Prospectus, February 9, 1983

FOCUS ON ARCOLA…; News Digest; 292 vote in election; Pro-file: PS instructor Alan Hartter; More to PM job than fun, travel; New senators thank voters; Weapons are big business; Off-beat comedy set for PC drama team; Students offer suggestions on priorities; \u27Police must be flexible; C-U happenings; Club Notes; Works by Taft on display; Skylines; Plants may be blue; Roses are red; Amish have chosen Arcola area as home; Tourism and manufacturing vital to Arcola\u27s continued growth; Arcola sweeps broom market; NASA footage highlights evening; PBS celebrates Black History Month; Movie fans face heavy dose of déja vu; Guest artists gathered; False sincerity comes across; Future may see change in TV and radio ads; Classified; Holiday busy time for PO; Job seekers can learn; Cardinals proud to be champions; Athletic schedule; Sports junkies take delight in ESPN sports networkhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1983/1027/thumbnail.jp

Diagnostic performance of FibroTest, SteatoTest and ActiTest in patients with NAFLD using the SAF score as histological reference

BACKGROUND: Blood tests of liver injury are less well validated in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) than in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. AIMS: To improve the validation of three blood tests used in NAFLD patients, FibroTest for fibrosis staging, SteatoTest for steatosis grading and ActiTest for inflammation activity grading. METHODS: We pre‐included new NAFLD patients with biopsy and blood tests from a single‐centre cohort (FibroFrance) and from the multicentre FLIP consortium. Contemporaneous biopsies were blindly assessed using the new steatosis, activity and fibrosis (SAF) score, which provides a reliable and reproducible diagnosis and grading/staging of the three elementary features of NAFLD (steatosis, inflammatory activity) and fibrosis with reduced interobserver variability. We used nonbinary‐ROC (NonBinAUROC) as the main endpoint to prevent spectrum effect and multiple testing. RESULTS: A total of 600 patients with reliable tests and biopsies were included. The mean NonBinAUROCs (95% CI) of tests were all significant (P < 0.0001): 0.878 (0.864–0.892) for FibroTest and fibrosis stages, 0.846 (0.830–0.862) for ActiTest and activity grades, and 0.822 (0.804–0.840) for SteatoTest and steatosis grades. FibroTest had a higher NonBinAUROC than BARD (0.836; 0.820–0.852; P = 0.0001), FIB4 (0.845; 0.829–0.861; P = 0.007) but not significantly different than the NAFLD score (0.866; 0.850–0.882; P = 0.26). FibroTest had a significant difference in median values between adjacent stage F2 and stage F1 contrarily to BARD, FIB4 and NAFLD scores (Bonferroni test P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with NAFLD, SteatoTest, ActiTest and FibroTest are non‐invasive tests that offer an alternative to biopsy, and they correlate with the simple grading/staging of the SAF scoring system across the three elementary features of NAFLD: steatosis, inflammatory activity and fibrosis

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Convergence of an iterative algorithm for computing parameters of multi-valued threshold functions

Функция k-значной логики f (x,..., xn), для которой существует линейная форма L (xi,..., xn) = aixi + a2x2 + ... + anxn, Xi e Zk, с вещественными коэффициентами и набор вещественных порогов bo < bi < ... < bk, такие, что для всех i e e {0,... ,k — 1} выполняется условие f (x1, . . . ,xn) = i ^ bi @ L (x1, . . . ,xn) < bi+1, называется пороговой k-значной функцией. Под алгоритмом характеризации пороговой k-значной функции понимается процедура нахождения коэффициентов a1, a2, . . . , an линейной формы L (x1, ..., xn) и множества порогов b0,b1, ..., bk- 1. В работе доказывается сходимость алгоритма нахождения коэффициентов линейной формы и порогов (характеризации) k-значных пороговых функций по столбцу значений. Основная идея алгоритма заключается в раздельном последовательном вычислении коэффициентов линейной формы и порогов. В качестве первичной аппроксимации линейной формы используются коэффициенты роста либо коэффициенты возрастания и итеративно осуществляется корректировка линейной формы. После нахождения коэффициентов линейной формы вычисляются разделяющие пороги

Gaze laterality bias for faces in Williams Syndrome

Although faces are more or less symmetrical, we frequently show a left gaze bias (LGB) to faces implicating right hemisphere processing and a Right Hemisphere Dominance model for face/emotion processing. Interestingly, individuals with Autism, whose behaviour is characterised by social withdrawal, have previously been reported to show a lack of right hemisphere face dominance. We report data from eye tracking studies exploring face gaze bias in the developmental disorder Williams syndrome (WS). Preliminary gaze analyses indicate that WS individuals show an atypically extreme LGB when evaluating emotional expressions. This is particularly interesting given the hypersociable and emotionally sensitive profile associated with the disorder and the implications of these data will be discussed

Strategic Thinking and the IMP Approach: a Comparative Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to compare the IMP approach with five important schools of thought in strategy, with the aims of establishing what areas of agreement and disagreement exist and identifying whether the IMP approach can yield unique insights into strategy, strategizing, and the strategy process. We compare and contrast the IMP approach with, in turn, the rational planning approach to strategy associated with Ansoff, the positioning approach associated with Porter, the resource-based view associated with Barney, the deliberate/emergent approach associated with Mintzberg, and the strategy-as-practice approach associated with Whittington. As we move through these five schools of thought \u2013 which are addressed in a roughly chronological order - we discern an increasing degree of alignment with the assumptions and methods of IMP scholars. The outcome from our analysis is a suggested research agenda designed to bring the concepts and methods of industrial networks research to bear upon strategy, strategizing, and the strategy process