Diversity of Cladosporium (Cladosporiales, Cladosporiaceae) species in marine environments and report on five new species

Cladosporium species are cosmopolitan fungi, characterized by olivaceous or dark colonies with coronate conidiogenous loci and conidial hila with a central convex dome surrounded by a raised periclinal rim. Cladosporium species have also been discovered in marine environments. Although many studies have been performed on the application of marine originated Cladosporium species, taxonomic studies on these species are scarce. We isolated Cladosporium species from three under-studied habitats (sediment, seawater, and seaweed) in two districts including an intertidal zone in the Republic of Korea and the open sea in the Western Pacific Ocean. Based on multigenetic marker analyses (for the internal transcribed spacer, actin, and translation elongation factor 1), we identified fourteen species, of which five were found to represent new species. These five species were C. lagenariiforme sp. nov., C. maltirimosum sp. nov., C. marinum sp. nov. in the C. cladosporioides species complex, C. snafimbriatum sp. nov. in the C. herbarum species complex, and C. marinisedimentum sp. nov. in the C. sphaerospermum species complex. Morphological characteristics of the new species and aspects of differences with the already known species are described herein together with molecular data

Stratifying non-small cell lung cancer patients using an inverse of the treatment decision rules: validation using electronic health records with application to an administrative database

To validate a stratification method using an inverse of treatment decision rules that can classify non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in real-world treatment records. (1) To validate the index classifier against the TNM 7th edition, we analyzed electronic health records of NSCLC patients diagnosed from 2011 to 2015 in a tertiary referral hospital in Seoul, Korea. Predictive accuracy, stage-specific sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, F1 score, and c-statistic were measured. (2) To apply the index classifier in an administrative database, we analyzed NSCLC patients in Korean National Health Insurance Database, 2002–2013. Differential survival rates among the classes were examined with the log-rank test, and class-specific survival rates were compared with the reference survival rates. (1) In the validation study (N = 1375), the overall accuracy was 93.8% (95% CI: 92.5–95.0%). Stage-specific c-statistic was the highest for stage I (0.97, 95% CI: 0.96–0.98) and the lowest for stage III (0.82, 95% CI: 0.77–0.87). (2) In the application study (N = 71,593), the index classifier showed a tendency for differentiating survival probabilities among classes. Compared to the reference TNM survival rates, the index classification under-estimated the survival probability for stages IA, IIIB, and IV, and over-estimated it for stages IIA and IIB. The inverse of the treatment decision rules has a potential to supplement a routinely collected database with information encoded in the treatment decision rules to classify NSCLC patients. It requires further validation and replication in multiple clinical settings

Channel Aware Sparse Signaling for Ultra-low Latency TDD Access

Future mobile communication systems need to support wide variety of new services and applications. In order to support these, ITU-R introduced new types of use cases. One such use case, called ultra reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), concerns the reduction of latency down to a millisecond level while ensuring the reliability of the transmission. In case of uplink transmission, supporting the stringent latency requirement of URLLC is quite challenging due to a time-consuming and complicated handshaking process. In the time division duplexing (TDD) systems, satisfying the latency requirement is far more difficult since the mobile device cannot transmit the data when the subframe is directed to the downlink. In this paper, we propose a new grant signaling scheme, referred to as channel-aware sparse signaling (CASS), to achieve a low latency access in the TDD-based URLLC systems. Key idea of CASS is to map the grant information into a small number of subcarriers and then decode it using a small number of early received samples. From the numerical evaluations, we demonstrate that the proposed CASS scheme achieves significant reduction in access latency over the conventional LTE-TDD systems.N

New Radio Technologies for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications

Ultra reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) is a new use case in SG wireless systems to accommodate emerging mission-critical services and applications. These include driverless vehicles and drone-based deliveries, smart cities and factories, remote medical diagnosis and surgery, and artificial intelligence-based personalized assistants. In order to support URLLC, there should be changes in the air interface (a.k.a. physical-layer). In this article, we provide physical layer challenges and solutions in SG URLLC downlink We discuss requirements of URLLC and then present the physical layer issues and new solutions including data structure, multiplexing schemes, and reliability assurance technologies, which have been adopted in the SG new radio (NR).N

Fast Uplink Access in TDD Systems for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications

Fifth generation (5G) wireless networks are currently being developed to handle wide variety of use cases. In order to support these cases, new types of requirements other than throughput enhancement have been introduced. One such requirement is to reduce the latency down to a millisecond (ms) level in ultra reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). In case of uplink transmission, supporting this stringent latency requirement is quite challenging since the scheduling procedure is a time-consuming and complicated handshaking process. In time division duplexing (TDD) systems, satisfying the latency requirement is far more difficult since the mobile device cannot transmit the data when the subframe is assigned for the downlink. In this paper, we propose a low latency access scheme suitable for TDD-based URLLC. Key idea of the proposed scheme is to transmit the latency sensitive data immediately after the grant signaling. To support the fast uplink access, we introduce a fast grant signaling scheme based on the compressed sensing technique. Numerical results confirm that the proposed uplink access scheme is very effective in TDD-based URLLC systems.N

Channel Aware Sparse Signaling for Ultra Low-latency Communication in TDD systems

Fifth generation (5G) wireless networks are currently being developed to handle wide variety of use cases. In order to support these cases, new types of requirements other than throughput enhancement have been introduced. One such requirement is to reduce the latency down to a millisecond (ms) level in ultra reliable and low latency communications (URLL-C). In case of uplink transmission, supporting this stringent latency requirement is quite challenging and problematic since the scheduling procedure is a time-consuming and complicated handshaking process. In time division duplexing (TDD) systems, satisfying the latency requirement is far more difficult since the mobile device cannot transmit the data when the subframe is assigned for the downlink. In this paper, we propose a new type of uplink transmission scheme for TDD-based URLLC. Key idea of the proposed scheme is to transmit the latency sensitive data immediately after performing the ultra-short one-way signaling from the basestation to the mobile device. To reduce the processing time of grant signal, we present a fast signaling mechanism, referred to as channel-aware sparse signaling (CASS). Numerical results confirm that the proposed uplink transmission scheme is very effective in TDD-based URLLC systems.N

Nivolumab as maintenance therapy following platinum‐based chemotherapy in EGFR‐mutant lung cancer patients after tyrosine kinase inhibitor failure: A single‐arm, open‐label, phase 2 trial

Abstract Background As the outcome of immunotherapy can be improved when concurrently or sequentially combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy or radiotherapy, we investigated the efficacy of immunotherapy maintenance following platinum‐based chemotherapy in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)‐mutant non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after EGFR‐tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR‐TKI) failure. Methods In this prospective, open‐label, single arm phase 2 trial, we enrolled patients aged 18 years or older with EGFR‐mutant NSCLC, which progressed after first‐ or second‐line EGFR‐TKI. Patients received platinum‐based chemotherapy followed by nivolumab maintenance therapy. They were intravenously administered 240 mg of nivolumab every 2 weeks for 3 months followed by 480 mg every 4 weeks until disease progression or unacceptable toxic effects occurred. The primary endpoint was progression‐free survival (PFS). Secondary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and incidence of grade 3–4 treatment‐related adverse events (AEs). Results We enrolled 26 patients between May 2020 and July 2021. The median PFS was 1.7 months (95% CI: 0.401–2.999 months). The median OS was 21.4 months (95% CI: 18.790–24.010 months) with 6‐ and 12‐month OS rates of 96.2% and 76.9%, respectively. The objective response rate was 7.7% (2/26) and disease control rate, 11.5% (3/26). The tumor mutational burden by next‐generation sequencing in blood was not related to the treatment outcomes. Grade 3–4 treatment‐related AEs occurred in four (15.4%) patients; the most frequent AE was increased alanine aminotransferase (7.7%). Conclusion Nivolumab maintenance following platinum‐based chemotherapy did not show clinical benefits after EGFR‐TKI failure in patients with EGFR‐mutant NSCLC

Efficacy of nebulized acetylcysteine for relieving symptoms and reducing usage of expectorants in patients with radiation pneumonitis

Background Radiation pneumonitis is one of the most harmful and clinically significant complications of radiotherapy. This study investigated the benefits of nebulized acetylcysteine for lung cancer patients diagnosed with radiation pneumonitis after radiotherapy. Methods We prospectively enrolled and followed 25 patients with radiation pneumonitis who used nebulized acetylcysteine three times a day for 12 weeks. We also reviewed the medical records of 106 control patients who had undergone radiotherapy for lung cancer but had not used acetylcysteine. We evaluated the effects of nebulized acetylcysteine by comparing visits 1 and 4 among nebulizer users and by comparing the acetylcysteine group with the control group. Results Twenty‐five acetylcysteine group patients and 101 control group patients were included in the analyses. The mean patient‐rated severity score associated with sputum production decreased in the acetylcysteine group between visits 1 and 4 (from 1.10 to 0.95; P = 0.08). None of the patients used additional expectorant agents after using nebulized acetylcysteine and critical adverse events were not reported. The acetylcysteine group had a shorter mean duration of expectorant use among patients whose radiation pneumonitis required steroid therapy and covered > 10% of a single lung field on computed tomography (37.2 vs. 78.1 days, respectively; P = 0.07). Conclusions The beneficial effects of nebulized acetylcysteine for patients with radiation pneumonitis included relieving sputum severity and minimizing expectorant use, especially in severe cases. Further investigation is required to clarify and expand on the benefits of nebulized acetylcysteine for patients with radiation pneumonitis