Female Oncofertility and Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Melanoma: Where Are We Today?

The incidence of melanoma among young adults has risen, yet mortality has declined annually since the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). The utilization of peri-operative ICI has significantly altered the treatment landscape in melanoma, with PD-1 inhibitors showing promising efficacy in improving relapse-free survival rates in high-risk stage II-III disease. With the increasing use of ICI, secondary concerns have emerged regarding the impact of cancer drugs on fertility and reproductive health among women of childbearing potential, especially in early-stage cancer settings.

Salivary testosterone and cortisol responses to seven weeks of practical blood flow restriction training in collegiate American football players.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 7-week supplemental BFR training intervention on both acute and chronic alterations in salivary testosterone (sTes) and cortisol (sCort) in collegiate American football players.

Methods: 58 males were divided into 4 groups: 3 completed an upper- and lower-body split resistance training routine (H, H/S, H/S/R; H = Heavy, S = Supplemental, R = BFR), with H/S/R performing end-of-session practical BFR training, and H/S serving as the volume-matched non-BFR group. The final group (M/S/R) completed modified resistance training programming with the same practical BFR protocol as H/S/R.

Broadband CARS Hyperspectral Classification of Single Immune Cells.

Broadband CARS is a coherent Raman scattering technique that provides access to the full biological vibrational spectrum within milliseconds, facilitating the recording of widefield hyperspectral Raman images. In this work, BCARS hyperspectral images of unstained cells from two different cell lines of immune lineage (T cell [Jurkat] and pDCs [CAL-1]) were recorded and analyzed using multivariate statistical algorithms in order to determine the spectral differences between the cells. A classifier was trained which could distinguish the known cells with a 97% out-of-bag accuracy.

A framework for assessing reliability of observer annotations of aerial wildlife imagery, with insights for deep learning applications.

There is growing interest in using deep learning models to automate wildlife detection in aerial imaging surveys to increase efficiency, but human-generated annotations remain necessary for model training. However, even skilled observers may diverge in interpreting aerial imagery of complex environments, which may result in downstream instability of models. In this study, we present a framework for assessing annotation reliability by calculating agreement metrics for individual observers against an aggregated set of annotations generated by clustering multiple observers' observations and selecting the mode classification.

Genetics of Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes: 2024 update.

Purpose Of Review: Prader-Willi (PWS) and Angelman (AS) syndromes arise from errors in 15q11-q13 imprinting. This review describes recent advances in genomics and how these expand our understanding of these rare disorders, guiding treatment strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Recent Findings: PWS features include severe infantile hypotonia, failure to thrive, hypogonadism, developmental delay, behavioral and psychiatric features, hyperphagia, and morbid obesity, if unmanaged.