Early pyloric stenosis: a case control study

Pyloric stenosis (PS) is rare in the first 2 weeks of life, often leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. We conducted a case control study to delineate the characteristics of patients with early PS (EPS). In addition, we tested the hypothesis that patients with EPS present with a smaller pylorus than older patients. A database of all patients presenting with PS to a children’s hospital over a 5-year period (2002–2006) was obtained. Each patient admitted during the first 2 weeks of life (subject) was matched to a patient admitted after 4 weeks of age (control), with the same gender, electrolyte status, and treating surgeon. A single pediatric radiologist, blinded to patient age, reviewed all available ultrasounds retrospectively. Demographic, clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and outcome data were compared. During the study period, 278 pyloromyotomies were performed for PS. Sixteen patients (5.8%) presented with EPS between 2 and 14 days of life. EPS patients had a higher prevalence of positive family history (31 vs. 0%, P = 0.043), and breast milk feeding (75 vs. 31%, P = 0.045). Sonographic measurements showed a pylorus that was of significantly less length (17.1 ± 0.6 vs. 20.5 ± 0.9 mm, P = 0.006) and muscle thickness (3.5 ± 0.2 vs. 4.9 ± 0.2 mm, P < 0.001) in patients with EPS. Hospital stay was significantly longer for EPS patients (4.3 ± 0.9 vs. 2.0 ± 0.1 days, P = 0.19) Babies presenting with EPS are more likely to be breast fed and to have a positive family history. EPS is associated with a longer hospital stay. Use of sonographic diagnostic measurements specific to this age group may prevent delays in diagnosis and treatment, and improve outcomes

Machine learning based estimation of axonal permeability: validation on cuprizone treated in-vivo mouse model of axonal demyelination

Estimating axonal permeability reliably is extremely important, however not yet achieved because mathematical models that express its relationship to the MR signal accurately are intractable. Recently introduced machine learning based computational model showed to outperforms previous approximate mathematical models. Here we apply and validate this novel method experimentally on a highly controlled in-vivo mouse model of axonal demyelination, and demonstrate for the first time in practice the power of machine learning as a mechanism to construct complex biophysical models for quantitative MRI

Developing a core outcome set for future infertility research : An international consensus development study

STUDY QUESTION: Can a core outcome set to standardize outcome selection, collection and reporting across future infertility research be developed? SUMMARY ANSWER: A minimum data set, known as a core outcome set, has been developed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews evaluating potential treatments for infertility. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Complex issues, including a failure to consider the perspectives of people with fertility problems when selecting outcomes, variations in outcome definitions and the selective reporting of outcomes on the basis of statistical analysis, make the results of infertility research difficult to interpret. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: A three-round Delphi survey (372 participants from 41 countries) and consensus development workshop (30 participants from 27 countries). PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: Healthcare professionals, researchers and people with fertility problems were brought together in an open and transparent process using formal consensus science methods. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: The core outcome set consists of: viable intrauterine pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound (accounting for singleton, twin and higher multiple pregnancy); pregnancy loss (accounting for ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth and termination of pregnancy); live birth; gestational age at delivery; birthweight; neonatal mortality; and major congenital anomaly. Time to pregnancy leading to live birth should be reported when applicable. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: We used consensus development methods which have inherent limitations, including the representativeness of the participant sample, Delphi survey attrition and an arbitrary consensus threshold. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Embedding the core outcome set within RCTs and systematic reviews should ensure the comprehensive selection, collection and reporting of core outcomes. Research funding bodies, the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) statement, and over 80 specialty journals, including the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group, Fertility and Sterility and Human Reproduction, have committed to implementing this core outcome set. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S): This research was funded by the Catalyst Fund, Royal Society of New Zealand, Auckland Medical Research Fund and Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust. The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study, the collection, management, analysis or interpretation of data, or manuscript preparation. B.W.J.M. is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellowship (GNT1082548). S.B. was supported by University of Auckland Foundation Seelye Travelling Fellowship. S.B. reports being the Editor-in-Chief of Human Reproduction Open and an editor of the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility group. J.L.H.E. reports being the Editor Emeritus of Human Reproduction. J.M.L.K. reports research sponsorship from Ferring and Theramex. R.S.L. reports consultancy fees from Abbvie, Bayer, Ferring, Fractyl, Insud Pharma and Kindex and research sponsorship from Guerbet and Hass Avocado Board. B.W.J.M. reports consultancy fees from Guerbet, iGenomix, Merck, Merck KGaA and ObsEva. C.N. reports being the Co Editor-in-Chief of Fertility and Sterility and Section Editor of the Journal of Urology, research sponsorship from Ferring, and retains a financial interest in NexHand. A.S. reports consultancy fees from Guerbet. E.H.Y.N. reports research sponsorship from Merck. N.L.V. reports consultancy and conference fees from Ferring, Merck and Merck Sharp and Dohme. The remaining authors declare no competing interests in relation to the work presented. All authors have completed the disclosure form

Preferential maternal LOH in the IGF2R gene in breast cancer

Tumors develop and progress as a result of alterations in oncogene and tumor suppressor genes. Knudson's two hit model predicts that cancer arises when both alleles of a tumor suppressor gene are inactivated. The insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor gene (IGF2R) is known to be a tumor suppressor for breast cancer, as mutations inactivating both alleles have been found in these tumors, consistent with its known functions in degrading insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) and activating transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-beta1), a growth inhibitor. Tumor suppressors can be inactivated by several means, such as genomic imprinting (a preferential silencing of a particular parental chromosome), large deletions resulting in loss of heterozygosity (LOH), and point mutations. In both humans and mice, IGF2R has gamete-of-origin dependent methylation which results in exclusive maternal expression in mice, while in humans imprinted expression is seen only in rare individuals and could be a predisposing factor for cancer. Since it is known that LOH plays a role in the genesis of breast cancer, we hypothesized that in some cases the event inactivating the other gene copy is parental imprinting. Our hypothesis predicted that this LOH is preferentially maternal and, therefore, the remaining allele is unmethylated. We tested this prediction in 20 breast cancer samples, thirteen of which (65%) were heterozygous and 9/13 (69%) had LOH. Two of 9 tumors (~22%) showed complete lack of methylation, consistent with LOH of the maternal allele. However, surprisingly and potentially significantly, normal tissue from the breast cancer patients was completely methylated in 4 samples and completely unmethylated in 2. This suggests that IGF2R methylation disruption may be a pre-existing, cancer-predisposing molecular lesion in the breast of these patients. More work is needed to exclude technical artifacts in reaching this conclusion

Early pyloric stenosis: a case control study

Pyloric stenosis (PS) is rare in the first 2 weeks of life, often leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. We conducted a case control study to delineate the characteristics of patients with early PS (EPS). In addition, we tested the hypothesis that patients with EPS present with a smaller pylorus than older patients. A database of all patients presenting with PS to a children’s hospital over a 5-year period (2002–2006) was obtained. Each patient admitted during the first 2 weeks of life (subject) was matched to a patient admitted after 4 weeks of age (control), with the same gender, electrolyte status, and treating surgeon. A single pediatric radiologist, blinded to patient age, reviewed all available ultrasounds retrospectively. Demographic, clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and outcome data were compared. During the study period, 278 pyloromyotomies were performed for PS. Sixteen patients (5.8%) presented with EPS between 2 and 14 days of life. EPS patients had a higher prevalence of positive family history (31 vs. 0%, P = 0.043), and breast milk feeding (75 vs. 31%, P = 0.045). Sonographic measurements showed a pylorus that was of significantly less length (17.1 ± 0.6 vs. 20.5 ± 0.9 mm, P = 0.006) and muscle thickness (3.5 ± 0.2 vs. 4.9 ± 0.2 mm, P < 0.001) in patients with EPS. Hospital stay was significantly longer for EPS patients (4.3 ± 0.9 vs. 2.0 ± 0.1 days, P = 0.19) Babies presenting with EPS are more likely to be breast fed and to have a positive family history. EPS is associated with a longer hospital stay. Use of sonographic diagnostic measurements specific to this age group may prevent delays in diagnosis and treatment, and improve outcomes

The last mile challenge: Certified seafood and federal labeling laws out of sync at the end of the supply chain in Los Angeles, California

Seafood certification programs aim to aid consumers in identifying products with reduced environmental impacts and assure accuracy in labeling and traceability, complementary to or in the absence of governmental regulatory action. The most widely recognized seafood certification program is led by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), whose Chain of Custody Standard emphasizes accuracy in fish sourcing from harvest to retail using tracebacks and audits. Here explicit testing was conducted on the labeling accuracy of MSC-certified seafood sold in the world’s second largest seafood importing market, the United States, per stringent application of federal labeling laws. Samples of commonly sold MSC-certified fresh fish were collected from processors (123) and grocers (149) in Los Angeles, California from 2017 to 2019 and identified to species using DNA barcoding. Grocers’ mislabeling rates were statistically higher than those of processors. Most mislabeling was attributed to substitution among congeners or labeling with invalid FDA names. Data-driven recommendations include regular DNA-based testing and greater harmonization between certification programs and federal guidelines, particularly in coordination with supply chain end vendors

Neuartige Heterogenkatalysatoren zur Umesterung und Veresterung von unterschiedlichen natürlichen Triglyceriden und deren Fettsäuren zu Biodiesel

Abstract. The interactive game environment, Ghost in the Cave, presented in this short paper, is a work still in progress. The game involves participants in an activity using non-verbal emotional expressions. Two teams use expressive gestures in either voice or body movements to compete. Each team has an avatar controlled either by singing into a microphone or by moving in front of a video camera. Participants/players control their avatars by using acoustical or motion cues. The avatar is navigated in a 3D distributed virtual environment using the Octagon server and player system. The voice input is processed using a musical cue analysis module yielding performance variables such as tempo, sound level and articulation as well as an emotional prediction. Similarly, movements captured from a video camera are analyzed in terms of different movement cues. The target group is young teenagers and the main purpose to encourage creative expressions through new forms of collaboration.

Laboratory studies of electron and ion irradiation of solid acetonitrile (CH3CN)

The structure and bonding of solid acetonitrile (CH 3 CN) films on amorphous silica are studied, and chemical and physical processes under irradiation with 200 keV protons and 250–400 eV electrons are quantified using transmission infrared spectroscopy, reflection–absorption infrared spectroscopy and temperature-programmed desorption, with the assistance of basic computational chemistry and nuclear materials calculations. The thermal desorption profiles are found to depend strongly on the balance between CH 3 CN–surface and CH 3 CN–CH 3 CN interactions, passing from a sub-monolayer regime (binding energy: 35–50 kJ mol −1 ) to a multilayer regime (binding energy: 38.2±1.0 kJ mol −1 ) via a fractional order desorption regime characteristic of islanding as the coverage increases. Calculations using the SRIM code reveal that the effects of the ion irradiation are dominated by electronic stopping of incident protons, and the subsequent generation of secondary electrons. Therefore, ion irradiation and electron irradiation experiments can be quantitatively compared. During ion irradiation of thicker CH 3 CN films, a cross section for secondary electron-promoted chemical destruction of CH 3 CN of 4 (±1)×10 −18  cm 2 was measured, while electron-promoted desorption was not detected. A significantly higher cross section for electron-promoted desorption of 0.82–3.2×10 −15  cm 2 was measured during electron irradiation of thinner CH 3 CN films, while no chemical products were detected. The differences between the experimental results can be rationalized by recognizing that chemical reaction is a bulk effect in the CH 3 CN film, whereas desorption is a surface sensitive process. In thicker films, electron-promoted desorption is expected to occur a rate that is independent of the film thickness; i.e. show zeroth-order kinetics with respect to the surface concentration. </jats:p