Enumerating All Subgraphs Under Given Constraints Using Zero-Suppressed Sentential Decision Diagrams

Subgraph enumeration is a fundamental task in computer science. Since the number of subgraphs can be large, some enumeration algorithms exploit compressed representations for efficiency. One such representation is the Zero-suppressed Binary Decision Diagram (ZDD). ZDDs can represent the set of subgraphs compactly and support several poly-time queries, such as counting and random sampling. Researchers have proposed efficient algorithms to construct ZDDs representing the set of subgraphs under several constraints, which yield fruitful results in many applications. Recently, Zero-suppressed Sentential Decision Diagrams (ZSDDs) have been proposed as variants of ZDDs. ZSDDs can be smaller than ZDDs when representing the same set of subgraphs. However, efficient algorithms to construct ZSDDs are known only for specific types of subgraphs: matchings and paths. We propose a novel framework to construct ZSDDs representing sets of subgraphs under given constraints. Using our framework, we can construct ZSDDs representing several sets of subgraphs such as matchings, paths, cycles, and spanning trees. We show the bound of sizes of constructed ZSDDs by the branch-width of the input graph, which is smaller than that of ZDDs by the path-width. Experiments show that our methods can construct ZSDDs faster than ZDDs and that the constructed ZSDDs are smaller than ZDDs when representing the same set of subgraphs

Use of FDG-PET in Radiation Treatment Planning for Thoracic Cancers

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the treatment for thoracic cancers. Accurate diagnosis is essential to correctly perform curative radiotherapy. Tumor delineation is also important to prevent geographic misses in radiotherapy planning. Currently, planning is based on computed tomography (CT) imaging when radiation oncologists manually contour the tumor, and this practice often induces interobserver variability. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) has been reported to enable accurate staging and detect tumor extension in several thoracic cancers, such as lung cancer and esophageal cancer. FDG-PET imaging has many potential advantages in radiotherapy planning for these cancers, because it can add biological information to conventional anatomical images and decrease the inter-observer variability. FDG-PET improves radiotherapy volume and enables dose escalation without causing severe side effects, especially in lung cancer patients. The main advantage of FDG-PET for esophageal cancer patients is the detection of unrecognized lymph node or distal metastases. However, automatic delineation by FDG-PET is still controversial in these tumors, despite the initial expectations. We will review the role of FDG-PET in radiotherapy for thoracic cancers, including lung cancer and esophageal cancer

Association between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction in Japanese adults : A cross‐sectional study

Recent studies have demonstrated that chronic kidney disease (CKD) may be associated with the progression of periodontal disease. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major risk factor for CKD. The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction in patients who had kidney failure with or without DM. One hundred sixty‐four patients with kidney dysfunction were enrolled (male: N = 105; female: N = 59), and the relationship between periodontal condition and kidney dysfunction was analyzed in a cross‐sectional study. The subjects were divided into three groups: (a) patients with DM, (b) dialysis patients with nephropathy due to various kidney diseases, and (c) dialysis patient with nephropathy due to DM (diabetic nephropathy). Then, the effect of DM on the periodontal condition was analyzed. The patients were also stratified by CKD stage (into G1–G5) using the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and the G5 group was divided in patients with or without DM. Correlations between eGFR and parameters of periodontal condition were calculated in patients from G1 to G4. The number of missing teeth was significantly higher in dialysis patients with diabetic nephropathy than in patients with DM, whereas alveolar bone loss did not show a significant difference among the three groups. In addition, the G5 patients with DM had a significantly higher number of missing teeth than the other CKD groups, whereas alveolar bone loss did not show a significant difference. In G5 patients with DM, Community Periodontal Index and Oral Hygiene Index scores were significantly higher than in G1‐4 patients with DM. There was a significant negative correlation between eGFR and the number of missing teeth. Patients with diabetic nephropathy have a higher rate of periodontal problems such as missing teeth in Japanese adults

Potential therapeutic applications of targeting signal-transducing adaptor protein-2 in autoimmune diseases

Adaptor proteins are involved in various immune responses via the modulation of many signaling pathways. Signal-transducing adaptor protein-2 (STAP-2) is an adaptor protein that contains typical domains such as the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain, Src homology domain, and a proline-rich region from the N-terminal region. In T cells, STAP-2 positively regulates T cell receptor (TCR)-mediated signaling by associating with CD3ζ immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) and lymphocyte-specific protein tyrosine kinase (LCK). Therefore, a peptide that inhibits the interaction between STAP-2 and CD3ζ ITAMs is likely to suppress TCR-mediated T cell activation, as well as T cell-mediated diseases. As expected, the peptide successfully inhibited the STAP-2/CD3ζ ITAM interaction and suppressed TCR-mediated signaling, cell proliferation, and interleukin (IL)-2 production in human/murine T cells. Furthermore, this inhibitor suppressed the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), which is widely recognized as a mouse model of multiple sclerosis, via the downregulation of T cell activation and infiltration of T helper (Th) 1/Th17 cells. These results suggest a new strategy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other immune diseases

Xanthogranulomatous Pyelonephritis with Incomplete Double Ureter

Introduction. Xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGP) is a type of chronic renal inflammation that usually occurs in immunocompromised middle-aged women with chronic urinary tract infection or ureteral obstruction induced by the formation of ureteral stones. XGP with an incomplete double ureter is extremely rare. Case Presentation. A 76-year-old woman was referred to our department to undergo further examination for a left renal tumor that was detected by ultrasonography. Dynamic contrast computed tomography (CT) revealed an enhanced tumor in the upper renal parenchyma. Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy was performed based on a preoperative diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma. Histological sections showed the aggregation of foam cells; thus, XGP was diagnosed. Conclusion. We herein report a rare case of XGP in the upper pole of the kidney, which might have been associated with an incomplete double ureter

Effect of Boron Addition on the Thermal Properties of Diamond-Particle-Dispersed Cu-Matrix Composites Fabricated by SPS

Abstract Diamond particle dispersed copper (Cu) matrix composites were fabricated from the powder mixture composed of diamond, pure-Cu and boron (B) by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The composites were consolidated at 1173 K for 600 s by SPS. The reaction between the diamond particle and the Cu matrix in the composite was not confirmed by SEM observation and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The relative packing density of the Cu/diamond composites increased with B addition and attained 93.2% -95.8% at the B content range between 1.8 vol.% and 13.8 vol.%. The thermal conductivity of the diamond-dispersed Cu composite drastically increased with B addition and reached the maximum value of 689 W/mK at 7.2 vol% B. Numerous transgranular fractures of diamond particles were observed on bending fracture surfaces of Cu-B/diamond composites. This indicates strong bonding between the diamond particle and the Cu matrix in the composite. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite falls in the upper line of Kerner's model

SLITRK1-mediated noradrenergic projection suppression in the neonatal prefrontal cortex

SLITRK1 is an obsessive-compulsive disorder spectrum-disorders-ssociated gene that encodes a neuronal transmembrane protein. Here we show that SLITRK1 suppresses noradrenergic projections in the neonatal prefrontal cortex, and SLITRK1 functions are impaired by SLITRK1 mutations in patients with schizophrenia (S330A, a revertant of Homo sapiensspecific residue) and bipolar disorder (A444S). Slitrk1-KO newborns exhibit abnormal vocalizations, and their prefrontal cortices show excessive noradrenergic neurites and reduced Semaphorin3A expression, which suppresses noradrenergic neurite outgrowth in vitro. Slitrk1 can bind Dynamin1 and L1 family proteins (Neurofascin and L1CAM), as well as suppress Semaphorin3A-induced endocytosis. Neurofascin-binding kinetics is altered in S330A and A444S mutations. Consistent with the increased obsessive-compulsive disorder prevalence in males in childhood, the prefrontal cortex of male Slitrk1-KO newborns show increased noradrenaline levels, and serotonergic varicosity size. This study further elucidates the role of noradrenaline in controlling the development of the obsessive-compulsive disorder-related neural circuit

Cytology Reporting System for Lung Cancer from the Japan Lung Cancer Society and the Japanese Society of Clinical Cytology: An Extensive Study Containing More Benign Lesions

Introduction: The Japan Lung Cancer Society (JLCS) and the Japanese Society of Clinical Cytology (JSCC) have proposed a new four-tiered cytology reporting system for lung carcinoma (JLCS-JSCC system). Prior to the proposal, the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology (PSC) had proposed a revised reporting system (PSC system), which comprises the “neoplastic, benign neoplasm, and low-grade carcinoma” category (N-B-LG category), in addition to the 4 categories of the JLCS-JSCC system. This study aimed to evaluate the interobserver agreement of the JLCS-JSCC system with an additional dataset with more benign lesions in comparison with the PSC system. Methods: We analyzed 167 cytological samples, which included 17 benign lesions, obtained from the respiratory system. Seven observers classified these cases into each category by reviewing one Papanicolaou-stained slide per case according to the JLCS-JSCC system and PSC system. Results: The interobserver agreement was moderate in the JLCS-JSCC (k = 0.499) and PSC (k = 0.485) systems. Of the 167 samples, 17 samples were benign lesions: 7 pulmonary hamartomas, 5 sclerosing pneumocytomas, 2 squamous papillomas, one solitary fibrous tumor, one meningioma, and one lymphocytic proliferation. There were diverse sample types as follows: 11 touch smears, 3 brushing smears, 2 aspirations, and one sputum sample. Fourteen samples (82.3%) were categorized into “negative” or “atypical” by more than half of the observers in the JLCS-JSCC system. Conversely, 3 samples were categorized as “suspicious” or “malignant” by more than half of the observers in the JLCS-JSCC system. On the other hand, 11 samples (64.7%) were categorized into the N-B-LG category by more than half of the observers in the PSC system. Conclusions: The concordance rate in the JLCS-JSCC system was slightly higher than that in the PSC system; however, the interobserver agreement was moderate in both the JLCS-JSCC and PSC systems. These results indicate that both the JLCS-JSCC and PSC systems are clinically useful. Therefore, both systems are expected to have clinical applications. It may be important to integrate the 2 systems and construct a universal system that can be used more widely in clinical practice

Curated genome annotation of Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and comparative genome analysis with Arabidopsis thaliana

We present here the annotation of the complete genome of rice Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica cultivar Nipponbare. All functional annotations for proteins and non-protein-coding RNA (npRNA) candidates were manually curated. Functions were identified or inferred in 19,969 (70%) of the proteins, and 131 possible npRNAs (including 58 antisense transcripts) were found. Almost 5000 annotated protein-coding genes were found to be disrupted in insertional mutant lines, which will accelerate future experimental validation of the annotations. The rice loci were determined by using cDNA sequences obtained from rice and other representative cereals. Our conservative estimate based on these loci and an extrapolation suggested that the gene number of rice is ~32,000, which is smaller than previous estimates. We conducted comparative analyses between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana and found that both genomes possessed several lineage-specific genes, which might account for the observed differences between these species, while they had similar sets of predicted functional domains among the protein sequences. A system to control translational efficiency seems to be conserved across large evolutionary distances. Moreover, the evolutionary process of protein-coding genes was examined. Our results suggest that natural selection may have played a role for duplicated genes in both species, so that duplication was suppressed or favored in a manner that depended on the function of a gene