Older age as well as more years of exposure to shift work were, independently from each other, related to a stronger relationship between shift work and being overweight (multiplicative interaction p  less then  0.05). CONCLUSION Shift work was to a similar extent related to being overweight among those with a healthy and unhealthy lifestyle. This does, however, not imply that shift workers can behave unhealthy without any harm. Based on the evident health benefits of a healthy lifestyle, it is still recommended to get sufficient quality of sleep and to meet the recommended level of daily physical activity and, fruit and vegetable intake.BACKGROUND Volume loss in the deep gray matter (DGM) has been reported in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) already at early stages of the disease and is thought to progress throughout the disease course. OBJECTIVE To investigate the impact and predictive value of volume loss in DGM and thalamic subnuclei on disability worsening in patients MS over a 6-year follow-up period. METHODS Hundred and seventy-nine patients with RRMS (132 women; median Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS 2.5) and 50 with SPMS (27 women; median EDSS 4.5) were included in the study. Patients underwent annual EDSS assessments and annual MRI at 1.5 T. DGM/thalamic subnuclei volumes were identified on high-resolution T1-weighted. A hierarchical linear mixed model for each anatomical DGM area and each thalamic subnucleus was performed to investigate the associations with disability scores. Cox regression was used to estimate the predictive properties of volume loss in DGM and thalamic subnuclei on disease worsening. RESULTS In the whole sample and in RRMS, volumes of the thalamus and the striatum were associated with the EDSS; however, only thalamic volume loss was associated with EDSS change at follow-up. Regarding thalamic subnuclei, volume loss in the anterior nucleus, the pulvinar and the ventral anterior nucleus was associated with EDSS change in the whole cohort. A trend was observed for the ventral lateral nucleus. Volume loss in the anterior and ventral anterior nuclei was associated with EDSS change over time in patients with RRMS. Moreover, MS phenotype and annual rates of volume loss in the thalamus and ventral lateral nucleus were predictive of disability worsening. CONCLUSION These results highlight the relevance of volume loss in the thalamus as a key metric for predicting disability worsening as assessed by EDSS (in RRMS). Moreover, the volume loss in specific nuclei such as the ventral lateral nucleus seems to play a role in disability worsening.Endemic mycoses such as histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis, blastomycosis, paracoccidioidomycosis, and talaromycosis are well-known causes of focal and systemic disease within specific geographic areas of known endemicity. However, over the past few decades, there have been increasingly frequent reports of infections due to endemic fungi in areas previously thought to be „non-endemic.” There are numerous potential reasons for this shift such as increased use of immune suppressive medications, improved diagnostic tests, increased disease recognition, and global factors such as migration, increased travel, and climate change. Regardless of the causes, it has become evident that our previous understanding of endemic regions for these fungal diseases needs to evolve. The epidemiology of the newly described Emergomyces is incomplete; our understanding of it continues to evolve. This review will focus on the evidence underlying the established areas of endemicity for these mycoses as well as new data and reports from medical literature that support the re-thinking these geographic boundaries. Updating the endemic fungi maps would inform clinical practice and global surveillance of these diseases.Trans-polyisoprene rubber is produced in the tissues of leaves, bark, and fruit of Eucommia ulmoides and is considered an important energy source. Transcript profiles of two tissues from E. ulmoides cv. Qinzhong No. 3, leaf and fruit, were analysed using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 system. In total, 104 million clean reads were obtained and assembled into 58,863 unigenes. Through gene functional classification, 28,091 unigenes (47.72%) were annotated and 65 unigenes have been hypothesized to encode proteins involved in terpenoid biosynthesis. In addition, 10,041 unigenes were detected as differentially expressed unigenes, and 29 of them were putatively related to terpenoid biosynthesis. The synthesis of trans-polyisoprene rubbers in E. ulmoides was hypothesised to be dominated by the mevalonate pathway. Farnesyl diphosphate synthase 2 (FPPS2) was considered a key component in the biosynthesis of trans-polyprenyl diphosphate. Rubber elongation factor 3 (REF3) might be involved in stabilising the membrane of rubber particles in E. ulmoides. To date, 351 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were validated as polymorphisms from eight E. ulmoides plants (two parent plants and six F1 individuals), and these could act as molecular markers for genetic map density increase and breeding improvement of E. ulmoides.Liver fibrosis affects over 100 million people in the world; it represents a multifactorial, fibro-inflammatory disorder characterized by exacerbated production of extracellular matrix with consequent aberration of hepatic tissue. The aetiology of this disease is very complex and seems to involve a broad spectrum of factors including the lifestyle, environment factors, genes and epigenetic changes. More evidences indicate that angiogenesis, a process consisting in the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels, plays a crucial role in the progression of liver fibrosis. Central to the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis is the hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) which represent a crossroad among inflammation, fibrosis and angiogenesis. Quiescent HSCs can be stimulated by a host of growth factors, pro-inflammatory mediators produced by damaged resident liver cell types, as well as by hypoxia, contributing to neoangiogenesis, which in turn can be a bridge between acute and chronic inflammation. As matter of fact, studies demonstrated that neutralization of vascular endothelial growth factor as well as other proangiogenic agents can attenuate the progression of liver fibrosis. With this review, our intent is to discuss the cause and the role of angiogenesis in liver fibrosis focusing on the current knowledge about the impact of anti-angiogenetic therapies in this pathology.Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) have therapeutic potential in a variety of diseases; however, the safety and efficacy of their use remain ambiguous. Clinical applications of MSCs are under intensive investigation due to their immunomodulatory features and lack of immune reactivity. Therefore, having a clear perspective on the exact mechanisms underlying the regulation of cytokine secretion in different microenvironments seems crucially important.In the current study, samples from human bone marrow and adipose were collected, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated and cultured in conventional medium. After MSC expansion, the cells from passage 3 (P3) and passage 9 (P9) were utilized to identify MSC cell surface markers and their differentiation capacity. The P3, P5, P7, and P9 cells were used for RNA extraction to qualify the expression of the main immunomodulatory cytokines IDO, VCAM-1, TGF-β, IL-6, IL-10, and PGE2 at mRNA levels. The results indicate that VCAM-1 expression in the subcultures was reduced in bone marrow-derived MSCs. After an increase in P5, P7, and P9, IL-6 expression was reduced. In adipose-derived MSCs, the mRNA levels of IL-10 in higher passages were decreased compared with P3; other studied cytokines had no significant changes in their expression levels in either bone marrow or adipose-derived MSCs. Based on these results, it can be concluded that a suitable source for MSCs in cell therapy with stable expression of main cytokines, even in higher subcultures, appears to be adipose-derived MSCs with the exception of IL-10 secretion.PURPOSE While the importance of lymphadenectomy is well-established for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer, its direct impact on survival in relation to other predictive factors is still ill-defined. METHODS The National Cancer Data Base 2006-2015 was queried for patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma (stage IA-IIB). Patients were dichotomized into the following two groups, those with 1-14 resected lymph nodes and those with ≥ 15. Optimal number of resected lymph nodes and the effect of lymphadenectomy on survival were assessed using various statistical modeling techniques. Mediation analysis was performed to differentiate the direct and indirect effect of lymph node resection on survival. RESULTS A total of 21,912 patients were included; median age was 66 years (IQR 59-73), 48.9% were female. Median number of resected lymph nodes was 15 (IQR 10-22), 10,163 (46.4%) had 1-14 and 11,749 (53.6%) had ≥ 15 lymph nodes retrieved. Lymph node positivity increased by 4.1% per lymph node up to eight examined lymph nodes, and by 0.6% per lymph node above eight. Five-year overall survival was 17.9%. Overall survival was better in the ≥ 15 lymph node group (adjusted HR 0.91, CI 0.88-0.95, p  less then  0.001). On a continuous scale, survival improved with increasing LNs collected. Patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy and were treated at high-volume centers had improved overall survival compared with their counterparts (adjusted HR 0.59, CI 0.57-0.62, p  less then  0.001; adjusted HR 0.86, CI 0.83-0.89, p  less then  0.001, respectively). Mediation analysis revealed that lymphadenectomy had only 18% direct effect on improved overall survival, while 82% of its effect were mediated by other factors like treatment at high-volume hospitals and adjuvant chemotherapy. DISCUSSION While higher number of resected lymph nodes increases lymph node positivity and is associated with better overall survival, most of the observed survival benefit is mediated by chemotherapy and treatment at high-volume centers.PURPOSE Annotation of surgical videos is a time-consuming task which requires specific knowledge. In this paper, we present and evaluate a deep learning-based method that includes pre-annotation of the phases and steps in surgical videos and user assistance in the annotation process. METHODS We propose a classification function that automatically detects errors and infers temporal coherence in predictions made by a convolutional neural network. First, we trained three different architectures of neural networks to assess the method on two surgical procedures cholecystectomy and cataract surgery. The proposed method was then implemented in an annotation software to test its ability to assist surgical video annotation. A user study was conducted to validate our approach, in which participants had to annotate the phases and the steps of a cataract surgery video. The annotation and the completion time were recorded. RESULTS The participants who used the assistance system were 7% more accurate on the step annotation and 10 min faster than the participants who used the manual system. The results of the questionnaire showed that the assistance system did not disturb the participants and did not complicate the task. CONCLUSION The annotation process is a difficult and time-consuming task essential to train deep learning algorithms. In this publication, we propose a method to assist the annotation of surgical workflows which was validated through a user study. The proposed assistance system significantly improved annotation duration and accuracy.