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Summary: Edge computing is a new way of computing that uses resources at the edge of a network to solve the problem of communication delays in applications that require immediate responses. This field has received a lot of attention from the research community over the past few decades, leading to a significant increase in publications. To better understand the field, a systematic mapping study (SMS) was conducted using a three‐tier search method that involved defining quality criteria to extract relevant search spaces and studies. This resulted in the selection of 112 search spaces out of 805 and 1440 studies out of 8725. The SMS addressed 8 research questions to identify the main topics, architectures, techniques, and other important aspects of edge computing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For stage III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with a high risk of recurrence, intensified adjuvant chemotherapy can improve overall survival. We aimed to develop a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) methylation marker model for predicting the relapse risk of stage III CRC patients. Differentially methylated markers identified between 53 normal mucosa samples and 165 CRC tissue samples, as well as between plasma samples from 75 stage I/II (early‐stage) CRC patients and 55 stage IV (late‐stage) CRC patients, were analyzed using Student's t‐tests. The overlapping methylation markers shared by plasma and tissue samples were used to establish a methylation marker model to evaluate the tumor burden in the peripheral blood of CRC patients using the random forest method. This model was verified in the validation cohort (n = 44) and then applied to predict recurrence risk in 50 stage III CRC patients and monitor the clinical disease course in serial samples from four CRC patients. We built a five‐marker‐based ctDNA methylation model that had high sensitivity (84.21%) and specificity (84%) in identifying late‐stage CRC in a validation cohort containing 24 stage I/II CRC patients and 20 stage IV CRC patients. The model achieved high sensitivity (87.5%) and specificity (94.12%) in predicting tumor relapse in an independent cohort of 50 stage III CRC patients and could be an independent recurrence risk factor for stage III patients [Hazard ratio (HR), 60.4; 95% confidence interval (CI): 7.68–397; p = 9.73e−5]. Analysis of serial blood samples of CRC showed that the model could monitor disease relapse earlier than imaging examination and serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and so may provide an opportunity for the early adjustment of therapeutic strategies. Moreover, the model could potentially monitor the clinical course and treatment response dynamically. © 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a well‐developed domain suitable in the optimal collection and processing of information needed for the present world. For processing and transmitting the correct data by the network, it is affected by many disrupting factors like interference, battery life, distance between the nodes, and redundant data. There have been many methods proposed in the past. Among all the disrupting factors, routing has been the most studied problem in the WSN literature, whereas packet length sizing has been the most untouched topic compared to routing. Sizing the packet lengths to transmit it through the network is important to get error‐free data and run an energy‐efficient network. In this paper, we propose a sling‐shot spider optimization (S2SO) algorithm for packet length optimization in WSN and Internet of Things (IoT)‐based networks. The S2SO algorithm is developed based on the spider's unique behavior of catching prey. The proposed algorithm is implemented in three types of networks: 1‐hop, 2‐hop, and multi‐hop networks. A mathematical model for the communication channel, energy efficiency, and energy consumption is developed for all three types of networks. The proposed packet length optimization model is simulated in MATLAB software and compared with conventional bio‐inspired algorithms. The results show that the proposed algorithm is very fast in finding the optimal results and transmits optimal packet size with low error rate of 0.2 p.u. and a high efficiency of 98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The risk of recurrence after completion of curative‐intent treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) is hard to predict. Post‐treatment assaying for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is an encouraging approach for stratifying patients for therapy, but the prognostic value of this approach is less explored. This study aimed to determine if detection of methylated BCAT1 and IKZF1 following completion of initial treatment identified patients with a poorer recurrence‐free survival (RFS). Methods: 142 CRC stage I‐III cases with at least 2 years of follow up (unless recurrence was evident sooner) and a methylated BCAT1/IKZF1 test result between 2 weeks and 12 months after completion of initial treatment were eligible for study inclusion. The association between BCAT1/IKZF1 and RFS was assessed by the log‐rank (Mantel‐Cox) method. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used for multivariable survival analysis. Results: Thirty‐three (23.2%) had recurrence at a median 1.6y (interquartile range: 0.8–2.4). Methylated BCAT1/IKZF1 was detected in 19 of the 142 patients (13.4%) and was associated with a significant risk of recurrence (hazard ratio [HR] 5.7, 95%CI: 1.9–17.3, p = 0.002). Three‐year RFS for patients with or without detectable methylated BCAT1/IKZF1 was 56.5% and 83.3%, respectively. Multivariable analysis showed that detection of methylated BCAT1/IKZF1 (HR = 2.6, p = 0.049) and site of the primary tumor (HR = 4.2, p = 0.002) were the only significant prognostic indicators of poor RFS. Conclusions: BCAT1/IKZF1 methylation testing after curative‐intent treatment is an independent prognostic indicator for RFS and identifies a subgroup at high risk. Personalized surveillance is warranted for patients with these ctDNA biomarkers detectable after curative‐intent treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide that is attributed to gradual long‐term accumulation of both genetic and epigenetic changes. To reduce the mortality rate of CRC and to improve treatment efficacy, it will be important to develop accurate noninvasive diagnostic tests for screening, acute and personalized diagnosis. Epigenetic changes such as DNA methylation play an important role in the development and progression of CRC. Over the last decade, a panel of DNA methylation markers has been reported showing a high accuracy and reproducibility in various semi‐invasive or noninvasive biosamples. Research to obtain comprehensive panels of markers allowing a highly sensitive and differentiating diagnosis of CRC is ongoing. Moreover, the epigenetic alterations for cancer therapy, as a precision medicine strategy will increase their therapeutic potential over time. Here, we discuss the current state of DNA methylation‐based biomarkers and their impact on CRC diagnosis. We emphasize the need to further identify and stratify methylation‐biomarkers and to develop robust and effective detection methods that are applicable for a routine clinical setting of CRC diagnostics particularly at the early stage of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence‐based recommendations for the optimal duration and sequencing of temozolomide‐based treatments in advanced neuroendocrine neoplasms are lacking. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the literature for a descriptive analysis of temozolomide‐associated myelodysplasias and leukemias to guide treatment planning. A database search of PubMed and Embase was conducted to identify case reports and/or case series reporting secondary myelodysplasias or leukemias in the setting of temozolomide therapy. Key data items extracted from the studies were the temozolomide dose and duration, latency to hematological disorder, type of secondary malignancy and cytogenetics. Reported cases were summarized graphically. A total of 16 studies with 27 patient cases of therapy‐related hematologic neoplasms were identified, all of which were case reports or case series. The median treatment duration and cumulative dose were 19 months and 18,000 mg/m2, respectively. Most patients (21/27) were diagnosed on, or after, 12 months, while only one patient was diagnosed before 6 months of treatment. Most of the patients were diagnosed, while still on treatment with temozolomide. Graphically, cases clustered around a cumulative dose of 10,000 to 30,000 mg/m2 and a latency period of 10 to 40 months which translates to an approximate treatment duration of 12.5 to 37.5 months. Taken together, most reported treatment‐related hematological neoplasms appear to develop on or beyond the 12‐month mark, while patients are still on treatment with temozolomide. For patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms, where sequencing of multiple therapies is important, we suggest an approach to optimizing treatment duration by establishing disease response at 6 months before continuing further treatment and restricting treatment to or establishing closer vigilance beyond 12 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This audit reviewed the impact on access to routine medical care and adverse outcomes in patients with suspected SARS‐CoV‐2 infection managed on a 'COVID‐19' (CV) ward compared with a general medicine ward at Box Hill Hospital, Victoria. Data were collected at two time points to capture changes associated with onsite testing. We found no healthcare delays from admission to CV wards and observed faster exits from CV wards with improved testing efficiency. This critical finding is relevant as Victoria manages a third wave of infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of colon cancer is amongst the top three in the world. The tumour microenvironment plays an important role in the occurrence and development of colon cancer. Stromal cells and immune cells are the main components of the tumour microenvironment. Our study detected genes, which affected the infiltration of stromal, immune cells and the way they affected the prognosis of colon cancer patients. We found that the colon's immune system had a special way to affect the tumour microenvironment. Moderate infiltration of stromal and immune cells was proved to be important protective factors for colon cancer patients, which has not been found in other tumours. C3, C5, CXCL12, GNAI1, LPAR1, PENK, PYY, SAA1 and SST were the differential expression hub genes of moderate‐stromal and immune score group. They had a more significant correlation with tumour purity and infiltration of B cells, CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, macrophage, neutrophil, democratic cells. The proteins encoded by C3, C5, CXCL12, GNAI1, PENK, PYY, SST were detected in colon cancer cells. These genes had the potential to become markers to predict the prognosis of patients with colon cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: PEGylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is a therapeutic agent for gynecological malignancy. Hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) is a major adverse effect that usually disappears after halting administration of PLD. Premedication is usually not necessary before administration of PLD to prevent HSR. Here, we evaluated the frequency of HSR during administration of PLD following premedication in Japanese women. Methods: We performed PLD administration in 78 patients (386 cycles) between 2013 and 2018. Granisetron hydrochloride and dexamethasone sodium phosphate were administered 30 min before PLD administration. Then, PLD (40 or 30 mg/m2 combined usage with carboplatin) was administered. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 78 patients and examined the frequency of HSR. Results: Seven of 78 (9%) patients showed HSR by PLD administration following premedication. One patient showed cardiopulmonary arrest in 13 min after PLD administration (grade 4). The other six patients showed grade 2 HSR. All patients developed HSR in the first course. The incidence of HSR was significantly higher in patients with allergic history than in patients without allergic history (p = 0.0151). Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware of the potential for HSR in patients administered PLD, particularly those with allergic history and those receiving the first cycle of PLD, even following premedication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The increasing volume of data being produced, curated, and made available by research infrastructures in the environmental science domain require services that are able to optimize the delivery and staging of data for researchers and other users of scientific data. Specialized data services for managing data life cycle, for creating and delivering data products, and for customized data processing and analysis all play a crucial role in how these research infrastructures serve their communities, and many of these activities are time‐critical—needing to be carried out frequently within specific time windows. We describe our experiences identifying the time‐critical requirements of environmental scientists making use of computational research support environments. We present a microservice‐based infrastructure optimization suite, the Dynamic Real‐Time Infrastructure Planner, used for constructing virtual infrastructures for research applications on demand. We provide a case study whereby our suite is used to optimize runtime service quality for a data subscription service provided by the Euro‐Argo using EGI Federated Cloud and EUDAT's B2SAFE services, and to consider how such a case study relates to other application scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid biopsy is a promising method in detecting colorectal cancer (CRC). However, previous meta‐analyses only focused on the diagnostic performance of cell‐free DNA (cfDNA). Therefore, we firstly evaluated the overall performance of all liquid biopsy methods. The pooled sensitivities, specificities, diagnostic odds ratios, and area under curve (AUC) of summary receiver operating characteristic curve for all liquid biopsy methods, exosomes, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and cfDNA were calculated, respectively. A total of 62 articles involving 18 739 individuals were included. Fifty‐one articles were about cfDNA, five articles were about CTCs, and six articles were about exosomes. The overall performance of all liquid biopsy methods had a pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of 0.77 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.76‐0.78), 0.89 (95% CI 0.88‐0.90), and 0.9004, respectively. The sensitivities were 0.82 (95% CI 0.79‐0.85), 0.76 (95% CI 0.72‐0.80), and 0.76 (95% CI 0.75‐0.77) for CTCs, exosomes, and cfDNA, respectively. The specificities were 0.97 (95% CI95% CI 0.95‐0.99), 0.92 (95% CI 0.89‐0.94), and 0.88 (95% CI 0.87‐0.89) for CTCs, exosomes, and cfDNA, respectively. The AUC were 0.9772, 0.9037, and 0.8963 for CTCs, exosomes, and cfDNA, respectively. The overall performance of all liquid biopsy methods had great diagnostic value in detecting CRC, regardless of subtypes. Among all liquid biopsy methods, CTCs showed the best diagnostic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) have been found to prolong survival in selected patients with peritoneal disease, but the extent of cytoreduction and chemoperfusion can result in systemic toxicities. We evaluate the incidence of perioperative hematological complications and its associated risk factors. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a prospectively collected database of CRS‐HIPEC cases between April 2001 and October 2016 was performed. Patients were stratified based on the clinicopathological characteristics, perioperative incidence, grade, and duration of leukopenia (white blood cells < 4000/mm3), neutropenia (absolute neutrophils < 2000/mm3), and thrombocytopenia (platelets < 140 000/mm3). Results: Two hundred and thirty‐five CRS‐HIPEC were performed in 220 patients with peritoneal metastasis of colorectal, ovarian, primary peritoneal, appendiceal, or mesothelioma origins. The incidences of leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia were 15.3%, 3.8%, and 37.9%, respectively. Median time to onset was 1 day (0‐16 days), 0 day (0‐2 days), and 1 day (1‐2 days), respectively, after operation. Median duration of leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia was 1 day (1‐3 days), 1 day (1‐2days), and 3 days (range 0‐16 days), respectively. Age > 60 (odds ratio [OR] 0.229 [95% CI: 0.105‐0.502], P <.001) and the use of prior chemotherapy (OR 2.46 [95% CI: 1.24, 4.83], P =.010) were independent risk factors for thrombocytopenia on multivariable logistic regression. Conclusion: Hematological toxicities are common after hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy with thrombocytopenia being most common. Patients with age > 60, and who have undergone chemotherapy, are at risk of these toxicities and should be closely monitored post CRS‐HIPEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Active sensors obtain the measurements of targets by emitting energy that can be intercepted by enemy surveillance sensors. To satisfy the target tracking requirement and control the whole system emission, we propose a nonmyopic sensor scheduling to minimize the emission cost while maintaining a desired tracking accuracy. The processes of target tracking and emission control are formulated as a partially observable Markov decision process. Then, we translate our scheduling problem to a discrete unconstrained optimization problem, which consists of multistep emission cost and multistep tracking accuracy cost. Furthermore, the cubature Kalman filter is utilized to update the target belief state and predict the multistep tracking accuracy cost, whereas the multistep emission cost is obtained by hidden Markov model filter. Scheduling is implemented efficiently by constructing a decision tree and using a search algorithm, which combines uniform cost search with augmented branch and bound technique. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Packet size optimization is a critical issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for improving many performance metrics (eg, network lifetime, delay, throughput, and reliability). In WSNs, longer packets may experience higher loss rates due to harsh channel conditions. On the other hand, shorter packets may suffer from greater overhead. Hence, the optimal packet size must be chosen to enhance various performance metrics of WSNs. To this end, many approaches have been proposed to determine the optimum packet size in WSNs. In the literature, packet size optimization studies focus on a specific application or deployment environment. However, there is no comprehensive and recent survey paper that categorizes these different approaches. To address this need, in this paper, recent studies and techniques on data packet size optimization for terrestrial WSNs, underwater WSNs, wireless underground sensor networks, and body area sensor networks are reviewed to motivate the research community to further investigate this promising research area. The main objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of different packet size optimization approaches used in different types of sensor networks and applications as well as introduce open research issues and challenges in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) is known to improve survival in selected patients with peritoneal metastasis. However, there is limited data supporting the role of CRS and HIPEC in elderly patients (≥65 years old). Methods: A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database of patients who underwent CRS‐HIPEC between April 2001 and July 2015 from a single institution was performed. Patients were divided into two groups non‐elderly (<65 years old), and elderly (≥65 years old). Clinico‐ pathological parameters, morbidity and overall (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS) of the patients were compared. Results: A total of 177 patients (median age 52, range 9–74) underwent CRS‐HIPEC with curative intent. There were 159 non‐elderly patients and 18 elderly patients. Median PCI scores were 12 (0–39) for the non‐ elderly patients and 11 (1–29) for the elderly patients (p=0.77). High‐grade complications occurred in 39 non‐elderly patients (24.5%) and 8 elderly patients (44.4%) (p=0.79), while 58 non‐elderly patients (38.7%) and 7 elderly patients (41.2%) stayed in ICU for more than 1 day (p=0.69). There was no difference in the 30‐day mortality between the two groups (0% vs. 0%, p=1). After a median follow‐up of 16 months for all patients, there was no difference in 5‐years OS (51.0% vs. 59.6%, p=0.88) and 5‐years DFS (23.3% vs. 53.3%, p=0.60) between non‐elderly and elderly patients. Conclusions: Surgical outcomes after CRS‐HIPEC do not differ significantly between non‐elderly and elderly patients. Hence, age should not be a contraindication in selecting patients for CRS and HIPEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilization of cloud computing resources has made a fast growth in e-business. Business and government agencies often need to handle large volume of service requests, the so-called instance-intensive business processes in a constrained period. On-time completion for instance-intensive business processes within the constrained time is a very important issue. In the past few years, traditional optimal task scheduling has been well researched and proven to be a nondeterministic polynomial (NP) time-complete problem. So many heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms are put forward to solve the issue with near-optimal solutions. However, most of them just treat a single workflow instance as a multistep task without considering that steps within a task can be different types of activities. To explain multistep features of business workflows, a typical motivating instance-intensive business example of security exchange and a multistep scheduling model for business workflows are introduced in this paper. Then our near-optimal dynamic priority scheduling (DPS) strategy is proposed on the basis of the idea of Min-Min heuristic algorithm and greedy philosophy. Compared to the first come first served and constrained Min-Min by makespan and standard deviation, DPS can make a more optimized choice in each round of scheduling towards overall outcome. To show the effectiveness of DPS, theoretical minimum execution time (METtheory) is used as a benchmark for evaluation based on simulation. The results show that the ratios between METtheory and DPS are more than 98.5% by scheduling different orders of magnitude tasks from 1000 to 1 000 000. In particular, the ratio between METtheory and DPS is nearly 99.9% with 1 000 000 tasks, which means that our DPS can get the near-optimal result when scheduling large number of tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing provides a way to coordinate and share relevant information and data on real-time basis over an organization. The adoption of cloud services is one of the most emerging technological advances in the practice of current competitive business environment. The research done in this article is based on the analysis of the data obtained from the semiconductor sector. Cloud adoption would most likely be the best answer for them. However, because of various types of complexities, semiconductor industries may have to confront with a few trust issues while receiving cloud services. This article aims to identify the trust factors in the adoption of cloud services in semiconductor industries. Further, the moderating effect of these trust elements related to the technological, organizational, and environmental success factors has been discussed here. On the basis of literature survey, a hypothetical model has been developed, and the relationships among the latent variables have been studied by using structural equations. The study reveals that while trust factors moderate the technology and environment-related success factors, there is not much moderating effect of the trust issues on the organization-related success factors in the adoption of cloud services in semiconductor industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of efficient federation formation by the cloud providers (CPs) with an aim to fulfill the dynamic resource demands of users for supporting data-intensive workloads. Existing works only focus on forming federations based on the highest profit gained by each of the CPs in a federation. Therefore, these approaches often suffer from the risk of selecting unreliable CPs in the federation resulting in additional penalty cost and loss of CPs's reputation due to service level agreement violation between the users and the federation. In contrast, we argue that a trust model is necessary to find the most promising cloud collaborators. Accordingly, we propose a novel cloud federation formation mechanism by utilizing a trust-based cooperative game theory, which enables the CPs to dynamically form a federation based on profit maximization and penalty cost minimization as a result of selecting the trustworthy CPs. Simulation results show that the cloud federation formed by the proposed mechanism is stable, satisfies the fairness property, and yields higher profit for the participating CPs in the long run without incurring penalty cost as compared with the state-of-the-art approaches. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Improved methods for early detection of colorectal cancer ( CRC) are essential for increasing survival. Hypermethylated DNA in blood or stool has been proposed as a biomarker for CRC. Biochemical methods have improved in recent years, and several hypermethylated genes that are sensitive and specific for CRC have been proposed. Articles describing the use of hypermethylated promoter regions in blood or stool as biomarkers for CRC were systematically reviewed. Method A systematic literature search was performed using the Medline, Web of Science and Embase databases. Studies were included if they analysed hypermethylated genes from stool or blood samples in correlation with CRC. Studies in languages other than English and those based on animal models or cell lines were excluded. Results The literature search yielded 74 articles, including 43 addressing blood samples and 31 addressing stool samples. In blood samples, hypermethylated ALX4, FBN2, HLTF, P16, TMEFF1 and VIM were associated with poor prognosis, hypermethylated APC, NEUROG1, RASSF1A, RASSF2A, SDC2, SEPT9, TAC1 and THBD were detected in early stage CRC and hypermethylated P16 and TFPI2 were associated with CRC recurrence. In stool samples, hypermethylated BMP3, PHACTR3, SFRP2, SPG20, TFPI2 and TMEFF2 were associated with early stage CRC. Conclusion Hypermethylation of the promoters of specific genes measured in blood or stool samples could be used as a CRC biomarker and provide prognostic information. The majority of studies, however, include only a few patients with poorly defined control groups. Further studies are therefore needed before hypermethylated DNA can be widely applied as a clinical biomarker for CRC detection and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In stationary camera sensor networks (CSNs), when the deployment characteristics and sensing models are defined, the coverage can be deduced and remain unchanged over time. However, in the maritime environment, the rough and random sea condition can move CSN from the initial location. We envisage that camera sensors are mounted on quasi-mobile platforms such as buoys. Hence, it is important to understand the effect of realistic sea surface movements in achieving full-view coverage because in full-view coverage, target's facing direction is taken into account to judge whether a target is guaranteed to be captured because image shot at the frontal viewpoint of a given target considerably increases the possibility to detect and recognize the target. To accurately emulate the maritime environment, the movement of the buoy, which is attached with a cable that is nailed at the sea floor, has been characterized based on the sea wave that is created by the wind, and it is limited by the cable. The average percentage of full-view coverage has been evaluated based on different parameters such as equilateral triangle grid length, sensing radius of camera, wind speed and wave height. Furthermore, a method to improve the target detection and recognition has been proposed in the presence of poor link quality using cooperative transmission with low power consumption. In some parameter scenario, the cooperative transmission method has achieved around 70 % improvement in the average percentage of full-view coverage of a given target and total reduction of around 13 % for the total transmission power PTotal( Q). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND VEGF signaling pathway inhibitor (anti-VEGF) therapy is associated with hypertension, but little is known about predisposing clinical characteristics. This study describes the real-world association between baseline clinical characteristics, blood pressure (BP) response, and survival in patients prescribed anti-VEGF therapies. METHODS Clinical data from Partners HealthCare in Massachusetts was obtained from adults treated with anti-VEGF therapies (2002-2013). Treatment-induced hypertensive response was defined as worsening of preexisting hypertension or new diagnosis of hypertension (if no prior hypertension history). RESULTS Data from 1120 patients with renal cell carcinoma (32.2%), hepatocellular carcinoma (11.6%), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (12.5%), and other sarcomas (15.3%) were analyzed. Most patients received sunitinib (52%), sorafenib (25.9%), or pazopanib (18%). A treatment-induced hypertensive response was identified in 49.7% of treated patients. Preexisting hypertension, present in 65.4%, was an independent risk factor for BP elevation (odds ratio [OR], 1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27-1.92); other risk factors included age ≥60 years (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.06-1.52), and body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 (OR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.04-1.53). Race, sex, anti-VEGF therapy prescribed, and baseline antihypertensive class were not significant risk factors. The absolute observed mean increase in BP was 21 mm Hg (systolic)/15 mm Hg (diastolic), both in patients with and without preexisting hypertension. The development of hypertension predicted improved survival (hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.65-0.89). CONCLUSIONS Preexisting hypertension, age, and BMI identify patients at risk for significant anti-VEGF therapy-induced BP elevation. Hypertension appears to be a clinical biomarker of efficacy of anti-VEGF therapies in a broad range of malignancies. Cancer 2015;121:311-9. © 2014 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Cloud computing has emerged as a promising technique to provide storage and computing component on-demand services over a network. In this paper, we present an energy-saving algorithm using the Kalman filter for cloud resource management to predict the workload and to further achieve high resource availability with low service level agreement. Using the proposed algorithm, one can estimate the potential future workload trend then predict the computing component workload utilizations and further retrench energy consumption and achieve load balancing in a cloud system. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves more than 92.22% accuracy in the computing component workload prediction, improves 55.11% energy in energy consumption, and has 3.71% in power prediction error rate, respectively. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is the only marker recommended for surveillance of colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence; its sensitivity and specificity, however, are suboptimal. This study sought to evaluate the values of postoperative serum methylation levels of 7 genes for prognostication and especially for recurrence detection after curative resection. METHODS This prospective cohort study included 150 patients with stage I-III CRC from whom 3 consecutive blood sampling was taken 1 week before, and 6 months and 1 year after operation. Methylation levels of 7 genes were evaluated via quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. Serum CEA was measured in parallel. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were followed by construction of receiver operating characteristic curves for recurrence detection. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 59 months, 43 patients (28.7%) developed recurrent lesions. High serum methylation levels of TAC1 in serum at 6-month follow-up (6M-FU), and SEPT9 at 1-year follow-up (1Y-FU) were independent predictors for tumor recurrence and unfavorable cancer-specific survival (CSS) ( P < .05 in all tests). Serum NELL1 methylation levels were significant alone for CSS at both 6M-FU and 1Y-FU, but not for disease-free survival. Dynamic changes of TAC1 and SEPT9 with methylation increment were also independently predictive for recurrence ( P < .05 in all tests). More importantly, TAC1 at 6M-FU and SEPT9 at 1Y-FU exhibited earlier detection of potential recurrences compared with concurrent serum CEA. CONCLUSIONS Levels of TAC1 and SEPT9 methylation detected in postoperative sera of patients with CRC appear to be novel promising prognostic markers and may probably be considered for monitoring of CRC recurrence. Cancer 2014;120:3131-3141. © 2014 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Computational grids allow the sharing of geographically distributed computational resources in an efficient, reliable, and secure manner. Grid is still in its infancy, and there are many problems associated with the computational grid, namely job scheduling, resource management, information service, information security, routing, fault tolerance, and many more. Scheduling of jobs on grid nodes is an NP-class problem warranting for heuristic and meta-heuristic solution approach. In the proposed work, a meta-heuristic technique, auto controlled ant colony optimization, has been applied to solve this problem. The work observes the effect of interprocess communication in process to optimize turnaround time of the job. The proposed model has been simulated in Matlab. For the different scenarios in computational grid, results have been analyzed. Result of the proposed model is compared with another meta-heuristic technique genetic algorithm that has been applied for the same purpose. It is found that auto controlled ant colony optimization not only gives better solution in comparison to genetic algorithm, but also converges faster because initial solution itself is good because of constructive and decision-based policy adapted by the former. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 2012.© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Quality of service (QoS) provisioning, especially delay guarantee, is particularly important to the explosive growth of Internet applications. Traditional QoS schemes include the per-flow integrated services (IntServ) and per-class differentiated services (DiffServ) as well as their variants. To address the scalability problem of IntServ and the coarse QoS granularity of DiffServ, we proposed the per-packet differentiated queueing service. Although the three schemes all aim to provide delay guarantee, the network resource in terms of bandwidth and buffer required by them will vary because of their distinct service disciplines. Indeed, network resources are so precious especially in wireless networks, whereas QoS provisioning is so important that it is necessary to investigate the resource consumption of these schemes to find better QoS solutions for different kinds of networks. Therefore, QoS provisioning performance of the previous schemes should be modelled analytically. To this end, this paper derives the delay bound violation probability for these QoS schemes with the self-similar and long-range dependent traffic model because this traffic model can well approximate the Internet traffic, especially delay-sensitive traffic. The minimum bandwidth and the buffer size suitable for delay guarantee are further derived. Numerical results show that differentiated queueing service consumes the least bandwidth resources and DiffServ can minimise the buffer size whereas IntServ can provide exactly QoS in per-flow granularity. In this sense, there is a trade-off between QoS granularity and bandwidth as well as buffer requirements for QoS provisioning. The analytical results are also studied through simulations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific workflow offers a framework for cooperation between remote and shared resources on a grid computing environment (GCE) for scientific discovery. One major function of scientific workflow is to schedule a collection of computational subtasks in well-defined orders for efficient outputs by estimating task duration at runtime. In this paper, we propose a novel time computation model based on algorithm complexity (termed as TCMAC model) for high-level data intensive scientific workflow design. The proposed model schedules the subtasks based on their durations and the complexities of participant algorithms. Characterized by utilization of task duration computation function for time efficiency, the TCMAC model has three features for a full-aspect scientific workflow including both dataflow and control-flow: (1) provides flexible and reusable task duration functions in GCE; (2) facilitates better parallelism in iteration structures for providing more precise task durations; and (3) accommodates dynamic task durations for rescheduling in selective structures of control flow. We will also present theories and examples in scientific workflows to show the efficiency of the TCMAC model, especially for control-flow. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of e-business, workflow systems now have to deal with transaction-intensive workflows whose main characteristic is the huge number of concurrent workflow instances. For such workflows, it is important to maximize the overall throughput to provide good quality of service. However, most of the existing scheduling algorithms are designed for scheduling of a single complex scientific workflow instance and are not efficient enough for scheduling transaction-intensive workflows. To address this problem, we propose a throughput maximization strategy (TMS), which contains two specific algorithms for scheduling transaction-intensive workflows at the instance and task levels, respectively. The first algorithm called Opposite Average Load tries to maximize the overall throughput by pursuing the overall load balance at the instance level, whereas the second algorithm called Extended Min–Min tries to further maximize the overall throughput at the task level by increasing the utilization rate of resources within each local autonomous group. The comparison and simulation performed on Swinburne Decentralized Workflow for Grid (SwinDeW-G), a peer-to-peer-based grid workflow environment, demonstrate that our strategy can improve the overall throughput significantly over existing scheduling algorithms when scheduling transaction-intensive workflows. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly, at a high level of abstraction Grid applications are specified based on the workflow paradigm. However, majority of Grid workflow systems either do not support Quality of Service (QoS), or provide only partial QoS support for certain phases of the workflow lifecycle. In this paper we present Amadeus, which is a holistic service-oriented environment for QoS-aware Grid workflows. Amadeus considers user requirements, in terms of QoS constraints, during workflow specification, planning, and execution. Within the Amadeus environment workflows and the associated QoS constraints are specified at a high level using an intuitive graphical notation. A distinguishing feature of our system is the support of a comprehensive set of QoS requirements, which considers in addition to performance and economical aspects also legal and security aspects. A set of QoS-aware service-oriented components is provided for workflow planning to support automatic constraint-based service negotiation and workflow optimization. For improving the efficiency of workflow planning we introduce a QoS-aware workflow reduction technique. Furthermore, we present our static and dynamic planning strategies for workflow execution in accordance with user-specified requirements. For each phase of the workflow lifecycle we experimentally evaluate the corresponding Amadeus components. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a grid architecture, a grid workflow management system is a type of high-level grid middleware which is supposed to support modelling, redesign and execution of large-scale sophisticated scientific and business processes in many complex e-science and e-business applications. To ensure the correctness of grid workflow specification and execution, grid workflow verification and validation must be conducted. However, current research on grid workflow verification and validation is at the infancy stage and very few projects focus on them. Therefore, a systematic investigation and an overall classification of key issues in grid workflow verification and validation is helpful and should be presented so that we can keep on the right track and reduce unnecessary work as much as possible. As such, in this paper, we analyse the grid workflow verification and validation and present a taxonomy. Especially, we identify some important open points which are not discussed by the current research and hence need further investigation. The taxonomy is aimed at providing an overall picture of grid workflow verification and validation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To verify fixed-time constraints in Grid workflow systems, consistency and inconsistency conditions have been defined in conventional verification work. However, with a view of the run-time uncertainty of activity completion duration, we argue that, although the conventional consistency condition is feasible, the conventional inconsistency condition is too restrictive and covers several different states. These states, which are handled conventionally by the same exception handling, should be handled differently for the purpose of cost saving. Therefore, in this paper, we divide conventional inconsistency into weak consistency, weak inconsistency and strong inconsistency and treat conventional consistency as strong consistency. Correspondingly, we develop some algorithms on how to verify them. Based on this, for weak consistency we present a method on how to adjust it to strong consistency by using mean activity time redundancy and temporal dependency between fixed-time constraints. For weak inconsistency, we analyse briefly why it can be handled by simpler and more cost-saving exception handling while for strong inconsistency, the conventional exception handling remains deployed. The final quantitative evaluation demonstrates that our research can achieve better cost-effectiveness than the conventional work. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Geoffrey C. Fox on workflow in grid systems and another one on enhanced workflow simulation model.

Summary: In a wireless powered communication network (WPCN), sensor nodes harvest energy to transmit information. By a harvest‐then‐transmit (HT) protocol, nodes can be classified into either energy receiving (ER) or data transmitting (DT) nodes depending on the current level of the harvested energy. Since nodes may join or leave a network any time and energy levels vary, the distribution of ER and DT nodes changes over time. As the number of contending DT nodes is highly dynamic, a quick learning mechanism is required for an access point (AP). We propose a learning AP that learns from experience and adapts the frame size according to the changes in the number of DT nodes. The proposed learning AP is also shown to learn well and react to the situation. We compare the performances of the proposed learning mechanism with a WPCN and conventional HT FSA schemes. The proposed RL scheme outperforms the comparative schemes in terms of success rate and delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel Deep Q‐learning in addition with an extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed to solve the channel and power allocation issue for a device‐to‐device enabled cellular network, when the prior traffic information is not known to the base station. Furthermore, this paper work explores an optimal policy for resource and power allocation between users with the aim of maximizing the sum‐rate of the overall system. The proposed work comprises of four phases, ie, cell splitting, clustering, queuing model, channel allocation, and power allocation, simultaneously. The implementation of cell splitting with novel K‐means++ clustering technique increases the network coverage, reduces co‐channel cell interference, and minimizes the transmission power of nodes, whereas the M/M/C:N queuing model solves the issue of waiting time for users in a priority based data transmission. The difficulty with the Q‐learning and Deep Q‐learning environment is to achieve an optimal policy. This is because of the uncertainty of various parameters associated with the system, especially when the state space is extremely big. In order to improve the robustness of the learner, EKF together with the Deep Q‐network is presented in this paper, which incorporates weight uncertainty of the Q‐function as well as the state uncertainty during the transition. Furthermore, the use of EKF provides an improved version of the loss function that helps the learner in achieving an optimal policy. Through numerical simulation, the advantage of our resource sharing scheme over the other existing schemes is also verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Wireless camera sensor networks (WCSNs) possess a powerful physical environment monitoring capability. Camera nodes with adjustable monitoring directions further improve their flexibility. This study focuses on tracking multiple mobile targets to investigate the node scheduling and target location evaluation strategy of WCSNs on the basis of rotating nodes. By referring to existing research, this study improves the camera node monitoring and rotation model and proposes three network performance evaluation indicators. The proposed algorithm schedules nodes and their monitoring directions by using the unutilized energy of the nodes and the number of monitored targets. It also predicts the moving trends of the targets and selects active nodes by using the locations and linear speeds of the targets. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a high target tracking accuracy. Compared with traditional target tracking algorithms, the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the number of active nodes, balance the energy consumption between nodes, and prolong network lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In general, traffic is pushed through a single path despite the existence of alternative paths in networks. For example, routing solutions based on spanning tree prune the topology to prevent loops, consequently preventing also the use of alternative paths. Research on quality of service frequently advocates that the use of alternative paths is interesting for enforcing Service Level Agreements (SLAs), bypassing bottlenecks created by shortest paths. In this paper, we are interested in analyzing the support for monitoring network traffic and for provisioning of multipaths in software‐defined networking (SDN), given the strong platform it provides for experimentation of new networked solutions. Our approach firstly enriches the topology view at the control plane with data gathered through fine grain data plane monitoring. On the basis of such enriched view, our system determines the path, or multipaths, necessary to enforce the specified SLA. We propose 2 extension modules to an OpenFlow controller: SDNMon, which monitors the data plane to enrich the topology information at the control plane, and MP‐Routing, which determines a set of paths, in the absence of a single path capable of enforcing the SLA. Both modules are extensively evaluated, and the results not only demonstrate what can be achieved in terms of accuracy in SDNMon and in terms of quality of service benefits in MP‐Routing but also highlight some limitations of OpenFlow specification. On the basis of our findings, we propose a set of new counters to Per Port and Per Flow granularity levels of OpenFlow specification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the selfish load balancing problem in mobile distributed crowdsourcing networks. Conventional methods heavily relied on cooperation among users to achieve balanced resource utilization in a platform-centric view. In achieving fairly low communication and computational overhead, this work leverages the d-choice method based on Ball and Bin theory for effective balancing under limited information and the Proportional Allocation scheme for selfish load balancing, maintaining good load balancing property among selfish users. Even with limited information, the balancing performance could be improved significantly. Moreover, theoretical analysis has been presented in convergence property. Extensive evaluations have been made to show that Chance-Choice outperforms several existing algorithms. Typically, comparing with Proportional Allocation scheme, it could decrease the load gap between the maximum and the minimal in system by 50% to 80% and reduce the overhead complexity from O( n) to O(1) comparing with the Max-weight Best Response algorithm, where n denotes the number of mobile users in a crowdsourcing system. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]