Ethical issues and attitudes towards euthanasia

Case studies describing end-of-life scenarios were used to assess college students’ attitudes toward euthanasia. Students used a five-point rating scale to judge if a case was ethical. Major field of study and religious conviction did not prove to be significant factors. The age of the person described in a scenario did influence ethics ratings, but not in the hypothesized direction. Euthanasia was judged to be more ethical in situations involving younger adults than in situations involving older adults

Natality of Yearling Coyotes in West Virginia

Minimal information is available regarding the reproduction of coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes the states of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Since reproductive information is useful to assess populations and determine management strategies and because this information is unavailable for the Mid-Atlantic, we examined uterine tracts of 66 female coyotes collected from February to May 2010 for fetuses. We measured fetuses using a digital caliper and approximated dates of conception and parturition. Nine (13.6%) female coyotes were pregnant with visible fetuses; seven of these females were yearlings (1.5–2.5 y old). Average litter size of yearling coyotes was 5.4 (SE=0.48). We estimated an average conception date of 2 February and an average parturition date of 6 April. Conception and parturition dates were within the reported range for coyotes, though one female successfully bred in early January, which is earlier than reported in the literature. The relatively high proportion (30.4%) of yearling females breeding in West Virginia may reflect abundant food resources, low density of coyotes, increasing human-caused mortality, or a combination of these factors. Reproductive information reported here will be helpful in monitoring coyote population trends and in the assessment of management strategies

Natality of Yearling Coyotes in West Virginia

Minimal information is available regarding the reproduction of coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes the states of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Since reproductive information is useful to assess populations and determine management strategies and because this information is unavailable for the Mid-Atlantic, we examined uterine tracts of 66 female coyotes collected from February to May 2010 for fetuses. We measured fetuses using a digital caliper and approximated dates of conception and parturition. Nine (13.6%) female coyotes were pregnant with visible fetuses; seven of these females were yearlings (1.5–2.5 y old). Average litter size of yearling coyotes was 5.4 (SE=0.48). We estimated an average conception date of 2 February and an average parturition date of 6 April. Conception and parturition dates were within the reported range for coyotes, though one female successfully bred in early January, which is earlier than reported in the literature. The relatively high proportion (30.4%) of yearling females breeding in West Virginia may reflect abundant food resources, low density of coyotes, increasing human-caused mortality, or a combination of these factors. Reproductive information reported here will be helpful in monitoring coyote population trends and in the assessment of management strategies

Acclimatization, distribution and potential economic use of Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae) in southern Italy

The authors report updated notes on the acclimatization, distribution, areas suitable for cultivation and, potential use of Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae) in southern Italy. Based on observations carried out on the plants cultivated in Bari and the Botanical Garden of Palermo, and on ecological requirements of the species it is possible to consider A. spinosa as a woody species easily adaptable to the coastal climate of southern Italy

Prognostic role of amenorrhea induced by adjuvant chemotherapy in premenopausal patients with early breast cancer.

The prognostic role of drug-induced amenorrhea (DIA) was restrospectively evaluated in 221 out of 254 consecutive premenopausal patients treated with adjuvant CMF or a CMF-containing regimen; 33 patients were eliminated because of lack of menstrual data. All patients had metastatic axillary nodes; drug regimens were: CMF x 9 courses +/- Tamoxifen (TM) and CMF x 6 courses; median age was 43 (range 26-54). Premenopausal status was defined as last normal menses within the 6 weeks preceding initiation of chemotherapy: DIA as cessation of menses for at least 3 months not later than 3 months from the end of chemotherapy. DIA occurred in 166,221 (75.1%) patients and was strictly related to the age of the patients; also, the older the patients the shorter the time required to develop DIA. At median follow up of 69 months, Mantel-Byar analysis showed a longer disease free survival (DFS) for patients who developed DIA as compared with non amenorrheic women (P less than 0.001). DIA prognostic value was independent of age, number of involved nodes, tumour size and number of CMF cycles, as assessed by the Cox model (RH 0.43, 95% C.I. 0.24-0.77), in which DIA was entered as a time dependent covariate

Potential of native and bioprocessed brewers' spent grains as organic soil amendments

Introduction: The use of novel soil amendments and the exploitation of plant growth-promoting microorganisms are considered promising tools for developing a more sustainable agriculture in times when ensuring high-yield productions with limited resources is essential. Methods: In this study, the potential of brewers' spent grain (BSG), the major by-product of the brewing industry, as organic soil amendment, was investigated. Bioprocessed BSG, obtained by an enzymatic treatment coupled with fermentation, together with native BSG, were used as amendments in a pot-trial. An integrated analytical approach aimed at assessing the modification of the physicochemical properties of a typical Mediterranean alkaline agricultural soil, and the plant growth-promoting effect on escarole (Cichorium endivia var. Cuartana), was carried out. Results: The use of biomasses led to soil organic content and total nitrogen content up to 72 and 42% higher, compared to the unamended soils. Moreover, the lower pH and the higher organic acids content doubled phosphorus availability. Although the number of leaves per plant in escaroles from pots amended with native and bioprocessed BSG did not show any difference compared to plants cultivated on unamended pots, the average fresh weight per escarole head, was higher in pots amended with bioprocessed BSG. Discussion: Hence, the results collected so far encourage BSG application for agricultural purpose, while solving the problem of disposing of such abundant side stream

Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The role of platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients is highly controversial and it is not endorsed by current guidelines. Our meta-analysis aimed to better elucidate its activity, efficacy and safety. Material and methods: A systematic search of Medline, Web of Science and conferences proceedings up to 30 October 2017 was carried out to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating platinum-based versus platinum-free neoadjuvant chemotherapy in TNBC patients. Using the fixed and random effects models, pooled odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for pathological complete response (pCR, defined as ypT0/is pN0), event-free survival (EFS), overall survival (OS) and grade 3 and 4 adverse events (AEs: neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia and neuropathy). Results: Nine RCTs (N \ubc 2109) were included. Overall, platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly increased pCR rate from 37.0% to 52.1% (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.46\u20132.62, P < 0.001). Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy remained significantly associated with increased pCR rate also after restricting the analysis to the three RCTs (N \ubc 611) that used the same standard regimen in both groups of weekly paclitaxel (with or without carboplatin) followed by anthracycline and cyclophosphamide (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.37\u20134.66, P \ubc 0.003). Conversely, among the 96 BRCA-mutated patients included in two RCTs, the addition of carboplatin was not associated with significantly increased pCR rate (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.51\u20132.67, P \ubc 0.711). Two RCTs (N \ubc 748) reported survival outcomes: no significant difference in EFS (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.49\u20131.06, P \ubc 0.094) and OS (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.46\u20131.63, P \ubc 0.651) was observed. A significant higher risk of grade 3 and 4 hematological AEs, with no increased risk of grade 3 and 4 neuropathy was observed with platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusion: In TNBC patients, platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with significantly increased pCR rates at the cost of worse hematological toxicities. Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be considered an option in TNBC patients

A Feedforward Neural Network Approach for the Detection of Optically Thin Cirrus From IASI-NG

The identification of optically thin cirrus is crucial for their accurate parameterization in climate and Earth's system models. This study exploits the characteristics of the infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer-new generation (IASI-NG) to develop an algorithm for the detection of optically thin cirrus. IASI-NG has been designed for the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) polar system second-generation program to continue the service of its predecessor IASI from 2024 onward. A thin-cirrus detection algorithm (TCDA) is presented here, as developed for IASI-NG, but also in parallel for IASI to evaluate its performance on currently available real observations. TCDA uses a feedforward neural network (NN) approach to detect thin cirrus eventually misidentified as clear sky by a previously applied cloud detection algorithm. TCDA also estimates the uncertainty of "clear-sky" or "thin-cirrus" detection. NN is trained and tested on a dataset of IASI-NG (or IASI) simulations obtained by processing ECMWF 5-generation reanalysis (ERA5) data with the s-IASI radiative transfer model. TCDA validation against an independent simulated dataset provides a quantitative statistical assessment of the improvements brought by IASI-NG with respect to IASI. In fact, IASI-NG TCDA outperforms IASI TCDA by 3% in probability of detection (POD), 1% in bias, and 2% in accuracy, and the false alarm ratio (FAR) passes from 0.02 to 0.01. Moreover, IASI TCDA validation against state-of-the-art cloud products from Cloudsat/CPR and CALIPSO/Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) real observations reveals a tendency for IASI TCDA to underestimate the presence of thin cirrus (POD = 0.47) but with a low FAR (0.07), which drops to 0.0 for very thin cirrus