Neural representational geometries reflect behavioral differences in monkeys and recurrent neural networks.

Animals likely use a variety of strategies to solve laboratory tasks. Traditionally, combined analysis of behavioral and neural recording data across subjects employing different strategies may obscure important signals and give confusing results. Hence, it is essential to develop techniques that can infer strategy at the single-subject level.

Vitreoretinal surgical performance after acute alcohol consumption and hangover.

Aim: Routine alcohol testing of practicing physicians remains controversial since there are no uniform guidelines or legal regulations in the medical field. Our aim was to quantitatively study the acute and next-morning effects of breath alcohol concentration (BAC)-adjusted alcohol intake on overall simulated surgical performance and microtremor among senior vitreoretinal surgeons.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included 11 vitreoretinal surgeons (>10 years practice).

Welfare of invertebrates: a pilot study on a new land snail stunning technique.

The almost complete absence of regulations to protect invertebrates is a common condition in legal systems, including the European one, especially when it comes to invertebrates intended for human consumption. Thus, in the vast majority of cases, edible invertebrates do not receive even the most basic protection at slaughter. Despite recent research indicating that invertebrates are capable of feeling pain and stress, the humane step of stunning is not used on them.

Clinical Relevance and Interplay between miRNAs in Influencing Glioblastoma Multiforme Prognosis.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is usually treated with surgery followed by adjuvant partial radiotherapy combined with temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy. Recent studies demonstrated a better survival and good response to TMZ in methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase ()-methylated GBM cases. However, approximately 20% of patients with -unmethylated GBM display an unexpectedly favorable outcome.

ASSESSMENT OF SIMULATED SURGICAL DEXTERITY AFTER MODIFIABLE EXTERNAL EXPOSURES AMONG NOVICE VERSUS EXPERIENCED VITREORETINAL SURGEONS.

Purpose: To evaluate novice and senior vitreoretinal surgeons after various exposures. Multiple comparisons ranked the importance of these exposures for surgical dexterity based on experience.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included 15 novice and 11 senior vitreoretinal surgeons (<2 and >10 years' practice, respectively).

A Bayesian model for control strategy selection against infections.

Plant pathogens pose a persistent threat to grape production, causing significant economic losses if disease management strategies are not carefully planned and implemented. Simulation models are one approach to address this challenge because they provide short-term and field-scale disease prediction by incorporating the biological mechanisms of the disease process and the different phenological stages of the vines. In this study, we developed a Bayesian model to predict the probability of infection in grapevines, considering various disease management approaches.

A human-neutral large carnivore? No patterns in the body mass of gray wolves across a gradient of anthropization.

The gray wolf (Canis lupus) expanded its distribution in Europe over the last few decades. To better understand the extent to which wolves could re-occupy their historical range, it is important to test if anthropization can affect their fitness-related traits. After having accounted for ecologically relevant confounders, we assessed how anthropization influenced i) the growth of wolves during their first year of age (n = 53), ii) sexual dimorphism between male and female adult wolves (n = 121), in a sample of individuals that had been found dead in Italy between 1999 and 2021.

A Polysomnographic Study of Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Novice and Senior Surgeons during Simulated Vitreoretinal Surgery.

Purpose: To assess the impact of a 3-hour polysomnography (PSG)-recorded night of sleep deprivation on next-morning simulated microsurgical skills among vitreoretinal (VR) surgeons with different levels of surgical experience and associate the sleep parameters obtained by PSG with Eyesi-generated performance.

Design: Self-controlled cohort study.

Participants: Eleven junior VR surgery fellows with < 2 years of surgical experience and 11 senior surgeons with > 10 years of surgical practice.

Neural dynamics underlying associative learning in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus.

Animals associate cues with outcomes and update these associations as new information is presented. This requires the hippocampus, yet how hippocampal neurons track changes in cue-outcome associations remains unclear. Using two-photon calcium imaging, we tracked the same dCA1 and vCA1 neurons across days to determine how responses evolve across phases of odor-outcome learning.

Quantitative Assessment of Lung Volumes and Enhancement in Patients with COVID-19: Role of Dual-Energy CT.

Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) has been used for detecting pulmonary embolism, but the role of lung perfusion DECT as a predictor of prognosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has not been defined yet. The aim of our study was to explore whether the enhancement pattern in COVID-19+ patients relates to the disease outcome. A secondary aim was to compare the lung volumes in two subgroups of patients.

Identification of MGMT Downregulation Induced by miRNA in Glioblastoma and Possible Effect on Temozolomide Sensitivity.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains one of the tumors with the worst prognosis. In recent years, a better overall survival (OS) has been described in cases subjected to Gross Total Resection (GTR) that were presenting hypermethylation of Methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter. Recently, also the expression of specific miRNAs involved in MGMT silencing has been related to survival.

Weight-adjusted caffeine and β-blocker use in novice versus senior retina surgeons: a self-controlled study of simulated performance.

Background/objectives: Tremor and expertise are potentially influenced variables in vitreoretinal surgery. We investigated whether surgeon experience impacts the association of microsurgical performance with caffeine and β-blockers weight-adjusted intake.

Subjects/methods: Novice and senior surgeons (<2 and >10 practice years, respectively) were recruited in this self-controlled, cross-sectional study.

Face familiarity detection with complex synapses.

Synaptic plasticity is a complex phenomenon involving multiple biochemical processes that operate on different timescales. Complexity can greatly increase memory capacity when the variables characterizing the synaptic dynamics have limited precision, as shown in simple memory retrieval problems involving random patterns. Here we turn to a real-world problem, face familiarity detection, and we show that synaptic complexity can be harnessed to store in memory a large number of faces that can be recognized at a later time.

The implications of categorical and category-free mixed selectivity on representational geometries.

The firing rates of individual neurons displaying mixed selectivity are modulated by multiple task variables. When mixed selectivity is nonlinear, it confers an advantage by generating a high-dimensional neural representation that can be flexibly decoded by linear classifiers. Although the advantages of this coding scheme are well accepted, the means of designing an experiment and analyzing the data to test for and characterize mixed selectivity remain unclear.

P1245 Polymorphic Variants of HSD3B1 Gene Confer Different Outcome in Specific Subgroups of Patients Infected With SARS-CoV-2.

Severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) uses the androgen receptor (AR), through ACE2 receptor and TMPRSS2, to enter nasal and upper airways epithelial cells. Genetic analyses revealed that P1245C polymorphic variant increases dihydrotestosterone production and upregulation of TMPRSS2 with respect to P1245A variant, thus possibly influencing SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our aim was to characterize the polymorphism status and its potential association with clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in Southern Switzerland.

A Pilot, Prospective, Observational Study to Investigate the Value of NGS in Liquid Biopsies to Predict Tumor Response After Neoadjuvant Chemo-Radiotherapy in Patients With Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: The LiBReCa Study.

Introduction: Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) correlates with the response to therapy in different types of cancer. However, in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), little is known about how ctDNA levels change with neoadjuvant chemoradiation (Na-ChRT) and how they correlate with treatment response. This work aimed to explore the value of serial liquid biopsies in monitoring response after Na-ChRT with the hypothesis that this could become a reliable biomarker to identify patients with a complete response, candidates for non-operative management.

Retrospective analysis of safety of ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy in the 21st century.

Background: Ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy is a standard procedure, but it might be burdened with serious adverse events, mainly hemorrhagic. Literature lacks recent studies taking into account new ultrasound machines, more sensitive to tiny vessels and the evolution of the bioptic technique, including ultrasound guidance in all instances. Hence, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate complication rates of ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy in a recent population.

The impact of the use of the ACR-TIRADS as a screening tool for thyroid nodules in a cancer center.

Background: The Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) was created to assess risk of thyroid nodules through ultrasound. Plenty classifications methods for thyroid nodules have already been created, but none of them have yet achieved global utilization. This study analyzed the performance of the American College of Radiology (ACR) TIRADS, its reproducibility and the impact of its utilization as a screening method in a large Cancer Center cohort.

Hospital-Acquired Infections in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19.

Background: Few small studies have described hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) occurring in patients with COVID-19.

Research Question: What characteristics in critically ill patients with COVID-19 are associated with HAIs and how are HAIs associated with outcomes in these patients?

Study Design And Methods: Multicenter retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data including adult patients with severe COVID-19 admitted to eight Italian hub hospitals from February 20, 2020, through May 20, 2020. Descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate Weibull regression models were used to assess incidence, microbial cause, resistance patterns, risk factors (ie, demographics, comorbidities, exposure to medication), and impact on outcomes (ie, ICU discharge, length of ICU and hospital stays, and duration of mechanical ventilation) of microbiologically confirmed HAIs.

Surveillance for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Also Improves Survival of Incidentally Detected Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Arisen in Liver Cirrhosis.

Background: Due to its poor survival, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is held to be a much more aggressive cancer than hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In most published series, patients were diagnosed when symptomatic. However, ICC is now increasingly being discovered during the surveillance for HCC in cirrhosis.

Lung Ultrasound Is Often, but Not Always, Normal in Healthy Subjects: Considerations for COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Lung ultrasound (LU) is becoming an increasingly important diagnostic tool in detecting lung involvement in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim of this study was to ascertain the likelihood of finding LU abnormalities; mimicking lung involvement; in COVID-19 negative healthy individuals.

Methods: We performed LU on 265 healthcare workers; not presenting COVID-19 major symptoms and in good health; during the course of a serological screening program for COVID-19 in our General Hospital.

Primary bone lymphoma: pictorial essay.

Primary bone lymphoma is a rare neoplasm that can initially present as local pain, a palpable mass, and pathologic fracture. It can also be discovered as an incidental finding on an imaging examination. It is defined as a bone marrow tumor with no involvement of other sites, lasting at least six months.

Coding of social novelty in the hippocampal CA2 region and its disruption and rescue in a 22q11.2 microdeletion mouse model.

The hippocampal CA2 region is essential for social memory. To determine whether CA2 activity encodes social interactions, we recorded extracellularly from CA2 pyramidal neurons (PNs) in male mice during social behavior. Although CA2 neuronal firing showed only weak spatial selectivity, it accurately encoded contextual changes and distinguished between a novel and a familiar mouse.