Development and performance validation of a low-cost algorithms-based hyperspectral imaging system for radiodermatitis assessment.

Whilst radiotherapy (RT) is widely used for cancer treatment, radiodermatitis caused by RT is one most common severe side effect affecting 95% cancer patients. Accurate radiodermatitis assessment and classification is essential to adopt timely treatment, management and monitoring, which all depend on reliable and objective tools for radiodermatitis grading. We therefore, in this work, reported the development and grading performance validation of a low-cost (∼2318.2 CNY) algorithms-based hyperspectral imaging (aHSI) system for radiodermatitis assessment. The low-cost aHSI system was enabled through Monte Carlo (MC) simulations conducted on multi-spectra acquired from a custom built low-cost multispectral imaging (MSI) system, deriving algorithms-based hyper-spectra with spectral resolution of 1 nm. The MSI system was based on sequentially illuminated narrow-band light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a CMOS camera. Erythema induced artificially on healthy volunteers was measured by the aHSI system developed, with algorithms-based hyper-spectra and skin layer resolved physiological parameters (i.e., the blood volume fraction (BVF) and the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in blood, et. al.) derivation using MC simulations. The MC simulations derived BVF and the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in blood showed significant (P < 0.001, analysis of variance: ANOVA) increase with erythema. Further 1D-convolution neural network (CNN) implemented on the algorithms-based hyper-spectra leads to an overall classification accuracy of 93.1%, suggesting the great potential of low-cost aHSI system developed for radiodermatitis assessment.

Bimodal polarization-sensitive imaging and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy facilitated rapid augmented reality for tissue stratification.

We reported the development of a bimodal large field of view (~95 cm2 ) polarization-sensitive (PS) imaging and point-wise diffuse reflectance (DR) spectroscopy platform synergising the advantages of the two modalities. PS-DR spectroscopy allows simultaneous label-free biochemical and structural analysis of the investigated tissue. For real applications, the PS imaging first grossly stratified tissue into different categories, followed by high information dimension PS-DR spectroscopy ascertaining ambiguous tissue regions identified by the PS imaging. Tested on a tissue phantom consisting of porcine esophagus muscularis propria and submucosa, it has demonstrated the system developed could complete tissue interrogation within 0.6 minutes and with separation accuracy of 95.87%. Further test on tissue phantom consisting of natural and crushed bovine tendon mimicking normal and cancerous breast tissues validated the potential of system developed to effectively and rapidly investigate large tissue area, facilitating augmented tissue boundary demarcation.

Mutation analysis of 13 RM Y-STR loci in Han population from Beijing of China.

Two five-color fluorescence multiplex amplification systems of 13 Y chromosome short tandem repeat (Y-STR) loci (DYF387S1, DYF399S1, DYF403S1a/b, DYF404S1, DYS449, DYS518, DYS526a/b, DYS547, DYS570, DYS576, DYS612, DYS626, and DYS627) have been designed. A study was conducted measuring the mutation rates of the 13 Y-STRs in 501 father-son pairs of Han origin in Beijing, China. Among 7515 allele transmissions in 501 father-son pairs, 75 single-step and 2 two-step mutations were observed. Two father-son pairs had mutations at two different loci in 13 Y-STRs. The estimated mutation rates ranged from 2.00 × 10-3 (95% CI 1.00 × 10-4 to 1.11 × 10-2) for the DYF387S1, DYF403S1b, DYS526a, and DYS449 loci to 4.59 × 10-2 (95% CI 2.93 × 10-2 to 6.81 × 10-2) for the DYF399S1 locus. The average mutation rate is 1.02 × 10-2 (95% CI 8.10 × 10-3 to 1.28 × 10-2). Among these Y-STR markers, only DYF399S1, DYS627, DYF403S1a, DYS547, DYS612, and DYS626 had mutation rates higher than 1.00 × 10-2.

Study of autosomal STR loci with IBS method in full sibling identification.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the application of 51 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci with the identity by state (IBS) method and a discriminant function algorithm in full-sib identification. METHODS: A total of 342 pairs of full sibs (FSs) and 3900 pairs of unrelated individuals (UIs) were genotyped for 51 STR loci. Groups were formed in accordance with discrimination power (DP) values and the number of loci, and IBS scores of FSs and UIs were analyzed and compared. The discriminant functions of FS-UI were determined by using the Fisher discriminant with SPSS software. RESULTS: All IBS in FSs and UIs groups showed normal distributions and there were significant differences between FS-UI. Receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that the detection efficiency of full-sib identification was affected by both the locus polymorphism and the number of loci detected. Comparing the rate of false positive and false negative of discriminant function between groups, a higher average DP value and larger number of loci detected were associated with a lower rate of miscarriage of justice and were more helpful for full-sib identification. CONCLUSION: STRs with higher DP values should be selected when additional autosomal markers are required for FS identification. Discriminant analysis with the IBS method is highly applicable for the FS-UI test.

Genetics analysis of 38 STR loci in Uygur population from Southern Xinjiang of China.

The allele frequencies and statistical parameters of 38 autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci were analyzed in the Uygur population from Southern Xinjiang of China with 290 unrelated individuals. The results show these 38 STR loci have high or medium power of discrimination and probabilities of exclusion. All loci are in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The genetic distances between the Uygur population and other Chinese populations were also estimated.