•A new dataset for instance segmentation of coffee leaves from images of part of the coffee tree collected via smartphone under different background and lighting conditions in natural scenes was ...built.•An integrated approach that automatically detect/segment coffee leaves with biotic stresses such as leaf miner, leaf rust, and cercospora leaf spot that affects coffee plantations has been developed.•Deep learning modes have been applied to instance segmentation, semantic segmentation and classification with promising results.
The automated diagnosis of pests and diseases that affect coffee crops is an important issue for coffee farmers. Conventional methods of computer vision and pattern recognition present limitations to tackle such challenging problems. However, in the last few years, there is a growing interest in deep learning, especially in the detection/recognition of biotic stresses from in-field images of plants acquired by smartphones, since they are affected by lighting variations, complex backgrounds, image noise, and so on. In this work, we propose an integrated framework by using different convolutional neural networks (CNN) to automate detection/recognition of lesions from in-field images collected via smartphone containing part of the coffee tree. In the first stage, we use a Mask R-CNN network for instance segmentation; in the second stage the UNet and PSPNet networks for semantic segmentation and finally, in the third stage, a ResNet for classification. For the Mask R-CNN network, we obtained a precision of 73.90% and a recall of 71.90% in the instance segmentation task. For the UNet and PSPNet networks, we obtained a mean intersection over union of 94.25% and 93.54%, respectively. The results are promising and indicate suitability to implement the entire framework in an embedded mobile platform to be used in the real world.
Objective: To introduce a systematic classification of diaphragmatic surgery in patients with ovarian cancer based on disease spread and surgical complexity.
Methods: For all consecutive patients who ...underwent diaphragmatic surgery during Visceral-Peritoneal debulking (VPD) in the period 2009-2017, we extracted: initial surgical finding, extent of liver mobilization and type of procedure. Combining these features, we aimed to classify the surgical procedures necessary to tackle different presentation of diaphragmatic disease. We also report histology, intra- and post-operative specific complication rate based on the classification.
Results: A total of 170 patients were included in this study, 110 (64.7%) had a peritonectomy, while 60 (35.3%) had a full thickness resection with pleurectomy. We identified 3 types of surgical procedures. Type I treated 28 out of 170 patients (16.5%) who only had anterior diaphragm disease, needed no liver mobilization, included peritonectomy and had no morbidity recorded. Type II pertained to 105 out of 170 patients (61.7%) who had anterior and posterior disease, needed partial and sometimes full liver mobilization, had a mix of peritonectomy and full thickness resection, and experienced 10% specific morbidity. Type III included 37 out of 170 patients (21.7%) who needed full mobilization of the liver, always had full thickness resection, and suffered 30% specific morbidity.
Conclusion: Diaphragmatic surgery can be classified in 3 types. The adoption of this classification can facilitate standardization of the surgery, comparison of data and define the expertise required. Finally, this classification can be a benchmark to establish the training required to treat diaphragmatic disease.
We used MUSE adaptive optics data in narrow field mode to study the properties of the ionised gas in MR 2251−178 and PG 1126−041, two nearby (
z
≃ 0.06) bright quasars (QSOs) hosting sub-pc scale ...ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) detected in the X-ray band. We decomposed the optical emission from diffuse gas into a low- and a high-velocity components. The former is characterised by a clean, regular velocity field and a low (∼80 km s
−1
) velocity dispersion. It traces regularly rotating gas in PG 1126−041, while in MR 2251−178 it is possibly associated with tidal debris from a recent merger or flyby. The other component is found to be extended up to a few kpc from the nuclei, and shows a high (∼800 km s
−1
) velocity dispersion and a blue-shifted mean velocity, as is expected from outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN). We estimate mass outflow rates up to a few
M
⊙
yr
−1
and kinetic efficiencies
L
KIN
/
L
BOL
between 1−4 × 10
−4
, in line with those of galaxies hosting AGN of similar luminosities. The momentum rates of these ionised outflows are comparable to those measured for the UFOs at sub-pc scales, which is consistent with a momentum-driven wind propagation. Pure energy-driven winds are excluded unless about 100× additional momentum is locked in massive molecular winds. In comparing the outflow properties of our sources with those of a small sample of well-studied QSOs hosting UFOs from the literature, we find that winds seem to systematically lie either in a momentum-driven or an energy-driven regime, indicating that these two theoretical models bracket the physics of AGN-driven winds very well.
Instead of the conventional 0 and 1 values, bipolar reasoning uses −1, 0, +1 to describe double-sided judgements in which neutral elements are halfway between positive and negative evaluations (e.g., ...“uncertain” lies between “impossible” and “totally sure”). We discuss the state-of-the-art in bipolar logics and recall two medieval forerunners, i.e., William of Ockham and Nicholas of Autrecourt, who embodied a bipolar mode of thought that is eminently modern. Starting from the trivial observation that “once a wheat sheaf is sealed and tied up, the packed down straws display the same orientation”, we work up a new theory of the bipolar nature of networks, suggesting that orthodromic (i.e., feedforward, bottom-up) projections might be functionally coupled with antidromic (i.e., feedback, top-down) projections via the mathematical apparatus of presheaves/globular sets. When an entrained oscillation such as a neuronal spike propagates from A to B, changes in B might lead to changes in A, providing unexpected antidromic effects. Our account points towards the methodological feasibility of novel neural networks in which message feedback is guaranteed by backpropagation mechanisms endowed in the same feedforward circuits. Bottom-up/top-down transmission at various coarse-grained network levels provides fresh insights in far-flung scientific fields such as object persistence, memory reinforcement, visual recognition, Bayesian inferential circuits and multidimensional activity of the brain. Implying that axonal stimulation by external sources might backpropagate and modify neuronal electric oscillations, our theory also suggests testable previsions concerning the optimal location of transcranial magnetic stimulation's coils in patients affected by drug-resistant epilepsy.
Many living beings use exogenous and/or endogenous gases to attain evolutionary benefits. We make a comprehensive assessment of one of the major gaseous reservoirs in the human body, i.e., the bowel, ...providing extensive data that may serve as reference for future studies. We assess the intestinal gases in healthy humans, including their volume, composition, source and local distribution in proximal as well as distal gut. We analyse each one of the most abundant intestinal gases including nitrogen, oxygen, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and cyanide. For every gas, we describe diffusive patterns, active trans-barrier transport dynamics, chemical properties, intra-/extra-intestinal metabolic effects mediated by intracellular, extracellular, paracrine and distant actions. Further, we highlight the local and systemic roles of gasotransmitters, i.e., signalling gaseous molecules that can freely diffuse through the intestinal cellular membranes. Yet, we provide testable hypotheses concerning the still unknown effects of some intestinal gases on the myenteric and submucosal neurons.
•Many living beings make use the mechanical and/or chemical properties of gases.•We focus on an eminent gaseous reservoir in the human body, i.e., the healthy intestine.•We analyse volume, composition, local distribution and source of each intestinal gas.•We describe the intra-/extra-intestinal physiological roles of intestinal exogenous and endogenous gases.•We highlight the local and systemic roles of gasotransmitters.
The multidimensional brain Tozzi, Arturo
Physics of life reviews,
December 2019, 2019-Dec, 2019-12-00, 20191201, Volume:
31
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Brain activity takes place in three spatial-plus time dimensions. This rather obvious claim has been recently questioned by papers that, taking into account the big data outburst and novel available ...computational tools, are starting to unveil a more intricate state of affairs. Indeed, various brain activities and their correlated mental functions can be assessed in terms of trajectories embedded in phase spaces of dimensions higher than the canonical ones. In this review, I show how further dimensions may not just represent a convenient methodological tool that allows a better mathematical treatment of otherwise elusive cortical activities, but may also reflect genuine functional or anatomical relationships among real nervous functions. I then describe how to extract hidden multidimensional information from real or artificial neurodata series, and make clear how our mind dilutes, rather than concentrates as currently believed, inputs coming from the environment. Finally, I argue that the principle “the higher the dimension, the greater the information” may explain the occurrence of mental activities and elucidate the mechanisms of human diseases associated with dimensionality reduction.
•Big data and novel computational tools have led to a growing interest for multidimensional approaches to brain activity.•Assessing brain connectome's dynamics in higher dimensions allows to achieve more information about elusive mental activities.•Recent data point towards the real presence in our brain of hidden dimensions where nervous activity might take place.
A delicate balance between dissipative and nonlinear forces allows traveling waves termed solitons to preserve their shape and energy for long distances without steepening and flattening out. ...Solitons are so widespread that they can generate both destructive waves on oceans’ surfaces and noise-free message propagation in silica optic fibers. They are naturally observed or artificially produced in countless physical systems at very different coarse-grained scales, from solar winds to Bose–Einstein condensates. We hypothesize that some of the electric oscillations detectable by scalp electroencephalography (EEG) could be assessed in terms of solitons. A nervous spike must fulfill strict mathematical and physical requirements to be termed a soliton. They include the proper physical parameters like wave height, horizontal distance and unchanging shape; the appropriate nonlinear wave equations’ solutions and the correct superposition between sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal waves. After a thorough analytical comparison with the EEG traces available in the literature, we argue that solitons bear striking similarities with the electric activity recorded from medical conditions like epilepsies and encephalopathies. Emerging from the noisy background of the normal electric activity, high-amplitude, low-frequency EEG soliton-like pathological waves with relatively uniform morphology and duration can be observed, characterized by repeated, stereotyped patterns propagating on the hemispheric surface of the brain over relatively large distances. Apart from the implications for the study of cognitive activities in the healthy brain, the theoretical possibility to treat pathological brain oscillations in terms of solitons has powerful operational implications, suggesting new therapeutical options to counteract their detrimental effects.
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