NETT Coordinators: Researchers, Caregivers, or Both?

The National Emphysema Treatment Trial (NETT) required the coordinated evaluation and treatment of thousands of patients with emphysema simultaneous with data collection to evaluate the safety and efficacy of surgery versus medical treatment for emphysema. These tasks were performed by a multidisciplinary team led by the clinic coordinator at each NETT center. The clinic coordinators functioned as members of the research team as well as communicators, managers, and members of the patient care team. The clinic coordinators' ability to balance these roles was instrumental to the successful completion of NETT, as evidenced by randomization of 1,218 subjects with only 10 subjects being lost to follow-up. Striving to achieve recruitment goals and working to retain study subjects was very labor intensive. The coordinator role was complicated by the study population's severity of illness combined with the complexity of the NETT protocol. Management of the study subjects' medical condition had to be balanced with the management of a multicenter, randomized clinical trial to ensure quality data collection and protocol adherence

Non-destructive assessment of green density and moisture condition in plantation-grown radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don.) by increment core measurements

A novel protocol for non-destructive assessment of green density and moisture content via increment cores was validated for young (8–10 years) and mature trees (36 years) of radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don.). Initial procedures involved comparing 5- and 12-mm cores with fresh disks taken from young trees at breast height and felled during the winter, as well as methods for rehydrating the wood cores. Subsequently, the best method (12-mm cores) was validated with material collected in summer from both young and mature trees. The protocols developed require separate processing of sapwood and heartwood, and soaking the sapwood for 24 h to replace the moisture lost while coring. For young trees, bark-to-pith 12-mm cores accounted for between 64% and 66% of variation in green density of sapwood and between 51% and 72% of saturation percentage, as measured by destructively sampled disks. For mature trees, the average of two sides of 12-mm bark-to-bark cores accounted for 73% of variation in green density of sapwood, and 56% of saturation percentage as measured by destructive wedges. One or both sides of a bark-to-bark core accounted for between 72% and 80% of variation in whole-section green density, and between 70% and 79% of variation in sapwood percentage. The number of heartwood rings was better predicted from the average of two sides of the cores (R2 of 0.71). Whole-tree values (lower two logs) for sapwood green density and saturation were better predicted from the average of both sides of the bark-to-bark core (R2 of 0.76 and 0.57, respectively). Whole-tree values for whole-section green density could be predicted either by one side or two sides of the cores (R2 for 1 or 2 sides of 0.77 and 0.81). Finally, whole-tree sapwood volumetric percent was better predicted by the average of two sides of the cores (R2 of 0.81)