Image Gallery Research Articles

Development and Evaluation of an Interactive Virtual Learning Object on the Diagnostic Reasoning in Nursing Applied to Preterm Newborns

The virtual learning object was organized in modules, consisting of a presentation, image gallery, theoretical content about Nursing Diagnosis in Neonatology, automatic presentations of clinical cases of preterm newborns at the neonatal intermediate care unit, and simulation exercises of clinical cases of preterm newborns. Face and content evaluations of the virtual object regarding the aspects related to presentation, organization, use and overall impression were performed by experts in computer science (12) and nursing (31). All items received positive evaluations by over 80% of the evaluators, except for the information density criterion on the evaluation by computer science experts. The product is considered adequate to be used for students and continuous education in nursing, in the pedagogical framework of problem-posing.

Zoning Laws: Facebook and Google+

Zoning Laws: Facebook and Google+

A rapid, semi-automated method for scoring micronuclei in mononucleated mouse lymphoma cells

A semi-automated scoring system has been developed to provide rapid, accurate assessment of micronuclei in preparations of mononuclear mouse lymphoma L5178Y cells. Following exposure to a range of test agents, flat, single-cell preparations were produced from exponentially growing cultures by cytocentrifugation. Following staining with 4′-6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), cells were scanned by use of the MicroNuc module of Metafer 4 v 3.4.102, after modifying the classifier developed for selecting micronuclei in binucleate cells to increase its sensitivity. The image gallery of all cells was then sorted to bring aberrant cells to the top of the gallery to assess visually the numbers of cells with micronuclei, as distinct from other debris. Slide quality was shown to be paramount in obtaining accurate results from an automated scan and the data obtained compared very well with the incidence of micronuclei scored conventionally by microscopy. Compared with manual scoring the time saving is considerable, as more than 2000 images are captured in approximately 2 min, with subsequent visual assessment of aberrant cells in the image gallery taking about 1–2 min/slide. By scanning all aberrant cells, the system also captures additional information on necrotic, apoptotic and fragmented cells. Although optimised for mouse lymphoma cells, it should be simple to adapt the method for any cell type growing in suspension.

Fisheries and Marine Animal Populations: Learning from the Long Term

The articles that comprise the HMAP Collection are products of the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project. This is an international, multidisciplinary initiative, the overarching aim of which is to improve knowledge and understanding of the long-term interaction of humankind with the marine environment. HMAP endeavours to attain this goal in three principal ways. First, a concerted effort is being made to embed the approaches and methods developed by HMAP into the institutional fabric of the universities that are hosting the project. This connects closely with the second strand of the scheme, which is designed to develop the parallel disciplines of historical marine ecology and marine environmental history through the sponsorship of graduate studentships, workshops, summer schools, conferences and the dissemination of research outputs. The third activity is the co-ordination of a research programme embracing the efforts of over 100 scientists in 18 countries working in teams tasked with investigating 12 regionally-specific, two thematic and two global taxon-specific case studies [www. hmapcoml.org/projects]. HMAP has progressed fruitfully in all three respects since its inception in 2000. It has established centres at the universities of New Hampshire (USA), Roskilde (Denmark), Hull (UK), Murdoch (Australia) and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), where faculty members – some of whom might be cast as ‘HMAP graduates’ are responsible for leading the project and cultivating its distinctive approach to marine environmental issues. Here, and at numerous other educational institutions, the curricula have been enriched by the introduction of programs of study that focus on the marine dimensions of historical ecology and environmental history. Such learning and teaching work is informed by research undertaken under the aegis of HMAP, which by 2009 had generated over 200 printed and online works [www. hmapcoml.org/publications], as well as a substantial web-based data store [1], an online atlas of fisheries in the case study areas [2] and an image gallery [3]. The articles in the HMAP Collection add to that output. Some were generated by scientists funded as part of the HMAP research effort, while others had their genesis in papers presented at ‘Oceans Past II: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the History and Future of Marine Animal Populations’, an international conference convened by HMAP and hosted by the Aquatic Ecosystem Research Laboratory at the University of British Columbia in May 2009. The Collection testifies to the vitality of the HMAP approach to the dynamic interaction of humankind and the marine environment. This overview explains how that approach evolved, identifies the research issues that lie at its heart, and outlines some of the contributions to knowledge and understanding that HMAP research has yielded.

An Online Evidence-Based Decision Support System for Distinguishing Benign from Malignant Vertebral Compression Fractures by Magnetic Resonance Imaging Feature Analysis

Decision support systems have been used to promote the practice of evidence-based medicine. Computer-assisted diagnosis can serve as one element of evidence-based radiology. One area where such tools may provide benefit is analysis of vertebral compression fractures (VCFs), which can be a challenge in MRI interpretation. VCFs may be benign or malignant in etiology, and several MRI features may help to make this important distinction. We describe a web-based decision support system for discriminating benign from malignant VCFs as a prototype for a more general diagnostic decision support framework for radiologists. The system has three components: a feature checklist with an image gallery derived from proven reference cases, a prediction model, and a reporting mechanism. The website allows users to input the findings for a case to be interpreted using a structured feature checklist. The image gallery complements the checklist, for clarity and training purposes. The input from the checklist is then used to calculate the likelihood of malignancy by a logistic regression prediction model. Standardized report text is generated that summarizes pertinent positive and negative findings. This computer-assisted diagnosis system demonstrates the integration of three areas where diagnostic decision support can aid radiologists: first, in image interpretation, through feature checklists and illustrative image galleries; second, in feature-based prediction modeling; and third, in structured reporting. We present a diagnostic decision support tool that provides radiologists with evidence-based guidance for discriminating benign from malignant VCF. This model may be useful in other difficult-diagnosis situations and requires further clinical testing.

Interactive Data Mining for Large-Scale Image Databases Based on Formal Concept Analysis

In order to perform an interactive data-mining for huge image databases efficiently, a visualization interface based on Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is proposed. The proposed interface system provides an intuitive lattice structure enabling users freely and easily to select FCA attributes and to view different aspects of the Hasse diagram of the lattice of a given image database. The investigation environment is implemented using C++ and the OpenCV library on a personal computer (CPU = 2.13 GHz, MM = 2 GB). In visualization experiments using 1,000 Corel Image Gallery images, we test image features such as color, edge, and face detectors as FCA attributes. Experimental analysis confirms the effectiveness of the proposed interface and its potential as an efficient datamining tool.

Management System for Tagged Image Databases Using Lattice Structures

Tagged Image Management System based on Lattice Structures (TaILaS), the next-generation management we propose for a large number of images, constructs a concept lattice from image tags using formal concept analysis, then visualizes the Hasse diagram of this lattice for any numbers of images. TaILaS enables users to avoid having to classify images which are difficult to divide into folders. TaILaS runs on a conventional computer (CPU = 2.13 GHz,MM= 2 GB) and is implemented in Processing as a Java-based programming language. Experiments involving 11 subjects using 100 images selected from the Corel Image Gallery confirmed that TaILaS manages huge image databases effectively.

Gaia Outreach Features Available to the Scientific Community

The existing outreach resources available to the scientific community that have been updated (like the information sheets or the little books of Gaia) are shown. New features (vodcast in several languages, new posters and a science performance web page) and short term projects (new and centralised image gallery) are also presented.

Biased Discriminant Euclidean Embedding for Content-Based Image Retrieval

With many potential multimedia applications, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has recently gained more attention for image management and web search. A wide variety of relevance feedback (RF) algorithms have been developed in recent years to improve the performance of CBIR systems. These RF algorithms capture user's preferences and bridge the semantic gap. However, there is still a big room to further the RF performance, because the popular RF algorithms ignore the manifold structure of image low-level visual features. In this paper, we propose the biased discriminative Euclidean embedding (BDEE) which parameterises samples in the original high-dimensional ambient space to discover the intrinsic coordinate of image low-level visual features. BDEE precisely models both the intraclass geometry and interclass discrimination and never meets the undersampled problem. To consider unlabelled samples, a manifold regularization-based item is introduced and combined with BDEE to form the semi-supervised BDEE, or semi-BDEE for short. To justify the effectiveness of the proposed BDEE and semi-BDEE, we compare them against the conventional RF algorithms and show a significant improvement in terms of accuracy and stability based on a subset of the Corel image gallery.

Improving the User Experience of a Mobile Photo Gallery by Supporting Social Interaction

Today, image gallery applications on mobile devices tend to be stand-alone and offline. For people who want to share photos with others, many add-on tools have been developed to connect the gallery applications to Internet services to enable photo-sharing. The authors argue that photo-centric social interaction is best supported when the gallery application is fully integrated with an Internet service. In this case, no additional tools are needed and the user’s image content is fully synchronized with the service. They designed and implemented a service-integrated mobile gallery application with a corresponding Internet service. Moreover, they conducted a field study with 10 participants to compare our application with a state-of-the-art gallery application combined with an add-on photo-sharing tool. Their application was preferred by most participants and it was especially appreciated because of the user experience. Above all, the results show that social activity increased amongst the participants while using our application.

Cinema Image Gallery

Cinema Image Gallery

Pathomechanismen der spinalen Enge – Upright-MRT-Bildergalerie

Lumbar spinal canal stenosis is a common disease of the elderly patient, with a high prevalence and clinical importance. MRI is the established method of choice for the imaging of spinal canal stenosis. However, there is often a discrepancy between the clinical symptoms and the spinal canal stenosis as shown using MRI in a supine position. In such cases preoperative functional imaging is often warranted. In an image gallery three cases of a functional spinal canal stenosis of the lumbar spine are shown. In all three patients a dynamic, positional MRI (upright MRI) was performed. The pathomechanisms of the spinal canal stenosis could be shown in all three cases. Using upright MRI a functional spinal canal stenosis can be shown. The pathomechanisms of the spinal canal stenosis are discussed. The possibilities and limitations of this new imaging modality are presented and analysed.

I Wanted to See All the News from Today

I wanted to See all the news from Today http://allnews.greyisgood.eu/ Martin John Callanan Marshall McLuhan once quipped that people don’t read newspapers so much as submerge into them. The patron saint of digital culture likened this action, a veritable ‘sinking’ into disparate streams of information, as something an individual would approach as casually as they’d slip into a warm bath. Martin John Callanan’s I wanted to See all the news from Today provides a similar immersive media experience by aggregating the front page of hundreds of newspapers from around the world and displaying these images within the screen space of a single web page. Launched in 2007, the piece mines more than 600 papers originating in seven continents, continuously scraping data from these sources every day without pause. These pages are organized to form a massive grid that references the familiar ‘image gallery’ and ‘array of thumbnails’ that are associated with managing digital information assets, but subverts these organizational frameworks towards different ends.

Three‐dimensional (3D) backward and forward second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy of biological tissues

In this work we aim to show how it is possible to exploit the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal for producing multimodal microscopic images of biological tissues. SHG microscopy constitutes an important tool for high-resolution, high-contrast, three-dimensional studies of live cell and tissue architectures. The physical origins of SHG within these tissues are addressed and reported in a comprehensive image gallery. Although SHG is a coherent process, the multiple scattering of tissue samples determines the ability to acquire signal in both backward and forward direction. We discuss here some key elements related to the backward and forward SHG signal in terms of acquisition architecture and related microscopic imaging.

Natural facial expression recognition using differential-AAM and manifold learning

This paper proposes a novel natural facial expression recognition method that recognizes a sequence of dynamic facial expression images using the differential active appearance model (AAM) and manifold learning as follows. First, the differential-AAM features (DAFs) are computed by the difference of the AAM parameters between an input face image and a reference (neutral expression) face image. Second, manifold learning embeds the DAFs on the smooth and continuous feature space. Third, the input facial expression is recognized through two steps: (1) computing the distances between the input image sequence and gallery image sequences using directed Hausdorff distance (DHD) and (2) selecting the expression by a majority voting of k -nearest neighbors ( k -NN) sequences in the gallery. The DAFs are robust and efficient for the facial expression analysis due to the elimination of the inter-person, camera, and illumination variations. Since the DAFs treat the neutral expression image as the reference image, the neutral expression image must be found effectively. This is done via the differential facial expression probability density model (DFEPDM) using the kernel density approximation of the positively directional DAFs changing from neutral to angry (happy, surprised) and negatively directional DAFs changing from angry (happy, surprised) to neutral. Then, a face image is considered to be the neutral expression if it has the maximum DFEPDM in the input sequences. Experimental results show that (1) the DAFs improve the facial expression recognition performance over conventional AAM features by 20% and (2) the sequence-based k -NN classifier provides a 95% facial expression recognition performance on the facial expression database (FED06).

Virtual MR arthroscopy of the shoulder: image gallery with arthroscopic correlation of major pathologies in shoulder instability

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to compare virtual MR arthroscopic reconstructions with arthroscopic images in patients affected by shoulder joint instability. MR arthrography (MR-AR) of the shoulder is now a well-assessed technique, based on the injection of a contrast medium solution, which fills the articular space and finds its way between the rotator cuff (RC) and the glenohumeral ligaments. In patients with glenolabral pathology, we used an additional sequence that provided virtual arthroscopy (VA) post-processed views, which completed the MR evaluation of shoulder pathology.Materials and methodsWe enrolled 36 patients, from whom MR arthrographic sequence data (SE T1w and GRE T1 FAT SAT) were obtained using a GE 0.5 T Signa—before any surgical or arthroscopic planned treatment; the protocol included a supplemental 3D, spoiled GE T1w positioned in the coronal plane. Dedicated software loaded on a work-station was used to elaborate VAs. Two radiologists evaluated, on a semiquantitative scale, the visibility of the principal anatomic structures, and then, in consensus, the pathology emerging from the VA images.ResultsThese images were reconstructed in all patients, except one. The visualization of all anatomical structures was acceptable. VA and MR arthrographic images were fairly concordant with intraoperative findings.ConclusionsAlthough in our pilot study the VA findings did not change the surgical planning, the results showed concordance with the surgical or arthroscopic images.

Dynamic “Inline” Images: Context-Sensitive Retrieval and Integration of Images into Web Documents

Integrating relevant images into web-based information resources adds value for research and education. This work sought to evaluate the feasibility of using "Web 2.0" technologies to dynamically retrieve and integrate pertinent images into a radiology web site. An online radiology reference of 1,178 textual web documents was selected as the set of target documents. The ARRS GoldMiner image search engine, which incorporated 176,386 images from 228 peer-reviewed journals, retrieved images on demand and integrated them into the documents. At least one image was retrieved in real-time for display as an "inline" image gallery for 87% of the web documents. Each thumbnail image was linked to the full-size image at its original web site. Review of 20 randomly selected Collaborative Hypertext of Radiology documents found that 69 of 72 displayed images (96%) were relevant to the target document. Users could click on the "More" link to search the image collection more comprehensively and, from there, link to the full text of the article. A gallery of relevant radiology images can be inserted easily into web pages on any web server. Indexing by concepts and keywords allows context-aware image retrieval, and searching by document title and subject metadata yields excellent results. These techniques allow web developers to incorporate easily a context-sensitive image gallery into their documents.

Pediatric multidetector computed tomography using tube current modulation and a patient image gallery

Dose reduction is crucial in pediatric multidetector computed tomography (MDCT). To perform pediatric 16-slice MDCT using tube current modulations and to adjust prospectively the tube current using a patient image gallery (IG) providing simulated dose-reduced protocols; and to evaluate and compare the image quality of the IG and the clinical MDCT. 30 examinations (thorax, n = 15; abdomen, n = 8; pelvis, n = 7) in 20 patients (nine male, age 8.05 +/- 7.33 years, weight 29.8 +/- 24.02 kg) were performed according to an IG on a 16-slice MDCT with additional use of online tube current modulation (CARE Dose). Three radiologists visually assessed image quality from the IG and actual 16-slice MDCT scans. For objective analysis, image noise was determined. Statistical analysis showed moderate concordance in objective (K = 0.68-0.78) and subjective (K = 0.33-0.64) image assessment between the IG and clinical 16-slice MDCT scans. Depending on the weight group and clinical question, no or only minor dose reductions in the chest, but moderate to considerable reductions in the abdominal/pelvic 16-slice MDCT scans compared to previously used pediatric protocols were achieved. Extra dose reduction was achieved due to additional use of CARE Dose depending on age group and scan region (mean 8.6-23.9%). The IG enabled us to prospectively reduce the tube current and adapt the required image quality to the clinical question. Additional dose reduction was achieved with application of CARE Dose; nevertheless, the images are comparable to the simulated images of the IG.

Prospective Evaluation of Image Quality with Use of a Patient Image Gallery for Dose Reduction in Pediatric 16-MDCT

The purposes of this study were to evaluate prospective adjustment of dose settings in pediatric 16-MDCT by use of computer-simulated images in a patient image gallery and to compare the dose reduction achieved with that of standard pediatric protocols. The image gallery consisted of images from weight-dependent sample examinations performed with varied simulated tube current-exposure time settings. The scanning parameters prospectively chosen on the basis of the image quality of the image gallery were used for 30 16-MDCT examinations (chest, n = 15; abdomen, n = 8; pelvis, n = 7) of 22 children (14 boys, eight girls; mean age, 6.8 +/- 5.8 years; mean body weight, 26.7 +/- 19.6 kg). Three blinded radiologists used a 4-point grading scale to rate the overall image quality of the image gallery and the 16-MDCT scans. Objective and subjective image quality was assessed for the simulated and actual CT scans. The concordance correlation coefficient (K) was determined. There was mainly moderate concordance with regard to objective (chest, K = 0.69; abdomen, K = 0.33; pelvis, K = 0.55) and subjective (chest soft-tissue window, kappa coefficient [kappa] = 0.00; chest lung window, kappa = 0.53; abdomen, kappa = 1.00; pelvis, kappa = 0.48) analysis of image gallery compared with actual 16-MDCT examinations. Compared with use of previous weight-adapted pediatric standard protocols, use of an image gallery resulted in further dose reduction for abdominal and pelvic CT but not for thoracic CT. A patient image gallery can be used as a basis for pediatric 16-MDCT examinations. The gallery provides a preexamination overview of expected image quality. Radiation exposure can be optimized with regard to patient weight and the image quality needed to answer the clinical question.

Virtual maps–virtual worlds: Testing the usability of a greek virtual cultural map

AbstractThe authors report on the findings of a usability test conducted to evaluate the usability of the VeriaGrid online system. The VeriaGrid (www.theveriagrid.org) is a prototype virtual map that focuses on the provision of information related to the cultural heritage of the city of Veria (Greece). It has been developed under the Light Project by the Central Public Library of Veria (www.libver.gr). It is an interactive application that includes various functional or thematic areas such as an interactive digital map of Veria, image gallery, videoclips, panoramic site photos, and general information about the city of Veria. The findings of the usability test revealed that users had some difficulties in using novel features of the digital map (such as the Recommended Points and the Routes functions) and finding textual information about cultural heritage of the city of Veria. Users, however, were satisfied with the overall usability of the system. In light of these findings, some recommendations for improving the usability of the system are made.