Are Industry Payments Associated With the Level of Evidence in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery?

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the industry payments in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) are associated with a study's level of evidence (LOE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was designed and implemented to query the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from 2002 to 2016. The primary predictor variables were the presence of a self-reported conflict of interest (COI) and the type of COI. The outcome variable was the LOE. The secondary outcome variables investigated were the topic of the study and the inclusion of trainees. The inclusion criteria entailed contributions from domestic academic OMS training programs. Disclosure of the COIs and type of COI, the LOE, topic of the study, and inclusion of trainees were recorded for every report from January 2002 until December 2016. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and χ2 tests were performed to determine a significant relationship primarily between the COIs and LOE. RESULTS: The sample included 1455 reports, and 4.2% of the sample size had disclosed a COI. The studies that disclosed industry payments demonstrated a significant positive correlation with the LOE (P < .01), especially for cohort studies. Also, the type of COI was significantly associated with the LOE (P < .05). Industry payments were not shown to be significantly related statistically to topic of the study (P = .16); however, the stock-related payments were associated with the topic (P < .05). No association was found between COI disclosure and trainee contribution. CONCLUSIONS: The results have indicated that industry payments are associated with the LOE in the OMS literature. Further studies are needed to elucidate both the accuracy of the financial disclosures by comparing them with publicly available open payment databases and the perceptions of the OMSs, their trainees, and their patients regarding the influence of industry payments on the specialty's academic interests.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Dental Students Seek Academically Productive Mentors.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a strong statistical correlation exists between the involvement of trainee groups and the academic productivity of the senior author. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of publications in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from 2002 to 2016 was designed and implemented. The primary predictor variables were the presence of a trainee (dental student or oral and maxillofacial surgery [OMS] resident), year of publication, and study design and topic. The outcome variable was the Hirsch index (h-index) of the senior author. Author affiliations were queried using ScienceDirect, and the Scopus database was used to identify the h-index of the senior author from each publication spanning the previous 15 years. Descriptive statistics and t tests were performed to determine significance. RESULTS: Of the 6,398 articles published in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from January 2002 to December 2016, 1,341 (21.0%) met the inclusion criteria. The mean h-index of senior authors of articles with trainees or OMS residents was not significantly different from the mean h-index of senior authors without trainees (P = .50) or OMS residents (P = .37), whereas the mean h-index of senior authors working with dental students was significantly greater than the h-index of those not working with dental students (P < .01). Dental student mentors had a mean h-index that was below the sample mean from 2002 to 2007 but rose above the sample mean from 2010 to 2016. Trainees were more likely to work with academically productive mentors in orthognathic surgery (P < .01), temporomandibular joint (P < .05), retrospective cohort (P < .05), and innovative technique (P < .05) studies but less likely in randomized controlled trials (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Dental students seek more academically productive mentors to a greater degree. More studies should be conducted to elucidate the attributes of the ideal mentor in academic OMS and to determine whether differences in mentorship exist between domestic and foreign OMS programs.

Microbial Biomarker Transition in High-Altitude Sinter Mounds From El Tatio (Chile) Through Different Stages of Hydrothermal Activity.

Geothermal springs support microbial communities at elevated temperatures in an ecosystem with high preservation potential that makes them interesting analogs for early evolution of the biogeosphere. The El Tatio geysers field in the Atacama Desert has astrobiological relevance due to the unique occurrence of geothermal features with steep hydrothermal gradients in an otherwise high altitude, hyper-arid environment. We present here results of our multidisciplinary field and molecular study of biogeochemical evidence for habitability and preservation in silica sinter at El Tatio. We sampled three morphologically similar geyser mounds characterized by differences in water activity (i.e., episodic liquid water, steam, and inactive geyser lacking hydrothermal activity). Multiple approaches were employed to determine (past and present) biological signatures and dominant metabolism. Lipid biomarkers indicated relative abundance of thermophiles (dicarboxylic acids) and sulfate reducing bacteria (branched carboxylic acids) in the sinter collected from the liquid water mound; photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria (alkanes and isoprenoids) in the steam sinter mound; and archaea (squalane and crocetane) as well as purple sulfur bacteria (cyclopropyl acids) in the dry sinter from the inactive geyser. The three sinter structures preserved biosignatures representative of primary (thermophilic) and secondary (including endoliths and environmental contaminants) microbial communities. Sequencing of environmental 16S rRNA genes and immuno-assays generally corroborated the lipid-based microbial identification. The multiplex immunoassays and the compound-specific isotopic analysis of carboxylic acids, alkanols, and alkanes indicated that the principal microbial pathway for carbon fixation in the three sinter mounds was through the Calvin cycle, with a relative larger contribution of the reductive acetyl-CoA pathway in the dry system. Other inferred metabolic traits varied from the liquid mound (iron and sulfur chemistry), to the steam mound (nitrogen cycle), to the dry mound (perchlorate reduction). The combined results revealed different stages of colonization that reflect differences in the lifetime of the mounds, where primary communities dominated the biosignatures preserved in sinters from the still active geysers (liquid and steam mounds), in contrast to the surviving metabolisms and microbial communities at the end of lifetime of the inactive geothermal mound.