Oral desmoplastic melanoma mimicking inflammatory hyperplasia.

PubMed

Jou, Adriana; Miranda, Fábio V; Oliveira, Márcia G; Martins, Manoela D; Rados, Pantelis V; Filho, Manoel S

2012-06-01

Desmoplastic melanoma (DM) arising in the oral cavity is a rare neoplasm that may be confused with a variety of non-melanocytic benign or malignant lesions. To present a case of DM in the oral mucosa mimicking fibrous inflammatory hyperplasia, discusses the difficulties involved in the diagnosis and offers a literature review on the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemincal aspects of this neoplasm. A 62-year-old white male, smoker, was referred with a chief complaint of pain and swelling in the palate. The oral examination revealed multiple brown-to-black patches and a non-pigmented sessile nodule located on the mucosa of the hard palate. The clinical diagnosis of the pigmented lesions was either oral melanosis or melanoma. The nodular lesion was clinically diagnosed as fibrous inflammatory hyperplasia. Incisional biopsy was performed on the pigmented lesion and the microscopic sections revealed a melanotic macule. The nodular lesions histologically revealed an amelanotic desmoplastic melanoma. Reactive lesions close to a pigmented area should be investigated with great care. © 2010 The Gerodontology Society and John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma With Sclerosing Features: An Uncommon and Potentially Aggressive Variant.

PubMed

Ronen, Shira; Gru, Alejandro A; Noland, Mary M; Rowe, David M; Wick, Mark R

2018-05-08

Sclerosing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), also known as "desmoplastic" SCC, is a rare subtype of cutaneous malignancy. This variant is clinically significant because it is associated with an increased risk of local recurrence and metastasis. We herein present 16 examples of sclerotic SCC of the skin in 8 men and 3 women, with a median age of 66 years. The most common site of origin for this tumor is the skin of the head and neck, including the scalp (5 tumors in 2 different patients), forehead (3 cases), nasal ala (2 cases), neck (2 cases in the same patient), ear (2 cases), cheek (1 case), and chest (1 case). Microscopically, sclerosing SCCs are characterized by cellular cords, nests, and islands, as well as scattered single cells infiltrating densely desmoplastic and collagenized connective tissue. The differential diagnosis principally includes sclerosing basal cell carcinoma, microcystic adnexal carcinoma, and desmoplastic trichoepithelioma. The main goals of this study are to further characterize these lesions pathologically, and increase general awareness of this SCC subtype.

Development of mediastinal lymphoma after radiotherapy for concurrent medulloblastoma and PNET in a patient with Gorlin syndrome.

PubMed

Jiang, Tao; Wang, Junmei; Wang, Ying; Li, Chunde

2016-08-12

Very young children with Gorlin syndrome are at risk for developing medulloblastoma. Patients with Gorlin syndrome may have multiple system abnormalities, including basal cell carcinomas, jaw cysts, desmoplastic medulloblastoma, palmar/plantar pits, rib abnormalities, and intracranial falx calcification. The early diagnosis of Gorlin syndrome in desmoplastic medulloblastoma patients is very important because these patients should receive chemotherapy as a first-line treatment and should avoid radiotherapy as much as possible. In the present study, a 5-year-old male patient had a concurrent cerebellar desmoplastic medulloblastoma and temporal primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Examinations of this patient revealed multiple café-au-lait spots, a jaw cyst, and a bifid rib. A molecular classification analysis revealed that the patient's cerebellar tumor was of the sonic hedgehog subtype. Twenty-seven months after tumor resection and cerebrospinal irradiation were performed, mediastinal lymphoma was found in the patient. The patient ultimately died of lymphoma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a concurrent medulloblastoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumor and the fourth report of multiple café-au-lait spots in a patient with Gorlin syndrome. This report is also the first account of the development of mediastinal lymphoma after spinal irradiation in a patient with Gorlin syndrome. Chemotherapy should be the first-line treatment for medulloblastoma patients with Gorlin syndrome. Young patients with medulloblastoma of the desmoplastic subtype and multiple café-au-lait spots should be thoroughly examined for Gorlin syndrome.

Intraabdominal desmoplastic small round cell tumor: Report of a case and literature review.

PubMed

Koniari, Katerina; Mahera, Helen; Nikolaou, Marinos; Chatzis, Odysseas; Glezakou, Ourania; Magiasis, Vasilios; Kiratzis, Georgios

2011-01-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a rare malignancy with poor prognosis that predominantly affects young males. Its etiopathogenesis is still unknown and diagnosis can be achieved only by immunohistochemistry and cytogenetic studies. Due to our limited knowledge of the pathologic and clinical nature of this disease, there is no clear consensus regarding the optimal therapeutic procedures for treating this neoplasm. A high degree of care and improvements in diagnostic capabilities are required in order to identify this entity and avoid misdiagnosis. We report a new case of a 29-year-old male who proceeded to our Emergency Department complaining about non-specific abdominal pain. Physical examination revealed no abnormalities except for a palpable mass in the lower abdomen and a diffuse abdominal pain. Computed Tomography scan showed enlarged paraortic and mesenteric lymphadenopathy, thickness of the small bowel wall and dispersed masses intraperitoneally. He underwent an exploratory laparotomy and the resultant biopsy revealed desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Diagnosis of desmoplastic small round cell tumor can easily be missed because it presents with few early warning symptoms and signs, while the routine blood tests are within normal limits. A high degree of suspicion, a thorough physical examination, a full imaging check and an aggressive therapeutic approach are required in order to identify this disease and fight for a better quality of life for these patients. In addition we make a review of the literature in an effort to clarify the epidemiological, clinical and pathological aspects of this entity.

Solid-Pattern Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor.

PubMed

Ali, Ahmed; Mohamed, Mustafa; Chisholm, Julia; Thway, Khin

2017-04-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is an aggressive small round cell sarcoma that typically occurs intra-abdominally in adolescents and young adults, and is characterized by a recurrent t(11;22)(p13;q12) translocation leading to generation of the EWSR1-WT1 fusion gene, which codes for a chimeric protein with transcriptional regulatory activity. DSRCT has a characteristic histologic appearance of nests of uniform small cells within prominent fibroblastic stroma and immunohistochemically it shows multidirectional differentiation, with expression of epithelial, neural, and muscle markers. We illustrate a case of DSRCT that presented as a large intra-abdominal mass, which harbored EWSR1 rearrangement by fluorescence in situ hybridization and EWSR1-WT1 fusion transcripts by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and which histologically had an entirely solid morphology, lacking evidence of desmoplastic stroma. This purely solid variant emphasizes that even when occurring at a typical location, DSRCT may be difficult to recognize when lacking nonclassical morphology. This is of clinical relevance, as DSRCT with this pattern could be misdiagnosed as Ewing sarcoma if RT-PCR is not performed, with resulting prognostic and therapeutic implications.

Diffusion, Perfusion, and Histopathologic Characteristics of Desmoplastic Infantile Ganglioglioma.

PubMed

Ho, Chang Y; Gener, Melissa; Bonnin, Jose; Kralik, Stephen F

2016-07-01

We present a case series of a rare tumor, the desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma (DIG) with MRI diffusion and perfusion imaging quantification as well as histopathologic characterization. Four cases with pathologically-proven DIG had diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and two of the four had dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging. All four tumors demonstrate DWI findings compatible with low-grade pediatric tumors. For the two cases with perfusion imaging, a higher relative cerebral blood volume was associated with higher proliferation index on histopathology for one of the cases. Our results are discussed in conjunction with a literature review.

Diffusion, Perfusion, and Histopathologic Characteristics of Desmoplastic Infantile Ganglioglioma

PubMed Central

Ho, Chang Y; Gener, Melissa; Bonnin, Jose; Kralik, Stephen F

2016-01-01

We present a case series of a rare tumor, the desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma (DIG) with MRI diffusion and perfusion imaging quantification as well as histopathologic characterization. Four cases with pathologically-proven DIG had diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and two of the four had dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging. All four tumors demonstrate DWI findings compatible with low-grade pediatric tumors. For the two cases with perfusion imaging, a higher relative cerebral blood volume was associated with higher proliferation index on histopathology for one of the cases. Our results are discussed in conjunction with a literature review. PMID:27761184

Paratesticular desmoplastic small round cell tumour: an unusual tumour with an unusual fusion; cytogenetic and molecular genetic analysis combining RT-PCR and COBRA-FISH.

PubMed

Cliteur, Vincent Pm; Szuhai, Károly; Baelde, Hans J; van Dam, Jurriaan; Gelderblom, Hans; Hogendoorn, Pancras Cw

2012-01-25

Desmoplastic small round cell tumour is a rare malignant tumour with a male to female ratio of 4:1. It manifests mostly at serosal sites. Here we present a case of a 28-year-old male patient, who presented with a fast growing paratesticular mass. On biopsy nests and cords of small round cells, without a clear morphological lineage of differentiation were seen. Occasionally desmoplatic small round cell tumour shows different lines of differentiation. An unequivocal histological diagnosis might be difficult in such cases. Here we demonstrate by a combination of methods the characteristic immunohistochemical profile and - albeit unusual - molecular background and discuss the eventual link with Ewing sarcoma.Immunohistochemical studies showed a membranous staining of Keratine AE1/3 and a dot-like staining of Desmine, confirming its diagnosis. Using COBRA-FISH following a metaphase approach we demonstrated a balanced translocation, t(11;22)(p13;q12) and in RT-PCR formation of the EWSR1-WT1 fusion product, a specific translocation of desmoplastic round cell tumour. The fusion involves exon 9 of EWSR1 to exon 8 of WT1, an unusual fusion product, though earlier described in a case of a desmoplastic small round cell tumour of the hand. The EWSR1-WT1 chimera seems to function as an oncogenic transcription factor. Here the zinc finger domain of the WT1 acts with affinity with certain promoter domains influencing the expression of various downstream proteins such as: PDGFA, PAX2, insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, IL2 receptor beta, BAIAP3, MLF1, TALLA-1, LRRC15 and ENT. We discuss their potential oncogenic roles and potential therapeutic consequences.

Paratesticular desmoplastic small round cell tumour: an unusual tumour with an unusual fusion; cytogenetic and molecular genetic analysis combining RT-PCR and COBRA-FISH

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumour is a rare malignant tumour with a male to female ratio of 4:1. It manifests mostly at serosal sites. Here we present a case of a 28-year-old male patient, who presented with a fast growing paratesticular mass. On biopsy nests and cords of small round cells, without a clear morphological lineage of differentiation were seen. Occasionally desmoplatic small round cell tumour shows different lines of differentiation. An unequivocal histological diagnosis might be difficult in such cases. Here we demonstrate by a combination of methods the characteristic immunohistochemical profile and - albeit unusual - molecular background and discuss the eventual link with Ewing sarcoma. Immunohistochemical studies showed a membranous staining of Keratine AE1/3 and a dot-like staining of Desmine, confirming its diagnosis. Using COBRA-FISH following a metaphase approach we demonstrated a balanced translocation, t(11;22)(p13;q12) and in RT-PCR formation of the EWSR1-WT1 fusion product, a specific translocation of desmoplastic round cell tumour. The fusion involves exon 9 of EWSR1 to exon 8 of WT1, an unusual fusion product, though earlier described in a case of a desmoplastic small round cell tumour of the hand. The EWSR1-WT1 chimera seems to function as an oncogenic transcription factor. Here the zinc finger domain of the WT1 acts with affinity with certain promoter domains influencing the expression of various downstream proteins such as: PDGFA, PAX2, insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, IL2 receptor beta, BAIAP3, MLF1, TALLA-1, LRRC15 and ENT. We discuss their potential oncogenic roles and potential therapeutic consequences. PMID:22587803

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor of the middle ear: A case report.

PubMed

Xu, Jing; Yao, Mengwei; Yang, Xinxin; Liu, Tao; Wang, Shaohua; Ma, Dengdian; Li, Xiaoyu

2018-04-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare, aggressive and malignant tumor. This report describes a case involving DSRCT of the middle ear which no case has been reported in the literature till date. A 59-year-old Chinese man with a 40-year history of repeated suppuration of his right ear and 1-year history of drooping of the angle of mouth. The CT of the middle ear and brain scan and enhanced MRI showed space occupying lesion in the right middle ear. Desmoplastic small round cell tumor of the middle ear. After relevant examinations, radical mastoidectomy and subtotal temporal bone resection were performed on the right ear under general anesthesia. The patient underwent postoperative adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. The patient was counterchecked regularly,there was norecurrence of DSRCT of the middle ear. Four years after surgery, the CT and MRI of the middle ear mastoid showed right middle ear soft tissue shadow,but postoperative pathological results showed proliferative fibrous and vascular tissues with chronic inflammatory cell infiltration and necrosis. DSRCT is a relatively aggressive, malignant mesenchymal tumor, with a very poor prognosis.The diagnosis of DSRCT relies on immunohistological data. Early diagnosis, radical surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy are considered a reasonable way to prolong survival.

French National Registry of Rare Peritoneal Surface Malignancies

ClinicalTrials.gov

2017-08-18

Rare Peritoneal Surface Malignancies; Pseudomyxoma Peritonei; Peritoneal Mesothelioma; Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Psammocarcinoma; Primary Peritoneal Serous Carcinoma; Diffuse Peritoneal Leiomyomatosis; Appendiceal Mucinous Neoplasms

A Case of Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor.

PubMed

Reisner, David; Brahee, Deborah; Patel, Shweta; Hartman, Matthew

2015-08-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor is a rare, aggressive tumor primarily affecting young males. It is considered a childhood cancer, and is characterized by a unique chromosomal translocation which leads to failure to suppress tumor growth. It is classified as a soft tissue sarcoma, sharing some features with other small round cell tumors such as Ewing's Sarcoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Typical imaging findings include multiple heterogeneous, lobular abdominal masses, which can grow very large. Often there is a dominant mass with additional peritoneal, omental, retroperitoneal and retrovesical masses. Prognosis is relatively poor with a 3 year survival rate of 50% in those treated aggressively with surgical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. The clinical presentation, imaging characteristics and pathology are discussed in regards to a recent case.

Basal cell nevus syndrome or Gorlin syndrome.

PubMed

Thalakoti, Srikanth; Geller, Thomas

2015-01-01

Basal cell nevus syndrome (BCNS) or Gorlin syndrome is a rare neurocutaneous syndrome sometimes known as the fifth phacomatosis, inherited in autosomal dominant fashion with complete penetrance and variable expressivity. Gorlin syndrome is characterized by development of multiple basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), jaw cysts, palmar or plantar pits, calcification of falx cerebri, various developmental skeletal abnormalities such as bifid rib, hemi- or bifid vertebra and predisposition to the development of various tumors. BCNS is caused by a mutation in the PTCH1 gene localized to 9q22.3. Its estimated prevalence varies between 1/55600 and 1/256000 with an equal male to female ratio. The medulloblastoma variant seen in Gorlin syndrome patients is of the desmoplastic type, characteristically presenting during the first 3 years of life. Therefore, children with desmoplastic medulloblastoma should be carefully screened for other features of BCNS. Radiation therapy for desmoplastic medulloblastoma should be avoided in BCNS patients as it may induce development of invasive BCCs and other tumors in the skin area exposed to radiation. This syndrome is a multisystem disorder so involvement of multiple specialists with a multimodal approach to detect and treat various manifestations at early stages will reduce the long-term sequelae and severity of the condition. Life expectancy is not significantly altered but morbidity from complications and cosmetic scarring can be substantial. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Desmoplastic small round cell tumor in children, adolescents and young adults].

PubMed

de Marcellus, Charles; Sarnacki, Sabine; Pierron, Gaëlle; Ranchère-Vince, Dominique; Scalabre, Aurélien; Bolle, Stéphanie; Minard-Colin, Véronique; Corradini, Nadège; Fayard, Cindy; Orbach, Daniel

2018-05-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare sarcoma that typically affects pediatric and young adult patients with a median age in the general and in the pediatric population of 24.6 years (range 4-58 years) and 15.0 years (range 0-21 years) respectively, with a strong male predominance. This tumor is characterized by a specific t(11;22)(p13;q12) that results in fusion of EWS and WT1 genes which can be demonstrated by RT-PCR or by FISH. DSRCT most frequently presents as an intra-abdominal primary mass associated with peritoneal seeding and a highly aggressive pattern of spread. Generally, all tumors showed the typical histologic findings of variably sized clusters of poly-phenotypic small, round, or spindled cells lying in a desmoplastic stroma. Treatment of this malignancy remains a challenge. The combination of polychemotherapy regimens and aggressive surgery followed by whole abdomen radiation therapy represents nowadays a classical protocol for DSRCT. The survival rate of DSRCT patients is still disappointing around 20 %. However, the survival of patients who had complete resection of the tumor appears better. Hopes are turning to targeted therapeutics against this simple genomic sarcoma. Authors summarize medical knowledge of this rare tumor. Copyright © 2018 Société Française du Cancer. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Losartan inhibits collagen I synthesis and improves the distribution and efficacy of nanotherapeutics in tumors

PubMed Central

Diop-Frimpong, Benjamin; Chauhan, Vikash P.; Krane, Stephen; Boucher, Yves; Jain, Rakesh K.

2011-01-01

The dense collagen network in tumors significantly reduces the penetration and efficacy of nanotherapeutics. We tested whether losartan—a clinically approved angiotensin II receptor antagonist with noted antifibrotic activity—can enhance the penetration and efficacy of nanomedicine. We found that losartan inhibited collagen I production by carcinoma-associated fibroblasts isolated from breast cancer biopsies. Additionally, it led to a dose-dependent reduction in stromal collagen in desmoplastic models of human breast, pancreatic, and skin tumors in mice. Furthermore, losartan improved the distribution and therapeutic efficacy of intratumorally injected oncolytic herpes simplex viruses. Finally, it also enhanced the efficacy of i.v. injected pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (Doxil). Thus, losartan has the potential to enhance the efficacy of nanotherapeutics in patients with desmoplastic tumors. PMID:21282607

Cixutumumab and Doxorubicin Hydrochloride in Treating Patients With Unresectable, Locally Advanced, or Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma

ClinicalTrials.gov

2016-05-16

Adult Angiosarcoma; Adult Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Adult Epithelioid Sarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Myxoid Chondrosarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Osteosarcoma; Adult Fibrosarcoma; Adult Leiomyosarcoma; Adult Liposarcoma; Adult Malignant Mesenchymoma; Adult Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor; Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma; Adult Synovial Sarcoma; Adult Undifferentiated High Grade Pleomorphic Sarcoma of Bone; Childhood Angiosarcoma; Childhood Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Childhood Epithelioid Sarcoma; Childhood Fibrosarcoma; Childhood Leiomyosarcoma; Childhood Liposarcoma; Childhood Malignant Mesenchymoma; Childhood Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor; Childhood Pleomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma; Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma With Mixed Embryonal and Alveolar Features; Childhood Synovial Sarcoma; Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans; Malignant Adult Hemangiopericytoma; Malignant Childhood Hemangiopericytoma; Metastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Previously Treated Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage III Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage IV Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Untreated Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma

Sonic-Hedgehog pathway inhibition normalizes desmoplastic tumor microenvironment to improve chemo- and nanotherapy

PubMed Central

Voutouri, Chrysovalantis; Kalli, Maria; Pirentis, Athanassios P.; Stylianopoulos, Triantafyllos

2017-01-01

Targeting the rich extracellular matrix of desmoplastic tumors has been successfully shown to normalize collagen and hyaluronan levels and re-engineer intratumoral mechanical forces, improving tumor perfusion and chemotherapy. As far as targeting the abundant cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in desmoplastic tumors is concerned, while both pharmacologic inhibition of the sonic-hedgehog pathway and genetic depletion of fibroblasts have been employed in pancreatic cancers, the results between the two methods have been contradictory. In this study, we employed vismodegib to inhibit the sonic-hedgehog pathway with the aim to i) elucidate the mechanism of how CAFs depletion improves drug delivery, ii) extent and evaluate the potential use of sonic-hedgehog inhibitors to breast cancers, and iii) investigate whether sonic-hedgehog inhibition improves not only chemotherapy, but also the efficacy of the most commonly used breast cancer nanomedicines, namely Abraxane® and Doxil®. We found that treatment with vismodegib normalizes the tumor microenvironment by reducing the proliferative CAFs and in cases the levels of collagen and hyaluronan. These modulations re-engineered the solid and fluid stresses in the tumors, improving blood vessel functionality. As a result, the delivery and efficacy of chemotherapy was improved in two models of pancreatic cancer. Additionally, vismodegib treatment significantly improved the efficacy of both Abraxane and Doxil in xenograft breast tumors. Our results suggest the use of vismodegib, and sonic hedgehog inhibitors in general, to enhance cancer chemo- and nanotherapy. PMID:28662901

Imatinib Mesylate in Treating Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Solid Tumors of Childhood

ClinicalTrials.gov

2015-04-14

Childhood Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Childhood Synovial Sarcoma; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor; Lung Metastases; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Ewing Sarcoma/Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Recurrent Neuroblastoma; Recurrent Osteosarcoma

"Sky Full of Stars" Pattern: Dermoscopic Findings in a Desmoplastic Giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus.

PubMed

Martín-Carrasco, Pablo; Bernabeu-Wittel, José; Dominguez-Cruz, Javier; Zulueta Dorado, Teresa; Conejo-Mir Sanchez, Julian

2017-05-01

Desmoplastic giant congenital melanocytic nevus (DGCN) is an uncommon variant of congenital nevus, presenting as a progressive induration and hypopigmentation of the lesion that occasionally causes hair loss and even total or partial disappearance of the nevus. A 6-month-old girl with a giant congenital melanocytic nevus that involved the entire posterior side of the right thigh was seen in our department. Nine months later, the peripheral area of the nevus presented as a marked induration with hypopigmentation. Dermoscopy demonstrated a reticular pattern exclusively located in the perifollicular areas, with a radial distribution from the follicular ostium that mimicked a "sky full of stars." We report a case of DGCN, including a dermoscopic description of the findings noted in the indurated and hypopigmented areas that appear as a "sky full of stars" image. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Biliary intraductal metastasis from advanced gastric cancer: radiologic and histologic characteristics, and clinical outcomes of percutaneous metallic stent placement.

PubMed

Lee, JooYeon; Gwon, Dong Il; Ko, Gi-Young; Kim, Jong Woo; Sung, Kyu-Bo

2016-06-01

To investigate the radiologic and histological characteristics of biliary intraductal metastasis of advanced gastric cancer and the clinical outcomes of percutaneous, metallic stent placement. We retrospectively assessed 24 patients with obstructive jaundice related to biliary intraductal metastasis of gastric cancers who underwent PTBD and subsequent metallic stent placement between 2003 and 2012. Intraductal metastases appeared as uniform, concentric, linear (n = 17) or band-like (n = 7), enhanced wall thickening on CT, and 20 patients (83.3 %) had cystic ductal lesions. On pathology specimens, malignant cells scattered in the submucosal layer caused a desmoplastic reaction. The technical and clinical success rate of stent placement was achieved in all 24 patients. The median survival time was 203 days. Stent occlusion was observed in four patients with 49-278 days following stent placement. The median stent patency time was 156 days. The radiologic and histological characteristics of biliary intraductal metastasis of advanced gastric cancer consist of uniform, linear or band-like, enhanced biliary wall thickening and malignant cells scattered in the submucosal layer, together with the desmoplastic reaction without any disruption of the epithelial layer. Uncovered metallic stent placement was also a safe and effective method of palliative treatment in these patients. • The CT findings of intraductal metastasis were linear/band-like, enhanced biliary wall thickening. • The histological finding was malignant cells scattered in the submucosal layer. • It showed a desmoplastic reaction without any disruption of the epithelial layer. • Uncovered metallic stent placement was a safe and effective palliative treatment.

Adult medulloblastoma: clinical characters, prognostic factors, outcomes and patterns of relapse.

PubMed

Zhang, Na; Ouyang, Taohui; Kang, Huicong; Long, Wang; Thomas, Benjamin; Zhu, Suiqiang

2015-09-01

To analyze the clinical characters, prognostic factors, patterns of relapse and treatment outcomes for medulloblastoma in adults. The clinical materials of 73 consecutive adult patients (age, ≥16 years) with medulloblastoma were analyzed retrospectively. Follow-up data were available in 62 patients, ranging from 10 to 142 months (median, 78.4 months). Outcome in survival was assessed by the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Univariate and multivariate analysis were performed to determine the prognostic factors. Total or near-total tumor resection was achieved in 37 cases (59.7 %), subtotal in 19 cases (30.6 %), and partial resection in 6 cases (9.7 %).Twenty-two patients experienced recurrences, and 45 % percent of all recurrences occurred more than 4 years after initial surgery. The PFS rates at 5 and 8 years were 60.1 and 37.0 %, respectively. The OS rates at 5 and 8 years were 82.6 and 57.3 %, respectively. In univariate analysis, less tumor resection, non-desmoplastic pathology, and brainstem involvement were risk factors for worse PFS and OS (P < 0.05). High-risk category was associated with just lower PFS, but not OS. In multivariate analysis, complete resection and desmoplastic pathology were independently predictive factors of improved PFS and OS. In adult medulloblastoma, late relapse is common and therefore long-term follow-up is important for evaluating the real impact of treatments. Risk category had prognostic value just for PFS, but not for OS. Complete resection and desmoplastic histology are independently predictive factors for favorable outcomes.

The fake fat phenomenon in organizing pleuritis: a source of confusion with desmoplastic malignant mesotheliomas.

PubMed

Churg, Andrew; Cagle, Philip; Colby, Thomas V; Corson, Joseph M; Gibbs, Allen R; Hammar, Samuel; Ordonez, Nelson; Roggli, Victor L; Tazelaar, Henry D; Travis, William D; Wick, Mark

2011-12-01

We report 9 patients with pleural biopsies referred because of concern about infiltration of what appeared to be chest wall fat by pan-keratin-positive spindled cells, a finding that led to a consideration of desmoplastic mesothelioma. All patients showed pleural effusions/pleural thickening on computed tomographic scan. Pleural biopsy showed a greatly thickened and fibrotic paucicellular pleura with circular fat-like spaces and, sometimes, adjacent oblate spaces mostly deep in the fibrotic area. Indistinct, keratin-positive, spindle cells arranged parallel to the pleural surface coursed between these fat-like spaces. S-100 stains were negative around the fat-like spaces. Vimentin stains showed that the spaces did not have a cellular lining of any kind. Sometimes the spaces contained faintly hematoxyphilic material that was Alcian blue positive, and similar material was seen in the fibrotic stroma. Follow-up with periods ranging from 6 to 30 months revealed that 8 cases had stable disease on chest imaging or by clinical findings. One case had slowly progressive pleural thickening. These observations suggest that spaces resembling fat may be encountered in fibrotic pleurae and that horizontally oriented keratin-positive spindled cells between the fat-like spaces deep in the fibrotic portion of a thickened pleura represent a benign finding seen in some cases of organizing pleuritis/fibrothorax. The spaces themselves are probably artifacts derived from the biopsy procedure and/or cutting artifacts. In contrast, in true desmoplastic mesotheliomas there is downward, rather than horizontal, growth of keratin-positive spindled cells running between clearly definable fat cells.

A novel CIC-FOXO4 gene fusion in undifferentiated small round cell sarcoma: a genetically distinct variant of Ewing-like sarcoma.

PubMed

Sugita, Shintaro; Arai, Yasuhito; Tonooka, Akiko; Hama, Natsuko; Totoki, Yasushi; Fujii, Tomoki; Aoyama, Tomoyuki; Asanuma, Hiroko; Tsukahara, Tomohide; Kaya, Mitsunori; Shibata, Tatsuhiro; Hasegawa, Tadashi

2014-11-01

Differential diagnosis of small round cell sarcomas (SRCSs) grouped under the Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) can be a challenging situation for pathologists. Recent studies have revealed that some groups of Ewing-like sarcoma show typical ESFT morphology but lack any EWSR1-ETS gene fusions. Here we identified a novel gene fusion, CIC-FOXO4, in a case of Ewing-like sarcoma with a t(X;19)(q13;q13.3) translocation. The patient was a 63-year-old man who had an asymptomatic, 30-mm, well-demarcated, intramuscular mass in his right posterior neck, and imaging findings suggested a diagnosis of high-grade sarcoma. He was treated with complete resection and subsequent radiotherapy and chemotherapy. He was alive without local recurrence or distant metastasis 6 months after the operation. Histologic examination revealed SRCS with abundant desmoplastic fibrous stroma suggesting a desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Immunohistochemical analysis showed weak to moderate and partial staining for MIC2 (CD99) and WT1, respectively. High-throughput transcriptome sequencing revealed a gene fusion, and the genomic rearrangement between the CIC and FOXO4 genes was identified by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Aside from the desmoplastic stroma, the CIC-FOXO4 fusion sarcoma showed morphologic and immunohistochemical similarity to ESFT and Ewing-like sarcomas, including the recently described CIC-DUX4 fusion sarcoma. Although clinicopathologic analysis with additional cases is necessary, we conclude that CIC-FOXO4 fusion sarcoma is a new type of Ewing-like sarcoma that has a specific genetic signature. These findings have important implications for the differential diagnosis of SRCS.

Immunohistochemistry of cytokeratins 7, 8, 17, 18, and 19, and GLUT-1 aids differentiation of desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma from fibrous pleuritis.

PubMed

Horiuchi, Toshikatsu; Ogata, Sho; Tominaga, Susumu; Hiroi, Sadayuki; Kawahara, Kunimitsu; Hebisawa, Akira; Irei, Isao; Ito, Ichiro; Kameya, Toru; Tsujimura, Tohru; Nakano, Takashi; Nakanishi, Kuniaki; Kawai, Toshiaki

2013-05-01

It is difficult to distinguish desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma (DMM) from fibrous pleuritis (FP). We investigated the utility of immunohistochemistry as a way of differentiating between DMM and FP. We examined 11 DMMs and 46 FPs with the aid of antibodies against 18 cytokeratin (CK) subtypes, calponin, caldesmon, desmin, and GLUT-1. The best sensitivity and specificity cut-off values in the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) for CKs 7, 8, 17, 18, and 19, and GLUT-1 were each above 60%. When cases with either DMM or FP were partitioned by the staining score associated with the best sensitivity and specificity cut-off values in ROC, the incidence of a positive expression for CKs 7, 8, 17, 18, and 19, and GLUT-1 was significantly higher in DMM than in FP. In conclusion, immunohistochemistry for CKs 7, 8, 17, 18, and 19, and GLUT-1 may be useful, alongside histological characteristics, for separating DMM from FP.

Desmoplastic fibroma of the distal tibia: A case report of a minimally invasive histological diagnosis

PubMed Central

Levrini, Gabriele; Pattacini, Pierpaolo

2016-01-01

Desmoplastic fibroma (DF) is a benign, rare fibroblastic intraosseous neoplasm histologically resembling a desmoid soft tissue tumor. Although classified as benign, DF frequently exhibits an aggressive behavior, has a moderate-to-high recurrence rate, and often causes pathological fractures and extensive bone destruction. This case report presents an incidentally detected DF of the tibia, which was diagnosed using a minimally invasive approach. A 36-year-old African female patient was referred to the Department of Diagnostic Imaging of Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova-IRCCS (Reggio Emilia, Italy), to be examined by a computed tomography scan on an outpatient basis, after an x-ray examination of the tibia, which was performed after an injury to exclude the presence of a fracture, revealed a hyperlucency of unknown origin. The aim of this study was to discuss the clinical, histological, immunohistochemical and radiographic characteristics of this rare neoplasm, with a focus on image-guided bone biopsy. PMID:27882239

Checkpoint Inhibitors Hold Promise for Rare Melanoma

Cancer.gov

Patients with a rare form of melanoma, called desmoplastic melanoma, may be particularly likely to benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors, a new study shows. As this Cancer Currents post explains, an NCI-sponsored clinical trial is already testing one such drug, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with this cancer.

Pediatric clinical trial studies antibody treatment for various types of solid tumors | Center for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

A clinical trial for pediatric patients will test the safety and efficacy of enoblituzumab in solid tumors that express a specific protein, including neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, Wilms tumor, or desmoplastic small round cell tumor. Read more... 

Studying Genes in Tissue Samples From Younger and Adolescent Patients With Soft Tissue Sarcomas

ClinicalTrials.gov

2016-05-13

Childhood Alveolar Soft-part Sarcoma; Childhood Angiosarcoma; Childhood Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Childhood Epithelioid Sarcoma; Childhood Fibrosarcoma; Childhood Leiomyosarcoma; Childhood Liposarcoma; Childhood Malignant Mesenchymoma; Childhood Neurofibrosarcoma; Childhood Synovial Sarcoma; Chordoma; Desmoid Tumor; Metastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Nonmetastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Gorlin syndrome and desmoplastic medulloblastoma: Report of 3 cases with unfavorable clinical course and novel mutations.

PubMed

Gururangan, Sridharan; Robinson, Giles; Ellison, David W; Wu, Gang; He, Xuelian; Lu, Q Richard; McLendon, Roger; Grant, Gerald; Driscoll, Timothy; Neuberg, Ronnie

2015-10-01

We present three cases of genetically confirmed Gorlin syndrome with desmoplastic medulloblastoma (DMB) in whom tumor recurred despite standard therapy. One patient was found to have a novel germline missense PTCH1 mutation. Molecular analysis of recurrent tumor using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) revealed PTEN and/ or PTCH1 loss in 2 patients. Whole exome sequencing (WES) of tumor in one patient revealed loss of heterozygosity of PTCH1 and a mutation of GNAS gene in its non-coding 3' -untranslated region (UTR) with corresponding decreased protein expression. While one patient died despite high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) plus stem cell rescue (ASCR) and palliative radiotherapy, two patients are currently alive for 18+ and 120+ months respectively following retrieval therapy that did not include irradiation. Infants with DMB and GS should be treated aggressively with chemotherapy at diagnosis to prevent relapse but radiotherapy should be avoided. The use of molecular prognostic markers for DMB should be routinely used to identify the subset of tumors that might have an aggressive course. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Enhancing Nanoparticle Accumulation and Retention in Desmoplastic Tumors via Vascular Disruption for Internal Radiation Therapy

PubMed Central

Satterlee, Andrew B.; Rojas, Juan D.; Dayton, Paul A.; Huang, Leaf

2017-01-01

Aggressive, desmoplastic tumors are notoriously difficult to treat because of their extensive stroma, high interstitial pressure, and resistant tumor microenvironment. We have developed a combination therapy that can significantly slow the growth of large, stroma-rich tumors by causing massive apoptosis in the tumor center while simultaneously increasing nanoparticle uptake through a treatment-induced increase in the accumulation and retention of nanoparticles in the tumor. The vascular disrupting agent Combretastatin A-4 Phosphate (CA4P) is able to increase the accumulation of radiation-containing nanoparticles for internal radiation therapy, and the retention of these delivered radioisotopes is maintained over several days. We use ultrasound to measure the effect of CA4P in live tumor-bearing mice, and we encapsulate the radio-theranostic isotope 177Lutetium as a therapeutic agent as well as a means to measure nanoparticle accumulation and retention in the tumor. This combination therapy induces prolonged apoptosis in the tumor, decreasing both the fibroblast and total cell density and allowing further tumor growth inhibition using a cisplatin-containing nanoparticle. PMID:28042332

Targeted Disruption of Orchestration between Stroma and Tumor Cells in Pancreatic Cancer: Molecular Basis and Therapeutic Implications

PubMed Central

Kong, Xiangyu; Li, Lei; Li, Zhaoshen; Xie, Keping

2012-01-01

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, with a prominent desmoplastic reaction as the defining hallmark of the disease. The past several decades have seen dramatic progress in understanding of pancreatic cancer pathogenesis, including the identification of precursor lesions, sequential transformation from normal pancreas to invasive pancreatic cancer and corresponding signature genetic events, and the biological impact of those alterations on malignant behaviors. However, the current therapeutic strategies for epithelial tumor cells, which have exhibited potent antitumor activity in cell culture and animal models, have failed to have significant effects in the clinic. The desmoplastic stroma surrounding pancreatic cancer cells, which accounts for about 90% of a tumor’s mass, clearly is not a passive scaffold for cancer cells but an active contributor to carcinogenesis. Improved understanding of the dynamic interaction between cancer cells and their stroma will be important to designing new, effective therapeutic strategies for pancreatic cancer. This review focuses on the origination of stromal molecular and cellular components in pancreatic tumors, their biological effects on pancreatic cancer cells, and the orchestration between these two components. PMID:22749856

Histologic differentiation of desmoplastic melanoma from cicatrices.

PubMed

Kaneishi, N K; Cockerell, C J

1998-04-01

Desmoplastic malignant melanoma (DMM) is a rare variant of melanoma that can be very difficult to diagnose correctly both clinically and histologically. The problem is compounded by the fact that many lesions persist at previous biopsy or excision sites so that scar tissue is often present admixed with or adjacent to the spindle cell neoplasm which may exhibit fibroblastic differentiation itself. In order to assess this problem, we compared and contrasted the histologic features of six DMM with 15 examples of cicatrices from various sources. Mature scars were readily differentiated from DMM by light microscopy. In contrast, immature scar and DMM had many features in common including hypercellularity, nodular lymphoid infiltrates, myxoid stroma, and atypical nuclei. The presence of a melanocytic proliferation within the epidermis above the dermal component, neurotropism, and S-100 and/or HMB-45 positivity of neoplastic cells were the only features that permitted reliable differentiation between the two. Clinical correlation and review of previous biopsy specimens are crucial in preventing a delayed diagnosis of DMM. Re-excision is advised in all questionable cases.

Clinical and computed tomography features of adult abdominopelvic desmoplastic small round cell tumor.

PubMed

Shen, Xun-Ze; Zhao, Jian-Guo; Wu, Jian-Jun; Liu, Fang

2014-05-07

To investigate the clinical and computed tomography (CT) features of desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), we retrospectively analyzed the clinical presentations, treatment and outcome, as well as CT manifestations of four cases of DSRCT confirmed by surgery and pathology. The CT manifestations of DSRCT were as follows: (1) multiple soft-tissue masses or diffuse peritoneal thickening in the abdomen and pelvis, with the dominant mass usually located in the pelvic cavity; (2) masses without an apparent organ-based primary site; (3) mild to moderate homogeneous or heterogeneous enhancement in solid area on enhanced CT; and (4) secondary manifestations, such as ascites, hepatic metastases, lymphadenopathy, hydronephrosis and hydroureter. The prognosis and overall survival rates were generally poor. Commonly used treatment strategies including aggressive tumor resection, polychemotherapy, and radiotherapy, showed various therapeutic effects. CT of DSRCT shows characteristic features that are helpful in diagnosis. Early discovery and complete resection, coupled with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, are important for prognosis of DSRCT. Whole abdominopelvic rather than locoregional radiotherapy is more effective for unresectable DSRCT.

Effective treatment of apatinib in desmoplastic small round cell tumor: a case report and literature review.

PubMed

Shi, Chunyu; Feng, Ye; Zhang, Lei Chao; Ding, Da Yong; Yan, Ming Yu; Pan, Lu

2018-03-27

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare malignant sarcoma with poor prognosis due to lack of effective treatments. Apatinib is a new potent oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and targets the intracellular domain of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). In this study, we presented a case of intra-abdominal DSRCT which was effectively treated by apatinib. A 32-year-old man was admitted due to increasing urination frequency and palpable mass in right lower abdomen for 2 months. The mass was resected and diagnosed DSRCT. The patient refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy,and used Chinese medicine only. Six months after the surgery, the patient re-hospitalized due to growing abdominal mass and ascites. Intraperitoneal cisplatin treatment showed little effect. Apatinib was then recommended. Apatinib revealed outstanding effect on reducing mass size and ascites during 2-month treatment. Apatinib therapy continued for additional 2 months, and the patient was in good condition. The only toxicity was hand-food syndrome, which was controllable and well tolerated. It is the first report that apatinib is effective on DSRCT. This report may provide an additional option for the treatment of metastatic DSRCT.

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor with sphere-like clusters mimicking adenocarcinoma.

PubMed

Hattori, Yukinori; Yoshida, Akihiko; Sasaki, Naoshi; Shibuki, Yasuo; Tamura, Kenji; Tsuta, Koji

2015-03-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare and aggressive neoplasm that predominantly affects young men. DSRCT often presents as multiple nodules on the serosal surface and is histologically categorized as a small round cell tumor. However, the cytological spectrum of DSRCT is not fully understood because of its rarity. Here, we report an unusual case of DSRCT that showed spheres of cells without stromal cores in pleural fluid cytology material, a finding that is typically associated with metastatic adenocarcinoma and mesothelioma. The specimen from a simultaneous needle biopsy showed the classic histology of DSRCT, comprising nests of small round cells set in desmoplasia. The diagnosis of DSRCT was further supported by immunohistochemical coexpression of cytokeratin and desmin, as well as Ewing sarcoma breakpoint region 1 gene rearrangement, which was determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The unusual cytological finding in this case illustrates a potential pitfall of the cytological diagnosis of pleural fluid or ascites. DSRCT should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis when sphere-like round cell clusters are observed in pleural or abdominal effusion, particularly in young male patients. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Coexpression of an unusual form of the EWS-WT1 fusion transcript and interleukin 2/15 receptor betamRNA in a desmoplastic small round cell tumour.

PubMed

Nakanishi, Y; Oinuma, T; Sano, M; Fuchinoue, F; Komatsu, K; Seki, T; Obana, Y; Tabata, M; Kikuchi, K; Shimamura, M; Ohmori, K; Nemoto, N

2006-10-01

The beta chain of the interleukin 2/15 receptor (IL-2/15Rbeta) is induced by the expression of the EWS-WT1. A case of desmoplastic small round cell tumour (DSRCT) expressing only an unusual EWS-WT1 treated by us is reported here. To characterise an unusual form of EWS-WT1. Frozen tissue sections of the axillary tumour were examined using a laser-assisted microdissection technique and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The novel fusion of exon 8 of EWS and the defective exon 10 of WT1 (-KTS) was detected. Although it was an unusual form, the coexpression of the present EWS-WT1, IL-2/15Rbeta and Janus kinase (JAK1) mRNA was detected in the tumour cells. IL-2 and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT5) mRNA were detected in both tumour and stromal cells. The induction of the IL-2/15 receptor signalling pathway may contribute to tumorigenesis in DSRCT through a paracrine or an autocrine system, even though the EWS-WT1 was an unusual form.

Tanespimycin in Treating Young Patients With Recurrent or Refractory Leukemia or Solid Tumors

ClinicalTrials.gov

2013-06-03

Childhood Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia; Childhood Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Disseminated Neuroblastoma; Metastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Metastatic Ewing Sarcoma/Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Metastatic Osteosarcoma; Previously Treated Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Recurrent Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia; Recurrent Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Ewing Sarcoma/Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Recurrent Neuroblastoma; Recurrent Osteosarcoma

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor: evaluation of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and fluorescence in situ hybridization as ancillary molecular diagnostic techniques.

PubMed

Mohamed, Mustafa; Gonzalez, David; Fritchie, Karen J; Swansbury, John; Wren, Dorte; Benson, Charlotte; Jones, Robin L; Fisher, Cyril; Thway, Khin

2017-11-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare, biologically aggressive soft tissue neoplasm of uncertain differentiation, most often arising in the abdominal and pelvic cavities of adolescents and young adults with a striking male predominance. Histologically, it is characterized by islands of uniform small round cells in prominent desmoplastic stroma, and it has a polyimmunophenotypic profile, typically expressing WT1 and cytokeratin, desmin, and neural/neuroendocrine differentiation markers to varying degrees. Tumors at other sites and with variant morphology are more rarely described. DSRCT is associated with a recurrent t(11;22)(p13;q12) translocation, leading to the characteristic EWSR1-WT1 gene fusion. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), to detect EWSR1 rearrangement, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to assess for EWSR1-WT1 fusion transcripts are routine diagnostic ancillary tools. We present a large institutional comparative series of FISH and RT-PCR for DSRCT diagnosis. Twenty-six specimens (from 25 patients) histologically diagnosed as DSRCT were assessed for EWSR1 rearrangement and EWSR1-WT1 fusion transcripts. Of these 26 specimens, 24 yielded positive results with either FISH or RT-PCR or both. FISH was performed in 23 samples, with EWSR1 rearrangement seen in 21 (91.3%). RT-PCR was performed in 18 samples, of which 13 (72.2%) harbored EWSR1-WT1 fusion transcripts. The sensitivity of FISH in detecting DSRCT was 91.3%, and that of RT-PCR was 92.8% following omission of four technical failures. Therefore, both methods are comparable in terms of sensitivity. FISH is more sensitive if technical failures for RT-PCR are taken into account, and RT-PCR is more specific in confirming DSRCT. Both methods complement each other by confirming cases that the other method may not. In isolation, FISH is a relatively non-specific diagnostic adjunct due to the number of different neoplasms that can harbor EWSR1 rearrangement, such as Ewing sarcoma. However, in cases with appropriate morphology and a typical pattern of immunostaining, FISH is confirmatory of the diagnosis.

Heterotransplantation of human breast carcinomas in nude mice. Correlation between successful heterotransplants, poor prognosis and amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene.

PubMed

Giovanella, B C; Vardeman, D M; Williams, L J; Taylor, D J; de Ipolyi, P D; Greeff, P J; Stehlin, J S; Ullrich, A; Cailleau, R; Slamon, D J

1991-01-02

Four hundred and thirty-three human breast carcinomas and 23 cell lines derived from human breast carcinomas were heterotransplanted in nude mice. Twenty-eight tumors and 13 cell lines took and could be serially transplanted. Their human origin was established by isozyme analysis performed on successive passages. Sixteen primary infiltrating duct-cell carcinomas (PIDC) took, from a total of 262 transplanted (6.1%). This is in striking contrast to the greater than 50% rate of takes of most major cancers of epithelial origin. All 16 PIDC growing in nude mice were highly cellular and lacked desmoplastic hyperplasia. The clinical prognosis of the PIDC patients whose tumors were successfully transplanted was poor. Ten of 16 (63%) died of their disease within 3 years, compared to only 49 (20%) of the 246 PIDC patients whose tumors did not take in nude mice. This could not be attributed to later stage disease of the tumors that took, because only 15% of these patients had 4 or more positive axillary lymph nodes as opposed to 28% of the patients whose tumors did not take. Sixty-four percent of the breast carcinomas growing in nude mice exhibited amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene which is also correlated with poor prognosis in human breast cancer. It is possible that the nude mouse is more susceptible to a population of highly invasive and lethal breast carcinomas.

Metronomic chemotherapy prevents therapy-induced stromal activation and induction of tumor-initiating cells

PubMed Central

Chan, Tze-Sian; Pai, Vincent C.; Tan, Kok-Tong; Yen, Chia-Jui; Hsu, Shu-Ching; Chen, Wei-Yu; Shan, Yan-Shen; Lee, Michael T.; Chu, Jui-Mei

2016-01-01

Although traditional chemotherapy kills a fraction of tumor cells, it also activates the stroma and can promote the growth and survival of residual cancer cells to foster tumor recurrence and metastasis. Accordingly, overcoming the host response induced by chemotherapy could substantially improve therapeutic outcome and patient survival. In this study, resistance to treatment and metastasis has been attributed to expansion of stem-like tumor-initiating cells (TICs). Molecular analysis of the tumor stroma in neoadjuvant chemotherapy–treated human desmoplastic cancers and orthotopic tumor xenografts revealed that traditional maximum-tolerated dose chemotherapy, regardless of the agents used, induces persistent STAT-1 and NF-κB activity in carcinoma-associated fibroblasts. This induction results in the expression and secretion of ELR motif–positive (ELR+) chemokines, which signal through CXCR-2 on carcinoma cells to trigger their phenotypic conversion into TICs and promote their invasive behaviors, leading to paradoxical tumor aggression after therapy. In contrast, the same overall dose administered as a low-dose metronomic chemotherapy regimen largely prevented therapy-induced stromal ELR+ chemokine paracrine signaling, thus enhancing treatment response and extending survival of mice carrying desmoplastic cancers. These experiments illustrate the importance of stroma in cancer therapy and how its impact on treatment resistance could be tempered by altering the dosing schedule of systemic chemotherapy. PMID:27881732

Clinical, pathological, and molecular data on desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma: case studies and a review of the literature.

PubMed

Siegfried, Aurore; Bertozzi, Anne Isabelle; Bourdeaut, Franck; Sevely, Annick; Loukh, Najat; Grison, Camille; Miquel, Catherine; Lafon, Delphine; Sevenet, Nicolas; Pietsch, Torsten; Dufour, Christelle; Delisle, Marie-Bernadette

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to better define the clinical and biopathological features of patients with desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma (DNMB) and to further characterize this subgroup. 17 children aged < 5 years, with initial DNMB treated according to the HIT-SKK protocol, were evaluated. A retrospective central radiological review, a pathological and immunohistochemical study, and array-CGH and sequencing of germline SUFU and PTCH1 genes were performed. 15 histologically reviewed cases were confirmed as DNMB including three cases of medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity. Median age at diagnosis was 26 months. Radiology showed five cases with a vermis location and one with T2 hyperintensity. All cases showed a SHH immunoprofile. A 9q deletion was found in 6 cases, a MYCN-MYCL amplification in 1 case, and a SUFU germline mutation in 1 case (/9). The presence of SUFU and PTCH1 germline mutations agreed with previous reports. At 3 years, progression-free survival and overallsurvival rates were 72 ± 15% and 85 ± 10%, respectively. The rate of recurrence was relatively high (4 patients). This may have been because chemotherapy was delayed in two cases. Age > 3 years, and residual tumor may also have been an explanation for recurrence.

Clinical, pathological, and molecular data on desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma: case studies and a review of the literature

PubMed Central

Siegfried, Aurore; Bertozzi, Anne Isabelle; Bourdeaut, Franck; Sevely, Annick; Loukh, Najat; Grison, Camille; Miquel, Catherine; Lafon, Delphine; Sevenet, Nicolas; Pietsch, Torsten; Dufour, Christelle; Delisle, Marie-Bernadette

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to better define the clinical and biopathological features of patients with desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma (DNMB) and to further characterize this subgroup. 17 children aged < 5 years, with initial DNMB treated according to the HIT-SKK protocol, were evaluated. A retrospective central radiological review, a pathological and immunohistochemical study, and array-CGH and sequencing of germline SUFU and PTCH1 genes were performed. 15 histologically reviewed cases were confirmed as DNMB including three cases of medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity. Median age at diagnosis was 26 months. Radiology showed five cases with a vermis location and one with T2 hyperintensity. All cases showed a SHH immuno-profile. A 9q deletion was found in 6 cases, a MYCN–MYCL amplification in 1 case, and a SUFU germline mutation in 1 case (/9). The presence of SUFU and PTCH1 germline mutations agreed with previous reports. At 3 years, progression-free survival and overall-survival rates were 72 ± 15% and 85 ± 10%, respectively. The rate of recurrence was relatively high (4 patients). This may have been because chemotherapy was delayed in two cases. Age > 3 years, and residual tumor may also have been an explanation for recurrence. PMID:26857864

Pleuroscopic punch biopsy using insulated-tip diathermic knife-2 for the diagnosis of desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma.

PubMed

Masai, Kyohei; Sasada, Shinji; Izumo, Takehiro; Taniyama, Tomoko; Nakamura, Yukiko; Chavez, Christine; Sakurai, Hiroyuki; Tsuta, Koji; Tsuchida, Takaaki

2013-10-01

Desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma (DMM) is a rare subtype of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) and is often difficult to distinguish from pleural fibrosis and reactive mesothelial hyperplasia, especially if the biopsy samples are small. We performed full-thickness pleural biopsy on a lesion suspected to be DMM using an insulated-tip diathermic knife-2 (IT knife-2) during flex-rigid pleuroscopy. IT knife-2 is a novel electrosurgical device for endoscopic submucosal dissection in the early gastrointestinal cancer. It consists of a needle knife with 3 short blades at the distal end attached to an insulated ceramic tip. A 54-year-old man presenting with chest wall mass and thickened pleura, in whom a computed tomography-guided percutaneous needle aspiration had remained negative, underwent flex-rigid pleuroscopy for definitive diagnosis. While applying electric current, we used the IT knife-2 to incise the pleura in a circular shape just above the endothoracic fascia. The incised pleura was removed by forceps and examined pathologically. The microscopic examination was compatible with DMM. We discovered that pleuroscopic punch biopsy using IT knife-2 can diagnose DMM. Use of IT knife-2 during flex-rigid pleuroscopy can obtain sufficient samples from densely thickened pleura, which is difficult to diagnose with small biopsies.

Immunohistochemical expression of WT1 by desmoplastic small round cell tumor: a comparative study with other small round cell tumors.

PubMed

Barnoud, R; Sabourin, J C; Pasquier, D; Ranchère, D; Bailly, C; Terrier-Lacombe, M J; Pasquier, B

2000-06-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCTs) present a reciprocal chromosomal translocation, t(11;22)(p13;q12), that results in fusion of Ewing's sarcoma and Wilms' tumor (WT1) genes. The authors evaluated 15 DSRCTs and 71 other tumors often considered in the differential diagnosis for immunoreactivity using a polyclonal antibody directed against the WT1 part of the chimeric protein resulting from this translocation. WT1 immunostaining was performed on paraffin material using the WT(C-19) antibody after heat-antigen retrieval. All the DSRCTs (15 of 15, 100%) demonstrated strong WT1 nuclear immunoreactivity. Ten of 14 nephroblastomas (71%) disclosed WT1-positive nuclei in accordance with the staining reported by others, and rare and focal nuclear positivity was detected in two of 17 rhabdomyosarcomas. WT1 immunoreactivity was not observed in Ewing's sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumors (zero of 21, 0%), neuroblastomas (zero of 17, 0%), or rhabdoid tumors of the kidney (zero of two, 0%). In nephroblastoma, differential diagnosis with DSRCT was not difficult: Clinical and morphologic data are not similar for these two entities. The current study validates WT1 immunoreactivity as a useful marker to separate DSRCT from other small round cell tumors.

Tumor-promoting desmoplasia is disrupted by depleting FAP-expressing stromal cells

PubMed Central

Scholler, John; Monslow, James; Avery, Diana; Newick, Kheng; O'Brien, Shaun; Evans, Rebecca A.; Bajor, David J.; Clendenin, Cynthia; Durham, Amy C; Buza, Elizabeth L; Vonderheide, Robert H; June, Carl H

2015-01-01

Malignant cells drive the generation of a desmoplastic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Cancer-associated stromal cells (CASCs) are a heterogeneous population that provides both negative and positive signals for tumor cell growth and metastasis. Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a marker of a major subset of CASCs in virtually all carcinomas. Clinically, FAP expression serves as an independent negative prognostic factor for multiple types of human malignancies. Prior studies established that depletion of FAP+ cells inhibits tumor growth by augmenting anti-tumor immunity. However, the potential for immune-independent effects on tumor growth have not been defined. Herein, we demonstrate that FAP+ CASCs are required for maintenance of the provisional tumor stroma since depletion of these cells, by adoptive transfer of FAP-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, reduced extracellular matrix proteins and glycosaminoglycans. Adoptive transfer of FAP-CAR T cells also decreased tumor vascular density and restrained growth of desmoplastic human lung cancer xenografts and syngeneic murine pancreatic cancers in an immune-independent fashion. Adoptive transfer of FAP-CAR T cells also restrained autochthonous pancreatic cancer growth. These data distinguish the function of FAP+ CASCs from other CASC subsets and provide support for further development of FAP+ stromal cell-targeted therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. PMID:25979873

Tumor-Promoting Desmoplasia Is Disrupted by Depleting FAP-Expressing Stromal Cells.

PubMed

Lo, Albert; Wang, Liang-Chuan S; Scholler, John; Monslow, James; Avery, Diana; Newick, Kheng; O'Brien, Shaun; Evans, Rebecca A; Bajor, David J; Clendenin, Cynthia; Durham, Amy C; Buza, Elizabeth L; Vonderheide, Robert H; June, Carl H; Albelda, Steven M; Puré, Ellen

2015-07-15

Malignant cells drive the generation of a desmoplastic and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Cancer-associated stromal cells (CASC) are a heterogeneous population that provides both negative and positive signals for tumor cell growth and metastasis. Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a marker of a major subset of CASCs in virtually all carcinomas. Clinically, FAP expression serves as an independent negative prognostic factor for multiple types of human malignancies. Prior studies established that depletion of FAP(+) cells inhibits tumor growth by augmenting antitumor immunity. However, the potential for immune-independent effects on tumor growth have not been defined. Herein, we demonstrate that FAP(+) CASCs are required for maintenance of the provisional tumor stroma because depletion of these cells, by adoptive transfer of FAP-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, reduced extracellular matrix proteins and glycosaminoglycans. Adoptive transfer of FAP-CAR T cells also decreased tumor vascular density and restrained growth of desmoplastic human lung cancer xenografts and syngeneic murine pancreatic cancers in an immune-independent fashion. Adoptive transfer of FAP-CAR T cells also restrained autochthonous pancreatic cancer growth. These data distinguish the function of FAP(+) CASCs from other CASC subsets and provide support for further development of FAP(+) stromal cell-targeted therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.

Multimodality Treatment of Desmoplastic small round cell tumor: Chemotherapy and Complete Cytoreductive Surgery Improve Patient Survival.

PubMed

Subbiah, Vivek; Lamhamedi-Cherradi, Salah-Eddine; Cuglievan, Branko; Menegaz, Brian A; Camacho, Pamela; Huh, Winston W; Ramamoorthy, Vandhana; Anderson, Peter M; Pollock, Raphael E; Lev, Dina; Qiao, Wei; McAleer, Mary Frances; Benjamin, Robert S; Patel, Shreyaskumar; Herzog, Cynthia E; Daw, Najat C; Feig, Barry W; Lazar, Alexander J; Hayes-Jordan, Andrea; Ludwig, Joseph A

2018-06-05

Purpose Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT), which harbors EWSR1-WT1 t(11;22)(p13:q12) chromosomal translocation, is an aggressive malignancy that typically presents as intra-abdominal sarcomatosis in young males. Given its rarity, optimal treatment has not been defined. Experimental Design We conducted a retrospective study of 187 DSRCT patients treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center over two decades. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed. We determined whether chemotherapy, complete cytoreductive surgery (CCS), hyperthermic intraperitoneal cisplatin (HIPEC), and/or whole abdominal radiation (WART) improve overall survival in DSRCT patients. Critically, since our institutional practice limits HIPEC and WART to patients with less extensive, potentially resectable disease that had benefited from neoadjuvant chemotherapy, a time-variant analysis was performed to evaluate those adjunct treatment modalities. CONCLUSIONS Improved 3- and 5-year overall survival were observed following multidisciplinary treatment that includes ES-based chemotherapy and complete tumor cytoreductive surgery, but few if any patients are cured. Prospective randomized studies will be required to prove whether HIPEC or WART are important. In the meantime, chemotherapy and CCS remain the cornerstone of treatment and provide a solid foundation to evaluate new biologically targeted therapies. Copyright ©2018, American Association for Cancer Research.

Gemcitabine Hydrochloride With or Without Pazopanib Hydrochloride in Treating Patients With Refractory Soft Tissue Sarcoma

ClinicalTrials.gov

2017-11-01

Adult Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma; Adult Angiosarcoma; Adult Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Adult Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma; Adult Epithelioid Sarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Myxoid Chondrosarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Osteosarcoma; Adult Fibrosarcoma; Adult Leiomyosarcoma; Adult Liposarcoma; Adult Malignant Mesenchymoma; Adult Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor; Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma; Adult Synovial Sarcoma; Adult Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma; Malignant Adult Hemangiopericytoma; Recurrent Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage III Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage IV Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Rare Presentations of Primary Melanoma and Special Populations: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Kottschade, Lisa A.; Grotz, Travis E.; Dronca, Roxana S.; Salomao, Diva R.; Pulido, Jose S.; Wasif, Nabil; Jakub, James W.; Bagaria, Sanjay P.; Kumar, Riten; Kaur, Judith S.; Morita, Shane Y.; Moran, Steven L.; Nguyen, Jesse T.; Nguyen, Emily C.; Hand, Jennifer L.; Erickson, Lori A.; Brewer, Jerry D.; Baum, Christian L.; Miller, Robert C.; Swanson, David L.; Lowe, Val; Markovic, Svetomir N.

2013-01-01

A subset of patients with melanoma present in rare and unique clinical circumstances requiring specific considerations with respect to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Herein we present our review of patients with: (1) primary mucosal melanoma of the head and neck, gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts; (2) primary melanoma of the eye; (3) desmoplastic melanoma; (4) subungual melanoma; (5) melanoma in special populations: children, non-Caucasians, as well as a discussion of familial melanoma. PMID:23563206

Collecting and Storing Tissue, Blood, and Bone Marrow Samples From Patients With Rhabdomyosarcoma or Other Soft Tissue Sarcoma

ClinicalTrials.gov

2017-12-11

Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma; Childhood Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Chordoma; Desmoid Tumor; Metastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Nonmetastatic Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Previously Treated Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Previously Untreated Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma; Recurrent Childhood Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage I Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage II Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage III Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage IV Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Clinicopathological characteristics of desmoplastic ameloblastoma: A systematic review.

PubMed

Anand, Rahul; Sarode, Gargi S; Sarode, Sachin C; Reddy, Mamatha; Unadkat, Hemant V; Mushtaq, Shazia; Deshmukh, Revati; Choudhary, Shakira; Gupta, Nitin; Ganjre, Anjali P; Patil, Shankargouda

2018-02-01

The aim of the present review was to systematically present the clinicopathological data of desmoplastic ameloblastoma (DA) from articles published in the literature. A comprehensive search of the databases (PubMed, Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, and Google Scholar) for published articles on DA was conducted. A total of 238 cases were identified and analyzed from 76 published papers. DA showed a slight male predilection (male: female=1.07:1) with a predominance in the fourth and fifth decades of life. Mandibular involvement (52.55%) was most commonly seen with a marked tendency for the anterior region (mandible: 40.9%, maxilla: 48.07%). The size of the lesion ranged from .5 cm to 20.4 cm, with the majority of cases measuring more than 3 cm in size (53.84%). Radiologically, most of the lesions presented mixed radiolucency and radiopacity (62%), and root resorption was observed in only seven cases. The majority of the lesions showed ill-defined margins upon radiographic examination (65.78%). Most of the cases were treated with resection (78.57%), and five of the 10 recurrent cases were treated by enucleation/curettage. DA is characterized by the unique presentation of clinicopathological parameters. It is not possible to comment on its aggressive/recurrent nature and best treatment modality due to inadequate follow-up data. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Distinct populations of inflammatory fibroblasts and myofibroblasts in pancreatic cancer. | Office of Cancer Genomics

Cancer.gov

Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) differentiate into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) that produce desmoplastic stroma, thereby modulating disease progression and therapeutic response in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). However, it is unknown whether CAFs uniformly carry out these tasks or if subtypes of CAFs with distinct phenotypes in PDA exist. We identified a CAF subpopulation with elevated expression of α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) located immediately adjacent to neoplastic cells in mouse and human PDA tissue.

Round Cell Tumors: Classification and Immunohistochemistry.

PubMed

Sharma, Shweta; Kamala, R; Nair, Divya; Ragavendra, T Raju; Mhatre, Swapnil; Sabharwal, Robin; Choudhury, Basanta Kumar; Rana, Vivek

2017-01-01

Round cell tumors as the name suggest are comprised round cells with increased nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio. This group of tumor includes entities such as peripheral neuroectodermal tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, neuroblastoma, hepatoblastoma, Wilms' tumor, and desmoplastic small round cell tumor. These round cells tumors are characterized by typical histological pattern, immunohistochemical, and electron microscopic features that can help in differential diagnosis. The present article describes the classification and explains the histopathology and immunohistochemistry of some important round cell tumors.

Outcome and Prognostic Factors of Radiation Therapy for Medulloblastoma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rieken, Stefan, E-mail: Stefan.Rieken@med.uni-heidelberg.de; Mohr, Angela; Habermehl, Daniel

2011-11-01

Purpose: To investigate treatment outcome and prognostic factors after radiation therapy in patients with medulloblastomas (MB). Methods and Materials: Sixty-six patients with histologically confirmed MB were treated at University Hospital of Heidelberg between 1985 and 2009. Forty-two patients (64%) were pediatric ({<=}18 years), and 24 patients (36%) were adults. Tumor resection was performed in all patients and was complete in 47%. All patients underwent postoperative craniospinal irradiation (CSI) delivering a median craniospinal dose of 35.5 Gy with additional boosts to the posterior fossa up to 54.0 Gy. Forty-seven patients received chemotherapy, including 21 in whom chemotherapy was administered before CSI.more » Statistical analysis was performed using the log-rank test and the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: Median follow-up was 93 months. Overall survival (OS) and local and distant progression-free survival (LPFS and DPFS) were 73%, 62%, and 77% at 60 months. Both local and distant recurrence predisposed for significantly reduced OS. Macroscopic complete tumor resection, desmoplastic histology and early initiation of postoperative radiation therapy within 28 days were associated with improved outcome. The addition of chemotherapy did not improve survival rates. Toxicity was moderate. Conclusions: Complete resection of MB followed by CSI yields long survival rates in both children and adults. Delayed initiation of CSI is associated with poor outcome. Desmoplastic histology is associated with improved survival. The role of chemotherapy, especially in the adult population, must be further investigated in clinical studies.« less

Clinical features and outcomes of 20 patients with abdominopelvic desmoplastic small round cell tumor.

PubMed

Angarita, F A; Hassan, S; Cannell, A J; Dickson, B C; Gladdy, R A; Swallow, C J; Gupta, A; Blackstein, M E; McCart, J A

2017-02-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare mesenchymal malignancy. We describe our experience with treating DSRCT at a large sarcoma referral center. A retrospective chart review was performed on DSRCT patients referred to our institution (1998-2014). Pathology specimens were reviewed to confirm the diagnosis. Clinical and imaging were extracted and summarized with descriptive statistics. Univariate analysis was performed to evaluate the association between patient, tumor, and treatment variables and overall survival (OS). In this study cohort of 20 patients, median age at presentation was 29 y (range 18-43) and 90% were male. Fifty-five percent presented with metastasis. Patients underwent chemotherapy (n = 20), radiation therapy (n = 3), and cytoreductive surgery (CRS) (n = 5). Median OS was 22 m (interquartile range: 12-28 m). Five-year OS rate was 20%. Extra-abdominal metastasis was associated with a higher hazard ratio (HR) of mortality (HR: 3.1, 95% C.I. 1.0-9.4, p = 0.04), while CRS improved OS (HR: 0.1, 95% C.I. 0.03-0.7, p = 0.02). Despite aggressive treatment, less than half of the patients were dead of DSRCT within 2 years of presentation. Although a select group of patients who underwent CRS had improved OS, novel treatments are urgently needed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

Fine-needle aspiration in desmoplastic small round cell tumor: a report of 10 new tumors in 8 patients with clinicopathological and molecular correlations with review of the literature.

PubMed

Klijanienko, Jerzy; Colin, Pierre; Couturier, Jérôme; Lagacé, Réal; Fréneaux, Paul; Pierron, Gaëlle; Laé, Marick; Klijanienko, Alice; Brisse, Hervé; Orbach, Daniel; Theocharis, Stamatios

2014-05-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare round cell sarcoma entity characterized by a specific t(11;22)(p13;q12) translocation, usually intra-abdominal localization and an aggressive clinical outcome. To date, only 35 DSRCT cases diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration have been described. This study reports the cytological diagnosis of DSRCT. Ten tumors from 8 patients were sampled for diagnosis and analyzed to search the characteristic translocation using fluorescence in situ hybridization or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction methods. Smears were always hypercellular and consisted of nonspecific round cell sarcoma. Nuclei were polymorphic round, kidney-, or heart-shaped. Nuclear molding was usually present. Paranuclear cytoplasmic densities were obvious and noted in 7 cases. Cytonuclear atypia, mitotic figures, numerous crushed nuclei, and apoptosis were frequently seen. Purple-stained stroma was present in 8 cases (ranging from few connective tissue fragments to large hyalinized deposits). Molecular studies based on cytological aspirates were performed in 8 patients. The presence of the fusion gene EWSR1-WT 1 transcript was identified in all, which confirmed the diagnosis of DSRCT. Smears showing poorly differentiated round cells associated with cytoplasmic densities and connective stoma, in a specific clinical context, young adult age, intra-abdominal localization, suggestive immunocytochemical profile, and a unique cytogenetic abnormality are highly specific and allow an accurate diagnosis of DSRCT. © 2014 American Cancer Society.

Desmoplastic fibroma of the rib with cystic change: a case report and literature review.

PubMed

Okubo, Taketo; Saito, Tsuyoshi; Takagi, Tatsuya; Suehara, Yoshiyuki; Kaneko, Kazuo

2014-05-01

Desmoplastic fibroma (DF) is a rare, locally aggressive, solitary tumor microscopically composed of well-differentiated myofibroblasts with abundant dense collagen deposition. The most common sites are the long tubular bones and mandible. To our knowledge, only five cases of DF in the ribs have been reported. Here, we report a case of DF in this rare location with unusual radiological findings. A 40-year-old man presented with a 4-year history of swelling of the right chest wall. Radiographs revealed a mass at the right 9th rib, and computed tomography demonstrated a mass of 14 × 12 × 8 cm at the right 9th rib with expanded cystic change and marked calcification that appeared to have arisen from the bone. Open biopsy suggested DF. Total excision was performed, and the chest wall was reconstructed. The surgical specimen was a yellowish tumor with multilocular cystic change containing a viscous liquid. The tumor was composed of a proliferation of less-atypical spindle-shaped cells in a collagenous background. The cystic change was observed in the extra-osseous lesion. No β-catenin cytoplasmic/nuclear accumulation was detected, and no β-catenin or GNAS genetic mutations were detected. A final diagnosis of DF was made on the basis of the pathological and radiological findings. The patient was successfully treated with total excision of the tumor with no evidence of recurrence 6 months after surgery.

Immunolocalization of glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 in non melanoma skin cancer.

PubMed

Bakry, Ola Ahmed; Samaka, Rehab Monir; Shoeib, Mohamed Abdel Moneim; Megahed, Doaa Mohamed

2015-04-01

Glioma-associated oncogene homolog (GLI)1 is involved in controlling cell proliferation and angiogenesis. The aim of this work was to explore its possible role in non-melanoma skin cancer pathogenesis through its immunohistochemical (IHC) expression in skin biopsies of these diseases and correlating this expression with the clinico-pathological parameters of the studied cases. Seventy-six cutaneous specimens were studied; 30 cases with basal cell carcinoma (BCC), 30 cases with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 16 normal skin samples, from age- and gender-matched subjects, as a control group. GLI1 was expressed in all BCC cases and in 60% of SCC cases. All SCC cases showed cytoplasmic, while 70% of BCC cases showed nucleocytoplasmic immunoreactivity. It was over expressed in BCC and SCC compared to normal skin (p = 0.01 and 0.0006, respectively). Higher Histo (H) score in BCC cases was significantly associated with female gender (p = 0.04), multiple lesions, desmoplastic stromal reaction and stromal angiogenesis (p < 0.001 for all). Higher H score in SCC cases was significantly associated with scalp location, nodular type, recurrent lesions, high tumor grade, lymphovascular invasion (p = 0.004 for all), inflammatory stromal reaction (p = 0.01), lymph node involvement and absence of calcification (p = 0.001 for both). In conclusion, GLI1 may play a role in BCC pathogenesis through its role in cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis. Its upregulation and cytoplasmic localization in SCC may suggest that its role in tumor pathogenesis is through mechanisms other than Hedgehog pathway activation. Further studies are needed to clarify the exact molecular basis of its oncogenic action.

Stromal and intraepithelial tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in colorectal carcinoma

PubMed Central

Jakubowska, Katarzyna; Kisielewski, Wojciech; Kańczuga-Koda, Luiza; Koda, Mariusz; Famulski, Waldemar

2017-01-01

The local mechanisms of antitumor immune defense determine the development and organization of the tumor microenvironment, and the composition and relative proportions of the inflammatory cell population affect the quality and characteristics of the immune response. The aim of the present study was to conduct a quantitative morphological evaluation of two types of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) populations, including those located in the stroma and intraepithelial cancer structures, in the invasive front and the center of the tumor in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). The study included 160 patients with CRC who had undergone surgery. The tissue material was stained with hematoxylin and eosin, as used in routine histopathological diagnosis, and the two TIL populations were observed and counted with light microscopy. The relative extent of infiltration of stromal and intraepithelial TILs into the front and center of the primary tumors was similar. The extent of infiltration by stromal TILs was negatively correlated with the morphological features of tumor progression including the cancer infiltration of blood vessels (P=0.016), the invasion of lymph vessels (P=0.007), perineural invasion (P=0.036), lymph node involvement (P=0.047) and distant metastases (P=0.032). The infiltration by intraepithelial TILs was positively correlated with a desmoplastic reaction (P=0.002). Disease-free survival time was statistically shorter in patients without intraepithelial TILs in the center of the primary tumor mass (P=0.049; hazard ratio = 1.45). These results confirm that the infiltration of TILs into the invasive front and center of the tumor in patients with CRC serves an important role in the invasion and progression of the disease, and should be considered in routine histopathological examinations. PMID:29151905

Traction esophageal diverticulum: a rare cause of gastro-intestinal bleeding.

PubMed

Ballehaninna, Umashankar K; Shaw, Jason P; Brichkov, Igor

2012-12-01

Esophageal diverticula are uncommon lesions that are usually classified according to their location (cervical, thoracic, or epiphrenic), or underlying pathogenesis (pulsion or traction), and their morphology (true or false).The majority of esophageal diverticula are acquired lesions that occur predominantly in elderly adults. Pulsion, or false, diverticula are the most commonly encountered type of esophageal diverticula noticed at the level of cricopharyngeus muscle, occur as a localized outpouchings that lacks a muscular coat, and as such their wall is formed entirely by mucosa and submucosa. True, or traction, esophageal diverticulum (TED) is seen in the middle one third of the thoracic esophagus in a peribronchial location, occurs secondary to mediastinal inflammatory lesions such as tuberculosis or histoplasmosis. The resultant desmoplastic reaction in the paraesophageal tissue causes full thickness pinching on the esophageal wall, producing a conical, broad-mouthed true diverticulum. They often project to the right side because subcarinal lymph nodes in this area are closely associated with the right anterior wall of the esophagus. TED usually presents with symptoms such as dysphagia, postural regurgitation, belching, retrosternal pain, heartburn, and epigastric pain. As in patients with pharyngoesophageal (Zenker's) diverticula, pulmonary symptoms are often present but underestimated in TED patients. These symptoms range from mild nocturnal cough to life-threatening massive aspiration. In this particular report we describe a rare case of TED presenting as a symptomatic upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Diagnostic evaluation of TED includes chest X-ray, barium esophagogram and manometry. A significant proportion of lower esophageal diverticula are associated with motility disorders. Management of TED include treating the underlying cause sometimes a surgical resection of diverticulum along with esophageal myotomy is necessitated in symptomatic patients.

SHH desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma and Gorlin syndrome in the setting of Down syndrome: case report, molecular profiling, and review of the literature.

PubMed

Mangum, Ross; Varga, Elizabeth; Boué, Daniel R; Capper, David; Benesch, Martin; Leonard, Jeffrey; Osorio, Diana S; Pierson, Christopher R; Zumberge, Nicholas; Sahm, Felix; Schrimpf, Daniel; Pfister, Stefan M; Finlay, Jonathan L

2016-12-01

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased risk of acute leukemia compared to a markedly decreased incidence of solid tumors. Medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of childhood, is particularly rare in the DS population, with only one published case. As demonstrated in a mouse model, DS is associated with cerebellar hypoplasia and a decreased number of cerebellar granule neuron progenitor cells (CGNPs) in the external granule cell layer (EGL). Treatment of these mice with sonic hedgehog signaling pathway (Shh) agonists promote normalization of CGNPs and improved cognitive functioning. We describe a 21-month-old male with DS and concurrent desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma (DNMB)-a tumor derived from Shh dysregulation and over-activation of CGNPs. Molecular profiling further classified the tumor into the new consensus SHH molecular subgroup. Additional testing revealed a de novo heterozygous germ line mutation in the PTCH1 gene encoding a tumor suppressor protein in the Shh pathway. The developmental failure of CGNPs in DS patients offers a plausible explanation for the rarity of medulloblastoma in this population. Conversely, patients with PTCH1 germline mutations experience Shh overstimulation resulting in Gorlin (Nevoid Basal Cell Carcinoma) syndrome and an increased incidence of malignant transformation of CGNPs leading to medulloblastoma formation. This represents the first documented report of an individual with DS simultaneously carrying PTCH1 germline mutation. We have observed a highly unusual circumstance in which the PTCH1 mutation appears to "trump" the effects of DS in causation of Shh-activated medulloblastoma.

Comparison of the value of PCNA and Ki-67 as markers of cell proliferation in ameloblastic tumor

PubMed Central

Mosqueda-Taylor, Adalberto; Molina-Frechero, Nelly; Mori-Estevez, Ana D.; Sánchez-Acuña, Guillermo

2013-01-01

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare among PCNAand Ki-67 as the most reliable immunohistochemical marker for evaluating cell proliferation in ameloblastic tumors. Study Design: Observational, retrospective, and descriptive study of a large series of ameloblastic tumors, composed of 161 ameloblastomas and four ameloblastic carcinomas, to determine and compare PCNA and Ki-67 expression using immunohistochemistry techniques. Results: When analyzing Ki-67 positivity, the desmoplastic ameloblastoma demonstrated a significantly lower proliferation rate (1.9%) compared with the solid/multicystic and unicystic ameloblastomas and ameloblastic carcinomas (p<0.05), whereas the ameloblastic carcinomas displayed a significantly higher rate compared with all of the other ameloblastomas (48.7%) (p<0.05). When analyzing cell proliferation with PCNA, we found significant differences only between the ameloblastic carcinomas (93.3%) and the desmoplastic ameloblastomas (p<0.05). When differences between the immunopositivity for PCNA and Ki-67 were compared, the percentages were higher for PCNA in all types of ameloblastomas and ameloblastic carcinomas. In all cases, the percentages were greater than 80%, whereas the immunopositivity for Ki-67 was significantly lower; for example, the ameloblastic carcinoma expressed the highest positivity and only reached 48.7%, compared to 93.3% when we used PCNA. Conclusions: In the present study, when we used the proliferation cell marker Ki-67, the percentages of positivity were more specific and varied among the different types of ameloblastomas, suggesting that Ki-67 is a more specific marker for the proliferation of ameloblastic tumor cells. Key words:Ameloblastomas, ameloblastic carcinoma, PCNA, Ki-67, cell proliferation markers. PMID:23229269

Results of NCCTG N0275 (Alliance) - a phase II trial evaluating resection followed by adjuvant radiation therapy for patients with desmoplastic melanoma.

PubMed

Rule, William G; Allred, Jacob B; Pockaj, Barbara A; Markovic, Svetomir N; DiCaudo, David J; Erickson, Lori A; Deming, Richard L; Schild, Steven E

2016-08-01

To examine, in a prospective fashion, the utilization and efficacy of adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) in patients with resected desmoplastic melanoma (DM). Adult patients with resected, margin-negative, and nonmetastatic DM were eligible for this single-arm prospective phase II study. Patients were to receive postoperative RT, 30 Gy in five fractions, to the operative bed with 2- to 3-cm margins (depending on the tumor location). Nodal basin RT was not allowed. The primary study endpoint was the 2-year local recurrence rate (LRR). Secondary endpoints included the incidence of regional and distant metastatic disease, progression-free survival, overall survival (OS), and treatment-related toxicity. Twenty patients with a single de novo DM lesion meeting trial eligibility criteria were enrolled and treated. The 2-year LRR was 10%, with two patients demonstrating a LR within 2 years of completion of protocol therapy. No regional or distant failures occurred. OS at 2 and 5 years was 95 and 77%, respectively. There were no grade 3 or higher acute or late adverse events that were related to the protocol therapy. Adjuvant RT after wide local excision (WLE) for DM is efficacious and well tolerated. It should be considered for DM patients after margin-negative WLE. Additional study is needed to further refine low-risk patient populations that can potentially have adjuvant RT omitted as part of the treatment plan. © 2016 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Enhanced immunohistochemical detection of neural infiltration in primary melanoma: is there a clinical value?

PubMed

Scanlon, Patrick; Tian, Jaiying; Zhong, Judy; Silva, Ines; Shapiro, Richard; Pavlick, Anna; Berman, Russell; Osman, Iman; Darvishian, Farbod

2014-08-01

Neural infiltration in primary melanoma is a histopathologic feature that has been associated with desmoplastic histopathologic subtype and local recurrence in the literature. We tested the hypothesis that improved detection and characterization of neural infiltration into peritumoral or intratumoral location and perineural or intraneural involvement could have a prognostic relevance. We studied 128 primary melanoma cases prospectively accrued and followed at New York University using immunohistochemical detection with antihuman neurofilament protein and routine histology with hematoxylin and eosin. Neural infiltration, defined as the presence of tumor cells involving or immediately surrounding nerve foci, was identified and characterized using both detection methods. Neural infiltration rate of detection was enhanced by immunohistochemistry for neurofilament in matched-pair design (47% by immunohistochemistry versus 25% by routine histology). Immunohistochemical detection of neural infiltration was significantly associated with ulceration (P = .021), desmoplastic and acral lentiginous histologic subtype (P = .008), and head/neck/hands/feet tumor location (P = .037). Routinely detected neural infiltration was significantly associated with local recurrence (P = .010). Immunohistochemistry detected more intratumoral neural infiltration cases compared with routine histology (30% versus 3%, respectively). Peritumoral and intratumoral nerve location had no impact on clinical outcomes. Using a multivariate model controlling for stage, neither routinely detected neural infiltration nor enhanced immunohistochemical characterization of neural infiltration was significantly associated with disease-free or overall survival. Our data demonstrate that routinely detected neural infiltration is associated with local recurrence in all histologic subtypes but that improved detection and characterization of neural infiltration with immunohistochemistry in primary melanoma does not add to prognostic relevance. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Serrated adenoma of the gallbladder: a case report.

PubMed

Rubio, Carlos A

2015-06-01

A case of serrated adenomatous polyp found in a cholecystectomy specimen is reported. The adenoma was built with mucosal crypts exhibiting unlocked serrations lined with up to high-grade dysplastic cells. A desmoplastic sclerotic tissue having multiple stromal hubs with branched thin spokes replaced the subjacent lamina propia, muscularis mucosae, and submucosa. The generous serrated configurations covering a multi-branched sclerotic stroma, gave the adenoma a papillary appearance. Review of the literature indicates that this appears to be the first reported case of serrated adenoma of the gallbladder. Copyright© 2015 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

Neurofibromin protein loss in desmoplastic melanoma subtypes: implicating NF1 allelic loss as a distinct genetic driver?

PubMed

Kadokura, Alexander; Frydenlund, Noah; Leone, Dominick A; Yang, Shi; Hoang, Mai P; Deng, April; Hernandez-Perez, Marier; Biswas, Asok; Singh, Rajendra; Yaar, Ron; Mahalingam, Meera

2016-07-01

Loss of the NF1 allele, coding for the protein neurofibromin, and polymorphism in the proto-oncogene RET (RETp) are purportedly common in desmoplastic melanoma (DM). DM is categorized into pure (PDM) and mixed (MDM) subtypes, which differ in prognosis. Most NF1 mutations result in a truncated/absent protein, making immunohistochemical screening for neurofibromin an ideal surrogate for NF1 allelic loss. Using antineurofibromin, our aims were to ascertain the incidence of neurofibromin loss in DM subtypes and to evaluate the relationship with RET, perineural invasion (PNI) and established histopathologic prognosticators. A total of 78 archival samples of DM met criteria for inclusion (54 cases of non-DM serving as controls). Immunohistochemistry was performed for neurofibromin, whereas direct DNA sequencing was used for RETp and BRAF mutation status. Statistical analyses included χ(2) test as well as Fisher exact test. Neurofibromin loss was more common in DM than non-DM (69% versus 54%; P=.02). In DM, significant differences in neurofibromin loss were noted in the following: non-head and neck versus head and neck biopsy site (88% versus 55%) and PDM versus MDM variants (80% versus 56%). No significant associations were noted with sex, presence of a junctional component, Breslow depth, ulceration, mitoses, host response, RETp, BRAF status, or PNI. RETp was marginally associated with PNI-positive DM versus PNI-negative DM (36 versus 18%; P=.08). Our findings, the largest to date investigating neurofibromin in DM, validate the incidence of NF1 mutations/allelic loss in DM and suggest that the DM subtypes have distinct genetic drivers. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Overexpression of periostin and distinct mesothelin forms predict malignant progression in a rat cholangiocarcinoma model

PubMed Central

Manzanares, Miguel Á.; Campbell, Deanna J.W.; Maldonado, Gabrielle T.

2017-01-01

Periostin and mesothelin have each been suggested to be predictors of poor survival for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, although the clinical prognostic value of both of these biomarkers remains uncertain. The aim of the current study was to investigate these biomarkers for their potential to act as tumor progression factors when assessed in orthotopic tumor and three‐dimensional culture models of rat cholangiocarcinoma progression. Using our orthotopic model, we demonstrated a strong positive correlation between tumor and serum periostin and mesothelin and increasing liver tumor mass and associated peritoneal metastases that also reflected differences in cholangiocarcinoma cell aggressiveness and malignant grade. Periostin immunostaining was most prominent in the desmoplastic stroma of larger sized more aggressive liver tumors and peritoneal metastases. In comparison, mesothelin was more highly expressed in the cholangiocarcinoma cells; the slower growing more highly differentiated liver tumors exhibited a luminal cancer cell surface immunostaining for this biomarker, and the rapidly growing less differentiated liver and metastatic tumor masses largely showed cytoplasmic mesothelin immunoreactivity. Two molecular weight forms of mesothelin were identified, one at ∼40 kDa and the other, a more heavily glycosylated form, at ∼50 kDa. Increased expression of the 40‐kDa mesothelin over that of the 50 kDa form predicted increased malignant progression in both the orthotopic liver tumors and in cholangiocarcinoma cells of different malignant potential in three‐dimensional culture. Moreover, coculturing of cancer‐associated myofibroblasts with cholangiocarcinoma cells promoted overexpression of the 40‐kDa mesothelin, which correlated with enhanced malignant progression in vitro. Conclusion: Periostin and mesothelin are useful predictors of tumor progression in our rat desmoplastic cholangiocarcinoma models. This supports their relevance to human intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. (Hepatology Communications 2018;2:155–172) PMID:29404524

Novel Secondary Somatic Mutations in Ewing's Sarcoma and Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors

PubMed Central

Janku, Filip; Ludwig, Joseph A.; Naing, Aung; Benjamin, Robert S.; Brown, Robert E.; Anderson, Pete; Kurzrock, Razelle

2014-01-01

Background Ewing's sarcoma (ES) and desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT) are small round blue cell tumors driven by an N-terminal containing EWS translocation. Very few somatic mutations have been reported in ES, and none have been identified in DSRCT. The aim of this study is to explore potential actionable mutations in ES and DSRCT. Methodology Twenty eight patients with ES or DSRCT had tumor tissue available that could be analyzed by one of the following methods: 1) Next-generation exome sequencing platform; 2) Multiplex PCR/Mass Spectroscopy; 3) Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based single- gene mutation screening; 4) Sanger sequencing; 5) Morphoproteomics. Principal Findings Novel somatic mutations were identified in four out of 18 patients with advanced ES and two of 10 patients with advanced DSRCT (six out of 28 (21.4%));KRAS (n = 1), PTPRD (n = 1), GRB10 (n = 2), MET (n = 2) and PIK3CA (n = 1). One patient with both PTPRD and GRB10 mutations and one with a GRB10 mutation achieved a complete remission (CR) on an Insulin like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) inhibitor based treatment. One patient, who achieved a partial remission (PR) with IGF1R inhibitor treatment, but later developed resistance, demonstrated a KRAS mutation in the post-treatment resistant tumor, but not in the pre-treatment tumor suggesting that the RAF/RAS/MEK pathway was activated with progression. Conclusions We have reported several different mutations in advanced ES and DSRCT that have direct implications for molecularly-directed targeted therapy. Our technology agnostic approach provides an initial mutational roadmap used in the path towards individualized combination therapy. PMID:25119929

Transcriptional Activation by NFκB Increases Perlecan/HSPG2 Expression in the Desmoplastic Prostate Tumor Microenvironment

PubMed Central

Warren, Curtis R.; Grindel, Brian J.; Francis, Lewis; Carson, Daniel D.; Farach-Carson, Mary C.

2014-01-01

Perlecan/HSPG2, a heparan sulfate proteoglycan typically found at tissue borders including those separating epithelia and connective tissue, increases near sites of invasion of primary prostatic tumors as previously shown for other proteins involved in desmoplastic tissue reaction. Studies of prostate cancer cells and stromal cells from both prostate and bone, the major site for prostate cancer metastasis, showed that cancer cells and a subset of stromal cells increased production of perlecan in response to cytokines present in the tumor microenvironment. In silico analysis of the HSPG2 promoter revealed two conserved NFκB binding sites, in addition to the previously reported SMAD3 binding sites. By systematically transfecting cells with a variety of reporter constructs including sequences up to 2.6 kb from the start site of transcription, we identified an active cis element in the distal region of the HSPG2 promoter, and showed that it functions in regulating transcription of HSPG2. Treatment with TNF-α and/or TGFβ1 identified TNF-α as a major cytokine regulator of perlecan production. TNF-α treatment also triggered p65 nuclear translocation and binding to the HSPG2 regulatory region in stromal cells and cancer cells. In addition to stromal induction of perlecan production in the prostate, we identified a matrix-secreting bone marrow stromal cell type that may represent the source for increases in perlecan in the metastatic bone marrow environment. These studies implicate perlecan in cytokine-mediated, innate tissue responses to cancer cell invasion, a process we suggest reflects a modified wound healing tissue response co-opted by prostate cancer cells. PMID:24700612

Unexpected extradermatological findings in 31 patients with xeroderma pigmentosum type C.

PubMed

Hadj-Rabia, S; Oriot, D; Soufir, N; Dufresne, H; Bourrat, E; Mallet, S; Poulhalon, N; Ezzedine, K; Ezzedine, E; Grandchamp, B; Taïeb, A; Catteau, B; Sarasin, A; Bodemer, C

2013-05-01

Xeroderma pigmentosum type C (XP-C) is a rare, autosomal, recessive condition characterized by the association of various clinical manifestations mostly involving the skin and eyes. To evaluate the clinical manifestations in a homogeneous, genetically characterized cohort of patients with XP-C. All patients with XP-C, which was confirmed genetically or by unscheduled DNA synthesis, from the registry of our department and from the French association of patients 'Les Enfants de la Lune' were contacted. During a planned consultation, clinical information was collected using a standardized case-record form. In total, 31 patients were seen. The mean age at diagnosis was 2.95 years; skin symptoms started at a mean age of 1.49 years. Among the patients, 52% had relatively short stature, with a height-for-weight z-score below -1 SD; 62% showed pyramidal syndrome and 45% had photophobia and/or conjunctivitis. Four patients had several pyogenic granulomas. Twenty-four patients (77%) had skin cancer. The mean age of onset of the first skin cancer was 4.76 years (range 2-14.5 years). Basal-cell carcinoma was the most frequent cancer. Melanomas were rare and mostly desmoplastic. Multinodular thyroid was the most frequent internal tumour. Our data highlight several new aspects of XP-C. Patients with XP-C are at risk of developing pyogenic granulomas, desmoplastic melanomas and multinodular thyroid. Involvement of the central nervous system is frequent, but its mechanism remains unclear. The relatively short stature of the patients needs further investigation in order to be explained. XP-C is not only a cancer-prone disorder but is also a polysystemic disorder. © 2012 The Authors. BJD © 2012 British Association of Dermatologists.

Poorly Differentiated Clusters Predict Colon Cancer Recurrence: An In-Depth Comparative Analysis of Invasive-Front Prognostic Markers.

PubMed

Konishi, Tsuyoshi; Shimada, Yoshifumi; Lee, Lik Hang; Cavalcanti, Marcela S; Hsu, Meier; Smith, Jesse Joshua; Nash, Garrett M; Temple, Larissa K; Guillem, José G; Paty, Philip B; Garcia-Aguilar, Julio; Vakiani, Efsevia; Gonen, Mithat; Shia, Jinru; Weiser, Martin R

2018-06-01

This study aimed to compare common histologic markers at the invasive front of colon adenocarcinoma in terms of prognostic accuracy and interobserver agreement. Consecutive patients who underwent curative resection for stages I to III colon adenocarcinoma at a single institution in 2007 to 2014 were identified. Poorly differentiated clusters (PDCs), tumor budding, perineural invasion, desmoplastic reaction, and Crohn-like lymphoid reaction at the invasive front, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) grade of the entire tumor, were analyzed. Prognostic accuracies for recurrence-free survival (RFS) were compared, and interobserver agreement among 3 pathologists was assessed. The study cohort consisted of 851 patients. Although all the histologic markers except WHO grade were significantly associated with RFS (PDCs, tumor budding, perineural invasion, and desmoplastic reaction: P<0.001; Crohn-like lymphoid reaction: P=0.021), PDCs (grade 1 [G1]: n=581; G2: n=145; G3: n=125) showed the largest separation of 3-year RFS in the full cohort (G1: 94.1%; G3: 63.7%; hazard ratio [HR], 6.39; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.11-9.95; P<0.001), stage II patients (G1: 94.0%; G3: 67.3%; HR, 4.15; 95% CI, 1.96-8.82; P<0.001), and stage III patients (G1: 89.0%; G3: 59.4%; HR, 4.50; 95% CI, 2.41-8.41; P<0.001). PDCs had the highest prognostic accuracy for RFS with the concordance probability estimate of 0.642, whereas WHO grade had the lowest. Interobserver agreement was the highest for PDCs, with a weighted kappa of 0.824. The risk of recurrence over time peaked earlier for worse PDCs grade. Our findings indicate that PDCs are the best invasive-front histologic marker in terms of prognostic accuracy and interobserver agreement. PDCs may replace WHO grade as a prognostic indicator.

Whole Abdominopelvic Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy for Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor After Surgery

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pinnix, Chelsea C.; Fontanilla, Hiral P.; Hayes-Jordan, Andrea

2012-05-01

Purpose: Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSCRT) is an uncommon pediatric tumor with a poor prognosis. Aggressive multimodality therapy is the current treatment approach; however. treatment toxicity is of concern. We report our results with whole abdominopelvic intensity-modulated radiation therapy (WAP-IMRT) as a component of multimodality therapy for DSCRT at a single institution. Materials/Methods: Medical records of all patients with DSCRT who received WAP-IMRT as part of definitive treatment at MD Anderson (2006-2010) were identified and reviewed. Results: Eight patients with DSRCT received WAP-IMRT with a median follow-up of 15.2 months. All patients received multiple courses of chemotherapy followed bymore » surgical debulking of intra-abdominal disease; seven also had intraoperative hyperthermic cisplatin. WAP-IMRT was delivered to a total dose of 30 Gy postoperatively; four patients received a simultaneous boost (6-10 Gy) to sites of gross residual disease. Seven patients received concurrent chemotherapy during WAP-IMRT. No Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Grade 4 nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea occurred during RT. Red-cell transfusions were given to two patients to maintain hemoglobin levels >10 g/dL. Grade 4 cytopenia requiring growth factor support occurred in only one patient; no other significant cytopenias were noted. WAP-IMRT resulted in 25% lower radiation doses to the lumbosacral vertebral bodies and pelvic bones than conventional RT plans. The median time to local or distant failure after WAP-IMRT was 8.73 months in seven patients. One patient who had completed RT 20 months before the last follow-up remains alive without evidence of disease. Five patients (63%) experienced treatment failure in the abdomen. Distant failure occurred in three patients (37.5%). Conclusions: WAP-IMRT with concurrent radiosensitizing chemotherapy was well tolerated after aggressive surgery for DSCRT. Enhanced bone sparing with IMRT probably accounts for the low hematologic toxicity (vs. conventional WAP-RT). This modality should be considered as an additional local-regional control option for DSRCT.« less

Detection of desmoplastic melanoma with dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy.

PubMed

Maher, N G; Solinas, A; Scolyer, R A; Puig, S; Pellacani, G; Guitera, P

2017-12-01

Desmoplastic melanoma (DM) is frequently misdiagnosed clinically and often associated with melanoma in situ (MIS). To improve the detection of DM using dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). A descriptive analysis of DM dermoscopy features and a case-control study within a melanoma population for RCM feature evaluation was performed blindly, using data obtained between 2005 and 2015. After retrospectively identifying all DM cases with RCM data over the study period (n = 16), a control group of non-DM melanoma patients with RCM data, in a ratio of at least 3 : 1, was selected. The control group was matched by age and primary tumour site location, divided into non-DM invasive melanomas (n = 27) and MIS (n = 27). Invasive melanomas were selected according to the melanoma subtypes associated with the DM cases. The main outcomes were the frequency of melanoma-specific features on dermoscopy for DM; and the odds ratios of RCM features to distinguish DM from MIS and/or other invasive melanomas; or MIS from the combined invasive melanoma group. At least one of the 14 melanoma-specific features evaluated on dermoscopy was found in 100% of DMs (n = 15 DM with dermoscopy). Known RCM melanoma predictors were commonly found in the DMs, such as pagetoid cells (100%) and cell atypia (100%). The RCM feature of spindle cells in the superficial dermis was more common in DM compared with the entire melanoma control group (OR 3.82, 95% CI 1.01-14.90), and particularly compared to MIS (OR 5.48, 95% CI 1.11-32.36). Nucleated cells in the dermis and the RCM correlate of dermal inflammation were also significant RCM features favouring DM over MIS, as well as invasive melanoma over MIS. Dermoscopy and RCM may be useful tools for the identification of DM. Certain RCM features may help distinguish DM from MIS and other invasive melanomas. Larger studies are warranted. © 2017 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

ETV4 is a useful marker for the diagnosis of CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas: a study of 127 cases including mimicking lesions.

PubMed

Le Guellec, Sophie; Velasco, Valérie; Pérot, Gaëlle; Watson, Sarah; Tirode, Franck; Coindre, Jean-Michel

2016-12-01

Subsets of primitive round-cell sarcomas remain difficult to diagnose and classify. Among these is a rare round-cell sarcoma that harbors a CIC gene rearrangement known as CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcoma, which is most commonly fused to the DUX4 gene. Owing to its aggressive clinical behavior and potential therapeutic implications, accurate identification of this novel soft tissue sarcoma is necessary. Definitive diagnosis requires molecular confirmation, but only a few centers are as yet able to perform this test. Several studies have shown that PEA3 subfamily genes, notably ETV4 (belonging to the family of ETS transcription factors), are upregulated in CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas. We performed a detailed immunohistochemical analysis to investigate ETV4 expression in CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas and their potential mimics (especially Ewing sarcomas). The study cohort included 17 cases of CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas, and 110 tumors that morphologically mimic CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas: 43 Ewing sarcomas, 25 alveolar rhabdomyosarcomas, 20 poorly differentiated round-cell synovial sarcomas, 10 desmoplastic round-cell tumors, 5 BCOR-CCNB3 sarcomas, 5 lymphoblastic lymphomas, and 2 rhabdoid tumors. All CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas (on core needle biopsies and open biopsies) were ETV4-positive with a strong diffuse nuclear pattern. Among the other 110 tumors, only six cases (four Ewing sarcomas, one alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, and one desmoplastic round-cell tumor) showed focal (<5% of tumor cells) and very weak nuclear expression of ETV4; all other tumors were completely negative for ETV4. We conclude that systematic immunohistochemical analysis of ETV4 makes it possible to diagnose undifferentiated round-cell sarcomas (with no molecular markers for sarcoma-associated translocation) such as CIC-rearranged undifferentiated round-cell sarcoma.

Collision Tumor between Trichofolliculoma and Melanocytic Nevus.

PubMed

Bolte, Christel; Cullen, Roberto; Sazunic, Ivo

2017-01-01

Trichofolliculoma (TF) is a hamartomatous hair follicle-related tumor, clinically described as a dome-shaped papule with a central pore crossed by one or more silky white hairs. Histologically, it described as a cystic cavity containing keratinous debris, hair shaft fragments, and numerous hair follicles arising from its linings. Collision or compound tumors are a coexistence of two or more identifiable tumors in the same lesion. We present a case of a 47-year-old man with a lesion on his left cheek clinically characterized as a TF. However, the histopathological study reveals a collision tumor involving a TF and a melanocytic nevus. Collision tumors involving melanocytic nevi and hair follicle-related tumors have been previously reported, such as desmoplastic trichoepithelioma, epidermoid cyst, folliculosebaceous cystic hamartoma, and trichoadenoma.

Clinicopathological analysis of colorectal cancer: a comparison between emergency and elective surgical cases.

PubMed

Ghazi, Sam; Berg, Elisabeth; Lindblom, Annika; Lindforss, Ulrik

2013-06-11

Approximately 15 to 30% of colorectal cancers present as an emergency, most often as obstruction or perforation. Studies report poorer outcome for patients who undergo emergency compared with elective surgery, both for their initial hospital stay and their long-term survival. Advanced tumor pathology and tumors with unfavorable histologic features may provide the basis for the difference in outcome. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and pathologic profiles of emergency and elective surgical cases for colorectal cancer, and relate these to gender, age group, tumor location, and family history of the disease. The main outcome measure was the difference in morphology between elective and emergency surgical cases. In total, 976 tumors from patients treated surgically for colorectal cancer between 2004 and 2006 in Stockholm County, Sweden (8 hospitals) were analyzed in the study. Seventeen morphological features were examined and compared with type of operation (elective or emergency), gender, age, tumor location, and family history of colorectal cancer by re-evaluating the histopathologic features of the tumors. In a univariate analysis, the following characteristics were found more frequently in emergency compared with elective cases: multiple tumors, higher American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), tumor (T) and node (N) stage, peri-tumor lymphocytic reaction, high number of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, signet-ring cell mucinous carcinoma, desmoplastic stromal reaction, vascular and perineural invasion, and infiltrative tumor margin (P<0.0001 for AJCC stage III to IV, N stage 1 to 2/3, and vascular invasion). In a multivariate analysis, all these differences, with the exception of peri-tumor lymphocytic reaction, remained significant (P<0.0001 for multiple tumors, perineural invasion, infiltrative tumor margin, AJCC stage III, and N stage 1 to 2/3). Colorectal cancers that need surgery as an emergency case generally show a more aggressive histopathologic profile and a more advanced stage than do elective cases. Essentially, no difference was seen in location, and therefore it is likely there would be no differences in macro-environment either. Our results could indicate that colorectal cancers needing emergency surgery belong to an inherently specific group with a different etiologic or genetic background.

Role of Adjuvant Radiation Therapy After Surgery for Abdominal Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Atallah, Vincent; Honore, Charles; Orbach, Daniel

Purpose: To identify the prognostic role of adjuvant abdominal radiation therapy (RT) on oncologic outcomes as a part of multimodal treatment in the management of desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) and to determine its impact according to the quality of surgical resection. Methods and Materials: All patients treated for primary abdominal DSRCT in 8 French centers from 1991 to 2014 were included. Patients were retrospectively staged into 3 groups: group A treated with adjuvant RT after cytoreductive surgery, group B without RT after cytoreductive surgery, and group C by exclusive chemotherapy. Peritoneal progression-free survival (PPFS), progression-free survival (PFS), andmore » overall survival (OS) were evaluated. We also performed a direct comparison between groups A and B to evaluate RT after cytoreductive surgery. Radiation therapy was also evaluated according to completeness of surgery: complete cytoreductive surgery (CCS) or incomplete cytoreductive surgery (ICS). Results: Thirty-seven (35.9%), thirty-six (34.9%), and thirty (28.0%) patients were included in groups A, B, and C, respectively. Three-year OS was 61.2% (range, 41.0%-76.0%), 37.6% (22.0%-53.1%), and 17.3% (6.3%-32.8%) for groups A, B, and C, respectively. Overall survival, PPFS, and PFS differed significantly among the 3 groups (P<.001, P<.001, and P<.001, respectively). Overall survival and PPFS were higher in group A (RT group) compared with group B (no RT group) (P=.045 and P=.006, respectively). Three-year PPFS was 23.8% (10.3%-40.4%) for group A and 12.51% (4.0%-26.2%) for group B. After CCS, RT improved PPFS (P=.024), but differences in OS and PFS were not significant (P=.40 and P=.30, respectively). After ICS, RT improved OS (P=.044). A trend of PPFS and PFS increase was observed, but the difference was not statistically significant (P=.073 and P=.076). Conclusions: Adjuvant RT as part of multimodal treatment seems to confer oncologic benefits for patients treated for abdominal DSRCT after cytoreductive surgery and perioperative chemotherapy.« less

Vismodegib and Gamma-Secretase/Notch Signalling Pathway Inhibitor RO4929097 in Treating Patients With Advanced or Metastatic Sarcoma

ClinicalTrials.gov

2016-06-09

Adult Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma; Adult Angiosarcoma; Adult Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor; Adult Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma; Adult Epithelioid Sarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Myxoid Chondrosarcoma; Adult Extraskeletal Osteosarcoma; Adult Fibrosarcoma; Adult Leiomyosarcoma; Adult Liposarcoma; Adult Malignant Mesenchymoma; Adult Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor; Adult Rhabdomyosarcoma; Adult Synovial Sarcoma; Adult Unclassified Pleomorphic Sarcoma; Chondrosarcoma; Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Kidney; Conjunctival Kaposi Sarcoma; Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor; Metastatic Ewing Sarcoma/Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Metastatic Osteosarcoma; Ovarian Sarcoma; Recurrent Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Recurrent Adult Unclassified Pleomorphic Sarcoma of Bone; Recurrent Ewing Sarcoma/Peripheral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumor; Recurrent Kaposi Sarcoma; Recurrent Osteosarcoma; Recurrent Uterine Corpus Sarcoma; Small Intestine Leiomyosarcoma; Stage III Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage III Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IV Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma; Stage IV Uterine Sarcoma; Unclassified Pleomorphic Sarcoma of Bone

Spatial computation of intratumoral T cells correlates with survival of patients with pancreatic cancer.

PubMed

Carstens, Julienne L; Correa de Sampaio, Pedro; Yang, Dalu; Barua, Souptik; Wang, Huamin; Rao, Arvind; Allison, James P; LeBleu, Valerie S; Kalluri, Raghu

2017-04-27

The exact nature and dynamics of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) immune composition remains largely unknown. Desmoplasia is suggested to polarize PDAC immunity. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of the composition and distribution of desmoplastic elements and T-cell infiltration is necessary to delineate their roles. Here we develop a novel computational imaging technology for the simultaneous evaluation of eight distinct markers, allowing for spatial analysis of distinct populations within the same section. We report a heterogeneous population of infiltrating T lymphocytes. Spatial distribution of cytotoxic T cells in proximity to cancer cells correlates with increased overall patient survival. Collagen-I and αSMA + fibroblasts do not correlate with paucity in T-cell accumulation, suggesting that PDAC desmoplasia may not be a simple physical barrier. Further exploration of this technology may improve our understanding of how specific stromal composition could impact T-cell activity, with potential impact on the optimization of immune-modulatory therapies.

Using Gold Nanoparticles To Disrupt the Tumor Microenvironment: An Emerging Therapeutic Strategy.

PubMed

Melamed, Jilian R; Riley, Rachel S; Valcourt, Danielle M; Day, Emily S

2016-12-27

Gold nanoparticles have received much attention recently as carriers for anticancer drugs and therapeutic oligonucleotides, but little research has investigated their potential to act as stand-alone therapeutics. Previous studies interrogating their short- and long-term systemic toxicity have found that although gold nanoparticles accumulate within and clear slowly from the liver and spleen, they do not appear to exert toxic effects in these organs. Interestingly, gold nanoparticles innately exhibit the ability to modulate the tumor microenvironment specifically by interfering with crosstalk between tumor cells and stromal cells. In this issue of ACS Nano, Mukherjee and colleagues demonstrate that bare gold nanoparticles can disturb crosstalk between pancreatic stellate cells and pancreatic cancer cells by modulating the cellular secretome to reduce the growth of desmoplastic tissue and inhibit tumor growth. In this Perspective, we highlight opportunities for anticancer targeting within the tumor microenvironment and discuss gold nanoparticles as potential mediators of microenvironment-targeted therapy.

Insight On Colorectal Carcinoma Infiltration by Studying Perilesional Extracellular Matrix

PubMed Central

Nebuloni, Manuela; Albarello, Luca; Andolfo, Annapaola; Magagnotti, Cinzia; Genovese, Luca; Locatelli, Irene; Tonon, Giovanni; Longhi, Erika; Zerbi, Pietro; Allevi, Raffaele; Podestà, Alessandro; Puricelli, Luca; Milani, Paolo; Soldarini, Armando; Salonia, Andrea; Alfano, Massimo

2016-01-01

The extracellular matrix (ECM) from perilesional and colorectal carcinoma (CRC), but not healthy colon, sustains proliferation and invasion of tumor cells. We investigated the biochemical and physical diversity of ECM in pair-wised comparisons of healthy, perilesional and CRC specimens. Progressive linearization and degree of organization of fibrils was observed from healthy to perilesional and CRC ECM, and was associated with a steady increase of stiffness and collagen crosslinking. In the perilesional ECM these modifications coincided with increased vascularization, whereas in the neoplastic ECM they were associated with altered modulation of matrisome proteins, increased content of hydroxylated lysine and lysyl oxidase. This study identifies the increased stiffness and crosslinking of the perilesional ECM predisposing an environment suitable for CRC invasion as a phenomenon associated with vascularization. The increased stiffness of colon areas may represent a new predictive marker of desmoplastic region predisposing to invasion, thus offering new potential application for monitoring adenoma with invasive potential. PMID:26940881

Cutaneous melanocytic lesions: do not miss the invisible gorilla.

PubMed

Prieto, Victor G

2012-07-01

Of all pathology fields, the analysis of melanocytic lesions has one of the highest rates of review for legal reasons, particularly regarding the distinction between nevus and melanoma. Among the most frequently involved are desmoplastic melanoma, nevoid melanoma, and Spitz nevus versus spitzoid melanoma. Therefore, it follows that pathologists and dermatopathologists should pay special attention when dealing with such type of lesions. This review article will emphasize a number of clinical, histologic, and immunohistochemical features we believe are essential when evaluating lesions whose differential diagnosis includes melanoma/nevus. Furthermore, we want to stress the importance of examining the entire slide within the context of all available information in order to not miss the invisible gorilla in the slide. Regarding this apparently bizarre choice to illustrate these problems (to not miss an invisible gorilla), we request the reader to continue reading this article to find out why.

Morphoproteomic profiling of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway in desmoplastic small round cell tumor (EWS/WT1), Ewing's sarcoma (EWS/FLI1) and Wilms' tumor(WT1).

PubMed

Subbiah, Vivek; Brown, Robert E; Jiang, Yunyun; Buryanek, Jamie; Hayes-Jordan, Andrea; Kurzrock, Razelle; Anderson, Pete M

2013-01-01

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare sarcoma in adolescents and young adults. The hallmark of this disease is a EWS-WT1 translocation resulting from apposition of the Ewing's sarcoma (EWS) gene with the Wilms' tumor (WT1) gene. We performed morphoproteomic profiling of DSRCT (EWS-WT1), Ewing's sarcoma (EWS-FLI1) and Wilms' tumor (WT1) to better understand the signaling pathways for selecting future targeted therapies. This pilot study assessed patients with DSRCT, Wilms' tumor and Ewing's sarcoma. Morphoproteomics and immunohistochemical probes were applied to detect: p-mTOR (Ser2448); p-Akt (Ser473); p-ERK1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204); p-STAT3 (Tyr 705); and cell cycle-related analytes along with their negative controls. In DSRCT the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is constitutively activated by p-Akt (Ser 473) expression in the nuclear compartment of the tumor cells and p-mTOR phosphorylated on Ser 2448, suggesting mTORC2 (rictor+mTOR) as the dominant form. Ewing's sarcoma had upregulated p-Akt and p-mTOR, predominantly mTORC2. In Wilm's tumor, the mTOR pathway is also activated with most tumor cells moderately expressing p-mTOR (Ser 2448) in plasmalemmal and cytoplasmic compartments. This coincides with the constitutive activation of one of the downstream effectors of the mTORC1 signaling pathway, namely p-p70S6K (Thr 389). There was constitutive activation of the Ras/Raf/ERK pathway p-ERK 1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204) expression in the Wilms tumor and metastatic Ewing's sarcoma, but not in the DSRCT. MORPHOPROTEOMIC TUMOR ANALYSES REVEALED CONSTITUTIVE ACTIVATION OF THE MTOR PATHWAY AS EVIDENCED BY: (a) expression of phosphorylated (p)-mTOR, p-p70S6K; (b) mTORC 2 in EWS and DSRCT; (c) ERK signaling was seen in the advanced setting indicating these as resistance pathways to IGF1R related therapies. This is the first morphoproteomic study of such pathways in these rare malignancies and may have potential therapeutic implications. Further study using morphoproteomic assessments of these tumors are warranted.

Reduced Toxicity With Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) for Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor (DSRCT): An Update on the Whole Abdominopelvic Radiation Therapy (WAP-RT) Experience

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Desai, Neil B.; Stein, Nicholas F.; LaQuaglia, Michael P.

2013-01-01

Purpose: Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare malignancy typically involving the peritoneum in young men. Whole abdominopelvic radiation therapy (WAP-RT) using conventional 2-dimensional (2D) radiation therapy (RT) is used to address local recurrence but has been limited by toxicity. Our objectives were to assess the benefit of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) on toxicity and to update the largest series on radiation for DSRCT. Methods and Materials: The records of 31 patients with DSRCT treated with WAP-RT (22 with 2D-RT and 9 with IMRT) between 1992 and 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. All received multi-agent chemotherapy and maximalmore » surgical debulking followed by 30 Gy of WAP-RT. A further focal boost of 12 to 24 Gy was used in 12 cases. Boost RT and autologous stem cell transplantation were nearly exclusive to patients treated with 2D-RT. Toxicities were assessed with the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Dosimetric analysis compared IMRT and simulated 2D-RT dose distributions. Results: Of 31 patients, 30 completed WAP-RT, with a median follow-up after RT of 19 months. Acute toxicity was reduced with IMRT versus 2D-RT: P=.04 for gastrointestinal toxicity of grade 2 or higher (33% vs 77%); P=.02 for grade 4 hematologic toxicity (33% vs 86%); P=.01 for rates of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; and P=.04 for rates of platelet transfusion. Post treatment red blood cell and platelet transfusion rates were also reduced (P=.01). IMRT improved target homogeneity ([D05-D95]/D05 of 21% vs 46%) and resulted in a 21% mean bone dose reduction. Small bowel obstruction was the most common late toxicity (23% overall). Updated 3-year overall survival and progression-free survival rates were 50% and 24%, respectively. Overall survival was associated with distant metastasis at diagnosis on multivariate analysis. Most failures remained intraperitoneal (88%). Conclusions: IMRT for consolidative WAP-RT in DSRCT improves hematologic toxicity in particular. Although the long-term efficacy of current treatment options remains disappointing, the improved therapeutic index of IMRT may aid in generalizing its use and allowing the addition of novel approaches such as intraperitoneal immunotherapy.« less

Immunohistochemical analyses of alpha1 and alpha3 Na+/K+-ATPase subunit expression in medulloblastomas.

PubMed

Suñol, Mariona; Cusi, Victoria; Cruz, Ofelia; Kiss, Robert; Lefranc, Florence

2011-03-01

The levels of expression of the α1 and α3 subunits of the Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase (the NaK sodium pump) in medulloblastomas are unclear. This study investigated the expression of the NaK subunits using immunohistochemical methods in 29 medulloblastomas including 23 classic, three large-cell/anaplastic and three nodular/desmoplastic medulloblastomas, as well as in three atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RTs). There was overexpression of the α1 or α3 NaK subunits in more than half of the medulloblastomas and atypical AT/RTs, with about one-third of these tumours displaying overexpression of both subunits. These preliminary data suggest that targeting these subunits in AT/RTs and medulloblastomas that overexpress these proteins may lead to therapeutic benefit. These findings warrant confirmation in larger numbers of patients than those used in this study. Moreover, it should be determined whether inhibition of the α1/α3 NaK subunits can be integrated into the risk stratification schemes already in use for medulloblastoma patients.

Pancreatic cancer and its stroma: A conspiracy theory

PubMed Central

Xu, Zhihong; Pothula, Srinivasa P; Wilson, Jeremy S; Apte, Minoti V

2014-01-01

Pancreatic cancer is characterised by a prominent desmoplastic/stromal reaction that has received little attention until recent times. Given that treatments focusing on pancreatic cancer cells alone have failed to significantly improve patient outcome over many decades, research efforts have now moved to understanding the pathophysiology of the stromal reaction and its role in cancer progression. In this regard, our Group was the first to identify the cells (pancreatic stellate cells, PSCs) that produced the collagenous stroma of pancreatic cancer and to demonstrate that these cells interacted closely with cancer cells to facilitate local tumour growth and distant metastasis. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that stromal PSCs may also mediate angiogenesis, immune evasion and the well known resistance of pancreatic cancer to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This review will summarise current knowledge regarding the critical role of pancreatic stellate cells and the stroma in pancreatic cancer biology and the therapeutic approaches being developed to target the stroma in a bid to improve the outcome of this devastating disease. PMID:25170206

Systems and methods for optimal power flow on a radial network

DOEpatents

Low, Steven H.; Peng, Qiuyu

2018-04-24

Node controllers and power distribution networks in accordance with embodiments of the invention enable distributed power control. One embodiment includes a node controller including a distributed power control application; a plurality of node operating parameters describing the operating parameter of a node and a set of at least one node selected from the group consisting of an ancestor node and at least one child node; wherein send node operating parameters to nodes in the set of at least one node; receive operating parameters from the nodes in the set of at least one node; calculate a plurality of updated node operating parameters using an iterative process to determine the updated node operating parameters using the node operating parameters that describe the operating parameters of the node and the set of at least one node, where the iterative process involves evaluation of a closed form solution; and adjust node operating parameters.

Sentinel nodes identified by computed tomography-lymphography accurately stage the axilla in patients with breast cancer

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Sentinel node biopsy often results in the identification and removal of multiple nodes as sentinel nodes, although most of these nodes could be non-sentinel nodes. This study investigated whether computed tomography-lymphography (CT-LG) can distinguish sentinel nodes from non-sentinel nodes and whether sentinel nodes identified by CT-LG can accurately stage the axilla in patients with breast cancer. Methods This study included 184 patients with breast cancer and clinically negative nodes. Contrast agent was injected interstitially. The location of sentinel nodes was marked on the skin surface using a CT laser light navigator system. Lymph nodes located just under the marks were first removed as sentinel nodes. Then, all dyed nodes or all hot nodes were removed. Results The mean number of sentinel nodes identified by CT-LG was significantly lower than that of dyed and/or hot nodes removed (1.1 vs 1.8, p <0.0001). Twenty-three (12.5%) patients had ≥2 sentinel nodes identified by CT-LG removed, whereas 94 (51.1%) of patients had ≥2 dyed and/or hot nodes removed (p <0.0001). Pathological evaluation demonstrated that 47 (25.5%) of 184 patients had metastasis to at least one node. All 47 patients demonstrated metastases to at least one of the sentinel nodes identified by CT-LG. Conclusions CT-LG can distinguish sentinel nodes from non-sentinel nodes, and sentinel nodes identified by CT-LG can accurately stage the axilla in patients with breast cancer. Successful identification of sentinel nodes using CT-LG may facilitate image-based diagnosis of metastasis, possibly leading to the omission of sentinel node biopsy. PMID:24321242

Broadcasting a message in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Faraj, Ahmad A

2013-04-16

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for broadcasting a message in a parallel computer that includes: transmitting, by the logical root to all of the nodes directly connected to the logical root, a message; and for each node except the logical root: receiving the message; if that node is the physical root, then transmitting the message to all of the child nodes except the child node from which the message was received; if that node received the message from a parent node and if that node is not a leaf node, then transmitting the message to all of the child nodes; and if that node received the message from a child node and if that node is not the physical root, then transmitting the message to all of the child nodes except the child node from which the message was received and transmitting the message to the parent node.

Broadcasting a message in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for broadcasting a message in a parallel computer that includes: transmitting, by the logical root to all of the nodes directly connected to the logical root, a message; and for each node except the logical root: receiving the message; if that node is the physical root, then transmitting the message to all of the child nodes except the child node from which the message was received; if that node received the message from a parent node and if that node is not a leaf node, then transmitting the message to all of the childmore » nodes; and if that node received the message from a child node and if that node is not the physical root, then transmitting the message to all of the child nodes except the child node from which the message was received and transmitting the message to the parent node.« less

Dynamically reassigning a connected node to a block of compute nodes for re-launching a failed job

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Budnik, Thomas A; Knudson, Brant L; Megerian, Mark G

Methods, systems, and products for dynamically reassigning a connected node to a block of compute nodes for re-launching a failed job that include: identifying that a job failed to execute on the block of compute nodes because connectivity failed between a compute node assigned as at least one of the connected nodes for the block of compute nodes and its supporting I/O node; and re-launching the job, including selecting an alternative connected node that is actively coupled for data communications with an active I/O node; and assigning the alternative connected node as the connected node for the block of computemore » nodes running the re-launched job.« less

Identifying messaging completion in a parallel computer by checking for change in message received and transmitted count at each node

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Hardwick, Camesha R [Fayetteville, NC; McCarthy, Patrick J [Rochester, MN; Wallenfelt, Brian P [Eden Prairie, MN

2009-06-23

Methods, parallel computers, and products are provided for identifying messaging completion on a parallel computer. The parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes, the compute nodes coupled for data communications by at least two independent data communications networks including a binary tree data communications network optimal for collective operations that organizes the nodes as a tree and a torus data communications network optimal for point to point operations that organizes the nodes as a torus. Embodiments include reading all counters at each node of the torus data communications network; calculating at each node a current node value in dependence upon the values read from the counters at each node; and determining for all nodes whether the current node value for each node is the same as a previously calculated node value for each node. If the current node is the same as the previously calculated node value for all nodes of the torus data communications network, embodiments include determining that messaging is complete and if the current node is not the same as the previously calculated node value for all nodes of the torus data communications network, embodiments include determining that messaging is currently incomplete.

Fault tolerant hypercube computer system architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Madan, Herb S. (Inventor); Chow, Edward (Inventor)

1989-01-01

A fault-tolerant multiprocessor computer system of the hypercube type comprising a hierarchy of computers of like kind which can be functionally substituted for one another as necessary is disclosed. Communication between the working nodes is via one communications network while communications between the working nodes and watch dog nodes and load balancing nodes higher in the structure is via another communications network separate from the first. A typical branch of the hierarchy reporting to a master node or host computer comprises, a plurality of first computing nodes; a first network of message conducting paths for interconnecting the first computing nodes as a hypercube. The first network provides a path for message transfer between the first computing nodes; a first watch dog node; and a second network of message connecting paths for connecting the first computing nodes to the first watch dog node independent from the first network, the second network provides an independent path for test message and reconfiguration affecting transfers between the first computing nodes and the first switch watch dog node. There is additionally, a plurality of second computing nodes; a third network of message conducting paths for interconnecting the second computing nodes as a hypercube. The third network provides a path for message transfer between the second computing nodes; a fourth network of message conducting paths for connecting the second computing nodes to the first watch dog node independent from the third network. The fourth network provides an independent path for test message and reconfiguration affecting transfers between the second computing nodes and the first watch dog node; and a first multiplexer disposed between the first watch dog node and the second and fourth networks for allowing the first watch dog node to selectively communicate with individual ones of the computing nodes through the second and fourth networks; as well as, a second watch dog node operably connected to the first multiplexer whereby the second watch dog node can selectively communicate with individual ones of the computing nodes through the second and fourth networks. The branch is completed by a first load balancing node; and a second multiplexer connected between the first load balancing node and the first and second watch dog nodes, allowing the first load balancing node to selectively communicate with the first and second watch dog nodes.

Scheduling applications for execution on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer to manage temperature of the nodes during execution

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Peters, Amanda E; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian E

2012-10-16

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for scheduling applications for execution on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer to manage temperature of the plurality of compute nodes during execution that include: identifying one or more applications for execution on the plurality of compute nodes; creating a plurality of physically discontiguous node partitions in dependence upon temperature characteristics for the compute nodes and a physical topology for the compute nodes, each discontiguous node partition specifying a collection of physically adjacent compute nodes; and assigning, for each application, that application to one or more of the discontiguous node partitions for execution on the compute nodes specified by the assigned discontiguous node partitions.

Aggregating job exit statuses of a plurality of compute nodes executing a parallel application

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aho, Michael E.; Attinella, John E.; Gooding, Thomas M.

Aggregating job exit statuses of a plurality of compute nodes executing a parallel application, including: identifying a subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer to execute the parallel application; selecting one compute node in the subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer as a job leader compute node; initiating execution of the parallel application on the subset of compute nodes; receiving an exit status from each compute node in the subset of compute nodes, where the exit status for each compute node includes information describing execution of some portion of the parallel application by the compute node; aggregatingmore » each exit status from each compute node in the subset of compute nodes; and sending an aggregated exit status for the subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer.« less

Distributing an executable job load file to compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gooding, Thomas M.

Distributing an executable job load file to compute nodes in a parallel computer, the parallel computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes, including: determining, by a compute node in the parallel computer, whether the compute node is participating in a job; determining, by the compute node in the parallel computer, whether a descendant compute node is participating in the job; responsive to determining that the compute node is participating in the job or that the descendant compute node is participating in the job, communicating, by the compute node to a parent compute node, an identification of a data communications linkmore » over which the compute node receives data from the parent compute node; constructing a class route for the job, wherein the class route identifies all compute nodes participating in the job; and broadcasting the executable load file for the job along the class route for the job.« less

Reconfigureable network node

DOEpatents

Vanderveen, Keith B [Tracy, CA; Talbot, Edward B [Livermore, CA; Mayer, Laurence E [Davis, CA

2008-04-08

Nodes in a network having a plurality of nodes establish communication links with other nodes using available transmission media, as the ability to establish such links becomes available and desirable. The nodes predict when existing communications links will fail, become overloaded or otherwise degrade network effectiveness and act to establish substitute or additional links before the node's ability to communicate with the other nodes on the network is adversely affected. A node stores network topology information and programmed link establishment rules and criteria. The node evaluates characteristics that predict existing links with other nodes becoming unavailable or degraded. The node then determines whether it can form a communication link with a substitute node, in order to maintain connectivity with the network. When changing its communication links, a node broadcasts that information to the network. Other nodes update their stored topology information and consider the updated topology when establishing new communications links for themselves.

Protocol for multiple node network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkham, Harold (Inventor)

1995-01-01

The invention is a multiple interconnected network of intelligent message-repeating remote nodes which employs an antibody recognition message termination process performed by all remote nodes and a remote node polling process performed by other nodes which are master units controlling remote nodes in respective zones of the network assigned to respective master nodes. Each remote node repeats only those messages originated in the local zone, to provide isolation among the master nodes.

Protocol for multiple node network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkham, Harold (Inventor)

1994-01-01

The invention is a multiple interconnected network of intelligent message-repeating remote nodes which employs an antibody recognition message termination process performed by all remote nodes and a remote node polling process performed by other nodes which are master units controlling remote nodes in respective zones of the network assigned to respective master nodes. Each remote node repeats only those messages originated in the local zone, to provide isolation among the master nodes.

In vivo and ex vivo sentinel node mapping does not identify the same lymph nodes in colon cancer.

PubMed

Andersen, Helene Schou; Bennedsen, Astrid Louise Bjørn; Burgdorf, Stefan Kobbelgaard; Eriksen, Jens Ravn; Eiholm, Susanne; Toxværd, Anders; Riis, Lene Buhl; Rosenberg, Jacob; Gögenur, Ismail

2017-07-01

Identification of lymph nodes and pathological analysis is crucial for the correct staging of colon cancer. Lymph nodes that drain directly from the tumor area are called "sentinel nodes" and are believed to be the first place for metastasis. The purpose of this study was to perform sentinel node mapping in vivo with indocyanine green and ex vivo with methylene blue in order to evaluate if the sentinel lymph nodes can be identified by both techniques. Patients with colon cancer UICC stage I-III were included from two institutions in Denmark from February 2015 to January 2016. In vivo sentinel node mapping with indocyanine green during laparoscopy and ex vivo sentinel node mapping with methylene blue were performed in all patients. Twenty-nine patients were included. The in vivo sentinel node mapping was successful in 19 cases, and ex vivo sentinel node mapping was successful in 13 cases. In seven cases, no sentinel nodes were identified. A total of 51 sentinel nodes were identified, only one of these where identified by both techniques (2.0%). In vivo sentinel node mapping identified 32 sentinel nodes, while 20 sentinel nodes were identified by ex vivo sentinel node mapping. Lymph node metastases were found in 10 patients, and only two had metastases in a sentinel node. Placing a deposit in relation to the tumor by indocyanine green in vivo or of methylene blue ex vivo could only identify sentinel lymph nodes in a small group of patients.

Node 3 Relocation Environmental Control and Life Support System Modification Kit Verification and Updated Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, David E.; Spector Lawrence N.

2010-01-01

Node 1 (Unity) flew to International Space Station (ISS) on Flight 2A. Node 1 was the first module of the United States On-Orbit Segment (USOS) launched to ISS. The Node 1 ISS Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) design featured limited ECLS capability. The main purpose of Node 1 was to provide internal storage by providing four stowage rack locations within the module and to allow docking of multiple modules and a truss segment to it. The ECLS subsystems inside Node 1 were routed through the element prior to launch to allow for easy integration of the attached future elements, particularly the Habitation Module which was planned to be located at the nadir docking port of Node 1. After Node I was on-orbit, the Program decided not to launch the Habitation Module and instead, to replace it with Node 3 (Tranquility). In 2007, the Program became concerned with a potential Russian docking port approach issue for the Russian FGB nadir docking port after Node 3 is attached to Node 1. To solve this concern the Program decided to relocate Node 3 from Node I nadir to Node 1 port. To support the movement of Node 3 the Program decided to build a modification kit for Node 1, an on-orbit feedthrough leak test device, and new vestibule jumpers to support the ECLS part of the relocation. This paper provides a design overview of the modification kit for Node 1, a summary of the Node 1 ECLS re-verification to support the Node 3 relocation from Node 1 nadir to Node 1 port, and a status of the ECLS modification kit installation into Node 1.

Method and apparatus for routing data in an inter-nodal communications lattice of a massively parallel computer system by routing through transporter nodes

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Musselman, Roy Glenn; Peters, Amanda; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Swartz, Brent Allen; Wallenfelt, Brian Paul

2010-11-16

A massively parallel computer system contains an inter-nodal communications network of node-to-node links. An automated routing strategy routes packets through one or more intermediate nodes of the network to reach a destination. Some packets are constrained to be routed through respective designated transporter nodes, the automated routing strategy determining a path from a respective source node to a respective transporter node, and from a respective transporter node to a respective destination node. Preferably, the source node chooses a routing policy from among multiple possible choices, and that policy is followed by all intermediate nodes. The use of transporter nodes allows greater flexibility in routing.

Compiling software for a hierarchical distributed processing system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian E

2013-12-31

Compiling software for a hierarchical distributed processing system including providing to one or more compiling nodes software to be compiled, wherein at least a portion of the software to be compiled is to be executed by one or more nodes; compiling, by the compiling node, the software; maintaining, by the compiling node, any compiled software to be executed on the compiling node; selecting, by the compiling node, one or more nodes in a next tier of the hierarchy of the distributed processing system in dependence upon whether any compiled software is for the selected node or the selected node's descendents; sending to the selected node only the compiled software to be executed by the selected node or selected node's descendent.

Synchronizing compute node time bases in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Faraj, Daniel A; Gooding, Thomas M; Heidelberger, Philip

2015-01-27

Synchronizing time bases in a parallel computer that includes compute nodes organized for data communications in a tree network, where one compute node is designated as a root, and, for each compute node: calculating data transmission latency from the root to the compute node; configuring a thread as a pulse waiter; initializing a wakeup unit; and performing a local barrier operation; upon each node completing the local barrier operation, entering, by all compute nodes, a global barrier operation; upon all nodes entering the global barrier operation, sending, to all the compute nodes, a pulse signal; and for each compute node upon receiving the pulse signal: waking, by the wakeup unit, the pulse waiter; setting a time base for the compute node equal to the data transmission latency between the root node and the compute node; and exiting the global barrier operation.

Synchronizing compute node time bases in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Faraj, Daniel A; Gooding, Thomas M; Heidelberger, Philip

2014-12-30

Synchronizing time bases in a parallel computer that includes compute nodes organized for data communications in a tree network, where one compute node is designated as a root, and, for each compute node: calculating data transmission latency from the root to the compute node; configuring a thread as a pulse waiter; initializing a wakeup unit; and performing a local barrier operation; upon each node completing the local barrier operation, entering, by all compute nodes, a global barrier operation; upon all nodes entering the global barrier operation, sending, to all the compute nodes, a pulse signal; and for each compute node upon receiving the pulse signal: waking, by the wakeup unit, the pulse waiter; setting a time base for the compute node equal to the data transmission latency between the root node and the compute node; and exiting the global barrier operation.

Distributed downhole drilling network

DOEpatents

Hall, David R.; Hall, Jr., H. Tracy; Fox, Joe; Pixton, David S.

2006-11-21

A high-speed downhole network providing real-time data from downhole components of a drilling strings includes a bottom-hole node interfacing to a bottom-hole assembly located proximate the bottom end of a drill string. A top-hole node is connected proximate the top end of the drill string. One or several intermediate nodes are located along the drill string between the bottom-hole node and the top-hole node. The intermediate nodes are configured to receive and transmit data packets transmitted between the bottom-hole node and the top-hole node. A communications link, integrated into the drill string, is used to operably connect the bottom-hole node, the intermediate nodes, and the top-hole node. In selected embodiments, a personal or other computer may be connected to the top-hole node, to analyze data received from the intermediate and bottom-hole nodes.

EXTENSIBLE DATABASE FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGEMENT OF UNSTRUCTURED AND SEMI-STRUCTURED DOCUMENTS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gawdiak, Yuri O. (Inventor); La, Tracy T. (Inventor); Lin, Shu-Chun Y. (Inventor); Malof, David A. (Inventor); Tran, Khai Peter B. (Inventor)

2005-01-01

Method and system for querying a collection of Unstructured or semi-structured documents to identify presence of, and provide context and/or content for, keywords and/or keyphrases. The documents are analyzed and assigned a node structure, including an ordered sequence of mutually exclusive node segments or strings. Each node has an associated set of at least four, five or six attributes with node information and can represent a format marker or text, with the last node in any node segment usually being a text node. A keyword (or keyphrase) is specified. and the last node in each node segment is searched for a match with the keyword. When a match is found at a query node, or at a node determined with reference to a query node, the system displays the context andor the content of the query node.

Node 3 Relocation Environmental Control and Life Support System Modification Kit Verification and Updated Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, David E.; Spector, Lawrence N.

2009-01-01

Node 1 (Unity) flew to International Space Station (ISS) on Flight 2A. Node 1 was the first module of the United States On-Orbit Segment (USOS) launched to ISS. The Node 1 ISS Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) design featured limited ECLS capability. The main purpose of Node 1 was to provide internal storage by providing four stowage rack locations within the module and to allow docking of multiple modules and a truss segment to it. The ECLS subsystems inside Node 1 were routed through the element prior to launch to allow for easy integration of the attached future elements, particularly the Habitation Module which was planned to be located at the nadir docking port of Node 1. After Node 1 was on-orbit, the Program decided not to launch the Habitation Module and instead, to replace it with Node 3 (Tranquility). In 2007, the Program became concerned with a potential Russian docking port approach issue for the Russian FGB nadir docking port after Node 3 is attached to Node 1. To solve this concern the Program decided to relocate Node 3 from Node 1 nadir to Node 1 port. To support the movement of Node 3 the Program decided to build a modification kit for Node 1, an on-orbit feedthrough leak test device, and new vestibule jumpers to support the ECLS part of the relocation. This paper provides a design overview of the modification kit, a summary of the Node 1 ECLS re-verification to support the Node 3 relocation from Node 1 nadir to Node 1 port, and a status of the ECLS modification kit installation into Node 1.

Weighted compactness function based label propagation algorithm for community detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Weitong; Zhang, Rui; Shang, Ronghua; Jiao, Licheng

2018-02-01

Community detection in complex networks, is to detect the community structure with the internal structure relatively compact and the external structure relatively sparse, according to the topological relationship among nodes in the network. In this paper, we propose a compactness function which combines the weight of nodes, and use it as the objective function to carry out the node label propagation. Firstly, according to the node degree, we find the sets of core nodes which have great influence on the network. The more the connections between the core nodes and the other nodes are, the larger the amount of the information these kernel nodes receive and transform. Then, according to the similarity of the nodes between the core nodes sets and the nodes degree, we assign weights to the nodes in the network. So the label of the nodes with great influence will be the priority in the label propagation process, which effectively improves the accuracy of the label propagation. The compactness function between nodes and communities in this paper is based on the nodes influence. It combines the connections between nodes and communities with the degree of the node belongs to its neighbor communities based on calculating the node weight. The function effectively uses the information of nodes and connections in the network. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve good results in the artificial network and large-scale real networks compared with the 8 contrast algorithms.

Anatomy and nomenclature of murine lymph nodes: Descriptive study and nomenclatory standardization in BALB/cAnNCrl mice.

PubMed

Van den Broeck, Wim; Derore, Annie; Simoens, Paul

2006-05-30

Murine lymph nodes are intensively studied but often assigned incorrectly in scientific papers. In BALB/cAnNCrl mice, we characterized a total of 22 different lymph nodes. Peripheral nodes were situated in the head and neck region (mandibular, accessory mandibular, superficial parotid, cranial deep cervical nodes), and at the forelimb (proper axillary, accessory axillary nodes) and hindlimb (subiliac, sciatic, popliteal nodes). Intrathoracic lymph nodes included the cranial mediastinal, tracheobronchal and caudal mediastinal nodes. Abdominal lymph nodes were associated with the gastrointestinal tract (gastric, pancreaticoduodenal, jejunal, colic, caudal mesenteric nodes) or were located along the major intra-abdominal blood vessels (renal, lumbar aortic, lateral iliac, medial iliac and external iliac nodes). Comparative and nomenclative aspects of murine lymph nodes are discussed. The position of the lymph nodes of BALB/cAnNCrl mice is summarized and illustrated in an anatomical chart containing proposals for both an official nomenclature according to the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria and English terms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gooding, Thomas M.

Distributing an executable job load file to compute nodes in a parallel computer, the parallel computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes, including: determining, by a compute node in the parallel computer, whether the compute node is participating in a job; determining, by the compute node in the parallel computer, whether a descendant compute node is participating in the job; responsive to determining that the compute node is participating in the job or that the descendant compute node is participating in the job, communicating, by the compute node to a parent compute node, an identification of a data communications linkmore » over which the compute node receives data from the parent compute node; constructing a class route for the job, wherein the class route identifies all compute nodes participating in the job; and broadcasting the executable load file for the job along the class route for the job.« less

Error recovery to enable error-free message transfer between nodes of a computer network

DOEpatents

Blumrich, Matthias A.; Coteus, Paul W.; Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Hoenicke, Dirk; Takken, Todd; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard; Vranas, Pavlos M.

2016-01-26

An error-recovery method to enable error-free message transfer between nodes of a computer network. A first node of the network sends a packet to a second node of the network over a link between the nodes, and the first node keeps a copy of the packet on a sending end of the link until the first node receives acknowledgment from the second node that the packet was received without error. The second node tests the packet to determine if the packet is error free. If the packet is not error free, the second node sets a flag to mark the packet as corrupt. The second node returns acknowledgement to the first node specifying whether the packet was received with or without error. When the packet is received with error, the link is returned to a known state and the packet is sent again to the second node.

AISIM (Automated Interactive Simulation Modeling System) VAX Version Training Manual.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-02-01

node to which the link is to run, a-nd-(3) a user-given name of the link. To pi’ace a link called " LINKI " from NODE1 to NODE2, type CON NODE1,NODE2...example, to eliminate the connection between NODEI and NODE2 type DELETE LINKI The result on the screen would be that the link named "LINK1" would...the user should now enter the command: DEFINE PATH,NODE2 ,NODE4, LINKI ,LINK4 not only would the path from NODE2 to NODE4 be established, but the path

[Correlation factors of lymph node metastasis in patients with clinical stage T1a non-small cell lung cancer].

PubMed

Ruochuan, Zang; Shugeng, Guo; Jie, He; Yousheng, Mao; Qi, Xue; Dali, Wang; Juwei, Mu; Jun, Zhao; Yonggang, Wang; Xiangyang, Liu; Fengwei, Tan; Gefei, Zhao; Qian, Zhang; Moyan, Zhang; Peng, Song

2015-04-01

To explore the relationship between the lymph node metastasis and clinicopathological features in patients with clinical stage T1a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Clinicopathological data of a total of 418 patients who underwent lobectomy and systematic lymph node dissection were retrospectively analyzed. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between lymph node metastasis and clinicopathological features. Lymph node metastasis was observed in 25 patients. There were 122 patients who were diagnosed as ground glass opacity with no lymph node metastasis. 399 patients had subcarinal dissection, among them 7 patients were found to have lymph node metastasis. Univariate analysis showed that gender, smoking history, diameter of lymph node, ground glass opacity (GGO), differentiation of the tumor and tumor site were the factors affecting lymph node metastasis (all P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that diameter of lymph node, differentiation of the tumor and the site of lesion were independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis of NSCLC. Tumor in the left lung, poor differentiation, and diameter of lymph nodes ≥ 1 cm on the preoperative CT image are independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis of NSCLC, hence we should pay attention before surgery and systematic lymph node dissection should be done. For patients with poor differentiation and lymph nodes ≥ 1 cm, subcarinal lymph nodes dissection is recommended for the sake of higher possibility of lymph node metastasis. For patients with ground glass opacity ≤ 2 cm, the lymph node metastasis is extremely rare, therefore, selective lymph node dissection is reconmmended.

Node Self-Deployment Algorithm Based on an Uneven Cluster with Radius Adjusting for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Jiang, Peng; Xu, Yiming; Wu, Feng

2016-01-01

Existing move-restricted node self-deployment algorithms are based on a fixed node communication radius, evaluate the performance based on network coverage or the connectivity rate and do not consider the number of nodes near the sink node and the energy consumption distribution of the network topology, thereby degrading network reliability and the energy consumption balance. Therefore, we propose a distributed underwater node self-deployment algorithm. First, each node begins the uneven clustering based on the distance on the water surface. Each cluster head node selects its next-hop node to synchronously construct a connected path to the sink node. Second, the cluster head node adjusts its depth while maintaining the layout formed by the uneven clustering and then adjusts the positions of in-cluster nodes. The algorithm originally considers the network reliability and energy consumption balance during node deployment and considers the coverage redundancy rate of all positions that a node may reach during the node position adjustment. Simulation results show, compared to the connected dominating set (CDS) based depth computation algorithm, that the proposed algorithm can increase the number of the nodes near the sink node and improve network reliability while guaranteeing the network connectivity rate. Moreover, it can balance energy consumption during network operation, further improve network coverage rate and reduce energy consumption. PMID:26784193

High speed polling protocol for multiple node network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkham, Harold (Inventor)

1995-01-01

The invention is a multiple interconnected network of intelligent message-repeating remote nodes which employs a remote node polling process performed by a master node by transmitting a polling message generically addressed to all remote nodes associated with the master node. Each remote node responds upon receipt of the generically addressed polling message by transmitting a poll-answering informational message and by relaying the polling message to other adjacent remote nodes.

Identifying failure in a tree network of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Pinnow, Kurt W.; Wallenfelt, Brian P.

2010-08-24

Methods, parallel computers, and products are provided for identifying failure in a tree network of a parallel computer. The parallel computer includes one or more processing sets including an I/O node and a plurality of compute nodes. For each processing set embodiments include selecting a set of test compute nodes, the test compute nodes being a subset of the compute nodes of the processing set; measuring the performance of the I/O node of the processing set; measuring the performance of the selected set of test compute nodes; calculating a current test value in dependence upon the measured performance of the I/O node of the processing set, the measured performance of the set of test compute nodes, and a predetermined value for I/O node performance; and comparing the current test value with a predetermined tree performance threshold. If the current test value is below the predetermined tree performance threshold, embodiments include selecting another set of test compute nodes. If the current test value is not below the predetermined tree performance threshold, embodiments include selecting from the test compute nodes one or more potential problem nodes and testing individually potential problem nodes and links to potential problem nodes.

Value of peripheral nodes in controlling multilayer scale-free networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yan; Garas, Antonios; Schweitzer, Frank

2016-01-01

We analyze the controllability of a two-layer network, where driver nodes can be chosen randomly only from one layer. Each layer contains a scale-free network with directed links and the node dynamics depends on the incoming links from other nodes. We combine the in-degree and out-degree values to assign an importance value w to each node, and distinguish between peripheral nodes with low w and central nodes with high w . Based on numerical simulations, we find that the controllable part of the network is larger when choosing low w nodes to connect the two layers. The control is as efficient when peripheral nodes are driver nodes as it is for the case of more central nodes. However, if we assume a cost to utilize nodes that is proportional to their overall degree, utilizing peripheral nodes to connect the two layers or to act as driver nodes is not only the most cost-efficient solution, it is also the one that performs best in controlling the two-layer network among the different interconnecting strategies we have tested.

Electronic Resources for Security Related Information, CIAC-2307 R.1

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-12-01

administrators NETwork - Statistics about the network NODEntry node1 <node2 <…>> - BITEARN NODES entry for the specified node(s) NODEntry node1 / abc */xyz...Just the “:xyz.” tag and all tags whose name starts with “ abc ” PATHs snode node1 <node2 <…>> - BITNET path between “snode” and the specified node(s...protect their data and sytems . The mention of vendors or product names does not imply criticism or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards

Performing process migration with allreduce operations

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Peters, Amanda; Wallenfelt, Brian Paul

2010-12-14

Compute nodes perform allreduce operations that swap processes at nodes. A first allreduce operation generates a first result and uses a first process from a first compute node, a second process from a second compute node, and zeros from other compute nodes. The first compute node replaces the first process with the first result. A second allreduce operation generates a second result and uses the first result from the first compute node, the second process from the second compute node, and zeros from others. The second compute node replaces the second process with the second result, which is the first process. A third allreduce operation generates a third result and uses the first result from first compute node, the second result from the second compute node, and zeros from others. The first compute node replaces the first result with the third result, which is the second process.

System for solving diagnosis and hitting set problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vatan, Farrokh (Inventor); Fijany, Amir (Inventor)

2007-01-01

The diagnosis problem arises when a system's actual behavior contradicts the expected behavior, thereby exhibiting symptoms (a collection of conflict sets). System diagnosis is then the task of identifying faulty components that are responsible for anomalous behavior. To solve the diagnosis problem, the present invention describes a method for finding the minimal set of faulty components (minimal diagnosis set) that explain the conflict sets. The method includes acts of creating a matrix of the collection of conflict sets, and then creating nodes from the matrix such that each node is a node in a search tree. A determination is made as to whether each node is a leaf node or has any children nodes. If any given node has children nodes, then the node is split until all nodes are leaf nodes. Information gathered from the leaf nodes is used to determine the minimal diagnosis set.

Send-side matching of data communications messages

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Blocksome, Michael A.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2014-07-01

Send-side matching of data communications messages includes a plurality of compute nodes organized for collective operations, including: issuing by a receiving node to source nodes a receive message that specifies receipt of a single message to be sent from any source node, the receive message including message matching information, a specification of a hardware-level mutual exclusion device, and an identification of a receive buffer; matching by two or more of the source nodes the receive message with pending send messages in the two or more source nodes; operating by one of the source nodes having a matching send message the mutual exclusion device, excluding messages from other source nodes with matching send messages and identifying to the receiving node the source node operating the mutual exclusion device; and sending to the receiving node from the source node operating the mutual exclusion device a matched pending message.

Send-side matching of data communications messages

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Blocksome, Michael A.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2014-06-17

Send-side matching of data communications messages in a distributed computing system comprising a plurality of compute nodes, including: issuing by a receiving node to source nodes a receive message that specifies receipt of a single message to be sent from any source node, the receive message including message matching information, a specification of a hardware-level mutual exclusion device, and an identification of a receive buffer; matching by two or more of the source nodes the receive message with pending send messages in the two or more source nodes; operating by one of the source nodes having a matching send message the mutual exclusion device, excluding messages from other source nodes with matching send messages and identifying to the receiving node the source node operating the mutual exclusion device; and sending to the receiving node from the source node operating the mutual exclusion device a matched pending message.

Methods and apparatus using commutative error detection values for fault isolation in multiple node computers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Almasi, Gheorghe; Blumrich, Matthias Augustin; Chen, Dong

Methods and apparatus perform fault isolation in multiple node computing systems using commutative error detection values for--example, checksums--to identify and to isolate faulty nodes. When information associated with a reproducible portion of a computer program is injected into a network by a node, a commutative error detection value is calculated. At intervals, node fault detection apparatus associated with the multiple node computer system retrieve commutative error detection values associated with the node and stores them in memory. When the computer program is executed again by the multiple node computer system, new commutative error detection values are created and stored inmore » memory. The node fault detection apparatus identifies faulty nodes by comparing commutative error detection values associated with reproducible portions of the application program generated by a particular node from different runs of the application program. Differences in values indicate a possible faulty node.« less

Providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Faraj, Ahmad A; Inglett, Todd A; Ratterman, Joseph D

2013-04-16

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer, each compute node connected to each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through a link, that include: receiving a network packet in a compute node, the network packet specifying a destination compute node; selecting, in dependence upon the destination compute node, at least one of the links for the compute node along which to forward the network packet toward the destination compute node; and forwarding the network packet along the selected link to the adjacent compute node connected to the compute node through the selected link.

What Is a False Negative Sentinel Node Biopsy: Definition, Reasons and Ways to Minimize It?

PubMed

Kataria, Kamal; Srivastava, Anurag; Qaiser, Darakhshan

2016-10-01

Sentinel node biopsy helps in assessing the involvement of axillary lymph node without the morbidity of full axillary lymph node dissection, namely arm and shoulder pain, paraesthesia and lymphoedema. The various methods described in the literature identify the sentinel lymph nodes in approximately 96 % of cases and associated with a false negativity rate of 5 to 10 %. A false negative sentinel node is defined as the proportion of cases in whom sentinel node biopsy is reported as negative, but the rest of axillary lymph node(s) harbours cancer cells. The possible causes of a false negative sentinel lymph node may be because of blocked lymphatics either by cancer cells or following fibrosis of previous surgery/radiotherapy, and an alternative pathway opens draining the blue dye or isotope to another uninvolved node . The other reasons may be two lymphatic pathways for a tumour area, the one opening to a superficial node and the other in deep nodes. Sometimes, lymphatics do not relay into a node but traverse it going to a higher node. In some patients, the microscopic focus of metastasis inside a lymph node is so small-micrometastasis (i.e. between 0.2 and 2 mm) or isolated tumour cells (i.e. less than 0.2 mm) that is missed by the pathologist. The purpose of this review is to clear some fears lurking in the mind of most surgeons about the false negative sentinel lymph node (FNSLN).

Sentinel node biopsy before neoadjuvant chemotherapy spares breast cancer patients axillary lymph node dissection.

PubMed

van Rijk, Maartje C; Nieweg, Omgo E; Rutgers, Emiel J T; Oldenburg, Hester S A; Olmos, Renato Valdés; Hoefnagel, Cornelis A; Kroon, Bin B R

2006-04-01

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients is a valuable method to determine the efficacy of chemotherapy and potentially downsize the primary tumor, which facilitates breast-conserving therapy. In 18 studies published about sentinel node biopsy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, the sentinel node was identified in on average 89%, and the false-negative rate was on average 10%. Because of these mediocre results, no author dares to omit axillary clearance just yet. In our institute, sentinel lymph node biopsy is performed before neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate our experience with this approach. Sentinel node biopsy was performed before neoadjuvant chemotherapy in 25 T2N0 patients by using lymphoscintigraphy, a gamma ray detection probe, and patent blue dye. Axillary lymph node dissection was performed after chemotherapy if the sentinel node contained metastases. Ten patients had a tumor-positive axillary sentinel node, and one patient had an involved lateral intramammary node. Four patients had additional involved nodes in the completion lymph node dissection specimen. The other 14 patients (56%) had a tumor-negative sentinel node and did not undergo axillary lymph node dissection. No recurrences have been observed after a median follow-up of 18 months. Fourteen (56%) of the 25 patients were spared axillary lymph node dissection when the sentinel node was found to be disease free. Performing sentinel node biopsy before neoadjuvant chemotherapy seems successful and reliable in patients with T2N0 breast cancer.

Method and apparatus for obtaining stack traceback data for multiple computing nodes of a massively parallel computer system

DOEpatents

Gooding, Thomas Michael; McCarthy, Patrick Joseph

2010-03-02

A data collector for a massively parallel computer system obtains call-return stack traceback data for multiple nodes by retrieving partial call-return stack traceback data from each node, grouping the nodes in subsets according to the partial traceback data, and obtaining further call-return stack traceback data from a representative node or nodes of each subset. Preferably, the partial data is a respective instruction address from each node, nodes having identical instruction address being grouped together in the same subset. Preferably, a single node of each subset is chosen and full stack traceback data is retrieved from the call-return stack within the chosen node.

[Incidence and influencing factors of distal external iliac lymph node metastasis in early cervical cancer].

PubMed

Yin, Yueju; Sheng, Xiugui; Li, Xinglan; Li, Dapeng; Han, Xiaoyun; Zhang, Xiaoling; Zhang, Tingting

2014-06-01

The distal external iliac lymph nodes are located along the external iliac artery between the deep circumflex iliac vein and the inguinal canal. Our study aimed to investigate the incidence of metastasis in distal external iliac lymph nodes and its association with clinicopathological factors in patients with early stage cervical cancer, and to determine the role of distal external iliac lymph nodes dissection in the surgery. Five hundred and twenty-four patients with early stage cervical cancer underwent radical hysterectomy and bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy in the Shandong Province Cancer Hospital between June 1995 and December 2011, and their clinicopathological features were analyzed retrospectively. Of the 524 patients, 124 (23.7%) had pelvic lymph node metastasis. The metastasis rates were 16.2% (85 of 524 patients) in the obturator lymph nodes, 12.2% (64 of 524 patients) in the internal and external iliac lymph nodes, 2.9% (15 of 524 patients) in the common iliac lymph nodes, 2.1% (11 of 524 patients) in the distal external iliac lymph nodes, and 1.7% (9 of 524 patients) in the para-aortic nodes. The incidence of isolated positive distal external iliac lymph nodes was 0.2%. Univariate analysis showed that lymphovascular space invasion, pelvic lymph node metastases (excluding distal external iliac lymph nodes) were significantly associated with distal external iliac lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that pelvic lymph node metastasis (excluding distal external iliac lymph nodes) was the independent risk factor for metastasis to distal external iliac lymph nodes. In early stage cervical cancer, distal external iliac lymph node metastasis is rare, especially in cases with stage IA or without pelvic lymph node metastasis. Less extensive pelvic lymphadenectomy may be considered in these patients in order to reduce operative complications and improve patients' quality of life. The deep circumflex iliac vein may be an appropriate landmark for the caudal limit of external iliac lymphadenectomy. However, if pelvic lymph node metastasis (excluding distal external iliac lymph nodes) is found by intraoperative rapid pathological diagnosis, systematic pelvic lymphadenectomy including removal of the distal external iliac lymph nodes should be performed in order to reduce the risk of distant metastasis.

Information-based self-organization of sensor nodes of a sensor network

DOEpatents

Ko, Teresa H [Castro Valley, CA; Berry, Nina M [Tracy, CA

2011-09-20

A sensor node detects a plurality of information-based events. The sensor node determines whether at least one other sensor node is an information neighbor of the sensor node based on at least a portion of the plurality of information-based events. The information neighbor has an overlapping field of view with the sensor node. The sensor node sends at least one communication to the at least one other sensor node that is an information neighbor of the sensor node in response to at least one information-based event of the plurality of information-based events.

Method and system for monitoring environmental conditions

DOEpatents

Kulesz, James J [Oak Ridge, TN; Lee, Ronald W [Oak Ridge, TN

2010-11-16

A system for detecting the occurrence of anomalies includes a plurality of spaced apart nodes, with each node having adjacent nodes, each of the nodes having one or more sensors associated with the node and capable of detecting anomalies, and each of the nodes having a controller connected to the sensors associated with the node. The system also includes communication links between adjacent nodes, whereby the nodes form a network. At least one software agent is capable of changing the operation of at least one of the controllers in response to the detection of an anomaly by a sensor.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy under fluorescent indocyanin green guidance: Initial experience.

PubMed

Aydoğan, Fatih; Arıkan, Akif Enes; Aytaç, Erman; Velidedeoğlu, Mehmet; Yılmaz, Mehmet Halit; Sager, Muhammet Sait; Çelik, Varol; Uras, Cihan

2016-01-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy can be applied by using either blue dye or radionuclide method or both in breast cancer. Fluorescent imaging with indocyanine green is a new defined method. This study evaluates the applicability of sentinel lymph node biopsy via fluorescent indocyanine green. IC-VIEW (Pulsion Medical Systems AG, Munich, Germany) infrared visualization system was used for imaging. Two mL of indocyanine green was injected to visualize sentinel lymph nodes. After injection, subcutaneous lymphatics were traced and sentinel lymph nodes were found with simultaneous imaging. Sentinel lymph nodes were excised under fluorescent light guidance, and excised lymph nodes were examined histopathologically. Patients with sentinel lymph node metastases underwent axillary dissection. Four patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy due to breast cancer were included in the study. Sentinel lymph nodes were visualized with indocyanine green in all patients. The median number of excised sentinel lymph node was 2 (2-3). Two patients with lymph node metastasis underwent axillary dissection. No metastasis was detected in lymph nodes other than the sentinel nodes in patients with axillary dissection. There was no complication during and after the operation related to the method. According to our limited experience, sentinel lymph node biopsy under fluorescent indocyanine green guidance, which has an advantage of simultaneous visualization, is technically feasible.

All row, planar fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian Edward

2013-07-23

An apparatus, program product and method for detecting nodal faults may simultaneously cause designated nodes of a cell to communicate with all nodes adjacent to each of the designated nodes. Furthermore, all nodes along the axes of the designated nodes are made to communicate with their adjacent nodes, and the communications are analyzed to determine if a node or connection is faulty.

Node Redeployment Algorithm Based on Stratified Connected Tree for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Liu, Jun; Jiang, Peng; Wu, Feng; Yu, Shanen; Song, Chunyue

2016-01-01

During the underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) operation, node drift with water environment causes network topology changes. Periodic node location examination and adjustment are needed to maintain good network monitoring quality as long as possible. In this paper, a node redeployment algorithm based on stratified connected tree for UWSNs is proposed. At every network adjustment moment, self-examination and adjustment on node locations are performed firstly. If a node is outside the monitored space, it returns to the last location recorded in its memory along straight line. Later, the network topology is stratified into a connected tree that takes the sink node as the root node by broadcasting ready information level by level, which can improve the network connectivity rate. Finally, with synthetically considering network coverage and connectivity rates, and node movement distance, the sink node performs centralized optimization on locations of leaf nodes in the stratified connected tree. Simulation results show that the proposed redeployment algorithm can not only keep the number of nodes in the monitored space as much as possible and maintain good network coverage and connectivity rates during network operation, but also reduce node movement distance during node redeployment and prolong the network lifetime. PMID:28029124

GLI1, a master regulator of the hallmark of pancreatic cancer.

PubMed

Kasai, Kenji

2016-12-01

Hedgehog signaling is highly conserved across species and governs proper embryonic development. Germline gene mutations that reduce this signaling activity cause a variety of developmental abnormalities such as holoprosencephaly, while those that enhance Hedgehog signaling activity induce a tumor-predisposition condition Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome. Furthermore, dysregulated activation of Hedgehog signaling has been recognized in various sporadic malignancies, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma develops through a multistep carcinogenesis starting with oncogenic mutation of the KRAS gene. During this process, precancerous or cancer cells secrete Hedgehog ligand proteins to promote characteristic desmoplastic stroma around the cells, which in turn activates the expression of the downstream transcription factor GLI1 inside the cells. The quantitative and spatiotemporal dysregulation of GLI1 subsequently leads to the expression of transcriptional target genes of GLI1 that govern the hallmark of malignant properties. Here, after a brief introductory outline, a perspective is offered of Hedgehog signaling with a special focus on the role of GLI1 in pancreatic carcinogenesis. © 2016 Japanese Society of Pathology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

CSF1R+ Macrophages Sustain Pancreatic Tumor Growth through T Cell Suppression and Maintenance of Key Gene Programs that Define the Squamous Subtype.

PubMed

Candido, Juliana B; Morton, Jennifer P; Bailey, Peter; Campbell, Andrew D; Karim, Saadia A; Jamieson, Thomas; Lapienyte, Laura; Gopinathan, Aarthi; Clark, William; McGhee, Ewan J; Wang, Jun; Escorcio-Correia, Monica; Zollinger, Raphael; Roshani, Rozita; Drew, Lisa; Rishi, Loveena; Arkell, Rebecca; Evans, T R Jeffry; Nixon, Colin; Jodrell, Duncan I; Wilkinson, Robert W; Biankin, Andrew V; Barry, Simon T; Balkwill, Frances R; Sansom, Owen J

2018-05-01

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is resistant to most therapies including single-agent immunotherapy and has a dense desmoplastic stroma, and most patients present with advanced metastatic disease. We reveal that macrophages are the dominant leukocyte population both in human PDAC stroma and autochthonous models, with an important functional contribution to the squamous subtype of human PDAC. We targeted macrophages in a genetic PDAC model using AZD7507, a potent selective inhibitor of CSF1R. AZD7507 caused shrinkage of established tumors and increased mouse survival in this difficult-to-treat model. Malignant cell proliferation diminished, with increased cell death and an enhanced T cell immune response. Loss of macrophages rewired other features of the TME, with global changes in gene expression akin to switching PDAC subtypes. These changes were markedly different to those elicited when neutrophils were targeted via CXCR2. These results suggest targeting the myeloid cell axis may be particularly efficacious in PDAC, especially with CSF1R inhibitors. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Histopathologic pitfalls of Mohs micrographic surgery and a review of tumor histology.

PubMed

França, Katlein; Alqubaisy, Yasser; Hassanein, Ashraf; Nouri, Keyvan; Lotti, Torello

2018-06-01

Mohs micrographic surgery is a specialized subset of staged surgical excisions with each subsequent stage being driven largely by the histologic findings of the previous stage. Therefore, it is imperative that histologic analysis is performed in an accurate manner. Frozen section and tissue flattening is a crucial step in Mohs surgery. Frozen sections introduce certain artifacts and these artifacts must be interpreted in the correct context. Basal and squamous cell carcinomas are the most common tumors encountered in Mohs micrographic surgery, and their histopathology is also associated with certain "pitfalls". Basal cell carcinoma should be distinguished from hair follicles, folliculocentric basaloid proliferations, poromas, nevus sebaceous, desmoplastic trichoepitheliomas, and spiradenomas, to name but a few histologic entities. Similarly, squamous cell carcinoma should be distinguished from hypertrophic actinic keratoses, pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia, sebaceous carcinoma, and microcystic adnexal carcinoma. In addition, there are numerous subtypes of basal cell and squamous carcinomas that the Mohs surgeon should be aware of due to differences in the biologic behavior of these tumors. This review presents a number of the common histologic pitfalls of Mohs micrographic surgery and a review of tumor histology.

Gliosarcoma developing from an irradiated ependymoma.

PubMed

Kepes, J J; Bastian, F O; Weber, E D

1996-11-01

A 17-year-old girl was operated for a cystic mass located deep within the left parieto-occipital white matter. Histologically the tumor was an ependymoma with a vascular stroma. In spite of irradiation the tumor recurred locally twice, 1 and 2 years respectively after the original operation. The ependymoma portion of the tumor remained unchanged, but the stroma showed increased vascular hyperplasia at the time of the second operation and transformation into a fibrosarcoma in the third operative specimen. Proliferating cell markers (MIB-1) were positive only in the ependymoma cell nuclei in the first two specimens, but were also extensively present in the nuclei of the fibrosarcoma in the third specimen. In the latter, the fibrosarcoma portion greatly overwhelmed the residual ependymoma islands, but remained sharply delineated from them. This is the first observed case of a gliosarcoma originating from an ependymoma. The histological pattern of this mixed tumor clearly indicates that the source of the sarcomatous portions was the neoplastically transformed fibrovascular stroma of the original tumor, rather than "desmoplastic" alterations of the neoplastic ependymal cells themselves.

Identifying a largest logical plane from a plurality of logical planes formed of compute nodes of a subcommunicator in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davis, Kristan D.; Faraj, Daniel A.

In a parallel computer, a largest logical plane from a plurality of logical planes formed of compute nodes of a subcommunicator may be identified by: identifying, by each compute node of the subcommunicator, all logical planes that include the compute node; calculating, by each compute node for each identified logical plane that includes the compute node, an area of the identified logical plane; initiating, by a root node of the subcommunicator, a gather operation; receiving, by the root node from each compute node of the subcommunicator, each node's calculated areas as contribution data to the gather operation; and identifying, bymore » the root node in dependence upon the received calculated areas, a logical plane of the subcommunicator having the greatest area.« less

The posterior cervical lymph node in toxoplasmosis.

PubMed

Gray, G F; Kimball, A C; Kean, B H

1972-11-01

Posterior cervical node enlargement is characteristic of clinical toxoplasmosis in adults. Lymph node biopsies from 37 patients, who were tested for toxoplasmosis by serologic and isolation studies, were examined. A characteristic pattern of sinus histiocytosis was seen in 17 of 18 posterior cervical nodes and in only 1 of 4 lymph nodes from other sites from patients with toxoplasmosis. The characteristic pattern was not seen in posterior cervical nodes or in lymph nodes from other sites from patients with other diseases. Lymphoma obscured the characteristic changes of toxoplasmosis in the posterior cervical nodes and other nodes of 5 patients with these coexisting diseases. Organisms were seen in tissue sections in only 2 instances. T gondii was isolated from mice in 14 of 17 attempts using nodes from patients with toxoplasmosis, but from none of 8 attempts using nodes from patients with other diseases.

Providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Archer, Charles J.; Faraj, Daniel A.; Inglett, Todd A.

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for providing full point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer, each compute node connected to each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through a link, that include: receiving a network packet in a compute node, the network packet specifying a destination compute node; selecting, in dependence upon the destination compute node, at least one of the links for the compute node along which to forward the network packet toward the destination compute node; and forwarding the network packet along the selectedmore » link to the adjacent compute node connected to the compute node through the selected link.« less

Controlling data transfers from an origin compute node to a target compute node

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian E [Rochester, MN

2011-06-21

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for controlling data transfers from an origin compute node to a target compute node that include: receiving, by an application messaging module on the target compute node, an indication of a data transfer from an origin compute node to the target compute node; and administering, by the application messaging module on the target compute node, the data transfer using one or more messaging primitives of a system messaging module in dependence upon the indication.

Method and system for source authentication in group communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roy-Chowdhury, Ayan (Inventor); Baras, John S. (Inventor)

2013-01-01

A method and system for authentication is provided. A central node for issuing certificates to a plurality of nodes associated with the central node in a network is also provided. The central node receives a first key from at least one node from among the plurality of nodes and generates a second key based on the received first key and generates a certificate for the at least one node. The generated certificate is transmitted to the at least one node.

Simplified intraoperative sentinel-node detection performed by the urologist accurately determines lymph-node stage in prostate cancer.

PubMed

Kjölhede, Henrik; Bratt, Ola; Gudjonsson, Sigurdur; Sundqvist, Pernilla; Liedberg, Fredrik

2015-04-01

The reference standard for lymph-node staging in prostate cancer is currently an extended pelvic lymph-node dissection (ePLND), which detects most, but not all, regional lymph-node metastases. As an alternative to ePLND, sentinel-node dissection with preoperative isotope injection and imaging has been reported. The objective was to determine whether intraoperative sentinel-node detection with a simplified protocol can accurately determine lymph-node stage in prostate cancer patients. Patients with biopsy-verified high-risk prostate cancer with tumour stage T2-3 were included in the study. All patients underwent both ePLND and sentinel-node detection. (99m)Tc-marked nanocolloid was injected peritumourally by the operating urologist after induction of anaesthesia just before surgery. Sentinel nodes were detected both in vivo and ex vivo intraoperatively using a gamma probe. Sentinel nodes and metastases and their locations were recorded. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated. At least one sentinel node was detected in 72 (87%) of the 83 patients. In 13 (18%) of these 72 patients sentinel nodes were detected outside the ePLND template. In six of these 13 patients, the Sentinel nodes from outside the template contained metastases, which proved to be the only metastases in two. For 12 patients the only metastatic deposit found was a micrometastasis (≤2 mm) in a sentinel node. In the 72 patients with detectable sentinel nodes, pathological analysis of the sentinel node correctly categorized 71 and ePLND 70 patients. This protocol yielded results comparable to the commonly used technique of sentinel-node detection, but with more cases of non-detection.

Repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with ipsilateral recurrent breast cancer after breast-conserving therapy and negative sentinel lymph node biopsy: a prospective study.

PubMed

Folli, Secondo; Falco, Giuseppe; Mingozzi, Matteo; Buggi, Federico; Curcio, Annalisa; Ferrari, Guglielmo; Taffurelli, Mario; Regolo, Lea; Nanni, Oriana

2016-04-01

Patients with ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence or new ipsilateral primary tumor after previous breast conservative surgery with negative sentinel lymph node biopsy need a new axillary staging procedure. However, the best surgical option, i.e. repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy or axillary lymph node dissection, is still debated. Purpose of the study is to assess the performance of repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy. In a multicenter study, lymph node biopsy completed by back-up axillary lymph node dissection was undertaken for ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence or new ipsilateral primary tumor. Tracer uptake was used to identify and isolate the sentinel lymph node during surgery, and it was classified after staining with hematoxylin and eosin and monoclonal anti-cytokeratin antibodies. Aside from negative predictive value, overall accuracy and false-negative rate of repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy were assessed. A multicenter, prospective study was conducted performing 30 repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy completed by back-up axillary lymph node dissection for ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence or new ipsilateral primary tumor in patients formerly treated with previous breast conservative surgery and negative sentinel lymph node biopsy. Negative predictive value, overall accuracy and false-negative rate of repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy were assessed. Sentinel lymph nodes were mapped in 27 patients out of 30 (90%). Aberrant drainage pathways were observed in one patient (3.7%). Tracer uptake was sufficient to identify and isolate the sentinel lymph node during surgery in 23 cases (76.6%); the patients in whom lymphoscintigraphy failed or no sentinel lymph nodes could be isolated underwent axillary lymph node dissection. The negative predictive value was 95.2%, the accuracy was 95.6% and the false-negative rate was 33%. Repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy is feasible and accurate, with a high negative predictive value. Patients with ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence or new ipsilateral primary tumor after previous breast conservative surgery and negative sentinel lymph node biopsy can be treated with repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy for the axillary staging and can be spared axillary dissection in case of absence of metastases. However, repeat sentinel lymph node biopsy may prove technically impracticable in about one quarter of cases and thus axillary lymph node dissection remains the only viable option in such instance.

Reducing power consumption while synchronizing a plurality of compute nodes during execution of a parallel application

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN; Peters, Amanda A [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian E [Rochester, MN

2012-01-10

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for reducing power consumption while synchronizing a plurality of compute nodes during execution of a parallel application that include: beginning, by each compute node, performance of a blocking operation specified by the parallel application, each compute node beginning the blocking operation asynchronously with respect to the other compute nodes; reducing, for each compute node, power to one or more hardware components of that compute node in response to that compute node beginning the performance of the blocking operation; and restoring, for each compute node, the power to the hardware components having power reduced in response to all of the compute nodes beginning the performance of the blocking operation.

Reducing power consumption while synchronizing a plurality of compute nodes during execution of a parallel application

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN; Peters, Amanda E [Cambridge, MA; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian E [Rochester, MN

2012-04-17

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for reducing power consumption while synchronizing a plurality of compute nodes during execution of a parallel application that include: beginning, by each compute node, performance of a blocking operation specified by the parallel application, each compute node beginning the blocking operation asynchronously with respect to the other compute nodes; reducing, for each compute node, power to one or more hardware components of that compute node in response to that compute node beginning the performance of the blocking operation; and restoring, for each compute node, the power to the hardware components having power reduced in response to all of the compute nodes beginning the performance of the blocking operation.

Sentinel Lymph Nodes for Breast Carcinoma: A Paradigm Shift.

PubMed

Maguire, Aoife; Brogi, Edi

2016-08-01

-Sentinel lymph node biopsy has been established as the new standard of care for axillary staging in most patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Historically, all patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy result underwent axillary lymph node dissection. Recent trials show that axillary lymph node dissection can be safely omitted in women with clinically node negative, T1 or T2 invasive breast cancer treated with breast-conserving surgery and whole-breast radiotherapy. This change in practice also has implications on the pathologic examination and reporting of sentinel lymph nodes. -To review recent clinical and pathologic studies of sentinel lymph nodes and explore how these findings influence the pathologic evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes. -Sources were published articles from peer-reviewed journals in PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) and published guidelines from the American Joint Committee on Cancer, the Union for International Cancer Control, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. -The main goal of sentinel lymph node examination should be to detect all macrometastases (>2 mm). Grossly sectioning sentinel lymph nodes at 2-mm intervals and evaluation of one hematoxylin-eosin-stained section from each block is the preferred method of pathologic evaluation. Axillary lymph node dissection can be safely omitted in clinically node-negative patients with negative sentinel lymph nodes, as well as in a selected group of patients with limited sentinel lymph node involvement. The pathologic features of the primary carcinoma and its sentinel lymph node metastases contribute to estimate the extent of non-sentinel lymph node involvement. This information is important to decide on further axillary treatment.

Network structures sustained by internal links and distributed lifetime of old nodes in stationary state of number of nodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ikeda, Nobutoshi

2017-12-01

In network models that take into account growth properties, deletion of old nodes has a serious impact on degree distributions, because old nodes tend to become hub nodes. In this study, we aim to provide a simple explanation for why hubs can exist even in conditions where the number of nodes is stationary due to the deletion of old nodes. We show that an exponential increase in the degree of nodes is a natural consequence of the balance between the deletion and addition of nodes as long as a preferential attachment mechanism holds. As a result, the largest degree is determined by the magnitude relationship between the time scale of the exponential growth of degrees and lifetime of old nodes. The degree distribution exhibits a power-law form ˜ k -γ with exponent γ = 1 when the lifetime of nodes is constant. However, various values of γ can be realized by introducing distributed lifetime of nodes.

Lymph node staging of oral and maxillofacial neoplasms in 31 dogs and cats.

PubMed

Herring, Erin S; Smith, Mark M; Robertson, John L

2002-09-01

A retrospective study was performed to report the histologic examination results of regional lymph nodes of dogs and cats with oral or maxillofacial neoplasms. Twenty-eight dogs and 3 cats were evaluated. Histologic examination results of standard and serial tissue sectioning of regional lymph nodes were recorded. When available, other clinical parameters including mandibular lymph node palpation, thoracic radiographs, and pre- and postoperative fine needle aspiration of lymph nodes were compared with the histologic results. Squamous cell carcinoma, fibrosarcoma, and melanoma were the most common neoplasms diagnosed in dogs. Squamous cell carcinoma and fibrosarcoma were diagnosed in cats. Of the palpably enlarged mandibular lymph nodes, 17.0% had metastatic disease histologically. Radiographically evident thoracic metastatic disease was present in 7.4% of cases. Preoperative cytologic evaluation of the mandibular lymph node based on fine needle aspiration concurred with the histologic results in 90.5% of lymph nodes examined. Postoperative cytologic evaluation of fine needle aspirates of regional lymph nodes concurred with the histologic results in 80.6% of lymph nodes examined. Only 54.5% of cases with metastatic disease to regional lymph nodes had metastasis that included the mandibular lymph node. Serial lymph node sectioning provided additional information or metastasis detection. Cytologic evaluation of the mandibular lymph node correlates positively with histology, however results may fail to indicate the presence of regional metastasis. Assessment of all regional lymph nodes in dogs and cats with oral or maxillofacial neoplasms will detect more metastatic disease than assessing the mandibular lymph node only.

The Posterior Cervical Lymph Node in Toxoplasmosis

PubMed Central

Gray, George F.; Kimball, Anne C.; Kean, B. H.

1972-01-01

Posterior cervical node enlargement is characteristic of clinical toxoplasmosis in adults. Lymph node biopsies from 37 patients, who were tested for toxoplasmosis by serologic and isolation studies, were examined. A characteristic pattern of sinus histiocytosis was seen in 17 of 18 posterior cervical nodes and in only 1 of 4 lymph nodes from other sites from patients with toxoplasmosis. The characteristic pattern was not seen in posterior cervical nodes or in lymph nodes from other sites from patients with other diseases. Lymphoma obscured the characteristic changes of toxoplasmosis in the posterior cervical nodes and other nodes of 5 patients with these coexisting diseases. Organisms were seen in tissue sections in only 2 instances. T gondii was isolated from mice in 14 of 17 attempts using nodes from patients with toxoplasmosis, but from none of 8 attempts using nodes from patients with other diseases. ImagesFig 3Fig 4Fig 1Fig 2 PMID:4634739

Performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Faraj, Ahmad

2013-07-09

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer, each node including at least two processing cores, that include: establishing, for each node, a plurality of logical rings, each ring including a different set of at least one core on that node, each ring including the cores on at least two of the nodes; iteratively for each node: assigning each core of that node to one of the rings established for that node to which the core has not previously been assigned, and performing, for each ring for that node, a global allreduce operation using contribution data for the cores assigned to that ring or any global allreduce results from previous global allreduce operations, yielding current global allreduce results for each core; and performing, for each node, a local allreduce operation using the global allreduce results.

Performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Faraj, Ahmad

2013-02-12

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer, each node including at least two processing cores, that include: performing, for each node, a local reduction operation using allreduce contribution data for the cores of that node, yielding, for each node, a local reduction result for one or more representative cores for that node; establishing one or more logical rings among the nodes, each logical ring including only one of the representative cores from each node; performing, for each logical ring, a global allreduce operation using the local reduction result for the representative cores included in that logical ring, yielding a global allreduce result for each representative core included in that logical ring; and performing, for each node, a local broadcast operation using the global allreduce results for each representative core on that node.

Locating hardware faults in a data communications network of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Megerian, Mark G.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2010-01-12

Hardware faults location in a data communications network of a parallel computer. Such a parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes and a data communications network that couples the compute nodes for data communications and organizes the compute node as a tree. Locating hardware faults includes identifying a next compute node as a parent node and a root of a parent test tree, identifying for each child compute node of the parent node a child test tree having the child compute node as root, running a same test suite on the parent test tree and each child test tree, and identifying the parent compute node as having a defective link connected from the parent compute node to a child compute node if the test suite fails on the parent test tree and succeeds on all the child test trees.

Determining collective barrier operation skew in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Faraj, Daniel A.

2015-11-24

Determining collective barrier operation skew in a parallel computer that includes a number of compute nodes organized into an operational group includes: for each of the nodes until each node has been selected as a delayed node: selecting one of the nodes as a delayed node; entering, by each node other than the delayed node, a collective barrier operation; entering, after a delay by the delayed node, the collective barrier operation; receiving an exit signal from a root of the collective barrier operation; and measuring, for the delayed node, a barrier completion time. The barrier operation skew is calculated by:more » identifying, from the compute nodes' barrier completion times, a maximum barrier completion time and a minimum barrier completion time and calculating the barrier operation skew as the difference of the maximum and the minimum barrier completion time.« less

Performing a scatterv operation on a hierarchical tree network optimized for collective operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Ratterman, Joseph D

Performing a scatterv operation on a hierarchical tree network optimized for collective operations including receiving, by the scatterv module installed on the node, from a nearest neighbor parent above the node a chunk of data having at least a portion of data for the node; maintaining, by the scatterv module installed on the node, the portion of the data for the node; determining, by the scatterv module installed on the node, whether any portions of the data are for a particular nearest neighbor child below the node or one or more other nodes below the particular nearest neighbor child; andmore » sending, by the scatterv module installed on the node, those portions of data to the nearest neighbor child if any portions of the data are for a particular nearest neighbor child below the node or one or more other nodes below the particular nearest neighbor child.« less

Determining collective barrier operation skew in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Faraj, Daniel A.

Determining collective barrier operation skew in a parallel computer that includes a number of compute nodes organized into an operational group includes: for each of the nodes until each node has been selected as a delayed node: selecting one of the nodes as a delayed node; entering, by each node other than the delayed node, a collective barrier operation; entering, after a delay by the delayed node, the collective barrier operation; receiving an exit signal from a root of the collective barrier operation; and measuring, for the delayed node, a barrier completion time. The barrier operation skew is calculated by:more » identifying, from the compute nodes' barrier completion times, a maximum barrier completion time and a minimum barrier completion time and calculating the barrier operation skew as the difference of the maximum and the minimum barrier completion time.« less

Cross-ontological analytics for alignment of different classification schemes

DOEpatents

Posse, Christian; Sanfilippo, Antonio P; Gopalan, Banu; Riensche, Roderick M; Baddeley, Robert L

2010-09-28

Quantification of the similarity between nodes in multiple electronic classification schemes is provided by automatically identifying relationships and similarities between nodes within and across the electronic classification schemes. Quantifying the similarity between a first node in a first electronic classification scheme and a second node in a second electronic classification scheme involves finding a third node in the first electronic classification scheme, wherein a first product value of an inter-scheme similarity value between the second and third nodes and an intra-scheme similarity value between the first and third nodes is a maximum. A fourth node in the second electronic classification scheme can be found, wherein a second product value of an inter-scheme similarity value between the first and fourth nodes and an intra-scheme similarity value between the second and fourth nodes is a maximum. The maximum between the first and second product values represents a measure of similarity between the first and second nodes.

Multi-directional fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian Edward

2010-11-23

An apparatus, program product and method checks for nodal faults in a group of nodes comprising a center node and all adjacent nodes. The center node concurrently communicates with the immediately adjacent nodes in three dimensions. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Multi-directional fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens [Rochester, MN; Pinnow, Kurt Walter [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian Edward [Rochester, MN

2009-03-17

An apparatus, program product and method checks for nodal faults in a group of nodes comprising a center node and all adjacent nodes. The center node concurrently communicates with the immediately adjacent nodes in three dimensions. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Multi-directional fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian Edward

2010-06-29

An apparatus, program product and method checks for nodal faults in a group of nodes comprising a center node and all adjacent nodes. The center node concurrently communicates with the immediately adjacent nodes in three dimensions. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Flexible embedding of networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez-Gracia, Juan; Buckee, Caroline; Onnela, Jukka-Pekka

We introduce a model for embedding one network into another, focusing on the case where network A is much bigger than network B. Nodes from network A are assigned to the nodes in network B using an algorithm where we control the extent of localization of node placement in network B using a single parameter. Starting from an unassigned node in network A, called the source node, we first map this node to a randomly chosen node in network B, called the target node. We then assign the neighbors of the source node to the neighborhood of the target node using a random walk based approach. To assign each neighbor of the source node to one of the nodes in network B, we perform a random walk starting from the target node with stopping probability α. We repeat this process until all nodes in network A have been mapped to the nodes of network B. The simplicity of the model allows us to calculate key quantities of interest in closed form. By varying the parameter α, we are able to produce embeddings from very local (α = 1) to very global (α --> 0). We show how our calculations fit the simulated results, and we apply the model to study how social networks are embedded in geography and how the neurons of C. Elegans are embedded in the surrounding volume.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy under fluorescent indocyanin green guidance: Initial experience

PubMed Central

Aydoğan, Fatih; Arıkan, Akif Enes; Aytaç, Erman; Velidedeoğlu, Mehmet; Yılmaz, Mehmet Halit; Sager, Muhammet Sait; Çelik, Varol; Uras, Cihan

2016-01-01

Objective: Sentinel lymph node biopsy can be applied by using either blue dye or radionuclide method or both in breast cancer. Fluorescent imaging with indocyanine green is a new defined method. This study evaluates the applicability of sentinel lymph node biopsy via fluorescent indocyanine green. Material and Methods: IC-VIEW (Pulsion Medical Systems AG, Munich, Germany) infrared visualization system was used for imaging. Two mL of indocyanine green was injected to visualize sentinel lymph nodes. After injection, subcutaneous lymphatics were traced and sentinel lymph nodes were found with simultaneous imaging. Sentinel lymph nodes were excised under fluorescent light guidance, and excised lymph nodes were examined histopathologically. Patients with sentinel lymph node metastases underwent axillary dissection. Results: Four patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy due to breast cancer were included in the study. Sentinel lymph nodes were visualized with indocyanine green in all patients. The median number of excised sentinel lymph node was 2 (2–3). Two patients with lymph node metastasis underwent axillary dissection. No metastasis was detected in lymph nodes other than the sentinel nodes in patients with axillary dissection. There was no complication during and after the operation related to the method. Conclusion: According to our limited experience, sentinel lymph node biopsy under fluorescent indocyanine green guidance, which has an advantage of simultaneous visualization, is technically feasible. PMID:26985159

Anatomic-histologic study of the floor of the mouth: the lingual lymph nodes.

PubMed

Ananian, Sargis G; Gvetadze, Shalva R; Ilkaev, Konstantin D; Mochalnikova, Valeria V; Zayratiants, Georgiy O; Mkhitarov, Vladimir A; Yang, Xin; Ciciashvili, Aleksandr M

2015-06-01

The lingual lymph nodes are inconstant nodes located within the fascial/intermuscular spaces of the floor of the mouth. Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma has been reported to recur and metastasize in lingual lymph nodes with poor prognosis. Lingual lymph nodes are not currently included in basic tongue squamous cell carcinoma surgery. Twenty-one cadavers (7 males, 14 females) were studied, aged from 57 to 94 years (mean age 76.3 years). The gross specimen of the floor of the mouth was divided into blocks: A (median nodes), B, B' (parahyoid), C, C' (paraglandular). Serial histological microslides were cut and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Frequency of lingual lymph nodes in each block and their microscopic features were assessed. The lingual lymph nodes in overall number of 7 were detected in 5 of the 21 cadavers (23.8%). The total incidence of lingual lymph node was 33.3% (7 nodes/21 cadavers). Block A failed to demonstrate any lymph nodes (0%); Blocks B, B'-2 nodes (9.5%) and 2 nodes (9.5%), respectively; Blocks C, C'-1 node (4.8%) and 2 nodes (9.5%), respectively. The mean lingual lymph node length was 4.1 mm (from 1.4 to 8.7 mm), the mean thickness was 2.8 mm (from 0.8 to 7.5 mm). Five cadavers (23.8%) revealed mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Atrophic changes appeared in 4 (57.1%) lingual lymph nodes. The presence of lymph node-bearing tissue in the floor of the mouth is demonstrated. In account of resection radicalism and better local control the fat tissue of the floor of the mouth should be removed in conjunction to glossectomy. Further anatomic and clinical research is required to establish the role of lingual lymph node in oral squamous cell carcinoma recurrence and metastasis. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Classification between Failed Nodes and Left Nodes in Mobile Asset Tracking Systems †

PubMed Central

Kim, Kwangsoo; Jin, Jae-Yeon; Jin, Seong-il

2016-01-01

Medical asset tracking systems track a medical device with a mobile node and determine its status as either in or out, because it can leave a monitoring area. Due to a failed node, this system may decide that a mobile asset is outside the area, even though it is within the area. In this paper, an efficient classification method is proposed to separate mobile nodes disconnected from a wireless sensor network between nodes with faults and a node that actually has left the monitoring region. The proposed scheme uses two trends extracted from the neighboring nodes of a disconnected mobile node. First is the trend in a series of the neighbor counts; the second is that of the ratios of the boundary nodes included in the neighbors. Based on such trends, the proposed method separates failed nodes from mobile nodes that are disconnected from a wireless sensor network without failures. The proposed method is evaluated using both real data generated from a medical asset tracking system and also using simulations with the network simulator (ns-2). The experimental results show that the proposed method correctly differentiates between failed nodes and nodes that are no longer in the monitoring region, including the cases that the conventional methods fail to detect. PMID:26901200

[Ambulatory surgical treatment for breast carcinoma].

PubMed

Barillari, P; Leuzzi, R; Bassiri-Gharb, A; D'Angelo, F; Aurello, P; Naticchioni, E

2001-02-01

The aim of the study is to demonstrate the feasibility and the oncologic effectiveness of quadrantectomy plus sentinel node biopsy performed under local anesthesia, and to demonstrate the economic and psychologic advantages. From October 1996 to March 2000, 71 patients affected with clinical T1 N0 breast cancer, underwent quadrantectomy or tumor resection plus sentinel node biopsy and clinically suspicion axillary nodes biopsy, under local anesthesia at the Casa di Cura "Villa Mafalda" in Rome. Twenty tumors were T1a, 26 T1b e 25 T1c. A mean of 2 sentinel nodes (range 1-4) and a mean of 8 axillary nodes were removed during the procedure. In 2 cases sentinel nodes were not identified. Intraoperative histologic examination showed metastatic sentinel nodes in 11 cases. An axillary node dissection was performed in all cases (>12 nodes) and no other metastatic nodes were found. In all patients clinically suspected nodes were removed. In two cases no evidence of metastasis was found in sentinel nodes, while histologic examination revealed in a patient micrometastasis in one node, and in another patient two metastatic nodes. Fifty-three patients rated the overall surgical, anesthetic and recovery experience as "very satisfactory", 13 "satisfactory" and 5 "unsatisfactory". Patients typically expressed their pleasure at the possibility to return home and stressed the ease of recovery.

Sentinel Lymph Nodes for Breast Carcinoma A Paradigm Shift

PubMed Central

Maguire, Aoife; Brogi, Edi

2016-01-01

Context Sentinel lymph node biopsy has been established as the new standard of care for axillary staging in most patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Historically, all patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy result underwent axillary lymph node dissection. Recent trials show that axillary lymph node dissection can be safely omitted in women with clinically node negative, T1 or T2 invasive breast cancer treated with breast-conserving surgery and whole-breast radiotherapy. This change in practice also has implications on the pathologic examination and reporting of sentinel lymph nodes. Objective To review recent clinical and pathologic studies of sentinel lymph nodes and explore how these findings influence the pathologic evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes. Data Sources Sources were published articles from peer-reviewed journals in PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) and published guidelines from the American Joint Committee on Cancer, the Union for International Cancer Control, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Conclusions The main goal of sentinel lymph node examination should be to detect all macrometastases (>2 mm). Grossly sectioning sentinel lymph nodes at 2-mm intervals and evaluation of one hematoxylin-eosin–stained section from each block is the preferred method of pathologic evaluation. Axillary lymph node dissection can be safely omitted in clinically node-negative patients with negative sentinel lymph nodes, as well as in a selected group of patients with limited sentinel lymph node involvement. The pathologic features of the primary carcinoma and its sentinel lymph node metastases contribute to estimate the extent of non–sentinel lymph node involvement. This information is important to decide on further axillary treatment. PMID:27472237

Radionavigated detection of sentinel nodes in breast carcinoma--first experiences of our department.

PubMed

Duchaj, B; Chvalny, P; Vesely, J; Makaiova, I; Durdik, S; Straka, V; Palaj, J; Procka, V; Aksamitova, K; Skraskova, S; Banki, P; Kovacova, S; Galbavy, S

2010-01-01

Biopsy and histological evaluation of sentinel lymphatic node limits the axillary node dissection only in cases of positive histological finding and decreases the occurrence of postoperative complications related to the axillary node dissection. We used radiotracer SentiScint, Medi-Radiopharma Ltd, Hungary and preoperatively administered blue dye--Blue Patenté V, Guebert, Aulnay-Sous-Bios, France. 11 (18%) patients were subdued to deep peritimorous application of radiotracer, 10 (16.4%) to sub/intradermal application over the lesions and n 40 (65.6%) patients the application was sub/intradermal and periareolar. The patients underwent an operation protocol of corresponding quadrantectomy, radionavigated blue-dye sentinel node biopsy and axillary dissection. From May 2006 to June 2008, we examined 61 patients with breast carcinoma. They underwent radionavigated and blue-dye sentinel node biopsy. We detected 57 (93.4%) sentinel nodes with preoperative scintigraphy, of which only 51 (83.6%) were detected peroperatively and underwent histological evaluation. In six (9.8%) cases, the "frozen cut" histology of the primary lesion had shown a benign lesion; hence no sentinel node biopsy or axillary disection was performed. 12 (19.7%) of 51 histologically evaluated sentinel nodes had metastatic invasion. We retrospectively compared the histological fund in sentinel and axillary nodes in patients with metastatic sentinel nodes. In 6 (16.6%) cases, the sentinel node was positive of metastatic invasion but axillary nodes were histologically negative, in 6 (16.6%) cases the sentinel node and axillary nodes were positive for metastatic invasion. We observed falsely negative findings in 3 (8.3%) patients with negative histological fund in the sentinel node, but positive axillary nodes (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 11). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.

The congestion control algorithm based on queue management of each node in mobile ad hoc networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Yifei; Chang, Lin; Wang, Yali; Wang, Gaoping

2016-12-01

This paper proposes an active queue management mechanism, considering the node's own ability and its importance in the network to set the queue threshold. As the network load increases, local congestion of mobile ad hoc network may lead to network performance degradation, hot node's energy consumption increase even failure. If small energy nodes congested because of forwarding data packets, then when it is used as the source node will cause a lot of packet loss. This paper proposes an active queue management mechanism, considering the node's own ability and its importance in the network to set the queue threshold. Controlling nodes buffer queue in different levels of congestion area probability by adjusting the upper limits and lower limits, thus nodes can adjust responsibility of forwarding data packets according to their own situation. The proposed algorithm will slow down the send rate hop by hop along the data package transmission direction from congestion node to source node so that to prevent further congestion from the source node. The simulation results show that, the algorithm can better play the data forwarding ability of strong nodes, protect the weak nodes, can effectively alleviate the network congestion situation.

Pattern of node metastases in patients treated with radical cystectomy and extended or superextended pelvic lymph node dissection due to bladder cancer.

PubMed

Moschini, Marco; Arbelaez, Emilio; Cornelius, Julian; Mattei, Agostino; Shariat, Shahrokh F; Dell Oglio, Paolo; Zaffuto, Emanuele; Salonia, Andrea; Montorsi, Francesco; Briganti, Alberto; Colombo, Renzo; Gallina, Andrea

2018-06-01

Pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) has a diagnostic and therapeutic role during radical cystectomy in bladder cancer patients. However, at the time, no prospective data supports the value of extended PLND in improving survival expectances. We sought to describe incidence and location of node metastases in patients treated with extended and superextended PLND. We evaluated 653 contemporary patients with clinically nonmetastatic high risk nonmuscle invasive or muscle-invasive bladder cancer treated with radical cystectomy and extended or superextended PLND without neoadjuvant chemotherapy at a single tertiary referral center between 1990 and 2013. Limited PLND is defined as the removal of obturator and internal iliac nodes. Standard included also the external iliac nodes. Extended includes also common and presacral nodes. Finally, superextended PLND includes all the nodes removed along the inferior mesenteric artery. We evaluated incidence of pathologically node metastases. Logistic regression analyses evaluate preoperative and pathologic characteristics to the risk of harboring node metastases in the extended and superextended template. Overall, 191 (29.3%) patients were found with pathologically node confirmed metastases. Of these, 56 (29.3%) patients were found with a single node metastasis, while 135 (70.7%) had multiple node metastases. The vast majority of patients were found with node metastases standard template (n = 172, 26.3%), on the other hand 30 (4.6%) and 21 (3.2%) patients had node metastases in extended and superextended templates, respectively. However, of these only 2 patients were found without concomitant lymph node metastases in the limited or standard templates. On multivariable analyses, cN+ status (odds ratio = 4.40, P<0.001) and cT3-4 vs. cT1-2 (odds ratio = 2.25, P<0.001) were associated with an increased risk of harboring node metastases in the extended or superextended template. We found that the majority of patients harbored node disease in the limited or standard node dissection pattern. On the other hand, only a minority of patient were found with a disease in extended or superextended template without harboring a concomitant node disease in the limited pattern. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modular sensor network node

DOEpatents

Davis, Jesse Harper Zehring [Berkeley, CA; Stark, Jr., Douglas Paul; Kershaw, Christopher Patrick [Hayward, CA; Kyker, Ronald Dean [Livermore, CA

2008-06-10

A distributed wireless sensor network node is disclosed. The wireless sensor network node includes a plurality of sensor modules coupled to a system bus and configured to sense a parameter. The parameter may be an object, an event or any other parameter. The node collects data representative of the parameter. The node also includes a communication module coupled to the system bus and configured to allow the node to communicate with other nodes. The node also includes a processing module coupled to the system bus and adapted to receive the data from the sensor module and operable to analyze the data. The node also includes a power module connected to the system bus and operable to generate a regulated voltage.

Hybrid data storage system in an HPC exascale environment

DOEpatents

Bent, John M.; Faibish, Sorin; Gupta, Uday K.; Tzelnic, Percy; Ting, Dennis P. J.

2015-08-18

A computer-executable method, system, and computer program product for managing I/O requests from a compute node in communication with a data storage system, including a first burst buffer node and a second burst buffer node, the computer-executable method, system, and computer program product comprising striping data on the first burst buffer node and the second burst buffer node, wherein a first portion of the data is communicated to the first burst buffer node and a second portion of the data is communicated to the second burst buffer node, processing the first portion of the data at the first burst buffer node, and processing the second portion of the data at the second burst buffer node.

Clinicopathologic risk factors for right paraesophageal lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma.

PubMed

Yu, Q A; Ma, D K; Liu, K P; Wang, P; Xie, C M; Wu, Y H; Dai, W J; Jiang, H C

2018-03-17

To investigate risk factors associated with right paraesophageal lymph node (RPELN) metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and to determine the indications for right lymph node dissection. Clinicopathologic data from 829 patients (104 men and 725 women) with PTC, operated on by the same thyroid surgery team at the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University from January 2013 to May 2017, were analyzed. Overall, 309 patients underwent total thyroidectomy with bilateral lymph node dissection, 488 underwent right thyroid lobe and isthmic resection with right central compartment lymph node dissection, and 32 underwent near-total thyroidectomy (ipsilateral thyroid lobectomy with contralateral near-total lobectomy) with bilateral lymph node dissection. The overall rate of central compartment lymph node metastasis was 43.5% (361/829), with right central compartment lymph node and RPELN metastasis rates of 35.5% (294/829) and 19.1% (158/829), respectively. Tumor size, number, invasion, and location, lymph node metastasis, right central compartment lymph node metastasis, and right lateral compartment lymph node metastasis were associated with RPELN in the univariate analysis, whereas age and sex were not. Multivariate analysis identified tumors with a diameter ≥ 1 cm, multiple tumors, tumors located in the right lobe, right central compartment lymph node metastasis, and right lateral compartment lymph node metastasis as independent risk factors for RPELN metastasis. Lymph node dissection, including RPELN dissection, should be performed for patients with PTC with a tumor diameter ≥ 1 cm, multiple tumors, right-lobe tumors, right central compartment lymph node metastasis, or suspected lateral compartment lymph node metastasis.

Using Link Disconnection Entropy Disorder to Detect Fast Moving Nodes in MANETs.

PubMed

Alvarez, Carlos F; Palafox, Luis E; Aguilar, Leocundo; Sanchez, Mauricio A; Martinez, Luis G

2016-01-01

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are dynamic by nature; this dynamism comes from node mobility, traffic congestion, and other transmission conditions. Metrics to evaluate the effects of those conditions shine a light on node's behavior in an ad-hoc network, helping to identify the node or nodes with better conditions of connection. In this paper, we propose a relative index to evaluate a single node reliability, based on the link disconnection entropy disorder using neighboring nodes as reference. Link disconnection entropy disorder is best used to identify fast moving nodes or nodes with unstable communications, this without the need of specialized sensors such as GPS. Several scenarios were studied to verify the index, measuring the effects of Speed and traffic density on the link disconnection entropy disorder. Packet delivery ratio is associated to the metric detecting a strong relationship, enabling the use of the link disconnection entropy disorder to evaluate the stability of a node to communicate with other nodes. To expand the utilization of the link entropy disorder, we identified nodes with higher speeds in network simulations just by using the link entropy disorder.

An Optimized Hidden Node Detection Paradigm for Improving the Coverage and Network Efficiency in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Alanazi, Adwan; Elleithy, Khaled

2016-09-07

Successful transmission of online multimedia streams in wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) is a big challenge due to their limited bandwidth and power resources. The existing WSN protocols are not completely appropriate for multimedia communication. The effectiveness of WMSNs varies, and it depends on the correct location of its sensor nodes in the field. Thus, maximizing the multimedia coverage is the most important issue in the delivery of multimedia contents. The nodes in WMSNs are either static or mobile. Thus, the node connections change continuously due to the mobility in wireless multimedia communication that causes an additional energy consumption, and synchronization loss between neighboring nodes. In this paper, we introduce an Optimized Hidden Node Detection (OHND) paradigm. The OHND consists of three phases: hidden node detection, message exchange, and location detection. These three phases aim to maximize the multimedia node coverage, and improve energy efficiency, hidden node detection capacity, and packet delivery ratio. OHND helps multimedia sensor nodes to compute the directional coverage. Furthermore, an OHND is used to maintain a continuous node- continuous neighbor discovery process in order to handle the mobility of the nodes. We implement our proposed algorithms by using a network simulator (NS2). The simulation results demonstrate that nodes are capable of maintaining direct coverage and detecting hidden nodes in order to maximize coverage and multimedia node mobility. To evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithms, we compared our results with other known approaches.

Numeric pathologic lymph node classification shows prognostic superiority to topographic pN classification in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

PubMed

Sugawara, Kotaro; Yamashita, Hiroharu; Uemura, Yukari; Mitsui, Takashi; Yagi, Koichi; Nishida, Masato; Aikou, Susumu; Mori, Kazuhiko; Nomura, Sachiyo; Seto, Yasuyuki

2017-10-01

The current eighth tumor node metastasis lymph node category pathologic lymph node staging system for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is based solely on the number of metastatic nodes and does not consider anatomic distribution. We aimed to assess the prognostic capability of the eighth tumor node metastasis pathologic lymph node staging system (numeric-based) compared with the 11th Japan Esophageal Society (topography-based) pathologic lymph node staging system in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 289 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection during the period from January 2006 through June 2016. We compared discrimination abilities for overall survival, recurrence-free survival, and cancer-specific survival between these 2 staging systems using C-statistics. The median number of dissected and metastatic nodes was 61 (25% to 75% quartile range, 45 to 79) and 1 (25% to 75% quartile range, 0 to 3), respectively. The eighth tumor node metastasis pathologic lymph node staging system had a greater ability to accurately determine overall survival (C-statistics: tumor node metastasis classification, 0.69, 95% confidence interval, 0.62-0.76; Japan Esophageal Society classification; 0.65, 95% confidence interval, 0.58-0.71; P = .014) and cancer-specific survival (C-statistics: tumor node metastasis classification, 0.78, 95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.87; Japan Esophageal Society classification; 0.72, 95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.80; P = .018). Rates of total recurrence rose as the eighth tumor node metastasis pathologic lymph node stage increased, while stratification of patients according to the topography-based node classification system was not feasible. Numeric nodal staging is an essential tool for stratifying the oncologic outcomes of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma even in the cohort in which adequate numbers of lymph nodes were harvested. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Prognostic value of total number of lymph nodes retrieved differs between left-sided colon cancer and right-sided colon cancer in stage III patients with colon cancer.

PubMed

Yang, Lin; Xiong, Zhenchong; Xie, Qiankun; He, Wenzhuo; Liu, Shousheng; Kong, Pengfei; Jiang, Chang; Guo, Guifang; Xia, Liangping

2018-05-11

The consensus is that a minimum of 12 lymph nodes should be analyzed at colectomy for colon cancer. However, right colon cancer and left colon cancer have different characteristics, and this threshold value for total number of lymph nodes retrieved may not be universally applicable. The data of 63,243 patients with colon cancer treated between 2004 and 2012 were retrieved from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to determine the predictive value of total number of lymph nodes for survival after adjusting for lymph nodes ratio. The predictive value in left-sided colon cancer and right-sided colon cancer was compared. The optimal total number of lymph nodes cutoff value for prediction of overall survival was identified using the online tool Cutoff Finder. Survival of patients with high total number of lymph nodes (≥12) and low total number of lymph nodes (< 12) was compared by Kaplan-Meier analysis. After stratifying by lymph nodes ratio status, total number of lymph nodes≥12 remained an independent predictor of survival in the whole cohort and in right-sided colon cancer, but not in left-sided colon cancer. The optimal cutoff value for total number of lymph nodes was determined to be 11. Low total number of lymph nodes (< 11) was associated with significantly poorer survival after adjusting for lymph nodes ratio in all subgroups except in the subgroup with high lymph nodes ratio (0.5-1.0). Previous reports of the prognostic significance of total number of lymph nodes on node-positive colon cancer were confounded by lymph nodes ratio. The 12-node standard for total number of lymph nodes may not be equally applicable in right-sided colon cancer and left-sided colon cancer.

Localization of antigen-specific lymphocytes following lymph node challenge.

PubMed Central

Liu, H; Splitter, G A

1986-01-01

The effect of subcutaneous injections of Brucella abortus strain 19 antigen on the specific localization of autologous lymphocytes in the regional nodes of calves was analysed by fluorescent labelling and flow cytometry. Both in vitro and in vivo FITC labelling of lymphocytes indicated the preferential migration of lymphocytes from a previously challenged lymph node to a recently challenged lymph node. However, lymphocytes from a lymph node challenged with B. abortus failed to localize preferentially in a lymph node challenged with a control antigen, Listeria monocytogenes. Lymph node cells, enriched for T lymphocytes and isolated from primary stimulated or secondary challenged B. abortus lymph nodes, could proliferate when cultured with autologous antigen-pulsed macrophages. The kinetics of [3H]thymidine incorporation in lymphocytes from secondarily challenged lymph nodes occurred earlier and to a greater extent when compared with lymphocytes from primary challenged lymph nodes. Our data show that the accumulation of B. abortus-specific lymphocytes in secondarily challenged lymph nodes is increased by the presence of the specific antigen. Images Figure 4 PMID:2426183

Providing nearest neighbor point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Faraj, Ahmad A.; Inglett, Todd A.; Ratterman, Joseph D.

2012-10-23

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for providing nearest neighbor point-to-point communications among compute nodes of an operational group in a global combining network of a parallel computer, each compute node connected to each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through a link, that include: identifying each link in the global combining network for each compute node of the operational group; designating one of a plurality of point-to-point class routing identifiers for each link such that no compute node in the operational group is connected to two adjacent compute nodes in the operational group with links designated for the same class routing identifiers; and configuring each compute node of the operational group for point-to-point communications with each adjacent compute node in the global combining network through the link between that compute node and that adjacent compute node using that link's designated class routing identifier.

Factors affecting sentinel lymph node metastasis in Turkish breast cancer patients: Predictive value of Ki-67 and the size of lymph node.

PubMed

Ozemir, I A; Orhun, K; Eren, T; Baysal, H; Sagiroglu, J; Leblebici, M; Ceyran, A B; Alimoglu, O

We aimed to analyze the factors that affect the axillary lymph node involvement in Turkish breast cancer patients with clinically non-palpable axillary lymph node. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the gold standard technique to evaluate the axillary lymph node status that directly influences the prognosis and the treatment options in breast cancer. Breast cancer patients without axillary lymph node involvement in clinic examination were enrolled the study. Patients were categorized into the two groups according to existence of axillary lymph node metastasis or not. Demographic, histopathological and clinical data of patients were revealed retrospectively. One-hundred and eighty-seven patients were analyzed and 101 of patients fulfilled the criteria and were included the study. Metastatic lymph node was detected in 38 (37.6 %) patients (Group 1), and was negative in 63 (62.4 %) patients (Group 2). Sentinel lymph node metastasis were statistically significant higher in patients with Ki-67 ≥ 14 % than patients with Ki-67 < 14 % (51.9 % vs 22.4 %; p < 0.01). Likewise, the mean size of the sentinel lymph node was statistically significant higher in Group 1 compared to Group 2 (p < 0.01). Ki-67 proliferation index and sentinel lymph node size may provide a higher prediction about the sentinel lymph node involvement in patients with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes (Tab. 3, Fig. 1, Ref. 31).

Early diagnosis of lymph node metastasis: Importance of intranodal pressures.

PubMed

Miura, Yoshinobu; Mikada, Mamoru; Ouchi, Tomoki; Horie, Sachiko; Takeda, Kazu; Yamaki, Teppei; Sakamoto, Maya; Mori, Shiro; Kodama, Tetsuya

2016-03-01

Regional lymph node status is an important prognostic indicator of tumor aggressiveness. However, early diagnosis of metastasis using intranodal pressure, at a stage when lymph node size has not changed significantly, has not been investigated. Here, we use an MXH10/Mo-lpr/lpr mouse model of lymph node metastasis to show that intranodal pressure increases in both the subiliac lymph node and proper axillary lymph node, which are connected by lymphatic vessels, when tumor cells are injected into the subiliac lymph node to induce metastasis to the proper axillary lymph node. We found that intranodal pressure in the subiliac lymph node increased at the stage when metastasis was detected by in vivo bioluminescence, but when proper axillary lymph node volume (measured by high-frequency ultrasound imaging) had not increased significantly. Intravenously injected liposomes, encapsulating indocyanine green, were detected in solid tumors by in vivo bioluminescence, but not in the proper axillary lymph node. Basic blood vessel and lymphatic channel structures were maintained in the proper axillary lymph node, although sinus histiocytosis was detected. These results show that intranodal pressure in the proper axillary lymph node increases at early stages when metastatic tumor cells have not fully proliferated. Intranodal pressure may be a useful parameter for facilitating early diagnosis of lymph node metastasis. © 2015 The Authors. Cancer Science published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japanese Cancer Association.

Configuring compute nodes of a parallel computer in an operational group into a plurality of independent non-overlapping collective networks

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Inglett, Todd A.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2010-03-02

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for configuring compute nodes of a parallel computer in an operational group into a plurality of independent non-overlapping collective networks, the compute nodes in the operational group connected together for data communications through a global combining network, that include: partitioning the compute nodes in the operational group into a plurality of non-overlapping subgroups; designating one compute node from each of the non-overlapping subgroups as a master node; and assigning, to the compute nodes in each of the non-overlapping subgroups, class routing instructions that organize the compute nodes in that non-overlapping subgroup as a collective network such that the master node is a physical root.

Indocyanine Green Guided Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection: An Efficient Technique to Classify the Lymph Node Status of Patients with Prostate Cancer Who Underwent Radical Prostatectomy.

PubMed

Ramírez-Backhaus, Miguel; Mira Moreno, Alejandra; Gómez Ferrer, Alvaro; Calatrava Fons, Ana; Casanova, Juan; Solsona Narbón, Eduardo; Ortiz Rodríguez, Isabel María; Rubio Briones, José

2016-11-01

We evaluated the effectiveness of indocyanine green guided pelvic lymph node dissection for the optimal staging of prostate cancer and analyzed whether the technique could replace extended pelvic lymph node dissection. A solution of 25 mg indocyanine green in 5 ml sterile water was transperineally injected. Pelvic lymph node dissection was started with the indocyanine green stained nodes followed by extended pelvic lymph node dissection. Primary outcome measures were sensitivity, specificity, predictive value and likelihood ratio of a negative test of indocyanine green guided pelvic lymph node dissection. A total of 84 patients with a median age of 63.55 years and a median prostate specific antigen of 8.48 ng/ml were included in the study. Of these patients 60.7% had intermediate risk disease and 25% had high or very high risk disease. A median of 7 indocyanine green stained nodes per patient was detected (range 2 to 18) with a median of 22 nodes excised during extended pelvic lymph node dissection. Lymph node metastasis was identified in 25 patients, 23 of whom had disease properly classified by indocyanine green guided pelvic lymph node dissection. The most frequent location of indocyanine green stained nodes was the proximal internal iliac artery followed by the fossa of Marcille. The negative predictive value was 96.7% and the likelihood ratio of a negative test was 8%. Overall 1,856 nodes were removed and 603 were stained indocyanine green. Pathological examination revealed 82 metastatic nodes, of which 60% were indocyanine green stained. The negative predictive value was 97.4% but the likelihood ratio of a negative test was 58.5%. Indocyanine green guided pelvic lymph node dissection correctly staged 97% of cases. However, according to our data it cannot replace extended pelvic lymph node dissection. Nevertheless, its high negative predictive value could allow us to avoid extended pelvic lymph node dissection if we had an accurate intraoperative lymph fluorescent analysis. Copyright © 2016 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Adaptive Connectivity Restoration from Node Failure(s) in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Wang, Huaiyuan; Ding, Xu; Huang, Cheng; Wu, Xiaobei

2016-01-01

Recently, there is a growing interest in the applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A set of sensor nodes is deployed in order to collectively survey an area of interest and/or perform specific surveillance tasks in some of the applications, such as battlefield reconnaissance. Due to the harsh deployment environments and limited energy supply, nodes may fail, which impacts the connectivity of the whole network. Since a single node failure (cut-vertex) will destroy the connectivity and divide the network into disjoint blocks, most of the existing studies focus on the problem of single node failure. However, the failure of multiple nodes would be a disaster to the whole network and must be repaired effectively. Only few studies are proposed to handle the problem of multiple cut-vertex failures, which is a special case of multiple node failures. Therefore, this paper proposes a comprehensive solution to address the problems of node failure (single and multiple). Collaborative Single Node Failure Restoration algorithm (CSFR) is presented to solve the problem of single node failure only with cooperative communication, but CSFR-M, which is the extension of CSFR, handles the single node failure problem more effectively with node motion. Moreover, Collaborative Connectivity Restoration Algorithm (CCRA) is proposed on the basis of cooperative communication and node maneuverability to restore network connectivity after multiple nodes fail. CSFR-M and CCRA are reactive methods that initiate the connectivity restoration after detecting the node failure(s). In order to further minimize the energy dissipation, CCRA opts to simplify the recovery process by gridding. Moreover, the distance that an individual node needs to travel during recovery is reduced by choosing the nearest suitable candidates. Finally, extensive simulations validate the performance of CSFR, CSFR-M and CCRA. PMID:27690030

Scalable Node Monitoring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Drotar, Alexander P.; Quinn, Erin E.; Sutherland, Landon D.

2012-07-30

Project description is: (1) Build a high performance computer; and (2) Create a tool to monitor node applications in Component Based Tool Framework (CBTF) using code from Lightweight Data Metric Service (LDMS). The importance of this project is that: (1) there is a need a scalable, parallel tool to monitor nodes on clusters; and (2) New LDMS plugins need to be able to be easily added to tool. CBTF stands for Component Based Tool Framework. It's scalable and adjusts to different topologies automatically. It uses MRNet (Multicast/Reduction Network) mechanism for information transport. CBTF is flexible and general enough to bemore » used for any tool that needs to do a task on many nodes. Its components are reusable and 'EASILY' added to a new tool. There are three levels of CBTF: (1) frontend node - interacts with users; (2) filter nodes - filters or concatenates information from backend nodes; and (3) backend nodes - where the actual work of the tool is done. LDMS stands for lightweight data metric servies. It's a tool used for monitoring nodes. Ltool is the name of the tool we derived from LDMS. It's dynamically linked and includes the following components: Vmstat, Meminfo, Procinterrupts and more. It works by: Ltool command is run on the frontend node; Ltool collects information from the backend nodes; backend nodes send information to the filter nodes; and filter nodes concatenate information and send to a database on the front end node. Ltool is a useful tool when it comes to monitoring nodes on a cluster because the overhead involved with running the tool is not particularly high and it will automatically scale to any size cluster.« less

FDG-PET/CT lymph node staging after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophageal-gastric junction.

PubMed

Fencl, Pavel; Belohlavek, Otakar; Harustiak, Tomas; Zemanova, Milada

2016-11-01

The aim of the analysis was to assess the accuracy of various FDG-PET/CT parameters in staging lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In this prospective study, 74 patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophageal-gastric junction were examined by FDG-PET/CT in the course of their neoadjuvant chemotherapy given before surgical treatment. Data from the final FDG-PET/CT examinations were compared with the histology from the surgical specimens (gold standard). The accuracy was calculated for four FDG-PET/CT parameters: (1) hypermetabolic nodes, (2) large nodes, (3) large-and-medium large nodes, and (4) hypermetabolic or large nodes. In 74 patients, a total of 1540 lymph nodes were obtained by surgery, and these were grouped into 287 regions according to topographic origin. Five hundred and two nodes were imaged by FDG-PET/CT and were grouped into these same regions for comparison. In the analysis, (1) hypermetabolic nodes, (2) large nodes, (3) large-and-medium large nodes, and (4) hypermetabolic or large nodes identified metastases in particular regions with sensitivities of 11.6%, 2.9%, 21.7%, and 13.0%, respectively; specificity was 98.6%, 94.5%, 74.8%, and 93.6%, respectively. The best accuracy of 77.7% reached the parameter of hypermetabolic nodes. Accuracy decreased to 62.0% when also smaller nodes (medium-large) were taken for the parameter of metastases. FDG-PET/CT proved low sensitivity and high specificity. Low sensitivity was based on low detection rate (32.6%) when compared nodes imaged by FDG-PET/CT to nodes found by surgery, and in inability to detect micrometastases. Sensitivity increased when also medium-large LNs were taken for positive, but specificity and accuracy decreased.

Distribution of finger nodes and their association with underlying radiographic features of osteoarthritis.

PubMed

Rees, Frances; Doherty, Sally; Hui, Michelle; Maciewicz, Rose; Muir, Kenneth; Zhang, Weiya; Doherty, Michael

2012-04-01

To determine the distribution of clinically palpable hand interphalangeal (IP) nodes at each finger and thumb joint in a population with nodes, the influence of left or right hand dominance and sex on the development of nodes, and the association between nodes and underlying radiographic features of osteoarthritis (OA). We performed a cross-sectional analysis of participants in the Genetics of Osteoarthritis and Lifestyle (GOAL) study who had ≥1 Heberden's nodes or Bouchard's nodes on clinical examination. Frequencies (%) of nodes were described for each IP joint in the hand. Associations between nodes and underlying radiographic OA were shown with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals. A logistic regression model was used to adjust for the following confounding factors: age, sex, body mass index, left or right hand dominance, hand trauma, occupation with heavy manual activity, and participation in sports. Of the 3,170 GOAL participants, 1,939 had ≥1 nodes (mean age 68 years, 54% women). The distal IP joints of the index finger were the most frequently affected, followed by the thumb IP joint. Nodes were more common in dominant hands and women. There was a significant association between nodes and underlying radiographic OA (OR range 2.26-21.23). This association was stronger for joint space narrowing than for osteophytes. A dose-response relationship was found between clinical severity of Heberden's nodes and underlying radiographic change. Our study supports the positive association between nodes and radiographic OA, especially narrowing, and the influence of sex and left or right hand dominance on development of nodes. In this age group, presence of nodes may be taken as an indication of underlying small joint OA. Copyright © 2012 by the American College of Rheumatology.

Validation of sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer women N1-N2 with complete axillary response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Multicentre study in Tarragona.

PubMed

Carrera, D; de la Flor, M; Galera, J; Amillano, K; Gomez, M; Izquierdo, V; Aguilar, E; López, S; Martínez, M; Martínez, S; Serra, J M; Pérez, M; Martin, L

2016-01-01

The aim of our study was to evaluate sentinel lymph node biopsy as a diagnostic test for assessing the presence of residual metastatic axillary lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, replacing the need for a lymphadenectomy in negative selective lymph node biopsy patients. A multicentre, diagnostic validation study was conducted in the province of Tarragona, on women with T1-T3, N1-N2 breast cancer, who presented with a complete axillary response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Study procedures consisted of performing an selective lymph node biopsy followed by lymphadenectomy. A total of 53 women were included in the study. Surgical detection rate was 90.5% (no sentinel node found in 5 patients). Histopathological analysis of the lymphadenectomy showed complete disease regression of axillary nodes in 35.4% (17/48) of the patients, and residual axillary node involvement in 64.6% (31/48) of them. In lymphadenectomy positive patients, 28 had a positive selective lymph node biopsy (true positive), while 3 had a negative selective lymph node biopsy (false negative). Of the 28 true selective lymph node biopsy positives, the sentinel node was the only positive node in 10 cases. All lymphadenectomy negative cases were selective lymph node biopsy negative. These data yield a sensitivity of 93.5%, a false negative rate of 9.7%, and a global test efficiency of 93.7%. Selective lymph node biopsy after chemotherapy in patients with a complete axillary response provides valid and reliable information regarding axillary status after neoadjuvant treatment, and might prevent lymphadenectomy in cases with negative selective lymph node biopsy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and SEMNIM. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal 3.0T MRI analysis of changes in lymph node volume and apparent diffusion coefficient in an experimental animal model of metastatic and hyperplastic lymph nodes.

PubMed

Klerkx, Wenche M; Geldof, Albert A; Heintz, A Peter; van Diest, Paul J; Visser, Fredy; Mali, Willem P; Veldhuis, Wouter B

2011-05-01

To perform a longitudinal analysis of changes in lymph node volume and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in healthy, metastatic, and hyperplastic lymph nodes. Three groups of four female Copenhagen rats were studied. Metastasis was induced by injecting cells with a high metastatic potential in their left hind footpad. Reactive nodes were induced by injecting Complete Freund Adjuvant (CFA). Imaging was performed at baseline and at 2, 5, 8, 11, and 14 days after tumor cell injection. Finally, lymph nodes were examined histopathologically. The model was highly efficient in inducing lymphadenopathy: subcutaneous cell or CFA inoculation resulted in ipsilateral metastatic or reactive popliteal lymph nodes in all rats. Metastatic nodal volumes increased exponentially from 5-7 mm(3) at baseline to 25 mm(3) at day 14, while the control node remained 5 mm(3). The hyperplastic nodes showed a rapid volume increase reaching a plateau at day 6. The ADC of metastatic nodes significantly decreased (range 13%-32%), but this decrease was also seen in reactive nodes. Metastatic and hyperplastic lymph nodes differed in terms of enlargement patterns and ADC changes. Enlarged reactive or malignant nodes could not be differentiated based on their ADC values. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Glide dislocation nucleation from dislocation nodes at semi-coherent {111} Cu–Ni interfaces

DOE PAGES

Shao, Shuai; Wang, Jian; Beyerlein, Irene J.; ...

2015-07-23

Using atomistic simulations and dislocation theory on a model system of semi-coherent {1 1 1} interfaces, we show that misfit dislocation nodes adopt multiple atomic arrangements corresponding to the creation and redistribution of excess volume at the nodes. We identified four distinctive node structures: volume-smeared nodes with (i) spiral or (ii) straight dislocation patterns, and volume-condensed nodes with (iii) triangular or (iv) hexagonal dislocation patterns. Volume-smeared nodes contain interfacial dislocations lying in the Cu–Ni interface but volume-condensed nodes contain two sets of interfacial dislocations in the two adjacent interfaces and jogs across the atomic layer between the two adjacent interfaces.more » Finally, under biaxial tension/compression applied parallel to the interface, we show that the nucleation of lattice dislocations is preferred at the nodes and is correlated with the reduction of excess volume at the nodes.« less

Implementing asyncronous collective operations in a multi-node processing system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A.; Heidelberger, Philip

A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for implementing an asynchronous collective operation in a multi-node data processing system. In one embodiment, the method comprises sending data to a plurality of nodes in the data processing system, broadcasting a remote get to the plurality of nodes, and using this remote get to implement asynchronous collective operations on the data by the plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, each of the nodes performs only one task in the asynchronous operations, and each nodes sets up a base address table with an entry for a base address of a memorymore » buffer associated with said each node. In another embodiment, each of the nodes performs a plurality of tasks in said collective operations, and each task of each node sets up a base address table with an entry for a base address of a memory buffer associated with the task.« less

Self-pacing direct memory access data transfer operations for compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A

2015-02-17

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for self-pacing DMA data transfer operations for nodes in a parallel computer that include: transferring, by an origin DMA on an origin node, a RTS message to a target node, the RTS message specifying an message on the origin node for transfer to the target node; receiving, in an origin injection FIFO for the origin DMA from a target DMA on the target node in response to transferring the RTS message, a target RGET descriptor followed by a DMA transfer operation descriptor, the DMA descriptor for transmitting a message portion to the target node, the target RGET descriptor specifying an origin RGET descriptor on the origin node that specifies an additional DMA descriptor for transmitting an additional message portion to the target node; processing, by the origin DMA, the target RGET descriptor; and processing, by the origin DMA, the DMA transfer operation descriptor.

Constructing a logical, regular axis topology from an irregular topology

DOEpatents

Faraj, Daniel A.

2014-07-22

Constructing a logical regular topology from an irregular topology including, for each axial dimension and recursively, for each compute node in a subcommunicator until returning to a first node: adding to a logical line of the axial dimension a neighbor specified in a nearest neighbor list; calling the added compute node; determining, by the called node, whether any neighbor in the node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line; if a neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line, adding, by the called compute node to the logical line, any neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list for the axial dimension not already added to the logical line; and, if no neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line, returning to the calling compute node.

Constructing a logical, regular axis topology from an irregular topology

DOEpatents

Faraj, Daniel A.

2014-07-01

Constructing a logical regular topology from an irregular topology including, for each axial dimension and recursively, for each compute node in a subcommunicator until returning to a first node: adding to a logical line of the axial dimension a neighbor specified in a nearest neighbor list; calling the added compute node; determining, by the called node, whether any neighbor in the node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line; if a neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line, adding, by the called compute node to the logical line, any neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list for the axial dimension not already added to the logical line; and, if no neighbor in the called compute node's nearest neighbor list is available to add to the logical line, returning to the calling compute node.

Laboratory for Computer Science Progress Report 16, 1 July 1978 - 30 June 1979,

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-08-01

name strongly distinguishes the XLMS node from ordinary nameless semantic network nodes. The name of a node has two parts: the " genus ", itself a node...and the "specializer", a node or an atomic symbol. The genus and specializer of a node are almost always semantically meaningful, though their...meaning is almost never suppliec by XLMS, but rather by some system built on top of XLMS. The genus of a node almost always plays a crucial role in its

High speed polling protocol for multiple node network with sequential flooding of a polling message and a poll-answering message

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marvit, Maclen (Inventor); Kirkham, Harold (Inventor)

1995-01-01

The invention is a multiple interconnected network of intelligent message-repeating remote nodes which employs a remote node polling process performed by a master node by transmitting a polling message generically addressed to all remote nodes associated with the master node. Each remote node responds upon receipt of the generically addressed polling message by sequentially flooding the network with a poll-answering informational message and with the polling message.

Anatomical classification of breast sentinel lymph nodes using computed tomography-lymphography.

PubMed

Fujita, Tamaki; Miura, Hiroyuki; Seino, Hiroko; Ono, Shuichi; Nishi, Takashi; Nishimura, Akimasa; Hakamada, Kenichi; Aoki, Masahiko

2018-05-03

To evaluate the anatomical classification and location of breast sentinel lymph nodes, preoperative computed tomography-lymphography examinations were retrospectively reviewed for sentinel lymph nodes in 464 cases clinically diagnosed with node-negative breast cancer between July 2007 and June 2016. Anatomical classification was performed based on the numbers of lymphatic routes and sentinel lymph nodes, the flow direction of lymphatic routes, and the location of sentinel lymph nodes. Of the 464 cases reviewed, anatomical classification could be performed in 434 (93.5 %). The largest number of cases showed single route/single sentinel lymph node (n = 296, 68.2 %), followed by multiple routes/multiple sentinel lymph nodes (n = 59, 13.6 %), single route/multiple sentinel lymph nodes (n = 53, 12.2 %), and multiple routes/single sentinel lymph node (n = 26, 6.0 %). Classification based on the flow direction of lymphatic routes showed that 429 cases (98.8 %) had outward flow on the superficial fascia toward axillary lymph nodes, whereas classification based on the height of sentinel lymph nodes showed that 323 cases (74.4 %) belonged to the upper pectoral group of axillary lymph nodes. There was wide variation in the number of lymphatic routes and their branching patterns and in the number, location, and direction of flow of sentinel lymph nodes. It is clinically very important to preoperatively understand the anatomical morphology of lymphatic routes and sentinel lymph nodes for optimal treatment of breast cancer, and computed tomography-lymphography is suitable for this purpose.

Intraoperative sentinel node identification in early stage cervical cancer using a combination of radiolabeled albumin injection and isosulfan blue dye injection.

PubMed

Martínez-Palones, José M; Gil-Moreno, Antonio; Pérez-Benavente, María A; Roca, Isabel; Xercavins, Jordi

2004-03-01

We investigated the feasibility of sentinel lymph node identification using radioisotopic lymphatic mapping with technetium-99m-labeled human serum albumin and isosulfan blue dye injection in patients undergoing radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy for treatment of early cervical cancer. Between September 2000 and October 2002, 25 patients with cervical cancer FIGO stage I (n=24) or stage II (n=1) underwent sentinel lymph node detection with preoperative lymphoscintigraphy (technetium-99m colloid albumin injection around the tumor) and intraoperative lymphatic mapping with blue dye and a handheld or laparoscopic gamma probe. Complete pelvic or paraaortic lymphadenectomy was performed in all cases by open surgery or laparoscopic surgery. In 23 evaluable patients, a total of 51 sentinel lymph nodes were detected by lymphoscintigraphy (mean 2.21 nodes per patient). Intraoperatively, 61 sentinel lymph nodes were identified, with a mean of 2.52 nodes per patient by gamma probe and a mean of 1.94 nodes per patient after isosulfan blue injection. Forty percent of sentinel nodes were found in the interiliac region and 25% in the external iliac area. Microscopic nodal metastases (four nodes) were confirmed in 12% of cases. All these lymph nodes were previously detected as sentinel lymph nodes. The remaining 419 nodes after pelvic lymphadenectomy were histologically negative. Sentinel lymph node identification with technetium-99m-labeled nanocolloid combined with blue dye injection is feasible and showed a 100% negative predictive value, and potentially identified women in whom lymph node dissection can be avoided.

phylo-node: A molecular phylogenetic toolkit using Node.js.

PubMed

O'Halloran, Damien M

2017-01-01

Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform environment that provides a JavaScript codebase for back-end server-side applications. JavaScript has been used to develop very fast and user-friendly front-end tools for bioinformatic and phylogenetic analyses. However, no such toolkits are available using Node.js to conduct comprehensive molecular phylogenetic analysis. To address this problem, I have developed, phylo-node, which was developed using Node.js and provides a stable and scalable toolkit that allows the user to perform diverse molecular and phylogenetic tasks. phylo-node can execute the analysis and process the resulting outputs from a suite of software options that provides tools for read processing and genome alignment, sequence retrieval, multiple sequence alignment, primer design, evolutionary modeling, and phylogeny reconstruction. Furthermore, phylo-node enables the user to deploy server dependent applications, and also provides simple integration and interoperation with other Node modules and languages using Node inheritance patterns, and a customized piping module to support the production of diverse pipelines. phylo-node is open-source and freely available to all users without sign-up or login requirements. All source code and user guidelines are openly available at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/dohalloran/phylo-node.

A dual-modal magnetic nanoparticle probe for preoperative and intraoperative mapping of sentinel lymph nodes by magnetic resonance and near infrared fluorescence imaging

PubMed Central

Zhou, Zhengyang; Chen, Hongwei; Lipowska, Malgorzata; Wang, Liya; Yu, Qiqi; Yang, Xiaofeng; Tiwari, Diana; Yang, Lily; Mao, Hui

2016-01-01

The ability to reliably detect sentinel lymph nodes for sentinel lymph node biopsy and lymphadenectomy is important in clinical management of patients with metastatic cancers. However, the traditional sentinel lymph node mapping with visible dyes is limited by the penetration depth of light and fast clearance of the dyes. On the other hand, sentinel lymph node mapping with radionucleotide technique has intrinsically low spatial resolution and does not provide anatomic details in the sentinel lymph node mapping procedure. This work reports the development of a dual modality imaging probe with magnetic resonance and near infrared imaging capabilities for sentinel lymph node mapping using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (10 nm core size) conjugated with a near infrared molecule with emission at 830 nm. Accumulation of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in sentinel lymph nodes leads to strong T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging contrast that can be potentially used for preoperative localization of sentinel lymph nodes, while conjugated near infrared molecules provide optical imaging tracking of lymph nodes with a high signal to background ratio. The new magnetic nanoparticle based dual imaging probe exhibits a significant longer lymph node retention time. Near infrared signals from nanoparticle conjugated near infrared dyes last up to 60 min in sentinel lymph node compared to that of 25 min for the free near infrared dyes in a mouse model. Furthermore, axillary lymph nodes, in addition to sentinel lymph nodes, can be also visualized with this probe, given its slow clearance and sufficient sensitivity. Therefore, this new dual modality imaging probe with the tissue penetration and sensitive detection of sentinel lymph nodes can be applied for preoperative survey of lymph nodes with magnetic resonance imaging and allows intraoperative sentinel lymph node mapping using near infrared optical devices. PMID:23812946

Identifying logical planes formed of compute nodes of a subcommunicator in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davis, Kristan D.; Faraj, Daniel

In a parallel computer, a plurality of logical planes formed of compute nodes of a subcommunicator may be identified by: for each compute node of the subcommunicator and for a number of dimensions beginning with a first dimension: establishing, by a plane building node, in a positive direction of the first dimension, all logical planes that include the plane building node and compute nodes of the subcommunicator in a positive direction of a second dimension, where the second dimension is orthogonal to the first dimension; and establishing, by the plane building node, in a negative direction of the first dimension,more » all logical planes that include the plane building node and compute nodes of the subcommunicator in the positive direction of the second dimension.« less

Improved Survival in Male Melanoma Patients in the Era of Sentinel Node Biopsy.

PubMed

Koskivuo, I; Vihinen, P; Mäki, M; Talve, L; Vahlberg, T; Suominen, E

2017-03-01

Sentinel node biopsy is a standard method for nodal staging in patients with clinically localized cutaneous melanoma, but the survival advantage of sentinel node biopsy remains unsolved. The aim of this case-control study was to investigate the survival benefit of sentinel node biopsy. A total of 305 prospective melanoma patients undergoing sentinel node biopsy were compared with 616 retrospective control patients with clinically localized melanoma whom have not undergone sentinel node biopsy. Survival differences were calculated with the median follow-up time of 71 months in sentinel node biopsy patients and 74 months in control patients. Analyses were calculated overall and separately in males and females. Overall, there were no differences in relapse-free survival or cancer-specific survival between sentinel node biopsy patients and control patients. Male sentinel node biopsy patients had significantly higher relapse-free survival ( P = 0.021) and cancer-specific survival ( P = 0.024) than control patients. In females, no differences were found. Cancer-specific survival rates at 5 years were 87.8% in sentinel node biopsy patients and 85.2% in controls overall with 88.3% in male sentinel node biopsy patients and 80.6% in male controls and 87.3% in female sentinel node biopsy patients and 89.8% in female controls. Sentinel node biopsy did not improve survival in melanoma patients overall. While females had no differences in survival, males had significantly improved relapse-free survival and cancer-specific survival following sentinel node biopsy.

An Optimized Hidden Node Detection Paradigm for Improving the Coverage and Network Efficiency in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Alanazi, Adwan; Elleithy, Khaled

2016-01-01

Successful transmission of online multimedia streams in wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) is a big challenge due to their limited bandwidth and power resources. The existing WSN protocols are not completely appropriate for multimedia communication. The effectiveness of WMSNs varies, and it depends on the correct location of its sensor nodes in the field. Thus, maximizing the multimedia coverage is the most important issue in the delivery of multimedia contents. The nodes in WMSNs are either static or mobile. Thus, the node connections change continuously due to the mobility in wireless multimedia communication that causes an additional energy consumption, and synchronization loss between neighboring nodes. In this paper, we introduce an Optimized Hidden Node Detection (OHND) paradigm. The OHND consists of three phases: hidden node detection, message exchange, and location detection. These three phases aim to maximize the multimedia node coverage, and improve energy efficiency, hidden node detection capacity, and packet delivery ratio. OHND helps multimedia sensor nodes to compute the directional coverage. Furthermore, an OHND is used to maintain a continuous node– continuous neighbor discovery process in order to handle the mobility of the nodes. We implement our proposed algorithms by using a network simulator (NS2). The simulation results demonstrate that nodes are capable of maintaining direct coverage and detecting hidden nodes in order to maximize coverage and multimedia node mobility. To evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithms, we compared our results with other known approaches. PMID:27618048

Frequency of an accessory popliteal efferent lymphatic pathway in dogs.

PubMed

Mayer, Monique N; Sweet, Katherine A; Patsikas, Michael N; Sukut, Sally L; Waldner, Cheryl L

2018-05-01

Staging and therapeutic planning for dogs with malignant disease in the popliteal lymph node are based on the expected patterns of lymphatic drainage from the lymph node. The medial iliac lymph nodes are known to receive efferent lymph from the popliteal lymph node; however, an accessory popliteal efferent pathway with direct connection to the sacral lymph nodes has also been less frequently reported. The primary objective of this prospective, anatomic study was to describe the frequency of various patterns of lymphatic drainage of the popliteal lymph node. With informed client consent, 50 adult dogs with no known disease of the lymphatic system underwent computed tomographic lymphography after ultrasound-guided, percutaneous injection of 350 mg/ml iohexol into a popliteal lymph node. In all 50 dogs, the popliteal lymph node drained directly to the ipsilateral medial iliac lymph node through multiple lymphatic vessels that coursed along the medial thigh. In 26% (13/50) of dogs, efferent vessels also drained from the popliteal lymph node directly to the internal iliac and/or sacral lymph nodes, coursing laterally through the gluteal region and passing over the dorsal aspect of the pelvis. Lymphatic connections between the right and left medial iliac and right and left internal iliac lymph nodes were found. Based on our findings, the internal iliac and sacral lymph nodes should be considered when staging or planning therapy for dogs with malignant disease in the popliteal lymph node. © 2018 American College of Veterinary Radiology.

Renal lymph nodes for tumor staging: appraisal of 871 nephrectomies with examination of hilar fat.

PubMed

Mehta, Vikas; Mudaliar, Kumaran; Ghai, Ritu; Quek, Marcus L; Milner, John; Flanigan, Robert C; Picken, Maria M

2013-11-01

Despite decades of research, the role of lymphadenectomy in the management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is still not clearly defined. Before the implementation of targeted therapies, lymph node metastases were considered to be a portent of markedly decreased survival, regardless of the tumor stage. However, the role of lymphadenectomy and the relative benefit of retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in the context of modern adjunctive therapies have not been conclusively addressed in the clinical literature. The current pathologic literature does not offer clear recommendations with regard to the minimum number of lymph nodes that should be examined in order to accurately stage the pN in renal cell carcinoma. Although gross examination of the hilar fat to assess the nodal status is performed routinely, it has not yet been determined whether this approach is adequate. To evaluate the status of lymph nodes and their rate of identification in the pathologic examination of nephrectomy specimens in adult renal malignancies. We reviewed the operative and pathology reports of 871 patients with renal malignancies treated by nephrectomy. All tumors were classified according to the seventh edition of the Tumor-Nodes-Metastasis classification. Patients were divided into 3 groups: Nx, no lymph nodes recovered; N0, negative; and N1, with positive lymph nodes. Grossly visible lymph nodes were submitted separately; as per grossing protocol, hilar fatty tissue was submitted for microscopic examination. We evaluated the factors that affected the number of lymph nodes identified and the variables that allowed the prediction of nodal involvement. Lymph nodes were recovered in 333 of 871 patients (38%): hilar in 125 patients, nonhilar in 137 patients, and hilar and nonhilar in 71 patients. Patients with positive lymph nodes (n = 87) were younger, had larger primary tumors, and had lymph nodes of average size, as well as a higher pT stage, nuclear grade, and rate of metastases. Metastases were seen only in grossly identified lymph nodes (65% hilar, 16% nonhilar); all microscopic nodes were negative. Even with the microscopic examination of fat, hilar lymph nodes were recovered in only 22.5% of patients. A nonhilar route of node metastasis was suspected in 40 patients. Only grossly identifiable lymph nodes, both hilar and nonhilar, were positive for metastases. Although microscopic examination of the hilar fat increased the number of lymph nodes recovered, the identification rate of these nodes was low (22.5%), and such microscopic nodes were invariably negative. Hence, microscopic examination of the hilar fat may be unnecessary.

Impact of affected lymph nodes on long-term outcome after surgical therapy of alveolar echinococcosis.

PubMed

Hillenbrand, Andreas; Beck, Annika; Kratzer, Wolfgang; Graeter, Tilmann; Barth, Thomas F E; Schmidberger, Julian; Möller, Peter; Henne-Bruns, Doris; Gruener, Beate

2018-06-16

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening helminthic disease. In humans, AE mostly affects the liver; the regional hepatic lymph nodes may be involved, indicating dissemination of AE from the liver. To achieve complete removal of the disease, enlarged hepatic lymph nodes may be resected during surgical treatment. We evaluated the frequency of affected lymph nodes by conventional microscopic and immunohistochemical analyses including detection of small particles of Echinococcus multilocularis (spem). Furthermore, we analyzed the association of resection of enlarged and affected lymph nodes with long-term outcome after surgical therapy of patients who underwent surgery with curative intent. We identified 43 patients who underwent hepatic surgery with curative intent with lymph node resection for AE. We analyzed the cohort for the manifestation of the parasite in the resected lymph nodes by conventional histology and by immunohistochemistry and compared these data with the further course of AE. Microscopically infected lymph nodes (laminar layer visible) were found in 7 out of these 43 patients (16%). In more than three quarters (25/32) of all specimens investigated, lymph nodes showed spems when stained with antibody against Em2G11, a monoclonal antibody specific for the Em2 antigen of the Echinococcus multilocularis metacestode. Most frequently, lymph nodes were resected due to enlargement. The median size of microscopically affected lymph nodes was 2 cm (range, 1.2 to 2.5 cm), the median size of immunohistochemically and non-affected lymph nodes was 1.3 cm each (range, "small" to 2.3 or 2.5 cm, respectively). Median follow-up was 8 years for all patients, 5 years for patients with lymph node resection, and 4 years for patients with infested lymph nodes. Overall, recurrent disease was seen in ten patients (10/109; 9%) after a median period of 1.5 years (range, 4 months to 4 years). None of the seven patients with conventionally microscopically affected lymph nodes suffered from recurrent disease. One patient with negative resected nodes and one patient with spems showed recurrent disease after 4 and 35 months, respectively. Lymph node involvement in AE is frequent, particularly when evaluated by immunohistochemical examination of lymph nodes with the monoclonal antibody Em2G11. Affected lymph nodes tend to be larger in size. Lymph node involvement is not associated with recurrent disease and therefore warrants further analysis of the biological significance of lymph node involvement.

Implementation of Multiple Host Nodes in Wireless Sensing Node Network System for Landslide Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abas, Faizulsalihin bin; Takayama, Shigeru

2015-02-01

This paper proposes multiple host nodes in Wireless Sensing Node Network System (WSNNS) for landslide monitoring. As landslide disasters damage monitoring system easily, one major demand in landslide monitoring is the flexibility and robustness of the system to evaluate the current situation in the monitored area. For various reasons WSNNS can provide an important contribution to reach that aim. In this system, acceleration sensors and GPS are deployed in sensing nodes. Location information by GPS, enable the system to estimate network topology and enable the system to perceive the location in emergency by monitoring the node mode. Acceleration sensors deployment, capacitate this system to detect slow mass movement that can lead to landslide occurrence. Once deployed, sensing nodes self-organize into an autonomous wireless ad hoc network. The measurement parameter data from sensing nodes is transmitted to Host System via host node and "Cloud" System. The implementation of multiple host nodes in Local Sensing Node Network System (LSNNS), improve risk- management of the WSNNS for real-time monitoring of landslide disaster.

A Simulation Program with Latency Exploitation and Node Tearing.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-02-01

translation table JUNODE is constructed to give the relation between the user-defined node set and the node set used in the pro- gram. The ground node...90, 0, 45 and 80, then, user’s node renumbered node JUNODE table 0(ground) 1 nodplc(IUNODE+1)=O 10 2 ( +2)=10 45 3 ( +3)=45 80 4 ( +4)=80 90 5 ( +5

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound mapping of sentinel lymph nodes in oral tongue cancer-a pilot study.

PubMed

Gvetadze, Shalva R; Xiong, Ping; Lv, Mingming; Li, Jun; Hu, Jingzhou; Ilkaev, Konstantin D; Yang, Xin; Sun, Jian

2017-03-01

To assess the usefulness of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) with peritumoral injection of microbubble contrast agent for detecting the sentinel lymph nodes for oral tongue carcinoma. The study was carried out on 12 patients with T1-2cN0 oral tongue cancer. A radical resection of the primary disease was planned; a modified radical supraomohyoid neck dissection was reserved for patients with larger lesions (T2, n = 8). The treatment plan and execution were not influenced by sentinel node mapping outcome. The Sonovue ™ contrast agent (Bracco Imaging, Milan, Italy) was utilized. After detection, the position and radiologic features of the sentinel nodes were recorded. The identification rate of the sentinel nodes was 91.7%; one patient failed to demonstrate any enhanced areas. A total of 15 sentinel nodes were found in the rest of the 11 cases, with a mean of 1.4 nodes for each patient. The sentinel nodes were localized in: Level IA-1 (6.7%) node; Level IB-11 (73.3%) nodes; Level IIA-3 (20.0%) nodes. No contrast-related adverse effects were observed. For oral tongue tumours, CEUS is a feasible and potentially widely available approach of sentinel node mapping. Further clinical research is required to establish the position of CEUS detection of the sentinel nodes in oral cavity cancers.

Cloud computing method for dynamically scaling a process across physical machine boundaries

DOEpatents

Gillen, Robert E.; Patton, Robert M.; Potok, Thomas E.; Rojas, Carlos C.

2014-09-02

A cloud computing platform includes first device having a graph or tree structure with a node which receives data. The data is processed by the node or communicated to a child node for processing. A first node in the graph or tree structure determines the reconfiguration of a portion of the graph or tree structure on a second device. The reconfiguration may include moving a second node and some or all of its descendant nodes. The second and descendant nodes may be copied to the second device.

Characterization of gut microbiota profiles by disease activity in patients with Crohn's disease using data mining analysis of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms.

PubMed

Andoh, Akira; Kobayashi, Toshio; Kuzuoka, Hiroyuki; Tsujikawa, Tomoyuki; Suzuki, Yasuo; Hirai, Fumihito; Matsui, Toshiyuki; Nakamura, Shiro; Matsumoto, Takayuki; Fujiyama, Yoshihide

2014-05-01

The gut microbiota plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease (CD). In this study, we analyzed the disease activity and associated fecal microbiota profiles in 160 CD patients and 121 healthy individuals. Fecal samples from the CD patients were collected during three different clinical phases, the active (n=66), remission-achieved (n=51) and remission-maintained (n=43) phases. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and data mining analysis using the Classification and Regression Tree (C&RT) approach were performed. Data mining provided a decision tree that clearly identified the various subject groups (nodes). The majority of the healthy individuals were divided into Node-5 and Node-8. Healthy subjects comprised 99% of Node-5 (91 of 92) and 84% of Node-8 (21 of 25 subjects). Node-3 was characterized by CD (136 of 160 CD subjects) and was divided into Node-6 and Node-7. Node-6 (n=103) was characterized by subjects in the active phase (n=48; 46%) and remission-achieved phase (n=39; 38%) and Node-7 was characterized by the remission-maintained phase (21 of 37 subjects; 57%). Finally, Node-6 was divided into Node-9 and Node-10. Node-9 (n=78) was characterized by subjects in the active phase (n=43; 55%) and Node-10 (n=25) was characterized by subjects in the remission-maintained phase (n=16; 64%). Differences in the gut microbiota associated with disease activity of CD patients were identified. Thus, data mining analysis appears to be an ideal tool for the characterization of the gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease.

Lymph Node Micrometastases are Associated with Worse Survival in Patients with Otherwise Node-Negative Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma.

PubMed

Mantel, Hendrik T J; Wiggers, Jim K; Verheij, Joanne; Doff, Jan J; Sieders, Egbert; van Gulik, Thomas M; Gouw, Annette S H; Porte, Robert J

2015-12-01

Lymph node metastases on routine histology are a strong negative predictor for survival after resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Additional immunohistochemistry can detect lymph node micrometastases in patients who are otherwise node negative, but the prognostic value is unsure. The objective of this study was to assess the effect on survival of immunohistochemically detected lymph node micrometastases in patients with node-negative (pN0) hilar cholangiocarcinoma on routine histology. Between 1990 and 2010, a total of 146 patients underwent curative-intent resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma with regional lymphadenectomy at two university medical centers in the Netherlands. Ninety-one patients (62 %) without lymph node metastases at routine histology were included. Micrometastases were identified by multiple sectioning of all lymph nodes and additional immunostaining with an antibody against cytokeratin 19 (K19). The association with overall survival was assessed in univariable and multivariable analysis. Median follow-up was 48 months. Micrometastases were identified in 16 (5 %) of 324 lymph nodes, corresponding to 11 (12 %) of 91 patients. There were no differences in clinical variables between K19 lymph node-positive and -negative patients. Five-year survival rates in patients with lymph node micrometastases were significantly lower compared to patients without micrometastases (27 vs. 54 %, P = 0.01). Multivariable analysis confirmed micrometastases as an independent prognostic factor for survival (adjusted Hazard ratio 2.4, P = 0.02). Lymph node micrometastases are associated with worse survival after resection of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Immunohistochemical detection of lymph node micrometastases leads to better staging of patients who were initially diagnosed with node-negative (pN0) hilar cholangiocarcinoma on routine histology.

RTOG GU Radiation Oncology Specialists Reach Consensus on Pelvic Lymph Node Volumes for High-Risk Prostate Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lawton, Colleen A.F.; Michalski, Jeff; El-Naqa, Issam

2009-06-01

Purpose: Radiation therapy to the pelvic lymph nodes in high-risk prostate cancer is required on several Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) clinical trials. Based on a prior lymph node contouring project, we have shown significant disagreement in the definition of pelvic lymph node volumes among genitourinary radiation oncology specialists involved in developing and executing current RTOG trials. Materials and Methods: A consensus meeting was held on October 3, 2007, to reach agreement on pelvic lymph node volumes. Data were presented to address the lymph node drainage of the prostate. Extensive discussion ensued to develop clinical target volume (CTV) pelvic lymphmore » node consensus. Results: Consensus was obtained resulting in computed tomography image-based pelvic lymph node CTVs. Based on this consensus, the pelvic lymph node volumes to be irradiated include: distal common iliac, presacral lymph nodes (S{sub 1}-S{sub 3}), external iliac lymph nodes, internal iliac lymph nodes, and obturator lymph nodes. Lymph node CTVs include the vessels (artery and vein) and a 7-mm radial margin being careful to 'carve out' bowel, bladder, bone, and muscle. Volumes begin at the L5/S1 interspace and end at the superior aspect of the pubic bone. Consensus on dose-volume histogram constraints for OARs was also attained. Conclusions: Consensus on pelvic lymph node CTVs for radiation therapy to address high-risk prostate cancer was attained and is available as web-based computed tomography images as well as a descriptive format through the RTOG. This will allow for uniformity in evaluating the benefit and risk of such treatment.« less

Prognostic Significance of the Location of Lymph Node Metastases in Patients With Adenocarcinoma of the Distal Esophagus or Gastroesophageal Junction.

PubMed

Anderegg, Maarten C J; Lagarde, Sjoerd M; Jagadesham, Vamshi P; Gisbertz, Suzanne S; Immanuel, Arul; Meijer, Sybren L; Hulshof, Maarten C C M; Bergman, Jacques J G H M; van Laarhoven, Hanneke W M; Griffin, S Michael; van Berge Henegouwen, Mark I

2016-11-01

To identify the prognostic significance of the location of lymph node metastases in patients with esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant therapy followed by esophagectomy. Detection of lymph node metastases in the upper mediastinum and around the celiac trunk after neoadjuvant therapy and resection does not alter the TNM classification of esophageal carcinoma. The impact of these distant lymph node metastases on survival remains unclear. Between March 2003 and September 2013, 479 consecutive patients with adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus or GEJ who underwent transthoracic esophagectomy with en bloc 2-field lymphadenectomy after neoadjuvant therapy were included, and survival was analyzed according to the location of positive lymph nodes in the resection specimen. Two hundred fifty-three patients had nodal metastases in the resection specimen. Of these patients, 92 patients had metastases in locoregional nodes, 114 patients in truncal nodes, 21 patients in the proximal field of the chest, and 26 patients had both positive truncal and proximal field nodes. Median disease-free survival was 170 months in the absence of nodal metastases, 35 months for metastases limited to locoregional nodes, 16 months for positive truncal nodes, 15 months for positive nodes in the proximal field, and 8 months for nodal metastases in both truncal and the proximal field. On multivariate analysis, location of lymph node metastases was independently associated with survival. Location of lymph node metastases is an independent predictor for survival. Relatively distant lymph node metastases along the celiac axis and/or the proximal field have a negative impact on survival. Location of lymph node metastases should therefore be considered in future staging systems of esophageal and GEJ adenocarcinoma.

Sentinel Node Detection in Head and Neck Malignancies: Innovations in Radioguided Surgery

PubMed Central

Vermeeren, L.; Klop, W. M. C.; van den Brekel, M. W. M.; Balm, A. J. M.; Nieweg, O. E.; Valdés Olmos, R. A.

2009-01-01

Sentinel node mapping is becoming a routine procedure for staging of various malignancies, because it can determine lymph node status more precisely. Due to anatomical problems, localizing sentinel nodes in the head and neck region on the basis of conventional images can be difficult. New diagnostic tools can provide better visualization of sentinel nodes. In an attempt to keep up with possible scientific progress, this article reviews new and innovative tools for sentinel node localization in this specific area. The overview comprises a short introduction of the sentinel node procedure as well as indications in the head and neck region. Then the results of SPECT/CT for sentinel node detection are described. Finally, a portable gamma camera to enable intraoperative real-time imaging with improved sentinel node detection is described. PMID:20016804

Multiple node remote messaging

DOEpatents

Blumrich, Matthias A.; Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Ohmacht, Martin; Salapura, Valentina; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard; Vranas, Pavlos

2010-08-31

A method for passing remote messages in a parallel computer system formed as a network of interconnected compute nodes includes that a first compute node (A) sends a single remote message to a remote second compute node (B) in order to control the remote second compute node (B) to send at least one remote message. The method includes various steps including controlling a DMA engine at first compute node (A) to prepare the single remote message to include a first message descriptor and at least one remote message descriptor for controlling the remote second compute node (B) to send at least one remote message, including putting the first message descriptor into an injection FIFO at the first compute node (A) and sending the single remote message and the at least one remote message descriptor to the second compute node (B).

System and method for merging clusters of wireless nodes in a wireless network

DOEpatents

Budampati, Ramakrishna S [Maple Grove, MN; Gonia, Patrick S [Maplewood, MN; Kolavennu, Soumitri N [Blaine, MN; Mahasenan, Arun V [Kerala, IN

2012-05-29

A system includes a first cluster having multiple first wireless nodes. One first node is configured to act as a first cluster master, and other first nodes are configured to receive time synchronization information provided by the first cluster master. The system also includes a second cluster having one or more second wireless nodes. One second node is configured to act as a second cluster master, and any other second nodes configured to receive time synchronization information provided by the second cluster master. The system further includes a manager configured to merge the clusters into a combined cluster. One of the nodes is configured to act as a single cluster master for the combined cluster, and the other nodes are configured to receive time synchronization information provided by the single cluster master.

Deadlock-free class routes for collective communications embedded in a multi-dimensional torus network

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A.; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard; Heidelberger, Philip

2013-01-29

A computer implemented method and a system for routing data packets in a multi-dimensional computer network. The method comprises routing a data packet among nodes along one dimension towards a root node, each node having input and output communication links, said root node not having any outgoing uplinks, and determining at each node if the data packet has reached a predefined coordinate for the dimension or an edge of the subrectangle for the dimension, and if the data packet has reached the predefined coordinate for the dimension or the edge of the subrectangle for the dimension, determining if the data packet has reached the root node, and if the data packet has not reached the root node, routing the data packet among nodes along another dimension towards the root node.

Network of dedicated processors for finding lowest-cost map path

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eberhardt, Silvio P. (Inventor)

1991-01-01

A method and associated apparatus are disclosed for finding the lowest cost path of several variable paths. The paths are comprised of a plurality of linked cost-incurring areas existing between an origin point and a destination point. The method comprises the steps of connecting a purality of nodes together in the manner of the cost-incurring areas; programming each node to have a cost associated therewith corresponding to one of the cost-incurring areas; injecting a signal into one of the nodes representing the origin point; propagating the signal through the plurality of nodes from inputs to outputs; reducing the signal in magnitude at each node as a function of the respective cost of the node; and, starting at one of the nodes representing the destination point and following a path having the least reduction in magnitude of the signal from node to node back to one of the nodes representing the origin point whereby the lowest cost path from the origin point to the destination point is found.

Patterns of regional head and neck lymph node metastasis in primary conjunctival malignant melanoma

PubMed Central

Lim, M; Tatla, T; Hersh, D; Hungerford, J

2006-01-01

Objective To correlate patterns of regional lymph node metastasis with the site of origin in primary conjunctival malignant melanoma. Design Retrospective analysis (1990–2003) of clinical data. Setting Two London tertiary referral centres. Participants 12 patients presenting with regional metastases after failed local treatment for conjunctival malignant melanoma. Results 6 cases predominantly involving the temporal conjunctiva metastasised to the pre‐auricular lymph nodes. Two cases predominantly involving the nasal conjunctiva metastasised to the submandibular nodes. Of the two cases with purely multifocal disease, one metastasised to the pre‐auricular nodes and another to both submandibular and parotid nodes. One primary conjunctival malignant melanoma had its origin in temporal conjunctiva but metastasised to submandibular nodes, and another case originating from nasal conjunctiva metastasised to pre‐auricular nodes. Conclusions Temporal conjunctival melanotic lesions tend to metastasise clinically to pre‐auricular lymph nodes and nasal conjunctival melanotic lesions metastasise to the submandibular lymph nodes. Patterns appear consistent with laboratory‐based anatomically mapped lymphatic drainage basins of the conjunctiva. PMID:16928703

Ultrasonography of the medial iliac lymph nodes in the dog.

PubMed

Llabrés-Díaz, Francisco J

2004-01-01

Sixty-one medial iliac lymph nodes of 38 different dogs (eight with adenocarcinoma of the apocrine glands of the anal sac, 13 with multicentric lymphoma, six with multicentric lymphoma but in clinical remission, and 11 control dogs) were evaluated to assess the ability of ultrasound to identify and interrogate these lymph nodes across the different groups and to differentiate these groups using different sonographic parameters. Ultrasound proved to be useful to assess canine medial iliac lymph nodes. An increase in size or number of detected lymph nodes or finding rounder or heterogeneous lymph nodes could differentiate lymph nodes of dogs of the control group from lymph nodes of dogs with lymphoma or an adenocarcinoma of the apocrine glands of the anal sac. Subcategories of malignancy could not be differentiated. More studies need to be performed, both with patients with reactive lymph nodes and also focusing on other canine superficial lymph nodes, before generalizing the results of this study to other areas or diseases.

Node Self-Deployment Algorithm Based on Pigeon Swarm Optimization for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Yu, Shanen; Xu, Yiming; Jiang, Peng; Wu, Feng; Xu, Huan

2017-01-01

At present, free-to-move node self-deployment algorithms aim at event coverage and cannot improve network coverage under the premise of considering network connectivity, network reliability and network deployment energy consumption. Thus, this study proposes pigeon-based self-deployment algorithm (PSA) for underwater wireless sensor networks to overcome the limitations of these existing algorithms. In PSA, the sink node first finds its one-hop nodes and maximizes the network coverage in its one-hop region. The one-hop nodes subsequently divide the network into layers and cluster in each layer. Each cluster head node constructs a connected path to the sink node to guarantee network connectivity. Finally, the cluster head node regards the ratio of the movement distance of the node to the change in the coverage redundancy ratio as the target function and employs pigeon swarm optimization to determine the positions of the nodes. Simulation results show that PSA improves both network connectivity and network reliability, decreases network deployment energy consumption, and increases network coverage. PMID:28338615

Innovative research of AD HOC network mobility model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Xin

2017-08-01

It is difficult for researchers of AD HOC network to conduct actual deployment during experimental stage as the network topology is changeable and location of nodes is unfixed. Thus simulation still remains the main research method of the network. Mobility model is an important component of AD HOC network simulation. It is used to describe the movement pattern of nodes in AD HOC network (including location and velocity, etc.) and decides the movement trail of nodes, playing as the abstraction of the movement modes of nodes. Therefore, mobility model which simulates node movement is an important foundation for simulation research. In AD HOC network research, mobility model shall reflect the movement law of nodes as truly as possible. In this paper, node generally refers to the wireless equipment people carry. The main research contents include how nodes avoid obstacles during movement process and the impacts of obstacles on the mutual relation among nodes, based on which a Node Self Avoiding Obstacle, i.e. NASO model is established in AD HOC network.

Method for designing gas tag compositions

DOEpatents

Gross, Kenny C.

1995-01-01

For use in the manufacture of gas tags such as employed in a nuclear reactor gas tagging failure detection system, a method for designing gas tagging compositions utilizes an analytical approach wherein the final composition of a first canister of tag gas as measured by a mass spectrometer is designated as node #1. Lattice locations of tag nodes in multi-dimensional space are then used in calculating the compositions of a node #2 and each subsequent node so as to maximize the distance of each node from any combination of tag components which might be indistinguishable from another tag composition in a reactor fuel assembly. Alternatively, the measured compositions of tag gas numbers 1 and 2 may be used to fix the locations of nodes 1 and 2, with the locations of nodes 3-N then calculated for optimum tag gas composition. A single sphere defining the lattice locations of the tag nodes may be used to define approximately 20 tag nodes, while concentric spheres can extend the number of tag nodes to several hundred.

Administering truncated receive functions in a parallel messaging interface

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian E

2014-12-09

Administering truncated receive functions in a parallel messaging interface (`PMI`) of a parallel computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes coupled for data communications through the PMI and through a data communications network, including: sending, through the PMI on a source compute node, a quantity of data from the source compute node to a destination compute node; specifying, by an application on the destination compute node, a portion of the quantity of data to be received by the application on the destination compute node and a portion of the quantity of data to be discarded; receiving, by the PMI on the destination compute node, all of the quantity of data; providing, by the PMI on the destination compute node to the application on the destination compute node, only the portion of the quantity of data to be received by the application; and discarding, by the PMI on the destination compute node, the portion of the quantity of data to be discarded.

Global tree network for computing structures enabling global processing operations

DOEpatents

Blumrich; Matthias A.; Chen, Dong; Coteus, Paul W.; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Hoenicke, Dirk; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard D.; Takken, Todd E.; Vranas, Pavlos M.

2010-01-19

A system and method for enabling high-speed, low-latency global tree network communications among processing nodes interconnected according to a tree network structure. The global tree network enables collective reduction operations to be performed during parallel algorithm operations executing in a computer structure having a plurality of the interconnected processing nodes. Router devices are included that interconnect the nodes of the tree via links to facilitate performance of low-latency global processing operations at nodes of the virtual tree and sub-tree structures. The global operations performed include one or more of: broadcast operations downstream from a root node to leaf nodes of a virtual tree, reduction operations upstream from leaf nodes to the root node in the virtual tree, and point-to-point message passing from any node to the root node. The global tree network is configurable to provide global barrier and interrupt functionality in asynchronous or synchronized manner, and, is physically and logically partitionable.

An Eccentricity Based Data Routing Protocol with Uniform Node Distribution in 3D WSN.

PubMed

Hosen, A S M Sanwar; Cho, Gi Hwan; Ra, In-Ho

2017-09-16

Due to nonuniform node distribution, the energy consumption of nodes are imbalanced in clustering-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It might have more impact when nodes are deployed in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. In this regard, we propose the eccentricity based data routing (EDR) protocol in a 3D WSN with uniform node distribution. It includes network partitions called 3D subspaces/clusters of equal member nodes, an energy-efficient routing centroid (RC) nodes election and data routing algorithm. The RC nodes election conducts in a quasi-static nature until a certain period unlike the periodic cluster heads election of typical clustering-based routing. It not only reduces the energy consumption of nodes during the election phase, but also in intra-communication. At the same time, the routing algorithm selects a forwarding node in such a way that balances the energy consumption among RC nodes and reduces the number of hops towards the sink. The simulation results validate and ensure the performance supremacy of the EDR protocol compared to existing protocols in terms of various metrics such as steady state and network lifetime in particular. Meanwhile, the results show the EDR is more robust in uniform node distribution compared to nonuniform.

Energy Efficient and Stable Weight Based Clustering for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouk, Safdar H.; Sasase, Iwao

Recently several weighted clustering algorithms have been proposed, however, to the best of our knowledge; there is none that propagates weights to other nodes without weight message for leader election, normalizes node parameters and considers neighboring node parameters to calculate node weights. In this paper, we propose an Energy Efficient and Stable Weight Based Clustering (EE-SWBC) algorithm that elects cluster heads without sending any additional weight message. It propagates node parameters to its neighbors through neighbor discovery message (HELLO Message) and stores these parameters in neighborhood list. Each node normalizes parameters and efficiently calculates its own weight and the weights of neighboring nodes from that neighborhood table using Grey Decision Method (GDM). GDM finds the ideal solution (best node parameters in neighborhood list) and calculates node weights in comparison to the ideal solution. The node(s) with maximum weight (parameters closer to the ideal solution) are elected as cluster heads. In result, EE-SWBC fairly selects potential nodes with parameters closer to ideal solution with less overhead. Different performance metrics of EE-SWBC and Distributed Weighted Clustering Algorithm (DWCA) are compared through simulations. The simulation results show that EE-SWBC maintains fewer average numbers of stable clusters with minimum overhead, less energy consumption and fewer changes in cluster structure within network compared to DWCA.

An Eccentricity Based Data Routing Protocol with Uniform Node Distribution in 3D WSN

PubMed Central

Hosen, A. S. M. Sanwar; Cho, Gi Hwan; Ra, In-Ho

2017-01-01

Due to nonuniform node distribution, the energy consumption of nodes are imbalanced in clustering-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). It might have more impact when nodes are deployed in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. In this regard, we propose the eccentricity based data routing (EDR) protocol in a 3D WSN with uniform node distribution. It includes network partitions called 3D subspaces/clusters of equal member nodes, an energy-efficient routing centroid (RC) nodes election and data routing algorithm. The RC nodes election conducts in a quasi-static nature until a certain period unlike the periodic cluster heads election of typical clustering-based routing. It not only reduces the energy consumption of nodes during the election phase, but also in intra-communication. At the same time, the routing algorithm selects a forwarding node in such a way that balances the energy consumption among RC nodes and reduces the number of hops towards the sink. The simulation results validate and ensure the performance supremacy of the EDR protocol compared to existing protocols in terms of various metrics such as steady state and network lifetime in particular. Meanwhile, the results show the EDR is more robust in uniform node distribution compared to nonuniform. PMID:28926958

Decline in Frozen Section Diagnosis for Axillary Sentinel Lymph Nodes as a Result of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011 Trial.

PubMed

Bishop, Julie Anne; Sun, Jihong; Ajkay, Nicolas; Sanders, Mary Ann G

2016-08-01

-Results of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group Z0011 trial showed that patients with early-stage breast cancer and limited sentinel node metastasis treated with breast conservation and systemic therapy did not benefit from axillary lymph node dissection. Subsequently, most pathology departments have likely seen a decrease in frozen section diagnosis of sentinel lymph nodes. -To determine the effect of the Z0011 trial on pathology practice and to examine the utility of intraoperative sentinel lymph node evaluation for this subset of patients. -Pathology reports from cases of primary breast cancer that met Z0011 clinical criteria and were initially treated with lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy from 2009 to 2015 were collected. Clinicopathologic data were recorded. -Sentinel lymph node biopsies sent for frozen section diagnosis occurred in 22 of 22 cases (100%) in 2009 and 15 of 22 cases (68%) in 2010 during the pre-Z0011 years, and in 3 of 151 cases (2%) collected in 2011 through 2015, considered to be post-Z0011 years. Of the 151 post-Z0011 cases, 28 (19%) had sentinel lymph nodes with metastasis, and 147 (97%) were spared axillary lymph node dissection. -Following Z0011, intraoperative sentinel lymph node evaluation has significantly decreased at our institution. Prior to surgery, all patients had clinically node-negative disease. After sentinel lymph node evaluation, 97% (147 of 151) of the patients were spared axillary lymph node dissection. Therefore, routine frozen section diagnosis for sentinel lymph node biopsies can be avoided in these patients.

Modified methylene blue injection improves lymph node harvest in rectal cancer.

PubMed

Liu, Jianpei; Huang, Pinjie; Zheng, Zongheng; Chen, Tufeng; Wei, Hongbo

2017-04-01

The presence of nodal metastases in rectal cancer plays an important role in accurate staging and prognosis, which depends on adequate lymph node harvest. The aim of this prospective study is to investigate the feasibility and survival benefit of improving lymph node harvest by a modified method with methylene blue injection in rectal cancer specimens. One hundred and thirty-one patients with rectal cancer were randomly assigned to the control group in which lymph nodes were harvested by palpation and sight, or to the methylene blue group using a modified method of injection into the superior rectal artery with methylene blue. Analysis of clinicopathologic records, including a long-term follow-up, was performed. In the methylene blue group, 678 lymph nodes were harvested by simple palpation and sight. Methylene blue injection added 853 lymph nodes to the total harvest as well as 32 additional metastatic lymph nodes, causing a shift to node-positive stage in four patients. The average number of lymph nodes harvested was 11.7 ± 3.4 in the control group and 23.2 ± 4.7 in the methylene blue group, respectively. The harvest of small lymph nodes (<5 mm) and the average number of metastatic nodes were both significantly higher in the methylene blue group. The modified method of injection with methylene blue had no impact on overall survival. The modified method with methylene blue injection improved lymph node harvest in rectal cancer, especially small node and metastatic node retrieval, which provided more accurate staging. However, it was not associated with overall survival. © 2014 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Isolated perifacial lymph node metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma with clinically node-negative neck.

PubMed

Agarwal, Sangeet Kumar; Arora, Sowrabh Kumar; Kumar, Gopal; Sarin, Deepak

2016-10-01

The incidence of occult perifacial nodal disease in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma is not well reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of isolated perifacial lymph node metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma with a clinically node-negative neck. The study will shed light on current controversies and will provide valuable clinical and pathological information in the practice of routine comprehensive removal of these lymph node pads in selective neck dissection in the node-negative neck. Prospective analysis. This study was started in August 2011 when intraoperatively we routinely separated the lymph node levels from the main specimen for evaluation of the metastatic rate to different lymph node levels in 231 patients of oral squamous cell cancer with a clinically node-negative neck. The current study demonstrated that 19 (8.22%) out of 231 patients showed ipsilateral isolated perifacial lymph node involvement. The incidence of isolated perifacial nodes did not differ significantly between the oral tongue (7.14%) and buccal mucosa (7.75%). Incidence was statistically significant in cases with lower age group (<45 years), advanced T stage, and higher depth of tumor invasion. Isolated perifacial node metastasis is high in oral squamous cell carcinoma with a clinically node-negative neck. The incidence of isolated perifacial involvement is high in cases of buccal mucosal and tongue cancers. A meticulous dissection of the perifacial nodes seems prudent when treating the neck in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. 4 Laryngoscope, 126:2252-2256, 2016. © 2016 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Efficacy of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Detecting Axillary Metastasis in Breast Cancer Using Methylene Blue.

PubMed

Nandu, Vipul V; Chaudhari, Milind S

2017-06-01

Breast cancer is the leading malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Axillary lymph node status is a very important prognostic factor in breast cancer patients; nodal evaluation is therefore a critical part of breast cancer management. Axillary lymph node dissection results in significant morbidity. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is being used in many centers to stage the axilla in planning axillary dissection management of patients and hence plays an important part in reducing morbidity among patients with carcinoma breast. The objectives of this paper is to study the (1) efficacy of sentinel lymph node biopsy in detecting axillary metastasis, (2) location of sentinel lymph node in the axilla, (3) rate of involvement of sentinel lymph nodes, and (4) incidence of skip metastasis. Thirty-five patients with breast cancer with clinically node-negative axilla were selected for the study. Methylene blue dye was injected intralesional and perilesional 20 min prior to surgery. All patients underwent modified radical mastectomy with sentinel lymph node biopsy and axillary dissection and after pathological examination diagnostic statics, namely sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy were computed. Sentinel lymph node was identified in all of these patients. Sixty percent patients had pathologically positive lymph nodes in the axilla. 90.48% patients of these had sentinel lymph nodes positive for malignant cells. Incidence of skip metastasis is 9.52%. 88.57% patients had sentinel lymph node mapped to level I lymph nodes. Sensitivity of SLNB is 90.48%, specificity is 85.71%, PPV of is 90.48%, NPV is 85.71%, and accuracy is 88.57%. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is an effective method of staging the axilla and deciding on axillary clearance in patients of carcinoma breast. Unnecessary axillary dissection and associated complications can be prevented in most of patients due to sentinel lymph node biopsy.

Occult lymph node metastasis and risk of regional recurrence in papillary thyroid cancer after bilateral prophylactic central neck dissection: A multi-institutional study.

PubMed

Lee, Young Chan; Na, Se Young; Park, Gi Cheol; Han, Ju Hyun; Kim, Seung Woo; Eun, Young Gyu

2017-02-01

The impact of occult lymph node metastasis on regional recurrence after prophylactic central neck dissection for preoperative, nodal-negative papillary thyroid cancer is controversial. We investigated risk factors for regional lymph node recurrence in papillary thyroid cancer patients who underwent total thyroidectomy and bilateral prophylactic central neck dissection. Analysis was according to clinicopathologic characteristics and occult lymph node metastasis patterns. This multicenter study enrolled 211 consecutive patients who underwent total thyroidectomy with bilateral prophylactic central neck dissection for papillary thyroid cancer without evidence of central lymph node metastasis on preoperative imaging. Clinicopathologic features and central lymph node metastasis patterns were analyzed for predicting regional recurrence. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify independent factors for recurrence. Median follow-up time was 43 months (24-95 months). Ten patients (4.7%) showed regional lymph node recurrence. The estimated 5-year, regional recurrence-free survival was 95.2%. Tumor size ≥1 cm, central lymph node metastasis, lymph node ratio, and prelaryngeal lymph node metastasis were associated with regional recurrence in univariate analysis (P < .05). In multivariate analysis, a lymph node ratio ≥ 0.26 was a significant risk factor for regional lymph node recurrence (odds ratio = 11.63, P = .003). Lymph node ratio ≥ 0.26 was an independent predictor of worse recurrence-free survival on Cox regression analysis (hazard ratio = 11.49, P = .002). Although no significant association was observed between the presence of occult lymph node metastasis and regional recurrence, lymph node ratio ≥ 0.26 was an independent predictor of regional lymph node recurrence in papillary thyroid cancer patients who underwent total thyroidectomy and bilateral prophylactic central neck dissection. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cell proliferation in mammalian gastrulation: the ventral node and notochord are relatively quiescent.

PubMed

Bellomo, D; Lander, A; Harragan, I; Brown, N A

1996-04-01

During gastrulation, the node of the mammalian embryo appears to be an organising centre, homologous to Hensen's node in the chick and the dorsal lip of the amphibian blastopore. In addition, the node serves as a precursor population for the head process, notochord and foregut endoderm. We have studied node architecture and cell morphology by electron microscopy, and cell proliferation using bromodeoxyuridine incorporation and mitotic counts. The dorsal (ectodermal) and ventral (endodermal) components of the node are two distinct populations, separated by a basement membrane. The ventral node, contiguous with the head process, is characterised by a relatively low proliferation rate, with only approximately 10% of cells incorporating BrdU over 4 hr, compared to > 95% in surrounding mesodermal and ectodermal tissues. This is the case from the beginning of node formation, at the no-allantoic-bud stage, until the 7 somite stage, and is not compatible with the idea that the ventral node is a stem cell population. The dorsal node is highly proliferative, its rate of division being indistinguishable from the neurectoderm, with which it is contiguous. In the ventral node, two regions can be recognised: cells in the "pit" are columnar and all monociliated; around them lies a "crown" of cells arranged radially in a horseshoe shape and less often ciliated. Node derivatives share common features with the ventral node; the head process and the notochord are relatively quiescent; and some head process cells are also monociliated. Node and head process monocilia are immotile and appear to be associated with non-proliferation. We suggest that the ventral node contains all the properties of the organiser, while the dorsal node is indistinct from the surrounding epiblast. The cranial end of the foregut pouch, the thyroid diverticulum, and the promyocardium of early somite stage embryos are also areas of low cell division. All the described regions of relative quiescence are sites of expression of members of the TGF beta family, which may be involved in maintaining non-proliferation.

Penile Cancer: Contemporary Lymph Node Management.

PubMed

O'Brien, Jonathan S; Perera, Marlon; Manning, Todd; Bozin, Mike; Cabarkapa, Sonja; Chen, Emily; Lawrentschuk, Nathan

2017-06-01

In penile cancer, the optimal diagnostics and management of metastatic lymph nodes are not clear. Advances in minimally invasive staging, including dynamic sentinel lymph node biopsy, have widened the diagnostic repertoire of the urologist. We aimed to provide an objective update of the recent trends in the management of penile squamous cell carcinoma, and inguinal and pelvic lymph node metastases. We systematically reviewed several medical databases, including the Web of Science® (with MEDLINE®), Embase® and Cochrane databases, according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The search terms used were penile cancer, lymph node, sentinel node, minimally invasive, surgery and outcomes, alone and in combination. Articles pertaining to the management of lymph nodes in penile cancer were reviewed, including original research, reviews and clinical guidelines published between 1980 and 2016. Accurate and minimally invasive lymph node staging is of the utmost importance in the surgical management of penile squamous cell carcinoma. In patients with clinically node negative disease, a growing body of evidence supports the use of sentinel lymph node biopsies. Dynamic sentinel lymph node biopsy exposes the patient to minimal risk, and results in superior sensitivity and specificity profiles compared to alternate nodal staging techniques. In the presence of locoregional disease, improvements in inguinal or pelvic lymphadenectomy have reduced morbidity and improved oncologic outcomes. A multimodal approach of chemotherapy and surgery has demonstrated a survival benefit for patients with advanced disease. Recent developments in lymph node management have occurred in penile cancer, such as minimally invasive lymph node diagnosis and intervention strategies. These advances have been met with a degree of controversy in the contemporary literature. Current data suggest that dynamic sentinel lymph node biopsy provides excellent sensitivity and specificity for detecting lymph node metastases. More robust long-term data on multicenter patient cohorts are required to determine the optimal management of lymph nodes in penile cancer. Copyright © 2017 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Changes of heart electrophysiological parameters after destruction of epicardial subplexuses that innervate sinoatrial node].

PubMed

Kulboka, Arūnas; Veikutis, Vincentas; Pauza, Dainius Haroldas; Lekas, Raimundas

2003-01-01

The aims of present study were to verify the topography of the intracardiac nerve subplexuses (INS) by using electrophysiological methods, its relations with sinoatrial (SA) node function and to investigate possibility of selective surgical SA node denervation. Fifteen mongrel dogs of either sex weighing 8 to 15 kg were used for electrophysiological studies. Both cervical vagosympathetic trunks were isolated and crushed by tight ligatures. Nervus subplexuses destructions were performed by cryocoagulation in three zones located around the right superior vena cava: ventral, lateral and dorsal. The sinus rhythm, SA node function recovery time, AV node conductivity, AV node and atrial effective refractory period were measured. Five experiments in each of three zones were performed. Experimental data show that destruction of the epicardial nerves has different effect on electrophysiological parameters. After destruction of the anterior zone of the right atrium the sinus rhythm decreased on an average by 11.6%; SA node function recovery time prolonged by 7.2%; AV node conductivity decreased by 13.1%; AV node effective refractory period prolonged by 12.9% and atrial effective refractory period, by 10.9 %. Measurements of electrophysiological parameters after intravenous injection of atropine sulphate show that sinus rhythm decreased on an average by 23.4%; SA node function recovery time increased by 9.1%; the conductivity of AV node decreased by 10.2%; AV node effective refractory period prolonged by 15.4% and atrial effective refractory period, by 13.2%. After destruction of the intracardiac nerves of the lateral zone, the sinus rhythm decreased by 15.7%; SA node function recovery time increased by 16.3%; AV node conductivity decreased by 8.3%; AV node effective refractory period and atrial effective refractory period prolonged by 11.9% and 10.0%, respectively. After the atropine sulphate intravenous injection, the sinus rhythm decreased on an average by 7.1%, SA node function recovery time prolonged by 7.1%, AV conductivity decreased by 9.1%, AV node effective refractory period increased by 12.4%, and atrial effective refractory period prolonged by 12.5%. After destruction of the nerves in the dorsal zone the changes of electrophysiological parameters were opposite to those obtained after destruction of the nerve tracts in the anterior or lateral zones: the sinus rhythm increased on an average by 4.3%; SA node function recovery time shortened by 8.8%; AV conductivity increased by 9.7%; AV node and atrial effective refractory period decreased by 12.3% and 12.1%, respectively. After intravenous atropine sulphate infusion, sinus rhythm decreased on an average by 8.3%; SA node function recovery time prolonged by 9.6%; AV node conductivity decreased by 5%; AV node and atrial effective refractory period prolonged by 4.2% and 5.2%, respectively. The average changes of electrophysiological parameters before and after INS destruction shows that cryocoagulation of ventral and lateral zones eliminates the effects of sympathetic tone to SA and AV nodal activity. Cryocoagulation of dorsal zone eliminates the effects of nervus vagus to both nodal structures. These findings shows the possibility alter or correct SA node function by making selective surgical SA node denervation.

Paging memory from random access memory to backing storage in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Inglett, Todd A; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian E

2013-05-21

Paging memory from random access memory (`RAM`) to backing storage in a parallel computer that includes a plurality of compute nodes, including: executing a data processing application on a virtual machine operating system in a virtual machine on a first compute node; providing, by a second compute node, backing storage for the contents of RAM on the first compute node; and swapping, by the virtual machine operating system in the virtual machine on the first compute node, a page of memory from RAM on the first compute node to the backing storage on the second compute node.

Method and apparatus for offloading compute resources to a flash co-processing appliance

DOEpatents

Tzelnic, Percy; Faibish, Sorin; Gupta, Uday K.; Bent, John; Grider, Gary Alan; Chen, Hsing -bung

2015-10-13

Solid-State Drive (SSD) burst buffer nodes are interposed into a parallel supercomputing cluster to enable fast burst checkpoint of cluster memory to or from nearby interconnected solid-state storage with asynchronous migration between the burst buffer nodes and slower more distant disk storage. The SSD nodes also perform tasks offloaded from the compute nodes or associated with the checkpoint data. For example, the data for the next job is preloaded in the SSD node and very fast uploaded to the respective compute node just before the next job starts. During a job, the SSD nodes perform fast visualization and statistical analysis upon the checkpoint data. The SSD nodes can also perform data reduction and encryption of the checkpoint data.

Pacing a data transfer operation between compute nodes on a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN

2011-09-13

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for pacing a data transfer between compute nodes on a parallel computer that include: transferring, by an origin compute node, a chunk of an application message to a target compute node; sending, by the origin compute node, a pacing request to a target direct memory access (`DMA`) engine on the target compute node using a remote get DMA operation; determining, by the origin compute node, whether a pacing response to the pacing request has been received from the target DMA engine; and transferring, by the origin compute node, a next chunk of the application message if the pacing response to the pacing request has been received from the target DMA engine.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Davis, Kristan D.; Faraj, Daniel A.

In a parallel computer, a plurality of logical planes formed of compute nodes of a subcommunicator may be identified by: for each compute node of the subcommunicator and for a number of dimensions beginning with a first dimension: establishing, by a plane building node, in a positive direction of the first dimension, all logical planes that include the plane building node and compute nodes of the subcommunicator in a positive direction of a second dimension, where the second dimension is orthogonal to the first dimension; and establishing, by the plane building node, in a negative direction of the first dimension,more » all logical planes that include the plane building node and compute nodes of the subcommunicator in the positive direction of the second dimension.« less

Three faces of node importance in network epidemiology: Exact results for small graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holme, Petter

2017-12-01

We investigate three aspects of the importance of nodes with respect to susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) disease dynamics: influence maximization (the expected outbreak size given a set of seed nodes), the effect of vaccination (how much deleting nodes would reduce the expected outbreak size), and sentinel surveillance (how early an outbreak could be detected with sensors at a set of nodes). We calculate the exact expressions of these quantities, as functions of the SIR parameters, for all connected graphs of three to seven nodes. We obtain the smallest graphs where the optimal node sets are not overlapping. We find that (i) node separation is more important than centrality for more than one active node, (ii) vaccination and influence maximization are the most different aspects of importance, and (iii) the three aspects are more similar when the infection rate is low.

Executing scatter operation to parallel computer nodes by repeatedly broadcasting content of send buffer partition corresponding to each node upon bitwise OR operation

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN

2009-11-06

Executing a scatter operation on a parallel computer includes: configuring a send buffer on a logical root, the send buffer having positions, each position corresponding to a ranked node in an operational group of compute nodes and for storing contents scattered to that ranked node; and repeatedly for each position in the send buffer: broadcasting, by the logical root to each of the other compute nodes on a global combining network, the contents of the current position of the send buffer using a bitwise OR operation, determining, by each compute node, whether the current position in the send buffer corresponds with the rank of that compute node, if the current position corresponds with the rank, receiving the contents and storing the contents in a reception buffer of that compute node, and if the current position does not correspond with the rank, discarding the contents.

Regional lymph node staging in breast cancer: the increasing role of imaging and ultrasound-guided axillary lymph node fine needle aspiration.

PubMed

Mainiero, Martha B

2010-09-01

The status of axillary lymph nodes is a key prognostic indicator in patients with breast cancer and helps guide patient management. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is increasingly being used as a less morbid alternative to axillary lymph node dissection. However, when sentinel lymph node biopsy is positive, axillary dissection is typically performed for complete staging and local control. Axillary ultrasound and ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (USFNA) are useful for detecting axillary nodal metastasis preoperatively and can spare patients sentinel node biopsy, because those with positive cytology on USFNA can proceed directly to axillary dissection or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Internal mammary nodes are not routinely evaluated, but when the appearance of these nodes is abnormal on imaging, further treatment or metastatic evaluation may be necessary. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Link failure detection in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Blocksome, Michael A.; Megerian, Mark G.; Smith, Brian E.

2010-11-09

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for link failure detection in a parallel computer including compute nodes connected in a rectangular mesh network, each pair of adjacent compute nodes in the rectangular mesh network connected together using a pair of links, that includes: assigning each compute node to either a first group or a second group such that adjacent compute nodes in the rectangular mesh network are assigned to different groups; sending, by each of the compute nodes assigned to the first group, a first test message to each adjacent compute node assigned to the second group; determining, by each of the compute nodes assigned to the second group, whether the first test message was received from each adjacent compute node assigned to the first group; and notifying a user, by each of the compute nodes assigned to the second group, whether the first test message was received.

Routing Based on Length of Time of Available Connection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anandappan, Thanga (Inventor); Roy, Aloke (Inventor); Malve, Sharath Babu (Inventor); Toth, Louis T. (Inventor)

2016-01-01

In an embodiment, a method of routing packets at a first node in an ad-hoc network is provided. The method includes receiving, at the first node, a plurality of route-alive messages corresponding to a destination, each of the plurality of route-alive messages including a route time indicating a length of time in which a communicative connection is available between the second node that sent the respective route-alive message and the destination. The method also includes determining an updated route time for each second node. The updated route time corresponds to a length of time in which a communication connection is available between the first node and the destination through the respective second node. A second node is selected for sending a packet to based on the updated route time for each of the second nodes, wherein a node having a longer updated route time is given higher priority for selection.

Analysis of complex network performance and heuristic node removal strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jahanpour, Ehsan; Chen, Xin

2013-12-01

Removing important nodes from complex networks is a great challenge in fighting against criminal organizations and preventing disease outbreaks. Six network performance metrics, including four new metrics, are applied to quantify networks' diffusion speed, diffusion scale, homogeneity, and diameter. In order to efficiently identify nodes whose removal maximally destroys a network, i.e., minimizes network performance, ten structured heuristic node removal strategies are designed using different node centrality metrics including degree, betweenness, reciprocal closeness, complement-derived closeness, and eigenvector centrality. These strategies are applied to remove nodes from the September 11, 2001 hijackers' network, and their performance are compared to that of a random strategy, which removes randomly selected nodes, and the locally optimal solution (LOS), which removes nodes to minimize network performance at each step. The computational complexity of the 11 strategies and LOS is also analyzed. Results show that the node removal strategies using degree and betweenness centralities are more efficient than other strategies.

Distributed Transforms for Efficient Data Gathering in Sensor Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ortega, Antonio (Inventor); Shen, Godwin (Inventor); Narang, Sunil K. (Inventor); Perez-Trufero, Javier (Inventor)

2014-01-01

Devices, systems, and techniques for data collecting network such as wireless sensors are disclosed. A described technique includes detecting one or more remote nodes included in the wireless sensor network using a local power level that controls a radio range of the local node. The technique includes transmitting a local outdegree. The local outdegree can be based on a quantity of the one or more remote nodes. The technique includes receiving one or more remote outdegrees from the one or more remote nodes. The technique includes determining a local node type of the local node based on detecting a node type of the one or more remote nodes, using the one or more remote outdegrees, and using the local outdegree. The technique includes adjusting characteristics, including an energy usage characteristic and a data compression characteristic, of the wireless sensor network by selectively modifying the local power level and selectively changing the local node type.

The role of CEUS in characterization of superficial lymph nodes: a single center prospective study

PubMed Central

de Stefano, Giorgio; Scognamiglio, Umberto; Di Martino, Filomena; Parrella, Roberto; Scarano, Francesco; Signoriello, Giuseppe; Farella, Nunzia

2016-01-01

Accurate lymph node characterization is important in a large number of clinical settings. We evaluated the usefulness of Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS) in distinguishing between benign and malignant lymph nodes compared with conventional ultrasonography in the differential diagnosis of superficial lymphadenopathy. We present our experience for 111 patients enrolled in a single center. 111 superficial lymph nodes were selected and only 1 lymph node per patient underwent CEUS. A definitive diagnosis for all lymph nodes was obtained by ultrasonographically guided biopsy and/or excision biopsy. The size of the lymph nodes, the site (neck, axilla, inguinal region) being easily accessible for biopsy, and the US and color Doppler US characteristics guided us in selecting the nodes to be evaluated by CEUS. In our study we identified different enhancement patterns in benign and malignant lymph nodes, with a high degree of diagnostic accuracy for superficial lymphadenopathy in comparison with conventional US. PMID:27191746

Using Link Disconnection Entropy Disorder to Detect Fast Moving Nodes in MANETs

PubMed Central

Palafox, Luis E.; Aguilar, Leocundo; Sanchez, Mauricio A.; Martinez, Luis G.

2016-01-01

Mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) are dynamic by nature; this dynamism comes from node mobility, traffic congestion, and other transmission conditions. Metrics to evaluate the effects of those conditions shine a light on node’s behavior in an ad-hoc network, helping to identify the node or nodes with better conditions of connection. In this paper, we propose a relative index to evaluate a single node reliability, based on the link disconnection entropy disorder using neighboring nodes as reference. Link disconnection entropy disorder is best used to identify fast moving nodes or nodes with unstable communications, this without the need of specialized sensors such as GPS. Several scenarios were studied to verify the index, measuring the effects of Speed and traffic density on the link disconnection entropy disorder. Packet delivery ratio is associated to the metric detecting a strong relationship, enabling the use of the link disconnection entropy disorder to evaluate the stability of a node to communicate with other nodes. To expand the utilization of the link entropy disorder, we identified nodes with higher speeds in network simulations just by using the link entropy disorder. PMID:27219671

[Injection of methylene blue into inferior mesenteric artery improves lymph node harvest in rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy].

PubMed

Liu, Jianpei; Huang, Pinjie; Huang, Jianglong; Chen, Tufeng; Wei, Hongbo

2015-06-09

To confirm the feasibility of improving lymph node harvest by injecting methylene blue into inferior mesenteric artery in rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy. Forty two ex vivo specimens were collected from rectal cancer patients with neoadjuvant therapy and radical operation at our hospital. Traditional method with palpation and injection of methylene blue into inferior mesenteric artery were employed. The data of lymph node harvest were analyzed by paired t and chi-square tests. The average number of detected lymph node in traditional method and methylene blue groups were 6.1 ± 4.3 and 15.2 ± 6.4 respectively (P<0.001). The proportions of lymph nodes <5 mm were 14.1% and 46.7% in traditional method and methylene blue groups respectively (P<0.001). And the injection of methylene blue added 13 extra metastatic lymph nodes and caused a shift to node-positive stage (P=0.89). Neoadjuvant therapy decrease lymph node retrieval in rectal cancer. Injecting methylene blue into inferior mesenteric artery improves lymph node harvest especially for small nodes and helps to acquire more metastatic nodes for accurate pathological staging.

Uncovering hidden nodes in complex networks in the presence of noise

PubMed Central

Su, Ri-Qi; Lai, Ying-Cheng; Wang, Xiao; Do, Younghae

2014-01-01

Ascertaining the existence of hidden objects in a complex system, objects that cannot be observed from the external world, not only is curiosity-driven but also has significant practical applications. Generally, uncovering a hidden node in a complex network requires successful identification of its neighboring nodes, but a challenge is to differentiate its effects from those of noise. We develop a completely data-driven, compressive-sensing based method to address this issue by utilizing complex weighted networks with continuous-time oscillatory or discrete-time evolutionary-game dynamics. For any node, compressive sensing enables accurate reconstruction of the dynamical equations and coupling functions, provided that time series from this node and all its neighbors are available. For a neighboring node of the hidden node, this condition cannot be met, resulting in abnormally large prediction errors that, counterintuitively, can be used to infer the existence of the hidden node. Based on the principle of differential signal, we demonstrate that, when strong noise is present, insofar as at least two neighboring nodes of the hidden node are subject to weak background noise only, unequivocal identification of the hidden node can be achieved. PMID:24487720

FoxP3 and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase immunoreactivity in sentinel nodes from melanoma patients.

PubMed

Ryan, Marisa; Crow, Jennifer; Kahmke, Russel; Fisher, Samuel R; Su, Zuowei; Lee, Walter T

2014-01-01

1) Assess FoxP3/indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase immunoreactivity in head and neck melanoma sentinel lymph nodes and 2) correlate FoxP3/indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase with sentinel lymph node metastasis and clinical recurrence. Retrospective cohort study. Patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy for head and neck melanoma between 2004 and 2011 were identified. FoxP3/indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase prevalence and intensity were determined from the nodes. Poor outcome was defined as local, regional or distant recurrence. The overall immunoreactivity score was correlated with clinical recurrence and sentinel lymph node metastasis using the chi-square test for trend. Fifty-six sentinel lymph nodes were reviewed, with 47 negative and 9 positive for melanoma. Patients with poor outcomes had a statistically significant trend for higher immunoreactivity scores (p=0.03). Positive nodes compared to negative nodes also had a statistically significant trend for higher immunoreactivity scores (p=0.03). Among the negative nodes, there was a statistically significant trend for a poor outcome with higher immunoreactivity scores (p=0.02). FoxP3/indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase immunoreactivity correlates with sentinel lymph node positivity and poor outcome. Even in negative nodes, higher immunoreactivity correlated with poor outcome. Therefore higher immunoreactivity may portend a worse prognosis even without metastasis in the sentinel lymph node. This could identify a subset of patients that may benefit from future trials and treatment for melanoma through Treg and IDO suppression. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Identifying Node Role in Social Network Based on Multiple Indicators

PubMed Central

Huang, Shaobin; Lv, Tianyang; Zhang, Xizhe; Yang, Yange; Zheng, Weimin; Wen, Chao

2014-01-01

It is a classic topic of social network analysis to evaluate the importance of nodes and identify the node that takes on the role of core or bridge in a network. Because a single indicator is not sufficient to analyze multiple characteristics of a node, it is a natural solution to apply multiple indicators that should be selected carefully. An intuitive idea is to select some indicators with weak correlations to efficiently assess different characteristics of a node. However, this paper shows that it is much better to select the indicators with strong correlations. Because indicator correlation is based on the statistical analysis of a large number of nodes, the particularity of an important node will be outlined if its indicator relationship doesn't comply with the statistical correlation. Therefore, the paper selects the multiple indicators including degree, ego-betweenness centrality and eigenvector centrality to evaluate the importance and the role of a node. The importance of a node is equal to the normalized sum of its three indicators. A candidate for core or bridge is selected from the great degree nodes or the nodes with great ego-betweenness centrality respectively. Then, the role of a candidate is determined according to the difference between its indicators' relationship with the statistical correlation of the overall network. Based on 18 real networks and 3 kinds of model networks, the experimental results show that the proposed methods perform quite well in evaluating the importance of nodes and in identifying the node role. PMID:25089823

Sentinel node localization in oral cavity and oropharynx squamous cell cancer.

PubMed

Taylor, R J; Wahl, R L; Sharma, P K; Bradford, C R; Terrell, J E; Teknos, T N; Heard, E M; Wolf, G T; Chepeha, D B

2001-08-01

To evaluate the feasibility and predictive ability of the sentinel node localization technique for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx and clinically negative necks. Prospective, efficacy study comparing the histopathologic status of the sentinel node with that of the remaining neck dissection specimen. Tertiary referral center. Patients with T1 or T2 disease and clinically negative necks were eligible for the study. Nine previously untreated patients with oral cavity or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled in the study. Unfiltered technetium Tc 99m sulfur colloid injections of the primary tumor and lymphoscintigraphy were performed on the day before surgery. Intraoperatively, the sentinel node(s) was localized with a gamma probe and removed after tumor resection and before neck dissection. The primary outcome was the negative predictive value of the histopathologic status of the sentinel node for predicting cervical metastases. Sentinel nodes were identified in 9 previously untreated patients. In 5 patients, there were no positive nodes. In 4 patients, the sentinel nodes were the only histopathologically positive nodes. In previously untreated patients, the sentinel node technique had a negative predictive value of 100% for cervical metastasis. Our preliminary investigation shows that sentinel node localization is technically feasible in head and neck surgery and is predictive of cervical metastasis. The sentinel node technique has the potential to decrease the number of neck dissections performed in clinically negative necks, thus reducing the associated morbidity for patients in this group.

MAdCAM-1 expressing sacral lymph node in the lymphotoxin beta-deficient mouse provides a site for immune generation following vaginal herpes simplex virus-2 infection.

PubMed

Soderberg, Kelly A; Linehan, Melissa M; Ruddle, Nancy H; Iwasaki, Akiko

2004-08-01

The members of the lymphotoxin (LT) family of molecules play a critical role in lymphoid organogenesis. Whereas LT alpha-deficient mice lack all lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, mice deficient in LT beta retain mesenteric lymph nodes and cervical lymph nodes, suggesting that an LT beta-independent pathway exists for the generation of mucosal lymph nodes. In this study, we describe the presence of a lymph node in LT beta-deficient mice responsible for draining the genital mucosa. In the majority of LT beta-deficient mice, a lymph node was found near the iliac artery, slightly misplaced from the site of the sacral lymph node in wild-type mice. The sacral lymph node of the LT beta-deficient mice, as well as that of the wild-type mice, expressed the mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 similar to the mesenteric lymph node. Following intravaginal infection with HSV type 2, activated dendritic cells capable of stimulating a Th1 response were found in this sacral lymph node. Furthermore, normal HSV-2-specific IgG responses were generated in the LT beta-deficient mice following intravaginal HSV-2 infection even in the absence of the spleen. Therefore, an LT beta-independent pathway exists for the development of a lymph node associated with the genital mucosa, and such a lymph node serves to generate potent immune responses against viral challenge.

Immune response in melanoma: an in-depth analysis of the primary tumor and corresponding sentinel lymph node

PubMed Central

Ma, Michelle W.; Medicherla, Ratna C.; Qian, Meng; de Miera, Eleazar Vega-Saenz; Friedman, Erica B.; Berman, Russell S.; Shapiro, Richard L.; Pavlick, Anna C.; Ott, Patrick A.; Bhardwaj, Nina; Shao, Yongzhao; Osman, Iman; Darvishian, Farbod

2013-01-01

The sentinel lymph node is the initial site of metastasis. Down-regulation of anti-tumor immunity plays a role in nodal progression. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between immune modulation and sentinel lymph node positivity, correlating it with outcome in melanoma patients. Lymph node/primary tissues from melanoma patients prospectively accrued and followed at New York University Medical Center were evaluated for the presence of regulatory T-cells (Foxp3+) and dendritic cells (conventional: CD11c+, mature: CD86+) using immunohistochemistry. Primary melanoma immune cell profiles from sentinel lymph node-positive/-negative patients were compared. Logistic regression models inclusive of standard-of-care/immunologic primary tumor characteristics were constructed to predict the risk of sentinel lymph node positivity. Immunological responses in the positive sentinel lymph node were also compared to those in the negative non-sentinel node from the same nodal basin and matched negative sentinel lymph node. Decreased immune response was defined as increased regulatory T-cells or decreased dendritic cells. Associations between the expression of these immune modulators, clinicopathologic variables, and clinical outcome were evaluated using univariate/multivariate analyses. Primary tumor conventional dendritic cells and regression were protective against sentinel lymph node metastasis (odds ratio=0.714, 0.067; P=0.0099, 0.0816, respectively). Anti-tumor immunity was down-regulated in the positive sentinel lymph node with an increase in regulatory T-cells compared to the negative non-sentinel node from the same nodal basin (P=0.0005) and matched negative sentinel lymph node (P=0.0002). The positive sentinel lymph node also had decreased numbers of conventional dendritic cells compared to the negative sentinel lymph node (P<0.0001). Adding sentinel lymph node regulatory T-cell expression improved the discriminative power of a recurrence risk assessment model using clinical stage. Primary tumor regression was associated with prolonged disease-free (P=0.025) and melanoma-specific (P=0.014) survival. Our results support an assessment of local immune profiles in both the primary tumor and sentinel lymph node to help guide therapeutic decisions. PMID:22425909

Computational lymphatic node models in pediatric and adult hybrid phantoms for radiation dosimetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Choonsik; Lamart, Stephanie; Moroz, Brian E.

2013-03-01

We developed models of lymphatic nodes for six pediatric and two adult hybrid computational phantoms to calculate the lymphatic node dose estimates from external and internal radiation exposures. We derived the number of lymphatic nodes from the recommendations in International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publications 23 and 89 at 16 cluster locations for the lymphatic nodes: extrathoracic, cervical, thoracic (upper and lower), breast (left and right), mesentery (left and right), axillary (left and right), cubital (left and right), inguinal (left and right) and popliteal (left and right), for different ages (newborn, 1-, 5-, 10-, 15-year-old and adult). We modeled each lymphatic node within the voxel format of the hybrid phantoms by assuming that all nodes have identical size derived from published data except narrow cluster sites. The lymph nodes were generated by the following algorithm: (1) selection of the lymph node site among the 16 cluster sites; (2) random sampling of the location of the lymph node within a spherical space centered at the chosen cluster site; (3) creation of the sphere or ovoid of tissue representing the node based on lymphatic node characteristics defined in ICRP Publications 23 and 89. We created lymph nodes until the pre-defined number of lymphatic nodes at the selected cluster site was reached. This algorithm was applied to pediatric (newborn, 1-, 5-and 10-year-old male, and 15-year-old males) and adult male and female ICRP-compliant hybrid phantoms after voxelization. To assess the performance of our models for internal dosimetry, we calculated dose conversion coefficients, called S values, for selected organs and tissues with Iodine-131 distributed in six lymphatic node cluster sites using MCNPX2.6, a well validated Monte Carlo radiation transport code. Our analysis of the calculations indicates that the S values were significantly affected by the location of the lymph node clusters and that the values increased for smaller phantoms due to the shorter inter-organ distances compared to the bigger phantoms. By testing sensitivity of S values to random sampling and voxel resolution, we confirmed that the lymph node model is reasonably stable and consistent for different random samplings and voxel resolutions.

International Registry for Patients With Castleman Disease

ClinicalTrials.gov

2017-07-12

Castleman Disease; Castleman's Disease; Giant Lymph Node Hyperplasia; Angiofollicular Lymph Hyperplasia; Angiofollicular Lymph Node Hyperplasia; Angiofollicular Lymphoid Hyperplasia; GLNH; Hyperplasia, Giant Lymph Node; Lymph Node Hyperplasia, Giant

Long-term prognoses and outcomes of axillary lymph node recurrence in 2,578 sentinel lymph node-negative patients for whom axillary lymph node dissection was omitted: results from one Japanese hospital.

PubMed

Ogiya, Akiko; Kimura, Kiyomi; Nakashima, Eri; Sakai, Takehiko; Miyagi, Yumi; Iijima, Kotaro; Morizono, Hidetomo; Makita, Masujiro; Horii, Rie; Akiyama, Futoshi; Iwase, Takuji

2016-03-01

Axillary dissection omission for sentinel lymph node-negative patients has been a practice at Cancer Institute Hospital, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research since 2003. We examined the long-term results of omission of axillary dissection in sentinel lymph node-negative patients treated at our hospital, as well as their axillary lymph node recurrence characteristics and outcomes. Our study included 2,578 patients with cTis or T1-T3N0M0 primary breast cancer for whom dissection was omitted because they were sentinel lymph node negative. The median observation period was 75 months. In sentinel lymph node-negative patients for whom dissection was omitted, the rates of axillary lymph node recurrence, distant recurrence, and breast cancer mortality were 0.9, 2, and 1 %, respectively. Eighteen patients underwent additional dissection if axillary lymph node recurrence was observed at the first recurrence. Four triple-negative (TN) patients experienced distant recurrence after additional dissection. All four patients were administered anticancer agents after axillary lymph node recurrence and experienced recurrence within 1 year of additional dissection. The axillary lymph node recurrence rate was 0.8 % for luminal and 4.5 % for TN subtypes. The long-term prognoses of patients for whom dissection was omitted owing to negative sentinel lymph node metastases were similar to those reported previously-low recurrence and mortality rates. The frequency of axillary lymph node recurrence and the post-recurrence outcome differed between luminal and TN cases, with recurrence being more frequent in patients with the TN subtype. TN patients also had poorer prognoses, even after receiving additional dissection and anticancer agents after recurrence.

Outcome following sentinel lymph node biopsy-guided decisions in breast cancer patients with conversion from positive to negative axillary lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

PubMed

Kang, Young-Joon; Han, Wonshik; Park, Soojin; You, Ji Young; Yi, Ha Woo; Park, Sungmin; Nam, Sanggeun; Kim, Joo Heung; Yun, Keong Won; Kim, Hee Jeong; Ahn, Sei Hyun; Park, Seho; Lee, Jeong Eon; Lee, Eun Sook; Noh, Dong-Young; Lee, Jong Won

2017-11-01

Many breast cancer patients with positive axillary lymph nodes achieve complete node remission after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The usefulness of sentinel lymph node biopsy in this situation is uncertain. This study evaluated the outcomes of sentinel biopsy-guided decisions in patients who had conversion of axillary nodes from clinically positive to negative following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We reviewed the records of 1247 patients from five hospitals in Korea who had breast cancer with clinically axillary lymph node-positive status and negative conversion after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, between 2005 and 2012. Patients who underwent axillary operations with sentinel biopsy-guided decisions (Group A) were compared with patients who underwent complete axillary lymph node dissection without sentinel lymph node biopsy (Group B). Axillary node recurrence and distant recurrence-free survival were compared. There were 428 cases in Group A and 819 in Group B. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that recurrence-free survivals were not significantly different between Groups A and B (4-year axillary recurrence-free survival: 97.8 vs. 99.0%; p = 0.148). Multivariate analysis also indicated the two groups had no significant difference in axillary and distant recurrence-free survival. For breast cancer patients who had clinical conversion of axillary lymph nodes from positive to negative following neoadjuvant chemotherapy, sentinel biopsy-guided axillary surgery, and axillary lymph node dissection without sentinel lymph node biopsy had similar rates of recurrence. Thus, sentinel biopsy-guided axillary operation in breast cancer patients who have clinically axillary lymph node positive to negative conversion following neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a useful strategy.

Lymph node detection in IASLC-defined zones on PET/CT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Yihua; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Odhner, Dewey; Tong, Yubing; Torigian, Drew A.

2016-03-01

Lymph node detection is challenging due to the low contrast between lymph nodes as well as surrounding soft tissues and the variation in nodal size and shape. In this paper, we propose several novel ideas which are combined into a system to operate on positron emission tomography/ computed tomography (PET/CT) images to detect abnormal thoracic nodes. First, our previous Automatic Anatomy Recognition (AAR) approach is modified where lymph node zones predominantly following International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) specifications are modeled as objects arranged in a hierarchy along with key anatomic anchor objects. This fuzzy anatomy model built from diagnostic CT images is then deployed on PET/CT images for automatically recognizing the zones. A novel globular filter (g-filter) to detect blob-like objects over a specified range of sizes is designed to detect the most likely locations and sizes of diseased nodes. Abnormal nodes within each automatically localized zone are subsequently detected via combined use of different items of information at various scales: lymph node zone model poses found at recognition indicating the geographic layout at the global level of node clusters, g-filter response which hones in on and carefully selects node-like globular objects at the node level, and CT and PET gray value but within only the most plausible nodal regions for node presence at the voxel level. The models are built from 25 diagnostic CT scans and refined for an object hierarchy based on a separate set of 20 diagnostic CT scans. Node detection is tested on an additional set of 20 PET/CT scans. Our preliminary results indicate node detection sensitivity and specificity at around 90% and 85%, respectively.

Subcarinal lymph node in upper lobe non-small cell lung cancer patients: is selective lymph node dissection valid?

PubMed

Aokage, Keiju; Yoshida, Junji; Ishii, Genichiro; Hishida, Tomoyuki; Nishimura, Mitsuyo; Nagai, Kanji

2010-11-01

Little is known about selective lymph node dissection in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We sought to gain insight into subcarinal node involvement for its frequency and impact on outcome to evaluate whether it is valid to omit subcarinal lymph node dissection in upper lobe NSCLC patients. We reviewed node metastases distribution according to node region, tumor location, and histology among 1099 patients with upper lobe NSCLC. We paid special attention to subcarinal metastases patients without superior mediastinal node metastases, because their pathological stages would have been underdiagnosed if subcarinal node dissection had been omitted. We also assessed the outcome and the pattern of failure among subcarinal metastases patients. To identify subcarinal node involvement predictors, we analyzed 7 clinical factors. Subcarinal node metastases were found in 20 patients and were least frequent among squamous cell carcinoma patients (0.5%). Two of them were free from superior mediastinal metastases but died of the disease at 1 month and due to an unknown cause at 18 months, respectively. Seventeen of the 20 patients developed multi-site recurrence within 37 months. The 5-year survival rate of the 20 patients with subcarinal metastases was 9.0%, which was significantly lower than 32.0% of patients with only superior mediastinal metastases. Clinical diagnosis of node metastases was significantly predictive of subcarinal metastases. Subcarinal node metastases from upper lobe NSCLC were rare and predicted an extremely poor outcome. It appears valid to omit subcarinal node dissection in upper lobe NSCLC patients, especially in clinical N0 squamous cell carcinoma patients. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lymph Node Yield as a Predictor of Survival in Pathologically Node Negative Oral Cavity Carcinoma.

PubMed

Lemieux, Aaron; Kedarisetty, Suraj; Raju, Sharat; Orosco, Ryan; Coffey, Charles

2016-03-01

Even after a pathologically node-negative (pN0) neck dissection for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), patients may develop regional recurrence. In this study, we (1) hypothesize that an increased number of lymph nodes removed (lymph node yield) in patients with pN0 oral SCC predicts improved survival and (2) explore predictors of survival in these patients using a multivariable model. Case series with chart review. Administrative database analysis. The SEER database was queried for patients diagnosed with all-stage oral cavity SCC between 1988 and 2009 who were determined to be pN0 after elective lymph node dissection. Demographic and treatment variables were extracted. The association of lymph node yield with 5-year all-cause survival was studied with multivariable survival analyses. A total of 4341 patients with pN0 oral SCC were included in this study. The 2 highest lymph node yield quartiles (representing >22 nodes removed) were found to be significant predictors of overall survival (22-35 nodes: hazard ratio [HR] = 0.854, P = .031; 36-98 nodes: HR = 0.827, P = .010). Each additional lymph node removed during neck dissection was associated with increased survival (HR = 0.995, P = .022). These data suggest that patients with oral SCC undergoing elective neck dissection may experience an overall survival benefit associated with greater lymph node yield. Mechanisms behind the demonstrated survival advantage are unknown. Larger nodal dissections may remove a greater burden of microscopic metastatic disease, diminishing the likelihood of recurrence. Lymph node yield may serve as an objective measure of the adequacy of lymphadenectomy. © American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation 2015.

Sentinel node biopsy in thin and thick melanoma.

PubMed

Mozzillo, Nicola; Pennacchioli, Elisabetta; Gandini, Sara; Caracò, Corrado; Crispo, Anna; Botti, Gerardo; Lastoria, Secondo; Barberis, Massimo; Verrecchia, Francesco; Testori, Alessandro

2013-08-01

Although sentinel node biopsy (SNB) has become standard of care in patients with melanoma, its use in patients with thin or thick melanomas remains a matter of debate. This was a retrospective analysis of patients with thin (≤1 mm) or thick (≥4 mm) melanomas who underwent SNB at two Italian centers between 1998 and 2011. The associations of clinicopathologic features with sentinel lymph node positive status and overall survival (OS) were analyzed. In 492 patients with thin melanoma, sentinel node was positive for metastatic melanoma in 24 (4.9 %) patients. No sentinel node positivity was detected in patients with primary tumor thickness <0.3 mm. Mitotic rate was the only factor significantly associated with sentinel node positivity (p = 0.0001). Five-year OS was 81 % for patients with positive sentinel node and 93 % for negative sentinel node (p = 0.001). In 298 patients with thick melanoma, 39 % of patients had positive sentinel lymph nodes (median Breslow thickness 5 mm). In patients with positive sentinel node, 93 % had mitotic rate >1/mm(2). Five-year OS was 49 % for patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes and 56 % for patients with negative sentinel nodes (p = 0.005). The rate of sentinel node positivity in patients with thin melanoma was 4.9 %. The only clinicopathologic factor related to node positivity was mitotic rate. Given its prognostic importance, SNB should be considered in such patients. SNB should also be the standard method for melanoma ≥4 mm, not only for staging, but also for guiding therapeutic decisions.

Impact of false-negative sentinel lymph node biopsy on survival in patients with cutaneous melanoma.

PubMed

Caracò, C; Marone, U; Celentano, E; Botti, G; Mozzillo, N

2007-09-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is widely accepted as standard care in melanoma despite lack of pertinent randomized trials results. A possible pitfall of this procedure is the inaccurate identification of the sentinel lymph node leading to biopsy and analysis of a nonsentinel node. Such a technical failure may yield a different prognosis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the incidence of false negativity and its impact on clinical outcome and to try to understand its causes. The Melanoma Data Base at National Cancer Institute of Naples was analyzed comparing results between false-negative and tumor-positive sentinel node patients focusing on overall survival and prognostic factors influencing the clinical outcome. One hundred fifty-one cases were diagnosed to be tumor-positive after sentinel lymph node biopsy and were subjected to complete lymph node dissection. Thirty-four (18.4%)patients with tumor-negative sentinel node subsequently developed lymph node metastases in the basin site of the sentinel procedure. With a median follow-up of 42.8 months the 5-year overall survival was 48.4% and 66.3% for false-negative and tumor-positive group respectively with significant statistical differences (P < .03). The sensitivity of sentinel lymph node biopsy was 81.6%, and a regional nodal basin recurrence after negative-sentinel node biopsy means a worse prognosis, compared with patients submitted to complete lymph node dissection after a positive sentinel biopsy. The evidence of higher number of tumor-positive nodes after delayed lymphadenectomy in false-negative group compared with tumor-positive sentinel node cases, confirmed the importance of an early staging of lymph nodal involvement. Further data will better clarify the role of prognostic factors to identify cases with a more aggressive biological behavior of the disease.

Potential role for carbon nanoparticles to guide central neck dissection in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

PubMed

Yu, Wenbin; Cao, XiaoLi; Xu, Guihu; Song, Yuntao; Li, Guojun; Zheng, Hongliang; Zhang, Naisong

2016-09-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use and clinical utility of carbon nanoparticles as a lymph node tracer in the central neck lymph node dissection of patients with papillary thyroid cancer. One hundred forty consecutive patients were divided into a carbon nanoparticle group (n = 70) and a control group (n = 70). All patients underwent total or near-total thyroidectomy with bilateral central neck dissection. The carbon nanoparticle and control groups had different rates of metastatic lymph nodes (P = .017), total detected numbers of lymph nodes (P = .0001), total numbers of dissected lymph nodes <5 mm (P = .0001), and numbers of metastatic lymph nodes <5 mm (P = .0001). Of the 682 lymph nodes dissected in the carbon nanoparticle group, 579 (85%) were stained black, and of these, 147 (25%) were metastatic lymph nodes. There were 63 metastatic lymph nodes <5 mm among the black-stained metastatic lymph nodes, while there were 12 non-black-stained metastatic lymph nodes <5 mm. Of the total number of metastatic lymph nodes (n = 193), 147 (76%) were stained black. Moreover, pathologic results revealed that 5 accidental parathyroid resections occurred in the carbon nanoparticle group, compared with 14 in the control group (P = .046). Carbon nanoparticles might help to detect lymph nodes and increase the number of metastatic lymph nodes visualized and preserved. Therefore, use of carbon nanoparticles may reflect the metastatic condition of the central neck and have the potential to protect parathyroid glands. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mediastinal lymph node detection and station mapping on chest CT using spatial priors and random forest

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Jiamin; Hoffman, Joanne; Zhao, Jocelyn

2016-07-15

Purpose: To develop an automated system for mediastinal lymph node detection and station mapping for chest CT. Methods: The contextual organs, trachea, lungs, and spine are first automatically identified to locate the region of interest (ROI) (mediastinum). The authors employ shape features derived from Hessian analysis, local object scale, and circular transformation that are computed per voxel in the ROI. Eight more anatomical structures are simultaneously segmented by multiatlas label fusion. Spatial priors are defined as the relative multidimensional distance vectors corresponding to each structure. Intensity, shape, and spatial prior features are integrated and parsed by a random forest classifiermore » for lymph node detection. The detected candidates are then segmented by the following curve evolution process. Texture features are computed on the segmented lymph nodes and a support vector machine committee is used for final classification. For lymph node station labeling, based on the segmentation results of the above anatomical structures, the textual definitions of mediastinal lymph node map according to the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer are converted into patient-specific color-coded CT image, where the lymph node station can be automatically assigned for each detected node. Results: The chest CT volumes from 70 patients with 316 enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes are used for validation. For lymph node detection, their system achieves 88% sensitivity at eight false positives per patient. For lymph node station labeling, 84.5% of lymph nodes are correctly assigned to their stations. Conclusions: Multiple-channel shape, intensity, and spatial prior features aggregated by a random forest classifier improve mediastinal lymph node detection on chest CT. Using the location information of segmented anatomic structures from the multiatlas formulation enables accurate identification of lymph node stations.« less

A Distributed and Energy-Efficient Algorithm for Event K-Coverage in Underwater Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Jiang, Peng; Xu, Yiming; Liu, Jun

2017-01-19

For event dynamic K-coverage algorithms, each management node selects its assistant node by using a greedy algorithm without considering the residual energy and situations in which a node is selected by several events. This approach affects network energy consumption and balance. Therefore, this study proposes a distributed and energy-efficient event K-coverage algorithm (DEEKA). After the network achieves 1-coverage, the nodes that detect the same event compete for the event management node with the number of candidate nodes and the average residual energy, as well as the distance to the event. Second, each management node estimates the probability of its neighbor nodes' being selected by the event it manages with the distance level, the residual energy level, and the number of dynamic coverage event of these nodes. Third, each management node establishes an optimization model that uses expectation energy consumption and the residual energy variance of its neighbor nodes and detects the performance of the events it manages as targets. Finally, each management node uses a constrained non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to obtain the Pareto set of the model and the best strategy via technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The algorithm first considers the effect of harsh underwater environments on information collection and transmission. It also considers the residual energy of a node and a situation in which the node is selected by several other events. Simulation results show that, unlike the on-demand variable sensing K-coverage algorithm, DEEKA balances and reduces network energy consumption, thereby prolonging the network's best service quality and lifetime.

Use of Indocyanine Green for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy: Case Series and Methods Comparison.

PubMed

McGregor, Andrew; Pavri, Sabrina N; Tsay, Cynthia; Kim, Samuel; Narayan, Deepak

2017-11-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is indicated for patients with biopsy-proven thickness melanoma greater than 1.0 mm. Use of lymphoscintigraphy along with vital blue dyes is the gold standard for identifying sentinel lymph nodes intraoperatively. Indocyanine green (ICG) has recently been used as a method of identifying sentinel lymph nodes. We herein describe a case series of patients who have successfully undergone ICG-assisted sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma. We compare 2 imaging systems that are used for ICG-assisted sentinel lymph node biopsy. Fourteen patients underwent ICG-assisted sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma using the SPY Elite system (Novadaq, Mississigua, Canada) and the Hamamatsu PDE-Neo probe system (Mitaka USA, Park City, Utah). We analyzed costs for 2 systems that utilize ICG for sentinel lymph node biopsies. Intraoperative use of ICG for sentinel lymph node biopsies was successful in correctly identifying sentinel lymph nodes. There was no difference between the Hamamatsu PDE-Neo probe and SPY Elite systems in the ability to detect sentinel lymph nodes; however, the former was associated with a lower operating cost and ease of use compared with the latter. ICG-assisted sentinel lymph biopsy using the SPY Elite or the Hamamatsu PDE-Neo probe systems for melanoma are comparable in terms of sentinel node detection. The Neo probe system delivers pertinent clinical data with the advantages of lower cost and ease of operation.

Surgical management of sentinel lymph node biopsy outside major nodal basin in patients with cutaneous melanoma.

PubMed

Caracò, Corrado; Marone, Ugo; Di Monta, Gianluca; Aloj, Luigi; Caracò, Corradina; Anniciello, Annamaria; Lastoria, Secondo; Botti, Gerardo; Mozzillo, Nicola

2014-01-01

To assess the incidence of nonmajor lymphatic basin sentinel nodes in patients with cutaneous melanoma in order to propose a correct nomenclature and inform appropriate surgical management. This was a retrospective review of 1,045 consecutive patients with cutaneous melanoma who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy and dynamic lymphoscintigraphy to identify sentinel node site. Nonmajor drainage sites were classified as uncommon (located in a minor lymphatic basin along the lymphatic drainage to a major classical nodal basin) or interval (located anywhere along the lymphatics between the primary tumor site and the nearest lymphatic basin) sentinel nodes. Nonclassical sentinel nodes were identified in 32 patients (3.0 %). Uncommon sentinel nodes were identified in 3.2 % (n = 17) of trunk melanoma primary disease and in 1.5 % (n = 7) of upper and lower extremity sites. Interval sentinel nodes were identified in 1.3 % (n = 7) of trunk primary lesions, with none from upper and lower extremities melanomas. The incidence of tumor-positive sentinel nodes was 24.1 % (245 of 1,013) in classical sites and 12.5 % (4 of 32) in uncommon/interval sites. The definition of uncommon and interval sentinel nodes allows the identification of different lymphatic pathways and inform appropriate surgical treatment. Wider experience with uncommon/interval sentinel nodes will better clarify the clinical implications and surgical management to be adopted in the management of uncommon and interval sentinel node sites.

High-frequency Ultrasound Imaging of Mouse Cervical Lymph Nodes.

PubMed

Walk, Elyse L; McLaughlin, Sarah L; Weed, Scott A

2015-07-25

High-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) is widely employed as a non-invasive method for imaging internal anatomic structures in experimental small animal systems. HFUS has the ability to detect structures as small as 30 µm, a property that has been utilized for visualizing superficial lymph nodes in rodents in brightness (B)-mode. Combining power Doppler with B-mode imaging allows for measuring circulatory blood flow within lymph nodes and other organs. While HFUS has been utilized for lymph node imaging in a number of mouse  model systems, a detailed protocol describing HFUS imaging and characterization of the cervical lymph nodes in mice has not been reported. Here, we show that HFUS can be adapted to detect and characterize cervical lymph nodes in mice. Combined B-mode and power Doppler imaging can be used to detect increases in blood flow in immunologically-enlarged cervical nodes. We also describe the use of B-mode imaging to conduct fine needle biopsies of cervical lymph nodes to retrieve lymph tissue for histological  analysis. Finally, software-aided steps are described to calculate changes in lymph node volume and to visualize changes in lymph node morphology following image reconstruction. The ability to visually monitor changes in cervical lymph node biology over time provides a simple and powerful technique for the non-invasive monitoring of cervical lymph node alterations in preclinical mouse models of oral cavity disease.

A mathematical prediction model incorporating molecular subtype for risk of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in sentinel lymph node-positive breast cancer patients: a retrospective analysis and nomogram development.

PubMed

Wang, Na-Na; Yang, Zheng-Jun; Wang, Xue; Chen, Li-Xuan; Zhao, Hong-Meng; Cao, Wen-Feng; Zhang, Bin

2018-04-25

Molecular subtype of breast cancer is associated with sentinel lymph node status. We sought to establish a mathematical prediction model that included breast cancer molecular subtype for risk of positive non-sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node metastasis and further validate the model in a separate validation cohort. We reviewed the clinicopathologic data of breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node metastasis who underwent axillary lymph node dissection between June 16, 2014 and November 16, 2017 at our hospital. Sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed and patients with pathologically proven sentinel lymph node metastasis underwent axillary lymph node dissection. Independent risks for non-sentinel lymph node metastasis were assessed in a training cohort by multivariate analysis and incorporated into a mathematical prediction model. The model was further validated in a separate validation cohort, and a nomogram was developed and evaluated for diagnostic performance in predicting the risk of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis. Moreover, we assessed the performance of five different models in predicting non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in training cohort. Totally, 495 cases were eligible for the study, including 291 patients in the training cohort and 204 in the validation cohort. Non-sentinel lymph node metastasis was observed in 33.3% (97/291) patients in the training cohort. The AUC of MSKCC, Tenon, MDA, Ljubljana, and Louisville models in training cohort were 0.7613, 0.7142, 0.7076, 0.7483, and 0.671, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that tumor size (OR = 1.439; 95% CI 1.025-2.021; P = 0.036), sentinel lymph node macro-metastasis versus micro-metastasis (OR = 5.063; 95% CI 1.111-23.074; P = 0.036), the number of positive sentinel lymph nodes (OR = 2.583, 95% CI 1.714-3.892; P < 0.001), and the number of negative sentinel lymph nodes (OR = 0.686, 95% CI 0.575-0.817; P < 0.001) were independent statistically significant predictors of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, luminal B (OR = 3.311, 95% CI 1.593-6.884; P = 0.001) and HER2 overexpression (OR = 4.308, 95% CI 1.097-16.912; P = 0.036) were independent and statistically significant predictor of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis versus luminal A. A regression model based on the results of multivariate analysis was established to predict the risk of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis, which had an AUC of 0.8188. The model was validated in the validation cohort and showed excellent diagnostic performance. The mathematical prediction model that incorporates five variables including breast cancer molecular subtype demonstrates excellent diagnostic performance in assessing the risk of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in sentinel lymph node-positive patients. The prediction model could be of help surgeons in evaluating the risk of non-sentinel lymph node involvement for breast cancer patients; however, the model requires further validation in prospective studies.

Compression in wearable sensor nodes: impacts of node topology.

PubMed

Imtiaz, Syed Anas; Casson, Alexander J; Rodriguez-Villegas, Esther

2014-04-01

Wearable sensor nodes monitoring the human body must operate autonomously for very long periods of time. Online and low-power data compression embedded within the sensor node is therefore essential to minimize data storage/transmission overheads. This paper presents a low-power MSP430 compressive sensing implementation for providing such compression, focusing particularly on the impact of the sensor node architecture on the compression performance. Compression power performance is compared for four different sensor nodes incorporating different strategies for wireless transmission/on-sensor-node local storage of data. The results demonstrate that the compressive sensing used must be designed differently depending on the underlying node topology, and that the compression strategy should not be guided only by signal processing considerations. We also provide a practical overview of state-of-the-art sensor node topologies. Wireless transmission of data is often preferred as it offers increased flexibility during use, but in general at the cost of increased power consumption. We demonstrate that wireless sensor nodes can highly benefit from the use of compressive sensing and now can achieve power consumptions comparable to, or better than, the use of local memory.

Method for designing gas tag compositions

DOEpatents

Gross, K.C.

1995-04-11

For use in the manufacture of gas tags such as employed in a nuclear reactor gas tagging failure detection system, a method for designing gas tagging compositions utilizes an analytical approach wherein the final composition of a first canister of tag gas as measured by a mass spectrometer is designated as node No. 1. Lattice locations of tag nodes in multi-dimensional space are then used in calculating the compositions of a node No. 2 and each subsequent node so as to maximize the distance of each node from any combination of tag components which might be indistinguishable from another tag composition in a reactor fuel assembly. Alternatively, the measured compositions of tag gas numbers 1 and 2 may be used to fix the locations of nodes 1 and 2, with the locations of nodes 3-N then calculated for optimum tag gas composition. A single sphere defining the lattice locations of the tag nodes may be used to define approximately 20 tag nodes, while concentric spheres can extend the number of tag nodes to several hundred. 5 figures.

System and method for time synchronization in a wireless network

DOEpatents

Gonia, Patrick S.; Kolavennu, Soumitri N.; Mahasenan, Arun V.; Budampati, Ramakrishna S.

2010-03-30

A system includes multiple wireless nodes forming a cluster in a wireless network, where each wireless node is configured to communicate and exchange data wirelessly based on a clock. One of the wireless nodes is configured to operate as a cluster master. Each of the other wireless nodes is configured to (i) receive time synchronization information from a parent node, (ii) adjust its clock based on the received time synchronization information, and (iii) broadcast time synchronization information based on the time synchronization information received by that wireless node. The time synchronization information received by each of the other wireless nodes is based on time synchronization information provided by the cluster master so that the other wireless nodes substantially synchronize their clocks with the clock of the cluster master.

Broadcasting collective operation contributions throughout a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Faraj, Ahmad [Rochester, MN

2012-02-21

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for broadcasting collective operation contributions throughout a parallel computer. The parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes connected together through a data communications network. Each compute node has a plurality of processors for use in collective parallel operations on the parallel computer. Broadcasting collective operation contributions throughout a parallel computer according to embodiments of the present invention includes: transmitting, by each processor on each compute node, that processor's collective operation contribution to the other processors on that compute node using intra-node communications; and transmitting on a designated network link, by each processor on each compute node according to a serial processor transmission sequence, that processor's collective operation contribution to the other processors on the other compute nodes using inter-node communications.

Shaper design in CMOS for high dynamic range

DOEpatents

De Geronimo, Gianluigi; Li, Shaorui

2015-06-30

An analog filter is presented that comprises a chain of filter stages, a feedback resistor for providing a negative feedback, and a feedback capacitor for providing a positive feedback. Each filter stage has an input node and an output node. The output node of a filter stage is connected to the input node of an immediately succeeding filter stage through a resistor. The feedback resistor has a first end connected to the output node of the last filter stage along the chain of filter stages, and a second end connected to the input node of a first preceding filter stage. The feedback capacitor has a first end connected to the output node of one of the chain of filter stages, and a second end connected to the input node of a second preceding filter stage.

History, present status and future of sentinel node biopsy in breast cancer. The Mary Béves Lecture.

PubMed

Mansel, R E; Khonji, N I; Clarke, D

2000-01-01

The word Sentinel' is defined in The Oxford English Dictionary as 'a guard, one who keeps watch or a sentry'. When translated to the concept of a tumour and its lymph node drainage, the sentinel node could be interpreted to mean the lymph node that guards or keeps watch over a tumour. The sentinel lymph node can thus be defined as the first lymph node that drains a primary tumour within the regional lymphatic basin of that tumour. We know that tumour progression in breast cancer often occurs in an orderly, progressive fashion. So in theory, if the sentinel node is tumour free then the rest of the nodes in the lymphatic basin should also be uninvolved by the tumour.

Parallel-aware, dedicated job co-scheduling within/across symmetric multiprocessing nodes

DOEpatents

Jones, Terry R.; Watson, Pythagoras C.; Tuel, William; Brenner, Larry; ,Caffrey, Patrick; Fier, Jeffrey

2010-10-05

In a parallel computing environment comprising a network of SMP nodes each having at least one processor, a parallel-aware co-scheduling method and system for improving the performance and scalability of a dedicated parallel job having synchronizing collective operations. The method and system uses a global co-scheduler and an operating system kernel dispatcher adapted to coordinate interfering system and daemon activities on a node and across nodes to promote intra-node and inter-node overlap of said interfering system and daemon activities as well as intra-node and inter-node overlap of said synchronizing collective operations. In this manner, the impact of random short-lived interruptions, such as timer-decrement processing and periodic daemon activity, on synchronizing collective operations is minimized on large processor-count SPMD bulk-synchronous programming styles.

Centrally managed unified shared virtual address space

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wilkes, John

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for managing a unified shared virtual address space. A host may execute system software and manage a plurality of nodes coupled to the host. The host may send work tasks to the nodes, and for each node, the host may externally manage the node's view of the system's virtual address space. Each node may have a central processing unit (CPU) style memory management unit (MMU) with an internal translation lookaside buffer (TLB). In one embodiment, the host may be coupled to a given node via an input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) interface, where the IOMMU frontendmore » interface shares the TLB with the given node's MMU. In another embodiment, the host may control the given node's view of virtual address space via memory-mapped control registers.« less

A prospective single-center study of sentinel lymph node detection in cervical carcinoma: is there a place in clinical practice?

PubMed

Devaja, Omer; Mehra, Gautam; Coutts, Michael; Montalto, Stephen Attard; Donaldson, John; Kodampur, Mallikarjun; Papadopoulos, Andreas John

2012-07-01

To establish the accuracy of sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection in early cervical cancer. Sentinel lymph node detection was performed prospectively over a 6-year period in 86 women undergoing surgery for cervical carcinoma by the combined method (Tc-99m and methylene blue dye). Further ultrastaging was performed on a subgroup of 26 patients who had benign SLNs on initial routine histological examination. The SLN was detected in 84 (97.7%) of 86 women by the combined method. Blue dye uptake was not seen in 8 women (90.7%). Sentinel lymph nodes were detected bilaterally in 63 women (73.3%), and the external iliac region was the most common anatomic location (48.8%). The median SLN count was 3 nodes (range, 1-7). Of the 84 women with sentinel node detection, 65 also underwent bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection, and in none of these cases was a benign SLN associated with a malignant non-SLN (100% negative predictive value). The median non-SLN count for all patients was 19 nodes (range, 8-35). Eighteen patients underwent removal of the SLN without bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection. Nine women (10.5%) had positive lymph nodes on final histology. One patient had bulky pelvic nodes on preoperative imaging and underwent removal of the negative bulky malignant lymph nodes and a benign SLN on the contralateral side. This latter case confirms the unreliability of the SLN method with bulky nodes. The remaining 8 patients had positive SLNs with negative nonsentinel lymph nodes. Fifty-nine SLNs from 26 patients, which were benign on initial routine histology, underwent ultrastaging, but no further disease was identified. Four patients (5%) relapsed after a median follow-up of 28 months (range, 8-80 months). Sentinel lymph node detection is an accurate and safe method in the assessment of nodal status in early cervical carcinoma.

The diagnostic value of thyroglobulin concentration in fine-needle aspiration of the cervical lymph nodes in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer.

PubMed

Mikosiński, Sławomir; Pomorski, Lech; Oszukowska, Lidia; Makarewicz, Jacek; Adamczewski, Zbigniew; Sporny, Stanisław; Lewiński, Andrzej

2006-01-01

Recurrent differentiated thyroid cancer generally occurs first in the neck. Ultrasound is sensitive in detecting enlarged cervical lymph nodes but is not specific enough. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy increases the specificity but still may fail to detect a recurrence of the disease in the cystic metastatic lymph nodes. The aim of the study was to estimate the value of Tg concentration in the needle washout after fine-needle aspiration of suspicious lymph nodes. The 105 patients studied had presented one or more enlarged suspicious cervical lymph nodes. All had undergone total thyroidectomy and (131)I ablative therapy. Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) concentration was within the 0.15-711.5 ng/ml range (mean 22.24 ng/ml) and Tg recovery range 94-100%. The positive Tg washout concentration cut-off value was established as equal to the mean plus two standard deviations of the Tg washout concentration of patients with negative cytology. Lymph node involvement was diagnosed by cytology in 15 patients and in 28 lymph nodes. Positive Tg washout concentration was found in 22 patients and in 48 lymph nodes. All the lymph nodes which turned out to have positive cytology had a positive Tg washout concentration. All lymph nodes with positive cytology were positive in pathology. Seven patients and 20 lymph nodes with negative cytology were positive in the Tg washout concentration test. All but one patients and all but two lymph nodes with a positive Tg washout concentration had positive pathology. 1. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy is not sensitive enough to detect all metastatic lymph nodes. 2. The Tg washout concentration test is 100% sensitive in the detection of metastatic lymph nodes. 3. Cytology in ultrasound- guided fine-needle biopsy is 100% specific. 4. The Tg washout concentration test carries a risk of false-positive results. 5. Both methods should be used for early detection of metastatic lymph nodes in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer.

Message propagation in the network based on node credibility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nian, Fuzhong; Dang, Zhongkai

2018-04-01

In the propagation efficiency point of view, the node credibility is introduced in this paper. For the message receiver, the node would partially believe the message according to the credibility of the propagator. For a node, the credibility is variable. The more the true message spread, the higher the credibility, and vice versa, the credibility becomes smaller. Based on the idea, a new network was established with the node credibility. Finally, a comparing experiment between the fully trusted network and the network with the node credibility was implemented. The results indicate that the spread effect of messages is better in the network with the node credibility.

The broadcast classical-quantum capacity region of a two-phase bidirectional relaying channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boche, Holger; Cai, Minglai; Deppe, Christian

2015-10-01

We studied a three-node quantum network that enables bidirectional communication between two nodes with a half-duplex relay node for transmitting classical messages. A decode-and-forward protocol is used to perform the communication in two phases. In the first phase, the messages of two nodes are transmitted to the relay node. The capacity of the first phase is well known by previous works. In the second phase, the relay node broadcasts a re-encoded composition to the two nodes. We determine the capacity region of the broadcast phase. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper analyzing quantum bidirectional relay networks.

Swollen lymph nodes

MedlinePlus

... lymph nodes, including: Seizure medicines such as phenytoin Typhoid immunization Which lymph nodes are swollen depends on ... hard, irregular, or fixed in place. You have fever, night sweats, or unexplained weight loss. Any node ...

Lymph Node Size on Computed Tomography Images Is a Predictive Indicator for Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Colorectal Neuroendocrine Tumors.

PubMed

Tanaka, Toshiaki; Nozawa, Hiroaki; Kawai, Kazushige; Hata, Keisuke; Kiyomatsu, Tomomichi; Nishikawa, Takeshi; Otani, Kensuke; Sasaki, Kazuhito; Murono, Koji; Watanabe, Toshiaki

2017-01-01

Colorectal neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are a rare manifestation of colorectal neoplasia, requiring for radical dissection of the regional lymph nodes along with colorectal resection similar to that required for colorectal cancer. However, thus far, no reports have described the ability of computed tomography (CT) to predict lymph node involvement. In this study, we revealed the prediction rate of lymph node metastasis using contrast-enhanced CT. A total of 21 patients with colorectal NET undergoing colorectal resection were recruited from January 2010 to June 2016. We compared the CT findings between samples with or without pathologically proven lymph node metastasis, in each field (pericolic/perirectal and intermediate nodes). Within the pericolic/perirectal field, any lymph node larger than 5 mm in the CT images was a predictive indicator of lymph node metastasis with a sensitivity, specificity, and area under ROC curve (AUC) of 66.7%, 87.5%, and 0.844, respectively. Within the intermediate field, any visible lymph node on the CT was a predictive indicator of lymph node metastasis with a sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of 100%, 76.4%, and 0.890, respectively. In addition, when we observed lymph nodes larger than 3 mm on the CT images, the sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 82.4%, respectively, with an AUC of 0.8971. CT images provide predictive information for lymph node metastasis with a high rate of accuracy. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

BridgeRank: A novel fast centrality measure based on local structure of the network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salavati, Chiman; Abdollahpouri, Alireza; Manbari, Zhaleh

2018-04-01

Ranking nodes in complex networks have become an important task in many application domains. In a complex network, influential nodes are those that have the most spreading ability. Thus, identifying influential nodes based on their spreading ability is a fundamental task in different applications such as viral marketing. One of the most important centrality measures to ranking nodes is closeness centrality which is efficient but suffers from high computational complexity O(n3) . This paper tries to improve closeness centrality by utilizing the local structure of nodes and presents a new ranking algorithm, called BridgeRank centrality. The proposed method computes local centrality value for each node. For this purpose, at first, communities are detected and the relationship between communities is completely ignored. Then, by applying a centrality in each community, only one best critical node from each community is extracted. Finally, the nodes are ranked based on computing the sum of the shortest path length of nodes to obtained critical nodes. We have also modified the proposed method by weighting the original BridgeRank and selecting several nodes from each community based on the density of that community. Our method can find the best nodes with high spread ability and low time complexity, which make it applicable to large-scale networks. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we use the SIR diffusion model. Finally, experiments on real and artificial networks show that our method is able to identify influential nodes so efficiently, and achieves better performance compared to other recent methods.

Predictors of sentinel lymph node metastases in breast cancer-radioactivity and Ki-67.

PubMed

Thangarajah, Fabinshy; Malter, Wolfram; Hamacher, Stefanie; Schmidt, Matthias; Krämer, Stefan; Mallmann, Peter; Kirn, Verena

2016-12-01

Since the introduction of the sentinel node technique for breast cancer in the 1990s patient's morbidity was reduced. Tracer uptake is known to be dependent from lymph node integrity and activity of macrophages. The aim of this study was to assess whether radioactivity of the tracer can predict sentinel lymph node metastases. Furthermore, a potential association with Ki-67 index was examined. Non-invasive prediction of lymph node metastases could lead to a further decrease of morbidity. We retrospectively analyzed patients with primary breast cancer who underwent surgery at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University Hospital of Cologne between 2012 and 2013. Injection of radioactive tracer was done a day before surgery in the department of Nuclear Medicine. Clinical data and radioactivity of the sentinel node measured the day before and intraoperatively were abstracted from patient's files. Of 246 patients, 64 patients had at least one, five patients had two and one patient had three positive sentinel lymph nodes. Occurrence of sentinel lymph node metastases was not associated with preoperative tracer activity (p = 0,319), intraoperative tracer activity of first sentinel node (p = 0,086) or with loss of tracer activity until operation (p = 0,909). There was no correlation between preoperative Ki-67 index and occurrence of lymph node metastases (p = 0,403). In our cohort, there was no correlation between radioactivity and sentinel node metastases. Tracer uptake might not only be influenced by lymph node metastases and does not predict metastatic lymph node involvement. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In vitro autoradiographic localization of angiotensin-converting enzyme in sarcoid lymph nodes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Allen, R.K.; Chai, S.Y.; Dunbar, M.S.

1986-09-01

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) was localized in sarcoid lymph nodes by an in vitro autoradiographic technique using a synthetic ACE inhibitor of high affinity, /sup 125/I-labelled 351A. The lymph nodes were from seven patients with active sarcoidosis who underwent mediastinoscopy and from six control subjects who had nodes resected at either mediastinoscopy or laparotomy. Angiotensin-converting enzyme was localized in the epithelioid cells of sarcoid granulomata in markedly increased amounts compared with control nodes, where it was restricted to vessels and some histiocytes. In sarcoid lymph nodes, there was little ACE present in lymphocytes or fibrous tissue. Sarcoid nodes with considerable fibrosismore » had much less intense ACE activity than the nonfibrotic nodes. The specific activity of ACE measured by an enzymatic assay in both the control and sarcoid lymph nodes closely reflected the ACE activity demonstrated by autoradiography. Sarcoid lymph nodes with fibrosis had an ACE specific activity of half that of nonfibrotic nodes (p less than 0.05). There was a 15-fold increase in specific ACE activity in sarcoid nodes (p less than 0.05) compared to normal. Serum ACE was significantly higher in those sarcoid patients whose lymph nodes were not fibrosed compared with those with fibrosis (p less than 0.01). This technique offers many advantages over the use of polyclonal antibodies. The 351A is a highly specific ACE inhibitor, chemically defined and in limitless supply. This method enables the quantitation of results, and autoradiographs may be stored indefinitely for later comparison.« less

An Algorithm for Timely Transmission of Solicitation Messages in RPL for Energy-Efficient Node Mobility.

PubMed

Park, Jihong; Kim, Ki-Hyung; Kim, Kangseok

2017-04-19

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) was proposed for various applications of IPv6 low power wireless networks. While RPL supports various routing metrics and is designed to be suitable for wireless sensor network environments, it does not consider the mobility of nodes. Therefore, there is a need for a method that is energy efficient and that provides stable and reliable data transmission by considering the mobility of nodes in RPL networks. This paper proposes an algorithm to support node mobility in RPL in an energy-efficient manner and describes its operating principle based on different scenarios. The proposed algorithm supports the mobility of nodes by dynamically adjusting the transmission interval of the messages that request the route based on the speed and direction of the motion of mobile nodes, as well as the costs between neighboring nodes. The performance of the proposed algorithm and previous algorithms for supporting node mobility were examined experimentally. From the experiment, it was observed that the proposed algorithm requires fewer messages per unit time for selecting a new parent node following the movement of a mobile node. Since fewer messages are used to select a parent node, the energy consumption is also less than that of previous algorithms.

Intraoperative Injection of Technetium-99m Sulfur Colloid for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Breast Cancer Patients: A Single Institution Experience.

PubMed

Berrocal, Julian; Saperstein, Lawrence; Grube, Baiba; Horowitz, Nina R; Chagpar, Anees B; Killelea, Brigid K; Lannin, Donald R

2017-01-01

Background . Most institutions require a patient undergoing sentinel lymph node biopsy to go through nuclear medicine prior to surgery to be injected with radioisotope. This study describes the long-term results using intraoperative injection of radioisotope. Methods . Since late 2002, all patients undergoing a sentinel lymph node biopsy at the Yale-New Haven Breast Center underwent intraoperative injection of technetium-99m sulfur colloid. Endpoints included number of sentinel and nonsentinel lymph nodes obtained and number of positive sentinel and nonsentinel lymph nodes. Results . At least one sentinel lymph node was obtained in 2,333 out of 2,338 cases of sentinel node biopsy for an identification rate of 99.8%. The median number of sentinel nodes found was 2 and the mean was 2.33 (range: 1-15). There were 512 cases (21.9%) in which a sentinel node was positive for metastatic carcinoma. Of the patients with a positive sentinel lymph node who underwent axillary dissection, there were 242 cases (54.2%) with no additional positive nonsentinel lymph nodes. Advantages of intraoperative injection included increased comfort for the patient and simplification of scheduling. There were no radiation related complications. Conclusion . Intraoperative injection of technetium-99m sulfur colloid is convenient, effective, safe, and comfortable for the patient.

An Algorithm for Timely Transmission of Solicitation Messages in RPL for Energy-Efficient Node Mobility

PubMed Central

Park, Jihong; Kim, Ki-Hyung; Kim, Kangseok

2017-01-01

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) was proposed for various applications of IPv6 low power wireless networks. While RPL supports various routing metrics and is designed to be suitable for wireless sensor network environments, it does not consider the mobility of nodes. Therefore, there is a need for a method that is energy efficient and that provides stable and reliable data transmission by considering the mobility of nodes in RPL networks. This paper proposes an algorithm to support node mobility in RPL in an energy-efficient manner and describes its operating principle based on different scenarios. The proposed algorithm supports the mobility of nodes by dynamically adjusting the transmission interval of the messages that request the route based on the speed and direction of the motion of mobile nodes, as well as the costs between neighboring nodes. The performance of the proposed algorithm and previous algorithms for supporting node mobility were examined experimentally. From the experiment, it was observed that the proposed algorithm requires fewer messages per unit time for selecting a new parent node following the movement of a mobile node. Since fewer messages are used to select a parent node, the energy consumption is also less than that of previous algorithms. PMID:28422084

The value of quantitative shear wave elastography in differentiating the cervical lymph nodes in patients with thyroid nodules.

PubMed

You, Jun; Chen, Juan; Xiang, Feixiang; Song, Yue; Khamis, Simai; Lu, Chengfa; Lv, Qing; Zhang, Yanrong; Xie, Mingxing

2018-04-01

This study aimed at evaluating the diagnostic performance of quantitative shear wave elastography (SWE) in differentiating metastatic cervical lymph nodes from benign nodes in patients with thyroid nodules. One hundred and forty-one cervical lymph nodes from 39 patients with thyroid nodules that were diagnosed as papillary thyroid cancer had been imaged with SWE. The shear elasticity modulus, which indicates the stiffness of the lymph nodes, was measured in terms of maximum shear elasticity modulus (maxSM), minimum shear elasticity modulus (minSM), mean shear elasticity modulus (meanSM), and standard deviation (SD) of the shear elasticity modulus. All the patients underwent thyroid surgery, 50 of the suspicious lymph nodes were resected, and 91 lymph nodes were followed up for 6 months. The maxSM value, minSM value, meanSM value, and SD value of the metastatic lymph nodes were significantly higher than those of the benign nodes. The area under the curve of the maxSM value, minSM value, meanSM value, and SD value were 0.918, 0.606, 0.865, and 0.915, respectively. SWE can differentiate metastasis from benign cervical lymph nodes in patients with thyroid nodules, and the maxSM, meanSM, and SD may be valuable quantitative indicators for characterizing cervical lymph nodes.

Sentinel lymph node detection in patients with endometrial cancer.

PubMed

Niikura, Hitoshi; Okamura, Chikako; Utsunomiya, Hiroki; Yoshinaga, Kosuke; Akahira, Junichi; Ito, Kiyoshi; Yaegashi, Nobuo

2004-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection in patients with endometrial cancer using preoperative lymphoscintigraphy and an intraoperative gamma probe. Between June 2001 and January 2003, 28 consecutive patients with endometrial cancer who were scheduled for total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, total pelvic lymphadenectomy, and paraaortic lymphadenectomy at Tohoku University School of Medicine underwent sentinel lymph node detection. On the day before surgery, preoperative lymphoscintigraphy was performed by injection of 99m-Technetium ((99m)Tc)-labeled phytate into the endometrium during hysteroscopy. At the time of surgery, a gamma-detecting probe was used to locate radioactive lymph nodes. At least one sentinel node was detected in each of 23 of the 28 patients (82%). The mean number of sentinel nodes detected was 3.1 (range, 1-9). Sentinel nodes could be identified in 21 of 22 patients (95%) whose tumor did not invade more than halfway into the myometrium. Eighteen patients had radioactive nodes in the paraaortic area. Most patients had a sentinel node in one of the following three sites: paraaortic, external iliac, and obturator. The sensitivity and specificity for detecting lymph node metastases were both 100%. The combination of preoperative lymphoscintigraphy with intraoperative gamma probe detection may be useful in identifying sentinel nodes in early-stage endometrial cancer.

Concurrent hypercube system with improved message passing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peterson, John C. (Inventor); Tuazon, Jesus O. (Inventor); Lieberman, Don (Inventor); Pniel, Moshe (Inventor)

1989-01-01

A network of microprocessors, or nodes, are interconnected in an n-dimensional cube having bidirectional communication links along the edges of the n-dimensional cube. Each node's processor network includes an I/O subprocessor dedicated to controlling communication of message packets along a bidirectional communication link with each end thereof terminating at an I/O controlled transceiver. Transmit data lines are directly connected from a local FIFO through each node's communication link transceiver. Status and control signals from the neighboring nodes are delivered over supervisory lines to inform the local node that the neighbor node's FIFO is empty and the bidirectional link between the two nodes is idle for data communication. A clocking line between neighbors, clocks a message into an empty FIFO at a neighbor's node and vica versa. Either neighbor may acquire control over the bidirectional communication link at any time, and thus each node has circuitry for checking whether or not the communication link is busy or idle, and whether or not the receive FIFO is empty. Likewise, each node can empty its own FIFO and in turn deliver a status signal to a neighboring node indicating that the local FIFO is empty. The system includes features of automatic message rerouting, block message transfer and automatic parity checking and generation.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks.

PubMed

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-08

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms.

An Autonomous Connectivity Restoration Algorithm Based on Finite State Machine for Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks

PubMed Central

Zhang, Ying; Wang, Jun; Hao, Guan

2018-01-01

With the development of autonomous unmanned intelligent systems, such as the unmanned boats, unmanned planes and autonomous underwater vehicles, studies on Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs) have attracted more attention. Network connectivity algorithms play an important role in data exchange, collaborative detection and information fusion. Due to the harsh application environment, abnormal nodes often appear, and the network connectivity will be prone to be lost. Network self-healing mechanisms have become critical for these systems. In order to decrease the movement overhead of the sensor-actor nodes, an autonomous connectivity restoration algorithm based on finite state machine is proposed. The idea is to identify whether a node is a critical node by using a finite state machine, and update the connected dominating set in a timely way. If an abnormal node is a critical node, the nearest non-critical node will be relocated to replace the abnormal node. In the case of multiple node abnormality, a regional network restoration algorithm is introduced. It is designed to reduce the overhead of node movements while restoration happens. Simulation results indicate the proposed algorithm has better performance on the total moving distance and the number of total relocated nodes compared with some other representative restoration algorithms. PMID:29316702

Estimation of distributed Fermat-point location for wireless sensor networking.

PubMed

Huang, Po-Hsian; Chen, Jiann-Liang; Larosa, Yanuarius Teofilus; Chiang, Tsui-Lien

2011-01-01

This work presents a localization scheme for use in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that is based on a proposed connectivity-based RF localization strategy called the distributed Fermat-point location estimation algorithm (DFPLE). DFPLE applies triangle area of location estimation formed by intersections of three neighboring beacon nodes. The Fermat point is determined as the shortest path from three vertices of the triangle. The area of estimated location then refined using Fermat point to achieve minimum error in estimating sensor nodes location. DFPLE solves problems of large errors and poor performance encountered by localization schemes that are based on a bounding box algorithm. Performance analysis of a 200-node development environment reveals that, when the number of sensor nodes is below 150, the mean error decreases rapidly as the node density increases, and when the number of sensor nodes exceeds 170, the mean error remains below 1% as the node density increases. Second, when the number of beacon nodes is less than 60, normal nodes lack sufficient beacon nodes to enable their locations to be estimated. However, the mean error changes slightly as the number of beacon nodes increases above 60. Simulation results revealed that the proposed algorithm for estimating sensor positions is more accurate than existing algorithms, and improves upon conventional bounding box strategies.

Data driven CAN node reliability assessment for manufacturing system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Leiming; Yuan, Yong; Lei, Yong

2017-01-01

The reliability of the Controller Area Network(CAN) is critical to the performance and safety of the system. However, direct bus-off time assessment tools are lacking in practice due to inaccessibility of the node information and the complexity of the node interactions upon errors. In order to measure the mean time to bus-off(MTTB) of all the nodes, a novel data driven node bus-off time assessment method for CAN network is proposed by directly using network error information. First, the corresponding network error event sequence for each node is constructed using multiple-layer network error information. Then, the generalized zero inflated Poisson process(GZIP) model is established for each node based on the error event sequence. Finally, the stochastic model is constructed to predict the MTTB of the node. The accelerated case studies with different error injection rates are conducted on a laboratory network to demonstrate the proposed method, where the network errors are generated by a computer controlled error injection system. Experiment results show that the MTTB of nodes predicted by the proposed method agree well with observations in the case studies. The proposed data driven node time to bus-off assessment method for CAN networks can successfully predict the MTTB of nodes by directly using network error event data.

Information spreading in Delay Tolerant Networks based on nodes' behaviors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yahui; Deng, Su; Huang, Hongbin

2014-07-01

Information spreading in DTNs (Delay Tolerant Networks) adopts a store-carry-forward method, and nodes receive the message from others directly. However, it is hard to judge whether the information is safe in this communication mode. In this case, a node may observe other nodes' behaviors. At present, there is no theoretical model to describe the varying rule of the nodes' trusting level. In addition, due to the uncertainty of the connectivity in DTN, a node is hard to get the global state of the network. Therefore, a rational model about the node's trusting level should be a function of the node's own observing result. For example, if a node finds k nodes carrying a message, it may trust the information with probability p(k). This paper does not explore the real distribution of p(k), but instead presents a unifying theoretical framework to evaluate the performance of the information spreading in above case. This framework is an extension of the traditional SI (susceptible-infected) model, and is useful when p(k) conforms to any distribution. Simulations based on both synthetic and real motion traces show the accuracy of the framework. Finally, we explore the impact of the nodes' behaviors based on certain special distributions through numerical results.

Extent of surgery for papillary thyroid cancer: preoperative imaging and role of prophylactic and therapeutic neck dissection.

PubMed

Cisco, Robin M; Shen, Wen T; Gosnell, Jessica E

2012-03-01

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has an excellent prognosis, yet lymph node metastases are common. Most authors agree that central and/or lateral lymph node dissection should be undertaken in patients with abnormal lymph nodes detected on ultrasound, physical examination or intraoperative inspection. However the appropriate extent of prophylactic lymph node dissection for clinically node-negative patients remains the subject of controversy. There have been no randomized trials to date to offer guidance on this issue. The 2006 guidelines of the American Thyroid Association recommended consideration of prophylactic bilateral central lymph node dissection (CLND) for all patients undergoing thyroidectomy for PTC. However, the absence of compelling evidence for a benefit in terms of recurrence or survival, and the potential for increased morbidity, have led many, including our institution, to take an approach of selective central lymph node dissection. This approach is guided by the detection of abnormal lymph nodes on preoperative ultrasound, on physical examination, or during surgery. Postoperatively, ultrasound by an experienced ultrasonographer is the mainstay of evaluation for lymph node recurrence and is combined with monitoring of thyroglobulin and antithyroglobulin antibody levels. Reoperative lymph node dissection is typically undertaken upon detection and fine needle aspiration (FNA) of involved lymph nodes 0.8 cm or greater in size.

Towards understanding the behavior of physical systems using information theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quax, Rick; Apolloni, Andrea; Sloot, Peter M. A.

2013-09-01

One of the goals of complex network analysis is to identify the most influential nodes, i.e., the nodes that dictate the dynamics of other nodes. In the case of autonomous systems or transportation networks, highly connected hubs play a preeminent role in diffusing the flow of information and viruses; in contrast, in language evolution most linguistic norms come from the peripheral nodes who have only few contacts. Clearly a topological analysis of the interactions alone is not sufficient to identify the nodes that drive the state of the network. Here we show how information theory can be used to quantify how the dynamics of individual nodes propagate through a system. We interpret the state of a node as a storage of information about the state of other nodes, which is quantified in terms of Shannon information. This information is transferred through interactions and lost due to noise, and we calculate how far it can travel through a network. We apply this concept to a model of opinion formation in a complex social network to calculate the impact of each node by measuring how long its opinion is remembered by the network. Counter-intuitively we find that the dynamics of opinions are not determined by the hubs or peripheral nodes, but rather by nodes with an intermediate connectivity.

Lymph node clearance of plutonium from subcutaneous wounds in beagles

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dagle, G.E.

1973-08-01

The lymph node clearance of /sup 239/Pu O/sub 2/ administered as insoluble particles from subcutaneous implants was studied in adult beagles to simulate accidental contamination of hand wounds. External scintillation data were collected from the popliteal lymph nodes of each dog after 9.2 to 39.4 mu Ci of plutonium oxide was subcutaneously implanted into the left or right hind paws. The left hind paw was armputated 4 weeks after implantation to prevent continued deposition of plutonium oxide particles in the left popliteal lymph node. Groups of 3 dogs were sacrificed 4, 8, 16, and 32 weeks after plutonium implantation formore » histopathologic, electron microscopic, and radiochemical analysis of regional lymph nodes. An additional group of dogs received treatment with the chelating agent diethyenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). Plutonium rapidly accumulated in the popliteal lymph nodes after subcutaneous injection into the hind paw, and 1 to 10% of the implant dose was present in the popliteal lymph nodes at the time of necropsy. Histopathologic changes in the popliteal lymph nodes with plutonium particles were characterized primarily by reticular cell hyperplasia, increased numbers of macrophages, necrosis, and fibroplasia. Eventually, the plutonium particles became sequestered by scar tissue that often replaced the entire architecture of the lymph node. Light microscopic autoradiographs of the popliteal lymph nodes showed a time-related increase in number of alpha tracks per plutonium source. Electron microscopy showed that the plutonium particles were aggregated in phagolysosomes of macrophages. There was slight clearance of plutonium from the popliteal lymph nodes of dogs monitored for 32 weeks. The clearance of plutonium particles from the popliteal lymph nodes was associated with necrosis of macrophages. The external iliac lymph nodes contained fewer plutonium particles than the popliteal lymph nodes and histopathologic changes were less severe. The superficial inguinal lymph nodes of one dog contained appreciable amounts of plutonium. Treatment with diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) did not have a measurable effect on the clearance of plutonium from the popliteal lymph nodes. (60 references) (auth)« less

The impact of superficial injections of radiocolloids and dynamic lymphoscintigraphy on sentinel node identification in oral cavity cancer: a same-day protocol.

PubMed

Tartaglione, Girolamo; Vigili, Maurizio G; Rahimi, Siavash; Celebrini, Alessandra; Pagan, Marco; Lauro, Luigi; Al-Nahhas, Adil; Rubello, Domenico

2008-04-01

To evaluate the role of dynamic lymphoscintigraphy with a same-day protocol for sentinel node biopsy in oral cavity cancer. Twenty-two consecutive patients affected by cT1-2N0 squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity were enrolled between September 2001 and November 2005. After a local anaesthetic (10% lidocaine spray), a dose of 30-50 MBq of Tc human serum albumin nanocolloid, in ml saline, was injected superficially (1-2 mm subendothelial injection) into four points around the lesion. Dynamic lymphoscintigraphy was acquired immediately (256x256 matrix, 5 min pre-set time, LEGP collimator) in lateral and anterior projections. The imaging was prolonged until the lymph nodes of at least two neck levels were visualized (time required min). About 3 h later (same-day protocol) the patients had a radioguided sentinel node biopsy. Elective neck dissection was performed in the first 13 patients; whereas the last nine patients had elective neck dissection only if the sentinel node was positive. Sentinel nodes were dissected into 1 mm thick block sections and studied by haematoxylin & eosin staining and immunohistochemistry (anticytokeratin antibody). The sentinel nodes were found on the 1st neck level in 13 cases, on the 2nd neck level in eight cases, and on the 3rd neck level in one case (100% sensitivity). The average number of sentinel nodes was 2.2 for each patient. The sentinel node was positive in eight patients (36%); with six of them having the sentinel node as the exclusive site of metastasis. No skip metastases were found in the 14 patients with negative sentinel node (100% specificity). Our preliminary data indicate that superficial injections of radiocolloid and dynamic lymphoscintigraphy provide a high success rate in sentinel node identification in oral cavity cancers. Dynamic lymphoscintigraphy helps in distinguishing sentinel node from second-tier lymph nodes. The same-day protocol is advisable in order to correctly identify the first sentinel node, avoiding multiple and unnecessary node biopsies, without reducing sensitivity.

Determining a bisection bandwidth for a multi-node data communications network

DOEpatents

Faraj, Ahmad A.

2010-01-26

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for determining a bisection bandwidth for a multi-node data communications network that include: partitioning nodes in the network into a first sub-network and a second sub-network in dependence upon a topology of the network; sending, by each node in the first sub-network to a destination node in the second sub-network, a first message having a predetermined message size; receiving, by each node in the first sub-network from a source node in the second sub-network, a second message; measuring, by each node in the first sub-network, the elapsed communications time between the sending of the first message and the receiving of the second message; selecting the longest elapsed communications time; and calculating the bisection bandwidth for the network in dependence upon the number of the nodes in the first sub-network, the predetermined message size of the first test message, and the longest elapsed communications time.

Understanding the influence of all nodes in a network

PubMed Central

Lawyer, Glenn

2015-01-01

Centrality measures such as the degree, k-shell, or eigenvalue centrality can identify a network's most influential nodes, but are rarely usefully accurate in quantifying the spreading power of the vast majority of nodes which are not highly influential. The spreading power of all network nodes is better explained by considering, from a continuous-time epidemiological perspective, the distribution of the force of infection each node generates. The resulting metric, the expected force, accurately quantifies node spreading power under all primary epidemiological models across a wide range of archetypical human contact networks. When node power is low, influence is a function of neighbor degree. As power increases, a node's own degree becomes more important. The strength of this relationship is modulated by network structure, being more pronounced in narrow, dense networks typical of social networking and weakening in broader, looser association networks such as the Internet. The expected force can be computed independently for individual nodes, making it applicable for networks whose adjacency matrix is dynamic, not well specified, or overwhelmingly large. PMID:25727453

Sentinel lymph node mapping in melanoma with technetium-99m dextran.

PubMed

Neubauer, S; Mena, I; Iglesis, R; Schwartz, R; Acevedo, J C; Leon, A; Gomez, L

2001-06-01

The aim of this work is to evaluate the capability of Tc99m B Dextran as a lymphoscintigraphic agent in the detection of the sentinel node in skin lesions. Forty-one patients with melanomas (39) and Merkel cell tumors (2) had perilesional intradermal injection of Tc99m-Dextran 2 hours before surgery. Serial gamma camera images and a handheld gamma probe were used to direct sentinel node biopsy. In 39/41 patients, lymph channels and 52 sentinel nodes (one to three sentinel nodes/patient) could be visualized. In one patient, with a dorsal melanoma, no lymph channels or lymph nodes could be demonstrated on the images and only minimal radioactivity was found in the regional nodes with the probe. Another patient with a facial lesion failed to demonstrate lymph channels or nodes. No adverse reactions were observed. Tc99m-Dextran provided good definition of lymph channels and sentinel node localization, without the risks related to the use of potentially hazardous labeled materials of biological origin.

Performance Evaluation of AODV with Blackhole Attack

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dara, Karuna

2010-11-01

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is a temporary network set up by a wireless mobile computers moving arbitrary in the places that have no network infrastructure. These nodes maintain connectivity in a decentralized manner. Since the nodes communicate with each other, they cooperate by forwarding data packets to other nodes in the network. Thus the nodes find a path to the destination node using routing protocols. However, due to security vulnerabilities of the routing protocols, mobile ad-hoc networks are unprotected to attacks of the malicious nodes. One of these attacks is the Black Hole Attack against network integrity absorbing all data packets in the network. Since the data packets do not reach the destination node on account of this attack, data loss will occur. In this paper, we simulated the black hole attack in various mobile ad-hoc network scenarios using AODV routing protocol of MANET and have tried to find a effect if number of nodes are increased with increase in malicious nodes.

Distribution of prostate nodes: a PET/CT-derived anatomic atlas of prostate cancer patients before and after surgical treatment.

PubMed

Hegemann, Nina-Sophie; Wenter, Vera; Spath, Sonja; Kusumo, Nadia; Li, Minglun; Bartenstein, Peter; Fendler, Wolfgang P; Stief, Christian; Belka, Claus; Ganswindt, Ute

2016-03-11

In order to define adequate radiation portals in nodal positive prostate cancer a detailed knowledge of the anatomic lymph-node distribution is mandatory. We therefore systematically analyzed the localization of Choline PET/CT positive lymph nodes and compared it to the RTOG recommendation of pelvic CTV, as well as to previous work, the SPECT sentinel lymph node atlas. Thirty-two patients being mostly high risk patients with a PSA of 12.5 ng/ml (median) received PET/CT before any treatment. Eighty-seven patients received PET/CT for staging due to biochemical failure with a median PSA of 3.12 ng/ml. Each single PET-positive lymph node was manually contoured in a "virtual" patient dataset to achieve a 3-D visualization, resulting in an atlas of the cumulative PET positive lymph node distribution. Further the PET-positive lymph node location in each patient was assessed with regard to the existence of a potential geographic miss (i.e. PET-positive lymph nodes that would not have been treated adequately by the RTOG consensus on CTV definition of pelvic lymph nodes). Seventy-eight and 209 PET positive lymph nodes were detected in patients with no prior treatment and in postoperative patients, respectively. The most common sites of PET positive lymph nodes in patients with no prior treatment were external iliac (32.1 %), followed by common iliac (23.1 %) and para-aortic (19.2 %). In postoperative patients the most common sites of PET positive lymph nodes were common iliac (24.9 %), followed by external iliac (23.0 %) and para-aortic (20.1 %). In patients with no prior treatment there were 34 (43.6 %) and in postoperative patients there were 77 (36.8 %) of all detected lymph nodes that would not have been treated adequately using the RTOG CTV. We compared the distribution of lymph nodes gained by Choline PET/CT to the preexisting SPECT sentinel lymph node atlas and saw an overall good congruence. Choline PET/CT and SPECT sentinel lymph node atlas are comparable to each other. More than one-third of the PET positive lymph nodes in patients with no prior treatment and in postoperative patients would not have been treated adequately using the RTOG CTV. To reduce geographical miss, image based definition of an individual target volume is necessary.

Performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Faraj, Ahmad [Rochester, MN

2012-04-17

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer. Each compute node includes at least two processing cores. Each processing core has contribution data for the allreduce operation. Performing an allreduce operation on a plurality of compute nodes of a parallel computer includes: establishing one or more logical rings among the compute nodes, each logical ring including at least one processing core from each compute node; performing, for each logical ring, a global allreduce operation using the contribution data for the processing cores included in that logical ring, yielding a global allreduce result for each processing core included in that logical ring; and performing, for each compute node, a local allreduce operation using the global allreduce results for each processing core on that compute node.

Wireless Sensor Node for Autonomous Monitoring and Alerts in Remote Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Panangadan, Anand V. (Inventor); Monacos, Steve P. (Inventor)

2015-01-01

A method, apparatus, system, and computer program products provides personal alert and tracking capabilities using one or more nodes. Each node includes radio transceiver chips operating at different frequency ranges, a power amplifier, sensors, a display, and embedded software. The chips enable the node to operate as either a mobile sensor node or a relay base station node while providing a long distance relay link between nodes. The power amplifier enables a line-of-sight communication between the one or more nodes. The sensors provide a GPS signal, temperature, and accelerometer information (used to trigger an alert condition). The embedded software captures and processes the sensor information, provides a multi-hop packet routing protocol to relay the sensor information to and receive alert information from a command center, and to display the alert information on the display.

Ultrasonography and fine needle aspirate cytology of the mesenteric lymph node in normal domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo).

PubMed

Paul-Murphy, J; O'Brien, R T; Spaeth, A; Sullivan, L; Dubielzig, R R

1999-01-01

The large mesenteric lymph node of 28 normal ferrets was imaged with ultrasound. The large node, located in the mid-abdomen at the root of the mesentery, was round to ovoid and uniformly hyperechoic. Mean ultrasonographic dimensions of the lymph node were 12.6 +/- 2.6 mm by 7.6 +/- 2.0 mm. Fine needle aspirates of 20 lymph nodes were obtained either using ultrasound guided free-hand techniques or at necropsy. The cytological descriptions were compared to histological descriptions of 13 lymph node core biopsies obtained during laparotomy or necropsy as well as 10 peripheral blood smear differentials. The large mesenteric lymph node of ferrets could be easily imaged and measured by ultrasound and evaluated by fine needle aspirate cytology. Normal lymph node cytology may include an eosinophilic infiltrate.

A new routing enhancement scheme based on node blocking state advertisement in wavelength-routed WDM networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Peigang; Jin, Yaohui; Zhang, Chunlei; He, Hao; Hu, WeiSheng

2005-02-01

The increasing switching capacity brings the optical node with considerable complexity. Due to the limitation in cost and technology, an optical node is often designed with partial switching capability and partial resource sharing. It means that the node is of blocking to some extent, for example multi-granularity switching node, which in fact is a structure using pass wavelength to reduce the dimension of OXC, and partial sharing wavelength converter (WC) OXC. It is conceivable that these blocking nodes will have great effects on the problem of routing and wavelength assignment. Some previous works studied the blocking case, partial WC OXC, using complicated wavelength assignment algorithm. But the complexities of these schemes decide them to be not in practice in real networks. In this paper, we propose a new scheme based on the node blocking state advertisement to reduce the retry or rerouting probability and improve the efficiency of routing in the networks with blocking nodes. In the scheme, node blocking state are advertised to the other nodes in networks, which will be used for subsequent route calculation to find a path with lowest blocking probability. The performance of the scheme is evaluated using discrete event model in 14-node NSFNET, all the nodes of which employ a kind of partial sharing WC OXC structure. In the simulation, a simple First-Fit wavelength assignment algorithm is used. The simulation results demonstrate that the new scheme considerably reduces the retry or rerouting probability in routing process.

Feasibility of contrast-enhanced ultrasound-guided biopsy of sentinel lymph nodes in dogs.

PubMed

Gelb, Hylton R; Freeman, Lynetta J; Rohleder, Jacob J; Snyder, Paul W

2010-01-01

Our goal was to develop and validate a technique to identify the sentinel lymph nodes of the mammary glands of healthy dogs with contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and evaluate the feasibility of obtaining representative samples of a sentinel lymph node under ultrasound guidance using a new biopsy device. Three healthy intact female adult hounds were anesthetized and each received an injection of octafluoropropane-filled lipid microspheres and a separate subcutaneous injection of methylene blue dye around a mammary gland. Ultrasound was then used to follow the contrast agent through the lymphatic channel to the sentinel lymph node. Lymph node biopsy was performed under ultrasound guidance, followed by an excisional biopsy of the lymph nodes and a regional mastectomy procedure. Excised tissues were submitted for histopathologic examination and evaluated as to whether they were representative of the node. The ultrasound contrast agent was easily visualized with ultrasound leading up to the sentinel lymph nodes. Eight normal lymph nodes (two inguinal, one axillary in two dogs; two inguinal in one dog) were identified and biopsied. Lymphoid tissue was obtained from all biopsy specimens. Samples from four of eight lymph nodes contained both cortical and medullary lymphoid tissue. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound can be successfully used to image and guide minimally invasive biopsy of the normal sentinel lymph nodes draining the mammary glands in healthy dogs. Further work is needed to evaluate whether this technique may be applicable in patients with breast cancer or other conditions warranting evaluation of sentinel lymph nodes in animals.

Opinion formation driven by PageRank node influence on directed networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eom, Young-Ho; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2015-10-01

We study a two states opinion formation model driven by PageRank node influence and report an extensive numerical study on how PageRank affects collective opinion formations in large-scale empirical directed networks. In our model the opinion of a node can be updated by the sum of its neighbor nodes' opinions weighted by the node influence of the neighbor nodes at each step. We consider PageRank probability and its sublinear power as node influence measures and investigate evolution of opinion under various conditions. First, we observe that all networks reach steady state opinion after a certain relaxation time. This time scale is decreasing with the heterogeneity of node influence in the networks. Second, we find that our model shows consensus and non-consensus behavior in steady state depending on types of networks: Web graph, citation network of physics articles, and LiveJournal social network show non-consensus behavior while Wikipedia article network shows consensus behavior. Third, we find that a more heterogeneous influence distribution leads to a more uniform opinion state in the cases of Web graph, Wikipedia, and Livejournal. However, the opposite behavior is observed in the citation network. Finally we identify that a small number of influential nodes can impose their own opinion on significant fraction of other nodes in all considered networks. Our study shows that the effects of heterogeneity of node influence on opinion formation can be significant and suggests further investigations on the interplay between node influence and collective opinion in networks.

Effective Social Relationship Measurement and Cluster Based Routing in Mobile Opportunistic Networks †

PubMed Central

Zeng, Feng; Zhao, Nan; Li, Wenjia

2017-01-01

In mobile opportunistic networks, the social relationship among nodes has an important impact on data transmission efficiency. Motivated by the strong share ability of “circles of friends” in communication networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Wechat and so on, we take a real-life example to show that social relationships among nodes consist of explicit and implicit parts. The explicit part comes from direct contact among nodes, and the implicit part can be measured through the “circles of friends”. We present the definitions of explicit and implicit social relationships between two nodes, adaptive weights of explicit and implicit parts are given according to the contact feature of nodes, and the distributed mechanism is designed to construct the “circles of friends” of nodes, which is used for the calculation of the implicit part of social relationship between nodes. Based on effective measurement of social relationships, we propose a social-based clustering and routing scheme, in which each node selects the nodes with close social relationships to form a local cluster, and the self-control method is used to keep all cluster members always having close relationships with each other. A cluster-based message forwarding mechanism is designed for opportunistic routing, in which each node only forwards the copy of the message to nodes with the destination node as a member of the local cluster. Simulation results show that the proposed social-based clustering and routing outperforms the other classic routing algorithms. PMID:28498309

Effective Social Relationship Measurement and Cluster Based Routing in Mobile Opportunistic Networks.

PubMed

Zeng, Feng; Zhao, Nan; Li, Wenjia

2017-05-12

In mobile opportunistic networks, the social relationship among nodes has an important impact on data transmission efficiency. Motivated by the strong share ability of "circles of friends" in communication networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Wechat and so on, we take a real-life example to show that social relationships among nodes consist of explicit and implicit parts. The explicit part comes from direct contact among nodes, and the implicit part can be measured through the "circles of friends". We present the definitions of explicit and implicit social relationships between two nodes, adaptive weights of explicit and implicit parts are given according to the contact feature of nodes, and the distributed mechanism is designed to construct the "circles of friends" of nodes, which is used for the calculation of the implicit part of social relationship between nodes. Based on effective measurement of social relationships, we propose a social-based clustering and routing scheme, in which each node selects the nodes with close social relationships to form a local cluster, and the self-control method is used to keep all cluster members always having close relationships with each other. A cluster-based message forwarding mechanism is designed for opportunistic routing, in which each node only forwards the copy of the message to nodes with the destination node as a member of the local cluster. Simulation results show that the proposed social-based clustering and routing outperforms the other classic routing algorithms.

Dual-modality imaging with 99mTc and fluorescent indocyanine green using surface-modified silica nanoparticles for biopsy of the sentinel lymph node: an animal study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background We propose a new approach to facilitate sentinel node biopsy examination by multimodality imaging in which radioactive and near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanoparticles depict deeply situated sentinel nodes and fluorescent nodes with anatomical resolution in the surgical field. For this purpose, we developed polyamidoamine (PAMAM)-coated silica nanoparticles loaded with technetium-99m (99mTc) and indocyanine green (ICG). Methods We conducted animal studies to test the feasibility and utility of this dual-modality imaging probe. The mean diameter of the PAMAM-coated silica nanoparticles was 30 to 50 nm, as evaluated from the images of transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The combined labeling with 99mTc and ICG was verified by thin-layer chromatography before each experiment. A volume of 0.1 ml of the nanoparticle solution (7.4 MBq, except for one rat that was injected with 3.7 MBq, and 1 μg of an ICG derivative [ICG-sulfo-OSu]) was injected submucosally into the tongue of six male Wistar rats. Results Scintigraphic images showed increased accumulation of 99mTc in the neck of four of the six rats. Nineteen lymph nodes were identified in the dissected neck of the six rats, and a contact radiographic study showed three nodes with a marked increase in uptake and three nodes with a weak uptake. NIR fluorescence imaging provided real-time clear fluorescent images of the lymph nodes in the neck with anatomical resolution. Six lymph nodes showed weak (+) to strong (+++) fluorescence, whereas other lymph nodes showed no fluorescence. Nodes showing increased radioactivity coincided with the fluorescent nodes. The radioactivity of 15 excised lymph nodes from the four rats was assayed using a gamma well counter. Comparisons of the levels of radioactivity revealed a large difference between the high-fluorescence-intensity group (four lymph nodes; mean, 0.109% ± 0.067%) and the low- or no-fluorescence-intensity group (11 lymph nodes; mean, 0.001% ± 0.000%, p < 0.05). Transmission electron microscopy revealed that small black granules were localized to and dispersed within the cytoplasm of macrophages in the lymph nodes. Conclusion Although further studies are needed to determine the appropriate dose of the dual-imaging nanoparticle probe for effective sensitivity and safety, the results of this animal study revealed a novel method for improved node detection by a dual-modality approach for sentinel lymph node biopsy. PMID:23618132

International Space Station Node 1 is moved for leak test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

Node 1, the first element for the International Space Station, and attached Pressurized Mating Adapter-1 continue with prelaunch preparation activities at KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. Node 1 is a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the space station. The node is being removed from the element rotation stand, or test stand, where it underwent an interim weight and center of gravity determination. (The final determination is planned to be performed prior to transporting Node 1 to the launch pad.) Now the node is being moved to the Shuttle payload transportation canister, where the doors will be closed for a two-week leak check. Node 1 is scheduled to fly on STS-88.

Suppressing epidemics on networks by exploiting observer nodes.

PubMed

Takaguchi, Taro; Hasegawa, Takehisa; Yoshida, Yuichi

2014-07-01

To control infection spreading on networks, we investigate the effect of observer nodes that recognize infection in a neighboring node and make the rest of the neighbor nodes immune. We numerically show that random placement of observer nodes works better on networks with clustering than on locally treelike networks, implying that our model is promising for realistic social networks. The efficiency of several heuristic schemes for observer placement is also examined for synthetic and empirical networks. In parallel with numerical simulations of epidemic dynamics, we also show that the effect of observer placement can be assessed by the size of the largest connected component of networks remaining after removing observer nodes and links between their neighboring nodes.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy from the vantage point of an oncologic surgeon.

PubMed

Wilson, Lori L

2009-01-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy has greatly influenced the surgical management of clinically localized primary melanoma. Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy have been used for the selective management of the draining regional lymph node basin of primary cutaneous melanoma. Oncologic surgeons have adopted this procedure to selectively identify occult nodal status in melanoma patients who are at a higher risk of regional metastasis. The current standard of treatment of tumor-positive sentinel lymph node metastasis is immediate completion lymphadenectomy, but considerable debate surrounds the utility of this procedure. This contribution reviews development, technical aspects, selective management of the lymph node basin, and sentinel lymph node biopsy techniques.

Suppressing epidemics on networks by exploiting observer nodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takaguchi, Taro; Hasegawa, Takehisa; Yoshida, Yuichi

2014-07-01

To control infection spreading on networks, we investigate the effect of observer nodes that recognize infection in a neighboring node and make the rest of the neighbor nodes immune. We numerically show that random placement of observer nodes works better on networks with clustering than on locally treelike networks, implying that our model is promising for realistic social networks. The efficiency of several heuristic schemes for observer placement is also examined for synthetic and empirical networks. In parallel with numerical simulations of epidemic dynamics, we also show that the effect of observer placement can be assessed by the size of the largest connected component of networks remaining after removing observer nodes and links between their neighboring nodes.

A transmission power optimization with a minimum node degree for energy-efficient wireless sensor networks with full-reachability.

PubMed

Chen, Yi-Ting; Horng, Mong-Fong; Lo, Chih-Cheng; Chu, Shu-Chuan; Pan, Jeng-Shyang; Liao, Bin-Yih

2013-03-20

Transmission power optimization is the most significant factor in prolonging the lifetime and maintaining the connection quality of wireless sensor networks. Un-optimized transmission power of nodes either interferes with or fails to link neighboring nodes. The optimization of transmission power depends on the expected node degree and node distribution. In this study, an optimization approach to an energy-efficient and full reachability wireless sensor network is proposed. In the proposed approach, an adjustment model of the transmission range with a minimum node degree is proposed that focuses on topology control and optimization of the transmission range according to node degree and node density. The model adjusts the tradeoff between energy efficiency and full reachability to obtain an ideal transmission range. In addition, connectivity and reachability are used as performance indices to evaluate the connection quality of a network. The two indices are compared to demonstrate the practicability of framework through simulation results. Furthermore, the relationship between the indices under the conditions of various node degrees is analyzed to generalize the characteristics of node densities. The research results on the reliability and feasibility of the proposed approach will benefit the future real deployments.

A Transmission Power Optimization with a Minimum Node Degree for Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks with Full-Reachability

PubMed Central

Chen, Yi-Ting; Horng, Mong-Fong; Lo, Chih-Cheng; Chu, Shu-Chuan; Pan, Jeng-Shyang; Liao, Bin-Yih

2013-01-01

Transmission power optimization is the most significant factor in prolonging the lifetime and maintaining the connection quality of wireless sensor networks. Un-optimized transmission power of nodes either interferes with or fails to link neighboring nodes. The optimization of transmission power depends on the expected node degree and node distribution. In this study, an optimization approach to an energy-efficient and full reachability wireless sensor network is proposed. In the proposed approach, an adjustment model of the transmission range with a minimum node degree is proposed that focuses on topology control and optimization of the transmission range according to node degree and node density. The model adjusts the tradeoff between energy efficiency and full reachability to obtain an ideal transmission range. In addition, connectivity and reachability are used as performance indices to evaluate the connection quality of a network. The two indices are compared to demonstrate the practicability of framework through simulation results. Furthermore, the relationship between the indices under the conditions of various node degrees is analyzed to generalize the characteristics of node densities. The research results on the reliability and feasibility of the proposed approach will benefit the future real deployments. PMID:23519351

IMHRP: Improved Multi-Hop Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Jianhua; Ruan, Danwei; Hong, Yadong; Zhao, Ziming; Zheng, Hong

2017-10-01

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a self-organizing system formed by a large number of low-cost sensor nodes through wireless communication. Sensor nodes collect environmental information and transmit it to the base station (BS). Sensor nodes usually have very limited battery energy. The batteries cannot be charged or replaced. Therefore, it is necessary to design an energy efficient routing protocol to maximize the network lifetime. This paper presents an improved multi-hop routing protocol (IMHRP) for homogeneous networks. In the IMHRP protocol, based on the distances to the BS, the CH nodes are divided into internal CH nodes and external CH nodes. The set-up phase of the protocol is based on the LEACH protocol and the minimum distance between CH nodes are limited to a special constant distance, so a more uniform distribution of CH nodes is achieved. In the steady-state phase, the routes of different CH nodes are created on the basis of the distances between the CH nodes. The energy efficiency of communication can be maximized. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can more effectively reduce the energy consumption of each round and prolong the network lifetime compared with LEACH protocol and MHT protocol.

Key-Node-Separated Graph Clustering and Layouts for Human Relationship Graph Visualization.

PubMed

Itoh, Takayuki; Klein, Karsten

2015-01-01

Many graph-drawing methods apply node-clustering techniques based on the density of edges to find tightly connected subgraphs and then hierarchically visualize the clustered graphs. However, users may want to focus on important nodes and their connections to groups of other nodes for some applications. For this purpose, it is effective to separately visualize the key nodes detected based on adjacency and attributes of the nodes. This article presents a graph visualization technique for attribute-embedded graphs that applies a graph-clustering algorithm that accounts for the combination of connections and attributes. The graph clustering step divides the nodes according to the commonality of connected nodes and similarity of feature value vectors. It then calculates the distances between arbitrary pairs of clusters according to the number of connecting edges and the similarity of feature value vectors and finally places the clusters based on the distances. Consequently, the technique separates important nodes that have connections to multiple large clusters and improves the visibility of such nodes' connections. To test this technique, this article presents examples with human relationship graph datasets, including a coauthorship and Twitter communication network dataset.

Self-assembly of the yeast actomyosin contractile ring as an aggregation process: kinetics of formation and instability regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojkic, Nikola; Vavylonis, Dimitrios

2009-03-01

Fission yeast cells assemble an equatorial contractile ring for cytokinesis, the last step of mitosis. The ring assembles from ˜ 65 membrane-bound ``nodes''' containing myosin motors and other proteins. Actin filaments that grow out from the nodes establish transient connections among the nodes and aid in pulling them together in a process that appears as pair-wise attraction (Vavylonis et al. Science 97:319, 2008). We used scaling arguments, coarse grained stability analysis of homogeneous states, and Monte Carlo simulations of simple models, to explore the conditions that yield fast and efficient ring formation, as opposed to formation of isolated clumps. We described our results as a function of: number of nodes, rate of establishing connections, range of node interaction, distance traveled per node interaction and broad band width, w. Uniform cortical 2d distributions of nodes are stable over short times due to randomness of connections among nodes, but become unstable over long times due to fluctuations in the initial node distribution. Successful condensation of nodes into a ring requires sufficiently small w such that lateral contraction occurs faster then clump formation.

Executing a gather operation on a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN

2012-03-20

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are disclosed for executing a gather operation on a parallel computer according to embodiments of the present invention. Embodiments include configuring, by the logical root, a result buffer or the logical root, the result buffer having positions, each position corresponding to a ranked node in the operational group and for storing contribution data gathered from that ranked node. Embodiments also include repeatedly for each position in the result buffer: determining, by each compute node of an operational group, whether the current position in the result buffer corresponds with the rank of the compute node, if the current position in the result buffer corresponds with the rank of the compute node, contributing, by that compute node, the compute node's contribution data, if the current position in the result buffer does not correspond with the rank of the compute node, contributing, by that compute node, a value of zero for the contribution data, and storing, by the logical root in the current position in the result buffer, results of a bitwise OR operation of all the contribution data by all compute nodes of the operational group for the current position, the results received through the global combining network.

Reputation-Based Secure Sensor Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

He, Jingsha; Xu, Jing; Zhu, Xingye; Zhang, Yuqiang; Zhang, Ting; Fu, Wanqing

2014-01-01

Location information of sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is very important, for it makes information that is collected and reported by the sensor nodes spatially meaningful for applications. Since most current sensor localization schemes rely on location information that is provided by beacon nodes for the regular sensor nodes to locate themselves, the accuracy of localization depends on the accuracy of location information from the beacon nodes. Therefore, the security and reliability of the beacon nodes become critical in the localization of regular sensor nodes. In this paper, we propose a reputation-based security scheme for sensor localization to improve the security and the accuracy of sensor localization in hostile or untrusted environments. In our proposed scheme, the reputation of each beacon node is evaluated based on a reputation evaluation model so that regular sensor nodes can get credible location information from highly reputable beacon nodes to accomplish localization. We also perform a set of simulation experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed reputation-based security scheme. And our simulation results show that the proposed security scheme can enhance the security and, hence, improve the accuracy of sensor localization in hostile or untrusted environments. PMID:24982940

Effect of variation in active route timeout and my route timeout on the performance of AODV-ETX protocol in mobile adhoc network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Purnomo, A.; Widyawan; Najib, W.; Hartono, R.; Hartatik

2018-03-01

Mobile adhoc network (MANET) consists of nodes that are independent. A node can communicate each other without the presence of network infrastructure. A node can act as a transmitter and receiver as well as a router. This research has been variation in active route timeout and my route timeout on the performance of AODV-ETX protocol in MANET. The AODV-ETX protocol is the AODV protocol that uses the ETX metric. Performance testing is done on the static node topology with 5 m x 5 m node grid model where the distance between nodes is 100 m and node topology that consists of 25 nodes moves randomly with a moving speed of 1.38 m/s in an area of 1500 m x 300 m. From the test result, on the static node, AODV protocol-ETX shows optimal performance at a value MRT and ART of 10 s and 15 s, but showed a stable performance in the value of MRT and ART ≥60 s, while in randomly moved node topology shows stable performance in the value of MRT and ART ≥80 s.

Data-based reconstruction of complex geospatial networks, nodal positioning and detection of hidden nodes

PubMed Central

Su, Ri-Qi; Wang, Wen-Xu; Wang, Xiao; Lai, Ying-Cheng

2016-01-01

Given a complex geospatial network with nodes distributed in a two-dimensional region of physical space, can the locations of the nodes be determined and their connection patterns be uncovered based solely on data? We consider the realistic situation where time series/signals can be collected from a single location. A key challenge is that the signals collected are necessarily time delayed, due to the varying physical distances from the nodes to the data collection centre. To meet this challenge, we develop a compressive-sensing-based approach enabling reconstruction of the full topology of the underlying geospatial network and more importantly, accurate estimate of the time delays. A standard triangularization algorithm can then be employed to find the physical locations of the nodes in the network. We further demonstrate successful detection of a hidden node (or a hidden source or threat), from which no signal can be obtained, through accurate detection of all its neighbouring nodes. As a geospatial network has the feature that a node tends to connect with geophysically nearby nodes, the localized region that contains the hidden node can be identified. PMID:26909187

A Specific Mapping Study Using Fluorescence Sentinel Lymph Node Detection in Patients with Intermediate- and High-risk Prostate Cancer Undergoing Extended Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection.

PubMed

Nguyen, Daniel P; Huber, Philipp M; Metzger, Tobias A; Genitsch, Vera; Schudel, Hans H; Thalmann, George N

2016-11-01

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection techniques have the potential to change the standard of surgical care for patients with prostate cancer. We performed a lymphatic mapping study and determined the value of fluorescence SLN detection with indocyanine green (ICG) for the detection of lymph node metastases in intermediate- and high-risk patients undergoing radical prostatectomy and extended pelvic lymph node dissection. A total of 42 patients received systematic or specific ICG injections into the prostate base, the midportion, the apex, the left lobe, or the right lobe. We found (1) that external and internal iliac regions encompass the majority of SLNs, (2) that common iliac regions contain up to 22% of all SLNs, (3) that a prostatic lobe can drain into the contralateral group of pelvic lymph nodes, and (4) that the fossa of Marcille also receives significant drainage. Among the 12 patients who received systematic ICG injections, 5 (42%) had a total of 29 lymph node metastases. Of these, 16 nodes were ICG positive, yielding 55% sensitivity. The complex drainage pattern of the prostate and the low sensitivity of ICG for the detection of lymph node metastases reported in our study highlight the difficulties related to the implementation of SNL techniques in prostate cancer. There is controversy about how extensive lymph node dissection (LND) should be during prostatectomy. We investigated the lymphatic drainage of the prostate and whether sentinel node fluorescence techniques would be useful to detect node metastases. We found that the drainage pattern is complex and that the sentinel node technique is not able to replace extended pelvic LND. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Prognostic significance of number of nodes removed in patients with node-negative early cervical cancer.

PubMed

Mao, Siyue; Dong, Jun; Li, Sheng; Wang, Yiqi; Wu, Peihong

2016-10-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the number of removed lymph nodes was associated with survival of patients with node-negative early cervical cancer and to analyze the prognostic significance of clinical and pathologic features in these patients. Patients with FIGO stage IA-IIB cervical cancer who underwent radical hysterectomy with lymphadenectomy without receiving preoperative therapy were reviewed retrospectively. Patients were all proved to have lymph-node-negative disease and classified into five groups based on the number of nodes removed. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox's proportional hazards regression model were used in prognostic analysis. The final dataset included 359 patients: 45 (12.5%) patients had ≤10 nodes removed, 93 (25.9%) had 11-15, 98 (27.3%) had 16-20, 64 (17.8%) had 21-25, and 59 (16.4%) had >25 nodes removed. There was no association between the number of nodes removed and survival of patients with node-negative early cervical cancer (χ 2  = 6.19, P = 0.185). Similarly, subgroup analyses for FIGO stage IB1-IIB also showed that the number of lymph nodes was not significantly related to survival in each stage. Multivariate analyses showed that histology and depth of invasion were independent prognostic factors for survival in these patients. If a standardized lymphadenectomy is performed, the number of lymph nodes removed is not an independent prognostic factor for patients with node-negative early cervical cancer. Our study suggests that there is inconclusive evidence to support survival benefit of complete lymphadenectomy among these patients. © 2016 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

A critical evaluation of lymph node ratio in head and neck cancer.

PubMed

de Ridder, M; Marres, C C M; Smeele, L E; van den Brekel, M W M; Hauptmann, M; Balm, A J M; van Velthuysen, M L F

2016-12-01

In head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), the search for better prognostic factors beyond TNM-stage is ongoing. Lymph node ratio (LNR) (positive lymph nodes/total lymph nodes) is gaining interest in view of its potential prognostic significance. All HNSCC patients at the Netherlands Cancer Institute undergoing neck dissection for lymph node metastases in the neck region between 2002 and 2012 (n = 176) were included. Based on a protocol change in specimen processing, the cohort was subdivided in two distinct consecutive periods (pre and post 2007). The prognostic value of LNR, N-stage, and number of positive lymph nodes for overall survival was assessed. The mean number of examined lymph nodes after 2007 was significantly higher (42.3) than before (35.8) (p = 0.024). The higher number concerned mostly lymph nodes in level V. The mean number of positive lymph nodes before 2007 was 3.3 vs. 3.6 after 2007 (p = 0.745). By multivariate analysis of both pre- and post-2007 cohort data, two factors remained associated with an increased hazard of dying: N2 [HR 2.1 (1.1-4.1) and 2.4 (1.0-5.8)] and >3 positive lymph nodes [HR 2.0 (1.1-3.5) and 3.1 (1.4-6.9)]. Hazard ratio for LNR >7 % was not significantly different: pre 2007 at 2.2 (1.3-3.8) and post 2007 at 2.1 (1.0-4.8, p = 0.053). In this study, changes in specimen processing influenced LNR values, but not the total number of tumor positive nodes found. Therefore, in HNSCC, the number of positive nodes seems a more reliable parameter than LNR, provided a minimum number of lymph nodes are examined.

10 % fluorescein sodium vs 1 % isosulfan blue in breast sentinel lymph node biopsy.

PubMed

Ren, Lidong; Liu, Zhao; Liang, Mengdi; Wang, Li; Song, Xingli; Wang, Shui

2016-11-03

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is well accepted to be a standard procedure in breast cancer surgery with clinically negative lymph nodes. Isosulfan blue is the first dye approved by the USA Food and Drug Administration for the localization of the lymphatic system. Few alternative tracers have been investigated. In this study, we aimed to compare the differences between 10 % fluorescein sodium and 1 % isosulfan blue in breast sentinel lymph node biopsy and to investigate the feasibility of using 10 % fluorescein sodium as a new dye for breast sentinel lymph node biopsy. A total of 30 New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into the fluorescein sodium group and the isosulfan blue group (15 rabbits per group). Fluorescein sodium or isosulfan blue was injected subcutaneously into the second pair of mammary areolas. The average fading time of the second lymph nodes in the isosulfan blue group was significantly shorter than that in the fluorescein sodium group. Moreover, the detection rates of SLNs were higher in the fluorescein sodium group than in the isosulfan blue group. No significant differences between the fluorescein sodium group and isosulfan blue group were observed regarding the distances between the detected sentinel lymph nodes and second pair of mammary areolas, the distances between the second lymph nodes and second pair of mammary areolas, the number of detected sentinel lymph nodes and second lymph nodes, the average dyeing time of the sentinel and the second lymph nodes, and the average fading time of the second lymph nodes. In summary, we first reported that fluorescein sodium is a potential new tracer for breast sentinel lymph node biopsy.

Previous conization on patient eligibility of sentinel lymph node detection for early invasive cervical cancer.

PubMed

Kato, Hidenori; Todo, Yukiharu; Minobe, Shin-Ichiro; Suzuki, Yoshihiro; Nakatani, Makiko; Ohba, Yoko; Yamashiro, Katsusige; Okamoto, Kazuhira

2011-11-01

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) detection has been accepted as a common strategy to preserve the quality of life of the patients with gynecologic cancers. However, the feasibility of SLN detection after conization is not yet clarified. Accuracy of SLN after conization was evaluated. Eighteen cases with prior conization (cone group) and 32 cases without conization (noncone group), all of which belonged to IB1 except 1 case in IA stage, underwent SLN detection. Systemic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy was coincidently performed for the estimation of negative and positive predictive values. Detection rate in which at least unilateral nodes were identified or bilaterally identified was 100% and 72.2% in the cone group, 90.6% and 71.9% in the noncone group, respectively. The average number of the detected SLN was 2.4 in the cone group and 2.1 in the noncone group. Negative and positive predictive value was 100% in both groups. On the distribution of sentinel node stations, most of the detected nodes were internal iliac and obturator node in both groups. Less frequent detection was observed in superficial common iliac node (5.4% in the cone group, 3.1% in the noncone group), external iliac node (2.7% and 9.5%), and parauterine artery node (5.4% and 1.6%).In both groups, no other lymph nodes were identified as SLN except 1 case in the cone group with the node in cardinal ligament. No significant difference was observed on detection rate, predictive value, and the distribution of sentinel node between the cone and noncone groups. Sentinel lymph node detection after conization can be performed with a certain reliability.

A Distributed and Energy-Efficient Algorithm for Event K-Coverage in Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Jiang, Peng; Xu, Yiming; Liu, Jun

2017-01-01

For event dynamic K-coverage algorithms, each management node selects its assistant node by using a greedy algorithm without considering the residual energy and situations in which a node is selected by several events. This approach affects network energy consumption and balance. Therefore, this study proposes a distributed and energy-efficient event K-coverage algorithm (DEEKA). After the network achieves 1-coverage, the nodes that detect the same event compete for the event management node with the number of candidate nodes and the average residual energy, as well as the distance to the event. Second, each management node estimates the probability of its neighbor nodes’ being selected by the event it manages with the distance level, the residual energy level, and the number of dynamic coverage event of these nodes. Third, each management node establishes an optimization model that uses expectation energy consumption and the residual energy variance of its neighbor nodes and detects the performance of the events it manages as targets. Finally, each management node uses a constrained non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to obtain the Pareto set of the model and the best strategy via technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). The algorithm first considers the effect of harsh underwater environments on information collection and transmission. It also considers the residual energy of a node and a situation in which the node is selected by several other events. Simulation results show that, unlike the on-demand variable sensing K-coverage algorithm, DEEKA balances and reduces network energy consumption, thereby prolonging the network’s best service quality and lifetime. PMID:28106837

Node Deployment Algorithm Based on Connected Tree for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Jiang, Peng; Wang, Xingmin; Jiang, Lurong

2015-01-01

Designing an efficient deployment method to guarantee optimal monitoring quality is one of the key topics in underwater sensor networks. At present, a realistic approach of deployment involves adjusting the depths of nodes in water. One of the typical algorithms used in such process is the self-deployment depth adjustment algorithm (SDDA). This algorithm mainly focuses on maximizing network coverage by constantly adjusting node depths to reduce coverage overlaps between two neighboring nodes, and thus, achieves good performance. However, the connectivity performance of SDDA is irresolute. In this paper, we propose a depth adjustment algorithm based on connected tree (CTDA). In CTDA, the sink node is used as the first root node to start building a connected tree. Finally, the network can be organized as a forest to maintain network connectivity. Coverage overlaps between the parent node and the child node are then reduced within each sub-tree to optimize coverage. The hierarchical strategy is used to adjust the distance between the parent node and the child node to reduce node movement. Furthermore, the silent mode is adopted to reduce communication cost. Simulations show that compared with SDDA, CTDA can achieve high connectivity with various communication ranges and different numbers of nodes. Moreover, it can realize coverage as high as that of SDDA with various sensing ranges and numbers of nodes but with less energy consumption. Simulations under sparse environments show that the connectivity and energy consumption performances of CTDA are considerably better than those of SDDA. Meanwhile, the connectivity and coverage performances of CTDA are close to those depth adjustment algorithms base on connected dominating set (CDA), which is an algorithm similar to CTDA. However, the energy consumption of CTDA is less than that of CDA, particularly in sparse underwater environments. PMID:26184209

Lymph node retrieval during esophagectomy with and without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy: prognostic and therapeutic impact on survival.

PubMed

Koen Talsma, A; Shapiro, Joel; Looman, Caspar W N; van Hagen, Pieter; Steyerberg, Ewout W; van der Gaast, Ate; van Berge Henegouwen, Mark I; Wijnhoven, Bas P L; van Lanschot, J Jan B; Hulshof, Maarten C C M; van Laarhoven, Hanneke W M; Nieuwenhuijzen, Grard A P; Hospers, Geke A P; Bonenkamp, Johannes J; Cuesta, Miguel A; Blaisse, Reinoud J B; Busch, Olivier R C; ten Kate, Fiebo J W; Creemers, Geert-Jan; Punt, Cornelis J A; Plukker, John T M; Verheul, Henk M W; van Dekken, Herman; van der Sangen, Maurice J C; Rozema, Tom; Biermann, Katharina; Beukema, Jannet C; Piet, Anna H M; van Rij, Caroline M; Reinders, Janny G; Tilanus, Hugo W

2014-11-01

We aimed to examine the association between total number of resected nodes and survival in patients after esophagectomy with and without nCRT. Most studies concerning the potentially positive effect of extended lymphadenectomy on survival have been performed in patients who underwent surgery alone. As nCRT is known to frequently "sterilize" regional nodes, it is unclear whether extended lymphadenectomy after nCRT is still useful. Patients from the randomized CROSS-trial who completed the entire protocol (ie, surgery alone or chemoradiotherapy + surgery) were included. With Cox regression models, we compared the impact of number of resected nodes as well as resected positive nodes on survival in both groups. One hundred sixty-one patients underwent surgery alone, and 159 patients received multimodality treatment. The median (interquartile range) number of resected nodes was 18 (12-27) and 14 (9-21), with 2 (1-6) and 0 (0-1) resected positive nodes, respectively. Persistent lymph node positivity after nCRT had a greater negative prognostic impact on survival as compared with lymph node positivity after surgery alone. The total number of resected nodes was significantly associated with survival for patients in the surgery-alone arm (hazard ratio per 10 additionally resected nodes, 0.76; P=0.007), but not in the multimodality arm (hazard ratio 1.00; P=0.98). The number of resected nodes had a prognostic impact on survival in patients after surgery alone, but its therapeutic value is still controversial. After nCRT, the number of resected nodes was not associated with survival. These data question the indication for maximization of lymphadenectomy after nCRT.

Masked Proportional Routing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wolpert, David H. (Inventor)

2003-01-01

Distributed approach for determining a path connecting adjacent network nodes, for probabilistically or deterministically transporting an entity, with entity characteristic mu from a source node to a destination node. Each node i is directly connected to an arbitrary number J(mu) of nodes, labeled or numbered j=jl, j2, .... jJ(mu). In a deterministic version, a J(mu)-component baseline proportion vector p(i;mu) is associated with node i. A J(mu)-component applied proportion vector p*(i;mu) is determined from p(i;mu) to preclude an entity visiting a node more than once. Third and fourth J(mu)-component vectors, with components iteratively determined by Target(i;n(mu);mu),=alpha(mu).Target(i;n(mu)-1;mu)j+beta(mu).p* (i;mu)j and Actual(i;n(mu);+a(mu)j. Actual(i;n(mu)-l;mu)j+beta(mu).Sent(i;j'(mu);n(mu)-1;mu)j, are computed, where n(mu) is an entity sequence index and alpha(mu) and beta(mu) are selected numbers. In one embodiment, at each node i, the node j=j'(mu) with the largest vector component difference, Target(i;n(mu);mu)j'- Actual (i;n(mu);mu)j'. is chosen for the next link for entity transport, except in special gap circumstances, where the same link is optionally used for transporting consecutively arriving entities. The network nodes may be computer-controlled routers that switch collections of packets, frames, cells or other information units. Alternatively, the nodes may be waypoints for movement of physical items in a network or for transformation of a physical item. The nodes may be states of an entity undergoing state transitions, where allowed transitions are specified by the network and/or the destination node.

Partial axillary lymph node dissection inferior to the intercostobrachial nerves complements sentinel node biopsy in patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer.

PubMed

Li, Jianyi; Jia, Shi; Zhang, Wenhai; Qiu, Fang; Zhang, Yang; Gu, Xi; Xue, Jinqi

2015-06-30

The practice of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in China varies to that in western developed countries. With the unavailability of radioactive tracer technique for sentinel lymph nodes biopsy (SLNB), using blue dye alone has been the only option in China. Also, the diagnosis of breast malignant tumor in most Chinese centres heavily relies on intraoperative instant frozen histology which is normally followed by sentinel lymph nodes mapping, SLNB and the potential breast and axillary operations in one consecutive session. This practice appears to cause a high false negative rate (FNR) for SLNB. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of the current practice in China on the accuracy of SLNB, and whether partial axillary lymph node dissection (PALND), dissection of lymph nodes inferior to the intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN), was a good complementary procedure following SLNB using blue dye. 289 patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer were identified and recruited. Tumorectomy, intraoperative instant frozen histological diagnosis, SLNB using methylene blue dye, and PALND or complete axillary node dissection (ALND) were performed in one consecutive operative session. The choice of SLNB only, SLNB followed by PALND or by ALND was based on the pre-determined protocol and preoperative choice by the patient. Clinical parameters were analyzed and survival analysis was performed. 37% patients with clinically negative nodes were found nodes positive. 59 patients with positive SLN underwent ALND, including 47 patients with up to two positive nodes which were all located inferior to the ICBN. 9 patients had failed SLNB and underwent PALND. Among them, 3 (33.3%) patients were found to have one metastatic node. 149 patients showed negative SLNB but chose PALND. Among them, 30 (20.1%), 14 (9.4) and 1 (0.7%) patients were found to have one, two and three metastatic node(s), respectively. PALND detected 48 (30.4%) patients who had either failed SLNB or negative SLNB to have additional positive nodes. All the patients with up to two positive nodes had their nodes located inferior to the ICBN. The FNR of SLNB was 43%. The accuracy rate was 58%. The follow-up ranged 12-33 months. The incidence of lymphedema for SLNB, PALND, and ALND was 0%, 0%, and 25.4%, respectively (P < 0.005). The disease-free survivals for SLNB, PALND, and ALND groups were 95.8%, 96.8%, and 94.9%, respectively (p > 0.05). Under the circumstances of current practice in China, PALND is a good complementary procedure following SLNB in clinically node-negative breast cancer.

Broadband Control of Topological Nodes in Electromagnetic Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Alex Y.; Catrysse, Peter B.; Fan, Shanhui

2018-05-01

We study topological nodes (phase singularities) in electromagnetic wave interactions with structures. We show that, when the nodes exist, it is possible to bind certain nodes to a specific plane in the structure by a combination of mirror and time-reversal symmetry. Such binding does not rely on any resonances in the structure. As a result, the nodes persist on the plane over a wide wavelength range. As an implication of such broadband binding, we demonstrate that the topological nodes can be used for hiding of metallic objects over a broad wavelength range.

Profiling an application for power consumption during execution on a compute node

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J; Blocksome, Michael A; Peters, Amanda E; Ratterman, Joseph D; Smith, Brian E

2013-09-17

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for profiling an application for power consumption during execution on a compute node that include: receiving an application for execution on a compute node; identifying a hardware power consumption profile for the compute node, the hardware power consumption profile specifying power consumption for compute node hardware during performance of various processing operations; determining a power consumption profile for the application in dependence upon the application and the hardware power consumption profile for the compute node; and reporting the power consumption profile for the application.

Sentinel Node and Ovarian Tumors: A Series of 20 Patients.

PubMed

Nyberg, Reita H; Korkola, Pasi; Mäenpää, Johanna U

2017-05-01

Intraoperative detection of ovarian sentinel nodes has been shown to be feasible. We examined the detection rate and locations of sentinel nodes in patients with ovarian tumors. We also aimed to assess the reliability of sentinel node method in predicting regional lymph node metastasis. Twenty patients scheduled for laparotomy because of a pelvic mass were recruited to the study. In the beginning of the laparotomy, radioisotope and blue dye were injected under the serosa next to the junction of the ovarian tumor and suspensory ligament. The number and locations of the hot and/or blue nodes/spots were recorded during the operation. If the tumor was malignant according to the frozen section, systematic lymphadenectomies were performed, the sentinel nodes sampled separately, and their status compared with other regional lymph nodes. Eleven patients had a right-sided ovarian tumor, 7 patients a left-sided tumor, and 2 patients had bilateral tumors. A median of 2 sentinel nodes/locations per patient (range, 1-3) were found. Sixty percent of all sentinel nodes were located in the para-aortic region only, compared with 30% in both para-aortic and pelvic areas and 10% in pelvic area only. Both unilateral and bilateral locations were found. In 83% of the cases with more than 1 sentinel node location, they were located in separate anatomical regions. In 3 patients, systematic lymphadenectomies were performed. One of them had nodal metastases in 2 regions and also a metastasis in 1 of her 2 sentinel nodes in 1 of those regions. In patients with ovarian tumor(s), the detection of sentinel nodes is feasible. They are located in different anatomic areas both ipsilaterally and contralaterally, although most of them are found in the para-aortic region. The reliability of the sentinel node concept should be evaluated in the framework of a multicenter trial.

Cross-Disciplinary Analysis of Lymph Node Classification in Lung Cancer on CT Scanning.

PubMed

El-Sherief, Ahmed H; Lau, Charles T; Obuchowski, Nancy A; Mehta, Atul C; Rice, Thomas W; Blackstone, Eugene H

2017-04-01

Accurate and consistent regional lymph node classification is an important element in the staging and multidisciplinary management of lung cancer. Regional lymph node definition sets-lymph node maps-have been created to standardize regional lymph node classification. In 2009, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) introduced a lymph node map to supersede all preexisting lymph node maps. Our aim was to study if and how lung cancer specialists apply the IASLC lymph node map when classifying thoracic lymph nodes encountered on CT scans during lung cancer staging. From April 2013 through July 2013, invitations were distributed to all members of the Fleischner Society, Society of Thoracic Radiology, General Thoracic Surgical Club, and the American Association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology to participate in an anonymous online image-based and text-based 20-question survey regarding lymph node classification for lung cancer staging on CT imaging. Three hundred thirty-seven people responded (approximately 25% participation). Respondents consisted of self-reported thoracic radiologists (n = 158), thoracic surgeons (n = 102), and pulmonologists who perform endobronchial ultrasonography (n = 77). Half of the respondents (50%; 95% CI, 44%-55%) reported using the IASLC lymph node map in daily practice, with no significant differences between subspecialties. A disparity was observed between the IASLC definition sets and their interpretation and application on CT scans, in particular for lymph nodes near the thoracic inlet, anterior to the trachea, anterior to the tracheal bifurcation, near the ligamentum arteriosum, between the bronchus intermedius and esophagus, in the internal mammary space, and adjacent to the heart. Use of older lymph node maps and inconsistencies in interpretation and application of definitions in the IASLC lymph node map may potentially lead to misclassification of stage and suboptimal management of lung cancer in some patients. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The pattern of lymphatic metastasis of breast cancer and its influence on the delineation of radiation fields

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yu Jinming; Li Gong; Li Jianbin

2005-03-01

Purpose: The delineation of radiation fields should cover the clinical target volume (CTV) and minimally irradiate the surrounding normal tissues and organs. This study was designed to explore the pattern of lymphatic metastasis of breast cancer and indications for radiotherapy after radical or modified radical mastectomy and to discuss the rational delineation of radiation fields. Methods and materials: Between September 1980 and December 2003, 78 breast cancer patients receiving extended radical mastectomy in the Margottini model and 61 cases with complete data were analyzed to investigate the internal mammary lymphatic metastatic status. Between March 1988 and December 1988, 46 patientsmore » with clinical negative supraclavicular nodes received radical mastectomy plus supraclavicular lymph node dissection. The supraclavicular lymph nodes and axillary lymph nodes were labeled as S and levels I, II, or III, respectively, and examined pathologically. Between January 1996 and April 1999, 412 patients who had radical or modified radical mastectomy underwent the pathologic examination of axillary or levels I, II, or III nodes. Results: The incidence of internal mammary lymph node metastasis was 24.6%. It was 36.7% for the patients with positive axillary lymph nodes and 12.9% for the patients with negative axillary lymph nodes. All the metastatic internal mammary lymph nodes were located at the first, second, and third intercostal spaces. Skipping metastasis of the supraclavicular and axillary lymph nodes was observed in 3.8% and 8.1% of patients, respectively. Conclusions: According to our data, we suggest that the radiation field for internal mammary lymph nodes should exclude the fourth and fifth intercostal spaces, which may help to reduce the radiation damage to heart. It is unnecessary to irradiate the supraclavicular lymph nodes for the patients with negative axillary level III nodes, even with positive level I and level II nodes.« less

[Establishment of lymph node metastasis of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer model in nude mice].

PubMed

Wang, Le; Mi, Chengrong; Wang, Wen

2015-06-16

To establish lymph node metastasis of breast cancer model in nude mices using MDA-MB-231 cell lines or tumor masses. Divided twelve female nude mices of five weeks into A, B groups randomly. A group had seven nude mices, B group had five nude mices. A group nude mices were injected with MDA-MB-231 cells suspension into the second right mammary fat pad. Two weeks after emerged tumors, the orthotopic tumors of two nude mices of A group were dissected and then implanted into the second right mammary fat pad of B group nude mices. The other mices of A group continued to be fed. After six weeks of inoculation, we excised the tumors and the swollen lymph nodes in right axilla of all nude mices to make pathological examination. ① A group have a 7/7 tumor formation rate 7 days after implanted, B group was 5/5 5 days after implanted. ② The tumor volumes between the two groups had evident difference (P = 0.023), and the tumor volume of B group was bigger than A group. ③ A group had three nude mices which had one tumid lymph node respectively, the lymph node enlargement rate was 3/5; B group only had one nude mice that had one tumid lymph node, the lymph node enlargement rate was 1/5, the lymph node enlargement rate between the two groups showed no significant difference (P = 0.524). ④ The result of pathology in the two groups testified the tumors were invasive ductal carcinoma. The swollen lymph nodes in A group were reactive hyperplasia lymph nodes; the swollen lymph nodes in B group was metastatic lymph node. The method of orthotopic implantation with MDA-MB-231 tumor mass to establish lymph node metastasis of breast cancer model in nude mice, can provide a useful mean to research the lymph node metastasis mechanism of breast cancer.

Small size of metastatic lymph nodes with extracapsular spread greatly impacts treatment outcomes in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.

PubMed

Michikawa, C; Izumo, T; Sumino, J; Morita, T; Ohyama, Y; Michi, Y; Uzawa, N

2018-07-01

Extracapsular spread (ECS) of metastatic lymph nodes from oral carcinoma is the most significant prognostic predictor of a poor treatment outcome. However, only a few reports on prognostic factors in ECS-positive cases have been investigated. To address this problem, a detailed examination of ECS pathology was conducted to determine the prognostic factors of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with ECS of metastatic lymph nodes. This study involved 63 OSCC patients with at least one pathologically metastatic node with ECS. Among the 229 metastatic lymph nodes, 149 exhibited ECS. Univariate analysis revealed that a poor outcome and recurrence were significantly associated with the number of ECS-positive nodes, density of ECS, and the minor axis of the smallest ECS-positive node. However, multivariate analysis identified only small size of ECS-positive nodes as a significant and independent factor predicting recurrence and a poor outcome. Thus, small size of ECS-positive nodes is the most important prognostic indicator for OSCC with ECS in metastatic lymph nodes. The classification of ECS status using the minor axis of ECS-positive nodes may be useful for further prediction of a poorer prognosis in OSCC cases. Standardization of ECS diagnosis and multicenter prospective studies will be required to confirm and refine these findings. Copyright © 2017 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proposal for optimal placement platform of bikes using queueing networks.

PubMed

Mizuno, Shinya; Iwamoto, Shogo; Seki, Mutsumi; Yamaki, Naokazu

2016-01-01

In recent social experiments, rental motorbikes and rental bicycles have been arranged at nodes, and environments where users can ride these bikes have been improved. When people borrow bikes, they return them to nearby nodes. Some experiments have been conducted using the models of Hamachari of Yokohama, the Niigata Rental Cycle, and Bicing. However, from these experiments, the effectiveness of distributing bikes was unclear, and many models were discontinued midway. Thus, we need to consider whether these models are effectively designed to represent the distribution system. Therefore, we construct a model to arrange the nodes for distributing bikes using a queueing network. To adopt realistic values for our model, we use the Google Maps application program interface. Thus, we can easily obtain values of distance and transit time between nodes in various places in the world. Moreover, we apply the distribution of a population to a gravity model and we compute the effective transition probability for this queueing network. If the arrangement of the nodes and number of bikes at each node is known, we can precisely design the system. We illustrate our system using convenience stores as nodes and optimize the node configuration. As a result, we can optimize simultaneously the number of nodes, node places, and number of bikes for each node, and we can construct a base for a rental cycle business to use our system.

Energy efficient sensor scheduling with a mobile sink node for the target tracking application.

PubMed

Maheswararajah, Suhinthan; Halgamuge, Saman; Premaratne, Malin

2009-01-01

Measurement losses adversely affect the performance of target tracking. The sensor network's life span depends on how efficiently the sensor nodes consume energy. In this paper, we focus on minimizing the total energy consumed by the sensor nodes whilst avoiding measurement losses. Since transmitting data over a long distance consumes a significant amount of energy, a mobile sink node collects the measurements and transmits them to the base station. We assume that the default transmission range of the activated sensor node is limited and it can be increased to maximum range only if the mobile sink node is out-side the default transmission range. Moreover, the active sensor node can be changed after a certain time period. The problem is to select an optimal sensor sequence which minimizes the total energy consumed by the sensor nodes. In this paper, we consider two different problems depend on the mobile sink node's path. First, we assume that the mobile sink node's position is known for the entire time horizon and use the dynamic programming technique to solve the problem. Second, the position of the sink node is varied over time according to a known Markov chain, and the problem is solved by stochastic dynamic programming. We also present sub-optimal methods to solve our problem. A numerical example is presented in order to discuss the proposed methods' performance.

Energy Efficient Sensor Scheduling with a Mobile Sink Node for the Target Tracking Application

PubMed Central

Maheswararajah, Suhinthan; Halgamuge, Saman; Premaratne, Malin

2009-01-01

Measurement losses adversely affect the performance of target tracking. The sensor network's life span depends on how efficiently the sensor nodes consume energy. In this paper, we focus on minimizing the total energy consumed by the sensor nodes whilst avoiding measurement losses. Since transmitting data over a long distance consumes a significant amount of energy, a mobile sink node collects the measurements and transmits them to the base station. We assume that the default transmission range of the activated sensor node is limited and it can be increased to maximum range only if the mobile sink node is out-side the default transmission range. Moreover, the active sensor node can be changed after a certain time period. The problem is to select an optimal sensor sequence which minimizes the total energy consumed by the sensor nodes. In this paper, we consider two different problems depend on the mobile sink node's path. First, we assume that the mobile sink node's position is known for the entire time horizon and use the dynamic programming technique to solve the problem. Second, the position of the sink node is varied over time according to a known Markov chain, and the problem is solved by stochastic dynamic programming. We also present sub-optimal methods to solve our problem. A numerical example is presented in order to discuss the proposed methods' performance PMID:22399934

Node Depth Adjustment Based Target Tracking in UWSNs Using Improved Harmony Search.

PubMed

Liu, Meiqin; Zhang, Duo; Zhang, Senlin; Zhang, Qunfei

2017-12-04

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) can provide a promising solution to underwater target tracking. Due to the limited computation and bandwidth resources, only a small part of nodes are selected to track the target at each interval. How to improve tracking accuracy with a small number of nodes is a key problem. In recent years, a node depth adjustment system has been developed and applied to issues of network deployment and routing protocol. As far as we know, all existing tracking schemes keep underwater nodes static or moving with water flow, and node depth adjustment has not been utilized for underwater target tracking yet. This paper studies node depth adjustment method for target tracking in UWSNs. Firstly, since a Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) can quantify the estimation accuracy, its relation to node depth is derived as a metric. Secondly, we formulate the node depth adjustment as an optimization problem to determine moving depth of activated node, under the constraint of moving range, the value of FIM is used as objective function, which is aimed to be minimized over moving distance of nodes. Thirdly, to efficiently solve the optimization problem, an improved Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is proposed, in which the generating probability is modified to improve searching speed and accuracy. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify performance of our scheme.

Node Depth Adjustment Based Target Tracking in UWSNs Using Improved Harmony Search

PubMed Central

Zhang, Senlin; Zhang, Qunfei

2017-01-01

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) can provide a promising solution to underwater target tracking. Due to the limited computation and bandwidth resources, only a small part of nodes are selected to track the target at each interval. How to improve tracking accuracy with a small number of nodes is a key problem. In recent years, a node depth adjustment system has been developed and applied to issues of network deployment and routing protocol. As far as we know, all existing tracking schemes keep underwater nodes static or moving with water flow, and node depth adjustment has not been utilized for underwater target tracking yet. This paper studies node depth adjustment method for target tracking in UWSNs. Firstly, since a Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) can quantify the estimation accuracy, its relation to node depth is derived as a metric. Secondly, we formulate the node depth adjustment as an optimization problem to determine moving depth of activated node, under the constraint of moving range, the value of FIM is used as objective function, which is aimed to be minimized over moving distance of nodes. Thirdly, to efficiently solve the optimization problem, an improved Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is proposed, in which the generating probability is modified to improve searching speed and accuracy. Finally, simulation results are presented to verify performance of our scheme. PMID:29207541

Management of well-differentiated thyroid cancer in 2010: perspectives of a head and neck surgical oncologist.

PubMed

Urken, Mark L

2010-01-01

To review the terminology and controversy regarding the performance of prophylactic lymph node dissection for patients without evidence suggestive of pathologic adenopathy. Terminology of lymph node levels in the neck and chest, and the issues regarding lymph node dissection, are reviewed. In addition, differences between lymph nodes are reviewed and discussed. Management of lymph nodes in this disease process has become the most contentious aspect of surgical decision-making due to the ambiguity of their prognostic significance and the prevalence of nodal metastases in very early primary tumors. Performance of prophylactic central compartment node dissection is not technically any more difficult than therapeutic node dissection when clinically significant nodes are encountered. It is therefore reasonable to consider this technique as an important adjunct to a total thyroidectomy for the purpose of enhanced disease staging, prevention of nodal recurrence, and avoidance of having to re-enter the previously operated central compartment. A recent study is reviewed and discussed in detail. The literature regarding the prognostic significance of extracapsular spread in lymph nodes is also presented. Morphologic characteristics of metastatic lymph nodes in thyroid cancer vary greatly. However, the reporting of these differences is lacking. The presence of extracapsular extension in a lymph node has prognostic significance. The clinician should be aware of these variations and the impact that they may have on recurrence risk and disease-specific survival.

Intraoperative Injection of Technetium-99m Sulfur Colloid for Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Breast Cancer Patients: A Single Institution Experience

PubMed Central

Berrocal, Julian; Saperstein, Lawrence; Grube, Baiba; Horowitz, Nina R.; Chagpar, Anees B.

2017-01-01

Background. Most institutions require a patient undergoing sentinel lymph node biopsy to go through nuclear medicine prior to surgery to be injected with radioisotope. This study describes the long-term results using intraoperative injection of radioisotope. Methods. Since late 2002, all patients undergoing a sentinel lymph node biopsy at the Yale-New Haven Breast Center underwent intraoperative injection of technetium-99m sulfur colloid. Endpoints included number of sentinel and nonsentinel lymph nodes obtained and number of positive sentinel and nonsentinel lymph nodes. Results. At least one sentinel lymph node was obtained in 2,333 out of 2,338 cases of sentinel node biopsy for an identification rate of 99.8%. The median number of sentinel nodes found was 2 and the mean was 2.33 (range: 1–15). There were 512 cases (21.9%) in which a sentinel node was positive for metastatic carcinoma. Of the patients with a positive sentinel lymph node who underwent axillary dissection, there were 242 cases (54.2%) with no additional positive nonsentinel lymph nodes. Advantages of intraoperative injection included increased comfort for the patient and simplification of scheduling. There were no radiation related complications. Conclusion. Intraoperative injection of technetium-99m sulfur colloid is convenient, effective, safe, and comfortable for the patient. PMID:28492062

Consistency mapping of 16 lymph node stations in gastric cancer by CT-based vessel-guided delineation of 255 patients.

PubMed

Xu, Shuhang; Feng, Lingling; Chen, Yongming; Sun, Ying; Lu, Yao; Huang, Shaomin; Fu, Yang; Zheng, Rongqin; Zhang, Yujing; Zhang, Rong

2017-06-20

In order to refine the location and metastasis-risk density of 16 lymph node stations of gastric cancer for neoadjuvant radiotherapy, we retrospectively reviewed the initial images and pathological reports of 255 gastric cancer patients with lymphatic metastasis. Metastatic lymph nodes identified in the initial computed tomography images were investigated by two radiologists with gastrointestinal specialty. A circle with a diameter of 5 mm was used to identify the central position of each metastatic lymph node, defined as the LNc (the central position of the lymph node). The LNc was drawn at the equivalent location on the reference images of a standard patient based on the relative distances to the same reference vessels and the gastric wall using a Monaco® version 5.0 workstation. The image manipulation software Medi-capture was programmed for image analysis to produce a contour and density atlas of 16 lymph node stations. Based on a total of 2846 LNcs contoured (31-599 per lymph node station), we created a density distribution map of 16 lymph node drainage stations of the stomach on computed tomography images, showing the detailed radiographic delineation of each lymph node station as well as high-risk areas for lymph node metastasis. Our mapping can serve as a template for the delineation of gastric lymph node stations when defining clinical target volume in pre-operative radiotherapy for gastric cancer.

Clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of melanoma: melanomas that lack classical clinical features.

PubMed

Mar, Victoria J; Chamberlain, Alex J; Kelly, John W; Murray, William K; Thompson, John F

2017-10-16

A Cancer Council Australia multidisciplinary working group is currently revising and updating the 2008 evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the management of cutaneous melanoma. While there have been many recent improvements in treatment options for metastatic melanoma, early diagnosis remains critical to reducing mortality from the disease. Improved awareness of the atypical presentations of this common malignancy is required to achieve this. A chapter of the new guidelines was therefore developed to aid recognition of atypical melanomas. Main recommendations: Because thick, life-threatening melanomas may lack the more classical ABCD (asymmetry, border irregularity, colour variegation, diameter > 6 mm) features of melanoma, a thorough history of the lesion with regard to change in morphology and growth over time is essential. Any lesion that is changing in morphology or growing over a period of more than one month should be excised or referred for prompt expert opinion. Changes in management as a result of the guidelines: These guidelines provide greater emphasis on improved recognition of the atypical presentations of melanoma, in particular nodular, desmoplastic and acral lentiginous subtypes, with particular awareness of hypomelanotic and amelanotic lesions.

[Malignant mesothelioma risk factors: experience in the General Hospital of Mexico].

PubMed

Hernández-Solís, Alejandro; Garcia-Hernández, Cyntia; Reding-Bernal, Arturo; Cruz-Ortiz, Humberto; Cicero-Sabido, Raúl

2013-01-01

Malignant mesothelioma is a neoplasm of bad prognosis, it is linked with asbestos contact, but there are cases without this antecedent. To investigate the relationship of asbestos exposition and other factors with malignant mesothelioma. Retrospective analysis of histologic confirmed cases of malignant mesothelioma, neoplasic familiar history, tobacco smoking, exposure to wood smoke and to asbestos, were annotated in a paired case/control study 1: 1-3 with logistic regression model to identify risk factors for OR. 61 cases of malignant mesothelioma were confirmed by histopathologic study, 41 male and 20 female. Mean age was 56 years ± 13 years; 56 cases (91.8%) correspond to epithelial malignant mesothelioma, three sarcomatous (4.9%) one desmoplastic and one biphasic. One in eight (13.1%) had exposure to asbestos. Model of logistic regression with four variables: history of familiar cancer, tobacco smoking, wood smoke and asbestos exposition, the the last one with an OR= 3.083 and p > 0.05. No other variables found to be a risk factor for malignant mesothelioma. Exposure to asbestos is a risk factor for malignant mesothelioma, which is confirmed in this study, however it is important to extend the investigation of other possible causal factors of this disease.

Hybrid Ameloblastoma of the Maxilla: A Puzzling Pathology.

PubMed

Lakshmi, Chintamaneni Raja; Bhavana, Sujana Mulk; Nallamilli, Sai Madhavi; Prabhat, Meka Poorna Venkata; Sarat, Gummadapu; Anuradha, Chennupati

2016-07-01

Ameloblastomas are slow growing, locally invasive, benign odontogenic tumors of an epithelial origin, accounting for approximately 1% of all oral tumors. A 40-year-old man presented with a chief complaint of a swelling over the left side of his face of 4 years' duration. On examination, gross facial asymmetry was detected, and a well-defined swelling was noted intraorally involving the left maxilla medially from the mid palatal raphe and obliterating the buccal vestibule laterally. The swelling was non-tender and exhibited dual consistencies: firm in the palate and cystic in the vestibular region. Computed tomography revealed a multilocular radiolucency, which involved the left maxilla, encroached into the left maxillary sinus and the nasal complex, and caused bony erosion. Early diagnosis and treatment are the key tools in managing ameloblastomas, failure of which may lead to a significant deterioration of the prognosis and an increased recurrence rate. Uncommon variants of ameloblastomas have been gaining interest recently. To date, 25 cases of hybrid ameloblastomas have been documented in the scientific literature. We present an extremely rare hybrid type of the ameloblastoma with combined follicular, cystic, acanthomatous, and desmoplastic variants, which render it the first of its kind to have ever been reported.

Expression and clinical association of programmed cell death-1, programmed death-ligand-1 and CD8+ lymphocytes in primary sarcomas is subtype dependent

PubMed Central

van Erp, Anke E.M.; Versleijen-Jonkers, Yvonne M.H.; Hillebrandt-Roeffen, Melissa H.S.; van Houdt, Laurens; Gorris, Mark A.J.; van Dam, Laura S.; Mentzel, Thomas; Weidema, Marije E.; Savci-Heijink, C. Dilara; Desar, Ingrid M.E.; Merks, Hans H.M.; van Noesel, Max M.; Shipley, Janet; van der Graaf, Winette T.A.; Flucke, Uta E.; Meyer-Wentrup, Friederike A.G.

2017-01-01

In order to explore the potential of immune checkpoint blockade in sarcoma, we investigated expression and clinical relevance of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and CD8 in tumors of 208 sarcoma patients. Primary untreated osteosarcoma (n = 46), Ewing sarcoma (n = 32), alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (n = 20), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (n = 77), synovial sarcoma (n = 22) and desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT) (n = 11) were examined immunohistochemically. PD-L1 expression was predominantly detected in alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas (15% and 16%, respectively). In the alveolar subtype PD-L1 expression was associated with better overall, event-free and metastases-free survival. PD-1 expression on lymphocytes was predominantly seen in synovial sarcomas (18%). High levels of CD8+ lymphocytes were predominantly detected in osteosarcomas (35%) and associated with worse event-free survival in synovial sarcomas. Ewing sarcoma and DSRCTs showed PD-1 on tumor cells instead of on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. Overall, expression and clinical associations were found to be subtype dependent. For the first time PD-1 expression on Ewing sarcoma (19%) and DSRCT (82%) tumor cells was described. PMID:29050367

Expression and clinical association of programmed cell death-1, programmed death-ligand-1 and CD8+ lymphocytes in primary sarcomas is subtype dependent.

PubMed

van Erp, Anke E M; Versleijen-Jonkers, Yvonne M H; Hillebrandt-Roeffen, Melissa H S; van Houdt, Laurens; Gorris, Mark A J; van Dam, Laura S; Mentzel, Thomas; Weidema, Marije E; Savci-Heijink, C Dilara; Desar, Ingrid M E; Merks, Hans H M; van Noesel, Max M; Shipley, Janet; van der Graaf, Winette T A; Flucke, Uta E; Meyer-Wentrup, Friederike A G

2017-09-19

In order to explore the potential of immune checkpoint blockade in sarcoma, we investigated expression and clinical relevance of programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) and CD8 in tumors of 208 sarcoma patients. Primary untreated osteosarcoma ( n = 46), Ewing sarcoma ( n = 32), alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma ( n = 20), embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma ( n = 77), synovial sarcoma ( n = 22) and desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT) ( n = 11) were examined immunohistochemically. PD-L1 expression was predominantly detected in alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas (15% and 16%, respectively). In the alveolar subtype PD-L1 expression was associated with better overall, event-free and metastases-free survival. PD-1 expression on lymphocytes was predominantly seen in synovial sarcomas (18%). High levels of CD8+ lymphocytes were predominantly detected in osteosarcomas (35%) and associated with worse event-free survival in synovial sarcomas. Ewing sarcoma and DSRCTs showed PD-1 on tumor cells instead of on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. Overall, expression and clinical associations were found to be subtype dependent. For the first time PD-1 expression on Ewing sarcoma (19%) and DSRCT (82%) tumor cells was described.

Update on the integrated histopathological and genetic classification of medulloblastoma – a practical diagnostic guideline

PubMed Central

Pietsch, Torsten; Haberler, Christine

2016-01-01

The revised WHO classification of tumors of the CNS 2016 has introduced the concept of the integrated diagnosis. The definition of medulloblastoma entities now requires a combination of the traditional histological information with additional molecular/genetic features. For definition of the histopathological component of the medulloblastoma diagnosis, the tumors should be assigned to one of the four entities classic, desmoplastic/nodular (DNMB), extensive nodular (MBEN), or large cell/anaplastic (LC/A) medulloblastoma. The genetically defined component comprises the four entities WNT-activated, SHH-activated and TP53 wildtype, SHH-activated and TP53 mutant, or non-WNT/non-SHH medulloblastoma. Robust and validated methods are available to allow a precise diagnosis of these medulloblastoma entities according to the updated WHO classification, and for differential diagnostic purposes. A combination of immunohistochemical markers including β-catenin, Yap1, p75-NGFR, Otx2, and p53, in combination with targeted sequencing and copy number assessment such as FISH analysis for MYC genes allows a precise assignment of patients for risk-adapted stratification. It also allows comparison to results of study cohorts in the past and provides a robust basis for further treatment refinement. PMID:27781424

Update on the integrated histopathological and genetic classification of medulloblastoma - a practical diagnostic guideline.

PubMed

Pietsch, Torsten; Haberler, Christine

The revised WHO classification of tumors of the CNS 2016 has introduced the concept of the integrated diagnosis. The definition of medulloblastoma entities now requires a combination of the traditional histological information with additional molecular/genetic features. For definition of the histopathological component of the medulloblastoma diagnosis, the tumors should be assigned to one of the four entities classic, desmoplastic/nodular (DNMB), extensive nodular (MBEN), or large cell/anaplastic (LC/A) medulloblastoma. The genetically defined component comprises the four entities WNT-activated, SHH-activated and TP53 wildtype, SHH-activated and TP53 mutant, or non-WNT/non-SHH medulloblastoma. Robust and validated methods are available to allow a precise diagnosis of these medulloblastoma entities according to the updated WHO classification, and for differential diagnostic purposes. A combination of immunohistochemical markers including β-catenin, Yap1, p75-NGFR, Otx2, and p53, in combination with targeted sequencing and copy number assessment such as FISH analysis for MYC genes allows a precise assignment of patients for risk-adapted stratification. It also allows comparison to results of study cohorts in the past and provides a robust basis for further treatment refinement.
.

Evaluation of the “Steal” Phenomenon on the Efficacy of Hypoxia Activated Prodrug TH-302 in Pancreatic Cancer

PubMed Central

Ibrahim-Hashim, Arig; Wojtkowiak, Jonathan W.; Hart, Charles P.; Zhang, Xiaomeng; Leos, Rafael; Martinez, Gary V.; Baker, Amanda F.; Gillies, Robert J.

2014-01-01

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas are desmoplastic and hypoxic, both of which are associated with poor prognosis. Hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAPs) are specifically activated in hypoxic environments to release cytotoxic or cytostatic effectors. TH-302 is a HAP that is currently being evaluated in a Phase III clinical trial in pancreatic cancer. Using animal models, we show that tumor hypoxia can be exacerbated using a vasodilator, hydralazine, improving TH-302 efficacy. Hydralazine reduces tumor blood flow through the “steal” phenomenon, in which atonal immature tumor vasculature fails to dilate in coordination with normal vasculature. We show that MIA PaCa-2 tumors exhibit a “steal” effect in response to hydralazine, resulting in decreased tumor blood flow and subsequent tumor pH reduction. The effect is not observed in SU.86.86 tumors with mature tumor vasculature, as measured by CD31 and smooth muscle actin (SMA) immunohistochemistry staining. Combination therapy of hydralazine and TH-302 resulted in a reduction in MIA PaCa-2 tumor volume growth after 18 days of treatment. These studies support a combination mechanism of action for TH-302 with a vasodilator that transiently increases tumor hypoxia. PMID:25532146

Improvement of the SEP protocol based on community structure of node degree

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Donglin; Wei, Suyuan

2017-05-01

Analyzing the Stable election protocol (SEP) in wireless sensor networks and aiming at the problem of inhomogeneous cluster-heads distribution and unreasonable cluster-heads selectivity and single hop transmission in the SEP, a SEP Protocol based on community structure of node degree (SEP-CSND) is proposed. In this algorithm, network node deployed by using grid deployment model, and the connection between nodes established by setting up the communication threshold. The community structure constructed by node degree, then cluster head is elected in the community structure. On the basis of SEP, the node's residual energy and node degree is added in cluster-heads election. The information is transmitted with mode of multiple hops between network nodes. The simulation experiments showed that compared to the classical LEACH and SEP, this algorithm balances the energy consumption of the entire network and significantly prolongs network lifetime.

Signaling completion of a message transfer from an origin compute node to a target compute node

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN; Parker, Jeffrey J [Rochester, MN

2011-05-24

Signaling completion of a message transfer from an origin node to a target node includes: sending, by an origin DMA engine, an RTS message, the RTS message specifying an application message for transfer to the target node from the origin node; receiving, by the origin DMA engine, a remote get message containing a data descriptor for the message and a completion notification descriptor, the completion notification descriptor specifying a local direct put transfer operation for transferring data locally on the origin node; inserting, by the origin DMA engine in an injection FIFO buffer, the data descriptor followed by the completion notification descriptor; transferring, by the origin DMA engine to the target node, the message in dependence upon the data descriptor; and notifying, by the origin DMA engine, the application that transfer of the message is complete in dependence upon the completion notification descriptor.

Dedicated heterogeneous node scheduling including backfill scheduling

DOEpatents

Wood, Robert R [Livermore, CA; Eckert, Philip D [Livermore, CA; Hommes, Gregg [Pleasanton, CA

2006-07-25

A method and system for job backfill scheduling dedicated heterogeneous nodes in a multi-node computing environment. Heterogeneous nodes are grouped into homogeneous node sub-pools. For each sub-pool, a free node schedule (FNS) is created so that the number of to chart the free nodes over time. For each prioritized job, using the FNS of sub-pools having nodes useable by a particular job, to determine the earliest time range (ETR) capable of running the job. Once determined for a particular job, scheduling the job to run in that ETR. If the ETR determined for a lower priority job (LPJ) has a start time earlier than a higher priority job (HPJ), then the LPJ is scheduled in that ETR if it would not disturb the anticipated start times of any HPJ previously scheduled for a future time. Thus, efficient utilization and throughput of such computing environments may be increased by utilizing resources otherwise remaining idle.

Chaining direct memory access data transfer operations for compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Blocksome, Michael A.

2010-09-28

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for chaining DMA data transfer operations for compute nodes in a parallel computer that include: receiving, by an origin DMA engine on an origin node in an origin injection FIFO buffer for the origin DMA engine, a RGET data descriptor specifying a DMA transfer operation data descriptor on the origin node and a second RGET data descriptor on the origin node, the second RGET data descriptor specifying a target RGET data descriptor on the target node, the target RGET data descriptor specifying an additional DMA transfer operation data descriptor on the origin node; creating, by the origin DMA engine, an RGET packet in dependence upon the RGET data descriptor, the RGET packet containing the DMA transfer operation data descriptor and the second RGET data descriptor; and transferring, by the origin DMA engine to a target DMA engine on the target node, the RGET packet.

Signaling completion of a message transfer from an origin compute node to a target compute node

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A [Rochester, MN

2011-02-15

Signaling completion of a message transfer from an origin node to a target node includes: sending, by an origin DMA engine, an RTS message, the RTS message specifying an application message for transfer to the target node from the origin node; receiving, by the origin DMA engine, a remote get message containing a data descriptor for the message and a completion notification descriptor, the completion notification descriptor specifying a local memory FIFO data transfer operation for transferring data locally on the origin node; inserting, by the origin DMA engine in an injection FIFO buffer, the data descriptor followed by the completion notification descriptor; transferring, by the origin DMA engine to the target node, the message in dependence upon the data descriptor; and notifying, by the origin DMA engine, the application that transfer of the message is complete in dependence upon the completion notification descriptor.

Method and computer product to increase accuracy of time-based software verification for sensor networks

DOEpatents

Foo Kune, Denis [Saint Paul, MN; Mahadevan, Karthikeyan [Mountain View, CA

2011-01-25

A recursive verification protocol to reduce the time variance due to delays in the network by putting the subject node at most one hop from the verifier node provides for an efficient manner to test wireless sensor nodes. Since the software signatures are time based, recursive testing will give a much cleaner signal for positive verification of the software running on any one node in the sensor network. In this protocol, the main verifier checks its neighbor, who in turn checks its neighbor, and continuing this process until all nodes have been verified. This ensures minimum time delays for the software verification. Should a node fail the test, the software verification downstream is halted until an alternative path (one not including the failed node) is found. Utilizing techniques well known in the art, having a node tested twice, or not at all, can be avoided.

Multihop teleportation of two-qubit state via the composite GHZ-Bell channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Zhen-Zhen; Yu, Xu-Tao; Gong, Yan-Xiao; Zhang, Zai-Chen

2017-01-01

A multihop teleportation protocol in quantum communication network is introduced to teleport an arbitrary two-qubit state, between two nodes without directly sharing entanglement pairs. Quantum channels are built among neighbor nodes based on a five-qubit entangled system composed of GHZ and Bell pairs. The von Neumann measurements in all intermediate nodes and the source node are implemented, and then the measurement outcomes are sent to the destination node independently. After collecting all the measurement outcomes at the destination node, an efficient method is proposed to calculate the unitary operations for transforming the receiver's states to the state teleported. Therefore, only adopting the proper unitary operations at the destination node, the desired quantum state can be recovered perfectly. The transmission flexibility and efficiency of quantum network with composite GHZ-Bell channel are improved by transmitting measurement outcomes of all nodes in parallelism and reducing hop-by-hop teleportation delay.

Support Vector Machines Model of Computed Tomography for Assessing Lymph Node Metastasis in Esophageal Cancer with Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.

PubMed

Wang, Zhi-Long; Zhou, Zhi-Guo; Chen, Ying; Li, Xiao-Ting; Sun, Ying-Shi

The aim of this study was to diagnose lymph node metastasis of esophageal cancer by support vector machines model based on computed tomography. A total of 131 esophageal cancer patients with preoperative chemotherapy and radical surgery were included. Various indicators (tumor thickness, tumor length, tumor CT value, total number of lymph nodes, and long axis and short axis sizes of largest lymph node) on CT images before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy were recorded. A support vector machines model based on these CT indicators was built to predict lymph node metastasis. Support vector machines model diagnosed lymph node metastasis better than preoperative short axis size of largest lymph node on CT. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.887 and 0.705, respectively. The support vector machine model of CT images can help diagnose lymph node metastasis in esophageal cancer with preoperative chemotherapy.

Parallel compression of data chunks of a shared data object using a log-structured file system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bent, John M.; Faibish, Sorin; Grider, Gary

2016-10-25

Techniques are provided for parallel compression of data chunks being written to a shared object. A client executing on a compute node or a burst buffer node in a parallel computing system stores a data chunk generated by the parallel computing system to a shared data object on a storage node by compressing the data chunk; and providing the data compressed data chunk to the storage node that stores the shared object. The client and storage node may employ Log-Structured File techniques. The compressed data chunk can be de-compressed by the client when the data chunk is read. A storagemore » node stores a data chunk as part of a shared object by receiving a compressed version of the data chunk from a compute node; and storing the compressed version of the data chunk to the shared data object on the storage node.« less

Low latency, high bandwidth data communications between compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A

2014-04-01

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for data transfers between nodes in a parallel computer that include: receiving, by an origin DMA on an origin node, a buffer identifier for a buffer containing data for transfer to a target node; sending, by the origin DMA to the target node, a RTS message; transferring, by the origin DMA, a data portion to the target node using a memory FIFO operation that specifies one end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data; receiving, by the origin DMA, an acknowledgement of the RTS message from the target node; and transferring, by the origin DMA in response to receiving the acknowledgement, any remaining data portion to the target node using a direct put operation that specifies the other end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data, including initiating the direct put operation without invoking an origin processing core.

Low latency, high bandwidth data communications between compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A

2014-04-22

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for data transfers between nodes in a parallel computer that include: receiving, by an origin DMA on an origin node, a buffer identifier for a buffer containing data for transfer to a target node; sending, by the origin DMA to the target node, a RTS message; transferring, by the origin DMA, a data portion to the target node using a memory FIFO operation that specifies one end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data; receiving, by the origin DMA, an acknowledgement of the RTS message from the target node; and transferring, by the origin DMA in response to receiving the acknowledgement, any remaining data portion to the target node using a direct put operation that specifies the other end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data, including initiating the direct put operation without invoking an origin processing core.

Low latency, high bandwidth data communications between compute nodes in a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael A

2013-07-02

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for data transfers between nodes in a parallel computer that include: receiving, by an origin DMA on an origin node, a buffer identifier for a buffer containing data for transfer to a target node; sending, by the origin DMA to the target node, a RTS message; transferring, by the origin DMA, a data portion to the target node using a memory FIFO operation that specifies one end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data; receiving, by the origin DMA, an acknowledgement of the RTS message from the target node; and transferring, by the origin DMA in response to receiving the acknowledgement, any remaining data portion to the target node using a direct put operation that specifies the other end of the buffer from which to begin transferring the data, including initiating the direct put operation without invoking an origin processing core.

Architecture and method for a burst buffer using flash technology

DOEpatents

Tzelnic, Percy; Faibish, Sorin; Gupta, Uday K.; Bent, John; Grider, Gary Alan; Chen, Hsing-bung

2016-03-15

A parallel supercomputing cluster includes compute nodes interconnected in a mesh of data links for executing an MPI job, and solid-state storage nodes each linked to a respective group of the compute nodes for receiving checkpoint data from the respective compute nodes, and magnetic disk storage linked to each of the solid-state storage nodes for asynchronous migration of the checkpoint data from the solid-state storage nodes to the magnetic disk storage. Each solid-state storage node presents a file system interface to the MPI job, and multiple MPI processes of the MPI job write the checkpoint data to a shared file in the solid-state storage in a strided fashion, and the solid-state storage node asynchronously migrates the checkpoint data from the shared file in the solid-state storage to the magnetic disk storage and writes the checkpoint data to the magnetic disk storage in a sequential fashion.

Endometrial Cancer and the Role of Lymphadenectomy.

PubMed

Clark, Leslie H; Soper, John T

2016-06-01

The role of lymph node dissection in early-stage endometrial cancer is highly debated, but staging and prognosis are dependent on knowledge of lymph node metastasis. We sought to review the available data on the use of lymph node assessment in presumed early-stage endometrial cancer. A comprehensive literature review was performed using MEDLINE, the Cochrane Collaborative Database, and PubMed. There is limited retrospective data that suggest a therapeutic benefit to lymphadenectomy. Prospective randomized trials have not shown a benefit to lymphadenectomy in low-risk patients, but found significant morbidity in patients undergoing lymphadenectomy. Selective lymph node assessment should be used in low-risk endometrial cancer. Sentinel lymph node assessment is emerging as a potential strategy for lymph node assessment. Selective use of lymphadenectomy in early-stage endometrial cancer can reduce the morbidity associated with lymph node dissection without compromising clinical outcomes. Multiple strategies are available including sentinel lymph nodes and risk factor based lymphadenectomy.

High Occurrence of Aberrant Lymph Node Spread on Magnetic Resonance Lymphography in Prostate Cancer Patients With a Biochemical Recurrence After Radical Prostatectomy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meijer, Hanneke J.M., E-mail: H.Meijer@rther.umcn.nl; Lin, Emile N. van; Debats, Oscar A.

2012-03-15

Purpose: To investigate the pattern of lymph node spread in prostate cancer patients with a biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy, eligible for salvage radiotherapy; and to determine whether the clinical target volume (CTV) for elective pelvic irradiation in the primary setting can be applied in the salvage setting for patients with (a high risk of) lymph node metastases. Methods and Materials: The charts of 47 prostate cancer patients with PSA recurrence after prostatectomy who had positive lymph nodes on magnetic resonance lymphography (MRL) were reviewed. Positive lymph nodes were assigned to a lymph node region according to the guidelines ofmore » the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) for delineation of the CTV for pelvic irradiation (RTOG-CTV). We defined four lymph node regions for positive nodes outside this RTOG-CTV: the para-aortal, proximal common iliac, pararectal, and paravesical regions. They were referred to as aberrant lymph node regions. For each patient, clinical and pathologic features were recorded, and their association with aberrant lymph drainage was investigated. The distribution of positive lymph nodes was analyzed separately for patients with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) <1.0 ng/mL. Results: MRL detected positive aberrant lymph nodes in 37 patients (79%). In 20 patients (43%) a positive lymph node was found in the pararectal region. Higher PSA at the time of MRL was associated with the presence of positive lymph nodes in the para-aortic region (2.49 vs. 0.82 ng/mL; p = 0.007) and in the proximal common iliac region (1.95 vs. 0.59 ng/mL; p = 0.009). There were 18 patients with a PSA <1.0 ng/mL. Ten of these patients (61%) had at least one aberrant positive lymph node. Conclusion: Seventy-nine percent of the PSA-recurrent patients had at least one aberrant positive lymph node. Application of the standard RTOG-CTV for pelvic irradiation in the salvage setting therefore seems to be inappropriate.« less

A prospective investigation of fluorescence imaging to detect sentinel lymph nodes at robotic-assisted endometrial cancer staging.

PubMed

Paley, Pamela J; Veljovich, Dan S; Press, Joshua Z; Isacson, Christina; Pizer, Ellen; Shah, Chirag

2016-07-01

The accuracy of sentinel lymph node mapping has been shown in endometrial cancer, but studies to date have primarily focused on cohorts at low risk for nodal involvement. In our practice, we acknowledge the lack of benefit of lymphadenectomy in the low-risk subgroup and omit lymph node removal in these patients. Thus, our aim was to evaluate the feasibility and accuracy of sentinel node mapping in women at sufficient risk for nodal metastasis warranting lymphadenectomy and in whom the potential benefit of avoiding nodal procurement could be realized. To evaluate the detection rate and accuracy of fluorescence-guided sentinel lymph node mapping in endometrial cancer patients undergoing robotic-assisted staging. One hundred twenty-three endometrial cancer patients undergoing sentinel lymph node sentinel node mapping using indocyanine green were prospectively evaluated. Two mL (1.0 mg/mL) of dye were injected into the cervical stroma divided between the 2-3 and 9-10 o'clock positions at the time of uterine manipulator placement. Before hysterectomy, the retroperitoneal spaces were developed and fluorescence imaging was used for sentinel node detection. Identified sentinel nodes were removed and submitted for touch prep intraoperatively, followed by permanent assessment with routine hematoxylin and eosin levels. Patients then underwent hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and completion bilateral pelvic and periaortic lymphadenectomy based on intrauterine risk factors determined intraoperatively (tumor size >2 cm, >50% myometrial invasion, and grade 3 histology). Of 123 patients enrolled, at least 1 sentinel node was detected in 119 (96.7%). Ninety-nine patients (80%) had bilateral pelvic or periaortic sentinel nodes detected. A total of 85 patients met criteria warranting completion lymphadenectomy. In 14 patients (16%) periaortic lymphadenectomy was not feasible, and the mean number of pelvic nodes procured was 13 (6-22). Of the 71 patients undergoing pelvic and periaortic lymphadenectomy, the mean nodal count was 23.2 (8-51). Of patients undergoing lymphadenectomy, 10.6% had lymph node metastasis on final hematoxylin and eosin evaluation. Notably, the sentinel node was the only positive node in 44% of cases. There were no cases in which final pathology of the sentinel node was negative and metastatic disease was detected upon completion lymphadenectomy in the non-sentinel nodes (no false negatives), yielding a sensitivity of 100%. Of the 14 sentinel nodes ultimately found to harbor metastases, 3 were negative on touch prep, yielding a sensitivity of 78.6% for intraoperative detection of sentinel node involvement. In all 3 of the false-negative touch preps, final pathology detected a single micrometastasis (0.24 mm, 1.4 mm, 1.5 mm). As expected, there were no false-positive results, yielding a specificity of 100%. No complications related to sentinel node mapping or allergic reactions to the dye were encountered. Intraoperative sentinel node mapping using fluorescence imaging with indocyanine green in endometrial cancer patients is feasible and yields high detection rates. In our pilot study, sentinel node mapping identified all women with Stage IIIC disease. Low false-negative rates are encouraging, and if confirmed in multi-institutional trials, this approach would be anticipated to reduce the morbidity, operative times, and costs associated with complete pelvic and periaortic lymphadenectomy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Measurement of intrafraction displacement of the mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes of non-small cell lung cancer based on four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT)].

PubMed

Wang, Su-zhen; Li, Jian-bin; Zhang, Ying-jie; Li, Feng-xiang; Wang, Wei; Liu, Tong-hai

2012-09-01

To measure the intrafraction displacement of the mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) based on four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT), and to provide the basis for the internal margin of metastatic mediastinal lymph nodes. Twenty-four NSCLC patients with mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes confirmed by contrast enhanced CT (short axis diameter ≥ 1 cm) were included in this study. 4D-CT simulation was carried out during free breathing and 10 image sets were acquired. The mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes and the dome of ipsilateral diaphragma were separately delineated on the CT images of 10 phases of breath cycle, and the lymph nodes were grouped as the upper, middle and lower mediastinal groups depending on the mediastinal station. Then the displacements of the lymph nodes in the left-right, anterior-posterior, superior-inferior directions and the 3-dimensional vector were measured. The differences of displacement in three directions for the same group of metastatic lymph nodes and in the same direction for different groups of metastatic lymph nodes were compared. The correlation between the displacement of ipsilateral diaphragma and mediastinal lymph nodes was analyzed in superior-inferior direction. The displacements in left-right, anterior-posterior and superior-inferior directions were (2.24 ± 1.55) mm, (1.87 ± 0.92) mm and (3.28 ± 2.59) mm for the total (53) mediastinal lymph nodes, respectively. The vectors were (4.70 ± 2.66) mm, (3.87 ± 2.45) mm, (4.97 ± 2.75) mm and (5.23 ± 2.67) mm for the total, upper, middle and lower mediastinal lymph nodes, respectively. For the upper mediastinal lymph nodes, the displacements in left-right, anterior-posterior and superior-inferior directions showed no significant difference between each other (P > 0.05). For the middle mediastinal lymph nodes, the displacements merely in anterior-posterior and superior-inferior directions showed significant difference (P = 0.005), while the displacements were not significantly different in the left-right and anterior-posterior, left-right and superior-inferior directions (P > 0.05). The displacements of the total and the lower mediastinal lymph nodes in left-right and superior-inferior, or anterior-posterior and superior-inferior directions were significantly different (P < 0.05), but was not significantly different in left-right and anterior-posterior directions (P > 0.05). The displacements of different group of mediastinal lymph nodes in a single direction or vector showed no significant difference (P > 0.05). In the superior-inferior direction, the correlation between the displacements of ipsilateral diaphragma and mediastinal lymph nodes were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). During free breathing, the differences between the intrafractional displacement of mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes in the same direction and its station were not statistically significant. The displacements of the total mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes in the superior-inferior direction were greater than that in the left-right and anterior-posterior directions, especially for the middle and lower mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes. There was no significant correlation between the displacements of ipsilateral diaphragma and the mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes in the superior-inferior direction, so it was unreasonable to estimate and predict the displacement of mediastinal metastatic lymph nodes by the displacement of ipsilateral diaphragma.

Utilization and Outcomes of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy for Vulvar Cancer.

PubMed

Cham, Stephanie; Chen, Ling; Burke, William M; Hou, June Y; Tergas, Ana I; Hu, Jim C; Ananth, Cande V; Neugut, Alfred I; Hershman, Dawn L; Wright, Jason D

2016-10-01

To examine the use and predictors of sentinel node biopsy in women with vulvar cancer. The Perspective database, an all-payer database that collects data from more than 500 hospitals, was used to perform a retrospective cohort study of women with vulvar cancer who underwent vulvectomy and lymph node assessment from 2006 to 2015. Multivariable models were used to determine factors associated with sentinel node biopsy. Length of stay and cost were compared between women who underwent sentinel node biopsy and lymphadenectomy. Among 2,273 women, sentinel node biopsy was utilized in 618 (27.2%) and 1,655 (72.8%) underwent inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy. Performance of sentinel node biopsy increased from 17.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 12.0-22.0%) in 2006 to 39.1% (95% CI 27.1-51.0%) in 2015. In a multivariable model, women treated more recently were more likely to have undergone sentinel node biopsy, whereas women with more comorbidities and those treated at rural hospitals were less likely to have undergone the procedure. The median length of stay was shorter for those undergoing sentinel node biopsy (median 2 days, interquartile range 1-3) compared with women who underwent inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy (median 3 days, interquartile range 2-4). The cost of sentinel node biopsy was $7,599 (interquartile range $5,739-9,922) compared with $8,095 (interquartile range $5,917-11,281) for lymphadenectomy. The use of sentinel node biopsy for vulvar cancer has more than doubled since 2006. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is associated with a shorter hospital stay and decreased cost compared with inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy.

Breast cancer sentinel node scintigraphy: differences between imaging results 1 and 2 h after injection.

PubMed

Wondergem, Maurits; Hobbelink, Monique G G; Witkamp, Arjen J; van Hillegersberg, Richard; de Keizer, Bart

2012-11-01

Timing of image acquisition in breast cancer sentinel node scintigraphy remains a subject of debate. Therefore, the performance of our protocol in which images are acquired 1 and 2 h after injection was evaluated. The results of sentinel node scintigraphy 1 and 2 h after injection were compared with regard to the sentinel lymph nodes visualized. We studied 132 patients who were consecutively referred for sentinel lymph node biopsy. 99mTc-albumine nanocolloid (120 MBq) was injected peritumourally into patients with palpable tumours and intratumourally into patients with nonpalpable tumours. All scintigraphic images taken for the sentinel node procedure were evaluated. The number of sentinel nodes per anatomic localization and the interpretability of the images were scored. A total of 132 patients underwent sentinel node scintigraphy 1 h after injection. Of these, 117 patients also underwent sentinel node scintigraphy 2 h after injection. An axillary sentinel node was visualized in 79.5 and 95.7% of patients, respectively, 1 and 2 h after injection. In 20.5% of the patients the images acquired 1 h after injection did not show a sentinel node. Furthermore, in all procedures, the images 1 h after injection were of no added value to those acquired 2 h after injection. Scintigraphic imaging 2 h after a single peritumoural or intratumoural administration of about 120 MBq 99mTc-albumine nanocolloid yields an axillary sentinel node in over 95% of cases. Imaging 1 h after injection is of no additional value and can be omitted.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy as a prognostic factor in non-metastatic colon cancer: a prospective study.

PubMed

Estrada, O; Pulido, L; Admella, C; Hidalgo, L-A; Clavé, P; Suñol, X

2017-04-01

Around a third of node-negative patients with colon cancer experience a recurrence after surgery, suggesting poor staging. Sentinel lymph node techniques combined with immunochemistry could improve colon cancer staging. We prospectively assessed the effect of Sentinel node mapping on staging and survival in patients with non-metastatic colon cancer. An observational and prospective study was designed. 105 patients with colon cancer were selected. Patients were classified according to node involvement as: N1, with node invasion detected by the conventional techniques; up-staged, with node invasion detected only by sentinel node mapping; and N0, with negative lymph node involvement by both techniques. Five-year survival and disease-free survival rates were analysed. Multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors for disease-free and overall survival. Sentinel node mapping was successfully applied in 78 patients: 33 % were N1; 24.5 % were up-staged (18 patients with isolated tumour cells and 1 patient with micrometastases); and 42.5 % were N0. N1 patients had the poorest overall 5-year survival (65.4 %) and 5-year disease-free survival (69.2 %) rates compared with the other two groups. No significant 5-year survival differences were observed between N0 patients (87.9 %) and up-staged patients (84.2 %). Patients up-staged after sentinel node mapping do not have a poorer prognosis than patients without node involvement. Detection of isolated cancer cells was not a poor prognosis factor in these patients.

DoS detection in IEEE 802.11 with the presence of hidden nodes

PubMed Central

Soryal, Joseph; Liu, Xijie; Saadawi, Tarek

2013-01-01

The paper presents a novel technique to detect Denial of Service (DoS) attacks applied by misbehaving nodes in wireless networks with the presence of hidden nodes employing the widely used IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) protocols described in the IEEE standard [1]. Attacker nodes alter the IEEE 802.11 DCF firmware to illicitly capture the channel via elevating the probability of the average number of packets transmitted successfully using up the bandwidth share of the innocent nodes that follow the protocol standards. We obtained the theoretical network throughput by solving two-dimensional Markov Chain model as described by Bianchi [2], and Liu and Saadawi [3] to determine the channel capacity. We validated the results obtained via the theoretical computations with the results obtained by OPNET simulator [4] to define the baseline for the average attainable throughput in the channel under standard conditions where all nodes follow the standards. The main goal of the DoS attacker is to prevent the innocent nodes from accessing the channel and by capturing the channel’s bandwidth. In addition, the attacker strives to appear as an innocent node that follows the standards. The protocol resides in every node to enable each node to police other nodes in its immediate wireless coverage area. All innocent nodes are able to detect and identify the DoS attacker in its wireless coverage area. We applied the protocol to two Physical Layer technologies: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and the results are presented to validate the algorithm. PMID:25685510

DoS detection in IEEE 802.11 with the presence of hidden nodes.

PubMed

Soryal, Joseph; Liu, Xijie; Saadawi, Tarek

2014-07-01

The paper presents a novel technique to detect Denial of Service (DoS) attacks applied by misbehaving nodes in wireless networks with the presence of hidden nodes employing the widely used IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) protocols described in the IEEE standard [1]. Attacker nodes alter the IEEE 802.11 DCF firmware to illicitly capture the channel via elevating the probability of the average number of packets transmitted successfully using up the bandwidth share of the innocent nodes that follow the protocol standards. We obtained the theoretical network throughput by solving two-dimensional Markov Chain model as described by Bianchi [2], and Liu and Saadawi [3] to determine the channel capacity. We validated the results obtained via the theoretical computations with the results obtained by OPNET simulator [4] to define the baseline for the average attainable throughput in the channel under standard conditions where all nodes follow the standards. The main goal of the DoS attacker is to prevent the innocent nodes from accessing the channel and by capturing the channel's bandwidth. In addition, the attacker strives to appear as an innocent node that follows the standards. The protocol resides in every node to enable each node to police other nodes in its immediate wireless coverage area. All innocent nodes are able to detect and identify the DoS attacker in its wireless coverage area. We applied the protocol to two Physical Layer technologies: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and the results are presented to validate the algorithm.

Indocyanine green SPY elite-assisted sentinel lymph node biopsy in cutaneous melanoma.

PubMed

Korn, Jason M; Tellez-Diaz, Alejandra; Bartz-Kurycki, Marisa; Gastman, Brian

2014-04-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the standard of care for intermediate-depth and high-risk thin melanomas. Recently, indocyanine green and near-infrared imaging have been used to aid in sentinel node biopsy. The present study aimed to determine the feasibility of sentinel lymph node biopsy with indocyanine green SPY Elite navigation and to critically evaluate the technique compared with the standard modalities. A retrospective review of 90 consecutive cutaneous melanoma patients who underwent sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed. Two cohorts were formed: group A, which had sentinel lymph node biopsy performed with blue dye and radioisotope; and group B, which had sentinel lymph node biopsy performed with radioisotope and indocyanine green SPY Elite navigation. The cohorts were compared to assess for differences in localization rates, sensitivity and specificity of sentinel node identification, and length of surgery. The sentinel lymph node localization rate was 79.4 percent using the blue dye method, 98.0 percent using the indocyanine green fluorescence method, and 97.8 percent using the radioisotope/handheld gamma probe method. Indocyanine green fluorescence detected more sentinel lymph nodes than the vital dye method alone (p = 0.020). A trend toward a reduction in length of surgery was noted in the SPY Elite cohort. Sentinel lymph node mapping and localization in cutaneous melanoma with the indocyanine green SPY Elite navigation system is technically feasible and may offer several advantages over current modalities, including higher sensitivity and specificity, decreased number of lymph nodes sampled, decreased operative time, and potentially lower false-negative rates. Diagnostic, II.

Paired-agent fluorescent imaging to detect micrometastases in breast sentinel lymph node biopsy: experiment design and protocol development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chengyue; Xu, Xiaochun; Basheer, Yusairah; He, Yusheng; Sattar, Husain A.; Brankov, Jovan G.; Tichauer, Kenneth M.

2018-02-01

Sentinel lymph node status is a critical prognostic factor in breast cancer treatment and is essential to guide future adjuvant treatment. The estimation that 20-60% of micrometastases are missed by conventional pathology has created a demand for the development of more accurate approaches. Here, a paired-agent imaging approach is presented that employs a control imaging agent to allow rapid, quantitative mapping of microscopic populations of tumor cells in lymph nodes to guide pathology sectioning. To test the feasibility of this approach to identify micrometastases, healthy pig lymph nodes were stained with targeted and control imaging agent solution to evaluate the potential for the agents to diffuse into and out of intact nodes. Aby-029, an anti-EGFR affibody was labeled with IRDye 800CW (LICOR) as targeted agent and IRDye 700DX was hydrolyzed as a control agent. Lymph nodes were stained and rinsed by directly injecting the agents into the lymph nodes after immobilization in agarose gel. Subsequently, lymph nodes were frozen-sectioned and imaged under an 80-um resolution fluorescence imaging system (Pearl, LICOR) to confirm equivalence of spatial distribution of both agents in the entire node. The binding potentials were acquired by a pixel-by-pixel calculation and was found to be 0.02 +/- 0.06 along the lymph node in the absence of binding. The results demonstrate this approach's potential to enhance the sensitivity of lymph node pathology by detecting fewer than 1000 cell in a whole human lymph node.

Community detection using preference networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tasgin, Mursel; Bingol, Haluk O.

2018-04-01

Community detection is the task of identifying clusters or groups of nodes in a network where nodes within the same group are more connected with each other than with nodes in different groups. It has practical uses in identifying similar functions or roles of nodes in many biological, social and computer networks. With the availability of very large networks in recent years, performance and scalability of community detection algorithms become crucial, i.e. if time complexity of an algorithm is high, it cannot run on large networks. In this paper, we propose a new community detection algorithm, which has a local approach and is able to run on large networks. It has a simple and effective method; given a network, algorithm constructs a preference network of nodes where each node has a single outgoing edge showing its preferred node to be in the same community with. In such a preference network, each connected component is a community. Selection of the preferred node is performed using similarity based metrics of nodes. We use two alternatives for this purpose which can be calculated in 1-neighborhood of nodes, i.e. number of common neighbors of selector node and its neighbors and, the spread capability of neighbors around the selector node which is calculated by the gossip algorithm of Lind et.al. Our algorithm is tested on both computer generated LFR networks and real-life networks with ground-truth community structure. It can identify communities accurately in a fast way. It is local, scalable and suitable for distributed execution on large networks.

Extraperitoneal lymph node dissection in locally advanced cervical cancer; the prognostic factors associated with survival

PubMed Central

Köse, Mehmet Faruk; Kiseli, Mine; Kimyon, Günsu; Öcalan, Reyhan; Yenen, Müfit Cemal; Tulunay, Gökhan; Turan, Ahmet Taner; Üreyen, Işın; Boran, Nurettin

2017-01-01

Objective: Surgical staging was recently recommended for the decision of treatment in locally advanced cervical cancer. We aimed to investigate clinical outcomes as well as factors associated with overall survival (OS) in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer who had undergone extraperitoneal lymph node dissection and were managed according to their lymph node status. Material and Methods: The medical records of 233 women with stage IIb-IVa cervical cancer who were clinically staged and underwent extraperitoneal lymph node dissection were retrospectively reviewed. Paraaortic lymph node status determined the appropriate radiotherapeutic treatment field. Surgery-related complications and clinical outcomes were evaluated. Results: The median age of the patients was 52 years (range, 26-88 years) and the median follow-up time was 28.4 months (range, 3-141 months). Thirty-one patients had laparoscopic extraperitoneal lymph node dissection and 202 patients underwent laparotomy. The number of paraaortic lymph nodes extracted was similar for both techniques. Sixty-two (27%) of the 233 patients had paraaortic lymph node metastases. The 3-year and 5-year OS rates were 55.1% and 46.5%, respectively. The stage of disease, number of metastatic paraaortic lymph nodes, tumor type, and paraaortic lymph node status were associated with OS. In multivariate Cox regression analyses, tumor type, stage, and presence of paraaortic lymph node metastases were the independent prognostic factors of OS. Conclusion: Paraaortic lymph node metastasis is the most important prognostic factor affecting survival. Surgery would give hints about the prognosis and treatment planning of the patient. PMID:28400350

International Space Station Node 1 is moved for leak test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

Node 1, the first element for the International Space Station, and attached Pressurized Mating Adapter-1 continue with prelaunch preparation activities at KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. Node 1 is a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the space station. The node is seen here being moved into the Shuttle payload transportation canister, where the doors will be closed for a two-week leak check. The node was moved to the canister from the element rotation stand, or test stand, where it underwent an interim weight and center of gravity determination. The final determination is planned to be performed prior to transporting Node 1 to the launch pad. Node 1 is scheduled to fly on STS-88.

International Space Station Node 1 is moved for leak test

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

Node 1, the first U.S. element for the International Space Station, and attached Pressurized Mating Adapter-1 continue with prelaunch preparation activities at KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. Node 1 is a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the space station. The node and PMA-1 are being removed from the element rotation stand, or test stand, where they underwent an interim weight and center of gravity determination. (The final determination is planned to be performed prior to transporting Node 1 to the launch pad.) Now the node is being moved to the Shuttle payload transportation canister, where the doors will be closed for a two-week leak check. Node 1 is scheduled to fly on STS-88.

Bad data packet capture device

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan; Heidelberger, Philip; Vranas, Pavlos

2010-04-20

An apparatus and method for capturing data packets for analysis on a network computing system includes a sending node and a receiving node connected by a bi-directional communication link. The sending node sends a data transmission to the receiving node on the bi-directional communication link, and the receiving node receives the data transmission and verifies the data transmission to determine valid data and invalid data and verify retransmissions of invalid data as corresponding valid data. A memory device communicates with the receiving node for storing the invalid data and the corresponding valid data. A computing node communicates with the memory device and receives and performs an analysis of the invalid data and the corresponding valid data received from the memory device.

Low Latency MAC Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Timing Offset

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Seung Sik

This paper proposes a low latency MAC protocol that can be used in sensor networks. To extend the lifetime of sensor nodes, the conventional solution is to synchronize active/sleep periods of all sensor nodes. However, due to these synchronized sensor nodes, packets in the intermediate nodes must wait until the next node wakes up before it can forward a packet. This induces a large delay in sensor nodes. To solve this latency problem, a clustered sensor network which uses two types of sensor nodes and layered architecture is considered. Clustered heads in each cluster are synchronized with different timing offsets to reduce the sleep delay. Using this concept, the latency problem can be solved and more efficient power usage can be obtained.

Compressed sensing based missing nodes prediction in temporal communication network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Guangquan; Ma, Yang; Liu, Zhong; Xie, Fuli

2018-02-01

The reconstruction of complex network topology is of great theoretical and practical significance. Most research so far focuses on the prediction of missing links. There are many mature algorithms for link prediction which have achieved good results, but research on the prediction of missing nodes has just begun. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for missing node prediction in complex networks. We detect the position of missing nodes based on their neighbor nodes under the theory of compressed sensing, and extend the algorithm to the case of multiple missing nodes using spectral clustering. Experiments on real public network datasets and simulated datasets show that our algorithm can detect the locations of hidden nodes effectively with high precision.

Method for nonlinear optimization for gas tagging and other systems

DOEpatents

Chen, Ting; Gross, Kenny C.; Wegerich, Stephan

1998-01-01

A method and system for providing nuclear fuel rods with a configuration of isotopic gas tags. The method includes selecting a true location of a first gas tag node, selecting initial locations for the remaining n-1 nodes using target gas tag compositions, generating a set of random gene pools with L nodes, applying a Hopfield network for computing on energy, or cost, for each of the L gene pools and using selected constraints to establish minimum energy states to identify optimal gas tag nodes with each energy compared to a convergence threshold and then upon identifying the gas tag node continuing this procedure until establishing the next gas tag node until all remaining n nodes have been established.

Method for nonlinear optimization for gas tagging and other systems

DOEpatents

Chen, T.; Gross, K.C.; Wegerich, S.

1998-01-06

A method and system are disclosed for providing nuclear fuel rods with a configuration of isotopic gas tags. The method includes selecting a true location of a first gas tag node, selecting initial locations for the remaining n-1 nodes using target gas tag compositions, generating a set of random gene pools with L nodes, applying a Hopfield network for computing on energy, or cost, for each of the L gene pools and using selected constraints to establish minimum energy states to identify optimal gas tag nodes with each energy compared to a convergence threshold and then upon identifying the gas tag node continuing this procedure until establishing the next gas tag node until all remaining n nodes have been established. 6 figs.

[Anatomy and histology characteristics of lymph node in nude mice].

PubMed

Sun, R; Gao, B; Guo, C B

2017-10-18

To compare the differences of anatomical and histological characteristics of lymph nodes between BALB/c nude mice and BALB/c mice. Firstly, twenty BALB/c nude mice and twenty BALB/c mice were dissected by using a surgical microscope. Secondly, the differences of T cells and B cells at the lymph node were compared by the expressions of CD 3 and CD 20 immunohistochemistry dyes. There were, on average, 23 nodes per mouse contained within the large lymph node assembly in the BALB/c nude mouse. The anatomical features of the lymph node distribution in the nude mice were mainly found in the neck with relatively higher density. There were two lymph nodes both in the submandible lymph nodes group and in the superficial cervical lymph nodes group (the constituent ratios were 95% and 90%, respectively) in the BALB/c nude mice, but there were four lymph nodes (the constituent ratios were 95% and 90%, respectively) in the BALB/c mice. There were significant difference between the BALB/c nude mice and the BALB/c mice. Mostly there were two lymph nodes of deep cervical lymph nodes both in the BALB/c nude mice and the BALB/c mice (the constituent ratios were 95% and 100%, respectively). There were no significant difference between the BALB/c nude mice and the BALB/c mice. We confirmed that the number of CD 3 -positive T lymphocytes in lymph nodes of the nude mice decreased greatly as compared with the BALB/c mice. Expressions of CD3 in T cells were 95% and 100% in the BALB/c nude mice and in the BALB/c mice, respectively. There were significant differences between the BALB/c nude mice and the BALB/c mice. Expressions of CD20 in B cells were 95% and 100% in the BALB/c nude mice and in the BALB/c mice, respectively. There was no significant difference between the BALB/c nude mice and BALB/c mice. The anatomical pictures of lymph node distribution in the nude mouse will be benefit to those who are interested. The anatomical features of the lymph node local higher density in neck of the nude mouse and lack of CD3-positive T lymphocytes would be useful for obtaining a better understanding of localized lymph node metastasis of oral transplant tumors.

Dynamic resource allocation scheme for distributed heterogeneous computer systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, Howard T. (Inventor); Silvester, John A. (Inventor)

1991-01-01

This invention relates to a resource allocation in computer systems, and more particularly, to a method and associated apparatus for shortening response time and improving efficiency of a heterogeneous distributed networked computer system by reallocating the jobs queued up for busy nodes to idle, or less-busy nodes. In accordance with the algorithm (SIDA for short), the load-sharing is initiated by the server device in a manner such that extra overhead in not imposed on the system during heavily-loaded conditions. The algorithm employed in the present invention uses a dual-mode, server-initiated approach. Jobs are transferred from heavily burdened nodes (i.e., over a high threshold limit) to low burdened nodes at the initiation of the receiving node when: (1) a job finishes at a node which is burdened below a pre-established threshold level, or (2) a node is idle for a period of time as established by a wakeup timer at the node. The invention uses a combination of the local queue length and the local service rate ratio at each node as the workload indicator.

Automatic identification of IASLC-defined mediastinal lymph node stations on CT scans using multi-atlas organ segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffman, Joanne; Liu, Jiamin; Turkbey, Evrim; Kim, Lauren; Summers, Ronald M.

2015-03-01

Station-labeling of mediastinal lymph nodes is typically performed to identify the location of enlarged nodes for cancer staging. Stations are usually assigned in clinical radiology practice manually by qualitative visual assessment on CT scans, which is time consuming and highly variable. In this paper, we developed a method that automatically recognizes the lymph node stations in thoracic CT scans based on the anatomical organs in the mediastinum. First, the trachea, lungs, and spines are automatically segmented to locate the mediastinum region. Then, eight more anatomical organs are simultaneously identified by multi-atlas segmentation. Finally, with the segmentation of those anatomical organs, we convert the text definitions of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) lymph node map into patient-specific color-coded CT image maps. Thus, a lymph node station is automatically assigned to each lymph node. We applied this system to CT scans of 86 patients with 336 mediastinal lymph nodes measuring equal or greater than 10 mm. 84.8% of mediastinal lymph nodes were correctly mapped to their stations.

Towards the development of tamper-resistant, ground-based mobile sensor nodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mascarenas, David; Stull, Christopher; Farrar, Charles

2011-11-01

Mobile sensor nodes hold great potential for collecting field data using fewer resources than human operators would require and potentially requiring fewer sensors than a fixed-position sensor array. It would be very beneficial to allow these mobile sensor nodes to operate unattended with a minimum of human intervention. In order to allow mobile sensor nodes to operate unattended in a field environment, it is imperative that they be capable of identifying and responding to external agents that may attempt to tamper with, damage or steal the mobile sensor nodes, while still performing their data collection mission. Potentially hostile external agents could include animals, other mobile sensor nodes, or humans. This work will focus on developing control policies to help enable a mobile sensor node to identify and avoid capture by a hostile un-mounted human. The work is developed in a simulation environment, and demonstrated using a non-holonomic, ground-based mobile sensor node. This work will be a preliminary step toward ensuring the cyber-physical security of ground-based mobile sensor nodes that operate unattended in potentially unfriendly environments.

Node property of weighted networks considering connectability to nodes within two degrees of separation.

PubMed

Amano, Sun-Ichi; Ogawa, Ken-Ichiro; Miyake, Yoshihiro

2018-05-31

Weighted networks have been extensively studied because they can represent various phenomena in which the diversity of edges is essential. To investigate the properties of weighted networks, various centrality measures have been proposed, such as strength, weighted clustering coefficients, and weighted betweenness centrality. In such measures, only direct connections or entire network connectivity from arbitrary nodes have been used to calculate the connectivity of each node. However, in weighted networks composed of autonomous elements such as humans, middle ranges from each node are also considered to be meaningful for characterizing each node's connectability. In this study, we define a new node property in weighted networks to consider connectability to nodes within a range of two degrees of separation, then apply this new centrality to face-to-face human communication networks in corporate organizations. Our results show that the proposed centrality distinguishes inherent communities corresponding to the job types in each organization with a high degree of accuracy. This indicates the possibility that connectability to nodes within two degrees of separation reveals potential trends of weighted networks that are not apparent from conventional measures.

Comparative study between ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology of axillary lymph nodes and sentinel lymph node histopathology in early-stage breast cancer

PubMed Central

Cardoso-Coelho, Lívio Portela; Borges, Rafael Soares; Alencar, Airlane Pereira; Cardoso-Campos-Verdes, Larysse Maira; da Silva-Sampaio, João Paulo; Borges, Umbelina Soares; Gebrim, Luiz Henrique; da Silva, Benedito Borges

2017-01-01

The replacement of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNB) by ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-guided FNA) cytology of axillary lymph nodes is controversial, despite the simplicity and reduced cost of the latter. In the present study, US-guided FNA was performed in 27 patients with early-stage breast cancer for comparison with SNB. Data were analyzed by calculation of sample proportions. Tumor subtypes included invasive ductal carcinoma (85%), invasive lobular carcinoma (7%), and tubular and metaplastic carcinoma (4%). FNA had a sensitivity of 45%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100% and a negative predictive value of 73%. Axillary lymph node cytology obtained by US guided-FNA in patients with breast cancer had a specificity similar to that of sentinel lymph node histopathology in the presence of axillary node metastases. However, when lymph node cytology is negative, it does not exclude the existence of metastatic implants, due to its low sensitivity in comparison to sentinel lymph node histopathology. PMID:28521436

Testnodes: a Lightweight Node-Testing Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fay, R.; Bland, J.

2014-06-01

A key aspect of ensuring optimum cluster reliability and productivity lies in keeping worker nodes in a healthy state. Testnodes is a lightweight node testing solution developed at Liverpool. While Nagios has been used locally for general monitoring of hosts and services, Testnodes is optimised to answer one question: is there any reason this node should not be accepting jobs? This tight focus enables Testnodes to inspect nodes frequently with minimal impact and provide a comprehensive and easily extended check with each inspection. On the server side, Testnodes, implemented in python, interoperates with the Torque batch server to control the nodes production status. Testnodes remotely and in parallel executes client-side test scripts and processes the return codes and output, adjusting the node's online/offline status accordingly to preserve the integrity of the overall batch system. Testnodes reports via log, email and Nagios, allowing a quick overview of node status to be reviewed and specific node issues to be identified and resolved quickly. This presentation will cover testnodes design and implementation, together with the results of its use in production at Liverpool, and future development plans.

Simultaneous mapping of pan and sentinel lymph nodes for real-time image-guided surgery.

PubMed

Ashitate, Yoshitomo; Hyun, Hoon; Kim, Soon Hee; Lee, Jeong Heon; Henary, Maged; Frangioni, John V; Choi, Hak Soo

2014-01-01

The resection of regional lymph nodes in the basin of a primary tumor is of paramount importance in surgical oncology. Although sentinel lymph node mapping is now the standard of care in breast cancer and melanoma, over 20% of patients require a completion lymphadenectomy. Yet, there is currently no technology available that can image all lymph nodes in the body in real time, or assess both the sentinel node and all nodes simultaneously. In this study, we report an optical fluorescence technology that is capable of simultaneous mapping of pan lymph nodes (PLNs) and sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) in the same subject. We developed near-infrared fluorophores, which have fluorescence emission maxima either at 700 nm or at 800 nm. One was injected intravenously for identification of all regional lymph nodes in a basin, and the other was injected locally for identification of the SLN. Using the dual-channel FLARE intraoperative imaging system, we could identify and resect all PLNs and SLNs simultaneously. The technology we describe enables simultaneous, real-time visualization of both PLNs and SLNs in the same subject.

Function Allocation in a Robust Distributed Real-Time Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-12-01

fundamental characteristic of a distributed system is its ability to map individual logical functions of an application program onto many physical nodes... how much of a node’s processor time is scheduled for function processing. IMC is the function- to -function communication required to facilitate...indicator of how much excess processor time a node has. The reconfiguration algorithms use these variables to determine the most appropriate node(s) to

Profiling an application for power consumption during execution on a plurality of compute nodes

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles J.; Blocksome, Michael A.; Peters, Amanda E.; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian E.

2012-08-21

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for profiling an application for power consumption during execution on a compute node that include: receiving an application for execution on a compute node; identifying a hardware power consumption profile for the compute node, the hardware power consumption profile specifying power consumption for compute node hardware during performance of various processing operations; determining a power consumption profile for the application in dependence upon the application and the hardware power consumption profile for the compute node; and reporting the power consumption profile for the application.

Collectively loading an application in a parallel computer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aho, Michael E.; Attinella, John E.; Gooding, Thomas M.

Collectively loading an application in a parallel computer, the parallel computer comprising a plurality of compute nodes, including: identifying, by a parallel computer control system, a subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer to execute a job; selecting, by the parallel computer control system, one of the subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer as a job leader compute node; retrieving, by the job leader compute node from computer memory, an application for executing the job; and broadcasting, by the job leader to the subset of compute nodes in the parallel computer, the application for executing the job.

Method and apparatus for routing data in an inter-nodal communications lattice of a massively parallel computer system by dynamically adjusting local routing strategies

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Musselman, Roy Glenn; Peters, Amanda; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Swartz, Brent Allen; Wallenfelt, Brian Paul

2010-03-16

A massively parallel computer system contains an inter-nodal communications network of node-to-node links. Each node implements a respective routing strategy for routing data through the network, the routing strategies not necessarily being the same in every node. The routing strategies implemented in the nodes are dynamically adjusted during application execution to shift network workload as required. Preferably, adjustment of routing policies in selective nodes is performed at synchronization points. The network may be dynamically monitored, and routing strategies adjusted according to detected network conditions.

Adaptive triangular mesh generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Erlebacher, G.; Eiseman, P. R.

1984-01-01

A general adaptive grid algorithm is developed on triangular grids. The adaptivity is provided by a combination of node addition, dynamic node connectivity and a simple node movement strategy. While the local restructuring process and the node addition mechanism take place in the physical plane, the nodes are displaced on a monitor surface, constructed from the salient features of the physical problem. An approximation to mean curvature detects changes in the direction of the monitor surface, and provides the pulling force on the nodes. Solutions to the axisymmetric Grad-Shafranov equation demonstrate the capturing, by triangles, of the plasma-vacuum interface in a free-boundary equilibrium configuration.

Portable gamma camera guidance in sentinel lymph node biopsy: prospective observational study of consecutive cases.

PubMed

Peral Rubio, F; de La Riva, P; Moreno-Ramírez, D; Ferrándiz-Pulido, L

2015-06-01

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the most important tool available for node staging in patients with melanoma. To analyze sentinel lymph node detection and dissection with radio guidance from a portable gamma camera. To assess the number of complications attributable to this biopsy technique. Prospective observational study of a consecutive series of patients undergoing radioguided sentinel lymph node biopsy. We analyzed agreement between nodes detected by presurgical lymphography, those detected by the gamma camera, and those finally dissected. A total of 29 patients (17 women [62.5%] and 12 men [37.5%]) were enrolled. The mean age was 52.6 years (range, 26-82 years). The sentinel node was dissected from all patients; secondary nodes were dissected from some. In 16 cases (55.2%), there was agreement between the number of nodes detected by lymphography, those detected by the gamma camera, and those finally dissected. The only complications observed were seromas (3.64%). No cases of wound dehiscence, infection, hematoma, or hemorrhage were observed. Portable gamma-camera radio guidance may be of use in improving the detection and dissection of sentinel lymph nodes and may also reduce complications. These goals are essential in a procedure whose purpose is melanoma staging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and AEDV. All rights reserved.

Comparison of four staging systems of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.

PubMed

Zhang, Ming; Zhu, Guanyu; Ma, Yan; Xue, Yingwei

2009-11-01

The classification of lymph node metastasis in patients with gastric cancer is still controversial. Our aim was to evaluate the relative merits of four staging systems of lymph node metastasis. In our study, the nodal status was classified according to the 5th edition of the tumor node metastasis (TNM) system, the Japanese Classification of Gastric Carcinoma (JCGC), the ratio of metastatic lymph nodes, and the size of the largest metastatic lymph node. Each staging system was scored as good (+2), fair (+1), or poor (0) with respect to the theoretical value (extent of the anatomical lymphatic tumor spread), convenience (simplicity), surgical applicability (extent of lymph node dissection), and prognostic value (ability to predict survival rate). In the multivariate analysis including the four staging systems and other potential prognostic factors, stepwise Cox regression revealed that the ratio of metastatic lymph nodes was the most independent prognostic factor. The TNM, ratio, and size systems were convenient because they had no consideration for the location of the tumor and lymph node. Although the JCGC system had advantages in theoretical value and surgical application, it was most optional due to the complexity of the system. Although all different staging systems are comparable, the metastatic lymph node ratio system is convenient, reproducible, and has the highest ability to predict survival.

Service-Oriented Node Scheduling Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Markov Random Field Model

PubMed Central

Cheng, Hongju; Su, Zhihuang; Lloret, Jaime; Chen, Guolong

2014-01-01

Future wireless sensor networks are expected to provide various sensing services and energy efficiency is one of the most important criterions. The node scheduling strategy aims to increase network lifetime by selecting a set of sensor nodes to provide the required sensing services in a periodic manner. In this paper, we are concerned with the service-oriented node scheduling problem to provide multiple sensing services while maximizing the network lifetime. We firstly introduce how to model the data correlation for different services by using Markov Random Field (MRF) model. Secondly, we formulate the service-oriented node scheduling issue into three different problems, namely, the multi-service data denoising problem which aims at minimizing the noise level of sensed data, the representative node selection problem concerning with selecting a number of active nodes while determining the services they provide, and the multi-service node scheduling problem which aims at maximizing the network lifetime. Thirdly, we propose a Multi-service Data Denoising (MDD) algorithm, a novel multi-service Representative node Selection and service Determination (RSD) algorithm, and a novel MRF-based Multi-service Node Scheduling (MMNS) scheme to solve the above three problems respectively. Finally, extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed scheme efficiently extends the network lifetime. PMID:25384005

Comparison of five systems for staging lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.

PubMed

Yu, W; Choi, G S; Whang, I; Suh, I S

1997-09-01

There are several systems for staging lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer. Their relative merits are not clear. In this retrospective analysis, the nodal status was classified according to the Union Internacional Contra la Cancrum (UICC) and Japanese staging systems, the number and frequency of lymph node metastasis, and the level of involved nodes. Each staging system was scored as good (+1), fair (0) or poor (-1) with respect to prognostic value, theoretical value, convenience, reproducibility and surgical applicability. There were no differences between the five staging systems in predicting survival. The Japanese staging system was most arbitrary owing to the complexity of the system, although it had an advantage in surgical application. The same disadvantage was found in the UICC system and the level system. Determination of the number and frequency of involved nodes was convenient and reproducible, but the number of lymph nodes dissected must be considered when the number of positive nodes is used for staging. The classification of metastasis to the regional lymph nodes as N0 (no nodal metastasis), N1 (metastasis in 1-25 per cent of dissected nodes) and N2 (metastasis in more than 25 per cent of dissected nodes) would be a simple, convenient, reproducible staging system with an ability to predict surgical results.

A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path.

PubMed

Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

2016-01-01

To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective.

A Scheduling Algorithm for Cloud Computing System Based on the Driver of Dynamic Essential Path

PubMed Central

Xie, Zhiqiang; Shao, Xia; Xin, Yu

2016-01-01

To solve the problem of task scheduling in the cloud computing system, this paper proposes a scheduling algorithm for cloud computing based on the driver of dynamic essential path (DDEP). This algorithm applies a predecessor-task layer priority strategy to solve the problem of constraint relations among task nodes. The strategy assigns different priority values to every task node based on the scheduling order of task node as affected by the constraint relations among task nodes, and the task node list is generated by the different priority value. To address the scheduling order problem in which task nodes have the same priority value, the dynamic essential long path strategy is proposed. This strategy computes the dynamic essential path of the pre-scheduling task nodes based on the actual computation cost and communication cost of task node in the scheduling process. The task node that has the longest dynamic essential path is scheduled first as the completion time of task graph is indirectly influenced by the finishing time of task nodes in the longest dynamic essential path. Finally, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm via simulation experiments using Matlab tools. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task Makespan in most cases and meet a high quality performance objective. PMID:27490901

Distributed Sensor Nodes Charged by Mobile Charger with Directional Antenna and by Energy Trading for Balancing.

PubMed

Moraes, Celso; Myung, Sunghee; Lee, Sangkeum; Har, Dongsoo

2017-01-10

Provision of energy to wireless sensor networks is crucial for their sustainable operation. Sensor nodes are typically equipped with batteries as their operating energy sources. However, when the sensor nodes are sited in almost inaccessible locations, replacing their batteries incurs high maintenance cost. Under such conditions, wireless charging of sensor nodes by a mobile charger with an antenna can be an efficient solution. When charging distributed sensor nodes, a directional antenna, rather than an omnidirectional antenna, is more energy-efficient because of smaller proportion of off-target radiation. In addition, for densely distributed sensor nodes, it can be more effective for some undercharged sensor nodes to harvest energy from neighboring overcharged sensor nodes than from the remote mobile charger, because this reduces the pathloss of charging signal due to smaller distances. In this paper, we propose a hybrid charging scheme that combines charging by a mobile charger with a directional antenna, and energy trading, e.g., transferring and harvesting, between neighboring sensor nodes. The proposed scheme is compared with other charging scheme. Simulations demonstrate that the hybrid charging scheme with a directional antenna achieves a significant reduction in the total charging time required for all sensor nodes to reach a target energy level.

Distributed Sensor Nodes Charged by Mobile Charger with Directional Antenna and by Energy Trading for Balancing

PubMed Central

Moraes, Celso; Myung, Sunghee; Lee, Sangkeum; Har, Dongsoo

2017-01-01

Provision of energy to wireless sensor networks is crucial for their sustainable operation. Sensor nodes are typically equipped with batteries as their operating energy sources. However, when the sensor nodes are sited in almost inaccessible locations, replacing their batteries incurs high maintenance cost. Under such conditions, wireless charging of sensor nodes by a mobile charger with an antenna can be an efficient solution. When charging distributed sensor nodes, a directional antenna, rather than an omnidirectional antenna, is more energy-efficient because of smaller proportion of off-target radiation. In addition, for densely distributed sensor nodes, it can be more effective for some undercharged sensor nodes to harvest energy from neighboring overcharged sensor nodes than from the remote mobile charger, because this reduces the pathloss of charging signal due to smaller distances. In this paper, we propose a hybrid charging scheme that combines charging by a mobile charger with a directional antenna, and energy trading, e.g., transferring and harvesting, between neighboring sensor nodes. The proposed scheme is compared with other charging scheme. Simulations demonstrate that the hybrid charging scheme with a directional antenna achieves a significant reduction in the total charging time required for all sensor nodes to reach a target energy level. PMID:28075372

Superficial and deep lymph node dissection for stage III cutaneous melanoma: clinical outcome and prognostic factors

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The aims of this retrospective analysis were to evaluate the effect of combined superficial and deep groin dissection on disease-free and melanoma-specific survival, and to identify the most important factors for predicting the involvement of deep nodes according to clinically or microscopically detected nodal metastases. Methods Between January 1996 and December 2005, 133 consecutive patients with groin lymph node metastases underwent superficial and deep dissection at the National Cancer Institute, Naples. Lymph node involvement was clinically evident in 84 patients and detected by sentinel node biopsy in 49 cases. Results The 5-year disease-free survival was significantly better for patients with superficial lymph node metastases than for patients with involvement of both superficial and deep lymph nodes (34.9% vs. 19.0%; P = 0.001). The 5-year melanoma-specific survival was also significantly better for patients with superficial node metastases only (55.6% vs. 33.3%; P = 0.001). Conclusions Metastasis in the deep nodes is the strongest predictor of both disease-free and melanoma-specific survival. Deep groin dissection should be considered for all patients with groin clinical nodal involvement, but might be spared in patients with a positive sentinel node. Prospective studies will clarify the issue further. PMID:23379355

Superficial and deep lymph node dissection for stage III cutaneous melanoma: clinical outcome and prognostic factors.

PubMed

Mozzillo, Nicola; Caracò, Corrado; Marone, Ugo; Di Monta, Gianluca; Crispo, Anna; Botti, Gerardo; Montella, Maurizio; Ascierto, Paolo Antonio

2013-02-04

The aims of this retrospective analysis were to evaluate the effect of combined superficial and deep groin dissection on disease-free and melanoma-specific survival, and to identify the most important factors for predicting the involvement of deep nodes according to clinically or microscopically detected nodal metastases. Between January 1996 and December 2005, 133 consecutive patients with groin lymph node metastases underwent superficial and deep dissection at the National Cancer Institute, Naples. Lymph node involvement was clinically evident in 84 patients and detected by sentinel node biopsy in 49 cases. The 5-year disease-free survival was significantly better for patients with superficial lymph node metastases than for patients with involvement of both superficial and deep lymph nodes (34.9% vs. 19.0%; P = 0.001). The 5-year melanoma-specific survival was also significantly better for patients with superficial node metastases only (55.6% vs. 33.3%; P = 0.001). Metastasis in the deep nodes is the strongest predictor of both disease-free and melanoma-specific survival. Deep groin dissection should be considered for all patients with groin clinical nodal involvement, but might be spared in patients with a positive sentinel node. Prospective studies will clarify the issue further.

Radical lymph node dissection and assessment: Impact on gallbladder cancer prognosis

PubMed Central

Liu, Gui-Jie; Li, Xue-Hua; Chen, Yan-Xin; Sun, Hui-Dong; Zhao, Gui-Mei; Hu, San-Yuan

2013-01-01

AIM: To investigate the lymph node metastasis patterns of gallbladder cancer (GBC) and evaluate the optimal categorization of nodal status as a critical prognostic factor. METHODS: From May 1995 to December 2010, a total of 78 consecutive patients with GBC underwent a radical resection at Liaocheng People’s Hospital. A radical resection was defined as removing both the primary tumor and the regional lymph nodes of the gallbladder. Demographic, operative and pathologic data were recorded. The lymph nodes retrieved were examined histologically for metastases routinely from each node. The positive lymph node count (PLNC) as well as the total lymph node count (TLNC) was recorded for each patient. Then the metastatic to examined lymph nodes ratio (LNR) was calculated. Disease-specific survival (DSS) and predictors of outcome were analyzed. RESULTS: With a median follow-up time of 26.50 mo (range, 2-132 mo), median DSS was 29.00 ± 3.92 mo (5-year survival rate, 20.51%). Nodal disease was found in 37 patients (47.44%). DSS of node-negative patients was significantly better than that of node-positive patients (median DSS, 40 mo vs 17 mo, χ2 = 14.814, P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference between N1 patients and N2 patients (median DSS, 18 mo vs 13 mo, χ2 = 0.741, P = 0.389). Optimal TLNC was determined to be four. When node-negative patients were divided according to TLNC, there was no difference in DSS between TLNC < 4 subgroup and TLNC ≥ 4 subgroup (median DSS, 37 mo vs 54 mo, χ2 = 0.715, P = 0.398). For node-positive patients, DSS of TLNC < 4 subgroup was worse than that of TLNC ≥ 4 subgroup (median DSS, 13 mo vs 21 mo, χ2 = 11.035, P < 0.001). Moreover, for node-positive patients, a new cut-off value of six nodes was identified for the number of TLNC that clearly stratified them into 2 separate survival groups (< 6 or ≥ 6, respectively; median DSS, 15 mo vs 33 mo, χ2 = 11.820, P < 0.001). DSS progressively worsened with increasing PLNC and LNR, but no definite cut-off value could be identified. Multivariate analysis revealed histological grade, tumor node metastasis staging, TNLC and LNR to be independent predictors of DSS. Neither location of positive lymph nodes nor PNLC were identified as an independent variable by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Both TLNC and LNR are strong predictors of outcome after curative resection for GBC. The retrieval and examination of at least 6 nodes can influence staging quality and DSS, especially in node-positive patients. PMID:23964151

Radical lymph node dissection and assessment: Impact on gallbladder cancer prognosis.

PubMed

Liu, Gui-Jie; Li, Xue-Hua; Chen, Yan-Xin; Sun, Hui-Dong; Zhao, Gui-Mei; Hu, San-Yuan

2013-08-21

To investigate the lymph node metastasis patterns of gallbladder cancer (GBC) and evaluate the optimal categorization of nodal status as a critical prognostic factor. From May 1995 to December 2010, a total of 78 consecutive patients with GBC underwent a radical resection at Liaocheng People's Hospital. A radical resection was defined as removing both the primary tumor and the regional lymph nodes of the gallbladder. Demographic, operative and pathologic data were recorded. The lymph nodes retrieved were examined histologically for metastases routinely from each node. The positive lymph node count (PLNC) as well as the total lymph node count (TLNC) was recorded for each patient. Then the metastatic to examined lymph nodes ratio (LNR) was calculated. Disease-specific survival (DSS) and predictors of outcome were analyzed. With a median follow-up time of 26.50 mo (range, 2-132 mo), median DSS was 29.00 ± 3.92 mo (5-year survival rate, 20.51%). Nodal disease was found in 37 patients (47.44%). DSS of node-negative patients was significantly better than that of node-positive patients (median DSS, 40 mo vs 17 mo, χ² = 14.814, P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference between N1 patients and N2 patients (median DSS, 18 mo vs 13 mo, χ² = 0.741, P = 0.389). Optimal TLNC was determined to be four. When node-negative patients were divided according to TLNC, there was no difference in DSS between TLNC < 4 subgroup and TLNC ≥ 4 subgroup (median DSS, 37 mo vs 54 mo, χ² = 0.715, P = 0.398). For node-positive patients, DSS of TLNC < 4 subgroup was worse than that of TLNC ≥ 4 subgroup (median DSS, 13 mo vs 21 mo, χ² = 11.035, P < 0.001). Moreover, for node-positive patients, a new cut-off value of six nodes was identified for the number of TLNC that clearly stratified them into 2 separate survival groups (< 6 or ≥ 6, respectively; median DSS, 15 mo vs 33 mo, χ² = 11.820, P < 0.001). DSS progressively worsened with increasing PLNC and LNR, but no definite cut-off value could be identified. Multivariate analysis revealed histological grade, tumor node metastasis staging, TNLC and LNR to be independent predictors of DSS. Neither location of positive lymph nodes nor PNLC were identified as an independent variable by multivariate analysis. Both TLNC and LNR are strong predictors of outcome after curative resection for GBC. The retrieval and examination of at least 6 nodes can influence staging quality and DSS, especially in node-positive patients.

[Numbers of lymph nodes in large intestinal resections for colorectal carcinoma].

PubMed

Motycka, V; Ferko, A; Tycová, V; Nikolov, Hadzi; Sotona, O; Cecka, F; Dusek, T; Chobola, M; Pospísil, I

2010-03-01

Precise evaluation of lymph nodes in the surgical specimen is crucial for the staging and subsequent decision about the adjuvant therapy in colorectal cancer. Prognosis of the patients can be assessed only in cases when at least 12 lymph nodes in the surgical specimen are examined. To evaluate the radicalism of resections for colorectal carcinoma after introducing laparoscopic approach. We compared all resections for primary colorectal cancer and rectal cancer (C 18-C20) performed in the Department of Surgery in University Hospital Hradec Králové in the years 2005 and 2008 and we evaluated numbers of examined lymph nodes in the surgical specimens. The patients with recurrent tumours and the patients with complete pathological response (negative histology) after neoadjuvant therapy were excluded from the study. 117 patients were included in the study in 2005, 2 of them were operated laparoscopically. 155 patients (more by 32.5%) were included in the study in 2008, 53 of them (34.2%) were operated laparoscopically. In tumours of the right part of the colon (C180-C184) treated by right hemicolectomy: on an average 7.9 (+/- 5.3) lymph nodes were examined in the specimens in 2005, and 15.3 (+/- 7.0) lymph nodes in 2008. In tumours of the left part of the colon (C185-C186) treated by left hemicolectomy: 6.5 (+/- 5.1) lymph nodes were examined in 2005, and 19.6 (+/- 15.6) in 2008. In tumours of the sigmoid colon (C187) 9.1 (+/- 6.9) lymph nodes were examined in 2005,and 15.4 (+/- 7.9) in 2008. In tumours of the rectosigmoid junction (C19) 8.0 (+/- 6.9) lymph nodes were examined in 2005, and 17.8 (+/- 11.2) in 2008. In rectal cancer (C20) 5.2 (+/- 4.5) lymph nodes were examined in 2005, and 13.6 (+/- 12.5) in 2008. There is a significant difference in a number of examined lymph nodes in patients without neodadjuvant treatment compared to those with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and neoadjuvant radiotherapy. In 2005, in an average 3.7 (+/- 3.3) lymph nodes were removed in rectal resections after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, in 2008 in an average 7.6 (+/- 6.1) lymph nodes were removed. In 2005, in an average 5.1 (+/- 3.7) lymph nodes in rectal resections after neoadjuvant radiotherapy were removed, in 2008 6.3 (+/- 4.3) lymph nodes were removed. In 2005, in an average 7.0 (+/- 5.5) lymph nodes in rectal resections without neoadjuvant therapy were removed, in 2008 20.9 (+/- 14.1) lymph nodes were removed. Laparoscopic resections were comparable with open resections regarding the number of examined lymph nodes in our group of patients. Introducing the laparoscopic approach to resections of colorectal carcinomas did not decrease radicalism of the operation as to the number of removed lymph nodes.

Parameters affecting the resilience of scale-free networks to random failures.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Link, Hamilton E.; LaViolette, Randall A.; Lane, Terran

2005-09-01

It is commonly believed that scale-free networks are robust to massive numbers of random node deletions. For example, Cohen et al. in (1) study scale-free networks including some which approximate the measured degree distribution of the Internet. Their results suggest that if each node in this network failed independently with probability 0.99, most of the remaining nodes would still be connected in a giant component. In this paper, we show that a large and important subclass of scale-free networks are not robust to massive numbers of random node deletions. In particular, we study scale-free networks which have minimum node degreemore » of 1 and a power-law degree distribution beginning with nodes of degree 1 (power-law networks). We show that, in a power-law network approximating the Internet's reported distribution, when the probability of deletion of each node is 0.5 only about 25% of the surviving nodes in the network remain connected in a giant component, and the giant component does not persist beyond a critical failure rate of 0.9. The new result is partially due to improved analytical accommodation of the large number of degree-0 nodes that result after node deletions. Our results apply to power-law networks with a wide range of power-law exponents, including Internet-like networks. We give both analytical and empirical evidence that such networks are not generally robust to massive random node deletions.« less

3D Model of Cytokinetic Contractile Ring Assembly: Node-Mediated and Backup Pathways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bidone, Tamara; Vavylonis, Dimitrios

Cytokinetic ring assembly in model organism fission yeast is a dynamic process, involving condensation of a network of actin filaments and myosin motors bound to the cell membrane through cortical nodes. A 3D computational model of ring assembly illustrates how the combined activities of myosin motors, filament crosslinkers and actin turnover lead to robust ring formation [Bidone et al. Biophys. J, 2014]. We modeled the importance of the physical properties of node movement along the cell membrane and of myosin recruitment to nodes. Experiments by D. Zhang (Temasek Life Sciences) show that tethering of the cortical endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the plasma membrane modulates the speed of node condensation and the degree of node clumping. We captured the trend observed in these experiments by changes in the node drag coefficient and initial node distribution in simulations PM. The model predicted that reducing crosslinking activities in ER tethering mutants with faster node speed enhances actomyosin clumping. We developed a model of how tilted and/or misplaced rings assemble in cells that lack the node structural component anillin-like Mid1 and thus fail to recruit myosin II to nodes independently of actin. If actin-dependent binding of diffusive myosin to the cortex is incorporated into the model, it generates progressively elongating cortical actomyosin strands with fluctuating actin bundles at the tails. These stands often close into a ring, similar to observations by the group of J.Q. Wu (The Ohio State University). NIH R01GM098430.

Sentinel Node Mapping Using a Fluorescent Dye and Visible Light During Laparoscopic Gastrectomy for Early Gastric Cancer: Result of a Prospective Study From a Single Institute.

PubMed

Lee, Chang Min; Park, Sungsoo; Park, Seong-Heum; Jung, Sung Woo; Choe, Jung Wan; Sul, Ji-Young; Jang, You Jin; Mok, Young-Jae; Kim, Jong-Han

2017-04-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of sentinel node mapping using a fluorescent dye and visible light in patients with gastric cancer. Recently, fluorescent imaging technology offers improved visibility with the possibility of better sensitivity or accuracy in sentinel node mapping. Twenty patients with early gastric cancer, for whom laparoscopic distal gastrectomy with standard lymphadenectomy had been planned, were enrolled in this study. Before lymphadenectomy, the patients received a gastrofiberoscopic peritumoral injection of fluorescein solution. The sentinel basin was investigated via laparoscopic fluorescent imaging under blue light (wavelength of 440-490 nm) emitted from an LED curing light. The detection rate and lymph node status were analyzed in the enrolled patients. In addition, short-term clinical outcomes were also investigated. No hypersensitivity to the dye was identified in any enrolled patients. Sentinel nodes were detected in 19 of 20 enrolled patients (95.0%), and metastatic lymph nodes were found in 2 patients. The latter lymph nodes belonged to the sentinel basin of each patient. Meanwhile, 1 patient (5.0%) experienced a postoperative complication that was unrelated to sentinel node mapping. No mortality was recorded among enrolled cases. Sentinel node mapping with visible light fluorescence was a feasible method for visualizing sentinel nodes in patients with early gastric cancer. In addition, this method is advantageous in terms of visualizing the concrete relationship between the sentinel nodes and surrounding structures.

Comparison of Positron Emission Tomography Scanning and Sentinel Node Biopsy in the Detection of Inguinal Node Metastases in Patients With Anal Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mistrangelo, Massimiliano, E-mail: mistrangelo@katamail.co; Centre of Minimally Invasive Surgery, University of Turin; Pelosi, Ettore

2010-05-01

Background: Inguinal lymph node metastases in patients with anal cancer are an independent prognostic factor for local failure and overall mortality. Inguinal lymph node status can be adequately assessed with sentinel node biopsy, and the radiotherapy strategy can subsequently be changed. We compared this technique vs. dedicated 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) to determine which was the better tool for staging inguinal lymph nodes. Methods and Materials: In our department, 27 patients (9 men and 18 women) underwent both inguinal sentinel node biopsy and PET-CT. PET-CT was performed before treatment and then at 1 and 3 months after treatment. Results:more » PET-CT scans detected no inguinal metastases in 20 of 27 patients and metastases in the remaining 7. Histologic analysis of the sentinel lymph node detected metastases in only three patients (four PET-CT false positives). HIV status was not found to influence the results. None of the patients negative at sentinel node biopsy developed metastases during the follow-up period. PET-CT had a sensitivity of 100%, with a negative predictive value of 100%. Owing to the high number of false positives, PET-CT specificity was 83%, and positive predictive value was 43%. Conclusions: In this series of patients with anal cancer, inguinal sentinel node biopsy was superior to PET-CT for staging inguinal lymph nodes.« less

Node, Node-Link, and Node-Link-Group Diagrams: An Evaluation.

PubMed

Saket, Bahador; Simonetto, Paolo; Kobourov, Stephen; Börner, Katy

2014-12-01

Effectively showing the relationships between objects in a dataset is one of the main tasks in information visualization. Typically there is a well-defined notion of distance between pairs of objects, and traditional approaches such as principal component analysis or multi-dimensional scaling are used to place the objects as points in 2D space, so that similar objects are close to each other. In another typical setting, the dataset is visualized as a network graph, where related nodes are connected by links. More recently, datasets are also visualized as maps, where in addition to nodes and links, there is an explicit representation of groups and clusters. We consider these three Techniques, characterized by a progressive increase of the amount of encoded information: node diagrams, node-link diagrams and node-link-group diagrams. We assess these three types of diagrams with a controlled experiment that covers nine different tasks falling broadly in three categories: node-based tasks, network-based tasks and group-based tasks. Our findings indicate that adding links, or links and group representations, does not negatively impact performance (time and accuracy) of node-based tasks. Similarly, adding group representations does not negatively impact the performance of network-based tasks. Node-link-group diagrams outperform the others on group-based tasks. These conclusions contradict results in other studies, in similar but subtly different settings. Taken together, however, such results can have significant implications for the design of standard and domain snecific visualizations tools.

Message passing with a limited number of DMA byte counters

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael [Rochester, MN; Chen, Dong [Croton on Hudson, NY; Giampapa, Mark E [Irvington, NY; Heidelberger, Philip [Cortlandt Manor, NY; Kumar, Sameer [White Plains, NY; Parker, Jeffrey J [Rochester, MN

2011-10-04

A method for passing messages in a parallel computer system constructed as a plurality of compute nodes interconnected as a network where each compute node includes a DMA engine but includes only a limited number of byte counters for tracking a number of bytes that are sent or received by the DMA engine, where the byte counters may be used in shared counter or exclusive counter modes of operation. The method includes using rendezvous protocol, a source compute node deterministically sending a request to send (RTS) message with a single RTS descriptor using an exclusive injection counter to track both the RTS message and message data to be sent in association with the RTS message, to a destination compute node such that the RTS descriptor indicates to the destination compute node that the message data will be adaptively routed to the destination node. Using one DMA FIFO at the source compute node, the RTS descriptors are maintained for rendezvous messages destined for the destination compute node to ensure proper message data ordering thereat. Using a reception counter at a DMA engine, the destination compute node tracks reception of the RTS and associated message data and sends a clear to send (CTS) message to the source node in a rendezvous protocol form of a remote get to accept the RTS message and message data and processing the remote get (CTS) by the source compute node DMA engine to provide the message data to be sent.

Automatic detection of pelvic lymph nodes using multiple MR sequences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Michelle; Lu, Yue; Lu, Renzhi; Requardt, Martin; Moeller, Thomas; Takahashi, Satoru; Barentsz, Jelle

2007-03-01

A system for automatic detection of pelvic lymph nodes is developed by incorporating complementary information extracted from multiple MR sequences. A single MR sequence lacks sufficient diagnostic information for lymph node localization and staging. Correct diagnosis often requires input from multiple complementary sequences which makes manual detection of lymph nodes very labor intensive. Small lymph nodes are often missed even by highly-trained radiologists. The proposed system is aimed at assisting radiologists in finding lymph nodes faster and more accurately. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such system reported in the literature. A 3-dimensional (3D) MR angiography (MRA) image is employed for extracting blood vessels that serve as a guide in searching for pelvic lymph nodes. Segmentation, shape and location analysis of potential lymph nodes are then performed using a high resolution 3D T1-weighted VIBE (T1-vibe) MR sequence acquired by Siemens 3T scanner. An optional contrast-agent enhanced MR image, such as post ferumoxtran-10 T2*-weighted MEDIC sequence, can also be incorporated to further improve detection accuracy of malignant nodes. The system outputs a list of potential lymph node locations that are overlaid onto the corresponding MR sequences and presents them to users with associated confidence levels as well as their sizes and lengths in each axis. Preliminary studies demonstrates the feasibility of automatic lymph node detection and scenarios in which this system may be used to assist radiologists in diagnosis and reporting.

[The historical perspective of the sentinel lymph node concept].

PubMed

Bekker, J; Meijer, S

2008-01-05

The sentinel lymph node procedure is currently standard care in the treatment of breast cancer. The introduction of this procedure in 1992 would not have been possible without the pioneering discoveries regarding lymph nodes and cancer. The Italian surgeon Gaspar Asellius (1581-1626) visualized the lymphatic vessels of a dog after it had been fed and shortly before dissection. At the end of the 17th century, the French anatomists Lauth and Sappey visualized the lymphatics by injecting deceased criminals with mercury. In 1858, the German pathologist Virchow (1821-1902) launched the theory that lymph nodes act as defensive barriers. He also made the first microscopical illustration ofa sentinel lymph node. Gould et al. and Cabaãs independently launched the precursors of the current modern sentinel lymph node concept in 1959 and 1977 respectively. Gould et al. were the first people to use the term "sentinel node'. Cabañas used lymphangiography for the visualisation of the sentinel lymph node. Controversies about the barrier function of the lymph nodes, the fear of skip metastasis and the difficulties of performing the Cabañas procedure, prevented a breakthrough of this concept. In 1992 Morton et al. rediscovered the valuable sentinel node biopsy concept and introduced blue dye for the investigation of patients with melanoma. The combination of lymphoscintigraphy, intra-operative gamma probe guidance and patent blue further increased the reliability of the sentinel lymph node biopsy procedure. Unnecessary lymph gland dissection procedures with considerable morbidity can be prevented by this procedure.

Sentinel Node Biopsy for the Head and Neck Using Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography Combined with Indocyanine Green Fluorescence in Animal Models: A Feasibility Study.

PubMed

Kogashiwa, Yasunao; Sakurai, Hiroyuki; Akimoto, Yoshihiro; Sato, Dai; Ikeda, Tetsuya; Matsumoto, Yoshifumi; Moro, Yorihisa; Kimura, Toru; Hamanoue, Yasuhiro; Nakamura, Takehiro; Yamauchi, Koichi; Saito, Koichiro; Sugasawa, Masashi; Kohno, Naoyuki

2015-01-01

Sentinel node navigation surgery is gaining popularity in oral cancer. We assessed application of sentinel lymph node navigation surgery to pharyngeal and laryngeal cancers by evaluating the combination of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and indocyanine green fluorescence in animal models. This was a prospective, nonrandomized, experimental study in rabbit and swine animal models. A mixture of indocyanine green and Sonazoid was used as the tracer. The tracer mixture was injected into the tongue, larynx, or pharynx. The sentinel lymph nodes were identified transcutaneously by infra-red camera and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography. Detection time and extraction time of the sentinel lymph nodes were measured. The safety of the tracer mixture in terms of mucosal reaction was evaluated macroscopically and microscopically. Sentinel lymph nodes were detected transcutaneously by contrast-enhanced ultrasonography alone. The number of sentinel lymph nodes detected was one or two. Despite observation of contrast enhancement of Sonazoid for at least 90 minutes, the number of sentinel lymph nodes detected did not change. The average extraction time of sentinel lymph nodes was 4.8 minutes. Indocyanine green fluorescence offered visual information during lymph node biopsy. The safety of the tracer was confirmed by absence of laryngeal edema both macro and microscopically. The combination method of indocyanine green fluorescence and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography for detecting sentinel lymph nodes during surgery for head and neck cancer seems promising, especially for pharyngeal and laryngeal cancer. Further clinical studies to confirm this are warranted.

Comparing brain graphs in which nodes are regions of interest or independent components: A simulation study.

PubMed

Yu, Qingbao; Du, Yuhui; Chen, Jiayu; He, Hao; Sui, Jing; Pearlson, Godfrey; Calhoun, Vince D

2017-11-01

A key challenge in building a brain graph using fMRI data is how to define the nodes. Spatial brain components estimated by independent components analysis (ICA) and regions of interest (ROIs) determined by brain atlas are two popular methods to define nodes in brain graphs. It is difficult to evaluate which method is better in real fMRI data. Here we perform a simulation study and evaluate the accuracies of a few graph metrics in graphs with nodes of ICA components, ROIs, or modified ROIs in four simulation scenarios. Graph measures with ICA nodes are more accurate than graphs with ROI nodes in all cases. Graph measures with modified ROI nodes are modulated by artifacts. The correlations of graph metrics across subjects between graphs with ICA nodes and ground truth are higher than the correlations between graphs with ROI nodes and ground truth in scenarios with large overlapped spatial sources. Moreover, moving the location of ROIs would largely decrease the correlations in all scenarios. Evaluating graphs with different nodes is promising in simulated data rather than real data because different scenarios can be simulated and measures of different graphs can be compared with a known ground truth. Since ROIs defined using brain atlas may not correspond well to real functional boundaries, overall findings of this work suggest that it is more appropriate to define nodes using data-driven ICA than ROI approaches in real fMRI data. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thoracic lymph node station recognition on CT images based on automatic anatomy recognition with an optimal parent strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Guoping; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Tong, Yubing; Cao, Hanqiang; Odhner, Dewey; Torigian, Drew A.; Wu, Xingyu

2018-03-01

Currently, there are many papers that have been published on the detection and segmentation of lymph nodes from medical images. However, it is still a challenging problem owing to low contrast with surrounding soft tissues and the variations of lymph node size and shape on computed tomography (CT) images. This is particularly very difficult on low-dose CT of PET/CT acquisitions. In this study, we utilize our previous automatic anatomy recognition (AAR) framework to recognize the thoracic-lymph node stations defined by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) lymph node map. The lymph node stations themselves are viewed as anatomic objects and are localized by using a one-shot method in the AAR framework. Two strategies have been taken in this paper for integration into AAR framework. The first is to combine some lymph node stations into composite lymph node stations according to their geometrical nearness. The other is to find the optimal parent (organ or union of organs) as an anchor for each lymph node station based on the recognition error and thereby find an overall optimal hierarchy to arrange anchor organs and lymph node stations. Based on 28 contrast-enhanced thoracic CT image data sets for model building, 12 independent data sets for testing, our results show that thoracic lymph node stations can be localized within 2-3 voxels compared to the ground truth.

Concordance between peri-areolar blue dye and peri-incisional radiotracer injections for sentinel node mapping in patients with a history of primary breast cancer excisonal biopsy.

PubMed

Mehrabibahar, M; Azizi, S; Jangjoo, A; Saremi, E; Kakhki, V R Dabbagh; Sadeghi, R; Chicken, D W; Keshtgar, M

2014-01-01

We evaluated the concordance between peri-areolar blue dye and peri-incisional radiotracer injections for axillary sentinel node mapping of patients with the history of previous breast lesion excisional biopsy. 80 patients with the history of previous excisional biopsy of the breast lesions were included. All patients received two injections of 99mTc-antimony sulfide colloid in both ends of incision line in an intradermal fashion. 2 mL patient blue V dye was injection to all patients in the peri-areolar area of the index quadrant after induction of anesthesia. All blue or hot nodes were harvested as sentinel lymph nodes. At least one sentinel node could be detected during surgery in 79 patients. In total 94 sentinel nodes were detected. All detected sentinel nodes were hot. In three patients sentinel nodes were detected by gamma probe but not blue dye. The tumor location in all of these patients was in the upper lateral quadrant and the incision line was extended into the axillary tail of the breast in all of them. 91 out of 94 sentinel nodes were stained blue, which amounts to 95.8% concordance between blue dye and radiotracer on a per node analysis. Single peri-areolar injection in the index quadrant would suffice for sentinel node mapping of patients with history of excisional biopsy. Care should be taken in patients with large excisional biopsy in the extreme proximity to axilla.

A comparison of sentinel lymph node biopsy to lymphadenectomy for endometrial cancer staging (FIRES trial): a multicentre, prospective, cohort study.

PubMed

Rossi, Emma C; Kowalski, Lynn D; Scalici, Jennifer; Cantrell, Leigh; Schuler, Kevin; Hanna, Rabbie K; Method, Michael; Ade, Melissa; Ivanova, Anastasia; Boggess, John F

2017-03-01

Sentinel-lymph-node mapping has been advocated as an alternative staging technique for endometrial cancer. The aim of this study was to measure the sensitivity and negative predictive value of sentinel-lymph-node mapping compared with the gold standard of complete lymphadenectomy in detecting metastatic disease for endometrial cancer. In the FIRES multicentre, prospective, cohort study patients with clinical stage 1 endometrial cancer of all histologies and grades undergoing robotic staging were eligible for study inclusion. Patients received a standardised cervical injection of indocyanine green and sentinel-lymph-node mapping followed by pelvic lymphadenectomy with or without para-aortic lymphadenectomy. 18 surgeons from ten centres (tertiary academic and community non-academic) in the USA participated in the trial. Negative sentinel lymph nodes (by haematoxylin and eosin staining on sections) were ultra-staged with immunohistochemistry for cytokeratin. The primary endpoint, sensitivity of the sentinel-lymph-node-based detection of metastatic disease, was defined as the proportion of patients with node-positive disease with successful sentinel-lymph-node mapping who had metastatic disease correctly identified in the sentinel lymph node. Patients who had mapping of at least one sentinel lymph node were included in the primary analysis (per protocol). All patients who received study intervention (injection of dye), regardless of mapping result, were included as part of the assessment of mapping and in the safety analysis in an intention-to-treat manner. The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01673022 and is completed and closed. Between Aug 1, 2012, and Oct 20, 2015, 385 patients were enrolled. Sentinel-lymph-node mapping with complete pelvic lymphadenectomy was done in 340 patients and para-aortic lymphadenectomy was done in 196 (58%) of these patients. 293 (86%) patients had successful mapping of at least one sentinel lymph node. 41 (12%) patients had positive nodes, 36 of whom had at least one mapped sentinel lymph node. Nodal metastases were identified in the sentinel lymph nodes of 35 (97%) of these 36 patients, yielding a sensitivity to detect node-positive disease of 97·2% (95% CI 85·0-100), and a negative predictive value of 99·6% (97·9-100). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events or serious adverse events were postoperative neurological disorders (4 patients) and postoperative respiratory distress or failure (4 patients). 22 patients had serious adverse events, with one related to the study intervention: a ureteral injury incurred during sentinel-lymph-node dissection. Sentinel lymph nodes identified with indocyanine green have a high degree of diagnostic accuracy in detecting endometrial cancer metastases and can safely replace lymphadenectomy in the staging of endometrial cancer. Sentinel lymph node biopsy will not identify metastases in 3% of patients with node-positive disease, but has the potential to expose fewer patients to the morbidity of a complete lymphadenectomy. Indiana University Health, Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center, and the Indiana University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Row fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens [Rochester, MN; Pinnow, Kurt Walter [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian Edward [Rochester, MN

2008-10-14

An apparatus, program product and method checks for nodal faults in a row of nodes by causing each node in the row to concurrently communicate with its adjacent neighbor nodes in the row. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Row fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens [Rochester, MN; Pinnow, Kurt Walter [Rochester, MN; Ratterman, Joseph D [Rochester, MN; Smith, Brian Edward [Rochester, MN

2012-02-07

An apparatus, program product and method check for nodal faults in a row of nodes by causing each node in the row to concurrently communicate with its adjacent neighbor nodes in the row. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Row fault detection system

DOEpatents

Archer, Charles Jens; Pinnow, Kurt Walter; Ratterman, Joseph D.; Smith, Brian Edward

2010-02-23

An apparatus and program product check for nodal faults in a row of nodes by causing each node in the row to concurrently communicate with its adjacent neighbor nodes in the row. The communications are analyzed to determine a presence of a faulty node or connection.

Ranking influential spreaders is an ill-defined problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Jain; Lee, Sungmin; Saramäki, Jari; Holme, Petter

2017-06-01

Finding influential spreaders of information and disease in networks is an important theoretical problem, and one of considerable recent interest. It has been almost exclusively formulated as a node-ranking problem —methods for identifying influential spreaders output a ranking of the nodes. In this work, we show that such a greedy heuristic does not necessarily work: the set of most influential nodes depends on the number of nodes in the set. Therefore, the set of n most important nodes to vaccinate does not need to have any node in common with the set of n + 1 most important nodes. We propose a method for quantifying the extent and impact of this phenomenon. By this method, we show that it is a common phenomenon in both empirical and model networks.

The value of naked eye examination of biopsied lymph nodes in the diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis.

PubMed

Bem, C

1996-01-01

Tuberculous lymphadenitis is common in Central Africa, where diagnosis by histological examination of a biopsied node is often delayed. In the present study, the naked eye appearance of the cut surface of 306 consecutive biopsied lymph nodes was compared with the histological diagnosis. One hundred and eight-eight nodes showed tuberculosis on histology (including two with coexisting second pathology). One hundred and forty-eight (79%) cases of tuberculous lymphadenitis (including both with coexisting second pathology) showed noncaseating tuberculomata or caseation visible on naked eye examination. Such signs were not seen in other nodes. Other signs were seen in another 18 (10%) tuberculous nodes. It is concluded that naked eye examination of nodes provides useful information for the diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis, pending confirmation by histology.

Trust index based fault tolerant multiple event localization algorithm for WSNs.

PubMed

Xu, Xianghua; Gao, Xueyong; Wan, Jian; Xiong, Naixue

2011-01-01

This paper investigates the use of wireless sensor networks for multiple event source localization using binary information from the sensor nodes. The events could continually emit signals whose strength is attenuated inversely proportional to the distance from the source. In this context, faults occur due to various reasons and are manifested when a node reports a wrong decision. In order to reduce the impact of node faults on the accuracy of multiple event localization, we introduce a trust index model to evaluate the fidelity of information which the nodes report and use in the event detection process, and propose the Trust Index based Subtract on Negative Add on Positive (TISNAP) localization algorithm, which reduces the impact of faulty nodes on the event localization by decreasing their trust index, to improve the accuracy of event localization and performance of fault tolerance for multiple event source localization. The algorithm includes three phases: first, the sink identifies the cluster nodes to determine the number of events occurred in the entire region by analyzing the binary data reported by all nodes; then, it constructs the likelihood matrix related to the cluster nodes and estimates the location of all events according to the alarmed status and trust index of the nodes around the cluster nodes. Finally, the sink updates the trust index of all nodes according to the fidelity of their information in the previous reporting cycle. The algorithm improves the accuracy of localization and performance of fault tolerance in multiple event source localization. The experiment results show that when the probability of node fault is close to 50%, the algorithm can still accurately determine the number of the events and have better accuracy of localization compared with other algorithms.

Trust Index Based Fault Tolerant Multiple Event Localization Algorithm for WSNs

PubMed Central

Xu, Xianghua; Gao, Xueyong; Wan, Jian; Xiong, Naixue

2011-01-01

This paper investigates the use of wireless sensor networks for multiple event source localization using binary information from the sensor nodes. The events could continually emit signals whose strength is attenuated inversely proportional to the distance from the source. In this context, faults occur due to various reasons and are manifested when a node reports a wrong decision. In order to reduce the impact of node faults on the accuracy of multiple event localization, we introduce a trust index model to evaluate the fidelity of information which the nodes report and use in the event detection process, and propose the Trust Index based Subtract on Negative Add on Positive (TISNAP) localization algorithm, which reduces the impact of faulty nodes on the event localization by decreasing their trust index, to improve the accuracy of event localization and performance of fault tolerance for multiple event source localization. The algorithm includes three phases: first, the sink identifies the cluster nodes to determine the number of events occurred in the entire region by analyzing the binary data reported by all nodes; then, it constructs the likelihood matrix related to the cluster nodes and estimates the location of all events according to the alarmed status and trust index of the nodes around the cluster nodes. Finally, the sink updates the trust index of all nodes according to the fidelity of their information in the previous reporting cycle. The algorithm improves the accuracy of localization and performance of fault tolerance in multiple event source localization. The experiment results show that when the probability of node fault is close to 50%, the algorithm can still accurately determine the number of the events and have better accuracy of localization compared with other algorithms. PMID:22163972

Expansion of lymph node metastasis in mixed-type submucosal invasive gastric cancer.

PubMed

Mikami, Koji; Hirano, Yukiko; Futami, Kitaro; Maekawa, Takafumi

2017-07-18

Mixed-type early gastric cancer (differentiated and undifferentiated components) incurs a higher risk of lymph node metastasis than pure-type early gastric cancer (only differentiated or only undifferentiated components). Therefore, we investigated the expansion of lymph node metastasis in mixed-type submucosal invasive gastric cancer in order to establish the most appropriate treatment for mixed-type cancer. We retrospectively analyzed 279 consecutive patients with submucosal invasive gastric cancer who underwent curative gastrectomy for gastric cancer between 1996 and 2015. We classified the patients into the mixed-type and pure-type groups according to histologic examination and evaluated the expansion of lymph node metastasis. The rate of lymph node metastasis was 23.7% (66/279) in the total patients, 36.4% (36/99) in the mixed-type group, and 16.6% (30/180) in the pure-type group. The significant independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis were tumor size ≥2.0 cm (P = 0.014), mixed-type gastric cancer (P < 0.001), and lymphatic invasion (P < 0.001). Lymphatic invasion and lymph node metastasis had a strong relationship in mixed-type group. The rates of no. 7 lymph node metastasis in the total patients and mixed-type group were 2.9% (8/279) and 5.1% (5/99), respectively; the rates of no. 8a lymph node metastasis were 1.4% (4/279) and 4.0% (4/99), respectively. Mixed histological type is an independent risk factor for lymph node metastasis. Lymph node metastasis in mixed-type gastric cancer involves expansion to the no. 7 and no. 8a lymph nodes. Therefore, lymphadenectomy for mixed-type submucosal invasive gastric cancer requires D1+ or D2 dissection. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Taiwan.

Semi-automatic central-chest lymph-node definition from 3D MDCT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Kongkuo; Higgins, William E.

2010-03-01

Central-chest lymph nodes play a vital role in lung-cancer staging. The three-dimensional (3D) definition of lymph nodes from multidetector computed-tomography (MDCT) images, however, remains an open problem. This is because of the limitations in the MDCT imaging of soft-tissue structures and the complicated phenomena that influence the appearance of a lymph node in an MDCT image. In the past, we have made significant efforts toward developing (1) live-wire-based segmentation methods for defining 2D and 3D chest structures and (2) a computer-based system for automatic definition and interactive visualization of the Mountain central-chest lymph-node stations. Based on these works, we propose new single-click and single-section live-wire methods for segmenting central-chest lymph nodes. The single-click live wire only requires the user to select an object pixel on one 2D MDCT section and is designed for typical lymph nodes. The single-section live wire requires the user to process one selected 2D section using standard 2D live wire, but it is more robust. We applied these methods to the segmentation of 20 lymph nodes from two human MDCT chest scans (10 per scan) drawn from our ground-truth database. The single-click live wire segmented 75% of the selected nodes successfully and reproducibly, while the success rate for the single-section live wire was 85%. We are able to segment the remaining nodes, using our previously derived (but more interaction intense) 2D live-wire method incorporated in our lymph-node analysis system. Both proposed methods are reliable and applicable to a wide range of pulmonary lymph nodes.

Magnetic Resonance Lymphography-Guided Selective High-Dose Lymph Node Irradiation in Prostate Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meijer, Hanneke J.M., E-mail: H.Meijer@rther.umcn.nl; Debats, Oscar A.; Kunze-Busch, Martina

2012-01-01

Purpose: To demonstrate the feasibility of magnetic resonance lymphography (MRL) -guided delineation of a boost volume and an elective target volume for pelvic lymph node irradiation in patients with prostate cancer. The feasibility of irradiating these volumes with a high-dose boost to the MRL-positive lymph nodes in conjunction with irradiation of the prostate using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) was also investigated. Methods and Materials: In 4 prostate cancer patients with a high risk of lymph node involvement but no enlarged lymph nodes on CT and/or MRI, MRL detected pathological lymph nodes in the pelvis. These lymph nodes were identified and delineatedmore » on a radiotherapy planning CT to create a boost volume. Based on the location of the MRL-positive lymph nodes, the standard elective pelvic target volume was individualized. An IMRT plan with a simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) was created with dose prescriptions of 42 Gy to the pelvic target volume, a boost to 60 Gy to the MRL-positive lymph nodes, and 72 Gy to the prostate. Results: All MRL-positive lymph nodes could be identified on the planning CT. This information could be used to delineate a boost volume and to individualize the pelvic target volume for elective irradiation. IMRT planning delivered highly acceptable radiotherapy plans with regard to the prescribed dose levels and the dose to the organs at risk (OARs). Conclusion: MRL can be used to select patients with limited lymph node involvement for pelvic radiotherapy. MRL-guided delineation of a boost volume and an elective pelvic target volume for selective high-dose lymph node irradiation with IMRT is feasible. Whether this approach will result in improved outcome for these patients needs to be investigated in further clinical studies.« less

The Influence of Total Nodes Examined, Number of Positive Nodes, and Lymph Node Ratio on Survival After Surgical Resection and Adjuvant Chemoradiation for Pancreatic Cancer: A Secondary Analysis of RTOG 9704

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Showalter, Timothy N.; Winter, Kathryn A.; Berger, Adam C., E-mail: adam.berger@jefferson.edu

2011-12-01

Purpose: Lymph node status is an important predictor of survival in pancreatic cancer. We performed a secondary analysis of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 9704, an adjuvant chemotherapy and chemoradiation trial, to determine the influence of lymph node factors-number of positive nodes (NPN), total nodes examined (TNE), and lymph node ratio (LNR ratio of NPN to TNE)-on OS and disease-free survival (DFS). Patient and Methods: Eligible patients from RTOG 9704 form the basis of this secondary analysis of lymph node parameters. Actuarial estimates for OS and DFS were calculated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to evaluatemore » associations of NPN, TNE, and LNR with OS and DFS. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were also performed. Results: There were 538 patients enrolled in the RTOG 9704 trial. Of these, 445 patients were eligible with lymph nodes removed. Overall median NPN was 1 (min-max, 0-18). Increased NPN was associated with worse OS (HR = 1.06, p = 0.001) and DFS (HR = 1.05, p = 0.01). In multivariate analyses, both NPN and TNE were associated with OS and DFS. TNE > 12, and >15 were associated with increased OS for all patients, but not for node-negative patients (n = 142). Increased LNR was associated with worse OS (HR = 1.01, p < 0.0001) and DFS (HR = 1.006, p = 0.002). Conclusion: In patients who undergo surgical resection followed by adjuvant chemoradiation, TNE, NPN, and LNR are associated with OS and DFS. This secondary analysis of a prospective, cooperative group trial supports the influence of these lymph node parameters on outcomes after surgery and adjuvant therapy using contemporary techniques.« less

Intraoperative Fluorescence Imaging for Detection of Sentinel Lymph Nodes and Lymphatic Vessels during Open Prostatectomy using Indocyanine Green.

PubMed

Yuen, Keiji; Miura, Tetsuya; Sakai, Iori; Kiyosue, Akiko; Yamashita, Masuo

2015-08-01

We investigated the feasibility and validity of intraoperative fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green for the detection of sentinel lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels during open prostatectomy. Indocyanine green was injected into the prostate under transrectal ultrasound guidance just before surgery. Intraoperative fluorescence imaging was performed using a near-infrared camera system in 66 consecutive patients with clinically localized prostate cancer after a 10-patient pilot test to optimize indocyanine green dosing, observation timing and injection method. Lymphatic vessels were visualized and followed to identify the sentinel lymph nodes. Confirmatory pelvic lymph node dissection including all fluorescent nodes and open radical prostatectomy were performed in all patients. Lymphatic vessels were successfully visualized in 65 patients (98%) and sentinel lymph nodes in 64 patients (97%). Sentinel lymph nodes were located in the obturator fossa, internal and external iliac regions, and rarely in the common iliac and presacral regions. A median of 4 sentinel lymph nodes per patient was detected. Three lymphatic pathways, the paravesical, internal and lateral routes, were identified. Pathological examination revealed metastases to 9 sentinel lymph nodes in 6 patients (9%). All pathologically positive lymph nodes were detected as sentinel lymph nodes using this imaging. No adverse reactions due to the use of indocyanine green were observed. Intraoperative fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green during open prostatectomy enables the detection of lymphatic vessels and sentinel lymph nodes with high sensitivity. This novel method is technically feasible, safe and easy to apply with minimal additional operative time. Copyright © 2015 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Role of a Modulator in the Synthesis of Phase-Pure NU-1000.

PubMed

Webber, Thomas E; Liu, Wei-Guang; Desai, Sai Puneet; Lu, Connie C; Truhlar, Donald G; Penn, R Lee

2017-11-15

NU-1000 is a robust, mesoporous metal-organic framework (MOF) with hexazirconium nodes ([Zr 6 O 16 H 16 ] 8+ , referred to as oxo-Zr 6 nodes) that can be synthesized by combining a solution of ZrOCl 2 ·8H 2 O and a benzoic acid modulator in N,N-dimethylformamide with a solution of linker (1,3,6,8-tetrakis(p-benzoic acid)pyrene, referred to as H 4 TBAPy) and by aging at an elevated temperature. Typically, the resulting crystals are primarily composed of NU-1000 domains that crystallize with a more dense phase that shares structural similarity with NU-901, which is an MOF composed of the same linker molecules and nodes. Density differences between the two polymorphs arise from the differences in the node orientation: in NU-1000, the oxo-Zr 6 nodes rotate 120° from node to node, whereas in NU-901, all nodes are aligned in parallel. Considering this structural difference leads to the hypothesis that changing the modulator from benzoic acid to a larger and more rigid biphenyl-4-carboxylic acid might lead to a stronger steric interaction between the modulator coordinating on the oxo-Zr 6 node and misaligned nodes or linkers in the large pore and inhibit the growth of the more dense NU-901-like material, resulting in phase-pure NU-1000. Side-by-side reactions comparing the products of synthesis using benzoic acid or biphenyl-4-carboxylic acid as a modulator produce structurally heterogeneous crystals and phase-pure NU-1000 crystals. It can be concluded that the larger and more rigid biphenyl-4-carboxylate inhibits the incorporation of nodes with an alignment parallel to the neighboring nodes already residing in the crystal.

[Application of lymph node labeling with carbon nanoparticles by preoperative endoscopic subserosal injection in laparoscopic radical gastrectomy].

PubMed

Hong, Q; Wang, Y; Wang, J J; Hu, C G; Fang, Y J; Fan, X X; Liu, T; Tong, Q

2017-01-10

Objective: To evaluate the application value of carbon lymph node tracing technique by preoperative endoscopic subserosal injection in laparoscopic radical gastrectomy. Methods: From June 2013 to February 2015, seventy eight patients with gastric cancer were enrolled and randomly divided into trial group and control group. Subserosal injection of carbon nanoparticles around the tumor was performed by preoperative endoscopic subserosal injection one day before the operation in trial group, while the patients routinely underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy in control group. Results of harvested lymph nodes, postoperative complications were compared between the two groups. Carbon nanoparticle-related side effect was also evaluated. Results: The average number of harvested lymph node in trial group was significantly higher than that in control group (35.5±8.5 vs 29.5±6.5, P <0.05). The rate of overall black-dyed harvested lymph node was 74.7% (1 035/1 386) in trial group, the black-dyed lymph node rate in D1 lymph node was 80.1%, which was significantly higher than that in D2 lymph node (69.8%, χ 2 =19.38, P <0.01). When comparing the lymph node with and without black-dyed in trial group, the rate of metastasis lymph node was significantly higher in lymph node with black-dyed (17.3% vs 4.0%, χ 2 =38.67, P <0.01). There was no significant difference in postoperative complications rate between two group (trial group 10.2%; control group 12.8%, χ 2 =0.00, P >0.05), and no carbon nanoparticle-related side effect was observed. Conclusion: Given a higher harvested lymph node number and a similar rate of complications, preoperative endoscopic subserosal injection of carbon nanoparticles was safe and feasible.

Rapid detection of metastatic melanoma in lymph nodes using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of fine needle aspiration biopsy specimens.

PubMed

Lean, Cynthia L; Bourne, Roger; Thompson, John F; Scolyer, Richard A; Stretch, Jonathan; Li, Ling-Xi Lawrence; Russell, Peter; Mountford, Carolyn

2003-06-01

Accurate staging of patients with primary cutaneous melanoma includes assessment of regional lymph nodes for the presence of micrometastatic disease. Sentinel lymph node biopsy is highly accurate but is an invasive surgical procedure with a 5-10% complication rate, and requires labour-intensive and expensive histological examination to identify disease. A rapid, accurate and cost-effective non-surgical technique able to detect micrometastatic deposits of melanoma in regional lymph nodes would be of great benefit. Fine needle aspiration biopsies and tissue specimens were obtained from lymph nodes from 18 patients undergoing node resection for metastatic melanoma and five patients undergoing radical retropubic prostatectomy. One-dimensional proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was undertaken at 360 MHz (8.5 T). Lymph nodes were cut into 3 mm thick slices and embedded. Four sequential 5 microm tissue sections were cut from each block and stained, with haematoxylin and eosin, for S100 protein, for HMB45, and again with haematoxylin and eosin, respectively. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy distinguished between benign and malignant lymph node tissue (P < 0.001, separate t-test) and benign and malignant lymph node fine needle aspiration biopsy (P < 0.012) based on the ratio of the integrals of resonances from lipid/other metabolites (1.8-2.5 p.p.m. region) and 'choline' (3.1-3.3 p.p.m. region). In conclusion, one-dimensional proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy on a simple fine needle aspiration biopsy can distinguish lymph nodes containing metastatic melanoma from uninvolved nodes, providing a rapid, accurate and cost-effective non-surgical technique to assess regional lymph nodes in patients with melanoma.

Scalable asynchronous execution of cellular automata

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Folino, Gianluigi; Giordano, Andrea; Mastroianni, Carlo

2016-10-01

The performance and scalability of cellular automata, when executed on parallel/distributed machines, are limited by the necessity of synchronizing all the nodes at each time step, i.e., a node can execute only after the execution of the previous step at all the other nodes. However, these synchronization requirements can be relaxed: a node can execute one step after synchronizing only with the adjacent nodes. In this fashion, different nodes can execute different time steps. This can be a notable advantageous in many novel and increasingly popular applications of cellular automata, such as smart city applications, simulation of natural phenomena, etc., in which the execution times can be different and variable, due to the heterogeneity of machines and/or data and/or executed functions. Indeed, a longer execution time at a node does not slow down the execution at all the other nodes but only at the neighboring nodes. This is particularly advantageous when the nodes that act as bottlenecks vary during the application execution. The goal of the paper is to analyze the benefits that can be achieved with the described asynchronous implementation of cellular automata, when compared to the classical all-to-all synchronization pattern. The performance and scalability have been evaluated through a Petri net model, as this model is very useful to represent the synchronization barrier among nodes. We examined the usual case in which the territory is partitioned into a number of regions, and the computation associated with a region is assigned to a computing node. We considered both the cases of mono-dimensional and two-dimensional partitioning. The results show that the advantage obtained through the asynchronous execution, when compared to the all-to-all synchronous approach is notable, and it can be as large as 90% in terms of speedup.

Supercritical Mixing in a Shear Coaxial Injector

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-07-27

in the core of the injected fluid emphasizes this observation. Two acoustically excited cases: pressure node and pressure anti-node at the center... acoustically excited cases: pressure node and pressure anti-node at the center plane of the jet are also studied in the same manner. The pressure anti-node...shortens the core flow of the injected jet. I. Introduction OCKET engines present a unique environment for injection of the propellants due to

Evaluating nodes importance in complex network based on PageRank algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Kai; He, Yongfeng

2018-04-01

To evaluate the important nodes in the complex network, and aim at the problems existing in the traditional PageRank algorithm, we propose a modified PageRank algorithm. The algorithm has convergence for the evaluation of the importance of the suspended nodes and the nodes with a directed loop network. The simulation example shows the effectiveness of the modified algorithm for the evaluation of the complexity of the complex network nodes.

Clinically node negative breast cancer patients undergoing breast conserving therapy, sentinel lymph node procedure versus follow-up: a Dutch randomized controlled multicentre trial (BOOG 2013-08).

PubMed

van Roozendaal, L M; Vane, M L G; van Dalen, T; van der Hage, J A; Strobbe, L J A; Boersma, L J; Linn, S C; Lobbes, M B I; Poortmans, P M P; Tjan-Heijnen, V C G; Van de Vijver, K K B T; de Vries, J; Westenberg, A H; Kessels, A G H; de Wilt, J H W; Smidt, M L

2017-07-01

Studies showed that axillary lymph node dissection can be safely omitted in presence of positive sentinel lymph node(s) in breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving therapy. Since the outcome of the sentinel lymph node biopsy has no clinical consequence, the value of the procedure itself is being questioned. The aim of the BOOG 2013-08 trial is to investigate whether the sentinel lymph node biopsy can be safely omitted in clinically node negative breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving therapy. The BOOG 2013-08 is a Dutch prospective non-inferiority randomized multicentre trial. Women with pathologically confirmed clinically node negative T1-2 invasive breast cancer undergoing breast conserving therapy will be randomized for sentinel lymph node biopsy versus no sentinel lymph node biopsy. Endpoints include regional recurrence after 5 (primary endpoint) and 10 years of follow-up, distant-disease free and overall survival, quality of life, morbidity and cost-effectiveness. Previous data indicate a 5-year regional recurrence free survival rate of 99% for the control arm and 96% for the study arm. In combination with a non-inferiority limit of 5% and probability of 0.8, this result in a sample size of 1.644 patients including a lost to follow-up rate of 10%. Primary and secondary endpoints will be reported after 5 and 10 years of follow-up. If the sentinel lymph node biopsy can be safely omitted in clinically node negative breast cancer patients undergoing breast conserving therapy, this study will cost-effectively lead to a decreased axillary morbidity rate and thereby improved quality of life with non-inferior regional control, distant-disease free survival and overall survival. The BOOG 2013-08 study is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov since October 20, 2014, Identifier: NCT02271828. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02271828.

The vascularized groin lymph node flap (VGLN): Anatomical study and flap planning using multi-detector CT scanner. The golden triangle for flap harvesting.

PubMed

Zeltzer, Assaf A; Anzarut, Alexander; Braeckmans, Delphine; Seidenstuecker, Katrin; Hendrickx, Benoit; Van Hedent, Eddy; Hamdi, Moustapha

2017-09-01

A growing number of surgeons perform lymph node transfers for the treatment of lymphedema. When harvesting a vascularized lymph node groin flap (VGLNF) one of the major concerns is the potential risk of iatrogenic lymphedema of the donor-site. This article helps understanding of the lymph node distribution of the groin in order to minimize this risk. Fifty consecutive patients undergoing abdominal mapping by multi-detector CT scanner were included and 100 groins analyzed. The groin was divided in three zones (of which zone II is the safe zone) and lymph nodes were counted and mapped with their distances to anatomic landmarks. Further node units were plotted and counted. The average age was 48 years. A mean number of nodes of 6.5/groin was found. In zone II, which is our zone of interest a mean of 3.1 nodes were counted with a mean size of 7.8 mm. In three patients no nodes were found in zone II. In five patients nodes were seen in zone II but were not sufficient in size or number to be considered a lymph node unit. On average the lymph node unit in zone II was found to be 48.3 mm from the pubic tubercle when projected on a line from the pubic tubercle to the anterior superior iliac spine, 16.0 mm caudal to this line, and 20.4 mm above the groin crease. On average the lymph node unit was a mean of 41.7 mm lateral to the SCIV-SIEV confluence. This study provides increased understanding of the lymphatic anatomy in zone II of the groin flap and suggests a refined technique for designing the VGLNF. As with any flap there is a degree of individual patient variability. However, having information on the most common anatomy and flap design is of great value. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Numerical modelling of flow through foam's node.

PubMed

Anazadehsayed, Abdolhamid; Rezaee, Nastaran; Naser, Jamal

2017-10-15

In this work, for the first time, a three-dimensional model to describe the dynamics of flow through geometric Plateau border and node components of foam is presented. The model involves a microscopic-scale structure of one interior node and four Plateau borders with an angle of 109.5 from each other. The majority of the surfaces in the model make a liquid-gas interface where the boundary condition of stress balance between the surface and bulk is applied. The three-dimensional Navier-Stoke equation, along with continuity equation, is solved using the finite volume approach. The numerical results are validated against the available experimental results for the flow velocity and resistance in the interior nodes and Plateau borders. A qualitative illustration of flow in a node in different orientations is shown. The scaled resistance against the flow for different liquid-gas interface mobility is studied and the geometrical characteristics of the node and Plateau border components of the system are compared to investigate the Plateau border and node dominated flow regimes numerically. The findings show the values of the resistance in each component, in addition to the exact point where the flow regimes switch. Furthermore, a more accurate effect of the liquid-gas interface on the foam flow, particularly in the presence of a node in the foam network is obtained. The comparison of the available numerical results with our numerical results shows that the velocity of the node-PB system is lower than the velocity of single PB system for mobile interfaces. That is owing to the fact that despite the more relaxed geometrical structure of the node, constraining effect of merging and mixing of flow and increased viscous damping in the node component result in the node-dominated regime. Moreover, we obtain an accurate updated correlation for the dependence of the scaled average velocity of the node-Plateau border system on the liquid-gas interface mobility described by Boussinesq number. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lymphatic Drainage from Renal Tumors In Vivo: A Prospective Sentinel Node Study Using SPECT/CT Imaging.

PubMed

Kuusk, Teele; De Bruijn, Roderick; Brouwer, Oscar R; De Jong, Jeroen; Donswijk, Maarten; Grivas, Nikolaos; Hendricksen, Kees; Horenblas, Simon; Prevoo, Warner; Valdés Olmos, Renato A; Van Der Poel, Henk G; Van Rhijn, Bas W G; Wit, Esther M; Bex, Axel

2018-06-01

Lymphatic drainage from renal tumors is unpredictable. In vivo drainage studies of primary lymphatic landing sites may reveal the variability and dynamics of lymphatic connections. The purpose of this study was to investigate the lymphatic drainage pattern of renal tumors in vivo with single photon emission/computerized tomography after intratumor radiotracer injection. We performed a phase II, prospective, single arm study to investigate the distribution of sentinel nodes from renal tumors on single photon emission/computerized tomography. Patients with cT1-3 (less than 10 cm) cN0M0 renal tumors of any subtype were enrolled in analysis. After intratumor ultrasound guided injection of 0.4 ml 99m Tc-nanocolloid we performed preoperative imaging of sentinel nodes with lymphoscintigraphy and single photon emission/computerized tomography. Sentinel and locoregional nonsentinel nodes were resected with a γ probe combined with a mobile γ camera. The primary study end point was the location of sentinel nodes outside the locoregional retroperitoneal templates on single photon emission/computerized tomography. Using a Simon minimax 2-stage design to detect a 25% extralocoregional retroperitoneal template location of sentinel nodes on imaging at α = 0.05 and 80% power at least 40 patients with sentinel node imaging on single photon emission/computerized tomography were needed. Of the 68 patients 40 underwent preoperative single photon emission/computerized tomography of sentinel nodes and were included in primary end point analysis. Lymphatic drainage outside the locoregional retroperitoneal templates was observed in 14 patients (35%). Eight patients (20%) had supradiaphragmatic sentinel nodes. Sentinel nodes from renal tumors were mainly located in the respective locoregional retroperitoneal templates. Simultaneous sentinel nodes were located outside the suggested lymph node dissection templates, including supradiaphragmatic sentinel nodes in more than a third of the patients. Copyright © 2018 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Iodine-131: An Effective Method for Treating Lymph Node Metastases of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.

PubMed

He, Ying; Pan, Ming-Zhi; Huang, Jian-Min; Xie, Peng; Zhang, Fang; Wei, Ling-Ge

2016-12-15

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of radioactive iodine-131 (¹³¹I) therapy for lymph node metastasis of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) and to identify influential factors using univariate and multivariate analyses to determine if identified factors influence the efficacy of treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study included a retrospective review of 218 patients with histologically proven DTC in the post-operation stage. After thyroid tissue remnants were eliminated with ¹³¹I therapy, patients' lymph node status was confirmed by ultrasound and by ¹³¹I whole body scan regarding lymph node metastasis, and then patients were treated with ¹³¹I as appropriate. The treatment efficacy was assessed and possible influencing factors were identified using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS The total effective rate of ¹³¹I therapy was 88.07% (including a cure rate of 20.64% and an improvement rate of 67.43%). The non-effective rate was 11.93%. Of the total 406 lymph nodes of 218 patients, 319 lymph nodes (78.57%) were judged to be effectively cured, including 133 (32.75%) lymph nodes that were totally eliminated and 186 (45.82%) lymph nodes that shrank. Eighty-seven (21.43%) of the 406 lymph nodes had no obvious change. No lymph nodes were found to be in a continuously enlarging state. Distant metastasis, size of lymph node, human serum thyroglobulin (HTG) level, and condition of thyroid remnants ablation were identified as the independent factors influencing the efficacy of treatment using univariate and multivariate analyses. CONCLUSIONS The use of ¹³¹I is a promising treatment for lymph node metastasis of DCT. Distant metastasis, size of lymph nodes, HTG level, and condition of thyroid remnant ablation were independent factors influencing the treatment efficacy.

Structure and Dynamics of Zr6O8 Metal-Organic Framework Node Surfaces Probed with Ethanol Dehydration as a Catalytic Test Reaction.

PubMed

Yang, Dong; Ortuño, Manuel A; Bernales, Varinia; Cramer, Christopher J; Gagliardi, Laura; Gates, Bruce C

2018-03-14

Some metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) incorporate nodes that are metal oxide clusters such as Zr 6 O 8 . Vacancies on the node surfaces, accidental or by design, act as catalytic sites. Here, we report elucidation of the chemistry of Zr 6 O 8 nodes in the MOFs UiO-66 and UiO-67 having used infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies to determine the ligands on the node surfaces originating from the solvents and modifiers used in the syntheses and having elucidated the catalytic properties of the nodes for ethanol dehydration, which takes place selectively to make diethyl ether but not ethylene at 473-523 K. Density functional theory calculations show that the key to the selective catalysis is the breaking of node-linker bonds (or the accidental adjacency of open/defect sites) that allows catalytically fruitful bonding of the reactant ethanol to neighboring sites on the nodes, facilitating the bimolecular ether formation through an S N 2 mechanism.

Histological differential diagnosis between lymph node toxoplasmosis and other benign lymph node hyperplasias.

PubMed

Miettinen, M

1981-03-01

The material from 667 lymph nodes, originally suspected of toxoplasmosis, was histologically re-examined, to evaluate criteria for diagnosis and differential diagnosis. The results showed that at least 80% of benign lymph node enlargements containing small groups of epithelioid cells were associated with high titres of Toxoplasma antibodies. Furthermore, 85--95% of the lymph nodes in association with high Toxoplasma antibodies showed the typical histological appearances of toxoplasmosis. The histological diagnosis of toxoplasmosis is thus both fairly specific and sensitive. Other lymph node lesions with small groups of epithelioid cells must be considered in the differential diagnosis. Sarcoidosis and tuberculosis usually have a predominance of distinct large epithelioid cell granulomata. Lymph nodes with sinus histiocytosis showing the formation of small groups of epithelioid cells, do not demonstrate prominent hyperplasia and include sparse germinal centres and were not associated with toxoplasmosis. Lymph nodes with disturbed general structure and small groups of epithelioid cells must be carefully assessed because of the significant possibility of malignancy.

Ratio of metastatic lymph nodes to total number of nodes resected is prognostic for survival in esophageal carcinoma.

PubMed

Kelty, Clive J; Kennedy, Catherine W; Falk, Gregory L

2010-09-01

The role of the number of metastatic nodes in esophageal cancer surgery is of interest. We assess predictors of survival after oesophagectomy for esophageal and gastroesophageal junction malignancy. Prospective data of consecutive patients undergoing oesophagectomy and systematic lymphadenectomy between 1991 and 2007. Of 224 patients, 148 patients (66%) had adenocarcinoma, 70 (31%) squamous cell carcinoma, and 6 (2.6%) were other tumor types. Five-year survival was 43% with hospital mortality of 3.5%. Locoregional recurrence occurred in 14%. The total number of affected nodes significantly reduced survival (four or more metastatic nodes). Further analysis of the ratio of nodes affected to the total number resected showed a significant decrease in survival as the percentage of positive nodes increased (p < 0.001). Patients undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer should be staged according to a minimum total number of metastatic lymph nodes and ratios because this more accurately predicts survival than current staging systems.

The predictive factors for lymph node metastasis in early gastric cancer: A clinical study.

PubMed

Wang, Yinzhong

2015-01-01

To detect the clinicopathological factors associated with lymph node metastases in early gastric cancer. We retrospectively evaluated the distribution of metastatic nodes in 198 patients with early gastric cancer treated in our hospital between May 2008 and January 2015, the clinicopathological factors including age, gender, tumor location, tumor size, macroscopic type, depth of invasion, histological type and venous invasion were studied, and the relationship between various parameters and lymph node metastases was analyzed. In this study, one hundred and ninety-eight patients with early gastric cancer were included, and lymph node metastasis was detected in 28 patients. Univariate analysis revealed a close relationship between tumor size, depth of invasion, histological type, venous invasion, local ulceration and lymph node metastases. Multivariate analysis revealed that the five factors were independent risk factors for lymph node metastases. The clinicopathological parameters including tumor size, depth of invasion, local ulceration, histological type and venous invasion are closely correlated with lymph node metastases, should be paid high attention in early gastric cancer patients.

Patterns of a spatial exploration under time evolution of the attractiveness: Persistent nodes, degree distribution, and spectral properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Silva, Roberto

2018-06-01

This work explores the features of a graph generated by agents that hop from one node to another node, where the nodes have evolutionary attractiveness. The jumps are governed by Boltzmann-like transition probabilities that depend both on the euclidean distance between the nodes and on the ratio (β) of the attractiveness between them. It is shown that persistent nodes, i.e., nodes that never been reached by this special random walk are possible in the stationary limit differently from the case where the attractiveness is fixed and equal to one for all nodes (β = 1). Simultaneously, one also investigates the spectral properties and statistics related to the attractiveness and degree distribution of the evolutionary network. Finally, a study of the crossover between persistent phase and no persistent phase was performed and it was also observed the existence of a special type of transition probability which leads to a power law behaviour for the time evolution of the persistence.

I/O routing in a multidimensional torus network

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A.; Heidelberger, Philip

2017-02-07

A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for routing data packet in a computing system comprising a multidimensional torus compute node network including a multitude of compute nodes, and an I/O node network including a plurality of I/O nodes. In one embodiment, the method comprises assigning to each of the data packets a destination address identifying one of the compute nodes; providing each of the data packets with a toio value; routing the data packets through the compute node network to the destination addresses of the data packets; and when each of the data packets reaches the destination address assigned to said each data packet, routing said each data packet to one of the I/O nodes if the toio value of said each data packet is a specified value. In one embodiment, each of the data packets is also provided with an ioreturn value used to route the data packets through the compute node network.

Design of nodes for embedded and ultra low-power wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Jun; You, Bo; Cui, Juan; Ma, Jing; Li, Xin

2008-10-01

Sensor network integrates sensor technology, MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical system) technology, embedded computing, wireless communication technology and distributed information management technology. It is of great value to use it where human is quite difficult to reach. Power consumption and size are the most important consideration when nodes are designed for distributed WSN (wireless sensor networks). Consequently, it is of great importance to decrease the size of a node, reduce its power consumption and extend its life in network. WSN nodes have been designed using JN5121-Z01-M01 module produced by jennic company and IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee technology. Its new features include support for CPU sleep modes and a long-term ultra low power sleep mode for the entire node. In low power configuration the node resembles existing small low power nodes. An embedded temperature sensor node has been developed to verify and explore our architecture. The experiment results indicate that the WSN has the characteristic of high reliability, good stability and ultra low power consumption.

Increasing the Lifetime of Mobile WSNs via Dynamic Optimization of Sensor Node Communication Activity

PubMed Central

Guimarães, Dayan Adionel; Sakai, Lucas Jun; Alberti, Antonio Marcos; de Souza, Rausley Adriano Amaral

2016-01-01

In this paper, a simple and flexible method for increasing the lifetime of fixed or mobile wireless sensor networks is proposed. Based on past residual energy information reported by the sensor nodes, the sink node or another central node dynamically optimizes the communication activity levels of the sensor nodes to save energy without sacrificing the data throughput. The activity levels are defined to represent portions of time or time-frequency slots in a frame, during which the sensor nodes are scheduled to communicate with the sink node to report sensory measurements. Besides node mobility, it is considered that sensors’ batteries may be recharged via a wireless power transmission or equivalent energy harvesting scheme, bringing to the optimization problem an even more dynamic character. We report large increased lifetimes over the non-optimized network and comparable or even larger lifetime improvements with respect to an idealized greedy algorithm that uses both the real-time channel state and the residual energy information. PMID:27657075

Dynamic node immunization for restraint of harmful information diffusion in social networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Dingda; Liao, Xiangwen; Shen, Huawei; Cheng, Xueqi; Chen, Guolong

2018-08-01

To restrain the spread of harmful information is crucial for the healthy and sustainable development of social networks. We address the problem of restraining the spread of harmful information by immunizing nodes in the networks. Previous works have developed methods based on the network topology or studied how to immunize nodes in the presence of initial infected nodes. These static methods, in which nodes are immunized at once, may have poor performance in the certain situation due to the dynamics of diffusion. To tackle this problem, we introduce a new dynamic immunization problem of immunizing nodes during the process of the diffusion in this paper. We formulate the problem and propose a novel heuristic algorithm by dealing with two sub-problems: (1) how to select a node to achieve the best immunization effect at the present time? (2) whether the selected node should be immunized right now? Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm through extensive experiments on various real datasets.

Impact of Chemotherapy on Retroperitoneal Lymph Nodes in Ovarian Cancer.

PubMed

Keyver-Paik, Mignon-Denise; Arden, Janne Myriam; Lüders, Christine; Thiesler, Thore; Abramian, Alina; Hoeller, Tobias; Hecking, Thomas; Ayub, Tiyasha Hosne; Doeser, Anna; Kaiser, Christina; Kuhn, Walther

2016-04-01

Complete cytoreduction is the most important prognostic factor in ovarian cancer. However, there exist conflicting data on whether the removal of microscopic tumor metastasis in macroscopically unsuspicious retroperitoneal lymph nodes is beneficial. Ovarian cancer tissues and tissues from lymph node metastasis of 30 patients with FIGO IIIC or IV disease undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) were obtained and assessed using a validated regression score. Histopathological markers, size of largest tumor focus, and overall score were evaluated in lymph node and ovarian tissue. Regression and known prognostic factors were analyzed for influence on survival. No difference in the overall score between lymph nodes and ovarian tissue was shown, however, single parameters such as fibrosis and pattern of tumor infiltration, were significantly different. The pattern of tumor regression in lymph nodes and ovarian tissue are of prognostic value. Lymph node dissection even of unsuspicious nodes should, therefore, be performed. Copyright© 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.

Increasing the Lifetime of Mobile WSNs via Dynamic Optimization of Sensor Node Communication Activity.

PubMed

Guimarães, Dayan Adionel; Sakai, Lucas Jun; Alberti, Antonio Marcos; de Souza, Rausley Adriano Amaral

2016-09-20

In this paper, a simple and flexible method for increasing the lifetime of fixed or mobile wireless sensor networks is proposed. Based on past residual energy information reported by the sensor nodes, the sink node or another central node dynamically optimizes the communication activity levels of the sensor nodes to save energy without sacrificing the data throughput. The activity levels are defined to represent portions of time or time-frequency slots in a frame, during which the sensor nodes are scheduled to communicate with the sink node to report sensory measurements. Besides node mobility, it is considered that sensors' batteries may be recharged via a wireless power transmission or equivalent energy harvesting scheme, bringing to the optimization problem an even more dynamic character. We report large increased lifetimes over the non-optimized network and comparable or even larger lifetime improvements with respect to an idealized greedy algorithm that uses both the real-time channel state and the residual energy information.

Automatic abdominal lymph node detection method based on local intensity structure analysis from 3D x-ray CT images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakamura, Yoshihiko; Nimura, Yukitaka; Kitasaka, Takayuki; Mizuno, Shinji; Furukawa, Kazuhiro; Goto, Hidemi; Fujiwara, Michitaka; Misawa, Kazunari; Ito, Masaaki; Nawano, Shigeru; Mori, Kensaku

2013-03-01

This paper presents an automated method of abdominal lymph node detection to aid the preoperative diagnosis of abdominal cancer surgery. In abdominal cancer surgery, surgeons must resect not only tumors and metastases but also lymph nodes that might have a metastasis. This procedure is called lymphadenectomy or lymph node dissection. Insufficient lymphadenectomy carries a high risk for relapse. However, excessive resection decreases a patient's quality of life. Therefore, it is important to identify the location and the structure of lymph nodes to make a suitable surgical plan. The proposed method consists of candidate lymph node detection and false positive reduction. Candidate lymph nodes are detected using a multi-scale blob-like enhancement filter based on local intensity structure analysis. To reduce false positives, the proposed method uses a classifier based on support vector machine with the texture and shape information. The experimental results reveal that it detects 70.5% of the lymph nodes with 13.0 false positives per case.

I/O routing in a multidimensional torus network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Dong; Eisley, Noel A.; Heidelberger, Philip

A method, system and computer program product are disclosed for routing data packet in a computing system comprising a multidimensional torus compute node network including a multitude of compute nodes, and an I/O node network including a plurality of I/O nodes. In one embodiment, the method comprises assigning to each of the data packets a destination address identifying one of the compute nodes; providing each of the data packets with a toio value; routing the data packets through the compute node network to the destination addresses of the data packets; and when each of the data packets reaches the destinationmore » address assigned to said each data packet, routing said each data packet to one of the I/O nodes if the toio value of said each data packet is a specified value. In one embodiment, each of the data packets is also provided with an ioreturn value used to route the data packets through the compute node network.« less

Aberrant intermediate filament and synaptophysin expression is a frequent event in malignant melanoma: an immunohistochemical study of 73 cases.

PubMed

Romano, Ryan C; Carter, Jodi M; Folpe, Andrew L

2015-08-01

Malignant melanomas are known to express vimentin, among other intermediate filaments. Though anomalous keratin expression by malignant melanoma has been reported, its frequency is not well-established and this phenomenon is not well-known. We have seen in consultation a number of malignant melanomas with anomalous expression of keratin, other intermediate filaments, or synaptophysin, and therefore studied a large group of primary and metastatic melanomas to determine the frequency of these events. About 73 cases of malignant melanoma (22 primaries and 51 metastases) from 71 patients (51 male, 20 female; mean 59 years, range 17-87 years) were retrieved from our archives. Prior diagnoses were confirmed by re-review of hematoxylin and eosin sections and relevant (e.g., S100 protein, HMB45, Melan-A, and tyrosinase) immunohistochemical studies. Available sections were immunostained for keratin (OSCAR and AE1/AE3 antibodies), desmin, neurofilament protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, synaptophysin, and chromogranin A. Not all cases could be tested for all markers. Cases were predominantly epithelioid (48/73, 66%) or spindle cell/desmoplastic (25/73, 34%). S100 protein, Melan-A, HMB45, and tyrosinase were positive in 60/65 (92%), 34/64 (53%), 30/60 (50%), 25/48 (52%) of cases, respectively. All five S100-protein-negative cases expressed at least one of the other melanocytic markers: Melan-A (two of four, 50%), HMB45 (two of three, 67%), and tyrosinase (one of two, 50%). All cases expressed at least one melanocytic marker. Cases were positive for keratin (OSCAR, 17/61, 28%; AE1/AE3, 16/40, 40%), desmin (11/47, 24%), neurofilament protein (5/31, 16%), glial fibrillary acidic protein (3/32, 9%), and synaptophysin (10/34, 29%), typically only in a minority of cells. Chromogranin was negative (0/32, 0%). Altogether 9/73 cases (12%) showed expression of >1 intermediate filament. All S100-protein-negative melanomas showed anomalous intermediate filament expression (keratin--one case, desmin--three cases, neurofilament protein--one case). Anomalous intermediate filament or synaptophysin expression was more common in epithelioid (intermediate filament, 27/48, 56%; synaptophysin, 7/22, 32%) as compared with spindle cell/desmoplastic (intermediate filament, 8/25, 32%; synaptophysin, 3/12, 25%) melanomas. Overall, 48% (35/73) of cases showed anomalous expression of at least one intermediate filament. Anomalous expression of all intermediate filaments and synaptophysin was found in significant subsets of malignant melanoma, representing potentially serious diagnostic pitfalls. While the inclusion of consultation cases may inflate the frequency of these findings in this series, similar findings were also seen in institutional cases. Malignant melanoma showing anomalous intermediate filament and synaptophysin expression may easily be mistaken for carcinomas, rhabdomyosarcomas, and neuroendocrine tumors. Awareness of this phenomenon, careful histopathological evaluation, and an appropriate melanocytic immunohistochemical panel should facilitate the diagnosis of malignant melanoma with unusual immunophenotypes.

Effectiveness of the Benign and Malignant Diagnosis of Mediastinal and Hilar Lymph Nodes by Endobronchial Ultrasound Elastography.

PubMed

Huang, Haidong; Huang, Zhiang; Wang, Qin; Wang, Xinan; Dong, Yuchao; Zhang, Wei; Zarogoulidis, Paul; Man, Yan-Gao; Schmidt, Wolfgang Hohenforst; Bai, Chong

2017-01-01

Background and Objectives: Endobronchial ultrasound elastography is a new technique for describing the stiffness of tissue during endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). The aims of this study were to investigate the diagnostic value of Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) elastography for distinguishing the difference between benign and malignant lymph nodes among mediastinal and hilar lymph node. Materials and Methods: From June 2015 to August 2015, 47 patients confirmed of mediastinal and hilar lymph node enlargement through examination of Computed tomography (CT) were enrolled, and a total of 78 lymph nodes were evaluated by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). EBUS-guided elastography of lymph nodes was performed prior to EBUS-TBNA. A convex probe EBUS was used with a new EBUS processor to assess elastographic patterns that were classified based on color distribution as follows: Type 1, predominantly non-blue (green, yellow and red); Type 2, part blue, part non-blue (green, yellow and red); Type 3, predominantly blue. Pathological determination of malignant or benign lymph nodes was used as the gold standard for this study. The elastographic patterns were compared with the final pathologic results from EBUS-TBNA. Results: On pathological evaluation of the lymph nodes, 45 were benign and 33 were malignant. The lymph nodes that were classified as Type 1 on endobronchial ultrasound elastography were benign in 26/27 (96.3%) and malignant in 1/27 (3.7%); for Type 2 lymph nodes, 15/20 (75.0%) were benign and 5/20 (25.0%) were malignant; Type 3 lymph nodes were benign in 4/31 (12.9%) and malignant in 27/31 (87.1%). In classifying Type 1 as 'benign' and Type 3 as 'malignant,' the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and diagnostic accuracy rates were 96.43%, 86.67%, 87.10%, 96.30%, 91.38%, respectively. Conclusion: EBUS elastography of mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes is a noninvasive technique that can be performed reliably and may be helpful in the prediction of benign and malignant lymph nodes among mediastinal and hilar lymph node during EBUS-TBNA.

Understanding the implementation of evidence-based care: a structural network approach.

PubMed

Parchman, Michael L; Scoglio, Caterina M; Schumm, Phillip

2011-02-24

Recent study of complex networks has yielded many new insights into phenomenon such as social networks, the internet, and sexually transmitted infections. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the properties of a network created by the 'co-care' of patients within one region of the Veterans Health Affairs. Data were obtained for all outpatient visits from 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2008 within one large Veterans Integrated Service Network. Types of physician within each clinic were nodes connected by shared patients, with a weighted link representing the number of shared patients between each connected pair. Network metrics calculated included edge weights, node degree, node strength, node coreness, and node betweenness. Log-log plots were used to examine the distribution of these metrics. Sizes of k-core networks were also computed under multiple conditions of node removal. There were 4,310,465 encounters by 266,710 shared patients between 722 provider types (nodes) across 41 stations or clinics resulting in 34,390 edges. The number of other nodes to which primary care provider nodes have a connection (172.7) is 42% greater than that of general surgeons and two and one-half times as high as cardiology. The log-log plot of the edge weight distribution appears to be linear in nature, revealing a 'scale-free' characteristic of the network, while the distributions of node degree and node strength are less so. The analysis of the k-core network sizes under increasing removal of primary care nodes shows that about 10 most connected primary care nodes play a critical role in keeping the k-core networks connected, because their removal disintegrates the highest k-core network. Delivery of healthcare in a large healthcare system such as that of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) can be represented as a complex network. This network consists of highly connected provider nodes that serve as 'hubs' within the network, and demonstrates some 'scale-free' properties. By using currently available tools to explore its topology, we can explore how the underlying connectivity of such a system affects the behavior of providers, and perhaps leverage that understanding to improve quality and outcomes of care.

PRC2/EED-EZH2 Complex Is Up-Regulated in Breast Cancer Lymph Node Metastasis Compared to Primary Tumor and Correlates with Tumor Proliferation In Situ

PubMed Central

Yu, Hongxiang; Simons, Diana L.; Segall, Ilana; Carcamo-Cavazos, Valeria; Schwartz, Erich J.; Yan, Ning; Zuckerman, Neta S.; Dirbas, Frederick M.; Johnson, Denise L.; Holmes, Susan P.; Lee, Peter P.

2012-01-01

Background Lymph node metastasis is a key event in the progression of breast cancer. Therefore it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms which facilitate regional lymph node metastatic progression. Methodology/Principal Findings We performed gene expression profiling of purified tumor cells from human breast tumor and lymph node metastasis. By microarray network analysis, we found an increased expression of polycomb repression complex 2 (PRC2) core subunits EED and EZH2 in lymph node metastatic tumor cells over primary tumor cells which were validated through real-time PCR. Additionally, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining and quantitative image analysis of whole tissue sections showed a significant increase of EZH2 expressing tumor cells in lymph nodes over paired primary breast tumors, which strongly correlated with tumor cell proliferation in situ. We further explored the mechanisms of PRC2 gene up-regulation in metastatic tumor cells and found up-regulation of E2F genes, MYC targets and down-regulation of tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin targets in lymph node metastasis through GSEA analyses. Using IHC, the expression of potential EZH2 target, E-cadherin was examined in paired primary/lymph node samples and was found to be significantly decreased in lymph node metastases over paired primary tumors. Conclusions/Significance This study identified an over expression of the epigenetic silencing complex PRC2/EED-EZH2 in breast cancer lymph node metastasis as compared to primary tumor and its positive association with tumor cell proliferation in situ. Concurrently, PRC2 target protein E-cadherin was significant decreased in lymph node metastases, suggesting PRC2 promotes epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) in lymph node metastatic process through repression of E-cadherin. These results indicate that epigenetic regulation mediated by PRC2 proteins may provide additional advantage for the outgrowth of metastatic tumor cells in lymph nodes. This opens up epigenetic drug development possibilities for the treatment and prevention of lymph node metastasis in breast cancer. PMID:23251464

Node 1 and PMA-1 are moved for weight and center of gravity determination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

Node 1, the first U.S. element for the International Space Station, and Pressurized Mating Adapter-1 (PMA-1) continue with prelaunch preparation activities at KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. Node 1 is a connecting passageway to the living and working areas of the space station. The node and PMA-1 are being moved to an element rotation stand, or test stand, where they will undergo an interim weight and center of gravity determination. The final determination is planned to be performed prior to transporting Node 1 to the launch pad. Node 1 is scheduled to fly on STS-88.

Boeing technicians join Node 1 for ISS to PMA-1 in the SSPF

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1997-01-01

Boeing technicians join Node 1 for the International Space Station (ISS) with the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA)-1 in KSC's Space Station Processing Facility. This PMA, identifiable by its bright red ring, is a cone-shaped connector for the space station's structural building block, known as Node 1. Seen here surrounded by scaffolding, Node 1 will have two PMAs attached, the second of which is scheduled for mating to the node in January 1998. The node and PMAs, which will be the first element of the ISS, are scheduled to be launched aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88 in July 1998.

[Risk factors of non-sentinel lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients with positive sentinel lymph node ≤ 2].

PubMed

Gao, Yajun; He, Yingjian; Fan, Zhaoqing; Ouyang, Tao

2014-08-13

To explore retrospectively the risk factors of non-sentinel lymph node (NSLN) metastasis in breast cancer patients with sentinel lymph node metastasis ≤ 2 and examine the likelihood of non-sentinel lymph node prediction. A sentinel lymph node biopsy database containing 455 breast cancer patients admitted between July 2005 and February 2012 at Beijing Cancer Hospital was analyzed retrospectively. The patients had ≤ 2 positive sentinel lymph node and complete axillary lymph node dissection. The SLNS⁺/SLNS ratio (P = 0.001), histological grade (P = 0.075), size of mass (P = 0.023) and onset age (P = 0.074) were correlated with NSLN metastases. Only SLNS⁺/SLNS (OR 0.502 95% CI 0.322-0.7844) , histological grade ratio (histological grade ratio II, III and others vs grade I OR 2.696, 2.102, 3.662) were significant independent predictors for NSLN metastases . The ROC value was 0.62 (0.56, 0.68). For ≤ 2 positive sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer, ratio of SLNS⁺/SLNS and histological grading are independent factors affecting NSLN metastases. However, the results remain unsatisfactory for predicting the status of NSLN.