Notes

A thorough threat score regarding powerful risk stratification along with testing associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
ALTERTASTE is a prospective study to evaluate changes in taste/flavor perception and food preferences in patients treated with adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast or colorectal cancer. The study adopts a longitudinal approach. Taste and odor responsiveness, food preferences and habits, emotions elicited by foods, and quality of life will be measured at six-time points before chemotherapy (T0), after two cycles (T1, after around 1 month), after four cycles (T2, after around 2 months), after six cycles (T3, after around 4 months), at the end of chemotherapy (T4, after around 6 months) and 3 months after the conclusion of the therapy (T5). In addition, patients will be characterized for oral responsiveness and their psychological traits and attitudes toward food. The ALTERTASTE trial is expected to improve the understanding of the impact of chemotherapy on taste and smell and the repercussions of these alterations on food behaviors. Furthermore, the trial aims to develop an easy and reliable procedure to test smell, taste and food behavior alterations to allow a routine measure with patients. Clinical trial registration NCT04495387 (ClinicalTrials.gov).Background Assessments of functional connectivity of default mode network (DMN) and positive task-related networks (TRNs) using independent component analysis (ICA) may help describe long-term effects of childhood brain tumors and adjuvant treatments. Methods Aiming to identify potential neuronal markers that may aid in prognosis and inform interventions to optimize outcomes, this study used ICA to evaluate the presence of functional connectivity networks and their recruitment during a letter n-back task in 23 adult survivors of childhood posterior fossa tumors (9 low grade, 14 high grade) at least 5 years past diagnosis compared with 40 age- and sex-matched healthy peers. Results DMN components generally demonstrated increasing disengagement as task difficulty increased, and relationships between effective DMN disengagement and improved performance were observed in healthy controls (HCs). see more Low-grade brain tumor survivors (LGS) demonstrated unique patterns in DMN recruitment that suggested increased involvemenment of default mode network components in the context of similar cognitive abilities, whereas survivors of high-grade tumors demonstrated poorer cognitive abilities and may be utilizing compensatory executive control network components in the face of challenging tasks. Long-term clinical follow-up and cognitive remediation is warranted for both groups, including low grade cerebellar tumor patients who have traditionally not been monitored as closely.Background Pareidolias are visual phenomena wherein ambiguous, abstract forms or shapes appear meaningful due to incorrect perception. In Parkinson's disease (PD), patients susceptible to visual hallucinations experience visuo-perceptual deficits in the form of pareidolias. While pareidolias necessitate top-down modulation of visual processing, the cortical dynamics of internally generated perceptual priors on these visual misperceptions is unknown. Objectives To study pre-stimulus related EEG spectral and network abnormalities in PD patients experiencing pareidolias. Methods 21 PD in-patients and 10 age-matched healthy controls were evaluated. Neuropsychological assessments included tests for cognition, attention and executive functions. To evoke and quantify pareidolias, participants performed the noise pareidolia test (NPT) with simultaneous EEG recording. PD patients were sub-divided into two groups - those with high pareidolia counts (N=10) and those without (N=11). EEG was analyzed 1000ms before stimuluprocessing with external stimuli.Background Brain interdependencies can be studied from either a structural/anatomical perspective ("structural connectivity") or by considering statistical interdependencies ("functional connectivity" [FC]). Interestingly, while structural connectivity is by definition pairwise (white-matter fibers project from one region to another), FC is not. However, most FC analyses only focus on pairwise statistics and they neglect higher order interactions. A promising tool to study high-order interdependencies is the recently proposed O-Information, which can quantify the intrinsic statistical synergy and the redundancy in groups of three or more interacting variables. Methods We analyzed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained at rest from 164 healthy subjects with ages ranging in 10 to 80 years and used O-Information to investigate how high-order statistical interdependencies are affected by age. Results Older participants (from 60 to 80 years old) exhibited a higher predominance of redundant dependencies compared with younger participants, an effect that seems to be pervasive as it is evident for all orders of interaction. In addition, while there is strong heterogeneity across brain regions, we found a "redundancy core" constituted by the prefrontal and motor cortices in which redundancy was evident at all the interaction orders studied. Discussion High-order interdependencies in fMRI data reveal a dominant redundancy in functions such as working memory, executive, and motor functions. Our methodology can be used for a broad range of applications, and the corresponding code is freely available.Background Graph theory and connectomics are new techniques for uncovering disease-induced changes in the brain's structural network. Most prior studied have focused on network statistics as biomarkers of disease. However, an emerging body of work involves exploring how the network serves as a conduit for the propagation of disease factors in the brain and has successfully mapped the functional and pathological consequences of disease propagation. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), progressive deposition of misfolded proteins amyloid and tau is well-known to follow fiber projections, under a "prion-like" trans-neuronal transmission mechanism, through which misfolded proteins cascade along neuronal pathways, giving rise to network spread. Methods In this review, we survey the state of the art in mathematical modeling of connectome-mediated pathology spread in AD. Then we address several open questions that are amenable to mathematically precise parsimonious modeling of pathophysiological processes, extrapolated to t point to several open and unaddressed questions and controversies that future practitioners can tackle.Background Aging is accompanied by a gradual deterioration in multiple cognitive abilities and brain structures. Both cognitive function and white matter (WM) structure are found to be associated with neurodegeneration diseases and correlated with sex during aging. However, it is still unclear whether the brain structural change could be attributable to sex, and how sex would affect cognitive performances during aging. Materials and Methods Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were performed on 1127 healthy participants (age range 21-89) at a single site. The age trajectories of the WM tract microstructure were delineated to estimate the turning age and changing rate between sexes. The canonical correlation analysis and moderated mediation analysis were used to examine the relationship between sex-linked WM tracts and cognitive performances. Results The axon intactness and demyelination of sex-linked tracts during aging were multifaceted. Sex-linked tracts in females peak around 5 years later than those in males but change significantly faster after the turning age. Projection and association tracts (e.g., corticospinal tracts and parahippocampal cingulum) contributed to a significant decrease in visuospatial functions (VS) and executive functions (E). We discovered that there is a stronger indirect effect of sex-linked tracts on cognitive functions in females than in males. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the vulnerable projection and association tracts in females may induce negative impacts on integrating multiple functions, which results in a faster decrease in VS and E.
To investigate the potential for decreasing radiation dose when utilizing a third generation versus second generation dual-source dual-energy CT scanner, while maintaining diagnostic image quality and acceptable image noise.

Retrospective analysis of patients who underwent dual-source dual-energy CT (dsDECT) for clinical suspicion of urolithiasis from 10/2/2017 - 9/5/2018. Patient demographics, body mass index, abdominal diameter, scanning parameters, and CT dose index volume (CTDIvol) were recorded. Image quality was assessed by measuring the attenuation and standard deviation (SD) regions of interest in the aorta and in the bladder. Image noise was determined by averaging the SD at both levels. Patients were excluded if they had not undergone both 3rd and 2nd generation DECT, time between DECT was more than 2 years, or scan parameters were outside standard protocol.

117 patients met inclusion criteria. Examinations performed on a 3rd generation DECT had an average CTDIvol 12.3 mGy, while examinations performed on a 2nd generation DECT had an average CTDIvol 13.3 mGy (p<0.001). Average image noise was significantly lower for the 3rd generation DECT (SD=10.3) as compared to the 2nd generation DECT (SD=13.9) (p<0.001).

The third generation dsDECT scanners can simultaneously decrease patient radiation dose and decrease image noise as compared to second generation DECT. These reductions in radiation exposure can be particularly important in patients with urinary stone disease who often require repeated imaging to evaluate for stone development and recurrence as well as treatment assessment.
The third generation dsDECT scanners can simultaneously decrease patient radiation dose and decrease image noise as compared to second generation DECT. These reductions in radiation exposure can be particularly important in patients with urinary stone disease who often require repeated imaging to evaluate for stone development and recurrence as well as treatment assessment.Cucurbitacins (CUCUs) are triterpenoids known to display potent cytotoxic effects; however, their clinical application is limited due to poor pharmacokinetics and systemic toxicity. This work focuses on the development of c(RGDyK)-CUCU conjugates for the selective delivery of CUCUs to integrin-overexpressing cancer cells. The activity of the conjugates against various cancer cells was studied. They exhibited a mild cytostatic effect to six cancer cell lines and a cytotoxic effect against integrin-overexpressing MCF-7 and A549 cells. Their chemical and metabolic stability was extensively studied using LC-MS analysis. The conjugates maintained high affinity for αvβ3 integrin receptors. c(RGDyK) conjugation via a PEG linker was beneficial for CUCU-D and the resulting conjugate was approximately three-times more active than the free CUCU-D in MCF7 cells.Aim Teaching of genetics and pharmacogenetics with personal genotyping (PGT) is becoming commonplace. We aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to understand the effects of PGT on student outcomes. Methods A systematic review was performed on studies that reported the effects of PGT on student attitudes, perceptions or knowledge. Extracted data were summarized qualitatively and when possible, quantitatively. Results Student PGT has a positive effect on student attitude and perceptions survey responses in studies without a control group (p = 0.009) and in studies with a control group (p = 0.025). Knowledge increased after the use of PGT (p less then 0.001) in studies without a control group. Conclusion The findings here suggest that perceptions, attitudes and knowledge increase with PGT in the classroom.
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