A DSP-BASED active contour model

In this paper a DSP-based active contour model for tracking of the endocardium in a sequence of echocardiographic images is presented. If a contour is available in the first frame of a sequence, the contours in the subsequent frames are segmented. Deformable active contours is a technique that combine geometry, physics and approximation theory in order to solve problems of fundamental importance to medical image analysis; such as segmentation, representation and matching of shapes, and the tracking of objects in movement. The procedure has been developed on a DSP processor using its hardware features. The results are illustrated using a sequence of four-chambers apical echocardiographic images

Reduction of the speckle noise in echocardiographic images by a cubic spline filter

One of the main problems to resolve in the processing of biomedical images is the reduction of noise. The problem is specially important if the noise has a multiplicative nature (speckle noise), for instance if the object of analysis is an ultrasonic image. In this report we carry out a review of techniques which can be used to reduce this type of noise on four-chamber view B-mode echocardiographic images in an appropriated way. Different ways of nonlinear filtering, adaptive techniques based on the statistical ordering and a cubic spline interpolation will be shown as suitable techniques for this objective but regarding quantitative and qualitative results we have obtained, we can confirm that a cubic spline filter is the most suitable filter that we have reviewed.This work has been supported by Fundación Séneca of Región de Murcia and Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología of Spain, under grants PB/63/FS/02 and TIC2003-09400- C04-02, respectively

An automatic welding defects classifier system

Radiographic inspection is a well-established testing method to detect weld defects. However, interpretation of radiographic films is a difficult task. The reliability of such interpretation and the expense of training suitable experts have allowed that the efforts being made towards automation in this field. In this paper, we describe an automatic detection system to recognise welding defects in radiographic images. In a first stage, image processing techniques, including noise reduction, contrast enhancement, thresholding and labelling were implemented to help in the recognition of weld regions and the detection of weld defects. In a second stage, a set of geometrical features was proposed and extracted between defect candidates. In a third stage, an artificial neural network for weld defect classification was used under three regularisation process with different architectures. For the input layer, the principal component analysis technique was used in order to reduce the number of feature variables; and, for the hidden layer, a different number of neurons was used in the aim to give better performance for defect classification in both cases

Bioclimatic indices trends in California (U.S.) from 1980 to 2019

Ponencia presentada en: XII Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Santiago de Compostela entre el 19 y el 21 de octubre de 2022.[ES]La Bioclimatología es una ciencia interdisciplinar que estudia las relaciones entre las condiciones climáticas y la distribución de los seres vivos y sus comunidades en el planeta (Rivas-Martínez et al., 2011). En este sentido, los valores de los parámetros e índices climáticos y bioclimáticos en lugares concretos se utilizan para la toma de decisiones. El objetivo de esta investigación es mostrar resultados actualizados de los índices bioclimáticos y a su vez señalar la importancia de conocer la evolución espacial y temporal de estos índices y cómo puede afectar a la biodiversidad de la flora de California. Para ello, a partir de los datos originales de las estaciones meteorológicas (350) este estudio se centra en las 172 finalmente seleccionadas. De cada una de ellas se calcularon los parámetros e índices bioclimáticos siguiendo a Rivas-Martínez et al. (2011). Se aplicó el método de la pendiente de Sen y el test de Mann-Kendall para estimar las tendencias y la significación estadística. Los resultados se muestran en mapas de contornos en los que se observó que en los índices ombrotérmicos (Io, Ios1, Ios2, Ios3, Ios4) se presentan marcadas tendencias negativas en el sur y centro de California de -3 mm/año, a -0,028 unidades/año, -0,02 unidades/año, -0,025 unidades/año, -0,03 unidades/año, respectivamente. Las temperaturas positivas en el desierto de Mojave y sus alrededores son las que muestran los mayores incrementos con una tendencia de +6 unidades/año.[EN]Bioclimatology is an interdisciplinary science that studies the relationships between climate conditions and the distribution of living beings and their communities on the Globe (Rivas-Martínez et al., 2011). In this regard, values of climate and bioclimate parameters and indices in specifically locations are used for decision making. The aim of this research is to show updated results of the bioclimatic indices and to point out the importance of knowing the spatial and temporal evolution of these indices and how it can affect the biodiversity of the flora of California. To achieve this, from the original meteorological station data (350) this study is focused on the 172 finally selected. From each one of them, bioclimatic parameters and indices were calculated according Rivas-Martínez et al. (2011). It was applied Sen´s slope method and Mann-Kendall test to estimate trends and the statistical significance. Results are shown in contour maps in which the ombrothermic indices (Io, Ios1, Ios2, Ios3, Ios4) marked negative trends are shown in southern and central of California from -3 units/year, to -0.028 units/year, -0.02 units/year, -0.025 units/year, -0.03 units/year, respectively. Positive temperature has shown the highest increases in Mojave Desert and surrounding areas with a trend of +6 units/year

Bioclimatic drought and its trends in California State (U.S.)

[EN] Drought occurs naturally all over the world. Global warming has led an increase in the areas affected by this phenomenon. The study of drought involves the analysis of indicators and indices used to assess changes in the hydrological cycle of a region. A large number of indices developed for drought monitoring are based on meteorological and hydrological variables. This research has applied the Ombroxeric Index for the first time in California. It is based on the concept of ombroxericity: a condition of the territory characterised from an ombrothermic point of view, which can develop in relatively humid areas/zones, depending on the time scale of the study (i.e. monthly, seasonal or annual basis). Temperatures and precipitation from 180 meteorological stations have been considered for a period of observation from 1980 to 2016. In order to know the evolution of this index, a modified trend analysis based on the Mann-Kendall test and a modified Sen slope analysis were used. Empirical Bayesian Kriging was applied as an interpolation technique. Results are presented in both surface and contour maps. California showed a wide range of ombroxeric levels that went from upper strong dry in northern zones, to lower weak arid. Trend results showed an increase in bioclimatic drought throughout the whole State. In addition, summer showed the highest levels on the Ombroxeric Index. An increase in drought trends was observed at the seasonal level, being more pronounced in summer and spring. In both cases are increases in the central (+5 and +3.6 units year−1 respectively) and the southern (+4 and +4.5 units year−1 respectively) areas of the State. Increasing frequency and severity of droughts could have implications for the management of water resources and the survival of Californian vegetation types, such as conifers.S

Using deep learning for defect classification on a small weld X-ray image dataset

This document provides a comparative evaluation of the performance of a deep learning network for different combinations of parameters and hyper-parameters. Although there are numerous studies that report on performance in deep learning networks for ordinary data sets, their performance on small data sets is much less evaluated. The objective of this work is to demonstrate that such a challenging small data set, such as a welding X-ray image data set, can be trained and evaluated obtaining high precision and that it is possible thanks to data augmentation. In fact, this article shows that data augmentation, also a typical technique in any learning process on a large data set, plus that two image channels, such as channels B (blue) and G (green), both are replaced by the Canny edge map and a binary image provided by an adaptive Gaussian threshold, respectively, gives to the network a 3% increase in accuracy, approximately. In summary, the objective of this work is to present the methodology used and the results obtained to estimate the classification accuracy of three main classes of welding defects obtained on a small set of welding X-ray image data.The authors wants to acknowledge the work of the rest of the participants in this project, namely: J.A. López-Alcantud, P. Rubio-Ibañez, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, J.A. Díaz-Madrid, Centro Universitario de la Defensa - UPCT and T.J. Kazmierski, University of Southampton. This work has been partially funded by Spanish government through project numbered RTI2018-097088-B-C33 (MINECO/FEDER,UE)

Perfil del paciente canino con cuerpos extraños esofágicos

Objetivo. Determinar el perfil del paciente canino que presenta cuerpos extraños esofágicos para identificar las características de riesgo al presentar esta entidad. Materiales y métodos. Este es un estudio retrospectivo realizado en el Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad de Extremadura (HCV). Se analizaron diferentes parámetros de los perros que presentaron un diagnóstico endoscópico de cuerpos extraños esofágicos. Resultados. Esta patología se presentó más comúnmente en perros adultos jóvenes y en pacientes de raza pequeña. Se presenta por primera vez al Podenco Portugués, el cual además representó la raza con mayor factor de riesgo. Conclusiones. Los resultados obtenidos en esta investigación concuerdan con lo descrito anteriormente en cuanto a las características del paciente con cuerpo extraño esofágico. Asimismo, se reporta el Podenco Portugués como predispuesto a esta entidad, con un factor de riesgo mayor al de otras razas anteriormente mencionadas en la literatura. Para prevenir los cuerpos extraños esofágicos, se debe alimentar con carne cruda y huesos a los perros, especialmente a los de raza pequeña. Siempre se debe tener en cuenta esta patología en los perros con sintomatología de enfermedad esofágica sin importar su edad, pues su presentación es más común en perros adultos jóvenes.Objective. Determine the profile of the canine patient with esophageal foreign bodies to identify risk factors associated with the foreign bodies. Materials and Methods. This is a retrospective study made by the Veterinary Hospital Clinic of the Universidad de Extremadura (VHC). Different factors were analyzed in dogs with an endoscopic diagnosis of esophageal foreign bodies. Results. This pathology was more commonly found in young adult dogs and in small breeds. This pathology was present for the first time in the Portuguese Warren Hound, which was also the breed with the highest risk. Conclusions. The results obtained in this investigation are in agreement with the previous description of a patient that presents esophageal foreign bodies. Also, the Portuguese Warren Hound was found to be predisposed to this problem, with a higher risk factor than other breeds previously mentioned in the literature. To prevent esophageal foreign bodies, dogs should be fed raw meat and bones, especially small breeds. This pathology should always be kept in mind in dogs with esophagitis symptomology regardless of age, although it is most common in young adult dogs.peerReviewe

Perfil del paciente canino con cuerpos extraños esofágicos

Objetivo. Determinar el perfil del paciente canino que presenta cuerpos extraños esofágicos para identificar las características de riesgo al presentar esta entidad. Materiales y métodos. Este es un estudio retrospectivo realizado en el Hospital Clínico Veterinario de la Universidad de Extremadura (HCV). Se analizaron diferentes parámetros de los perros que presentaron un diagnóstico endoscópico de cuerpos extraños esofágicos. Resultados. Esta patología se presentó más comúnmente en perros adultos jóvenes y en pacientes de raza pequeña. Se presenta por primera vez al Podenco Portugués, el cual además representó la raza con mayor factor de riesgo. Conclusiones. Los resultados obtenidos en esta investigación concuerdan con lo descrito anteriormente en cuanto a las características del paciente con cuerpo extraño esofágico. Asimismo, se reporta el Podenco Portugués como predispuesto a esta entidad, con un factor de riesgo mayor al de otras razas anteriormente mencionadas en la literatura. Para prevenir los cuerpos extraños esofágicos, se debe alimentar con carne cruda y huesos a los perros, especialmente a los de raza pequeña. Siempre se debe tener en cuenta esta patología en los perros con sintomatología de enfermedad esofágica sin importar su edad, pues su presentación es más común en perros adultos jóvenes.Objective. Determine the profile of the canine patient with esophageal foreign bodies to identify risk factors associated with the foreign bodies. Materials and Methods. This is a retrospective study made by the Veterinary Hospital Clinic of the Universidad de Extremadura (VHC). Different factors were analyzed in dogs with an endoscopic diagnosis of esophageal foreign bodies. Results. This pathology was more commonly found in young adult dogs and in small breeds. This pathology was present for the first time in the Portuguese Warren Hound, which was also the breed with the highest risk. Conclusions. The results obtained in this investigation are in agreement with the previous description of a patient that presents esophageal foreign bodies. Also, the Portuguese Warren Hound was found to be predisposed to this problem, with a higher risk factor than other breeds previously mentioned in the literature. To prevent esophageal foreign bodies, dogs should be fed raw meat and bones, especially small breeds. This pathology should always be kept in mind in dogs with esophagitis symptomology regardless of age, although it is most common in young adult dogs.peerReviewe

FPGA synthesis of an stereo image matching architecture for autonomous mobile robots

This paper describes a hardware proposal to speed up the process of image matching in stereo vision systems like those employed by autonomous mobile robots. This proposal combines a classical window-based matching approach with a previous stage, where key points are selected from each image of the stereo pair. In this first step the key point extraction method is based on the SIFT algorithm. Thus, in the second step, the window-based matching is only applied to the set of selected key points, instead of to the whole images. For images with a 1% of key points, this method speeds up the matching four orders of magnitude. This proposal is, on the one hand, a better parallelizable architecture than the original SIFT, and on the other, a faster technique than a full image windows matching approach. The architecture has been implemented on a lower power Virtex 6 FPGA and it achieves a image matching speed above 30 fps.This work has been funded by Spanish government project TEC2015-66878-C3-2-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE)

Supporting data for the MS identification of distinct transferrin glycopeptide glycoforms and citrullinated peptides associated with inflammation or autoimmunity

This data article presents the results of all the statistical analyses applied to the relative intensities of the detected 2D-DiGE protein spots for each of the 3 performed DiGE experiments. The data reveals specific subsets of protein spots with significant differences between WT and CD38-deficient mice with either Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), or with chronic inflammation induced by CFA, or under steady-state conditions. This article also shows the MS data analyses that allowed the identification of the protein species which serve to discriminate the different experimental groups used in this study. Moreover, the article presents MS data on the citrullinated peptides linked to specific protein species that were generated in CIA(+) or CFA-treated mice. Lastly, this data article provides MS data on the efficiency of the analyses of the transferrin (Tf) glycopeptide glycosylation pattern in spleen and serum from CIA(+) mice and normal controls. The data supplied in this work is related to the research article entitled "identification of multiple transferrin species in spleen and serum from mice with collagen-induced arthritis which may reflect changes in transferrin glycosylation associated with disease activity: the role of CD38" [1]. All mass spectrometry data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository with identifiers PRIDE: PXD002644, PRIDE: PXD002643, PRIDE: PXD003183 and PRIDE: PXD003163