Recent Progress in Cardiovascular Research Involving Single-Cell Omics Approaches

Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although the spectrum of the heart from development to disease has long been studied, it remains largely enigmatic. The emergence of single-cell omics technologies has provided a powerful toolbox for defining cell heterogeneity, unraveling previously unknown pathways, and revealing intercellular communications, thereby boosting biomedical research and obtaining numerous novel findings over the last 7 years. Not only cell atlases of normal and developing hearts that provided substantial research resources, but also some important findings regarding cell-type-specific disease gene program, could never have been established without single-cell omics technologies. Herein, we briefly describe the latest technological advances in single-cell omics and summarize the major findings achieved by such approaches, with a focus on development and homeostasis of the heart, myocardial infarction, and heart failure.

A new taxonomy was developed for overlap across ‘Overviews of systematic reviews’: a meta-research study of research waste

Background Multiple ‘overviews of reviews’ conducted on the same topic (“overlapping overviews”) represent a waste of research resources and can confuse clinicians making decisions amongst competing treatments. We aimed to assess the frequency and characteristics of overlapping overviews. Methods MEDLINE, Epistemonikos and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for overviews that: synthesised reviews of health interventions and conducted systematic searches. Overlap was defined as: duplication of PICO eligibility criteria, and not reported as an update nor a replication. We categorized overview topics according to 22 WHO ICD-10 medical classifications, overviews as broad or narrow in scope, and overlap as identical, nearly identical, partial, or subsumed. Subsummation was defined as when broad overviews subsumed the populations, interventions and at least one outcome of another overview. Results Of 541 overviews included, 169 (31%) overlapped across similar PICO, fell within 13 WHO ICD-10 medical classifications, and 62 topics. 148/169 (88%) overlapping overviews were broad in scope. Fifteen overviews were classified as having nearly identical overlap (9%); 123 partial overlap (73%), and 31 subsumed (18%) others. Conclusions One third of overviews overlapped in content and a majority covered broad topic areas. A multiplicity of overviews on the same topic adds to the ongoing waste of research resources, time and effort across medical disciplines. Authors of overviews can use this study and the sample of overviews to identify gaps in the evidence for future analysis, and topics that are already studied which do not need to be duplicated.

Topic overlap and research waste at the ‘Overviews of systematic reviews’ level: a meta-research study

Background Multiple ‘overviews of reviews’ conducted on the same topic (“overlapping overviews”) represent a waste of research resources and can confuse clinicians making decisions amongst competing treatments. We aimed to assess the frequency and characteristics of overlapping overviews. Methods MEDLINE, Epistemonikos and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for overviews that: synthesised reviews of health interventions and conducted systematic searches. Overlap was defined as: duplication of PICO eligibility criteria, and not reported as an update nor a replication. We categorized overview topics according to 22 WHO ICD-10 medical classifications, overviews as broad or narrow in scope, and overlap as identical, nearly identical, partial, or subsumed. Subsummation was defined as when broad overviews subsumed the populations, interventions and at least one outcome of another overview. Results Of 541 overviews included, 169 (31%) overlapped across similar PICO, fell within 13 WHO ICD-10 medical classifications, and 62 topics. 148/169 (88%) overlapping overviews were broad in scope. Fifteen overviews were classified as having nearly identical overlap (9%); 123 partial overlap (73%), and 31 subsumed (18%) others. Conclusions One third of overviews overlapped in content and a majority covered broad topic areas. A multiplicity of overviews on the same topic adds to the ongoing waste of research resources, time and effort across medical disciplines. Authors of overviews can use this study and the sample of overviews to identify gaps in the evidence for future analysis, and topics that are already studied which do not need to be duplicated.

Disruption to Transformation: Aging in the New Normal: NIA Session for Early-Career Researchers

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, supports biomedical and behavioral research with a lifespan focus. NIA research seeks to understand the basic processes of aging, improve prevention and treatment of diseases in later life, improve the health of older persons, in addition to a focus on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The NIA also supports the training and career development of scientists focusing on aging research and the development of research resources. This symposium, meant for junior faculty and emerging scholars, will provide an update on the latest research findings from the NIA followed by a segment on funding mechanisms and strategies. An opportunity will be provided to meet and consult with NIA extramural staff.

Becoming an Open Author! A Reference for Writing and Self-Publishing an Open Textbook

Becoming an Open Author Guide is a support resource is designed to help you become an open author. Open Textbooks and Open educational resources (OER) are defined as teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them. We consider this publication as a type of OER that trains faculty, staff, and students how to build, customize, and use open textbooks.

Who is the teacher? Cultural – linguistic image of educationist in students’ eyes

The article presents the cultural - linguistic image of a teacher. To make an investigation of this phenomena, the ethnolinguistic system S-A-T has been used. This system, created by Jerzy Bartmiński, is one of the foremost instruments to collect research resources. The S-A-T triad was built from three components: (S) - dictionary data, (A) - survey data and (T) - selected texts from culture. In the beginning, the teacher lexeme will be shown in terms of philosophy, history, pedagogy and didactics. Then, the information collected from data acquired from several dictionaries: etymological, Polish, phraseological and synonyms dictionary will be presented before the survey’s evaluation placed in the end of the article. Students were obligated to give answers for questions related to broadly defined topic of teaching in the context of teacher as a person with synonymous and idiomatic expressions associated with. Next, respondents had to explain who, to their minds, the teacher is. Further questions referred to features of a perfect pedagogue (in primary and secondary school student’s eyes) and justice at school. They were also asked for giving some writings (from literature, cinema and music), where the character of a good teacher can be found.

Quantitative phosphoproteomics reveals GSK3A substrate network is involved in the cryodamage of sperm motility

During sperm cryopreservation, the most significant phenotype of cryodamage is the decrease of sperm motility. Several proteomic studies have already been performed to search for key regulators at the protein level. However, sperm functions are known to be highly regulated by phosphorylation signaling. Here, we constructed a quantitative phosphoproteome to investigate the expression change of phosphorylated sites during sperm cryopreservation. A total of 3167 phosphorylated sites are identified and 848 of them are found to be significantly differentially expressed. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the corresponding genes of these regulated sites are highly associated with sperm motility, providing a connection between the molecular basis and the phenotype of cryodamage. We then performed kinase enrichment analysis and successfully identified GSK3A as the key kinase that may play an important role in the regulation of sperm motility. We further constructed a GSK3A centric network that could help us better understand the molecular mechanism of cryodamage in sperm motility. Finally, we also verified that GSK3A was abnormally activated during this process. The presented phosphoproteome and functional associations provide abundant research resources for us to learn the regulation of sperm functions, as well as to optimize the cryoprotectant for sperm cryopreservation.

The preferred leadership styles in vocational training corporations: Case of Jordan

The study aims to identify the leadership styles (democratic, authoritative, autocratic, laissez-faire, transformational, and transactional) practiced by trainers at the Vocational Training Corporation as perceived by the female trainees in Jordan. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected by the questionnaire from respondents (n = 105 female trainees) selected by the simple randomization sampling and representing 50% of the population (n = 210). Among the questionnaires sent, only 104 were received and declared valid for statistical analysis. Major findings indicated that the democratic leadership style was mostly preferable by female trainees, where rated top by respondents (M = 4.50), followed by the transformational style (M = 4.23), and the authoritative style was rated the lowest (M = 2.58) compared with the autocratic, laissez-faire and transactional leadership styles. Thus, to keep increasing the development of training programs and obtain positive feedback for trainees, both trainers and managers of the Vocational Training Corporation necessarily need to practice appropriate leadership styles, develop a high level of learning and benefits. AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank Al-Balqa Applied University in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Institute of Public Administration in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all kinds of support and providing us with time and access to the research resources.