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A Feasibility Study of Personalized Prescription Schemes for Glioblastoma Patients Using a Proliferation and Invasion Glioma Model
Get PDFPurpose: This study investigates the feasibility of personalizing radiotherapy prescription schemes (treatment margins and fractional doses) for glioblastoma (GBM) patients and their potential benefits using a proliferation and invasion (PI) glioma model on phantoms. Methods and Materials: We propose a strategy to personalize radiotherapy prescription schemes by simulating the proliferation and invasion of the tumor in 2D according to the PI glioma model. We demonstrate the strategy and its potential benefits by presenting virtual cases, where the standard and personalized prescriptions were applied to the tumor. Standard prescription was assumed to deliver 46 Gy in 23 fractions to the initial, gross tumor volume (GTV1) plus a 2 cm margin and an additional 14 Gy in 7 fractions to the boost GTV2 plus a 2 cm margin. The virtual cases include the tumors with a moving velocity of 0.029 (slow-move), 0.079 (average-move), and 0.13 (fast-move) mm/day for the gross tumor volume (GTV) with a radius of 1 (small) and 2 (large) cm. For each tumor size and velocity, the margin around GTV1 and GTV2 was varied between 0–6 cm and 1–3 cm, respectively. Equivalent uniform dose (EUD) to normal brain was constrained to the EUD value obtained by using the standard prescription. Various linear dose policies, where the fractional dose is linearly decreasing, constant, or increasing, were investigated to estimate the temporal effect of the radiation dose on tumor cell-kills. The goal was to find the combination of margins for GTV1 and GTV2 and a linear dose policy, which minimize the tumor cell-surviving fraction (SF) under a normal tissue constraint. The efficacy of a personalized prescription was evaluated by tumor EUD and the estimated survival time. Results: The personalized prescription for the slow-move tumors was to use 3.0–3.5 cm margins for GTV1, and a 1.5 cm margin for GTV2. For the average- and fast-move tumors, it was optimal to use a 6.0 cm margin for GTV1 and then 1.5–3.0 cm margins for GTV2, suggesting a course of whole brain therapy followed by a boost to a smaller volume. It was more effective to deliver the boost sequentially using a linearly decreasing fractional dose for all tumors. Personalized prescriptions led to surviving fractions of 0.001–0.465% compared to the standard prescription, and increased the tumor EUDs by 25.3–49.3% and estimated survival times by 7.6–22.2 months. Conclusions: Personalizing treatment margins based on the measured proliferative capacity of GBM tumor cells can potentially lead to significant improvements in tumor cell kill and related clinical outcomes
Agent-Based Models of the Green Dot Bystander Violence Prevention Program on College Campuses
Get PDFDespite the hard work of a diverse collection of organizations committed to violence prevention, the prevalence of rape, abuse, and other forms of interpersonal violence remains startling, especially on college campuses. Here we present an agent-based model (ABM) of interpersonal violence rooted in the philosophy of the Green Dot Bystander Training Program, in the hopes of providing insight into ways in which training of students can be improved so that intervention attempts are more effective. Two models, with and without adaptive behaviors, are studied under two population sizes. Through sensitivity testing, various outcomes are analyzed to measure the effectiveness of each intervention strategy. The scenarios that result in the smallest relative number of violent acts are those with a denser population, while the adaptive models produce unexpected results that prompt questions about human behavior and our tendency toward bystander intervention
Modeling the Spread of the Zika Virus at the 2016 Olympics
Get PDFThe Zika Virus is an arbovirus that is spread by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus and causes mild fever-like symptoms. It is strongly associated with microcephaly, a condition that affects development of fetal brains. With the recent emergence of Zika in Brazil, we develop an agent-based model to track mosquitoes and humans throughout the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to investigate how the Olympics might affect the spread of the virus. There are many unknowns regarding the spread and prevalence of Zika, with approximately 80% of infected individuals unaware of their infectious status. We therefore discuss results of experiments where several unknown parameters were varied, including the rate at which mosquitoes successfully bite humans, the percentage of initially infected mosquitoes, and the sizes of the human and mosquito populations. From these experiments, we make initial predictions regarding effective control measures for the spread of Zika
Sapphic Cinema: An Exploration of Films about Gay Women and their Relationship to American Society in the Reagan Era and Beyond
Get PDFWestward to Equality: An Analysis of Frontier Life and the Suffrage Movement of Abigail Scott Duniway
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Review of Susanne Scholz (ed.), Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect; Panel from the 2017 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston (MA)
Get PDFThe current flourishing of varieties of feminist interpretation among religious organizations and in the academy has been going on since at least the 1970s, and has grown to display an amazing diversity of emphases and forms. At the same time, much work still needs to be done. The appearance from Sheffield Phoenix of Susanne Scholz’s three-volume edited work, Feminist Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Retrospect,1 by its breadth of coverage and its conscious attempt to reflect on the work of past decades, offered the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section of the Society of Biblical Literature an opportunity to assess the distance feminist interpretations have traveled in the last 40–50 years and where we should focus energy for the future. The following papers share the reviews offered by five colleagues at a panel session at the SBL Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, on Sunday, November 19, 2017, and Prof. Scholz’s response. The reviewers represent an array of feminist perspectives that is diverse in race/ethnicity, nationality/culture, gender, age, and stream of religious tradition. The reviews probe not only a variety of dimensions of Prof. Scholz’s work, but also a variety of points of progress and ongoing issues in feminist interpretation
Field-Trip Guide to Mafic Volcanism of the Cascade Range in Central Oregon— A Volcanic, Tectonic, Hydrologic, and Geomorphic Journey
Get PDFThe Cascade Range in central Oregon has been shaped by tectonics, volcanism, and hydrology, as well as geomorphic forces that include glaciations. As a result of the rich interplay between these forces, mafic volcanism here can have surprising manifestations, which include relatively large tephra footprints and extensive lava flows, as well as water shortages, transportation and agricultural disruption, and forest fires. Although the focus of this multidisciplinary field trip will be on mafic volcanism, we will also look at the hydrology, geomorphology, and ecology of the area, and we will examine how these elements both influence and are influenced by mafic volcanism. We will see mafic volcanic rocks at the Sand Mountain volcanic field and in the Santiam Pass area, at McKenzie Pass, and in the southern Bend region. In addition, this field trip will occur during a total solar eclipse, the first one visible in the United States in more than 25 years (and the first seen in the conterminous United States in more than 37 years)
Constitutive expression of NF-κB inducing kinase in regulatory T cells impairs suppressive function and promotes instability and pro-inflammatory cytokine production
Get PDFCD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) are indispensable negative regulators of immune responses. To understand Treg biology in health and disease, it is critical to elucidate factors that affect Treg homeostasis and suppressive function. Tregs express several costimulatory TNF receptor family members that activate non-canonical NF-κB via accumulation of NF-κB inducing kinase (NIK). We previously showed that constitutive NIK expression in all T cells causes fatal multi-organ autoimmunity associated with hyperactive conventional T cell responses and poor Treg-mediated suppression. Here, we show that constitutive NIK expression that is restricted to Tregs via a Cre-inducible transgene causes an autoimmune syndrome. We found that constitutive NIK expression decreased expression of numerous Treg signature genes and microRNAs involved in Treg homeostasis and suppressive phenotype. NIK transgenic Tregs competed poorly with WT Tregs in vivo and produced proinflammatory cytokines upon stimulation. Lineage tracing experiments revealed accumulation of ex- Foxp3+ T cells in mice expressing NIK constitutively in Tregs, and these former Tregs produced copious IFNγ and IL-2. Our data indicate that under inflammatory conditions in which NIK is activated, Tregs may lose suppressive function and may actively contribute to inflammation
Salzburg Views with Church Steeples
No full textMedium: Watercolors
Dimensions: 36 x 16
Description: Three views of Salzburg, each showing different churches from a distance.https://pilotscholars.up.edu/ghyselinck_exhibit/1003/thumbnail.jp