PubMed İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / PubMed Indexed Publications Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/7645

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  • Article
    A Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) Approach to Over-Equilibrium Dynamics in Conservatively Perturbed Linear Equilibrium Systems
    (MDPI, 2025) Dutta, Abhishek; Mukherjee, Bitan; Hosen, Sk Aftab; Turan, Meltem; Constales, Denis; Yablonsky, Gregory
    Conservatively perturbed equilibrium (CPE) experiments yield transient concentration extrema that surpass steady-state equilibrium values. A physics-informed neural network (PINN) framework is introduced to simulate these over-equilibrium dynamics in linear chemical reaction networks without reliance on extensive time-series data. The PINN incorporates the reaction kinetics, stoichiometric invariants, and equilibrium constraints directly into its loss function, ensuring that the learned solution strictly satisfies physical conservation laws. Applied to three- and four-species reversible mechanisms (both acyclic and cyclic), the PINN surrogate matches conventional ODE integration results, reproducing the characteristic early concentration extrema (maxima or minima) in unperturbed species and the subsequent relaxation to equilibrium. It captures the timing and magnitude of these extrema with high accuracy while inherently preserving total mass. Through the physics-informed approach, the model achieves accurate results with minimal data and a compact network architecture, highlighting its parameter efficiency.
  • Article
    Characterisation of Electro-Brush Plated Nickel Coatings on P-Type (Zr,ti)co Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Materials for Stable Contact Layers
    (MDPI, 2025) Gurtaran, Mikdat; Zhang, Zhenxue; Li, Xiaoying; Dong, Hanshan
    In this study, a highly conductive nickel (Ni) layer was deposited onto a P-type (Zr,Ti)Co(Sn,Sb) half-Heusler (HH) thermoelectric (TE) material using a low-cost electro-brush plating technique. Before depositing Ni on the TE material, the plating process was optimised on a stainless steel (SS) substrate. An optimal medium-rate deposition voltage of 6V was identified on the SS substrate, with the desired thickness, superior mechanical performance, reduced sheet resistance and surface roughness, and enhanced electrical conductivity. The optimised deposition condition was then applied to the P-type (Zr,Ti)Co(Sn,Sb) material, resulting in a Ni layer that significantly enhanced its electrical and thermal stability. After thermal exposure at 500 degrees C for 10 h, the Ni coating effectively protected the TE surface against oxidation and sublimation, suggesting that the interfacial contact properties of P-type (Zr,Ti)Co(Sn,Sb) TE material can be effectively enhanced by depositing a highly conductive, oxidation-resistant Ni layer using the cost-effective, straightforward electro-brush plating technique.
  • Article
    Locoregional Treatment in De Novo Bone-Only Metastatic Breast Cancer: Prospective, Multi-Institutional Real-World Data, BOMETIN, Protocol MF14-1a
    (MDPI, 2025) Soran, Atilla; Demirors, Berkay; Aytac, Ozgur; Ozbas, Serdar; Dogan, Lutfi; Lucci, Anthony
    Introduction: The impact of locoregional treatment (LRT) on survival in de novo bone-only metastatic breast cancer (dnBOMBC) is controversial. This study aims to assess the effect of LRT on survival, utilizing international, prospectively acquired data in this cohort of patients. Materials and Methods: Patients with dnBOMBC were divided into two groups: those receiving systemic therapy only (ST) and those undergoing LRT. Further, patients who received LRT were divided into two subgroups: those who received ST after LRT (LRT+ST group) and those who received ST prior to LRT (ST+LRT group). Factors associated with disease progression, including solitary or multiple bone metastases, were analyzed. Results: There was a total of 744 patients with dnBOMBC treated at each of the participating institutions between 2014 and 2022, with 372 (50%) participants in each arm. Median follow-up was 48 months (32-66, 25-75%). Patients in the LRT group were significantly younger than the ST group [50 (42, 60) vs. 55 (44, 66), p = 0.0001]. There were no significant differences in grade, HER2 status, triple-negative status, receipt of hormonal therapy, or intervention to metastatic sites. During follow-up, 58% (n = 217) of patients in the ST group and 32% (n = 120) of patients in the LRT group died (p < 0.001). Local progression was observed in 20% of the patients in the ST group, whereas 9% progressed in the LRT group (p = 0.0001). Systemic progression occurred more in the ST group; 66% (n = 244) compared to 41% (n = 152) of patients in the LRT group (p < 0.001). The hazard of death was 64% lower in the LRT group than in the ST group (HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.29-0.45, p < 0.0001). The burden of metastatic disease differed significantly between the two groups, with a higher rate of solitary bone metastases in the LRT group compared to the ST group (50% vs. 24%, p < 0.001). However, the LRT group had better overall survival (OS) for both solitary (HR: 0.38, 95% Cl: 0.26-0.55) and multiple (HR: 0.38, 95% Cl: 0.29-0.51) bone metastasis patients. Within the LRT group, survival rates were similar whether the breast surgery was performed before or after ST. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that LRT and ER/PR positivity significantly decrease the hazard of death (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Analysis of this large multi-institutional patient cohort provides further evidence that LRT is associated with longer OS and lower locoregional recurrence rates in patients with dnBOMBC. In breast cancer patients with bone-only metastases at presentation, the decision for LRT should be made through a multidisciplinary approach with consideration of surgical therapy at the primary tumor.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 1
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    A Pragmatic Grouping Model for Bone-Only De Novo Metastatic Breast Cancer (MetS Protocol MF22-03)
    (MDPI, 2025) Goktepe, Berk; Demirors, Berkay; Senol, Kazim; Ozbas, Serdar; Sezgin, Efe; Lucci, Anthony; Soran, Atilla
    De novo metastatic breast cancer (dnMBC) accounts for 3-10% of newly diagnosed cases, with 20-40% presenting as a bone-only metastatic disease, which can achieve survival outcomes exceeding 10 years with multimodal therapy. However, the role of multimodal therapy remains controversial in the guidelines. Objective: This study aims to identify dnBOMBC subgroups to develop a pragmatic staging system for guiding locoregional therapy decisions. Materials and Methods: Data from the MF07-01 phase III randomized trial (2021, median follow-up time (mFT): 40 months (range 1-131)) and the BOMET prospective multi-institutional registry trial (2021, mFT: 34 months (range 25-45)) were combined for analysis, including only patients who presented with bone-only metastases. Exclusion criteria were patients under 18 and those with a history of prior cancer or cancer metastases. Patients with missing data and positive surgical margins were excluded. Out of 770 patients, 589 were included. Survival analyses were first conducted according to molecular subgroups, after which patients were further stratified by hormone receptor status, human epidermal human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status, tumor grade, and clinical T (cT) stage. Group A (GrA) included hormone receptor (HR)-positive, low- or intermediate-grade tumors at any cT; HR-positive, high-grade tumors with cT0-3; or any HER2-positive tumors. Group B (GrB) included HR-positive, high-grade tumors with cT4 disease or any triple-negative (TN) tumors. Results: The hazard of death (HoD) was 43% lower in GrA than in GrB. Median OS was 65 months (39-104) for GrA patients and 44 months (28-72) for GrB patients (HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.41-0.78, p = 0.0003). Primary tumor surgery (PTS) significantly improved OS in GrA patients, regardless of the number of metastases (solitary: HR, 0.375, 95% CI 0.259-0.543, p < 0.001; multiple: HR 0.435, 95% CI 0.334-0.615, p < 0.001). Conversely, GrB patients did not experience a significant benefit from PTS. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that GrA patients have better OS than GrB patients, and PTS reduces the HoD in GrA patients compared to systemic therapy alone. These findings support using a modified staging system in dnBOBMC to identify patients who may benefit from multimodal therapy including PTS.
  • Article
    Role of Long Non-Coding RNA X-Inactive Transcript (XIST) in Neuroinflammation and Myelination: Insights From Cerebral Organoids and Implications for Multiple Sclerosis
    (MDPI, 2025) Pepe, Nihan Aktas; Acar, Busra; Zararsiz, Gozde Erturk; Guner, Serife Ayaz; Sen, Alaattin
    Background/Objectives: X-inactive-specific transcript (XIST) is a factor that plays a role in neuroinflammation. This study investigated the role of XIST in neuronal development, neuroinflammation, myelination, and therapeutic responses within cerebral organoids in the context of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis. Methods: Human cerebral organoids with oligodendrocytes were produced from XIST-silenced H9 cells, and the mature organoids were subsequently treated with either FTY720 or DMF. Gene expression related to inflammation and myelination was subsequently analyzed via qRT-PCR. Immunofluorescence staining was used to assess the expression of proteins related to inflammation, myelination, and neuronal differentiation. Alpha-synuclein protein levels were also checked via ELISA. Finally, transcriptome analysis was conducted on the organoid samples. Results: XIST-silenced organoids presented a 2-fold increase in the expression of neuronal stem cells, excitatory neurons, microglia, and mature oligodendrocyte markers. In addition, XIST silencing increased IL-10 mRNA expression by 2-fold and MBP and PLP1 expression by 2.3- and 0.6-fold, respectively. Although XIST silencing tripled IBA1 protein expression, it did not affect organoid MBP expression. FTY720, but not DMF, distinguished MBP and IBA1 expression in XIST-silenced organoids. Furthermore, XIST silencing reduced the concentration of alpha-synuclein from 300 to 100 pg/mL, confirming its anti-inflammatory role. Transcriptomic and gene enrichment analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes are involved in neural development and immune processes, suggesting the role of XIST in neuroinflammation. The silencing of XIST modified the expression of genes associated with inflammation, myelination, and neuronal growth in cerebral organoids, indicating a potential involvement in the pathogenesis of MS. Conclusions: XIST may contribute to the MS pathogenesis as well as neuroinflammatory diseases such as and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and may be a promising therapeutic target.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 1
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Calcium Indicators With Fluorescence Lifetime-Based Signal Readout: a Structure-Function Study
    (MDPI, 2024) Simonyan, Tatiana R.; Varfolomeeva, Larisa A.; Mamontova, Anastasia V.; Kotlobay, Alexey A.; Gorokhovatsky, Andrey Y.; Bogdanov, Alexey M.; Boyko, Konstantin M.
    The calcium cation is a crucial signaling molecule involved in numerous cellular pathways. Beyond its role as a messenger or modulator in intracellular cascades, calcium's function in excitable cells, including nerve impulse transmission, is remarkable. The central role of calcium in nervous activity has driven the rapid development of fluorescent techniques for monitoring this cation in living cells. Specifically, genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) are the most in-demand molecular tools in their class. In this work, we address two issues of calcium imaging by designing indicators based on the successful GCaMP6 backbone and the fluorescent protein BrUSLEE. The first indicator variant (GCaMP6s-BrUS), with a reduced, calcium-insensitive fluorescence lifetime, has potential in monitoring calcium dynamics with a high temporal resolution in combination with advanced microscopy techniques, such as light beads microscopy, where the fluorescence lifetime limits acquisition speed. Conversely, the second variant (GCaMP6s-BrUS-145), with a flexible, calcium-sensitive fluorescence lifetime, is relevant for static measurements, particularly for determining absolute calcium concentration values using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). To identify the structural determinants of calcium sensitivity in these indicator variants, we determine their spatial structures. A comparative structural analysis allowed the optimization of the GCaMP6s-BrUS construct, resulting in an indicator variant combining calcium-sensitive behavior in the time domain and enhanced molecular brightness. Our data may serve as a starting point for further engineering efforts towards improved GECI variants with fine-tuned fluorescence lifetimes.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 5
    Citation - Scopus: 6
    A Comparative Study of Metaheuristic Feature Selection Algorithms for Respiratory Disease Classification
    (MDPI, 2024) Gürkan Kuntalp, D.; Özcan, N.; Düzyel, Okan; Kababulut, F.Y.; Kuntalp, M.
    The correct diagnosis and early treatment of respiratory diseases can significantly improve the health status of patients, reduce healthcare expenses, and enhance quality of life. Therefore, there has been extensive interest in developing automatic respiratory disease detection systems. Most recent methods for detecting respiratory disease use machine and deep learning algorithms. The success of these machine learning methods depends heavily on the selection of proper features to be used in the classifier. Although metaheuristic-based feature selection methods have been successful in addressing difficulties presented by high-dimensional medical data in various biomedical classification tasks, there is not much research on the utilization of metaheuristic methods in respiratory disease classification. This paper aims to conduct a detailed and comparative analysis of six widely used metaheuristic optimization methods using eight different transfer functions in respiratory disease classification. For this purpose, two different classification cases were examined: binary and multi-class. The findings demonstrate that metaheuristic algorithms using correct transfer functions could effectively reduce data dimensionality while enhancing classification accuracy. © 2024 by the authors.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 1
    Citation - Scopus: 1
    Light-Dark and Activity Rhythm Therapy (l-Dart) To Improve Sleep in People With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: a Single-Group Mixed Methods Study of Feasibility, Acceptability and Adherence
    (MDPI, 2023) Faulkner, Sophie; Didikoğlu, Altuğ; Byrne, Rory; Drake, Richard; Bee, Penny
    People with a diagnosis of schizophrenia often have poor sleep, even when their psychotic symptoms are relatively well managed. This includes insomnia, sleep apnoea, hypersomnia, and irregular or non-24 h sleep-wake timing. Improving sleep would better support recovery, yet few evidence-based sleep treatments are offered to this group. This paper presents a mixed methods feasibility and acceptability study of Light-Dark and Activity Rhythm Therapy (L-DART). L-DART is delivered by an occupational therapist over 12 weeks. It is highly personalisable to sleep phenotypes and circumstances. Ten participants with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses and sleep problems received L-DART; their sleep problems and therapy goals were diverse. We measured recruitment, attrition, session attendance, and adverse effects, and qualitatively explored acceptability, engagement, component delivery, adherence, activity patterns, dynamic light exposure, self-reported sleep, wellbeing, and functioning. Recruitment was ahead of target, there was no attrition, and all participants received the minimum 'dose' of sessions. Acceptability assessed via qualitative reports and satisfaction ratings was good. Adherence to individual intervention components varied, despite high participant motivation. All made some potentially helpful behaviour changes. Positive sleep and functioning outcomes were reported qualitatively as well as in outcome measures. The findings above support testing the intervention in a larger randomised trial ISRCTN11998005.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 4
    Citation - Scopus: 4
    A New Shapley-Based Feature Selection Method in a Clinical Decision Support System for the Identification of Lung Diseases
    (MDPI, 2023) Kababulut, Fevzi Yasin; Kuntalp, Damla Gurkan; Düzyel, Okan; Özcan, Nermin; Kuntalp, Mehmet
    The aim of this study is to propose a new feature selection method based on the class-based contribution of Shapley values. For this purpose, a clinical decision support system was developed to assist doctors in their diagnosis of lung diseases from lung sounds. The developed systems, which are based on the Decision Tree Algorithm (DTA), create a classification for five different cases: healthy and disease (URTI, COPD, Pneumonia, and Bronchiolitis) states. The most important reason for using a Decision Tree Classifier instead of other high-performance classifiers such as CNN and RNN is that the class contributions of Shapley values can be seen with this classifier. The systems developed consist of either a single DTA classifier or five parallel DTA classifiers each of which is optimized to make a binary classification such as healthy vs. others, COPD vs. Others, etc. Feature sets based on Power Spectral Density (PSD), Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC), and statistical characteristics extracted from lung sound recordings were used in these classifications. The results indicate that employing features selected based on the class-based contribution of Shapley values, along with utilizing an ensemble (parallel) system, leads to improved classification performance compared to performances using either raw features alone or traditional use of Shapley values.
  • Article
    Citation - WoS: 4
    Citation - Scopus: 4
    Interferon Gamma-Inducible Nampt in Melanoma Cells Serves as a Mechanism of Resistance To Enhance Tumor Growth
    (MDPI, 2023) Barba, Cindy; Ekiz, Hüseyin Atakan; Tang, William Weihao; Ghazaryan, Arevik; Hansen, Mason; Lee, Soh-Hyun; Voth, Warren Peter
    Simple Summary The tumor microenvironment is complex, with interacting immune and tumor cells. Immune cells release inflammatory cytokines, including interferons (IFNs), that drive tumor clearance. However, evidence suggests that tumor cells can also utilize IFNs to enhance growth and survival in certain cases. We demonstrate that interferon gamma (IFN gamma) mediates the metabolic reprogramming of melanoma cells by inducing the essential NAD+ salvage pathway enzyme nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) gene through STAT1 binding to the NAMPT locus. NAMPT is constitutively expressed in cells during normal homeostasis. However, melanoma cells have higher energetic demands and increased NAMPT. We show that IFN gamma signaling upregulates NAMPT in melanoma cells, increasing cell proliferation and survival. Further, STAT1-inducible Nampt promotes melanoma growth in mice. We provide evidence that melanoma cells directly respond to IFN gamma-activated STAT1 by increasing Nampt, which improves their fitness during tumor immunity. Elucidating mechanisms that regulate NAMPT expression can lead to enhanced therapeutic approaches with immunotherapies that utilize IFN signaling to improve patient outcomes. (1) Background: Immune cells infiltrate the tumor microenvironment and secrete inflammatory cytokines, including interferons (IFNs), to drive antitumor responses and promote tumor clearance. However, recent evidence suggests that sometimes, tumor cells can also harness IFNs to enhance growth and survival. The essential NAD+ salvage pathway enzyme nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) gene is constitutively expressed in cells during normal homeostasis. However, melanoma cells have higher energetic demands and elevated NAMPT expression. We hypothesized that interferon gamma (IFN gamma) regulates NAMPT in tumor cells as a mechanism of resistance that impedes the normal anti-tumorigenic effects of IFN gamma. (2) Methods: Utilizing a variety of melanoma cells, mouse models, Crispr-Cas9, and molecular biology techniques, we explored the importance of IFN gamma-inducible NAMPT during melanoma growth. (3) Results: We demonstrated that IFN gamma mediates the metabolic reprogramming of melanoma cells by inducing Nampt through a Stat1 binding site in the Nampt gene, increasing cell proliferation and survival. Further, IFN/STAT1-inducible Nampt promotes melanoma in vivo. (4) Conclusions: We provided evidence that melanoma cells directly respond to IFN gamma by increasing NAMPT levels, improving their fitness and growth in vivo (control n = 36, SBS KO n = 46). This discovery unveils a possible therapeutic target that may improve the efficacy of immunotherapies involving IFN responses in the clinic.