An automated method for finding the optimal parameters of adaptive filters for speckle denoising of SAR images

Many different filters can be used to reduce multiplicative speckle noise on radar images. Most of these filters have some parameters whose values influence the result of filtering. Finding optimal values of such parameters may be a non-trivial task. In this paper, a formal automated method for finding optimal parameters of speckle noise reduction filters is proposed. Using a specially designed test image, optimal parameters for the most commonly used filters were found using several image quality assessment metrics, including the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) and Gradient Magnitude Similarity Deviation (GMSD). The use of filters with optimal parameters allows processing (detection, segmentation, etc.) of radar images with minimal in-fluence of speckle noise.The research is partially funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation as part of Worldclass Research Center program: Advanced Digital Technologies (contract No. 075-15-2020-934 dated 17.11.2020). The results of the work were obtained using computa-tional resources of the Supercomputing Center in Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (www.spbstu.ru)

epiCaPture: a urine DNA methylation test for early detection of aggressive prostate cancer

Purpose Liquid biopsies that noninvasively detect molecular correlates of aggressive prostate cancer (PCa) could be used to triage patients, reducing the burdens of unnecessary invasive prostate biopsy and enabling early detection of high-risk disease. DNA hypermethylation is among the earliest and most frequent aberrations in PCa. We investigated the accuracy of a six-gene DNA methylation panel (Epigenetic Cancer of the Prostate Test in Urine [epiCaPture]) at detecting PCa, high-grade (Gleason score greater than or equal to 8) and high-risk (D'Amico and Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment] PCa from urine. Patients and Methods Prognostic utility of epiCaPture genes was first validated in two independent prostate tissue cohorts. epiCaPture was assessed in a multicenter prospective study of 463 men undergoing prostate biopsy. epiCaPture was performed by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction in DNA isolated from prebiopsy urine sediments and evaluated by receiver operating characteristic and decision curves (clinical benefit). The epiCaPture score was developed and validated on a two thirds training set to one third test set. Results Higher methylation of epiCaPture genes was significantly associated with increasing aggressiveness in PCa tissues. In urine, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.64, 0.86, and 0.83 for detecting PCa, high-grade PCa, and highrisk PCa, respectively. Decision curves revealed a net benefit across relevant threshold probabilities. Independent analysis of two epiCaPture genes in the same clinical cohort provided analytical validation. Parallel epiCaPture analysis in urine and matched biopsy cores showed added value of a liquid biopsy. Conclusion epiCaPture is a urine DNA methylation test for high-risk PCa. Its tumor specificity out-performs that of prostate-specific antigen (greater than 3 ng/mL). Used as an adjunct to prostate-specific antigen, epiCaPture could aid patient stratification to determine need for biopsy

Malignant inflammation in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma: a hostile takeover

Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) are characterized by the presence of chronically inflamed skin lesions containing malignant T cells. Early disease presents as limited skin patches or plaques and exhibits an indolent behavior. For many patients, the disease never progresses beyond this stage, but in approximately one third of patients, the disease becomes progressive, and the skin lesions start to expand and evolve. Eventually, overt tumors develop and the malignant T cells may disseminate to the blood, lymph nodes, bone marrow, and visceral organs, often with a fatal outcome. The transition from early indolent to progressive and advanced disease is accompanied by a significant shift in the nature of the tumor-associated inflammation. This shift does not appear to be an epiphenomenon but rather a critical step in disease progression. Emerging evidence supports that the malignant T cells take control of the inflammatory environment, suppressing cellular immunity and anti-tumor responses while promoting a chronic inflammatory milieu that fuels their own expansion. Here, we review the inflammatory changes associated with disease progression in CTCL and point to their wider relevance in other cancer contexts. We further define the term "malignant inflammation" as a pro-tumorigenic inflammatory environment orchestrated by the tumor cells and discuss some of the mechanisms driving the development of malignant inflammation in CTCL

INORGANIC PHOSPHORS IN GLASS BASED ON LEAD SILICATE GLASSES

We created and synthesized luminescent composite of the "phosphor in glass" type, based on the lead-silicate matrix and fine-dispersed powder of cerium-activated yttrium-aluminum garnet crystal. Lead-silicate system (40SiO2- 20PbO-(40-x) PbF2-xAlF3, x = 0-25) was chosen as the glassy matrix. Initial glass was reduced to powder (frit) for "phosphor in glass" composite with a particle size about 50 µm. Glass frit and powder of commercial YAG:Ce3+ phosphor were mixed in a ratio of 30 to 70 (wt %). Then this composite was pressed in a tablet and sintered on a quartz substrate at 823 К for 30 minutes. Thus, the plane parallel sheet for composite of the "phosphor in glass" was obtained with a diameter equal to 10 mm. For the purpose to reduce the loss of light in the presence of dispersion at a glass-phosphor boundary, optimization of glass mixture was done by adjusting the refractive index. X-ray phase and spectral-luminescent analysis of the derived composite were done. The results of these studies showed that there was no degradation of YAG: Ce powder during sintering. Dependence of luminescence intensity from temperature in the range from room temperature to 473 К was studied. It was shown, that with the phosphor in glass usage thermal quenching of luminescence was reduced in comparison with the silicone. The model of white LED was created with the "phosphor in glass" composite based on lead-silicate glasses with low temperature of vitrifying. The derived LED emits white light with a color temperature of 4370 K, and the luminous efficiency is equal to 58 lm/W. The developed luminescent composite based on the lead-silicate matrix can be used for the production of high-power white light LED