Malignant ascites: Current therapy options and treatment prospects.

Ascites formation is a common complication of cancer with a significant symptomatic burden for patients. Malignant ascites (MA) is defined by the presence of tumor cells within the ascitic fluid. It does not only cause substantial morbidity, but is also associated with impaired survival.

Larval growth rate is not a major determinant of adult wing shape and eyespot size in the seasonally polyphenic butterfly .

Background: Insects often show adaptive phenotypic plasticity where environmental cues during early stages are used to produce a phenotype that matches the environment experienced by adults. Many tropical satyrine butterflies (Nymphalidae: Satyrinae) are seasonally polyphenic and produce distinct wet- and dry-season form adults, providing tight environment-phenotype matching in seasonal environments. In studied Mycalesina butterflies, dry-season forms can be induced in the laboratory by growing larvae at low temperatures or on poor food quality.

Efficacy and safety of the combination of encorafenib/cetuximab with or without binimetinib in patients with BRAF V600E-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer: an AGEO real-world multicenter study.

Background: The combination of encorafenib with cetuximab has become the standard of care in patients with BRAF V600E-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) after a prior systemic therapy. This study aims to describe the efficacy and safety of encorafenib/cetuximab +/- binimetinib in patients with BRAF V600E-mutated mCRC in a real-world setting.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study included patients with BRAF V600E-mutated mCRC who received this combination from January 2020 to June 2022 in 30 centers.

Association of family history with patient characteristics and prognosis in a large European gastroesophageal cancer cohort.

Introduction: The role of the family history in the development and prognosis of gastroesophageal cancer is a controversially discussed topic as appropriate data from western cohorts are lacking. This study aims to explore its associations with disease and outcome parameters in a large European cohort.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed self-reported family history in patients with gastroesophageal cancer treated between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2021 at the Medical University of Vienna.

Interaction of family SES with children's genetic propensity for cognitive and noncognitive skills: No evidence of the Scarr-Rowe hypothesis for educational outcomes.

This study examines the role of genes and environments in predicting educational outcomes. We test the Scarr-Rowe hypothesis, suggesting that enriched environments enable genetic potential to unfold, and the compensatory advantage hypothesis, proposing that low genetic endowments have less impact on education for children from high socioeconomic status (SES) families. We use a pre-registered design with data (426 ≤  ≤ 3875).

Immune cell distribution and DNA methylation signatures differ between tumor and stroma enriched compartment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The presence of abundant tumor stroma is a prominent characteristic of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) that potentially influences disease progression and therapy response. This study aims to investigate immune cell infiltration and epigenetic profiles in tumor cell enriched ("Tumor") and stroma cell enriched ("Stroma") regions within human PDAC tissue samples. By comparing those regions, we identified 25,410 differentially methylated positions (DMPs) distributed across 6,963 unique genes.

Quantitative MRI assessment of joint effusion using T2-relaxometry at 3 Tesla: a feasibility and reproducibility study.

Objective: T2-relaxometry could differentiate between physiological and haemorrhagic joint effusion (≥ 5% blood) in vitro. Are quantitative T2-relaxation time measurements of synovial fluid feasible and reproducible in vivo in clinically bleed-free joints of men with haemophilia?

Materials And Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we measured T2-relaxation times of synovial fluid in clinically bleed-free ankles, knees or elbows of men with severe haemophilia A using a T2-mapping sequence (duration ≤ 7 min) at 3 Tesla MRI. Manual and circular regions of interest (ROI) were drawn in the synovial fluid of each joint by two independent observers to measure T2-relaxation times.

Are Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors for Psychopathology Amplified in Children with Below-Average Intelligence? A Population-Based Twin Study.

There is a negative association between intelligence and psychopathology. We analyzed data on intelligence and psychopathology to assess this association in seven-year-old Dutch twin pairs (ranging from 616 to 14,150 depending on the phenotype) and estimated the degree to which genetic and environmental factors common to intelligence and psychopathology explain the association. Secondly, we examined whether genetic and environmental effects on psychopathology are moderated by intelligence.

More than nature and nurture, indirect genetic effects on children's academic achievement are consequences of dynastic social processes.

Families transmit genes and environments across generations. When parents' genetics affect their children's environments, these two modes of inheritance can produce an 'indirect genetic effect'. Such indirect genetic effects may account for up to half of the estimated genetic variance in educational attainment.

Clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcome of patients with large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung and brain metastases - data from a tertiary care center.

Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) of the lung is an aggressive malignancy, with brain metastases (BM) occurring in approximately 20% of cases. There are currently no therapy guidelines for this population as only few data on the management of LCNEC and BM have been published. For this retrospective single center study, patients with LCNEC and BM were identified from the Vienna Brain Metastasis Registry.

The relationship of school performance with self-control and grit is strongly genetic and weakly causal.

The non-cognitive skills self-control and grit are often considered predictors of school performance, but whether this relationship is causal remains unclear. We investigated the causality of this association using a twin design. Specifically, we evaluated the direct impact of self-control and grit on school performance, while controlling for genetic or environmental influences common to all three traits (i.

Prognosticators of survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and ascites.

Background: Identification of factors associated with survival after ascites diagnosis in metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) patients may guide treatment decisions and help to maintain quality of life in this highly symptomatic patient collective.

Patients And Methods: All patients treated for mPC at the Medical University of Vienna between 2010 and 2019 developing ascites throughout their course of disease were identified by retrospective chart review. General risk factors, metastatic sites, systemic inflammation and liver function parameters, as well as type of treatment after ascites diagnosis were investigated for associations with survival.

Intergenerational transmission of ADHD behaviors: genetic and environmental pathways.

Background: We investigate if covariation between parental and child attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviors can be explained by environmental and/or genetic transmission.

Methods: We employed a large children-of-twins-and-siblings sample ( = 22 276 parents and 11 566 8-year-old children) of the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. This enabled us to disentangle intergenerational influences via parental genes and parental behaviors (i.

Self-control and grit are associated with school performance mainly because of shared genetic effects.

Background: By combining the classical twin design with regression analysis, we investigated the role of two non-cognitive factors, self-control and grit, in the prediction of school performance. We did so at the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental level.

Methods: Teachers filled out a survey on the twins' school performance (school grades for reading, literacy, and math), self-control (ASEBA self-control scale), and grit (the perseverance aspect) for 4891 Dutch 12-years-old twin pairs (3837 pairs with data for both and 1054 pairs with data for one of the twins).

Subclinical synovial proliferation in patients with severe haemophilia A: The value of ultrasound screening and biochemical markers.

Aim: Subclinical bleeding and inflammation play a role in progression of haemophilic arthropathy. Synovial proliferation is predictive of joint bleeding and its early detection may guide treatment changes and prevent arthropathy progression. This study evaluated the prevalence of active and inactive subclinical synovial proliferation and investigated potential biochemical blood/urine markers to identify patients with active subclinical synovial proliferation.

Intergenerational Transmission of BMI and Educational Outcomes in Children and Adolescents.

Individual differences in educational attainment (EA) and physical health, as indexed by body mass index (BMI), are correlated within individuals and across generations. The aim of our study was to assess the transmission of these traits from parents to their offspring in childhood and adolescence. We analyzed BMI and EA in 13,916 families from the Netherlands.

Digest: Habitat seasonality drives evolutionary change in plasticity in Bicyclus butterflies.

Can changes in plasticity evolve in populations in response to local conditions? Zhen et al. addressed this question using populations of Bicyclus butterflies from Cameroon. The results of the study suggest that local adaptation in these African butterflies involved changes in the degree of plasticity, such that stronger responses to temperature were found in populations from habitats with stronger seasonal fluctuations.

Effects on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome of Parental Caregivers' Ability to Leave the Postpartum Unit During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: To determine if a policy change that limited the ability of parental caregivers to leave the postpartum unit during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) scores, admissions to the NICU for NAS treatment, and length of stay (LOS) on the nursing unit.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting/local Problem: During the pandemic, a change in policy limited parental caregivers from leaving the nursing unit.