Smoking a Dangerous Addiction: A Systematic Review on an Underrated Risk Factor for Oral Diseases

Despite growing knowledge of the adverse effects of cigarette smoking on general health, smoking is one of the most widely prevalent addictions around the world. Globally, about 1.1 billion smokers and over 8 million people die each year because of cigarette smoking. Smoking acts as a source for a variety of oral and systemic diseases. Various periodontal issues such as increased pocket depth, loss of alveolar bone, tooth mobility, oral lesions, ulcerations, halitosis, and stained teeth are more common among smokers. This systematic review was conducted according to the guidelines from PRISMA, and research articles were retrieved from the Web database sources on 31 May 2021. The quality of research articles was ensured by the type of evidence from combined schema incorporating as schema-13 evidence type description, Cochrane health promotion and public health field (CHPPHF), and the health gains notation framework-14 screening question for quality assessment of qualitative and quantitative studies. Smokers have been found to have bleeding on probing, periodontal pockets, and clinical attachment loss compared to nonsmokers. Oral and respiratory cancers are among the most lethal known diseases caused by cigarette smoking and other commonly occurring sequelae such as stained teeth, periodontal diseases, etc.

Framing Effects and Evidence Type: Influence on the Persuasive Effect of Myopia Prevention Messages Among Elementary School Students in China

Background: The myopia is a public health issue that attracts much attention. However, limited attention has been paid to the effect of primary school students' acceptance of health messages. Previous studies have found that framing effects and evidence types influence the persuasive effect of messages.Purpose: This study explored whether framing effects and evidence type influence the persuasive effect of myopia prevention messages among elementary school students and the influence of children's myopia prevention cognition was considered.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,493 elementary school students aged 9 to 13 in China from May to July 2020 by convenience sampling. Wilcoxon signed-rank test and multinomial logistic regression were used for data analysis.Results: Significant differences were found in the persuasive effect between statistical and non-statistical evidence messages (p < 0.001). Among non-statistical evidence messages, gain-framed messages showed a greater persuasive effect than loss-framed messages (p < 0.001). Among statistical evidence messages, loss-framed messages performed better than gain-framed messages (p < 0.001). Children's myopia prevention cognition exerted no significant effect on the persuasive effect of the messages (p > 0.05).Conclusion: This study demonstrated the influence of framing effect on the persuasive effect of myopia prevention messages among children aged 9 to 13 in China. Non-statistical evidence messages showed a better persuasive effect than statistical evidence messages. Different types of evidence influenced the persuasive effect of gain- and loss- framed messages. These findings have implications for strategies more or less likely to work in making myopia prevention messages for children.

Accelerated aging of forensically relevant biological materials on swabs

The preservation of DNA in biological samples is important for forensic testing, as samples can be tested years or even decades after collection. Generally, the DNA within biological evidence is stable over shorter time frames but can degrade over extended periods. In this work, we evaluated accelerated aging as a method to reduce the duration of studies examining the stability of DNA in forensic evidence-type samples. Evaluation of the DNA extracted from cells stored at 37 and 50°C for 194 or 79 days, respectively, showed similar quality metrics to cells stored at 25°C for 548 days.

High Rate of Studies with Level 1 and 2 Evidence among the 100 Most Cited Articles in Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Background To date, no study has used bibliometric analysis to review the most influential articles in lumbar spinal stenosis. The objective of this study was to identify and analyze the characteristics and the level of evidence of the 100 most cited articles on lumbar spinal stenosis Methods The Thomson Reuters Web of Science was accessed to find the 100 most cited articles on lumbar spinal stenosis. For each article, we recorded the number and density of citations, authors, country, journals and years, department, level of evidence, type of study, and if it was part of any multicenter studies. Results Until January 2017, the 100 most cited articles accumulated 11,136 citations (average: 259.05/y), ranging individually between 442 and 50 (average: 111.36). The first reference was published in 1974 in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Therapeutic studies (n = 40), the 1990s (n = 46), United States as country of origin (n = 51), Harvard University as institution (n = 16), Katz JN as author (n = 10), and Spine as journal (n = 48) have the hegemony. Many were multicenter (n = 42) and using level 2 evidence (n = 49). There is an inverse relationship between citation index and long-standing studies, maintenance of those most cited, and a temporary advance toward better levels of evidence. Conclusion This bibliometric analysis reveals a good level of evidence in the published clinical series and includes 100 articles useful for the approach of lumbar spinal stenosis.

Effects of message framing and evidence type on health information behavior: the case of promoting HPV vaccination

PurposeBased on the examination of the roles of message framing and evidence type, this study made an analysis of the promotion methods of intention and information need towards HPV vaccination.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted a 2 (gain-framed messages vs loss-framed messages) × 2 (statistical evidence vs narrative evidence) quasi-experimental design built upon theories of message framing and evidence type. This experiment recruited college students who were not vaccinated against HPV as participants. The analysis of variance (ANOVA), the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and the independent sample T-test were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results (N = 300) indicate that (1) Loss-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than gain-framed messages. (2) Statistical evidence will lead to a more explicit information need than narrative evidence. (3) Message framing and evidence type will interact and (a) for statistical evidence, loss-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than gain-framed messages and (b) for narrative evidence, gain-framed messages will lead to a more favorable intention towards HPV vaccination than loss-framed messages. (4) Message framing and evidence type will interact and (a) for loss-framed messages, statistical evidence will stimulate more explicit information need of HPV vaccination than narrative evidence and (b) for gain-framed messages, narrative evidence will stimulate more explicit information need of HPV vaccination than statistical evidence.Originality/valueThis paper can help to further understand the important roles of message framing and evidence type in health behavior promotion. The study contributes to the literature on how health information can be well organized to serve the public health communication and further enhance the health information service.

Neuroscience evidence is not more persuasive than behavioral evidence for both adults and juveniles: A preregistered study

In last two decades, developmental neuroscience results had been cited in high-profile legal cases in the United States and other countries. However, it’s unknown whether neuroscience evidence bring bias because of its over-persuasiveness for people without training in neuroscience. Previous studies suggested that neuroscience results were over-persuasive, this effect was termed as “neuroscience bias,” but the evidence was not conclusive because of failed replication attempts. Moreover, few studies directly examined the effect developmental neuroscience in juvenile cases. To address this issue, we conducted two mock jury studies with a three (evidence type: behavioral evidence, neuroscience evidence without brain images, and neuroscience evidence with brain images) by two (offenders’ age: juvenile vs. adult) between-subject design. In a pilot study (n = 94) and pre-registered study (n = 324), participants first read a vignette, which described an offender murdered a victim and his lawyer introduced scientific evidence when defending for the offender. Participants were required to make a series of judgments, including death penalty and criminal responsibility of defendant. The results revealed a main effect for offenders’ age, but no effect for evidence type or interaction between evidence type and offenders’ age. An exploratory conditional random forest analysis again revealed that evidence type was not important in predicting participants’ judgment. Instead, other self-reported variables are more important, such as the “just deserts” view of criminal punishment and the perceived possibility the offender would re-enter society. These results suggest that, in the severe criminal cases, the neuroscientific evidence is not more persuasive than behavioral evidence, regardless the neuroscientific results are from adults or juveniles.

The Impact of Evidence Type on Police Investigators’ Perceptions of Suspect Culpability and Evidence Reliability

In a repeated-measures experimental study, we examined how evidence type influences police investigators’ beliefs about (a) suspect’s culpability and (b) reliability of incriminating evidence. South Korean detectives ( N = 202) read four crime reports including general information about a crime and a suspect. In the general case information, one piece of critical and several pieces of noncritical evidence collected during the investigation were presented. Officers read four simulated reports of crimes, and in each report, they were given one piece of evidence linking the suspect to the crime. We manipulated the critical evidence identifying the suspect with four evidence types: CCTV, DNA, fingerprint, and eyewitness testimony. We found that evidence type influenced detectives’ judgments about suspect’s culpability and evidence reliability, such that when eyewitness (vs. CCTV, DNA, fingerprint) evidence was given as critical evidence, officers were more likely to think that the suspect was less culpable and that the evidence was less reliable. Theoretical and legal implications of these results are discussed.