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Background: Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) is known to be an important prognostic factor in breast cancer. Numerous studies have shown HER2+ breast cancers have reduced overall survival and recovery time, as well as the efficacy of anti-HER2 therapies along with chemotherapy in improving disease outcomes. For this reason, it is recommended that all patients with breast cancer should be evaluated for HER2 status. This study aimed to assess the HER2 gene amplification by the CISH method in evaluating the HER2 status in patients with immunohistochemistry (IHC) 2+ (equivocal) results. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study examined HER2 status based on the Chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) method in 280 breast carcinoma samples with an initial 2+ (equivocal) score in IHC. The relationship between HER2 amplification and hormone receptors (estrogen and progesterone) and Ki67 level was also investigated. Results: In sixty samples (21.4%), the HER2 gene was amplified based on the CISH method. The majority (215, 76.8%) of the samples were negative and 5 (1.8%) samples were indeterminate. No significant relationship was observed between HER2 amplification, estrogen receptor (p=0.143), and ki.67 protein level (p=0.977). There was a significant inverse relationship between HER2 amplification and progesterone receptor positivity (p=0.007). Conclusion: These results demonstrate that CISH is a helpful method to assess HER2 status in equivocal breast cancer and is positive (amplified) in about 21.4% of them.

Background: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare benign inflammatory breast condition, mostly affecting women of reproductive age within a few years of pregnancy. Due to diverse clinical and radiologic features, IGM can mimic a vast spectrum of breast conditions. Therefore, histological findings are one of the most essential bases of diagnosis. Methods: A literature search was performed to review the characteristics of IGM with an emphasis on histopathological features in English sources from 2010 to 2022. The key words used for PubMed database search were “breast”, “granulomatous mastitis”, “histopathology”, and “pathology.” Results: In total, 192 articles were retrieved, from which 38 most relevant manuscripts were selected for this review article. Conclusion: The diagnosis of IGM depends on clinical, radiologic, and pathologic findings. Palpable mass is the most frequent complaint. An irregular hypoechoic mass with varying degrees of posterior phenomena is the most common sonographic finding. Histologically, IGM is characterized by a non-caseating lobulocentric granulomatous inflammation; composed of tight aggregates of epithelioid histiocytes with or without multinucleated giant cells. At times, the presence of cystic empty vacuoles lined by neutrophils is noted that is commonly associated with cystic neutrophilic granulomatous mastitis (CNGM), a variant of IGM. Atypical findings for IGM includes: The presence of atypia and/or malignancy, caseous necrosis, marked eosinophilic infiltration, absence of granulomatous inflammation, etc.

microRNA-125a-5p (miR-125a) is a tumor suppressor gene whose role in autophagy remains poorly understood. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the methylation status of miR-125a, its transfection into SK-BR3 cells, and its effects on autophagy.Sixty samples of tumor and non-tumor adjacent tissue were collected and the methylation status of miR-125a was evaluated by methylation-specific PCR (MSP). The effect of 5-Aza-dC on miR-125a expression was investigated in the SK-BR3 cells. Cells were also transfected with miR-125a mimic/antimiR. The expression of miR-125a and its target genes was evaluated by Real-Time PCR. Protein levels of ATG5 and LC3 were assessed by Western blotting. HER2 expression was investigated by immunocytochemistry (ICC).The data showed that the miR-125a promoter CpG Island was significantly hypermethylated in breast cancer tissues (p 0.01) and in SK-BR3 cells. The 5-Aza-dC could significantly increase miR-125a expression by decreasing its methylation (p 0.05). In addition, Western blot analysis indicated the expression of ATG5 and LC3 II/ LC3I, as autophagy biomarkers, was significantly reduced in SK-BR3 cells transfected with miR-125a (p 0.05).Our data showed miR-125a expression was significantly decreased in tumor tissues due to its promoter hypermethylation. Overexpression of miR-125a was associated with a reduction in autophagy, which could provide a new therapeutic avenue for advanced-stage breast cancer treatment.

Germ cell teratomas belong to non-seminomatous germ cell tumors and account for 95% of malignant testicular tumors. Regarding the current World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, testicular teratomas are divided into prepubertal and post-pubertal subtypes based on patients' age. The term "burned-out testicular tumor" is a very rare condition referring to a regressed testicular tumor which presents with its metastases without any clinical finding in the testicle. Metastasis can be the presentation of post-pubertal teratoma in 22-37% of cases. In scar associated teratoma (burn-out component), the metastasis rate is 66%. We reported a rare case of post-pubertal teratoma in a 34-year-old male who presented with multiple liver masses initially. Liver biopsy revealed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma probably of gastrointestinal (GI) tract origin. The upper and lower GI endoscopy were normal. Scrotal ultrasonography showed a hypoechoic cystic intratesticular lesion in the left testis. The patient underwent radical orchiectomy and the histopathologic examination revealed post-pubertal teratoma with burned out component. The patient underwent proper treatment and is still under follow up. As a result, in a young male patient who presented with a retroperitoneal mass or poorly differentiated carcinomas of an unknown primary site, using light microscopy and immunohistochemical profiling alone may be inadequate. Therefore, scrotal screening and physical examination of the scrotum and bilateral testis should be considered to exclude possibility of a metastatic progression from a testicular germ cell neoplasia.

LINK-A (long intergenic non-coding RNA for kinase activation) is a newly identified long non-coding RNA with oncogenic function, which leads to the hyperactivation of AKT and HIF1α. thereby, fosters cell proliferation, mobility and metastasis. VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), a well-known cytokine has an important role in angiogenesis. In this study, we quantified RNA expression of LINK-A and VEGF on 45 tumor specimens obtained from Iranian patients diagnosed with Epithelial Ovarian Cancer (EOC). Our goal was to evaluate expression of LINK-A lncRNA and VEGF mRNA in ovarian cancer tissues and find the probable correlation of LINK-A with VEGF as a major transcription target for HIF1α. LINK-A and VEGF were remarkably overexpressed in EOC tissues compared to normal tissues (P value: 0.004, 0.0001, respectively), but we did not find correlation between LINK-A and VEGF RNA expressions in this study. LINK-A was significantly overexpressed in higher stages of cancer and tumor grades. VEGF was only significantly elevated in higher stages. This study confirms importance of novel lncRNA of LINK-A in Iranian EOC patients.

Introduction: Malignant melanomas of the parotid gland are relatively uncommon and usually seen as metastases from cutaneous or mucous sites of the head and neck region. Some malignant melanomas may metastasize before they regress. Therefore, identifying the primary origin of metastatic melanoma is sometimes difficult. Furthermore, metastasis to the breast from an extramammary site is uncommon and challenging. It may present as a well-defined rounded mass that histopathologically mimics the various architecture and cellular phenotypes. In addition, the immunohistochemical stains of some metastatic melanomas are equivocal and challenging. Case Presentation: We presented a case of parotid gland malignant melanoma in a 42-year-old woman with metastasis to the breast in a short interval. Biopsy of parotid and breast lesions showed loss of immune-reactivity for several melanoma markers and was initially considered as malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor and primary breast tumor, respectively. Conclusions: This case highlights the importance of obtaining past clinical history in surgical pathology cases to make a correct diagnosis. It also enhances our understanding regarding malignant melanoma as a mysterious tumor with various morphology and immunophenotype.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease that characterized by aggressiveness features with increased metastasis and poor clinical prognosis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this highly malignant phenotype are still poorly understood. It has been well documented that the dysregulation of neural genes is profoundly implicated in cancer development and metastasis. Objectives: In the present study, the expression level of GABA receptor π subunit (GABRP) as the most up-regulated gene in TNBC and a hub node in the co-expression network were investigated. Methods: In this study, the importance of GABRP as the most up-regulated gene in TNBC was discovered through integrative analysis of multiple microarray expression datasets, containing about 1000 samples. Furthermore, the co-expression network analysis was constructed based on the up-regulated genes. Quantitative Real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to evaluate of the GABRP expression in 50 TNBC compared to 33 non-TNBC tumors. Results: According to the bioinformatics analysis, GABRP occupies a key position in the co-expression network which is mainly enriched in the nervous systems development. The qRT-PCR results indicated that up-regulation of GABRP was highly concordant with integrative analysis findings. Moreover, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that GABRP can be a potential biomarker to distinguish TNBC from non-TNBC samples. Conclusions: Our study revealed that up-regulation of GABRP is among the most remarkable molecular signature in TNBC and may play a critical role in tumorigenesis. The results may provide a deeper insight into molecular mechanisms underlying the brain metastasis in TNBC tumors and propose the potential targets for therapeutic interventions.

BackgroundCurrently, breast cancers are divided into four major molecular subtypes. The distinction between the luminal A and luminal B subtypes is mainly based on the cellular proliferation indices and is assessed by the Ki-67 scoring. Due to the limitations in the assessment and expression of Ki-67, we hypothesized that minichromosome maintenance protein 6 (MCM6) might be taken as a surrogate marker to differentiate molecular subtypes and aid in more precise grading of tumors.MethodsWe performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study on 124 samples of breast cancer and 40 samples of normal breast tissue. Relevant clinical information was retrieved from the Cancer Institute database.ResultsMCM6 could discriminate between various categories of histologic grades, tubule formation, mitotic indices, and nuclear pleomorphism (P = 0.002 for tubule formation andP P P = 0.01). Besides, MCM6 scores were higher for certain subtypes with more aggressive behaviors, such as hormone receptor (HR)-negative disease, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-enriched and triple-negative breast cancers, as there was a significantly higher MCM6 mean score in the HR-negative in comparison to the luminal breast cancers (P ConclusionMCM6 can differentiate luminal A and luminal B subtypes and is correlated with mitotic counts. However, this study was unable to prove the superiority of MCM6 in differentiating between molecular subtypes compared to the Ki-67 score. Nevertheless, in our study, MCM6 was superior to Ki-67 in exhibiting correlations with the mitotic grade, tubule formation, and nuclear grades. More studies are needed to standardize its assessment methods, determine more robust cut-off values, and evaluate its associations with prognostic features of breast cancer.

Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is among the most prevalent lymphomas worldwide. PAX5 has a great value in separating this entity from other T cell lymphoma; however, it is weakly expressed in neoplastic cells. Polyclonal PAX8 was positive in a variety of lymphoid neoplasms in several previous studies and the staining paralleled that of PAX5 but monoclonal PAX8 was negative in the same neoplasms. The aim of this study was to compare immunohistochemical patterns of monoclonal PAX8 with PAX5 in Classical and NLPHL samples.This retrospective study was conducted on 89 formalin-fixed paraffin embedded blocks from HL patients (69 Classical and 20 NLPHL) admitted to Imam Khomeini and Dr. Shariati hospitals, Tehran, Iran during 2016-2020. Diagnoses were confirmed by reviewing previous immunohistochemistry (IHC) studies, including PAX5. All samples were stained for PAX8 (clone MRQ-50). Expression intensity scoring was made for both antibodies in neoplastic and background cells based on nuclear staining percentage.PAX8 was positive in neoplastic and background B lymphocytes of all classical and NLPHL samples. PAX8 Expression intensity was significantly higher in neoplastic and background cells compared to PAX5 in classical HL samples (P = 0.001). PAX5 expression intensity in neoplastic cells was significantly higher in NLPHL samples compared to classical HL (P = 0.040); however, no significant difference in PAX8 expression between neoplastic cells of NLPHL and HL was seen. PAX8 expression intensity was not significantly correlated with gender, histologic subtype, tumor location, and relapse.PAX8 monoclonal antibody (clone MRQ-50) showed strong nuclear reactivity in neoplastic and background cells of classical HL and NLPHL samples. Therefore, this marker can be utilized as a valuable alternative for PAX5 in differentiating HL from other T cell lymphoma in challenging cases.

Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is a medicinal plant from the Asteraceae family. Silymarin is the major constituent of milk thistle extract and is a mixture of some flavonolignans such as silybin, which is the most active component of silymarin. It is most commonly known for its hepatoprotective effect. Also, studies have shown other therapeutic effects such as anticancer, anti-Alzheimer, anti-Parkinson, and anti-diabetic, so its safety is very important. It has no major toxicity in animals. Silymarin was mutagen in Salmonella typhimurium strains in the presence of metabolic enzymes. Silybin, silydianin, and silychristin were not cytotoxic and genotoxic at concentration of 100 μM. Silymarin is safe in humans at therapeutic doses and is well tolerated even at a high dose of 700 mg three times a day for 24 weeks. Some gastrointestinal discomforts occurred like nausea and diarrhea. One clinical trial showed silymarin is safe in pregnancy, and there were no anomalies. Consequently, caution should be exercised during pregnancy, and more studies are needed especially in humans. Silymarin has low-drug interactions, and it does not have major effects on cytochromes P-450. Some studies demonstrated that the use of silymarin must be with caution when co-administered with narrow therapeutic window drugs.

Breast tissue reveals some physiologic changes during pregnancy and lactation due to hormonal alterations. Whole range of breast diseases including inflammatory, benign and malignant neoplasms can be seen in pregnancy but due to concurrent physiologic changes, may lead to diagnostic challenges. This chapter reviews sampling methods and histologic features of common benign breast lesions in pregnancy and lactation periods.

Breasts are one of the most common sites of neoplastic lesions in women during pregnancy and lactation. This chapter reviews carcinomas of the breast during pregnancy and lactation while focusing on histologic features, biomarker profiles and some involved molecular pathways. Also, a brief review of previous studies on this field is performed.

Erdheim–Chester disease (ECD) is a rare non-Langerhans disease. This the report describes a 51-year-old woman with a history of weakness, bone pain, xanthelasma palpebrarum, diabetes insipidus, and hypothyroidism. ECD is a multisystemic condition with a poor prognosis. This disease should be considered in patients with diabetes insipidus and multiorgan involvements.

Investigating the deformation of tissue architecture is one of the most important clinical methods for cancer diagnosis. Optical methods are now widely developed for rapid, precise, and real-time assessment of these alterations at the microscopic scale. One of the proposed methods is enhanced backscattering (EBS) technique that allows in-vivo measurement of the optical scattering characteristics. Here, EBS technique is employed to evaluate the optical anisotropy of human epithelial tissues as a measure to distinguish between normal and cancerous one. Orientation dependence of the mean scattering length is assessed in healthy and cancerous tissues of five different human organs i. e. uterus, bladder, colon, kidney, and liver. Helicity preserving channel and rotating ground glass diffuser are utilized to eliminate the polarization induced anisotropy and the background speckle noises respectively. Analysis of the backscattering cones recorded by a high-resolution CCD camera reveals the modification of the strength and degree of optical anisotropy in different tissues during cancer progression. Pathology data affirm the correlation between the experimental results and the morphological alteration of the epithelial cells in each carcinoma type. In general, tissues with fibrous constructional cells are subject to a decrease in anisotropy due to cancer, whereas those with cuboidal cells experience an increase in anisotropy. This complementary information enhances the potency of the EBS technique as a fast, non-destructive, and easily accessible tool for real-time tissue diagnosis.

Breast tissue reveals some physiologic changes during pregnancy and lactation due to hormonal alterations. Whole range of breast diseases including inflammatory, benign and malignant neoplasms can be seen in pregnancy but due to concurrent physiologic changes, may lead to diagnostic challenges. This chapter reviews sampling methods and histologic features of common benign breast lesions in pregnancy and lactation periods.

Breasts are one of the most common sites of neoplastic lesions in women during pregnancy and lactation. This chapter reviews carcinomas of the breast during pregnancy and lactation while focusing on histologic features, biomarker profiles and some involved molecular pathways. Also, a brief review of previous studies on this field is performed.

We present a vision-based trunk-motion tolerant approach which estimates lung volume–time data remotely in forced vital capacity (FVC) and slow vital capacity (SVC) spirometry tests. After temporal modelling of trunk shape, generated using two opposing Kinects in a sequence, the chest-surface respiratory pattern is computed by performing principal component analysis on temporal geometrical features extracted from the chest and posterior shapes. We evaluate our method on a publicly available dataset of 35 subjects (300 sequences) and compare against the state-of-the-art. By filtering complex trunk motions, our proposed method calibrates the entire volume–time data using only the tidal volume scaling factor which reduces the state-of-the-art average normalised L2 error from 0.136 to 0.05.

Background: Breast cancer, which is the most common site-specific cancer in women, usually metastasizes to lung, liver, bone, and brain, although other sites can be involved less frequently. Parotid gland invasion by breast cancer, first reported in 1950, is extremely rare with very few reports worldwide. Case presentation: A 54-year-old woman with stage IIIA breast cancer presented with a right parotid mass and signs of facial nerve palsy 3 months after treatment completion, which was finally diagnosed as metastatic involvement of parotid gland. Conclusion: Breast cancer metastasis to parotid gland is extremely rare but can happen metachronously or synchronously even years after the primary disease. Therefore, this diagnosis should be kept in mind in any patient with a history of breast cancer presenting with a periauricular mass. Despite proposed treatments, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, patients have a poor prognosis with a reported 5-year survival rate of 10%. However, palliative management should be recommended to all patients with parotid metastasis.

Introduction: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive (ALK+) anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a rare subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, which is usually presented as a systemic advanced stage disease. Extranodal involvement is common in skin, bone, soft tissue, lung and liver. Primary presentation in oral cavity is extremely rare. Case Presentation: Here, a 28-year-old man with gingival swelling in the left mandibular molar area after tooth extraction and regional lymphadenopathy is reported. Microscopic examination revealed anaplastic large lymphoid cells with the positive expression of ALK protein. Conclusions: Although the overall survival of ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma is better than other types of T-cell lymphomas, it is not clear for its oral counterparts.

Background: Although iatrogenic displacement of epithelial cells after breast instrumentation is a well-documented phenomenon, it is usually underdiagnosed. Misinterpretation of this issue results in overtreatment of patients in some instances. Additionally, the hazard of tumor seeding and dissemination after needling is a concern to both clinicians and patients. Both issues are addressed in this narrative review. Methods: We searched PubMed for abstracts of English-language publications using keywords “needle track/tract” and “displaced epithelium/epithelial displacement/iatrogenic displacement,” which resulted in 439 records restricted to human subjects. We read all the abstracts and selected 27 manuscripts with the most relevance. Results: There are some histopathologic features that can be useful in differentiating between epithelial displacement and real invasion/metastasis. The risk of seeding or metastasis after needling is shown to be trivial. Factors militating against the growth of dislodged cells are also discussed. Conclusion: Epithelial displacement is an important issue in breast pathology that should be considered in every patient with a history of breast instrumentation.

Objective: We propose a novel depth-based photoplethysmography (dPPG) approach to reduce motion artifacts in respiratory volume–time data and improve the accuracy of remote pulmonary function testing (PFT) measures. Method: Following spatial and temporal calibration of two opposing RGB-D sensors, a dynamic three-dimensional model of the subject performing PFT is reconstructed and used to decouple trunk movements from respiratory motions. Depth-based volume–time data is then retrieved, calibrated, and used to compute 11 clinical PFT measures for forced vital capacity and slow vital capacity spirometry tests. Results: A dataset of 35 subjects (298 sequences) was collected and used to evaluate the proposed dPPG method by comparing depth-based PFT measures to the measures provided by a spirometer. Other comparative experiments between the dPPG and the single Kinect approach, such as Bland–Altman analysis, similarity measures performance, intra-subject error analysis, and statistical analysis of tidal volume and main effort scaling factors, all show the superior accuracy of the dPPG approach. Conclusion : We introduce a depth-based whole body photoplethysmography approach, which reduces motion artifacts in depth-based volume–time data and highly improves the accuracy of depth-based computed measures. Significance: The proposed dPPG method remarkably drops the $L_2$ error mean and standard deviation of FEF $_{50\%}$ , FEF $_{75\%}$ , FEF $_{25-75\%}$ , IC , and ERV measures by half, compared to the single Kinect approach. These significant improvements establish the potential for unconstrained remote respiratory monitoring and diagnosis.

Curcumin is the major constituent of turmeric (Curcuma longa). Turmeric has been widely used as a spice in foods and for therapeutic applications such as anti-inflammatory, antihyperlipidemic, and antimicrobial activities. Turmeric and curcumin are nonmutagenic and nongenotoxic. Oral use of turmeric and curcumin did not have reproductive toxicity in animals at certain doses. Studies on human did not show toxic effects, and curcumin was safe at the dose of 6 g/day orally for 4-7 weeks. However, some adverse effects such as gastrointestinal upsets may occur. Moreover, oral bioavailable formulations of curcumin were safe for human at the dose of 500 mg two times in a day for 30 days, but there are still few trials and more studies are needed specially on nanoformulations and it should be discussed in a separate article. In addition, curcumin is known as a generally recognized as safe substance. This review discusses the safety and toxicity of turmeric and curcumin in medicine. Turmeric and curcumin are nontoxic for human especially in oral administration. Turmeric and curcumin are also safe in animals. They are nonmutagenic and are safe in pregnancy in animals but more studies in human are needed.

Dicrocoelium dentriticum, a member of trematode type helminths, is a liver parasite of ruminants. Humans are infected accidentally by ingestion of intermediate host, through infected ants via eating of raw vegetables or drinking of contaminated water. Infection is often asymptomatic or results in subtle symptoms; therefore, infections are usually unrecognized. However, it can produce chronic cholangitis and swelling or adenomatous proliferation in the bile ducts and lead to abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, jaundice, and other symptoms. We report a 49-year-old female patient with end-stage hepatic cirrhosis from viral hepatitis B and D coinfection who underwent liver transplant. Shortly after transplant, she developed symptoms suggesting an obstructed biliary duct. Liver needle biopsy was done 24 hours after transplant to rule out rejection. Biopsy of her explanted liver was also examined pathologically. Microscopic examination of the liver needle biopsy ruled out rejection. Prepared sections of explanted liver revealed a helminth in the common bile duct. Morphologic reconstruction of helminth by microscopic findings and consultation with an expert parasitologist supported the diagnosis of Dicrocoelium dentriticum.

Introduction: There is increasing interest in technologies that may enable remote monitoring of respiratory disease. Traditional methods for assessing respiratory function such as spirometry can be expensive and require specialist training to perform and interpret. Remote, non-contact tracking of chest wall movement has been explored in the past using structured light, accelerometers and impedance pneumography, but these have often been costly and clinical utility remains to be defined. We present data from a 3-Dimensional time-of-flight camera (found in gaming consoles) used to estimate chest volume during routine spirometry maneuvres. Methods: Patients were recruited from a general respiratory physiology laboratory. Spirometry was performed according to international standards using an unmodified spirometer. A Microsoft Kinect V2 time-of-flight depth sensor was used to reconstruct 3-dimensional models of the subject's thorax to estimate volume-time and flow-time curves following the introduction of a scaling factor to transform measurements to volume estimates. The Bland-Altman method was used to assess agreement of model estimation with simultaneous recordings from the spirometer. Patient characteristics were used to assess predictors of error using regression analysis and to further explore the scaling factors. Results: The chest volume change estimated by the Kinect camera during spirometry tracked respiratory rate accurately and estimated forced vital capacity (FVC) and vital capacity to within ± < 1%. Forced expiratory volume estimation did not demonstrate acceptable limits of agreement, with 61.9% of readings showing >150 ml difference. Linear regression including age, gender, height, weight, and pack years of smoking explained 37.0% of the variance in the scaling factor for volume estimation. This technique had a positive predictive value of 0.833 to detect obstructive spirometry. Conclusion: These data illustrate the potential of 3D time-of-flight cameras to remotely monitor respiratory rate. This is not a replacement for conventional spirometry and needs further refinement. Further algorithms are being developed to allow its independence from spirometry. Benefits include simplicity of set-up, no specialist training, and cost. This technique warrants further refinement and validation in larger cohorts.

Objective: We propose a remote, noninvasive approach to develop pulmonary function testing (PFT) using a depth sensor. Method: After generating a point cloud from scene depth values, we construct a three-dimensional model of the subject's chest. Then, by estimating the chest volume variation throughout a sequence, we generate volume–time and flow–time data for two prevalent spirometry tests: forced vital capacity (FVC) and slow vital capacity (SVC). Tidal volume and main effort sections of volume–time data are analyzed and calibrated separately to remove the effects of a subject's torso motion. After automatic extraction of keypoints from the volume–time and flow–time curves, seven FVC ( FVC, FEV1, PEF, FEF $_{25\%}$ , FEF $_{50\%}$ , FEF $_{75\%}$ , and FEF $_{25\text{--}75\%}$ ) and four SVC measures ( VC, IC, TV , and ERV ) are computed and then validated against measures from a spirometer. A dataset of 85 patients (529 sequences in total), attending respiratory outpatient service for spirometry, was collected and used to evaluate the proposed method. Results: High correlation for FVC and SVC measures on intra-test and intra-subject measures between the proposed method and the spirometer. Conclusion : Our proposed depth-based approach is able to remotely compute eleven clinical PFT measures, which gives highly accurate results when evaluated against a spirometer on a dataset comprising 85 patients. Significance: Experimental results computed over an unprecedented number of clinical patients confirm that chest surface motion is linearly related to the changes in volume of lungs, which establishes the potential toward an accurate, low-cost, and remote alternative to traditional cumbersome methods, such as spirometry.

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor of children, accounting for an estimated 15% cancer-related deaths in this period. It has been hypothesized that drug resistance of cancer stem cells may be responsible for chemotherapy failure, sustained tumor growth, and recurrence in many solid tumors. In this study, we investigated the expression of Octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (Oct4) and Nanog, two stem cell markers, in 47 neuroblastic tumors by immunohistochemistry and correlated their expression by other prognostic factors especially with NMYC amplification using both fluorescent and chromogenic in situ hybridization methods. Twenty three cases (48.9%) showed Oct4 signals and eight cases (17%) showed Nanog expression. All Nanog positive tumors showed Oct4 expression. Seven cases (14.1%) had NMYC amplification. There was also no association between positive Oct4 and Nanog reactivity and tumor morphology, age, mitosis-karyorrhexis index, NMYC amplification, favorable or unfavorable histology, and risk groups (p > 0.05). Cancer stem cells hypothesis is a challenging issue and controversies exist about their significance. Although our study did not show strong association between prognostic factors and expression of stem cell markers, performing of further large-scale studies of various neuroblastic tumors with various stages is suggested.

In this paper, we evaluated comprehensively the structure and operation of open-loop interferometric optical fiber gyroscopes (IFOG). To complete the previous works, a digital approach to derive the rotation angle in optical fiber gyroscopes is investigated theoretically. Results are simulated by the MATLAB software; therefore we could compare the results in simulated area with the values derived from theory. Also, feedback Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EFDA) FOGs, called FE-FOG, is categorized in closed-loop IFOGs. The procedure of finding the Sagnac shift for open-loop and closed-loop IFOG have been studied and compared to one another. The signal processing in the open-loop IFOG was simulated using Matlab software and for the closed-loop IFOG by PSCAD. In the open-loop IFOG the analogue formulation of the IFOG in order to extract the phase shift is analyzed. A novel and promising method for derivation of Sagnac phase shift based on digital finite impulse response filtering is proposed. Based on our simulation results, the reliability and accuracy of the method is determined. In the closed-loop IFOG, the shift was derived through frequent use of Sagnac loop. The output signal is injected in the input again as feedback. The shift phase between clockwise and counterclockwise waves in each complete route, including primary and feedback route, is identified as Sagnac shift phase.

Introduction Lung function testing by spirometry has remained unchanged for over 50 years, despite limitations including patient technique, discomfort, cost and training. Non-invasive, remote lung volume measurement is an alternative approach. This has been explored in the past using structured light, accelerometers and impedance pneumography, but these have often been costly and of limited validity. We use a novel approach to remote assessment (~2 metres) using a 3D time-of-flight depth camera – similar to those found in many home gaming consoles. This pilot developmental data was generated from patients in a clinical setting. Methods Patients were recruited from a general respiratory physiology laboratory. Spirometry was performed according to ATS/ERS standards using an unmodified pneumotachograph (nSpire Health, Longmont, CO, USA). A Kinect V2 time-of-flight depth sensor (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) was used to reconstruct 3D models of the subject’s thorax to estimate volume-time and flow-time curves for both Forced and Slow Vital Capacity and their associated measurements (Figure 1, technical details in 1 ). These results were correlated with simultaneous recordings from the pneumotachograph, and error values calculated to assess the accuracy of the technique. Results Data were available from 53 patients, with 40 having usable data. Mean age 62.8 yrs (SD 16.2), BMI of 26.8 (SD 5.5). 41.5% male. 54.7% of patients had obstructive lung diseases, and 28.4% fibrotic lung disease. Mean FVC was 91.3% predicted (SD 26.4%), Mean FEV1 83.1% (SD 28.9%). The model estimates were highly correlated with spirometric values for FVC (λ = 0.999), FEV1 (λ = 0.947), VC (λ = 0.999), IC (λ = 0.997) and TV (λ = 0.962). Univariate analysis demonstrated no patient characteristics predictive of discrepancy from spirometric values for FVC or VC. Conclusions We describe a pilot data from the initial development of a new technique for non-invasively assessing lung volume and pulmonary function measurements. It correlates to within 30 ml for FVC and 10 ml for VC. This has a wide range of potential applications, including screening, home monitoring of respiratory disease, assessment of lung function in those unable to complete pneumotachygraphy and gating controls for radiological imaging techniques. Reference 1 Soleimani V, Mirmehdi M, Damen D, et al . Remote pulmonary function testing using a depth sensor. Biocas 2015

In this paper, we present an interactive algorithm to separate foreground and background regions of natural images (natural image matting) using ant colony optimization. Today, image matting is one of the most challenging and interesting research fields in image processing. In our approach instead of preparing a trimap, the user specifies foreground and background regions by some red and blue scribbles. Then by minimizing local energy function of all pixels alpha matte is estimated. Our approach not only needs a little interaction with the user but also by applying ant colony algorithm on color images, finds homogenous regions of the image and yields good results compared with other methods. In other words, the local energy of a pixel is obtained using traveled path by the pixel ant and since the ant tends to move to pixels similar to beginning pixel, homogenous regions of the image are detected. Moreover, we use some techniques like vectorization in the implementation of our algorithm in order to decrease time complexity. Experimental results show our algorithm advantages.

Today, using medical imaging devices is essential for disease diagnosis and medical researches. Among these devices, Magnetic Resonance Imaging has the main role. Segmentation of these images is more difficult than natural images because their functional sensitivity is higher than other images. Up to now, many different algorithms have been suggested for segmentation of this type of images. In this paper, we propose an approach in order to improve ant colony algorithm efficiency. In this approach, ant's direction and its tendency to go to the next site is regarded for calculating the probability of choosing the next site by the ant. Moreover, in calculating the probability of the ant's next move, we try to make a balance between the effect of the ant direction and the amount of pheromone distributed. Then this algorithm is used for segmentation of brain magnetic resonance images and diagnosing tumors.

With the growing demand for more energy from the subscribers, and given the issues associated with ecological systems, it is inevitable and indispensable to move toward an efficient, economical, green, clean and self-correcting power system. Implementing this system is a challenge for the managers to tackle. It is a long time that smart metering system have been used by utility companies and implemented in quite a few numbers of them. Necessity for developing from smart metering to smart gird and utilizing it for consumption management, black-out management, demand response, distributed energy resources, Grid optimization, Load management, technical loss, theft detection, quality of service, utilizing the maximum capacity of power line, balancing the distribution network, freeing the distribution network and a great number of other advantages are inevitable. In this paper we have studied how to move toward smartening up the grid.

Selecting an communication infrastructure for employing in plans to a smart grid, including advanced distribution automation, is one of the most important challenges for Grid designers. It is too tedious and difficult to conduct generally for there are several variables and factors interwoven with the problem. This is ultimately impacted by branching some technical and business criteria into subsets. Due to its application in advanced distribution automation, finding an efficient approach would be so facilitating. In this paper, an approach for selecting a proper communication infrastructure is presented using expert judged analytic hierarchy process (AHP).

Ecological and environmental concerns as well as growth in demanding electrical energy have driven utilities to seek new strategies for improving performance and Smart Metering represents concepts concerning the next generation of the existing power grids, and a modern process in monitoring and controlling the grid. Through this system a huge amount of data is flooded into utilities; these data help the utility to get a thorough understanding about the grid and subscribers. In this paper, we begin with presenting Advanced Metering Infrastructure, and then we move on to analyze the architecture expanded on by OPENmeter project, to improve the architecture.