A systematic review on high conservation value assessment (HCVs): Challenges and framework for future research on conservation strategy

Background: Ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction (UCLR) is a viable treatment option for patients with UCL insufficiency, especially in the overhead throwing athlete. Within the clinical literature, there is still no universally agreed upon optimal rehabilitation protocol and timing for return to sport (RTS) after UCLR. Hypothesis: There will be significant heterogeneity with respect to RTS criteria after UCLR. Most surgeons will utilize time-based criteria rather than functional or performance-based criteria for RTS after UCLR. Study Design: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: All level 1 to 4 studies that evaluated UCLR with a minimum 1-year follow-up were eligible for inclusion. Studies lacking explicit RTS criteria, studies that treated UCL injury nonoperatively or by UCL repair, or studies reporting revision UCLR were excluded. Each study was analyzed for methodologic quality, RTS, timeline of RTS, and RTS rate. Results: Overall, 1346 studies were identified, 33 of which met the inclusion criteria. These included 3480 athletes across 21 different sports. All studies reported RTS rates either as overall rates or via the Conway-Jobe scale. Timelines for RTS ranged from 6.5 to 16 months. Early bracing with progressive range of motion (ROM) (93.9%), strengthening (84.8%), and participation in an interval throwing program (81.8%) were the most common parameters emphasized in these rehabilitation protocols. While all studies included at least 1 of 3 metrics for the RTS value assessment, most commonly postoperative rehabilitation (96.97%) and set timing after surgery (96.97%), no article completely defined RTS criteria after UCLR. Conclusion: Overall, 93.9% of studies report utilizing bracing with progressive ROM, 84.8% reported strengthening, and 81.8% reported participation in an interval throwing program as rehabilitation parameters after UCLR. In addition, 96.97% reported timing after surgery as a criterion for RTS; however, there is a wide variability within the literature on the recommended time from surgery to return to activity. Future research should focus on developing a comprehensive checklist of functional and performance-based criteria for safe RTS after UCLR.

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Telepractice for Adult Speech-Language Pathology Services: A Systematic Review

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/2019_persp-19-00146 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 326-338 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Kristen Weidner ◽

Joneen Lowman

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽

Future Research ◽

Service Delivery Model ◽

Speech Language Pathology ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Research Designs ◽

Assessment And Treatment ◽

Language Pathology ◽

Screening Assessment

Purpose We conducted a systematic review of the literature regarding adult telepractice services (screening, assessment, and treatment) from approximately 2014 to 2019. Method Thirty-one relevant studies were identified from a literature search, assessed for quality, and reported. Results Included studies illustrated feasibility, efficacy, diagnostic accuracy, and noninferiority of various speech-language pathology services across adult populations, including chronic aphasia, Parkinson's disease, dysphagia, and primary progressive aphasia. Technical aspects of the equipment and software used to deliver services were discussed. Some general themes were noted as areas for future research. Conclusion Overall, results of the review continue to support the use of telepractice as an appropriate service delivery model in speech-language pathology for adults. Strong research designs, including experimental control, across multiple well-described settings are still needed to definitively determine effectiveness of telepractice services.

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Chasing the Anchor: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Perceptual Anchoring Deficits in Developmental Dyslexia

10.31234/osf.io/amzpj ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kurt D Shulver ◽

Nicholas A Badcock

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Reading Ability ◽

English Language ◽

Prediction Interval ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Visual Assessment ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Future Research ◽

Significant Heterogeneity ◽

Eligibility Criteria

We report the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the relationship between perceptual anchoring and dyslexia. Our goal was to assess the direction and degree of effect between perceptual anchoring and reading ability in typical and atypical (dyslexic) readers. We performed a literature search of experiments explicitly assessing perceptual anchoring and reading ability using PsycInfo (Ovid, 1860 to 2020), MEDLINE (Ovid, 1860 to 2019), EMBASE (Ovid, 1883 to 2019), and PubMed for all available years up to June (2020). Our eligibility criteria consisted of English-language articles and, at minimum, one experimental group identified as dyslexic - either by reading assessment at the time, or by previous diagnosis. We assessed for risk of bias using an adapted version of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Six studies were included in this review, but only five (n = 280 participants) were included in the meta-analysis (we were unable to access the necessary data for one study).The overall effect was negative, large and statistically significant; g = -0.87, 95% CI [-1.47, 0.27]: a negative effect size indicating less perceptual anchoring in dyslexic versus non-dyslexic groups. Visual assessment of funnel plot and Egger’s test suggest minimal bias but with significant heterogeneity; Q (4) = 9.70, PI (prediction interval) [-2.32, -0.58]. The primary limitation of the current review is the small number of included studies. We discuss methodological limitations, such as limited power, and how future research may redress these concerns. The variability of effect sizes appears consistent with the inherent variability within subtypes of dyslexia. This level of dispersion seems indicative of the how we define cut-off thresholds between typical reading and dyslexia populations, but also the methodological tools we use to investigate individual performance.

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Impact of surgery timing for craniosynostosis on neurodevelopmental outcomes: a systematic review

Journal of Neurosurgery Pediatrics ◽

10.3171/2018.10.peds18536 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 442-454 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Rachel Mandela ◽

Maggie Bellew ◽

Paul Chumas ◽

Hannah Nash

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Beneficial Effect ◽

Data Extraction ◽

Sociodemographic Factors ◽

Future Research ◽

Neurodevelopmental Outcomes ◽

Age At Surgery ◽

Data Extraction Form ◽

Surgery Timing ◽

Anesthetic Exposure

OBJECTIVEThere are currently no guidelines for the optimum age for surgical treatment of craniosynostosis. This systematic review summarizes and assesses evidence on whether there is an optimal age for surgery in terms of neurodevelopmental outcomes.METHODSThe databases MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase + Embase Classic, and Web of Science were searched between October and November 2016 and searches were repeated in July 2017. According to PICO (participants, intervention, comparison, outcome) criteria, studies were included that focused on: children diagnosed with nonsyndromic craniosynostosis, aged ≤ 5 years at time of surgery; corrective surgery for nonsyndromic craniosynostosis; comparison of age-at-surgery groups; and tests of cognitive and neurodevelopmental postoperative outcomes. Studies that did not compare age-at-surgery groups (e.g., those employing a correlational design alone) were excluded. Data were double-extracted by 2 authors using a modified version of the Cochrane data extraction form.RESULTSTen studies met the specified criteria; 5 found a beneficial effect of earlier surgery, and 5 did not. No study found a beneficial effect of later surgery. No study collected data on length of anesthetic exposure and only 1 study collected data on sociodemographic factors.CONCLUSIONSIt was difficult to draw firm conclusions from the results due to multiple confounding factors. There is some inconclusive evidence that earlier surgery is beneficial for patients with sagittal synostosis. The picture is even more mixed for other subtypes. There is no evidence that later surgery is beneficial. The authors recommend that future research use agreed-upon parameters for: age-at-surgery cut-offs, follow-up times, and outcome measures.

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Protocol for a systematic review on the experience of informal caregivers for people with a moderate to advanced dementia within a domestic home setting

Systematic Reviews ◽

10.1186/s13643-020-01525-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Charles James ◽

Catherine Walshe ◽

Katherine Froggatt

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Informal Caregivers ◽

Informal Caregiving ◽

Bibliographic Databases ◽

Future Research ◽

Advanced Dementia ◽

Home Setting ◽

Search Terms

Abstract Background The knowledge about the experience of informal caregivers who provide care to people with moderate to advanced dementia in a domestic home setting is limited. A consequence of long hours of caregiving in addition to dealing with normal challenges of daily living is their experience of a poor quality of life. Some of their experiences may be described in terms of a feeling of powerlessness to make changes during care provision. This feeling may also suggest an experience of moral distress. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise qualitative evidence relating to these experiences. Methods This review adopts a narrative synthesis approach. A search will be conducted for studies written in the English language in the bibliographic databases MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Academic Search Complete covering periods from 1984 to present. Included studies will be qualitative or mixed-methods designs. The search terms will be related to dementia and caregivers, and the process will be focused on dementia at the moderate to the advanced stages within the domestic home setting. Reference lists of included papers will also be searched for additional relevant citations. Search terms and strategies will be checked by two independent reviewers. The identification of abstracts and full texts of studies will be done by the author, while the quality and the risk of bias will also be checked by the two independent reviewers. Discussion Psychological distress is cited as an experience reported within informal caregiving. For the caregiver, it is associated with a negative impact on general health. To date, no synthesis exists on the specific experience of informal caregiving for people with moderate to advanced dementia within the domestic home setting. This review considers that variation of accounts contributes to how the informal caregivers’ general experience is explored in future research. This may enable gaps in current knowledge to be highlighted within the wider context of caregiving in the domestic home setting. Systematic review registration This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020183649).

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Recommendation Systems for Education: Systematic Review

Electronics ◽

10.3390/electronics10141611 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (14) ◽

pp. 1611

Author(s):

María Cora Urdaneta-Ponte ◽

Amaia Mendez-Zorrilla ◽

Ibon Oleagordia-Ruiz

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Formal Education ◽

Research Work ◽

Hybrid Approach ◽

Recommendation Systems ◽

Educational Resources ◽

Future Research ◽

Collaborative Approach ◽

Developmental Approach

Recommendation systems have emerged as a response to overload in terms of increased amounts of information online, which has become a problem for users regarding the time spent on their search and the amount of information retrieved by it. In the field of recommendation systems in education, the relevance of recommended educational resources will improve the student’s learning process, and hence the importance of being able to suitably and reliably ensure relevant, useful information. The purpose of this systematic review is to analyze the work undertaken on recommendation systems that support educational practices with a view to acquiring information related to the type of education and areas dealt with, the developmental approach used, and the elements recommended, as well as being able to detect any gaps in this area for future research work. A systematic review was carried out that included 98 articles from a total of 2937 found in main databases (IEEE, ACM, Scopus and WoS), about which it was able to be established that most are geared towards recommending educational resources for users of formal education, in which the main approaches used in recommendation systems are the collaborative approach, the content-based approach, and the hybrid approach, with a tendency to use machine learning in the last two years. Finally, possible future areas of research and development in this field are presented.

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Cybersickness in current-generation virtual reality head-mounted displays: systematic review and outlook

Virtual Reality ◽

10.1007/s10055-021-00513-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Polona Caserman ◽

Augusto Garcia-Agundez ◽

Alvar Gámez Zerban ◽

Stefan Göbel

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Virtual Reality ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Subjective Evaluation ◽

Future Research ◽

Current Generation ◽

Research Areas ◽

Head Mounted Displays ◽

Skin Response ◽

Golden Standard

AbstractCybersickness (CS) is a term used to refer to symptoms, such as nausea, headache, and dizziness that users experience during or after virtual reality immersion. Initially discovered in flight simulators, commercial virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMD) of the current generation also seem to cause CS, albeit in a different manner and severity. The goal of this work is to summarize recent literature on CS with modern HMDs, to determine the specificities and profile of immersive VR-caused CS, and to provide an outlook for future research areas. A systematic review was performed on the databases IEEE Xplore, PubMed, ACM, and Scopus from 2013 to 2019 and 49 publications were selected. A summarized text states how different VR HMDs impact CS, how the nature of movement in VR HMDs contributes to CS, and how we can use biosensors to detect CS. The results of the meta-analysis show that although current-generation VR HMDs cause significantly less CS ($$p<0.001$$ p < 0.001 ), some symptoms remain as intense. Further results show that the nature of movement and, in particular, sensory mismatch as well as perceived motion have been the leading cause of CS. We suggest an outlook on future research, including the use of galvanic skin response to evaluate CS in combination with the golden standard (Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, SSQ) as well as an update on the subjective evaluation scores of the SSQ.

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Can neuroscience help to understand narcissism? A systematic review of an emerging field

Personality Neuroscience ◽

10.1017/pen.2021.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Author(s):

Emanuel Jauk ◽

Philipp Kanske

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Interpersonal Functioning ◽

Integrative Model ◽

Experimental Investigations ◽

Future Research ◽

Pathological Narcissism ◽

Ego Threat ◽

Self Reports ◽

And Behavior

Abstract Narcissism is a Janusian personality construct, associated with both grandiose self-assuredness and dominance, as well as vulnerable insecurity and reactivity. Central questions of intra- and interpersonal functioning in narcissism are still a matter of debate. Neuroscience could help to understand the paradoxical patterns of experience and behavior beyond the limitations of self-reports. We provide a systematic review of 34 neuroscience studies on grandiose, vulnerable, pathological narcissism, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), spanning experimental investigations of intra- and interpersonal mechanisms, research on neurophysiological and neuroendocrine aspects of baseline function, and brain structural correlates. While neuroscience has scarcely directly studied vulnerable narcissism, grandiose narcissism is associated with heightened vigilance to ego threat and stress responses following ego threat, as well as heightened stress indicators in baseline measures. Such responses are not commonly observed in self-reports, highlighting the potential of neuroscience to augment our understanding of self-regulatory dynamics in narcissism. Interpersonal functioning is characterized by deficits in social–affective processes. Both involve altered activity within the salience network, pointing to a double dissociation regarding the expression of narcissism and self/other oriented situational focus. Findings are summarized in an integrative model providing testable hypotheses for future research along with methodological recommendations.

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Antibacterial Titanium Implants Biofunctionalized by Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation with Silver, Zinc, and Copper: A Systematic Review

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms22073800 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (7) ◽

pp. 3800

Author(s):

Ingmar A. J. van Hengel ◽

Melissa W. A. M. Tierolf ◽

Lidy E. Fratila-Apachitei ◽

Iulian Apachitei ◽

Amir A. Zadpoor

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Antibacterial Activity ◽

Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation ◽

Bacterial Load ◽

Titanium Implants ◽

Future Research ◽

Resistant Bacteria ◽

Electrolytic Oxidation ◽

Plasma Electrolytic ◽

Cu And Zn

Patients receiving orthopedic implants are at risk of implant-associated infections (IAI). A growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria threaten to hamper the treatment of IAI. The focus has, therefore, shifted towards the development of implants with intrinsic antibacterial activity to prevent the occurrence of infection. The use of Ag, Cu, and Zn has gained momentum as these elements display strong antibacterial behavior and target a wide spectrum of bacteria. In order to incorporate these elements into the surface of titanium-based bone implants, plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) has been widely investigated as a single-step process that can biofunctionalize these (highly porous) implant surfaces. Here, we present a systematic review of the studies published between 2009 until 2020 on the biomaterial properties, antibacterial behavior, and biocompatibility of titanium implants biofunctionalized by PEO using Ag, Cu, and Zn. We observed that 100% of surfaces bearing Ag (Ag-surfaces), 93% of surfaces bearing Cu (Cu-surfaces), 73% of surfaces bearing Zn (Zn-surfaces), and 100% of surfaces combining Ag, Cu, and Zn resulted in a significant (i.e., >50%) reduction of bacterial load, while 13% of Ag-surfaces, 10% of Cu-surfaces, and none of Zn or combined Ag, Cu, and Zn surfaces reported cytotoxicity against osteoblasts, stem cells, and immune cells. A majority of the studies investigated the antibacterial activity against S. aureus. Important areas for future research include the biofunctionalization of additively manufactured porous implants and surfaces combining Ag, Cu, and Zn. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of such implants should be determined in assays focused on prevention, rather than the treatment of IAIs. These implants should be tested using appropriate in vivo bone infection models capable of assessing whether titanium implants biofunctionalized by PEO with Ag, Cu, and Zn can contribute to protect patients against IAI.

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Research on the Operating Characteristics of Hydraulic Free-Piston Engines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123530 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3530

Author(s):

Fukang Ma ◽

Shuanlu Zhang ◽

Zhenfeng Zhao ◽

Yifang Wang

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Combustion Process ◽

Research Progress ◽

Future Research ◽

Operating Characteristics ◽

Piston Engine ◽

Free Piston ◽

Free Piston Engine

The hydraulic free-piston engine (HFPE) is a kind of hybrid-powered machine which combines the reciprocating piston-type internal combustion engine and the plunger pump as a whole. In recent years, the HFPE has been investigated by a number of research groups worldwide due to its potential advantages of high efficiency, energy savings, reduced emissions and multi-fuel operation. Therefore, our study aimed to assess the operating characteristics, core questions and research progress of HFPEs via a systematic review and meta-analysis. We included operational control, starting characteristics, misfire characteristics, in-cylinder working processes and operating stability. We conducted the literature search using electronic databases. The research on HFPEs has mainly concentrated on four kinds of free-piston engine, according to piston arrangement form: single piston, dual pistons, opposed pistons and four-cylinder complex configuration. HFPE research in China is mainly conducted in Zhejiang University, Tianjin University, Jilin University and the Beijing Institute of Technology. In addition, in China, research has mainly focused on the in-cylinder combustion process while a piston is free by considering in-cylinder combustion machinery and piston dynamics. Regarding future research, it is very important that we solve the instabilities brought about by chance fluctuations in the combustion process, which will involve the hydraulic system’s efficiency, the cyclical variation, the method of predicting instability and the recovery after instability.

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