Edge-aware Multi-task Network for Integrating Quantification Segmentation and Uncertainty Prediction of Liver Tumor on Multi-modality Non-contrast MRI

Simultaneous multi-index quantification, segmentation, and uncertainty estimation of liver tumors on multi-modality non-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (NCMRI) are crucial for accurate diagnosis. However, existing methods lack an effective mechanism for multi-modality NCMRI fusion and accurate boundary information capture, making these tasks challenging. To address these issues, this paper proposes a unified framework, namely edge-aware multi-task network (EaMtNet), to associate multi-index quantification, segmentation, and uncertainty of liver tumors on the multi-modality NCMRI. The EaMtNet employs two parallel CNN encoders and the Sobel filters to extract local features and edge maps, respectively. The newly designed edge-aware feature aggregation module (EaFA) is used for feature fusion and selection, making the network edge-aware by capturing long-range dependency between feature and edge maps. Multi-tasking leverages prediction discrepancy to estimate uncertainty and improve segmentation and quantification performance. Extensive experiments are performed on multi-modality NCMRI with 250 clinical subjects. The proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art by a large margin, achieving a dice similarity coefficient of 90.01$\pm$1.23 and a mean absolute error of 2.72$\pm$0.58 mm for MD. The results demonstrate the potential of EaMtNet as a reliable clinical-aided tool for medical image analysis

Reason to Destroy Contemporary Art

For all the paradoxical anti-philosophy of contemporary art as a post-conceptual practice, it is in every case correlationist. As such, contemporary art has nothing to offer non-correlational realism. Put the other way, a rigorous realism can readily dispense with art as it now stands without loss or limitation. From yet another angle, realism’s provocation to art is the undoing of aesthetic experience as a condition or term of art, even in the avowal of art’s ineluctable materiality. Which is to say that realism speculatively indicates the conditions for another art than contemporary art

The ER-membrane transport system is critical for intercellular trafficking of the NSm movement protein and Tomato Spotted Wilt Tospovirus

Plant viruses move through plasmodesmata to infect new cells. The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is interconnected among cells via the ER desmotubule in the plasmodesma across the cell wall, forming a continuous ER network throughout the entire plant. This ER continuity is unique to plants and has been postulated to serve as a platform for the intercellular trafficking of macromolecules. In the present study, the contribution of the plant ER membrane transport system to the intercellular trafficking of the NSm movement protein and Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) is investigated. We showed that TSWV NSm is physically associated with the ER membrane in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. An NSm-GFP fusion protein transiently expressed in single leaf cells was trafficked into neighboring cells. Mutations in NSm that impaired its association with the ER or caused its mis-localization to other subcellular sites inhibited cell-to-cell trafficking. Pharmacological disruption of the ER network severely inhibited NSm-GFP trafficking but not GFP diffusion. In the Arabidopsis thaliana mutant rhd3 with an impaired ER network, NSm-GFP trafficking was significantly reduced, whereas GFP diffusion was not affected. We also showed that the ER-to-Golgi secretion pathway and the cytoskeleton transport systems were not involved in the intercellular trafficking of TSWV NSm. Importantly, TSWV cell-to-cell spread was delayed in the ER-defective rhd3 mutant, and this reduced viral infection was not due to reduced replication. On the basis of robust biochemical, cellular and genetic analysis, we established that the ER membrane transport system serves as an important direct route for intercellular trafficking of NSm and TSWV

Guillain-Barre syndrome associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in China: a case report

Abstract Background We describe a case of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. To our knowledge, only five cases of GBS associated with Hantavirus infection have been reported so far. Case presentations A 62-year-old man presented intermittent fever, chill and oliguria. According to remarkable leukocytosis, atypical lymphocytes, thrombocytopenia and former dwelling in hemorrhagic fever-endemic area, he was suspected as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndromeand certified with positive Hantavirus IgG. Later, the patient had symmetrical flaccid paralysis of all extremities. Electromyography showed peripheral nerve injury (mainly in axon). The patient was diagnosed as having acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN). After immunoglobulin infusion, patient showed progressive recovery and was transferred 3 weeks after his first admission to a rehabilitation center. Conclusions Our case was the 6th reported case of GBS associated with hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Moreover, we for the first time classified the subtype of GBS (AMSAN) based on the electrophysiology characteristics. GBS should be suspected in patients who are already diagnosed as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome when delayed symmetrical limb paralysis occurs. Until recent now, GBS was only reported in hemorrhagic fever patients in Europe and Asia, which termed as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

Gas Displacement Engineering Test by Combination of Low and Medium Pressure Injection with Liquid CO2 in High Gas and Low Permeability Coal Seam

Mining high-gas coal seams in China has the characteristics mining of deep, high storage and low permeability, and low drainage efficiency, which seriously restrict the efficient prevention and control of mine gas disasters. Based on the characteristics of low viscosity and permeability, phase change pressurization, and strong adsorption potential energy of liquid CO2, the technology system of liquid CO2 displacement for high-gas and low-permeability coal seam was developed, and field industrial of low-pressure (0.5~2.5 MPa) and medium-pressure (2.5~15.0 MPa) combined injection test was carried out. In this test, the mode of injection followed by drainage was adopted, and the gas drainage effect was investigated for 30 days. The test results show that the effective influence radius of CO2 in this test is 20 m, and the liquid seepage radius is 5 to 7 m. After the injection of liquid CO2 into coal seam, the average gas drainage concentration and drainage purity of all drainage holes were increased by 3.2 and 3.4 times, respectively, and the gas promotion effect was significant. Taking the liquid CO2 low-medium-pressure displacement gas test area as the calculation unit, from the comprehensive benefit analysis, compared with the original drainage mode, the liquid CO2-combined pressure injection process can save 34.7% of the engineering cost and shorten the gas drainage standard time by 45.9%. Therefore, the application of this technology has important technical support and reference significance for the efficient management of gas in the same type of mine

Competitive adsorption law of multi-component gases during CO2 displacement of CH4 in coal seams

The CO2 enhanced coal bed methane recovery technology provides an excellent way to mitigate the greenhouse effect and energy crisis. The features and mechanism of CO2/CH4 competitive adsorption in the coal rock matrix have a critical impact on the production of CBM. For CO2/CH4 competitive adsorption process components and pressure changes, a multi-component gases competitive adsorption experiment was carried out with CO2 and CH4 binary gases as the study objects, and a multi-component adsorption model was developed by the expanded Langmuir equation. Based on the principles of molecular dynamics and thermodynamics, important parameters such as the average free range of gas molecules and adsorption potential are introduced to explain the competitive adsorption behavior from multiple perspectives and explore the competitive adsorption law of CH4 and CO2 under multiple component conditions, so as to provide some theoretical basis and field guidance for improving the extraction effect of CH4 in coal seams. The results show that: Under two critical conditions (100%CO2 +0%CH4 and 0%CO2 +100%CH4), the Langmuir volumes of CO2 for HN 1/3 coking coal and HL weakly caking coal respectively are 2.21 and 3.01 times higher than those of CH4; the overall adsorption capacity of binary gas is in between the adsorption capacities of both critical conditions and increases with increasing CO2 concentration in the gas source ratio; using E-L equation for binary gas component partitioning, the CH4 partition curves were all below CO2, the concentration of free-phase CH4 was always higher than that in the adsorbed phase, and coal samples had stronger adsorption ability for CO2 than CH4. CO2 has a stronger adsorption potential at the surface for HL weakly caking coal. CH4 has a slightly stronger adsorption potential at the surface for HN 1/3 coking coal. The higher coalification degree of the coal sample, the stronger the adsorption ability for CH4 and the weaker the adsorption ability for CO2. The slope of the overall adsorption curve of multi-component gases is analogous to the slope of the component with a high ratio of gas or strong adsorption capacity; the capacity of one-component adsorption for dual gas is closely related to the partial pressure of the free-phase gas and the separation factor α21. When the concentration ratio of CH4/CO2 in free phase is y2/y1 =α21, the concentration of both gases in adsorption phase is 50%, and α21 correlation is weakened, then the free phase gas partial pressure is dominant and there is a threshold value makes CH4 and CO2 adsorption capacity equal; when y2/y1 α21, the coal preferentially adsorbs CH4 in the binary gas