Regulating Grafting Density to Realize High-Areal-Capacity Silicon Submicroparticle Anodes Under Ultralow Binder Content.

Grafted biopolymer binders are demonstrated to improve the processability and cycling stability of the silicon (Si) nanoparticle anodes. However, there is little systematical exploration regarding the relationship between grafting density and performance of grafted binder for Si anodes, especially when Si particles exceed the critical breaking size. Herein, a series of guar gum grafted polyacrylamide (GP) binders with different grafting densities are designed and prepared to determine the optimal grafting density for maximizing the electrochemical performance of Si submicroparticle (SiSMP) anodes. Among various GP binders, GP5 with recommended grafting density demonstrates the strongest adhesion strength, best mechanical properties, and highest intrinsic ionic conductivity. These characteristics enable the SiSMP electrodes to sustain the electrode integrity and accelerate lithium-ion transport kinetics during cycling, resulting in high capacity and stable cyclability. The superior role of GP5 binder in enabling robust structure and stable interface of SiSMP electrodes is revealed through the PeakForce atomic force microscopy and in situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry. Furthermore, the stable cyclabilities of high-loading SiSMP@GP5 electrode with ultralow GP5 content (1 wt%) at high areal capacity as well as the good cyclability of Ah-level LiNi0.8 Co0.1 Mn0.1 O2 /SiSMP@GP5 pouch cell strongly confirms the practical viability of the GP5 binder.

US-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound in pancreatic cancer treatment: a consensus initiative between Chinese and European HIFU centers.

Purpose: Ultrasound-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (USgHIFU) represents a safe and effective non-invasive thermoablative technique for managing inoperable pancreatic cancer. This treatment method significantly alleviates disease-related symptoms and reduces pancreatic tumor volume. However, the current body of evidence is constrained by a lack of randomized controlled trials. The utilization of USgHIFU is primarily indicated for patients with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic pancreatic cancer, particularly those experiencing symptoms due to a locally advanced primary tumor.Methods: This collaborative consensus paper, involving European and Chinese HIFU centers treating pancreatic cancer, delineates criteria for patient selection, focusing on those most likely to benefit from USgHIFU treatment. Consideration is given to endpoints encompassing symptom alleviation, local response rates, other oncological outcomes, as well as overall and progression-free survival. Additionally, this paper defines relevant contraindications, side effects, and complications associated with USgHIFU. The publication also explores the feasibility and role of USgHIFU within the context of palliative care, including standard systemic chemotherapy.Results: The non-invasive local treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer using HIFU should be regarded as an adjunctive option alongside systemic chemotherapy or best supportive care for managing this aggressive disease. Based on the ability of USgHIFU therapy to mitigate pain and reduce primary tumor volume, it should be considered as a complementary therapy for symptomatic patients with inoperable pancreatic cancer and as a potential means of tumor debulking. The underutilized yet promising USgHIFU exhibits the potential to enhance patients' quality of life by alleviating cancer-related pain. Experts in the field should evaluate this treatment option be evaluated by experts in this field, with this consensus paper potentially serving as a guiding resource for the medical community.Conclusions: US-guided HIFU for advanced pancreatic cancer addresses treatment goals, available options, success rates, and limitations. As a non-invasive, effective local therapy, complementary to chemotherapy and best supportive care, it plays a pivotal role in pain relief, reducing of tumor volume, and potentially improving survival rates.

Stabilizing Li4SnS4 Electrolyte from Interface to Bulk Phase with a Gradient Lithium Iodide/Polymer Layer in Lithium Metal Batteries.

Sulfide electrolytes promise superior ion conduction in all-solid-state lithium (Li) metal batteries, while suffering harsh hurdles including interior dendrite growth and instability against Li and moist air. A prerequisite for solving such issues is to uncover the nature of the Li/sulfide interface. Herein, air-stable Li4SnS4 (LSS) as a prototypical sulfide electrolyte is selected to visualize the dynamic evolution and failure of the Li/sulfide interface by cryo-electron microscopy. The interfacial parasitic reaction (2Li + 2Li4SnS4 = 5Li2S + Sn2S3) is validated by direct detection of randomly distributed Li2S and Sn2S3 crystals. A bifunctional buffering layer is consequently introduced by self-diffusion of halide into LSS. Both the interface and the grain boundaries in LSS have been stabilized, eliminating the growing path of Li dendrites. The buffering layer enables the durability of Li symmetric cell (1500 h) and high-capacity retention of the LiFePO4 full-cell (95%). This work provides new insights into the hierarchical design of sulfide electrolytes.

40 Years of Low-Temperature Electrolytes for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries.

Rechargeable lithium batteries are one of the most appropriate energy storage systems in our electrified society, as virtually all portable electronic devices and electric vehicles today rely on the chemical energy stored in them. However, sub-zero Celsius operation, especially below -20 °C, remains a huge challenge for lithium batteries and greatly limits their application in extreme environments. Slow Li+ diffusion and charge transfer kinetics have been identified as two main origins of the poor performance of RLBs under low-temperature conditions, both strongly associated with the liquid electrolyte that governs bulk and interfacial ion transport. In this review, we first analyze the low-temperature kinetic behavior and failure mechanism of lithium batteries from an electrolyte standpoint. We next trace the history of low-temperature electrolytes in the past 40 years (1983-2022), followed by a comprehensive summary of the research progress as well as introducing the state-of-the-art characterization and computational methods for revealing their underlying mechanisms. Finally, we provide some perspectives on future research of low-temperature electrolytes with particular emphasis on mechanism analysis and practical application.

A Successive Conversion-Deintercalation Delithiation Mechanism for Practical Composite Lithium Anodes.

Lithium (Li) metal anodes are attractive for high-energy-density batteries. Dead Li is inevitably generated during the delithiation of deposited Li based on a conversion reaction, which severely depletes active Li and electrolyte and induces a short lifespan. In this contribution, a successive conversion-deintercalation (CTD) delithiation mechanism is proposed by manipulating the overpotential of the anode to restrain the generation of dead Li. The delithiation at initial cycles is solely carried out by a conversion reaction of Li metal. When the overpotential of the anode increases over the delithiation potential of lithiated graphite after cycling, a deintercalation reaction is consequently triggered to complete a whole CTD delithiation process, largely reducing the formation of dead Li due to a highly reversible deintercalation reaction. Under practical conditions, the working batteries based on a CTD delithiation mechanism maintain 210 cycles with a capacity retention of 80% in comparison to 110 cycles of a bare Li anode. Moreover, a 1 Ah pouch cell with a CTD delithiation mechanism operates for 150 cycles. The work ingeniously restrains the generation of dead Li by manipulating the delithiation mechanisms of the anode and contributes to a fresh concept for the design of practical composite Li anodes.

Multi-Conditional Constraint Generative Adversarial Network-Based MR Imaging from CT Scan Data.

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is an important computer-aided diagnosis technique with rich pathological information. The factor of physical and physiological constraint seriously affects the applicability of that technique. Thus, computed tomography (CT)-based radiotherapy is more popular on account of its imaging rapidity and environmental simplicity. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to design a method that can construct an MR image from the corresponding CT image. In this paper, we treat MR imaging as a machine vision problem and propose a multi-conditional constraint generative adversarial network (GAN) for MR imaging from CT scan data. Considering reversibility of GAN, both generator and reverse generator are designed for MR and CT imaging, respectively, which can constrain each other and improve consistency between features of CT and MR images. In addition, we innovatively treat the real and generated MR image discrimination as object re-identification; cosine error fusing with original GAN loss is designed to enhance verisimilitude and textural features of the MR image. The experimental results with the challenging public CT-MR image dataset show distinct performance improvement over other GANs utilized in medical imaging and demonstrate the effect of our method for medical image modal transformation.

Modification of Nitrate Ion Enables Stable Solid Electrolyte Interphase in Lithium Metal Batteries.

The lifespan of high-energy-density lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is hindered by heterogeneous solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The rational design of electrolytes is strongly considered to obtain uniform SEI in working batteries. Herein, a modification of nitrate ion (NO3 - ) is proposed and validated to improve the homogeneity of the SEI in practical LMBs. NO3 - is connected to an ether-based moiety to form isosorbide dinitrate (ISDN) to break the resonance structure of NO3 - and improve the reducibility. The decomposition of non-resonant -NO3 in ISDN enriches SEI with abundant LiNx Oy and induces uniform lithium deposition. Lithium-sulfur batteries with ISDN additives deliver a capacity retention of 83.7 % for 100 cycles compared with rapid decay with LiNO3 after 55 cycles. Moreover, lithium-sulfur pouch cells with ISDN additives provide a specific energy of 319 Wh kg-1 and undergo 20 cycles. This work provides a realistic reference in designing additives to modify the SEI for stabilizing LMBs.

The Crucial Role of Electrode Potential of a Working Anode in Dictating the Structural Evolution of Solid Electrolyte Interphase.

The performance of rechargeable lithium (Li) batteries is highly correlated with the structure of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The properties of a working anode are vital factors in determining the structure of SEI; however, the correspondingly poor understanding hinders the rational regulation of SEI. Herein, the electrode potential and anode material, two critical properties of an anode, in dictating the structural evolution of SEI were investigated theoretically and experimentally. The anode potential is identified as a crucial role in dictating the SEI structure. The anode potential determines the reduction products in the electrolyte, ultimately giving rise to the mosaic and bilayer SEI structure at high and low potential, respectively. In contrast, the anode material does not cause a significant change in the SEI structure. This work discloses the crucial role of electrode potential in dictating SEI structure and provides rational guidance to regulate SEI structure.

Reclaiming Inactive Lithium with a Triiodide/Iodide Redox Couple for Practical Lithium Metal Batteries.

High-energy-density lithium (Li) metal batteries suffer from a short lifespan owing to apparently ceaseless inactive Li accumulation, which is accompanied by the consumption of electrolyte and active Li reservoir, seriously deteriorating the cyclability of batteries. Herein, a triiodide/iodide (I3 - /I- ) redox couple initiated by stannic iodide (SnI4 ) is demonstrated to reclaim inactive Li. The reduction of I3 - converts inactive Li into soluble LiI, which then diffuses to the cathode side. The oxidation of LiI by the delithiated cathode transforms cathode into the lithiation state and regenerates I3 - , reclaiming Li ion from inactive Li. The regenerated I3 - engages the further redox reactions. Furthermore, the formation of Sn mitigates the corrosion of I3 - on active Li reservoir sacrificially. In working Li | LiNi0.5 Co0.2 Mn0.3 O2 batteries, the accumulated inactive Li is significantly reclaimed by the reversible I3 - /I- redox couple, improving the lifespan of batteries by twice. This work initiates a creative solution to reclaim inactive Li for prolonging the lifespan of practical Li metal batteries.

Feasible Self-Calibration of Larger Field-of-View (FOV) Camera Sensors for the Advanced Driver-Assistance System (ADAS).

This paper proposes a self-calibration method that can be applied for multiple larger field-of-view (FOV) camera models on an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS). Firstly, the proposed method performs a series of pre-processing steps such as edge detection, length thresholding, and edge grouping for the segregation of robust line candidates from the pool of initial distortion line segments. A novel straightness cost constraint with a cross-entropy loss was imposed on the selected line candidates, thereby exploiting that novel loss to optimize the lens-distortion parameters using the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) optimization approach. The best-fit distortion parameters are used for the undistortion of an image frame, thereby employing various high-end vision-based tasks on the distortion-rectified frame. In this study, an investigation was carried out on experimental approaches such as parameter sharing between multiple camera systems and model-specific empirical γ -residual rectification factor. The quantitative comparisons were carried out between the proposed method and traditional OpenCV method as well as contemporary state-of-the-art self-calibration techniques on KITTI dataset with synthetically generated distortion ranges. Famous image consistency metrics such as peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and position error in salient points estimation were employed for the performance evaluations. Finally, for a better performance validation of the proposed system on a real-time ADAS platform, a pragmatic approach of qualitative analysis has been conducted through streamlining high-end vision-based tasks such as object detection, localization, and mapping, and auto-parking on undistorted frames.

Deep CT to MR Synthesis Using Paired and Unpaired Data.

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays a highly important role in radiotherapy treatment planning for the segmentation of tumor volumes and organs. However, the use of MR is limited, owing to its high cost and the increased use of metal implants for patients. This study is aimed towards patients who are contraindicated owing to claustrophobia and cardiac pacemakers, and many scenarios in which only computed tomography (CT) images are available, such as emergencies, situations lacking an MR scanner, and situations in which the cost of obtaining an MR scan is prohibitive. From medical practice, our approach can be adopted as a screening method by radiologists to observe abnormal anatomical lesions in certain diseases that are difficult to diagnose by CT. The proposed approach can estimate an MR image based on a CT image using paired and unpaired training data. In contrast to existing synthetic methods for medical imaging, which depend on sparse pairwise-aligned data or plentiful unpaired data, the proposed approach alleviates the rigid registration of paired training, and overcomes the context-misalignment problem of unpaired training. A generative adversarial network was trained to transform two-dimensional (2D) brain CT image slices into 2D brain MR image slices, combining the adversarial, dual cycle-consistent, and voxel-wise losses. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons against independent paired and unpaired training methods demonstrated the superiority of our approach.

Mg2B2O5 Nanowire Enabled Multifunctional Solid-State Electrolytes with High Ionic Conductivity, Excellent Mechanical Properties, and Flame-Retardant Performance.

High ionic conductivity, satisfactory mechanical properties, and wide electrochemical windows are crucial factors for composite electrolytes employed in solid-state lithium-ion batteries (SSLIBs). Based on these considerations, we fabricate Mg2B2O5 nanowire enabled poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based solid-state electrolytes (SSEs). Notably, these SSEs have enhanced ionic conductivity and a large electrochemical window. The elevated ionic conductivity is attributed to the improved motion of PEO chains and the increased Li migrating pathway on the interface between Mg2B2O5 and PEO-LiTFSI. Moreover, the interaction between Mg2B2O5 and -SO2- in TFSI- anions could also benefit the improvement of conductivity. In addition, the SSEs containing Mg2B2O5 nanowires exhibit improved the mechanical properties and flame-retardant performance, which are all superior to the pristine PEO-LiTFSI electrolyte. When these multifunctional SSEs are paired with LiFePO4 cathodes and lithium metal anodes, the SSLIBs show better rate performance and higher cyclic capacity of 150, 106, and 50 mAh g-1 under 0.2 C at 50, 40, and 30 °C. This strategy of employing Mg2B2O5 nanowires provides the design guidelines of assembling multifunctional SSLIBs with high ionic conductivity, excellent mechanical properties, and flame-retardant performance at the same time.

Evaluation of the communication quality of free-space laser communication based on the power-in-the-bucket method.

Atmospheric turbulence seriously affects the quality of free-space laser communication. The Strehl ratio (SR) is used to evaluate the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the receiving energy of free-space laser communication systems. However, the SR method does not consider the area of the laser-receiving end face. In this study, the power-in-the-bucket (PIB) method is demonstrated to accurately evaluate the effect of turbulence on the receiving energy. A theoretical equation is first obtained to calculate PIB. Simulated and experimental validations are then performed to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical equation. This work may provide effective guidance for the design and evaluation of free-space laser communication systems.

Taming Solvent-Solute Interaction Accelerates Interfacial Kinetics in Low-Temperature Lithium-Metal Batteries.

Lithium (Li)-metal batteries promise energy density beyond 400 Wh kg-1 , while their practical operation at an extreme temperature below -30 °C suffers severe capacity deterioration. Such battery failure highly relates to the remarkably increased kinetic barrier of interfacial processes, including interfacial desolvation, ion transportation, and charge transfer. In this work, the interfacial kinetics in three prototypical electrolytes are quantitatively probed by three-electrode electrochemical techniques and molecular dynamics simulations. Desolvation as the limiting step of interfacial processes is validated to dominate the cell impedance and capacity at low temperature. 1,3-Dioxolane-based electrolyte with tamed solvent-solute interaction facilitates fast desolvation, enabling the practical Li|LiNi0.5 Co0.2 Mn0.3 O2 cells at -40 °C to retain 66% of room-temperature capacity and withstand remarkably fast charging rate (0.3 C). The barrier of desolvation dictated by solvent-solute interaction environments is quantitatively uncovered. Regulating the solvent-solute interaction by low-affinity solvents emerges as a promising solution to low-temperature batteries.

A corrosion inhibiting layer to tackle the irreversible lithium loss in lithium metal batteries.

Reactive negative electrodes like lithium (Li) suffer serious chemical and electrochemical corrosion by electrolytes during battery storage and operation, resulting in rapidly deteriorated cyclability and short lifespans of batteries. Li corrosion supposedly relates to the features of solid-electrolyte-interphase (SEI). Herein, we quantitatively monitor the Li corrosion and SEI progression (e.g., dissolution, reformation) in typical electrolytes through devised electrochemical tools and cryo-electron microscopy. The continuous Li corrosion is validated to be positively correlated with SEI dissolution. More importantly, an anti-corrosion and interface-stabilizing artificial passivation layer comprising low-solubility polymer and metal fluoride is designed. Prolonged operations of Li symmetric cells and Li | |LiFePO4 cells with reduced Li corrosion by ~74% are achieved (0.66 versus 2.5 µAh h-1). The success can further be extended to ampere-hour-scale pouch cells. This work uncovers the SEI dissolution and its correlation with Li corrosion, enabling the durable operation of Li metal batteries by reducing the Li loss.

In-Situ Electrodeposition of Nanostructured Carbon Strengthened Interface for Stabilizing Lithium Metal Anode.

The lithium metal anode (LMA) is regarded as one of the most promising candidates for high-energy Li-ion batteries. However, the naturally formed solid electrolyte interface (SEI) is unsatisfied, which would cause continuous dendrite growth and thus prevent the practical application of the LMA. Herein, a stable electrolytic carbon-based hybrid (ECH) artificial SEI is constructed on the LMA via the in-situ electrodeposition of an electrolyte sovlent at ultrahigh voltage. This nanostructured carbon strengthened SEI exhibits much improved ionic conductivity and mechanical strength, which enables uniform Li+ diffusion, stabilizes the interface between the electrolyte and lithium metal, and inhibits Li dendrite breeding and Li pulverization. With the protection of this ECH layer, the symmetrical cells show stable long-term cycling performance over 500 h with an ultrahigh plating capacity of 5 mAh cm-2 at the current density of 5 mA cm-2. A full cell assembled with a Li[Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1]O2 or LiFePO4 cathode exhibits a long-term cycling life and excellent capacity retention.

Primary bone malignancy: effective treatment with high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the long-term follow-up results of ultrasonographically (US)-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation in patients with primary bone malignancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was approved by the ethics committee. Each patient or parent (if patient was younger than 18 years), signed an informed consent form before being selected and treated. From December 1997 to November 2004, 80 patients with a primary bone malignancy-60 with stage IIb disease and 20 with stage III disease (Enneking staging system)-were treated with US-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation. High-intensity focused ultrasound ablation combined with chemotherapy was performed in 62 patients with osteosarcoma, one patient with periosteal osteosarcoma, and three patients with Ewing sarcoma. The remaining 14 patients had chondrosarcoma, giant cell bone cancer, periosteal sarcoma, or an unknown malignancy and were treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation only. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging or computed tomography (CT), and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) were used to assess tumor response. Cumulative survival rates were calculated by using the Kaplan-Meier method. Adverse effects were recorded. RESULTS: High-intensity focused ultrasound ablation guided by real-time US was performed. Follow-up images demonstrated completely ablated malignant bone tumors in 69 patients and greater than 50% tumor ablation in the remaining 11 patients. Overall survival rates at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years were 89.8%, 72.3%, 60.5%, 50.5%, and 50.5%, respectively. Survival rates at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years were 93.3%, 82.4%, 75.0%, 63.7%, and 63.7%, respectively, in the patients with stage IIb cancer and 79.2%, 42.2%, 21.1%, 15.8%, and 15.8%, respectively, in those with stage III disease. Among the patients with stage IIb disease, long-term survival rates were substantially improved in the 30 patients who received the full treatment-that is, complete high-intensity focused ultrasound and full cycles of chemotherapy-compared with the survival rates for the 24 patients who did not finish the chemotherapy cycles and the six patients who underwent partial ablation only. Only five (7%) of the 69 patients who underwent complete ablation had local cancer recurrence during the follow-up period. Forty adverse events were recorded, with 14 patients requiring surgical intervention. CONCLUSION: US-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound ablation of malignant bone tumors is feasible and effective and eventually may be a component of limb-sparing techniques for patients with these cancers.

In Situ Construction of a LiF-Enriched Interface for Stable All-Solid-State Batteries and its Origin Revealed by Cryo-TEM.

The application of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) is still inherently limited by the unstable lithium (Li)/electrolyte interface, despite the advantages of security, flexibility, and workability of SPEs. Herein, the Li/electrolyte interface is modified by introducing Li2 S additive to harvest stable all-solid-state lithium metal batteries (LMBs). Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) results demonstrate a mosaic interface between poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) electrolytes and Li metal anodes, in which abundant crystalline grains of Li, Li2 O, LiOH, and Li2 CO3 are randomly distributed. Besides, cryo-TEM visualization, combined with molecular dynamics simulations, reveals that the introduction of Li2 S accelerates the decomposition of N(CF3 SO2 )2 - and consequently promotes the formation of abundant LiF nanocrystals in the Li/PEO interface. The generated LiF is further verified to inhibit the breakage of CO bonds in the polymer chains and prevents the continuous interface reaction between Li and PEO. Therefore, the all-solid-state LMBs with the LiF-enriched interface exhibit improved cycling capability and stability in a cell configuration with an ultralong lifespan over 1800 h. This work is believed to open up a new avenue for rational design of high-performance all-solid-state LMBs.

Biomacromolecules enabled dendrite-free lithium metal battery and its origin revealed by cryo-electron microscopy.

Metallic lithium anodes are highly promising for revolutionizing current rechargeable batteries because of their ultrahigh energy density. However, the application of lithium metal batteries is considerably impeded by lithium dendrite growth. Here, a biomacromolecule matrix obtained from the natural membrane of eggshell is introduced to control lithium growth and the mechanism is motivated by how living organisms regulate the orientation of inorganic crystals in biomineralization. Specifically, cryo-electron microscopy is utilized to probe the structure of lithium at the atomic level. The dendrites growing along the preferred < 111 > crystallographic orientation are greatly suppressed in the presence of the biomacromolecule. Furthermore, the naturally soluble chemical species in the biomacromolecules can participate in the formation of solid electrolyte interphase upon cycling, thus effectively homogenizing the lithium deposition. The lithium anodes employing bioinspired design exhibit enhanced cycling capability. This work sheds light on identifying substantial challenges in lithium anodes for developing advanced batteries.

Spine Computed Tomography to Magnetic Resonance Image Synthesis Using Generative Adversarial Networks : A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVE: To generate synthetic spine magnetic resonance (MR) images from spine computed tomography (CT) using generative adversarial networks (GANs), as well as to determine the similarities between synthesized and real MR images. METHODS: GANs were trained to transform spine CT image slices into spine magnetic resonance T2 weighted (MRT2) axial image slices by combining adversarial loss and voxel-wise loss. Experiments were performed using 280 pairs of lumbar spine CT scans and MRT2 images. The MRT2 images were then synthesized from 15 other spine CT scans. To evaluate whether the synthetic MR images were realistic, two radiologists, two spine surgeons, and two residents blindly classified the real and synthetic MRT2 images. Two experienced radiologists then evaluated the similarities between subdivisions of the real and synthetic MRT2 images. Quantitative analysis of the synthetic MRT2 images was performed using the mean absolute error (MAE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). RESULTS: The mean overall similarity of the synthetic MRT2 images evaluated by radiologists was 80.2%. In the blind classification of the real MRT2 images, the failure rate ranged from 0% to 40%. The MAE value of each image ranged from 13.75 to 34.24 pixels (mean, 21.19 pixels), and the PSNR of each image ranged from 61.96 to 68.16 dB (mean, 64.92 dB). CONCLUSION: This was the first study to apply GANs to synthesize spine MR images from CT images. Despite the small dataset of 280 pairs, the synthetic MR images were relatively well implemented. Synthesis of medical images using GANs is a new paradigm of artificial intelligence application in medical imaging. We expect that synthesis of MR images from spine CT images using GANs will improve the diagnostic usefulness of CT. To better inform the clinical applications of this technique, further studies are needed involving a large dataset, a variety of pathologies, and other MR sequence of the lumbar spine.