Angioid streaks and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome: are they related?

Background: Sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) has been associated with different ocular manifestations including glaucoma, floppy eye syndrome, punctate keratitis, keratoconus, and optic neuropathy. Angioid streaks are mainly associated with pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) although they can appear in other systemic conditions affecting the elastic fibers.

Methods: This is a prospective, cross-sectional study.

The Endothelium as a Driver of Liver Fibrosis and Regeneration.

Liver fibrosis is a common feature of sustained liver injury and represents a major public health problem worldwide. Fibrosis is an active research field and discoveries in the last years have contributed to the development of new antifibrotic drugs, although none of them have been approved yet. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) are highly specialized endothelial cells localized at the interface between the blood and other liver cell types.

Are we designing fishways for diversity? Potential selection on alternative phenotypes resulting from differential passage in brown trout.

Fishways are commonly employed to improve river connectivity for fishes, but the extent to which they cater for natural phenotypic diversity has been insufficiently addressed. We measured differential upstream passage success of three wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) phenotypes (anadromous, freshwater-resident adult and parr-marked), encompassing a range of sizes and both sexes, at a Larinier superactive baffle fishway adjacent to a flow-gauging weir, using PIT telemetry (n = 160) and radio telemetry (n = 53, double tagged with PIT tags). Fish were captured and tagged downstream of the weir in the autumn pre-spawning period, 2017, in a tributary of the River Wear, England, where over 95% of tributary spawning habitat was available upstream of the weir.

[Chronification of malignant glaucoma after cataract surgery].

The occurrence of malignant glaucoma several years after cataract surgery is a very rare delayed complication. An increasing myopic shift can be an early hint for the formation. A surgical intervention is often inevitable; however, intraocular pressure can also be successfully managed with conservative treatment as in the case described.

Lurbinectedin as second-line treatment for patients with small-cell lung cancer: a single-arm, open-label, phase 2 basket trial.

Background: Few options exist for treatment of patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) after failure of first-line therapy. Lurbinectedin is a selective inhibitor of oncogenic transcription. In this phase 2 study, we evaluated the acti and safety of lurbinectedin in patients with SCLC after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy.

A framework for experimental scenarios of global change in marine systems using coral reefs as a case study.

Understanding the consequences of rising CO and warming on marine ecosystems is a pressing issue in ecology. Manipulative experiments that assess responses of biota to future ocean warming and acidification conditions form a necessary basis for expectations on how marine taxa may respond. Although designing experiments in the context of local variability is most appropriate, local temperature and CO characteristics are often unknown as such measures necessitate significant resources, and even less is known about local future scenarios.

Tropical seagrass shifts thermal tolerance during Mediterranean invasion.

Exotic species often face new environmental conditions that are different from those that they are adapted to. The tropical seagrass is a Lessepsian migrant that colonized the Mediterranean Sea around 100 years ago, where at present the minimum seawater temperature is cooler than in its native range in the Red Sea. Here, we tested if the temperature range in which can exist is conserved within the species or if the exotic populations have shifted their thermal breadth and optimum due to the cooler conditions in the Mediterranean.

Treatment patterns for metastatic colorectal cancer in Spain.

Purpose: The primary aim of this retrospective study was to describe the treatment patterns according to the type of treatment received by patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in Spain.

Methods: This was a retrospective, observational, multicenter study performed by 33 sites throughout Spain that included consecutive patients aged 18 years or older who had received or were receiving treatment for mCRC.

Results: At the time of inclusion, of the 873 evaluable patients, 507 (58%) had received two lines, 235 (27%) had received three lines, 106 (12%) had received four lines, and the remaining patients had received up to ten lines.

Characterisation of the sewage virome: comparison of NGS tools and occurrence of significant pathogens.

NGS techniques are excellent tools to monitor and identify viral pathogens circulating among the population with some limitations that need to be overcome, especially in complex matrices. Sewage contains a high amount of other microorganisms that could interfere when trying to sequence viruses for which random PCR amplifications are needed before NGS. The selection of appropriate NGS tools is important for reliable identification of viral diversity among the population.

Validity of the Comprehensive High-Level Activity Mobility Predictor in a heterogeneous population with lower extremity amputations.

Background And Objective: Lower extremity amputee outcome measures assess basic mobility. The Comprehensive High-Level Activity Mobility Predictor was developed to assess high-level mobility. Validity evidence was collected in military men with traumatic lower extremity amputations.

Prevention of Ocular Tenon Adhesion to Sclera by a PDMAA Polymer to Improve Results after Glaucoma Surgery.

The authors describe a process that may eventually reduce the risk of scar formation after glaucoma surgery. For this, a thin hydrogel coating is photochemically generated and linked to the sclera surface at the surgical site. This coating is generated from a photoreactive prepolymer containing anthraquinone groups, which is administered as a thin pad to the sclera surface.

A European multicentre evaluation of detection and typing methods for human enteroviruses and parechoviruses using RNA transcripts.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection has become the gold standard for diagnosis and typing of enterovirus (EV) and human parechovirus (HPeV) infections. Its effectiveness depends critically on using the appropriate sample types and high assay sensitivity as viral loads in cerebrospinal fluid samples from meningitis and sepsis clinical presentation can be extremely low. This study evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of currently used commercial and in-house diagnostic and typing assays.

Phase III Trial of Adjuvant Capecitabine After Standard Neo-/Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients With Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (GEICAM/2003-11_CIBOMA/2004-01).

Purpose: Operable triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) have a higher risk of relapse than non-TNBCs with standard therapy. The GEICAM/2003-11_CIBOMA/2004-01 trial explored extended adjuvant capecitabine after completion of standard chemotherapy in patients with early TNBC.

Patients And Methods: Eligible patients were those with operable, node-positive-or node negative with tumor 1 cm or greater-TNBC, with prior anthracycline- and/or taxane-containing chemotherapy.

Ecological effects of non-native species in marine ecosystems relate to co-occurring anthropogenic pressures.

Predictors for the ecological effects of non-native species are lacking, even though such knowledge is fundamental to manage non-native species and mitigate their impacts. Current theories suggest that the ecological effects of non-native species may be related to other concomitant anthropogenic stressors, but this has not been tested at a global scale. We combine an exhaustive meta-analysis of the ecological effects of marine non-native species with human footprint proxies to determine whether the ecological changes due to non-native species are modulated by co-occurring anthropogenic impacts.

[ICD coding of causes of death: challenges for calculating the burden of disease in Germany].

In the project BURDEN 2020 - "The burden of disease in Germany and its regions" - the years of life lost (YLL) due to premature mortality are calculated on the basis of official cause-of-death statistics. This requires the identification and redistribution of the so-called ill-defined ICD codes. "Ill-defined" means that an ICD code does not sufficiently reflect the cause of death, such that it is not informative for the calculation of the burden of disease.

Mumps: MMR vaccination and genetic diversity of mumps virus, 2007-2011 in Catalonia, Spain.

Background: Mumps is a vaccine-preventable disease but outbreaks have been reported in persons vaccinated with two doses of MMR vaccine. The objective was to describe the demographic features, vaccination effectiveness and genetic mumps virus diversity among laboratory-confirmed cases between 2007 and 2011 in Catalonia.

Methods: Cases and outbreaks of mumps notified to the notifiable diseases system of Catalonia between 2007 and 2011 retrospectively registered were included.

Number of subjects required in common study designs for functional GABA magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the human brain at 3 Tesla.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a research tool for measuring the concentration of metabolites such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate in the brain. MEGA-PRESS has been the preferred pulse sequence for GABA measurements due to low physiological GABA concentrations, hence low signal. To compensate, researchers incorporate long acquisition durations (7-10 min) making functional measurements of this metabolite challenging.

Author Correction: The future of Blue Carbon science.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Oxygen supersaturation protects coastal marine fauna from ocean warming.

Ocean warming affects the life history and fitness of marine organisms by, among others, increasing animal metabolism and reducing oxygen availability. In coastal habitats, animals live in close association with photosynthetic organisms whose oxygen supply supports metabolic demands and may compensate for acute warming. Using a unique high-frequency monitoring dataset, we show that oxygen supersaturation resulting from photosynthesis closely parallels sea temperature rise during diel cycles in Red Sea coastal habitats.

Enhanced molecular typing and macrolide and tetracycline-resistance mutations of in Barcelona.

To describe the molecular types of and the proportion of macrolide and tetracycline resistance mutations in Barcelona. Molecular type was determined using the Enhanced-CDC Typing system and antibiotic resistance was determined by sequencing the 23S and 16S rRNA genes. A total of 183 patients were enrolled and 213 specimens (99 ulcers, 114 bloods) were collected.

The future of Blue Carbon science.

The term Blue Carbon (BC) was first coined a decade ago to describe the disproportionately large contribution of coastal vegetated ecosystems to global carbon sequestration. The role of BC in climate change mitigation and adaptation has now reached international prominence. To help prioritise future research, we assembled leading experts in the field to agree upon the top-ten pending questions in BC science.

The high genetic similarity between rhinoviruses and enteroviruses remains as a pitfall for molecular diagnostic tools: A three-year overview.

Background: Enteroviruses (EVs) and rhinoviruses (RVs) belong to the Enterovirus genus within the Picornaviridae family, and show genetic similarities. These viruses are related to mild diseases, but EVs infections can sometimes lead to more severe complications. Current diagnostic molecular techniques should discriminate between the four EV and the three RV species that infect humans.