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Context.--The histologic features in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) are evolving, and histologic indicators of patients' poor prognosis are not yet fully established. Objective.--To evaluate the independent histologic predictors of 28-day mortality in ACLF patients on core-needle liver biopsies. Design.--Core-needle biopsies from patients with a diagnosis of ACLF (n = 152) as per the European Association for the Study of the Liver criteria were included during 8 years. Liver biopsies from 98 patients with compensated chronic liver disease were included as disease controls for histologic comparison. Features of ongoing changes, such as hepatic necrosis, hepatic apoptosis, cholestasis, hepatocyte degeneration, bile ductular proliferation, Mallory-Denk bodies, steatosis, and extent of liver fibrosis, were analyzed for predicting short-term mortality (28 days). A P value of Results.--In our cohort of ACLF patients, the following etiologies for acute decompensation were identified: alcohol, 47 of 152 (30.9%); sepsis, 24 of 152 (15.7%); hepatotropic viruses, 20 of 152 (13.1%); drug-induced liver injury, 11 of 152 (7.2%); autoimmune flare, 9 of 152 (5.9%); mixed etiologies, 5 of 152 (3.2%); and cryptogenic, 36 of 152 (23.6%). On histologic examination, hepatic necrosis (P Conclusions.--Dense lobular necroinflammatory activity is a clinically independent histologic predictor of 28-day short-term mortality in patients with ACLF., Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) syndrome is characterized by abrupt hepatic decompensation secondary to acute insult in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD), having high short-term mortality. (1-3) The diagnosis and [...]

The importance of reducing the gender gap in engineering programs by recruiting and retaining female students is well recognized. Although women hold roughly half of all jobs in the United States, only 24% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. The problem is even more pronounced for engineering, where women held about 12% of jobs as of 2013 (Corbett & Hill, 2015). Consequently, interactive, hands-on outreach programs are a common tool used by universities to encourage interest in engineering from K-12 students. Engineering--Get Into Real Learning (E-GIRL) is a week-long, residential summer program offered by Texas Tech University for female high school students. The primary goal of the program is to help participants make informed decisions about engineering majors and careers. To this aim, the purposes of the program are: (1) to offer a platform for female high school students to learn about the various disciplines of engineering offered at Texas Tech University and other universities; (2) to provide a realistic university experience, including coursework, social, and professional development opportunities; and (3) to provide hands-on exposure to a real-world engineering problem. E-GIRL ran for the second time in the summer of 2016, based on the favorable support it received in 2015. Primary components of this year's program were a multidisciplinary group project focused on the theme of CO2 capture and storage, as well as a series of two-hour classes taught by university faculty and graduate students in the following six engineering disciplines: chemical engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. This paper presents the multidisciplinary structure of the program and its connection to the project that was assigned to program participants. The curriculum structure, the in-class activities, and the method of delivery for each discipline are explained in depth. The assessment of the program's second year, including comparisons to the results from the first year and modifications to the program based on feedback from previous program participants, are discussed. Assessment was conducted through engineering skills assessment questionnaires, which required students to self-evaluate their competence in 18 skill sets before and after the program. These skill sets are qualities often identified to be important for engineers, and encompass traits associated with problem solving, project management, teamwork, and communication skills. Key results show improved self-assessment for most of the engineering skills after the program. Additionally, the skills that did not show improved self-assessment ratings after the program were consistent throughout both years. Qualitative results show a more matured and complete understanding of engineering and the individual engineering disciplines upon completion of the program. Through oral presentations, participants demonstrated in-depth engagement with the environmental conservation theme of the project. The environmental conservation theme is consistent with the participants' aspirations for considering an engineering career and championing sustainability, which was highlighted by program participants in 2015 as a desired additional focus of the program. Overall, the program provided an opportunity for participants to experience the multidisciplinary nature of engineering, aided participants' understanding of the roles of individual engineering disciplines, and furnished a realistic preview of student life in a university. [This paper was previously published in the Proceedings of the 2017 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition.]

Background: Aberrant crypt foci (ACF) are the earliest preneoplastic lesions in human colon, identifiable on chromoendoscopic screening. Our objective was to evaluate the %methylation of APC, CDKN2A, MLH1, RASSF1, MGMT, and WIF1 tumor suppressor genes (TSG) in ACF, corresponding colorectal carcinomas (CRC), and normal colonic mucosal controls. Methods: In this study, macroscopically normal-appearing mucosal flaps were sampled 5-10 cm away from the tumor mass from 302 fresh colectomy specimens to identify ACF-like lesions. Thirty-five cases with multiple ACFs were selected (n 35) as the main study group, with corresponding sections from CRC (n 35) as disease controls, and mucosal tissue blocks from 20 colectomy specimens (normal controls), operated for non-neoplastic pathologies. Genomic DNA was extracted, and methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on a customized methylation array model. %Methylation data were compared among the groups and with clinicopathological parameters. Selected target mRNA and protein expression studies were performed. Results: %Methylation of TSGs in ACF was intermediate between normal colon and CRC, although a statistically significant difference was observed only for the WIF1 gene (P < 0.01). Also, there was increased nuclear α-catenin expression and upregulation of CD44-positive cancer-stem cells in ACF and CRCs than in controls. Right-sided ACFs and dysplastic ACFs had a higher %methylation of CDKN2A (P < 0.01), whereas hyperplastic ACFs had a higher %methylation of RASSF1 (P 0.04). The topographic characteristics of ACFs did not correlate with TSG %methylation. Conclusions: Early epigenetic methylation of WIF1 gene is one of the mechanisms for ACF development in human colon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-invasive characterization of pancreatic masses aids in the management of pancreatic lesions. Intravoxel incoherent motion-diffusion kurtosis imaging (IVIM-DKI) and machine learning-based texture analysis was used to differentiate pancreatic masses such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET), solid pseudopapillary epithelial neoplasm (SPEN), and mass-forming chronic pancreatitis (MFCP). A total of forty-eight biopsy-proven patients with pancreatic masses were recruited and classified into pNET (n = 13), MFCP (n = 6), SPEN (n = 4), and PDAC (n = 25) groups. All patients were scanned for IVIM-DKI sequences acquired with 14 b-values (0 to 2500 s/mm2) on a 1.5T MRI. An IVIM-DKI model with a 3D total variation (TV) penalty function was implemented to estimate the precise IVIM-DKI parametric maps. Texture analysis (TA) of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and IVIM-DKI parametric map was performed and reduced using the chi-square test. These features were fed to an artificial neural network (ANN) for characterization of pancreatic mass subtypes and validated by 5-fold cross-validation. Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analyses were used to compute the area under curve (AUC). Perfusion fraction (f) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in pNET than PDAC. The f showed better diagnostic performance for PDAC vs. MFCP with AUC:0.77. Both pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*) and f for PDAC vs. pNET showed an AUC of 0.73. ADC and diffusion coefficient (D) showed good diagnostic performance for pNET vs. MFCP with AUC: 0.79 and 0.76, respectively. In the TA of PDAC vs. non-PDAC, f and combined IVIM-DKI parameters showed high accuracy ≥ 84.3% and AUC ≥ 0.84. Mean f and combined IVIM-DKI parameters estimated that the IVIM-DKI model with TV texture features has the potential to be helpful in characterizing pancreatic masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: To determine the efficacy of integrated 18 F-fluorodeoxy glucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography ( 18 F-FDG PET-CT) in the evaluation and characterization of mediastinal lymph nodes into benign and malignant pathology. Methods: Thirty-five patients with mediastinal lymphadenopathies without primary neoplastic or infective lung pathologies were included in the study. The lymph nodes were detected on contrast-enhanced CT scan of the chest. All patients underwent 18 F-FDG PET-CT scan for evaluation of mediastinal lymph nodes. Results of PET-CT were compared with histopathology of the lymph nodes and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were calculated. Statistical Analysis: The data were collected prospectively and analyzed using (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) 11.5 software. Results: Histopathology results in 35 patients revealed tuberculosis in 12, sarcoidosis in 8, and lymphoma in 15. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the benign lymph nodes ranged from 2.3 to 11.8 with a mean±standard deviation (SD) of 5.02±3.26. SUVmax of the malignant lymph nodes ranged from 2.4 to 34 with a mean±SD of 10.8±8.12. There was a statistically significant difference between benign and malignant pathology (P18 F-FDG PET-CT has sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 40% with SUVmax 2.5 as the cutoff. We found the optimal SUVmax cutoff to be 6.2 as determined by the receiver-operator characteristic curve. With 6.2 as cutoff, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 87%, 70%, and 77%, respectively. Conclusion : In countries where tuberculosis and other granulomatous diseases are endemic, SUVmax cutoff value of 2.5 has low specificity. Increasing the cutoff value can improve the specificity, while maintaining an acceptable sensitivity.

We hereby report the occurrence of mediastinal liposarcoma in a 11-year-old female child. Dyspnea and wheezing of long-standing duration were the presenting complaints and a preoperative biopsy failed to yield the diagnosis. Histologic examination revealed heterogeneous areas with well-differentiated liposarcoma-like areas, areas resembling myxoid liposarcoma, and areas of dedifferentiation. Osteosarcomatous foci and whorled areas reminiscent of meningioma were identified in the dedifferentiated areas. Liposarcomas in the mediastinum are extremely rare tumors of childhood and the present case showed unusual histologic features. Complete surgical excision with clear surgical margins remains the primary modality of treatment, although chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been tried.