Clinical Laboratory Testing Practices in Diffuse Gliomas Prior to Publication of 2021 World Health Organization Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors

CONTEXT.—: Integration of molecular data into glioma classification supports diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic decision-making; however, testing practices for these informative biomarkers in clinical laboratories remain unclear. OBJECTIVE.—: To examine the prevalence of molecular testing for clinically relevant biomarkers in adult and pediatric gliomas through review of a College of American Pathologists proficiency testing survey prior to the release of the 2021 World Health Organization Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors. DESIGN.—: College of American Pathologists proficiency testing 2020 survey results from 96 laboratories performing molecular testing for diffuse gliomas were used to determine the use of testing for molecular biomarkers in gliomas. RESULTS.—: The data provide perspective into the testing practices for diffuse gliomas from a broad group of clinical laboratories in 2020. More than 98% of participating laboratories perform testing for glioma biomarkers recognized as diagnostic for specific subtypes, including IDH. More than 60% of laboratories also use molecular markers to differentiate between astrocytic and oligodendroglial lineage tumors, with some laboratories providing more comprehensive analyses, including prognostic biomarkers, such as CDKN2A/B homozygous deletions. Almost all laboratories test for MGMT promoter methylation to identify patients with an increased likelihood of responding to temozolomide. CONCLUSIONS.—: These findings highlight the state of molecular testing in 2020 for the diagnosis and classification of diffuse gliomas at large academic medical centers. The findings show that comprehensive molecular testing is not universal across clinical laboratories and highlight the gaps between laboratory practices in 2020 and the recommendations in the 2021 World Health Organization Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors

Prediction of Solar Proton Event Fluence spectra from their Peak flux spectra

Solar Proton Events (SPEs) are of great importance and significance for the study of Space Weather and Heliophysics. These populations of protons are accelerated at high energies ranging from a few MeVs to hundreds of MeVs and can pose a significant hazard both to equipment on board spacecrafts as well as astronauts as they are ionizing radiation. The ongoing study of SPEs can help to understand their characteristics, relative underlying physical mechanisms, and help in the design of forecasting and nowcasting systems which provide warnings and predictions. In this work, we present a study on the relationships between the Peak Flux and Fluence spectra of SPEs. This study builds upon existing work and provides further insights into the characteristics and the relationships of SPE Peak flux and Fluence spectra. Moreover it is shown how these relationships can be quantified in a sound manner and exploited in a simple methodology with which the Fluence spectrum of an SPE can be well predicted from its given Peak spectrum across two orders of magnitude of proton energies, from 5 MeV to 200 MeV. Finally it is discussed how the methodology in this work can be easily applied to forecasting and nowcasting systems

Advances in Bioenergy: The Sustainability Challenge

\ua9 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved. The increasing deployment of bioenergy frequently raises issues regarding the use of land and raw materials, infrastructure and logistics. In light of these sometimes conflicting interests Advances in Bioenergy provides an objective and wide-ranging overview of the technology, economics and policy of bioenergy. Offering an authoritative multidisciplinary summary of the opportunities and challenges associated with bioenergy utilization, with international researchers give up-to-date and detailed information on key issues for biomass production and conversion to energy. Key features: * Discusses different bioenergy uses such as transportation fuels, electricity and heat production. * Assesses emerging fields such as bio-based chemicals and bio-refineries. * Debates conditions for the mobilization of sustainable bioenergy supply chains and outlines governance systems to support this mobilization. * Dedicated chapters to sustainability governance and emerging tools such as certification systems and standards supporting growth of a sustainable bioenergy industry. * Considers the political, environmental, social and cultural context related to the demand for energy resources, the impact of this demand on the world around us, and the choices and behaviours of consumers. This book will be a vital reference to engineers, researchers and students that need an accessible overview of the bioenergy area. It will also be of high value for politicians, policymakers and industry leaders that need to stay up to date with the state-of-the-art science and technology in this area

Psychiatric factors in patients with ulcerative colitis according to disease activity

In order to examine psychiatric symptoms, hostility and stressful life events in patients suffering from Ulcerative Colitis (UC) during the phases of active disease and remission, a consecutive sample of twenty five UC patients were examined during an active phase and after undergoing a clinical remission. All patients completed the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), the Delusions Symptoms States Inventory/states of Anxiety and Depression (DSSI/sAD), the Symptom Check List-90R (SCL-90R), and a shortened form of the Schedule of Recent Experiences (SRE). On the HDHQ the patients showed very high levels of total hostility, extrapunitiveness and intropunitiveness with no statistically significant differences between the two phases. Regarding psychiatric symptoms, the active phase patients scored significantly higher than the inactive patients on the anxiety and depression subscales of DSSI/sAD and the somatization subscale of the SCL-90R. Female active phase patients reported substantially higher scores than males on the anxiety and depression subscales of DSSI/sAD and the SCI-90R subscales of anxiety, somatizacion, obsessive compulsiveness and depression. On the SRE remission phase patients reported higher scores but the difference was not significant. Females in remission, however, reported significantly higher scores whereas males in remission reported lower scores. The finding that UC patients presented high levels of hostility, somatization, anxiety and depression even during remission of the disease, could be of clinical importance. Hostility features and recollection of life events changed through different patterns in both sexes and the differences observed between them may suggest important different sex patterns when reacting to a chronic and frustrating illness