Incorrect Impression Research Articles

The decline in the clinical relevance of pilocarpine and physostigmine monitored in pharmacology textbooks from 1878 to 2023: nine take-home messages for future (pharmacology) textbook authors.

In a recent study, using hydrogen cyanide as paradigm, we have shown that pharmacological knowledge evolves non-linearly ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38900251/ ). The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the presentation of the drugs pilocarpine and physostigmine in textbooks from 1878 to 2023. The categories of structure, molecular mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, effects, indications, adverse drug reactions, interactions, and contraindications were evaluated. The pharmacological knowledge on the molecular mechanism, chemical structure, and pharmacokinetics of pilocarpine and physostigmine changed the most during the period of 150 years. Until 1944, textbooks did not mention a molecular mechanism of action of pilocarpine and from 1951 onwards they described the activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors as the molecular basis of pilocarpine's effect. Until 1944, most textbooks on physostigmine also did not mention the molecular mechanism of action. From 1951 onwards, the reversible inhibition of acetylcholinesterase is mentioned as the mechanism of action of physostigmine. In contrast, in the categories effects, indications, adverse drug reactions, interactions, and contraindications, the detected changes in the pharmacological knowledge presented were comparatively smaller. Older pharmacology textbooks were better than newer ones at discussing changes in knowledge and scientific errors. We noted substantial differences in the presentation of pilocarpine and physostigmine among German and US pharmacology textbooks. We show a decline of the clinical relevance of both drugs and their presentation in pharmacological textbooks with physostigmine being virtually irrelevant. But modern textbooks still discuss physostigmine substantially, fitting to studies on the obsolete drug reserpine ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38103060/ ). Thus, textbooks often far lag clinical practice. Google Scholar conveys the incorrect impression that physostigmine is clinically more relevant than it is. An exponential decline in prescription numbers is a robust indicator of clinical obsolescence. From our study, we extract nine easily implementable take-home messages for future (pharmacology) textbook authors to ensure that this traditional teaching format will prevail against the competition of allegedly more "modern" teaching media.

Mainland China's 2021 restrictions on under-18s' video game time were imposed when older 2019 restrictions already applied: Omitting the historical regulatory context is misleading.

Investigating the impacts of addiction policymaking following implementation is important. Effective policies should be considered for emulation elsewhere, whilst ineffective policies should be repealed. Zhou etal. (2024) reported how Mainland Chinese under-18s responded to the 2021 restrictions on their online videogame playtime, which were intended to curb online gaming addiction. However, Zhou etal. failed to mention that Mainland China had previously tried to achieve the same regulatory aim by imposing rules in 2019 that were more lenient than the 2021 rules but nonetheless restricted under-18s' gameplay time. These 2019 restrictions were neither acknowledged as crucial background in the introduction section nor accounted for by Zhou etal. when interpreting their results, thus giving readers the incorrect impression that the 2021 rules were the first ones introduced and that under-18s' gameplay time was not restricted at all prior to 2021. Importantly, Zhou etal.'s entire sample of young people therefore consisted not merely of 'heavy gamers' as they euphemistically described them as, but'counterplayers' who actively contravened the 2019 rules. The misleading omission of this context is a major limitation and misrepresentation. The results should be interpreted accordingly and not overgeneralised.

Narrative bias ("spin") is common in randomised trials and systematic reviews of cannabinoids for pain.

We define narrative bias as a tendency to interpret information as part of a larger story or pattern, regardless of whether the facts support the full narrative. Narrative bias in title and abstract means that results reported in the title and abstract of an article are done so in a way that could distort their interpretation and mislead readers who had not read the whole article. Narrative bias is often referred to as "spin." It is prevalent in abstracts of scientific papers and is impactful because abstracts are often the only part of an article read. We found no extant narrative bias instrument suitable for exploring both efficacy and safety statements in randomized trials and systematic reviews of pain. We constructed a 6-point instrument with clear instructions and tested it on randomised trials and systematic reviews of cannabinoids and cannabis-based medicines for pain, with updated searches to April 2021. The instrument detected moderate or severe narrative bias in the title and abstract of 24% (8 of 34) of randomised controlled trials and 17% (11 of 64) of systematic reviews; narrative bias for efficacy and safety occurred equally. There was no significant or meaningful association between narrative bias and study characteristics in correlation or cluster analyses. Bias was always in favour of the experimental cannabinoid or cannabis-based medicine. Put simply, reading title and abstract only could give an incorrect impression of efficacy or safety in about 1 in 5 papers reporting on these products.

Strong Activity Changes Observable during the First Pretreatment Cycles of Trimetallic PtNiMo/C Catalysts

AbstractPt‐based alloy catalysts supported on carbon are commonly characterized for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity using the rotating disk electrode technique (RDE). Within this study, we show exemplarily for PtNiMo/C catalysts that the applied pretreatment influences strongly the determined activity. The classically employed descriptor of unchanged cyclic voltammetry response is insufficient to portrait completed surface restructuring, and gives an incorrect impression that stable activity can be determined. This might be one of the reasons for the strongly deviating activities reported in literature. Following the changes in activity during pretreatment also with in‐situ FTIR and online dissolution measurements gives insights to an up to now largely overseen high activity of the trimetallic catalysts. A maximum activity of 0.57 mA cmPt−2 at 0.95 VRHE is reached quickly during the first six cycles and decreases slowly subsequently. The maximum activity and change of activity over the cycle number is affected by the scan rate and electrolyte refreshing, while the gas atmosphere plays only a minor role. This exemplary study might be important for Pt alloy catalysts in general.

Investigation of elasticity in the mechanical properties of 3D printed PLA bolt sample

ABSTRACT With the aid of 3D printing, this study attempts to calculate the effective elastic modulus as well as the dimensional correctness and porosity of bolt samples. The main contribution of this study is the identification of the bolt sample porosity that is most appropriate for use as cancellous bone implants. It was discovered by contrasting the printed bolt sample’s size, porosity, and effective modulus of elasticity with cancellous bone, as well as with the CAD model. This study examines the characteristics of bolt PLA samples created using SolidWorks software and manufactured in three dimensions using FDM. Observing the uniaxial tensile and determining its elasticity using stress-strain curves were the goals. Three of the five bolt samples used in the tests yielded essentially accurate results. Our research will aid in comprehending numerous facets of creating, testing, and optimising 3-D printed PLA bolts for use in real-world applications. The effective modulus of elasticity is generated by computer simulation using the MSC Marc software. Bolts with porosity variations of 42.9 percent and 58.1 percent revealed that the results of the printed bolt were flawless, but those with porosity variations of 22.3 percent and 73.4 percent generated incorrect impressions because they had too few pores or features. However, bolts with porosities of 58.1 and 73.4 percent exhibited a suitable elastic modulus that matched the span of cancellous bone. The bolt with a porosity of 58.1 percent was found to be the most suitable for usage as a cancellous bone implant with precise fabrication results.

Storm after the Gloomy days: Influences of COVID-19 pandemic on volatility of the energy market

Volatility is a common phenomenon in the energy market, but COVID-19 has cast a dark shadow over this characteristic. In light of this observation, individuals might have an incorrect impression of the impact of this shock on the energy markets. By applying a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) in combination with an extended joint connectedness approach to identify the sources of the energy market's volatility, we characterize the influences of COVID-19 health crisis and the volatility of the crude oil and precious metals (including gold and silver) market on the volatility of the energy market starting from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2021. The total connectedness index, the net total, and pairwise directional connectedness measures obtained from the extended TVP-VAR allow us to monitor interlinkages from various variables in a designed network. The novel method has the benefit of distinguishing between a net recipient and a net transmitter. Our results demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic shocks first absorb the volatility from the energy and precious market to cause lagged but more severe consequences returning to these markets. Furthermore, there is a time-variant of system-wide interlinkages. Net total directional connectedness suggests that the oil and gold markets consistently appear to be a net transmitter of spillover shocks in the energy market. The COVID-19 pandemic shock first plays the role of shock receiver from other markets. However, this uncertainty shock acts as a shock transmitter, and its effects seem to be delayed but persistent for an extended period, thus making the energy and precious metal markets more volatile.

Risk analysis of factors in clinical anxiety among undergraduate and postgraduate students in dentistry.

When anxiety is persistent among dental students, the consequence could be poor academic performance, ill health, lack of empathy, and exhaustion. This study aimed to determine the level of anxiety along with anxiety-provoking factors among clinical dental students. This study included dental undergraduate and postgraduate clinical students from a public university. A modified version of the self-administered Moss and McManus questionnaire, which consisted of 50 items, was utilized to evaluate the levels of anxiety. The results were analyzed using SPSS® version 24. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. Within 180 participants, 140 (77.77%) were undergraduate students, while 40 (22.22%) were postgraduate dental students. Overall, the top clinical anxiety-provoking factor included failure to pass the final examination, whereas the least clinical anxiety-provoking element was communicating with the opposite gender. Significant differences existed among male and female participants in the seven anxiety-provoking factors among the participants namely dealing with elderly patients, fail to pass finals, arresting post-extraction bleeding, patients asking difficult questions, fear of accidental pulp exposure, dealing with a child or non-cooperative patient, and fear of taking an incorrect impression. Postgraduate students showed lower anxiety scores in various clinical tasks as compared to undergraduate students. Postgraduate dental students share largely the same perspectives with undergraduate dental students on the clinical anxiety-provoking situations with slight variations. Being the future healthcare providers, dental students must learn techniques to help them manage their dental anxiety and fear as well as deal with anxiety related to treating patients.

Implant Impression Techniques using Different Materials and Methods: A Review

Dental implants have emerged as the treatment of choice in for restoring missing teeth in situations that require functional and aesthetic replacements. Reproduction of the position and orientation of intraoral implants by means of an accurate impression in the definitive cast is the first step in achieving a passively fitting multi-implant supported prosthesis, to decrease the mechanical and biological complication of the prosthesis. The accuracy of the impression making procedure in the usage of osseointegrated implants used for the rehabilitation of fully and partially edentulous patients is a very important factor for the long-term success of dental implants. It has been reported that the precision of implant impressions is affected by various factors such as impression materials, impression technique, splinting of impression posts, impression level and depth, as well as the angle of the implants. Also, the incompatibility between implant and prosthesis, which may occur as a result of an incorrect impression, may cause problems such as screw loosening, screw fracture, loss of osseointegration and even implant fracture. Today, there are many articles and reviews about implant impressions. Although the authors found consistent results in many studies, there are differences of opinion on some issues. In general, polyether and additional type silicones were found to be successful in the conventional impression technique. Digital impression technique, on the other hand, has been found as successful as conventional measurement techniques in some studies. Controversial results have been obtained about the number of implants and their angulation. In general, the direct open tray splinted impression method is recommended for four or more implants, while there was no difference between the direct or indirect method for three or less implants.

Annika Mann. Reading Contagion: The Hazards of Reading in the Age of Print.

Annika Mann. <i>Reading Contagion: The Hazards of Reading in the Age of Print</i>.

Comparing dream to reality: an assessment of adherence of the first generation of preregistered studies.

Preregistration is a method to increase research transparency by documenting research decisions on a public, third-party repository prior to any influence by data. It is becoming increasingly popular in all subfields of psychology and beyond. Adherence to the preregistration plan may not always be feasible and even is not necessarily desirable, but without disclosure of deviations, readers who do not carefully consult the preregistration plan might get the incorrect impression that the study was exactly conducted and reported as planned. In this paper, we have investigated adherence and disclosure of deviations for all articles published with the Preregistered badge in Psychological Science between February 2015 and November 2017 and shared our findings with the corresponding authors for feedback. Two out of 27 preregistered studies contained no deviations from the preregistration plan. In one study, all deviations were disclosed. Nine studies disclosed none of the deviations. We mainly observed (un)disclosed deviations from the plan regarding the reported sample size, exclusion criteria and statistical analysis. This closer look at preregistrations of the first generation reveals possible hurdles for reporting preregistered studies and provides input for future reporting guidelines. We discuss the results and possible explanations, and provide recommendations for preregistered research.

An Incorrect Impression of Dose Versus the Ischemic Cardiac Toxicity Risk Profile for Breast and Chest Wall Radiation Therapy

An Incorrect Impression of Dose Versus the Ischemic Cardiac Toxicity Risk Profile for Breast and Chest Wall Radiation Therapy

Correction to: Is population structure in the genetic biobank era irrelevant, a challenge, or an opportunity?

In the original article publication, there is an incorrect impression that Fig.1 formed a formal Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) by describing it as a causal model. However, it was not correct if interpreted in this way.

Using topic modeling to infer the emotional state of people living with Parkinson’s disease

ABSTRACT Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) often exhibit facial masking (hypomimia), which causes reduced facial expressiveness. This can make it difficult for those who interact with the person to correctly read their emotional state and can lead to problematic social and therapeutic interactions. In this article, we develop a probabilistic model for an assistive device, which can automatically infer the emotional state of a person with PD using the topics that arise during the course of a conversation. We envision that the model can be situated in a device that could monitor the emotional content of the interaction between the caregiver and a person living with PD, providing feedback to the caregiver in order to correct their immediate and perhaps incorrect impressions arising from a reliance on facial expressions. We compare and contrast two approaches: using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) generative model as the basis for an unsupervised learning tool, and using a human-crafted sentiment analysis tool, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). We evaluated both approaches using standard machine learning performance metrics such as precision, recall, and scores. Our performance analysis of the two approaches suggests that LDA is a suitable classifier when the word count in a document is approximately that of the average sentence, i.e., 13 words. In that case, the LDA model correctly predicts the interview category 86% of the time and LIWC correctly predicts it 29% of the time. On the other hand, when tested with interviews with an average word count of 303 words, the LDA model correctly predicts the interview category 56% of the time and LIWC, 74% of the time. Advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are discussed.

Comments on “Waveform Optimization for Transmit Beamforming With MIMO Radar Antenna Array”

A recent method proposed by L. L. Guo, H. Deng, and B. Himed in “Waveform Optimization for Transmit Beamforming with MIMO Radar Antenna Arrays,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 543–552, Feb. 2015, claims that the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar can form a transmit beam pattern with nulls in specific directions to alleviate the clutter and make the radar signals undetectable with initial phase optimization. However, it lacks some of the important aspects and may create an incorrect impression about transmit beamforming of MIMO radars. This comment shows that the virtual transmit beam pattern cannot reflect the practical radiation energy of the radar array. Even <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">the</i> virtual transmit beam pattern has nulls in the preselected directions, the clutter from these directions cannot be alleviated at the radar receiver, and the MIMO radar signals would still be detectable in these directions.

Of Art and Absurdity: Military, Censorship, and Contemporary Art in Thailand

Abstract On June 15, 2017, soldiers and plainclothes officers visited Cartel Artspace and Gallery VER in Bangkok. The two adjacent galleries were hosting exhibitions by young Thai contemporary artists, The Shards Would Shatter at Touch by Tada Hengsapkul 1 and Whitewash by Harit Srikhao. The first exhibition depicted stories of political prisoners, whereas the latter recalled the 2010 military crackdown on Red Shirt protests in Bangkok. Thailand has been ruled by a military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), since the May 2014 coup, but this was the first time that visual art exhibitions had attracted the attention of state officers. However, the military stormed the two galleries because of the incorrect impression that Prontip “Kolf” Mankong, a theater artist who had been convicted of lèse-majesté for the play Wolf Bride, was hosting Hengsapkul’s exhibition.

An atypical presentation of high potassium renal secretion rate in a patient with thyrotoxic periodic paralysis: a case report

BackgroundHypokalemia is one of the most common clinical electrolyte imbalance problems, and thyrotoxic periodic paralysis (TPP) is a leading cause of presentation to the emergency department. Low renal potassium secretion rates, a normal acid–base balance in the blood, and hyperthyroidism are the hallmarks of suspected TPP.Case presentationHere we report the case of a 36-year-old man who presented to the emergency department with a sudden onset of acute muscle weakness at 5 h prior to admission. Biochemistry tests revealed hypokalemia with hyperthyroidism and renal potassium wasting. TPP was initially not favored due to the presence of renal potassium wasting. However, his serum potassium level rebounded rapidly within several hours after potassium supplementation, indicating that the intracellular shifting of potassium ions was the main etiology for his hypokalemia. The early stage of TPP development may have contributed to this paradox.ConclusionTherefore, it is premature to rule out TPP based on the presentation of high renal potassium secretion rates alone. This finding may result in an incorrect impression being made in the early stage of TTP and may consequently lead to an inappropriate potassium supplementation policy.

Level of Non-Matching Primary Transplant Cases According to Repeat Transplants Cases and a New Bivariate Poisson Distribution

In their practice, healthcare administrators and professionals often wonder about the non-matching level organs in transplants for the sake of future forecasting. Currently, there is no appropriate methodology to analyze the pertinent transplant data and describe the patterns. The lack of a suitable methodology in the literature originates from an incorrect impression that the primary transplant cases and the repeat transplant cases are two separate and independent Poisson probability processes. In fact, the actual data on the primary and repeat transplant cases in USA during the year 2014 indicate otherwise with a high degree of correlation between them. One wonders about the missing link and it hides in their model as this article articulates. The aims of this article are set to find an appropriate underlying model for the data and then construct an analytic methodology. In this research process, a novel and useful bivariate probability is discovered and it is named here seemingly independent bivariate Poisson distribution for a lack of better title. Its statistical properties are derived, explained and illustrated. This new bivariate helps not only to estimate the non-matching level of organs in the transplant cases but also to project the number of repeat transplant cases based on knowing the number of primary transplant cases and vice versa.

Asylstrømmen fra Russland til Norge i 2015: Bevisst russisk politikk?

In the autumn of 2015, 5500 migrants traveling through Russia along the “Arctic route” applied for political asylum in Norway. Some observers claimed that Russia deliberately channeled migrants towards the north with the purpose of destabilizing Norway and that Russia had changed procedures in their border zone to facilitate the wave of migrants. In this article we briefly discuss the hybrid warfare theory and assess alternative explanations that might account for the sudden increase in migrants. Detailing formal and informal practices in the Norwegian-Russian border regime we argue that Russian practices were not altered in any significant way in 2015, but that the Norwegian side had an incorrect impression of the Russian border regime being more restrictive than it really was. Finland was in a similar situation. The most convincing explanation for the wave of asylum-seekers is the self-interest of migrants who found a cheaper and less risky route. Both in Norway and Finland the border regimes were tightened as a consequence of the increased migration, however. As a result, their policies became more aligned with Russian priorities. Published: June 2016 Citation: Arild Moe &amp; Lars Rowe (2016) «Asylstrømmen fra Russland til Norge i 2015: Bevisst russisk politikk?». Nordisk Østforum 30 [2] 80–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.17585/nof.v30.432

Revisiting the Evidence for a Cardinal Treatment of Ordinal Variables

Well‐being (i.e., satisfaction, happiness) is a latent variable, impossible to observe directly. Hence, questionnaires ask people to grade their well‐being in different life domains. The most common practice - comparing well‐being by means of descriptive analysis or linear regressions - ignores that the underlying collected well‐being information is ordinal. If the well‐being function is ordinal, then monotonic transformations are allowed. We demonstrate that treating ordinal data by methods intended to be used for cardinal data may give an incorrect impression of a robust result. Particularly, we derive the conditions under which the use of cardinal method to an ordinal variable gives an illusionary sense of robustness, while in fact one can reverse the conclusion reached by using an alternative cardinal assumption. The paper provides empirical applications.

A Case of Hypoglossal Neurilemmoma in the Submandibular Space

Received December 30, 2012 Revised February 1, 2013 Accepted February 4, 2013 Address for correspondence Dongbin Ahn, MD Department of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, 130 Dongdeok-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu 700-721, Korea Tel +82-53-420-5777 Fax +82-53-423-4524 E-mail godlikeu@naver.com Although neurilemmomas can arise from all types of cranial nerves except the optic and olfactory nerves, a hypoglossal neurilemmoma is extremely rare. Furthermore, since this neurilemmoma usually develops in the intracranial portion of the hypoglossal nerve, a hypoglossal neurilemmoma in the submandibular region is unfamiliar even to head and neck surgeons. However, the preoperative diagnosis of hypoglossal neurilemmoma in the submandibular region is very important because of the possibility of sacrificing the hypoglossal nerve during surgery under the incorrect impression of a salivary gland tumor. Therefore, we report a case of hypoglossal nerve neurilemmoma occurring in the submandibular area with a review of the literature focusing on preoperative differential diagnosis. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2013;56:647-50 Key WordsZZExtracranial ᆞHypoglossal nerve ᆞNeurilemmoma ᆞSubmandibular gland.