Browse Articles

ProSeg: multi-scale context fusion for high-precision prostate segmentation in MRI

Cooperation mode selection and information sharing in a live streaming e-commerce supply chain with traffic data investment

In recent years, live streaming e-commerce has become an essential channel for brand merchants to expand online sales, with brand self-live streaming and influential streamer live streaming emerging as two mainstream cooperation modes. The choice between these modes directly affects brand merchants’ profit levels and the efficiency of supply chain coordination. However, the mechanisms through which platform information sharing and traffic data investment jointly influence brand merchants’ mode selection remain insufficiently explored. To address this gap, this paper constructs four game-theoretic models under scenarios of platform information sharing and non-sharing for both brand self-live streaming and influential streamer live streaming. The study systematically analyzes how factors such as demand information and traffic data investment affect the strategic decisions and profit structures of supply chain participants. The results show that: (1) the cost of traffic investment and the commission rate are key determinants of the brand merchant’s cooperation mode preference—when both are high, adopting the influential streamer live streaming mode yields greater benefits for the brand merchant; (2) the platform’s incentive to engage in information sharing varies significantly across cooperation modes, with a stronger motivation to share demand information under the brand self-live streaming mode; (3) and within a certain parameter range, the strategic interaction between information sharing and cooperation mode selection can foster a win–win outcome for both the brand merchant and the platform under the brand self-live streaming mode, thereby enhancing overall supply chain performance. This research elucidates the optimal cooperation mode selection logic of brand merchants in heterogeneous information environments and provides theoretical foundations and managerial insights for platform enterprises in designing effective information-sharing strategies and commission policies. To further verify the robustness and generalizability of the proposed models, several promising avenues for future research are also suggested.

The effect of ω-phase precipitation on thermal- and stress-induced martensitic transformations in Ni47.5Fe15Ga27.5Co10 single crystals

The key role of ω-phase nanoparticles in determining the properties of [001]-oriented Ni47.5Fe15Ga27.5Co10 single crystals under compression has been established. The ω-phase particles strongly affect the martensitic transformation temperature, as well as their thermal stability, martensite yield strength, and superelasticity temperature range. Dissolution of the ω-phase after annealing at 1448 K for 1 h followed by quenching led to a low martensite yield strength (1025 MPa at 302 K) and high-temperature martensitic transformations (Ms = 400 K) with low thermal stability of Ms during overheating to 523 K. Precipitation of ω-phase nanoparticles during aging at 523 K for 15 min increased the martensite yield strength (up to 1550 MPa) and decreased the martensitic transformation temperatures (up to 350 K), but improved the thermal stability of Ms during overheating. The Ni47.5Fe15Ga27.5Co10 single crystals (as-grown and aged at 573 K for 15 min) containing ω-phase nanoparticles demonstrated a wide range of high-temperature superelasticity, from 373 to 573 K.

Characteristics of NK cells activation following IL-12, IL-15, IL-18 cytokines stimulation for preclinical purposes

Abstract Adoptive cell therapy is a promising strategy in cancer treatment, among which NK cell therapies represent an encouraging approach. Freshly isolated NK cells exhibit low cytolytic activity. Therefore, efficient activation of NK cells is essential to enhance their anti-cancer properties. The aim of this study was to compare ex vivo NK cells activation with commonly used cytokines, including IL-2, IL-12, IL-15, IL-18, or STING agonist, and to determine the most effective activation method. Our results indicate higher viability and expression of activating receptors and granzyme B in IL-15-treated NK cells. The addition of IL-12 to IL-15 augmented the production of IFN-γ and CCL3 in NK cells. However, incubation of NK cells with a cocktail of IL-12, IL-15, and IL-18 cytokines generated massive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and a significant increase in activation marker CD69. We have also observed reduced viability of NK cells after incubation with STING agonist. NK cells activated with IL-12/IL-15, and IL-12/IL-15/IL-18 co-cultured with MHC − tumor cells, and in each cytokine combination with MHC + tumor cells caused proliferation inhibition and lysis of tumor cells. Activation of NK cells, particularly with the combination of IL-12/IL-15/IL-18 cytokines, shows potential clinical relevance in adoptive cell therapy.

Study protocol for a feasibility randomised controlled trial of MOVE SMART—An intervention to increase physical activity, reduce sedentary behaviour and improve health outcomes in patients with psoriasis

Patients with psoriasis are less physically active than age-matched controls, due to psoriasis-specific barriers; significantly limiting their ability to benefit from health-promoting levels of physical activity. We co-designed an exercise intervention, with patients, which in proof-of-concept studies, led to significantly improved psoriasis; reduced cardiovascular disease/metabolic syndrome risk and enhanced wellbeing/psychosocial functioning. This suggested increased physical activity may improve health outcomes for those with psoriasis. However, individuals remained sedentary for prolonged periods, which also has a detrimental effect on health. We therefore developed a new intervention – MOVE SMART – to increase light-intensity physical activity and interrupt sedentary behaviour. This randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) will assess the feasibility and acceptability of MOVE SMART. Utilising a decentralised, two-arm, trial design, people with Type 1 psoriasis with/without stable psoriatic arthritis, (n = 60) will be recruited from across the UK, and randomised to intervention (MOVE SMART with “Standard Care”, n = 30) or control (“Standard Care”, n = 30). The intervention group will follow MOVE SMART for 12-weeks, followed by activities of their own choice during weeks 13–24. MOVE SMART will prompt 2-minutes of light-intensity physical activity, following 30-minutes of continuous sedentary behaviour, during daytime waking hours. The study comprises of three Workstreams. In Workstream-1 participants will use wearable devices to allow monitoring of physical behaviour and adherence to MOVE SMART. A blood pressure monitor and body weight scales will be posted to participants for use throughout the study and functional capacity will be measured by video-link. At baseline, week-12 and −24 all participants will complete self-assessment of the extent/impact of psoriasis and wellbeing. Capillary blood will be collected using home-sampling kits. In Workstream-2 acceptability of the intervention will be evaluated and the trial design will be finalised in Workstream-3. The study is registered at www.isrctn.com (ISRCTN 17400289).

Jet reversal in mixed bubbles induced by competing internal and boundary Kelvin impulse

High-pressure bubbles drive strongly directed re-entry jets that govern near-field hydrodynamic loading, cavitation damage, and jet-assisted applications. Jet steering is commonly attributed to external pressure gradients and boundary-induced asymmetry. Heterogeneous bubble interiors are herein shown to provide an additional, internal control route. With an extended potential-flow formulation and multimaterial simulations, the collapse of a mixed-gas bubble (air and byproducts) in an ideal liquid without buoyancy is investigated. A late-stage end-cap compression disparity produces an internal Kelvin-type impulse, Iint. It competes with the wall-induced external impulse, Iext, and can reverse the jet direction at sufficiently large stand-off distance γ. The dimensionless anisotropy parameters ζint and ζext are introduced to quantify the internal pressure-dipole forcing and the boundary contribution, the latter decaying rapidly with γ. This yields a compact scalar relation in which the jet regime is determined by ζtot=ζext+ζint: ζtot≪0 produces wall-jets, ζtot≈0 produces Worthington-like jet pairs (0≤|ζtot|≤0.003 027 for this work), and ζtot≫0 produces reverse-jets. The resulting impulse-based framework extends classical Kelvin-impulse theory to mixed-gas bubbles with internal–external competition and provides a physics-based basis for active jet control via engineered internal enrichment.

Increased type 3 deiodinase reduces hippocampal T3 signaling and is associated with cognitive impairment in a sporadic Alzheimer’s disease animal model

MTF-NET: A mixed traffic flow multi-target detection network based on full-field perception and adaptive optimization

In mixed traffic flow scenarios, multiple types of traffic participants coexist on the same roadway, posing severe challenges for object detection algorithms due to significant disparities in target scales, complex background interference, dense occlusions, and the high heterogeneity of classes. Existing CNN-based detectors are constrained by the fixed receptive fields inherent in convolution operations and are generally plagued by imbalances between positive and negative samples as well as inadequate representations of small objects, further limiting their performance in mixed traffic detection tasks. To address these issues, we propose the MTF-NET detection network, which is endowed with full-field perceptual capabilities. First, a combination of CNN and MetaFormer is employed as the backbone for feature extraction to enhance contextual modeling. Second, to mitigate the inherent dual-dimensional information loss and small-target representation bottlenecks associated with pyramid structures, we introduce a Hierarchical Implicit-Explicit Pyramid structure alongside a Multi-Kernel Dilation Fusion Network designed to counteract the information degradation brought about by pooling operations. Finally, the Dynamic Dual Detection Heads utilize a dual-branch design that facilitates end-to-end deployment while alleviating the limitations imposed by non-maximum suppression (NMS), and a hybrid strategy integrating Exponential Adaptive Loss with Focaler-DIoU is developed to address the imbalance between positive and negative samples across multiple classes. Experimental results demonstrate that MTF-NET achieves a 5.1% improvement in mAP50 on the VisDrone2019 dataset, surpassing current state-of-the-art methods, and further yields enhancements of 4.2% and 13.4% on the UA-DETRAC-G2 and HazyDet datasets, respectively. These findings effectively validate the robustness and generalization capabilities of our network, providing a potent solution for object detection in complex mixed traffic flow scenarios.

Diffraction contrast imaging of hydrogen passivation of silicon using helium microscopy

Hydrogen is a key element in the transition to a sustainable energy future, playing a vital role in clean fuel technologies, energy storage, and semiconductor engineering. Yet despite its significance, hydrogen remains challenging to image directly, due to its low mass and weak interaction with conventional microscopy probes. In this study, we present the first direct spatially resolved image of hydrogen-passivated surfaces across large (mm) lateral length scales, obtained using scanning helium microscopy (SHeM), an emerging and exclusively surface-sensitive imaging technology based on neutral and extremely low-energy helium atom beams. Using HF:NH4F-treated Si(111) surfaces as a model system, we directly observe a strong contrast between hydrogen-passivated and non-passivated surfaces as well as localized heterogeneities within the nominally homogeneous hydrogen layer. These spatial features are further probed using temperature programmed desorption and helium diffraction measurements, confirming surface diffraction from the hydrogen-stabilized surface lattice, rather than topography or absorption, as the origin of the observed contrast. Our work establishes SHeM as a powerful tool for light-element surface imaging, with broad implications for hydrogen-related behaviors in many fields.

Study on the effects and mechanisms of M2 macrophages on PYCR1-promoted biological behavior of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Multiple omics analyses and experiments validation identify PRDX3 as a biomarker of prognosis and antioncogene in kidney clear cell carcinoma

Peroxiredoxin 3 (PRDX3), a key mitochondrial redox enzyme, has been implicated in malignant tumor initiation and development. However, the its biological function and clinical relevance remain unclear. Here, we performed a systematic pan-cancer analysis of PRDX3 across 33 cancers using The Cancer Genome Atlas database, examining its expression patterns, gene alterations and mutations, methylation, subcellular localization, signaling pathways, tumor microenvironment, immune infiltration, and associations with clinical outcomes. We further validated the biological function role of PRDX3 in kidney clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) through reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, Transwell assays, and scratch assays. PRDX3 was differentially expressed in cancers, and its expression appeared to be influenced by copy number variation and methylation status. PRDX3 levels were significantly associated with patient prognosis in multiple tumor types, suggesting context-dependent roles in tumor biology. Functional analyses indicated that PRDX3 may affect tumor progression through programs related to cell-cycle regulation, metabolism, and redox processes. In KIRC models, PRDX3 overexpression suppressed malignant phenotypes and was accompanied by changes in PPAR signaling pathway. Collectively, our results support PRDX3 as potential prognostic biomarker and suggest a tumor-suppressive role in KIRC, although further mechanistic and in vivo validation is warranted.

Hydrogenation-induced gigantic resistance decrease of palladium films deposited by high pressure magnetron sputtering

We demonstrate a pronounced decrease in the electrical resistance of highly disordered palladium (Pd) films deposited under a high working Ar pressure using a compact film coating system. The resulting resistance change ratio of up to 1/335 is predominant among those reported previously. Film characterization suggests two primary mechanisms responsible for this significant resistance reduction: atomic force microscopy observation indicates improved electrical contacts among Pd grains, and X-ray diffraction measurement demonstrates hydrogenation-induced crystallization of Pd. These findings offer a simple scheme to enhance hydrogen sensor performance and can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the hydrogenation process in Pd.

Retraction Note: Enhancing residential energy access with optimized stand-alone hybrid solar-diesel-battery systems in Buea, Cameroon

Can the current radiation dose, in chest tomosynthesis, be reduced with retained image quality? A study in the context of lung cancer screening programs

Objective Digital chest tomosynthesis (DTS) is a low-cost and low- dose imaging technique that has not yet reached general use. It might, however, be well suited to lung cancer screening programs. In lung cancer screening, it is essential to keep radiation dose low, as a large number of healthy individuals have to be examined to detect one case of lung cancer. Lung cancer screening has been proven to lower deaths in lung cancer by approximately 20%, but this limited success comes at high cost. We believe that adding interval examination with DTS to lung cancer screening programs could increase survival and reduce cost, without significantly increasing the radiation dose to the individual. We therefore conducted this study to investigate if the current radiation dose, in chest tomosynthesis, could be reduced with retained image quality. Methods 50 patients with known or suspected lung malignancy were imaged with chest X-ray equipment using the tomosynthesis option. Three DTS examination protocols were applied for each patient. One DTS examination was performed with the dose level as in the vendor-recommended protocol, and two other examinations were performed with low-dose protocols, reducing the exposure dose by 30% and 50%, respectively. Images from all three protocols were processed using the vendor-recommended post-processing settings, including a filtered back projection algorithm. The images generated by the DTS protocols were evaluated by four observers anonymously and in random order. The observers rated the quality of the reconstructed section images according to predefined quality criteria for different thoracic regions. Visual grading characteristics (VGC) were used to analyze the data, and the area under the VGC curve (AUC VGC ) was used as a figure-of-merit. Results The result of VGC analysis showed no reduction in imaging quality for the protocol with a 30% dose reduction compared with the vendor-recommended protocol for any of the classes of criteria, namely demarcation (AUC VGC  = 0.51, p = 0.57), disturbance (AUC VGC  = 0.51, p = 0.59) bone structure (AUC VGC  = 0.50, p = 0.88), and tumor homogeneity (AUC VGC  = 0.47, p = 0.09). For the protocol with a 50% dose reduction, image quality was reduced for the classes of criteria demarcation (AUC VGC  = 0.47, p = 0.03) and disturbance (AUC VGC  = 0.47, p = 0.02) compared with the vendor-recommended protocol, while no quality reduction was found for the classes of bone structure (AUC VGC  = 0.50, p = 0.79) and tumor homogeneity (AUC VGC  = 0.46, p = 0.10). Conclusions This study has not shown any reduction in image quality from reducing the radiation dose by 30%, compared with the vendor-recommended protocol, which might indicate that such a reduction could be used in clinical practice.

Deep ultraviolet photodetector based on high-quality cubic-AlN single-crystal films with nitrogen vacancies

Cubic aluminum nitride (c-AlN) has been regarded as a promising candidate for deep ultraviolet photodetectors. However, its epitaxial growth has been hindered by the intrinsic metastability of this phase. Herein, we demonstrate the direct epitaxial growth of high-quality single-crystalline c-AlN films with (100) orientation on MgO substrates via pulsed laser deposition. C-AlN films with different nitrogen vacancy (NV) concentrations were produced by adjusting the post-growth annealing process. Technology computer aided design simulations show that a high-NV concentration plays a key role in boosting photoresponsivity. Specifically, the unannealed c-AlN films achieved a maximum responsivity (R) of 107 μA·W−1 and a detectivity (D*) of 2.14 × 109 Jones under 254 nm illumination, significantly surpassing their annealed counterparts. This work offers an effective approach for fabricating photoresponse single-crystalline c-AlN films.

Trauma-informed queer pedagogy in vulnerable contexts: a phenomenological inquiry

Detection of rare medical events in electronic health records using machine learning: Current practices and suggestions – A scoping review

Background Routine healthcare data are increasingly stored in electronic health records (EHRs), presenting an exciting opportunity to leverage machine learning (ML) for detecting and predicting medical events. While medical experts are optimistic about expanding its applications, several caveats exist which are often overlooked. Many medical outcomes are categorical (e.g., a diagnosis is present or absent) with categories being considerably unequal in size, which might significantly impact the performance of ML algorithms. Detecting small subgroups in EHR data, so-called anomaly detection, is an emerging approach, yet organized documentation on current practices remains scarce. This scoping review examines medical anomaly detection based on routine healthcare data stored in EHRs and formulated alternative approaches in case suboptimal practices were noticed. Methods PubMed and Web of Science were searched up to September 5, 2024. Peer-reviewed articles and conference papers on ML-based medical anomaly detection in EHR data were included. Fifty-two study characteristics were extracted and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results A total of 117 studies met the inclusion criteria. The cross-study median proportion of the anomalous class was 0.079 (range 0.00045–0.23). Key details, e.g., data preprocessing actions, were often incomplete; 14.5% (n = 17) provided no information on this aspect. Only four studies reported the underlying cause of missingness before deciding how to handle it, and just three considered the clinical implications of false positives and false negatives when evaluating anomaly detection performance. Conclusion We identified a need for greater attention in the current medical anomaly detection literature for reporting details on pre-processing, handling of missing data, and the use of performance metrics. With the increasing number of anomaly detection studies based on routine healthcare data stored in EHRs, more focus is needed on implementation and reporting practices to ensure relevance and reproducibility of future studies in this field.

Demonstration of long-wavelength infrared photodetector based on long minority carrier lifetime InAs/In0.5Ga0.5As0.5Sb0.5 type-II superlattices

This work demonstrates a significant advancement in the minority carrier lifetime of InAs/In0.5Ga0.5As0.5Sb0.5 type-II superlattices (T2SLs) designed for long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) detection. The superlattices were grown using the fractional monolayer alloy epitaxy method on GaSb substrates and subsequently integrated into nBn device architectures to suppress dark current. High crystalline quality and strong photoluminescence efficiency were confirmed. Furthermore, time-resolved microwave photoconductance decay measurements revealed a record-long minority carrier lifetime of 20.31 μs at a photoluminescence peak of 9.4 μm and a temperature of 77 K. This value surpasses those of other common LWIR T2SL materials and reached the Auger-limited lifetime for mercury cadmium telluride. The fabricated 1024 × 6 format nBn photodetectors, incorporating a 2.5 μm-thick absorber, exhibited a low dark-current density of 4.45 × 10−6 A/cm2 at 77 K. A quantum efficiency of 37.7% was achieved at 8 μm. Additionally, the detector demonstrated a noise-equivalent temperature difference below 25 mK up to 95 K, using a 7.7–10 μm bandpass filter and f/2 optics under a 300 K background. These results underscore the strong potential of InAs/In0.5Ga0.5As0.5Sb0.5 superlattices for next-generation LWIR imaging applications.

A novel hybrid model of simplified and external attention coupled with enhanced CNN for medical image segmentation

Limonin induces ferroptosis in cervical squamous cell carcinoma by activating the expression of soluble epoxide hydrolase 2 protein

Natural products are a rich sources for developing anti-cancer drugs with low toxicity and high efficiency. Limonin has anti-cancer activity; however, its effect on cervical squamous cell carcinoma remains unreported. The aim of this study was to explore how Limonin affects ferroptosis in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CESC) and its underlying mechanism. Based on differential gene analysis of the Gene Expression Omnibus database and drug target prediction of the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, combined with molecular docking technology, potential anti-cancer targets of Limonin were identified. In vitro experiments were conducted to create epoxide hydrolase 2 ( EPHX2) knockdown and overexpression cell lines. Relevant phenotypic experiments were conducted to verify how Limonin targeting EPHX2 affects cell proliferation and ferroptosis. Integrated bioinformatic analysis revealed EPHX2 as a key target of Limonin. Functional experiments showed that EPHX2 overexpression inhibited the proliferation of CESC and induced ferroptosis, while Limonin treatment could enhance EPHX2 expression in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, EPHX2 knockdown could reverse the inhibitory effect of Limonin on CESC proliferation and alterations in ferroptosis-related indicators. This study results reveals a new mechanism by which Limonin induces ferroptosis in CESC by activating EPHX2, providing a new strategy for natural compound-based ferroptosis-targeted therapy.