360 research outputs found
Mentoring in a Nigerian University: An Analysis of Mentor- Protegee Relationship and Benefits
The association of men to ring with "in loco parentis" situates it in institutional growth
and development discourse in Nigerian University System. The study examined mentorprotegee
relationship and the benefits accruing from the mentorship Programme
instituted in the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan in 2006. A
triangulation of research methods was utilized in the collection of data. The
mentors hip programme was found to be beneficial to the mentees in several aspects of
their academic life in spite of mixed bag of mentor-mentee relationships
Trends in the Prevalence of Acute Kidney Injury in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction
Comparative Medicine - OneHealth and Comparative Medicine Poster SessionIntroduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in patients (pts) with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and associated with permanent renal impairment and death. While guidelines increasingly emphasize the importance of AKI prevention, whether the rates of AKI changed over time is unknown.
Methods: We studied 35,425 pts hospitalized with AMI in 66 U.S. centers from 2000-08 using Health Facts, a national database with detailed information on in-hospital renal function. AKI was defined as absolute creatinine increase of ≥ 0.3 mg/dL or relative increase of ≥50%. Temporal trends in AKI during the 9-year study period were evaluated using hierarchical logistic regression, adjusting for secular changes in baseline creatinine and other known AKI predictors. Results: From 2000-08, mean age increased (66.9 vs 68.8 yrs), as did baseline creatinine (1.4 vs 1.5 mg/dL), rate of cardiogenic shock (5.1 vs 6.3%), diabetes (30.4 vs 35.8%), coronary angiography (57 vs 68%), and PCI (30.2 vs 45.2%, P<0.001 for all comparisons). Despite increase in AKI risk factors, the rates of AKI declined steadily (Figure). The trend of decreasing AKI rates persisted after multivariable adjustment (P=0.01). Conclusions: While AKI still affects nearly 1 in 4 AMI pts, the rates of AKI declined significantly from 2000-08, despite the aging population and rising prevalence of AKI risk factors. These findings may reflect the impact of increased clinician awareness, better risk stratification, and AKI prevention efforts during this time period
Disease Extent at Secondary Cytoreductive Surgery is Predictive of Progression-free and Overall Survival in Advanced Stage Ovarian Cancer: an NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group study
Purpose
GOG 152 was a randomized trial of secondary cytoreductive surgery (SCS) in patients with suboptimal residual disease (residual tumor nodule >1 cm in greatest diameter) following primary cytoreductive surgery for advanced stage ovarian cancer. The current analysis was undertaken to evaluate the impact of disease findings at SCS on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
Methods
Among the 550 patients enrolled on GOG-152, two-hundred-sixteen patients were randomly assigned following 3 cycles of cisplatin and paclitaxel to receive SCS. In 15 patients (7%) surgery was declined or contraindicated. In the remaining 201 patients the operative and pathology reports were utilized to classify their disease status at the beginning of SCS as; no gross disease/microscopically negative N= 40 (19.9%), no gross disease/microscopically positive N= 8 (4.0%), and gross disease N=153 (76.1%).
Results
The median PFS for patients with no gross disease/microscopically negative was 16.1 months, no gross disease/microscopically positive was 13.5 months and for gross disease was 11.7 months, p=0.002. The median OS for patients with no gross disease/microscopically negative was 51.5 months, no gross disease/microscopically positive was 42.6 months and for gross disease was 34.9 months, p=0.018.
Conclusion
Although as previously reported SCS did not change PFS or OS, for those who underwent the procedure, their operative and pathologic findings were predictive of PFS and OS. Surgical/pathological residual disease is a biomarker of response to chemotherapy and predictive of PFS and OS
Genetic determinants of gut microbiota composition and bile acid profiles in mice.
The microbial communities that inhabit the distal gut of humans and other mammals exhibit large inter-individual variation. While host genetics is a known factor that influences gut microbiota composition, the mechanisms underlying this variation remain largely unknown. Bile acids (BAs) are hormones that are produced by the host and chemically modified by gut bacteria. BAs serve as environmental cues and nutrients to microbes, but they can also have antibacterial effects. We hypothesized that host genetic variation in BA metabolism and homeostasis influence gut microbiota composition. To address this, we used the Diversity Outbred (DO) stock, a population of genetically distinct mice derived from eight founder strains. We characterized the fecal microbiota composition and plasma and cecal BA profiles from 400 DO mice maintained on a high-fat high-sucrose diet for ~22 weeks. Using quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis, we identified several genomic regions associated with variations in both bacterial and BA profiles. Notably, we found overlapping QTL for Turicibacter sp. and plasma cholic acid, which mapped to a locus containing the gene for the ileal bile acid transporter, Slc10a2. Mediation analysis and subsequent follow-up validation experiments suggest that differences in Slc10a2 gene expression associated with the different strains influences levels of both traits and revealed novel interactions between Turicibacter and BAs. This work illustrates how systems genetics can be utilized to generate testable hypotheses and provide insight into host-microbe interactions
The Future of Fundamental Science Led by Generative Closed-Loop Artificial Intelligence
Recent advances in machine learning and AI, including Generative AI and LLMs,
are disrupting technological innovation, product development, and society as a
whole. AI's contribution to technology can come from multiple approaches that
require access to large training data sets and clear performance evaluation
criteria, ranging from pattern recognition and classification to generative
models. Yet, AI has contributed less to fundamental science in part because
large data sets of high-quality data for scientific practice and model
discovery are more difficult to access. Generative AI, in general, and Large
Language Models in particular, may represent an opportunity to augment and
accelerate the scientific discovery of fundamental deep science with
quantitative models. Here we explore and investigate aspects of an AI-driven,
automated, closed-loop approach to scientific discovery, including self-driven
hypothesis generation and open-ended autonomous exploration of the hypothesis
space. Integrating AI-driven automation into the practice of science would
mitigate current problems, including the replication of findings, systematic
production of data, and ultimately democratisation of the scientific process.
Realising these possibilities requires a vision for augmented AI coupled with a
diversity of AI approaches able to deal with fundamental aspects of causality
analysis and model discovery while enabling unbiased search across the space of
putative explanations. These advances hold the promise to unleash AI's
potential for searching and discovering the fundamental structure of our world
beyond what human scientists have been able to achieve. Such a vision would
push the boundaries of new fundamental science rather than automatize current
workflows and instead open doors for technological innovation to tackle some of
the greatest challenges facing humanity today.Comment: 35 pages, first draft of the final report from the Alan Turing
Institute on AI for Scientific Discover
Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging of Low Galactic Latitude Fields: Technical Summary and Data Release
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) mosaic camera and telescope have obtained
five-band optical-wavelength imaging near the Galactic plane outside of the
nominal survey boundaries. These additional data were obtained during
commissioning and subsequent testing of the SDSS observing system, and they
provide unique wide-area imaging data in regions of high obscuration and star
formation, including numerous young stellar objects, Herbig-Haro objects and
young star clusters. Because these data are outside the Survey regions in the
Galactic caps, they are not part of the standard SDSS data releases. This paper
presents imaging data for 832 square degrees of sky (including repeats), in the
star-forming regions of Orion, Taurus, and Cygnus. About 470 square degrees are
now released to the public, with the remainder to follow at the time of SDSS
Data Release 4. The public data in Orion include the star-forming region NGC
2068/NGC 2071/HH24 and a large part of Barnard's loop.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures (3 missing to save space), accepted by AJ, in
press, see http://photo.astro.princeton.edu/oriondatarelease for data and
paper with all figure
The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of
the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most
of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in
regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for
357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over
250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A
coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main
survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2
in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data
releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000
galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes
improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all
been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog
(UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45
milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr
is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally,
we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including
better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end,
better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and
an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor
correction
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