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The Neotropical species of the rarely collected genus Bolitogyrus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Staphylinini) are revised. The genus exhibits an uncommon, disjunct distribution between the Neotropical and Oriental Regions and is of unknown phylogenetic position within Staphylinini. Morphological evolution remarkable for Staphylinini was discovered within Bolitogyrus, including sexually dimorphic modifications of the pronotum that may be involved in male competition for females. rSEM interactive animations were used to establish morphological species boundaries between two highly variable species and are provided to illustrate diagnostic characters of the genitalia in unconventional views. The genus is redescribed based on the world fauna and twenty-eight Neotropical species are considered valid. Of these, nineteen are described as new to science: Bolitogyrus ashei sp. n.; B. apicofasciatus sp. n.; B. brevistellus sp. n.; B. bufo sp. n.; B. cheungi sp. n.; B. cornutus sp. n.; B. divisus sp. n.; B. falini sp. n.; B. gracilis sp. n.; B. inexspectatus sp. n.; B. longistellus sp. n.; B. marquezi sp. n.; B. newtoni sp. n.; B. pseudotortifolius sp. n.; B. pulchrus sp. n.; B. silex sp. n.; B. thomasi sp. n.; B. tortifolius sp. n.; and B. viridescens sp. n. Bolitogyrus sallei (Kraatz), stat. r. is removed from synonymy with B. buphthalmus (Erichson) and the following new synonyms are proposed: Cyrtothorax cyanescens Sharp, 1884, syn. n. = Quedius buphthalmus Erichson, 1840; C. nevermanni Scheerpeltz, 1974, syn. n. = C. costaricensis Wendeler, 1927. A summary of all available bionomic and distributional data, as well as an illustrated identification key to and diagnoses of all Neotropical species are provided.

Background: We wished to compare the nuisance parameters of pediatric vs. adult randomized-trials (RCTs) and determine if the latter can be used in sample size computations of the former.Methods: In this meta-epidemiologic empirical evaluation we examined meta-analyses from the Cochrane Database of Systematic-Reviews, with at least one pediatric-RCT and at least one adult-RCT. Within each meta-analysis of binary efficacy-outcomes, we calculated the pooled-control-group event-rate (CER) across separately all pediatric and adult-trials, using random-effect models and subsequently calculated the control-group event-rate risk-ratio (CER-RR) of the pooled-pediatric-CERs vs. adult-CERs. Within each meta-analysis with continuous outcomes we calculated the pooled-control-group effect standard deviation (CE-SD) across separately all pediatric and adult-trials and subsequently calculated the CE-SD-ratio of the pooled-pediatric-CE-SDs vs. adult-CE-SDs. We then calculated across all meta-analyses the pooled-CER-RRs and pooled-CE-SD-ratios (primary endpoints) and the pooled-magnitude of effect-sizes of CER-RRs and CE-SD-ratios using REMs. A ratio < 1 indicates that pediatric trials have smaller nuisance parameters than adult trials.Results: We analyzed 208 meta-analyses (135 for binary-outcomes, 73 for continuous-outcomes). For binary outcomes, pediatric-RCTs had on average 10% smaller CERs than adult-RCTs (summary-CE-RR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.83, 0.98). For mortality outcomes the summary-CE-RR was 0.48 (95% CIs: 0.31, 0.74). For continuous outcomes, pediatric-RCTs had on average 26% smaller CE-SDs than adult-RCTs (summary-CE-SD-ratio: 0.74).Conclusions: Clinically relevant differences in nuisance parameters between pediatric and adult trials were detected. These differences have implications for design of future studies. Extrapolation of nuisance parameters for sample-sizes calculations from adult-trials to pediatric-trials should be cautiously done.

The authors also acknowledge the support and collaboration of many other colleagues in their respective institutes, research communities and IT Infrastructures, together with the funding received by these from many different sources. These include but are not limited to the following: (i) The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) project is a global collaboration of more than 170 computing centres in 43 countries, linking up national and international grid infrastructures. Funding is acknowledged from many national funding bodies and we acknowledge the support of several operational infrastructures including EGI, OSG and NDGF/NeIC. (ii) EGI acknowledges the funding and support received from the European Commission and the many National Grid Initiatives and other members. EOSC-hub receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 777536. (iii) The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 730941 (AARC2). (iv) Work on the development of ESGF's identity management system has been supported by The UK Natural Environment Research Council and funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration through projects IS-ENES (grant agreement no 228203) and IS-ENES2 (grant agreement no 312979). (v) Ludek Matyska and Michal Prochazka acknowledge funding from the RI ELIXIR CZ project funded by MEYS Czech Republic No. LM2015047. (vi) Scott Koranda acknowledges support provided by the United States National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-1700765. (vii) GÉANT Association on behalf of the GN4 Phase 2 project (GN4-2).The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 731122(GN4-2). (viii) ELIXIR acknowledges support from Research Infrastructure programme of Horizon 2020 grant No 676559 EXCELERATE. (ix) CORBEL life science cluster acknowledges support from Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654248. (x) Mirjam van Daalen acknowledges that the research leading to this result has been supported by the project CALIPSOplus under the Grant Agreement 730872 from the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020. (xi) EISCAT is an international association supported by research organisations in China (CRIRP), Finland (SA), Japan (NIPR), Norway (NFR), Sweden (VR), and the United Kingdom (NERC). This white-paper expresses common requirements of Research Communities seeking to leverage Identity Federation for Authentication and Authorisation. Recommendations are made to Stakeholders to guide the future evolution of Federated Identity Management in a direction that better satisfies research use cases. The authors represent research communities, Research Services, Infrastructures, Identity Federations and Interfederations, with a joint motivation to ease collaboration for distributed researchers. The content has been edited collaboratively by the Federated Identity Management for Research (FIM4R) Community, with input sought at conferences and meetings in Europe, Asia and North America.

Ample evidence supports the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for anxiety disorders. Nonetheless, currently there is no evidence about moderators or potential negative effects of VR treatment strategies. An Individual Patient Data (IPD) approach was employed with 15 retrieved datasets. The current study sample was composed of 810 patients. Randomized control trials (RCTs) for each primary outcome measure were performed, in addition to moderator analyses of the socio-demographic variables. Deterioration rates were 14 patients (4.0%) in VR, 8 (2.8%) in active control conditions, and 27 (15%) in the WL condition. With regard to receiving treatment, patients in a waiting list control condition had greater odds of deteriorating than in the two active conditions, odds ratios (ORs) 4.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.05, 0.67]. In the case of the socio-demographic variables, none of them were associated with higher or lower odds of deterioration, with the exception of marital status in the WL condition; married people presented a significantly lower probability of deterioration, OR 0.19, 95% CI [0.05, 0.67]. Finally, when comparing pooled effects of VR versus all control conditions, the OR was 0.61 (95% CI 0.31–1.23) in favor of VR, although this result was not statistically significant. This study provides evidence about the deterioration rates of a therapeutic VR approach, showing that the number of deteriorated patients coincides with other therapeutic approaches, and that deterioration is less likely to occur, compared to patients in WL control groups.

Background Rare Disease research has seen tremendous advancements over the last decades, with the development of new technologies, various global collaborative efforts and improved data sharing. To maximize the impact of and to further build on these developments, there is a need for model consent clauses for rare diseases research, in order to improve data interoperability, to meet the informational needs of participants, and to ensure proper ethical and legal use of data sources and participants’ overall protection. Methods A global Task Force was set up to develop model consent clauses specific to rare diseases research, that are comprehensive, harmonized, readily accessible, and internationally applicable, facilitating the recruitment and consent of rare disease research participants around the world. Existing consent forms and notices of consent were analyzed and classified under different consent themes, which were used as background to develop the model consent clauses. Results The IRDiRC-GA4GH MCC Task Force met in September 2018, to discuss and design model consent clauses. Based on analyzed consent forms, they listed generic core elements and designed the following rare disease research specific core elements; Rare Disease Research Introductory Clause, Familial Participation, Audio/Visual Imaging, Collecting, storing, sharing of rare disease data, Recontact for matching, Data Linkage, Return of Results to Family Members, Incapacity/Death, and Benefits. Conclusion The model consent clauses presented in this article have been drafted to highlight consent elements that bear in mind the trends in rare disease research, while providing a tool to help foster harmonization and collaborative efforts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12910-019-0390-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This study investigates the efficacy of using discarded textile (cotton and polycotton) and paper waste (newspaper and corrugated cardboard) as substrates to form sheets with optimum tensile strength. The effect of alkali treatment (sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)), compressive loads (200 N and 500 N), and the use of binding agents (blackstrap molasses, sodium alginate, and cornstarch) were studied to optimize the tensile strength of homogeneous sheets. The alkali treatment using 5% NaOH for 5 h of soaking demonstrated the highest increase in tensile strength of 21% and 19% for cotton and newspaper, respectively. Increasing compressive load from 200 N to 500 N showed the highest increase in tensile strength of 37% and 42% for cotton and newspaper, respectively. Remarkably, among the binders, cornstarch at 20% concentration obtained an increase in tensile strength of 395%, 320%, 310%, and 185% for cotton, polycotton, corrugated cardboard, and newspaper sheets, respectively. The optimum results obtained from this study will be utilized to develop biodegradable seedling pots using discarded textile and paper waste.

The success of invasive species has been explained by two contrasting but non-exclusive views: (i) intrinsic factors make some species inherently good invaders; (ii) species become invasive as a result of extrinsic ecological and genetic influences such as release from natural enemies, hybridization or other novel ecological and evolutionary interactions. These viewpoints are rarely distinguished but hinge on distinct mechanisms leading to different management scenarios. To improve tests of these hypotheses of invasion success we introduce a simple mathematical framework to quantify the invasiveness of species along two axes: (i) interspecific differences in performance among native and introduced species within a region, and (ii) intraspecific differences between populations of a species in its native and introduced ranges. Applying these equations to a sample dataset of occurrences of 1,416 plant species across Europe, Argentina, and South Africa, we found that many species are common in their native range but become rare following introduction; only a few introduced species become more common. Biogeographical factors limiting spread (e.g. biotic resistance, time of invasion) therefore appear more common than those promoting invasion (e.g. enemy release). Invasiveness, as measured by occurrence data, is better explained by inter-specific variation in invasion potential than biogeographical changes in performance. We discuss how applying these comparisons to more detailed performance data would improve hypothesis testing in invasion biology and potentially lead to more efficient management strategies.

In this paper, we study a type-2 fuzzy classification method. Granular computing can help us to model the relationships between human-based system and social sciences in this field. The links in a social network often reflect social relationships among users. In this work, we investigate a classification identifying the relationships among social network users based on certain social network property, granular computing approach and Type 2 fuzzy logic. We evaluate our approach on large scale real-world data from Renren network, showing that the accuracy of the prediction of our classification algorithm is higher than the type 1 fuzzy analysis and the crisp approach.

Women in low- and middle-income countries have high rates of perinatal depression. As smartphones become increasingly accessible around the world, there is an opportunity to explore innovative mHealth tools for the prevention, screening, and management of perinatal depression. We completed a scoping review of the literature pertaining to the use of mobile phone technologies for perinatal depression in low-and middle-income countries. PubMed CINHAL, and Google Scholar databases were searched, generating 423 results. 12 articles met our inclusion criteria. Two of the 12 articles reviewed mobile phone applications. The remaining 9 articles were study protocols or descriptive/intervention studies. Our results reveal that minimal literature is currently available on the use of mobile health for perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries. We found four articles that present the results of an intervention that were delivered through mobile phones for the treatment of perinatal depressive symptoms and an additional qualitative study describing the perceptions of mothers receiving cognitive behavioral therapy via telephones. These studies demonstrated that depressive symptoms improved after the interventions. There is potential to improve the quality of mHealth interventions, specifically mobile phone applications for perinatal depressive symptoms and depression, through meaningful collaborative work between healthcare professionals and application developers.

The Niphta Theischinger fauna of South America is revised to include 11 species, nine of which are described as new to science (N. acus Pivar, sp. nov., N. bifurcata Pivar &amp; Moulton, sp. nov., N. bispinosa Pivar &amp; Sinclair, sp. nov., N. brunnea Pivar, sp. nov., N. courtneyi Pivar, sp. nov., N. daniellae Pivar, sp. nov., N. downesi Pivar, sp. nov., N. eurydactyla Pivar, sp. nov., N. mapuche Pivar, sp. nov.). The genus Niphta is redefined, both previously described Chilean species are redescribed, N. halteralis (Edwards) and N. nudipennis (Edwards), and females are described or redescribed where possible. The first descriptions of the immature stages of South American Niphta are provided, which represent a new larval morphotype in Thaumaleidae, as larvae and pupae possess ventral adhesive structures. Furthermore, these larvae were collected from vegetation rather than rocky substrates. Illustrations and micrographs are provided for all species, and scanning electron microscopy images are included for select immatures. A key to species, distribution maps, and discussions regarding phylogenetic affinities and habitat are also included.