Gender parity in scientific authorship in a National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre : a bibliometric analysis

Objective: Scientific authorship is a vital marker of achievement in academic careers and gender equity is a key performance metric in research. However, there is little understanding of gender equity in publications in biomedical research centres funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This study assesses the gender parity in scientific authorship of biomedical research. Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective bibliometric study. Setting: NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Data: Data comprised 2409 publications that were either accepted or published between April 2012 and March 2017. The publications were classified as basic science studies, clinical studies (both trial and non-trial studies) and other studies (comments, editorials, systematic reviews, reviews, opinions, book chapters, meeting reports, guidelines and protocols). Main outcome measures: Gender of authors, defined as a binary variable comprising either male or female categories, in six authorship categories: first author, joint first authors, first corresponding author, joint corresponding authors, last author and joint last authors. Results: Publications comprised 39% clinical research (n=939), 27% basic research (n=643) and 34% other types of research (n=827). The proportion of female authors as first author (41%), first corresponding authors (34%) and last author (23%) was statistically significantly lower than male authors in these authorship categories (p<0.001). Of total joint first authors (n=458), joint corresponding authors (n=169) and joint last authors (n=229), female only authors comprised statistically significant (p<0.001) smaller proportions, that is, 15% (n=69), 29% (n=49) and 10% (n=23) respectively, compared with male only authors in these joint authorship categories. There was a statistically significant association between gender of the last author with gender of the first author (p<0.001), first corresponding author (p<0.001) and joint last author (p<0.001). The mean journal impact factor (JIF) was statistically significantly higher when the first corresponding author was male compared with female (Mean JIF: 10.00 vs 8.77, p=0.020); however, the JIF was not statistically different when there were male and female authors as first authors and last authors. Conclusions: Although the proportion of female authors is significantly lower than the proportion of male authors in all six categories of authorship analysed, the proportions of male and female last authors are comparable to their respective proportions as principal investigators in the BRC. These findings suggest positive trends and the NIHR Oxford BRC doing very well in gender parity in the senior (last) authorship category. Male corresponding authors are more likely to publish articles in prestigious journals with high impact factor while both male and female authors at first and last authorship positions publish articles in equally prestigious journals

ECMO for COVID-19 patients in Europe and Israel

Since March 15th, 2020, 177 centres from Europe and Israel have joined the study, routinely reporting on the ECMO support they provide to COVID-19 patients. The mean annual number of cases treated with ECMO in the participating centres before the pandemic (2019) was 55. The number of COVID-19 patients has increased rapidly each week reaching 1531 treated patients as of September 14th. The greatest number of cases has been reported from France (n = 385), UK (n = 193), Germany (n = 176), Spain (n = 166), and Italy (n = 136) .The mean age of treated patients was 52.6 years (range 16–80), 79% were male. The ECMO configuration used was VV in 91% of cases, VA in 5% and other in 4%. The mean PaO2 before ECMO implantation was 65 mmHg. The mean duration of ECMO support thus far has been 18 days and the mean ICU length of stay of these patients was 33 days. As of the 14th September, overall 841 patients have been weaned from ECMO support, 601 died during ECMO support, 71 died after withdrawal of ECMO, 79 are still receiving ECMO support and for 10 patients status n.a. . Our preliminary data suggest that patients placed on ECMO with severe refractory respiratory or cardiac failure secondary to COVID-19 have a reasonable (55%) chance of survival. Further extensive data analysis is expected to provide invaluable information on the demographics, severity of illness, indications and different ECMO management strategies in these patients

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

La renovación de la palabra en el bicentenario de la Argentina : los colores de la mirada lingüística

El libro reúne trabajos en los que se exponen resultados de investigaciones presentadas por investigadores de Argentina, Chile, Brasil, España, Italia y Alemania en el XII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Lingüística (SAL), Bicentenario: la renovación de la palabra, realizado en Mendoza, Argentina, entre el 6 y el 9 de abril de 2010. Las temáticas abordadas en los 167 capítulos muestran las grandes líneas de investigación que se desarrollan fundamentalmente en nuestro país, pero también en los otros países mencionados arriba, y señalan además las áreas que recién se inician, con poca tradición en nuestro país y que deberían fomentarse. Los trabajos aquí publicados se enmarcan dentro de las siguientes disciplinas y/o campos de investigación: Fonología, Sintaxis, Semántica y Pragmática, Lingüística Cognitiva, Análisis del Discurso, Psicolingüística, Adquisición de la Lengua, Sociolingüística y Dialectología, Didáctica de la lengua, Lingüística Aplicada, Lingüística Computacional, Historia de la Lengua y la Lingüística, Lenguas Aborígenes, Filosofía del Lenguaje, Lexicología y Terminología

Shedding a Light on the Challenges of Adolescents and Young Adults with Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a typical tumour of childhood but can occur at any age. Several studies have reported that adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with RMS have poorer survival than do younger patients. This review discusses the specific challenges in AYA patients with pediatric-type RMS, exploring possible underlying factors which may influence different outcomes. Reasons for AYA survival gap are likely multifactorial, and might be related to differences in tumor biology and intrinsic aggressiveness, or differences in clinical management (that could include patient referral patterns, time to diagnosis, enrolment into clinical trials, the adequacy and intensity of treatment), as well as patient factors (including physiology and comorbidity that may influence treatment tolerability, drug pharmacokinetics and efficacy). However, improved survival has been reported in the most recent studies for AYA patients treated on pediatric RMS protocols. Different strategies may help to further improve outcome, such as supporting trans-age academic societies and national/international collaborations; developing specific clinical trials without upper age limit; defining integrated and comprehensive approach to AYA patients, including the genomic aspects; establishing multidisciplinary tumor boards with involvement of both pediatric and adult oncologists to discuss all pediatric-type RMS patients; developing dedicated projects with specific treatment recommendations and registry/database

Fusion status in patients with lymph node-positive (N1) alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is a powerful predictor of prognosis:Experience of the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG)

BACKGROUND: Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (aRMS) with lymph node involvement (N1 classification) accounts for up to 10% of all cases of RMS. The prognosis is poor, and is comparable to that of distant metastatic disease. In the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) RMS2005 protocol, patients with a histologic diagnosis of aRMS/N1 received intensified chemotherapy with systematic locoregional treatment. METHODS: Patients with aRMS/N1 were enrolled prospectively after primary surgery/biopsy and fusion status was assessed in tumor samples. All patients received 9 cycles of induction chemotherapy and 6 months of maintenance therapy. Local treatment included radiotherapy to the primary site and lymph nodes with or without secondary surgical resection. RESULTS: A total of 103 patients were enrolled. The clinical characteristics of the patients were predominantly unfavorable: 90% had macroscopic residual disease after initial surgery/biopsy, 63% had locally invasive tumors, 77% had a tumor measuring >5 cm, and 81% had disease at unfavorable sites. Fusion genes involving forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1) were detected in 56 of 84 patients. Events occurred in 52 patients: 43 developed disease recurrence, 7 had disease that was refractory to treatment, and 2 patients developed second neoplasms. On univariate analysis, unfavorable disease site, tumor invasiveness, Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study group III, and fusion-positive status correlated with worse prognosis. The 5-year event-free survival rate of patients with fusion-positive tumors was 43% compared with 74% in patients with fusion-negative tumors (P=.01). On multivariate analysis, fusion positivity and tumor invasiveness proved to be unfavorable prognostic markers. CONCLUSIONS: Fusion status and tumor invasiveness appear to have a strong impact on prognosis in patients with aRMS/N1. Fusion status will be used to stratify these patients in the next EpSSG RMS study, and treatment will be intensified in patients with fusion-positive tumors. (C) 2018 American Cancer Society

Research data supporting "Cross-linguistic patterns in the acquisition of quantifiers"

Response_Data.csv: Participant responses ('correct' or 'incorrect') to sentences with quantifiers ('all', 'none', 'some', 'some...not', 'most') in 31 languages presented in the context of different visual displays. Item_Coding.csv: How sentences with quantifiers ('all', 'none', 'some', 'some...not', 'most') were coded.European Cooperation in Science and Technology - COST [COST Action A33