(
) status has important implications for prognosis and therapy of pediatric low-grade gliomas. Currently,
status classification relies on biopsy. Our aim was to train and validate a radiomics ...approach to predict
fusion and
V600E mutation.
In this bi-institutional retrospective study, FLAIR MR imaging datasets of 115 pediatric patients with low-grade gliomas from 2 children's hospitals acquired between January 2009 and January 2016 were included and analyzed. Radiomics features were extracted from tumor segmentations, and the predictive model was tested using independent training and testing datasets, with all available tumor types. The model was selected on the basis of a grid search on the number of trees, opting for the best split for a random forest. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve to evaluate model performance.
The training cohort consisted of 94 pediatric patients with low-grade gliomas (mean age, 9.4 years; 45 boys), and the external validation cohort comprised 21 pediatric patients with low-grade gliomas (mean age, 8.37 years; 12 boys). A 4-fold cross-validation scheme predicted
status with an area under the curve of 0.75 (SD, 0.12) (95% confidence interval, 0.62-0.89) on the internal validation cohort. By means of the optimal hyperparameters determined by 4-fold cross-validation, the area under the curve for the external validation was 0.85. Age and tumor location were significant predictors of
status (
values = .04 and <.001, respectively). Sex was not a significant predictor (
value = .96).
Radiomics-based prediction of
status in pediatric low-grade gliomas appears feasible in this bi-institutional exploratory study.
It is predicted that 60% of all new energy investments over the next 20 years will be in renewables. The estimation for new hydropower production is 25% of all new renewables primarily due to ...potential in China, Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. Also in Europe a growth of hydropower production is aimed to achieve emission targets within the European Union by 2050. However, one of the main economic, technical and ecological challenges in future are the deposition, the treatment, and the disturbed dynamics of sediments in river catchments, which reduce the future market potential of hydropower substantially. Due to a lack in awareness of those sedimentological challenges (e.g. lack of process understanding), various huge economical, technical and ecological problems emerge with an increasing relevance for hydropower industry, water management authorities and the society in future. Based on a substantial literature review, (i) legal frameworks and (ii) reservoir management techniques including (iii) process understanding and numerical modelling are addressed in this article. Moreover, the relevant cost-effective aspects of abrasion are worked out for (iv) turbine runners and (v) sediment bypass systems as well as the (vi) the ecological relevance of sediments and possible disturbances are described in this manuscript to open a future discussion on technical opportunities. It was concluded, that all these issues should be addressed within the framework of the overall aim to minimize the costs under consideration of ecological requirements and standards by an improved sediment management in terms of hydropower use. Moreover, it was stated that trans- and interdisciplinary research is required, to achieve those aims in future.
•Overview of state of the art sediment technologies in hydropower.•Future challenges and existing shortcomings in reservoir management.•Integrative Ecological assessment tools and legal background for sediment management.
It is widely believed that perinatal cardiomyocyte terminal differentiation blocks cytokinesis, thereby causing binucleation and limiting regenerative repair after injury. This suggests that heart ...growth should occur entirely by cardiomyocyte hypertrophy during preadolescence when, in mice, cardiac mass increases many-fold over a few weeks. Here, we show that a thyroid hormone surge activates the IGF-1/IGF-1-R/Akt pathway on postnatal day 15 and initiates a brief but intense proliferative burst of predominantly binuclear cardiomyocytes. This proliferation increases cardiomyocyte numbers by ∼40%, causing a major disparity between heart and cardiomyocyte growth. Also, the response to cardiac injury at postnatal day 15 is intermediate between that observed at postnatal days 2 and 21, further suggesting persistence of cardiomyocyte proliferative capacity beyond the perinatal period. If replicated in humans, this may allow novel regenerative therapies for heart diseases.
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•Murine cardiomyocytes continue to proliferate well after the neonatal period•A proliferative burst in preadolescence establishes the final cardiomyocyte number•Proliferation is initiated by the thyroid hormone/IGF-1/IGF-1-R/Akt pathway•Persistence of cardiomyocyte proliferation improves outcomes after cardiac injury
The heart adjusts to the increased circulatory demand in the postnatal period through a brief intense surge of cardiomyocyte proliferation during preadolescence, initiated by thyroid hormone signaling.
Partial nitritation anammox (PNA) membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABRs) have the potential to be employed in mainstream wastewater treatment and can drastically decrease the energy and carbon ...requirements for nitrogen removal. Previous PNA MABR studies have looked at 1-stage systems, but no study has holistically compared the performance of different MABR configurations. In this study, a PNA MABR was mechanistically modelled to determine the impact of the reactor configuration (1-stage, hybrid, or 2-stage system) on the location of the preferred niche for anammox bacteria and the overall nitrogen removal performance. Results from this study show that the 2-stage configuration, which used an MABR with a thin biofilm for nitritation and a moving bed biofilm reactor for anammox, had a 20% larger nitrogen removal rate than the 1-stage or hybrid configurations. This suggests that an MABR should focus on maximizing nitrite production with anammox implemented in a second-stage biofilm reactor to achieve the most cost-effective nitrogen removal. However, the optimal configuration will likely be facility specific, as each facility differs in operating costs, construction costs, footprint, and effluent limits. Additional experimentation is required to confirm these results, but this work narrows the number of viable configurations that need to be tested. The results of this study will inform researchers and engineers how to best implement PNA MABRs in mainstream nitrogen removal at larger scales.
Similar to phosphorylation, GlcNAcylation (the addition of O-GlcNAc to Ser(Thr) residues on polypeptides) is an abundant, dynamic, and inducible post-translational modification. GlcNAcylated proteins ...are crucial in regulating virtually all cellular processes, including signaling, cell cycle, and transcription. Here we show that calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase IV (CaMKIV) is highly GlcNAcylated in vivo. In addition, we show that upon activation of HEK293 cells, hemagglutinin-tagged CaMKIV GlcNAcylation rapidly decreases, in a manner directly opposing its phosphorylation at Thr-200. Correspondingly, there is an increase in CaMKIV interaction with O-GlcNAcase during CaMKIV activation. Furthermore, we identify at least five sites of GlcNAcylation on CaMKIV. Using site-directed mutagenesis, we determine that the GlcNAcylation sites located in the active site of CaMKIV can modulate its phosphorylation at Thr-200 and its activity toward cAMP-response element-binding transcription factor. Our results strongly indicate that the O-GlcNAc modification participates in the regulation of CaMKIV activation and function, possibly coordinating nutritional signals with the immune and nervous systems. This is the first example of an O-GlcNAc/phosphate cycle involving O-GlcNAc transferase/kinase cross-talk.
We study a hypothesis testing problem in which data are compressed distributively and sent to a detector that seeks to decide between two possible distributions for the data. The aim is to ...characterize all achievable encoding rates and exponents of the type 2 error probability when the type 1 error probability is at most a fixed value. For related problems in distributed source coding, schemes based on random binning perform well and are often optimal. For distributed hypothesis testing, however, the use of binning is hindered by the fact that the overall error probability may be dominated by errors in the binning process. We show that despite this complication, binning is optimal for a class of problems in which the goal is to "test against conditional independence." We then use this optimality result to give an outer bound for a more general class of instances of the problem.
Epilepsy affects more than 65 million people worldwide. Treatment for epileptic seizures is ineffective and has many adverse effects. For this reason, the search for new therapeutic options capable ...of filling these limitations is necessary.
In this sense, natural products, such as monoterpenes, have been indicated as a new option to control neurological disorders such as epilepsy.
Therefore, the objective of this study was to review the monoterpenes that have anticonvulsive activity in animal models.
The searches were performed in the PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases in September, 2020 and compiled studies using monoterpenes as an alternative to seizure. Two independent reviewers performed the study selection, data extraction and methodological quality assessment using the Syrcle tool.
51 articles that described the anticonvulsant activity of 35 monoterpenes were selected with action on the main pharmacological target, including GABAA receptors, glutamate, calcium channels, sodium and potassium. In addition, these compounds are capable of reducing neuronal inflammation and oxidative stress caused by seizure.
These compounds stand out as a promising alternative for acting through different pharmacological mechanisms, which may not only reduce seizure, but also promote neuroprotective effect by reducing toxicity in brain regions. However, further studies are needed to determine the mechanism of action and safety assessment of these compounds.
Hematite is a promising and extensively investigated material for various photoelectrochemical (PEC) processes for energy conversion and storage, in particular for oxidation reactions. Thermal ...treatments during synthesis of hematite are found to affect the performance of hematite electrodes considerably. Herein, we present hematite thin films fabricated via one-step oxidation of Fe by rapid thermal processing (RTP). In particular, we investigate the effect of oxidation temperature on the PEC properties of hematite. Films prepared at 750 °C show the highest activity towards water oxidation. These films show the largest average grain size and the highest charge carrier density, as determined from electron microscopy and impedance spectroscopy analysis. We believe that the fast processing enabled by RTP makes this technique a preferred method for investigation of novel materials and architectures, potentially also on nanostructured electrodes, where retaining high surface area is crucial to maximize performance.
When a crisis arises, geographically referenced data is helpful in dealing with the situation. A map can provide a link between available data and stakeholders. It allows all participants to obtain ...an understandable model of the situation. For crisis management, hawse have developed an integrated system with an emphasis on ergonomics and data fusion. Visualization and interaction are tailored towards specific responsibilities as well as towards different devices such as smartphones, desktops and large displays. In addition to commonly available 2D geodata, highly accurate and up-to-date 3D geodata becomes more readily available. 3D geodata displayed on normal display devices, however, naturally lacks the third dimension. In order to gain a better understanding of the situation, we have added a virtual reality variant to its crisis management system. The VR environment allows meeting as a team, connecting local and remote participants, in the VR environment for a more efficient and natural discussion. In this VR meeting, all participants can work with the same geodata and annotations, providing a consistent view of the situation. To assess the additional value of 3D geodata and virtual reality visualization in this context, a user study was conducted comparing the performance using 2D geodata, 3D geodata and visualization in VR. The study provides insights into the task-specific value of 3D geodata and VR visualization.
Structural and functional interconnections of the bilateral central vestibular network have not yet been completely delineated. This includes both ipsilateral and contralateral pathways and crossing ...sites on the way from the vestibular nuclei via the thalamic relay stations to multiple “vestibular cortex” areas. This study investigated “vestibular” connectivity in the living human brain in between the vestibular nuclei and the parieto-insular vestibular cortex (PIVC) by combined structural and functional connectivity mapping using diffusion tensor imaging and functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging in 24 healthy right-handed volunteers. We observed a congruent functional and structural link between the vestibular nuclei and the ipsilateral and contralateral PIVC. Five separate and distinct vestibular pathways were identified: three run ipsilaterally, while the two others cross either in the pons or the midbrain. Two of the ipsilateral projections run through the posterolateral or paramedian thalamic subnuclei, while the third bypasses the thalamus to reach the inferior part of the insular cortex directly. Both contralateral pathways travel through the posterolateral thalamus. At the cortical level, the PIVC regions of both hemispheres with a right hemispherical dominance are interconnected transcallosally through the antero-caudal splenium. The above-described bilateral vestibular circuitry in its entirety takes the form of a structure of a rope ladder extending from the brainstem to the cortex with three crossings in the brainstem (vestibular nuclei, pons, midbrain), none at thalamic level and a fourth cortical crossing through the splenium of the corpus callosum.
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