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Abstract Background To appraise the ability of a radiomics based analysis to predict local response and overall survival for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods A set of 138 consecutive patients (112 males and 26 females, median age 66 years) presented with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A to C were retrospectively studied. For a subset of these patients (106) complete information about treatment outcome, namely local control, was available. Radiomic features were computed for the clinical target volume. A total of 35 features were extracted and analyzed. Univariate analysis was used to identify clinical and radiomics significant features. Multivariate models by Cox-regression hazards model were built for local control and survival outcome. Models were evaluated by area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. For the LC analysis, two models selecting two groups of uncorrelated features were analyzes while one single model was built for the OS analysis. Results The univariate analysis lead to the identification of 15 significant radiomics features but the analysis of cross correlation showed several cross related covariates. The un-correlated variables were used to build two separate models; both resulted into a single significant radiomic covariate: model-1: energy p

Abstract Background significance of incidental thyroid 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) uptake on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans remains controversial. We aimed to evaluate the ability of [18F]FDG-PET/CT texture analysis to predict final diagnosis in thyroid incidentaloma. Methods We retrospectively evaluated medical records of all patients who performed a [18F]FDG-PET/CT from January 2012 to October 2016. Those patients who presented a thyroid incidentaloma described in the medical records and performed a fine needle aspiration in our institution were considered for the analysis. Cytological and/or histological results were used as reference standard to define the final diagnosis. In case of negative cytology, the nodule was considered benign. In case of non-diagnostic or inconclusive results ultrasound, follow-up and further cytology/histology were used as final diagnosis. For suspected or positive cytological result, histology was used as reference standard. PET images were segmented using a General Electric AW workstation running PET VCAR software (GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA) settled with a threshold of 40% SUVmax. LifeX software ( http://www.lifexsoft.org ) was used to perform texture analysis. Statistical analysis was performed with R package ( https://www.r-project.org ). Results We identified 55 patients with incidental thyroid [18F]FDG uptake. Five patients were excluded from the analysis because a final diagnosis was not available. Thirty-two out of 50 patients had benign nodules while in 18/50 cases a malignancy (primary thyroid cancer = 15, metastases = 3) was diagnosed. Conventional PET parameters and histogram-based features were calculated for all 50 patients, while other matrices-based features were available for 28/50 patients. SUVmax and skewness resulted significantly different in benign and malignant nodules (p = 0.01 and = 0.02, respectively). Using ROC analysis, seven features were identified as potential predictors. Among all the textural features tested, skewness showed the best area under the curve (= 0.66). SUV-based parameters resulted in the highest specificity while MTV, TLG, skewness and kurtosis, as well as correlationGLCM resulted better in sensitivity. Conclusions [18F]FDG-PET/CT texture analysis seems to be a promising approach to stratify the patients with thyroid incidentaloma identified on PET scans, with respect to the risk of the diagnosis of a malignant thyroid nodule and thus, could refine the selection of the patients to be referred for cytology.

OBJECTIVE. Modern data analysis of the rate of pulmonary embolism (PE) development was made. A comparative analysis of epidemiology dynamics of diseases was carried out and included of the past 40 years. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The retrospective analysis of 2042 autopsies was conducted in autopsy department of Municipal clinical hospital №1 named after N. I. Pirogov at the period from 2011 to 2013. According to results of necropsies, 440 samples of pulmonary embolism of different localization and their terms were found. RESULTS. Conducted study demonstrated a relative growth of the development rate of pulmonary embolism and fatal pulmonary embolism. Pulmonary embolism had been revealed by autopsy in 4,4 % patients in 1964-1973, but the rate of PE increased to 21,5 % in 2011-2013. The fatal PE was noted in 9,3 % of autopsies in 2011-2013, though it counted 2,5 % in 1964- 1973. CONCLUSIONS. The rate of pulmonary embolism development increased in 5 times. The growth of the PE rate was revealed in postoperative period and significant part of complications (18,5 %) were associated with fatal PE.

According to the data of the World Health Organization, osteoporosis takes the fourth place among non-infectious diseases after cardiovascular, oncologic disorders and diabetes mellitus. Clinical manifestations of osteoporosis with the root syndrome are not that different from those of radicular symptoms at degenerative-dystrophic processes in the spine. Our purpose was to study the state of upper extremities bone tissue in patients with clinical manifestations of cervical osteochondrosis. There were 40 patients under our observation diagnosed with cervical osteochondrosis, 26 of them - with stages 1 and 2 of osteochondrosis development, and 14 patients - with stage 3. Conducted densitometry examinations of upper extremities bone tissue revealed correlation between bone tissue state and both the time of the onset of the pathological process and its severity. In patients with stage 3 osteochondrosis, bone tissue mineral density on the affected extremity was lowered down to osteoporosis, and naturally, such cases require further treatment.

Abstract Imaging with positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) is crucial in the management of cancer because of its value in tumor staging, response assessment, restaging, prognosis and treatment responsiveness prediction. In the last years, interest has grown in texture analysis which provides an “in-vivo” lesion characterization, and predictive information in several malignances including NSCLC; however several drawbacks and limitations affect these studies, especially because of lack of standardization in features calculation, definitions and methodology reporting. The present paper provides a comprehensive review of literature describing the state-of-the-art of FDG-PET/CT texture analysis in NSCLC, suggesting a proposal for harmonization of methodology.

The development of therapies that modulate or prevent pathogen virulence may be a key strategy for circumventing antimicrobial resistance. Toward that end, we examined the production of pyoverdine, a key virulence determinant, in ∼70 Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from pediatric cystic fibrosis patients. Pyoverdine production was heterogeneous and showed a clear correlation with pathogenicity in Caenorhabditis elegans and an acute murine pneumonia model. Examination showed pyoverdine accumulation in host tissues, including extrapharyngeal tissues of C. elegans and lung tissues of mice, where accumulation correlated with host death. Many of the isolates tested were resistant to multiple antimicrobials, so we assayed the ability of pyoverdine inhibitors to mitigate virulence and rescue pyoverdine-mediated host pathology. Representatives from three different classes of pyoverdine inhibitors (gallium, fluoropyrimidines, and LK11) significantly improved survival. Our findings highlight the utility of targeting virulence factors in general, and pyoverdine in particular, as a promising method to control bacterial pathogenesis as the utility of antimicrobials continues to diminish.

The aim of the study was to improve the results of wound treatment in patients with ischemic and neuro-ischemic forms of diabetic foot syndrome through the use of phototherapy, platelet growth factor and modern coating materials in the treatment complex. The paper presents the results of surgical treatment of 48 patients with ischemic and neuroischemic diabetic foot syndrome, which, in accordance with the objectives of the study, were divided into two groups — the study (24 patients) and comparative (24 patients). All patients suffered from diabetes mellitus type II and had IV degree of foot ischemia according to Fontaine. The following reconstructive operations were performed in both groups of patients: femoral-tibialis and femoral-popliteal shunting, as well as hybrid reconstructions. In patients of the study group, the treatment technology developed by us was applied. Using the developed tactics, it was possible to achieve complete healing of wounds in 91,7 % of patients and partial healing (over 50 %) in 8.3 % of patients in the study group. The terms of treatment of these patients did not exceed 2 months, the execution of high amputations was not required.

The key event that initiates nodule organogenesis is the perception of bacterial signal molecules, the Nod factors, triggering a complex of responses in epidermal and cortical cells of the root. The Nod factor signaling pathway interacts with plant hormones, including cytokinins and gibberellins. Activation of cytokinin signaling through the homeodomain-containing transcription factors KNOX is essential for nodule formation. The main regulators of gibberellin signaling, the DELLA proteins are also involved in regulation of nodule formation. However, the interaction between the cytokinin and gibberellin signaling pathways is not fully understood. Here, we show in Pisum sativum L. that the DELLA proteins can activate the expression of KNOX and BELL transcription factors involved in regulation of cytokinin metabolic and response genes. Consistently, pea la cry-s (della1 della2) mutant showed reduced ability to upregulate expression of some cytokinin metabolic genes during nodulation. Our results suggest that DELLA proteins may regulate cytokinin metabolism upon nodulation.

In this study, we demonstrated the successful transformation of two pea (Pisum sativum L.) cultivars using Agrobacterium rhizogenes, whereby transgenic roots in the resulting composite plants showed expression of the gene encoding the green fluorescent protein. Subsequent to infection with A. rhizogenes, approximately 70%–80% of pea seedlings developed transgenic hairy roots. We found out that the transgenic roots can be efficiently nodulated by Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae and infected by the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Rhizophagus irregularis. The morphology of nodules in the transgenic roots was found to be identical to that of nodules observed in wild-type roots, and we also observed the effective induction of markers typical of the symbiotic association with AM fungi. The convenient protocol for highly efficient A. rhizogenes-mediated transformation developed in this study would be a rapid and effective tool for investigating those genes involved in the development of the two types of symbioses found in pea plants.

Diet is a crucial determinant of organismal biology; interactions between the host, its diet, and its microbiota are critical to determining the health of an organism. A variety of genetic and biochemical means were used to assay stress sensitivity in C. elegans reared on two standard laboratory diets: E. coli OP50, the most commonly used food for C. elegans, or E. coli HT115, which is typically used for RNAi-mediated gene knockdown. We demonstrated that the relatively subtle shift to a diet of E. coli HT115 had a dramatic impact on C. elegans's survival after exposure to pathogenic or abiotic stresses. Interestingly, this was independent of canonical host defense pathways. Instead the change arises from improvements in mitochondrial health, likely due to alleviation of a vitamin B12 deficiency exhibited by worms reared on an E. coli OP50 diet. Increasing B12 availability, by feeding on E. coli HT115, supplementing E. coli OP50 with exogenous vitamin B12, or overexpression of the B12 transporter, improved mitochondrial homeostasis and increased resistance. Loss of the methylmalonyl-CoA mutase gene mmcm-1/MUT, which requires vitamin B12 as a cofactor, abolished these improvements, establishing a genetic basis for the E. coli OP50-incurred sensitivity. Our study forges a mechanistic link between a dietary deficiency (nutrition/microbiota) and a physiological consequence (host sensitivity), using the host-microbiota-diet framework.

PurposeTo appraise the ability of a radiomics signature to predict clinical outcome after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for pancreas carcinoma.MethodsA cohort of 100 patients was included in this retrospective, single institution analysis. Radiomics texture features were extracted from computed tomography (CT) images obtained for the clinical target volume. The cohort of patients was randomly divided into two separate groups for the training (60 patients) and validation (40 patients). Cox regression models were built to predict overall survival and local control. The significant predictors at univariate analysis were included in a multivariate model. The quality of the models was appraised by means of area under the curve and concordance index.ResultsA clinical-radiomic signature associated with Overall Survival (OS) was found significant in both training and validation sets (p = 0.01 and 0.05 and concordance index 0.73 and 0.75 respectively). Similarly, a signature was found for Local Control (LC) with p = 0.007 and 0.004 and concordance index 0.69 and 0.75. In the low risk group, the median OS and LC in the validation group were 14.4 and 28.6 months while in the high-risk group were 9.0 and 17.5 months respectively.ConclusionA CT based radiomic signature was identified which correlate with OS and LC after SBRT and allowed to identify low and high-risk groups of patients.

The article considers the possibilities of the language of spatial forms that express various emotional states. The design of the urban-resort environment of Sochi becomes a carrier of a certain mood, which makes it figuratively significant. Through cognitive mechanisms, a person is included in the dialogue of reading the environmental text and the allusions, symbols, metaphors contained in it, etc. In an ecological design, the mechanism of synthesis of traditional and experimental aspects is laid down, which are embodied in a form that is accessible to perception through its emotional qualities, which affect consciousness through the synergistic influence of form and content.

The influence of procedures of technology independent optimization of functional descriptions on complexity and delay of circuits made of CMOS VLSI library elements is investigated. The effectiveness of the optimization methods implemented in the synthesizer LeonardoSpectrum, the methods of minimization of Boolean functions systems in DNF and algebraic decomposition was compared. Experimental analysis was shown that sequential fulfilment of procedures of minimization of Boolean functions systems and algebraic decomposition during the technology independent optimization stage results in the great reduction of the circuit complexity and delay.

Expediency of use of a control system and monitoring of technological processes of production is proved in article that will allow to lower work expenses, and also to increase productivity due to the best production process.The main objective of system, remote monitoring is that gives the chance far off and to quickly give an assessment to the current situation on production, to accept reasonable and timely administrative decisions.