Introduction
To determine the value of whole-tumor histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in differentiating nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) from lymphoma (NPL) at the primary ...site
Method and materials
One hundred forty-seven patients with nasopharyngeal tumors (89 NPCs and 38 NPLs) who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging were retrospectively analyzed. ADC histogram-derived parameters were compared between the NPC and NPL groups by using the Mann–Whitney
U
test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of the histogram parameters were plotted for diagnostic accuracy. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for each histogram parameter.
Results
In whole-tumor histogram analysis, the mean, median, and 10th and 25th percentiles of ADC were all significantly higher in NPC than NPL (
P
= 0.045,
P
= 0.035,
P
= 0.005, and
P
= 0.016, respectively). Uniformity was significantly higher in NPC than NPL (
P
= 0.001). Skewness was significantly lower in NPC than NPL (
P
= 0.039). For the conventional ROI-based method, ADC
mean
values were significantly higher in NPC than in NPL (
P
= 0.009). The ROC curve analysis showed that uniformity yielded the largest area under the curve (AUC = 0.768) for differentiating NPC from NPL among all ADC metrics, followed by 10th percentiles of ADC (AUC = 0.725); sensitivity and specificity were 76.5% and 71.4%, respectively.
Conclusion
Whole-tumor histogram analysis of ADC maps could be helpful for differentiating NPC from NPL.
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•A novel Ag nanoparticles/Ti3C2Tx/polyacrylamide hydrogel was designed.•The hydrogel was synthesized by self reduction and in-suit polymerization.•The preparation method was simple, ...and no reducing agents was used.•Synergistic effect of the hydrogel enhanced the activity for catalytic reduction.•It can be used as efficient catalyst for reducing methylene blue and 4-nitrophenol.
Catalytic reduction has been regarded as one of the most efficient strategy for organic pollutants removal from aqueous solution. However, lack of efficient catalyst prevents its practical application. Herein, we design a simple and environmental friendly fabrication strategy for the 3D Ag nanoparticles/Ti3C2Tx/polyacrylamide (Ag/MX/PAM) composite hydrogel as high efficient catalyst. In this composite hydrogel, the Ag nanoparticles, Ti3C2Tx (MXene) and polyacrylamide (PAM) act as active species, efficient electron transfer medium and high-capacity adsorbent respectively. Due to these synergistic effects for the composite hydrogel catalyst, the electron-transferring ability as well as the adsorption capacity are boosted and thus high catalytic activity achieves towards both methylene blue (MB) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) reduction. The superior rate constant k of 8.333 min−1 and turnover frequency (TOF) up to 25.17 min−1 for 4-NP reduction are realized over the 12%-Ag/MX/PAM hydrogel. Impressively, this composite hydrogel with a foam-like bulk structure can be reused easily after catalytic reaction, making it a potential catalyst for reduction of organic pollutants in industrialization.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of patients receiving microwave ablation (MWA), either after downstaging of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with transarterial ...chemoembolization (TACE), or without downstaging when meeting initially the Milan criteria.
Methods
From January 2012 to January 2018, 66 patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria who were downstaged by TACE previous to MWA comprised the study group. The control group comprised 190 patients who underwent MWA as first-line treatment as they met initially the Milan criteria. Cumulative overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were compared. The propensity score analysis was performed to reduce potential bias.
Results
Baseline characteristics were balanced between the two groups after 1:1 propensity score matching. The OS rates were 100%, 79%, and 73% at 1, 3, and 5 years in the downstaging group and 95%, 83%, and 72%, respectively, in the Milan group. The corresponding RFS rate were 77%, 40%, and 31% in the downstaging group and 76%, 45%, and 34% in the Milan group. There were no significant differences in the OS and RFS rates between the two groups (
p
= 0.981 and
p
= 0.586).
Conclusions
The long-term therapeutic outcomes of MWA for downstaged HCC with TACE were similar to HCC that initially met the Milan criteria.
Key Points
• Patients treated with MWA of HCC after downstaging with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) were similar to those with HCC that initially met Milan criteria.
• Microwave ablation (MWA) can be an effective treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that is downstaged to the Milan criteria.
Background
The accurate identification of microvascular invasion (MVI) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is of great clinical importance.
Purpose
To develop a radiomics nomogram based ...on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) for predicting MVI in early-stage (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stages 0 and A) HCC patients.
Materials and methods
A prospective cohort of 189 participants with HCC was included for model training and testing, and an additional 34 participants were enrolled for external validation. ITK-SNAP was used to manually segment the tumour, and PyRadiomics was used to extract radiomic features from the SWI and T2W images. Variance filtering, student’s
t
test, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and random forest (RF) were applied to select meaningful features. Four machine learning classifiers, including
K
-nearest neighbour, RF, logistic regression and support vector machine-based models, were established. Independent clinical and radiological risk factors were also determined to establish a clinical model. The best radiomics and clinical models were further evaluated in the validation set. In addition, a nomogram was constructed from the radiomic model and independent clinical factors. Diagnostic efficacy was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis with fivefold cross-validation.
Results
AFP levels greater than 400 ng/mL odds ratio (OR) 2.50; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.239–5.047, tumour diameter greater than 5 cm (OR 2.39; 95% CI 1.178–4.839), and absence of pseudocapsule (OR 2.053; 95% CI 1.007–4.202) were found to be independent risk factors for MVI. The areas under the curve (AUCs) of the best radiomic model were 1.000 and 0.882 in the training and testing cohorts, respectively, while those of the clinical model were 0.688 and 0.6691. In the validation set, the radiomic model achieved better diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.888) than the clinical model (AUC = 0.602). The combination of clinical factors and the radiomic model yielded a nomogram with the best diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.948).
Conclusion
SWI and T2WI-derived radiomic features are valuable for noninvasively and accurately identifying MVI in early-stage HCC. Furthermore, the integration of radiomics and clinical factors yielded a predictive nomogram with satisfactory diagnostic performance and potential clinical benefits.
Purpose
Restriction spectrum imaging (RSI) is a novel diffusion MRI model that separates water diffusion into several microscopic compartments. The restricted compartment correlating to the tumor ...cellularity is expected to be a potential indicator of rectal cancer aggressiveness. Our aim was to assess the ability of RSI model for rectal tumor grading.
Methods
Fifty-eight patients with different rectal cancer grading confirmed by biopsy were involved in this study. DWI acquisitions were performed using single-shot echo-planar imaging (SS-EPI) with multi-
b
-values at 3 T. We applied a three-compartment RSI model, along with ADC model and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) model, to DWI images of 58 patients. ROC and AUC were used to compare the performance of the three models in differentiating the low grade (G1 + G2) and high grade (G3). Mean ± standard deviation, ANOVA, ROC analysis, and correlation analysis were used in this study.
Results
The volume fraction of restricted compartment
C
1
from RSI was significantly correlated with grades (
r
= 0.403,
P
= 0.002). It showed significant difference between G1 and G3 (
P
= 0.008) and between G2 and G3 (
P
= 0.01). As for the low-grade and high-grade discrimination, significant difference was found in
C
1
(
P
< 0.001). The AUC of
C
1
for differentiation between low-grade and high-grade groups was 0.753 with a sensitivity of 72.0% and a specificity of 70.0%.
Conclusion
The three-compartment RSI model was able to discriminate the rectal cancer of low and high grades. The results outperform the traditional ADC model and DKI model in rectal cancer grading.
Graphical abstract
This study aims to investigate the value of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM)-derived parameters for early evaluation of the efficiency of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) treatment for rabbit liver ...VX2 tumor.
Eighteen rabbit liver VX2 tumor models were constructed, and computed tomography-guided RFA was performed. One day before and 7 days after RFA, 18 models underwent magnetic resonance imaging, including contrast-enhanced imaging and IVIM diffusion-weighted imaging with 16 b-factors (0-1000 s/mm
). Post-RFA liver tumors were segmented into viable tumor, inflammatory reaction, and ablation necrotic regions according to gross and histopathologic examinations. Parameters derived from IVIM were calculated. One-way analysis of variance and least significant difference test were used for comparisons among the three regions. The diagnostic performance of parameters was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
ADC
, D, and f values were significantly lower in viable tumor than in inflammatory reaction regions (all P < .05), but D* showed no significant difference between the two regions. ADC
values of viable tumor regions were significantly lower than that of ablation necrotic regions (P = .007), but D* values of necrotic regions were significantly lower than that of viable tumor regions (P = .045). In ROC analysis, ADC showed the highest area under the ROC curve for differentiating inflammatory reaction from viable tumor region.
ADC
, D, and f were valuable discriminating markers for differentiation between regions of viable tumor and inflammatory reaction in post-RFA tumor, especially ADC
outperformed the other two parameters with higher diagnostic performance.
Inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) are conserved regulators involved in cell cycle, cell migration, cell death, immunity and inflammation, should be due to the fact that they can assist with the ...ability to cope with different kinds of extrinsic or intrinsic stresses. Bivalve molluscs are well adapted to highly complex marine environments. As free-living filter feeders that may take toxic dinoflagellates as food, bivalves can accumulate and put up with significant levels of paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs). PSTs absorption and accumulation could have a deleterious effect on bivalves, causing negative impact on their feeding and digestion capabilities. In the present study, we analyzed
IAP
genes (
PyIAP
s) in Yesso scallop (
Patinopecten yessoensis
), a major fishery and aquaculture species in China. Forty-seven
PyIAP
s from five sub-families were identified, and almost half of the
PyIAP
genes were localized in clusters on two chromosomes. Several sites under positive selection was revealed in the significantly expanded sub-families BIRC4 and BIRC5. After exposure to PST-producing dinoflagellates,
Alexandrium catenella
, fourteen
PyIAP
s showed significant responses in hepatopancreas and kidney, and more than eighty-five percent of them were from the expanded sub-families BIRC4 and BIRC5. The regulation pattern of
PyIAP
s was similar between the two tissues, with more than half exhibited expression suppression within three days after exposure. In contrast to hepatopancreas, more acute changes of
PyIAP
s expression could be detected in kidney, suggesting the possible involvement of these
PyIAP
s in tissue-specific PST tolerance. These findings also imply the adaptive expansion of bivalve
IAP
genes in response to algae derived biotoxins.
The transient larva-bearing biphasic life cycle is the hallmark of many metazoan phyla, but how metazoan larvae originated remains a major enigma in animal evolution. There are two hypotheses for ...larval origin. The 'larva-first' hypothesis suggests that the first metazoans were similar to extant larvae, with later evolution of the adult-added biphasic life cycle; the 'adult-first' hypothesis suggests that the first metazoans were adult forms, with the biphasic life cycle arising later via larval intercalation. Here, we investigate the evolutionary origin of primary larvae by conducting ontogenetic transcriptome profiling for Mollusca-the largest marine phylum characterized by a trochophore larval stage and highly variable adult forms. We reveal that trochophore larvae exhibit rapid transcriptome evolution with extraordinary incorporation of novel genes (potentially contributing to adult shell evolution), and that cell signalling/communication genes (for example, caveolin and innexin) are probably crucial for larval evolution. Transcriptome age analysis of eight metazoan species reveals the wide presence of young larval transcriptomes in both trochozoans and other major metazoan lineages, therefore arguing against the prevailing larva-first hypothesis. Our findings support an adult-first evolutionary scenario with a single metazoan larval intercalation, and suggest that the first appearance of proto-larva probably occurred after the divergence of direct-developing Ctenophora from a metazoan ancestor.
A better understanding of genetic bases of growth regulation is essential for bivalve breeding, which is helpful to improve the yield of the commercially important bivalves. While previous studies ...have identified some candidate genes accounting for variation in growth-related traits through genotype-phenotype association analyses, seldom of them have verified the functions of these putative, growth-related genes beyond the genomic level due to the difficulty of culturing commercial bivalves under laboratory conditions. Fortunately, dwarf surf clam
Mulinia lateralis
can serve as a model organism for studying marine bivalves given its short generation time, the feasibility of being grown under experimental conditions and the availability of genetic and biological information. Using dwarf surf clam as a model bivalve, we characterize
E2F3
, a gene that has been found to account for variation in growth in scallops by a previous genome-wide association study, and verify its function in growth regulation through RNA interference (RNAi) experiments. For the first time,
E2F3
in dwarf surf clam, which is termed as
MulE2F3
, is characterized. The results reveal that dwarf surf clams with
MulE2F3
knocked down exhibit a reduction in both shell size and soft-tissue weight, indicating the functions of
MulE2F3
in positively regulating bivalve growth. More importantly, we demonstrate how dwarf surf clam can be used as a model organism to investigate gene functions in commercial bivalves, shedding light on genetic causes for variation in growth to enhance the efficiency of bivalve farming.
Although violence has always been in governments’ toolkit against civil society organizations (CSOs), there has been a global trend where governments set legal and logistical barriers to ...non-violently repress CSOs, especially INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organizations) since the mid-2000s. During this period, states present variations in CSO repression, ranging from moderate regulation to violent expulsion. Why do countries vary the repression? I argue that different levels of repression are based on governments’ perceived repression effectiveness in reducing INGOs’ threats. For better illustration, I propose the
effectiveness-perception
framework, where repression
effectiveness
comes from the interaction between regime type and local trust in INGOs, while the
perception
of effectiveness is rooted in the domestic political structure. To conduct empirical tests, I create a latent variable, local trust, to measure threats of INGOs conditional on local communities. Relying on the sample from 1996 to 2012, I find that consolidated democracies and autocracies, compared to middling countries, are more likely to adjust the repression levels based on local trust in INGOs. I expect the finding to produce some strategy-relevant insights for INGOs’ survival in the current political environment.
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