Has the degree of outcome reporting bias in surgical randomized trials changed? A meta-regression analysis.

Background: Outcome reporting bias in individual trials can compromise the validity of pooled estimates within systematic reviews. Recent strategies have attempted to address outcome reporting bias, which favours the full reporting of statistically significant outcomes over non-significant outcomes. We examined whether the association between full outcome reporting and statistical significance in surgical trials has changed from 2009 to 2019.

IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 protocol: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover, multicenter trial in healthy subjects to investigate the effects of lacosamide, pregabalin, and tapentadol on biomarkers of pain processing observed by non-invasive neurophysiological measurements of human spinal cord and brainstem activity.

Background: IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 is one of four similarly designed clinical studies aiming at profiling a set of functional biomarkers of drug effects on specific compartments of the nociceptive system that could serve to accelerate the future development of analgesics. IMI2-PainCare-BioPain-RCT2 will focus on human spinal cord and brainstem activity using biomarkers derived from non-invasive neurophysiological measurements.

Methods: This is a multisite, single-dose, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, 4-period, 4-way crossover, pharmacodynamic (PD) and pharmacokinetic (PK) study in healthy subjects.

Has the reporting of patient-important outcomes improved in surgical trials? A meta-epidemiological study.

Background: Clinical trials should ideally use patient-important outcomes to ensure their results are clinically relevant. We aimed to determine if the proportion of patient-important outcomes in surgical trials has changed over the last decade, and to determine whether patient-important outcomes are more likely to be specified as primary outcomes.

Methods: The 350 most recent randomized controlled trials examining surgical interventions on humans and published in English were included.

Provision of refugia and seeding with native bivalves can enhance biodiversity on vertical seawalls.

Recent studies have suggested that increasing habitat complexity of artificial seawalls by modifying surface heterogeneity could enhance exploitable habitat and therefore species richness and abundance. We tested the effects of adding complex tiles (with crevices/ledges) of different heterogeneity (i.e.

Has the reporting quality of published randomised controlled trial protocols improved since the SPIRIT statement? A methodological study.

Objectives: To determine the reporting quality of published randomised controlled trial (RCT) protocols before and after the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) statement (2013), and any association with author, trial or journal factors.

Design: Methodological study.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase and CENTRAL were electronically searched using optimised search strategies.

Mask or no mask for COVID-19: A public health and market study.

Efficient strategies to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are peremptory to relieve the negatively impacted public health and global economy, with the full scope yet to unfold. In the absence of highly effective drugs, vaccines, and abundant medical resources, many measures are used to manage the infection rate and avoid exhausting limited hospital resources. Wearing masks is among the non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measures that could be effectively implemented at a minimum cost and without dramatically disrupting social practices.

Risk Prediction Scores for Mortality, Cerebrovascular, and Heart Disease Among Chinese People With Type 2 Diabetes.

Context: Risk scores for cardiovascular and mortality outcomes have not been commonly applied in Chinese populations.

Objective: To develop and externally validate a set of parsimonious risk scores [University of Hong Kong-Singapore (HKU-SG)] to predict the risk of mortality, cerebrovascular disease, and ischemic heart disease among Chinese people with type 2 diabetes and compare HKU-SG risk scores to other existing ones.

Design: Retrospective population-based cohorts drawn from Hong Kong Hospital Authority health records from 2006 to 2014 for development and Singapore Ministry of Health records from 2008 to 2016 for validation.

Augmented Reality Games as a New Class of Physical Activity Interventions? The Impact of Pokémon Go Use and Gaming Intensity on Physical Activity.

Objective: To assess the health impact of augmented reality games by examining the association between Pokémon Go and physical activity among university students.

Materials And Methods: This pilot study included 65 medical students who were iPhone (Apple, Inc., Cupertino, CA) users with the built-in accelerometer and Health app.

Longitudinal Patterns and Predictors of Depression Trajectories Related to the 2014 Occupy Central/Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong.

Objectives: To examine the longitudinal patterns and predictors of depression trajectories before, during, and after Hong Kong's 2014 Occupy Central/Umbrella Movement.

Methods: In a prospective study, between March 2009 and November 2015, we interviewed 1170 adults randomly sampled from the population-representative FAMILY Cohort. We used the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 to assess depressive symptoms and probable major depression.

Requesting a unique personal identifier or providing a souvenir incentive did not affect overall consent to health record linkage: evidence from an RCT nested within a cohort.

Objective: It is unclear if unique personal identifiers should be requested from participants for health record linkage: this permits high-quality data linkage but at the potential cost of lower consent rates due to privacy concerns.

Study Design And Setting: Drawing from a sampling frame based on the FAMILY Cohort, using a 2 × 2 factorial design, we randomly assigned 1,200 participants to (1) request for Hong Kong Identity Card number (HKID) or no request and (2) receiving a souvenir incentive (valued at USD4) or no incentive. The primary outcome was consent to health record linkage.

Trends and Determinants of Familial Consent for Corneal Donation in Chinese.

Purpose: Corneal transplantation is the treatment of choice for many corneal diseases. At present, there is a global shortage of corneal transplant tissues, and failure to obtain consent from families of potential donors is a major limiting factor in tissue procurement.

Methods: All family members of potential donors after cardiac death approached by the local eye bank staff members from January 2008 to December 2014 in Hong Kong were included.

Direct Participation in and Indirect Exposure to the Occupy Central Movement and Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Study of Hong Kong Adults.

Despite the extensive history of social movements around the world, the evolution of population mental health before, during, and after a social movement remains sparsely documented. We sought to assess over time the prevalence of depressive symptoms during and after the Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong and to examine the associations of direct and indirect exposures to Occupy Central with depressive symptoms. We longitudinally administered interviews to 909 adults who were randomly sampled from the population-representative FAMILY Cohort at 6 time points from March 2009 to March 2015: twice each before, during, and after the Occupy Central protests.

Normative data and psychometric properties of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the abbreviated version (CD-RISC2) among the general population in Hong Kong.

Purpose: To examine whether the two-item version (CD-RISC2) of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) has adequate internal consistency and construct validity, as well as significant correlation with the full scale, and to provide normative data for the CD-RISC and the CD-RISC2 in a Chinese general population in Hong Kong.

Methods: In total, 10,997 randomly selected participants aged ≥20 years completed the Chinese version of the CD-RISC (including the 2 items of the CD-RISC2), the Patient Health Questionnaire, Family Harmony Scale, Family APGAR, and CAGE Questionnaire. Internal consistency and convergent and discriminant validity of the CD-RISC and CD-RISC2 were assessed.

Hinokitiol induces autophagy in murine breast and colorectal cancer cells.

Hinokitiol is found in the heartwood of cupressaceous plants and possesses several biological activities. Hinokitiol may play an important role in anti-inflammation and antioxidant processes, making it potentially useful in therapies for inflammatory-mediated disease. Previously, the suppression of tumor growth by hinokitiol has been shown to occur through apoptosis.

A field trial to assess the performance of CO2-supersaturated water injection for residual volatile LNAPL recovery.

A pilot scale field trial was conducted to evaluate the recovery of volatile, light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) using a novel remediation method termed supersaturated water injection (SWI). SWI uses a patented technology to efficiently dissolve high concentrations of CO(2) into water at elevated pressures. This water is injected into the subsurface resulting in the nucleation of CO(2) bubbles at and away from the injection point.