How can research institutions support responsible supervision and leadership?

Supervisors, PhD candidates and research leaders are expected to be the primary persons responsible for maintaining a high research integrity standards. However, research institutions should support them in this effort, by promoting responsible supervision and leadership practices. Although it is clear that institutions play a crucial role in this, there is a lack of institutional guidelines focusing on these topics. The development of the experience-based guidelines presented in this article consisted of a multi-step, iterative approach. We engaged 16 experts in supervision and research integrity in four workshops to co-create institutional guidelines for responsible supervision and leadership. To revise the guidelines and make them operational, we formed a dedicated working group and consulted experts in the field of supervision. This resulted in three guidelines focusing on what institutions can do to support: responsible supervision, PhD candidates during their PhD trajectory, and responsible leadership. The recommendations focus on the rights and responsibilities of the three targeted stakeholder groups, and institutions' responsibilities for the personal development and well-being of supervisors, PhD candidates and research leaders. The three guidelines can be used by institutions to foster responsible supervision and leadership by supporting researchers to conduct research with integrity.

Public perceptions and expectations: Disentangling the hope and hype of organoid research

Organoid technologies are rapidly advancing and hold great potential and hope for disease modeling and clinical translational research. Still, they raise a number of complex, ethical questions regarding their current and future use. Patient and public involvement is important in building public trust and helping to secure responsible conduct and valued innovations; nevertheless, research into patient and public perspectives on organoid technologies remains scarce. We report on a first public dialogue on organoid technologies through three cross-country deliberative workshops with a diverse group of stakeholders to identify their perceptions and concerns. Participants generally support organoid technologies on the condition that responsible governance, ethical oversight, and sound informed consent procedures are in place. Yet, a broad set of potential concerns are identified, primarily concerning commercialization, healthcare access, and cerebral organoids. Participants' insights and recommendations can help inform researchers and ethics and policy bodies toward supporting responsible and ethical organoid approaches.

Researchers on research integrity: a survey of European and American researchers

BACKGROUND

Reports of questionable or detrimental research practices (QRPs) call into question the reliability of scientific evidence and the trustworthiness of research. A critical component of the research ecosystem is the organization within which research takes place. We conducted a survey to explore the attitudes and beliefs of European and American researchers about the organisations in which they work, their own research practices and their attitudes towards research integrity and research integrity policies.

METHODS

We administered an online survey (International Research Integrity Survey (IRIS)) to 2,300 active researchers based in the US and 45,000 in Europe (including UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland).  We employed a stratified probability sample of the authors of research articles published between 2016 and 2020 included in Clarivate's Web of Science citation database. Coverage includes researchers in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and medical sciences, who hold at least a master's level degree.

RESULTS

In comparison to researchers in the US, European researchers admit to more QRPs and are less confident in maintaining high research integrity (RI) standards. In the US and Europe, many researchers judge their organization to fall short of best RI practice. All researchers recognize the benefits of RI, reliable knowledge and the trust of colleagues and the public, and there is support for RI training particularly among Europeans.

CONCLUSION

To create and maintain a culture of integrity in scientific research, a collective commitment from researchers, their institutions and funders is needed. Researchers rely on many channels of communication about research integrity and thus the involvement of many different participants in the research system is required to make improvements. Policies must be developed to reinforce best practice rather than being seen as an irrelevance to the real business of research.

Organoids in the Clinic: A Systematic Review of Outcomes

Research on organoids has undergone significant advances during the last decade. However, outcomes from the use of organoids in clinical trials have not yet been documented. Therefore, there is an urgent need to assess the reporting of clinically relevant outcomes from organoid research in the scientific literature. This article presents a systematic review and appraisal of the published literature in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, together with a synopsis of recent relevant reviews. Surprisingly, no randomized controlled trials have reported clinical outcomes with any types of organoids. We found very few ongoing and registered studies that may provide clinically relevant results within this decade. Our screening and interpretation of the literature, including review articles, indicate a focus on technical and preclinical aspects of organoid research. This is the first systematic review of clinical trials involving organoids. Few clinical studies are planned or already underway, and, so far, no high-quality evidence relating to the clinical outcomes of organoid research has been published. The many promises of organoid research still need to be translated from bench to bed.

Designing and implementing a research integrity promotion plan: Recommendations for research funders

Various stakeholders in science have put research integrity high on their agenda. Among them, research funders are prominently placed to foster research integrity by requiring that the organizations and individual researchers they support make an explicit commitment to research integrity. Moreover, funders need to adopt appropriate research integrity practices themselves. To facilitate this, we recommend that funders develop and implement a Research Integrity Promotion Plan (RIPP). This Consensus View offers a range of examples of how funders are already promoting research integrity, distills 6 core topics that funders should cover in a RIPP, and provides guidelines on how to develop and implement a RIPP. We believe that the 6 core topics we put forward will guide funders towards strengthening research integrity policy in their organization and guide the researchers and research organizations they fund.

Nanocharacterization, Materials Modeling, and Research Integrity as Enablers of Sound Risk Assessment: Designing Responsible Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology, as a mature enabling technology, has great potential to boost societal welfare. However, nanomaterials' current and foreseen applications raise serious concerns about their impact on human health and the environment. These concerns emerge because a reliable risk assessment in nanotechnology is yet to be achieved. The reasons for such a shortcoming are the inherent difficulties in characterizing nanomaterials properties. The interaction of characterization with modeling is an open issue and, due to overarching concerns about the reliability of research results, usually framed within the context of research integrity. This essay explores the connection between these different, but deeply intertwined concerns and the way they enable the production of responsible nanotechnology, i.e., nanotechnology devoted to societal welfare.

Vitrification of incinerated tannery sludge in silicate matrices for chromium stabilization

The vitrification process was applied for the stabilization and solidification of a rich in chromium ash that was the by-product of incineration of tannery sludge. Six different batch compositions were produced, based on silica as the glass former and sodium and calcium oxides as flux agents. As-vitrified products (monoliths) were either composed of silicate matrices with separated from the melt Eskolaite (Cr₂O₃) crystallites or were homogeneous glasses (in one case). All as-vitrified products were thermally treated in order to transform them to partially crystallized, i.e. devitrified products. Devitrification is an important part of the work since studying the transformation of the initial as-vitrified products into glass-ceramics with better properties could result to stabilized products with potential added value. The devitrified products were diversified by the effective crystallization mode and separated crystal phase composition. These variations originated from differences in: (a) batch composition of the initial as-vitrified products and (b) thermal treatment conditions. In devitrified products crystallization led to the separation of Devitrite (Na₂Ca₃Si₆O₁₆), Combeite (Na₄Ca₄Si₆O₁₈) and Wollastonite (CaSiO₃) crystalline phases, while Eskolaite crystallites were not affected by thermal treatment. Leaching test results revealed that chromium was successfully stabilized inside the as-vitrified monoliths. Devitrification impairs chromium stabilization, only in the case where the initial as-vitrified product was a homogeneous glass. In all other cases, devitrification did not affect successful chromium stabilization.

An experimental bioactive dental ceramic for metal-ceramic restorations: Textural characteristics and investigation of the mechanical properties

The aim of this study was the evaluation of the textural characteristics of an experimental sol-gel derived feldspathic dental ceramic, which has already been proven bioactive and the investigation of its flexural strength through Weibull Statistical Analysis. The null hypothesis was that the flexural strength of the experimental and the commercial dental ceramic would be of the same order, resulting in a dental ceramic with apatite forming ability and adequate mechanical integrity. Although the flexural strength of the experimental ceramics was not statistically significant different compared to the commercial one, the amount of blind pores due to processing was greater. The textural characteristics of the experimental ceramic were in accordance with the standard low porosity levels reported for dental ceramics used for fixed prosthetic restorations. Feldspathic dental ceramics with typical textural characteristics and advanced mechanical properties as well as enhanced apatite forming ability can be synthesized through the sol-gel method.

Incineration of tannery sludge under oxic and anoxic conditions: study of chromium speciation

A tannery sludge, produced from physico-chemical treatment of tannery wastewaters, was incinerated without any pre-treatment process under oxic and anoxic conditions, by controlling the abundance of oxygen. Incineration in oxic conditions was performed at the temperature range from 300°C to 1200°C for duration of 2h, while in anoxic conditions at the temperature range from 400°C to 600°C and varying durations. Incineration under oxic conditions at 500°C resulted in almost total oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI), with CaCrO4 to be the crystalline phase containing Cr(VI). At higher temperatures a part of Cr(VI) was reduced, mainly due to the formation of MgCr2O4. At 1200°C approximately 30% of Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III). Incineration under anoxic conditions substantially reduced the extent of oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI). Increase of temperature and duration of incineration lead to increase of Cr(VI) content, while no chromium containing crystalline phase was detected.

The size effect of crystalline inclusions on the fracture modes in glass-ceramic materials

The main parameters influencing the mechanical performance of glass-ceramic materials are the shape and mean size of the ceramic phase, i.e. the crystalline inclusions. The aim of the present work is twofold: first, to study the effect of the above parameters on the modes of fracture in two kinds of glass-ceramic materials by the use of the static microindentation technique; second, to interpret the experimental results by the application of a simple physical model. It was found that reduction in the size of granularly shaped crystallite inclusions or reduction of the width of needle-like crystalline inclusions results in an increase of the extent of crack propagation, while the fracture mode shifts from intergranular to transgranular. These observations were successfully interpreted in terms of energetic arguments related to the size of the crystalline inclusions with respect to the width of a disordered zone acting as an interface between them and the amorphous matrix.

On the distribution and bonding environment of Zn and Fe in glasses containing electric arc furnace dust: a mu-XAFS and mu-XRF study

We apply synchrotron radiation assisted X-ray fluorescence (SR-XRF), SR-XRF mapping as well as micro- and conventional X-ray absorption fine structure (mu-XAFS and XAFS) spectroscopies in order to study the bonding environment of Fe and Zn in vitrified samples that contain electric arc furnace dust from metal processing industries. The samples are studied in the as-cast state as well as after annealing at 900 degrees C. The SR-XRF results demonstrate that annealing does not induce any significant changes in the distribution of either Fe or Zn, in both the as-cast and annealed glasses. The mu-XAFS spectra recorded at the Fe-K and Zn-K edges reveal that the structural role of both Fe and Zn remains unaffected by the annealing procedure. More specifically, Fe forms both FeO(6) and FeO(4) polyhedra, i.e. acts as an intermediate oxide while Zn occupies tetrahedral sites.

Glass-ceramic materials from electric arc furnace dust

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) was vitrified with SiO2, Na2CO3 and CaCO3 powders in an electric furnace at ambient atmosphere. Vitreous products were transformed into glass-ceramic materials by two-stage heat treatment, at temperatures determined by differential thermal analysis. Both vitreous and glass-ceramic materials were chemically stable. Wollastonite (CaSiO3) was separated from the parent matrix as the dominant crystalline phase, verified by X-ray diffraction analysis and energy dispersive spectrometry. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that wollastonite crystallizes mainly in its monoclinic form. Knoop microhardness was measured with the static indentation test method in all initial vitreous products and the microhardness values were in the region of 5.0-5.5 GPa. Devitrification resulted in glass-ceramic materials with microhardness values strongly dependent on the morphology and orientation of the separated crystal phase.

Vitrification of lead-rich solid ashes from incineration of hazardous industrial wastes

Lead-rich solid industrial wastes were vitrified by the addition of glass formers in various concentrations, to produce non-toxic vitreous stabilized products that can be freely disposed or used as construction materials. Toxicity of both the as-received industrial solid waste and the stabilized products was determined using standard leaching test procedures. The chemically stable vitreous products were subjected to thermal annealing in order to investigate the extent of crystal separation that could occur during cooling of large pieces of glass. Leaching tests were repeated to investigate the relation between annealing process and chemical stability. X-ray, scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques were employed to identify the microstructure of stabilized products before and after thermal treatment. Relation between synthesis and processing, chemical stability and microstructure was investigated.

The effect of photo-activated glazes on the microhardness of acrylic baseplate resins

OBJECTIVE

A comparative investigation of acrylic denture base surface microhardness, induced through glazing with different photo-activated liquids.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thermopolymerized acrylic resin Paladon 65 (Kulzer) was used for this study. The samples were mechanically thinned by silicon carbide grinding papers and finally, mechanically polished by alumina pastes. The samples were then glazed with Palaseal, Plaquit and Lightplast-Lack photo-activated liquids. Microhardness tests were carried out via a Zeiss optical microscope equipped with an Anton Paar microhardness tester fitted with a Knoop indenter.

RESULTS

Microhardness testing performed on surfaces glazed by Plaquit, Lightplast-Lack, and Palaseal photo-activated liquids showed enhanced microhardness values compared to the mechanically polished acrylic resin denture base material.

CONCLUSIONS

Comparative microhardness tests performed on acrylic base resin treated with photo-activated acrylic glazes showed that all increases the surface microhardness. The enhancement of surface microhardness of acrylic denture bases suggests that they are likely to resist wear during service.