In data-scarce scenarios, deep learning models often overfit to noise and irrelevant patterns, which limits their ability to generalize to unseen samples. To address these challenges in medical image segmentation, we introduce Diff-UMamba, a novel architecture that combines the UNet framework with the mamba mechanism to model long-range dependencies. At the heart of Diff-UMamba is a noise reduction module, which employs a signal differencing strategy to suppress noisy or irrelevant activations within the encoder. This encourages the model to filter out spurious features and enhance task-relevant representations, thereby improving its focus on clinically significant regions. As a result, the architecture achieves improved segmentation accuracy and robustness, particularly in low-data settings. Diff-UMamba is evaluated on multiple public datasets, including medical segmentation decathalon dataset (lung and pancreas) and AIIB23, demonstrating consistent performance gains of 1%-3% over baseline methods in various segmentation tasks. To further assess performance under limited data conditions, additional experiments are conducted on the BraTS-21 dataset by varying the proportion of available training samples. The approach is also validated on a small internal non-small cell lung cancer dataset for the segmentation of gross tumor volume in cone beam CT, where it achieves a 4%-5% improvement over baseline. The code is publicly available here.
This article analyzes the strategic vision of the Renovationist movement in the USSR during the 1920s, which sought a radical transformation of global Orthodoxy (and subsequently of world Christianity) through the mechanism of regularly convened and democratically elected “ecumenical councils”. Initially, the Renovationists planned to rely on Greek reformers when convening such a council. Later, however, they envisaged using the state resources of the Soviet Union to integrate this project into the broader process of world revolution through a comprehensive revision of Christianity. In this sense, the initiative functioned as a messianic project aimed at sacralizing revolutionary modernity. The institution of the “ecumenical council” was conceived as the final stage in the construction of a system of ecclesiastical electoral democracy. The project was to begin with the ecumenical legitimization of the decisions of the so-called Second All-Russian Local Council of 1923, which introduced a married episcopate and permitted second marriages for clergy. However, the Renovationists’ ambitions extended much further. Their proposals included strategies for the permanent transformation of Church Tradition, a complete restructuring of canon law, the creation of a new “official confession of faith”, and, ultimately, the reduction of dogma to the minimalist formula “Jesus Christ is the Son of God”. Although the planned “ecumenical council” would not have been a genuine Ecumenical Council in the canonical sense, unanimous support from the participating Local Churches could have made it a powerful instrument for dismantling global Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, the uncompromising stance of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (who, even after the death of Patriarch Tikhon, categorically refused to consider union with the so-called Renovationist “Russian Orthodox Church”), prevented the movement from presenting itself as the legitimate fullness of the Russian Church before the wider Christian world. In this way, the act of moral courage of these figures became a means of preserving Orthodoxy itself.
This article analyzes the transformation of state confessional policy in the late Soviet Union, examining its causes and consequences. Drawing on archival materials, it demonstrates significant shifts in state–church relations that occurred on the eve of the millennium of the Christianization of Rus' and in the period following the official celebrations. The analysis shows that the weakening of state pressure on the Church was largely driven by the political considerations of the Soviet leadership. However, the liberalization of state–church relations initiated in the late 1980s became the foundation for a fundamental reassessment of the role of the Church in the life of Russian society and the state. The dismantling of the system of total state control over the Russian Orthodox Church and the abandonment of state atheism required formal legal regulation. New legislation was developed within a secular and liberal framework, without sufficient regard for the cultural and historical specifics of Russian state formation. This, in turn, created the risk of further secularization of the Church and the deepening fragmentation of a weakened post-Soviet identity. The active stance of the Church, its current Primate Patriarch Kirill, and a number of deputies of the State Duma made it possible to revise Soviet-era legislation and to ensure a gradual shift in the Russian state’s approach: from a secular-liberal model of state–church relations toward a historically rooted symphonic model.
The samizdat (“self-published”) journal Obshchina (Community) (1978), together with the underground Christian Seminar on the Problems of Religious Renewal for which it served as an official journal, pursued several interrelated aims: to build a genuine Christian community in the USSR, to restore Orthodox education for laypeople, and to lead people back from materialism and nihilism to the truths of the Gospel. The article examines various dimensions of the journal’s existence, including its editorial orientation, its relationship with state oversight bodies, its engagement with Soviet ideological discourse, and its interaction with the liberal dissident milieu. It argues that, for the first time since the 1960s, the work of Obshchina’s editors and the seminar’s leaders (A.I. Ogorodnikov, V.Yu. Poresh, and others) helped reconstruct a social Christian worldview in Russia in which Christian truths became the primary criterion for social and even political reflection. At the same time, the author contends that Obshchina, despite being uncensored, should not be classified as a dissident publication. The Orthodox intellectuals associated with it did not call for the overthrow of the regime, emigration, or other forms of outright rejection of the state. Rather, they sought to gradually bring the Soviet state and society into the life of the Church, in the expectation that broader transformations would then occur organically. Uncensored social Christian thought thus found itself caught between two forces: the Soviet security apparatus and the spiritual-intellectual pressure of the liberal dissident environment. Social Christian groups were often compelled to reproduce familiar liberal modes of opposition to the Soviet regime, although this dependence was gradually overcome. Their eventual emergence onto an independent path contributed to the later flourishing of Orthodox social traditionalism in the 2010s–2020s. The legacy of Obshchina is valuable above all because it allows for a more impartial view of the forerunners of today’s Orthodox traditionalists.
The respiratory microbiome, which comprises bacteria, fungi, and viruses, plays a crucial role in respiratory health and disease. However, its study is limited by the low microbial biomass in respiratory samples and the dominance of host RNA. Metatranscriptomics offers comprehensive insights into active microbial communities and their interactions with the host but requires optimized RNA extraction protocols for robust and unbiased analysis. This study evaluated two RNA extraction kits—one employing chemical lysis (CL) and another combining chemical and mechanical lysis (CML)—to determine their effectiveness for metatranscriptomic analysis of respiratory samples. The CML protocol significantly increased double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) library yields, leading to higher sequencing read counts for both sample types (p < 0.0001). The read length was unaffected by the lysis protocol for the BAL and NPS samples. Taxonomic profiling revealed that CML enhanced the detection of robust microorganisms, such as gram-positive bacteria and fungi, without compromising viral detection. The CML protocol demonstrated superior recovery of genetic material, particularly for fungi and gram-positive bacteria, making it better suited for comprehensive metatranscriptomic analyses. These findings underscore the need for tailored RNA extraction strategies on the basis of sample type and research objectives. Optimized metatranscriptomic protocols are pivotal for advancing our understanding of the respiratory microbiome and its role in health and disease.
