EXPRESS: Unveiling the boost in the sandwich priming technique

The masked priming technique (which compares #####-house-HOUSE vs. #####-fight-HOUSE) is the gold-standard tool to examine the initial moments of word processing. Lupker and Davis (2009) showed that adding a pre-prime identical to the target produced greater priming effects in the sandwich technique (which compares #####-HOUSE-house-HOUSE vs #####-HOUSE-fight-HOUSE). While there is consensus that the sandwich technique magnifies the size of priming effects relative to the standard procedure, the mechanisms underlying this boost are not well understood (i.e., does it reflect quantitative or qualitative changes?). To fully characterize the sandwich technique, we compared the sandwich and standard techniques by examining the RTs and their distributional features (delta plots; conditional-accuracy functions), comparing identity vs. unrelated primes. Results showed that the locus of the boost in the sandwich technique was two-fold: faster responses in the identity condition (via a shift in the RT distributions) and slower responses in the unrelated condition. We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of these findings.

Ascending Colon Duplication-A Case Report with Review of Literature

Gastro – intestinal duplications are usually detected in children before 2 years of age due symptoms/complications associated with the condition or during surgery in the child for some unrelated condition. In adults colonic duplication is of rare occurrence and often diagnosed during surgery. However, it may be diagnosed pre operatively due to symptoms of obstruction, volvulus or rarely due to perforation. We present an adult having tubular duplication of ascending colon, that presented with perforation. The duplication had a blind end and did not have distal communication. In addition, it had its own blood supply. The management of the case is discussed. Aetiogenesis of the anomaly is enumerated and literature reviewed. For ascending colon duplication similar meaning word accessory ascending colon has also been used in the manuscript.

The combination of venetoclax, lenalidomide, and rituximab in patients with newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma induces high response rates and MRD undetectability.

7505 Background: MCL is a rare lymphoma without a standard of care but several regimens have demonstrated clinical activity, the majority based on traditional chemotherapy. We hypothesized that adding venetoclax (V) to R2 would be safe and effective in MCL pts irrespective of age, morphology or stage. Here we present safety and efficacy data from the on-going phase 1b study of R2 + V in pts with newly diagnosed MCL. Methods: This multi-center phase 1 study (NCT03523975) enrolled pts aged ≥18 yrs with untreated MCL. The primary objective was to characterize the safety and tolerability of R2 + V and determine the MTD. During induction (12 months (m)) pts received lenalidomide (L) 20 mg daily on day 1-21, Rituximab (R) was given weekly during c1 then on day 1 of every even cycle, V was escalated over 4 weeks to 400 mg beginning day 8. Each cycle is 28 days (d). The DLT period was 42 d beginning C1D8. In maintenance, R every 8 weeks for 36m, L at 10 mg or half of last dose during induction for 24 m and V for minimum 12 m. No pts have been transplanted. Pts with progression (PD) came off study. MRD was analyzed in parallel with scans during induction by clonoSEQ assay (Adaptive Biotechnologies). Results: As of Feb. 1st, 2021, we have enrolled all 28 planned pts on study. Pt characteristics/responses are summarized in Table. Among the 28 pts who have received at least one dose, the median treatment duration so far is 278d (IQR 170-560), with 24 pts still on treatment (Tx). 1 pt is off from a unrelated condition. All pts escalated to V 400 mg w/o any DLTs noted. Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were reported in 100% of pts, and grade 3+ TEAEs were reported in 26 (93%) patients. The most common all-grade TEAEs (≥50% of pts), regardless of relationship to study Tx, were fatigue, neutropenia and diarrhea. Grade ≥3 TEAEs reported in ≥50% pts were neutropenia (68%) and thrombocytopenia (50%). No pts have withdrawn or d/c Tx due to AEs. There was one grade 5 event, in a non-evaluable pt, related to a PE that occurred prior to DLT period. In the 28 evaluable pts the ORR (CR/PR) was 96% (27/28 pts) with CR/CRu of 89%. Of the responding pts, two had PD, one w/ CR and one w/ PR. All pts with PD had baseline TP53 mutation. MRD testing was successful in all pts. At time of submission 20 of 28 (71%) were MRD - at 10-6. Conclusions: Interim results show that at the MTD the combination of V 400 mg daily, L 20 mg, with R is safe with a manageable toxicity profile and a high ORR and MRD - in pts with newly diagnosed MCL. Safety data is consistent with the AE profile noted for each drug without any unexpected or unique AEs. Updated results including BH3 profiling will be presented at the meeting. Clinical trial information: NCT03523975. [Table: see text]

Tablet Assessment of Word Comprehension Reveals Coarse Word Representations in 18-20-month-old Toddlers

The present study explores the viability of using tablets in assessing early word comprehension by means of a two-alternative forced-choice task. Forty-nine 18-20-month-old Norwegian toddlers performed a touch-based word recognition task, in which they were prompted to identify the labelled target out of two displayed items on a touchscreen tablet. In each trial, the distractor item was either semantically related (e.g., dog-cat) or unrelated (e.g., dog-airplane) to the target. Our results show that toddlers as young as 18 months can engage meaningfully with a tablet-based assessment, with minimal verbal instruction and child–administrator interaction. Toddlers performed better in the semantically unrelated condition than in the related condition, suggesting that their word representations are still semantically coarse at this age. Furthermore, parental reports of comprehension, using the Norwegian version of the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories, predicted toddlers’ performance, with parent-child agreement stronger in the semantically unrelated condition, suggesting that parents declare a word to be known by their child if it is understood at a coarse representational level. This study provides among the earliest evidence that remote data collection in infants before their second birthday is viable, as comparable results were observed from both in-lab and online administration of the touch-screen recognition task.

Neural Response to Trauma-Related and Trauma-Unrelated Negative Stimuli in Remitted and Persistent Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Background: Most youths who suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) lose their diagnosis in the first 1-2 years. However, there are few studies on this brain mechanism, and the heterogeneity of the findings is partially due to the different stimuli applied and the mixed trauma history. Therefore, the use of trauma-related/unrelated stimuli to study the remittance mechanism of earthquake-induced PTSD could advance our knowledge of PTSD and inspire future treatment.Methods: Thirteen youths with PTSD, 18 remitted participants and 18 control participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing trauma-related pictures, trauma-unrelated negative pictures and scrambled pictures.Results: Under trauma-unrelated condition, the neural activity of the left hippocampus in the remitted group was in the middle between the two other groups. Under trauma-related condition, the PTSD and the remitted group exhibited higher neural activity in the right middle occipital gyrus than controls. The remitted group showed higher neural activity in the right parahippocampal gyrus and right lingual gyrus under trauma-related condition than trauma-unrelated condition, while no significant difference was found in PTSD group.Conclusion: PTSD symptom-related group difference is mainly reflected in the left hippocampus under the trauma-unrelated condition, while the hyperactivity in the right middle occipital gyrus under trauma related condition could be an endophenotype for PTSD.

Brachialis Strain in a Collegiate Wrestler: A Case Report

A 22-year-old male varsity collegiate wrestler presented for general chiropractic care for an unrelated condition and noted right elbow pain that had progressively increased over the past few weeks. The athlete was diagnosed with a right brachialis strain and advised to follow up with his athletic trainer for co-management of his injury. The patient responded positively to prescribed treatments and rehabilitation to decrease pain and restore functionality (<14 days) while only missing one competitive match. The location of the brachialis muscle and scarcity of literature makes diagnosis and treatment complex. The physical examination and conservative treatment presented in this report demonstrate the need for comprehensive and exploratory examination and co-management of wrestling athletes with a brachialis strain.

Lung Involvement Found on Chest CT Scan in a Pre-Symptomatic Person with SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Case Report

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection is spreading worldwide, and there are many reports of acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by this infection. However, asymptomatic lung involvement has not been reported. We hereby present the case of a 44-year-old health-care worker, who was found to be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus after a CT-scan performed for an unrelated condition revealed a lesion in the lung field compatible with COVID-19 infection. His condition deteriorated initially, but eventually improved with supportive treatment and the compassionate use of antivirals and antimalarials and is now in a stable condition.

Could coenzyme Q10 be the treatment for Dupuytren’s disease?

A patient with Dupuytren’s disease noted progressive disappearance of the contractures of both hands over a 3-year period while taking coenzyme Q10 daily for an unrelated condition. The function and appearance of his hands were restored to almost normal.

Hair cannabinoid concentrations in emergency patients with cannabis hyperemesis syndrome

ABSTRACTObjectivesCannabis hyperemesis syndrome is characterized by bouts of protracted vomiting in regular users of cannabis. We wondered whether this poorly understood condition is idiosyncratic, like motion sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum, or the predictable dose-response effect of prolonged heavy use.MethodsAdults with an emergency department visit diagnosed as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, near-daily use of cannabis for ≥6 months, and ≥2 episodes of severe vomiting in the previous year were age- and sex-matched to two control groups: RU controls (recreational users without vomiting), and ED controls (patients in the emergency department for an unrelated condition). Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN), cannabidiol, and 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC concentrations in scalp hair were compared for subjects with positive urine THC.ResultsWe obtained satisfactory hair samples from 46 subjects with positive urine THC: 16 cases (age 26.8 ± 9.2 years; 69% male), 16 RU controls and 14 ED controls. Hair cannabinoid concentrations were similar between all three groups (e.g. cases THC 220 [median; IQR 100,730] pg/mg hair, RU controls 150 [71,320] and ED controls 270 [120,560]). Only the THC:CBN ratio was different between groups, with a 2.6-fold (95%CI 1.3,5.7) lower age- and sex-adjusted ratio in cases than RU controls. Hair cannabidiol concentrations were often unquantifiably low in all subjects.ConclusionsSimilar hair cannabinoid concentrations in recreational users with and without hyperemesis suggest that heavy use is necessary but not sufficient for hyperemesis cannabis. Our results underline the high prevalence of chronic heavy cannabis use in emergency department patients and our limited understanding of this plant's adverse effects.

Crosslinguistic interplay between semantics and phonology in late bilinguals: neurophysiological evidence

We investigated effects of crosslinguistic phonological and semantic similarity on the bilingual lexicon of late unbalanced bilinguals. Our masked priming paradigm used L1 (Russian) words as masked primes and L2 (English) words as targets. The primes and the targets either overlapped – phonologically, semantically, both phonologically and semantically – or did not overlap. Participants maintained the targets in memory and matched them against occasionally presented catch stimuli. N170 and N400 components of the word-elicited high-density ERPs were identified and analysed in signal and source space. Crosslinguistic semantic similarity shortened the reaction times. The semantics-related N400 amplitude difference correlated with individual L2 proficiency, while phonological similarity suppressed the N400 amplitude in the semantically unrelated condition. ERP source analysis suggests that these ERP dynamics are underpinned by cortical generators in the left IFG and the temporal pole. We conclude that the semantic and phonological interplay between L1 and L2 suggest an integrated bilingual lexicon.