February 2020 – Make most of the New Year…
And yet another paper accepted for publication!
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is closely linked to occupational asbestos exposure. Since asbestos has been widely used in Western countries in the aftermath of World War II, the incidence of mesothelioma will continue to rise.
Even with tri-modal therapy comprising chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, MPM has a dismal prognosis, with new therapeutic modalities urgently needed. Lurbinectedin, a novel compound closely related to trabectedin, could possibly fill this unmet need. It exerts a dual action, binding to DNA regulatory genes inducing double-blind streaks, as well as diminishing tumor-associated macrophages.
The present Phase II trial sought to generate additional efficacy and safety data on lurbinectedin in 42 MPM patients. At data cut-off, the primary efficacy endpoint, progression-free survival at 12 weeks (PFS 12weeks) was met by 22/42 patients (52.4%; 90% CI: 38.7-63.5%; P=0.015) with a median progression-free survival of 4.1 months and a median overall survival of 11.1 months.
Toxicity was acceptable. In their conclusions, Dr. Yanis Metaxas and colleagues haveconfirmed that lurbinectedin exerts promising activity regardless of histology, prior immunotherapy, or outcome upon prior treatment.
John Nash: Did he really suffer from schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking, as well as withdrawal into oneself. While the etiology has not yet been fully clarified, there is an underlying genetic predisposition.
Presently, the favored biochemical hypothesis revolves around dysfunctional dopamine metabolism. The most prominent genius to have been affected by this disorder was John Nash, the Nobel-Prize winning mathematician and economist.
Let’s have a look at John Nash’s biography! His symptoms began to arise around 1959 when he was 30 years old, just a little past the typical windows in which schizophrenic symptoms usually emerge. Nash was certainly delusional and displayed hallucinations as well. As a matter of fact, he filled Princeton’s blackboards with indecipherable scribbling and often wandered about the campus in a daze.
However, in 1994, he improved and was even able to travel to Stockholm to accept his Nobel Prize. Whatever it was that had affected Nash’s brain for a decade had apparently lost its power over him at that time.
How to write a great science paper
In the winter of 2018, while on sabbatical at Santa Fe Institute, Van Savage, a theoretical biologist and ecologist, had lively weekly discussions with Pulitzer prize-winner McCarty on editing scientific papers. Both worked intensely together in tandem to condense McCarthy’s editing advice into several short statements. In the following, we share Part III with you
- Inject questions and less formal language to break up tone and maintain a friendly feeling.
- Choose concrete language and examples. If you must talk about arbitrary colors and an abstract sphere, it is more gripping to speak of this sphere as a red balloon.
- Avoid placing equations in the middle of your sentence. Mathematics isn’t the same as English, and we shouldn’t pretend it is. To separate equations from text, you can use line breaks.
- When you think you are done, read your work aloud to yourself or a friend. Find a good editor you can trust and you will spend real time on your work. Try to make life as easy as possible to your editing friends. Number pages and use double space.
- Lastly, try to write the best version of your paper, the one that you like. You can’t please an anonymous reader, but you should be able to please yourself. When you make your writing livelier and easier to understand, people will want to invest time in reading your work. And whether you are junior scientist or world-famous novelist, that’s what we all want, isn’t it?
The full text of McCarthy’s thoughts can be found at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02918-5
Vincent van Gogh’s final years
Increasingly discouraged about his chances of recovery in Saint-Remy, van Gogh discharged himself from the asylum in May 1890. Bound to be closer to this brother Theo, he moved in northern direction, eventually settling in Auvers-sur-Oise. Here, van Gogh’s production turned out to be astounding.
Part 2. In Auvers-sur-Oise, the great painter began seeing Doctor Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, who had already treated Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissaro. As Dr. Gachet was an artist himself and a passionate art collector, van Gogh’s brother Theo thought that the doctor’s highly sensitive nature would enable his brother to recover from his bouts of depression and self-pity. And as expected, emotional closeness and bonding promptly developed between the doctor and his patient.
Enlightened by his new surroundings, a new extensively-productive period set in for van Gogh, with over 70 works of art completed within about 10 weeks of hard work. Yet, of note is that his work achievements increasingly tended to be indicative of a troubled mind, with van Gogh pouring out his inner turmoil onto his flowers and canvases.
General anxiety and financial uncertainty, given that his brother Theo had lost his job at the art dealers’, took a heavy toll on Vincent van Gogh’s heath. He became increasingly unable to shake off the gloom about the future.