DeepLNAnno: a Web-Based Lung Nodules Annotating System for CT Images.

Lung cancer is one of the most common and fatal types of cancer, and pulmonary nodule detection plays a crucial role in the screening and diagnosis of this disease. A well-trained deep neural network model can help doctors to find nodules on computed tomography(CT) images while requiring lots of labeled data. However, currently available annotating systems are not suitable for annotating pulmonary nodules in CT images. We propose a web-based lung nodules annotating system named as DeepLNAnno. DeepLNAnno has a unique three-tier working process and loads of features like semi-automatic annotation, which not only make it much easier for doctors to annotate compared to some other annotating systems but also increase the accuracy of the labels. We invited a medical group from West China Hospital to annotate the CT images using our DeepLNAnno system, and collected a large number of labeled data. The results of our experiments demonstrated that a usable nodule-detection system is developed, and good benchmark scores on our evaluation data are obtained.

The Influence of Age and Gender Information on the Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy: Based on Neural Networks.

This paper proposes the importance of age and gender information in the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. We utilized Deep Residual Neural Networks (ResNet) and Densely Connected Convolutional Networks (DenseNet), which are proven effective on image classification problems and the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy using the retinal fundus images. We used the ensemble of several classical networks and decentralized the training so that the network was simple and avoided overfitting. To observe whether the age and gender information could help enhance the performance, we added the information before the dense layer and compared the results with the results that did not add age and gender information. We found that the test accuracy of the network with age and gender information was 2.67% higher than that of the network without age and gender information. Meanwhile, compared with gender information, age information had a better help for the results.Clinical Relevance- The additional information in the dataset (such as age, gender, time of illness, etc.) can improve the accuracy of automatic diagnosis. Therefore, we strongly recommend that researchers add these different kinds of additional information when creating the dataset.

A micrometer-sized europium(iii)-organic framework for selective sensing of the Cr2O72- anion and picric acid in water systems.

A micrometer-sized europium(iii)-organic framework with asymmetric binuclear metal subunits extended by 4,5-dichlorophthalaten (DCPA), [Eu2(H2O)(DCPA)3]n, was easily obtained using a reverse microemulsion method. The framework exhibits good dispersibility, excellent thermal and environmental stability and easy regeneration ability. More importantly, the complex displays strong red emission and can selectively and sensitively detect both inorganic Cr2O72- anions (Ksv = 8.7 × 103 M-1) and organic picric acid contaminants (Ksv = 1.07 × 104 M-1) in water systems through fluorescence quenching. A luminescent film of 1 was further prepared and successfully used to detect the Cr2O72- anion in an aqueous system. These interesting results indicate that the well-dispersed europium(iii)-organic framework can serve as a promising dual-responsive luminescent sensor for environmental pollutant monitoring.

Four linear Cu(II)3 subunit-based coordination polymers with various inter-subunit connections, spin ground-states and intra-/inter-subunit magnetic couplings.

Four new 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole (atr)-based coordination polymers, {[Cu2(atr)(H2O)(µ-OH)2(pa)]·H2O}n (), {[Cu3(atr)2(H2O)2(µ-OH)2(npa)2]·2H2O}n (), {[Cu3(atr)5(dca)(µ-OH)(ClO4)2](ClO4)2}n () and {[Cu3(atr)2(H2O)(µ3-OH)(µ-OH)2(spa)]·1.5H2O}n () (pa(2-) = phthalate, npa(2-) = 3-nitrophthalate, dca(-) = dicyanamide and spa(3-) = 4-sulfophthalate), were successfully obtained by varying the carboxylate- and cyanide-modified magnetic bridges. Structural determinations reveal that the former three samples are bent one-dimensional chains constructed from linear Cu(II)3 subunits and different inter-subunit connections. In , linear {Cu3(µ-N1,N2-atr)2(µ-OH)2}(4+) and {Cu3(µ-COO)2(µ-OH)2}(4+) subunits are alternately connected in a sharing-vertex manner to give a ferrimagnetic S = 1/2 spin ground-state. The linear {Cu3(µ-N1,N2-atr)2(µ-OH)2}(4+) building block of is repeatedly bridged by pairs of single-atom bridging carboxylate groups of the npa(2-) ligand leading to a paramagnetic S = 1/2 spin ground-state. By contrast, each linear {Cu3(µ-N1,N2-atr)4}(6+) core in is periodically propagated by four-fold heterobridges (µ-OH(-), µ-ClO4(-), µ-N1,N2-atr and µ-dca(-)) to generate an overall diamagnetic S = 0 spin ground-state. Complex is a three-dimensional pillared-layer framework composed of linear {Cu3(µ-N1,N2-atr)2(µ-OH)2}(4+)-based layers and ditopic spa(3-) connectors, which exhibits a ferrimagnetic S = 1/2 spin ground-state and a metamagnetic transition resulting from the competition between the weak interchain/interlayer antiferromagnetic interaction and the enhanced external magnetic field. In addition, different intra- and inter-subunit magnetic strengths are observed in with the coupling constants 182 < -Jintra < 43 and -127 < Jinter < 51.2 cm(-1). These interesting magnetostructural results are significant and helpful for the cyclic polyazolate-based magnetic materials.

Studies on the bioactivity of aqueous extract of pu-erh tea and its fractions: in vitro antioxidant activity and α-glycosidase inhibitory property, and their effect on postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic mice.

Despite abundant research that has been carried out on the potential health benefits of pu-erh tea, no consensus till now, has been reached on which constituent is mainly responsible for its bioactivity. In this work, the aqueous extract (AE) and its fraction enriched with active constituents were prepared from pu-erh tea, and their bioactivities were investigated. It was found that tea polyphenols (TP), tea polysaccharides (TPS), caffeine (Caf), protein (Pro), amino acids (AA) were accumulated in several fractions after solvent extraction despite not being separated completely. Meanwhile, 95% ethanol precipitate (EP) and ethyl acetate fraction (EF) possessed remarkable antioxidant activity and potent inhibitory effects against α-glycosidase in vitro. Furthermore, all the extracts (50 mg/kg BW) showed a significant (p<0.05) effect on postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic mice as compared with a model group, and the suppression of EP was not significantly (p>0.05) different from that of acarbose at the same dosage (50 mg/kg BW), which indicate that these fractions could be developed as potential anti-diabetic agents.