Prognostic Significance of Defective Mismatch Repair and BRAF V600E in Patients with Colon Cancer

Colon tumors with defective DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) have a well characterized phenotype and accounts for ~15–20% of sporadic colon cancer (CC) as well as those colon cancer patients with Lynch Syndrome. Although the presence of dMMR appears to be a favorable prognostic marker, data suggests that these patients do not respond as well to adjuvant chemotherapy

Taxa of the Nasal Microbiome Are Associated with Influenza-Specific IgA Response to Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine.

Live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) has demonstrated varying levels of efficacy against seasonal influenza; however, LAIV may be used as a tool to measure interactions between the human microbiome and a live, replicating virus. To increase our knowledge of this interaction, we measured changes to the nasal microbiome in subjects who received LAIV to determine if associations between influenza-specific IgA production and the nasal microbiome exist after immunization with a live virus vaccine. The anterior nares of 47 healthy subjects were swabbed pre- (Day 0) and post- (Days 7 and 28) LAIV administration, and nasal washes were conducted on Days 0 and 28. We performed next-generation sequencing on amplified 16s rRNA genes and measured mucosal influenza-specific IgA titers via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A significant increase in alpha diversity was identified (Observed, CHAO, and ACE) between Days 7 vs 0 (p-values = 0.017, 0.005, 0.005, respectively) and between Days 28 vs 0 (p-values = 0.054, 0.030, 0.050, respectively). Several significant associations between the presence of different microbial species, including Lactobacillus helveticus, Prevotella melaninogenica, Streptococcus infantis, Veillonella dispar, and Bacteroides ovatus, and influenza-specific H1 and H3 IgA antibody response were demonstrated. These data suggest that LAIV alters the nasal microbiome, allowing several less-abundant OTUs to establish a community niche. Additionally, specific alterations in the nasal microbiome are significantly associated with variations in influenza-specific IgA antibody production and could be clinically relevant

Subject Demographics.

<p>Subject Demographics.</p

Changes in Alpha Diversity Over Time.

<p>Changes in Alpha Diversity Over Time.</p

Influenza H1 IgA Titers as Functions of Species at Specified Timepoints.

<p>Influenza H1 IgA Titers as Functions of Species at Specified Timepoints.</p

Faces of Focus:A Study on the Facial Cues of Attentional States

Automatically detecting attentional states is a prerequisite for designing interventions to manage attention - knowledge workers' most critical resource. As a first step towards this goal, it is necessary to understand how different attentional states are made discernible through visible cues in knowledge workers. In this paper, we demonstrate the important facial cues to detect attentional states by evaluating a data set of 15 participants that we tracked over a whole workday, which included their challenge and engagement levels. Our evaluation shows that gaze, pitch, and lips part action units are indicators of engaged work; while pitch, gaze movements, gaze angle, and upper-lid raiser action units are indicators of challenging work. These findings reveal a significant relationship between facial cues and both engagement and challenge levels experienced by our tracked participants. Our work contributes to the design of future studies to detect attentional states based on facial cues