Interventional real-time optical imaging guidance for complete tumor ablation

The aim of this study was to develop an interventional optical imaging (OI) technique for intraprocedural guidance of complete tumor ablation. Our study employed four strategies: 1) optimizing experimental protocol of various indocyanine green (ICG) concentrations/detection time windows for ICG-based OI of tumor cells (ICG cells); 2) using the optimized OI to evaluate ablation-heat effect on ICG cells; 3) building the interventional OI system and investigating its sensitivity for differentiating residual viable tumors from nonviable tumors; and 4) preclinically validating its technical feasibility for intraprocedural monitoring of radiofrequency ablations (RFAs) using animal models with orthotopic hepatic tumors. OI signal-to-background ratios (SBRs) among preablation tumors, residual, and ablated tumors were statistically compared and confirmed by subsequent pathology. The optimal dose and detection time window for ICG-based OI were 100 μg/mL at 24 h. Interventional OI displayed significantly higher fluorescence signals of viable ICG cells compared with nonviable ICG cells (189.3 ± 7.6 versus 63.7 ± 5.7 au, P < 0.001). The interventional OI could differentiate three definitive zones of tumor, tumor margin, and normal surrounding liver, demonstrating significantly higher average SBR of residual viable tumors compared to ablated nonviable tumors (2.54 ± 0.31 versus 0.57 ± 0.05, P < 0.001). The innovative interventional OI technique permitted operators to instantly detect residual tumors and thereby guide repeated RFAs, ensuring complete tumor eradication, which was confirmed by ex vivo OI and pathology. In conclusion, we present an interventional oncologic technique, which should revolutionize the current ablation technology, leading to a significant advancement in complete treatment of larger or irregular malignancies.

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A hybrid ant colony algorithm based on multiple strategies for the vehicle routing problem with time windows

Complex & Intelligent Systems ◽

10.1007/s40747-021-00401-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hongguang Wu ◽

Yuelin Gao ◽

Wanting Wang ◽

Ziyu Zhang

Keyword(s):

Vehicle Routing ◽

Vehicle Routing Problem ◽

Ant Colony Algorithm ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Ant Colony ◽

Routing Problem ◽

Multiple Strategies ◽

Hard Time ◽

Mutation Operation

AbstractIn this paper, we propose a vehicle routing problem with time windows (TWVRP). In this problem, we consider a hard time constraint that the fleet can only serve customers within a specific time window. To solve this problem, a hybrid ant colony (HACO) algorithm is proposed based on ant colony algorithm and mutation operation. The HACO algorithm proposed has three innovations: the first is to update pheromones with a new method; the second is the introduction of adaptive parameters; and the third is to add the mutation operation. A famous Solomon instance is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Experimental results show that HACO algorithm is effective against solving the problem of vehicle routing with time windows. Besides, the proposed algorithm also has practical implications for vehicle routing problem and the results show that it is applicable and effective in practical problems.

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The last-mile vehicle routing problem with delivery options

OR Spectrum ◽

10.1007/s00291-021-00633-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Christian Tilk ◽

Katharina Olkis ◽

Stefan Irnich

Keyword(s):

Vehicle Routing ◽

Vehicle Routing Problem ◽

Resource Constraints ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Service Level ◽

Optimal Solutions ◽

Routing Problem ◽

Common Location ◽

Delivery Options

AbstractThe ongoing rise in e-commerce comes along with an increasing number of first-time delivery failures due to the absence of the customer at the delivery location. Failed deliveries result in rework which in turn has a large impact on the carriers’ delivery cost. In the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows, each customer request has only one location and one time window describing where and when shipments need to be delivered. In contrast, we introduce and analyze the vehicle routing problem with delivery options (VRPDO), in which some requests can be shipped to alternative locations with possibly different time windows. Furthermore, customers may prefer some delivery options. The carrier must then select, for each request, one delivery option such that the carriers’ overall cost is minimized and a given service level regarding customer preferences is achieved. Moreover, when delivery options share a common location, e.g., a locker, capacities must be respected when assigning shipments. To solve the VRPDO exactly, we present a new branch-price-and-cut algorithm. The associated pricing subproblem is a shortest-path problem with resource constraints that we solve with a bidirectional labeling algorithm on an auxiliary network. We focus on the comparison of two alternative modeling approaches for the auxiliary network and present optimal solutions for instances with up to 100 delivery options. Moreover, we provide 17 new optimal solutions for the benchmark set for the VRP with roaming delivery locations.

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Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on HIV viremia: a single-center cohort study in northern Italy

AIDS Research and Therapy ◽

10.1186/s12981-021-00355-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ilaria Izzo ◽

Canio Carriero ◽

Giulia Gardini ◽

Benedetta Fumarola ◽

Erika Chiari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Continuum Of Care ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Hiv Diagnosis ◽

Hiv Patients ◽

Before And After ◽

Missed Visits ◽

Hiv Continuum Of Care ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Brescia Province, northern Italy, was one of the worst epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic. The division of infectious diseases of ASST (Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale) Spedali Civili Hospital of Brescia had to face a great number of inpatients with severe COVID-19 infection and to ensure the continuum of care for almost 4000 outpatients with HIV infection actively followed by us. In a recent manuscript we described the impact of the pandemic on continuum of care in our HIV cohort expressed as number of missed visits, number of new HIV diagnosis, drop in ART (antiretroviral therapy) dispensation and number of hospitalized HIV patients due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this short communication, we completed the previous article with data of HIV plasmatic viremia of the same cohort before and during pandemic. Methods We considered all HIV-patients in stable ART for at least 6 months and with at least 1 available HIV viremia in the time window March 01–November 30, 2019, and another group of HIV patients with the same two requisites but in different time windows of the COVID-19 period (March 01–May 31, 2020, and June 01–November 30, 2020). For patients with positive viremia (PV) during COVID-19 period, we reported also the values of viral load (VL) just before and after PV. Results: the percentage of patients with PV during COVID-19 period was lower than the previous year (2.8% vs 7%). Only 1% of our outpatients surely suffered from pandemic in term of loss of previous viral suppression. Conclusions Our efforts to limit the impact of pandemic on our HIV outpatients were effective to ensure HIV continuum of care.

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Study on Vehicle Logistics Routing Path Problem with Time Windows Based on Particle Swarm Optimization

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.687-691.5161 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 687-691 ◽

pp. 5161-5164

Author(s):

Lian Zhou Gao

Keyword(s):

Particle Swarm Optimization ◽

World Economy ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Particle Swarm ◽

Modern Logistics ◽

Swarm Optimization ◽

Logistics Industry ◽

Search Speed ◽

Simulation Results

As the development of world economy, how to realize the reasonable vehicle logistics routing path problem with time window constrain is the key issue in promoting the prosperity and development of modern logistics industry. Through the research of vehicle logistics routing path 's demand, particle swarm optimization with a novel particle presentation is designed to solve the problem which is improved, effective and adept to the normal vehicle logistics routing. The simulation results of example indicate that the algorithm has more search speed and stronger optimization ability.

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Lexical and sentential priming in competition: Implications for two-stage theories of lexical access

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s014271640100203x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 191-215 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

ARTURO E. HERNANDEZ ◽

CHRISTINE FENNEMA-NOTESTINE ◽

CARE UDELL ◽

ELIZABETH BATES

Keyword(s):

Lexical Access ◽

Time Window ◽

Early Stage ◽

Time Windows ◽

Unrelated Word ◽

Two Stage ◽

Sentential Context ◽

Lexical Priming ◽

Priming Word ◽

Stage Theories

This article presents a new method that can compare lexical priming (word–word) and sentential priming (sentence–word) directly within a single paradigm. We show that it can be used to address modular theories of word comprehension, which propose that the effects of sentence context occur after lexical access has taken place. Although lexical priming and sentential priming each occur very quickly in time, there should be a brief time window in which the former is present but the latter is absent. Lexical and sentential priming of unambiguous words were evaluated together, in competing and converging combinations, using time windows designed to detect an early stage where lexical priming is observed but sentential priming is not. Related and unrelated word pairs were presented visually, in rapid succession, within auditory sentence contexts that were either compatible or incompatible with the target (the second word in each pair). In lexical decision, the additive effects of lexical priming and sentential priming were present under all temporal conditions, although the latter was always substantially larger. In cross-modal naming, sentential priming was present in all temporal conditions; lexical priming was more fragile, interacting with timing and sentential congruence. No evidence was found for a stage in which lexical priming is present but sentential priming is absent – a finding that is difficult to reconcile with two-stage models of lexical versus sentential priming. We conclude that sentential context operates very early in the process of word recognition, and that it can interact with lexical priming at the earliest time window.

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Are all code-switches processed the same? Examining semantic v. language unexpectancy

10.31234/osf.io/k9wpn ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jorge Valdés Kroff ◽

Patricia Roman ◽

Paola E. Dussias

Keyword(s):

Semantic Processing ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Target Population ◽

Code Switching ◽

Event Related Potential ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Online Processing ◽

Sentence Level ◽

Main Effect

Prior studies using the event-related potential (ERP) technique show that integrating sentential code-switches in online processing lead to a broadly distributed late positivity component while processing semantically unexpected continuations instead lead to the emergence of an N400 effect. While the N400 is generally assumed to index lexico-semantic processing, the LPC has two different interpretations. One account suggests that it reflects the processing of an improbable or unexpected event while an alternative account proposes sentence-level reanalysis. To investigate the relative costs of semantic to language-based unexpectancies (i.e., code-switches), the current study tests 24 Spanish-English bilinguals in an ERP reading study. Semantically constrained Spanish frames either varied in their semantic expectancy (high vs low expectancy) and/or their language continuation (same language vs code-switch) while participants’ electrophysiological responses were recorded. The Spanish-to-English switch direction provides a more naturalistic test for integration costs to code-switching as it better approximates the code-switching practices of the target population. Analyses across three time windows show a main effect for semantic expectancy in the N400 time window and a main effect for code-switching in the LPC time window. Additional analyses based on the self-reported code-switching experience of the participants suggested an early positivity linked to less experience with code-switching. The results suggest that not all code-switches lead to similar integration costs and that prior experience with code-switching is an important additional factor that modulates online processing.

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Research collaboration and topic trends in Computer Science based on top active authors

PeerJ Computer Science ◽

10.7717/peerj-cs.41 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. e41 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Yan Wu ◽

Srinivasan Venkatramanan ◽

Dah Ming Chiu

Keyword(s):

Computer Science ◽

Research Collaboration ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Evaluation Framework ◽

Scientific Publications ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Team Research ◽

Continuous Presence ◽

Shed Light

Academic publication metadata can be used to analyze the collaboration, productivity and hot topic trends of a research community. In this paper, we study a specific group of authors, namely the top active authors. They are defined as the top 1% authors with uninterrupted and continuous presence in scientific publications over a time window. We take the top active authors in the Computer Science (CS) community over different time windows in the past 50 years, and use them to analyze collaboration, productivity and topic trends. We show that (a) the top active authors are representative of the overall population; (b) the community is increasingly moving in the direction of Team Research, with increased level and degree of collaboration; and (c) the research topics are increasingly inter-related. By focusing on the top active authors, it helps visualize these trends better. Besides, the observations from top active authors also shed light on design of better evaluation framework and resource management for policy makers in academia.

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Are COVID-19 mitigation measures reducing preterm birth rate in China?

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006359 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (8) ◽

pp. e006359

Author(s):

Zheng Bian ◽

Xiaoxian Qu ◽

Hao Ying ◽

Xiaohua Liu

Keyword(s):

Preterm Birth ◽

Birth Rate ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Late Preterm Birth ◽

Child Morbidity ◽

Preterm Birth Rate ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

The Impact

ObjectivePreterm birth is the leading cause of child morbidity and mortality globally. We aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in China on 23 January 2020 on the incidence of preterm birth in our institution.DesignLogistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association between the national COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in China and the incidence of preterm birth.SettingShanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Shanghai China.ParticipantsAll singleton deliveries abstracted from electronic medical record between 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020.Main outcome measuresPreterm birth rate.ResultsData on 164 107 singleton deliveries were available. COVID-19 mitigation measures were consistently associated with significant reductions in preterm birth in the 2-month, 3-month, 4-month, 5-month time windows after implementation (+2 months, OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.94; +3 months, OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.94; +4 months, OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.92; +5 months, OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.93). These reductions in preterm birth were obvious across various degrees of prematurity, but were statistically significant only in moderate-to-late preterm birth (32 complete weeks to 36 weeks and 6 days) subgroup. The preterm birth difference disappeared gradually after various restrictions were removed (7th–12th month of 2020, OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.11). There was no difference in stillbirth rate across the study time window.ConclusionSubstantial decreases in preterm birth rates were observed following implementation of the national COVID-19 mitigation measures in China. Further study is warranted to explore the underlying mechanisms associated with this observation.

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Implementasi Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows dengan Pendekatan Algoritma Sweep untuk Distribusi Pengangkutan Sampah

Jurnal Kalibrasi ◽

10.33364/kalibrasi/v.19-1.1002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Dedi Sa'dudin Taptajani

Keyword(s):

Vehicle Routing ◽

Vehicle Routing Problem ◽

Time Window ◽

Time Windows ◽

Nearest Neighbour ◽

Routing Problem ◽

Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem ◽

Capacitated Vehicle

Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) merupakan suatu permasalahan yang berkaitan dengan bagaimana menentukan rute yang dianggap optimal dan melibatkan lebih dari satu alat angkut demi memperhatikan beberapa kendala dalam melayani sejumlah tempat layanan sesuai dengan permintaan. Salah satu varian dari VRP adalah capacitated vehicle routing problem with time window (CVRPTW) varian ini menambahkan kendala kapasitas alat angkut sebagai salah satu pertimbangan didalam mengangkut ke masing masing tujuan dan kemudian memberikan jendela waktu didalam proses pengangkutannya. Tujuan dari penulisan ini adalah menjelaskan pembentukan model dari CVRPTW untuk permasalahan rute pengangkutan sampah dari tiap rumah Sampai Ke Tempat Pembuangan Akhir, dengan pertimbangan waktu yang tersedia dan kapasitas angkut alat angkut yang tersedia, Sedangkan Penyelesaiannya yaitu dengan menggunakan pendekatan algoritma sweep. Algoritma Ini merupakan algoritma yang terdiri dari dua tahap, pada tahapan pertama yaitu clustering dari masing masing rumah dan tahap selanjurtnya yaitu membentuk rute pengiriman untuk masing-masing cluster dengan metode Nearest Neighbour, kemudian dilanjutkan dengan menentukan kapasitas alat angkut terhadap waktu yang diperlukan untuk menentukan kapan sampah ini akan di angkut ke tempat pembuangan akhir. Studi ini sangat penting dilakukan dalam rangka menerapkan dasar untuk memahami kemungkinan meningkatkan tingkat layanan pada proses pengangkutan sampah di tingkat desa.

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Maternal Transfer of Environmentally Relevant Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) Produces a Diabetic Phenotype and Disrupts Glucoregulatory Hormones and Hepatic Endocannabinoids in Adult Mouse Female Offspring

10.1101/2020.08.31.275008 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Elena V. Kozlova ◽

Bhuvaneswari D. Chinthirla ◽

Pedro A. Pérez ◽

Nicholas V. DiPatrizio ◽

Donovan A. Argueta ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers ◽

Ex Vivo ◽

Time Windows ◽

Female Offspring ◽

Exposure Model ◽

Maternal Transfer ◽

Tissue Mass ◽

Brown Adipose ◽

Diphenyl Ethers

AbstractPolybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are brominated flame retardant chemicals and environmental contaminants with endocrine-disrupting properties that are associated with diabetes and metabolic syndrome in humans. However, their diabetogenic actions are not completely characterized or understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of DE-71, a commercial penta-mixture of PBDEs, on glucose regulatory parameters in a perinatal exposure model using female C57Bl/6 mice. Results from in vivo glucose and insulin tolerance tests and ex vivo analyses showed that DE-71 produced fasting hyperglycemia, glucose intolerance, reduced sensitivity and delayed glucose clearance after insulin challenge, and exaggerated hepatic endocannabinoid tone in F1 offspring exposed to 0.1 mg/kg DE-71 relative to control. DE-71 effects on F0 dams were more limited indicating that indirect exposure to developing offspring is more detrimental. Other ex vivo glycemic correlates occur more generally in exposed F0 and F1, i.e., reduced plasma insulin and altered glucoregulatory endocrines, exaggerated sympathoadrenal activity, decreased thermogenic brown adipose tissue mass and reduced hepatic glutamate dehydrogenase enzymatic activity. Hepatic PBDE congener analysis indicated maternal transfer of BDE-28 and −153 to F1 at a collective level of 200 ng/g lipid, in range with maximum values detected in serum of human females. Given the persistent diabetogenic phenotype, especially pronounced in female offspring after developmental exposure to environmentally relevant levels of DE-71, additional animal studies should be conducted that further characterize PBDE-induced diabetic pathophysiology and identify critical developmental time windows of susceptibility. Longitudinal human studies should also be conducted to determine the risk of long-lasting metabolic consequences after maternal transfer of PBDEs during early-life development.

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