Cascaded Semantic Segmentation for Kidney and Tumor

Automated detection and segmentation of kidney tumors from 3D CT images is very useful for doctors to make diagnosis and treatment plan. In this paper, we described a multi-stage semantic segmentation pipeline for kidney and tumor segmentation from 3D CT images based on 3D U-Net architecture. The current method can achieve 0.9XX, 0.8XX average dice for kidney and tumor in the KiTS19 challenge

Acute and acute-on-chronic kidney injury of patients with decompensated heart failure: impact on outcomes

BACKGROUND: Acute worsening of renal function, an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), occurs as a consequence of new onset kidney injury (AKI) or acute deterioration of pre-existed chronic kidney disease (CKD) (acute-on-chronic kidney injury, ACKI). However, the possible difference in prognostic implication between AKI and ACKI has not been well established. METHODS: We studied all consecutive patients hospitalized with ADHF from 2003 through 2010 in Nanfang Hospital. We classified patients as with or without pre-existed CKD based on the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over a six-month period before hospitalization. AKI and ACKI were defined by RIFLE criteria according to the increase of the index serum creatinine. RESULTS: A total of 1,005 patients were enrolled. The incidence of ACKI was higher than that of AKI. The proportion of patients with diuretic resistance was higher among patients with pre-existed CKD than among those without CKD (16.9% vs. 9.9%, P = 0.002). Compared with AKI, ACKI was associated with higher risk for in-hospital mortality, long hospital stay, and failure in renal function recovery. Pre-existed CKD and development of acute worsening of renal function during hospitalization were the independent risk factors for in-hospital death after adjustment by the other risk factors. The RIFLE classification predicted all-cause and cardiac mortality in both AKI and ACKI. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ACKI were at greatest risk of adverse short-term outcomes in ADHF. Monitoring eGFR and identifying CKD should not be ignored in patients with cardiovascular disease

Effects of concentrate input on nutrient utilization and methane emissions of two breeds of ewe lambs fed fresh ryegrass

Publication history: Accepted - 29 September 2018; Published onlilne -11 October 2018; Published - January 2019.The objective of this study was to evaluate if high-quality grass could sustain a similar feeding efficiency to concentrate meals for two breeds of lowland ewe lambs. Sixteen lowland ewe lambs of approximately 13 mo age and 61.5 ± 5.28 kg live weight were used in a 2 × 2 factorial study, with 2 diets (fresh perennial ryegrass [Lolium perenne] vs. fresh perennial ryegrass plus 0.5 kg/d fresh concentrate) × 2 breeds (Highlander vs. Texel). Grass was cut daily in the morning from a single zero-grazing sward and offered ad libitum. The animals were individually housed in pens and fed experimental diets for an adaptation phase of 19 d, and then transferred to respiration calorimeter chambers, remaining there for 5 d, with feed intake, feces and urine outputs, and methane (CH4) emissions measured during the final 4 d. There were no significant interaction effects between diets and breeds on any variables. Ewe lambs offered 0.5 kg/d concentrate supplementation had slightly greater DM intake and energy (GE, DE, and ME) intake, but had significantly higher N intake and N excretion in feces and urine than those fed the grass-only diet. However, diets had no significant effects on nutrient digestibility, energy or N utilization, or CH4 emission. Texel breed had a significantly lower DM intake and CH4 emissions per kg live weight, whereas the breed had no significant effect on nutrient digestibility or energy or N utilization. These results implicate that good quality grass could sustain high nutrient utilization efficiency as effectively as diets supplemented with concentrates for ewe lamb production. The two breeds of lowland ewe lambs can utilize good quality grass at a similar level of efficiency.CW is a visiting PhD student funded by China Scholarship Council and UK–China Joint Research and Innovation Partnership Fund (PhD Placement Programme). The study was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affair of North Ireland

The oxidative potential of PM10 from coal, briquettes and wood charcoal burnt in an experimental domestic stove

Coal contains many potentially harmful trace elements. Coal combustion in unvented stoves, which is common in most parts of rural China, can release harmful emissions into the air that when inhaled cause health issues. However, few studies have dealt specifically with the toxicological mechanisms of the particulate matter (PM) released by coal and other solid fuel combustion. In this paper, PM10 particles that were generated during laboratory stove combustion of raw powdered coal, clay-mixed honeycomb briquettes, and wood charcoal were analysed for morphology, trace element compositions, and toxicity as represented by oxidative DNA damage. The analyses included Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Plasmid Scission Assay (PSA). Gravimetric analysis indicated that the equivalent mass concentration of PM10 emitted by burning raw powdered coal was higher than that derived by burning honeycomb briquette. FESEM observation revealed that the coal burning-derived PM10 particles were mainly soot aggregates. The PSA results showed that the PM10 emitted by burning honeycomb briquettes had a higher oxidative capacity than that from burning raw powdered coal and wood charcoal. It is also demonstrated that the oxidative capacity of the whole particle suspensions were similar to those of the water soluble fractions; indicating that the DNA damage induced by coal burning-derived PM10 were mainly a result of the water-soluble fraction. An ICP-MS analysis revealed that the amount of total analysed water-soluble elements in the PM10 emitted by burning honeycomb briquettes was higher than that in PM produced by burning raw powdered coal, and both were higher than PM from burning wood charcoal. The total analysed water-soluble elements in these coal burning-derived PM10 samples had a significantly positive correlation with the level of DNA damage; indicating that the oxidative capacity of the coal burning-derived PM10 was mainly sourced from the water soluble elements. The water-soluble As, Cd, Ge, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, Tl, and Zn showed the highest correlation with the oxidative potential, implying that these elements in their water soluble states were the primary responsible factor for the plasmid DNA damage. The exposure risk was further assessed using the particle mass concentrations multiplied by the percent of DNA damage under the dose of 500 μg ml−1. The results revealed that the exposure risk of burning raw powdered coal was much higher than that of burning honeycomb briquette

Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-01-07, accepted 2021-08-12, registration 2021-08-25, pub-electronic 2021-09-09, online 2021-09-09, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 31770430Abstract: Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been reported to regulate ecosystem multifunctionality, but how their relative importance varies along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Here, we relate plant and microbial diversity to soil multifunctionality across 130 dryland sites along a 4,000 km aridity gradient in northern China. Our results show a strong positive association between plant species richness and soil multifunctionality in less arid regions, whereas microbial diversity, in particular of fungi, is positively associated with multifunctionality in more arid regions. This shift in the relationships between plant or microbial diversity and soil multifunctionality occur at an aridity level of ∼0.8, the boundary between semiarid and arid climates, which is predicted to advance geographically ∼28% by the end of the current century. Our study highlights that biodiversity loss of plants and soil microorganisms may have especially strong consequences under low and high aridity conditions, respectively, which calls for climate-specific biodiversity conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of aridification

A comprehensive survey of the analytical, numerical and experimental methodologies for dynamics of multibody mechanical systems with clearance or imperfect joints

"Available online 19 December 2017"A comprehensive survey of the literature of the most relevant analytical, numerical, and experimental approaches for the kinematic and dynamic analyses of multibody mechanical systems with clearance joints is presented in this review. Both dry and lubricated clearance joints are addressed here, and an effort is made to include a large number of research works in this particular field, which have been published since the 1960′s. First, the most frequently utilized methods for modeling planar and spatial multibody mechanical systems with clearance joints are analyzed, and compared. Other important phenomena commonly associated with clearance joint models, such as wear, non-smooth behavior, optimization and control, chaos, and uncertainty and links’ flexibility, are then discussed. The main assumptions procedures and conclusions for the different methodologies are also examined and compared. Finally, future developments and new applications of clearance joint modeling and analysis are highlighted.This research was supported in part by the China 111 Project (B16003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 11290151, 11472042 and 11221202. The work was also supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio