Assessment Of Response Research Articles

Vulnerability of suspension bridges to spatially variable vertical ground motions

This study investigates the vulnerability of long-span suspension bridges to spatially variable vertical ground motions (SV-VGMs). While of recognized importance, a comprehensive understanding of this topic has been traditionally limited by the unavailability of an adequate number of arrays of motions. In this work, 10 simulations of a large-magnitude Hayward Fault earthquake are utilized to perform site-specific structural response assessments of a suspension bridge under different load scenarios. A detailed nonlinear model representative of the West San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is employed as the case study structure. Four sets of nonlinear time-history analyses are performed with and without VGMs and with and without the incorporation of spatial variability to offer the basis for a complete comparison of the demand distributions across different load cases. Results indicate that VGMs largely influence the response of the bridge decks in the vertical direction, with an increase in drifts up to 2× for the case of synchronous input and up to 2.5× for the case of asynchronous inputs. The analysis of the bridge response in the time and frequency domain across all load cases reveals a high sensitivity of the decks’ response to minor time lags in input motions of comparable amplitude, which are seen to activate the contribution of higher modes to the structural response. Evidence from this study points to the potential of severely underestimating structural demands if the (even limited) spatial variability of the input motions is not incorporated correctly. For the case study structure, the probability of exceeding the onset of nonlinearity in the short decks at the design earthquake level is seen to increase by a factor of about two when considering SV-VGMs as opposed to synchronous horizontal motions only.

Community preparedness for earthquake disasters: A preliminary assessment of awareness and disaster infrastructure response in Cianjur, West Java-Indonesia

Background The danger of earthquakes poses a serious threat to people worldwide. One of the most significant challenges is preparing communities to cope effectively with this disaster. Therefore, understanding earthquake hazards is critically important for preparedness, mitigation, and an effective response to this threat. This report aims to observe and conduct a preliminary assessment of the degree to which community preparedness for earthquake disasters has been implemented. Methods Empirical data were obtained from survey respondents and interviews. The respondents were members of a community affected by the Cianjur earthquake, which occurred on November 21, 2022. The data were analysed using the mean range approach, based on Likert scales. Additionally, the Spearman correlation method was employed to indicate the relationship between community awareness and infrastructure readiness. Result Based on empirical evidence and preliminary analysis, it is evident that the preparedness of the community to respond effectively to earthquake catastrophes is inadequate. An apparent lack of readiness is observed in the inadequate construction of housing that fails to meet disaster standards, and the absence of disaster response facilities is notable. Conclusions Based on our initial assumption, it appears that knowledge related to disaster resilience in this area has not been adequately disseminated or socialized. However, this premise requires further investigation.

The clinical meaning and significance of OVEMP morphology.

While some OVEMP recordings are morphologically straightforward, some are poor in appearance, which can create a challenge, as they often require a "second look" by another experienced assessor. Even OVEMPs in normal subjects are sometimes poorly formed, but we wondered if the morphological assessment of the OVEMP response might provide some additional diagnostic information. A single experienced assessor evaluated the OVEMP recordings of 60 patients referred sequentially to a tertiary care centre, and categorized them as "easy to assess" (i.e. obvious to a minimally trained assessor) or "difficult to assess", often requiring a second look by another experienced assessor. In 48 patients, the results were easy to assess (regardless of the actual clinical results) while 12 were classified as "difficult". This figure reflected the rate of morphologically poor responses we found in our population of normative data. Our clinical concern is that many centres have given up relying on OVEMP assessment because the morphology of the wave may be challenging to interpret. OVEMP assessment often calls for a "second look", requiring a collaboration between two experienced assessors. It seems that this feature may not be diagnostically useful and poor OVEMP morphology may present a challenge in interpretation, but this should not be used as a reason to defer OVEMP testing.

Vaccine Platform Comparison: Protective Efficacy against Lethal Marburg Virus Challenge in the Hamster Model.

Marburg virus (MARV), a filovirus, was first identified in 1967 in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, former Yugoslavia. Since then, MARV has caused sporadic outbreaks of human disease with high case fatality rates in parts of Africa, with the largest outbreak occurring in 2004/05 in Angola. From 2021 to 2023, MARV outbreaks occurred in Guinea, Ghana, New Guinea, and Tanzania, emphasizing the expansion of its endemic area into new geographical regions. There are currently no approved vaccines or therapeutics targeting MARV, but several vaccine candidates have shown promise in preclinical studies. We compared three vaccine platforms simultaneously by vaccinating hamsters with either a single dose of an adenovirus-based (ChAdOx-1 MARV) vaccine, an alphavirus replicon-based RNA (LION-MARV) vaccine, or a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-based (VSV-MARV) vaccine, all expressing the MARV glycoprotein as the antigen. Lethal challenge with hamster-adapted MARV 4 weeks after vaccination resulted in uniform protection of the VSV-MARV and LION-MARV groups and 83% of the ChAdOx-1 MARV group. Assessment of the antigen-specific humoral response and its functionality revealed vaccine-platform-dependent differences, particularly in the Fc effector functions.

29 Pilot study of an implantable microdevice forin vivo evaluation of drug response in renal cell carcinoma (NCT05700461)

Abstract Background There are multiple therapies for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), yet no personalized biomarkers exist that can guide optimal treatment for individual patients. We developed implantable microdevices (IMD) that can be placed within a target tumor using a standard small-gauge interventional needle under imaging guidance. The IMDs deliver spatially segregated microdoses of up to 20 different drugs and/or combinations over multiple days, and then are retrieved surgically with surrounding tissue. This allows for the assessment of tumor response to multiple drugs in vivo within the native tumor microenvironment, without exposing the patient to systemic drug toxicity. We are conducting a trial to evaluate the safety and feasibility of IMD implantation in RCC tumors and subsequent collection of drug response data on targeted, cytotoxic, and immune-modulatory agents. Methods Eligible patients have suspected or confirmed RCC and are planned for standard surgical resection of either their primary tumor or metastasis. Three days prior to surgery, one or more IMDs are implanted percutaneously into the tumor under CT guidance. Following nephrectomy or excision of a metastasis, the microdevices with surrounding tumor are removed en bloc; subsequently, the tissue is fixed, embedded and sectioned. The tumor/IMD cross-sections are analyzed for drug effect for each of the spatially separate treatment effects using a wide range of techniques, including immunohistochemistry for proliferation and pathway markers, spatial immune profiling using a panel of 25 tumor microenvironment markers, and spatial transcriptomics. Patients receive subsequent standard of care systemic treatment as per their oncologist’s discretion. Five patients have been enrolled and a total of 16 IMDs have been implanted to date. Enrollment is ongoing for a planned total of 20 patients. Success is defined as meeting both safety and feasibility endpoints. Safety is defined as two or fewer safety failures out of 20 enrolled patients. Feasibility is defined as 16 or more patients with successful microdevice implantation and retrieval of interpretable data. IMDs will be analyzed to explore spatially segregated drug effects on the tumor microenvironment including tumor cell death and immune cell activation, as well as evidence of differential tumor drug sensitivity across treatments and patients. Conclusions Implantation of microdevices in RCC tumors may be a useful approach to improve treatment selection and accelerate drug development. Trial enrollment is ongoing.

Challenges in Hypophosphatasia: Suspicion, Diagnosis, Genetics, Management, and Follow-Up.

Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare genetic disorder caused by loss-of-function variants in the ALPL gene, leading to deficient tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. This results in a distinctive biochemical profile marked by low serum ALP levels and elevated pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP). The clinical spectrum of HPP ranges from perinatal lethality to asymptomatic cases, presenting significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Diagnosis of HPP relies on identifying the characteristic biochemical signature (low ALP, high PLP), concomitant with skeletal (osteomalacia, rickets, pseudofracture) or extraskeletal (muscle weakness, musculoskeletal pain, dental) manifestations. Current diagnostic frameworks lack uniformity, highlighting the imperative for a standardized diagnostic approach. Molecular genetic testing plays a pivotal role in making the diagnosis of HPP, but difficulties persist in diagnosing milder cases and correlating genotypes with phenotypes. Comprehensive multidisciplinary care is indispensable, with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) proving efficacious in severe cases and more nuanced management approaches for milder presentations. Overcoming challenges in ERT initiation, treatment response assessment, dose titrations, and long-term surveillance necessitates further refinement of management guidelines. Mild forms of HPP and asymptomatic carriers of pathogenic ALPL variants pose substantial diagnosis and management challenges. Developing consensus-driven guidelines is crucial to enhance clinical outcomes and patient care.

Multimodal mucosal and systemic immune characterization of a non-human primate trachoma model highlights the critical role of local immunity during acute phase disease.

Trachoma is a leading cause of infection-related blindness worldwide. This disease is caused by recurrent Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) infections of the conjunctiva and develops in two phases: i) active (acute trachoma, characterized by follicular conjunctivitis), then long-term: ii) scarring (chronic trachoma, characterized by conjunctival fibrosis, corneal opacification and eyelid malposition). Scarring trachoma is driven by the number and severity of reinfections. The immune system plays a pivotal role in trachoma including exacerbation of the disease. Hence the immune system may also be key to developing a trachoma vaccine. Therefore, we characterized clinical and local immune response kinetics in a non-human primate model of acute conjunctival Ct infection and disease. The conjunctiva of non-human primate (NHP, Cynomolgus monkeys-Macaca fascicularis-) were inoculated with Ct (B/Tunis-864 strain, B serovar). Clinical ocular monitoring was performed using a standardized photographic grading system, and local immune responses were assessed using multi-parameter flow cytometry of conjunctival cells, tear fluid cytokines, immunoglobulins, and Ct quantification. Clinical findings were similar to those observed during acute trachoma in humans, with the development of typical follicular conjunctivitis from the 4th week post-exposure to the 11th week. Immunologic analysis indicated an early phase influx of T cells in the conjunctiva and elevated interleukins 4, 8, and 5, followed by a late phase monocytic influx accompanied with a decrease in other immune cells, and tear fluid cytokines returning to initial levels. Our NHP model accurately reproduces the clinical signs of acute trachoma, allowing for an accurate assessment of the local immune responses in infected eyes. A progressive immune response occurred for weeks after exposure to Ct, which subsided into a persistent innate immune response. An understanding of these local responses is the first step towards using the model to assess new vaccine and therapeutic strategies for disease prevention.

Intratumoral Heterogeneity Assessment of the Extracellular Bone Matrix and Immune Microenvironment in Osteosarcoma Using Digital Imaging to Predict Therapeutic Response

The assessment of chemotherapy response in osteosarcoma (OS) based on the average percentage of viable cells is limited, as it overlooks the spatial heterogeneity of tumor cell response (foci of resistant cells), immune microenvironment, and bone microarchitecture. Despite the resulting positive classification for response to chemotherapy, some patients experience early metastatic recurrence, demonstrating that our conventional tools for evaluating treatment response are insufficient. We studied the interactions between tumor cells, immune cells (lymphocytes, histiocytes, and osteoclasts), and bone extracellular matrix (ECM) in 18 surgical resection samples of OS using multiplex and conventional immunohistochemistry (IHC: CD8, CD163, CD68, and SATB2), combined with multiscale characterization approaches in territories of good and poor response (GRT/PRT) to treatment. GRT and PRT were defined as subregions with <10% and ≥10% of viable tumor cells, respectively. Local correlations between bone ECM porosity and density of immune cells were assessed in these territories. Immune cell density was then correlated to overall patient survival. Two patterns were identified for histiocytes and osteoclasts. In poor responder patients, CD68 osteoclast density exceeded that of CD163 histiocytes but was not related to bone ECM load. Conversely, in good responder patients, CD163 histiocytes were more numerous than CD68 osteoclasts. For both of them, a significant negative local correlation with bone ECM porosity was found (P < .01). Moreover, in PRT, multinucleated osteoclasts were rounded and intermingled with tumor cells, whereas in GRT, they were elongated and found in close contact with bone trabeculae. CD8 levels were always low in metastatic patients, and those initially considered good responders rapidly died from their disease. The specific recruitment of histiocytes and osteoclasts within the bone ECM, and the level of CD8 represent new features of OS response to treatment. The associated prognostic signatures should be integrated into the therapeutic stratification algorithm of patients after surgery.

A comparison of inversion test holding methods for broilers

Objective, robust, and repeatable assessments of fear responses of poultry can lead to improvements in research techniques, the validity of test results, and ultimately bird welfare. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of 2 different holding methods on broiler fear responses during the inversion test, a standardized method of assessing fear in poultry. On D15 and D34 mixed-sex broilers (N = 80) were inverted and held either by their shanks (N = 40) or feet (N = 40) at arm's length away from the experimenter for 30 s. The frequency of wing flapping, head movement, attempts to right, and vocalizations were observed from video recordings collected during the inversion test. Vocalizations at D15 and D34 were not different when comparing holding methods. Frequency of attempts to right and wing flapping at D15 were greater (P < 0.001) for birds held by their feet (0.90 and 16.6, respectively) than when they were held by their shanks (0.20 and 0.73, respectively). Similarly, on D34 wing flapping remained greater (P < 0.001) for birds held by their feet (23.8) compared to their shanks (8.1). Conversely, head movements were greater (P = 0.05) for birds held by their shanks (9.2) compared to their feet (6.3) on D15. Within both the shank and feet holding method, vocalizations at D15 were greater (30.7 and 35.6, respectively) compared to D34 (11.93 and 15.38, respectively) (P < 0.001). There was no holding method effect on head movements within each age. These results suggest that behaviors observed during the inversion test can be influenced by the inversion holding method and that handling should be standardized while conducting behavioral tests to assess fear in poultry.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria, Angioedema, and Atopic Dermatitis

Reducing the burden of disease for patients and families requires being able to measure health status changes related to disease severity, control, and response to treatment over time. Patient-reported outcomes are patient perceptions of their health status. Such perceptions are critical to decision making. Some patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are extensive and often intended to be used only for detailed research assessments. Many PROMs, however, form critical components of valid, reliable, and responsive assessments in clinical research and routine clinical practice. The smallest score change in a PROM that would lead to different decision making by patients is called the minimally important difference. Using PROMs may also offer advantages over general questions or unvalidated tools. With the innovation of technology, the ability to chronicle disease symptoms using communication technology (mobile phone applications) has become increasingly available. Collection of real-world data in this capacity will be very useful for identifying more precise phenotypes/endotypes necessary for investigation of tailored therapies for chronic spontaneous and inducible urticaria, angioedema, and atopic dermatitis. Here, we provide an overview of PROMs that have been developed for the assessment of disease severity, control, and quality of life and that have been validated for the use of adults and children with these skin disorders.

Rocking Steel Column Base Connections Equipped with a Viscoplastic Damper for Seismic Resilience: Design, Modeling, and Response Assessment

Rocking Steel Column Base Connections Equipped with a Viscoplastic Damper for Seismic Resilience: Design, Modeling, and Response Assessment

Exploring Novel Genome Instability-associated lncRNAs and their Potential Function in Pan-Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Genomic instability can drive clonal evolution, continuous modification of tumor genomes, and tumor genomic heterogeneity. The molecular mechanism of genomic instability still needs further investigation. This study aims to identify novel genome instabilityassociated lncRNAs (GI-lncRNAs) and investigate the role of genome instability in pan-Renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A mutator hypothesis was employed, combining the TCGA database of somatic mutation (SM) information, to identify GI-lncRNAs. Subsequently, a training cohort (n = 442) and a testing cohort (n = 439) were formed by randomly dividing all RCC patients. Based on the training cohort dataset, a multivariate Cox regression analysis lncRNAs risk model was created. Further validations were performed in the testing cohort, TCGA cohort, and different RCC subtypes. To confirm the relative expression levels of lncRNAs in HK-2, 786-O, and 769-P cells, qPCR was carried out. Functional pathway enrichment analyses were performed for further investigation. A total of 170 novel GI-lncRNAs were identified. The lncRNA prognostic risk model was constructed based on LINC00460, AC073218.1, AC010789.1, and COLCA1. This risk model successfully differentiated patients into distinct risk groups with significantly different clinical outcomes. The model was further validated in multiple independent patient cohorts. Additionally, functional and pathway enrichment analyses revealed that GI-lncRNAs play a crucial role in GI. Furthermore, the assessments of immune response, drug sensitivity, and cancer stemness revealed a significant relationship between GI-lncRNAs and tumor microenvironment infiltration, mutational burden, microsatellite instability, and drug resistance. In this study, we discovered four novel GI-lncRNAs and developed a novel signature that effectively predicted clinical outcomes in pan-RCC. The findings provide valuable insights for pan-RCC immunotherapy and shed light on potential underlying mechanisms.

Impact of M-protein detection on the response evaluations of patients undergoing treatment with the IgG-κ monoclonal antibodies daratumumab or isatuximab, and discrepancies between immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) systems and reagents.

Immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) is the standard method for confirming the presence of a monoclonal protein (M-protein) at multiple myeloma (MM) diagnosis. IFE is also essential at assessment of complete response (CR) and stringent CR during treatment. As the CR assessment is influenced by daratumumab and isatuximab, HYDRASHIFT assays were developed. Samples from patients under treatment that included daratumumab or isatuximab were tested and monitored by IFE on the HYDRASYS system using HYDRASHIFT assays (HYDRASYS/HYDRASHIFT) and by IFE on the Epalyzer2 system (Epalyzer). The IFE using HYDRASYS/HYDRASHIFT avoided a false positive caused by drug-related IgG-κ and contributed to accurate assessment of CR. Furthermore, HYDRASYS/HYDRASHIFT detected small M-proteins at early relapse and detected free light chains (FLCs) in patients with renal impairment exhibiting high serum FLCs despite being often missed on Epalyzer. Sensitivity and specificity of M-protein detection vary greatly depending on the IFE system and reagents used.

Allysine-Targeted Molecular MRI Enables Early Prediction of Chemotherapy Response in Pancreatic Cancer.

Neoadjuvant therapy is routinely used in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but not all tumors respond to this treatment. Current clinical imaging techniques are not able to precisely evaluate and predict the response to neoadjuvant therapies over several weeks. A strong fibrotic reaction is a hallmark of a positive response, and during fibrogenesis, allysine residues are formed on collagen proteins by the action of lysyl oxidases. Here, we report the application of an allysine-targeted molecular MRI probe, MnL3, to provide an early, noninvasive assessment of treatment response in PDAC. Allysine increased 2- to 3-fold after one dose of neoadjuvant therapy with FOLFIRINOX in sensitive human PDAC xenografts in mice. Molecular MRI with MnL3 could specifically detect and quantify fibrogenesis in PDAC xenografts. Comparing the MnL3 signal before and 3 days after one dose of FOLFIRINOX predicted subsequent treatment response. The MnL3 tumor signal increased by 70% from day 0 to day 3 in mice that responded to subsequent doses of FOLFIRINOX, whereas no signal increase was observed in FOLFIRINOX-resistant tumors. This study indicates the promise of allysine-targeted molecular MRI as a noninvasive tool to predict chemotherapy outcomes. Significance: Allysine-targeted molecular MRI can quantify fibrogenesis in pancreatic tumors and predict response to chemotherapy, which could guide rapid clinical management decisions by differentiating responders from nonresponders after treatment initiation.

Pan‐Antarctic Assessment of Ice Shelf Flexural Responses to Ocean Waves

AbstractUnderstanding the drivers of iceberg calving from Antarctic ice shelves is important for future sea level rise projections. Ocean waves promote calving by imposing stresses and strains on the shelves. Previous modeling studies of ice shelf responses to ocean waves have focused on highly idealized geometries with uniform ice thickness and a flat seabed. This study leverages on a recently developed mathematical model that incorporates spatially varying geometries, combined with measured ice shelf thickness and seabed profiles, to conduct a statistical assessment of how 15 Antarctic ice shelves respond to ocean waves over a broad range of relevant wave periods, from swell to infragravity waves to very long period waves. The results show the most extreme responses at a given wave period are generated by features in the ice shelves and/or seabed geometries, depending on the wave regime. Relationships are determined between the median ice shelf response and the median shelf front thickness or the median water cavity depth. The findings provide further evidence of the role of ocean waves in large‐scale calving events for certain ice shelves (particularly the Wilkins) and indicate a possible role of ocean waves in calving events for other shelves (Larsen C and Conger). Further, the relationships determined provide a method to assess the potential for increased calving as ice shelves evolve with climate change, and, hence, contribute to assessments of future sea level rise.

Translational approaches to the neurobiological study of conditional discrimination and inhibition: Implications for psychiatric disease.

There is a growing number of studies investigating discriminatory fear conditioning and conditioned inhibition of fear to assess safety learning, in addition to extinction of cued fear. Despite all of these paradigms resulting in a reduction in fear expression, there are nuanced differences among them, which could be mediated through distinct behavioral and neural mechanisms. These differences could impact how we approach potential treatment options in clinical disorders with dysregulated fear responses. The objective of this review is to give an overview of the conditional discrimination and inhibition findings reported in both animal models and human neuropsychiatric disorders. Both behavioral and neural findings are reviewed among human and rodent studies that include conditional fear discrimination via conditional stimuli with and without reinforcement (CS+ vs. CS-, respectively) and/or conditional inhibition of fear through assessment of the fear response to a compound CS-/CS+ cue versus CS+. There are several parallels across species in behavioral fear expression as well as neural circuits promoting fear reduction in response to a CS- and/or CS-/CS+ compound cue. Continued and increased efforts to compare similar behavioral fear inhibition paradigms across species are needed to make breakthrough advances in our understanding and treatment approaches to individuals with fear disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Genome-wide association study of exercise-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy and the construction of predictive model.

The aim of the current study was to investigate interindividual differences in muscle thickness of the rectus femoris (MTRF) following 12 wk of resistance training (RT) or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to explore the genetic architecture underlying skeletal muscle hypertrophy and to construct predictive models. We conducted musculoskeletal ultrasound assessments of the MTRF response in 440 physically inactive adults after the 12-wk exercise period. A genome-wide association study was used to identify variants associated with the MTRF response, separately for RT and HIIT. Using the polygenic predictor score (PPS), we estimated the genetic contribution to exercise-induced hypertrophy. Predictive models for the MTRF response were constructed using random forest (RF), support vector mac (SVM), and generalized linear model (GLM) in 10 cross-validated approaches. MTRF increased significantly after both RT (8.8%, P < 0.05) and HIIT (5.3%, P < 0.05), but with considerable interindividual differences (RT: -13.5 to 38.4%, HIIT: -14.2 to 30.7%). Eleven lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms in RT and eight lead single-nucleotide polymorphisms in HIIT were identified at a significance level of P < 1 × 10-5. The PPS was associated with the MTRF response, explaining 47.2% of the variation in response to RT and 38.3% of the variation in response to HIIT. Notably, the GLM and SVM predictive models exhibited superior performance compared with RF models (P < 0.05), and the GLM demonstrated optimal performance with an area under curve of 0.809 (95% confidence interval: 0.669-0.949). Factors such as PPS, baseline MTRF, and exercise protocol exerted influence on the MTRF response to exercise, with PPS being the primary contributor. The GLM and SVM predictive model, incorporating both genetic and phenotypic factors, emerged as promising tools for predicting exercise-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The interindividual variability induced muscle hypertrophy by resistance training (RT) or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and the associated genetic architecture remain uncertain. We identified genetic variants that underlie RT- or HIIT-induced muscle hypertrophy and established them as pivotal factors influencing the response regardless of the training type. The genetic-phenotype predictive model developed has the potential to identify nonresponders or individuals with low responsiveness before engaging in exercise training.

Role of optical coherence tomography angiography in retinal tumors: A narrative review.

Intraocular tumors constitute a small subset of cases in ophthalmologic practice. Proper diagnosis of intraocular tumors is crucial because some pose threat to vision and life, while others may indicate underlying systemic disorders. Intraocular tumors comprise benign and malignant lesions affecting the retina, choroid, optic disc, iris, and ciliary body. Retinal tumors can be classified as vascular, neural, glial, and retinal pigment epithelial tumors. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a noninvasive imaging modality employed in diagnosis and management of retinal and choroidal vascular diseases, and has enhanced our knowledge in better understanding of the vascular physiology and pathology. Multiple case reports and small series evaluating the role of OCTA in retinal tumors are published in literature. OCTA helps in better understanding of the vascularity of intraocular tumors. In addition to this, OCTA has its role in clinical practice. It helps in identification of small retinal capillary hemangioblastoma (RCH), assessment of treatment response, and identification of tumor recurrence in RCH. It aids in identification of retinal astrocytic hamartoma missed on clinical examination and differentiating retinal astrocytic hamartoma and presumed solitary circumscribed retinal astrocytic proliferation. It helps in assessment of risk of tumor recurrence in retinoblastoma. It helps in differentiating tumors of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) origin from pigmented tumors of the choroid. It also helps in detection of choroidal neovascular membrane in combined hamartoma of the retina and RPE.

Estimating the final fatalities using early reported death count from the 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, MS 8.0–7.9 earthquake doublet and revising the estimates over time

Earthquakes can cause significant damage and loss of life, necessitating immediate assessment of the resulting fatalities. Rapid assessment and timely revision of fatality estimates are crucial for effective emergency decision-making. This study using the February 6, 2023, MS 8.0 and MS 7.9 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye earthquakes as an example to estimate the ultimate number of fatalities. An early Quick Rough Estimate (QRE) based on the number of deaths reported by the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Türkiye (AFAD) is conducted, and it dynamically adjusts these estimates as new data becomes available. The range of estimates of the final number of deaths can be calculated as 31,384–56,475 based on the "the QRE of the second day multiplied by 2–3″ rule, which incorporates the reported final deaths 50,500. The Quasi-Linear and Adaptive Estimation (QLAE) ​method adaptively adjusts the final fatality estimate within two days and predicts subsequent reported deaths. The correct order of magnitude of the final death toll can be estimated as early as 13 ​hr after the MS 8.0 earthquake. In addition, additional earthquakes such as May 12, 2008, MS 8.1 Wenchuan earthquake (China), September 8, 2023, MS 7.2 Al Haouz earthquake (Morocco), November 3, 2023, MS 5.8 Mid-Western Nepal earthquake, December 18, 2023, MS 6.1 Jishishan earthquake (China), January 1, 2024, MS 7.2 Noto Peninsula earthquake (Japan) and August 8, 2023, Maui, Hawaii, fires are added again to verified the correctness of the model. The fatalities from the Maui fires are found to be approximately equivalent to those resulting from an MS 7.4 earthquake. These methods complement existing frameworks such as Quake Loss Assessment for Response and Mitigation (QLARM) and Prompt Assessment of Global.

Evaluation of Real-World Tumor Response Derived From Electronic Health Record Data Sources: A Feasibility Analysis in Patients With Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated With Chemotherapy.

Real-world data (RWD) holds promise for ascribing a real-world (rw) outcome to a drug intervention; however, ascertaining rw-response to treatment from RWD can be challenging. Friends of Cancer Research formed a collaboration to assess available data attributes related to rw-response across RWD sources to inform methods for capturing, defining, and evaluating rw-response. This retrospective noninterventional (observational) study included seven electronic health record data companies (data providers) providing summary-level deidentified data from 200 patients diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) and treated with first-line platinum doublet chemotherapy following a common protocol. Data providers reviewed the availability and frequency of data components to assess rw-response (ie, images, radiology imaging reports, and clinician response assessments). A common protocol was used to assess and report rw-response end points, including rw-response rate (rwRR), rw-duration of response (rwDOR), and the association of rw-response with rw-overall survival (rwOS), rw-time to treatment discontinuation (rwTTD), and rw-time to next treatment (rwTTNT). The availability and timing of clinician assessments was relatively consistent across data sets in contrast to images and image reports. Real-world response was analyzed using clinician response assessments (median proportion of patients evaluable, 77.5%), which had the highest consistency in the timing of assessments. Relative consistency was observed across data sets for rwRR (median 46.5%), as well as the median and directionality of rwOS, rwTTD, and rwTTNT. There was variability in rwDOR across data sets. This collaborative effort demonstrated the feasibility of aligning disparate data sources to evaluate rw-response end points using clinician-documented responses in patients with mNSCLC. Heterogeneity exists in the availability of data components to assess response and related rw-end points, and further work is needed to inform drug effectiveness evaluation within RWD sources.