Popesvenningsen9941

The differences are quantified by peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and root-mean-square error (RMSE).Results.CBCT images reconstructed with GDL show improvements in quantitative scores of PSNR, SSIM, and RMSE. Reconstruction time per image for all reconstruction methods are comparable. Compared to current DL methods using large fully connected layers, the estimated memory requirement using GDL is four orders of magnitude less, making DL CBCT reconstruction feasible.Conclusion.With much lower memory requirement compared to other existing networks, the GDL technique is demonstrated to be the first DL technique that can rapidly and accurately reconstruct CBCT images from sparsely sampled data.Direct inversion (DI) derives tissue shear modulus by inverting the Helmholtz equation. However, conventional DI is sensitive to data quality due to the ill-posed nature of Helmholtz inversion and thus providing reliable stiffness estimation can be challenging. This becomes more problematic in the case of estimating shear stiffness of the lung in which the low tissue density and short T2* result in considerably low signal-to-noise ratio during lung MRE. In the present study, we propose to perform MRE inversion by compressive recovery (MICRo). Such a technique aims to improve the numerical stability and the robustness to data noise of Helmholtz inversion by using prior knowledge on data noise and transform sparsity of the stiffness map. The developed inversion strategy was first validated in simulated phantoms with known stiffness. Next, MICRo was compared to the standard clinical multi-modal DI (MMDI) method forin vivoliver MRE in healthy subjects and patients with different stages of liver fibrosis. After establishing the accuracy of MICRo, we demonstrated the robustness of the proposed technique against data noise in lung MRE with healthy subjects. In simulated phantoms with single-directional or multi-directional waves, MICRo outperformed DI with Romano filter or Savitsky and Golay filter, especially when the stiffness and/or noise level was high. In hepatic MRE application, agreement was observed between MICRo and MMDI. Measuringin vivolung stiffness, MICRo demonstrated its advantages over filtered DI by yielding stable stiffness estimation at both residual volume and total lung capacity. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential value of the proposed technique and also warrant further investigation in a larger clinical population.Micro/nano hierarchical substrates with different micropillar spacings were designed and prepared for capture of tumor cells. The cell capture efficiency of hierarchical substrates with low-density micropillar arrays was similar to that of nanostructured substrate. MF-438 Increasing the density of micopillars could significantly improve the capture efficiency. The maximum capture efficiency was achieved on the hierarchical substrate with micropillar spacings of 15μm, but further reducing the micropillar spacings did not increase the cell capture efficiency. It was also found that hierarchical substrates with appropriate spacing of micropillars appeared more favorable for cell attachment and spreading, and thus enhancing the cell-material interaction. These results suggested that optimizing the micropillar arrays, such as the spacing between adjacent micropillars, could give full play to the synergistic effect of hierarchical hybrid micro/nanostructures in the interaction with cells. This study may provide promising guidance to design and optimize micro/nano hierarchical structures of biointerfaces for biomedical application.Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein, is always overexpressed in tumor cells to suppress the pro-apoptotic function of Bax, thereby prolonging the life of tumor. However, BH3 proteins could directly activate Bax via antagonizing Bcl-2 to induce apoptosis in response to the stimulation. Thus, mimicking BH3 proteins with a peptide is a potential strategy for anti-cancer therapy. Unfortunately, clinical translation of BH3-mimic peptide is hindered by its inefficacious cellular internalization and proteolysis resistance. Herein, we translated a BH3-mimic peptide into a peptide-auric spheroidal nanocluster (BH3-AuNp), in which polymeric BH3-Auric precursors [Au1+-S-BH3]n are in-situ self-assembled on the surface of gold nanoparticles by a one-pot synthesis. Expectedly, this strategy could improve the anti-proteolytic ability and cytomembrane penetrability of the BH3 peptide. As a result, BH3-AuNp successfully induced the apoptosis of two cancer cell lines by an order of magnitude compared to BH3. This therapeutic and feasible peptide nano-engineering strategy will help peptides overcome the pharmaceutical obstacles, awaken its biological functions, and possibly revive the research about peptide-derived nanomedicine.Competing interactions in complex materials tend to induce multiple quantum phases of comparable energetics close to the ground state stability. This requires novel strategies and tools to segregate such phases with desired control to manipulate the properties relevant for contemporary technologies. Here, we show 'quenched disorder (QD)' as a predominant control parameter to realize a broad range of the quantum phases of bulkRNiO3(R= rare-earth ion) phase diagram in a LaxEu1-xNiO3compounds by systematic introduction of QD. Using static and terahertz dynamic transport studies on epitaxial thin films, we demonstrate various phases such as Fermi to non-Fermi liquid crossover, bad metallic behavior, quantum criticality, preservation of orbital and charge order symmetry and increased electronic inhomogeneity responsible for Maxwell-Wagner type of dielectric response, etc. The underlying mechanisms are unveiled by the anomalous responses of microscopic quantities such as scattering rate, plasma frequency, spectral weight, effective mass, and disorder. The results and methodology implemented here can be a generic pursuit of disorder based unified control to extract quantum phases submerged in competing energetics in all complex materials.Objective.To investigate the interplay between active standing and heat stress on cardiovascular autonomic modulation in healthy individuals.Approach.Blood pressure (BP) and ECG were continuously recorded during 30 min in supine (SUP) and 6 min in orthostatic position (ORT) under thermal reference (TC; ∼24 °C) or heated environment (HOT; ∼36 °C) conditions, in a randomized order. All data collection was performed during the winter and spring seasons when typical outdoor temperatures are ∼23 °C. Spectral analysis was employed by the autoregressive model of R-R and systolic blood pressure (SBP) time series and defined, within each band, in low (LF, 0.04 to 0.15 Hz) and high (0.15-0.40 Hz) frequencies. The indices of cardiac sympathetic (LF) and cardiac parasympathetic (HF) were normalized (nu) dividing each band power by the total power subtracted the very-low component ( less then 0.04 Hz), obtaining the cardiac autonomic balance (LF/HF) modulation. The gain of the relationship between SBP and R-R variabilities within the LF band was utilized for analysis of spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (alpha index;αLF). Nonlinear analysis was employed through symbolic dynamics of R-R, which provided the percentage of sequences of three heart periods without changes in R-R interval (0V%; cardiac sympathetic modulation) and two significant variations (2UV% and 2LV%; cardiac vagal modulation).Main results.HOT increased 0V% and HR, and decreasedαLF and 2UV% during SUP compared to TC. During ORT, HOT provokes a greater increment on HR, LF/HF and 0V%, indexes compared to ORT under TC.Significance.At rest, heat stress influences both autonomic branches, increasing sympathetic and decreasing vagal modulation and spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity. The augmented HR during active standing under heat stress seems to be mediated by a greater increment in cardiac sympathetic modulation, showing an interplay between gravitational and thermal stimulus.Interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) is a method that can be applied to evaluate health outcomes in populations exposed to ionizing radiation following major radiological events. Using aggregated time series data, ITSA evaluates whether the time trend of a health indicator shows a change associated with the radiological event. That is, ITSA checks whether there is a statistically significant discrepancy between the projection of a pre-event trend and the data empirically observed after the event. Conducting ITSA requires one to consider specific methodological issues due to unique threats to internal validity that make ITSA prone to bias. We here discuss the strengths and limitations of ITSA with respect to bias and confounding, data quality, and statistical aspects. We provide recommendations to strengthen the robustness of ITSA studies and reduce their susceptibility to producing spurious results as a consequence of arbitrary modeling decisions.Ultrathin ferroelectrics are of great technological interest for high-density electronics, particularly non-volatile memories and field-effect transistors. With the rapid development of micro-electronics technology, there is an urgent requirement for higher density electronic devices, which need ultra-thin ferroelectric materials films. However, as ferroelectric films have becomes thinner and thinner, electrical spontaneous polarization signals have been found in a few atomic layers or even monolayer structures. The mechanisms of detection and formation of these signals are not well understood and various controversial interpretations have emerged. In this review, we summarized the recent research progress in the ultra-thin film ferroelectric material, such as HfO2, CuInP2S6, In2Se3, MoTe2and BaTiO3. Various key aspects of ferroelectric materials are discussed, including crystal structure, ferroelectric mechanism, characterization, fabrication methods, applications, and future outlooks. We hope this review will offer ideas for further improvement of ferroelectric properties of ultra-thin films and promotes practical applications.The system spatial resolution of whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) is limited to around 2 mm due to positron physics and the large diameter of the bore. To stay below this 'physics'-limit a scintillation detector with an intrinsic spatial resolution of around 1.3 mm is needed. Currently used detector technology consists of arrays of 2.6-5 mm segmented scintillator pixels which are the dominant factor contributing to the system resolution. Pixelated detectors using smaller pixels exist but face major drawbacks in sensitivity, timing, energy resolution and cost. Monolithic continuous detectors, where the spatial resolution is determined by the shape of the light distribution on the photodetector array, are a promising alternative. Without having the drawbacks of pixelated detectors, monolithic ones can also provide depth-of-interaction (DOI) information. In this work we present a monolithic detector design aiming to serve high-resolution clinical PET systems while maintaining high sensitivity. A 50 × 50 × 16 mm3Lutetium-Yttrium oxyorthosilicate scintillation crystal with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) backside readout is calibrated in singles mode by a collimated beam obtaining a reference dataset for the event positioning. A mean nearest neighbour (MNN) algorithm and an artificial neural network for positioning are compared. The targeted intrinsic detector resolution of 1.3 mm needed to reach a 2 mm resolution on system level was accomplished with both algorithms. The neural network achieved a mean spatial resolution of 1.14 mm FWHM for the whole detector and 1.02 mm in the centre (30 × 30 mm2). The MNN algorithm performed slightly worse with 1.17 mm for the whole detector and 1.13 mm in the centre. The intrinsic DOI information will also result in uniform system spatial resolution over the full field of view.