A case study in digitizing a photographic collection

This paper reviews the processes involved in the digitisation, display and storage of medium size collections of photographs using mid-range commercially available equipment. Guidelines for evaluating the performance of these digitisation processes based on aspects of image quality are provided. A collection of photographic slides, representing first-generation analogue reproductions of a photographic collection from the nineteenth century, is treated as a case study. Constraints on the final image quality and the implications of digital archiving are discussed. Full descriptions of device characterisation and calibration procedures are given and results from objective measurements carried out to assess the digitisation system are presented. The important issues of file format, physical storage and data migration are also addressed

Influence of luminance and resolution on the perceived quality of black-and-white images on soft displays

The perceived quality of an image displayed on a computer monitor depends on a number of different factors that can affect viewers' preferences. Two of these are the luminance of the monitor display and the resolution of the image. The effect of luminance is of interest for applications such as on-line access of images where the computer displays used for viewing these images could have different luminance settings. A relationship between cathode-ray tube (CRT) display luminance and resolution has been shown in previous studies. It was therefore interesting to investigate whether there is a relationship between image resolution and CRT display luminance on perceived image quality. Image resolution is related to the image file size, which is an important factor for applications such as on-line access of images. This work used a CRT display to study the effect of the above-mentioned factors on the perceived quality of the displayed image. Three sets of black-and-white images, each set with a different resolution, were presented to observers at three brightness settings of the computer monitor. Results are discussed regarding the effect of monitor display luminance and image resolution on perceived image quality and the interaction between them. Evaluation of results is further extended to the influence of the different backgrounds of the images. The scene content of the images was also shown to affect the viewers' judgement

Critical Behavior of the Supersolid transition in Bose-Hubbard Models

We study the phase transitions of interacting bosons at zero temperature between superfluid (SF) and supersolid (SS) states. The latter are characterized by simultaneous off-diagonal long-range order and broken translational symmetry. The critical phenomena is described by a long-wavelength effective action, derived on symmetry grounds and verified by explicit calculation. We consider two types of supersolid ordering: checkerboard (X) and collinear (C), which are the simplest cases arising in two dimensions on a square lattice. We find that the SF--CSS transition is in the three-dimensional XY universality class. The SF--XSS transition exhibits non-trivial new critical behavior, and appears, within a $d=3-\epsilon$ expansion to be driven generically first order by fluctuations. However, within a one--loop calculation directly in $d=2$ a strong coupling fixed point with striking ``non-Bose liquid'' behavior is found. At special isolated multi-critical points of particle-hole symmetry, the system falls into the 3d Ising universality class.Comment: RevTeX, 24 pages, 16 figures. Also available at http://www.cip.physik.tu-muenchen.de/tumphy/d/T34/Mitarbeiter/frey.htm

Perioperative Bridging Anticoagulation in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

BACKGROUND: It is uncertain whether bridging anticoagulation is necessary for patients with atrial fibrillation who need an interruption in warfarin treatment for an elective operation or other elective invasive procedure. We hypothesized that forgoing bridging anticoagulation would be noninferior to bridging with low-molecular-weight heparin for the prevention of perioperative arterial thromboembolism and would be superior to bridging with respect to major bleeding. METHODS: We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which, after perioperative interruption of warfarin therapy, patients were randomly assigned to receive bridging anticoagulation therapy with low-molecular-weight heparin (100 IU of dalteparin per kilogram of body weight) or matching placebo administered subcutaneously twice daily, from 3 days before the procedure until 24 hours before the procedure and then for 5 to 10 days after the procedure. Warfarin treatment was stopped 5 days before the procedure and was resumed within 24 hours after the procedure. Follow-up of patients continued for 30 days after the procedure. The primary outcomes were arterial thromboembolism (stroke, systemic embolism, or transient ischemic attack) and major bleeding. RESULTS: In total, 1884 patients were enrolled, with 950 assigned to receive no bridging therapy and 934 assigned to receive bridging therapy. The incidence of arterial thromboembolism was 0.4% in the no-bridging group and 0.3% in the bridging group (risk difference, 0.1 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.6 to 0.8; P=0.01 for noninferiority). The incidence of major bleeding was 1.3% in the no-bridging group and 3.2% in the bridging group (relative risk, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.78; P=0.005 for superiority). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with atrial fibrillation who had warfarin treatment interrupted for an elective operation or other elective invasive procedure, forgoing bridging anticoagulation was noninferior to perioperative bridging with low-molecular-weight heparin for the prevention of arterial thromboembolism and decreased the risk of major bleeding. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health; BRIDGE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00786474.)

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Uncovering the heterogeneity and temporal complexity of neurodegenerative diseases with Subtype and Stage Inference

The heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases is a key confound to disease understanding and treatment development, as study cohorts typically include multiple phenotypes on distinct disease trajectories. Here we introduce a machine-learning technique\u2014Subtype and Stage Inference (SuStaIn)\u2014able to uncover data-driven disease phenotypes with distinct temporal progression patterns, from widely available cross-sectional patient studies. Results from imaging studies in two neurodegenerative diseases reveal subgroups and their distinct trajectories of regional neurodegeneration. In genetic frontotemporal dementia, SuStaIn identifies genotypes from imaging alone, validating its ability to identify subtypes; further the technique reveals within-genotype heterogeneity. In Alzheimer\u2019s disease, SuStaIn uncovers three subtypes, uniquely characterising their temporal complexity. SuStaIn provides fine-grained patient stratification, which substantially enhances the ability to predict conversion between diagnostic categories over standard models that ignore subtype (p = 7.18 7 10 124 ) or temporal stage (p = 3.96 7 10 125 ). SuStaIn offers new promise for enabling disease subtype discovery and precision medicine

Perceptibility and acceptability of gamma differences of displayed sRGB images

The standard RGB (sRGB) colour space was developed to ensure accurate colour reproduction of images when viewed on Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) displays under specified conditions. Typical display and viewing conditions may vary, however, especially when accessing on-line images. Previous work has been carried out on the effects of different display white points and phosphor chromaticities and on modeling gamma tolerances and display conditions for the sRGB colour space. The work described in this paper investigates the effects of different gamma values on viewing sRGB images. Ten images with variable scene content were selected and converted to the sRGB colour space. A set of test images was generated for each scene by adjusting the display gamma of the sRGB image to a value in the range 1.8 to 2.6. Comparative judgments were conducted in which the reference sRGB image (calibrated for displays with gamma equal to 2.2) in each set was compared to each of the images adjusted to different display gammas. Each pair of images was displayed on the same monitor using software specially developed for the purpose. In the first series, the observers' responses concerned the perceptible difference between the reference sRGB image and the images calibrated to the different gamma value. In the second test their response concerned the acceptable gamma difference. The experimental results were evaluated and discussed. Conclusions were drawn regarding the effects of gamma differences on perceived image quality while viewing on-line sRGB images