Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders relapses and seasonal influence in an equatorial country cohort. / Recaídas del trastorno de espectro de la neuromielitis óptica e influencia estacional en una cohorte de un país ecuatorial.

INTRODUCTION: Information about seasonal distribution of Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) attacks, particularly in tropical countries, has rarely been described and the reported data are diverse. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate influence of seasonal variation in NMOSD relapses in an equatorial country. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Exploratory observational, retrospective ecological study in a cohort of patients with NMOSD followed from January 2008 to December 2019. Data of demographic, clinical information, characteristics of relapses and seasonal temporal variation were recorded. Also, the annual, monthly and intra-annual seasonal variation of relapses was quantified. A negative binomial regression was used to estimate the associations between the number of relapses and climatic and temporal variables. RESULTS: One hundred thirteen patients were included, most of them were female (89.38%), with a mean age at NMOSD diagnosis was 44.97 (±13.98) and the median of relapses per patient were 2 relapses (IQR 1-3). The patients presented 237 relapses, most of these in AQP4 seropositive patients (87.76%) and longitudinal extensive myelitis was the most frequent type of relapse (53.59%). According to the temporal variation, relapses were more common in the second rainy season (28.69%) during November and December. However, there weren't significant differences in the number of relapses between seasons and climatic variables in the multivariable model. CONCLUSION: The number of NMOSD relapses in this equatorial country cohort did not exhibit any significant associations with climatic variations, including changes in rainy or dry seasons.

TITLE: Recaídas del trastorno de espectro de la neuromielitis óptica e influencia estacional en una cohorte de un país ecuatorial.Introducción. La evidencia sobre la distribución estacional de las recaídas del trastorno del espectro de la neuromielitis óptica (NMOSD), especialmente en países tropicales, es limitada y diversa. Objetivo. Evaluar la influencia de las variaciones estacionales en las recaídas del NMOSD en un país localizado sobre la línea ecuatorial. Pacientes y métodos. Se llevó a cabo un estudio ecológico, con información retrospectiva de una cohorte de pacientes con NMOSD atendida entre enero de 2003 y diciembre de 2020 en Medellín, Colombia. Se recolectaron datos demográficos y clínicos de los pacientes, así como información sobre variables estacionales y climáticas. Se calculó la frecuencia de recaídas por estación, mes y año, y se realizó una regresión binomial negativa para evaluar la asociación entre el número de recaídas, y las variables estacionales y climáticas. Resultados. Se incluyó a 113 pacientes, de los cuales el 89,38% eran mujeres, con una edad media en el momento del diagnóstico de NMOSD de 44,97 (±13,98) años y una mediana de tres recaídas (rango intercuartílico: 1-2). Se registraron 237 recaídas, la mayoría en pacientes seropositivos para anticuerpos antiacuaporina 4 (87,76%) y con mielitis longitudinal extensa como la presentación clínica más común (53,59%). Las recaídas se presentaron con mayor frecuencia durante la segunda temporada lluviosa (28,69%; n = 68), y en los meses de noviembre y diciembre. Sin embargo, en la regresión binomial negativa no se observó una asociación significativa entre el número de recaídas y las variables climáticas y estacionales, los meses y los años. Conclusión. Las variables climáticas y los patrones estacionales no muestran una asociación significativa con cambios en el número de recaídas del NMOSD en pacientes residentes en un país localizado sobre la línea ecuatorial.

Florida-California Cancer Health Equity Center (CaRE2) Community Scientist Research Advocacy Program.

The Community Scientist Program (CSP), a model connecting researchers with community members, is effective to inform and involve the general population in health-related clinical research. Given the existing cancer disparities among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a populations, more models describing how cancer-related CSPs are designed, implemented, and evaluated are needed. The Florida-California Cancer Research, Education and Engagement (CaRE2) Health Equity Center is a tri-institutional, bicoastal center created to eliminate cancer health disparities among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino/a populations living in California and in Florida. The CaRE2 Center created a Community Scientist Research Advocacy (CSRA) training program for community members to become cancer research advocates. The CSRA program is currently a 13-week program conducted 100% virtually with all materials provided in English and Spanish for participants to learn more about prostate, lung, and pancreas cancers, ongoing research at CaRE2, and ways to share cancer research throughout their communities. Participants attend didactic lectures on cancer research during weeks 1-5. In week 4, participants join CSRA self-selected groups based on cancer-related topics of interest. Each group presents their cancer-related advocacy project developed during weeks 5-12 at the final session. In this paper, we describe the CaRE2 Health Equity Center's CSRA program, share results, and discuss opportunities for improvement in future program evaluation as well as replication of this model in other communities.

PLEX: the best first-line treatment in nmosd attacks experience at a single center in Colombia.

OBJECTIVE: Primary outcome was to evaluate complete improvement at six months after acute treatment in NMOSD relapses. METHODS: Retrospective observational cohort study of patients with diagnosis of NMOSD admitted for acute attacks. We performed an explanatory analysis using the univariate, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression approach. We compared survival curves using the Kaplan Meier analysis and estimated the median time for the main outcome. RESULTS: In the univariate analysis, basal EDSS score, AQP4-IgG positivity, PLEX as a first-line treatment (IVMP + PLEX), less systemic complications related to acute treatment and total attack history were independently associated with complete improvement at six months. After adjusting for confounding variables and using multivariate analysis by Cox Regression, positive AQ4-IgG (HR 0.04, 95% CI: 0.02-0.66) and IVMP + PLEX (HR 5.1, 95% CI: 3.9-66.4), were kept as independent factors associated to time to complete improvement. Time from admission to PLEX initiation and complete improvement at six months had a median of seven days (95% CI: 5.2-8.8). In secondary effects, there were no statistical differences between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: PLEX + IVMP is the treatment of choice for NMOSD relapses and should be initiated as early as possible.

Conductance fluctuations and field asymmetry of rectification in graphene.

We investigate conductance fluctuations as a function of carrier density n and magnetic field in diffusive mesoscopic samples made from monolayer and bilayer graphene. We show that the fluctuations' correlation energy and field, which are functions of the diffusion coefficient, have fundamentally different variations with n, illustrating the contrast between massive and massless carriers. The field dependent fluctuations are nearly independent of n, but the n-dependent fluctuations are not universal and are largest at the charge neutrality point. We also measure the second-order conductance fluctuations (mesoscopic rectification). Its field asymmetry, due to electron-electron interaction, decays with conductance, as predicted for diffusive systems.

Transport and elastic scattering times as probes of the nature of impurity scattering in single-layer and bilayer graphene.

Transport and elastic scattering times, tau{tr} and tau{e}, are experimentally determined from the carrier density dependence of the magnetoconductance of monolayer and bilayer graphene. Both times and their dependences on carrier density are found to be very different in the monolayer and the bilayer. However, their ratio tau{tr}/tau{e} is found to be close to 1.8 in the two systems and nearly independent of the carrier density. These measurements give insight on the nature (neutral or charged) and range of the scatterers. Comparison with theoretical predictions suggests that the main scattering mechanism in our samples is due to strong (resonant) scatterers of a range shorter than the Fermi wavelength, likely candidates being vacancies, voids, adatoms or short-range ripples.