Structure and non-blocking properties of bidirectional unfolded two-stage switches

Two-stage switch networks are an emerging design option for relatively small-capacity space switches. They are classified into two categories: folded and unfolded. Although folded switches have been well studied, research on unfolded two-stage switch networks (UTSNs) remains limited. Here, non-blocking UTSNs are considered. First, a new UTSN design is presented that consists of input and output switch modules (ISMs and OSMs) using bidirectional switching techniques. The proposed UTSN is represented by B(n, m, r), where n, m, and r denote the number of input ports of the ISM, number of OSMs, and number of ISMs, respectively. Second, the maximum number of rearrangements for B(n, n, r) is proved to be L(r-1)/2(n-1) RIGHT FLOOR in general, whereas it is limited to two when n >= r. The strictly non-blocking condition for B(n, m, r) to be m >= n + 1 is also determined. Finally, it is shown that the switch hardware complexity becomes minimal at n=N/2 and saturates at N-2/2 as N -> infinity

PREDICTION SYSTEMS FOR BLADDER CANCER THERAPY

The present study established systems to predict the chemo‑sensitivity of muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin plus cisplatin (M‑VAC) and carboplatin plus gemcitabine (CaG) by analyzing microarray data. The primary aim of the study was to investigate whether the clinical response would increase by combining these prediction systems. Treatment of each MIBC case was allocated into M‑VAC NAC, CaG NAC, surgery, or radiation therapy groups by their prediction score (PS), which was calculated using the designed chemo‑sensitivity prediction system. The therapeutic effect of the present study was compared with the results of historical controls (n=76 patients) whose treatments were not allocated using the chemo‑sensitivity prediction system. In addition, the overall survival between the predicted to be responder (positive PS) group and predicted to be non‑responder (negative PS) group was investigated in the present study. Of the 33 patients with MIBC, 25 cases were positive PS and 8 were negative PS. Among the 25 positive PS cases, 7 were allocated to receive M‑VAC NAC and 18 were allocated to receive CaG NAC according to the results of the prediction systems. Of the 8 negative PS cases, 3 received CaG NAC, 1 received surgery without NAC and 4 received radiation therapy. The total clinical response to NAC was 88.0% (22/25), which was significantly increased compared with the historical controls [56.6% (43/76) P=0.0041]. Overall survival of the positive PS group in the study was significantly increased compared with the negative PS group (P=0.027). In conclusion, the combination of the two prediction systems may increase the treatment efficacy for patients with MIBC by proposing the optimal NAC regimen. In addition, the positive PS group would have a better prognosis compared with the negative PS group. These results suggest that the two prediction systems may lead to the achievement of ‘precision medicine’

DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19疾患感受性遺伝子DOCK2の重症化機序を解明 --アジア最大のバイオレポジトリーでCOVID-19の治療標的を発見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-10.Identifying the host genetic factors underlying severe COVID-19 is an emerging challenge. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) involving 2, 393 cases of COVID-19 in a cohort of Japanese individuals collected during the initial waves of the pandemic, with 3, 289 unaffected controls. We identified a variant on chromosome 5 at 5q35 (rs60200309-A), close to the dedicator of cytokinesis 2 gene (DOCK2), which was associated with severe COVID-19 in patients less than 65 years of age. This risk allele was prevalent in East Asian individuals but rare in Europeans, highlighting the value of genome-wide association studies in non-European populations. RNA-sequencing analysis of 473 bulk peripheral blood samples identified decreased expression of DOCK2 associated with the risk allele in these younger patients. DOCK2 expression was suppressed in patients with severe cases of COVID-19. Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis (n = 61 individuals) identified cell-type-specific downregulation of DOCK2 and a COVID-19-specific decreasing effect of the risk allele on DOCK2 expression in non-classical monocytes. Immunohistochemistry of lung specimens from patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia showed suppressed DOCK2 expression. Moreover, inhibition of DOCK2 function with CPYPP increased the severity of pneumonia in a Syrian hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized by weight loss, lung oedema, enhanced viral loads, impaired macrophage recruitment and dysregulated type I interferon responses. We conclude that DOCK2 has an important role in the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of severe COVID-19, and could be further explored as a potential biomarker and/or therapeutic target

Design and implementation of fast and hardware‐efficient parallel processing elements to set full and partial permutations in Beneš networks

Abstract A new design for parallel and distributed processing elements (PEs) is proposed to configure Beneš networks based on a novel parallel algorithm that can realise full and partial permutations in a unified manner with very little overhead time and extra hardware. The proposed design reduces the hardware complexity of PEs from O(N2)to O(N(log2N)2) due to a distributed architecture. In the proposed design, asynchronous operation was introduced in parts to reduce the time complexity per PE stage down to O(1) within a certain N, while it takes O(log2N) time per PE stage in conventional algorithms. A prototype parallel was constructed and PEs were distributed in a field programmable gate array to investigate performance for the switch size of N = 4 to 32. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed design outperforms a recent method by at least several times in terms of hardware and processing time complexities

Improving Performances of Three-Stage Clos Switch Networks, Part I - Back Ground and Scope of the Study -

Since C. Clos published his seminal work on three-stage switching networks in 1953, the Clos architecture has offered a most practical and efficient design solution for implementing large-scale switching networks to date.There are a great number of published articles applying the Clos architecture to space switches, time-division multiplexed switches, packet/ATM switches, optical switches, among others. However, to our knowledge, there are very few researches aiming to improve performances of the Clos architecture itself. In this paper we give out some redundancy in the Clos architecture for the first time, e.g. idle ports left unused, and examine some techniques to enhance its performances by using the redundancy. Although this paper focuses on the back ground and scope of the study, we fix our research goals and briefly discuss possible techniques in this paper. Our new design principles of the Clos networks will appear elsewhere in the near future