Horace Mann School

In Argentina, high inflation and poor economic decisions cause the value of the Argentine Peso to be very volatile and lose value. This instability not only limits the use of the Peso but also strains the relationship between the Argentine citizens and their government. Although the government understands the country’s economic issues, prior administrations have been unable to solve the problem but rather forced the citizens into further economic stress. Nevertheless, Javier Milei, Argentina’s new “radical” president, seems to understand how to stabilize the Argentine economy.

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly deep learning, has made enormous strides in medical imaging analysis. In the field of musculoskeletal radiology, deep-learning models are actively being developed for the identification and evaluation of bone fractures. These methods provide numerous benefits to radiologists such as increased diagnostic accuracy and efficiency while also achieving standalone performances comparable or superior to clinician readers. Various algorithms are already commercially available for integration into clinical workflows, with the potential to improve healthcare delivery and shape the future practice of radiology. In this systematic review, we explore the performance of current AI methods in the identification and evaluation of fractures, particularly those in the ankle, wrist, hip, and ribs. We also discuss current commercially available products for fracture detection and provide an overview of the current limitations of this technology and future directions of the field.

Jacques Derrida’s philosophy greatly disrupted traditional Western metaphysics by questioning our understanding of the relationship between language and reality. This paper examines how Derrida deconstructs logocentric and phonocentric perspectives that have influenced Western thought, focusing on his analyses of Plato’s Cratylus and Phaedrus, as well as Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics. For Derrida, the meaning in language is always shifting, suggesting that absolute truths, as traditionally conceived in Platonic metaphysics, are inherently unstable. His concept of différance illustrates the fluid nature of meaning and the limitations of language. In his critique of “Plato’s Pharmacy,” he explores the inclusive potential of writing, which contrasts with Plato’s preference for speech and dialectics. While Plato is concerned with texts reaching readers he deems “inappropriate” for not fully grasping their meaning, Derrida views access to texts as positive and equitable. He argues that writing removes hierarchical barriers of interpretation, empowering readers and promoting inclusivity and diverse voices. Through this approach, he not only reshapes Western philosophical thinking but also encourages continuous questioning of the truths we often take for granted, expanding philosophy’s relevance to social and political aspects of everyday life. Derrida believes that philosophy should be accessible to all and not limited to privileged academic circles. He critiques elitism and advocates for philosophy to adapt to new social demands, challenging outdated rhetorical models and institutional authority. Derrida’s deconstruction encourages us to consider perspectives beyond our own backgrounds and experiences. By breaking down barriers that limit which voices are acknowledged and valued, we support more open and equitable intellectual and social systems.

The link between viruses and cancer has intrigued scientists for decades. Certain viruses have been shown to be vital in the development of various cancers by integrating viral DNA into the host genome and activating viral oncogenes. These viruses include the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis B and C Viruses (HBV and HCV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), and Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus (HTLV-1), which are all linked to the development of a myriad of human cancers. Third-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized our ability to study viral integration events at unprecedented resolution in recent years. They offer long sequencing capabilities along with the ability to map viral integration sites, assess host gene expression, and track clonal evolution in cancer cells. Recently, researchers have been exploring the application of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) nanopore sequencing and Pacific BioSciences (PacBio) single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing in cancer research. As viral integration is crucial to the development of cancer via viruses, third-generation sequencing would provide a novel approach to studying the relationship interlinking viral oncogenes, viruses, and cancer. This review article explores the molecular mechanisms underlying viral oncogenesis, the role of viruses in cancer development, and the impact of third-generation sequencing on our understanding of viral integration into the human genome.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in the US. Colonoscopy is the gold standard test for CRC screening. Barriers to CRC screening include bowel cleanse, sedation, and missed time from work. Another limiting factor is a practice requiring a consultation pre-colonoscopy, which is often not reimbursed. Furthermore, long hold times when calling the providers office may lead to the patient hanging up and delaying their exam. The aim of our pilot is to demonstrate the value of direct patient scheduling through a patient portal phone app streamlining the the colonoscopy scheduling process and increasing patient compliance. Methods: Between November 2021-April 2023 several sites in our network participated in the program. A primary care physician (PCP) when placing the colonoscopy order would also answer a few questions to confirm the patient is “low risk” for anesthesia. The questions focused on if the patient had pulmonary or cardiac disease, BMI level, and blood thinner status. The patient would then receive a text message to schedule their procedure via the Epic patient portal, MyChart, phone app (Figure 1). Results: A total of 12 gastroenterologist templates were part of the program. A total 3158 colonoscopy orders were placed with 1567 (50%) exams scheduled. In this group, 1279 (41%) exams were completed. Only 4 patients did not show up for exam. Prior to this workflow in the “traditional workflow” a PCP would place a GI order followed by GI consultation and finally colonoscopy. Direct patient scheduling had a 6 month colonoscopy completion rate of 47.3% compared to “traditional workflow” of 34.4%. This 12% difference was statistically significant with a P-value of < 0.0001. The mean time to colonoscopy was just over 8 weeks in direct patient scheduling group compared to the "traditional workflow" group of greater than 6 months. Conclusion: There are practices that offer open access colonoscopy scheduling, where the patient would call the office. Our health system, often had a pre-colonoscopy consultation creating another inconvenient barrier for CRC screening by colonoscopy. Our low anesthesia risk patient pilot allowed for a patient to directly schedule their colonoscopy through their patient portal phone app leading to both higher colonoscopy procedure scheduling and exam completion. Future directions will include all GI providers participating in the program and also expanding into higher risk patients to have this colonoscopy scheduling option.Figure 1.: Workflow for patient self scheduling colonoscopy procedure.

Drug design has been an expensive and slow but vital process for saving lives, especially in the presence of world pandemics such as COVID-19. To make the drug design process more cost-effective and efficient, researchers have been exploring the aid of computers and even artificial intelligence. In this work, we developed a deep reinforcement learning (RL) based multi-objective method to enable multi-property de novo drug design. The goal of such an algorithm is to make RL-based drug design processes more applicable in real life compared to single-property-driven design approaches. We have studied two multi-objective methods in our experiments: the weighted sum method and the lexicographic-order method. The experimental results showed that compared to the single-objective method, both methods can effectively improve the efficiency of the drug design process. We ran the multi-obj ective algorithms to increase Janus kinase 2 (Jak2) inhibition and hydrophobicity (LogP) drug-likeness and found that the lexicographic-order method (the most optimal method in our experiments) can effectively increase the J ak2 inhibition by 26.9% and LogP drug-likeness by 10.0% simultaneously compared to the baseline (unbiased drug design) while 54.5% of the generated compounds are chemically valid, which far outperforms previously proposed methods in literature such as the single-objective approaches. We also found that since the weighted-sum method is sensitive to the selection of different weights, the lexicographic method is more reliable. The proposed method can be easily extended to account for more properties. Overall, it will greatly reduce the time frame and costs of drug design.

Switch-like motifs are among the basic building blocks of biochemical networks. A common motif that can serve as an ultrasensitive switch consists of two enzymes acting antagonistically on a substrate, one making and the other removing a covalent modification. To work as a switch, such covalent modification cycles must be held out of thermodynamic equilibrium by continuous expenditure of energy. Here, we exploit the linear framework for timescale separation to establish tight bounds on the performance of any covalent-modification switch, in terms of the chemical potential difference driving the cycle. The bounds apply to arbitrary enzyme mechanisms, not just Michaelis-Menten, with arbitrary rate constants, and thereby reflect fundamental physical constraints on covalent switching.

Accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is of great importance to patient care, especially in the early stage, because it enables patients to take preventive measures before irreversible brain damage occurs. Obviously, if computer-based diagnostic models can make better predictions than doctors, the future of health care will change dramatically from the current system. Based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), this paper realizes a classification algorithm to distinguish AD patients from normal people. OASIS Brain Imaging Data Set is an open source online data set, which is a coronal bitmap of the human brain. Canny edge detection algorithm is used to extract image information, and K-Means and convolution neural network (CNN) are used to train the data set. The results show that the recognition accuracy of the training set is 99%, and 26% higher than that of the K-Means algorithm, which can be effectively used in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

Chroniqueur, philosophe, artiste. Figures du voyageur dans la littérature française… Linda Gil, la seule dans ce volume, nous présente une figure de la voyageuse, et encore d'une voyageuse bien particulière, Cunégonde, la belle demi-cousine du Candide voltairien.« Le voyage, apprentissage de la vie et découverte de sa force intérieure, a forgé le caractère de Cunégonde, sa capacité de résistance et de résilience, la conscience de ses droits, sa détermination », affirme L. Gil, en montrant dans sa contribution cette trajectoire rarement analysée par les spécialistes en oeuvre voltairienne.La troisième partie, « Voyageur qui se (re)met en cause », se concentre sur la figure bien particulière du voyageur-philosophe.La première contribution, celle d'Odile Richard-Pauchet, met en scène Denis Diderot lui-même voyageant.Encouragé par Grimm à rédiger un court récit de son déplacement à Langres et Bourbonne, le philosophe, déçu par le voyage réel et son résultat littéraire, ne publie pas la relation de son vivant.« Ce texte présente donc une énigme que nous tâcherons d'élucider », annonce O. Richard-Pauchet, en se penchant sur la figure du voyageur qui en émerge : un philosophe mélancolique et désenchanté.Un tout autre voyageur fait son apparition dans la contribution d'Alain Guyot, qui présente le Voyage à l'île de France de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre et le projet de sa réédition par l'auteur.Les changements que l'auteur de Paul et Virginie apporte à son texte montrent clairement qu'« [u]ne ère nouvelle s'ouvre bien au voyageur qui, à travers la mise en avant de sa personnalité, l'opacité de son écriture et les variations de son point de vue, prétendra désormais donner à son lecteur moins une information qu'une perspective sur le monde et sur lui-même ».La dernière contribution de cette partie, celle de Nicolas Brucker, se concentre sur une figure kantienne du voyageur qui émerge des Lettres westphaliennes de Charles de Villers.Poussé à l'émigration après la déroute de l'Armée des Princes, cet officier d'artillerie, enthousiasmé à l'égard de la philosophie de Kant, présente dans ses lettres la leçon du solitaire de Königsberg plutôt que la Westphalie.« Située au centre du recueil, elle constitue une clé de lecture de l'ensemble des lettres : elle définit en effet la figure même du voyageur et rédacteur des lettres ».La quatrième et dernière partie du volume, « Voyageur, artiste créatif ou récréatif ?», est inaugurée par la contribution de Katalin Bartha-Kovács qui met en scène la figure de Jean-Baptiste Le Prince -peintre qui voyage en Russie et reflète ses impressions de voyage sur ses tableaux -et cela à travers la critique que Denis Diderot fait de ses toiles.On a affaire là à deux figures du voyageur : celle qui émerge des toiles et celle qui est représentée par Diderot lui-même.« Le Prince n'est certainement pas un peintre-voyageur "documentariste" au sens strict du terme, mais il n'est pas non plus le créateur d'un monde purement fantaisiste, comme le suggère Diderot », conclut K. Bartha-Kovács.Après le peintre-voyageur vient le tour du musicien.« Quelles sont les spécificités de l'écriture du voyage quand un musicien s'y engouffre ?», demande Aleksandra Wojda dans sa contribution « Vers une écriture de l'humeur inquiète : le Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie de Berlioz ».L'écriture berlozienne, tout à fait Małgorzata Sokołowicz et Izabella Zatorska romantique, nous fait découvrir un tout autre type de voyageur et une tout autre forme de sensibilité.De même que la dernière contribution du volume où Małgorzata Sokołowicz décrit l'oeuvre du peintre-écrivain qui voyage, Gustave Guillaumet.« L'intermédialité nous aidera à relire l'oeuvre picturale et littéraire de Gustave Guillaumet, d'examiner son expérience viatique et de voir quelle figure du voyageur en émerge », annonce M. Sokołowicz et en effet, en analysant différents types de relations intermédiales, elle esquisse une figure du voyageur qui, indépendamment du médium choisi, tient à éterniser son expérience viatique.