4 research outputs found

    Heaps and heapsort on secondary storage

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    AbstractA heap structure designed for secondary storage is suggested that tries to make the best use of the available buffer space in primary memory. The heap is a complete multi-way tree, with multi-page blocks of records as nodes, satisfying a generalized heap property. A special feature of the tree is that the nodes may be partially filled, as in B-trees. The structure is complemented with priority-queue operations insert and delete-max. When handling a sequence of S operations, the number of page transfers performed is shown to be O(∑i = 1S(1P) log(MP)(NiP)), where P denotes the number of records fitting into a page, M the capacity of the buffer space in records, and Ni, the number of records in the heap prior to the ith operation (assuming P ⩾ 1 and S > M ⩾ c · P, where c is a small positive constant). The number of comparisons required when handling the sequence is O(∑i = 1S log2 Ni). Using the suggested data structure we obtain an optimal external heapsort that performs O((NP) log(MP)(NP)) page transfers and O(N log2 N) comparisons in the worst case when sorting N records

    Can hypoxia-PET map hypoxic cell density heterogeneity accurately in an animal tumor model at a clinically obtainable image contrast?

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    Contains fulltext : 80363.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)BACKGROUND: PET allows non-invasive mapping of tumor hypoxia, but the combination of low resolution, slow tracer adduct-formation and slow clearance of unbound tracer remains problematic. Using a murine tumor with a hypoxic fraction within the clinical range and a tracer post-injection sampling time that results in clinically obtainable tumor-to-reference tissue activity ratios, we have analyzed to what extent inherent limitations actually compromise the validity of PET-generated hypoxia maps. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mice bearing SCCVII tumors were injected with the PET hypoxia-marker fluoroazomycin arabinoside (FAZA), and the immunologically detectable hypoxia marker, pimonidazole. Tumors and reference tissue (muscle, blood) were harvested 0.5, 2 and 4h after FAZA administration. Tumors were analyzed for global (well counter) and regional (autoradiography) tracer distribution and compared to pimonidazole as visualized using immunofluorescence microscopy. RESULTS: Hypoxic fraction as measured by pimonidazole staining ranged from 0.09 to 0.32. FAZA tumor to reference tissue ratios were close to unity 0.5h post-injection but reached values of 2 and 6 when tracer distribution time was prolonged to 2 and 4h, respectively. A fine-scale pixel-by-pixel comparison of autoradiograms and immunofluorescence images revealed a clear spatial link between FAZA and pimonidazole-adduct signal intensities at 2h and later. Furthermore, when using a pixel size that mimics the resolution in PET, an excellent correlation between pixel FAZA mean intensity and density of hypoxic cells was observed already at 2h post-injection. CONCLUSIONS: Despite inherent weaknesses, PET-hypoxia imaging is able to generate quantitative tumor maps that accurately reflect the underlying microscopic reality (i.e., hypoxic cell density) in an animal model with a clinical realistic image contrast
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