Descriptive analysis of durvalumab use in unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer in patients treated in Quebec's University teaching hospitals.

Introduction: Consolidation durvalumab post chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) has been demonstrated to improve survival in locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Real-world data to assess its use and impact on patients, particularly in Quebec, remain limited.

Methods: We, therefore, aimed to assess real-world durvalumab use in inoperable stage III NSCLC in Quebec, to describe progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) outcomes as reported in the PACIFIC trial, and to evaluate safety and toxicity.

Stress disrupts engram ensembles in lateral amygdala to generalize threat memory in mice.

Stress induces aversive memory overgeneralization, a hallmark of many psychiatric disorders. Memories are encoded by a sparse ensemble of neurons active during an event (an engram ensemble). We examined the molecular and circuit processes mediating stress-induced threat memory overgeneralization in mice.

Network connectivity underlying information processing speed in children: Application of a pediatric brain tumor survivor injury model.

Elucidating how adaptive and maladaptive changes to the structural connectivity of brain networks influences neural synchrony, and how this structure-function coupling impacts cognition is an important question in human neuroscience. This study assesses these links in the default mode and executive control networks during resting state, a visual-motor task, and through computational modeling in the developing brain and in acquired brain injuries. Pediatric brain tumor survivors were used as an injury model as they are known to exhibit cognitive deficits, structural connectivity compromise, and perturbations in neural communication.

Gamma-protocadherins regulate dendrite self-recognition and dynamics to drive self-avoidance.

Neurons form cell-type-specific morphologies that are shaped by cell-surface molecules and their cellular events governing dendrite growth. One growth rule is dendrite self-avoidance, whereby dendrites distribute uniformly within a neuron's territory by avoiding sibling branches. In mammalian neurons, dendrite self-avoidance is regulated by a large family of cell-recognition molecules called the clustered protocadherins (cPcdhs).

Pten regulates endocytic trafficking of cell adhesion and Wnt signaling molecules to pattern the retina.

The retina is exquisitely patterned, with neuronal somata positioned at regular intervals to completely sample the visual field. Here, we show that phosphatase and tensin homolog (Pten) controls starburst amacrine cell spacing by modulating vesicular trafficking of cell adhesion molecules and Wnt proteins. Single-cell transcriptomics and double-mutant analyses revealed that Pten and Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule Dscam) are co-expressed and function additively to pattern starburst amacrine cell mosaics.

Relationship Between Diet Quality and Statin Use Among Adults With Metabolic Syndrome From the CARTaGENE Cohort.

Background: In metabolic syndrome (MetS), cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction relies on the complementary use of diet and lipid-lowering medication. Evidence suggests that initiating such medication may impede diet quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between diet quality and statin use among adults with MetS and free of CVD from the Province of Québec.

Diversity-induced trivialization and resilience of neural dynamics.

Heterogeneity is omnipresent across all living systems. Diversity enriches the dynamical repertoire of these systems but remains challenging to reconcile with their manifest robustness and dynamical persistence over time, a fundamental feature called resilience. To better understand the mechanism underlying resilience in neural circuits, we considered a nonlinear network model, extracting the relationship between excitability heterogeneity and resilience.

Combining the Nurse Intuition Patient Deterioration Scale with the National Early Warning Score provides more Net Benefit in predicting serious adverse events: A prospective cohort study in medical, surgical, and geriatric wards.

Objectives: This prospective cohort study aimed to assess the predictive value of the Nurse Intuition Patient Deterioration Scale (NIPDS) combined with the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) for identifying serious adverse events in patients admitted to diverse hospital wards.

Research Methodology/design: Data was collected between December 2020 and February 2021 in a 350-bed acute hospital near Brussels, Belgium. The study followed a prospective cohort design, employing NIPDS alongside NEWS for risk assessment.

Induced synchronization by endogenous noise modulation in finite-size random neural networks: A stochastic mean-field study.

Event-related synchronization and desynchronization (ERS/ERD) are well-known features found experimentally in brain signals during cognitive tasks. Their understanding promises to have much better insights into neural information processes in cognition. Under the hypothesis that neural information affects the endogenous neural noise level in populations, we propose to employ a stochastic mean-field model to explain ERS/ERD in the γ-frequency range.

New Insight into Nanoscale Identification of the Polar Axis Direction in Organic Ferroelectric Films.

Ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride--trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF--TrFE)] thin films have been deposited by spin-coating onto the BiNaTiO(BNT)/LNO/SiO/Si heterostructure. The copolymer microstructure investigated by using grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray diffraction (GIWAXD) and deduced from the (200)/(110) reflections demonstrates that the -axis in the P(VDF--TrFE) orthorhombic unit cell is either in the plane or out of the plane, depending on the face-on or on the two types of edge-on (called and ) lamellar structures locally identified by atomic force microscopy (AFM). For edge-on lamellae regions, the electroactivity ( ∼ -50.

Distinctive biophysical features of human cell-types: insights from studies of neurosurgically resected brain tissue.

Electrophysiological characterization of live human tissue from epilepsy patients has been performed for many decades. Although initially these studies sought to understand the biophysical and synaptic changes associated with human epilepsy, recently, it has become the mainstay for exploring the distinctive biophysical and synaptic features of human cell-types. Both epochs of these human cellular electrophysiological explorations have faced criticism.

The Role of Protocadherin γ in Adult Sensory Neurons and Skin Reinnervation.

The clustered protocadherins (cPcdhs) play a critical role in the patterning of several CNS axon and dendritic arbors, through regulation of homophilic self and neighboring interactions. While not explored, primary peripheral sensory afferents that innervate the epidermis may require similar constraints to convey spatial signals with appropriate fidelity. Here, we show that members of the γ-Pcdh (Pcdhγ) family are expressed in both adult sensory neuron axons and in neighboring keratinocytes that have close interactions during skin reinnervation.

A preliminary quantification of the clinical gesture during vacuum assisted delivery on a training dummy.

Background: The vacuum assisted delivery represents, in France, the most used operative vaginal delivery technique. The purpose was to provide a preliminar quantification of the operator's hand kinematics while performing a vacuum assisted delivery.

Methods: A group of 21 participants composed of 12 trainees and 9 obstetricians were recorded performing a vacuum assisted delivery on a training dummy, the matching fetal presentation was a left occiput anterior position.

Moral identity goal characteristics: Age-related trends from early adolescence to old age.

The study investigated age-related trends in moral identity goal characteristics, as proposed in previous research (Krettenauer, 2022a), by modifying the Self-Importance of Moral Identity Questionnaire (Aquino & Reed, 2002). Internally and externally motivated moral identity was assessed on varying levels of abstractness for promotion orientation as well as prevention orientation in Canadian participants from three different age groups: early adolescence (13-14 years, = 248, 119 female), late adolescence to early adulthood (17-20 years, = 251, 160 female), and mid to old age (50-76 years, = 129, 76 female). Findings demonstrate that the self-importance of abstract moral identity characteristics increased with age relative to concrete identity characteristics, while the relationship between the two characteristics weakened.

Intrinsic neural diversity quenches the dynamic volatility of neural networks.

Heterogeneity is the norm in biology. The brain is no different: Neuronal cell types are myriad, reflected through their cellular morphology, type, excitability, connectivity motifs, and ion channel distributions. While this biophysical diversity enriches neural systems' dynamical repertoire, it remains challenging to reconcile with the robustness and persistence of brain function over time (resilience).

Are Lipid-Lowering and Antihypertensive Medications Used as Complements to Heart-Healthy Diets? A Scoping Review.

In cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention, whether antihypertensive and lipid-lowering medications are used as complements to heart-healthy diets has not been thoroughly assessed. This scoping review aimed to 1) analyze observational studies that assessed the relationship between diet and antihypertensive/lipid-lowering medication use and 2) evaluate whether medication was used as a complement to heart-healthy dietary intakes. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and CINAHL through 14 January, 2023, for studies that assessed either 1) intraindividual changes in diet associated with lipid-lowering/antihypertensive medication initiation or use or 2) interindividual differences in diet between users and nonusers of these medications.

Selective control of synaptic plasticity in heterogeneous networks through transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS).

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) represents a promising non-invasive treatment for an increasingly wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. The ability to use periodically oscillating electric fields to non-invasively engage neural dynamics opens up the possibility of recruiting synaptic plasticity and to modulate brain function. However, despite consistent reports about tACS clinical effectiveness, strong state-dependence combined with the ubiquitous heterogeneity of cortical networks collectively results in high outcome variability.

Sticking to your side: A niche for the development of ipsilateral retinal projections.

Visual impairments in albinism result from decreased ipsilateral retinal projections. In this issue of Neuron, Slavi, Balasubramanian, and colleagues demonstrate how low CyclinD2 in the ciliary marginal zone perturbs generation of ipsilaterally projecting RGCs and that restoring CyclinD2 improves vision in albino mice.

PV-IRES-Cre mouse line targets excitatory granule neurons in the cerebellum.

Parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons (PV-INs) are critical for the balance and fine-tuning of complex neuronal circuits. Studies of PV-IN biology require tools for their specific labeling, targeting and manipulation. Among these, the Cre/LoxP system is the most popular in mice, with the two commonly used PV-Cre lines cited over 5600 times.

Homeostatic coordination and up-regulation of neural activity by activity-dependent myelination.

Activity-dependent myelination (ADM) is a fundamental dimension of brain plasticity through which myelin changes as a function of neural activity. Mediated by structural changes in glia, ADM notably regulates axonal conduction velocity. Yet, it remains unclear how neural activity impacts myelination to orchestrate the timing of neural signalling, and how ADM shapes neural activity.

Trends in Partial Disability-Free Life Expectancy between the Ages of 45 and 70 in Canada, 2000-2014.

To better evaluate the benefits of a possible increase in the normal retirement age, this article proposes to examine recent trends in the health status of Canadians between 45 and 70 years of age. Using the Sullivan method, trends from 2000 to 2014 in partial disability-free life expectancy (PDFLE) between the ages of 45 and 70 years are computed. Disability is estimated using attributes of the Health Utility Index correlated with the capacity to work, and is looked at by level of severity.