Recombinant alpha-interferon as salvage therapy in multiple myeloma

Ten patients with end-stage multiple myeloma refractory to conventional chemotherapy and hemibody irradiation received recombinant α-interferon as salvage therapy. The median duration of treatment was 8 weeks. One patient had an objective response and survived 8 months, whereas in the remaining 9 patients the disease progressed and median survival was 11,5 weeks. Side-effects were substantial and included confusion with extreme weakness, resulting in 5 patients refusing further therapy. The low response rate and the morbidity in this pilot study resulted in its discontinuation and the conclusion that recombinant α-interferon as singleagent therapy used for salvage in patients with refractory myeloma is of no value.S Afr Med J 1989; 76: 100-10

Prognosis of carotid dissecting aneurysms: Results from CADISS and a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the natural history of dissecting aneurysm (DA) and whether DA is associated with an increased recurrent stroke risk and whether type of antithrombotic drugs (antiplatelets vs anticoagulants) modifies the persistence or development of DA. METHODS: We included 264 patients with extracranial cervical artery dissection (CAD) from the Cervical Artery Dissection in Stroke Study (CADISS), a multicenter prospective study that compared antiplatelet with anticoagulation therapy. Logistic regression was used to estimate age- and sex-adjusted odds ratios. We conducted a systematic review of published studies assessing the natural history of DA and stroke risk in patients with non-surgically-treated extracranial CAD with DA. RESULTS: In CADISS, DA was present in 24 of 264 patients at baseline. In 36 of 248 patients with follow-up neuroimaging at 3 months, 12 of the 24 baseline DAs persisted, and 24 new DA had developed. There was no association between treatment allocation (antiplatelets vs anticoagulants) and whether DA at baseline persisted at follow-up or whether new DA developed. During 12 months of follow-up, stroke occurred in 1 of 48 patients with DA and in 7 of 216 patients without DA (age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio 0.84; 95% confidence interval 0.10-7.31; p = 0.88). Published studies, mainly retrospective, showed a similarly low risk of stroke and no evidence of an increased stroke rate in patients with DA. CONCLUSIONS: The results of CADISS provide evidence suggesting that DAs may have benign prognosis and therefore medical treatment should be considered

An SO(10) Grand Unified Theory of Flavor

We present a supersymmetric SO(10) grand unified theory (GUT) of flavor based on an $S_4$ family symmetry. It makes use of our recent proposal to use SO(10) with type II seesaw mechanism for neutrino masses combined with a simple ansatz that the dominant Yukawa matrix (the {\bf 10}-Higgs coupling to matter) has rank one. In this paper, we show how the rank one model can arise within some plausible assumptions as an effective field theory from vectorlike {\bf 16} dimensional matter fields with masses above the GUT scale. In order to obtain the desired fermion flavor texture we use $S_4$ flavon multiplets which acquire vevs in the ground state of the theory. By supplementing the $S_4$ theory with an additional discrete symmetry, we find that the flavon vacuum field alignments take a discrete set of values provided some of the higher dimensional couplings are small. Choosing a particular set of these vacuum alignments appears to lead to an unified understanding of observed quark-lepton flavor: (i) the lepton mixing matrix that is dominantly tri-bi-maximal with small corrections related to quark mixings; (ii) quark lepton mass relations at GUT scale: $m_b\simeq m_{\tau}$ and $m_\mu\simeq 3 m_s$ and (iii) the solar to atmospheric neutrino mass ratio $m_\odot/m_{\rm atm}\simeq \theta_{\rm Cabibbo}$ in agreement with observations. The model predicts the neutrino mixing parameter, $U_{e3} \simeq \theta_{\rm Cabibbo}/(3\sqrt2) \sim 0.05$, which should be observable in planned long baseline experiments.Comment: Final version of the paper as it will appear in JHEP

Appetite, gut hormone and energy intake responses to low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance exercise.

Sprint interval exercise improves several health markers but the appetite and energy balance response is unknown. This study compared the effects of sprint interval and endurance exercise on appetite, energy intake and gut hormone responses. Twelve healthy males [mean (SD): age 23 (3) years, body mass index 24.2 (2.9) kg m(-2), maximum oxygen uptake 46.3 (10.2) mL kg(-1) min(-1)] completed three 8 h trials [control (CON), endurance exercise (END), sprint interval exercise (SIE)] separated by 1 week. Trials commenced upon completion of a standardised breakfast. Sixty minutes of cycling at 68.1 (4.3) % of maximum oxygen uptake was performed from 1.75-2.75 h in END. Six 30-s Wingate tests were performed from 2.25-2.75 h in SIE. Appetite ratings, acylated ghrelin and peptide YY (PYY) concentrations were measured throughout each trial. Food intake was monitored from buffet meals at 3.5 and 7 h and an overnight food bag. Appetite (P 0.05). Therefore, relative energy intake (energy intake minus the net energy expenditure of exercise) was lower in END than that in CON (15.7 %; P = 0.006) and SIE (11.5 %; P = 0.082). An acute bout of endurance exercise resulted in lower appetite perceptions in the hours after exercise than sprint interval exercise and induced a greater 24 h energy deficit due to higher energy expenditure during exercise

Temporal and spatial drivers of the structure of macroinvertebrate assemblages associated with <em>Laminaria </em><em>hyperborea </em>detritus in the northeast Atlantic

\ua9 2024Kelp forests occur on more than a quarter of the world\u27s coastlines, serving as foundation species supporting high levels of biodiversity. They are also a major source of organic matter in coastal ecosystems, with the majority of primary production released and exported as detritus. Kelp detritus also provides food and shelter for macroinvertebrates, which comprise important components of inshore food-webs. Hitherto, research on kelp detritus-associated macroinvertebrate assemblages remains relatively limited. We quantified spatiotemporal variability in the structure of detritus-associated macroinvertebrate assemblages within Laminaria hyperborea forests and evaluated the influence of putative drivers of the observed variability in assemblages across eight study sites within four regions of the United Kingdom in May and September 2015. We documented 5167 individuals from 106 taxa with Malacostraca, Gastropoda, Isopoda and Bivalvia the most abundant groups sampled. Assemblage structure varied across months, sites, and regions, with highest richness in September compared to May. Many taxa were unique to individual regions, with few documented in all regions. Finally, key drivers of assemblage structure included detritus tissue nitrogen content, depth, sea surface temperature, light intensity, as well as L. hyperborea canopy density and canopy biomass. Despite their dynamic composition and transient existence, accumulations of L. hyperborea detritus represent valuable repositories of biodiversity and represent an additional kelp forest component which influences secondary productivity, and potentially kelp forest food-web dynamics

Testing the viability of measuring intraocular pressure using soundwaves from a smartphone

Abstract Early detection of increasing values of intraocular pressure (IOP) due to glaucoma can prevent severe ocular diseases and ultimately, prevent loss of vision. Currently, the need for an accurate, mobile measurement of IOP that shows no correlation to central corneal thickness is unmet within the modern healthcare practices. There is a potential to utilize soundwaves as a mobile measurement method and therefore, the relationship between IOP and the reflection coefficient of sound waves is investigated. Simulations are conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics to provide theoretical confirmation of the worthiness of the experiment. An experiment is conducted to further investigate the relationship between the internal pressure of an object and its acoustic reflection coefficient. The experiment exploits the use of hydrostatic pressure to determine internal pressure, and the reflection coefficient is measured and analyzed. An initial experiment is conducted to identify the resonant frequency of the object and the optimal frequency for maximizing reflection. The experiment shows comprehensively that there is a relationship between the internal pressure of an object and its acoustic reflection coefficient, providing a confirmation of the theory that would allow mobile measurements of IOP to be conducted with the use of a smart phone

Development of the measure of ovarian symptoms and treatment concerns: aiming for optimal measurement of patient-reported symptom benefit with chemotherapy for symptomatic ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the optimal patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for assessing symptom benefit in trials of palliative chemotherapy for women with symptomatic ovarian cancer. METHODS: Candidate PROMs were EORTC QLQ-C30 plus ovarian-specific QLQ-OV28, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Ovarian (FACT-O), FACT Ovarian Symptom Index (FOSI), and gynecologic cancer-specific Symptom Representation Questionnaire. Predefined optimality criteria were inclusion of all symptoms necessary for the specified purpose, recall period covering typical length of palliative chemotherapy, numerical item rating scales, and all necessary symptoms included in a single symptom index. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to data from stage 1 of the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup Symptom Benefit Study to determine the set of necessary symptoms and to objectively assess candidate PROMs against the optimality criteria. RESULTS: Ten necessary symptoms were identified: pain, fatigue, abdominal bloating/discomfort, sleep disturbance, bowel disturbance, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, poor appetite, urinary symptoms, and weight changes. Although QLQ-C30 and QLQ-OV28 together cover all these symptoms, they split them into numerous scales, dissipating potential symptom-benefit signal. Conversely, FACT-O does not cover all necessary symptoms and contains many other HRQoL-related items and treatment side effects, diluting potential symptom-benefit signal when summed into scales. Item response scales and composite scoring of all candidate PROMs were suboptimal to our specific purpose. We therefore developed a new PROM, the Measure of Ovarian Symptoms and Treatment (MOST) concerns, to provide optimal measurement for the specified purpose. CONCLUSIONS: This article documents the development of the MOST, a new PROM designed to assess patient-reported benefits and burden as end points in clinical trials of palliative chemotherapy for women with symptomatic ovarian cancer. The validity, reliability, and statistical efficiency of the MOST, relative to the best candidate scales of existing PROMs, will be assessed in the stage 2 of Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup Symptom Benefit Study

Genetic relationships and evolution in Cucurbita pepo (pumpkin, squash, gourd) as revealed by simple sequence repeat polymorphisms

Genetic relationships among 104 accessions of Cucurbita pepo were assessed from polymorphisms in 134 SSR (microsatellite) and four SCAR loci, yielding a total of 418 alleles, distributed among all 20 linkage groups. Genetic distance values were calculated, a dendrogram constructed, and principal coordinate analyses conducted. The results showed 100 of the accessions as distributed among three clusters representing each of the recognized subspecies, pepo, texana, and fraterna. The remaining four accessions, all having very small, round, striped fruits, assumed central positions between the two cultivated subspecies, pepo and texana, suggesting that they are relicts of undescribed wild ancestors of the two domesticated subspecies. In both, subsp. texana and subsp. pepo, accessions belonging to the same cultivar-group (fruit shape) associated with one another. Within subsp. pepo, accessions grown for their seeds or that are generalists, used for both seed and fruit consumption, assumed central positions. Specialized accessions, grown exclusively for consumption of their young fruits, or their mature fruit flesh, or seed oil extraction, tended to assume outlying positions, and the different specializations radiated outward from the center in different directions. Accessions of the longest-fruited cultivar-group, Cocozelle, radiated bidirectionally, indicating independent selection events for long fruits in subsp. pepo probably driven by a common desire to consume the young fruits. Among the accessions tested, there was no evidence for crossing between subspecies after domestication

Using Latent Class Analyses to Examine Health Disparities among Young Children in Socially Disadvantaged Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rising income inequality is strongly linked to health disparities, particularly in regions where uneven distribution of wealth and income has long been a concern. Despite emerging evidence of COVID-19-related health inequalities for adults, limited evidence is available for children and their parents. This study aimed to explore subtypes of families of preschoolers living in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of Hong Kong based on patterns of family hardship and to compare their patterns of parenting behavior, lifestyle practices, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 1338 preschoolers and their parents during March to June 2020. Latent class analysis was performed based on 11 socioeconomic and disease indicators. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine associations between identified classes and variables of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four classes of family hardship were identified. Class 1 (45.7%) had the lowest disease and financial burden. Class 2 (14.0%) had the highest financial burden. Class 3 (5.9%) had the highest disease burden. Class 4 (34.5%) had low family income but did not receive government welfare assistance. Class 1 (low hardship) had lower risks of child maltreatment and adjustment problems than Class 2 (poverty) and Class 3 (poor health). However, children in Class 1 (low hardship) had higher odds of suffering psychological aggression and poorer physical wellbeing than those in Class 4 (low income), even after adjusting for child age and gender. The findings emphasize the need to adopt flexible intervention strategies in the time of large disease outbreak to address diverse problems and concerns among socially disadvantaged families