Sperm Human Biobanking: An Overview.

The purpose of this article is to analyze in detail the advantages and disadvantages of sperm cryopreservation, focusing on the cellular and molecular changes that occur during these processes. The main issue is the cellular damage caused by ice crystal formation and osmotic imbalance, along with other secondary effects such as sperm motility and viability, as well as the acrosome reaction or oxidative stress. Another important aspect is the examination of how chromatin structure and DNA integrity affect sperm.

Strong Correlation Between Double-Strand DNA Breaks and Total Sperm DNA Fragmentation in the Human Ejaculate.

Background: Double- and single-strand DNA breaks (DSBs and SSBs, respectively) in spermatozoa, which emerge from intrinsic and extrinsic degenerative processes, are likely related to the underlying male pathology.

Aim: To determine whether the incidence of DSBs in the human ejaculate is a consistent predictor of whole sperm DNA fragmentation (W-SDF = SSBs + DSBs).

Methods: A correlation between the proportion of spermatozoa that showed whole W-SDF and those displaying only DSBs in DNA.

Accelerating the design of lattice structures using machine learning.

Lattices remain an attractive class of structures due to their design versatility; however, rapidly designing lattice structures with tailored or optimal mechanical properties remains a significant challenge. With each added design variable, the design space quickly becomes intractable. To address this challenge, research efforts have sought to combine computational approaches with machine learning (ML)-based approaches to reduce the computational cost of the design process and accelerate mechanical design.

Superlative mechanical energy absorbing efficiency discovered through self-driving lab-human partnership.

Energy absorbing efficiency is a key determinant of a structure's ability to provide mechanical protection and is defined by the amount of energy that can be absorbed prior to stresses increasing to a level that damages the system to be protected. Here, we explore the energy absorbing efficiency of additively manufactured polymer structures by using a self-driving lab (SDL) to perform >25,000 physical experiments on generalized cylindrical shells. We use a human-SDL collaborative approach where experiments are selected from over trillions of candidates in an 11-dimensional parameter space using Bayesian optimization and then automatically performed while the human team monitors progress to periodically modify aspects of the system.

Information-Driven Gas Distribution Mapping for Autonomous Mobile Robots.

The ability to sense airborne pollutants with mobile robots provides a valuable asset for domains such as industrial safety and environmental monitoring. Oftentimes, this involves detecting how certain gases are spread out in the environment, commonly referred to as a gas distribution map, to subsequently take actions that depend on the collected information. Since the majority of gas transducers require physical contact with the analyte to sense it, the generation of such a map usually involves slow and laborious data collection from all key locations.

Multicenter Database of Patients with Germ-Cell Tumors: A Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group Registry (LACOG 0515).

Introduction: Germ-cell tumors (GCTs) are the most common malignancy in young men. There is a paucity of data on GCTs in developing countries. LACOG 0515 study aimed to evaluate clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes in patients with GCTs from Brazilian cancer centers.

Time-restricted feeding during embryonic development leads to metabolic dysfunction in adult rat offspring.

Objectives: Maternal circadian eating time and frequency are associated with altered glucose metabolism during pregnancy in humans. Research on long maternal fasting intervals is inconclusive, and little is known about the effect of maternal time feeding on offspring health. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to determine whether maternal time feeding influences the metabolic status of both male and female offspring.

Emerging biomarkers in metastatic urothelial carcinoma: tumour mutational burden, PD-L1 expression and APOBEC polypeptide-like signature in a patient with complete response to anti-programmed cell death protein-1 inhibitor.

Immunotherapy has recently been incorporated into the treatment guidelines for metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Nevertheless, the role of prognostic and predictive biomarkers in this setting is not completely defined. To date, PD-L1 expression and a high tumour mutational burden (TMB) seem to predict better responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors, but patients without these biomarkers may still respond to immunotherapy.

Expanding the phenotype of E318K (c.952G > A) MITF germline mutation carriers: case series and review of the literature.

Background: The microphthalmia-associated transcription factor gene (MITF) belongs to the MYC supergene family and plays an important role in melanocytes' homeostasis. Individuals harboring MITF germline pathogenic variants are at increased risk of developing cancer, most notably melanoma and renal cell carcinoma.

Case Presentation: We describe a cohort of ten individuals who harbor the same MITF c.

Using simulation to accelerate autonomous experimentation: A case study using mechanics.

Autonomous experimentation (AE) accelerates research by combining automation and machine learning to perform experiments intelligently and rapidly in a sequential fashion. While AE systems are most needed to study properties that cannot be predicted analytically or computationally, even imperfect predictions can in principle be useful. Here, we investigate whether imperfect data from simulation can accelerate AE using a case study on the mechanics of additively manufactured structures.

SARS-CoV-2 testing for asymptomatic adult cancer patients before initiating systemic treatments: a systematic review.

Introduction: Cancer patients may have a higher risk of severe events and unfavourable outcomes in the setting of COVID-19. This review addresses the question of whether to test asymptomatic cancer patients before initiating systemic cancer treatments.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted based on the PRISMA framework.

Spectrum and Clinical Activity of PD-1/PD-L1 Inhibitors: Regulatory Approval and Under Development.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of this review is to highlight the clinical development of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors in cancer therapy. We focus on detailing the registration trials that have led to FDA-approved indications of anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 therapies and future strategies.

Recent Findings: The number of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors approved and in studies continues to grow, in different scenarios.

TRK Inhibitors in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Care should be taken to ensure that the diagnostic strategy for a recently diagnosed advanced non-small cell lung cancer includes NTRK fusion testing. RNA sequencing is the gold standard method of detection of NTRK fusion; however, pan-TRK immunohistochemistry could be used as a screening method with good sensitivity. Larotrectinib and entrectinib are approved therapies for TRK fusion-positive lung cancers as first or subsequent lines of therapy.

A Bayesian experimental autonomous researcher for mechanical design.

While additive manufacturing (AM) has facilitated the production of complex structures, it has also highlighted the immense challenge inherent in identifying the optimum AM structure for a given application. Numerical methods are important tools for optimization, but experiment remains the gold standard for studying nonlinear, but critical, mechanical properties such as toughness. To address the vastness of AM design space and the need for experiment, we develop a Bayesian experimental autonomous researcher (BEAR) that combines Bayesian optimization and high-throughput automated experimentation.

Alectinib activity in chemotherapy-refractory metastatic RET-rearranged non-small cell lung carcinomas: A case series.

Objectives: to report outcomes of four cases of chemo-refractory RET-rearranged non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) treated with alectinib in a single center.

Materials And Methods: we retrospectively assessed and reported the activity and tolerability of alectinib 600 mg twice daily in advanced and chemo-refractory RET-rearranged NSCLC patients treated in a Brazilian institution. Identification of RET rearrangements was performed using the FoundationOne® next-generation sequencing (NGS) platform.

The first report of molecular characterized BRD4-NUT carcinoma in Brazil: a case report.

Background: NUT midline carcinoma is a rare and aggressive subset of squamous cell carcinoma, which is characterized by the translocation of nuclear protein in testis gene that is mostly fused with bromodomain and extraterminal family proteins. We describe here the first Brazilian case of NUT midline carcinoma with BRD4-NUT fusion detected in a next-generation sequencing panel and we present the clinical evolution of this patient.

Case Presentation: A 42-year-old Caucasian man was diagnosed with poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the left maxillary sinus, with negative in situ hybridization for Epstein-Barr encoding region and human papillomavirus genotyping.

Moderate exercise training since adolescence reduces Walker 256 tumour growth in adult rats.

Key Points: Cancer growth, cell proliferation and cachexia index can be attenuated by the beneficial programming effect of moderate exercise training, especially if it begins in adolescence. Walker 256 tumour-bearing rats who started exercise training during adolescence did not revert the basal low glycaemia and insulinaemia observed before tumour cell inoculation. The moderate exercise training improved glucose tolerance and peripheral insulin sensitivity only in rats exercised early in adolescence.

Moderate Physical Training Ameliorates Cardiovascular Dysfunction Induced by High Fat Diet After Cessation of Training in Adult Rats.

We aimed to test whether moderate physical training can induce long-lasting protection against cardiovascular risk factors induced by high fat diet (HFD) intake, even after cessation of training. 90-days-old Wistar rats were submitted to a sedentary lifestyle or moderate physical training, three times a week, for 30 days. Following this, at 120 days-of age, sedentary and trained rats received a hypercaloric diet (HFD) or a commercial diet normal fat diet (NFD) for 30 days.

Atypical response with bone pseudoprogression in a patient receiving nivolumab for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.

Currently, there is no established standard of care for patients with metastatic CSCC. Based on the mechanisms of CSCC carcinogenesis has been postulated that these tumors may be amenable to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade.This case illustrates a patient with CSCC with nodal involvement and pulmonary metastases, refractory to two lines of platinum-based regimens and salvage surgery, for whom treatment with nivolumab was recommended.

[The San Juan de Dios Hospital and its workers: the social life of a hospital and the health crisis in Colombia].

This article describes some significant events of the fifteen years of struggle (1999-2014) of a group of women for the reactivation of the San Juan de Dios Hospital and to stay on as workers after the neoliberal reforms in Colombia. The ethnography presented proposes tools for the understanding of the moral dimensions forged from a conflict for the recognition of rights and shows that the hospital, more than being an architectural complex, is a language activated by the workers to affirm their humanity, a vehicle for the symbolic elaboration of a cause and a means to understand the construction of collectives based on emotional terminology.

Multi-centre assessment of nitroblue tetrazolium reactivity in human semen as a potential marker of oxidative stress.

The nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reaction as a tracer of oxidative stress was examined in 707 ejaculates from seven clinics. Semen was initially surveyed by classifying the NBT reaction using a pre-established rank for the Oxisperm® test based on three colourimetric levels: L1, low (n = 141 [20%]); L2, medium (n = 538 [76%]) and L3, high (n = 28 [4%]). L3 was indicative of a high level of superoxide anions.

[On the sidelines of society: crack use, deviation, criminalization and social exclusion - a narrative review].

The article comprises a narrative review of the scientific literature, aiming to identify and discuss the contexts of vulnerability and social exclusion faced by users of crack cocaine and other substances who live on the sidelines of society in the Brazilian and international context. The paper summarizes insights from different theoretical frameworks, focusing on an integrated perspective of substance use and abuse, with an emphasis on the use of crack and its inter-relationships with social vulnerability, marginalization, social exclusion and deviation. In a first step, broad aspects of qualitative research on drugs are outlined.

Retirement Planning Among Hispanics: In God's Hands?

We conducted a qualitative study on retirement preparedness among middle-aged and older low-income Hispanics in Los Angeles. Data were derived from four focus groups conducted in the greater Los Angeles area. Findings demonstrate how behavioral and cultural factors-family experiences, religiosity, and denial of retirement-explain the lack of savings and preparedness for retirement.