Deep learning techniques applied to skin lesion classification: a review

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. The most dangerous type of skin cancer is melanoma, which can be lethal if not treated early. However, diagnosing skin lesions can be a difficult task. Therefore, deep learning techniques applied to the diagnosis of skin lesions have been explored by researchers, given their effectiveness in extracting features and classifying input data. In this work, we present a review of latest approaches that apply deep learning techniques to skin lesion classification task. In addition, some datasets used for training and validating the models are introduced, informing their characteristics and specificities, as well as popular pre-processing steps and skin lesion segmentation approaches. Finally, we comment the effectiveness of the proposed models.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tratamento de sementes de arroz, feijão, soja e trigo com produto a base de células e de metabólitos de Bacillus subtilis.

Um produto, pó-molhavel, formulado a base de células (60g) e metabólitos (60g) de Bacillus subtilis, argila (480g), espalhante (7,92g) e agua (2400ml) mostrou-se estatisticamente semelhante aos fungicidas padrões recomendados no controle de Rhizoctonia solani, Aspergillus sp. e Sclerotinia sclerotiorum em sementes de feijão; Pyricularia oryzae e Rhynchosporium oryzae em sementes de arroz; e Cercospora kikuchii, Phomopsis phaseoli e Fusarium spp. em sementes de soja. Para Dreschlera oryzae e Alternaria tenuis em sementes de trigo, o tratamento com o produto, embora inferior ao tratamento com fungicida, diferiu estatisticamente da testemunha. No estudo para avaliar o efeito desse produto na nodulacao de raízes de feijão e de soja por bactérias simbióticas, fixadoras de nitrogênio, não foram observadas diferenças no numero e peso dos nódulos e no peso da matéria seca da parte aérea e das raízes, quando aplicado simultaneamente ao inoculante contendo Rhizobium sp. e Bradyrhizobium japonicum, respectivamente. Também não se verificou efeito sobre a emergência das plântulas para as quatro culturas testadas

Influência de Bacillus subtilis na promoção de crescimento de plantas e nodulação de raízes de feijoeiro.

Linhagens de B. subtilis têm sido bem estudadas como agentes de controle biológico, e também como produtoras de antibióticos. Uma linhagem de B. subtilis 0G isolada de solos supressivos a Fusarium solani foi avaliada quanto à utilização conjunta com Rhizobium phaseoli em feijoeiro, visando aumento de biomassa e nodulação de raízes. Em condições de casa de vegetação, a aplicação de B. subtilis, via sementes, promoveu um aumento na nodulação, em mais de 100%, em solo natural quando aplicado isoladamente ou em conjunto com R. phaseoli e em mais de 160% em solo esterilizado, quando comparado com o tratamento onde o Rhizobium foi aplicado isoladamente. Em solos esterilizados, a aplicação de B. subtilis, em conjunto com Rhizobium, promoveu um aumento significativo no peso da matéria seca das raízes (89%) e da parte aérea (83%). O tratamento de sementes com B. subtilis não afetou a emergência de plântulas em nenhum dos solos estudados. Pelos resultados obtidos pode-se concluir que a utilização de B. subtilis é bastante promissora para aumentar a nodulação de raízes e promover o crescimento de plantas de feijoeiro.bitstream/CNPMA/5796/1/boletim_28.pd

Efeito de Bacillus subtilis no tratamento de sementes de trigo.

Sementes de trigo variedade Anahuac, naturalmente contaminadas com Pyricularia oryzae, Helminthosporium sativum, e Alternaria tenuis, foram imersas por 5 horas em água e em suspensões contendo 5, 10 e 20% de células de Bacillus subtilis. Como tratamento padrão foi utilizado o fungicida Rovrim (iprodione + thiran) (250g/100kg sementes). Após tratamento, as sementes foram secas ao ar a temperatura ambiente por 48 horas, sendo a seguir realizados os testes de sanidade em papel de filtro com congelamento e emergência em solo natural e em areia esterilizada. A imersão nas suspensões contendo 20% e 10% de células de Bacillus subtilis inibiu a incidental de P. oryzae, H. sativum e A. tenuis em 50, 70 e 68%, respectivamente, quando comparados a testemunha. Quanto a emergência, não foi observada diferença significativa entre os tratamentos, sendo a emergência superior a 92% e 87%, respectivamente em areia e em solo

Identification of key receptor residues discriminating human chorionic gonadotropin (Hcg)-and luteinizing hormone (lh)-specific signaling

(1) The human luteinizing hormone (LH)/chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) receptor (LHCGR) discriminates its two hormone ligands and differs from the murine receptor (Lhr) in amino acid residues potentially involved in qualitative discerning of LH and hCG. The latter gon-adotropin is absent in rodents. The aim of the study is to identify LHCGR residues involved in hCG/LH discrimination. (2) Eight LHCGR cDNAs were developed, carrying “murinizing” mutations on aminoacidic residues assumed to interact specifically with LH, hCG, or both. HEK293 cells expressing a mutant or the wild type receptor were treated with LH or hCG and the kinetics of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated ki-nases 1/2 (pERK1/2) activation was analyzed by bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET). (3) Mutations falling within the receptor leucine reach repeat 9 and 10 (LRR9 and LRR10; K225S +T226I and R247T), of the large extracellular binding domain, are linked to loss of hormone-specific induced cAMP increase, as well as hCG-specific pERK1/2 activation, leading to a Lhr-like modulation of the LHCGR-mediated intracellular signaling pattern. These results support the hypothesis that LHCGR LRR domain is the interaction site of the hormone β-L2 loop, which differs between LH and hCG, and might be fundamental for inducing gonadotropin-specific signals. (4) Taken to-gether, these data identify LHCGR key residues likely evolved in the human to discriminate LH/hCG specific binding

The “hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” of endothelial dysfunction markers in human fertility

Endothelial dysfunction is an early event in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and represents the first step in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. The evaluation of endothelial health is fundamental in clinical practice and several direct and indirect markers have been suggested so far to identify any alterations in endothelial homeostasis. Alongside the known endothelial role on vascular health, several pieces of evidence have demonstrated that proper endothelial functioning plays a key role in human fertility and reproduction. Therefore, this stateof‐the‐art review updates the endothelial health markers discriminating between those available for clinical practice or for research purposes and their application in human fertility. Moreover, new molecules potentially helpful to clarify the link between endothelial and reproductive health are evaluated herein

Polygenic Susceptibility to Papillary Thyroid Cancer in Italian Subjects.

olygenic Susceptibility to Papillary Thyroid Cancer in Italian Subjects INTRODUCTION AND AIM. Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine neoplasia, with an estimated age- standardized incidence rate of 6.7 per 100000 worldwide in 2018 [1]. This rate is rapidly increasing and papillary thy- roid carcinoma (PTC) is the main histotype. PTC suscepti- bility is the result of genetic predisposition, environmental factors and lifestyle. We studied the genetic combination that characterizes PTC affected subjects, differentiating them from healthy controls. METHODS AND RESULTS. We considered the genetic variants (SNPs) significantly associated with PTC on the PubMed database. 184 informative SNPs were selected, considering linkage disequilibrium. Then, SNPs data were extracted from the online 1000 Genomes database,comprising genome of 2504 unselected individuals col- lected worldwide. The combination of 184 SNPs associ- ated with PTC was used to group individuals in different risk-clusters according to their genetic structure, calcu- lated by Bayesian statistics, as previously performed for polycystic ovary syndrome [2]. Individuals were distrib- uted among 7 groups worldwide, indicating different de- gree of genetic predisposition to PTC. We then considered genetic data from about 1200 individuals (697 PTC versus 497 healthy controls) of Central/South Italian origin reg- istered in a GWAS, specific for PTC [3]. This first analysis was refined using the 33 SNPs reasonably most causa- tive of genetic clustering (26 with p<0.05 at trend test in GWAS and 7 with p<0.05 in the model of recessive inher- itance). At multivariate logistic regression analysis, PTC and healthy controls resulted genetically different (ODDS RATIO 188.6, 95%CI 64.35-552.8), revealing diverse pre- disposition to develop cancer. Afterwards, these results have been confirmed in an independent cohort of Italian subjects (234 PTC and 100 controls). Then, the genetic structure of each subject was indicated as a percentage of affinity to each risk-cluster and re-analyzed together with other risk factors: sex, body-mass index, area of origin and familiarity (quantified in a growing score as the degree of kinship increases). These data were analyzed together by principal component analysis and clustering of the two groups was even more pronounced. The most contributive factors to the diversity between PTC and healthy controls were genetics and familiarity. CONCLUSION. We demonstrated that PTC affected subjects are genetically different from healthy controls, and that the difference is identifiable in a peculiar combi- nation of genetic variants

Classificação de Contexto para Processamento da Linguagem Natural Baseado em Representação Vetorial de Palavras e no Agrupamento por K-Means

Este trabalho traz como proposta a associação do algoritmo skipgram, para representação vetorial de palavras, com o algoritmo de agrupamento não-supervisionado k-means. Ao longo do texto, além de detalhar esta metodologia e demonstrar sua eficácia de 75.3% na classificação de contexto em documentos escritos utilizando linguagem natural, buscamos discutir as vantagens e limitações do método proposto em uma perspectiva de longo prazo, inserida tanto na metodologia empírica de processamento da linguagem natural quanto na busca de modelos descritivos para a linguagem