Active contour approach for accurate quantitative airway analysis

Chronic airway disease causes structural changes in the lungs including peribronchial thickening and airway dilatation. Multi-detector computed tomography (CT) yields detailed near-isotropic images of the lungs, and thus the potential to obtain quantitative measurements of lumen diameter and airway wall thickness. Such measurements would allow standardized assessment, and physicians to diagnose and locate airway abnormalities, adapt treatment, and monitor progress over time. However, due to the sheer number of airways per patient, systematic analysis is infeasible in routine clinical practice without automation. We have developed an automated and real-time method based on active contours to estimate both airway lumen and wall dimensions; the method does not require manual contour initialization but only a starting point on the targeted airway. While the lumen contour segmentation is purely region-based, the estimation of the outer diameter considers the inner wall segmentation as well as local intensity variation, in order anticipate the presence of nearby arteries and exclude them. These properties make the method more robust than the Full-Width Half Maximum (FWHM) approach. Results are demonstrated on a phantom dataset with known dimensions and on a human dataset where the automated measurements are compared against two human operators. The average error on the phantom measurements was 0.10mm and 0.14mm for inner and outer diameters, showing sub-voxel accuracy. Similarly, the mean variation from the average manual measurement was 0.14mm and 0.18mm for inner and outer diameters respectively

Network Friendly P2P-TV: The Napa-Wine Approach

DEMO Sessio

DOTASA revisited : 1H NMR and potentiometric studies of a highly asymmetrical ligand and its lanthanide(III) complexes

Poster apresentado no 8th FIGIPAS Meeting in Inorganic Chemistry, Atenas, Grécia, 6 - 9 Jul. 2005.DOTASA (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclodo-decane-1-(R,S)-succinic acid-4,7,10-triacetic acid) is a DOTA-like macrocyclic ligand showing a carboxymethyl -CH2COOH substituent moiety at a C carbon of one of the four acetate pendant arms, present as a racemic mixture of R and S configurations.The protonation constants of the ligand were determined by potentiometry, giving values close to DOTA except for the extra pK3 value of 5.35 assigned to protonation of the extra carboxylate group in the succinyl arm. The 1H NMR spectra of DOTASA at different pH values are too complex to allow the determination of its microscopic protonation scheme, due to the presence of multiple isomeric structures in solution. The thermodynamic stability constant of its Gd3+ chelate was determined by a potentiometric method, and the value obtained, log KML = 27.2 (0.2), is higher than for the [Gd(DOTA)(H2O)]- complex. The solution structure of the asymmetrical Ln3+ chelates of DOTASA was studied by 1H NMR spectroscopy, indicating the presence of four isomers, corresponding to the combination of the antiprismatic (M) and twisted antiprismatic (m) helicities of the pendant arms and to the R and S configurations of the substituted pendant arm C atom. The m/M isomer ratio decreases along the lanthanide series, with the m isomer decreasing from 90% at La to about 50% from Eu-Lu. This shows that the expected m isomer population of the Gd3+ complex with DOTASA is higher than for the unsubstituted Gd3+-DOTA (~15%) but lower than for a Gd3+ chelate of a RRRR tetrasubstituted DOTA (~70%). Thus the stabilisation of the m isomer by C monosubstitution at the DOTA acetate pendant arms in [Gd(DOTASA)(H2O)]2- is responsible for its increased water exchange rate and higher relaxivity

A survival pathway for Caenorhabditis elegans with a blocked unfolded protein response

The unfolded protein response (UPR) counteracts stress caused by unprocessed ER client proteins. A genome-wide survey showed impaired induction of many UPR target genes in xbp-1 mutant Caenorhabditis elegans that are unable to signal in the highly conserved IRE1-dependent UPR pathway. However a family of genes, abu (activated in blocked UPR), was induced to higher levels in ER-stressed xbp-1 mutant animals than in ER-stressed wild-type animals. RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) inactivation of a representative abu family member, abu-1 (AC3.3), activated the ER stress marker hsp-4::gfp in otherwise normal animals and killed 50% of ER-stressed ire-1 and xbp-1 mutant animals. Abu-1(RNAi) also enhanced the effect of inactivation of sel-1, an ER-associated protein degradation gene. The nine abu genes encode highly related type I transmembrane proteins whose lumenal domains have sequence similarity to a mammalian cell surface scavenger receptor of endothelial cells that binds chemically modified extracellular proteins and directs their lysosomal degradation. Our findings that ABU-1 is an intracellular protein located within the endomembrane system that is induced by ER stress in xbp-1 mutant animals suggest that ABU proteins may interact with abnormal ER client proteins and this function may be particularly important in animals with an impaired UPR

Environmental drivers of forest biodiversity in temperate mixed forests – A multi-taxon approach

Harmonization of timber production and forest conservation is a major challenge of modern silviculture. For the establishment of ecologically sustainable forest management, the management-related environmental drivers of multi-taxon biodiversity should be explored. Our study reveals those environmental variables related to tree species diversity and composition, stand structure, litter and soil conditions, microclimate, landscape, and land-use history that determine species richness and composition of 11 forest-dwelling organism groups. Herbs, woody regeneration, ground-floor and epiphytic bryophytes, epiphytic lichens, terricolous saprotrophic, ectomycorrhizal, and wood-inhabiting macrofungi, spiders, carabid beetles, and birds were sampled in West Hungarian mature mixed forests. The correlations among the diversities and compositions of different organism groups were also evaluated. Drivers of organism groups were principally related to stand structure, tree species diversity and composition, and microclimate, while litter, soil, landscape, and land-use historical variables were less influential. The complex roles of the shrub layer, deadwood, and the size of the trees in determining the diversity and composition of various taxa were revealed. Stands with more tree species sustained higher stand-level species richness of several taxa. Besides, stands with different dominant tree species harbored various species communities of organism groups. Therefore, landscape-scale diversity of dominant tree species may enhance the diversity of forest-dwelling communities at landscape level. The effects of the overstory layer on forest biodiversity manifested in many cases via microclimate conditions. Diversity of organism groups showed weaker relationship with the diversity of other taxa than with environmental variables. According to our results, the most influential drivers of forest biodiversity are under the direct control of the actual silvicultural management. Heterogeneous stand structure and tree species composition promote the different organism groups in various ways. Therefore, the long-term maintenance of the structural and compositional heterogeneity both at stand and landscape scale is an important aspect of ecologically sustainable forest management

Energy dependence of cumulative suprathermal and energetic particle fluence plots

Suprathermal and energetic particle flux variability can be statistically characterized in a number of ways. As time histories of flux integrals (cumulative fluences) are relevant both for practical reasons (radiation effects) and for a better understanding of the production and propagation processes, simple quantitative methods are of some interest. Previous studies (e.g. Mewaldt et al., 2001)[1] showed that the character of cumulative fluence plots changed substantially with energy. While at several MeV/nuc a few solar particle events predominate, at much lower energies similar contributions from many separate events of various origins were found. We shall now use a simple parametric method for comparisons, and mention some other possibilities. As in the Kolmogorov hypothesis test, the maximum vertical distance of normalized cumulative plots from the straight line valid for a constant flux will be shown to be useful. Small values of that parameter (called K here for Kolmogorov) indicate variation in many small steps, while large K-values correspond to the dominance of a small number of large events. Below a few MeV/nuc K-parameters will be shown to decrease with decreasing energies. Extrapolations to small energies will be mainly discussed

An overview of the mid-infrared spectro-interferometer MATISSE: science, concept, and current status

MATISSE is the second-generation mid-infrared spectrograph and imager for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Paranal. This new interferometric instrument will allow significant advances by opening new avenues in various fundamental research fields: studying the planet-forming region of disks around young stellar objects, understanding the surface structures and mass loss phenomena affecting evolved stars, and probing the environments of black holes in active galactic nuclei. As a first breakthrough, MATISSE will enlarge the spectral domain of current optical interferometers by offering the L and M bands in addition to the N band. This will open a wide wavelength domain, ranging from 2.8 to 13 um, exploring angular scales as small as 3 mas (L band) / 10 mas (N band). As a second breakthrough, MATISSE will allow mid-infrared imaging - closure-phase aperture-synthesis imaging - with up to four Unit Telescopes (UT) or Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) of the VLTI. Moreover, MATISSE will offer a spectral resolution range from R ~ 30 to R ~ 5000. Here, we present one of the main science objectives, the study of protoplanetary disks, that has driven the instrument design and motivated several VLTI upgrades (GRA4MAT and NAOMI). We introduce the physical concept of MATISSE including a description of the signal on the detectors and an evaluation of the expected performances. We also discuss the current status of the MATISSE instrument, which is entering its testing phase, and the foreseen schedule for the next two years that will lead to the first light at Paranal.Comment: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference, June 2016, 11 pages, 6 Figure

Neutrino Detection with Inclined Air Showers

The possibilities of detecting high energy neutrinos through inclined showers produced in the atmosphere are addressed with an emphasis on the detection of air showers by arrays of particle detectors. Rates of inclined showers produced by both down-going neutrino interactions and by up-coming $\tau$ decays from earth-skimming neutrinos as a function of shower energy are calculated with analytical methods using two sample neutrino fluxes with different spectral indices. The relative contributions from different flavors and charged, neutral current and resonant interactions are compared for down-going neutrinos interacting in the atmosphere. No detailed description of detectors is attempted but rough energy thresholds are implemented to establish the ranges of energies which are more suitable for neutrino detection through inclined showers. Down-going and up-coming rates are compared.Comment: Submitted to New Journal of Physic