Efficacy of different spinal orthoses for pain management, functional improvement, and quality of life in osteoporotic vertebral fractures: a mini review.

Osteoporotic vertebral fractures (OVFs) significantly impair the quality of life in older adults. Spinal orthoses are commonly used, but their effectiveness is debated. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the impact of different spinal orthoses on pain, functionality, and quality of life in patients with OVFs.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

Association Does Not Mean Causation, When Observational Data Were Misinterpreted as Causal: The Observational Interpretation Fallacy.

Background: The differentiation between association and causation is a significant challenge in medical research, often further complicated by cognitive biases that erroneously interpret coincidental observational data as indicative of causality. Such misinterpretations can lead to misguided clinical guidelines and healthcare practice, potentially endangering patient safety and leading to inefficient use of resources.

Methods: We conducted an extensive search of PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases up to March 2024, identifying circumstances where associations from observational studies were incorrectly deemed causal.

Educational Intervention on Awareness of Health-Damaging Behaviors in Educators.

Doping prevention transcends elite sports, highlighting a broader societal challenge where performance enhancement is driven by pressures to increase strength, beauty, and status. This issue extends to adolescents and non-competitive sports participants, where self-optimization pressures are increasingly normalized. Research underscores the need for tailored educational interventions that go beyond punitive measures, fostering ethical decision-making and personal responsibility.

A new approach to repair recurrent vescicourethral anastomotic strictures after radical prostatectomy: The use of prerectal access.

Background: Vesicourethral anastomosis stenosis (VUAS) is a well-known complication of prostate cancer treatments, observed in up to 26% of the cases after radical prostatectomy. Conservative management, with single or even repeated transurethral dilation or endoscopic incision of the stenosis, is successful in many cases, but up to 9% of patients are destined to fail after endoscopic treatment. In these cases, a revision of the vesicourethral anastomosis is necessary and can be realized with different surgical approaches.