Erratum: Functionalized MoS Nanosheets as Multi-Gene Delivery Vehicles for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy: Erratum.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7150/ntno.27308.

Generalizability of Deep Neural Networks for Vertical Cup-to-Disc Ratio Estimation in Ultra-Widefield and Smartphone-Based Fundus Images.

Purpose: To develop and validate a deep learning system (DLS) for estimation of vertical cup-to-disc ratio (vCDR) in ultra-widefield (UWF) and smartphone-based fundus images.

Methods: A DLS consisting of two sequential convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to delineate optic disc (OD) and optic cup (OC) boundaries was developed using 800 standard fundus images from the public REFUGE data set. The CNNs were tested on 400 test images from the REFUGE data set and 296 UWF and 300 smartphone-based images from a teleophthalmology clinic.

Coarse-to-fine visual representation learning for medical images via class activation maps.

The value of coarsely labeled datasets in learning transferable representations for medical images is investigated in this work. Compared to fine labels which require meticulous effort to annotate, coarse labels can be acquired at a significantly lower cost and can provide useful training signals for data-hungry deep neural networks. We consider coarse labels in the form of binary labels differentiating a normal (healthy) image from an abnormal (diseased) image and propose CAMContrast, a two-stage representation learning framework for medical images.

Improving single pixel imaging performance in high noise condition by under-sampling.

Single-pixel imaging could be a superior solution for imaging applications where the detector array is very expensive or not even available. Sampling order, sampling ratio, noise and type of transforms affect the quality of the reconstructed image. Here, we compare the performance of single pixel imaging (SPI) with Hadamard transform (HT) and discrete cosine transform (DCT) in the presence of noise.

Functionalized MoS Nanosheets as Multi-Gene Delivery Vehicles for Pancreatic Cancer Therapy.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are categorized as novel two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with unique physical and chemical properties, bearing varied applications in medical and materials sciences. However, only a few works report the application of TMDCs for gene therapy in cancer treatment. Here, we engineer a multi-gene delivery system based on functionalized monolayer MoS, which can co-deliver HDAC1 and KRAS small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to Panc-1 cancer cells for combinational cancer therapy.

Quantitative photothermal phase imaging of red blood cells using digital holographic photothermal microscope.

Photothermal microscopy (PTM), a noninvasive pump-probe high-resolution microscopy, has been applied as a bioimaging tool in many biomedical studies. PTM utilizes a conventional phase contrast microscope to obtain highly resolved photothermal images. However, phase information cannot be extracted from these photothermal images, as they are not quantitative.

Enhancement of early cervical cancer diagnosis with epithelial layer analysis of fluorescence lifetime images.

This work reports the use of layer analysis to aid the fluorescence lifetime diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) from H&E stained cervical tissue sections. The mean and standard deviation of lifetimes in single region of interest (ROI) of cervical epithelium were previously shown to correlate to the gold standard histopathological classification of early cervical cancer. These previously defined single ROIs were evenly divided into layers for analysis.

Colorimetric surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) biosensor array based on polarization orientation.

A colorimetric surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging biosensor array based on polarization orientation rotation is presented in this paper. It measures the spectral characteristic variations caused by the steep phase difference between the p- and s-polarization occurring at surface plasmon excitation. It provides one-order of magnitude sensor resolution improvement comparing to existing phase-sensitive SPR imaging sensors and the two-dimensional (2D) sensing capability of the imaging sensor enables multiplex, high throughput array based simultaneous detection for a range of different bio-molecular interactions.

Quantitative diagnosis of cervical neoplasia using fluorescence lifetime imaging on haematoxylin and eosin stained tissue sections.

The use of conventional fluorescence microscopy for characterizing tissue pathological states is limited by overlapping spectra and the dependence on excitation power and fluorophore concentration. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) can overcome these limitations due to its insensitivity to fluorophore concentration, excitation power and spectral similarity. This study investigates the diagnosis of early cervical cancer using FLIM and a neural network extreme learning machine classifier.

Dual-window dual-bandwidth spectroscopic optical coherence tomography metric for qualitative scatterer size differentiation in tissues.

This study investigates the autocorrelation bandwidths of dual-window (DW) optical coherence tomography (OCT) k-space scattering profile of different-sized microspheres and their correlation to scatterer size. A dual-bandwidth spectroscopic metric defined as the ratio of the 10% to 90% autocorrelation bandwidths is found to change monotonically with microsphere size and gives the best contrast enhancement for scatterer size differentiation in the resulting spectroscopic image. A simulation model supports the experimental results and revealed a tradeoff between the smallest detectable scatterer size and the maximum scatterer size in the linear range of the dual-window dual-bandwidth (DWDB) metric, which depends on the choice of the light source optical bandwidth.

Multiplex spectral surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) sensor based on the polarization control scheme.

A two-dimensional (2D) spectral SPR sensor based on a polarization control scheme is reported in this paper. The polarization control configuration converts the phase difference between p- and s- polarization occurring at surface plasmon resonance (SPR) into corresponding color responses in spectral SPR images. A sensor resolution of 2.

Fluorescence lifetime discrimination using expectation-maximization algorithm with joint deconvolution.

The fluorescence lifetime technique offers an effective way to resolve fluorescent components with overlapping emission spectra. The presence of multiple fluorescent components in biological compounds can hamper their discrimination. The conventional method based on the nonlinear least-squares technique is unable to consistently determine the correct number of fluorescent components in a fluorescence decay profile.

Concentration dependence of gold nanoshells on the enhancement of optical coherence tomography images: a quantitative study.

The effective use of gold nanoshells as a contrast agent for optical coherence tomography (OCT) may be hampered by the delivery of a wrong dose to tissue that results in unwanted signal attenuation. In this study we examine how changes in mu(s) due to concentration variations affect the OCT image and then define a dosing range that would result in appropriate scattering coefficient, mu(s), to maintain an acceptable signal attenuation level. Our results show that an increase in sample mu(s) not only enhances the OCT signal near the surface but also attenuates the signal deeper into the sample.

Fluorescence detection of bladder cancer using urine cytology.

Bladder cancer is the fourth most common malignant disease worldwide, accounting for 4% of all cancer cases. In Singapore, it is the ninth most common form of cancer. The high mortality rate in bladder cancer can be reduced by early treatment following pre-cancerous screening.