Targeting the immune checkpoint pathway has demonstrated antitumor cytotoxicity in treatment-refractory head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC). To understand the molecular mechanisms ...underpinning its antitumor response, we characterized the immune landscape of HNSC by their tumor and stromal compartments to identify novel immune molecular subgroups.
A training cohort of 522 HNSC samples from the Cancer Genome Atlas profiled by RNA sequencing was analyzed. We separated gene expression patterns from tumor, stromal, and immune cell gene using a non-negative matrix factorization algorithm. We correlated the expression patterns with a set of immune-related gene signatures, potential immune biomarkers, and clinicopathological features. Six independent datasets containing 838 HNSC samples were used for validation.
Approximately 40% of HNSCs in the cohort (211/522) were identified to show enriched inflammatory response, enhanced cytolytic activity, and active interferon-γ signaling (all, P < 0.001). We named this new molecular class of tumors the Immune Class. Then we found it contained two distinct microenvironment-based subtypes, characterized by markers of active or exhausted immune response. The Exhausted Immune Class was characterized by enrichment of activated stroma and anti-inflammatory M2 macrophage signatures, WNT/transforming growth factor-β signaling pathway activation and poor survival (all, P < 0.05). An enriched proinflammatory M1 macrophage signature, enhanced cytolytic activity, abundant tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, high human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and favorable prognosis were associated with Active Immune Class (all, P < 0.05). The robustness of these immune molecular subgroups was verified in the validation cohorts, and Active Immune Class showed potential response to programmed cell death-1 blockade (P = 0.01).
This study revealed a novel Immune Class in HNSC; two subclasses characterized by active or exhausted immune responses were also identified. These findings provide new insights into tailoring immunotherapeutic strategies for different HNSC subgroups.
We introduce the antibody landscape, a method for the quantitative analysis of antibodymediated immunity to antigenically variable pathogens, achieved by accounting for antigenic variation among ...pathogen strains. We generated antibody landscapes to study immune profiles covering 43 years of influenza A/H3N2 virus evolution for 69 individuals monitored for infection over 6 years and for 225 individuals pre- and postvaccination. Upon infection and vaccination, titers increased broadly, including previously encountered viruses far beyond the extent of cross-reactivity observed after a primary infection. We explored implications for vaccination and found that the use of an antigenically advanced virus had the dual benefit of inducing antibodies against both advanced and previous antigenic clusters. These results indicate that preemptive vaccine updates may improve influenza vaccine efficacy in previously exposed individuals.
The stated skein algebra of a punctured bordered surface (or equivalently, a marked surface) is a generalization of the well-known Kauffman bracket skein algebra of unmarked surfaces and can be ...considered as an extension of the quantum special linear group
O
q
2
(
S
L
2
)
from a bigon to general surfaces. We show that the stated skein algebra of a punctured bordered surface with non-empty boundary can be embedded into quantum tori in two different ways. The first embedding can be considered as a quantization of the map expressing the trace of a closed curve in terms of the shear coordinates of the enhanced Teichmüller space, and is a lift of Bonahon-Wong’s quantum trace map. The second embedding can be considered as a quantization of the map expressing the trace of a closed curve in terms of the lambda length coordinates of the decorated Teichmüller space, and is an extension of Muller’s quantum trace map. We explain the relation between the two quantum trace maps. We also show that the quantum cluster algebra of Muller is equal to a reduced version of the stated skein algebra. As applications we show that the stated skein algebra is an orderly finitely generated Noetherian domain and calculate its Gelfand-Kirillov dimension.
We show how the quantum trace map of Bonahon and Wong can be constructed in a natural way using the skein algebra of Muller, which is an extension of the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of surfaces. ...We also show that the quantum Teichmüller space of a marked surface, defined by Chekhov–Fock (and Kashaev) in an abstract way, can be realized as a concrete subalgebra of the skew field of the skein algebra.
Stated skein algebras of surfaces Costantino, Francesco; Lê, Thang T. Q.
Journal of the European Mathematical Society,
01/2022, Letnik:
24, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH) is rare condition that has a negative impact on quality of life because affected women lack a uterus and vagina, and are therefore unable to engage in ...sexual intercourse and experience natural pregnancy. This study evaluated perceptions of surrogacy in Vietnamese women with MRKH who have started families.
Women with MRKH who had undergone successful vaginal reconstruction, were married, and had started families participated in a semi-structured, in-depth, one-on-one online video interview with an experienced female psychologist. Open-ended questions were used to encourage participants to express their perceptions of surrogacy; prominent themes were discussed, compared, and combined.
Twenty women (mean age 31 years) agreed to participate. Key themes identified from interviews were the importance of having genetic offspring, consideration of surrogacy as a preferred solution to infertility, the barriers to surrogacy in Vietnam, lack of reproductive information and counselling, individuals concealing their health condition, the impact of religion on the possibility of surrogacy, the economic cost of surrogacy, and the difficulty in finding a surrogate under the restrictions imposed by Vietnamese law.
Based on the perceptions of women from MRKH from Vietnam, there is an opportunity to improve how infertility is managed in these people, including information about surrogacy. These data show that individuals with MRKH should be provided with information about the possibility of surrogacy, encouraged to be open and seek support, and be managed by a multidisciplinary team that includes psychological support; the provision of economic support for fertility treatments in women with MRKH should also be considered.
We study the stated skein modules of marked
3
-
manifolds. We generalize the splitting homomorphism for stated skein algebras of surfaces to a splitting homomorphism for stated skein modules of
3
-
...manifolds. We show that there exists a Chebyshev–Frobenius homomorphism for the stated skein modules of 3-manifolds which extends the Chebyshev homomorphism of the skein algebras of unmarked surfaces originally constructed by Bonahon and Wong. Additionally, we show that the Chebyshev–Frobenius map commutes with the splitting homomorphism. This is then used to show that in the case of the stated skein algebra of a surface, the Chebyshev–Frobenius map is the unique extension of the dual Frobenius map (in the sense of Lusztig) of
O
q
2
(
S
L
(
2
)
)
through the triangular decomposition afforded by an ideal triangulation of the surface. In particular, this gives a skein theoretic construction of the Hopf dual of Lusztig’s Frobenius homomorphism. A second conceptual framework is given, which shows that the Chebyshev–Frobenius homomorphism for the stated skein algebra of a surface is the unique restriction of the Frobenius homomorphism of quantum tori through the quantum trace map.
The evaluation and interpretation of the behavior of construction materials under fire conditions have been complicated. Over the last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a ...reliable method to tackle this engineering problem. This review summarizes existing studies that applied AI to predict the fire performance of different construction materials (e.g., concrete, steel, timber, and composites). The prediction of the flame retardancy of some structural components such as beams, columns, slabs, and connections by utilizing AI-based models is also discussed. The end of this review offers insights on the advantages, existing challenges, and recommendations for the development of AI techniques used to evaluate the fire performance of construction materials and their flame retardancy. This review offers a comprehensive overview to researchers in the fields of fire engineering and material science, and it encourages them to explore and consider the use of AI in future research projects.
By introducing a finer version of the Kauffman bracket skein algebra, we show how to decompose the Kauffman bracket skein algebra of a surface into elementary blocks corresponding to the triangles in ...an ideal triangulation of the surface. The newskein algebra of an ideal triangle has a simple presentation. This gives an easy proof of the existence of the quantum trace map of Bonahon and Wong. We also explain the relation between our skein algebra and the one defined by Muller, and use it to show that the quantum trace map can be extended to the Muller skein algebra.
Display omitted
•Lignocellulosic and algal biomasses are sustainable feedstocks for H2 production.•These biomasses need pretreatments to enhance biohydrogen yields.•Analyzed the gap between reality ...and practicability of existing pretreatments.•Techno-economic feasibility of the pretreatments is comparatively analyzed.•Outlook for pretreatments from perspective of carbon neutrality and circular economy.
Lignocellulosic and algal biomasses are known to be vital feedstocks to establish a green hydrogen supply chain toward achieving a carbon–neutral society. However, one of the most pressing issues to be addressed is the low digestibility of these biomasses in biorefinery processes, such as dark fermentation, to produce green hydrogen. To date, various pretreatment approaches, such as physical, chemical, and biological methods, have been examined to enhance feedstock digestibility. However, neither systematic reviews of pretreatment to promote biohydrogen production in dark fermentation nor economic feasibility analyses have been conducted. Thus, this study offers a comprehensive review of current biomass pretreatment methods to promote biohydrogen production in dark fermentation. In addition, this review has provided comparative analyses of the technological and economic feasibility of existing pretreatment techniques and discussed the prospects of the pretreatments from the standpoint of carbon neutrality and circular economy.
PDF
