Advancing Pancreas Segmentation in Multi-protocol MRI Volumes using Hausdorff-Sine Loss Function

Computing pancreatic morphology in 3D radiological scans could provide significant insight about a medical condition. However, segmenting the pancreas in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains challenging due to high inter-patient variability. Also, the resolution and speed of MRI scanning present artefacts that blur the pancreas bound- aries between overlapping anatomical structures. This paper proposes a dual-stage automatic segmentation method: 1) a deep neural network is trained to address the problem of vague organ boundaries in high class-imbalanced data. This network integrates a novel loss function to rigorously optimise boundary delineation using the modified Hausdorff metric and a sinusoidal component; 2) Given a test MRI volume, the output of the trained network predicts a sequence of targeted 2D pan- creas classes that are reconstructed as a volumetric binary mask. An energy-minimisation approach fuses a learned digital contrast model to suppress the intensities of non-pancreas classes, which, combined with the binary volume performs a refined segmentation in 3D while reveal- ing dense boundary detail. Experiments are performed on two diverse MRI datasets containing 180 and 120 scans, in which the proposed ap- proach achieves a mean Dice score of 84.1 ± 4.6% and 85.7 ± 2.3%, respectively. This approach is statistically stable and outperforms state- of-the-art methods on MRI

Survival of ART restorations assessed using selected FDI and modified ART restoration criteria

A new set of criteria for assessing the quality of restorations using modern restorative materials, named FDI criteria, was recently introduced. This study tested the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in survival estimate percentages of ART restorations assessed using selected FDI and modified ART criteria after 1 and 5 years. One operator placed a total of 60 class I and 30 Class II high-viscosity glass-ionomer ART restorations in ninety 14- to15-year-olds. Two calibrated and independent evaluators using both criteria evaluated restorations on diestone replicas at baseline and after 1 and 5 years. Statistical analyses were done using the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. The survival results of ART restorations assessed using both sets of criteria after 1 and 5 years (p = 0.27) did not differ significantly. Three ART restorations were assessed as failures according to the ART criteria, while they were assessed as survived using the FDI criteria. We conclude that the modified ART criteria enable reliable assessment of ART restorations in permanent teeth from diestone replicas and that there was no significant difference in survival estimates of ART restorations assessed using both sets of criteria. The null hypothesis was accepted

catena-Poly[[[aqua­manganese(III)]-μ-(E)-5-bromo-N-[2-(5-bromo-2-oxidobenzyl­idene­amino)-4-nitro­phen­yl]-2-oxidobenzamidato] N,N-dimethyl­fomamide monosolvate]

The asymmetric unit of the title complex, {[Mn(C20H10Br2N3O5)(H2O)]·(CH3)2NCHO}n, consists of one MnIII ion, one (E)-5-bromo-N-[2-(5-bromo-2-oxidobenzyl­idene­amino)-4-nitro­phen­yl]-2-oxidobenzamidate ligand (Schiff base), one water mol­ecule and an N,N-dimethyl­formamide mol­ecule. The coordination geometry around the MnIII ion is a distorted octa­hedron, being surrounded by two O and two N atoms from the Schiff base, which are positioned in the equatorial plane. The water mol­ecule and the O atom of the carbonyl group from the adjacent MnIII complex are situated at the axial positions, leading to a polymeric chain along the c axis. In the crystal, the complex and N,N-dimethyl­formamide mol­ecules are connected via O—H⋯O, C—H⋯O and C—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network

Imaging of hydrothermal altered zones in Wadi Al-Bana, in southern Yemen, using remote sensing techniques and very low frequency–electromagnetic data

© 2019, Saudi Society for Geosciences. Economic mineralization and hydrothermally altered zones are areas of great economic interests. This study focusses on hydrothermal altered zones of high mineralization potentials in Wadi Al-Bana, in southern Yemen. An azimuthal very low frequency–electromagnetic (AVLF-EM) data acquisition was conducted in search for mineralization in the study area. The study integrated observations from geophysical field data with others extracted from object-oriented principal component analysis (PCA) to better map and understand mineralization in the investigated area. This technique was applied to two data sets, ASTER and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery. The results of PCA revealed high accuracy in detecting alteration minerals and for mapping zones of high concentration of these minerals. The PCA-based distribution of selected alteration zones correlated spatially with high conductivity anomalies in the subsurface that were detected by VLF measurements. Finally, a GIS model was built and successfully utilized to categorize the resulted altered zones, into three levels. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Characterization of a BAHD acyltransferase responsible for producing the green leaf volatile ( Z )-3-hexen-1-yl acetate in Arabidopsis thaliana

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71614/1/j.1365-313X.2006.02946.x.pd

Potentiation of thrombus instability: a contributory mechanism to the effectiveness of antithrombotic medications

© The Author(s) 2018The stability of an arterial thrombus, determined by its structure and ability to resist endogenous fibrinolysis, is a major determinant of the extent of infarction that results from coronary or cerebrovascular thrombosis. There is ample evidence from both laboratory and clinical studies to suggest that in addition to inhibiting platelet aggregation, antithrombotic medications have shear-dependent effects, potentiating thrombus fragility and/or enhancing endogenous fibrinolysis. Such shear-dependent effects, potentiating the fragility of the growing thrombus and/or enhancing endogenous thrombolytic activity, likely contribute to the clinical effectiveness of such medications. It is not clear how much these effects relate to the measured inhibition of platelet aggregation in response to specific agonists. These effects are observable only with techniques that subject the growing thrombus to arterial flow and shear conditions. The effects of antithrombotic medications on thrombus stability and ways of assessing this are reviewed herein, and it is proposed that thrombus stability could become a new target for pharmacological intervention.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Indole is an essential herbivore-induced volatile priming signal in maize

Herbivore-induced volatile organic compounds prime non-attacked plant tissues to respond more strongly to subsequent attacks. However, the key volatiles that trigger this primed state remain largely unidentified. In maize, the release of the aromatic compound indole is herbivore-specific and occurs earlier than other induced responses. We therefore hypothesized that indole may be involved in airborne priming. Using indole-deficient mutants and synthetic indole dispensers, we show that herbivore-induced indole enhances the induction of defensive volatiles in neighbouring maize plants in a species-specific manner. Furthermore, the release of indole is essential for priming of mono- and homoterpenes in systemic leaves of attacked plants. Indole exposure markedly increases the herbivore-induced production of the stress hormones jasmonate-isoleucine conjugate and abscisic acid, which represents a likely mechanism for indole-dependent priming. These results demonstrate that indole functions as a rapid and potent aerial priming agent that prepares systemic tissues and neighbouring plants for incoming attacks

Microbial Symbionts in Insects Influence Down-Regulation of Defense Genes in Maize

Diabrotica virgifera virgifera larvae are root-feeding insects and significant pests to maize in North America and Europe. Little is known regarding how plants respond to insect attack of roots, thus complicating the selection for plant defense targets. Diabrotica virgifera virgifera is the most successful species in its genus and is the only Diabrotica beetle harboring an almost species-wide Wolbachia infection. Diabrotica virgifera virgifera are infected with Wolbachia and the typical gut flora found in soil-living, phytophagous insects. Diabrotica virgifera virgifera larvae cannot be reared aseptically and thus, it is not possible to observe the response of maize to effects of insect gut flora or other transient microbes. Because Wolbachia are heritable, it is possible to investigate whether Wolbachia infection affects the regulation of maize defenses. To answer if the success of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera is the result of microbial infection, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera were treated with antibiotics to eliminate Wolbachia and a microarray experiment was performed. Direct comparisons made between the response of maize root tissue to the feeding of antibiotic treated and untreated Diabrotica virgifera virgifera show down-regulation of plant defenses in the untreated insects compared to the antibiotic treated and control treatments. Results were confirmed via QRT-PCR. Biological and behavioral assays indicate that microbes have integrated into Diabrotica virgifera virgifera physiology without inducing negative effects and that antibiotic treatment did not affect the behavior or biology of the insect. The expression data and suggest that the pressure of microbes, which are most likely Wolbachia, mediate the down-regulation of many maize defenses via their insect hosts. This is the first report of a potential link between a microbial symbiont of an insect and a silencing effect in the insect host plant. This is also the first expression profile for a plant attacked by a root-feeding insect

Identification and characterization of phenolic compounds in hydromethanolic extracts of sorghum wholegrains by LC-ESI-MSn

Hydromethanolic extracts of brown, red, and white sorghum whole grains were analysed by LC-MSn in negative ESI mode within the range m/z 150–550 amu. Besides the flavonoids already reported in sorghum, a number of flavonoids were also identified in the sorghum grain for the first time, including flavanones, flavonols and flavanonols, and flavan-3-ol derivatives. Various phenylpropane glycerides were also found in the sorghum grain, the majority of them are reported here for the first time, and a few of them were detected with abundant peaks in the extracts, indicating they are another important class of phenolic compounds in sorghum. In addition, phenolamides were also found in sorghum grain, which have not been reported before, and dicaffeoyl spermidine was detected in high abundance in the extracts of all three type sorghum grains. These results confirmed that sorghum is a rich source of various phenolic compounds

Ten-year survival of ART restorations in permanent posterior teeth

This study evaluated the 10-year clinical performance of high-viscosity glass-ionomer cement placed in posterior permanent teeth by means of the Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) approach. One operator placed 167 single- and 107 multiple-surface restorations in 43 high-risk caries pregnant women (mean decayed teeth = 9.8 ± 5.5). Examinations were performed at 1-, 2-, and 10-year intervals according to ART criteria. In the last evaluation, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria were also used. After 10 years, 129 restorations (47.1%) were evaluated and achieved a cumulative survival rate of 49.0% (SE 7.2%). The 10-year survival of single- and multiple-surface ART restorations assessed using the ART criteria were 65.2% (SE 7.3%) and 30.6% (SE 9.9%), respectively. This difference was significant (jackknife SE of difference; p < 0.05). Using the USPHS criteria, the 10-year survival of single- and multiple-surface ART restorations were 86.5% and 57.6%, respectively. The primary causes of failure were total loss (9.3%) and marginal defects (5.4%). The survival rates observed, especially for the single-surface restorations, confirm the potential of the ART approach for restoring and saving posterior permanent teeth