Bilateral transient visual loss and meningeal irritation signs following retrobulbar anesthesia

A 62-year-old man underwent an uneventful cataract surgery in the left eye following retrobulbar anesthesia. Fifteen minutes after the surgery, the patient had visual loss in his right (unoperated) eye, headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. The bandage on the left (operated) eye was removed and the initial ophthalmic examination revealed bilateral dilated pupils with absence of light perception. His fundus examination and vital signs were unremarkable. Immediately, a computerized tomography (CT) was performed to scan both orbit and brain. The orbit CT revealed air bubbles within the left optic nerve sheath, which confirmed inadvertent injection and administration of anesthetic medications into the optic nerve sheath. Within three hours, meningeal irritation signs recovered spontaneously and visual acuity improved to 20/20 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left eye

Biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Rheum ribes and evaluation of their anticarcinogenic and antimicrobial potential: A novel approach in phytonanotechnology

PubMed: 31791838This paper reports the anticarcinogenic and antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) obtained by green synthesis using the extract of Rheum ribes (R. ribes), a medicinal plant. For the synthesis of Ag NPs, the ethanolic extracts of R. ribes were used as a reducing as well as the stabilizing agent. For the characterization of Ag NPs, advanced analytical methods such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV–vis spectrophotometry were performed. The synthesized Ag NPs obtained from R. ribes were evaluated as a cytotoxic agent against MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cell line. The IC50 values of the nanoparticles were ranged from 165 to 99 µg/mL against MDA-MB 231 cell line for 24 h and 48 h, respectively. The results show that the use of Ag NPs at low concentrations show the toxic effect in the cancer cells. In addition, the results of experiments on gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis)) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli (E. coli)) bacteria showed that the Ag NPs had high antimicrobial activity. The results suggest that Ag NPs can be developed as potential anticancer and antibacterial agents. © 2019 Elsevier B.V

A participatory approach to tagging and monitoring as an initial step in developing a sturgeon conservation strategy along the Turkish Black Sea Coast

The objective of this study was to organise a national mechanism that would allow to effectively promote and control the gentle handling and release of accidentally caught sturgeons with the participation of the fishery while at the same time testing the effectiveness of such measures through tagging and continuous monitoring. A second objective was to develop through this exercise a participatory conservation strategy for sturgeons which is jointly executed by the research institutions, governmental agencies and commercial fishery. The samples of Acipenseridae which were captured accidentally in the fishing nets from the commercial fishers were released to sea after tagging with plastic T-bar tag and all the information about the fish species such as fish weight and length, capture locality, depth were recorded. Within these applications, carried out in collaboration with the Fisheries Cooperatives and fishermen in the Black Sea region, 99 fish (9, 22, 48 and 20 for the years 2006-2009, respectively) were tagged and released to the sea. Five of the tagged fish were re-captured and released again after recording the information on the tags

Strongly Secure Authenticated Key Exchange without NAXOS' Approach under Computational Diffie-Hellman Assumption

LaMacchia, Lamer and Mityagin [19] proposed a novel security definition for authenticate key exchange (AKE) that gives an adversary the power to obtain ephemeral information regarding a target test session. To demonstrate feasibility of secure protocols in the new definition, henceforth called eCK, the authors described a protocol called NAXOS. NAXOS combines an ephemeral private key x with a static private key a to generate an ephemeral public key X (more precisely in what we call the NAXOS' approach X = g(H(x,a))). Thus no one is able to query the discrete logarithm of X without knowing both the ephemeral and static private keys. This idea is crucial in the security argument to guard against leaked ephemeral secrets belonging to the test session. Another important assumption is the gap assumption that allows the protocol to remain secure even in the presence of malicious insiders. Both ideas have been successfully used in creating various protocols secure in the eCK model. In this paper, we construct two eCK-secure protocols without the above mentioned ideas. KFU1 is secure under the GDH assumption without using the NAXOS' approach. KFU2 builds upon KFU1 and drops the gap requirement, thus it is secure under the CDH assumption. Efficiency and security of the proposed protocols are comparable to the well-known HMQV [15] protocol. Furthermore, unlike HMQV and NAXOS the use of the random oracle in KFU1 and KFU2 is restricted to the key derivation function making them more suitable for practical applications

Quality of life study of patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated with gemcitabine+nab-paclitaxel versus gemcitabine alone: AX-PANC-SY001, a randomized phase-2 study

PubMed: 322285122-s2.0-85082792669Background: Combination of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel has superior clinical efficacy than gemcitabine alone. Nevertheless, health-related quality of life. (QoL) associated with this combination therapy when administered at first-line in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma is unknown. Methods: A total of 125 patients were randomized to combination therapy (1000 mg/m2 gemcitabine + 125 mg/m2 nab-paclitaxel) and single-agent gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2) arms to take treatment weekly for 7 of 8 weeks, and following 3 of 4 weeks, until progression or severe toxicity. Primary endpoints were three-months of definitive deterioration free percent of patients, and QoL. Results: Overall QoL analyses showed that 34 and 58.3% of cases in gemcitabine and gemcitabine+nab-P arms had no deterioration in 3rd month QoL scores (p = 0.018). These proportions were 27.3 and 36.6% in 6th month assessments, respectively (p = 0.357). Median overall survivals in combination and single-agent arms were 9.92 months and 5.95 months, respectively (HR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.42-0.86, p = 0.038). Median progression free survivals in these treatment arms were 6.28 and 3.22 months, respectively (HR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.39-0.87, p = 0.008). Median time-to-deterioration were 5.36 vs 3.68 months, and objective response rates were 37.1% vs 23.7% (p = 0.009), respectively in combination and single-agent arms. Conclusions: Combination therapy with gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel had better overall and progression-free survival than gemcitabine alone. Also, combination therapy showed increased response rate without toxicity or deteriorated QoL. Combination treatment with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel may provide significant benefit for advanced pancreatic cancer. Trial registration: This study has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03807999 on January 8, 2019 (retrospectively registered). © 2020 The Author(s)

Comparative Assessment of Various Machine Learning-Based Bias Correction Methods for Numerical Weather Prediction Model Forecasts of Extreme Air Temperatures in Urban Areas

Forecasts of maximum and minimum air temperatures are essential to mitigate the damage of extreme weather events such as heat waves and tropical nights. The Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model has been widely used for forecasting air temperature, but generally it has a systematic bias due to its coarse grid resolution and lack of parametrizations. This study used random forest (RF), support vector regression (SVR), artificial neural network (ANN) and a multi-model ensemble (MME) to correct the Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS; a local NWP model over Korea) model outputs of next-day maximum and minimum air temperatures ( Tmaxt+1 and Tmint+1) in Seoul, South Korea. A total of 14 LDAPS model forecast data, the daily maximum and minimum air temperatures of in-situ observations, and five auxiliary data were used as input variables. The results showed that the LDAPS model had an R-2 of 0.69, a bias of -0.85 degrees C and an RMSE of 2.08 degrees C for Tmaxt+1 forecast, whereas the proposed models resulted in the improvement with R-2 from 0.75 to 0.78, bias from -0.16 to -0.07 degrees C and RMSE from 1.55 to 1.66 degrees C by hindcast validation. For forecasting Tmint+1, the LDAPS model had an R-2 of 0.77, a bias of 0.51 degrees C and an RMSE of 1.43 degrees C by hindcast, while the bias correction models showed R-2 values ranging from 0.86 to 0.87, biases from -0.03 to 0.03 degrees C, and RMSEs from 0.98 to 1.02 degrees C. The MME model had better generalization performance than the three single machine learning models by hindcast validation and leave-one-station-out cross-validation

Muscle function and homeostasis require cytokine inhibition of AKT activity in Drosophila

Unpaired ligands are secreted signals that act via a GP130-like receptor, domeless, to activate JAK/STAT signalling in Drosophila. Like many mammalian cytokines, unpaireds can be activated by infection and other stresses and can promote insulin resistance in target tissues. However, the importance of this effect in non-inflammatory physiology is unknown. Here, we identify a requirement for unpaired-JAK signalling as a metabolic regulator in healthy adult Drosophila muscle. Adult muscles show basal JAK-STAT signalling activity in the absence of any immune challenge. Plasmatocytes (Drosophila macrophages) are an important source of this tonic signal. Loss of the dome receptor on adult muscles significantly reduces lifespan and causes local and systemic metabolic pathology. These pathologies result from hyperactivation of AKT and consequent deregulation of metabolism. Thus, we identify a cytokine signal that must be received in muscle to control AKT activity and metabolic homeostasis

XELOX followed by XELIRI or the reverse sequence in advanced colorectal cancer

Background: Capecitabine has demonstrated high efficacy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In this non-randomized pilot study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of sequentially administered XELOX and XELIRI regimens or the reverse sequence in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: Entry criteria were histologically confirmed mCRC, ECOG performance status (PS) <= 2 and adequate bone marrow, renal and hepatic function. All patients consecutively received XELOX followed by XELIRI at disease progression or vice versa. Results: In multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors with worse overall survival were: lower PS (p = 0.0001), multiple metastatic sites (p = 0.016) and high tumor grade. Higher serum levels of alkaline phosphatase and worse ECOG PS were associated with a shorter progression-free survival. Grade 3/4 mucositis, nausea/vomiting, grade 3/4 alopecia and grade 3 diarrhea were more frequent with XELIRI, whereas major toxicity events with XELOX were grade 3 neutropenia, thrombocytopenia and grade 2/3 neurotoxicity. Conclusion: Capecitabine appears to be an acceptable alternative to continuous-infusion fluorouracil (FU)/leucovorin (LV) in combination therapy and offers an effective, but more convenient alternative to continuous infusion FU/LV in the first-line treatment of patients with mCRC. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

XELOX followed by XELIRI or the reverse sequence in advanced colorectal cancer

Background: Capecitabine has demonstrated high efficacy as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In this non-randomized pilot study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of sequentially administered XELOX and XELIRI regimens or the reverse sequence in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Patients and Methods: Entry criteria were histologically confirmed mCRC, ECOG performance status (PS) <= 2 and adequate bone marrow, renal and hepatic function. All patients consecutively received XELOX followed by XELIRI at disease progression or vice versa. Results: In multivariate analysis, independent prognostic factors with worse overall survival were: lower PS (p = 0.0001), multiple metastatic sites (p = 0.016) and high tumor grade. Higher serum levels of alkaline phosphatase and worse ECOG PS were associated with a shorter progression-free survival. Grade 3/4 mucositis, nausea/vomiting, grade 3/4 alopecia and grade 3 diarrhea were more frequent with XELIRI, whereas major toxicity events with XELOX were grade 3 neutropenia, thrombocytopenia and grade 2/3 neurotoxicity. Conclusion: Capecitabine appears to be an acceptable alternative to continuous-infusion fluorouracil (FU)/leucovorin (LV) in combination therapy and offers an effective, but more convenient alternative to continuous infusion FU/LV in the first-line treatment of patients with mCRC. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel