Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyse the effects of the type, concentration, and nanoparticle diameter of dose enhancement materials on the dose enhancement of low- and high-energy ...megavoltage (MV) X-rays acquired from a medical linear accelerator using Monte Carlo simulation. Monte Carlo simulation was performed with the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport (MCNPX) code, using the energy spectrum of the linear accelerator and a mathematical Snyder head phantom. A 5-cm-diameter virtual tumour was defined in the centre of the phantom. Gold, gadolinium, iodine and iron oxide were used as dose enhancement materials. Varying concentrations (7, 18 and 30 mg/g) of nanoparticles of different diameters (25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 nm) were applied, and the dose enhancement was comparatively evaluated for 4, 6, 10 and 15 MV X-rays, and a 60Co source. Higher dose enhancement factors (DEFs) were observed when the incident energy was low. Moreover, the dose enhancement effects were greatest with gold nanoparticles, followed by gadolinium, iodine, and iron oxide nanoparticles; the DEFs were 1.011–1.047 (gold), 1.005–1.030 (gadolinium), 1.002–1.028 (iodine) and 1.002–1.014 (iron oxide). The dose enhancement effects increased with increasing nanoparticle diameter and concentration. However, the concentration of the material had a greater impact than the diameter of the nanoparticles. As the concentration and diameter of nanoparticles increased, the DEF also increased. The 4 and 6 MV X-rays demonstrated higher dose enhancement compared with the 10 and 15 MV X-rays.
In programming, modeling is a generalized explanatory system that organizes key characteristics of a specific matter or object of interest using computer science concepts. Modeling is integral for ...both automation design in programming education and communication in the collaborative process. This study investigates the effect of learning orientation on the modeling stage based on gender. The study includes 756 male and 688 female elementary-school students. We analyzed the results of XGBOOST by extracting the influential characteristics from feature selection along with the basic statistics. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that learners, regardless of gender, had the largest gap in modeling and that this was the stage at which differences occurred in programming education. For male students, the process of collecting data for modeling or devising a solution was found to be an important learning method. This shows that it is necessary to create an environment to focus on activities that derive solutions from the collected data along with strengthening information retrieval education. Although female students showed a similar tendency to male students, the process of cooperating with friends as a differentiating factor was found to be an important learning method. It seems necessary to apply teaching and learning methods that can strengthen team projects that can collaborate with friends. The findings could serve as a reference for teaching and learning design and operation for effective programming education.
The Asia-Pacific Burden of Respiratory Diseases (APBORD) study is a cross-sectional, observational one which has used a standard protocol to examine the disease and economic burden of allergic ...rhinitis (AR), asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and rhinosinusitis across the Asia-Pacific region. Here, we report on symptoms, healthcare resource use, work impairment, and associated costs in Korea.
Consecutive participants aged ≥18 years with a primary diagnosis of asthma, AR, COPD, or rhinosinusitis were enrolled. Participants and their treating physician completed a survey detailing respiratory symptoms, healthcare resource use, and work productivity and activity impairment. Costs included direct medical cost and indirect cost associated with lost work productivity.
The study enrolled 999 patients. Patients were often diagnosed with multiple respiratory disorders (42.8%), with asthma/AR and AR/rhinosinusitis the most frequently diagnosed combinations. Cough or coughing up phlegm was the primary reason for the medical visit in patients with a primary diagnosis of asthma and COPD, whereas nasal symptoms (watery runny nose, blocked nose, and congestion) were the main reasons in those with AR and rhinosinusitis. The mean annual cost for patients with a respiratory disease was US$8,853 (SD 11,245) per patient. Lost productivity due to presenteeism was the biggest contributor to costs.
Respiratory disease has a significant impact on disease burden in Korea. Treatment strategies for preventing lost work productivity could greatly reduce the economic burden of respiratory disease.
An atmosphere‐ocean mixed layer coupled model is developed to predict the diurnal variability of sea surface temperature (SST). For this purpose, a new mixed layer model is developed, which is able ...to reproduce realistic temperature profiles under the various atmospheric conditions, ranging from the formation of a diurnal thermocline under strong wind to the appearance of strong near surface stratification under weak wind. The predicted diurnal warming of SST (ΔSST) from the model is compared with satellite and buoy data in various aspects, including scatterplots, time series, and probability density functions of ΔSST, in order to examine the predictability. The model performance is also compared with other model results. In addition the diurnal variation of temperature profiles below the sea surface, whose information is not available from satellite data, is investigated based on model output.
Key Points
Diurnal warming of SST is predicted using the atmosphere‐mixed layer coupled model
New mixed layer model is developed to predict SST under various atmosphere conditions
Predicted diurnal warming of SST is compared with satellite data
Background Thymosin β4 is a multi-functional hormone-like polypeptide, being involved in cell migration, angiogenesis, and tumor metastasis. This study was undertaken to clarify the clinicopathologic ...implications of thymosin β4 expression in human colorectal cancers (CRCs). Methods We investigated tissue sections from 143 patients with CRC by immunohistochemistry. In addition, we evaluated the expression patterns and the clinico-pathological significance of thymosin β4 expression in association with hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression in the CRC series. Results High expression of thymosin β4 was significantly correlated with lymphovascular invasion, invasion depth, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage. Patients with high expression of thymosin β4 showed poor recurrence-free survival (p = .001) and poor overall survival (p = .005) on multivariate analysis. We also found that thymosin β4 and HIF-1α were overexpressed and that thymosin β4 expression increased in parallel with HIF-1α expression in CRC. Conclusions A high expression level of thymosin β4 indicates poor clinical outcomes and may be a useful prognostic factor in CRC. Thymosin β4 is functionally related with HIF-1α and may be a potentially valuable biomarker and possible therapeutic target for CRC.
An endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS) is an uncommon uterine neoplasm, and its primary occurrence in the intestine as an extrauterine ESS (EESS) is exceedingly rare. We hereby report a primary EESS ...arising in the sigmoid colon with a review of the literature. A 52-year-old woman presented with bloody stool and underwent a colon fiberscopy, which revealed a fungating mass obstructing the lumen at the distal sigmoid. A laparoscopic low anterior resection was performed, and an umbilicated polypoid mass was identified; on section, it had infiltrated the mesocolic fat and measured 3.8 cm × 2.5 cm. The tumor showed geographic sheets or nests composed of relatively monotonous stromal cells, expansion or infiltration to the proper muscle and mesocolic fat, and extensive lymphovascular invasion and metastasis to regional lymph nodes and the pelvic peritoneum. The tumor cells were strongly and diffusely immunoreactive for CD10, but negative for c-kit, CD34, and Dog1. Two months later, a hysterectomy with a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed, and no evidence of an ESS was found in the uterus.
ABSTRACT
Background and objective: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in men and women worldwide. The mechanism of cell death induced by CAY10404, a highly selective ...cyclooxygenase‐2 inhibitor, was evaluated in three non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines (H460, H358, H1703).
Methods: To measure the effects of CAY10404 on proliferation of NSCLC cells, 3 × 103 cells/well were plated in 96‐well plates and allowed to adhere overnight at 37°C. After treatment with CAY10404 for 3 days, cell proliferation was measured by the 3‐ (4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. In the H460 NSCLC cells, evidence of apoptosis was sought using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxyuridine triphosphate (dUTP) nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay and western blot analysis.
Results: Treatment with CAY10404 in the range of 10–100 µM caused dose‐dependent growth inhibition, with an average 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 60–100 µmol/L, depending on the cell line. Western blot analysis of CAY10404‐treated cells showed cleavage of poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) and procaspase‐3, signifying caspase activity and apoptotic cell death. CAY10404 treatment inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt, glycogen synthase kinase‐3β and extracellular signal‐regulated kinases 1/2 in H460 and H358 cells.
Conclusions: These results suggest that CAY10404 is a potent inducer of apoptosis in NSCLC cells, and that it may act by suppressing multiple protein kinase B/Akt and mitogen‐activated protein kinase pathways.
Multi-channel sea surface temperature (MCSST) data were retrieved from the Japanese geostationary satellite, MTSAT-1R, for East Asia in western North Pacific. The coefficients used to calculate the ...MCSST data were estimated by assuming a linear relationship between the brightness temperatures obtained from the satellite and the in-situ buoy SST. It is important to remove cloud contamination pixels to retrieve meaningful information from infrared data. Therefore, the cloud detection algorithm was improved by using a 10-day maximum or minimum composite map for infrared and visible channels. The RMSE of the MCSST in comparison with the two-year buoy SST was about 0.89oC. The error was the largest at mid-latitudes in summer. Additionally, the error between the two SSTs showed that diurnal variation had a positive bias during daytime and a negative bias during nighttime. Furthermore, in 2007, both SSTs showed seasonal and spatial diurnal variation. The magnitude of the daily variation in the MCSST was two times larger than that in the buoy SST, and this was attributed to diurnal heating with a weak surface wind speed.
Tumor progression locus 2 (TPL2) is a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase kinase (MAP3K). The present study aimed to elucidate the clinicopathological significance and prognostic role of ...TPL2 expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) through immunohistochemistry. In the present study, the correlations between TPL2 expression and clinicopathological parameters, including survival rate, were investigated using 262 archival paraffin-embedded CRC tissue samples. In addition, the correlation between TPL2 expression and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes was evaluated using immunoscore. High TPL2 expression was found in 40.1% of the 262 CRCs analyzed. Patients with high TPL2 expression had frequent distant metastasis compared to patients with low TPL2 expression. However, there was no significant correlation between high TPL2 expression and other clinicopathological parameters. High TPL2 expression was significantly correlated with low immunoscore. In subgroup analysis based on distant metastasis, there was a significant correlation between high TPL2 expression and low immunoscore in only CRCs without distant metastasis. High TPL2 expression significantly correlated with poor overall survival. In both CRCs with and without distant metastasis, CRCs with high TPL2 expression showed worse prognosis compared to CRCs with low TPL2 expression (P = .034 and P = .010, respectively). Taken together, our results showed that high TPL2 expression was significantly correlated with distant metastasis and low immunoscore. In addition, TPL2 expression can be useful for predicting the prognosis of patients with CRC.
•TPL2 immunohistochemical expression found in 40.1% of 262 colorectal cancers.•TPL2 expression significantly correlated with distant metastasis.•TPL2 expression significantly correlated with low immunoscore.•There was a significant correlation between TPL2 expression and poor survival.
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