Category: Nevin Manimala

Elife. 2024 Jun 20;13:RP93694. doi: 10.7554/eLife.93694.

ABSTRACT

Comprehensive biodiversity data is crucial for ecosystem protection. The Biome mobile app, launched in Japan, efficiently gathers species observations from the public using species identification algorithms and gamification elements. The app has amassed >6 million observations since 2019. Nonetheless, community-sourced data may exhibit spatial and taxonomic biases. Species distribution models (SDMs) estimate species distribution while accommodating such bias. Here, we investigated the quality of Biome data and its impact on SDM performance. Species identification accuracy exceeds 95% for birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians, but seed plants, molluscs, and fishes scored below 90%. Our SDMs for 132 terrestrial plants and animals across Japan revealed that incorporating Biome data into traditional survey data improved accuracy. For endangered species, traditional survey data required >2000 records for accurate models (Boyce index ≥ 0.9), while blending the two data sources reduced this to around 300. The uniform coverage of urban-natural gradients by Biome data, compared to traditional data biased towards natural areas, may explain this improvement. Combining multiple data sources better estimates species distributions, aiding in protected area designation and ecosystem service assessment. Establishing a platform for accumulating community-sourced distribution data will contribute to conserving and monitoring natural ecosystems.

PMID:38899444 | DOI:10.7554/eLife.93694

J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A. 2024 Jun 20. doi: 10.1089/lap.2024.0144. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Right colon cancer often requires surgical intervention, and complete mesocolic excision (CME) has emerged as a standard procedure. The study aims to evaluate and compare the safety and efficacy of robotic and laparoscopic CME for patients with right colon cancer and 5-year survival rates examined to determine the outcomes. Materials and Methods: Patients who underwent CME for right-sided colon cancer between 2014 and 2021 were included in this study. Group differences of age, body mass index, operation time, bleeding amount, total harvested lymph nodes, and postoperative stay were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test. Group differences of sex, American Society of Anesthesiology, and tumor, node, and metastasis stage were analyzed by the Chi-squared test. Disease-free and overall survival were assessed using Kaplan-Meier curves with the log-rank Mantel-Cox test. Results: From 109 patients, 74 of them were 1:1 propensity score matched and used for analysis. Total harvested lymph node (P ≤ .001) and estimated blood loss (P = .031) were found to be statistically significant between the groups. We found no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of disease-free and overall survival (P = .27, .86, respectively), and the mortality rate was 9.17%, with no deaths directly attributed to the surgery. Conclusions: Study shows that minimally invasive surgery is a feasible option for CME in right colon cancers, with acceptable overall survival rates. Although the robotic approach has a higher lymph node yield, there was no significant difference in survival rates. Further randomized trials are needed to determine the clinical significance of both approaches.

PMID:38899434 | DOI:10.1089/lap.2024.0144

J Med Virol. 2024 Jun;96(6):e29757. doi: 10.1002/jmv.29757.

ABSTRACT

No effective treatments can ameliorate symptoms of long COVID patients. Our study assessed the safety and efficacy of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) in the treatment of long COVID patients. Ten long COVID patients were enrolled and received intravenous infusions of UC-MSCs on Days 0, 7, and 14. Adverse events and clinical symptoms were recorded, and chest-high-resolution CT (HRCT) images and laboratory parameters were analyzed. During UC-MSCs treatment and follow-up, we did not observe serious adverse events, the symptoms of long COVID patients were significantly relieved in a short time, especially sleep difficulty, depression or anxiety, memory issues, and so forth, and the lung lesions were also repaired. The routine laboratory parameters did not exhibit any significant abnormalities following UC-MSCs transplantation (UMSCT). The proportion of regulatory T cells gradually increased, but it was not statistically significant until 12 months. The proportion of naive B cells was elevated, while memory B cells, class-switched B-cells, and nonswitched B-cells decreased at 1 month after infusion. Additionally, we observed a transient elevation in circulating interleukin (IL)-6 after UMSCT, while tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-17A, and IL-10 showed no significant changes. The levels of circulating immunoglobulin (Ig) M increased significantly at month 2, while IgA increased significantly at month 6. Furthermore, the SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels remained consistently high in all patients at Month 6, and there was no significant decrease during the subsequent 12-month follow-up. UMSCT was safe and tolerable in long COVID patients. It showed potential in alleviating long COVID symptoms and improving interstitial lung lesions.

PMID:38899432 | DOI:10.1002/jmv.29757

Muscle Nerve. 2024 Jun 20. doi: 10.1002/mus.28184. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: Efgartigimod, a neonatal Fc-receptor inhibitor, has recently been approved as treatment for myasthenia gravis (MG). In this retrospective cohort study, we aimed to systematically assess short- and long-term effectiveness of efgartigimod in patients with refractory MG.

METHODS: Sixteen patients with refractory autoimmune acetylcholine receptor MG were treated with efgartigimod. Data were collected from January 2021 to March 2023 on Myasthenia Gravis Activities of Daily Living (MG-ADL), Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis score (QMG), Myasthenia Gravis Composite score (MGC) and the 15-item revised version of the Myasthenia Gravis Quality of Life questionnaire (MG-QoL15r).

RESULTS: A favorable outcome was seen in 56% of patients at the last measurement. Out of 16 patients, 50% were an MG-ADL responder after the first treatment cycle. After 4 weeks, a clinically meaningful improvement compared to baseline was seen on the MG-ADL, QMG, and MGC. There was a statistically significant improvement on the MGQoL15r from baseline to week 4. The improvement was maintained until the last measurement for the MGC and the MGQoL15r. At the last visit, all patients had discontinued 4-weekly dosages, shifting to administration frequencies of 1, 2, or 3 weeks. Drug doses could be decreased for prednisolone (n = 7), azathioprine (n = 2), and intravenous immunoglobulin (n = 9). Frequency of plasma exchange was decreased in nine patients.

DISCUSSION: In patients with refractory MG, efgartigimod was effective for at least half of all patients. Patients required more frequent dosing compared to the ADAPT phase 3 trial. In 80% of the patients concurrent medication could be reduced or discontinued.

PMID:38899431 | DOI:10.1002/mus.28184

Hosp Pediatr. 2024 Jun 20:e2023007602. doi: 10.1542/hpeds.2023-007602. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Food insecurity (FI) has increasingly become a focus for hospitalized patients. The best methods for screening practices, particularly in hospitalized children, are unknown. The purpose of the study was to evaluate results of an electronic medical record (EMR) embedded, brief screening tool for FI among inpatients.

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study from August 2020 to September 2022 for all children admitted to a quaternary children’s hospital. Primary outcomes were proportion of those screened for FI and those identified to have a positive screen. FI was evaluated by The Hunger Vital Sign, a validated 2-question screen verbally obtained in the nursing intake form in the EMR. Covariates include demographic variables of age, sex, race, ethnicity, primary language, and insurance. Statistical analyses including all univariate outcome and bivariate comparisons were performed with SAS 9.4.

RESULTS: There were 31 553 patient encounters with 81.7% screened for FI. Patients had a median age of 6.3 years, were mostly male (54.2%), White (60.6%), non-Hispanic (92.7%), English-speaking (94.3%), and had government insurance (79.8%). Younger (0-2 years), non-White, and noninsured patients were all screened significantly less often for FI (all P < .001). A total of 3.4% were identified as having FI. Patients who were older, non-White, Hispanic, non-English speaking, and had nonprivate insurance had higher FI (all P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the use of an EMR screening tool intended to be universal, we found variation in how we screen for FI. At times, we missed those who would benefit the most from intervention, and thus it may be subject to implementation bias.

PMID:38899389 | DOI:10.1542/hpeds.2023-007602

Luminescence. 2024 Jun;39(6):e4795. doi: 10.1002/bio.4795.

ABSTRACT

We aimed to develop a novel diagnostic method called multiplex fluorescence of loop primer upon self-dequenching loop-mediated isothermal amplification (mFLOS-LAMP) for the rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). A set of specific primers was designed to target the detection of IS1081 and IS6110 genes, which are insertion sequences within the MTBC. The 110 sputum specimens collected were assessed using the established mFLOS-LAMP method, multiplex polymerase chain reaction, Xpert MTB/RIF, and smear microscopy. The optimal reaction temperature and duration for mFLOS-LAMP were determined to be 65°C and 30 min, respectively, by optimizing the entire system. The detection sensitivity of mFLOS-LAMP was 6.0 × 10¹ CFU/mL, by Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, and the mFLOS-LAMP sensitivity of M. tuberculosis H37Rv genomic DNA was 500 fg, and the specificity was 100%. The sensitivity of mFLOS-LAMP was 94.2% and the specificity was 96.6%, when Xpert MTB/RIF was used as the reference method. There was no statistically significant difference in their detection rate (χ² = 0, P = 1.000), and the consistency was good (kappa = 0.909, P < 0.001). The receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded the maximum area under the curve of 0.954. The mFLOS-LAMP method demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity, allowing for swift and accurate detection of MTBC.

PMID:38899381 | DOI:10.1002/bio.4795

Rep Prog Phys. 2024 Jun 20;87(7). doi: 10.1088/1361-6633/ad4586.

ABSTRACT

The aim of our paper is to investigate the properties of the classical phase-dispersion minimization (PDM), analysis of variance (AOV), string-length (SL), and Lomb-Scargle (LS) power statistics from a statistician’s perspective. We confirm that when the data are perturbations of a constant function, i.e. under the null hypothesis of no period in the data, a scaled version of the PDM statistic follows a beta distribution, the AOV statistic follows an F distribution, and the LS power follows a chi-squared distribution with two degrees of freedom. However, the SL statistic does not have a closed-form distribution. We further verify these theoretical distributions through simulations and demonstrate that the extreme values of these statistics (over a range of trial periods), often used for period estimation and determination of the false alarm probability (FAP), follow different distributions than those derived for a single period. We emphasize that multiple-testing considerations are needed to correctly derive FAP bounds. Though, in fact, multiple-testing controls are built into the FAP bound for these extreme-value statistics, e.g. the FAP bound derived specifically for the maximum LS power statistic over a range of trial periods. Additionally, we find that all of these methods are robust to heteroscedastic noise aimed to mimic the degradation or miscalibration of an instrument over time. Finally, we examine the ability of these statistics to detect a non-constant periodic function via simulating data that mimics a well-detached binary system, and we find that the AOV statistic has the most power to detect the correct period, which agrees with what has been observed in practice.

PMID:38899367 | DOI:10.1088/1361-6633/ad4586

Haematologica. 2024 Jun 20. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2024.285392. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is the only potentially curative treatment option for many patients with hematologic malignancies. While HCT outcomes have improved drastically over the years, patients and clinicians continue to face numerous survivorship challenges, such as relapse, graft-versushost disease, and secondary malignancies. Recent literature suggests that clonal hematopoiesis (CH), the presence of a recurrent somatic mutation in hematopoietic cells, in HCT patients or donors may be associated with outcomes in autologous and allogeneic HCT. Herein, we perform a review of the literature and summarize reported associations between CH and clinical outcomes in HCT. For commonly reported outcomes, we used meta-analysis methods to provide estimates of effect sizes when combining results. A total of 32 articles with relevant and independent contributions were included, covering both autologous (n = 19) and allogeneic (n = 13) HCT. The articles report variable risk for developing outcomes according to CH characteristics, patient disease status, and method of HCT. Using meta-analysis of available results, HCT outcomes with statistically significant effects by CH status include therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (OR 3.65, 95%CI 2.18-6.10) and overall survival (HR 1.38, 95%CI 1.20-1.58) in autologous HCT and relapse (HR 0.80, 95%CI 0.68-0.94) in allogeneic HCT. However, heterogeneity, biases, and limitations in the literature provide challenges for informing the translation of CH to clinical decision-making. We conclude with a call to action and discussion of next steps to build upon the current literature and provide granularity to the true clinical impact of CH in the setting of HCT.

PMID:38899345 | DOI:10.3324/haematol.2024.285392

Glob Health Action. 2024 Dec 31;17(1):2367415. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2024.2367415. Epub 2024 Jun 20.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Mauritius has implemented a range of stringent policies to control smoking and promote public health. Regular monitoring focuses on the prevalence of tobacco use, yet there is a gap in understanding its socio-economic patterns.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of tobacco smoking and to identify the social determinants associated with smoking among men in Mauritius in 2021.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional population-based study conducted by the Ministry of Health and Wellness during 2021. In total, 3622 individuals participated (response rate of 84.1%), of which 1663 were men (45.9%). The study mainly focused on men given the low prevalence of smoking among women. Daily smoking was the outcome and a series of sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors were included as independent variables. Prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated to fulfill the study objective.

RESULTS: The prevalence of smoking among men was 30.4%. People in the 25-34 age group (PR = 1.65; 95% CI: 1.12-2.41), those separated, divorced or widowed (PR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.16-2.11), the ethnic groups Muslim-Mauritians (PR = 1.70; 95% CI: 1.00-2.89) and Creoles (PR = 1.97; 95% CI: 1.16-3.35), and those with secondary (PR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.00-1.67) and primary education (PR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.10-1.98) were statistically significantly associated with daily smoking.

CONCLUSIONS: Although a gradual decline in smoking prevalence was observed compared with the previous 2015 survey, the Ministry of Health and Wellness should persist in fortifying its anti-smoking measures and concentrate on crafting tailored interventions aimed at the vulnerable groups identified in this study.

PMID:38899339 | DOI:10.1080/16549716.2024.2367415