The present study aimed to develop an AI-based system for the detection and classification of polyps using colonoscopy images. A total of about 256,220 colonoscopy images from 5000 colorectal cancer ...patients were collected and processed. We used the CNN model for polyp detection and the EfficientNet-b0 model for polyp classification. Data were partitioned into training, validation and testing sets, with a 70%, 15% and 15% ratio, respectively. After the model was trained/validated/tested, to evaluate its performance rigorously, we conducted a further external validation using both prospective (
= 150) and retrospective (
= 385) approaches for data collection from 3 hospitals. The deep learning model performance with the testing set reached a state-of-the-art sensitivity and specificity of 0.9709 (95% CI: 0.9646-0.9757) and 0.9701 (95% CI: 0.9663-0.9749), respectively, for polyp detection. The polyp classification model attained an AUC of 0.9989 (95% CI: 0.9954-1.00). The external validation from 3 hospital results achieved 0.9516 (95% CI: 0.9295-0.9670) with the lesion-based sensitivity and a frame-based specificity of 0.9720 (95% CI: 0.9713-0.9726) for polyp detection. The model achieved an AUC of 0.9521 (95% CI: 0.9308-0.9734) for polyp classification. The high-performance, deep-learning-based system could be used in clinical practice to facilitate rapid, efficient and reliable decisions by physicians and endoscopists.
Between January 2010 and December 2015, we enrolled 28 patients with stage IEI/IIE1 extragastric mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma who received first‐line antibiotic treatment, after ...informing them about the pros and cons of alternative therapies. In addition, during the same period, 64 patients with stage IE/IIE1 disease who received conventional treatment were selected as the control group. The most common primary sites were the ocular adnexal area (17 cases), followed by the salivary glands (four cases), pulmonary (three cases), and thyroid, trachea, larynx, and colon region (one case each). First‐line antibiotic treatment resulted in an overall response rate of 57.1%: 12 patients achieved complete remission (CR), while four achieved partial remission (antibiotic‐responsive tumors). Monoclonal gammopathy was significantly prevalent in antibiotic‐unresponsive tumors than in antibiotic‐responsive tumors (50.0% 6/12 vs. 12.5% 2/16, p = 0.044). After a median follow‐up of 7 years, all patients with CR remained lymphoma‐free, with 7‐year event‐free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of 62.7% and 96.4%, respectively. The 7‐year EFS and OS rates of patients who received conventional treatments were 73.1% and 91.1%, respectively. Compared with that noted in patients who received conventional treatment, antibiotic treatment was effective in some patients with localized extragastric MALT lymphoma.
We conducted a methodological review of articles using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) or Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data published by the ...SSCI-indexed science education journals, such as the
International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education
, the
International Journal of Science Education
, the
Journal of Research in Science Teaching
, and
Science Education
, from 1996 to 2013. A total of 51 empirical articles from 8 journals were identified as the sample for this study. These articles were analyzed in terms of the 2 essential statistical techniques, sampling weights and design effects, used to analyze the international large-scale assessment (ILSA) data. The study also summarized the most commonly used quantitative methods for analyzing PISA and TIMSS data in these articles. The results indicate that the weights and design effects, essential adjustments for analyzing large-scale data, were reported in less than half of the studies. Suggestions regarding the use of appropriate techniques and reporting as well as data analysis methods are made for science education researchers who use ILSA data in their research.
This study assessed oxidatively damaged DNA and antioxidant enzyme activity in workers occupational exposure to metal oxides nanomaterials. Exposure to TiO
2
, SiO
2
, and ITO resulted in significant ...lower antioxidant enzymes (glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase) and higher oxidative biomarkers 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) than comparison workers. Statistically significant correlations were noted between plasma and urine 8-oxodG, between white blood cells (WBC) and urine 8-oxodG, and between WBC and plasma 8-oxodG. In addition, there were significant negative correlations between WBC 8-oxodG and SOD and between urinary 8-oxodG and GPx levels. The results showed that urinary 8-oxodG may be considered to be better biomarker.
IP multimedia core network subsystem (IMS) provides presence service for universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). In IMS, the presence server is responsible for notifying an authorized ...watcher of the updated presence information. If the updates occur more frequently than the accesses of the watcher, the presence server will generate many notifications. This paper uses a weakly consistent scheme (called delayed update) to reduce the notification traffic. In this scheme, a delayed timer is defined to control the notification rate. We propose an analytic model and simulation experiments to investigate the performance of delayed update. The study indicates that delayed update can effectively reduce the notification traffic without significantly degrading the valid access probability.
Photosynthetic proteins (PSPs) greatly differ in their structure and function as they are involved in numerous subprocesses that take place inside an organelle called a chloroplast. Few studies ...predict PSPs from sequences due to their high variety of sequences and structues. This work aims to predict and characterize PSPs by establishing the datasets of PSP and non-PSP sequences and developing prediction methods.
A novel bioinformatics method of predicting and characterizing PSPs based on scoring card method (SCMPSP) was used. First, a dataset consisting of 649 PSPs was established by using a Gene Ontology term GO:0015979 and 649 non-PSPs from the SwissProt database with sequence identity <= 25%.- Several prediction methods are presented based on support vector machine (SVM), decision tree J48, Bayes, BLAST, and SCM. The SVM method using dipeptide features-performed well and yielded - a test accuracy of 72.31%. The SCMPSP method uses the estimated propensity scores of 400 dipeptides - as PSPs and has a test accuracy of 71.54%, which is comparable to that of the SVM method. The derived propensity scores of 20 amino acids were further used to identify informative physicochemical properties for characterizing PSPs. The analytical results reveal the following four characteristics of PSPs: 1) PSPs favour hydrophobic side chain amino acids; 2) PSPs are composed of the amino acids prone to form helices in membrane environments; 3) PSPs have low interaction with water; and 4) PSPs prefer to be composed of the amino acids of electron-reactive side chains.
The SCMPSP method not only estimates the propensity of a sequence to be PSPs, it also discovers characteristics that further improve understanding of PSPs. The SCMPSP source code and the datasets used in this study are available at http://iclab.life.nctu.edu.tw/SCMPSP/.
The aim of this study was to establish and identify the health effect markers of workers with potential exposure to nanoparticles (20–100 nm) during manufacturing and/or application of nanomaterials. ...For this cross-sectional study, we recruited 227 workers who handled nanomaterials and 137 workers for comparison who did not from 14 plants in Taiwan. A questionnaire was used to collect data on exposure status, demographics, and potential confounders. The health effect markers were measured in the medical laboratory. Control banding from the Nanotool Risk Level Matrix was used to categorize the exposure risk levels of the workers. The results showed that the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD) in risk level 1 (RL1) and risk level 2 (RL2) workers was significantly (
p
< 0.05) lower than in control workers. A significantly decreasing gradient was found for SOD (control > RL1 > RL2). Another antioxidant, glutathione peroxidase (GPX), was significantly lower only in RL1 workers than in the control workers. The cardiovascular markers, fibrinogen and ICAM (intercellular adhesion molecule), were significantly higher in RL2 workers than in controls and a significant dose–response with an increasing trend was found for these two cardiovascular markers. Another cardiovascular marker, interleukin-6, was significantly increased among RL1 workers, but not among RL2 workers. The accuracy rate for remembering 7-digits and reciting them backwards was significantly lower in RL2 workers (OR = 0.48) than in controls and a significantly reversed gradient was also found for the correct rate of backward memory (OR = 0.90 for RL1, OR = 0.48 for RL2,
p
< 0.05 in test for trend). Depression of antioxidant enzymes and increased expression of cardiovascular markers were found among workers handling nanomaterials. Antioxidant enzymes, such as SOD and GPX, and cardiovascular markers, such as fibrinogen, ICAM, and interluekin-6, are possible biomarkers for medical surveillance of workers handling engineered nanomaterials.
•Self-efficacy is associated with seeking instructional materials from peers across settings.•Exchanging new ideas plays an important role in seeking materials from peers across settings.•Peer trust ...plays a significant role in the seeking behaviors within the English cohort.
This study attempts to respond to a recent call for a more social and collaborative approach to teacher education and professional development by examining the social side of pre-service teachers during preparations from England, Spain and US. We explore core factors that are associated with dyads of pre-service teachers in exchanging instructional materials at the end of a teacher education program from each setting. Using social network selection models, this study investigates the extent to which pre-service teachers’ reported self-efficacy, peer trust, innovativeness, and demographic characteristics is associated with the sending, receiving, and reciprocating instructional materials. Findings suggest the important role of self-efficacy and innovativeness in explaining pre-service teachers’ seeking behaviors across the study contexts.
A series of indolylsulfonylcinnamic hydroxamates has been synthesized. Compound 12, (E)-3-(3-((1H-pyrrolo2,3-bpyridin-1-yl)sulfonyl)phenyl)-N-hydroxyacrylamide, which has a 7-azaindole core cap, was ...shown to have antiproliferative activity against KB, H460, PC3, HSC-3, HONE-1, A549, MCF-7, TSGH, MKN45, HT29, and HCT116 human cancer cell lines. Pharmacological studies indicated that 12 functions as a potent HDAC inhibitor with an IC50 value of 0.1 μM. It is highly selective for histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) and is 60-fold more active than against HDAC1 and 223-fold more active than against HDAC2. It has a good pharmacokinetic profile with oral bioavailability of 33%. In in vivo efficacy evaluations in colorectal HCT116 xenografts, compound 12 suppresses tumor growth more effectively than SAHA (1, N-hydroxy-N′-phenyloctanediamide) and is therefore seen as a suitable candidate for further investigation.
The mitochondrial (mt) displacement loop (D-loop) is known to accumulate structural alterations and mutations. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of single nucleotide ...polymorphisms (SNPs) within the D-loop among chronic dialysis patients and healthy controls.
We enrolled 193 chronic dialysis patients and 704 healthy controls. SNPs were identified by large scale D-loop sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. Chronic dialysis patients had lower body mass index, blood thiols, and cholesterol levels than controls. A total of 77 SNPs matched with the positions in reference of the Revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS) were found in the study population. Chronic dialysis patients had a significantly higher incidence of 9 SNPs compared to controls. These include SNP5 (16108Y), SNP17 (16172Y), SNP21 (16223Y), SNP34 (16274R), SNP35 (16278Y), SNP55 (16463R), SNP56 (16519Y), SNP64 (185R), and SNP65 (189R) in D-loop of CRS. Among these SNPs with genotypes, SNP55-G, SNP56-C, and SNP64-A were 4.78, 1.47, and 5.15 times more frequent in dialysis patients compared to controls (P<0.05), respectively. When adjusting the covariates of demographics and comorbidities, SNP64-A was 5.13 times more frequent in dialysis patients compared to controls (P<0.01). Furthermore, SNP64-A was found to be 35.80, 3.48, 4.69, 5,55, and 4.67 times higher in female patients and in patients without diabetes, coronary artery disease, smoking, and hypertension in an independent significance manner (P<0.05), respectively. In patients older than 50 years or with hypertension, SNP34-A and SNP17-C were found to be 7.97 and 3.71 times more frequent (P<0.05) compared to patients younger than 50 years or those without hypertension, respectively.
The results of large-scale sequencing suggest that specific SNPs in the mtDNA D-loop are significantly associated with chronic dialysis. These SNPs can be considered as potential predictors for chronic dialysis.