Search

For a given system with time-invariant affine uncertainties, ranging in a unit hypercube or, equivalently, in a hyper-rectangle, new LMI sufficient conditions for the verification of a given simultaneous static-output-feedback for hypercube nodes, being robust static-output-feedback for the whole system, are proved. The conditions generalise previous results in the sense that we do not assume that the state-to-measurement or the input-to-state matrix is constant. Based on the LMI conditions, a randomised algorithm is suggested. The effectiveness of the method is reinforced through experiments on real-life systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral pincer complexes, characterized by their rigid tridentate coordination framework, have emerged as powerful catalysts in asymmetric synthesis. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in the development of chiral pincer-type ligands and their corresponding transition metal complexes. We highlight the latest progress in their application across a range of catalytic asymmetric reactions, including the (transfer) hydrogenation of polar and non-polar bonds, hydrophosphination, alkynylation, Friedel-Crafts reactions, enantioselective reductive cyclization of alkynyl-tethered cyclohexadienones, enantioselective hydrosilylation, as well as Aza-Morita-Baylis-Hillman reactions. The structural rigidity and tunability of chiral pincer complexes enable precise control over stereoselectivity, resulting in high enantioselectivity and efficiency in complex molecular transformations. As the field advances, innovations in ligand design and the exploration of new metal centers are expected to expand the scope and utility of these catalysts, bearing significant implications for the synthesis of enantioenriched compounds in pharmaceuticals, materials science, and beyond.

Correlates of protection for recent emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have not been determined. In this test-negative case-control study, we report lower odds of infection with XBB variants among those boosted during the last six months. Additionally, we demonstrate that XBB-specific neutralizing antibodies are independent correlates of protection., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Gili Regev-Yochay reports a relationship with Pfizer that includes: consulting or advisory and funding grants. Gili Regev-Yochay reports a relationship with Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. that includes: consulting or advisory. Gili Regev-Yochay reports a relationship with Merck & Co Inc. that includes: consulting or advisory. Gili Regev-Yochay reports a relationship with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP that includes: consulting or advisory. Gili Regev-Yochay reports a relationship with Moderna Inc. that includes: consulting or advisory. Yaniv Lustig reports a relationship with Pfizer Inc. that includes: funding grants. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In our paper, we propose a generalized version of the Alternating Projections Digital Hard Successive Interference Cancellation (AP-HSIC) algorithm that is capable of decoding any order of constellation M in an M-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) system. Our approach applies to Rayleigh deep-fading Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) channels with high-level Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). It can handle various destructive phenomena without restricting the number of antenna arrays in the transmitter/receiver. Importantly, it does not rely on closed-loop MIMO feedback or the need for Channel-State Information Transmission (CSIT). We have demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach and provided a Bit Error Rate (BER) analysis for 16-, 32-, and 64-QAM modulation systems. Real-time simulations showcase the differences and advantages of our proposed algorithm compared to the Multi-Group Space-Time Coding (MGSTC) decoding algorithm and the Lagrange Multipliers Hard Successive Interference Cancellation (LM-HSIC) algorithm, which we have also developed here. Additionally, our paper includes a mathematical analysis of the LM-HSIC algorithm. The AP-HSIC algorithm is not only effective and fast in decoding, including interference cancellation computational feedback, but it can also be integrated with any Linear Processing Complex Orthogonal Design (LPCOD) technique, including Complex Orthogonal Design (COD) schemes such as high-order Orthogonal Space-Time Block Code (OSTBC) with high-order QAM symbols.

Background: We describe an epidemiological investigation of a SARS-CoV-2-XBB.1 outbreak among healthcare workers (HCWs) returning from a 5-days educational tour abroad., Methods: We prospectively followed participants for symptoms and sampled blood for neutralization assays of four SARS-CoV-2 variants (wild type, XBB, EG.5.1, and BA.2.86) at 1, 3, and 6 months after their return. When available, samples from the 3 months preceding the outbreak were also tested. We compared geometric mean titers (GMT) of neutralizing antibodies of infected versus uninfected HCWs and febrile versus afebrile infected HCWs., Results: Nineteen (10%) of 181 HCWs were infected, all had mild COVID-19, 90% (17/19) had symptoms, and 16% (3/19) reported fever. Infected individuals tended to have lower pre-exposure XBB-neutralizing antibody titers (GMT of 32 versus 107 ID50, P = 0.248). Neutralization against XBB and newer subvariants peaked at 3 months and was higher among infected individuals (GMT 702 versus 156 [P < 0.001], 558 versus 163 [P = 0.001], and 558 vs. 182 [P = 0.002], ID50 for XBB, EG.5.1., and BA.2.86, respectively). By six months, these differences were no longer observed. Fever was positively associated with XBB neutralization (GMT 3474 versus 485, ID50 P = 0.005)., Conclusions: Recently infected individuals are protected from reinfection with newer subvariants. However, protection is likely short lived., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Although a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-XBB.1.5 variant is available worldwide and recent infection is protective, the lack of recorded infection data highlights the need to assess variant-specific antibody neutralization levels. We analyzed IgG levels against receptor-binding domain-specific SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain as a correlate for high neutralizing titers against XBB variants.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) hold promise in treating Parkinson's disease (PD), although poor delivery to the brain hinders their therapeutic application. In the current study, it is demonstrated that brain-targeted liposomes (BTL) enhance the delivery of mAbs across the blood-brain-barrier (BBB) and into neurons, thereby allowing the intracellular and extracellular treatment of the PD brain. BTL are decorated with transferrin to improve brain targeting through overexpressed transferrin-receptors on the BBB during PD. BTL are loaded with SynO4, a mAb that inhibits alpha-synuclein (AS) aggregation, a pathological hallmark of PD. It is shown that 100-nm BTL cross human BBB models intact and are taken up by primary neurons. Within neurons, SynO4 is released from the nanoparticles and bound to its target, thereby reducing AS aggregation, and enhancing neuronal viability. In vivo, intravenous BTL administration results in a sevenfold increase in mAbs in brain cells, decreasing AS aggregation and neuroinflammation. Treatment with BTL also improve behavioral motor function and learning ability in mice, with a favorable safety profile. Accordingly, targeted nanotechnologies offer a valuable platform for drug delivery to treat brain neurodegeneration., (© 2023 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques have the promise to revolutionize the field of digital pathology. However, these models demand considerable amounts of data, while the availability of unbiased training data is limited. Synthetic images can augment existing datasets, to improve and validate AI algorithms. Yet, controlling the exact distribution of cellular features within them is still challenging. One of the solutions is harnessing conditional generative adversarial networks that take a semantic mask as an input rather than a random noise. Unlike other domains, outlining the exact cellular structure of tissues is hard, and most of the input masks depict regions of cell types. This is also the case for non-small cell lung cancer, the most common type of lung cancer. Deciding whether a patient would receive immunotherapy depends on quantifying regions of stained cells. However, using polygon-based masks introduce inherent artifacts within the synthetic images - due to the mismatch between the polygon size and the single-cell size. In this work, we show that introducing random single-pixel noise with the appropriate spatial frequency into a polygon semantic mask can dramatically improve the quality of the synthetic images. We used our platform to generate synthetic images of immunohistochemistry-treated lung biopsies. We test the quality of the images using a three-fold validation procedure. First, we show that adding the appropriate noise frequency yields 87% of the similarity metrics improvement that is obtained by adding the actual single-cell features. Second, we show that the synthetic images pass the Turing test. Finally, we show that adding these synthetic images to the train set improves AI performance in terms of PD-L1 semantic segmentation performances. Our work suggests a simple and powerful approach for generating synthetic data on demand to unbias limited datasets to improve the algorithms' accuracy and validate their robustness.

Background: Compliance with the guideline recommendations for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer is incomplete. The adjuvant chemotherapy approach has the advantage of pathology-based decision-making, allowing for patient selection. In addition, radical surgery is not delayed and treatment-related toxicity does not impair surgical fitness. The proportion of patients who completed chemotherapy after cystectomy among those who were fit and in need of treatment were evaluated. The reasons for not completing adjuvant chemotherapy were determined., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated all patients who had undergone radical cystectomy at our center over the last 7 years. Indications for adjuvant chemotherapy included pathological T > 2, any node+, or surgical margin involvement. Only patients who were fit for chemotherapy before surgery were included in the study., Results: Of the 52 patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer, 14 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or unfit for chemotherapy were excluded. Of the remaining 38 patients, 14 (37%) had bladder-confined cancers and did not require additional chemotherapy. Of the 24 patients who needed chemotherapy and were fit to receive it, 8 patients completed treatment (33%), and 3 discontinued treatment due to toxicity. Twelve patients (50%) declined chemotherapy, whereas 1 patient became unfit for chemotherapy after surgery., Conclusions: While the adjuvant chemotherapy approach could save unnecessary treatment in 37% of patients, two-thirds of those who needed chemotherapy did not complete it. Patient refusal was the primary reason for not receiving treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Global production of desalinated water increased greatly over the past three decades. Brackish water desalination is energetically favorable compared with seawater desalination, but high treatment costs and negative environmental impact of the concentrate byproduct hinders its development in semi-arid regions. The present study assessed key considerations associated with potential commercial aquaculture in high-flowrate calcium-rich groundwater desalination concentrate. European seabass ( Dicentrarchus labrax ) fingerlings, weighing 20-40 g were cultivated in brackish water (control), raw concentrate, and partially softened concentrate under flow-through conditions. Aside from two disease-related mortality events, fish survival exceeded 92% during 70 days of cultivation in all water types. The highest average growth rate of 0.26 g d -1 was obtained in the partially softened concentrate, which was 27% and 83% higher than in the raw concentrate and in the control, respectively. Substantial mineral precipitation on equipment and minor gill damage were observed in fish tanks receiving raw concentrate, projecting serious operational issues under commercial application. Preliminary aeration-softening of the concentrate relieved CO 2 supersaturation and prevented precipitation issues. Several implementation options in a case study fish farm predict commercial and environmental feasibility in specific locations., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Various destructive weather and physical phenomena affect many parameters in the radio layer (i.e., affecting the wireless paths Over-The-Air (OTA)) of many outdoor-to-outdoor wireless systems. These destructive effects create polarization torsion and rotation of the signals propagating in space and cause the scattering of wireless spatial paths. The direct meaning is a significant degradation in system performance, especially in the Quality-of-Service (QoS). Under these challenging scenarios, intelligent utilization of advanced Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques such as polarization-diversity and time-diversity at the transmitter, as well as at the receiver, and intelligent use of the Cross-Polarization-Isolation (XPI) mechanism, are essential. We prove that combining these techniques with the tuning of the XPI of the antennas creates optimal conditions in the wireless MIMO channels. This combination does not only improve the system's performance, but also turns the destructive physical phenomena in the spatial-domain, into an advantage. In this article, we focus on formulating a wireless communication MIMO model in millimeter-Wave (mmWave) channels under rain distortions. We demonstrate the optimal use of combining Orthogonal-Space-Time-Coding (OSTBC) and Maximal-Ratio-Receive-Combiner (MRRC) with cross-polarization diversity techniques, that utilize the tuning of the XPI. An analytical exact optimal solution is proposed, that allows the tuning of the leading parameters to achieve global optimal performance, in terms of channel-capacity and Bit-Error-Rate (BER). In addition, we propose a process of approximation of feedback-closed-loop-MIMO. The feedback is employed between the transmitter and the receiver, in the scenario of changes in the channel-response-matrix in-between successive symbol-times. The feedback was designed to acheive global-maximum channel-capacity, while preserving the channel-path orthogonality in order to minimize the BER.

Background: Radical cystectomy is a complicated surgery with significant risks. Complications of Clavien-Dindo grade 3-4 range from 25% to 40% while risk of mortality is 2%. Pelvic surgery or radiotherapy prior to radical cystectomy increases the challenges of this surgery., Objectives: To assess whether radical cystectomy performed in patients with prior history of pelvic surgery or radiation was associated with increased frequency of Clavien-Dindo grade 3 or higher complications compared to patients without prior pelvic intervention., Methods: We retrospectively evaluated all patients who underwent radical cystectomy at our center over a 7-year period. All patients with pelvic radiation or surgery prior to radical cystectomy comprised group 1, while group 2 included the remaining patients., Results: In our study, 65 patients required radical cystectomy at our institution during the study period. Group 1 was comprised of 17 patients and group 2 included 48 patients. Four patients from group 2 received orthotopic neobladder, while an ileal conduit procedure was performed in the remaining patients. Estimated blood loss and the amount of blood transfusions given was the only variable found to be statistically different between the two groups. One patient from group 1 had four pelvic interventions prior to surgery, and her cystectomy was aborted., Conclusions: Radical cystectomy may be safely performed in patients with a history of pelvic radiotherapy or surgery, with complication rates similar to those of non-irradiated or operated pelvises.