Reviews, comments, case studies, and editorials were excluded.

Results. Thirty-six studies, including 34 from the 775 initially identified studies and 2 from the references, met the selection criteria. The pooled referral rate for radiography was 5.0%, and the pooled positive predictive values for detecting curves >= 10 degrees, curves >= 20 degrees, and treatment were 28.0%, 5.6%, and 2.6%, respectively. There was substantial heterogeneity across studies. Meta-regression showed that programs

using the FBT alone reported a higher referral rate (odds ratio [OR] = 2.91) and lower positive predictive values for curves >= 10 degrees (OR = 0.49) and curves >= 20 degrees (OR = 0.34) than programs using other tests. Only one small study followed students until skeletal maturity and reported the sensitivity of screening; however, the specificity was not reported. No severe publication bias was noted.

Conclusion. check details The use of the FBT alone in school scoliosis screening is insufficient. We need large, retrospective cohort studies with sufficient follow-up to properly assess the clinical effectiveness of school scoliosis screening.”
“The environment that

an offspring experiences during its development can have lifelong consequences for its morphology, anatomy, physiology and behaviour that are strong enough to span generations. One aspect of an offspring’s environment that can have particularly CB-5083 mw pronounced and long-lasting effects is that CP-690550 cost provided by its parent(s) (maternal effects). Some disciplines in biology have been quicker to appreciate maternal effects than others, and some organisms provide

better model systems for understanding the causes and consequences of the maternal environment for ecology and evolution than others. One field in which maternal effects has been poorly represented, and yet is likely to represent a particularly fruitful area for research, is the field of cooperative breeding (i.e. systems where offspring are reared by carers in addition to parent(s)). Here, we attempt to illustrate the scope of cooperative breeding systems for maternal effects research and, conversely, highlight the importance of maternal effects research for understanding cooperative breeding systems. To this end, we first outline why mothers will commonly benefit from affecting the phenotype of their offspring in cooperative breeding systems, present potential strategies that mothers could employ in order to do so and offer predictions regarding the circumstances under which different types of maternal effects might be expected. Second, we highlight why a neglect of maternal strategies and the effects that they have on their offspring could lead to miscalculations of helper/worker fitness gains and a misunderstanding of the factors selecting for the evolution and maintenance of cooperative breeding.