Recent research into the placebo effect has implications for the ethics of shared decision-making (SDM). The older biomedical model views SDM as affecting which therapy is chosen, but not the nature or likelihood of any health outcomes produced by the therapy. Research indicates, however, that both the content and manner ...

Abstract Objective: Development of research in occupational therapy requires a continuous critical discussion concerning methodological approaches. In this paper the authors wish to contribute to such a discussion by introducing the Formal Data-Structure Analysis approach (FDSA) as a method for understanding people's experiences. Methods and results: A review of selected ...

Discoveries in the pre-clinical neurosciences have set the stage for bringing new therapies to patients affected by neurological disorders. The National lnstitute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is dedicated to promoting the development of new therapies through its funding programs that range from basic neuroscience to translational research and ...

Proton NMR spectroscopy is emerging from translational and preclinical neuroscience research as an important tool for evidence based diagnosis and therapy monitoring. It provides biomarkers that offer fingerprints of neurological disorders even in cases where a lesion is not yet observed in MR images. The collection of molecules used as ...

Trillions of bacteria, fungi, viruses, archaea, and small arthropods colonize the skin surface, collectively comprising the skin microbiome. Generations of researchers have classified these microbes as transient versus resident, beneficial versus pathogenic, and collaborators versus adversaries. Culturing and direct sequencing of microbial inhabitants identified distinct populations present at skin surface ...

Background and objectiveThe generation of research can be likened to the production of consumer goods, with a producer (the study authors and funders), a product (the study and publications arising from it) and consumers (those who read and cite the published study). The aim of this study was to use ...

Forty years ago, Judah Folkman predicted that tumor growth is dependent on angiogenesis and that inhibiting this process might be a new strategy for cancer therapy. This hypothesis formed the foundation of a new field of research that represents an excellent example of how a groundbreaking scientific discovery can be ...

The emphasis on scientific approaches and evidence-based therapy has been a key force in developing and refining existing models of therapy. While this has been unquestioningly invaluable, it has similarly restricted the development and so implementation of those models that do not lend themselves easily to current research methodology, since ...

Erythroid biology research involving rhesus macaques has been applied to several topics including malaria, hemoglobinopathy and gene therapy research. However, analyses of the rhesus red blood cells are limited by the inability to identify and sort those cells in research blood samples using flow cytometry. Here it is reported that ...

ABSTRACT: This document provides a review of the techniques and therapies used in gait rehabilitation after stroke. It also examines the possible benefits of including assistive robotic devices and brain-computer interfaces in this field, according to a top-down approach, in which rehabilitation is driven by neural plasticity. The methods reviewed ...

This is a remarkable time to be a student of infantile hemangiomas (IHs). IH is a common tumor, estimated to occur in approximately 4% of infants. Studied for many decades, the acquisition of knowledge and pace of IH research are accelerating. The article by Greenberger et al. in this issue ...

Gold nanoprobes have become attractive diagnostic and therapeutic agents in medicine and life sciences research owing to their reproducible synthesis with atomic level precision, unique physical and chemical properties, versatility of their morphologies, flexibility in functionalization, ease of targeting, efficiency in drug delivery and opportunities for multimodal therapy. This review ...

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a complex disease harboring a myriad of genetic and epigenetic changes. The dismal survival of patients diagnosed with PC is in part due to de novo and acquired resistance to conventional therapeutics, resulting from deregulated signaling including aberrant expression of small nc miRNAs. Emerging research in ...

Cell therapy holds promise in addressing a number of unmet medical needs but despite its considerable impetus, faces numerous challenges including support for translational research in this area. Here, we examine the challenges confronting cell therapy research including the limited funding available for translational research partly due to the uncompetitive ...

Neurotransplantation remains a much-debated frontier in contemporary neurosurgery and neuroscience, with roots dating to the late 19th century. Contemporary applications are far-reaching, and ongoing laboratory research and clinical trials seek to define the mechanisms at play in neurotransplant engraftment and growth, while advancing the field forward into the 21st century. ...

The national scale up of antiretroviral therapy in Malawi is based on a public health approach, with principles and practices borrowed from the successful World Health Organization "DOTS" tuberculosis control framework. The scale up of antiretroviral therapy was under-pinned by a very strong monitoring and evaluation system, which was used ...

ABSTRACT: In a recent issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy, Chandra and colleagues described the use of multiple multiplex immunoassays and complex computer algorithms to investigate the possibility of improved laboratory diagnosis and novel classification of rheumatoid arthritis on the basis of biomarkers. Such complex predictive tools in rheumatology can ...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a fast growing world-wide epidemic. AD is a genetically complex, slowly progressive, and irreversible neurodegenerative disease of the brain. During decades of asymptomatic progression multiple interactive systems, pathways and molecular mechanisms (e.g. protein processing, aberrant signaling, inflammation and immune system, lipid transport, endocytosis, apoptosis, oxidative damage ...

Schema Therapy is becoming an increasingly popular psychological model for working with individuals who have a variety of mental health and personality difficulties. The aim of this review is to look at the current evidence base for Schema Therapy and highlight directions for further research. A systematic search of the ...

ABSTRACT: Therapy with hypertonic solutions is one of the mainstays of neurosurgical treatment for all types of neurological injury. While the initial research with hypertonic agents in the early decades of the 20 Century showed great promise in the ability of these agents to lower intracranial pressure, this research also ...

Stock market volatility in the cell therapy industry has greatly hindered the investment necessary to fund translational therapies. Here, we review the volatility of leading companies and suggest that a distinct industry is maturing to a point at which the volatility should subside, providing a more attractive environment for future ...

Regenerative therapies possess high theoretical potential for medical advance yet their success as commercial therapeutics is still open to debate. Appropriate data on target opportunities that provide perspective and enable strategic decision-making is necessary for both efficient and effective translation. Up until now, this data has been out of reach ...

Scotland is shaping up as Europe's 'go-to' place to translate cell therapy research from the laboratory into the clinic. While continuing to punch above its weight in fundamental research, the resources for translating research to clinical application are perhaps its main attraction for the international stem cell research community.

Current health services are struggling to provide optimal rehabilitation therapy to victims of stroke. This has motivated researchers to explore the use of robotic devices to provide rehabilitation therapy for strokepatients. This paper reviews the recent progress of upper limb exoskeleton robots for rehabilitation treatment of patients with neuromuscular disorders. ...

Research and patient communities are firmly interdependent. Engaged patient communities provide biological samples and data that drive discoveries which, in turn, fuel the development of novel therapies. Historically, Huntington's disease (HD) has benefited from trusting interactions between scientists and patients. However, even for HD, communication between the research and patient ...

Study Design. Reflective critique and recommendation developmentObjective. To reflect on limitations in past trials and propose recommendations on innovative trial designs and methodologies for whiplash associated disorders (WAD).Summary of Background Data. The cost of doing clinical research and risk of retaining an evidence void is an overarching threat to lessening ...

In various documents the view emerges that contemporary biotechnosciences are currently experiencing a scientific revolution: a massive increase of pace, scale and scope. A significant part of the research endeavours involved in this scientific upheaval is devoted to understanding and, if possible, ameliorating humankind: from our genomes up to our ...

Despite the continued growth of heart failure as a major public health problem, the development of new therapies for heart failure has slowed and recent studies have been neutral, suggesting the need for a reappraisal of the clinical research enterprise. Surrogate end points, defined as measurements that are used as ...

This article concerns new developments in autologous adult stem cell research in Japan and India through the notions of biohierarchy and bionetworking. It conceptualizes how human subject research in one country may be turned into experimental stem cell therapies in another through bionetworks. We analyse the processes that enable researchers ...

Recent advances in understanding the epidemiology, genetics, diagnosis, clinical presentations, skeletal involvement, and therapeutic approaches to hypoparathyroidism led to the First International Workshop on Hypoparathyroidism that was held in 2009. At this conference, a group of experts convened to discuss these issues with a view towards a future research agenda ...

Epidemiological data show that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk from a number of cancers and chronic diseases. Sulforaphane (SF), a phytochemical constituent of cruciferous vegetables, has been widely researched in recent decades as a potential chemopreventive compound. Nonexistent in intact vegetables, natural SF, is ...

A novel laboratory revolution for disease therapy, the RNA interference (RNAi) technology, has adopted a new era of molecular research as the next generation "Gene-targeted prophylaxis." In this review, we have focused on the chief technological challenges associated with the efforts to develop RNAi-based therapeutics that may guide the biomedical ...

ABSTRACT: The past 15 years opened new avenues for retrovirus and retroelement research. Not surprisingly, they stemmed from essential knowledge collected in the past, which remains the ground of the present and therefore should be remembered. However, a short supplement of new break-through discoveries and ideas should be recollected. Using ...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been isolated and shown to be effective in animal models of ischemia, and many groups involved in clinical trials have demonstrated that EPC therapy is safe and feasible for the treatment of critical limb ischemia and cardiovascular diseases. However, many issues in the field of ...

Research into cancer over the past 10 years has diverged enormously, partly based on the large number of new technologies that are now at our finger tips. With areas of cancer research so disparate, it is not always easy to identify where the next new findings and therapies might come ...

Summary.  Rare disease research is increasingly challenging. For those with haemophilia, this is an exciting time, with the promise of new therapies at the bench and in early phase clinical trials. Yet, it is also a time for critical assessment and planning to assure the success of the clinical research ...

Background: While considerable attention has been focused in recent years on evidence-based practice, less attention has been placed on clinical social workers' choice to use ineffective or harmful interventions, referred to in the present paper as Novel Unsupported Therapies (NUSTs). Method: The present study surveyed 400 Licensed Clinical Social Workers ...

Translation of scaffold based bone tissue engineering therapies to clinical use remains, bluntly, a failure. This dearth of translated tissue engineering therapies (including scaffolds) remains despite 25 years of research, research funding totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, over 12,000 papers on bone tissue engineering and over 2,000 papers on ...

The main aim of this research is to study the in vitro photocytotoxicity and cellular uptake of biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles loaded with photosensitizer mTHPP. As the first part of a continued research on conversion of N-sulfonato-N,O-carboxymethylchitosan (NOCCS) to useful biopolymer-based materials, large numbers of carboxylic functional groups were introduced onto ...

The paper examines on the one hand the influence of the Berlin Institute in the 1920s on Franz Alexander's training and on his later work, as it was a workshop aiming to test the possibilities of a large utilization of psychoanalytic therapy in an institutional framework. On the other hand, ...

Significant progress has been made in scar research in which an anti-transforming growth factor-β strategy has already been translated from an experimental study to a clinical trial. However, scar reduction and elimination remain an unmet medical need because of the difficulty in its treatment. The authors of this article would ...

Over the last 20 years psychotherapy and family therapy have been inundated with a plethora of empirically validated treatments for particular disorders. That trend will increase. Psychotherapists will increasingly be exhorted and ultimately required to integrate empirical data and multicultural competence into their practice. Additionally, individual psychotherapy's default dominance of ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The present review gives an update of the current management of Raynaud's phenomenon and its ischaemic complications (digital ulceration and critical ischaemia) and discusses possible further developments in the next 5-10 years. New approaches to therapy are being driven by increased understanding of pathophysiology and by increased ...

Chemical compounds that interfere with an enzymatic function of kinases are useful for gaining insight into the complicated biochemical processes in mammalian cells. Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) play an essential role in the control of the cell cycle and/or proliferation. These kinases as well as their regulators are frequently deregulated in ...

Background A novel manufacturing industry is emerging to translate unique cellular therapy bioprocesses to robust, scaled manufacturing production for successful clinical translation. Source of data This review summarizes key translational issues, and current and future perspectives to improve translation of cell-based therapy bioprocessing, based on literature search and author research. ...

The field of biological pacing is entering its second decade of active investigation. The inception of this area of study was serendipitous, deriving largely from observations made by several teams of investigators, whose common interest was to understand the mechanisms governing cardiac impulse initiation. Research directions taken have fallen under ...

The aim of rehabilitation robotic area is to research on the application of robotic devices to therapeutic procedures. The goal is to achieve the best possible motor, cognitive and functional recovery for people with impairments following various diseases. Pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotic rehabilitation applications because they are lightweight, ...

Increasingly, clinical trials incorporate translational research questions aimed at identifying biomarkers of response or resistance to agents under investigation. Biomarker assays can require tissue samples to be collected through a research biopsy before therapy, during treatment, or at the time of tumor progression. Such biopsy samples will generally not provide ...

Although leech therapy is a well-established, effective method of relieving venous congestion, it is associated with complications such as wound infection and leech migration. To minimize these risks, efforts to reproduce their effects have been developed and investigated. A search string using (chemical OR mechanical OR alternative) AND (Leeches OR ...

Non-invasive biomarkers of liver fibrosis represent an intense area of research with the goals of improving patient care, disease stratification and aiding the development of future anti-fibrotic therapies. Despite the rapid progress in recent years there remain questions about how diagnostic studies are designed, statistical methods to account for spectrum ...