Whole Image Research Articles

Analysis of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) Parameters in Young Adults after SARS-CoV-2 Infection (COVID-19) Compared with Healthy Young Controls.

To compare retinal changes in young adults with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection with healthy young controls using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). This prospective single-center study was conducted at the University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Participants were imaged from May to November 2021 using the SOLIX device (Visionix International SAS, Pont-de-l'Arche, France). We performed 12 mm × 12 mm, 6.4 mm × 6.4 mm, 6 mm × 6 mm and 3 mm × 3 mm OCT and OCTA scans, as well as fundus photography of each participant's eyes. In total, 466 participants were imaged. Of these, 233 were healthy controls with negative RT-PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2, 168 were young adults who had a SARS-CoV-2 infection at least 180 days previously, 19 were participants who had a SARS-CoV-2 infection < 180 days previously, and 46 were participants with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (i.e., serologically positive but with no symptoms). Compared with healthy controls, statistically significant differences were found for OCTA recordings of the optic disc for the whole image (WI) and WI capillary vessel density, with both being higher in the SARS-CoV-2 group. Statistically significant results were only observed for selected variables, and in parts, only unilaterally, with relatively large p values (p = 0.02-0.03). Thus, we did not interpret these as clinically significant, leading to the conclusion that young and otherwise healthy individuals (mainly men) seem to recover from mild COVID-19 infections with no ophthalmological residues.

Utility of WhatsApp in emergency urological practice: An interrater reliability study.

Introduction:The messaging application ‘WhatsApp’ is used in clinical practice, often for communication between a medical trainee and a consultant. We designed this study to find the interrater reliability of the data transmitted through this application and validating its use in urological practice.Materials and Methods:Clinical details and computerized tomographic (CT) images of 30 patients visiting the urology emergency were posted in a closed WhatsApp group involving three consultants (SKD, APS, and KC). The CT images were posted in the WhatsApp group as Whole Image (WI) and Image of Interest (IOI) format and rated on a scale of 1–5. The consultants formulated a provisional diagnosis and initial management strategy. The interrater reliability of these responses was analyzed in the study.Results:Mean WI rating ranged from 3.03 ± 0.61 to 3.73 ± 0.64 (Cronbach alfa [α]-0.494, P = 0.006). Mean IOI rating ranged from 3.4 ± 0.56 to 4.13 ± 0.73 (α-0.824, P < 0.0001). For diagnosis, the proportion of observed agreement (P0) was 83.3% for SKD and APS, 76.6% for SKD and KC, and 73.3% for APS and KC. For management, P0 was 86.6% for APS and KC, 86.6% for SKD and APS, and 80% for SKD and KC.Conclusions:WhatsApp Messenger serves to transmit good quality pictures of CT scan images. A reasonable diagnosis and management strategy can be formulated using this app with fair inter-rater reliability.

OCT ANGIOGRAPHY, VISUAL FIELD AND RNFL WITH VARIOUS MEDICATIONS IN HYPERTENSIVE GLAUCOMAS.

The aim of the study was to determine whether hypertensive glaucoma (HTG) with different types of treatment leads to significant damage in any of the evaluated parameters. The sample, consisting of 36 HTG patients (72 eyes), was divided into three subgroups: In the first group, patients were treated with combination therapy (latanoprost + timolol, latanoprost + dorzolamide + timolol, dorzolamide + timolol). The group consisted of seven women and five men, with an average age of 64 years (49-81). In the second group, patients were treated with beta-blockers (carteolol, betaxolol, timolol). The group consisted of five women and five men, with an average age of 62 years (27-77). In the third group, patients were treated with prostaglandins (latanoprost, bimatoprost). The group consisted of eleven women and three men, with an average age of 61 years (61-78). Criteria for inclusion in the study were visual acuity of 1.0 with a possible correction of less than ±3 dioptres, approximately the same changes in the visual fields of all patients, an intraocular pressure (IOP) of less than 18 mmHg, and no other ocular or neurological disease. The retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) on the optic nerve target and vessel density (VD) was measured using an Avanti RTVue XR from Optovue. We determined the values of VD in whole image (WI) and VD of peripapillary (PP). In both cases, we then measured all vessels (VDa) and small vessels (VDs). The visual field was examined by means of a fast threshold glaucoma program with a Medmont M 700 instrument. In addition to the sum of sensitivities in apostilbs (asb) in the range of 0-22 degrees, the overall visual field defect (OD) was also evaluated. The statistical analysis was carried out using a multivariate regression model with adjustment for age and gender. The measured values of the third group were taken as baseline. In the statistical analysis, we have found differences in visual field in the combination treatment group (p = 0.0006) and differences were recorded for RNFL in the beta-blocker group (p = 0.04).

Age and signal strength-related changes in vessel density in the choroid and the retina: an OCT angiography study of the macula and optic disc.

To investigate the effects of ageing and signal strength index (SSI) on vessel density (VD) measurements of the radial peripapillary capillaries (RPC) in the optic disc, the retinal superficial (SCP) and deep (DCP) capillary plexi and the choriocapillaris (CC) of the macular area using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) imaging. This cross-sectional study included 138 eyes from 77 healthy participants. High-definition (HD) disc Angio scan (4.5X4.5 mm) and HD Angio retina scan (6X6 mm) were acquired. Whole image (WI) VDs, inside disc (ID) VD and global and hemifield peripapillary RPC VDs were evaluated from the Angio Disc scans. Global and hemifield VD for the SCP, DCP and CC slab in the macula area were also recorded across different age groups. Mean age was 48.2 ± 15.0 years (range 25-82 years). Signal strength index (SSI) was 71.6 ± 7.6 in the macula and 74.6 ± 9.2 in the disc OCT-A image. VD for both SCP and DCP decreased by 0.084% and 0.188%/year (both p < 0.001). WI VD and ID VD also decreased by 0.037%/year (p = 0.005) and 0.092%/year (p < 0.001). Peripapillary RPC VD did not change with age or SSI. The effect of SSI was significant in SCP, DCP, WI RPC, ID RPC and CC VD. In the generalized estimating equationmodel testing for both SSI and age, SSI remained significant against SCP, DCP and ID RPC. With ageing, a decrease in VD in the SCP, DCP, WI and ID RPC, as well as in SSI, is seen. SSI and age are associated with VD changes, but only SSI is the significant variable that explains the variation in the retina microvasculature in the macula and the optic disc in multivariate analysis. In the CC, a larger SSI was associated with a lower VD. These findings underscore the importance of controlling for SSI in future studies using OCT-A.

Estimating the Leaf Nitrogen Content with a New Feature Extracted from the Ultra-High Spectral and Spatial Resolution Images in Wheat

Real-time and accurate monitoring of nitrogen content in crops is crucial for precision agriculture. Proximal sensing is the most common technique for monitoring crop traits, but it is often influenced by soil background and shadow effects. However, few studies have investigated the classification of different components of crop canopy, and the performance of spectral and textural indices from different components on estimating leaf nitrogen content (LNC) of wheat remains unexplored. This study aims to investigate a new feature extracted from near-ground hyperspectral imaging data to estimate precisely the LNC of wheat. In field experiments conducted over two years, we collected hyperspectral images at different rates of nitrogen and planting densities for several varieties of wheat throughout the growing season. We used traditional methods of classification (one unsupervised and one supervised method), spectral analysis (SA), textural analysis (TA), and integrated spectral and textural analysis (S-TA) to classify the images obtained as those of soil, panicles, sunlit leaves (SL), and shadowed leaves (SHL). The results show that the S-TA can provide a reasonable compromise between accuracy and efficiency (overall accuracy = 97.8%, Kappa coefficient = 0.971, and run time = 14 min), so the comparative results from S-TA were used to generate four target objects: the whole image (WI), all leaves (AL), SL, and SHL. Then, those objects were used to determine the relationships between the LNC and three types of indices: spectral indices (SIs), textural indices (TIs), and spectral and textural indices (STIs). All AL-derived indices achieved more stable relationships with the LNC than the WI-, SL-, and SHL-derived indices, and the AL-derived STI was the best index for estimating the LNC in terms of both calibration (Rc2 = 0.78, relative root mean-squared error (RRMSEc) = 13.5%) and validation (Rv2 = 0.83, RRMSEv = 10.9%). It suggests that extracting the spectral and textural features of all leaves from near-ground hyperspectral images can precisely estimate the LNC of wheat throughout the growing season. The workflow is promising for the LNC estimation of other crops and could be helpful for precision agriculture.

Automatic labeling of molecular biomarkers of immunohistochemistry images using fully convolutional networks.

This paper addresses the problem of quantifying biomarkers in multi-stained tissues based on the color and spatial information of microscopy images of the tissue. A deep learning-based method that can automatically localize and quantify the regions expressing biomarker(s) in any selected area on a whole slide image is proposed. The deep learning network, which we refer to as Whole Image (WI)-Net, is a fully convolutional network whose input is the true RGB color image of a tissue and output is a map showing the locations of each biomarker. The WI-Net relies on a different network, Nuclei (N)-Net, which is a convolutional neural network that classifies each nucleus separately according to the biomarker(s) it expresses. In this study, images of immunohistochemistry (IHC)-stained slides were collected and used. Images of nuclei (4679 RGB images) were manually labeled based on the expressing biomarkers in each nucleus (as p16 positive, Ki-67 positive, p16 and Ki-67 positive, p16 and Ki-67 negative). The labeled nuclei images were used to train the N-Net (obtaining an accuracy of 92% in a test set). The trained N-Net was then extended to WI-Net that generated a map of all biomarkers in any selected sub-image of the whole slide image acquired by the scanner (instead of classifying every nucleus image). The results of our method compare well with the manual labeling by humans (average F-score of 0.96). In addition, we carried a layer-based immunohistochemical analysis of cervical epithelium, and showed that our method can be used by pathologists to differentiate between different grades of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia by quantitatively assessing the percentage of proliferating cells in the different layers of HPV positive lesions.

Buddha and Christ: Images of Wholeness. Robert Elinor. and Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings. Edited by Marcus Borg.

Buddha and Christ: Images of Wholeness. Robert Elinor. Lutterworth, Cambridge 2000. 233 pp. £40.00. ISBN 0 7188 3011 3. Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings. Edited by Marcus Borg. Duncan Baird, London 2002. 160 pp. £16.99. ISBN 1 903296 79 X.

Desert wanderings: pathways for whole, broken and shattered psyches.

This paper challenges an implicit assumption of analytical psychology that centred, mandalic images express psychical wholeness in an optimal fashion across cultures and eras. I suggest that liminal, bardo-like eras, such as our 'post-modern' one, constellate complex, antithetical and ec-centric images, which are process-oriented and which encompass wholeness and fragmentation, conjunction and disjunction, thus holding and expressing actual individual and collective experience. In our era, we inhabit unfolding states of wholeness, brokenness and fragmentation. Images of wholeness, emerging spontaneously from the unconscious, may reflect part or all of these contradictory realities. Examples of such antithetical Self-images are developed from the ancient midrashic traditions of the rabbis; from Jung's contemporary exposition of Pauli's 'world-clock' dream; from Kepler's discovery, at the dawn of modernity, that the planets circled the sun in ellipses rather than circles; and from a clinical illustration.

Images of God Through the Lens of Disability

This paper promotes a “liberatory theology of disability” founded upon biblical images of God and upon the perspective and experiences of persons with disabilities. It calls for new images of wholeness and healing in order to comprehend a truer imaging of God. The author posits that we must view disability and disease through different conceptual lenses than we have used heretofore in order to behold the image of God in each child of God. She asserts that disability in no way detracts from our essential being; indeed, it may well enhance our image of God and of ourselves.

Coriolanus: Body Politic and Private Parts

POLITICAL THINKING AND, CONSEQUENTLY, WRITING ABOUT politics have traditionally made use of certain master tropes that remain constant in principle even when the nature and content of political discourse change. At the foundation of Western political thought, for instance, is the trope of the dialectical relationship between man in the state of nature (that is, man fending for himself and caring for the propagation of his species) and man in the domain of culture (that is, man in the embrace of community, of polis, of an organism that, ideally, is himself writ large, but that also dominates him, subjecting him to a necessity beyond the easily graspable one of his own needs and instincts). Among the archetypal scenes of politics are those that reveal the reverberation between these poles of unity and fragmentation, wholeness and separation. Achilles sulking in his tent, the tribes of Israel retreating after the death of Solomon, the Roman plebs leaving the city for the Mons Sacra in the time of Coriolanus, the secession to the tennis court in prerevolutionary France: we recognize in such historical and fictional scenes ur-configurations of political intercourse. An organism purporting to be a whole (a kingdom, a republic, a military expedition, an assembly) splits into parts, revealing itself to be an uneasy association of warlords, a hierarchy of classes, or a tenuous alliance of tribes. Politics is about division more than it is about unity. But the discourse of politics (as opposed to the history of political action), a discourse that occupies a rhetorical space between the opposing poles of fragmentation and wholeness, exploits the resources of both extremes, deriving as much energy from images of wholeness and totality as it does from the language of dismemberment and fission. Political writings that attempt to analyze and describe the phenomena of the great wealth-creating and labor-exploiting industrial cities of the nineteenth century inevitably grapple with a spectacle of pervasive division. The city (London, Manchester, Paris) is a mass of people living in close proximity, but the people are separated from each other by great barriers of money and class. In Capital Marx quotes a London newspaper that describes not a riot or a rebellion but quotidian urban life during a severe economic depression in 1867: