Articles Related to NSE

Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), also known as testicular feminization, is a rare medical condition that has garnered increased attention in recent years due to evolving research and therapeutic approaches [1,2], as well as the psychological repercussions it has on patients and the risk of being associated not only with sex cord–stromal tumors but also with rare mesenchymal tumors [3]. AIS results from anomalies in the X chromosome and leads individuals with an XY genotype to exhibit various degrees of female physical traits or complete feminine characteristics

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Stress of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is induced by the accumulation of misfolded proteins in this organelle. It can be triggered by biotic and abiotic stress (particularly heat), but also by chemical treatments (such as DTT and tunicamycin) at a laboratory scale. To respond to this stress, various cellular mechanisms are involved, including the highly conserved protein repair pathway, the UPR (Unfolded Protein Response). This pathway aims to restore protein homeostasis in cells. In cereals, seed storage proteins (SSP) represent one of the characteristics that determine grain quality and are of great interest to agriculture. Unlike dicots, the dynamics of the UPR induction pathway in monocots are poorly documented in the literature.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Overweight and obesity are considered an increasing colorectal cancer risk factor. The association between excess body weight and colorectal cancer appears to be related to a state of systemic low-grade inflammation, due to an overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have provided groundbreaking advancements for a variety of malignancies. It has been of recent interest to identify predictive indicators of response to improve cancer management using immunotherapy. The intestinal microbiome has been recognized as a potential predictor of ICI anti- tumor activity. Antibiotics reduce diversity the overall composition of the gut microbiota, with effects seen as quickly as in a single day. Post-antibiotic dysbiosis recovery varies depending on type and duration of exposure. Preclinical studies in mice with advanced cancer treated with broad spectrum antibiotics have been associated with resistance to ICI treatment.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

The Government of Ghana recognizes the importance of wetlands as a habitat for wildlife, in the maintenance of the water table, mitigation of flood conditions, and water purification. Wetlands resources are also known to be of socio-economic importance and have been harvested for construction poles, fuel-wood, timber for furniture, and craftwork

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Diabetic macular edema (DME) has become one of the most potential complications that results in loss of vision in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Treatment outcomes that have been predicted directly with advent of machine learning (ML) methods after the initial anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injection, has become extremely vital in the management of DME. Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyze the efficiency of the ML regression models which were developed and validated to predict the possible post-injection central subfield thickness (CST) value and distant vision best corrected visual acuity (DV BCVA) in eyes with DME before the anti-VEGF injection is administered at either treatment initiation or during treatment monitoring. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in Medical Research Foundation, Chennai, India from January 2010 to December 2020. The model development emphasized on an ensemble ML system consisting of four ML models that were developed and trained independently using the clinical parameters to predict the post injection CST value. The dataset consisting of 906 patients with total of 1874 samples [Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images and clinical parameters] were divided into trained and test set, and the model was validated on test dataset. The predicted CST values was then compared against the respective sample’s post injection actual CST value. The comparative results were measured in terms of Correlation Coefficient and Mean Absolute Relative Error (MARE). Results: On evaluation, we found that Support Vector Regression (SVR) with linear kernel performed best among the other models with four different scenarios in term of both CST and DVBCVA prediction with correlation coefficient of 0.65, 0.73, 0.75, 0.85 and 0.83, 0.87, 0.89 and 0.92 respectively.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Objective: To determine the prevalence of minority drug resistance variants in the protease and Gag regions among patients failing a protease inhibitor (PI) based regimen with or without a susceptible genotype based on Sanger sequencing technology. Methods: Samples were obtained from patients who were failing on a protease inhibitor-based regimen (n = 500). Sanger based sequencing was performed as part of the standard of care. Mutation analysis was performed using the Stanford HIV drug Resistance database. A subset of these patient samples was grouped into two categories: those failing a PI based with mutations in the protease region (n = 100) and those failing on a PI based regimen without mutations in the protease region (n = 128). These samples were then analyzed in the protease and Gag regions using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology and analysis of the drug resistance mutations was performed at the 20% and 1% cutoffs. Results: An initial analysis of the protease region for patients failing with drug resistance mutations revealed that most patients harbored mutations that confer resistance to Lopinavir and Atazanavir, but these mutations had little effect on Darunavir. Furthermore, NGS revealed that in patients failing with and without drug resistance mutations, minority drug resistance mutations were present at each of the drug resistance codons and at codons that confer multi-drug resistance to protease inhibitors. Further analysis of the Gag gene revealed more genetic diversity among patients failing with no mutations in the protease as evidenced by the proportion of polymorphisms at each codon. Conclusion: Based on Sanger sequencing, a proportion of patients fail a PI based regimen with a susceptible genotype. However, these patients harbor minority variants in the protease and numerous polymorphisms in the Gag region which when combined these could explain their poor response to therapy. Therefore, in order to improve patient care in low resource settings, there is need to adapt NGS as the standard genotyping technique so that minority variants are captured much earlier. In addition, since mutations in the Gag region also play a role in response to PIs, this region should be included in the routine monitoring for response to therapy in patients on a PI based regimen.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of gabapentin enacarbil (GEn) on sleep EEG, heart rate (HR), blood presssure, anterior tibialis EMG activity (PLMs power) and subjective complaints in subjects with moderate to severe RLS and disturbed sleep. Methods: This was a single site, single-blind, placebo run-in, fixed dose single group polysomnography (PSG) study. Eligible subjects (age 24-66 years) were treated with placebo for one week and GEn (600 mg/day) for 4 weeks. Two in-laboratory PSGs were collected for adaptation and baseline at the end of the placebo run-in period and for re-adaptation and efficacy assessment at the end of the 4-week treatment period. The primary endpoint was the difference in PSG derived cortical arousal intensity (arousal scale, 0-9) associated with PLMs between 4 weeks of treatment with GEn and placebo. Secondary endpoints included changes in HR responses (ΔHR), nocturnal systolic blood pressure (SBP) changes (>10 mmHg) secondary to PLMs and PLMs power. Other PSG and subjective measures were assessed. Results: Of 20 subjects enrolled, 18 completed the study. Subjects treated with GEn did not show significant improvements in cortical arousal intensity and ΔHR. However, subjects showed reduced PLMs power (p= 0.013) and associated reductions in nocturnal SBP per hour of sleep (p= 0.041) GEn showed significant improvement in other PSG parameters and subjective endpoints. Conclusion: The data suggests that GEn reduces the frequency and power of PLMs and the corresponding SBP changes in subjects with RLS. Despite reducing the total number of PLM associated arousals and nocturnal HR, the study did not demonstrate consistent effects of GEn on cortical arousal intensity and corresponding HR changes associated with PLMs. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02424695

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Lower urinary tract injury in hysterectomy is rare, but once it occurs, the consequence can be deteriorating. We experienced late onset urinary tract injury that developed as late as 15 days after laparoscopic hysterectomy. The objective of this case report is to alert all gynecological laparoscopists that such late onset complication may happen to any of patients.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Primary coenzyme Q10 deficiency-4 (CoQ10D4) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by childhood-onset of cerebellar ataxia and exercise intolerance. Molecular pathology responsible for clinical findings is mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction. The main clinical manifestation involves early-onset exercise intolerance, progressive cerebellar ataxia and movement disorders. Some affected individuals develop seizures and have mild mental impairment, indicating variable severity.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Self-assessment (SA) of English speaking ability by patients has been an important reference for the health workforce, and in the past 10 years, research examining health literacy in the USA has continued to emphasize the patient. In the current study, 338 Health Care Workers (HCWs) (82% female and 63% nurses) reported on their current communications with patients (one year into the COVID-19 pandemic) and recalled what communication was like at the onset of the pandemic. Through SA as a way for HCWs to analyze communication, this study investigated information available from community and healthcare facilities, oral communication with patients, and the training of healthcare professionals.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Fisher exact test is one of most popularly used methods in modern data analyses. However, it is conservative because of discreteness. The mid-p method may reduce the conservativeness but it is defined by the factor 1/2, an extra term beyond data. This paper considers an adjustment defined by a data-based factor. The adjusted test is compared with other ten tests. Special attention is given to the comparison between the data-based factor and the factor 1/2. The standardized version of the adjusted test is asymptotically standard normal.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Opioids are commonly prescribed for acute pain management. Complications such as nausea, vomiting, itch and constipation are not uncommon. Two unusual and unexpected complications that can arise in the acute setting are opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) and acute opioid tolerance (AOT). The diagnostic challenges of these two entities are mainly attributed to their unpredictable onset and lack of strict diagnostic criteria. In the pediatric setting, additional confounding factors such as separation anxiety, hunger, thirst and poor verbal communication further complicate discerning between the two phenomena.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

Current present-day cataract surgery evolves from a visual restoration to a refractive approach. Greater independence from glasses and improvement of the quality of life were provided after surgery with the appearance of multifocal intraocular lenses (MF-IOLs). Since its creation in the 1980s, MFIOLs has undergone various technical improvements, including trifocal implants and implants with extended depth of vision. Excellent results were achieved thorough preoperative check, including the visual needs of the patients and the inherent eye anatomy. This analysis offers a broad overview of the various types of Mf-IOLs and rules for optimizing results through full preoperative screening and treatment postoperatively complications.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text

The classical Fisher exact test [1], which is unconditionally the uniformly most powerful unbiased (UMPU) test, requires randomization at the critical value(s) to be of size α. Obviously, one needs a non-randomized version of this. Rejecting the null only if the test-statistic’s outcome is more extreme than the critical values, reduces the actual size considerably. The modified Fisher exact test introduced in [2] additionally rejects the null when the test attains the critical value c(t) and the randomization probability γ(t) (that depend on the total number of successes T) exceeds a threshold γ0, which is determined such that, for all values of the nuisance parameter, the size of the unconditional modified test is smaller, but as close as possible to α. This greatly improves the size and power of the test as compared to, for example, the conservative nonrandomized Fisher exact test, while controlling the Type 1 error rate.

View complete article: PDF  |  Full-text