Identification of CT based radiomic biomarkers for progression free survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

This study addresses the limited noninvasive tools for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) progression-free survival (PFS) prediction by identifying Computed Tomography (CT)-based biomarkers for predicting prognosis. A retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 203 HNSCC patients. An ensemble feature selection involving correlation analysis, univariate survival analysis, best-subset selection, and the LASSO-Cox algorithm was used to select functional features, which were then used to build final Cox Proportional Hazards models (CPH).

Distributed Consensus Control for Discrete-Time T-S Fuzzy Multiple-Agent Systems Based on an Unknown Input Observer.

This paper investigates a consensus problem for a class of T-S fuzzy multiple-agent systems (MASs) with unknown input (UI). To begin with, an unknown input observer (UIO) is able to asymptotically estimate the system state and the UI is designed for each agent. In order to construct the UIO, the state interval estimation is obtained by first using zonotope theory.

Advances in Soil Amendments for Remediation of Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soils: Mechanisms, Impact, and Future Prospects.

Heavy metal contamination is a critical factor contributing to soil degradation and poses significant environmental threats with profound implications for ecosystems and human health. Soil amendments have become an effective strategy to address these challenges by reducing heavy metal hazards and remediating contaminated soils. This review offers a comprehensive analysis of recent advancements in soil amendments for heavy metal-contaminated soils, with a focus on natural, synthetic, natural-synthetic copolymer, and biological amendments.

Using Sediment Bacterial Communities to Predict Trace Metal Pollution Risk in Coastal Environment Management: Feasibility, Reliability, and Practicability.

The distribution of trace metals (TMs) in a continuous water body often exhibits watershed attributes, but the tidal gates of the coastal rivers may alter their transformation and accumulation patterns. Therefore, a tidal gate-controlled coastal river was selected to test the distribution and accumulation risks of Al, As, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Sr, and Zn in the catchment area (CA), estuarine area (EA), and offshore area (OA). Associations between TMs and bacterial communities were analyzed to assess the feasibility of using bacterial parameters as ecological indicators.

Phage vB_SpuM_X5: A Novel Approach to Reducing Biofilms with Implications for Food Safety.

, a prevalent foodborne pathogen, poses a significant social and economic strain on both food safety and public health. The application of phages in the control of foodborne pathogens represents an emerging research area. In this study, phage vB_SpuM_X5 (phage X5) was isolated from chicken farm sewage samples.