Combining variational and model-based techniques to register PET and MR images in hand osteoarthritis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magee, Derek; Tanner, Steven F; Jeavons, Alan P; Waller, Michael; Tan, Ai Lyn; McGonagle, Dennis

2010-01-01

Co-registration of clinical images acquired using different imaging modalities and equipment is finding increasing use in patient studies. Here we present a method for registering high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET) data of the hand acquired using high-density avalanche chambers with magnetic resonance (MR) images of the finger obtained using a 'microscopy coil'. This allows the identification of the anatomical location of the PET radiotracer and thereby locates areas of active bone metabolism/'turnover'. Image fusion involving data acquired from the hand is demanding because rigid-body transformations cannot be employed to accurately register the images. The non-rigid registration technique that has been implemented in this study uses a variational approach to maximize the mutual information between images acquired using these different imaging modalities. A piecewise model of the fingers is employed to ensure that the methodology is robust and that it generates an accurate registration. Evaluation of the accuracy of the technique is tested using both synthetic data and PET and MR images acquired from patients with osteoarthritis. The method outperforms some established non-rigid registration techniques and results in a mean registration error that is less than approximately 1.5 mm in the vicinity of the finger joints.

A coarse-to-fine scheme for groupwise registration of multisensor images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yinghao Li

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Ensemble registration is concerned with a group of images that need to be registered simultaneously. It is challenging but important for many image analysis tasks such as vehicle detection and medical image fusion. To solve this problem effectively, a novel coarse-to-fine scheme for groupwise image registration is proposed. First, in the coarse registration step, unregistered images are divided into reference image set and float image set. The images of the two sets are registered based on segmented region matching. The coarse registration results are used as an initial solution for the next step. Then, in the fine registration step, a Gaussian mixture model with a local template is used to model the joint intensity of coarse-registered images. Meanwhile, a minimum message length criterion-based method is employed to determine the unknown number of mixing components. Based on this mixture model, a maximum likelihood framework is used to register a group of images. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, some representative groupwise registration approaches are compared on different image data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed approach has improved performance compared to conventional approaches.

The simple method to co-register planar image with photograph

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jang, Sung June; Kim, Seok Ki; Kang, Keon Wook

2005-01-01

Generally scintigraphic image presents the highly specific functional information. Sometimes, there can be limited information of patients anatomical landmark required to identify the lesion in planar nuclear medicine image. In this study, we applied the simple fusion method of planar scintigraphy and plain photography and validated the techniques with our own software. We used three fiducial marks which were comprised with Tc-99m. We obtained planar image with single head gamma camera (ARGUS ADAC laboratory, USA) and photograph using a general digital camera (CANON JAPAN). The coordinates of three marks were obtained in photograph and planar scintigraphy image. Based on these points, we took affine transformation and then fused these two images. To evaluate the precision, we compared with different depth. To find out the depth of lesion, the images were acquired in different angles and we compared the real depth and the geometrically calculated depth. At the same depth with mark, the each discordance was less than 1 mm. When the photograph were taken at the distance with 1 m and 2 m, the point 30 cm off the center were discordant in 5 mm and 2 mm each. We used this method in the localization of the remnant thyroid tissue on I-131 whole body scan with photo image. The simple method to co-register planar image with photography was reliable and easy to use. By this method, we could localize the lesion on the planar scintigraphy more accurately with other planar images (i.e. photograph) and predict the depth of the lesion without tomographic image

[The construction of professional images of healthcare assistants and registered nurses].

Science.gov (United States)

Robin, Dominik; Schaffert, René

2016-02-01

In the field of nursing in Switzerland, educations have experienced a fundamental reorganization with the implementation of the new law on Vocational and Professional Education and Training (2004). Among other things, this change affects professional images. To show how the different professional images in the field of nursing are being constructed in the descriptions of professions by graduates after the reshaping of the educations and the occupational field in general. In 110 semi-structured interviews, healthcare assistants and registered nurses (college diploma and Bachelor of Science) in their early careers were asked to explain their professional image. The participant's answers were analysed based on a qualitative content analysis and considering the theoretical background of Berger and Luckmann (1977). The interviews show that professional images emerge on the interaction of societal attributes and individual processes of adoption and revision. Graduates are challenged to adjust stereotypes and to achieve a balance between their own professional image and a missing or inappropriately perceived societal image. There should be further emphasis on the differentiation between the professions and the different educations in the field of nursing in order to achieve a better public perception of the different professions.

Semi-automatic delineation using weighted CT-MRI registered images for radiotherapy of nasopharyngeal cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fitton, I. [European Georges Pompidou Hospital, Department of Radiology, 20 rue Leblanc, 75015, Paris (France); Cornelissen, S. A. P. [Image Sciences Institute, UMC, Department of Radiology, P.O. Box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht (Netherlands); Duppen, J. C.; Rasch, C. R. N.; Herk, M. van [The Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Department of Radiotherapy, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam (Netherlands); Steenbakkers, R. J. H. M. [University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Radiation Oncology, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen (Netherlands); Peeters, S. T. H. [UZ Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgique (Belgium); Hoebers, F. J. P. [Maastricht University Medical Center, Department of Radiation Oncology (MAASTRO clinic), GROW School for Oncology and Development Biology Maastricht, 6229 ET Maastricht (Netherlands); Kaanders, J. H. A. M. [UMC St-Radboud, Department of Radiotherapy, Geert Grooteplein 32, 6525 GA Nijmegen (Netherlands); Nowak, P. J. C. M. [ERASMUS University Medical Center, Department of Radiation Oncology,Groene Hilledijk 301, 3075 EA Rotterdam (Netherlands)

2011-08-15

Purpose: To develop a delineation tool that refines physician-drawn contours of the gross tumor volume (GTV) in nasopharynx cancer, using combined pixel value information from x-ray computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during delineation. Methods: Operator-guided delineation assisted by a so-called ''snake'' algorithm was applied on weighted CT-MRI registered images. The physician delineates a rough tumor contour that is continuously adjusted by the snake algorithm using the underlying image characteristics. The algorithm was evaluated on five nasopharyngeal cancer patients. Different linear weightings CT and MRI were tested as input for the snake algorithm and compared according to contrast and tumor to noise ratio (TNR). The semi-automatic delineation was compared with manual contouring by seven experienced radiation oncologists. Results: A good compromise for TNR and contrast was obtained by weighing CT twice as strong as MRI. The new algorithm did not notably reduce interobserver variability, it did however, reduce the average delineation time by 6 min per case. Conclusions: The authors developed a user-driven tool for delineation and correction based a snake algorithm and registered weighted CT image and MRI. The algorithm adds morphological information from CT during the delineation on MRI and accelerates the delineation task.

Learning from incident reports in the Australian medical imaging setting: handover and communication errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Hannaford, N; Mandel, C; Crock, C; Buckley, K; Magrabi, F; Ong, M; Allen, S; Schultz, T

2013-02-01

To determine the type and nature of incidents occurring within medical imaging settings in Australia and identify strategies that could be engaged to reduce the risk of their re-occurrence. 71 search terms, related to clinical handover and communication, were applied to 3976 incidents in the Radiology Events Register. Detailed classification and thematic analysis of a subset of incidents that involved handover or communication (n=298) were undertaken to identify the most prevalent types of error and to make recommendations about patient safety initiatives in medical imaging. Incidents occurred most frequently during patient preparation (34%), when requesting imaging (27%) and when communicating a diagnosis (23%). Frequent problems within each of these stages of the imaging cycle included: inadequate handover of patients (41%) or unsafe or inappropriate transfer of the patient to or from medical imaging (35%); incorrect information on the request form (52%); and delayed communication of a diagnosis (36%) or communication of a wrong diagnosis (36%). The handover of patients and clinical information to and from medical imaging is fraught with error, often compromising patient safety and resulting in communication of delayed or wrong diagnoses, unnecessary radiation exposure and a waste of limited resources. Corrective strategies to address safety concerns related to new information technologies, patient transfer and inadequate test result notification policies are relevant to all healthcare settings. Handover and communication errors are prevalent in medical imaging. System-wide changes that facilitate effective communication are required.

Assessment of regional lung functional impairment with co-registered respiratory-gated ventilation/perfusion SPET-CT images: initial experiences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suga, Kazuyoshi; Yasuhiko, Kawakami; Zaki, Mohammed; Yamashita, Tomio; Seto, Aska; Matsumoto, Tsuneo; Matsunaga, Naofumi

2004-01-01

In this study, respiratory-gated ventilation and perfusion single-photon emission tomography (SPET) were used to define regional functional impairment and to obtain reliable co-registration with computed tomography (CT) images in various lung diseases. Using a triple-headed SPET unit and a physiological synchroniser, gated perfusion SPET was performed in a total of 78 patients with different pulmonary diseases, including metastatic nodules (n=15); in 34 of these patients, it was performed in combination with gated technetium-99m Technegas SPET. Projection data were acquired using 60 stops over 120 for each detector. Gated end-inspiration and ungated images were reconstructed from 1/8 data centered at peak inspiration for each regular respiratory cycle and full respiratory cycle data, respectively. Gated images were registered with tidal inspiration CT images using automated three-dimensional (3D) registration software. Registration mismatch was assessed by measuring 3D distance of the centroid of the nine selected round perfusion-defective nodules. Gated SPET images were completed within 29 min, and increased the number of visible ventilation and perfusion defects by 9.7% and 17.2%, respectively, as compared with ungated images; furthermore, lesion-to-normal lung contrast was significantly higher on gated SPET images. In the nine round perfusion-defective nodules, gated images yielded a significantly better SPET-CT match compared with ungated images (4.9±3.1 mm vs 19.0±9.1 mm, P<0.001). The co-registered SPET-CT images allowed accurate perception of the location and extent of each ventilation/perfusion defect on the underlying CT anatomy, and characterised the pathophysiology of the various diseases. By reducing respiratory motion effects and enhancing perfusion/ventilation defect clarity, gated SPET can provide reliable co-registered images with CT images to accurately characterise regional functional impairment in various lung diseases. (orig.)

Development of a platform for co-registered ultrasound and MR contrast imaging in vivo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chandrana, Chaitanya; Bevan, Peter; Hudson, John; Pang, Ian; Burns, Peter; Plewes, Donald; Chopra, Rajiv, E-mail: rajiv.chopra@sri.utoronto.ca [Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Imaging Research, Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Ave., Toronto, ON, M4N 3M5 (Canada)

2011-02-07

Imaging of the microvasculature is often performed using contrast agents in combination with either ultrasound (US) or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Contrast agents are used to enhance medical imaging by highlighting microvascular properties and function. Dynamic signal changes arising from the passage of contrast agents through the microvasculature can be used to characterize different pathologies; however, comparisons across modalities are difficult due to differences in the interactions of contrast agents with the microvasculature. Better knowledge of the relationship of contrast enhancement patterns with both modalities could enable better characterization of tissue microvasculature. We developed a co-registration platform for multi-modal US and MR imaging using clinical imaging systems in order to study the relationship between US and MR contrast enhancement. A preliminary validation study was performed in phantoms to determine the registration accuracy of the platform. In phantoms, the in-plane registration accuracy was measured to be 0.2 {+-} 0.2 and 0.3 {+-} 0.2 mm, in the lateral and axial directions, respectively. The out-of-plane registration accuracy was estimated to be 0.5 mm {+-}0.1. Co-registered US and MR imaging was performed in a rabbit model to evaluate contrast kinetics in different tissue types after bolus injections of US and MR contrast agents. The arrival time of the contrast agent in the plane of imaging was relatively similar for both modalities. We studied three different tissue types: muscle, large vessels and fat. In US, the temporal kinetics of signal enhancement were not strongly dependent on tissue type. In MR, however, due to the different amounts of agent extravasation in each tissue type, tissue-specific contrast kinetics were observed. This study demonstrates the feasibility of performing in vivo co-registered contrast US and MR imaging to study the relationships of the enhancement patterns with each modality.

Development of a platform for co-registered ultrasound and MR contrast imaging in vivo

Science.gov (United States)

Chandrana, Chaitanya; Bevan, Peter; Hudson, John; Pang, Ian; Burns, Peter; Plewes, Donald; Chopra, Rajiv

2011-02-01

Imaging of the microvasculature is often performed using contrast agents in combination with either ultrasound (US) or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Contrast agents are used to enhance medical imaging by highlighting microvascular properties and function. Dynamic signal changes arising from the passage of contrast agents through the microvasculature can be used to characterize different pathologies; however, comparisons across modalities are difficult due to differences in the interactions of contrast agents with the microvasculature. Better knowledge of the relationship of contrast enhancement patterns with both modalities could enable better characterization of tissue microvasculature. We developed a co-registration platform for multi-modal US and MR imaging using clinical imaging systems in order to study the relationship between US and MR contrast enhancement. A preliminary validation study was performed in phantoms to determine the registration accuracy of the platform. In phantoms, the in-plane registration accuracy was measured to be 0.2 ± 0.2 and 0.3 ± 0.2 mm, in the lateral and axial directions, respectively. The out-of-plane registration accuracy was estimated to be 0.5 mm ±0.1. Co-registered US and MR imaging was performed in a rabbit model to evaluate contrast kinetics in different tissue types after bolus injections of US and MR contrast agents. The arrival time of the contrast agent in the plane of imaging was relatively similar for both modalities. We studied three different tissue types: muscle, large vessels and fat. In US, the temporal kinetics of signal enhancement were not strongly dependent on tissue type. In MR, however, due to the different amounts of agent extravasation in each tissue type, tissue-specific contrast kinetics were observed. This study demonstrates the feasibility of performing in vivo co-registered contrast US and MR imaging to study the relationships of the enhancement patterns with each modality.

Registering parameters and granules of wave observations: IMAGE RPI success story

Science.gov (United States)

Galkin, I. A.; Charisi, A.; Fung, S. F.; Benson, R. F.; Reinisch, B. W.

2015-12-01

Modern metadata systems strive to help scientists locate data relevant to their research and then retrieve them quickly. Success of this mission depends on the organization and completeness of metadata. Each relevant data resource has to be registered; each content has to be described; each data file has to be accessible. Ultimately, data discoverability is about the practical ability to describe data content and location. Correspondingly, data registration has a "Parameter" level, at which content is specified by listing available observed properties (parameters), and a "Granule" level, at which download links are given to data records (granules). Until recently, both parameter- and granule-level data registrations were accomplished at NASA Virtual System Observatory easily by listing provided parameters and building Granule documents with URLs to the datafile locations, usually those at NASA CDAWeb data warehouse. With the introduction of the Virtual Wave Observatory (VWO), however, the parameter/granule concept faced a scalability challenge. The wave phenomenon content is rich with descriptors of the wave generation, propagation, interaction with propagation media, and observation processes. Additionally, the wave phenomenon content varies from record to record, reflecting changes in the constituent processes, making it necessary to generate granule documents at sub-minute resolution. We will present the first success story of registering 234,178 records of IMAGE Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) plasmagram data and Level 2 derived data products in ESPAS (near-Earth Space Data Infrastructure for e-Science), using the VWO-inspired wave ontology. The granules are arranged in overlapping display and numerical data collections. Display data include (a) auto-prospected plasmagrams of potential interest, (b) interesting plasmagrams annotated by human analysts or software, and (c) spectacular plasmagrams annotated by analysts as publication-quality examples of the RPI science

Real-time co-registered ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging system based on FPGA and DSP architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Alqasemi, Umar; Li, Hai; Aguirre, Andres; Zhu, Quing

2011-03-01

Co-registering ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a logical extension to conventional ultrasound because both modalities provide complementary information of tumor morphology, tumor vasculature and hypoxia for cancer detection and characterization. In addition, both modalities are capable of providing real-time images for clinical applications. In this paper, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Digital Signal Processor (DSP) module-based real-time US/PA imaging system is presented. The system provides real-time US/PA data acquisition and image display for up to 5 fps* using the currently implemented DSP board. It can be upgraded to 15 fps, which is the maximum pulse repetition rate of the used laser, by implementing an advanced DSP module. Additionally, the photoacoustic RF data for each frame is saved for further off-line processing. The system frontend consists of eight 16-channel modules made of commercial and customized circuits. Each 16-channel module consists of two commercial 8-channel receiving circuitry boards and one FPGA board from Analog Devices. Each receiving board contains an IC† that combines. 8-channel low-noise amplifiers, variable-gain amplifiers, anti-aliasing filters, and ADC's‡ in a single chip with sampling frequency of 40MHz. The FPGA board captures the LVDSξ Double Data Rate (DDR) digital output of the receiving board and performs data conditioning and subbeamforming. A customized 16-channel transmission circuitry is connected to the two receiving boards for US pulseecho (PE) mode data acquisition. A DSP module uses External Memory Interface (EMIF) to interface with the eight 16-channel modules through a customized adaptor board. The DSP transfers either sub-beamformed data (US pulse-echo mode or PAI imaging mode) or raw data from FPGA boards to its DDR-2 memory through the EMIF link, then it performs additional processing, after that, it transfer the data to the PC** for further image processing. The PC code

What Data to Co-register for Computing Atlases

Science.gov (United States)

Yeo, B.T. Thomas; Sabuncu, Mert; Mohlberg, Hartmut; Amunts, Katrin; Zilles, Karl; Golland, Polina; Fischl, Bruce

2015-01-01

We argue that registration should be thought of as a means to an end, and not as a goal by itself. In particular, we consider the problem of predicting the locations of hidden labels of a test image using observable features, given a training set with both the hidden labels and observable features. For example, the hidden labels could be segmentation labels or activation regions in fMRI, while the observable features could be sulcal geometry or MR intensity. We analyze a probabilistic framework for computing an optimal atlas, and the subsequent registration of a new subject using only the observable features to optimize the hidden label alignment to the training set. We compare two approaches for co-registering training images for the atlas construction: the traditional approach of only using observable features and a novel approach of only using hidden labels. We argue that the alternative approach is superior particularly when the relationship between the hidden labels and observable features is complex and unknown. As an application, we consider the task of registering cortical folds to optimize Brodmann area localization. We show that the alignment of the Brodmann areas improves by up to 25% when using the alternative atlas compared with the traditional atlas. To the best of our knowledge, these are the most accurate Brodmann area localization results (achieved via cortical fold registration) reported to date. PMID:26082678

In-memory interconnect protocol configuration registers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheng, Kevin Y.; Roberts, David A.

2017-09-19

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for moving the interconnect protocol configuration registers into the main memory space of a node. The region of memory used for storing the interconnect protocol configuration registers may also be made cacheable to reduce the latency of accesses to the interconnect protocol configuration registers. Interconnect protocol configuration registers which are used during a startup routine may be prefetched into the host's cache to make the startup routine more efficient. The interconnect protocol configuration registers for various interconnect protocols may include one or more of device capability tables, memory-side statistics (e.g., to support two-level memory data mapping decisions), advanced memory and interconnect features such as repair resources and routing tables, prefetching hints, error correcting code (ECC) bits, lists of device capabilities, set and store base address, capability, device ID, status, configuration, capabilities, and other settings.

In-memory interconnect protocol configuration registers

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Kevin Y.; Roberts, David A.

2017-09-19

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for moving the interconnect protocol configuration registers into the main memory space of a node. The region of memory used for storing the interconnect protocol configuration registers may also be made cacheable to reduce the latency of accesses to the interconnect protocol configuration registers. Interconnect protocol configuration registers which are used during a startup routine may be prefetched into the host's cache to make the startup routine more efficient. The interconnect protocol configuration registers for various interconnect protocols may include one or more of device capability tables, memory-side statistics (e.g., to support two-level memory data mapping decisions), advanced memory and interconnect features such as repair resources and routing tables, prefetching hints, error correcting code (ECC) bits, lists of device capabilities, set and store base address, capability, device ID, status, configuration, capabilities, and other settings.

IT Risk register

OpenAIRE

Kohout, Karel

2011-01-01

The theoretical part of the thesis analyzes several selected methodologies and best-practices related to information technology risks management, with focus on documents and guidance developed by ISACA. It builds a set of ideas and basic requirements for effective model of an IT risk register. Strong emphasis is placed on mapping CobiT 4.1 based Risk IT to COBIT 5. The practical part describes implementation of an exploratory web-based IT risk register in Python programming language utilizing...

Image interpolation allows accurate quantitative bone morphometry in registered micro-computed tomography scans.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, Friederike A; Lambers, Floor M; Mueller, Thomas L; Stauber, Martin; Müller, Ralph

2014-04-01

Time-lapsed in vivo micro-computed tomography is a powerful tool to analyse longitudinal changes in the bone micro-architecture. Registration can overcome problems associated with spatial misalignment between scans; however, it requires image interpolation which might affect the outcome of a subsequent bone morphometric analysis. The impact of the interpolation error itself, though, has not been quantified to date. Therefore, the purpose of this ex vivo study was to elaborate the effect of different interpolator schemes [nearest neighbour, tri-linear and B-spline (BSP)] on bone morphometric indices. None of the interpolator schemes led to significant differences between interpolated and non-interpolated images, with the lowest interpolation error found for BSPs (1.4%). Furthermore, depending on the interpolator, the processing order of registration, Gaussian filtration and binarisation played a role. Independent from the interpolator, the present findings suggest that the evaluation of bone morphometry should be done with images registered using greyscale information.

VISUALIZATION OF REGISTERED SUBSURFACE ANATOMY

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2010-01-01

A system and method for visualization of subsurface anatomy includes obtaining a first image from a first camera and a second image from a second camera or a second channel of the first camera, where the first and second images contain shared anatomical structures. The second camera and the secon....... A visual interface displays the registered visualization of the first and second images. The system and method are particularly useful for imaging during minimally invasive surgery, such as robotic surgery....

Registered nurses' attention to and perceptions of pressure ulcer prevention in hospital settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Sving, Eva; Gunningberg, Lena; Högman, Marieann; Mamhidir, Anna-Greta

2012-05-01

To describe how registered nurses perform, document and reflect on pressure ulcer prevention in a specific nurse-patient care situation, as well as generally, on hospital wards. Registered nurses should provide safe and qualified pressure ulcer prevention, but pressure ulcers remain a problem. Compliance with evidence-based guidelines impedes pressure ulcer formation. A descriptive design with a multimethods approach. Nine registered nurses at three wards and hospitals participated. The registered nurses were observed in a specific nurse-patient care situation with patients at risk for pressure ulcers. Interviews followed and patients' records were reviewed. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used. Pressure ulcer prevention performed by the registered nurses was dependent on the cultural care, which ranged from planned to unplanned prevention. Diversity was found in compliance with evidence-based guidelines across the wards. Although all patients involved were at risk and the nurses described pressure ulcer prevention as basic care, the nurses' attention to prevention was lacking. Few prevention activities and no structured risk assessments using risk assessment tools were observed, and few care plans were identified. The lack of attention was explained by registered nurses' trust in assistant nurses' knowledge, and prevention was seen as an assistant nurse task. Registered nurses paid little attention to pressure ulcer prevention among patients at risk. The planned and unplanned care structures affected the prevention. The nurses trusted and largely delegated their responsibility to the assistant nurses. Evidence-based pressure ulcer prevention is fundamental to patient safety. Care quality is created in situations where patients and care providers meet. How registered nurses work with pressure ulcer prevention, their role and communication, particularly with assistant nurses, should be of major concern to them as well as to healthcare

Application of video imaging for improvement of patient set-up

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ploeger, Lennert S.; Frenay, Michel; Betgen, Anja; Bois, Josien A. de; Gilhuijs, Kenneth G.A.; Herk, Marcel van

2003-01-01

Background and purpose: For radiotherapy of prostate cancer, the patient is usually positioned in the left-right (LR) direction by aligning a single marker on the skin with the projection of a room laser. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a room-mounted video camera in combination with previously acquired CT data to improve patient set-up along the LR axis. Material and methods: The camera was mounted in the treatment room at the caudal side of the patient. For 22 patients with prostate cancer 127 video and portal images were acquired. The set-up error determined by video imaging was found by matching video images with rendered CT images using various techniques. This set-up error was retrospectively compared with the set-up error derived from portal images. It was investigated whether the number of corrections based on portal imaging would decrease if the information obtained from the video images had been used prior to irradiation. Movement of the skin with respect to bone was quantified using an analysis of variance method. Results: The measurement of the set-up error was most accurate for a technique where outlines and groins on the left and right side of the patient were delineated and aligned individually to the corresponding features extracted from the rendered CT image. The standard deviations (SD) of the systematic and random components of the set-up errors derived from the portal images in the LR direction were 1.5 and 2.1 mm, respectively. When the set-up of the patients was retrospectively adjusted based on the video images, the SD of the systematic and random errors decreased to 1.1 and 1.3 mm, respectively. From retrospective analysis, a reduction of the number of set-up corrections (from nine to six corrections) is expected when the set-up would have been adjusted using the video images. The SD of the magnitude of motion of the skin of the patient with respect to the bony anatomy was estimated to be 1.1 mm. Conclusion: Video

Ultrafuzziness Optimization Based on Type II Fuzzy Sets for Image Thresholding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hudan Studiawan

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Image thresholding is one of the processing techniques to provide high quality preprocessed image. Image vagueness and bad illumination are common obstacles yielding in a poor image thresholding output. By assuming image as fuzzy sets, several different fuzzy thresholding techniques have been proposed to remove these obstacles during threshold selection. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm for thresholding image using ultrafuzziness optimization to decrease uncertainty in fuzzy system by common fuzzy sets like type II fuzzy sets. Optimization was conducted by involving ultrafuzziness measurement for background and object fuzzy sets separately. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed image thresholding method had good performances for images with high vagueness, low level contrast, and grayscale ambiguity.

EU Transparency Register

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mańko, R.; Thiel, M.; Bauer, E.

2014-01-01

Widespread lobbying in the EU institutions has led to criticism regarding the transparency and accountability of the EU's decision-making process. In response to these concerns, the Parliament set up its transparency register in 1995, followed by the Commission in 2008. The two institutions merged

The European Register of Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine: guide to the Register, version 3-2010

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

McMurray, Janet; Zérah, Simone; Hallworth, Michael

2010-01-01

In 1997, the European Communities Confederation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EC4) set up a Register for European Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. The operation of the Register is undertaken by a Register Commission (EC4RC). During the last 12 years, more...... than 2200 specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine have joined the Register. In 2007, EC4 merged with the Forum of European Societies of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (FESCC) to form the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC). Two previous...

Retainment incentives in three rural practice settings: variations in job satisfaction among staff registered nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Stratton, T D; Dunkin, J W; Juhl, N; Geller, J M

1995-05-01

Researchers have demonstrated repeatedly the importance of the relationship linking job satisfaction to employee retention. In rural areas of the country, where a persistent maldistribution of nurses continues to hamper health care delivery, the potential benefits of bolstering retention via enhancements in job satisfaction are of utmost utility to administrators and providers alike. Data were gathered from a multistate survey of registered nurses (RNs) practicing in rural hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and community/public health settings (N = 1,647; response rate = 40.3%). The investigators found that the use of tuition reimbursement corresponded significantly with increased levels of job satisfaction among nurses in all three practice environments, as did day care services for nurses in acute care settings. Also, among hospital-based RNs, level of nursing education was found to be a significant factor in the relationship between tuition reimbursement and job satisfaction, with the highest level occurring among diploma-prepared nurses.

Use of volume-rendered images in registration of nuclear medicine studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wallis, J.W.; Miller, T.R.; Hsu, S.S.

1995-01-01

A simple operator-guided alignment technique based on volume-rendered images was developed to register tomographic nuclear medicine studies. For each of 2 three-dimensional data sets to be registered, volume-rendered images were generated in 3 orthogonal projections (x,y,z) using the method of maximum-activity projection. Registration was achieved as follows: (a) One of the rendering orientations (e.g. x) was chosen for manipulation; (b) The two dimensional rendering was translated and rotated under operator control to achieve the best alignment as determined by visual assessment; (c) This rotation and translation was then applied to the underlying three-dimensional data set, with updating of the rendered images in each of the orthogonal projections; (d) Another orientation was chosen, and the process repeated. Since manipulation was performed on the small two-dimensional rendered image, feedback was instantaneous. To aid in the visual alignment, difference images and flicker images (toggling between the two data sets) were displayed. Accuracy was assessed by analysis of separate clinical data sets acquired without patient movement. After arbitrary rotation and translation of one of the two data sets, the 2 data sets were registered. Mean registration error was 0.36 pixels, corresponding to a 2.44 mm registration error. Thus, accurate registration can be achieved in under 10 minutes using this simple technique. The accuracy of registration was assessed with use of duplicate SPECT studies originating from separate reconstructions of the data from each of the detectors of a triple-head gamma camera

Deformable image registration in radiation therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oh, Seung Jong; Kim, Si Yong [Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond (United States)

2017-06-15

The number of imaging data sets has significantly increased during radiation treatment after introducing a diverse range of advanced techniques into the field of radiation oncology. As a consequence, there have been many studies proposing meaningful applications of imaging data set use. These applications commonly require a method to align the data sets at a reference. Deformable image registration (DIR) is a process which satisfies this requirement by locally registering image data sets into a reference image set. DIR identifies the spatial correspondence in order to minimize the differences between two or among multiple sets of images. This article describes clinical applications, validation, and algorithms of DIR techniques. Applications of DIR in radiation treatment include dose accumulation, mathematical modeling, automatic segmentation, and functional imaging. Validation methods discussed are based on anatomical landmarks, physical phantoms, digital phantoms, and per application purpose. DIR algorithms are also briefly reviewed with respect to two algorithmic components: similarity index and deformation models.

Non-rigid registration of a 3D ultrasound and a MR image data set of the female pelvic floor using a biomechanical model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rexilius Jan

2005-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The visual combination of different modalities is essential for many medical imaging applications in the field of Computer-Assisted medical Diagnosis (CAD to enhance the clinical information content. Clinically, incontinence is a diagnosis with high clinical prevalence and morbidity rate. The search for a method to identify risk patients and to control the success of operations is still a challenging task. The conjunction of magnetic resonance (MR and 3D ultrasound (US image data sets could lead to a new clinical visual representation of the morphology as we show with corresponding data sets of the female anal canal with this paper. Methods We present a feasibility study for a non-rigid registration technique based on a biomechanical model for MR and US image data sets of the female anal canal as a base for a new innovative clinical visual representation. Results It is shown in this case study that the internal and external sphincter region could be registered elastically and the registration partially corrects the compression induced by the ultrasound transducer, so the MR data set showing the native anatomy is used as a frame for the US data set showing the same region with higher resolution but distorted by the transducer Conclusion The morphology is of special interest in the assessment of anal incontinence and the non-rigid registration of normal clinical MR and US image data sets is a new field of the adaptation of this method incorporating the advantages of both technologies.

Optimal energy window setting depending on the energy resolution for radionuclides used in gamma camera imaging. Planar imaging evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kojima, Akihiro; Watanabe, Hiroyuki; Arao, Yuichi; Kawasaki, Masaaki; Takaki, Akihiro; Matsumoto, Masanori

2007-01-01

In this study, we examined whether the optimal energy window (EW) setting depending on an energy resolution of a gamma camera, which we previously proposed, is valid on planar scintigraphic imaging using Tl-201, Ga-67, Tc-99m, and I-123. Image acquisitions for line sources and paper sheet phantoms containing each radionuclide were performed in air and with scattering materials. For the six photopeaks excluding the Hg-201 characteristic x-rays' one, the conventional 20%-width energy window (EW20%) setting and the optimal energy window (optimal EW) setting (15%-width below 100 keV and 13%-width above 100 keV) were compared. For the Hg-201 characteristic x-rays' photopeak, the conventional on-peak EW20% setting was compared with the off-peak EW setting (73 keV-25%) and the wider off-peak EW setting (77 keV-29%). Image-count ratio (defined as the ratio of the image counts obtained with an EW and the total image counts obtained with the EW covered the whole photopeak for a line source in air), image quality, spatial resolutions (full width half maximum (FWHM) and full width tenth maximum (FWTM) values), count-profile curves, and defect-contrast values were compared between the conventional EW setting and the optimal EW setting. Except for the Hg-201 characteristic x-rays, the image-count ratios were 94-99% for the EW20% setting, but 78-89% for the optimal EW setting. However, the optimal EW setting reduced scatter fraction (defined as the scattered-to-primary counts ratio) effectively, as compared with the EW20% setting. Consequently, all the images with the optimal EW setting gave better image quality than ones with the EW20% setting. For the Hg-201 characteristic x-rays, the off-peak EW setting showed great improvement in image quality in comparison with the EW20% setting and the wider off-peak EW setting gave the best results. In conclusion, from our planar imaging study it was shown that although the optimal EW setting proposed by us gives less image-count ratio by

Complexity and accuracy of image registration methods in SPECT-guided radiation therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yin, L S; Duzenli, C; Moiseenko, V [Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1 (Canada); Tang, L; Hamarneh, G [Computing Science, Simon Fraser University, 9400 TASC1, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6 (Canada); Gill, B [Medical Physics, Vancouver Cancer Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 600 West 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 4E6 (Canada); Celler, A; Shcherbinin, S [Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, 828 West 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1L8 (Canada); Fua, T F; Thompson, A; Sheehan, F [Radiation Oncology, Vancouver Cancer Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 600 West 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 4E6 (Canada); Liu, M [Radiation Oncology, Fraser Valley Cancer Centre, BC Cancer Agency, 13750 9th Ave, Surrey, BC, V3V 1Z2 (Canada)], E-mail: lyin@bccancer.bc.ca

2010-01-07

The use of functional imaging in radiotherapy treatment (RT) planning requires accurate co-registration of functional imaging scans to CT scans. We evaluated six methods of image registration for use in SPECT-guided radiotherapy treatment planning. Methods varied in complexity from 3D affine transform based on control points to diffeomorphic demons and level set non-rigid registration. Ten lung cancer patients underwent perfusion SPECT-scans prior to their radiotherapy. CT images from a hybrid SPECT/CT scanner were registered to a planning CT, and then the same transformation was applied to the SPECT images. According to registration evaluation measures computed based on the intensity difference between the registered CT images or based on target registration error, non-rigid registrations provided a higher degree of accuracy than rigid methods. However, due to the irregularities in some of the obtained deformation fields, warping the SPECT using these fields may result in unacceptable changes to the SPECT intensity distribution that would preclude use in RT planning. Moreover, the differences between intensity histograms in the original and registered SPECT image sets were the largest for diffeomorphic demons and level set methods. In conclusion, the use of intensity-based validation measures alone is not sufficient for SPECT/CT registration for RTTP. It was also found that the proper evaluation of image registration requires the use of several accuracy metrics.

Register-based research on twins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Kaare; Ohm Kyvik, Kirsten; Holm, Niels V

2011-01-01

Introduction: The Danish Twin Registry (DTR) has for more than 50 years been based on surveys and clinical investigations and over the two last decades also on register linkage. Currently these two approaches are merged within Statistics Denmark. Research topics: Here we report on three major...... groups of register-based research in the DTR that used the uniqueness of twinning. First, we focus on the ''long-term prognosis'' of being a twin compared with being a singleton and show that Danish twins have health trajectories in adulthood similar to singletons, which is a result of interest for twins...... illustrate how the co-twin control method in a register setting can be used to control for the effect of rearing environment and genetic factors in studies of the association between exposures and health. CONCLUSION: The spectrum of register-based twin studies is very wide and have changed in accordance...

International urinary tract imaging basic spinal cord injury data set

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Biering-Sørensen, F; Craggs, M; Kennelly, M

2008-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To create an International Urinary Tract Imaging Basic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Data Set within the framework of the International SCI Data Sets. SETTING: An international working group. METHODS: The draft of the Data Set was developed by a working group comprising members appointed...... of comparable minimal data. RESULTS: The variables included in the International Urinary Tract Imaging Basic SCI Data Set are the results obtained using the following investigations: intravenous pyelography or computer tomography urogram or ultrasound, X-ray, renography, clearance, cystogram, voiding cystogram...

Set-up errors in radiotherapy for oesophageal cancers - Is electronic portal imaging or conebeam more accurate?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hawkins, Maria A.; Aitken, Alexandra; Hansen, Vibeke N.; McNair, Helen A.; Tait, Diana M.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To compare kV computed tomography (CBCT) with electronic portal imaging (EPI) and evaluate set-up variations in the anterior-posterior (AP), right-left (LR) and cranio-caudal (CC) directions and rotational variations: pitch, roll, and yaw, for oesophageal cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy. Methods and materials: Twenty patients with locally advanced oesophageal cancer treated with chemoradiation were consented for this prospective ethics approved protocol. Patients were positioned using skin marks/tattoos, kV-CBCT scans (XVI) and EPI's were performed prior to treatment and registered to the planning CT scans and digitally reconstructed radiographs, respectively. XVI data was used to adjust patient setups before treatment delivery. A total of 122 EPI pairs and 207 CBCT scans were analysed. The systematic and random errors were calculated. Results: The systematic and random errors (mm) for XVI were 1.3, 1.7, 1.4 and 2.6, 3.9, 2.0 in RL, CC and AP direction, respectively, with EPI of similar magnitude. There was no correlation between the 2 modalities of imaging as 31.7% of all image pairs were discordant >3 mm and 12.5% >5 mm. XVI identified rotations >3 o in 44 images. Conclusions: EPI results in different position correction for verification of radiotherapy in oesophageal malignancies when compared with CBCT. CBCT verification offers adequate 3D volumetric image quality to improve the accuracy of treatment delivery for oesophageal malignancies in radiotherapy and should be used for image guidance.

Arthroplasty register for Germany

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hagen, Anja

2009-10-01

Full Text Available Scientific background: The annual number of joint replacement operations in Germany is high. The introduction of an arthroplasty register promises an important contribution to the improvement of the quality of patient’s care. Research questions: The presented report addresses the questions on organization and functioning, benefits and cost-benefits as well as on legal, ethical and social aspects of the arthroplasty registers. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in September 2008 in the medical databases MEDLINE, EMBASE etc. and was complemented with a hand search. Documents describing arthroplasty registers and/or their relevance as well as papers on legal, ethical and social aspects of such registers were included in the evaluation. The most important information was extracted and analysed. Results: Data concerning 30 arthroplasty registers in 19 countries as well as one international arthroplasty register were identified. Most of the arthroplasty registers are maintained by national orthopedic societies, others by health authorities or by their cooperation. Mostly, registries are financially supported by governments and rarely by other sources.The participation of the orthopedists in the data collection process of the arthroplasty registry is voluntary in most countries. The consent of the patients is usually required. The unique patient identification is ensured in nearly all registers.Each data set consists of patient and clinic identification numbers, data on diagnosis, the performed intervention, the operation date and implanted prostheses. The use of clinical scores, patient-reported questionnaires and radiological documentation is rare. Methods for data documentation and transfer are paper form, electronic entry as well as scanning of the data using bar codes. The data are mostly being checked for their completeness and validity. Most registers offer results of the data evaluation to the treating orthopedists and

Representation learning with deep extreme learning machines for efficient image set classification

KAUST Repository

Uzair, Muhammad

2016-12-09

Efficient and accurate representation of a collection of images, that belong to the same class, is a major research challenge for practical image set classification. Existing methods either make prior assumptions about the data structure, or perform heavy computations to learn structure from the data itself. In this paper, we propose an efficient image set representation that does not make any prior assumptions about the structure of the underlying data. We learn the nonlinear structure of image sets with deep extreme learning machines that are very efficient and generalize well even on a limited number of training samples. Extensive experiments on a broad range of public datasets for image set classification show that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms state-of-the-art image set classification methods both in terms of speed and accuracy.

Representation learning with deep extreme learning machines for efficient image set classification

KAUST Repository

Uzair, Muhammad; Shafait, Faisal; Ghanem, Bernard; Mian, Ajmal

2016-01-01

Efficient and accurate representation of a collection of images, that belong to the same class, is a major research challenge for practical image set classification. Existing methods either make prior assumptions about the data structure, or perform heavy computations to learn structure from the data itself. In this paper, we propose an efficient image set representation that does not make any prior assumptions about the structure of the underlying data. We learn the nonlinear structure of image sets with deep extreme learning machines that are very efficient and generalize well even on a limited number of training samples. Extensive experiments on a broad range of public datasets for image set classification show that the proposed algorithm consistently outperforms state-of-the-art image set classification methods both in terms of speed and accuracy.

Video stereopsis of cardiac MR images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, R.F. Jr.; Norman, C.

1988-01-01

This paper describes MR images of the heart acquired using a spin-echo technique synchronized to the electrocardiogram. Sixteen 0.5-cm-thick sections with a 0.1-cm gap between each section were acquired in the coronal view to cover all the cardiac anatomy including vasculature. Two sets of images were obtained with a subject rotation corresponding to the stereoscopic viewing angle of the eyes. The images were digitized, spatially registered, and processed by a three-dimensional graphics work station for stereoscopic viewing. Video recordings were made of each set of images and then temporally synchronized to produce a single video image corresponding to the appropriate eye view

Surface imaging, portal imaging, and skin marker set-up vs. CBCT for radiotherapy of the thorax and pelvis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pallotta, Stefania; Bucciolini, Marta [Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali e Cliniche, Florence (Italy); AOU Careggi, Sezione di Fisica Medica, Florence (Italy); Vanzi, Eleonora; Marrazzo, Livia [AOU Careggi, Sezione di Fisica Medica, Florence (Italy); Simontacchi, Gabriele; Paiar, Fabiola [AOU Careggi, Sezione di Radioterapia, Florence (Italy); Ceroti, Marco [ISPO, U.O. Epidemiologia Molecolare e Nutrizionale, Florence (Italy); Livi, Lorenzo [Universita degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche Sperimentali e Cliniche, Florence (Italy); AOU Careggi, Sezione di Radioterapia, Florence (Italy)

2015-09-15

The aim of this study was to compare surface imaging, portal imaging, and skin marker set-up in radiotherapy of thoracic and pelvic regions, using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) data as the gold standard. Twenty patients were included in this study. CBCT, surface acquisition (SA), and two orthogonal portal images (PI) were acquired during the first four treatment sessions. Patient set-up corrections, obtained by registering the planning CT with CBCT, were used as the gold standard. Registration results of the PI and SA were evaluated and compared with those obtained with CBCT. The advantage derived from using SA or PI verification systems over a skin marker set-up was also quantified. A statistically significant difference between PI and SA (in favour of PI) was observed in seven patients undergoing treatment of the pelvic region and in two patients undergoing treatment of the thoracic region. The use of SA or PI, compared with a skin marker set-up, improved patient positioning in 50% and 57 % of the thoracic fractions, respectively. For pelvic fractions, the use of PI was beneficial in 73 % of the cases, while the use of SA was beneficial in only 45 %. Patient positioning worsened with SA, particularly along longitudinal and vertical directions. PI yielded more accurate registration results than SA for both pelvic and thoracic fractions. Compared with the skin marker set-up, PI performances were superior to SA for pelvic fractions while comparable results were obtained for thoracic fractions. (orig.) [German] Ziel dieser Studie ist der Vergleich der Patientenpositionierung mittels der 3-D/4-D-Erfassung der Patientenoberflaeche durch ein Abtastsystem, kV/MV-Verifikationsaufnahmen mit Hochenergiebildsystemen und Markierungen auf der Haut bei Bestrahlungen im Thorax- bzw. Beckenbereich. Als Goldstandard zum Vergleich dienten CBCT(''cone beam computed tomography'')-Aufnahmen. Die Studie basiert auf Untersuchungen an 20 Patienten. Es wurden

TU-G-303-03: Machine Learning to Improve Human Learning From Longitudinal Image Sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Veeraraghavan, H.

2015-01-01

‘Radiomics’ refers to studies that extract a large amount of quantitative information from medical imaging studies as a basis for characterizing a specific aspect of patient health. Radiomics models can be built to address a wide range of outcome predictions, clinical decisions, basic cancer biology, etc. For example, radiomics models can be built to predict the aggressiveness of an imaged cancer, cancer gene expression characteristics (radiogenomics), radiation therapy treatment response, etc. Technically, radiomics brings together quantitative imaging, computer vision/image processing, and machine learning. In this symposium, speakers will discuss approaches to radiomics investigations, including: longitudinal radiomics, radiomics combined with other biomarkers (‘pan-omics’), radiomics for various imaging modalities (CT, MRI, and PET), and the use of registered multi-modality imaging datasets as a basis for radiomics. There are many challenges to the eventual use of radiomics-derived methods in clinical practice, including: standardization and robustness of selected metrics, accruing the data required, building and validating the resulting models, registering longitudinal data that often involve significant patient changes, reliable automated cancer segmentation tools, etc. Despite the hurdles, results achieved so far indicate the tremendous potential of this general approach to quantifying and using data from medical images. Specific applications of radiomics to be presented in this symposium will include: the longitudinal analysis of patients with low-grade gliomas; automatic detection and assessment of patients with metastatic bone lesions; image-based monitoring of patients with growing lymph nodes; predicting radiotherapy outcomes using multi-modality radiomics; and studies relating radiomics with genomics in lung cancer and glioblastoma. Learning Objectives: Understanding the basic image features that are often used in radiomic models. Understanding

TU-G-303-03: Machine Learning to Improve Human Learning From Longitudinal Image Sets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Veeraraghavan, H. [Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (United States)

2015-06-15

‘Radiomics’ refers to studies that extract a large amount of quantitative information from medical imaging studies as a basis for characterizing a specific aspect of patient health. Radiomics models can be built to address a wide range of outcome predictions, clinical decisions, basic cancer biology, etc. For example, radiomics models can be built to predict the aggressiveness of an imaged cancer, cancer gene expression characteristics (radiogenomics), radiation therapy treatment response, etc. Technically, radiomics brings together quantitative imaging, computer vision/image processing, and machine learning. In this symposium, speakers will discuss approaches to radiomics investigations, including: longitudinal radiomics, radiomics combined with other biomarkers (‘pan-omics’), radiomics for various imaging modalities (CT, MRI, and PET), and the use of registered multi-modality imaging datasets as a basis for radiomics. There are many challenges to the eventual use of radiomics-derived methods in clinical practice, including: standardization and robustness of selected metrics, accruing the data required, building and validating the resulting models, registering longitudinal data that often involve significant patient changes, reliable automated cancer segmentation tools, etc. Despite the hurdles, results achieved so far indicate the tremendous potential of this general approach to quantifying and using data from medical images. Specific applications of radiomics to be presented in this symposium will include: the longitudinal analysis of patients with low-grade gliomas; automatic detection and assessment of patients with metastatic bone lesions; image-based monitoring of patients with growing lymph nodes; predicting radiotherapy outcomes using multi-modality radiomics; and studies relating radiomics with genomics in lung cancer and glioblastoma. Learning Objectives: Understanding the basic image features that are often used in radiomic models. Understanding

The European Register of Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine: guide to the Register, version 3-2010.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McMurray, Janet

2010-07-01

In 1997, the European Communities Confederation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EC4) set up a Register for European Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. The operation of the Register is undertaken by a Register Commission (EC4RC). During the last 12 years, more than 2200 specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine have joined the Register. In 2007, EC4 merged with the Forum of European Societies of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (FESCC) to form the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC). Two previous Guides to the Register have been published, one in 1997 and another in 2003. The third version of the Guide is presented in this article and is based on the experience gained and development of the profession since the last revision. Registration is valid for 5 years and the procedure and criteria for re-registration are presented as an Appendix at the end of the article.

Image-guided regularization level set evolution for MR image segmentation and bias field correction.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lingfeng; Pan, Chunhong

2014-01-01

Magnetic resonance (MR) image segmentation is a crucial step in surgical and treatment planning. In this paper, we propose a level-set-based segmentation method for MR images with intensity inhomogeneous problem. To tackle the initialization sensitivity problem, we propose a new image-guided regularization to restrict the level set function. The maximum a posteriori inference is adopted to unify segmentation and bias field correction within a single framework. Under this framework, both the contour prior and the bias field prior are fully used. As a result, the image intensity inhomogeneity can be well solved. Extensive experiments are provided to evaluate the proposed method, showing significant improvements in both segmentation and bias field correction accuracies as compared with other state-of-the-art approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Level set method for image segmentation based on moment competition

Science.gov (United States)

Min, Hai; Wang, Xiao-Feng; Huang, De-Shuang; Jin, Jing; Wang, Hong-Zhi; Li, Hai

2015-05-01

We propose a level set method for image segmentation which introduces the moment competition and weakly supervised information into the energy functional construction. Different from the region-based level set methods which use force competition, the moment competition is adopted to drive the contour evolution. Here, a so-called three-point labeling scheme is proposed to manually label three independent points (weakly supervised information) on the image. Then the intensity differences between the three points and the unlabeled pixels are used to construct the force arms for each image pixel. The corresponding force is generated from the global statistical information of a region-based method and weighted by the force arm. As a result, the moment can be constructed and incorporated into the energy functional to drive the evolving contour to approach the object boundary. In our method, the force arm can take full advantage of the three-point labeling scheme to constrain the moment competition. Additionally, the global statistical information and weakly supervised information are successfully integrated, which makes the proposed method more robust than traditional methods for initial contour placement and parameter setting. Experimental results with performance analysis also show the superiority of the proposed method on segmenting different types of complicated images, such as noisy images, three-phase images, images with intensity inhomogeneity, and texture images.

Optimization of super-resolution processing using incomplete image sets in PET imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Guoping; Pan, Tinsu; Clark, John W; Mawlawi, Osama R

2008-12-01

Super-resolution (SR) techniques are used in PET imaging to generate a high-resolution image by combining multiple low-resolution images that have been acquired from different points of view (POVs). The number of low-resolution images used defines the processing time and memory storage necessary to generate the SR image. In this paper, the authors propose two optimized SR implementations (ISR-1 and ISR-2) that require only a subset of the low-resolution images (two sides and diagonal of the image matrix, respectively), thereby reducing the overall processing time and memory storage. In an N x N matrix of low-resolution images, ISR-1 would be generated using images from the two sides of the N x N matrix, while ISR-2 would be generated from images across the diagonal of the image matrix. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether the two proposed SR methods can achieve similar performance in contrast and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as the SR image generated from a complete set of low-resolution images (CSR) using simulation and experimental studies. A simulation, a point source, and a NEMA/IEC phantom study were conducted for this investigation. In each study, 4 (2 x 2) or 16 (4 x 4) low-resolution images were reconstructed from the same acquired data set while shifting the reconstruction grid to generate images from different POVs. SR processing was then applied in each study to combine all as well as two different subsets of the low-resolution images to generate the CSR, ISR-1, and ISR-2 images, respectively. For reference purpose, a native reconstruction (NR) image using the same matrix size as the three SR images was also generated. The resultant images (CSR, ISR-1, ISR-2, and NR) were then analyzed using visual inspection, line profiles, SNR plots, and background noise spectra. The simulation study showed that the contrast and the SNR difference between the two ISR images and the CSR image were on average 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. Line profiles of

Experiences of registered nurses who supervise international nursing students in the clinical and classroom setting: an integrative literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Louise; Pront, Leeanne; Giles, Tracey M

2016-06-01

To examine the literature reporting the experiences and perceptions of registered nurses who supervise international nursing students in the clinical and classroom setting. Nursing education relies on clinical experts to supervise students during classroom and clinical education, and the quality of that supervision has a significant impact on student development and learning. Global migration and internationalisation of nursing education have led to increasing numbers of registered nurses supervising international nursing students. However, a paucity of relevant literature limits our understanding of these experiences. An integrative literature review. Comprehensive database searches of CINAHL, Informit, PubMed, Journals@Ovid, Findit@flinders and Medline were undertaken. Screening of 179 articles resulted in 10 included for review. Appraisal and analysis using Whittemore and Knafl's (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52, 2005, 546) five stage integrative review recommendations was undertaken. This review highlighted some unique challenges for registered nurses supervising international nursing students. Identified issues were, a heightened sense of responsibility, additional pastoral care challenges, considerable time investments, communication challenges and cultural differences between teaching and learning styles. It is possible that these unique challenges could be minimised by implementing role preparation programmes specific to international nursing student supervision. Further research is needed to provide an in-depth exploration of current levels of preparation and support to make recommendations for future practice, education and policy development. An awareness of the specific cultural learning needs of international nursing students is an important first step to the provision of culturally competent supervision for this cohort of students. There is an urgent need for education and role preparation for all registered nurses supervising international nursing

Data register and processor for multiwire chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karpukhin, V.V.

1985-01-01

A data register and a processor for data receiving and processing from drift chambers of a device for investigating relativistic positroniums are described. The data are delivered to the register input in the form of the Grey 8 bit code, memorized and transformed to a position code. The register information is delivered to the KAMAK trunk and to the front panel plug. The processor selects particle tracks in a horizontal plane of the facility. ΔY maximum coordinate divergence and minimum point quantity on the track are set from the processor front panel. Processor solution time is 16 μs maximum quantity of simultaneously analyzed coordinates is 16

Obtaining and Using Images in the Clinical Setting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cendales, Ricardo

2009-01-01

Currently small electronic devices capable of producing high quality images are available. The massive use of these devices has become common in the clinical setting as medical images represent a useful tool to document relevant clinical conditions for patient diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Besides, clinical images are beneficial for legal, scientific and academic purposes. The extended practice without proper ethical guidelines might represent a significant risk for the protection of patient rights and clinical practice. This document discusses risks and duties when obtaining medical images, and presents some arguments on institutional and professional responsibilities around the definition of policies regarding the protection of privacy and dignity of the patient.

Automatic detection of blurred images in UAV image sets

Science.gov (United States)

Sieberth, Till; Wackrow, Rene; Chandler, Jim H.

2016-12-01

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become an interesting and active research topic for photogrammetry. Current research is based on images acquired by an UAV, which have a high ground resolution and good spectral and radiometrical resolution, due to the low flight altitudes combined with a high resolution camera. UAV image flights are also cost effective and have become attractive for many applications including, change detection in small scale areas. One of the main problems preventing full automation of data processing of UAV imagery is the degradation effect of blur caused by camera movement during image acquisition. This can be caused by the normal flight movement of the UAV as well as strong winds, turbulence or sudden operator inputs. This blur disturbs the visual analysis and interpretation of the data, causes errors and can degrade the accuracy in automatic photogrammetric processing algorithms. The detection and removal of these images is currently achieved manually, which is both time consuming and prone to error, particularly for large image-sets. To increase the quality of data processing an automated process is necessary, which must be both reliable and quick. This paper describes the development of an automatic filtering process, which is based upon the quantification of blur in an image. Images with known blur are processed digitally to determine a quantifiable measure of image blur. The algorithm is required to process UAV images fast and reliably to relieve the operator from detecting blurred images manually. The newly developed method makes it possible to detect blur caused by linear camera displacement and is based on human detection of blur. Humans detect blurred images best by comparing it to other images in order to establish whether an image is blurred or not. The developed algorithm simulates this procedure by creating an image for comparison using image processing. Creating internally a comparable image makes the method independent of

A new level set model for cell image segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Jing-Feng; Hou, Kai; Bao, Shang-Lian; Chen, Chun

2011-02-01

In this paper we first determine three phases of cell images: background, cytoplasm and nucleolus according to the general physical characteristics of cell images, and then develop a variational model, based on these characteristics, to segment nucleolus and cytoplasm from their relatively complicated backgrounds. In the meantime, the preprocessing obtained information of cell images using the OTSU algorithm is used to initialize the level set function in the model, which can speed up the segmentation and present satisfactory results in cell image processing.

Deformably registering and annotating whole CLARITY brains to an atlas via masked LDDMM

Science.gov (United States)

Kutten, Kwame S.; Vogelstein, Joshua T.; Charon, Nicolas; Ye, Li; Deisseroth, Karl; Miller, Michael I.

2016-04-01

The CLARITY method renders brains optically transparent to enable high-resolution imaging in the structurally intact brain. Anatomically annotating CLARITY brains is necessary for discovering which regions contain signals of interest. Manually annotating whole-brain, terabyte CLARITY images is difficult, time-consuming, subjective, and error-prone. Automatically registering CLARITY images to a pre-annotated brain atlas offers a solution, but is difficult for several reasons. Removal of the brain from the skull and subsequent storage and processing cause variable non-rigid deformations, thus compounding inter-subject anatomical variability. Additionally, the signal in CLARITY images arises from various biochemical contrast agents which only sparsely label brain structures. This sparse labeling challenges the most commonly used registration algorithms that need to match image histogram statistics to the more densely labeled histological brain atlases. The standard method is a multiscale Mutual Information B-spline algorithm that dynamically generates an average template as an intermediate registration target. We determined that this method performs poorly when registering CLARITY brains to the Allen Institute's Mouse Reference Atlas (ARA), because the image histogram statistics are poorly matched. Therefore, we developed a method (Mask-LDDMM) for registering CLARITY images, that automatically finds the brain boundary and learns the optimal deformation between the brain and atlas masks. Using Mask-LDDMM without an average template provided better results than the standard approach when registering CLARITY brains to the ARA. The LDDMM pipelines developed here provide a fast automated way to anatomically annotate CLARITY images; our code is available as open source software at http://NeuroData.io.

Context sensitive labeling of spinal structure in MR images

Science.gov (United States)

Bhole, Chetan; Kompalli, Suryaprakash; Chaudhary, Vipin

2009-02-01

We present a new method for automatic detection of the lumbar vertebrae and disk structure from MR images. In clinical settings, radiologists utilize several images of the lumbar structure for diagnosis of lumbar disorders. These images are co-registered by technicians and represent orthogonal features of the lumbar region. We combine information from T1W sagittal, T2W sagittal and T2W axial MR images to automatically label disks and vertebral columns. The method couples geometric and tissue property information available from the three types of images with image analysis approaches to achieve 98.8% accuracy for the disk labeling task on a test set of 67 images containing 335 disks.

MultiDrizzle: An Integrated Pyraf Script for Registering, Cleaning and Combining Images

Science.gov (United States)

Koekemoer, A. M.; Fruchter, A. S.; Hook, R. N.; Hack, W.

We present the new PyRAF-based `MultiDrizzle' script, which is aimed at providing a one-step approach to combining dithered HST images. The purpose of this script is to allow easy interaction with the complex suite of tasks in the IRAF/STSDAS `dither' package, as well as the new `PyDrizzle' task, while at the same time retaining the flexibility of these tasks through a number of parameters. These parameters control the various individual steps, such as sky subtraction, image registration, `drizzling' onto separate output images, creation of a clean median image, transformation of the median with `blot' and creation of cosmic ray masks, as well as the final image combination step using `drizzle'. The default parameters of all the steps are set so that the task will work automatically for a wide variety of different types of images, while at the same time allowing adjustment of individual parameters for special cases. The script currently works for both ACS and WFPC2 data, and is now being tested on STIS and NICMOS images. We describe the operation of the script and the effect of various parameters, particularly in the context of combining images from dithered observations using ACS and WFPC2. Additional information is also available at the `MultiDrizzle' home page: http://www.stsci.edu/~koekemoe/multidrizzle/

Clinical evaluation of a new set of image quality criteria for mammography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grahn, A.; Hemdal, B.; Andersson, I.; Ruschin, M.; Thilander-Klang, A.; Boerjesson, S.; Tingberg, A.; Mattsson, S.; Haakansson, M.; Baath, M.; Maansson, L. G.; Medin, J.; Wanninger, F.; Panzer, W.

2005-01-01

The European Commission (EC) quality criteria for screen-film mammography are used as a tool to asses image quality. A new set of criteria was developed and initially tested in a previous study. In the present study, these criteria are further evaluated using screen-film mammograms that have been digitised, manipulated to simulated different image quality level and reprinted on film. Expert radiologists have evaluated these manipulated to simulate different image quality levels and reprinted on film. Expert radiologists have evaluated these manipulated images using both the original (EC) and the new criteria. A comparison of three different simulated dose levels that the new criteria yield a larger separation of image criteria scores than the old ones. These results indicated that the new set of image quality criteria has a higher discriminative power than the old set and thus seems to be more suitable for evaluation of image quality in mammography. (authors)

Intraoperative registered transrectal ultrasound guidance for robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohareri, Omid; Ischia, Joseph; Black, Peter C; Schneider, Caitlin; Lobo, Julio; Goldenberg, Larry; Salcudean, Septimiu E

2015-01-01

To provide unencumbered real-time ultrasound image guidance during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, we developed a robotic transrectal ultrasound system that tracks the da Vinci® Surgical System instruments. We describe our initial clinical experience with this system. After an evaluation in a canine model, 20 patients were enrolled in the study. During each procedure the transrectal ultrasound transducer was manually positioned using a brachytherapy stabilizer to provide good imaging of the prostate. Then the transrectal ultrasound was registered to the da Vinci robot by a previously validated procedure. Finally, automatic rotation of the transrectal ultrasound was enabled such that the transrectal ultrasound imaging plane safely tracked the tip of the da Vinci instrument controlled by the surgeon, while real-time transrectal ultrasound images were relayed to the surgeon at the da Vinci console. Tracking was activated during all critical stages of the surgery. The transrectal ultrasound robot was easy to set up and use, adding 7 minutes (range 5 to 14) to the procedure. It did not require an assistant or additional control devices. Qualitative feedback was acquired from the surgeons, who found transrectal ultrasound useful in identifying the urethra while passing the dorsal venous complex suture, defining the prostate-bladder interface during bladder neck dissection, identifying the seminal vesicles and their location with respect to the rectal wall, and identifying the distal prostate boundary at the apex. Real-time, registered robotic transrectal ultrasound guidance with automatic instrument tracking during robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy is feasible and potentially useful. The results justify further studies to establish whether the approach can improve procedure outcomes. Copyright © 2015 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A general technique for interstudy registration of multifunction and multimodality images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, K.P.; Huang, S.C.; Bacter, L.R.; Phelps, M.E.

1994-01-01

A technique that can register anatomic/structural brain images (e.g., MRI) with various functional images (e.g., PET-FDG and PET-FDOPA) of the same subject has been developed. The procedure of this technique includes the following steps: (1) segmentation of MRI brain images into gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), and, muscle (MS) components, (2) assignment of appropriate radio-tracer concentrations to various components depending on the kind of functional image that is being registered, (3) generation of simulated functional images to have a spatial resolution that is comparable to that of the measured ones, (4) alignment of the measured functional images to the simulated ones that are based on MRI images. A self-organization clustering method is used to segment the MRI images. The image alignment is based on the criterion of least squares of the pixel-by-pixel differences between the two sets of images that are being matched and on the Powell's algorithm for minimization. The technique was applied successfully for registering the MRI, PET-FDG, and PET-FDOPA images. This technique offers a general solution to the registration of structural images to functional images and to the registration of different functional images of markedly different distributions

A new level set model for cell image segmentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma Jing-Feng; Chen Chun; Hou Kai; Bao Shang-Lian

2011-01-01

In this paper we first determine three phases of cell images: background, cytoplasm and nucleolus according to the general physical characteristics of cell images, and then develop a variational model, based on these characteristics, to segment nucleolus and cytoplasm from their relatively complicated backgrounds. In the meantime, the preprocessing obtained information of cell images using the OTSU algorithm is used to initialize the level set function in the model, which can speed up the segmentation and present satisfactory results in cell image processing. (cross-disciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

Das sprachliche Register (Speech Registers)

Science.gov (United States)

Hess-Luttich, Ernest W. B.

1974-01-01

The linguistic behavior of a given individual varies; he will on different occasions speak (or write) differently according to what may be roughly described as different social situations: he will use a number of different registers. The application of such registers both in the field of text analysis and in the preparation of teaching materials…

Register as the Situational Variety of Language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalya B. Boyeva-Omelechko

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The problem discussed in the article is topical due to the interest of scientists to different types of language variations and especially registers or situational dialects treated by M.A.K. Halliday as use-related varieties of language or varieties used in a particular social setting. As discourse categorization is a very complex problem scholarly consensus has not been reached for the definitions of the term «register». The universal criteria for defining and discriminating registers have not been worked out either. The authors of the article give the review of scientific works devoted to the problem in question especially works by M.A.K. Halliday, R. Quirk, M. Joos, D. Hymes P. Trudgill, E.I. Belyaeva and others and analyze different definitions of the term «register», spectrums of registers and criteria for their discriminating. It enables the authors to come to the conclusion that only registers with the same field (religious, political, business etc. and mode (oral/written, dialogue/monologue can be compared. The difference lies in the sphere of tenor which depends on the degree of formality, distance of power and socio-psychological distance between speakers. The authors believe that it is also necessary to take into account the cooperative/ uncooperative character of conversation and para-verbal and non-verbal components of the speech situation. With this in mind they offer their definition of the register and describe main characteristics of registers in the sphere of oral communication.

Behaviors of cost functions in image registration between 201Tl brain tumor single-photon emission computed tomography and magnetic resonance images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soma, Tsutomu; Takaki, Akihiro; Teraoka, Satomi; Ishikawa, Yasushi; Murase, Kenya; Koizumi, Kiyoshi

2008-01-01

We studied the behaviors of cost functions in the registration of thallium-201 ( 201 Tl) brain tumor single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images, as the similarity index of image positioning. A marker for image registration [technetium-99m ( 99m Tc) point source] was attached at three sites on the heads of 13 patients with brain tumor, from whom 42 sets of 99m Tc- 201 Tl SPECT (the dual-isotope acquisition) and MR images were obtained. The 201 Tl SPECT and MR images were manually registered according to the markers. From the positions where the two images were registered, the position of the 201 Tl SPECT was moved to examine the behaviors of the three cost functions, i.e., ratio image uniformity (RIU), mutual information (MI), and normalized MI (NMI). The cost functions MI and NMI reached the maximum at positions adjacent to those where the SPECT and MR images were manually registered. As for the accuracy of image registration in terms of the cost functions MI and NMI, on average, the images were accurately registered within 3 deg of rotation around the X-, Y-, and Z-axes, and within 1.5 mm (within 2 pixels), 3 mm (within 3 pixels), and 4 mm (within 1 slice) of translation to the X-, Y-, and Z-axes, respectively. In terms of rotation around the Z-axis, the cost function RIU reached the minimum at positions where the manual registration of the two images was substantially inadequate. The MI and NMI were suitable cost functions in the registration of 201 Tl SPECT and MR images. The behavior of the RIU, in contrast, was unstable, being unsuitable as an index of image registration. (author)

SU-C-204-06: Surface Imaging for the Set-Up of Proton Post-Mastectomy Chestwall Irradiation: Gated Images Vs Non Gated Images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Batin, E; Depauw, N; MacDonald, S; Lu, H [Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose: Historically, the set-up for proton post-mastectomy chestwall irradiation at our institution started with positioning the patient using tattoos and lasers. One or more rounds of orthogonal X-rays at gantry 0° and beamline X-ray at treatment gantry angle were then taken to finalize the set-up position. As chestwall targets are shallow and superficial, surface imaging is a promising tool for set-up and needs to be investigated Methods: The orthogonal imaging was entirely replaced by AlignRT™ (ART) images. The beamline X-Ray image is kept as a confirmation, based primarily on three opaque markers placed on skin surface instead of bony anatomy. In the first phase of the process, ART gated images were used to set-up the patient and the same specific point of the breathing curve was used every day. The moves (translations and rotations) computed for each point of the breathing curve during the first five fractions were analyzed for ten patients. During a second phase of the study, ART gated images were replaced by ART non-gated images combined with real-time monitoring. In both cases, ART images were acquired just before treatment to access the patient position compare to the non-gated CT. Results: The average difference between the maximum move and the minimum move depending on the chosen breathing curve point was less than 1.7 mm for all translations and less than 0.7° for all rotations. The average position discrepancy over the course of treatment obtained by ART non gated images combined to real-time monitoring taken before treatment to the planning CT were smaller than the average position discrepancy obtained using ART gated images. The X-Ray validation images show similar results with both ART imaging process. Conclusion: The use of ART non gated images combined with real time imaging allows positioning post-mastectomy chestwall patients in less than 3 mm / 1°.

SU-C-204-06: Surface Imaging for the Set-Up of Proton Post-Mastectomy Chestwall Irradiation: Gated Images Vs Non Gated Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Batin, E; Depauw, N; MacDonald, S; Lu, H

2015-01-01

Purpose: Historically, the set-up for proton post-mastectomy chestwall irradiation at our institution started with positioning the patient using tattoos and lasers. One or more rounds of orthogonal X-rays at gantry 0° and beamline X-ray at treatment gantry angle were then taken to finalize the set-up position. As chestwall targets are shallow and superficial, surface imaging is a promising tool for set-up and needs to be investigated Methods: The orthogonal imaging was entirely replaced by AlignRT™ (ART) images. The beamline X-Ray image is kept as a confirmation, based primarily on three opaque markers placed on skin surface instead of bony anatomy. In the first phase of the process, ART gated images were used to set-up the patient and the same specific point of the breathing curve was used every day. The moves (translations and rotations) computed for each point of the breathing curve during the first five fractions were analyzed for ten patients. During a second phase of the study, ART gated images were replaced by ART non-gated images combined with real-time monitoring. In both cases, ART images were acquired just before treatment to access the patient position compare to the non-gated CT. Results: The average difference between the maximum move and the minimum move depending on the chosen breathing curve point was less than 1.7 mm for all translations and less than 0.7° for all rotations. The average position discrepancy over the course of treatment obtained by ART non gated images combined to real-time monitoring taken before treatment to the planning CT were smaller than the average position discrepancy obtained using ART gated images. The X-Ray validation images show similar results with both ART imaging process. Conclusion: The use of ART non gated images combined with real time imaging allows positioning post-mastectomy chestwall patients in less than 3 mm / 1°

Registered nurses' clinical reasoning skills and reasoning process: A think-aloud study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, JuHee; Lee, Young Joo; Bae, JuYeon; Seo, Minjeong

2016-11-01

As complex chronic diseases are increasing, nurses' prompt and accurate clinical reasoning skills are essential. However, little is known about the reasoning skills of registered nurses. This study aimed to determine how registered nurses use their clinical reasoning skills and to identify how the reasoning process proceeds in the complex clinical situation of hospital setting. A qualitative exploratory design was used with a think-aloud method. A total of 13 registered nurses (mean years of experience=11.4) participated in the study, solving an ill-structured clinical problem based on complex chronic patients cases in a hospital setting. Data were analyzed using deductive content analysis. Findings showed that the registered nurses used a variety of clinical reasoning skills. The most commonly used skill was 'checking accuracy and reliability.' The reasoning process of registered nurses covered assessment, analysis, diagnosis, planning/implementation, and evaluation phase. It is critical that registered nurses apply appropriate clinical reasoning skills in complex clinical practice. The main focus of registered nurses' reasoning in this study was assessing a patient's health problem, and their reasoning process was cyclic, rather than linear. There is a need for educational strategy development to enhance registered nurses' competency in determining appropriate interventions in a timely and accurate fashion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Variational Level Set Model Combined with FCMS for Image Clustering Segmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liming Tang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The fuzzy C means clustering algorithm with spatial constraint (FCMS is effective for image segmentation. However, it lacks essential smoothing constraints to the cluster boundaries and enough robustness to the noise. Samson et al. proposed a variational level set model for image clustering segmentation, which can get the smooth cluster boundaries and closed cluster regions due to the use of level set scheme. However it is very sensitive to the noise since it is actually a hard C means clustering model. In this paper, based on Samson’s work, we propose a new variational level set model combined with FCMS for image clustering segmentation. Compared with FCMS clustering, the proposed model can get smooth cluster boundaries and closed cluster regions due to the use of level set scheme. In addition, a block-based energy is incorporated into the energy functional, which enables the proposed model to be more robust to the noise than FCMS clustering and Samson’s model. Some experiments on the synthetic and real images are performed to assess the performance of the proposed model. Compared with some classical image segmentation models, the proposed model has a better performance for the images contaminated by different noise levels.

A study on applying image dictionary to inner organ registration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuno, Takamichi; Asai, Takeshi; Iwata, Takuya; Hontani, Hidekata

2010-01-01

In this article, we report on selecting image features that are useful for registering organ surface in medical image based on image dictionary constructed for the organ. Here, the image dictionary denotes a basis set, which is non-orthogonal and over-complete one and is designed to represent images of the target organ. We propose a method that refers to a combination of the basis obtained for reconstructing a given image in order to estimate the location of the target organ. (author)

EVOLUTION {sup registered} BLUE. Designed for the needs of tomorrow; EVOLUTION {sup registered} BLUE. Entwickelt fuer die Anforderungen von morgen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blessing, Carsten [ThyssenKrupp Aufzugswerke GmbH, Neuhausen (Germany). Product Service; Dangerfield, Nicola [ThyssenKrupp Aufzuege GmbH, Stuttgart (Germany). Sales Support/Marketing Communication

2013-11-01

The future needs innovation. The new elevator design concept EVOLUTION {sup registered} BLUE sets new standards for flexibility, shaft efficiency, energy saving and design. It uses materials of the highest quality. (orig.)

Secondary electron images obtained with a standard PEEM set up

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benka, O.; Zeppenfeld, P.

2004-01-01

Secondary electron images excited by 3 to 4.3 keV electrons are obtained with a standard photoelectron electron emission microscope (PEEM) set up equipped with an imaging energy filter (IEF). The electron gun was mounted on a standard PEEM entrance flange at an angle of 25 o with respect to the sample surface. A low extraction voltage of 500 V was used to minimize the deflection of the electron beam by the PEEM extraction electrode. The secondary electron images are compared to photoelectron images excited by a standard 4.9 eV UV lamp. In the case of a Cu pattern on a Si substrate it is found that the lateral resolution without the IEF is about the same for electron and photon excitation but that the relative electron emission intensities are very different. The use of the IEF-reduces the lateral resolution. Images for secondary electron energies between eV 1 and eV 2 were obtained by setting the IEF to -V 1 and -V 2 ∼ -(V 1 + 5V) potentials and taking the difference of both images. Images up to 100 eV electron energies were recorded. The lateral resolution is in the range of μm. The material contrast obtained in these difference images are discussed in terms of a secondary electron and photoelectron emission model and secondary electron energy spectra measured with a LEED-Auger spectrometer. (author)

Cameras and settings for optimal image capture from UAVs

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Mike; O'Connor, James; James, Mike R.

2017-04-01

Aerial image capture has become very common within the geosciences due to the increasing affordability of low payload (markets. Their application to surveying has led to many studies being undertaken using UAV imagery captured from consumer grade cameras as primary data sources. However, image quality and the principles of image capture are seldom given rigorous discussion which can lead to experiments being difficult to accurately reproduce. In this contribution we revisit the underpinning concepts behind image capture, from which the requirements for acquiring sharp, well exposed and suitable imagery are derived. This then leads to discussion of how to optimise the platform, camera, lens and imaging settings relevant to image quality planning, presenting some worked examples as a guide. Finally, we challenge the community to make their image data open for review in order to ensure confidence in the outputs/error estimates, allow reproducibility of the results and have these comparable with future studies. We recommend providing open access imagery where possible, a range of example images, and detailed metadata to rigorously describe the image capture process.

The Cerefy registered clinical brain atlas on CD-ROM. Based on the classic Talairach-Tournoux and Schaltenbrand-Wahren brain atlases. 2. ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowinski, W.L.; Thirunavuukarasuu, A.

2001-01-01

This remarkable CD-ROM provides enhanced and extended versions of three world-famous Thieme atlases, (Schaltenbrand and Wahren's Atlas for Stereotaxy of the Human Brain, Talairach and Tournoux's Co-Planar Stereotaxis Atlas of the Human Brain and Referentially Oriented Cerebral MRI Anatomy). It contains the electronic atlases as well as an easy navigation system to facilitate searching for and displaying more than 525 anatomical structures. Revolutionizing the field of brain anatomy, the authors have segmented, labeled, and cross referenced all the information contained in the books, and created contours for all three atlases. The Cerefy registered Clinical Brain Atlas now allows you to electronically navigate these atlases simultaneously on axial, coronal, and sagittal planes, and enjoy the ability to: 1. Access 210 high-quality, fully segmented, and labeled atlas images with corresponding contours, 2. Display and manipulate spatially co-registered atlases, 3. Dynamically label images with structure names and descriptions, and then highlight selected structures in the atlas image, 4. Image zoom in five different levels, mensurate, search, set triplanar, get coordinates, save, and print, 5. Access on-line help, glossary, and supportive atlas materials. (orig.)

Registering Active and Passive IMAGE RPI Datasets with the Virtual Wave Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Galkin, I. A.; Fung, S.; King, T. A.; Reinisch, B. W.

2008-12-01

Development of the Virtual Wave Observatory (VWO) for acquired active/passive plasma wave and radiation datasets will be a significant step forward for the Heliophysics community in its efforts to make wave-specific science data searchable, understandable, and usable. The first phase of the VWO project commenced in September 2008 with the goal of converting existing custom database storing wave data acquired by the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) on the NASA IMAGE satellite into the VxO realm and, specifically, the SPASE Data Model. The RPI dataset comprises 1.2 million active and 0.8 million passive stepped-frequency measurements whose exploration incurs substantial expense of data search and expert interpretation. Our attention is drawn to the ability of the VWO not only to organize numeric and display data records in the SPASE-compatible manner, but most importantly, provide the essential means to capture the wave research community knowledge in accompanying metadata so as to let users understand the VWO data collections and search them by phenomena and context conditions. To that end, we pursue to extend the SPASE model to include wave-relevant terms and to develop a VWO annotation service to provide searchable data interpretations to the scientists who may not be a wave expert. The SPASE Data Model provides several means to describe data sets in a unified manner, forging them together in a three large categories, (1) numeric data, (2) display data, and (3) catalogs. Whereas numeric data resources simply point to the instrument data, the other two categories refer to the presentation of derived and interpreted information. We consider images of the RPI data as derived products that required investment in time and effort to create, especially if their author provided interpretation of visible signatures and optimized the visualization settings to highlight the signatures. When such interpretations are available, they can be used to further group RPI data in categories

Image registration method for medical image sequences

Science.gov (United States)

Gee, Timothy F.; Goddard, James S.

2013-03-26

Image registration of low contrast image sequences is provided. In one aspect, a desired region of an image is automatically segmented and only the desired region is registered. Active contours and adaptive thresholding of intensity or edge information may be used to segment the desired regions. A transform function is defined to register the segmented region, and sub-pixel information may be determined using one or more interpolation methods.

Contrast enhancement of fingerprint images using intuitionistic type II fuzzy set

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devarasan Ezhilmaran

2015-04-01

Full Text Available A novel contrast image enhancement of fingerprint images using intuitionistic type II fuzzy set theory is recommended in this work. The method of Hamacher T co-norm(S norm which generates a new membership function with the help of upper and lower membership function of type II fuzzy set. The finger print identification is one of the very few techniques employed in forensic science to aid criminal investigations in daily life, providing access control in financial security;-, visa related services, as well as others. Mostly fingerprint images are poorly illuminated and hardly visible, so it is necessary to enhance the input images. The enhancement is useful for authentication and matching. The fingerprint enhancement is vital for identifying and authenticating people by matching their fingerprints with the stored one in the database. The proposed enhancement of the intuitionistic type II fuzzy set theory results showed that it is more effective, especially, very useful for forensic science operations. The experimental results were compared with non-fuzzy, fuzzy, intuitionistic fuzzy and type II fuzzy methods in which the proposed method offered better results with good quality, less noise and low blur features.

CMOS Compressed Imaging by Random Convolution

OpenAIRE

Jacques, Laurent; Vandergheynst, Pierre; Bibet, Alexandre; Majidzadeh, Vahid; Schmid, Alexandre; Leblebici, Yusuf

2009-01-01

We present a CMOS imager with built-in capability to perform Compressed Sensing. The adopted sensing strategy is the random Convolution due to J. Romberg. It is achieved by a shift register set in a pseudo-random configuration. It acts as a convolutive filter on the imager focal plane, the current issued from each CMOS pixel undergoing a pseudo-random redirection controlled by each component of the filter sequence. A pseudo-random triggering of the ADC reading is finally applied to comp...

Turnover of registered nurses in Israel: characteristics and predictors.

Science.gov (United States)

Toren, Orly; Zelker, Revital; Lipschuetz, Michal; Riba, Shoshana; Reicher, Sima; Nirel, Nurit

2012-05-01

In an era of global and local nursing shortages, nursing turnover has negative consequences in terms of diminished quality of care, increased costs and economic losses and decreased job satisfaction. To examine the turnover rate of registered nurses in Israel by assessing the varying degree of turnover between economic sectors, between hospital and community facilities, and/or between types of hospitals; and by examining potential predicting factors of turnover among registered nurses. A national phone survey was undertaken in Israel consisting of a random sampling of registered nurses of working age (up to age 60). The subjects comprised 10% of a national database of 32,000 registered nurses. The turnover rate among working nurses in Israel currently stands at 23%. In addition, 13% of employed nurses have taken a temporary leave of absence for a period greater than 6 months in the past 10 years, most up to 1 year. While job satisfaction rates were relatively high (72%), Professional satisfaction rates were 60% with no significant difference between hospital and community nurses. The turnover rate of registered nurses from a hospital setting to the community was significantly higher (pcommunity registered nurses to hospitals. Predicting factors of turnover were found to be: young age, part-time work, lack of advanced professional education, academic education and low satisfaction with the nursing profession. The shift of nursing workforce is mainly from hospitals to community health settings. There is a need to monitor and understand the characteristics of job and professional satisfaction among hospital nurses in order to implement crucial organizational interventions and retain hospital nursing staffs. Since young nurses, nurses working part time and nurses with no advanced professional and academic education, tend to move more than others, efforts should be targeted at these specific groups. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

International urinary tract imaging basic spinal cord injury data set.

Science.gov (United States)

Biering-Sørensen, F; Craggs, M; Kennelly, M; Schick, E; Wyndaele, J-J

2009-05-01

To create an International Urinary Tract Imaging Basic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Data Set within the framework of the International SCI Data Sets. An international working group. The draft of the Data Set was developed by a working group comprising members appointed by the Neurourology Committee of the International Continence Society, the European Association of Urology, the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) and a representative of the Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets. The final version of the Data Set was developed after review and comments by members of the Executive Committee of the International SCI Standards and Data Sets, the ISCoS Scientific Committee, ASIA Board, relevant and interested international organizations and societies (around 40), individual persons with specific expertise and the ISCoS Council. Endorsement of the Data Sets by relevant organizations and societies will be obtained. To make the Data Set uniform, each variable and each response category within each variable have been specifically defined in a way that is designed to promote the collection and reporting of comparable minimal data. The variables included in the International Urinary Tract Imaging Basic SCI Data Set are the results obtained using the following investigations: intravenous pyelography or computer tomography urogram or ultrasound, X-ray, renography, clearance, cystogram, voiding cystogram or micturition cystourogram or videourodynamics. The complete instructions for data collection and the data sheet itself are freely available on the websites of both ISCoS (http://www.iscos.org.uk) and ASIA (http://www.asia-spinalinjury.org).

Level-set-based reconstruction algorithm for EIT lung images: first clinical results.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmati, Peyman; Soleimani, Manuchehr; Pulletz, Sven; Frerichs, Inéz; Adler, Andy

2012-05-01

We show the first clinical results using the level-set-based reconstruction algorithm for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) data. The level-set-based reconstruction method (LSRM) allows the reconstruction of non-smooth interfaces between image regions, which are typically smoothed by traditional voxel-based reconstruction methods (VBRMs). We develop a time difference formulation of the LSRM for 2D images. The proposed reconstruction method is applied to reconstruct clinical EIT data of a slow flow inflation pressure-volume manoeuvre in lung-healthy and adult lung-injury patients. Images from the LSRM and the VBRM are compared. The results show comparable reconstructed images, but with an improved ability to reconstruct sharp conductivity changes in the distribution of lung ventilation using the LSRM.

Level-set-based reconstruction algorithm for EIT lung images: first clinical results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahmati, Peyman; Adler, Andy; Soleimani, Manuchehr; Pulletz, Sven; Frerichs, Inéz

2012-01-01

We show the first clinical results using the level-set-based reconstruction algorithm for electrical impedance tomography (EIT) data. The level-set-based reconstruction method (LSRM) allows the reconstruction of non-smooth interfaces between image regions, which are typically smoothed by traditional voxel-based reconstruction methods (VBRMs). We develop a time difference formulation of the LSRM for 2D images. The proposed reconstruction method is applied to reconstruct clinical EIT data of a slow flow inflation pressure–volume manoeuvre in lung-healthy and adult lung-injury patients. Images from the LSRM and the VBRM are compared. The results show comparable reconstructed images, but with an improved ability to reconstruct sharp conductivity changes in the distribution of lung ventilation using the LSRM. (paper)

Nonparametric Mixture Models for Supervised Image Parcellation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sabuncu, Mert R; Yeo, B T Thomas; Van Leemput, Koen; Fischl, Bruce; Golland, Polina

2009-09-01

We present a nonparametric, probabilistic mixture model for the supervised parcellation of images. The proposed model yields segmentation algorithms conceptually similar to the recently developed label fusion methods, which register a new image with each training image separately. Segmentation is achieved via the fusion of transferred manual labels. We show that in our framework various settings of a model parameter yield algorithms that use image intensity information differently in determining the weight of a training subject during fusion. One particular setting computes a single, global weight per training subject, whereas another setting uses locally varying weights when fusing the training data. The proposed nonparametric parcellation approach capitalizes on recently developed fast and robust pairwise image alignment tools. The use of multiple registrations allows the algorithm to be robust to occasional registration failures. We report experiments on 39 volumetric brain MRI scans with expert manual labels for the white matter, cerebral cortex, ventricles and subcortical structures. The results demonstrate that the proposed nonparametric segmentation framework yields significantly better segmentation than state-of-the-art algorithms.

Clinical blood pool MR Imaging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leiner, Tim [Maastrich University Medical Center (Netherlands). Dept. of Radiology; Goyen, Martin [University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (Germany); Rohrer, Mathias [Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Berlin (Germany). European Business Unit Diagnostic Imaging; Schoenberg, Stefan O. (eds.) [University Hospital Mannheim Medical Faculty Mannheim - Heidelberg Univ. (Germany). Dept. of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine

2008-07-01

Clinical Blood Pool MR Imaging - This excellent treatise on Vasovist {sup registered} created by a team of exceptional faculty who are pioneers in MR Angiography covers the basic techniques, safety, efficacy, image processing and pharmaco-economic details to successfully implement a new level of MRA image quality with this new contrast agent. Martin Prince, Cornell University, New York The editors and authors have made groundbreaking contributions towards establishing MR angiography in various investigative settings, rendering it more precise and applying it for diverse indications. The work presented here is founded upon the extensive experience of the editors, as well as the broad range of experience from other scientific working groups. Maximilian Reiser, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich Vasovist {sup registered} (Gadofosveset), worldwide the first blood pool agent, has only recently become available for clinical use, but has already gained wide acceptance as a tool to improve magnetic resonance angiography. This book presents the first in-depth introduction to the basic physicochemical aspects of the agent, the application of Vasovist {sup registered} in clinical MRA, as well as potential clinical applications beyond MRA and patient management-related aspects. The first part of the book explains basic and technical properties of the agent and the differences of Vasovist {sup registered} compared to currently available extracellular agents. The second part contains detailed chapters on safety and efficacy. In the third part the focus is on MR angiographic applications, and in the fourth part of the book potential clinical fields beyond MRA are explored. All clinical chapters feature ready-to-use clinical protocols and a series of take home messages that concisely summarize the current role of blood pool imaging for each specific indication. (orig.)

Level set segmentation of medical images based on local region statistics and maximum a posteriori probability.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Wenchao; Wang, Yi; Lei, Tao; Fan, Yangyu; Feng, Yan

2013-01-01

This paper presents a variational level set method for simultaneous segmentation and bias field estimation of medical images with intensity inhomogeneity. In our model, the statistics of image intensities belonging to each different tissue in local regions are characterized by Gaussian distributions with different means and variances. According to maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) and Bayes' rule, we first derive a local objective function for image intensities in a neighborhood around each pixel. Then this local objective function is integrated with respect to the neighborhood center over the entire image domain to give a global criterion. In level set framework, this global criterion defines an energy in terms of the level set functions that represent a partition of the image domain and a bias field that accounts for the intensity inhomogeneity of the image. Therefore, image segmentation and bias field estimation are simultaneously achieved via a level set evolution process. Experimental results for synthetic and real images show desirable performances of our method.

Tracking the footsteps: a constructivist grounded theory of the clinical reasoning processes that registered nurses use to recognise delirium.

Science.gov (United States)

El Hussein, Mohamed; Hirst, Sandra

2016-02-01

To construct a grounded theory that explains the clinical reasoning processes that registered nurses use to recognise delirium while caring for older adults in acute care settings. Delirium is often under-recognised in acute care settings; this may stem from underdeveloped clinical reasoning processes. Little is known about registered nurses' clinical reasoning processes in complex situations such as delirium recognition. Seventeen registered nurses working in acute care settings were interviewed. Concurrent data collection and analysis, constant comparative analysis and theoretical sampling were conducted in 2013-2014. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse interview data about the clinical reasoning processes of registered nurse in acute hospital settings. The core category that emerged from data was 'Tracking the footsteps'. This refers to the common clinical reasoning processes that registered nurses in this study used to recognise delirium in older adults in acute care settings. It depicted the process of continuously trying to catch the state of delirium in older adults. Understanding the clinical reasoning processes that contribute to delirium under-recognition provides a strategy by which this problem can be brought to the forefront of awareness and intervention by registered nurses. Registered nurses could draw from the various processes identified in this research to develop their clinical reasoning practice to enhance their effective assessment strategies. Delirium recognition by registered nurses will contribute to quality care to older adults. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Feature and Intensity Based Medical Image Registration Using Particle Swarm Optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel-Basset, Mohamed; Fakhry, Ahmed E; El-Henawy, Ibrahim; Qiu, Tie; Sangaiah, Arun Kumar

2017-11-03

Image registration is an important aspect in medical image analysis, and kinds use in a variety of medical applications. Examples include diagnosis, pre/post surgery guidance, comparing/merging/integrating images from multi-modal like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Computed Tomography (CT). Whether registering images across modalities for a single patient or registering across patients for a single modality, registration is an effective way to combine information from different images into a normalized frame for reference. Registered datasets can be used for providing information relating to the structure, function, and pathology of the organ or individual being imaged. In this paper a hybrid approach for medical images registration has been developed. It employs a modified Mutual Information (MI) as a similarity metric and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. Computation of mutual information is modified using a weighted linear combination of image intensity and image gradient vector flow (GVF) intensity. In this manner, statistical as well as spatial image information is included into the image registration process. Maximization of the modified mutual information is effected using the versatile Particle Swarm Optimization which is developed easily with adjusted less parameter. The developed approach has been tested and verified successfully on a number of medical image data sets that include images with missing parts, noise contamination, and/or of different modalities (CT, MRI). The registration results indicate the proposed model as accurate and effective, and show the posture contribution in inclusion of both statistical and spatial image data to the developed approach.

Multimodality cranial image fusion using external markers applied via a vacuum mouthpiece and a case report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sweeney, R.A.; Seydl, K.; Lukas, P.; Bale, R.J.; Trieb, T.; Moncayo, R.; Donnemiller, E.; Eisner, W.; Burtscher, J.; Stockhammer, G.

2003-01-01

Purpose: To present a simple and precise method of combining functional information of cranial SPECT and PET images with CT and MRI, in any combination. Material and Methods: Imaging is performed with a hockey mask-like reference frame with image modality-specific markers in precisely defined positions. This frame is reproducibly connected to the VBH vacuum mouthpiece, granting objectively identical repositioning of the frame with respect to the cranium. Using these markers, the desired 3-D imaging modalities can then be manually or automatically registered. This information can be used for diagnosis, treatment planning, and evaluation of follow-up, while the same vacuum mouthpiece allows precisely reproducible stereotactic head fixation during radiotherapy. Results: 244 CT and MR data sets of 49 patients were registered to a root square mean error (RSME) of 0.9 mm (mean). 64 SPECT-CT fusions on 18 of these patients gave an RMSE of 1.4 mm, and 40 PET-CT data sets of eight patients were registered to 1.3 mm. An example of the method is given by means of a case report of a 52-year-old patient with bilateral optic nerve meningioma. Conclusion: This technique is a simple, objective and accurate registration tool to combine diagnosis, treatment planning, treatment, and follow-up, all via an individualized vacuum mouthpiece. Especially for low-resolution PET and even more so for some very diffuse SPECT data sets, activity can now be accurately correlated to anatomic structures. (orig.)

Pilot study for supervised target detection applied to spatially registered multiparametric MRI in order to non-invasively score prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayer, Rulon; Simone, Charles B; Skinner, William; Turkbey, Baris; Choykey, Peter

2018-03-01

Gleason Score (GS) is a validated predictor of prostate cancer (PCa) disease progression and outcomes. GS from invasive needle biopsies suffers from significant inter-observer variability and possible sampling error, leading to underestimating disease severity ("underscoring") and can result in possible complications. A robust non-invasive image-based approach is, therefore, needed. Use spatially registered multi-parametric MRI (MP-MRI), signatures, and supervised target detection algorithms (STDA) to non-invasively GS PCa at the voxel level. This study retrospectively analyzed 26 MP-MRI from The Cancer Imaging Archive. The MP-MRI (T2, Diffusion Weighted, Dynamic Contrast Enhanced) were spatially registered to each other, combined into stacks, and stitched together to form hypercubes. Multi-parametric (or multi-spectral) signatures derived from a training set of registered MP-MRI were transformed using statistics-based Whitening-Dewhitening (WD). Transformed signatures were inserted into STDA (having conical decision surfaces) applied to registered MP-MRI determined the tumor GS. The MRI-derived GS was quantitatively compared to the pathologist's assessment of the histology of sectioned whole mount prostates from patients who underwent radical prostatectomy. In addition, a meta-analysis of 17 studies of needle biopsy determined GS with confusion matrices and was compared to the MRI-determined GS. STDA and histology determined GS are highly correlated (R = 0.86, p < 0.02). STDA more accurately determined GS and reduced GS underscoring of PCa relative to needle biopsy as summarized by meta-analysis (p < 0.05). This pilot study found registered MP-MRI, STDA, and WD transforms of signatures shows promise in non-invasively GS PCa and reducing underscoring with high spatial resolution. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Danish nationwide clinical register for patients with rheumatoid arthritis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ibfelt, Else Helene; Jensen, Dorte Vendelbo; Hetland, Merete Lund

2016-01-01

the following: patient-reported outcomes for disease activity, pain, fatigue, functional status, and physician-reported objective measures of disease activity, treatment, C-reactive protein, and, when indicated, imaging. For subgroups of patients, the variables such as quality of life, sociodemographic factors...... original papers as well as annual reports of clinical quality (since 2005) have been published. Conclusion: DANBIO is a powerful register for research in rheumatologic diseases and furthermore serves as a Clinical Quality Register with the aim of monitoring treatment quality in patients with RA in Denmark....

Reflections on Distributive Leadership for Work-Based Mobile Learning of Canadian Registered Nurses

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Fahlman, Dorothy

2017-01-01

The ubiquity, flexibility, and accessibility of mobile devices can transform how registered nurses in Canada learn beyond the confines of traditional education/training boundaries in their work settings. Many Canadian registered nurses have actively embraced mobile technologies for their work-based learning to meet their competency requirements…

A simplified approach to merging partial plane image

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mária Kruláková

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces a method of image recognition based on the gradual generating and analysis of data structure consistingof the 2D space using the difference from the row and column vectors’ sums as an application of the linear algebra. The result ofthe data processing is a graphical interpretation of the measure of the similarity of the generated results of overlapping of 2 images.Maximal measure of the similarity is a measure for image registration. The study result is to create a list of the images order, in which one follows the other, included in the non-registered set of images that can be used for the final image-stitching

Secondary electron images obtained with a standard photoelectron emission microscope set-up

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benka, Oswald; Zeppenfeld, Peter

2005-01-01

The first results of secondary electron images excited by 3-4.3 keV electrons are presented. The images are obtained with a standard FOCUS-PEEM set-up equipped with an imaging energy filter (IEF). The electron gun was mounted on a standard PEEM entrance flange at an angle of 25 deg. with respect to the sample surface. A low extraction voltage of 500 V was used to minimize the deflection of the electron beam by the PEEM extraction electrode. The secondary electron images are compared to photoelectron images excited by a standard 4.9 eV UV lamp. In the case of a Cu pattern on a Si substrate it is found that the lateral resolution without the IEF is about the same for electron and photon excitation but that the relative electron emission intensities are very different. The use of the IEF reduces the lateral resolution. Images for secondary electron energies between eV 1 and eV 2 were obtained by setting the IEF to -V 1 and -V 2 ∼-(V 1 +5V) potentials and taking the difference of both images. Images up to 100 eV electron energies were recorded. The material contrast obtained in these difference images is discussed in terms of a secondary electron and photoelectron emission model and secondary electron energy spectra measured with a LEED-Auger spectrometer

Application of smart phone and supporting set for fundus imaging in primary hospital of rural area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong-Feng Jing

2018-01-01

Full Text Available AIM: To describe the application of smart phone and supporting set for acquiring fundus images with slitlamp examination and non-contact lens in primary hospital of the rural area. METHODS: The supporting set for smart phone was purchased from taobao and securely connected to the ocular lens of slitlamp microscopy. The fundus photos were imaged with assistance of non-contact slitlamp lens from Volk. RESULTS: High quality images of various retinal diseases could be successfully taken with smart phone and supporting set by slitlamp examination. The fundus images were send to patients with Wechat as medical records or used for telconsultant. CONCLUSION: High resolution smart phones are wildly used nowadays and supporting sets are very accessible; thus high quality of images could be obtained with minimal cost in rural hospitals. The digital fundus images will be beneficial for medical record and rapid diagnosis with telconsultant.

Robust boundary detection of left ventricles on ultrasound images using ASM-level set method.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yaonan; Gao, Yuan; Li, Hong; Teng, Yueyang; Kang, Yan

2015-01-01

Level set method has been widely used in medical image analysis, but it has difficulties when being used in the segmentation of left ventricular (LV) boundaries on echocardiography images because the boundaries are not very distinguish, and the signal-to-noise ratio of echocardiography images is not very high. In this paper, we introduce the Active Shape Model (ASM) into the traditional level set method to enforce shape constraints. It improves the accuracy of boundary detection and makes the evolution more efficient. The experiments conducted on the real cardiac ultrasound image sequences show a positive and promising result.

MR imaging system evaluation and quality assurance using a new phantom set

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsui, B.M.W.; Jaszczak, R.J.; Todd-Pokropek, A.E.; Jaszczak, N.J.

1986-01-01

A phantom set with interchangeable modular inserts was used in the evaluation of a number of MR imaging systems. The system characteristics measured included uniformity, linearity and distortion of the image field, thickness and profile of an image section, spatial resolution, pixel calibration, signal-to-noise ratio, and variations of contiguous section thicknesses and section-to-section separations in multiple-section imaging. Also evaluated were the accuracy in quantitative measurement of MR imaging parameters and oblique angle measurement capability. Based on these measurements, protocols for MR imaging system evaluation, acceptance testing, and quality assurance were developed

Defect inspection in hot slab surface: multi-source CCD imaging based fuzzy-rough sets method

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Liming; Zhang, Yi; Xu, Xiaodong; Xiao, Hong; Huang, Chao

2016-09-01

To provide an accurate surface defects inspection method and make the automation of robust image region of interests(ROI) delineation strategy a reality in production line, a multi-source CCD imaging based fuzzy-rough sets method is proposed for hot slab surface quality assessment. The applicability of the presented method and the devised system are mainly tied to the surface quality inspection for strip, billet and slab surface etcetera. In this work we take into account the complementary advantages in two common machine vision (MV) systems(line array CCD traditional scanning imaging (LS-imaging) and area array CCD laser three-dimensional (3D) scanning imaging (AL-imaging)), and through establishing the model of fuzzy-rough sets in the detection system the seeds for relative fuzzy connectedness(RFC) delineation for ROI can placed adaptively, which introduces the upper and lower approximation sets for RIO definition, and by which the boundary region can be delineated by RFC region competitive classification mechanism. For the first time, a Multi-source CCD imaging based fuzzy-rough sets strategy is attempted for CC-slab surface defects inspection that allows an automatic way of AI algorithms and powerful ROI delineation strategies to be applied to the MV inspection field.

Validation study of the early onset schizophrenia diagnosis in the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vernal, Ditte Lammers; Stenstrøm, Anne Dorte; Staal, Nina

2018-01-01

on classification. Compared to diagnoses made in outpatient settings, EOS diagnoses during hospitalizations were more likely to be valid and had fewer registration errors. Diagnosed in inpatient settings, EOS diagnoses are reliable and valid for register-based research. Schizophrenia diagnosed in children...... and adolescents in outpatient settings were found to have a high number of false-positives, both due to registration errors and diagnostic practice. Utilizing this knowledge, it is possible to reduce the number of false-positives in register-based research of EOS....

Variational Level Set Method for Two-Stage Image Segmentation Based on Morphological Gradients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zemin Ren

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We use variational level set method and transition region extraction techniques to achieve image segmentation task. The proposed scheme is done by two steps. We first develop a novel algorithm to extract transition region based on the morphological gradient. After this, we integrate the transition region into a variational level set framework and develop a novel geometric active contour model, which include an external energy based on transition region and fractional order edge indicator function. The external energy is used to drive the zero level set toward the desired image features, such as object boundaries. Due to this external energy, the proposed model allows for more flexible initialization. The fractional order edge indicator function is incorporated into the length regularization term to diminish the influence of noise. Moreover, internal energy is added into the proposed model to penalize the deviation of the level set function from a signed distance function. The results evolution of the level set function is the gradient flow that minimizes the overall energy functional. The proposed model has been applied to both synthetic and real images with promising results.

Evaluation of Color Settings in Aerial Images with the Use of Eye-Tracking User Study

Science.gov (United States)

Mirijovsky, J.; Popelka, S.

2016-06-01

The main aim of presented paper is to find the most realistic and preferred color settings for four different types of surfaces on the aerial images. This will be achieved through user study with the use of eye-movement recording. Aerial images taken by the unmanned aerial system were used as stimuli. From each image, squared crop area containing one of the studied types of surfaces (asphalt, concrete, water, soil, and grass) was selected. For each type of surface, the real value of reflectance was found with the use of precise spectroradiometer ASD HandHeld 2 which measures the reflectance. The device was used at the same time as aerial images were captured, so lighting conditions and state of vegetation were equal. The spectral resolution of the ASD device is better than 3.0 nm. For defining the RGB values of selected type of surface, the spectral reflectance values recorded by the device were merged into wider groups. Finally, we get three groups corresponding to RGB color system. Captured images were edited with the graphic editor Photoshop CS6. Contrast, clarity, and brightness were edited for all surface types on images. Finally, we get a set of 12 images of the same area with different color settings. These images were put into the grid and used as stimuli for the eye-tracking experiment. Eye-tracking is one of the methods of usability studies and it is considered as relatively objective. Eye-tracker SMI RED 250 with the sampling frequency 250 Hz was used in the study. As respondents, a group of 24 students of Geoinformatics and Geography was used. Their task was to select which image in the grid has the best color settings. The next task was to select which color settings they prefer. Respondents' answers were evaluated and the most realistic and most preferable color settings were found. The advantage of the eye-tracking evaluation was that also the process of the selection of the answers was analyzed. Areas of Interest were marked around each image in the

Fast detection of vascular plaque in optical coherence tomography images using a reduced feature set

Science.gov (United States)

Prakash, Ammu; Ocana Macias, Mariano; Hewko, Mark; Sowa, Michael; Sherif, Sherif

2018-03-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are capable of detecting vascular plaque by using the full set of 26 Haralick textural features and a standard K-means clustering algorithm. However, the use of the full set of 26 textural features is computationally expensive and may not be feasible for real time implementation. In this work, we identified a reduced set of 3 textural feature which characterizes vascular plaque and used a generalized Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm. Our work involves three steps: 1) the reduction of a full set 26 textural feature to a reduced set of 3 textural features by using genetic algorithm (GA) optimization method 2) the implementation of an unsupervised generalized clustering algorithm (Fuzzy C-means) on the reduced feature space, and 3) the validation of our results using histology and actual photographic images of vascular plaque. Our results show an excellent match with histology and actual photographic images of vascular tissue. Therefore, our results could provide an efficient pre-clinical tool for the detection of vascular plaque in real time OCT imaging.

Technical Note: Deformable image registration on partially matched images for radiotherapy applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Deshan; Goddu, S. Murty; Lu Wei; Pechenaya, Olga L.; Wu Yu; Deasy, Joseph O.; El Naqa, Issam; Low, Daniel A.

2010-01-01

In radiation therapy applications, deformable image registrations (DIRs) are often carried out between two images that only partially match. Image mismatching could present as superior-inferior coverage differences, field-of-view (FOV) cutoffs, or motion crossing the image boundaries. In this study, the authors propose a method to improve the existing DIR algorithms so that DIR can be carried out in such situations. The basic idea is to extend the image volumes and define the extension voxels (outside the FOV or outside the original image volume) as NaN (not-a-number) values that are transparent to all floating-point computations in the DIR algorithms. Registrations are then carried out with one additional rule that NaN voxels can match any voxels. In this way, the matched sections of the images are registered properly, and the mismatched sections of the images are registered to NaN voxels. This method makes it possible to perform DIR on partially matched images that otherwise are difficult to register. It may also improve DIR accuracy, especially near or in the mismatched image regions.

Level set segmentation of bovine corpora lutea in ex situ ovarian ultrasound images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adams Gregg P

2008-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The objective of this study was to investigate the viability of level set image segmentation methods for the detection of corpora lutea (corpus luteum, CL boundaries in ultrasonographic ovarian images. It was hypothesized that bovine CL boundaries could be located within 1–2 mm by a level set image segmentation methodology. Methods Level set methods embed a 2D contour in a 3D surface and evolve that surface over time according to an image-dependent speed function. A speed function suitable for segmentation of CL's in ovarian ultrasound images was developed. An initial contour was manually placed and contour evolution was allowed to proceed until the rate of change of the area was sufficiently small. The method was tested on ovarian ultrasonographic images (n = 8 obtained ex situ. A expert in ovarian ultrasound interpretation delineated CL boundaries manually to serve as a "ground truth". Accuracy of the level set segmentation algorithm was determined by comparing semi-automatically determined contours with ground truth contours using the mean absolute difference (MAD, root mean squared difference (RMSD, Hausdorff distance (HD, sensitivity, and specificity metrics. Results and discussion The mean MAD was 0.87 mm (sigma = 0.36 mm, RMSD was 1.1 mm (sigma = 0.47 mm, and HD was 3.4 mm (sigma = 2.0 mm indicating that, on average, boundaries were accurate within 1–2 mm, however, deviations in excess of 3 mm from the ground truth were observed indicating under- or over-expansion of the contour. Mean sensitivity and specificity were 0.814 (sigma = 0.171 and 0.990 (sigma = 0.00786, respectively, indicating that CLs were consistently undersegmented but rarely did the contour interior include pixels that were judged by the human expert not to be part of the CL. It was observed that in localities where gradient magnitudes within the CL were strong due to high contrast speckle, contour expansion stopped too early. Conclusion The

A Scandinavian Experience of Register Collaboration: The Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association (NARA)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Havelin, Leif I; Robertsson, Otto; Fenstad, Anne M

2011-01-01

The Nordic (Scandinavian) countries have had working arthroplasty registers for several years. However, the small numbers of inhabitants and the conformity within each country with respect to preferred prosthesis brands and techniques have limited register research.......The Nordic (Scandinavian) countries have had working arthroplasty registers for several years. However, the small numbers of inhabitants and the conformity within each country with respect to preferred prosthesis brands and techniques have limited register research....

Josephson shift registers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Przybysz, J.X.

1989-01-01

This paper gives a review of Josephson shift register circuits that were designed, fabricated, or tested, with emphasis on work in the 1980s. Operating speed is most important, since it often limits system performance. Older designs used square-wave clocks, but most modern designs use offset sine waves, with either two or three phases. Operating margins and gate bias uniformity are key concerns. The fastest measured Josephson shift register operated at 2.3 GHz, which compares well with a GaAs shift register that consumes 250 times more power. The difficulties of high-speed testing have prevented many Josephson shift registers from being operated at their highest speeds. Computer simulations suggest that 30-GHz operation is possible with current Nb/Al 2 O 3 /Nb technology. Junctions with critical current densities near 10 kA/cm 2 would make 100-GHz shift registers feasible

A method for patient set-up guidance in radiotherapy using augmented reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Talbot, J.; Meyer, J.; Watts, R.; Grasset, R.

2009-01-01

Full text: A system for patient set-up in external beam radiotherapy was developed using Augmented Reality (AR). Live images of the linac treatment couch and patient were obtained with video cameras and displayed on a nearby monitor. A 3D model of the patient's external contour was obtained from planning CT data, and AR tracking software was used to superimpose the model onto the video images in the correct position for treatment. Throughout set-up and treatment, the user can view the monitor and visually confirm that the patient is positioned correctly. To ensure that the virtual contour was displayed in the correct position, a process was devised to register the coordinates of the linac with the camera images. A cube with AR tracking markers attached to its faces was constructed for alignment with the isocentre using room lasers or cone-beam CT. The performance of the system was investigated in a clinical environment by using it to position an anthropomorphic phantom without the aid of additional set-up methods. The positioning errors were determined by means of CBCT and image registration. The translational set-up errors were found to be less than 2.4 mm and the rotational errors less than 0.3 0 . This proof-of-principle study has demonstrated the feasibility of using AR for patient position and pose guidance.

A feasibility study for image guided radiotherapy using low dose, high speed, cone beam X-ray volumetric imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sykes, Jonathan R.; Amer, Ali; Czajka, Jadwiga; Moore, Christopher J.

2005-01-01

Background and purpose: Image Guidance of patient set-up for radiotherapy can be achieved by acquiring X-ray volumetric images (XVI) with Elekta Synergy and registering these to the planning CT scan. This enables full 3D registration of structures from similar 3D imaging modalities and offers superior image quality, rotational set-up information and a large field of view. This study uses the head section of the Rando phantom to demonstrate a new paradigm of faster, lower dose XVI that still allows registration to high precision. Materials and methods: One high exposure XVI scan and one low exposure XVI scan were performed with a Rando Head Phantom. The second scan was used to simulate ultra low dose, fast acquisition, full and half scans by discarding a large number of projections before reconstruction. Dose measurements were performed using Thermo Luminescent Dosimeters (TLD) and an ion chamber. The reconstructed XVI scans were automatically registered with a helical CT scan of the Rando Head using the volumetric, grey-level, cross-correlation algorithm implemented in the Syntegra software package (Philips Medical Systems). Reproducibility of the registration process was investigated. Results: In both XVI scans the body surface, bone-tissue and tissue air interfaces were clearly visible. Although the subjective image quality of the low dose cone beam scan was reduced, registration of both cone beam scans with the planning CT scan agreed within 0.1 mm and 0.1 deg. Dose to the patient was reduced from 28 mGy to less than 1 mGy and the equivalent scan speed reduced to one minute or less. Conclusions: Automatic 3D registration of high speed, ultra low dose XVI scans with the planning CT scan can be used for precision 3D patient set-up verification/image guidance on a daily basis with out loss of accuracy when compared to higher dose XVI scans

Improving treatment planning accuracy through multimodality imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sailer, Scott L.; Rosenman, Julian G.; Soltys, Mitchel; Cullip, Tim J.; Chen, Jun

1996-01-01

Purpose: In clinical practice, physicians are constantly comparing multiple images taken at various times during the patient's treatment course. One goal of such a comparison is to accurately define the gross tumor volume (GTV). The introduction of three-dimensional treatment planning has greatly enhanced the ability to define the GTV, but there are times when the GTV is not visible on the treatment-planning computed tomography (CT) scan. We have modified our treatment-planning software to allow for interactive display of multiple, registered images that enhance the physician's ability to accurately determine the GTV. Methods and Materials: Images are registered using interactive tools developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Automated methods are also available. Images registered with the treatment-planning CT scan are digitized from film. After a physician has approved the registration, the registered images are made available to the treatment-planning software. Structures and volumes of interest are contoured on all images. In the beam's eye view, wire loop representations of these structures can be visualized from all image types simultaneously. Each registered image can be seamlessly viewed during the treatment-planning process, and all contours from all image types can be seen on any registered image. A beam may, therefore, be designed based on any contour. Results: Nineteen patients have been planned and treated using multimodality imaging from November 1993 through August 1994. All registered images were digitized from film, and many were from outside institutions. Brain has been the most common site (12), but the techniques of registration and image display have also been used for the thorax (4), abdomen (2), and extremity (1). The registered image has been an magnetic resonance (MR) scan in 15 cases and a diagnostic CT scan in 5 cases. In one case, sequential MRs, one before treatment and another after 30 Gy, were used to plan

A deep level set method for image segmentation

OpenAIRE

Tang, Min; Valipour, Sepehr; Zhang, Zichen Vincent; Cobzas, Dana; MartinJagersand

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a novel image segmentation approachthat integrates fully convolutional networks (FCNs) with a level setmodel. Compared with a FCN, the integrated method can incorporatesmoothing and prior information to achieve an accurate segmentation.Furthermore, different than using the level set model as a post-processingtool, we integrate it into the training phase to fine-tune the FCN. Thisallows the use of unlabeled data during training in a semi-supervisedsetting. Using two types o...

SEU-hardened design for shift register in CMOS APS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meng Liya; Liu Zedong; Hu Dajiang; Wang Qingxiang

2012-01-01

The inverter-based quasi-static shift register in CMOS APS, which is used in ionizing radiation environment, is susceptible to single event upset (SEU), thus affecting the CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) working. The analysis of the SEU for inverter-based quasi-static shift register concludes that the most sensitive node to single event transient (SET) exists in the input of inverter, and the threshold voltage and capacitance of input node of inverter determine the capability of anti-SEU. A new method was proposed, which replaced the inverter with Schmitt trigger in shift register. Because there is a hysteresis on voltage transfer characteristic of Schmitt trigger, there is high flip threshold, thus better capability of anti-SEU can be achieved. Simulation results show that the anti-SEU capability of Schmitt trigger is 10 times more than that of inverter. (authors)

Image/patient registration from (partial) projection data by the Fourier phase matching method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weiguo Lu; You, J.

1999-01-01

A technique for 2D or 3D image/patient registration, PFPM (projection based Fourier phase matching method), is proposed. This technique provides image/patient registration directly from sequential tomographic projection data. The method can also deal with image files by generating 2D Radon transforms slice by slice. The registration in projection space is done by calculating a Fourier invariant (FI) descriptor for each one-dimensional projection datum, and then registering the FI descriptor by the Fourier phase matching (FPM) method. The algorithm has been tested on both synthetic and experimental data. When dealing with translated, rotated and uniformly scaled 2D image registration, the performance of the PFPM method is comparable to that of the IFPM (image based Fourier phase matching) method in robustness, efficiency, insensitivity to the offset between images, and registration time. The advantages of the former are that subpixel resolution is feasible, and it is more insensitive to image noise due to the averaging effect of the projection acquisition. Furthermore, the PFPM method offers the ability to generalize to 3D image/patient registration and to register partial projection data. By applying patient registration directly from tomographic projection data, image reconstruction is not needed in the therapy set-up verification, thus reducing computational time and artefacts. In addition, real time registration is feasible. Registration from partial projection data meets the geometry and dose requirements in many application cases and makes dynamic set-up verification possible in tomotherapy. (author)

Deformable registration of the planning image (kVCT) and the daily images (MVCT) for adaptive radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Weiguo; Olivera, Gustavo H; Chen, Quan; Ruchala, Kenneth J; Haimerl, Jason; Meeks, Sanford L; Langen, Katja M; Kupelian, Patrick A

2006-01-01

The incorporation of daily images into the radiotherapy process leads to adaptive radiation therapy (ART), in which the treatment is evaluated periodically and the plan is adaptively modified for the remaining course of radiotherapy. Deformable registration between the planning image and the daily images is a key component of ART. In this paper, we report our researches on deformable registration between the planning kVCT and the daily MVCT image sets. The method is based on a fast intensity-based free-form deformable registration technique. Considering the noise and contrast resolution differences between the kVCT and the MVCT, an 'edge-preserving smoothing' is applied to the MVCT image prior to the deformable registration process. We retrospectively studied daily MVCT images from commercial TomoTherapy machines from different clinical centers. The data set includes five head-neck cases, one pelvis case, two lung cases and one prostate case. Each case has one kVCT image and 20-40 MVCT images. We registered the MVCT images with their corresponding kVCT image. The similarity measures and visual inspections of contour matches by physicians validated this technique. The applications of deformable registration in ART, including 'deformable dose accumulation', 'automatic re-contouring' and 'tumour growth/regression evaluation' throughout the course of radiotherapy are also studied

Automated image registration for FDOPA PET studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang-Ping Lin; Sung-Cheng Huang, Dan-Chu Yu; Melega, W.; Barrio, J.R.; Phelps, M.E.

1996-01-01

In this study, various image registration methods are investigated for their suitability for registration of L-6-[18F]-fluoro-DOPA (FDOPA) PET images. Five different optimization criteria including sum of absolute difference (SAD), mean square difference (MSD), cross-correlation coefficient (CC), standard deviation of pixel ratio (SDPR), and stochastic sign change (SSC) were implemented and Powell's algorithm was used to optimize the criteria. The optimization criteria were calculated either unidirectionally (i.e. only evaluating the criteria for comparing the resliced image 1 with the original image 2) or bidirectionally (i.e. averaging the criteria for comparing the resliced image 1 with the original image 2 and those for the sliced image 2 with the original image 1). Monkey FDOPA images taken at various known orientations were used to evaluate the accuracy of different methods. A set of human FDOPA dynamic images was used to investigate the ability of the methods for correcting subject movement. It was found that a large improvement in performance resulted when bidirectional rather than unidirectional criteria were used. Overall, the SAD, MSD and SDPR methods were found to be comparable in performance and were suitable for registering FDOPA images. The MSD method gave more adequate results for frame-to-frame image registration for correcting subject movement during a dynamic FDOPA study. The utility of the registration method is further demonstrated by registering FDOPA images in monkeys before and after amphetamine injection to reveal more clearly the changes in spatial distribution of FDOPA due to the drug intervention. (author)

Automated 3D-Objectdocumentation on the Base of an Image Set

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian Vetter

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Digital stereo-photogrammetry allows users an automatic evaluation of the spatial dimension and the surface texture of objects. The integration of image analysis techniques simplifies the automation of evaluation of large image sets and offers a high accuracy [1]. Due to the substantial similarities of stereoscopic image pairs, correlation techniques provide measurements of subpixel precision for corresponding image points. With the help of an automated point search algorithm in image sets identical points are used to associate pairs of images to stereo models and group them. The found identical points in all images are basis for calculation of the relative orientation of each stereo model as well as defining the relation of neighboured stereo models. By using proper filter strategies incorrect points are removed and the relative orientation of the stereo model can be made automatically. With the help of 3D-reference points or distances at the object or a defined distance of camera basis the stereo model is orientated absolute. An adapted expansion- and matching algorithm offers the possibility to scan the object surface automatically. The result is a three dimensional point cloud; the scan resolution depends on image quality. With the integration of the iterative closest point- algorithm (ICP these partial point clouds are fitted to a total point cloud. In this way, 3D-reference points are not necessary. With the help of the implemented triangulation algorithm a digital surface models (DSM can be created. The texturing can be made automatically by the usage of the images that were used for scanning the object surface. It is possible to texture the surface model directly or to generate orthophotos automatically. By using of calibrated digital SLR cameras with full frame sensor a high accuracy can be reached. A big advantage is the possibility to control the accuracy and quality of the 3d-objectdocumentation with the resolution of the images. The

Spiritual care perspectives of Danish Registered Nurses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Kirsten Haugaard; Turner, de Sales

2008-01-01

Spiritual care perspectives of Danish Nurses The purpose of this study was to explore how Danish registered nurses understand the phenomenon of spiritual care and how their understanding impacts on their interventions with their patients. Nurses are responsible for the provision of care which...... approach rooted in the philosophy of Gadamer was chosen as methodology. In-depth interviews were used as data collection tool, and six registered nurses who worked within hospital settings in Denmark were interviewed. The findings revealed that deep knowing of the patients were essential before nurses...... would engage in provision of spiritual care. The participants acknowledged that their understanding of spirituality influenced their provision of spiritual care, which was recognized as a challenge requiring the nurse’s initiative and courage. Spirituality was primarily understood as a patient’s private...

Epidemiological and birth weight characteristics of triplets: a study from the Dutch twin register

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Orlebeke, J.F.; Boomsma, D.I.; Eriksson, A.W.

1993-01-01

From 112 triplet sets, born in The Netherlands from the end of 1986 to the beginning of 1991 and registered in the Dutch Twin Register, several details such as birth weight, gestational age, zygosity, and etiology were assessed by questionnaire, which was filled out by the mother. For 33 triplet

An objective method to optimize the MR sequence set for plaque classification in carotid vessel wall images using automated image segmentation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald van 't Klooster

Full Text Available A typical MR imaging protocol to study the status of atherosclerosis in the carotid artery consists of the application of multiple MR sequences. Since scanner time is limited, a balance has to be reached between the duration of the applied MR protocol and the quantity and quality of the resulting images which are needed to assess the disease. In this study an objective method to optimize the MR sequence set for classification of soft plaque in vessel wall images of the carotid artery using automated image segmentation was developed. The automated method employs statistical pattern recognition techniques and was developed based on an extensive set of MR contrast weightings and corresponding manual segmentations of the vessel wall and soft plaque components, which were validated by histological sections. Evaluation of the results from nine contrast weightings showed the tradeoff between scan duration and automated image segmentation performance. For our dataset the best segmentation performance was achieved by selecting five contrast weightings. Similar performance was achieved with a set of three contrast weightings, which resulted in a reduction of scan time by more than 60%. The presented approach can help others to optimize MR imaging protocols by investigating the tradeoff between scan duration and automated image segmentation performance possibly leading to shorter scanning times and better image interpretation. This approach can potentially also be applied to other research fields focusing on different diseases and anatomical regions.

On line portal imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munro, Peter

1997-01-01

Purpose/Objective: The purpose of this presentation is to examine the various imaging devices that have been developed for portal imaging, describe some of the image registration methods that have been developed to determine geometric errors quantitatively, and discuss how portal imaging has been incorporated into clinical practice. Discussion: Verification of patient positioning has always been an important aspect of external beam radiation therapy. Over the past decade many portal imaging devices have been developed by individual investigators and most accelerator manufacturers now offer 'on-line' portal imaging systems. The commercial devices include T.V. camera-based systems, liquid ionisation chamber systems, and shortly, flat panel systems. The characteristics of these imaging systems will be discussed. In addition, other approaches such as the use of kilovoltage x-ray sources, video monitoring, and ultrasound have been proposed for improving patient positioning. Some of the advantages of these approaches will be discussed. One of the major advantages of on-line portal imaging is that many quantitative techniques have been developed to detect errors in patient positioning. The general approach is to register anatomic structures on a portal image with the same structures on a digitized simulator film. Once the anatomic structures have been registered, any discrepancies in the position of the patient can be identified. One problem is finding a common frame of reference for the simulator and portal images, since the location of the radiation field within the pixel matrix may differ for the two images. As a result, a common frame of reference has to be established before the anatomic structures in the images can be registered - generally by registering radiation field edges identified in the simulator and portal images. In addition, distortions in patient geometry or rotations out of the image plane can confound the image registration techniques. Despite the

An improved level set method for brain MR images segmentation and bias correction.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yunjie; Zhang, Jianwei; Macione, Jim

2009-10-01

Intensity inhomogeneities cause considerable difficulty in the quantitative analysis of magnetic resonance (MR) images. Thus, bias field estimation is a necessary step before quantitative analysis of MR data can be undertaken. This paper presents a variational level set approach to bias correction and segmentation for images with intensity inhomogeneities. Our method is based on an observation that intensities in a relatively small local region are separable, despite of the inseparability of the intensities in the whole image caused by the overall intensity inhomogeneity. We first define a localized K-means-type clustering objective function for image intensities in a neighborhood around each point. The cluster centers in this objective function have a multiplicative factor that estimates the bias within the neighborhood. The objective function is then integrated over the entire domain to define the data term into the level set framework. Our method is able to capture bias of quite general profiles. Moreover, it is robust to initialization, and thereby allows fully automated applications. The proposed method has been used for images of various modalities with promising results.

Register-based estimates of parents' coresidence in Sweden, 1969-2007

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Thomson

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Many of the dramatic changes in family formation and dissolution observed in wealthy countries over the past 60 years are tracked through vital statistics or censuses. The signature change in family behavior -- non-marital cohabitation -- is not, however, registered in most settings. Objective: We evaluate the quality of new register-based estimates of parents' union status at birth and of separation during the childrearing years. Methods: Parents of a common child are identified through the Multi-Generation Register that links each child to each parent and therefore each parent to each other. The Total Population Register identifies the property at which each parent is registered at the end of each year. We use the five-year censuses 1960-1990 as one standard of comparison because the censuses identify the dwelling unit for each parent on the census date. Results: Property-based estimates of parents' coresidence compare very well to census reports. Register-based estimates are virtually identical with those produced from the 1992 Swedish Fertility and Family Survey; differences between register estimates and those produced from the 1991 and 2000 Level of Living Survey can be explained by differences in measurement of marriage and cohabitation. Conclusions: Estimates of parents' cohabitation based on annual, property-level registration are of sufficient quality for their use in substantive analyses of union status at birth and parents' separation in Sweden. Comments: Although register-based estimates of parents' coresidence at a child's birth or afterwards can be generated only for a select group of countries, their use can be fruitful for understanding more general processes of family change. Centralized administrative registers exist in many countries but have not been made fully available for research therefore losing much of the potential value.

Fully automated motion correction in first-pass myocardial perfusion MR image sequences.

Science.gov (United States)

Milles, Julien; van der Geest, Rob J; Jerosch-Herold, Michael; Reiber, Johan H C; Lelieveldt, Boudewijn P F

2008-11-01

This paper presents a novel method for registration of cardiac perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The presented method is capable of automatically registering perfusion data, using independent component analysis (ICA) to extract physiologically relevant features together with their time-intensity behavior. A time-varying reference image mimicking intensity changes in the data of interest is computed based on the results of that ICA. This reference image is used in a two-pass registration framework. Qualitative and quantitative validation of the method is carried out using 46 clinical quality, short-axis, perfusion MR datasets comprising 100 images each. Despite varying image quality and motion patterns in the evaluation set, validation of the method showed a reduction of the average right ventricle (LV) motion from 1.26+/-0.87 to 0.64+/-0.46 pixels. Time-intensity curves are also improved after registration with an average error reduced from 2.65+/-7.89% to 0.87+/-3.88% between registered data and manual gold standard. Comparison of clinically relevant parameters computed using registered data and the manual gold standard show a good agreement. Additional tests with a simulated free-breathing protocol showed robustness against considerable deviations from a standard breathing protocol. We conclude that this fully automatic ICA-based method shows an accuracy, a robustness and a computation speed adequate for use in a clinical environment.

Solving Quasi-Variational Inequalities for Image Restoration with Adaptive Constraint Sets

KAUST Repository

Lenzen, F.; Lellmann, J.; Becker, F.; Schnö rr, C.

2014-01-01

© 2014 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. We consider a class of quasi-variational inequalities (QVIs) for adaptive image restoration, where the adaptivity is described via solution-dependent constraint sets. In previous work we studied

Dimensionality Reduction and Information-Theoretic Divergence Between Sets of Ladar Images

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Gray, David M; Principe, Jose C

2008-01-01

... can be exploited while circumventing many of the problems associated with the so-called "curse of dimensionality." In this study, PCA techniques are used to find a low-dimensional sub-space representation of LADAR image sets...

The influence of image setting on intracranial translucency measurement by manual and semi-automated system.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhen, Li; Yang, Xin; Ting, Yuen Ha; Chen, Min; Leung, Tak Yeung

2013-09-01

To investigate the agreement between manual and semi-automated system and the effect of different image settings on intracranial translucency (IT) measurement. A prospective study was conducted on 55 women carrying singleton pregnancy who attended first trimester Down syndrome screening. IT was measured both manually and by semi-automated system at the same default image setting. The IT measurements were then repeated with the post-processing changes in the image setting one at a time. The difference in IT measurements between the altered and the original images were assessed. Intracranial translucency was successfully measured on 55 images both manually and by semi-automated method. There was strong agreement in IT measurements between the two methods with a mean difference (manual minus semi-automated) of 0.011 mm (95% confidence interval--0.052 mm-0.094 mm). There were statistically significant variations in both manual and semi-automated IT measurement after changing the Gain and the Contrast. The greatest changes occurred when the Contrast was reduced to 1 (IT reduced by 0.591 mm in semi-automated; 0.565 mm in manual), followed by when the Gain was increased to 15 (IT reduced by 0.424 mm in semi-automated; 0.524 mm in manual). The image settings may affect IT identification and measurement. Increased Gain and reduced Contrast are the most influential factors and may cause under-measurement of IT. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

White-light full-field OCT resolution improvement by image sensor colour balance adjustment: numerical simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalyanov, A L; Lychagov, V V; Ryabukho, V P; Smirnov, I V

2012-01-01

The possibility of improving white-light full-field optical coherence tomography (OCT) resolution by image sensor colour balance tuning is shown numerically. We calculated the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of a coherence pulse registered by a silicon colour image sensor under various colour balance settings. The calculations were made for both a halogen lamp and white LED sources. The results show that the interference pulse width can be reduced by the proper choice of colour balance coefficients. The reduction is up to 18%, as compared with a colour image sensor with regular settings, and up to 20%, as compared with a monochrome sensor. (paper)

The Danish nationwide clinical register for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: DANBIO.

Science.gov (United States)

Ibfelt, Else Helene; Jensen, Dorte Vendelbo; Hetland, Merete Lund

2016-01-01

DANBIO is a research register and a data source for rheumatologic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis [RA], axial spondyloarthritis, and psoriatic arthritis) for monitoring clinical quality at the national, regional, and hospital levels. The register includes patients with rheumatologic diseases who are treated at a hospital or a private rheumatologic clinic. Registration is mandatory for all patients with RA regardless of treatment and also for patients with other diagnoses if treated with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Since 2006, the registration has been done electronically, including patient-reported outcome measures registered electronically by the patients with the use of touch screens. Core variables such as diagnosis, year of diagnosis, age, and sex are registered at the beginning. Data entered at later visits included the following: patient-reported outcomes for disease activity, pain, fatigue, functional status, and physician-reported objective measures of disease activity, treatment, C-reactive protein, and, when indicated, imaging. For subgroups of patients, the variables such as quality of life, sociodemographic factors, lifestyle, and comorbidity are also registered. The DANBIO cohort comprised ∼26,000 patients with RA, 3,200 patients with axial spondyloarthritis, and 6,200 patients with psoriatic arthritis in 2015. DANBIO has high nationwide coverage and completeness on key data variables. More than 60 original papers as well as annual reports of clinical quality (since 2005) have been published. DANBIO is a powerful register for research in rheumatologic diseases and furthermore serves as a Clinical Quality Register with the aim of monitoring treatment quality in patients with RA in Denmark.

Virtual setting for training in interpreting mammography images

Science.gov (United States)

Pezzuol, J. L.; Abreu, F. D. L.; Silva, S. M.; Tendolini, A.; Bissaco, M. A. Se; Rodrigues, S. C. M.

2017-03-01

This work presents a web system for the training of students or residents (users) interested in the detection of breast density in mammography images. The system consists of a breast imaging database with breast density types classified and demarcated by the specialist (tutor) or online database. The planning was based on ISO / IEC 12207. Through the browser (desktop or notebook), the user will visualize the breast images and in them will realize the markings of the density region and even classify them per the BI-RADS protocol. After marking, this will be compared to the gold standard already existing in the image base, and then the system will inform if the area demarcation has been set or not. The shape of this marking is similar to the paint brush. The evaluation was based on ISO / IEC 1926 or 25010: 2011 by 3 software development specialists and 3 in mammary radiology, evaluating usability, configuration, performance and System interface through the Likert scale-based questionnaire. Where they have totally agreed on usability, configuration, performance and partially on the interface. And as a good thing: the system is able to be accessed anywhere and at any time, the hit or error response is in real time, it can be used in the educational area, the limit of the amount of images will depend on the size of the computer memory, At the end the system sends the results achieved by e-mail to the user, reproduction of the system on any type of screen, complementation of the system with other types of breast structures. Negative points are the need for internet.

Optimized image processing with modified preprocessing of image data sets of a transparent imaging plate by way of the lateral view of the cervical spine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reissberg, S.; Hoeschen, C.; Redlich, U.; Scherlach, C.; Preuss, H.; Kaestner, A.; Doehring, W.; Woischneck, D.; Schuetze, M.; Reichardt, K.; Firsching, R.

2002-01-01

Purpose: To improve the diagnostic quality of lateral radiographs of the cervical spine by pre-processing the image data sets produced by a transparent imaging plate with both-side reading and to evaluate any possible impact on minimizing the number of additional radiographs and supplementary investigations. Material and Methods: One hundred lateral digital radiographs of the cervical spine were processed with two different methods: processing of each data set using the system-imminent parameters and using the manual model. The difference between the two types of processing is the level of the latitude value. Hard copies of the processed images were judged by five radiologists and three neurosurgeons. The evaluation applied the image criteria score (ICS) without conventional reference images. Results: In 99% of the lateral radiographs of the cervical spine, all vertebral bodies could be completed delineated using the manual mode, but only 76% of the images processed by the system-imminent parameters showed all vertebral bodies. Thus, the manual mode enabled the evaluation of up to two additional more caudal vertebral bodies. The manual mode processing was significantly better concerning object size and processing artifacts. This optimized image processing and the resultant minimization of supplementary investigations was calculated to correspond to a theoretical dose reduction of about 50%. (orig.) [de

Long term three dimensional tracking of orthodontic patients using registered cone beam CT and photogrammetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Boulanger, Pierre; Flores-Mir, Carlos; Ramirez, Juan F; Mesa, Elizabeth; Branch, John W

2009-01-01

The measurements from registered images obtained from Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) and a photogrammetric sensor are used to track three-dimensional shape variations of orthodontic patients before and after their treatments. The methodology consists of five main steps: (1) the patient's bone and skin shapes are measured in 3D using the fusion of images from a CBCT and a photogrammetric sensor. (2) The bone shape is extracted from the CBCT data using a standard marching cube algorithm. (3) The bone and skin shape measurements are registered using titanium targets located on the head of the patient. (4) Using a manual segmentation technique the head and lower jaw geometry are extracted separately to deal with jaw motion at the different record visits. (5) Using natural features of the upper head the two datasets are then registered with each other and then compared to evaluate bone, teeth, and skin displacements before and after treatments. This procedure is now used at the University of Alberta orthodontic clinic.

Errors in imaging patients in the emergency setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinto, Antonio; Reginelli, Alfonso; Pinto, Fabio; Lo Re, Giuseppe; Midiri, Federico; Muzj, Carlo; Romano, Luigia; Brunese, Luca

2016-01-01

Emergency and trauma care produces a "perfect storm" for radiological errors: uncooperative patients, inadequate histories, time-critical decisions, concurrent tasks and often junior personnel working after hours in busy emergency departments. The main cause of diagnostic errors in the emergency department is the failure to correctly interpret radiographs, and the majority of diagnoses missed on radiographs are fractures. Missed diagnoses potentially have important consequences for patients, clinicians and radiologists. Radiologists play a pivotal role in the diagnostic assessment of polytrauma patients and of patients with non-traumatic craniothoracoabdominal emergencies, and key elements to reduce errors in the emergency setting are knowledge, experience and the correct application of imaging protocols. This article aims to highlight the definition and classification of errors in radiology, the causes of errors in emergency radiology and the spectrum of diagnostic errors in radiography, ultrasonography and CT in the emergency setting.

Recent Trends in Imaging Use in Hospital Settings: Implications for Future Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Levin, David C; Parker, Laurence; Rao, Vijay M

2017-03-01

To compare trends in utilization rates of imaging in the three hospital-based settings where imaging is conducted. The nationwide Medicare Part B databases for 2004-2014 were used. All discretionary noninvasive diagnostic imaging (NDI) CPT codes were selected and grouped by modality. Procedure volumes of each code were available from the databases and converted to utilization rates per 1,000 Medicare enrollees. Medicare's place-of-service codes were used to identify imaging examinations done in hospital inpatients, hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs), and emergency departments (EDs). Trends were observed over the life of the study. Trendlines were strongly affected by code bundling in echocardiography in 2009, nuclear imaging in 2010, and CT in 2011. However, even aside from these artifactual effects, important trends could be discerned. Inpatient imaging utilization rates of all modalities are trending downward. In HOPDs, the utilization rate of conventional radiographic examinations (CREs) is declining but rates of CT, MRI, echocardiography, and noncardiac ultrasound (US) are increasing. In EDs, utilization rates of CREs, CT, and US are increasing. In the 3 years after 2011, when no further code bundling occurred, the total inpatient NDI utilization rate dropped 15%, whereas the rate in EDs increased 12% and that in HOPDs increased 1%. The trends in utilization of NDI in the three hospital-based settings where imaging occurs are distinctly different. Radiologists and others who are involved in deciding what kinds of equipment to purchase and where to locate it should be cognizant of these trends in making their decisions. Copyright © 2016 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Demons versus level-set motion registration for coronary 18F-sodium fluoride PET

Science.gov (United States)

Rubeaux, Mathieu; Joshi, Nikhil; Dweck, Marc R.; Fletcher, Alison; Motwani, Manish; Thomson, Louise E.; Germano, Guido; Dey, Damini; Berman, Daniel S.; Newby, David E.; Slomka, Piotr J.

2016-03-01

Ruptured coronary atherosclerotic plaques commonly cause acute myocardial infarction. It has been recently shown that active microcalcification in the coronary arteries, one of the features that characterizes vulnerable plaques at risk of rupture, can be imaged using cardiac gated 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) PET. We have shown in previous work that a motion correction technique applied to cardiac-gated 18F-NaF PET images can enhance image quality and improve uptake estimates. In this study, we further investigated the applicability of different algorithms for registration of the coronary artery PET images. In particular, we aimed to compare demons vs. level-set nonlinear registration techniques applied for the correction of cardiac motion in coronary 18F-NaF PET. To this end, fifteen patients underwent 18F-NaF PET and prospective coronary CT angiography (CCTA). PET data were reconstructed in 10 ECG gated bins; subsequently these gated bins were registered using demons and level-set methods guided by the extracted coronary arteries from CCTA, to eliminate the effect of cardiac motion on PET images. Noise levels, target-to-background ratios (TBR) and global motion were compared to assess image quality. Compared to the reference standard of using only diastolic PET image (25% of the counts from PET acquisition), cardiac motion registration using either level-set or demons techniques almost halved image noise due to the use of counts from the full PET acquisition and increased TBR difference between 18F-NaF positive and negative lesions. The demons method produces smoother deformation fields, exhibiting no singularities (which reflects how physically plausible the registration deformation is), as compared to the level-set method, which presents between 4 and 8% of singularities, depending on the coronary artery considered. In conclusion, the demons method produces smoother motion fields as compared to the level-set method, with a motion that is physiologically

Customer Perception of a Supermarket Nutrition Centre Staffed by a Registered Dietitian.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, KATE; Taper, JANETTE; Quintal, DEBORAH

2000-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine consumers' attitudes toward a supermarket nutrition centre staffed full time by a registered dietitian. A questionnaire was administered over three consecutive days in that store and in a control store that was similar to the experimental site in every way, except for the absence of a nutrition centre. Participants were chosen randomly at timed intervals in specific areas of the store. Of 428 customers approached, 232 agreed to participate in the survey. At the experimental site, 75% of the participants were extremely satisfied with the registered dietitian's services and 69% ranked having a registered dietitian on staff in any store as extremely important, compared to 31% at the control site (p importance of 13 required and optional services offered by the supermarkets, 15% of participants at the experimental site ranked having a registered dietitian on staff in the top five, compared with 4% at the control site (p service. There may therefore be an expanded role for registered dietitians in the supermarket setting.

Image registration/fusion software for PET and CT/MRI by using simultaneous emission and transmission scans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kitamura, Keishi; Amano, Masaharu; Sato, Tomohiko; Okumura, Takeshi; Konishi, Norihiro; Komatsu, Masahiko

2003-01-01

When PET (positron emission tomography) is used for oncology studies, it is important to register and over-lay PET images with the images of other anatomical modalities, such as those obtained by CT (computed tomography) or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), in order for the lesions to be anatomically located with high accuracy. The Shimadzu SET-2000W Series PET scanners provide simultaneous acquisition of emission and transmission data, which is capable of complete spatial alignment of both functional and attenuation images. This report describes our newly developed image registration/fusion software, which reformats PET emission images to the CT/MRI grid by using the transform matrix obtained by matching PET transmission images with CT/MRI images. Transmission images are registered and fused either automatically or manually, through 3-dimensional rotation and translation, with the transaxial, sagittal, and coronal fused images being monitored on the screen. This new method permits sufficiently accurate registration and efficient data processing with promoting effective use of CT/MRI images of the DICOM format, without using markers in data acquisition or any special equipment, such as a combined PET/CT scanner. (author)

On line portal imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munro, Peter

1996-01-01

is finding a common frame of reference for the simulator and portal images, since the location of the radiation field within the pixel matrix may differ for the two images. This problem is compounded by the fact that the commercially available EPIDs have mechanical slop and do not deploy to exactly the same position repeatedly. As a result, a common frame of reference has to be established before the anatomic structures in the images can be registered - generally by registering radiation field edges identified in the simulator and portal images. In addition, distortions in patient geometry or rotations out of the image plane can confound the image registration techniques. Despite the difficulties, many image registration techniques such as interactive techniques, landmark-based techniques, contrast-based techniques, and hybrid techniques have been developed to detect errors in patient positioning. The advantages and disadvantages of these various techniques will be discussed. Clinical use of portal imaging systems has included the use of static localisation and verification images, the use of 'movie' sequences (sequences of images acquired during one irradiation) and the use of 'time-lapse' sequences of images acquired during consecutive treatments, which demonstrate the variability in patient set-up over a full course of therapy. Possibly the most contentious issue is how to best make use of the information provided the portal images. Philosophies have ranged between intervening in every treatment, to intervening only occasionally, or to identifying patients who would benefit from smaller treatment margins and modifying the treatment plan part way through the course of treatment. Conclusions: While great improvements in portal imaging technology have been made, in the future more effort will to be directed towards improving image quality, and integrating and automating the various steps in the image registration process. In addition, other uses for portal imaging

Set-Pi: Set Membership pi-Calculus

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruni, Alessandro; Mödersheim, Sebastian Alexander; Nielson, Flemming

2015-01-01

Communication protocols often rely on stateful mechanisms to ensure certain security properties. For example, counters and timestamps can be used to ensure authentication, or the security of communication can depend on whether a particular key is registered to a server or it has been revoked. Pro......Verif, like other state of the art tools for protocol analysis, achieves good performance by converting a formal protocol specification into a set of Horn clauses, that represent a monotonically growing set of facts that a Dolev-Yao attacker can derive from the system. Since this set of facts is not state...... method with three examples, a simple authentication protocol based on counters, a key registration protocol, and a model of the Yubikey security device....

An open-access mobile compatible electronic patient register for rheumatic heart disease (‘eRegister’) based on the World Heart Federation’s framework for patient registers

Science.gov (United States)

van Dam, Joris; Tadmor, Brigitta; Spector, Jonathan; Musuku, John; Zühlke, Liesl J; Zühlke, Liesl J; Engel, Mark E; Mayosi, Bongani M; Nestle, Nick

2015-01-01

Summary Background Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) remains a major disease burden in low-resource settings globally. Patient registers have long been recognised to be an essential instrument in RHD control and elimination programmes, yet to date rely heavily on paper-based data collection and non-networked data-management systems, which limit their functionality. Objectives To assess the feasibility and potential benefits of producing an electronic RHD patient register. Methods We developed an eRegister based on the World Heart Federation’s framework for RHD patient registers using CommCare, an open-source, cloud-based software for health programmes that supports the development of customised data capture using mobile devices. Results The resulting eRegistry application allows for simultaneous data collection and entry by field workers using mobile devices, and by providers using computer terminals in clinics and hospitals. Data are extracted from CommCare and are securely uploaded into a cloud-based database that matches the criteria established by the WHF framework. The application can easily be tailored to local needs by modifying existing variables or adding new ones. Compared with traditional paper-based data-collection systems, the eRegister reduces the risk of data error, synchronises in real-time, improves clinical operations and supports management of field team operations. Conclusions The user-friendly eRegister is a low-cost, mobile, compatible platform for RHD treatment and prevention programmes based on materials sanctioned by the World Heart Federation. Readily adaptable to local needs, this paperless RHD patient register program presents many practical benefits. PMID:26444995

Perceptions of registered nurses regarding factors influencing service delivery in expanding programmes in a primary healthcare setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nnoi. A. Xaba

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to explore and describe the perceptions of registered nurses regarding factors influencing service delivery regarding expansion programmes in a primary healthcare setting, using a qualitative approach. The registered nurses, who have been working in the clinics for more than two years and have been exposed to the expansion programmes there, were purposively sampled. Two focus group interviews were conducted in a neutral place and the data collected by the researcher Nnoi A. Xaba (N.A.X.. Data were analysed by the researcher and an independent co-coder using the Tesch method. Categories, subcategories and themes were identified; those that formed the basis of discussion were disabling factors, enabling factors, client-related factors, service-related factors and solutions to problems. It is recommended that integration of programmes and coordination be done at a provincial level and planned together with the training centres in order to alleviate problems in service delivery. Training on expansion programmes in the form of in-service education should be carried out continually in the region.Die doel van die studie was om die persepsie van geregistreerde verpleegkundiges met betrekking tot die faktore wat dienslewering van die uitbreidingsprogramme in ‘n primêre gesondheid opset beinvloed; te eksploreer en te beskryf. ‘n Kwalitatiewe benadering is gevolg in die iutvoering van die studie. ‘n Doelgerigte steekproef is uitgevoer vanuit geregistreerde verpleegkundiges wat vir langer as twee jaar in die klinieke werksaam was en blootgestel is aan die uitbreiding programme. Twee fokus groep onderhoude is deur die navorser Nnoi A. Xaba (N.A.X. in ‘n neutrale opset uitgevoer. Data is deur die navorser en ʼn onafhanklike kodeerder ontleed volgens Tesch se metode van analise. Kategorieë, sub-kategorieë en temas was geidentifiseer. Die kategorieë fundamenteel tot die bespreking behels: remmende faktore, bydraende faktore

Registered nurse buddies: Educators by proxy?

Science.gov (United States)

Rebeiro, Geraldine; Evans, Alicia; Edward, Karen-Leigh; Chapman, Rose

2017-08-01

The informal clinical teaching role of the buddy nurse seems to be a uniquely Australian title, with little consistency in terminology for informal nurse educator roles internationally. Not all registered nurses are professionally developed for the informal role of facilitating the clinical learning of students in clinical settings, yet these roles are expected by nursing professional bodies. In Australia the registered nurses (RN) experience of being a buddy nurse has been reported as lacking clarity, being unsupported and structureless. Whist there is a plethora of literature published about formal RN educator roles, little is available on the informal buddy nurse role. A view of the buddy nurse role in reference to the limited but available literature in the Australian context is offered in this paper. International perspectives are also gathered describing informal clinical education RN's roles with similar responsibilities to the Australian buddy nurse. The significance of this dialogue is to ignite debate about the role, potentially informing policy for the improved support of the role within the Australian nursing landscape. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface-to-surface registration using level sets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Mads Fogtmann; Erbou, Søren G.; Vester-Christensen, Martin

2007-01-01

This paper presents a general approach for surface-to-surface registration (S2SR) with the Euclidean metric using signed distance maps. In addition, the method is symmetric such that the registration of a shape A to a shape B is identical to the registration of the shape B to the shape A. The S2SR...... problem can be approximated by the image registration (IR) problem of the signed distance maps (SDMs) of the surfaces confined to some narrow band. By shrinking the narrow bands around the zero level sets the solution to the IR problem converges towards the S2SR problem. It is our hypothesis...... that this approach is more robust and less prone to fall into local minima than ordinary surface-to-surface registration. The IR problem is solved using the inverse compositional algorithm. In this paper, a set of 40 pelvic bones of Duroc pigs are registered to each other w.r.t. the Euclidean transformation...

Debug register rootkits : A study of malicious use of the IA-32 debug registers

OpenAIRE

Persson, Emil; Mattsson, Joel

2012-01-01

The debug register rootkit is a special type of rootkit that has existed for over a decade, and is told to be undetectable by any scanning tools. It exploits the debug registers in Intel’s IA-32 processor architecture. This paper investigates the debug register rootkit to find out why it is considered a threat, and which malware removal tools have implemented detection algorithms against this threat. By implementing and running a debug register rootkit against the most popular Linux tools, ne...

ULTOR(Registered TradeMark) Passive Pose and Position Engine For Spacecraft Relative Navigation

Science.gov (United States)

Hannah, S. Joel

2008-01-01

The ULTOR(Registered TradeMark) Passive Pose and Position Engine (P3E) technology, developed by Advanced Optical Systems, Inc (AOS), uses real-time image correlation to provide relative position and pose data for spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control. Potential data sources include a wide variety of sensors, including visible and infrared cameras. ULTOR(Registered TradeMark) P3E has been demonstrated on a number of host processing platforms. NASA is integrating ULTOR(Registerd TradeMark) P3E into its Relative Navigation System (RNS), which is being developed for the upcoming Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). During SM4 ULTOR(Registered TradeMark) P3E will perform realtime pose and position measurements during both the approach and departure phases of the mission. This paper describes the RNS implementation of ULTOR(Registered TradeMark) P3E, and presents results from NASA's hardware-in-the-loop simulation testing against the HST mockup.

Evaluation of set-of errors in pelvic irradiation with electronic portal imaging device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Xiaoying; Zhang Zhen; Wang Wenchao; Ren Jun; Guo Xiaomei; Lu Huizhong

2007-01-01

Objective: Evaluate the systematic and random set-up error in the pelvic irradiation u- sing electronic portal imaging device(EPID) to provide institution-specific margin for PTV design in pelvic cancer treatment planning with 3D conformal therapy and/or IMRT. Methods: From May to August 2005, twelve patients who received pelvic irradiation, were involved in this study. CT simulations were performed and DRRs were generated as the reference images. Ant-post and lateral portal images were taken daily, and total of 244 sets of EPID images were collected for the whole group. The translational shifts along right-left, superior-inferior and anterior-posterior directions were calculated with aligning the pelvic bony structures on the DRRs and electronic portal images. The systematic and random setup errors were evaluated based on the 244 sets of data. PTV margin was assessed assuming target rotation was negligible. Results: In the right- left (R-L), superior-inferior (S-I) and anterior-posterior (A-P) directions, the maximum shifts were 9.9, 14.0 and 21.1 mm and the systematic setup errors were 0.5, 0.2 and 2.3 mm respectively. For all 244 sets of data in this study, the frequency of the shift larger than 10 mm were 0% (R-L), 1% (S-I) and 3% (A -P); and in R-L and S-I direction, 92% and 91% of the times the shift was smaller than 5 mm. However, only 79% of the times the A-P shift was less than 5 mm. Conclusions: It is suggested in this study that in order to achieve a target coverage of better than 95% of the times throughout the pelvic irradiation in our institution, a 5 mm PTV margin in right-left and superior-inferior directions is required, however, the anterior-posterior margin needs to be increased to at least 10 mm. One needs to be cautious though when applying the PTV margin derived from small sample of patient population to individual patient. (authors)

The Danish Adoption Register.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Liselotte; Sørensen, Thorkild I A

2011-07-01

The Danish Adoption Register was established in 1963-1964 to explore the genetic and environmental contribution to familial aggregation of schizophrenia. The register encompass information on all 14,425 non-familial adoptions of Danish children legally granted in Denmark 1924-1947. It includes name and date of birth of each adoptee and his or her biological and adoptive parents, date of transfer to adoptive parents and date of formal adoption. The linkage to biological and adoptive parents is close to complete, even biological fathers are registered for 91.4% of the adoptees. Adoption registers are a unique source allowing disentangling of genetic and familial environmental influences on traits, risk of diseases, and mortality.

A stereotactic method for the three-dimensional registration of multi-modality biologic images in animals: NMR, PET, histology, and autoradiography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Humm, J.L.; Ballon, D.; Hu, Y.C.; Ruan, S.; Chui, C.; Tulipano, P.K.; Erdi, A.; Koutcher, J.; Zakian, K.; Urano, M.; Zanzonico, P.; Mattis, C.; Dyke, J.; Chen, Y.; Harrington, P.; O'Donoghue, J.A.; Ling, C.C.

2003-01-01

The objective of this work was to develop and then validate a stereotactic fiduciary marker system for tumor xenografts in rodents which could be used to co-register magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), PET, tissue histology, autoradiography, and measurements from physiologic probes. A Teflon TM fiduciary template has been designed which allows the precise insertion of small hollow Teflon rods (0.71 mm diameter) into a tumor. These rods can be visualized by MRI and PET as well as by histology and autoradiography on tissue sections. The methodology has been applied and tested on a rigid phantom, on tissue phantom material, and finally on tumor bearing mice. Image registration has been performed between the MRI and PET images for the rigid Teflon phantom and among MRI, digitized microscopy images of tissue histology, and autoradiograms for both tissue phantom and tumor-bearing mice. A registration accuracy, expressed as the average Euclidean distance between the centers of three fiduciary markers among the registered image sets, of 0.2±0.06 mm was achieved between MRI and microPET image sets of a rigid Teflon phantom. The fiduciary template allows digitized tissue sections to be co-registered with three-dimensional MRI images with an average accuracy of 0.21 and 0.25 mm for the tissue phantoms and tumor xenografts, respectively. Between histology and autoradiograms, it was 0.19 and 0.21 mm for tissue phantoms and tumor xenografts, respectively. The fiduciary marker system provides a coordinate system with which to correlate information from multiple image types, on a voxel-by-voxel basis, with sub-millimeter accuracy--even among imaging modalities with widely disparate spatial resolution and in the absence of identifiable anatomic landmarks

ASTER Expedited L1B Registered Radiance at the Sensor V003

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Expedited ASTER Level-1B Registered Radiance at the Sensor data set is produced with the express purpose of providing ASTER Science Team members data of their...

3D/3D registration of coronary CTA and biplane XA reconstructions for improved image guidance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dibildox, Gerardo, E-mail: g.dibildox@erasmusmc.nl; Baka, Nora; Walsum, Theo van [Biomedical Imaging Group Rotterdam, Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus Medical Center, 3015 GE Rotterdam (Netherlands); Punt, Mark; Aben, Jean-Paul [Pie Medical Imaging, 6227 AJ Maastricht (Netherlands); Schultz, Carl [Department of Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Center, 3015 GE Rotterdam (Netherlands); Niessen, Wiro [Quantitative Imaging Group, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands and Biomedical Imaging Group Rotterdam, Departments of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Erasmus Medical Center, 3015 GE Rotterdam (Netherlands)

2014-09-15

Purpose: The authors aim to improve image guidance during percutaneous coronary interventions of chronic total occlusions (CTO) by providing information obtained from computed tomography angiography (CTA) to the cardiac interventionist. To this end, the authors investigate a method to register a 3D CTA model to biplane reconstructions. Methods: The authors developed a method for registering preoperative coronary CTA with intraoperative biplane x-ray angiography (XA) images via 3D models of the coronary arteries. The models are extracted from the CTA and biplane XA images, and are temporally aligned based on CTA reconstruction phase and XA ECG signals. Rigid spatial alignment is achieved with a robust probabilistic point set registration approach using Gaussian mixture models (GMMs). This approach is extended by including orientation in the Gaussian mixtures and by weighting bifurcation points. The method is evaluated on retrospectively acquired coronary CTA datasets of 23 CTO patients for which biplane XA images are available. Results: The Gaussian mixture model approach achieved a median registration accuracy of 1.7 mm. The extended GMM approach including orientation was not significantly different (P > 0.1) but did improve robustness with regards to the initialization of the 3D models. Conclusions: The authors demonstrated that the GMM approach can effectively be applied to register CTA to biplane XA images for the purpose of improving image guidance in percutaneous coronary interventions.

Efficient Ada multitasking on a RISC register window architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Kearns, J. P.; Quammen, D.

1987-01-01

This work addresses the problem of reducing context switch overhead on a processor which supports a large register file - a register file much like that which is part of the Berkeley RISC processors and several other emerging architectures (which are not necessarily reduced instruction set machines in the purest sense). Such a reduction in overhead is particularly desirable in a real-time embedded application, in which task-to-task context switch overhead may result in failure to meet crucial deadlines. A storage management technique by which a context switch may be implemented as cheaply as a procedure call is presented. The essence of this technique is the avoidance of the save/restore of registers on the context switch. This is achieved through analysis of the static source text of an Ada tasking program. Information gained during that analysis directs the optimized storage management strategy for that program at run time. A formal verification of the technique in terms of an operational control model and an evaluation of the technique's performance via simulations driven by synthetic Ada program traces are presented.

Danish registers on aspects of reproduction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blenstrup, Lene Tølbøll; Knudsen, Lisbeth B.

2011-01-01

Introduction: The establishing of three Danish population based registers, namely the Fertility Database, the Register of Legally Induced Abortions and the In Vitro Fertilisation register aimed at providing data for surveying of reproductive outcome. Content: The registers include information...... on births, abortions and assisted reproduction as well as selected characteristics of the women (and men) involved. Validity and Coverage: Both the validity and coverage of each register is considered of high quality. Conclusions: These registers provide, both individually and in combination, unique...

Investigation of the HU-density conversion method and comparison of dose distribution for dose calculation on MV cone beam CT images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Min Joo; Lee, Seu Ran; Suh, Tae Suk [Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon (Korea, Republic of)

2011-11-15

Modern radiation therapy techniques, such as Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) has become a routine clinical practice on linear accelerators for the increase the tumor dose conformity and improvement of normal tissue sparing at the same time. For these highly developed techniques, megavoltage cone beam computed tomography (MVCBCT) system produce volumetric images at just one rotation of the x-ray beam source and detector on the bottom of conventional linear accelerator for real-time application of patient condition into treatment planning. MV CBCT image scan be directly registered to a reference CT data set which is usually kilo-voltage fan-beam computed tomography (kVFBCT) on treatment planning system and the registered image scan be used to adjust patient set-up error. However, to use MV CBCT images in radiotherapy, reliable electron density (ED) distribution are required. Patients scattering, beam hardening and softening effect caused by different energy application between kVCT, MV CBCT can cause cupping artifacts in MV CBCT images and distortion of Houns field Unit (HU) to ED conversion. The goal of this study, for reliable application of MV CBCT images into dose calculation, MV CBCT images was modified to correct distortion of HU to ED using the relationship of HU and ED from kV FBCT and MV CBCT images. The HU-density conversion was performed on MV CBCT image set using Dose difference map was showing in Figure 1. Finally, percentage differences above 3% were reduced depending on applying density calibration method. As a result, total error co uld be reduced to under 3%. The present study demonstrates that dose calculation accuracy using MV CBCT image set can be improved my applying HU-density conversion method. The dose calculation and comparison of dose distribution from MV CBCT image set with/without HU-density conversion method was performed. An advantage of this study compared to other approaches is that HU

Fast evaluation of patient set-up during radiotherapy by aligning features in portal and simulator images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bijhold, J.; Herk, M. van; Vijlbrief, R.; Lebesque, J.V.

1991-01-01

A new fast method is presented for the quantification of patient set-up errors during radiotherapy with external photon beams. The set-up errors are described as deviations in relative position and orientation of specified anatomical structures relative to specified field shaping devices. These deviations are determined from parameters of the image transformations that make their features in a portal image align with the corresponding features in a simulator image. Knowledge of some set-up parameters during treatment simulation is required. The method does not require accurate knowledge about the position of the portal imaging device as long as the positions of some of the field shaping devices are verified independently during treatment. By applying this method, deviations in a pelvic phantom set-up can be measured with a precision of 2 mm within 1 minute. Theoretical considerations and experiments have shown that the method is not applicable when there are out-of-plane rotations larger than 2 degrees or translations larger than 1 cm. Inter-observer variability proved to be a source of large systematic errors, which could be reduced by offering a precise protocol for the feature alignment. (author)

Enhancement system of nighttime infrared video image and visible video image

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yue; Piao, Yan

2016-11-01

Visibility of Nighttime video image has a great significance for military and medicine areas, but nighttime video image has so poor quality that we can't recognize the target and background. Thus we enhance the nighttime video image by fuse infrared video image and visible video image. According to the characteristics of infrared and visible images, we proposed improved sift algorithm andαβ weighted algorithm to fuse heterologous nighttime images. We would deduced a transfer matrix from improved sift algorithm. The transfer matrix would rapid register heterologous nighttime images. And theαβ weighted algorithm can be applied in any scene. In the video image fusion system, we used the transfer matrix to register every frame and then used αβ weighted method to fuse every frame, which reached the time requirement soft video. The fused video image not only retains the clear target information of infrared video image, but also retains the detail and color information of visible video image and the fused video image can fluency play.

Comparison of different reconstruction algorithms for three-dimensional ultrasound imaging in a neurosurgical setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, D; Lippert, C; Vollmer, F; Bozinov, O; Benes, L; Schulte, D M; Sure, U

2012-09-01

Freehand three-dimensional ultrasound imaging (3D-US) is increasingly used in image-guided surgery. During image acquisition, a set of B-scans is acquired that is distributed in a non-parallel manner over the area of interest. Reconstructing these images into a regular array allows 3D visualization. However, the reconstruction process may introduce artefacts and may therefore reduce image quality. The aim of the study is to compare different algorithms with respect to image quality and diagnostic value for image guidance in neurosurgery. 3D-US data sets were acquired during surgery of various intracerebral lesions using an integrated ultrasound-navigation device. They were stored for post-hoc evaluation. Five different reconstruction algorithms, a standard multiplanar reconstruction with interpolation (MPR), a pixel nearest neighbour method (PNN), a voxel nearest neighbour method (VNN) and two voxel based distance-weighted algorithms (VNN2 and DW) were tested with respect to image quality and artefact formation. The capability of the algorithm to fill gaps within the sample volume was investigated and a clinical evaluation with respect to the diagnostic value of the reconstructed images was performed. MPR was significantly worse than the other algorithms in filling gaps. In an image subtraction test, VNN2 and DW reliably reconstructed images even if large amounts of data were missing. However, the quality of the reconstruction improved, if data acquisition was performed in a structured manner. When evaluating the diagnostic value of reconstructed axial, sagittal and coronal views, VNN2 and DW were judged to be significantly better than MPR and VNN. VNN2 and DW could be identified as robust algorithms that generate reconstructed US images with a high diagnostic value. These algorithms improve the utility and reliability of 3D-US imaging during intraoperative navigation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Solving Quasi-Variational Inequalities for Image Restoration with Adaptive Constraint Sets

KAUST Repository

Lenzen, F.

2014-01-01

© 2014 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. We consider a class of quasi-variational inequalities (QVIs) for adaptive image restoration, where the adaptivity is described via solution-dependent constraint sets. In previous work we studied both theoretical and numerical issues. While we were able to show the existence of solutions for a relatively broad class of problems, we encountered difficulties concerning uniqueness of the solution as well as convergence of existing algorithms for solving QVIs. In particular, it seemed that with increasing image size the growing condition number of the involved differential operator posed severe problems. In the present paper we prove uniqueness for a larger class of problems, particularly independent of the image size. Moreover, we provide a numerical algorithm with proved convergence. Experimental results support our theoretical findings.

Image registration in the brain: a test of clinical accuracy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rosenman, Julian; Miller, Elizabeth P.; Rinker, Lillian; Mukherji, Suresh; Tracton, Gregg; Cullip, Tim J.; Muller, Keith E.; DeLuca, Marla C.; Major, Stacey A.; Sailer, Scott; Varia, Mahesh

1997-01-01

Purpose/Objective: Accurate localization of tumor and normal structures is a critical step in the radiation treatment planning processes and has direct implications for tumor control success as well as normal tissue morbidity. We conducted a study to determine the accuracy of transferring tumor information from diagnostic images to the simulation films and planning CT with conventional methods using the best clinical judgment and compared that to tumor localization using 3D registration software. Materials and Methods: We measured the accuracy with which experienced clinicians could localize tumor volume from diagnostic images to either simulation films or a planning CT, with and without 3D registration software. To obtain absolute registration truth we used the method of identical pairs wherein a CT data set was duplicated and one copy resliced along a different plane than the original while maintaining the exact mathematical transformation between them. A tumor was then added to the resliced CT which became the surrogate diagnostic image. Because we were concerned that a CT/CT pair might be too easy to register, a simulated MR made by re-colorizing the resliced CT (to become a facsimile MR or fMR) was also used as a surrogate diagnostic image. Finally we studied the registration accuracy when a CT/(real)MR pair was used. The registration in this case could not be guaranteed to be exact, but the studies were obtained under carefully controlled conditions and were registered from bony landmarks using commercial radiosurgery software. A team of experts then placed the tumor from the resliced CT, fMR, or real MR to an AP and lateral 'isocenter simulation film' (a digitally reconstructed radiograph made from the unmarked CT) and to the 'planning CT' - also the unmarked CT. A registration of the data sets (CT/CT, CT/fMR and CT/MR) was also done using our 3D registration software. A total of thirty-six tasks on four subjects were performed. Four analyses (each with

Breast imaging and reporting data system - Mammography. ACR BI-RADS registered -Mammography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, U.; Helbrich, T.

2006-01-01

ACR BI-RADS registered mammography is an established technique in all German-speaking countries and has become a standard part of all mammographic findings. The first German-language edition three years ago made a significant contribution to this. This is the second, revised and edited edition. It is based on the fourth English-language edition of the ACR which was published in 2003. (orig.)

Mining big data sets of plankton images: a zero-shot learning approach to retrieve labels without training data

Science.gov (United States)

Orenstein, E. C.; Morgado, P. M.; Peacock, E.; Sosik, H. M.; Jaffe, J. S.

2016-02-01

Technological advances in instrumentation and computing have allowed oceanographers to develop imaging systems capable of collecting extremely large data sets. With the advent of in situ plankton imaging systems, scientists must now commonly deal with "big data" sets containing tens of millions of samples spanning hundreds of classes, making manual classification untenable. Automated annotation methods are now considered to be the bottleneck between collection and interpretation. Typically, such classifiers learn to approximate a function that predicts a predefined set of classes for which a considerable amount of labeled training data is available. The requirement that the training data span all the classes of concern is problematic for plankton imaging systems since they sample such diverse, rapidly changing populations. These data sets may contain relatively rare, sparsely distributed, taxa that will not have associated training data; a classifier trained on a limited set of classes will miss these samples. The computer vision community, leveraging advances in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), has recently attempted to tackle such problems using "zero-shot" object categorization methods. Under a zero-shot framework, a classifier is trained to map samples onto a set of attributes rather than a class label. These attributes can include visual and non-visual information such as what an organism is made out of, where it is distributed globally, or how it reproduces. A second stage classifier is then used to extrapolate a class. In this work, we demonstrate a zero-shot classifier, implemented with a CNN, to retrieve out-of-training-set labels from images. This method is applied to data from two continuously imaging, moored instruments: the Scripps Plankton Camera System (SPCS) and the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB). Results from simulated deployment scenarios indicate zero-shot classifiers could be successful at recovering samples of rare taxa in image sets. This

National Register Historic Districts

Data.gov (United States)

Iowa State University GIS Support and Research Facility — The National Register Historic District layer is a shape file showing the boundaries of Historic Districts that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

High agreement between the new Mongolian electronic immunization register and written immunization records: a health centre based audit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jocelyn Chan

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Monitoring of vaccination coverage is vital for the prevention and control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Electronic immunization registers have been increasingly adopted to assist with the monitoring of vaccine coverage; however, there is limited literature about the use of electronic registers in low- and middle-income countries such as Mongolia. We aimed to determine the accuracy and completeness of the newly introduced electronic immunization register for calculating vaccination coverage and determining vaccine effectiveness within two districts in Mongolia in comparison to written health provider records. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional record review among children 2–23 months of age vaccinated at immunization clinics within the two districts. We linked data from written records with the electronic immunization register using the national identification number to determine the completeness and accuracy of the electronic register. Results: Both completeness (90.9%; 95% CI: 88.4–93.4 and accuracy (93.3%; 95% CI: 84.1–97.4 of the electronic immunization register were high when compared to written records. The increase in completeness over time indicated a delay in data entry. Conclusion: Through this audit, we have demonstrated concordance between a newly introduced electronic register and health provider records in a middle-income country setting. Based on this experience, we recommend that electronic registers be accompanied by routine quality assurance procedures for the monitoring of vaccination programmes in such settings.

Context Switching with Multiple Register Windows: A RISC Performance Study

Science.gov (United States)

Konsek, Marion B.; Reed, Daniel A.; Watcharawittayakul, Wittaya

1987-01-01

Although previous studies have shown that a large file of overlapping register windows can greatly reduce procedure call/return overhead, the effects of register windows in a multiprogramming environment are poorly understood. This paper investigates the performance of multiprogrammed, reduced instruction set computers (RISCs) as a function of window management strategy. Using an analytic model that reflects context switch and procedure call overheads, we analyze the performance of simple, linearly self-recursive programs. For more complex programs, we present the results of a simulation study. These studies show that a simple strategy that saves all windows prior to a context switch, but restores only a single window following a context switch, performs near optimally.

A 32-bit NMOS microprocessor with a large register file

Science.gov (United States)

Sherburne, R. W., Jr.; Katevenis, M. G. H.; Patterson, D. A.; Sequin, C. H.

1984-10-01

Two scaled versions of a 32-bit NMOS reduced instruction set computer CPU, called RISC II, have been implemented on two different processing lines using the simple Mead and Conway layout rules with lambda values of 2 and 1.5 microns (corresponding to drawn gate lengths of 4 and 3 microns), respectively. The design utilizes a small set of simple instructions in conjunction with a large register file in order to provide high performance. This approach has resulted in two surprisingly powerful single-chip processors.

High resolution MRI of the breast at 3 T: which BI-RADS registered descriptors are most strongly associated with the diagnosis of breast cancer?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinker-Domenig, K.; Helbich, T.H.; Bogner, W.; Gruber, S.; Bickel, H.; Duffy, S.; Schernthaner, M.; Dubsky, P.; Pluschnig, U.; Rudas, M.; Trattnig, S.

2012-01-01

To identify which breast lesion descriptors in the ACR BI-RADS registered MRI lexicon are most strongly associated with the diagnosis of breast cancer when performing breast MR imaging at 3 T. 150 patients underwent breast MR imaging at 3 T. Lesion size, morphology and enhancement kinetics were assessed according to the BI-RADS registered classification. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy were assessed. The effects of the BI-RADS registered descriptors on sensitivity and specificity were evaluated. Data were analysed using logistic regression. Histopathological diagnoses were used as the standard of reference. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of breast MRI at 3 T was 99%, 81% and 93%, respectively. In univariate analysis, the final diagnosis of malignancy was positively associated with irregular shape (p registered breast lesion descriptors that are mostly strongly associated with breast cancer in breast MR imaging at 3 T are lesion shape, lesion margin, internal enhancement pattern and Type 3 enhancement kinetics. (orig.)

Measurement of thermally ablated lesions in sonoelastographic images using level set methods

Science.gov (United States)

Castaneda, Benjamin; Tamez-Pena, Jose Gerardo; Zhang, Man; Hoyt, Kenneth; Bylund, Kevin; Christensen, Jared; Saad, Wael; Strang, John; Rubens, Deborah J.; Parker, Kevin J.

2008-03-01

The capability of sonoelastography to detect lesions based on elasticity contrast can be applied to monitor the creation of thermally ablated lesion. Currently, segmentation of lesions depicted in sonoelastographic images is performed manually which can be a time consuming process and prone to significant intra- and inter-observer variability. This work presents a semi-automated segmentation algorithm for sonoelastographic data. The user starts by planting a seed in the perceived center of the lesion. Fast marching methods use this information to create an initial estimate of the lesion. Subsequently, level set methods refine its final shape by attaching the segmented contour to edges in the image while maintaining smoothness. The algorithm is applied to in vivo sonoelastographic images from twenty five thermal ablated lesions created in porcine livers. The estimated area is compared to results from manual segmentation and gross pathology images. Results show that the algorithm outperforms manual segmentation in accuracy, inter- and intra-observer variability. The processing time per image is significantly reduced.

A Database of Registered, Textured Models of the Human Face

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sjöstrand, Karl; Lading, Brian

2005-01-01

This note describes a data set of 24 registered human faces represented by both shape and texture. The data was collected during 2003 as part of the preparation of the master thesis of Karl Sjöstrand (former name Karl Skoglund). The data is ready to be used in shape, appearance and data analysis....

Registered nurses' use of research findings in the care of older people.

Science.gov (United States)

Boström, Anne-Marie; Kajermo, Kerstin Nilsson; Nordström, Gun; Wallin, Lars

2009-05-01

To describe registered nurses' reported use of research in the care of older people and to examine associations between research use and factors related to the elements: the communication channels, the adopter and the social system. Research use among registered nurses working in hospital settings has been reported in many studies. Few studies, however, have explored the use of research among registered nurses working in the care of older people. A cross-sectional survey. In eight municipalities, all registered nurses (n = 210) working in older people care were invited to participate (response rate 67%). The Research Utilisation Questionnaire was adopted. Questions concerning the work organisation and research-related resources were sent to the Community Chief Nurse at each municipality. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied. The registered nurses reported a relatively low use of research findings in daily practice, despite reporting a positive attitude to research. The registered nurses reported lack of access to research reports at the work place and that they had little support from unit managers and colleagues. Registered nurses working in municipalities with access to research-related resources reported more use of research than registered nurses without resources. The factors 'Access to research findings at work place', 'Positive attitudes to research' and 'Nursing programme at university level' were significantly associated with research use. There is a great potential to increase registered nurses' use of research findings in the care of older people. Factors which were linked to the communication channels and the adopter were associated with research use. Strategies to enhance research use should focus on access to and adequate training in using information sources, increased knowledge on research methodology and nursing science and a supportive organisation.

Building a population-based diabetes register: an Italian experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballotari, Paola; Chiatamone Ranieri, Sofia; Vicentini, Massimo; Caroli, Stefania; Gardini, Andrea; Rodolfi, Rossella; Crucco, Roberto; Greci, Marina; Manicardi, Valeria; Giorgi Rossi, Paolo

2014-01-01

To describe the methodology used to set up the Reggio Emilia (northern Italy) Diabetes Register. The prevalence estimates on December 31st, 2009 are also provided. The Diabetes Register covers all residents in the Reggio Emilia province. The register was created by deterministic linkage of six routinely collected data sources through a definite algorithm able to ascertain cases and to distinguish type of diabetes and model of care: Hospital Discharge, Drug Dispensation, Biochemistry Laboratory, Disease-specific Exemption, Diabetes Outpatient Clinics, and Mortality databases. Using these data, we estimated crude prevalence on December 31st, 2009 by sex, age groups, and type of diabetes. There were 25,425 ascertained prevalent cases on December 31st, 2009. Drug Dispensation and Exemption databases made the greatest contribution to prevalence. Analyzing overlapping sources, more than 80% of cases were reported by at least two sources. Crude prevalence was 4.8% and 5.9% for the whole population and for people aged 18 years and over, respectively. Males accounted for 53.6%. Type 1 diabetes accounted for 3.8% of cases, while people with Type 2 diabetes were the overriding majority (91.2%), and Diabetes Outpatient Clinics treated 75.4% of people with Type 2 diabetes. The Register is able to quantify the burden of disease, the first step in planning, implementing, and monitoring appropriate interventions. All data sources contributed to completeness and/or accuracy of the Register. Although all cases are identified by deterministic record linkage, manual revision and General Practitioner involvement are still necessary when information is insufficient or conflicting. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relating timed and register automata

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diego Figueira

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Timed automata and register automata are well-known models of computation over timed and data words respectively. The former has clocks that allow to test the lapse of time between two events, whilst the latter includes registers that can store data values for later comparison. Although these two models behave in appearance differently, several decision problems have the same (undecidability and complexity results for both models. As a prominent example, emptiness is decidable for alternating automata with one clock or register, both with non-primitive recursive complexity. This is not by chance. This work confirms that there is indeed a tight relationship between the two models. We show that a run of a timed automaton can be simulated by a register automaton, and conversely that a run of a register automaton can be simulated by a timed automaton. Our results allow to transfer complexity and decidability results back and forth between these two kinds of models. We justify the usefulness of these reductions by obtaining new results on register automata.

Core outcome sets in women's and newborn health: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Duffy, Jmn; Rolph, R; Gale, C; Hirsch, M; Khan, K S; Ziebland, S; McManus, R J

2017-09-01

Variation in outcome collection and reporting is a serious hindrance to progress in our specialty; therefore, over 80 journals have come together to support the development, dissemination, and implementation of core outcome sets. This study systematically reviewed and characterised registered, progressing, or completed core outcome sets relevant to women's and newborn health. Systematic search using the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trial initiative and the Core Outcomes in Women's and Newborn Health initiative databases. Registry entries, protocols, systematic reviews, and core outcome sets. Descriptive statistics to describe characteristics and results. There were 49 core outcome sets registered in maternal and newborn health, with the majority registered in 2015 (n = 22; 48%) or 2016 (n = 16; 32%). Benign gynaecology (n = 8; 16%) and newborn health (n = 3; 6%) are currently under-represented. Twenty-four (52%) core outcome sets were funded by international (n = 1; core outcome sets were completed: reconstructive breast surgery (11 outcomes), preterm birth (13 outcomes), epilepsy in pregnancy (29 outcomes), and maternity care (48 outcomes). The quantitative, qualitative, and consensus methods used to develop core outcome sets varied considerably. Core outcome sets are currently being developed across women's and newborn health, although coverage of topics is variable. Development of further infrastructure to develop, disseminate, and implement core outcome sets is urgently required. Forty-nine women's and newborn core outcome sets registered. 50% funded. 7 protocols, 20 systematic reviews, and 4 core outcome sets published. @coreoutcomes @jamesmnduffy. © 2017 Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Optimizing Instruction Scheduling and Register Allocation for Register-File-Connected Clustered VLIW Architectures

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Haijing; Wang, Siye; Zhang, Yanjun

2013-01-01

Clustering has become a common trend in very long instruction words (VLIW) architecture to solve the problem of area, energy consumption, and design complexity. Register-file-connected clustered (RFCC) VLIW architecture uses the mechanism of global register file to accomplish the inter-cluster data communications, thus eliminating the performance and energy consumption penalty caused by explicit inter-cluster data move operations in traditional bus-connected clustered (BCC) VLIW architecture. However, the limit number of access ports to the global register file has become an issue which must be well addressed; otherwise the performance and energy consumption would be harmed. In this paper, we presented compiler optimization techniques for an RFCC VLIW architecture called Lily, which is designed for encryption systems. These techniques aim at optimizing performance and energy consumption for Lily architecture, through appropriate manipulation of the code generation process to maintain a better management of the accesses to the global register file. All the techniques have been implemented and evaluated. The result shows that our techniques can significantly reduce the penalty of performance and energy consumption due to access port limitation of global register file. PMID:23970841

Optimizing Instruction Scheduling and Register Allocation for Register-File-Connected Clustered VLIW Architectures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haijing Tang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Clustering has become a common trend in very long instruction words (VLIW architecture to solve the problem of area, energy consumption, and design complexity. Register-file-connected clustered (RFCC VLIW architecture uses the mechanism of global register file to accomplish the inter-cluster data communications, thus eliminating the performance and energy consumption penalty caused by explicit inter-cluster data move operations in traditional bus-connected clustered (BCC VLIW architecture. However, the limit number of access ports to the global register file has become an issue which must be well addressed; otherwise the performance and energy consumption would be harmed. In this paper, we presented compiler optimization techniques for an RFCC VLIW architecture called Lily, which is designed for encryption systems. These techniques aim at optimizing performance and energy consumption for Lily architecture, through appropriate manipulation of the code generation process to maintain a better management of the accesses to the global register file. All the techniques have been implemented and evaluated. The result shows that our techniques can significantly reduce the penalty of performance and energy consumption due to access port limitation of global register file.

The Copenhagen School Health Records Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, Jennifer L; Sørensen, Thorkild I A

2011-01-01

The Copenhagen School Health Records Register is an electronic register of health examination information on 372,636 children who attended school in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1936 to 2005.......The Copenhagen School Health Records Register is an electronic register of health examination information on 372,636 children who attended school in Copenhagen, Denmark from 1936 to 2005....

Geographic atrophy segmentation in infrared and autofluorescent retina images using supervised learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Devisetti, K; Karnowski, T P; Giancardo, L; Li, Y; Chaum, E

2011-01-01

Geographic Atrophy (GA) of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is an advanced form of atrophic age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and is responsible for about 20% of AMD-related legal blindness in the United States. Two different imaging modalities for retinas, infrared imaging and autofluorescence imaging, serve as interesting complimentary technologies for highlighting GA. In this work we explore the use of neural network classifiers in performing segmentation of GA in registered infrared (IR) and autofluorescence (AF) images. Our segmentation achieved a performance level of 82.5% sensitivity and 92.9% specificity on a per-pixel basis using hold-one-out validation testing. The algorithm, feature extraction, data set and experimental results are discussed and shown.

The Danish Adoption Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Liselotte; Sørensen, Thorkild I A

2011-01-01

The Danish Adoption Register was established in 1963-1964 to explore the genetic and environmental contribution to familial aggregation of schizophrenia.......The Danish Adoption Register was established in 1963-1964 to explore the genetic and environmental contribution to familial aggregation of schizophrenia....

Structural lesions detected by magnetic resonance imaging in the spine of patients with spondyloarthritis - definitions, assessment system, and reference image set

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østergaard, Mikkel; Maksymowych, Walter P; Pedersen, Susanne J

2009-01-01

are assessed at each vertebral endplate at all 23 spinal levels from C2/3 to L5/S1, whereas facet joint lesions are to be assessed by segmental level (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar). CONCLUSION: An anatomy-based set of definitions and an assessment system for structural lesions in the spine of patients......OBJECTIVE: There is no reliable and sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment system for structural lesions in patients with spondyloarthritis (SpA). We sought to develop and illustrate a detailed anatomy-based set of MRI definitions and an assessment system for structural lesions...... in the spine of patients with SpA. METHODS: MRI definitions of different structural ("chronic") lesions at various anatomical locations in the spine, and an accompanying assessment system, were agreed by consensus within the Canada-Denmark MRI working group. Subsequently, a reference image set...

On line portal imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Munro, Peter

1995-01-01

structures on a digitized simulator film. Once the anatomic structures have been registered, any discrepancies in the position of the patient can be identified. However, the task is not nearly as straight-forward as it sounds. One problem is finding a common frame of reference for the simulator and portal images, since the location of the radiation field within the pixel matrix may differ for the two images. This problem is compounded by the fact that the commercially available EPIDs have mechanical slop and do not deploy to exactly the same position repeatedly. As a result, a common frame of reference has to be established before the anatomic structures in the images can be registered - generally by registering radiation field edges identified in the simulator and portal images. In addition, distortions in patient geometry or rotations out of the image plane can confound the image registration techniques. Despite the difficulties, many image registration techniques such as interactive techniques, landmark-based techniques, contrast-based techniques, and hybrid techniques have been developed to detect errors in patient positioning. The advantages and disadvantages of these various techniques will be discussed. Clinical use of portal imaging systems has included the use of static localisation and verification images, the use of 'movie' sequences (sequences of images acquired during one irradiation) and the use of 'time-lapse' sequences of images acquired during consecutive treatments, which demonstrate the variability in patient set-up over a full course of therapy. Possibly the most contentious issue is how to best make use of the information provided the portal images. Philosophies have ranged between intervening in every treatment, to intervening only occasionally, or to identifying patients who would benefit from smaller treatment margins and modifying the treatment plan part way through the course of treatment. While great improvements in portal imaging technology have

Registers of multiple sclerosis in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Koch-Henriksen, N; Magyari, M; Laursen, B

2015-01-01

between a number of different environmental exposures in the past and the subsequent risk of MS. Some of these studies have been able to exonerate suspected risk factors. The other register, the nationwide Danish Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Register, is a follow-up register for all patients who have......There are two nationwide population-based registers for multiple sclerosis (MS) in Denmark. The oldest register is The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry (DMSR), which is an epidemiological register for estimation of prevalence and incidence of MS and survival, and for identifying exposures earlier...... received disease-modifying treatments since 1996. It has, in particular, contributed to the knowledge of the role of antibodies against the biological drugs used for the treatment of MS....

The Danish Pathology Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bjerregaard, Beth; Larsen, Ole B

2011-01-01

The National Board of Health, Denmark in 1997 published guidelines for reporting of pathology data and the Danish Pathology Register (DPR) was established.......The National Board of Health, Denmark in 1997 published guidelines for reporting of pathology data and the Danish Pathology Register (DPR) was established....

Nonrigid Image Registration for Head and Neck Cancer Radiotherapy Treatment Planning With PET/CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ireland, Rob H.; Dyker, Karen E.; Barber, David C.; Wood, Steven M.; Hanney, Michael B.; Tindale, Wendy B.; Woodhouse, Neil; Hoggard, Nigel; Conway, John; Robinson, Martin H.

2007-01-01

Purpose: Head and neck radiotherapy planning with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) requires the images to be reliably registered with treatment planning CT. Acquiring PET/CT in treatment position is problematic, and in practice for some patients it may be beneficial to use diagnostic PET/CT for radiotherapy planning. Therefore, the aim of this study was first to quantify the image registration accuracy of PET/CT to radiotherapy CT and, second, to assess whether PET/CT acquired in diagnostic position can be registered to planning CT. Methods and Materials: Positron emission tomography/CT acquired in diagnostic and treatment position for five patients with head and neck cancer was registered to radiotherapy planning CT using both rigid and nonrigid image registration. The root mean squared error for each method was calculated from a set of anatomic landmarks marked by four independent observers. Results: Nonrigid and rigid registration errors for treatment position PET/CT to planning CT were 2.77 ± 0.80 mm and 4.96 ± 2.38 mm, respectively, p = 0.001. Applying the nonrigid registration to diagnostic position PET/CT produced a more accurate match to the planning CT than rigid registration of treatment position PET/CT (3.20 ± 1.22 mm and 4.96 ± 2.38 mm, respectively, p = 0.012). Conclusions: Nonrigid registration provides a more accurate registration of head and neck PET/CT to treatment planning CT than rigid registration. In addition, nonrigid registration of PET/CT acquired with patients in a standardized, diagnostic position can provide images registered to planning CT with greater accuracy than a rigid registration of PET/CT images acquired in treatment position. This may allow greater flexibility in the timing of PET/CT for head and neck cancer patients due to undergo radiotherapy

Microscopic validation of whole mouse micro-metastatic tumor imaging agents using cryo-imaging and sliding organ image registration

OpenAIRE

Liu, Yiqiao; Zhou, Bo; Qutaish, Mohammed; Wilson, David L.

2016-01-01

We created a metastasis imaging, analysis platform consisting of software and multi-spectral cryo-imaging system suitable for evaluating emerging imaging agents targeting micro-metastatic tumor. We analyzed CREKA-Gd in MRI, followed by cryo-imaging which repeatedly sectioned and tiled microscope images of the tissue block face, providing anatomical bright field and molecular fluorescence, enabling 3D microscopic imaging of the entire mouse with single metastatic cell sensitivity. To register ...

An International Comparison of the Instigation and Design of Health Registers in the Epidemiological Response to Major Environmental Health Incidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Behbod, Behrooz; Leonardi, Giovanni; Motreff, Yvon; Beck, Charles R; Yzermans, Joris; Lebret, Erik; Muravov, Oleg I; Bayleyegn, Tesfaye; Wolkin, Amy Funk; Lauriola, Paolo; Close, Rebecca; Crabbe, Helen; Pirard, Philippe

Epidemiological preparedness is vital in providing relevant, transparent, and timely intelligence for the management, mitigation, and prevention of public health impacts following major environmental health incidents. A register is a set of records containing systematically collected, standardized data about individual people. Planning for a register of people affected by or exposed to an incident is one of the evolving tools in the public health preparedness and response arsenal. We compared and contrasted the instigation and design of health registers in the epidemiological response to major environmental health incidents in England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. Consultation with experts from the 5 nations, supplemented with a review of gray and peer-reviewed scientific literature to identify examples where registers have been used. Populations affected by or at risk from major environmental health incidents in England, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. Nations were compared with respect to the (1) types of major incidents in their remit for considering a register; (2) arrangements for triggering a register; (3) approaches to design of register; (4) arrangements for register implementation; (5) uses of registers; and (6) examples of follow-up studies. Health registers have played a key role in the effective public health response to major environmental incidents, including sudden chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear, as well as natural, more prolonged incidents. Value has been demonstrated in the early and rapid deployment of health registers, enabling the capture of a representative population. The decision to establish a health register must ideally be confirmed immediately or soon after the incident using a set of agreed criteria. The establishment of protocols for the instigation, design, and implementation of health registers is recommended as part of preparedness activities. Key stakeholders must be

Microscopic validation of whole mouse micro-metastatic tumor imaging agents using cryo-imaging and sliding organ image registration

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yiqiao; Zhou, Bo; Qutaish, Mohammed; Wilson, David L.

2016-03-01

We created a metastasis imaging, analysis platform consisting of software and multi-spectral cryo-imaging system suitable for evaluating emerging imaging agents targeting micro-metastatic tumor. We analyzed CREKA-Gd in MRI, followed by cryo-imaging which repeatedly sectioned and tiled microscope images of the tissue block face, providing anatomical bright field and molecular fluorescence, enabling 3D microscopic imaging of the entire mouse with single metastatic cell sensitivity. To register MRI volumes to the cryo bright field reference, we used our standard mutual information, non-rigid registration which proceeded: preprocess --> affine --> B-spline non-rigid 3D registration. In this report, we created two modified approaches: mask where we registered locally over a smaller rectangular solid, and sliding organ. Briefly, in sliding organ, we segmented the organ, registered the organ and body volumes separately and combined results. Though sliding organ required manual annotation, it provided the best result as a standard to measure other registration methods. Regularization parameters for standard and mask methods were optimized in a grid search. Evaluations consisted of DICE, and visual scoring of a checkerboard display. Standard had accuracy of 2 voxels in all regions except near the kidney, where there were 5 voxels sliding. After mask and sliding organ correction, kidneys sliding were within 2 voxels, and Dice overlap increased 4%-10% in mask compared to standard. Mask generated comparable results with sliding organ and allowed a semi-automatic process.

Very wide register : an asymmetric register file organization for low power embedded processors.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Raghavan, P.; Lambrechts, A.; Jayapala, M.; Catthoor, F.; Verkest, D.T.M.L.; Corporaal, H.

2007-01-01

In current embedded systems processors, multi-ported register files are one of the most power hungry parts of the processor, even when they are clustered. This paper presents a novel register file architecture, which has single ported cells and asymmetric interfaces to the memory and to the

Mobile phones, cordless phones and rates of brain tumors in different age groups in the Swedish National Inpatient Register and the Swedish Cancer Register during 1998-2015.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lennart Hardell

Full Text Available We used the Swedish Inpatient Register (IPR to analyze rates of brain tumors of unknown type (D43 during 1998-2015. Average Annual Percentage Change (AAPC per 100,000 increased with +2.06%, 95% confidence interval (CI +1.27, +2.86% in both genders combined. A joinpoint was found in 2007 with Annual Percentage Change (APC 1998-2007 of +0.16%, 95% CI -0.94, +1.28%, and 2007-2015 of +4.24%, 95% CI +2.87, +5.63%. Highest AAPC was found in the age group 20-39 years. In the Swedish Cancer Register the age-standardized incidence rate per 100,000 increased for brain tumors, ICD-code 193.0, during 1998-2015 with AAPC in men +0.49%, 95% CI +0.05, +0.94%, and in women +0.33%, 95% CI -0.29, +0.45%. The cases with brain tumor of unknown type lack morphological examination. Brain tumor diagnosis was based on cytology/histopathology in 83% for men and in 87% for women in 1980. This frequency increased to 90% in men and 88% in women in 2015. During the same time period CT and MRI imaging techniques were introduced and morphology is not always necessary for diagnosis. If all brain tumors based on clinical diagnosis with CT or MRI had been reported to the Cancer Register the frequency of diagnoses based on cytology/histology would have decreased in the register. The results indicate underreporting of brain tumor cases to the Cancer Register. The real incidence would be higher. Thus, incidence trends based on the Cancer Register should be used with caution. Use of wireless phones should be considered in relation to the change of incidence rates.

First set of gated x-ray imaging diagnostics for the Laser Megajoule facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosch, R.; Trosseille, C.; Caillaud, T.; Allouche, V.; Bourgade, J. L.; Briat, M.; Brunel, P.; Burillo, M.; Casner, A.; Depierreux, S.; Gontier, D.; Jadaud, J. P.; Le Breton, J. P.; Llavador, P.; Loupias, B.; Miquel, J. L.; Oudot, G.; Perez, S.; Raimbourg, J.; Rousseau, A. [CEA-DAM Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, 91297 Arpajon Cedex (France); and others

2016-03-15

The Laser Megajoule (LMJ) facility located at CEA/CESTA started to operate in the early 2014 with two quadruplets (20 kJ at 351 nm) focused on target for the first experimental campaign. We present here the first set of gated x-ray imaging (GXI) diagnostics implemented on LMJ since mid-2014. This set consists of two imaging diagnostics with spatial, temporal, and broadband spectral resolution. These diagnostics will give basic measurements, during the entire life of the facility, such as position, structure, and balance of beams, but they will also be used to characterize gas filled target implosion symmetry and timing, to study x-ray radiography and hydrodynamic instabilities. The design requires a vulnerability approach, because components will operate in a harsh environment induced by neutron fluxes, gamma rays, debris, and shrapnel. Grazing incidence x-ray microscopes are fielded as far as possible away from the target to minimize potential damage and signal noise due to these sources. These imaging diagnostics incorporate microscopes with large source-to-optic distance and large size gated microchannel plate detectors. Microscopes include optics with grazing incidence mirrors, pinholes, and refractive lenses. Spatial, temporal, and spectral performances have been measured on x-ray tubes and UV lasers at CEA-DIF and at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt BESSY II synchrotron prior to be set on LMJ. GXI-1 and GXI-2 designs, metrology, and first experiments on LMJ are presented here.

The Danish nationwide clinical register for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: DANBIO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibfelt EH

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Else Helene Ibfelt,1 Dorte Vendelbo Jensen,2,3 Merete Lund Hetland2,4 1Registry Support Centre (East, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup University Hospital, 2DANBIO Registry and Copenhagen Center for Arthritis Research, Center for Rheumatology and Spine Diseases, Centre of Head and Orthopedics, Rigshospitalet, Glostrup, 3Department of Rheumatology, Herlev and Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, 4Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Introduction: DANBIO is a research register and a data source for rheumatologic diseases (rheumatoid arthritis [RA], axial spondyloarthritis, and psoriatic arthritis for monitoring clinical quality at the national, regional, and hospital levels. Study population: The register includes patients with rheumatologic diseases who are treated at a hospital or a private rheumatologic clinic. Registration is mandatory for all patients with RA regardless of treatment and also for patients with other diagnoses if treated with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs. Since 2006, the registration has been done electronically, including patient-reported outcome measures registered electronically by the patients with the use of touch screens. Main variables: Core variables such as diagnosis, year of diagnosis, age, and sex are registered at the beginning. Data entered at later visits included the following: patient-reported outcomes for disease activity, pain, fatigue, functional status, and physician-reported objective measures of disease activity, treatment, C-reactive protein, and, when indicated, imaging. For subgroups of patients, the variables such as quality of life, sociodemographic factors, lifestyle, and comorbidity are also registered. Descriptive data: The DANBIO cohort comprised ~26,000 patients with RA, 3,200 patients with axial spondyloarthritis, and 6

Registered Nurse (Associate Degree).

Science.gov (United States)

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Center on Education and Training for Employment.

This document, which is designed for use in developing a tech prep competency profile for the occupation of registered nurse (with an associate degree), lists technical competencies and competency builders for 19 units pertinent to the health technologies cluster in general and 5 units specific to the occupation of registered nurse. The following…

SU-E-J-222: Evaluation of Deformable Registration of PET/CT Images for Cervical Cancer Brachytherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liao, Y; Turian, J; Templeton, A; Kiel, K; Chu, J; Kadir, T

2014-01-01

Purpose: PET/CT provides important functional information for radiotherapy targeting of cervical cancer. However, repeated PET/CT procedures for external beam and subsequent brachytherapy expose patients to additional radiation and are not cost effective. Our goal is to investigate the possibility of propagating PET-active volumes for brachytherapy procedures through deformable image registration (DIR) of earlier PET/CT and ultimately to minimize the number of PET/CT image sessions required. Methods: Nine cervical cancer patients each received their brachytherapy preplanning PET/CT at the end of EBRT with a Syed template in place. The planning PET/CT was acquired on the day of brachytherapy treatment with the actual applicator (Syed or Tandem and Ring) and rigidly registered. The PET/CT images were then deformably registered creating a third (deformed) image set for target prediction. Regions of interest with standardized uptake values (SUV) greater than 65% of maximum SUV were contoured as target volumes in all three sets of PET images. The predictive value of the registered images was evaluated by comparing the preplanning and deformed PET volumes with the planning PET volume using Dice's coefficient (DC) and center-of-mass (COM) displacement. Results: The average DCs were 0.12±0.14 and 0.19±0.16 for rigid and deformable predicted target volumes, respectively. The average COM displacements were 1.9±0.9 cm and 1.7±0.7 cm for rigid and deformable registration, respectively. The DCs were improved by deformable registration, however, both were lower than published data for DIR in other modalities and clinical sites. Anatomical changes caused by different brachytherapy applicators could have posed a challenge to the DIR algorithm. The physiological change from interstitial needle placement may also contribute to lower DC. Conclusion: The clinical use of DIR in PET/CT for cervical cancer brachytherapy appears to be limited by applicator choice and requires further

A neutron image plate quasi-Laue diffractometer for protein crystallography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cipriani, F.; Castagna, J.C.; Wilkinson, C. [European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble (France)] [and others

1994-12-31

An instrument which is based on image plate technology has been constructed to perform cold neutron Laue crystallography on protein structures. The crystal is mounted at the center of a cylindrical detector which is 400mm long and has a circumference of 1000mm, with gadolinium oxide-containing image plates mounted on its exterior surface. Laue images registered on the plate are read out by rotating the drum and translating a laser read head parallel to the cylinder axis, giving a pixel size of 200{mu}m x 200{mu}m and a total read time of 5 minutes. Preliminary results indicate that it should be possible to obtain a complete data set from a protein crystal to atomic resolution in about two weeks.

Functional verification of a safety class controller for NPPs using a UVM register Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kyu Chull [Dept. of Applied Computer Engineering, Dankook University, Cheonan (Korea, Republic of)

2014-06-15

A highly reliable safety class controller for NPPs (Nuclear Power Plants) is mandatory as even a minor malfunction can lead to disastrous consequences for people, the environment or the facility. In order to enhance the reliability of a safety class digital controller for NPPs, we employed a diversity approach, in which a PLC-type controller and a PLD-type controller are to be operated in parallel. We built and used structured testbenches based on the classes supported by UVM for functional verification of the PLD-type controller designed for NPPs. We incorporated a UVM register model into the testbenches in order to increase the controllability and the observability of the DUT(Device Under Test). With the increased testability, we could easily verify the datapaths between I/O ports and the register sets of the DUT, otherwise we had to perform black box tests for the datapaths, which is very cumbersome and time consuming. We were also able to perform constrained random verification very easily and systematically. From the study, we confirmed the various advantages of using the UVM register model in verification such as scalability, reusability and interoperability, and set some design guidelines for verification of the NPP controllers.

Evaluation of multimodality imaging using image fusion with ultrasound tissue elasticity imaging in an experimental animal model.

Science.gov (United States)

Paprottka, P M; Zengel, P; Cyran, C C; Ingrisch, M; Nikolaou, K; Reiser, M F; Clevert, D A

2014-01-01

To evaluate the ultrasound tissue elasticity imaging by comparison to multimodality imaging using image fusion with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and conventional grey scale imaging with additional elasticity-ultrasound in an experimental small-animal-squamous-cell carcinoma-model for the assessment of tissue morphology. Human hypopharynx carcinoma cells were subcutaneously injected into the left flank of 12 female athymic nude rats. After 10 days (SD ± 2) of subcutaneous tumor growth, sonographic grey scale including elasticity imaging and MRI measurements were performed using a high-end ultrasound system and a 3T MR. For image fusion the contrast-enhanced MRI DICOM data set was uploaded in the ultrasonic device which has a magnetic field generator, a linear array transducer (6-15 MHz) and a dedicated software package (GE Logic E9), that can detect transducers by means of a positioning system. Conventional grey scale and elasticity imaging were integrated in the image fusion examination. After successful registration and image fusion the registered MR-images were simultaneously shown with the respective ultrasound sectional plane. Data evaluation was performed using the digitally stored video sequence data sets by two experienced radiologist using a modified Tsukuba Elasticity score. The colors "red and green" are assigned for an area of soft tissue, "blue" indicates hard tissue. In all cases a successful image fusion and plan registration with MRI and ultrasound imaging including grey scale and elasticity imaging was possible. The mean tumor volume based on caliper measurements in 3 dimensions was ~323 mm3. 4/12 rats were evaluated with Score I, 5/12 rates were evaluated with Score II, 3/12 rates were evaluated with Score III. There was a close correlation in the fused MRI with existing small necrosis in the tumor. None of the scored II or III lesions was visible by conventional grey scale. The comparison of ultrasound tissue elasticity imaging enables a

1 CFR 11.7 - Federal Register Index.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 1 General Provisions 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Federal Register Index. 11.7 Section 11.7... REGISTER PUBLICATIONS SUBSCRIPTIONS § 11.7 Federal Register Index. The annual subscription price for the monthly Federal Register Index, purchased separately, in paper form, is $29. The price excludes postage...

Universal Verification Methodology Based Register Test Automation Flow.

Science.gov (United States)

Woo, Jae Hun; Cho, Yong Kwan; Park, Sun Kyu

2016-05-01

In today's SoC design, the number of registers has been increased along with complexity of hardware blocks. Register validation is a time-consuming and error-pron task. Therefore, we need an efficient way to perform verification with less effort in shorter time. In this work, we suggest register test automation flow based UVM (Universal Verification Methodology). UVM provides a standard methodology, called a register model, to facilitate stimulus generation and functional checking of registers. However, it is not easy for designers to create register models for their functional blocks or integrate models in test-bench environment because it requires knowledge of SystemVerilog and UVM libraries. For the creation of register models, many commercial tools support a register model generation from register specification described in IP-XACT, but it is time-consuming to describe register specification in IP-XACT format. For easy creation of register model, we propose spreadsheet-based register template which is translated to IP-XACT description, from which register models can be easily generated using commercial tools. On the other hand, we also automate all the steps involved integrating test-bench and generating test-cases, so that designers may use register model without detailed knowledge of UVM or SystemVerilog. This automation flow involves generating and connecting test-bench components (e.g., driver, checker, bus adaptor, etc.) and writing test sequence for each type of register test-case. With the proposed flow, designers can save considerable amount of time to verify functionality of registers.

Supplement B: Research Networking Systems Characteristics Profiles. A Companion to the OCLC Research Report, Registering Researchers in Authority Files

Science.gov (United States)

Smith-Yoshimura, Karen; Altman, Micah; Conlon, Michael; Cristán, Ana Lupe; Dawson, Laura; Dunham, Joanne; Hickey, Thom; Hill, Amanda; Hook, Daniel; Horstmann, Wolfram; MacEwan, Andrew; Schreur, Philip; Smart, Laura; Wacker, Melanie; Woutersen, Saskia

2014-01-01

The OCLC Research Report, "Registering Researchers in Authority Files", [Accessible in ERIC as ED564924] summarizes the results of the research conducted by the OCLC Research Registering Researchers in Authority Files Task Group in 2012-2014. Details of this research are in supplementary data sets: (1) "Supplement A: Use Cases. A…

Illinois I/O Register to FASTBUS Interface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Downing, R.; Lesny, D.; Whitten, W.

1983-01-01

The I/O Register to FASTBUS Interface (IORFI) is connected to a processor via two 16-bit output registers (OR1,OR2) and two 16-bit output resisters (IR1,IR2). One of the output registers (OR1) is used to specify the interface function which is to be performed when the interface is accessed via the Data-in Register (IR2) or the Data-out Register (OR2). The other input register (IR1) is used to read the direct status of the FASTBUS lines independent of OR1. The changes made to the SLAC design at the University of Illinois are described

Automatic segmentation of Leishmania parasite in microscopic images using a modified CV level set method

Science.gov (United States)

Farahi, Maria; Rabbani, Hossein; Talebi, Ardeshir; Sarrafzadeh, Omid; Ensafi, Shahab

2015-12-01

Visceral Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that affects liver, spleen and bone marrow. According to World Health Organization report, definitive diagnosis is possible just by direct observation of the Leishman body in the microscopic image taken from bone marrow samples. We utilize morphological and CV level set method to segment Leishman bodies in digital color microscopic images captured from bone marrow samples. Linear contrast stretching method is used for image enhancement and morphological method is applied to determine the parasite regions and wipe up unwanted objects. Modified global and local CV level set methods are proposed for segmentation and a shape based stopping factor is used to hasten the algorithm. Manual segmentation is considered as ground truth to evaluate the proposed method. This method is tested on 28 samples and achieved 10.90% mean of segmentation error for global model and 9.76% for local model.

Molecular Electronic Shift Registers

Science.gov (United States)

Beratan, David N.; Onuchic, Jose N.

1990-01-01

Molecular-scale shift registers eventually constructed as parts of high-density integrated memory circuits. In principle, variety of organic molecules makes possible large number of different configurations and modes of operation for such shift-register devices. Several classes of devices and implementations in some specific types of molecules proposed. All based on transfer of electrons or holes along chains of repeating molecular units.

Evaluation of accuracy of B-spline transformation-based deformable image registration with different parameter settings for thoracic images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kanai, Takayuki; Kadoya, Noriyuki; Ito, Kengo

2014-01-01

Deformable image registration (DIR) is fundamental technique for adaptive radiotherapy and image-guided radiotherapy. However, further improvement of DIR is still needed. We evaluated the accuracy of B-spline transformation-based DIR implemented in elastix. This registration package is largely based on the Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK), and several new functions were implemented to achieve high DIR accuracy. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether new functions implemented in elastix are useful for improving DIR accuracy. Thoracic 4D computed tomography images of ten patients with esophageal or lung cancer were studied. Datasets for these patients were provided by DIR-lab (dir-lab.com) and included a coordinate list of anatomical landmarks that had been manually identified. DIR between peak-inhale and peak-exhale images was performed with four types of parameter settings. The first one represents original ITK (Parameter 1). The second employs the new function of elastix (Parameter 2), and the third was created to verify whether new functions improve DIR accuracy while keeping computational time (Parameter 3). The last one partially employs a new function (Parameter 4). Registration errors for these parameter settings were calculated using the manually determined landmark pairs. 3D registration errors with standard deviation over all cases were 1.78 (1.57), 1.28 (1.10), 1.44 (1.09) and 1.36 (1.35) mm for Parameter 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, indicating that the new functions are useful for improving DIR accuracy, even while maintaining the computational time, and this B-spline-based DIR could be used clinically to achieve high-accuracy adaptive radiotherapy. (author)

Fusion method of SAR and optical images for urban object extraction

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Yonghong; Blum, Rick S.; Li, Fangfang

2007-11-01

A new image fusion method of SAR, Panchromatic (Pan) and multispectral (MS) data is proposed. First of all, SAR texture is extracted by ratioing the despeckled SAR image to its low pass approximation, and is used to modulate high pass details extracted from the available Pan image by means of the á trous wavelet decomposition. Then, high pass details modulated with the texture is applied to obtain the fusion product by HPFM (High pass Filter-based Modulation) fusion method. A set of image data including co-registered Landsat TM, ENVISAT SAR and SPOT Pan is used for the experiment. The results demonstrate accurate spectral preservation on vegetated regions, bare soil, and also on textured areas (buildings and road network) where SAR texture information enhances the fusion product, and the proposed approach is effective for image interpret and classification.

Validation of a Cerebral Palsy Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Topp, Monica; Langhoff-Roos, Jens; Uldall, P.

1997-01-01

OBJECTIVES: To analyse completeness and validity of data in the Cerebral Palsy Register in Denmark, 1979-1982. METHODS: Completeness has been assessed by comparing data from The Danish National Patient Register (DNPR) with the cases included in the Cerebral Palsy Register (CPR). Agreement between......, but gestational age was subject to a systematic error, and urinary infections in pregnancy (kappa = 0.43) and placental abruption (kappa = 0.52) were seriously under-reported in the CPR. CONCLUSIONS: Completeness of the Cerebral Palsy Register in Denmark, 1979-1982, has been assessed to maximal 85%, emphasizing...

Register-based studies of healthcare costs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kruse, Marie; Christiansen, Terkel

2011-01-01

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to provide an overview and a few examples of how national registers are used in analyses of healthcare costs in Denmark. Research topics: The paper focuses on health economic analyses based on register data. For the sake of simplicity, the studies are divided...... into three main categories: economic evaluations of healthcare interventions, cost-of-illness analyses, and other analyses such as assessments of healthcare productivity. Conclusion: We examined a number of studies using register-based data on healthcare costs. Use of register-based data renders...

Anaphylaxis in an emergency care setting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruiz Oropeza, Athamaica; Lassen, Annmarie; Halken, Susanne

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Current data on anaphylaxis is based on retrospective and register based studies. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology of anaphylaxis in a 1 year prospective study at the emergency care setting, Odense University Hospital, Denmark (2013-2014). METHODS: Prospect......BACKGROUND: Current data on anaphylaxis is based on retrospective and register based studies. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology of anaphylaxis in a 1 year prospective study at the emergency care setting, Odense University Hospital, Denmark (2013-2014). METHODS......: Prospective study at the emergency care setting, Odense University Hospital, Denmark (2013-2014). To identify anaphylaxis cases, records from all patients with clinical suspicion on anaphylaxis or a related diagnosis according to the International Classification of Diseases 10 and from patients treated...... at the emergency care setting or at prehospital level with adrenaline, antihistamines or glucocorticoids were reviewed daily. The identified cases were referred to the Allergy Center, where a standardized interview regarding the anaphylactic reaction was conducted. International guidelines were applied...

Register-based studies on migration, ethnicity, and health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Norredam, Marie; Kastrup, Marianne; Helweg-Larsen, Karin

2011-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Researchers in Denmark have unique possibilities of register-based research in relation to migration, ethnicity, and health. This review article outlines how these opportunities have been used, so far, by presenting a series of examples. RESEARCH TOPICS: We selected six registers...... it discriminatory. Although, we do not register ethnicity in relation to use of health care in Denmark, our possibilities of linkage between population registers and registers on diseases and healthcare utilisation appear to render the same potentials....... to highlight the process of how migrant study populations have been established and studied in relation to different registers: The Danish Cancer Registry, the Danish Central Psychiatric Research Register, the Danish National Patient Register, the Danish National Health Service Register, the Danish Injury...

[Non-rigid medical image registration based on mutual information and thin-plate spline].

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Guo-gang; Luo, Li-min

2009-01-01

To get precise and complete details, the contrast in different images is needed in medical diagnosis and computer assisted treatment. The image registration is the basis of contrast, but the regular rigid registration does not satisfy the clinic requirements. A non-rigid medical image registration method based on mutual information and thin-plate spline was present. Firstly, registering two images globally based on mutual information; secondly, dividing reference image and global-registered image into blocks and registering them; then getting the thin-plate spline transformation according to the shift of blocks' center; finally, applying the transformation to the global-registered image. The results show that the method is more precise than the global rigid registration based on mutual information and it reduces the complexity of getting control points and satisfy the clinic requirements better by getting control points of the thin-plate transformation automatically.

Danish Register of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lange P

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Peter Lange,1,2 Sandra Søgaard Tøttenborg,1 Anne Dichmann Sorknæs,3 Jørgen Steen Andersen,4 Mette Søgaard,5 Henrik Nielsen,5 Reimar Wernich Thomsen,5 Katrine Abildtrup Nielsen6 1Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 2Lung Diseases Department, Respiratory Medicine Section, Lung Diseases Department, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 3Medical Department, Odense Universitetshospital–Svendborg Hospital, Svendborg, 4Danish College of General Practitioners, Copenhagen, 5Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, 6Registry Support Centre of Clinical Quality and Health Informatics (West, Århus, Denmark Aim of database: The Danish Register of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (DrCOPD is a nationwide database aiming to describe the quality of treatment of all patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD in Denmark. Study population: DrCOPD comprises data on all patients with a diagnosis of COPD. In the hospital setting, both in- and outpatients are included. In the setting of the general practice (GP, DrCOPD aims to include all patients with a COPD diagnosis who attend an annual control visit for COPD. Main variables: DrCOPD includes information on forced expiratory volume in 1 second, smoking status, body mass index, dyspnea, treatment modalities such as rehabilitation, smoking cessation, medical treatment, and the use of noninvasive ventilation during hospitalization due to exacerbations. The outcome variables include frequency of readmission and death 30 days after discharge from hospital. Descriptive data: Since 2008, the registration in the Danish hospitals has gradually become more comprehensive. In 2014, ~90% of 16,106 eligible patients had complete data sets that showed an improvement in the processes describing quality of care, including increased offering of smoking cessation, rehabilitation, and correct treatment with inhaled

Rough Sets and Stomped Normal Distribution for Simultaneous Segmentation and Bias Field Correction in Brain MR Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Banerjee, Abhirup; Maji, Pradipta

2015-12-01

The segmentation of brain MR images into different tissue classes is an important task for automatic image analysis technique, particularly due to the presence of intensity inhomogeneity artifact in MR images. In this regard, this paper presents a novel approach for simultaneous segmentation and bias field correction in brain MR images. It integrates judiciously the concept of rough sets and the merit of a novel probability distribution, called stomped normal (SN) distribution. The intensity distribution of a tissue class is represented by SN distribution, where each tissue class consists of a crisp lower approximation and a probabilistic boundary region. The intensity distribution of brain MR image is modeled as a mixture of finite number of SN distributions and one uniform distribution. The proposed method incorporates both the expectation-maximization and hidden Markov random field frameworks to provide an accurate and robust segmentation. The performance of the proposed approach, along with a comparison with related methods, is demonstrated on a set of synthetic and real brain MR images for different bias fields and noise levels.

CT image registration in sinogram space.

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, Weihua; Li, Tianfang; Wink, Nicole; Xing, Lei

2007-09-01

Object displacement in a CT scan is generally reflected in CT projection data or sinogram. In this work, the direct relationship between object motion and the change of CT projection data (sinogram) is investigated and this knowledge is applied to create a novel algorithm for sinogram registration. Calculated and experimental results demonstrate that the registration technique works well for registering rigid 2D or 3D motion in parallel and fan beam samplings. Problem and solution for 3D sinogram-based registration of metallic fiducials are also addressed. Since the motion is registered before image reconstruction, the presented algorithm is particularly useful when registering images with metal or truncation artifacts. In addition, this algorithm is valuable for dealing with situations where only limited projection data are available, making it appealing for various applications in image guided radiation therapy.

CT image registration in sinogram space

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mao Weihua; Li Tianfang; Wink, Nicole; Xing Lei

2007-01-01

Object displacement in a CT scan is generally reflected in CT projection data or sinogram. In this work, the direct relationship between object motion and the change of CT projection data (sinogram) is investigated and this knowledge is applied to create a novel algorithm for sinogram registration. Calculated and experimental results demonstrate that the registration technique works well for registering rigid 2D or 3D motion in parallel and fan beam samplings. Problem and solution for 3D sinogram-based registration of metallic fiducials are also addressed. Since the motion is registered before image reconstruction, the presented algorithm is particularly useful when registering images with metal or truncation artifacts. In addition, this algorithm is valuable for dealing with situations where only limited projection data are available, making it appealing for various applications in image guided radiation therapy

Research priorities for the influence of gender on diagnostic imaging choices in the emergency department setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashurst, John V; Cherney, Alan R; Evans, Elizabeth M; Kennedy Hall, Michael; Hess, Erik P; Kline, Jeffrey A; Mitchell, Alice M; Mills, Angela M; Weigner, Michael B; Moore, Christopher L

2014-12-01

Diagnostic imaging is a cornerstone of patient evaluation in the acute care setting, but little effort has been devoted to understanding the appropriate influence of sex and gender on imaging choices. This article provides background on this issue and a description of the working group and consensus findings reached during the diagnostic imaging breakout session at the 2014 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference "Gender-specific Research in Emergency Care: Investigate, Understand, and Translate How Gender Affects Patient Outcomes." Our goal was to determine research priorities for how sex and gender may (or should) affect imaging choices in the acute care setting. Prior to the conference, the working group identified five areas for discussion regarding the research agenda in sex- and gender-based imaging using literature review and expert consensus. The nominal group technique was used to identify areas for discussion for common presenting complaints to the emergency department where ionizing radiation is often used for diagnosis: suspected pulmonary embolism, suspected kidney stone, lower abdominal pain with a concern for appendicitis, and chest pain concerning for coronary artery disease. The role of sex- and gender-based shared decision-making in diagnostic imaging decisions is also raised. © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Registration of segmented histological images using thin plate splines and belief propagation

Science.gov (United States)

Kybic, Jan

2014-03-01

We register images based on their multiclass segmentations, for cases when correspondence of local features cannot be established. A discrete mutual information is used as a similarity criterion. It is evaluated at a sparse set of location on the interfaces between classes. A thin-plate spline regularization is approximated by pairwise interactions. The problem is cast into a discrete setting and solved efficiently by belief propagation. Further speedup and robustness is provided by a multiresolution framework. Preliminary experiments suggest that our method can provide similar registration quality to standard methods at a fraction of the computational cost.

Quantification of the 3D relative movement of external marker sets vs. bones based on magnetic resonance imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Sangeux, M; Marin, F; Charleux, F; Dürselen, L; Ho Ba Tho, M C

2006-11-01

Most in vivo knee kinematic analyses are based on external markers attached to the shank and the thigh. Literature data show that markers positioning and soft tissues artifacts affect the kinematic parameters of the bones true movement. Most of the techniques of quantification used were invasive. The aim of the present study was to develop and apply a non-invasive methodology to compute the relative movement between the bones and the markers. Magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions were performed on the right knee of eleven volunteers without knee injury. The subjects were equipped with external magnetic resonance imaging-compatible marker sets. A foot drive device allowed the subjects to perform an actively loaded knee extension. The whole volume of the subject's knee was processed for four sequentially held knee flexion positions during the knee movement. The bones and external marker sets geometry were reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging images. Then a registration algorithm was applied to the bones and the relative movement of the thigh and shank marker sets with respect to their underlying bones was computed. The protocol resulted in a good geometrical accuracy and reproducibility. Marker sets movement differ from that of the bones with a maximum of 22 mm in translation and 15 degrees in rotation and it affects the knee kinematics. Marker sets relative movement modify the knee movement finite helical axes direction (range 10-35 degrees ) and localization (range 0-40 mm). The methodology developed can evaluate external marker set system to be used for kinematic analysis in a clinical environment.

Evaluation of the limits of visual detection of image misregistration in a brain fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET-MRI study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wong, J.C.H.; Studholme, C.; Hawkes, D.J.; Maisey, M.N.

1997-01-01

In routine clinical work, registration accuracy is assessed by visual inspection. However, the accuracy of visual assessment of registration has not been evaluated. This study establishes the limits of visual detection of misregistration in a registered brain fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography to magnetic resonance image volume. The ''best'' registered image volume was obtained by automatic registration using mutual information optimization. Translational movements by 1 mm, 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm, and rotational movements by 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 in the positive and negative directions in the x- (lateral), y- (anterior-posterior) and z- (axial) axes were introduced to this standard. These 48 images plus six ''best'' registered images were presented in random sequence to five observers for visual categorization of registration accuracy. No observer detected a definite misregistration in the ''best'' registered image. Evaluation for inter-observer variation using observer pairings showed a high percentage of agreement in assigned categories for both translational and rotational misregistrations. Assessment of the limits of detection of misregistration showed that a 2-mm translational misregistration was detectable by all observers in the x- and y-axes and 3-mm translational misregistration in the z-axis. With rotational misregistrations, rotation around the z-axis was detectable by all at 2 rotation whereas rotation around the y-axis was detected at 3-4 . Rotation around the x-axis was not symmetric with a positive rotation being identified at 2 whereas negative rotation was detected by all only at 4 . Therefore, visual analysis appears to be a sensitive and practical means to assess image misregistration accuracy. The awareness of the limits of visual detection of misregistration will lead to increase care when evaluating registration quality in both research and clinical settings. (orig.). With 6 figs., 3 tabs

Application of TACT registered to the evaluation of total joint arthroplasty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fahey, Frederic H.; Webber, Richard L.; Chew, Felix S.-K.; Dickerson, Bryon A.

2003-01-01

Three-dimensional imaging may be valuable in the evaluation of total joint arthroplasty. The partial-volume effect and streak artifacts from the metallic components of these devices limit the applicability of computed tomography (CT) to this application. Tuned-aperture computed tomography registered (TACT registered ) is a tomographic approach that has been successfully used in other medical applications. In TACT, the acquisition geometry is inferred from the localization of fiducial markers in a series of projection images. The flexibility and robustness of TACT, as well as the fact that through an appropriate choice of reconstruction algorithms it can suppress streak artifacts, potentially makes it an appropriate approach for evaluating total joint arthroplasty. A simple computer-simulated model of a total knee replacement (TKR) was generated and used to evaluate the accuracy and artifacts associated with three-dimensional (3-D) renderings produced using TACT. A knee specimen from a cadaver that had received a TKR was used to investigate further the potential of TACT for this application. In both tests, TACT provided high-quality 3-D representations of the object. Both simple back-projection and minimum pixel back-projection were used to reconstruct the data. Minimum pixel back-projection provided high-contrast images that appeared to be relatively free of tomosynthetic artifacts. In summary, the potential of TACT in the evaluation of total joint arthroplasty was demonstrated. Future investigations will study TACT's ability to quantify the spatial relationship between the metallic components of these devices as well as TACT's ability to identify bony changes of diagnostic consequence

Evaluation of accuracy of B-spline transformation-based deformable image registration with different parameter settings for thoracic images.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanai, Takayuki; Kadoya, Noriyuki; Ito, Kengo; Onozato, Yusuke; Cho, Sang Yong; Kishi, Kazuma; Dobashi, Suguru; Umezawa, Rei; Matsushita, Haruo; Takeda, Ken; Jingu, Keiichi

2014-11-01

Deformable image registration (DIR) is fundamental technique for adaptive radiotherapy and image-guided radiotherapy. However, further improvement of DIR is still needed. We evaluated the accuracy of B-spline transformation-based DIR implemented in elastix. This registration package is largely based on the Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK), and several new functions were implemented to achieve high DIR accuracy. The purpose of this study was to clarify whether new functions implemented in elastix are useful for improving DIR accuracy. Thoracic 4D computed tomography images of ten patients with esophageal or lung cancer were studied. Datasets for these patients were provided by DIR-lab (dir-lab.com) and included a coordinate list of anatomical landmarks that had been manually identified. DIR between peak-inhale and peak-exhale images was performed with four types of parameter settings. The first one represents original ITK (Parameter 1). The second employs the new function of elastix (Parameter 2), and the third was created to verify whether new functions improve DIR accuracy while keeping computational time (Parameter 3). The last one partially employs a new function (Parameter 4). Registration errors for these parameter settings were calculated using the manually determined landmark pairs. 3D registration errors with standard deviation over all cases were 1.78 (1.57), 1.28 (1.10), 1.44 (1.09) and 1.36 (1.35) mm for Parameter 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, indicating that the new functions are useful for improving DIR accuracy, even while maintaining the computational time, and this B-spline-based DIR could be used clinically to achieve high-accuracy adaptive radiotherapy. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.

Co-registered perfusion SPECT/CT: Utility for prediction of improved postoperative outcome in lung volume reduction surgery candidates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takenaka, Daisuke; Ohno, Yoshiharu; Koyama, Hisanobu; Nogami, Munenobu; Onishi, Yumiko; Matsumoto, Keiko; Yoshikawa, Takeshi; Matsumoto, Sumiaki; Sugimura, Kazuro

2010-01-01

Purpose: To directly compare the capabilities of perfusion scan, SPECT, co-registered SPECT/CT, and quantitatively and qualitatively assessed MDCT (i.e. quantitative CT and qualitative CT) for predicting postoperative clinical outcome for lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) candidates. Materials and methods: Twenty-five consecutive candidates (19 men and six women, age range: 42-72 years) for LVRS underwent preoperative CT and perfusion scan with SPECT. Clinical outcome of LVRS for all subjects was also assessed by determining the difference between pre- and postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV 1 ) and 6-min walking distance (6MWD). All SPECT examinations were performed on a SPECT scanner, and co-registered to thin-section CT by using commercially available software. On planar imaging, SPECT and SPECT/CT, upper versus lower zone or lobe ratios (U/Ls) were calculated from regional uptakes between upper and lower lung fields in the operated lung. On quantitatively assessed CT, U/L for all subjects was assessed from regional functional lung volumes. On qualitatively assessed CT, planar imaging, SPECT and co-registered SPECT/CT, U/Ls were assessed with a 4-point visual scoring system. To compare capabilities of predicting clinical outcome, each U/L was statistically correlated with the corresponding clinical outcome. Results: Significantly fair or moderate correlations were observed between quantitatively and qualitatively assessed U/Ls obtained with all four methods and clinical outcomes (-0.60 ≤ r ≤ -0.42, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Co-registered perfusion SPECT/CT has better correlation with clinical outcome in LVRS candidates than do planar imaging, SPECT or qualitatively assessed CT, and is at least as valid as quantitatively assessed CT.

Co-registered perfusion SPECT/CT: Utility for prediction of improved postoperative outcome in lung volume reduction surgery candidates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takenaka, Daisuke [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Ohno, Yoshiharu, E-mail: yosirad@kobe-u.ac.j [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Koyama, Hisanobu [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Nogami, Munenobu [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Division of Image-Based Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation, 2-2, Minatojima Minamimachi Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0047 (Japan); Onishi, Yumiko [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Matsumoto, Keiko [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan); Department of Radiology, University of Yamanashi, 1110 Shimogato, Chuo, Yamanashi, 409-3898 (Japan); Yoshikawa, Takeshi; Matsumoto, Sumiaki; Sugimura, Kazuro [Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-2 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 650-0017 (Japan)

2010-06-15

Purpose: To directly compare the capabilities of perfusion scan, SPECT, co-registered SPECT/CT, and quantitatively and qualitatively assessed MDCT (i.e. quantitative CT and qualitative CT) for predicting postoperative clinical outcome for lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS) candidates. Materials and methods: Twenty-five consecutive candidates (19 men and six women, age range: 42-72 years) for LVRS underwent preoperative CT and perfusion scan with SPECT. Clinical outcome of LVRS for all subjects was also assessed by determining the difference between pre- and postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV{sub 1}) and 6-min walking distance (6MWD). All SPECT examinations were performed on a SPECT scanner, and co-registered to thin-section CT by using commercially available software. On planar imaging, SPECT and SPECT/CT, upper versus lower zone or lobe ratios (U/Ls) were calculated from regional uptakes between upper and lower lung fields in the operated lung. On quantitatively assessed CT, U/L for all subjects was assessed from regional functional lung volumes. On qualitatively assessed CT, planar imaging, SPECT and co-registered SPECT/CT, U/Ls were assessed with a 4-point visual scoring system. To compare capabilities of predicting clinical outcome, each U/L was statistically correlated with the corresponding clinical outcome. Results: Significantly fair or moderate correlations were observed between quantitatively and qualitatively assessed U/Ls obtained with all four methods and clinical outcomes (-0.60 {<=} r {<=} -0.42, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Co-registered perfusion SPECT/CT has better correlation with clinical outcome in LVRS candidates than do planar imaging, SPECT or qualitatively assessed CT, and is at least as valid as quantitatively assessed CT.

A novel 3D volumetric voxel registration technique for volume-view-guided image registration of multiple imaging modalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Guang; Xie Huchen; Ning, Holly; Capala, Jacek; Arora, Barbara C.; Coleman, C. Norman; Camphausen, Kevin; Miller, Robert W.

2005-01-01

Purpose: To provide more clinically useful image registration with improved accuracy and reduced time, a novel technique of three-dimensional (3D) volumetric voxel registration of multimodality images is developed. Methods and Materials: This technique can register up to four concurrent images from multimodalities with volume view guidance. Various visualization effects can be applied, facilitating global and internal voxel registration. Fourteen computed tomography/magnetic resonance (CT/MR) image sets and two computed tomography/positron emission tomography (CT/PET) image sets are used. For comparison, an automatic registration technique using maximization of mutual information (MMI) and a three-orthogonal-planar (3P) registration technique are used. Results: Visually sensitive registration criteria for CT/MR and CT/PET have been established, including the homogeneity of color distribution. Based on the registration results of 14 CT/MR images, the 3D voxel technique is in excellent agreement with the automatic MMI technique and is indicatory of a global positioning error (defined as the means and standard deviations of the error distribution) using the 3P pixel technique: 1.8 deg ± 1.2 deg in rotation and 2.0 ± 1.3 (voxel unit) in translation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such positioning error has been addressed. Conclusion: This novel 3D voxel technique establishes volume-view-guided image registration of up to four modalities. It improves registration accuracy with reduced time, compared with the 3P pixel technique. This article suggests that any interactive and automatic registration should be safeguarded using the 3D voxel technique

Groupwise registration of MR brain images with tumors

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Zhenyu; Wu, Yihong; Fan, Yong

2017-09-01

A novel groupwise image registration framework is developed for registering MR brain images with tumors. Our method iteratively estimates a normal-appearance counterpart for each tumor image to be registered and constructs a directed graph (digraph) of normal-appearance images to guide the groupwise image registration. Particularly, our method maps each tumor image to its normal appearance counterpart by identifying and inpainting brain tumor regions with intensity information estimated using a low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition based image representation technique. The estimated normal-appearance images are groupwisely registered to a group center image guided by a digraph of images so that the total length of ‘image registration paths’ to be the minimum, and then the original tumor images are warped to the group center image using the resulting deformation fields. We have evaluated our method based on both simulated and real MR brain tumor images. The registration results were evaluated with overlap measures of corresponding brain regions and average entropy of image intensity information, and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were adopted to compare different methods with respect to their regional overlap measures. Compared with a groupwise image registration method that is applied to normal-appearance images estimated using the traditional low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition based image inpainting, our method achieved higher image registration accuracy with statistical significance (p  =  7.02  ×  10-9).

Classification of Normal and Apoptotic Cells from Fluorescence Microscopy Images Using Generalized Polynomial Chaos and Level Set Function.

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Yuncheng; Budman, Hector M; Duever, Thomas A

2016-06-01

Accurate automated quantitative analysis of living cells based on fluorescence microscopy images can be very useful for fast evaluation of experimental outcomes and cell culture protocols. In this work, an algorithm is developed for fast differentiation of normal and apoptotic viable Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. For effective segmentation of cell images, a stochastic segmentation algorithm is developed by combining a generalized polynomial chaos expansion with a level set function-based segmentation algorithm. This approach provides a probabilistic description of the segmented cellular regions along the boundary, from which it is possible to calculate morphological changes related to apoptosis, i.e., the curvature and length of a cell's boundary. These features are then used as inputs to a support vector machine (SVM) classifier that is trained to distinguish between normal and apoptotic viable states of CHO cell images. The use of morphological features obtained from the stochastic level set segmentation of cell images in combination with the trained SVM classifier is more efficient in terms of differentiation accuracy as compared with the original deterministic level set method.

Electronic portal image assisted reduction of systematic set-up errors in head and neck irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boer, Hans C.J. de; Soernsen de Koste, John R. van; Creutzberg, Carien L.; Visser, Andries G.; Levendag, Peter C.; Heijmen, Ben J.M.

2001-01-01

Purpose: To quantify systematic and random patient set-up errors in head and neck irradiation and to investigate the impact of an off-line correction protocol on the systematic errors. Material and methods: Electronic portal images were obtained for 31 patients treated for primary supra-glottic larynx carcinoma who were immobilised using a polyvinyl chloride cast. The observed patient set-up errors were input to the shrinking action level (SAL) off-line decision protocol and appropriate set-up corrections were applied. To assess the impact of the protocol, the positioning accuracy without application of set-up corrections was reconstructed. Results: The set-up errors obtained without set-up corrections (1 standard deviation (SD)=1.5-2 mm for random and systematic errors) were comparable to those reported in other studies on similar fixation devices. On an average, six fractions per patient were imaged and the set-up of half the patients was changed due to the decision protocol. Most changes were detected during weekly check measurements, not during the first days of treatment. The application of the SAL protocol reduced the width of the distribution of systematic errors to 1 mm (1 SD), as expected from simulations. A retrospective analysis showed that this accuracy should be attainable with only two measurements per patient using a different off-line correction protocol, which does not apply action levels. Conclusions: Off-line verification protocols can be particularly effective in head and neck patients due to the smallness of the random set-up errors. The excellent set-up reproducibility that can be achieved with such protocols enables accurate dose delivery in conformal treatments

The European Register of Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine: Code of Conduct, Version 2--2008.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

McMurray, Janet

2009-01-01

In 1997, the European Communities Confederation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EC4) set up a Register for European Specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. The operation of the Register is undertaken by a Register Commission (EC4RC). During the last 10 years, more than 2000 specialists in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine have joined the Register. In 2007, EC4 merged with the Federation of European Societies of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (FESCC) to form the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC). A Code of Conduct was adopted in 2003 and a revised and updated version, taking account particularly of the guidelines of the Conseil Européen des Professions Libérales (CEPLIS) of which EFCC is a member, is presented in this article. The revised version was approved by the EC4 Register Commission and by the EFCC Executive Board in Paris on 6 November, 2008.

The Danish Hip Arthroplasty Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gundtoft, Per Hviid; Varnum, Claus; Pedersen, Alma Becic

2016-01-01

AIM OF DATABASE: The aim of the Danish Hip Arthroplasty Register (DHR) is to continuously monitor and improve the quality of treatment of primary and revision total hip arthroplasty (THA) in Denmark. STUDY POPULATION: The DHR is a Danish nationwide arthroplasty register established in January 1995...

The Effect of Training Data Set Composition on the Performance of a Neural Image Caption Generator

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-01

REPORT TYPE Technical Report 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE The Effect of Training Data Set Composition on the Performance of a...ARL-TR-8124 ● SEP 2017 US Army Research Laboratory The Effect of Training Data Set Composition on the Performance of a Neural...Laboratory The Effect of Training Data Set Composition on the Performance of a Neural Image Caption Generator by Abigail Wilson Montgomery Blair

Quantitative co-localization and pattern analysis of endo-lysosomal cargo in subcellular image cytometry and validation on synthetic image sets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Frederik W.; Wüstner, Daniel

2017-01-01

/LYSs. Analysis of endocytic trafficking relies heavily on quantitative fluorescence microscopy, but evaluation of the huge image data sets is challenging and demands computer-assisted statistical tools. Here, we describe how to use SpatTrack (www.sdu.dk/bmb/spattrack), an imaging toolbox, which we developed...... such synthetic vesicle patterns as “ground truth” for validation of two-channel analysis tools in SpatTrack, revealing their high reliability. An improved version of SpatTrack for microscopy-based quantification of cargo transport through the endo-lysosomal system accompanies this protocol....

3D OCT imaging in clinical settings: toward quantitative measurements of retinal structures

Science.gov (United States)

Zawadzki, Robert J.; Fuller, Alfred R.; Zhao, Mingtao; Wiley, David F.; Choi, Stacey S.; Bower, Bradley A.; Hamann, Bernd; Izatt, Joseph A.; Werner, John S.

2006-02-01

The acquisition speed of current FD-OCT (Fourier Domain - Optical Coherence Tomography) instruments allows rapid screening of three-dimensional (3D) volumes of human retinas in clinical settings. To take advantage of this ability requires software used by physicians to be capable of displaying and accessing volumetric data as well as supporting post processing in order to access important quantitative information such as thickness maps and segmented volumes. We describe our clinical FD-OCT system used to acquire 3D data from the human retina over the macula and optic nerve head. B-scans are registered to remove motion artifacts and post-processed with customized 3D visualization and analysis software. Our analysis software includes standard 3D visualization techniques along with a machine learning support vector machine (SVM) algorithm that allows a user to semi-automatically segment different retinal structures and layers. Our program makes possible measurements of the retinal layer thickness as well as volumes of structures of interest, despite the presence of noise and structural deformations associated with retinal pathology. Our software has been tested successfully in clinical settings for its efficacy in assessing 3D retinal structures in healthy as well as diseased cases. Our tool facilitates diagnosis and treatment monitoring of retinal diseases.

Analysis of time-varying psoriasis lesion image patterns

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maletti, Gabriela Mariel; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær; Nielsen, Allan Aasbjerg

2004-01-01

The multivariate alteration detection transform is applied to pairs of within and between time varying registered psoriasis image patterns. Color band contribution to the variates explaining maximal change is analyzed.......The multivariate alteration detection transform is applied to pairs of within and between time varying registered psoriasis image patterns. Color band contribution to the variates explaining maximal change is analyzed....

Setting up and running an advanced light microscopy and imaging facility.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez, Carlos; Muñoz, Ma Ángeles; Villalba, Maite; Labrador, Verónica; Díez-Guerra, F Javier

2011-07-01

During the last twenty years, interest in light microscopy and imaging techniques has grown in various fields, such as molecular and cellular biology, developmental biology, and neurobiology. In addition, the number of scientific articles and journals using these techniques is rapidly increasing. Nowadays, most research institutions require sophisticated microscopy systems to cover their investigation demands. In general, such instruments are too expensive and complex to be purchased and managed by a single laboratory or research group, so they have to be shared with other groups and supervised by specialized personnel. This is the reason why microscopy and imaging facilities are becoming so important at research institutions nowadays. In this unit, we have gathered and presented a number of issues and considerations from our own experience that we hope will be helpful when planning or setting up a new facility.

Textureless Macula Swelling Detection with Multiple Retinal Fundus Images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Giancardo, Luca [ORNL; Meriaudeau, Fabrice [ORNL; Karnowski, Thomas Paul [ORNL; Tobin Jr, Kenneth William [ORNL; Grisan, Enrico [University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Favaro, Paolo [Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh; Ruggeri, Alfredo [University of Padua, Padua, Italy; Chaum, Edward [University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)

2010-01-01

Retinal fundus images acquired with non-mydriatic digital fundus cameras are a versatile tool for the diagnosis of various retinal diseases. Because of the ease of use of newer camera models and their relatively low cost, these cameras can be employed by operators with limited training for telemedicine or Point-of-Care applications. We propose a novel technique that uses uncalibrated multiple-view fundus images to analyse the swelling of the macula. This innovation enables the detection and quantitative measurement of swollen areas by remote ophthalmologists. This capability is not available with a single image and prone to error with stereo fundus cameras. We also present automatic algorithms to measure features from the reconstructed image which are useful in Point-of-Care automated diagnosis of early macular edema, e.g., before the appearance of exudation. The technique presented is divided into three parts: first, a preprocessing technique simultaneously enhances the dark microstructures of the macula and equalises the image; second, all available views are registered using non-morphological sparse features; finally, a dense pyramidal optical flow is calculated for all the images and statistically combined to build a naiveheight- map of the macula. Results are presented on three sets of synthetic images and two sets of real world images. These preliminary tests show the ability to infer a minimum swelling of 300 microns and to correlate the reconstruction with the swollen location.

Village registers for vital registration in rural Malawi.

Science.gov (United States)

Singogo, E; Kanike, E; van Lettow, M; Cataldo, F; Zachariah, R; Bissell, K; Harries, A D

2013-08-01

Paper-based village registers were introduced 5 years ago in Malawi as a tool to measure vital statistics of births and deaths at the population level. However, usage, completeness and accuracy of their content have never been formally evaluated. In Traditional Authority Mwambo, Zomba district, Malawi, we assessed 280 of the 325 village registers with respect to (i) characteristics of village headmen who used village registers, (ii) use and content of village registers, and (iii) whether village registers provided accurate information on births and deaths. All village headpersons used registers. There were 185 (66%) registers that were regarded as 95% completed, and according to the registers, there were 115 840 people living in the villages in the catchment area. In 2011, there were 1753 births recorded in village registers, while 6397 births were recorded in health centre registers in the same catchment area. For the same year, 199 deaths were recorded in village registers, giving crude death rates per 100 000 population of 189 for males and 153 for females. These could not be compared with death rates in health centre registers due to poor and inconsistent recording in these registers, but they were compared with death rates obtained from the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey that reported 880 and 840 per 100 000 for males and females, respectively. In conclusion, this study shows that village registers are a potential source for vital statistics. However, considerable inputs are needed to improve accuracy of births and deaths, and there are no functional systems for the collation and analysis of data at the traditional authority level. Innovative ways to address these challenges are discussed, including the use of solar-powered electronic village registers and mobile phones, connected with each other and the health facilities and the District Commissioner's office through the cellular network and wireless coverage. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Entropy-Based Block Processing for Satellite Image Registration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ikhyun Lee

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Image registration is an important task in many computer vision applications such as fusion systems, 3D shape recovery and earth observation. Particularly, registering satellite images is challenging and time-consuming due to limited resources and large image size. In such scenario, state-of-the-art image registration methods such as scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT may not be suitable due to high processing time. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on block processing via entropy to register satellite images. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using different real images. The comparative analysis shows that it not only reduces the processing time but also enhances the accuracy.

Multi-stage 3D-2D registration for correction of anatomical deformation in image-guided spine surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Ketcha, M. D.; De Silva, T.; Uneri, A.; Jacobson, M. W.; Goerres, J.; Kleinszig, G.; Vogt, S.; Wolinsky, J.-P.; Siewerdsen, J. H.

2017-06-01

A multi-stage image-based 3D-2D registration method is presented that maps annotations in a 3D image (e.g. point labels annotating individual vertebrae in preoperative CT) to an intraoperative radiograph in which the patient has undergone non-rigid anatomical deformation due to changes in patient positioning or due to the intervention itself. The proposed method (termed msLevelCheck) extends a previous rigid registration solution (LevelCheck) to provide an accurate mapping of vertebral labels in the presence of spinal deformation. The method employs a multi-stage series of rigid 3D-2D registrations performed on sets of automatically determined and increasingly localized sub-images, with the final stage achieving a rigid mapping for each label to yield a locally rigid yet globally deformable solution. The method was evaluated first in a phantom study in which a CT image of the spine was acquired followed by a series of 7 mobile radiographs with increasing degree of deformation applied. Second, the method was validated using a clinical data set of patients exhibiting strong spinal deformation during thoracolumbar spine surgery. Registration accuracy was assessed using projection distance error (PDE) and failure rate (PDE  >  20 mm—i.e. label registered outside vertebra). The msLevelCheck method was able to register all vertebrae accurately for all cases of deformation in the phantom study, improving the maximum PDE of the rigid method from 22.4 mm to 3.9 mm. The clinical study demonstrated the feasibility of the approach in real patient data by accurately registering all vertebral labels in each case, eliminating all instances of failure encountered in the conventional rigid method. The multi-stage approach demonstrated accurate mapping of vertebral labels in the presence of strong spinal deformation. The msLevelCheck method maintains other advantageous aspects of the original LevelCheck method (e.g. compatibility with standard clinical workflow, large

Automatic thoracic anatomy segmentation on CT images using hierarchical fuzzy models and registration

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Kaioqiong; Udupa, Jayaram K.; Odhner, Dewey; Tong, Yubing; Torigian, Drew A.

2014-03-01

This paper proposes a thoracic anatomy segmentation method based on hierarchical recognition and delineation guided by a built fuzzy model. Labeled binary samples for each organ are registered and aligned into a 3D fuzzy set representing the fuzzy shape model for the organ. The gray intensity distributions of the corresponding regions of the organ in the original image are recorded in the model. The hierarchical relation and mean location relation between different organs are also captured in the model. Following the hierarchical structure and location relation, the fuzzy shape model of different organs is registered to the given target image to achieve object recognition. A fuzzy connected delineation method is then used to obtain the final segmentation result of organs with seed points provided by recognition. The hierarchical structure and location relation integrated in the model provide the initial parameters for registration and make the recognition efficient and robust. The 3D fuzzy model combined with hierarchical affine registration ensures that accurate recognition can be obtained for both non-sparse and sparse organs. The results on real images are presented and shown to be better than a recently reported fuzzy model-based anatomy recognition strategy.

An Optimized Spline-Based Registration of a 3D CT to a Set of C-Arm Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2006-01-01

Full Text Available We have developed an algorithm for the rigid-body registration of a CT volume to a set of C-arm images. The algorithm uses a gradient-based iterative minimization of a least-squares measure of dissimilarity between the C-arm images and projections of the CT volume. To compute projections, we use a novel method for fast integration of the volume along rays. To improve robustness and speed, we take advantage of a coarse-to-fine processing of the volume/image pyramids. To compute the projections of the volume, the gradient of the dissimilarity measure, and the multiresolution data pyramids, we use a continuous image/volume model based on cubic B-splines, which ensures a high interpolation accuracy and a gradient of the dissimilarity measure that is well defined everywhere. We show the performance of our algorithm on a human spine phantom, where the true alignment is determined using a set of fiducial markers.

REGISTER PELAKU INDUSTRI BATIK DI KOTA PEKALONGAN: KAJIAN SOSIOLINGUISTIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Afrinar Pramitasari

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Register merupakan pemakaian bahasa dalam setiap bidang kehidupan yang tiap-tiap bidang kehidupanmempunyai bahasa khusus yang tidak dimengerti oleh kelompok lain. Pekalongan dikenal sebagai kota dansebagian besar pekerjaan masyarakat di Kota Pekalongan adalah sebagai perajin batik, maka dalam tuturanmereka sehari-hari juga banyak menggunakan kosakata khas bidang industri batik. Sumber data dalampenelitian ini adalah penggalan percakapan masyarakat perajin batik di Kota Pekalongan yang di dugamengandung register. Pengumpulan data menggunakan metode simak yang dalam pelaksanaanya diwujudkanmelalui teknik dasar dan teknik lanjutan. Hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian ini adalah ada dua bentuk registerindustri batik yang ditemukan dalam penelitian ini yaitu register berdasarkan satuan lingual bahasanya danberdasarkan jenis kata. Berdasarkan satuan lingual bahasa ditemukan dua bentuk register yaitu registerberbentuk kata tunggal dan register berbentuk kata kompleks. Register berbentuk kata kompleks mencakup 1register berbentuk frasa, 2 register berbentuk kata majemuk, 3 register bentuk reduplikasi, dan 4 registerbentuk berafiks. Register a use of language in every area of life, the life of each field specific language that is notunderstood by other groups. Pekalongan City is known as the city that have potential in the batikindustry, because most of the people work in the City Pekalongan batik is as crafters, then in theireveryday speech too much use of vocabulary typical batik industry. Data sources in the form ofpublic speech in Pekalongan batik artisans containing registers. Refer to the method of datacollection that the implementation is realized through basic techniques and advanced techniques.The results of this study was two are three forms of batik industry registers were found in thisstudy is based on the unit registers lingual languag and based on grammatical categories. Basedon unit lingual language, found two registers form the single

ORIENTATION AND DENSE RECONSTRUCTION OF UNORDERED TERRESTRIAL AND AERIAL WIDE BASELINE IMAGE SETS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Bartelsen

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper we present an approach for detailed and precise automatic dense 3D reconstruction using images from consumer cameras. The major difference between our approach and many others is that we focus on wide-baseline image sets. We have combined and improved several methods, particularly, least squares matching, RANSAC, scale-space maxima and bundle adjustment, for robust matching and parameter estimation. Point correspondences and the five-point algorithm lead to relative orientation. Due to our robust matching method it is possible to orient images under much more unfavorable conditions, for instance concerning illumination changes or scale differences, than for often used operators such as SIFT. For dense reconstruction, we use our orientation as input for Semiglobal Matching (SGM resulting into dense depth images. The latter can be fused into a 2.5D model for eliminating the redundancy of the highly overlapping depth images. However, some applications require full 3D models. A solution to this problem is part of our current work, for which preliminary results are presented in this paper. With very small unmanned aerial systems (Micro UAS it is possible to acquire images which have a perspective similar to terrestrial images and can thus be combined with them. Such a combination is useful for an almost complete 3D reconstruction of urban scenes. We have applied our approach to several hundred aerial and terrestrial images and have generated detailed 2.5D and 3D models of urban areas.

a Discussion about Effective Ways of Basic Resident Register on GIS

Science.gov (United States)

Oku, Naoya; Nonaka, Yasuaki; Ito, Yutaka

2016-06-01

In Japan, each municipality keeps a database of every resident's name, address, gender and date of birth called the Basic Resident Register. If the address information in the register is converted into coordinates by geocoding, it can be plotted as point data on a map. This would enable prompt evacuation from disaster, analysis of distribution of residents, integrating statistics and so on. Further, it can be used for not only analysis of the current situation but also future planning. However, the geographic information system (GIS) incorporating the Basic Resident Register is not widely used in Japan because of the following problems: - Geocoding In order to plot address point data, it is necessary to match the Basic Resident Register and the address dictionary by using the address as a key. The information in the Basic Resident Register does not always match the actual addresses. As the register is based on applications made by residents, the information is prone to errors, such as incorrect Kanji characters. - Security policy on personal information In the register, the address of a resident is linked with his/her name and date of birth. If the information in the Basic Resident Register were to be leaked, it could be used for malicious purposes. This paper proposes solutions to the above problems. The suitable solutions for the problems depend on the purpose of use, thus it is important that the purpose should be defined and a suitable way of the application for each purpose should be chosen. In this paper, we mainly focus on the specific purpose of use: to analyse the distribution of the residents. We provide two solutions to improve the matching rate in geocoding. First, regarding errors in Kanji characters, a correction list of possible errors should be compiled in advance. Second, some sort of analyses such as distribution of residents may not require exactly correct position for the address point. Therefore we set the matching level in order: prefecture

Non-rigid image registration using bone growth model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bro-Nielsen, Morten; Gramkow, Claus; Kreiborg, Sven

1997-01-01

Non-rigid registration has traditionally used physical models like elasticity and fluids. These models are very seldom valid models of the difference between the registered images. This paper presents a non-rigid registration algorithm, which uses a model of bone growth as a model of the change...... between time sequence images of the human mandible. By being able to register the images, this paper at the same time contributes to the validation of the growth model, which is based on the currently available medical theories and knowledge...

A three-dimensional correlation method for registration of medical images in radiology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Georgiou, Michalakis; Sfakianakis, George N [Department of Radiology, University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL 33136 (United States); Nagel, Joachim H [Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart 70174 (Germany)

1999-12-31

The availability of methods to register multi-modality images in order to `fuse` them to correlate their information is increasingly becoming an important requirement for various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. A variety of image registration methods have been developed but they remain limited to specific clinical applications. Assuming rigid body transformation, two images can be registered if their differences are calculated in terms of translation, rotation and scaling. This paper describes the development and testing of a new correlation based approach for three-dimensional image registration. First, the scaling factors introduced by the imaging devices are calculated and compensated for. Then, the two images become translation invariant by computing their three-dimensional Fourier magnitude spectra. Subsequently, spherical coordinate transformation is performed and then the three-dimensional rotation is computed using a novice approach referred to as {sup p}olar Shells{sup .} The method of polar shells maps the three angles of rotation into one rotation and two translations of a two-dimensional function and then proceeds to calculate them using appropriate transformations based on the Fourier invariance properties. A basic assumption in the method is that the three-dimensional rotation is constrained to one large and two relatively small angles. This assumption is generally satisfied in normal clinical settings. The new three-dimensional image registration method was tested with simulations using computer generated phantom data as well as actual clinical data. Performance analysis and accuracy evaluation of the method using computer simulations yielded errors in the sub-pixel range. (authors) 6 refs., 3 figs.

A three-dimensional correlation method for registration of medical images in radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Georgiou, Michalakis; Sfakianakis, George N.; Nagel, Joachim H.

1998-01-01

The availability of methods to register multi-modality images in order to 'fuse' them to correlate their information is increasingly becoming an important requirement for various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. A variety of image registration methods have been developed but they remain limited to specific clinical applications. Assuming rigid body transformation, two images can be registered if their differences are calculated in terms of translation, rotation and scaling. This paper describes the development and testing of a new correlation based approach for three-dimensional image registration. First, the scaling factors introduced by the imaging devices are calculated and compensated for. Then, the two images become translation invariant by computing their three-dimensional Fourier magnitude spectra. Subsequently, spherical coordinate transformation is performed and then the three-dimensional rotation is computed using a novice approach referred to as p olar Shells . The method of polar shells maps the three angles of rotation into one rotation and two translations of a two-dimensional function and then proceeds to calculate them using appropriate transformations based on the Fourier invariance properties. A basic assumption in the method is that the three-dimensional rotation is constrained to one large and two relatively small angles. This assumption is generally satisfied in normal clinical settings. The new three-dimensional image registration method was tested with simulations using computer generated phantom data as well as actual clinical data. Performance analysis and accuracy evaluation of the method using computer simulations yielded errors in the sub-pixel range. (authors)

Intuitive Action Set Formation in Learning Classifier Systems with Memory Registers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Simões, L.F.; Schut, M.C.; Haasdijk, E.W.

2008-01-01

An important design goal in Learning Classifier Systems (LCS) is to equally reinforce those classifiers which cause the level of reward supplied by the environment. In this paper, we propose a new method for action set formation in LCS. When applied to a Zeroth Level Classifier System with Memory

A Rigid Image Registration Based on the Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform and Genetic Algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nasreddine Taleb

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Image registration is a fundamental task used in image processing to match two or more images taken at different times, from different sensors or from different viewpoints. The objective is to find in a huge search space of geometric transformations, an acceptable accurate solution in a reasonable time to provide better registered images. Exhaustive search is computationally expensive and the computational cost increases exponentially with the number of transformation parameters and the size of the data set. In this work, we present an efficient image registration algorithm that uses genetic algorithms within a multi-resolution framework based on the Non-Subsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT. An adaptable genetic algorithm for registration is adopted in order to minimize the search space. This approach is used within a hybrid scheme applying the two techniques fitness sharing and elitism. Two NSCT based methods are proposed for registration. A comparative study is established between these methods and a wavelet based one. Because the NSCT is a shift-invariant multidirectional transform, the second method is adopted for its search speeding up property. Simulation results clearly show that both proposed techniques are really promising methods for image registration compared to the wavelet approach, while the second technique has led to the best performance results of all. Moreover, to demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, these registration techniques have been successfully applied to register SPOT, IKONOS and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR images. The algorithm has been shown to work perfectly well for multi-temporal satellite images as well, even in the presence of noise.

A rigid image registration based on the nonsubsampled contourlet transform and genetic algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Meskine, Fatiha; Chikr El Mezouar, Miloud; Taleb, Nasreddine

2010-01-01

Image registration is a fundamental task used in image processing to match two or more images taken at different times, from different sensors or from different viewpoints. The objective is to find in a huge search space of geometric transformations, an acceptable accurate solution in a reasonable time to provide better registered images. Exhaustive search is computationally expensive and the computational cost increases exponentially with the number of transformation parameters and the size of the data set. In this work, we present an efficient image registration algorithm that uses genetic algorithms within a multi-resolution framework based on the Non-Subsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT). An adaptable genetic algorithm for registration is adopted in order to minimize the search space. This approach is used within a hybrid scheme applying the two techniques fitness sharing and elitism. Two NSCT based methods are proposed for registration. A comparative study is established between these methods and a wavelet based one. Because the NSCT is a shift-invariant multidirectional transform, the second method is adopted for its search speeding up property. Simulation results clearly show that both proposed techniques are really promising methods for image registration compared to the wavelet approach, while the second technique has led to the best performance results of all. Moreover, to demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, these registration techniques have been successfully applied to register SPOT, IKONOS and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The algorithm has been shown to work perfectly well for multi-temporal satellite images as well, even in the presence of noise.

Preparing Payroll Register, Employee Earnings' Records, and Paychecks. Student's Manual and Instructor's Manual.

Science.gov (United States)

McElveen, Peggy C.

Supporting performance objective 28 of the V-TECS (Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States) Secretarial Catalog, both a set of student materials and an instructor's manual on preparing a payroll register, employee earnings' records, and paychecks are included in this packet, which is one in a series. The student materials include a…

SU-F-BRF-14: Increasing the Accuracy of Dose Calculation On Cone-Beam Imaging Using Deformable Image Registration in the Case of Prostate Translation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fillion, O; Gingras, L [Departement de radiooncologie, CHU de Quebec - Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Departement de physique, de genie physique et d' optique, Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Archambault, L [Departement de radiooncologie, CHU de Quebec - Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Departement de physique, de genie physique et d' optique, Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec (Canada); Centre de recherche sur le cancer, Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec (Canada)

2014-06-15

Purpose: Artifacts can reduce the quality of dose re-calculations on CBCT scans during a treatment. The aim of this project is to correct the CBCT images in order to allow for more accurate and exact dose calculations in the case of a translation of the tumor in prostate cancer. Methods: Our approach is to develop strategies based on deformable image registration algorithms using the elastix software (Klein et al., 2010) to register the treatment planning CT on a daily CBCT scan taken during treatment. Sets of images are provided by a 3D deformable phantom and comprise two CT and two CBCT scans: one of both with the reference anatomy and the others with known deformations (i.e. translations of the prostate). The reference CT is registered onto the deformed CBCT and the deformed CT serves as the control for dose calculation accuracy. The planned treatment used for the evaluation of dose calculation is a 2-Gy fraction prescribed at the location of the reference prostate and assigned to 7 rectangular fields. Results: For a realistic 0.5-cm translation of the prostate, the relative dose discrepancy between the CBCT and the CT control scan at the prostate's centroid is 8.9 ± 0.8 % while dose discrepancy between the registered CT and the control scan lessens to −2.4 ± 0.8 %. For a 2-cm translation, clinical indices like the V90 and the D100 are more accurate by 0.7 ± 0.3 % and 8.0 ± 0.5 cGy respectively when using registered CT than when using CBCT for dose calculation. Conclusion: The results show that this strategy gives doses in agreement within a few percents with those from calculations on actual CT scans. In the future, various deformations of the phantom anatomy will allow a thorough characterization of the registration strategies needed for more complex anatomies.

SU-F-BRF-14: Increasing the Accuracy of Dose Calculation On Cone-Beam Imaging Using Deformable Image Registration in the Case of Prostate Translation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fillion, O; Gingras, L; Archambault, L

2014-01-01

Purpose: Artifacts can reduce the quality of dose re-calculations on CBCT scans during a treatment. The aim of this project is to correct the CBCT images in order to allow for more accurate and exact dose calculations in the case of a translation of the tumor in prostate cancer. Methods: Our approach is to develop strategies based on deformable image registration algorithms using the elastix software (Klein et al., 2010) to register the treatment planning CT on a daily CBCT scan taken during treatment. Sets of images are provided by a 3D deformable phantom and comprise two CT and two CBCT scans: one of both with the reference anatomy and the others with known deformations (i.e. translations of the prostate). The reference CT is registered onto the deformed CBCT and the deformed CT serves as the control for dose calculation accuracy. The planned treatment used for the evaluation of dose calculation is a 2-Gy fraction prescribed at the location of the reference prostate and assigned to 7 rectangular fields. Results: For a realistic 0.5-cm translation of the prostate, the relative dose discrepancy between the CBCT and the CT control scan at the prostate's centroid is 8.9 ± 0.8 % while dose discrepancy between the registered CT and the control scan lessens to −2.4 ± 0.8 %. For a 2-cm translation, clinical indices like the V90 and the D100 are more accurate by 0.7 ± 0.3 % and 8.0 ± 0.5 cGy respectively when using registered CT than when using CBCT for dose calculation. Conclusion: The results show that this strategy gives doses in agreement within a few percents with those from calculations on actual CT scans. In the future, various deformations of the phantom anatomy will allow a thorough characterization of the registration strategies needed for more complex anatomies

46 CFR 401.510 - Operation without Registered Pilots.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Operation without Registered Pilots. 401.510 Section 401... REGULATIONS Penalties; Operations Without Registered Pilots § 401.510 Operation without Registered Pilots. (a... Registered Pilot when the vessel or its cargo is in distress or jeopardy. (b) A vessel may be navigated in...

Identifying victims of violence using register-based data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kruse, Marie; Sørensen, Jan; Brønnum-Hansen, Henrik

2010-01-01

AIMS: The aim of this study was twofold. Firstly we identified victims of violence in national registers and discussed strengths and weaknesses of this approach. Secondly we assessed the magnitude of violence and the characteristics of the victims using register-based data. METHODS: We used three...... nationwide registers to identify victims of violence: The National Patient Register, the Victim Statistics, and the Causes of Death Register. We merged these data and assessed the degree of overlap between data sources. We identified a reference population by selecting all individuals in Denmark over 15....... RESULTS: In 2006, 22,000 individuals were registered as having been exposed to violence. About 70% of these victims were men. Most victims were identified from emergency room contacts and police records, and few from the Causes of Death Register. There was some overlap between the two large data sources...

Efficient sorting using registers and caches

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wickremesinghe, Rajiv; Arge, Lars Allan; Chase, Jeffrey S.

2002-01-01

. Inadequate models lead to poor algorithmic choices and an incomplete understanding of algorithm behavior on real machines.A key step toward developing better models is to quantify the performance effects of features not reflected in the models. This paper explores the effect of memory system features...... on sorting performance. We introduce a new cache-conscious sorting algorithm, R-MERGE, which achieves better performance in practice over algorithms that are superior in the theoretical models. R-MERGE is designed to minimize memory stall cycles rather than cache misses by considering features common to many......Modern computer systems have increasingly complex memory systems. Common machine models for algorithm analysis do not reflect many of the features of these systems, e.g., large register sets, lockup-free caches, cache hierarchies, associativity, cache line fetching, and streaming behavior...

Three-dimensional digital breast histopathology imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, G. M.; Peressotti, C.; Mawdsley, G. E.; Eidt, S.; Ge, M.; Morgan, T.; Zubovits, J. T.; Yaffe, M. J.

2005-04-01

We have developed a digital histology imaging system that has the potential to improve the accuracy of surgical margin assessment in the treatment of breast cancer by providing finer sampling and 3D visualization. The system is capable of producing a 3D representation of histopathology from an entire lumpectomy specimen. We acquire digital photomicrographs of a stack of large (120 x 170 mm) histology slides cut serially through the entire specimen. The images are then registered and displayed in 2D and 3D. This approach dramatically improves sampling and can improve visualization of tissue structures compared to current, small-format histology. The system consists of a brightfield microscope, adapted with a freeze-frame digital video camera and a large, motorized translation stage. The image of each slide is acquired as a mosaic of adjacent tiles, each tile representing one field-of-view of the microscope, and the mosaic is assembled into a seamless composite image. The assembly is done by a program developed to build image sets at six different levels within a multiresolution pyramid. A database-linked viewing program has been created to efficiently register and display the animated stack of images, which occupies about 80 GB of disk space per lumpectomy at full resolution, on a high-resolution (3840 x 2400 pixels) colour monitor. The scanning or tiling approach to digitization is inherently susceptible to two artefacts which disrupt the composite image, and which impose more stringent requirements on system performance. Although non-uniform illumination across any one isolated tile may not be discernible, the eye readily detects this non-uniformity when the entire assembly of tiles is viewed. The pattern is caused by deficiencies in optical alignment, spectrum of the light source, or camera corrections. The imaging task requires that features as small as 3.2 &mum in extent be seamlessly preserved. However, inadequate accuracy in positioning of the translation

A ROUGH SET DECISION TREE BASED MLP-CNN FOR VERY HIGH RESOLUTION REMOTELY SENSED IMAGE CLASSIFICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Recent advances in remote sensing have witnessed a great amount of very high resolution (VHR images acquired at sub-metre spatial resolution. These VHR remotely sensed data has post enormous challenges in processing, analysing and classifying them effectively due to the high spatial complexity and heterogeneity. Although many computer-aid classification methods that based on machine learning approaches have been developed over the past decades, most of them are developed toward pixel level spectral differentiation, e.g. Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP, which are unable to exploit abundant spatial details within VHR images. This paper introduced a rough set model as a general framework to objectively characterize the uncertainty in CNN classification results, and further partition them into correctness and incorrectness on the map. The correct classification regions of CNN were trusted and maintained, whereas the misclassification areas were reclassified using a decision tree with both CNN and MLP. The effectiveness of the proposed rough set decision tree based MLP-CNN was tested using an urban area at Bournemouth, United Kingdom. The MLP-CNN, well capturing the complementarity between CNN and MLP through the rough set based decision tree, achieved the best classification performance both visually and numerically. Therefore, this research paves the way to achieve fully automatic and effective VHR image classification.

New graduate registered nurses' knowledge of patient safety and practice: A literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray, Melanie; Sundin, Deborah; Cope, Vicki

2018-01-01

To critically appraise available literature and summarise evidence pertaining to the patient safety knowledge and practices of new graduate registered nurses. Responsibility for patient safety should not be limited to the practice of the bedside nurses, rather the responsibility of all in the healthcare system. Previous research identified lapses in safety across the health care, more specifically with new practitioners. Understanding these gaps and what may be employed to counteract them is vital to ensuring patient safety. A focused review of research literature. The review used key terms and Boolean operators across a 5-year time frame in CINAHL, Medline, psycINFO and Google Scholar for research articles pertaining to the area of enquiry. Eighty-four articles met the inclusion criteria, 39 discarded due to irrelevant material and 45 articles were included in the literature review. This review acknowledges that nursing has different stages of knowledge and practice capabilities. A theory-practice gap for new graduate registered nurses exists, and transition to practice is a key learning period setting new nurses on the path to becoming expert practitioners. Within the literature, there was little to no acknowledgement of patient safety knowledge of the newly registered nurse. Issues raised in the 1970s remain a concern for today's new graduate registered nurses. Research has recognised several factors affecting transition from nursing student to new graduate registered nurse. These factors are leaving new practitioners open to potential errors and risking patient safety. Understanding the knowledge of a new graduate registered nurse upon entering clinical practice may assist in organisations providing appropriate clinical and theoretical support to these nurses during their transition. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Factors contributing to registered nurse medication administration error: a narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Parry, Angela M; Barriball, K Louise; While, Alison E

2015-01-01

To explore the factors contributing to Registered Nurse medication administration error behaviour. A narrative review. Electronic databases (Cochrane, CINAHL, MEDLINE, BNI, EmBase, and PsycINFO) were searched from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2012 in the English language. 1127 papers were identified and 26 papers were included in the review. Data were extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer. A thematic analysis and narrative synthesis of the factors contributing to Registered Nurses' medication administration behaviour. Bandura's (1986) theory of reciprocal determinism was used as an organising framework. This theory proposes that there is a reciprocal interplay between the environment, the person and their behaviour. Medication administration error is an outcome of RN behaviour. The 26 papers reported studies conducted in 4 continents across 11 countries predominantly in North America and Europe, with one multi-national study incorporating 27 countries. Within both the environment and person domain of the reciprocal determinism framework, a number of factors emerged as influencing Registered Nurse medication administration error behaviour. Within the environment domain, two key themes of clinical workload and work setting emerged, and within the person domain the Registered Nurses' characteristics and their lived experience of work emerged as themes. Overall, greater attention has been given to the contribution of the environment domain rather than the person domain as contributing to error, with the literature viewing an error as an event rather than the outcome of behaviour. The interplay between factors that influence behaviour were poorly accounted for within the selected studies. It is proposed that a shift away from error as an event to a focus on the relationships between the person, the environment and Registered Nurse medication administration behaviour is needed to better understand medication administration error. Copyright © 2014

RATIO_TOOL - SOFTWARE FOR COMPUTING IMAGE RATIOS

Science.gov (United States)

Yates, G. L.

1994-01-01

Geological studies analyze spectral data in order to gain information on surface materials. RATIO_TOOL is an interactive program for viewing and analyzing large multispectral image data sets that have been created by an imaging spectrometer. While the standard approach to classification of multispectral data is to match the spectrum for each input pixel against a library of known mineral spectra, RATIO_TOOL uses ratios of spectral bands in order to spot significant areas of interest within a multispectral image. Each image band can be viewed iteratively, or a selected image band of the data set can be requested and displayed. When the image ratios are computed, the result is displayed as a gray scale image. At this point a histogram option helps in viewing the distribution of values. A thresholding option can then be used to segment the ratio image result into two to four classes. The segmented image is then color coded to indicate threshold classes and displayed alongside the gray scale image. RATIO_TOOL is written in C language for Sun series computers running SunOS 4.0 and later. It requires the XView toolkit and the OpenWindows window manager (version 2.0 or 3.0). The XView toolkit is distributed with Open Windows. A color monitor is also required. The standard distribution medium for RATIO_TOOL is a .25 inch streaming magnetic tape cartridge in UNIX tar format. An electronic copy of the documentation is included on the program media. RATIO_TOOL was developed in 1992 and is a copyrighted work with all copyright vested in NASA. Sun, SunOS, and OpenWindows are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Transformational leadership: effect on the job satisfaction of Registered Nurses in a hospital in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xiaohui; Chontawan, Ratanawadee; Nantsupawat, Raymoul

2012-02-01

The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between the transformational leadership of nurse managers and job satisfaction among clinical Registered Nurses at a tertiary care hospital in China. The healthcare system is changing rapidly. Research in Western countries has shown that transformational leadership affects job satisfaction. However, very little research related to this subject has been conducted in healthcare settings in China. The sample consisted of 238 nurses who work at a tertiary care hospital in China. Data were collected from April to August 2006. Research instruments included a demographic data form, a Leadership Practice Inventory and a Job Satisfaction Scale for clinical registered nurses. Both the transformational leadership of nurse managers and job satisfaction among clinical Registered Nurses were at a moderate level. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the transformational leadership of nurse managers and job satisfaction (r = 0·556, P transformational leadership of nurse managers could have an effect on the job satisfaction of clinical Registered Nurses. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Improved image quality and detectability of hypovascular liver metastases on DECT with different adjusted window settings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Altenbernd, Jens; Forsting, Michael; Lauenstein, Thomas; Wetter, Axel [Duisburg-Essen Univ., Essen (Germany). Dept. of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology

2017-03-15

To investigate dual-energy CT of hypovascular liver metastases (LMs) with special focus on window settings (WSs). The aim of the study is to investigate the extent to which adapted WSs and the low-energy images of DECT improve the visibility especially of smaller LMs. 30 patients with LMs of colorectal cancer were investigated with DECT of the liver. In each patient contrast-enhanced DECT imaging with portal-venous delay was performed. The total number, mean number and conspicuity (1= excellent - 5 = poor) of LMs were documented on 80-kVp images and virtual 120-kVp images with different WSs (25/200 HU, 50/200, 75/200 HU, 25/350 HU, 50/350 HU, 75/350 HU, 25/500 HU, 50/500 HU, 75/500 HU). The attenuation (HU) of LMs and several anatomic regions and the background noise on 80 kVp images and virtual 120 kVp images were documented. Signal (liver)/noise and liver/LM ratio (SNR/LLMR) were calculated. The total number of LMs depending on size (<1cm, 1-2cm, >2cm) on 80 kVp images and virtual 120 kVp images with previously investigated best and regular WSs were documented. The highest total number, mean number per patient and total number of LMs <1cm were detected with the WS 25/350 HU on 80kVp images (7.0; p = 0.02/218; p = 0.01/64;p<0.001) compared to the WS 75/200 HU on virtual 120 kVp images and the regular WS 50/350 HU on 80 kVp images and virtual 120 kVp images. The best conspicuity of LMs on 80 kVp images was documented with the WS 25/350 HU compared to the best WS on virtual 120 kVp images with 75/200 HU (1.2 vs. 2.5; p = 0.01). HU of normal liver, aorta, SNR and LLMR differed significantly between 80 kVp images and virtual 120 kVp images (128.1 vs. 93.6; < 0.05/192.8 vs. 131.4; < 0.05/10.3 vs. 8.1; p < 0.05/2.8 vs. 2.1; p < 0.05). Low kVp images of DECT datasets are more precise in detecting hypovascular liver metastases than virtual 120 kVp images. Dedicated window settings have a relevant influence on conspicuity.

Increasing Rates of Brain Tumours in the Swedish National Inpatient Register and the Causes of Death Register

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lennart Hardell

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Radiofrequency emissions in the frequency range 30 kHz–300 GHz were evaluated to be Group 2B, i.e., “possibly”, carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC at WHO in May 2011. The Swedish Cancer Register has not shown increasing incidence of brain tumours in recent years and has been used to dismiss epidemiological evidence on a risk. In this study we used the Swedish National Inpatient Register (IPR and Causes of Death Register (CDR to further study the incidence comparing with the Cancer Register data for the time period 1998–2013 using joinpoint regression analysis. In the IPR we found a joinpoint in 2007 with Annual Percentage Change (APC +4.25%, 95% CI +1.98, +6.57% during 2007–2013 for tumours of unknown type in the brain or CNS. In the CDR joinpoint regression found one joinpoint in 2008 with APC during 2008–2013 +22.60%, 95% CI +9.68, +37.03%. These tumour diagnoses would be based on clinical examination, mainly CT and/or MRI, but without histopathology or cytology. No statistically significant increasing incidence was found in the Swedish Cancer Register during these years. We postulate that a large part of brain tumours of unknown type are never reported to the Cancer Register. Furthermore, the frequency of diagnosis based on autopsy has declined substantially due to a general decline of autopsies in Sweden adding further to missing cases. We conclude that the Swedish Cancer Register is not reliable to be used to dismiss results in epidemiological studies on the use of wireless phones and brain tumour risk.

Floating point only SIMD instruction set architecture including compare, select, Boolean, and alignment operations

Science.gov (United States)

Gschwind, Michael K [Chappaqua, NY

2011-03-01

Mechanisms for implementing a floating point only single instruction multiple data instruction set architecture are provided. A processor is provided that comprises an issue unit, an execution unit coupled to the issue unit, and a vector register file coupled to the execution unit. The execution unit has logic that implements a floating point (FP) only single instruction multiple data (SIMD) instruction set architecture (ISA). The floating point vector registers of the vector register file store both scalar and floating point values as vectors having a plurality of vector elements. The processor may be part of a data processing system.

Development and validation of factor analysis for dynamic in-vivo imaging data sets

Science.gov (United States)

Goldschmied, Lukas; Knoll, Peter; Mirzaei, Siroos; Kalchenko, Vyacheslav

2018-02-01

In-vivo optical imaging method provides information about the anatomical structures and function of tissues ranging from single cell to entire organisms. Dynamic Fluorescent Imaging (DFI) is used to examine dynamic events related to normal physiology or disease progression in real time. In this work we improve this method by using factor analysis (FA) to automatically separate overlying structures.The proposed method is based on a previously introduced Transcranial Optical Vascular Imaging (TOVI), which employs natural and sufficient transparency through the intact cranial bones of a mouse. Fluorescent image acquisition is performed after intravenous fluorescent tracer administration. Afterwards FA is used to extract structures with different temporal characteristics from dynamic contrast enhanced studies without making any a priori assumptions about physiology. The method was validated by a dynamic light phantom based on the Arduino hardware platform and dynamic fluorescent cerebral hemodynamics data sets. Using the phantom data FA can separate various light channels without user intervention. FA applied on an image sequence obtained after fluorescent tracer administration is allowing extracting valuable information about cerebral blood vessels anatomy and functionality without a-priory assumptions of their anatomy or physiology while keeping the mouse cranium intact. Unsupervised color-coding based on FA enhances visibility and distinguishing of blood vessels belonging to different compartments. DFI based on FA especially in case of transcranial imaging can be used to separate dynamic structures.

Automated planning of breast radiotherapy using cone beam CT imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amit, Guy; Purdie, Thomas G.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Develop and clinically validate a methodology for using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging in an automated treatment planning framework for breast IMRT. Methods: A technique for intensity correction of CBCT images was developed and evaluated. The technique is based on histogram matching of CBCT image sets, using information from “similar” planning CT image sets from a database of paired CBCT and CT image sets (n = 38). Automated treatment plans were generated for a testing subset (n = 15) on the planning CT and the corrected CBCT. The plans generated on the corrected CBCT were compared to the CT-based plans in terms of beam parameters, dosimetric indices, and dose distributions. Results: The corrected CBCT images showed considerable similarity to their corresponding planning CTs (average mutual information 1.0±0.1, average sum of absolute differences 185 ± 38). The automated CBCT-based plans were clinically acceptable, as well as equivalent to the CT-based plans with average gantry angle difference of 0.99°±1.1°, target volume overlap index (Dice) of 0.89±0.04 although with slightly higher maximum target doses (4482±90 vs 4560±84, P < 0.05). Gamma index analysis (3%, 3 mm) showed that the CBCT-based plans had the same dose distribution as plans calculated with the same beams on the registered planning CTs (average gamma index 0.12±0.04, gamma <1 in 99.4%±0.3%). Conclusions: The proposed method demonstrates the potential for a clinically feasible and efficient online adaptive breast IMRT planning method based on CBCT imaging, integrating automation

RADIOMETRIC NORMALIZATION OF LARGE AIRBORNE IMAGE DATA SETS ACQUIRED BY DIFFERENT SENSOR TYPES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Gehrke

2016-06-01

HxMap software. It has been successfully applied to large sets of heterogeneous imagery, including the adjustment of original sensor images prior to quality control and further processing as well as radiometric adjustment for ortho-image mosaic generation.

Patient safety: numerical skills and drug calculation abilities of nursing students and registered nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

McMullan, Miriam; Jones, Ray; Lea, Susan

2010-04-01

This paper is a report of a correlational study of the relations of age, status, experience and drug calculation ability to numerical ability of nursing students and Registered Nurses. Competent numerical and drug calculation skills are essential for nurses as mistakes can put patients' lives at risk. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2006 in one United Kingdom university. Validated numerical and drug calculation tests were given to 229 second year nursing students and 44 Registered Nurses attending a non-medical prescribing programme. The numeracy test was failed by 55% of students and 45% of Registered Nurses, while 92% of students and 89% of nurses failed the drug calculation test. Independent of status or experience, older participants (> or = 35 years) were statistically significantly more able to perform numerical calculations. There was no statistically significant difference between nursing students and Registered Nurses in their overall drug calculation ability, but nurses were statistically significantly more able than students to perform basic numerical calculations and calculations for solids, oral liquids and injections. Both nursing students and Registered Nurses were statistically significantly more able to perform calculations for solids, liquid oral and injections than calculations for drug percentages, drip and infusion rates. To prevent deskilling, Registered Nurses should continue to practise and refresh all the different types of drug calculations as often as possible with regular (self)-testing of their ability. Time should be set aside in curricula for nursing students to learn how to perform basic numerical and drug calculations. This learning should be reinforced through regular practice and assessment.

Catalog of 199 register-based definitions of chronic conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvidberg, Michael F; Johnsen, Søren P; Glümer, Charlotte

2016-01-01

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the current study was to present and discuss a broad range of register-based definitions of chronic conditions for use in register research, as well as the challenges and pitfalls when defining chronic conditions by the use of registers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The definit......INTRODUCTION: The aim of the current study was to present and discuss a broad range of register-based definitions of chronic conditions for use in register research, as well as the challenges and pitfalls when defining chronic conditions by the use of registers. MATERIALS AND METHODS......: The definitions were defined based on information from nationwide Danish public healthcare registers. Medical and epidemiological specialists identified and grouped relevant diagnosis codes that covered chronic conditions, using the International Classification System version 10 (ICD-10). Where relevant...... definitions were proposed based on record linkage between multiple registers, including registers of prescribed drugs and use of general practitioners' services. CONCLUSIONS THIS STUDY PROVIDED A CATALOG OF REGISTER-BASED DEFINITIONS FOR CHRONIC CONDITIONS FOR USE IN HEALTHCARE PLANNING AND RESEARCH, WHICH IS...

Registered Nurses' views on their professional role.

Science.gov (United States)

Furåker, Carina

2008-11-01

The aim is to study Registered Nurses' opinions and reflections about their work tasks, competence and organization in acute hospital care. The definition of the role of nurses has changed over time and it is often discussed whether Registered Nurses have a professional status or not. A qualitative research design was used. Data were derived from written reflections on diaries and from focus group interviews. All respondents had difficulties in identifying the essence of their work. It can be argued that being 'a spider in the web' is an important aspect of the nursing profession. Registered Nurses tend to regard their professional role as vague. Managers must be considered key persons in defining the professional role of Registered Nurses. This study contributes to an understanding of the managers' and the importance of nursing education in Registered Nurses professional development.

The association between fluoride in drinking water and dental caries in Danish children. Linking data from health registers, environmental registers and administrative registers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kirkeskov, Lilli; Kristiansen, Eva; Bøggild, Henrik

2010-01-01

Kirkeskov L, Kristiansen E, Bøggild H, von Platen-Hallermund F, Sckerl H, Carlsen A, Larsen MJ, Poulsen S. The association between fluoride in drinking water and dental caries in Danish children. Linking data from health registers, environmental registers and administrative registers. Community...... Dent Oral Epidemiol 2010. (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Abstract - Objectives: To study the association between fluoride concentration in drinking water and dental caries in Danish children. Methods: The study linked registry data on fluoride concentration in drinking water over a 10-year period...... with data on dental caries from the Danish National Board of Health database on child dental health for 5-year-old children born in 1989 and 1999, and for 15-year-old children born in 1979 and 1989. The number of children included in the cohorts varied between 41.000 and 48.000. Logistic regression was used...

Procedure entry in the register of yachts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zorana Kostović

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The procedure of ship registration is regulated in the Maritime Code of Croatia (2004. This procedure, in comparison with the recently suspended Maritime Code of Croatia (1994, includes substantial changes, especially in the domain of yacht registration. New Maritime Code has founded special yacht-register for yachts and yachts under construction. A yacht which is registered as a Croatian yacht is entitled to the benefits conffered by the Maritime Code of Croatia (right to fly a Croatian flag, etc.. There are two modes proscribed under the provisions of Maritime Code of Croatia (2004 for yacht-registration: 1 mandatory and 2 facultative. Yachts whose owners are Croatian citizens with residence i Republic Croatia or companies which are registered in the Republic of Croatia are obligated to register under the provisions of Maritime Code of Croatia (2004. On the other hand, yacht whose owners are not Croatian citizens or whose owners are Croatian citizens but without the residence in the Republic of Croatia, can be registered in the Republic of Croatia, depending on the will of the owner. Yachts under construction can be registered in special registers for such kind of vessels if they are built in Croatian shipyards (owners can be either Croatian citizens or foreigners. Jurisdiction in this matter belongs to port authorities and all procedure is carried out in accordance with the rules of administrative procedure.

R and G color component competition of RGB image decomposition as a criterion to register RBC agglutinates for blood group typing.

Science.gov (United States)

Doubrovski, Valeri A; Ganilova, Yuliya A; Zabenkov, Igor V

2014-03-01

A new approach of the criterion assignment for registration of erythrocyte agglutinates to instrumentally determine blood group type is suggested. The criterion is based on comparison of R and G components of RGB decomposition of microscopy digital image taken for the blood-serum mixture sample. For the chosen experimental conditions, the minimal size (area) of RBC agglutinate to be registered by the criterion suggested is estimated theoretically. The proposed method was tested experimentally on the example of monitoring agglutinates in flow. The encouraging experimental results were obtained for improvement of the resolving power of the method; the optimal experimental conditions were revealed for maximum resolution. Though the suggested method was realized for dynamic (flow) blood group determination, it could also be applied for diagnostics in a stationary environment. This approach increases the reliability of RBC agglutinates registration and, hence, blood group typing. The results may be used to develop the apparatus for automated determination of human blood group.

Image Navigation and Registration Performance Assessment Tool Set for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper

Science.gov (United States)

De Luccia, Frank J.; Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian C.; Graybill, Justin; Haas, Evan; Johnson, Patrick D.; Isaacson, Peter J.; Reth, Alan D.

2016-01-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. For ABI, these metrics are the 3-sigma errors in navigation (NAV), channel-to-channel registration (CCR), frame-to-frame registration (FFR), swath-to-swath registration (SSR), and within frame registration (WIFR) for the Level 1B image products. For GLM, the single metric of interest is the 3-sigma error in the navigation of background images (GLM NAV) used by the system to navigate lightning strikes. 3-sigma errors are estimates of the 99.73rd percentile of the errors accumulated over a 24-hour data collection period. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24-hour evaluation period. Another aspect of the IPATS design that vastly reduces execution time is the off-line propagation of Landsat based truth images to the fixed grid coordinates system for each of the three GOES-R satellite locations, operational East and West and initial checkout locations. This paper describes the algorithmic design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

Image averaging for angiography by registration and combination of serial images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brooks, S.H.; Selzer, R.H.; Crawford, D.W.; Blankenhorn, D.H.

1982-01-01

In order to increase the contrast of x-ray images of artery edges, a method is disclosed whereby a contrast medium opaque to x-rays in injected into a blood vessel distant from an artery section of interest. Mulitple x-ray images are obtained as the contrast medium and blood mixture flows through the artery section. These images are registered with a landmark within the patient. Density measurements are made with respect to each corresponding image segment and are combined to synthesize a composite image of the edge of the artery section

ASSESSMENT OF THE VOLUNTEERED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FEEDBACK SYSTEM FOR THE DUTCH TOPOGRAPHICAL KEY REGISTER

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Grus

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Since Topographical Key Register has become an open data the amount of users increased enormously. The highest grow was in the private users group. The increasing number of users and their growing demand for high actuality of the topographic data sets motivates the Dutch Kadaster to innovate and improve the Topographical Key Register (BRT. One of the initiatives was to provide a voluntary geographical information project aiming at providing a user-friendly feedback system adjusted to all kinds of user groups. The feedback system is a compulsory element of the Topographical Key Register in the Netherlands. The Dutch Kadaster is obliged to deliver a feedback system and the key-users are obliged to use it. The aim of the feedback system is to improve the quality and stimulate the usage of the data. The results of the pilot shows that the user-friendly and open to everyone feedback system contributes enormously to improve the quality of the topographic dataset.

Connecting Secondary Career and Technical Education and Registered Apprenticeship: A Profile of Six State Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Rice, Olivia; Hudson, Jordan; Foster, Laura Rasmussen; Klein, Steven

2016-01-01

Work-based learning, an educational strategy that provides students with technical skills and knowledge in an authentic work setting, is often delivered through a Career Technical Education (CTE) or Registered Apprenticeship (RA) program. Both have overlapping structures and content, including experiential learning and career exploration…

Efficient nonlinear registration of 3D images using high order co-ordinate transfer functions.

Science.gov (United States)

Barber, D C

1999-01-01

There is an increasing interest in image registration for a variety of medical imaging applications. Image registration is achieved through the use of a co-ordinate transfer function (CTF) which maps voxels in one image to voxels in the other image, including in the general case changes in mapped voxel intensity. If images of the same subject are to be registered the co-ordinate transfer function needs to implement a spatial transformation consisting of a displacement and a rigid rotation. In order to achieve registration a common approach is to choose a suitable quality-of-registration measure and devise a method for the efficient generation of the parameters of the CTF which minimize this measure. For registration of images from different subjects more complex transforms are required. In general function minimization is too slow to allow the use of CTFs with more than a small number of parameters. However, provided the images are from the same modality and the CTF can be expanded in terms of an appropriate set of basis functions this paper will show how relatively complex CTFs can be used for registration. The use of increasingly complex CTFs to minimize the within group standard deviation of a set of normal single photon emission tomography brain images is used to demonstrate the improved registration of images from different subjects using CTFs of increasing complexity.

Level-set segmentation of pulmonary nodules in megavolt electronic portal images using a CT prior

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schildkraut, J. S.; Prosser, N.; Savakis, A.; Gomez, J.; Nazareth, D.; Singh, A. K.; Malhotra, H. K.

2010-01-01

Purpose: Pulmonary nodules present unique problems during radiation treatment due to nodule position uncertainty that is caused by respiration. The radiation field has to be enlarged to account for nodule motion during treatment. The purpose of this work is to provide a method of locating a pulmonary nodule in a megavolt portal image that can be used to reduce the internal target volume (ITV) during radiation therapy. A reduction in the ITV would result in a decrease in radiation toxicity to healthy tissue. Methods: Eight patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer were used in this study. CT scans that include the pulmonary nodule were captured with a GE Healthcare LightSpeed RT 16 scanner. Megavolt portal images were acquired with a Varian Trilogy unit equipped with an AS1000 electronic portal imaging device. The nodule localization method uses grayscale morphological filtering and level-set segmentation with a prior. The treatment-time portion of the algorithm is implemented on a graphical processing unit. Results: The method was retrospectively tested on eight cases that include a total of 151 megavolt portal image frames. The method reduced the nodule position uncertainty by an average of 40% for seven out of the eight cases. The treatment phase portion of the method has a subsecond execution time that makes it suitable for near-real-time nodule localization. Conclusions: A method was developed to localize a pulmonary nodule in a megavolt portal image. The method uses the characteristics of the nodule in a prior CT scan to enhance the nodule in the portal image and to identify the nodule region by level-set segmentation. In a retrospective study, the method reduced the nodule position uncertainty by an average of 40% for seven out of the eight cases studied.

New graduate registered nurse transition into primary health care roles: an integrative literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Murray-Parahi, Pauline; DiGiacomo, Michelle; Jackson, Debra; Davidson, Patricia M

2016-11-01

To summarise the literature describing new graduate nurse transition to professional practice within the primary health care (PHC) setting. There is a plethora of research literature spanning several decades about new graduate nurse transition in the acute care setting. Yet, the experiences of new graduate nurse in the PHC setting is unremarkable particularly considering the increasing demand for skilled health care workers and focus of health reform to provide care where people work and live. Electronic data bases, Academic Search Complete, EBSCO, Medline, PsycINFO, CINHAL, and ERIC were searched using a combination of terms and synonyms arising from three key concepts which identify the phenomenon; 'transition', 'new graduate registered nurse' and 'primary health care. An inclusive search strategy placed no limits on language or publication date. Of the 50 articles located and examined for relevance; 40 were sourced through databases and 10 from Google Scholar/Alerts and hand-searching references. None of the 19 articles retained for analysis addressed all key concepts. Some challenges of researching the professional transition of graduate nurses in PHC settings included, an absence of definitive transition models, a dearth of literature and deference to acute care research. Nursing in PHC settings, particularly the client's home is notably different to hospital settings because of higher levels of isolation and autonomy. Societal changes, health reform and subsequent demand for skilled workers in PHC settings has caused health care providers to question the logic that such roles are only for experienced nurses. Implications arise for education and health service providers who desire to close the theory practice gap and mitigate risk for all stakeholders when next generation nurses have limited opportunities to experience PHC roles as undergraduates and newly graduated registered nurses are already transitioning in this setting. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A multimodal imaging framework for enhanced robot-assisted partial nephrectomy guidance

Science.gov (United States)

Halter, Ryan J.; Wu, Xiaotian; Hartov, Alex; Seigne, John; Khan, Shadab

2015-03-01

Robot-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomies (RALPN) are performed to treat patients with locally confined renal carcinoma. There are well-documented benefits to performing partial (opposed to radical) kidney resections and to using robot-assisted laparoscopic (opposed to open) approaches. However, there are challenges in identifying tumor margins and critical benign structures including blood vessels and collecting systems during current RALPN procedures. The primary objective of this effort is to couple multiple image and data streams together to augment visual information currently provided to surgeons performing RALPN and ultimately ensure complete tumor resection and minimal damage to functional structures (i.e. renal vasculature and collecting systems). To meet this challenge we have developed a framework and performed initial feasibility experiments to couple pre-operative high-resolution anatomic images with intraoperative MRI, ultrasound (US) and optical-based surface mapping and kidney tracking. With these registered images and data streams, we aim to overlay the high-resolution contrast-enhanced anatomic (CT or MR) images onto the surgeon's view screen for enhanced guidance. To date we have integrated the following components of our framework: 1) a method for tracking an intraoperative US probe to extract the kidney surface and a set of embedded kidney markers, 2) a method for co-registering intraoperative US scans with pre-operative MR scans, and 3) a method for deforming pre-op scans to match intraoperative scans. These components have been evaluated through phantom studies to demonstrate protocol feasibility.

Waxholm space: an image-based reference for coordinating mouse brain research.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, G Allan; Badea, Alexandra; Brandenburg, Jeffrey; Cofer, Gary; Fubara, Boma; Liu, Song; Nissanov, Jonathan

2010-11-01

We describe an atlas of the C57BL/6 mouse brain based on MRI and conventional Nissl histology. Magnetic resonance microscopy was performed on a total of 14 specimens that were actively stained to enhance tissue contrast. Images were acquired with three different MR protocols yielding contrast dependent on spin lattice relaxation (T1), spin spin relaxation (T2), and magnetic susceptibility (T2*). Spatial resolution was 21.5 mum (isotropic). Conventional histology (Nissl) was performed on a limited set of these same specimens and the Nissl images were registered (3D-to-3D) to the MR data. Probabilistic atlases for 37 structures are provided, along with average atlases. The availability of three different MR protocols, the Nissl data, and the labels provides a rich set of options for registration of other atlases to the same coordinate system, thus facilitating data-sharing. All the data is available for download via the web. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Active contour segmentation in dynamic medical imaging: application to nuclear cardiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Debreuve, Eric

2000-01-01

In emission imaging, nuclear medicine provides functional information about the organ of interest. In transmission imaging, it provides anatomical information whose goal may be the correction of physical phenomena that corrupt emission images. With both emission and transmission images, it is useful to know how to extract, either automatically or semi-automatically, the organs of interest and the body outline in the case of a large field of view. This is the aim of segmentation. We developed two active contour segmentation methods. They were implemented using level sets. The key point is the evolution velocity definition. First, we were interested in static transmission imaging of the thorax. The evolution velocity was heuristically defined and depended only on the acquired projections. The segmented transmission map was computed w/o reconstruction and could be advantageously used for attenuation correction. Then, we studied the segmentation of cardiac gated sequences. The developed space-time segmentation method results from the minimization of a variational criterion which takes into account the whole sequence. The computed segmentation could be used for calculating physiological parameters. As an illustration, we computed the ejection fraction. Finally, we exploited some level set properties to develop a non-rigid, non-parametric, and geometric registration method. We applied it for kinetic compensation of cardiac gated sequences. The registered images were then added together providing an image with noise characteristics similar to a cardiac static image but w/o motion-induced blurring. (author)

'When measurements mean action' decision models for portal image review to eliminate systematic set-up errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wratten, C.R.; Denham, J.W.; O; Brien, P.; Hamilton, C.S.; Kron, T.; London Regional Cancer Centre, London, Ontario

2004-01-01

The aim of the present paper is to evaluate how the use of decision models in the review of portal images can eliminate systematic set-up errors during conformal therapy. Sixteen patients undergoing four-field irradiation of prostate cancer have had daily portal images obtained during the first two treatment weeks and weekly thereafter. The magnitude of random and systematic variations has been calculated by comparison of the portal image with the reference simulator images using the two-dimensional decision model embodied in the Hotelling's evaluation process (HEP). Random day-to-day set-up variation was small in this group of patients. Systematic errors were, however, common. In 15 of 16 patients, one or more errors of >2 mm were diagnosed at some stage during treatment. Sixteen of the 23 errors were between 2 and 4 mm. Although there were examples of oversensitivity of the HEP in three cases, and one instance of undersensitivity, the HEP proved highly sensitive to the small (2-4 mm) systematic errors that must be eliminated during high precision radiotherapy. The HEP has proven valuable in diagnosing very small ( 4 mm) systematic errors using one-dimensional decision models, HEP can eliminate the majority of systematic errors during the first 2 treatment weeks. Copyright (2004) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd

Studies based on the Danish Adoption Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Liselotte; Sørensen, Thorkild I A

2011-01-01

biological relatives to adoptees without schizophrenia. Clear trends in body mass index of biological relatives and the weight of adoptees were found in several settings. A genetic influence on smoking habits were found within a generation. A moderate genetic influence on the mortality rate has been found....... CONCLUSION: The Danish Adoption Register has contributed to the knowledge about environmental and genetic influence in various fields. Genetic influence on the risk of schizophrenia, body fatness, smoking habits, and on the mortality rate has been found........ RESEARCH TOPICS: To illustrate the adoption study approach in research, we present results achieved in schizophrenia, body fatness, smoking, and mortality. Significantly higher prevalence of schizophrenia and related conditions were found in biological relatives to adoptees with schizophrenia than among...

Image registration with auto-mapped control volumes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schreibmann, Eduard; Xing Lei

2006-01-01

Many image registration algorithms rely on the use of homologous control points on the two input image sets to be registered. In reality, the interactive identification of the control points on both images is tedious, difficult, and often a source of error. We propose a two-step algorithm to automatically identify homologous regions that are used as a priori information during the image registration procedure. First, a number of small control volumes having distinct anatomical features are identified on the model image in a somewhat arbitrary fashion. Instead of attempting to find their correspondences in the reference image through user interaction, in the proposed method, each of the control regions is mapped to the corresponding part of the reference image by using an automated image registration algorithm. A normalized cross-correlation (NCC) function or mutual information was used as the auto-mapping metric and a limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno algorithm (L-BFGS) was employed to optimize the function to find the optimal mapping. For rigid registration, the transformation parameters of the system are obtained by averaging that derived from the individual control volumes. In our deformable calculation, the mapped control volumes are treated as the nodes or control points with known positions on the two images. If the number of control volumes is not enough to cover the whole image to be registered, additional nodes are placed on the model image and then located on the reference image in a manner similar to the conventional BSpline deformable calculation. For deformable registration, the established correspondence by the auto-mapped control volumes provides valuable guidance for the registration calculation and greatly reduces the dimensionality of the problem. The performance of the two-step registrations was applied to three rigid registration cases (two PET-CT registrations and a brain MRI-CT registration) and one deformable registration of

Ischaemic memory imaging using metabolic radiopharmaceuticals: overview of clinical settings and ongoing investigations.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoshinaga, Keiichiro; Naya, Masanao; Shiga, Tohru; Suzuki, Eriko; Tamaki, Nagara

2014-02-01

"Ischaemic memory" is defined as a prolonged functional and/or biochemical alteration remaining after a particular episode of severe myocardial ischaemia. The biochemical alteration has been reported as metabolic stunning. Metabolic imaging has been used to detect the footprint left by previous ischaemic episodes evident due to delayed recovery of myocardial metabolism (persistent dominant glucose utilization with suppression of fatty acid oxidation). β-Methyl-p-[(123)I]iodophenylpentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) is a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radiotracer widely used for metabolic imaging in clinical settings in Japan. In patients with suspected coronary artery disease but no previous myocardial infarction, BMIPP has shown acceptable diagnostic accuracy. In particular, BMIPP plays an important role in the identification of prior ischaemic insult in patients arriving at emergency departments with acute chest pain syndrome. Recent data also show the usefulness of (123)I-BMIPP SPECT for predicting cardiovascular events in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Similarly, SPECT or PET imaging with (18)F-FDG injected during peak exercise or after exercise under fasting conditions shows an increase in FDG uptake in postischaemic areas. This article will overview the roles of ischaemic memory imaging both under established indications and in ongoing investigations.

Ischaemic memory imaging using metabolic radiopharmaceuticals: overview of clinical settings and ongoing investigations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshinaga, Keiichiro; Naya, Masanao; Shiga, Tohru; Suzuki, Eriko; Tamaki, Nagara

2014-01-01

''Ischaemic memory'' is defined as a prolonged functional and/or biochemical alteration remaining after a particular episode of severe myocardial ischaemia. The biochemical alteration has been reported as metabolic stunning. Metabolic imaging has been used to detect the footprint left by previous ischaemic episodes evident due to delayed recovery of myocardial metabolism (persistent dominant glucose utilization with suppression of fatty acid oxidation). β-Methyl-p-[ 123 I]iodophenylpentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) is a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radiotracer widely used for metabolic imaging in clinical settings in Japan. In patients with suspected coronary artery disease but no previous myocardial infarction, BMIPP has shown acceptable diagnostic accuracy. In particular, BMIPP plays an important role in the identification of prior ischaemic insult in patients arriving at emergency departments with acute chest pain syndrome. Recent data also show the usefulness of 123 I-BMIPP SPECT for predicting cardiovascular events in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Similarly, SPECT or PET imaging with 18 F-FDG injected during peak exercise or after exercise under fasting conditions shows an increase in FDG uptake in postischaemic areas. This article will overview the roles of ischaemic memory imaging both under established indications and in ongoing investigations. (orig.)

Effect of Registered Partnership on Labor Earnings and Fertility for Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From Swedish Register Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Aldén, Lina; Edlund, Lena; Hammarstedt, Mats; Mueller-Smith, Michael

2015-08-01

The expansion of legal rights to same-sex couples is a foot in a number of Western countries. The effects of this rollout are not only important in their own right but can also provide a window on the institution of marriage and the rights bundled therein. In this article, using Swedish longitudinal register data covering 1994-2007, we study the impact of the extension of rights to same-sex couples on labor earnings and fertility. In 1994, registered partnership for same-sex couples was introduced, which conferred almost all rights and obligations of marriage--a notable exception being joint legal parenting, by default or election. The latter was added in the 2002 adoption act. We find registered partnership to be important to both gays and lesbians but for different reasons. For gays, resource pooling emerges as the main function of registered partnerships. For lesbians, registered partnership appears to be an important vehicle for family formation, especially after the 2002 adoption act. In contrast to heterosexual couples (included for comparison), we find no evidence of household specialization among lesbians. The lack of specialization is noteworthy given similar fertility effects of registered partnership (after 2002) and the fact that lesbian couples were less assortatively matched (on education) than heterosexual couples--children and unequal earnings power being two factors commonly believed to promote specialization.

Register-based studies of cardiovascular disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abildstrøm, Steen Z; Torp-Pedersen, Christian; Madsen, Mette

2011-01-01

Introduction: The use of the unique personal identification number in the Nordic database systems enables the researchers to link the registers at the individual level. The registers can be used for both defining specific patient populations and to identify later events during follow-up. This rev...... the hospitalisation rate and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The risk of unmeasured factors affecting the results calls for cautious interpretation of the results.......-up. This review gives three examples within cardiovascular epidemiology to illustrate the use of the national administrative registers available to all researchers upon request. Research topics: The hospitalisation rate of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was expected to be increased and case-fatality rate......-based treatment increased significantly over time and adherence to treatment was high. Finally, use of specific nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs by healthy subjects was associated with a dose-dependent increase in cardiovascular risk. CONCLUSION: The nationwide registers have proven very useful in monitoring...

The TNO Multiband Image Data Collection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toet, A.

2017-01-01

Despite of the ongoing interest in the fusion of multi-band images for surveillance applications and a steady stream of publications in this area, there is only a very small number of static registered multi-band test images (and a total lack of dynamic image sequences) publicly available for the

PENGGUNAAN REGISTER DALAM WACANA RESEP MASAKAN BLUE BAND

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asri Soraya Afsari

2018-03-01

Full Text Available AbstractOn its using, language has diverse variation. Language in formal situation will be different from the informal one. Likewise the language for advertisement is different from scientific paper. In Sociolinguistics, the application of a language variant is called as Register. The food recipe discourse is one type of the register for it has specific characteristics in particular grammar and structure. This writing tries to review the application of the register in Blue Band  food recipe discourse. The result of the research indicates that it comprises vocabularies, morphology of derivatives and phrases, and also clauses. The finding register shows ingredients, tools, processing, and, serving.Keyword: register, food recipe discourse, sociolinguistics, vocabulary, morphology

A new set of wavelet- and fractals-based features for Gleason grading of prostate cancer histopathology images

Science.gov (United States)

Mosquera Lopez, Clara; Agaian, Sos

2013-02-01

Prostate cancer detection and staging is an important step towards patient treatment selection. Advancements in digital pathology allow the application of new quantitative image analysis algorithms for computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) on digitized histopathology images. In this paper, we introduce a new set of features to automatically grade pathological images using the well-known Gleason grading system. The goal of this study is to classify biopsy images belonging to Gleason patterns 3, 4, and 5 by using a combination of wavelet and fractal features. For image classification we use pairwise coupling Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifiers. The accuracy of the system, which is close to 97%, is estimated through three different cross-validation schemes. The proposed system offers the potential for automating classification of histological images and supporting prostate cancer diagnosis.

Introducing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria into registered drug shops in Uganda

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mbonye, Anthony K; Clarke, Sîan E; Lal, Sham

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND: Malaria is a major public health problem in Uganda and the current policy recommends introduction of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria (RDTs) to facilitate effective case management. However, provision of RDTs in drug shops potentially raises a new set of issues, such as adherence...... to RDTs results, management of severe illnesses, referral of patients, and relationship with caretakers. The main objective of the study was to examine the impact of introducing RDTs in registered drug shops in Uganda and document lessons and policy implications for future scale-up of malaria control...... in the private health sector. METHODS: A cluster-randomized trial introducing RDTs into registered drug shops was implemented in central Uganda from October 2010 to July 2012. An evaluation was undertaken to assess the impact and the processes involved with the introduction of RDTs into drug shops, the lessons...

High resolution MRI of the breast at 3 T: which BI-RADS {sup registered} descriptors are most strongly associated with the diagnosis of breast cancer?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinker-Domenig, K.; Helbich, T.H. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging, Vienna (Austria); Bogner, W.; Gruber, S. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, MR Centre of Excellence, Vienna (Austria); Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, Vienna (Austria); Bickel, H. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging, Vienna (Austria); Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, Vienna (Austria); Duffy, S. [Queen Mary University of London, Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London (United Kingdom); Schernthaner, M. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, Vienna (Austria); Dubsky, P. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Surgery, Vienna (Austria); Pluschnig, U. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Division of Oncology, Vienna (Austria); Rudas, M. [Medical University Vienna, Clinical Institute of Pathology, Vienna (Austria); Trattnig, S. [Medical University Vienna, Dept. of Radiology, MR Centre of Excellence, Vienna (Austria)

2012-02-15

To identify which breast lesion descriptors in the ACR BI-RADS registered MRI lexicon are most strongly associated with the diagnosis of breast cancer when performing breast MR imaging at 3 T. 150 patients underwent breast MR imaging at 3 T. Lesion size, morphology and enhancement kinetics were assessed according to the BI-RADS {sup registered} classification. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy were assessed. The effects of the BI-RADS {sup registered} descriptors on sensitivity and specificity were evaluated. Data were analysed using logistic regression. Histopathological diagnoses were used as the standard of reference. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of breast MRI at 3 T was 99%, 81% and 93%, respectively. In univariate analysis, the final diagnosis of malignancy was positively associated with irregular shape (p < 0.001), irregular margin (p < 0.001), heterogeneous enhancement (p < 0.001), Type 3 enhancement kinetics (p = 0.02), increasing patient age (p = 0.02) and larger lesion size (p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, significant associations with malignancy remained for mass shape (p = 0.06), mass margin (p < 0.001), internal enhancement pattern (p = 0.03) and Type 3 enhancement kinetics (p = 0.06). The ACR BI-RADS {sup registered} breast lesion descriptors that are mostly strongly associated with breast cancer in breast MR imaging at 3 T are lesion shape, lesion margin, internal enhancement pattern and Type 3 enhancement kinetics. (orig.)

A Variational Level Set Approach Based on Local Entropy for Image Segmentation and Bias Field Correction.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Jian; Jiang, Xiaoliang

2017-01-01

Image segmentation has always been a considerable challenge in image analysis and understanding due to the intensity inhomogeneity, which is also commonly known as bias field. In this paper, we present a novel region-based approach based on local entropy for segmenting images and estimating the bias field simultaneously. Firstly, a local Gaussian distribution fitting (LGDF) energy function is defined as a weighted energy integral, where the weight is local entropy derived from a grey level distribution of local image. The means of this objective function have a multiplicative factor that estimates the bias field in the transformed domain. Then, the bias field prior is fully used. Therefore, our model can estimate the bias field more accurately. Finally, minimization of this energy function with a level set regularization term, image segmentation, and bias field estimation can be achieved. Experiments on images of various modalities demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed method when compared with other state-of-the-art approaches.

Cohort Profile: the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden and Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden 2.0.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Hemelrijck, Mieke; Wigertz, Annette; Sandin, Fredrik; Garmo, Hans; Hellström, Karin; Fransson, Per; Widmark, Anders; Lambe, Mats; Adolfsson, Jan; Varenhorst, Eberhard; Johansson, Jan-Erik; Stattin, Pär

2013-08-01

In 1987, the first Regional Prostate Cancer Register was set up in the South-East health-care region of Sweden. Other health-care regions joined and since 1998 virtually all prostate cancer (PCa) cases are registered in the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden to provide data for quality assurance, bench marking and clinical research. NPCR includes data on tumour stage, Gleason score, serum level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and primary treatment. In 2008, the NPCR was linked to a number of other population-based registers by use of the personal identity number. This database named Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden (PCBaSe) has now been extended with more cases, longer follow-up and a selection of two control series of men free of PCa at the time of sampling, as well as information on brothers of men diagnosed with PCa, resulting in PCBaSe 2.0. This extension allows for studies with case-control, cohort or longitudinal case-only design on aetiological factors, pharmaceutical prescriptions and assessment of long-term outcomes. The NPCR covers >96% of all incident PCa cases registered by the Swedish Cancer Register, which has an underreporting of <3.7%. The NPCR is used to assess trends in incidence, treatment and outcome of men with PCa. Since the national registers linked to PCBaSe are complete, studies from PCBaSe 2.0 are truly population based.

TU-CD-BRA-01: A Novel 3D Registration Method for Multiparametric Radiological Images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhbardeh, A; Parekth, VS; Jacobs, MA

2015-01-01

Purpose: Multiparametric and multimodality radiological imaging methods, such as, magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), computed tomography(CT), and positron emission tomography(PET), provide multiple types of tissue contrast and anatomical information for clinical diagnosis. However, these radiological modalities are acquired using very different technical parameters, e.g.,field of view(FOV), matrix size, and scan planes, which, can lead to challenges in registering the different data sets. Therefore, we developed a hybrid registration method based on 3D wavelet transformation and 3D interpolations that performs 3D resampling and rotation of the target radiological images without loss of information Methods: T1-weighted, T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted-imaging(DWI), dynamic-contrast-enhanced(DCE) MRI and PET/CT were used in the registration algorithm from breast and prostate data at 3T MRI and multimodality(PET/CT) cases. The hybrid registration scheme consists of several steps to reslice and match each modality using a combination of 3D wavelets, interpolations, and affine registration steps. First, orthogonal reslicing is performed to equalize FOV, matrix sizes and the number of slices using wavelet transformation. Second, angular resampling of the target data is performed to match the reference data. Finally, using optimized angles from resampling, 3D registration is performed using similarity transformation(scaling and translation) between the reference and resliced target volume is performed. After registration, the mean-square-error(MSE) and Dice Similarity(DS) between the reference and registered target volumes were calculated. Results: The 3D registration method registered synthetic and clinical data with significant improvement(p<0.05) of overlap between anatomical structures. After transforming and deforming the synthetic data, the MSE and Dice similarity were 0.12 and 0.99. The average improvement of the MSE in breast was 62%(0.27 to 0.10) and prostate was

Development of a Continuum Damage Mechanics Material Model of a Graphite-Kevlar(Registered Trademark) Hybrid Fabric for Simulating the Impact Response of Energy Absorbing Kevlar(Registered Trademark) Hybrid Fabric for Simulating the Impact Response of Energy Absorbing

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Karen E.; Fasanella, Edwin L.; Littell, Justin D.

2017-01-01

This paper describes the development of input properties for a continuum damage mechanics based material model, Mat 58, within LS-DYNA(Registered Trademark) to simulate the response of a graphite-Kevlar(Registered Trademark) hybrid plain weave fabric. A limited set of material characterization tests were performed on the hybrid graphite-Kevlar(Registered Trademark) fabric. Simple finite element models were executed in LS-DYNA(Registered Trademark) to simulate the material characterization tests and to verify the Mat 58 material model. Once verified, the Mat 58 model was used in finite element models of two composite energy absorbers: a conical-shaped design, designated the "conusoid," fabricated of four layers of hybrid graphite-Kevlar(Registered Trademark) fabric; and, a sinusoidal-shaped foam sandwich design, designated the "sinusoid," fabricated of the same hybrid fabric face sheets with a foam core. Dynamic crush tests were performed on components of the two energy absorbers, which were designed to limit average vertical accelerations to 25- to 40-g, to minimize peak crush loads, and to generate relatively long crush stroke values under dynamic loading conditions. Finite element models of the two energy absorbers utilized the Mat 58 model that had been verified through material characterization testing. Excellent predictions of the dynamic crushing response were obtained.

Enlarge the training set based on inter-class relationship for face recognition from one image per person.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Qin; Wang, Hua Jing; You, Jane; Li, Zhao Ming; Li, Jin Xue

2013-01-01

In some large-scale face recognition task, such as driver license identification and law enforcement, the training set only contains one image per person. This situation is referred to as one sample problem. Because many face recognition techniques implicitly assume that several (at least two) images per person are available for training, they cannot deal with the one sample problem. This paper investigates principal component analysis (PCA), Fisher linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and locality preserving projections (LPP) and shows why they cannot perform well in one sample problem. After that, this paper presents four reasons that make one sample problem itself difficult: the small sample size problem; the lack of representative samples; the underestimated intra-class variation; and the overestimated inter-class variation. Based on the analysis, this paper proposes to enlarge the training set based on the inter-class relationship. This paper also extends LDA and LPP to extract features from the enlarged training set. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Gender-based wage differentials among registered dietitians.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollard, Prudence; Taylor, Maxine; Daher, Noha

2007-01-01

The debate on compensation equity is broad-based, addressing many organizational, personal, and outcome factors. Central to compensation philosophy is the issue of gender equity. Health care, like many other industries, remains fraught with gender inequity in compensation. This inequity is partially explained by choice of practice area. However, much remains unexplained. Health care is a female-dominated industry with most of the women working in the allied health professions (eg, nurses, dietitians, etc). Registered dietitians (RD) may experience wage discrimination, similar to registered nurses, but prior to the present study, the assumption was not tested. Using data from the first comprehensive study of RD compensation, we examined gender equity in total cash compensation to RDs. Data were collected on total cash compensation, and questions focused on career progression and work outcomes. For purposes of our study, we analyzed data on 5,477 full-time RDs. Ninety-six percent were women, the median age was 43, and median total cash compensation for RDs employed in the position for at least 1 year was $45,500.00. Women earned $45,285.00 and men earned $50,250.00. A median wage gap of $4,965.00 between women and men was observed. Variability in total cash compensation to women was best explained by size of budget, years of experience, work setting, and educational level. Variability for men was explained by size of budget, years of experience, educational level, and employer status. Conclusions suggest that given the wage discrimination that female RDs experience, work organizations should evaluate their pay plans to monitor pay equity. Factors that women can manage to receive compensation that is equal to that of the men include size of budgets they manage, years of experience in the field, employer status, work setting, and educational level attained. Findings are useful for career advisers, human resource specialists, compensation specialists, supervisors, RDs

Application of a semi-automatic ROI setting system for brain PET images to animal PET studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuge, Yuji; Akai, Nobuo; Tamura, Koji

1998-01-01

ProASSIST, a semi-automatic ROI (region of interest) setting system for human brain PET images, has been modified for use with the canine brain, and the performance of the obtained system was evaluated by comparing the operational simplicity for ROI setting and the consistency of ROI values obtained with those by a conventional manual procedure. Namely, we created segment maps for the canine brain by making reference to the coronal section atlas of the canine brain by Lim et al., and incorporated them into the ProASSIST system. For the performance test, CBF (cerebral blood flow) and CMRglc (cerebral metabolic rate in glucose) images in dogs with or without focal cerebral ischemia were used. In ProASSIST, brain contours were defined semiautomatically. In the ROI analysis of the test image, manual modification of the contour was necessary in half cases examined (8/16). However, the operation was rather simple so that the operation time per one brain section was significantly shorter than that in the manual operation. The ROI values determined by the system were comparable with those by the manual procedure, confirming the applicability of the system to these animal studies. The use of the system like the present one would also merit the more objective data acquisition for the quantitative ROI analysis, because no manual procedure except for some specifications of the anatomical features is required for ROI setting. (author)

Fusing complementary images for pavement cracking measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yao, Ming; Zhao, Zuyun; Xu, Bugao; Yao, Xun

2015-01-01

Cracking is a major pavement distress that jeopardizes road serviceability and traffic safety. Automated pavement distress survey (APDS) systems have been developed using digital imaging technology to replace human surveys for more timely and accurate inspections. Most APDS systems require special lighting devices to illuminate pavements and prevent shadows of roadside objects that distort cracks in the image. Most artificial lighting devices are laser based, and are either hazardous to unprotected people or require dedicated power supplies on the vehicle. This study was aimed to develop a new imaging system that can scan pavement surface at highway speed and determine the level of severity of pavement cracking without using any artificial lighting. The new system consists of dual line-scan cameras that are installed side by side to scan the same pavement area as the vehicle moves. Cameras are controlled with different exposure settings so that both sunlit and shadowed areas can be visible in two separate images. The paired images contain complementary details useful for reconstructing an image in which the shadows are eliminated. This paper intends to present (1) the design of the dual line-scan camera system, (2) a new calibration method for line-scan cameras to rectify and register paired images, (3) a customized image-fusion algorithm that merges the multi-exposure images into one shadow-free image for crack detection, and (4) the results of the field tests on a selected road over a long period. (paper)

Virtual Monoenergetic Images From a Novel Dual-Layer Spectral Detector Computed Tomography Scanner in Portal Venous Phase: Adjusted Window Settings Depending on Assessment Focus Are Essential for Image Interpretation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hickethier, Tilman; Iuga, Andra-Iza; Lennartz, Simon; Hauger, Myriam; Byrtus, Jonathan; Luetkens, Julian A; Haneder, Stefan; Maintz, David; Doerner, Jonas

We aimed to determine optimal window settings for conventional polyenergetic (PolyE) and virtual monoenergetic images (MonoE) derived from abdominal portal venous phase computed tomography (CT) examinations on a novel dual-layer spectral-detector CT (SDCT). From 50 patients, SDCT data sets MonoE at 40 kiloelectron volt as well as PolyE were reconstructed and best individual window width and level values manually were assessed separately for evaluation of abdominal arteries as well as for liver lesions. Via regression analysis, optimized individual values were mathematically calculated. Subjective image quality parameters, vessel, and liver lesion diameters were measured to determine influences of different W/L settings. Attenuation and contrast-to-noise values were significantly higher in MonoE compared with PolyE. Compared with standard settings, almost all adjusted W/L settings varied significantly and yielded higher subjective scoring. No differences were found between manually adjusted and mathematically calculated W/L settings. PolyE and MonoE from abdominal portal venous phase SDCT examinations require appropriate W/L settings depending on reconstruction technique and assessment focus.

Image registration in gastric emptying studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shuter, B.; Cooper, R.G.

1998-01-01

Full text: We have previously shown that image registration, based upon a two-dimensional cross-correlation (CC) of logarithmic Laplacian images (LLI), corrected motion in biliary studies in up to 90% of cases with minimal artifact. We have now applied the same technique to gastric emptying studies (GES). GES were acquired on an LFOV gamma camera over a two-hour period as 20-26 pairs of anterior-posterior frames (30 second duration and 64 x 64 matrix) for both solid and liquid components. All images were manually registered so that the solid contents of the stomach lay within an operator-drawn ROI. The anterior images of the solid component for 30 randomly selected patients were subjected to further image registration using CC of LLI, CC of raw images (Rl) (a common approach to image registration) and CC of Laplacian images (Ll). All images were aligned to the third image of the study, on which an ROI was drawn to outline the stomach. The number of images in which stomach counts appeared outside this ROI were tallied, in the original and all re-registered studies. Maximum displacements in X/Y position between images of studies registered by the LLI and Rl methods were also computed to directly compare positional accuracy. Stomachs partially exceeded the limits of the ROI in 27, 9, 53 and 54 frames (total of 710) in the original, LLI, Rl and Ll studies respectively. There were 4, 1, 6 and 7 studies with misregistered stomachs on more than 2 frames. Frames in seven Rl studies differed from the LLI studies in ) X/Y position by 3 pixels or more. Cross-correlation using LLI was the only method which improved upon the original manual registration. The Rl and Ll methods increased the number of misregistered frames. We conclude that in gastric emptying studies, as in biliary studies, object tracking by CC of LLI is the method of choice for image registration

Josephson shift register design and layout

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Przybysz, J.X.; Buttyan, J.; Blaugher, R.D.

1989-01-01

Integrated circuit chips were designed and fabricated, based on Josephson shift register circuit that simulated operation at 25 GHz using the SPICE program. The 6.25 mm square chip featured a twelve-gate, four-stage shift register fabricated with Nb/AlO/sub x//Nb Josephson junctions with a design value of 2000 A/cm/sup 2/ critical current density. SUPERCOMPACT, a general program for the design of monolithic microwave integrated circuits, was used to model the effects of layout geometry on the uniformity and phase coherence of logic gate bias currents. Gate bias resistors were treated as resistive transmission lines. A layout geometry for the superconductive transmission lines and thin film bias resistors was developed. The original SPICE-designed circuit was modified as a result of these calculations. Modeling indicated that bias current variations could be limited to 3% for all possible logic states of the shift register, and phase coherence of the gates could be maintained to within 2 degrees of 10 Ghz. The fundamental soundness of the circuit design was demonstrated by the proper operation of fabricated shift registers

Registered nurses' perceptions of rewarding and its significance.

Science.gov (United States)

Seitovirta, Jaana; Lehtimäki, Aku-Ville; Vehviläinen-Julkunen, Katri; Mitronen, Lasse; Kvist, Tarja

2017-11-07

To examine reward type preferences and their relationships with the significance of rewarding perceived by registered nurses in Finland. Previous studies have found relationships between nurses' rewarding and their motivation at work, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Data were collected in a cross-sectional, descriptive, questionnaire survey from 402 registered nurses using the Registered Nurses' Perceptions of Rewarding Scale in 2015, and analysed with descriptive and multivariate statistical methods. Registered nurses assigned slightly higher values to several non-financial than to financial rewards. The non-financial reward types appreciation and feedback from work community, worktime arrangements, work content, and opportunity to develop, influence and participate were highly related to the significance of rewarding. We identified various rewards that registered nurses value, and indications that providing an appropriate array of rewards, particularly non-financial rewards, is a highly beneficial element of nursing management. It is important to understand the value of rewards for nursing management. Nurse managers should offer diverse rewards to their registered nurses to promote excellent performance and to help efforts to secure and maintain high-quality, safe patient care. The use of appropriate rewards is especially crucial to improving registered nurses' reward satisfaction and job satisfaction globally in the nursing profession. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Combined preclinical magnetic particle imaging and magnetic resonance imaging. Initial results in mice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaul, M.G.; Mummert, T.; Jung, C.; Raabe, N.; Ittrich, H.; Adam, G.; Heinen, U.; Reitmeier, A.

2015-01-01

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a new radiologic imaging modality. For the first time, a commercial preclinical scanner is installed. The goal of this study was to establish a workflow between MPI and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners for a complete in vivo examination of a mouse and to generate the first co-registered in vivo MR-MP images. The in vivo examination of five mice were performed on a preclinical MPI scanner and a 7 Tesla preclinical MRI system. MRI measurements were used for anatomical referencing and validation of the injection of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles during a dynamic MPI scan. We extracted MPI data of the injection phase and co-registered it with MRI data. A workflow process for a combined in vivo MRI and MPI examination was established. A successful injection of ferucarbotran was proven in MPI and MRI. MR-MPI co-registration allocated the SPIOs in the inferior vena cava and the heart during and shortly after the injection. The acquisition of preclinical MPI and MRI data is feasible and allows the combined analysis of MR-MPI information.

Combined preclinical magnetic particle imaging and magnetic resonance imaging. Initial results in mice

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaul, M.G.; Mummert, T.; Jung, C.; Raabe, N.; Ittrich, H.; Adam, G. [University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg (Germany). Dept. of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology; Weber, O. [Philips Medical Systems DMC GmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Heinen, U. [Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH, Ettlingen (Germany); Reitmeier, A. [Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg (Germany). Animal Facility; Knopp, T. [University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg (Germany). Dept. of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology; Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg (Germany)

2015-05-15

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a new radiologic imaging modality. For the first time, a commercial preclinical scanner is installed. The goal of this study was to establish a workflow between MPI and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners for a complete in vivo examination of a mouse and to generate the first co-registered in vivo MR-MP images. The in vivo examination of five mice were performed on a preclinical MPI scanner and a 7 Tesla preclinical MRI system. MRI measurements were used for anatomical referencing and validation of the injection of superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) particles during a dynamic MPI scan. We extracted MPI data of the injection phase and co-registered it with MRI data. A workflow process for a combined in vivo MRI and MPI examination was established. A successful injection of ferucarbotran was proven in MPI and MRI. MR-MPI co-registration allocated the SPIOs in the inferior vena cava and the heart during and shortly after the injection. The acquisition of preclinical MPI and MRI data is feasible and allows the combined analysis of MR-MPI information.

Portal verification using the KODAK ACR 2000 RT storage phosphor plate system and EC registered films. A semiquantitative comparison

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Geyer, P.; Blank, H.; Alheit, H.

2006-01-01

Background and Purpose: the suitability of the storage phosphor plate system ACR 2000 RT (Eastman Kodak Corp., Rochester, MN, USA), that is destined for portal verification as well as for portal simulation imaging in radiotherapy, had to be proven by the comparison with a highly sensitive verification film. Material and Methods: the comparison included portal verification images of different regions (head and neck, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis) irradiated with 6- and 15-MV photons and electrons. Each portal verification image was done at the storage screen and the EC registered film as well, using the EC-L registered cassettes (both: Eastman Kodak Corp., Rochester, MN, USA) for both systems. The soft-tissue and bony contrast and the brightness were evaluated and compared in a ranking of the two compared images. Different phantoms were irradiated to investigate the high- and low-contrast resolution. To account for quality assurance application, the short-time exposure of the unpacked and irradiated storage screen by green and red room lasers was also investigated. Results: in general, the quality of the processed ACR images was slightly higher than that of the films, mostly due to cases of an insufficient exposure to the film. The storage screen was able to verify electron portals even for low electron energies with only minor photon contamination. The laser lines were sharply and clearly visible on the ACR images. Conclusion: the ACR system may replace the film without any noticeable decrease in image quality thereby reducing processing time and saving the costs of films and avoiding incorrect exposures. (orig.)

Ischaemic memory imaging using metabolic radiopharmaceuticals: overview of clinical settings and ongoing investigations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoshinaga, Keiichiro [Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Imaging, Sapporo (Japan); Naya, Masanao [Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Cardiology, Sapporo (Japan); Shiga, Tohru; Suzuki, Eriko; Tamaki, Nagara [Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Sapporo (Japan)

2014-02-15

''Ischaemic memory'' is defined as a prolonged functional and/or biochemical alteration remaining after a particular episode of severe myocardial ischaemia. The biochemical alteration has been reported as metabolic stunning. Metabolic imaging has been used to detect the footprint left by previous ischaemic episodes evident due to delayed recovery of myocardial metabolism (persistent dominant glucose utilization with suppression of fatty acid oxidation). β-Methyl-p-[{sup 123}I]iodophenylpentadecanoic acid (BMIPP) is a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radiotracer widely used for metabolic imaging in clinical settings in Japan. In patients with suspected coronary artery disease but no previous myocardial infarction, BMIPP has shown acceptable diagnostic accuracy. In particular, BMIPP plays an important role in the identification of prior ischaemic insult in patients arriving at emergency departments with acute chest pain syndrome. Recent data also show the usefulness of {sup 123}I-BMIPP SPECT for predicting cardiovascular events in patients undergoing haemodialysis. Similarly, SPECT or PET imaging with {sup 18}F-FDG injected during peak exercise or after exercise under fasting conditions shows an increase in FDG uptake in postischaemic areas. This article will overview the roles of ischaemic memory imaging both under established indications and in ongoing investigations. (orig.)

Automated Registration Of Images From Multiple Sensors

Science.gov (United States)

Rignot, Eric J. M.; Kwok, Ronald; Curlander, John C.; Pang, Shirley S. N.

1994-01-01

Images of terrain scanned in common by multiple Earth-orbiting remote sensors registered automatically with each other and, where possible, on geographic coordinate grid. Simulated image of terrain viewed by sensor computed from ancillary data, viewing geometry, and mathematical model of physics of imaging. In proposed registration algorithm, simulated and actual sensor images matched by area-correlation technique.

A visibility-based approach using regularization for imaging-spectroscopy in solar X-ray astronomy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prato, M; Massone, A M; Piana, M [CNR - INFM LAMIA, Via Dodecaneso 33 1-16146 Genova (Italy); Emslie, A G [Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078 (United States); Hurford, G J [Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, 8 Gauss Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 (United States); Kontar, E P [Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland (United Kingdom); Schwartz, R A [CUA - Catholic University and LSSP at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, code 671.1 Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)], E-mail: massone@ge.infm.it

2008-11-01

The Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) is a nine-collimators satellite detecting X-rays and {gamma}-rays emitted by the Sun during flares. As the spacecraft rotates, imaging information is encoded as rapid time-variations of the detected flux. We recently proposed a method for the construction of electron flux maps at different electron energies from sets of count visibilities (i.e., direct, calibrated measurements of specific Fourier components of the source spatial structure) measured by RHESSI. The method requires the application of regularized inversion for the synthesis of electron visibility spectra and of imaging techniques for the reconstruction of two-dimensional electron flux maps. The method, already tested on real events registered by RHESSI, is validated in this paper by means of simulated realistic data.

Multi-domain, higher order level set scheme for 3D image segmentation on the GPU

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sharma, Ojaswa; Zhang, Qin; Anton, François

2010-01-01

to evaluate level set surfaces that are $C^2$ continuous, but are slow due to high computational burden. In this paper, we provide a higher order GPU based solver for fast and efficient segmentation of large volumetric images. We also extend the higher order method to multi-domain segmentation. Our streaming...

A Tool for Interactive Data Visualization: Application to Over 10,000 Brain Imaging and Phantom MRI Data Sets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandeep R Panta

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we propose a web-based approach for quick visualization of big data from brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scans using a combination of an automated image capture and processing system, nonlinear embedding, and interactive data visualization tools. We draw upon thousands of MRI scans captured via the COllaborative Imaging and Neuroinformatics Suite (COINS. We then interface the output of several analysis pipelines based on structural and functional data to a t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE algorithm which reduces the number of dimensions for each scan in the input data set to two dimensions while preserving the local structure of data sets. Finally, we interactively display the output of this approach via a web-page, based on data driven documents (D3 JavaScript library. Two distinct approaches were used to visualize the data. In the first approach, we computed multiple quality control (QC values from pre-processed data, which were used as inputs to the t-SNE algorithm. This approach helps in assessing the quality of each data set relative to others. In the second case, computed variables of interest (e.g. brain volume or voxel values from segmented gray matter images were used as inputs to the t-SNE algorithm. This approach helps in identifying interesting patterns in the data sets. We demonstrate these approaches using multiple examples including 1 quality control measures calculated from phantom data over time, 2 quality control data from human functional MRI data across various studies, scanners, sites, 3 volumetric and density measures from human structural MRI data across various studies, scanners and sites. Results from (1 and (2 show the potential of our approach to combine t-SNE data reduction with interactive color coding of variables of interest to quickly identify visually unique clusters of data (i.e. data sets with poor QC, clustering of data by site quickly. Results from (3 demonstrate

Pollutant emission registers-INES and EPER toward PRTR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caricchia, A.M.; Cirillo, M.C.; Gagna, A.

2005-01-01

PRTRs (Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers) are information systems collecting and providing public access to information on pollutant releases in the environment. These registers are based on a scheduled reporting by the manufacturing facilities. Since the establishment of the TRI (Toxic Release lnventory) at the end of the '80s in the USA, international interest grew focussing on the definition of the features of national PRTRs as environmental management systems. The Protocol on PRTRs, the first international legally binding agreement, was signed in 2003 in the frame of the UNECE-Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention, 1999). The European register EPER (European Pollutant Emission Register), established in the Directive 96/61/EC, represents the first step at a European level towards a truly integrated pollutant emissions register, an experience which is going to improve further with the forthcoming introduction of the E-PRTR (European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register). Operating since 2003, EPER collects the information provided by 9377 facilities spread over EU15 countries plus Norway and Hungary. Concerning Italy, in accordance with European EPER, a national pollutant emission register has been established, called INES ('Inventario Nazionale delle Emissioni e loro Sorgenti'). INES can be currently browsed and queried on the following web-page: http://www.sinanet.apat.it [it

Validation of the danish national diabetes register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Green, Anders; Sortsø, Camilla; Jensen, Peter Bjødstrup

2015-01-01

The Danish National Diabetes Register (NDR) was established in 2006 and builds on data from Danish health registers. We validated the content of NDR, using full information from the Danish National Patient Register and data from the literature. Our study indicates that the completeness in NDR...... is ≥95% concerning ascertainment from data sources specific for diabetes, ie, prescriptions with antidiabetic drugs and diagnoses of diabetes in the National Patient Register. Since the NDR algorithm ignores diabetes-related hospital contacts terminated before 1990, the establishment of the date...... of encounter, has been taken as the date of inclusion in NDR. We also find that some 20% of the registrations in NDR may represent false positive inclusions of persons with frequent measurements of blood glucose without having diabetes. We conclude that NDR is a novel initiative to support research...

Automatic Fontanel Extraction from Newborns' CT Images Using Variational Level Set

Science.gov (United States)

Kazemi, Kamran; Ghadimi, Sona; Lyaghat, Alireza; Tarighati, Alla; Golshaeyan, Narjes; Abrishami-Moghaddam, Hamid; Grebe, Reinhard; Gondary-Jouet, Catherine; Wallois, Fabrice

A realistic head model is needed for source localization methods used for the study of epilepsy in neonates applying Electroencephalographic (EEG) measurements from the scalp. The earliest models consider the head as a series of concentric spheres, each layer corresponding to a different tissue whose conductivity is assumed to be homogeneous. The results of the source reconstruction depend highly on the electric conductivities of the tissues forming the head.The most used model is constituted of three layers (scalp, skull, and intracranial). Most of the major bones of the neonates’ skull are ossified at birth but can slightly move relative to each other. This is due to the sutures, fibrous membranes that at this stage of development connect the already ossified flat bones of the neurocranium. These weak parts of the neurocranium are called fontanels. Thus it is important to enter the exact geometry of fontaneles and flat bone in a source reconstruction because they show pronounced in conductivity. Computer Tomography (CT) imaging provides an excellent tool for non-invasive investigation of the skull which expresses itself in high contrast to all other tissues while the fontanels only can be identified as absence of bone, gaps in the skull formed by flat bone. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to extract the fontanels from CT images applying a variational level set method. We applied the proposed method to CT-images of five different subjects. The automatically extracted fontanels show good agreement with the manually extracted ones.

Robust surface registration using N-points approximate congruent sets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yao Jian

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Scans acquired by 3D sensors are typically represented in a local coordinate system. When multiple scans, taken from different locations, represent the same scene these must be registered to a common reference frame. We propose a fast and robust registration approach to automatically align two scans by finding two sets of N-points, that are approximately congruent under rigid transformation and leading to a good estimate of the transformation between their corresponding point clouds. Given two scans, our algorithm randomly searches for the best sets of congruent groups of points using a RANSAC-based approach. To successfully and reliably align two scans when there is only a small overlap, we improve the basic RANSAC random selection step by employing a weight function that approximates the probability of each pair of points in one scan to match one pair in the other. The search time to find pairs of congruent sets of N-points is greatly reduced by employing a fast search codebook based on both binary and multi-dimensional lookup tables. Moreover, we introduce a novel indicator of the overlapping region quality which is used to verify the estimated rigid transformation and to improve the alignment robustness. Our framework is general enough to incorporate and efficiently combine different point descriptors derived from geometric and texture-based feature points or scene geometrical characteristics. We also present a method to improve the matching effectiveness of texture feature descriptors by extracting them from an atlas of rectified images recovered from the scan reflectance image. Our algorithm is robust with respect to different sampling densities and also resilient to noise and outliers. We demonstrate its robustness and efficiency on several challenging scan datasets with varying degree of noise, outliers, extent of overlap, acquired from indoor and outdoor scenarios.

Co-registration of the BNCT treatment planning images for clinical practice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salli, Eero; Seppaelae, Tiina; Kankaanranta, Leena; Asikainen, Sami; Savolainen, Sauli; Koivunoro, Hanna

2006-01-01

We have co-registered MRI, CT and FBPA-PET images for BNCT in clinical practice. Co-registration improves the spatial accuracy of the treatment planning by enabling use of information from all the co-registered modalities. The multimodal co-registration has been implemented as a service product provided by the Imaging Center of Helsinki University Central Hospital to other departments. To increase the accuracy of co-registration and patient positioning in the head area BNCT, a patient-specific fixation mask suitable for PET, MRI and CT was developed. The goal of the fixation mask is to normalize the orientation of the patient's head and neck. Co-registration is performed at the image processing unit by using a rigid body model, mutual-information based algorithms and partly in-house developed software tools. The accuracy of co-registration is verified by comparing the locations of the external skin markers and anatomical landmarks in different modalities. After co-registration, the images are transformed and covered into a format required by the BNCT dose-planning software and set to the dose-planning unit of the hospital. So far co-registration has been done for 22 patients. The co-registration protocol has proved to be reliable and efficient. Some registration errors are seen on some patients in the neck area because the rigid-body model used in co-registration is not fully valid for the brain-neck entity. The registration accuracy in this area could likely be improved by implementing a co-registration procedure utilizing a partly non-rigid body model. (author)

The Danish Medical Birth Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bliddal, Mette; Broe, Anne; Pottegård, Anton

2018-01-01

The Danish Medical Birth Register was established in 1973. It is a key component of the Danish health information system. The register enables monitoring of the health of pregnant women and their offspring, it provides data for quality assessment of the perinatal care in Denmark, and it is used...... on all births in Denmark and comprises primarily of data from the Danish National Patient Registry supplemented with forms on home deliveries and stillbirths. It contains information on maternal age provided by the Civil Registration System. Information on pre-pregnancy body mass index and smoking...

Ultrasound and PET-CT image fusion for prostate brachytherapy image guidance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasford, F.

2015-01-01

Fusion of medical images between different cross-sectional modalities is widely used, mostly where functional images are fused with anatomical data. Ultrasound has for some time now been the standard imaging technique used for treatment planning of prostate cancer cases. While this approach is laudable and has yielded some positive results, latest developments have been the integration of images from ultrasound and other modalities such as PET-CT to compliment missing properties of ultrasound images. This study has sought to enhance diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancers by developing MATLAB algorithms to fuse ultrasound and PET-CT images. The fused ultrasound-PET-CT image has shown to contain improved quality of information than the individual input images. The fused image has the property of reduced uncertainty, increased reliability, robust system performance, and compact representation of information. The objective of co-registering the ultrasound and PET-CT images was achieved by conducting performance evaluation of the ultrasound and PET-CT imaging systems, developing image contrast enhancement algorithm, developing MATLAB image fusion algorithm, and assessing accuracy of the fusion algorithm. Performance evaluation of the ultrasound brachytherapy system produced satisfactory results in accordance with set tolerances as recommended by AAPM TG 128. Using an ultrasound brachytherapy quality assurance phantom, average axial distance measurement of 10.11 ± 0.11 mm was estimated. Average lateral distance measurements of 10.08 ± 0.07 mm, 20.01 ± 0.06 mm, 29.89 ± 0.03 mm and 39.84 ± 0.37 mm were estimated for the inter-target distances corresponding to 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm respectively. Volume accuracy assessment produced measurements of 3.97 cm 3 , 8.86 cm 3 and 20.11 cm 3 for known standard volumes of 4 cm 3 , 9 cm 3 and 20 cm 3 respectively. Depth of penetration assessment of the ultrasound system produced an estimate of 5.37 ± 0.02 cm

Image-guided macular laser therapy: design considerations and progress toward implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, Jeffrey W.; Shin, David S.

1999-06-01

Laser therapy is currently the only treatment of proven benefit for exudative age related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. To guide treatment for macular diseases, investigations were initiated to permit overlay of previously-stored angiographic images and image sequences superimposed onto the real-time biomicroscopic fundus image. Prior to treatment, a set of partially overlapping fundus images is acquired and montaged in order to provide a map for subsequent tracking operations. A binocular slit-lamp biomicroscope interfaced to a CCD camera, framegrabber board, and PC permits acquisition and rendering of retinal images. Computer-vision algorithms facilitate robust tracking, registration, and near-video-rate image overlay of previously-stored retinal photographic and angiographic images onto the real-time fundus image. Laser treatment is guided in this augmented reality environment where the borders of the treatment target--for example, the boundaries of a choroidal neovascularization complex--are easily identified through overlay of angiographic information superimposed on, and registered with, the real-time fundus image. During periods of misregistration as judged by the amplitude of the tracking similarity metric, laser function is disabled, affording additional safety. Image-guided macular laser therapy should facilitate accurate targeting of treatable lesions and less unintentional retinal injury when compared with standard techniques.

Hierarchical and successive approximate registration of the non-rigid medical image based on thin-plate splines

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Jinyan; Li, Li; Yang, Yunfeng

2017-06-01

The hierarchical and successive approximate registration method of non-rigid medical image based on the thin-plate splines is proposed in the paper. There are two major novelties in the proposed method. First, the hierarchical registration based on Wavelet transform is used. The approximate image of Wavelet transform is selected as the registered object. Second, the successive approximation registration method is used to accomplish the non-rigid medical images registration, i.e. the local regions of the couple images are registered roughly based on the thin-plate splines, then, the current rough registration result is selected as the object to be registered in the following registration procedure. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective in the registration process of the non-rigid medical images.

Validity of dementia diagnoses in the danish hospital registers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Phung, T.K.T.; Andersen, B.B.; Phung, T.K.T.

2007-01-01

.24-0.48). Conclusion: The validity of dementia syndrome in the Danish hospital registers was high and allows for epidemiological studies about dementia. Alzheimer's disease, although underregistered, also had a good validity once the diagnosis was registered. In general, other ICD-10 dementia subtypes in the registers......Background:The validity of dementia diagnoses in the Danish nationwide hospital registers was evaluated to determine the value of these registers in epidemiological research about dementia. Methods: Two hundred patients were randomly selected from 4,682 patients registered for the first time...... with a dementia diagnosis in the last 6 months of 2003. The patients' medical journals were reviewed to evaluate if they fulfilled ICD-10 and/or DSM-IV criteria for dementia and specific dementia subtypes. The patients who were still alive in 2006 were invited to an interview. Results: One hundred and ninety...

Federal Register in XML

Data.gov (United States)

National Archives and Records Administration — The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and...

7 CFR 3015.204 - Federal Register publications.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Federal Register publications. 3015.204 Section 3015.204 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) OFFICE OF THE CHIEF FINANCIAL... Register publications. (a) Program regulations. Most grant programs have program-specific regulations...

Co-Registered In Situ Secondary Electron and Mass Spectral Imaging on the Helium Ion Microscope Demonstrated Using Lithium Titanate and Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles.

Science.gov (United States)

Dowsett, D; Wirtz, T

2017-09-05

The development of a high resolution elemental imaging platform combining coregistered secondary ion mass spectrometry and high resolution secondary electron imaging is reported. The basic instrument setup and operation are discussed and in situ image correlation is demonstrated on a lithium titanate and magnesium oxide nanoparticle mixture. The instrument uses both helium and neon ion beams generated by a gas field ion source to irradiate the sample. Both secondary electrons and secondary ions may be detected. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is performed using an in-house developed double focusing magnetic sector spectrometer with parallel detection. Spatial resolutions of 10 nm have been obtained in SIMS mode. Both the secondary electron and SIMS image data are very surface sensitive and have approximately the same information depth. While the spatial resolutions are approximately a factor of 10 different, switching between the different images modes may be done in situ and extremely rapidly, allowing for simple imaging of the same region of interest and excellent coregistration of data sets. The ability to correlate mass spectral images on the 10 nm scale with secondary electron images on the nanometer scale in situ has the potential to provide a step change in our understanding of nanoscale phenomena in fields from materials science to life science.

Enlarge the training set based on inter-class relationship for face recognition from one image per person.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qin Li

Full Text Available In some large-scale face recognition task, such as driver license identification and law enforcement, the training set only contains one image per person. This situation is referred to as one sample problem. Because many face recognition techniques implicitly assume that several (at least two images per person are available for training, they cannot deal with the one sample problem. This paper investigates principal component analysis (PCA, Fisher linear discriminant analysis (LDA, and locality preserving projections (LPP and shows why they cannot perform well in one sample problem. After that, this paper presents four reasons that make one sample problem itself difficult: the small sample size problem; the lack of representative samples; the underestimated intra-class variation; and the overestimated inter-class variation. Based on the analysis, this paper proposes to enlarge the training set based on the inter-class relationship. This paper also extends LDA and LPP to extract features from the enlarged training set. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The Danish multiple sclerosis treatment register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Magyari, Melinda; Koch-Henriksen, Nils; Sørensen, Per Soelberg

2016-01-01

Aim of the database: The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Register (DMSTR) serves as a clinical quality register, enabling the health authorities to monitor the quality of the diseasemodifying treatment, and it is an important data source for epidemiological research. Study population: The DMSTR...... includes all patients with multiple sclerosis who had been treated with disease-modifying drugs since 1996. At present, more than 8,400 patients have been registered in this database. Data are continuously entered online into a central database from all sites in Denmark at start and at regular visits. Main...... variables: Include age, sex, onset year and year of the diagnosis, basic clinical information, and information about treatment, side effects, and relapses. Descriptive data: Notification is done at treatment start, and thereafter at every scheduled clinical visit 3 months after treatment start...

Canny edge-based deformable image registration.

Science.gov (United States)

Kearney, Vasant; Huang, Yihui; Mao, Weihua; Yuan, Baohong; Tang, Liping

2017-02-07

This work focuses on developing a 2D Canny edge-based deformable image registration (Canny DIR) algorithm to register in vivo white light images taken at various time points. This method uses a sparse interpolation deformation algorithm to sparsely register regions of the image with strong edge information. A stability criterion is enforced which removes regions of edges that do not deform in a smooth uniform manner. Using a synthetic mouse surface ground truth model, the accuracy of the Canny DIR algorithm was evaluated under axial rotation in the presence of deformation. The accuracy was also tested using fluorescent dye injections, which were then used for gamma analysis to establish a second ground truth. The results indicate that the Canny DIR algorithm performs better than rigid registration, intensity corrected Demons, and distinctive features for all evaluation matrices and ground truth scenarios. In conclusion Canny DIR performs well in the presence of the unique lighting and shading variations associated with white-light-based image registration.

30 CFR 45.4 - Independent contractor register.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Independent contractor register. 45.4 Section... ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS § 45.4 Independent contractor register. (a) Each independent contractor shall provide the production-operator in writing the following information: (1) The independent...

Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper

Science.gov (United States)

DeLuccia, Frank J.; Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian C.; Graybill, Justin; Haas, Evan; Johnson, Patrick D.; Isaacson, Peter J.; Reth, Alan D.

2016-01-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. For ABI, these metrics are the 3-sigma errors in navigation (NAV), channel-to-channel registration (CCR), frame-to-frame registration (FFR), swath-to-swath registration (SSR), and within frame registration (WIFR) for the Level 1B image products. For GLM, the single metric of interest is the 3-sigma error in the navigation of background images (GLM NAV) used by the system to navigate lightning strikes. 3-sigma errors are estimates of the 99.73rd percentile of the errors accumulated over a 24 hour data collection period. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24 hour evaluation period. Another aspect of the IPATS design that vastly reduces execution time is the off-line propagation of Landsat based truth images to the fixed grid coordinates system for each of the three GOES-R satellite locations, operational East and West and initial checkout locations. This paper describes the algorithmic design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

Prostate cancer treated with image-guided helical TomoTherapy {sup registered} and image-guided LINAC-IMRT. Correlation between high-dose bladder volume, margin reduction, and genitourinary toxicity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Drozdz, Sonia; Wendt, Thomas G. [University Hospital Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Radiation Oncology, Jena (Germany); Schwedas, Michael; Salz, Henning [University Hospital Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Radiation Oncology, Section of Medical Physics, Jena (Germany); Foller, Susan [University Hospital Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Department of Urology, Jena (Germany)

2016-04-15

We compared different image-guidance (IG) strategies for prostate cancer with high-precision IG intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) using TomoTherapy {sup registered} (Accuray Inc., Madison, WI, USA) and linear accelerator (LINAC)-IMRT and their impact on planning target volume (PTV) margin reduction. Follow-up data showed reduced bladder toxicity in TomoTherapy patients compared to LINAC-IMRT. The purpose of this study was to quantify whether the treatment delivery technique and decreased margins affect reductions in bladder toxicity. Setup corrections from 30 patients treated with helical TomoTherapy and 30 treated with a LINAC were analyzed. These data were used to simulate three IG protocols based on setup error correction and a limited number of imaging sessions. For all patients, gastrointestinal (GI) and genitourinary (GU) toxicity was documented and correlated with the treatment delivery technique. For fiducial marker (FM)-based RT, a margin reduction of up to 3.1, 3.0, and 4.8 mm in the left-right (LR), superior-inferior (SI), and anterior-posterior (AP) directions, respectively, could be achieved with calculation of a setup correction from the first three fractions and IG every second day. Although the bladder volume was treated with mean doses of 35 Gy in the TomoTherapy group vs. 22 Gy in the LINAC group, we observed less GU toxicity after TomoTherapy. Intraprostate FMs allow for small safety margins, help decrease imaging frequency after setup correction, and minimize the dose to bladder and rectum, resulting in lower GU toxicity. In addition, IMRT delivered with TomoTherapy helps to avoid hotspots in the bladder neck, a critical anatomic structure associated with post-RT urinary toxicity. (orig.) [German] Wir haben im Rahmen der Prostatakarzinombehandlung verschiedene bildgefuehrte (IG) Strategien der hochpraezisen intensitaetsmodulierten Radiotherapie (IMRT) unter Einsatz der Tomotherapie (TomoTherapy {sup registered}, Accuray Inc., Madison

Evaluation of different set-up error corrections on dose-volume metrics in prostate IMRT using CBCT images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirose, Yoshinori; Tomita, Tsuneyuki; Kitsuda, Kenji; Notogawa, Takuya; Miki, Katsuhito; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro; Nakamura, Kiyonao; Ishigaki, Takashi

2014-01-01

We investigated the effect of different set-up error corrections on dose-volume metrics in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer under different planning target volume (PTV) margin settings using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. A total of 30 consecutive patients who underwent IMRT for prostate cancer were retrospectively analysed, and 7-14 CBCT datasets were acquired per patient. Interfractional variations in dose-volume metrics were evaluated under six different set-up error corrections, including tattoo, bony anatomy, and four different target matching groups. Set-up errors were incorporated into planning the isocenter position, and dose distributions were recalculated on CBCT images. These processes were repeated under two different PTV margin settings. In the on-line bony anatomy matching groups, systematic error (Σ) was 0.3 mm, 1.4 mm, and 0.3 mm in the left-right, anterior-posterior (AP), and superior-inferior directions, respectively. Σ in three successive off-line target matchings was finally comparable with that in the on-line bony anatomy matching in the AP direction. Although doses to the rectum and bladder wall were reduced for a small PTV margin, averaged reductions in the volume receiving 100% of the prescription dose from planning were within 2.5% under all PTV margin settings for all correction groups, with the exception of the tattoo set-up error correction only (≥ 5.0%). Analysis of variance showed no significant difference between on-line bony anatomy matching and target matching. While variations between the planned and delivered doses were smallest when target matching was applied, the use of bony anatomy matching still ensured the planned doses. (author)

MR-CBCT image-guided system for radiotherapy of orthotopic rat prostate tumors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsuicheng D Chiu

Full Text Available Multi-modality image-guided radiotherapy is the standard of care in contemporary cancer management; however, it is not common in preclinical settings due to both hardware and software limitations. Soft tissue lesions, such as orthotopic prostate tumors, are difficult to identify using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT imaging alone. In this study, we characterized a research magnetic resonance (MR scanner for preclinical studies and created a protocol for combined MR-CBCT image-guided small animal radiotherapy. Two in-house dual-modality, MR and CBCT compatible, phantoms were designed and manufactured using 3D printing technology. The phantoms were used for quality assurance tests and to facilitate end-to-end testing for combined preclinical MR and CBCT based treatment planning. MR and CBCT images of the phantoms were acquired utilizing a Varian 4.7 T scanner and XRad-225Cx irradiator, respectively. The geometry distortion was assessed by comparing MR images to phantom blueprints and CBCT. The corrected MR scans were co-registered with CBCT and subsequently used for treatment planning. The fidelity of 3D printed phantoms compared to the blueprint design yielded favorable agreement as verified with the CBCT measurements. The geometric distortion, which varied between -5% and 11% throughout the scanning volume, was substantially reduced to within 0.4% after correction. The distortion free MR images were co-registered with the corresponding CBCT images and imported into a commercial treatment planning software SmART Plan. The planning target volume (PTV was on average 19% smaller when contoured on the corrected MR-CBCT images relative to raw images without distortion correction. An MR-CBCT based preclinical workflow was successfully designed and implemented for small animal radiotherapy. Combined MR-CBCT image-guided radiotherapy for preclinical research potentially delivers enhanced relevance to human radiotherapy for various disease sites. This

MR-CBCT image-guided system for radiotherapy of orthotopic rat prostate tumors.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Tsuicheng D; Arai, Tatsuya J; Campbell Iii, James; Jiang, Steve B; Mason, Ralph P; Stojadinovic, Strahinja

2018-01-01

Multi-modality image-guided radiotherapy is the standard of care in contemporary cancer management; however, it is not common in preclinical settings due to both hardware and software limitations. Soft tissue lesions, such as orthotopic prostate tumors, are difficult to identify using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging alone. In this study, we characterized a research magnetic resonance (MR) scanner for preclinical studies and created a protocol for combined MR-CBCT image-guided small animal radiotherapy. Two in-house dual-modality, MR and CBCT compatible, phantoms were designed and manufactured using 3D printing technology. The phantoms were used for quality assurance tests and to facilitate end-to-end testing for combined preclinical MR and CBCT based treatment planning. MR and CBCT images of the phantoms were acquired utilizing a Varian 4.7 T scanner and XRad-225Cx irradiator, respectively. The geometry distortion was assessed by comparing MR images to phantom blueprints and CBCT. The corrected MR scans were co-registered with CBCT and subsequently used for treatment planning. The fidelity of 3D printed phantoms compared to the blueprint design yielded favorable agreement as verified with the CBCT measurements. The geometric distortion, which varied between -5% and 11% throughout the scanning volume, was substantially reduced to within 0.4% after correction. The distortion free MR images were co-registered with the corresponding CBCT images and imported into a commercial treatment planning software SmART Plan. The planning target volume (PTV) was on average 19% smaller when contoured on the corrected MR-CBCT images relative to raw images without distortion correction. An MR-CBCT based preclinical workflow was successfully designed and implemented for small animal radiotherapy. Combined MR-CBCT image-guided radiotherapy for preclinical research potentially delivers enhanced relevance to human radiotherapy for various disease sites. This novel protocol

12 CFR 528.6 - Loan application register.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Loan application register. 528.6 Section 528.6 Banks and Banking OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY NONDISCRIMINATION... Mortgage Disclosure Act Loan Application Registers with the Office of Thrift Supervision in accordance with...

Estimating the Dieaway Time and its Precision from Shift Register Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Croft, S.; Evans, L. G.; Henzlova, D.; Miller, K. A. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Nuclear Nonproliferation Division, Safeguards Science and Technology Group, Los Alamos (United States)

2012-06-15

Neutron coincidence counting is widely used throughout the nuclear fuel cycle to quantify special nuclear materials that fission, for example Pu. Before calibration and setting to work, instruments undergo a range of performance and characterization tests that typically include measurement of the neutron dieaway characteristic. The neutron dieaway characteristic is a general measure of the likelihood that a neutron will be detected following another neutron, and describes time behavior of detected neutrons in the assay system. This paper shows how the effective 1/ecapture dieaway time of the observable coincidence (doubles) rate may be extracted simply and quickly from two coincidence counting rates recorded with different shift register time gate settings. In particular we address how to assign the precision to such estimates including when the rates are correlated.

Agreements registered with the International Atomic Energy Agency. 11 ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The eleventh edition of Legal Series No. 3 contains agreements registered up to 31 December 1993. The book is divided into three parts. Part I consists of a chronological list, by date of entry into force, of all agreements registered with the Agency. Part II of the booked is devoted to six major multilateral agreements for which the Agency is depository. All these agreements are listed in Part I in the appropriate chronological order, but information relating to signatories and parties appears in Part II. Since this listing reflects the current, not historical, situations, it does not reflect countries which are no longer parties. Part III is the Country Annex, with an additional section including international organizations and other parties with whom the Agency has agreements. It gives a tabular, alphabetical presentation of information set out in Parts I and II, which may serve as an index to specific agreements and an overview of the types of agreements to which particular countries are party. For historical purposes, Part III reflects all countries, even those no longer existing, which were or are party to a specific agreement

Assessment of Human Pharmaceutical Products Registered in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... in order to determine the most common routes of administration and type of dosage forms that are used. Registered pharmaceutical products were categorized by route of administration and then sub-categorized by the dosage form. Oral dosage forms were the most common accounting for 73% of all registered products.

NUHOMS registered - MP197 transport cask

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shih, P.; Sicard, D.; Michels, L.

2004-01-01

The NUHOMS registered -MP197 cask is an optimized transport design which can be loaded in the spent fuel pool (wet loading) or loaded the canister from the NUHOMS concrete modules at the ISFSI site. With impact limiters attached, the package can be transported within the states or world-wide. The NUHOMS registered -MP197 packaging can be used to transport either BWR or PWR canisters. The NUHOMS registered -MP197 cask is designed to the ASME B and PV Code and meets the requirements of Section III, Division 3 for Transport Packaging. The cask with impact limiters has undergone drop testing to verify the calculated g loadings during the 9m drops. The test showed good correlation with analytical results and demonstrate that the impact limiters stay in place and protect the package and fuel during the hypothetical accidents

31 CFR 537.323 - U.S. registered money transmitter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false U.S. registered money transmitter. 537.323 Section 537.323 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance... General Definitions § 537.323 U.S. registered money transmitter. The term U.S. registered money...

31 CFR 538.319 - U.S. registered money transmitter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false U.S. registered money transmitter. 538.319 Section 538.319 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance... General Definitions § 538.319 U.S. registered money transmitter. The term U.S. registered money...

Wavelet-Based Visible and Infrared Image Fusion: A Comparative Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angel D. Sappa

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper evaluates different wavelet-based cross-spectral image fusion strategies adopted to merge visible and infrared images. The objective is to find the best setup independently of the evaluation metric used to measure the performance. Quantitative performance results are obtained with state of the art approaches together with adaptations proposed in the current work. The options evaluated in the current work result from the combination of different setups in the wavelet image decomposition stage together with different fusion strategies for the final merging stage that generates the resulting representation. Most of the approaches evaluate results according to the application for which they are intended for. Sometimes a human observer is selected to judge the quality of the obtained results. In the current work, quantitative values are considered in order to find correlations between setups and performance of obtained results; these correlations can be used to define a criteria for selecting the best fusion strategy for a given pair of cross-spectral images. The whole procedure is evaluated with a large set of correctly registered visible and infrared image pairs, including both Near InfraRed (NIR and Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR.

Experimental investigation on the influence of instrument settings on pixel size and nonlinearity in SEM image formation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carli, Lorenzo; Genta, Gianfranco; Cantatore, Angela

2010-01-01

The work deals with an experimental investigation on the influence of three Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) instrument settings, accelerating voltage, spot size and magnification, on the image formation process. Pixel size and nonlinearity were chosen as output parameters related to image...... quality and resolution. A silicon grating calibrated artifact was employed to investigate qualitatively and quantitatively, through a designed experiment approach, the parameters relevance. SEM magnification was found to account by far for the largest contribution on both parameters under consideration...

Socio-Economic Characteristics of Registered Cocoa Farmers in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PROF HORSFALL

ABSTRACT: This study examined the socio-economic characteristics of registered cocoa farmers in Edo State; ... Key words: socio-economics, characteristics, registered cocoa farmers. ... international exchange market in two world currencies ...

Fusion set selection with surrogate metric in multi-atlas based image segmentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Tingting; Ruan, Dan

2016-01-01

Multi-atlas based image segmentation sees unprecedented opportunities but also demanding challenges in the big data era. Relevant atlas selection before label fusion plays a crucial role in reducing potential performance loss from heterogeneous data quality and high computation cost from extensive data. This paper starts with investigating the image similarity metric (termed ‘surrogate’), an alternative to the inaccessible geometric agreement metric (termed ‘oracle’) in atlas relevance assessment, and probes into the problem of how to select the ‘most-relevant’ atlases and how many such atlases to incorporate. We propose an inference model to relate the surrogates and the oracle geometric agreement metrics. Based on this model, we quantify the behavior of the surrogates in mimicking oracle metrics for atlas relevance ordering. Finally, analytical insights on the choice of fusion set size are presented from a probabilistic perspective, with the integrated goal of including the most relevant atlases and excluding the irrelevant ones. Empirical evidence and performance assessment are provided based on prostate and corpus callosum segmentation. (paper)

In vitro examination of the visibility of 11 stent catheters with real-time MR imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zorger, N.; Paetzel, C.; Hamer, O.W.; Lenhart, M.; Voelk, M.; Herold, T.; Feuerbach, S.

2004-01-01

Purpose: To evaluated artifacts of unexpended stents and to determine their exact position for MR-guided percutaneous transluminal angioplasty using real-time sequences. Materials and Methods: By using an in vitro model, 11 unexpended stents - 9 nitinol, 1 stainless steel, and 1 cobalt alloy - were investigated by MR. Each stent was studied in a vessel-phantom filled with saline solution. Imaging was performed using five different realtime sequences: fast low angle shot (Flash 2D), fast imaging with steady precession (true FISP, FISP, interactive true FISP) and segmented echo planar imaging (seg. EPI). Artifacts of the introducer system and the stent were calculated by four blinded radiologists (scale: 1 - artifacts, making an excellent contribution to visualization; 2 - artifacts, making mainly a contribution to visualization; 3 - artifacts, making no contribution to visualization). Furthermore, an evaluation of the visibility of the tip of the stent-catheter and the proximal and distal end of the stent was performed using a four-point scale (very good visibility to invisible). Results: The artifacts of the introducer system and stent were rated best for Omnilink registered (1.3±0.47), Wallstent registered (1.6±0.5), Jostent registered (1.65±0.5) and Luminexx registered (1.65±0.5). The differences between Omnilink registered and Jostent registered as well as Omnilink registered and Luminexx circledR were significant. A very good to good visibility of the catheter tip was observed with a mean of 1.7±0.66 for Omnilink registered followed by the Jostent registered (1.95±0.69), by the Wallstent registered (2.1±0.72) and by Luminexx registered (2.5±1.14). Differences between Omnilink registered and Luminexx registered were significant. The visibility of the proximal and distal end of the stent was evaluated as very good to good in 4 stent catheters (Omnilink registered , Wallstent registered , Jostent registered , Luminexx registered ). However, the differences

Assessment of rigid multi-modality image registration consistency using the multiple sub-volume registration (MSR) method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ceylan, C; Heide, U A van der; Bol, G H; Lagendijk, J J W; Kotte, A N T J

2005-01-01

Registration of different imaging modalities such as CT, MRI, functional MRI (fMRI), positron (PET) and single photon (SPECT) emission tomography is used in many clinical applications. Determining the quality of any automatic registration procedure has been a challenging part because no gold standard is available to evaluate the registration. In this note we present a method, called the 'multiple sub-volume registration' (MSR) method, for assessing the consistency of a rigid registration. This is done by registering sub-images of one data set on the other data set, performing a crude non-rigid registration. By analysing the deviations (local deformations) of the sub-volume registrations from the full registration we get a measure of the consistency of the rigid registration. Registration of 15 data sets which include CT, MR and PET images for brain, head and neck, cervix, prostate and lung was performed utilizing a rigid body registration with normalized mutual information as the similarity measure. The resulting registrations were classified as good or bad by visual inspection. The resulting registrations were also classified using our MSR method. The results of our MSR method agree with the classification obtained from visual inspection for all cases (p < 0.02 based on ANOVA of the good and bad groups). The proposed method is independent of the registration algorithm and similarity measure. It can be used for multi-modality image data sets and different anatomic sites of the patient. (note)

7 CFR 57.690 - Person required to register.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... business will be required to register before they start operations. [69 FR 571688, Sept. 24, 2004... hatcheries, are required to register with the Department by furnishing their name, place of business, and...

78 FR 28770 - Scope of the Register of Copyright's Exclusive Authority Over Statements of Account Under the...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-16

...'s statements of account shall set forth each step of its calculations with sufficient information to... available by persons making digital phonorecord deliveries.'' Register's Division of Authority Decision... type of information in a notice of use (but not in the statement of account) to be served on the...

SU-E-J-129: A Strategy to Consolidate the Image Database of a VERO Unit Into a Radiotherapy Management System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan, Y; Medin, P; Yordy, J; Zhao, B; Jiang, S

2014-01-01

Purpose: To present a strategy to integrate the imaging database of a VERO unit with a treatment management system (TMS) to improve clinical workflow and consolidate image data to facilitate clinical quality control and documentation. Methods: A VERO unit is equipped with both kV and MV imaging capabilities for IGRT treatments. It has its own imaging database behind a firewall. It has been a challenge to transfer images on this unit to a TMS in a radiation therapy clinic so that registered images can be reviewed remotely with an approval or rejection record. In this study, a software system, iPump-VERO, was developed to connect VERO and a TMS in our clinic. The patient database folder on the VERO unit was mapped to a read-only folder on a file server outside VERO firewall. The application runs on a regular computer with the read access to the patient database folder. It finds the latest registered images and fuses them in one of six predefined patterns before sends them via DICOM connection to the TMS. The residual image registration errors will be overlaid on the fused image to facilitate image review. Results: The fused images of either registered kV planar images or CBCT images are fully DICOM compatible. A sentinel module is built to sense new registered images with negligible computing resources from the VERO ExacTrac imaging computer. It takes a few seconds to fuse registered images and send them to the TMS. The whole process is automated without any human intervention. Conclusion: Transferring images in DICOM connection is the easiest way to consolidate images of various sources in your TMS. Technically the attending does not have to go to the VERO treatment console to review image registration prior delivery. It is a useful tool for a busy clinic with a VERO unit

Registration of dynamic dopamine D{sub 2}receptor images using principal component analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Acton, P.D.; Ell, P.J. [Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University College London Medical School, London (United Kingdom); Pilowsky, L.S.; Brammer, M.J. [Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London (United Kingdom); Suckling, J. [Clinical Age Research Unit, Kings College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London (United Kingdom)

1997-11-01

This paper describes a novel technique for registering a dynamic sequence of single-photon emission tomography (SPET) dopamine D{sub 2}receptor images, using principal component analysis (PCA). Conventional methods for registering images, such as count difference and correlation coefficient algorithms, fail to take into account the dynamic nature of the data, resulting in large systematic errors when registering time-varying images. However, by using principal component analysis to extract the temporal structure of the image sequence, misregistration can be quantified by examining the distribution of eigenvalues. The registration procedures were tested using a computer-generated dynamic phantom derived from a high-resolution magnetic resonance image of a realistic brain phantom. Each method was also applied to clinical SPET images of dopamine D {sub 2}receptors, using the ligands iodine-123 iodobenzamide and iodine-123 epidepride, to investigate the influence of misregistration on kinetic modelling parameters and the binding potential. The PCA technique gave highly significant (P <0.001) improvements in image registration, leading to alignment errors in x and y of about 25% of the alternative methods, with reductions in autocorrelations over time. It could also be applied to align image sequences which the other methods failed completely to register, particularly {sup 123}I-epidepride scans. The PCA method produced data of much greater quality for subsequent kinetic modelling, with an improvement of nearly 50% in the {chi}{sup 2}of the fit to the compartmental model, and provided superior quality registration of particularly difficult dynamic sequences. (orig.) With 4 figs., 2 tabs., 26 refs.

ESTERR-PRO: A Setup Verification Software System Using Electronic Portal Imaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pantelis A. Asvestas

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to present and evaluate the performance of a new software-based registration system for patient setup verification, during radiotherapy, using electronic portal images. The estimation of setup errors, using the proposed system, can be accomplished by means of two alternate registration methods. (a The portal image of the current fraction of the treatment is registered directly with the reference image (digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR or simulator image using a modified manual technique. (b The portal image of the current fraction of the treatment is registered with the portal image of the first fraction of the treatment (reference portal image by applying a nearly automated technique based on self-organizing maps, whereas the reference portal has already been registered with a DRR or a simulator image. The proposed system was tested on phantom data and on data from six patients. The root mean square error (RMSE of the setup estimates was 0.8±0.3 (mean value ± standard deviation for the phantom data and 0.3±0.3 for the patient data, respectively, by applying the two methodologies. Furthermore, statistical analysis by means of the Wilcoxon nonparametric signed test showed that the results that were obtained by the two methods did not differ significantly (P value >0.05.

Factors affecting effective communication between registered nurses and adult cancer patients in an inpatient setting: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Tay, Li Hui; Hegney, Desley; Ang, Emily

2011-06-01

To establish the best available evidence regarding the factors affecting effective communication between registered nurses and inpatient cancer adults. Electronic databases (CINAHL, Ovid, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus and Wiley InterScience) were searched using a three-step search strategy to identify the relevant quantitative and qualitative studies published in English. The grey literature was not included in the review. The identified studies were evaluated using the guidelines from the Joanna Briggs Institute System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information. A total of three studies were included in the quantitative component of the review, and the data were presented in a narrative summary. Five studies were included in the qualitative component of the review, and the findings were categorised in a meta-synthesis which generated four synthesised findings. The factors that were found to influence effective communication were identified in the characteristics of nurses, patients and the environment. The promoting factors in nurses included genuineness, competency and effective communication skills. The role of post-basic training in improving nurse-patient communication remained inconclusive. Conversely, nurses who were task-orientated, who feared death and who had low self-awareness of their own verbal behaviours inhibited communication. Nurses were also observed to communicate less effectively when delivering psychosocial aspects of care and in emotionally charged situations. On the other hand, patients who participated actively in their own care and exhibited information-seeking behaviour promoted communication with the nurses. However, patients' unwillingness to discuss their disease/feelings, their preference to seek emotional support from their family/friends and their use of implicit cues were some of the factors that were found to inhibit communication. A supportive ward environment increased facilitative behaviour in nurses

Accuracy of deformable image registration on magnetic resonance images in digital and physical phantoms.

Science.gov (United States)

Ger, Rachel B; Yang, Jinzhong; Ding, Yao; Jacobsen, Megan C; Fuller, Clifton D; Howell, Rebecca M; Li, Heng; Jason Stafford, R; Zhou, Shouhao; Court, Laurence E

2017-10-01

Accurate deformable image registration is necessary for longitudinal studies. The error associated with commercial systems has been evaluated using computed tomography (CT). Several in-house algorithms have been evaluated for use with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but there is still relatively little information about MRI deformable image registration. This work presents an evaluation of two deformable image registration systems, one commercial (Velocity) and one in-house (demons-based algorithm), with MRI using two different metrics to quantify the registration error. The registration error was analyzed with synthetic MR images. These images were generated from interpatient and intrapatient variation models trained on 28 patients. Four synthetic post-treatment images were generated for each of four synthetic pretreatment images, resulting in 16 image registrations for both the T1- and T2-weighted images. The synthetic post-treatment images were registered to their corresponding synthetic pretreatment image. The registration error was calculated between the known deformation vector field and the generated deformation vector field from the image registration system. The registration error was also analyzed using a porcine phantom with ten implanted 0.35-mm diameter gold markers. The markers were visible on CT but not MRI. CT, T1-weighted MR, and T2-weighted MR images were taken in four different positions. The markers were contoured on the CT images and rigidly registered to their corresponding MR images. The MR images were deformably registered and the distance between the projected marker location and true marker location was measured as the registration error. The synthetic images were evaluated only on Velocity. Root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 0.76 mm in the left-right (LR) direction, 0.76 mm in the anteroposterior (AP) direction, and 0.69 mm in the superior-inferior (SI) direction were observed for the T1-weighted MR images. RMSEs of 1.1 mm in the LR

Registered nurses' perception of self-efficacy and competence in smoking cessation after participating in a web-based learning activity.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosvall, Annica; Carlson, Elisabeth

2017-12-01

To describe how registered nurses having undergone a web-based learning activity perceive their self-efficacy and competence to support patients with smoking cessation in connection with surgery. Smoking cessation in connection with surgery reduces postoperative complications, and the support patients get from registered nurses may be important in helping them become smoke-free in connection with their surgery. Therefore, registered nurses are in need of enhanced understanding about which kind of counselling is the most effective for smoking cessation. Educating large groups of registered nurses in a digital environment appears to be a flexible and cost-effective way. A convergent mixed-method design with data collection was done using questionnaires (n = 47) and semistructured interviews (n = 11). Inclusion criteria were registered nurses in surgical wards. The samples were nonprobability and modified nested. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used for data analysis. After completing the web-based learning activity, the registered nurses perception was that of good self-efficacy and increased competence in supporting patients with smoking cessation in connection with surgery. They improved their understanding of how to talk about smoking cessation with patients in dialogue using open-ended questions. Nevertheless, the registered nurses requested opportunities for dialogue and interaction with colleagues or topic experts. The results indicate that registered nurses can enhance their competence in supporting patients to embrace smoking cessation by learning in a digital environment. Self-efficacy and understanding of the topic seems to motivate registered nurses to counsel patients about smoking cessation. Findings from this study will be of particular interest to educators in healthcare settings who can devise further development of web-based learning activities. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

National Register of Historic Places - National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) NPS National Register Dataset

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Geographic Data Committee — A current, accurate spatial representation of all historic properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places is of interest to Federal agencies, the...

3D Cones Acquisition of Human Extremity Imaging Using a 1.5T Superconducting Magnet and an Unshielded Gradient Coil Set.

Science.gov (United States)

Setoi, Ayana; Kose, Katsumi

2018-05-16

We developed ultrashort echo-time (UTE) imaging sequences with 3D Cones trajectories for a home-built compact MRI system using a 1.5T superconducting magnet and an unshielded gradient coil set. We achieved less than 7 min imaging time and obtained clear in vivo images of a human forearm with a TE of 0.4 ms. We concluded that UTE imaging using 3D Cones acquisition was successfully implemented in our 1.5T MRI system.

Registration of deformed multimodality medical images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moshfeghi, M.; Naidich, D.

1989-01-01

The registration and combination of images from different modalities have several potential applications, such as functional and anatomic studies, 3D radiation treatment planning, surgical planning, and retrospective studies. Image registration algorithms should correct for any local deformations caused by respiration, heart beat, imaging device distortions, and so forth. This paper reports on an elastic matching technique for registering deformed multimodality images. Correspondences between contours in the two images are used to stretch the deformed image toward its goal image. This process is repeated a number of times, with decreasing image stiffness. As the iterations continue, the stretched image better approximates its goal image

Microwave imaging of dielectric cylinder using level set method and conjugate gradient algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grayaa, K.; Bouzidi, A.; Aguili, T.

2011-01-01

In this paper, we propose a computational method for microwave imaging cylinder and dielectric object, based on combining level set technique and the conjugate gradient algorithm. By measuring the scattered field, we tried to retrieve the shape, localisation and the permittivity of the object. The forward problem is solved by the moment method, while the inverse problem is reformulate in an optimization one and is solved by the proposed scheme. It found that the proposed method is able to give good reconstruction quality in terms of the reconstructed shape and permittivity.

Reuma.pt - the rheumatic diseases portuguese register.

Science.gov (United States)

Canhão, H; Faustino, A; Martins, F; Fonseca, J E

2011-01-01

Since June 2008, Portuguese rheumatologists have been collecting on a routine basis, data into the nationwide Reuma.pt, the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register from the Portuguese Society of Rheumatology (SPR), which includes rheumatic patients (rheumatoid arthritis - RA, ankylosing spondylitis - AS, psoriatic arthritis - PsA and juvenile idiopathic arthritis - JIA) receiving biological therapies or patients receiving synthetic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). The aim of this publication is to describe the structure of Reuma.pt and the population registered since June 2008. Demographic and anthropometric data, life style habits, work status, co-morbidities, disease activity and functional assessment scores, previous and current therapies, adverse events codified by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA), reasons for discontinuation and laboratory measurements are registered at each visit. The platform is based on a structured electronic medical record linked to a SQL Server database. All Rheumatology Departments assigned to the Portuguese National Health Service (n=21), 2 Military Hospitals (Lisboa and Porto), 1 public-private Institution and 6 private centers adhered to the Register. Until now, 18 centers have entered data into Reuma.pt. By January 2011, 3438 patients and 16130 visits had been registered. 2162 (63%) were RA patients, 700 of them treated with biological agents and 1462 with synthetic DMARDs. From the 515 (15%) AS patients, 297 were medicated with biological and 218 with non-biological therapies. 293 (8%) were PsA patients, 151 treated with biological drugs and 142 with other treatment strategies. 368 (11%) had the diagnosis of JIA, 68 were under biological treatment and 300 were managed with other treatment options. The register also includes 100 (3%) patients with other rheumatic diseases, submitted to treatments that required hospital day care infusions including 18 exposed to biological therapies. Registers

An analysis of fusion algorithms for LWIR and visual images

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

De Villiers, J

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a comparison of methods to fuse pre-registered colour visual and long wave infra-red images to create a new image containing both visual and thermal cues. Three methods of creating the artificially coloured fused images...

Toward accurate tooth segmentation from computed tomography images using a hybrid level set model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gan, Yangzhou; Zhao, Qunfei [Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Key Laboratory of System Control and Information Processing, Ministry of Education of China, Shanghai 200240 (China); Xia, Zeyang, E-mail: zy.xia@siat.ac.cn, E-mail: jing.xiong@siat.ac.cn; Hu, Ying [Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518055 (China); Xiong, Jing, E-mail: zy.xia@siat.ac.cn, E-mail: jing.xiong@siat.ac.cn [Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 510855 (China); Zhang, Jianwei [TAMS, Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg 22527 (Germany)

2015-01-15

Purpose: A three-dimensional (3D) model of the teeth provides important information for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. Tooth segmentation is an essential step in generating the 3D digital model from computed tomography (CT) images. The aim of this study is to develop an accurate and efficient tooth segmentation method from CT images. Methods: The 3D dental CT volumetric images are segmented slice by slice in a two-dimensional (2D) transverse plane. The 2D segmentation is composed of a manual initialization step and an automatic slice by slice segmentation step. In the manual initialization step, the user manually picks a starting slice and selects a seed point for each tooth in this slice. In the automatic slice segmentation step, a developed hybrid level set model is applied to segment tooth contours from each slice. Tooth contour propagation strategy is employed to initialize the level set function automatically. Cone beam CT (CBCT) images of two subjects were used to tune the parameters. Images of 16 additional subjects were used to validate the performance of the method. Volume overlap metrics and surface distance metrics were adopted to assess the segmentation accuracy quantitatively. The volume overlap metrics were volume difference (VD, mm{sup 3}) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC, %). The surface distance metrics were average symmetric surface distance (ASSD, mm), RMS (root mean square) symmetric surface distance (RMSSSD, mm), and maximum symmetric surface distance (MSSD, mm). Computation time was recorded to assess the efficiency. The performance of the proposed method has been compared with two state-of-the-art methods. Results: For the tested CBCT images, the VD, DSC, ASSD, RMSSSD, and MSSD for the incisor were 38.16 ± 12.94 mm{sup 3}, 88.82 ± 2.14%, 0.29 ± 0.03 mm, 0.32 ± 0.08 mm, and 1.25 ± 0.58 mm, respectively; the VD, DSC, ASSD, RMSSSD, and MSSD for the canine were 49.12 ± 9.33 mm{sup 3}, 91.57 ± 0.82%, 0.27 ± 0.02 mm, 0

Toward accurate tooth segmentation from computed tomography images using a hybrid level set model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gan, Yangzhou; Zhao, Qunfei; Xia, Zeyang; Hu, Ying; Xiong, Jing; Zhang, Jianwei

2015-01-01

Purpose: A three-dimensional (3D) model of the teeth provides important information for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment planning. Tooth segmentation is an essential step in generating the 3D digital model from computed tomography (CT) images. The aim of this study is to develop an accurate and efficient tooth segmentation method from CT images. Methods: The 3D dental CT volumetric images are segmented slice by slice in a two-dimensional (2D) transverse plane. The 2D segmentation is composed of a manual initialization step and an automatic slice by slice segmentation step. In the manual initialization step, the user manually picks a starting slice and selects a seed point for each tooth in this slice. In the automatic slice segmentation step, a developed hybrid level set model is applied to segment tooth contours from each slice. Tooth contour propagation strategy is employed to initialize the level set function automatically. Cone beam CT (CBCT) images of two subjects were used to tune the parameters. Images of 16 additional subjects were used to validate the performance of the method. Volume overlap metrics and surface distance metrics were adopted to assess the segmentation accuracy quantitatively. The volume overlap metrics were volume difference (VD, mm 3 ) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC, %). The surface distance metrics were average symmetric surface distance (ASSD, mm), RMS (root mean square) symmetric surface distance (RMSSSD, mm), and maximum symmetric surface distance (MSSD, mm). Computation time was recorded to assess the efficiency. The performance of the proposed method has been compared with two state-of-the-art methods. Results: For the tested CBCT images, the VD, DSC, ASSD, RMSSSD, and MSSD for the incisor were 38.16 ± 12.94 mm 3 , 88.82 ± 2.14%, 0.29 ± 0.03 mm, 0.32 ± 0.08 mm, and 1.25 ± 0.58 mm, respectively; the VD, DSC, ASSD, RMSSSD, and MSSD for the canine were 49.12 ± 9.33 mm 3 , 91.57 ± 0.82%, 0.27 ± 0.02 mm, 0.28 ± 0.03 mm

Hypermetabolism of compensatory laryngeal muscles in unilateral vocal cord palsy: comparison study between speech and silence with normal subjects by co-registered PET-CT fusion images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pai, Moon Sun; Kim, Hyon Kyong; Kim, Han Su; Chung, Sung Min

2005-01-01

There are a few case reports on asymmetric vocal cord uptake on FDG-PET in patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis, which could be a potential pitfall in the interpretation of FDG-PET images. We evaluated the metabolic activity of laryngeal muscles of patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis in comparison to normal controls during both speech and silence. Eleven patients with iatrogenic unilateral vocal cord palsy(thyroidectomy 7, lung cancer = 1, others = 3) and 12 normal controls underwent FDG-PET with usual protocol. They were divided into two groups respectively; one group read books aloud for 20 minutes (phonation group) and the other kept silence (non-phonation groups) after FDG injection. Recent neck CT scan were co-registered with FDG-PET to produce PET-CT fusion images to elaborate small laryngeal muscles. In patients with unilateral vocal cord palsy, contralateral non-paralyzed vocal cord showed increased FDG uptake, more intense with phonation group (SUV =5.88, n =5) than non-phonation group (SUV =2.33, n =6) --mainly on thyroarytenoid muscle. Normal control subjects showed symmetric mildly increased FDG uptake (SUV=1.92, n=6) only in phonation group, which was significantly low against patient groups and was localized in lateral cricoarytenoid muscle. Hypermetabolism of contralateral thyroarytenoid muscle in patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis could be encountered during FDG-PET imaging even with keeping silence. Phonation during FDG-PET study enhance FDG uptake on different laryngeal muscles between unilateral vocal cord paralysis and normal subjects

Commissioning of a proton gantry equipped with dual x-ray imagers and a robotic patient positioner, and evaluation of the accuracy of single-beam image registration for this system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Ning; Ghebremedhin, Abiel; Patyal, Baldev

2015-01-01

Purpose: To check the accuracy of a gantry equipped with dual x-ray imagers and a robotic patient positioner for proton radiotherapy, and to evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of single-beam registration using the robotic positioner. Methods: One of the proton treatment rooms at their institution was upgraded to include a robotic patient positioner (couch) with 6 degrees of freedom and dual orthogonal kilovoltage x-ray imaging panels. The wander of the proton beam central axis, the wander of the beamline, and the orthogonal image panel crosswires from the gantry isocenter were measured for different gantry angles. The couch movement accuracy and couch wander from the gantry isocenter were measured for couch loadings of 50–300 lb with couch rotations from 0° to ±90°. The combined accuracy of the gantry, couch, and imagers was checked using a custom-made 30 × 30 × 30 cm 3 Styrofoam phantom with beekleys embedded in it. A treatment in this room can be set up and registered at a setup field location, then moved precisely to any other treatment location without requiring additional image registration. The accuracy of the single-beam registration strategy was checked for treatments containing multiple beams with different combinations of gantry angles, couch yaws, and beam locations. Results: The proton beam central axis wander from the gantry isocenter was within 0.5 mm with gantry rotations in both clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) directions. The maximum wander of the beamline and orthogonal imager crosswire centers from the gantry isocenter were within 0.5 and 0.8 mm, respectively, with the gantry rotations in CW and CCW directions. Vertical and horizontal couch wanders from the gantry isocenter were within 0.4 and 1.3 mm, respectively, for couch yaw from 0° to ±90°. For a treatment with multiple beams with different gantry angles, couch yaws, and beam locations, the measured displacements of treatment beam locations from the one based on the

The iMars WebGIS - A Central Hub for Displaying and Distributing Co-Registered Data of Mars

Science.gov (United States)

van Gasselt, S.; Morley, J.; Houghton, R.; Bamford, S.; Ivanov, A.; Muller, J.-P.; Yershov, V.; Sidiripoulos, P.; Gwinner, K.; Waehlisch, M.; Kim, J. R.

2014-04-01

The iMars-project [1] is an EU funded R&D project which has started in 2014 and which is aimed at developing an automated processing system for generating image stacks of high-precision, co-registered, terrain-corrected and multi-temporal data of Mars obtained since 1977. It is anticipated that the entire NASA and ESA record of orbital image data will be co-registered and terrain-corrected in 2015 [1] so that time-series data can be generated for subsequent analyses. Such analyses will be conducted automatically using change-detection algorithms or interactively and visually using the citizen-science concept implemented at Zooniverse [2]. For more detailed information see [1] and visit the project's website at http://www.i-Mars.eu. Close user interaction plays a paramount role within iMars which requires sophisticated concepts for data handling and communication allowing users to integrate, analyse and visualise data from a central location. This interactive data hub will be realised through open-source webGIS implementations and by providing webGIS services to the user community using established OGC-protocols (see Fig. 1, [3, 4, 5]).

Experimental validation of incomplete data CT image reconstruction techniques

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eberhard, J.W.; Hsiao, M.L.; Tam, K.C.

1989-01-01

X-ray CT inspection of large metal parts is often limited by x-ray penetration problems along many of the ray paths required for a complete CT data set. In addition, because of the complex geometry of many industrial parts, manipulation difficulties often prevent scanning over some range of angles. CT images reconstructed from these incomplete data sets contain a variety of artifacts which limit their usefulness in part quality determination. Over the past several years, the authors' company has developed 2 new methods of incorporating a priori information about the parts under inspection to significantly improve incomplete data CT image quality. This work reviews the methods which were developed and presents experimental results which confirm the effectiveness of the techniques. The new methods for dealing with incomplete CT data sets rely on a priori information from part blueprints (in electronic form), outer boundary information from touch sensors, estimates of part outer boundaries from available x-ray data, and linear x-ray attenuation coefficients of the part. The two methods make use of this information in different fashions. The relative performance of the two methods in detecting various flaw types is compared. Methods for accurately registering a priori information with x-ray data are also described. These results are critical to a new industrial x-ray inspection cell built for inspection of large aircraft engine parts

Obesity research based on the Copenhagen School Health Records Register

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Baker, Jennifer L; Sørensen, Thorkild I A

2011-01-01

INTRODUCTION: To summarise key findings from research performed using data from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register over the last 30 years with a main focus on obesity-related research. The register contains computerised anthropometric information on 372,636 schoolchildren from the capi......INTRODUCTION: To summarise key findings from research performed using data from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register over the last 30 years with a main focus on obesity-related research. The register contains computerised anthropometric information on 372,636 schoolchildren from...... the capital city of Denmark. Additional information on the cohort members has been obtained via linkages with population studies and national registers. RESEARCH TOPICS: Studies using data from the register have made important contributions in the areas of the aetiology of obesity, the development...... of the obesity epidemic, and the long-term health consequences of birth weight as well as body size and growth in childhood. CONCLUSION: Research using this unique register is ongoing, and its contributions to the study of obesity as well as other topics will continue for years to come....

Estimating Classification Errors under Edit Restrictions in Composite Survey-Register Data Using Multiple Imputation Latent Class Modelling (MILC)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boeschoten, Laura; Oberski, Daniel; De Waal, Ton

2017-01-01

Both registers and surveys can contain classification errors. These errors can be estimated by making use of a composite data set. We propose a new method based on latent class modelling to estimate the number of classification errors across several sources while taking into account impossible

Small Animal [18F]FDG PET Imaging for Tumor Model Study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woo, Sang Keun; Kim, Kyeong Min; Cheon, Gi Jeong

2008-01-01

PET allows non-invasive, quantitative and repetitive imaging of biological function in living animals. Small animal PET imaging with [ 18 F]FDG has been successfully applied to investigation of metabolism, receptor, ligand interactions, gene expression, adoptive cell therapy and somatic gene therapy. Experimental condition of animal handling impacts on the biodistribution of [ 18 F]FDG in small animal study. The small animal PET and CT images were registered using the hardware fiducial markers and small animal contour point. Tumor imaging in small animal with small animal [ 18 F]FDG PET should be considered fasting, warming, and isoflurane anesthesia level. Registered imaging with small animal PET and CT image could be useful for the detection of tumor. Small animal experimental condition of animal handling and registration method will be of most importance for small lesion detection of metastases tumor model

Register-based statistics statistical methods for administrative data

CERN Document Server

Wallgren, Anders

2014-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive and up to date treatment of  theory and practical implementation in Register-based statistics. It begins by defining the area, before explaining how to structure such systems, as well as detailing alternative approaches. It explains how to create statistical registers, how to implement quality assurance, and the use of IT systems for register-based statistics. Further to this, clear details are given about the practicalities of implementing such statistical methods, such as protection of privacy and the coordination and coherence of such an undertaking. Thi

Perceptual evaluation of different image fusion schemes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toet, A.; IJspeert, J.K.

2001-01-01

Human perceptual performance was tested with images of nighttime outdoor scenes. The scenes were registered both with a dual band (visual and near infrared) image intensified low-light CCD camera (DII) and with a thermal middle wavelength band (3-5 μm) infrared (IR) camera. Fused imagery was

The electronic register patients with hypertensia in Tomsk Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. S. Kobyakova

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Within the limits of the regional program «Prevention and treatment of an arterial hypertension for the period of 2004—2008» the electronic register of the patients with hypertensia inTomskRegion has been created.The electronic register is a two-level system where interaction of two kinds of databases is carried out: the first level is the databases of separate medical organization; the second level is the central integrated database.The basic information for the electronic register are documents confirmed by the Health service Ministry of the Russian Federation, that is the coupon of the out-patient patient and a card of dynamic supervision over the patient with hypertensia.All the data about the patients, included in the register are subdivided into unchangeable and changeable ones.The electronic register is an effective control system providing local leading of health service bodies with qualitative and high-grade information in processes of preparation of decision-making and measure taken for prevention and treatment of hypertensia.The electronic register is an effective monitoring system, providing medical authority of important information for taking decisions establishment measures for prevention and treatment of hypertensia.

Calibration, Projection, and Final Image Products of MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System

Science.gov (United States)

Denevi, Brett W.; Chabot, Nancy L.; Murchie, Scott L.; Becker, Kris J.; Blewett, David T.; Domingue, Deborah L.; Ernst, Carolyn M.; Hash, Christopher D.; Hawkins, S. Edward; Keller, Mary R.; Laslo, Nori R.; Nair, Hari; Robinson, Mark S.; Seelos, Frank P.; Stephens, Grant K.; Turner, F. Scott; Solomon, Sean C.

2018-02-01

We present an overview of the operations, calibration, geodetic control, photometric standardization, and processing of images from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) acquired during the orbital phase of the MESSENGER spacecraft's mission at Mercury (18 March 2011-30 April 2015). We also provide a summary of all of the MDIS products that are available in NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). Updates to the radiometric calibration included slight modification of the frame-transfer smear correction, updates to the flat fields of some wide-angle camera (WAC) filters, a new model for the temperature dependence of narrow-angle camera (NAC) and WAC sensitivity, and an empirical correction for temporal changes in WAC responsivity. Further, efforts to characterize scattered light in the WAC system are described, along with a mosaic-dependent correction for scattered light that was derived for two regional mosaics. Updates to the geometric calibration focused on the focal lengths and distortions of the NAC and all WAC filters, NAC-WAC alignment, and calibration of the MDIS pivot angle and base. Additionally, two control networks were derived so that the majority of MDIS images can be co-registered with sub-pixel accuracy; the larger of the two control networks was also used to create a global digital elevation model. Finally, we describe the image processing and photometric standardization parameters used in the creation of the MDIS advanced products in the PDS, which include seven large-scale mosaics, numerous targeted local mosaics, and a set of digital elevation models ranging in scale from local to global.

Validity of dementia diagnoses in the danish hospital registers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Phung, T.K.T.; Andersen, B.B.; Phung, T.K.T.

2007-01-01

Background:The validity of dementia diagnoses in the Danish nationwide hospital registers was evaluated to determine the value of these registers in epidemiological research about dementia. Methods: Two hundred patients were randomly selected from 4,682 patients registered for the first time...... with a dementia diagnosis in the last 6 months of 2003. The patients' medical journals were reviewed to evaluate if they fulfilled ICD-10 and/or DSM-IV criteria for dementia and specific dementia subtypes. The patients who were still alive in 2006 were invited to an interview. Results: One hundred and ninety......-seven journals were available for review and 51 patients were interviewed. A registered diagnosis of dementia was found to be correct in 169 (85.8%) cases. Regarding dementia subtypes, the degree of agreement between the registers and the results of the validating process was low with a kappa of 0.36 (95% CI 0...

Speaking up, being heard: registered nurses' perceptions of workplace communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Garon, Maryanne

2012-04-01

The aim of the present study was to explore nurses' perceptions of their own ability to speak up and be heard in the workplace. Nurses are central to patient care and patient safety in hospitals. Their ability to speak up and be heard greatly impacts their own work satisfaction, team work as well as patient safety. The present study utilized a qualitative approach, consisting of focus group interviews of 33 registered nurses (RNs), in staff or management positions from a variety of healthcare settings in California, USA. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Findings were organized into three categories: influences on speaking up, transmission and reception of a message and outcomes or results. The present study supported the importance of the manager in setting the culture of open communication. It is anticipated that findings from the present study may increase understandings of nurse views of communication within healthcare settings. The study highlights the importance of nurse managers in creating the communication culture that will allow nurses to speak up and be heard. These open communication cultures lead to better patient care, increased safety and better staff satisfaction. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Registered Nurses' perceptions of their work and professional development.

Science.gov (United States)

Hallin, Karin; Danielson, Ella

2008-01-01

This paper is a report of a study to elucidate Registered Nurses' perceptions of their work and professional development 6 years after graduation. Nursing education and health care has rapidly changed in the last two decades. Education and experience are important components in Registered Nurses' ability to promote a high quality of care, but a great deal depends on their work circumstances. This study emphasizes Registered Nurses' view of their work in health care, at a time in their career when they have several years of experience. Data were collected in 2003 from in-depth interviews with 15 Registered Nurses 6 years after their graduation. The interviews were semi-structured and analysed with interpretive content analysis. The findings revealed two themes and five sub-themes. The first theme, An appropriate but demanding profession, consisted of two sub-themes: 'having found one's niche' and 'growing old in nursing may be difficult'. The second theme, A profession with opportunities and obstacles, consisted of three sub-themes: 'being aware of Registered Nurses' potential', 'having knowledge that is seldom made use of' and 'attaining professional growth is no matter of course'. Keeping Registered Nurses' satisfied and avoiding their dissatisfaction is crucial for both educators and employers. It is essential that employers give priority to Registered Nurses' time with patients and to motivate and support them in professional development. Further intervention studies regarding a change of the balance between obstacles and opportunities are needed.

The Austrian Toxoplasmosis Register, 1992-2008.

Science.gov (United States)

Prusa, Andrea-Romana; Kasper, David C; Pollak, Arnold; Gleiss, Andreas; Waldhoer, Thomas; Hayde, Michael

2015-01-15

We aimed to determine the incidence of primary gestational infections with Toxoplasma gondii and congenital toxoplasmosis in Austria, a country with a nationwide prenatal serological screening program since 1974. We analyzed retrospective data from the Austrian Toxoplasmosis Register of pregnant women with Toxoplasma infection and their offspring with births between 1992 and 2008, identified by the prenatal mandatory screening program. Treatment was administered to women from diagnosis of a Toxoplasma infection until delivery. Infected infants were treated up to 1 year of life routinely. Clinical manifestations in infected infants were monitored at least for 1 year and documented in the register. The Austrian Toxoplasmosis Register included 2147 pregnant women with suspected Toxoplasma infection. Annually, 8.5 per 10 000 women acquired Toxoplasma infection during pregnancy, and 1.0 per 10 000 infants had congenital toxoplasmosis (13% mean transmission rate). Our data showed that women treated according to the Austrian scheme had a 6-fold decrease in the maternofetal transmission rate compared to women without treatment. Results from the Austrian Toxoplasmosis Register show the efficiency of the prenatal screening program. Our results are of clinical relevance for infants, healthcare systems, and policy makers to consider preventive Toxoplasma screening as a potential tool to reduce the incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Analysis of registered CDM projects: potential removal of evidenced bottlenecks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agosto, D.; Bombard, P.; Gostinelli, F.

2007-07-01

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has developed during its first period of implementation, a distinctive set of patterns. The authors thought of concentrating on the CDM analysis in order to highlight potential remedies or reasons for given bottlenecks. In order to establish a sort of extensive SWOT analysis for CDMs, all the 356 projects actually (November 2006) registered at UNFCCC were examined, together with all the about 1000 PDDs presented to the UNFCCC but not registered yet. The CDM projects have been studied trying to cluster projects according to relevant characteristics, both from a technical and an economic point of view. Chosen indicators are meant to identify: more convenient/more diffused energy system for a CDM; reasons for a geographical distribution of different types of projects; potentials for a future exploitation of lower used technologies in CDM. Conclusions are drawn and appropriate tables and graphs presented. (1) the Baseline Emission Factor, combined to economic patterns, is the pivotal factor that characterizes both choices of host country and technology; (2) some technologies can exploit appropriately CDM scheme, whilst other technologies, are constrained by it. (3) there are still some important weak points: grouping of non Annex I countries; crediting period; criteria for the evaluation of sustainable development. (auth)

Analysis of licensed South African diagnostic imaging equipment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Analysis of licensed South African diagnostic imaging equipment. ... Pan African Medical Journal ... Introduction: Objective: To conduct an analysis of all registered South Africa (SA) diagnostic radiology equipment, assess the number of equipment units per capita by imaging modality, and compare SA figures with published ...

Register for Suicide Attempts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Erik; Jensen, Børge Frank

2004-01-01

The Register for Suicide Attempts (RSA) is a product of the WHO research project "WHO/Euro Multicentre Study on Parasuicide", which, among other things, had the purpose of collecting data on suicide attempts from 13 European countries. Data is collected in order to calculate trends and identify...

20 CFR 325.2 - Procedure for registering for unemployment benefits.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Procedure for registering for unemployment... UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT REGISTRATION FOR RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS § 325.2 Procedure for registering for unemployment benefits. (a) Registering as unemployed. To claim unemployment benefits for any day...

Perceptual evaluation of different image fusion schemes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Toet, A.; Franken, E.M.

2003-01-01

Human scene recognition performance was tested with images of night-time outdoor scenes. The scenes were registered both with a dual band (visual and near infrared) image intensified low-light CCD camera (DII) and with a thermal middle wavelength band (3–5 mm) infrared (IR) camera. Fused imagery was

Improving diagnostic sensitivity of combined dermoscopy and reflectance confocal microscopy imaging through double reader concordance evaluation in telemedicine settings: A retrospective study of 1000 equivocal cases.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A M Witkowski

Full Text Available Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM is an imaging device that permits non-invasive visualization of cellular morphology and has been shown to improve diagnostic accuracy of dermoscopically equivocal cutaneous lesions. The application of double reader concordance evaluation of dermoscopy-RCM image sets in retrospective settings and its potential application to telemedicine evaluation has not been tested in a large study population.To improve diagnostic sensitivity of RCM image diagnosis using a double reader concordance evaluation approach; to reduce mismanagement of equivocal cutaneous lesions in retrospective consultation and telemedicine settings.1000 combined dermoscopy-RCM image sets were evaluated in blind by 10 readers with advanced training and internship in dermoscopy and RCM evaluation. We compared sensitivity and specificity of single reader evaluation versus double reader concordance evaluation as well as the effect of diagnostic confidence on lesion management in a retrospective setting.Single reader evaluation resulted in an overall sensitivity of 95.2% and specificity of 76.3%, with misdiagnosis of 8 melanomas, 4 basal cell carcinomas and 2 squamous cell carcinomas. Combined double reader evaluation resulted in an overall sensitivity of 98.3% and specificity of 65.5%, with misdiagnosis of 1 in-situ melanoma and 2 basal cell carcinomas.Evaluation of dermoscopy-RCM image sets of cutaneous lesions by single reader evaluation in retrospective settings is limited by sensitivity levels that may result in potential mismanagement of malignant lesions. Double reader blind concordance evaluation may improve the sensitivity of diagnosis and management safety. The use of a second check can be implemented in telemedicine settings where expert consultation and second opinions may be required.

Labelling and optimization of PHOTOFRIN registered with 99mTc

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fakhar-e-Alam, M.; Roohi, S.; Amir, N.; Zahoor, R.; Atif, M.; Firdous, S.

2010-01-01

PHOTOFRIN registered was labelled with 99m Tc using SnCl 2 .2H 2 O as reducing agent. Instant thin layer chromatography (ITLC-SG) in 0.05 M NaOH was used for evaluation of radiochemical purity. Labelling efficiency was dependent on various factors that include the ligand/reductant ratio, pH and time of incubation. Therefore, optimum conditions of labelling were also determined. The stability of 99m Tc-PHOTOFRIN registered in serum was checked by using fresh human serum. Tissue distribution of 99m Tc-PHOTOFRIN registered was evaluated in Sprague Dawley rats. PHOTOFRIN registered was labelled with an efficiency of > 95% under optimum conditions, which were PHOTOFRIN registered : 200 μg, pH: 3-4, SnCl 2 .2H 2 O: 15 μg and 30 min incubation at room temperature. The 99m Tc-labelled PHOTOFRIN registered remained stable in human serum for 24 h. Biodistribution study in rats revealed maximum concentration of the labelled compound in liver, lungs and spleen at 0.5 h, and significant activity was also seen in the bladder and urine, indicating the mode of urinary excretion of PHOTOFRIN registered . (orig.)

Critical points based register-concurrency autotuning for GPUs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, A.; Song, S.L.; Kumar, A.; Zhang, E.Z.; Chavarría-Miranda, D.; Corporaal, H.

2016-01-01

The unprecedented prevalence of GPGPU is largely attributed to its abundant on-chip register resources, which allow massively concurrent threads and extremely fast context switch. However, due to internal memory size constraints, there is a tradeoff between the per-thread register usage and the

Register of practices and teacher training: reflection, memory and authorship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amanda Cristina Teagno Lopes Marques

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This article aims at analyzing the contribution of the register of practices in the process of inservice training and teacher development. It is organized in three parts: first, we elucidateconcepts of different authors about our object (FREIRE, 1996; GUARNIERI, 2001; SÁ-CHAVES, 2004, WARSCHAUER, 1993, 2001; ZABALZA, 1994, 2004, in the second part, we analyze some register of practices produced by a professor of early childhood education, seeking to highlight elements that indicate the relationship between register, reflection and training; inthe end, we indicate the need to move the register as individual attitude to the register as a collective process, as suggested by the perspective of pedagogical documentation describedin Italian literature (BALSAMO, 1998; BENZONI, 2001; BORGHI, APOSTOLI, 2001; GANDINI, GOLDHABER, 2002. The register of practices can contribute to the processes of professional and organizational development, in a reflective school (ALARCÃO, 2002, 2003 and trulypublic because it makes visible to society by documentation of the experiences that teachersand children build together (MALAGUZZI, 1999.