Scientific Quality Research Articles

INFECÇÃO POR HELICOBACTER PYLORI E SUAS MANIFESTAÇÕES CLÍNICAS

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is one of the most prevalent pathogens in humans, contributing significantly to gastroduodenal diseases. Despite being widely researched, there are still gaps in the understanding of this pathology. The general objective of this study is to analyze the existing literature on the clinical manifestation of H. pylori infection in humans and its epidemiological correlations. The specific objective is to update academics and health professionals on the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of H. pylori infection in humans. To carry out this bibliographic review, consensus statements on H. pylori, guidelines and scientific articles available in the PubMed and SciELO databases were consulted. The inclusion criteria adopted were: publications from 2016 to 2024, free access to the full text, clinical trials, systematic reviews, controlled and randomized tests, and writing in Portuguese, English and/or Spanish. The selected articles contribute relevant concepts to outline ideas related to the topic of this study. Works that were not aligned with the objectives of this study were excluded, and those that were not fully available free of charge, only abstracts and those with inadequate methodology or low scientific quality. It was found that additional studies on H. pylori are essential to fully elucidate the pathogenesis of this infection, however, there is evidence that the process is influenced by genetic and environmental factors, which also require further research. Furthermore, it is essential to raise awareness among legislators when planning public health policies and, thus, improve patients' quality of life.

Digital Open Library Development : A Real Path Towards Sustainable Math Education

After the globally atypical year of 2020, distance cooperation and experimentation with virtual and blended learning opportunities are becoming a standard in all educational levels. Digital teaching/learning materials are at the forefront of this movement, presenting many advantages, since these can be innovative, engaging, interactive, and can even be tailored to meet the students’ and teachers’ needs. In this context, Open Educational Resources (OER) are a powerful concept for sharing the world's resources for the common good, reflecting the international commitment to Education For All (EFA). In the past few years, the development of OER has grown exponentially, however, several are quite “closed” and few have the necessary scientific and pedagogical quality certification as real “educational” resources, particularly in the Mathematics area. This was the main idea behind an Erasmus + Project, that brought together six Higher Education Institutions (HEI) from five European countries. This project, still in development, has emerged from a practical need for hybrid and remote teaching and learning open support. Its main goal is developing an Open Digital Library of Mathematics OER in seven distinct languages, encouraging its open dissemination and use, building a truly sustainable Math education promotor. An overview of the project and its main objectives will be presented, as well as its several operational and progress challenges as well as the results that have been accomplished thus far. This project entails several distinct but complementary features that started with the construction of an OER assessment model, culminating with the development of a multilingual OER bank and its continuous sustainability. This can only be achieved with the future establishment of an OER developer’s community among Math teachers and students from several education levels, that will be engaged in other project programmed activities, as Teachers’ Trainings, Users’ International Challenge and Students’ International Competition. This Project progress and success is largely based on the interaction, input and participation of all stakeholder groups.

An analysis regarding the ultimate outcome of abstracts presented at the European Paediatric Surgeons' Association (EUPSA) Congresses.

The objective of this study is to analyze the conversion rate of abstracts presented at the European Paediatric Surgeons' Association (EUPSA) congress into full-text publications and to conduct a thorough analysis of the attributes and quality of the papers published. Abstract books including the years 2017 to 2022 were reviewed. Searches on PubMed and Google Scholar, utilizing keywords from the titles and the author names, were conducted to trace subsequent full-text publications. A categorical analysis detected variations and trends, with a significance threshold of P < 0.05. Quantitative data were presented as means ± standard deviations (SD), while categorical data were represented as counts (n) and percentages (%). A total of 2,139 abstracts were presented at the EUPSA annual meetings during five consecutive congresses. The average number of presented abstracts was 427.6 ± 20.4 per year from across 63 different countries. European countries contributed the majority (71%). The presentations included both oral (n=817, 38.2%) and poster presentations (n=1322, 61.8%). They predominantly focused on clinical topics (90.6%). Single-center retrospective studies were the most common study design (43.7%). Out of all abstracts presented, 1033 (48.3%) were published within an average time interval of 1.39 ± 1.19 years after presentation. Most journals had an impact factor (IF) between 1 and 5 (74.5%). There was no significant year-to-year variation in publication rates (p=1). Basic science studies were published in journals with significantly higher IF compared to clinical studies (p<0.001). The publication rate of abstracts presented at the EUPSA annual congress stands at 48.3%, aligning with the rates observed in other similar studies. This suggests that abstracts submitted to the EUPSA congresses were evaluated and scored rigorously, adhering to international selection criteria. Furthermore, the majority of these abstracts were published in journals with moderate to high impact factors, providing quantitative evidence of the scientific quality of research within the field of pediatric surgery.

Space Analogs and Behavioral Health Performance Research review and recommendations checklist from ESA Topical Team.

Space analog research has increased over the last few years with new analogs appearing every year. Research in this field is very important for future real mission planning, selection and training of astronauts. Analog environments offer specific characteristics that resemble to some extent the environment of a real space mission. These analog environments are especially interesting from the psychological point of view since they allow the investigation of mental and social variables in very similar conditions to those occurring during real space missions. Analog missions also represent an opportunity to test operational work and obtain information on which combination of processes and team dynamics are most optimal for completing specific aspects of the mission. A group of experts from a European Space Agency (ESA) funded topical team reviews the current situation of topic, potentialities, gaps, and recommendations for appropriate research. This review covers the different domains in space analog research including classification, main areas of behavioral health performance research in these environments and operational aspects. We also include at the end, a section with a list or tool of recommendations in the form of a checklist for the scientific community interested in doing research in this field. This checklist can be useful to maintain optimal standards of methodological and scientific quality, in addition to identifying topics and areas of special interest.

From biological potency absorbed components to artificial intelligence mining: A review of analytical strategies for the discovery and validation of quality marker in traditional Chinese medicine in the past decade

Quality control of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is fundamental to ensuring its clinical efficacy, with TCM formulas being the primary form used in clinical practice. Current quality control methods for TCM formulas often rely on pharmacopoeial standards for individual medicinal materials, typically encompassing only characteristic or partial active ingredients. These methods fail to fully reflect the clinical efficacy of TCM formulas. Consequently, exploring the multiple efficacious components in TCM formulas and establishing the correlation between multi-component content and efficacy has become an urgent issue in the modern quality assessment of TCM formulas. The quality marker (Q-marker) has emerged as a crucial standard in this field, achieving notable success in recent years. This paper reviews recent progress in the development of the Q-marker system in TCM by highlighting strategies based on the correlation between efficacy and constituents, using analytical techniques to investigate the material basis and efficacy of TCM. However, the aforementioned methods inevitably involve human selection factors. With the widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) learning algorithms, it is now possible to develop a modern quality evaluation method for the multi-component “efficacy-quality” correlation in TCM formulas. This approach leverages AI techniques to explore novel and quantifiable methods for scientific and rational quality control in TCM formulas. In this paper, important future directions and questions in this field are also discussed.

Interventions Related to Empowering Community Health Workers for Improving Community Health: A Systematic Review

Introduction Community Health Workers (CHW) play a very important role in health promotion. Therefore, in order to strengthen the communities, it is imperative that CHWs be strengthened. This systematic review examined various interventions conducted in different parts of the world on the empowerment of CHWs. Methods In this study, after defining the research questions, search terms were determined and appropriate databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, SID, Magiran, IranDoc, and Google Scholar were searched. After defining the inclusion and exclusion criteria and determining the scientific quality of the studies, appropriate articles were selected and finally the interventions to strengthen CHWs were summarized. Results We found 122 articles that addressed the empowerment of CHWs. After reviewing the articles, 13 of them were identified as related to the objectives of this study. The results show that old techniques such as lectures, seminars, and face-to-face meetings were used to empower CHWs, while a large number of researchers also used new tools such as the Internet, cell phones, and mobile applications to empower CHWs in various aspects. Conclusions This review of the various interventions to empower health workers shows that both old methods and new technologies are being used for this purpose. However, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to strengthen the health workforce is growing rapidly. These findings can be useful for health policy managers, health care centers and research organization. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 23 No. 04 October’24 Page : 950-956

Diagnostic value of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based vertebral bone quality score for bone mineral density assessment: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

Many studies have explored the application of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based vertebral bone quality (VBQ) score as a tool for opportunistic osteoporosis screening before spine surgery. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies to determine the diagnostic value of the VBQ score for bone mineral density (BMD) assessment. The PubMed, EBSCO, Ovid, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical databases were searched to retrieve original studies on VBQ and BMD published from inception to 31 December 2023 with no restrictions on language and the reference standard of BMD. The quality of the included articles was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2). Summary accuracy metrics were obtained by bivariate random-effects meta-analysis. The area under the curve (AUC) of the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the VBQ score. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to examine the source of heterogeneity. In total, 23 studies, comprising 2981 patients, from 2022 to 2023, of high- or medium-to-high scientific quality were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of the VBQ score in the assessment of BMD were 0.77 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.73-0.81; P<0.001], 0.65 (95% CI, 0.59-0.71; P<0.001), and 6.49 (95% CI, 4.82-8.73; P<0.001), respectively, with an area under the SROC curve of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.74-0.82; P<0.001). The presence of heterogeneity was found to have a significant association with factors such as the reference standard, sex, mean age, region of publication, VBQ method, and magnet field strength. The MRI-based VBQ score has some diagnostic value in detecting osteoporosis. The VBQ score could be used as a tool for opportunistic osteoporosis screening before spine surgery.

Safety and efficacy of personalised versus standard dosing of linezolid in patients with sepsis (SePkLin): a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised, controlled and superiority clinical trial protocol.

Linezolid is a broadly used antibiotic to treat complicated infections caused by gram-positive bacteria. Therapeutic drug monitoring of linezolid concentrations is recommended to maximise its efficacy and safety, mainly haematological toxicity. Different pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic targets have been proposed to improve linezolid exposure: the ratio of the area under the concentration-time curve during a 24-hour period to minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) between 80 and 120; percentage of time that the drug concentration remains above the MIC during a dosing interval greater than 85% and the trough concentration between 2 and 7 mg/L. This clinical trial aims to evaluate the safety, efficacy and the clinical and economic utility of personalised dosing of linezolid using Bayesian forecasting methods to attain pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic targets, known as model-informed precision dosing. This is a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised, parallel, controlled, phase IV and low intervention trial. Participants will be randomly assigned 1:1 to each group (n=346 per group). Control group will receive the standard dose of linezolid. Intervention group will receive personalised dosage of linezolid based on pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic adjustments. The primary outcome will be the incidence of thrombocytopenia in both groups. This protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Investigation with Medicines of Galicia (code 2022/140) and authorised by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices. The trial is implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the international ethical and scientific quality standard, the Good Clinical Practice. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. EudraCT registration code: 2022-000144-30.

Study on Sensory Quality and Flavor Characteristics of Jiangxiang Baijiu Produced by Different Fermentation Techniques

As a representative of traditional Chinese distilled liquor, the unique flavor of Sauce Flavor Baijiu is closely related to its brewing techniques. This study systematically explored the sensory quality and flavor characteristics of Sauce Flavor Baijiu produced by different fermentation techniques through sensory evaluation, gas chromatography analysis, and multivariate statistical methods. The results indicated that the techniques of Chuansha, Suisha, Kunsha, and their blends significantly influenced the concentration and proportion of flavor compounds in Baijiu, subsequently altering its aroma and taste. Specifically, Chuansha Baijiu exhibited weaker aroma and thinner taste; Suisha Baijiu presented certain complexity and a softer taste; while Kunsha Baijiu boasted a strong aroma and full-bodied taste. This study established a scientific quality evaluation system for Sauce Flavor Baijiu, providing theoretical foundations and technical support for the optimization of brewing techniques and improvement of Baijiu quality.

Comment on van Gemert et al. Asymptomatic Infant Rib Fractures Are Primarily Non-abuse-Related and Should Not Be Used to Assess Physical Child Abuse. Children 2023, 10, 1827.

We are deeply concerned about the scientific quality of the article "Asymptomatic Infant Rib Fractures Are Primarily Non-abuse-Related and Should Not Be Used to Assess Physical Child Abuse" published in the journal Children in 2023 by van Gemert et al [...].

Construction of indicators for evaluating the quality of extended care for children with asthma

Background and aims To construct a set of scientific and effective quality evaluation indicators of continuing care for children with asthma, and to promote the development of continuing care for children with asthma toward a more specialized and standardized direction. Methods Through literature research and semi-structured interview, the item pool of evaluation index was drawn up, and the first draft of expert inquiry questionnaire was formed based on the three-dimensional quality theoretical model of structure-process-result, and the construction of quality evaluation index was completed through two rounds of expert inquiry and analytic hierarchy process. Results The effective recovery rate was 94.44% in the first round and 100.00% in the second round, the expert authority coefficient was 0.852 and 0.863, and the Kendal coordination coefficient was 0.129 and 0.126, respectively (p < 0.01). Finally, the evaluation index of continuing care quality for children with asthma was formed, including 3 first-level indicators, 9 s-level indicators and 36 third-level indicators, and then the weight and combination weight of each index were obtained by AHP. Conclusions The evaluation index of continuing care quality for children with asthma is scientific and specific, which is of great significance to the improvement of continuing care quality for children with asthma.

Using surface runoff to reveal the mechanisms of landscape patterns driving on various forms of nitrogen in non-point source pollution

Non-point source (NPS) pollution directly threatens river water quality, constrains sustainable economic development, and poses hazards to human health. Comprehension of the impact factors on NPS pollution is essential for scientific river water quality management. Despite the landscape pattern being considered to have a significant impact on NPS pollution, the driving mechanism of landscape patterns on NPS pollution remains unclear. Therefore, this study coupled multi-models including the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Random Forest, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to construct the connection between landscape patterns, NPS pollution, and surface runoff. The results suggested that increased runoff during the wet season enhances the link between landscape patterns and NPS pollution, and the explained NPS pollution variation by landscape pattern increased from 59.6 % (dry season) to 84.9 % (wet season). Furthermore, from the impact pathways, we find that the sink landscape pattern can significantly and indirectly influence NPS pollution by regulating surface runoff during the wet season (0.301*). Meanwhile, the sink and source landscape patterns significantly and directly impact NPS pollution during different seasons. Moreover, we further find that the percentage of paddy land use (Pad_PLAND) and grassland patch density (Gra_PD) metrics can significantly predict the dissolved total nitrogen (DTN) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) variation. Thus, controlling the runoff migration process by guiding the rational evolution of watershed landscape patterns is an important development direction for watershed NPS pollution management.

Identification of a "Blue Zone" in the Netherlands: A Genetic, Personal, Sociocultural, and Environmental Profile.

"Blue Zones" (BZs) are regions with exceptionally high numbers of longevous inhabitants. Several factors have been suggested to promote longevity in BZs, but the evidence generally does not meet scientific quality criteria. We aimed to characterize a municipality as a "relative BZ," satisfying 3 criteria: compared to other municipalities, more exceptionally longevous inhabitants, a higher life expectancy, and a more stable population. The population-based Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam has been ongoing since 1992 in 11 municipalities across the Netherlands with 3- or 4-yearly measurement waves. Using all available waves, we included 39 genetic, personal, sociocultural, and environmental characteristics. One municipality satisfied the 3 BZ criteria. In comparison with participants in other municipalities in the same province and other provinces in the Netherlands, BZ-participants more often had a polygenic risk score linked to longevity, smoked less, consumed less alcohol and more fruit, biked more minutes, did more often paid work, practiced singing more often, attached higher importance to religion, and lived in a more walkable and livable environment. In contrast, BZ-participants had a slower walking speed, more depressive symptoms, felt less purpose in life, had a larger waist circumference, walked and did sports less often, consumed less vegetables, and exchanged less instrumental support. Other indicators of their physical and mental health and social connectedness did not substantially differ from non-BZ-participants. Rather than clues to healthy aging, our findings suggest factors conducive to longevity regardless of impaired health.

The complexity of funding rare disease research: an IRDiRC assessment of the landscape

The complexity of the funding landscape for rare diseases (RD) research is due to many factors. Each type of funder has strategic goals guiding its investments. The International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) convened RD experts to explore contributing factors and investment principles in RD funding. This report includes the Task Force’s findings. Similar to IRDiRC’s previous work on motivating factors for company investments in RD research, the current Task Force found that return on investment (ROI) was a guiding principle. However, within the broader RD funding landscape, the definition of ROI varied between types of funders. While they shared funding requirements (e.g., scientific quality, health economics), funders employed both major investment and venture-type instruments, demonstrating the ongoing need for flexibility in supporting RD funding. These observations warrant further analysis of the interactions and partnerships among all actors of RD research and the sustainability of RD research funding.

Design and experimental research of orbital angular momentum multiplexing holography based on optical diffraction neural network

The orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing holography has the advantages of large information capacity and high security, and has important application value in holographic storage, optical encryption, and optical computing. However, as the number of multiplexing channels increases, this technology suffers from deterioration in image quality, which limits its application scope. This article proposes an innovative design that introduces an optical diffractive neural network (ODNN) into OAM multiplexing holography, establishes a scientific image quality evaluation function, applies an end-to-end optimization method, and designs OAM multiplexing holograms in parallel, significantly improving the image quality of OAM holography. The design results show that compared to classical methods, the ODNN method proposed in this paper has improved diffraction efficiency and signal-to-noise ratio by 29% and 19%, respectively, and reduced mean square error and variance by 10% and 43%, respectively. Moreover, high-quality multi-channel OAM multiplexing holography has been achieved through experiments. The design method proposed in this article provides an efficient and practical way for future OAM multiplexing holographic technology to further enhance information capacity and improve security.

The culture of care to enhance laboratory animal personnel well-being: a scoping review.

There has been intense focus on improving the quality of animal research in recent times. An emerging concept of a 'culture of care' has been proposed as another important pillar to enhance scientific quality, with staff well-being being a critical aspect. Professionals working with research animals can face moral and psychological burdens and are at risk of experiencing work-related stress. However, data on the global prevalence of stress in this population is limited. Equally, it is not clear how these stresses manifest, and what impact they might have on an individual's workplace performance and research quality. The purpose of this review was to identify work-related stress, its prevalence, and map evidence on strategies to mitigate stresses. We also set out to identify studies assessing the association between work-related stress and research quality. A systematic search was conducted across four databases, in addition to hand searching relevant references. We included peer-reviewed publications describing work-related stress, culture of care and laboratory animal professionals. A total of 49 publications were included for data mapping. Compassion fatigue was the most frequently described work-related stress, and its prevalence across Europe and North America is likely to be widespread. Multiple strategies to mitigate compassion fatigue and work-related stress were put forward, however, limited empirical evidence was available to assess success. Moreover, no studies reported empirical data linking work-related stress with research quality, despite several publications stating the case. Further population-specific research and measured assessments are urgently needed to deliver culture of care programmes to improve human well-being, animal welfare and research quality.

Are Our Climate Data Fit for Your Purpose?

Abstract This paper describes the vision and objectives for evaluation and quality control of datasets available on the Climate Data Store (CDS) of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The CDS is a cloud service providing reliable, open, and free access to climate datasets from many different sources, including observations and derived climate data records, global and regional reanalysis products, and output from global and regional climate models. CDS data and information are widely used to monitor climate change, for policy development, environmental impact studies, business plans, public awareness, and many other purposes. CDS users include policymakers, technical consultants, and data scientists who are climate literate but not necessarily specialized in climate science. A key objective for C3S is to simplify data discovery and access and to ensure that all information provided is fit for purpose. The role of evaluation and quality control is to generate useful statements about the technical and scientific quality of the datasets available on the CDS, presented in a form that can be mapped directly to user requirements associated with specific application contexts. The ambition is to enable users to select, locate, access, and process climate data that are fit for purpose, simply by expressing their requirements in their own words.

Do awards help to improve the scientific quality of publications and research?

Do awards help to improve the scientific quality of publications and research?

Enhancing wine industry sustainability: An empirical test of the sustainable wine assessment tool

The validation of sustainability indicators is a critical process that must be conducted at various stages of development and implementation. In this article, we evaluate the Sustainable Wine Assessment Tool, a framework designed to objectively measure sustainability performance across decision-making levels in the wine value chain. The evaluation process involves two steps. First, the framework is applied to the Portuguese wine sector to assess the indicators' accuracy and scientific quality. Second, the tool's performance is measured against recommended attributes for effective sustainability assessments. Findings suggest that this assessment framework can serve as an effective tool for sustainability monitoring and management efforts. The selected indicators demonstrated reliability, and the theoretical framework exhibits substantial strengths, making it a valuable addition to any indicator-based system. Additionally, the framework's easily interpretable results highlight its potential as an effective communication instrument, in line with the commitment to creating a scientifically robust yet user-friendly tool. This study presents a practical approach to evaluating sustainability indicators using empirical data from scientific research. This method has proven highly effective, particularly in contexts with limited data and where direct comparisons are challenging. It ensures both contextually relevant assessments and robust evaluations of the indicators' accuracy.

Standards for conducting and reporting consensus and recommendation documents: European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology policy from the Guidelines Committee

Cardiovascular imaging is exponentially increasing in the diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapeutic management of patients with cardiovascular disease. The European Society of Cardiovascular Radiology (ESCR) is a non-profit scientific medical society dedicated to promoting and coordinating activities in cardiovascular imaging. The purpose of this paper, written by ESCR committees and Executive board members and approved by the ESCR Executive Board and Guidelines committee, is to codify a standardized approach to creating ESCR scientific documents. Indeed, consensus development methods must be adopted to ensure transparent decision-making that optimizes national and global health and reaches a certain scientific credibility. ESCR consensus documents developed based on a rigorous methodology will improve their scientific impact on the management of patients with cardiac involvement.Critical relevance statementThis document aims to codify the methodology for producing consensus documents of the ESCR. These ESCR indications will broaden the scientific quality and credibility of further publications and, consequently, the impact on the diagnostic management of patients with cardiac involvement.Key PointsCardiovascular imaging is exponentially increasing for diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapeutic management.The ESCR is committed to promoting cardiovascular imaging.A rigorous methodology for ESCR consensus documents will improve their scientific impact.