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As many aspects of animal, human and plant behavior and survival are being perturbed by widespread exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN), lighting professionals are in the middle, attempting to make design decisions that directly affect these life forms. Research shows any light exposure higher than the nighttime natural environment will have a negative impact on various life forms during the nocturnal phase. This paper aims to provide a design process for "life-centric" lighting with good human and non-human outcomes for all life-sustaining behaviors on earth driven by phototropism, phototaxis, photoperiodism and circadian entrainment as the foundational consideration. Fundamental understandings of how light information is used by these life forms in a way crucial for development, growth and survival is provided in the paper. Key references are consolidated and synthesized using PRISMA 2020 with goals of supporting knowledge translation into pragmatic lighting strategies in a manner useful for lighting professionals. A process for life-centric lighting design using an existing process for human-centric lighting design involving lighting intensity and spectrum along with spatial and temporal patterns is provided, which can dovetail with decision-making processes that are within the workflow of lighting professionals. Well-designed studies with a wider range of light intensities and spectrum and well-defined lighting properties, along with better modes of communication between lighting professionals and ALAN researchers are recommended to facilitate the realization of biodynamic lighting solutions that will support good human and non-human outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Russo-Ukrainian War has produced a myriad of necropolitical discourses regarding the justification of death and the subjugation of lives to potential death. Contemporary necropolitical scholarship has primarily focused on the civilian, subaltern dimension of this paradigm in a wider context, yet in this war, combatants from the opposing armed forces are the individuals most consistently embedded in these conditions of potential death. How, then, is the potential death of the combatant justified and legitimized? Through a critical engagement with the concept of the border as the front, this article will explore how the subjugation of Ukrainian and Russian combatants to the conditions of potential death is discursively justified through a framework of the necropolitical logics of survival and martyrdom. Through these logics, two competing necropolitical regimes of truth have arisen, nevertheless leading to the same conclusion – the mobilized bodies of the combatants at the front – yet promising different versions of a life beyond death itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China built internment camps officially referred to as training centres within the scope of a policy for countering extremism and terrorism in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in 2017. While the repression imposed by China on Uyghurs in these camps has attracted the response of the international community, there has been neither a public protest nor a meaningful government response to China in Turkey, despite it having been the voice of Uyghurs on international platforms before 2017. This study aims to identify the reasons for Turkey's silence on the persecution of Uyghurs by utilizing the legitimation and co-optation strategies of the authoritarian stability framework. The Turkish government's legitimation strategies of "rallying around the flag" via anti-Americanism and the economic expectations of China to boost its performance-based legitimacy are evaluated as reasons for the government's silence on the Uyghur cause. Moreover, it is also discussed how formal and informal co-optation strategies of the government with nationalist and Eurasianist parties are playing a role as a bolstering mechanism of its silence policy on Uyghurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survival discourse has emerged as a prominent theme in online discussions about the US–China trade war on the Chinese social media platform Zhihu. This study undertakes a critical discourse analysis of this emergent discourse by examining 80 answers (totaling 95,753 words) from Zhihu users within the broader context of the invocation of survival discourses in modern Chinese history. An intertextual method was adopted in this study, which helps us to better understand netizens' arguments in favor of the Chinese government's tough stance on the trade war with the US and the probable success of this strategy. The analysis reveals the historicity and intertextuality of these discourses, identifies strategies which are employed to support a tough stance on the trade war, and reflects on their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the persistence of African American girlhood and the rendering of African American girls as non/child in Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye," with focus on 11-year old Pecola Breedlove. It explores the resistance of African American girls to their systemic adultification that underlies anti-African American violence and their coping mechanisms such as deflection of mature topics and use of make-believe. It discusses Pecola's survival of the conditions of white supremacy.

The article examines the persistence of African American girlhood and the rendering of African American girls as non/child in Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye," with focus on 11-year old Pecola Breedlove. It explores the resistance of African American girls to their systemic adultification that underlies anti-African American violence and their coping mechanisms such as deflection of mature topics and use of make-believe. It discusses Pecola's survival of the conditions of white supremacy.

Background: Vector bionomics are important aspects of vector-borne disease control programs. Mosquito-biting risks are affected by environmental, mosquito behavior and human factors, which are important for assessing exposure risk and intervention impacts. This study estimated malaria transmission risk based on vector–human interactions in northern Ghana, where indoor residual spraying (IRS) and insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) have been deployed. Methods: Indoor and outdoor human biting rates (HBRs) were measured using monthly human landing catches (HLCs) from June 2017 to April 2019. Mosquitoes collected were identified to species level, and Anopheles gambiae sensu lato (An. gambiae s.l.) samples were examined for parity and infectivity. The HBRs were adjusted using mosquito parity and human behavioral observations. Results: Anopheles gambiae was the main vector species in the IRS (81%) and control (83%) communities. Indoor and outdoor HBRs were similar in both the IRS intervention (10.6 vs. 11.3 bites per person per night [b/p/n]; z = −0.33, P = 0.745) and control communities (18.8 vs. 16.4 b/p/n; z = 1.57, P = 0.115). The mean proportion of parous An. gambiae s.l. was lower in IRS communities (44.6%) than in control communities (71.7%). After adjusting for human behavior observations and parity, the combined effect of IRS and ITN utilization (IRS: 37.8%; control: 57.3%) on reducing malaria transmission risk was 58% in IRS + ITN communities and 27% in control communities with ITNs alone (z = −4.07, P < 0.001). However, this also revealed that about 41% and 31% of outdoor adjusted bites in IRS and control communities respectively, occurred before bed time (10:00 pm). The mean directly measured annual entomologic inoculation rates (EIRs) during the study were 6.1 infective bites per person per year (ib/p/yr) for IRS communities and 16.3 ib/p/yr for control communities. After considering vector survival and observed human behavior, the estimated EIR for IRS communities was 1.8 ib/p/yr, which represents about a 70% overestimation of risk compared to the directly measured EIR; for control communities, it was 13.6 ib/p/yr (16% overestimation). Conclusion: Indoor residual spraying significantly impacted entomological indicators of malaria transmission. The results of this study indicate that vector bionomics alone do not provide an accurate assessment of malaria transmission exposure risk. By accounting for human behavior parameters, we found that high coverage of ITNs alone had less impact on malaria transmission indices than combining ITNs with IRS, likely due to observed low net use. Reinforcing effective communication for behavioral change in net use and IRS could further reduce malaria transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This paper provides a methodology for analyzing the trajectory of the Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon): its clustering and mining habitats, trajectory-data supplementation, the analysis of behavioral patterns, and finally, potential habitat mining. It was found that the characteristics of the Crested Ibis habitat in nature reserves include proximity to water sources and cultivated land close to woodlands. Additionally, there is a certain aggregation and sharing of night roosting sites, which are easily disturbed by human activities, and there is a strong correlation between the spatial proximity of the Crested Ibis night. Although human behavior threatens the survival of the Crested Ibis, they still depend on human behavior, mainly for food and water. Moreover, farmers are encouraged to store water in paddy fields in winter and to avoid using harmful substances such as pesticides. Luoshan County provides a protected area for the Crested Ibis; it was analyzed and found to be appropriately located, with an excellent overall habitat-rating. The Chinese Government has also set up corresponding ecological and environmental protection zones, and it is essential to provide solutions for the reintroduction of the Crested Ibis. The Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) is an endangered animal with an extremely high ecological, humanistic, and scientific value. However, this species still faces survival challenges, due to rapidly shrinking foraging grounds, the serious interference of human behavior, and increased habitat requirements. Geographical environment is a significant factor affecting Crested Ibis behavior-pattern analysis and habitat protection. The spatial and temporal trajectory contains habitat location and period information, a vital record of the Crested Ibis' habits, and the basis of all research. Nevertheless, there are only a handful of studies on the missing trajectory data and fusing multiple sources of environmental data-research methods. We studied the spatial and temporal habitat use of the tracked Crested lbis by fusing multiple data-sources in China. This paper adopts the LSTM (long short-term memory) model to supplement the missing trajectory data and perform cluster mining; and a random forest model is used to predict the habitat of the Crested Ibis with high fitting accuracy (R2 = 84.9%). The results show that the Crested Ibis distribution-pattern is characterized by high altitude and proximity to woodland and rivers. Additionally, the habitat dependence on the village implicates human agricultural activities in positively impacting its reproduction. This paper provides a complete method for analyzing Crested Ibis' spatial and temporal trajectory by fusing multi-source data, which is crucial for protecting the survival and reproduction of the Crested Ibis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides understanding about breathing as a key component of human relations. Topics discussed are importance of breathing to survival and to transforming natural existence into a human and spiritual existence, the need for a living being to be capable of combining faithfulness to its singularity with being in relationship with the outside, and breathing as a link to all living beings or universality that ensures interdependence among all the elements that form the world.

Hypothalamic neural circuits regulate instinctive behaviors such as food seeking, the fight/flight response, socialization, and maternal care. Here, we identified microdeletions on chromosome Xq23 disrupting the brain-expressed transient receptor potential (TRP) channel 5 (TRPC5). This family of channels detects sensory stimuli and converts them into electrical signals interpretable by the brain. Male TRPC5 deletion carriers exhibited food seeking, obesity, anxiety, and autism, which were recapitulated in knockin male mice harboring a human loss-of-function TRPC5 mutation. Women carrying TRPC5 deletions had severe postpartum depression. As mothers, female knockin mice exhibited anhedonia and depression-like behavior with impaired care of offspring. Deletion of Trpc5 from oxytocin neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus caused obesity in both sexes and postpartum depressive behavior in females, while Trpc5 overexpression in oxytocin neurons in knock-in mice reversed these phenotypes. We demonstrate that TRPC5 plays a pivotal role in mediating innate human behaviors fundamental to survival, including food seeking and maternal care. [Display omitted] • In humans, deletion of TRPC5 causes obesity, anxiety, autism, and postpartum depression • Male and female mice harboring a human TRPC5 mutation recapitulate these phenotypes • Effects are mediated by TRPC5 acting on hypothalamic Pomc and oxytocin neurons • Brain-expressed TRPC5 regulates instinctive behaviors essential for survival Disruption of TRPC5, a brain-expressed cation channel, causes obesity, maladaptive behavior, and postpartum depression in humans and mice. Acting on hypothalamic Pomc and oxytocin neurons, TRPC5 regulates instinctive behaviors such as feeding, arousal, social interaction, and maternal care, which are fundamental for survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, when seen from the perspective of "thing theory" and other new materialist discourses, challenges the dominant anthropocentric mode of relationship between humans and things. In the novel, ostensibly inanimate things exert their agencies over the survival, less physical than spiritual, of socially oppressed African Americans. Morrison complicates "thing theory" and extremist new materialist thinking by initiating the development of an eclectic new materialism, which foregrounds the vibrancy of quotidian objects while also integrating it into human agency through the co-habitation of space, thus creating a harmonious and balanced network of hybrid agencies that can be both troubling and stabilizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RumeliDE Journal of Language & Literature Research / RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of RumeliDE Uluslararasi Hakemli Dil & Edebiyat Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay affirms black theology as a survival theology that speaks with passion that is commensurate with the suffering of the oppressed. By juxtaposing two ecclesial meetings in the U.S., one in 1866 and one in 2019, the author describes inattention to the lives of former bondspersons and those of poor and disenfranchised African Americans in Baltimore. Finally, through the lens of synodality, opportunities to journey with unlikely travellers open up and provide the space for the sharing of painful stories so that empathy welcomes truth-telling and all choose to continue the dialogue in truth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) hypothesis and synergy concept of motor control. The author discusses the function of the brain in solving redundancy problems in motor control. The author defines redundancy in motor control and notes that the flexibility it affords likely played a key role in human evolution and survival. The author refers to an accompanying article by investigator Mark L. Latash and his group that he says supports the synergy concept. The UCM-synergy approach is said to disregard the actual means of execution and control of motor actions.

Public events, such as sports events, concerts, and firework shows, usually attract a large number of attendees; given this, evacuation during an emergency is more difficult than usual. Evacuation safety is an important part of fire protection engineering design. Stampedes usually occur at the entrances, exits, corners, and staircases in an evacuation route. This study examined incidents and related documents as references, and used Simulex software to set different parameters, such as the total number of people, density, and exit situation. The simulation conducted in the study is compared with data from literature review to address the factors of a stampede. On the basis of the findings, several suggestions are provided to improve strategies for management of the risks and increase the probability of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prenatal hypoxic injury (HI) is a leading cause of neurological disability. The immediate and long-term effects of hypoxia on progenitor homeostasis and developmental progression during early human brain development remain unclear. This gap is due to difficulty to access human fetal brain tissues and inadequate animal models to study human corticogenesis. Recent optimizations of cerebral organoid models derived from human embryonic stem (ES) cells present new opportunities to investigate pathophysiology of prenatal HI. Here, we implemented a transient HI model using human cerebral organoids with dorsal forebrain specification. We demonstrated that transient hypoxia resulted in immediate and prolonged apoptosis in cerebral organoids, with outer radial glia (oRG), a progenitor population more prominent in primates, and differentiating neuroblasts/immature neurons suffering larger losses. In contrast, neural stem cells in ventricular zone displayed relative resilience to HI and exhibited a shift of cleavage plane angle favoring symmetric division, thereby providing a mechanism to replenish the stem cell pool. Furthermore, we defined the vulnerable window and neurodifferentiation stages that are particularly sensitive to HI. Understanding cell type-specific and stage-dependent effects of prenatal HI on survival and mitotic behavior of human neuroprogenitor subtypes during early human corticogenesis helps elucidate the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, and provides a therapeutic starting point to protect the vulnerable populations at critical timeframes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survival analysis has become an appealing approach in credit scoring. It is able to readily incorporate time-dependent covariates and dynamically predict the survival probability. However, the difference between endogenous and exogenous covariates is ignored in the existing extended Cox models in behavioural scoring. In this paper, we apply joint modelling framework, which can be seen as an extension of survival analysis, to overcome such deficiency of survival models. We carefully design experiments on two datasets and verify the superiority of joint modelling over the extend Cox model through cross validation on dynamic discrimination and calibration performance measures. The experimental results indicate that the joint model performance is better, especially in the calibration measure. The key reason for the better performance is discussed and illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study's purpose is to examine the relative importance of direct disaster assistance to family‐owned small firms on their survival and success while considering the components of their adaptive capacity after experiencing Hurricane Katrina. This study employed data from the 2013 and 2015 Small Business Survival and Demise after a Natural Disaster Project (SBSD), a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The logistic regression results show that family businesses with SBA loans (or loan guarantees) were significantly more likely to survive. In addition, family businesses where household and family issues were more frequently in conflict with work demands were more likely to survive. On the other hand, the OLS regression results indicate that family businesses with more stress and more family–business conflict were less likely to succeed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about three bodies of visual work that raise questions of cultural belonging, hybridity, and memory. I use languages of printmaking, drawing, photography, and poetry to creatively trace processes of memory of place and meanings we make with it. In Migrant Universe , drawings function as rearrangeable continua of maps, landscapes, and portraits of memory and identity. Catalogue of Silence , an installation of photographs, an essay, and poems about the state of cultural institutions in my native city of Sarajevo, is an elegy for what has been irretrievably lost as well as a testament of hope that the city will rebound and be, as it was in the past, a fertile ground for new ways of cultural thriving. In Beginnings and Endings , a series of etchings, images culled from science, explosion traces, and comic book speech bubbles are placed on liquid and unsteady ground, invaded by fungi, functioning as icons of precarity: the loss and the promise of it. In this precipitous moment in human history, in American history, what can we learn about our survival as a species, and a global civilization, from the stories of migrants, seeds, and mushrooms? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young is a rare but tragic consequence of a number of genetic cardiovascular disorders. The care of survivors of cardiac arrest and families affected by SCD seeks to prevent further SCD events through family screening. Objectives The aim of this article is to review the genetic basis of SCD in the young and outline the clinical aspects of caring for families affected by SCD. Discussion Inherited cardiomyopathies and primary arrhythmia syndromes are important causes of SCD in young people. Over the past 30 years, there has been an explosion of knowledge regarding the underlying genetic mechanisms of these disorders and dramatic advances in genetic testing technologies. Family screening with thorough multidisciplinary clinical assessment and genetic testing allows for the initiation of preventive strategies in high-risk relatives and ultimately a reduction in SCD events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the possibility of a thoroughly materialist conception of ethics through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Focusing on Deleuze's rigorous philosophical engagement with Spinoza's Ethics, I show how an ontology of bodies and their encounters demands a radical rearticulation of the field of ethical problematics, one that exceeds the experiences of individualized subjects and that, for this reason, cannot be founded solely on a sense of responsibility toward nonhuman others. The following discussion presents Deleuze's Spinozian ethics as a process of "becoming active" through the pursuit of joys that, in their irreducibility to the subject's world, are no longer human. To this end, I explore how a Deleuzian ethics tears the field of ethical problematics away from contemporary discourses concerning the survival of humanity as a species, and, moreover, opens up the question of ethical responsibility to the activation of inhuman joys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND There is growing empirical evidence supporting theories of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). However, the implications of DOHaD conjectures for aggregate population patterns of human disease, disability, mortality, and aging are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE We empirically test two predictions derived from a formal model of aggregate population-level impacts of DOHaD. This model predicts that populations potentially influenced by delayed effects should experience singularities in their adult mortality patterns that can be empirically detected from aggregate data. METHODS We test predictions using a large mortality database for populations in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, spanning nearly one hundred years of mortality history. RESULTS Results are consistent, within explicit bounds of uncertainty, with expected patterns. We find that younger cohorts in countries whose mortality decline starts more recently experience deceleration in survival gains at older ages, attenuation of the rate of aging at older ages, and a decline in the association between early childhood and adult mortality. CONCLUSIONS Results point to the importance of adverse early conditions for human longevity. Future research should shed light on the impact on morbidity, disability, and healthy life expectancy. CONTRIBUTION To our knowledge this is the first time that implications of DOHaD conjectures for populations' mortality patterns are formulated precisely and empirically tested with aggregate population data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livelihood trajectories are a conceptual device to synthetize the collection of successive strategies displayed by individuals and groups to ensure survival and wellbeing over time. Using this concept, we conduct an explorative analysis of how various episodes, interventions, and ecological change have influenced different livelihood strategies of small-scale fishermen in the southernmost region of the world, the Patagonian region of Magallanes, Chile. Through ethnographic research, we identified four trajectories along five distinct periods: (i) 1960-1972, from the year of the largest recorded earthquake in world history to the initial expansion of industrial fishing; (ii) 1973-1982, from the military coup and the beginning of neoliberal reforms; (iii) 1983-1990, marked by fishing export booms; (iv) 1991-2000, noted by return to democracy and enactment of the first Fishing and Aquaculture General Act; and (v) 2000 to present, characterized by coastal planning and changes to the aforementioned law. Along these periods, trajectories are marked by migration waves and the deployment of specific livelihood strategies, highly modulated by both global seafood markets and legal changes. The results show the potential of ethnographic approaches to the study of long-term interactions in marine and coastal socioecological systems by identifying underlying historical dynamics, specific pulses and pressures, and actors' responses to regional socioecological changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study aims to evaluate the impact of preoperative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on clinical outcomes in patients with low grade glioma (LGG). Methods In a retrospective propensity-matched cohort study, we compared patients with LGG based on whether they underwent fMRI as part of preoperative assessment. Twelve patients with LGG who underwent preoperative fMRI were selected, and a contemporaneous group of 12 control patients with LGG who did not undergo fMRI were matched to the fMRI group based on age, sex, and 1p/19q status. Results fMRI group subjects tended to have more aggressive surgeries (67% resection, 33% biopsy) than the control group (33% resection, 67% biopsy). There were no significant differences in outcomes between the 2 groups. Time between clinical assessment and surgery tended to be longer in the fMRI group (6.3 ± 4.2 weeks) than in the control group (2.7 ± 2.2 weeks). Extent of resection was similar between the 2 cohorts. fMRI group subjects had lower preoperative functional status and tended to have a greater postoperative functional status improvement than control group subjects. Mean survival was not significantly different (fMRI group 5-year survival: 88.9%, control group 5-year survival: 61.1%). Conclusions We evaluated the impact of preoperative fMRI in patients with LGG in this propensity-matched cohort study. This study has not demonstrated any significant difference in outcomes between the fMRI and control groups; however, there were nonsignificant trends for patients who underwent fMRI to undergo more aggressive surgical interventions and have a greater postoperative functional status improvement. Highlights • A propensity-matched study was performed to evaluate fMRI for low grade glioma. • fMRI patients tended to have more aggressive surgical interventions. • fMRI patients tended to have greater functional improvement. • Registries will enable a better understanding of the role of advanced imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on interviews recorded by the Shoah Foundation Institute, this article focuses on the survival of Jewish and half-Jewish children in the German-occupied Serbian Banat between 1941 and 1944. Rather than hide their physical presence or their Jewishness, these children spent the war in an environment well-aware of their identity, yet where people turned a blind eye to their Jewishness, even as the children lived in a state of fear and uncertainty. The survivors' recollections highlight the pivotal role of parents and parental figures; the interaction of age, gender, class, and ethnicity to enable survival; the children's own limited yet crucial agency; and the subjects' awareness of the changes in their memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a great deal has been written, primarily from a medical or psychological perspective, on the ways in which the Holocaust affected survivors' aging process, not much has been written about elderly survivors in the immediate postwar period. This article asks what we can know about elderly survivors, how they responded to their survival, and how they were cared for after liberation. It considers gender and social class, as well as specific caretaking needs. Despite efforts by relief organizations to recognize their plight, care regimens for the elderly were often individualized and thus isolating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the steps to survival from the coming future shortages that man would ultimately face. America is not exempt from the dangers posed by the future shortages although they might find situations today to be justifiable given the highly innovative measures that are implemented. Yet the future could not be secured and it is wise to take steps which would alleviate human suffering and might guarantee a safeguard of man's future. Problems such as pollution and depletion of non-renewable resources are just the start of other issues endangering mankind.

The article presents a discussion on the survival of the human race with specific reference as to what kind of form it will take. Professor Gerald Fienberg contends that the advancement in the technological world has brought radical changes to the external environment that man has the responsibility to preserve. The question of survival according to him now takes another level as to the determination of what form it will take in light of sustainable development. Environmental changes has been for sometime moved for the betterment of the existence of man, the improvement of the human life. Furthermore, the determination as to whose shoulder lies the responsibility of keeping the existence of man from extinction should not be left to authorities, for each is responsible for his actions.

The article presents a discussion on human survival, focusing on the option of making the perpetuation of the human race a primary positive goal in a thermodynamic view. The choice to make survival a primary option is not going to deprive man of its freedom of choice or the task of determining over what to do next. Man in his lifetime is presented with countless numbers of alternative choices, and these choices are connected to another, affecting one another that collectively it determines history or the future of man. In man's effort to survive, there are two societal considerations that matter, the stable and the unstable considerations. For a society to survive it has to make a distinction between the two and focus on the keeping the distinction while maneuvering towards stability.

68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex, a radiolabeled melanocortin-1 receptor–targeting imaging probe, detects melanoma in first-in-human testing. Visualizing the target: Metastatic melanoma (skin cancer) has a high mortality rate. Yang et al. designed radiolabeled positron emission tomography and fluorescent imaging probes targeting melanocortin-1 receptor, which is overexpressed in melanoma cells. The probes detected melanoma cells in vitro, in xenografts and mouse models, and in metastases in two patients with melanoma. These results suggest that melanocortin-1 receptor-targeting probes may be useful for melanoma imaging. Melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) is a molecular target for melanoma imaging and therapy because of its overexpression on rodent and human melanoma cells. Here, we evaluated the MC1R targeting and specificity of 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex and Cy5.5-GGNle-CycMSHhex using murine and human melanoma cells, and murine and xenografted tumors. 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex was used first in human as an imaging probe to evaluate the possibility of radionuclide therapy in patients with advanced-stage melanoma. 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex and Cy5.5-GGNle-CycMSHhex displayed MC1R-specific targeting properties in murine and human melanoma cells, as well as in murine melanoma and human melanoma–xenografted tumors. Both B16/F10 and M21 melanoma lesions could be easily imaged by positron emission tomography using 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex. The first-in-human images of melanoma brain metastases in patients demonstrated the clinical relevance of MC1R as a molecular target for melanoma imaging, highlighting the potential of 68Ga-DOTA-GGNle-CycMSHhex as an MC1R-targeting melanoma imaging probe and underscoring the need to develop MC1R-targeting therapeutic agents for treating patients with metastatic melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Intermediate risk prostate cancer is a heterogenous classification with favorable proposed criteria based on men treated with radiation therapy. However, there is uncertain application to active surveillance. We quantified the rate of adverse surgical pathology and implications for survival in patients at favorable intermediate risk compared to those with low risk prostate cancer. Materials and Methods We performed a comparative cohort study of men with prostate cancer from 2009 to 2013 in the National Cancer Database who underwent radical prostatectomy. The study primary end point was adverse pathology, defined as Grade Group 3 or greater/pT3b/pN1. Various favorable intermediate risk definitions were evaluated, including the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center definition of Grade Group 2 or less with only 1 intermediate risk factor (Grade Group 2/cT2b/prostate specific antigen 10 to 20 ng/ml), which we defined as type 1 intermediate risk. The remaining patients at intermediate risk were classified as type 2 intermediate risk. Log binomial, logistic and Cox proportional hazards regression models were applied. Results Adverse pathological findings were noted in 3,519 of the 51,688 patients (6.8%) at low risk and 8,888 of the 42,720 Grade Group 2 patients (20.8%) at intermediate risk (RR 3.06, 95% CI 2.95–3.17, p <0.001). Stratification by prostate specific antigen and volume minimally impacted the absolute rate. Results were similar for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center definition (type 1 intermediate risk). Type 2 intermediate risk led to a greater risk of adverse pathology (RR 8.52, 8.23–8.82, p <0.001) and Grade Group 1 intermediate risk led to lower risk (RR 2.00, 1.86–2.16, p <0.001). Patients at favorable intermediate risk had worse overall survival than patients at low risk in adjusted models due to adverse pathology. Conclusions Adverse pathology at radical prostatectomy was observed at a threefold higher rate in patients classified at favorable intermediate risk compared to low risk, leading to worse overall survival. Men at intermediate risk may be better classified as types 1 and 2 since none showed pathological outcomes similar to those of men at low risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old-age mortality decline has driven recent increases in lifespans, but there is no agreement about trends in the age pattern of old-age deaths. Some argue that old-age deaths should become compressed at advanced ages, others argue that old-age deaths should become more dispersed with age, and yet others argue that old-age deaths are consistent with little change in dispersion. However, direct analysis of old-age deaths presents unusual challenges: Death rates at the oldest ages are always noisy, published life tables must assume an asymptotic age pattern of deaths, and the definition of "old-age" changes as lives lengthen. Here we use robust percentile-based methods to overcome some of these challenges and show, for five decades in 20 developed countries, that old-age survival follows an advancing front, like a traveling wave. The front lies between the 25th and 90th percentiles of old-age deaths, advancing with nearly constant long-term shape but annual fluctuations in speed. The existence of this front leads to several predictions that we verify, e.g., that advances in life expectancy at age 65 y are highly correlated with the advance of the 25th percentile, but not with distances between higher percentiles. Our unexpected result has implications for biological hypotheses about human aging and for future mortality change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: To evaluate the clinicopathologic aspects of small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the uterine cervix (SCNEC). Methods: A retrospective review of 40 patients with SCNEC in 3 hospitals from 2009 to 2015 was conducted to assess the survival rates and examine the associations between clinicopathological variables and overall survival (OS). A meta-analysis of 22 studies containing 1901 patients was also conducted to further confirm the results. Results: In the clinical group of 40 patients, the 5-year OS rate was 20%. Advanced International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage and radiation therapy (RT) were associated with poor survival. However, radical surgery was associated with prolonged survival. In the meta-analysis of 1901 patients, the 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate, 5-year DFS rate, 2-year OS rate, 3-year OS rate and 5-year OS rate of SCNEC were 48%, 35%, 62%, 35%, and 35% respectively. Advanced FIGO stage, larger tumor size, lymph node metastasis (LNM) (+), lymphovascular space involvement (LVSI) (+), parametrial involvement (PI) (+), depth of stromal invasion (DSI) > 2/3, and RT were associated with poor survival. However, a chemotherapy regimen similar to that for small cell lung cancer was associated with prolonged survival. Conclusion: Advanced FIGO stage, larger tumor size, LNM (+), LVSI (+), DSI > 2/3, PI (+), and RT were independent predictors of poor prognosis of SCNEC. Radical surgery combined with a chemotherapy regimen similar to that of small cell lung cancer may be a potential therapeutic approach for SCNEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of the study: Neuroblastoma (NBL) is one of the most common extracranial tumours occurring in children with N-Myc gene amplification, acknowledged as a marker of poor prognosis. We assessed the frequency of N-Myc amplification and its impact on NBL markers and on the treatment outcome. Material and methods: Among 160 children with NBL treated from 1991 to 2015 in one centre 140 patients had known N-Myc gene status, and they were enrolled in the study. The analysed group was divided into two subgroups: with and without N-Myc amplification (25 and 115 children, respectively). Association of N-Myc amplification with stage of the disease, levels of biochemical parameters, overall survival (OS) and failure- free survival (FFS) were analysed. Results: The frequency of N-Myc amplification was 17.9%. Most children with N-Myc amplification (64%) were classified to stage 4 NBL. The levels of biochemical markers of NBL: ferritin, dopamine, NSE, and LDH were significantly higher in the group with N-Myc amplification, whereas the levels of VMA and HVA were lower. OS and FFS were significantly lower in children with N-Myc amplification in comparison to children from the control group (OS 53% vs. 76%, p = 0.03; FFS 50% vs. 72%, p = 0.03). The impact of N-Myc amplification on the treatment outcome was significant in patients with stage 4 NBL and children under one year of age. Conclusions: N-Myc amplification is a crucial prognostic factor in neuroblastoma, which is associated with almost all features related with poor prognosis and a higher probability of unfavourable outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The age of diagnosis of Huntington's disease (HD) varies among individuals with the same HTT CAG-repeat expansion size. We investigated whether early-life events, like perinatal insults or neurodevelopmental disorders, influence the diagnosis age.Methods: We used data from 13,856 participants from REGISTRY and Enroll-HD, two large international multicenter observational studies. Disease-free survival analyses of mutation carriers with an HTT CAG repeat expansion size above and including 36 were computed through Kaplan-Meier estimates of median time until an HD diagnosis. Comparisons between groups were computed using a Cox proportional hazard survival model adjusted for CAG-repeat expansion length. We also assessed whether the group effect depended on gender and the affected parent.Results: Insults in the perinatal period were associated with an earlier median age of diagnosis of 45.00 years (95%CI: 42.07-47.92) compared to 51.00 years (95%CI: 50.68-51.31) in the reference group, with a CAG-adjusted hazard ratio of 1.61 (95%CI: 1.26-2.06). Neurodevelopmental disorders were also associated with an earlier median age of diagnosis than the reference group of 47.00 years (95% CI: 43.38-50.62) with a CAG-adjusted hazard ratio of 1.42 (95%CI: 1.16-1.75). These associations did not change significantly with gender or affected parent.Conclusions: These results, derived from large observational datasets, show that perinatal insults and neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with earlier ages of diagnosis of magnitudes similar to the effects of known genetic modifiers of HD. Given their clear temporal separation, these early events may be causative of earlier HD onset, but further research is needed to prove causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments were conducted to explore the animacy advantage in memory, which has shown that words for animate objects are more likely to be remembered than words for inanimate objects. In the first experiment, participants processed words for animate and inanimate objects either shallowly (i.e., by indicating whether each word contained an "e") or deeply (i.e., by rating the pleasantness of the items). In the second experiment, participants rated the relevance of the study items to either a moving scenario or to a grasslands survival scenario. As expected, in the first experiment the deep processing led to higher rates of recall, and in the second experiment the grasslands survival scenario led to higher rates of recall. In both experiments, animate words were recalled at a significantly higher rate than inanimate words regardless of processing condition. The data from these experiments provide more evidence for the animacy advantage in memory, which supports the adaptive memory view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Monitoring the progress of cancer survival in a population over time is an important part of cancer surveillance. Data and methods: Data are from the Canadian Cancer Registry with mortality follow-up through record linkage to the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database and tax files. Net survival (NS) was derived using the Pohar Perme method. Predicted estimates of NS for the period from 2012 to 2014 were calculated using the period method. Age-standardized and age-specific changes in five-year NS between the periods from 1992 to 1994 and 2012 to 2014 were determined for 30 individual cancers. Results: Predicted five-year NS for 2012 to 2014 ranged from 98% for thyroid cancer to 7% for mesothelioma. Between 1992 to 1994 and 2012 to 2014, improvements in five-year age standardized NS were greatest for chronic myeloid leukemia (23.9 percentage points), though a large majority of the increase occurred in the first decade. Increases exceeding 15.0 percentage points were also observed for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (19.5), cancer of the small intestine (17.4) and multiple myeloma (16.9). In contrast, little to no improvement was observed for cancers of the anus, larynx, soft tissue or uterus, or for mesothelioma. Increases in five-year NS were greatest for chronic myeloid leukemia in each age group with the exception of those aged 75 to 84 years (thyroid). Interpretation: This study reveals important areas of progress in cancer outcomes in Canada since the early 1990s. It also sheds light on cancers for which there has seemingly been no improvement in five-year net survival over a 20-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A prognostic model to predict the individual disease-specific survival (DSS) rates of non-metastatic esophageal cancer (nMEC) patients after preoperative radiotherapy (pRT) has not been established. In the current study, we aimed to establish a survival nomogram for nMEC patients after pRT. Methods: We identified 2,424 nMEC patients who underwent pRT from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Approximately, 80% (n=1,948) of the included patients were randomly selected and designated as training data set, and the remaining patients (n=476) were defined as external validation set. Nomogram was established by the training set and validated by the validation set.Results: According to the results of the multivariate analysis, a nomogram combined with age at diagnosis, sex, tumor location, yp-T stage, yp metastatic lymph node ratio stage (yp-mLNRS), and grade was developed. The C-index of the model was significantly higher than that of yp-TNM staging system (0.62, 95% CI, 0.58 to 0.66 vs 0.55, 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.60; p [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine the frequency of computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy sampling errors in chondrosarcomas, as well as the impact of these errors and the achieved surgical margins on local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). Material and methods: A total of 68 consecutive patients treated for chondrosarcoma from 2000–2015 were retrospectively reviewed with a minimum follow-up duration of 2 years. Results: The primary location was at the extremities in 46 patients (67.6%) and at the axial skeleton in 22 patients (32.4%). Seven patients underwent planned intralesional curettage. Surgical margins were assessed in the remaining 53 patients and included 21 wide (39.6%), 25 marginal (47.1%), and seven intralesional (13.2%) resections. Biopsy sampling errors occurred in ten patients (14.7%). LRFS was 82.2±7.8% at 5 years and 76.9±7.8% at 10 years. An intact anatomical barrier was associated with the most preferable LRFS of 89±10.5% after 10 years. DSS was 79.2±8.5% at 5 years and 75.5±6.4% at 10 years. The metric distance of the surgical margin and the presence of a biopsy sampling error did not affect either LRFS or DSS. Conclusion: Even though histological grading in chondrosarcoma is difficult, sampling errors in preoperative biopsies are relatively rare and do not adversely affect outcomes. The presence of an anatomical barrier has a greater impact on LRFS than the metric distance of the surgical margins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. The main obstacle to early diagnosis or monitoring of patients at high risk of poor survival has been the lack of essential predictive biomarkers.Methods: RNA-sequencing was performed on LUAD affected tissue and paired adjacent to noncancerous tissue samples and Gene Expression Omnibus dataset GSE19188 and GSE33532 were used to obtain an intersection of differential expressed genes and construct a protein–protein interaction network to get hub genes. Then corresponding overall survival information of two cohorts of LUAD patients from our hospital and The Cancer Genome Atlas project-LUAD were included in the present study. An analysis of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database and Gene Ontology were carried out to study the signature mechanism.Results: In our study, we identified eight candidate genes (DLGAP5, KIF11, RAD51AP1, CCNB1, AURKA, CDC6, OIP5 and NCAPG) closely related to survival in LUAD. A linear prognostic model of the eight genes was constructed and weighted by the regression coefficient (β) from the multivariate Cox regression analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas-LUAD cohort to divide patients into low- and high-risk groups. The prognostic ability of the signature was validated in LUAD patients at our hospital. Patients assigned to the high-risk group exhibited poor overall survival compared to patients in the low-risk group. Finally, functional enrichment analysis showed that cell division played a vital role in the development of LUAD.Conclusion: The study identified an mRNA signature including eight genes, which may serve as a potential prognostic marker of LUAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our study was to evaluate the influence of positive lymph nodes ratio (PLNR) on survival for patients with pathological stage IIIA-N2 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after receiving postoperative radiotherapy (PORT).Patients and methods: The chi-squared test was used to compare the patient baseline characteristics. Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyze the influence of different variables on overall survival (OS). X-tile model was applied to determine the cutoff values of PLNR. Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test were used to compare survival differences. Based on different cutoff values of PLNR, Cox proportional hazard model was also used to analyze the influence factors on OS.Results: Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that PLNR (P=0.001) and PORT (HR=1.283; 95% CI 1.154–1.426; P [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]