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Background and purpose: Transparent reporting and appropriate interpretation of statistical methods and results are important to facilitate scientific evaluation and enable future replication. The goal of this study was to describe statistical reporting guidance provided to authors by clinical neurology and neuroscience journals. Methods: For first‐quartile journals in each discipline (per Clarivate InCites), information collected from Instructions to Authors website sections included whether journals required presentation of sample size justification, estimates of precision, and method of checking assumptions; and guidance for interpretation of p‐values and appropriate presentation of descriptive statistics and graphs. Journal endorsement of common but statistically nonspecific published transparent reporting guidelines for human and animal research was also collected, to capture the select statistical reporting items included in each guideline. Results: Journals (n = 85) frequently did not require/recommend sample size justifications (15% not required; 62% only required per external transparent reporting guideline), estimates of precision (15% not required; 41% only required per external guidelines), or disclosure of method of checking assumptions (46%); nor provide guidance for reporting/interpretation of p‐values (71%), reporting of descriptive statistics (75%), or use of appropriate graphs (92%). Endorsement of statistically nonspecific standalone reporting guidelines ranged between 52% and 68%, depending on the guideline. Conclusions: There is opportunity for journals to facilitate improvement in transparency of statistical methods and results for clinical neurology and neuroscience studies by providing guidelines and advice to authors at manuscript submission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pre‐clinical oncology studies, tumor‐bearing animals are treated and observed over a period of time in order to measure and compare the efficacy of one or more cancer‐intervention therapies along with a placebo/standard of care group. A data analysis is typically carried out by modeling and comparing tumor volumes, functions of tumor volumes, or survival. Data analysis on tumor volumes is complicated because animals under observation may be euthanized prior to the end of the study for one or more reasons, such as when an animal's tumor volume exceeds an upper threshold. In such a case, the tumor volume is missing not‐at‐random for the time remaining in the study. To work around the non‐random missingness issue, several statistical methods have been proposed in the literature, including the rate of change in log tumor volume and partial area under the curve. In this work, an examination and comparison of the test size and statistical power of these and other popular methods for the analysis of tumor volume data is performed through realistic Monte Carlo computer simulations. The performance, advantages, and drawbacks of popular statistical methods for animal oncology studies are reported. The recommended methods are applied to a real data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Surgery for advanced ovarian cancer (AOC) has evolved over the past decade to ingeminate the need to offer maximum effort surgery (MES). The aim of this study is to analyze the implementation of a paradigm shift in the surgical management of women with AOC at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) in 2015, until 2020, compared to 2011–2014. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of women with AOC who underwent cytoreductive surgery (CRS) in the UHL. The two groups were: 153 women from January 2011 to December 2014 (group 1), 136 women from January 2015 to January 2020 (group 2). Results: In group 1, the 1, 3, and 5 years overall survival rates (OS) were, 90.4%, 33.7%, and 19.3%, compared to 90.2%, 55.4%, and 29.7%, respectively, in group 2 (p = 0.012). Significantly more women had CRS in group 2: 45—Primary debulking surgery (PDS) and 57—interval debulking surgery (IDS) versus 17—PDS & 67—IDS in group 1 (p < 0.001). Surgical complexity score (modified Aletti score) was higher in group 2 compared to group 1 (p = <0.001). No significant difference was noted in the postoperative complications, in group 2, in women who underwent PDS versus IDS, yet PDS was associated with higher OS. Conclusions: MES/CRS in women with AOC significantly improves OS. Our data highlights the importance of a dedicated team to implement this change in cancer centers. Where possible, suitable women with AOC likely to have complete cytoreduction based on preoperative assessment, should be offered PDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MWW test challenges the null hypothesis that two data distributions are the same (Mann & Whitney, 1947), not whether the two distributions have the same median. A bootstrap approach is a superior statistical method for the comparison of non-normal data with differing variances Keywords: bootstrap; cell-to-cell movement; heteroskedastic; Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon; null hypothesis significance testing; plasmodesmata; statistics EN bootstrap cell-to-cell movement heteroskedastic Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon null hypothesis significance testing plasmodesmata statistics 23 26 4 03/04/21 20210401 NES 210401 Phytologists have a primary interest in understanding plant growth, development and environmental responses. Bootstrap, cell-to-cell movement, heteroskedastic, plasmodesmata, statistics, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon, null hypothesis significance testing. [Extracted from the article]

Peritoneal metastasis (PM) is the major cause of recurrence in patients with gastric cancer (GC) and is associated with poor prognosis. The oncogenic role of Nicotinamide N‐methyltransferase (NNMT) in GC has been reported, but the role of secreted NNMT that is transported by exosomes remains unknown. In this study, exosomes were isolated from GC patients with or without PM and from GC cell line, including GC‐114, GC‐026, MKN45, and SNU‐16 cells. The contents of NNMT were significantly enhanced in exosomes isolated from GC patients with PM compared with those from GC patients without PM. Furthermore, the levels of NNMT were significantly enhanced in exosomes from GC cell lines relative to those from normal human gastric epithelial cell line GES‐1 cells. These data indicate that NNMT may be involved in intercellular communication for peritoneal dissemination. Moreover, colocalization of GC‐derived exosomal NNMT was found in human peritoneal mesothelial cell line HMrSV5 cells. Additionally, relative to GES‐1 exosomes, SNU‐16 exosomes significantly activated TGF‐β/smad2 signaling in HMrSV5 cells. However, when NNMT was silenced, the activation of TGF‐β/smad2 by SNU‐16 exosomes was abolished in HMrSV5 cells. We propose that NNMT‐containing exosomes derived from GC cells could promote peritoneal metastasis via TGF‐β/smad2 signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]