Ethics in publishing

1. Does your research involve experimentation on animals?

Yes
No

• If yes; please provide name of the ethical committee approving these experiments and the registration number.

• If yes; please confirm authors compliance with all relevant ethical regulations.

  Yes
  

2. Does your study include human subjects?

Yes
No

• If yes; please provide name of the ethical committee approving these experiments and the registration number.

• If yes; please confirm authors compliance with all relevant ethical regulations.

  Yes
  

• If yes; please confirm that written consent has been obtained from all patients.

  Yes
  

• If the answer is negative, please indicate the reasons.

3. Does your study include a clinical trial?

Yes
No

• If yes; please confirm that experiments have been conducted according to the CONSORT guidelines.

  Yes
  

• Please provide name of the ethical committee approving these experiments and the registration number

• If the answer is negative, please indicate the reasons

4. Are all data shown in the figures and tables also shown in the text of the Results section and discussed in the Conclusions?

Yes
No

5. On the cover sheet of this submission, all authors must describe any financial or personal relationship that could cause a conflict of interest regarding this article. Examples of financial or personal relationships with people or organizations that could inappropriately bias your work include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

6. Upon acceptance of publication, clinical research must include IRB approval and patient consent forms.

I confirm that I have obtained all consents required by applicable law for the publication of any personal details or images of patients, research subjects or other individuals that are used in the materials submitted to Elsevier. I have retained a written copy of all such consents and I agree to provide Elsevier with copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained if requested by Elsevier.