Magnetic resonance-guided adaptive radiotherapy (MRgART) represents the latest frontier in precision radiotherapy. It is distinguished from other modalities by the possibility of acquiring ...high-contrast soft tissue images, combined with the ability to recalculate and re-optimize the plan on the daily anatomy. The extensive database of available images offers ample scope for using disciplines such as radiomics to try to correlate features and outcomes. This study aimed to correlate the change of radiomics feature along the treatment to pathological complete response (pCR) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients. Twenty-eight LARC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) with a short course (25 Gy, 5 Gy × 5f) MRgART at 1.5 Tesla MR-Linac were enrolled. The T2-weighted images acquired at each fraction, corresponding target delineation, pCR result of the surgical specimen, and clinical variables were collected. Seven families of features First Order, Shape, Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), Gray-level Dependence Matrix (GLDM), Gray-level Run Length Matrix (GLRLM), Gray-level Size Zone Matrix (GLSZM), and Neighborhood Gray Tone Difference Matrix (NGTDM) were extracted, and delta features were calculated from the ratio of features of each successive fraction to those of the first fraction. Mann-Whitney U test and LASSO were utilized to reduce the dimension of features and select those features that are most significant to pCR. At last, the radiomics signatures were established by linear regression with the final set of features and their coefficients. A total of 581 radiomics features were extracted, and 2,324 delta features were calculated for each patient. Nineteen features and delta features, and one clinical variable (cN) were significant (
< 0.05) to pCR; seven predictive features were further selected and included in the linear regression to construct the radiomics signature significantly discriminating pCR and non-pCR groups (
< 0.05). Delta features based on MRI images acquired during a short course MRgART could potentially be used to predict treatment response in LARC patients undergoing nCRT.
Health and environmental protection issues have become major focus areas in many research and development projects. In this context, recent MTT cytotoxicity assessments performed on carbon-doped MoSe
...2
nanoparticles have indicated that they exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Therefore, these nanoparticles have attracted considerable interest from researchers worldwide. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of carbon-doped MoSe
2
nanoparticles using an ultrasonic method to enhance their lubrication effect for use as oil additives. Carbon-doped MoSe
2
nanoparticles are smaller than untreated MoSe
2
nanoparticles and can easily access the contact area to form a tribofilm, reducing the friction coefficient and generating less wear. Moreover, carbon-doped MoSe
2
nanoparticles and waste water prepared with the nanoparticles display excellent biocompatibility. Hence, they can be used in practical applications such as oil additives.
Discrete diffraction behavior was experimentally studied in a coherent rubidium 5S1/2 − 5P3/2 − 5D5/2 cascade system. An optical lattice was established by the interference of two coupling lasers ...corresponding to 5P3/2 − 5D5/2 transition with a small angle. The distinct discrete diffraction patterns were observed in vapor when the probe laser corresponding to the 5S1/2 − 5P3/2 transition propagated through the optical lattice. The optimized pertinent experimental parameters such as vapor temperature, two-photon detuning, coupling laser intensity and probe laser intensity are obtained. The experimental results are well analyzed utilizing the density-matrix theory. This system provides a new approach to investigate non-Hermitian physics and discrete solitons.
Katsuwonus pelamis is a tuna species mostly sold for canned fillets, its livers were lack of utilization. This study thus investigated an oil production method combining microwave (MW) pretreatment ...and subcritical dimethyl ether (SDME) in aim to reach improved efficiency and oil quality. The heating characteristics from different MW powers (400, 600, and 800 W) were evaluated, and SEM showed MW having hydrolysis effect on matrix lipoprotein, the fortified recovery rate was also found. Under the MW-SDME condition with 600 W power, 1:5 solid-to-liquid ratio, and 100 min, the recovery reached 93.21% in maximal (SDME ∼50%). To further improve quality, MW powers was noticed affecting lipid types, fatty acid composition, and oxidative stability of produced oils. 1286 lipid types (mostly glyceride and phospholipid-type) were identified, while higher MW lowered the emulsifying phospholipids prompting phase separation. Several oxidation indexes consistently increased with the rising MW power, GC–MS suggested 400 W for higher DHA.
Display omitted
•The MW-SDME method promote oil release with 93.21% recovery.•Stronger MW power lower the proportion of emulsifying phospholipids.•400 W-SDME is suitable for DHA-oils production.•600 W-SDME showed the best performance for recovery and overall quality.
Targeting CD96 that originates in immune cells has shown potential for cancer therapy. However, the role of intrinsic CD96 in solid tumor cells remains unknown. Here, it is found that CD96 is ...frequently expressed in tumor cells from clinical breast cancer samples and is correlated with poor long‐term prognosis in these patients. The CD96+ cancer cell subpopulations exhibit features of both breast cancer stem cells and chemoresistance. In vivo inhibition of cancer cell‐intrinsic CD96 enhances the chemotherapeutic response in a patient‐derived tumor xenograft model. Mechanistically, CD96 enhances mitochondrial fatty acid β‐oxidation via the CD155‐CD96‐Src‐Stat3‐Opa1 pathway, which subsequently promotes chemoresistance in breast cancer stem cells. A previously unknown role is identified for tumor cell‐intrinsic CD96 and an attractive target in improving the chemotherapeutic response.
CD96 expressed in tumor cells is correlated with poor long‐term prognosis in breast cancer patients. The CD96+ cancer cell subpopulations exhibit features of both stemness and chemoresistance. Mechanistically, CD96 enhances mitochondrial fatty acid β‐oxidation via the CD155‐CD96‐Src‐Stat3‐Opa1 pathway, which subsequently promotes chemoresistance in breast cancer stem cells.
Little is known about the association between equol and bioavailable testosterone (BT) in adults. In this study, we examined the associations of urinary equol concentrations with serum concentrations ...of total, bioavailable and free testosterone (FT), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfide (DHEAS), free androgen index (FAI) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). This cross-sectional study included 1,904 women with a mean age of 59.7 years. Urinary equol concentrations were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS). The serum androgenic indices and SHBG were also determined. Overall, urinary equol tended to be inversely associated with bioactive forms of androgenic indices (BT, FT or FAI) but not with total testosterone (TT) or DHEAS. Urinary equol was also positively associated with SHBG. In multi-covariate-adjusted analyses stratified by menopausal status, graded and inverse associations between urinary equol and bioactive forms of androgenic indices (BT, FT and FAI) were observed in postmenopausal women (all p-trends < 0.05), but not in premenopausal women. A significant positive association between urinary equol and SHBG was observed only in postmenopausal women. No significant associations were observed between urinary equol and TT or DHEAS in either group. A path analysis indicated that these associations of equol with androgens in postmenopausal women might be mediated by SHBG. In conclusion, urinary equol exhibited graded and inverse associations with BT or FT, but not TT in women. However, further longitudinal studies of human patients are needed to confirm these results and overcome the limitations of cross-sectional studies.
Natural products from microorganisms are important sources for drug discovery. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology and bioinformatics, a large amount of uncharacterized ...biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in microorganisms have been found, which show the potential for novel natural product production. Nine BGCs containing PKS and/or NRPS in
Streptomyces globisporus
C-1027 were transcriptionally low/silent under the experimental fermentation conditions, and the products of these clusters are unknown. Thus, we tried to activate these BGCs to explore cryptic products of this strain. We constructed the cluster-situated regulator overexpressing strains which contained regulator gene(s) under the control of the constitutive promoter
ermE
*p in
S. globisporus
C-1027. Overexpression of regulators in cluster 26 resulted in significant transcriptional upregulation of biosynthetic genes. With the separation and identification of products from the overexpressing strain OELuxR1R2, three
ortho
-methyl phenyl alkenoic acids (compounds
1–3
) were obtained. Gene disruption showed that compounds
1
and
2
were completely abolished in the mutant GlaEKO, but were hardly affected by deletion of the genes
orf3
or
echA
in cluster 26. The type II PKS biosynthetic pathway of chain-extended cinnamoyl compounds was deduced by bioinformatics analysis. This study showed that overexpression of the two adjacent cluster-situated LuxR regulator(s) is an effective strategy to connect the orphan BGC to its products.
Limited information is available about the effects of HIV and subsequent antiretroviral treatment on host-microbe interactions. This study aimed to determine the salivary microbial composition for 10 ...HIV-seropositive subjects, before and 6 months after highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), compared with that for 10 HIV-seronegative subjects. A conventional culture and two culture-independent analyses were used and consistently demonstrated differences in microbial composition among the three sets of samples. HIV-positive subjects had higher levels of total cultivable microbes, including oral streptococci, lactobacilli, Streptococcus mutans, and Candida, in saliva than did HIV-negative subjects. The total cultivable microbial levels were significantly correlated with CD4+ T cell counts. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), which compared the overall microbial profiles, showed distinct fingerprinting profiles for each group. The human oral microbe identification microarray (HOMIM) assay, which compared the 16S rRNA genes, showed clear separation among the three sample groups. Veillonella, Synergistetes, and Streptococcus were present in all 30 saliva samples. Only minor changes or no changes in the prevalence of Neisseria, Haemophilus, Gemella, Leptotrichia, Solobacterium, Parvimonas, and Rothia were observed. Seven genera, Capnocytophaga, Slackia, Porphyromonas, Kingella, Peptostreptococcaceae, Lactobacillus, and Atopobium, were detected only in HIV-negative samples. The prevalences of Fusobacterium, Campylobacter, Prevotella, Capnocytophaga, Selenomonas, Actinomyces, Granulicatella, and Atopobium were increased after HAART. In contrast, the prevalence of Aggregatibacter was significantly decreased after HAART. The findings of this study suggest that HIV infection and HAART can have significant effects on salivary microbial colonization and composition.
The technique of electrical conductivity relaxation (ECR) is a widely utilized method for obtaining oxygen chemical surface exchange (k) and bulk diffusion (D) coefficients for mixed ionic electronic ...conductors. Although the technique is conceptually simple, its practical application does not frequently produce reliably accurate values of k and D, and many examples of poor agreement can be found in the published literature. In this present paper, methods for enhancing the accuracy of the ECR technique relative to data processing are described in detail. Physically accurate determination of the actual starting time (t
0) and improved methods for data fitting of ECR measurements are discussed. To test the methods described, generated relaxation data sets are analyzed by using non-linear-least-square (NLLS) methods. The results showed that fixing t
0 based on an ideally stirred reactor model improves the fitted results compared to treating t
0 as a fitted parameter. Additionally, evaluation of the global minimum in the fitted error is made by analyzing multiple samples of varying thickness, which improves parameter evaluation compared to analysis of a single relaxation data set. The improved accuracy of the computed values of k and D is described in comparison to conventional methods.
► Two methods to determine actual time zero for ECR experiment have been compared. ► Local minima were found for the reported ECR data analysis method. ► ECR data analysis method was improved by analyzing two different thickness samples. ► More accurate predictions for oxygen transport kinetic parameters can be obtained.
This paper juxtaposes existing public policies and different planning paradigms with evidence from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City (NYC). Zip code tabulation area (ZCTA) data ...for NYC are used to address four main questions: (1) How do urban density and crowding affect infection rates? (2) How does the commuting environment relate to pandemic resilience? (3) How does the allocation of points of interest within a city impact the infection rate? (4) How do evident inequalities in a city influence vulnerability during a pandemic? The presented evidence is used to demonstrate that compact, well-mixed, and decentralized cities can increase pandemic resilience due to advantageous features such as short commute times and well-distributed points of interest. At the architectural level, more resilient apartment building typologies need to be developed to mitigate the ramifications of overcrowding. This analysis also reveals significant spatial disparities and how they disproportionally affect the pandemic risk of the vulnerable communities. These findings warrant a broader discussion on how urban design and planning can mitigate inequalities and transform cities into a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable urban environment. 'Practice relevance' This paper helps urban designers and planners understand how the built environment is associated with infectious disease dynamics. New evidence from data analysis shows that a pandemic-resilient urban environment for compact and mixed cities consists of many factors: decentralized urban activities, adequate affordable dwellings, resilient building typologies, good proximities between jobs and homes, restricted commute time, diverse commuting mode choices, and balanced allocations of urban services and facilities in line with the residential density. This study can guide short-term responses in the safe recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, as well as long-term urban design and planning decisions for pursuing a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable urban environment in future public health emergencies. As reopening policies and future urban development schemes continue to be debated, it is critical to assess data on the impact of the current pandemic in major cities to inform decision-makers faced with major policy choices.
PDF
