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Delay tolerant networks (DTNs), are characterized by their difficulty in establishing end-to-end paths and and large message propagation delays. To control network overhead costs, reduce message delays, and improve delivery rates in DTNs, it is essential to not only delete messages that have reached their destination but also to more precisely determine appropriate relay nodes. Based on the above goals, this paper constructs a multi-copy relay node selection router algorithm based on Q-lambda reinforcement learning with reference to the idea of community division (QLCR). In community division, if a node has the highestdegree, it is considered the core node, and nodes with similar interests and structural properties are divided into a community. Node degree refers to the number of nodes associated with the node, indicating its importance in the network. Structural similarity determines the distance between nodes. The selection of relay nodes considers node degree, interests, and structural similarity. The Q-lambda reinforcement learning algorithm enables each node to learn from the entire network, setting corresponding reward values based on encountered nodes meeting the specified conditions. Through iterative processes, the node with the most cumulative reward value is chosen as the final relay node. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves a high delivery rate while maintaining low network overhead and delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The lack of standardized delineation of lymph node station in lung cancer radiotherapy leads to nonstandard clinical target volume (CTV) contouring, especially in patients with bulky lump gross target volume lymph nodes (GTVnd). This study defines lymph node region boundaries in radiotherapy for lung cancer and automatically contours lymph node stations based on the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) lymph node map. Methods: Computed tomography (CT) scans of 200 patients with small cell lung cancer were collected. The lymph node zone boundaries were defined based on the IASLC lymph node map, with adjustments to meet radiotherapy requirements. Contours of lymph node stations were confirmed by two experienced oncologists. A model (DiUNet) was constructed by incorporating the contours of GTVnd to precisely contour the boundaries. Quantitative evaluation metrics and clinical evaluations were conducted. Results: The mean 3D Dice similarity coefficient (Dice similarity coefficient) values of DiUNet in most lymph node stations was greater than 0.7, 98.87% of the lymph node station slices are accepted. The mean DiUNet score was not significantly different from that of the man contoured in the evaluation of lymph node stations and CTV. Conclusion: This is the first study to propose a method that automatically contours lymph node regions station by station based on the IASLC lymph node map with bulky lump GTVnd. Delineation of lymph node stations based on the DiUNet model is a promising strategy to obtain accuracy and efficiency for CTV delineation in lung cancer patients, especially for bulky lump GTVnd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A forest fire susceptibility map generated with the fire susceptibility model is the basis of fire prevention resource allocation. A more reliable susceptibility map helps improve the effectiveness of resource allocation. Thus, further improving the prediction accuracy is always the goal of fire susceptibility modeling. This paper developed a forest fire susceptibility model based on an ensemble learning method, namely light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), to produce an accurate fire susceptibility map. In the modeling, a subtropical national forest park in the Jiangsu province of China was used as the case study area. We collected and selected eight variables from the fire occurrence driving factors for modeling based on correlation analysis. These variables are from topographic factors, climatic factors, human activity factors, and vegetation factors. For comparative analysis, another two popular modeling methods, namely logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF) were also applied to construct the fire susceptibility models. The results show that temperature was the main driving factor of fire in the area. In the produced fire susceptibility map, the extremely high and high susceptibility areas that were classified by LR, RF, and LightGBM were 5.82%, 18.61%, and 19%, respectively. The F1-score of the LightGBM model is higher than the LR and RF models. The accuracy of the model of LightGBM, RF, and LR is 88.8%, 84.8%, and 82.6%, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) of them is 0.935, 0.918, and 0.868, respectively. The introduced ensemble learning method shows better ability on performance evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IAN873, Dongfang93114 and Reyan73397, created through vegetative propagation for their high yield and excellent cold resistance, are major clones planted in China. In this work, latexes with rubber particles of the same size from these clones are separated from fresh natural rubber latex, and corresponding rubber films are prepared from each latex. The structure and components of each film are measured. This indicates that the characteristics of the rubbers obtained from latexes with similar particle sizes show some resembling trends among different clones, while for specific samples, those characteristics vary depending on the clone. The molecular weight is generally highest in IAN873 and lowest in Reyan73397. Rubber chains in small rubber particles are longer, and large rubber particles show a wider molecular weight distribution. The gel content of every sample from Reyan73397 is lower than the other two clones. The nitrogen content increases with the size of rubber particles in all clones. The ester content of small rubber particles in IAN873 and Reyan73397 is almost zero. Large rubber particles have more branching points formed via esters. This study provides a new perspective on the influence of clones on the relationship between characteristics of natural rubber and the size of rubber particles in natural rubber latex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intracavitary and/or interstitial brachytherapy is an integral component of the management of patients with central pelvic-recurrent cervical cancer after primary hysterectomy, and is typically delivered using conventional applicators. We investigated the efficacy and safety of three-dimensional (3D)-printed, customizable applicators for those patients. Twenty-six patients were treated with combination external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. Patients with lesions ≤1 and >1 cm before brachytherapy were treated with intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy, respectively. Dosimetric plans were compared between the vaginal cylinder and 3D-printed applicator for the first 9 patients. Outcomes and treatment-related complications were also investigated. The median tumor size before brachytherapy was 0.81 cm. Intracavitary, interstitial, and combined interstitial-intracavitary brachytherapy were performed in 22 (85%), 3 (11%), and 1 (4%) of the patients, respectively. The clinical target volume (CTV) coverage goal was achieved with all 3D-printed plans but failed with three single-channel cylinder plans (33.3%). Owing to 3D-printed transvaginal applicator guidance, there was no need to adjust the needle position after implantation. The mean CTV dose for all patients was 71 ± 8.2 Gy; all met the dose constraints to the organs at risk, but 1 (4%) had a rectal D 2cc overdose. The 2-year local control, progression-free survival, and overall survival rates were 87.8%, 71.0%, and 91.6%, respectively. Four patients (21%) developed early grade 3–4 hematological toxicities and 1 (4%) developed a late grade 3 adverse event. High-quality intracavitary and/or interstitial brachytherapy can be achieved using a 3D-printed applicator and yields favorable outcomes with acceptable toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the relationship between neuroticism and 16 mental and 18 physical traits using summary results of genome-wide association studies for these traits. LD score regression was used to investigate genetic correlations between neuroticism and the 34 health outcomes. Mendelian randomization was performed to investigate mutual causal relationships between neuroticism and the 34 health outcomes. Neuroticism genetically correlates with a majority of health-related traits and confers causal effects on 12 mental traits (major depressive disorder (MDD), insomnia, subjective well-being (SWB, negatively), schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, alcohol dependence, loneliness, anorexia nervosa, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and psychiatric disorders) and two physical diseases (cardiovascular disease and hypertensive disease). Conversely, MDD, SWB, and insomnia have a causal effect on neuroticism. We highlighted key genes contributing to the causal associations between neuroticism and MDD, including RBFOX1, RERE, SOX5, and TCF4, and those contributing to the causal associations between neuroticism and cardiovascular diseases, including MAD1L1, ARNTL, RERE, and SOX6. The present study indicates that genetic variation mediates the causal influences of neuroticism on mental health and cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest road network plays a key role in shortening the response time of firefighting activities. Therefore, evaluation and improvement of the ability of firefighting of the forest roads are essential. The widely used travel time criterion evaluation showed that firefighters can reach the areas of fires by walking and carrying portable fire equipment. However, the firefighting capability provided by this method is very limited. It is difficult to ensure that the fires can be controlled. This study proposed a new firefighting distance criterion (FFDC) to evaluate the actual firefighting coverage of the road network. Then, we proposed an approach that aims at mapping the optimal forest road network based on the FFDC. The results showed that the new planned forest road network increases the coverage of the study area from 37.2% to 57.95%. Moreover, to evaluate the influence on the forest environment, we further assessed the newly planned forest road network by using intensity evaluation criteria and absorption evaluation criteria, which are based on a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE). The intensity evaluation was 88.05%, and the absorption evaluation was 68.22%. The forest absorption capacity in the study area was good, and the road network had little impact on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital creativity is creative expression derived from cultural creativity and information technology. In order to overcome the problem in the creative generation in the condition of fuzzy and uncertain ideas, an automatic generation method of cross-modal fuzzy creativity (AGMCFC) is proposed. In this subject, fuzzy creative data sets and learning retrieval network are constructed for the sake of extracting original creative data effectively. And the logical correlations between creative objects are acquired dynamically based on the graph neural network. Creative objects and creative styles are generated by using generative adversarial nets technology and style transfer technology, respectively. Then, the projectiles, boundary markers and location words of the creative scene objects are generated by analyzing related attributes of each entity. After adjusting the layout, creative works are automatically generated. A fuzzy creative generating environment is implemented. Experimental results show that the screened number of AGMCFC method is about twice as much as that of manual method, and the accuracy rate of AGMCFC method is improved compared with the manual method. AGMCFC method performs well at creative generation of fuzzy ideas automatically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is expected that all the nodes try their best to store and forward the messages in the intermittent connection network. However, due to the limited resources, such as memory, power, and transient communication chance, selfish nodes may relay the messages without responsibility. Stimulating selfish to behave normally could improve network performance. However, usually, it is difficult to distinguish the selfish behavior from the inability to relaying the message. By monitoring the behavior of relay nodes that messages are forwarding through, this article proposes a scheme that relays messages according to the reputation of intermediate nodes. The proposed reputation estimation scheme combines selfish behavior and inability behavior, and reveals very little private information for the protocol practice. There is a trade-off between the threshold and the performance. Too low value may not distinguish the selfish nodes. On the contrary, some normal nodes may excluded and cannot join the relaying and processing. Simulation effectively demonstrates that the reputation affects the node's performance, and an appropriate reputation threshold value is useful for improving the network performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the causal associations between basal metabolic rate (BMR) and COVID-19 outcomes. It discusses the use of Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate the relationship between BMR and severe COVID-19, suggesting that BMR may have a more complex and significant impact on COVID-19 outcomes than previously thought, beyond its association with obesity.

This study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP)-associated factor 1 (XAF1) and tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) on the apoptosis of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. Recombinant lentiviral vector of Ad5/F35-XAF1 and controlled lentiviral vector of Ad5/F35-Null were transfected into A549 cells at same multiplicity of infection (MOI), respectively. Based on whether recombinant human TRAIL (rhTRAIL) was added or not, cells were divided into different groups as follows: XAF1 group, XAF1 + TRAIL group, XAF1-Null group, and XAF1-Null + TRAIL group. Following culturing for 48 h, the mRNA and protein expression levels of related genes were determined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting analyses, respectively. Cell proliferationand cell apoptosis were detected by MTT assay and Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining, respectively. Xenograft mice models were established with A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells and treated with recombinant virus Ad5/F35-XAF1 and controlled virus Ad5/F35-Null for immunohistochemical analysis. Expression levels of XAFl at the mRNA and protein levels were significantly higher in the XAF1 group and XAF1 + TRAIL groups when compared with the levels in the other groups (P<0.05). Cleavage of apoptosis-associated proteins, poly ADP-ribose polymerase and caspase-3, was noted in the XAF1 + TRAIL group, whereas they were not detected in other groups. Apoptosis rates of A549 cells in the XAF1, Null + TRAIL and XAFl + TRAIL groups were significantly higher than those in the NOR and Null groups (P<0.05). Apoptotic rates were highest in the XAF1 + TRAIL group. In conclusion, these findings suggest that combined use of XAF1 and TRAIL may synergistically induce the apoptosis of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Optimizing the effectiveness of early wildfire detection systems is of significant interest to the community. To this end, watchtower-based wildfire observations are continuing to be practical, often in conjunction with state-of-the-art technologies, such as automated vision systems and sensor networks. One of the major challenges that the community faces is the optimal expansion of existing systems, particularly in multiple stages due to various practical, political and financial constraints. The notion of incremental watchtower expansion while preserving or making minimal changes to an existing system is a challenging task, particularly while meeting coverage and financial constraints. Conventionally and historically, this problem has been treated as a multi-objective optimization problem, and as such, currently employed methods are predominantly focused on the full-fledged optimization problem, where the problem is re-solved every time during the expansion process. In this paper, for the first time, we propose an alternative approach, by treating the expansion as a submodular set-function maximization problem. By theoretically proving that the expansion problem is a submodular set-function maximization problem, we provide four different models and matching algorithms to handle various cases that arise during the incremental expansion process. Our evaluation of the proposed approach on a practical dataset from a forest park in China, namely, the NanJing forest park, shows that our algorithms can provide an excellent coverage by integrating visibility analysis and location allocation while meeting the stringent budgetary requirements. The proposed approach can be adapted to areas of other countries. Graphical Abstract Highlights • Incremental watchtower expansion maximizes the wildfire detection and reduces cost. • Better optimization formulation is obtained through submodular set function maximization. • Works with existing detection systems and offers remarkable coverage and savings. • Method can easily be adapted to other wildfire detection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Objective Image guidance should be used for patients with cervical cancer treated with definitive intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). In this study, we provided a pattern of image guidance and verified it in a large population. Methods We retrospectively analyzed patients with stages IB1–IVA cervical cancer treated with IMRT combined with high-dose brachytherapy and concurrent chemotherapy in our institute from January 2005 to December 2015. A dose of 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions was prescribed to the planning target volume with fixed-field IMRT, volumetric modulated arc therapy, or helical tomotherapy. Daily megavoltage computed tomography (CT) or weekly cone-beam CT (CBCT)/CT-on-rail were used for image guidance. Considering tumor regression during treatment, a second CT simulation and IMRT planning after 20 fractions of IMRT was performed. Results A total of 1433 patients were included in this study. Four hundred thirteen patients (28.8%) had regional lymph node metastases. A total of 1261 patients (88.0%) received concurrent chemotherapy. The median follow-up was 32.2 months (range, 1.9–124.9 months). The 3-year overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and local control (LC) rates were 83.0%, 75.0%, and 87.4%, respectively. The 3-year DFS rates for patients with stages IB1, IB2, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, and IVA disease were 90.2%, 87.6%, 84.0%, 76.7%, 61.6%, 59.8%, and 25.9%. The incidence rates of grade 3 or greater chronic gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicities were 2.3% and 1.3%. Conclusion This pattern of image guidance was rational for patients with cervical cancer treated with IMRT. The survival rates were high, and the toxicities were acceptable. Highlights • We provided a pattern of image guidance for patients with cervical cancer treated with IMRT. • Daily MVCT or weekly CBCT/CT-on-rail were used for image guidance. • A second CT simulation and IMRT planning after 20 fractions of IMRT was performed. • Image-guided IMRT resulted in high survival rates and acceptable toxicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abnormal monitoring of stage performance plays a vital role in the stage performance. For the real-time stage performance, detection efficiency and accuracy are particularly important. As the traditional monitoring method based on sparse description model to realize abnormal behavior of stage performance did not realize the manifold structure during the performance, the behavior characteristics are sparse and the decomposition has higher volatility, the recognition accuracy of abnormal behavior is low. Therefore, an abnormal monitoring method of stage performance based on visual sensor network is proposed, the overall structure of the abnormal monitoring system of stage performance based on the vision sensor network is analyzed, the hardware structure and software composition of the system are designed, and the method of monitoring the abnormal behavior of the system is analyzed emphatically. Through the background subtraction, the weighted threshold-based segmentation of the target image from the background image, the chaotic search particle swarm optimization algorithm based on image target detection and tracking algorithm for target tracking by mean shift, the abnormal behavior of local linear embedding and detection method based on sparse representation, a comprehensive analysis of the local manifold structure of sample is set. Enhance the stage performance of abnormal behavior detection efficiency and accuracy. The experimental results show that the proposed method has higher detection efficiency and accuracy and has higher robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioluminescence is a powerful tool in the study of viral infection both in vivo and in vitro . Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) has a small RNA genome with a limited tolerance to foreign RNA entities. There has been no success in making a reporter FMDV expressing a luciferase in infected cell culture supernatants. We report here for the first time a replication-competent FMDV encoding Nanoluciferase, named as Nano-FMDV. Nano-FMDV is genetically stable during serial passages in cells and exhibits growth kinetics and plaque morphology similar to its parental virus. There are applications for the use of Nano-FMDV such as real-time monitoring of FMDV replication in vitro and in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of cisplatin-resistance is an obstacle in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapeutics. To investigate which molecules are associated with cisplatin-resistance, we analyzed expression profiles of several DNA repair and anti-apoptosis associated molecules in parental (A549P and H157P) and cisplatin-resistant (A549CisR and H157CisR) NSCLC cells. We detected constitutively upregulated nuclear ATM and cytosolic Mcl-1 molcules in cisplatin-resistant cells compared with parental cells. Increased levels of phosphorylated ATM (p-ATM) and its downstream molecules, CHK2, p-CHK2, p-53, and p-p53 were also detected in cisplatin-resistant cells, suggesting an activation of ATM signaling in these cells. Upon inhibition of ATM and Mcl-1 expression/activity using specific inhibitors of ATM and/or Mcl-1, we found significantly enhanced cisplatin-cytotoxicity and increased apoptosis of A549CisR cells after cisplatin treatment. Several A549CisR-derived cell lines, including ATM knocked down (A549CisR-siATM), Mcl-1 knocked down (A549CisR-shMcl1), ATM/Mcl-1 double knocked down (A549CisR-siATM/shMcl1) as well as scramble control (A549CisR-sc), were then developed. Higher cisplatin-cytotoxicity and increased apoptosis were observed in A549CisR-siATM, A549CisR-shMcl1, and A549CisR-siATM/shMcl1 cells compared with A549CisR-sc cells, and the most significant effect was shown in A549CisR-siATM/shMcl1 cells. Inin vivomice studies using subcutaneous xenograft mouse models developed with A549CisR-sc and A549CisR-siATM/shMcl1 cells, significant tumor regression in A549CisR-siATM/shMcl1 cells-derived xenografts was observed after cisplatin injection, but not in A549CisR-sc cells-derived xenografts. Finally, inhibitor studies revealed activation of Erk signaling pathway was most important in upregulation of ATM and Mcl-1 molcules in cisplatin-resistant cells. These studies suggest that simultaneous blocking of ATM/Mcl-1 molcules or downstream Erk signaling may recover the cisplatin-resistance of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Attainable gear quality is a crucial criterion for the broad industrial application of the gear roll-forming process. One of the main defects in gear rolling process is the rabbit ear, which affects the effective tooth depth of the formed workpiece and the material utilization rate. To further understand the influencing factors of rabbit ear, this paper proposes analytical models of relative sliding distance and frictional shear stress to explain the material flow on the tooth flank of the workpiece. The influence of rolling parameters (rotational speed of rolling tools, lubrication, rotational direction of rolling tools), number of workpiece teeth, and positive addendum modified rolling tools on rabbit ear was studied theoretically based on the established models and a case study. Finally, experimental results were displayed to verify the above-mentioned analysis. The results reveal that better lubrication, higher rotational speed, and reverse rotation of rolling tools contribute to weakening the rabbit ear effect. Moreover, the rabbit ear height in case of z2 = 70 decreases by 14.2% compared to that in case of z2 = 46 due to reduced gear ratio. Additionally, rabbit ear height formed by rolling tools with a positive addendum modification coefficient of 1.0 amounts to approximately 48.3% of that generated by rolling tools having standard teeth in the gear forced throughfeed rolling process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle the problem of missed detections in long-range detection scenarios caused by the small size of forest fire targets, initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the feature extraction and detection precision of models designed for forest fire imagery. In this study, two algorithms, DenseM-YOLOv5 and SimAM-YOLOv5, were proposed by modifying the backbone network of You Only Look Once version 5 (YOLOv5). From the perspective of lightweight models, compared to YOLOv5, SimAM-YOLOv5 reduced the parameter size by 28.57%. Additionally, although SimAM-YOLOv5 showed a slight decrease in recall rate, it achieved improvements in precision and average precision (AP) to varying degrees. The DenseM-YOLOv5 algorithm achieved a 2.24% increase in precision, as well as improvements of 1.2% in recall rate and 1.52% in AP compared to the YOLOv5 algorithm. Despite having a higher parameter size, the DenseM-YOLOv5 algorithm outperformed the SimAM-YOLOv5 algorithm in terms of precision and AP for forest fire detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) is a characteristic of depression. However, there are no studies to explore the association between baseline OGM and depressive symptoms at follow-up in patients with first-episode depression (FE). This study investigated whether baseline OGM predicts depressive symptoms at follow-up in patients with FE. We recruited 125 patients with FE. The participants were divided into remitted group and non-remitted group according to the severity of their depression at 12 months follow-up. The measures consisted of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Ruminative Response Scale, and Autobiographical Memory Test. Hierarchical linear regression analyses and bootstrap mediation analyses were conducted. The results showed that non-remitted patients had more OGM at baseline. Baseline OGM predicted depressive symptoms at follow-up in patients with FE. Rumination mediated the relationship between baseline OGM and depressive symptoms at follow-up. Our findings highlight OGM as a vulnerability factor involved in the maintenance of depression in patients with FE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structures and properties of natural rubber (NR) obtained from latex with small and large rubber particles (SRP and LRP) are obviously different, while carbon black (CB)/SRP or CB/LRP composites have rarely been reported. In this work, SRP and LRP are separated from natural rubber latex (NRL). The properties of obtained NR/CB composites are systematically investigated as a function of SRP and LRP mass ratios. It shows that the nitrogen content of SRP (1.32%) is much higher than that of LRP (0.10%). Mechanical properties increase with the increase of LRP content because plenty of agglomerates exist in SRP/CB composite whereas LRP/CB composite shows a homogeneous dispersion. Furthermore, a possible model is proposed to illustrate the transformations of agglomerates during stretching and dynamic compressing process. This study provides a new perspective for the design of NR materials through the selection of rubber particles in NRL. [Display omitted] • The cure characteristics of carbon black filled natural rubber vulcanizates increase with the increase of SRP content. • LRP composite shows highest tensile properties and fatigue life as well as lowest compression set and temperature rise. • The carbon black in LRP composite shows homogeneous distribution, while SRP composite contains lots of agglomerates. • The agglomerates in SRP composite form stress and heat concentration during tensile and dynamic compressing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RAS genes encode for members of a large superfamily of guanosine-5′-triphosphate (GTP)-binding proteins that control diverse intracellular signaling pathways to promote cell proliferation. Somatic mutations in the RAS oncogenes are the most common activating lesions found in human cancers. These mutations invariably result in the gain-of-function of RAS by impairing GTP hydrolysis and are frequently associated with poor responses to standard cancer therapies. In this review, we summarize key findings of past and present landmark studies that have deepened our understanding of the RAS biology in the context of oncogenesis. We also discuss how emerging areas of research could further bolster a renewed global effort to target the largely undruggable oncogenic RAS and/or its activated downstream effector signaling cascades to achieve better treatment outcomes for RAS-mutant cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveBrain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in neural survival and was proposed to be related to psychiatric disorders. Val66Met (also known as rs6265 or G196A), the only known functional polymorphism of the BDNF gene, has been widely studied and considered to be associated with risk of some psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. However, studies evaluating its association with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) obtained inconsistent results. The purpose of this study was to derive a more precise estimation of the association between BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and OCD susceptibility by a meta-analysis.MethodWe carried a structured literature search in PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO and Chinese Biomedical Database up to December 2014; and retrieved all eligible case–control studies according to the including criteria. Meta-analysis was performed for four genetic models: allelic model: Met versus Val; additive model: Met/Met versus Val/Val; recessive model: Met/Met versus Val/Val+Val/Met; and dominant model: Val/Met+Met/Met versus Val/Val. Stratified analyses were performed by ethnicity and gender where appropriate.ResultsA total of eight articles with nine studies including 1632 OCD cases and 2417 controls were identified. No significant association was detected in any comparison when the whole data were pooled together or stratified by ethnicity or gender in all four genetic models (p>0.05 for each comparison).ConclusionDespite some limitations, our meta-analysis suggests that no significant association exists between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and OCD susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is one of the most common sources of genetic variations of the genome. Currently, SNPs are a main target for most genetic association studies. Visualizing genomic coordinates of SNPs, including their physical location relative to their host gene, and the structure of the relevant transcripts, may provide intuitive supplements to the understanding of their functions. Nevertheless, to date, no such easy-to-use programming tools exist. Therefore, we developed an R package, “mapsnp”, to plot genomic map for a panel of SNPs within a genome region of interest, including the relative chromosome location and the transcripts in the region. mapsnp is a simple and flexible software package which can be used to visualize a genomic map for SNPs, integrating a chromosome ideogram, genomic coordinates, SNP locations and SNP labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common, complex and severe psychiatric disorder associated with many different genetic and environmental risk factors. A recent genome-wide association study identified a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP, rs1625579) in microRNA-137 (miR-137) as a possible susceptibility locus for SCZ. Hoping to validate this finding, we conducted a case-control study of the Han Chinese population, with 506 SCZ cases and 522 healthy controls, using the Ligase detection reaction-polymerase chain reaction method to genotype the polymorphism rs1625579 in the miR-137 gene. However, we found no significant difference ( P > 0.05) in either allele or genotype frequency in this SNP between patients and controls. In addition, a meta-analysis indicated that the 'T' allele of SNP rs1625579 was not associated with susceptibility to SCZ in Han Chinese populations (pooled OR 1.087, 95 % CI 0.847-1.396, P = 0.512). Thus, these results do not support the previous finding suggesting further replication studies using a large-scale association analysis that should be warranted in Han Chinese populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe mental disorder characterized by multiple neurodevelopmental dysfunctions including a breakdown of thinking process and a deficit of typical emotional responses. Ataxin-2 (ATXN2) plays vital roles in cell proliferation and growth, and functional mutations of ATXN2 cause neurodegenerative phenotypes, including spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To explore the possible role of ATXN2 in SZ, we conducted a two-stage study to examine the association of ATXN2 polymorphisms with SZ in the Han Chinese population. Association analysis of seven SNPs in 768 patients and 1348 controls revealed two associated SNPs, including rs630511 (P =1.76E−4) and rs7969300 (P =5.08E−4). We examined these two SNPs in a validation sample of 1957 patients and 1509 controls, and observed an association of rs7969300 with SZ (P =5.03E−3). The SNP rs7969300 is a non-synonymous SNP causing a Ser to Asn substitution, which is predicted to increase the protein stability of ATXN2. Our data suggest that the ATXN2 gene may confer vulnerability for SZ, adding further evidence for the genetic variants within the developmental pathway in the illness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which altered immune function typically plays an important role in mediating the effect of environmental insults and regulation of inflammation. The breast cancer suppressor protein associated protein (BRAP) is suggested to exert vital effects in neurodevelopment by modulating the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade and inflammation signaling. To explore the possible role of BRAP in SZ, we conducted a two-stage study to examine the association of BRAP polymorphisms with SZ in the Han Chinese population. In stage one, we screened SNPs in BRAP from our GWAS data, which detected three associated SNPs, with rs3782886 being the most significant one (P  =  2.31E-6, OR  =  0.67). In stage two, we validated these three SNPs in an independently collected population including 1957 patients and 1509 controls, supporting the association of rs3782886 with SZ (P  =  1.43E-6, OR  =  0.73). Furthermore, cis-eQTL analysis indicates that rs3782886 genotypes are associated with mRNA levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 family (ALDH2) (P  =  0.0039) and myosin regulatory light chain 2 (MYL2) (P < 1.0E-4). Our data suggest that the BRAP gene may confer vulnerability for SZ in Han Chinese population, adding further evidence for the involvement of developmental and/or neuroinflammatory cascades in the illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the realization of fast and high-precision detection of the workpiece, an adaptive bidirectional gray-scale center of gravity extraction algorithm for laser stripes is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is processed in the following steps. Firstly, the initial image processing area is set according to the floating field of the camera's light stripe, followed by setting the adaptive image processing area according to the actual position of the light stripe. Secondly, the center of light stripe is obtained by using the method of combining the upper contour with the barycenter of the bidirectional gray-scale. The obtained center of the light stripe is optimized by reducing the deviation from adjacent center points. Finally, the slope and intercept are used to complete the breakpoint. The experimental results show that the algorithm has the advantages of high speed and precision and has specific adaptability to the laser stripes of the complex environment. Compared with other conventional algorithms, it greatly improves and can be used in industrial detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: microRNAs (miRNAs) play a vital role in development via the post-transcriptional regulation of most genes. Variation in the miRNA machinery pathway proteins which mediate the biogenesis, maturation, transportation, and functioning of miRNAs might be relevant to human traits. In this work, we explored the role of 59 miRNA machinery genes in schizophrenia (SZ). Association analysis of 967 single nucleotide polymorphisms within these genes detected that an intronic polymorphism of EIF4ENIF1, rs7289941, was significantly associated with SZ (P =4.10E−5). We failed to replicate this result in a validation sample comprising 1027 healthy controls and 1012 SZ cases, and the combined data yielded nominal significance (P =0.013). We conducted a gene-based association analysis using VEGAS and SKAT, and found seven associated genes in total, including EIF4ENIF1, PIWIL2, and DGCR8, but none survived correction for multiple testing. Taken together, our data do not provide strong support for the association of common variants within miRNA machinery genes with SZ in the Han Chinese population, but implicate several promising candidate genes for further research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) DP71L protein is present in all isolates as either a short form of 70 to 72 amino acids or a long form of about 184 amino acids, and both of these share sequence similarity to the C-terminal domain of the herpes simplex virus ICP34.5 protein and cellular protein GADD34. In the present study we expressed DP71L in different mammalian cells and demonstrated that DP71L causes dephosphorylation of eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2 alpha (eIF2α) in resting cells and during chemical-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress and acts to enhance expression of cotransfected reporter genes. We showed that DP71L binds to all the three isoforms (α, β, and γ) of the protein phosphatase 1 catalytic subunit (PP1c) and acts by recruiting PP1c to eIF2α. We also showed that DP71L inhibits the induction of ATF4 and its downstream target, CHOP. We investigated the eIF2α phosphorylation status and induction of CHOP in porcine macrophages infected by two ASFV field isolates, Malawi Lil20/1 and Benin 97/1, and two DP71L deletion mutants, MalawiΔNL and E70ΔNL. Our results showed that deletion of the DP71L gene did not cause an increase in the level of eIF2α phosphorylation or induction of CHOP, indicating that DP71L is not the only factor required by the virus to control the phosphorylation level of eIF2α during infection. We therefore hypothesize that ASFV has other mechanisms to prevent the eIF2_ phosphorylation and the subsequent protein synthesis inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dopamine signaling is strongly implicated in the etiology of schizophrenia (SZ). Because of the essential role dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) in dopamine signaling, DRD2 gene has been regarded as one of the top candidate genes for SZ. However, the findings from linkage and association analyses on this gene are mixed and largely inconsistent across various studies. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation of DRD2 gene variation and the risk for SZ in a Chinese Han population. Three SNPs (rs1801028, rs6275 and rs6277) of DRD2 gene were genotyped in a patient–control sample involving 421 SZ patients and 404 healthy controls. Our data indicated a nominally significant association of rs6277 with SZ, with T-allele being the risk allele (OR=1.58, 95%CI=1.03–2.43, P =0.034). This study suggests that rs6277 T-allele may play a role in the genetic vulnerability for SZ, supporting the involvement of DRD2 gene in SZ pathogenesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Most genetic association studies use single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as the research targets. However, resources to visualize the genomic map of candidate SNPs in a programming manner are limited. We have previously created an R package, mapsnp v0.1, to plot the genomic map for a panel of SNPs within a genomic region of interest. It failed to work under the latest version of Gviz package. Results: We updated the mapsnp package to keep up with the latest package environment and improved its functionality by adding more parameters to fine tune plotting outputs. Conclusions: The mapsnp package is a flexible software to visualize genomic map for SNPs, involving the relative chromosome location and the transcripts in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire risk prediction is significant for fire prevention and fire resource allocation. Fire risk maps are effective methods for quantifying regional fire risk. Laoshan National Forest Park has many precious natural resources and tourist attractions, but there is no fire risk assessment model. This paper aims to construct the forest fire risk map for Nanjing Laoshan National Forest Park. The forest fire risk model is constructed by factors (altitude, aspect, topographic wetness index, slope, distance to roads and populated areas, normalized difference vegetation index, and temperature) which have a great influence on the probability of inducing fire in Laoshan. Since the importance of factors in different study areas is inconsistent, it is necessary to calculate the significance of each factor of Laoshan. After the significance calculation is completed, the fire risk model of Laoshan can be obtained. Then, the fire risk map can be plotted based on the model. This fire risk map can clarify the fire risk level of each part of the study area, with 16.97% extremely low risk, 48.32% low risk, 17.35% moderate risk, 12.74% high risk and 4.62% extremely high risk, and it is compared with the data of MODIS fire anomaly point. The result shows that the accuracy of the risk map is 76.65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FZ performed the data analysis and wrote the manuscript. Correction to: Human Genetics https://doi.org/10.1007/s00439-021-02288-x In the original article published, the author contribution section is incorrect. The correct information is given below: Author contributions FZ and MX conceived and designed the study. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Existing evidence suggests that alterations in the gut microbiome are closely associated with major depressive disorder (MDD). We aimed to reveal the causal relationships between MDD and various microbial taxa in the gut. Methods: We used the two-sample Mendelian randomization (TSMR) to explore the bidirectional causal effects between gut microbiota and MDD. The genome-wide association studies summary results of gut microbiota were obtained from two large consortia, the MibioGen consortium and the Dutch Microbiome Project, which we analyzed separately. Results: Our TSMR analysis identified 10 gut bacterial taxa that were protective against MDD, including phylum Actinobacteria, order Clostridiales, and family Bifidobacteriaceae (OR: 0.96 ∼ 0.98). Ten taxa were associated with an increased risk of MDD, including phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, class Actinobacteria, and genus Alistipes (OR: 1.01 ∼ 1.09). On the other hand, MDD may decrease the abundance of 12 taxa, including phyla Actinobacteria and Firmicutes, families Bifidobacteriaceae and Defluviitaleaceae (OR: 0.63 ∼ 0.88). MDD may increase the abundance of 8 taxa, including phylum Bacteroidetes, genera Parabacteroides, and Bacteroides (OR: 1.12 ∼ 1.43). Conclusions: Our study supports that there are mutual causal relationships between certain gut microbiota and the development of MDD suggesting that gut microbiota may be targeted in the treatment of MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional human-vision-based watchtower systems are being gradually replaced by the machine-vision-based watchtower system. The visual range of machine-vision-based watchtower is smaller than the range of traditional human-vision-based watchtower, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of towers that should be deployed. Consequently, the overlapping area between watchtowers is larger and overlaps are more frequent than in conventional watchtower networks. This poses an urgent challenge: identifying the optimal locations for deployment. If the number of required watchtowers must be increased to extend the detection coverage, overlaps among watchtowers are inevitable and result in viewshed redundancy. However, this redundancy of the viewshed resources of the watchtowers has not been utilized in the design of fire detection systems. Moreover, fire ignition factors, such as climatic factors, fuels, and human behaviour, cause the fire occurrence risk to differ among forest areas. Thus, the fire risk map of the area should also be considered in watchtower deployment. A fire risk model is used as the first step in producing the fire risk map, which is used to propose a new watchtower deployment model for optimizing the watchtower system by integrating viewshed analysis, location allocation, and multi-coverage of the high-fire-risk area while considering the budget constraints for providing optimal coverage. We use a real dataset of a forest park to evaluate the applicability of our approach. The proposed approach is evaluated against the FV-NB (Full coVerage with No Budget constraint) algorithm and the XV-B (maXimum possible coVerage with a Budget constraint) algorithm in terms of performance. The evaluation results demonstrate that our approach realizes higher coverage gain and excellent multiple-coverage of the fire risk area by integrating the viewshed and the fire risk level into location allocation while satisfying requirements on the overall coverage and budget. The proposed approach is more suitable in the environments with moderate watchtower density, in which overlapping areas are frequent. It offers as much as 8.9–17.3% improvement of multiple-coverage of the high-fire-risk area. Unlabelled Image • A model for improving the stability of wildfire detection is presented. • The model integrates factors of viewshed, location, fire risk level, and budget. • The method can be adapted to vision-based wildfire detection system. • High coverage gains of fire risk area obtained by exploiting redundancy resources [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While existing studies have suggested an increased risk of COVID-19 in patients with depression, the causal impact of MDD on the severity of COVID-19 remains to be validated. Additionally, the potential impact of antidepressant medication on the risk of COVID-19 is not known. In our study, we applied a Mendelian Randomization (MR) method, leveraging summary data from GWAS, to evaluate the potential causal effects of depression on three COVID-19 outcomes. Furthermore, we investigated the causal effects of antidepressants on COVID-19 outcomes. The COVID-19 datasets contain information on various stages of the disease, including SARS-CoV-2 infection (N = 2,597,856), hospitalized COVID-19 (N = 2,095,324), and critical COVID-19 (N = 1,086,211). Datasets for depression and antidepressants were comprised of 1,349,887 and 106,785 participants, respectively. Employing the inverse variance-weighted (IVW) method, we show a causal association between depression and three COVID-19 outcomes. Specifically, we found that genetic liability to depression is linked to critical COVID-19 (OR: 1.28, 95 % CI: 1.13–1.46), hospitalized COVID-19 (OR: 1.23, 95 % CI: 1.13–1.34), and SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR: 1.06, 95 % CI: 1.02–1.10). Interestingly, the use of antidepressants was not associated with COVID-19, with the odds ratios for critical COVID-19 (OR: 1.05, 95 % CI: 0.88–1.26), hospitalization (OR: 1.01, 95 % CI: 0.90–1.13), and SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR: 1.03, 95 % CI: 0.99–1.08) indicating no causal impact. Our study indicates that genetic liability to depression may increase the susceptibility to COVID-19 and its severe forms. The lack of causal effect of antidepressant use on COVID-19 implies antidepressant medication may counteract the detrimental effect of depression on COVID-19. • Depression can increase the susceptibility to COVID-19 and its severe forms. • Antidepressant medication has no causal relationship with COVID-19. • Antidepressant use may counteract the adverse effect of depression on COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: For patients with early-stage cervical cancer without high-risk factors, there is no consensus regarding the optimal postoperative treatment regimen and whether postoperative concurrent radiochemotherapy (CCRT) is superior to radiotherapy (RT) alone. Patients and methods: The medical records of patients with stage I-IIA cervical cancer, who underwent radical surgery and postoperative RT or CCRT between June 2012 and December 2017, were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with any high-risk factors, including positive pelvic lymph node(s), positive resection margin(s), and parametrial invasion, were excluded. Patients with large tumors (≥ 4 cm), deep stromal invasion (≥ 1/2), and lymphovascular space involvement were categorized as the intermediate-risk group. Patients without intermediate-risk factors were categorized as the low-risk group. Results: A total of 403 patients were enrolled and divided into 2 groups according to postoperative treatment: RT alone (n = 105); and CCRT (n = 298). For risk stratification, patients were also divided into 2 groups: intermediate-risk (n = 350); and low-risk (n = 53). The median follow-up was 51.7 months. Patients in the intermediate-risk group and those with multiple intermediate-risk factors were more likely to undergo CCRT. For patients who underwent RT alone or CCRT in the intermediate-risk group, 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 93.4% and 93.8% (p = 0.741), and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates were 90.6% and 91.4%, respectively (p = 0.733). Similarly, for patients who underwent RT alone or CCRT in the low-risk group, the 5-year OS rates were 100.0% and 93.5% (p = 0.241), and 5-year DFS rates were 94.4% and 93.5%, respectively (p = 0.736). Adjuvant CCRT or RT were not independent risk factors for either OS or DFS. Patients who underwent CCRT appeared to develop a higher proportion of grade ≥ 3 acute hematological toxicities than those in the RT group (44.0% versus 11.4%, respectively; p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in grade ≥ 3 chronic toxicities of the urogenital and gastrointestinal systems between the CCRT and RT groups. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in 5-year OS and DFS rates between patients with early-stage cervical cancer without high-risk factors undergoing postoperative CCRT versus RT alone. Patients who underwent CCRT appeared to develop a higher proportion of grade ≥ 3 acute hematological toxicities than those who underwent RT alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tumor regression and organ movements indicate that a large margin is used to ensure target volume coverage during radiotherapy. This study aimed to quantify inter-fractional movements of the uterus and cervix in patients with cervical cancer undergoing radiotherapy and to evaluate the clinical target volume (CTV) coverage. Methods: This study analyzed 303 iterative cone beam computed tomography (iCBCT) scans from 15 cervical cancer patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy. CTVs of the uterus (CTV-U) and cervix (CTV-C) contours were delineated based on each iCBCT image. CTV-U encompassed the uterus, while CTV-C included the cervix, vagina, and adjacent parametrial regions. Compared with the planning CTV, the movement of CTV-U and CTV-C in the anterior-posterior, superior-inferior, and lateral directions between iCBCT scans was measured. Uniform expansions were applied to the planning CTV to assess target coverage. Results: The motion (mean ± standard deviation) in the CTV-U position was 8.3 ± 4.1 mm in the left, 9.8 ± 4.4 mm in the right, 12.6 ± 4.0 mm in the anterior, 8.8 ± 5.1 mm in the posterior, 5.7 ± 5.4 mm in the superior, and 3.0 ± 3.2 mm in the inferior direction. The mean CTV-C displacement was 7.3 ± 3.2 mm in the left, 8.6 ± 3.8 mm in the right, 9.0 ± 6.1 mm in the anterior, 8.4 ± 3.6 mm in the posterior, 5.0 ± 5.0 mm in the superior, and 3.0 ± 2.5 mm in the inferior direction. Compared with the other tumor (T) stages, CTV-U and CTV-C motion in stage T1 was larger. A uniform CTV planning treatment volume margin of 15 mm failed to encompass the CTV-U and CTV-C in 11.1% and 2.2% of all fractions, respectively. The mean volume change of CTV-U and CTV-C were 150% and 51%, respectively, compared with the planning CTV. Conclusions: Movements of the uterine corpus are larger than those of the cervix. The likelihood of missing the CTV is significantly increased due to inter-fractional motion when utilizing traditional planning margins. Early T stage may require larger margins. Personal radiotherapy margining is needed to improve treatment accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of large-scale fire areas and complex forest environments, the task of identifying the subtle features and aspects of fire can pose a significant challenge for the deep learning model. As a result, to enhance the model's ability to represent features and its precision in detection, this study initially introduces ConvNeXtV2 and Conv2Former to the You Only Look Once version 7 (YOLOv7) algorithm, separately, and then compares the results with the original YOLOv7 algorithm through experiments. After comprehensive comparison, the proposed ConvNeXtV2-YOLOv7 based on ConvNeXtV2 exhibits a superior performance in detecting forest fires. Additionally, in order to further focus the network on the crucial information in the task of detecting forest fires and minimize irrelevant background interference, the efficient layer aggregation network (ELAN) structure in the backbone network is enhanced by adding four attention mechanisms: the normalization-based attention module (NAM), simple attention mechanism (SimAM), global attention mechanism (GAM), and convolutional block attention module (CBAM). The experimental results, which demonstrate the suitability of ELAN combined with the CBAM module for forest fire detection, lead to the proposal of a new method for forest fire detection called CNTCB-YOLOv7. The CNTCB-YOLOv7 algorithm outperforms the YOLOv7 algorithm, with an increase in accuracy of 2.39%, recall rate of 0.73%, and average precision (AP) of 1.14%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of the era of big data, the Internet industry has produced massive amounts of multimedia video data. In order to process these video sequence data quickly and effectively, a visual information extraction method based on wavelet transform and feature comparison is proposed to perceive the target of interest by simulating the multi-channel spatial frequency decomposition function of human visual system which can quickly extract the significant distribution from the image and obtain region of interest (ROI). Firstly, the principle of visual attention mechanism and the visual salience detection were analyzed. Then, the DOG (Difference of Gaussian) function is taken as the wavelet basis function, and the wavelet data is used to decompose the image data in the spatial domain and frequency domain, thus applying to the multi-channel of the human visual system. Finally, the significant distribution in the entire image is obtained by global color comparison; thus, the region of interest is extracted. The extraction model of visual information proposed is simulated in MATLAB environment. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can extract ROI more accurately and efficiently, compared with the existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Training senior radiation therapists as "adapters" to manage influencers and target editing is critical in daily online adaptive radiotherapy (oART) for cervical cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and dosimetric outcomes of automatic contouring and identify the key areas for modification. Methods: A total of 125 oART fractions from five postoperative cervical cancer patients and 140 oART fractions from five uterine cervical cancer patients treated with daily iCBCT-guided oART were enrolled in this prospective study. The same adaptive treatments were replanned using the Ethos automatic contours workflow without manual contouring edits. The clinical target volume (CTV) was subdivided into several separate regions, and the average surface distance dice (ASD), centroid deviation, dice similarity coefficient (DSC), and 95% Hausdorff distance (95% HD) were used to evaluate contouring for the above portions. Dosimetric results from automatic oART plans were compared to supervised oART plans to evaluate target volumes and organs at risk (OARs) dose changes. Results: Overall, the paired CTV had high overlap rates, with an average DSC value greater than 0.75. The uterus had the largest consistency differences, with ASD, centroid deviation, and 95% HD being 2.67 ± 1.79 mm, 17.17 ± 12 mm, and 10.45 ± 5.68 mm, respectively. The consistency differences of the lower nodal CTVleft and nodal CTVright were relatively large, with ASD, centroid deviation, and 95% HD being 0.59 ± 0.53 mm, 3.6 ± 2.67 mm, and 5.41 ± 4.08 mm, and 0.59 ± 0.51 mm, 3.6 ± 2.54 mm, and 4.7 ± 1.57 mm, respectively. The automatic online-adapted plan met the clinical requirements of dosimetric coverage for the target volume and improved the OAR dosimetry. Conclusions: The accuracy of automatic contouring from the Ethos adaptive platform is considered clinically acceptable for cervical cancer, and the uterus, upper vaginal cuff, and lower nodal CTV are the areas that need to be focused on in training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To determine the optimal planning target volume (PTV) margins for adequate coverage by daily iterative cone-beam computed tomography (iCBCT)-guided online adaptive radiotherapy (oART) in postoperative treatment of endometrial and cervical cancer and the benefit of reducing PTV margins. Methods: Fifteen postoperative endometrial and cervical cancer patients treated with daily iCBCT-guided oART were enrolled in this prospective phase 2 study. Pre- and posttreatment iCBCT images of 125 fractions from 5 patients were obtained as a training cohort, and clinical target volumes (CTV) were contoured separately. Uniform three-dimensional expansions were applied to the PTVpre to assess the minimum margin required to encompass the CTVpost. The dosimetric advantages of the proposed online adaptive margins were compared with conventional margin plans (7–15 mm) using an oART emulator in another cohort of 125 iCBCT scans. A CTV-to-PTV expansion was verified on a validation cohort of 253 fractions from 10 patients, and further margin reduction and acute toxicity were studied. Results: The average time from pretreatment iCBCT to posttreatment iCBCT was 22 min. A uniform PTV margin of 5 mm could encompass nodal CTVpost in 100% of the fractions (175/175) and vaginal CTVpost in 98% of the fractions (172/175). The margin of 5 mm was verified in our validation cohort, and the nodal PTV margin could be further reduced to 4 mm if ≥ 95% CTV coverage was predicted to be achieved. The adapted plan with a 5 mm margin significantly improved pelvic organ-at-risk dosimetry compared with the conventional margin plan. Grade 3 toxicities were observed in only one patient with leukopenia, and no patients experienced acute urinary toxicity. Conclusion: In the postoperative treatment of endometrial and cervical cancer, oART could reduce PTV margins to 5 mm, which significantly decrease the dose to critical organs at risk and potentially lead to a lower incidence of acute toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nodal failure is a major failure pattern for patients with FIGO IIIC cervical cancer, which is further associated with worse survival. This study was designed to investigate risk factors for nodal failure in FIGO IIIC cervical cancer patients. Methods: The characteristics of positive lymph nodes (LNs) and relevant clinical factors of 162 FIGO IIIC cervical cancer patients were collected. The chi-square test and logistic regression model were used to identify risk factors for nodal failure. Results: In total, 368 positive LNs were identified, including 307 pelvic LNs and 61 para-aortic LNs. The nodal failure rates for all LNs, pelvic LNs, and para-aortic LNs were 9.2%, 7.8%, and 16.4%, respectively. After 20 fractions of RT, a nodal short diameter (D20F) ≥ 0.95 cm and a ratio of nodal shrinkage (ΔV20F) < 0.435 resulted; <4 cycles of chemotherapy indicated higher nodal failure rates for all LNs. For pelvic LNs, ΔV20F < 0.435 and <4 cycles of chemotherapy were associated with a higher incidence of nodal failure. For para-aortic LNs, ΔV20F < 0.435 was the only risk factor for nodal failure. Conclusions: Para-aortic LNs were more likely to experience nodal failure than pelvic LNs. Nodal shrinkage during radiotherapy and cycles of chemotherapy were associated with nodal failure in patients with FIGO IIIC cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA-9-5p (miR-9-5p) is highly expressed in the brain and has been implicated in the risk of schizophrenia. We compared the expression levels of miR-9-5p in schizophrenia cases and healthy controls and evaluated whether regulatory targets of miR-9-5p are enriched in schizophrenia genome-wide risk genes. Literature-based analysis was conducted to construct molecular pathways connecting miR-9-5p and schizophrenia. We found that the expression levels of miR-9-5p were down-regulated in the peripheral blood of schizophrenia patients compared with those in healthy controls. miR-9-5p can regulate 24 out of the 1136 genome-wide risk genes of schizophrenia, which was higher than by chance (hypergeometric test P = 4.09E−06). The literature-based analysis showed that quantitative genetic changes driven by miR-9 exert more inhibitory (the IL1B , ABCB1 , FGFR1 genes) than promoting (the INS gene) effects on schizophrenia, suggesting that miR-9 may protect against schizophrenia. Our results suggest that miR-9-5p deficiency may contribute to the development of schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of high efficiency and cleanness, the simulated moving bed (SMB) is the most important technology in chromatographic separation. SMB system, which contains several sectors of flow rate, the switching time of valves and many other possible influencing variables, is complex, highly sensitive and difficult to control. This paper proposes adjusted fuzzy control; the adjusted fuzzy controller is applied to the SMB system to control the separation concentration by establishing a variable direction correction formula. Compared with the traditional fuzzy controller, the adjusted fuzzy controller does not need to analyze the dynamic direction of the control force in advance, moreover, the control accuracy is high and the fluctuation is small for SMB system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recombination is known to occur in foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), it is considered only a minor determinant of virus sequence diversity. Analysis at phylogenetic scales shows inter-serotypic recombination events are rare, whereby recombination occurs almost exclusively in non-structural proteins. In this study we have estimated recombination rates within a natural host in an experimental setting. African buffaloes were inoculated with a SAT-1 FMDV strain containing two major viral sub-populations differing in their capsid sequence. This population structure enabled the detection of extensive within-host recombination in the genomic region coding for structural proteins and allowed recombination rates between the two sub-populations to be estimated. Quite surprisingly, the effective recombination rate in VP1 during the acute infection phase turns out to be about 0.1 per base per year, i.e. comparable to the mutation/substitution rate. Using a high-resolution map of effective within-host recombination in the capsid-coding region, we identified a linkage disequilibrium pattern in VP1 that is consistent with a mosaic structure with two main genetic blocks. Positive epistatic interactions between co-evolved variants appear to be present both within and between blocks. These interactions are due to intra-host selection both at the RNA and protein level. Overall our findings show that during FMDV co-infections by closely related strains, capsid-coding genes recombine within the host at a much higher rate than expected, despite the presence of strong constraints dictated by the capsid structure. Although these intra-host results are not immediately translatable to a phylogenetic setting, recombination and epistasis must play a major and so far underappreciated role in the molecular evolution of the virus at all scales. Author summary: There are 7 serotypes of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus and multiple strains of each serotype. The emergence of new strains can result in widespread outbreaks of disease and requires new vaccines to be developed. The major mechanisms driving variation are thought to be substitutions in the viral genome. Recombination in the capsid-coding region of the virus genome has been described at phylogenetic scales but not thought to play a major role in generating variants. In the current experiment, a co-infection of African buffaloes with closely related sub-populations of viruses allowed us to detect recombination events. For structural protein-coding sequences, the genetic composition of the population is driven by extensive within-host recombination. During the acute infection phase the intra-host recombination rates of 0.1 per base per year are comparable to the typical mutation rates of the virus. The recombination map reveals two strongly linked regions within the VP1 protein-coding sequence. Epistatic interactions between co-evolved mutations in VP1 are caused by intra-host selection at the RNA and protein level and are present both within and between the two regions. Our findings in this experimental setting support a major role for recombination and epistasis in the intra-host evolution of FMDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function network (RBFN) have received considerable attentions in data classification and regression. As a bridge between MLP and RBFN, plane-Gaussian (PG) network is capable of exhibiting globality and locality simultaneously by so-called PG activation function. Due to tuning network weight values by back propagation or clustering method in the training phase, they all confront with slow convergence rate, time-consuming, and easily dropping in local minima. To speed training networks, random projection technologies, for instance, extreme learning machine (ELM), have brightened up in recent decades. In this paper, we propose a random-weighted PG network, termed as RwPG. Instead of plane clustering in PG network, our RwPG adopts random values as network weight, and then analytically calculates network output by matrix inversion. Compared to PG and ELM, the advantages of the proposed RwPG list in fourfold: (1) It will be proved that the RwPG is also a universal approximator. (2) It inherits the geometrical interpretation of PG network, and is also suitable for capturing linearity in data, especially for plane distribution cases. (3) It has comparable training speed for ELM, but significantly faster than that of PG network. (4) Owing to random-weighted technology, RwPG is probably capable of breaking through local extremum problems. Finally, experiments on artificial and benchmark datasets will show its superiorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for oligometastatic pulmonary tumors from cervical cancer. Methods: A total of 29 oligometastatic pulmonary lesions from cervical cancer in 19 patients were treated with SBRT in our institute from 2011 to 2016. Thirteen patients (68.4%) suffered with solitary lung metastasis, three patients (15.8%) with multiple unilateral lesions and three patients (15.8%) with bilateral lesions. The median size of lung lesions was 2 cm (0.7–5.6 cm). Patients underwent cone‐beam CT before the delivery of SBRT. The most common dose fractionation schemes were 64 Gy in eight fractions (eight lesions) and 56 Gy in seven fractions (seven lesions). Nine patients (47.4%) received systemic chemotherapy. Results: The median follow‐up was 9.5 months (3.0–62.4 months). The one‐year overall survival (OS), progression‐free survival (PFS) and local control (LC) rates were 76.8%, 55.8% and 75.6%, respectively. The median PFS was 12.7 months. Six patients (31.6%) gained more than 20 months disease‐free survival. Eleven patients (57.9%) experienced tumor relapse, including seven patients with pulmonary relapse and four patients with extra‐pulmonary disease. Only one patient (5.3%) experienced symptomatic radiation pneumonitis (grade 2). Conclusion: SBRT was an efficacy and safe approach for patients with oligometastatic pulmonary tumor from cervical cancer. SBRT should be considered as a potential alternative to resection for these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]