac tissues. However, we suffer from a chronic organ donor shortage which causes approximately 20 people to die each day waiting to receive an organ.