Impact of Examined Lymph Node Count and Lymph Node Density on Overall Survival of Penile Cancer

BackgroundFew studies have explored the optimal examined lymph node count and lymph node density cutoff values that could be used to predict the survival of patients with penile cancer. We further clarify the prognostic value of lymph node density and examined lymph node count in penile cancer.MethodsThe Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was explored to recruit penile cancer patients from 2010 to 2015. A retrospective analysis of penile cancer patients’ data from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University was performed for verification (2006–2016). The cutoff values of examined lymph node count and lymph node density were performed according to the ROC curve. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to compare survival differences among different groups. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were used to determine the significant variables. On the basis of Cox proportional hazards regression model, a nomogram was established and validated by calibration plot diagrams and concordance index (C-index).ResultsA total of 528 patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cohort and 156 patients in the Chinese cohort were included in this study. Using the ROC curve, we found that the recommended cutoff values of ELN and LND were 13 and 9.3%, respectively (P <0.001). Kaplan–Meier curves suggested the significant differences of overall survival among different examined lymph nodes and lymph node density. Multivariate analysis indicated ELN and LND were independent prognostic factor for OS of penile cancer patients. Nomogram showed the contribution of ELN and LND to predicting OS was large. The C-index at 3-, and 5-year were 0.744 for overall survival (95% CI 0.711–0.777).ConclusionsThe more lymph nodes examined, the lower the density of lymph nodes, and the higher the long-term survival rate of penile cancer. We recommended 13 examined lymph nodes and lymph node density >9.3% as the cutoff value for evaluating the prognosis of penile cancer patients.

An Improved Group Teaching Optimization based Localization Scheme for WSN

Localization is widely employed in wireless sensor networks (WSN) to detect the present position of the nodes. Generally, WSN comprises numerous sensors, which makes the deployment of GPS in all nodes cost and fails to provide precise localization outcomes in several cases. The manual configuration of the position reference of the sensors is not feasible under dense networks. Therefore, the NL process can be treated as an NP-hard problem and solved by metaheuristic algorithms. In this aspect, this paper presents an improved group teaching optimization algorithm-based NL technique called IGTOA-NL for WSN. The IGTOA technique is derived by integrating the basic concepts of GTOA with the β-hill-climbing technique to improve the overall node localization process. The IGTOA-NL technique can effectually localize the nodes in WSN under varying anchor node count. To showcase the productive outcome of the IGTOA technique, a series of simulations take place under a diverse number of anchors. The resultant values highlighted the proficient NL outcome of the IGTOA technique over the current state of art NL techniques in terms of different measures.