Policies that mandate public data archiving (PDA) successfully increase accessibility to data underlying scientific publications. However, is the data quality sufficient to allow reuse and ...reanalysis? We surveyed 100 datasets associated with nonmolecular studies in journals that commonly publish ecological and evolutionary research and have a strong PDA policy. Out of these datasets, 56% were incomplete, and 64% were archived in a way that partially or entirely prevented reuse. We suggest that cultural shifts facilitating clearer benefits to authors are necessary to achieve high-quality PDA and highlight key guidelines to help authors increase their data's reuse potential and compliance with journal data policies.
Academia often fails to recognize the important work that supports its functioning, such as mentoring and teaching performed by postdoctoral researchers. This is a particular problem for early-career ...researchers, but opportunities exist to improve the status quo.
Outcome of intermediate risk rectal cancer may be improved by the addition of oxaliplatin during 5-fluoruracil concomitant neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the ...main clinical results of the ACCORD12 trial (NCT00227747) in rectal cancer after 5 years of follow-up.
Inclusion criteria were as follows: rectal adenocarcinoma accessible to digital examination staged T3-T4 Nx M0 (or T2 Nx distal anterior rectum). Two neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy regimens were randomized: CAP45 (RT 45 Gy + capecitabine) and CAPOX50 (RT 50 Gy + capecitabine and oxaliplatin). Main end point was sterilization of the operative specimen. Acute and late toxicities were prospectively analyzed with dedicated questionnaires.
Between November 2005 and July 2008, 598 patients were included in the trial. After a median follow-up of 60.2 months, there was no difference between treatment arms in multivariate analysis either for disease-free survival or overall survival (OS) P = 0.9, hazard ratio (HR)=1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.76–1.36 andP = 0.3, HR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.66–1.15, respectively. There was also no difference of local control in univariate analysis (P = 0.7, HR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.51–1.66). Late toxicities were acceptable with 1.6% G3 anal incontinence, and <1% G3 diarrhea, G3 rectal bleeding, G3 stenosis, G3–4 pain, G3 urinary incontinence, G3 urinary retention and G3 skeletal toxicity. There was a slight increase of erectile dysfunction over time with a 63% rate of erectile dysfunction at 5 years. There was no significant statistical difference for these toxicities between treatment arms.
The CAPOX50 regimen did not improve local control, disease-free survival and overall survival in the ACCORD12 trial. Late toxicities did not differ between treatment arms.
Collaborative hunting, the coordination of animal behaviour in space and time to capture prey, is reported in several vertebrate species. However, previous studies are observational, hampering our ...ability to identify individual decision rules that result in collaboration. We experimentally investigated collaborative hunting in yellow saddle goatfish (Parupeneus cyclostomus) by exposing pairs to a mock prey that fled to an artificial shelter with multiple entrances. The first fish to initiate the chase (the ‘initiator’) was always closest to the prey and pursued it directly in its path. Conversely, the behaviour of the second goatfish (the ‘follower’) depended on its spatial position relative to the initiator. When the follower was less than one body length behind the initiator, it also accelerated directly towards the prey in over 95% of cases. However, if the two goatfish were separated by a distance of one body length or more, the follower chose a less direct route to reach the prey in 87% of cases. In this scenario, the follower often reached the prey's more distant refuge first, which might increase its hunting success or block the prey's escape path under natural conditions. Our findings suggest that coordinated hunting behaviour can result from simple, self-serving decisions.
Unreliable research programmes waste funds, time, and even the lives of the organisms we seek to help and understand. Reducing this waste and increasing the value of scientific evidence require ...changing the actions of both individual researchers and the institutions they depend on for employment and promotion. While ecologists and evolutionary biologists have somewhat improved research transparency over the past decade (e.g. more data sharing), major obstacles remain. In this commentary, we lift our gaze to the horizon to imagine how researchers and institutions can clear the path towards more credible and effective research programmes.
An increasing number of publishers and funding agencies require public data archiving (PDA) in open-access databases. PDA has obvious group benefits for the scientific community, but many researchers ...are reluctant to share their data publicly because of real or perceived individual costs. Improving participation in PDA will require lowering costs and/or increasing benefits for primary data collectors. Small, simple changes can enhance existing measures to ensure that more scientific data are properly archived and made publicly available: (1) facilitate more flexible embargoes on archived data, (2) encourage communication between data generators and re-users, (3) disclose data re-use ethics, and (4) encourage increased recognition of publicly archived data.
Cleaning organisms play a fundamental ecological role by removing ectoparasites and infected tissue from client surfaces. We used the well-studied cleaning mutualisms involving the cleaner wrasse, ...Labroides dimidiatus, to test how client cognition is affected by ectoparasites and whether these effects are mitigated by cleaners. Ambon damselfish (Pomacentrus amboinensis) collected from experimental reef patches without cleaner wrasse performed worse in a visual discrimination test than conspecifics from patches with cleaners. Endoparasite abundance also negatively influenced success in this test. Visual discrimination performance was also impaired in damselfish experimentally infected with gnathiid (Crustacea: Isopoda) ectoparasites. Neither cleaner absence nor gnathiid infection affected performance in spatial recognition or reversal learning tests. Injection with immune-stimulating lipopolysaccharide did not affect visual discrimination performance relative to saline-injected controls, suggesting that cognitive impairments are not due to an innate immune response. Our results highlight the complex, indirect role of cleaning organisms in promoting the health of their clients via ectoparasite removal and emphasize the negative impact of parasites on host's cognitive abilities.
Ectoparasites can reduce individual fitness by negatively affecting behavioural, morphological and physiological traits. In fishes, there are potential costs if ectoparasites decrease streamlining, ...thereby directly compromising swimming performance. Few studies have examined the effects of ectoparasites on fish swimming performance and none distinguish between energetic costs imposed by changes in streamlining and effects on host physiology. The bridled monocle bream (Scolopsis bilineatus) is parasitized by an isopod (Anilocra nemipteri), which attaches above the eye. We show that parasitized fish have higher standard metabolic rates (SMRs), poorer aerobic capacities and lower maximum swimming speeds than non-parasitized fish. Adding a model parasite did not affect SMR, but reduced maximum swimming speed and elevated oxygen consumption rates at high speeds to levels observed in naturally parasitized fish. This demonstrates that ectoparasites create drag effects that are important at high speeds. The higher SMR of naturally parasitized fish does, however, reveal an effect of parasitism on host physiology. This effect was easily reversed: fish whose parasite was removed 24 h earlier did not differ from unparasitized fish in any performance metrics. In sum, the main cost of this ectoparasite is probably its direct effect on streamlining, reducing swimming performance at high speeds.
Introduction:
A European Union amalgam phase-down has recently been implemented. Publicly funded health care predominates in the United Kingdom with the system favoring amalgam use. The current use ...of amalgam and its alternatives has not been fully investigated in the United Kingdom.
Objectives:
The study aimed to identify direct posterior restorative techniques, material use, and reported postoperative complication incidence experienced by primary care clinicians and differences between clinician groups.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was distributed to primary care clinicians through British dentist and therapist associations (11,092 invitations). The questionnaire sought information on current provision of direct posterior restorations and perceived issues with the different materials. Descriptive statistical and hypothesis testing was performed.
Results:
Dentists’ response rate was 14% and therapists’ estimated minimum response rate was 6% (total N = 1,513). The most commonly used restorative material was amalgam in molar teeth and composite in premolars. When placing a direct posterior mesio-occluso-distal restoration, clinicians booked on average 45% more time and charged 45% more when placing composite compared to amalgam (P < 0.0001). The reported incidences of food packing and sensitivity following the placement of direct restorations were much higher with composite than amalgam (P < 0.0001). Widely recommended techniques, such as sectional metal matrix use for posterior composites, were associated with reduced food packing (P < 0.0001) but increased time booked (P = 0.002).
Conclusion:
Amalgam use is currently high in the publicly funded sector of UK primary care. Composite is the most used alternative, but it takes longer to place and is more costly. Composite also has a higher reported incidence of postoperative complications than amalgam, but time-consuming techniques, such as sectional matrix use, can mitigate against food packing, but their use is low. Therefore, major changes in health service structure and funding and posterior composite education are required in the United Kingdom and other countries where amalgam use is prevalent, as the amalgam phase-down continues.
Knowledge Transfer Statement:
This study presents data on the current provision of amalgam for posterior tooth restoration and its directly placed alternatives by primary care clinicians in the United Kingdom, where publicly funded health care with copayment provision predominates. The information is important to manage and plan the UK phase-down and proposed phase-out of amalgam and will be of interest to other, primarily developing countries where amalgam provision predominates in understanding some of the challenges faced.
Unsteady water flows are common in nature, yet the swimming performance of fishes is typically evaluated at constant, steady speeds in the laboratory. We examined how cyclic changes in water flow ...velocity affect the swimming performance and energetics of a labriform swimmer, the shiner surfperch, Cymatogaster aggregata, during station holding. Using intermittent-flow respirometry, we measured critical swimming speed (Ucrit), oxygen consumption rates (O2) and pectoral fin use in steady flow versus unsteady flows with either low- 0.5 body lengths (BL) s(-1) or high-amplitude (1.0 BL s(-1)) velocity fluctuations, with a 5 s period. Individuals in low-amplitude unsteady flow performed as well as fish in steady flow. However, swimming costs in high-amplitude unsteady flow were on average 25.3% higher than in steady flow and 14.2% higher than estimated values obtained from simulations based on the non-linear relationship between swimming speed and oxygen consumption rate in steady flow. Time-averaged pectoral fin use (fin-beat frequency measured over 300 s) was similar among treatments. However, measures of instantaneous fin use (fin-beat period) and body movement in high-amplitude unsteady flow indicate that individuals with greater variation in the duration of their fin beats were better at holding station and consumed less oxygen than fish with low variation in fin-beat period. These results suggest that the costs of swimming in unsteady flows are context dependent in labriform swimmers, and may be influenced by individual differences in the ability of fishes to adjust their fin beats to the flow environment.
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