Assessing Treatment Success or Failure as an Outcome in Randomised Clinical Trials of COPD Exacerbations. A Meta-Epidemiological Study

A recently published ERS core outcome set recommends that all trials of COPD exacerbation management should assess the treatment success (or “cure” of the exacerbation), defined as a dichotomous measure of the overall outcome of an exacerbation. This methodological systematic review describes and compares the instruments that were used to assess treatment success or failure in 54 such RCTs, published between 2006–2020. Twenty-three RCTs used composite measures consisting of several undesirable outcomes of an exacerbation, together defining an overall unfavourable outcome, to define treatment failure. Thirty-four RCTs used descriptive instruments that used qualitative or semi-quantitative descriptions to define cure, marked improvement, improvement of the exacerbation, or treatment failure. Treatment success and failure rates among patients receiving guidelines-directed treatments at different settings and timepoints are described and could be used to inform power calculations in future trials. Descriptive instruments appeared more sensitive to treatment effects compared to composite instruments. Further methodological studies are needed to optimise the evaluation of treatment success/failure. In the meantime, based on the findings of this systematic review, the ERS core outcome set recommends that cure should be defined as sufficient improvement of the signs and symptoms of the exacerbation such that no additional systemic treatments are required.

Preface

International Conference on Environmental Sustainability in Natural Resources Management (ISCES 2021) is a peer-reviewed international conference that is a leading scientific forum with international participation of experts in the fields of sustainable development research, resource management and circular economy. ISCES 2021 conference was held on October 15-16, 2021. The aim of the ISCES 2021 conference is to explore environmental sustainability trends in natural resources management, circular management and environmental engineering. Conceptual, empirical and methodological studies as well as country case studies on various topics of sustainable development were presented at the conference. It is expected that the reports and presentations will cover both theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of sustainable development and the circular economy. List of Organizing Committees, Scientific Committee are available in this pdf.

Influence of DNA extraction kits on the fungal DNA metabarcoding for freshwater environmental DNA

Background: Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding is a rapidly expanding technique for efficient biodiversity monitoring, especially of animals. Recently, the usefulness of aquatic eDNA in monitoring the diversity of both terrestrial and aquatic fungi has been suggested. In eDNA studies, different experimental factors, such as DNA extraction kits or methods, can affect the subsequent analyses and the results of DNA metabarcoding. However, few methodological studies have been carried out on eDNA of fungi, and little is known about how experimental procedures can affect the results of biodiversity analysis. In this study, we focused on the effect of the DNA extraction method on fungal DNA metabarcoding using freshwater samples obtained from rivers and lakes. Methods: DNA was extracted from freshwater samples using the DNeasy PowerSoil kit, which is mainly used to extract microbial DNA from soil, and the DNeasy Blood & Tissue kit, which is commonly used for eDNA studies on animals. We then compared PCR inhibition and fungal DNA metabarcoding results [i.e., operational taxonomic unit (OTU) number and composition] of the extracted samples. Results: No PCR inhibition was detected in any of the samples, and no significant differences in the number of OTUs and OTU compositions were detected between the samples processed using different kits. These results indicate that both DNA extraction kits may provide similar diversity results for the river and lake samples evaluated in this study. Therefore, it may be possible to evaluate the diversity of fungi using a unified experimental method, even with samples obtained for diversity studies on other taxa such as those of animals.

Using citation tracking for systematic literature searching - study protocol for a scoping review of methodological studies and a Delphi study

Background: Up-to-date guidance on comprehensive study identification for systematic reviews is crucial. According to current recommendations, systematic searching should combine electronic database searching with supplementary search methods. One such supplementary search method is citation tracking. It aims at collecting directly and/or indirectly cited and citing references from "seed references". Tailored and evidence-guided recommendations concerning the use of citation tracking are strongly needed. Objective: We intend to develop recommendations for the use of citation tracking in systematic literature searching for health-related topics. Our study will be guided by the following research questions: What is the benefit of citation tracking for systematic literature searching for health-related topics? Which methods, citation indexes, and other tools are used for citation tracking? What terminology is used for citation tracking methods? Methods: Our study will have two parts: a scoping review and a Delphi study. The scoping review aims at identifying methodological studies on the benefit and use of citation tracking in systematic literature searching for health-related topics with no restrictions on study design, language, and publication date. We will perform database searching in MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection, two information science databases, web searching, and contact experts in the field. Two reviewers will independently perform study selection. We will conduct direct backward and forward citation tracking on included articles. Data from included studies will be extracted using a prespecified extraction sheet and presented in both tabular and narrative form. The results of the scoping review will inform the subsequent Delphi study through which we aim to derive consensus recommendations for the future practice and research of citation tracking.

Development of Sampling and Analysis Methods to Identify and Quantify Gas Emissions in the Sewerage Network Développement de Méthodes

Increasing population and urbanization have direct consequences on the sewer functioning. In order to identify and quantify gases and VOCs likely to be present in the sewers, methodological studies of sampling in sewer using airbags, canisters and adsorbent tubes were assessed, and methods of analysis by GC-MS were developed. The results obtained lead to propose improvements to sampling protocols in the sewers. The gas quantification is complicated by low gas concentrations, environment heterogeneity and a high hygrometry.

Have (R)-[11C]PK11195 challengers fulfilled the promise? A scoping review of clinical TSPO PET studies

Purpose The prototypical TSPO radiotracer (R)-[11C]PK11195 has been used in humans for more than thirty years to visualize neuroinflammation in several pathologies. Alternative radiotracers have been developed to improve signal-to-noise ratio and started to be tested clinically in 2008. Here we examined the scientific value of these “(R)-[11C]PK11195 challengers” in clinical research to determine if they could supersede (R)-[11C]PK11195. Methods A systematic MEDLINE (PubMed) search was performed (up to end of year 2020) to extract publications reporting TSPO PET in patients with identified pathologies, excluding studies in healthy subjects and methodological studies. Results Of the 288 publications selected, 152 used 13 challengers, and 142 used (R)-[11C]PK11195. Over the last 20 years, the number of (R)-[11C]PK11195 studies remained stable (6 ± 3 per year), but was surpassed by the total number of challenger studies for the last 6 years. In total, 3914 patients underwent a TSPO PET scan, and 47% (1851 patients) received (R)-[11C]PK11195. The 2 main challengers were [11C]PBR28 (24%—938 patients) and [18F]FEPPA (11%—429 patients). Only one-in-ten patients (11%—447) underwent 2 TSPO scans, among whom 40 (1%) were scanned with 2 different TSPO radiotracers. Conclusions Generally, challengers confirmed disease-specific initial (R)-[11C]PK11195 findings. However, while their better signal-to-noise ratio seems particularly useful in diseases with moderate and widespread neuroinflammation, most challengers present an allelic-dependent (Ala147Thr polymorphism) TSPO binding and genetic stratification is hindering their clinical implementation. As new challengers, insensitive to TSPO human polymorphism, are about to enter clinical evaluation, we propose this systematic review to be regularly updated (living review).

Development and transformation of the communicative element of socio-cultural activities

The relevance of the subject matter derives from the fact that communication is one of the oldest institutions of humanity and plays a crucial role in modern society. The authors used general scientific methods such as generalisation, analysis and integration of elements of the concept of conventional communication as well. The purpose of the study is to define the essence of the models of socio-cultural transformation, as well as the characteristics and features of the development of socio-cultural activities. The study analyses how socio-cultural content functions in social communication; the key theoretical thesis of the functionality message is identified. The study discusses the models that influence socio-cultural transformation on the global level and make changes both in the global cultural space and in the cultural space of countries, communities, and people in particular. The study proposes means to strengthen the innovative potential of Ukrainian culture. The authors emphasise that the phenomenon of communication culture requires in-depth theoretical and methodological studies of the problems of its design and support.

Nutritional Analysis of Five Wild Edible Vegetables Traditionally Consumed by the Orang Asli in Perak

The significance of wild edible plants may be traced back to antiquity, and methodological studies are the focus of present food movements to restore culinary traditions. Ethnobotanical appraisal was first done to determine the names and the significance of the five wild edibles used by the Orang Asli, which were Erechtites valerianiaeolia (Link ex Spring) DC, Dendrocalamus asper (Schult.) Backer, Solanum nigrum L., Gomphandra quadrifida (Blume) Sleumer, and Pleocnemia irregularis (C. Presl) Holttum collected from Sungkai, Perak in Malaysia. These wild edibles were then assessed for their proximate and mineral compositions. The present study revealed that the fiber content present in these wild edibles ranged from 2.7 to 12.5 g/100 g, whereas the protein content ranged from 1.8 to 6.8 g/100 g with Gomphandra quadrifida containing the highest amount of fiber and Solanum nigrum recording the highest protein content among the 5 wild edibles. In regard to the micronutreint content, iron was the highest in Gomphandra quadrifida, followed by Pleocnemia irregularis. Calcium and magnesium contents were the highest in Solanum nigrum. The results obtained in this study echo the urgency to conserve these plants in order to promote consumption as well as to improve the health and nutritional status of the Orang Asli.

Topic Modeling in Russia: Current Approaches and Issues in Methodology

Topic modeling as an instrument of probabilistic clustering for text collections has gained particular attention within the computational social science in Russia. This chapter looks at how topic modeling techniques have been developed and employed by the Russian scholars, both for Russian and other languages. We divide the works on topic modeling into methodological, applied, relational, and those dedicated to modeling quality assessment. While the methodological studies are the most developed, the works explaining the substance of the Russian-language discussions cover an important niche in political and social science. However, there is a gap between method-oriented works that treat Russian as “language as such” and the works by computational linguists who focus on Russian but treat topic modeling as a method of secondary importance.