71 research outputs found

    Accuracy in local staging of prostate cancer by adding a three-dimensional T2-weighted sequence with radial reconstructions in magnetic resonance imaging.

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    BACKGROUND: The evidence supporting the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in prostate cancer detection has been established, but its accuracy in local staging is questioned. PURPOSE: To investigate the additional value of multi-planar radial reconstructions of a three-dimensional (3D) T2-weighted (T2W) MRI sequence, intercepting the prostate capsule perpendicularly, for improving local staging of prostate cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Preoperative, bi-parametric prostate MRI examinations in 94 patients operated between June 2014 and January 2015 where retrospectively reviewed by two experienced abdominal radiologists. Each patient was presented in two separate sets including diffusion-weighted imaging, without and with the 3D T2W set that included radial reconstructions. Each set was read at least two months apart. Extraprostatic tumor extension (EPE) was assessed according to a 5-point grading scale. Sensitivity and specificity for EPE was calculated and presented as receiver operating characteristics (ROC) with area under the curve (AUC), using histology from whole-mount prostate specimen as gold standard. Inter-rater agreement was calculated for the two different reading modes using Cohen's kappa. RESULTS: The AUC for detection of EPE for Readers 1 and 2 in the two-dimensional (2D) set was 0.70 and 0.68, respectively, and for the 2D + 3D set 0.62 and 0.65, respectively. Inter-rater agreement (Reader 1 vs. Reader 2) on EPE using Cohen's kappa for the 2D and 2D + 3D set, respectively, was 0.42 and 0.17 (i.e. moderate and poor agreement, respectively). CONCLUSION: The addition of 3D T2W MRI with radial reconstructions did not improve local staging in prostate cancer

    Polycomb Target Genes Are Silenced in Multiple Myeloma

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    Multiple myeloma (MM) is a genetically heterogeneous disease, which to date remains fatal. Finding a common mechanism for initiation and progression of MM continues to be challenging. By means of integrative genomics, we identified an underexpressed gene signature in MM patient cells compared to normal counterpart plasma cells. This profile was enriched for previously defined H3K27-tri-methylated genes, targets of the Polycomb group (PcG) proteins in human embryonic fibroblasts. Additionally, the silenced gene signature was more pronounced in ISS stage III MM compared to stage I and II. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assay on purified CD138+ cells from four MM patients and on two MM cell lines, we found enrichment of H3K27me3 at genes selected from the profile. As the data implied that the Polycomb-targeted gene profile would be highly relevant for pharmacological treatment of MM, we used two compounds to chemically revert the H3K27-tri-methylation mediated gene silencing. The S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase inhibitor 3-Deazaneplanocin (DZNep) and the histone deacetylase inhibitor LBH589 (Panobinostat), reactivated the expression of genes repressed by H3K27me3, depleted cells from the PRC2 component EZH2 and induced apoptosis in human MM cell lines. In the immunocompetent 5T33MM in vivo model for MM, treatment with LBH589 resulted in gene upregulation, reduced tumor load and increased overall survival. Taken together, our results reveal a common gene signature in MM, mediated by gene silencing via the Polycomb repressor complex. The importance of the underexpressed gene profile in MM tumor initiation and progression should be subjected to further studies

    AQUAPORINS: Production Optimization and Characterization

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    Aquaporins are water facilitating proteins embedded in the cellular membranes. Such channels have been identified in almost every living organism – including humans. They are vital molecules and their malfunction can lead to several severe disorders. An increased understanding of their structure, function and regulation is of utmost importance for developing current and future drugs. The first problem to overcome is to acquire the proteins in sufficient amounts to enable characterization. To achieve this, proteins are often produced in a host organism. One of the most successful hosts for recombinant overproduction is the yeast Pichia pastoris. Using this yeast we could obtain exceptional yield of aquaporin 1, whereas some others were below the threshold needed for successful subsequent characterization. In this process, we have established methods allowing fast and accurate determination of the initial production yield. Furthermore, we optimized the yield for low producing targets, enabling studies of proteins previously out of reach, exemplified with human aquaporin 4. Characterization has been performed on aquaporins obtained in sufficient quantities, and the functionality of aquaporin 1, 5 and 10 has been assessed. Furthermore, a glycosylation was found to stabilize the aquaporin 10 tetramer although only a minority of the monomers where modified. Moreover, we used protein crystallography to determine the three dimensional structure of a hAQP5 mutant, providing insight into regulation of the protein by trafficking. Taken together, these results provide insight into factors directing high production of eukaryotic membrane proteins. The subsequent characterization, including functional and structural determination, reveals new knowledge about aquaporin activity and regulation

    Scrambling av databaser : Validering och implementering av scrambling av databas

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    The demands on how personal data is handled have recently become much more strict with new regulations such as GDPR. Which means companies need to review how they save and manage data. Furthermore, there is a whole indust- ry that works with analyzing and anonymizing databases to create testdata for companies to use for tests. How can these companies guarantee that they can hand over their database for this particular purpose. Easit AB wants a system to be built for scrambling databases so that the structure and data in the database are unrecognizable, which can then be submitted to Easit for analysis.With the main objective, using existing functionality in the Easit Test Engine ETE, see if you can scramble customers databases and data to unrecognizable so that the handover of the database can be done without risk. But also to validate the scrambling methods that the solution contains.Kraven hur personlig data hanteras har på senare tid blivit mycket mer strikta med nya förordningar som GDPR. Vilket betyder att företag måste se över hur dom spara och hanterar data. Vidare så finns det en hel bransch som jobbar med att analysera och anonymisera databaser för att skapa testdata för företag att an- vända för tester. Hur kan dessa företag garantera att de kan lämna över deras da- tabas för just detta. Easit AB vill att ett system ska byggas för att scrambla data- baser så att struktur och data i databasen är oigenkännligt som sedan kan läm- nas över till Easit för analysering. Med Huvudmålet att med hjälp av befintlig funktionalitet i Easit Test Engine ETE kunna scrambla kunders databaser och data till oigenkännlighet så att överlämning av databasen kan ske utan risk för tester. Men även att validera de scramblingmetoder som lösningen innehåller

    Investigation on how presentation attack detection can be used to increase security for face recognition as biometric identification : Improvements on traditional locking system

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    Biometric identification has already been applied to society today, as today’s mobile phones use fingerprints and other methods like iris and the face itself. With growth for technologies like computer vision, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, The use of face recognition as a biometric identification on ordinary doors has become increasingly common. This thesis studies is looking into the possibility of replacing regular door locks with face recognition or supplement the locks to increase security by using a pre-trained state-of-the-art face recognition method based on a convolution neural network. A subsequent investigation concluded that a networks based face recognition are is highly vulnerable to attacks in the form of presentation attacks. This study investigates protection mechanisms against these forms of attack by developing a presentation attack detection and analyzing its performance. The obtained results from the proof of concept  showed that local binary patterns histograms as a presentation attack detection could help the state of art face recognition to avoid attacks up to 88\% of the attacks the convolution neural network approved without the presentation attack detection. However, to replace traditional locks, more work must be done to detect more attacks in form of both higher percentage of attacks blocked by the system and the types of attack that can be done. Nevertheless, as a supplement face recognition represents a promising technology to supplement traditional door locks, enchaining their security by complementing the authorization with biometric authentication. So the main contributions is that  by using simple older methods LBPH can help modern state of the art face regognition to detect presentation attacks according to the results of the tests. This study also worked to adapt this PAD to be suitable for low end edge devices to be able to adapt in an environment where modern solutions are used, which LBPH have
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