Concomitant treatment of brain metastases with whole brain radiotherapy and temozolomide protects neurocognitive function and improve quality of life

Purpose: To study the protective effects of a combination of temozolomide (TMZ) and whole brain radiotherapy (WBT) on neurocognition, and its effect on the quality of life (QoL) in patients with brain metastasis (BM) from solid tumors, relative to WBT alone.Methods: A total of 256 BM patients were enrolled and divided into two groups treated with either WBT plus TMZ, or WBRT alone. All patients received 30 Gy WBT, with or without concomitant TMZ (75 mg/m2/day) during the irradiation period, and subsequently up to six cycles of TMZ (150 mg/m2/day).Results: The mean intracranial objective response (IOR) for all patients was 44.80 % while the IOR for WBT arm and WBT+TMZ group arm were 32.48 and 56.56 %, respectively (p = 0.03). The median intracranial overall survival (OS) for all the patients was 7.70 months. The median OS for WBT alone group (6.53 months) was significantly shorter than that of the WBT + TMZ arm (9.57 months). Statistically significant difference in quality of life (QoL) was observed between both arms at six months. Moreover, WBT+TMZ group had higher incidence of toxicity, when compared to WBT-only group.Conclusion: These results suggest that co-application of WBT and TMZ improves intracranial ORR and median OS in BM patients, relative to the use of WBT alone. Although the side effects may be increased as a result of addition of TMZ, toxicity is tolerable and manageable.Keywords: Brain metastasis, Temozolomide, Whole brain radiotherapy, Neurocognitio

Semi-blind CFO estimation and ICA based equalization for wireless communication systems

In this thesis, a number of semi-blind structures are proposed for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless communication systems, with Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) estimation and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based equalization. In the first contribution, a semi-blind non-redundant single-user Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) OFDM system is proposed, with a precoding aided CFO estimation approach and an ICA based equalization structure. A number of reference data sequences are carefully designed and selected from a pool of orthogonal sequences, killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the precoding based CFO estimation is performed by minimizing the sum cross-correlations between the CFO compensated signals and the rest of the orthogonal sequences in the pool. On the other hand, the same reference data sequences enable the elimination of permutation and quadrant ambiguities in the ICA equalized signals. Simulation results show that the proposed semi-blind MIMO OFDM system can achieve a Bit Error Rate (BER) performance close to the ideal case with perfect Channel State Information (CSI) and no CFO. In the second contribution, a low-complexity semi-blind structure, with a multi-CFO estimation method and an ICA based equalization scheme, is proposed for multiuser Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) OFDM systems. A short pilot is carefully designed offline for each user and has a two-fold advantage. On the one hand, using the pilot structure, a complex multi-dimensional search for multiple CFOs is divided into a number of low-complexity mono-dimensional searches. On the other hand, the cross-correlation between the transmitted and received pilots is explored to allow the simultaneous elimination of permutation and quadrant ambiguities in the ICA equalized signals. Simulation results show that the proposed semi-blind CoMP OFDM system can provide a BER performance close to the ideal case with perfect CSI and no CFO. In the third contribution, a semi-blind structure is proposed for Carrier Aggregation (CA) based CoMP Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems, with an ICA based joint Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI) mitigation and equalization scheme. The CFO-induced ICI is mitigated implicitly via ICA based equalization, without introducing feedback overhead for CFO correction. The permutation and quadrant ambiguities in the ICA equalized signals can be eliminated by a small number of pilots. Simulation results show that with a low training overhead, the proposed semi-blind equalization scheme can provide a BER performance close to the ideal case with perfect CSI and no CFO

Spherical two-distance sets and eigenvalues of signed graphs

We study the problem of determining the maximum size of a spherical two-distance set with two fixed angles (one acute and one obtuse) in high dimensions. Let $N_{\alpha,\beta}(d)$ denote the maximum number of unit vectors in $\mathbb R^d$ where all pairwise inner products lie in $\{\alpha,\beta\}$. For fixed $-1\leq\beta<0\leq\alpha<1$, we propose a conjecture for the limit of $N_{\alpha,\beta}(d)/d$ as $d \to \infty$ in terms of eigenvalue multiplicities of signed graphs. We determine this limit when $\alpha+2\beta<0$ or $(1-\alpha)/(\alpha-\beta) \in \{1, \sqrt{2}, \sqrt{3}\}$. Our work builds on our recent resolution of the problem in the case of $\alpha = -\beta$ (corresponding to equiangular lines). It is the first determination of $\lim_{d \to \infty} N_{\alpha,\beta}(d)/d$ for any nontrivial fixed values of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ outside of the equiangular lines setting.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

An Adaptive Self-Interference Cancelation/Utilization and ICA-Assisted Semi-Blind Full-Duplex Relay System for LLHR IoT

In this article, we propose a semi-blind full-duplex (FD) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay system with adaptive self-interference (SI) processing assisted by independent component analysis (ICA) for low-latency and high-reliability (LLHR) Internet of Things (IoT). The SI at FD relay is not necessarily canceled as much as possible like the conventional approaches, but is canceled or utilized based on a signal-to-residual-SI ratio (SRSIR) threshold at relay. According to the selected SI processing mode at relay, an ICA-based adaptive semi-blind scheme is proposed for signal separation and detection at destination. The proposed FD relay system not only features reduced signal processing cost of SI cancelation but also achieves a much higher degree of freedom in signal detection. The resulting bit error rate (BER) performance is robust against a wide range of SRSIR, much better than that of conventional FD systems, and close to the ideal case with perfect channel state information (CSI) and perfect SI cancelation. The proposed system also requires negligible spectral overhead as only a nonredundant precoding is needed for ambiguity elimination in ICA. In addition, the proposed system enables full resource utilization with consecutive data transmission at all time and same frequency, leading to much higher throughput and energy efficiency than the time-splitting and power-splitting-based self-energy recycling approaches that utilize only partial resources. Furthermore, an intensive analysis is provided, where the SRSIR thresholds for the adaptive SI processing mode selection and the BER expressions with ICA incurred ambiguities are derived

Editors and Editing of Anti-DNA Receptors

AbstractReceptor editing is a means by which immature bone marrow B cells can become self-tolerant. Rearrangements of heavy (H) and/or light (L) chain genes are induced by encounter with autoantigens to change the specificity from self to nonself. We have developed site-directed transgenic mice (sd-tg) whose transgenes code for the H chain of antibodies that bind DNA. B cells that express the transgenic H chain associate mainly with four of the 93 functional Vκ genes of the mouse. Numerous aspartate residues that might inhibit DNA binding by the VH domain distinguish these L chain Vκ sequences, but engaging these Vκ editors often requires multiple rearrangements. Among the edited B cells is a subset of multispecific cells that express multiple receptors. One consequence of multispecificity is partial autoreactivity; these multispecific B cells may contribute to autoimmunity

Robust and Low-Complexity Timing Synchronization for DCO-OFDM LiFi Systems

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Light fidelity (LiFi), using light emitting devices such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) which are operating in the visible light spectrum between 400 and 800 THz, provides a new layer of wireless connectivity within existing heterogeneous radio frequency wireless networks. Link data rates of 10 Gbps from a single transmitter have been demonstrated under ideal laboratory conditions. Synchronization is one of these issues usually assumed to be ideal. However, in a practical deployment, this is no longer a valid assumption. Therefore, we propose for the first time a low-complexity maximum likelihood-based timing synchronization process that includes frame detection and sampling clock synchronization for direct current-biased optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing LiFi systems. The proposed timing synchronization structure can reduce the high-complexity two-dimensional search to two low-complexity one-dimensional searches for frame detection and sampling clock synchronization. By employing a single training block, frame detection can be realized, and then sampling clock offset (SCO) and channels can be estimated jointly. We propose three frame detection approaches, which are robust against the combined effects of both SCO and the low-pass characteristic of LEDs. Furthermore, we derive the Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRBs) of SCO and channel estimations, respectively. In order to minimize the CRBs and improve synchronization performance, a single training block is designed based on the optimization of training sequences, the selection of training length, and the selection of direct current (DC) bias. Therefore, the designed training block allows us to analyze the trade-offs between estimation accuracy, spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, and complexity. The proposed timing synchronization mechanism demonstrates low complexity and robustness benefits and provides performance significantly better than achieved with existing methods.Peer reviewe