Accurate Pulmonary Nodule Detection in Computed Tomography Images Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

Early detection of pulmonary cancer is the most promising way to enhance a patient's chance for survival. Accurate pulmonary nodule detection in computed tomography (CT) images is a crucial step in diagnosing pulmonary cancer. In this paper, inspired by the successful use of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) in natural image recognition, we propose a novel pulmonary nodule detection approach based on DCNNs. We first introduce a deconvolutional structure to Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) for candidate detection on axial slices. Then, a three-dimensional DCNN is presented for the subsequent false positive reduction. Experimental results of the LUng Nodule Analysis 2016 (LUNA16) Challenge demonstrate the superior detection performance of the proposed approach on nodule detection(average FROC-score of 0.891, ranking the 1st place over all submitted results).Comment: MICCAI 2017 accepte

Astrocytes’ Role in Alzheimer’s Disease Neurodegeneration

Central nervous system (CNS) astrocytes are glial cells performing crucial tasks encompassing energy metabolism, neurotransmission, ion and water stable levels, and immune defense and control local blood flow/oxygen levels. Arising from neural stem cells, astrocytes differentiate into subtypes that vary according to animal species. Human cerebral cortex astrocytes are sturdier and cytologically and functionally more complex, control wider domains, and spread calcium signals more quickly than their rodents’ counterparts. They actively partake in CNS homeostasis maintenance and functioning by teaming up with their client neurons, other glial cell types, and cerebrovascular cells. Alterations of astrocytes’ activities deeply impact on age-related chronic ailments like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the commonest senile dementia; AD involves the growing accumulation of amyloid-β peptides (Aβs) and hyperphosphorylated Tau proteins the astrocytes, and neurons supply following the interaction of their calcium-sensing receptors (CaSRs) with exogenous Aβs. The activated Aβ∙CaSR signaling triggers a self-propagating mechanism that spreads the neuropathology among adjacent and far away astrocytes and their neuronal clients causing neurons’ death. CaSR antagonists or calcilytics suppress these noxious effects in vitro. Hence, calcilytics are potential therapeutics that could halt the spread of AD neuropathology and safeguard the patients’ neuronal viability, cognition, memory, and ultimately life

Peringkasan paper dengan metode Sparse Nonnegative Matrix Factorization untuk Pemeriksaan Kesesuaian dengan Abstrak Tugas Akhir

Salah satu jurusan yang terdapat di Universitas Madura adalah teknik informatika dimana ketika mahasiswa sebelum yudisium maka harus mengumpulkan paper terlebih dahulu sebagai salah satu syarat untuk yudisium. Isi dari paper yang tulis oleh mahasiswa terkadang tidak sesuai dengan abstrak paper tersebut. Sehingga diperlukan sebuah sistem yang dapat memeriksa kesesuaian isi dari paper dengan abstrak paper yang ditulis.Metode yang digunakan dalam meringkas dokumen/paper adalah dengan menggunakan model graph. Model graph ini digunakan untuk menentukan bobot masing-masing kalimat supaya dapat di cluster. Cluster yang digunakan adalah dengan menggunakan metode SNMF (Sparse Non Negative Matrix Faktorization) kemudian dari hasil cluster diambil 2 kalimat tertinggi dari hasil masing-masing cluster untuk menentukan hasil ringkasan, dan sebagai pembandingnya adalah hasil ringkasan yang dibuat oleh pakar. Untuk membuktikan seberapa efektif metode SNMF dalam menyelesaikan permasalahan, penulis melakukan beberapa uji coba. Setelah melewati beberapa uji coba, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa algoritma SNMF mampu menyelesaikan dengan baik untuk permasalahan pada peringkasan paper dan mampu memeriksa kesesuaian abstrak terhadap tugas akhir mahasiswa Universitas Madura dengan hasil akurasi recall 54.63.Kata Kunci—Perangkuman Otomatis, SNMF, Bobot Graf, Recall

Focus Harmonic Scalpel Compared to Conventional Haemostasis in Open Total Thyroidectomy: A Prospective Randomized Trial

The aim of this prospective randomized trial was to compare operative factors, postoperative outcomes and surgical complications of open total thyroidectomy when using the Harmonic Scalpel (HS) versus Conventional Haemostasis (CH). Methods. 100 consecutive patients underwent open total thyroidectomy were randomized into two groups: group CH (Conventional Haemostasis) and group HS (Harmonic Scalpel). We recorded the following: age, sex, pathology, thyroid volume, haemostatic technique, operative time, drainage volume, thyroid weight, postoperative pain, postoperative complications, and hospital stay. The results were analyzed using the Student's t test and χ2 test. Results. No significant difference was found between the two groups concerning mean thyroid weight and mean hospital stay. The mean operative time was significantly shorter in the HS group. The total drainage fluid volume was lower in HS group. Two (4%) transient recurrent laryngeal nerve palsies were observed in CH group and no one (0%) in the HS group. Postoperative transient hypocalcemia occurred more frequently in the CH group. HS group experienced significantly less postoperative pain at 24 and 48 hours. Conclusions. In patients undergoing thyroidectomy, HS is a reliable and safe tool. Comparing with CH techniques, its use reduces operative times, postoperative pain, drainage volume and transient hypocalcemia

Deep learning-based segmentation of malignant pleural mesothelioma tumor on computed tomography scans: application to scans demonstrating pleural effusion

Tumor volume is a topic of interest for the prognostic assessment, treatment response evaluation, and staging of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Many mesothelioma patients present with, or develop, pleural fluid, which may complicate the segmentation of this disease. Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) of the two-dimensional U-Net architecture were trained for segmentation of tumor in the left and right hemithoraces, with the networks initialized through layers pretrained on ImageNet. Networks were trained on a dataset of 5230 axial sections from 154 CT scans of 126 mesothelioma patients. A test set of 94 CT sections from 34 patients, who all presented with both tumor and pleural effusion, in addition to a more general test set of 130 CT sections from 43 patients, were used to evaluate segmentation performance of the deep CNNs. The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), average Hausdorff distance, and bias in predicted tumor area were calculated through comparisons with radiologist-provided tumor segmentations on the test sets. The present method achieved a median DSC of 0.690 on the tumor and effusion test set and achieved significantly higher performance on both test sets when compared with a previous deep learning-based segmentation method for mesothelioma

LA “PRIMERA PIEDRA”: José Gómez Sicre y la fundación de los museos interamericanos de arte moderno de Cartagena y Barranquilla

O artigo reconstrói a história do primeiro lançamento dos museus interamericanos de arte moderna de Cartagena de Índias e Barranquilla, as duas principais cidades do Caribe colombiano, que ocorreram respectivamente em 1959 e 1960, dentro do contexto histórico da Guerra fria e imediatamente após a vitória da revolução cubana. A hipótese é que tanto a ideia como o método que foi utilizado para chegar a criar as duas instituições, com suas respectivas coleções fundacionais de arte dos melhores artistas modernistas da região, não nasceram na Colômbia – país que acabava de sair de uma década de instabilidade política e que ainda não estava aberto à modernidade – e sim foi sugerido e colocado em prática principalmente por um estrangeiro, José Gómez Sicre, gestor cultural, curador e crítico de arte de origem cubano que dirigia o Departamento de Artes Visuais da Organização dos Estados Americanos (O.E.A) em Washington. Em sua inciativa, Gómez Sicre teve o respaldo de Marta Traba, outra estrangeira que desempenhou uma papel determinante na oficialização do modernismo na Colômbia.Palavras-chave: Museu de arte moderna. Modernismo. Caribe colombianoResumenEl artículo reconstruye la historia del primer lanzamiento de los museos interamericanos de arte moderno de Cartagena de Indias y Barranquilla, las dos principales ciudades del Caribe colombiano, que tuvieron lugar respectivamente en 1959 y 1960, en el contexto histórico de la guerra fría e inmediatamente después del éxito de la revolución cubana. La tesis es que tanto la idea como el método que se utilizó para llegar a crear ambas instituciones, con sus respectivas colecciones fundacionales de arte de los mejores artistas modernistas de la región, no nacieron en Colombia -país que acababa de salir de una década de inestabilidad política y que todavía no estaba abierto a la modernidad- sino que fueron sugeridos y puestos en práctica principalmente por un extranjero, José Gómez Sicre, gestor cultural, curador y crítico de arte de origen cubano que dirigía el Departamento de Artes Visuales de la Organización de Estados Americanos (O.E.A.) en Washington. En su iniciativa, Gómez Sicre tuvo el respaldo de Marta Traba, otra extranjera que tuvo un papel determinante en la oficialización del modernismo en Colombia.Palabras clave: Museo de arte moderno. Modernismo. Caribe colombianoAbstractThis article reconstructs the history of the first release of the Inter-American Museum of Modern Art in Cartagena de Indias and Barranquilla, the two main cities of the Colombian Caribbean, held in 1959 and 1960 in the historical context of the Cold War and immediately after the success of the Cuban revolution. The thesis is that both the idea and the method that was used in order to create two institutions, with their founding collections of art of the finest modernist artists of the region, not born in Colombia - a country that had just emerged from a decade of political instability and not yet open to modernity - but were suggested and implemented mainly by a foreigner, Jose Gomez Sicre, cultural manager, curator and art critic of Cuban origin who ran the Visual Arts Department of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington. On his initiative, Gómez Sicre was supported by Marta Traba, another foreigner who played a key role in the formalization of modernism in Colombia.Keywords: Museum of modern art. Artistic modernism. Colombian caribbea