Automated segmentation and morphological characterization of placental histology images based on a single labeled image

In this study, a novel method of data augmentation has been presented for the segmentation of placental histological images when the labeled data are scarce. This method generates new realizations of the placenta intervillous morphology while maintaining the general textures and orientations. As a result, a diversified artificial dataset of images is generated that can be used for training deep learning segmentation models. We have observed that on average the presented method of data augmentation led to a 42% decrease in the binary cross-entropy loss of the validation dataset compared to the common approach in the literature. Additionally, the morphology of the intervillous space is studied under the effect of the proposed image reconstruction technique, and the diversity of the artificially generated population is quantified. Due to the high resemblance of the generated images to the real ones, the applications of the proposed method may not be limited to placental histological images, and it is recommended that other types of tissues be investigated in future studies

Vitrifikacija mišjih jajnika primjenom krioprotektora etilen glikola i DMSO: patohistološka procjena.

Ten, 4- to 6-week-old BALB/c mice were randomly assigned to either control (non-vitrified, n = 5) or treatment (vitrified, n = 5) groups. Ovaries in the vitrified group were frozen sequentially by immersion into two vitrification solutions VS1: 10% ethylene glycol (EG) + 10% DMSO in holding medium (TCM-199 + 20% FBS) and VS2: 20% EG + 20% DMSO in holding medium. After thawing at 37 °C in 1.0 M sucrose, vitrified as well as non-vitrified ovaries were serially sectioned and examined histopathologically. The proportion of atretic follicles between non-vitrified and vitrified samples was significantly different (36.5 vs. 78.9%, P<0.001). No statistical difference due to vitrification was observed for the percentage of small follicles between the two experimental groups. In contrast, the rate of atresia for the growing and antral follicles in the vitrified ovaries was statistically higher than in the non-vitrified group (70.1 vs. 30.6%, P<0.001). Although many antral follicles were atretic following vitrification, sufficient follicles, especially small class, survived. Therefore, vitrification using EG and DMSO is an efficient procedure for cryopreservation of ovaries.U istraživanje su uzete dvije skupine BALB/c miševa u dobi od četiri do šest tjedana. Ukupno je bilo 10 miševa podijeljenih u pokusnu (n=5) i kontrolnu skupinu (n=5). Jajnici vitrificirane skupine bili su smrznuti sekvencionirano koristeći se uranjanjem u dvije vitrifikacijske otopine. Jedna otopina sadržavala je 10% etilen glikola (EG) + 10% DMSO u mediju za održavanje (TCIM-199 + 20% fetalnoga goveđega seruma), a druga otopina sadržavala je 20% EG + 20% DMSO u mediju za održavanje). Nakon odmrzavanja na 37 °C u 1,0 M otopini saharoze, jajnici obje skupine (vitrificirani i nevitrificirani) bili su serijski rezani i patohistološki pretraženi. Udio atretičnih folikula između vitrificirane i nevitrificirane skupine značajno se razlikovao (36,5 prema 78,9%, P<0,001). Nije ustanovljena statistički značajna razlika s obzirom na vitrifikaciju za udio malih folikula između obje skupine. Suprotno tome, postotak atrezije za rastuće i antralne folikule u vitrificiranim jajnicima bio je značajno veći nego u skupini u kojoj nije provedena vitrifikacija (70,1 prema 30,6%, P<0,001). Usprkos tome što su mnogi antralni folikuli bili atretični nakon vitrifikacije, preživjela je dovoljna količina folikula, osobito malih. Stoga se zaključuje da je vitrifikacija primjenom EG i DMSO učinkovit postupak za čuvanje smrznutih jajnika

The Effect of Teaching Practical Physical Modalities on the Ordering Skills of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residents

Introduction: Physical modalities are performed by physiotherapists based on physiatrists’ orders, so the residents pay less attention to the need and importance of learning the practical modalities. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of teaching the practical aspects of modalities to residents of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in order to improve their skills and attitudes toward ordering and doing physical modalities. Methods: In an interventional, before after study, all residents of physical medicine and rehabilitation, took the medical history of the patients willingly participatedand performed physical examinationand ordered physical modalities. They were also assessed by performing the modalities on the patient. Following the primary assessment, an experienced physiotherapist taught the residents how to do physical modalities. After the practical education, residents were assessed by ordering the modalities and performing them on simulated patients. Their satisfaction of the educational program was evaluated after the intervention. Results: The mean scores of using modalities before and after the education were 23.08± 5.50 and 52±10.18 respectively (p=0.0001). The mean scores of ordering the modalities before and after the education were 1 and 1.66 (p=0.038). The mean score of satisfaction was 91.66±8.74 out of 100. Conclusion: Since physical medicine and rehabilitation residents and specialists who order physical modalities for patients do not perform it on their own patients, teaching the practical physical modalities can improve their skills. The satisfaction rate of residents with the course was very high

Effect of improved diet on semen quality and scrotal circumference in the ram

The aim of this investigation was to assess the effect of improved diet above maintenance requirement on reproductive parameters, including testicular size, semen volume, sperm concentration and viability. Twelve Bakhtiary rams were allocated to two groups of six animals and were fed during a 12-week experiment period with different diets which were designed to supply maintenance and above maintenance requirements (dry matter, energy and protein). Dry matter (DM), barley and soybean meal for control and treatment groups were 1.5 kg, 8%, 0% and 2.1 kg, 25%, 17%, respectively. Semen was collected by artificial vagina every other week. Scrotal circumference, sperm concentration and total number of spermatozoa per ejaculate significantly increased in treatment group (P0.05). Likewise, there was a significant correlation between scrotal circumference and sperm production in treatment group (P<0.01, r = 0.96). It was concluded that improved dietary intake with higher energy and protein supplementation in Bakhtiary rams can improve their reproductive performance during the breeding season

Evaluation of Suitable Connection Point of Skin Probe for Temperature Control in Premature Infants under Radiant Heating Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background and Objectives: Placement of skin heat probe for continuous monitoring of infant body temperature is one of the main components of neonatal care. Therefore, managing the body temperature of newborns under radiation warmers requires a lot of attention from nurses to prevent unwanted complications. The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate connection point of skin probe for temperature control in premature infants under radiant heating admitted to neonatal intensive care units in Hamadan in 2020. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 140 infants aged 34 to 37 weeks admitted to neonatal intensive care units in Hamadan in 2020 who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study by available methods. The incubator temperature was set at 37 degrees and it was the same for all infants. For each infant, the probe was attached to the forehead, chest between the ribs, right axillar, arms adjacent to the nipple, right armpit, back of the legs, and upper thigh, respectively. The baby's temperature displayed on the digital warmer screen was recorded two minutes later. A researcher-made checklist was used to record the data and the data were analyzed using t-test and Paired t-test. Results: The correlation between left and right axillary was highest, meaning that the best location for the incubator thermometer probe, after the left axillary is the right axillary (r = 0.91, P = 0.001). Conclusions: The most suitable place for connecting skin probe for temperature control after left axillary, is the right axillary

DeepAngle: Fast calculation of contact angles in tomography images using deep learning

DeepAngle is a machine learning-based method to determine the contact angles of different phases in the tomography images of porous materials. Measurement of angles in 3--D needs to be done within the surface perpendicular to the angle planes, and it could become inaccurate when dealing with the discretized space of the image voxels. A computationally intensive solution is to correlate and vectorize all surfaces using an adaptable grid, and then measure the angles within the desired planes. On the contrary, the present study provides a rapid and low-cost technique powered by deep learning to estimate the interfacial angles directly from images. DeepAngle is tested on both synthetic and realistic images against the direct measurement technique and found to improve the r-squared by 5 to 16% while lowering the computational cost 20 times. This rapid method is especially applicable for processing large tomography data and time-resolved images, which is computationally intensive. The developed code and the dataset are available at an open repository on GitHub (https://www.github.com/ArashRabbani/DeepAngle)

The Effect of Magnesium Sulfate on Renal Colic Pain Relief; a Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction: Renal colic can be managed by preventing the contraction movements of ureter muscles. By reducing acetylcholine in the nerve terminals, magnesium sulfate could be effective in this regard. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of magnesium sulfate on acute renal colic pain relief. Method: The present study was a double-blind clinical trial in which the patients suffering from acute renal colic were randomly divided into 2 groups of who either received standard protocol (intravenous infusion of 0.1 mg/Kg morphine sulfate, 30 mg of Ketorolac, and 100 ml normal saline as placebo/15 minutes) or standard protocol plus 15 mg/Kg of intravenous magnesium sulfate 50%/100 ml normal saline/15 minutes. Severity of patients’ pain was measured by visual analogue scale (VAS) at baseline, and 30 and 60 minutes after infusion. The collected data were analyzed using STATA statistical software. Results: 100 cases were randomly allocated to intervention or control group. The two groups were similar in baseline pain score and demographic characteristics. At 30 and 60 minutes, mean pain score was less in the intervention group compared to the control group. Moreover, the difference between the two groups was statistically significant regarding the additional amount of morphine, suggesting that the intervention group needed less additional morphine than the control group. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that Magnesium sulfate can be used as an adjunct drug in treatment of patients suffering from renal colic. It not only alleviates the pain in the patients, but also diminishes the need for pain medications

CO2-plume geothermal: Power net generation from 3D fluvial aquifers

Previously CO2, as a heat-extraction fluid, has been proposed as a superior substitute for brine in geothermal energy extraction. Hence, the new concept of CO2-plume geothermal (CPG) is suggested to generate heat from geothermal aquifers using CO2 as the working fluid. In January 2015, a CPG-thermosiphon system commenced at the SECARB Cranfield Site, Mississippi. By utilising CO2, the demand for the pumping power is greatly reduced due to the thermosiphon effect at the production well. However, there are still parameters such as aquifer thermal depletion, required high injection rates, and CO2-plume establishment time, that hinder CPG from becoming viable. Moreover, the fluvial nature of sedimentary aquifers significantly affects the heat and mass transfer inside the aquifer, as well as the system performance. In the present study, a direct-CO2 thermosiphon system is considered that produces electricity from a 3D braided-fluvial sedimentary aquifer by providing an excess pressure at the surface that is used in the turbine. The system performance and net power output are analyzed in 15 3D fluvial heterogeneous - with channels’ widths of 50, 100, and 150 m - and three homogeneous aquifer realizations with different CO2 injection rates. It is observed that the presence of fluvial channels significantly increases the aquifer thermal depletion pace (22-120%) and therefore, reduces the system’s performance up to about 75%. Additionally, it is found that the CPG system with the CO2 injection rate of 50 kg/s and the I-P line parallel to the channels provides the maximum cycle operation time (44 years), as well as the optimum performance for the heterogeneous cases of the present study by providing about 0.06-0.12 TWh energy during the simulation time of 50 years. Also, to prevent rapid drops in excess pressure, a system with a yearly adjustable injection rate is implemented, which prevents the production well bottomhole temperature to fall below 80 ◦C