Impact of teratoma on survival probabilities of patients with metastatic non-seminomatous germ cell cancer: Results from the IGCCCG Update Consortium.

Aims: To resolve the ongoing controversy surrounding the impact of teratoma (TER) in the primary among patients with metastatic testicular non-seminomatous germ-cell tumours (NSGCT).

Patients And Methods: Using the International Germ Cell Cancer Collaborative Group (IGCCCG) Update Consortium database, we compared the survival probabilities of patients with metastatic testicular GCT with TER (TER) or without TER (NTER) in their primaries corrected for known prognostic factors. Progression-free survival (5y-PFS) and overall survival at 5 years (5y-OS) were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method.

Radiotherapy Combined with a Radiosensitizer for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin-unresponsive Non-muscle-invasive Carcinoma In Situ Bladder Cancer: An Open-label, Single-arm, Multicenter, Phase 2 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Trial.

Radical cystectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection and urinary diversion is the standard of care for patients with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). However, many patients are unwilling or unable to undergo such major surgery associated with high morbidity and a negative impact on quality of life. Chemoradiotherapy is an established treatment option for muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

High-fat, high-sucrose, and combined high-fat/high-sucrose diets effects in oxidative stress and inflammation in male rats under presence or absence of obesity.

The study examines the influence of three types of hypercaloric diets on metabolic parameters, inflammatory markers, and oxidative stress in experimental model. Male Wistar rats (n = 40) were randomized in control (C), high-sucrose (HS), high-fat (HF), and high-fat with sucrose (HFHS) for 20 weeks. Nutritional, metabolic, hormonal, and biochemical profiles, as well as histological analysis of adipose and hepatic tissues were performed.

Assessment of cecal microbiota modulation from piglet dietary supplementation with copper.

Background: Swine production expanded in the last decades. Efforts have been made to improve meat production and to understand its relationship to pig gut microbiota. Copper (Cu) is a usual supplement to growth performance in animal production.

Comparison of functional-oil blend and anticoccidial antibiotics effects on performance and microbiota of broiler chickens challenged by coccidiosis.

This study aimed to compare the effects of different levels of cashew nutshell liquid (CNSL) and castor oil (CNSL-castor oil) with growth-promoting antibiotics associated with anticoccidials in broiler chickens challenged with coccidiosis. In this work, 2520 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Cobb) were randomly assigned to 84 pens, containing 30 birds each. The experimental design was completely randomized, with seven treatments: enramycin (8 ppm), virginiamycin (16.

Effect of dietary copper sources on performance, gastric ghrelin-RNA expression, and growth hormone concentrations in serum in piglets.

Two performance studies were conducted to investigate the effects of 3 different sources of Cu on production parameters of piglets. A total of 256 piglets weaned at 24 ± 2 d were randomly allocated into 4 treatments with 10 or 8 replicates per treatment of 4 or 3 piglets per pen in Exp. 1 and 2, respectively.

Differential Effects of High Sugar, High Lard or a Combination of Both on Nutritional, Hormonal and Cardiovascular Metabolic Profiles of Rodents.

Background: Dietary interventions in rodents can induce an excess of adipose tissue and metabolic disorders that resemble human obesity. Nevertheless, these approaches are not standardized, and the phenotypes may vary distinctly among studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary interventions on nutritional, metabolic, biochemical, hormonal, and cardiovascular profiles, as well as to add to development and characterization of an experimental model of obesity.

Prognostic and predictive value of circulating tumor cells and CXCR4 expression as biomarkers for a CXCR4 peptide antagonist in combination with carboplatin-etoposide in small cell lung cancer: exploratory analysis of a phase II study.

Background Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 4 (CXCR4) expression in CTCs and tumor tissue were evaluated as prognostic or predictive markers of CXCR4 peptide antagonist LY2510924 plus carboplatin-etoposide (CE) versus CE in extensive-stage disease small cell lung cancer (ED-SCLC). Methods This exploratory analysis of a phase II study evaluated CXCR4 expression in baseline tumor tissue and peripheral blood CTCs and in post-treatment CTCs. Optimum cutoff values were determined for CTC counts and CXCR4 expression in tumors and CTCs as predictors of survival outcome.

A Downward Trend of the Ratio of Influenza RNA Copy Number to Infectious Viral Titer in Hospitalized Influenza A-Infected Patients.

Background.  Efficacy endpoints in influenza clinical trials may include clinical symptoms and virological measurements, although virology cannot serve as the primary endpoint. We investigated the relationship between influenza A RNA copy number and quantity of infectious viruses in hospitalized influenza patients.

Sampling variability between two mid-turbinate swabs of the same patient has implications for influenza viral load monitoring.

Background: With the clinical development of several antiviral intervention strategies for influenza, it becomes crucial to explore viral load shedding in the nasal cavity as a biomarker for treatment success, but also to explore sampling strategies for sensible and reliable virus collection.

Findings: In this study, 244 patients suffering from Influenza like Illness and/or acute respiratory tract infection were enrolled. Sampling was done using mid-turbinate flocked swabs and two swabs per patient were collected (one swab per nostril).

A new method for using 18O to trace ozone deposition.

Isotopically labelled ozone ((18)O(3)) is an ideal tool to study the deposition of O(3) to plants and soil, but no studies have made use of it due to the technical difficulties in producing isotopically enriched ozone. For (18)O(3) to be used in fumigation experiments, it has to be purified and stored safely prior to fumigations, to ensure that the label is present predominantly in the form of O(3), and to make efficient use of isotopically highly enriched oxygen. We present a simple apparatus that allows for the safe generation, purification, storage, and release of (18)O(3).

A new stable isotope approach identifies the fate of ozone in plant-soil systems.

* We show that the stable isotope (18)O can be used to trace ozone into different components of the plant-soil system at environmentally relevant concentrations. * We exposed plants and soils to (18)O-labelled ozone and used isotopic enrichment in plant dry matter, leaf water and leaf apoplast, as well as in soil dry matter and soil water, to identify sites of ozone-derived (18)O accumulation. * It was shown that isotopic accumulation rates in plants can be used to infer the location of primary ozone-reaction sites, and that those in bare soils are dependent on water content.

Effects of climate warming and species richness on photochemistry of grasslands.

In view of the projected climatic changes and the global decrease in plant species diversity, it is critical to understand the effects of elevated air temperature (T(air)) and species richness (S) on physiological processes in plant communities. Therefore, an experiment of artificially assembled grassland ecosystems, with different S (one, three or nine species), growing in sunlit climate-controlled chambers at ambient T(air) and ambient T(air) + 3 degrees C was established. We investigated whether grassland species would be more affected by midday high-temperature stress during summer in a warmer climate scenario.

Chlorophyll a fluorescence imaging of ozone-stressed Brassica napus L. plants differing in glucosinolate concentrations.

Brassicaceae are characterised by glucosinolates (GS), which appear to be involved not only in biotic but also in abiotic stress responses of plants. We investigated the effect of O (3) stress on leaf GS concentrations in two lines of BRASSICA NAPUS L., differing in GS content.

Non-photochemical quenching kinetics during the dark to light transition in relation to the formation of antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin.

Nonlinear regression analysis (NLR) is applied to quantify the dynamic response of non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (NPQ) of Trifolium repens cv. Regal upon dark to light transition. Commonly, only steady-state levels of NPQ are evaluated, ignoring transient kinetics.

Influence of fluoroquinolone purchasing patterns on antimicrobial expenditures and Pseudomonas aeruginosa susceptibility.

The influence of using ofloxacin in place of ciprofloxacin on hospital fluoroquinolone expenditures, total antimicrobial expenditures, and susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to fluoroquinolones was studied. Hospitals with fluoroquinolone expenditures of at least $1 per occupied bed per year were administered annual surveys covering the years 1993 through 1996. The two most recent consecutive years of data were compared among hospitals that used ciprofloxacin as their primary fluoroquinolone during both years (group 1), hospitals whose ofloxacin purchases increased from accounting for < or =25% of total fluoroquinolone expenditures during year 1 to accounting for >25% during year 2 (group 2), and hospitals whose ofloxacin purchases accounted for at least 25% of total fluoroquinolone expenditures for both years (group 3).

Detection and identification of antinuclear autoantibodies in the serum of normal blood donors.

The occurrence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in the serum of 485 healthy volunteer blood donors was assessed. Sixty two sera displayed nuclear immunofluorescence staining on Hep-2 cells using a polyvalent anti-Ig conjugate. In general, the titer of these antibodies was low (42/62 sera displaying a titer lower than or equal to 1:80).