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Background and Objective : An anatomical landmark is biologically meaningful point in medical images and often used for medical image registration. The purpose of this study is to automatically locate anatomical landmarks from 3D medical images. Methods : A two-step automatic location scheme of anatomical landmarks in 3D medical image was designed in this study. In the first step, the full convolutional neural network was used for slice detection from a 3D medical image. In the second step, the scale attention hourglass network was used for landmark location in the detected slice and could overcome the difficulty of similar anatomical structures and different image parameters. This method was implemented and tested on four stable anatomical landmarks in 3D head MRI. Results : A total of 500 and 300 3D head volumes were used for training and testing, respectively. Results showed that the slice detection accuracy reached 85.7% and that the maximum location error was less than one slice. The average accuracy of the four anatomical landmarks in the detected slice reached 87.2%, and the spatial distance was 2.4 ± 2.4, which obtained better performance compared with hourglass network and feature pyramid networks. Conclusions : This method can be useful for locating anatomical landmarks in 3D head MRI and provides technical support for medical image registration and big data analysis.

Increasing evidence indicates the dysregulations and pivotal roles of lncRNAs in the development and progression of various cancers, including pancreatic cancer. Enhanced glycolytic flux and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) have been considered as important factors in driving the malignance of pancreatic cancer. Here, we sought to evaluate the biological role and involved mechanism of lncRNA CASC9 (CASC9) in pancreatic cancer. Our present study showed that CASC9 was upregulated in various pancreatic cancer cell lines. Loss- and gain-of function of CASC9 demonstrated its critical roles in promoting the glycolysis and EMT phenotypes of pancreatic cancer. Moreover, knockdown of CASC9 inhibited the tumorigenicity and metastasis in vivo. Additionally, our findings showed that hypoxia induced the expression of CASC9 and enhanced the binding of HIF-1α to its promoter. We also demonstrated that the positive feedback loop of CASC9 and the AKT/HIF-1α signaling cascade partially mediated this biological process. Altogether, our results suggest that CASC9 promotes the glycolysis and EMT of pancreatic cancer by a positive feedback loop with AKT/HIF-1α signaling, which is synergistically enhanced by the tumor hypoxic niche. Our study will provide potential therapeutic targets for treating pancreatic cancer.

This study takes a repertoire-oriented approach to examining how social and traditional media usage affect political engagement in China. Building on previous studies and giving them a new direction, we examine how various social media platforms and traditional media outlets are combined in cross-media repertoires of young Chinese adults. We do this with the help of survey data collected in mainland China. Using the Step-3 approach of latent class analysis, we then consider how these repertoires can be explained by various individual and contextual factors and what impact the repertoires themselves have on various forms of political involvement. The study identifies 6 distinctive media repertoires: digitally focused, communication oriented, minimal users, moderate omnivores, voracious omnivores, and print interested. Repertoires are mainly correlated with age, education, and perceived media credibility. In China, young adults with the most omnivorous and print-oriented media repertoires display the highest levels of political trust, political interest, and online political engagement. The study also discusses the implications of these results.

Additional file 1: Table S1. The related information of herbicides used in the study. Table S2. ANOVA table for two-factor split plot designs.

The application of organic fertilizer could be accompanied by potential hazards to soil and humans caused by trace metals. A wide survey of organic fertilizers was carried out in northern China. A total of 117 organic fertilizer samples were collected to analyze the concentrations of seven trace metals. Simulation models were used to estimate the trace metal accumulation risk in soil and non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to the human body. The concentrations of trace metals varied widely (Cr: 2.74&ndash, 151.15, Ni: 2.94&ndash, 49.35, Cu: 0.76&ndash, 378.32, Zn: 0.50&ndash, 1748.01, As: 1.54&ndash, 23.96, Cd: 2.74&ndash, and Pb: 1.60&ndash, 151.09 mg&middot, kg&minus, 1). Chinese organic fertilizer standard limits were exceeded by0.85% for Cr, 5.98% for As, 1.71% for Cd, and 4.27% for Pb. Monte Carlo simulations showed that repeated application of organic fertilizer likely significantly increased the concentrations of Zn, Cd, and As in soil compared with the soil background levels according to the Soil Environmental Quality Standards of China. As and Cr pose high risks to human health, especially as carcinogenic risk factors with a skin exposure pathway. Reducing the content of Cr, Cu, Zn, As, and Cd in organic fertilizer would be of great significance for minimizing the damage caused by trace metals.

An approach is proposed to determine the phase-shifting value in phase-shifting digital holography.By employing a random phase plate behind the object,we successfully made the phase distribution of the object on the holography plane a spatially approximation random distribution.Then an algorithm utilizing this character to extract phase-shifting value is proposed.Computer simulations indicate that the extracted phase-shifting value is very close to the predetermined,and the relatively error is less than 0.1%.At the same time,by comparing the calculation results with and without the random phase plate,we find that the phase distribution of an object has some correlation after diffraction.

The quality of reconstruction in phase-shifting digital holography was determined by the accuracy of phase shift.An approach to obtain accurate phase shift in two-step digital holography was proposed.This approach employed an ordinary open-loop controlled piezoelectric actuator,and a serial of phase shift holograms corrisponding to different phase shift angles would be obtained by means of changing the volgate exerted on the piezoelectric actuator continuously.Then the holograms could be used to reconstruct the object intensity on the CCD plane.The object intensity on the CCD plane that already recorded by CCD would be used as a criterion to evalutae the quality of the reconstuction.The correlation coefficients between the criterion and the same intensity reconstructed with different phase shift holograms were obtained.The correlation coefficient reached its maximum when the phase shift hologram is with the accurate phase shift angle.Simulation was carried out and thereafter the approach was employed in experiment.The quality of the reconstructed field by using the accurate value and the nominal value were compared.The feasibility of this method has been verified by both computer simulations and experiments.

A novel interference-based multiple-image encryption method with high encryption capacity was proposed by position and wavelength multiplexing.For encryption,the original images to be encrypted were divided into two groups,and each group of target images was analytically hidden into two phase only masks by position multiplexing.Subsequently the obtained four phase only masks were further merged into two diffractive phase elements by wavelength multiplexing.The encryption process did not need iterative algorithm and should be implemented digitally,while the decryption process could be performed both digitally and optically.The encryption capacity of the system was evaluated with correlation coefficient,and it was shown that the capacity was greatly improved due to the introduction of both position and wavelength multiplexing.In addition,the robustness of the proposal against noise and occlusion was also investigated,and the results indicated that the proposal is of high robust against noise attack but a little vulnerable to occlusion attack.