Prognostic impact of inflammatory and nutritional biomarkers in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is usually associated with a poor prognosis. Surgery is the main curative treatment but pancreatic operations are aggressive and new tools that help clinicians to predict surgical and prognostic outcomes are necessary. Lu recently published a retrospective, single centre cohort study evaluating the impact of seven nutritional and inflammatory markers in pancreatic cancer surgical patients: The albumin-to-globulin ratio, prognostic nutritional index (PNI), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), nutritional risk index, and the geriatric nutritional risk index.

Transient cortical beta-frequency oscillations associated with contextual novelty in high density mouse EEG.

Beta-frequency oscillations (20-30 Hz) are prominent in both human and rodent electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Discrete epochs of beta (or Beta2) oscillations are prevalent in the hippocampus and other brain areas during exploration of novel environments. However, little is known about the spatial distribution and temporal relationships of beta oscillations across the cortex in response to novel contexts.

Oxytocin levels in response to CRH administration in hypopituitarism and hypothalamic damage: a randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled trial.

Increasing evidence supports the presence of oxytocin deficiency (OXT-D) in patients with hypopituitarism and hypothalamic damage (HHD), that might be associated with neuropsychological deficits and sexual dysfunction, leading to worse quality of life (QoL). Therefore, identifying a provocative test to diagnose an OXT-D will be important. Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) is a candidate for such a test as it increases oxytocin secretion in animal models.

Spatial variability and context-dependence of fouling communities in recreational marinas: A study in the Western Mediterranean with a focus on non-indigenous species (NIS).

Fouling communities were studied in twenty-six recreational marinas located along the continental and island coasts of Tuscany as well as Corsica (Western Mediterranean), focusing on the occurrence of non-indigenous species (NIS), in order to assess the variability of these assemblages at different spatial scales. Among the 560 taxa identified, 32 were alien or cryptogenic, with six new records for the study area. Results of this survey showed remarkable spatial variability of fouling community structure and NIS assemblage i) between marinas located on the mainland with respect to those on the islands (sectors), ii) among marinas within the same sector, and iii) among areas within the most of marinas.

Physician Tenure and Clinical Productivity for Internal and External Hires: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: New employees generally demonstrate lower productivity than experienced colleagues in non-healthcare sectors, but there is limited evidence on how tenure affects physician productivity.

Objective: To evaluate the association between tenure and clinical productivity for attending physicians in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and explore whether this relationship differs by prior VHA residency or fellowship training.

Design: Retrospective cohort evaluation.