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  • Fuller Mcintyre posted an update 1 week, 2 days ago

    BACKGROUND Post-apartheid, understanding and management of intellectual disability remain poor in South Africa, complicated by various contextual and cultural explanations used to describe and conceptualize this condition. METHOD We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with primary caregivers and parents of children with intellectual disability residing in Khayelitsha, a low-income setting in Cape Town, South Africa. We used Kleinman’s Explanatory Models (EMs) of illness to explore terms used to describe and conceptualize this condition. RESULTS Carers’ explanatory models included biomedical causes, injuries during pregnancy or birth, as well as spiritual causes. It was reported that there were significant difficulties in accessing services and support, and difficulties with coping in the context of extreme poverty and deprivation. CONCLUSIONS Current findings highlight a need for collaboration between the biomedical and alternative healthcare systems in educating carers and parents regarding intellectual disability. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.OBJECTIVES To investigate whether serial prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may guide the utility of repeat targeted (TBx) and systematic biopsy (SBx) when monitoring men with low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) at one-year in active surveillance (AS). MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively included 111 consecutive men with low-risk (ISUP grade 1) PCa, who received protocolled repeat MRI with or without TBx and repeat SBx at one-year AS. TBx was performed in PI-RADS score ≥3 lesions (MRI-positive men). Upgrading defined as ISUP grade ≥2 PCa (I), grade ≥2 with cribriform growth/intraductal carcinoma PCa (II), and grade ≥3 PCa (III) was investigated. Upgrading detected by TBx only (not by SBx) and SBx only (not by TBx) was investigated in MRI-positive and MRI-negative men, and related to radiological progression on MRI (PRECISE score). RESULTS Overall upgrading (I) was 32% (35/111). Upgrading in MRI-positive and MRI-negative men was 48% (30/63) and 10% (5/48) (p less then 0.001), respectively. In MRI-positted and should be balanced individually against the harms. In serial MRI-positive men, the added value of repeat SBx is substantial. Based on this cohort, SBx is recommended to be performed in combination with TBx in all MRI-positive men at one-year surveillance, also when there is no radiological progression. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.OBJECTIVE To compare outcomes of minimally invasive radical nephrectomy (MIS-RN) and robotic-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) in clinical T2a renal mass (T2aRM). METHODS Retrospective, multicenter, propensity score-matched (PSM) comparison of RAPN and MIS-RN for T2aRM (T2aN0M0). Cohorts were PSM for age, sex, BMI, ASA Class, clinical tumor size, and RENAL score using 21 ratio for RNPN. Primary outcome was disease-free survival (DFS). Secondary outcomes included overall survival (OS), complication rates, and de novo eGFR less then 45mL/min/1.73m2. Multivariable (MVA) and Kaplan-Meier analyses (KMA) were conducted. RESULTS 648 patients (216 RAPN/432 MIS-RN) were matched. No significant differences were noted in intraoperative complications (p=0.478), Clavien≥3 complications (p=0.063) and readmissions (p=0.238). MVA revealed high ASA score (HR 2.7, p=0.044) and sarcomatoid (HR 5.3, p=0.001), but not surgery type (p=0.601) to be associated with all-cause mortality. Increasing RENAL score (HR 1.31, p=0.037), high tumor-grade (HR 2.5, p=0.043), and sarcomatoid (HR 2.8, p=0.02) were associated with recurrence, but not surgery (p=0.555). Increasing age (HR 1.1, p less then 0.001) and RN (HR 3.9, p less then 0.001) were predictors for de novo eGFR less then 45. Comparing RAPN and MIS-RN, KMA revealed no significant differences for 5-year OS (76.3% vs. selleck products 88.0%, p=0.221) and 5-year DFS (78.6% vs. 85.3%, p=0.630) for pT2 RCC, and no differences for 3-year OS (p=0.351) and 3-year DFS (p=0.117) for pT3a upstaged RCC. 5-year freedom from de novo eGFR less then 45 was 91.6% for RAPN vs. 68.9% for MIS-RN (p less then 0.001). CONCLUSIONS RAPN demonstrated similar oncologic outcomes and morbidity profile to MIS-RN while conferring functional benefit. RAPN may be considered as a first-line option for T2aRM. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.A few single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified to be associated with cutaneous melanoma (CM) survival through genome-wide association studies, but stringent multiple testing corrections required for the hypothesis-free testing may have masked some true associations. Using a hypothesis-driven analysis approach, we sought to evaluate associations between SNPs in ketone body metabolic pathway genes and CM survival. We comprehensively assessed associations between 4196 (538 genotyped and 3658 imputed) common SNPs in 44 ketone body metabolic pathway genes and CM survival, using a dataset of 858 patients of a case-control study from The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as the discovery set and another dataset of 409 patients from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study as the replication set. There were 95/858 (11.1%) and 48/409 (11.7%) patients who died of CM, respectively. We identified two independent SNPs (ie, PDSS1 rs12254548 G>C and SLC16A6 rs71387392 G>A) that were associated with CM survival, with allelic hazards ratios of 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.44-0.76, P = 9.00 × 10-5 ) and 1.98 (95% CI = 1.34-2.94, P = 6.30 × 10-4 ), respectively. Additionally, associations between genotypes of the SNPs and messenger RNA expression levels of their corresponding genes support the biologic plausibility of a role for these two variants in CM tumor progression and survival. Once validated by other larger studies, PDSS1 rs12254548 and SLC16A6 rs71387392 may be valuable biomarkers for CM survival. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Superoxide -based potassium-oxygen (K-O 2 ) batteries have demonstrated enormous potential to realize high-energy-density battery chemistry with low round-trip overpotentials . Although using air cathode is the ultimate goal to unlock the full potential of superoxide batteries, prior studies were limited to pure oxygen. Herein, we report the first K-air battery based on reversible superoxide electrochemistry . Spectroscopic and gas chromatography analyses are applied to evaluate the reactivity of KO 2 in ambient air. Despite that KO 2 reacts with water vapor and CO 2 to form KHCO 3 , it is found to be highly stable in dry air. With this knowledge, rechargeable K-air batteries were successfully demonstrated by employing dry air cathode. We further prove that the reduced partial pressure of oxygen plays a critical role in boosting the battery lifespan. With a more stable environment for K anode, a K-air battery delivers over 100 cycles (> 500 hours) with low round-trip overpotentials and high coulombic efficiencies as opposed to traditional K-O 2 battery that fails at an early stage.