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Monocytes, including immunosuppressive myeloid cells, have been proposed to help promote glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) progression whereas lymphocytes are essential to the anti-neoplastic immune response. The aims of the study are to report changes in peripheral lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils at the start and end of radiation therapy (RT) for patients with GBM and to investigate their impact on overall survival greater than three years. We retrospectively reviewed adult patients with GBM treated with standard of care treatment via conventionally fractionated RT between the years 2010 and 2020. We recorded baseline patient characteristics, tumor MGMT methylation status, radiation treatment details, date of last follow-up, and overall survival. We collected their total white blood cell count, lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils near the start and end dates (+/- 2 weeks) of radiation therapy. We then evaluated for predictors and performed logistic regression analysis for overall survival over three years. There were 153 patients with available peripheral leukocyte count included in our analysis. The median age of patients at the start of radiation was 60 years old, and there were 53 female patients (35%) and 100 male patients (65%). From the start to end of RT, absolute lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils counts all significantly decreased by an average fold of 0.73, 0.88, and 0.85, respectively. Though, only the lymphocyte percentage had a significant decrease. At three years, the overall survival for the cohort was 19%. On logistic regression analysis for survival over three years, MGMT methylation was a positive predictor (OR 5.16, 95% CI: 2.04 – 13.1) as expected. However, we also found that end of treatment monocyte count ≥ 600/mm3 (OR 0.249, 95% CI: 0.066 – 0.941) and lymphocyte count < 800/mm3 (OR 0.283, 95% CI: 0.107 – 0.749) were negative predictors for survival. In our large database of patients with GBM, we observed that absolute peripheral leukocyte counts decreased significantly through radiation, but only the percentage lymphocytes decreased. Notably, end of radiation monocyte count ≥ 600/mm3 and lymphocyte count < 800/mm3 were negative predictors for long-term survival over three years. The findings of this study should prompt further investigation on the dynamics of monocytes, including immunosuppressive myeloid cells, in patients with GBM receiving radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To utilize network resources effectively and guarantee the system reliability in Internet exchanges (IXs) in the future, the use of photonic IXs that employ optical cross connects and generalized multiprotocol label switching is considered. This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study of link-capacity adjustment for a photonic IX employing a statistical-decision method for traffic monitoring. We present parameter estimation of the statistical-decision method in detail considering the traffic characteristics in IXs. Then, experiments on the link-capacity adjustment are presented. The first experiment shows the link-capacity adjustment of an optical path to evaluate path addition from one path to two and path deletion from two optical paths to one. The second experiment shows the link-capacity adjustment using multiple paths. We confirmed that there is no packet/frame loss in either experiment during the transmission of demo traffic, which simulates daily traffic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]