45 research outputs found
Phase diagram and neutron spin resonance of superconducting NaFe1−xCuxAs
We use transport and neutron scattering to study the electronic phase diagram and spin excitations of NaFe1−xCuxAs single crystals. Similar to Co- and Ni-doped NaFeAs, a bulk superconducting phase appears near x≈2% with the suppression of stripe-type magnetic order in NaFeAs. Upon further increasing Cu concentration the system becomes insulating, culminating in an antiferromagnetically ordered insulating phase near x≈50%. Using transport measurements, we demonstrate that the resistivity in NaFe1−xCuxAs exhibits non-Fermi-liquid behavior near x≈1.8%. Our inelastic neutron scattering experiments reveal a single neutron spin resonance mode exhibiting weak dispersion along c axis in NaFe0.98Cu0.02As. The resonance is high in energy relative to the superconducting transition temperature Tc but weak in intensity, likely resulting from impurity effects. These results are similar to other iron pnictides superconductors despite that the superconducting phase in NaFe1−xCuxAs is continuously connected to an antiferromagnetically ordered insulating phase near x≈50% with significant electronic correlations. Therefore, electron correlations is an important ingredient of superconductivity in NaFe1−xCuxAs and other iron pnictides
Development of ε-poly(L-lysine) carbon dots-modified magnetic nanoparticles and their applications as novel antibacterial agents
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are widely applied in antibacterial therapy owing to their distinct nanoscale structure, intrinsic peroxidase-like activities, and magnetic behavior. However, some deficiencies, such as the tendency to aggregate in water, unsatisfactory biocompatibility, and limited antibacterial effect, hindered their further clinical applications. Surface modification of MNPs is one of the main strategies to improve their (bio)physicochemical properties and enhance biological functions. Herein, antibacterial ε-poly (L-lysine) carbon dots (PL-CDs) modified MNPs (CMNPs) were synthesized to investigate their performance in eliminating pathogenic bacteria. It was found that the PL-CDs were successfully loaded on the surface of MNPs by detecting their morphology, surface charges, functional groups, and other physicochemical properties. The positively charged CMNPs show superparamagnetic properties and are well dispersed in water. Furthermore, bacterial experiments indicate that the CMNPs exhibited highly effective antimicrobial properties against Staphylococcus aureus. Notably, the in vitro cellular assays show that CMNPs have favorable cytocompatibility. Thus, CMNPs acting as novel smart nanomaterials could offer great potential for the clinical treatment of bacterial infections
Fetal brain tissue annotation and segmentation challenge results
In-utero fetal MRI is emerging as an important tool in the diagnosis and analysis of the developing human brain. Automatic segmentation of the developing fetal brain is a vital step in the quantitative analysis of prenatal neurodevelopment both in the research and clinical context. However, manual segmentation of cerebral structures is time-consuming and prone to error and inter-observer variability. Therefore, we organized the Fetal Tissue Annotation (FeTA) Challenge in 2021 in order to encourage the development of automatic segmentation algorithms on an international level. The challenge utilized FeTA Dataset, an open dataset of fetal brain MRI reconstructions segmented into seven different tissues (external cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter, white matter, ventricles, cerebellum, brainstem, deep gray matter). 20 international teams participated in this challenge, submitting a total of 21 algorithms for evaluation. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the results from both a technical and clinical perspective. All participants relied on deep learning methods, mainly U-Nets, with some variability present in the network architecture, optimization, and image pre- and post-processing. The majority of teams used existing medical imaging deep learning frameworks. The main differences between the submissions were the fine tuning done during training, and the specific pre- and post-processing steps performed. The challenge results showed that almost all submissions performed similarly. Four of the top five teams used ensemble learning methods. However, one team's algorithm performed significantly superior to the other submissions, and consisted of an asymmetrical U-Net network architecture. This paper provides a first of its kind benchmark for future automatic multi-tissue segmentation algorithms for the developing human brain in utero
Fetal Brain Tissue Annotation and Segmentation Challenge Results
In-utero fetal MRI is emerging as an important tool in the diagnosis and
analysis of the developing human brain. Automatic segmentation of the
developing fetal brain is a vital step in the quantitative analysis of prenatal
neurodevelopment both in the research and clinical context. However, manual
segmentation of cerebral structures is time-consuming and prone to error and
inter-observer variability. Therefore, we organized the Fetal Tissue Annotation
(FeTA) Challenge in 2021 in order to encourage the development of automatic
segmentation algorithms on an international level. The challenge utilized FeTA
Dataset, an open dataset of fetal brain MRI reconstructions segmented into
seven different tissues (external cerebrospinal fluid, grey matter, white
matter, ventricles, cerebellum, brainstem, deep grey matter). 20 international
teams participated in this challenge, submitting a total of 21 algorithms for
evaluation. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the results from
both a technical and clinical perspective. All participants relied on deep
learning methods, mainly U-Nets, with some variability present in the network
architecture, optimization, and image pre- and post-processing. The majority of
teams used existing medical imaging deep learning frameworks. The main
differences between the submissions were the fine tuning done during training,
and the specific pre- and post-processing steps performed. The challenge
results showed that almost all submissions performed similarly. Four of the top
five teams used ensemble learning methods. However, one team's algorithm
performed significantly superior to the other submissions, and consisted of an
asymmetrical U-Net network architecture. This paper provides a first of its
kind benchmark for future automatic multi-tissue segmentation algorithms for
the developing human brain in utero.Comment: Results from FeTA Challenge 2021, held at MICCAI; Manuscript
submitte
CrossMoDA 2021 challenge: Benchmark of Cross-Modality Domain Adaptation techniques for Vestibular Schwannoma and Cochlea Segmentation
Domain Adaptation (DA) has recently raised strong interests in the medical
imaging community. While a large variety of DA techniques has been proposed for
image segmentation, most of these techniques have been validated either on
private datasets or on small publicly available datasets. Moreover, these
datasets mostly addressed single-class problems. To tackle these limitations,
the Cross-Modality Domain Adaptation (crossMoDA) challenge was organised in
conjunction with the 24th International Conference on Medical Image Computing
and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2021). CrossMoDA is the first large
and multi-class benchmark for unsupervised cross-modality DA. The challenge's
goal is to segment two key brain structures involved in the follow-up and
treatment planning of vestibular schwannoma (VS): the VS and the cochleas.
Currently, the diagnosis and surveillance in patients with VS are performed
using contrast-enhanced T1 (ceT1) MRI. However, there is growing interest in
using non-contrast sequences such as high-resolution T2 (hrT2) MRI. Therefore,
we created an unsupervised cross-modality segmentation benchmark. The training
set provides annotated ceT1 (N=105) and unpaired non-annotated hrT2 (N=105).
The aim was to automatically perform unilateral VS and bilateral cochlea
segmentation on hrT2 as provided in the testing set (N=137). A total of 16
teams submitted their algorithm for the evaluation phase. The level of
performance reached by the top-performing teams is strikingly high (best median
Dice - VS:88.4%; Cochleas:85.7%) and close to full supervision (median Dice -
VS:92.5%; Cochleas:87.7%). All top-performing methods made use of an
image-to-image translation approach to transform the source-domain images into
pseudo-target-domain images. A segmentation network was then trained using
these generated images and the manual annotations provided for the source
image.Comment: Submitted to Medical Image Analysi
MONAI: An open-source framework for deep learning in healthcare
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a tremendous impact across most areas
of science. Applications of AI in healthcare have the potential to improve our
ability to detect, diagnose, prognose, and intervene on human disease. For AI
models to be used clinically, they need to be made safe, reproducible and
robust, and the underlying software framework must be aware of the
particularities (e.g. geometry, physiology, physics) of medical data being
processed. This work introduces MONAI, a freely available, community-supported,
and consortium-led PyTorch-based framework for deep learning in healthcare.
MONAI extends PyTorch to support medical data, with a particular focus on
imaging, and provide purpose-specific AI model architectures, transformations
and utilities that streamline the development and deployment of medical AI
models. MONAI follows best practices for software-development, providing an
easy-to-use, robust, well-documented, and well-tested software framework. MONAI
preserves the simple, additive, and compositional approach of its underlying
PyTorch libraries. MONAI is being used by and receiving contributions from
research, clinical and industrial teams from around the world, who are pursuing
applications spanning nearly every aspect of healthcare.Comment: www.monai.i
Resistance gene cloning from a wild crop relative by sequence capture and association genetics
Disease resistance (R) genes from wild relatives could be used to engineer broad-spectrum resistance in domesticated crops. We combined association genetics with R gene enrichment sequencing (AgRenSeq) to exploit pan-genome variation in wild diploid wheat and rapidly clone four stem rust resistance genes. AgRenSeq enables R gene cloning in any crop that has a diverse germplasm panel