The New Zealand Thesis Project: A nation's dissertations

The New Zealand Thesis Project showcases the power of collaboration between academic librarians and Wikimedians. Beginning in 2022, the project brought together metadata for more than 66,000 theses from 13 tertiary institutions, cleaned it in OpenRefine, and added records to Wikidata. This allows them to be easily accessed in multiple languages and cited on Wikipedia. In addition, we have disambiguated 12,000 individuals and more than 1800 ANZSRC and Ngā Upoko Tukutuku subject headings connected to the thesis collection, allowing us to visualise our data in new ways and find unexpected connections. Through leveraging the vast amount of data already available on Wikidata, the New Zealand Thesis Project is making it easier than ever before to find and connect relevant research from all over the world. We will describe what we’ve done, the next steps for our project, and how our process could be relevant to other institutional repositories

Gender Differences in Publication Output: Towards an Unbiased Metric of Research Performance

We examined the publication records of a cohort of 168 life scientists in the field of ecology and evolutionary biology to assess gender differences in research performance. Clear discrepancies in publication rate between men and women appear very early in their careers and this has consequences for the subsequent citation of their work. We show that a recently proposed index designed to rank scientists fairly is in fact strongly biased against female researchers, and advocate a modified index to assess men and women on a more equitable basis

Efficacy of three neuroprotective drugs in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS-SMART):a phase 2b, multiarm, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Neurodegeneration is the pathological substrate that causes major disability in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. A synthesis of preclinical and clinical research identified three neuroprotective drugs acting on different axonal pathobiologies. We aimed to test the efficacy of these drugs in an efficient manner with respect to time, cost, and patient resource. Methods: We did a phase 2b, multiarm, parallel group, double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial at 13 clinical neuroscience centres in the UK. We recruited patients (aged 25-65 years) with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis who were not on disease-modifying treatment and who had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 4·0-6·5. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) at baseline, by a research nurse using a centralised web-based service, to receive twice-daily oral treatment of either amiloride 5 mg, fluoxetine 20 mg, riluzole 50 mg, or placebo for 96 weeks. The randomisation procedure included minimisation based on sex, age, EDSS score at randomisation, and trial site. Capsules were identical in appearance to achieve masking. Patients, investigators, and MRI readers were unaware of treatment allocation. The primary outcome measure was volumetric MRI percentage brain volume change (PBVC) from baseline to 96 weeks, analysed using multiple regression, adjusting for baseline normalised brain volume and minimisation criteria. The primary analysis was a complete-case analysis based on the intention-to-treat population (all patients with data at week 96). This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01910259

Cognitive rehabilitation and aerobic exercise for cognitive impairment in people with progressive multiple sclerosis (CogEx): a randomised, blinded, sham-controlled trial

Background Cognitive dysfunction in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis can improve with cognitive rehabilitation or exercise. Similar effects have not been clearly shown in people with progressive multiple sclerosis. We aimed to investigate the individual and synergistic effects of cognitive rehabilitation and exercise in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis.Methods CogEx was a randomised, sham-controlled trial completed in 11 hospital clinics, universities, and rehabilitation centres in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Italy, UK, and USA. Patients with progressive multiple sclerosis were eligible for inclusion if they were aged 25-65 years and had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of less than 7. All had impaired processing speed defined as a performance of 1 center dot 282 SD or greater below normative data on the Symbol Digit modalities Tests (SDMT). Participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1), using an interactive web-response system accessed online from each centre, to cognitive rehabilitation plus exercise, cognitive rehabilitation plus sham exercise, exercise plus sham cognitive rehabilitation, or sham exercise plus sham cognitive rehabilitation. The study statistician created the randomisation sequence that was stratified by centre. Participants, outcome assessors, and investigators were blinded to group allocation. The study statistician was masked to treatment during analysis only. Interventions were conducted two times per week for 12 weeks: cognitive rehabilitation used an individualised, computer-based, incremental approach to improve processing speed; sham cognitive rehabilitation consisted of internet training provided individually; the exercise intervention involved individualised aerobic training using a recumbent arm-leg stepper; and the sham exercise involved stretching and balance tasks without inducing cardiovascular strain. The primary outcome measure was processing speed measured by SDMT at 12 weeks; least squares mean differences were compared between groups using linear mixed model in all participants who had a 12-week assessment. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03679468, and is completed.Findings Between Dec 14, 2018, and April 2, 2022, 311 people with progressive multiple sclerosis were enrolled and 284 (91%) completed the 12-week assessment (117/311 [38%] male and 194/311 [62%] female). The least squares mean group differences in SDMT at 12 weeks did not differ between groups (p=0 center dot 85). Compared with the sham cognitive rehabilitation and sham exercise group (n=67), differences were -1 center dot 30 (95% CI -3 center dot 75 to 1 center dot 16) for the cognitive rehabilitation plus exercise group (n=70); -2 center dot 78 (-5 center dot 23 to -0 center dot 33) for the sham cognitive rehabilitation plus exercise group (n=71); and -0 center dot 71 (-3 center dot 11 to 1 center dot 70) for the cognitive rehabilitation plus sham exercise group (n=76). 11 adverse events possibly related to the interventions occurred, six in the exercise plus sham cognitive rehabilitation group (pain, dizziness, and falls), two in the cognitive rehabilitation plus sham exercise group (headache and pain), two in the cognitive rehabilitation and exercise group (increased fatigue and pain), and one in the dual sham group (fall).Interpretation Combined cognitive rehabilitation plus exercise does not seem to improve processing speed in people with progressive multiple sclerosis. However, our sham interventions were not inactive.Studies comparing interventions with a non-intervention group are needed to investigate whether clinically meaningful improvements in processing speed might be attainable in people with progressive multiple sclerosis.Copyright (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved