Clinical outcome after high dose rate intracavitary brachytherapy with traditional point ‘A’ dose prescription in locally advanced carcinoma of uterine cervix: dosimetric analysis from the perspective of computed tomography imaging-based 3-dimensional treatment planning

Objective To analyze tumour response and toxicity with respect to cumulative radiotherapy dose to target and organs at risk (OARs) with computed tomography (CT)-based image guided adaptive brachytherapy planning for locally advanced carcinoma cervix. Methods Patients were treated with two-dimensional concurrent chemoradiotherapy to whole pelvis followed by intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) with dose prescription to point ‘A’. CT image-based delineation of high-risk clinical target volume (HR-CTV), urinary bladder, rectum and sigmoid colon was done with generation of dose-volume histogram (DVH) data and optimization of doses to target and OARs. Follow up assessments were done for response of disease and toxicity with generation of data for statistical analysis. Results One hundred thirty-six patients were enrolled in the study. Delineated volume of HR-CTV ranged from 20.9 to 37.1 mL, with median value of 30.2 mL. The equivalent dose in 2 Gy per fraction (EQD2) for point ‘A’ ranged from 71.31 to 79.75 Gy with median value of 75.1 Gy and EQD2 HR-CTV D90 ranged from 71.9 to 89.7 Gy with median value of 85.1 Gy. 69.2% of patients showed complete response and after median follow-up of 25 months, 50 patients remained disease free, of whom, 74.0% had received ≥85 Gy to HR-CTV D90 versus 26.0% receiving <85 Gy to HR-CTV D90. Conclusions Amidst the unavailability of magnetic resonance imaging facilities in low middle income countries, incorporation of CT-image based treatment planning into routine practice for ICBT provides the scope to delineate volumes of target and OARs and to generate DVH data, which can prove to be a better surrogate for disease response and toxicity

Accurate diagnosis of liver diseases through the application of deep convolutional neural network on biopsy images

Accurate detection of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) through biopsies is challenging. Manual detection of the disease is not only prone to human error but is also time-consuming. Using artificial intelligence and deep learning, we have successfully demonstrated the issues of the manual detection of liver diseases with a high degree of precision. This article uses various neural network-based techniques to assess non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In this investigation, more than five thousand biopsy images were employed alongside the latest versions of the algorithms. To detect prominent characteristics in the liver from a collection of Biopsy pictures, we employed the YOLOv3, Faster R-CNN, YOLOv4, YOLOv5, YOLOv6, YOLOv7, YOLOv8, and SSD models. A highlighting point of this paper is comparing the state-of-the-art Instance Segmentation models, including Mask R-CNN, U-Net, YOLOv5 Instance Segmentation, YOLOv7 Instance Segmentation, and YOLOv8 Instance Segmentation. The extent of severity of NAFLD and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis was examined for liver cell ballooning, steatosis, lobular, and periportal inflammation, and fibrosis. Metrics used to evaluate the algorithms' effectiveness include accuracy, precision, specificity, and recall. Improved metrics are achieved by optimizing the hyperparameters of the associated models. Additionally, the liver is scored in order to analyse the information gleaned from biopsy images. Statistical analyses are performed to establish the statistical relevance in evaluating the score for different zones

Metal nanoparticle alters adenine induced charge transfer kinetics of vitamin K3 in magnetic field

In this article, we highlight the alterations in the photoinduced electron transfer (ET) and hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) pathways between an anti-tumor drug vitamin-K3 (MQ) and a nucleobase adenine (ADN) in the presence of gold (Au) and iron (Fe) nanoparticles (NPs). Inside the confined micellar media, with laser flash photolysis corroborated with an external magnetic field (MF), we have detected the transient geminate radicals of MQ and ADN, photo-generated through ET and HAT. We observe that the presence of AuNP on the MQ-ADN complex (^(Au)MQ-ADN) assists HAT by limiting the ET channel, on the other hand, FeNP on the MQ-ADN complex (^(Fe)MQ-ADN) mostly favors a facile PET. We hypothesize that through selective interactions of the ADN molecules with AuNP and MQ molecules with FeNP, a preferential HAT and PET process is eased. The enhanced HAT and PET have been confirmed by the escape yields of radical intermediates by time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy in the presence of MF

Design and Synthesis of Fluorescent Carbon Dot Polymer and Deciphering Its Electronic Structure

Herein we report the one-pot synthesis of a fluorescent polymer-like material (pCD) by exploiting ruthenium-doped carbon dots (CDs) as building blocks. The unusual spectral profiles of pCDswith double-humped periodic excitation dependent photoluminescence (EDPL), and the regular changes in their corresponding average lifetime indicate the formation of high energy donor states and low energy aggregated states due to the overlap of molecular orbitals throughout the chemically switchable π-network of CDs on polymerization. To probe the electronic distribution of pCDs, we have investigated the occurrence of photoinduced electron transfer with a model electron acceptor, menadione using transient absorption technique, corroborated with low magnetic field, followed by identification of the transient radical ions generated through electron transfer. The experimentally obtained B_(1/2) value, a measure of the hyperfine interactions present in the system, indicates the presence of highly conjugated π-electron cloud in pCDs. The mechanism of formation of pCDs and the entire experimental findings have further been investigated through molecular modeling and computational modeling. The DFT calculations demonstrated probable electronic transitions from the surface moieties of pCDs to the tethered ligands

Redox Modifications of Carbon Dots Shape Their Optoelectronics

Carbon dots (CDs) are 1–10 nm scaled complex nanostructures with a wide range of applications and show unconventional photophysical behavior upon excitation. In this article, we have unveiled some of the underlying mechanisms and excited state dynamics of CDs by perturbing their interface with oxidizing and reducing agents. With no substantial alteration in size of surface-treated oxidized (^OCDs), reduced (^RCDs), and untreated CDs (^UCDs), we observe marked changes in their charge transport properties and diverse spectral signatures in singlet and triplet excited states. Fine tuning of the spectral behavior of nanomaterials is often treated as an outcome of quantum confinement of the excitons. Herein with different spectroscopic techniques along with conducting atomic force microscopy and triplet–triplet absorption, we elucidate that, not just confinement, the structural modification at the surface also dictates optoelectronic behavior by altering some properties such as energy band gap, quantum tunneling across the metal–CD–metal junction, and yield of triplet excitons

Design and Synthesis of Fluorescent Carbon Dot Polymer and Deciphering Its Electronic Structure

Herein we report the one-pot synthesis of a fluorescent polymer-like material (pCD) by exploiting ruthenium-doped carbon dots (CDs) as building blocks. The unusual spectral profiles of pCDswith double-humped periodic excitation dependent photoluminescence (EDPL), and the regular changes in their corresponding average lifetime indicate the formation of high energy donor states and low energy aggregated states due to the overlap of molecular orbitals throughout the chemically switchable π-network of CDs on polymerization. To probe the electronic distribution of pCDs, we have investigated the occurrence of photoinduced electron transfer with a model electron acceptor, menadione using transient absorption technique, corroborated with low magnetic field, followed by identification of the transient radical ions generated through electron transfer. The experimentally obtained B_(1/2) value, a measure of the hyperfine interactions present in the system, indicates the presence of highly conjugated π-electron cloud in pCDs. The mechanism of formation of pCDs and the entire experimental findings have further been investigated through molecular modeling and computational modeling. The DFT calculations demonstrated probable electronic transitions from the surface moieties of pCDs to the tethered ligands

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Measurements of the Electroweak Diboson Production Cross Sections in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=5.02 TeV Using Leptonic Decays

The first measurements of diboson production cross sections in proton-proton interactions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV are reported. They are based on data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 302 pb(-1). Events with two, three, or four charged light leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state are analyzed. The WW, WZ, and ZZ total cross sections are measured as sigma(WW) = 37:0(-5.2)(+5.5) (stat)(-2.6)(+2.7) (syst) pb, sigma(WZ) = 6.4(-2.1)(+2.5) (stat)(-0.3)(+0.5)(syst) pb, and sigma(ZZ) = 5.3(-2.1)(+2.5)(stat)(-0.4)(+0.5) (syst) pb. All measurements are in good agreement with theoretical calculations at combined next-to-next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics and next-to-leading order electroweak accuracy

Search for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson in the mu tau and e tau final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for lepton-flavor violating decays of the Higgs boson to mu t and et. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess has been found, and the results are interpreted in terms of upper limits on lepton-flavor violating branching fractions of the Higgs boson. The observed (expected) upper limits on the branching fractions are, respectively, B(H -> mu t) e tau) < 0.22(0.16)% at 95% confidence level.Peer reviewe