A quantitative weight of evidence (QWoE) methodology was developed and used to assess many higher-tier studies on the effects of three neonicotinoid insecticides: clothianidin (CTD), imidacloprid (IMI), and thiamethoxam (TMX) on honeybees. A general problem formulation, a conceptual model for exposures of honeybees, and an analysis plan were developed. A QWoE methodology was used to characterize the quality of the available studies from the literature and unpublished reports of studies conducted by or for the registrants. These higher-tier studies focused on the exposures of honeybees to neonicotinoids via several matrices as measured in the field as well as the effects in experimentally controlled field studies. Reports provided by Bayer Crop Protection and Syngenta Crop Protection and papers from the open literature were assessed in detail, using predefined criteria for quality and relevance to develop scores (on a relative scale of 0-4) to separate the higher-quality from lower-quality studies and those relevant from less-relevant results. The scores from the QWoEs were summarized graphically to illustrate the overall quality of the studies and their relevance. Through mean and standard errors, this method provided graphical and numerical indications of the quality and relevance of the responses observed in the studies and the uncertainty associated with these two metrics. All analyses were conducted transparently and the derivations of the scores were fully documented. The results of these analyses are presented in three companion papers and the QWoE analyses for each insecticide are presented in detailed supplemental information (SI) in these papers.

中文翻译：

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关于蜜蜂中新烟碱类杀虫剂的毒性和风险的高级研究的证据评估的定量权重：方法。

开发了定量的证据权重（QWoE）方法，并将其用于评估关于三种新烟碱类杀虫剂：可尼丁（CTD），吡虫啉（IMI）和噻虫嗪（TMX）对蜜蜂的影响的许多高级研究。制定了一般问题表述，蜜蜂暴露的概念模型以及分析计划。QWoE方法用于从文献中以及由注册人或为注册人进行的未发表研究报告中表征现有研究的质量。这些较高层的研究集中于通过实地测量的几种基质将蜜蜂暴露于新烟碱类药物，以及在实验控制的实地研究中的效果。详细评估了拜耳作物保护和先正达作物保护提供的报告以及公开文献中的论文，使用预定义的质量和相关性标准来开发分数（相对等级为0-4），以将较高质量的研究与较低质量的研究分开，将相关性与较不相关的结果分开。QWoE的得分以图形方式进行了汇总，以说明研究的整体质量及其相关性。通过均值和标准差，该方法提供了图形和数字指示，表明研究中观察到的反应的质量和相关性以及与这两个指标相关的不确定性。所有分析都是透明进行的，并且分数的推导已得到充分记录。这些分析的结果在三篇随附的论文中进行了介绍，而每种杀虫剂的QWoE分析在这些论文中提供了详细的补充信息（SI）。