Trends in racial and ethnic disparities in health-related quality of life in older adults with lung cancer.

Introduction: We aimed to quantitatively examine differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) by race/ethnicity among older adults with lung cancer.

Materials And Methods: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (SEER-MHOS) data set, we identified two cohorts of patients ≥65 years old with lung cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2015 who completed the health outcomes survey within 36 months pre- and post-diagnosis. The Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) were used to measure HRQOL.

Recall tempo of Hebbian sequences depends on the interplay of Hebbian kernel with tutor signal timing.

Understanding how neural circuits generate sequential activity is a longstanding challenge. While foundational theoretical models have shown how sequences can be stored as memories in neural networks with Hebbian plasticity rules, these models considered only a narrow range of Hebbian rules. Here, we introduce a model for arbitrary Hebbian plasticity rules, capturing the diversity of spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity seen in experiments, and show how the choice of these rules and of neural activity patterns influences sequence memory formation and retrieval.

Evaluating the Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Health-Related Quality of Life Disparities in Patients with Esophageal Cancer: A SEER-MHOS National Database Study.

Background: It is unclear whether health-related quality of life (HRQOL) disparities exist between racial/ethnic groups in older patients with esophageal cancer, pre- and post-diagnosis.

Methods: Using the SEER-MHOS (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare Health Outcomes Survey) national database, we included patients ages 65-years-old or greater with esophageal cancer diagnosed from 1996 to 2017. HRQOL data within 36 months before and after diagnosis were measured by the Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores from the SF-36 and VR-12 instruments.

From lazy to rich to exclusive task representations in neural networks and neural codes.

Neural circuits-both in the brain and in "artificial" neural network models-learn to solve a remarkable variety of tasks, and there is a great current opportunity to use neural networks as models for brain function. Key to this endeavor is the ability to characterize the representations formed by both artificial and biological brains. Here, we investigate this potential through the lens of recently developing theory that characterizes neural networks as "lazy" or "rich" depending on the approach they use to solve tasks: lazy networks solve tasks by making small changes in connectivity, while rich networks solve tasks by significantly modifying weights throughout the network (including "hidden layers").

Selecting the optimal radiation modality in prostate cancer.

There are numerous radiation modalities for the definitive treatment of localized prostate cancer. Classic clinical trials have established the basic tenets of treatment approaches, and emerging data have generated new potential avenues of treatment that optimize the therapeutic ratio by increasing prostate cancer tumor control while minimizing treatment-related toxicity. In the definitive setting, the selection of the optimal radiation therapy approach depends largely on the appropriate up-front risk stratification of men with prostate cancer, with greater intensification of treatment and greater integration of multimodality therapies for men with higher-risk disease.

Retrospective examination of pseudoprogression in mutant gliomas.

Background: Tumor surveillance of isocitrate dehydrogenase () mutant gliomas is accomplished via serial contrast MRI. When new contrast enhancement (CEnew) is detected during postsurgical surveillance, clinicians must assess whether CEnew indicates pseudoprogression (PsP) or tumor progression (TP). PsP has been better studied in wild-type glioblastoma but has not been well characterized in mutant gliomas.

Impact of Prediagnosis Risk of Major Depressive Disorder and Health-Related Quality of Life on Treatment Choice for Stage II-III Rectal Cancer.

Purpose: We hypothesized that depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) reported by patients before their cancer diagnoses would be associated with treatment choice for stage II and III rectal cancer, specifically whether patients underwent surgery.

Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results and Medicare Health Outcomes Survey linked data set was used to identify patients with stage II-III rectal adenocarcinoma diagnosed between 2004 and 2013 who had completed the health outcomes survey within 36 months before their cancer diagnoses. Risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) was determined on the basis of responses to screening questions for depressive disorders.

Transtympanic Visualization of Cochlear Implant Placement With Optical Coherence Tomography: A Pilot Study.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the ability of transtympanic middle ear optical coherence tomography (ME-OCT) to assess placement of cochlear implants (CIs) in situ.

Patient: A 72-year-old man with bilateral progressive heredodegenerative sensorineural hearing loss due to work-related noise exposure received a CI with a slim modiolar electrode for his right ear 3 months before his scheduled checkup.

Intervention: A custom-built swept source ME-OCT system (λo = 1550 nm, ∆λ = 40 nm) designed for transtympanic middle ear imaging was used to capture a series of two- and three-dimensional images of the patient's CI in situ.

Ventricular fibrillation arrest due to Brugada syndrome in a coronavirus disease 2019 patient with negative procainamide challenge: a case report.

Background: Pharmacologic challenge test is often used to diagnose Brugada syndrome (BrS) when spontaneous electrocardiograms (ECG) do not show type I Brugada pattern but reported sensitivity varies. The role of the exercise stress test in diagnosing Brugada syndrome is not well-established.

Case Summary: A patient had a type I Brugada pattern ECG during the recovery phase of exercise stress test but had a negative procainamide challenge test.

Autoencoder networks extract latent variables and encode these variables in their connectomes.

Advances in electron microscopy and data processing techniques are leading to increasingly large and complete microscale connectomes. At the same time, advances in artificial neural networks have produced model systems that perform comparably rich computations with perfectly specified connectivity. This raises an exciting scientific opportunity for the study of both biological and artificial neural networks: to infer the underlying circuit function from the structure of its connectivity.

Predictive learning as a network mechanism for extracting low-dimensional latent space representations.

Artificial neural networks have recently achieved many successes in solving sequential processing and planning tasks. Their success is often ascribed to the emergence of the task's low-dimensional latent structure in the network activity - i.e.

Elective Nodal Irradiation for Limited-stage Small-cell Lung Cancer: Survey of US Radiation Oncologists on Practice Patterns.

Background: Traditionally, elective nodal irradiation (ENI) has been used in clinical trials that have established thoracic radiotherapy as instrumental in improving survival for patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). However, several reports have suggested that the omission of ENI might be appropriate. Current US practice patterns are unknown regarding ENI for patients with LS-SCLC.

Survey results of US radiation oncology providers' contextual engagement of watch-and-wait beliefs after a complete clinical response to chemoradiation in patients with local rectal cancer.

Background: Watchful waiting in rectal cancer patients with a complete clinical response (cCR) to chemoradiation therapy (CRT) forgo upfront resection has been proposed. Growing evidence suggests that a watch-and-wait approach using resection for salvage of local recurrence may improve quality of life without jeopardizing outcomes. The current acceptance of watch-and-wait by US radiation oncologists (ROs) is unknown.

Radiation Dose and Fractionation for Limited-stage Small-cell Lung Cancer: Survey of US Radiation Oncologists on Practice Patterns.

Background: Thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) with concurrent chemotherapy is standard for limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). However, the optimal dosing and fractionation remain unclear. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines have recommended either 45 Gy delivered twice daily (BID) or 60 to 70 Gy delivered once daily (QD).

Does a fine line exist between regional and metastatic pelvic lymph nodes in rectal cancer-striking discordance between national guidelines and treatment recommendations by US radiation oncologists.

Background: Management of rectal cancer with involved lateral pelvic lymph nodes (LPLNs) at the time of diagnosis-the stage we refer institutionally to as Stage 3.5-is controversial. The American Joint Committee on Cancer's 7 edition classifies internal iliac lymph nodes (LNs) as regional (Stage III), but both external and common iliac LNs as metastatic (Stage IV).

Preferential use of imaging modalities in staging newly diagnosed rectal cancer: a survey of US radiation oncologists.

Background: Accurate staging is crucial for management of patients with newly diagnosed rectal cancer. Endorectal ultrasound (EUS) has been the standard modality in the United States for decades, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) now preferred by national guidelines. Positron emission tomography (PET), conversely, is not recommended.

Timing of Thoracic Radiation Therapy With Chemotherapy in Limited-stage Small-cell Lung Cancer: Survey of US Radiation Oncologists on Current Practice Patterns.

Introduction: For limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC), National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend that thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) be delivered concurrently with chemotherapy and early in the regimen, with cycle 1 or 2. Evidence is conflicting regarding the benefit of early timing of TRT. A Korean randomized trial did not see a survival difference between early (cycle 1) and late (cycle 3) TRT.

Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation for Limited-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Survey of US Radiation Oncologists on Current Practice Patterns.

Purpose: Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC) is considered the standard of care. Meta-analysis of 7 clinical trials indicates a survival benefit to PCI, but all of these trials were conducted in the pre-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) era. Therefore, routine brain imaging with MRI before PCI-as recommended by National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines-is not directly supported by the evidence.

Estimation of ground reaction force and zero moment point on a powered ankle-foot prosthesis.

The ground reaction force (GRF) and the zero moment point (ZMP) are important parameters for the advancement of biomimetic control of robotic lower-limb prosthetic devices. In this document a method to estimate GRF and ZMP on a motorized ankle-foot prosthesis (MIT Powered Ankle-Foot Prosthesis) is presented. The method proposed is based on the analysis of data collected from a sensory system embedded in the prosthetic device using a custom designed wearable computing unit.