North American Cancer Center Clinical Research Capacity and Benchmarking in the Postpandemic Era.

PURPOSE: Cancer center clinical trial offices (CCTOs) support trial development, activation, conduct, regulatory adherence, data integrity, and compliance. In 2018, the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) Steering Committee conducted and published survey results to benchmark North American CCTOs, including trial volume, accrual, full time equivalents (FTEs), and budget. The survey was readministered in 2023 to assess contemporary CCTO performance and capacity with results presented here. METHODS: The 28 question 2023 survey was sent to directors of AACI's clinical member cancer centers. Survey participation was voluntary, no compensation was provided, and data requested covered operations during 2022. Definitions were consistent with National Cancer Institute (NCI) CCTO reporting requirements and AACI staff anonymously compiled results for descriptive statistical reporting. RESULTS: The survey response rate was 61% (60/99). The median annual CCTO budget was $11.5 million (M) US dollars (USD) versus $8.2M USD in 2018. These budgets support a median of 150 FTEs versus 104 previously, and a median total of 384 versus 280 interventional treatment trials and a median of 479 versus 531 interventional treatment accruals. Sources of support for CCTO annual budgets were primarily from industry revenue (45.3%) or institutional support (31.7%). Nearly 60% of centers reported activating NCI-sponsored studies within 90 days but only 9% reported meeting a 90-day activation timeline for industry sponsored studies. CONCLUSION: Contemporary benchmarks for CCTO operations through this survey demonstrate larger staff sizes, larger budgets, more trials supported, but fewer patients enrolled to interventional treatment trials in comparison with 2018. These data shine a critical light on the increasing complexity of cancer clinical trials, the importance of external funding sources, and necessary operational efficiency upgrades to provide cutting-edge cancer research and care.

Antimicrobial resistance pattern in aerobic bacteria isolated from endotracheal aspirate in ventilator-associated pneumonia: Ten years observation from a tertiary care hospital.

Background and Aims: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a nosocomial infection associated with high morbidity and mortality. This study was undertaken to monitor the trend of the demographical details, comorbid conditions, bacterial etiological agents, and their antibiogram causing VAP in adults in the year 2008, 2013 and 2018. Material and Methods: A retrospective study conducted at the Department of Microbiology, Hospital Infection control and Quality Control at a tertiary care teaching hospital. All the adult patients with more than 48 h of the mechanical ventilator with endotracheal intubation with Clinical Pulmonary infection Score >6 with suspicion of VAP were included in the study at a difference of 5 years, i.e., 2008, 2013, and 2018. Results: A total of 338 patients were included in the study, of which males accounted for more than two-third of the patients studied. Nearly 45% of the patients belonged to geriatric (>60 years) age group. The most common comorbid conditions were chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Among the gram-negative isolates, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter species, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the most common. There is an emergence of resistance to most commonly administered antimicrobial agents like aminoglycosides, levofloxacin, piperacillin/tazobactum, and carbapenems during the study period. Conclusion: This is a ten-year study on the antibiotic resistance pattern of organisms causing VAP. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first study addressing the pattern of change in drug resistance in the organisms causing VAP over a decade. The emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) MDR pathogens, especially in intensive care unit (ICU), is a great concern for the intensivist and infection control physicians. Preventive measures need to be undertaken to control the spread of these pathogens to the patients in the ICU.

Ethical and moral principles for oncology healthcare workers: A brief report from a Bioethics consortium emphasizing on need for education.

The medical sub-specialty of Oncology presents diverse ethical dilemmas, often challenging cancer healthcare workers with difficult-to-handle clinical scenarios that are tough from a personal and professional perspective. Making decisions on patient care in various circumstances is a defining obligation of an oncologist and those duty-based judgments entail more than just selecting the best treatment or solution. Ethics is an essential and inseparable aspect of clinical medicine and the oncologists as well as the allied health care workers are ethically committed to helping the patient, avoiding or minimizing harm, and respecting the patient's values and choices. This review provides an overview of ethics and clinical ethics and the four main ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice are stated and explained. At times there are frequently contradictions between ethical principles in patient care scenarios, especially between beneficence and autonomy. In addition, truth-telling, professionalism, empathy, and cultural competence; which are recently considered important in cancer care, are also addressed from an Indian perspective.

Dynamic skin behaviors in cephalopods.

The coleoid cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus, and squid) are a group of soft-bodied mollusks that exhibit a wealth of complex behaviors, including dynamic camouflage, object mimicry, skin-based visual communication, and dynamic body patterns during sleep. Many of these behaviors are visually driven and engage the animals' color changing skin, a pixelated display that is directly controlled by neurons projecting from the brain. Thus, cephalopod skin provides a direct readout of neural activity in the brain. During camouflage, cephalopods recreate on their skin an approximation of what they see, providing a window into perceptual processes in the brain. Additionally, cephalopods communicate their internal state during social encounters using innate skin patterns, and create waves of pigmentation on their skin during periods of arousal. Thus, by leveraging the visual displays of cephalopods, we can gain insight into how the external world is represented in the brain and how this representation is transformed into a recapitulation of the world on the skin. Here, we describe the rich skin behaviors of the coleoid cephalopods, what is known about cephalopod neuroanatomy, and how advancements in gene editing, machine learning, optical imaging, and electrophysiological tools may provide an opportunity to explore the neural bases of these fascinating behaviors.

Effect of Eligibility Criteria on Patients' Survival and Serious Adverse Events in Colorectal Cancer Drug Trials.

This study investigates the impact of clinical trial eligibility criteria on patient survival and serious adverse events (SAEs) in colorectal cancer (CRC) drug trials using real-world data. We utilized the OneFlorida+ network's data repository, conducting a retrospective analysis of CRC patients receiving FDA-approved first-line metastatic treatments. Propensity score matching created balanced case-control groups, which were evaluated using survival analysis and machine learning algorithms to assess the effects of eligibility criteria. Our study included 68,375 patients, with matched case-control groups comprising 1,126 patients each. Survival analysis revealed ethnicity and race, along with specific medical history (eligibility criteria), as significant survival outcome predictors. Machine learning models, particularly the XgBoost regressor, were employed to analyze SAEs, indicating that age and study groups were notable factors in SAEs occurrence. The study's findings highlight the importance of considering patient demographics and medical history in CRC trial designs.

The Burden of Cancer and Pre-cancerous Conditions Among Transgender Individuals in a Large Healthcare Network.

The current study aimed to examine the prevalence of and risk factors for cancer and pre-cancerous conditions, comparing transgender and cisgender individuals, using 2012-2023 electronic health record data from a large healthcare system. We identified 2,745 transgender individuals using a previously validated computable phenotype and 54,900 matched cisgender individuals. We calculated the prevalence of cancer and pre-cancer related to human papillomavirus (HPV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tobacco, alcohol, lung, breast, colorectum, and built multivariable logistic models to examine the association between gender identity and the presence of cancer or pre-cancer. Results indicated similar odds of developing cancer across gender identities, but transgender individuals exhibited significantly higher risks for pre-cancerous conditions, including alcohol-related, breast, and colorectal pre-cancers compared to cisgender women, and HPV-related, tobacco-related, alcohol-related, and colorectal pre-cancers compared to cisgender men. These findings underscore the need for tailored interventions and policies addressing cancer health disparities affecting the transgender population.

Identifying social determinants of health from clinical narratives: A study of performance, documentation ratio, and potential bias.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a natural language processing (NLP) package to extract social determinants of health (SDoH) from clinical narratives, examine the bias among race and gender groups, test the generalizability of extracting SDoH for different disease groups, and examine population-level extraction ratio. METHODS: We developed SDoH corpora using clinical notes identified at the University of Florida (UF) Health. We systematically compared 7 transformer-based large language models (LLMs) and developed an open-source package - SODA (i.e., SOcial DeterminAnts) to facilitate SDoH extraction from clinical narratives. We examined the performance and potential bias of SODA for different race and gender groups, tested the generalizability of SODA using two disease domains including cancer and opioid use, and explored strategies for improvement. We applied SODA to extract 19 categories of SDoH from the breast (n = 7,971), lung (n = 11,804), and colorectal cancer (n = 6,240) cohorts to assess patient-level extraction ratio and examine the differences among race and gender groups. RESULTS: We developed an SDoH corpus using 629 clinical notes of cancer patients with annotations of 13,193 SDoH concepts/attributes from 19 categories of SDoH, and another cross-disease validation corpus using 200 notes from opioid use patients with 4,342 SDoH concepts/attributes. We compared 7 transformer models and the GatorTron model achieved the best mean average strict/lenient F1 scores of 0.9122 and 0.9367 for SDoH concept extraction and 0.9584 and 0.9593 for linking attributes to SDoH concepts. There is a small performance gap (∼4%) between Males and Females, but a large performance gap (>16 %) among race groups. The performance dropped when we applied the cancer SDoH model to the opioid cohort; fine-tuning using a smaller opioid SDoH corpus improved the performance. The extraction ratio varied in the three cancer cohorts, in which 10 SDoH could be extracted from over 70 % of cancer patients, but 9 SDoH could be extracted from less than 70 % of cancer patients. Individuals from the White and Black groups have a higher extraction ratio than other minority race groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our SODA package achieved good performance in extracting 19 categories of SDoH from clinical narratives. The SODA package with pre-trained transformer models is available at https://github.com/uf-hobi-informatics-lab/SODA_Docker.

Oxaliplatin-Based Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Older Patients With Stage III Colon Cancer: An ACCENT/IDEA Pooled Analysis of 12 Trials.

PURPOSE: A number of studies suggest that older patients may have reduced or no benefit from the addition of oxaliplatin to fluoropyrimidines as adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer (CC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied the prognostic impact of age, as well as treatment adherence/toxicity patterns according to age, in patients with stage III CC who received 3 or 6 months of infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin/capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) on the basis of data collected from trials from the ACCENT and IDEA databases. Associations between age and time to recurrence (TTR), disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), survival after recurrence (SAR), and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were assessed by a Cox model or a competing risk model, stratified by studies and adjusted for sex, performance status, T and N stage, and year of enrollment. RESULTS: A total of 17,909 patients were included; 24% of patients were age older than 70 years (n = 4,340). Patients age ≥70 years had higher rates of early treatment discontinuation. Rates of grade ≥3 adverse events were similar between those older and younger than 70 years, except for diarrhea and neutropenia that were more frequent in older patients treated with CAPOX (14.2% v 11.2%; P = .01 and 12.1% v 9.6%; P = .04, respectively). In multivariable analysis, TTR was not significantly different between patients <70 years and those ≥70 years, but DFS, OS, SAR, and CSS were significantly shorter in those patients ≥70 years. CONCLUSION: In patients ≥70 years with stage III CC fit enough to be enrolled in clinical trials, oxaliplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy was well tolerated and led to similar TTR compared with younger patients, suggesting similar efficacy. TTR may be a more appropriate end point for efficacy in this patient population.

'You just don't feel like your work goes recognised': healthcare worker experiences of tension related to public discourse around the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact of public discourse and reaction around the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare worker (HCW) experiences and well-being caring for patients with COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted 60 min in-depth interviews with 11 physicians and 12 nurses who were providing care to patients with COVID-19 in acute care settings at two health systems in the Western USA. Interviews were conducted in Spring-Summer 2022 using a semi-structured interview protocol that guided respondents through different stages of the pandemic. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the data around providing care in the unique social context of the COVID-19 pandemic including: (1) public polarisation and disagreement with science; (2) feelings of hope and optimism during the pandemic and (3) the compounded strain of providing care within this unique social context of the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: To prepare for future pandemics, improved public health communications and social-emotional supports for HCWs are critical to ameliorate the physical and emotional impacts related to the social context of modern US pandemic response.

Risk factors associated with congenital central nervous system abnormalities in the National Hospital of Zinder, Niger.

INTRODUCTION: Congenital malformations of the central nervous system (CNS) are morphological abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord that occur during fetal development. They constitute the second most common congenital disability, after congenital cardiac defects. Many risk factors have been identified; however, these studies included various types of congenital abnormality. Furthermore, there is a lack of information on risk factors for congenital CNS malformation, and notably in the Zinder region of Niger. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the risk factors associated with congenital CNS malformations in the Zinder region. METHODS: In a case-control design, patients with congenital CNS malformation were enrolled between June 2022 and April 2023 in the Department of Neurosurgery of the National Hospital of Zinder. RESULTS: Family history of malformation (aOR:3.31, 95% CI:1.25-8.78) and consanguine marriage (aOR:2.28, 95% CI:1.23-4.20) were significantly associated with congenital CNS malformation. In contrast, folic acid supplementation (aOR:0.34, 95% CI:0.13, 0.89), multiparity (aOR:0.34, 95% CI:0.13, 0.89), and grand multiparity (aOR, 0.47; 95% CI:0.23, 0.97) had a protective effect. CONCLUSION: Risk factors such as family malformation history and consanguine marriage increased the risk of developing congenital malformations of the central nervous system. In contrast, folic acid supplementation in the index period and multiparity had a significant protective effect.

SWOG 1609 cohort 48: anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 for advanced gallbladder cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Most patients with advanced gallbladder cancer are treated with multiagent chemotherapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors offer the possibility of a durable response with less toxicity. This prospective, multicenter, open-label study was designed to evaluate the anticancer activity of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with advanced gallbladder cancer. METHODS: Nineteen patients with advanced gallbladder cancer refractory to ≥1 previous therapy received nivolumab 240 mg intravenously every 2 weeks and ipilimumab 1 mg/kg intravenously every 6 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary end point was confirmed radiographic overall response rate (ORR) (complete response [CR] + partial response [PR] confirmed on subsequent scan); secondary end points included unconfirmed overall response, clinical benefit rate (confirmed and unconfirmed responses + stable disease >6 months), progression-free survival, overall survival, and toxicity. RESULTS: The confirmed ORR was 16% (CR, n = 1 [5%]; PR, n = 2 [11%]); all were microsatellite stable, and the confirmed CR had undetectable programmed death-ligand 1 by immunohistochemistry. The unconfirmed ORR and clinical benefit rates were both 32%. The median duration of response was 14.8 months (range, 4-35.1+ months). The 6-month progression-free survival was 26% (95% CI, 12-55). The median overall survival was 7.0 months (95% CI, 3.9-19.1). The most common toxicities were fatigue (32%), anemia (26%), and anorexia (26%). Aspartate aminotransferase elevation was the most common grade 3/4 toxicity (11%). There was 1 possibly related death (sepsis with attendant hepatic failure). CONCLUSIONS: Ipilimumab plus nivolumab was well tolerated and showed modest efficacy with durable responses in previously treated patients with advanced gallbladder cancer. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT02834013 (ClincialTrials.gov). PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: This prospective study assessed the efficacy and safety of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in 19 patients with advanced gallbladder cancer refractory to previous therapy. The combination demonstrated modest efficacy with a 16% confirmed overall response rate, durable responses, and manageable toxicities, suggesting potential benefits for this challenging patient population.

Alliance for clinical trials in Oncology (Alliance) trial A022101/NRG-GI009: a pragmatic randomized phase III trial evaluating total ablative therapy for patients with limited metastatic colorectal cancer: evaluating radiation, ablation, and surgery (ERASur).

BACKGROUND: For patients with liver-confined metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), local therapy of isolated metastases has been associated with long-term progression-free and overall survival (OS). However, for patients with more advanced mCRC, including those with extrahepatic disease, the efficacy of local therapy is less clear although increasingly being used in clinical practice. Prospective studies to clarify the role of metastatic-directed therapies in patients with mCRC are needed. METHODS: The Evaluating Radiation, Ablation, and Surgery (ERASur) A022101/NRG-GI009 trial is a randomized, National Cancer Institute-sponsored phase III study evaluating if the addition of metastatic-directed therapy to standard of care systemic therapy improves OS in patients with newly diagnosed limited mCRC. Eligible patients require a pathologic diagnosis of CRC, have BRAF wild-type and microsatellite stable disease, and have 4 or fewer sites of metastatic disease identified on baseline imaging. Liver-only metastatic disease is not permitted. All metastatic lesions must be amenable to total ablative therapy (TAT), which includes surgical resection, microwave ablation, and/or stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) with SABR required for at least one lesion. Patients without overt disease progression after 16-26 weeks of first-line systemic therapy will be randomized 1:1 to continuation of systemic therapy with or without TAT. The trial activated through the Cancer Trials Support Unit on January 10, 2023. The primary endpoint is OS. Secondary endpoints include event-free survival, adverse events profile, and time to local recurrence with exploratory biomarker analyses. This study requires a total of 346 evaluable patients to provide 80% power with a one-sided alpha of 0.05 to detect an improvement in OS from a median of 26 months in the control arm to 37 months in the experimental arm with a hazard ratio of 0.7. The trial uses a group sequential design with two interim analyses for futility. DISCUSSION: The ERASur trial employs a pragmatic interventional design to test the efficacy and safety of adding multimodality TAT to standard of care systemic therapy in patients with limited mCRC. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05673148, registered December 21, 2022.

Genetic Testing for Cancer Risk and Perceived Importance of Genetic Information Among US Population by Race and Ethnicity: a Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Genetic testing can help determine the risk of many cancers and guide cancer prevention and treatment plans. Despite increasing concern about disparities in precision cancer medicine, public knowledge and cancer genetic testing by race and ethnicity have not been well investigated. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey in 2022. Self-reported cancer genetic testing (e.g., Lynch syndrome, BRCA1/2) knowledge and utilization were compared by race and ethnicity. Perceived importance of genetic information for cancer care (prevention, detection, and treatment) was also examined in relation to the uptake of cancer genetic testing. Multivariable logistic regression models were employed to examine factors associated with knowledge and genetic testing to calculate predicted probability of undergoing genetic testing by race and ethnicity. RESULTS: Of 3551 study participants, 37.8% reported having heard of genetic testing for cancer risk and 3.9% stated that they underwent cancer genetic testing. Being non-Hispanic Black (OR=0.47, 95% CI=0.30-0.75) or Hispanic (OR=0.56, CI=0.35-0.90) was associated with lower odds of genetic testing knowledge. Although Hispanic or non-Hispanic Black respondents were more likely to perceive higher importance of genetic information versus non-Hispanic Whites, they had a lower predicted probability of cancer genetic testing. CONCLUSION: Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic adults had lower knowledge and were less likely to undergo cancer genetic testing than non-Hispanic Whites. Further research is needed on sources of genetic testing information for racial and ethnic minorities and the barriers to accessing genetic testing to inform the development of effective cancer risk genetic testing promotion.

A point-of-care pilot randomized intervention to connect patients with cancer-induced financial toxicity to telehealth financial counseling.

PURPOSE: Elevated costs of cancer treatment can result in economic and psychological "financial toxicity" distress. This pilot study assessed the feasibility of a point-of-care intervention to connect adult patients with cancer-induced financial toxicity to telehealth-delivered financial counseling. METHODS: We conducted a three-armed parallel randomized pilot study, allocating newly referred patients with cancer and financial toxicity to individual, group accredited telehealth financial counseling, or usual care with educational material (1:1:1). We assessed the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, retention, baseline and post-intervention COmprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity (COST), and Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ) scores. RESULTS: Of 382 patients screened, 121 were eligible and enrolled. 58 (48%) completed the intervention (9 individual, 9 group counseling, 40 educational booklet). 29 completed follow-up surveys: 45% female, 17% African American, 79% white, 7% Hispanic, 55% 45-64 years old, 31% over 64, 34% lived in rural areas, 24% had cancer stage I, 21% II, 7% III, 31% IV. Baseline characteristics were balanced across arms, retention status, surveys completion. Mean (SD) COST was 12.4 (6.1) at baseline and 16.0 (8.4) post-intervention. Mean (SD) COST score differences were 6.3 (11.6) after individual counseling, 5.8 (8.5) after group counseling, and 2.5 (6.4) after usual care. Mean TUQ score among nine counseling participants was 5.5 (0.9) over 7.0. Non-parametric comparisons were not statistically meaningful. CONCLUSION: Recruitment and randomization were feasible, while study retention presented challenges. Nine participants reported good usability and satisfaction with telehealth counseling. Larger-scale trials focused on improving participation, retention, and impact of financial counseling among patients with cancer are justified.

Heterogeneity of weight loss and transcriptomic signatures in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly associated with cachexia and weight loss, which is driven by the tumour's effect on the body. Data are lacking on differences in these metrics based on PDAC anatomic location. We hypothesize that the primary tumour's anatomic region influences the prevalence and severity of unintentional weight loss. METHODS: Treatment naïve patients with PDAC who underwent pancreatectomy at a single institution between 2012 and 2020 were identified retrospectively. Patients with pancreatic head or distal tumours were matched by sex, age, N and T stage. Serologic and anthropometric variables were obtained at the time of diagnosis. Skeletal muscle index (SMI), muscle radiation attenuation (MRA) and adiposity were measured. The primary outcome was presence of significant weight loss [>5% body weight (BW) loss in past 6 months]. Signed rank tests, Cochran Mantel Haenszel tests and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis are presented. RNA-seq of tumours was performed to explore enriched pathways related to cachexia and weight loss. RESULTS: Pancreatic head tumours (n = 24) were associated with higher prevalence (70.8% vs. 41.7%, P = 0.081) and degree of weight loss (7.9% vs. 2.5%, P = 0.014) compared to distal tumours (n = 24). BMI (P = 0.642), SMI (P = 0.738) and MRA (P = 0.478) were similar between groups. Combining BW loss, SMI and MRA into a composite score, patients with pancreatic head cancers met more criteria associated with poor prognosis (P = 0.142). Serum albumin (3.9 vs. 4.4 g/dL, P = 0.002) was lower and bilirubin (4.5 vs. 0.4 mg/dL, P < 0.001) were higher with pancreatic head tumours. Survival differed by tumour location (P = 0.014) with numerically higher median overall survival with distal tumours (11.1 vs. 21.8 months; P = 0.066). Transcriptomic analysis revealed inactivation of appetite stimulation, weight regulation and nutrient digestion/metabolism pathways in pancreatic head tumours. CONCLUSIONS: Resectable pancreatic head PDAC is associated with higher prevalence of significant weight loss and more poor prognosis features. Pancreaticobiliary obstruction and hypoalbuminemia in patients with head tumours suggests compounding effects of nutrient malabsorption and systemic inflammation on molecular drivers of cachexia, possibly contributing to shorter survival. Therefore, PDAC-associated cachexia is a heterogenous syndrome, which may be influenced by the primary tumour location. Select patients with resectable pancreatic head tumours may benefit from nutritional rehabilitation to improve outcomes.

Membrane-Electrolyte System Approach to Understanding Ionic Conductivity and Crossover in Alkaline Flow Cells.

Membrane transport properties are crucial for electrochemical devices, and these properties are influenced by the composition and concentration of the electrolyte in contact with the membrane. We apply this general membrane-electrolyte system approach to alkaline flow batteries, studying the conductivity and ferricyanide crossover of Nafion and E-620. We report undetectable crossover for as-received Nafion and E-620 after both sodium and potassium exchange but high ferricyanide permeability of 10-7 to 10-8 cm2 s-1 for Nafion subjected to pretreatment prevalent in the flow battery literature. We show how the electrolyte mass fraction in hydrated membranes regulates the influence of ion concentration on membrane conductivity, identifying that increasing electrolyte concentration may not increase membrane conductivity even when it increases electrolyte conductivity. To illustrate this behavior, we introduce a new metric, the membrane penalty, as the ratio of the conductivity of the electrolyte to that of the membrane equilibrated with the electrolyte. We discuss the trade-off between flow battery volumetric capacity and areal power density that arises from these findings. Finally, we apply insights from this approach to provide recommendations for use of membranes in alkaline flow cells and electrochemical reactors in general.

Reversible CO2 Capture and On-Demand Release by an Acidity-Matched Organic Photoswitch.

Separation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from point sources or directly from the atmosphere can contribute crucially to climate change mitigation plans in the coming decades. A fundamental practical limitation for the current strategies is the considerable energy cost required to regenerate the sorbent and release the captured CO2 for storage or utilization. A directly photochemically driven system that demonstrates efficient passive capture and on-demand CO2 release triggered by sunlight as the sole external stimulus would provide an attractive alternative. However, little is known about the thermodynamic requirements for such a process or mechanisms for modulating the stability of CO2-derived dissolved species by using photoinduced metastable states. Here, we show that an organic photoswitchable molecule of precisely tuned effective acidity can repeatedly capture and release a near-stoichiometric quantity of CO2 according to dark-light cycles. The CO2-derived species rests as a solvent-separated ion pair, and key aspects of its excited-state dynamics that regulate the photorelease efficiency are characterized by transient absorption spectroscopy. The thermodynamic and kinetic concepts established herein will serve as guiding principles for the development of viable solar-powered negative emission technologies.

Link between Blood Cell-Associated Inflammatory Indices and Chemotherapy-Induced Hyperglycemia in Women Affected with Breast Cancer: Clinical Studies.

Krishna PrasadBackground Development of treatment-induced hyperglycemia/diabetes is a considerable problem in women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. In this study, baseline levels of blood cell-associated inflammatory indices (BCAII) were analyzed to understand their role in the development of treatment-induced hyperglycemia and diabetogenesis. Materials and Methods This was a retrospective study, and information on women who were normoglycemic and nondiabetic and of women who were diabetic at the beginning of the treatment were collected from files. Demographic, pathology-related details, and complete blood profile were noted. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic inflammatory index (SII) which indicate BCAII were calculated. Demographic details were subjected to frequency and percentage, while blood parameters were subjected to one-way analysis of variance followed by post hoc Bonferroni's multiple comparison tests. A p -value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results The results indicated that a significant difference in levels of total count ( p < 0.035), neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelets ( p < 0.001) were observed. Regarding BCAII, when compared with women who were normoglycemic at the end of treatment, NLR, dNLR, PLR, and SII were significantly high for people who were known diabetics at the beginning of treatment ( p < 0.001). The dNLR ( p = 0.0008), PLR ( p < 0.001), and SII ( p < 0.001) were significant for people who developed secondary hyperglycemia/diabetes, while only dNLR was significant for people who progressed from normal to prediabetes stage ( p = 0.049) Conclusion To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that indicates difference in baseline BCAII and development of treatment-induced hyperglycemia/diabetes indicating that underlying low levels of inflammation may contribute to diabetogenesis in women affected with breast cancer.

Prognosis and Treatment Outcomes of Bone Metastasis in Gallbladder Adenocarcinoma: A SEER-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is a rare, aggressive malignancy comprising 0.5% of gastrointestinal cancers. It has poor survival outcomes due to its insidious onset, lack of standardized screening, and limited therapies. Advanced-stage diagnosis with liver, lymph node, and peritoneal metastasis is common, while bone metastasis is rare. The knowledge on bone metastasis in GBC is limited to case reports and small series, and its clinical significance is largely unexplored. METHODS: The study extracted the demographic and clinical variables of patients with metastatic (M1) gallbladder adenocarcinoma from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2011 and 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic characteristics. The multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to calculate the hazard ratio. The overall survival (OS) was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the log-rank test was utilized to compare the survival between the groups. RESULTS: A total of 2724 patients were included in the study. A total of 69% of the patients were female, and the median age was 68 (range 24-90+). A total of 7.4% of the patients had bone metastasis on diagnosis. The multivariate Cox analysis identified bone metastasis as an independent mortality risk factor in metastatic GBC (HR 1.50, p < 0.001). The patients were divided into two age groups: a younger age group (18-74 years) and an older age group (75+ years). In the younger group, the median OS with and without bone metastasis was 3 and 5 months, respectively (p < 0.0001). In the older age group, there was no significant difference in the OS between the patients with and without bone metastasis (p = 0.35). In the younger group who were treated with chemotherapy, the patients with bone metastasis had a significantly worse OS (median OS 5 months vs. 8 months, p < 0.0001). In the untreated group, the patients with bone metastasis in the younger age group had a significantly worse OS (median OS 1 month vs. 2 months, p = 0.014). In the patients with bone metastasis, those who did not receive chemotherapy had a significantly worse OS than those who were treated with chemotherapy in both age groups (younger age group: median OS 1 month vs. 5 months, p < 0.0001 and older age group: median OS 1 month vs. 5 months, p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the presence of bone metastasis in gallbladder adenocarcinoma is an independent prognostic factor associated with unfavorable survival outcomes in the younger age group (18-74 years). However, in the older age group (75+ years), the presence of bone metastasis did not impact the survival. Treatment with chemotherapy was associated with extended survival in all patients. Thus, early detection and aggressive management of bone metastasis, including the consideration of chemotherapy, may be crucial in improving the OS and quality of life for individuals with gallbladder adenocarcinoma.