Evaluation of contrast enhancement ultrasound images of Sonazoid microbubbles in tissue-mimicking phantom obtained by optimal Golay pulse compression

In contrast enhancement ultrasound (CEUS), the vasculature image can be formed from nonlinear echoes arising from microbubbles in a blood flow. The use of binary-coded pulse compression is promising for improving the contrast of CEUS images by suppressing background noise. However, the amplitudes of nonlinear echoes can be reduced, and sidelobes by nonlinear echoes can occur depending on the binary code. Optimal Golay codes with slight nonlinear-echo reduction and nonlinear sidelobe have been proposed. In this study, CEUS images obtained by optimal Golay pulse compression are evaluated through experiments using Sonazoid microbubbles flowing in a tissue-mimicking phantom.

Susac Syndrome: an uncommon cause of impaired vision

A 35-year-old Caucasian woman presented an abrupt onset of bilateral impaired vision, and arrived to our attention two weeks later. She had a previous episode of mild dizziness. She underwent a fluorescein angiography showing branch retinal artery occlusions and a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealing several supraand infratentorial FLAIR-hyperintense white matter lesions, two with contrast enhancement. Thrombophilic, autoimmune and infective (including Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Borrelia burgdorferi, Hepatitis B Virus, Hepatitis C Virus, Herpes Simplex Virus 1-2, Varicella Zoster Virus) screening was negative. Cerebrospinal fluid analysis showed intrathecal IgG synthesis. We suspected a Primary Central Nervous System Vasculitis, and intravenous steroids were started. Three months later a second brain MRI showed seven new lesions without contrast enhancement, and she revealed a cognitive impairment and bilateral hearing loss. Reviewing the clinical history and MRI, she fulfilled diagnostic criteria for Susac syndrome. She had two cycles of cyclophosphamide, and recovered in 6 months and then remained stable with metotrexate.

Vowel allophony in Ness Gaelic: Phonetic and phonological patterns of laxing and retraction

The vowel system of the dialect of Scottish Gaelic spoken in Ness, Lewis differs from that of other dialects in several important ways. In particular, several vowels display patterns of allophony that have not been investigated instrumentally and, in some cases, have not been reported before for Scottish Gaelic. This paper documents the Ness system in detail, focusing in particular on the tense–lax opposition in /i e/ and retraction of /a(ː)/ next to velarised consonants. The results of a traditional linguistic fieldwork study are presented first, followed by a detailed acoustic study of nine speakers. The acoustic reality of these allophonic patterns, reflected in F1 and F2 values, is verified statistically using LME modelling. Bimodality in the distribution of tokens in acoustic space, confirmed statistically with Hartigan’s Dip Test, is taken as evidence for the existence of discrete phonological categories (Bermúdez-Otero & Trousdale 2011). It is found that speakers vary as to whether these allophonic oppositions are restricted to the phonetic grammar, or have undergone stabilisation and advanced into the categorical phonology (Bermúdez-Otero 2007, 2015). It is observed that laxing of /i e/ in Ness Gaelic occurs in exactly those contexts where there is a direct transition between the vowel and a following supra-glottal consonant. It is therefore proposed that this tense–lax opposition is grounded in conflicting strategies of contrast enhancement, whereby laxing increases the perceptual distinctiveness of a following consonant by allowing for more distinctive formant transitions, at the expense of the distinctiveness of the vowel itself (Storme 2019).

Tumor load rather than contrast enhancement is associated with the visual function of children and adolescents with optic pathway glioma – a retrospective Magnetic Resonance Imaging study

Introduction Optic pathway gliomas are often asymptomatic tumors occurring in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1 + OPG) or sporadically (spOPG). Treatment is usually prompted by visual loss and/or tumor progression on MRI. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between visual acuity (VA), tumor growth, and contrast enhancement to provide more distinct indications for the administration of gadolinium-based contrast agents. Methods Tumor load was retrospectively measured and enhancement semi-quantitatively scored on 298 MRIs of 35 patients (63% NF1 + OPG). Spearman rank correlation between tumor load and enhancement was calculated and a linear mixed model used to examine the influence of tumor load and enhancement on corresponding VA tests (LogMAR). Results The optic nerve width in NF1 + OPGs was strongly associated with VA (regression coefficient 0.75; confidence interval 0.61—0.88), but weakly with enhancement (0.06; −0.04—0.15). In spOPGs, tumor volume and optic nerve width were more relevant (0.31; −0.19—0.81 and 0.39; 0.05—0.73) than enhancement (0.09; −0.09—0.27). Conclusions Tumor load measures may be more relevant for the surveillance of optic pathway gliomas than enhancement, given that VA is the relevant outcome parameter. Regular contrast administration should therefore be questioned in these patients.

Multifeature Contrast Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Media Images Based on the Diffusion Equation

This paper studies the processing of digital media images using a diffusion equation to increase the contrast of the image by stretching or extending the distribution of luminance data of the image to obtain clearer information of digital media images. In this paper, the image enhancement algorithm of nonlinear diffusion filtering is used to add a velocity term to the diffusion function using a coupled denoising model, which makes the diffusion of the original model smooth, and the interferogram is solved numerically with the help of numerical simulation to verify the denoising processing effect before and after the model correction. To meet the real-time applications in the field of video surveillance, this paper focuses on the optimization of the algorithm program, including software pipeline optimization, operation unit balancing, single instruction multiple data optimization, arithmetic operation optimization, and onchip storage optimization. These optimizations enable the nonlinear diffusion filter-based image enhancement algorithm to achieve high processing efficiency on the C674xDSP, with a processing speed of 25 posts per second for 640 × 480 size video images. Finally, the significance means a value of super pixel blocks is calculated in superpixel units, and the image is segmented into objects and backgrounds by combining with the Otsu threshold segmentation algorithm to mention the image. In this paper, the proposed algorithm experiments with several sets of Kor Kor resolution remote sensing images, respectively, and the Markov random field model and fully convolutional network (FCN) algorithm are used as the comparison algorithm. By comparing the experimental results qualitatively and quantitatively, it is shown that the algorithm in this paper has an obvious practical effect on contrast enhancement of digital media images and has certain practicality and superiority.

Delineating Toxicity Mechanisms Associated with MRI Contrast Enhancement through a Multidimensional Toxicogenomic Profiling of Gadolinium

Although gadolinium is widely used for magnetic resonance imaging in clinical settings, many concerns regarding its toxicity and bioaccumulation after gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) administration have been raised and published...