AI can ask another AI for a second opinion on medical scans

AI-annotated medical image showing enhanced tumour, tumour core and edema regions

Researchers at Monash University have designed a new co-training AI algorithm for medical imaging that can effectively mimic the process of seeking a second opinion.

Published recently in Nature Machine Intelligence, the research addressed the limited availability of human annotated, or labelled, medical images by using an adversarial, or competitive, learning approach against unlabelled data.

This research, by Monash University faculties of Engineering and IT, will advance the field of medical image analysis for radiologists and other health experts.

PhD candidate Himashi Peiris of the Faculty of Engineering, said the research design had set out to create a competition between the two components...

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New Image Reveals Secrets of Planet Birth

The background of this image is dark, but in its centre lurks a swirling ghostly figure, which extends towards the edge of the picture. At the very centre there is a small bright region and erupting out of it there is a poorly defined, fuzzy edged cloud and blobs of material in yellow and blue, respectively. The yellow cloud extends far out in the image, making an elongated spiral shape that gets dimmer and less defined as it reaches the top and bottom of the frame. Meanwhile, the blue blobs only extend downwards from the centre and to a fraction of the distance of the yellow spiral cloud. The blobs twist away from the central bright region, forming a tight U-shape lying on its right side.
A spectacular new image released today by the European Southern Observatory gives us clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have detected large dusty clumps, close to a young star, that could collapse to create giant planets.

Astronomers have gained new clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form. Researchers have detected large dusty clumps, close to a young star, that could collapse to create giant planets.

A spectacular new image released today by the European Southern Observatory gives us clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form...

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One Simple Brain Hack might Boost Learning and Improve Mental Health

Shifting from a high-pressure mindset to a curious one improves people’s memory.

New research from Duke found that people who imagined being a thief scouting a virtual art museum in preparation for a heist were better at remembering the paintings they saw, compared to people who played the same computer game while imagining that they were executing the heist in-the-moment.

These subtle differences in motivation—urgent, immediate goal-seeking versus curious exploration for a future goal—have big potential for framing real-world challenges such as encouraging people to get a vaccine, prompting climate change action, and even treating psychiatric disorders.

The findings appeared online July 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Alyssa Sinclair, Ph.D...

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Renewable Solar Energy can help Purify Water, the Environment

Schematic diagram of (left) the formation of (PVF-CNT)/TiO2 NR electrodes. PVF-functionalized CNT was deposited on the NR arrays by electrodeposition. (Right) The proposed solar-driven PEC separation of heavy metal oxyanions is displayed

Chemists led by Beckman researcher Xiao Su have demonstrated that water remediation can be powered in part — and perhaps even exclusively — by renewable energy sources. Using electrochemistry to separate different particles within a solution (also known as electrochemical separation) is an energy-efficient strategy for environmental and water remediation: the process of purifying contaminated water...

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