A comprehensive study of a similarity criterion in cardiac computerized tomography images enhancement

This research focuses on the study of a particular filter based on a similarity criterion that has been applied to improve the information contained in images acquired using different cardiac imaging modalities. The primary attention of this study is to examine which component of the similarity criterion generates more relevant information useful to increase the medical image quality. In this sense, four case studies are established, first a complete formulation of the similarity criterion is considered, and then three additional cases, representing each component of the criterion; such cases are referred to as full, main, residual1, and residual2, respectively. A score function is used for quantifying and then assessing the impact of each component of the similarity criterion. Such measure is a relation between some full–reference and blind–reference image enhancement measures. A computer generated phantom and a representative clinical dataset (1270 three–dimensional images from 126 patients) are used in a thorough evaluation of the similarity criterion. In general terms of performance of the image enhancement technique, the results of the study reveal that the component residual1 outperforms than the other two components of similarity criterion or its complete formulation.

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A comparison between analogic and digital media in Engineering teaching

Acta Scientiarum Education ◽

10.4025/actascieduc.v43i1.51075 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. e51075

Author(s):

Gisele Lopes de Carvalho ◽

Vinicius Albuquerque Fulgêncio ◽

Ana Carolina Puttini Iannicelli

Keyword(s):

Digital Media ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Graphic Representation ◽

Engineering Construction ◽

General Terms ◽

Form Representation ◽

Representation Of Architecture ◽

The Media ◽

The Impact ◽

Work Management

Form representation is essential for any area that involves the creation of artefacts, since without it the project is just an idea in the mental field. In general terms, it is the ability to perceive and understand shapes and represent them through perspectives and orthographic views, as well as through models and geometric models. Given the issues raised, it is possible to understand the importance of knowledge related to the graphic representation of architecture for professionals involved with the Aeco Industry (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation) and, also the relevance of graphic geometry disciplines on the development of Visiographic Three-dimensional Capacity. So, this paper aims to investigate the impact caused by the use of traditional and digital media in the teaching of graphic representation. To this end, two groups of students were compared, one exposed to the use of both media - analogic and digital - and another that used just digital media. From the application of questionnaires, it was possible to identify the student’s profile, their preferences of media and difficulties encountered. The work presumes that students exposed to more disciplines of graphic geometry will have less difficulties compared to those who had less contact. The main results indicated that: there is a preference, in both groups, for digital media to perform practical activities; the need to adapt the content to each specific engineering and that the most significant difficulties were related to work management, regardless of the media used.

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Atomic resolution characterisation of interface structures by Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010014871x ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. 576-577

Author(s):

N. D. Browning ◽

M. M. McGibbon ◽

M. F. Chisholm ◽

S. J. Pennycook

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Energy Loss ◽

Electron Energy ◽

Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy ◽

Imaging Technique ◽

Atomic Scale ◽

Atomic Resolution ◽

Reference Image ◽

The Impact ◽

Electron Energy Loss

The recent development of the Z-contrast imaging technique for the VG HB501 UX dedicated STEM, has added a high-resolution imaging facility to a microscope used mainly for microanalysis. This imaging technique not only provides a high-resolution reference image, but as it can be performed simultaneously with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), can be used to position the electron probe at the atomic scale. The spatial resolution of both the image and the energy loss spectrum can be identical, and in principle limited only by the 2.2 Å probe size of the microscope. There now exists, therefore, the possibility to perform chemical analysis of materials on the scale of single atomic columns or planes.In order to achieve atomic resolution energy loss spectroscopy, the range over which a fast electron can cause a particular excitation event, must be less than the interatomic spacing. This range is described classically by the impact parameter, b, which ranges from ~10 Å for the low loss region of the spectrum to <1Å for the core losses.

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Analyzing the Impact of X-Ray Tomography on the Reliability of Integrated Circuits

ISTFA 2015: Conference Proceedings from the 41st International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis ◽

10.31399/asm.cp.istfa2015p0154 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Halit Dogan ◽

Md Mahbub Alam ◽

Navid Asadizanjani ◽

Sina Shahbazmohamadi ◽

Domenic Forte ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Integrated Circuits ◽

Integrated Circuit ◽

3D Imaging ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Serial Sectioning ◽

Promising Technique ◽

Flash Memories ◽

X Ray ◽

3D Information ◽

The Impact

Abstract X-ray tomography is a promising technique that can provide micron level, internal structure, and three dimensional (3D) information of an integrated circuit (IC) component without the need for serial sectioning or decapsulation. This is especially useful for counterfeit IC detection as demonstrated by recent work. Although the components remain physically intact during tomography, the effect of radiation on the electrical functionality is not yet fully investigated. In this paper we analyze the impact of X-ray tomography on the reliability of ICs with different fabrication technologies. We perform a 3D imaging using an advanced X-ray machine on Intel flash memories, Macronix flash memories, Xilinx Spartan 3 and Spartan 6 FPGAs. Electrical functionalities are then tested in a systematic procedure after each round of tomography to estimate the impact of X-ray on Flash erase time, read margin, and program operation, and the frequencies of ring oscillators in the FPGAs. A major finding is that erase times for flash memories of older technology are significantly degraded when exposed to tomography, eventually resulting in failure. However, the flash and Xilinx FPGAs of newer technologies seem less sensitive to tomography, as only minor degradations are observed. Further, we did not identify permanent failures for any chips in the time needed to perform tomography for counterfeit detection (approximately 2 hours).

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Eating Out in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Changes in Food and in Social Identities

10.1093/oso/9780198826187.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Christel Lane

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Social Identities ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

General Terms ◽

Quality Of Food ◽

Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽

Eating Out ◽

Gender And Nation ◽

The Impact

This chapter examines the impact of rapid urbanization and industrialization on food and eating out. It draws attention to the growing standardization of food and, with greater class differentiation, to the growing diversity in eating-out venues. Class, gender, and nation are again used as lenses to understand the different eating-out habits and their symbolic significance. Towards the end of the twentieth century, pubs moved more fully towards embracing dining. However, the quality of food, in general terms, began to improve significantly only towards the end of the century, and hospitality venues also moved towards selling food from diverse national origins.

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Numerical simulation of the impact of an integrated renovation project on the Maowei Sea hydrodynamic environment

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-96441-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Cui Wang ◽

Ling Cai ◽

Yaojian Wu ◽

Yurong Ouyang

Keyword(s):

Water Exchange ◽

Land Reclamation ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Exchange Capacity ◽

Reclamation Project ◽

Hydrodynamic Environment ◽

Sea Area ◽

Water Quality Models ◽

The Impact ◽

Main Factor

AbstractIntegrated renovation projects are important for marine ecological environment protection. Three-dimensional hydrodynamics and water quality models are developed for the Maowei Sea to assess the hydrodynamic environment base on the MIKE3 software with high resolution meshes. The results showed that the flow velocity changed minimally after the project, decreasing by approximately 0.12 m/s in the east of the Maowei Sea area and increasing by approximately 0.01 m/s in the northeast of the Shajing Port. The decrease in tidal prism (~ 2.66 × 106 m3) was attributed to land reclamation, and accounted for just 0.86% of the pre-project level. The water exchange half-life increased by approximately 1 day, implying a slightly reduced water exchange capacity. Siltation occurred mainly in the reclamation and dredging areas, amounting to back-silting of approximately 2 cm/year. Reclamation project is the main factor causing the decrease of tidal volume and weakening the hydrodynamics in Maowei Sea. Adaptive management is necessary for such a comprehensive regulation project. According to the result, we suggest that reclamation works should strictly prohibit and dredging schemes should optimize in the subsequent regulation works.

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Mechanical Behavior of Hydroxyapatite-Chitosan Composite: Effect of Processing Parameters

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11020213 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 213

Author(s):

Hamid Ait Said ◽

Hassan Noukrati ◽

Hicham Ben Youcef ◽

Ayoub Bayoussef ◽

Hassane Oudadesse ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Molecular Weight ◽

Compressive Strength ◽

Mechanical Strength ◽

Bone Repair ◽

Mechanical Stability ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Processing Parameters ◽

Composite Effect ◽

Solid Liquid ◽

The Impact

Three-dimensional hydroxyapatite-chitosan (HA-CS) composites were formulated via solid-liquid technic and freeze-drying. The prepared composites had an apatitic nature, which was demonstrated by X-ray diffraction and Infrared spectroscopy analyses. The impact of the solid/liquid (S/L) ratio and the content and the molecular weight of the polymer on the composite mechanical strength was investigated. An increase in the S/L ratio from 0.5 to 1 resulted in an increase in the compressive strength for HA-CSL (CS low molecular weight: CSL) from 0.08 ± 0.02 to 1.95 ± 0.39 MPa and from 0.3 ± 0.06 to 2.40 ± 0.51 MPa for the HA-CSM (CS medium molecular weight: CSM). Moreover, the increase in the amount (1 to 5 wt%) and the molecular weight of the polymer increased the mechanical strength of the composite. The highest compressive strength value (up to 2.40 ± 0.51 MPa) was obtained for HA-CSM (5 wt% of CS) formulated at an S/L of 1. The dissolution tests of the HA-CS composites confirmed their cohesion and mechanical stability in an aqueous solution. Both polymer and apatite are assumed to work together, giving the synergism needed to make effective cylindrical composites, and could serve as a promising candidate for bone repair in the orthopedic field.

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Personality and Dementia: an Approach to Differential Profile of the Caregiver

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education ◽

10.3390/ejihpe1030007 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 85-94

Author(s):

Elena de Andrés-Jiménez ◽

Rosa Mª Limiñana-Gras ◽

Encarna Fernández-Ros

Keyword(s):

Relevant Information ◽

Personality Profile ◽

Family Carers ◽

Psychological Variables ◽

People With Dementia ◽

The Family ◽

Study Population ◽

The One ◽

The Impact

The aim of this study is to determine the existence of a characteristic personality profile of family carers of people with dementia. The correct knowledge and use of psychological variables which affect the carer, helps to promote appropriate actions to mitigate the impact of care and improve the carer’s quality of life and likewise the one of the person cared for. The study population consists of 69 family carers of people with dementia, members of various associations and care centers. The results allow us to identify a characteristic personality profile for these carers and it reveals a specific psychological working in this sample, although we cannot directly relate it with the tasks of caring for people with this disease, this profile gives us very relevant information to pay more attention to the needs of this group. Moreover, the analysis of personality styles depends on the sex of the family carer, showing, once again, that the woman is in a situation of most vulnerability.

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Impact of inter-reader contouring variability on textural radiomics of colorectal liver metastases

European Radiology Experimental ◽

10.1186/s41747-020-00189-8 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Francesco Rizzetto ◽

Francesca Calderoni ◽

Cristina De Mattia ◽

Arianna Defeudis ◽

Valentina Giannini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Liver Metastases ◽

Hausdorff Distance ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Liver Lesion ◽

Dice Coefficient ◽

Rf Values ◽

Enhanced Computed Tomography ◽

Relative Change ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Radiomics is expected to improve the management of metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). We aimed at evaluating the impact of liver lesion contouring as a source of variability on radiomic features (RFs). Methods After Ethics Committee approval, 70 liver metastases in 17 CRC patients were segmented on contrast-enhanced computed tomography scans by two residents and checked by experienced radiologists. RFs from grey level co-occurrence and run length matrices were extracted from three-dimensional (3D) regions of interest (ROIs) and the largest two-dimensional (2D) ROIs. Inter-reader variability was evaluated with Dice coefficient and Hausdorff distance, whilst its impact on RFs was assessed using mean relative change (MRC) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). For the main lesion of each patient, one reader also segmented a circular ROI on the same image used for the 2D ROI. Results The best inter-reader contouring agreement was observed for 2D ROIs according to both Dice coefficient (median 0.85, interquartile range 0.78–0.89) and Hausdorff distance (0.21 mm, 0.14–0.31 mm). Comparing RF values, MRC ranged 0–752% for 2D and 0–1567% for 3D. For 24/32 RFs (75%), MRC was lower for 2D than for 3D. An ICC > 0.90 was observed for more RFs for 2D (53%) than for 3D (34%). Only 2/32 RFs (6%) showed a variability between 2D and circular ROIs higher than inter-reader variability. Conclusions A 2D contouring approach may help mitigate overall inter-reader variability, albeit stable RFs can be extracted from both 3D and 2D segmentations of CRC liver metastases.

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3DIV update for 2021: a comprehensive resource of 3D genome and 3D cancer genome

Nucleic Acids Research ◽

10.1093/nar/gkaa1078 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 49 (D1) ◽

pp. D38-D46

Author(s):

Kyukwang Kim ◽

Insu Jang ◽

Mooyoung Kim ◽

Jinhyuk Choi ◽

Min-Seo Kim ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Line ◽

Large Scale ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Cancer Cell Line ◽

Cancer Genome ◽

Structural Variations ◽

3D Genome ◽

Tightly Coupled ◽

Regulatory Effects ◽

The Impact

Abstract Three-dimensional (3D) genome organization is tightly coupled with gene regulation in various biological processes and diseases. In cancer, various types of large-scale genomic rearrangements can disrupt the 3D genome, leading to oncogenic gene expression. However, unraveling the pathogenicity of the 3D cancer genome remains a challenge since closer examinations have been greatly limited due to the lack of appropriate tools specialized for disorganized higher-order chromatin structure. Here, we updated a 3D-genome Interaction Viewer and database named 3DIV by uniformly processing ∼230 billion raw Hi-C reads to expand our contents to the 3D cancer genome. The updates of 3DIV are listed as follows: (i) the collection of 401 samples including 220 cancer cell line/tumor Hi-C data, 153 normal cell line/tissue Hi-C data, and 28 promoter capture Hi-C data, (ii) the live interactive manipulation of the 3D cancer genome to simulate the impact of structural variations and (iii) the reconstruction of Hi-C contact maps by user-defined chromosome order to investigate the 3D genome of the complex genomic rearrangement. In summary, the updated 3DIV will be the most comprehensive resource to explore the gene regulatory effects of both the normal and cancer 3D genome. ‘3DIV’ is freely available at http://3div.kr.

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The effect of the outlet angle β2 on the thermomechanical behavior of a centrifugal compressor blade

Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Materials ◽

10.1515/jmbm-2020-0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Ahmed Allali ◽

Sadia Belbachir ◽

Ahmed Alami ◽

Belhadj Boucham ◽

Abdelkader Lousdad

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Behavior ◽

Centrifugal Compressor ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Complex Form ◽

Compressor Blade ◽

Stress Fields ◽

The Finite Element Method ◽

Mechanical Fatigue ◽

Outlet Angle ◽

The Impact

AbstractThe objective of this work lies in the three-dimensional study of the thermo mechanical behavior of a blade of a centrifugal compressor. Numerical modeling is performed on the computational code "ABAQUS" based on the finite element method. The aim is to study the impact of the change of types of blades, which are defined as a function of wheel output angle β2, on the stress fields and displacements coupled with the variation of the temperature.This coupling defines in a realistic way the thermo mechanical behavior of the blade where one can note the important concentrations of stresses and displacements in the different zones of its complex form as well as the effects at the edges. It will then be possible to prevent damage and cracks in the blades of the centrifugal compressor leading to its failure which can be caused by the thermal or mechanical fatigue of the material with which the wheel is manufactured.

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