The pros and cons of virtual networking events: online exploratory survey of psychiatrists’ opinions

We conducted an online questionnaire-based cross-sectional study to clarify psychiatrists’ perspectives on virtual networking events. We compared two groups of respondents: those who had participated in virtual networking events (experienced group, n = 85) and those who had not (inexperienced group, n = 13). The experienced group had a greater level of agreement than the inexperienced group that virtual events were generally useful and helped with forming professional relationships and improving professional skills. Respondents in the experienced group considered the ease of participation and low financial burden to be advantages of virtual networking meetings and difficulties in building friendships and socialising to be disadvantages

Growth Promotion of Mycelia of the Matsutake Mushroom Tricholoma matsutake by D-Isoleucine

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Automatic inference model construction for computer-aided diagnosis of lung nodule: Explanation adequacy, inference accuracy, and experts’ knowledge

We aimed to describe the development of an inference model for computer-aided diagnosis of lung nodules that could provide valid reasoning for any inferences, thereby improving the interpretability and performance of the system. An automatic construction method was used that considered explanation adequacy and inference accuracy. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of prior experts’ (radiologists’) knowledge while constructing the models. In total, 179 patients with lung nodules were included and divided into 79 and 100 cases for training and test data, respectively. F-measure and accuracy were used to assess explanation adequacy and inference accuracy, respectively. For F-measure, reasons were defined as proper subsets of Evidence that had a strong influence on the inference result. The inference models were automatically constructed using the Bayesian network and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, selecting only those models that met the predefined criteria. During model constructions, we examined the effect of including radiologist’s knowledge in the initial Bayesian network models. Performance of the best models in terms of F-measure, accuracy, and evaluation metric were as follows: 0.411, 72.0%, and 0.566, respectively, with prior knowledge, and 0.274, 65.0%, and 0.462, respectively, without prior knowledge. The best models with prior knowledge were then subjectively and independently evaluated by two radiologists using a 5-point scale, with 5, 3, and 1 representing beneficial, appropriate, and detrimental, respectively. The average scores by the two radiologists were 3.97 and 3.76 for the test data, indicating that the proposed computer-aided diagnosis system was acceptable to them. In conclusion, the proposed method incorporating radiologists’ knowledge could help in eliminating radiologists’ distrust of computer-aided diagnosis and improving its performance

The Fairy Chemical Imidazole-4-carboxamide Inhibits the Expression of Axl, PD-L1, and PD-L2 and Improves Response to Cisplatin in Melanoma

The leading cause of death worldwide is cancer. Many reports have proved the beneficial effect of mushrooms in cancer. However, the precise mechanism is not completely clear. In the present study, we focused on the medicinal properties of biomolecules released by fairy ring-forming mushrooms. Fairy chemicals generally stimulate or inhibit the growth of surrounding vegetation. In the present study, we evaluated whether fairy chemicals (2-azahypoxanthine, 2-aza-8-oxohypoxanthine, and imidazole-4-carboxamide) exert anticancer activity by decreasing the expression of Axl and immune checkpoint molecules in melanoma cells. We used B16F10 melanoma cell lines and a melanoma xenograft model in the experiments. Treatment of melanoma xenograft with cisplatin combined with imidazole-4-carboxamide significantly decreased the tumor volume compared to untreated mice or mice treated cisplatin alone. In addition, mice treated with cisplatin and imidazole-4-carboxamide showed increased peritumoral infiltration of T cells compared to mice treated with cisplatin alone. In vitro studies showed that all fairy chemicals, including imidazole-4-carboxamide, inhibit the expression of immune checkpoint molecules and Axl compared to controls. Imidazole-4-carboxamide also significantly blocks the cisplatin-induced upregulation of PD-L1. These observations point to the fairy chemical imidazole-4-carboxamide as a promising coadjuvant therapy with cisplatin in patients with cancer

Effect of switching from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to tenofovir alafenamide on lipid profiles in patients with hepatitis B

For long-term treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, switching from tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate (TDF) to tenofovir-alafenamide (TAF) may prevent renal dysfunction and bone loss. However, the precise effects of this switch on the blood lipid profile remain to be clarified. This is an important issue as TDF is known to have effects on both low- and high-density lipids. Therefore, our retrospective multi-center study aimed to evaluate the effects of switching from TDF to TAF on the lipid profile of patients with HBV infection. Samples were obtained prior to the switch from TDF to TAF and at 6-12 months after TAF initiation. In some cases, additional samples obtained pre- and post-TDF administration were available for analysis. Serum cholesterol levels, including oxidized-low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and non-high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), and the rate of dyslipidemia, according to the NCEP-ATP III lipid risk classification, were analyzed. The data from 69 patients were analyzed, including 33 patients with pre- and post-TDF-initiation serum samples. Total cholesterol (T-chol), HDL-c, LDL-c, non-HDL-c, and oxidized LDL levels increased significantly after switching to TAF. With regard to sequential changes pre- to post-TAF, TDF was associated with significantly lower serum T-chol, HDL-c, and oxidized LDL-c levels, with T-chol, HDL-c, LDL-c, and oxidized LDL-c levels increasing significantly after the switch. The switch from TDF to TAF was also associated with an increase in the rate of dyslipidemia, from 33% to 39%, with an increase in the rate of severe dyslipidemia of 1.4% and 5.8%, based on T-chol and LDL-c levels. Of note, no cases of severe dyslipidemia were detected pre-TAF treatment. As oxidized LDL-c and non-HDL-c are strongly associated with atherosclerosis development, careful monitoring of lipid is needed after switching from TDF to TAF in this clinical population

Cytotoxicity and Glycan-Binding Properties of an 18 kDa Lectin Isolated from the Marine Sponge <em>Halichondria </em><em>o</em><em>kadai</em>

A divalent cation-independent lectin—HOL-18, with cytotoxic activity against leukemia cells, was purified from a demosponge, <em>Halichondria okadai</em>. HOL-18 is a 72 kDa tetrameric lectin that consists of four non-covalently bonded 18 kDa subunits. Hemagglutination activity of the lectin was strongly inhibited by chitotriose (GlcNAcβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-4GlcNAc), fetuin and mucins from porcine stomach and bovine submaxillary gland. Lectin activity was stable at pH 4–12 and temperatures lower than 60 °C. Frontal affinity chromatography with 16 types of pyridylaminated oligosaccharides indicated that the lectin had an affinity for <em>N</em>-linked complex-type and sphingolipid-type oligosaccharides with <em>N</em>-acetylated hexosamines and neuramic acid at the non-reducing termini. The lectin killed Jurkat leukemia T cells and K562 erythroleukemia cells in a dose- and carbohydrate-dependent manner