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Artificial intelligence (AI) models in real-world implementation are scarce. Our study aimed to develop a CT angiography (CTA)-based AI model for intracranial aneurysm detection, assess how it helps clinicians improve diagnostic performance, and validate its application in real-world clinical implementation.

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate 16-slice CT portography technique and appearances of cavernous transformation of portal vein (CTPV) and the correlation with surgical procedure of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Material and methods: Twenty-four patients with CTPV underwent triphase scanning using a 16-slice CT scanner. Twenty-one of the 24 patients were OLT candidates. After plain scan, enhanced CT scan was performed. The parameters were as follows: thickness of 2.5 mm, reconstruction interval of 1.3 mm, flow rate of 3–4 mL/s, contrast agent of 100 mL, delayed time of 20, 50, and 70 s, respectively. Imaging reformation, including MIP, VR, and SSD, were performed by one radiologist. Two radiologists assessed the thrombosis location and degree, collateral vessels, and superior mesenteric vein (SMV) or splenic vein (SV). The details of collateral vessels, thrombosis location were graded and recorded. One score was partial thrombosis of the main PV; 2 score, complete thrombosis of the main PV; 3 score, complete thrombosis of the main PV plus thrombosis of proximal SV or SMV, and the normal diameter of remaining veins; 4 score, complete thrombosis of the main PV plus thrombosis of more than a half of SV or SMV, and thin diameter of remaining veins; 5 score, complete nonvisualization of the main PV, one or both of SV and SMV, and thin diameter of remaining veins. Thirteen patients thereafter underwent OLT. Operation record was reviewed case by case. Results: All cases obtained MIP images, 16 patients got VR images, and five cases had SSD images. These images can display thrombosis location, degree, and collateral vessels. All patients had hepatopetal collateral vessels. Eleven of the 21 OLT candidates had 1 score, two patients 2 score, four patients 3 score, one patient 4 score, and three patients had 5 score. Fourteen of the 21 candidates were performed end-to-end anastomosis between the donor’s and recipient’s portal veins, in which 11 patients had 1 score, two patients had 2 score, and two patients 3 score. Both patients with 3 score had normal SV; end-to-end anastomoses were performed between the donor portal vein and recipient SV. Two patients are waiting for donors. OLT was canceled or changed in the six patients with 4 score or 5 score. Correlation coefficient between the score of portal vein and surgical decision was 0.813 (P-value less than 0.001, nonparametric correlation). Conclusions: Using 16-slice CT portography can noninvasively diagnose CTPV. The appearances of CTPV on the 16-slice CT portography can provide helpful information for surgeons to make an accurate preoperative decision. MIP is the optimal technique for displaying CTPV.

The Mo–Fe–Ti–Ni–Cu medium-entropy alloy (MEA) coating was prepared based on a GMAW – Robotic Integrated Cladding System with the MoFe3TiNiCu cable-type welding wire (CWW) containing 1-Mo, 3-Fe, 1-Ti, 1-Ni and 1-Cu pure metallic wires. The produced MEA coating is composed of FCC major phase and BCC minor phase. The hardness of the produced MEA coating is between 400 HV and 450 HV, while the substrate is about 190 HV. The produced MEA coating can greatly improve the wear resistance of the substrate, and its friction coefficient is 0.4, which is far lower than that of the substrate (0.65).

The Mo–Fe–Ti–Ni–Cu medium-entropy alloy (MEA) coating was prepared based on a GMAW – Robotic Integrated Cladding System with the MoFe3TiNiCu cable-type welding wire (CWW) containing 1-Mo, 3-Fe, 1-Ti, 1-Ni and 1-Cu pure metallic wires. The produced MEA coating is composed of FCC major phase and BCC minor phase. The hardness of the produced MEA coating is between 400 HV and 450 HV, while the substrate is about 190 HV. The produced MEA coating can greatly improve the wear resistance of the substrate, and its friction coefficient is 0.4, which is far lower than that of the substrate (0.65).

Invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) measured by a pressure wire is a reference standard for evaluating functional stenosis in coronary artery disease. Coronary computed tomography angiography–derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) uses advanced computational analysis methods to noninvasively obtain FFR results from a single conventional coronary computed tomography angiography data to evaluate the hemodynamic significance of coronary artery disease. More and more evidence has found good correlation between the results of noninvasive CT-FFR and invasive FFR. CT-FFR has proven its potential in optimizing patient management, improving risk stratification and prognosis, and reducing total health care costs. However, there is still a lack of standardized interpretation of CT-FFR technology in real-world clinical settings. This expert consensus introduces the principle, workflow, and interpretation of CT-FFR; summarizes the state-of-the-art application of CT-FFR; and provides suggestions and recommendations for the application of CT-FFR with the aim of promoting the standardized application of CT-FFR in clinical practice.

In aluminum alloys, the most often utilized cast Al–Si alloy system, the microstructure often needs to be improved by modification and inoculation treatment. This study comprehensively examines the impact of nanocrystals produced by Fe–B–Si amorphous alloys on the solidification behavior and microstructure of hypoeutectic Al–Si7alloy and hypereutectic Al–Si17alloy. The nucleation temperature of α-Al is increased and the nucleation of α-Al is easier as well as crystallization platform becomes shorter. For primary Si, the nucleation temperature is decreased and the nucleation is inhibited. The eutectic transformation is promoted and the reaction time is shortened. For α-Al, in situ nano-Fe2B can act as its heterogeneous nucleation sites and promote its nucleation. Meanwhile, the growth of α-Al dendrites is constrained by nearby grains and nanocrystals that do not participate in nucleation, therefore refining the dendrites. Furthermore, nano-Fe2B promotes the eutectic transformation and refines the eutectic microstructure. At the same time, the microstructure of the eutectic groups is refined and the distribution is more dispersed due to the confinement of finer adjacent grains and the hindrance of nanocrystals that do not participate in nucleation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad term that generally refers to the artificial creation of human-like intelligence that can learn, perceive and plan. To date, AI techniques in medical domains have sparked tremendous innovations. With the continuous development of large datasets and computer science, AI has become a promising avenue in medicine and a hotspot of current research. As there are a large number of patients with the cardiovascular disease worldwide, the demand for medical imaging examinations continues to increase, and also, imaging data are constantly being generated. Nowadays, the application of AI in cardiovascular medicine has been shown to improve patient care and outcomes in clinical practice. In this review, we briefly introduce some basic AI-related terminology, its applications in coronary artery diseases (CAD) imaging, current limitations, and future perspectives.

Exertional heatstroke (EHS) is increasingly common in young trained soldiers. However, the prognosis marker in EHS patients remains unclear. To evaluate cardiac MRI feature tracking (CMR-FT) derived left ventricle (LV) strain as a biomarker for return to training (RTT) in trained soldiers with EHS in a prospective CMR cohort.

Background: Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an independent risk factor of major adverse cardiovascular events; however, the impact of CAC on in-hospital death and adverse clinical outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear. Objective: To explore the association between CAC and in-hospital mortality and adverse events in patients with COVID-19. Methods: This multicenter retrospective cohort study enrolled 2067 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients with definitive clinical outcomes (death or discharge) admitted from 22 tertiary hospitals in China between January 3, 2020 and April 2, 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory results, chest CT findings, and CAC on admission were collected. The primary outcome was in-hospital death and the secondary outcome was composed of in-hospital death, admission to intensive care unit (ICU), and requiring mechanical ventilation. Multivariable Cox regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier plots were used to explore the association between CAC and in-hospital death and adverse clinical outcomes. Results: The mean age was 50 years (SD,16) and 1097 (53.1%) were male. A total of 177 patients showed high CAC level, and compared with patients with low CAC, these patients were older (mean age: 49 vs. 69 years, P< 0.001) and more likely to be male (52.0% vs. 65.0%, P= 0.001). Comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) ([33.3%, 59/177] vs. [4.7%, 89/1890], P< 0.001), presented more often among patients with high CAC, compared with patients with low CAC. As for laboratory results, patients with high CAC had higher rates of increased D-dimer, LDH, as well as CK-MB (all P< 0.05). The mean CT severity score in high CAC group was also higher than low CAC group (12.6 vs. 11.1, P= 0.005). In multivariable Cox regression model, patients with high CAC were at a higher risk of in-hospital death (hazard ratio [HR], 1.731; 95% CI 1.010–2.971, P= 0.046) and adverse clinical outcomes (HR, 1.611; 95% CL 1.087–2.387, P= 0.018). Conclusion: High CAC is a risk factor associated with in-hospital death and adverse clinical outcomes in patients with confirmed COVID-19, which highlights the importance of calcium load testing for hospitalized COVID-19 patients and calls for attention to patients with high CAC.

Intracranial aneurysms (IAs) are increasingly found in clinical practice due to widely used advanced imaging examinations. However, the mechanism of development, growth, rupture, and recurrence of IAs remains unknown. Rupture of IAs results in subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Assessment of intra-aneurysmal hemodynamics using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) holds great promise in the management of IAs. Hemodynamic factors have a critical role in the formation, progression, and recurrence of aneurysms, thus having great potential to guide the decision-making in clinical practice. This review describes current evidence of CFD-based hemodynamics in assessing the formation, growth, rupture, and recurrence of aneurysms. The challenges and future directions of the clinical implementations of CFD are briefly discussed.

The cooling control of the melt during the casting process is of great significance. A comprehensive closed-loop cooling control of castings by adopting a skeletal sand mold design was proposed. The skeletal sand mold consisting of an adaptive shell, functional cavities and a support was designed and created based on the finite difference meshes of a casting. It was applied to a round wall test casting. Two kinds of skeletal sand molds, one with lattice support and the other with enforcing ribs for this casting were designed and printed out by the 3D printing (3DP) method. Aluminum alloy A356 was cast by using these two sand molds. The first mold was cooled by natural convection, the other one by water spray cooling. Two sound castings were obtained. The sand mold temperature, cooling curves, microstructures, mechanical properties, residual stress and deformation were measured, compared and discussed. Water spray cooling hastened the cooling rate by 62%, increased the content of Mg and Cu in the a-Al matrix, improved the mechanical properties, and altered the surface residual stress state.

Radiologists’ understanding of clinical and chest CT features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) will help detect the infection early and assess the disease course.

The ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly throughout China and other countries, and has been characterized as a pandemic. With the strict prevention and control measures implemented by the Chinese government, the spread of the epidemic in China has come under preliminary control by the end of February, 2020, whereas the situation of some countries outside China is not optimistic and raises great public concern. In fighting COVID-19, radiologic examinations played a critical role in the early diagnosis of COVID-19, and could also help assess disease course and severity. There is an urgent need to share useful experience and effective measures internationally. This article outlines the collaborative actions and efforts by the Chinese radiology field and the situation of front-line health care workers in radiology departments to present the world with experiences and examples of Chinese radiology during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Chinese Imaging Genetics (CHIMGEN) study establishes the largest Chinese neuroimaging genetics cohort and aims to identify genetic and environmental factors and their interactions that are associated with neuroimaging and behavioral phenotypes. This study prospectively collected genomic, neuroimaging, environmental, and behavioral data from more than 7000 healthy Chinese Han participants aged 18–30 years. As a pioneer of large-sample neuroimaging genetics cohorts of non-Caucasian populations, this cohort can provide new insights into ethnic differences in genetic-neuroimaging associations by being compared with Caucasian cohorts. In addition to micro-environmental measurements, this study also collects hundreds of quantitative macro-environmental measurements from remote sensing and national survey databases based on the locations of each participant from birth to present, which will facilitate discoveries of new environmental factors associated with neuroimaging phenotypes. With lifespan environmental measurements, this study can also provide insights on the macro-environmental exposures that affect the human brain as well as their timing and mechanisms of action.

Background:Kidney fibrosis is a key driver of progression of kidney diseases. Renal biopsies remain the gold-standard approach to specifically diagnose and stage renal fibrosis at present. However, there is a lack of multi-dimensional pictures showing renal function, histology, and imaging of the fibrotic kidney. Summary:Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategies have been rapidly evolving during the past couple of decades, especially driven by advances in technology. Recently, several pioneer and remarkable studies demonstrated that advanced functional MRI (fMRI) tools could be useful for the evaluation of kidney fibrosis and progression, which provides more opportunities to benefit from the significant value of fMRI tools for clinical implementation. Key Messages:fMRI will be a novel approach to evaluate interstitial fibrosis and prognosis in kidney disease.

The diagnostic performance of coronary computed tomography angiography-derived fractional flow reserve (CT-FFR) in detecting ischemia in myocardial bridging (MB) has not been investigated to date.

Cerebral CT angiography had high diagnostic accuracy for detection of small cerebral aneurysms, even for aneurysms with a diameter smaller than 3 mm.

In this study, Al2014 matrix composites reinforced with nano-SiC particles were successfully fabricated by semi-solid stirring combined with hot extrusion. The obtained composites exhibited refined α-Al grains, reasonable nano-SiC particles distribution, good interface bonding, and high dislocation density. The addition of 0.5 vol.% nano-sized SiC particles significantly improved the tensile strengths of the Al2014 alloy without sacrificing the ductility. Compared with the Al2014 alloy, the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture strain of 0.5 vol.% nano-SiCp/Al2014 composites increased from 242 MPa, 460 MPa, and 17.1% to 306 MPa, 532 MPa, and 17.7%, respectively.

This paper studied the effect of extrusion on the microstructures and tensile properties of 4 vol.% 5 μm SiCp/Al2014 composites fabricated by stir casting. It has been found that extrusion could refine the α-Al grains, increase the distributed homogeneity of SiC particles, decrease the porosity of the composites, and improve the interfacial bonding strength. The tensile properties, especially the ductility, of the fine SiCp/Al2014 composites were significantly improved by extrusion. Compared with the as-cast 4 vol.% 5 μm SiCp/Al2014 composites, the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and fracture strain of the extruded composites increased from 242 MPa, 367 MPa, and 3.8% to 304 MPa, 530 MPa, and 11.2%, which were increased by 25.6%, 44.4%, and 195%, respectively.

Thrombectomy is a safe and technically feasible therapy option for isolated distal anterior cerebral artery occlusions resulting in similar clinical and functional outcomes compared with medical treatment with or without intravenous thrombolysis.

In this work, we design mesoporous silica-coated Prussian blue nanocubes with PEGyltation to construct multifunctional PB@mSiO2–PEG nanocubes. The PB@mSiO2–PEG nanocubes have good biocompatibility, excellent photothermal transformation capacity, in vivo magnetic resonance and photoacoustic imaging ability. After loading antitumor drug doxorubicin (DOX) in the PB@mSiO2–PEG nanocubes, the constructured PB@mSiO2–PEG/DOX nanoplatforms show an excellent pH-responsive drug release character within 48 h, namely, an ultralow cumulative drug release amount of 3.1% at pH 7.4 and a high release amount of 46.6% at pH 5.0. Upon near-infrared laser irradiation, the PB@mSiO2–PEG/DOX nanoplatforms show an enhanced synergistic photothermal and chemical therapeutic efficacy for breast cancer than solo photothermal therapy or chemotherapy.

The results of this study indicate that analysis of functional connectivity can allow detection of the changes in default mode network regions of the brain with higher sensitivity than that with analysis of structural connectivity 1 month after renal transplantation in patients with end-stage renal disease.

Patients with end-stage renal disease who were undergoing peritoneal dialysis showed more severe abnormalities in spontaneous resting-state brain activity than did those who were not undergoing dialysis, and those alterations in brain activity correlated with the degree of neuropsychologic impairment and clinical markers.

Based on the water quality index interaction of WASP model and the finite volume method, two-dimensional coupling model of water quantity and water quality was established. Then a random function module was added into the model having Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) function. Using GLUE method analyzes the uncertainty and sensitivity of the established model. The results show that organic sedimentation rate VS3 is the most sensitive to total nitrogen changes, and its sensitive value range is 0.03-0.07m/d, while the influence of other parameters isnt obvious. By using the combinations of obtained sensitive parameters, the total nitrogen variation of Taihu Lake is simulated. The results are all within the 95% confidence interval, which explains that the model is reasonable.

In this paper, a new generation method for diamond turning non-axisymmetry aspheric mirrors is introduced. A rotary arm that carried a diamond tool combined with fast tool servo was used to replace the straight guides employed by most diamond turning machines. The micro linear feed of the fast tool servo was real-time calculated with the use of high resolution angular feedback on the work spindle and the swing tool. Synchronized motion of the fast tool servo according to rotating angles of the workpiece and the diamond tool produced ultra-precision non-axisymmetry aspheric surfaces. The corresponding mathematical models of NC program are presented.

Background: Previous studies have found abnormal structural and functional brain alterations in breast cancer survivors undergoing chemotherapy. However, the network-level brain changes following chemotherapy remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes of large-scale within- and between-network functional connectivity in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer patients. Methods: Seventeen breast cancer patients were evaluated with resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), neuropsychological tests and blood examination before postoperative chemotherapy (t0), one week after completing chemotherapy (t1) and six months after completing chemotherapy (t2). Nineteen age- and education level-matched healthy controls (HC) were also recruited. Independent components analysis (ICA) was performed to assess network component using rs-fMRI data. The functional network changes were then correlated with cognitive assessment scores and blood biochemical indexes. Results: One-way repeated measures ANOVA revealed significantly changed within-network functional connectivity in the anterior and posterior default mode network (ADMN and PDMN), left and right frontoparietal network (LFPN and RFPN), visual network and self-referential network. Post-hoc test showed that decreased within-network functional connectivity in ADMN, PDMN, LFPN, RFPN, SRN and central network one week after chemotherapy and increased six months after chemotherapy (all P< 0.05). As for the between-network functional connectivity, the PDMN- sensorimotor network connectivity showed the same tendency. Most of these within- and between-network functional connectivity changes were negatively associated with blood biochemical indexes and cognitive assessment scores (all P< 0.05). Conclusions: These results indicated that chemotherapy may induce widespread abnormalities in resting state networks, which may serve as a potential biomarker of chemotherapy related cognitive impairment, providing insights for further functional recovery treatment.

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