Search

The field of neuromorphic computing holds great promise in terms of advancing computing efficiency and capabilities by following brain-inspired principles. However, the rich diversity of techniques employed in neuromorphic research has resulted in a lack of clear standards for benchmarking, hindering effective evaluation of the advantages and strengths of neuromorphic methods compared to traditional deep-learning-based methods. This paper presents a collaborative effort, bringing together members from academia and the industry, to define benchmarks for neuromorphic computing: NeuroBench. The goals of NeuroBench are to be a collaborative, fair, and representative benchmark suite developed by the community, for the community. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with benchmarking neuromorphic solutions, and outline the key features of NeuroBench. We believe that NeuroBench will be a significant step towards defining standards that can unify the goals of neuromorphic computing and drive its technological progress. Please visit neurobench.ai for the latest updates on the benchmark tasks and metrics.

Vlad Horia Schitcu,1– 3,* Lajos Raduly,1,* Andreea Nutu,1,* Oana Zanoaga,1 Cristina Ciocan,1 Vlad Cristian Munteanu,2,3 Roxana Cojocneanu,1 Bogdan Petrut,2,3 Ioan Coman,2 Cornelia Braicu,1 Ioana Berindan-Neagoe1 1Research Center for Functional Genomics, Biomedicine, and Translational Medicine, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, 400337, Romania; 2Department of Urology, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, 400012, Romania; 3Department of Urology, “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta” Oncology Institute, Cluj-Napoca, Romania*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Cornelia Braicu, Research Center for Functional Genomics, Biomedicine, and Translational Medicine, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 23 Gh. Marinescu Street, Cluj-Napoca, 400337, Romania, Tel +40-264-597-256, Fax +40-264-597-257, Email cornelia.braicu@umfcluj.ro; braicucornelia@yahoo.comAbstract: Prostate cancer biology is complex, and needs to be deciphered. The latest evidence reveals the significant role of non-coding RNAs, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), as key regulatory factors in cancer. Therefore, the identification of altered miRNA patterns involved in prostate cancer will allow them to be used for development of novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Patients and Methods: We performed a miRNAs transcriptomic analysis, using microarray (10 matched pairs tumor tissue versus normal adjacent tissue, selected based on inclusion criteria), followed by overlapping with TCGA data. A total of 292 miRNAs were differentially expressed, with 125 upregulated and 167 downregulated in TCGA patients’ cohort with PRAD (prostate adenocarcinoma), respectively for the microarray experiments; 16 upregulated and 44 downregulated miRNAs were found in our cohort. To confirm our results obtained for tumor tissue, we performed validation with qRT-PCR at the tissue and plasma level of two selected transcripts, and finally, we focused on the identification of altered miRNAs involved in key biological processes. Results: A common signature identified a panel of 12 upregulated and 1 downregulated miRNA, targeting and interconnected in a network with the TP53, AGO2, BIRC5 gene and EGFR as a core element. Among this signature, the overexpressed transcripts (miR-20b-5p, miR-96-5p, miR-183-5p) and the downregulated miR-542-5p were validated by qRT-PCR in an additional patients’ cohort of 34 matched tumor and normal adjacent paired samples. Further, we performed the validation of the expression level for miR-20b-5p, miR-96-5p, miR-183-5p plasma, on the same patients’ cohort versus a healthy control group, confirming the overexpression of these transcripts in the PRAD group, demonstrating the liquid biopsy as a potential investigational tool in prostate cancer. Conclusion: In this pilot study, we provide evidence on miRNA dysregulation and its association with key functional components of the PRAD landscape, where an important role is acted by miR-20b-5p, miR-542-5p, or the oncogenic cluster miR-183-96-182.Keywords: prostate adenocarcinoma, microRNA, tissue, plasma, molecular signature, biological network

We report the case of a 63-year-old male patient presenting left renal cell carcinoma (75/70/60 mm) associated with retroperitoneal lymph node masses (peri hilar of 15 mm; lombo-aortic of 50/40/30 mm), known also with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease GOLD4, sleep apnea and asthma with oxygen-dependent chronic obstructive respiratory insufficiency, a BMI of 37 with grade III obesity. Surgical treatment was performed using a 3D transperitoneal laparoscopic approach. The surgery lasted 131 minutes, with 400 ml blood loss and grade 1 Clavien-Dindo post operative complications. An optimal pulmonary ventilation of the patient during surgery required a low intra-abdominal pressure (10 mmHg) which raised technical difficulties due to the lymph node mass dissection from the great vessels in a small operative field on an already obese patient with a voluminous renal tumor. The 3D transperitoneal laparoscopic approach was feasible within safe oncologic parameters

Highlights • Laparoscopic conservative surgery on a solitary kidney. • “en-bloc” excision of a PADUA 10 multi-focal RCC. • Metachronous contralateral RCC metastases with adrenal involvement., Introduction We report the case of a 69 y.o. man with a left solitary kidney presenting 3 tumoral masses and suspicion of a left adrenal nodular tumor. Presentation of case 48 months previously, the patient underwent laparoscopic right radical nephrectomy and adrenalectomy for a clear cell renal carcinoma, with a tumor free adrenal gland. 3D laparoscopic transperitoneal left cytoreductive nephrectomy and left adrenalectomy were performed within 23 min warm ischemia with no need of post operatory hemodialysis. The pathology exam reported metachronous metastases on left adrenal gland and on a left multifocal tumoral solitary kidney from the contralateral clear cell renal carcinoma prior diagnosed and treated at this patient. Discussion Cytoreductive nephrectomy on a solitary kidney brings technical challenges for the laparoscopic approach, especially when the tumor presents as multifocal lesions. Contralateral metachronous metastases and adrenal involvement in case of renal carcinoma are scarcely presented in the literature. Conclusion The “en bloc” excision of the tumoral masses optimized warm ischemia time and improved the technical approach, even if the endophytic presentation imposed difficulty.

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a highly systemic aggressive disease with a tendency of rapid lymph node invasion and metastasis presenting poor oncologic outcomes. Ureteral localization of tumors leads to hydronephrosis and early invasion of the muscle wall, being categorized as high risk tumors.A 70 years old female was diagnosed with lower left ureteral urothelial tumor associated with hydronephrosis and paraaortic and iliac enlarged lymph nodes. The disease was stratified as high risk upper tract urothelial carcinoma. Treatment consisted in en bloc radical nephroureterectomy, bladder cuff excision and wide lymph node dissection using a combined robotic and 3D laparoscopic approach.Surgical challenges are surpassed by the use of minimal invasive approaches that offer precise dissection and tissue manipulation with a fast postoperative recovery and early adjuvant oncologic treatment. Comprehensive and complete lymph node dissection along with precise bladder cuff excision offers improved staging, possibly impacting disease prognosis.En bloc minimal invasive radical nephroureterectomy, bladder cuff excision and wide lymph node dissection offer improved surgery time and lymph node dissection, better management of distal ureteral and bladder cuff excision, watertight cystorrhaphy and optimal disease staging. The experience of the main surgeon with 3D laparoscopy was used in the hereby case to optimize operatory time for the renal step of the surgery. The gentle and precise movements of the Da Vinci robot allowed an accurate en bloc dissection (pN2, N4+/15) with implications in staging and possibly also in oncologic outcomes.

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer type worldwide and is highly dependent on DNA mutations that progressively appear and accumulate in the normal colon epithelium. Mutations in the TP53 gene appear in approximately half of these patients and have significant implications in disease progression and response to therapy. miR-125b-5p is a controversial microRNA with a dual role in cancer that has been reported to target specifically TP53 in colon adenocarcinomas. Our study investigated the differential therapeutic effect of miR-125b-5p replacement in colon cancer based on the TP53 mutation status of colon cancer cell lines. In TP53 mutated models, miR-125b-5p overexpression slows cancer cells’ malignant behavior by inhibiting the invasion/migration and colony formation capacity via direct downregulation of mutated TP53. In TP53 wild type cells, the exogenous modulation of miR-125b-5p did not significantly affect the molecular and phenotypic profile. In conclusion, our data show that miR-125b-5p has an anti-cancer effect only in TP53 mutated colon cancer cells, explaining partially the dual behavior of this microRNA in malignant pathologies.

Indocyanine green (ICG) is being used more and more in Urology along with advances in minimal invasive surgery, guiding excision and reconstruction, highlighting anatomic structures and functional features with oncologic guidance still being debatable. The purpose of this paper was to explore ICG use in urologic procedures.We present our experience (37 cases) of using ICG fluorescence guidance in urologic operations performed using 3D laparoscopy and FireFly® fluorescence imaging mode of Da Vinci X robot. The operations were the following: pelvic lymphadenectomy in radical prostatectomy, totally intracorporeal orthotopic ileal neobladder reconstruction, vesicovaginal fistula repair, partial nephrectomy and pyeloplasty. Barnard's test was used to compare postoperative complications (digestive fistula, ureteral stricture) for totally intracorporeal ileal neobladders performed with (group e, 27 cases) vs. without (group 2, 28 cases) ICG guidance.ICG under near-infrared fluorescence offered a precise identification of ischemic structures- vaginal wall, distal ureteral end, ileal loop, along with vascularized tissues allowing an optimal pyeloplasty and nephron sparing surgery with partial unclamping. It also allowed the identification of a lymph node during radical prostatectomy that otherwise would not have been excised during the routinely performed pelvic lymphadenectomy. There were no complications of ICG usage and the complication rate (digestive fistula, ureteral strictures) was significantly lower (p=0.002716) for group 1 compared with group 2.ICG facilitates the identification of key elements (anatomy and pathological structures) in the laparoscopic and robotic treatment of both malignant and benign urologic diseases, with possible impact on perioperative complications, along with oncologic and functional postoperative outcomes.

Prostate cancer represents the most encountered urinary malignancy in males over 50 years old, and the second most diagnosed after lung cancer globally. Digital rectal examination and prostatic specific antigen were the long-time standard tools for diagnosis but with a significant risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Magnetic resonance imaging recently entered the diagnosis process, but to this date, there is no specific biomarker that accurately indicates whether to proceed with the prostate biopsy. Research in this area has gone towards this direction, and recently, serum, urine, imagistic, tissue biomarkers, and Risk Calculators promise to help better diagnose and stratify prostate cancer. In order to eliminate the comorbidities that appear along with the diagnosis and treatment of this disease, there is a constant need to implement new diagnostic strategies. Important uro-oncology associations recommend the use of novel biomarkers in the grey area of prostate cancer, to better distinguish the next step in the diagnostic process. Although it is not that simple, they should be integrated according to the clinical policies, and it should be considered that statistical significance does not always equal clinical significance. In this review, we analyzed the contribution of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based biomarkers (PHI, PHID, 4Kscore, STHLM3), imagistic techniques (mp-MRI and mp-US), and combined tests in the early diagnosis process of localized prostate cancer.

We report our experience with 23 cases in utilizing ileum to perform totally intracorporeal 3D laparoscopic neobladder reconstruction using two different surgical techniques.Patients candidates for reconstructive surgery were in a good biological status with a body mass index (BMI) in the range of 18.5-25 and presented a muscle-infiltrative bladder tumor with negative nodal frozen sections performed during the operation. Twenty-one modified Studer neobladder and 2 modified Y-shaped neobladder techniques for totally intracorporeal 3D laparoscopic ileal neobladder cases were performed using drawings and intra-operative images. An emphasis was made on different tips and tricks that can be applied when using ileum for the neobladder reconstruction, to avoid surgical complications and obtain optimal functional results.The operations were performed in a mean time of 5 h, with a mean blood loss of 350 ml and grade II postoperative Clavien Dindo complications. The 23 patients were discharged after a mean hospital stay of 21 days and had a functional ileal neobladder after a mean of 30 days. The results were monitored also on the long-term, taking into account functional results and possible complications from utilizing ileum as a urinary reservoir.Resecting a digestive segment and using it as a urinary reservoir may lead to multiple complications. Therefore, laparoscopic technical adaptations and highly skilled surgical teams are required for performing a totally intracorporeal 3D laparoscopic orthotopic ileal neobladder reconstruction.

Introduction: Retropulsion, defined as unintended migration of a stone under the influence of the fragmentation device in ureteroscopy (URS) procedures, occurs in 2% to 60% of the cases. Antiretropulsive devices (ARDs) have been studied in experimental and small clinical studies. The current study aims at describing the worldwide usage of ARD and the outcomes related to their usage. Methods: The Clinical Research Office of the Endourological Society URS Global Study enrolled 11,885 patients who underwent URS and stone fragmentation for ureteral and/or renal stones. Of the 11,885 treated patients, 9877 were treated for ureteral stones, and data were available on stone migration and ARD use. Results: Of all procedures, 14.5% were performed with the use of an ARD. Less stone migration (-2.0%; p=0.050), higher stone-free rates (SFRs) (2.8%; p

Penile cancer accounts for 1-10% of men neoplastic diseases and 30-60% of patients have inguinal metastases at the time of diagnosis. Inguinal metastases of penile cancer with femoral vessel involvement could lead to vascular fistula and hemorrhagic shock. We present 3 consecutive patients with inguinal metastases of penile cancer complicated by infection and hemorrhage from femoral vessels invaded by the tumor. Simultaneous extra-anatomical axillo-femoral bypass graft, wide excision of tumor and groin defect reconstruction was used to achieve “tumor-free” oncologic aim and to save the lower limb. We consider the extra-anatomic axillo-femoral bypass associated with wide inguinal tumor excision and defect covering a feasible surgical solution for improving the life quality and extend life expectancy in patients with lymph node metastasis of penile cancer complicated by necrosis, infection and femoral vessel involvement.

Background and aims. Multiparametric-magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) is the main imaging modality used for prostate cancer detection. The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of mp-MRI at 1.5-Tesla (1.5-T) for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer. Methods. In this ethical board approved prospective study, 39 patients with suspected prostate cancer were included. Patients with a history of positive prostate biopsy and patients treated for prostate cancer were excluded. All patients were examined at 1.5-T MRI, before standard transrectal ultrasonography–guided biopsy. Results. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value for mp-MRI were 100%, 73.68%, 80% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion. Our results showed that 1.5 T mp-MRI has a high sensitivity for detection of clinically significant prostate cancer and high negative predictive value in order to rule out significant disease.

To evaluate if a blood panel of genes involved in the modulation of the immune system, angiogenesis and tumor development could be used for prostate cancer detection.Gene expression profiling of blood samples was assessed with the human angiogenesis RT² Profiler™ pcr array. The study group was divided into training and a testing/validation set. In total, 36 blood samples from 6 heatlhy men, 19 patients with prostate cancer (PCa) and 11 patients with benign prostate pathology (BP) were included in this study.Transcriptional analysis revealed a supervised signature of 28 genes which discriminated the PCa samples from control on the training set (fold regulation [FR] cut off 1.5, p0.05). This signature was further validated on the testing set. All 28 genes used for this classification were differentially expressed in the new set of 12 PCa samples compared to control but also compared to benign samples (FR cut off 1.5, p0.05).Our data could provide new insight into PCa, as a non-invasive predictive tool which along with other factors could improve PCa diagnosis. However, our findings have to be confirmed in a larger cohort of patients before having a clear picture of how this molecular profile will help to increase the accuracy of diagnosis.

Background and Objectives: Over decades, prostate cancer (PCa) has become one of the leading causes of cancer mortality in men. Extensive evidence exists that microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are key players in PCa and a new class of non-invasive cancer biomarkers. Materials and Methods: We performed miRNA profiling in plasma and tissues of PCa patients and attempted the validation of candidate individual miRs as biomarkers. Results: The comparison of tissue and plasma profiling results revealed five commonly dysregulated miRs, namely, miR-130a-3p, miR-145-5p, miR-148a-3p, miR-150-5p, and miR-365a-3p, of which only three show concordant changes&mdash, miR-130a-3p and miR-150-5p were downregulated and miR-148a-3p was upregulated in both tissue and plasma samples, respectively. MiR-150-5p was validated as significantly downregulated in both plasma and tissue cancer samples, with a fold change of &minus, 2.697 (p &lt, 0.001), and &minus, 1.693 (p = 0.035), respectively. ROC analysis showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.817 (95% CI: 0.680&ndash, 0.995) for plasma samples and 0.809 (95% CI: 0.616&ndash, 1.001) for tissue samples. Conclusions: We provide data indicating that miR-150-5p plasma variations in PCa patients are associated with concordant changes in prostate cancer tissues, however, given the heterogeneous nature of previous findings of miR-150-5p expression in PCa cells, additional future studies of a larger sample size are warranted in order to confirm the biomarker potential and role of miRNA-150-5p in PCa biology.

Objective To determine factors associated with performance and quality of lymph node dissection during radical nephrectomy. Materials and Methods Using an International Data Registry, we performed multilevel logistic regression to determine the association of surgical approach (open surgery vs minimally invasive surgery), institutional experience (low, moderate, and high tertiles), and institutional preference (minimally invasive surgery, balanced, and open surgery tertiles) with the performance of lymph node dissection in subgroups by clinical stage and nodal status. Results Among 1,742 patients undergoing radical nephrectomy, 312 (18%) underwent lymph node dissection, which was associated with stage (28% for ≥cT2 vs 9.3% for cT1), and nodal status (68% for ≥cN1 vs 13% for cN0). Open surgery was significantly associated with performing lymph node dissection in all subgroups. Institutional experience and institutional preference had no association with performing lymph node dissection in the ≥cN1 group. The number of nodes removed was greater for open surgery (mean 5.9) vs minimally invasive surgery (mean 3.4); this held true even when stratified by stage and nodal status. Conclusion In this large dataset, open surgical radical nephrectomy is associated with more frequent performance and higher quality of lymph node dissection, which may owe to selection bias but also could reflect technical concerns. In the patient population in whom lymph node dissection is recommended (≥cN1), this is not explained by institutional experience or preference. Lymph node dissection may be under-utilized for ≥cN1 disease and over-utilized for cN0 disease, at least according to practice guidelines.

Fast, localised motion detection is crucial for anefficient attention mechanism. We show that modelling a networkcapable of such motion detection can be performed using spikingneural networks simulated on many-core neuromorphic hardware. Moreover, highly sensitive neurons arise from the presentednetwork architecture through unsupervised self-organisation. Weuse a synaptic rewiring rule which has been shown to enablethe formation and refinement of neural topographic maps. Ourextension allows newly formed synapses to be initialised with adelay drawn from a uniform distribution. Repeated exposure tomoving bars enables neurons to be sensitised to a preferred direction of movement. Incorporating heterogeneous delays results inmore sensitive neural responses. A readout mechanism involvinga neuron for each learnt motion is sufficient to establish the inputstimulus class

This work presents sPyNNaker 4.0.0, the latest version of the software package for simulating PyNN-defined spiking neural networks (SNNs) on the SpiNNaker neuromorphic platform. Operations underpinning realtime SNN execution are presented, including an event-based operating system facilitating efficient time-driven neuron state updates and pipelined event-driven spike processing. Preprocessing, realtime execution, and neuron/synapse model implementations are discussed, all in the context of a simple example SNN. Simulation results are demonstrated, together with performance profiling providing insights into how software interacts with the underlying hardware to achieve realtime execution. System performance is shown to be within a factor of 2 of the original design target of 10,000 synaptic events per millisecond, however SNN topology is shown to influence performance considerably. A cost model is therefore developed characterizing the effect of network connectivity and SNN partitioning. This model enables users to estimate SNN simulation performance, allows the SpiNNaker team to make predictions on the impact of performance improvements, and helps demonstrate the continued potential of the SpiNNaker neuromorphic hardware.

The purpose of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of multiparametric (mp) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for prostate cancer detection and to assess the interobserver variability, using the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (PI-RADS).50 patients (mean age 68.42±6.58 years) with suspected prostate cancer fulfilling the inclusion criteria and without any exclusion criteria were enrolled. All patients were examined with mp-MRI protocol, as per European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) guidelines, before systematic transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy. All examinations were read by three independent radiologists with 3-year experience in prostate MRI. Sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. Interobserver agreement was evaluated using Kappa Cohen coefficient of agreement.mp-MRI and histopathological results of TRUSguided biopsy showed a very good agreement in prostate cancer detection. The overall Se, Sp, PPV and NPV ranged between 93.3-96.7%, 55.0-80.0%, 76.3-87.9% and 88.2-94.1%, respectively. The Kappa Cohen coefficient of interobserver agreement was 0.643 between Readers 1 and 2, 0.664 between Readers 1 and Reader 3 and 0.568 between Readers 2 and 3.Our results showed a high Se for the detection of prostate cancer with mp-MRI and a high NPV to rule out prostate malignancy. PI-RADS version 2 provides an adequate standardization of mp-MRI, allowing a good level of interobserver agreement.

We present the case of a 3-year-old female patient diagnosed with stage V bilateral nephroblastoma with predominant blastemal component. The treatment protocol included preoperative chemotherapy, left partial nephrectomy, and postoperative chemotherapy. After full recovery, partial right nephrectomy was performed, combined with left radical nephrectomy due to the suspicion of a local subcapsular recurrence. A small remaining tumoral lesion was treated by percutaneous microwave ablation with favorable postoperative recovery. Nephroblastoma raises a challenging diagnostic and treatment protocol, requiring a multimodal and multidisciplinary approach of the pediatric patient.

Cancer represents a heterogeneous disease with multiple levels of regulation and a dynamic environment that sustains the evolution of the malignant mass. This dynamic is in part sustained by a class of extracellular vesicles termed exosomes that are able to imprint the pathological state by incorporating differential cargos in order to facilitate cell-to-cell communication. Exosomes are stable within the extracellular medium and function as shuttles secreted by healthy or pathological cells, being further taken by the accepting cell with direct effects on its phenotype. The exosomal trafficking is deeply involved in multiple levels of cancer development with roles in all cancer hallmarks. Nowadays, studies are constantly exploring the ability of exosomes to sustain the malignant progression in order to attack this pathological trafficking and impair the ability of the tumor mass to expand within the organisms. As important, the circulatory characteristics of exosomes represent a steady advantage regarding the possibility of using them as minimally invasive diagnosis tools, where cancer patients' present modified exosomal profiles compared to the healthy ones. This last characteristic, as novel diagnosis tools, has the advantage of a possible rapid transition within the clinic, compared to the studies that evaluate the therapeutic meaning.

State-of-the-art computer vision systems use frame-based cameras that sample the visual scene as a series of high-resolution images. These are then processed using convolutional neural networks using neurons with continuous outputs. Biological vision systems use a quite different approach, where the eyes (cameras) sample the visual scene continuously, often with a non-uniform resolution, and generate neural spike events in response to changes in the scene. The resulting spatio- temporal patterns of events are then processed through networks of spiking neurons. Such event-based processing offers advantages in terms of focussing constrained resources on the most salient features of the perceived scene, and those advantages should also accrue toengineered vision systems based upon similar principles. Event-based vision sensors and event-based processing, exemplified by the SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network Architecture) machine, can be used to model the biological vision pathway at various levels of detail. Here we use this approach to explore structural synaptic plasticity as a possible mechanism whereby biological vision systems may learn the statistics of their inputs without supervision, pointing the way to engineered vision systems with similar on-line learning capabilities.