survAIval: Survival Analysis with the Eyes of AI

In this study, we propose a novel approach to enrich the training data for automated driving by using a self-designed driving simulator and two human drivers to generate safety-critical corner cases in a short period of time, as already presented in~\cite{kowol22simulator}. Our results show that incorporating these corner cases during training improves the recognition of corner cases during testing, even though, they were recorded due to visual impairment. Using the corner case triggering pipeline developed in the previous work, we investigate the effectiveness of using expert models to overcome the domain gap due to different weather conditions and times of day, compared to a universal model from a development perspective. Our study reveals that expert models can provide significant benefits in terms of performance and efficiency, and can reduce the time and effort required for model training. Our results contribute to the progress of automated driving, providing a pathway for safer and more reliable autonomous vehicles on the road in the future

Radiation-induced lung damage promotes breast cancer lung-metastasis through CXCR4 signaling

Radiotherapy is a mainstay in the postoperative treatment of breast cancer as it reduces the risks of local recurrence and mortality after both conservative surgery and mastectomy. Despite recent efforts to decrease irradiation volumes through accelerated partial irradiation techniques, late cardiac and pulmonary toxicity still occurs after breast irradiation. The importance of this pulmonary injury towards lung metastasis is unclear. Preirradiation of lung epithelial cells induces DNA damage, p53 activation and a secretome enriched in the chemokines SDF-1/CXCL12 and MIF. Irradiated lung epithelial cells stimulate adhesion, spreading, growth, and (transendothelial) migration of human MDA-MB-231 and murine 4T1 breast cancer cells. These metastasis-associated cellular activities were largely mimicked by recombinant CXCL12 and MIF. Moreover, an allosteric inhibitor of the CXCR4 receptor prevented the metastasis-associated cellular activities stimulated by the secretome of irradiated lung epithelial cells. Furthermore, partial (10%) irradiation of the right lung significantly stimulated breast cancer lung-specific metastasis in the syngeneic, orthotopic 4T1 breast cancer model. Our results warrant further investigation of the potential pro-metastatic effects of radiation and indicate the need to develop efficient drugs that will be successful in combination with radiotherapy to prevent therapy-induced spread of cancer cells

Archeologisch onderzoek op de geplande woonverkaveling te Minderhout - Beemden/Desmedtstraat

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Unified Education: Medienbildung entlang der Lehrerbildungskette - Maßnahmen im Rahmen der Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung der TU Kaiserslautern

Bericht Qualitätsoffensive Kaiserslauter

Genome-wide association analysis identifies six new loci associated with forced vital capacity

Forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function, reflects lung volume and is used to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. We performed genome-wide association study meta-analysis of FVC in 52,253 individuals from 26 studies and followed up the top associations in 32,917 additional individuals of European ancestry. We found six new regions associated at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10−8) with FVC in or near EFEMP1, BMP6, MIR-129-2/HSD17B12, PRDM11, WWOX, and KCNJ2. Two (GSTCD and PTCH1) loci previously associated with spirometric measures were related to FVC. Newly implicated regions were followed-up in samples of African American, Korean, Chinese, and Hispanic individuals. We detected transcripts for all six newly implicated genes in human lung tissue. The new loci may inform mechanisms involved in lung development and pathogenesis of restrictive lung disease

Association of Forced Vital Capacity with the Developmental Gene <i>NCOR2</i>

Background Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) is an important predictor of all-cause mortality in the absence of chronic respiratory conditions. Epidemiological evidence highlights the role of early life factors on adult FVC, pointing to environmental exposures and genes affecting lung development as risk factors for low FVC later in life. Although highly heritable, a small number of genes have been found associated with FVC, and we aimed at identifying further genetic variants by focusing on lung development genes. Methods Per-allele effects of 24,728 SNPs in 403 genes involved in lung development were tested in 7,749 adults from three studies (NFBC1966, ECRHS, EGEA). The most significant SNP for the top 25 genes was followed-up in 46,103 adults (CHARGE and SpiroMeta consortia) and 5,062 chi