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The AutoIce challenge, organized by multiple national and international agencies, seeks to advance the development of near-real-time sea ice products with improved spatial resolution, broader spatial and temporal coverage, and enhanced consistency. In this paper, we present a detailed description of our solutions and experimental results for the challenge. We have implemented an automated sea ice mapping pipeline based on a multi-task U-Net architecture, capable of predicting sea ice concentration (SIC), stage of development (SOD), and floe size (FLOE) using Sentinel-1 SAR data. For model training and evaluation, we utilize the AI4Arctic dataset, which includes SAR imagery, corresponding passive microwave and auxiliary data, and ice chart-derived label maps. Among the submissions from over 30 teams worldwide, our team achieved the highest combined score of 86.3 %, as well as the highest scores on SIC (92.0 %) and SOD (88.6 %). Additionally, our result analysis showcases the effectiveness of various techniques, such as input SAR variable downscaling, spatial-temporal encoding, input feature selection, and loss function selection, in significantly improving the accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of deep learning-based sea ice mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: Desmopressin is a synthetic analogue of the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin. It has recently been demonstrated to inhibit tumor progression and metastasis in breast cancer models. Docetaxel is a chemotherapy agent for castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). In this study, the ability of CRPC cells to grow and develop in vivo tumors in an animal model was evaluated, in order to investigate the anti-tumor effect of desmopressin in combination with docetaxel., Materials and Methods: The CRPC cell line PC3 was used for orthotopic inoculation in male athymic nude mice. The mice were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment groups: Control, docetaxel, desmopressin or combination therapy. Following the last treatment, tumors were excised and measured. Blood samples were processed for CTC analysis., Results: Docetaxel treatment resulted in a significant reduction in tumor volume compared to control. The combination therapy resulted in even more significant reduction (31.2%) in tumor volume. There was a complete absence of CTCs in the combination group., Conclusion: Our pilot study demonstrated an enhanced efficacy of docetaxel-based therapy in combination with desmopressin., (Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)