Enhancing mechanical and thermal properties of bio-composites: Synergistic integration of ZnO nanofillers and nanocrystalline cellulose into durian seed starch matrix.

The increasing demand for sustainable materials necessitates advancements in bio-composites with enhanced properties. This study addresses the limitations of Durio zibethinus Murr (DZM) seed starch bio-composites, particularly their poor mechanical strength and thermal stability. Using solution casting, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofillers and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) were incorporated into the starch matrix.

Extending user control for image stylization using hierarchical style transfer networks.

The field of neural style transfer refers to the re-rendering of content image while fusing the features of a style image. The recent studies either focus on multiple style transfer or arbitrary style transfer while using perceptual and fixpoint content losses in their respective network architectures. The aforementioned losses provide notable stylization results but lack the liberty of style control to the user.

Clinical significance of intra-thoracic and intra-abdominal sentinel lymph nodes detected on lymphoscintigraphy in truncal melanoma patients.

Background: Although most melanomas drain to the more common major lymph node basins (axilla, groin, neck), rarely they drain to deep SLN locations such as intra-abdominal and intra-thoracic (including intercostal and internal mammary) sites, which pose a higher surgical risk and complexity for procurement. Our study is aimed at determining the rate of positivity and likelihood of recurrence in these nodal sites to guide management decisions for patients with truncal melanomas which drain to these 'deep' SLN locations.

Methods: Retrospective data collected between May 2008 and May 2022 including all patients with truncal melanomas who underwent lymphoscintigraphy resulting in the identification of deep SLNs in intra-abdominal and intra-thoracic sites were included.