FAIR reporting of clinical trials for public health practice.

The number of clinical trials is rapidly growing, and automation of literature processing is becoming desirable but unresolved. Our purpose was to assess and increase the readiness of clinical trial reports for supporting automated retrieval and implementation in public health practice. We searched the Medline database for a random sample of clinical trials of HIV/AIDS management with likely relevance to public health in Africa. Five authors assessed trial reports for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed quality based on the FAIR principles of scientific data management (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). Subsequently, we categorized reported results in terms of outcomes and essentials of implementation. A sample of 96 trial reports was selected. Information about the tested intervention that is essential for practical implementation was largely missing, including personnel resources needed 32·3% (.95 CI: 22·9-41·6); material/supplies needed 33·3% (.95 CI: 23·9-42·8); major equipment/building investment 42·8% (CI: 33·8-53·7); methods of educating providers 53·1% (CI: 43·1-63·4); and methods of educating the community 27·1% (CI: 18·2-36·0). Overall, 65% of studies measured health/biologic outcomes, among them, only a fraction showed any positive effects. Several specific design elements were identified that frequently make clinical trials unreal and their results unusable. To sort and interpret clinical trial results easier and faster, a new reporting structure, a practice- and retrieval-oriented trial outline with numeric outcomes (PROTON) table was developed and illustrated. Many clinical trials are either inconsequential by design or report incomprehensible results. According to the latest expectations of FAIR scientific data management, all clinical trial reports should include a consistent and practical impact-oriented table of clinical trial results.

Data Integration for the Study of Outstanding Productivity in Biomedical Research.

Our goal is to analyze improvement of scientific performance in a multidimensional outcome space, with a focus on US-based biomedical research. With the growing diversity of research databases, limiting assessment of scientific productivity to bibliometric measures such as number of publications, impact factor of journals and number of citations, is increasingly challenged. Using a wider range of outcomes, from publications through practice improvements to entrepreneurial outcomes, overcomes many current limitations in the study of research growth. However, combining such heterogeneous datasets raise three challenges: 1. gathering in one common place a variety of data shared as csv, xml or xls files, 2. merging and linking this data, that sometimes overlap, 3. assessing the impact of research production and inclusive practices in a multidimensional space, that are often missing from the datasets. We would like to present our solution for the first of those challenges, and discuss our leads for the second and third challenges.

Variation in Host Plant Usage and Diet Breadth Predict Sibling Preference and Performance in the Neotropical Tortoise Beetle Chelymorpha alternans (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae).

Specialized interactions between insects and the plants that they consume are one of the most ubiquitous and consequential ecological associations on the plant. Decades of investigation suggest that a narrow diet favors an individual phytophagous insect's performance relative to a dietary generalist. However, this body of research has tended to approach questions of diet breadth and host usage from the perspective of temperate plant-insect associations. Relationships between diet breadth, host usage, and variation in tropical insect preference and performance remain largely uninvestigated. Here we characterize how variation in diet breadth and host usage affect oviposition preference, development, survival, and gain in mass of a Neotropical tortoise beetle Chelymorpha alternans Boheman 1854 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), using a split-brood, sibling experimental design. Host performance was measured after splitting broods among four no-choice host diets. Groups consuming single hosts varied among themselves in developmental time and survival from larva to adult. Performance did not vary among groups consuming multiple and single hosts. Oviposition preference was measured in choice and no-choice tests. Females displayed preference for the original host in both experiments. Developmental time and survival of offspring sourced from the no-choice experiment was measured for two complete generations to explore correlations with female oviposition preference. Preference for the original host correlated with high survivorship and an intermediate developmental time. Survivorship and time to develop were also high on an alternative host that was less preferred. Departures from predictions of prevailing preference-performance hypotheses suggest that host usage presents C. alternans with fitness trade-offs.

Performing pull-ups with small climbing holds influences grip and biomechanical arm action.

Pull-ups are often used by sport-climbers and other athletes to train their arm and back muscle capabilities. Sport-climbers use different types of holds to reinforce finger strength concomitantly. However, the effect of grip types on pull-up performance had not previously been investigated. A vertical force platform sensor measured the force exerted by climbers when performing pull-ups under six different grip conditions (gym-bar, large climbing hold, and four small climbing holds: 22mm, 18mm, 14mm, and 10mm). The electromyography of finger flexors and extensor muscles were recorded simultaneously. The maximal arm power and summed mechanical work were computed. The results revealed that the number of pull-ups, maximal power, and summed mechanical work decreased significantly with the size of the climbing hold used, even if no differences were found between a large climbing hold and a gym-bar. Electromyography of the forearm muscles revealed that the use of a climbing hold generated finger flexor fatigue and that the level of cocontraction was impacted by the different segment coordination strategies generated during the pull-ups. These findings are likely to be useful for quantifying training loads more accurately and designing training exercises and programs.

Standard dosing of amikacin and gentamicin in critically ill patients results in variable and subtherapeutic concentrations.

Low peak plasma concentrations (Cmax) of amikacin and gentamicin are reported in intensive care unit (ICU) patients after administration of the first dose. The present study aimed to describe the proportion of ICU patients in whom an adequate Cmax was achieved throughout the course of therapy. Septic ICU patients with an indication for intravenous amikacin or gentamicin were eligible for inclusion in this single-centre observational study. The first and subsequent doses and the corresponding Cmax values were recorded. The target Cmax was ≥60mg/L for amikacin and ≥30mg/L for gentamicin. Amikacin and gentamicin plasma concentrations were available in 66 and 24 patients, respectively (59±17 years; 79±19kg; height 169±12cm; SAPS II score 46±19). Pulmonary, abdominal and urinary tract infections were diagnosed in 64 patients. Culture-positive infection was confirmed in 65 patients (72%). A target first Cmax was achieved in 17/90 patients (19%). For amikacin, the target Cmax was achieved in 16/66 patients (24%) after the initial dose. In the 50 remaining patients, a change in dosing was performed in 14 patients, leading adequate peak plasma level in 2 patients. For gentamicin, the targeted Cmax was achieved in only 1/24 patient (4%) after the initial dose and was never achieved after the third dose. In conclusion, standard dosing of amikacin or gentamicin led to adequate Cmax in only 19% of patients. Subtherapeutic Cmax were not significantly corrected after subsequent doses.