Patterns of Sponge Abundance Across a Gradient of Habitat Quality in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia

Sponges are important components of reef communities worldwide, fulfilling a number of important functional roles. Habitat degradation caused by the loss of hard corals has the potential to cause increases in sponge abundance and percentage cover as they gain access to resources such as space and food. In this study we compared sponge densities and percentage cover at sites with varying hard coral cover in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia (WMNP). We found significant differences in sponge densities at the study sites but no significant difference in sponge densities on different surface angles. Unexpectedly, we also found a weak positive correlation between coral cover and sponge density. This indicates that spatial competition is unlikely to be the most important factor determining sponge abundance in the WMNP. In contrast to sponge density data, we found that sponge percentage cover and hard coral cover were weakly negatively correlated, but found no significant difference in sponge percentage cover between the study sites. Finally, multivariate analysis of the benthic communities at the study sites indicated that while sites with higher coral cover were characterised by coral (proportionally), lower coral cover sites were characterised by algae and sponges. This suggests that although there was no significant difference in sponge percentage cover between the study sites conditions that led to the loss of hard coral at lower quality sites mean that these sites are characterised by sponges and algae rather than by any other groups of benthic organisms

Is the NHS underfunded?:Three approaches to answering the question

The adequacy of funding for the National Health Service (NHS) is a perennial issue1,2 and one that has become particularly prominent in recent years.3 The way ‘underfunding’ is understood influences perceptions about how much resource is needed and where it ought to be channelled. This in turn has profound implications for patients, citizens and staff. In this article, we examine what it means to claim that health systems are underfunded and whether this applies to the contemporary NHS. We identify three main approaches to studying the issue and uncover the value judgements inherent in each approach. We argue that there is evidence to support the current claim of underfunding and conclude by suggesting future avenues for addressing this critical issue, both in the UK and elsewhere

Lifestyle Intervention in oVarian cancer Enhanced Survival (LIVES) study (NRG/GOG0225): Recruitment, retention and baseline characteristics of a randomized trial of diet and physical activity in ovarian cancer survivors

OBJECTIVE: The Lifestyle Intervention for oVarian cancer Enhanced Survival (LIVES) is a national study of a combined diet and physical activity intervention for stage II-IV ovarian cancer survival, an under-represented cancer in lifestyle behavioral intervention research. Here, we present the data on recruitment, retention, and baseline demographic, clinical and lifestyle behavior characteristics of the LIVES study participants. METHODS: The LIVES study (NRG Oncology/GOG 0225) is a Phase III diet plus physical activity intervention trial testing the hypothesis that ovarian cancer survivors in the lifestyle intervention will demonstrate better progression-free survival than those in the control condition. Study interventions were delivered via centralized telephone-based health coaching. Baseline descriptive statistics were computed for demographic, clinical, and lifestyle behavior characteristics. RESULTS: The LIVES study exceeded its recruitment goals, enrolling 1205 ovarian cancer survivors from 195 NRG/NCORP-affiliated oncology practices across 49 states from 2012 to 2018. The mean age of enrollees was 59.6 years; the majority (69.4%) with stage III disease; 89% White, 5.5% Hispanic; 64% overweight/obese. Baseline self-reported diet showed a mean daily intake of 6.6 servings of fruit and vegetables, 62.7 fat grams, and 21.7 g of fiber. Physical activity averaged 13.0 MET-hours/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity; 50.9 h/week of sedentary time. Retention rates exceeded 88%. CONCLUSION: The LIVES study demonstrates efficiency in recruiting and retaining ovarian cancer survivors in a 24-month study of diet and physical activity intervention with a primary endpoint of progression free survival that will be reported. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.govNCT00719303

Conflicto interparental y autoestima en adolescentes de una Institución Educativa Adventista de Lima-Este, 2019

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo hallar la relación entre Conflicto interparental y autoestima en adolescentes de una Institución Educativa Adventista de Lima-Este, 2019, para lo cual se utilizó, la Escala de Conflicto Interparental desde la Perspectiva de los Hijos (CPIC), que fue desarrollada por Grych, Seid y Fincham (1992) y fue adaptada por Iraurgi, Martínez- Pampliega, Galíndez y Sanz (2008). Asimismo, se usó la Escala de Autoestima de Rosenberg, que fue adaptada en España por Atienza, Moreno y Balaguer (2000) y fue validada en Lima por Ventura, Caycho y Barboza (2018). Los resultados obtenidos dejaron en evidencia que, existe una correlación altamente significativa inversa (rho= -.281; p= 0.000) en ambas variables, demostrando que a mayor conflicto interparental mayor es la autoestima, asimismo se encontró relación entre las dimensiones del conflicto interparental y la autoestima.TesisLIMAUnidad de Posgrado de PsicologíaSistema familia

Dostarlimab for primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer

BACKGROUND: Dostarlimab is an immune-checkpoint inhibitor that targets the programmed cell death 1 receptor. The combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy may have synergistic effects in the treatment of endometrial cancer. METHODS: We conducted a phase 3, global, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Eligible patients with primary advanced stage III or IV or first recurrent endometrial cancer were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either dostarlimab (500 mg) or placebo, plus carboplatin (area under the concentration-time curve, 5 mg per milliliter per minute) and paclitaxel (175 mg per square meter of body-surface area), every 3 weeks (six cycles), followed by dostarlimab (1000 mg) or placebo every 6 weeks for up to 3 years. The primary end points were progression-free survival as assessed by the investigator according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), version 1.1, and overall survival. Safety was also assessed. RESULTS: Of the 494 patients who underwent randomization, 118 (23.9%) had mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR), microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors. In the dMMR-MSI-H population, estimated progression-free survival at 24 months was 61.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 46.3 to 73.4) in the dostarlimab group and 15.7% (95% CI, 7.2 to 27.0) in the placebo group (hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.16 to 0.50; P\u3c0.001). In the overall population, progression-free survival at 24 months was 36.1% (95% CI, 29.3 to 42.9) in the dostarlimab group and 18.1% (95% CI, 13.0 to 23.9) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.80; P\u3c0.001). Overall survival at 24 months was 71.3% (95% CI, 64.5 to 77.1) with dostarlimab and 56.0% (95% CI, 48.9 to 62.5) with placebo (hazard ratio for death, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.87). The most common adverse events that occurred or worsened during treatment were nausea (53.9% of the patients in the dostarlimab group and 45.9% of those in the placebo group), alopecia (53.5% and 50.0%), and fatigue (51.9% and 54.5%). Severe and serious adverse events were more frequent in the dostarlimab group than in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: Dostarlimab plus carboplatin-paclitaxel significantly increased progression-free survival among patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer, with a substantial benefit in the dMMR-MSI-H population. (Funded by GSK; RUBY ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03981796.)

A nickel(II) complex with an unsymmetrical tetradentate chelating ligand derived from pyridine-2,6-dicarbaldehyde and 2-aminothiophenol

[(2-{[6-(1,3-Benzo­thia­zol-2-yl)pyridin-2-yl]carbonyl­aza­nid­yl}phen­yl)sulf­anido]nickel(II), [Ni(C$_{19}$H$_{11}$N$_3$OS$_2$)], crystallizes in the centrosymmetric monoclinic space group $P2_1/n$ with one mol­ecule in the asymmetric unit. The expected ligand, a bis-Schiff base derived from pyridine-2,6-dicarbaldehyde and 2-amino­thio­phenol, had modified in situ in a both unexpected and unsymmetrical fashion. One arm had cyclized to form a benzo[$d$]thia­zol-2-yl functionality, while the imine linkage of the second arm had oxidized to an amide group. The geometry about the central Ni$^{II}$ atom is distorted square-planar N$_3$S. The mol­ecules form supra­molecular face-to-face dimers via rather strong π–π stacking inter­actions, with these dimers then linked into chains via pairwise C—H$\cdot\cdot\cdot$O inter­actions