Reporting trends, practices, and resource utilization in neuroendocrine tumors of the prostate gland: a survey among thirty-nine genitourinary pathologists

Background: Neuroendocrine differentiation in the prostate gland ranges from clinically insignificant neuroendocrine differentiation detected with markers in an otherwise conventional prostatic adenocarcinoma to a lethal high-grade small/large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. The concept of neuroendocrine differentiation in prostatic adenocarcinoma has gained considerable importance due to its prognostic and therapeutic ramifications and pathologists play a pivotal role in its recognition. However, its awareness, reporting, and resource utilization practice patterns among pathologists are largely unknown. Methods: Representative examples of different spectrums of neuroendocrine differentiation along with a detailed questionnaire were shared among 39 urologic pathologists using the survey monkey software. Participants were specifically questioned about the use and awareness of the 2016 WHO classification of neuroendocrine tumors of the prostate, understanding of the clinical significance of each entity, and use of different immunohistochemical (IHC) markers. De-identified respondent data were analyzed. Results: A vast majority (90%) of the participants utilize IHC markers to confirm the diagnosis of small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. A majority (87%) of the respondents were in agreement regarding the utilization of type of IHC markers for small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma for which 85% of the pathologists agreed that determination of the site of origin of a high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma is not critical, as these are treated similarly. In the setting of mixed carcinomas, 62% of respondents indicated that they provide quantification and grading of the acinar component. There were varied responses regarding the prognostic implication of focal neuroendocrine cells in an otherwise conventional acinar adenocarcinoma and for Paneth cell-like differentiation. The classification of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma was highly varied, with only 38% agreement in the illustrated case. Finally, despite the recommendation not to perform neuroendocrine markers in the absence of morphologic evidence of neuroendocrine differentiation, 62% would routinely utilize IHC in the work-up of a Gleason score 5 + 5 = 10 acinar adenocarcinoma and its differentiation from high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma. Conclusion: There is a disparity in the practice utilization patterns among the urologic pathologists with regard to diagnosing high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma and in understanding the clinical significance of focal neuroendocrine cells in an otherwise conventional acinar adenocarcinoma and Paneth cell-like neuroendocrine differentiation. There seems to have a trend towards overutilization of IHC to determine neuroendocrine differentiation in the absence of neuroendocrine features on morphology. The survey results suggest a need for further refinement and development of standardized guidelines for the classification and reporting of neuroendocrine differentiation in the prostate gland

A Systematic Analysis of Cell Cycle Regulators in Yeast Reveals That Most Factors Act Independently of Cell Size to Control Initiation of Division

Upstream events that trigger initiation of cell division, at a point called START in yeast, determine the overall rates of cell proliferation. The identity and complete sequence of those events remain unknown. Previous studies relied mainly on cell size changes to identify systematically genes required for the timely completion of START. Here, we evaluated panels of non-essential single gene deletion strains for altered DNA content by flow cytometry. This analysis revealed that most gene deletions that altered cell cycle progression did not change cell size. Our results highlight a strong requirement for ribosomal biogenesis and protein synthesis for initiation of cell division. We also identified numerous factors that have not been previously implicated in cell cycle control mechanisms. We found that CBS, which catalyzes the synthesis of cystathionine from serine and homocysteine, advances START in two ways: by promoting cell growth, which requires CBS's catalytic activity, and by a separate function, which does not require CBS's catalytic activity. CBS defects cause disease in humans, and in animals CBS has vital, non-catalytic, unknown roles. Hence, our results may be relevant for human biology. Taken together, these findings significantly expand the range of factors required for the timely initiation of cell division. The systematic identification of non-essential regulators of cell division we describe will be a valuable resource for analysis of cell cycle progression in yeast and other organisms

Bootstrapping a Private Cloud

Cloud computing allows on-demand provision, configuration and assignment of computing resources with minimum cost and effort for users and administrators. Managing the physical infrastructure that underlies cloud computing services relies on the need to provision and manage bare-metal computer hardware. Hence there is a need for quick loading of operating systems in bare-metal and virtual machines to service the demands of users. The focus of the study is on developing a technique to load these machines remotely, which is complicated by the fact that the machines can be present in different Ethernet broadcast domains, physically distant from the provisioning server. The use of available bare-metal provisioning frameworks require significant skills and time. Moreover, there is no easily implementable standard method of booting across separate and different Ethernet broadcast domains. This study proposes a new framework to provision bare-metal hardware remotely using layer 2 services in a secure manner. This framework is a composition of existing tools that can be assembled to build the framework

Cervical Thymic Cyst with parathyroid tissue – a diagnostic conundrum

Cervical thymic cysts are relatively rare benign cystic lesions that tend to be diagnosed clinically as branchial cysts, which usually present as painless, enlarging neck masses. They can occur anywhere along the normal path of descent of thymic primordia from the angle of the mandible to the sternal notch, with mediastinal extension observed in approximately 50% of cases. They are usually seen in the first decade of life on the left side with a male predominance. Here we report a case of a 15-year-old boy who presented to the hospital with left-sided neck swelling for about 2 months. The neck’s contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) revealed a large, well-defined cystic swelling in the left neck region, showing peripheral enhancement, seen from the submandibular region to the superior mediastinum extending into the retrosternal region. Direct fine needle aspiration (FNA) was done, which showed a benign lesion with inflammatory and cystic characteristics, leading to the possibility of a branchial cyst. The cyst was completely excised surgically. Histopathology showed a thymic cyst with parathyroid tissue. The presence of thymic tissue with Hassall’s corpuscles is essential for the diagnosis. Knowledge of the clinical presentation, cyto-histological findings, and differential diagnosis of cystic cervical lesions in the pediatric population is important to diagnose this rare entity. Hence, though uncommon, when one comes across a cystic cervical region mass in children, a diagnosis of cervical thymic cyst should be kept in mind. Nonetheless, a definitive diagnosis depends on imaging findings as well as intraoperative findings and histopathological examination

An Integrated Approach for Monitoring Social Distancing and Face Mask Detection Using Stacked ResNet-50 and YOLOv5

SARS-CoV-19 is one of the deadliest pandemics the world has witnessed, taking around 5,049,374 lives till now across worldwide and 459,873 in India. To limit its spread numerous countries have issued many safety measures. Though vaccines are available now, still face mask detection and maintain social distance are the key aspects to prevent from this pandemic. Therefore, authors have proposed a real-time surveillance system that would take the input video feed and check whether the people detected in the video are wearing a mask, this research further monitors the humans for social distancing norms. The proposed methodology involves taking input from a CCTV feed and detecting humans in the frame, using YOLOv5. These detected faces are then processed using Stacked ResNet-50 for classification whether the person is wearing a mask or not, meanwhile, DBSCAN has been used to detect proximities within the persons detected

Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and select symptoms and conditions 31 to 150 days after testing among children and adults

Abstract Background An increasing number of studies have described new and persistent symptoms and conditions as potential post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC). However, it remains unclear whether certain symptoms or conditions occur more frequently among persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with those never infected with SARS-CoV-2. We compared the occurrence of specific COVID-associated symptoms and conditions as potential PASC 31- to 150-day following a SARS-CoV-2 test among adults and children with positive and negative test results. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic health record (EHR) data from 43 PCORnet sites participating in a national COVID-19 surveillance program. This study included 3,091,580 adults (316,249 SARS-CoV-2 positive; 2,775,331 negative) and 675,643 children (62,131 positive; 613,512 negative) who had a SARS-CoV-2 laboratory test during March 1, 2020–May 31, 2021 documented in their EHR. We used logistic regression to calculate the odds of having a symptom and Cox models to calculate the risk of having a newly diagnosed condition associated with a SARS-CoV-2 positive test. Results After adjustment for baseline covariates, hospitalized adults and children with a positive test had increased odds of being diagnosed with ≥ 1 symptom (adults: adjusted odds ratio[aOR], 1.17[95% CI, 1.11–1.23]; children: aOR, 1.18[95% CI, 1.08–1.28]) or shortness of breath (adults: aOR, 1.50[95% CI, 1.38–1.63]; children: aOR, 1.40[95% CI, 1.15–1.70]) 31–150 days following a SARS-CoV-2 test compared with hospitalized individuals with a negative test. Hospitalized adults with a positive test also had increased odds of being diagnosed with ≥ 3 symptoms or fatigue compared with those testing negative. The risks of being newly diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (adjusted hazard ratio[aHR], 1.25[95% CI, 1.17–1.33]), hematologic disorders (aHR, 1.19[95% CI, 1.11–1.28]), or respiratory disease (aHR, 1.44[95% CI, 1.30–1.60]) were higher among hospitalized adults with a positive test compared with those with a negative test. Non-hospitalized adults with a positive test also had higher odds or increased risk of being diagnosed with certain symptoms or conditions. Conclusions Patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially those who were hospitalized, were at higher risk of being diagnosed with certain symptoms and conditions after acute infection

Additional file 1 of Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and select symptoms and conditions 31 to 150 days after testing among children and adults

Additional file 1: eTable 1. Institutions contributing data. eTable 2. Conditions and symptoms examined in the study. eTable 3. Number of Sites Included for Meta Analysis, by Outcome of the Regression Model

Cys4p advances START both by promoting cell growth and by a separate function, which does not require CBS's catalytic activity.

<p>A, Rate of cell size increase (shown as growth rate, in fl/min) for the indicated strains was measured assuming linear growth from synchronous elutriated cultures in media that contain galactose and induce expression of the <i>P_GAL</i> alleles (see <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002590#s4" target="_blank">Methods</a>). The average value for each strain is shown with a horizontal bar (± sd). Where indicated, the <i>P</i> values shown were calculated from two-tailed <i>t</i> tests. The data used to calculate the values shown in A and B are in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002590#pgen.1002590.s009" target="_blank">Figure S8</a>. B, The critical cell size of the indicated strains (shown in fl), was measured from the same elutriation experiments shown in A (see also <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002590#pgen.1002590.s010" target="_blank">Figure S9</a>). The analogous experiments in non-inducing, glucose containing, medium are shown in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1002590#pgen.1002590.s010" target="_blank">Figure S9</a>.</p