Active safety systems for powered two-wheelers: A systematic review

Objective: Active safety systems, of which antilock braking is a prominent example, are going to play an important role to improve powered two-wheeler (PTW) safety. This paper presents a systematic review of the scientific literature on active safety for PTWs. The aim was to list all systems under development, identify knowledge gaps and recognize promising research areas that require further efforts. Methods: A broad search using "safety" as the main keyword was performed on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, followed by manual screening to identify eligible papers that underwent a full-text review. Finally, the selected papers were grouped by general technology type and analyzed via structured form to identify the following: specific active safety system, study type, outcome type, population/sample where applicable, and overall findings. Results: Of the 8,000 papers identified with the initial search, 85 were selected for full-text review and 62 were finally included in the study, of which 34 were journal papers. The general technology types identified included antilock braking system, autonomous emergency braking, collision avoidance, intersection support, intelligent transportation systems, curve warning, human machine interface systems, stability control, traction control, and vision assistance. Approximately one third of the studies considered the design and early stage testing of safety systems (n. 22); almost one fourth (n.15) included evaluations of system effectiveness. Conclusions: Our systematic review shows that a multiplicity of active safety systems for PTWs were examined in the scientific literature, but the levels of development are diverse. A few systems are currently available in the series production, whereas other systems are still at the level of early-stage prototypes. Safety benefit assessments were conducted for single systems, however, organized comparisons between systems that may inform the prioritization of future research are lacking. Another area of future analysis is on the combined effects of different safety systems, that may be capitalized for better performance and to maximize the safety impact of new technologies

Biological predictive factors in rectal cancer treated with preoperative radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy

We analysed the expression of microsatellite instability, p53, p21, vascular endothelial growth factor and thymidylate synthase (TS) in pretreatment biopsy specimens from 57 locally advanced rectal cancers. The aim of the study was to correlate the expression of these markers with pathological response. Nineteen patients were treated with preoperative concomitant radiotherapy (RT) and fluorouracil/oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy (RCT), while 38 had RT alone. Pathological complete remission (pCR) and microfoci residual tumour (micR) occurred more frequently in patients treated with RCT (P=0.002) and in N0 tumours (P=0.004). Among patients treated with RCT, high TS levels were associated with a higher response rate (pCR+micR; P=0.015). No such correlation was found in the RT group. The other molecular factors were of no predictive value. Multivariate analysis confirmed a significant interaction between nodal status and the probability of achieving a pathological response (P=0.023) and between TS expression and treatment, indicating that a high TS level is predictive of a higher pathological response in the RCT subset (P=0.007). This study shows that lymph node status is the most important predictive factor of tumour response to preoperative treatment. Thymidylate synthase expression assessed immunohistochemically from pretreatment tumour biopsies may be a useful predictive marker of rectal tumour response to preoperative RCT

Stage II/III rectal cancer with intermediate response to preoperative radiochemotherapy: Do we have indications for individual risk stratification?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Response to preoperative radiochemotherapy (RCT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer is very heterogeneous. Pathologic complete response (pCR) is accompanied by a favorable outcome. However, most patients show incomplete response. The aim of this investigation was to find indications for risk stratification in the group of intermediate responders to RCT.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From a prospective database of 496 patients with rectal adenocarcinoma, 107 patients with stage II/III cancers and intermediate response to preoperative 5-FU based RCT (ypT2/3 and TRG 2/3), treated within the German Rectal Cancer Trials were studied. Surgical treatment comprised curative (R0) total mesorectal excision (TME) in all cases. In 95 patients available for statistical analyses, residual transmural infiltration of the mesorectal compartment, nodal involvement and histolologic tumor grading were investigated for their prognostic impact on disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Residual tumor transgression into the mesorectal compartment (ypT3) did not influence DFS and OS rates (p = 0.619, p = 0.602, respectively). Nodal involvement after preoperative RCT (ypN1/2) turned out to be a valid prognostic factor with decreased DFS and OS (p = 0.0463, p = 0.0236, respectively). Persistent tumor infiltration of the mesorectum (ypT3) and histologic tumor grading of residual tumor cell clusters were strongly correlated with lymph node metastases after neoadjuvant treatment (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Advanced transmural tumor invasion after RCT does not affect prognosis when curative (R0) resection is achievable. Residual nodal status is the most important predictor of individual outcome in intermediate responders to preoperative RCT. Furthermore, ypT stage and tumor grading turn out to be additional auxiliary factors. Future clinical trials for risk-adapted adjuvant therapy should be based on a synopsis of clinicopathologic parameters.</p

Hematopoietic Stem Cells Contribute to Lymphatic Endothelium

Although the lymphatic system arises as an extension of venous vessels in the embryo, little is known about the role of circulating progenitors in the maintenance or development of lymphatic endothelium. Here, we investigated whether hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have the potential to give rise to lymphatic endothelial cells (LEC). mice resulted in the incorporation of donor-derived LEC into the lymphatic vessels of spontaneously arising intestinal tumors.Our results indicate that HSCs can contribute to normal and tumor associated lymphatic endothelium. These findings suggest that the modification of HSCs may be a novel approach for targeting tumor metastasis and attenuating diseases of the lymphatic system

Consensus Pathways Implicated in Prognosis of Colorectal Cancer Identified Through Systematic Enrichment Analysis of Gene Expression Profiling Studies

Background: A large number of gene expression profiling (GEP) studies on prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) has been performed, but no reliable gene signature for prediction of CRC prognosis has been found. Bioinformatic enrichment tools are a powerful approach to identify biological processes in high-throughput data analysis. Principal Findings: We have for the first time collected the results from the 23 so far published independent GEP studies on CRC prognosis. In these 23 studies, 1475 unique, mapped genes were identified, from which 124 (8.4%) were reported in at least two studies, with 54 of them showing consisting direction in expression change between the single studies. Using these data, we attempted to overcome the lack of reproducibility observed in the genes reported in individual GEP studies by carrying out a pathway-based enrichment analysis. We used up to ten tools for overrepresentation analysis of Gene Ontology (GO) categories or Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways in each of the three gene lists (1475, 124 and 54 genes). This strategy, based on testing multiple tools, allowed us to identify the oxidative phosphorylation chain and the extracellular matrix receptor interaction categories, as well as a general category related to cell proliferation and apoptosis, as the only significantly and consistently overrepresented pathways in the three gene lists, which were reported by several enrichment tools. Conclusions: Our pathway-based enrichment analysis of 23 independent gene expression profiling studies on prognosis of CRC identified significantly and consistently overrepresented prognostic categories for CRC. These overrepresented categories have been functionally clearly related with cancer progression, and deserve further investigation

A four-surface schematic eye of macaque monkey obtained by an optical method

AbstractSchematic eyes for four Macaca fascicularis monkeys were constructed from measurements of the positions and curvatures of the anterior and posterior surfaces of the cornea and lens. All of these measurements were obtained from Scheimpflug photography through the use of a ray-tracing analysis. Some of these measurements were also checked (and confirmed) by keratometry and ultrasound. Gaussian lens equations were applied to the measured dimensions of each individual eye in order to construct schematic eyes. The mean total power predicted by the schematic eyes agreed closely with independent measurements based on retinoscopy and ultrasound results, 74.2 ± 1.3 (SEM) vs 74.7 ± 0.3 (SEM) diopters. The predicted magnification of 202 μm/deg in one eye was confirmed by direct measurement of 205 μm/deg for a foveal laser lesion. The mean foveal retinal magnification calculated for our eight schematic eyes was 211 ± (SEM) μm/deg, slightly less than the value obtained by application of the method of Rolls and Cowey [Experimental Brain Research, 10, 298–310 (1970)] to our eight eyes but just 4% more than the value obtained by application of the method of Perry and Cowey [Vision Research, 12, 1795–1810 (1985)]