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How to … build a peer reviewer community in health professions education
Get PDFPeer review is the cornerstone of academic publishing that upholds the quality and integrity of scholarly work. However, there is an ever‐growing struggle to recruit peer reviewers, termed the ‘peer review crisis’, driven by a shrinking academic workforce and increased workload. Additionally, there is a notable lack of standardised training for peer reviewers which poses a challenge in maintaining high‐quality reviews. In this ‘How to …’ paper, we demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of establishing a community of practice (CoP) aimed at fostering professional development among multiprofessional early‐career scholars in health professions education. A CoP is structured around three core components: domain, community and practice. This community's domain focuses on recruiting scholars with a shared interest in health professions education, research and peer review. The community's component promotes inclusive and regular interactions through synchronous meetings and asynchronous communication, encouraging engagement, mutual learning and collaboration among diverse participants. Practice is cultivated through peer‐led teaching sessions and the use of digital platforms, enabling participants to build peer review competencies collaboratively. Based on our experience as participants in the Association for the Studies of Medical Education (ASME) and The Clinical Teacher (TCT) awarded programme of professional development in educational research and peer review, we propose that this model may help other institutional health professions education groups and journals adopt similar practices. Providing early‐career scholars with opportunities to develop academic skills will not only help create a sustainable, high‐quality pool of peer reviewers but also cultivate a more inclusive and skilled scholarly community
Cyclin O controls entry into the cell-cycle variant required for multiciliated cell differentiation
Get PDFMulticiliated cells (MCCs) ensure fluid circulation in various organs. Their differentiation is marked by the amplification of cilia-nucleating centrioles, driven by a genuine cell-cycle variant, which is characterized by wave-like expression of canonical and non-canonical cyclins such as Cyclin O (CCNO). Patients with CCNO mutations exhibit a subtype of primary ciliary dyskinesia called reduced generation of motile cilia (RGMC). Here, we show that Ccno is activated at the crossroads of the onset of MCC differentiation, the entry into the MCC cell-cycle variant, and the activation of the centriole biogenesis program. Its absence blocks the G1/S-like transition of the cell-cycle variant, interrupts the centriologenesis transcription program, and compromises the production of centrioles and cilia in mouse brain and human respiratory MCCs. Altogether, our study identifies CCNO as a core regulator of entry into the MCC cell-cycle variant and the interruption of this variant as one etiology of RGMC
With a new United Nations resolution on water, sanitation, hygiene, electricity, and waste in healthcare facilities, it is time for a logical framing and consistent vocabulary
Get PDFA systematic review of predictors and moderators of treatment response in psychological interventions for persisting forms of depression
Get PDFBackground
Although psychological interventions can be effective for the treatment of major depressive disorder, some patients' symptoms persist or rapidly recur after therapy. This study aimed to synthesize research findings on predictors and moderators of treatment response for persisting forms of depression, such as chronic, recurrent, and treatment-resistant depression.
Methods
A systematic review of studies investigating predictors and moderators of response to outpatient psychological treatment for adults with persisting forms of depression was conducted by searching Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycInfo. A total of 23 eligible studies were included, assessed for risk of bias, and summarized using a narrative synthesis.
Results
Sixty-five predictor and moderator variables were examined across studies, categorized into sociodemographic, clinical, interpersonal/personality, psychological, and treatment variables. Most variables were only examined in single studies, which were rarely adequately powered for predictor and moderator analyses. Among variables studied more frequently (age, gender, baseline depression severity, childhood trauma), only baseline depression severity was found to be a replicated and consistent predictor of poorer treatment response. Risk of bias was low to medium for the majority of studies.
Limitations
Meta-analysis could not be done due to methodological heterogeneity among studies.
Conclusion
Our current understanding of significant predictors and moderators for persisting forms of depression is limited. A high level of baseline severity of depressive symptoms is so far the only variable consistently associated with poorer treatment response in this clinical population
Healthy ageing for all? A health growth incidence curve approach
Get PDFWe propose and apply a framework that analyses the distributional impact of episodes of overall health growth or decline. We use local smoothing to model the relationship between health outcomes and relative income rank and we introduce Health Growth Incidence Curves (HGIC) to graph the rate of change of health outcomes across the income distribution. We illustrate our framework with an analysis of the distributional dynamics of health and well-being among those aged 60–85 in the years 2004 and 2015 using pooled SHARE data for selected European countries. Overall we observe a pattern that favours individuals with higher socioeconomic status, with a pro-rich distribution of improvements in outcomes. Only cognitive capacity growth has been uniform across income groups
Biodegradable microplastics adsorb more Cd than conventional microplastic and biofilms enhance their adsorption
Get PDFBiodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) mulch has been developed to replace conventional polyethylene (PE) mulch in agriculture to reduce plastic pollution and the accumulation of microplastics (MPs) in soil. Cadmium (Cd) is a significant soil contaminant, and can be adsorbed by MPs. It is increasingly recognised that in the natural environment biofilms can develop on MPs and that this can affect their adsorption properties. We exposed PLA and PE mulches outdoors for 16 months. MPs were then generated from pristine and weathered mulches. Biofilms developed on the weathered plastics. Oxygen-containing functional groups were detected on the weathered, but not the pristine PE, abundance of these groups increased for the weathered PLA. After removal of the biofilm the observed increases in oxygen-containing functional groups relative to the pristine plastics remained. In adsorption experiments pristine PLA MPs had a greater maximum adsorption capacity than pristine PE MPs (106 - 126 vs 23.2 mg / kg) despite having a lower specific surface area (0.325 m2 / g vs 1.82 m2 / g) suggesting that the greater levels of adsorption were due to MP chemistry. The weathered plastics adsorbed more Cd than the pristine plastics (e.g. maximum adsorption capacities of 153 - 185 and 152 mg / kg for the weathered PLA and PE respectively). However, after removal of the biofilm, adsorption of Cd to the weathered MPs was no greater than for the pristine plastics. This suggests that the increased adsorption of Cd due to weathering was caused primarily by adsorption onto the biofilm
Yield, Quality, Antioxidants, and Mineral Composition of Traditional Italian Storage Onion Cultivars in Response to Protein Hydrolysate and Microalgae Biostimulation
Get PDFEvolution of sexual size dimorphism in tetrapods is driven by varying patterns of sex-specific selection on size
Get PDFSexual size dimorphism (SSD) is highly prevalent in nature. Several hypotheses aim to explain its evolution including sexual selection, differential equilibrium and ecological niche divergence. Disentangling the causal mechanism behind the evolution of SSD is challenging, as selection arising from multiple pressures on fitness may act simultaneously to generate observed patterns. Here, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to study the evolution of SSD across tetrapods globally. We estimate directional changes in body size evolution, and compare the number, phylogenetic position and magnitude of size changes between sexes. We find evidence that directional changes in size associated with SSD are typically more common in males—even in lineages where females are larger. However, underlying mechanisms differ among lineages—whereas SSD in amphibians becomes more male-biased with greater increases in male size and mammalian SSD becomes more female-biased with greater decreases in male size. Thus, differing mechanisms of directional body size evolution across sexes are essential to explain observed SSD patterns
Valuation survey for SF-6Dv2 in Japan based on the international protocol
Get PDFPurpose: The SF-6D Classification System was recently updated (SF-6Dv2). We performed a valuation survey to construct a value set for the SF-6Dv2 in Japan.
Methods: An online discrete choice experiment (DCE) with duration was used to estimate a value set for the SF-6Dv2 for Japan based on public preferences. The target sample number was 3800. Respondents were asked to complete 15 choice tasks. A conditional logit model that estimates interactions between time and each dimension was used to develop the value set.
Results: The collected sample included 3933 respondents for the DCE tasks. The results of all the unconstrained models showed some inconsistencies. In particular, inconsistencies in the two most severe levels of the role limitation (RL) and vitality (VT) dimensions were observed in all models. The number of inconsistencies was smallest in a core model (n = 3) and in a model for core and common health states (n = 2). The physical functioning (PF) and pain (PA) dimensions had the greatest influence on utility at the overall level across all models. RL, VT, and social functioning (SF) had smaller overall impacts on utility. The PF weights for the two most severe levels are much lower than those in the UK and Australia. The Japanese scores tended to be lower compared with the UK SF-6Dv2 scores.
Conclusion: We obtained a value set for Japan (model 5). With the development of this value set, it is now possible to calculate quality-adjusted life years for economic evaluation in Japan when the SF-6Dv2 has been used
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