Ultrasound Imaging

In this book, we present a dozen state of the art developments for ultrasound imaging, for example, hardware implementation, transducer, beamforming, signal processing, measurement of elasticity and diagnosis. The editors would like to thank all the chapter authors, who focused on the publication of this book

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the best theses defended in 2021-22 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

Recent Developments in Atomic Force Microscopy and Raman Spectroscopy for Materials Characterization

This book contains chapters that describe advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM) modes and Raman spectroscopy. It also provides an in-depth understanding of advanced AFM modes and Raman spectroscopy for characterizing various materials. This volume is a useful resource for a wide range of readers, including scientists, engineers, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientific professionals working in specialized fields such as AFM, photovoltaics, 2D materials, carbon nanotubes, nanomaterials, and Raman spectroscopy

Special Topics in Information Technology

This open access book presents outstanding doctoral dissertations in Information Technology from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Information Technology has always been highly interdisciplinary, as many aspects have to be considered in IT systems. The doctoral studies program in IT at Politecnico di Milano emphasizes this interdisciplinary nature, which is becoming more and more important in recent technological advances, in collaborative projects, and in the education of young researchers. Accordingly, the focus of advanced research is on pursuing a rigorous approach to specific research topics starting from a broad background in various areas of Information Technology, especially Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics, Systems and Control, and Telecommunications. Each year, more than 50 PhDs graduate from the program. This book gathers the outcomes of the best theses defended in 2021-22 and selected for the IT PhD Award. Each of the authors provides a chapter summarizing his/her findings, including an introduction, description of methods, main achievements and future work on the topic. Hence, the book provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest research trends in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano, presented in an easy-to-read format that will also appeal to non-specialists

NOVEL ALGORITHMS AND TOOLS FOR LIGAND-BASED DRUG DESIGN

Computer-aided drug design (CADD) has become an indispensible component in modern drug discovery projects. The prediction of physicochemical properties and pharmacological properties of candidate compounds effectively increases the probability for drug candidates to pass latter phases of clinic trials. Ligand-based virtual screening exhibits advantages over structure-based drug design, in terms of its wide applicability and high computational efficiency. The established chemical repositories and reported bioassays form a gigantic knowledgebase to derive quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) and structure-property relationship (QSPR). In addition, the rapid advance of machine learning techniques suggests new solutions for data-mining huge compound databases. In this thesis, a novel ligand classification algorithm, Ligand Classifier of Adaptively Boosting Ensemble Decision Stumps (LiCABEDS), was reported for the prediction of diverse categorical pharmacological properties. LiCABEDS was successfully applied to model 5-HT1A ligand functionality, ligand selectivity of cannabinoid receptor subtypes, and blood-brain-barrier (BBB) passage. LiCABEDS was implemented and integrated with graphical user interface, data import/export, automated model training/ prediction, and project management. Besides, a non-linear ligand classifier was proposed, using a novel Topomer kernel function in support vector machine. With the emphasis on green high-performance computing, graphics processing units are alternative platforms for computationally expensive tasks. A novel GPU algorithm was designed and implemented in order to accelerate the calculation of chemical similarities with dense-format molecular fingerprints. Finally, a compound acquisition algorithm was reported to construct structurally diverse screening library in order to enhance hit rates in high-throughput screening

ReSCon '12, Research Student Conference: Book of Abstracts

The fifth SED Research Student Conference (ReSCon2012) was hosted over three days, 18-20 June 2012, in the Hamilton Centre at Brunel University. The conference consisted of 130 oral and 70 poster presentations, based on the high quality and diverse research being conducted within the School of Engineering and Design by postgraduate research students. The conference is held annually, and ReSCon plays a key role in contributing to research and innovations within the School

Applications of Monte Carlo Methods in Biology, Medicine and Other Fields of Science

This volume is an eclectic mix of applications of Monte Carlo methods in many fields of research should not be surprising, because of the ubiquitous use of these methods in many fields of human endeavor. In an attempt to focus attention on a manageable set of applications, the main thrust of this book is to emphasize applications of Monte Carlo simulation methods in biology and medicine

Electrophysiological evidence for memory schemas in the rat hippocampus

According to Piaget and Bartlett, learning involves both assimilation of new memories into networks of preexisting knowledge and alteration of existing networks to accommodate new information into existing schemas. Recent evidence suggests that the hippocampus integrates related memories into schemas that link representations of separately acquired experiences. In this thesis, I first review models for how memories of individual experiences become consolidated into the structure of world knowledge. Disruption of consolidated memories can occur during related learning, which suggests that consolidation of new information is the reconsolidation of related memories. The accepted role of the hippocampus during memory consolidation and reconsolidation suggests that it is also involved in modifying appropriate schemas during learning. To study schema development, I trained rats to retrieve rewards at different loci on a maze while recording hippocampal calls. About a quarter of cells were active at multiple goal sites, though the ensemble as a whole distinguished goal loci from one another. When new goals were introduced, cells that had been active at old goal locations began firing at the new locations. This initial generalization decreased in the days after learning. Learning also caused changes in firing patterns at well-learned goal locations. These results suggest that learning was supported by modification of an active schema of spatially related reward loci. In another experiment, I extended these findings to explore a schema of object and place associations. Ensemble activity was influenced by a hierarchy of task dimensions which included: experimental context, rat's spatial location, the reward potential and the identity of sampled objects. As rats learned about new objects, the cells that had previously fired for particular object-place conjunctions generalized their firing patterns to new conjunctions that similarly predicted reward. In both experiments, I observed highly structured representations for a set of related experiences. This organization of hippocampal activity counters key assumptions in standard models of hippocampal function that predict relative independence between memory traces. Instead, these findings reveal neural mechanisms for how the hippocampus develops a relational organization of memories that could support novel, inferential judgments between indirectly related events