A segmentation model to detect cevical lesions based on machine learning of colposcopic images.

Background: Semantic segmentation is crucial in medical image diagnosis. Traditional deep convolutional neural networks excel in image classification and object detection but fall short in segmentation tasks. Enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of detecting high-level cervical lesions and invasive cancer poses a primary challenge in segmentation model development. Methods: Between 2018 and 2022, we retrospectively studied a total of 777 patients, comprising 339 patients with high-level cervical lesions and 313 patients with microinvasive or invasive cervical cancer. Overall, 1554 colposcopic images were put into the DeepLabv3+ model for learning. Accuracy, Precision, Specificity, and mIoU were employed to evaluate the performance of the model in the prediction of cervical high-level lesions and cancer. Results: Experiments showed that our segmentation model had better diagnosis efficiency than colposcopic experts and other artificial intelligence models, and reached Accuracy of 93.29 %, Precision of 87.2 %, Specificity of 90.1 %, and mIoU of 80.27 %, respectively. Conclution: The DeepLabv3+ model had good performance in the segmentation of cervical lesions in colposcopic post-acetic-acid images and can better assist colposcopists in improving the diagnosis.

Restoring Genetic Resource through In Vitro Culturing Testicular Cells from the Cryo-Preserved Tissue of the American Shad (Alosa sapidissima).

Germ cells, as opposed to somatic cells, can transmit heredity information between generations. Cryopreservation and in vitro culture of germ cells are key techniques for genetic resource preservation and cellular engineering breeding. In this study, two types of cryopreserved samples, namely testis pieces and testicular cells of American shad, were comparatively analyzed for cell viability. The results showed that the cell viability of the cryopreserved testis pieces was much higher than that of the cryopreserved testicular cells. The viability of cells from the cryopreserved testis pieces ranged from 65.2 ± 2.2 (%) to 93.8 ± 0.6 (%), whereas the viability of the dissociated cells after cryopreservation was 38.5 ± 0.8 (%) to 87.1 ± 2.6 (%). Intriguingly, the testicular cells from the post-thaw testicular tissue could be cultured in vitro. Likewise, most of the cultured cells exhibited germ cell properties and highly expressed Vasa and PCNA protein. This study is the first attempt to effectively preserve and culture the male germ cells through freezing tissues in the American shad. The findings of this study would benefit further investigations on genetic resource preservation and other manipulations of germ cells in a commercially and ecologically important fish species.