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This research aims to investigate the relationship between retrenchment strategy and firm performance for a sample of 119 listed firms in Malaysia over the period 2008-2015. Using robust panel regression, we find that retrenchment strategy contributes positively to firm performance. Our research further indicates that controlling shareholders plays a significant role in the association between retrenchment strategy and firm performance, in which retrenchment strategy decreases the performance of family and government-linked firms. Our findings contribute to Malaysian firms, government, and policymakers by showing that retrenchment strategy may harm the performance of firm if the firms are family firms or government-linked firms.

Analysis of thermograms has often been subjective and has resulted in inconsistency in the diagnosis of breast diseases by thermography. The aim of this paper is to study the problem of subjective interpretation of breast thermograms and hence using thermography as an adjunct tool for breast cancer diagnosis. It ws proposed that the thermograms should be taken within the recommended screening period, classified and analysed in conjunction with an artificial neural network (ANN). Qualitative interpretation of thermal images can be carried out using an active contours algorithm. The 256 x 200 pixel image can be segmented as one of the inputs to the ANN. To achieve quantitative analysis of the breast thermograms, firstly the inputs of the ANN should be determined, so that the thermograms could be successfuly classified and based on the suggested inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is a common and dreadful disease in women. The surface temperature and the vascularization pattern of the breast could indicate breast diseases. Establishing the surface isotherm pattern of the breast and the normal range of cyclic variations of temperature distribution can assist in identifying the abnormal infrared images of diseased breasts. This paper investigates the cyclic variation of temperature and vascularization of the normal breast thermograms under a controlled environment. More than 50 Asian women, were examined and some of them have been examined continuously for two month. All together, not less than 800 thermograms were obtained. Before these thermograms can be analysed objectively via a computer algorithm, they must be digitized and segmented. The authors present a method to segment thermograms and extract the useful region from the background. After the image processing, these thermograms can be analysed and then the best time to perform an examination can be chosen. All these results are important for establishing a data bank of normal breast thermography, to choose the best time for an examination and as a systematic methodology for evaluating and analysing the abnormal breast thermography in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: Self-compassion is a prevalent factor that has been explored in eating behaviour and weight loss literature. The present study explored the potential relationship between self-compassion and reasons individuals stop eating., Method: Two hundred and eighty-three participants were recruited from social media platforms and a research participation scheme at a university in the West Midlands, UK, and completed questionnaires on self-compassion and reasons individuals stop eating., Results: The findings suggested that self-compassion was negatively associated with decreased food appeal, self-consciousness, and decreased food priority, whilst being positively associated with physical satisfaction., Conclusion: Self-compassion plays a prevalent role in the reasons individuals stop eating, and future research should continue exploring the effect of self-compassion on eating behaviour regulation., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Bacterial keratitis is a vision-threatening infection mainly caused by Gram-positive bacteria (GPB). Antimicrobial therapy is commonly empirical using broad-spectrum agents with efficacy increasingly compromised by the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. We used a combination of phenotypic tests and genome sequencing to identify the predominant lineages of GPB causing keratitis and to characterize their antimicrobial resistance patterns. A total of 161 isolates, including Staphylococcus aureus ( n = 86), coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS; n = 34), Streptococcus spp. ( n = 34), and Enterococcus faecalis ( n = 7), were included. The population of S. aureus isolates consisted mainly of clonal complex 5 (CC5) (30.2%). Similarly, the population of Staphylococcus epidermidis was homogenous with most of them belonging to CC2 (78.3%). Conversely, the genetic population of Streptococcus pneumoniae was highly diverse. Resistance to first-line antibiotics was common among staphylococci, especially among CC5 S. aureus . Methicillin-resistant S. aureus was commonly resistant to fluoroquinolones and azithromycin (78.6%) and tobramycin (57%). One-third of the CoNS were resistant to fluoroquinolones and 53% to azithromycin. Macrolide resistance was commonly caused by erm genes in S. aureus , mphC and msrA in CoNS, and mefA and msr(D ) in streptococci. Aminoglycoside resistance in staphylococci was mainly associated with genes commonly found in mobile genetic elements and that encode for nucleotidyltransferases like ant(4')-Ib and ant(9)-Ia . Fluroquinolone-resistant staphylococci carried from 1 to 4 quinolone resistance-determining region mutations, mainly in the gyrA and parC genes. We found that GPB causing keratitis are associated with strains commonly resistant to first-line topical therapies, especially staphylococcal isolates that are frequently multidrug-resistant and associated with major hospital-adapted epidemic lineages., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Exploring features associated with the clinical outcome of interest is a rapidly advancing area of research. However, with contemporary sequencing technologies capable of identifying over thousands of genes per sample, there is a challenge in constructing efficient prediction models that balance accuracy and resource utilization. To address this challenge, researchers have developed feature selection methods to enhance performance, reduce overfitting, and ensure resource efficiency. However, applying feature selection models to survival analysis, particularly in clinical datasets characterized by substantial censoring and limited sample sizes, introduces unique challenges. We propose a robust ensemble feature selection approach integrated with group Lasso to identify compelling features and evaluate its performance in predicting survival outcomes. Our approach consistently outperforms established models across various criteria through extensive simulations, demonstrating low false discovery rates, high sensitivity, and high stability. Furthermore, we applied the approach to a colorectal cancer dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas, showcasing its effectiveness by generating a composite score based on the selected genes to correctly distinguish different subtypes of the patients. In summary, our proposed approach excels in selecting impactful features from high-dimensional data, yielding better outcomes compared to contemporary state-of-the-art models., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Myroides odoratimimus is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen known to rarely cause a wide range of opportunistic infections in humans. We report a novel case of M. odoratimimus bacteremia in a paraplegic patient with an extensive medical history likely due to a tunneled dialysis catheter infection that was successfully treated with levofloxacin., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Carter Chapman et al.)

Objective: To assess the cumulative incidence and risk factors for glaucoma development and progression within 1-2 years following corneal transplant surgery., Design: Retrospective cohort study., Methods: Patients undergoing penetrating keratoplasty (PK), deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK), Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK), Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK), Boston keratoprosthesis type I (KPro) implantation, or endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK or DMEK) under previous PK (EK under previous PK) at one academic institution with at least 1 year of follow-up were included. Primary outcome measures were cumulative incidence of glaucoma development and progression after corneal transplant, in patients without and with preoperative glaucoma, respectively. Risk factors for glaucoma development and progression were also assessed., Results: Four hundred and thirty-one eyes of 431 patients undergoing PK (113), DALK (17), DSEK (71), DMEK (168), KPro (35) and EK under previous PK (27) with a mean follow-up of 22.9 months were analyzed. The 1-year cumulative incidence for glaucoma development and progression was 28.0% and 17.8% in patients without and with preoperative glaucoma, respectively. In a Cox proportional hazards analysis, DSEK surgery, KPro implantation, average intraocular pressure (IOP) through follow-up and postoperative IOP spikes of ≥30 mmHg were each independently associated with glaucoma development or progression (p < 0.04 for all)., Conclusions: A significant proportion of patients developed glaucoma or exhibited glaucoma progression within 1 year after corneal transplantation. Patient selection for DSEK may partly explain the higher risk for glaucoma in these patients. Postoperative IOP spikes should be minimized and may indicate the need for co-management with a glaucoma specialist., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Royal College of Ophthalmologists.)

We present a rare case of recalcitrant fungal keratitis caused by Coniochaeta mutabilis, successfully managed with a course of oral, topical, intrastromal, and intracameral antifungals. A 57-year-old male on their fourth week of treatment for presumed left herpes simplex keratitis presented to clinic with severe left-sided foreign body sensation after gardening in his yard. On examination, a white corneal plaque was observed at 8 o'clock, shown to be a dense collection of fungal hyphae on confocal microscopy. Corneal cultures revealed yeast-like cells, initially identified as Kabatiella zeae by matching 100% identity with K. zeae strains CBS 767.71 and CBS 265.32 in BLASTn search using the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence. Treated for over four months with topical amphotericin B and oral voriconazole without improvement, recourse to intrastromal and intracameral amphotericin B injections, coupled with the application of cyanoacrylate glue to the lesion and a bandage contact lens, led to eventual resolution. The patient subsequently underwent cataract surgery, achieving a BCVA of 20/20 in the eye. Surprisingly, upon further sequence analyses of combined ITS and large subunit ribosomal ribonucleic acid (LSU) and investigation of the K. zeae German strain CBS 767.71, the organism was revealed to be Coniochaeta mutabilis (formerly Lecythospora mutabilis). This means that the correct name for CBS 767.71 and CBS 265.32 is C. mutabilis and should be corrected in the GenBank record to avoid misleading identification in the future. This case also underscores the urgent unmet need for improved molecular diagnostic modalities in the care of corneal infections., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None declared., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.)

Bacterial corneal infections, or bacterial keratitis (BK), are ophthalmic emergencies that frequently lead to irreversible visual impairment. Though increasingly recognized as a major cause of global blindness, modern paradigms of evidence-based care in BK have remained at a diagnostic and therapeutic impasse for over half a century. Current standards of management - based on the collection of corneal cultures and the application of broad-spectrum topical antibiotics - are beset by important yet widely underrecognized limitations, including approximately 30% of all patients who will develop moderate to severe vision loss in the affected eye. Though recent advances have involved a more clearly defined role for adjunctive topical corticosteroids, and novel therapies such as corneal crosslinking, overall progress to improve patient and population-based outcomes remains incommensurate to the chronic morbidity caused by this disease. Recognizing that the care of BK is guided by the clinical axiom, "time equals vision", this chapter offers an evidence-based synthesis for the clinical management of these infections, underscoring critical unmet needs in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest LU has no disclosures. JC is a consultant for the US Food and Drug Administration, and holds research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Numerous cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa), are addicted to transcription programs driven by specific genomic regions known as super-enhancers (SEs). The robust transcription of genes at such SEs is enabled by the formation of phase-separated condensates by transcription factors and coactivators with intrinsically disordered regions. The androgen receptor (AR), the main oncogenic driver in PCa, contains large disordered regions and is co-recruited with the transcriptional coactivator mediator complex subunit 1 (MED1) to SEs in androgen-dependent PCa cells, thereby promoting oncogenic transcriptional programs. In this work, we reveal that full-length AR forms foci with liquid-like properties in different PCa models. We demonstrate that foci formation correlates with AR transcriptional activity, as this activity can be modulated by changing cellular foci content chemically or by silencing MED1. AR ability to phase separate was also validated in vitro by using recombinant full-length AR protein. We also demonstrate that AR antagonists, which suppress transcriptional activity by targeting key regions for homotypic or heterotypic interactions of this receptor, hinder foci formation in PCa cells and phase separation in vitro. Our results suggest that enhanced compartmentalization of AR and coactivators may play an important role in the activation of oncogenic transcription programs in androgen-dependent PCa., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.)

In addition to catastrophic loss of life, and dramatic and unwanted alterations to the daily lives of those left behind, the COVID-19 pandemic has fostered the publication and dissemination of an unprecedented quantity of peer-reviewed medical and scientific publications on a single subject. In particular, the ophthalmic literature is now replete with clinical and laboratory studies on putative eye involvement by SARS-CoV-2, the aetiologic agent of COVID-19. In this review, we critically appraise the published literature on COVID-19, and suggest that the quality of scientific peer review and editorial decision-making also suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.