scholarly journals Direct and Indirect Effects of Invasive vs. Native Ant-Hemipteran Mutualism: A Meta-Analysis That Supports the Mutualism Intensity Hypothesis

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Bo Wang ◽  
Min Lu ◽  
Yanqiong Peng ◽  
Simon T. Segar
Keyword(s):  
Prey Species ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Invasive Ants ◽  
Invasive Ant ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Ant Predation ◽  
Ecological Dominance ◽  
Ant Control

Mutualism can facilitate the colonization, establishment, and spread of invasive species. By modifying interactions with third parties, mutualisms can have cascading community-wide effects. Both native and invasive ants are capable of forming mutualisms with hemipteran insects, preying on non-hemipteran herbivores and indirectly affecting primary production. Comparative research on the effects of both native and invasive ant exclusions on multitrophic interactions is therefore crucial for understanding the invasive potential of ants, along with any ecological consequences that invasions may have. We performed a quantitative review of the multitrophic effects of invasive and native ants on insect–plant food webs. Herbivorous insects are the most common food source for both invasive (comprising 56% of prey species caught) and native ants (55% of the prey species caught), followed by predators (31% for invasive ants, 45% for native ants). Excluding both invasive and native ants significantly reduced hemipteran abundance, and excluding invasive ants had a greater negative impact on hemipteran abundance than native ants. Native ant predation significantly reduced herbivore abundance, but excluding invasive ants had no effect. Cascading effects of native ants on plant fitness were significantly positive, but there was no significant impact of invasive ants. These findings suggest a weak relationship between the presence of invasive ants and non-hemipteran herbivore abundance. We suggest that the hemipteran–ant mutualism could represent a ‘symbiotic invasion’. The ecological dominance of invasive ants is often facilitated by hemipteran insects. This association requires invasive ant control strategies to expand beyond ants to consider mutualists.

scholarly journals Incidence of Oral Mucositis in Patients Undergoing Head and Neck Cancer Treatment: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Raquel Pacheco ◽  
Maria Alzira Cavacas ◽  
Paulo Mascarenhas ◽  
Pedro Oliveira ◽  
Carlos Zagalo
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Head And Neck Cancer ◽  
Oral Health ◽  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
Neck Cancer ◽  
Oral Mucositis ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Incidence Rates

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the literature about the incidence of oral mucositis and its degrees (mild, moderate, and severe), in patients undergoing head and neck cancer treatment (radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery). Addressing this issue is important since oral mucositis has a negative impact on oral health and significantly deteriorates the quality of life. Therefore, a multidisciplinary team, including dentists, should be involved in the treatment. The overall oral mucositis incidence was 89.4%. The global incidence for mild, moderate, and severe degrees were 16.8%, 34.5%, and 26.4%, respectively. The high incidence rates reported in this review point out the need for greater care in terms of the oral health of these patients.

scholarly journals Impact of Use of Gastric-Acid Suppressants and Oral Anti-Cancer Agents on Survival Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Indini ◽  
Fausto Petrelli ◽  
Gianluca Tomasello ◽  
Erika Rijavec ◽  
Antonio Facciorusso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Gastric Acid ◽  
Solid Tumors ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Soft Tissue Sarcomas ◽  
Oral Chemotherapy ◽  
Survival Outcomes ◽  
Anti Cancer

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the role of gastric acid suppressant use on outcomes of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and oral chemotherapy. We identified all research evaluating the effect of GAS (gastric acid suppressants) use on patients receiving oral chemotherapy or TKIs for solid tumors. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated with a fixed-effects or a random effects model. The study population included n = 16 retrospective studies and 372,418 patients. The series concerned gastrointestinal tract tumors (n = 5 studies), renal cell carcinomas (RCC, n = 3 studies), non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC, n = 5 studies), and soft tissue sarcomas or mixed histologies solid tumors in n = 3 studies. The pooled HRs for OS and PFS were 1.31 (95%CI: 1.20–1.43; p < 0.01) and 1.3 (95%CI 1.07–1.57; p < 0.01) for GAS and no GAS users, respectively. Only studies of EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) mutated NSCLC patients receiving TKIs and those with colorectal cancer receiving oral chemotherapy showed a significant correlation between GAS and poor survival. Our study supports the evidence of a possible negative impact of concomitant GAS therapy on survival outcomes of patients receiving oral anti-cancer drugs.

Impact of economic and financial crimes on economic growth in emerging and developing countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 910-920 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sani Abubakar Saddiq ◽  
Abu Sufian Abu Bakar
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Reporting ◽  
Financial Crimes ◽  
Emerging And Developing Countries ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of economic and financial crimes on the economies of emerging and developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines and meta-analysis of economics research reporting guidelines were used to conduct a quantitative synthesis of empirical evidence on the impact of economic and financial crimes in developing and emerging countries. Findings A total of 103 studies were searched, out of which 6 met the selection/eligibility criteria of this systematic review. The six selected studies indicated that economic and financial crimes have a negative impact in emerging and developing countries. Originality/value To the best knowledge of the authors, no published systematic review of the impact of economic and financial crimes in developing countries has been conducted to date.

Safety Impact of Weaving Distance on Freeway Facilities with Managed Lanes using Both Microscopic Traffic and Driving Simulations

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (39) ◽  
pp. 130-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Cai ◽  
Moatz Saad ◽  
Mohamed Abdel-Aty ◽  
Jinghui Yuan ◽  
Jaeyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Safety ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Lane Change ◽  
Simulation Studies ◽  
Managed Lanes

With the challenges of increasing traffic congestion, the concept of managed lanes (MLs) has been gaining popularity recently as a means to effectively improve traffic mobility. MLs are usually designed to be left-lane concurrent with an at-grade access/exit. Such a design forms weaving segments since it requires vehicles to change multiple general purpose lanes (GPLs) to enter or exit the ML. The weaving segments could have a negative impact on traffic safety in the GPLs. This study provides a comprehensive investigation of the safety impact of different lengths for each lane change maneuver on GPL weaving segments close to the ingress and egress of MLs through two simulation approaches: VISSIM microsimulation and driving simulator. The two simulation studies are developed based on traffic data collected from freeway I-95 in Miami, Florida. The results from the two simulation studies support each other. Based on the two simulation studies, it is recommended that 1,000 feet be used as the optimal length for per lane change at the GPLs weaving segments with MLs. The safety impact of traffic volume, variable speed limit control strategies, and drivers’ gender and age characteristics are also explored. This study can provide valuable insight for evaluating the traffic performance of freeway weaving segments with the presence of concurrent GPLs and MLs in a highway safety context. It also provides guidelines for future conversion of freeways to include MLs.

scholarly journals Impact of Electronic Monitoring on Employees: A Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolf Siegel ◽  
Cornelius J. König ◽  
Veronika Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Electronic Monitoring ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Small Positive Effect

Electronic monitoring is more and more widespread and affects many employees around the globe. The current meta analysis collected data of 59 independent samples (with 223 effect sizes) to estimate the effect of electronic monitoring on job satisfaction, stress, and performance. A random-effects model indicated a small negative effect of monitoring on job satisfaction, r=-.09, and a small positive effect on stress, r=.12. There was no relationship with performance, r=-.01. Even if the effects of monitoring on job satisfaction and stress are small, taking the large number of employees who are monitored for several hours a day into account, these effects may have a severe and negative impact on employees’ well-being. Performance maintenance is the main justification for the use of electronic monitoring, but the non-existing relationship of monitoring with performance questions the validity of this justification.

scholarly journals STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING IN RELATION TO CLASS PERFORMANCES AND SOFT SKILLS: A META-ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Rukmini ◽  
Cindy Cindy ◽  
Pricillia Tanoto
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Learning Motivation ◽  
Soft Skill ◽  
Student Centered ◽  
Student Centered Learning

Background: Studies showed that SCL improved quality of medical education through knowledge acquisition, class performance, students’ attitude and soft skills. Although research about SCL and its impact has been widely known, overall correlation of SCL to the class performances has not yet been established. Strong correlation between SCL to class performances would serve the purpose of teaching and learning and more importantly would answer the skepticism of institution or faculty members in implementing SCL. In addition, learning through systematic review of others’ studies, how SCL influenced soft skill aspects would be benefited for medical educators. Soft skills such as learning motivation, communication skills, and teamwork may lead educators to the favor of SCL approaches. This review was to find the correlation of student-centered learning to the students’ performances and soft skill aspects in medical education.Method: To find the correlation of the SCL and class performances, we used meta-analysis. We also performed a systematic review to qualitatively find the relationship between SCL and other aspects, such as teamwork, communication skills, and learning motivation. Literatures were filtered from databases of: Proquest, Springerlink, Biomed Central (BMC) open, BMJ open, and Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria were published empirical articles (2000-2013) reported SCL’s effect on class performances or other aspects (learning motivation, teamwork, communication skills). We utilized PRISMA protocol to filter the inclusion articles. By reading abstracts and further snowballing searching, we found 12 articles for the meta-analysis and 33 articles for the systematic review.                                                                 Results: Among 12 articles of the meta-analysis, 9 articles showed positive correlation between SCL and class performances. Three studies reported that SCL had no effect on the class performances. None of the articles reported any negative impact. We utilized the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software to analyze the data and found r = 0.46 and 95% CI: 0.32 - 0.57. It showed a statistically significant correlation between SCL and class performances. On the systematic review, we found that SCL improved communication skills, team work, and learning motivation.Conclusion: From the meta-analysis we found that SCL improved class performances about 46%. It was showed that SCL methods were superior in improving soft skills such as communication skills, teamwork, and learning motivation.                

scholarly journals Hepatitis B virus infection in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis of data published between 2010 and 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Busayo I. Ajuwon ◽  
Isabelle Yujuico ◽  
Katrina Roper ◽  
Alice Richardson ◽  
Meru Sheel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Hepatitis B Virus ◽  
Hepatitis B ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Population Based ◽  
North West ◽  
B Virus ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is an infectious disease of global significance, causing a significant health burden in Africa due to complications associated with infection, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. In Nigeria, which is considered a high prevalence country, estimates of HBV cases are inconsistent, and therefore additional clarity is required to manage HBV-associated public health challenges. Methods A systematic review of the literature (via PubMed, Advanced Google Scholar, African Index Medicus) was conducted to retrieve primary studies published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019, with a random-effects model based on proportions used to estimate the population-based prevalence of HBV in the Nigerian population. Results The final analyses included 47 studies with 21,702 participants that revealed a pooled prevalence of 9.5%. A prevalence estimate above 8% in a population is classified as high. Sub-group analyses revealed the highest HBV prevalence in rural settings (10.7%). The North West region had the highest prevalence (12.1%) among Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones/regions. The estimate of total variation between studies indicated substantial heterogeneity. These variations could be explained by setting and geographical region. The statistical test for Egger’s regression showed no evidence of publication bias (p = 0.879). Conclusions We present an up-to-date review on the prevalence of HBV in Nigeria, which will provide critical data to optimise and assess the impact of current prevention and control strategies, including disease surveillance and diagnoses, vaccination policies and management for those infected.

scholarly journals Field selectivity of a spinosad-poisoned bait toward target tephritids and non-target insects

2014 ◽  
pp. 11-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Infusino ◽  
Nino Iannotta ◽  
Stefano Scalercio
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Ceratitis Capitata ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Field Trials ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Wild Populations ◽  
Target Species ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Insect Monitoring

One of the key-points in sustainable agriculture is to minimize the amount of pesticides inputs in agro-ecosystems increasing selectivity of active agents on target pests mainly. According to this perspective, control strategies utilising baits receive a growing interest. a spinosad-poisoned sugar-based bait, the so called GF-120 bait, utilised against diptera Tephritidae, recently appeared on the market. The toxicity of spinosad for non-target insects is demonstrated by several authors. However, the amount of pesticide applied is strongly reduced by using it with an attractive food-bait, even if field evidences on the selective attraction of this bait are missing. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the selectivity of GF-120 bait toward target and non-target insects under field conditions, focussing our attention on pollinators. Field trials were performed in a 20 years old olive orchard, where 12 baited and 12 unbaited traps were positioned for insect monitoring. The abundance of the most common orders of insects and target pest species Bactrocera oleae and Ceratitis capitata has been assessed. The main finding of this research is that many pollinators are not attracted by the bait, while target and non-target diptera are significantly attracted by the bait with the exception of Muscidae. The attraction toward a part of non-target diptera should be better explored in order to avoid negative impact on beneficial and non-target species. The need of pest control strategies safer for the environment and the wild populations of non-target organisms seems to be satisfied by the use of this bait.

An invasive ant distribution database to support biosecurity risk analysis in the Pacific

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica A. M. Gruber ◽  
Meghan Cooling ◽  
Allan R. Burne
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Risk Analysis ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Invasive Ants ◽  
Invasive Ant ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
The Pacific

Invasive species are one of the most serious threats to biodiversity. Up-to-date and accurate information on the distribution of invasive species is an important biosecurity risk analysis tool. Several databases are available to determine the distributions of invasive and native species. However, keeping this information current is a real challenge. Ants are among the most widespread invasive species. Five species of ants are listed in the IUCN list of damaging invasive species, and many other species are also invasive in the Pacific. We sought to determine and update the distribution information for the 18 most problematic invasive ant species in the Pacific to assist Small Island Developing States with risk analysis. We compared the information on six public databases, conducted a literature review, and contacted experts on invasive ants in the Pacific region to resolve conflicting information. While most public records were accurate we found some new records had not yet been incorporated in the public databases, and some information was inaccurate. The maintenance of public databases faces an enormous challenge in balancing completeness (~15 000 ant species in this case) with accuracy (the impossibility of constantly surveying) and utility.

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