Rong, Yan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5252-6958
Colbourne, Penny
Gourishankar, Sita
Kiang, Tony K. L. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4548-9746
Funding for this research was provided by:
University of Alberta Start-Up Grant (RES0036916)
Article History
Accepted: 23 January 2022
First Online: 18 February 2022
Declarations
:
: This study was funded by a start-up grant provided by the University of Alberta to Dr. Tony Kiang (RES0036916).
: Yan Rong, Penny Colbourne, Sita Gourishankar, and Tony Kiang declare that they have no conflict of interest.
: Original data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
: Not applicable.
: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board (date: December 21, 2020; study ID: Pro00105082).
: Not required as recommended/approved by the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board (Pro00105082). This was based on the study being non-invasive and non-interventional (i.e., no deviation from routine clinical care). The investigative team had no contact with the participants and was totally blinded from their identities.
: Not applicable.
: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, analytical measurements, and data analyses were performed by Yan Rong and Dr. Tony Kiang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yan Rong. All authors commented on the final version of the manuscript, which was edited by Dr. Tony Kiang.