Contribution of Cyclin Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 1A Genotypes to Childhood Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Risk in Taiwan.

Background/aim: The disruption of cell-cycle control can lead to an imbalance in cell proliferation, often accompanied by genomic instability, which in turn can facilitate carcinogenesis. This study aimed to examine the impact of CDKN1A rs1801270 and rs1059234 polymorphisms on the risk of childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in Taiwan.

Materials And Methods: The genotypes of CDKN1A rs1801270 and rs1059234 in 266 childhood ALL cases and 266 controls were determined using PCR-RFLP techniques.

Impacts of Matrix Metalloproteinase-11 Genotypes on Pterygium Risk.

Background/aim: The dysregulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) proteins has been reported to be involved in the etiology of pterygium. However, studies about the role of matrix metalloproteinase-11 (MMP-11) are lacking. This study is the first to examine the genomic role of MMP-11 in pterygium.

Impacts of Interleukin-10 Promoter Genotypes on Prostate Cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a multifactorial disease influenced by genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. Genetic polymorphisms in the () gene have been implicated in PCa susceptibility, development, and progression. This study aims to assess the contributions of three promoter single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), A-1082G (rs1800896), T-819C (rs3021097), and A-592C (rs1800872), to the risk of PCa in Taiwan.

Remote Diagnosis on Upper Respiratory Tract Infections Based on a Neural Network with Few Symptom Words-A Feasibility Study.

This study aims explore the feasibility of using neural network (NNs) and deep learning to diagnose three common respiratory diseases with few symptom words. These three diseases are nasopharyngitis, upper respiratory infection, and bronchitis/bronchiolitis. Through natural language processing, the symptom word vectors are encoded by GPT-2 and classified by the last linear layer of the NN.

Impact of Voxel Normalization on a Machine Learning-Based Method: A Study on Pulmonary Nodule Malignancy Diagnosis Using Low-Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT).

Lung cancer (LC) stands as the foremost cause of cancer-related fatality rates worldwide. Early diagnosis significantly enhances patient survival rate. Nowadays, low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) is widely employed on the chest as a tool for large-scale lung cancer screening.

Bone Metastases Lesion Segmentation on Breast Cancer Bone Scan Images with Negative Sample Training.

The use of deep learning methods for the automatic detection and quantification of bone metastases in bone scan images holds significant clinical value. A fast and accurate automated system for segmenting bone metastatic lesions can assist clinical physicians in diagnosis. In this study, a small internal dataset comprising 100 breast cancer patients (90 cases of bone metastasis and 10 cases of non-metastasis) and 100 prostate cancer patients (50 cases of bone metastasis and 50 cases of non-metastasis) was used for model training.

Neck Lymph Node Recurrence in HNC Patients Might Be Predicted before Radiotherapy Using Radiomics Extracted from CT Images and XGBoost Algorithm.

The five-year overall survival rate of patients without neck lymph node recurrence is over 50% higher than those with lymph node metastasis. This study aims to investigate the prognostic impact of computed tomogram (CT)-based radiomics on the outcome of metastatic neck lymph nodes in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) receiving definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy for organ preservation. The pretreatment 18F-FDG PET/CT of 79 HNC patients was retrospectively analyzed with radiomics extractors.

Prediction of All-Cause Mortality Based on Stress/Rest Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI) Using Deep Learning: A Comparison between Image and Frequency Spectra as Input.

Background: Cardiovascular management and risk stratification of patients is an important issue in clinics. Patients who have experienced an adverse cardiac event are concerned for their future and want to know the survival probability.

Methods: We trained eight state-of-the-art CNN models using polar maps of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), gender, lung/heart ratio, and patient age for 5-year survival prediction after an adverse cardiac event based on a cohort of 862 patients who had experienced adverse cardiac events and stress/rest MPIs.

Efficacy analysis of new copper complex for visible light (455, 530 nm) radical/cationic photopolymerization: The synergic effects and catalytic cycle.

The kinetics and the conversion features of two 3-component systems (A/B/N), based on the proposed new kinetic schemes of Mokbel and Mau et al, in which a visible LED is used to excite a copper complex to its excited triplet state (G*). The coupling of G* with iodonium salt and ethyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate (EDB) produces both free radical polymerization (FRP) of acrylates and the free radical promoted cationic polymerization (CP) of epoxides using various new copper complex as the initiator. Higher FRP and CP conversion can be achieved by co-additive of [B] and N, via the dual function of (i) regeneration [A], and (ii) generation of extra radicals.

Modeling the Enhanced Efficacy and Curing Depth of Photo-Thermal Dual Polymerization in Metal (Fe) Polymer Composites for 3D Printing.

This article presents, for the first time, the efficacy and curing depth analysis of photo-thermal dual polymerization in metal (Fe) polymer composites for 3D printing of a three-component (A/B/M) system based on the proposed mechanism of our group, in which the co initiators A and B are Irgacure-369 and charge-transfer complexes (CTC), respectively, and the monomer M is filled by Fe. Our formulas show the depth of curing (Zc) is an increasing function of the light intensity, but a decreasing function of the Fe and photoinitiator concentrations. Zc is enhanced by the additive [B], which produces extra thermal radical for polymerization under high temperature.

Hand Pose Understanding With Large-Scale Photo-Realistic Rendering Dataset.

Hand pose understanding is essential to applications such as human computer interaction and augmented reality. Recently, deep learning based methods achieve great progress in this problem. However, the lack of high-quality and large-scale dataset prevents the further improvement of hand pose related tasks such as 2D/3D hand pose from color and depth from color.

Lesion-Based Bone Metastasis Detection in Chest Bone Scintigraphy Images of Prostate Cancer Patients Using Pre-Train, Negative Mining, and Deep Learning.

This study aimed to explore efficient ways to diagnose bone metastasis early using bone scintigraphy images through negative mining, pre-training, the convolutional neural network, and deep learning. We studied 205 prostate cancer patients and 371 breast cancer patients and used bone scintigraphy data from breast cancer patients to pre-train a YOLO v4 with a false-positive reduction strategy. With the pre-trained model, transferred learning was applied to prostate cancer patients to build a model to detect and identify metastasis locations using bone scintigraphy.

Organ Contouring for Lung Cancer Patients with a Seed Generation Scheme and Random Walks.

In this study, we proposed a semi-automated and interactive scheme for organ contouring in radiotherapy planning for patients with non-small cell lung cancers. Several organs were contoured, including the lungs, airway, heart, spinal cord, body, and gross tumor volume (GTV). We proposed some schemes to automatically generate and vanish the seeds of the random walks (RW) algorithm.

Does Circadian Rhythm Disorder Always Harm Organisms? Positive Effects of Circadian Rhythm Disorder in .

Background And Objective: Circadian rhythm disorder was proved that may make a result of a wide variety of adverse health consequences, however, does circadian rhythm disorder always harm organisms in their whole life process? The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of circadian rhythm disorder on barramundi Lates calcarifer at different life stages.

Materials And Methods: The growth and immune responses of larval and juvenile barramundi Lates calcarifer under various circadian rhythm disorder situation (13, 16, 19 and 24 h light time) were investigated in this experiment.

Results: The results showed that total length of larval and juvenile significantly increased comparing to the control group when the light time was extended to 16 h, but the length of fish in 24 h light time group showed significantly lower than the control.

Modeling the Kinetics, Curing Depth, and Efficacy of Radical-Mediated Photopolymerization: The Role of Oxygen Inhibition, Viscosity, and Dynamic Light Intensity.

Kinetic equations for a modeling system with type-I radical-mediated and type-II oxygen-mediated pathways are derived and numerically solved for the photopolymerization efficacy and curing depth, under the quasi-steady state assumption, and bimolecular termination. We show that photopolymerization efficacy is an increasing function of photosensitizer (PS) concentration ( ) and the light dose at transient state, but it is a decreasing function of the light intensity, scaled by [ / ] at steady state. The curing (or cross-link) depth is an increasing function of and light dose (time × intensity), but it is a decreasing function of the oxygen concentration, viscosity effect, and oxygen external supply rate.

Dual-Wavelength (UV and Blue) Controlled Photopolymerization Confinement for 3D-Printing: Modeling and Analysis of Measurements.

The kinetics and modeling of dual-wavelength (UV and blue) controlled photopolymerization confinement (PC) are presented and measured data are analyzed by analytic formulas and numerical data. The UV-light initiated inhibition effect is strongly monomer-dependent due to different C=C bond rate constants and conversion efficacies. Without the UV-light, for a given blue-light intensity, higher initiator concentration (C) and rate constant (k') lead to higher conversion, as also predicted by analytic formulas, in which the total conversion rate () is an increasing function of C and k'R, which is proportional to k'[gBC].

Thiol-Ene Photopolymerization: Scaling Law and Analytical Formulas for Conversion Based on Kinetic Rate and Thiol-Ene Molar Ratio.

Kinetics and analytical formulas for radical-mediated thiol-ene photopolymerization were developed in this paper. The conversion efficacy of thiol-ene systems was studied for various propagation to chain transfer kinetic rate-ratio (R), and thiol-ene concentration molar-ratio (R). Numerical data were analyzed using analytical formulas and compared with the experimental data.

Modeling the Optimal Conditions for Improved Efficacy and Crosslink Depth of Photo-Initiated Polymerization.

Optimal conditions for maximum efficacy of photoinitiated polymerization are theoretically presented. Analytic formulas are shown for the crosslink time, crosslink depth, and efficacy function. The roles of photoinitiator (PI) concentration, diffusion depth, and light intensity on the polymerization spatial and temporal profiles are presented for both uniform and non-uniform cases.

Improvement of Left Ventricular Ejection Time Measurement in the Impedance Cardiography Combined with the Reflection Photoplethysmography.

Cardiac stroke volume (SV) is an essential hemodynamic indicator that can be used to assess whether the pump function of the heart is normal. Non-invasive SV measurement is currently performed using the impedance cardiography (ICG). In this technology, left ventricular ejection time (LVET) is an important parameter which can be determined from the ICG signals.

Noninvasive assessment of intracranial elastance and pressure in spontaneous intracranial hypotension by MRI.

Background: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is often misdiagnosed, and can lead to severe complications. Conventional MR sequences show a limited ability to aid in this diagnosis. MR-based intracranial pressure (MR-ICP) may be able to detect changes of intracranial elastance and pressure.

ADAM9 promotes lung cancer progression through vascular remodeling by VEGFA, ANGPT2, and PLAT.

Lung cancer has a very high prevalence of brain metastasis, which results in a poor clinical outcome. Up-regulation of a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 9 (ADAM9) in lung cancer cells is correlated with metastasis to the brain. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this correlation remains to be elucidated.

A Cuffless Blood Pressure Measurement Based on the Impedance Plethysmography Technique.

In the last decade, cuffless blood pressure measurement technology has been widely studied because it could be applied to a wearable apparatus. Electrocardiography (ECG), photo-plethysmography (PPG), and phonocardiography are always used to detect the pulse transit time (PTT) because the changed tendencies of the PTT and blood pressure have a negative relationship. In this study, the PPG signal was replaced by the impedance plethysmography (IPG) signal and was used to detect the PTT.

Modeling the efficacy profiles of UV-light activated corneal collagen crosslinking.

Objective: Analysis of the crosslink time, depth and efficacy profiles of UV-light-activated corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL).

Methods: A modeling system described by a coupled dynamic equations are numerically solved and analytic formulas are derived for the crosslinking time (T*) and crosslinking depth (z*). The z-dependence of the CXL efficacy is numerically produced to show the factors characterizing the profiles.

Computer-assisted system on mandibular canal detection.

Background: A dentist always checks a patient by using panoramic radiography (PR) initially. The measurement of the minimal distance (MD) between the alveolar crest and the mandibular canal (MC) superior border is critically important before the dental implant surgery, extraction of 3rd molar teeth or any surgery in the posterior area of minimal distance (MD). However, the image of MC is not always clear to identify.