Two Strategies for Landmine Detection by Giant Pouched Rats

This article compares the performance of Giant African Pouched Rats under two different management systems, both appropriate for mine-detection operational use. Employing International Mine Action Standards for accreditation, the researchers outline the process of conditioning and testing these mine-detection animals for field use

Recollecting Home, curated by Deborah van der Plaat, Nicole Sully and Andrew Wilson. In Home: A Suburban Obsession, curated by Chenoa Pettrup and Adam Jefford

Recollecting Home Research Background The Frank and Eunice Corley collection consists of approximately 61,000 photographs of houses taken in Queensland suburbs in the 1960s and 70s and sold to households as calendars and Christmas cards. Consisting of images that didn't sell, and which were retained by Frank Corley for taxation purposes, it is estimated that the complete collection approached 300,000 images. Frank, in a pink Cadillac, drove the suburban streets of Brisbane (and a number of Queensland towns) documenting every house that could be seen from the street. Eunice, based in a mobile dark room parked strategically in each suburb, developed and printed the film, and a team of salespeople worked the suburbs selling the images. While Frank and Eunice’s project was primarily an entrepreneurial one, the collection is valued for the stories it tells of Queensland’s suburbs, its heterogenous and complex nature, and the lifestyles it fostered. While the photographer/s had recorded spools and street locations, the collection was uncatalogued. Limited research on social histories emerging from the collection been undertaken by the Annerley Stephens History Group and SLQ volunteers. Home: A Suburban Obsession explores the collection and how it is used and interpreted by various agents including researchers, artists, designers, educators and community groups. The Home exhibition consists of three ‘acts’. The first two acts, curated by Chenoa Pettrup and Adam Jefford from the State Library, comprise an introduction to the Frank and Eunice Corley and their enterprise, and a selection of specially commissioned artworks inspired by their work. The third called Recollecting Home, was curated by Deborah van der Plaat, Nicole Sully and Andrew Wilson from the ATCH Research Centre and School of Architecture at the University of Queensland. Research Contribution Recollecting Home is made up off 11 curated sets of photographic images that showcase 490 photos from the Corley collection and new photography. These were supported by a series of cabinets housing related imagery, ephemera and publications sourced from SLQ, other public institutions, and private collections. The panels explore a number of research themes. These include: ‘Artists in the Suburbs,’ which delves into a selection of parallel explorations of man-made environments by artists from across the globe including the German photographers Bernd and Hilda Becher, the American artists Ed Ruscha and Todd Hido, and Australian photographers John Gollings and Tracey Moffat (whose 2008 image First Jobs: Selling Aluminium Siding is based on an image from the Corley collection and which captures residential housing in the Brisbane suburb of Norman Park; attributes associated with the 'Queensland house', including 'screening,' 'under the house,' and 'open windows' and which speak of lifestyles and modes of living peculiar to the Queensland state; 'Not the Queensland House,' a set of images which highlight the diversity of forms and materials that contribute to the complexity of the Queensland suburb; and 'Suburbs in Transition,' a series of photographs which capture moments of change in Queensland’s suburbs of the 60s and 70s and which begin to highlight some of the distinctions (real and imagined) between “old” and “new” suburbia. New photography by Paul Dielemans extends these observations into the present day. Digital stories and supporting displays that tell the real-life stories of occupants of homes found in the Corley collection complete the sequence. Research Significance Generating new histories of Queensland’s suburban architecture, research significance is demonstrated by the: • Promotion by State Library of Queensland as a major exhibition and shown for 8 months from December 2018 to July 2019. • Supported by a vibrant selection of public programs and engagement opportunities. • Reviewed by national journals and local and national broadsheets. • Generated new communities of interest in the architecture, social histories and lifestyles of the Queensland suburbs and increased heritage awareness of this work. • Activated the public’s interest in the collections of the State Library of Queensland and brought to their attention the diverse uses of their collections by different agents. • Inclusion of the exhibition in the program supporting the 2019 Asia Pacific Architecture Forum. • Imagery externally sourced for the exhibition to permanently acquired by the State Library of Queensland

Mapping the structural organization of the brain in conduct disorder: replication of findings in two independent samples.

BACKGROUND: Neuroimaging methods that allow researchers to investigate structural covariance between brain regions are increasingly being used to study psychiatric disorders. Structural covariance analyses are particularly well suited for studying disorders with putative neurodevelopmental origins as they appear sensitive to changes in the synchronized maturation of different brain regions. We assessed interregional correlations in cortical thickness as a measure of structural covariance, and applied this method to investigate the coordinated development of different brain regions in conduct disorder (CD). We also assessed whether structural covariance measures could differentiate between the childhood-onset (CO-CD) and adolescence-onset (AO-CD) subtypes of CD, which may differ in terms of etiology and adult outcomes. METHODS: We examined interregional correlations in cortical thickness in male youths with CO-CD or AO-CD relative to healthy controls (HCs) in two independent datasets. The age range in the Cambridge sample was 16-21 years (mean: 18.0), whereas the age range of the Southampton sample was 13-18 years (mean: 16.7). We used FreeSurfer to perform segmentations and applied structural covariance methods to the resulting parcellations. RESULTS: In both samples, CO-CD participants displayed a strikingly higher number of significant cross-cortical correlations compared to HC or AO-CD participants, whereas AO-CD participants presented fewer significant correlations than HCs. Group differences in the strength of the interregional correlations were observed in both samples, and each set of results remained significant when controlling for IQ and comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides new evidence for quantitative differences in structural brain organization between the CO-CD and AO-CD subtypes, and supports the hypothesis that both subtypes of CD have neurodevelopmental origins.This research was funded by Wellcome Trust grant 083140 (Fairchild, Goodyer), Medical Research Council project U.1055.02.001.00001.01 (Calder), an Adventure in Research grant from Southampton University (Fairchild), a PhD studentship from Southampton University (Sully), and the Betty Behrens Research Fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge University (Passamonti).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.1258

A re-randomisation design for clinical trials

Background: Recruitment to clinical trials is often problematic, with many trials failing to recruit to their target sample size. As a result, patient care may be based on suboptimal evidence from underpowered trials or non-randomised studies. Methods: For many conditions patients will require treatment on several occasions, for example, to treat symptoms of an underlying chronic condition (such as migraines, where treatment is required each time a new episode occurs), or until they achieve treatment success (such as fertility, where patients undergo treatment on multiple occasions until they become pregnant). We describe a re-randomisation design for these scenarios, which allows each patient to be independently randomised on multiple occasions. We discuss the circumstances in which this design can be used. Results: The re-randomisation design will give asymptotically unbiased estimates of treatment effect and correct type I error rates under the following conditions: (a) patients are only re-randomised after the follow-up period from their previous randomisation is complete; (b) randomisations for the same patient are performed independently; and (c) the treatment effect is constant across all randomisations. Provided the analysis accounts for correlation between observations from the same patient, this design will typically have higher power than a parallel group trial with an equivalent number of observations. Conclusions: If used appropriately, the re-randomisation design can increase the recruitment rate for clinical trials while still providing an unbiased estimate of treatment effect and correct type I error rates. In many situations, it can increase the power compared to a parallel group design with an equivalent number of observations

Ten-year mortality, disease progression, and treatment-related side effects in men with localised prostate cancer from the ProtecT randomised controlled trial according to treatment received

Background The ProtecT trial reported intention-to-treat analysis of men with localised prostate cancer randomly allocated to active monitoring (AM), radical prostatectomy, and external beam radiotherapy. Objective To report outcomes according to treatment received in men in randomised and treatment choice cohorts. Design, setting, and participants This study focuses on secondary care. Men with clinically localised prostate cancer at one of nine UK centres were invited to participate in the treatment trial comparing AM, radical prostatectomy, and radiotherapy. Intervention Two cohorts included 1643 men who agreed to be randomised and 997 who declined randomisation and chose treatment. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Analysis was carried out to assess mortality, metastasis and progression and health-related quality of life impacts on urinary, bowel, and sexual function using patient-reported outcome measures. Analysis was based on comparisons between groups defined by treatment received for both randomised and treatment choice cohorts in turn, with pooled estimates of intervention effect obtained using meta-analysis. Differences were estimated with adjustment for known prognostic factors using propensity scores. Results and limitations According to treatment received, more men receiving AM died of PCa (AM 1.85%, surgery 0.67%, radiotherapy 0.73%), whilst this difference remained consistent with chance in the randomised cohort (p = 0.08); stronger evidence was found in the exploratory analyses (randomised plus choice cohort) when AM was compared with the combined radical treatment group (p = 0.003). There was also strong evidence that metastasis (AM 5.6%, surgery 2.4%, radiotherapy 2.7%) and disease progression (AM 20.35%, surgery 5.87%, radiotherapy 6.62%) were more common in the AM group. Compared with AM, there were higher risks of sexual dysfunction (95% at 6 mo) and urinary incontinence (55% at 6 mo) after surgery, and of sexual dysfunction (88% at 6 mo) and bowel dysfunction (5% at 6 mo) after radiotherapy. The key limitations are the potential for bias when comparing groups defined by treatment received and changes in the protocol for AM during the lengthy follow-up required in trials of screen-detected PCa. Conclusions Analyses according to treatment received showed increased rates of disease-related events and lower rates of patient-reported harms in men managed by AM compared with men managed by radical treatment, and stronger evidence of greater PCa mortality in the AM group. Patient summary More than 95 out of every 100 men with low or intermediate risk localised prostate cancer do not die of prostate cancer within 10 yr, irrespective of whether treatment is by means of monitoring, surgery, or radiotherapy. Side effects on sexual and bladder function are better after active monitoring, but the risks of spreading of prostate cancer are more common

Does organizational formalization facilitate voice and helping organizational citizenship behaviors? It depends on (national) uncertainty norms

Prosocial work behaviors in a globalized environment do not operate in a cultural vacuum. We assess to what extent voice and helping organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) vary across cultures, depending on employees’ perceived level of organizational formalization and national uncertainty. We predict that in contexts of uncertainty, cognitive resources are engaged in coping with this uncertainty. Organizational formalization can provide structure that frees up cognitive resources to engage in OCB. In contrast, in contexts of low uncertainty, organizational formalization is not necessary for providing structure and may increase constraints on discretionary behavior. A three-level hierarchical linear modeling analysis of data from 7,537 employees in 267 organizations across 17 countries provides broad support for our hypothesis: perceived organizational formalization is weakly related to OCB, but where uncertainty is high; formalization facilitates voice significantly, helping OCB to a lesser extent. Our findings contribute to clarifying the dynamics between perceptions of norms at organizational and national levels for understanding when employees may engage in helping and voice behaviors. The key implication is that managers can foster OCB through organizational formalization interventions in uncertain environments that are cognitively demanding

Strategies to improve recruitment to randomised trials

Background: Recruiting participants to trials can be extremely difficult. Identifying strategies that improve trial recruitment would benefit both trialists and health research. Objectives: To quantify the effects of strategies for improving recruitment of participants to randomised trials. A secondary objective is to assess the evidence for the effect of the research setting (e.g. primary care versus secondary care) on recruitment. Search methods: We searched the Cochrane Methodology Review Group Specialised Register (CMR) in the Cochrane Library (July 2012, searched 11 February 2015); MEDLINE and MEDLINE In Process (OVID) (1946 to 10 February 2015); Embase (OVID) (1996 to 2015 Week 06); Science Citation Index & Social Science Citation Index (ISI) (2009 to 11 February 2015) and ERIC (EBSCO) (2009 to 11 February 2015). Selection criteria: Randomised and quasi-randomised trials of methods to increase recruitment to randomised trials. This includes non-healthcare studies and studies recruiting to hypothetical trials. We excluded studies aiming to increase response rates to questionnaires or trial retention and those evaluating incentives and disincentives for clinicians to recruit participants. Data collection and analysis: We extracted data on: the method evaluated; country in which the study was carried out; nature of the population; nature of the study setting; nature of the study to be recruited into; randomisation or quasi-randomisation method; and numbers and proportions in each intervention group. We used a risk difference to estimate the absolute improvement and the 95% confidence interval (CI) to describe the effect in individual trials. We assessed heterogeneity between trial results. We used GRADE to judge the certainty we had in the evidence coming from each comparison

Functional and quality of life outcomes of localised prostate cancer treatments (prostate testing for cancer and treatment [ProtecT] study)

Objective To investigate the functional and quality of life (QoL) outcomes of treatments for localised prostate cancer and inform treatment decision-making. Patients and Methods Men aged 50–69 years diagnosed with localised prostate cancer by prostate-specific antigen testing and biopsies at nine UK centres in the Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment (ProtecT) trial were randomised to, or chose one of, three treatments. Of 2565 participants, 1135 men received active monitoring (AM), 750 a radical prostatectomy (RP), 603 external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with concurrent androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and 77 low-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT, not a randomised treatment). Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) completed annually for 6 years were analysed by initial treatment and censored for subsequent treatments. Mixed effects models were adjusted for baseline characteristics using propensity scores. Results Treatment-received analyses revealed different impacts of treatments over 6 years. Men remaining on AM experienced gradual declines in sexual and urinary function with age (e.g., increases in erectile dysfunction from 35% of men at baseline to 53% at 6 years and nocturia similarly from 20% to 38%). Radical treatment impacts were immediate and continued over 6 years. After RP, 95% of men reported erectile dysfunction persisting for 85% at 6 years, and after EBRT this was reported by 69% and 74%, respectively (P < 0.001 compared with AM). After RP, 36% of men reported urinary leakage requiring at least 1 pad/day, persisting for 20% at 6 years, compared with no change in men receiving EBRT or AM (P < 0.001). Worse bowel function and bother (e.g., bloody stools 6% at 6 years and faecal incontinence 10%) was experienced by men after EBRT than after RP or AM (P < 0.001) with lesser effects after BT. No treatment affected mental or physical QoL. Conclusion Treatment decision-making for localised prostate cancer can be informed by these 6-year functional and QoL outcomes