Notes on the Biology of \u3ci\u3eMelanocanthon Nigricornis\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

Melanocanthon nigricornis was observed to break up, bundle up, roll away, and bury pieces of the cap of a gill mushroom growing in sandy prairie in Wisconsin. These beetles were also found on a dead lizard and one was observed to roll and bury mammalian carrion. This is the first report of any species in Melanocanthon rolling and burying pieces of fungus and carrion

Carrion Beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) of Wisconsin

The first comprehensive faunal survey of the carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) of Wisconsin is presented. Six genera and 14 species are recorded from the state, including a new state record, Heterosilpha ramosa (Say). Nicrophorus americanus Olivier was not recovered during this study. An annotated checklist includes species-specific geographical and temporal distributions, remarks on foods and habitat, and counties of specimen collections for each species

The cost-effectiveness of nivolumab monotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma patients in England

Background: Nivolumab was the first programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor to demonstrate long-term survival benefit in a clinical trial setting for advanced melanoma patients. Objective: To evaluate the cost effectiveness of nivolumab monotherapy for the treatment of advanced melanoma patients in England. Methods: A Markov state-transition model was developed to estimate the lifetime costs and benefits of nivolumab versus ipilimumab and dacarbazine for BRAF mutation-negative patients and versus ipilimumab, dabrafenib, and vemurafenib for BRAF mutation-positive patients. Covariate-adjusted parametric curves for time to progression, pre-progression survival, and post-progression survival were fitted based on patient-level data from two trials and long-term ipilimumab survival data. Indirect treatment comparisons between nivolumab, ipilimumab, and dacarbazine were informed by these covariate-adjusted parametric curves, controlling for differences in patient characteristics. Kaplan–Meier data from the literature were digitised and used to fit progression-free and overall survival curves for dabrafenib and vemurafenib. Patient utilities and resource use data were based on trial data or the literature. Patients are assumed to receive nivolumab until there is no further clinical benefit, assumed to be the first of progressive disease, unacceptable toxicity, or 2 years of treatment. Results: Nivolumab is the most cost-effective treatment option in BRAF mutation-negative and mutation-positive patients, with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of £24,483 and £17,362 per quality-adjusted life year, respectively. The model results are most sensitive to assumptions regarding treatment duration for nivolumab and the parameters of the fitted parametric survival curves. Conclusions: Nivolumab is a cost-effective treatment for advanced melanoma patients in England

Introducing critical security methods

Critical security studies (CSS) is now an established fi eld of scholarship. Central to CSS is the shared assumption that security threats and insecurities are not simply objects to be studied or problems to be solved, but the product of social and political practices. CSS aims to understand how those practices work and their social and political implications