Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meta‐Analysis on Induction Chemotherapy in Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Abstract Purpose Concurrent chemo radiotherapy (CCRT) has been the standard of care in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA‐NPC) for many years. The role of induction chemotherapy (ICT) has always been controversial. This systematic review and meta‐analysis investigates the value of adding ICT to CCRT in LA‐NPC. Materials and Methods Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing ICT followed by CCRT versus CCRT alone, including treatment‐naive adult patients with histologically proven nonmetastatic LA‐NPC. Results Eight RCTs with in total 2,384 randomized patients, of whom 69% had N2–N3 disease, were selected. ICT was the allocated treatment in 1,200 patients, of whom 1,161 actually received this. Treatment compliance varied, with a median rate of 92% (range, 86%–100%) of patients receiving all cycles of ICT. The percentage of patients completing radiotherapy was 96% and 95% [(Combined Risk difference(CRD)= 0.004; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) –0.001–0.01; p = 0.14)] in the ICT group and CCRT group, respectively, whereas chemotherapy during radiotherapy could be completed in only 28% of the ICT group versus 61% in the CCRT group (CRD, −0.243; 95% CI, −0.403 to −0.083; p = .003). Grade 3–4 acute toxicity was mostly hematologic during the ICT phase (496 events vs. 191 nonhematologic) and was predominant in the ICT group (1,596 events vs. 1,073 in the CCRT alone group) during the CCRT. Adding ICT to CCRT provided a significant benefit in overall survival (hazard ratio [HR], 0.680; 95% CI, 0.511–0.905; p = .001) and progression‐free survival (HR, 0.657; 95% CI, 0.568–0.760; p < .001). Conclusion Although ICT followed by CCRT is associated with more acute toxicity and a lower compliance of the chemotherapy during the CCRT phase, this association resulted in a clinically meaningful survival benefit. ICT should be considered as a standard option in patients with LA‐NPC, but further study on optimal patient selection for this treatment is warranted. Implications for Practice Locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA‐NPC) is a relatively common disease in some parts of the world, with a rather poor prognosis due to its high metastatic potential. The role of induction chemotherapy (ICT) has always been controversial. This meta‐analysis found that ICT followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in LA‐NPC is associated with a significant clinical improvement in both overall survival and progression‐free survival compared with CCRT alone. ICT should be considered as a standard option in patients with LA‐NPC.
Prenatal features, associated co‐morbidities and clinical course of agenesis of the ductus venosus in the current era

Agenesis of the ductus venosus (ADV) has been associated with additional anomalies in up to 83% of cases. We sought to investigate characteristics, co‐morbidities and outcomes of ADV in the current era. We hypothesized that rates of cardiac and non‐cardiac diagnoses and survival would be higher, due to advances in genetic testing, prenatal diagnosis and surveillance.
A Preliminary Evaluation of the Utility of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Symptoms in Predicting Behavioral Treatment Response in Children with Behavioral Difficulties

Interest in symptoms of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) has led to a number of studies evaluating how these symptoms respond to treatment commonly utilized in youths with symptoms of ADHD. No study to date, however, has examined the extent to which symptoms of SCT predict behavioral treatment response in youths across multiple domains of functioning. The current preliminary investigation integrates a number of methodological (e.g., direct observations) and analytic (e.g., Poisson regression) refinements to evaluate the extent to which symptoms of SCT predict treatment responses across multiple domains including behavioral (e.g., interruptions, rule violations), social (e.g., social skills, negative verbalizations), and severe behavioral difficulties (e.g., intentional aggression) above and beyond other demographic characteristics (e.g., symptom severity, Full Scale Intelligence Quotient [FSIQ]). A relatively small sample of 37 children, aged six to 12 years (M = 8.03, SD = 1.83, 35 males: 2 females) attending an eight week multi-component intensive behavioral treatment program for youths with behavioral difficulties participated in the current study. Baseline parental perceptions of SCT were collected prior to the initiation of treatment. Results from this preliminary investigation revealed that pre-treatment SCT symptoms only predicted a less robust treatment response to time out which was associated also with parent’s perceptions of underlying working memory problems. Results revealed also that pre-treatment SCT symptoms failed to predict paraprofessional counselor’s and teacher’s improvement ratings of both rule following and social skills following treatment. Notably, other potential predictors (e.g., symptom severity, FSIQ) also largely failed to predict behavioral treatment response.
The respiratory and gut physiology of fish : responses to environmental change

25 Introduction . 26 Methods . 29 Literature Search . 29 Database Construction. 30 Results. 32 Database Coverage . 32 Pcrit Methodology . 33 Biotic and Abiotic Interactions . 34 Discussion . 37
Next generation sequencing guided treatment modulation and prognosis in Acute myeloid leukemia: Case vignettes.

OBJECTIVE The genomic mutational landscape of Acute Myeloid Leukemia has contributed to better treatment options, risk stratification and prognostication of this genetically heterogeneous disease. With several approved new drugs targeting specific mutations with better outcomes, we describe here two cases of AML in which, NPM1 was detected at diagnosis. The impact of age, type of treatment, stability of NPM1 mutation, and co-occurring mutations on survival are the essential parameters for investigation. METHOD Both the cases of AML were females, >60 years of age with normal 46XX karyotype. Allele specific RT-PCR and fragment analysis was performed for the detection of NPM1-A mutation at diagnosis. Both the patients were unfit for intensive chemotherapy therefore reduced intensity induction chemotherapy regimen was initially administered. Next-generation sequencing was performed for comprehensive mutational profiling, which guided targeted treatment, prognostic stratification, and response assessment. RESULT We report that the older AML patients with NPM1 mutation may not have a good outcome with intensive chemotherapy, especially patients with concurrent DNMT3A/IDH-1/2 mutations. In the second case with mutated NPM1, concurrent FLT3-ITD mutation served as a therapeutic target. The FLT3 inhibitor used in combination with standard therapy showed promising results in this case. CONCLUSION Here, we emphasize on the utility of next generation sequencing in guiding the treatment initiation or modulation during the disease course and risk stratification in AML. In conclusion, conventional chemotherapy in AML gives very poor overall survival rates and targeted chemotherapy against specific mutations may drastically improve patient survival and treatment outcomes.
Making L-BFGS Work with Industrial-Strength Nets

L-BFGS has been one of the most popular methods for convex optimization, but good performance by L-BFGS in deep learning has been elusive. Recent work has modiﬁed L-BFGS for deep networks for classiﬁcation tasks and been able to show performance competitive with SGD and Adam (the most popular current algorithms) when batch normalization is not used. However, this work cannot be applied with batch normalization. Since batch normalization is a defacto standard and important to good performance in deep networks, this still limits the use of L-BFGS. In this paper, we address this issue. Our proposed method can be used as a drop-in replacement without changing existing code. The proposed method performs consistently better than Adam and existing L-BFGS approaches, and comparable to carefully tuned SGD. We show results on three datasets, CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and STL-10 using three different popular deep networks ResNet, DenseNet and Wide ResNet. This work marks another signiﬁcant step towards making L-BFGS competitive in the deep learning community.
Downregulation of miR‐326 and its host gene β‐arrestin1 induces pro‐survival activity of E2F1 and promotes medulloblastoma growth

Persistent mortality rates of medulloblastoma (MB) and severe side effects of the current therapies require the definition of the molecular mechanisms that contribute to tumor progression. Using cultured MB cancer stem cells and xenograft tumors generated in mice, we show that low expression of miR‐326 and its host gene β‐arrestin1 (ARRB1) promotes tumor growth enhancing the E2F1 pro‐survival function. Our models revealed that miR‐326 and ARRB1 are controlled by a bivalent domain, since the H3K27me3 repressive mark is found at their regulatory region together with the activation‐associated H3K4me3 mark. High levels of EZH2, a feature of MB, are responsible for the presence of H3K27me3. Ectopic expression of miR‐326 and ARRB1 provides hints into how their low levels regulate E2F1 activity. MiR‐326 targets E2F1 mRNA, thereby reducing its protein levels; ARRB1, triggering E2F1 acetylation, reverses its function into pro‐apoptotic activity. Similar to miR‐326 and ARRB1 overexpression, we also show that EZH2 inhibition restores miR‐326/ARRB1 expression, limiting E2F1 pro‐proliferative activity. Our results reveal a new regulatory molecular axis critical for MB progression.
Hospital acquired infections in COVID-19 patients in sub intensive care unit

The aim of this study is to assess the association among species of bacteria and to identify the presence of clusters of patients in sub intensive care unit with different profiles of infection, and to study the relationship between such profiles and patient demographics (gender, age), kind of investigations and material used to detect the infection. The findings need to analyse a bigger amount of data in the same setting to make evident that it is constant the infection only with Escherichia coli and Staphylocossus epidemidis and a third case in which more bacteria are inlvolved. (www.actabiomedica.it)
Annual Research Review: Prevention of psychosis in adolescents - systematic review and meta-analysis of advances in detection, prognosis and intervention.

BACKGROUND The clinical high-risk state for psychosis (CHR-P) paradigm has facilitated the implementation of psychosis prevention into clinical practice; however, advancements in adolescent CHR-P populations are less established. METHODS We performed a PRISMA/MOOSE-compliant systematic review of the Web of Science database, from inception until 7 October 2019, to identify original studies conducted in CHR-P children and adolescents (mean age <18 years). Findings were systematically appraised around core themes: detection, prognosis and intervention. We performed meta-analyses (employing Q statistics and I2 test) regarding the proportion of CHR-P subgroups, the prevalence of baseline comorbid mental disorders, the risk of psychosis onset and the type of interventions received at baseline. Quality assessment and publication bias were also analysed. RESULTS Eighty-seven articles were included (n = 4,667 CHR-P individuals). Quality of studies ranged from 3.5 to 8 (median 5.5) on a modified Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Detection: Individuals were aged 15.6 ± 1.2 years (51.5% males), mostly (83%) presenting with attenuated positive psychotic symptoms. CHR-P psychometric accuracy improved when caregivers served as additional informants. Comorbid mood (46.4%) and anxiety (31.4%) disorders were highly prevalent. Functioning and cognition were impaired. Neurobiological studies were inconclusive. PROGNOSIS Risk for psychosis was 10.4% (95%CI: 5.8%-18.1%) at 6 months, 20% (95%CI: 15%-26%) at 12 months, 23% (95%CI: 18%-29%) at 24 months and 23.3% (95%CI: 17.3%-30.7%) at ≥36 months. INTERVENTIONS There was not enough evidence to recommend one specific treatment (including cognitive behavioural therapy) over the others (including control conditions) to prevent the transition to psychosis in this population. Randomised controlled trials suggested that family interventions, cognitive remediation and fish oil supplementation may improve cognition, symptoms and functioning. At baseline, 30% of CHR-P adolescents were prescribed antipsychotics and 60% received psychotherapy. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to detect and formulate a group-level prognosis in adolescents at risk for psychosis. Future interventional research is required.
EFFECTS OF L-CARNITINE ADMINISTRATION ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, CARCASSTRAITS AND SOME SERUM COMPONENTS OF JAPANESE QUAIL (COTURNIX COT. JAPONICA)

The present study was conducted to examine the effects of 100 mg carnitine chlohydrate/l administration via drinking water on growth performance, carcass traits and blood serum components in Japanese quails. Two hundred a-dayold chicks were divided into two groups, allocated to 5 replicates, each consisting of 20 chicks. At the end of the 6 weeks experimental period, results indicated that administration of l-Carnitine did not significantly influence growth performance and carcass traits in quails. Administration of l-Carnitine did not significantly affect serum cholesterol, total lipid, triglycerid, total protein and albumin levels (P > 0.05) but increased the glucose level (P < 0.05).
Arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi alleviate transplantation shock in micropropagated grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.)

Summary The effects of root inoculation with seven different arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) (Acaulospora laevis, A. scorbiculata, Entrophospora colombiana, Gigaspora gigantea, Glomus manihotis, Scutellospora heterograma) and a commercial mixed inoculum (consisting of Glomus moessae, G. manihotis and Gigaspora gigantea) on tissue culture-derived grapevine plantlets were studied during the hardening stage, under glasshouse conditions. Sixty days after inoculation, the percentages of plantlet survival, vine lengths, plant fresh and dry weights, leaf areas, photosynthetic rates, total chlorophyll contents, proline concentrations, nitrate reductase activities and nutrient status were determined. AMF-treated plantlets were superior to control plantlets for all parameters measured. Ex vitro survival rates of micropropagated grapevine plantlets were almost doubled as a result of AMF-inoculation. Correlations were calculated between the extent of root colonisation by AMF and the different parameters.Among the physiological and growth parameters, the highest positive correlation (r = 0.852) was noted for photosynthetic rate, followed by leaf area (r = 0.839). Among the biochemical parameters, the highest correlation was with proline content (r = 0.979) followed by nitrate reductase activity (r = 0.865). For nutrient status, the maximum correlation was between with AMF-colonisation and Zn (r = 0.880), followed by P (r = 0.835). With respect to the different parameters studied, A. laevis, G. manihotis and the mixed inoculum were identified as the most effective inocula. Our results indicated that AMF-colonisation could be an efficient technique to reduce the shock of transplantation for in vitro-raised grapevine plantlets for commercial use.
Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Fractional CO2 Laser Treatment in Post-Menopausal Women with Vaginal Atrophy.

Background and Aim We have previously reported improvement of clinical symptoms of genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) at 3 and 6 months following three CO2 laser treatments. The current paper presents the results of long term follow up at 12, 15- and 18-months post laser treatment. Methods Twenty subjects (mean age 60.65 ± 6.34 years) who had completed the core study participated in follow-up. Subjects were evaluated at 12, 15, and 18 months following final laser therapy. An optional maintenance treatment was offered during Month 12 and Month 15 to those women who failed to increase their Vaginal Health Index Score (VHIS) by more than 34% from their individual baseline, or if the subject desired an additional treatment. At each study visit, VHIS and vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA) symptom severity were recorded. Sexual function was assessed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Results Fifteen subjects were eligible for a single maintenance treatment (N = 2, at 12 months, and N = 13 at 15 Months). The mean VHIS (± standard deviation) remained significantly improved at 12 months following their last laser treatment (16.3 ± 4.5 vs. Baseline 12.4 ± 4.0; p < 0.05) and at the 15- and 18-months follow up visits as well (16.9 ± 4.6 and 17.1 ± 4.6, respectively; p < 0.05 compared to Baseline). Almost all VVA symptoms were significantly improved at 12 months following the third treatment compared to Baseline and this improvement was sustained at 15 and 18 months. At the 12 Months visit, the total FSFI score increased significantly (N = 15, 24.4 ± 6.9; p < 0.05), and at the 15- and 18-month follow-up visits, the total FSFI remained significantly higher than Baseline (22.2 ± 6.7, 25.8 ± 6.6). Conclusion Fractional CO2 laser treatments are effective in alleviating symptoms of VVA and sexual dysfunction in post-menopausal women, and that effects are sustained over the long-term.
Synchrony of Spontaneous Burst Firing between Retinal Ganglion Cells Across Species

Neurons communicate with other neurons in response to environmental changes. Their goal is to transmit information to their targets reliably. A burst, which consists of multiple spikes within a short time interval, plays an essential role in enhancing the reliability of information transmission through synapses. In the visual system, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the output neurons of the retina, show bursting activity and transmit retinal information to the lateral geniculate neuron of the thalamus. In this study, to extend our interest to the population level, the burstings of multiple RGCs were simultaneously recorded using a multi-channel recording system. As the first step in network analysis, we focused on investigating the pairwise burst correlation between two RGCs. Furthermore, to assess if the population bursting is preserved across species, we compared the synchronized bursting of RGCs between marmoset monkey (callithrix jacchus), one species of the new world monkeys and mouse (C57BL/6J strain). First, monkey RGCs showed a larger number of spikes within a burst, while the inter-spike interval, burst duration, and inter-burst interval were smaller compared with mouse RGCs. Monkey RGCs showed a strong burst synchronization between RGCs, whereas mouse RGCs showed no correlated burst firing. Monkey RGC pairs showed significantly higher burst synchrony and mutual information than mouse RGC pairs did. Comprehensively, through this study, we emphasize that two species have a different bursting activity of RGCs and different burst synchronization suggesting two species have distinctive retinal processing.
Effects of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on in-hospital outcomes of patients with hypertension and confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19

Abstract Background There is an ongoing controversy about harms and benefits of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) in hypertensive patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Given the unresolved debate, we investigated the association of ARBs with in-hospital outcomes of these patients. Methods In this retrospective observational study, we studied patients with COVID-19 who referred to Sina Hospital in Tehran, Iran, from February 20 to May 29, 2020. Patients with either positive real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction test of swab specimens, or high clinical suspicion according to the World Health Organization's interim guidance were included. We followed-up patients for incurring death, severe COVID-19, and in-hospital complications. Results We evaluated 681 patients with COVID-19 of whom 37 patients were excluded due to incomplete medical records and 8 patients who used ACEIs which left 636 patients in the analysis. In this cohort, 108 (17.0%) patients expired and 407 (64.0%) patients incurred severe COVID-19. Of 254 (39.9%) patients with hypertension, 122 (48.0%) patients were receiving an ARB. After adjustment for possible confounders, we found no independent association between taking ARBs and in-hospital outcomes except for acute kidney injury (AKI), in patients with confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19, either hypertensive or not-hypertensive. We found that discontinuation of ARBs during hospitalization was associated with a greater risk of mortality, invasive ventilation, and AKI (All P˂0.002). Conclusions We found that taking ARBs by patients with hypertension and confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19 is not associated with poorer in-hospital outcomes after adjustment for possible confounders.
Psychiatric Nurses' Role in the Holocaust and Current Implications.

The 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp was on January 27th , 2020. The numbers of people able to provide first person accounts of the atrocities of the Holocaust are dwindling. Psychiatric nurses were perpetrators of human atrocities committed in Germany under Nazi rule and it is incumbent upon us that we do not allow our involvement to be erased from our professional history. Several psychiatric nurses were tried in criminal courts after the war. Some were executed, some were sentenced to prison, and others were acquitted. The purpose of this paper is to describe how psychiatric nurses came to be involved in the murder of more than 10,000 ill and disabled German citizens, to examine their culpability, and to explore implications to current issues in nursing.
Recurrent constellations of embryonic malformations re‐conceptualized as an overlapping group of disorders with shared pathogenesis

Several recurrent malformation associations affecting the development of the embryo have been described in which a genetic etiology has not been found, including LBWC, MURCS, OAVS, OEIS, POC, VACTERL, referred to here as “recurrent constellations of embryonic malformations” (RCEM). All are characterized by an excess of reported monozygotic discordant twins and lack of familial recurrence. We performed a comprehensive review of published twin data across all six phenotypes to allow a more robust assessment of the association with twinning and potential embryologic timing of a disruptive event. We recorded the type of twinning, any overlapping features of another RCEM, maternal characteristics, and the use of ART. Statistically significant associations included an excess of monozygotic twins and 80% discordance rate for the phenotype across all twins. There was an 18.5% rate of ART and no consistently reported maternal adverse events during pregnancy. We found 24 instances of co‐occurrence of two RCEM, suggesting a shared pathogenesis across all RCEM phenotypes. We hypothesize the following timing for RCEM phenotypes from the earliest perturbation in development to the latest: LBWC, POC, OEIS, VACTERL, OAVS, then MURCS. The RCEM group of conditions should be considered a spectrum that could be studied as a group.