Optimizing the Management of High-Risk, Localized Prostate Cancer

OpenAIRE

Sundi, Debasish; Jeong, Byong Chang; Lee, Seung Bae; Han, Misop

2012-01-01

Prostate cancer has a high prevalence and a rising incidence in many parts of the world. Although many screen-detected prostate cancers may be indolent, prostate cancer remains a major contributor to mortality in men. Therefore, the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of localized prostate cancer with lethal potential are of great importance. High-risk, localized prostate cancer has multiple definitions. Treatment options that should be individualized to each patient include observation, radi...

Memory Efficient PCA Methods for Large Group ICA.

Science.gov (United States)

Rachakonda, Srinivas; Silva, Rogers F; Liu, Jingyu; Calhoun, Vince D

2016-01-01

Principal component analysis (PCA) is widely used for data reduction in group independent component analysis (ICA) of fMRI data. Commonly, group-level PCA of temporally concatenated datasets is computed prior to ICA of the group principal components. This work focuses on reducing very high dimensional temporally concatenated datasets into its group PCA space. Existing randomized PCA methods can determine the PCA subspace with minimal memory requirements and, thus, are ideal for solving large PCA problems. Since the number of dataloads is not typically optimized, we extend one of these methods to compute PCA of very large datasets with a minimal number of dataloads. This method is coined multi power iteration (MPOWIT). The key idea behind MPOWIT is to estimate a subspace larger than the desired one, while checking for convergence of only the smaller subset of interest. The number of iterations is reduced considerably (as well as the number of dataloads), accelerating convergence without loss of accuracy. More importantly, in the proposed implementation of MPOWIT, the memory required for successful recovery of the group principal components becomes independent of the number of subjects analyzed. Highly efficient subsampled eigenvalue decomposition techniques are also introduced, furnishing excellent PCA subspace approximations that can be used for intelligent initialization of randomized methods such as MPOWIT. Together, these developments enable efficient estimation of accurate principal components, as we illustrate by solving a 1600-subject group-level PCA of fMRI with standard acquisition parameters, on a regular desktop computer with only 4 GB RAM, in just a few hours. MPOWIT is also highly scalable and could realistically solve group-level PCA of fMRI on thousands of subjects, or more, using standard hardware, limited only by time, not memory. Also, the MPOWIT algorithm is highly parallelizable, which would enable fast, distributed implementations ideal for big

Memory efficient PCA methods for large group ICA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Srinivas eRachakonda

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Principal component analysis (PCA is widely used for data reduction in group independent component analysis (ICA of fMRI data. Commonly, group-level PCA of temporally concatenated datasets is computed prior to ICA of the group principal components. This work focuses on reducing very high dimensional temporally concatenated datasets into its group PCA space. Existing randomized PCA methods can determine the PCA subspace with minimal memory requirements and, thus, are ideal for solving large PCA problems. Since the number of dataloads is not typically optimized, we extend one of these methods to compute PCA of very large datasets with a minimal number of dataloads. This method is coined multi power iteration (MPOWIT. The key idea behind MPOWIT is to estimate a subspace larger than the desired one, while checking for convergence of only the smaller subset of interest. The number of iterations is reduced considerably (as well as the number of dataloads, accelerating convergence without loss of accuracy. More importantly, in the proposed implementation of MPOWIT, the memory required for successful recovery of the group principal components becomes independent of the number of subjects analyzed. Highly efficient subsampled eigenvalue decomposition techniques are also introduced, furnishing excellent PCA subspace approximations that can be used for intelligent initialization of randomized methods such as MPOWIT. Together, these developments enable efficient estimation of accurate principal components, as we illustrate by solving a 1600-subject group-level PCA of fMRI with standard acquisition parameters, on a regular desktop computer with only 4GB RAM, in just a few hours. MPOWIT is also highly scalable and could realistically solve group-level PCA of fMRI on thousands of subjects, or more, using standard hardware, limited only by time, not memory. Also, the MPOWIT algorithm is highly parallelizable, which would enable fast, distributed implementations

External validation of a PCA-3-based nomogram for predicting prostate cancer and high-grade cancer on initial prostate biopsy.

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Greene, Daniel J; Elshafei, Ahmed; Nyame, Yaw A; Kara, Onder; Malkoc, Ercan; Gao, Tianming; Jones, J Stephen

2016-08-01

The aim of this study was to externally validate a previously developed PCA3-based nomogram for the prediction of prostate cancer (PCa) and high-grade (intermediate and/or high-grade) prostate cancer (HGPCa) at the time of initial prostate biopsy. A retrospective review was performed on a cohort of 336 men from a large urban academic medical center. All men had serum PSA PCa, PSA at diagnosis, PCA3, total prostate volume (TPV), and abnormal finding on digital rectal exam (DRE). These variables were used to test the accuracy (concordance index) and calibration of a previously published PCA3 nomogram. Biopsy confirms PCa and HGPCa in 51.0% and 30.4% of validation patients, respectively. This differed from the original cohort in that it had significantly more PCa and HGPCA (51% vs. 44%, P = 0.019; and 30.4% vs. 19.1%, P PCa detection the concordance index was 75% and 77% for overall PCa and HGPCa, respectively. Calibration for overall PCa was good. This represents the first external validation of a PCA3-based prostate cancer predictive nomogram in a North American population. Prostate 76:1019-1023, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Assessing the Clinical Role of Genetic Markers of Early-Onset Prostate Cancer Among High-Risk Men Enrolled in Prostate Cancer Early Detection

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Hughes, Lucinda; Zhu, Fang; Ross, Eric; Gross, Laura; Uzzo, Robert G.; Chen, David Y. T.; Viterbo, Rosalia; Rebbeck, Timothy R.; Giri, Veda N.

2011-01-01

Background Men with familial prostate cancer (PCA) and African American men are at risk for developing PCA at younger ages. Genetic markers predicting early-onset PCA may provide clinically useful information to guide screening strategies for high-risk men. We evaluated clinical information from six polymorphisms associated with early-onset PCA in a longitudinal cohort of high-risk men enrolled in PCA early detection with significant African American participation. Methods Eligibility criteria include ages 35–69 with a family history of PCA or African American race. Participants undergo screening and biopsy per study criteria. Six markers associated with early-onset PCA (rs2171492 (7q32), rs6983561 (8q24), rs10993994 (10q11), rs4430796 (17q12), rs1799950 (17q21), and rs266849 (19q13)) were genotyped. Cox models were used to evaluate time to PCA diagnosis and PSA prediction for PCA by genotype. Harrell’s concordance index was used to evaluate predictive accuracy for PCA by PSA and genetic markers. Results 460 participants with complete data and ≥1 follow-up visit were included. 56% were African American. Among African American men, rs6983561 genotype was significantly associated with earlier time to PCA diagnosis (p=0.005) and influenced prediction for PCA by the PSA (p<0.001). When combined with PSA, rs6983561 improved predictive accuracy for PCA compared to PSA alone among African American men (PSA= 0.57 vs. PSA+rs6983561=0.75, p=0.03). Conclusions Early-onset marker rs6983561 adds potentially useful clinical information for African American men undergoing PCA risk assessment. Further study is warranted to validate these findings. Impact Genetic markers of early-onset PCA have potential to refine and personalize PCA early detection for high-risk men. PMID:22144497

Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Screening and New Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer (PCa).

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Stephan, Carsten; Rittenhouse, Harry; Hu, Xinhai; Cammann, Henning; Jung, Klaus

2014-04-01

PSA screening reduces PCa-mortality but the disadvantages overdiagnosis and overtreatment require multivariable risk-prediction tools to select appropriate treatment or active surveillance. This review explains the differences between the two largest screening trials and discusses the drawbacks of screening and its meta-analysisxs. The current American and European screening strategies are described. Nonetheless, PSA is one of the most widely used tumor markers and strongly correlates with the risk of harboring PCa. However, while PSA has limitations for PCa detection with its low specificity there are several potential biomarkers presented in this review with utility for PCa currently being studied. There is an urgent need for new biomarkers especially to detect clinically significant and aggressive PCa. From all PSA-based markers, the FDA-approved prostate health index (phi) shows improved specificity over percent free and total PSA. Another kallikrein panel, 4K, which includes KLK2 has recently shown promise in clinical research studies but has not yet undergone formal validation studies. In urine, prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) has also been validated and approved by the FDA for its utility to detect PCa. The potential correlation of PCA3 with cancer aggressiveness requires more clinical studies. The detection of the fusion of androgen-regulated genes with genes of the regulatory transcription factors in tissue of (~)50% of all PCa-patients is a milestone in PCa research. A combination of the urinary assays for TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion and PCA3 shows an improved accuracy for PCa detection. Overall, the field of PCa biomarker discovery is very exciting and prospective.

PcaO Positively Regulates pcaHG of the β-Ketoadipate Pathway in Corynebacterium glutamicum▿

OpenAIRE

Zhao, Ke-Xin; Huang, Yan; Chen, Xi; Wang, Nan-Xi; Liu, Shuang-Jiang

2010-01-01

We identified a new regulator, PcaO, which is involved in regulation of the protocatechuate (PCA) branch of the β-ketoadipate pathway in Corynebacterium glutamicum. PcaO is an atypical large ATP-binding LuxR family (LAL)-type regulator and does not have a Walker A motif. A mutant of C. glutamicum in which pcaO was disrupted (RES167ΔpcaO) was unable to grow on PCA, and growth on PCA was restored by complementation with pcaO. Both an enzymatic assay of PCA 3,4-dioxygenase activity (encoded by p...

Local Control With 21-Gy Radiation Therapy for High-Risk Neuroblastoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casey, Dana L.; Kushner, Brian H.; Cheung, Nai-Kong V.; Modak, Shakeel; LaQuaglia, Michael P.; Wolden, Suzanne L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate local control after 21-Gy radiation therapy (RT) to the primary site in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Methods and Materials: After receiving dose-intensive chemotherapy and gross total resection (GTR), 246 patients (aged 1.2-17.9 years, median 4.0 years) with high-risk neuroblastoma underwent RT to the primary site at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 2000 to 2014. Radiation therapy consisted of 21 Gy in twice-daily fractions of 1.5 Gy each. Local failure (LF) was correlated with biologic prognostic factors and clinical findings at the time of diagnosis and start of RT. Results: Median follow-up of surviving patients was 6.4 years. Cumulative incidence of LF was 7.1% at 2 years after RT and 9.8% at 5 years after RT. The isolated LF rate was 3.0%. Eighty-six percent of all local failures were within the RT field. Local control was worse in patients who required more than 1 surgical resection to achieve GTR (22.4% vs 8.3%, P=.01). There was also a trend toward inferior local control with MYCN-amplified tumors or serum lactate dehydrogenase ≥1500 U/L (P=.09 and P=.06, respectively). Conclusion: After intensive chemotherapy and maximal surgical debulking, hyperfractionated RT with 21 Gy in high-risk neuroblastoma results in excellent local control. Given the young patient age, concern for late effects, and local control >90%, dose reduction may be appropriate for patients without MYCN amplification who achieve GTR.

Local Control With 21-Gy Radiation Therapy for High-Risk Neuroblastoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Casey, Dana L. [Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Kushner, Brian H.; Cheung, Nai-Kong V.; Modak, Shakeel [Department of Pediatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); LaQuaglia, Michael P. [Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States); Wolden, Suzanne L., E-mail: woldens@mskcc.org [Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York (United States)

2016-10-01

Purpose: To evaluate local control after 21-Gy radiation therapy (RT) to the primary site in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Methods and Materials: After receiving dose-intensive chemotherapy and gross total resection (GTR), 246 patients (aged 1.2-17.9 years, median 4.0 years) with high-risk neuroblastoma underwent RT to the primary site at Memorial Sloan Kettering from 2000 to 2014. Radiation therapy consisted of 21 Gy in twice-daily fractions of 1.5 Gy each. Local failure (LF) was correlated with biologic prognostic factors and clinical findings at the time of diagnosis and start of RT. Results: Median follow-up of surviving patients was 6.4 years. Cumulative incidence of LF was 7.1% at 2 years after RT and 9.8% at 5 years after RT. The isolated LF rate was 3.0%. Eighty-six percent of all local failures were within the RT field. Local control was worse in patients who required more than 1 surgical resection to achieve GTR (22.4% vs 8.3%, P=.01). There was also a trend toward inferior local control with MYCN-amplified tumors or serum lactate dehydrogenase ≥1500 U/L (P=.09 and P=.06, respectively). Conclusion: After intensive chemotherapy and maximal surgical debulking, hyperfractionated RT with 21 Gy in high-risk neuroblastoma results in excellent local control. Given the young patient age, concern for late effects, and local control >90%, dose reduction may be appropriate for patients without MYCN amplification who achieve GTR.

Single High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Session as a Whole Gland Primary Treatment for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer: 10-Year Outcomes

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Ksenija Limani

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To assess the treatment outcomes of a single session of whole gland high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU for patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa. Methods. Response rates were defined using the Stuttgart and Phoenix criteria. Complications were graded according to the Clavien score. Results. At a median follow-up of 94months, 48 (44.4% and 50 (46.3% patients experienced biochemical recurrence for Phoenix and Stuttgart definition, respectively. The 5- and 10-year actuarial biochemical recurrence free survival rates were 57% and 40%, respectively. The 10-year overall survival rate, cancer specific survival rate, and metastasis free survival rate were 72%, 90%, and 70%, respectively. Preoperative high risk category, Gleason score, preoperative PSA, and postoperative nadir PSA were independent predictors of oncological failure. 24.5% of patients had self-resolving LUTS, 18.2% had urinary tract infection, and 18.2% had acute urinary retention. A grade 3b complication occurred in 27 patients. Pad-free continence rate was 87.9% and the erectile dysfunction rate was 30.8%. Conclusion. Single session HIFU can be alternative therapy for patients with low risk PCa. Patients with intermediate risk should be informed about the need of multiple sessions of HIFU and/or adjuvant treatments and HIFU performed very poorly in high risk patients.

Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Screening and New Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer (PCa)

Science.gov (United States)

Rittenhouse, Harry; Hu, Xinhai; Cammann, Henning; Jung, Klaus

2014-01-01

Abstract PSA screening reduces PCa-mortality but the disadvantages overdiagnosis and overtreatment require multivariable risk-prediction tools to select appropriate treatment or active surveillance. This review explains the differences between the two largest screening trials and discusses the drawbacks of screening and its meta-analysisxs. The current American and European screening strategies are described. Nonetheless, PSA is one of the most widely used tumor markers and strongly correlates with the risk of harboring PCa. However, while PSA has limitations for PCa detection with its low specificity there are several potential biomarkers presented in this review with utility for PCa currently being studied. There is an urgent need for new biomarkers especially to detect clinically significant and aggressive PCa. From all PSA-based markers, the FDA-approved prostate health index (phi) shows improved specificity over percent free and total PSA. Another kallikrein panel, 4K, which includes KLK2 has recently shown promise in clinical research studies but has not yet undergone formal validation studies. In urine, prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) has also been validated and approved by the FDA for its utility to detect PCa. The potential correlation of PCA3 with cancer aggressiveness requires more clinical studies. The detection of the fusion of androgen-regulated genes with genes of the regulatory transcription factors in tissue of ~50% of all PCa-patients is a milestone in PCa research. A combination of the urinary assays for TMPRSS2:ERG gene fusion and PCA3 shows an improved accuracy for PCa detection. Overall, the field of PCa biomarker discovery is very exciting and prospective. PMID:27683457

Active surveillance for localized prostate cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thostrup, Mathias; Thomsen, Frederik B; Iversen, Peter

2018-01-01

risk of biochemical recurrence were investigated and compared in men with very low-risk, low-risk and intermediate-risk PCa in the cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 451 men were followed on AS and monitored with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests, digital rectal examinations and rebiopsies......OBJECTIVE: The purpose of active surveillance (AS) is to reduce overtreatment of men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) without compromising survival. The objective of this study was to update a large Scandinavian single-center AS cohort. Furthermore, the use of curative treatment and subsequent...

Consensus statement on definition, diagnosis, and management of high-risk prostate cancer patients on behalf of the Spanish Groups of Uro-Oncology Societies URONCOR, GUO, and SOGUG.

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Henríquez, I; Rodríguez-Antolín, A; Cassinello, J; Gonzalez San Segundo, C; Unda, M; Gallardo, E; López-Torrecilla, J; Juarez, A; Arranz, J

2018-03-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most prevalent malignancy in men and the second cause of mortality in industrialized countries. Based on Spanish Register of PCa, the incidence of high-risk PCa is 29%, approximately. In spite of the evidence-based beneficial effect of radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy in high-risk PCa, these patients (pts) are still a therapeutic challenge for all specialists involved, in part due to the absence of comparative studies to establish which of the present disposable treatments offer better results. Nowadays, high-risk PCa definition is not well consensual through the published oncology guides. Clinical stage, tumour grade, and number of risk factors are relevant to be considered on PCa prognosis. However, these factors are susceptible to change depending on when surgical or radiation therapy is considered to be the treatment of choice. Other factors, such as reference pathologist, different diagnosis biopsy schedules, surgical or radiotherapy techniques, adjuvant treatments, biochemical failures, and follow-up, make it difficult to compare the results between different therapeutic options. This article reviews important issues concerning high-risk PCa. URONCOR, GUO, and SOGUG on behalf of the Spanish Groups of Uro-Oncology Societies have reached a consensus addressing a practical recommendation on definition, diagnosis, and management of high-risk PCa.

Elevated YKL40 is associated with advanced prostate cancer (PCa) and positively regulates invasion and migration of PCa cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeet, Varinder; Tevz, Gregor; Lehman, Melanie; Hollier, Brett; Nelson, Colleen

2014-10-01

Chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1 or YKL40) is a secreted glycoprotein highly expressed in tumours from patients with advanced stage cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa). The exact function of YKL40 is poorly understood, but it has been shown to play an important role in promoting tumour angiogenesis and metastasis. The therapeutic value and biological function of YKL40 are unknown in PCa. The objective of this study was to examine the expression and function of YKL40 in PCa. Gene expression analysis demonstrated that YKL40 was highly expressed in metastatic PCa cells when compared with less invasive and normal prostate epithelial cell lines. In addition, the expression was primarily limited to androgen receptor-positive cell lines. Evaluation of YKL40 tissue expression in PCa patients showed a progressive increase in patients with aggressive disease when compared with those with less aggressive cancers and normal controls. Treatment of LNCaP and C4-2B cells with androgens increased YKL40 expression, whereas treatment with an anti-androgen agent decreased the gene expression of YKL40 in androgen-sensitive LNCaP cells. Furthermore, knockdown of YKL40 significantly decreased invasion and migration of PCa cells, whereas overexpression rendered them more invasive and migratory, which was commensurate with an enhancement in the anchorage-independent growth of cells. To our knowledge, this study characterises the role of YKL40 for the first time in PCa. Together, these results suggest that YKL40 plays an important role in PCa progression and thus inhibition of YKL40 may be a potential therapeutic strategy for the treatment of PCa. © 2014 The authors.

Postoperative chemoradiotherapy in high risk locally advanced gastric cancer

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Song, Sang Hyuk; Chie, Eui Kyu; Kim, Kyu Bo; Lee, Hyuk Joon; Yang, Han Kwang; Han, Sae Won; Oh, Do Youn; Im, Seok Ah; Bang, Yung Jue; Ha, Sung W. [Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul(Korea, Republic of)

2012-12-15

To evaluate treatment outcome of patients with high risk locally advanced gastric cancer after postoperative chemoradiotherapy. Between May 2003 and May 2012, thirteen patients who underwent postoperative chemoradiotherapy for gastric cancer with resection margin involvement or adjacent structure invasion were retrospectively analyzed. Concurrent chemotherapy was administered in 10 patients. Median dose of radiation was 50.4 Gy (range, 45 to 55.8 Gy). The median follow-up duration for surviving patients was 48 months (range, 5 to 108 months). The 5-year overall survival rate was 42% and the 5-year disease-free survival rate was 28%. Major pattern of failure was peritoneal seeding with 46%. Loco-regional recurrence was reported in only one patient. Grade 2 or higher gastrointestinal toxicity occurred in 54% of the patients. However, there was only one patient with higher than grade 3 toxicity. Despite reported suggested role of adjuvant radiotherapy with combination chemotherapy in gastric cancer, only very small portion of the patients underwent the treatment. Results from this study show that postoperative chemoradiotherapy provided excellent locoregional control with acceptable and manageable treatment related toxicity in patients with high risk locally advanced gastric cancer. Thus, postoperative chemoradiotherapy may improve treatment result in terms of locoregional control in these high risk patients. However, as these findings are based on small series, validation with larger cohort is suggested.

Local Infiltration Analgesia Compared With Epidural and Intravenous PCA After Surgical Hip Dislocation for the Treatment of Femoroacetabular Impingement in Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Novais, Eduardo N; Kestel, Lauryn; Carry, Patrick M; Sink, Ernest; Strupp, Kim

2018-01-01

Open treatment of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) through a surgical hip dislocation (SHD) approach has been reported to allow for improvement in pain and function. However, the approach require a trochanteric osteotomy and may be associated with high level of pain after surgery. Currently, there is no systematic approach for pain management after SHD for treatment of FAI. A retrospective chart review was used to collect data from 121 subjects (12 to 21 y and below) who received periarticular local infiltration analgesia (LIA, n=20), epidural analgesia (n=72), or intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA, n=29) after SHD from January 2003 to June 2014. Verbal pain scores, opioid consumption, incidence of side effects/complications, and length of hospital stay (LOS) were recorded. All nonopioid medications with analgesic potential were included in the statistical models as potential confounding variables RESULTS:: Twelve hours after surgery, the odds of moderate/severe pain were higher in the PCA group (odds ratio, 20.5; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.7-243.8; P=0.0166] and epidural group (odds ratio, 5.2; 95% CI, 0.7-92.0; P=0.3218) compared with the LIA group. There was no difference in pain scores across all groups 1 hour (P=0.0675) or 24 hours (P=0.3473) postoperatively. Total opioid consumption in the LIA group was 59.8% (95% CI, 15.0%-81.0%; P=0.0175) lower than the total opioid consumption in the epidural group and 60.7% (95% CI, 17.3-81.3; P=0.0144) lower than the total opioid consumption in the PCA group. LOS was increased in the epidural (mean difference, 22.1; 95% CI, 6.8-37.4 h; P=0.0051) and PCA (mean difference, 16 h; 95% CI, 1-31.5 h; P=0.0367) groups relative to the LIA group. There was 0 (0%) complication in the LIA group compared with 11 (15.3%) in the epidural group. LIA was more effective at controlling pain 12 hours after surgery in comparison with PCA with similar pain control to epidural. LIA was associated with significantly lower

Petrology of Antarctic Eucrites PCA 91078 and PCA 91245

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, L. M.; Domanik, K. J.; Drake, M. J.; Mittlefehldt, D. W.

2002-01-01

Antarctic eucrites PCA 91078 and PCA 91245, are petrographically characterized and found to be unpaired, type 6, basaltic eucrites. Observed textures that provide insight into the petrogenesis of these meteorites are also discussed. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

PCA and Postoperative Pain Management After Orthopedic Surgeries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.M. Hashemi

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Patients often suffer from inadequate treatment of postoperative pain. The aim of this study was to investigate effect of PCA on postoperative pain management and patients’ satisfaction from use of PCA. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, between 2010 to 2011, patients presented by orthopedic specialists to acute and chronic pain service of Akhtar Hospital. A satisfaction questionnaire was given on discharge to this patients, were asked to fill out it . Then collected by ward nurse. Results: patients’ satisfaction from pain relief with use of PCA was high ( 94.9% . In this patient pain relief at third day after surgery and require analgesic was low, significantly (p=0.0001. Significant patients’ satisfaction from effect of PCA in pain control and products support was high (p=0.0001.     Conclusion: Patient controlled analgesia is a safe, effective and noninvasive method for post operative pain management and in this study patients’ satisfaction for pain management was high for use of PCA and pain service. 

The PCa Tumor Microenvironment.

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Sottnik, Joseph L; Zhang, Jian; Macoska, Jill A; Keller, Evan T

2011-12-01

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a very complex niche that consists of multiple cell types, supportive matrix and soluble factors. Cells in the TME consist of both host cells that are present at tumor site at the onset of tumor growth and cells that are recruited in either response to tumor- or host-derived factors. PCa (PCa) thrives on crosstalk between tumor cells and the TME. Crosstalk results in an orchestrated evolution of both the tumor and microenvironment as the tumor progresses. The TME reacts to PCa-produced soluble factors as well as direct interaction with PCa cells. In return, the TME produces soluble factors, structural support and direct contact interactions that influence the establishment and progression of PCa. In this review, we focus on the host side of the equation to provide a foundation for understanding how different aspects of the TME contribute to PCa progression. We discuss immune effector cells, specialized niches, such as the vascular and bone marrow, and several key protein factors that mediate host effects on PCa. This discussion highlights the concept that the TME offers a potentially very fertile target for PCa therapy.

Comparative Study of Blood-Based Biomarkers, α2,3-Sialic Acid PSA and PHI, for High-Risk Prostate Cancer Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrer-Batallé, Montserrat; Llop, Esther; Ramírez, Manel; Aleixandre, Rosa Núria; Saez, Marc; Comet, Josep; de Llorens, Rafael; Peracaula, Rosa

2017-04-17

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is the most commonly used serum marker for prostate cancer (PCa), although it is not specific and sensitive enough to allow the differential diagnosis of the more aggressive tumors. For that, new diagnostic methods are being developed, such as PCA-3, PSA isoforms that have resulted in the 4K score or the Prostate Health Index (PHI), and PSA glycoforms. In the present study, we have compared the PHI with our recently developed PSA glycoform assay, based on the determination of the α2,3-sialic acid percentage of serum PSA (% α2,3-SA), in a cohort of 79 patients, which include 50 PCa of different grades and 29 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) patients. The % α2,3-SA could distinguish high-risk PCa patients from the rest of patients better than the PHI (area under the curve (AUC) of 0.971 vs. 0.840), although the PHI correlated better with the Gleason score than the % α2,3-SA. The combination of both markers increased the AUC up to 0.985 resulting in 100% sensitivity and 94.7% specificity to differentiate high-risk PCa from the other low and intermediate-risk PCa and BPH patients. These results suggest that both serum markers complement each other and offer an improved diagnostic tool to identify high-risk PCa, which is an important requirement for guiding treatment decisions.

Circle of Willis Variants: Fetal PCA

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Amir Shaban

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We sought to determine the prevalence of fetal posterior cerebral artery (fPCA and if fPCA was associated with specific stroke etiology and vessel territory affected. This paper is a retrospective review of prospectively identified patients with acute ischemic stroke from July 2008 to December 2010. We defined complete fPCA as absence of a P1 segment linking the basilar with the PCA and partial fPCA as small segment linking the basilar with the PCA. Patients without intracranial vascular imaging were excluded. We compared patients with complete fPCA, partial fPCA, and without fPCA in terms of demographics, stroke severity, distribution, and etiology and factored in whether the stroke was ipsilateral to the fPCA. Of the 536 included patients, 9.5% ( had complete fPCA and 15.1% ( had partial fPCA. Patients with complete fPCA were older and more often female than partial fPCA and no fPCA patients, and significant variation in TOAST classification was detected across groups (. Patients with complete fPCA had less small vessel and more large vessel strokes than patients with no fPCA and partial fPCA. Fetal PCA may predispose to stroke mechanism, but is not associated with vascular distribution, stroke severity, or early outcome.

Recruitment Methods and Show Rates to a Prostate Cancer Early Detection Program for High-Risk Men: A Comprehensive Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Giri, Veda N.; Coups, Elliot J.; Ruth, Karen; Goplerud, Julia; Raysor, Susan; Kim, Taylor Y.; Bagden, Loretta; Mastalski, Kathleen; Zakrzewski, Debra; Leimkuhler, Suzanne; Watkins-Bruner, Deborah

2009-01-01

Purpose Men with a family history (FH) of prostate cancer (PCA) and African American (AA) men are at higher risk for PCA. Recruitment and retention of these high-risk men into early detection programs has been challenging. We report a comprehensive analysis on recruitment methods, show rates, and participant factors from the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program (PRAP), which is a prospective, longitudinal PCA screening study. Materials and Methods Men 35–69 years are eligible if they have a FH of PCA, are AA, or have a BRCA1/2 mutation. Recruitment methods were analyzed with respect to participant demographics and show to the first PRAP appointment using standard statistical methods Results Out of 707 men recruited, 64.9% showed to the initial PRAP appointment. More individuals were recruited via radio than from referral or other methods (χ2 = 298.13, p < .0001). Men recruited via radio were more likely to be AA (p<0.001), less educated (p=0.003), not married or partnered (p=0.007), and have no FH of PCA (p<0.001). Men recruited via referrals had higher incomes (p=0.007). Men recruited via referral were more likely to attend their initial PRAP visit than those recruited by radio or other methods (χ2 = 27.08, p < .0001). Conclusions This comprehensive analysis finds that radio leads to higher recruitment of AA men with lower socioeconomic status. However, these are the high-risk men that have lower show rates for PCA screening. Targeted motivational measures need to be studied to improve show rates for PCA risk assessment for these high-risk men. PMID:19758657

Fish intake, cooking practices, and risk of prostate cancer: results from a multi-ethnic case-control study.

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Joshi, Amit D; John, Esther M; Koo, Jocelyn; Ingles, Sue A; Stern, Mariana C

2012-03-01

Studies conducted to assess the association between fish consumption and prostate cancer (PCA) risk are inconclusive. However, few studies have distinguished between fatty and lean fish, and no studies have considered the role of different cooking practices, which may lead to differential accumulation of chemical carcinogens. In this study, we investigated the association between fish intake and localized and advanced PCA taking into account fish types (lean vs. fatty) and cooking practices. We analyzed data for 1,096 controls, 717 localized and 1,140 advanced cases from the California Collaborative Prostate Cancer Study, a multiethnic, population-based case-control study. We used multivariate conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios using nutrient density converted variables of fried fish, tuna, dark fish and white fish consumption. We tested for effect modification by cooking methods (high- vs. low-temperature methods) and levels of doneness. We observed that high white fish intake was associated with increased risk of advanced PCA among men who cooked with high-temperature methods (pan-frying, oven-broiling and grilling) until fish was well done (p (trend) = 0.001). No associations were found among men who cooked fish at low temperature and/or just until done (white fish x cooking method p (interaction) = 0.040). Our results indicate that consideration of fish type (oily vs. lean), specific fish cooking practices and levels of doneness of cooked fish helps elucidate the association between fish intake and PCA risk and suggest that avoiding high-temperature cooking methods for white fish may lower PCA risk.

Results of 14 years of brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Mikael G; Thomsen, Frederik B; Fode, Mikkel

2018-01-01

was analysed using competing risk analyses. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to estimate risk of biochemical recurrence. RESULTS: In total, 206 men were classified with low-risk PCa, 265 men with intermediate-risk PCa and 33 men with high-risk PCa. Median follow-up was 6.6 years [95% confidence...... PCa. Further studies are needed for safety analyses and for comparison with other treatment modalities....

Active surveillance for localized prostate cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thomsen, Frederik B; Berg, Kasper D; Røder, M Andreas

2015-01-01

and costs of AS in patients with localized PCa. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 317 PCa patients were followed in a prospective, single-arm AS cohort. The primary outcomes were number of patient contacts, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests, biopsies, hospital admissions due to biopsy complications......OBJECTIVE: Evidence supports active surveillance (AS) as a means to reduce overtreatment of low-risk prostate cancer (PCa). The consequences of close and long-standing follow-up with regard to outpatient visits, tests and repeated biopsies are widely unknown. This study investigated the trajectory...

Simultaneous Estimation of Hydrochlorothiazide, Hydralazine Hydrochloride, and Reserpine Using PCA, NAS, and NAS-PCA.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Chetan; Badyal, Pragya Nand; Rawal, Ravindra K

2015-01-01

In this study, new and feasible UV-visible spectrophotometric and multivariate spectrophotometric methods were described for the simultaneous determination of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), hydralazine hydrochloride (H.HCl), and reserpine (RES) in combined pharmaceutical tablets. Methanol was used as a solvent for analysis and the whole UV region was scanned from 200-400 nm. The resolution was obtained by using multivariate methods such as the net analyte signal method (NAS), principal component analysis (PCA), and net analyte signal-principal component analysis (NAS-PCA) applied to the UV spectra of the mixture. The results obtained from all of the three methods were compared. NAS-PCA showed a lot of resolved data as compared to NAS and PCA. Thus, the NAS-PCA technique is a combination of NAS and PCA methods which is advantageous to obtain the information from overlapping results.

Is there any association between National Institute of Health category IV prostatitis and prostate-specific antigen levels in patients with low-risk localized prostate cancer?

Science.gov (United States)

Doluoglu, Omer Gokhan; Ceylan, Cavit; Kilinc, Fatih; Gazel, Eymen; Resorlu, Berkan; Odabas, Oner

2016-01-01

We investigated the association between National Institute of Health category IV prostatitis and prostate-specific antigen levels in patients with low-risk localized prostate cancer. The data of 440 patients who had undergone prostate biopsies due to high PSA levels and suspicious digital rectal examination findings were reviewed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of accompanying NIH IV prostatitis. The exclusion criteria were as follows: Gleason score>6, PSA level>20ng/mL, >2 positive cores, >50% cancerous tissue per biopsy, urinary tract infection, urological interventions at least 1 week previously (cystoscopy, urethral catheterization, or similar procedure), history of prostate biopsy, and history of androgen or 5-alpha reductase use. All patient's age, total PSA and free PSA levels, ratio of free to total PSA, PSA density and prostate volume were recorded. In total, 101 patients were included in the study. Histopathological examination revealed only PCa in 78 (77.2%) patients and PCa+NIH IV prostatitis in 23 (22.7%) patients. The median total PSA level was 7.4 (3.5-20.0) ng/mL in the PCa+NIH IV prostatitis group and 6.5 (0.6-20.0) ng/mL in the PCa group (p=0.67). The PSA level was≤10ng/mL in 60 (76.9%) patients in the PCa group and in 16 (69.6%) patients in the PCa+NIH IV prostatitis group (p=0.32). Our study showed no statistically significant difference in PSA levels between patients with and without NIH IV prostatitis accompanying PCa.

Faults detection approach using PCA and SOM algorithm in PMSG-WT system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamed Lamine FADDA

2016-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a new approach for faults detection in observable data system wind turbine - permanent magnet synchronous generator (WT-PMSG, the studying objective, illustrate the combination (SOM-PCA to build Multi-local-PCA models faults detection in system (WT-PMSG, the performance of the method suggested to faults detection in system data, finding good results in simulation experiment.

Risk score predicts high-grade prostate cancer in DNA-methylation positive, histopathologically negative biopsies.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Neste, Leander; Partin, Alan W; Stewart, Grant D; Epstein, Jonathan I; Harrison, David J; Van Criekinge, Wim

2016-09-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis is challenging because efforts for effective, timely treatment of men with significant cancer typically result in over-diagnosis and repeat biopsies. The presence or absence of epigenetic aberrations, more specifically DNA-methylation of GSTP1, RASSF1, and APC in histopathologically negative prostate core biopsies has resulted in an increased negative predictive value (NPV) of ∼90% and thus could lead to a reduction of unnecessary repeat biopsies. Here, it is investigated whether, in methylation-positive men, DNA-methylation intensities could help to identify those men harboring high-grade (Gleason score ≥7) PCa, resulting in an improved positive predictive value. Two cohorts, consisting of men with histopathologically negative index biopsies, followed by a positive or negative repeat biopsy, were combined. EpiScore, a methylation intensity algorithm was developed in methylation-positive men, using area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic as metric for performance. Next, a risk score was developed combining EpiScore with traditional clinical risk factors to further improve the identification of high-grade (Gleason Score ≥7) cancer. Compared to other risk factors, detection of DNA-methylation in histopathologically negative biopsies was the most significant and important predictor of high-grade cancer, resulting in a NPV of 96%. In methylation-positive men, EpiScore was significantly higher for those with high-grade cancer detected upon repeat biopsy, compared to those with either no or low-grade cancer. The risk score resulted in further improvement of patient risk stratification and was a significantly better predictor compared to currently used metrics as PSA and the prostate cancer prevention trial (PCPT) risk calculator (RC). A decision curve analysis indicated strong clinical utility for the risk score as decision-making tool for repeat biopsy. Low DNA-methylation levels in PCa-negative biopsies led

[An improved low spectral distortion PCA fusion method].

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Shi; Zhang, Ai-Wu; Li, Han-Lun; Hu, Shao-Xing; Meng, Xian-Gang; Sun, Wei-Dong

2013-10-01

Aiming at the spectral distortion produced in PCA fusion process, the present paper proposes an improved low spectral distortion PCA fusion method. This method uses NCUT (normalized cut) image segmentation algorithm to make a complex hyperspectral remote sensing image into multiple sub-images for increasing the separability of samples, which can weaken the spectral distortions of traditional PCA fusion; Pixels similarity weighting matrix and masks were produced by using graph theory and clustering theory. These masks are used to cut the hyperspectral image and high-resolution image into some sub-region objects. All corresponding sub-region objects between the hyperspectral image and high-resolution image are fused by using PCA method, and all sub-regional integration results are spliced together to produce a new image. In the experiment, Hyperion hyperspectral data and Rapid Eye data were used. And the experiment result shows that the proposed method has the same ability to enhance spatial resolution and greater ability to improve spectral fidelity performance.

Circle of Willis Variants: Fetal PCA

OpenAIRE

Amir Shaban; Karen C. Albright; Amelia K. Boehme; Sheryl Martin-Schild

2013-01-01

We sought to determine the prevalence of fetal posterior cerebral artery (fPCA) and if fPCA was associated with specific stroke etiology and vessel territory affected. This paper is a retrospective review of prospectively identified patients with acute ischemic stroke from July 2008 to December 2010. We defined complete fPCA as absence of a P1 segment linking the basilar with the PCA and partial fPCA as small segment linking the basilar with the PCA. Patients without intracranial vascular ima...

Volatilization from PCA steel alloy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hagrman, D.L.; Smolik, G.R.; McCarthy, K.A.; Petti, D.A.

1996-08-01

The mobilizations of key components from Primary Candidate Alloy (PCA) steel alloy have been measured with laboratory-scale experiments. The experiments indicate most of the mobilization from PCA steel is due to oxide formation and spalling but that the spalled particles are large enough to settle rapidly. Based on the experiments, models for the volatization of iron, manganese, and cobalt from PCA steel in steam and molybdenum from PCA steel in air have been derived.

Very High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer: Outcomes Following Definitive Radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narang, Amol K.; Gergis, Carol; Robertson, Scott P.; He, Pei; Ram, Ashwin N.; McNutt, Todd R.; Griffith, Emily; DeWeese, Theodore A.; Honig, Stephanie; Singh, Harleen; Song, Danny Y.; Tran, Phuoc T.; DeWeese, Theodore L.

2016-01-01

Purpose: Existing definitions of high-risk prostate cancer consist of men who experience significant heterogeneity in outcomes. As such, criteria that identify a subpopulation of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) high-risk prostate cancer patients who are at very high risk (VHR) for poor survival outcomes following prostatectomy were recently developed at our institution and include the presence of any of the following disease characteristics: multiple NCCN high-risk factors, primary Gleason pattern 5 disease and/or ≥5 biopsy cores with Gleason sums of 8 to 10. Whether these criteria also apply to men undergoing definitive radiation is unclear, as is the optimal treatment regimen in these patients. Methods and Materials: All men consecutively treated with definitive radiation by a single provider from 1993 to 2006 and who fulfilled criteria for NCCN high-risk disease were identified (n=288), including 99 patients (34%) with VHR disease. Multivariate-adjusted competing risk regression models were constructed to assess associations between the VHR definition and biochemical failure (BF), distant metastasis (DM), and prostate cancer–specific mortality (PCSM). Multivariate-adjusted Cox regression analysis assessed the association of the VHR definition with overall mortality (OM). Cumulative incidences of failure endpoints were compared between VHR men and other NCCN high-risk men. Results: Men with VHR disease compared to other NCCN high-risk men experienced a higher 10-year incidence of BF (54.0% vs 35.4%, respectively, P<.001), DM (34.9% vs 13.4%, respectively, P<.001), PCSM (18.5% vs 5.9%, respectively, P<.001), and OM (36.4% vs 27.0%, respectively, P=.04). VHR men with a detectable prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration at the end of radiation (EOR) remained at high risk of 10-year PCSM compared to VHR men with an undetectable EOR PSA (31.0% vs 13.7%, respectively, P=.05). Conclusions: NCCN high-risk prostate cancer patients who meet VHR

A PCA3 gene-based transcriptional amplification system targeting primary prostate cancer

OpenAIRE

Neveu, Bertrand; Jain, Pallavi; T?tu, Bernard; Wu, Lily; Fradet, Yves; Pouliot, Fr?d?ric

2015-01-01

Targeting specifically primary prostate cancer (PCa) cells for immune therapy, gene therapy or molecular imaging is of high importance. The PCA3 long non-coding RNA is a unique PCa biomarker and oncogene that has been widely studied. This gene has been mainly exploited as an accurate diagnostic urine biomarker for PCa detection. In this study, the PCA3 promoter was introduced into a new transcriptional amplification system named the 3-Step Transcriptional Amplification System (PCA3-3STA) and ...

Adjuvant radiochemotherapy in patients with locally advanced high-risk cervical cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Heinzelmann, F.; Henke, G.; Grafenstein, M. von; Weidner, N.; Paulsen, F.; Bamberg, M.; Weinmann, M. [Tuebingen Univ. (Germany). Dept. of Radiation Oncology; Staebler, A. [Tuebingen Univ. (Germany). Div. of Gynecologic Pathology; Brucker, S. [Tuebingen Univ. (Germany). Dept. of Gynecology

2012-07-15

Background and purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the outcome of patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma treated by adjuvant radiochemotherapy and to determine risk factors for local and distant relapse. Furthermore, acute and late effects of treatment were recorded. Patients and methods: A total of 72 patients with FIGO stages I-III cervical carcinoma were treated by radical hysterectomy, pelvic lymphadenectomy, and postoperative radiochemotherapy. Only patients with positive pelvic lymph nodes, parametrial involvement, positive margins, or tumor bulk were eligible. Patients were irradiated with a standard pelvic field (50.4 Gy in 28 fractions). The majority of patients received platinum-based chemotherapy. Results: After a median follow-up of 37 months, estimated 1-, 2-, and 4-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 89%, 80%, 68% and 95%, 88%, 76%, respectively. Nine of the 72 patients had pelvic recurrences including only 1 isolated local failure; 23 of the 72 patients presented with distant relapse. The majority of relapses occurred within the first 3 years after adjuvant treatment. The number of positive pelvic lymph nodes (> 1) was the strongest prognostic factor for DFS. Treatment was well tolerated with transient acute hematologic ({proportional_to}30%) and gastrointestinal ({proportional_to}30%) grade 3 toxicity. Small bowel obstruction ({proportional_to}6%) was the only important late sequelae. Conclusion: Adjuvant radiochemotherapy in patients with advanced cervical cancer and several risk factors is highly effective to prevent local relapse. Future efforts to improve outcome should be placed on improvement of systemic control especially in subgroups with high-risk features for distant relapse. Combined treatment was well tolerated with moderate acute and late toxicity. (orig.)

Sparse PCA with Oracle Property.

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Quanquan; Wang, Zhaoran; Liu, Han

In this paper, we study the estimation of the k -dimensional sparse principal subspace of covariance matrix Σ in the high-dimensional setting. We aim to recover the oracle principal subspace solution, i.e., the principal subspace estimator obtained assuming the true support is known a priori. To this end, we propose a family of estimators based on the semidefinite relaxation of sparse PCA with novel regularizations. In particular, under a weak assumption on the magnitude of the population projection matrix, one estimator within this family exactly recovers the true support with high probability, has exact rank- k , and attains a [Formula: see text] statistical rate of convergence with s being the subspace sparsity level and n the sample size. Compared to existing support recovery results for sparse PCA, our approach does not hinge on the spiked covariance model or the limited correlation condition. As a complement to the first estimator that enjoys the oracle property, we prove that, another estimator within the family achieves a sharper statistical rate of convergence than the standard semidefinite relaxation of sparse PCA, even when the previous assumption on the magnitude of the projection matrix is violated. We validate the theoretical results by numerical experiments on synthetic datasets.

PCA safety data review after clinical decision support and smart pump technology implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Prewitt, Judy; Schneider, Susan; Horvath, Monica; Hammond, Julia; Jackson, Jason; Ginsberg, Brian

2013-06-01

Medication errors account for 20% of medical errors in the United States with the largest risk at prescribing and administration. Analgesics or opioids are frequently used medications that can be associated with patient harm when prescribed or administered improperly. In an effort to decrease medication errors, Duke University Hospital implemented clinical decision support via computer provider order entry (CPOE) and "smart pump" technology, 2/2008, with the goal to decrease patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) adverse events. This project evaluated PCA safety events, reviewing voluntary report system and adverse drug events via surveillance (ADE-S), on intermediate and step-down units preimplementation and postimplementation of clinical decision support via CPOE and PCA smart pumps for the prescribing and administration of opioids therapy in the adult patient requiring analgesia for acute pain. Voluntary report system and ADE-S PCA events decreased based upon 1000 PCA days; ADE-S PCA events per 1000 PCA days decreased 22%, from 5.3 (pre) to 4.2 (post) (P = 0.09). Voluntary report system events decreased 72%, from 2.4/1000 PCA days (pre) to 0.66/1000 PCA days (post) and was statistically significant (P PCA events between time periods in both the ADE-S and voluntary report system data, thus supporting the recommendation of clinical decision support via CPOE and PCA smart pump technology.

Semi-Supervised Kernel PCA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walder, Christian; Henao, Ricardo; Mørup, Morten

We present three generalisations of Kernel Principal Components Analysis (KPCA) which incorporate knowledge of the class labels of a subset of the data points. The first, MV-KPCA, penalises within class variances similar to Fisher discriminant analysis. The second, LSKPCA is a hybrid of least...... squares regression and kernel PCA. The final LR-KPCA is an iteratively reweighted version of the previous which achieves a sigmoid loss function on the labeled points. We provide a theoretical risk bound as well as illustrative experiments on real and toy data sets....

A novel-type phosphatidylinositol phosphate-interactive, Ca-binding protein PCaP1 in Arabidopsis thaliana: stable association with plasma membrane and partial involvement in stomata closure.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagata, Chisako; Miwa, Chika; Tanaka, Natsuki; Kato, Mariko; Suito, Momoe; Tsuchihira, Ayako; Sato, Yori; Segami, Shoji; Maeshima, Masayoshi

2016-05-01

The Ca(2+)-binding protein-1 (PCaP1) of Arabidopsis thaliana is a new type protein that binds to phosphatidylinositol phosphates and Ca(2+)-calmodulin complex as well as free Ca(2+). Although biochemical properties, such as binding to ligands and N-myristoylation, have been revealed, the intracellular localization, tissue and cell specificity, integrity of membrane association and physiological roles of PCaP1 are unknown. We investigated the tissue and intracellular distribution of PCaP1 by using transgenic lines expressing PCaP1 linked with a green fluorescence protein (GFP) at the carboxyl terminus of PCaP1. GFP fluorescence was obviously detected in most tissues including root, stem, leaf and flower. In these tissues, PCaP1-GFP signal was observed predominantly in the plasma membrane even under physiological stress conditions but not in other organelles. The fluorescence was detected in the cytosol when the 25-residue N-terminal sequence was deleted from PCaP1 indicating essential contribution of N-myristoylation to the plasma membrane anchoring. Fluorescence intensity of PCaP1-GFP in roots was slightly decreased in seedlings grown in medium supplemented with high concentrations of iron for 1 week and increased in those grown with copper. In stomatal guard cells, PCaP1-GFP was strictly, specifically localized to the plasma membrane at the epidermal-cell side but not at the pore side. A T-DNA insertion mutant line of PCaP1 did not show marked phenotype in a life cycle except for well growth under high CO2 conditions. However, stomata of the mutant line did not close entirely even in high osmolarity, which usually induces stomata closure. These results suggest that PCaP1 is involved in the stomatal movement, especially closure process, in leaves and response to excessive copper in root and leaf as a mineral nutrient as a physiological role.

Shallow-Land Buriable PCA-type austenitic stainless steel for fusion application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zucchetti, M.

1991-01-01

Neutron-induced activity in the PCA (Primary Candidate Alloy) austenitic stainless steel is examined, when used for first-wall components in a DEMO fusion reactor. Some low-activity definitions, based on different waste management and disposal concepts, are introduced. Activity in the PCA is so high that any recycling of the irradiated material can be excluded. Disposal of PCA radioactive wastes in Shallow-Land Buriable (SLB) is prevented as well. Mo, Nb and some impurity elements have to be removed or limited, in order to reduce the radioactivity of the PCA. Possible low-activity versions of the PCA are introduced (PCA-la); they meet the requirements for SLB and may also be recycled under certain conditions. (author)

Lycopene and Risk of Prostate Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ping; Zhang, Wenhao; Wang, Xiao; Zhao, Keke; Negi, Devendra Singh; Zhuo, Li; Qi, Mao; Wang, Xinghuan; Zhang, Xinhua

2015-01-01

Abstract Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common illness for aging males. Lycopene has been identified as an antioxidant agent with potential anticancer properties. Studies investigating the relation between lycopene and PCa risk have produced inconsistent results. This study aims to determine dietary lycopene consumption/circulating concentration and any potential dose–response associations with the risk of PCa. Eligible studies published in English up to April 10, 2014, were searched and identified from Pubmed, Sciencedirect Online, Wiley online library databases and hand searching. The STATA (version 12.0) was applied to process the dose–response meta-analysis. Random effects models were used to calculate pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and to incorporate variation between studies. The linear and nonlinear dose–response relations were evaluated with data from categories of lycopene consumption/circulating concentrations. Twenty-six studies were included with 17,517 cases of PCa reported from 563,299 participants. Although inverse association between lycopene consumption and PCa risk was not found in all studies, there was a trend that with higher lycopene intake, there was reduced incidence of PCa (P = 0.078). Removal of one Chinese study in sensitivity analysis, or recalculation using data from only high-quality studies for subgroup analysis, indicated that higher lycopene consumption significantly lowered PCa risk. Furthermore, our dose–response meta-analysis demonstrated that higher lycopene consumption was linearly associated with a reduced risk of PCa with a threshold between 9 and 21 mg/day. Consistently, higher circulating lycopene levels significantly reduced the risk of PCa. Interestingly, the concentration of circulating lycopene between 2.17 and 85 μg/dL was linearly inversed with PCa risk whereas there was no linear association >85 μg/dL. In addition, greater efficacy for the circulating lycopene

The added value of percentage of free to total prostate-specific antigen, PCA3, and a kallikrein panel to the ERSPC risk calculator for prostate cancer in prescreened men.

Science.gov (United States)

Vedder, Moniek M; de Bekker-Grob, Esther W; Lilja, Hans G; Vickers, Andrew J; van Leenders, Geert J L H; Steyerberg, Ewout W; Roobol, Monique J

2014-12-01

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing has limited accuracy for the early detection of prostate cancer (PCa). To assess the value added by percentage of free to total PSA (%fPSA), prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), and a kallikrein panel (4k-panel) to the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) multivariable prediction models: risk calculator (RC) 4, including transrectal ultrasound, and RC 4 plus digital rectal examination (4+DRE) for prescreened men. Participants were invited for rescreening between October 2007 and February 2009 within the Dutch part of the ERSPC study. Biopsies were taken in men with a PSA level ≥3.0 ng/ml or a PCA3 score ≥10. Additional analyses of the 4k-panel were done on serum samples. Outcome was defined as PCa detectable by sextant biopsy. Receiver operating characteristic curve and decision curve analyses were performed to compare the predictive capabilities of %fPSA, PCA3, 4k-panel, the ERSPC RCs, and their combinations in logistic regression models. PCa was detected in 119 of 708 men. The %fPSA did not perform better univariately or added to the RCs compared with the RCs alone. In 202 men with an elevated PSA, the 4k-panel discriminated better than PCA3 when modelled univariately (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.78 vs. 0.62; p=0.01). The multivariable models with PCA3 or the 4k-panel were equivalent (AUC: 0.80 for RC 4+DRE). In the total population, PCA3 discriminated better than the 4k-panel (univariate AUC: 0.63 vs. 0.56; p=0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the multivariable model with PCA3 (AUC: 0.73) versus the model with the 4k-panel (AUC: 0.71; p=0.18). The multivariable model with PCA3 performed better than the reference model (0.73 vs. 0.70; p=0.02). Decision curves confirmed these patterns, although numbers were small. Both PCA3 and, to a lesser extent, a 4k-panel have added value to the DRE-based ERSPC RC in detecting PCa in prescreened men. We studied the added

A Phase 3 Trial of 2 Years of Androgen Suppression and Radiation Therapy With or Without Adjuvant Chemotherapy for High-Risk Prostate Cancer: Final Results of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Phase 3 Randomized Trial NRG Oncology RTOG 9902

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosenthal, Seth A., E-mail: rosents@sutterhealth.org [Radiation Oncology, Sutter Cancer Centers, Roseville, California (United States); Hunt, Daniel [NRG Oncology Statistics and Data Management Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States); Sartor, A. Oliver [Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans, Louisiana (United States); Pienta, Kenneth J. [Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland (United States); Gomella, Leonard [Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States); Grignon, David [Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana (United States); Rajan, Raghu [McGill University, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Kerlin, Kevin J. [Community Clinical Oncology Program, Southeast Cancer Control Consortium, Inc, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (United States); Jones, Christopher U. [Radiation Oncology, Sutter Cancer Centers, Roseville, California (United States); Radiological Associates of Sacramento, Sacramento, California (United States); Dobelbower, Michael [University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama (United States); Shipley, William U. [Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (United States); Zeitzer, Kenneth [Albert Einstein Medical Center, Bronx, New York (United States); Hamstra, Daniel A. [University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Donavanik, Viroon [Christiana Care Health Services, Inc, Wilmington, Delaware (United States); Rotman, Marvin [State University of New York Health Science Center–Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York (United States); Hartford, Alan C. [Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire (United States); Michalski, Jeffrey [Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (United States); Seider, Michael [Akron City Hospital, Akron, Ohio (United States); Kim, Harold [Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan (United States); and others

2015-10-01

Purpose: Long-term (LT) androgen suppression (AS) with radiation therapy (RT) is a standard treatment of high-risk, localized prostate cancer (PCa). Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 9902 was a randomized trial testing the hypothesis that adjuvant combination chemotherapy (CT) with paclitaxel, estramustine, and oral etoposide plus LT AS plus RT would improve overall survival (OS). Methods and Materials: Patients with high-risk PCa (prostate-specific antigen 20-100 ng/mL and Gleason score [GS] ≥7 or clinical stage ≥T2 and GS ≥8) were randomized to RT and AS (AS + RT) alone or with adjuvant CT (AS + RT + CT). CT was given as four 21-day cycles, delivered beginning 28 days after 70.2 Gy of RT. AS was given as luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone for 24 months, beginning 2 months before RT plus an oral antiandrogen for 4 months before and during RT. The study was designed based on a 6% improvement in OS from 79% to 85% at 5 years, with 90% power and a 2-sided alpha of 0.05. Results: A total of 397 patients (380 eligible) were randomized. The patients had high-risk PCa, 68% with GS 8 to 10 and 34% T3 to T4 tumors, and median prostate-specific antigen of 22.6 ng/mL. The median follow-up period was 9.2 years. The trial closed early because of excess thromboembolic toxicity in the CT arm. The 10-year results for all randomized patients revealed no significant difference between the AS + RT and AS + RT + CT arms in OS (65% vs 63%; P=.81), biochemical failure (58% vs 54%; P=.82), local progression (11% vs 7%; P=.09), distant metastases (16% vs 14%; P=.42), or disease-free survival (22% vs 26%; P=.61). Conclusions: NRG Oncology RTOG 9902 showed no significant differences in OS, biochemical failure, local progression, distant metastases, or disease-free survival with the addition of adjuvant CT to LT AS + RT. The trial results provide valuable data regarding the natural history of high-risk PCa treated with LT AS + RT and have implications for

MD-11 PCA - Research flight team photo

Science.gov (United States)

1995-01-01

On Aug. 30, 1995, a the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 transport aircraft landed equipped with a computer-assisted engine control system that has the potential to increase flight safety. In landings at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, on August 29 and 30, the aircraft demonstrated software used in the aircraft's flight control computer that essentially landed the MD-11 without a need for the pilot to manipulate the flight controls significantly. In partnership with McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA), with Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell helping to design the software, NASA developed this propulsion-controlled aircraft (PCA) system following a series of incidents in which hydraulic failures resulted in the loss of flight controls. This new system enables a pilot to operate and land the aircraft safely when its normal, hydraulically-activated control surfaces are disabled. This August 29, 1995, photo shows the MD-11 team. Back row, left to right: Tim Dingen, MDA pilot; John Miller, MD-11 Chief pilot (MDA); Wayne Anselmo, MD-11 Flight Test Engineer (MDA); Gordon Fullerton, PCA Project pilot; Bill Burcham, PCA Chief Engineer; Rudey Duran, PCA Controls Engineer (MDA); John Feather, PCA Controls Engineer (MDA); Daryl Townsend, Crew Chief; Henry Hernandez, aircraft mechanic; Bob Baron, PCA Project Manager; Don Hermann, aircraft mechanic; Jerry Cousins, aircraft mechanic; Eric Petersen, PCA Manager (Honeywell); Trindel Maine, PCA Data Engineer; Jeff Kahler, PCA Software Engineer (Honeywell); Steve Goldthorpe, PCA Controls Engineer (MDA). Front row, left to right: Teresa Hass, Senior Project Management Analyst; Hollie Allingham (Aguilera), Senior Project Management Analyst; Taher Zeglum, PCA Data Engineer (MDA); Drew Pappas, PCA Project Manager (MDA); John Burken, PCA Control Engineer.

Parallel GPU implementation of iterative PCA algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrecut, M

2009-11-01

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a key statistical technique for multivariate data analysis. For large data sets, the common approach to PCA computation is based on the standard NIPALS-PCA algorithm, which unfortunately suffers from loss of orthogonality, and therefore its applicability is usually limited to the estimation of the first few components. Here we present an algorithm based on Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization (called GS-PCA), which eliminates this shortcoming of NIPALS-PCA. Also, we discuss the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) parallel implementation of both NIPALS-PCA and GS-PCA algorithms. The numerical results show that the GPU parallel optimized versions, based on CUBLAS (NVIDIA), are substantially faster (up to 12 times) than the CPU optimized versions based on CBLAS (GNU Scientific Library).

PCA-based polling strategy in machine learning framework for coronary artery disease risk assessment in intravascular ultrasound: A link between carotid and coronary grayscale plaque morphology.

Science.gov (United States)

Araki, Tadashi; Ikeda, Nobutaka; Shukla, Devarshi; Jain, Pankaj K; Londhe, Narendra D; Shrivastava, Vimal K; Banchhor, Sumit K; Saba, Luca; Nicolaides, Andrew; Shafique, Shoaib; Laird, John R; Suri, Jasjit S

2016-05-01

Percutaneous coronary interventional procedures need advance planning prior to stenting or an endarterectomy. Cardiologists use intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for screening, risk assessment and stratification of coronary artery disease (CAD). We hypothesize that plaque components are vulnerable to rupture due to plaque progression. Currently, there are no standard grayscale IVUS tools for risk assessment of plaque rupture. This paper presents a novel strategy for risk stratification based on plaque morphology embedded with principal component analysis (PCA) for plaque feature dimensionality reduction and dominant feature selection technique. The risk assessment utilizes 56 grayscale coronary features in a machine learning framework while linking information from carotid and coronary plaque burdens due to their common genetic makeup. This system consists of a machine learning paradigm which uses a support vector machine (SVM) combined with PCA for optimal and dominant coronary artery morphological feature extraction. Carotid artery proven intima-media thickness (cIMT) biomarker is adapted as a gold standard during the training phase of the machine learning system. For the performance evaluation, K-fold cross validation protocol is adapted with 20 trials per fold. For choosing the dominant features out of the 56 grayscale features, a polling strategy of PCA is adapted where the original value of the features is unaltered. Different protocols are designed for establishing the stability and reliability criteria of the coronary risk assessment system (cRAS). Using the PCA-based machine learning paradigm and cross-validation protocol, a classification accuracy of 98.43% (AUC 0.98) with K=10 folds using an SVM radial basis function (RBF) kernel was achieved. A reliability index of 97.32% and machine learning stability criteria of 5% were met for the cRAS. This is the first Computer aided design (CADx) system of its kind that is able to demonstrate the ability of coronary

PCA as a practical indicator of OPLS-DA model reliability.

Science.gov (United States)

Worley, Bradley; Powers, Robert

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) are powerful statistical modeling tools that provide insights into separations between experimental groups based on high-dimensional spectral measurements from NMR, MS or other analytical instrumentation. However, when used without validation, these tools may lead investigators to statistically unreliable conclusions. This danger is especially real for Partial Least Squares (PLS) and OPLS, which aggressively force separations between experimental groups. As a result, OPLS-DA is often used as an alternative method when PCA fails to expose group separation, but this practice is highly dangerous. Without rigorous validation, OPLS-DA can easily yield statistically unreliable group separation. A Monte Carlo analysis of PCA group separations and OPLS-DA cross-validation metrics was performed on NMR datasets with statistically significant separations in scores-space. A linearly increasing amount of Gaussian noise was added to each data matrix followed by the construction and validation of PCA and OPLS-DA models. With increasing added noise, the PCA scores-space distance between groups rapidly decreased and the OPLS-DA cross-validation statistics simultaneously deteriorated. A decrease in correlation between the estimated loadings (added noise) and the true (original) loadings was also observed. While the validity of the OPLS-DA model diminished with increasing added noise, the group separation in scores-space remained basically unaffected. Supported by the results of Monte Carlo analyses of PCA group separations and OPLS-DA cross-validation metrics, we provide practical guidelines and cross-validatory recommendations for reliable inference from PCA and OPLS-DA models.

Endogenous and exogenous testosterone and prostate cancer: decreased-, increased- or null-risk?

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, David S; Advani, Shailesh; Tsilidis, Konstantinos K; Wang, Run; Canfield, Steven

2017-06-01

For more than 70 years, the contention that high levels of testosterone or that the use of testosterone therapy (TTh) increases the development and progression of prostate cancer (PCa) has been widely accepted and practiced. Yet, the increasing and emerging evidence on testosterone research seems to challenge that contention. To review literature on the associations of endogenous and exogenous testosterone with decreased-, increased-, or null-risk of PCa, and to further evaluate only those studies that reported magnitude of associations from multivariable modeling as it minimizes confounding effects. We conducted a literature search to identify studies that investigated the association of endogenous total testosterone [continuous (per 1 unit increment and 5 nmol/L increment) and categorical (high vs. low)] and use of TTh with PCa events [1990-2016]. Emphasis was given to studies/analyses that reported magnitude of associations [odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR) and hazard ratios (HRs)] from multivariable analyses to determine risk of PCa and their statistical significance. Most identified studies/analyses included observational and randomized placebo-controlled trials. This review was organized in three parts: (I) association of endogenous total testosterone (per 1 unit increment and 5 nmol/L increment) with PCa; (II) relationship of endogenous total testosterone (categorical high vs. low) with PCa; and (III) association of use of TTh with PCa in meta-analyses of randomized placebo-controlled trials. The first part included 31 observational studies [20 prospective (per 5 nmol/L increment) and 11 prospective and retrospective cohort studies (per 1 unit increment)]. None of the 20 prospective studies found a significant association between total testosterone (5 nmol/L increment) and increased- or decreased-risk of PCa. Two out of the 11 studies/analyses showed a significant decreased-risk of PCa for total testosterone per 1 unit increment, but also two other

Diagnostic Accuracy of 64Copper Prostate-specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography for Primary Lymph Node Staging of Intermediate- to High-risk Prostate Cancer: Our Preliminary Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Cantiello, Francesco; Gangemi, Vincenzo; Cascini, Giuseppe Lucio; Calabria, Ferdinando; Moschini, Marco; Ferro, Matteo; Musi, Gennaro; Butticè, Salvatore; Salonia, Andrea; Briganti, Alberto; Damiano, Rocco

2017-08-01

To assess the diagnostic accuracy of 64 Copper prostate-specific membrane antigen ( 64 Cu-PSMA) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the primary lymph node (LN) staging of a selected cohort of intermediate- to high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients. An observational prospective study was performed in 23 patients with intermediate- to high-risk PCa, who underwent 64 Cu-PSMA PET/CT for local and lymph nodal staging before laparoscopic radical prostatectomy with an extended pelvic LN dissection. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for LN status of 64 Cu-PSMA PET/CT were calculated using the final pathological findings as reference. Furthermore, we evaluated the correlation of intraprostatic tumor extent and grading with 64 Cu-PSMA intraprostatic distribution. Pathological analysis of LN involvement in 413 LNs harvested from our study cohort identified a total of 22 LN metastases in 8 (5%) of the 23 (35%) PCa patients. Imaging-based LN staging in a per-patient analysis showed that 64 Cu-PSMA PET/CT was positive in 7 of 8 LN-positive patients (22%) with a sensitivity of 87.5%, specificity of 100%, PPV of 100%, and NPV of 93.7%, considering the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max ) at 4 hours as our reference. Receiver operating characteristic curve was characterized by an area under the curve of 0.938. A significant positive association was observed between SUV max at 4 hours with Gleason score, index, and cumulative tumor volume. In our intermediate- to high-risk PCa patients study cohort, we showed the high diagnostic accuracy of 64 Cu-PSMA PET/CT for primary LN staging before radical prostatectomy. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving the prediction of pathologic outcomes in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy: the value of prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), prostate health index (phi) and sarcosine.

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Ferro, Matteo; Lucarelli, Giuseppe; Bruzzese, Dario; Perdonà, Sisto; Mazzarella, Claudia; Perruolo, Giuseppe; Marino, Ada; Cosimato, Vincenzo; Giorgio, Emilia; Tagliamonte, Virginia; Bottero, Danilo; De Cobelli, Ottavio; Terracciano, Daniela

2015-02-01

Several efforts have been made to find biomarkers that could help clinicians to preoperatively determine prostate cancer (PCa) pathological characteristics and choose the best therapeutic approach, avoiding over-treatment. On this effort, prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), prostate health index (phi) and sarcosine have been presented as promising tools. We evaluated the ability of these biomarkers to predict the pathologic PCa characteristics within a prospectively collected contemporary cohort of patients who underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) for clinically localized PCa at a single high-volume Institution. The prognostic performance of PCA3, phi and sarcosine were evaluated in 78 patients undergoing RP for biopsy-proven PCa. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses tested the accuracy (area under the curve (AUC)) in predicting PCa pathological characteristics. Decision curve analyses (DCA) were used to assess the clinical benefit of the three biomarkers. We found that PCA3, phi and sarcosine levels were significantly higher in patients with tumor volume (TV)≥0.5 ml, pathologic Gleason sum (GS)≥7 and pT3 disease (all p-values≤0.01). ROC curve analysis showed that phi is an accurate predictor of high-stage (AUC 0.85 [0.77-0.93]), high-grade (AUC 0.83 [0.73-0.93]) and high-volume disease (AUC 0.94 [0.88-0.99]). Sarcosine showed a comparable AUC (0.85 [0.76-0.94]) only for T3 stage prediction, whereas PCA3 score showed lower AUCs, ranging from 0.74 (for GS) to 0.86 (for TV). PCA3, phi and sarcosine are predictors of PCa characteristics at final pathology. Successful clinical translation of these findings would reduce the frequency of surveillance biopsies and may enhance acceptance of active surveillance (AS). Copyright© 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

Chemotherapy and novel therapeutics before radical prostatectomy for high-risk clinically localized prostate cancer.

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Cha, Eugene K; Eastham, James A

2015-05-01

Although both surgery and radiation are potential curative options for men with clinically localized prostate cancer, a significant proportion of men with high-risk and locally advanced disease will demonstrate biochemical and potentially clinical progression of their disease. Neoadjuvant systemic therapy before radical prostatectomy (RP) is a logical strategy to improve treatment outcomes for men with clinically localized high-risk prostate cancer. Furthermore, delivery of chemotherapy and other systemic agents before RP affords an opportunity to explore the efficacy of these agents with pathologic end points. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, primarily with docetaxel (with or without androgen deprivation therapy), has demonstrated feasibility and safety in men undergoing RP, but no study to date has established the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemohormonal therapies. Other novel agents, such as those targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet-derived growth factor receptor, clusterin, and immunomodulatory therapeutics, are currently under investigation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Racial Differences in Prediction of Time to Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in a Prospective Screening Cohort of High-Risk Men: Effect of TMPRSS2 Met160Val

Science.gov (United States)

Giri, Veda N.; Ruth, Karen; Hughes, Lucinda; Uzzo, Robert G.; Chen, David Y.T.; Boorjian, Stephen A.; Viterbo, Rosalia; Rebbeck, Timothy R.

2011-01-01

Introduction The TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion occurs in >50% of prostate tumors and has been associated with poor outcomes. The T-allele (Valine) of the Met160Val (rs12329760) in TMPRSS2 has been associated with this fusion. We evaluated this polymorphism with respect to self-identified race or ethnicity (SIRE), time to prostate cancer (PCA) diagnosis, and screening parameters in the Prostate Cancer Risk Assessment Program, a prospective screening program for high-risk men. Patients and Methods 631 men ages 35-69 years were studied. “High-risk” was defined as ≥ one first degree or two second degree relatives with PCA, any African American (AA) man regardless of familial PCA, and men with BRCA1/2 mutations. Men with elevated PSA or other indications for PCA underwent biopsy. Men were followed from time of study entry to PCA diagnosis. Cox models were used to evaluate time to PCA diagnosis by genotype. Results Genotype distribution differed significantly by SIRE (CT/TT vs. CC, p<0.0001). Among 183 Caucasian men with at least one follow-up visit, PCA was more than doubled in men carrying CT/TT vs CC genotypes (HR= 2.55, 95% CI=1.14-5.70) after controlling for age and PSA. No association was seen among AA men by TMPRSS2 genotype. Conclusions The T-allele of the Met160Val variant in TMPRSS2, which has been associated with the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion, may be informative of time to PCA diagnosis for a subset of high-risk Caucasian men who are undergoing regular PCA screening. This variant along with other genetic markers warrant further study for personalizing PCA screening. PMID:20735386

Improved k-t PCA Algorithm Using Artificial Sparsity in Dynamic MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yiran; Chen, Zhifeng; Wang, Jing; Yuan, Lixia; Xia, Ling; Liu, Feng

2017-01-01

The k - t principal component analysis ( k - t PCA) is an effective approach for high spatiotemporal resolution dynamic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. However, it suffers from larger residual aliasing artifacts and noise amplification when the reduction factor goes higher. To further enhance the performance of this technique, we propose a new method called sparse k - t PCA that combines the k - t PCA algorithm with an artificial sparsity constraint. It is a self-calibrated procedure that is based on the traditional k - t PCA method by further eliminating the reconstruction error derived from complex subtraction of the sampled k - t space from the original reconstructed k - t space. The proposed method is tested through both simulations and in vivo datasets with different reduction factors. Compared to the standard k - t PCA algorithm, the sparse k - t PCA can improve the normalized root-mean-square error performance and the accuracy of temporal resolution. It is thus useful for rapid dynamic MR imaging.

103PD brachytherapy and external beam irradiation for clinically localized, high-risk prostatic carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dattoli, Michael; Wallner, Kent; Sorace, Richard; Koval, John; Cash, Jennifer; Acosta, Rudolph; Brown, Charles; Etheridge, James; Binder, Michael; Brunelle, Richard; Kirwan, Novelle; Sanchez, Servando; Stein, Douglas; Wasserman, Stuart

1996-01-01

Purpose: To summarize biochemical failure rates and morbidity of external beam irradiation (EBRT) combined with palladium ( 103 Pd) boost for clinically localized high-risk prostate carcinoma. Methods and Materials: Seventy-three consecutive patients with stage T2a-T3 prostatic carcinoma were treated from 1991 through 1994. Each patient had at least one of the following risk factors for extracapsular disease extension: Stage T2b or greater (71 patients), Gleason score 7-10 (40 patients), prostate specific antigen (PSA) >15 (32 patients), or elevated prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) (17 patients). Patients received 41 Gy EBRT to a limited pelvic field, followed 4 weeks later by a 103 Pd boost (prescription dose: 80 Gy). Biochemical failure was defined as a PSA greater than 1.0 ng/ml (normal 103 Pd brachytherapy for clinically localized, high-risk prostate cancer compare favorably with that reported after conventional dose EBRT alone. Morbidity has been acceptable

Endogenous and exogenous testosterone and prostate cancer: decreased-, increased- or null-risk?

Science.gov (United States)

Advani, Shailesh; Tsilidis, Konstantinos K.; Wang, Run; Canfield, Steven

2017-01-01

For more than 70 years, the contention that high levels of testosterone or that the use of testosterone therapy (TTh) increases the development and progression of prostate cancer (PCa) has been widely accepted and practiced. Yet, the increasing and emerging evidence on testosterone research seems to challenge that contention. To review literature on the associations of endogenous and exogenous testosterone with decreased-, increased-, or null-risk of PCa, and to further evaluate only those studies that reported magnitude of associations from multivariable modeling as it minimizes confounding effects. We conducted a literature search to identify studies that investigated the association of endogenous total testosterone [continuous (per 1 unit increment and 5 nmol/L increment) and categorical (high vs. low)] and use of TTh with PCa events [1990–2016]. Emphasis was given to studies/analyses that reported magnitude of associations [odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR) and hazard ratios (HRs)] from multivariable analyses to determine risk of PCa and their statistical significance. Most identified studies/analyses included observational and randomized placebo-controlled trials. This review was organized in three parts: (I) association of endogenous total testosterone (per 1 unit increment and 5 nmol/L increment) with PCa; (II) relationship of endogenous total testosterone (categorical high vs. low) with PCa; and (III) association of use of TTh with PCa in meta-analyses of randomized placebo-controlled trials. The first part included 31 observational studies [20 prospective (per 5 nmol/L increment) and 11 prospective and retrospective cohort studies (per 1 unit increment)]. None of the 20 prospective studies found a significant association between total testosterone (5 nmol/L increment) and increased- or decreased-risk of PCa. Two out of the 11 studies/analyses showed a significant decreased-risk of PCa for total testosterone per 1 unit increment, but also two other

Radiotherapy and androgen ablation for clinically localized high-risk prostate cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pollack, Alan; Zagars, Gunar K; Kopplin, Susan

1995-04-30

Purpose: The response of patients with clinical stages T1-4 prostate cancer to radiotherapy is variable. A particularly poor prognostic group has been found to be comprised of those with pretreatment prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels above 30 ng/ml with any tumor grade, or PSA levels > 10 and {<=} 30 with tumors grade 3 or 4. These patients have over an 80% actuarial risk of biochemical failure 3 years after definitive external beam radiotherapy. Thus, patients with these high-risk features require more aggressive therapy. During the last 3-4 years, the policy to treat such patients with radiotherapy and androgen ablation (XRT/HORM) was instituted. A retrospective comparison was made between high-risk patients treated with radiotherapy alone (XRT) vs. XRT/HORM. Methods and Materials: Between 1987 and 1991, there were 81 high-risk patients treated with XRT. There were 38 high-risk patients treated with XRT/HORM between 1990 and 1992. The median follow-up was 37 months for the XRT group and 22 months for the XRT/HORM group. No patient had clinical, radiographic, or pathologic evidence of lymph node involvement. The median dose to the prostate was 66 Gy for the XRT group and 68 Gy for the XRT/HORM group. Results: The distributions of several potential prognostic factors were analyzed. Significant differences between the groups were observed for tumor grade, pretreatment prostatic acid phosphatase, and age. The XRT/HORM group was composed of patients with worse features, including a greater proportion of patients with grade 4 tumors, more with abnormal acid phosphatase levels, and more under 60 years of age. The actuarial incidence of a rising PSA at 3 years for the XRT group was 81% vs. 15% for the XRT/HORM group (p < 0.0001). In addition, local relapse at 3 years was 34% for the XRT group and 15% for the XRT/HORM group (p < 0.02). There was no difference between the groups in terms of survival. Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed using several

Tensile properties of unirradiated path A PCA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braski, D.N.; Maziasz, P.J.

1983-01-01

The tensile properties of PCA in the Al (solution annealed), A3 (25%-cold worked), and B2 (aged, cold worked, and reaged) conditions were determined from room temperature to 600 0 C. The tensile behavior of PCA-A1 and -A3 was generally similar to that of titanium-modified type 316 stainless steel with similar microstructures. The PCA-B2 was weaker than PCA-A3, especially above 500 0 C, but demonstrated slightly better ducility

What is the optimal management of high risk, clinically localized prostate cancer?

Science.gov (United States)

Eastham, James A; Evans, Christopher P; Zietman, Anthony

2010-01-01

To summarize the presentations and debate regarding the optimal treatment of localized high-risk prostate cancer as presented at the 2009 Spring Meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology. The debate was centered on presentations arguing for radical prostatectomy (RP) or radiotherapy as the optimal treatment for this condition. The meeting presentations are summarized by their respective presenters herein. Dr. James Eastham presents the varied definitions for "high-risk" prostate cancer as strongly influencing which patients end up in this cohort. Based upon this, between 3% and 38% of patients with high-risk features could be defined as "high-risk". Despite that, these men do not have a uniformly poor prognosis after RP, and attention to surgical principles as outlined improve outcomes. Disease-specific survival at 12 years is excellent and up to one-half of these men may not need adjuvant or salvage therapies, depending on their specific disease characteristics. Adjuvant or salvage radiotherapies improve outcomes and are part of a sequential approach to treating these patients. Dr. Anthony Zietman presented radiotherapy as the gold-standard based upon large, randomized clinical trials of intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer patients. Compared with androgen deprivation alone, the addition of radiotherapy provided a 12% cancer-specific survival advantage and 10% overall survival advantage. Dose escalation seems to confer further improvements in cancer control without significant escalation of toxicities, with more data forthcoming. There are no randomized trials comparing RP to radiotherapy for any risk category. In high-risk prostate cancer patients, both approaches have potential benefits and cumulative toxicities that must be matched to disease characteristics and patient expectations in selecting a treatment course. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PCaPAC 2006 Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pavel Chevtsov; Matthew Bickley (Eds.)

2007-03-30

The 6-th international PCaPAC (Personal Computers and Particle Accelerator Controls) workshop was held at Jefferson Lab, Newport News, Virginia, from October 24-27, 2006. The main objectives of the conference were to discuss the most important issues of the use of PCs and modern IT technologies for controls of accelerators and to give scientists, engineers, and technicians a forum to exchange the ideas on control problems and their solutions. The workshop consisted of plenary sessions and poster sessions. No parallel sessions were held.Totally, more than seventy oral and poster presentations as well as tutorials were made during the conference, on the basis of which about fifty papers were submitted by the authors and included in this publication. This printed version of the PCaPAC 2006 Proceedings is published at Jefferson Lab according to the decision of the PCaPAC International Program Committee of October 26, 2006.

Percutaneous nephrolithotripsy under assisted local anaesthesia for high risk patients: Is it effective?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T.KH. Fathelbab

2013-12-01

Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that PNL under local anesthesia with narcotics and sedatives seems to be a satisfying solution for the treatment of a selected group of patients with renal pelvic stones and who have high anesthetic risk. However, additional studies with different groups of patients are required to validate our results.

Genomic and epigenomic analysis of high-risk prostate cancer reveals changes in hydroxymethylation and TET1.

Science.gov (United States)

Spans, Lien; Van den Broeck, Thomas; Smeets, Elien; Prekovic, Stefan; Thienpont, Bernard; Lambrechts, Diether; Karnes, R Jeffrey; Erho, Nicholas; Alshalalfa, Mohammed; Davicioni, Elai; Helsen, Christine; Gevaert, Thomas; Tosco, Lorenzo; Haustermans, Karin; Lerut, Evelyne; Joniau, Steven; Claessens, Frank

2016-04-26

The clinical heterogeneity of prostate cancer (PCa) makes it difficult to identify those patients that could benefit from more aggressive treatments. As a contribution to a better understanding of the genomic changes in the primary tumor that are associated with the development of high-risk disease, we performed exome sequencing and copy number determination of a clinically homogeneous cohort of 47 high-risk PCas. We confirmed recurrent mutations in SPOP, PTEN and TP53 among the 850 point mutations we detected. In seven cases, we discovered genomic aberrations in the TET1 (Ten-Eleven Translocation 1) gene which encodes a DNA hydroxymethylase than can modify methylated cytosines in genomic DNA and thus is linked with gene expression changes. TET1 protein levels were reduced in tumor versus non-tumor prostate tissue in 39 of 40 cases. The clinical relevance of changes in TET1 levels was demonstrated in an independent PCa cohort, in which low TET1 mRNA levels were significantly associated with worse metastases-free survival. We also demonstrate a strong reduction in hydroxymethylated DNA in tumor tissue in 27 of 41 cases. Furthermore, we report the first exploratory (h)MeDIP-Seq analyses of eight high-risk PCa samples. This reveals a large heterogeneity in hydroxymethylation changes in tumor versus non-tumor genomes which can be linked with cell polarity.

Fast neutron radiotherapy for soft tissue and cartilaginous sarcomas at high risk for local recurrence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwartz, David L.; Einck, John; Bellon, Jennifer; Laramore, George E.

2001-01-01

Purpose: The practice policy at the University of Washington has been to employ fast neutron radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma lesions with prognostic features predictive for poor local control. These include gross residual disease/inoperable disease, recurrent disease, and contaminated surgical margins. Cartilaginous sarcomas have also been included in this high-risk group. This report updates and expands our previously described experience with this approach. Methods and Materials: Eighty-nine soft tissue sarcoma lesions in 72 patients were treated with neutron radiotherapy in our department between 1984 and 1996. Six patients, each with solitary lesions, were excluded from analysis due to lack of follow-up. Seventy-three percent were treated with fast neutron radiation alone, the rest with a combination of neutrons and photons. Median neutron dose was 18.3 nGy (range 4.8-22). Forty-two patients with solitary lesions were treated with curative intent. Thirty-one patients (including 7 previously treated with neutrons) with 41 lesions were treated with the goal of local palliation. Tumors were predominantly located in the extremity and torso. Thirty of 35 (85%) of curative group patients treated postoperatively had close or positive surgical margins. Thirty-four (82%) lesions treated for palliation were unresectable. Thirty-five patients (53%) were treated at the time of recurrence. Median tumor size at initial presentation was 8.0 cm (range 0.6-29), median treated gross disease size was 5.0 cm (range 1-22), and 46/69 evaluable lesions (67%) were judged to be of intermediate to high histologic grade. Fourteen patients (21%) had chondrosarcomas. Results: Median follow-up was 6 months (range 2-47) and 38 months (range 2-175) for the palliative and curative groups, respectively. Kaplan-Meier estimates were obtained for probability of local relapse-free survival (68%), distant disease-free survival (59%), cause-specific survival (68%), and overall survival (66%) at

EEG frequency PCA in EEG-ERP dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Barry, Robert J; De Blasio, Frances M

2018-05-01

Principal components analysis (PCA) has long been used to decompose the ERP into components, and these mathematical entities are increasingly accepted as meaningful and useful representatives of the electrophysiological components constituting the ERP. A similar expansion appears to be beginning in regard to decomposition of the EEG amplitude spectrum into frequency components via frequency PCA. However, to date, there has been no exploration of the brain's dynamic EEG-ERP linkages using PCA decomposition to assess components in each measure. Here, we recorded intrinsic EEG in both eyes-closed and eyes-open resting conditions, followed by an equiprobable go/no-go task. Frequency PCA of the EEG, including the nontask resting and within-task prestimulus periods, found seven frequency components within the delta to beta range. These differentially predicted PCA-derived go and no-go N1 and P3 ERP components. This demonstration suggests that it may be beneficial in future brain dynamics studies to implement PCA for the derivation of data-driven components from both the ERP and EEG. © 2017 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Complete surgical resection improves outcome in INRG high-risk patients with localized neuroblastoma older than 18 months.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Janina; Pohl, Alexandra; Volland, Ruth; Hero, Barbara; Dübbers, Martin; Cernaianu, Grigore; Berthold, Frank; von Schweinitz, Dietrich; Simon, Thorsten

2017-08-04

Although several studies have been conducted on the role of surgery in localized neuroblastoma, the impact of surgical timing and extent of primary tumor resection on outcome in high-risk patients remains controversial. Patients from the German neuroblastoma trial NB97 with localized neuroblastoma INSS stage 1-3 age > 18 months were included for retrospective analysis. Imaging reports were reviewed by two independent physicians for Image Defined Risk Factors (IDRF). Operation notes and corresponding imaging reports were analyzed for surgical radicality. The extent of tumor resection was classified as complete resection (95-100%), gross total resection (90-95%), incomplete resection (50-90%), and biopsy (Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) staging system. Survival curves were estimated according to the method of Kaplan and Meier and compared by the log-rank test. A total of 179 patients were included in this study. 77 patients underwent more than one primary tumor operation. After best surgery, 68.7% of patients achieved complete resection of the primary tumor, 16.8% gross total resection, 14.0% incomplete surgery, and 0.5% biopsy only. The cumulative complication rate was 20.3% and the surgery associated mortality rate was 1.1%. Image defined risk factors (IDRF) predicted the extent of resection. Patients with complete resection had a better local-progression-free survival (LPFS), event-free survival (EFS) and OS (overall survival) than the other groups. Subgroup analyses showed better EFS, LPFS and OS for patients with complete resection in INRG high-risk patients. Multivariable analyses revealed resection (complete vs. other), and MYCN (non-amplified vs. amplified) as independent prognostic factors for EFS, LPFS and OS. In patients with localized neuroblastoma age 18 months or older, especially in INRG high-risk patients harboring MYCN amplification, extended surgery of the primary tumor site improved local control rate and survival with an acceptable risk of

Identification of an IL-1-induced gene expression pattern in AR+ PCa cells that mimics the molecular phenotype of AR- PCa cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas-Jardin, Shayna E; Kanchwala, Mohammed S; Jacob, Joan; Merchant, Sana; Meade, Rachel K; Gahnim, Nagham M; Nawas, Afshan F; Xing, Chao; Delk, Nikki A

2018-06-01

In immunosurveillance, bone-derived immune cells infiltrate the tumor and secrete inflammatory cytokines to destroy cancer cells. However, cancer cells have evolved mechanisms to usurp inflammatory cytokines to promote tumor progression. In particular, the inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-1 (IL-1), is elevated in prostate cancer (PCa) patient tissue and serum, and promotes PCa bone metastasis. IL-1 also represses androgen receptor (AR) accumulation and activity in PCa cells, yet the cells remain viable and tumorigenic; suggesting that IL-1 may also contribute to AR-targeted therapy resistance. Furthermore, IL-1 and AR protein levels negatively correlate in PCa tumor cells. Taken together, we hypothesize that IL-1 reprograms AR positive (AR + ) PCa cells into AR negative (AR - ) PCa cells that co-opt IL-1 signaling to ensure AR-independent survival and tumor progression in the inflammatory tumor microenvironment. LNCaP and PC3 PCa cells were treated with IL-1β or HS-5 bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) conditioned medium and analyzed by RNA sequencing and RT-QPCR. To verify genes identified by RNA sequencing, LNCaP, MDA-PCa-2b, PC3, and DU145 PCa cell lines were treated with the IL-1 family members, IL-1α or IL-1β, or exposed to HS-5 BMSC in the presence or absence of Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist (IL-1RA). Treated cells were analyzed by western blot and/or RT-QPCR. Comparative analysis of sequencing data from the AR + LNCaP PCa cell line versus the AR - PC3 PCa cell line reveals an IL-1-conferred gene suite in LNCaP cells that is constitutive in PC3 cells. Bioinformatics analysis of the IL-1 regulated gene suite revealed that inflammatory and immune response pathways are primarily elicited; likely facilitating PCa cell survival and tumorigenicity in an inflammatory tumor microenvironment. Our data supports that IL-1 reprograms AR + PCa cells to mimic AR - PCa gene expression patterns that favor AR-targeted treatment resistance and cell survival. © 2018 Wiley

Personal and couple level risk factors: Maternal and paternal parent-child aggression risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Tucker, Meagan C; Rodriguez, Christina M; Baker, Levi R

2017-07-01

Previous literature examining parent-child aggression (PCA) risk has relied heavily upon mothers, limiting our understanding of paternal risk factors. Moreover, the extent to which factors in the couple relationship work in tandem with personal vulnerabilities to impact PCA risk is unclear. The current study examined whether personal stress and distress predicted PCA risk (child abuse potential, over-reactive discipline style, harsh discipline practices) for fathers as well as mothers and whether couple functioning mediated versus moderated the relation between personal stress and PCA risk in a sample of 81 couples. Additionally, the potential for risk factors in one partner to cross over and affect their partner's PCA risk was considered. Findings indicated higher personal stress predicted elevated maternal and paternal PCA risk. Better couple functioning did not moderate this relationship but partially mediated stress and PCA risk for both mothers and fathers. In addition, maternal stress evidenced a cross-over effect, wherein mothers' personal stress linked to fathers' couple functioning. Findings support the role of stress and couple functioning in maternal and paternal PCA risk, including potential cross-over effects that warrant further inquiry. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy instead of revision radical resection after local excision for high-risk early rectal cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Jae-Uk; Nam, Taek-Keun; Kim, Hyeong-Rok; Shim, Hyun-Jeong; Kim, Yong-Hyub; Yoon, Mee Sun; Song, Ju-Young; Ahn, Sung-Ja; Chung, Woong-Ki

2016-09-05

After local excision of early rectal cancer, revision radical resection is recommended for patients with high-risk pathologic stage T1 (pT1) or pT2 cancer, but the revision procedure has high morbidity rates. We evaluated the efficacy of adjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for reducing recurrence after local excision in these patients. Eighty-three patients with high-risk pT1 or pT2 rectal cancer underwent postoperative adjuvant CCRT after local excision. We defined high-risk features as pT1 having tumor size ≤3 cm, and/or resection margin (RM) ≤3 mm, and/or lymphovascular invasion (LVI), and/or non-full thickness excision such as endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) or endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), or unknown records regarding those features, or pT2 cancer. Radiotherapy was administered with a median dose of 50.4 Gy in 1.8 Gy fraction size over 5-7 weeks. Concurrent 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin were administered for 4 days in the first and fifth weeks of radiotherapy. The median interval between local excision and radiotherapy was 34 (range, 11-104) days. Fifteen patients (18.1 %) had stage pT2 tumors, 22 (26.5 %) had RM of ≥3 mm, and 21 (25.3 %) had tumors of ≥3 cm in size. Thirteen patients (15.7 %) had LVI. Transanal excision was performed in 58 patients (69.9 %) and 25 patients (30.1 %) underwent EMR or ESD. The median follow-up was 61 months. The 5-year overall survival (OS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS), and disease-free survival (DFS) rates for all patients were 94.9, 91.0, and 89.8 %, respectively. Multivariate analysis did not identify any significant factors for OS or LRFS, but the only significant factor affecting DFS was the pT stage (p = 0.027). In patients with high-risk pT1 rectal cancer, adjuvant CCRT after local excision could be an effective alternative treatment instead of revision radical resection. However, patients with pT2 stage showed inferior DFS compared to pT1.

PCA-1/ALKBH3 contributes to pancreatic cancer by supporting apoptotic resistance and angiogenesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamato, Ichiro; Sho, Masayuki; Shimada, Keiji; Hotta, Kiyohiko; Ueda, Yuko; Yasuda, Satoshi; Shigi, Naoko; Konishi, Noboru; Tsujikawa, Kazutake; Nakajima, Yoshiyuki

2012-09-15

The PCA-1/ALKBH3 gene implicated in DNA repair is expressed in several human malignancies but its precise contributions to cancer remain mainly unknown. In this study, we have determined its functions and clinical importance in pancreatic cancer. PCA-1/ALKBH3 functions in proliferation, apoptosis and angiogenesis were evaluated in human pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Further, PCA-1/ALKBH3 expression in 116 patients with pancreatic cancer was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. siRNA-mediated silencing of PCA-1/ALKBH3 expression induced apoptosis and suppressed cell proliferation. Conversely, overexpression of PCA-1/ALKBH3 increased anchorage-independent growth and invasiveness. In addition, PCA-1/ALKBH3 silencing downregulated VEGF expression and inhibited angiogenesis in vivo. Furthermore, immunohistochemical analysis showed that PCA-1/ALKBH3 expression was abundant in pancreatic cancer tissues, where it correlated with advanced tumor status, pathological stage and VEGF intensity. Importantly, patients with low positivity of PCA-1/ALKBH3 expression had improved postoperative prognosis compared with those with high positivity. Our results establish PCA-1/ALKBH3 as important gene in pancreatic cancer with potential utility as a therapeutic target in this fatal disease.

Clinical utility of the PCA3 urine assay in European men scheduled for repeat biopsy.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haese, A.; Taille, A. De La; Poppel, H. van; Marberger, M.; Stenzl, A.; Mulders, P.F.A.; Huland, H.; Abbou, C.C.; Remzi, M.; Tinzl, M.; Feyerabend, S.; Stillebroer, A.B.; Gils, M.P.M.Q.; Schalken, J.A.

2008-01-01

BACKGROUND: The Prostate CAncer gene 3 (PCA3) assay has shown promise as an aid in prostate cancer (pCA) diagnosis in identifying men with a high probability of a positive (repeat) biopsy. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the clinical utility of the PROGENSA PCA3 assay. DESIGN, SETTING, AND

On a PCA-based lung motion model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia Xun; Jiang, Steve B [Department of Radiation Oncology and Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies, University of California San Diego, 3855 Health Sciences Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037-0843 (United States); Zhao Tianyu; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang Deshan; Low, Daniel A [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, 4921 Parkview Pl, St. Louis, MO 63110-1093 (United States); Liu Weifeng, E-mail: sbjiang@ucsd.edu [Amazon.com Inc., 701 5th Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 (United States)

2011-09-21

Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

On a PCA-based lung motion model.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia, Xun; Zhao, Tianyu; Liu, Weifeng; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang, Deshan; Low, Daniel A; Jiang, Steve B

2011-09-21

Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

On a PCA-based lung motion model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Ruijiang; Lewis, John H; Jia Xun; Jiang, Steve B; Zhao Tianyu; Wuenschel, Sara; Lamb, James; Yang Deshan; Low, Daniel A; Liu Weifeng

2011-01-01

Respiration-induced organ motion is one of the major uncertainties in lung cancer radiotherapy and is crucial to be able to accurately model the lung motion. Most work so far has focused on the study of the motion of a single point (usually the tumor center of mass), and much less work has been done to model the motion of the entire lung. Inspired by the work of Zhang et al (2007 Med. Phys. 34 4772-81), we believe that the spatiotemporal relationship of the entire lung motion can be accurately modeled based on principle component analysis (PCA) and then a sparse subset of the entire lung, such as an implanted marker, can be used to drive the motion of the entire lung (including the tumor). The goal of this work is twofold. First, we aim to understand the underlying reason why PCA is effective for modeling lung motion and find the optimal number of PCA coefficients for accurate lung motion modeling. We attempt to address the above important problems both in a theoretical framework and in the context of real clinical data. Second, we propose a new method to derive the entire lung motion using a single internal marker based on the PCA model. The main results of this work are as follows. We derived an important property which reveals the implicit regularization imposed by the PCA model. We then studied the model using two mathematical respiratory phantoms and 11 clinical 4DCT scans for eight lung cancer patients. For the mathematical phantoms with cosine and an even power (2n) of cosine motion, we proved that 2 and 2n PCA coefficients and eigenvectors will completely represent the lung motion, respectively. Moreover, for the cosine phantom, we derived the equivalence conditions for the PCA motion model and the physiological 5D lung motion model (Low et al 2005 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 63 921-9). For the clinical 4DCT data, we demonstrated the modeling power and generalization performance of the PCA model. The average 3D modeling error using PCA was within 1

An efficient algorithm for weighted PCA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krijnen, W.P.; Kiers, H.A.L.

1995-01-01

The method for analyzing three-way data where one of the three components matrices in TUCKALS3 is chosen to have one column is called Replicated PCA. The corresponding algorithm is relatively inefficient. This is shown by offering an alternative algorithm called Weighted PCA. Specifically it is

Beyond textbook neuroanatomy: The syndrome of malignant PCA infarction.

Science.gov (United States)

Gogela, Steven L; Gozal, Yair M; Rahme, Ralph; Zuccarello, Mario; Ringer, Andrew J

2015-01-01

Given its limited vascular territory, occlusion of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) usually does not result in malignant infarction. Challenging this concept, we present 3 cases of unilateral PCA infarction with secondary malignant progression, resulting from extension into what would classically be considered the posterior middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory. Interestingly, these were true PCA infarctions, not "MCA plus" strokes, since the underlying occlusive lesion was in the PCA. We hypothesize that congenital and/or acquired variability in the distribution and extent of territory supplied by the PCA may underlie this rare clinical entity. Patients with a PCA infarction should thus be followed closely and offered early surgical decompression in the event of malignant progression.

PCA-derived factors that may be predictive of postoperative pain in pediatric patients: a possible role for the PCA ratio.

Science.gov (United States)

McDonnell, Conor; Pehora, Carolyne; Crawford, Mark W

2012-01-01

No method exists to reliably predict which patients will develop severe postoperative pain. The authors hypothesized that data derived from patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps (specifically the ratio of patient demands to pump deliveries) may predict which patients would develop severe pain after scoliosis repair. Quaternary, university-affiliated, pediatric hospital. Forty American Society of Anesthesiologists I-Il pediatric patients who had undergone elective scoliosis repair and had consented to recruitment to a randomized clinical trial investigating the effects of early morphine administration on remifentanil-induced hyperalgesia. To test the hypothesis of the current study, the authors calculated the PCA ratio of demand to delivery at every 4 hours throughout the first 24 hours after surgery for all the patients recruited to the original study. The authors compared calculated PCA ratios, numeric rating scale pain scores, and cumulative morphine consumption for those patients who developed severe postoperative pain and met the criteria for opioid rotation versus those patients who did not. Seven patients required opioid rotation from PCA morphine to PCA hydromorphone. Eight hours after surgery, the median PCA ratio for those seven patients (2.5[range, 1.8-4.3]) was significantly greater than that for all other recruited patients (1.3 [range, 0-2.7]; p PCA ratios of demand to delivery as early as 8 hours after surgery.

Maximum tumor diameter is not an independent prognostic factor in high-risk localized prostate cancer

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oort, van I.M.; Witjes, J.A.; Kok, D.E.G.; Kiemeney, L.A.; Hulsbergen-van de Kaa, C.A.

2008-01-01

Previous studies suggest that maximum tumor diameter (MTD) is a predictor of recurrence in prostate cancer (PC). This study investigates the prognostic value of MTD for biochemical recurrence (BCR) in patients with PC, after radical prostatectomy (RP), with emphasis on high-risk localized prostate

Metoclopramide improves the quality of tramadol PCA indistinguishable to morphine PCA: a prospective, randomized, double blind clinical comparison.

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Weiwu; Liu, Yu-Cheng; Maboudou, Edgard; Chen, Tom Xianxiu; Chois, John M; Liao, Cheng-Chun; Wu, Rick Sai-Chuen

2013-09-01

Multimodal analgesia has been effectively used in postoperative pain control. Tramadol can be considered "multimodal" because it has two main mechanisms of action, an opioid agonist and a reuptake inhibitor of norepinephrine and serotonin. Tramadol is not as commonly used as morphine due to the increased incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). As metoclopramide is an antiemetic and an analgesic, it was hypothesized that when added to reduce PONV, metoclopromide may enhance the multimodal feature of tramadol by the analgesic property of metoclopramide. Therefore, the effectiveness of postoperative patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with morphine was compared against PCA with combination of tramadol and metoclopramide. A prospective, randomized, double blind clinical trial. Academic pain service of a university hospital. Sixty patients undergoing elective total knee arthroplasty with general anesthesia. Sixty patients were randomly divided into Group M and Group T. In a double-blinded fashion, Group M received intraoperative 0.2 mg/kg morphine and postoperative PCA with 1 mg morphine per bolus, whereas Group T received intraoperative tramadol 2.5 mg/kg and postoperative PCA with 20 mg tramadol plus 1 mg metoclopramide per bolus. Lockout interval was 5 minutes in both groups. Pain scale, satisfaction rate, analgesic consumption, PCA demand, and side effects were recorded by a blind investigator. These two groups displayed no statistically significant difference between the items and variables evaluated. This combination provides analgesia equivalent to that of morphine and can be used as an alternative to morphine PCA. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Novel PCA-VIP scheme for ranking MRI protocols and identifying computer-extracted MRI measurements associated with central gland and peripheral zone prostate tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Ginsburg, Shoshana B; Viswanath, Satish E; Bloch, B Nicolas; Rofsky, Neil M; Genega, Elizabeth M; Lenkinski, Robert E; Madabhushi, Anant

2015-05-01

To identify computer-extracted features for central gland and peripheral zone prostate cancer localization on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Preoperative T2-weighted (T2w), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI were acquired from 23 men with confirmed prostate cancer. Following radical prostatectomy, the cancer extent was delineated by a pathologist on ex vivo histology and mapped to MRI by nonlinear registration of histology and corresponding MRI slices. In all, 244 computer-extracted features were extracted from MRI, and principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to reduce the data dimensionality so that a generalizable classifier could be constructed. A novel variable importance on projection (VIP) measure for PCA (PCA-VIP) was leveraged to identify computer-extracted MRI features that discriminate between cancer and normal prostate, and these features were used to construct classifiers for cancer localization. Classifiers using features selected by PCA-VIP yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.79 and 0.85 for peripheral zone and central gland tumors, respectively. For tumor localization in the central gland, T2w, DCE, and DWI MRI features contributed 71.6%, 18.1%, and 10.2%, respectively; for peripheral zone tumors T2w, DCE, and DWI MRI contributed 29.6%, 21.7%, and 48.7%, respectively. PCA-VIP identified relatively stable subsets of MRI features that performed well in localizing prostate cancer on MRI. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Epigenetic Signature: A New Player as Predictor of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer (PCa) in Patients on Active Surveillance (AS).

Science.gov (United States)

Ferro, Matteo; Ungaro, Paola; Cimmino, Amelia; Lucarelli, Giuseppe; Busetto, Gian Maria; Cantiello, Francesco; Damiano, Rocco; Terracciano, Daniela

2017-05-27

Widespread prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing notably increased the number of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnoses. However, about 30% of these patients have low-risk tumors that are not lethal and remain asymptomatic during their lifetime. Overtreatment of such patients may reduce quality of life and increase healthcare costs. Active surveillance (AS) has become an accepted alternative to immediate treatment in selected men with low-risk PCa. Despite much progress in recent years toward identifying the best candidates for AS in recent years, the greatest risk remains the possibility of misclassification of the cancer or missing a high-risk cancer. This is particularly worrisome in men with a life expectancy of greater than 10-15 years. The Prostate Cancer Research International Active Surveillance (PRIAS) study showed that, in addition to age and PSA at diagnosis, both PSA density (PSA-D) and the number of positive cores at diagnosis (two compared with one) are the strongest predictors for reclassification biopsy or switching to deferred treatment. However, there is still no consensus upon guidelines for placing patients on AS. Each institution has its own protocol for AS that is based on PRIAS criteria. Many different variables have been proposed as tools to enrol patients in AS: PSA-D, the percentage of freePSA, and the extent of cancer on biopsy (number of positive cores or percentage of core involvement). More recently, the Prostate Health Index (PHI), the 4 Kallikrein (4K) score, and other patient factors, such as age, race, and family history, have been investigated as tools able to predict clinically significant PCa. Recently, some reports suggested that epigenetic mapping differs significantly between cancer patients and healthy subjects. These findings indicated as future prospect the use of epigenetic markers to identify PCa patients with low-grade disease, who are likely candidates for AS. This review explores literature data about the potential of

In Vivo Imaging of Experimental Melanoma Tumors using the Novel Radiotracer 68Ga-NODAGA-Procainamide (PCA).

Science.gov (United States)

Kertész, István; Vida, András; Nagy, Gábor; Emri, Miklós; Farkas, Antal; Kis, Adrienn; Angyal, János; Dénes, Noémi; Szabó, Judit P; Kovács, Tünde; Bai, Péter; Trencsényi, György

2017-01-01

The most aggressive form of skin cancer is the malignant melanoma. Because of its high metastatic potential the early detection of primary melanoma tumors and metastases using non-invasive PET imaging determines the outcome of the disease. Previous studies have already shown that benzamide derivatives, such as procainamide (PCA) specifically bind to melanin pigment. The aim of this study was to synthesize and investigate the melanin specificity of the novel 68 Ga-labeled NODAGA-PCA molecule in vitro and in vivo using PET techniques. Procainamide (PCA) was conjugated with NODAGA chelator and was labeled with Ga-68 ( 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA). The melanin specificity of 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA was tested in vitro , ex vivo and in vivo using melanotic B16-F10 and amelanotic Melur melanoma cell lines. By subcutaneous and intravenous injection of melanoma cells tumor-bearing mice were prepared, on which biodistribution studies and small animal PET/CT scans were performed for 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA and 18 FDG tracers. 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA was produced with high specific activity (14.9±3.9 GBq/µmol) and with excellent radiochemical purity (98%PCA uptake of B16-F10 cells was significantly ( p ≤0.01) higher than Melur cells. Ex vivo biodistribution and in vivo PET/CT studies using subcutaneous and metastatic tumor models showed significantly ( p ≤0.01) higher 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA uptake in B16-F10 primary tumors and lung metastases in comparison with amelanotic Melur tumors. In experiments where 18 FDG and 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA uptake of B16-F10 tumors was compared, we found that the tumor-to-muscle (T/M) and tumor-to-lung (T/L) ratios were significantly ( p ≤0.05 and p ≤0.01) higher using 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA than the 18 FDG accumulation. Our novel radiotracer 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA showed specific binding to the melanin producing experimental melanoma tumors. Therefore, 68 Ga-NODAGA-PCA is a suitable diagnostic radiotracer for the detection of melanoma tumors and metastases in vivo .

Condition Monitoring of Sensors in a NPP Using Optimized PCA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Li

2018-01-01

Full Text Available An optimized principal component analysis (PCA framework is proposed to implement condition monitoring for sensors in a nuclear power plant (NPP in this paper. Compared with the common PCA method in previous research, the PCA method in this paper is optimized at different modeling procedures, including data preprocessing stage, modeling parameter selection stage, and fault detection and isolation stage. Then, the model’s performance is greatly improved through these optimizations. Finally, sensor measurements from a real NPP are used to train the optimized PCA model in order to guarantee the credibility and reliability of the simulation results. Meanwhile, artificial faults are sequentially imposed to sensor measurements to estimate the fault detection and isolation ability of the proposed PCA model. Simulation results show that the optimized PCA model is capable of detecting and isolating the sensors regardless of whether they exhibit major or small failures. Meanwhile, the quantitative evaluation results also indicate that better performance can be obtained in the optimized PCA method compared with the common PCA method.

Denoising by semi-supervised kernel PCA preimaging

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Toke Jansen; Abrahamsen, Trine Julie; Hansen, Lars Kai

2014-01-01

Kernel Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has proven a powerful tool for nonlinear feature extraction, and is often applied as a pre-processing step for classification algorithms. In denoising applications Kernel PCA provides the basis for dimensionality reduction, prior to the so-called pre-imag...

Model selection for Gaussian kernel PCA denoising

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Kasper Winther; Hansen, Lars Kai

2012-01-01

We propose kernel Parallel Analysis (kPA) for automatic kernel scale and model order selection in Gaussian kernel PCA. Parallel Analysis [1] is based on a permutation test for covariance and has previously been applied for model order selection in linear PCA, we here augment the procedure to also...... tune the Gaussian kernel scale of radial basis function based kernel PCA.We evaluate kPA for denoising of simulated data and the US Postal data set of handwritten digits. We find that kPA outperforms other heuristics to choose the model order and kernel scale in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR...

Parent-controlled PCA for pain management in pediatric oncology: is it safe?

Science.gov (United States)

Anghelescu, Doralina L; Faughnan, Lane G; Oakes, Linda L; Windsor, Kelley B; Pei, Deqing; Burgoyne, Laura L

2012-08-01

Patient-controlled analgesia offers safe and effective pain control for children who can self-administer medication. Some children may not be candidates for patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) unless a proxy can administer doses. The safety of proxy-administered PCA has been studied, but the safety of parent-administered PCA in children with cancer has not been reported. In this study, we compare the rate of complications in PCA by parent proxy versus PCA by clinician (nurse) proxy and self-administered PCA. Our pediatric institution's quality improvement database was reviewed for adverse events associated with PCA from 2004 through 2010. Each PCA day was categorized according to patient or proxy authorization. Data from 6151 PCA observation days were included; 61.3% of these days were standard PCA, 23.5% were parent-proxy PCA, and 15.2% were clinician-proxy PCA days. The mean duration of PCA use was 12.1 days, and the mean patient age was 12.3 years. The mean patient age was lower in the clinician-proxy (9.4 y) and parent-proxy (5.1 y) groups, respectively. The complication rate was lowest in the parent-proxy group (0.62%). We found that proxy administration of PCA by authorized parents is as safe as clinician administered and standard PCA at our pediatric institution.

Superior metastasis-free survival for patients with high-risk prostate cancer treated with definitive radiation therapy compared to radical prostatectomy: A propensity score-matched analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie Markovina, MD, PhD

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: For high-risk prostate cancer (HR-PCa in men with a life expectancy of at least 10 years, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommends radiation therapy (RT plus androgen deprivation therapy (ADT with category 1 evidence or radical prostatectomy (RP as an acceptable initial therapy. Randomized evidence regarding which therapy is optimal for disease control is lacking for men with HR-PCa. We performed a propensity-score-matched comparison of outcomes for men with localized HR-PCa treated with primary RT or RP. Methods and materials: The medical records of patients with localized HR-PCa who were treated at our institution between 2002 and 2011 were reviewed. Patient and disease characteristics, treatment details, and outcomes were collected. A combination of nearest-neighbor propensity score matching on age, Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 comorbidity index, prostate-specific antigen, biopsy Gleason scores, and clinical T-stage as well as exact matching on prostate-specific antigen, biopsy Gleason scores, and clinical T-stage was performed. Outcomes were measured from diagnosis. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression was used to compare metastasis-free and overall survival. Results: A total of 246 patients were identified with 62 propensity-score-matched pairs. ADT was administered to 6.5% and 80.6% of patients receiving RP and RT, respectively. Five-year rates of metastasis for RP and RT were 33% and 8.9%, respectively (P = .003. Overall survival was not different. Delay of salvage therapy was longer for patients undergoing primary RT (P < .001. Findings were similar when only those patients who did not receive ADT were compared. Conclusions: At our institution, treatment with primary RT resulted in superior metastasis-free survival over RP. This was not accompanied by an improvement in OS.

Linking PCA and time derivatives of dynamic systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stanimirovic, Olja; Hoefsloot, Huub C. J.; de Bokx, Pieter K.; Smilde, Age K.

2006-01-01

Low dimensional approximate descriptions of the high dimensional phase space of dynamic processes are very useful. Principal component analysis (PCA) is the most used technique to find the low dimensional subspace of interest. Here, it will be shown that mean centering of the process data across

Evaluation of urinary prostate cancer antigen-3 (PCA3) and TMPRSS2-ERG score changes when starting androgen-deprivation therapy with triptorelin 6-month formulation in patients with locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martínez-Piñeiro, Luis; Schalken, Jack A; Cabri, Patrick

2014-01-01

change at 6 months, according to baseline variables. Other outcome measures included urinary PCA3 and TMPRSS2-ERG scores and statuses, and serum testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels at baseline and at 1, 3 and 6 months after initiation of ADT. Safety was assessed by recording adverse......OBJECTIVE: To assess prostate cancer antigen-3 (PCA3) and TMPRSS2-ERG scores in patients with advanced and metastatic prostate cancer at baseline and after 6 months of treatment with triptorelin 22.5 mg, and analyse these scores in patient-groups defined by different disease characteristics....... PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Triptocare study was a prospective, open-label, multicentre, single-arm, Phase III study of triptorelin 22.5 mg in men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer, who were naïve to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). The primary objective was to model the urinary PCA3...

Statin use and risk of prostate cancer: a Danish population-based case-control study, 1997-2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Jespersen, Christina G; Nørgaard, Mette; Friis, Søren; Skriver, Charlotte; Borre, Michael

2014-02-01

Conflicting evidence has suggested that statins possess chemopreventive properties against prostate cancer (PCa). Therefore, we examined the association between statin use and risk of PCa in a Denmark-based case-control study. We identified 42,480 patients diagnosed with incident PCa during 1997-2010 from a national cancer registry. Five age-matched population controls (n=212,400) were selected for each case using risk-set sampling. Statin use from 1996 to the index date was obtained from the National Prescription Registry. Odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age, comorbidity, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, and educational level for PCa associated with statin use, were computed using conditional logistic regression. Analyses were stratified by duration of statin use (0-1, 2-4, 5-9, or ≥10 years), stage of PCa (localized or advanced), and type of statin used (lipophilic or hydrophilic). In total, 7915 patients (19%) and 39,384 controls (19%) redeemed statin prescriptions prior to the index date. Overall, statin users had a 6% lower risk of PCa compared with non-users [adjusted OR (ORa), 0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.91-0.97]. Risk estimates did not differ substantially by duration or type of statin used. Slightly larger statin use-associated risk reductions were observed for advanced PCa (ORa, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.85-0.96) and with statin use ≥10 years (ORa, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.65-0.95). Statin use was associated with a risk reduction overall (6%) and, specifically with advanced PCa (10%). Differences in diagnostic measures and residual confounding by socioeconomic parameters may have influenced our results. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

24 CFR 401.451 - PAE Physical Condition Analysis (PCA).

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... (PCA). 401.451 Section 401.451 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban... PROGRAM (MARK-TO-MARKET) Restructuring Plan § 401.451 PAE Physical Condition Analysis (PCA). (a) Review... of the project by means of a PCA. If the PAE finds any immediate threats to health and safety, the...

A urinary biomarker-based risk score correlates with multiparametric MRI for prostate cancer detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendriks, Rianne J; van der Leest, Marloes M G; Dijkstra, Siebren; Barentsz, Jelle O; Van Criekinge, Wim; Hulsbergen-van de Kaa, Christina A; Schalken, Jack A; Mulders, Peter F A; van Oort, Inge M

2017-10-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) diagnostics would greatly benefit from more accurate, non-invasive techniques for the detection of clinically significant disease, leading to a reduction of over-diagnosis and over-treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the association between a novel urinary biomarker-based risk score (SelectMDx), multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) outcomes, and biopsy results for PCa detection. This retrospective observational study used data from the validation study of the SelectMDx score, in which urine was collected after digital rectal examination from men undergoing prostate biopsies. A subset of these patients also underwent a mpMRI scan of the prostate. The indications for performing mpMRI were based on persistent clinical suspicion of PCa or local staging after PCa was found upon biopsy. All mpMRI images were centrally reviewed in 2016 by an experienced radiologist blinded for the urine test results and biopsy outcome. The PI-RADS version 2 was used. In total, 172 patients were included for analysis. Hundred (58%) patients had PCa detected upon prostate biopsy, of which 52 (52%) had high-grade disease correlated with a significantly higher SelectMDx score (P < 0.01). The median SelectMDx score was significantly higher in patients with a suspicious significant lesion on mpMRI compared to no suspicion of significant PCa (P < 0.01). For the prediction of mpMRI outcome, the area-under-the-curve of SelectMDx was 0.83 compared to 0.66 for PSA and 0.65 for PCA3. There was a positive association between SelectMDx score and the final PI-RADS grade. There was a statistically significant difference in SelectMDx score between PI-RADS 3 and 4 (P < 0.01) and between PI-RADS 4 and 5 (P < 0.01). The novel urinary biomarker-based SelectMDx score is a promising tool in PCa detection. This study showed promising results regarding the correlation between the SelectMDx score and mpMRI outcomes, outperforming PCA3. Our results suggest that this risk

Joint Group Sparse PCA for Compressed Hyperspectral Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Zohaib; Shafait, Faisal; Mian, Ajmal

2015-12-01

A sparse principal component analysis (PCA) seeks a sparse linear combination of input features (variables), so that the derived features still explain most of the variations in the data. A group sparse PCA introduces structural constraints on the features in seeking such a linear combination. Collectively, the derived principal components may still require measuring all the input features. We present a joint group sparse PCA (JGSPCA) algorithm, which forces the basic coefficients corresponding to a group of features to be jointly sparse. Joint sparsity ensures that the complete basis involves only a sparse set of input features, whereas the group sparsity ensures that the structural integrity of the features is maximally preserved. We evaluate the JGSPCA algorithm on the problems of compressed hyperspectral imaging and face recognition. Compressed sensing results show that the proposed method consistently outperforms sparse PCA and group sparse PCA in reconstructing the hyperspectral scenes of natural and man-made objects. The efficacy of the proposed compressed sensing method is further demonstrated in band selection for face recognition.

On the Link Between L1-PCA and ICA.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin-Clemente, Ruben; Zarzoso, Vicente

2017-03-01

Principal component analysis (PCA) based on L1-norm maximization is an emerging technique that has drawn growing interest in the signal processing and machine learning research communities, especially due to its robustness to outliers. The present work proves that L1-norm PCA can perform independent component analysis (ICA) under the whitening assumption. However, when the source probability distributions fulfil certain conditions, the L1-norm criterion needs to be minimized rather than maximized, which can be accomplished by simple modifications on existing optimal algorithms for L1-PCA. If the sources have symmetric distributions, we show in addition that L1-PCA is linked to kurtosis optimization. A number of numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical results and analyze the comparative performance of different algorithms for ICA via L1-PCA. Although our analysis is asymptotic in the sample size, this equivalence opens interesting new perspectives for performing ICA using optimal algorithms for L1-PCA with guaranteed global convergence while inheriting the increased robustness to outliers of the L1-norm criterion.

On the use of A PCA as a multichannel time analyzer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adib, M.; Abdelkawy, A.; Abuelela, M.; Habib, N.; Wahba, M.; Salama, F.

1992-01-01

PCA and PCA-11 software programmes have been used to utilize the operation of the nucleus personal computer analyzer PCA-8000 in its multichannel scaler (MCS) mode. The operating condition of PCA-8000 were selected to match the time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer which is in operation at the ET-RR-1 reactor. The results of measuring the main parameters of PCA-8000 operating in its MCS mode showed that it can be successfully used as a multichannel time analyzer.5 fig

The Early Result of Whole Pelvic Radiotherapy and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Boost for High Risk Localized Prostate Cancer

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Yu-Wei eLin

2014-10-01

Full Text Available PurposeThe rationale for hypofractionated radiotherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer is based on the modern understanding of radiobiology and advances in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT techniques. Whole-pelvis irradiation combined with SBRT boost for high-risk prostate cancer might escalate biologically effective dose without increasing toxicity. Here, we report our 4-year results of SBRT boost for high-risk localized prostate cancer.Methods and MaterialsFrom October 2009 to August 2012, 41 patients of newly diagnosed, high-risk or very high-risk (NCCN definition localized prostate cancer patients were treated with whole-pelvis irradiation and SBRT boost. The whole pelvis dose was 45Gy (25 fractions of 1.8Gy. The SBRT boost dose was 21 Gy (three fractions of 7 Gy. Ninety percent of these patients received hormone therapy. The toxicities of gastrointestinal (GI and genitourinary (GU tracts were scored by Common Toxicity Criteria Adverse Effect (CTCAE v3.0. Biochemical failure was defined by Phoenix definition.ResultsMedian follow-up was 42 months. Mean PSA before treatment was 44.18 ng/ml. Mean PSA level at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months was 0.94, 0.44, 0.13, 0.12, and 0.05 ng/ml, respectively. The estimated 4-year biochemical failure-free survival was 91.9%. Three biochemical failures were observed. GI and GU tract toxicities were minimal. No grade 3 acute GU or GI toxicity was noted. During radiation therapy, 27% of the patient had grade 2 acute GU toxicity and 12% had grade 2 acute GI toxicity. At 3 months, most toxicity scores had returned to baseline. At the last follow up, there was no grade 3 late GU or GI toxicity.ConclusionsWhole-pelvis irradiation combined with SBRT boost for high-risk localized prostate cancer is feasible with minimal toxicity and encouraging biochemical failure-free survival. Continued accrual and follow-up would be necessary to confirm the biochemical control rate and the toxicity profiles.

New genomic structure for prostate cancer specific gene PCA3 within BMCC1: implications for prostate cancer detection and progression.

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Raymond A Clarke

Full Text Available The prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3/DD3 gene is a highly specific biomarker upregulated in prostate cancer (PCa. In order to understand the importance of PCA3 in PCa we investigated the organization and evolution of the PCA3 gene locus.We have employed cDNA synthesis, RTPCR and DNA sequencing to identify 4 new transcription start sites, 4 polyadenylation sites and 2 new differentially spliced exons in an extended form of PCA3. Primers designed from these novel PCA3 exons greatly improve RT-PCR based discrimination between PCa, PCa metastases and BPH specimens. Comparative genomic analyses demonstrated that PCA3 has only recently evolved in an anti-sense orientation within a second gene, BMCC1/PRUNE2. BMCC1 has been shown previously to interact with RhoA and RhoC, determinants of cellular transformation and metastasis, respectively. Using RT-PCR we demonstrated that the longer BMCC1-1 isoform - like PCA3 - is upregulated in PCa tissues and metastases and in PCa cell lines. Furthermore PCA3 and BMCC1-1 levels are responsive to dihydrotestosterone treatment.Upregulation of two new PCA3 isoforms in PCa tissues improves discrimination between PCa and BPH. The functional relevance of this specificity is now of particular interest given PCA3's overlapping association with a second gene BMCC1, a regulator of Rho signalling. Upregulation of PCA3 and BMCC1 in PCa has potential for improved diagnosis.

Avoiding Optimal Mean ℓ2,1-Norm Maximization-Based Robust PCA for Reconstruction.

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Luo, Minnan; Nie, Feiping; Chang, Xiaojun; Yang, Yi; Hauptmann, Alexander G; Zheng, Qinghua

2017-04-01

Robust principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important dimension-reduction techniques for handling high-dimensional data with outliers. However, most of the existing robust PCA presupposes that the mean of the data is zero and incorrectly utilizes the average of data as the optimal mean of robust PCA. In fact, this assumption holds only for the squared [Formula: see text]-norm-based traditional PCA. In this letter, we equivalently reformulate the objective of conventional PCA and learn the optimal projection directions by maximizing the sum of projected difference between each pair of instances based on [Formula: see text]-norm. The proposed method is robust to outliers and also invariant to rotation. More important, the reformulated objective not only automatically avoids the calculation of optimal mean and makes the assumption of centered data unnecessary, but also theoretically connects to the minimization of reconstruction error. To solve the proposed nonsmooth problem, we exploit an efficient optimization algorithm to soften the contributions from outliers by reweighting each data point iteratively. We theoretically analyze the convergence and computational complexity of the proposed algorithm. Extensive experimental results on several benchmark data sets illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

Widespread high grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia on biopsy predicts the risk of prostate cancer: A 12 months analysis after three consecutive prostate biopsies

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Cosimo De Nunzio

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: To evaluate the risk of prostate cancer (PCa on a third prostate biopsy in a group of patients with two consecutive diagnoses of high grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN. Materials and methods: From November 2004 to December 2007, patients referred to our clinic with a PSA ! 4 ng/ml or an abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE were scheduled for trans-rectal ultrasound (TRUS guided 12-core prostate biopsy. Patients with HGPIN underwent a second prostate biopsy, and if the results of such procedure yielded a second diagnosis of HGPIN, we proposed a third 12-core needle biopsy regardless of PSA value. Crude and adjusted logistic regressions were used to assess predictors of PCa on the third biopsy. Results: A total of 650 patients underwent 12 cores transrectal ultrasound prostatic biopsy in the study period. Of 147 (22% men with a diagnosis of HGPIN, 117 underwent a second prostatic biopsy after six months and 43 a third biopsy after other six months. After the third biopsy, 19 patients (34% still showed HGPIN, 15 (35% were diagnosed with PCa and 9 (21% presented with chronic prostatitis. Widespread HGPIN on a second biopsy was significantly associated with PCa on further biopsy (!2 = 4.04, p = 0.04. Moreover, the presence of widespread HGPIN significantly predicted the risk of PCa on crude and adjusted logistic regressions. Conclusions: Widespread HGPIN on second biopsy is associated with the presence of PCa on a third biopsy. Nonetheless, the relationship between HGPIN and PCa remains complex and further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Theoretical analysis of the PCA experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minsart, G.

1980-01-01

A very brief description of the PCA-PVF facility is given, and the studied configurations are mentioned. The analysis of the experiment has been divided into two parts: study of the fission density distribution across the PCA core and neutronic analysis of the flux spectra and spatial distributions in the whole facility. For both parts, the procedure of calculation is explained: cross section sets, one- and two-dimensional models, group collapsing, choice of bucklings, ... . The obtained results are shortly compared with the measured values, and illustrated by a figure and several tables. The computations of the fission map in the PCA core yield results in good agreement with the experimental ones (within a few percents for nearly all points). The discrepancies observed for relative reaction rates and spectral indices of a series of threshold detectors at the selected locations in and between steel and iron layers in the water reflector are briefly discussed

Randomized phase II trial of urethral sparing intensity modulated radiation therapy in low-risk prostate cancer: implications for focal therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vainshtein, Jeffrey; Hamstra, Daniel A; Abu-Isa, Eyad; Olson, Karin B; Ray, Michael E; Sandler, Howard M; Normolle, Dan; Litzenberg, Dale W; Masi, Kathryn; Pan, Charlie

2012-01-01

Low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) patients have excellent outcomes, with treatment modality often selected by perceived effects on quality of life. Acute urinary symptoms are common during external beam radiotherapy (EBRT), while chronic symptoms have been linked to urethral dose. Since most low-risk PCa occurs in the peripheral zone (PZ), we hypothesized that EBRT using urethral sparing intensity modulated radiation therapy (US-IMRT) could improve urinary health-related quality of life (HRQOL) while maintaining high rates of PCa control. Patients with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) defined low-risk PCa with no visible lesion within 5 mm of the prostatic urethra on MRI were randomized to US-IMRT or standard (S-) IMRT. Prescription dose was 75.6 Gy in 41 fractions to the PZ + 3–5 mm for US-IMRT and to the prostate + 3 mm for S-IMRT. For US-IMRT, mean proximal and distal urethral doses were limited to 65 Gy and 74 Gy, respectively. HRQOL was assessed using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index (EPIC) Quality of Life questionnaire. The primary endpoint was change in urinary HRQOL at 3 months. From June 2004 to November 2006, 16 patients were randomized, after which a futility analysis concluded that continued accrual was unlikely to demonstrate a difference in the primary endpoint. Mean change in EPIC urinary HRQOL at 3 months was −0.5 ± 11.2 in the US-IMRT arm and +3.9 ± 15.3 in the S-IMRT arm (p = 0.52). Median PSA nadir was higher in the US-IMRT arm (1.46 vs. 0.78, p = 0.05). At 4.7 years median follow-up, three US-IMRT and no S-IMRT patients experienced PSA failure (p = 0.06; HR 8.8, 95% CI 0.9–86). Two out of 3 patients with PSA failure had biopsy-proven local failure, both located contralateral to the original site of disease. Compared with S-IMRT, US-IMRT failed to improve urinary HRQOL and resulted in higher PSA nadir and inferior biochemical control. The high rate of PSA failure and contralateral local failures in US-IMRT patients, despite

Parent-Controlled PCA for Pain Management in Pediatric Oncology: Is it Safe?

OpenAIRE

Anghelescu, Doralina L.; Faughnan, Lane G.; Oakes, Linda L.; Windsor, Kelley B.; Pei, Deqing; Burgoyne, Laura L.

2012-01-01

Patient-controlled analgesia offers safe and effective pain control for children who can self-administer medication. Some children may not be candidates for PCA unless a proxy can administer doses. The safety of proxy-administered PCA has been studied, but the safety of parent-administered PCA in children with cancer has not been reported. In this study we compare the rate of complications in PCA by parent proxy versus PCA by clinician (nurse) proxy and self-administered PCA. Our pediatric in...

PCA-based approach for subtracting thermal background emission in high-contrast imaging data

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Hunziker, S.; Quanz, S. P.; Amara, A.; Meyer, M. R.

2018-03-01

Aims.Ground-based observations at thermal infrared wavelengths suffer from large background radiation due to the sky, telescope and warm surfaces in the instrument. This significantly limits the sensitivity of ground-based observations at wavelengths longer than 3 μm. The main purpose of this work is to analyse this background emission in infrared high-contrast imaging data as illustrative of the problem, show how it can be modelled and subtracted and demonstrate that it can improve the detection of faint sources, such as exoplanets. Methods: We used principal component analysis (PCA) to model and subtract the thermal background emission in three archival high-contrast angular differential imaging datasets in the M' and L' filter. We used an M' dataset of β Pic to describe in detail how the algorithm works and explain how it can be applied. The results of the background subtraction are compared to the results from a conventional mean background subtraction scheme applied to the same dataset. Finally, both methods for background subtraction are compared by performing complete data reductions. We analysed the results from the M' dataset of HD 100546 only qualitatively. For the M' band dataset of β Pic and the L' band dataset of HD 169142, which was obtained with an angular groove phase mask vortex vector coronagraph, we also calculated and analysed the achieved signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Results: We show that applying PCA is an effective way to remove spatially and temporarily varying thermal background emission down to close to the background limit. The procedure also proves to be very successful at reconstructing the background that is hidden behind the point spread function. In the complete data reductions, we find at least qualitative improvements for HD 100546 and HD 169142, however, we fail to find a significant increase in S/N of β Pic b. We discuss these findings and argue that in particular datasets with strongly varying observing conditions or

External Beam Radiation Therapy and Abiraterone in Men With Localized Prostate Cancer: Safety and Effect on Tissue Androgens

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Eunpi; Mostaghel, Elahe A.; Russell, Kenneth J.; Liao, Jay J.; Konodi, Mark A.; Kurland, Brenda F.; Marck, Brett T.; Matsumoto, Alvin M.; Dalkin, Bruce L.; Montgomery, R. Bruce

2015-01-01

Purpose: Optimizing androgen suppression may provide better control of localized prostate cancer (PCa). Numerous trials have supported the benefit of combining androgen deprivation therapy with definitive radiation therapy in men with locally advanced or high-grade disease. Addition of abiraterone to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist (LHRHa) with radiation has not been reported. We examined the safety of this combination as well as its impact on androgen suppression. Methods and Materials: A prospective, phase 2 study was conducted in men with localized PCa treated with 6 months of neoadjuvant and concurrent abiraterone with LHRHa and radiation. Duration of adjuvant LHRHa was at the discretion of the treating clinician. Prostate biopsy assays were obtained prior to the start of therapy and prior to radiation. Sera and tissue androgen levels were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: A total of 22 men with intermediate- (n=3) and high-risk PCa (n=19) received study therapy. Sixteen men completed the intended course of abiraterone, and 19 men completed planned radiation to 77.4 to 81 Gy. Radiation to pelvic nodes was administered in 20 men. The following grade 3 toxicities were reported: lymphopenia (14 patients), fatigue (1 patient), transaminitis (2 patients), hypertension (2 patients), and hypokalemia (1 patient). There were no grade 4 toxicities. All 21 men who complied with at least 3 months of abiraterone therapy had a preradiation prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration nadir of <0.3 ng/mL. Median levels of tissue androgen downstream of CYP17A were significantly suppressed after treatment with abiraterone, and upstream steroids were increased. At median follow-up of 21 months (range: 3-37 months), only 1 patient (who had discontinued abiraterone at 3 months) had biochemical relapse. Conclusions: Addition of abiraterone to LHRHa with radiation is safe and achieves effective prostatic androgen suppression

External Beam Radiation Therapy and Abiraterone in Men With Localized Prostate Cancer: Safety and Effect on Tissue Androgens

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cho, Eunpi [University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington (United States); Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington (United States); Mostaghel, Elahe A. [Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington (United States); Russell, Kenneth J.; Liao, Jay J.; Konodi, Mark A. [University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington (United States); Kurland, Brenda F. [University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (United States); Marck, Brett T. [Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington (United States); Matsumoto, Alvin M. [University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington (United States); Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington (United States); Dalkin, Bruce L. [University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington (United States); Montgomery, R. Bruce, E-mail: rbmontgo@uw.edu [University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington (United States)

2015-06-01

Purpose: Optimizing androgen suppression may provide better control of localized prostate cancer (PCa). Numerous trials have supported the benefit of combining androgen deprivation therapy with definitive radiation therapy in men with locally advanced or high-grade disease. Addition of abiraterone to luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist (LHRHa) with radiation has not been reported. We examined the safety of this combination as well as its impact on androgen suppression. Methods and Materials: A prospective, phase 2 study was conducted in men with localized PCa treated with 6 months of neoadjuvant and concurrent abiraterone with LHRHa and radiation. Duration of adjuvant LHRHa was at the discretion of the treating clinician. Prostate biopsy assays were obtained prior to the start of therapy and prior to radiation. Sera and tissue androgen levels were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: A total of 22 men with intermediate- (n=3) and high-risk PCa (n=19) received study therapy. Sixteen men completed the intended course of abiraterone, and 19 men completed planned radiation to 77.4 to 81 Gy. Radiation to pelvic nodes was administered in 20 men. The following grade 3 toxicities were reported: lymphopenia (14 patients), fatigue (1 patient), transaminitis (2 patients), hypertension (2 patients), and hypokalemia (1 patient). There were no grade 4 toxicities. All 21 men who complied with at least 3 months of abiraterone therapy had a preradiation prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration nadir of <0.3 ng/mL. Median levels of tissue androgen downstream of CYP17A were significantly suppressed after treatment with abiraterone, and upstream steroids were increased. At median follow-up of 21 months (range: 3-37 months), only 1 patient (who had discontinued abiraterone at 3 months) had biochemical relapse. Conclusions: Addition of abiraterone to LHRHa with radiation is safe and achieves effective prostatic androgen suppression

Nonlinear PCA: characterizing interactions between modes of brain activity.

OpenAIRE

Friston, K; Phillips, J; Chawla, D; Büchel, C

2000-01-01

This paper presents a nonlinear principal component analysis (PCA) that identifies underlying sources causing the expression of spatial modes or patterns of activity in neuroimaging time-series. The critical aspect of this technique is that, in relation to conventional PCA, the sources can interact to produce (second-order) spatial modes that represent the modulation of one (first-order) spatial mode by another. This nonlinear PCA uses a simple neural network architecture that embodies a spec...

Rye bread consumption in early life and reduced risk of advanced prostate cancer.

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Torfadottir, Johanna E; Valdimarsdottir, Unnur A; Mucci, Lorelei; Stampfer, Meir; Kasperzyk, Julie L; Fall, Katja; Tryggvadottir, Laufey; Aspelund, Thor; Olafsson, Orn; Harris, Tamara B; Jonsson, Eirikur; Tulinius, Hrafn; Adami, Hans-Olov; Gudnason, Vilmundur; Steingrimsdottir, Laufey

2012-06-01

To determine whether consumption of whole-grain rye bread, oatmeal, and whole-wheat bread, during different periods of life, is associated with risk of prostate cancer (PCa). From 2002 to 2006, 2,268 men, aged 67-96 years, reported their dietary habits in the AGES-Reykjavik cohort study. Dietary habits were assessed for early life, midlife, and current life using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Through linkage to cancer and mortality registers, we retrieved information on PCa diagnosis and mortality through 2009. We used regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and hazard ratios (HRs) for PCa according to whole-grain consumption, adjusted for possible confounding factors including fish, fish liver oil, meat, and milk intake. Of the 2,268 men, 347 had or were diagnosed with PCa during follow-up, 63 with advanced disease (stage 3+ or died of PCa). Daily rye bread consumption in adolescence (vs. less than daily) was associated with a decreased risk of PCa diagnosis (OR = 0.76, 95 % confidence interval (CI): 0.59-0.98) and of advanced PCa (OR = 0.47, 95 % CI: 0.27-0.84). High intake of oatmeal in adolescence (≥5 vs. ≤4 times/week) was not significantly associated with risk of PCa diagnosis (OR = 0.99, 95 % CI: 0.77-1.27) nor advanced PCa (OR = 0.67, 95 % CI: 0.37-1.20). Midlife and late life consumption of rye bread, oatmeal, or whole-wheat bread was not associated with PCa risk. Our results suggest that rye bread consumption in adolescence may be associated with reduced risk of PCa, particularly advanced disease.

PCA3 Silencing Sensitizes Prostate Cancer Cells to Enzalutamide-mediated Androgen Receptor Blockade.

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Özgür, Emre; Celik, Ayca Iribas; Darendeliler, Emin; Gezer, Ugur

2017-07-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is an androgen-dependent disease. Novel anti-androgens (i.e. enzalutamide) have recently been developed for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Evidence is accumulating that prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) is involved in androgen receptor (AR) signaling. Here, in combination with enzalutamide-mediated AR blockade, we investigated the effect of PCA3 targeting on the viability of PCa cells. In hormone-sensitive LNCaP cells, AR-overexpressing LNCaP-AR + cells and VCaP cells (representing CRPC), PCA3 was silenced using siRNA oligonucleotides. Gene expression and cell viability was assessed in PCA3-silenced and/or AR-blocked cells. PCA3 targeting reduced the expression of AR-related genes (i.e. prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific transcript 1 (non-protein coding) (PCGEM1)) and potentiated the effect of enzalutamide. Proliferation of PCa cells was suppressed upon PCA3 silencing with a greater effect in LNCaP-AR + cells. Furthermore, PCA3 silencing sensitized PCa cells to enzalutamide-induced loss of cell growth. PCA3, as a therapeutic target in PCa, might be used to potentiate AR antagonists. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

The in-reactor deformation of the PCA alloy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Puigh, R.J.

1986-04-01

The swelling and in-reactor creep behaviors of the PCA alloy have been determined from the irradiation of pressurized tube specimens in the FFTF reactor. These data have been obtained to a peak neutron fluence corresponding to approximately 80 dpa in the FFTF reactor for irradiation temperatures between 400 and 750 0 C. Diametral measurements performed on the unstressed specimens indicate the possible onset of swelling in the PCA alloy for irradiation temperatures between 400 and 550 0 C and at a neutron fluence corresponding to ∼50 dpa. The creep data suggest a non-linear fluence dependence and linear stress dependence (for hoop stresses less than 100 MPa) which is consistent with the in-reactor creep behavior of many cold worked austenitic stainless steels. These PCA creep data are compared to available 316 SS in-reactor creep data. The in-reactor creep strains for PCA are significantly less than observed in 20% cold worked 316 SS over the temperature ranges and fluences investigated

European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator: External Validation, Variability, and Clinical Significance.

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez-Gómez, Enrique; Carrasco-Valiente, Julia; Blanca-Pedregosa, Ana; Barco-Sánchez, Beatriz; Fernandez-Rueda, Jose Luis; Molina-Abril, Helena; Valero-Rosa, Jose; Font-Ugalde, Pilar; Requena-Tapia, Maria José

2017-04-01

To externally validate the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) risk calculator (RC) and to evaluate its variability between 2 consecutive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values. We prospectively catalogued 1021 consecutive patients before prostate biopsy for suspicion of prostate cancer (PCa). The risk of PCa and significant PCa (Gleason score ≥7) from 749 patients was calculated according to ERSPC-RC (digital rectal examination-based version 3 of 4) for 2 consecutive PSA tests per patient. The calculators' predictions were analyzed using calibration plots and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (area under the curve). Cohen kappa coefficient was used to compare the ability and variability. Of 749 patients, PCa was detected in 251 (33.5%) and significant PCa was detected in 133 (17.8%). Calibration plots showed an acceptable parallelism and similar discrimination ability for both PSA levels with an area under the curve of 0.69 for PCa and 0.74 for significant PCa. The ERSPC showed 226 (30.2%) unnecessary biopsies with the loss of 10 significant PCa. The variability of the RC was 16% for PCa and 20% for significant PCa, and a higher variability was associated with a reduced risk of significant PCa. We can conclude that the performance of the ERSPC-RC in the present cohort shows a high similitude between the 2 PSA levels; however, the RC variability value is associated with a decreased risk of significant PCa. The use of the ERSPC in our cohort detects a high number of unnecessary biopsies. Thus, the incorporation of ERSPC-RC could help the clinical decision to carry out a prostate biopsy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dramatically Polarized Opinion on the Role of Brachytherapy Boost in Management of High-risk Prostate Cancer: A Survey of North American Genitourinary Expert Radiation Oncologists.

Science.gov (United States)

McClelland, Shearwood; Sandler, Kiri A; Degnin, Catherine; Chen, Yiyi; Mitin, Timur

2018-06-01

Three randomized clinical trials have established brachytherapy (BT) boost in combination with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) as superior to definitive EBRT and ADT alone in terms of biochemical control (but not overall survival) at the expense of increased toxicity in men with high-risk (HR) prostate cancer (PCa). The current view regarding these 2 treatment algorithms among North American genitourinary (GU) experts is not known. A survey was distributed to 88 practicing North American GU physicians serving on decision-making committees of cooperative group research organizations. Questions pertained to opinions regarding BT as monotherapy for low-risk PCa and BT boost for HR PCa. Responders were asked to self-identify as BT experts versus non-experts. Treatment recommendations were correlated with practice patterns using the Fisher exact test. Forty-two radiation oncologists completed the survey, of whom 23 (55%) recommend EBRT and ADT alone and 19 (45%) recommend addition of BT boost. Twenty-five participants (60%) identified themselves as BT experts. Nearly 90% of those recommending BT boost were BT experts versus approximately 10% of non-BT experts (P < .001). Responders who recommended BT monotherapy as first-choice treatment for low-risk PCa were more likely to recommend BT boost for HR PCa (P < .0001). There is a dramatic polarization in opinions regarding incorporation of BT boost into EBRT + ADT therapy for patients with HR PCa among North American GU radiation oncology experts, who serve on decision-making committees and influence the national treatment guidelines and future clinical trials. Those who identify themselves as BT experts are significantly more likely to recommend BT boost. These findings are likely to influence the national guidelines and implementation of BT boost in current and future North American PCa clinical studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of possible association between rs378854 and prostate cancer risk in the Serbian population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brajušković G.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Prostate cancer (PCa is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men worldwide. Despite its high incidence rate, the molecular basis of PCa onset and its progression remains little understood. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS have greatly contributed to the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP associated with PCa risk. Several GWAS identified 8q24 as one of the most significant PCa-associated regions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of SNP rs378854 at 8q24 with PCa risk in the Serbian population. The study population included 261 individuals diagnosed with PCa, 257 individuals diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH and 106 healthy controls. Data quality analysis yielded results showing deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in groups of PCa patients and BPH patients as well as in the control group. There was no significant association between alleles and genotypes of the genetic variant rs378854 and PCa risk in the Serbian population. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 173016

Innovative Comparison of Transient Ignition Temperature at the Booster Interface, New Stainless Steel Pyrovalve Primer Chamber Assembly "V" (PCA) Design Versus the Current Aluminum "Y" PCA Design

Science.gov (United States)

Saulsberry, Regor L.; McDougle, Stephen H.; Garcia,Roberto; Johnson, Kenneth L.; Sipes, William; Rickman, Steven; Hosangadi, Ashvin

2011-01-01

An assessment of four spacecraft pyrovalve anomalies that occurred during ground testing was conducted by the NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC) in 2008. In all four cases, a common aluminum (Al) primer chamber assembly (PCA) was used with dual NASA Standard Initiators (NSIs) and the nearly simultaneous (separated by less than 80 microseconds) firing of both initiators failed to ignite the booster charge. The results of the assessment and associated test program were reported in AIAA Paper AIAA-2008-4798, NESC Independent Assessment of Pyrovalve Ground Test Anomalies. As a result of the four Al PCA anomalies, and the test results and findings of the NESC assessment, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project team decided to make changes to the PCA. The material for the PCA body was changed from aluminum (Al) to stainless steel (SS) to avoid melting, distortion, and potential leakage of the NSI flow passages when the device functioned. The flow passages, which were interconnected in a Y-shaped configuration (Y-PCA) in the original design, were changed to a V-shaped configuration (V-PCA). The V-shape was used to more efficiently transfer energy from the NSIs to the booster. Development and qualification testing of the new design clearly demonstrated faster booster ignition times compared to the legacy AL Y-PCA design. However, the final NESC assessment report recommended that the SS V-PCA be experimentally characterized and quantitatively compared to the Al Y-PCA design. This data was deemed important for properly evaluating the design options for future NASA projects. This test program has successfully quantified the improvement of the SS V-PCA over the Al Y-PCA. A phase B of the project was also conducted and evaluated the effect of firing command skew and enlargement of flame channels to further assist spacecraft applications.

Principal Component Analysis Based Two-Dimensional (PCA-2D) Correlation Spectroscopy: PCA Denoising for 2D Correlation Spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Young Mee

2003-01-01

Principal component analysis based two-dimensional (PCA-2D) correlation analysis is applied to FTIR spectra of polystyrene/methyl ethyl ketone/toluene solution mixture during the solvent evaporation. Substantial amount of artificial noise were added to the experimental data to demonstrate the practical noise-suppressing benefit of PCA-2D technique. 2D correlation analysis of the reconstructed data matrix from PCA loading vectors and scores successfully extracted only the most important features of synchronicity and asynchronicity without interference from noise or insignificant minor components. 2D correlation spectra constructed with only one principal component yield strictly synchronous response with no discernible a asynchronous features, while those involving at least two or more principal components generated meaningful asynchronous 2D correlation spectra. Deliberate manipulation of the rank of the reconstructed data matrix, by choosing the appropriate number and type of PCs, yields potentially more refined 2D correlation spectra

PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS (PCA DAN APLIKASINYA DENGAN SPSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hermita Bus Umar

2009-03-01

Full Text Available PCA (Principal Component Analysis are statistical techniques applied to a single set of variables when the researcher is interested in discovering which variables in the setform coherent subset that are relativity independent of one another.Variables that are correlated with one another but largely independent of other subset of variables are combined into factors. The Coals of PCA to which each variables is explained by each dimension. Step in PCA include selecting and mean measuring a set of variables, preparing the correlation matrix, extracting a set offactors from the correlation matrixs. Rotating the factor to increase interpretabilitv and interpreting the result.

SVD vs PCA: Comparison of Performance in an Imaging Spectrometer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilma Oblefias

2004-12-01

Full Text Available The calculation of basis spectra from a spectral library is an important prerequisite of any compact imaging spectrometer. In this paper, we compare the basis spectra computed by singular-value decomposition (SVD and principal component analysis (PCA in terms of estimation performance with respect to resolution, presence of noise, intensity variation, and quantization error. Results show that SVD is robust in intensity variation while PCA is not. However, PCA performs better with signals of low signal-to-noise ratio. No significant difference is seen between SVD and PCA in terms of resolution and quantization error.

Favorable Local Control From Consolidative Radiation Therapy in High-Risk Neuroblastoma Despite Gross Residual Disease, Positive Margins, or Nodal Involvement

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Ferris, Matthew J., E-mail: mjferri@emory.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Danish, Hasan [Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Switchenko, Jeffrey M. [Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Deng, Claudia [Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); George, Bradley A.; Goldsmith, Kelly C.; Wasilewski, Karen J.; Cash, W. Thomas [Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children' s Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Khan, Mohammad K.; Eaton, Bree R.; Esiashvili, Natia [Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States); Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (United States)

2017-03-15

Purpose: To report the influence of radiation therapy (RT) dose and surgical pathology variables on disease control and overall survival (OS) in patients treated for high-risk neuroblastoma at a single institution. Methods and Materials: We conducted a retrospective study of 67 high-risk neuroblastoma patients who received RT as part of definitive management from January 2003 until May 2014. Results: At a median follow-up of 4.5 years, 26 patients (38.8%) failed distantly; 4 of these patients also failed locally. One patient progressed locally without distant failure. Local control was 92.5%, and total disease control was 59.5%. No benefit was demonstrated for RT doses over 21.6 Gy with respect to local relapse–free survival (P=.55), disease-free survival (P=.22), or OS (P=.72). With respect to local relapse–free survival, disease-free survival, and OS, no disadvantage was seen for positive lymph nodes on surgical pathology, positive surgical margins, or gross residual disease. Of the patients with gross residual disease, 75% (6 of 8) went on to have no evidence of disease at time of last follow-up, and the 2 patients who failed did so distantly. Conclusions: Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma in this series maintained excellent local control, with no benefit demonstrated for radiation doses over 21.6 Gy, and no disadvantage demonstrated for gross residual disease after surgery, positive surgical margins, or pathologic lymph node positivity. Though the limitations of a retrospective review for an uncommon disease must be kept in mind, with small numbers in some of the subgroups, it seems that dose escalation should be considered only in exceptional circumstances.

A Biopsy-based 17-gene Genomic Prostate Score as a Predictor of Metastases and Prostate Cancer Death in Surgically Treated Men with Clinically Localized Disease.

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Van Den Eeden, Stephen K; Lu, Ruixiao; Zhang, Nan; Quesenberry, Charles P; Shan, Jun; Han, Jeong S; Tsiatis, Athanasios C; Leimpeter, Amethyst D; Lawrence, H Jeffrey; Febbo, Phillip G; Presti, Joseph C

2018-01-01

A 17-gene biopsy-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay, which provides a Genomic Prostate Score (GPS-scale 0-100), has been validated as an independent predictor of adverse pathology and biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy (RP) in men with low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PCa). To evaluate GPS as a predictor of PCa metastasis and PCa-specific death (PCD) in a large cohort of men with localized PCa and long-term follow-up. A retrospective study using a stratified cohort sampling design was performed in a cohort of men treated with RP within Kaiser Permanente Northern California. RNA from archival diagnostic biopsies was assayed to generate GPS results. We assessed the association between GPS and time to metastasis and PCD in prespecified uni- and multivariable statistical analyses, based on Cox proportional hazard models accounting for sampling weights. The final study population consisted of 279 men with low-, intermediate-, and high-risk PCa between 1995 and 2010 (median follow-up 9.8 yr), and included 64 PCD and 79 metastases. Valid GPS results were obtained for 259 (93%). In univariable analysis, GPS was strongly associated with time to PCD, hazard ratio (HR)/20 GPS units=3.23 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.84-5.65; pstrong independent predictor of long-term outcomes in clinically localized PCa in men treated with RP and may improve risk stratification for men with newly diagnosed disease. Many prostate cancers are slow growing and unlikely to spread or threaten a man's life, while others are more aggressive and require treatment. Increasingly, doctors are using new molecular tests, such as the17-gene Genomic Prostate Score (GPS), which can be performed at the time of initial diagnosis to help determine how aggressive a given patient's cancer may be. In this study, performed in a large community-based healthcare network, GPS was shown to be a strong predictor as to whether a man's prostate cancer will spread and

ECG-derived respiration methods: adapted ICA and PCA.

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Tiinanen, Suvi; Noponen, Kai; Tulppo, Mikko; Kiviniemi, Antti; Seppänen, Tapio

2015-05-01

Respiration is an important signal in early diagnostics, prediction, and treatment of several diseases. Moreover, a growing trend toward ambulatory measurements outside laboratory environments encourages developing indirect measurement methods such as ECG derived respiration (EDR). Recently, decomposition techniques like principal component analysis (PCA), and its nonlinear version, kernel PCA (KPCA), have been used to derive a surrogate respiration signal from single-channel ECG. In this paper, we propose an adapted independent component analysis (AICA) algorithm to obtain EDR signal, and extend the normal linear PCA technique based on the best principal component (PC) selection (APCA, adapted PCA) to improve its performance further. We also demonstrate that the usage of smoothing spline resampling and bandpass-filtering improve the performance of all EDR methods. Compared with other recent EDR methods using correlation coefficient and magnitude squared coherence, the proposed AICA and APCA yield a statistically significant improvement with correlations 0.84, 0.82, 0.76 and coherences 0.90, 0.91, 0.85 between reference respiration and AICA, APCA and KPCA, respectively. Copyright © 2015 IPEM. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality of Life and Sexual Health in the Aging of PCa Survivors.

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Gacci, Mauro; Baldi, Elisabetta; Tamburrino, Lara; Detti, Beatrice; Livi, Lorenzo; De Nunzio, Cosimo; Tubaro, Andrea; Gravas, Stavros; Carini, Marco; Serni, Sergio

2014-01-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignancy in elderly men. The progressive ageing of the world male population will further increase the need for tailored assessment and treatment of PCa patients. The determinant role of androgens and sexual hormones for PCa growth and progression has been established. However, several trials on androgens and PCa are recently focused on urinary continence, quality of life, and sexual function, suggesting a new point of view on the whole endocrinological aspect of PCa. During aging, metabolic syndrome, including diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and central obesity, can be associated with a chronic, low-grade inflammation of the prostate and with changes in the sex steroid pathways. These factors may affect both the carcinogenesis processes and treatment outcomes of PCa. Any treatment for PCa can have a long-lasting negative impact on quality of life and sexual health, which should be assessed by validated self-reported questionnaires. In particular, sexual health, urinary continence, and bowel function can be worsened after prostatectomy, radiotherapy, or hormone treatment, mostly in the elderly population. In the present review we summarized the current knowledge on the role of hormones, metabolic features, and primary treatments for PCa on the quality of life and sexual health of elderly Pca survivors.

Improved swelling resistance for PCA austenitic stainless steel under HFIR irradiation through microstructural control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maziasz, P.J.; Braski, D.N.

1983-01-01

Six microstructural variants of Prime Candidate Alloy (PCA) were evaluated for swelling resistance during HFIR irradiation, together with several heats of type 316 stainless steel (316). Swelling was negligible in all the steels at 300 0 C after approx. 44 dpa. At 500 to 600 0 C 25%-cold-worked PCA showed better void swelling resistance than type 316 at approx. 44 dpa. There was less swelling variability among alloys at 400 0 C, but again 25%-cold-worked PCA was the best. Microstructurally, swelling resistance correlated with development of fine, stable bubbles whereas high swelling was due to coarser distributions of bubbles becoming unstable and converting to voids (bias-driven cavities)

Advanced prostate cancer risk in relation to toenail selenium levels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geybels, M.S.; Verhage, B.A.J.; Schooten, F.J. van; Goldbohm, A.; Brandt, P.A. van den

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: Selenium may prevent advanced prostate cancer (PCa), but most studies on this topic were conducted in populations with moderate to high selenium status. We investigated the association of toenail selenium, reflecting long-term selenium exposure, and advanced PCa risk in a population from

Tensile properties of unirradiated PCA from room temperature to 7000C

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Braski, D.N.; Maziasz, P.J.

1983-01-01

The tensile properties of Prime Candidate Alloy (PCA) austenitic stainless steel after three different thermomechanical treatments were determined from room temperature to 700 0 C. The solution-annealed PCA had the lowest strength and highest ductility, while the reverse was true for the 25%-cold-worked material. The PCA containing titanium-rich MC particles fell between the other two heats. The cold-worked PCA had nearly the same tensile properties as cold-worked type 316 stainless steel. Both alloys showed ductility minima at 300 0 C

The biological knowledge discovery by PCCF measure and PCA-F projection.

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Jia, Xingang; Zhu, Guanqun; Han, Qiuhong; Lu, Zuhong

2017-01-01

In the process of biological knowledge discovery, PCA is commonly used to complement the clustering analysis, but PCA typically gives the poor visualizations for most gene expression data sets. Here, we propose a PCCF measure, and use PCA-F to display clusters of PCCF, where PCCF and PCA-F are modeled from the modified cumulative probabilities of genes. From the analysis of simulated and experimental data sets, we demonstrate that PCCF is more appropriate and reliable for analyzing gene expression data compared to other commonly used distances or similarity measures, and PCA-F is a good visualization technique for identifying clusters of PCCF, where we aim at such data sets that the expression values of genes are collected at different time points.

Understanding Local Policy Elites' Perceptions on the Benefits and Risks Associated with High-Voltage Power Line Installations in the State of Arkansas.

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Moyer, Rachael M; Song, Geoboo

2016-10-01

Recently, a controversial policy debate has arisen concerning the installation of high-voltage power lines in northwest Arkansas. While proponents argue that such an installation is inevitable to efficiently and reliably support the identified electric load in the region, opponents claim that the lines will degrade the natural environment and hamper the tourism-based local economy in affected regions, notably in Ozark Mountain areas. Of particular interest is to understand how local policy elites perceive the benefits and risks associated with such divisive proposals, which is critical for comprehending the formation and changes of related government policies. Based upon the dual process theory of judgment, this study systematically investigates the triadic relationships between (a) more profound personal value predispositions, (b) affects and feelings, and (c) perceived benefits and risks related to the proposed installation of high-voltage power lines among local policy elites in the state of Arkansas. In doing so, we analyze original data collected from a statewide Internet survey of 420 local leaders and key policymakers about their opinions on the related issues, while considering other factors claimed by previous literature to influence risk perceptions, including trust, knowledge level, and demographic characteristics. Analytical results suggest that grid-group cultural predispositions, as deeply held core values within local policy elites' individual belief systems, both directly and indirectly-through affective feelings-shape perceived utility associated with the installation of high-voltage power lines. We conclude this article by suggesting some practical considerations for better designing policy addressing controversial issues of this nature. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

Gas-Chromatographic Determination Of Water In Freon PCA

Science.gov (United States)

Melton, Donald M.

1994-01-01

Gas-chromatographic apparatus measures small concentrations of water in specimens of Freon PCA. Testing by use of apparatus faster and provides greater protection against accidental contamination of specimens by water in testing environment. Automated for unattended operation. Also used to measure water contents of materials, other than Freon PCA. Innovation extended to development of purgeable sampling accessory for gas chromatographs.

Synthesis and antifungal evaluation of PCA amide analogues.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Chuan; Yu, Di-Ya; Zhou, Xu-Dong; Zhang, Min; Wu, Qing-Lai; Li, Jun-Kai

2018-04-18

To improve the physical and chemical properties of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) and find higher antifungal compounds, a series of PCA amide analogues were designed and synthesized and their structures were confirmed by 1 H NMR, HRMS, and X-ray. Most compounds showed some antifungal activities in vitro. Particularly, compound 3d exhibited inhibition effect against Pyriculariaoryzac Cavgra with EC 50 value of 28.7 μM and compound 3q exhibited effect against Rhizoctonia solani with EC 50 value of 24.5 μM, more potently active than that of the positive control PCA with its EC 50 values of 37.3 μM (Pyriculariaoryzac Cavgra) and 33.2 μM (Rhizoctonia solani), respectively.

Comparative study of PCA in classification of multichannel EMG signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Geethanjali, P

2015-06-01

Electromyographic (EMG) signals are abundantly used in the field of rehabilitation engineering in controlling the prosthetic device and significantly essential to find fast and accurate EMG pattern recognition system, to avoid intrusive delay. The main objective of this paper is to study the influence of Principal component analysis (PCA), a transformation technique, in pattern recognition of six hand movements using four channel surface EMG signals from ten healthy subjects. For this reason, time domain (TD) statistical as well as auto regression (AR) coefficients are extracted from the four channel EMG signals. The extracted statistical features as well as AR coefficients are transformed using PCA to 25, 50 and 75 % of corresponding original feature vector space. The classification accuracy of PCA transformed and non-PCA transformed TD statistical features as well as AR coefficients are studied with simple logistic regression (SLR), decision tree (DT) with J48 algorithm, logistic model tree (LMT), k nearest neighbor (kNN) and neural network (NN) classifiers in the identification of six different movements. The Kruskal-Wallis (KW) statistical test shows that there is a significant reduction (P PCA transformed features compared to non-PCA transformed features. SLR with non-PCA transformed time domain (TD) statistical features performs better in accuracy and computational power compared to other features considered in this study. In addition, the motion control of three drives for six movements of the hand is implemented with SLR using TD statistical features in off-line with TMSLF2407 digital signal controller (DSC).

Local Treatment of Metastatic Prostate Cancer: What is the Evidence So Far?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Leonel Almeida

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Advances in technological, laboratorial, and imaging studies and new treatments available in the last decades significantly improved prostate cancer survival rates. However, this did not occur in metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa at diagnosis which, in young and fit patients, will become invariably resistant to the established treatments. Progression will lead to an impairment in patients’ quality of life and disease-related death. Methods. The authors intend to perform a literature review of the advantages of primary treatment of mPCa. Articles were retrieved and filtered for relevance from PubMed, SciELO, and ScienceDirect until March 2017. Results. Primary treatment is currently indicated only in cases of nonmetastatic PCa. Nonetheless, there might be some benefits in doing local treatment in mPCa in order to control local disease, prevent new metastasis, and improve the efficacy of chemotherapy and hormonotherapy with similar complications rate when compared to locally confined cancer. Independent factors that have a negative influence are age above 70 years, cT4 stage or high-grade disease, PSA≥20 ng/ml, and pelvic lymphadenopathies. The presence of 3 or more of these factors conditions CSS and OS is the same between patients who performed local treatment and those who did not. Metastasis degree and location number can also influence outcome. Meanwhile, patients with visceral metastases have worse results. Conclusions. There is growing evidence supporting local treatment in cases of metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis in the context of a multimodal approach. However, it should be kept in mind that most of the existing studies are retrospective and it would be important to make consistent prospective studies with well-defined patient selection criteria in order to sustain the existing data and understand the main indications to select patients and perform primary treatment in mPCa.

Local Treatment of Metastatic Prostate Cancer: What is the Evidence So Far?

Science.gov (United States)

Leonel Almeida, Pedro; Jorge Pereira, Bruno

2018-01-01

Advances in technological, laboratorial, and imaging studies and new treatments available in the last decades significantly improved prostate cancer survival rates. However, this did not occur in metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) at diagnosis which, in young and fit patients, will become invariably resistant to the established treatments. Progression will lead to an impairment in patients' quality of life and disease-related death. The authors intend to perform a literature review of the advantages of primary treatment of mPCa. Articles were retrieved and filtered for relevance from PubMed, SciELO, and ScienceDirect until March 2017. Primary treatment is currently indicated only in cases of nonmetastatic PCa. Nonetheless, there might be some benefits in doing local treatment in mPCa in order to control local disease, prevent new metastasis, and improve the efficacy of chemotherapy and hormonotherapy with similar complications rate when compared to locally confined cancer. Independent factors that have a negative influence are age above 70 years, cT4 stage or high-grade disease, PSA ≥ 20 ng/ml, and pelvic lymphadenopathies. The presence of 3 or more of these factors conditions CSS and OS is the same between patients who performed local treatment and those who did not. Metastasis degree and location number can also influence outcome. Meanwhile, patients with visceral metastases have worse results. There is growing evidence supporting local treatment in cases of metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis in the context of a multimodal approach. However, it should be kept in mind that most of the existing studies are retrospective and it would be important to make consistent prospective studies with well-defined patient selection criteria in order to sustain the existing data and understand the main indications to select patients and perform primary treatment in mPCa.

The Recidivism Patterns of Previously Deported Aliens Released from a Local Jail: Are They High-Risk Offenders?

Science.gov (United States)

Hickman, Laura J.; Suttorp, Marika J.

2010-01-01

Previously deported aliens are a group about which numerous claims are made but very few facts are known. Using data on male deportable aliens released from a local jail, the study sought to test the ubiquitous claim that they pose a high risk of recidivism. Using multiple measures of recidivism and propensity score weighting to account for…

Quantitation of passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) by using radiolabelled antigen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ring, J.; Seifert, J.; Brendel, W.

1978-01-01

The major problem of detecting reaginic antibody by passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) is the quantitation of the dye reaction. Radiolabelled antigen was used in an attempt to quantitate the PCA reaction (Radio-PCA). Antisera containing reaginic antibody against human serum albumin (HSA) were produced in rabbits. These antisera were injected into normal rabbit skin in different dilutions. Twentyfour hours later HSA was injected intravenously either with Evans Blue or as 125-I-HSA. Radioactivity found in antibody-containing skin was significantly higher than in control specimens containing saline or normal rabbit serum, as low as antiserum dilutions of 1:1,000. Compared with Evans Blue technique Radio-PCA was able to distinguish quantitatively between different antiserum dilutions at a higher level of statistical significance. (author)

Fault detection of feed water treatment process using PCA-WD with parameter optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shirong; Tang, Qian; Lin, Yu; Tang, Yuling

2017-05-01

Feed water treatment process (FWTP) is an essential part of utility boilers; and fault detection is expected for its reliability improvement. Classical principal component analysis (PCA) has been applied to FWTPs in our previous work; however, the noises of T 2 and SPE statistics result in false detections and missed detections. In this paper, Wavelet denoise (WD) is combined with PCA to form a new algorithm, (PCA-WD), where WD is intentionally employed to deal with the noises. The parameter selection of PCA-WD is further formulated as an optimization problem; and PSO is employed for optimization solution. A FWTP, sustaining two 1000MW generation units in a coal-fired power plant, is taken as a study case. Its operation data is collected for following verification study. The results show that the optimized WD is effective to restrain the noises of T 2 and SPE statistics, so as to improve the performance of PCA-WD algorithm. And, the parameter optimization enables PCA-WD to get its optimal parameters in an automatic way rather than on individual experience. The optimized PCA-WD is further compared with classical PCA and sliding window PCA (SWPCA), in terms of four cases as bias fault, drift fault, broken line fault and normal condition, respectively. The advantages of the optimized PCA-WD, against classical PCA and SWPCA, is finally convinced with the results. Copyright © 2017 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An audit of referral and treatment patterns of high-risk prostate cancer patients in Alberta.

Science.gov (United States)

Alghamdi, Majed; Taggar, Amandeep; Tilley, Derek; Kerba, Marc; Kostaras, Xanthoula; Gotto, Geoffrey; Sia, Michael

2016-01-01

We aimed to determine the impact of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) on rates of radiation oncologist (RO) referral, androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), radiation therapy (RT), and radical prostatectomy (RP) in patients with high-risk prostate cancer (HR-PCa). All men >18 years, diagnosed with PCa in 2005 and 2012 were identified from the Alberta Cancer Registry. Patient age, aggregated clinical risk group (ACRG) score, Gleason score (GS), pre-treatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA), RO referral, and treatment received were extracted from electronic medical records. Logistic regression modelling was used to examine associations between RO referral rates and relevant factors. HR-PCa was diagnosed in 261 of 1792 patients in 2005 and 435 of 2148 in 2012. Median age and ACRG scores were similar in both years (p>0.05). The rate of patients with PSA >20 were 67% and 57% in 2005 and 2012, respectively (p=0.004). GS ≤6 was found in 13% vs. 5% of patients, GS 7 in 27% vs. 24%, and GS ≥8 in 59% vs. 71% in 2005 and 2012, respectively (p<0.001). In 2005, RO referral rate was 68% compared to 56% in 2012 (p=0.001), use of RT + ADT was 53% compared to 32% (p<0.001), and RP rate was 9% vs. 17% (p=0.002). On regression analysis, older age, 2012 year of diagnosis and higher PSA were associated with decreased RO referral rates (odds ratios [OR] 0.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39-0.61; OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.34-0.76; and OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.39-0.61), respectively [p<0.001]). Since CPG creation in 2005, RO referral rates and ADT + RT use declined and RP rates increased, which demonstrates a need to improve adherence to CPG in the HR-PCa population.

Extraction of prostatic lumina and automated recognition for prostatic calculus image using PCA-SVM.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhuocai; Xu, Xiangmin; Ding, Xiaojun; Xiao, Hui; Huang, Yusheng; Liu, Jian; Xing, Xiaofen; Wang, Hua; Liao, D Joshua

2011-01-01

Identification of prostatic calculi is an important basis for determining the tissue origin. Computation-assistant diagnosis of prostatic calculi may have promising potential but is currently still less studied. We studied the extraction of prostatic lumina and automated recognition for calculus images. Extraction of lumina from prostate histology images was based on local entropy and Otsu threshold recognition using PCA-SVM and based on the texture features of prostatic calculus. The SVM classifier showed an average time 0.1432 second, an average training accuracy of 100%, an average test accuracy of 93.12%, a sensitivity of 87.74%, and a specificity of 94.82%. We concluded that the algorithm, based on texture features and PCA-SVM, can recognize the concentric structure and visualized features easily. Therefore, this method is effective for the automated recognition of prostatic calculi.

Extraction of Prostatic Lumina and Automated Recognition for Prostatic Calculus Image Using PCA-SVM

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Zhuocai; Xu, Xiangmin; Ding, Xiaojun; Xiao, Hui; Huang, Yusheng; Liu, Jian; Xing, Xiaofen; Wang, Hua; Liao, D. Joshua

2011-01-01

Identification of prostatic calculi is an important basis for determining the tissue origin. Computation-assistant diagnosis of prostatic calculi may have promising potential but is currently still less studied. We studied the extraction of prostatic lumina and automated recognition for calculus images. Extraction of lumina from prostate histology images was based on local entropy and Otsu threshold recognition using PCA-SVM and based on the texture features of prostatic calculus. The SVM classifier showed an average time 0.1432 second, an average training accuracy of 100%, an average test accuracy of 93.12%, a sensitivity of 87.74%, and a specificity of 94.82%. We concluded that the algorithm, based on texture features and PCA-SVM, can recognize the concentric structure and visualized features easily. Therefore, this method is effective for the automated recognition of prostatic calculi. PMID:21461364

Radical prostatectomy for high-risk prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Yossepowitch, Ofer; Eastham, James A

2008-06-01

Consensus recommendations for the identification and treatment of men whose apparent organ confined prostate cancer has high risk features are lacking. Despite ongoing refinements in surgical technique and improvements in morbidity and functional outcomes, the tradition of steering high-risk patients away from radical prostatectomy (RP) remains steadfast. We performed a medical literature search in English using MEDLINE/PubMed that addressed high risk prostate cancer. We analyzed the literature with respect to the historical evolution of this concept, current risk stratification schemes and treatment guidelines and related short and long term outcomes following RP. Contemporary evidence suggest that patients classified with high-risk prostate cancer by commonly used definitions do not have a uniformly poor prognosis after RP. Many cancers categorized clinically as high risk are actually pathologically confined to the prostate, and most men with such cancers who undergo RP are alive and free of additional therapy long after surgery. RP in the high-risk setting appears to be associated with a similar morbidity as in lower-risk patients. Men with clinically localized high-risk prostate cancer should not be categorically disqualified from local definitive therapy with RP. With careful attention to surgical technique, cancer control rates should improve further, and adverse effects on quality of life after RP should continue to decrease.

Exclusive image guided IMRT vs. radical prostatectomy followed by postoperative IMRT for localized prostate cancer: a matched-pair analysis based on risk-groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azelie, Caroline; Créhange, Gilles; Gauthier, Mélanie; Mirjolet, Céline; Cormier, Luc; Martin, Etienne; Peignaux-Casasnovas, Karine; Truc, Gilles; Chamois, Jérôme; Maingon, Philippe

2012-01-01

To investigate whether patients treated for a localized prostate cancer (PCa) require a radical prostatectomy followed by postoperative radiotherapy or exclusive radiotherapy, in the modern era of image guided IMRT. 178 patients with PCa were referred for daily exclusive image guided IMRT (IG-IMRT) using an on-line 3D ultra-sound based system and 69 patients were referred for postoperative IMRT without image guidance after radical prostatectomy (RP + IMRT). Patients were matched in a 1:1 ratio according to their baseline risk group before any treatment. Late toxicity was scored using the CTV v3.0 scale. Biochemical failure was defined as a postoperative PSA ≤ 0.1 ng/mL followed by 1 consecutive rising PSA for the postoperative group of patients and by the Phoenix definition (nadir + 2 ng/mL) for the group of patients treated with exclusive radiotherapy. A total of 98 patients were matched (49:49). From the start of any treatment, the median follow-up was 56.6 months (CI 95% = [49.6-61.2], range [18.2-115.1]). No patient had late gastrointestinal grade ≥ 2 toxicity in the IG-IMRT group vs. 4% in the RP + IMRT group. Forty two percent of the patients in both groups had late grade ≥ 2 genitourinary toxicity. The 5-year FFF rates in the IG-IMRT group and in the RP + IMRT groups were 93.1% [80.0-97.8] and 76.5% [58.3-87.5], respectively (p = 0.031). Patients with a localized PCa treated with IG-IMRT had better oncological outcome than patients treated with RP + IMRT. Further improvements in postoperative IMRT using image guidance and dose escalation are urgently needed

Localized indoor air quality monitoring for indoor pollutants' healthy risk assessment using sub-principal component analysis driven model and engineering big data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shi, Honglan; Kim, MinJeong; Lee, SeungChul; Pyo, SeHee; Esfahani, Iman Janghorban; Yoo, ChangKyoo [Kyung Hee University, Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

2015-10-15

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in subway systems shows periodic dynamics due to the number of passengers, train schedules, and air pollutants accumulated in the system, which are considered as an engineering big data. We developed a new IAQ monitoring model using a sub-principal component analysis (sub-PCA) method to account for the periodic dynamics of the IAQ big data. In addition, the IAQ data in subway systems are different on the weekdays and weekend due to weekly effect, since the patterns of the number of passengers and their access time on the weekdays and weekend are different. Sub-PCA-based local monitoring was developed for separating the weekday and weekend environmental IAQ big data, respectively. The monitoring results for the test data at the Y-subway station clearly showed that the proposed method could analyze an environmental IAQ big data, improve the monitoring efficiency and greatly reduce the false alarm rate of the local on-line monitoring by comparison with the multi-way PCA.

Localized indoor air quality monitoring for indoor pollutants' healthy risk assessment using sub-principal component analysis driven model and engineering big data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Honglan; Kim, MinJeong; Lee, SeungChul; Pyo, SeHee; Esfahani, Iman Janghorban; Yoo, ChangKyoo

2015-01-01

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in subway systems shows periodic dynamics due to the number of passengers, train schedules, and air pollutants accumulated in the system, which are considered as an engineering big data. We developed a new IAQ monitoring model using a sub-principal component analysis (sub-PCA) method to account for the periodic dynamics of the IAQ big data. In addition, the IAQ data in subway systems are different on the weekdays and weekend due to weekly effect, since the patterns of the number of passengers and their access time on the weekdays and weekend are different. Sub-PCA-based local monitoring was developed for separating the weekday and weekend environmental IAQ big data, respectively. The monitoring results for the test data at the Y-subway station clearly showed that the proposed method could analyze an environmental IAQ big data, improve the monitoring efficiency and greatly reduce the false alarm rate of the local on-line monitoring by comparison with the multi-way PCA.

[A Quantitative Verification for Operability of Three PCA Devices Attached to the Disposable Infusion Pumps].

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Tadokoro, Takahiro; Fuchibe, Makoto; Odo, Yuichiro; Kakinohana, Manabu

2015-11-01

In this study using 3 different PCA devices (Baxter infuser LVBB +PCM 2 ml: Pump B, Coopdech Balloonjector +PCA 3 ml: Pump C, Rakuraku fuser +PCA 3 ml: Pump S), we investigated how easily PCA devices could be handled. In this study with 42 volunteers (14 elders and 28 nurses), we compared 3 PCA ejection volume and ejection rate among three PCA devices. PCA ejection rate was defined as the ratio of actual ejection volume to the maximum ejection volume (MEV) of each PCA device. Although not only elders but also nurses failed to produce accurate PCA ejection volume in the Pump B, Pump S could provide the MEV even by elders. In the Pump C, approximately 80% of MEV could be achieved by nurses, but 60% of MEV by elders (P PCA ejection volume might be dependent on PCA device.

Randomized phase II trial of urethral sparing intensity modulated radiation therapy in low-risk prostate cancer: implications for focal therapy

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Vainshtein Jeffrey

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Low-risk prostate cancer (PCa patients have excellent outcomes, with treatment modality often selected by perceived effects on quality of life. Acute urinary symptoms are common during external beam radiotherapy (EBRT, while chronic symptoms have been linked to urethral dose. Since most low-risk PCa occurs in the peripheral zone (PZ, we hypothesized that EBRT using urethral sparing intensity modulated radiation therapy (US-IMRT could improve urinary health-related quality of life (HRQOL while maintaining high rates of PCa control. Methods Patients with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN defined low-risk PCa with no visible lesion within 5 mm of the prostatic urethra on MRI were randomized to US-IMRT or standard (S- IMRT. Prescription dose was 75.6 Gy in 41 fractions to the PZ + 3–5 mm for US-IMRT and to the prostate + 3 mm for S-IMRT. For US-IMRT, mean proximal and distal urethral doses were limited to 65 Gy and 74 Gy, respectively. HRQOL was assessed using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index (EPIC Quality of Life questionnaire. The primary endpoint was change in urinary HRQOL at 3 months. Results From June 2004 to November 2006, 16 patients were randomized, after which a futility analysis concluded that continued accrual was unlikely to demonstrate a difference in the primary endpoint. Mean change in EPIC urinary HRQOL at 3 months was −0.5 ± 11.2 in the US-IMRT arm and +3.9 ± 15.3 in the S-IMRT arm (p = 0.52. Median PSA nadir was higher in the US-IMRT arm (1.46 vs. 0.78, p = 0.05. At 4.7 years median follow-up, three US-IMRT and no S-IMRT patients experienced PSA failure (p = 0.06; HR 8.8, 95% CI 0.9–86. Two out of 3 patients with PSA failure had biopsy-proven local failure, both located contralateral to the original site of disease. Conclusions Compared with S-IMRT, US-IMRT failed to improve urinary HRQOL and resulted in higher PSA nadir and inferior biochemical

PCA based clustering for brain tumor segmentation of T1w MRI images.

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Kaya, Irem Ersöz; Pehlivanlı, Ayça Çakmak; Sekizkardeş, Emine Gezmez; Ibrikci, Turgay

2017-03-01

Medical images are huge collections of information that are difficult to store and process consuming extensive computing time. Therefore, the reduction techniques are commonly used as a data pre-processing step to make the image data less complex so that a high-dimensional data can be identified by an appropriate low-dimensional representation. PCA is one of the most popular multivariate methods for data reduction. This paper is focused on T1-weighted MRI images clustering for brain tumor segmentation with dimension reduction by different common Principle Component Analysis (PCA) algorithms. Our primary aim is to present a comparison between different variations of PCA algorithms on MRIs for two cluster methods. Five most common PCA algorithms; namely the conventional PCA, Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA), Expectation Maximization Based Principal Component Analysis (EM-PCA), Generalize Hebbian Algorithm (GHA), and Adaptive Principal Component Extraction (APEX) were applied to reduce dimensionality in advance of two clustering algorithms, K-Means and Fuzzy C-Means. In the study, the T1-weighted MRI images of the human brain with brain tumor were used for clustering. In addition to the original size of 512 lines and 512 pixels per line, three more different sizes, 256 × 256, 128 × 128 and 64 × 64, were included in the study to examine their effect on the methods. The obtained results were compared in terms of both the reconstruction errors and the Euclidean distance errors among the clustered images containing the same number of principle components. According to the findings, the PPCA obtained the best results among all others. Furthermore, the EM-PCA and the PPCA assisted K-Means algorithm to accomplish the best clustering performance in the majority as well as achieving significant results with both clustering algorithms for all size of T1w MRI images. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cost effectiveness analysis of screening in the early diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCA)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mueller-Lisse, U.G.; Mueller-Lisse, U.L.

2002-01-01

Purpose. The authors attempted to provide an overview of current concepts and the status of research in the field of cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) of screening for prostate cancer (PCA).Material and methods. Basic concepts and methods of CEA were reviewed. Examples of CEA-related studies of PCA were obtained from pertinent literature through medical databases.Results. Screening for PCA has so far been restricted to limited groups of health care recipients, usually within the framework of clinical trials. In those trials, screening for PCA usually results in higher numbers of PCAs being detected at lower average stages in a given population. As a consequence of screening, the rate of potentially curable PCAs increases. However, it has not yet been demonstrated that screening for PCA decreases PCA-related mortality or morbidity from metastatic PCA. On the other hand, additional costs are associated with the screening measure and with increased use of resources for diagnosis and treatment of the additional PCAs detected through screening.Conclusions. Throughout the European Union and North America, mass screening for PCA has not been implemented. This may chiefly be due to the current lack of information on long term benefits of PCA screening, particularly disease-specific survival. Currently, major studies are underway to assess the effects of PCA screening and its cost effectiveness. These studies include the US-American prostate, lung, colon and ovary trials (PLCO) and the European randomised study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC). (orig.) [de

Opioid Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) use during the Initial Experience with the IMPROVE PCA Trial: A Phase III Analgesic Trial for Hospitalized Sickle Cell Patients with Painful Episodes

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Dampier, Carlton D.; Smith, Wally R.; Kim, Hae-Young; Wager, Carrie Greene; Bell, Margaret C.; Minniti, Caterina P.; Keefer, Jeffrey; Hsu, Lewis; Krishnamurti, Lakshmanan; Mack, A. Kyle; McClish, Donna; McKinlay, Sonja M.; Miller, Scott T.; Osunkwo, Ifeyinwa; Seaman, Phillip; Telen, Marilyn J.; Weiner, Debra L.

2015-01-01

Opioid analgesics administered by patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) are frequently used for pain relief in children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) hospitalized for persistent vaso-occlusive pain, but optimum opioid dosing is not known. To better define PCA dosing recommendations, a multi-center phase III clinical trial was conducted comparing two alternative opioid PCA dosing strategies (HDLI-higher demand dose with low constant infusion or LDHI- lower demand dose and higher constant infusion) in 38 subjects who completed randomization prior to trial closure. Total opioid utilization (morphine equivalents, mg/kg) in 22 adults was 11.6 ± 2.6 and 4.7 ± 0.9 in the HDLI and in the LDHI arms, respectively, and in 12 children it was 3.7 ± 1.0 and 5.8 ± 2.2, respectively. Opioid-related symptoms were mild and similar in both PCA arms (mean daily opioid symptom intensity score: HDLI 0.9 ± 0.1, LDHI 0.9 ± 0.2). The slow enrollment and early study termination limited conclusions regarding superiority of either treatment regimen. This study adds to our understanding of opioid PCA usage in SCD. Future clinical trial protocol designs for opioid PCA may need to consider potential differences between adults and children in PCA usage. PMID:21953763

Advances in prostate-specific membrane antigen PET of prostate cancer.

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Bouchelouche, Kirsten; Choyke, Peter L

2018-05-01

In recent years, a large number of reports have been published on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)/PET in prostate cancer (PCa). This review highlights advances in PSMA PET in PCa during the past year. PSMA PET/computed tomography (CT) is useful in detection of biochemical recurrence, especially at low prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values. The detection rate of PSMA PET is influenced by PSA level. For primary PCa, PSMA PET/CT shows promise for tumour localization in the prostate, especially in combination with multiparametric MRI (mpMRI). For primary staging, PSMA PET/CT can be used in intermediate and high-risk PCa. Intraoperative PSMA radioligand guidance seems promising for detection of malignant lymph nodes. While the use of PSMA PET/MRI in primary localized disease is limited to high and intermediate-risk patients and localized staging, in the recurrence setting, PET/MRI can be particularly helpful when the lesions are subtle. PSMA PET/CT is superior to choline PET/CT and other conventional imaging modalities. Molecular imaging with PSMA PET continues to pave the way for personalized medicine in PCa.However, large prospective clinical studies are still needed to fully evaluate the role of PSMA PET/CT and PET/MRI in the clinical workflow of PCa.

Dosimetric comparison of axilla and groin radiotherapy techniques for high-risk and locally advanced skin cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mattes, Malcolm D.; Zhou, Ying; Berry, Sean L.; Barker, Christopher A.

2016-01-01

Radiation therapy targeting axilla and groin lymph nodes improves regional disease control in locally advanced and high-risk skin cancers. However, trials generally used conventional two-dimensional radiotherapy (2D-RT), contributing towards relatively high rates of side effects from treatment. The goal of this study is to determine if three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), or volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) may improve radiation delivery to the target while avoiding organs at risk in the clinical context of skin cancer regional nodal irradiation. Twenty patients with locally advanced/high-risk skin cancers underwent computed tomography simulation. The relevant axilla or groin planning target volumes and organs at risk were delineated using standard definitions. Paired t-tests were used to compare the mean values of several dose-volumetric parameters for each of the 4 techniques. In the axilla, the largest improvement for 3D-CRT compared to 2D-RT was for homogeneity index (13.9 vs. 54.3), at the expense of higher lung V 20 (28.0% vs. 12.6%). In the groin, the largest improvements for 3D-CRT compared to 2D-RT were for anorectum D max (13.6 vs. 38.9 Gy), bowel D 200cc (7.3 vs. 23.1 Gy), femur D 50 (34.6 vs. 57.2 Gy), and genitalia D max (37.6 vs. 51.1 Gy). IMRT had further improvements compared to 3D-CRT for humerus D mean (16.9 vs. 22.4 Gy), brachial plexus D 5 (57.4 vs. 61.3 Gy), bladder D 5 (26.8 vs. 36.5 Gy), and femur D 50 (18.7 vs. 34.6 Gy). Fewer differences were observed between IMRT and VMAT. Compared to 2D-RT and 3D-CRT, IMRT and VMAT had dosimetric advantages in the treatment of nodal regions of skin cancer patients

Dosimetric comparison of axilla and groin radiotherapy techniques for high-risk and locally advanced skin cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mattes, Malcolm D.; Zhou, Ying; Berry, Sean L.; Barker, Christopher A. [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York (United States)

2016-06-15

Radiation therapy targeting axilla and groin lymph nodes improves regional disease control in locally advanced and high-risk skin cancers. However, trials generally used conventional two-dimensional radiotherapy (2D-RT), contributing towards relatively high rates of side effects from treatment. The goal of this study is to determine if three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), or volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) may improve radiation delivery to the target while avoiding organs at risk in the clinical context of skin cancer regional nodal irradiation. Twenty patients with locally advanced/high-risk skin cancers underwent computed tomography simulation. The relevant axilla or groin planning target volumes and organs at risk were delineated using standard definitions. Paired t-tests were used to compare the mean values of several dose-volumetric parameters for each of the 4 techniques. In the axilla, the largest improvement for 3D-CRT compared to 2D-RT was for homogeneity index (13.9 vs. 54.3), at the expense of higher lung V{sub 20} (28.0% vs. 12.6%). In the groin, the largest improvements for 3D-CRT compared to 2D-RT were for anorectum D{sub max} (13.6 vs. 38.9 Gy), bowel D{sub 200cc} (7.3 vs. 23.1 Gy), femur D{sub 50} (34.6 vs. 57.2 Gy), and genitalia D{sub max} (37.6 vs. 51.1 Gy). IMRT had further improvements compared to 3D-CRT for humerus D{sub mean} (16.9 vs. 22.4 Gy), brachial plexus D{sub 5} (57.4 vs. 61.3 Gy), bladder D{sub 5} (26.8 vs. 36.5 Gy), and femur D{sub 50} (18.7 vs. 34.6 Gy). Fewer differences were observed between IMRT and VMAT. Compared to 2D-RT and 3D-CRT, IMRT and VMAT had dosimetric advantages in the treatment of nodal regions of skin cancer patients.

A novel fusion method of improved adaptive LTP and two-directional two-dimensional PCA for face feature extraction

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Luo, Yuan; Wang, Bo-yu; Zhang, Yi; Zhao, Li-ming

2018-03-01

In this paper, under different illuminations and random noises, focusing on the local texture feature's defects of a face image that cannot be completely described because the threshold of local ternary pattern (LTP) cannot be calculated adaptively, a local three-value model of improved adaptive local ternary pattern (IALTP) is proposed. Firstly, the difference function between the center pixel and the neighborhood pixel weight is established to obtain the statistical characteristics of the central pixel and the neighborhood pixel. Secondly, the adaptively gradient descent iterative function is established to calculate the difference coefficient which is defined to be the threshold of the IALTP operator. Finally, the mean and standard deviation of the pixel weight of the local region are used as the coding mode of IALTP. In order to reflect the overall properties of the face and reduce the dimension of features, the two-directional two-dimensional PCA ((2D)2PCA) is adopted. The IALTP is used to extract local texture features of eyes and mouth area. After combining the global features and local features, the fusion features (IALTP+) are obtained. The experimental results on the Extended Yale B and AR standard face databases indicate that under different illuminations and random noises, the algorithm proposed in this paper is more robust than others, and the feature's dimension is smaller. The shortest running time reaches 0.329 6 s, and the highest recognition rate reaches 97.39%.

PCA determination of the radiometric noise of high spectral resolution infrared observations from spectral residuals: Application to IASI

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Serio, C.; Masiello, G.; Camy-Peyret, C.; Jacquette, E.; Vandermarcq, O.; Bermudo, F.; Coppens, D.; Tobin, D.

2018-02-01

The problem of characterizing and estimating the instrumental or radiometric noise of satellite high spectral resolution infrared spectrometers directly from Earth observations is addressed in this paper. An approach has been developed, which relies on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with a suitable criterion to select the optimal number of PC scores. Different selection criteria have been set up and analysed, which is based on the estimation theory of Least Squares and/or Maximum Likelihood Principle. The approach is independent of any forward model and/or radiative transfer calculations. The PCA is used to define an orthogonal basis, which, in turn, is used to derive an optimal linear reconstruction of the observations. The residual vector that is the observation vector minus the calculated or reconstructed one is then used to estimate the instrumental noise. It will be shown that the use of the spectral residuals to assess the radiometric instrumental noise leads to efficient estimators, which are largely independent of possible departures of the true noise from that assumed a priori to model the observational covariance matrix. Application to the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Interferometer (IASI) has been considered. A series of case studies has been set up, which make use of IASI observations. As a major result, the analysis confirms the high stability and radiometric performance of IASI. The approach also proved to be efficient in characterizing noise features due to mechanical micro-vibrations of the beam splitter of the IASI instrument.

Sexual function with localized prostate cancer: active surveillance vs radical therapy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Bergh, Roderick C. N.; Korfage, Ida J.; Roobol, Monique J.; Bangma, Chris H.; de Koning, Harry J.; Steyerberg, Ewout W.; Essink-Bot, Marie-Louise

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE To compare sexual function of men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) on active surveillance (AS) with similar patients who received radical therapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two groups of men with screening-detected localized PCa were compared. The first were men on AS within the prospective

PCA3 noncoding RNA is involved in the control of prostate-cancer cell survival and modulates androgen receptor signaling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferreira, Luciana Bueno; Gimba, Etel Rodrigues Pereira; Palumbo, Antonio; Mello, Kivvi Duarte de; Sternberg, Cinthya; Caetano, Mauricio S; Oliveira, Felipe Leite de; Neves, Adriana Freitas; Nasciutti, Luiz Eurico; Goulart, Luiz Ricardo

2012-01-01

PCA3 is a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) that is highly expressed in prostate cancer (PCa) cells, but its functional role is unknown. To investigate its putative function in PCa biology, we used gene expression knockdown by small interference RNA, and also analyzed its involvement in androgen receptor (AR) signaling. LNCaP and PC3 cells were used as in vitro models for these functional assays, and three different siRNA sequences were specifically designed to target PCA3 exon 4. Transfected cells were analyzed by real-time qRT-PCR and cell growth, viability, and apoptosis assays. Associations between PCA3 and the androgen-receptor (AR) signaling pathway were investigated by treating LNCaP cells with 100 nM dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and with its antagonist (flutamide), and analyzing the expression of some AR-modulated genes (TMPRSS2, NDRG1, GREB1, PSA, AR, FGF8, CdK1, CdK2 and PMEPA1). PCA3 expression levels were investigated in different cell compartments by using differential centrifugation and qRT-PCR. LNCaP siPCA3-transfected cells significantly inhibited cell growth and viability, and increased the proportion of cells in the sub G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle and the percentage of pyknotic nuclei, compared to those transfected with scramble siRNA (siSCr)-transfected cells. DHT-treated LNCaP cells induced a significant upregulation of PCA3 expression, which was reversed by flutamide. In siPCA3/LNCaP-transfected cells, the expression of AR target genes was downregulated compared to siSCr-transfected cells. The siPCA3 transfection also counteracted DHT stimulatory effects on the AR signaling cascade, significantly downregulating expression of the AR target gene. Analysis of PCA3 expression in different cell compartments provided evidence that the main functional roles of PCA3 occur in the nuclei and microsomal cell fractions. Our findings suggest that the ncRNA PCA3 is involved in the control of PCa cell survival, in part through modulating AR signaling, which may raise new

Convergence analysis of Chauvin's PCA learning algorithm with a constant learning rate

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Lv Jiancheng; Yi Zhang

2007-01-01

The convergence of Chauvin's PCA learning algorithm with a constant learning rate is studied in this paper by using a DDT method (deterministic discrete-time system method). Different from the DCT method (deterministic continuous-time system method), the DDT method does not require that the learning rate converges to zero. An invariant set of Chauvin's algorithm with a constant learning rate is obtained so that the non-divergence of this algorithm can be guaranteed. Rigorous mathematic proofs are provided to prove the local convergence of this algorithm

Clinical Significance of Serum Adipokines according to Body Mass Index in Patients with Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy

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Minyong Kang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of 7 circulating adipokines according to body mass index (BMI in Korean men with localized prostate cancer (PCa undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP. Materials and Methods: Sixty-two of 65 prospectively enrolled patients with clinically localized PCa who underwent RP between 2015 and 2016 were evaluated. Patients were classified into 2 groups according to their BMI: non-obese (＜25 kg/m2 and obese (≥25 kg/m2. The adipokines evaluated were interleukin-2, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1, chemerin, C-X-C motif chemokine 10, adiponectin, leptin, and resistin. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent predictors of advanced tumor stage. Results: We found that obese patients with PCa who underwent RP had a higher incidence of tumors with a high Gleason score (≥8, pathological T3 (pT3 stage, and positive extraprostatic extension than patients with a normal BMI. Additionally, patients with obesity showed significantly lower serum adiponectin and higher serum leptin levels, but did not show differences in other adipokines. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that IGF-1 (odds ratio [OR]=1.03 was identified as a predictor of advanced tumor stage (≥pT3 in the overall population. However, only leptin remained an independent predictive factor for advanced tumor stage (≥pT3 (OR=1.15 in patients with obesity. Conclusions: In conclusion, our results indicate that a higher leptin level in obese men can be considered a risk factor for aggressive PCa. This prospective study provides greater insight into the role of circulating adipokines in Korean patients with PCa undergoing RP, particularly in patients with obesity.

Evaluation of PCA3 and multiparametric MRI’s: collective benefits before deciding initial prostate biopsy for patients with PSA level between 3-10ng/mL

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Sezgin Okcelik

2016-06-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective To analyze the contribution of multiparametric MRI and PCA3 assay, pre- decision of initial biopsy in PSA level between 3-10 ng/mL patients with normal digital rectal examination(DRE. Materials and Methods PSA level 3-10 ng/mL ,patients, with normal DRE results and no previous prostate biopsy history, were included in this study. Each patient underwent multiparametric MRI one week before biopsy. Urine sample taking for PCA3 examination preceded the biopsy. Systematic and targeted biopsies were conducted. Patients with high PSA levels were seperated into two groups as: high PCA3 scored and low PCA3 scored. Then each group was divided into two sub-groups as: MRI lesion positive and negative. Tumor incidence, positive predictive values(PPV and negative predictive values(NPV were calculated. Results 53 patients were included between February 2013 and March 2014.Mean age 61.22 ± 1.06. Mean PSA value 5.13 ± 0.19 ng / mL. Mean PCA3 score 98.01 ± 23.13 and mean prostate size was 48.96 ± 2.67 grams. Fourty nine patients had both PCA3 score and multiparametric MRI. The PCA3’s PPV value was 58.33%. If multiparametric MRI lesions are added to high PCA3 scores , the PPV appears to elevate to 91.66%. NPV of PCA3 was 96%. NPV was 95% when there was no lesion in the multiparametric MRI with low PCA3 scores. Sensitivity was 91.66% , specificity was 95% respectively. Conclusion Adding multimetric MRI can also support biopsy decision for patients with high PCA3 value. When PCA3 value is low, patients can be survailled without any need to take a MRI.

Patient perspectives of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) and methods for improving pain control and patient satisfaction.

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Patak, Lance S; Tait, Alan R; Mirafzali, Leela; Morris, Michelle; Dasgupta, Sunavo; Brummett, Chad M

2013-01-01

This study aimed to (1) identify patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) attributes that negatively impact patient satisfaction and ability to control pain while using PCA and (2) obtain data on patient perceptions of new PCA design features. We conducted a prospective survey study of postoperative pain control among patients using a PCA device. The survey was designed to evaluate patient satisfaction with pain control, understanding of PCA, difficulties using PCA, lockout-period management, and evaluation of new PCA design features. A total of 350 eligible patients completed the survey (91%). Patients who had difficulties using PCA were less satisfied (P PCA. Forty-nine percent of patients reported not knowing if they would receive medicine when they pushed the PCA button, and of these, 22% believed that this uncertainty made their pain worse. The majority of patients preferred the proposed PCA design features for easier use, including a light on the button, making it easier to find (57%), and a PCA button that vibrates (55%) or lights up (70%), alerting the patient that the PCA pump is able to deliver more medicine. A majority of patients, irrespective of their satisfaction with PCA, preferred a new PCA design. Certain attributes of current PCA technology may negatively impact patient experience, and modifications could potentially address these concerns and improve patient outcomes.

Genetic polymorphisms of GSTM1, GSTT1, and GSTP1 with prostate cancer risk: a meta-analysis of 57 studies.

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Mancheng Gong

Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms might be involved in inactivation of procarcinogens that contribute to the genesis and progression of cancers. However, studies investigating the association between GSTM1, GSTT1 or GSTP1 polymorphisms and prostate cancer (PCa risk report conflicting results, therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to re-examine the controversy. METHODS: Published literature from PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI were searched (updated to June 2, 2012. According to our inclusion criteria, studies that observed the association between GSTM1, GSTT1 or GSTP1 polymorphisms and PCa risk were included. The principal outcome measure was the odds ratio (OR with 95% confidence interval (CI for the risk of PCa associated with GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 polymorphisms. RESULTS: Fifty-seven studies involving 11313 cases and 12934 controls were recruited. The overall OR, which was 1.2854 (95% CI = 1.1405-1.4487, revealed a significant risk of PCa and GSTM1 null genotype, and the similar results were observed when stratified by ethnicity and control source. Further, the more important is that the present study first reported the high risks of PCa for people who with dual null genotype of GSTM1 and GSTT1 (OR = 1.4353, 95% CI = 1.0345-1.9913, or who with GSTT1 null genotype and GSTP1 A131G polymorphism (OR = 1.7335, 95% CI = 1.1067-2.7152. But no association was determined between GSTT1 null genotype (OR = 1.102, 95% CI = 0.9596-1.2655 or GSTP1 A131G polymorphism (OR = 1.0845, 95% CI = 0.96-1.2251 and the PCa risk. CONCLUSIONS: Our meta-analysis suggested that the people with GSTM1 null genotype, with dual null genotype of GSTM1 and GSTT1, or with GSTT1 null genotype and GSTP1 A131G polymorphism are associated with high risks of PCa, but no association was found between GSTT1 null genotype or GSTP1 A131G polymorphism and the risk of

High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Alone for Localized Prostate Cancer in Patients at Moderate or High Risk of Biochemical Recurrence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoskin, Peter [Cancer Centre, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex (United Kingdom); Rojas, Ana, E-mail: arc03@btconnect.com [Cancer Centre, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex (United Kingdom); Lowe, Gerry; Bryant, Linda; Ostler, Peter; Hughes, Rob; Milner, Jessica; Cladd, Helen [Cancer Centre, Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, Middlesex (United Kingdom)

2012-03-15

Purpose: To evaluate genitourinary (GU) and gastrointestinal (GI) morbidity and biochemical control of disease in patients with localized prostate adenocarcinoma treated with escalating doses per fraction of high-dose rate brachytherapy alone. Methods and Materials: A total of 197 patients were treated with 34 Gy in four fractions, 36 Gy in four fractions, 31.5 Gy in three fractions, or 26 Gy in two fractions. Median follow-up times were 60, 54, 36, and 6 months, respectively. Results: Incidence of early Grade {>=} 3 GU morbidity was 3% to 7%, and Grade 4 was 0% to 4%. During the first 12 weeks, the highest mean International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) value was 14, and between 6 months and 5 years it was 8. Grade 3 or 4 early GI morbidity was not observed. The 3-year actuarial rate of Grade 3 GU was 3% to 16%, and was 3% to 7% for strictures requiring surgery (4-year rate). An incidence of 1% Grade 3 GI events was seen at 3 years. Late Grade 4 GU or GI events were not observed. At 3 years, 99% of patients with intermediate-risk and 91% with high-risk disease were free of biochemical relapse (log-rank p = 0.02). Conclusions: There was no significant difference in urinary and rectal morbidity between schedules. Biochemical control of disease in patients with intermediate and high risk of relapse was good.

Neutron spectral characterization of the PCA-PV benchmark facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stallmann, F.W.; Kam, F.B.K.; Fabry, A.

1980-01-01

The Pool Critical Assembly (PCA) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is being used to generate the PCA-PV benchmark neutron field. A configuration consisting of steel blocks and water gaps is used to simulate the thermal shield pressure vessel configurations in power reactors. The distances between the steel blocks can be changed so that the penetration of neutrons through water and steel can be determined and compared for many different configurations. Easy access and low flux levels make it possible to conduct extensive measurements using active and passive neutron dosimetry, which are impossible to perform in commercial reactors. The clean core and simple geometry facilitates neutron transport calculations which can be validated in detail by comparison with measurements. A facility which has the same configuration of water and steel as the PCA-PV facility but contains test specimens for materials testing, will be irradiated in the higher fluxes at the Oak Ridge Research Reactor. Using the results from the PCA-PV facility, the correlation between neutron flux-fluences and radiation damage in steel can be established. This facility is being discussed in a separate paper

A comparative study of PCA, SIMCA and Cole model for classification of bioimpedance spectroscopy measurements.

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Nejadgholi, Isar; Bolic, Miodrag

2015-08-01

Due to safety and low cost of bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS), classification of BIS can be potentially a preferred way of detecting changes in living tissues. However, for longitudinal datasets linear classifiers fail to classify conventional Cole parameters extracted from BIS measurements because of their high variability. In some applications, linear classification based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has shown more accurate results. Yet, these methods have not been established for BIS classification, since PCA features have neither been investigated in combination with other classifiers nor have been compared to conventional Cole features in benchmark classification tasks. In this work, PCA and Cole features are compared in three synthesized benchmark classification tasks which are expected to be detected by BIS. These three tasks are classification of before and after geometry change, relative composition change and blood perfusion in a cylindrical organ. Our results show that in all tasks the features extracted by PCA are more discriminant than Cole parameters. Moreover, a pilot study was done on a longitudinal arm BIS dataset including eight subjects and three arm positions. The goal of the study was to compare different methods in arm position classification which includes all three synthesized changes mentioned above. Our comparative study on various classification methods shows that the best classification accuracy is obtained when PCA features are classified by a K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) classifier. The results of this work suggest that PCA+KNN is a promising method to be considered for classification of BIS datasets that deal with subject and time variability. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision tree and PCA-based fault diagnosis of rotating machinery

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Sun, Weixiang; Chen, Jin; Li, Jiaqing

2007-04-01

After analysing the flaws of conventional fault diagnosis methods, data mining technology is introduced to fault diagnosis field, and a new method based on C4.5 decision tree and principal component analysis (PCA) is proposed. In this method, PCA is used to reduce features after data collection, preprocessing and feature extraction. Then, C4.5 is trained by using the samples to generate a decision tree model with diagnosis knowledge. At last the tree model is used to make diagnosis analysis. To validate the method proposed, six kinds of running states (normal or without any defect, unbalance, rotor radial rub, oil whirl, shaft crack and a simultaneous state of unbalance and radial rub), are simulated on Bently Rotor Kit RK4 to test C4.5 and PCA-based method and back-propagation neural network (BPNN). The result shows that C4.5 and PCA-based diagnosis method has higher accuracy and needs less training time than BPNN.

Effects of PCA and DMAE on the namatode Caenorhabditis briggsae.

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Zuckerman, B M; Barrett, K A

1978-04-01

Concentration of 6.8 mM DMAE did not retard age pigment accumulation in Caenorhabditis briggsae. However, when the nematodes were exposed to 6.8 mM PCA + 6.8 mM DMAE combined, the accumulation of age pigment was significantly retarded. A combination of 3.4 mM DMAE + 3.4 mM PCA had no effect on age pigment. It is concluded from this study that PCA and DMAE act in concert to produce the observed effect on age pigment. In respect to this parameter neither molecule was effective alone. The results indicate that the effect of centrophenoxine on age pigment might be enhanced by retarding the hydrolysis of centrophenoxine. The accumulation of electron dense aggregates, thought to be aggregates of cross-linked molecules, was reduced by 6.8 PCA + 6.8 DMAE. It is suggested that centrophenoxine be tested for its ability to remove random, unwanted cross-linkages in higher animals.

Pretreatment tables predicting pathologic stage of locally advanced prostate cancer.

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Joniau, Steven; Spahn, Martin; Briganti, Alberto; Gandaglia, Giorgio; Tombal, Bertrand; Tosco, Lorenzo; Marchioro, Giansilvio; Hsu, Chao-Yu; Walz, Jochen; Kneitz, Burkhard; Bader, Pia; Frohneberg, Detlef; Tizzani, Alessandro; Graefen, Markus; van Cangh, Paul; Karnes, R Jeffrey; Montorsi, Francesco; van Poppel, Hein; Gontero, Paolo

2015-02-01

Pretreatment tables for the prediction of pathologic stage have been published and validated for localized prostate cancer (PCa). No such tables are available for locally advanced (cT3a) PCa. To construct tables predicting pathologic outcome after radical prostatectomy (RP) for patients with cT3a PCa with the aim to help guide treatment decisions in clinical practice. This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study including 759 consecutive patients with cT3a PCa treated with RP between 1987 and 2010. Retropubic RP and pelvic lymphadenectomy. Patients were divided into pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and biopsy Gleason score (GS) subgroups. These parameters were used to construct tables predicting pathologic outcome and the presence of positive lymph nodes (LNs) after RP for cT3a PCa using ordinal logistic regression. In the model predicting pathologic outcome, the main effects of biopsy GS and pretreatment PSA were significant. A higher GS and/or higher PSA level was associated with a more unfavorable pathologic outcome. The validation procedure, using a repeated split-sample method, showed good predictive ability. Regression analysis also showed an increasing probability of positive LNs with increasing PSA levels and/or higher GS. Limitations of the study are the retrospective design and the long study period. These novel tables predict pathologic stage after RP for patients with cT3a PCa based on pretreatment PSA level and biopsy GS. They can be used to guide decision making in men with locally advanced PCa. Our study might provide physicians with a useful tool to predict pathologic stage in locally advanced prostate cancer that might help select patients who may need multimodal treatment. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PASS Reference Set Application: Lin UW (2010) TMPRSS2-ERG-PCA-PASS — EDRN Public Portal

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Active surveillance is used to manage low-risk prostate cancer. Both PCA3 and TMPRSS2:ERG are promising biomarkers that may be associated with aggressive disease. This study examines the correlation of these biomarkers with higher cancer volume and grade determined at the time of biopsy in an active surveillance cohort.

Ex vivo MRI evaluation of prostate cancer: Localization and margin status prediction of prostate cancer in fresh radical prostatectomy specimens.

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Heidkamp, Jan; Hoogenboom, Martijn; Kovacs, Iringo E; Veltien, Andor; Maat, Arie; Sedelaar, J P Michiel; Hulsbergen-van de Kaa, Christina A; Fütterer, Jurgen J

2018-02-01

To investigate the ability of high field ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to localize prostate cancer (PCa) and to predict the margin status in fresh radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens using histology as the reference standard. This Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved study had written informed consent. Patients with biopsy-proved PCa and a diagnostic multiparametric 3T MRI examination of the prostate prior to undergoing RP were prospectively included. A custom-made container provided reference between the 7T ex vivo MRI obtained from fresh RP specimens and histological slicing. On ex vivo MRI, PCa was localized and the presence of positive surgical margins was determined in a double-reading session. These findings were compared with histological findings obtained from completely cut, whole-mount embedded, prostate specimens. In 12 RP specimens, histopathology revealed 36 PCa lesions, of which 17 (47%) and 20 (56%) were correlated with the ex vivo MRI in the first and second reading session, respectively. Nine of 12 (75%) index lesions were localized in the first session, in the second 10 of 12 (83%). Seven and 8 lesions of 11 lesions with Gleason score >6 and >0.5 cc were localized in the first and second session, respectively. In the first session none of the four histologically positive surgical margins (sensitivity 0%) and 9 of 13 negative margins (specificity 69%) were detected. In second session the sensitivity and specificity were 25% and 88%, respectively. Ex vivo MRI enabled accurate localization of PCa in fresh RP specimens, and the technique provided information on the margin status with high specificity. 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:439-448. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Consumption of deep-fried foods and risk of prostate cancer.

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Stott-Miller, Marni; Neuhouser, Marian L; Stanford, Janet L

2013-06-01

Evidence suggests that high-heat cooking methods may increase the risk of prostate cancer (PCa). The addition of oil/fat, as in deep-frying, may be of particular concern, and has not specifically been investigated in relation to PCa. Potential mechanisms include the formation of potentially carcinogenic agents such as aldehydes, acrolein, heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and acrylamide. We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between tertiles of intake of deep-fried foods from a food frequency questionnaire (French fries, fried chicken, fried fish, doughnuts and snack chips) and PCa risk, adjusted for potential confounders, among 1,549 cases and 1,492 controls. We additionally examined associations with more aggressive PCa (defined as regional/distant stage, elevated Gleason score or prostate-specific antigen level). Compared with French fries (OR = 1.37; 95% CI, 1.11-1.69), fried chicken (OR = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.04-1.62), fried fish (OR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.05-1.66), and doughnuts (OR = 1.35; 95% CI, 1.11-1.66). There was no association for snack chips (OR = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.89-1.32). Most of the estimates were slightly stronger for more aggressive disease (OR = 1.41; 95% CI, 1.04-1.92 for fried fish). Regular consumption of select deep-fried foods is associated with increased PCa risk. Whether this risk is specific to deep-fried foods, or whether it represents risk associated with regular intake of foods exposed to high heat and/or other aspects of the Western lifestyle, such as fast food consumption, remains to be determined. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Meta-analysis of studies comparing oncologic outcomes of radical prostatectomy and brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer.

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Cozzi, Gabriele; Musi, Gennaro; Bianchi, Roberto; Bottero, Danilo; Brescia, Antonio; Cioffi, Antonio; Cordima, Giovanni; Delor, Maurizio; Di Trapani, Ettore; Ferro, Matteo; Matei, Deliu Victor; Russo, Andrea; Mistretta, Francesco Alessandro; De Cobelli, Ottavio

2017-11-01

The aim of this study was to compare oncologic outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP) with brachytherapy (BT). A literature review was conducted according to the 'Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses' (PRISMA) statement. We included studies reporting comparative oncologic outcomes of RP versus BT for localized prostate cancer (PCa). From each comparative study, we extracted the study design, the number and features of the included patients, and the oncologic outcomes expressed as all-cause mortality (ACM), PCa-specific mortality (PCSM) or, when the former were unavailable, as biochemical recurrence (BCR). All of the data retrieved from the selected studies were recorded in an electronic database. Cumulative analysis was conducted using the Review Manager version 5.3 software, designed for composing Cochrane Reviews (Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK). Statistical heterogeneity was tested using the Chi-square test. Our cumulative analysis did not show any significant difference in terms of BCR, ACM or PCSM rates between the RP and BT cohorts. Only three studies reported risk-stratified outcomes of intermediate- and high-risk patients, which are the most prone to treatment failure. our analysis suggested that RP and BT may have similar oncologic outcomes. However, the analysis included a limited number of studies, and most of them were retrospective, making it impossible to derive any definitive conclusion, especially for intermediate- and high-risk patients. In this scenario, appropriate urologic counseling remains of utmost importance.

GND-PCA-based statistical modeling of diaphragm motion extracted from 4D MRI.

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Swastika, Windra; Masuda, Yoshitada; Xu, Rui; Kido, Shoji; Chen, Yen-Wei; Haneishi, Hideaki

2013-01-01

We analyzed a statistical model of diaphragm motion using regular principal component analysis (PCA) and generalized N-dimensional PCA (GND-PCA). First, we generate 4D MRI of respiratory motion from 2D MRI using an intersection profile method. We then extract semiautomatically the diaphragm boundary from the 4D-MRI to get subject-specific diaphragm motion. In order to build a general statistical model of diaphragm motion, we normalize the diaphragm motion in time and spatial domains and evaluate the diaphragm motion model of 10 healthy subjects by applying regular PCA and GND-PCA. We also validate the results using the leave-one-out method. The results show that the first three principal components of regular PCA contain more than 98% of the total variation of diaphragm motion. However, validation using leave-one-out method gives up to 5.0 mm mean of error for right diaphragm motion and 3.8 mm mean of error for left diaphragm motion. Model analysis using GND-PCA provides about 1 mm margin of error and is able to reconstruct the diaphragm model by fewer samples.

Decision Support and Shared Decision Making About Active Surveillance Versus Active Treatment Among Men Diagnosed with Low-Risk Prostate Cancer: a Pilot Study.

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Myers, Ronald E; Leader, Amy E; Censits, Jean Hoffman; Trabulsi, Edouard J; Keith, Scott W; Petrich, Anett M; Quinn, Anna M; Den, Robert B; Hurwitz, Mark D; Lallas, Costas D; Hegarty, Sarah E; Dicker, Adam P; Zeigler-Johnson, Charnita M; Giri, Veda N; Ayaz, Hasan; Gomella, Leonard G

2018-02-01

This study aimed to explore the effects of a decision support intervention (DSI) and shared decision making (SDM) on knowledge, perceptions about treatment, and treatment choice among men diagnosed with localized low-risk prostate cancer (PCa). At a multidisciplinary clinic visit, 30 consenting men with localized low-risk PCa completed a baseline survey, had a nurse-mediated online DS session to clarify preference for active surveillance (AS) or active treatment (AT), and met with clinicians for SDM. Participants also completed a follow-up survey at 30 days. We assessed change in treatment knowledge, decisional conflict, and perceptions and identified predictors of AS. At follow-up, participants exhibited increased knowledge (p decision. Perceived support of the decision facilitated patient choice of AS.

Elemental concentration analysis in PCa, BPH and normal prostate tissues using SR-TXRF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leitao, Roberta G.; Anjos, Marcelino J.; Canellas, Catarine G.L.; Lopes, Ricardo T.

2009-01-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the main causes of illness and death all over the world. In Brazil, prostate cancer currently represents the second most prevalent malignant neoplasia in men, representing 21% of all cancer cases. Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (BPH) is an illness prevailing in men above the age of 50, close to 90% after the age of 80. The prostate presents a high zinc concentration, about 10-fold higher than any other body tissue. In this work, samples of human prostate tissues with cancer (PCa), BPH and normal tissue were analyzed utilizing the total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation technique (SRTXRF) to investigate the differences in the elemental concentrations in these tissues. SR-TXRF analyses were performed at the X-Ray fluorescence beamline at Brazilian National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), in Campinas, Sao Paulo. It was possible to determine the concentrations of the following elements: P, S, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br and Rb. By using Mann-Whitney U test it was observed that almost all elements presented concentrations with significant differences α = 0.05) between the groups studied. The elements and groups were: S, K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Br and Rb (PCa X Normal); S, Fe, Zn and Br (PCa X BPH); K, Ca, Fe, Zn, Br and Rb (BPH X Normal). (author)

Comparative analysis of the PCA3 gene expression in sediments and exosomes isolated from urine

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D. S. Mikhaylenko

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Prostate cancer (PCa is one of the common oncological diseases in men. Expression of the PCA3 gene in urine is currently used as a molecular genetic marker of PCa.Objective: to comparative analysis of the PCA3 expression in urine sediments and exosomes for the determination of the biomaterial, which allows detecting the PCA3 expression in more efficient manner.Materials and methods. The 12 patients with different stages of PCa and 8 control samples were examined.Results. The diagnostic accuracy of the PCA3 gene expression analysis in this cohort exceeded 90 %. We had not obtained significant differences in the sensitivity and specificity of the PCA3 hyperexpression in the urine sediments compared with exosomes. This result indicates in favor to using urine sediment for the PCA3 analysis as a biomaterial with less time-consuming sample preparation, although the possible advantage of exosomes for the analysis of the expression marker panels requires further studies.

The impact of metformin use on the risk of prostate cancer after prostate biopsy in patients with high grade intraepithelial neoplasia

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Lucio Dell'Atti

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose We report our experience on metformin use in diabetic patients and its impact on prostate cancer (PCa after a high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN diagnosis. Materials and Methods We retrospectively analyzed 551 patients with a diagnosis of HGPIN without PCa in a first prostate biopsy. The cohort of the study consisted of 456 nondiabetic subjects, and 95 diabetic patients. Among the patients with diabetes 44 were treated with metformin, and 51 with other antidiabetic drugs. A transrectal ultrasound prostate biopsy scheme with 22 cores was carried out 4-6 months after the first diagnosis of HGPIN. Results Among 195 (35.4% patients with cancer, there were statistically significant differences in terms of PCa detection (p<0.001, Gleason score distribution (p<0.001, and number of positive biopsy cores (p<0.002 between metformin users and non-users. Metformin use was associated with a decreased risk of PCa compared with neveruse (p<0.001. Moreover, increasing duration of metformin assumption (≥2 years was associated with decreasing incidence of PCa and higher Gleason score ≥7 compared with assumption <2 years. Conclusions This preliminary experience suggests that metformin use may have some beneficial effects in patients with diabetes and HGPIN; metformin should not be overlooked in these patients because it is neither new nor expensive.

Opioid Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA) use during the Initial Experience with the IMPROVE PCA Trial: A Phase III Analgesic Trial for Hospitalized Sickle Cell Patients with Painful Episodes

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Dampier, Carlton D.; Smith, Wally R.; Kim, Hae-Young; Wager, Carrie Greene; Bell, Margaret C.; Minniti, Caterina P.; Keefer, Jeffrey; Hsu, Lewis; Krishnamurti, Lakshmanan; Mack, A. Kyle; McClish, Donna; McKinlay, Sonja M.; Miller, Scott T.; Osunkwo, Ifeyinwa; Seaman, Phillip

2011-01-01

Opioid analgesics administered by patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) are frequently used for pain relief in children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) hospitalized for persistent vaso-occlusive pain, but optimum opioid dosing is not known. To better define PCA dosing recommendations, a multi-center phase III clinical trial was conducted comparing two alternative opioid PCA dosing strategies (HDLI-higher demand dose with low constant infusion or LDHI- lower demand dose and higher const...

Development and external multicenter validation of Chinese Prostate Cancer Consortium prostate cancer risk calculator for initial prostate biopsy.

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Chen, Rui; Xie, Liping; Xue, Wei; Ye, Zhangqun; Ma, Lulin; Gao, Xu; Ren, Shancheng; Wang, Fubo; Zhao, Lin; Xu, Chuanliang; Sun, Yinghao

2016-09-01

Substantial differences exist in the relationship of prostate cancer (PCa) detection rate and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level between Western and Asian populations. Classic Western risk calculators, European Randomized Study for Screening of Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator, and Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Risk Calculator, were shown to be not applicable in Asian populations. We aimed to develop and validate a risk calculator for predicting the probability of PCa and high-grade PCa (defined as Gleason Score sum 7 or higher) at initial prostate biopsy in Chinese men. Urology outpatients who underwent initial prostate biopsy according to the inclusion criteria were included. The multivariate logistic regression-based Chinese Prostate Cancer Consortium Risk Calculator (CPCC-RC) was constructed with cases from 2 hospitals in Shanghai. Discriminative ability, calibration and decision curve analysis were externally validated in 3 CPCC member hospitals. Of the 1,835 patients involved, PCa was identified in 338/924 (36.6%) and 294/911 (32.3%) men in the development and validation cohort, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that 5 predictors (age, logPSA, logPV, free PSA ratio, and digital rectal examination) were associated with PCa (Model 1) or high-grade PCa (Model 2), respectively. The area under the curve of Model 1 and Model 2 was 0.801 (95% CI: 0.771-0.831) and 0.826 (95% CI: 0.796-0.857), respectively. Both models illustrated good calibration and substantial improvement in decision curve analyses than any single predictors at all threshold probabilities. Higher predicting accuracy, better calibration, and greater clinical benefit were achieved by CPCC-RC, compared with European Randomized Study for Screening of Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator and Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial Risk Calculator in predicting PCa. CPCC-RC performed well in discrimination and calibration and decision curve analysis in external validation compared

Evidence for Masturbation and Prostate Cancer Risk: Do We Have a Verdict?

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Aboul-Enein, Basil H; Bernstein, Joshua; Ross, Michael W

2016-07-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men and remains one of the most diagnosed malignancies worldwide. Ongoing public health efforts continue to promote protective factors, such as diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle modifications, against PCa development. Masturbation is a nearly universal safe sexual activity that transcends societal boundaries and geography yet continues to be met with stigma and controversy in contemporary society. Although previous studies have examined associations between sexual activity and PCa risk, anecdotal relations have been suggested regarding masturbation practice and PCa risk. To provide a summary of the published literature and examine the contemporary evidence for relations between masturbation practice and PCa risk. A survey of the current literature using seven academic electronic databases was conducted using search terms and key words associated with masturbation practice and PCa risk. The practice of masturbation and its relation to PCa risk. The literature search identified study samples (n = 16) published before October 2015. Sample inclusions varied by study type, sample size, and primary objective. Protective relations (n = 7) between ejaculation through masturbation and PCa risk were reported by 44% of the study sample. Age range emerged as a significant variable in the relation between masturbation and PCa. Findings included relations among masturbation, ejaculation frequency, and age range as individual factors of PCa risk. No universally accepted themes were identified across the study sample. Throughout the sample, there was insufficient agreement in survey design and data reporting. Potential avenues for new research include frequency of ejaculation and age range as covarying factors that could lead to more definitive statements about masturbation practice and PCa risk. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights

Detectable end of radiation prostate specific antigen assists in identifying men with unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer at high risk of distant recurrence and cancer-specific mortality.

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Hayman, Jonathan; Phillips, Ryan; Chen, Di; Perin, Jamie; Narang, Amol K; Trieu, Janson; Radwan, Noura; Greco, Stephen; Deville, Curtiland; McNutt, Todd; Song, Daniel Y; DeWeese, Theodore L; Tran, Phuoc T

2018-06-01

Undetectable End of Radiation PSA (EOR-PSA) has been shown to predict improved survival in prostate cancer (PCa). While validating the unfavorable intermediate-risk (UIR) and favorable intermediate-risk (FIR) stratifications among Johns Hopkins PCa patients treated with radiotherapy, we examined whether EOR-PSA could further risk stratify UIR men for survival. A total of 302 IR patients were identified in the Johns Hopkins PCa database (178 UIR, 124 FIR). Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariable analysis was performed via Cox regression for biochemical recurrence free survival (bRFS), distant metastasis free survival (DMFS), and overall survival (OS), while a competing risks model was used for PCa specific survival (PCSS). Among the 235 patients with known EOR-PSA values, we then stratified by EOR-PSA and performed the aforementioned analysis. The median follow-up time was 11.5 years (138 months). UIR was predictive of worse DMFS and PCSS (P = 0.008 and P = 0.023) on multivariable analysis (MVA). Increased radiation dose was significant for improved DMFS (P = 0.016) on MVA. EOR-PSA was excluded from the models because it did not trend towards significance as a continuous or binary variable due to interaction with UIR, and we were unable to converge a multivariable model with a variable to control for this interaction. However, when stratifying by detectable versus undetectable EOR-PSA, UIR had worse DMFS and PCSS among detectable EOR-PSA patients, but not undetectable patients. UIR was significant on MVA among detectable EOR-PSA patients for DMFS (P = 0.021) and PCSS (P = 0.033), while RT dose also predicted PCSS (P = 0.013). EOR-PSA can assist in predicting DMFS and PCSS among UIR patients, suggesting a clinically meaningful time point for considering intensification of treatment in clinical trials of intermediate-risk men. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Epileptic seizure detection in EEG signal with GModPCA and support vector machine.

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Jaiswal, Abeg Kumar; Banka, Haider

2017-01-01

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders caused by recurrent seizures. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) record neural activity and can detect epilepsy. Visual inspection of an EEG signal for epileptic seizure detection is a time-consuming process and may lead to human error; therefore, recently, a number of automated seizure detection frameworks were proposed to replace these traditional methods. Feature extraction and classification are two important steps in these procedures. Feature extraction focuses on finding the informative features that could be used for classification and correct decision-making. Therefore, proposing effective feature extraction techniques for seizure detection is of great significance. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a dimensionality reduction technique used in different fields of pattern recognition including EEG signal classification. Global modular PCA (GModPCA) is a variation of PCA. In this paper, an effective framework with GModPCA and Support Vector Machine (SVM) is presented for epileptic seizure detection in EEG signals. The feature extraction is performed with GModPCA, whereas SVM trained with radial basis function kernel performed the classification between seizure and nonseizure EEG signals. Seven different experimental cases were conducted on the benchmark epilepsy EEG dataset. The system performance was evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation. In addition, we prove analytically that GModPCA has less time and space complexities as compared to PCA. The experimental results show that EEG signals have strong inter-sub-pattern correlations. GModPCA and SVM have been able to achieve 100% accuracy for the classification between normal and epileptic signals. Along with this, seven different experimental cases were tested. The classification results of the proposed approach were better than were compared the results of some of the existing methods proposed in literature. It is also found that the time and space

The Very High Risk Prostate Cancer – a Contemporary Update

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Mano, Roy; Eastham, James; Yossepowitch, Ofer

2017-01-01

Background Treatment of high-risk prostate cancer has evolved considerably over the past two decades, yet patients with very high-risk features may still experience poor outcome despite aggressive therapy. We review the contemporary literature focusing on current definitions, role of modern imaging and treatment alternatives in very high-risk prostate cancer. Methods We searched the MEDLINE database for all clinical trials or practice guidelines published in English between 2000 – 2016 with the following search terms: ‘prostatic neoplasms’ (MeSH Terms) AND (‘high risk’ (keyword) OR ‘locally advanced’ (keyword) OR ‘node positive’ (keyword)). Abstracts pertaining to very high-risk prostate cancer were evaluated and 40 pertinent studies served as the basis for this review. Results The term ‘very’ high-risk prostate cancer remains ill defined. The EAU and NCCN guidelines provide the only available definitions, categorizing those with clinical stage T3-4 or minimal nodal involvement as very-high risk irrespective of PSA level or biopsy Gleason score. Modern imaging with mpMRI and PET-PSMA scans plays a role in pretreatment assessment. Local definitive therapy by external beam radiation combined with androgen deprivation is supported by several randomized clinical trials whereas the role of surgery in the very high-risk setting combined with adjuvant radiation/ androgen deprivation therapy is emerging. Growing evidence suggest neoadjuvant taxane based chemotherapy in the context of a multimodal approach may be beneficial. Conclusions Men with very high-risk tumors may benefit from local definitive treatment in the setting of a multimodal regimen, offering local control and possibly cure in well selected patients. Further studies are necessary to better characterize the ‘very’ high-risk category and determine the optimal therapy for the individual patient. PMID:27618950

Genetic variations in a PTEN/AKT/mTOR axis and prostate cancer risk in a Chinese population.

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Jiawei Chen

Full Text Available Genetic variations in a PTEN/AKT/mTOR signaling axis may influence cellular functions including cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis, and then increase the individual's risk of cancer. Accordingly, we explore the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs of these genes and prostate cancer (PCa in our Chinese population.Subjects were recruited from 666 PCa patients and 708 cancer-free controls, and eight SNPs in the PTEN/AKT/mTOR axis were determined by the TaqMan assay. Odds ratios (OR and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI were evaluated by logistic regression.We observed significant associations between PCa risk and mTOR rs2295080 [P = 0.027, OR = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.74-0.98], and AKT2 rs7254617 (P = 0.003, OR = 1.35, 95%CI = 1.11-1.64. When estimated these two SNPs together, the combined genotypes with 2-4 risk alleles (rs2295080 T and rs7254617 A alleles were associated with an increased risk of PCa compared with 0-1 risk alleles, which was more pronounced among subgroups of age >71 years, smokers, drinkers and no family history of cancer. Results of stratified analyses by cliniopathological parameters revealed that the frequencies of the combined genotypes with 2-4 risk alleles in advanced stage were significantly higher than in localized stage (P = 0.022, but there was no significant association in Gleason score and PSA level.Our results indicate, for the first time that the two variants in AKT2 and mTOR, particularly the joint genotypes with 2-4 risk alleles may influence PCa susceptibility and progression in Chinese, and the association appeared to be more strong in the subgroup of smokers and drinkers.

An EEMD-PCA approach to extract heart rate, respiratory rate and respiratory activity from PPG signal.

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Motin, Mohammod Abdul; Karmakar, Chandan Kumar; Palaniswami, Marimuthu

2016-08-01

The pulse oximeter's photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals, measure the local variations of blood volume in tissues, reflecting the peripheral pulse modulated by cardiac activity, respiration and other physiological effects. Therefore, PPG can be used to extract the vital cardiorespiratory signals like heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and respiratory activity (RA) and this will reduce the number of sensors connected to the patient's body for recording vital signs. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition with principal component analysis (EEMD-PCA) as a novel approach to estimate HR, RR and RA simultaneously from PPG signal. To examine the performance of the proposed algorithm, we used 45 epochs of PPG, electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiratory signal extracted from the MIMIC database (Physionet ATM data bank). The ECG and capnograph based respiratory signal were used as the ground truth and several metrics such as magnitude squared coherence (MSC), correlation coefficients (CC) and root mean square (RMS) error were used to compare the performance of EEMD-PCA algorithm with most of the existing methods in the literature. Results of EEMD-PCA based extraction of HR, RR and RA from PPG signal showed that the median RMS error (quartiles) obtained for RR was 0 (0, 0.89) breaths/min, for HR was 0.62 (0.56, 0.66) beats/min and for RA the average value of MSC and CC was 0.95 and 0.89 respectively. These results illustrated that the proposed EEMD-PCA approach is more accurate in estimating HR, RR and RA than other existing methods.

GO-PCA: An Unsupervised Method to Explore Gene Expression Data Using Prior Knowledge.

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Wagner, Florian

2015-01-01

Genome-wide expression profiling is a widely used approach for characterizing heterogeneous populations of cells, tissues, biopsies, or other biological specimen. The exploratory analysis of such data typically relies on generic unsupervised methods, e.g. principal component analysis (PCA) or hierarchical clustering. However, generic methods fail to exploit prior knowledge about the molecular functions of genes. Here, I introduce GO-PCA, an unsupervised method that combines PCA with nonparametric GO enrichment analysis, in order to systematically search for sets of genes that are both strongly correlated and closely functionally related. These gene sets are then used to automatically generate expression signatures with functional labels, which collectively aim to provide a readily interpretable representation of biologically relevant similarities and differences. The robustness of the results obtained can be assessed by bootstrapping. I first applied GO-PCA to datasets containing diverse hematopoietic cell types from human and mouse, respectively. In both cases, GO-PCA generated a small number of signatures that represented the majority of lineages present, and whose labels reflected their respective biological characteristics. I then applied GO-PCA to human glioblastoma (GBM) data, and recovered signatures associated with four out of five previously defined GBM subtypes. My results demonstrate that GO-PCA is a powerful and versatile exploratory method that reduces an expression matrix containing thousands of genes to a much smaller set of interpretable signatures. In this way, GO-PCA aims to facilitate hypothesis generation, design of further analyses, and functional comparisons across datasets.

Characteristics and Validation Techniques for PCA-Based Gene-Expression Signatures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anders E. Berglund

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Many gene-expression signatures exist for describing the biological state of profiled tumors. Principal Component Analysis (PCA can be used to summarize a gene signature into a single score. Our hypothesis is that gene signatures can be validated when applied to new datasets, using inherent properties of PCA. Results. This validation is based on four key concepts. Coherence: elements of a gene signature should be correlated beyond chance. Uniqueness: the general direction of the data being examined can drive most of the observed signal. Robustness: if a gene signature is designed to measure a single biological effect, then this signal should be sufficiently strong and distinct compared to other signals within the signature. Transferability: the derived PCA gene signature score should describe the same biology in the target dataset as it does in the training dataset. Conclusions. The proposed validation procedure ensures that PCA-based gene signatures perform as expected when applied to datasets other than those that the signatures were trained upon. Complex signatures, describing multiple independent biological components, are also easily identified.

The Risk Factors of Prostate Cancer and Its Prevention: A Literature Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noor Riza Perdana

2016-11-01

Numerous epidemiologic studies have linked PCa risk to various factors, i.e. age, ethnicity, family history, insulin like-growth factors, lifestyle, diet, environmental and occupational exposures. The results of epidemiological, In vivo, in vitro, and early clinical studies suggested that selected dietary products and supplementation may play a role in PCa prevention. More studies are still needed to explore and find the risk factors and preventive methods of PCa development. It is important for clinician to ellaborate these informations for education to lower PCa risks and prevent PCa.

Consumption of deep-fried foods and risk of prostate cancera,b

Science.gov (United States)

Stott-Miller, Marni; Neuhouser, Marian L.; Stanford, Janet L.

2013-01-01

Background Evidence suggests that high-heat cooking methods may increase the risk of prostate cancer (PCa). The addition of oil/fat, as in deep-frying, may be of particular concern, and has not specifically been investigated in relation to PCa. Potential mechanisms include the formation of potentially carcinogenic agents such as aldehydes, acrolein, heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and acrylamide. Methods We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between tertiles of intake of deep-fried foods from a food frequency questionnaire (French fries, fried chicken, fried fish, doughnuts and snack chips) and PCa risk, adjusted for potential confounders, among 1,549 cases and 1,492 controls. We additionally examined associations with more aggressive PCa (defined as regional/distant stage, elevated Gleason score or prostate specific antigen level). Results Compared with French fries (OR=1.37; 95% CI, 1.11–1.69), fried chicken (OR=1.30; 95% CI, 1.04–1.62), fried fish (OR=1.32; 95% CI, 1.05–1.66), and doughnuts (OR=1.35; 95% CI, 1.11–1.66). There was no association for snack chips (OR=1.08; 95% CI, 0.89–1.32). Most of the estimates were slightly stronger for more aggressive disease (OR=1.41; 95% CI, 1.04–1.92 for fried fish). Conclusion Regular consumption of select deep-fried foods is associated with increased PCa risk. Whether this risk is specific to deep-fried foods, or whether it represents risk associated with regular intake of foods exposed to high heat and/or other aspects of the Western lifestyle, such as fast food consumption, remains to be determined. PMID:23335051

Survival After Conservative Management Versus External Beam Radiation Therapy in Elderly Patients With Localized Prostate Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dell' Oglio, Paolo, E-mail: paolo.delloglio@gmail.com [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Department of Urology and Division of Experimental Oncology, Urological Research Institute, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan (Italy); Boehm, Katharina [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Martini-Clinic, Prostate Cancer Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg (Germany); Trudeau, Vincent [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Department of Urology, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Tian, Zhe [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Larcher, Alessandro [Department of Urology and Division of Experimental Oncology, Urological Research Institute, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan (Italy); Leyh-Bannurah, Sami-Ramzi [Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Québec (Canada); Martini-Clinic, Prostate Cancer Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg (Germany); Moschini, Marco; Capitanio, Umberto [Department of Urology and Division of Experimental Oncology, Urological Research Institute, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan (Italy); Shariat, Shahrokh F. [Department of Urology, Medical University of Vienna and General Hospital, Vienna (Austria); and others

2016-12-01

Purpose: To compare survival in elderly men with clinically localized prostate cancer (PCa) according to treatment type, defined as radiation therapy (RT) with or without androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) versus conservative management (observation). Methods and Materials: In the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare linked database, we identified 23,790 patients aged 80 years or more with clinically localized PCa treated with either RT or observation between 1991 and 2009. Competing risks analyses focused on cancer-specific mortality and other-cause mortality, after accounting for confounders. All analyses were repeated after stratification according to grade (well-differentiated vs moderately differentiated vs poorly differentiated disease), race, and United States region, in patients with no comorbidities and in patients with at least 1 comorbidity. Analyses were repeated within most contemporary patients, namely those treated between 2001 and 2009. Results: Radiation therapy was associated with more favorable cancer-specific mortality rates than observation in patients with moderately differentiated disease (hazard ratio [HR] 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66-0.94; P=.009) and in patients with poorly differentiated disease (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.49-0.69; P<.001). Conversely, the benefit of RT was not observed in well-differentiated disease. The benefit of RT was confirmed in black men (HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.35-0.83; P=.004), across all United States regions (all P≤.004), in the subgroups of the healthiest patients (HR 0.67; 95% CI 0.57-0.78; P<.001), in patients with at least 1 comorbidity (HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.56-0.83; P<.001), and in most contemporary patients (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.46-0.66; P<.001). Conclusions: Radiation therapy seems to be associated with a reduction in the risk of death from PCa relative to observation in elderly patients with clinically localized PCa, except for those with well-differentiated disease.

Survival After Conservative Management Versus External Beam Radiation Therapy in Elderly Patients With Localized Prostate Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dell'Oglio, Paolo; Boehm, Katharina; Trudeau, Vincent; Tian, Zhe; Larcher, Alessandro; Leyh-Bannurah, Sami-Ramzi; Moschini, Marco; Capitanio, Umberto; Shariat, Shahrokh F.

2016-01-01

Purpose: To compare survival in elderly men with clinically localized prostate cancer (PCa) according to treatment type, defined as radiation therapy (RT) with or without androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) versus conservative management (observation). Methods and Materials: In the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare linked database, we identified 23,790 patients aged 80 years or more with clinically localized PCa treated with either RT or observation between 1991 and 2009. Competing risks analyses focused on cancer-specific mortality and other-cause mortality, after accounting for confounders. All analyses were repeated after stratification according to grade (well-differentiated vs moderately differentiated vs poorly differentiated disease), race, and United States region, in patients with no comorbidities and in patients with at least 1 comorbidity. Analyses were repeated within most contemporary patients, namely those treated between 2001 and 2009. Results: Radiation therapy was associated with more favorable cancer-specific mortality rates than observation in patients with moderately differentiated disease (hazard ratio [HR] 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66-0.94; P=.009) and in patients with poorly differentiated disease (HR 0.58; 95% CI 0.49-0.69; P<.001). Conversely, the benefit of RT was not observed in well-differentiated disease. The benefit of RT was confirmed in black men (HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.35-0.83; P=.004), across all United States regions (all P≤.004), in the subgroups of the healthiest patients (HR 0.67; 95% CI 0.57-0.78; P<.001), in patients with at least 1 comorbidity (HR 0.69; 95% CI 0.56-0.83; P<.001), and in most contemporary patients (HR 0.55; 95% CI 0.46-0.66; P<.001). Conclusions: Radiation therapy seems to be associated with a reduction in the risk of death from PCa relative to observation in elderly patients with clinically localized PCa, except for those with well-differentiated disease.

Prostate extracellular vesicles in patient plasma as a liquid biopsy platform for prostate cancer using nanoscale flow cytometry

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Al-Zahrani, Ali A.; Pardhan, Siddika; Brett, Sabine I.; Guo, Qiu Q.; Yang, Jun; Wolf, Philipp; Power, Nicholas E.; Durfee, Paul N.; MacMillan, Connor D.; Townson, Jason L.; Brinker, Jeffrey C.; Fleshner, Neil E.; Izawa, Jonathan I.; Chambers, Ann F.; Chin, Joseph L.; Leong, Hon S.

2016-01-01

Background Extracellular vesicles released by prostate cancer present in seminal fluid, urine, and blood may represent a non-invasive means to identify and prioritize patients with intermediate risk and high risk of prostate cancer. We hypothesize that enumeration of circulating prostate microparticles (PMPs), a type of extracellular vesicle (EV), can identify patients with Gleason Score≥4+4 prostate cancer (PCa) in a manner independent of PSA. Patients and Methods Plasmas from healthy volunteers, benign prostatic hyperplasia patients, and PCa patients with various Gleason score patterns were analyzed for PMPs. We used nanoscale flow cytometry to enumerate PMPs which were defined as submicron events (100-1000nm) immunoreactive to anti-PSMA mAb when compared to isotype control labeled samples. Levels of PMPs (counts/μL of plasma) were also compared to CellSearch CTC Subclasses in various PCa metastatic disease subtypes (treatment naïve, castration resistant prostate cancer) and in serially collected plasma sets from patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. Results PMP levels in plasma as enumerated by nanoscale flow cytometry are effective in distinguishing PCa patients with Gleason Score≥8 disease, a high-risk prognostic factor, from patients with Gleason Score≤7 PCa, which carries an intermediate risk of PCa recurrence. PMP levels were independent of PSA and significantly decreased after surgical resection of the prostate, demonstrating its prognostic potential for clinical follow-up. CTC subclasses did not decrease after prostatectomy and were not effective in distinguishing localized PCa patients from metastatic PCa patients. Conclusions PMP enumeration was able to identify patients with Gleason Score ≥8 PCa but not patients with Gleason Score 4+3 PCa, but offers greater confidence than CTC counts in identifying patients with metastatic prostate cancer. CTC Subclass analysis was also not effective for post-prostatectomy follow up and for

Protocatechuic acid (PCA) induced a better antiviral effect by immune enhancement in SPF chickens.

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Guo, Yongxia; Zhang, Qiang; Zuo, Zonghui; Chu, Jun; Xiao, Hongzhi; Javed, M Tariq; He, Cheng

2018-01-01

Protocatechuic acid (PCA) is an antiviral agent against Avian Influenza virus (AIV) and Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD) virus, but its antiviral mechanism is unknown. In this study, we evaluated the humoral and cellular responses to PCA in specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens. One hundred forty 35-day-old SPF chickens were randomly divided into 7 groups. The birds were inoculated with the commercial, attenuated Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) vaccine and then received orally with 10, 20 or 40 mg/kg body weight of PCA for 30 days. Immune organ indexes, anti-Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) antibodies and lymphocyte proliferation, but not body weight, were significantly increased in chicken treated with 40 mg/kg PCA, compared to the control birds treated with Astragalus polysaccharide (ASP). Survival rate was 70% and 60%, respectively, in the chickens with 40 mg/kg PCA, 20 mg/kg PCA while 50% survival was found in the birds treated with 125 mg/kg ASP. PCA treatment resulted in significantly lower viral load and reduced shedding. These results indicate that PCA may improve poultry health by enhancing both the humoral and cellular immune response. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

SPINK1 Overexpression in Localized Prostate Cancer: a Rare Event Inversely Associated with ERG Expression and Exclusive of Homozygous PTEN Deletion.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Kuo-Cheng; Evans, Andrew; Donnelly, Bryan; Bismar, Tarek A

2017-04-01

SPINK1 is proposed as potential prognostic marker in prostate cancer (PCA). However, its relation to PTEN and ERG in localized PCA remains unclear. The study population consisted of two independent cohorts of men treated by radical prostatectomy for localized PCA (discovery n = 218 and validation n = 129). Patterns of association between SPINK1 and each of ERG and PTEN were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Associations between SPINK1 expression and various pathologic parameters and clinical outcome were also investigated. SPINK1 was expressed in 15.3 % and 10.9 % of cases in the discovery and validation cohort, respectively. SPINK expression was observed in 5.56 % of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia and 1.1 % of adjacent morphologically benign prostatic glands. SPINK1 and ERG expression were almost exclusive, with only 1.0 % of the cases co-expressing both in the same core sample. SPINK1 interfocal and within-core heterogeneity was noted in 29.2 % and 64.6 % of cases, respectively. SPINK1 expression was not significantly associated with PTEN deletion in the two cohorts (p = 0.871 for discovery cohort and p = 0.293 for validation cohort). While SPINK1 expression did occur with hemizygous PTEN deletion, there was a complete absence of SPINK1 expression in PCA showing homozygous PTEN deletion, which was confirmed in the validation cohort (p = 0.02). Despite SPINK1's association with higher Gleason score (>7) (p = 0.02), it was not associated with other pathological parameters or biochemical recurrence post-radical prostatectomy. We documented absolute exclusivity between SPINK1 overexpression and homozygous PTEN deletion in localized PCA. SPINK1 and ERG expressions are exclusive events in PCA. SPINK1 is not of added prognostic value in localized PCA.

Mortality among men with locally advanced prostate cancer managed with noncurative intent: a nationwide study in PCBaSe Sweden.

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Akre, Olof; Garmo, Hans; Adolfsson, Jan; Lambe, Mats; Bratt, Ola; Stattin, Pär

2011-09-01

There are limited prognostic data for locally advanced prostate cancer PCa to guide in the choice of treatment. To assess mortality in different prognostic categories among men with locally advanced PCa managed with noncurative intent. We conducted a register-based nationwide cohort study within the Prostate Cancer DataBase Sweden. The entire cohort of locally advanced PCa included 14 908 men. After the exclusion of 2724 (18%) men treated with curative intent, 12 184 men with locally advanced PCa either with local clinical stage T3 or T4 or with T2 with serum levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) between 50 and 99 ng/ml and without signs of metastases remained for analysis. We followed up the patient cohort in the Cause of Death Register for ≤ 11 yr and assessed cumulative incidence of PCa -specific death stratified by age and clinical characteristics. The PCa -specific mortality at 8 yr of follow-up was 28% (95% confidence interval [CI], 25-32%) for Gleason score (GS) 2-6, 41% (95% CI, 38-44%) for GS 7, 52% (95% CI, 47-57%) for GS 8, and 64% (95% CI, 59-69%) for GS 9-10. Even for men aged >85 yr at diagnosis with GS 8-10, PCa was a major cause of death: 42% (95% CI, 37-47%). Men with locally advanced disease and a PSAadvanced PCa, suggesting undertreatment, particularly among men in older age groups. Our results underscore the need for more studies of treatment with curative intent for locally advanced tumors. Copyright © 2011 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Interleukin-6: a bone marrow stromal cell paracrine signal that induces neuroendocrine differentiation and modulates autophagy in bone metastatic PCa cells.

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Delk, Nikki A; Farach-Carson, Mary C

2012-04-01

Autophagy reallocates nutrients and clears normal cells of damaged proteins and organelles. In the context of metastatic disease, invading cancer cells hijack autophagic processes to survive and adapt in the host microenvironment. We sought to understand how autophagy is regulated in the metastatic niche for prostate cancer (PCa) cells where bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) paracrine signaling induces PCa neuroendocrine differentiation (NED). In PCa, this transdifferentiation of metastatic PCa cells to neuronal-like cells correlates with advanced disease. Because autophagy provides a survival advantage for cancer cells and promotes cell differentiation, we hypothesized that autophagy mediates PCa NED in the bone. Thus, we determined the ability of paracrine factors in conditioned media (CM) from two separate BMSC subtypes, HS5 and HS27a, to induce autophagy in C4-2 and C4-2B bone metastatic PCa cells by characterizing the autophagy marker, LC3. Unlike HS27a CM, HS5 CM induced LC3 accumulation in PCa cells, suggesting autophagy was induced and indicating that HS5 and HS27a secrete a different milieu of paracrine factors that influence PCa autophagy. We identified interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine more highly expressed in HS5 cells than in HS27a cells, as a paracrine factor that regulates PCa autophagy. Pharmacological inhibition of STAT3 activity did not attenuate LC3 accumulation, implying that IL-6 regulates NED and autophagy through different pathways. Finally, chloroquine inhibition of autophagic flux blocked PCa NED; hence autophagic flux maintains NED. Our studies imply that autophagy is cytoprotective for PCa cells in the bone, thus targeting autophagy is a potential therapeutic strategy.

Can we use PCA to detect small signals in noisy data?

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Spiegelberg, Jakob; Rusz, Ján

2017-01-01

Principal component analysis (PCA) is among the most commonly applied dimension reduction techniques suitable to denoise data. Focusing on its limitations to detect low variance signals in noisy data, we discuss how statistical and systematical errors occur in PCA reconstructed data as a function of the size of the data set, which extends the work of Lichtert and Verbeeck, (2013) [16]. Particular attention is directed towards the estimation of bias introduced by PCA and its influence on experiment design. Aiming at the denoising of large matrices, nullspace based denoising (NBD) is introduced. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[The value of PHI/PCA3 in the early diagnosis of prostate cancer].

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Tan, S J; Xu, L W; Xu, Z; Wu, J P; Liang, K; Jia, R P

2016-01-12

To investigate the value of prostate health index (PHI) and prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) in the early diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa). A total of 190 patients with abnormal serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) or abnormal digital rectal examination were enrolled. They were all underwent initial biopsy and 11 of them were also underwent repeated biopsy. In addition, 25 healthy cases (with normal digital rectal examination and PSAPHI and PCA3 were detected by using immunofluorescence and Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP). The sensitivity and specificity of diagnosis were determined by ROC curve.In addition, the relationship between PHI/PSA and the Gleason score and clinical stage were analyzed. A total of 89 patients were confirmed PCa by Pathological diagnosis. The other 101 patients were diagnosed as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The sensitivity and specificity of PCA3 test were 85.4% was 92.1%. Area under curve (AUC) of PHI is higher than AUC of PSA (0.727>0.699). The PHI in peripheral blood was positively correlated with Gleason score and clinical stage. The detection of PCA3 and PHI shows excellent detecting effectiveness. Compared with single PSA, the combined detection of PHI and PCA3 improved the diagnostic specificity. It can provide a new method for the early diagnosis in prostate cancer and avoid unnecessary biopsies.

A Multi-Time Scale Morphable Software Milieu for Polymorphous Computing Architectures (PCA) - Composable, Scalable Systems

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Skjellum, Anthony

2004-01-01

Polymorphous Computing Architectures (PCA) rapidly "morph" (reorganize) software and hardware configurations in order to achieve high performance on computation styles ranging from specialized streaming to general threaded applications...

Chemometric approach to evaluate heavy metals’ content in Daucus Carota from different localities in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitic Violeta D.

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to evaluate heavy metal content in carrots (Daucus carota from the different localities in Serbia and assess by the cluster analysis (CA and principal components analysis (PCA the heavy metal contamination of carrots from these areas. Carrot was collected at 13 locations in five districts. Chemometric methods (CA and PCA were applied to classify localities according to heavy metal content in carrots. CA separated localities into two statistical significant clusters. PCA permitted the reduction of 12 variables to four principal components explaining 79.94% of the total variance. The first most important principal component was strongly associated with the value of Cu, Sb, Pb and Tl. This study revealed that CA and PCA appear useful tools for differentiation of localities in different districts using the profile of heavy metal in carrot samples. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 172051

Management of Skin Cancer in the High-Risk Patient.

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Behan, James W; Sutton, Adam; Wysong, Ashley

2016-12-01

Skin cancer is the most common of human cancers and outnumbers all other types of cancer combined in the USA by over threefold. The majority of non-melanoma skin cancers are easily treated with surgery or locally destructive techniques performed under local anesthesia in the cost-effective outpatient setting. However, there is a subset of "high-risk" cases that prove challenging in terms of morbidity, mortality, adjuvant treatment required, as well as overall cost to the health care system. In our opinion, the term "high risk" when applied to skin cancer can mean one of three things: a high-risk tumor with aggressive histologic and/or clinical features with an elevated risk for local recurrence or regional/distant metastasis, a high-risk patient with the ongoing development of multiple skin cancers, and a high-risk patient based on immunosuppression. We have recently proposed classifying NMSC as a chronic disease in a certain subset of patients. Although no consensus definition exists for a chronic disease in medicine, there are three components that are present in most definitions: duration of at least 1 year, need for ongoing medical care, and functional impairment and/or alteration of activities of daily living (ADLs) and quality of life (QOL). Immunosuppression can refer to exogenous (organ or stem cell transplant patients,) or endogenous (HIV, leukemia, lymphoma, genodermatoses with DNA mismatch repair problems or other immunosuppression) causes. These patients are at risk for high-risk tumors and/or the development of multiple tumors.

The applications of PCA in QSAR studies: A case study on CCR5 antagonists.

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Yoo, ChangKyoo; Shahlaei, Mohsen

2018-01-01

Principal component analysis (PCA), as a well-known multivariate data analysis and data reduction technique, is an important and useful algebraic tool in drug design and discovery. PCA, in a typical quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) study, analyzes an original data matrix in which molecules are described by several intercorrelated quantitative dependent variables (molecular descriptors). Although extensively applied, there is disparity in the literature with respect to the applications of PCA in the QSAR studies. This study investigates the different applications of PCA in QSAR studies using a dataset including CCR5 inhibitors. The different types of preprocessing are used to compare the PCA performances. The use of PC plots in the exploratory investigation of matrix of descriptors is described. This work is also proved PCA analysis to be a powerful technique for exploring complex datasets in QSAR studies for identification of outliers. This study shows that PCA is able to easily apply to the pool of calculated structural descriptors and also the extracted information can be used to help decide upon an appropriate harder model for further analysis. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Environmental and psycho-social factors related to prostate cancer risk in the Chinese population: a case-control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Mei Ling; Lin, Ji; Hou, Jian Guo; Xu, Lei; Cui, Xin Gang; Xu, Xing Xing; Yu, Yong Wei; Han, Xue; Wang, Guo Min; Guo, Jian Ming; Xu, Dan Feng; Thompson, Timothy C; Cao, Guang Wen; Zhang, Hong Wei

2014-09-01

To study the risk environmental and psycho-social factors associated to prostate cancer (PCa) in Chinese population. 250 PCa patients and 500 controls were enrolled in this case-control study. Information was collected and logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for relationship between lifestyle, eating habits and psycho-social factors with PCa risk. Green vegetables and green tea were associated with a decreased risk of PCa (OR=0.39, 95% CI: 0.28-0.53; OR=0.59, 95% CI: 0.40-0.87, respectively). Family history of PCa (OR=7.16, 95% CI: 2.01-25.49), history of prostate diseases (OR=2.28, 95% CI: 1.53-3.41), alcohol consumption (OR=1.97, 95% CI: 1.33-2.90), red meat consumption (OR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.20-2.52), barbecued (OR=2.29, 95% CI: 1.11-4.73) or fried (OR=2.35, 95% CI: 1.24-4.43) foods were related with increased PCa risk. Negative psycho-social factors including occupational setbacks (OR=1.61, 95% CI: 1.00-2.59), marital separation (OR=1.94, 95% CI: 1.29-2.91), self-contained suffering (OR=2.37, 95% CI: 1.58-3.55), and high sensitivity to the personal comments (OR=1.73, 95% CI: 1.18-2.54) were related to PCa. Regular consumption of green vegetables and green tea may suggest protective effects on PCa. Alcohol consumption, red meat consumption and barbecued or fried foods were associated with PCa. Negative psycho-social factors may also play a role in the incidence of PCa in Chinese population. Copyright © 2014 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by China CDC. All rights reserved.

Validation of the Social Security Administration Life Tables (2004-2014) in Localized Prostate Cancer Patients within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Science.gov (United States)

Preisser, Felix; Bandini, Marco; Mazzone, Elio; Nazzani, Sebastiano; Marchioni, Michele; Tian, Zhe; Saad, Fred; Pompe, Raisa S; Shariat, Shahrokh F; Heinzer, Hans; Montorsi, Francesco; Huland, Hartwig; Graefen, Markus; Tilki, Derya; Karakiewicz, Pierre I

2018-05-22

Accurate life expectancy estimation is crucial in clinical decision-making including management and treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer (PCa). We hypothesized that Social Security Administration (SSA) life tables' derived survival estimates closely follow observed survival of PCa patients. To test this relationship, we examined 10-yr overall survival rates in patients with clinically localized PCa and compared it with survival estimates derived from the SSA life tables. Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004), we identified patients aged >50-patients who did not die of disease or other causes. Monte Carlo method was used to define individual survival in years, according to the SSA life tables (2004-2014). Subsequently, SSA life tables' predicted survival was compared with observed survival rates in Kaplan-Meier analyses. Subgroup analyses were stratified according to treatment type and D'Amico risk classification. Overall, 39191 patients with localized PCa were identified. At 10-yr follow-up, the SSA life tables' predicted survival was 69.5% versus 73.1% according to the observed rate (ppatients. Conversely, the smallest differences were recorded for external beam radiotherapy (1.7%) and unknown treatment type (1.6%) patients. Overall, SSA life tables' predicted life expectancy closely approximate observed overall survival rates. However, SSA life tables' predicted rates underestimate by as much as 9.1% the survival in brachytherapy patients, as well as in D'Amico low-risk and radical prostatectomy patients. In these patient categories, an adjustment for the degree of underestimation might be required when counseling is provided in clinical practice. Social Security Administration (SSA) life tables' predicted life expectancy closely approximate observed overall survival rates. However, SSA life tables' predicted rates underestimate by as much as 9.1% the survival in brachytherapy patients, as well as in D'Amico low-risk

MD-11 PCA - Research flight team egress

Science.gov (United States)

1995-01-01

This McDonnell Douglas MD-11 has parked on the flightline at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, following its completion of the first and second landings ever performed by a transport aircraft under engine power only (on Aug. 29, 1995). The milestone flight, with NASA research pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton at the controls, was part of a NASA project to develop a computer-assisted engine control system that enables a pilot to land a plane safely when its normal control surfaces are disabled. Coming down the steps from the aircraft are Gordon Fullerton (in front), followed by Bill Burcham, Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) project engineer at Dryden; NASA Dryden controls engineer John Burken; John Feather of McDonnell Douglas; and Drew Pappas, McDonnell Douglas' project manager for PCA.

The role of PCA3 in the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hessels, D.

2010-01-01

Serum PSA has shown to be the most valuable tool in the detection, staging and monitoring of prostate cancer (PCa). However, the substantial overlap in serum PSA values between men with non-malignant prostatic diseases and PCa is the limitation of PSA as a prostate tumor marker. In patients with

Recent Improvements to the Calibration Models for RXTE/PCA

Science.gov (United States)

Jahoda, K.

2008-01-01

We are updating the calibration of the PCA to correct for slow variations, primarily in energy to channel relationship. We have also improved the physical model in the vicinity of the Xe K-edge, which should increase the reliability of continuum fits above 20 keV. The improvements to the matrix are especially important to simultaneous observations, where the PCA is often used to constrain the continuum while other higher resolution spectrometers are used to study the shape of lines and edges associated with Iron.

Comparative Performance Of Using PCA With K-Means And Fuzzy C Means Clustering For Customer Segmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fahmida Afrin

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Data mining is the process of analyzing data and discovering useful information. Sometimes it is called knowledge Discovery. Clustering refers to groups whereas data are grouped in such a way that the data in one cluster are similar data in different clusters are dissimilar. Many data mining technologies are developed for customer segmentation. PCA is working as a preprocessor of Fuzzy C means and K- means for reducing the high dimensional and noisy data. There are many clustering method apply on customer segmentation. In this paper the performance of Fuzzy C means and K-means after implementing Principal Component Analysis is analyzed. We analyze the performance on a standard dataset for these algorithms. The results indicate that PCA based fuzzy clustering produces better results than PCA based K-means and is a more stable method for customer segmentation.

Risk perception of tsunami in the community of Arauco, Chile - a contribution of risk perception to disaster risk management at local level

Science.gov (United States)

Kubisch, M. Sc. Susanne; Edilia Jaque Castillo, Dra.; Braun, JProf. Andreas Ch., ,, Dr.

2017-04-01

The research was carried out in the city center of the coastal community of Arauco, Central Chile. The community of Arauco was one of the most affected communities of the tsunami in Chile, the 27th of February 2010. For the data evaluation, the affected inhabitants of the community have been surveyed via standardized questionnaires. Furthermore experts of different fields, amongst others, Disaster Risk Management (DRM), risk education, urban and regional planning, as well as geology have been consulted in form of expert interviews. The results revealed a high risk perception part of the affected community and a weakness of DRM especially at local level, which opens a gap between the evaluation and treatment of risk by experts and risk perception of the affected community. The risk perception of the affected community, here, is predominantly determined by ecological vulnerability, expressed in direct and indirect experience of a tsunami and by institutional vulnerability, expressed among others by a weakness of DRM at local level and a mistrust in responsible institutions for DRM. Due to the institutional vulnerability and the mistrust in responsible institutions we recommend a Community Based Approach (CBA) to strengthen DRM at local level and to take advantage of the high risk perception and knowledge of the affected community. Involving the community in DRM, we assume to close the gap between risk evaluation of experts and risk perception of the inhabitants and to come up with the unique necessities and conditions at local level. Especially in centralized countries, DRM is less effective, because at the one hand, decisions are made distant from the affected communities, so that measures often do not come up with the unique conditions and necessities at local level, and on the other hand measures often do not find acceptance by the affected community. Furthermore centralized DRM is often not effective and quick in response in case of emergency. Another obstacle

Risk of biochemical recurrence and positive surgical margins in patients with pT2 prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Røder, Martin Andreas; Thomsen, Frederik Birkebæk; Berg, Kasper Drimer

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To investigate risk factors associated with positive surgical margins (PSM) and biochemical recurrence (BR) in organ confined tumors (pT2) after radical prostatectomy (RP) for localized prostate cancer (PCa). METHODS: Between 1995 and 2011, 1,649 patients underwent RP...

Health-related quality of life after salvage high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment for locally radiorecurrent prostate cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berge, V.; Baco, E.; Dahl, A.A.; Karlsen, S.J.

2011-01-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) after salvage high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for locally radiorecurrent prostate cancer (PCa). Since June 2006 we have treated 61 patients consecutively by salvage HIFU. All patients were offered the University of California, Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index (UCLA-PCI) questionnaire at baseline and at follow-up. Scores ranged from 0 (worst) to 100 (best). Clinically significant changes were defined as a minimum difference of 10 points between the baseline score and the score at follow-up. Fifty-seven patients (93%) had evaluable data at baseline, compared with 46 (75%) after treatment. The mean time lapse between HIFU treatment and questionnaire response was 17.5 months (range 6-29 months). The mean score for urinary function decreased from 79.7±12.1 prior to HIFU to 67.4±17.8 after HIFU (P<0.001). The mean score for sexual function decreased from 32.1±24.1 prior to HIFU to 17.2±17.0 after HIFU (P<0.001). There were no significant effects on bowel function. There was a significant reduction in the mean score for Physical HRQOL, but the mean score for Mental HRQOL was did not change significantly. Treatment of localized radiorecurrent PCa by salvage HIFU is associated with clinically significant reductions in urinary and sexual function domains after a mean follow-up of 17.5 months. (author)

Posterior cerebral artery involvement in moyamoya disease: initial infarction and angle between PCA and basilar artery.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ji Yeoun; Kim, Seung-Ki; Cheon, Jung-Eun; Choi, Jung Won; Phi, Ji Hoon; Kim, In-One; Cho, Byung-Kyu; Wang, Kyu-Chang

2013-12-01

Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a chronic cerebrovascular occlusive disease, and progressive involvement of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) has been reported. However, majority of MMD articles are presenting classic anterior circulation related issues. This study investigates the preoperative factors related to the long-term outcome of posterior circulation in MMD. Retrospective review of 88 MMD patients (166 PCAs in either hemisphere) without symptomatic disease involvement of PCA at initial diagnosis was done. Data at initial diagnosis regarding age, presence of infarction, status of the PCA, type of posterior communicating artery, and the angle between PCA and basilar artery were reviewed. Progressive stenosis of PCA was evaluated by symptom or radiological imaging during follow up. During an average follow up of 8.3 years, 29 out of 166 (18 %) evaluated PCAs showed progressive disease involvement. The average time of progression from the initial operation was 4.9 years, with the latest onset at 10.8 years. The patients who showed progressive stenosis of the PCA tended to be younger, present with infarction, have smaller angle between PCA and basilar artery, and have asymptomatic stenosis of the PCA at initial presentation. However, multivariate analysis confirmed only the presence of initial infarction and a smaller angle between PCA and basilar artery to be significantly associated with progressive stenosis of PCA. Involvement of PCA in MMD may occur in a delayed fashion, years after the completion of revascularization of anterior circulation. Persistent long-term follow-up regarding the posterior circulation is recommended.

The impact of socioeconomic status on stage specific prostate cancer survival and mortality before and after introduction of PSA test in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Seikkula, Heikki A; Kaipia, Antti J; Ryynänen, Heidi; Seppä, Karri; Pitkäniemi, Janne M; Malila, Nea K; Boström, Peter J

2018-03-01

Socioeconomic status (SES) has an impact on prostate cancer (PCa) outcomes. Men with high SES have higher incidence and lower mortality of PCa versus lower SES males. PCa cases diagnosed in Finland in 1985-2014 (N = 95,076) were identified from the Finnish Cancer Registry. Information on education level (EL) was obtained from Statistics Finland. EL was assessed with three-tiered scale: basic, upper secondary and higher education. PCa stage at diagnosis was defined as localized, metastatic or unknown. Years of diagnosis 1985-1994 were defined as pre-PSA period and thereafter as post-PSA period. We report PCa-specific survival (PCSS) and relative risks (RR) for PCa specific mortality (PCSM) among cancer cases in Finland, where healthcare is 100% publicly reimbursed and inequality in healthcare services low. Men with higher EL had markedly better 10-year PCSS: 68 versus 63% in 1985-1994 and 90 versus 85% in 1995-2004 compared to basic EL in localized PCa. The RR for PCSM among men with localized PCa and higher EL compared to basic EL was 0.76(95%confidence interval (CI) 0.66-0.88) in 1985-1994 and 0.61(95%CI 0.53-0.70) in 1995-2004. Variation in PCSS and PCSM between EL categories was evident in metastatic PCa, too. The difference in PCSM between EL categories was larger in the first 10-year post-PSA period than before that but decreased thereafter in localized PCa, suggesting PSA testing became earlier popular among men with high EL. In summary, higher SES/EL benefit PCa survival both in local and disseminated disease and the effect of EL was more pronounced in early post-PSA period. © 2017 UICC.

Global Clustering Quality Coefficient Assessing the Efficiency of PCA Class Assignment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mirela Praisler

2014-01-01

Full Text Available An essential factor influencing the efficiency of the predictive models built with principal component analysis (PCA is the quality of the data clustering revealed by the score plots. The sensitivity and selectivity of the class assignment are strongly influenced by the relative position of the clusters and by their dispersion. We are proposing a set of indicators inspired from analytical geometry that may be used for an objective quantitative assessment of the data clustering quality as well as a global clustering quality coefficient (GCQC that is a measure of the overall predictive power of the PCA models. The use of these indicators for evaluating the efficiency of the PCA class assignment is illustrated by a comparative study performed for the identification of the preprocessing function that is generating the most efficient PCA system screening for amphetamines based on their GC-FTIR spectra. The GCQC ranking of the tested feature weights is explained based on estimated density distributions and validated by using quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA.

Improved Biochemical Outcomes With Statin Use in Patients With High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer Treated With Radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kollmeier, Marisa A.; Katz, Matthew S.; Mak, Kimberley; Yamada, Yoshiya; Feder, David J.; Zhang Zhigang; Jia Xiaoyu; Shi Weiji; Zelefsky, Michael J.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To investigate the association between 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) and biochemical and survival outcomes after high-dose radiotherapy (RT) for prostate cancer. Methods and Materials: A total of 1711 men with clinical stage T1-T3 prostate cancer were treated with conformal RT to a median dose of 81 Gy during 1995-2007. Preradiotherapy medication data were available for 1681 patients. Three hundred eighty-two patients (23%) were taking a statin medication at diagnosis and throughout RT. Nine hundred forty-seven patients received a short-course of neoadjuvant and concurrent androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) with RT. The median follow-up was 5.9 years. Results: The 5- and 8-year PSA relapse-free survival (PRFS) rates for statin patients were 89% and 80%, compared with 83% and 74% for those not taking statins (p = 0.002). In a multivariate analysis, statin use (hazard ratio [HR] 0.69, p = 0.03), National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) low-risk group, and ADT use were associated with improved PRFS. Only high-risk patients in the statin group demonstrated improvement in PRFS (HR 0.52, p = 0.02). Across all groups, statin use was not associated with improved distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (p = 0.51). On multivariate analysis, lower NCCN risk group (p = 0.01) and ADT use (p = 0.005) predicted improved DMFS. Conclusions: Statin use during high-dose RT for clinically localized prostate cancer was associated with a significant improvement in PRFS in high-risk patients. These data suggest that statins have anticancer activity and possibly provide radiosensitization when used in conjunction with RT in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Local Risk-Minimization for Defaultable Claims with Recovery Process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biagini, Francesca; Cretarola, Alessandra

2012-01-01

We study the local risk-minimization approach for defaultable claims with random recovery at default time, seen as payment streams on the random interval [0,τ∧T], where T denotes the fixed time-horizon. We find the pseudo-locally risk-minimizing strategy in the case when the agent information takes into account the possibility of a default event (local risk-minimization with G-strategies) and we provide an application in the case of a corporate bond. We also discuss the problem of finding a pseudo-locally risk-minimizing strategy if we suppose the agent obtains her information only by observing the non-defaultable assets.

Identification of beta-2 as a key cell adhesion molecule in PCa cell neurotropic behavior: a novel ex vivo and biophysical approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Jansson, Keith H; Castillo, Deborah G; Morris, Joseph W; Boggs, Mary E; Czymmek, Kirk J; Adams, Elizabeth L; Schramm, Lawrence P; Sikes, Robert A

2014-01-01

Prostate cancer (PCa) is believed to metastasize through the blood/lymphatics systems; however, PCa may utilize the extensive innervation of the prostate for glandular egress. The interaction of PCa and its nerve fibers is observed in 80% of PCa and is termed perineural invasion (PNI). PCa cells have been observed traveling through the endoneurium of nerves, although the underlying mechanisms have not been elucidated. Voltage sensitive sodium channels (VSSC) are multimeric transmembrane protein complexes comprised of a pore-forming α subunit and one or two auxiliary beta (β) subunits with inherent cell adhesion molecule (CAM) functions. The beta-2 isoform (gene SCN2B) interacts with several neural CAMs, while interacting putatively with other prominent neural CAMs. Furthermore, beta-2 exhibits elevated mRNA and protein levels in highly metastatic and castrate-resistant PCa. When overexpressed in weakly aggressive LNCaP cells (2BECFP), beta-2 alters LNCaP cell morphology and enhances LNCaP cell metastasis associated behavior in vitro. We hypothesize that PCa cells use beta-2 as a CAM during PNI and subsequent PCa metastasis. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of beta-2 expression on PCa cell neurotropic metastasis associated behavior. We overexpressed beta-2 as a fusion protein with enhanced cyan fluorescence protein (ECFP) in weakly aggressive LNCaP cells and observed neurotropic effects utilizing our novel ex vivo organotypic spinal cord co-culture model, and performed functional assays with neural matrices and atomic force microscopy. With increased beta-2 expression, PCa cells display a trend of enhanced association with nerve axons. On laminin, a neural CAM, overexpression of beta-2 enhances PCa cell migration, invasion, and growth. 2BECFP cells exhibit marked binding affinity to laminin relative to LNECFP controls, and recombinant beta-2 ectodomain elicits more binding events to laminin than BSA control. Functional overexpression of VSSC

Tracking image features with PCA-SURF descriptors

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Pancham, A

2015-05-01

Full Text Available IAPR International Conference on Machine Vision Applications, May 18-22, 2015, Tokyo, JAPAN Tracking Image Features with PCA-SURF Descriptors Ardhisha Pancham CSIR, UKZN South Africa apancham@csir.co.za Daniel Withey CSIR South Africa...

Estimating risks of importation and local transmission of Zika virus infection

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Kyeongah Nah

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Background. An international spread of Zika virus (ZIKV infection has attracted global attention. ZIKV is conveyed by a mosquito vector, Aedes species, which also acts as the vector species of dengue and chikungunya viruses. Methods. Arrival time of ZIKV importation (i.e., the time at which the first imported case was diagnosed in each imported country was collected from publicly available data sources. Employing a survival analysis model in which the hazard is an inverse function of the effective distance as informed by the airline transportation network data, and using dengue and chikungunya virus transmission data, risks of importation and local transmission were estimated. Results. A total of 78 countries with imported case(s have been identified, with the arrival time ranging from 1 to 44 weeks since the first ZIKV was identified in Brazil, 2015. Whereas the risk of importation was well explained by the airline transportation network data, the risk of local transmission appeared to be best captured by additionally accounting for the presence of dengue and chikungunya viruses. Discussion. The risk of importation may be high given continued global travel of mildly infected travelers but, considering that the public health concerns over ZIKV infection stems from microcephaly, it is more important to focus on the risk of local and widespread transmission that could involve pregnant women. The predicted risk of local transmission was frequently seen in tropical and subtropical countries with dengue or chikungunya epidemic experience.

Preliminary Design Review: PCA Integrated Radar-Tracker Application

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lebak, J

2002-01-01

The DARPA Polymorphous Computing Architecture (PCA) program is building advanced computer architectures that can reorganize their computation and communication structure to achieve better overall application performance...

Convergence analysis of Chauvin's PCA learning algorithm with a constant learning rate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lv Jiancheng [Computational Intelligence Laboratory, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China); Yi Zhang [Computational Intelligence Laboratory, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054 (China)]. E-mail: zhangyi@uestc.edu.cn

2007-05-15

The convergence of Chauvin's PCA learning algorithm with a constant learning rate is studied in this paper by using a DDT method (deterministic discrete-time system method). Different from the DCT method (deterministic continuous-time system method), the DDT method does not require that the learning rate converges to zero. An invariant set of Chauvin's algorithm with a constant learning rate is obtained so that the non-divergence of this algorithm can be guaranteed. Rigorous mathematic proofs are provided to prove the local convergence of this algorithm.

International assessment of PCA codes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neymotin, L.; Lui, C.; Glynn, J.; Archarya, S.

1993-11-01

Over the past three years (1991-1993), an extensive international exercise for intercomparison of a group of six Probabilistic Consequence Assessment (PCA) codes was undertaken. The exercise was jointly sponsored by the Commission of European Communities (CEC) and OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. This exercise was a logical continuation of a similar effort undertaken by OECD/NEA/CSNI in 1979-1981. The PCA codes are currently used by different countries for predicting radiological health and economic consequences of severe accidents at nuclear power plants (and certain types of non-reactor nuclear facilities) resulting in releases of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. The codes participating in the exercise were: ARANO (Finland), CONDOR (UK), COSYMA (CEC), LENA (Sweden), MACCS (USA), and OSCAAR (Japan). In parallel with this inter-code comparison effort, two separate groups performed a similar set of calculations using two of the participating codes, MACCS and COSYMA. Results of the intercode and inter-MACCS comparisons are presented in this paper. The MACCS group included four participants: GREECE: Institute of Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, NCSR Demokritos; ITALY: ENEL, ENEA/DISP, and ENEA/NUC-RIN; SPAIN: Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) and Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear; USA: Brookhaven National Laboratory, US NRC and DOE

A Study of Wind Turbine Comprehensive Operational Assessment Model Based on EM-PCA Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Minqiang; Xu, Bin; Zhan, Yangyan; Ren, Danyuan; Liu, Dexing

2018-01-01

To assess wind turbine performance accurately and provide theoretical basis for wind farm management, a hybrid assessment model based on Entropy Method and Principle Component Analysis (EM-PCA) was established, which took most factors of operational performance into consideration and reach to a comprehensive result. To verify the model, six wind turbines were chosen as the research objects, the ranking obtained by the method proposed in the paper were 4#>6#>1#>5#>2#>3#, which are completely in conformity with the theoretical ranking, which indicates that the reliability and effectiveness of the EM-PCA method are high. The method could give guidance for processing unit state comparison among different units and launching wind farm operational assessment.

Distinct clinical and metabolic deficits in PCA and AD are not related to amyloid distribution.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenbloom, M H; Alkalay, A; Agarwal, N; Baker, S L; O'Neil, J P; Janabi, M; Yen, I V; Growdon, M; Jang, J; Madison, C; Mormino, E C; Rosen, H J; Gorno-Tempini, M L; Weiner, M W; Miller, B L; Jagust, W J; Rabinovici, G D

2011-05-24

Patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) often have Alzheimer disease (AD) at autopsy, yet are cognitively and anatomically distinct from patients with clinical AD. We sought to compare the distribution of β-amyloid and glucose metabolism in PCA and AD in vivo using Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) and FDG-PET. Patients with PCA (n = 12, age 57.5 ± 7.4, Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] 22.2 ± 5.1), AD (n = 14, age 58.8 ± 9.6, MMSE 23.8 ± 6.7), and cognitively normal controls (NC, n = 30, age 73.6 ± 6.4) underwent PiB and FDG-PET. Group differences in PiB distribution volume ratios (DVR, cerebellar reference) and FDG uptake (pons-averaged) were assessed on a voxel-wise basis and by comparing binding in regions of interest (ROIs). Compared to NC, both patients with AD and patients with PCA showed diffuse PiB uptake throughout frontal, temporoparietal, and occipital cortex (p PCA and AD even after correcting for atrophy. FDG patterns in PCA and AD were distinct: while both groups showed hypometabolism compared to NC in temporoparietal cortex and precuneus/posterior cingulate, patients with PCA further showed hypometabolism in inferior occipitotemporal cortex compared to both NC and patients with AD (p PCA. Fibrillar amyloid deposition in PCA is diffuse and similar to AD, while glucose hypometabolism extends more posteriorly into occipital cortex. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms of selective network degeneration in focal variants of AD.

Testing a Modified PCA-Based Sharpening Approach for Image Fusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan Jelének

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Image data sharpening is a challenging field of remote sensing science, which has become more relevant as high spatial-resolution satellites and superspectral sensors have emerged. Although the spectral property is crucial for mineral mapping, spatial resolution is also important as it allows targeted minerals/rocks to be identified/interpreted in a spatial context. Therefore, improving the spatial context, while keeping the spectral property provided by the superspectral sensor, would bring great benefits for geological/mineralogical mapping especially in arid environments. In this paper, a new concept was tested using superspectral data (ASTER and high spatial-resolution panchromatic data (WorldView-2 for image fusion. A modified Principal Component Analysis (PCA-based sharpening method, which implements a histogram matching workflow that takes into account the real distribution of values, was employed to test whether the substitution of Principal Components (PC1–PC4 can bring a fused image which is spectrally more accurate. The new approach was compared to those most widely used—PCA sharpening and Gram–Schmidt sharpening (GS, both available in ENVI software (Version 5.2 and lower as well as to the standard approach—sharpening Landsat 8 multispectral bands (MUL using its own panchromatic (PAN band. The visual assessment and the spectral quality indicators proved that the spectral performance of the proposed sharpening approach employing PC1 and PC2 improve the performance of the PCA algorithm, moreover, comparable or better results are achieved compared to the GS method. It was shown that, when using the PC1, the visible-near infrared (VNIR part of the spectrum was preserved better, however, if the PC2 was used, the short-wave infrared (SWIR part was preserved better. Furthermore, this approach improved the output spectral quality when fusing image data from different sensors (e.g., ASTER and WorldView-2 while keeping the proper albedo

Chemokine Ligand 5 (CCL5 and chemokine receptor (CCR5 genetic variants and prostate cancer risk among men of African Descent: a case-control study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kidd LaCreis R

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Chemokine and chemokine receptors play an essential role in tumorigenesis. Although chemokine-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs are associated with various cancers, their impact on prostate cancer (PCA among men of African descent is unknown. Consequently, this study evaluated 43 chemokine-associated SNPs in relation to PCA risk. We hypothesized inheritance of variant chemokine-associated alleles may lead to alterations in PCA susceptibility, presumably due to variations in antitumor immune responses. Methods Sequence variants were evaluated in germ-line DNA samples from 814 African-American and Jamaican men (279 PCA cases and 535 controls using Illumina’s Goldengate genotyping system. Results Inheritance of CCL5 rs2107538 (AA, GA+AA and rs3817655 (AA, AG, AG+AA genotypes were linked with a 34-48% reduction in PCA risk. Additionally, the recessive and dominant models for CCR5 rs1799988 and CCR7 rs3136685 were associated with a 1.52-1.73 fold increase in PCA risk. Upon stratification, only CCL5 rs3817655 and CCR7 rs3136685 remained significant for the Jamaican and U.S. subgroups, respectively. Conclusions In summary, CCL5 (rs2107538, rs3817655 and CCR5 (rs1799988 sequence variants significantly modified PCA susceptibility among men of African descent, even after adjusting for age and multiple comparisons. Our findings are only suggestive and require further evaluation and validation in relation to prostate cancer risk and ultimately disease progression, biochemical/disease recurrence and mortality in larger high-risk subgroups. Such efforts will help to identify genetic markers capable of explaining disproportionately high prostate cancer incidence, mortality, and morbidity rates among men of African descent.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Defining high-risk patients who may benefit before concurrent chemotherapy combined with intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Xiao-Jing; Tang, Ling-Long; Chen, Lei; Mao, Yan-Ping; Guo, Rui; Liu, Xu; Sun, Ying; Zeng, Mu-Sheng; Kang, Tie-Bang; Shao, Jian-Yong; Lin, Ai-Hua; Ma, Jun

2015-11-13

The purpose of this study was to create a prognostic model for distant metastasis in patients with locally advanced NPC who accept concurrent chemotherapy combined with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (CCRT) to identify high-risk patients who may benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). A total of 881 patients with newly-diagnosed, non-disseminated, biopsy-proven locoregionally advanced NPC were retrospectively reviewed; 411 (46.7%) accepted CCRT and 470 (53.3%) accepted NACT followed by CCRT. Multivariate analysis demonstrated N2-3 disease, plasma Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA > 4000 copies/mL, serum albumin ≤ 46 g/L and platelet count >300 k/cc were independent prognostic factors for distant metastasis in the CCRT group. Using these four factors, a prognostic model was developed, as follows: 1) low-risk group: 0-1 risk factors; and 2) high-risk group: 2-4 risk factors. In the high-risk group, patients who accepted NACT + CCRT had significantly higher distant metastasis-free survival and progression-free survival rates than the CCRT group (P = 0.001; P = 0.011). This simple prognostic model for distant metastasis in locoregionally advanced NPC may facilitate with the selection of high-risk patients who may benefit from NACT prior to CCRT.

Adaptive PCA based fault diagnosis scheme in imperial smelting process.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Zhikun; Chen, Zhiwen; Gui, Weihua; Jiang, Bin

2014-09-01

In this paper, an adaptive fault detection scheme based on a recursive principal component analysis (PCA) is proposed to deal with the problem of false alarm due to normal process changes in real process. Our further study is also dedicated to develop a fault isolation approach based on Generalized Likelihood Ratio (GLR) test and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) which is one of general techniques of PCA, on which the off-set and scaling fault can be easily isolated with explicit off-set fault direction and scaling fault classification. The identification of off-set and scaling fault is also applied. The complete scheme of PCA-based fault diagnosis procedure is proposed. The proposed scheme is first applied to Imperial Smelting Process, and the results show that the proposed strategies can be able to mitigate false alarms and isolate faults efficiently. Copyright © 2013 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Applications of PCA and SVM-PSO Based Real-Time Face Recognition System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Yuan Shieh

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper incorporates principal component analysis (PCA with support vector machine-particle swarm optimization (SVM-PSO for developing real-time face recognition systems. The integrated scheme aims to adopt the SVM-PSO method to improve the validity of PCA based image recognition systems on dynamically visual perception. The face recognition for most human-robot interaction applications is accomplished by PCA based method because of its dimensionality reduction. However, PCA based systems are only suitable for processing the faces with the same face expressions and/or under the same view directions. Since the facial feature selection process can be considered as a problem of global combinatorial optimization in machine learning, the SVM-PSO is usually used as an optimal classifier of the system. In this paper, the PSO is used to implement a feature selection, and the SVMs serve as fitness functions of the PSO for classification problems. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method simplifies features effectively and obtains higher classification accuracy.

Molecular Characterization of the Genes pcaG and pcaH, Encoding Protocatechuate 3,4-Dioxygenase, Which Are Essential for Vanillin Catabolism in Pseudomonas sp. Strain HR199

Science.gov (United States)

Overhage, Jörg; Kresse, Andreas U.; Priefert, Horst; Sommer, Horst; Krammer, Gerhard; Rabenhorst, Jürgen; Steinbüchel, Alexander

1999-01-01

Pseudomonas sp. strain HR199 is able to utilize eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol), vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde), or protocatechuate as the sole carbon source for growth. Mutants of this strain which were impaired in the catabolism of vanillin but retained the ability to utilize eugenol or protocatechuate were obtained after nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis. One mutant (SK6169) was used as recipient of a Pseudomonas sp. strain HR199 genomic library in cosmid pVK100, and phenotypic complementation was achieved with a 5.8-kbp EcoRI fragment (E58). The amino acid sequences deduced from two corresponding open reading frames (ORF) identified on E58 revealed high degrees of homology to pcaG and pcaH, encoding the two subunits of protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase. Three additional ORF most probably encoded a 4-hydroxybenzoate 3-hydroxylase (PobA) and two putative regulatory proteins, which exhibited homology to PcaQ of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and PobR of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. Since mutant SK6169 was also complemented by a subfragment of E58 that harbored only pcaH, this mutant was most probably lacking a functional β subunit of the protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase. Since this mutant was still able to grow on protocatechuate and lacked protocatechuate 4,5-dioxygenase and protocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase, the degradation had to be catalyzed by different enzymes. Two other mutants (SK6184 and SK6190), which were also impaired in the catabolism of vanillin, were not complemented by fragment E58. Since these mutants accumulated 3-carboxy muconolactone during cultivation on eugenol, they most probably exhibited a defect in a step of the catabolic pathway following the ortho cleavage. Moreover, in these mutants cyclization of 3-carboxymuconic acid seems to occur by a syn absolute stereochemical course, which is normally only observed for cis,cis-muconate lactonization in pseudomonads. In conclusion, vanillin is degraded through the ortho-cleavage pathway

Identification of spatially-localized initial conditions via sparse PCA

Science.gov (United States)

Dwivedi, Anubhav; Jovanovic, Mihailo

2017-11-01

Principal Component Analysis involves maximization of a quadratic form subject to a quadratic constraint on the initial flow perturbations and it is routinely used to identify the most energetic flow structures. For general flow configurations, principal components can be efficiently computed via power iteration of the forward and adjoint governing equations. However, the resulting flow structures typically have a large spatial support leading to a question of physical realizability. To obtain spatially-localized structures, we modify the quadratic constraint on the initial condition to include a convex combination with an additional regularization term which promotes sparsity in the physical domain. We formulate this constrained optimization problem as a nonlinear eigenvalue problem and employ an inverse power-iteration-based method to solve it. The resulting solution is guaranteed to converge to a nonlinear eigenvector which becomes increasingly localized as our emphasis on sparsity increases. We use several fluids examples to demonstrate that our method indeed identifies the most energetic initial perturbations that are spatially compact. This work was supported by Office of Naval Research through Grant Number N00014-15-1-2522.

Prostate health index and prostate cancer gene 3 score but not percent-free Prostate Specific Antigen have a predictive role in differentiating histological prostatitis from PCa and other nonneoplastic lesions (BPH and HG-PIN) at repeat biopsy.

Science.gov (United States)

De Luca, Stefano; Passera, Roberto; Fiori, Cristian; Bollito, Enrico; Cappia, Susanna; Mario Scarpa, Roberto; Sottile, Antonino; Franco Randone, Donato; Porpiglia, Francesco

2015-10-01

To determine if prostate health index (PHI), prostate cancer antigen gene 3 (PCA3) score, and percentage of free prostate-specific antigen (%fPSA) may be used to differentiate asymptomatic acute and chronic prostatitis from prostate cancer (PCa), benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (HG-PIN) in patients with elevated PSA levels and negative findings on digital rectal examination at repeat biopsy (re-Bx). In this prospective study, 252 patients were enrolled, undergoing PHI, PCA3 score, and %fPSA assessments before re-Bx. We used 3 multivariate logistic regression models to test the PHI, PCA3 score, and %fPSA as risk factors for prostatitis vs. PCa, vs. BPH, and vs. HG-PIN. All the analyses were performed for the whole patient cohort and for the "gray zone" of PSA (4-10ng/ml) cohort (171 individuals). Of the 252 patients, 43 (17.1%) had diagnosis of PCa. The median PHI was significantly different between men with a negative biopsy and those with a positive biopsy (34.9 vs. 48.1, Pprostatitis and PCa was moderate, although it extended to a good range of threshold probabilities (40%-100%), whereas that from using %fPSA was negligible: this pattern was reported for the whole population as for the "gray zone" PSA cohort. In front of a good diagnostic performance of all the 3 biomarkers in distinguishing negative biopsy vs. positive biopsy, the clinical benefit of using the PCA3 score and PHI to estimate prostatitis vs. PCa was comparable. PHI was the only determinant for prostatitis vs. BPH, whereas no biomarkers could differentiate prostate inflammation from HG-PIN. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modelling local government unit credit risk in the Republic of Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petra Posedel

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to determine possible indicators that affect local unit credit risk and investigate their effect on default (credit risk of local government units in Croatia. No system for the estimation of local unit credit risk has been established in Croatia so far causing many practical problems in local unit borrowing. Because of the specific nature of the operations of local government units and legislation that does not allow local government units to go into bankruptcy, conventional methods for estimating credit risk are not applicable, and the set of standard potential determinants of credit risk has to be expanded with new indicators. Thus in the paper, in addition to the usual determinants of credit risk, the hypothesis of the influence of political factors on local unit credit risk in Croatia is also tested out, with the use of a Tobit model. Results of econometric analysis show that credit risk of local government units in Croatia is affected by the political structure of local government, the proportion of income tax and surtax in operating revenue, the ratio of net operating balance, net financial liabilities and direct debt to operating revenue, as well as the ratio of debt repayment and cash, and direct debt and operating revenue.

The Power Behind the Controversy: Understanding Local Policy Elites' Perceptions on the Benefits and Risks Associated with High Voltage Power Line Installation in the State of Arkansas

Science.gov (United States)

Moyer, Rachael M.

Following a proposal for the installation of high voltage power lines in northwest Arkansas, a controversial policy debate emerged. Proponents of the transmission line argue that such an installation is inevitable and necessary to efficiently and reliably support the identified electric load in the region. Opponents claim that the lines will degrade the natural environment and hamper the tourism-based local economy in affected regions, notably in Ozark Mountain areas. This study seeks to understand how local policy elites perceive the benefits and risks associated with proposed transmission lines, which is a critical step in comprehending the formation and changes of related government policies. First, based upon the dual process theory of judgment, this study systematically investigates the triadic relationships between (a) more profound personal value predispositions, (b) affects and feelings, and (c) perceived benefits and risks related to the proposed installation of high voltage power lines among local policy elites in the state of Arkansas. Next, this study focuses more specifically on the role of value predispositions, specific emotional dimensions of affect heuristics, and perceptions pertaining to high voltage power line risks and benefits. Using original data collected from a statewide Internet survey of 420 local leaders and key policymakers about their opinions on the related issues, other factors claimed by previous literature, including trust, knowledge level, and demographic characteristics are considered. Analytical results suggest that grid-group cultural predispositions, as deeply held core values within local policy elites' individual belief systems, both directly and indirectly -- through affective feelings -- shape perceived utility associated with the installation of high voltage power lines. Recognizing that risk perceptions factor into policy decisions, some practical considerations for better designing policy addressing controversial issues

Lateral supraorbital approach to ipsilateral PCA-P1 and ICA-PCoA aneurysms.

Science.gov (United States)

Goehre, Felix; Jahromi, Behnam Rezai; Elsharkawy, Ahmed; Lehto, Hanna; Shekhtman, Oleg; Andrade-Barazarte, Hugo; Munoz, Francisco; Hijazy, Ferzat; Makhkamov, Makhkam; Hernesniemi, Juha

2015-01-01

Aneurysms of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) are rare and often associated with anterior circulation aneurysms. The lateral supraorbital approach allows for a very fast and safe approach to the ipsilateral lesions Circle of Willis. A technical note on the successful clip occlusion of two aneurysms in the anterior and posterior Circle of Willis via this less invasive approach has not been published before. The objective of this technical note is to describe the simultaneous microsurgical clip occlusion of an ipsilateral PCA-P1 and an internal carotid artery - posterior communicating artery (ICA-PCoA) aneurysm via the lateral supraorbital approach. The authors present a technical report of successful clip occlusions of ipsilateral located PCA-P1 and ICA-PCoA aneurysms. A 59-year-old female patient was diagnosed with a PCA-P1 and an ipsilateral ICA-PCoA aneurysm by computed tomography angiography (CTA) after an ischemic stroke secondary to a contralateral ICA dissection. The patient underwent microsurgical clipping after a lateral supraorbital craniotomy. The intraoperative indocyanine green (ICG) videoangiography and the postoperative CTA showed a complete occlusion of both aneurysms; the parent vessels (ICA and PCA) were patent. The patient presents postoperative no new neurologic deficit. The lateral supraorbital approach is suitable for the simultaneous microsurgical treatment of proximal anterior circulation and ipsilateral proximal PCA aneurysms. Compared to endovascular treatment, direct visual control of brainstem perforators is possible.

2D-3D Face Recognition Method Basedon a Modified CCA-PCA Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrik Kamencay

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a proposed methodology for face recognition based on an information theory approach to coding and decoding face images. In this paper, we propose a 2D-3D face-matching method based on a principal component analysis (PCA algorithm using canonical correlation analysis (CCA to learn the mapping between a 2D face image and 3D face data. This method makes it possible to match a 2D face image with enrolled 3D face data. Our proposed fusion algorithm is based on the PCA method, which is applied to extract base features. PCA feature-level fusion requires the extraction of different features from the source data before features are merged together. Experimental results on the TEXAS face image database have shown that the classification and recognition results based on the modified CCA-PCA method are superior to those based on the CCA method. Testing the 2D-3D face match results gave a recognition rate for the CCA method of a quite poor 55% while the modified CCA method based on PCA-level fusion achieved a very good recognition score of 85%.

Predicting prostate biopsy outcome: prostate health index (phi) and prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) are useful biomarkers.

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Ferro, Matteo; Bruzzese, Dario; Perdonà, Sisto; Mazzarella, Claudia; Marino, Ada; Sorrentino, Alessandra; Di Carlo, Angelina; Autorino, Riccardo; Di Lorenzo, Giuseppe; Buonerba, Carlo; Altieri, Vincenzo; Mariano, Angela; Macchia, Vincenzo; Terracciano, Daniela

2012-08-16

Indication for prostate biopsy is presently mainly based on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) serum levels and digital-rectal examination (DRE). In view of the unsatisfactory accuracy of these two diagnostic exams, research has focused on novel markers to improve pre-biopsy prostate cancer detection, such as phi and PCA3. The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of phi and PCA3 for prostate cancer using biopsy as gold standard. Phi index (Beckman coulter immunoassay), PCA3 score (Progensa PCA3 assay) and other established biomarkers (tPSA, fPSA and %fPSA) were assessed before a 18-core prostate biopsy in a group of 251 subjects at their first biopsy. Values of %p2PSA and phi were significantly higher in patients with PCa compared with PCa-negative group (pphi and PCA3 are predictive of malignancy. In conclusion, %p2PSA, phi and PCA3 may predict a diagnosis of PCa in men undergoing their first prostate biopsy. PCA3 score is more useful in discriminating between HGPIN and non-cancer. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic neoadjuvant study of hedgehog pathway inhibitor Sonidegib (LDE-225) in men with high-risk localized prostate cancer undergoing prostatectomy.

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Ross, Ashley E; Hughes, Robert M; Glavaris, Stephanie; Ghabili, Kamyar; He, Ping; Anders, Nicole M; Harb, Rana; Tosoian, Jeffrey J; Marchionni, Luigi; Schaeffer, Edward M; Partin, Alan W; Allaf, Mohamad E; Bivalacqua, Trinity J; Chapman, Carolyn; O'Neal, Tanya; DeMarzo, Angelo M; Hurley, Paula J; Rudek, Michelle A; Antonarakis, Emmanuel S

2017-11-28

To determine the pharmacodynamic effects of Sonidegib (LDE-225) in prostate tumor tissue from men with high-risk localized prostate cancer, by comparing pre-surgical core-biopsy specimens to tumor tissue harvested post-treatment at prostatectomy. We conducted a prospective randomized (Sonidegib vs. observation) open-label translational clinical trial in men with high-risk localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients in each arm who achieved at least a two-fold reduction in GLI1 mRNA expression in post-treatment versus pre-treatment tumor tissue. Secondary endpoints included the effect of pre-surgical treatment with Sonidegib on disease progression following radical prostatectomy, and safety. Fourteen men were equally randomized (7 per arm) to either neoadjuvant Sonidegib or observation for 4 weeks prior to prostatectomy. Six of seven men (86%) in the Sonidegib arm (and none in the control group) achieved a GLI1 suppression of at least two-fold. In the Sonidegib arm, drug was detectable in plasma and in prostatic tissue; and median intra-patient GLI1 expression decreased by 63-fold, indicating potent suppression of Hedgehog signaling. Sonidegib was well tolerated, without any Grade 3-4 adverse events observed. Disease-free survival was comparable among the two arms (HR = 1.50, 95% CI 0.26-8.69, P = 0.65). Hedgehog pathway activity (as measured by GLI1 expression) was detectable at baseline in men with localized high-risk prostate cancer. Sonidegib penetrated into prostatic tissue and induced a >60-fold suppression of the Hedgehog pathway. The oncological benefit of Hedgehog pathway inhibition in prostate cancer remains unclear.

18F Fluorocholine Dynamic Time-of-Flight PET/MR Imaging in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Intermediate- to High-Risk Prostate Cancer: Initial Clinical-Pathologic Comparisons.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Joon Young; Yang, Jaewon; Noworolski, Susan M; Behr, Spencer; Chang, Albert J; Simko, Jeffry P; Nguyen, Hao G; Carroll, Peter R; Kurhanewicz, John; Seo, Youngho

2017-02-01

Purpose To investigate the initial clinical value of fluorine 18 ( 18 F) fluorocholine (FCH) dynamic positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging by comparing its parameters with clinical-pathologic findings in patients with newly diagnosed intermediate- to high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) who plan to undergo radical prostatectomy. Materials and Methods The institutional review board approved the study protocol, and informed written consent was obtained from all subjects for this HIPAA-compliant study. Twelve men (mean age ± standard deviation, 61.7 years ± 8.4; range, 46-74 years) with untreated intermediate- to high-risk PCa characterized according to Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) underwent preoperative FCH dynamic PET/MR imaging followed by radical prostatectomy between April and November 2015. PET/MR imaging parameters including average and maximum K1 (delivery rate constant) and standardized uptake values (SUVs) and Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) version 2 scores were measured and compared with clinical-pathologic characteristics. For statistical analysis, the Spearman rank correlation and Mann-Whitney U tests were performed. Results Of the PET parameters, maximum SUV of primary tumors showed significant correlations with several clinical-pathologic parameters including serum prostate-specific antigen level (ρ = 0.71, P = .01), pathologic stage (ρ = 0.59, P = .043), and postsurgical CAPRA score (ρ = 0.72, P = .008). The overall PI-RADS score showed significant correlations with pathologic tumor volume (ρ = 0.81, P PET and MR imaging showed improved sensitivity (88%) for prediction of pathologic extraprostatic extension compared with that with MR imaging (50%) and PET (75%) performed separately. Conclusion Maximum SUVs and PI-RADS scores from FCH PET/MR imaging show good correlation with clinical-pathologic characteristics, such as postsurgical CAPRA score, which are related to prognosis in

[Identification of varieties of cashmere by Vis/NIR spectroscopy technology based on PCA-SVM].

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Wu, Gui-Fang; He, Yong

2009-06-01

One mixed algorithm was presented to discriminate cashmere varieties with principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM). Cashmere fiber has such characteristics as threadlike, softness, glossiness and high tensile strength. The quality characters and economic value of each breed of cashmere are very different. In order to safeguard the consumer's rights and guarantee the quality of cashmere product, quickly, efficiently and correctly identifying cashmere has significant meaning to the production and transaction of cashmere material. The present research adopts Vis/NIRS spectroscopy diffuse techniques to collect the spectral data of cashmere. The near infrared fingerprint of cashmere was acquired by principal component analysis (PCA), and support vector machine (SVM) methods were used to further identify the cashmere material. The result of PCA indicated that the score map made by the scores of PC1, PC2 and PC3 was used, and 10 principal components (PCs) were selected as the input of support vector machine (SVM) based on the reliabilities of PCs of 99.99%. One hundred cashmere samples were used for calibration and the remaining 75 cashmere samples were used for validation. A one-against-all multi-class SVM model was built, the capabilities of SVM with different kernel function were comparatively analyzed, and the result showed that SVM possessing with the Gaussian kernel function has the best identification capabilities with the accuracy of 100%. This research indicated that the data mining method of PCA-SVM has a good identification effect, and can work as a new method for rapid identification of cashmere material varieties.

MD-11 PCA - First Landing at Edwards

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1995-01-01

This McDonnell Douglas MD-11 approaches the first landing ever of a transport aircraft under engine power only on Aug. 29, 1995, at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. The milestone flight, flown by NASA research pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton, was part of a NASA project to develop a computer-assisted engine control system that enables a pilot to land a plane safely when it normal control surfaces are disabled. The Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system uses standard autopilot controls already present in the cockpit, together with the new programming in the aircraft's flight control computers. The PCA concept is simple--for pitch control, the program increases thrust to climb and reduces thrust to descend. To turn right, the autopilot increases the left engine thrust while decreasing the right engine thrust. The initial Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft studies by NASA were carried out at Dryden with a modified twin-engine F-15 research aircraft.

Metabolic syndrome and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol are associated with adverse pathological features in patients with prostate cancer treated by radical prostatectomy.

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Lebdai, Souhil; Mathieu, Romain; Leger, Julie; Haillot, Olivier; Vincendeau, Sébastien; Rioux-Leclercq, Nathalie; Fournier, Georges; Perrouin-Verbe, Marie-Aimée; Doucet, Laurent; Azzouzi, Abdel Rahmene; Rigaud, Jérome; Renaudin, Karine; Charles, Thomas; Bruyere, Franck; Fromont, Gaelle

2018-02-01

Previous studies have suggested a link between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and prostate cancer (PCa). In the present study, we aimed to assess the association between MetS and markers of PCa aggressiveness on radical prostatectomy (RP). All patients consecutively treated for PCa by RP in 6 academic institutions between August 2013 and July 2016 were included. MetS was defined as at least 3 of 5 components (obesity, elevated blood pressure, diabetes, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, and hypertriglyceridemia). Demographic, biological, and clinical parameters were prospectively collected, including: age, biopsy results, preoperative serum prostate-specific antigen, surgical procedure, and pathological data of RP specimen. Locally advanced disease was defined as a pT-stage ≥3. International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) groups were used for pathological grading. Qualitative and quantitative variables were compared using chi-square and Wilcoxon tests; logistic regression analyses assessed the association of MetS and its components with pathological data. Statistical significance was defined as a P<0.05. Among 567 men, 249 (44%) had MetS. In a multivariate model including preoperative prostate-specific antigen, biopsy ISUP-score, clinical T-stage, age, and ethnicity: we found that MetS was an independent risk factor for positive margins, and ISUP group ≥4 on the RP specimen (odds ratio [OR] = 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1-2.3; P = 0.035; OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1-4.0; P = 0.044, respectively). In addition, low HDL-cholesterol level was associated with locally advanced PCa (OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1-2.4; P = 0.024). Risks of adverse pathological features increased with the number of MetS components: having ≥ 4 MetS components was significantly associated with higher risk of ISUP group ≥ 4 and higher risk of positive margins (OR = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1-3.3; P = 0.017; OR = 1.8; 95% CI: 1.1-2.8; P = 0.007, respectively). MetS was an independent predictive factor for

Simultaneous Treatment with Statins and Aspirin Reduces the Risk of Prostate Cancer Detection and Tumorigenic Properties in Prostate Cancer Cell Lines

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Olivan, M.; Rigau, M.; Colás, E.; Garcia, M.; Montes, M.; Sequeiros, T.; Regis, L.; Celma, A.; Planas, J.; Placer, J.; Reventós, J.; de Torres, I.; Doll, A.; Morote, J.

2015-01-01

Nowadays prostate cancer is the most common solid tumor in men from industrialized countries and the second leading cause of death. At the ages when PCa is usually diagnosed, mortality related to cardiovascular morbidity is high; therefore, men at risk for PCa frequently receive chronic lipid-lowering and antiplatelet treatment. The aim of this study was to analyze how chronic treatment with statins, aspirin, and their combination influenced the risk of PCa detection. The tumorigenic properties of these treatments were evaluated by proliferation, colony formation, invasion, and migration assays using different PCa cell lines, in order to assess how these treatments act at molecular level. The results showed that a combination of statins and aspirin enhances the effect of individual treatments and seems to reduce the risk of PCa detection (OR: 0.616 (95% CI: 0.467–0.812), P < 0.001). However, if treatments are maintained, aspirin (OR: 1.835 (95% CI: 1.068–3.155), P = 0.028) or the combination of both drugs (OR: 3.059 (95% CI: 1.894–4.939), P < 0.001) represents an increased risk of HGPCa. As observed at clinical level, these beneficial effects in vitro are enhanced when both treatments are administered simultaneously, suggesting that chronic, concomitant treatment with statins and aspirin has a protective effect on PCa incidence. PMID:25649906

Learning binary code via PCA of angle projection for image retrieval

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fumeng; Ye, Zhiqiang; Wei, Xueqi; Wu, Congzhong

2018-01-01

With benefits of low storage costs and high query speeds, binary code representation methods are widely researched for efficiently retrieving large-scale data. In image hashing method, learning hashing function to embed highdimensions feature to Hamming space is a key step for accuracy retrieval. Principal component analysis (PCA) technical is widely used in compact hashing methods, and most these hashing methods adopt PCA projection functions to project the original data into several dimensions of real values, and then each of these projected dimensions is quantized into one bit by thresholding. The variances of different projected dimensions are different, and with real-valued projection produced more quantization error. To avoid the real-valued projection with large quantization error, in this paper we proposed to use Cosine similarity projection for each dimensions, the angle projection can keep the original structure and more compact with the Cosine-valued. We used our method combined the ITQ hashing algorithm, and the extensive experiments on the public CIFAR-10 and Caltech-256 datasets validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The PCA3 test for guiding repeat biopsy of prostate cancer and its cut-off score: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong Luo

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The specificity of prostate-specific antigen (PSA for early intervention in repeat biopsy is unsatisfactory. Prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3 may be more accurate in outcome prediction than other methods for the early detection of prostate cancer (PCa. However, the results were inconsistent in repeated biopsies. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the role of PCA3 in outcome prediction. A systematic bibliographic search was conducted for articles published before April 2013, using PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Embase and other databases from health technology assessment agencies. The quality of the studies was assessed on the basis of QUADAS criteria. Eleven studies of diagnostic tests with moderate to high quality were selected. A meta-analysis was carried out to synthesize the results. The results of the meta-analyses were heterogeneous among studies. We performed a subgroup analysis (with or without inclusion of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN and atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP. Using a PCA3 cutoff of 20 or 35, in the two sub-groups, the global sensitivity values were 0.93 or 0.80 and 0.79 or 0.75, specificities were 0.65 or 0.44 and 0.78 or 0.70, positive likelihood ratios were 1.86 or 1.58 and 2.49 or 1.78, negative likelihood ratios were 0.81 or 0.43 and 0.91 or 0.82 and diagnostic odd ratios (ORs were 5.73 or 3.45 and 7.13 or 4.11, respectively. The areas under the curve (AUCs of the summary receiver operating characteristic curve were 0.85 or 0.72 and 0.81 or 0.69, respectively. PCA3 can be used for repeat biopsy of the prostate to improve accuracy of PCa detection. Unnecessary biopsies can be avoided by using a PCa cutoff score of 20.

Prostate Cancer Radiation Therapy and Risk of Thromboembolic Events

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Bosco, Cecilia, E-mail: Cecilia.t.bosco@kcl.ac.uk [Translational Oncology & Urology Research (TOUR), Division of Cancer Studies, King' s College London, London (United Kingdom); Garmo, Hans [Translational Oncology & Urology Research (TOUR), Division of Cancer Studies, King' s College London, London (United Kingdom); Regional Cancer Centre, Uppsala, Akademiska Sjukhuset, Uppsala (Sweden); Adolfsson, Jan [CLINTEC Department, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (Sweden); Stattin, Pär [Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden); Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå (Sweden); Holmberg, Lars [Translational Oncology & Urology Research (TOUR), Division of Cancer Studies, King' s College London, London (United Kingdom); Regional Cancer Centre, Uppsala, Akademiska Sjukhuset, Uppsala (Sweden); Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden); Nilsson, Per; Gunnlaugsson, Adalsteinn [Department of Hematology, Oncology and Radiation Physics, Skane University Hospital, Lund University, Lund (Sweden); Widmark, Anders [Department of Radiation Sciences, Oncology, Umeå University, Umeå (Sweden); Van Hemelrijck, Mieke [Translational Oncology & Urology Research (TOUR), Division of Cancer Studies, King' s College London, London (United Kingdom); Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm (Sweden)

2017-04-01

Purpose: To investigate the risk of thromboembolic disease (TED) after radiation therapy (RT) with curative intent for prostate cancer (PCa). Patients and Methods: We identified all men who received RT as curative treatment (n=9410) and grouped according to external beam RT (EBRT) or brachytherapy (BT). By comparing with an age- and county-matched comparison cohort of PCa-free men (n=46,826), we investigated risk of TED after RT using Cox proportional hazard regression models. The model was adjusted for tumor characteristics, demographics, comorbidities, PCa treatments, and known risk factors of TED, such as recent surgery and disease progression. Results: Between 2006 and 2013, 6232 men with PCa received EBRT, and 3178 underwent BT. A statistically significant association was found between EBRT and BT and risk of pulmonary embolism in the crude analysis. However, upon adjusting for known TED risk factors these associations disappeared. No significant associations were found between BT or EBRT and deep venous thrombosis. Conclusion: Curative RT for prostate cancer using contemporary methodologies was not associated with an increased risk of TED.

Prostate Cancer Radiation Therapy and Risk of Thromboembolic Events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bosco, Cecilia; Garmo, Hans; Adolfsson, Jan; Stattin, Pär; Holmberg, Lars; Nilsson, Per; Gunnlaugsson, Adalsteinn; Widmark, Anders; Van Hemelrijck, Mieke

2017-01-01

Purpose: To investigate the risk of thromboembolic disease (TED) after radiation therapy (RT) with curative intent for prostate cancer (PCa). Patients and Methods: We identified all men who received RT as curative treatment (n=9410) and grouped according to external beam RT (EBRT) or brachytherapy (BT). By comparing with an age- and county-matched comparison cohort of PCa-free men (n=46,826), we investigated risk of TED after RT using Cox proportional hazard regression models. The model was adjusted for tumor characteristics, demographics, comorbidities, PCa treatments, and known risk factors of TED, such as recent surgery and disease progression. Results: Between 2006 and 2013, 6232 men with PCa received EBRT, and 3178 underwent BT. A statistically significant association was found between EBRT and BT and risk of pulmonary embolism in the crude analysis. However, upon adjusting for known TED risk factors these associations disappeared. No significant associations were found between BT or EBRT and deep venous thrombosis. Conclusion: Curative RT for prostate cancer using contemporary methodologies was not associated with an increased risk of TED.

Geochemical Constraints for Mercury's PCA-Derived Geochemical Terranes

Science.gov (United States)

Stockstill-Cahill, K. R.; Peplowski, P. N.

2018-05-01

PCA-derived geochemical terranes provide a robust, analytical means of defining these terranes using strictly geochemical inputs. Using the end members derived in this way, we are able to assess the geochemical implications for Mercury.

Improvements to the RXTE/PCA Calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Jahoda, K.

2009-01-01

The author presents the current status of the RXTE/PCA Calibration, with emphasis on recent updates to the energy scale and the background subtraction. A new treatment of the Xenon K-escape line removes the largest remaining residual in the previously distributed matrices. Observations of Sco X-1 made simultaneously with Swift XRT, expressly for the purpose of cross calibrating the response to bright sources, are presented.

Periarticular infiltration for pain relief after total hip arthroplasty: a comparison with epidural and PCA analgesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandazi, Ageliki; Kanellopoulos, Ilias; Kalimeris, Konstantinos; Batistaki, Chrysanthi; Nikolakopoulos, Nikolaos; Matsota, Paraskevi; Babis, George C; Kostopanagiotou, Georgia

2013-11-01

Epidural and intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) are established methods for pain relief after total hip arthroplasty (THA). Periarticular infiltration is an alternative method that is gaining ground due to its simplicity and safety. Our study aims to assess the efficacy of periarticular infiltration in pain relief after THA. Sixty-three patients undergoing THA under spinal anaesthesia were randomly assigned to receive postoperative analgesia with continuous epidural infusion with ropivacaine (epidural group), intraoperative periarticular infiltration with ropivacaine, clonidine, morphine, epinephrine and corticosteroids (infiltration group) or PCA with morphine (PCA group). PCA morphine provided rescue analgesia in all groups. We recorded morphine consumption, visual analog scale (VAS) scores at rest and movement, blood loss from wound drainage, mean arterial pressure (MAP) and adverse effects at 1, 6, 12, 24 h postoperatively. Morphine consumption at all time points, VAS scores at rest, 6, 12 and 24 h and at movement, 6 and 12 h postoperatively were lower in infiltration group compared to PCA group (p PCA group (p PCA with morphine after THA, providing better pain relief and lower opioid consumption postoperatively. Infiltration seems to be equally effective to epidural analgesia without having the potential side effects of the latter.

Improved medical image fusion based on cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transforms.

Science.gov (United States)

Reena Benjamin, J; Jayasree, T

2018-02-01

In the medical field, radiologists need more informative and high-quality medical images to diagnose diseases. Image fusion plays a vital role in the field of biomedical image analysis. It aims to integrate the complementary information from multimodal images, producing a new composite image which is expected to be more informative for visual perception than any of the individual input images. The main objective of this paper is to improve the information, to preserve the edges and to enhance the quality of the fused image using cascaded principal component analysis (PCA) and shift invariant wavelet transforms. A novel image fusion technique based on cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transforms is proposed in this paper. PCA in spatial domain extracts relevant information from the large dataset based on eigenvalue decomposition, and the wavelet transform operating in the complex domain with shift invariant properties brings out more directional and phase details of the image. The significance of maximum fusion rule applied in dual-tree complex wavelet transform domain enhances the average information and morphological details. The input images of the human brain of two different modalities (MRI and CT) are collected from whole brain atlas data distributed by Harvard University. Both MRI and CT images are fused using cascaded PCA and shift invariant wavelet transform method. The proposed method is evaluated based on three main key factors, namely structure preservation, edge preservation, contrast preservation. The experimental results and comparison with other existing fusion methods show the superior performance of the proposed image fusion framework in terms of visual and quantitative evaluations. In this paper, a complex wavelet-based image fusion has been discussed. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method enhances the directional features as well as fine edge details. Also, it reduces the redundant details, artifacts, distortions.

The relationship between Prostate CAncer gene 3 (PCA3) and prostate cancer significance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Poppel, Hein; Haese, Alexander; Graefen, Markus; de la Taille, Alexandre; Irani, Jacques; de Reijke, Theo; Remzi, Mesut; Marberger, Michael

2012-01-01

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between Prostate CAncer gene 3 (PCA3) and prostate cancer significance. PATIENTS AND METHODS Clinical data from two multi-centre European open-label, prospective studies evaluating the clinical utility of the PCA3 assay in guiding initial and repeat biopsy

The evolving local social contract for managing climate and disaster risk in Vietnam.

Science.gov (United States)

Christoplos, Ian; Ngoan, Le Duc; Sen, Le Thi Hoa; Huong, Nguyen Thi Thanh; Lindegaard, Lily Salloum

2017-07-01

How do disasters shape local government legitimacy in relation to managing climate- and disaster-related risks? This paper looks at how local authorities in Central Vietnam perceive their social contract for risk reduction, including the partial merging of responsibilities for disaster risk management with new plans for and investments in climate change adaptation and broader socioeconomic development. The findings indicate that extreme floods and storms constitute critical junctures that stimulate genuine institutional change. Local officials are proud of their strengthened role in disaster response and they are eager to boost investment in infrastructure. They have struggled to reinforce their legitimacy among their constituents, but given the shifting roles of the state, private sector, and civil society, and the undiminished emphasis on high-risk development models, their responsibilities for responding to emerging climate change scenarios are increasingly nebulous. The past basis for legitimacy is no longer valid, but tomorrow's social contract is not yet defined. © 2017 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2017.

Differential research of inflammatory and related mediators in BPH, histological prostatitis and PCa.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, T R; Wang, G C; Zhang, H M; Peng, B

2018-02-14

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common male malignancies in the world. It was aimed to investigate differential expression of inflammatory and related factors in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer (PCa), histological prostatitis (HP) and explore the role of Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), (VEGF) Vascular endothelial growth factor, androgen receptor (AR) and IL-2, IL-8 and TNF-α in the occurrence and development of prostate cancer. RT-PCR was used to detect the mRNA expression level of iNOS, VEGF, AR and IL-2, IL-8 and TNF-α in BPH, PCa and BPH+HP. Western blotting and immunohistochemical staining were used to detect the protein levels of various proteins in three diseases. The results showed the mRNA and protein levels of iNOS, VEGF and IL-2, IL-8 and TNF-α were significantly increased in PCa and BPH+HP groups compared with BPH group (p BPH+HP groups (p BPH+HP groups (p > .05). iNOS, VEGF, AR and IL-2, IL-8 and TNF-α are involved in the malignant transformation of prostate tissue and play an important role in the development and progression of Prostate cancer (PCa). © 2018 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

BPH and prostate cancer risk

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saiful Miah

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: With the exclusion of non-melanomatous skin malignancy, prostate cancer (PCa is the second most prevalent cancer in men globally. It has been reported that the majority of men will develop benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH by the time they reach their 60s. Together, these prostatic diseases have a significant morbidity and mortality affecting over a billion men throughout the world. The risk of developing prostate cancer of men suffering BPH is one that has resulted in a healthy debate amongst the urological community. Here, we try to address this conundrum with clinical and basic science evidence. Materials and Methods: Data from an online search and contemporary data presented at international urological congresses was reviewed. Results: BPH and PCa can be linked together at a molecular and cellular level on genetic, hormonal, and inflammatory platforms suggesting that these prostatic diseases have common pathophysiological driving factors. Epidemiological studies are weighted towards the presence of BPH having a greater risk for a man to develop PCa in his lifetime; however, a conclusion of causality cannot be confidently stated. Conclusion: The future workload healthcare practitioners will face regarding BPH, and PCa will substantially increase. Further basic science and large epidemiological studies using a global cohort of men are required prior to the urological community confidently counseling their patients with BPH with regards to their PCa risk.

BPH and prostate cancer risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Miah, Saiful; Catto, James

2014-04-01

With the exclusion of non-melanomatous skin malignancy, prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most prevalent cancer in men globally. It has been reported that the majority of men will develop benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) by the time they reach their 60s. Together, these prostatic diseases have a significant morbidity and mortality affecting over a billion men throughout the world. The risk of developing prostate cancer of men suffering BPH is one that has resulted in a healthy debate amongst the urological community. Here, we try to address this conundrum with clinical and basic science evidence. Data from an online search and contemporary data presented at international urological congresses was reviewed. BPH and PCa can be linked together at a molecular and cellular level on genetic, hormonal, and inflammatory platforms suggesting that these prostatic diseases have common pathophysiological driving factors. Epidemiological studies are weighted towards the presence of BPH having a greater risk for a man to develop PCa in his lifetime; however, a conclusion of causality cannot be confidently stated. The future workload healthcare practitioners will face regarding BPH, and PCa will substantially increase. Further basic science and large epidemiological studies using a global cohort of men are required prior to the urological community confidently counseling their patients with BPH with regards to their PCa risk.

Chronic inflammation of the prostate type IV with respect to risk of prostate cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio B. Porcaro

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Chronic inflammatory infiltrate (CII might be involved in prostate cancer (PCA and benign hyperplasia (BPH; however, its significance is controversial. Chronic inflammatory prostatitis type IV is the most common non cancer diagnosis in men undergoing biopsy because of suspected PCA. Objective: To evaluate potential associations of coexistent CII and PCA in biopsy specimens after prostate assessment. Design, setting, and participants: Between January 2007 and December 2008, 415 consecutive patients who underwent prostate biopsy were retrospectively evaluated. The investigated variables included Age (years and PSA (ug/l; moreover, CII+, glandular atrophy (GA+, glandular hyperplasia (GH+, prostate Intraepithelial neoplasm (PIN+, atypical small acinar cell proliferation (ASAP+ and PCA positive cores (P+ were evaluated as categorical and continuous (proportion of positive cores. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Associations of CII+ and PCA risk were assessed by statistical methods. Results and limitations: In the patient population, a biopsy core positive for PCA was detected in 34.2% of cases and the rate of high grade PCA (HGPCA: bGS ! 8 resulted 4.82%. CII+ significantly and inversely associated with a positive biopsy core P+ (P < 0.0001; OR = 0.26 and HGPCA (P = 0.0005; OR = 0.05. Moreover, the associations indicated that patients with coexistent CII+ on needle biopsy were 74% less likely to have coexistent PCA than men without CII+ as well as 95% less likely to have HGPCA in the biopsy core than men without coexistent CII+. There were limits in our study which was single centre and included only one dedicated pathologist. Conclusions: There was an inverse association of chronic inflammation of the prostate type IV and risk of PCA; moreover, HGPCA was less likely to be detected in cancers associated with coexistent CII. In prostate microenvironment, prostate chronic inflammation may be protective; however, its role in

The impact of moderate wine consumption on the risk of developing prostate cancer

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Ferro, Matteo; Foerster, Beat; Abufaraj, Mohammad; Briganti, Alberto; Karakiewicz, Pierre I; Shariat, Shahrokh F

2018-01-01

Objective To investigate the impact of moderate wine consumption on the risk of prostate cancer (PCa). We focused on the differential effect of moderate consumption of red versus white wine. Design This study was a meta-analysis that includes data from case–control and cohort studies. Materials and methods A systematic search of Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, and Cochrane library was performed on December 1, 2017. Studies were deemed eligible if they assessed the risk of PCa due to red, white, or any wine using multivariable logistic regression analysis. We performed a formal meta-analysis for the risk of PCa according to moderate wine and wine type consumption (white or red). Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using Cochrane’s Q test and I2 statistics. Publication bias was assessed using Egger’s regression test. Results A total of 930 abstracts and titles were initially identified. After removal of duplicates, reviews, and conference abstracts, 83 full-text original articles were screened. Seventeen studies (611,169 subjects) were included for final evaluation and fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In the case of moderate wine consumption: the pooled risk ratio (RR) for the risk of PCa was 0.98 (95% CI 0.92–1.05, p=0.57) in the multivariable analysis. Moderate white wine consumption increased the risk of PCa with a pooled RR of 1.26 (95% CI 1.10–1.43, p=0.001) in the multi-variable analysis. Meanwhile, moderate red wine consumption had a protective role reducing the risk by 12% (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.78–0.999, p=0.047) in the multivariable analysis that comprised 222,447 subjects. Conclusions In this meta-analysis, moderate wine consumption did not impact the risk of PCa. Interestingly, regarding the type of wine, moderate consumption of white wine increased the risk of PCa, whereas moderate consumption of red wine had a protective effect. Further analyses are needed to assess the differential molecular effect of white and red wine conferring their

The impact of moderate wine consumption on the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Vartolomei, Mihai Dorin; Kimura, Shoji; Ferro, Matteo; Foerster, Beat; Abufaraj, Mohammad; Briganti, Alberto; Karakiewicz, Pierre I; Shariat, Shahrokh F

2018-01-01

To investigate the impact of moderate wine consumption on the risk of prostate cancer (PCa). We focused on the differential effect of moderate consumption of red versus white wine. This study was a meta-analysis that includes data from case-control and cohort studies. A systematic search of Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, and Cochrane library was performed on December 1, 2017. Studies were deemed eligible if they assessed the risk of PCa due to red, white, or any wine using multivariable logistic regression analysis. We performed a formal meta-analysis for the risk of PCa according to moderate wine and wine type consumption (white or red). Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using Cochrane's Q test and I 2 statistics. Publication bias was assessed using Egger's regression test. A total of 930 abstracts and titles were initially identified. After removal of duplicates, reviews, and conference abstracts, 83 full-text original articles were screened. Seventeen studies (611,169 subjects) were included for final evaluation and fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In the case of moderate wine consumption: the pooled risk ratio (RR) for the risk of PCa was 0.98 (95% CI 0.92-1.05, p =0.57) in the multivariable analysis. Moderate white wine consumption increased the risk of PCa with a pooled RR of 1.26 (95% CI 1.10-1.43, p =0.001) in the multi-variable analysis. Meanwhile, moderate red wine consumption had a protective role reducing the risk by 12% (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.78-0.999, p =0.047) in the multivariable analysis that comprised 222,447 subjects. In this meta-analysis, moderate wine consumption did not impact the risk of PCa. Interestingly, regarding the type of wine, moderate consumption of white wine increased the risk of PCa, whereas moderate consumption of red wine had a protective effect. Further analyses are needed to assess the differential molecular effect of white and red wine conferring their impact on PCa risk.

A stable systemic risk ranking in China's banking sector: Based on principal component analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Libing; Xiao, Binqing; Yu, Honghai; You, Qixing

2018-02-01

In this paper, we compare five popular systemic risk rankings, and apply principal component analysis (PCA) model to provide a stable systemic risk ranking for the Chinese banking sector. Our empirical results indicate that five methods suggest vastly different systemic risk rankings for the same bank, while the combined systemic risk measure based on PCA provides a reliable ranking. Furthermore, according to factor loadings of the first component, PCA combined ranking is mainly based on fundamentals instead of market price data. We clearly find that price-based rankings are not as practical a method as fundamentals-based ones. This PCA combined ranking directly shows systemic risk contributions of each bank for banking supervision purpose and reminds banks to prevent and cope with the financial crisis in advance.

Imaging network level language recovery after left PCA stroke.

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Sebastian, Rajani; Long, Charltien; Purcell, Jeremy J; Faria, Andreia V; Lindquist, Martin; Jarso, Samson; Race, David; Davis, Cameron; Posner, Joseph; Wright, Amy; Hillis, Argye E

2016-05-11

The neural mechanisms that support aphasia recovery are not yet fully understood. Our goal was to evaluate longitudinal changes in naming recovery in participants with posterior cerebral artery (PCA) stroke using a case-by-case analysis. Using task based and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and detailed language testing, we longitudinally studied the recovery of the naming network in four participants with PCA stroke with naming deficits at the acute (0 week), sub acute (3-5 weeks), and chronic time point (5-7 months) post stroke. Behavioral and imaging analyses (task related and resting state functional connectivity) were carried out to elucidate longitudinal changes in naming recovery. Behavioral and imaging analysis revealed that an improvement in naming accuracy from the acute to the chronic stage was reflected by increased connectivity within and between left and right hemisphere "language" regions. One participant who had persistent moderate naming deficit showed weak and decreasing connectivity longitudinally within and between left and right hemisphere language regions. These findings emphasize a network view of aphasia recovery, and show that the degree of inter- and intra- hemispheric balance between the language-specific regions is necessary for optimal recovery of naming, at least in participants with PCA stroke.

Modification of the grain boundary microstructure of the austenitic PCA stainless steel to improve helium embrittlement resistance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maziasz, P.J.; Braski, D.N.

1986-01-01

Grain boundary MC precipitation was produced by a modified thermal-mechanical pretreatment in 25% cold worked (CW) austenitic prime candidate alloy (PCA) stainless steel prior to HFIR irradiation. Postirradiation tensile results and fracture analysis showed that the modified material (B3) resisted helium embrittlement better than either solution annealed (SA) or 25% CW PCA irradiated at 500 to 600 0 C to approx.21 dpa and 1370 at. ppM He. PCA SA and 25% CW were not embrittled at 300 to 400 0 C. Grain boundary MC survives in PCA-B3 during HFIR irradiation at 500 0 C but dissolves at 600 0 C; it does not form in either SA or 25% CW PCA during similar irradiation. The grain boundary MC appears to play an important role in the helium embrittlement resistance of PCA-B3

The effectiveness of Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA morphine-ketamine compared to Patient Controlled Analgesia (PCA morphine to reduce total dose of morphine and Visual Analog Scale (VAS in postoperative laparotomy surgery

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I Gusti Ngurah Mahaalit Aribawa

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Laparotomy may cause moderate to severe after surgery pain, thus adequate pain management is needed. The addition of ketamine in patient controlled analgesia (PCA morphine after surgery can be the option. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of PCA morphine-ketamine compared to PCA morphine in patient postoperative laparotomy surgery to reduce total dose of morphine requirement and pain intensity evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS. Methods: This study was a double-blind RCT in 58 patients of ASA I and II, age 18-64 years, underwent an elective laparotomy at Sanglah General Hospital. Patients were divided into 2 groups. Group A, got addition of ketamine (1mg/ml in PCA morphine (1mg/ml and patients in group B received morphine (1mg/ml by PCA. Prior to surgical incision both group were given a bolus ketamine 0,15mg/ kg and ketorolac 0,5mg/kg. The total dose of morphine and VAS were measured at 6, 12, and 24 hours postoperatively. Result: Total dose of morphine in the first 24 hours postoperatively at morphine-ketamine group (5,1±0,8mg is lower than morphine only group (6,5±0,9mg p<0,001. VAS (resting 6 and 12 hour postoperative in morphine-ketamine group (13,4±4,8 mm and (10,7±2,6 mm are lower than morphine (17,9±4,1mm p≤0,05 and (12,8±5,3mm p≤0,05. VAS (moving 6, 12, and 24 hour postoperative morphineketamine group (24,8±5,1mm, (18±5,6mm and (9±5,6mm are lower than morphine (28,7±5,2mm p≤0,05, (23,1±6,0mm p≤0,05, and (12,8±5,3mm p≤0,05. Conclusions: Addition of ketamine in PCA morphine for postoperative laparotomy surgery reduces total morphine requirements in 24 hours compared to PCA morphine alone.

Improved swelling resistance for PCA austenitic stainless steel under HFIR irradiation through microstructural control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maziasz, P.J.; Braski, D.N.

1984-01-01

Swelling evaluation of PCA variants and 20%-cold-worked (N-Lot) type 316 stainless steel (CW 316) at 300 to 600 0 C was extended to 44 dpa. Swelling was negligible in all the steels at 300 0 C after approx. 44 dpa. At 500 to 600 0 C 25%-cold-worked PCA showed better void swelling resistance than type 316 at approx. 44 dpa. There was less swelling variation among alloys at 400 0 C, but again 25%-cold-worked PCA was the best

Prostate health index (phi) and prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) significantly improve diagnostic accuracy in patients undergoing prostate biopsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Perdonà, Sisto; Bruzzese, Dario; Ferro, Matteo; Autorino, Riccardo; Marino, Ada; Mazzarella, Claudia; Perruolo, Giuseppe; Longo, Michele; Spinelli, Rosa; Di Lorenzo, Giuseppe; Oliva, Andrea; De Sio, Marco; Damiano, Rocco; Altieri, Vincenzo; Terracciano, Daniela

2013-02-15

Prostate health index (phi) and prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) have been recently proposed as novel biomarkers for prostate cancer (PCa). We assessed the diagnostic performance of these biomarkers, alone or in combination, in men undergoing first prostate biopsy for suspicion of PCa. One hundred sixty male subjects were enrolled in this prospective observational study. PSA molecular forms, phi index (Beckman coulter immunoassay), PCA3 score (Progensa PCA3 assay), and other established biomarkers (tPSA, fPSA, and %fPSA) were assessed before patients underwent a 18-core first prostate biopsy. The discriminating ability between PCa-negative and PCa-positive biopsies of Beckman coulter phi and PCA3 score and other used biomarkers were determined. One hundred sixty patients met inclusion criteria. %p2PSA (p2PSA/fPSA × 100), phi and PCA3 were significantly higher in patients with PCa compared to PCa-negative group (median values: 1.92 vs. 1.55, 49.97 vs. 36.84, and 50 vs. 32, respectively, P ≤ 0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that %p2PSA, phi, and PCA3 are good indicator of malignancy (AUCs = 0.68, 0.71, and 0.66, respectively). A multivariable logistic regression model consisting of both the phi index and PCA3 score allowed to reach an overall diagnostic accuracy of 0.77. Decision curve analysis revealed that this "combined" marker achieved the highest net benefit over the examined range of the threshold probability. phi and PCA3 showed no significant difference in the ability to predict PCa diagnosis in men undergoing first prostate biopsy. However, diagnostic performance is significantly improved by combining phi and PCA3. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Place of surgery in high-risk tumours of the prostate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soulie, M.; Rozet, F.; Hennequin, C.; Salomon, L.

2010-01-01

Among the different options recommended for high-risk prostate cancer, radical prostatectomy is admitted as radiotherapy, but its role is still controversial in mono-therapy and difficult to evaluate in combined treatments. The results of clinical trials combining an external radiotherapy to a long-term androgen deprivation in locally advanced tumours sustain the principle of a multidisciplinary management in high-risk prostate cancer. The impact of surgery on the risk of progression and local recurrence is important in selected patients with low grade and small tumoral volume. Clinical and histological data associated to the MRI assessment remain essential and enhance the preoperative multidisciplinary decision, especially regarding nodal and distant metastases. Radical prostatectomy with an extended pelvic lymphadenectomy can be considered as a viable alternative to radiotherapy and hormonal therapy in these patients with a long life expectancy but presenting a high risk of local progression and a low risk of metastatic disease. Morbidity of the procedure is similar to radical prostatectomy for organ-confined tumours despite more erectile dysfunction due to non-sparing radical prostatectomy in most of cases. Oncological results from recent compiled series show 10- and 15-year specific survival rates around 85 and 75%, respectively, including adjuvant or salvage treatments with radiotherapy, androgen deprivation or chemotherapy. (authors)

A g-factor metric for k-t SENSE and k-t PCA based parallel imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Binter, Christian; Ramb, Rebecca; Jung, Bernd; Kozerke, Sebastian

2016-02-01

To propose and validate a g-factor formalism for k-t SENSE, k-t PCA and related k-t methods for assessing SNR and temporal fidelity. An analytical gxf -factor formulation in the spatiotemporal frequency domain is derived, enabling assessment of noise and depiction fidelity in both the spatial and frequency domain. Using pseudoreplica analysis of cardiac cine data the gxf -factor description is validated and example data are used to analyze the performance of k-t methods for various parameter settings. Analytical gxf -factor maps were found to agree well with pseudoreplica analysis for 3x, 5x, and 7x k-t SENSE and k-t PCA. While k-t SENSE resulted in lower average gxf values (gx (avg) ) in static regions when compared with k-t PCA, k-t PCA yielded lower gx (avg) values in dynamic regions. Temporal transfer was better preserved with k-t PCA for increasing undersampling factors. The proposed gxf -factor and temporal transfer formalism allows assessing noise performance and temporal depiction fidelity of k-t methods including k-t SENSE and k-t PCA. The framework enables quantitative comparison of different k-t methods relative to frame-by-frame parallel imaging reconstruction. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Efficacy and tolerability of intravenous morphine patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in women undergoing cesarean delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

Andziak, Marta; Beta, Jarosław; Barwijuk, Michal; Issat, Tadeusz; Jakimiuk, Artur J

2015-06-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate analgesic efficacy and tolerability of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with intravenous morphine. Our observational study included 50 women who underwent a Misgav-Ladach or modified Misgav-Ladach cesarean section. Automated PCA infusion device (Medima S-PCA Syringe Pump, Medima, Krakow, Poland) was used for postoperative pain control. Time of morphine administration or initiation of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV PCA) with morphine was recorded, as well as post-operative pain at rest assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS). All patients were followed up for 24 hours after discharge from the operating room, taking into account patient records, worst pain score at rest, number of IV PCA attempts, and drug consumption. Median of total morphine doses used during the postoperative period was 42.9mg (IQR 35.6-48.5), with median infusion time of 687.0 min. (IQR 531.0-757.5). Pain severity and total drug consumption improved after the first 3 hours following cesarean delivery (p PCA attempts per patient was 33 (IQR: 24-37), with median of 11 placebo attempts (IQR: 3-27). Patient-controlled analgesia with morphine is an efficient and acceptable analgesic method in women undergoing cesarean section.

Survival and Complications Following Surgery and Radiation for Localized Prostate Cancer: An International Collaborative Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Wallis, Christopher J D; Glaser, Adam; Hu, Jim C; Huland, Hartwig; Lawrentschuk, Nathan; Moon, Daniel; Murphy, Declan G; Nguyen, Paul L; Resnick, Matthew J; Nam, Robert K

2018-01-01

Evaluation of treatment options for localized prostate cancer (PCa) remains among the highest priorities for comparative effectiveness research. Surgery and radiotherapy (RT) are the two interventions most commonly used. To provide a critical narrative review of evidence of the comparative effectiveness and harms of surgery and RT in the treatment of localized PCa. A collaborative critical narrative review of the literature was conducted. Evidence to clearly guide treatment choice in PCa remains insufficient. Randomized trials are underpowered for clinically meaningful endpoints and have demonstrated no difference in overall or PCa-specific survival. Observational studies have consistently demonstrated an absolute survival benefit for men treated with radical prostatectomy, but are limited by selection bias and residual confounding errors. Surgery and RT are associated with comparable health-related quality of life following treatment in three randomized trials. Randomized data regarding urinary, erectile, and bowel function show few long-term (>5 yr) differences, although short-term continence and erectile function were worse following surgery and short-term urinary bother and bowel function were worse following RT. There has been recent recognition of other complications that may significantly affect the life trajectory of those undergoing PCa treatment. Of these, hospitalization, the need for urologic, rectoanal, and other major surgical procedures, and secondary cancers are more common among men treated with RT. Androgen deprivation therapy, frequently co-administered with RT, may additionally contribute to treatment-related morbidity. Technological innovations in surgery and RT have shown inconsistent oncologic and functional benefits. Owing to underpowered randomized control studies and the selection biases inherent in observational studies, the question of which treatment provides better PCa control cannot be definitively answered now or in the near future

Copenhagen uPAR prostate cancer (CuPCa) database

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lippert, Solvej; Berg, Kasper D; Høyer-Hansen, Gunilla

2016-01-01

AIM: Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) plays a central role during cancer invasion by facilitating pericellular proteolysis. We initiated the prospective 'Copenhagen uPAR Prostate Cancer' study to investigate the significance of uPAR levels in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. METHODS...

Synthesis and bioactivities of Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid derivatives based on the modification of PCA carboxyl group.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Zhipeng; Niu, Junfan; Liu, Hao; Xu, Zhihong; Li, Junkai; Wu, Qinglai

2017-05-01

Phenazine-1-carboxylic acid (PCA) as a natural product widely exists in microbial metabolites of Pseudomonads and Streptomycetes and has been registered for the fungicide against rice sheath blight in China. To find higher fungicidal activities compounds and study the effects on fungicidal activities after changing the carboxyl group of PCA, we synthesized a series of PCA derivatives by modifying the carboxyl group of PCA and their structures were confirmed by 1 H NMR and HRMS. Most compounds exhibited significant fungicidal activities in vitro. In particular, compound 6 exhibited inhibition effect against Rhizoctonia solani with EC 50 values of 4.35mg/L and compound 3b exhibited effect against Fusarium graminearum with EC 50 values of 8.30mg/L, compared to the positive control PCA with its EC 50 values of 7.88mg/L (Rhizoctonia solani) and 127.28mg/L (Fusarium graminearum), respectively. The results indicated that the carboxyl group of PCA could be modified to be amide group, acylhydrazine group, ester group, methyl, hydroxymethyl, chloromethyl and ether group etc. And appropriate modifications on carboxyl group of PCA were useful to extend the fungicidal scope. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lactate Oxidation Coupled to Iron or Electrode Reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA

KAUST Repository

Call, D. F.

2011-10-14

Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA completely oxidized lactate and reduced iron or an electrode, producing pyruvate and acetate intermediates. Compared to the current produced by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, G. sulfurreducens PCA produced 10-times-higher current levels in lactate-fed microbial electrolysis cells. The kinetic and comparative analyses reported here suggest a prominent role of G. sulfurreducens strains in metaland electrode-reducing communities supplied with lactate. © 2011, American Society for Microbiology.

Lactate Oxidation Coupled to Iron or Electrode Reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA

KAUST Repository

Call, D. F.; Logan, B. E.

2011-01-01

Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA completely oxidized lactate and reduced iron or an electrode, producing pyruvate and acetate intermediates. Compared to the current produced by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, G. sulfurreducens PCA produced 10-times-higher current levels in lactate-fed microbial electrolysis cells. The kinetic and comparative analyses reported here suggest a prominent role of G. sulfurreducens strains in metaland electrode-reducing communities supplied with lactate. © 2011, American Society for Microbiology.

k-t PCA: temporally constrained k-t BLAST reconstruction using principal component analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Henrik; Kozerke, Sebastian; Ringgaard, Steffen

2009-01-01

in applications exhibiting a broad range of temporal frequencies such as free-breathing myocardial perfusion imaging. We show that temporal basis functions calculated by subjecting the training data to principal component analysis (PCA) can be used to constrain the reconstruction such that the temporal resolution...... is improved. The presented method is called k-t PCA....

Neoadjuvant Treatment of High-Risk, Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer Prior to Radical Prostatectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pietzak, Eugene J; Eastham, James A

2016-05-01

Multimodal strategies combining local and systemic therapy offer the greatest chance of cure for many with men with high-risk prostate cancer who may harbor occult metastatic disease. However, no systemic therapy combined with radical prostatectomy has proven beneficial. This was in part due to a lack of effective systemic agents; however, there have been several advancements in the metastatic and castrate-resistant prostate cancer that might prove beneficial if given earlier in the natural history of the disease. For example, novel hormonal agents have recently been approved for castration-resistant prostate cancer with some early phase II neoadjuvant showing promise. Additionally, combination therapy with docetaxel-based chemohormonal has demonstrated a profound survival benefit in metastatic hormone-naïve patients and might have a role in eliminating pre-existing ADT-resistant tumor cells in the neoadjuvant setting. The Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB)/Alliance 90203 trial has finished accrual and should answer the question as to whether neoadjuvant docetaxel-based chemohormonal therapy provides an advantage over prostatectomy alone. There are also several promising targeted agents and immunotherapies under investigation in phase I/II trials with the potential to provide benefit in the neoadjuvant setting.

Localized Scleroderma, Systemic Sclerosis and Cardiovascular Risk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hesselvig, Jeanette Halskou; Kofoed, Kristian; Wu, Jashin J

2018-01-01

Recent findings indicate that patients with systemic sclerosis have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. To determine whether patients with systemic sclerosis or localized scleroderma are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a cohort study of the entire Danish population aged ≥ 18...... and ≤ 100 years was conducted, followed from 1997 to 2011 by individual-level linkage of nationwide registries. Multivariable adjusted Cox regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for a composite cardiovascular disease endpoint. A total of 697 patients with localized scleroderma and 1......,962 patients with systemic sclerosis were identified and compared with 5,428,380 people in the reference population. In systemic sclerosis, the adjusted HR was 2.22 (95% confidence interval 1.99-2.48). No association was seen between patients with localized scleroderma and cardiovascular disease. In conclusion...

Statistical Fractal Models Based on GND-PCA and Its Application on Classification of Liver Diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huiyan Jiang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A new method is proposed to establish the statistical fractal model for liver diseases classification. Firstly, the fractal theory is used to construct the high-order tensor, and then Generalized -dimensional Principal Component Analysis (GND-PCA is used to establish the statistical fractal model and select the feature from the region of liver; at the same time different features have different weights, and finally, Support Vector Machine Optimized Ant Colony (ACO-SVM algorithm is used to establish the classifier for the recognition of liver disease. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, PCA eigenface method and normal SVM method are chosen as the contrast methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reconstruct liver volume better and improve the classification accuracy of liver diseases.

Local recurrence risk after previous salvage mastectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanabe, M; Iwase, T; Okumura, Y; Yoshida, A; Masuda, N; Nakatsukasa, K; Shien, T; Tanaka, S; Komoike, Y; Taguchi, T; Arima, N; Nishimura, R; Inaji, H; Ishitobi, M

2016-07-01

Breast-conserving surgery is a standard treatment for early breast cancer. For ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR) after breast-conserving surgery, salvage mastectomy is the current standard surgical procedure. However, it is not rare for patients with IBTR who have received salvage mastectomy to develop local recurrence. In this study, we examined the risk factors of local recurrence after salvage mastectomy for IBTR. A total of 118 consecutive patients who had histologically confirmed IBTR without distant metastases and underwent salvage mastectomy without irradiation for IBTR between 1989 and 2008 were included from eight institutions in Japan. The risk factors of local recurrence were assessed. The median follow-up period from salvage mastectomy for IBTR was 4.6 years. Patients with pN2 or higher on diagnosis of the primary tumor showed significantly poorer local recurrence-free survival than those with pN0 or pN1 at primary tumor (p mastectomy for IBTR. Further research and validation studies are needed. (UMIN-CTR number UMIN000008136). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heterogeneity of miRNA expression in localized prostate cancer with clinicopathological correlations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Hussein Zedan

Full Text Available In the last decade microRNAs (miRNAs have been widely investigated in prostate cancer (PCa and have shown to be promising biomarkers in diagnostic, prognostic and predictive settings. However, tumor heterogeneity may influence miRNA expression. The aims of this study were to assess the impact of tumor heterogeneity, as demonstrated by a panel of selected miRNAs in PCa, and to correlate miRNA expression with risk profile and patient outcome.Prostatectomy specimens and matched, preoperative needle biopsies from a retrospective cohort of 49 patients, who underwent curatively intended surgery for localized PCa, were investigated with a panel of 6 miRNAs (miRNA-21, miRNA-34a, miRNA-125b, miRNA-126, miRNA-143, and miRNA-145 using tissue micro-array (TMA and in situ hybridization (ISH. Inter- and intra-patient variation was assessed using intra-class correlation (ICC.Four miRNAs (miRNA-21, miRNA-34a, miRNA-125, and miRNA-126 were significantly upregulated in PCa compared to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, and except for miRNA-21 these miRNAs documented a positive correlation between the expression level in PCa cores and their matched BPH cores, (r > 0.72. The ICC varied from 0.451 to 0.764, with miRNA-34a showing an intra-tumoral heterogeneity accounting for less than 50% of the total variation. Regarding clinicopathological outcomes, only miRNA-143 showed potential as a prognostic marker with a higher expression correlating with longer relapse-free survival (p = 0.016.The present study documents significant upregulation of the expression of miRNA-21, miRNA-34a, miRNA-125, and miRNA-126 in PCa compared to BPH and suggests a possible prognostic value associated with the expression of miRNA-143. The results, however, document intra-tumoral heterogeneity in the expression of various miRNAs calling for caution when using these tumor tissue biomarkers in prognostic and predictive settings.

Features and performance of PCa board which cuts off the electromagnetic wave. Electromagnetic shield building using the carbon fiber contamination PCa board; Denjiha wo shadansuru PCa ban no tokucho to seino. Tanso sen'i konnyu PCa ban wo mochiita denji shirudobiru

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Yoshida, Katsuo; Kasai, Yasuaki [Obayashi Corp., Osaka (Japan); Okada, Shin' ichiro; Sakamoto, Shin [Osaka Gas Corp., Osaka (Japan)

1999-03-10

With the rapid popularization of public radio information communication equipment, portable telephones, wireless LAN, etc., the interception (building shield) of the electromagnetic wave internal and external the building becomes large problem. As process equal to the convention and the method in which the cost is possible, they did do not shield the whole building, and also ensure the comfort as an office, and PCa board which mixed the carbon fiber into the mortar was developed. They described the survey result of the electromagnetic shield performance of the building which constructed by using this in external wall. They explained electromagnetism characteristics of the contamination mortar and application to the PCa board and method. They carried out the measurement in the electromagnetic shield room laboratory, and they obtained next result. 1) There is seldom on the effect both only the concrete and only by the carbon fiber mesh. 2) They considered the effect that carbon fiber chop 1% are mixed into the concrete. 3) The effect became a maximum, when carbon fiber chop and carbon fiber mesh were mixed, and they confirmed being excellent cost-concerned. (NEDO)

Use of principal components analysis (PCA) on estuarine sediment datasets: The effect of data pre-treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reid, M.K.; Spencer, K.L.

2009-01-01

Principal components analysis (PCA) is a multivariate statistical technique capable of discerning patterns in large environmental datasets. Although widely used, there is disparity in the literature with respect to data pre-treatment prior to PCA. This research examines the influence of commonly reported data pre-treatment methods on PCA outputs, and hence data interpretation, using a typical environmental dataset comprising sediment geochemical data from an estuary in SE England. This study demonstrated that applying the routinely used log (x + 1) transformation skewed the data and masked important trends. Removing outlying samples and correcting for the influence of grain size had the most significant effect on PCA outputs and data interpretation. Reducing the influence of grain size using granulometric normalisation meant that other factors affecting metal variability, including mineralogy, anthropogenic sources and distance along the salinity transect could be identified and interpreted more clearly. - Data pre-treatment can have a significant influence on the outcome of PCA.

Creation of RTOG compliant patient CT-atlases for automated atlas based contouring of local regional breast and high-risk prostate cancers.

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Velker, Vikram M; Rodrigues, George B; Dinniwell, Robert; Hwee, Jeremiah; Louie, Alexander V

2013-07-25

Increasing use of IMRT to treat breast and prostate cancers at high risk of regional nodal spread relies on accurate contouring of targets and organs at risk, which is subject to significant inter- and intra-observer variability. This study sought to evaluate the performance of an atlas based deformable registration algorithm to create multi-patient CT based atlases for automated contouring. Breast and prostate multi-patient CT atlases (n = 50 and 14 respectively) were constructed to be consistent with RTOG consensus contouring guidelines. A commercially available software algorithm was evaluated by comparison of atlas-predicted contours against manual contours using Dice Similarity coefficients. High levels of agreement were demonstrated for prediction of OAR contours of lungs, heart, femurs, and minor editing required for the CTV breast/chest wall. CTVs generated for axillary nodes, supraclavicular nodes, prostate, and pelvic nodes demonstrated modest agreement. Small and highly variable structures, such as internal mammary nodes, lumpectomy cavity, rectum, penile bulb, and seminal vesicles had poor agreement. A method to construct and validate performance of CT-based multi-patient atlases for automated atlas based auto-contouring has been demonstrated, and can be adopted for clinical use in planning of local regional breast and high-risk prostate radiotherapy.

Creation of RTOG compliant patient CT-atlases for automated atlas based contouring of local regional breast and high-risk prostate cancers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velker, Vikram M; Rodrigues, George B; Dinniwell, Robert; Hwee, Jeremiah; Louie, Alexander V

2013-01-01

Increasing use of IMRT to treat breast and prostate cancers at high risk of regional nodal spread relies on accurate contouring of targets and organs at risk, which is subject to significant inter- and intra-observer variability. This study sought to evaluate the performance of an atlas based deformable registration algorithm to create multi-patient CT based atlases for automated contouring. Breast and prostate multi-patient CT atlases (n = 50 and 14 respectively) were constructed to be consistent with RTOG consensus contouring guidelines. A commercially available software algorithm was evaluated by comparison of atlas-predicted contours against manual contours using Dice Similarity coefficients. High levels of agreement were demonstrated for prediction of OAR contours of lungs, heart, femurs, and minor editing required for the CTV breast/chest wall. CTVs generated for axillary nodes, supraclavicular nodes, prostate, and pelvic nodes demonstrated modest agreement. Small and highly variable structures, such as internal mammary nodes, lumpectomy cavity, rectum, penile bulb, and seminal vesicles had poor agreement. A method to construct and validate performance of CT-based multi-patient atlases for automated atlas based auto-contouring has been demonstrated, and can be adopted for clinical use in planning of local regional breast and high-risk prostate radiotherapy

Radiation risk education program - local

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bushong, S.C.; Archer, B.R.

1980-01-01

This article points out the lack of knowledge by the general public and medical profession concerning the true risks of radiation exposure. The author describes an educational program which can be implemented at the local level to overcome this deficiency. The public must understand the enormous extent of benefit derived from radiation applications in our society

Arabidopsis PCaP2 Functions as a Linker Between ABA and SA Signals in Plant Water Deficit Tolerance

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Xianling Wang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Water stress has a major influence on plant growth, development, and productivity. However, the cross-talk networks involved in drought tolerance are not well understood. Arabidopsis PCaP2 is a plasma membrane-associated Ca2+-binding protein. In this study, we employ qRT-PCR and β-glucuronidase (GUS histochemical staining to demonstrate that PCaP2 expression was strongly induced in roots, cotyledons, true leaves, lateral roots, and whole plants under water deficit conditions. Compared with the wild type (WT plants, PCaP2-overexpressing (PCaP2-OE plants displayed enhanced water deficit tolerance in terms of seed germination, seedling growth, and plant survival status. On the contrary, PCaP2 mutation and reduction via PCaP2-RNAi rendered plants more sensitive to water deficit. Furthermore, PCaP2-RNAi and pcap2 seedlings showed shorter root hairs and lower relative water content compared to WT under normal conditions and these phenotypes were exacerbated under water deficit. Additionally, the expression of PCaP2 was strongly induced by exogenous abscisic acid (ABA and salicylic acid (SA treatments. PCaP2-OE plants showed insensitive to exogenous ABA and SA treatments, in contrast to the susceptible phenotypes of pcap2 and PCaP2-RNAi. It is well-known that SNF1-related kinase 2s (SnRK2s and pathogenesis-related (PRs are major factors that influence plant drought tolerance by ABA- and SA-mediated pathways, respectively. Interestingly, PCaP2 positively regulated the expression of drought-inducible genes (RD29A, KIN1, and KIN2, ABA-mediated drought responsive genes (SnRK2.2, -2.3, -2.6, ABF1, -2, -3, -4, and SA-mediated drought responsive genes (PR1, -2, -5 under water deficit, ABA, or SA treatments. Taken together, our results showed that PCaP2 plays an important and positive role in Arabidopsis water deficit tolerance by involving in response to both ABA and SA signals and regulating root hair growth. This study provides novel insights into the

Outcome According to Elective Pelvic Radiation Therapy in Patients With High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer: A Secondary Analysis of the GETUG 12 Phase 3 Randomized Trial.

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Blanchard, Pierre; Faivre, Laura; Lesaunier, François; Salem, Naji; Mesgouez-Nebout, Nathalie; Deniau-Alexandre, Elisabeth; Rolland, Frédéric; Ferrero, Jean-Marc; Houédé, Nadine; Mourey, Loïc; Théodore, Christine; Krakowski, Ivan; Berdah, Jean-François; Baciuchka, Marjorie; Laguerre, Brigitte; Davin, Jean-Louis; Habibian, Muriel; Culine, Stéphane; Laplanche, Agnès; Fizazi, Karim

2016-01-01

The role of pelvic elective nodal irradiation (ENI) in the management of prostate cancer is controversial. This study analyzed the role of pelvic radiation therapy (RT) on the outcome in high-risk localized prostate cancer patients included in the Groupe d'Etude des Tumeurs Uro-Genitales (GETUG) 12 trial. Patients with a nonpretreated high-risk localized prostate cancer and a staging lymphadenectomy were randomly assigned to receive either goserelin every 3 months for 3 years and 4 cycles of docetaxel plus estramustine or goserelin alone. Local therapy was administered 3 months after the start of systemic treatment. Performance of pelvic ENI was left to the treating physician. Only patients treated with primary RT were included in this analysis. The primary endpoint was biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS). A total of 413 patients treated from 2002 to 2006 were included, of whom 358 were treated using primary RT. A total of 208 patients received pelvic RT and 150 prostate-only RT. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration, Gleason score, or T stage did not differ according to performance of pelvic RT; pN+ patients more frequently received pelvic RT than pN0 patients (PENI in multivariate analysis (HR: 1.10 [95% CI: 0.78-1.55], P=.60), even when analysis was restricted to pN0 patients (HR: 0.88 [95% CI: 0.59-1.31], P=.53). Pelvic ENI was not associated with increased acute or late patient reported toxicity. This unplanned analysis of a randomized trial failed to demonstrate a benefit of pelvic ENI on bPFS in high-risk localized prostate cancer patients. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual and cumulative effect of prostate cancer risk-associated variants on clinicopathologic variables in 5,895 prostate cancer patients.

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Kader, A Karim; Sun, Jielin; Isaacs, Sarah D; Wiley, Kathleen E; Yan, Guifang; Kim, Seong-Tae; Fedor, Helen; DeMarzo, Angelo M; Epstein, Jonathan I; Walsh, Patrick C; Partin, Alan W; Trock, Bruce; Zheng, S Lilly; Xu, Jianfeng; Isaacs, William

2009-08-01

More than a dozen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been associated with prostate cancer (PCa) risk from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Their association with PCa aggressiveness and clinicopathologic variables is inconclusive. Twenty PCa risk SNPs implicated in GWAS and fine mapping studies were evaluated in 5,895 PCa cases treated by radical prostatectomy at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where each tumor was uniformly graded and staged using the same protocol. For 18 of the 20 SNPs examined, no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed in risk allele frequencies between patients with more aggressive (Gleason scores > or =4 + 3, or stage > or =T3b, or N+) or less aggressive disease (Gleason scores < or =3 + 4, and stage < or =T2, and N0). For the two SNPs that had significant differences between more and less aggressive disease rs2735839 in KLK3 (P = 8.4 x 10(-7)) and rs10993994 in MSMB (P = 0.046), the alleles that are associated with increased risk for PCa were more frequent in patients with less aggressive disease. Since these SNPs are known to be associated with PSA levels in men without PCa diagnoses, these latter associations may reflect the enrichment of low grade, low stage cases diagnosed by contemporary disease screening with PSA. The vast majority of PCa risk-associated SNPs are not associated with aggressiveness and clinicopathologic variables of PCa. Correspondingly, they have minimal utility in predicting the risk for developing more or less aggressive forms of PCa.

Large institutional variations in use of androgen deprivation therapy with definitive radiotherapy in a population-based cohort of men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer.

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Ong, Wee Loon; Foroudi, Farshad; Evans, Sue; Millar, Jeremy

2017-11-01

To evaluate the pattern of use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with definitive radiotherapy (RT) in men with prostate cancer (PCa) in a population-based study in Australia. This is a prospective cohort of men with intermediate- and high-risk PCa, captured in the population-based Prostate Cancer Outcome Registry Victoria, who were treated with definitive prostate RT between January 2010 and December 2015. The primary outcome of interest was ADT utilization. Chi-squared test for trend was used to evaluate the temporal trend in the use of ADT over the study period. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to evaluate the effects of patient-, tumour- and treatment-related factors, and treatment institutions (public/ private and metropolitan/ regional) on the likelihood of ADT utilization. A total of 1806 men were included in the study, 199 of whom (11%) had favourable National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) intermediate-risk disease (i.e. only one intermediate-risk feature, primary Gleason grade 3, and variation in the use of ADT between public vs private and metropolitan vs regional institutions. © 2017 The Authors BJU International © 2017 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Governance of disaster risk reduction in Cameroon: The need to empower local government

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Henry N. Bang

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The impact of natural hazards and/or disasters in Cameroon continues to hit local communities hardest, but local government lacks the ability to manage disaster risks adequately. This is partly due to the fact that the necessity to mainstream disaster risk reduction into local governance and development practices is not yet an underlying principle of Cameroon’s disaster management framework. Using empirical and secondary data, this paper analyses the governance of disaster risks in Cameroon with particular focus on the challenges local government faces in implementing disaster risk reduction strategies. The hypothesis is that the governance of disaster risks is too centralised at the national level, with huge implications for the effective governance of disaster risks at the local level. Although Cameroon has reinvigorated efforts to address growing disaster risks in a proactive way, it is argued that the practical actions are more reactive than proactive in nature. The overall aim is to explore the challenges and opportunities that local government has in the governance of disaster risks. Based on the findings from this research, policy recommendations are suggested on ways to mainstream disaster risk reduction strategies into local governance, and advance understanding and practice in the local governance of disaster risks in the country.

Applying Four Different Risk Models in Local Ore Selection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richmond, Andrew

2002-01-01

Given the uncertainty in grade at a mine location, a financially risk-averse decision-maker may prefer to incorporate this uncertainty into the ore selection process. A FORTRAN program risksel is presented to calculate local risk-adjusted optimal ore selections using a negative exponential utility function and three dominance models: mean-variance, mean-downside risk, and stochastic dominance. All four methods are demonstrated in a grade control environment. In the case study, optimal selections range with the magnitude of financial risk that a decision-maker is prepared to accept. Except for the stochastic dominance method, the risk models reassign material from higher cost to lower cost processing options as the aversion to financial risk increases. The stochastic dominance model usually was unable to determine the optimal local selection

Assessment of PCDD/Fs levels in soil at a contaminated sawmill site in Sweden – A GIS and PCA approach to interpret the contamination pattern and distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henriksson, S.; Hagberg, J.; Bäckström, M.; Persson, I.; Lindström, G.

2013-01-01

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDD/Fs) were analysed in soil from a Swedish sawmill site where chlorophenols (CPs) had been used more than 40 years ago. The most contaminated area at the site was the preservation subarea where the PCDD/F WHO 2005 -TEQ level was 3450 times higher than the current Swedish guideline value of 200 ng TEQ/kg soil for land for industrial use. It was also shown that a fire which destroyed the sawmill might have affected the congener distribution at the concerned areas. To get a broader picture of the contamination both GIS (spatial interpolation analysis) and multivariate data analysis (PCA) were applied to visualize and compare PCDD/F levels as well as congener distributions at different areas at the site. It is shown that GIS and PCA are powerful tools in decisions on future investigations, risk assessments and remediation of contaminated sites. -- Highlights: •GIS and PCA visualize and compare site levels and congener patterns of dioxins. •Subareas were separated by differences in contamination levels and congener patterns. •Fire had a significant effect on the congener distribution at the site. -- The use of geostatistical and multivariate statistical methods are powerful tools to visualize the contamination pattern and distribution at a highly PCDD/Fs-contaminated site

Multimethod prediction of physical parent-child aggression risk in expectant mothers and fathers with Social Information Processing theory.

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Rodriguez, Christina M; Smith, Tamika L; Silvia, Paul J

2016-01-01

The Social Information Processing (SIP) model postulates that parents undergo a series of stages in implementing physical discipline that can escalate into physical child abuse. The current study utilized a multimethod approach to investigate whether SIP factors can predict risk of parent-child aggression (PCA) in a diverse sample of expectant mothers and fathers. SIP factors of PCA attitudes, negative child attributions, reactivity, and empathy were considered as potential predictors of PCA risk; additionally, analyses considered whether personal history of PCA predicted participants' own PCA risk through its influence on their attitudes and attributions. Findings indicate that, for both mothers and fathers, history influenced attitudes but not attributions in predicting PCA risk, and attitudes and attributions predicted PCA risk; empathy and reactivity predicted negative child attributions for expectant mothers, but only reactivity significantly predicted attributions for expectant fathers. Path models for expectant mothers and fathers were remarkably similar. Overall, the findings provide support for major aspects of the SIP model. Continued work is needed in studying the progression of these factors across time for both mothers and fathers as well as the inclusion of other relevant ecological factors to the SIP model. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancement of noisy EDX HRSTEM spectrum-images by combination of filtering and PCA.

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Potapov, Pavel; Longo, Paolo; Okunishi, Eiji

2017-05-01

STEM spectrum-imaging with collecting EDX signal is considered in view of the extraction of maximum information from very noisy data. It is emphasized that spectrum-images with weak EDX signal often suffer from information loss in the course of PCA treatment. The loss occurs when the level of random noise exceeds a certain threshold. Weighted PCA, though potentially helpful in isolation of meaningful variations from noise, might provoke the complete loss of information in the situation of weak EDX signal. Filtering datasets prior PCA can improve the situation and recover the lost information. In particular, Gaussian kernel filters are found to be efficient. A new filter useful in the case of sparse atomic-resolution EDX spectrum-images is suggested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sextant localization of prostate cancer in peripheral zone by MRI: correlation with systemic biopsy pathology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Rong; Wang Xiaoying; Li Feiyu; Xu Yufeng; Jiang Xuexiang; He Yunfeng; Liu Pengcheng

2006-01-01

Objective: To determine the efficacy of sextant localization of prostate cancer (PCa) in PZ (peripheral zone) by MR Imaging. Methods: Fifty-one cases of PCa and 29 cases of benign prostate diseases were enrolled in the study. Each peripheral zone was divided into 6 sections (left/right bottom, middle and tip ) in the same fashion for biopsy and the characteristics of each sextant was evaluated separately. Being blinded to clinical data, 2 radiologists with different subspeciahy experience analyzed MR images of the 480 sections of these 80 cases retrospectively. Each sextant region impression of likelihood for cancer was estimated by the rank of a five-point rating scale (1=definite PCa, 2=probable PCa, 3=possible PCa, 4=probably not PCa, 5=definitely not PCa). If definite PCa was considered, then it was staged furthermore. Each diagnosis of sextant region was compared with the pathological result of corresponding biopsy site. Result: (1) Four hundred and seventy sections (205 cancerous and 265 benign) were proved by biopsy. The diagnosis efficacy was best when cutoff point was 2. There was moderate consistency between the results of MRI and pathology with the kappa value of 0.549-0.560. The total accuracy was 78.1%-78.3% with the sensitivity of 69.3%-76.1% and the specificity of 84.9%-80.0%. The positive predictive value was 78.0%-74.6% and the negative predictive value was 78.1%-81.2%. (2) The ROC analysis demonstrated that Az with total impression recorded by two readers had not significant difference(0.829±0.020 vs. 0.840±0.019, U=-0.3988, P>0.05). Conclusion: MRI may be an elementary way to localize PCa in PZ, but the diagnosis efficacy need to be improved furthermore. (authors)

Generating local scale land use/cover change scenarios: case studies of high-risk mountain areas

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Malek, Žiga; Glade, Thomas; Boerboom, Luc

2014-05-01

The relationship between land use/cover changes and consequences to human well-being is well acknowledged and has led to higher interest of both researchers and decision makers in driving forces and consequences of such changes. For example, removal of natural vegetation cover or urban expansion resulting in new elements at risk can increase hydro-meteorological risk. This is why it is necessary to study how the land use/cover could evolve in the future. Emphasis should especially be given to areas experiencing, or expecting, high rates of socio-economic change. A suitable approach to address these changes is scenario development; it offers exploring possible futures and the corresponding environmental consequences, and aids decision-making, as it enables to analyse possible options. Scenarios provide a creative methodology to depict possible futures, resulting from existing decisions, based on different assumptions of future socio-economic development. They have been used in various disciplines and on various scales, such as flood risk and soil erosion. Several studies have simulated future scenarios of land use/cover changes at a very high success rate, however usually these approaches are tailor made for specific case study areas and fit to available data. This study presents a multi-step scenario generation framework, which can be transferable to other local scale case study areas, taking into account the case study specific consequences of land use/cover changes. Through the use of experts' and decision-makers' knowledge, we aimed to develop a framework with the following characteristics: (1) it enables development of scenarios that are plausible, (2) it can overcome data inaccessibility, (3) it can address intangible and external driving forces of land use/cover change, and (4) it ensures transferability to other local scale case study areas with different land use/cover change processes and consequences. To achieve this, a set of different methods is applied

PCA criterion for SVM (MLP) classifier for flavivirus biomarker from salivary SERS spectra at febrile stage.

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Radzol, A R M; Lee, Khuan Y; Mansor, W; Omar, I S

2016-08-01

Non-structural protein (NS1) has been conceded as one of the biomarkers for flavivirus that causes diseases with life threatening consequences. NS1 is an antigen that allows detection of the illness at febrile stage, mostly from blood samples currently. Our work here intends to define an optimum model for PCA-SVM with MLP kernel for classification of flavivirus biomarker, NS1 molecule, from SERS spectra of saliva, which to the best of our knowledge has never been explored. Since performance of the model depends on the PCA criterion and MLP parameters, both are examined in tandem. Input vector to classifier determined by each PCA criterion is subjected to brute force tuning of MLP parameters for entirety. Its performance is also compared to our previous works where a Linear and RBF kernel are used. It is found that the best PCA-SVM (MLP) model can be defined by 5 PCs from Cattel's Scree test for PCA, together with P1 and P2 values of 0.1 and -0.2 respectively, with a classification performance of [96.9%, 93.8%, 100.0%].

Effect of Carotene and Lycopene on the Risk of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yulan Wang

Full Text Available Many epidemiologic studies have investigated the association between carotenoids intake and risk of Prostate cancer (PCa. However, results have been inconclusive.We conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of dietary intake or blood concentrations of carotenoids in relation to PCa risk. We summarized the data from 34 eligible studies (10 cohort, 11 nested case-control and 13 case-control studies and estimated summary Risk Ratios (RRs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs using random-effects models.Neither dietary β-carotene intake nor its blood levels was associated with reduced PCa risk. Dietary α-carotene intake and lycopene consumption (both dietary intake and its blood levels were all associated with reduced risk of PCa (RR for dietary α-carotene intake: 0.87, 95%CI: 0.76-0.99; RR for dietary lycopene intake: 0.86, 95%CI: 0.75-0.98; RR for blood lycopene levels: 0.81, 95%CI: 0.69-0.96. However, neither blood α-carotene levels nor blood lycopene levels could reduce the risk of advanced PCa. Dose-response analysis indicated that risk of PCa was reduced by 2% per 0.2mg/day (95%CI: 0.96-0.99 increment of dietary α-carotene intake or 3% per 1mg/day (95%CI: 0.94-0.99 increment of dietary lycopene intake.α-carotene and lycopene, but not β-carotene, were inversely associated with the risk of PCa. However, both α-carotene and lycopene could not lower the risk of advanced PCa.

Phase I/II clinical trial of dendritic-cell based immunotherapy (DCVAC/PCa) combined with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer.

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Podrazil, Michal; Horvath, Rudolf; Becht, Etienne; Rozkova, Daniela; Bilkova, Pavla; Sochorova, Klara; Hromadkova, Hana; Kayserova, Jana; Vavrova, Katerina; Lastovicka, Jan; Vrabcova, Petra; Kubackova, Katerina; Gasova, Zdenka; Jarolim, Ladislav; Babjuk, Marek; Spisek, Radek; Bartunkova, Jirina; Fucikova, Jitka

2015-07-20

We conducted an open-label, single-arm Phase I/II clinical trial in metastatic CRPC (mCRPC) patients eligible for docetaxel combined with treatment with autologous mature dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with killed LNCaP prostate cancer cells (DCVAC/PCa). The primary and secondary endpoints were safety and immune responses, respectively. Overall survival (OS), followed as a part of the safety evaluation, was compared to the predicted OS according to the Halabi and MSKCC nomograms. Twenty-five patients with progressive mCRPC were enrolled. Treatment comprised of initial 7 days administration of metronomic cyclophosphamide 50 mg p.o. DCVAC/PCa treatment consisted of a median twelve doses of 1 × 107 dendritic cells per dose injected s.c. (Aldara creme was applied at the site of injection) during a one-year period. The initial 2 doses of DCVAC/PCa were administered at a 2-week interval, followed by the administration of docetaxel (75 mg/m2) and prednisone (5 mg twice daily) given every 3 weeks until toxicity or intolerance was observed. The DCVAC/PCa was then injected every 6 weeks up to the maximum number of doses manufactured from one leukapheresis. No serious DCVAC/PCa-related adverse events have been reported. The median OS was 19 months, whereas the predicted median OS was 11.8 months with the Halabi nomogram and 13 months with the MSKCC nomogram. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that patients had a lower risk of death compared with both MSKCC (Hazard Ratio 0.26, 95% CI: 0.13-0.51) and Halabi (Hazard Ratio 0.33, 95% CI: 0.17-0.63) predictions. We observed a significant decrease in Tregs in the peripheral blood. The long-term administration of DCVAC/PCa led to the induction and maintenance of PSA specific T cells. We did not identify any immunological parameter that significantly correlated with better OS. In patients with mCRPC, the combined chemoimmunotherapy with DCVAC/PCa and docetaxel was safe and resulted in longer than expected survival. Concomitant chemotherapy

Biometric identification based on feature fusion with PCA and SVM

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Lefkovits, László; Lefkovits, Szidónia; Emerich, Simina

2018-04-01

Biometric identification is gaining ground compared to traditional identification methods. Many biometric measurements may be used for secure human identification. The most reliable among them is the iris pattern because of its uniqueness, stability, unforgeability and inalterability over time. The approach presented in this paper is a fusion of different feature descriptor methods such as HOG, LIOP, LBP, used for extracting iris texture information. The classifiers obtained through the SVM and PCA methods demonstrate the effectiveness of our system applied to one and both irises. The performances measured are highly accurate and foreshadow a fusion system with a rate of identification approaching 100% on the UPOL database.

Local buckling failure analysis of high-strength pipelines

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yan Li; Jian Shuai; Zhong-Li Jin; Ya-Tong Zhao; Kui Xu

2017-01-01

Pipelines in geological disaster regions typically suffer the risk of local buckling failure because of slender structure and complex load.This paper is meant to reveal the local buckling behavior of buried pipelines with a large diameter and high strength,which are under different conditions,including pure bending and bending combined with internal pressure.Finite element analysis was built according to previous data to study local buckling behavior of pressurized and unpressurized pipes under bending conditions and their differences in local buckling failure modes.In parametric analysis,a series of parameters,including pipe geometrical dimension,pipe material properties and internal pressure,were selected to study their influences on the critical bending moment,critical compressive stress and critical compressive strain of pipes.Especially the hardening exponent of pipe material was introduced to the parameter analysis by using the Ramberg-Osgood constitutive model.Results showed that geometrical dimensions,material and internal pressure can exert similar effects on the critical bending moment and critical compressive stress,which have different,even reverse effects on the critical compressive strain.Based on these analyses,more accurate design models of critical bending moment and critical compressive stress have been proposed for high-strength pipelines under bending conditions,which provide theoretical methods for highstrength pipeline engineering.

MD-11 PCA - View of aircraft on ramp

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1995-01-01

This McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is taxiing to a position on the flightline at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, following its completion of the first and second landings ever performed by a transport aircraft under engine power only (on Aug. 29, 1995). The milestone flight, with NASA research pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton at the controls, was part of a NASA project to develop a computer-assisted engine control system that enables a pilot to land a plane safely when its normal control surfaces are disabled. The Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system uses standard autopilot controls already present in the cockpit, together with the new programming in the aircraft's flight control computers. The PCA concept is simple. For pitch control, the program increases thrust to climb and reduces thrust to descend. To turn right, the autopilot increases the left engine thrust while decreasing the right engine thrust. The initial Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft studies by NASA were carried out at Dryden with a modified twin-engine F-15 research aircraft.

Effect of Statins and Anticoagulants on Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alizadeh, Moein; Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre; Zilli, Thomas; Van Nguyen, Thu; Guay, Jean-Pierre; Bahary, Jean-Paul; Taussky, Daniel

2012-01-01

Purpose: Statins and anticoagulants (ACs) have both been associated with a less-aggressive prostate cancer (PCa) and a better outcome after treatment of localized PCa. The results of these studies might have been confounded because patients might often take both medications. We examined their respective influence on PCa aggressiveness at initial diagnosis. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 381 patients treated with either external beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy for low-risk (n = 152), intermediate-risk (n = 142), or high-risk (n = 87) localized PCa. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to investigate an association between these drug classes and prostate cancer aggressiveness. We tested whether the concomitant use of statins and ACs had a different effect than that of either AC or statin use alone. Results: Of the 381 patients, 172 (45.1%) were taking statins and 141 (37.0%) ACs; 105 patients (27.6%) used both. On univariate analysis, the statin and AC users were associated with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (p = .017) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network risk group (p = .0022). On multivariate analysis, statin use was associated with a PSA level 20 ng/mL (odds ratio, 0.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.08–0.83; p = .03). The use of ACs was associated with a PSA level >20 ng/mL (odds ratio, 0.13; 95% confidence interval, 0.02–0.59, p = .02). Conclusion: Both AC and statins have an effect on PCa aggressiveness, with statins having a more stringent relationship with the PSA level, highlighting the importance of considering statin use in studies of PCa aggressiveness.

PCA-based bootstrap confidence interval tests for gene-disease association involving multiple SNPs

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Xue Fuzhong

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Genetic association study is currently the primary vehicle for identification and characterization of disease-predisposing variant(s which usually involves multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs available. However, SNP-wise association tests raise concerns over multiple testing. Haplotype-based methods have the advantage of being able to account for correlations between neighbouring SNPs, yet assuming Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE and potentially large number degrees of freedom can harm its statistical power and robustness. Approaches based on principal component analysis (PCA are preferable in this regard but their performance varies with methods of extracting principal components (PCs. Results PCA-based bootstrap confidence interval test (PCA-BCIT, which directly uses the PC scores to assess gene-disease association, was developed and evaluated for three ways of extracting PCs, i.e., cases only(CAES, controls only(COES and cases and controls combined(CES. Extraction of PCs with COES is preferred to that with CAES and CES. Performance of the test was examined via simulations as well as analyses on data of rheumatoid arthritis and heroin addiction, which maintains nominal level under null hypothesis and showed comparable performance with permutation test. Conclusions PCA-BCIT is a valid and powerful method for assessing gene-disease association involving multiple SNPs.

Grassmann Averages for Scalable Robust PCA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauberg, Søren; Feragen, Aasa; Black, Michael J.

2014-01-01

As the collection of large datasets becomes increasingly automated, the occurrence of outliers will increase—“big data” implies “big outliers”. While principal component analysis (PCA) is often used to reduce the size of data, and scalable solutions exist, it is well-known that outliers can...... to vectors (subspaces) or elements of vectors; we focus on the latter and use a trimmed average. The resulting Trimmed Grassmann Average (TGA) is particularly appropriate for computer vision because it is robust to pixel outliers. The algorithm has low computational complexity and minimal memory requirements...

COMBINING PCA ANALYSIS AND ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS IN MODELLING ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS OF STUDENTS

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Marijana Zekić-Sušac

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Despite increased interest in the entrepreneurial intentions and career choices of young adults, reliable prediction models are yet to be developed. Two nonparametric methods were used in this paper to model entrepreneurial intentions: principal component analysis (PCA and artificial neural networks (ANNs. PCA was used to perform feature extraction in the first stage of modelling, while artificial neural networks were used to classify students according to their entrepreneurial intentions in the second stage. Four modelling strategies were tested in order to find the most efficient model. Dataset was collected in an international survey on entrepreneurship self-efficacy and identity. Variables describe students’ demographics, education, attitudes, social and cultural norms, self-efficacy and other characteristics. The research reveals benefits from the combination of the PCA and ANNs in modeling entrepreneurial intentions, and provides some ideas for further research.

PCA-MLP SVM distinction of salivary Raman spectra of dengue fever infection.

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Radzol, A R M; Lee, Khuan Y; Mansor, W; Wong, P S; Looi, I

2017-07-01

Dengue fever (DF) is a disease of major concern caused by flavivirus infection. Delayed diagnosis leads to severe stages, which could be deadly. Of recent, non-structural protein (NS1) has been acknowledged as a biomarker, alternative to immunoglobulins for early detection of dengue in blood. Further, non-invasive detection of NS1 in saliva makes the approach more appealing. However, since its concentration in saliva is less than blood, a sensitive and specific technique, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), is employed. Our work here intends to define an optimal PCA-SVM (Principal Component Analysis-Support Vector Machine) with Multilayer Layer Perceptron (MLP) kernel model to distinct between positive and negative NS1 infected samples from salivary SERS spectra, which, to the best of our knowledge, has never been explored. Salivary samples of DF positive and negative subjects were collected, pre-processed and analyzed. PCA and SVM classifier were then used to differentiate the SERS analyzed spectra. Since performance of the model depends on the PCA criterion and MLP parameters, both are examined in tandem. Its performance is also compared to our previous works on simulated NS1 salivary samples. It is found that the best PCA-SVM (MLP) model can be defined by 95 PCs from CPV criterion with P1 and P2 values of 0.01 and -0.2 respectively. A classification performance of [76.88%, 85.92%, 67.83%] is achieved.

[The role of a single PCA3 test before a first negative prostate biopsy: 5-year follow-up].

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardeau, S; Charles, T; Fromont-Hankard, G; Irani, J

2017-04-01

We report a 5-year follow-up of a cohort of patients who underwent a first prostate biopsy following a prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) test. We reviewed consecutive patients who had in 2008 a single urinary PCA3 test using the Gen-Probe ® assay before a first prostate biopsy for a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) between 3 and 20ng/mL and/or a suspicious digital rectal examination. PCA3 performances were analyzed in 2008 and then in 2013 after taking into account the results of repeat biopsies. At initial biopsy in 2008, among the 125 patients study cohort, prostate cancer was diagnosed in 47 patients (37.6%). Abnormal digital rectal exam, PSA density, prostate volume and PCA3 score were significantly associated with prostate cancer diagnosis. PCA3 area under the curve of the receiver operating curve was 0.67 [95%CI: 0.57-0.76] with an optimal threshold of PCA3 in this sample of 24 units. During the 5-year follow-up, among the 78 patients with a negative prostate biopsy in 2008, 23 (29.5%) had a repeat prostate biopsy of whom 14 were diagnosed with prostate cancer. PCA3 score measured in 2008 was associated with prostate cancer diagnosis (P=0.002). All 9 patients with a negative repeat prostate biopsy had a PCA3 score below the cut-off while this was the case in only 2 patients among the 14 with a positive repeat prostate biopsy. The results of a single PCA3 test before a first prostate biopsy seems to be a useful aid in deciding whether to perform a repeat biopsy. 4. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Survivin Expression as a Predictive Marker for Local Control in Patients With High-Risk T1 Bladder Cancer Treated With Transurethral Resection and Radiochemotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weiss, Christian; Roemer, Felix von; Capalbo, Gianni; Ott, Oliver J.; Wittlinger, Michael; Krause, Steffen F.; Sauer, Rolf; Roedel, Claus; Roedel, Franz

2009-01-01

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to investigate the expression of survivin in tumor samples from patients with high-risk T1 bladder cancer and to correlate its expression with clinicopathologic features as well as clinical outcomes after initial transurethral resection (TURBT) followed by radiotherapy (RT) or radiochemotherapy (RCT). Methods and Materials: Survivin protein expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on tumor specimen (n = 48) from the initial TURBT, and was correlated with clinical and histopathologic characteristics as well as with 5-year rates of local failure, tumor progression, and death from urothelial cancer after primary bladder sparring treatment with RT/RCT. Results: Survivin was not expressed in normal bladder urothelium but was overexpressed in 67% of T1 tumors. No association between survivin expression and clinicopathologic factors (age, gender, grading, multifocality, associated carcinoma in situ) could be shown. With a median follow-up of 27 months (range, 3-140 months), elevated survivin expression was significantly associated with an increased probability of local failure after TURBT and RCT/RT (p = 0.003). There was also a clear trend toward a higher risk of tumor progression (p = 0.07) and lower disease-specific survival (p = 0.10). Conclusions: High survivin expression is a marker of tumor aggressiveness and may help to identify a subgroup of patients with T1 bladder cancer at a high risk for recurrence when treated with primary organ-sparing approaches such as TURBT and RCT.

Safety and resiliency in action: Integrating risk management into local development

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Ebay Jorge S.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the efforts of the local government unit (LGU of San Jose de Buenavista, in the Province of Antique in central Philippines to manage risks associated with multiple hazards to protect the people, their livelihoods and local development gains. More specifically, it analyzes the process of pursuing risk management objectives vis-a-vis national and international disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM norms, without loosing sight of local contextual realities that directly influence people’s vulnerabilities and capacities. Risk management initiatives in the LGU revolve around four key areas namely disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster preparedness, emergency response, and recovery and rehabilitation. Binding these initiatives are actions that integrate governance mechanisms with scientific data and sectoral and community participation to develop a comprehensive plan of action and standard operating procedures that will serve as guideposts in the process of building a safer community. The experience of San Jose de Buenavista also suggests that cost saving strategies an be replicated by communities and organizations that have financial limitations to pursue DRRM objectives. This paper contends that risk management is a fundamental development strategy to pursue local development goals and to sustain efforts to protect development gains in the long run. This can be done using a combination of governance, risk assessment, knowledge management, vulnerability reduction and preparedness strategies. Local leadership, people’s participation, environmental resource management and continuous capability building are key elements of the process. Ultimately, risk management must be mainstreamed into local development to develop community resiliency.

Antineoplastic and immunomodulatory effect of polyphenolic components of Achyranthes aspera (PCA) extract on urethane induced lung cancer in vivo.

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Narayan, Chandradeo; Kumar, Arvind

2014-01-01

Polyphenolic compounds of Achyranthes aspera (PCA) extract is evaluated for anti-cancerous and cytokine based immunomodulatory effects. The PCA extract contains known components of phenolic acid and flavonoids such as mixture of quinic acid, chlorogenic acid, kaempferol, quercetin and chrysin along with many unknown components. PCA has been orally feed to urethane (ethyl carbamate) primed lung cancerous mice at a dosage of 100 mg/kg body weight for 30 consecutive days. 100 mg powder of A. aspera contains 2.4 mg phenolic acid and 1.1 mg flavonoid (2:1 ratio). Enhanced activities and expression of antioxidant enzymes GST, GR, CAT, SOD, while down regulated expression and activation of LDH enzymes in PCA feed urethane primed lung cancerous tissues as compared to PCA non-feed urethane primed lung cancerous tissues were observed. PCA feed urethane primed lung tissues showed down regulated expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α along with TFs, NF-κB and Stat3 while the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and p53 were enhanced in PCA feed urethane primed lung tissues. FTIR and CD spectroscopy data revealed that PCA resisted the urethane mediated conformational changes of DNA which is evident by the shift in guanine and thymine bands in FTIR from 1,708 to 1,711 cm(-1) and 1,675 to 1,671 cm(-1), respectively in PCA feed urethane primed lung cancerous tissues DNA in comparison to urethane primed lung cancerous tissues DNA. The present study suggests that PCA components have synergistic anti-cancerous and cytokine based immunomodulatory role and DNA conformation restoring effects. However, more research is required to show the effects of each component separately and in combination for effective therapeutic use to cure and prevent lung cancer including other cancers.

Effects of Comprehensive, Multiple High-Risk Behaviors Prevention Program on High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Collier, Crystal

2013-01-01

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the effect of a multiple high-risk behaviors prevention program applied comprehensively throughout an entire school-system involving universal, selective, and indicated levels of students at a local private high school during a 4-year period. The prevention program was created based upon the…

Local bladder cancer clusters in southeastern Michigan accounting for risk factors, covariates and residential mobility.

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Geoffrey M Jacquez

Full Text Available In case control studies disease risk not explained by the significant risk factors is the unexplained risk. Considering unexplained risk for specific populations, places and times can reveal the signature of unidentified risk factors and risk factors not fully accounted for in the case-control study. This potentially can lead to new hypotheses regarding disease causation.Global, local and focused Q-statistics are applied to data from a population-based case-control study of 11 southeast Michigan counties. Analyses were conducted using both year- and age-based measures of time. The analyses were adjusted for arsenic exposure, education, smoking, family history of bladder cancer, occupational exposure to bladder cancer carcinogens, age, gender, and race.Significant global clustering of cases was not found. Such a finding would indicate large-scale clustering of cases relative to controls through time. However, highly significant local clusters were found in Ingham County near Lansing, in Oakland County, and in the City of Jackson, Michigan. The Jackson City cluster was observed in working-ages and is thus consistent with occupational causes. The Ingham County cluster persists over time, suggesting a broad-based geographically defined exposure. Focused clusters were found for 20 industrial sites engaged in manufacturing activities associated with known or suspected bladder cancer carcinogens. Set-based tests that adjusted for multiple testing were not significant, although local clusters persisted through time and temporal trends in probability of local tests were observed.Q analyses provide a powerful tool for unpacking unexplained disease risk from case-control studies. This is particularly useful when the effect of risk factors varies spatially, through time, or through both space and time. For bladder cancer in Michigan, the next step is to investigate causal hypotheses that may explain the excess bladder cancer risk localized to areas of

Analysis Community’s Coping Strategies and Local Risk Governance Framework in Relation to Landslide

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Heru Setiawan

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Analysis of people perception and analysis of the coping strategy to landslides are the two elements that are es-sential to determine the level of preparedness of communities to landslides. To know the preparedness of government and other stakeholders in facing landslide, the analysis risk governance framework was required. A survey using questionnaires with random sampling was applied to assess the level of people perception and people coping strategy related to landslide. Analysis of risk governance frame work was done at the district and sub-district level. ἀe study found that people perception related with landslide dominated by high and moderate level. Age and education are two factors that inḀuence the people’s perception to landslide. Local people applied four types coping strategy, which are: economic, structural, social and cultural coping strategy. Totally, 51.6% respondents have high level, 33.3% have moderate level and only 15.1% respondents that have low level of coping strategy. ἀe factors that inḀuence the level of coping strategy are education, income and building type.  Analysis of risk governance framework is limited to the three components including stakeholder involvement, risk management and risk communication. Based on the data analysis, the level of stakeholder involvement at the district scope was categorized on the moderate till high and the level of stakeholder involvement at sub-district level was categorized on the high level. Generally, the risk management of Karanganyar was categorized on the moderate level and high level and the risk management in Tawangmangu was categorized on the moderate level. ἀere are some elements must be improved on the risk governance framework, those are data management, the pattern of relationships among stakeholders, increased participation of NGOs, constructed and updated landslide risk map, enhancement of microᴀnance role in helping the com-munity when disaster strikes

Optimization of CNC end milling process parameters using PCA ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Optimization of CNC end milling process parameters using PCA-based Taguchi method. ... International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology ... To meet the basic assumption of Taguchi method; in the present work, individual response correlations have been eliminated first by means of Principal Component ...

Postscreening follow-up of the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial on putative prostate cancer risk factors: vitamin and mineral use, male pattern baldness, pubertal development and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use.

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Sarre, Sami; Määttänen, Liisa; Tammela, Teuvo L J; Auvinen, Anssi; Murtola, Teemu J

2016-08-01

Objective The etiology of prostate cancer (PCa) is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association between PCa risk and the indicators of endogenous androgen production at puberty, male pattern baldness, over-the-counter use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and vitamin supplement use. Materials and methods Participants in the third round of the Finnish Prostate Cancer Screening Trial were sent a survey on possible PCa risk factors and 11,795 out of 12,740 (93%) men returned the questionnaire. PCa cases were identified from the Finnish Cancer Registry. Results During the median follow-up of 6.6 years, 757 PCa cases were diagnosed and 21 men died from PCa. Compared to earlier onset, puberty onset after 15 years of age was associated with a borderline significant decrease in PCa risk [hazard ratio (HR) 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.75-1.00] but not with PCa mortality. Weekly use of ibuprofen was associated with an increased risk of PCa overall (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.08-1.91) and with metastatic PCa (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.12-1.99) compared to less frequent use. No statistically significant association was found between vitamin use and PCa. Conclusions This study suggests that the timing of initiation of endogenous androgen production at puberty may have importance for later PCa development. Current use of over-the-counter ibuprofen is associated with an increased risk of PCa. There was no evidence of any protective effects of vitamin use on PCa risk.

Fundamental flow and fracture analysis of prime candidate alloy (PCA) for path a (austenitics)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lucas, G.E.; Jayakumar, M.; Maziasz, P.J.

1982-01-01

Room temperature microhardness tests have been performed on samples of Prime Candidate Alloy (PCA) for the austenitics (Path A) subjected to various thermomechanical treatments (TMT). The TMTs have effected various microstructures, which have been well characterized by optical metallography and TEM. For comparison, microhardness tests have been performed on samples of N-lot, DO heat and MFE 316 stainless steel with similar TMTs. The results indicate that the TMTs investigated can significantly alter the microhardness of the PCA in a manner which is consistent with microstructural changes. Moreover, while PCA had the lowest microhardness of the four alloys types after cold working, its microhardness increased while the others decreased to comparable values after aging for 2 h at 750 0 C

Unilateral Prostate Cancer Cannot be Accurately Predicted in Low-Risk Patients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isbarn, Hendrik; Karakiewicz, Pierre I.; Vogel, Susanne

2010-01-01

Purpose: Hemiablative therapy (HAT) is increasing in popularity for treatment of patients with low-risk prostate cancer (PCa). The validity of this therapeutic modality, which exclusively treats PCa within a single prostate lobe, rests on accurate staging. We tested the accuracy of unilaterally unremarkable biopsy findings in cases of low-risk PCa patients who are potential candidates for HAT. Methods and Materials: The study population consisted of 243 men with clinical stage ≤T2a, a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration of <10 ng/ml, a biopsy-proven Gleason sum of ≤6, and a maximum of 2 ipsilateral positive biopsy results out of 10 or more cores. All men underwent a radical prostatectomy, and pathology stage was used as the gold standard. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were tested for significant predictors of unilateral, organ-confined PCa. These predictors consisted of PSA, %fPSA (defined as the quotient of free [uncomplexed] PSA divided by the total PSA), clinical stage (T2a vs. T1c), gland volume, and number of positive biopsy cores (2 vs. 1). Results: Despite unilateral stage at biopsy, bilateral or even non-organ-confined PCa was reported in 64% of all patients. In multivariable analyses, no variable could clearly and independently predict the presence of unilateral PCa. This was reflected in an overall accuracy of 58% (95% confidence interval, 50.6-65.8%). Conclusions: Two-thirds of patients with unilateral low-risk PCa, confirmed by clinical stage and biopsy findings, have bilateral or non-organ-confined PCa at radical prostatectomy. This alarming finding questions the safety and validity of HAT.

[Interest of evaluation of professional practice for the improvement of the management of postoperative pain with patient controlled analgesia (PCA)].

Science.gov (United States)

Baumann, A; Cuignet-Royer, E; Cornet, C; Trueck, S; Heck, M; Taron, F; Peignier, C; Chastel, A; Gervais, P; Bouaziz, H; Audibert, G; Mertes, P-M

2010-10-01

To evaluate the daily practice of postoperative PCA in Nancy University Hospital, in continuity with a quality program of postoperative pain (POP) care conducted in 2003. A retrospective audit of patient medical records. A review of all the medical records of consecutive surgical patients managed by PCA over a 5-week period in six surgical services. Criteria studied: Evaluation of hospital means (eight criteria) and of medical and nursing staff practice (16 criteria). A second audit was conducted 6 months after the implementation of quality improvement measures. Assessment of the hospital means: temperature chart including pain scores and PCA drug consumption, patient information leaflet, PCA protocol, postoperative pre-filled prescription form (PFPF) for post-anaesthesia care including PCA, and optional training of nurses in postoperative pain management. EVALUATION OF PRACTICES: One hundred and fifty-nine files of a total of 176 patients were analyzed (88%). Improvements noted after 6 months: trace of POP evaluation progressed from 73 to 87%, advance prescription of PCA adjustment increased from 56 to 68% and of the treatment of adverse effects from 54 to 68%, trace of PCA adaptation by attending nurse from 15 to 43%, trace of the administration of the treatment of adverse effects by attending nurse from 24% to 64%, as did the use of PFPF from 59 to 70%. The usefulness of a pre-filled prescription form for post-anaesthesia care including PCA prescription is demonstrated. Quality improvement measures include: poster information and pocket guides on PCA for nurses, training of 3 nurses per service to act as "PCA advisers" who will in turn train their ward colleagues in PCA management and the use of equipment until an acute pain team is established. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Perceived Workplace Stress Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Prostate Cancer before Age 65.

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Blanc-Lapierre, Audrey; Rousseau, Marie-Claude; Parent, Marie-Elise

2017-01-01

Evidence is lacking regarding the potential role of chronic psychological stress on cancer incidence. The workplace is reported to be the main source of stress among Canadian men. We examined the association between perceived lifetime workplace stress and prostate cancer (PCa) risk in a large case-control study. Cases were 1,933 men, aged ≤ 75 years, newly diagnosed with PCa in 2005-2009 across hospitals in Montreal, Canada. Concurrently, 1994 population controls frequency-matched on age were randomly selected from the electoral list based on cases' residential districts. Detailed lifestyle and work histories (including perceived stress, from any type of work stressor, for each job held) were collected during in-person interviews. Logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association between work-related stress and PCa risk in multivariate analyses. Over the lifetime, 58% of subjects reported at least one job as stressful. Occupations described as stressful were most often among white-collar workers. Perceived workplace stress duration was associated with a higher risk of PCa (OR = 1.12, 95% CI:1.04-1.20 per 10-year increase) among men younger than 65 years, but not among older men. Associations were similar irrespective of PCa aggressiveness. Frequent or recent screening for PCa, age at first exposure and time since exposure to work-related stress, and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors, had little influence on risk estimates. Findings are in line with an association between reporting prolonged workplace stress and an increase in risk of PCa before age 65.

Controversies in using urine samples for prostate cancer detection: PSA and PCA3 expression analysis

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S. Fontenete

2011-12-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: Prostate cancer (PCa is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in the world. Although PSA utilization as a serum marker has improved prostate cancer detection it still presents some limitations, mainly regarding its specificity. The expression of this marker, along with the detection of PCA3 mRNA in urine samples, has been suggested as a new approach for PCa detection. The goal of this work was to evaluate the efficacy of the urinary detection of PCA3 mRNA and PSA mRNA without performing the somewhat embarrassing prostate massage. It was also intended to optimize and implement a methodological protocol for this kind of sampling. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Urine samples from 57 patients with suspected prostate disease were collected, without undergoing prostate massage. Increased serum PSA levels were confirmed by medical records review. RNA was extracted by different methods and a preamplification step was included in order to improve gene detection by Real-Time PCR. RESULTS: An increase in RNA concentration with the use of TriPure Isolation Reagent. Despite this optimization, only 15.8% of the cases showed expression of PSA mRNA and only 3.8% of prostate cancer patients presented detectable levels of PCA3 mRNA. The use of a preamplification step revealed no improvement in the results obtained. CONCLUSION: This work confirms that prostate massage is important before urine collection for gene expression analysis. Since PSA and PCA3 are prostate specific, it is necessary to promote the passage of cells from prostate to urinary tract, in order to detect these genetic markers in urine samples.

Tool Wear Prediction in Ti-6Al-4V Machining through Multiple Sensor Monitoring and PCA Features Pattern Recognition

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Alessandra Caggiano

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Machining of titanium alloys is characterised by extremely rapid tool wear due to the high cutting temperature and the strong adhesion at the tool-chip and tool-workpiece interface, caused by the low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity of Ti alloys. With the aim to monitor the tool conditions during dry turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, a machine learning procedure based on the acquisition and processing of cutting force, acoustic emission and vibration sensor signals during turning is implemented. A number of sensorial features are extracted from the acquired sensor signals in order to feed machine learning paradigms based on artificial neural networks. To reduce the large dimensionality of the sensorial features, an advanced feature extraction methodology based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA is proposed. PCA allowed to identify a smaller number of features (k = 2 features, the principal component scores, obtained through linear projection of the original d features into a new space with reduced dimensionality k = 2, sufficient to describe the variance of the data. By feeding artificial neural networks with the PCA features, an accurate diagnosis of tool flank wear (VBmax was achieved, with predicted values very close to the measured tool wear values.

Tool Wear Prediction in Ti-6Al-4V Machining through Multiple Sensor Monitoring and PCA Features Pattern Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

2018-01-01

Machining of titanium alloys is characterised by extremely rapid tool wear due to the high cutting temperature and the strong adhesion at the tool-chip and tool-workpiece interface, caused by the low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity of Ti alloys. With the aim to monitor the tool conditions during dry turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, a machine learning procedure based on the acquisition and processing of cutting force, acoustic emission and vibration sensor signals during turning is implemented. A number of sensorial features are extracted from the acquired sensor signals in order to feed machine learning paradigms based on artificial neural networks. To reduce the large dimensionality of the sensorial features, an advanced feature extraction methodology based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is proposed. PCA allowed to identify a smaller number of features (k = 2 features), the principal component scores, obtained through linear projection of the original d features into a new space with reduced dimensionality k = 2, sufficient to describe the variance of the data. By feeding artificial neural networks with the PCA features, an accurate diagnosis of tool flank wear (VBmax) was achieved, with predicted values very close to the measured tool wear values. PMID:29522443

Tool Wear Prediction in Ti-6Al-4V Machining through Multiple Sensor Monitoring and PCA Features Pattern Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Caggiano, Alessandra

2018-03-09

Machining of titanium alloys is characterised by extremely rapid tool wear due to the high cutting temperature and the strong adhesion at the tool-chip and tool-workpiece interface, caused by the low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity of Ti alloys. With the aim to monitor the tool conditions during dry turning of Ti-6Al-4V alloy, a machine learning procedure based on the acquisition and processing of cutting force, acoustic emission and vibration sensor signals during turning is implemented. A number of sensorial features are extracted from the acquired sensor signals in order to feed machine learning paradigms based on artificial neural networks. To reduce the large dimensionality of the sensorial features, an advanced feature extraction methodology based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is proposed. PCA allowed to identify a smaller number of features ( k = 2 features), the principal component scores, obtained through linear projection of the original d features into a new space with reduced dimensionality k = 2, sufficient to describe the variance of the data. By feeding artificial neural networks with the PCA features, an accurate diagnosis of tool flank wear ( VB max ) was achieved, with predicted values very close to the measured tool wear values.

Tumor Volume and Metabolism of Prostate Cancer Determined by Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging at 3T Without Endorectal Coil Reveal Potential Clinical Implications in the Context of Radiation Oncology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crehange, Gilles; Parfait, Sebastien; Liegard, Melanie; Maingon, Philippe; Ben Salem, Douraied; Cochet, Alexandre; Funes de la Vega, Mathilde; Cormier, Luc; Bonnetain, Franck; Mirjolet, Celine; Brunotte, Francois; Walker, Paul M.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To determine whether a relationship exists between the tumor volume (TV) or relative choline content determined using magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging (MRSI) at 3T and the clinical prognostic parameters for patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa). Methods and Materials: A total of 72 men (mean age, 67.8 ± 6.2 years) were stratified as having low-risk (n = 26), intermediate-risk (n = 24), or high-risk (n = 22) PCa. MRSI was performed at 3T using a phased-array coil. Spectra are expressed as the total choline/citrate, total choline plus creatine/citrate, and total choline plus polyamines plus creatine/citrate ratios. The mean ratio of the most pathologic voxels and the MRSI-based TV were also determined. Results: The mean values of the total choline/citrate, total choline plus creatine/citrate, and total choline plus polyamine plus creatine/citrate ratios were greater for Stage T2b or greater tumors vs. Stage T2a or less tumors: 7.53 ± 13.60 vs. 2.31 ± 5.65 (p = .018), 8.98 ± 14.58 vs. 2.56 ± 5.70 (p = .016), and 10.32 ± 15.47 vs. 3.55 ± 6.16 (p = .014), respectively. The mean MRSI-based TV for Stage T2b or greater and Stage T2a or less tumors was significantly different (2.23 ± 2.62 cm 3 vs. 1.26 ± 2.06 cm 3 , respectively; p = .030). This TV correlated with increased prostate-specific antigen levels (odds ratio, 1.293; p = .012). Patients with high-risk PCa had a larger TV than did the patients with intermediate-risk PCa. A similar result was found for the intermediate-risk group compared with the low-risk group (odds ratio, 1.225; p = .041). Conclusion: Biomarkers expressing the relative choline content and TV were significant parameters for the localization of PCa and could be helpful for determining the prognosis more accurately.

Localized prostate cancer in elderly men aged 80-89, findings from a population-based registry.

Science.gov (United States)

Vatandoust, S; Kichenadasse, G; O'Callaghan, M; Vincent, A D; Kopsaftis, T; Walsh, S; Borg, M; Karapetis, C S; Moretti, K

2018-03-30

To investigate the rate of death due to Prostate Cancer (PCa) and disease characteristics in patients diagnosed with Localized Prostate Cancer (LPCa) at age 80-89 years in comparison with men diagnosed at age 70-79. This is a retrospective study of data from the South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative (SA-PCCOC). Included were men diagnosed between 2005 and 2014, aged ≥70 with no evidence of metastatic disease at presentation. Propensity score matching and competing risk Fine and Grey regression were used to assess the chance of treatment (curative v non-curative) and treatment effect on PCa specific-mortality. Of the 1951 eligible patients, 1428 (76%) aged 70-79, and 460 (24%) aged 80-89 yr at diagnosis (median age of 74 (IQR=72-76) and 83 (IQR=81-85) respectively). The 80-89 group had higher Gleason scores and PSA values (all pcopyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

EVALUATION OF THE PREVALENCE OF THE PERIODONTAL DISEASE VERSUS SYSTEMIC AND LOCAL RISK FACTORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia MÂRŢU

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The periodontal disease represents a malady characterized by an extremely high incidence. The manifestations and evolution of the periodontal diseases vary for each form in part, being influenced by systemic and local risk factors. Scope of the study: To evaluate the periodontal status on a group of patients, versus the syste‐ mic and local factors. Materials and method: The study was performed on a group of 170 patients, whose odonto‐periodontal status was evaluated by strict clinical and paraclinical examinations, on establishing the inflammation indices and the periodontal diagnosis. Results: The main cause of the analysis was gingival ble‐ eding; an increased number of smokers was registered among the patients. Out of the local factors, especially important were edentations and malocclusions. Also, a higher number of aggressive generalized periodontites has been noticed. Discussion: The forms of the periodontal diseases are obviously influenced by the systemic context, while the forms of localized chronic periodontitis associa‐ ted with generalized chronic gingivitis reflect the role pla‐ yed by the local risk factors. Conclusions: Stress and smoking represent significant risk factors in the installation of periodontal pathology, with a really alarming preva‐ lence. The aggressive forms of periodontitis showed a higher frequency than that recorded in literature.

Surging Seas Risk Finder: A Tool for Local-Scale Flood Risk Assessments in Coastal Cities

Science.gov (United States)

Kulp, S. A.; Strauss, B.

2015-12-01

Local decision makers in coastal cities require accurate, accessible, and thorough assessments of flood exposure risk within their individual municipality, in their efforts to mitigate against damage due to future sea level rise. To fill this need, we have developed Climate Central's Surging Seas Risk Finder, an interactive data toolkit which presents our sea level rise and storm surge analysis for every coastal town, city, county, and state within the USA. Using this tool, policy makers can easily zoom in on their local place of interest to receive a detailed flood risk assessment, which synthesizes a wide range of features including total population, socially vulnerable population, housing, property value, road miles, power plants, schools, hospitals, and many other critical facilities. Risk Finder can also be used to identify specific points of interest in danger of exposure at different flood levels. Additionally, this tool provides localized storm surge probabilities and sea level rise projections at tidal gauges along the coast, so that users can quickly understand the risk of flooding in their area over the coming decades.

Genetic risk factors for the posterior cortical atrophy variant of Alzheimer's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Schott, Jonathan M; Crutch, Sebastian J; Carrasquillo, Minerva M; Uphill, James; Shakespeare, Tim J; Ryan, Natalie S; Yong, Keir X; Lehmann, Manja; Ertekin-Taner, Nilufer; Graff-Radford, Neill R; Boeve, Bradley F; Murray, Melissa E; Khan, Qurat Ul Ain; Petersen, Ronald C; Dickson, Dennis W; Knopman, David S; Rabinovici, Gil D; Miller, Bruce L; González, Aida Suárez; Gil-Néciga, Eulogio; Snowden, Julie S; Harris, Jenny; Pickering-Brown, Stuart M; Louwersheimer, Eva; van der Flier, Wiesje M; Scheltens, Philip; Pijnenburg, Yolande A; Galasko, Douglas; Sarazin, Marie; Dubois, Bruno; Magnin, Eloi; Galimberti, Daniela; Scarpini, Elio; Cappa, Stefano F; Hodges, John R; Halliday, Glenda M; Bartley, Lauren; Carrillo, Maria C; Bras, Jose T; Hardy, John; Rossor, Martin N; Collinge, John; Fox, Nick C; Mead, Simon

2016-08-01

The genetics underlying posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), typically a rare variant of Alzheimer's disease (AD), remain uncertain. We genotyped 302 PCA patients from 11 centers, calculated risk at 24 loci for AD/DLB and performed an exploratory genome-wide association study. We confirm that variation in/near APOE/TOMM40 (P = 6 × 10(-14)) alters PCA risk, but with smaller effect than for typical AD (PCA: odds ratio [OR] = 2.03, typical AD: OR = 2.83, P = .0007). We found evidence for risk in/near CR1 (P = 7 × 10(-4)), ABCA7 (P = .02) and BIN1 (P = .04). ORs at variants near INPP5D and NME8 did not overlap between PCA and typical AD. Exploratory genome-wide association studies confirmed APOE and identified three novel loci: rs76854344 near CNTNAP5 (P = 8 × 10(-10) OR = 1.9 [1.5-2.3]); rs72907046 near FAM46A (P = 1 × 10(-9) OR = 3.2 [2.1-4.9]); and rs2525776 near SEMA3C (P = 1 × 10(-8), OR = 3.3 [2.1-5.1]). We provide evidence for genetic risk factors specifically related to PCA. We identify three candidate loci that, if replicated, may provide insights into selective vulnerability and phenotypic diversity in AD. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Developing and Evaluating Creativity Gamification Rehabilitation System: The Application of PCA-ANFIS Based Emotions Model

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Chung-Ho; Cheng, Ching-Hsue

2016-01-01

This study aims to explore the factors in a patient's rehabilitation achievement after a total knee replacement (TKR) patient exercises, using a PCA-ANFIS emotion model-based game rehabilitation system, which combines virtual reality (VR) and motion capture technology. The researchers combine a principal component analysis (PCA) and an adaptive…

Risk of Prostate Cancer after Trans Urethral Resection of BPH: A Cohort and Nested Case-Control Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beatrice Melin

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that inflammation plays a role in both prostate cancer (PCa and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH. This study evaluates the risk of PC after transurethral resection (TURP for BPH and estimates the PCa risk related to presence of inflammation in the resected material. The Pathology Department at the University Hospital of Umeå (Umeå, Sweden identified BPH cases (n = 7,901 that underwent TURP between 1982 and 1997. Using these pathological specimens, we compared the incidence of PCa in the cohort to the population and calculated the standardized incidence and mortality ratios (SIR and SMR. Inflammation, the androgen receptor (AR, and p53 were evaluated in a nested case-control study of 201 cases and controls. Inflammation was graded severe or mild-moderate. In the follow-up period after TURP, cases developed prostate cancer and the controls did not. After TURP, SIR for prostate cancer increased [1.26, CI 95% (1.17–1.35], whereas SMR decreased [0.59, CI 95% (0.47–0.73]. Presence of inflammation at the time of TURP did not differ between cases and controls nor were there differences in p53 or AR staining. The data suggest a small increased risk of PCa after TURP and decreased PCa mortality. Inflammation at the time of TURP is not associated with PCa risk in this material. The increased PCa risk may be attributed to increased surveillance and PSA screening.

Risk of Prostate Cancer after Trans Urethral Resection of BPH: A Cohort and Nested Case-Control Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karlsson, Camilla T.; Wiklund, Fredrik; Grönberg, Henrik; Bergh, Anders; Melin, Beatrice

2011-01-01

Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that inflammation plays a role in both prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). This study evaluates the risk of PC after transurethral resection (TURP) for BPH and estimates the PCa risk related to presence of inflammation in the resected material. The Pathology Department at the University Hospital of Umeå (Umeå, Sweden) identified BPH cases (n = 7,901) that underwent TURP between 1982 and 1997. Using these pathological specimens, we compared the incidence of PCa in the cohort to the population and calculated the standardized incidence and mortality ratios (SIR and SMR). Inflammation, the androgen receptor (AR), and p53 were evaluated in a nested case-control study of 201 cases and controls. Inflammation was graded severe or mild-moderate. In the follow-up period after TURP, cases developed prostate cancer and the controls did not. After TURP, SIR for prostate cancer increased [1.26, CI 95% (1.17–1.35) ], whereas SMR decreased [0.59, CI 95% (0.47–0.73) ]. Presence of inflammation at the time of TURP did not differ between cases and controls nor were there differences in p53 or AR staining. The data suggest a small increased risk of PCa after TURP and decreased PCa mortality. Inflammation at the time of TURP is not associated with PCa risk in this material. The increased PCa risk may be attributed to increased surveillance and PSA screening

Risk of Prostate Cancer after Trans Urethral Resection of BPH: A Cohort and Nested Case-Control Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Karlsson, Camilla T., E-mail: Camilla.thellenberg@onkologi.umu.se [Department of Radiation Sciences, Oncology, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå (Sweden); Wiklund, Fredrik; Grönberg, Henrik [Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm SE-171 77 (Sweden); Bergh, Anders [Department of Medical Biosciences, Pathology, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå (Sweden); Melin, Beatrice [Department of Radiation Sciences, Oncology, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå (Sweden)

2011-11-08

Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that inflammation plays a role in both prostate cancer (PCa) and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). This study evaluates the risk of PC after transurethral resection (TURP) for BPH and estimates the PCa risk related to presence of inflammation in the resected material. The Pathology Department at the University Hospital of Umeå (Umeå, Sweden) identified BPH cases (n = 7,901) that underwent TURP between 1982 and 1997. Using these pathological specimens, we compared the incidence of PCa in the cohort to the population and calculated the standardized incidence and mortality ratios (SIR and SMR). Inflammation, the androgen receptor (AR), and p53 were evaluated in a nested case-control study of 201 cases and controls. Inflammation was graded severe or mild-moderate. In the follow-up period after TURP, cases developed prostate cancer and the controls did not. After TURP, SIR for prostate cancer increased [1.26, CI 95% (1.17–1.35) ], whereas SMR decreased [0.59, CI 95% (0.47–0.73) ]. Presence of inflammation at the time of TURP did not differ between cases and controls nor were there differences in p53 or AR staining. The data suggest a small increased risk of PCa after TURP and decreased PCa mortality. Inflammation at the time of TURP is not associated with PCa risk in this material. The increased PCa risk may be attributed to increased surveillance and PSA screening.

Using a cross-model loadings plot to identify protein spots causing 2-DE gels to become outliers in PCA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Luise Cederkvist; Jacobsen, Susanne; Jessen, Flemming

2010-01-01

The multivariate method PCA is an exploratory tool often used to get an overview of multivariate data, such as the quantified spot volumes of digitized 2-DE gels. PCA can reveal hidden structures present in the data, and thus enables identification of potential outliers and clustering. Based on PCA...

Improvement in toxicity in high risk prostate cancer patients treated with image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy compared to 3D conformal radiotherapy without daily image guidance.

Science.gov (United States)

Sveistrup, Joen; af Rosenschöld, Per Munck; Deasy, Joseph O; Oh, Jung Hun; Pommer, Tobias; Petersen, Peter Meidahl; Engelholm, Svend Aage

2014-02-04

Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) facilitates the delivery of a very precise radiation dose. In this study we compare the toxicity and biochemical progression-free survival between patients treated with daily image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IG-IMRT) and 3D conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) without daily image guidance for high risk prostate cancer (PCa). A total of 503 high risk PCa patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) and endocrine treatment between 2000 and 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. 115 patients were treated with 3DCRT, and 388 patients were treated with IG-IMRT. 3DCRT patients were treated to 76 Gy and without daily image guidance and with 1-2 cm PTV margins. IG-IMRT patients were treated to 78 Gy based on daily image guidance of fiducial markers, and the PTV margins were 5-7 mm. Furthermore, the dose-volume constraints to both the rectum and bladder were changed with the introduction of IG-IMRT. The 2-year actuarial likelihood of developing grade > = 2 GI toxicity following RT was 57.3% in 3DCRT patients and 5.8% in IG-IMRT patients (p analysis, 3DCRT was associated with a significantly increased risk of developing grade > = 2 GI toxicity compared to IG-IMRT (p analysis there was no difference in biochemical progression-free survival between 3DCRT and IG-IMRT. The difference in toxicity can be attributed to the combination of the IMRT technique with reduced dose to organs-at-risk, daily image guidance and margin reduction.

Language Classroom Risk-Taking Behavior in a Performed Culture-Based Program

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen D. Luft

2013-01-01

Full Text Available While several studies have investigated the role of risk-taking in language learning, the findings of these studies may not be generalizable to language learning where the performed culture approach (PCA is used. This study describes the relationship between language learning and risk-taking in PCA, and the relationship between risk-taking and personal study habits, teaching style, daily grading, and classroom dynamics. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. This study finds that risk-taking behavior has a moderate positive relationship with student performance in PCA. While questionnaire items related to teaching style and classroom dynamics are not found to significantly correlate with students’ risk-taking behavior, some items related to daily grading and personal study habits are found to have a moderate positive relationship with risk-taking behavior. Based on these findings, it is recommended that further research investigate the relationship between assessment and risktaking in language learning. As second language acquisition researchers have investigated the role of affective variables in language learning, risk-taking has frequently been identified as a variable linked with success (Beebe, 1983; Ely, 1986; Naiman, Frolich, Stern, & Todesco, 1978; Rubin, 1975; Samimy & Pardin, 1994; Samimy & Tabuse, 1992. However, it is difficult to apply these findings to language classrooms that use the performed culture approach (PCA, an approach to the teaching of East Asian languages, for two reasons: (a PCA’s focus on the learning of a foreign culture could mean that greater risk is involved in 106 Luft language learning than in a typical language classroom; (b PCA creates a language learning experience for which the risks involved are different than those in language classrooms where other approaches are used.

Increasing patient knowledge on the proper usage of a PCA machine with the use of a post-operative instructional card.

Science.gov (United States)

Shovel, Louisa; Max, Bryan; Correll, Darin J

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to see if an instructional card, attached to the PCA machine following total hip arthroplasty describing proper use of the device, would positively affect subjects' understanding of device usage, pain scores, pain medication consumption and satisfaction. Eighty adults undergoing total hip replacements who had been prescribed PCA were randomized into two study groups. Forty participants received the standard post-operative instruction on PCA device usage at our institution. The other 40 participants received the standard of care in addition to being given a typed instructional card immediately post-operatively, describing proper PCA device use. This card was attached to the PCA device during their recovery period. On post-operative day one, each patient completed a questionnaire on PCA usage, pain scores and satisfaction scores. The pain scores in the Instructional Card group were significantly lower than the Control group (p = 0.024). Subjects' understanding of PCA usage was also improved in the Instructional Card group for six of the seven questions asked. The findings from this study strongly support that postoperative patient information on proper PCA use by means of an instructional card improves pain control and hence the overall recovery for patients undergoing surgery. In addition, through improved understanding it adds an important safety feature in that patients and potentially their family members and/or friends may refrain from PCA-by-proxy. This article demonstrates that the simple intervention of adding an instructional card to a PCA machine is an effective method to improve patients' knowledge as well as pain control and potentially increase the safety of the device use.

Investigation of domain walls in PPLN by confocal raman microscopy and PCA analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Shur, Vladimir Ya.; Zelenovskiy, Pavel; Bourson, Patrice

2017-07-01

Confocal Raman microscopy (CRM) is a powerful tool for investigation of ferroelectric domains. Mechanical stresses and electric fields existed in the vicinity of neutral and charged domain walls modify frequency, intensity and width of spectral lines [1], thus allowing to visualize micro- and nanodomain structures both at the surface and in the bulk of the crystal [2,3]. Stresses and fields are naturally coupled in ferroelectrics due to inverse piezoelectric effect and hardly can be separated in Raman spectra. PCA is a powerful statistical method for analysis of large data matrix providing a set of orthogonal variables, called principal components (PCs). PCA is widely used for classification of experimental data, for example, in crystallization experiments, for detection of small amounts of components in solid mixtures etc. [4,5]. In Raman spectroscopy PCA was applied for analysis of phase transitions and provided critical pressure with good accuracy [6]. In the present work we for the first time applied Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method for analysis of Raman spectra measured in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN). We found that principal components demonstrate different sensitivity to mechanical stresses and electric fields in the vicinity of the domain walls. This allowed us to separately visualize spatial distribution of fields and electric fields at the surface and in the bulk of PPLN.

High-risk regions and outbreak modelling of tularemia in humans.

Science.gov (United States)

Desvars-Larrive, A; Liu, X; Hjertqvist, M; Sjöstedt, A; Johansson, A; Rydén, P

2017-02-01

Sweden reports large and variable numbers of human tularemia cases, but the high-risk regions are anecdotally defined and factors explaining annual variations are poorly understood. Here, high-risk regions were identified by spatial cluster analysis on disease surveillance data for 1984-2012. Negative binomial regression with five previously validated predictors (including predicted mosquito abundance and predictors based on local weather data) was used to model the annual number of tularemia cases within the high-risk regions. Seven high-risk regions were identified with annual incidences of 3·8-44 cases/100 000 inhabitants, accounting for 56·4% of the tularemia cases but only 9·3% of Sweden's population. For all high-risk regions, most cases occurred between July and September. The regression models explained the annual variation of tularemia cases within most high-risk regions and discriminated between years with and without outbreaks. In conclusion, tularemia in Sweden is concentrated in a few high-risk regions and shows high annual and seasonal variations. We present reproducible methods for identifying tularemia high-risk regions and modelling tularemia cases within these regions. The results may help health authorities to target populations at risk and lay the foundation for developing an early warning system for outbreaks.

Regularized Pre-image Estimation for Kernel PCA De-noising

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abrahamsen, Trine Julie; Hansen, Lars Kai

2011-01-01

The main challenge in de-noising by kernel Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is the mapping of de-noised feature space points back into input space, also referred to as “the pre-image problem”. Since the feature space mapping is typically not bijective, pre-image estimation is inherently illposed...

Language Classroom Risk-Taking Behavior in a Performed Culture-Based Program

OpenAIRE

Stephen D. Luft

2013-01-01

While several studies have investigated the role of risk-taking in language learning, the findings of these studies may not be generalizable to language learning where the performed culture approach (PCA) is used. This study describes the relationship between language learning and risk-taking in PCA, and the relationship between risk-taking and personal study habits, teaching style, daily grading, and classroom dynamics. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Th...

pcaH, a molecular marker for estimating the diversity of the protocatechuate-degrading bacterial community in the soil environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

El Azhari, Najoi

2007-01-01

Microorganisms degrading phenolic compounds play an important role in soil carbon cycling as well as in pesticide degradation. The pcaH gene encoding a key ring-cleaving enzyme of the β-ketoadipate pathway was selected as a functional marker. Using a degenerate primer pair, pcaH fragments were cl......H sequences from Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria phyla. This confirms that the developed primer pair targets a wide diversity of pcaH sequences, thereby constituting a suitable molecular marker to estimate the response of the pca community to agricultural practices....

Long-term Prostate-specific Antigen Velocity in Improved Classification of Prostate Cancer Risk and Mortality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ørsted, David Dynnes; Bojesen, Stig E; Kamstrup, Pia R

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: It remains unclear whether adding long-term prostate-specific antigen velocity (PSAV) to baseline PSA values improves classification of prostate cancer (PCa) risk and mortality in the general population. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether long-term PSAV improves classification of PCa risk...

Treatment trends and Medicare reimbursements for localized prostate cancer in elderly patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Dell'oglio, Paolo; Valiquette, Anne Sophie; Leyh-Bannurah, Sami-Ramzi; Tian, Zhe; Trudeau, Vincent; Larcher, Alessandro; Shariat, Shahrokh F; Capitanio, Umberto; Briganti, Alberto; Graefen, Markus; Montorsi, Francesco; Karakiewicz, Pierre I

2018-03-19

The absolute and proportional numbers of elderly patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer (PCa) are on the rise. We examined treatment trends and reimbursement figures in localized PCa patients aged ≥80 years. Between 2000 and 2008, we identified 30 217 localized PCa patients aged ≥80 years in Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare-linked database. Alternative treatment modalities consisted of conservative management (CM), radiation therapy (RT), radical prostatectomy (RP), and primary androgen-deprivation therapy (PADT). For all four modalities, utilization and reimbursements were examined. PADT was the most frequently used treatment modality between 2000 and 2005. CM became the dominant treatment modality from 2006-2008. RP rates were marginal and RT ranked third and its annual rate increased from 20.77% in 2000 to 29.13% in 2008. Median individual reimbursement of RT was highest and ranged from $29 343 in 2000 to $31 090 in 2008, followed by RP (from $20 560 in 2000 to $19 580 in 2008), PADT (from $18 901 in 2000 to $8000 in 2008) and CM (from $1824 in 2000 to $1938 in 2008). RT contributed to most of the cumulative annual reimbursements from 2003 (49.24%) to 2008 (72.97%). PADT ranked first from 2000 (54.56%) to 2002 (50.49%), but decreased by 19.40% in 2008. CM's contribution increased from 4.42% in 2000 to 6.96% in 2008. RP share of reimbursements was stable during the study period. Our results, focusing on localized PCa treatment in patients aged ≥80 years, showed an important increase in rates, median cost, and proportion of cumulative cost related to RT.

Automatic detection of optic disc based on PCA and mathematical morphology.

Science.gov (United States)

Morales, Sandra; Naranjo, Valery; Angulo, Us; Alcaniz, Mariano

2013-04-01

The algorithm proposed in this paper allows to automatically segment the optic disc from a fundus image. The goal is to facilitate the early detection of certain pathologies and to fully automate the process so as to avoid specialist intervention. The method proposed for the extraction of the optic disc contour is mainly based on mathematical morphology along with principal component analysis (PCA). It makes use of different operations such as generalized distance function (GDF), a variant of the watershed transformation, the stochastic watershed, and geodesic transformations. The input of the segmentation method is obtained through PCA. The purpose of using PCA is to achieve the grey-scale image that better represents the original RGB image. The implemented algorithm has been validated on five public databases obtaining promising results. The average values obtained (a Jaccard's and Dice's coefficients of 0.8200 and 0.8932, respectively, an accuracy of 0.9947, and a true positive and false positive fractions of 0.9275 and 0.0036) demonstrate that this method is a robust tool for the automatic segmentation of the optic disc. Moreover, it is fairly reliable since it works properly on databases with a large degree of variability and improves the results of other state-of-the-art methods.

SU-F-R-41: Regularized PCA Can Model Treatment-Related Changes in Head and Neck Patients Using Daily CBCTs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chetvertkov, M; Siddiqui, F; Chetty, I; Kumarasiri, A; Liu, C; Gordon, J

2016-01-01

Purpose: To use daily cone beam CTs (CBCTs) to develop regularized principal component analysis (PCA) models of anatomical changes in head and neck (H&N) patients, to guide replanning decisions in adaptive radiation therapy (ART). Methods: Known deformations were applied to planning CT (pCT) images of 10 H&N patients to model several different systematic anatomical changes. A Pinnacle plugin was used to interpolate systematic changes over 35 fractions, generating a set of 35 synthetic CTs for each patient. Deformation vector fields (DVFs) were acquired between the pCT and synthetic CTs and random fraction-to-fraction changes were superimposed on the DVFs. Standard non-regularized and regularized patient-specific PCA models were built using the DVFs. The ability of PCA to extract the known deformations was quantified. PCA models were also generated from clinical CBCTs, for which the deformations and DVFs were not known. It was hypothesized that resulting eigenvectors/eigenfunctions with largest eigenvalues represent the major anatomical deformations during the course of treatment. Results: As demonstrated with quantitative results in the supporting document regularized PCA is more successful than standard PCA at capturing systematic changes early in the treatment. Regularized PCA is able to detect smaller systematic changes against the background of random fraction-to-fraction changes. To be successful at guiding ART, regularized PCA should be coupled with models of when anatomical changes occur: early, late or throughout the treatment course. Conclusion: The leading eigenvector/eigenfunction from the both PCA approaches can tentatively be identified as a major systematic change during radiotherapy course when systematic changes are large enough with respect to random fraction-to-fraction changes. In all cases the regularized PCA approach appears to be more reliable at capturing systematic changes, enabling dosimetric consequences to be projected once trends are

SU-F-R-41: Regularized PCA Can Model Treatment-Related Changes in Head and Neck Patients Using Daily CBCTs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chetvertkov, M [Wayne State University, Detroit, MI (United States); Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States); Siddiqui, F; Chetty, I; Kumarasiri, A; Liu, C; Gordon, J [Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To use daily cone beam CTs (CBCTs) to develop regularized principal component analysis (PCA) models of anatomical changes in head and neck (H&N) patients, to guide replanning decisions in adaptive radiation therapy (ART). Methods: Known deformations were applied to planning CT (pCT) images of 10 H&N patients to model several different systematic anatomical changes. A Pinnacle plugin was used to interpolate systematic changes over 35 fractions, generating a set of 35 synthetic CTs for each patient. Deformation vector fields (DVFs) were acquired between the pCT and synthetic CTs and random fraction-to-fraction changes were superimposed on the DVFs. Standard non-regularized and regularized patient-specific PCA models were built using the DVFs. The ability of PCA to extract the known deformations was quantified. PCA models were also generated from clinical CBCTs, for which the deformations and DVFs were not known. It was hypothesized that resulting eigenvectors/eigenfunctions with largest eigenvalues represent the major anatomical deformations during the course of treatment. Results: As demonstrated with quantitative results in the supporting document regularized PCA is more successful than standard PCA at capturing systematic changes early in the treatment. Regularized PCA is able to detect smaller systematic changes against the background of random fraction-to-fraction changes. To be successful at guiding ART, regularized PCA should be coupled with models of when anatomical changes occur: early, late or throughout the treatment course. Conclusion: The leading eigenvector/eigenfunction from the both PCA approaches can tentatively be identified as a major systematic change during radiotherapy course when systematic changes are large enough with respect to random fraction-to-fraction changes. In all cases the regularized PCA approach appears to be more reliable at capturing systematic changes, enabling dosimetric consequences to be projected once trends are

Health status monitoring for ICU patients based on locally weighted principal component analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Yangyang; Ma, Xin; Wang, Youqing

2018-03-01

Intelligent status monitoring for critically ill patients can help medical stuff quickly discover and assess the changes of disease and then make appropriate treatment strategy. However, general-type monitoring model now widely used is difficult to adapt the changes of intensive care unit (ICU) patients' status due to its fixed pattern, and a more robust, efficient and fast monitoring model should be developed to the individual. A data-driven learning approach combining locally weighted projection regression (LWPR) and principal component analysis (PCA) is firstly proposed and applied to monitor the nonlinear process of patients' health status in ICU. LWPR is used to approximate the complex nonlinear process with local linear models, in which PCA could be further applied to status monitoring, and finally a global weighted statistic will be acquired for detecting the possible abnormalities. Moreover, some improved versions are developed, such as LWPR-MPCA and LWPR-JPCA, which also have superior performance. Eighteen subjects were selected from the Physiobank's Multi-parameter Intelligent Monitoring for Intensive Care II (MIMIC II) database, and two vital signs of each subject were chosen for online monitoring. The proposed method was compared with several existing methods including traditional PCA, Partial least squares (PLS), just in time learning combined with modified PCA (L-PCA), and Kernel PCA (KPCA). The experimental results demonstrated that the mean fault detection rate (FDR) of PCA can be improved by 41.7% after adding LWPR. The mean FDR of LWPR-MPCA was increased by 8.3%, compared with the latest reported method L-PCA. Meanwhile, LWPR spent less training time than others, especially KPCA. LWPR is first introduced into ICU patients monitoring and achieves the best monitoring performance including adaptability to changes in patient status, sensitivity for abnormality detection as well as its fast learning speed and low computational complexity. The algorithm

Nonvisible tumors on multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging does not predict low-risk prostate cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seung Hwan Lee

2015-12-01

Conclusions: Even though cancer foci were not visualized by postbiopsy MRI, the pathological tumor volumes and extent of GS upgrading were relatively high. Therefore, nonvisible tumors by multiparametric MRI do not appear to be predictive of low-risk PCA.

2L-PCA: a two-level principal component analyzer for quantitative drug design and its applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Qi-Shi; Wang, Shu-Qing; Xie, Neng-Zhong; Wang, Qing-Yan; Huang, Ri-Bo; Chou, Kuo-Chen

2017-09-19

A two-level principal component predictor (2L-PCA) was proposed based on the principal component analysis (PCA) approach. It can be used to quantitatively analyze various compounds and peptides about their functions or potentials to become useful drugs. One level is for dealing with the physicochemical properties of drug molecules, while the other level is for dealing with their structural fragments. The predictor has the self-learning and feedback features to automatically improve its accuracy. It is anticipated that 2L-PCA will become a very useful tool for timely providing various useful clues during the process of drug development.

PSA and androgen-related gene (AR, CYP17, and CYP19) polymorphisms and the risk of adenocarcinoma at prostate biopsy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

dos Santos, Rodrigo Mattos; de Jesus, Carlos Márcio Nóbrega; Trindade Filho, José Carlos Souza

2008-01-01

The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of polymorphisms in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and androgen-related genes (AR, CYP17, and CYP19) on prostate cancer (PCa) risk in selected high-risk patients who underwent prostate biopsy. Blood samples and prostate tissues were obtained......=0.0110) genotypes. Genetic instability at the AR locus leading to somatic mosaicism was detected in one PCa patient by comparing the length of AR CAG repeats in matched peripheral blood and prostate biopsy cores. Taken together, these findings suggest that the PSA genotype should be a clinically relevant biomarker...

A Hold-out method to correct PCA variance inflation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Garcia-Moreno, Pablo; Artes-Rodriguez, Antonio; Hansen, Lars Kai

2012-01-01

In this paper we analyze the problem of variance inflation experienced by the PCA algorithm when working in an ill-posed scenario where the dimensionality of the training set is larger than its sample size. In an earlier article a correction method based on a Leave-One-Out (LOO) procedure...

PCA and multidimensional visualization techniques united to aid in the bioindication of elements from transplanted Sphagnum palustre moss exposed in the Gdańsk City area.

Science.gov (United States)

Astel, Aleksander; Astel, Karolina; Biziuk, Marek

2008-01-01

During the last decades, a technique for assessing atmospheric deposition of heavy elements was developed based on the principle that samples of moss are able to accumulate elements and airborne particles from rain, melting snow and dry deposition. Despite a broad interest in bioindication there are still ongoing works aimed at the preparation of a standard procedure allowing for a comparison of research carried out in various areas. This is why the comparison of living and dry moss of the same species and growth site seems to be interesting, logical and promising. A most reliable approach seems to be the application of bioindication connected with multivariate statistics and efficient visualization techniques in the interpretation of monitoring data. The aim of this study was: (i) to present cumulative properties of transplanted Sphagnum palustre moss with differentiation into dry and living biomaterial; (ii) to determine and geographically locate types of pollution sources responsible for a structure of the monitoring data set; (iii) to visualize geographical distribution of analytes in the Gdańsk metropolitan area and to identify the high-risk areas which can be targeted for environmental hazards and public health. A six month air pollution study based on Sphagnum palustre bioindication is presented and a simplified procedure of the experiment is given. The study area was located at the mouth of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea, in Gdańsk City (Poland). Sphagnum palustre was selected for research because of its extraordinary morphological properties and its ease in being raised. The capability of dry and living moss to accumulate elements characteristic for anthropogenic and natural sources was shown by application of Principal Component Analysis. The high-risk areas and pollution profiles are detected and visualized using surface maps based on Kriging algorithm. The original selection of elements included all those that could be reliably determined by

High-Risk Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael J. Veness

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Nonmelanoma skin cancers (squamous cell and basal cell carcinomas occur at an epidemic rate in many countries with the worldwide incidence increasing. The sun-exposed head and neck are the most frequent sites for these cancers to arise and in most patients diagnosed with a cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, local treatment is usually curative. However, a subset is diagnosed with a high-risk cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. High-risk factors include size (> 2 cm, thickness/depth of invasion (> 4 mm, recurrent lesions, the presence of perineural invasion, location near the parotid gland, and immunosuppression. These patients have a higher risk (> 10–20% of developing metastases to regional lymph nodes (often parotid nodes, and in some cases also of experiencing local morbidity (perineural invasion, based on unfavourable primary lesion and patient factors. Despite treatment, many patients developing metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma experience mortality and morbidity usually as a consequence of uncontrolled metastatic nodal disease. It is therefore important that clinicians treating nonmelanoma skin cancers have an understanding and awareness of these high-risk patients. The aim of this article is to discuss the factors that define a high-risk patient and to present some of the issues pertinent to their management.

Radar target classification method with high accuracy and decision speed performance using MUSIC spectrum vectors and PCA projection

Science.gov (United States)

Secmen, Mustafa

2011-10-01

This paper introduces the performance of an electromagnetic target recognition method in resonance scattering region, which includes pseudo spectrum Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm and principal component analysis (PCA) technique. The aim of this method is to classify an "unknown" target as one of the "known" targets in an aspect-independent manner. The suggested method initially collects the late-time portion of noise-free time-scattered signals obtained from different reference aspect angles of known targets. Afterward, these signals are used to obtain MUSIC spectrums in real frequency domain having super-resolution ability and noise resistant feature. In the final step, PCA technique is applied to these spectrums in order to reduce dimensionality and obtain only one feature vector per known target. In the decision stage, noise-free or noisy scattered signal of an unknown (test) target from an unknown aspect angle is initially obtained. Subsequently, MUSIC algorithm is processed for this test signal and resulting test vector is compared with feature vectors of known targets one by one. Finally, the highest correlation gives the type of test target. The method is applied to wire models of airplane targets, and it is shown that it can tolerate considerable noise levels although it has a few different reference aspect angles. Besides, the runtime of the method for a test target is sufficiently low, which makes the method suitable for real-time applications.

Effect of Statins and Anticoagulants on Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alizadeh, Moein [Department of Radiation Oncology, Centre Hospitalier de l' Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Sylvestre, Marie-Pierre [Research Center, Department of Statistics, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Zilli, Thomas; Van Nguyen, Thu; Guay, Jean-Pierre; Bahary, Jean-Paul [Department of Radiation Oncology, Centre Hospitalier de l' Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada); Taussky, Daniel, E-mail: daniel.taussky.chum@ssss.gouv.qc.ca [Department of Radiation Oncology, Centre Hospitalier de l' Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec (Canada)

2012-07-15

Purpose: Statins and anticoagulants (ACs) have both been associated with a less-aggressive prostate cancer (PCa) and a better outcome after treatment of localized PCa. The results of these studies might have been confounded because patients might often take both medications. We examined their respective influence on PCa aggressiveness at initial diagnosis. Materials and Methods: We analyzed 381 patients treated with either external beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy for low-risk (n = 152), intermediate-risk (n = 142), or high-risk (n = 87) localized PCa. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to investigate an association between these drug classes and prostate cancer aggressiveness. We tested whether the concomitant use of statins and ACs had a different effect than that of either AC or statin use alone. Results: Of the 381 patients, 172 (45.1%) were taking statins and 141 (37.0%) ACs; 105 patients (27.6%) used both. On univariate analysis, the statin and AC users were associated with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level (p = .017) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network risk group (p = .0022). On multivariate analysis, statin use was associated with a PSA level <10 ng/mL (odds ratio, 2.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-6.8; p = .012) and a PSA level >20 ng/mL (odds ratio, 0.29; 95% confidence interval, 0.08-0.83; p = .03). The use of ACs was associated with a PSA level >20 ng/mL (odds ratio, 0.13; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.59, p = .02). Conclusion: Both AC and statins have an effect on PCa aggressiveness, with statins having a more stringent relationship with the PSA level, highlighting the importance of considering statin use in studies of PCa aggressiveness.

Chemical fingerprinting of petroleum biomakers using time warping and PCA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Jan H.; Tomasi, Giorgio; Hansen, Asger B.

2005-01-01

A new method for chemical fingerprinting of petroleum biomakers is described. The method consists of GC-MS analysis, preprocessing of GC-MS chromatograms, and principal component analysis (PCA) of selected regions. The preprocessing consists of baseline removal by derivatization, normalization...

Trichomonas vaginalis infection and risk of prostate cancer: associations by disease aggressiveness and race/ethnicity in the PLCO Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Marous, Miguelle; Huang, Wen-Yi; Rabkin, Charles S; Hayes, Richard B; Alderete, John F; Rosner, Bernard; Grubb, Robert L; Winter, Anke C; Sutcliffe, Siobhan

2017-08-01

Results from previous sero-epidemiologic studies of Trichomonas vaginalis infection and prostate cancer (PCa) support a positive association between this sexually transmitted infection and aggressive PCa. However, findings from previous studies are not entirely consistent, and only one has investigated the possible relation between T. vaginalis seropositivity and PCa in African-American men who are at highest risk of both infection and PCa. Therefore, we examined this possible relation in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, including separate analyses for aggressive PCa and African-American men. We included a sample of participants from a previous nested case-control study of PCa, as well as all additional Caucasian, aggressive, and African-American cases diagnosed since the previous study (total n = 438 Gleason 7 Caucasian cases, 487 more advanced Caucasian cases (≥Gleason 8 or stage III/IV), 201 African-American cases, and 1216 controls). We tested baseline sera for T. vaginalis antibodies. No associations were observed for risk of Gleason 7 (odds ratio (OR) = 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.55-1.37) or more advanced (OR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.58-1.38) PCa in Caucasian men, or for risk of any PCa (OR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.67-1.68) in African-American men. Our findings do not support an association between T. vaginalis infection and PCa.

LILRA3 Is Associated with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Risk in a Chinese Population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jielin Sun

2013-04-01

Full Text Available A recent prostate cancer (PCa genome-wide association study (GWAS identified rs103294, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP located on LILRA3, a key component in the regulation of inflammatory inhibition, to be significantly associated with PCa risk in a Chinese population. Because inflammation may be a common etiological risk factor between PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, the current study was conducted to investigate the association of rs103294 with BPH risk. rs103294 was genotyped in a Chinese population of 426 BPH cases and 1,008 controls from Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, China. Association between rs103294, BPH risk and clinicopathological traits were tested with adjustment for age. rs103294 was significantly associated with BPH risk with a p-value of 0.0067. Individuals with risk allele “C” had increased risk for BPH (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.09–1.66. Stratified analysis revealed a stronger association risk for younger patients who are below 72 years old (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.06–2.16. Our study represents the first effort to demonstrate that LILRA3 gene is significantly associated with BPH risk in a Chinese population. Our results support a common role of inflammation in the development of PCa and BPH. Additional studies are needed to further evaluate our results.

Amorphization of Fe-based alloy via wet mechanical alloying assisted by PCA decomposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neamţu, B.V., E-mail: Bogdan.Neamtu@stm.utcluj.ro [Materials Science and Engineering Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 103-105, Muncii Avenue, 400641, Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Chicinaş, H.F.; Marinca, T.F. [Materials Science and Engineering Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 103-105, Muncii Avenue, 400641, Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Isnard, O. [Université Grenoble Alpes, Institut NEEL, F-38042, Grenoble (France); CNRS, Institut NEEL, 25 rue des martyrs, BP166, F-38042, Grenoble (France); Pană, O. [National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 65-103 Donath Street, 400293, Cluj-Napoca (Romania); Chicinaş, I. [Materials Science and Engineering Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 103-105, Muncii Avenue, 400641, Cluj-Napoca (Romania)

2016-11-01

Amorphization of Fe{sub 75}Si{sub 20}B{sub 5} (at.%) alloy has been attempted both by wet and dry mechanical alloying starting from a mixture of elemental powders. Powder amorphization was not achieved even after 140 hours of dry mechanical alloying. Using the same milling parameters, when wet mechanical alloying was used, the powder amorphization was achieved after 40 h of milling. Our assumption regarding the powder amorphization capability enhancement by contamination with carbon was proved by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) measurements which revealed the presence of carbon in the chemical composition of the wet mechanically alloyed sample. Using shorter milling times and several process control agents (PCA) (ethanol, oleic acid and benzene) with different carbon content it was proved that the milling duration required for powder amorphization is linked to the carbon content of the PCA. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), thermomagnetic (TG) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) measurements performed to the heated samples revealed the fact that, the crystallisation occurs at 488 °C, thus leading to the formation of Fe{sub 3}Si and Fe{sub 2}B. Thermogravimetry measurements performed under H{sub 2} atmosphere, showed the same amount of contamination with C, which is about 2.3 wt%, for the amorphous samples regardless of the type of PCA. Saturation magnetisation of the wet milled samples decreases upon increasing milling time. In the case of the amorphous samples wet milled with benzene up to 20 h and with oleic acid up to 30 h, the saturation magnetisation has roughly the same value, indicating the same degree of contamination. The XRD performed on the samples milled using the same parameters, revealed that powder amorphization can be achieved even via dry milling, just by adding the equivalent amount of elemental C calculated from the TG plots. This proves that in this system by considering the atomic species which can contaminate the powder, they can be

Oxaliplatin and capecitabine concomitant with neoadjuvant radiotherapy and extended to the resting period in high risk locally advanced rectal cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gao, Y.H.; Zeng, Z.F. [State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou (China); Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Departments of Radiation Oncology, Guangzhou (China); Zhang, X. [State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou (China); Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Departments of Thoracic Surgery, Guangzhou (China); An, X. [State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou (China); Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Departments of Medical Oncology, Guangzhou (China); Cai, M.Y. [State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou (China); Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Departments of Pathology, Guangzhou (China); Chen, G.; Kong, L.H.; Lin, J.Z.; Wan, D.S.; Pan, Z.Z.; Ding, P.R. [State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Guangzhou (China); Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Departments of Colorectal Surgery, Guangzhou (China)

2014-02-15

Conventional neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is suboptimal for systemic control in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). To improve systemic control, we developed an alternative approach in which an intensified oxaliplatin and capecitabine (XELOX) chemotherapy regimen was administered concomitantly with radiation and extended to the resting period (consolidation chemotherapy) for high-risk LARC. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the short-term efficacy and toxicity of this strategy. Patients with high-risk LARC were treated with CRT. Two cycles of XELOX were administered concomitantly with radiation. Thereafter, an additional cycle of the same regimen was administered during the resting period after completion of CRT. Tumor response, toxicities and surgical complications were recorded. This study includes 36 patients treated with the above strategy. All patients completed the planned concurrent CRT. Because of grade 3 toxicities, 2 patients were unable to complete the additional chemotherapy. Grade 3 toxicities were leucopenia (2.8 %), diarrhea (2.8 %) and radiodermatitis (2.8 %). All patients underwent optimal surgery with total mesorectal excision (TME) and a sphincter-saving procedure was performed in 27 patients (75 %). There was no perioperative mortality. Postoperative complications developed in 7 patients (19.4 %). Pathologic complete regression (pCR),''nearly pCR'' (major regression), and moderate or minimal regression were achieved in 13 (36.1 %), 16 (44.4 %), and 7 patients (19.5 %), respectively. The preliminary results suggest that a XELOX regimen initially administered concomitantly with radiotherapy and then extended to the resting period in high-risk LARC patients is well tolerated. The strategy is highly effective in terms of pCR and nearly pCR rates, and thus warrants further investigation. (orig.)

Nonlinear peculiar-velocity analysis and PCA

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dekel, A. [and others

2001-02-20

We allow for nonlinear effects in the likelihood analysis of peculiar velocities, and obtain {approximately}35%-lower values for the cosmological density parameter and for the amplitude of mass-density fluctuations. The power spectrum in the linear regime is assumed to be of the flat {Lambda}CDM model (h = 0:65, n = 1) with only {Omega}{sub m} free. Since the likelihood is driven by the nonlinear regime, we break the power spectrum at k{sub b} {approximately} 0.2 (h{sup {minus}1} Mpc){sup {minus}1} and fit a two-parameter power-law at k > k{sub b} . This allows for an unbiased fit in the linear regime. Tests using improved mock catalogs demonstrate a reduced bias and a better fit. We find for the Mark III and SFI data {Omega}{sub m} = 0.35 {+-} 0.09 with {sigma}{sub 8}{Omega}P{sub m}{sup 0.6} = 0.55 {+-} 0.10 (90% errors). When allowing deviations from {Lambda}CDM, we find an indication for a wiggle in the power spectrum in the form of an excess near k {approximately} 0.05 and a deficiency at k {approximately} 0.1 (h{sup {minus}1} Mpc){sup {minus}1}--a cold flow which may be related to a feature indicated from redshift surveys and the second peak in the CMB anisotropy. A {chi}{sup 2} test applied to principal modes demonstrates that the nonlinear procedure improves the goodness of fit. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) helps identifying spatial features of the data and fine-tuning the theoretical and error models. We address the potential for optimal data compression using PCA.

Sunlight exposure during leisure activities and risk of prostate cancer in Montréal, Canada, 2005-2009.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Jennifer; Lavoué, Jérôme; Parent, Marie-Élise

2014-07-28

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the leading cause of cancer in men in many developed countries, but no modifiable risk factors have been identified. A handful of analytical studies have suggested a possible etiological role for sunlight exposure. We report here on the association between leisure-time sunlight exposure during adulthood and PCa risk in the context of a population-based case-control study. In all, 1,904 PCa cases were ascertained across Montreal French hospitals between 2005 and 2009. Concurrently, 1,962 population controls, frequency matched to cases by age (±5 years), were selected from the electoral list for French-speakers in Greater Montreal. Interviews elicited the frequency of engagement in any leisure activity during adulthood. This was used to derive cumulative sunlight exposure indices: a cumulative number of leisure activities events entailing sunlight exposure and a cumulative duration of sunlight exposure during leisure activities. Unconditional logistic regression was conducted to yield odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for estimating the association between sunlight exposure indices and PCa risk, adjusting for age, ancestry, family history of PCa, PCa screening, education, solar protection, body mass index and physical activity. Compared with men in the upper quartile category for the number of sunlight exposure events, men never exposed during leisure time had an OR of 1.32 (95% CI: 0.82-2.14). ORs were 1.11, 0.91 and 1.00 for the first to the third quartiles of exposure, respectively. Similar results were observed for cumulative duration of exposure to sunlight, and by PCa aggressiveness. These findings provide little evidence of an association between sunlight exposure during leisure-time and PCa risk. Men with no sunlight exposure appeared at somewhat higher risks but none of the estimates achieved statistical significance.

Smoking increased the risk of prostate cancer with grade group ≥ 4 and intraductal carcinoma in a prospective biopsy cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Bo; Han, Cheng-Tao; Gan, Hua-Lei; Zhang, Gui-Ming; Zhang, Cui-Zhu; Yang, Wei-Yi; Shen, Ying; Zhu, Yao; Ye, Ding-Wei

2017-06-01

To investigate the association between smoking and different prostate cancer (PCa) pathological subtypes incidence in Chinese men. We prospectively included 1795 patients who underwent prostate biopsies in one tertiary center between March 2013 and April 2016. Clinical data and biopsy outcomes were collected. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between cigarette smoking and PCa incidence. A total of 737 men, 480 men and 58 men were diagnosed with PCa, high-grade PCa (HGPCa, grade group ≥ 4 as accepted by the 2014 ISUP) and intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P), respectively. Current smokers had a significantly higher risk of HGPCa than never smokers (OR = 1.89, 95%CI: 1.44-2.48). No such association was observed for low-grade disease and cigarette smoking (OR = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.61-1.16). In a sub-analysis, men who had smoked longer than 30 years had a higher risk of HGPCa, compared with men who had smoked fewer than 30 years (OR = 1.50, 95%CI: 1.09-2.06). Current smokers were more likely to develop IDC-P than never smokers (OR = 2.29, 95%CI: 1.14-4.59). Among men in this Chinese biopsy cohort, current smoking was associated with highly malignant PCa incidence, such as HGPCa and IDC-P. The duration of smoking may be associated with HGPCa. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Update on the Management of High-Risk Penetrating Keratoplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Jabbehdari, Sayena; Rafii, Alireza Baradaran; Yazdanpanah, Ghasem; Hamrah, Pedram; Holland, Edward J; Djalilian, Ali R

2017-03-01

In this article, we review the indications and latest management of high-risk penetrating keratoplasty. Despite the immune-privilege status of the cornea, immune-mediated graft rejection still remains the leading cause of corneal graft failure. This is particularly a problem in the high-risk graft recipients, namely patients with previous graft failure due to rejection and those with inflamed and vascularized corneal beds. A number of strategies including both local and systemic immunosuppression are currently used to increase the success rate of high-risk corneal grafts. Moreover, in cases of limbal stem cell deficiency, limbal stem cells transplantation is employed. Corticosteroids are still the top medication for prevention and treatment in cases of corneal graft rejection. Single and combined administration of immunosuppressive agents e.g. tacrolimus, cyclosporine and mycophenolate are promising adjunctive therapies for prolonging graft survival. In the future, cellular and molecular therapies should allow us to achieve immunologic tolerance even in high-risk grafts.

Larger men have larger prostates: Detection bias in epidemiologic studies of obesity and prostate cancer risk.

Science.gov (United States)

Rundle, Andrew; Wang, Yun; Sadasivan, Sudha; Chitale, Dhananjay A; Gupta, Nilesh S; Tang, Deliang; Rybicki, Benjamin A

2017-06-01

Obesity is associated with risk of aggressive prostate cancer (PCa), but not with over-all PCa risk. However, obese men have larger prostates which may lower biopsy accuracy and cause a systematic bias toward the null in epidemiologic studies of over-all risk. Within a cohort of 6692 men followed-up after a biopsy or transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) with benign findings, a nested case-control study was conducted of 495 prostate cancer cases and controls matched on age, race, follow-up duration, biopsy versus TURP, and procedure date. Data on body mass index and prostate volume at the time of the initial procedure were abstracted from medical records. Prior to consideration of differences in prostate volume, overweight (OR = 1.41; 95%CI 1.01, 1.97), and obese status (OR = 1.59; 95%CI 1.09, 2.33) at the time of the original benign biopsy or TURP were associated with PCa incidence during follow-up. Prostate volume did not significantly moderate the association between body-size and PCa, however it did act as an inverse confounder; adjustment for prostate volume increased the effect size for overweight by 22% (adjusted OR = 1.52; 95%CI 1.08, 2.14) and for obese status by 23% (adjusted OR = 1.77; 95%CI 1.20, 2.62). Larger prostate volume at the time of the original benign biopsy or TURP was inversely associated with PCa incidence during follow-up (OR = 0.92 per 10 cc difference in volume; 95%CI 0.88, 0.97). In analyses that stratified case-control pairs by tumor aggressiveness of the case, prostate volume acted as an inverse confounder in analyses of non-aggressive PCa but not in analyses of aggressive PCa. In studies of obesity and PCa, differences in prostate volume cause a bias toward the null, particularly in analyses of non-aggressive PCa. A pervasive underestimation of the association between obesity and overall PCa risk may exist in the literature. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recent Change of locality as Risk factor for Malaria Fever Among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Recent Change of locality as Risk factor for Malaria Fever Among New Residents of Ahoada East Local Government Area in Southern Nigeria. ... an endemic region, which serves as an indicator of exposure to new variants of P falciparum; for which specific immunity is lacking, is a significant risk factor for malaria fever.

MD-11 PCA - Closeup view of aircraft on ramp

Science.gov (United States)

1995-01-01

This McDonnell Douglas MD-11 has taxied to a position on the flightline at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, following its completion of the first and second landings ever performed by a transport aircraft under engine power only (on Aug. 29, 1995). The milestone flight, with NASA research pilot and former astronaut Gordon Fullerton at the controls, was part of a NASA project to develop a computer-assisted engine control system that enables a pilot to land a plane safely when its normal control surfaces are disabled. The Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system uses standard autopilot controls already present in the cockpit, together with the new programming in the aircraft's flight control computers. The PCA concept is simple. For pitch control, the program increases thrust to climb and reduces thrust to descend. To turn right, the autopilot increases the left engine thrust while decreasing the right engine thrust. The initial Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft studies by NASA were carried out at Dryden with a modified twin-engine F-15 research aircraft.

RXTE PCA and Swift BAT detects the millisecond pulsar Swift J1756.9-2508 in outburst

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Patruno, A.; Markwardt, C.B.; Strohmayer, T.E.; Swank, J.H.; Smith, S.E.; Pereira, D.

2009-01-01

We report a detection of increased activity of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar Swift J1756.9-2508 observed with the RXTE-PCA monitoring on July 8, 9hr UTC. Increased flux is detected simultaneously on the Swift-BAT camera. RXTE-PCA follow up observations starting on July 13, 23hr UTC,

Preparing for Local Adaptation: Understanding Flood Risk Perceptions in Pittsburgh

Science.gov (United States)

Klima, K.; Wong-Parodi, G.

2015-12-01

The City of Pittsburgh experiences numerous floods every year. Aging and insufficient infrastructure contribute to flash floods and to over 20 billion gallons of combined sewer overflows annually, contaminating Pittsburgh's streets, basements, and waterways. Climate change is expected to further exacerbate this problem by causing more intense and more frequent extreme precipitation events in Western Pennsylvania. For a stormwater adaptation plan to be implemented effectively, the City will need informed public support. One way to achieve public understanding and support is through effective communication of the risks, benefits, and uncertainties of local flooding hazards and adaptation methods. In order to develop these communications effectively, the city and its partners will need to know what knowledge and attitudes the residents of Pittsburgh already hold about flood risks. Here we seek to (1) identify Pittsburgh residents' knowledge level, risk perception and attitudes towards flooding and storm water management, and (2) pre-test communications meant to inform and empower Pittsburghers about flood risks and adaptation strategies. We conduct a city-wide survey of 10,000 Pittsburgh renters and homeowners from four life situations: high risk, above poverty; high-risk, below poverty; low risk, above poverty; and low-risk, below poverty. Mixed media recruitment strategies (online and paper-based solicitations guided/organized by community organizations) assist in reaching all subpopulations. Preliminary results suggest participants know what stormwater runoff is, but have a weak understanding of how stormwater interacts with natural and built systems. Furthermore, although participants have a good understanding of the difference between green and gray infrastructure, this does not translate into a change in their willingness to pay for green infrastructure adaptation. This suggests additional communications about flood risks and adaptation strategies.

Performance evaluation of PCA-based spike sorting algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Adamos, Dimitrios A; Kosmidis, Efstratios K; Theophilidis, George

2008-09-01

Deciphering the electrical activity of individual neurons from multi-unit noisy recordings is critical for understanding complex neural systems. A widely used spike sorting algorithm is being evaluated for single-electrode nerve trunk recordings. The algorithm is based on principal component analysis (PCA) for spike feature extraction. In the neuroscience literature it is generally assumed that the use of the first two or most commonly three principal components is sufficient. We estimate the optimum PCA-based feature space by evaluating the algorithm's performance on simulated series of action potentials. A number of modifications are made to the open source nev2lkit software to enable systematic investigation of the parameter space. We introduce a new metric to define clustering error considering over-clustering more favorable than under-clustering as proposed by experimentalists for our data. Both the program patch and the metric are available online. Correlated and white Gaussian noise processes are superimposed to account for biological and artificial jitter in the recordings. We report that the employment of more than three principal components is in general beneficial for all noise cases considered. Finally, we apply our results to experimental data and verify that the sorting process with four principal components is in agreement with a panel of electrophysiology experts.

Biopsy and treatment decisions in the initial management of prostate cancer and the role of PCA3; a systematic analysis of expert opinion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tombal, Bertrand; Ameye, Filip; de la Taille, Alexandre; de Reijke, Theo; Gontero, Paolo; Haese, Alexander; Kil, Paul; Perrin, Paul; Remzi, Mesut; Schröder, Jörg; Speakman, Mark; Volpe, Alessandro; Meesen, Bianca; Stoevelaar, Herman

2012-01-01

The Prostate CAncer gene 3 (PCA3) assay may guide prostate biopsy decisions and predict prostate cancer (PCa) aggressiveness. This study explored the appropriateness of (1) PCA3 testing; (2) biopsy; (3) active surveillance (AS) and the value of the PCA3 Score for biopsy and AS decisions. Using the

A case-control study of lower urinary-tract infections, associated antibiotics and the risk of developing prostate cancer using PCBaSe 3.0.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Beth; Garmo, Hans; Beckmann, Kerri; Stattin, Pär; Adolfsson, Jan; Van Hemelrijck, Mieke

2018-01-01

To investigate the association between lower urinary-tract infections, their associated antibiotics and the subsequent risk of developing PCa. Using data from the Swedish PCBaSe 3.0, we performed a matched case-control study (8762 cases and 43806 controls). Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between lower urinary-tract infections, related antibiotics and PCa, whilst adjusting for civil status, education, Charlson Comorbidity Index and time between lower urinary-tract infection and PCa diagnosis. It was found that lower urinary-tract infections did not affect PCa risk, however, having a lower urinary-tract infection or a first antibiotic prescription 6-12 months before PCa were both associated with an increased risk of PCa (OR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.23-1.82 and 1.96, 1.71-2.25, respectively), as compared to men without lower urinary-tract infections. Compared to men with no prescriptions for antibiotics, men who were prescribed ≥10 antibiotics, were 15% less likely to develop PCa (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.78-0.91). PCa was not found to be associated with diagnosis of a urinary-tract infection or frequency, but was positively associated with short time since diagnoses of lower urinary-tract infection or receiving prescriptions for antibiotics. These observations can likely be explained by detection bias, which highlights the importance of data on the diagnostic work-up when studying potential risk factors for PCa.

Abstinent Heroin Addicts Tend to Take Risks: ERP and Source Localization

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Qinglin Zhao

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Abnormal decision making is a behavioral characteristic of drug addiction. Indeed, drug addicts prefer immediate rewards at the expense of future interests. Assessing the neurocognitive basis of decision-making related to drug dependence, combining event-related potential (ERP analysis and source localization techniques, may provide new insights into understanding decision-making deficits in drug addicts and further guide withdrawal treatment. In this study, EEG was performed in 20 abstinent heroin addicts (AHAs and 20 age-, education- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs while they participated in a simple two-choice gambling task (99 vs. 9. Our behavioral results showed that AHAs tend to select higher-risk choices compared with HCs (i.e., more “99” choices than “9”. ERP results showed that right hemisphere preponderance of stimulus-preceding negativity was disrupted in AHAs, but not in HCs. Feedback-related negativity of difference wave was higher in AHAs than HCs, with the P300 amplitude associated with risk magnitude and valence. Using source localization that allows identification of abnormal brain activity in consequential cognitive stages, including the reward expectation and outcome evaluation stages, we found abnormalities in both behavioral and neural responses on gambling in AHAs. Taken together, our findings suggest AHAs have risk-prone tendency and dysfunction in adaptive decision making, since they continue to choose risky options even after accruing considerable negative scores, and fail to shift to a safer strategy to avoid risk. Such abnormal decision-making bias to risk and immediate reward seeking may be accompanied by abnormal reward expectation and evaluation in AHAs, which explains their high risk-seeking and impulsivity.

Change detection of medical images using dictionary learning techniques and PCA

Science.gov (United States)

Nika, Varvara; Babyn, Paul; Zhu, Hongmei

2014-03-01

Automatic change detection methods for identifying the changes of serial MR images taken at different times are of great interest to radiologists. The majority of existing change detection methods in medical imaging, and those of brain images in particular, include many preprocessing steps and rely mostly on statistical analysis of MRI scans. Although most methods utilize registration software, tissue classification remains a difficult and overwhelming task. Recently, dictionary learning techniques are used in many areas of image processing, such as image surveillance, face recognition, remote sensing, and medical imaging. In this paper we present the Eigen-Block Change Detection algorithm (EigenBlockCD). It performs local registration and identifies the changes between consecutive MR images of the brain. Blocks of pixels from baseline scan are used to train local dictionaries that are then used to detect changes in the follow-up scan. We use PCA to reduce the dimensionality of the local dictionaries and the redundancy of data. Choosing the appropriate distance measure significantly affects the performance of our algorithm. We examine the differences between L1 and L2 norms as two possible similarity measures in the EigenBlockCD. We show the advantages of L2 norm over L1 norm theoretically and numerically. We also demonstrate the performance of the EigenBlockCD algorithm for detecting changes of MR images and compare our results with those provided in recent literature. Experimental results with both simulated and real MRI scans show that the EigenBlockCD outperforms the previous methods. It detects clinical changes while ignoring the changes due to patient's position and other acquisition artifacts.

Improvement of Prostate Cancer Diagnosis by Detecting PSA Glycosylation-Specific Changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Llop, Esther; Ferrer-Batallé, Montserrat; Barrabés, Sílvia; Guerrero, Pedro Enrique; Ramírez, Manel; Saldova, Radka; Rudd, Pauline M; Aleixandre, Rosa N; Comet, Josep; de Llorens, Rafael; Peracaula, Rosa

2016-01-01

New markers based on PSA isoforms have recently been developed to improve prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis. However, novel approaches are still required to differentiate aggressive from non-aggressive PCa to improve decision making for patients. PSA glycoforms have been shown to be differentially expressed in PCa. In particular, changes in the extent of core fucosylation and sialylation of PSA N-glycans in PCa patients compared to healthy controls or BPH patients have been reported. The objective of this study was to determine these specific glycan structures in serum PSA to analyze their potential value as markers for discriminating between BPH and PCa of different aggressiveness. In the present work, we have established two methodologies to analyze the core fucosylation and the sialic acid linkage of PSA N-glycans in serum samples from BPH (29) and PCa (44) patients with different degrees of aggressiveness. We detected a significant decrease in the core fucose and an increase in the α2,3-sialic acid percentage of PSA in high-risk PCa that differentiated BPH and low-risk PCa from high-risk PCa patients. In particular, a cut-off value of 0.86 of the PSA core fucose ratio, could distinguish high-risk PCa patients from BPH with 90% sensitivity and 95% specificity, with an AUC of 0.94. In the case of the α2,3-sialic acid percentage of PSA, the cut-off value of 30% discriminated between high-risk PCa and the group of BPH, low-, and intermediate-risk PCa with a sensitivity and specificity of 85.7% and 95.5%, respectively, with an AUC of 0.97. The latter marker exhibited high performance in differentiating between aggressive and non-aggressive PCa and has the potential for translational application in the clinic.

Polymorphous Computing Architecture (PCA) Application Benchmark 1: Three-Dimensional Radar Data Processing

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lebak, J

2001-01-01

The DARPA Polymorphous Computing Architecture (PCA) program is building advanced computer architectures that can reorganize their computation and communication structures to achieve better overall application performance...

The Prevalence of Cardiac Risk Factors in Men with Localized Prostate Cancer Undergoing Androgen Deprivation Therapy in British Columbia, Canada

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Margot K. Davis

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background. While androgen deprivation therapy (ADT reduces the risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality in high-risk localized prostate cancer, it adversely affects cardiovascular (CV risk factor profiles in treated men. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 100 consecutive men with intermediate- or high-risk localized prostate cancer referred to the British Columbia Cancer Agency for ADT. Data on CV risk factors and disease were collected and Framingham risk scores were calculated. Results. The median age of the study cohort was 73 years. Established cardiovascular disease was present in 25% of patients. Among patients without established CV disease, calculated Framingham risk was high in 65%, intermediate in 33%, and low in 1%. Baseline hypertension was present in 58% of patients, dyslipidemia in 51%, and diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance in 24%. Hypertension was more prevalent in the study cohort than in an age- and sex-matched population sample (OR 1.74, P=0.006; diabetes had a similar prevalence (OR 0.93, P=0.8. Conclusions. Patients receiving ADT have a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease and risk factors and are more likely to be hypertensive than population controls. Low rates of CV risk screening suggest opportunities for improved primary and secondary prevention of CV disease in this population.

Autophagosomal Sequestration of Mitochondria as an Indicator of Antiandrogen Therapy Resistance of Prostate Cancer (PCa)