The Reference Image Database to Evaluate Response to Therapy in Lung Cancer (RIDER) Project: A Resource for the Development of Change‐Analysis Software

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110105/1/cptclpt2008161.pd

A Parallel PC-based Visible Human Slice WEB server

Visualization of 3D tomographic images by slicing, i.e. by intersecting a 3D tomographic image with a plane having any desired position and orientation is a tool of choice both for learning and for diagnosis purposes. In this project, a parallel Visible Human Slice Web server has been developed, which offers to any Web client the capability of interactively specifying the exact position and orientation of a desired slice and of requesting and obtaining that slice from a 3D tomographic volume, made of either CT, MRI or cryosection images (digital color photographs of cross-sections). For interactive slice position and orientation, a miniature 3D version of the full image is used

The visible human slice Web server: a first assessment

The visible human slice server started offering its slicing services at the end of June 1998. From that date until the end of May, more than 280000 slices were extracted from the Visible Man, by laymen interested in anatomy, by students and by specialists. The Slice Server is based one Bi-Pentium PC and 16 disks. It is a scaled down version of a powerful parallel server comprising 5 Bi-Pentium Pro PCs and 60 disks. The parallel server program was created thanks to a computer-aided parallelization framework, which takes over the task of creating a multithreaded pipelined parallel program from a high-level parallel program description. On the full blown architecture, the parallel program enables the extraction and resampling of up to 5 color slices per second. Extracting 5 slice/s requires to access the disks and extract subvolumes of the Visible Human at an aggregate throughput of 105 MB/s. The publicly accessible server enables to extract slices having any orientation. The slice position and orientation can either be specified for each slice separately or as a position and orientation offered by a Java applet and possible future improvements. In the very near future, the Web Slice Server will offer additional services, such as the possibility to extract ruled surfaces and to extract animations incorporating slices perpendicular to a user defined trajector

Understanding discrepancies in parent-child reporting of emotional and behavioural problems: Effects of relational and socio-demographic factors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Discrepancies between parents and children in their assessment of children's mental health affect the evaluation of need for services and must be taken seriously. This article presents the differences between parents' and children's reports of the children's symptoms and social impairment, based on the results of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The interrelationship between relational aspects and socio-demographic factors with patterns of disagreement are explored.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Differences in the prevalence and means of SDQ symptom and impact scores were obtained from 8,154 primary school children, aged between 10 and 13 years, and their parents. Agreement between matched pairs was measured using Pearson's and Spearman's rho correlations. Socio-demographic variables, communication patterns and parental engagement were analysed as possible correlates of informant discrepancies using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In general, although children reported more symptoms, they reported less impact of perceived difficulties than parents. The parents were more consistent in their evaluation of symptoms and impact than were the children. Exploration of highly discrepant subgroups showed that, when children reported the most symptoms and impact, qualitative aspects of the parent-child relationship and family structure seemed to be more powerful predictors of disagreement than were gender of the child and socio-demographic variables. When parents reported the most symptoms and impact, low parental educational level, low income and male gender of the child played an additional role.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings underline the importance of paying attention to child reports of emotional-behavioural difficulties, particularly when parents do not identify these problems. Considerations on what meaning parent-child discrepancy might have in the context of the parent-child relationship or the family's psychosocial status should be integrated in the overall understanding of the child's situation and subsequent recommendations.</p

Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on imaging in oncological trials

The unprecedented demand for hospital services during the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically reduced the capability for dealing with non-acute health needs, including cancer care [1, 2]. To alleviate burden on health care systems, including imaging and laboratory services, curtailment of non-COVID-19-related research activity has been necessary [3]. Measures that reduce hospital visits have been adopted to limit risk of infection and death, which is critical in a cancer population whose age and immunocompromised status increases their risk [4]. Imaging, however, requires hospital visits and close contact with staff and equipment; both are sources of disease transmission. Equipment used to image COVID-19 cases may retain virus on its surface for days [5, 6] unless disinfected. The need for social distancing and for disinfecting equipment substantially slows imaging workflow and reduces throughput. This article discusses the specific impact of pandemics such as SARS-CoV-2 on imaging in oncological trials

Non-existence and uniqueness results for supercritical semilinear elliptic equations

Non-existence and uniqueness results are proved for several local and non-local supercritical bifurcation problems involving a semilinear elliptic equation depending on a parameter. The domain is star-shaped but no other symmetry assumption is required. Uniqueness holds when the bifurcation parameter is in a certain range. Our approach can be seen, in some cases, as an extension of non-existence results for non-trivial solutions. It is based on Rellich-Pohozaev type estimates. Semilinear elliptic equations naturally arise in many applications, for instance in astrophysics, hydrodynamics or thermodynamics. We simplify the proof of earlier results by K. Schmitt and R. Schaaf in the so-called local multiplicative case, extend them to the case of a non-local dependence on the bifurcation parameter and to the additive case, both in local and non-local settings.Comment: Annales Henri Poincar\'e (2009) to appea

Quantification in cardiac MRI: advances in image acquisition and processing

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging enables accurate and reproducible quantification of measurements of global and regional ventricular function, blood flow, perfusion at rest and stress as well as myocardial injury. Recent advances in MR hardware and software have resulted in significant improvements in image quality and a reduction in imaging time. Methods for automated and robust assessment of the parameters of cardiac function, blood flow and morphology are being developed. This article reviews the recent advances in image acquisition and quantitative image analysis in CMR

Behandlung einer chronischen Kupfervergiftung mit oralem Ammoniummolybdat und Natriumsulfat bei Milchschafen

Four weeks after the introduction of a new ration, a herd of sheep in the Swiss midland area was affected by depression, anorexia, decreased milk production, anemia, hemoglobinuria and frequent recumbency. Seventeen ewes died within a few days. A diagnosis of chronic copper poisoning was based on the results of feed analysis, histopathological findings and the toxicological examination of liver tissue. The remaining sheep were treated with oral ammonium molybdate and sodium sulfate, which together provide an inexpensive alternative to the chelator D-penicillamine.This combination not only prevents further copper intake, but also supports its elimination from the hepatocellular storage compartments. Serum copper levels have been determined to monitor the mobilization of copper following this antidote therapy