Particle swarm optimization with a leader and followers

Referring to the flight mechanism of wild goose flock, we propose a novel version of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) with a leader and followers. It is referred to as Goose Team Optimization (GTO). The basic features of goose team flight such as goose role division, parallel principle, aggregate principle and separate principle are implemented in the recommended algorithm. In GTO, a team is formed by the particles with a leader and some followers. The role of the leader is to determine the search direction. The followers decide their flying modes according to their distances to the leader individually. Thus, a wide area can be explored and the particle collision can be really avoided. When GTO is applied to four benchmark examples of complex nonlinear functions, it has a better computation performance than the standard PSO

Advances in the research, diagnosis and treatment of renal cell carcinoma in 2022

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the three major urinary system tumors. With the changes of lifestyle and the rise of obesity, hypertension and other diseases, the incidence of RCC is increasing. The onset of RCC is hidden, and RCC has strong heterogeneity. Most RCC patients are found accidentally by imaging examination, so many patients were diagnosed in the advanced stage. Although the emergence of targeted therapy and immunotherapy has greatly prolonged the survival time of patients with advanced RCC, due to many pathological types of RCC, it is still difficult for many patients to benefit from the systematic treatment. Many basic and clinical studies are devoted to the development of new targets or drugs to prolong the survival time of patients. This article reviewed the advances in the research, diagnosis and treatment of RCC in 2022

Disintegration and strength weakening characteristics of red-bed soft rock in the Shengzhou-Xinchang area under dry-wet cycles

Objective The red-bed soft rocks is easy to disintegrate and weaken its strength when it encounters water, which is easy to cause poor stability and economic loss or even casualties in slope construction. It is of great significance to reveal the variation characteristics of cohesion and internal friction angle of red-bed soft rocks under the action of dry and wet cycling for the design of slope treatment measures. Methods Investigating the three groups of red-bed soft rock formations within the Lower Cretaceous Chaochuan Formation situated in the Shengzhou-Xinchang region of Zhejiang Province, this study delves into the disintegration and strength attention tendencies inherent in these formations. This exploration unfolds through a comprehensive suite of method ologies, including dry-wet cycle tests, point load strength tests of disintegrated rock blocks and direct shear tests of disintegrated particles. Results The results reveal that the sample undergoes disintegrates, in the form of fragments, particle slag, and mud paste due to successive dry-wet cycles. The main disintegration process can be divided into four distinct stages: Initial disintegration, rapid disintegration, fine reconfiguration, and eventual stabilization. The point load strength of the sample decreases with the increase as the number of dry-wet cycles increases, while the disintegration resistance index Idn shows a positive exponential relationship with the point load strength Is(50). Notably, the point load strength Is(50) of the sample experiences rapid weakening between 80% to 100% and 50% to 80% of the disintegration resistance index Idn, demonstrating gradual attenuation characteristics. The peak shear strength of the sample ranges between 1.219 MPa and 0.567 MPa, which mostly occurs before and after the shear displacement of 3 mm. Under the consistent axial pressure, the peak shear strength of the same group decreases with an increasing number of cycles. Additionally, the internal friction angle of disintegrated particles of the sample ranges from 22.28° to 33.03°, while the cohesion is between 0.46 MPa and 0.74 MPa. Both the friction angle and cohesion of the sample show a negative exponential relationship with the number of dry-wet cycles. Conclusion The test results indicate that siliceous cementation exhibits better disintegration resistance compared to argillaceous cementation, and the rock with high clay minerals more easily disintegrates. Additionally, the water absorption and expansion capacity of "white mineral" albite significantly lag behind that of clay minerals, with a lesser variance in its content compared to clay minerals

Prognostic significance of the dynamic changes of systemic inflammatory response in metastatic renal cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT Purpose: To elucidate the prognostic value of systemic inflammatory response in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) who are treated with sunitinib, we evaluated the prognostic role of C-reactive protein (CRP) kinetics. This study also compared prognostic models containing CRP kinetics and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) kinetics. Materials and Methods: A consecutive cohort of 94 patients with mRCC who were treated with sunitinib was retrospectively included from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center. According to dynamic changes in CRP and the NLR, patients were divided into three groups for analysis of CRP and NLR kinetics. The associations between survival and potential prognostic factors were assessed. The incremental value of prognostication was evaluated. Results: A significant difference (P<0.001) in overall survival (OS) was observed among the three groups of CRP kinetics. The median OS of the non-elevated group was nearly 1.3-fold longer than that of the normalized group (33.0 vs. 26.3 months), and two times longer than that of the non-normalized group (33.0 vs. 14.0 months). Multivariate analysis showed that CRP and NLR kinetics were independent prognostic indicators. The model containing CRP kinetics had a better predictive accuracy than that with NLR kinetics, which was supported by the C-index (0.731 vs. 0.684) and the likelihood ratio χ2 test (79.9% vs. 44.9%). Conclusion: Our study suggests that dynamic changes in CRP can better predict survival in patients with mRCC who are treated with sunitinib. Routine assessment of CRP before and after targeted therapy would help identify patients at risk of a poor outcome

A 5-lncRNA Signature Associated with Smoking Predicts the Overall Survival of Patients with Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Increasing evidence demonstrated that noncoding RNA is abnormally expressed in cancer tissues and serves a vital role in tumorigenesis, tumor development, and metastasis. The aim of the present study was to determine an lncRNA signature in order to predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). A total of 246 patients with pathologically confirmed MIBC in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset were recruited and included in the present study. We choose patients who have smoked less (including never smoking) or more than 15 years. A total of 44 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified with a fold change larger than 1.5 and a P value 15 years was performed by using the matchIt package. Among the 44 differentially expressed lncRNAs, 5 lncRNAs were identified to be significantly associated with OS. Based on the characteristic risk scores of these 5 lncRNAs, patients were divided into low-risk and high-risk groups and exhibited significant differences in OS. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that the 5-lncRNA signature was independent of age, tumor-node metastasis (TNM) staging, lymphatic node status, and adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy. In the present study, a novel 5-lncRNA signature was developed and was demonstrated to be useful in predicting the survival of patients with MIBC. If validated, this lncRNA signature may assist in the selection of a high-risk subpopulation that requires more aggressive therapeutic intervention. The risk scores involved in several associated pathways were identified using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). However, the clinical implications and mechanism of these 5 lncRNAs require further investigation

Construction of an Immune Escape-Related Signature in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma and Identification of the Relationship between IFNAR1 and Immune Infiltration by Multiple Immunohistochemistry

Background: In the past decade, immunotherapy has been widely used in the treatment of various tumors, such as PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors. Although clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) has been shown to be sensitive to immunotherapy, it is effective only in several cases, which brings great obstacles to anti-tumor therapy for patients. Lawson et al. have successfully identified 182 “core cancer innate immune escape genes” whose deletion makes cancer cells more sensitive or resistant to T-cell attack. Methods: In this research, we sought to explore genes closely associated with ccRCC among the 182 core cancer innate immune escape genes. We used online databases to screen mutated genes in ccRCC, and then used ConsensusClusterPlus to cluster clinical samples to analyze differences in clinical prognosis and immune components between the two subgroups. In addition, the immune escape score was calculated using lasso cox regression, and a stable tumor immune escape-related nomogram was established to predict the overall survival of patients. Results: Higher immune escape score was significantly correlated with shorter survival time. Meanwhile, through the validation of the external cohort and the correlation analysis of the immune microenvironment, we proved that IFNAR1 is the key gene regulating immune escape in ccRCC, and we also found that the function of IFNAR1 in promoting immune activation is achieved by facilitating the infiltration of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells. IFNAR1 regulates the malignant behavior of ccRCC by inhibiting the proliferation and migration properties. Conclusions: IFNAR1 may become a key biomarker for evaluating the efficacy of ccRCC immunotherapy and may also be a potential target for immunotherapy

Prognostic value of components of body composition in patients treated with targeted therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma: a retrospective case series.

BACKGROUND:To evaluate the association between various components of body composition and overall survival of patients treated with targeted therapies for advanced renal cell carcinoma. METHODS:This retrospective study included 124 Chinese patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who had been treated with targeted therapy from 2008 to 2012 at Fudan University Cancer Center. The L3 plane from a computed tomography scan was analyzed. Area and density were recorded as quantitative and quality measures. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportion hazard regression models were constructed to calculate the crude and adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of various components of body composition for overall survival. X-tile software was used to search for optimal cutoffs for male and female patients and the concordance index evaluated incremental changes in prognostication. RESULTS:After adjusting for age, sex and Heng risk stratification, only visceral adipose tissue index (HR 0.981, p = 0.002) and subcutaneous adipose tissue index (HR 0.987, p = 0.048) were independently associated with overall survival. Visceral adipose tissue remained a significant prognostic factor (HR 0.997, p = 0.005) when the influence of body mass index was included. Using defined cutoffs, patients with low VAT had double the death rate (p = 0.007). Visceral adipose tissue also added significant benefit to Heng risk stratification. Further exploratory analysis revealed that visceral adipose tissue may be an indicator of nutritional status in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION:Radiologic measurement of VAT is an independent prognostic factor for Asian patients treated with targeted therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma