APAUNet: Axis Projection Attention UNet for Small Target in 3D Medical Segmentation

In 3D medical image segmentation, small targets segmentation is crucial for diagnosis but still faces challenges. In this paper, we propose the Axis Projection Attention UNet, named APAUNet, for 3D medical image segmentation, especially for small targets. Considering the large proportion of the background in the 3D feature space, we introduce a projection strategy to project the 3D features into three orthogonal 2D planes to capture the contextual attention from different views. In this way, we can filter out the redundant feature information and mitigate the loss of critical information for small lesions in 3D scans. Then we utilize a dimension hybridization strategy to fuse the 3D features with attention from different axes and merge them by a weighted summation to adaptively learn the importance of different perspectives. Finally, in the APA Decoder, we concatenate both high and low resolution features in the 2D projection process, thereby obtaining more precise multi-scale information, which is vital for small lesion segmentation. Quantitative and qualitative experimental results on two public datasets (BTCV and MSD) demonstrate that our proposed APAUNet outperforms the other methods. Concretely, our APAUNet achieves an average dice score of 87.84 on BTCV, 84.48 on MSD-Liver and 69.13 on MSD-Pancreas, and significantly surpass the previous SOTA methods on small targets.Comment: Accepted by ACCV202

YONA: You Only Need One Adjacent Reference-frame for Accurate and Fast Video Polyp Detection

Accurate polyp detection is essential for assisting clinical rectal cancer diagnoses. Colonoscopy videos contain richer information than still images, making them a valuable resource for deep learning methods. Great efforts have been made to conduct video polyp detection through multi-frame temporal/spatial aggregation. However, unlike common fixed-camera video, the camera-moving scene in colonoscopy videos can cause rapid video jitters, leading to unstable training for existing video detection models. Additionally, the concealed nature of some polyps and the complex background environment further hinder the performance of existing video detectors. In this paper, we propose the \textbf{YONA} (\textbf{Y}ou \textbf{O}nly \textbf{N}eed one \textbf{A}djacent Reference-frame) method, an efficient end-to-end training framework for video polyp detection. YONA fully exploits the information of one previous adjacent frame and conducts polyp detection on the current frame without multi-frame collaborations. Specifically, for the foreground, YONA adaptively aligns the current frame's channel activation patterns with its adjacent reference frames according to their foreground similarity. For the background, YONA conducts background dynamic alignment guided by inter-frame difference to eliminate the invalid features produced by drastic spatial jitters. Moreover, YONA applies cross-frame contrastive learning during training, leveraging the ground truth bounding box to improve the model's perception of polyp and background. Quantitative and qualitative experiments on three public challenging benchmarks demonstrate that our proposed YONA outperforms previous state-of-the-art competitors by a large margin in both accuracy and speed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, Accepted by MICCAI202

Tillage and crop straw methods affect energy use efficiency, economics and greenhouse gas emissions in rainfed winter wheat field of Loess Plateau in China

Data from a field experiment conducted in China's Loess Plateau (2013–2015) were used to determine the energy balance of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as affected by tillage and straw treatments. Tillage treatments included chisel plow, no tillage, and mouldboard plow. Crop straw levels included straw returning and straw removed. The energy balance was evaluated by comparing the following parameters: net energy, energy profitability, energy use efficiency, and energy intensity. The yield parameters were significantly influenced by the tillage treatments and revealed that the chisel plow entailed fewer field operations and lower energy requirements with a higher yield than mouldboard plowing tillage. The highest proportion of energy input came from a nitrogen fertiliser, followed by diesel fuel. The total energy input applied per hectare increased with an increase in the tillage intensity, and the lowest energy input was required for the no tillage case with the straw returning treatment, and the highest for the case of mouldboard plow with the straw returning treatment. The lowest average energy intensity was recorded for the no tillage case, followed by the case of chisel plow tillage in both cropping seasons. Moreover, in the case of mouldboard plough tillage, the maximum energy intensity was recorded in both cropping seasons. In the cases of the chisel plow tillage and the no tillage, we observed the maximum energy gain, while in the no tillage case, we observed the maximum energy use efficiency. The net return and the benefit/cost ratio were higher in the case of straw returning than those in the case of no straw treatment. We concluded that no tillage and chisel plow tillage with straw returning could improve the energy use efficiency and the benefit/cost ratio of winter wheat production systems

Synthesis, crystal structure and computational chemistry research of a Zinc(II) complex: [Zn(Pt)(Biim)2]

The title metal-organic coordination complex [Zn(pt)(Biim)2] (pt=phthalic acid, benzene-1,2-dicarboxylate, Biim=2,2'-biimidazole) 1 has been obtained by using hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex crystallizes in monoclinic, space group P21/n with a = 8.5466(15) Å, b = 11.760(2) Å, c = 20.829(4) Å, β = 95.56(2)º, V = 2083.5(6) Å3, Mr =497.78, Dc = 1.587 g/cm3, μ(MoKα) = 1.226 mm−1, F(000) = 1016, Z = 4, the final R = 0.0564 and wR = 0.1851 for 3656 observed reflections (I > 2σ(I)). The elemental analysis, IR, TG and the theoretical calculation were also investigated

Crystal structure of an oxalate-bridged tetranuclear 8-hydroxyquinoline Zn(II) cluster: [Zn4Q6(Ox)]0.5n

The chain structure of a tetranuclear zinc(II) cluster [Zn4Q6(Ox)]0.5n ([Zn4 (C9H6NO) 6(C2O4)]0.5n) (1) (Q = 8-hydroxyquinoline anion, Ox = oxalate dianion) was determined by X-ray crystallography and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy and thermal analysis. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group P21/n (No. 14), with the lattice parameters a = 13.2222(15) Å, b = 11.0566(12) Å, c = 16.2224(18) Å, β = 92.1770(10)°, V = 2369.9(5) Å3, Z = 4, Mr = 607.23 g mol-1, Dc = 1.702 g cm-3. The tetranuclear zinc(II) clusters form 1D polymeric chains parallel to the b-axis. The π–π stacking interactions involving aryl rings support the formation of the 1D polymeric structure. The neighboring polymeric chains are connected by C–H···π interactions

Cytokine and chemokine levels in patients with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus.

BACKGROUND: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV), which can cause hemorrhagic fever-like illness, is a newly discovered bunyavirus in China. The pathogenesis of SFTSV infection is poorly understood. However, it has been suggested that immune mechanisms, including cytokines and chemokines, play an important role in disease pathogenesis. In the present study, we investigated host cytokine and chemokine profiles in serum samples of patients with SFTSV infection from Northeast China and explored a possible correlation between cytokine levels and disease severity. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Acute phase serum samples from 40 patients, diagnosed with SFTSV infection were included. Patients were divided into two groups--severe or non-severe--based on disease severity. Levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, interleukin-6, interferon (IFN)-γ, IFN- γ-induced protein (IP)-10 and RANTES were measured in the serum samples with commercial ELISAs. Statistical analysis showed that increases in TNF-α, IP-10 and IFN-γ were associated with disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that a cytokine-mediated inflammatory response, characterized by cytokine and chemokine production imbalance, might be in part responsible for the disease progression of patients with SFTSV infection