Search

Detailed method descriptions are essential for reproducibility, research evaluation, and effective data reuse. We summarize the key recommendations for life sciences researchers and research institutions described in the European Commission PRO-MaP report., Competing Interests: M.L. is a current employee of PLOS. E.G. is a former Editor in Chief of PLOS Biology. V.S. was the founding Executive Director of PLOS and one of the launch editors for PLOS Biology. A.C. is a former PLOS employee. As is noted in the author affiliations, some of the experts who contributed to these guidelines are employed by protocol repositories, protocol journals or publishers that publish protocol papers, methods papers, protocol journals or methods journals. S.B.L. is employed with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in the Unit PREV that provides scientific and administrative support to the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues in the area Assess Dept. However, the present article is published under the sole responsibility of the author/s and may not be considered as an EFSA scientific output. The positions and opinions presented in this article are those of the author/s alone and do not represent the views/any official position or scientific works of EFSA. To know about the views or scientific outputs of EFSA, please consult its website under http://www.efsa.europa.eu. M.B. was an employee of the NC3R. His role included promoting the ARRIVE guidelines and coordinating the RIVER recommendations working group., (Copyright: © 2024 Batista Leite et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Double-blind peer review has been proposed as a possible solution to avoid implicit referee bias in academic publishing. The aims of this study are to analyse the demographics of corresponding authors choosing double-blind peer review and to identify differences in the editorial outcome of manuscripts depending on their review model., Methods: Data includes 128,454 manuscripts received between March 2015 and February 2017 by 25 Nature-branded journals. We investigated the uptake of double-blind review in relation to journal tier, as well as gender, country, and institutional prestige of the corresponding author. We then studied the manuscripts' editorial outcome in relation to review model and author's characteristics. The gender (male, female, or NA) of the corresponding authors was determined from their first name using a third-party service (Gender API). The prestige of the corresponding author's institutions was measured from the data of the Global Research Identifier Database (GRID) by dividing institutions in three prestige groups with reference to the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. We employed descriptive statistics for data exploration, and we tested our hypotheses using Pearson's chi-square and binomial tests. We also performed logistic regression modelling with author update, out-to-review, and acceptance as response, and journal tier, author gender, author country, and institution as predictors., Results: Author uptake for double-blind submissions was 12% (12,631 out of 106,373). We found a small but significant association between journal tier and review type ( p value < 0.001, Cramer's V  = 0.054, df = 2). We had gender information for 50,533 corresponding authors and found no statistically significant difference in the distribution of peer review model between males and females ( p value = 0.6179). We had 58,920 records with normalised institutions and a THE rank, and we found that corresponding authors from the less prestigious institutions are more likely to choose double-blind review ( p value < 0.001, df = 2, Cramer's V  = 0.106). In the ten countries with the highest number of submissions, we found a large significant association between country and review type ( p value < 0.001, df = 10, Cramer's V  = 0.189). The outcome both at first decision and post review is significantly more negative (i.e. a higher likelihood for rejection) for double-blind than single-blind papers ( p value < 0.001, df = 1, Cramer's V  = 0.112 for first decision; p value < 0.001; df = 1, Cramer's V  = 0.082 for post-review decision)., Conclusions: The proportion of authors that choose double-blind review is higher when they submit to more prestigious journals, they are affiliated with less prestigious institutions, or they are from specific countries; the double-blind option is also linked to less successful editorial outcomes., Competing Interests: Not applicable.Not applicable.EDR is employed by Macmillan Publishers Ltd, which publishes the Nature-branded journals.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The rich internal degrees of freedom of magnetic domain walls make them an attractive complement to electron charge for exploring new concepts of storage, transport and processing of information. Here we use the tunable internal structure of a domain wall in a perpendicularly magnetized GaMnAsP/GaAs ferromagnetic semiconductor and demonstrate devices in which piezoelectrically controlled magnetic anisotropy yields up to 500% mobility variations for an electrical-current-driven domain wall. We observe current-induced domain wall motion over a wide range of current-pulse amplitudes and report a direct observation and the piezoelectric control of the Walker breakdown separating two regimes with different mobilities. Our work demonstrates that in spin-orbit-coupled ferromagnets with weak extrinsic domain wall pinning, the piezoelectric control allows one to experimentally assess the upper and lower boundaries of the characteristic ratio of adiabatic and non-adiabatic spin-transfer torques in the current-driven domain wall motion.

129 patients, who had oral cavity or oropharyngeal carcinoma underwent excision with intraoperative histopathologic examination. Thanks to this method, the number of satisfying resections has increased from 25% to 75%. Whatever the quality of the surgical excision may be, postoperative radiotherapy improves the prognosis.

There is now more or less general agreement how to classify and how to work out the development of symmetrical malformations of the female genital tract. On the other hand, asymmetrical malformations, as well as abnormalities of the development of the cervix and the isthmus are only rarely written about in the literature. It has not yet been possible to draw up a system to display the physiopathology and the embryology of these malformations. We here report a rare case of atresia of the cervix and isthmus as well as a pseudo unicornous uterus. This case should take its place as a piece in the embryological puzzle helping to fill in the details which might one day solve this puzzle.

The authors report their experience with follow-up cytohistological examination of subclinical thoracic lesions in oncology by transparietal puncture with CAT-scanning localization in 170 patients. They detail a few special points concerning the material used and their techniques, in view of reducing the most common incidents and of managing the most severe complications. They analyze their results in two groups of patients, one investigated in a context of known malignancy and the other, with no history of malignancy in whom bronchoscopy, bronchial lavage and brushing were negative. They found an overall sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 100%, respectively, in the diagnosis of malignant disease. The method showed an efficacy of 83.5%. For the two populations, sensitivity was 84% and 87% respectively, and efficacy was 82 and 85% respectively. Thus, the results were better in the patients who had never received anticancer therapy. They also observed significant differences depending on whether the targets were mediastinal, pleuropulmonary or parietal. While the rapid diagnostic information appears invaluable in both groups of patients, in contrast, the small volume of the specimens, which may be hemorrhagic, necrotic, with more or less extensive fibrosis of the stroma, and the immaturity of certain tumors, sometimes make it impossible for the pathologist to give a precise diagnosis of the tumor other than the benign or malignant structural character of the lesion. This represents a significant obstacle in hematology for affections which, although non surgical, nevertheless require precise identification of the lesion for effective therapy. The elaboration of more effective sampling material, repeated punctures and immunohistoenzymatic analysis techniques would probably further improve the results of the method.

Between May 1978 and March 1982, 179 postmenopausal women with operable breast cancer were randomized to receive either adjuvant tamoxifen, 40 mg daily for three years (TAM group), or no further treatment (controls). The difference in five-year survival rates (61% in the control group, 72% in the TAM group) was not statistically significant. However, there was a significant improvement in disease-free survival in the TAM group (61%) relative to the controls (44%) (p = 0.008). In estrogen receptor positive patients, tamoxifen improved both the disease-free rate (47% controls, 80% with tamoxifen) and the survival rate (63% to 83%). Similar results were observed in progesterone receptor positive patients. In patients that were estrogen receptor negative, tamoxifen modified neither the survival rate nor the disease-free interval.

Prognostic factors were evaluated in 109 soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities, walls of the trunk, head, and neck. All lesions were graded according to the systems proposed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the French Federation of Cancer Centers (FNCLCC), and a correlation was found between tumor grade and prognosis. Univariate analysis selected the following variables as unfavorable prognostic factors: invasive tumor margins, extra-compartmental status, deep tumors, tumor diameters over 5 cm, inadequate excision, presence of necrosis, high mitotic count, histologically undifferentiated tumors, and blood vessel invasion. These variables were found to be interdependent. Multivariate analysis selected quality of surgery as the most important variable for predicting local recurrences. The factors selected with regard to overall and metastasis-free survival were tumor size, tumor margins, necrosis, and adequacy of excision. These results permitted classification of patients into four prognostic groups: two with good and two with bad prognosis. Five-year survival for the four groups was 100%, 83%, 53%, and 0%; 5-year metastatic rates were 0%, 12%, 67%, and 100%. Similar groups were obtained when the variables of tumor margins and size were combined with an adaptation of the NCI grading (low-grade tumors/high-grade tumors without necrosis/high-grade tumors with necrosis). Comparative analysis showed that patients with tumors of the same histologic grade or type were not necessarily classed in the same prognostic groups. A better clinicopathologic correlation was obtained using a combination of prognostic factors than with histologic grading or typing alone.

9-hydroxy-2-methyl-ellipticinium (HME) is an intercaling agent mainly potent in metastatic breast cancer. Its almost complete lack of bone marrow toxicity is of greatest value. However, among 385 patients 20 cases of renal failure were observed: renal failure is gradual, non reversible except in four cases with acute renal failure. Histological and ultrastructural studies, performed in 8 cases, showed exclusively proximal tubular lesions, without glomerular or interstitial lesions. We have evidence that there is a relation between the cumulative dose and the severity of the lesions. A prospective study was done in 30 patients. An increase in enzymuria, proteinuria and glycosuria was observed in most patients after HME infusion. HME is an efficient drug in the treatment of bone metastases of breast cancer. Renal function should be carefully monitored during HME administration.

In a period of 18 months, 187 cytology aspiration biopsies of the breast were performed at the Centre François Baclesse by clinicians and radiologists, using the conventional technique. Comparison of the results with clinical, radiological and histological findings by different specialists showed that one out of two aspiration biopsies gave an erroneous diagnosis. The authors believe that this failure was due to the fact that the biopsies were not performed by a cytologist. This prime condition of success should be more clearly expressed in the literature.

The case reported is that of a young woman who underwent a termino-terminal jejno-ileal by-pass procedure for obesity which was refactory to usual forms of treatment. Eight months later, a cholecystectomy was carried out for lithiasis, presenting with abdominal pain. At the time of operation, lesions of cystic pneumatosis were discovered on the excluded length of small bowel. This complication frequently manifests itself in the form of pseudosurgical abdominal pain, or as diarrhoea. More rarly, it is a radiological finding. The pathogenesis remains a subject of discussion. The mechanical theory would seem the most logical, since colonic intraluminal pressure is higher than that in the intestine excluded from the circuit. Bacterial proliferation, classical in blind loops, would be a farourising factor.

No new general review has appeared concerning the malignant changes that can occur in dermoid cysts of the ovary since the works of Peterson in 1957 and Climie and Heath in 1968. A personal case of epidermoid carcinoma--Stage II B--which occurred in a dermoid cyst gave us the opportunity of reviewing the 132 cases published between 1968 and 1985, which bring the total cases published to more than 400. The cancer arises in 1.78% of mature cystic teratomas. The mean age at diagnosis is 53 years and this pathological change is found five times more frequently after than before the menopause. Before laparotomy is carried out there is no clinical sign nor paraclinical evidence of the diagnosis over and above that of a benign cyst. There are all kinds of histological changes but the epidermoid carcinomas occur in 75% of cases. The survival rate for this kind of ovarian tumour is very poor, with 27% survival after 3 years, taking into account all states and all histological types. Epidermoid carcinomas seem to have a better prognosis than other histological types, and an important prognostic feature is the spread and the ability to remove the tumour surgically when it has extended beyond the capsule of the ovary. Although it is not easy to lay down the best therapy for this condition, by and large extended surgery followed by polychemotherapy or radiotherapy are apparently the only ways of improving the poor prognosis for these tumours.