A Deep Learning-Enabled Workflow to Estimate Real-World Progression-Free Survival in Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer: Study Using Deidentified Electronic Health Records.

Background: Progression-free survival (PFS) is a crucial endpoint in cancer drug research. Clinician-confirmed cancer progression, namely real-world PFS (rwPFS) in unstructured text (ie, clinical notes), serves as a reasonable surrogate for real-world indicators in ascertaining progression endpoints. Response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) is traditionally used in clinical trials using serial imaging evaluations but is impractical when working with real-world data.

Landscape scale effects of primary productivity on forest bird species occurrence and abundance in Argentina.

Context: Approaches estimating landscape effects on biodiversity frequently focus on a single extent, finding one 'optimal' extent, or use narrow extents. However, species perceive the environment in different ways, select habitat hierarchically, and respond to multiple selection pressures at extents that best predict each pressure.

Objective: We aimed to assess multi-scale relationships between primary productivity and species occurrences and abundances.

Global analysis of acoustic frequency characteristics in birds.

Animal communication plays a crucial role in biology, yet the wide variability in vocalizations is not fully understood. Previous studies in birds have been limited in taxonomic and analytical breadth. Here, we analyse an extensive dataset of >140 000 recordings of vocalizations from 8450 bird species, representing nearly every avian order and family, under a structural causal model framework, to explore the influence of eco-evolutionary traits on acoustic frequency characteristics.

A scoping review on the errors in medical certification of the cause of death in India.

Medical certification of the cause of death provides epidemiological information for developing cause-specific mortality and disease trends, guiding the monitoring of health programmes and allocating health resources. Therefore, providing correct information on the cause of death is essential. This study describes the errors in medical certification of the cause of death in India.

Townes-Brocks Syndrome Revealed by Kidney Gene Panel Testing.

Introduction: Townes-Brocks syndrome (TBS), a rare autosomal dominant genetic condition associated with (Spalt like Transcription Factor 1), is reported to be present in 1:238,000 individuals in the general population. TBS is characterized by the triad of anorectal malformations, dysplastic ears, with or without hearing impairment, and hand or thumb anomalies. Although kidney involvement is less common in TBS, the disease can progress to kidney failure.

Role of verbal autopsy in cancer registration: A mixed-methods study from the population-based cancer registry of Northern India.

Objectives: To describe utilisation of verbal autopsy as one of the data collection approaches in cancer registration in an Indian setting. We aimed to estimate the proportion and epidemiological characteristics of malignancies identified by the Varanasi population-based cancer registry (PBCR) using verbal autopsy between 2017 and 2019 and to develop a thematic network for implementing verbal autopsy.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional mixed-methods study.

Nitrogen dioxide as proxy indicator of air pollution from fossil fuel burning in New Delhi during lockdown phases of COVID-19 pandemic period: impact on weather as revealed by Sentinel-5 precursor (5p) spectrometer sensor.

There has been a long-lasting impact of the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 on several fronts. One such front is climate which has seen several implications. The consequences of climate change owing to this lockdown need to be explored taking into consideration various climatic indicators.

Evaluation of Medical Certification of Cause of Death in Tertiary Cancer Hospitals in Northern India.

Background: Medical certification of cause of death (MCCD) provides valuable data regarding disease burden in a community and for formulating health policy. Inaccurate MCCDs can significantly impair the precision of national health information.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of cause of death certificates prepared at two tertiary cancer care hospitals in Northern India during the study period (May 2018 to December 2020).

Mapping each pre-existing condition's association to short-term and long-term COVID-19 complications.

Understanding the relationships between pre-existing conditions and complications of COVID-19 infection is critical to identifying which patients will develop severe disease. Here, we leverage ~1.1 million clinical notes from 1803 hospitalized COVID-19 patients and deep neural network models to characterize associations between 21 pre-existing conditions and the development of 20 complications (e.

A Literature-Derived Knowledge Graph Augments the Interpretation of Single Cell RNA-seq Datasets.

Technology to generate single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) datasets and tools to annotate them have advanced rapidly in the past several years. Such tools generally rely on existing transcriptomic datasets or curated databases of cell type defining genes, while the application of scalable natural language processing (NLP) methods to enhance analysis workflows has not been adequately explored. Here we deployed an NLP framework to objectively quantify associations between a comprehensive set of over 20,000 human protein-coding genes and over 500 cell type terms across over 26 million biomedical documents.

Highlighting the compound risk of COVID-19 and environmental pollutants using geospatial technology.

The new COVID-19 coronavirus disease has emerged as a global threat and not just to human health but also the global economy. Due to the pandemic, most countries affected have therefore imposed periods of full or partial lockdowns to restrict community transmission. This has had the welcome but unexpected side effect that existing levels of atmospheric pollutants, particularly in cities, have temporarily declined.

Pre-existing conditions are associated with COVID-19 patients' hospitalization, despite confirmed clearance of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Background: Consecutive negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results are being considered to estimate viral clearance in COVID-19 patients. However, there are anecdotal reports of hospitalization from protracted COVID-19 complications despite such confirmed viral clearance, presenting a clinical conundrum.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 222 hospitalized COVID-19 patients to compare those that were readmitted post-viral clearance ( = 49) with those that were not re-admitted post-viral clearance ( = 173) between February and October 2020.

Augmented curation of clinical notes from a massive EHR system reveals symptoms of impending COVID-19 diagnosis.

Understanding temporal dynamics of COVID-19 symptoms could provide fine-grained resolution to guide clinical decision-making. Here, we use deep neural networks over an institution-wide platform for the augmented curation of clinical notes from 77,167 patients subjected to COVID-19 PCR testing. By contrasting Electronic Health Record (EHR)-derived symptoms of COVID-19-positive (COVID; n = 2,317) versus COVID-19-negative (COVID; n = 74,850) patients for the week preceding the PCR testing date, we identify anosmia/dysgeusia (27.

Knowledge synthesis of 100 million biomedical documents augments the deep expression profiling of coronavirus receptors.

The COVID-19 pandemic demands assimilation of all biomedical knowledge to decode mechanisms of pathogenesis. Despite the recent renaissance in neural networks, a platform for the real-time synthesis of the exponentially growing biomedical literature and deep omics insights is unavailable. Here, we present the nferX platform for dynamic inference from over 45 quadrillion possible conceptual associations from unstructured text, and triangulation with insights from single-cell RNA-sequencing, bulk RNA-seq and proteomics from diverse tissue types.

Hypopharyngeal Airway Surgery for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Morbidity in the Early Postoperative Period.

Study Objective: To determine if hypopharyngeal surgery for obstructive sleep apnea is associated with significant morbidity in the early post-operative period.

Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea who underwent hypopharyngeal surgery at a tertiary care facility between November 2012 and September 2013 were included in this study. Surgical outcomes were assessed from medical records review and a 14 question telephone survey.

Stapler-assisted closure in total laryngectomy.

The total laryngectomy is a surgical procedure that requires technically sound reconstruction in order to preserve a patient's swallowing function. Traditionally, a handsewn technique has been utilized to accomplish this endeavor. Recent applications of surgical stapling devices have been noted in an attempt to circumvent the need for handsewn reconstruction.

Oropharyngeal reconstruction using the supraclavicular artery island flap: a new flap alternative.

Unlabelled: Oropharyngeal reconstruction following head and neck oncologic resection has utilized local, regional, and free tissue transfer flap options. The modality utilized is often guided by the type of defect created as well as the surgeon's preference. In this article, the authors introduce the application of the supraclavicular artery island flap as a reconstructive modality following oropharyngeal oncologic ablation.

Bezold's abscess: a unique complication of otitis media.

Otitis media is one of the more common pathologic entities treated by primary care physicians and otolaryngologists. With antibiotic therapy, the majority of these infections do not progress beyond the primary disease process. However, there are situations during which the primary otitis media may not resolve, and complications can form as a result of its persistence.

Reconstruction of large lateral facial defects utilizing variations of the cervicopectoral rotation flap.

Large lateral facial defects as a result of trauma or head and neck oncologic surgery can present a challenging reconstructive dilemma for the operating surgeon. A number of options currently exist for reconstructing such defects, including skin grafts, myocutaneous flaps, and free vascularized flaps. The decision to utilize one approach versus another depends largely on the nature of the defect, anatomical location, and the experience of the surgeon.

An efficient high-order algorithm for acoustic scattering from penetrable thin structures in three dimensions.

This paper presents a high-order accelerated algorithm for the solution of the integral-equation formulation of volumetric scattering problems. The scheme is particularly well suited to the analysis of "thin" structures as they arise in certain applications (e.g.

Laryngeal trauma: review of literature.

Laryngeal trauma is a rare injury that can lead to rapid airway deterioration if not treated in a timely, proper manner. Due to its infrequent occurrence, many different management strategies have evolved. All approaches stress an immediate stabilization of the airway, followed by a diagnostic protocol that demarcates different groupings based on the extent of laryngeal trauma.

Brown bowel syndrome: case report and review.

Brown bowel syndrome is characterized by deposits of lipofuscin in the tunica muscularis of the small intestine. Its etiology is associated with chronic malabsorption resulting in a deficiency of vitamin E. This hypovitaminosis is believed to cause a mitochondrial myopathy secondary to loss of the antioxidant properties of vitamin E, which further worsens the malabsorption and leads to atonic, dilated segments of bowel.

Intracapsular versus standard tonsillectomy: review of literature.

For the past century, standard (total) tonsillectomy has been the preferred method for treating illness resulting from tonsillar infection and hypertrophy. With the advent of antibiotics, however, more cases of tonsillitis are treated medically. As a result, tonsillectomies are being performed less frequently for infection than for obstructive symptoms associated with tonsillar hypertrophy and sleep-disordered breathing.

Mucosal melanoma: case report and review.

Mucosal melanoma is a rare form of cancer that results from an abnormal proliferation of melanocytes within mucosal surfaces of the body. Due to the limited number of cases in the general public and even fewer cases in the reported literature, it is difficult to conduct research on this cancer. The following is a case presentation of a sinonasal mucosal melanoma followed by a review of the current literature detailing the epidemiology, signs and symptoms, diagnostic methods, and various methods of treatment that are currently used to combat this illness.