Is having difficulty meeting the recommended physical activity guidelines associated with cognitive difficulties in US adults?

This abstract summarizes and gives a brief overview of our analytical research study on the associations of meeting physical activity guidelines and cognitive difficulties such as difficulty remembering/concentrating

The association between race and survival in glioblastoma patients in the US: A retrospective cohort study

Background Glioblastoma is the most common primary brain cancer in adults with an incidence of 3.4 per 100,000, making up about 15% of all brain tumors. Inconsistent results have been published in regard differences in survival between white and black glioblastoma patients. The objective of this to study the association between race and in Glioblastoma patients in the USA during 2010–2014. Methods and findings The National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database were used to evaluate race/ethnicity (White non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islanders non-Hispanic (API)) and Hispanic) adults patients with first-time diagnosis of glioblastoma (International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, 3rd Edition [ICD-O-3], codes C711-C714, and histology type 9440/3) from 2010–2014. The primary outcome was 3-year overall survival which was defined as months from diagnosis to death due to any cause and cancer, Kaplan-Meier (KM) and log-rank test were used to compare overall survival times across race groups. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the independent effect of race on 3-year survival. Age, gender, health insurance coverage, primary site, tumor size, extent of surgery and year of diagnosis were included in the adjusted model. The 3-year overall survival for API-non Hispanic (NH) patients decreased by 25% compared with White NH glioblastoma patients (hazard ratio (HR) 0.75; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62–0.90)) after adjusting for age, gender, health insurance, primary site, tumor size, and extent of the surgery. Black NH (HR 0.95; 95% CI 0.80–1.13) and Hispanic (HR 1.01, 95% CI 0.84–1.21) exhibited similar mortality risks compared with White NH patients. Conclusion Compared with White NH, API NH with glioblastoma have a better survival. The findings from this study can help increase the accuracy of the prognostic outlook for white, black and API patients with GBM

Smoking as a Risk Factor for Surgical Site Complications in Implant-Based Breast Surgery

Background Smoking is a cause of many postoperative complications, including delayed wound healing, tissue necrosis, and reconstructive flap loss. However, there is a paucity of evidence-based guidelines for smoking cessation in patients undergoing implant-based breast surgery. Objective The objective of this study was to determine if smoking is associated with wound dehiscence or superficial/deep surgical site infection (SSI) in women undergoing implant-based breast surgery. Methods Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, data was obtained of U.S. adult females (n=10,077) between the ages of 18 and 70 who underwent insertion of a breast prosthesis from 2014 to 2016. The patient's preoperative smoking status, demographics, and comorbidities were analyzed to determine association with wound dehiscence, superficial SSI, and deep SSI. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results Patients who smoked had a statistically significant higher proportion of wound complications (2.4%) compared to non-smokers (1.3%; p Conclusions Our study suggests that smoking is an independent risk factor for postoperative complications in patients undergoing implant-based breast surgery. These results have significant clinical implications, as increased precautions can be taken in smokers undergoing breast surgery to minimize postoperative wound complications. Future studies may determine the optimal amount of time that patients should abstain from smoking prior to implant-based breast surgery.Peer reviewe

Smoking as a Risk Factor for Surgical Site Complications in Implant-Based Breast Surgery

Background Smoking is a cause of many postoperative complications, including delayed wound healing, tissue necrosis, and reconstructive flap loss. However, there is a paucity of evidence-based guidelines for smoking cessation in patients undergoing implant-based breast surgery. Objective The objective of this study was to determine if smoking is associated with wound dehiscence or superficial/deep surgical site infection (SSI) in women undergoing implant-based breast surgery. Methods Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, data was obtained of U.S. adult females (n=10,077) between the ages of 18 and 70 who underwent insertion of a breast prosthesis from 2014 to 2016. The patient's preoperative smoking status, demographics, and comorbidities were analyzed to determine association with wound dehiscence, superficial SSI, and deep SSI. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results Patients who smoked had a statistically significant higher proportion of wound complications (2.4%) compared to non-smokers (1.3%; p Conclusions Our study suggests that smoking is an independent risk factor for postoperative complications in patients undergoing implant-based breast surgery. These results have significant clinical implications, as increased precautions can be taken in smokers undergoing breast surgery to minimize postoperative wound complications. Future studies may determine the optimal amount of time that patients should abstain from smoking prior to implant-based breast surgery.Peer reviewe

Calidad térmica a través de un gradiente altitudinal para una comunidad de lagartijas en la sierra del Ajusco y el Pedregal de San Ángel, México

ResumenSe evaluó y comparó la calidad térmica del hábitat para una comunidad de lagartijas (9 especies) en un gradiente altitudinal (2 320-3 530 m) en la sierra del Ajusco y Pedregal de San Ángel para determinar si los ambientes térmicos diferentes pueden definir límites de distribución y termorregulación. Se seleccionaron 6 sitios diferentes en altitud y tipo de vegetación para monitorear la temperatura operativa ambiental. Se calculó la calidad térmica mediante la desviación de la temperatura operativa con respecto al intervalo de temperaturas seleccionadas por las lagartijas. Los resultados sugieren 3 tendencias: 1) la temperatura operativa y calidad térmica fueron más altas en los sitios más bajos (2 320 y 2 540 m) con matorral xerófilo; 2) los valores más bajos fueron registrados en los sitios con cobertura vegetal densa con bosque de pino (2 870 y 3 220 m); 3) las zonas abiertas (3 000 y 3 530 m) de pastizal alpino tuvieron valores medios de temperatura operativa y calidad. Estos resultados sugieren que la altitud y el tipo de vegetación tienen influencia en la calidad térmica y los trabajos sobre ecología térmica deben realizarse en varias escalas espaciales para entender los factores involucrados en el nicho térmico y en la termorregulación.AbstractWe evaluated and compared the thermal quality for a lizard community (9 species) in Sierra del Ajusco and Pedregal de San Ángel (central Mexico) along an altitudinal gradient (2 320-3 530 m) to determine whether different thermal environments may be influencing species distribution and thermoregulatory behavior. Six areas that differ in elevation and vegetation type are chosen to survey environmental operative temperatures. Habitat thermal quality is estimated from the mean deviation of operative temperatures from lizards’ selected thermal range. Results indicate 3 key findings: 1) operative temperature and thermal quality are higher at lower elevations (2 320 and 2 540 m), where xeric scrub vegetation was abundant; 2) thermal quality is lowest in closed-canopy pine forest (2 870 and 3 220 m); and 3) intermediate values of operative temperature and thermal quality are observed in open grassland habitat (3 000 and 3 530 m). These results support our hypothesis that elevation and vegetation type affect thermal quality and we conclude that thermal ecology studies should be conducted at multiple spatial scales to gain a better understanding of factors influencing the thermal niche and thermoregulatory profiles

LandTrendr smoothed spectral profiles enhance woody encroachment monitoring

Secondary succession (SS) is one of the main consequences of the abandonment of agricultural and forestry practices in rural areas, causing -among other processes- woody encroachment on former pastures and croplands. In this study we model and monitor the spatial evolution of SS over semi-natural grassland communities in the mountain range of the Pyrenees in Spain, during the last 36 years (1984-2019). Independent variables for ‘annual-based’ and ‘period-based’ modeling were drawn from a suite of Surface Reflectance Landsat images, LandTrendr (LT)-algorithm-adjusted images and LT outputs. Support vector machine (SVM) classifiers were trained and tested using all possible variable combinations of all the aforementioned datasets. The best modeling strategy involved yearly time series of LT-adjusted Tasseled Cap Brightness (TCB) and Wetness (TCW) axes as predictors, attaining a F1-score of 0.85, a Matthew Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of 0.67 and an AUC 0.83. Woodlands encroached above 480, 000 ha of grasslands and crops during the study period. A model using LT outputs for the whole period also denoted good performance (F1-score = 0.85, MCC = 0.75) and estimated a similar area of woodland expansion (~509, 000 ha), but this ‘period’ approach was unable to provide temporal information on the year or the encroachment dynamics. Our results suggest an overall proportion of 66% for the Pyrenees being affected by SS, with higher intensity in the west-central part, decreasing towards the eastern end. © 2021 The Author

Transcriptome analysis of the venom gland of the Mexican scorpion Hadrurus gertschi (Arachnida: Scorpiones)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Scorpions like other venomous animals posses a highly specialized organ that produces, secretes and disposes the venom components. In these animals, the last postabdominal segment, named telson, contains a pair of venomous glands connected to the stinger. The isolation of numerous scorpion toxins, along with cDNA-based gene cloning and, more recently, proteomic analyses have provided us with a large collection of venom components sequences. However, all of them are secreted, or at least are predicted to be secretable gene products. Therefore very little is known about the cellular processes that normally take place inside the glands for production of the venom mixture. To gain insights into the scorpion venom gland biology, we have decided to perform a transcriptomic analysis by constructing a cDNA library and conducting a random sequencing screening of the transcripts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From the cDNA library prepared from a single venom gland of the scorpion <it>Hadrurus gertschi</it>, 160 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were analyzed. These transcripts were further clustered into 68 unique sequences (20 contigs and 48 singlets), with an average length of 919 bp. Half of the ESTs can be confidentially assigned as homologues of annotated gene products. Annotation of these ESTs, with the aid of Gene Ontology terms and homology to eukaryotic orthologous groups, reveals some cellular processes important for venom gland function; including high protein synthesis, tuned posttranslational processing and trafficking. Nonetheless, the main group of the identified gene products includes ESTs similar to known scorpion toxins or other previously characterized scorpion venom components, which account for nearly 60% of the identified proteins.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To the best of our knowledge this report contains the first transcriptome analysis of genes transcribed by the venomous gland of a scorpion. The data were obtained for the species <it>Hadrurus gertschi</it>, belonging to the family Caraboctonidae. One hundred and sixty ESTs were analyzed, showing enrichment in genes that encode for products similar to known venom components, but also provides the first sketch of cellular components, molecular functions, biological processes and some unique sequences of the scorpion venom gland.</p