Activity, Mud Migration, and Formation Mechanisms of Helgoland and Dvurechenskii Mud Volcanoes, Black Sea

The main motivations of this study was, to use the new near-to-seafloor remotely-operated instruments to obtain detailed information on the morphology, sedimentology and gas emissions of two neighboring mud volcanoes; the Dvurechenskii Mud Volcano (DMV) and the Helgoland Mud Volcano (HMV) located in the Sorokin Trough, northern Black Sea at water depths of >2,000 mbsl. The resulting deep marine data sets include high resolution micro-bathymetry and backscatter data of the mud volcanoes and the surrounding seafloor, sediment and water column temperatures, sediment samples, and in-situ HD-photographic imaging. This allowed us to obtain new insights into the factors controlling mud volcanoes I) formation and development, II) activity, including horizontal and vertical mud migration processes, III) the inter-relationship of neighboring diapir- and fault-formed mud volcanoes and, IV) mud volcano gas emissions

Comparing semi-automated segmentation of traditional-resolution and high-resolution hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI on COVID-19 survivors

Hyperpolarized gas MRI using inert gases like Xe is a valuable tool in visualizing lung ventilation in patients, and can be used as a longitudinal monitoring tool for patients with lung diseases. However, use of this method requires segmentation and quantification of parameters such as ventilation defect percentage (VDP), which is often very subjective depending on the observer. This study aimed to determine the accuracy and consistency of VDP calculation using the same MRI scans from COVID-19 patients, but with high resolution and low (traditional) resolution versions. Using a MATLAB script developed previously, it was found that in general, using high-resolution images prevents overestimation of VDP