Stereotactic radiotherapy: An alternative option for refractory ventricular tachycardia to drug and ablation therapy

Refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT) often occurs in the context of organic heart disease. It is associated with significantly high mortality and morbidity rates. Antiarrhythmic drugs and catheter ablation represent the two main treatment options for refractory VT, but their use can be associated with inadequate therapeutic responses and procedure-related complications. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is extensively applied in the precision treatment of solid tumors, with excellent therapeutic responses. Recently, this highly precise technology has been applied for radioablation of VT, and its early results demonstrate a favorable safety profile. This review presents the potential value of SBRT in refractory VT

Index coding algorithms:cooperative caching and delivery for F-RANs

Abstract In a Fog Radio Access Network (F-RAN), fog access points (F-APs) are equipped with caches that can store popular files during off-peak hours. Besides, they are densely deployed to have overlapping radio coverage so that requested files can be delivered cooperatively using beamforming. The bottleneck of the network is typically in the bandwidth-limited wireless fronthaul, which connects a cloud server to the F-APs. This work studies index coding design for cooperative caching and delivery in F-RAN to minimize fronthaul traffic and transmit energy. Index coding algorithms are designed considering the cached content at the F-APs and the possibility of beamforming in the access network under coded and uncoded caching schemes. An optimal polynomial-time index coding algorithm for uncoded and repetition caching and an efficient heuristic for Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) coded caching are designed, and their superior performance is verified by simulations. The study is further extended to consider the tradeoff between the traffic load of the fronthaul link and the transmit energy consumed in the access network. At the expense of more fronthaul traffic, beamforming opportunities can be increased, significantly reducing energy consumption. Algorithms to achieve the tradeoff are crafted, and simulation results show that uncoded caching well balances the tradeoff

Host Anti-antibody Responses Following Adeno-associated Virus–mediated Delivery of Antibodies Against HIV and SIV in Rhesus Monkeys

Long-term delivery of antibodies against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) using adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors is a promising approach for the prevention or treatment of HIV infection. However, host antibody responses to the delivered antibody are a serious concern that could significantly limit the applicability of this approach. Here, we describe the dynamics and characteristics of the anti-antibody responses in monkeys that received either rhesus anti-simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) antibodies (4L6 or 5L7) in prevention trials or a combination of rhesusized human anti-HIV antibodies (1NC9/8ANC195/3BNC117 or 10–1074/10E8/3BNC117) in therapy trials, all employing AAV1 delivery of IgG1. Eight out of eight monkeys that received the anti-HIV antibodies made persisting antibody responses to all three antibodies in the mix. Six out of six uninfected monkeys that received the anti-SIV antibody 4L6 and three out of six of those receiving anti-SIV antibody 5L7 also generated anti-antibodies. Both heavy and light chains were targeted, predominantly or exclusively to variable regions, and reactivity to complementarity-determining region (CDR)-H3 peptide could be demonstrated. There was a highly significant correlation of the magnitude of anti-antibody responses with the degree of sequence divergence of the delivered antibody from germline. Our results suggest the need for effective strategies to counteract the problem of antibody responses to AAV-delivered antibodies

Synthesis and structural characterization of MoS2 nanospheres and nanosheets using solvothermal method

This paper reports the solvothermal synthesis of MoS2 nanospheres and nanosheets. The nanospheres were obtained using ammonium polysulfide as a sulfur source and have a mean diameter of about 100 nm. The nanosheets were assembled from a few lamellar layers and were obtained using thiourea as a sulfur source. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used in order to characterize the prepared powders. Conglomerate size and stability of the synthesized samples in hexane were studied with zeta potential. The four-ball method was used to assess the lubricating effect when these materials were used as additives in engine oil dispersions. The topography of the wear scar was analyzed using SEM, EDX, and 3D surface profilometry. The tribological properties of base engine oil containing the nanomaterials penetrated more easily into the interface space, and it formed a tribo-film at contact interface. The tribological performance showed that the synthesized nanosheets had superior anti-wear and friction-reducing properties as a lubrication additive compared with nanospheres, and the wear scar of balls lubricated with nanospheres revealed larger width compared to nanosheets. From the results, it is observed that nanosheets dispensed in oil have better tribological performance compared to nanospheres oil in terms of capability to reduce wearope