701 research outputs found
Optimally Stabilized PET Image Denoising Using Trilateral Filtering
Low-resolution and signal-dependent noise distribution in positron emission
tomography (PET) images makes denoising process an inevitable step prior to
qualitative and quantitative image analysis tasks. Conventional PET denoising
methods either over-smooth small-sized structures due to resolution limitation
or make incorrect assumptions about the noise characteristics. Therefore,
clinically important quantitative information may be corrupted. To address
these challenges, we introduced a novel approach to remove signal-dependent
noise in the PET images where the noise distribution was considered as
Poisson-Gaussian mixed. Meanwhile, the generalized Anscombe's transformation
(GAT) was used to stabilize varying nature of the PET noise. Other than noise
stabilization, it is also desirable for the noise removal filter to preserve
the boundaries of the structures while smoothing the noisy regions. Indeed, it
is important to avoid significant loss of quantitative information such as
standard uptake value (SUV)-based metrics as well as metabolic lesion volume.
To satisfy all these properties, we extended bilateral filtering method into
trilateral filtering through multiscaling and optimal Gaussianization process.
The proposed method was tested on more than 50 PET-CT images from various
patients having different cancers and achieved the superior performance
compared to the widely used denoising techniques in the literature.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; to appear in the Lecture Notes in Computer
Science (MICCAI 2014
Reading mixtures of uniform sequence-defined macromolecules to increase data storage capacity
In recent years, the field of molecular data storage has emerged from a niche to a vibrant research topic. Herein, we describe a simultaneous and automated read-out of data stored in mixtures of sequence-defined oligomers. Therefore, twelve different sequence-defined tetramers and three hexamers with different mass markers and side chains are successfully synthesised via iterative Passerini three-component reactions and subsequent deprotection steps. By programming a straightforward python script for ESI-MS/MS analysis, it is possible to automatically sequence and thus read-out the information stored in these oligomers within one second. Most importantly, we demonstrate that the use of mass-markers as starting compounds eases MS/MS data interpretation and furthermore allows the unambiguous reading of sequences of mixtures of sequence-defined oligomers. Thus, high data storage capacity considering the field of synthetic macromolecules (up to 64.5 bit in our examples) can be obtained without the need of synthesizing long sequences, but by mixing and simultaneously analysing shorter sequence-defined oligomers
Superconducting properties of very high quality NbN thin films grown by high temperature chemical vapor deposition
Niobium nitride (NbN) is widely used in high-frequency superconducting
electronics circuits because it has one of the highest superconducting
transition temperatures ( 16.5 K) and largest gap among
conventional superconductors. In its thin-film form, the of NbN is very
sensitive to growth conditions and it still remains a challenge to grow NbN
thin film (below 50 nm) with high . Here, we report on the superconducting
properties of NbN thin films grown by high-temperature chemical vapor
deposition (HTCVD). Transport measurements reveal significantly lower disorder
than previously reported, characterized by a Ioffe-Regel ()
parameter of 14. Accordingly we observe 17.06 K (point of
50% of normal state resistance), the highest value reported so far for films of
thickness below 50 nm, indicating that HTCVD could be particularly useful for
growing high quality NbN thin films
Transformed Dissipation in Superconducting Quantum Circuits
Superconducting quantum circuits must be designed carefully to avoid
dissipation from coupling to external control circuitry. Here we introduce the
concept of current transformation to quantify coupling to the environment. We
test this theory with an experimentally-determined impedance transformation of
and find quantitative agreement better than a factor of 2 between
this transformation and the reduced lifetime of a phase qubit coupled to a
tunable transformer. Higher-order corrections from quantum fluctuations are
also calculated with this theory, but found not to limit the qubit lifetime. We
also illustrate how this simple connection between current and impedance
transformation can be used to rule out dissipation sources in experimental
qubit systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Tight bounds for classical and quantum coin flipping
Coin flipping is a cryptographic primitive for which strictly better
protocols exist if the players are not only allowed to exchange classical, but
also quantum messages. During the past few years, several results have appeared
which give a tight bound on the range of implementable unconditionally secure
coin flips, both in the classical as well as in the quantum setting and for
both weak as well as strong coin flipping. But the picture is still incomplete:
in the quantum setting, all results consider only protocols with perfect
correctness, and in the classical setting tight bounds for strong coin flipping
are still missing. We give a general definition of coin flipping which unifies
the notion of strong and weak coin flipping (it contains both of them as
special cases) and allows the honest players to abort with a certain
probability. We give tight bounds on the achievable range of parameters both in
the classical and in the quantum setting.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; v2: published versio
Resonance Fluorescence of a Single Artificial Atom
An atom in open space can be detected by means of resonant absorption and
reemission of electromagnetic waves, known as resonance fluorescence, which is
a fundamental phenomenon of quantum optics. We report on the observation of
scattering of propagating waves by a single artificial atom. The behavior of
the artificial atom, a superconducting macroscopic two-level system, is in a
quantitative agreement with the predictions of quantum optics for a pointlike
scatterer interacting with the electromagnetic field in one-dimensional open
space. The strong atom-field interaction as revealed in a high degree of
extinction of propagating waves will allow applications of controllable
artificial atoms in quantum optics and photonics.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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