A new high-resolution atmosphere-ocean coupled general circulation model named MIROC4h has been developed, and its performance in a 120-year control experiment (including a 50-year spin-up) under the ...present conditions (the year 1950) is examined. The results of the control experiment by MIROC4h are compared with simulations of preindustrial conditions carried out for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC AR4) using the previous high- and medium-resolution versions of the model, called MIROC3h and MIROC3m, respectively. A major change in MIROC4h is a doubling of the resolution of the atmospheric component to 0.5625°, compared to 1.125° for MIROC3h. The oceanic components of MIROC4h and MIROC3h are eddy-permitting, with a horizontal resolution of 0.28125° (zonal) × 0.1875° (meridional). In MIROC3m, the horizontal resolution is 2.8125° for the atmospheric component and 1.40625° (zonal) × 0.56°–1.4° (meridional) for the ocean component. Compared with MIROC3h and MIROC3m, many improvements have been achieved; for example, errors in the surface air temperature and sea surface temperature are smaller, there is less drift of the ocean water temperature in the subsurface-deep ocean, and the frequency of heavy rain is comparable to observations. The fine horizontal resolution in the atmosphere makes orographic wind and its effects on the ocean more realistic than those of the former models, and the treatment of coastal upwelling motion in the ocean has been improved. Phenomena in the atmosphere and ocean related to the El Niño and southern oscillation are now closer to observations than was obtained by MIROC3h and MIROC3m. The effective climate sensitivity for CO2 doubling is calculated to be about 5.7 K, which is much larger than the value obtained using the IPCC AR4 models, and is mainly due to a decrease in the low-level clouds at low latitudes.
Since 1998, we have treated primary and oligometastatic lung tumors with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). The term "oligometastasis" is used to indicate a small number of metastases limited to ...an organ. We evaluated our clinical experience of SBRT for oligometastatic lung tumors.
A total of 34 patients with oligometastatic lung tumors were included in this study. The primary involved organs were the lung (n = 15), colorectum (n = 9), head and neck (n = 5), kidney (n = 3), breast (n = 1), and bone (n = 1). Five to seven, noncoplanar, static 6-MV photon beams were used to deliver 48 Gy (n = 18) or 60 Gy (n = 16) at the isocenter, with 12 Gy/fraction within 4-18 days (median, 12 days).
The overall survival rate, local relapse-free rate, and progression-free rate at 2 years was 84.3%, 90.0%, and 34.8%, respectively. No local progression was observed in tumors irradiated with 60 Gy. SBRT-related pulmonary toxicities were observed in 4 (12%) Grade 2 cases and 1 (3%) Grade 3 case. Patients with a longer disease-free interval had a greater overall survival rate.
The clinical result of SBRT for oligometastatic lung tumors in our institute was comparable to that after surgical metastasectomy; thus, SBRT could be an effective treatment of pulmonary oligometastases.
Purpose
To predict radiation pneumonitis (RP) grade 2 or worse after lung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) using dose‐based radiomic (dosiomic) features.
Methods
This multi‐institutional ...study included 247 early‐stage nonsmall cell lung cancer patients who underwent SBRT with a prescribed dose of 48–70 Gy at an isocenter between June 2009 and March 2016. Ten dose–volume indices (DVIs) were used, including the mean lung dose, internal target volume size, and percentage of entire lung excluding the internal target volume receiving greater than x Gy (x = 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40). A total of 6,808 dose‐segmented dosiomic features, such as shape, first order, and texture features, were extracted from the dose distribution. Patients were randomly partitioned into two groups: model training (70%) and test datasets (30%) over 100 times. Dosiomic features were converted to z‐scores (standardized values) with a mean of zero and a standard deviation (SD) of one to put different variables on the same scale. The feature dimension was reduced using the following methods: interfeature correlation based on Spearman’s correlation coefficients and feature importance based on a light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM) feature selection function. Three different models were developed using LightGBM as follows: (a) a model with ten DVIs (DVI model), (b) a model with the selected dosiomic features (dosiomic model), and (c) a model with ten DVIs and selected dosiomic features (hybrid model). Suitable hyperparameters were determined by searching the largest average area under the curve (AUC) value in the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC–AUC) via stratified fivefold cross‐validation. Each of the final three models with the closest the ROC–AUC value to the average ROC–AUC value was applied to the test datasets. The classification performance was evaluated by calculating the ROC–AUC, AUC in the precision–recall curve (PR–AUC), accuracy, precision, recall, and f1‐score. The entire process was repeated 100 times with randomization, and 100 individual models were developed for each of the three models. Then the mean value and SD for the 100 random iterations were calculated for each performance metric.
Results
Thirty‐seven (15.0%) patients developed RP after SBRT. The ROC–AUC and PR–AUC values in the DVI, dosiomic, and hybrid models were 0.660 ± 0.054 and 0.272 ± 0.052, 0.837 ± 0.054 and 0.510 ± 0.115, and 0.846 ± 0.049 and 0.531 ± 0.116, respectively. For each performance metric, the dosiomic and hybrid models outperformed the DVI models (P < 0.05). Texture‐based dosiomic feature was confirmed as an effective indicator for predicting RP.
Conclusions
Our dose‐segmented dosiomic approach improved the prediction of the incidence of RP after SBRT.
The ayu or sweetfish Plecoglossus altivelis is ray-finned fish that is widely distributed in East Asia. The genome size of ayu was estimated at approximately 420 Mb. Previously, we reported on ayu ...draft genome assembly by whole-genome shotgun using Illumina short reads and PacBio long reads; however, the assembly was not to chromosome level. Therefore, to improve the draft genome sequence of ayu to chromosome level, we performed in situ Hi-C sequencing as a source of linkage information.
The ayu genome assembly yielded 28 large scaffolds that corresponded to the karyotype of ayu (n = 28). The resulting ayu genome assembly has a N50 scaffold length of 17.0 Mb, improved from 4.3 Mb. The high-quality reference genome will be helpful for phylogenetic research on bony fishes and for breeding programs in ayu aquaculture.
In this Feature Article, we focus on recent advances in our research on molecular recognition and fluorescence sensing of phosphate anion derivatives of biological importance. Because of their ...significant roles in biological systems, considerable efforts have been devoted to developing detection or determination systems. However, the recognition and sensing of these anion species under aqueous biological conditions using small-molecular chemosensors still remain as a challenging research topic. We have been developing a variety of artificial receptors and fluorescent chemosensors for phosphoproteins and nucleoside polyphosphates in recent years. They consist of a binuclear Zn(II)-dipicolylamine (Dpa) complex as a common binding motif for phosphate anion derivatives. Taking advantage of their strong binding affinities or high sensing abilities, a variety of biological assay systems have also been successfully developed, which includes the enzyme assays such as the kinase, phosphatase and glycosyltransferase reaction, as well as an inhibitor assay for the phosphoprotein-protein surface interaction.
Age-related hearing loss (AHL), also known as presbycusis, is a universal feature of mammalian aging and is characterized by a decline of auditory function, such as increased hearing thresholds and ...poor frequency resolution. The primary pathology of AHL includes the hair cells, stria vascularis, and afferent spiral ganglion neurons as well as the central auditory pathways. A growing body of evidence in animal studies has suggested that cumulative effect of oxidative stress could induce damage to macromolecules such as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and that the resulting accumulation of mtDNA mutations/deletions and decline of mitochondrial function play an important role in inducing apoptosis of the cochlear cells, thereby the development of AHL. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated four categories of risk factors of AHL in humans: cochlear aging, environment such as noise exposure, genetic predisposition, and health co-morbidities such as cigarette smoking and atherosclerosis. Genetic investigation has identified several putative associating genes, including those related to antioxidant defense and atherosclerosis. Exposure to noise is known to induce excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the cochlea, and cumulative oxidative stress can be enhanced by relatively hypoxic situations resulting from the impaired homeostasis of cochlear blood supply due to atherosclerosis, which could be accelerated by genetic and co-morbidity factors. Antioxidant defense system may also be influenced by genetic backgrounds. These may explain the large variations of the onset and extent of AHL among elderly subjects.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled “Annual Reviews 2013”.
► We did comprehensive review of human and animal studies of age-related hearing loss. ► Epidemiologic studies indicated four categories of risk factors. ► Genetic investigation identified several associating genes. ► Animal studies supported the role of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. ► We proposed conceptual model of the development of AHL.
Key points
Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by abnormalities at multifaceted aspects of motor dexterity and neural functions.
Evidence bridging between pathophysiology and movement ...abnormalities is limited.
A novel finding was that in focal task‐specific dystonia (FTSD), an aberrantly reduced inhibition at the motor cortex was related to the temporal imprecision of the dexterous finger movements, whereas an elevated facilitation was associated with an abnormally sluggish transition of finger movements from flexion to extension.
We newly identified two sets of behavioural–physiological covariations as hallmarks of hand FTSD, which is clinically significant because these findings provide novel evidence connecting distinct types of malfunctions within the motor cortex at rest with distinct aspects of motor dexterity degradation in FTSD patients.
Focal task‐specific dystonia (FTSD) compromises dexterous movements. A proposed pathophysiological mechanism of FTSD involves malfunction of the motor cortex (M1). However, no evidence is yet available regarding whether and how malfunctions of M1 are responsible for the loss of motor dexterity. Here, we addressed this issue by assessing both M1 excitability and detailed movement parameters, as well as their relationships. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over M1 in 20 pianists with FTSD, 20 healthy pianists and 20 non‐musicians. The patients demonstrated both reduced short‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and elevated intracortical facilitation (ICF) compared with the healthy controls. This indicates that the abnormal cortical excitability reflects pathophysiology but not current skills. Hand motor dexterity was evaluated by position sensors during piano playing at two tempi. The patients showed delayed transition from finger flexion to extension at the fastest tempo and greater timing variability of the finger movements. Furthermore, multivariate analyses identified distinct sets of covariation between cortical excitability and dexterity measures. Namely, the SICI measure and ICF measure were associated with the temporal variability of the movements and the quickness of the transition from flexion to extension, respectively. Specifically, the reduced inhibition and elevated facilitation at M1 in pianists was related to the temporal imprecision and impairment of quick transitions in the sequential finger movements. The present study provides novel evidence associating M1 malfunctions with dexterity loss.
Key points
Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by abnormalities at multifaceted aspects of motor dexterity and neural functions.
Evidence bridging between pathophysiology and movement abnormalities is limited.
A novel finding was that in focal task‐specific dystonia (FTSD), an aberrantly reduced inhibition at the motor cortex was related to the temporal imprecision of the dexterous finger movements, whereas an elevated facilitation was associated with an abnormally sluggish transition of finger movements from flexion to extension.
We newly identified two sets of behavioural–physiological covariations as hallmarks of hand FTSD, which is clinically significant because these findings provide novel evidence connecting distinct types of malfunctions within the motor cortex at rest with distinct aspects of motor dexterity degradation in FTSD patients.
A tripodal quinone-cyanine dye having one donor and three acceptors, that is, one quinone and three N-methylbenzothiazolium moieties, QCy(MeBT)3, was synthesized by simple Knoevenagel condensation ...between 2-hydroxybenzene-1,3,5-tricarbaldehyde and N-methyl-2-methylbenzothiazolium iodide. The 700 nm (λex, 570 nm) and 600 nm (λex, 470 nm) fluorescence emission of QCy(MeBT)3 was significantly and individually enhanced with the addition of G-quadruplex (G4) DNA and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), respectively. The results of docking simulations and the response against the viscosity change revealed that the dual-fluorescence response was caused by the difference in the binding mode of QCy(MeBT)3 depending on the DNA structure. The results of fluorescence microscopy imaging experiments using QCy(MeBT)3 suggested that G4 DNAs and dsDNAs in the cell nucleus can be imaged with near-infrared (NIR, 700 nm) and red (600 nm) fluorescence emissions. Furthermore, pyridostatin-induced G4 formation in the living cells can be imaged with NIR fluorescence. The results indicated that QCy(MeBT)3 has huge potential to be a NIR-fluorescent molecular probe for analyzing the structural dynamics of nucleic acids in living cells with a normal fluorescence microscope.
Decadal-scale climate variations over the Pacific Ocean and its surroundings are strongly related to the so-called Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) which is coherent with wintertime climate over ...North America and Asian monsoon, and have important impacts on marine ecosystems and fisheries. In a near-term climate prediction covering the period up to 2030, we require knowledge of the future state of internal variations in the climate system such as the PDO as well as the global warming signal. We perform sets of ensemble hindcast and forecast experiments using a coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model to examine the predictability of internal variations on decadal timescales, in addition to the response to external forcing due to changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, volcanic activity, and solar cycle variations. Our results highlight that an initialization of the upper-ocean state using historical observations is effective for successful hindcasts of the PDO and has a great impact on future predictions. Ensemble hindcasts for the 20th century demonstrate a predictive skill in the upper-ocean temperature over almost a decade, particularly around the Kuroshio-Oyashio extension (KOE) and subtropical oceanic frontal regions where the PDO signals are observed strongest. A negative tendency of the predicted PDO phase in the coming decade will enhance the rising trend in surface air-temperature (SAT) over east Asia and over the KOE region, and suppress it along the west coasts of North and South America and over the equatorial Pacific. This suppression will contribute to a slowing down of the global-mean SAT rise.
Machine learning in gastrointestinal surgery Sakamoto, Takashi; Goto, Tadahiro; Fujiogi, Michimasa ...
Surgery today (Tokyo, Japan),
07/2022, Volume:
52, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Machine learning (ML) is a collection of algorithms allowing computers to learn directly from data without predetermined equations. It is used widely to analyze “big data”. In gastrointestinal ...surgery, surgeons deal with various data such as clinical parameters, surgical videos, and pathological images, to stratify surgical risk, perform safe surgery and predict patient prognosis. In the current “big data” era, the accelerating accumulation of a large amount of data drives studies using ML algorithms. Three subfields of ML are supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning. In this review, we summarize applications of ML to surgical practice in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases of care. Prediction and stratification using ML is promising; however, the current overarching concern is the availability of ML models. Information systems that can manage “big data” and integrate ML models into electronic health records are essential to incorporate ML into daily practice. ML is fundamental technology to meaningfully process data that exceeds the capacity of the human mind to comprehend. The accelerating accumulation of a large amount of data is changing the nature of surgical practice fundamentally. Artificial intelligence (AI), represented by ML, is being incorporated into daily surgical practice.
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