Calidad metodológica de los ensayos clínicos de cicatrices queloides

Antecedentes: Existe heterogeneidad en el diseño de los ensayos clínicos (EC) para el tratamiento de cicatrices queloides que compromete la validez de sus resultados. Objetivo: Evaluar la calidad metodológica de los EC publicados sobre cicatrices queloides, principalmente las medidas de eficacia utilizadas. Método: Se analizaron los EC publicados sobre tratamientos para cicatrices queloides y se evaluó su calidad metodológica siguiendo los lineamientos CONSORT y el riesgo de sesgo según la herramienta de Cochrane. Se identificaron todas las medidas de eficacia utilizadas en los EC. Resultados: Se incluyeron 52 artículos, de los cuales solo en el 3.84% se mencionan los cambios importantes en la metodología después de iniciar el reclutamiento de los pacientes. El 59.6% de los EC fueron evaluados con alto riesgo de sesgo de realización por errores en el cegamiento del equipo de investigación. La variable de respuesta más frecuente fue la altura o grosor de las cicatrices. Conclusiones: Se recomienda que en los EC de cicatrices queloides se excluya a los participantes con cicatrices hipertróficas, y que la variable de resultado principal sea la altura de la cicatriz. También deben medirse el dolor y la calidad de vida de los pacientes

Advancing Urban Wildlife Research Through a Multi-City Collaboration

Research on urban wildlife can help promote coexistence and guide future interactions between humans and wildlife in developed regions, but most such investigations are limited to short-term, single-species studies, typically conducted within a single city. This restricted focus prevents scientists from recognizing global patterns and first principles regarding urban wildlife behavior and ecology. To overcome these limitations, we have designed a pioneering research network, the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), whereby partners collaborate across several cities to systematically collect data to populate long-term datasets on multiple species in urban areas. Data collected via UWIN support analyses that will enable us to build basic theory related to urban wildlife ecology. An analysis of mammals in seven metropolitan regions suggests that common species are similar across cities, but relative rates of occupancy differ markedly. We ultimately view UWIN as an applied tool that can be used to connect the public to urban nature at a continental scale, and provide information critical to urban planners and landscape architects. Our network therefore has the potential to advance knowledge and to improve the ability to plan and manage cities to support biodiversity

Landscape-scale differences among cities alter common species’ responses to urbanization

Understanding how biodiversity responds to urbanization is challenging, due in part to the single-city focus of most urban ecological research. Here, we delineate continent-scale patterns in urban species assemblages by leveraging data from a multi-city camera trap survey and quantify how differences in greenspace availability and average housing density among 10 North American cities relate to the distribution of eight widespread North American mammals. To do so, we deployed camera traps at 569 sites across these ten cities between 18 June and 14 August. Most data came from 2017, though some cities contributed 2016 or 2018 data if it was available. We found that the magnitude and direction of most species\u27 responses to urbanization within a city were associated with landscape-scale differences among cities. For example, eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) responses to urbanization changed from negative to positive once the proportion of green space within a city was \u3e~20%. Likewise, raccoon (Procyon lotor) and Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) responses to urbanization changed from positive to negative once the average housing density of a city exceeded about 700 housing units/km2. We also found that local species richness within cities consistently declined with urbanization in only the more densely developed cities (\u3e~700 housing units/km2). Given our results, it may therefore be possible to design cities to better support biodiversity and reduce the negative influence of urbanization on wildlife by, for example, increasing the amount of green space within a city. Additionally, it may be most important for densely populated cities to find innovative solutions to bolster wildlife resilience because they were the most likely to observe diversity losses of common urban species

Data from: Comparing forest structure and biodiversity on private and public land: secondary tropical dry forests in Costa Rica

Secondary forests constitute a substantial proportion of tropical forestlands. These forests occur on both public and private lands and different underlying environmental variables and management regimes may affect post‐abandonment successional processes and resultant forest structure and biodiversity. We examined whether differences in ownership led to differences in forest structure, tree diversity, and tree species composition across a gradient of soil fertility and forest age. We collected soil samples and surveyed all trees in 82 public and 66 private 0.1‐ha forest plots arrayed across forest age and soil gradients in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We found that soil fertility appeared to drive the spatial structure of public vs. private ownership; public conservation lands appeared to be non‐randomly located on areas of lower soil fertility. On private lands, areas of crops/pasture appeared to be non‐randomly located on higher soil fertility areas while forests occupied areas of lower soil fertility. We found that forest structure and tree species diversity did not differ significantly between public and private ownership. However, public and private forests differed in tree species composition: 11 percent were more prevalent in public forest and 7 percent were more prevalent in private forest. Swietenia macrophylla, Cedrela odorata, and Astronium graveolens were more prevalent in public forests likely because public forests provide stronger protection for these highly prized timber species. Guazuma ulmifolia was the most abundant tree in private forests likely because this species is widely consumed and dispersed by cattle. Furthermore, some compositional differences appear to result from soil fertility differences due to non‐random placement of public and private land holdings with respect to soil fertility. Land ownership creates a distinctive species composition signature that is likely the result of differences in soil fertility and management between the ownership types. Both biophysical and social variables should be considered to advance understanding of tropical secondary forest structure and biodiversity