Unmasking a Privacy Concern: Potential Identification of Patients in an Immobilization Mask from 3D Reconstructions of Simulation CTs

Author(s):  
Destie Provenzano ◽  
Murray H. Loew ◽  
Sharad Goyal ◽  
Yuan James Rao
Author(s):  
Lee D. Peachey ◽  
Lou Fodor ◽  
John C. Haselgrove ◽  
Stanley M. Dunn ◽  
Junqing Huang

Stereo pairs of electron microscope images provide valuable visual impressions of the three-dimensional nature of specimens, including biological objects. Beyond this one seeks quantitatively accurate models and measurements of the three dimensional positions and sizes of structures in the specimen. In our laboratory, we have sought to combine high resolution video cameras with high performance computer graphics systems to improve both the ease of building 3D reconstructions and the accuracy of 3D measurements, by using multiple tilt images of the same specimen tilted over a wider range of angles than can be viewed stereoscopically. Ultimately we also wish to automate the reconstruction and measurement process, and have initiated work in that direction.Figure 1 is a stereo pair of 400 kV images from a 1 micrometer thick transverse section of frog skeletal muscle stained with the Golgi stain. This stain selectively increases the density of the transverse tubular network in these muscle cells, and it is this network that we reconstruct in this example.


Author(s):  
Jeffry A. Reidler ◽  
John P. Robinson

We have prepared two-dimensional (2D) crystals of tetanus toxin using procedures developed by Uzgiris and Kornberg for the directed production of 2D crystals of monoclonal antibodies at an antigen-phospholipid monolayer interface. The tetanus toxin crystals were formed using a small mole fraction of the natural receptor, GT1, incorporated into phosphatidyl choline monolayers. The crystals formed at low concentration overnight. Two dimensional crystals of this type are particularly useful for structure determination using electron microscopy and computer image refinement. Three dimensional (3D) structural information can be derived from these crystals by computer reconstruction of photographs of toxin crystals taken at different tilt angles. Such 3D reconstructions may help elucidate the mechanism of entry of the enzymatic subunit of toxins into cells, particularly since these crystals form directly on a membrane interface at similar concentrations of ganglioside GT1 to the natural cellular receptors.


Author(s):  
Peter D. Moisiuk ◽  
Daniel R. Beniac ◽  
Ross A. Ridsdale ◽  
Martin Young ◽  
Bhushan Nagar ◽  
...  

Venom from the rattlesnake Crotalus atrox contains a mixture of enzymes that induce a localized effect leading to hemorrhaging, necrosis and edema. As a member of the crotalid family of snake venoms, Crotalus atrox venom contains a C-type lectin that will agglutinate blood cells in a Ca2+-dependent fashion. The lectin is a hydrophilic protein, consisting of two covalently linked, 135 amino acid residues, identical subunits that are rich in aspartic acid, glutamic acid and lysine. Sequence homology with known carbohydrate recognition domains (CRDs) indicates that rattlesnake venom lectin (RSLV) contains a CRD motif that is not linked to accessory domains. Preliminary X-ray diffraction and sedimentation analysis has indicated that lectin from Crotalus atrox forms decamers composed of two five-fold symmetric pentamers. Single particles of RSVL imaged at – 171°C displayed two distinct orientations on the specimen support (Figure a) following incubation in a crystallization Teflon well, coated with a lipid monolayer consisting of phosphatidylcholine and monosialoganglioside. When lying in an end-on orientation, the lectin exhibited a “pentagonal ring” with an outer diameter of 6.7 nm and an inner hollow core of 1.7 nm. A side orientation was also seen, whereby a thickness of 5.8 nm was measured for the lectin. Image processing of 2280 single particles placed in 100 classes (Figure b) led to 3D reconstructions of RSVL (Figure c). Density limited 3D reconstructions showed the lectin to be made of two five-fold symmetrical rings covalently linked between the five subunits that constitute each ring of this homodimer. These results are consistent with sedimentation and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis on the shape of RSVL and provide the framework for structural verification by 2D electron crystallography.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 824-828
Author(s):  
Anaswara Venunadh ◽  
Shruthi N ◽  
Mannar Mannan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Liu ◽  
Pengkun Wu ◽  
Xitong Guo

BACKGROUND Service characteristic factors are verified as the determinants for influencing people’s use intention of mHealth. Exploration of the interactions among the service characteristics of users can play an important role in improving service adoption rate. mHealth service appears to be an emerging new technology that presents a new pattern of healthcare service; however, users have concerns that their personal information might be disclosed and used without permission. This concern hinders people’s adoption behavior of mHealth services. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to explore how service characteristics (service relevance and service accuracy) interact to influence individuals’ use intention of mHealth services. This study also investigates the moderating roles of innovativeness and privacy concern. METHODS To meet these objectives, six hypotheses thus developed were empirically validated using a survey to test the effects of service characteristics and personal traits on use intention of mHealth. RESULTS We confirm that service relevance and service accuracy positively and directly influence individuals’ use intention of mHealth services. In addition, innovativeness positively affects the relationship between service relevance and use intention. Privacy concern negatively influences the relationship between service relevance and use intention, but positively influences the relationship between service accuracy and use intention. CONCLUSIONS The present study provides new insights into the influencing factors of individuals’ usage behaviour toward mHealth services. Such insight could provide further understanding of how individuals adopt new information service or technologies, which contribute to both information system and health care research areas in a very promising way.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Dang ◽  
Shanshan Guo ◽  
Xitong Guo

BACKGROUND The mobile health (mHealth) provides a new opportunity for patients’ disease prediction and health self-management. At the same time, privacy problems in mHealth have brought forth significant attention concerning patients' online health information disclosure and hindered mHealth development. OBJECTIVE Privacy calculus theory (PCT) has been widely used to understand personal information disclosure behaviors with the basic assumption of a national and linear decision-making process. However, people’s cognitive behavior processes are complex and mutual. In attempting to close this knowledge gap, we further optimize the information disclosure model of patients based on PCT by identifying the mutual relationship between costs (privacy concerns) and benefits. Social support, which has been proved to be a distinct and significant disclosure benefit of mHealth, was chosen to be the representative benefit of information disclosure in mHealth. METHODS From an individual perspective, a structural equation model with privacy concerns, health information disclosure intention in mHealth, and social support from mHealth has been examined. RESULTS 253 randomly selected participants provided validated questionnaire. The result indicated that perceived health information sensitivity positively enhances the privacy concern (0.505, p<0.01), and higher privacy concern levels will decrease the health information disclosure intention (-0.338, p<0.01). Various aspects of individual characters influence perceived health information sensitivity in different ways. The informational support has a negatively moderate on reduce the positive effect between perceived health information sensitivity and privacy concerns (-0.171, p<0.1) and will decrease the negative effect between privacy concerns and health information disclosure intention(-0.105, p<0.1). However, emotional support has no directly moderate effect on both privacy concerns and health information disclosure intention. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that social support can be regarded as a disutility reducer, that is, on the one hand, it reduces the privacy concerns of patients; on the other hand, it also reduces the negative impact of privacy concerns on information disclosure intention. Moreover, the moderate effect of social support is partially supported. Informational support, one demission of social support, is significant, while the other demission, emotional support, is not significant in mHealth. Furthermore, the results are different among patients with different individual characteristics. This study also provides specific theoretical and practical implications to enhance the development of mHealth.


Author(s):  
Fabio Barra ◽  
Franco Alessandri ◽  
Carolina Scala ◽  
Simone Ferrero

<b><i>Objective:</i></b> The use of three-dimensional (3D) transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) has been investigated for the diagnosis of deep endometriosis (DE). This study aimed to evaluate if 3D reconstructions improve the performance of TVS) in assessing the presence and characteristics of bladder endometriosis (BE). <b><i>Design:</i></b> This was a single-center comparative diagnostic accuracy study. <b><i>Participants/Materials, Setting, Methods:</i></b> Patients referred to our institution (Piazza della Vittoria 14 Srl, Genova, Italy) with clinical suspicion of DE were included. In case of surgery, women underwent systematic preoperative ultrasonographic imaging; an experienced sonographer performed a conventional TVS; another experienced sonographer, blinded to results of the previous exam, performed TVS, with the addition of 3D modality. The presence and characteristics of BE nodules were described in accord with International DE Analysis group consensus. Ultrasound data were compared with surgical and histological results. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Overall, BE was intraoperatively found in 34 out of 194 women who underwent surgery for DE (17.5%; 95% confidence interval: 12.8–23.5%). TVS without and with 3D reconstructions were able to detect endometriotic BE in 82.2% (<i>n</i> = 28/34) and 85.3% (<i>n</i> = 29/34) of the cases (<i>p</i> = 0.125). Both the exams similarly estimated the largest diameter of BE (<i>p</i> = 0.652) and the distance between the endometriotic nodule and the closest ureteral meatus (<i>p</i> = 0.341). However, TVS with 3D reconstructions was more precise in estimating the volume of BE (<i>p</i> = 0.031). In one case (2.9%), TVS without and with 3D reconstructions detected the infiltration of the intramural ureter, which was confirmed at surgery and required laparoscopic ureterovesical reimplantation. <b><i>Limitations:</i></b> The extensive experience of the gynecologists performing the ultrasonographic scans, the lack of prestudy power analysis, and the population selected, which may have been influenced by the position of the institution as a referral center specialized in the treatment of severe endometriosis, are limitations of the current study. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Our results demonstrated the high accuracy of ultrasound for diagnosing BE. The addition of 3D reconstructions does not improve the performance of TVS in diagnosing the presence and characteristics of BE. However, the volume of BE may be more precisely assessed by 3D ultrasound.


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