NeBLa: Neural Beer-Lambert for 3D Reconstruction of Oral Structures from Panoramic Radiographs

Panoramic radiography (panoramic X-ray, PX) is a widely used imaging modality for dental examination. However, its applicability is limited as compared to 3D Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), because PX only provides 2D flattened images of the oral structure. In this paper, we propose a new framework which estimates 3D oral structure from real-world PX images. Since there are not many matching PX and CBCT data, we used simulated PX from CBCT for training, however, we used real-world panoramic radiographs at the inference time. We propose a new ray-sampling method to make simulated panoramic radiographs inspired by the principle of panoramic radiography along with the rendering function derived from the Beer-Lambert law. Our model consists of three parts: translation module, generation module, and refinement module. The translation module changes the real-world panoramic radiograph to the simulated training image style. The generation module makes the 3D structure from the input image without any prior information such as a dental arch. Our ray-based generation approach makes it possible to reverse the process of generating PX from oral structure in order to reconstruct CBCT data. Lastly, the refinement module enhances the quality of the 3D output. Results show that our approach works better for simulated and real-world images compared to other state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

3D Teeth Reconstruction from Panoramic Radiographs using Neural Implicit Functions

Panoramic radiography is a widely used imaging modality in dental practice and research. However, it only provides flattened 2D images, which limits the detailed assessment of dental structures. In this paper, we propose Occudent, a framework for 3D teeth reconstruction from panoramic radiographs using neural implicit functions, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first work to do so. For a given point in 3D space, the implicit function estimates whether the point is occupied by a tooth, and thus implicitly determines the boundaries of 3D tooth shapes. Firstly, Occudent applies multi-label segmentation to the input panoramic radiograph. Next, tooth shape embeddings as well as tooth class embeddings are generated from the segmentation outputs, which are fed to the reconstruction network. A novel module called Conditional eXcitation (CX) is proposed in order to effectively incorporate the combined shape and class embeddings into the implicit function. The performance of Occudent is evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative measures. Importantly, Occudent is trained and validated with actual panoramic radiographs as input, distinct from recent works which used synthesized images. Experiments demonstrate the superiority of Occudent over state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted to International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention MICCAI 202

Data-Driven Audiovisual Art Focused on the Uncertainty in the Human-Data-Machine Loop

Along with the increasing digitization of society, our personal data has been explicitly or implicitly collected and shared through a plethora of digital devices and online social media services. This personal data has become of vital importance for researchers, designers, and artists to represent an impression of our datafied society and to depict the images of data subjects through various forms of data representations. Meanwhile, the explosive increase of personal data has also been accelerated by commercial or governmental entities behind services or technologies to monetize the customer data or surveil citizens. These entities use the data to categorize and predict our behaviors, preferences, and identities through machines that are designed for services or applications, such as content recommendation and facial recognition.As our society is increasingly datafied, we see ourselves through our data, which is collected and processed by the machines, for self-representation and self-understanding. Moreover, responses from the machines also affect how we behave and understand ourselves. Within this data-centered human-machine interrelationship, the Human-Data-Machine Loop, the machines see us through available, measurable data obtained from us and through stochastic, algorithmic processes to generalize individuals. Here, uncertainty exists because personal data is not an objective representation of oneself, and the machines are not perfect; they can be erroneous and biased upon the data or humans. These issues of uncertainty are difficult to estimate and represent, and they are problems to be solved, especially in scientific domains. But, this uncertainty perspective can be a creative force or theme in data art. This dissertation proposes an artistic approach to reflecting the uncertainty in the Human-Data-Machine Loop through data art. To this end, this dissertation defines the Human-Data-Machine (HDM) Loop as the main conceptual research framework for viewing our datafied society, along with possible types/sources of uncertainty in the Loop. Second, I propose three types of data art practice based on the HDM framework: Artist-Centered Practice, Artist-Machine Collaborative Practice, and Machine-Centered Generative Practice. Last, this dissertation explains and evaluates the author’s data-driven audiovisual art projects as an empirical case study of each data art practice.This dissertation aims to contribute to expanding data art practice with the perspective of uncertainty in data practice and to raising the audience's awareness of uncertainty in data practice through artistic approaches

YouTube Mirror: An Interactive Audiovisual Installation based on Cross-Modal Generative Modeling

<p><a href="https://aimc2023.pubpub.org/pub/m5cbcx8i">https://aimc2023.pubpub.org/pub/m5cbcx8i</a></p> <p>YouTube Mirror is an interactive, audiovisual AI installation that generates images and sounds in response to the images of the audience captured through a camera in real time in the form of an interactive mirror. YouTube Mirror uses a cross-modal generative machine model that was trained in an unsupervised way to learn the association between images and sounds obtained from the YouTube videos I watched. Since the machine represents the world only based on the learned audio-visual relationship, the audience can see themselves through the machine-generated images and sounds. YouTube Mirror is an artistic attempt to simulate my unconscious, implicit understanding of audio-visual relationships that can be found in the videos. As an empirical case study, this project also aims to investigate the possibility of the use of cross-modal generative modeling in the production of interactive audiovisual installations. This paper describes the background of the project and the design, implementation, and exhibition of the YouTube Mirror installation, followed by the discussion and future work.</p&gt

Influence of Aerobic Exercise Combined with Forest Bathing on Immunocytes, Stress Hormones, VO2peak, and Body Composition in Elderly Men: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Forest bathing and aerobic exercise are known to be factors that increase natural killer (NK) cell, but it is considered to provide a greater effect when the two factors are combined. To date, it has not been studied whether aerobic exercise combined with forest bathing can further increase innate immunocytes, including NK cell. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of aerobic exercise + forest bathing on NK cell and whether stress hormones (epinephrine and cortisol) are involved in this physiological process. In addition, this study tried to confirm whether the mixed effect of the two had a more positive effect on cardiorespiratory endurance as well as body composition in the elderly men. Methods: Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: control group (CON, n = 8) which was not provided with any intervention, exercise group (EXE, n = 8) which performed treadmill exercises without phytoncide, phytoncide group (PHYT, n = 8) which was provided with phytoncide intervention, and exercise + phytoncide group (EXE + PHYT, n = 8) which performed treadmill exercises and was provided with phytoncide. Treadmill exercises and phytoncide exposures were performed for 45~60 min a day, 3 days a week for 12 weeks. Results: Compared with CON, (1) the leucocytes and lympocytes of EXE, PHYT, and EXE + PHYT showed positive changes. Specifically, total NK cells, NKT cells, and NKG2D + NK of the EXE + PHYT increased after 12 weeks of intervention. (2) The cortisol concentrations of EXE, PHYT, and EXE + PHYT showed decreasing changes, whereas the epinephrine concentration were significantly increased. (3) Although there were no changes in the muscle mass of EXE, PHYT, and EXE + PHYT, cardiorespiratory endurance was significantly increased in those groups. In addition, the body weight, fat mass, and fat percentage significantly decreased only in the EXE + PHYT. Conclusions: This study confirmed that forest bathing and aerobic exercise positively affected immunocyte function in elderly men. It also found that the improved results from forest bathing + treadmill walking were caused by an increase in cardiorespiratory endurance by increased epinephrine concentrations. In addition, this increased cardiorespiratory endurance can be interpreted as significantly reducing the body weight and fat in the group that participated in the exercise combined with phytoncide exposure

Immunoprotecting Effects of Exercise Program against Ovarian Cancer: A Single-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

Exercise is known to help the immune function of cancer survivors after cancer cell removal, but there is little information about the effect of exercise on ovarian cancer survivors. We conducted this study to investigate the effects of exercise training on the physical fitness and innate immunity of ovarian cancer survivors (OCS). Twenty-seven OCS between forty-two and sixty-one years of age volunteered for this study. The participants were divided into a control group (COG, n = 15) and an exercise group (EXG, n = 12). The mean (SD) age was 51.07 (5.67) years, and the mean post-operation period was 45.96 (5.88) months. EXG participated in regular exercise training 6 days a week for 12 weeks. Body weight, fat mass, and body mass index of EXE were significantly decreased compared with those of COG. The muscle mass in EXE was increased compared to that of COG. Physical fitness factors showed positive changes in EXG compared to COG. We found that exercise training enhanced lymphocyte and neutrophil counts of leucocytes and total natural killer (NK) and natural killer T (NKT) cell counts of lymphocytes through improved body composition and physical fitness after 12 weeks. Moreover, we found that improved innate immune cells through the exercise program were achieved through an increase in NKG2D+NK receptors and a decrease in KIR2DL3+NK receptors in OCS

Effects of Knee Injury Length on Jump Inside Kick Performances of Wushu Player

Background and Objectives: When performing the jump inside kick in Wushu, it is important to understand the rotation technique while in mid-air. This is because the score varies according to the mid-air rotation, and when landing after the mid-air rotation, it causes considerable injury to the knee. This study aimed to compare the differences in kinematic and kinetic variables between experienced and less experienced knee injuries in the Wushu players who perform 360°, 540°, and 720° jump inside kicks in self-taolu. Materials and Methods: The participants’ mean (SD) age was 26.12 (2.84) years old. All of them had suffered knee injuries and were all recovering and returning to training. The group was classified into a group with less than 20 months of injury experience (LESS IG, n = 6) and a group with more than 20 months of injury experience (MORE IG, n = 6). For kinematic measurements, jump inside kicks at three rotations were assessed by using high-speed cameras. For kinetic measurements, the contraction time and maximal displacement of tensiomyography were assessed in the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius lateralis, gastrocnemius medialis, and tibialis anterior. The peak torque, work per repetition, fatigue index, and total work of isokinetic moments were assessed using knee extension/flexion, ankle inversion/eversion, and ankle plantarflexion/dorsiflexion tests. Results: Although there was no difference at the low difficulty level (360°), there were significant differences at the higher difficulty levels (540° and 720°) between the LESS IG and the MORE IG. For distance and time, the LESS IG had a shorter jump distance, but a faster rotation time compared to those in the MORE IG. Due to the characteristics of the jump inside kick’s rotation to the left, the static and dynamic muscle contractility properties were mainly found to be higher in the left lower extremity than in the right lower extremity, and higher in the LESS IG than in the MORE IG. In addition, this study observed that the ankle plantarflexor in the LESS IG was significantly higher than that in the MORE IG. Conclusion: To become a world-class self-taolu athlete while avoiding knee injuries, it is necessary to develop the static and dynamic myofunctions of the lower extremities required for jumping. Moreover, it is considered desirable to train by focusing on the vertical height and the amount of rotation during jumping