Erratum: Genomic landscape of high-grade meningiomas.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/s41525-017-0014-7.].

Genomic landscape of high-grade meningiomas.

High-grade meningiomas frequently recur and are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. To determine the factors that promote the development and evolution of these tumors, we analyzed the genomes of 134 high-grade meningiomas and compared this information with data from 587 previously published meningiomas. High-grade meningiomas had a higher mutation burden than low-grade meningiomas but did not harbor any statistically significant mutated genes aside from NF2. High-grade meningiomas also possessed significantly elevated rates of chromosomal gains and losses, especially among tumors with monosomy 22. Meningiomas previously treated with adjuvant radiation had significantly more copy number alterations than radiation-induced or radiation-naïve meningiomas. Across serial recurrences, genomic disruption preceded the emergence of nearly all mutations, remained largely uniform across time, and when present in low-grade meningiomas, correlated with subsequent progression to a higher grade. In contrast to the largely stable copy number alterations, mutations were strikingly heterogeneous across tumor recurrences, likely due to extensive geographic heterogeneity in the primary tumor. While high-grade meningiomas harbored significantly fewer overtly targetable alterations than low-grade meningiomas, they contained numerous mutations that are predicted to be neoantigens, suggesting that immunologic targeting may be of therapeutic value.

Elevated Hemoglobin A1c Is Associated With Lower Socioeconomic Position and Increased Postoperative Infections and Longer Hospital Stay After Cardiac Surgical Procedures.

BACKGROUND: Patients with elevated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels have an increased risk of adverse short- and long-term outcomes after cardiac surgical procedures. Whether elevated HbA1c levels are associated with lower socioeconomic position (SEP) has been unknown. METHODS: All adult patients undergoing cardiac surgical procedures at Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas in 2014 (n = 567) were reviewed. Of those patients, 531 had a preoperative HbA1c level measured. HbA1c was delineated as 7% or lower or greater than 7%. The two aims of this study were to evaluate a possible association of HbA1c and SEP and to evaluate for a possible association of HbA1c levels and poor outcomes after cardiac surgical procedures. The primary postsurgical outcomes were infections and intensive care unit length of stay. RESULTS: HbA1c levels greater than 7% were associated with lower SEP (p = 0.005) and with increased risk of infection postoperatively (p < 0.001). Total hospital length of stay tended to be longer for patients with HbA1c greater than 7% (p = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated HbA1c levels are associated with lower SEP. This association not only may hinder the ability to correct HbA1c levels, but also may impart a risk for elevated HbA1c levels. Additionally, patients who present for cardiac operations with HbA1c greater than 7% have an increased risk of postoperative infections.

Prevalence of problematic mobile phone use in British adolescents.

The problematic use of mobile phones among adolescents has not been widely studied. There are very few instruments for assessing potential technological addiction to mobile phones, or for categorizing different types of users or uses. The most widely used scale is the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS), which is used to study adult populations, and has been applied in various forms in international contexts. The aims of this study were to adapt the Spanish version of this scale (MPPUSA) to British adolescents, and then to estimate the prevalence of possible problematic users. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1,529 secondary school pupils aged between 11 and 18 years, with 1,026 completed questionnaires being collected. The analysis showed that the factor and construct validity and reliability were comparable to those obtained in previous studies. The prevalence of problematic users among the students was 10%, and the typical problematic user tended to be an adolescent between 11 and 14 years old, studying in a public school, who considered themselves to be an expert user of this technology, who made extensive use of his/her mobile phone, and who attributed the same problem of use among their peers. These users presented notable scores in all the symptoms covered by the scale used to assess problematic use. In conclusion, the adaptation of the MPPUSA as a screening scale for British adolescents presents good sensitivity and specificity for detecting the main addictive symptoms proposed in this validated version.

Online vs. face-to-face discussion in a Web-based research methods course for postgraduate nursing students: a quasi-experimental study.

BACKGROUND: Web-based technologies are increasingly being used to create modes of online learning for nurses but their effect has not been assessed in nurse education. OBJECTIVES: Assess whether participation in face-to-face discussion seminars or online asynchronous discussion groups had different effects on educational attainment in a web-based course. DESIGN: Non-randomised or quasi-experimental design with two groups-students choosing to have face-to-face discussion seminars and students choosing to have online discussions. SETTING: The Core Methods module of a postgraduate research methods course. PARTICIPANTS: All 114 students participating in the first 2 yr during which the course teaching material was delivered online. OUTCOME: Assignment mark for Core Methods course module. METHODS: Background details of the students, their choices of modules and assignment marks were collected as part of the routine course administration. Students' online activities were identified using the student tracking facility within WebCT. Regression models were fitted to explore the association between available explanatory variables and assignment mark. RESULTS: Students choosing online discussions had a higher Core Methods assignment mark (mean 60.8/100) than students choosing face-to-face discussions (54.4); the difference was statistically significant (t=3.13, df=102, p=0.002), although this ignores confounding variables. Among online discussion students, assignment mark was significantly correlated with the numbers of discussion messages read (Kendall's tau(b)=0.22, p=0.050) and posted (Kendall's tau(b)=0.27, p=0.017); among face-to-face discussion students, it was significantly associated with the number of non-discussion hits in WebCT (Kendall's tau(b)=0.19, p=0.036). In regression analysis, choice of discussion method, whether an M.Phil./Ph.D. student, number of non-discussion hits in WebCT, number of online discussion messages read and number posted were associated with assignment mark at the 5% level of significance when taken singly; in combination, only whether an M.Phil./Ph.D. student (p=0.024) and number of non-discussion hits (p=0.045) retained significance. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that a research methods course can be delivered to postgraduate healthcare students at least as successfully by an entirely online method in which students participate in online discussion as by a blended method in which students accessing web-based teaching material attend face-to-face seminar discussions. Increased online activity was associated with higher assignment marks. The study highlights new opportunities for educational research that arise from the use of virtual learning environments that routinely record the activities of learners and tutors.