314 research outputs found
In Vitro Chemosensitivity Using the Histoculture Drug Response Assay in Human Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
The choice of chemotherapeutic drugs to treat patients with epithelial ovarian cancer has not depended on individual patient characteristics. We have investigated the correlation between in vitro chemosensitivity, as determined by the histoculture drug response assay (HDRA), and clinical responses in epithelial ovarian cancer. Fresh tissue samples were obtained from 79 patients with epithelial
ovarian cancer. The sensitivity of these samples to 11 chemotherapeutic agents was tested using the HDRA method according to established methods, and we analyzed the results retrospectively. HDRA showed that they were more chemosensitive to carboplatin, topotecan and belotecan, with inhibition rates of 49.2%, 44.7%, and 39.7%, respectively, than to cisplatin, the traditional drug of choice in epithelial ovarian cancer. Among the 37 patients with FIGO stage Ⅲ/Ⅳ serous adenocarcinoma
who were receiving carboplatin combined with paclitaxel, those with carboplatin-sensitive samples on HDRA had a significantly longer median disease-free interval than patients with carboplatin-
resistant samples (23.2 vs. 13.8 months, p<0.05), but median overall survival did not differ significantly
(60.4 vs. 37.3 months, p=0.621). In conclusion, this study indicates that HDRA could provide useful information for designing individual treatment strategies in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer
Renormalization group theory for percolation in time-varying networks
Motivated by multi-hop communication in unreliable wireless networks, we
present a percolation theory for time-varying networks. We develop a
renormalization group theory for a prototypical network on a regular grid,
where individual links switch stochastically between active and inactive
states. The question whether a given source node can communicate with a
destination node along paths of active links is equivalent to a percolation
problem. Our theory maps the temporal existence of multi-hop paths on an
effective two-state Markov process. We show analytically how this Markov
process converges towards a memory-less Bernoulli process as the hop distance
between source and destination node increases. Our work extends classical
percolation theory to the dynamic case and elucidates temporal correlations of
message losses. Quantification of temporal correlations has implications for
the design of wireless communication and control protocols, e.g. in
cyber-physical systems such as self-organized swarms of drones or smart traffic
networks.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Rhodium-oxide-coated indium tin oxide for enhancement of hole injection in organic light emitting diodes
The authors report the enhancement of hole injection using an RhOx layer between indium tin oxide anodes and 4, 4??? -bis[N-(1-naphtyl)- N -phenyl-amino]biphenyl in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The operation voltage of OLEDs at 700 cdm2 decreased from 13 to 10 V as the Rh layer changed to RhOx by surface treatment using O2 plasma. Synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that the work function increased by 0.2 eV as the Rh layer transformed into RhOx. Thus, the hole injection energy barrier was lowered, reducing the turn-on voltage and increasing the quantum efficiency of OLEDs.open281
Molecular Tracers of Filamentary CO Emission Regions Surrounding the Central Galaxies of Clusters
Optical emission is detected from filaments around the central galaxies of
clusters of galaxies. These filaments have lengths of tens of kiloparsecs. The
emission is possibly due to heating caused by the dissipation of mechanical
energy and by cosmic ray induced ionisation. CO millimeter and submillimeter
line emissions as well as H infrared emission originating in such
filaments surrounding NGC~1275, the central galaxy of the Perseus cluster, have
been detected. Our aim is to identify those molecular species, other than CO,
that may emit detectable millimeter and submillimeter line features arising in
these filaments, and to determine which of those species will produce emissions
that might serve as diagnostics of the dissipation and cosmic ray induced
ionisation. The time-dependent UCL photon-dominated region modelling code was
used in the construction of steady-state models of molecular filamentary
emission regions at appropriate pressures, for a range of dissipation and
cosmic ray induced ionisation rates and incident radiation fields.HCO and
CH emissions will potentially provide information about the cosmic ray
induced ionisation rates in the filaments. HCN and, in particular, CN are
species with millimeter and submillimeter lines that remain abundant in the
warmest regions containing molecules. Detections of the galaxy cluster
filaments in HCO, CH, and CN emissions and further detections of
them in HCN emissions would provide significant constraints on the dissipation
and cosmic ray induced ionisation rates.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, accepted in A&
Comparison of Patient Satisfaction with Treatment Outcomes between Ureteroscopy and Shock Wave Lithotripsy for Proximal Ureteral Stones
An artificial neural-network approach to identify motor hotspot for upper-limb based on electroencephalography: a proof-of-concept study
Abstract
Background
To apply transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) to the motor cortex, motor hotspots are generally identified using motor evoked potentials by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The objective of this study is to validate the feasibility of a novel electroencephalography (EEG)-based motor-hotspot-identification approach using a machine learning technique as a potential alternative to TMS.
Methods
EEG data were measured using 63 channels from thirty subjects as they performed a simple finger tapping task. Power spectral densities of the EEG data were extracted from six frequency bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta, gamma, and full) and were independently used to train and test an artificial neural network for motor hotspot identification. The 3D coordinate information of individual motor hotspots identified by TMS were quantitatively compared with those estimated by our EEG-based motor-hotspot-identification approach to assess its feasibility.
Results
The minimum mean error distance between the motor hotspot locations identified by TMS and our proposed motor-hotspot-identification approach was 0.22 ± 0.03cm, demonstrating the proof-of-concept of our proposed EEG-based approach. A mean error distance of 1.32 ± 0.15cm was measured when using only nine channels attached to the middle of the motor cortex, showing the possibility of practically using the proposed motor-hotspot-identification approach based on a relatively small number of EEG channels.
Conclusion
We demonstrated the feasibility of our novel EEG-based motor-hotspot-identification method. It is expected that our approach can be used as an alternative to TMS for motor hotspot identification. In particular, its usability would significantly increase when using a recently developed portable tES device integrated with an EEG device
An Impacted Clamshell in the Duodenum Mistaken for a Gall Stone
Although most ingested foreign bodies pass through the gastrointestinal tract spontaneously, those that are sharp, pointed, or large require removal to avoid serious complications. Here we report an interesting case of a 60-year-old man who swallowed a clamshell that passed through the pylorus and was caught in the duodenum. Radiologic findings made it look like a biliary stone. Endoscopic retrieval of the clamshell with a Dormia Basket was performed safely and the patient was discharged uneventfully on the day of the procedure
- …