CT dose reduction using Automatic Exposure Control and iterative reconstruction: A chest paediatric phantoms study

PurposeTo evaluate the impact of Automatic Exposure Control (AEC) on radiation dose and image quality in paediatric chest scans (MDCT), with or without iterative reconstruction (IR).MethodsThree anthropomorphic phantoms representing children aged one, five and 10-year-old were explored using AEC system (CARE Dose 4D) with five modulation strength options. For each phantom, six acquisitions were carried out: one with fixed mAs (without AEC) and five each with different modulation strength. Raw data were reconstructed with Filtered Back Projection (FBP) and with two distinct levels of IR using soft and strong kernels. Dose reduction and image quality indices (Noise, SNR, CNR) were measured in lung and soft tissues. Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) was evaluated with a Catphan 600 phantom.ResultsThe use of AEC produced a significant dose reduction (p < 0.01) for all anthropomorphic sizes employed. According to the modulation strength applied, dose delivered was reduced from 43% to 91%. This pattern led to significantly increased noise (p < 0.01) and reduced SNR and CNR (p < 0.01). However, IR was able to improve these indices. The use of AEC/IR preserved image quality indices with a lower dose delivered. Doses were reduced from 39% to 58% for the one-year-old phantom, from 46% to 63% for the five-year-old phantom, and from 58% to 74% for the 10-year-old phantom. In addition, AEC/IR changed the patterns of NPS curves in amplitude and in spatial frequency.ConclusionsIn chest paediatric MDCT, the use of AEC with IR allows one to obtain a significant dose reduction while maintaining constant image quality indices.     

孤独症谱系障碍儿童情绪表达能力干预系统研制

大量研究表明,通过干预孤独症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder,ASD)儿童情绪能力,可以提高其移情能力从而改善核心症状--社交交往障碍。随着ASD儿童人数逐年上升,对干预的需求日益增大。目前国内外对于ASD儿童情绪能力的系统干预研究较少,主要研究均集中在表情识别这一层面。本文结合视频分析,自动表情识别算法,Flash技术,设计交互式虚拟场景游戏,研发一个面向ASD儿童的情绪能力干预的系统。该系统可以训练儿童的表情识别能力,还可以训练儿童对表情的模仿和表达,具有实用性,方便推广。     

Dendrometer and intra-annual tree growth: What kind of information can be inferred?

Dendrometer measurements provide time series composed of the rhythm of water storage fluctuations over the year and seasonal tree growth. For slow-growing trees, however, difficulties have been found in the identification of crucial events such as growth onset, stem growth period and cessation, rendering it necessary to define what can be measured and at which time scale. Time scale means the time interval (from one day to one month) at which stem radius variation is extracted. In this study, two conifer species were monitored by an automatic band dendrometer to assess several time scales and analysis approaches. Data were collected from 8 trees of Picea abies (L.) Karst and Larix decidua L., growing at 1020 and 2080 m a.s.l. in the eastern Italian Alps, from 2000 to 2003. Time series of stem radius variation were extracted with different approaches, such as the stem cycle, daily mean and daily maximum. Several approaches can be used, as very similar time series of stem radius variations were produced with high coefficients of correlation among the series. At lower altitude, the approximate onset was identified at the beginning of May with a 10-day time scale, when the distribution of stem radius variation differed from zero. The main growth period, from May to June–July, corresponded mainly with earlywood cell formation. At higher altitude, a time scale of at least 15 days facilitated identification of the main period of stem growth only, corresponding with earlywood cell formation. Even if latewood cells were produced in August at both altitudes, the variability in stem radius changes was higher than the amount of growth in terms of cell-wood production. For a slow-growing species in a cold environment, an understanding of the growth period, assessed with several time scales, is necessary when using time series of stem radius variation to assess growth and climate relationships. The period used for growth and climate analysis should correspond only with the main period of stem growth.     

Automatic recognition and measurement of butterfly eyespot patterns

A favorite wing pattern element in butterflies that has been the focus of intense study in evolutionary and developmental biology, as well as in behavioral ecology, is the eyespot. Because the pace of research on these bull's eye patterns is accelerating we sought to develop a tool to automatically detect and measure butterfly eyespot patterns in digital images of the wings. We used a machine learning algorithm with features based on circularity and symmetry to detect eyespots on the images. The algorithm is first trained with examples from a database of images with two different labels (eyespot and non-eyespot), and subsequently is able to provide classification for a new image. After an eyespot is detected the radius measurements of its color rings are performed by a 1D Hough Transform which corresponds to histogramming. We trained software to recognize eyespot patterns of the nymphalid butterfly Bicyclus anynana but eyespots of other butterfly species were also successfully detected by the software.     

Automatic EEG arousal detection for sleep apnea syndrome

Electroencephalographic (EEG) arousals are seen in EEG recordings as an awakening response of the human brain. Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder. Severe sleep apnea brings about EEG arousals and sleep for patients with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is thus frequently interrupted. The number of respiratory-related arousals during the whole night on PSG recordings is directly related to the quality of sleep. Detecting EEG arousals in the PSG record is thus a significant task for clinical diagnosis in sleep medicine. In this paper, a method for automatic detection of EEG arousals in SAS patients was proposed. To effectively detect respiratory-related arousals, threshold values were determined according to pathological events as sleep apnea and electromyogram (EMG). If resumption of ventilation (end of the apnea interval) was detected, much lower thresholds were adopted for detecting EEG arousals, including relatively doubtful arousals. Conversely, threshold was maintained high when pathological events were undetected. The proposed method was applied to polysomnographic (PSG) records of eight patients with SAS and accuracy of EEG arousal detection was verified by comparative visual inspection. Effectiveness of the proposed method in clinical diagnosis was also investigated.     

Simultaneous control of apparent extract and volatile compounds concentrations in low-malt beer fermentation

Volatile compounds cause undesirable flavor when their concentrations exceed threshold values in beer fermentation. The objective of this study is to develop a system for controlling apparent extract concentration, which indicates the fermentation degree and which should be decreased below a targeted value at a fixed time under a constraint of tolerable amounts of volatile compounds. In beer fermentation, even though the production of volatile compounds is suppressed by maintaining a low fermentation temperature, a low temperature causes a delay in the control of apparent extract concentration. Volatile compound concentration was estimated on-line, and the simulation of apparent extract consumption and volatile compound production was performed. To formulate various beer tastes and conserve energy for attemperation, optimal temperature profiles were determined using a genetic algorithm (GA). The developed feedback control of the brewing temperature profile was successfully applied, and apparent extract and volatile compound concentrations at a fixed time reached their target concentrations. Additionally, the control technique developed in this study enables us to brew a wide variety of beers with different tastes.     

A rosette by any other name: species diversity in the Bangiales (Rhodophyta) along the South African coast

The Bangiales is an order of Rhodophyta, widely distributed around the globe and best known for its economic value in the nori industry. The morphological simplicity of the group offers limited distinguishing characters for species identification. We therefore delimited species of the Bangiales along the South African coast based on two unlinked loci, the mitochondrial cox1 gene and the plastid rbcL gene, supplemented with additional sequence data from a third gene, the nuclear nSSU. Application of DNA-based species delimitation methods including the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), General Mixed Yule Coalescent (GYMC) and Poisson Tree Processes (PTP), resulted in the recognition of 10 Porphyra and three Pyropia species in South Africa, only three of which had been previously described. Additional species of Bangiales previously recorded along the South African coast were added to our final species list despite not being found in the present study, resulting in an estimate of 14–16 Bangiales species occurring along this shoreline. Most of this extensive genetic diversity has been misidentified as the commonly rosette-forming species P. capensis. The name P. capensis currently refers to a species complex and cannot be attached to any one species with certainty. All species in this complex, confirmed using genetic data, are endemic to South Africa. Our results compare well with other Southern Hemisphere countries, such as Chile and New Zealand, where high genetic diversity, species richness and endemicity have also been found.     

全自动血细胞分析仪自动推片致淋巴细胞变异的探讨

目的:探讨全自动血细胞分析仪自动推片系统致乙二胺四乙酸(EDTA)-K2抗凝血淋巴细胞形态变异的机制。方法:采用全自动血细胞分析仪自动推片系统对选择西京医院门诊228例受试者,其中儿童80例、成人100例、经临床及骨髓穿刺细胞学确诊的淋巴细胞性白血病(CLL)21例、粒细胞性白血病15例和单核细胞性白血病12例,均用EDTA-K2(2.0 mg/m L)专用管采血2m L,在1 h内完成仪器推片及手工推片、瑞-姬染色,经2位经验丰富的主管检验师显微镜检查分类比较。结果:228例受试者EDTA-K2抗凝血,仪器自动推片细胞分类Ⅱ型淋巴细胞(18.65±2.35)%明显高于手工推片(4.67±2.45)%,统计学处理具有显著性差异(P0.01)。正常组与粒细胞性白血病和单核细胞性白血病患者抗凝血,仪器自动推片,淋巴细胞形态没有明显改变(4.36±2.17)%与手工推片(4.21±2.14)%比较没有差异(P0.05),淋巴细胞性白血病(CLL)患者的淋巴细胞形态有明显的改变仪器为(85.25±5.26)%与手工推片(4.25±2.19)%有显著性差异(P0.01),淋巴细胞体积增大,外形不规则,着色不均,边缘蓝色较深,胞核不规则,细致膨胀,淡紫红色,主要拟为Ⅱ型(不规则型/单核细胞型)异型淋巴细胞。结论:全自动血细胞分析仪自动推片系统对EDTA-K2活化膨胀的淋巴细胞失控而致淋巴细胞形态拟Ⅱ型异型淋巴细胞,手工推片已控制所以细胞形态不易改变,确切机制还有待进一步研究。     

Swallowing Sound Recognition at Home Using GMM

Background

Aiming for autonomous living for the people after a stroke is the challenge these days especially for swallowing disorders or dysphagia. The most common cause of dysphagia is stroke. In France, stroke occurs every 4 minutes, which implies 13000 hospitalizations per year. Currently, continuous medical home monitoring of patients is not available. The patient must be hospitalized or visit the medical community for possible follow-up. It is in this context that E-SwallHome (Swallowing & Breathing: Modelling and e-Health at Home) project proposes to develop tools, from hospital care until the patient returns home, which are able to monitor in real time the process of swallowing.

低剂量胸部CT 自动管电流调节技术在超重体型患者检查中的 可行性研究

摘要目的：探讨16 层螺旋CT自动管电流调节技术（CARE Dose 4D）在超重体型患者检查中的可行性。方法：收集行胸部CT 检 查的超重体型患者（BMI值于24-27.9 之间）100 例,扫描分低剂量组（A 组）和常规剂量组（B 组）,其中A 组扫描运用CARE Dose 4D技术自动调节管电流;B 组扫描运用常规剂量管电流为70 mAs 扫描。扫描完成后记录加权CT 剂量指数(CTDlvol)、有效mAs 值、剂量长度乘积（DLP）,计算出有效剂量（ED）及剂量减低比值（DR）,并比较两组的剂量及图像质量。结果：与B 组相比,A 组常 规扫描辐射剂量显著降低,差异有显著统计学意义（P<0.01）,A 组剂量减低比值（DR）降低约20.84%,而图像质量无明显下降,不 影响诊断,在主动脉弓上4 cm（肺尖）层面A 组图像质量优于B 组,差异有统计学意义(X2=8.442,P=0.015)。结论：自动管电流调节 技术既可以减少患者的辐射剂量,对待超重体型患者个体化、人性化,又不影响影像诊断,是一项有价值的检查方法。