Scholarly publishing depends on peer reviewers

The peer-review crisis is posing a risk to the scholarly peer-reviewed journal system. Journals have to ask many potential peer reviewers to obtain a minimum acceptable number of peers accepting reviewing a manuscript. Several solutions have been suggested to overcome this shortage. From reimbursing for the job, to eliminating pre- publication reviews, one cannot predict which is more dangerous for the future of scholarly publishing. And, why not acknowledging their contribution to the final version of the article published? PubMed created two categories of contributors: authors [AU] and collaborators [IR]. Why not a third category for the peer-reviewer

Pharmacokinetics of ceftaroline in normal body weight and obese (classes I, II, and III) healthy adult subjects.

The pharmacokinetic profile of ceftaroline has not been well characterized in obese adults. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of ceftaroline in 32 healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 50 years in the normal, overweight, and obese body size ranges. Subjects were evenly assigned to 1 of 4 groups based on their body mass index (BMI) and total body weight (TBW) (ranges, 22.1 to 63.5 kg/m2 and 50.1 to 179.5 kg, respectively). Subjects in the lower-TBW groups were matched by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and serum creatinine to the upper-BMI groups. Serial plasma and urine samples were collected over 12 h after the start of the infusion, and the concentrations of ceftaroline fosamil (prodrug), ceftaroline, and ceftaroline M-1 (inactive metabolite) were assayed. Noncompartmental and population pharmacokinetic analyses were used to evaluate the data. The mean plasma ceftaroline maximum concentration and area under the curve were ca. 30% lower in subjects with a BMI of >40 kg/m2 compared to those <30 kg/m2 . A five-compartment pharmacokinetic model with zero-order infusion and first-order elimination optimally described the plasma concentration-time profiles of the prodrug and ceftaroline. Estimated creatinine clearance (eCLCR) and TBW best explained ceftaroline clearance and volume of distribution, respectively. Although lower ceftaroline plasma concentrations were observed in obese subjects, Monte Carlo simulations suggest the probability of target attainment is >90% when the MIC is <1 g/ml irrespective of TBW or eCLCR. No dosage adjustment for ceftaroline appears to be necessary based on TBW alone in adults with comparable eCLCR. Confirmation of these findings in infected obese patients is necessary to validate these findings in healthy volunteers. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration no. NCT01648127.

Welfare Receipt Trajectories of African-American Women Followed for 30 Years

Although there has been much discussion about the persistence of poverty and welfare receipt among child-rearing women in the US, little is known about long-term patterns of poverty and welfare receipt or what differentiates those who remain on welfare from those who do not. Furthermore, are there distinctions between child-rearing women who are poor but not on welfare from those who do receive welfare? This study examined trajectories of welfare receipt and poverty among African-American women (n = 680) followed from 1966 to 1997. A semiparametric group-based approach revealed four trajectories of welfare receipt: no welfare (64.2%), early leavers (12.7%), late leavers (10.1%), and persistent welfare recipients (10.1%). The “no welfare” group was further divided into a poverty group and a not poverty group to distinguish predictors of welfare from predictors of poverty. Multivariate analyses revealed differences in predictors of trajectory groups in terms of education, physical and psychological health, and social integration. In addition, earlier chronic illness and social integration were important predictors to differentiate between long-term users (i.e., late leavers, persistent recipients) and short-term users (i.e., early leavers). Trajectories did not differ in teenage motherhood, substance use, or family history of welfare receipt. Implications for public policy are discussed