Navigating the Science System: Research Integrity and Academic Survival Strategies.

Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientific behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct.

How to improve scientific peer review: Four schools of thought.

Peer review plays an essential role as one of the cornerstones of the scholarly publishing system. There are many initiatives that aim to improve the way in which peer review is organized, resulting in a highly complex landscape of innovation in peer review. Different initiatives are based on different views on the most urgent challenges faced by the peer review system, leading to a diversity of perspectives on how the system can be improved.

An overview of innovations in the external peer review of journal manuscripts.

There are currently numerous innovations in peer review and quality assurance in scholarly publishing. The Research on Research Institute conducted a programme of co-produced projects investigating these innovations. This literature review was part of one such project 'Experiments in peer review' which created an inventory and framework of peer review innovations.

Designing and implementing a research integrity promotion plan: Recommendations for research funders.

Various stakeholders in science have put research integrity high on their agenda. Among them, research funders are prominently placed to foster research integrity by requiring that the organizations and individual researchers they support make an explicit commitment to research integrity. Moreover, funders need to adopt appropriate research integrity practices themselves.

Changing publication practices and the typification of the journal article in science and technology studies.

In this article, we study the development of the STS journal article format since the 1980s. Our analysis is based on quantitative data that suggest that the diversity of various journal publication types has diminished over the past four decades, while the format of research articles has become increasingly typified. We contextualize these historical shifts in qualitative terms, drawing on a set of 76 interviews with STS scholars and other stakeholders in scholarly publishing.

Editorial Work and the Peer Review Economy of STS Journals.

In this paper, we analyze the role of science and technology studies (STS) journal editors in organizing and maintaining the peer review economy. We specifically conceptualize peer review as a gift economy running on perpetually renewed experiences of mutual indebtedness among members of an intellectual community. While the peer review system is conventionally presented as self-regulating, we draw attention to its vulnerabilities and to the essential curating function of editors.

Factors influencing the promotion and implementation of research integrity in research performing and research funding organizations: A scoping review.

Promoting and implementing research integrity is considered the joint responsibility and effort of multiple stakeholders in the research community. We conducted a scoping review and analyzed 236 research articles and gray literature publications from biomedical sciences, social sciences, natural sciences (including engineering), and humanities that dealt with the factors that may positively or negatively impact the promotion and implementation of research integrity. Critical appraisal of evidence was performed for studies describing interventions aimed at research integrity promotion in order to provide insight into the effectiveness of these interventions.

Filling in the gaps: The interpretation of in peer review.

In this article, we study the use of (CV) for competitive funding decisions in science. The typically sober administrative style of academic résumés evokes the impression of straightforwardly conveyed, objective evidence on which to base comparisons of past achievements and future potentials. We instead conceptualize the evaluation of biographical evidence as a generative interplay between an historically grown, administrative infrastructure (the CV), and a situated evaluative practice in which the representational function of that infrastructure is itself interpreted and established.

[Permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia (PJRT) and dilated cardiomyopathy].

We present 14-year-old girl with permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia which was refractory to medicamentous therapy, who also had dilated cardiomyopathy. She underwent successful radiofrequent catheter ablation of accessory pathway after wich the histologic changes in the myocardium were observed in the form of compensatory hypertrophy of cardiac muscle (cardiac remodelling). The question of cause and consequence appeared: whether the arrhythmia is a consequence of dilated cardiomyopathy, or it is tachycardia- induced cardiomyopathy.

Efficacy and safety of ibutilide for the conversion of monomorphic atrial tachycardia.

Background: Ibutilide is a class III antiarrhythmic drug, frequently used for conversion of atrial fibrillation and flutter. We studied the efficacy of ibutilide for acute conversion of monomorphic atrial tachycardia (monoAT) in a prospective, open label study in the intensive care unit of a cardiological clinic.

Methods: We examined 49 episodes of monoAT in 38 patients (19 men/19 women).

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction alters the patellar alignment.

Although there are many articles dealing with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, there are none dealing with the possibility of changes of the patellofemoral alignment after these procedures. Forty-six patients were evaluated preoperatively and 1 year postoperatively, after undergoing intra-articular ACL reconstruction, for changes of the patellofemoral alignment. Patella-tilt and congruence angles were measured on tangential view radiographs that were taken in the supine position.

Shortening of the patellar tendon after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

In this prospective study, patellar height changes were investigated after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with a mean follow-up of 22.4 months. A total of 114 patients were included.

Twisting of patellar tendon grafts does not reduce their mechanical properties.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the twisting of a patellar tendon (PT) graft improves or reduces its mechanical properties. Twenty-seven pairs of 10 mm cadaveric PT grafts were tested at a strain rate of 10% min(-1). For each pair, the left specimen served as an unmanipulated control while the right specimen was either left untwisted, twisted + 90 degrees, or twisted - 90 degrees.

Laser catheter coagulation of atrial myocardium for ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia. First clinical experience.

A new technique for ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia, using catheter-directed continuous wave Nd-YAG laser light, 1064 nm, via a novel pin-electrode laser catheter, was applied in 10 patients aged 15-63 years (mean 43 years). A total of 22 laser pulses, 1-5 per patient, at 20 or 30 W, of 10-45 s (mean 27 s) were aimed at the postero-inferior aspect of the tricuspid annulus. In all patients the tachycardia was rendered non-inducible at baseline as well as during orciprenaline administration.

[Catheter ablation of accessory atrioventricular conduction pathways in all locations--consecutive results of a new curative therapy of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia].

Accessory atrioventricular pathways are a frequent cause of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardias. This study analyses our results with a recently developed therapeutic approach-radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation. This was applied in 150 consecutive patients (97 men, 53 women, mean age 42 +/- 15 years) with a total of 159 accessory pathways in all locations.

Cardioverter discharges following sensing of electrical artifact due to fluid penetration in the connector port.

We report a unique case of fluid penetration, 3 months after implantation, in the connector port of an automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) with transvenous subcutaneous lead system. The patient had coronary artery disease and recurrent episodes of ventricular fibrillation, the fluid caused electrical signals interpreted as ventricular fibrillation by the device, which triggered shock delivery.

[Location of atrial and ventricular insertions of accessory atrioventricular pathways using surface ECG mapping and its importance in catheter ablation therapy].

Background: The modern non-pharmacological therapy of the WPW syndrome by means of catheter ablation is based on the interruption of the accessory pathway(-s) by radiofrequency current energy. Destruction of the morphologic substrate of the arrhythmia alters the activation wave spread in the heart.

Objectives: It was the aim of this report to demonstrate the diagnostic potential of BSM in localizing both overt and concealed accessory pathways.

[Efficacy of the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator in patients on the waiting list for heart transplantation].

8 of 122 patients receiving an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in our department since 1985 for the treatment of ventricular tachyarrhythmias were considered candidates for cardiac transplantation. In 6 of 8 patients, at least one successful ICD discharge (range 1-378 discharges) was documented in the follow up time until transplantation. These therapies included cardioversions/defibrillations as well as overdrive stimulation in sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia.

[Complications in transvenous and transvenous-subcutaneous implantable defibrillator systems].

Due to technical improvement using the transvenous-subcutaneous approach for lead fixation for cardioverter-defibrillator implantation, the incidence of device implantation has extended enormously. While a significant lower perioperative mortality in transvenously implanted systems compared to epicardially fixed implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been proven, perioperative as well as complications during follow-up are not analyzed systematically. In 59 patients, in whom transvenous-subcutaneous ICDs had been implanted, 3 patients showed bleeding complications in the subcutaneous patch area, 1 patient showed a bleeding in the device pocket, and in 1 patient a seroma in the subcutaneous patch region was observed necessitating surgical revisions.

Hemodynamics during ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

The hemodynamic consequences of ventricular tachycardias are caused by cardiac and peripheral reactions. As a result, cardiac output and arterial pressure decrease. Even if the decrease is related to the tachycardia rate and left ventricular function, clinical symptoms do not in each case correlate with the degree of hemodynamic compromise.

[Therapy monitoring in cardiac arrhythmias: guidelines for evaluation of anti-arrhythmia effects].

The incidence of avoidable or unavoidable, cardial and extracardial side effects is a risk in the drug treatment of supraventricular and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Therefore the indication of antiarrhythmic drug therapy has to be considered critically. The patient has to be controlled close-meshed, especially at the beginning of the drug treatment.

[Electrocardiography and electrophysiologic findings in patients with myotonic muscular dystrophy].

Myotonic dystrophy is associated with diffuse cardiac conduction disturbances. Seven consecutive patients, all asymptomatic with respect to cardiac abnormalities, were investigated by means of ECG, Holter monitoring, and invasive electrophysiologic studies (EPS). During Holter monitoring, no abnormalities were found in any patient, except for one patient who showed single monomorphic VEBs.

[Implantation of defibrillators with transvenous-subcutaneous electrode systems].

In 23 patients an integrated pacemaker-defibrillator-system with transvenous-subcutaneous lead system was implanted. Two transvenous electrodes were positioned, one in the right ventricle for sensing, pacing and defibrillation and one in the superior vena cava for defibrillation alone. Another electrode was positioned subcutaneously near the ventricular apex for defibrillation.

[Value of a provocation test with diprafenone in patients with bifascicular block].

The significance of provocative tests in patients with bifascicular block is not established. We studied 14 patients with bifascicular block, syncope and documented episodes of high degree AV-block. 1.