Houston Schultz (wrenchknot17)

Purpose The relationship between examined lymph nodes (ELN) and survival has been confirmed in several single early-stage malignancies. We studied the association between the ELN count and the long-term survival of T1-2N0M0 double primary non-small cell lung cancer (DP-NSCLC) patients after surgery, based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Methods A total of 948 patients were identified and their independent prognostic factors were analyzed. These factors included the ELN count, which related to overall survival (OS) and the cancer-specific survival (CSS) of synchronous (n = 426) and metachronous (n = 522) T1-2N0M0 DP-NSCLC patients after surgery. Results X-tile analysis indicated that the cutoff value for the sum of ELNs was 22 for both OS and CSS in the synchronous DP-NSCLC group. Patients with a sum of ELNs >22 were statistically more likely to survive than those with ≤22 ELNs. X-tile analysis revealed that the ELN count of the second lesion was related to both OS and CSS in the metachronous DP-NSCLC group. The optimal cutoff value was nine. These results were confirmed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Conclusion Our findings indicate that ELN count was highly correlated with the long-term survival of T1-2N0M0 double primary NSCLC patients after surgery. © 2020 Jiang et al.Engineered nanoparticles are used at an increasing rate in both industry and medicine without fully understanding their impact on health and environment. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a suitable model to study the toxic effects of nanoparticles as it is amenable to comprehensive phenotyping, such as locomotion, growth, neurotoxicity and reproduction. In this study, we systematically evaluated the effects of silver (Ag) and five metal oxide nanoparticles SiO2, CeO2, CuO, Al2O3 and TiO2. The results showed that Ag and SiO2 exposures had the most toxic effects on locomotion velocity, growth and reproduction, whereas CeO2, Al2O3 and CuO exposures were mostly neurotoxic. We further performed RNAseq to compare the gene expression profiles underlying Ag and SiO2toxicities. Gene set enrichment analyses revealed that exposures to Ag and SiO2consistently downregulated several biological processes (regulations in locomotion, reproductive process and cell growth) and pathways (neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction, wnt and MAPK signaling, etc.), with opposite effects on genes involved in innate immunity. Our results contribute to mechanistic insights into toxicity of Ag and SiO2 nanoparticles and demonstrated that C. elegans as a valuable model for nanotoxicity assessment. ©2020 Viau et al.The massive influx of pelagic Sargassum spp. (sargasso) into the Mexican Caribbean Sea has caused major deterioration of the coastal environment and has affected the tourism industry as well as livelihoods since 2015. Species of Sargassum have high capacity to absorb metals; thus, leachates of sargasso may contribute to contamination by potentially toxic metals when they drain into the sea and into the groundwater when dumped in inadequate land deposits. Valorization of sargasso would contribute to sustainable management; therefore, knowledge on potentially toxic metal content is necessary to define possible uses of the algae. We present concentrations of 28 elements measured using a non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analyzer (XRF) in 63 samples of sargasso collected between August 2018 and June 2019 from eight localities along ∼370 km long coastline of the Mexican Caribbean Sea. The sargasso tissues contained detectable concentrations of Al, As, Ca, Cl, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Pb, Rb, S, Si, Sr, Th, U, V, and Zn. The element concentration in sargasso varied on spatial and temporal scales, which likely depended on the previous trajectory of the pelagic masses, and whether these had (or had not) passed through contaminated areas. Total arsenic concentration varied between 24-172 ppm DW, exceeding the maximu