Evaluation the activity of alveolar echinococcosis: A comparison between 18F-FDG PET and spectral CT

AbstractPurposeTo assess the iodine concentration of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis (HAE) using spectral computed tomography (CT) with comparison of [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (18F-FDG PET), and to estimate the value of spectral CT for evaluation of HAE activity.Materials and methods18 patients with histologically confirmed or clinically proved HAE underwent spectral CT and 18F-FDG PET examinations. After three-phase scanning, the quantitative iodine-based material decomposition images and optimal monochromatic image of spectral CT were reconstructed and iodine concentration (IC) was measured in different organizational structures.Results18F-FDG PET identified increased metabolic activity in the corresponding lesions in 13 patients (13/18, 72.2%). The iodine concentration in marginal zone of lesion were significantly higher than in solid component of lesion and normal liver parenchyma during PVP and VP. The iodine value of edge tissue of the lesion and normal liver and iodine value of normal liver tissues showed statistically significant difference (P < 0.001). There was correlation between IC and SUVmax in marginal zone of HAE lesion, it was highest during PVP (r = 0.873, p < 0.001). There was low correlation between CT values and SUVmax.ConclusionThere was good correlation between spectral CT and 18F-FDG PET. Spectral CT could be recommended as a more practical tool in the clinical routine

Boosting Convolution with Efficient MLP-Permutation for Volumetric Medical Image Segmentation

Recently, the advent of vision Transformer (ViT) has brought substantial advancements in 3D dataset benchmarks, particularly in 3D volumetric medical image segmentation (Vol-MedSeg). Concurrently, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) network has regained popularity among researchers due to their comparable results to ViT, albeit with the exclusion of the resource-intensive self-attention module. In this work, we propose a novel permutable hybrid network for Vol-MedSeg, named PHNet, which capitalizes on the strengths of both convolution neural networks (CNNs) and MLP. PHNet addresses the intrinsic isotropy problem of 3D volumetric data by employing a combination of 2D and 3D CNNs to extract local features. Besides, we propose an efficient multi-layer permute perceptron (MLPP) module that captures long-range dependence while preserving positional information. This is achieved through an axis decomposition operation that permutes the input tensor along different axes, thereby enabling the separate encoding of the positional information. Furthermore, MLPP tackles the resolution sensitivity issue of MLP in Vol-MedSeg with a token segmentation operation, which divides the feature into smaller tokens and processes them individually. Extensive experimental results validate that PHNet outperforms the state-of-the-art methods with lower computational costs on the widely-used yet challenging COVID-19-20 and Synapse benchmarks. The ablation study also demonstrates the effectiveness of PHNet in harnessing the strengths of both CNNs and MLP

Dynamical Link between the Barents–Kara Sea Ice and the Arctic Oscillation

The recent accelerated Arctic sea ice decline has been proposed as a possible forcing factor for midlatitude circulation changes, which can be projected onto the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and/or North Atlantic Oscil- lation (NAO) mode. However, the timing and physical mechanisms linking AO responses to the Arctic sea ice forcing are not entirely understood. In this study, the authors suggest a connection between November sea ice extent in the Barents and Kara Seas and the following winter’s atmospheric circulation in terms of the fast sea ice retreat and the subsequent modification of local air–sea heat fluxes. In particular, the dynamical processes that link November sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas with the development of AO anomalies in February is explored. In response to the lower-tropospheric warming associated with the initial thermal effect of the sea ice loss, the large-scale atmospheric circulation goes through a series of dynamical adjustment processes: The decelerated zonal-mean zonal wind anomalies propagate gradually from the subarctic to midlatitudes in about one month. The equivalent barotropic AO dipole pattern develops in January because of wave–mean flow interaction and firmly establishes itself in February following the weakening and warming of the stratospheric polar vortex. This connection between sea ice loss and the AO mode is robust on time scales ranging from interannual to decadal. Therefore, the recent winter AO weakening and the corresponding midlatitude climate change may be partly associated with the early winter sea ice loss in the Barents and Kara Seas

Factors associated with workplace violence against Chinese healthcare workers: an online cross-sectional survey

ObjectivesWorkplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers (HCWs) has reached significant levels globally, impeding the quality and accessibility of healthcare systems. However, there is limited available knowledge regarding the determinants linked with WPV among HCWs and the discrepancies observed across various levels of hospitals in China. The objective of the present research was to investigate the factors linked to WPV and job satisfaction among HCWs in China.MethodsA self-developed questionnaire based on WeChat was employed to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of demographic information as well as occupational factors. To measure WPV, the Chinese version of the Workplace Violence Scale was utilized. Career satisfaction was assessed through two questions regarding career choices. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive analyses, chi-square tests, and multivariate logistic regressions.ResultsA total of 3,781 valid questionnaires (1,029 doctors and 2,752 nurses) were collected. Among all participants, 2,201 (58.2%) reported experiencing at least one form of WPV in the past year, with emotional abuse being the most frequent occurrence (49.7%), followed by threats (27.9%). The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed several risk factors associated with WPV, including male gender, shift work, senior professional title, bachelor’s degree education, employment in secondary-level hospitals, and working over 50 h per week (p &lt; 0.05). Career satisfaction among HCWs who experienced high levels of WPV was low, with only 11.2% remaining confident in their profession, and a mere 2.0% supporting their children pursuing careers in healthcare.ConclusionWPV poses a significant challenge within the Chinese healthcare system. Efforts should be made to address the identified risk factors and promote a safe and satisfying working environment for HCWs

Highly efficient flame retardant and smoke suppression mechanism of polypropylene nanocomposites based on clay and allylamine polyphosphate.

Fire-retarded polymer nanocomposites (FRPN) based on polypropylene with clay and allylamine polyphosphate (PP/clay-AAPP) were designed and prepared by melt mixing. Their morphological, thermal and fire-safety properties were investigated by TEM, SEM, EDS, TG, UL-94, LOI, cone-calorimeter test and TG-FTIR. The results exhibited that the LOI of PP/2 wt%clay-20wt%AAPP nanocomposites was 29.5% with V-0 rating level in UL-94 vertical testing. Significant enhancements in fire safety performance were also observed for fire-retarded PP nanocomposites from cone-calorimeter test decreasing heat release as well as smoke and toxic gases. PP/clay-AAPP nanocomposites not only provided relatively stable char layer during polymer burning, but also exhibited better fire safety performance due to the exfoliation of clay platelets. It displayed that incorporation of clay and AAPP were very efficient in increasing the fire safety of PP composites.post-print6433 K