Glycemic control in diabetic patients improved overall lung cancer survival across diverse populations.

Background: The consequence of diabetes on lung cancer overall survival (OS) is debated. This retrospective study used 2 large lung cancer databases to assess comprehensively diabetes effects on lung cancer OS in diverse demographic populations, including health disparity.

Methods: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center database (32 643 lung cancer patients with 11 973 patients with diabetes) was extracted from electronic health records (EHRs) using natural language processing (NLP).

Fast-Vid2Vid++: Spatial-Temporal Distillation for Real-Time Video-to-Video Synthesis.

Video-to-Video synthesis (Vid2Vid) gains remarkable performance in generating a photo-realistic video from a sequence of semantic maps, such as segmentation, sketch and pose. However, this pipeline is heavily limited to high computational cost and long inference latency, mainly attributed to two essential factors: 1) network architecture parameters, 2) sequential data stream. Recently, the parameters of image-based generative models have been significantly reduced via more efficient network architectures.

Targeting autophagy drug discovery: Targets, indications and development trends.

Autophagy plays a vital role in sustaining cellular homeostasis and its alterations have been implicated in the etiology of many diseases. Drugs development targeting autophagy began decades ago and hundreds of agents were developed, some of which are licensed for the clinical usage. However, no existing intervention specifically aimed at modulating autophagy is available.

We know what attention is!

Attention is one of the most thoroughly investigated psychological phenomena, yet skepticism about attention is widespread: we do not know what it is, it is too many things, there is no such thing. The deficiencies highlighted are not about experimental work but the adequacy of the scientific theory of attention. Combining common scientific claims about attention into a single theory leads to internal inconsistency.

Production of high protein yeast using enzymatically liquefied almond hulls.

Animal feed ingredients, especially those abundant in high quality protein, are the most expensive component of livestock production. Sustainable alternative feedstocks may be sourced from abundant, low value agricultural byproducts. California almond production generates nearly 3 Mtons of biomass per year with about 50% in the form of hulls.

Addressing Discrepancies between Experimental and Computational Procedures.

Imaging subject-specific heart valve, a crucial step to its design, has experimental variables that if unaccounted for, may lead to erroneous computational analysis and geometric errors of the resulting model. Preparation methods are developed to mitigate some sources of the geometric error. However, the resulting 3D geometry often does not retain the original dimensions before excision.

Disseminated cysticercosis in China with complex and variable clinical manifestations: a case series.

Background: Cysticercosis is an emerging and neglected tropical disease (NTD) that poses a serious public health concern worldwide. Disseminated cysticercosis (DCC) is an uncommon manifestation of cysticercosis, also found in China.

Case Presentation: We report three cases of DCC in patients living in China, with different clinical and radiological presentations.

Mechanisms of auditory verbal hallucination in schizophrenia.

Recent work on the mechanisms underlying auditory verbal hallucination (AVH) has been heavily informed by self-monitoring accounts that postulate defects in an internal monitoring mechanism as the basis of AVH. A more neglected alternative is an account focusing on defects in auditory processing, namely a spontaneous activation account of auditory activity underlying AVH. Science is often aided by putting theories in competition.

Botulinum toxin as novel treatment for excess mucous membrane graft secretions.

Salivary gland secretion is an unusual complication of mucous membrane grafting. The authors report a case in which botulinum toxin was successfully used to treat graft secretions after buccal mucous membrane autograft for recurrent pterygium repair.

Increased metallothionein in light damaged mouse retinas.

Oxidative stress plays a role in human age-related macular degeneration and in the light damage model of retinal degeneration. Metallothionein (MT), an antioxidant, has been reported to protect retinal pigment epithelial cells against apoptosis and oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in MT expression level and retinal localization following light damage.

Light damage induced changes in mouse retinal gene expression.

Oxidative stress plays a role in the light damage model of retinal degeneration as well as in age-related macular degeneration. The purpose of this study is to identify retinal genes induced by acute photo-oxidative stress, which may function as mediators of apoptosis or as survival factors. To accomplish this, Balb/c mice were exposed to bright cool white fluorescent light for 7 hr.

Cataract surgery in patients with nanophthalmos: results and complications.

Purpose: To evaluate the results and complications of cataract surgery in patients with nanophthalmos.

Setting: University hospital practice.

Methods: The records of consecutive patients with nanophthalmos who had cataract surgery from 1978 through 2002 were reviewed for ocular diagnoses, corneal diameter, keratometry, axial length, retinal-choroidal-scleral thickness determined by echography, ocular surgeries, visual acuity, and complications.