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Additional file 2. World Health Organization Trial Registration Data Set (this document outlines the basic information of this trial as registered on the clinical trial registry).

Additional file 1. SPIRIT checklist (it is a document providing evidence-based recommendation of the content and format of a clinical trial protocol).

This paper reports on the long-term effectiveness of a non-formal co-curricular educational program based on a campus ecogarden at a Hong Kong university in developing pro-sustainability awareness, attitudes and behavior among undergraduate students. This service-based, nature-based experiential learning program, termed the Ecogarden Farmer and Biodiversity Surveyor, has been running at the university since 2015. The program is divided into two consecutive phases: a training phase comprising various learning activities and a successive internship phase consisting of the all-round practical tasks involved in managing the garden. A retrospective evaluation of the program using phenomenographic approach and content analysis was adopted to reveal the diversity of students’ learning experience, as the indicators of the success of the program. Of 112 participants from 4 cohorts, 32 completed online questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews were successfully conducted with twelve participants, three from each of the four cohorts. The results indicated that the program’s outcomes could be categorized into five themes. Most outcomes fit into the theme ‘an increase in knowledge and skill level,’ followed by ‘rise in environmental awareness,’‘facilitation of personal growth,’ and ‘enhancement of career development.’ Many structural experiences revealed may suggest the success of the program. The longer the participants had participated in the program, the more in-depth and diversified reflection of the senior participants relating to personal development were mentioned. This study provides critical insights into the validity of retrospective program evaluation for assessing the long-term impact of EfS programs by introducing a cross-sectional study of different cohorts as a serial time-point sampling strategy.

Additional file 2. Embase Search strategy.

Additional file 1. PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) 2015 checklist: recommended items to address in a systematic review protocol.

As Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) modulation scheme is adopted for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications, simple and noise-robust synchronisation algorithms for GMSK are desired to meet the limited resources of power, storage and size in WBAN. However, the current synchronisation algorithms for GMSK are either too complicated or have unsatisfactory performance for low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), especially for coded GMSK systems. The authors will propose the synchronisation algorithms for general GMSK systems with three unknown synchronisation parameters, namely, timing, frequency and phase offsets estimation. By incorporating noise/interference-reduction methods, the authors propose low-complexity synchronisation algorithms for GMSK that can achieve satisfactory performance in low SNR region. Furthermore, their new feedforward timing and frequency recovery algorithms can provide much better performance than those in the literature by using reliability-measuring mechanism for timing estimation and two-phase frequency estimation. The data-aided Cramer–Rao bounds (CRBs) for the joint estimation of GMSK synchronisation parameters are also derived. The numerical results show that the performance of their proposed synchronisation algorithms is close to the CRBs. The overall bit error rate performance for both uncoded and Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenhem BCH-coded GMSK systems are examined. The performance loss owing to synchronisation errors can be reduced to about 1 dB with their proposed algorithms.

BACKGROUND: Based on the encouraging activity and manageable safety profile observed in a phase 1 study, the ECHELON-2 trial was initiated to compare the efficacy and safety of brentuximab vedotin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (A+CHP) versus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) for the treatment of CD30-positive peripheral T-cell lymphomas.METHODS: ECHELON-2 is a double-blind, double-dummy, randomised, placebo-controlled, active-comparator phase 3 study. Eligible adults from 132 sites in 17 countries with previously untreated CD30-positive peripheral T-cell lymphomas (targeting 75% with systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma) were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive either A+CHP or CHOP for six or eight 21-day cycles. Randomisation was stratified by histological subtype according to local pathology assessment and by international prognostic index score. All patients received cyclophosphamide 750 mg/m2 and doxorubicin 50 mg/m2 on day 1 of each cycle intravenously and prednisone 100 mg once daily on days 1 to 5 of each cycle orally, followed by either brentuximab vedotin 1·8 mg/kg and a placebo form of vincristine intravenously (A+CHP group) or vincristine 1·4 mg/m2 and a placebo form of brentuximab vedotin intravenously (CHOP group) on day 1 of each cycle. The primary endpoint, progression-free survival according to blinded independent central review, was analysed by intent-to-treat. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01777152.FINDINGS: Between Jan 24, 2013, and Nov 7, 2016, 601 patients assessed for eligibility, of whom 452 patients were enrolled and 226 were randomly assigned to both the A+CHP group and the CHOP group. Median progression-free survival was 48·2 months (95% CI 35·2-not evaluable) in the A+CHP group and 20·8 months (12·7-47·6) in the CHOP group (hazard ratio 0·71 [95% CI 0·54-0·93], p=0·0110). Adverse events, including incidence and severity of febrile neutropenia (41 [18%] patients in the A+CHP group and 33 [15%] in the CHOP group) and peripheral neuropathy (117 [52%] in the A+CHP group and 124 [55%] in the CHOP group), were similar between groups. Fatal adverse events occurred in seven (3%) patients in the A+CHP group and nine (4%) in the CHOP group.INTERPRETATION: Front-line treatment with A+CHP is superior to CHOP for patients with CD30-positive peripheral T-cell lymphomas as shown by a significant improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival with a manageable safety profile.FUNDING: Seattle Genetics Inc, Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmacuetical Company Limited, and National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute Cancer Center.

Biomineralisation offers the potential for in-situ sequestration and subsequent reduction in the bioavailability of heavy metals and radionuclides in the subsurface environment. Calcium carbonate minerals are known to sorb and form solid solutions with a range of target elements, and are readily produced by the actions of common microorganisms on simple chemical precursors. The ability of a commonly used urea-degrading, calcium carbonate-precipitating bacterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii, to tolerate the presence of a model contaminant, strontium, was determined in aqueous solution, with reduction in growth only seen at concentrations of 10 mM. Its ability to remove strontium from solution via calcium carbonate precipitation was then determined, and here S. pasteurii was shown to be able to remove 99% (+/- 1%) strontium from solution at concentrations up to 30 mM. This suggests that biomineralisation of metallic elements may afford a protective mechanism for the bacteria through providing a means to reduce the overall concentrations to tolerable levels. Finally, we explored the effects of ground conditions on mineralisation and strontium sequestration in different sand fractions (fine, medium and coarse), in a series of batch experiments. Almost all (97-99%) strontium present was removed from aqueous solution after three days, whereas no precipitation was observed in control samples over the same period. The amount of strontium removed increased with coarseness of sand grains under these static conditions, although over a very small range.

The concept of self-healing, whereby materials such as polymers, composites and cementitious construction materials are able to sense damage or deterioration and regulate, adapt and repair themselves automatically, is applied here to natural and anthropogenic soil structures. Damage in such structures can be difficult to detect and monitor, and will have significant consequences, but maintenance and repair are costly and disruptive. This paper presents an overview of the self-healing concept, its potential within geotechnical engineering and results from preliminary experiments exploring the potential for self-healing through the actions of living organisms such as bacteria. We report a simple experimental example, which demonstrates the potential for bacterial activity in microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation of coarse-grained soils to persist and heal damage. Sands stabilized through calcium carbonate precipitation effected by Sporosarcina pasteurii were sheared and rehealed with only additional supply of nutrients, recovering a proportion of the original strength. This example is a simple demonstration of the ability of living organisms to adapt and respond to damage, and suggests the potential for this ability to be harnessed by engineers to design structures that can heal themselves.