Peer review is a crucial part of research and publishing. However, it remains imperfect and suffers from bias, lack of transparency, and professional jealousy. It is also overburdened by an increasing quantity of complex papers against the stagnant pool of reviewers, causing delays in peer review. Additionally, many medical, nursing, and healthcare educators, peer reviewers, and authors may not be completely familiar with the current changes in peer review. Moreover, reviewer education and training have unfortunately remained lacking. This is especially crucial since current initiatives to improve the review process are now influenced by factors other than academic needs. Thus, increasing attention has recently focused on ways of streamlining the peer review process and implementing alternative peer-review methods using new technologies and open access models. This article aims to give an overview of the innovative strategies for peer review and to consider perspectives that may be helpful in introducing changes to peer review. Critical assessments of peer review innovations and incentives based on past and present experiences are indispensable. A theoretical appraisal must be balanced by a realistic appraisal of the ethical roles of all stakeholders in enhancing the peer review process. As the peer review system is far from being perfect, identifying and developing core competencies among reviewers, continuing education of researchers, reviewer education and training, and professional engagement of the scientific community in various disciplines may help bridge gaps in an imperfect but indispensable peer review system.

ABSTRACT. Highly lung metastasizing model of canine osteosarcoma in nude mice was established from five subcutaneous implantation cycles of lung tumor deposits. The selection of cells with increased metastatic properties from the parent POS canine osteosarcoma cell line recovered medium sized and polygonal Highly Metastasizing POS cells (HMPOS). The doubling time of HMPOS and POS in culture averaged 30 ± 1.2 hr and 32 ± 1.3 hr respectively, and their cell growth patterns in vitro were comparable to their in vivo growth patterns. HMPOS cells produced more tumor deposits (>20 nodules, >1-mm in diameter) of various sizes with replacement of lung tissues at 12 weeks after implantation. POS cells produced fewer and smaller lung deposits (<10 nodules, 1-mm in diameter). Tumor size and number of metastatic tumor deposits showed a regular association. HMPOS cells developed an osteoblastic type of cellular differentiation subcutaneously and in the lungs. HMPOS micrometastasis along the alveolar walls and blood vessels at 4 weeks averaged 6-7 small tumor locus. Each micrometastatic locus contained an average of 5-7 tumor cells, and developed a pleomorphic osteoblastic type of cellular differentiation. An average of 4 macrometastatic nodules could be seen at 6 weeks, composed of an average of 23 tumor cells, 10 nodules at 8 weeks, 12 nodules at 10 weeks and 20 nodules at 12 weeks. These model provides an opportunity for the evaluation of new treatments against canine lung metastatic osteosarcoma in a nude mice model.-KEY WORDS: canine osteosarcoma, cell line, implantation, lung metastasis, nude mouse.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 61(4): 361-367, 1999 cell line derived from a spontaneous canine osteosarcoma in a dog and was called POS [7]. The original osteosarcoma developed on the left femur in a 1.5-year-old male mongrel dog, with the femoral neck considerably destroyed by the tumor. Cell suspensions were made from the surgically excised and minced tissues and were expanded in culture for four months with 20 passages routinely cultured in RPMI-1640. Six clonal cells were also established, characterized and classified from POS using a limiting dilution technique [16]. This study presents the establishment and characterization of the growth and lung metastasis of canine osteosarcoma in a nude mice model produced by the selection of tumor cell populations with increased lung metastatic properties from the previously established, characterized and cloned POS canine osteosarcoma cell line. MATERIALS AND METHODS Animals and irradiation:Five week old female BALB/ cAJcl nude mice (Clea Lab., Tokyo, Japan), housed under specific pathogen free conditions, and fed with sterile feed and water continously were used for the study. They were irradiated at 63.5 cGy for 6 min and 18 sec before subcutaneous transplantation of tumor cells.All animals were used and cared for according to the approved guidelines in the handling of experimental animals by the Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University. Establishment of highly lung meta...

BackgroundGlobalization of the professions has become a necessity among schools and universities across the world. It has affected the medical and dental professions in terms of curriculum design and student and patient needs. In Japan, where medicine and dentistry are taught mainly in the Japanese language, profession-based courses in English, known as Medical English and Dental English, have been integrated into the existing curriculum among its 83 medical and 29 dental schools. Unfortunately, there is neither a core curriculum nor a model syllabus for these courses.MethodsThis report is based on a survey, two discussion forums, a workshop, and finally, the drafting of a proposed core curriculum for dental English approved by consensus of the participants from each university.ResultsThe core curriculum covers the theoretical aspects, including dental English terms and oral pathologies; and practical aspects, including blended learning and dentist-patient communication. It is divided into modules and is recommended to be offered for at least two semesters.ConclusionsThe core curriculum is expected to guide curriculum developers in schools where dental English courses are yet to be offered or are still in their early development. It may also serve as a model curriculum to medical and dental schools in countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, and Central and South America, where English is not the medium of instruction.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-014-0239-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

ABSTRACT. Vitamin D 3 : 1-α,25(OH) 2 D 3 (calcitriol), 22-oxa-1,25(OH) 2 D 3 (OCT), cholecalciferol (vitamin D 3 ), and retinoids: all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and 9-cis retinoic acid, induced morphological changes in POS canine osteosarcoma cells into elongated, spindle or fibroblast like-shaped cells, and apoptotic like cell death characterized by cell shrinkage, condensation and margination of the nucleus for all drugs at 10 6 M-10 9 M after 72 to 120 hr culture. Apoptosis as shown by DNA laddering was induced at 48 hr by all drugs at 10 6 M, 10 7 M at 96 hr, 10 8 M and 10 9 M at 120 hr respectively. These vitamins are suggested to adjunct antineoplastic agents in canine osteosarcoma therapy by induction of apoptosis. -KEY WORDS: apoptosis, canine osteosarcoma, vitamin.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 60(11): 1269-1272, 1998 required concentrations with 100% ethanol immediately before use. For cell morphology, POS cells were seeded into 8-well chamber slides (NUNC Inc., Naperville, Illinois, U.S.A.) at 1 × 10 5 cells/chamber at 200 µl of RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% FCS. At near confluency growth, each cell type was treated with varying concentrations of the drugs ranging from 10 6 M-10 9 M. The cells were incubated with the drugs for 48, 72 and 120 hr at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO 2 , afterwhich the cells were stained with giemsa solution and their morphological responses to the drugs were studied by light microscope at 200X and 400X magnifications.For the DNA preparation and agarose gel DNA electrophoresis [16], POS cells were cultured to near confluency in a 75 cm 2 cell culture flask (IWAKI, Tokyo, Japan), and treated with the drugs at 10 6 M-10 9 M for 24-120 hr. Control cells were cultured similarly without drugs. Isolation of genomic DNA was done by the addition of guanadine-detergent lysing solution (DNAZOL TM reagent, Wako Pure Chem., Tokyo, Japan). DNA precipitation and washing were done using 100% and 95% ethanol respectively. DNA solubilization was done by air drying and dissolution in 30 µl Tris-Ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid (TE-EDTA) buffer (PH=7.5). DNA quantitation was done using a A260 spectrophotometer (Beckman DUR 640, Fullerton, CA, U.S.A.). Equal amounts of DNA at 0.2 µg/ well were run in 2% agarose for 60 min at 100 V. DNA ladders were visualized by transmitted ultraviolet illumination (302 nm), and photographed with a polaroid camera.POS cells have been characterized as medium sized cells composed of a mixture of cells from spherical, polygonal and multinucleated giant cells (Fig. 1-1) [8]. In the presence of vitamin D 3 and retinoids at 10 6 M-10 9 M, majority of the cells morphologically changed into elongated, spindle or fibroblast like shaped cells, some cells showed the generation of thin cytoplasmic like processes or branchings, while other cells showed apoptotic-like cell death characterized by cell shrinkage, condensation and margination of the nucleus. These structural changes were Mortality due to tissue toxicity, is usually observed when antineoplastic agents are used...

Scholarly article writing and publishing in international peer-reviewed journals can become an overwhelming task for many medical, nursing, and healthcare professionals in a university setting, especially in countries whose native language is not English. To help improve their scientific writing skills and publishing capacity, a university-based editing system and writing programs can be developed as educational platforms. These are delivered by a team of specialist editors composed of tenured faculty members who have a strong medical background and extensive experience in teaching courses on medical research, editing, writing, and publishing. For the editing system, the specialist editors provide comprehensive editing, personalized consultation, full editorial support after peer review, guidance with online submissions/resubmissions, and detailed editorial review at different stages of the manuscript writing. In addition, the specialist editors can develop writing programs such as medical writing and editing internships, academic courses in medical writing or research study designs and reporting standards, special interactive lectures and sessions on predatory publishing, seminars on updated editorial guidance of global editorial associations, academic visits on medical writing and editing, medical writing mentoring program, networking programs in scholarly communication, and publication resources in medical writing and scholarly publishing. These editing system and writing programs can serve as integrated platforms for improving scientific writing skills and publishing capacity by providing continuing education in medical writing, editing, publishing, and publication ethics.

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