Statistical keyword detection in literary corpora

Understanding the complexity of human language requires an appropriate analysis of the statistical distribution of words in texts. We consider the information retrieval problem of detecting and ranking the relevant words of a text by means of statistical information referring to the "spatial" use of the words. Shannon's entropy of information is used as a tool for automatic keyword extraction. By using The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin as a representative text sample, we show the performance of our detector and compare it with another proposals in the literature. The random shuffled text receives special attention as a tool for calibrating the ranking indices.Comment: Published version. 11 pages, 7 figures. SVJour for LaTeX2

Oregano and its potential use as bioherbicide

Widespread use of synthetic herbicides in weed control could result in negative impact on human health and on the environment. Natural compounds could be successfully used as bioherbicides because they are potentially more environmental friendly and safe. Plants are an important source of active compounds. In particular, many species belonging to the Labiate family produce essential oils containing compounds that could act as natural herbicides. In this paper we report on preliminary studies about the effects on seed germination and plant growth of an oregano hybrid (Origanum vulgare L. ssp. virilidum × O. vulgare L. ssp. hirtum (Link) Iestwart). Experiments were done both in pots and in the field. Increasing amounts of chopped leaves and stems of oregano were added to the soil. In the pots, several weed species were sown, whereas naturally occurring infestation was evaluated in the field. In comparison with the control, a reduced number of weeds was observed where oregano biomass was added. The above-mentioned trend was more visible in the pots than in the field. The results suggest that the hybrid of oregano used in the trial could be an interesting source of natural compounds effective against weeds. Hence, further studies with this plant are likely to be successful

Tagging Scientific Publications using Wikipedia and Natural Language Processing Tools. Comparison on the ArXiv Dataset

In this work, we compare two simple methods of tagging scientific publications with labels reflecting their content. As a first source of labels Wikipedia is employed, second label set is constructed from the noun phrases occurring in the analyzed corpus. We examine the statistical properties and the effectiveness of both approaches on the dataset consisting of abstracts from 0.7 million of scientific documents deposited in the ArXiv preprint collection. We believe that obtained tags can be later on applied as useful document features in various machine learning tasks (document similarity, clustering, topic modelling, etc.)

Work stress and burnout among physicians and nurses in Internal and Emergency Departments

Burnout has been defined as loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. Work environment and working conditions exposes the individual to numerous factors of stress. Stress-related diseases are defined as burnout. The increased workload, the repeated reorganizations in the hospital with iterative downsizing suggestions and budget cuts, without any perspective of career progression, with a social culture of bureaucracy and blame, resulting both in subtracting direct care time with patients and in the fear by healthcare professionals from the burden of their responsibility, are the backgrounds on which more and more frequent cases of burnout may develop. We need to establish homogenous standards all over the national territory on workload and about the procedures that have to be implemented for the prevention of burnout in our wards

Vinorelbine-based salvage therapy in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer patients progressing during trastuzumab-containing regimens: a retrospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The vinka-alkaloyd vinorelbine is a potentially valuable treatment in patients with HER2-positive, trastuzumab-resistant advanced breast cancer. We sought to document the clinical activity of vinorelbine-based salvage treatments in this clinical setting.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed a cohort of 424 consecutive women receiving trastuzumab-based therapy for HER2-positive advanced breast cancer. Of these, 299 were identified as progressing during the initial trastuzumab-based treatment, and 77 received vinorelbine-based therapy as first salvage treatment. Central review of pathological specimens revealed that 70 patients had HER2-amplification detected by FISH. For these patients we determined overall response rate (ORR = complete-CR + partial-PR) and clinical benefit (CB = CR+PR+ Stable disease lasting at least 6 months), time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) from the initiation of vinorelbine-based salvage therapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 60 patients who were evaluable for tumor response, ORR and CB rates were 28% (95% C.I. 18%-41%) and 50% (95% C.I. 38%-62%), respectively. Median follow-up from the initiation of salvage therapy was 15 months (range 1–63 months). Median TTP and OS were 7.1 months (95% C.I. 6.6–7.7 months) and 21 months (95% C.I. 14.3–27.7 months), respectively. No differences in clinical outcomes were observed according to whether vinorelbine was administered as a single agent or in combination with other cytostatics, or whether trastuzumab was stopped or continued beyond disease progression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>our findings suggests that vinorelbine-based combinations are active and should be further evaluated in studies conducted in trastuzumab-resistant patients, including those evaluating newer HER2-targeting agents.</p

CITRUS TRISTEZA VIRUS RESISTANCE GENE LOCUS: SMALL RNA PROFILE AND PRELIMINARY EPIGENETIC STUDIES

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), play a vital role in epigenetics of plant virus-host plant interactions. It has been extensively studied at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. In plants, siRNAs initiate and manage gene silencing by directing DNA methylation and/or histone methylation. In Arabidopsis, the ~24 nt siRNAs directs DNA methylation (RNA-directed DNA methylation, RdDM) and chromatin remodeling at their target loci. Recent advances in highthroughput sequencing techniques has enabled thorough exploration of small RNAs populations and allow rapid analysis of massive datasets to assemble complete full-length genome sequence for different plant species. This large database of sequence information also allows identification of genome regions specifically matched by siRNAs that likely differ among tolerant, resistant or susceptible hosts and advance epigenetic studies on diseased plants. Resistance to Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), the most severe virus affecting Citrus spp., associated with a single dominant gene locus Ctv occurring in Poncirus trifoliata while all Citrus spp. are considered susceptible. This locus contains 22 putative genes, but their regulation and mechanism for resistance remains unknown. In our study, CTV was graft-inoculated on Carrizo citrange (Poncirus trifoliata x C. sinensis (I think) ) and C. aurantium (sour orange) seedlings, and the population of siRNA characterized by high-throughput sequencing using an ILLUMINA platform. The Ctv-derived siRNA (~2% of the total short reads) were dominated in both hosts by the 24-nt. However, CTV infection caused an increase in accumulation of 24-nt siRNA sequences homologous to the Ctv gene in Carrizo but it decreased in sour orange. Distribution of the 24nt along the Ctv gene locus (282Kb) had a clearly different distribution between the two host. The predominant hot spot of siRNA in Carrizo mapped in the putative gene Ctv-20, whereas in sour orange it associated to the intergenic region between the putative genes Ctv-11 and Ctv-12, where a Copia-like retrotransposon C is located. This distribution profile was conserved for each species between CTV-infected and uninfected plants but, as previously mentioned, the frequency of the 24nt siRNAs was altered by the presence of the virus. We supposed that the different profile of 24nt between the two host in the locus ctv is due to RdDM mechanisms. To demonstrate the methylation status of the resistance locus we performed a bisulfite treatment of DNA. in which unmethylated cytosine was converted to uracile, while methylated cytosine did not react. A methylcytosines mapping was carried out on Ctv-11 and Ctv-12 sequences. By specific software were found 5 different CpG islands in the Copia-likeretrotransposon sequence and 42 primer pair were designed. The PCR analyses have been carried out using MSP and BSP primers followed by combined bisulfite restriction analysis (COBRA)

MYCN Impact on High-Risk Neuroblastoma: From Diagnosis and Prognosis to Targeted Treatment

Simple Summary Neuroblastoma is one of the most diffuse and the deadliest cancer in children. While many advances have been made in the last few decades to improve patients' outcome, high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) still shows a very aggressive pattern of development and poor prognosis, with only a 50% chance of 5-year survival. Moreover, while many factors contribute to defining the high-risk condition, MYCN status is well established as the major element in pathology disclosure. The aim of this review is to describe the current knowledge in the diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic approaches of HR-NB, particularly in relation to MYCN. The review highlights how MYCN influences the HR-NB scenario and the new therapeutic approaches that are currently proposed to target it, in consideration of MYCN as a highly relevant target for HR-NB patient management. Among childhood cancers, neuroblastoma is the most diffuse solid tumor and the deadliest in children. While to date, the pathology has become progressively manageable with a significant increase in 5-year survival for its less aggressive form, high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) remains a major issue with poor outcome and little survivability of patients. The staging system has also been improved to better fit patient needs and to administer therapies in a more focused manner in consideration of pathology features. New and improved therapies have been developed; nevertheless, low efficacy and high toxicity remain a staple feature of current high-risk neuroblastoma treatment. For this reason, more specific procedures are required, and new therapeutic targets are also needed for a precise medicine approach. In this scenario, MYCN is certainly one of the most interesting targets. Indeed, MYCN is one of the most relevant hallmarks of HR-NB, and many studies has been carried out in recent years to discover potent and specific inhibitors to block its activities and any related oncogenic function. N-Myc protein has been considered an undruggable target for a long time. Thus, many new indirect and direct approaches have been discovered and preclinically evaluated for the interaction with MYCN and its pathways; a few of the most promising approaches are nearing clinical application for the investigation in HR-NB

Multiple brain abscesses of odontogenic origin. May oral microbiota affect their development? a review of the current literature

In the last few years, the role of oral microbiota in the setting of oral diseases such as caries, periodontal disease, oral cancer and systemic infections, including rheumatoid arthritis, car-diovascular disease and brain abscess (BA), has attracted the attention of physicians and researchers. Approximately 5–7% of all BAs have an odontogenic origin, representing an important pathological systemic condition with a high morbidity and mortality. A systematic search of two databases (Pubmed and Ovid EMBASE) was performed for studies published up to 5 January 2021, reporting multiple BAs attributed to an odontogenic origin. According to PRISMA guidelines, we included a total of 16 papers reporting multiple BAs due to odontogenic infections. The aim of this review is to investigate the treatment modality and the clinical outcome of patients with multiple BAs due to odontogenic infections, as well as to identify the most common pathogens involved in this pathological status and their role, in the oral microbiota, in the onset of oral infections. A multidisciplinary approach is essential in the management of multiple BAs. Further studies are required to understand better the role of microbiota in the development of multiple BAs

Ubiquity of metastable-to-stable crossover in weakly chaotic dynamical systems

We present a comparative study of several dynamical systems of increasing complexity, namely, the logistic map with additive noise, one, two and many globally-coupled standard maps, and the Hamiltonian Mean Field model (i.e., the classical inertial infinitely-ranged ferromagnetically coupled XY spin model). We emphasize the appearance, in all of these systems, of metastable states and their ultimate crossover to the equilibrium state. We comment on the underlying mechanisms responsible for these phenomena (weak chaos) and compare common characteristics. We point out that this ubiquitous behavior appears to be associated to the features of the nonextensive generalization of the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistical mechanics.Comment: Communication at next2003, Second Sardinian International Conference on News and Expectations in Thermostatistics, Villasimius (Cagliari) Italy, 21st-28th September 2003. Submitted to Physica A. Elsevier Latex, 17 pages, 8 figure