Allergic Conjunctivitis at Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Care Center, Gambia

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of allergic conjunctivitis in Gambia and to determine its epidemiologic features, seasonal variations and associated ocular and systemic conditions. Methods: Records of patients clinically diagnosed with allergic conjunctivitis between April 2007 and March 2008 were reviewed. Variables including age, sex, date of presentation, and systemic and ocular findings were recorded. Results: A total of 7,912 patients were visited within the study period, out of which 624 (7.9%) were diagnosed with allergic conjunctivitis. The disease was equally distributed in male and female subjects, with high preponderance in children (54.5%). Most patients (60.7%) presented during the dry season as compared to the rainy season. Refractive error was the most common ocular condition associated with the condition present in 7.4% of patients while the most common systemic association was asthma, reported in 1.4% of cases. Conclusion: Allergic conjunctivitis in Gambia is more common in children than in adults and has seasonal variation with more patients presenting during dry seasons. Refractive errors are the most common ocular problem associated with the disease and asthma is a systemic association

Prevalence and risk factors for diabetic retinopathy in north-central Nigeria

Background: To determine the prevalence, pattern and risk factors of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) among patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in a tertiary hospital in north-central Nigeria.Settings and Design: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in Jos, north-central Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Consecutive adult patients with DM attending the endocrinology clinic who consented to the study were examined over a six-month period. Demographic data, duration of diabetes and history of any systemic disorder were obtained for each patient. A detailed ocular examination and fundus photography were performed and results of blood investigations such as Fasting Blood Glucose (FBG), Glycosylated Haemoglobin (HbA1c) and serum lipid profile were analysed. Data analysis was done with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 software.Results: Three hundred and fifty-six patients were examined comprising of 120 (33.7%) males and 236 (66.3%) females giving a male to female ratio of 1:2. The mean age of the study population was 56.6 ± 12.3 years. Diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema were present in 66 (18.5%) and 51 (14.3%) patients respectively. Diabetes diagnosis of 10 years and above, FBG and HbA1c all had a statistically significant association with DR with p values <0.001.Conclusion: The prevalence of DR was 18.5% in a hospital cohort of diabetic patients in north-central Nigeria with long duration of diabetes and poor glycaemic control being the major risk factors for retinopathy. These findings highlight the need for regular eye screening and good glycaemic control in individuals with diabetes in our environment.  Funding: None declared Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, diabetes mellitus, macular oedema, prevalence, blindnes

Understanding the sex difference in vulnerability to adolescent depression: an examination of child and parent characteristics

This study examined sex differences in risk factors associated with adolescent depression in a large sample of boys and girls. Moderation and mediation explanatory models of the sex difference in likelihood of depression were examined. Findings indicate that the factors associated with depression in adolescent boys and girls are quite similar. All of the variables considered were associated with depression, but sex did not moderate the impact of vulnerability factors on likelihood of depression diagnosis. However, negative self-perceptions in the domains of achievement, global self-worth, and physical appearance partially mediated the relationship between sex and depression. Further, girls had higher levels of positive self-perceptions in interpersonal domains that acted as suppressors and reduced the likelihood of depression in girls. These findings suggest that girls' higher incidence of depression is due in part to their higher levels of negative self-perceptions, whereas positive interpersonal factors serve to protect them from depressive episodes

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Patterns and universals of mate poaching across 53 nations : the effects of sex, culture, and personality on romantically attracting another person’s partner

As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, 16,954 participants from 53 nations were administered an anonymous survey about experiences with romantic attraction. Mate poaching--romantically attracting someone who is already in a relationship--was most common in Southern Europe, South America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and was relatively infrequent in Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Evolutionary and social-role hypotheses received empirical support. Men were more likely than women to report having made and succumbed to short-term poaching across all regions, but differences between men and women were often smaller in more gender-egalitarian regions. People who try to steal another's mate possess similar personality traits across all regions, as do those who frequently receive and succumb to the poaching attempts by others. The authors conclude that human mate-poaching experiences are universally linked to sex, culture, and the robust influence of personal dispositions.peer-reviewe

Are men universally more dismissing than women? Gender differences in romantic attachment across 62 cultural regions

The authors thank Susan Sprecher (USA), Del Paulhus (Canada), Glenn D. Wilson (England), Qazi Rahman (England), Alois Angleitner (Germany), Angelika Hofhansl (Austria), Tamio Imagawa (Japan), Minoru Wada (Japan), Junichi Taniguchi (Japan), and Yuji Kanemasa (Japan) for helping with data collection and contributing significantly to the samples used in this study.Gender differences in the dismissing form of adult romantic attachment were investigated as part of the International Sexuality Description Project—a survey study of 17,804 people from 62 cultural regions. Contrary to research findings previously reported in Western cultures, we found that men were not significantly more dismissing than women across all cultural regions. Gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment were evident in most cultures, but were typically only small to moderate in magnitude. Looking across cultures, the degree of gender differentiation in dismissing romantic attachment was predictably associated with sociocultural indicators. Generally, these associations supported evolutionary theories of romantic attachment, with smaller gender differences evident in cultures with high–stress and high–fertility reproductive environments. Social role theories of human sexuality received less support in that more progressive sex–role ideologies and national gender equity indexes were not cross–culturally linked as expected to smaller gender differences in dismissing romantic attachment.peer-reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

The L1 cell adhesion molecule constrains dendritic spine density in pyramidal neurons of the mouse cerebral cortex

A novel function for the L1 cell adhesion molecule, which binds the actin adaptor protein Ankyrin was identified in constraining dendritic spine density on pyramidal neurons in the mouse neocortex. In an L1-null mouse mutant increased spine density was observed on apical but not basal dendrites of pyramidal neurons in diverse cortical areas (prefrontal cortex layer 2/3, motor cortex layer 5, visual cortex layer 4. The Ankyrin binding motif (FIGQY) in the L1 cytoplasmic domain was critical for spine regulation, as demonstrated by increased spine density and altered spine morphology in the prefrontal cortex of a mouse knock-in mutant (L1YH) harboring a tyrosine (Y) to histidine (H) mutation in the FIGQY motif, which disrupted L1-Ankyrin association. This mutation is a known variant in the human L1 syndrome of intellectual disability. L1 was localized by immunofluorescence staining to spine heads and dendrites of cortical pyramidal neurons. L1 coimmunoprecipitated with Ankyrin B (220 kDa isoform) from lysates of wild type but not L1YH forebrain. This study provides insight into the molecular mechanism of spine regulation and underscores the potential for this adhesion molecule to regulate cognitive and other L1-related functions that are abnormal in the L1 syndrome

Image Analysis Reveals Differences in Tumor Multinucleations in Black and White Patients With Human Papillomavirus-Associated Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Understanding biological differences between different racial groups of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) patients, who have differences in terms of incidence, survival, and tumor morphology, can facilitate accurate prognostic biomarkers, which can help develop personalized treatment strategies. METHODS: This study evaluated whether there were morphologic differences between HPV-associated tumors from Black and White patients in terms of multinucleation index (MuNI), an image analysis-derived metric that measures density of multinucleated tumor cells within epithelial regions on hematoxylin-eosin images and previously has been prognostic in HPV-associated OPSCC patients. In this study, the authors specifically evaluated whether the same MuNI cutoff that was prognostic of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival in their previous study, T RESULTS: MuNI was statistically significantly different between Black (mean, 3.88e-4; median, 3.67e-04) and White patients (mean, 3.36e-04; median, 2.99e-04), with p = .0078. Using T CONCLUSIONS: Histological difference between White and Black patient tumors in terms of multinucleated tumor cells suggests the need for considering population-specific prognostic biomarkers for personalized risk stratification strategies for HPV-associated OPSCC patients

Long-Term Follow-Up of Cardiac Function and Quality of Life for Patients in NSABP Protocol B-31/NRG Oncology: A Randomized Trial Comparing the Safety and Efficacy of Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide (AC) Followed by Paclitaxel With AC Followed by Paclitaxel and Trastuzumab in Patients With Node-Positive Breast Cancer With Tumors Overexpressing Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2

Purpose Early cardiac toxicity is a risk associated with adjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab. However, objective measures of cardiac function and health-related quality of life are lacking in long-term follow-up of patients who remain cancer free after completion of adjuvant treatment. Patients and Methods Patients in NSABP Protocol B-31 received anthracycline and taxane chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab for adjuvant treatment of node-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2–positive early-stage breast cancer. A long-term follow-up assessment was undertaken for patients who were alive and disease free, which included measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction by multigated acquisition scan along with patient-reported outcomes using the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI), the Medical Outcomes Study questionnaire, and a review of current medications and comorbid conditions. Results At a median follow-up of 8.8 years among eligible participants, five (4.5%) of 110 in the control group and 10 (3.4%) of 297 in the trastuzumab group had a \u3e 10% decline in left ventricular ejection fraction from baseline to a value \u3c 50%. Lower DASI scores correlated with age and use of medications for hypertension, cardiac conditions, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, but not with whether patients had received trastuzumab. Conclusion In patients without underlying cardiac disease at baseline, the addition of trastuzumab to adjuvant anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy does not result in long-term worsening of cardiac function, cardiac symptoms, or health-related quality of life. The DASI questionnaire may provide a simple and useful tool for monitoring patient-reported changes that reflect cardiac function