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Emel Haciislamoglu,1 Yunus Cinar,2 Mehmet Eren,2 Emine Canyilmaz,1 Fatih Gurcan,3 Lasif Serdar,4 Adnan Yoney1 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey; 3Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey; 4Department of Radiation Oncology, Kanuni Research and Education Hospital, Trabzon, TurkeyCorrespondence: Emel HaciislamogluDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, TurkeyTel +90 462 377 56 01Fax +90 462 325 22 70Email emel.haciislamoglu@ktu.edu.trPurpose: This study aimed to compare the secondary cancer risk (SCR) between the sequential boost (SEQ) technique and simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) technique in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using the concepts of organ equivalent dose (OED) and excess absolute risk (EAR).Patients and Methods: IMRT-SEQ, VMAT-SEQ, IMRT-SIB, and VMAT-SIB plans were created with identical objective functions for five patients with early-stage NPC. Three different planning tumor volumes (PTVs; PTV1, PTV2, and PTV3) were delineated for each patient, and the prescribed doses were 50 Gy, 60 Gy, and 70 Gy (2 Gy/fraction), respectively, for the SEQ technique and 52.8 Gy, 59.4 Gy, and 69.3 Gy (33 fractions), respectively, for the SIB technique.Results: All plans were clinically acceptable. There was no difference in most OED-based SCRs between IMRT and VMAT when the same fractionation scheme was used. Compared with the SEQ technique, the SIB technique in IMRT and VMAT was associated with the lowest OEDs for the oral cavity, pharynx, parotids, and submandibular glands, resulting in SCR reduction. SCR for the parotids was much lower than that for the other assessed organs when the SIB technique was used.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that OED-based SCRs are lower with the SIB technique than with the SEQ technique in IMRT and VMAT in most organs for which SCR was calculated; furthermore, SCR for the parotids is much lower than that for other organs when the SIB technique is used in patients with NPC.Keywords: excess absolute risk, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, organ equivalent dose, secondary cancer risk, volumetric-modulated arc therapy

Cells release nanometer-scale, lipid bilayer-enclosed biomolecular packages (extracellular vesicles; EVs) into their surrounding environment. EVs are hypothesized to be intercellular communication agents that regulate physiological states by transporting biomolecules between near and distant cells. The research community has consistently advocated for the importance of RNA contents in EVs by demonstrating that: (1) EV-related RNA contents can be detected in a liquid biopsy, (2) disease states significantly alter EV-related RNA contents, and (3) sensitive and specific liquid biopsies can be implemented in precision medicine settings by measuring EV-derived RNA contents. Furthermore, EVs have medical potential beyond diagnostics. Both natural and engineered EVs are being investigated for therapeutic applications such as regenerative medicine and as drug delivery agents. This review focuses specifically on EV characterization, analysis of their RNA content, and their functional implications. The NIH extracellular RNA communication (ERC) program has catapulted human EV research from an RNA profiling standpoint by standardizing the pipeline for working with EV transcriptomics data, and creating a centralized database for the scientific community. There are currently thousands of RNA-sequencing profiles hosted on the Extracellular RNA Atlas alone (Murillo et al., 2019), encompassing a variety of human biofluid types and health conditions. While a number of significant discoveries have been made through these studies individually, integrative analyses of these data have thus far been limited. A primary focus of the ERC program over the next five years is to bring higher resolution tools to the EV research community so that investigators can isolate and analyze EV sub-populations, and ultimately single EVs sourced from discrete cell types, tissues, and complex biofluids. Higher resolution techniques will be essential for evaluating the roles of circulating EVs at a level which impacts clinical decision making. We expect that advances in microfluidic technologies will drive near-term innovation and discoveries about the diverse RNA contents of EVs. Long-term translation of EV-based RNA profiling into a mainstay medical diagnostic tool will depend upon identifying robust patterns of circulating genetic material that correlate with a change in health status.

Pinar Mega Tiber,1 Latife Baloglu,2 Sevgi Ozden,3 Zerrin Ozgen,4 Hazan Ozyurt,3 Makbule Eren,3 Oya Orun11Department of Biophysics, Marmara University, School of Medicine, Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey; 2Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institute Biomedical Laboratory Science, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Clinic of Radiation Oncology, Dr Lutfi Kirdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey; 4Department of Radiation Oncology, Marmara University, School of Medicine, Kaynarca, Istanbul, TurkeyObjective: To evaluate the expressions of several apoptotic pathway proteins in relation to clinical parameters and survival in patients with cervical carcinoma.Methods: A total of 20 patients with clinically advanced staged carcinoma of cervix (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics [FIGO] stage IIB-IVA) aged from 40 to 75 years were included in this study. The expression profile of anti-apoptotic protein (sensitive to apoptosis gene [SAG]), mitochondrial apoptotic proteins (B-cell lymphoma-extra-large [Bcl-xL] and Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer [Bak]), and tumor suppressor proteins (p73 and p53) were examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction experiments along with their relation to clinical parameters and survival analyses during follow-up for 5 to 8 years.Results: No significant difference was found in the expressions of SAG, Bcl-xL, Bak, p73 and p53 proteins with respect to stage and grade of tumor. A significant positive correlation was noted between SAG and Bcl-xL genes (r=0.752, P

In this study, we introduce a novel algorithm, the low error rate adaptive fading Kalman filter (LERAFKF), designed to predict system states in the presence of uncertainty in both the system matrix and the model. The purpose of developing the LERAFKF is to address challenges arising from measurement difficulties, system parameter uncertainties, and state–space model inaccuracies. Several studies have utilized the Kalman filter (KF) and extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithms to handle uncertainties in system parameters, corrupted measurements with unknown covariances, and incorrectly defined system modeling. Our work distinguishes itself by proposing a new approach that achieves lower error and deviation rates by combining the current Kalman estimation algorithm and the fading factor adaptive filter. To achieve this goal, we transformed the KF into an adaptive KF by introducing a forgetting factor, and the algorithm was subsequently reconfigured to calculate an optimized forgetting factor. In this study, we conducted simulations and measurements using both linear and nonlinear systems. The linear system represents the motion of an object, and the simulation involved measurements from the inertial navigation system (INS) sensor, specifically the Pololu IMU01b three-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor. We employed the SDI33 system with 9 degrees of freedom (DoF) mounted on a three-axis rotary table for the nonlinear system. This system simulates a missile as a 4th-order nonlinear system. Our findings demonstrate that the proposed LERAFKF filter outperforms KF and EKF in estimating system states, particularly in measurement-related error scenarios. Mean square error analysis further confirmed that LERAFKF exhibited the lowest error values, showcasing superior performance over KF and EKF in linear and nonlinear systems.

The current study examined the moderating effects of subordinate–supervisor similarities on abusive supervision and employee silence relationships. We addressed the question of whether employees’ silence reactions are alleviated or aggravated when the abuse comes from a supervisor who shares a similar gender and other sociodemographic attributes with the employee. The results indicated that abusive supervision led to more silence behavior and supported the moderating effect of perceived sociodemographic similarity on this relationship. However, regardless of gender similarities with their supervisors, the findings postulated that employees experiencing abusive supervision were more likely to remain silent at work. When there is a perceived sociodemographic similarity between the employee and the supervisor, abusive supervision has been found to have a harsher influence on employee’s silence behavior. These findings help us better understand the antecedents of employee silence behavior and provide important implications for subordinate–supervisor similarity dynamics in exposure to abusive supervision.