Improving Patch-Based Convolutional Neural Networks for MRI Brain Tumor Segmentation by Leveraging Location Information.

The manual brain tumor annotation process is time consuming and resource consuming, therefore, an automated and accurate brain tumor segmentation tool is greatly in demand. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to integrate location information with the state-of-the-art patch-based neural networks for brain tumor segmentation. This is motivated by the observation that lesions are not uniformly distributed across different brain parcellation regions and that a locality-sensitive segmentation is likely to obtain better segmentation accuracy. Toward this, we use an existing brain parcellation atlas in the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space and map this atlas to the individual subject data. This mapped atlas in the subject data space is integrated with structural Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging data, and patch-based neural networks, including 3D U-Net and DeepMedic, are trained to classify the different brain lesions. Multiple state-of-the-art neural networks are trained and integrated with XGBoost fusion in the proposed two-level ensemble method. The first level reduces the uncertainty of the same type of models with different seed initializations, and the second level leverages the advantages of different types of neural network models. The proposed location information fusion method improves the segmentation performance of state-of-the-art networks including 3D U-Net and DeepMedic. Our proposed ensemble also achieves better segmentation performance compared to the state-of-the-art networks in BraTS 2017 and rivals state-of-the-art networks in BraTS 2018. Detailed results are provided on the public multimodal brain tumor segmentation (BraTS) benchmarks

Corrigendum: Improving Patch-Based Convolutional Neural Networks for MRI Brain Tumor Segmentation by Leveraging Location Information.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01449.]

Phosphodiesterase-1 Inhibitory Activity of Two Flavonoids Isolated from Pistacia integerrima J. L. Stewart Galls.

Pistacia integerrima is one of twenty species among the genus Pistacia. Long horn-shaped galls that develop on this plant are harvested and used in Ayurveda and Indian traditional medicine to make “karkatshringi”, a herbal medicine used for the treatment of asthma and different disorders of respiratory tract. However, until now, the molecular mechanisms of action of “karkatshringi” and its chemical characterization are partially known. This study deals with the isolation and characterization of the active constituents from the methanolic extract of P. integerrima galls and it was also oriented to evaluate in vitro and in silico their potential enzymatic inhibitory activity against phosphodiesterase-1 (PDE1), a well-known enzyme involved in airway smooth muscle activity and airway inflammation. Our results showed that the methanolic extract of P. integerrima galls and some of its active constituents [naringenin (1) and 3,5,7,4′-tetrahydroxy-flavanone (2)] are able in vitro to inhibit PDE1 activity (59.20 ± 4.95%, 75.90 ± 5.90%, and 65.25 ± 5.25%, resp.) and demonstrate in silico an interesting interaction with this enzymatic site. Taken together, our results add new knowledge of chemical constituents responsible for the biological activity of P. integerrima and contextually legitimate the use of this plant in folk medicine

Growth of Ordered Iron Oxide Nanowires for Photo-electrochemical Water Oxidation

This work reports the synthesis of ordered and vertically aligned iron oxide nanowires for photo-electrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. The nanowires exhibited promising PEC activity for water oxidation with saturated photocurrents of ∼0.8 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs RHE. Various factors inevitably affect their photochemical activity such as crystallinity, morphology, compositional gradient, and surface states. They were studied with HRTEM, EELS, and Raman shift techniques. The nanowires had complex compositional and morphological structures at nano and atomic scales. The nanowires annealed at 350 °C had an outer shell dominated by Fe3+ cations, while the core had mixed oxidation states of iron cations (+2 and +3). In contrast, nanowires annealed at 450 °C are fully oxidized with Fe3+ cations only and were found to be more active. At the same time, we observed anisotropic compositional gradients of nickel cations inside the iron oxide, originating from the nickel support film. Our work shows that the methodology used can affect the composition of the surface and near surface of the grown nanowires. It therefore points out the importance of a detailed analysis, in order to obtain a realistic structure-activity relationship in photo-electrocatalysis

Noise and disturbance caused by vehicles crossing cattle grids: comparison of installations

Cattle grids are used on roads and tracks to prevent grazing animals from leaving an open space without fencing onto a more controlled area where access to the road from surrounded land is more limited. They are widely used in the UK at the entrances to common and moorland areas where animals are free to roam, but also on private drive entrances. Typically, they consist of a series of metal bars across the road that are spaced so that an animal’s legs would fall through the gaps if it attempted to cross. Below the grid is a shallow pit that is intended to further deter livestock from using that particular crossing point. The sound produced as vehicles cross these devices is a characteristic low frequency “brrrr” where the dominant frequencies relates to the bar passage frequency under the tyres. The sound can be disturbing to riders and their horses and walkers and residents living close by as evidenced by press reports and the need to consider noise aspects in planning for new installations. For this reason and due to the lack of available information on the size and nature of the problem measurements and recordings have been made at a number of sites in Yorkshire in the UK. In addition, questionnaire surveys of residents living close by and façade measurements have also been used to gauge impact. Results show that there is a wide variation in the maximum noise level produced by cattle grids of apparently similar design. This can be related to impact noise produced by the movement of all or part of the grid as the frame comes under impulsive loading as the vehicle crosses. It was further established that some residents living close to the cattle grids were disturbed by the noise, and in some cases vibration, and wanted them removed or suitably modified

The Impact of Student Hotspotting on Patients & the Jefferson Health System

Introduction “Super-utilizers”, patients with five or more hospital admissions in the past year, account for half of all healthcare expenditures and present a significant financial burden to our healthcare system. In Pennsylvania “super-utilizers” result in $1.25 billion of healthcare spending and Philadelphia has the highest number of “super-utilizers” in the state. To address this crisis, Jefferson University serves as one of four new national hubs for student hotspotting. Teams of interprofessional health professions students along with faculty and staff advisors enroll “super-utilizers” and provide targeted interventions to address social determinants of health, reduce hospitalizations and improve patient outcomes. Methods To examine the impact of this program on patients, objective healthcare outcomes were obtained from EPIC. Costs were obtained from the hospital Care Coordination team and national average figures to examine the impact on the Jefferson health system. Data were collected from six months pre-, during, and post-intervention for the hotspotting intervention group and for a matched control group of non-program participants. Pre- and post-intervention analysis was performed using random effects Poisson regression. Results Pre- and post-intervention analysis found a 6% reduction in ED visits, 48% reduction in the number of outpatient visits, 18% reduction in total days in hospital, and 14% reduction in 30 day readmissions for the intervention vs. the control group. Average total costs of care decreased for both the experimental and control group with a 36% cost reduction per patient in the intervention group. Conclusion Participation in student hotspotting is a promising way to help address the needs of “super-utilizes”. Student hotspotting appears to have a positive impact on reducing the costs of care and improving health outcomes for high utilizer patients

Comparison of Sonographic Quantitative Assessment of Splenomegaly in Thalassemia Patients Receiving Whole Blood and Packed Red Cell Transfusions

Objective: An observational cross-sectional study to assess sonographic splenomegaly quantitatively in thalassemia patients grouped with respect to transfusion given whole blood vs packed red cells. Methods: A study was conducted among 330 patients equally divided into two groups, undergoing an abdominal ultrasound examination with a transducer frequency ranging from 3-5 MHz during the period December 2021 to August 2022. An independent t-test was applied to compare the splenic volume in thalassemia patients given whole blood transfusions versus packed red cells transfusions, and Cohen's d was used to indicate the standardized difference between two ultrasound splenic volume means. Results: The mean splenic volume of the patients who received whole blood cells was 320.62 ± 219.05 cm3, which is greater than the patients who received packed red cells, whose mean was 60.72 ± 58.72 cm3, The splenomegaly was quantitatively assessed in six age groups ranging from 1 to 3 years, 4 to 6 years, 7 to 9 years, 10 to 12 years, 13 to 15 years, and 16-18 years and mean splenic volume in each age group was compared to those receiving whole blood or packed red cells transfusion. there is a statistically significant difference between both transfusion receiving groups, having a larger Cohen’s d size effect of 1.62. Conclusion: Ultrasound is a reliable imaging modality for assessing splenic volume and linear parameters of the spleen with greater splenomegaly in thalassemia patients with whole blood transfusions than those with packed red cells when quantitatively assessed according to relevant age groups. Thalassemia patients should be transfused packed red cells to delay splenomegaly, that should be assessed sonographically