Intelligently Quantifying the Entire Irregular Dental Structure.

Quantitative analysis of irregular anatomical structures is crucial in oral medicine, but clinicians often typically measure only several representative indicators within the structure as references. Deep learning semantic segmentation offers the potential for entire quantitative analysis. However, challenges persist, including segmentation difficulties due to unclear boundaries and acquiring measurement landmarks for clinical needs in entire quantitative analysis. Taking the palatal alveolar bone as an example, we proposed an artificial intelligence measurement tool for the entire quantitative analysis of irregular dental structures. To expand the applicability, we have included lightweight networks with fewer parameters and lower computational demands. Our approach finally used the lightweight model LU-Net, addressing segmentation challenges caused by unclear boundaries through a compensation module. Additional enamel segmentation was conducted to establish a measurement coordinate system. Ultimately, we presented the entire quantitative information within the structure in a manner that meets clinical needs. The tool achieved excellent segmentation results, manifested by high Dice coefficients (0.934 and 0.949), intersection over union (0.888 and 0.907), and area under the curve (0.943 and 0.949) for palatal alveolar bone and enamel in the test set. In subsequent measurements, the tool visualizes the quantitative information within the target structure by scatter plots. When comparing the measurements against representative indicators, the tool's measurement results show no statistically significant difference from the ground truth, with small mean absolute error, root mean squared error, and errors interval. Bland-Altman plots and intraclass correlation coefficients indicate the satisfactory agreement compared with manual measurements. We proposed a novel intelligent approach to address the entire quantitative analysis of irregular image structures in the clinical setting. This contributes to enabling clinicians to swiftly and comprehensively grasp structural features, facilitating the design of more personalized treatment plans for different patients, enhancing clinical efficiency and treatment success rates in turn.

[Liposome nanoparticles for targeted delivery of parthenolide induce colorectal cancer necroptosis to ameliorate tumor-infiltrating T cell exhaustion in mice].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism of parthenolide for inducing necroptosis and ameliorating CD8+ T cell exhaustion in colorectal cancer (CRC) and construct liposome nanoparticles for targeted delivery of parthenolide. METHODS: The inhibitory effect of parthenolide on proliferation of different CRC cell lines was examined using CCK8 assay, and ROS LDH detection and Western blotting were used to analyze the cell death pathways. In a mouse model bearing subcutaneous MC38 cell xenografts, the effects of 5 and 15 mg/kg parthenolide on tumor growth and CD8+ T cell depletion were observed. In a mouse model bearing orthotopic CRC cell xenograft in the ileocecal region, free parthenolide (100 µg/mL) or low (100 µg/mL) and high doses (200 µg/mL) of liposome nanoparticles loaded with parthenolide were injected via the tail vein, and the changes in CD8 expression in the xenografts were analyzed using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Treatment with parthenolide dose-dependently lowered the viability of the CRC cell lines SW480, DLD1, HCT116 and MC38 cells, and its effect was obviously antagonized by Nec-1. Immunoblotting analysis showed that parthenolide treatment resulted in increased RIP3 and MLKL phosphorylation in the CRC cells. In the mouse model bearing subcutaneous xenografts, parthenolide treatment at the high dose, but not at the low dose, significantly increased the number of infiltrating CD3+ CD8+ T cells and PD1hiTIM3+ T cell percentage (P<0.01) and lowered the percentage of PD1loTIM3- T cells in the tumor tissue (P<0.01). In the mouse models bearing orthotopic CRC xenograft, intravenous injection of the liposomes loaded with parthenolide, especially at the high dose, significantly increased CD8 expression in the tumor tissue (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Parthenolide induces necroptosis in CRC and increases infiltrating CD8+ T cells to ameliorate CD8+ T cell exhaustion in the tumor. Liposome nanoparticles for targeted delivery of parthenolide produce stronger, anti-tumor effect.

Membrane bioreactor process of organic wastewater from brassylic acid manufacturing plant.

The wastewater treatment from brassylic acid manufacturing plant using membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied. The membrane bioreactor consisted of batch-operation biological aeration tank and ultrafiltration evaluation tank. The content of test included the affection of variation operation conditions on ultrafiltration separation, the general characteristics of MBR process, and the difference comparing with the conventional biological treatment. The results are as follows: (1) among the test membrane material, polyether sulphone (PES) membrane is more suitable for the wastewater treatment; (2) when the cutoff molecular weight is among 10,000-50,000, the higher the cutoff molecular weight, the bigger the water flux is in the test; (3) under the operation pressure, water flux increases accompanying with the increasing of operation pressure; (4) the paper filtered COD concentration has more affection on the water flux than the suspended solid concentration; (5) as the volume loading of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid increases, the membrane permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration increase too, meanwhile the water flux reduces; (6) when the sludge retention time of activated sludge of MBR increases, the accumulation of high molecule organic substance and colloid reduces, the membrane permeate COD concentration and paper filtered COD concentration reduce too, and the water flux increases; (7) comparing with the conventional biological process, the microbial activity is higher, but the microbial species is less.

[A permanent implantable pulsatile impeller heart with a specially devised needle bearing].

The author's implantable pulsatile impeller pump can assist the circulation of the calves for several months. The termination of the experiments was related to wear of the mechanical bearing, which resulted in vibration of the rotor and pump failure. It seemed as if the experiments could have lasted indefinitely if the bearing had not failed. To solve the problem of bearing wear, a specially devised rolling bearing was investigated and applied to the impeller pump. Its service life is more than 10 years due to the wear-proof roller made of ultra-highmolecular weight polythene. This newly devised impeller heart promises to have long-term and permanent applications. Compared with the magnetic bearing, the rolling bearing has the advantages of simpler construction and control, no consumption of energy, and better reliability.

Deceleration of hydrothermal degradation of 3Y-TZP by alumina and lanthana co-doping.

Zirconia has been used as an orthopaedic material since 1985 and is increasingly used in dental applications. One major concern with the use of zirconia is the significant loss in mechanical properties through hydrothermal degradation, with the uncontrolled transformation of tetragonal to monoclinic (t→m) zirconia. We report on the addition of alumina and lanthana as dopants to an yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal ceramic as an effective strategy to significantly decelerate the hydrothermal degradation kinetics, without any loss of mechanical properties, in particular, fracture toughness. Hydrothermal degradation was studied on the exposed surface as well as in the sub-surface region using Raman microspectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, providing a comprehensive insight into the mechanism of propagation of the t→m transformation. The addition of dopants resulted in the reduction of monoclinic zirconia nucleation rate at the surface and a substantial deceleration of the overall transformation kinetics, in particular a greatly reduced propagation of the transformation into the bulk and decreased grain boundary microcracking. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that the co-dopant cations segregate to the grain boundaries where they play a key role in the stabilization of the zirconia tetragonal phase.