The role of chemotherapy in the management of olfactory neuroblastoma: A 40-year surveillance, epidemiology, and end results registry study

Background: In this retrospective surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) registry analysis, we investigated the role of chemotherapy (CT) in the treatment of olfactory neuroblastoma (ON), an exceedingly rare sino-nasal tumor typically treated with surgery and/or radiation therapy (RT). Methods: We analyzed all patients in the SEER registry diagnosed with a single primary malignancy of ON, a primary tumor site within the nasal cavity or surrounding sinuses, sufficient staging information to derive Kadish staging, and \u3e0 days of survival, ensuring follow-up data. Receipt of CT in the SEER registry was documented as either Yes or No/Unknown. Results: Six hundred and thirty-six patients were identified. One hundred and ninety-five patients received CT as part of their treatment for ON. Following propensity score matching and inverse probability of treatment weighting, there was inferior overall survival (OS) (HR 1.7, 95% CI: 1.3-2.2, P = .001) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) (HR 1.8, 95% CI: 1.3-2.4, P \u3c .001) for patients who received CT compared to those who were not treated with CT or had unknown CT status. On subgroup analysis, the only patient population that derived benefit from CT were patients who did not receive surgery and were treated with CT and/or RT (HR 0.3, 95% CI: 0.14-0.61, P \u3c .001). Conclusions: Based on this retrospective SEER registry analysis, the use of CT in the management of ON is associated with decreased OS. Our analysis suggests that patients who are considered nonsurgical candidates may benefit from the addition of CT

Abiotic and Biotic Stressors Causing Equivalent Mortality Induce Highly Variable Transcriptional Responses in the Soybean Aphid

Environmental stress affects basic organismal functioning and can cause physiological, developmental, and reproductive impairment. However, in many nonmodel organisms, the core molecular stress response remains poorly characterized and the extent to which stress-induced transcriptional changes differ across qualitatively different stress types is largely unexplored. The current study examines the molecular stress response of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) using RNA sequencing and compares transcriptional responses to multiple stressors (heat, starvation, and plant defenses) at a standardized stress level (27% adult mortality). Stress-induced transcriptional changes showed remarkable variation, with starvation, heat, and plant defensive stress altering the expression of 3985, 510, and 12 genes, respectively. Molecular responses showed little overlap across all three stressors. However, a common transcriptional stress response was identified under heat and starvation, involved with up-regulation of glycogen biosynthesis and molecular chaperones and down-regulation of bacterial endosymbiont cellular and insect cuticular components. Stressor-specific responses indicated heat affected expression of heat shock proteins and cuticular components, whereas starvation altered a diverse set of genes involved in primary metabolism, oxidative reductive processes, nucleosome and histone assembly, and the regulation of DNA repair and replication. Exposure to host plant defenses elicited the weakest response, of which half of the genes were of unknown function. This study highlights the need for standardizing stress levels when comparing across stress types and provides a basis for understanding the role of general vs. stressor specific molecular responses in aphids

Abiotic and Biotic Stressors Causing Equivalent Mortality Induce Highly Variable Transcriptional Responses in the Soybean Aphid

Environmental stress affects basic organismal functioning and can cause physiological, developmental, and reproductive impairment. However, in many nonmodel organisms, the core molecular stress response remains poorly characterized and the extent to which stress-induced transcriptional changes differ across qualitatively different stress types is largely unexplored. The current study examines the molecular stress response of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) using RNA sequencing and compares transcriptional responses to multiple stressors (heat, starvation, and plant defenses) at a standardized stress level (27% adult mortality). Stress-induced transcriptional changes showed remarkable variation, with starvation, heat, and plant defensive stress altering the expression of 3985, 510, and 12 genes, respectively. Molecular responses showed little overlap across all three stressors. However, a common transcriptional stress response was identified under heat and starvation, involved with up-regulation of glycogen biosynthesis and molecular chaperones and down-regulation of bacterial endosymbiont cellular and insect cuticular components. Stressor-specific responses indicated heat affected expression of heat shock proteins and cuticular components, whereas starvation altered a diverse set of genes involved in primary metabolism, oxidative reductive processes, nucleosome and histone assembly, and the regulation of DNA repair and replication. Exposure to host plant defenses elicited the weakest response, of which half of the genes were of unknown function. This study highlights the need for standardizing stress levels when comparing across stress types and provides a basis for understanding the role of general vs. stressor specific molecular responses in aphids

A randomized phase 2 study of temsirolimus and cetuximab versus temsirolimus alone in recurrent/metastatic, cetuximab‐resistant head and neck cancer: The MAESTRO study

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155947/1/cncr32929_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155947/2/cncr32929.pd

A randomized phase 2 network trial of tivantinib plus cetuximab versus cetuximab in patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154935/1/cncr32762.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154935/2/cncr32762_am.pd

Evaluation of the influence of kyphosis and scoliosis on intervertebral disc extrusion in French bulldogs

Although thoracic vertebral malformations with kyphosis and scoliosis are often considered incidental findings on diagnostic imaging studies of screw-tailed brachycephalic breeds, they have been suggested to interfere with spinal biomechanics and intervertebral disc degeneration. It is however unknown if an abnormal spinal curvature also predisposes dogs to develop clinically relevant intervertebral disc herniations. The aim of this study was to evaluate if the occurrence of thoracic vertebral malformations, kyphosis or scoliosis would be associated with a higher prevalence of cervical or thoracolumbar intervertebral disc extrusion in French bulldogs

How Long and Low Can You Go? Effect of Conformation on the Risk of Thoracolumbar Intervertebral Disc Extrusion in Domestic Dogs

Intervertebral disc extrusion (IVDE) is a common neurological disorder in certain dog breeds, resulting in spinal cord compression and injury that can cause pain and neurological deficits. Most disc extrusions are reported in chondrodystrophic breeds (e.g. Dachshunds, Basset Hounds, Pekingese), where selection for ‘long and low’ morphologies is linked with intervertebral discs abnormalities that predispose dogs to IVDE. The aim of this study was to quantify the relationship between relative thoracolumbar vertebral column length and IVDE risk in diverse breeds. A 14 month cross-sectional study of dogs entering a UK small animal referral hospital for diverse disorders including IVDE was carried out. Dogs were measured on breed-defining morphometrics, including back length (BL) and height at the withers (HW). Of 700 dogs recruited from this referral population, measured and clinically examined, 79 were diagnosed with thoracolumbar IVDE following diagnostic imaging ± surgery. The BL:HW ratio was positively associated with IVDE risk, indicating that relatively longer dogs were at increased risk, e.g. the probability of IVDE was 0.30 for Miniature Dachshunds when BL:HW ratio equalled 1.1, compared to 0.68 when BL:HW ratio equalled 1.5. Additionally, both being overweight and skeletally smaller significantly increased IVDE risk. Therefore, selection for longer backs and miniaturisation should be discouraged in high-risk breeds to reduce IVDE risk. In higher risk individuals, maintaining a lean body shape is particularly important to reduce the risk of IVDE. Results are reported as probabilities to aid decision-making regarding breed standards and screening programmes reflecting the degree of risk acceptable to stakeholders

Multicenter evaluation of parametric response mapping as an indicator of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156134/2/ajt15814_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156134/1/ajt15814.pd

Astrophysically Triggered Searches for Gravitational Waves: Status and Prospects

In gravitational-wave detection, special emphasis is put onto searches that focus on cosmic events detected by other types of astrophysical observatories. The astrophysical triggers, e.g. from gamma-ray and X-ray satellites, optical telescopes and neutrino observatories, provide a trigger time for analyzing gravitational wave data coincident with the event. In certain cases the expected frequency range, source energetics, directional and progenitor information is also available. Beyond allowing the recognition of gravitational waveforms with amplitudes closer to the noise floor of the detector, these triggered searches should also lead to rich science results even before the onset of Advanced LIGO. In this paper we provide a broad review of LIGO's astrophysically triggered searches and the sources they target

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom