371 research outputs found
Automatic Liver Segmentation Using an Adversarial Image-to-Image Network
Automatic liver segmentation in 3D medical images is essential in many
clinical applications, such as pathological diagnosis of hepatic diseases,
surgical planning, and postoperative assessment. However, it is still a very
challenging task due to the complex background, fuzzy boundary, and various
appearance of liver. In this paper, we propose an automatic and efficient
algorithm to segment liver from 3D CT volumes. A deep image-to-image network
(DI2IN) is first deployed to generate the liver segmentation, employing a
convolutional encoder-decoder architecture combined with multi-level feature
concatenation and deep supervision. Then an adversarial network is utilized
during training process to discriminate the output of DI2IN from ground truth,
which further boosts the performance of DI2IN. The proposed method is trained
on an annotated dataset of 1000 CT volumes with various different scanning
protocols (e.g., contrast and non-contrast, various resolution and position)
and large variations in populations (e.g., ages and pathology). Our approach
outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions in terms of segmentation accuracy
and computing efficiency.Comment: Accepted by MICCAI 201
Dielectric resonances of ordered passive arrays
The electrical and optical properties of ordered passive arrays, constituted
of inductive and capacitive components, are usually deduced from Kirchhoff's
rules. Under the assumption of periodic boundary conditions, comparable results
may be obtained via an approach employing transfer matrices. In particular,
resonances in the dielectric spectrum are demonstrated to occur if all
eigenvalues of the transfer matrix of the entire array are unity. The latter
condition, which is shown to be equivalent to the habitual definition of a
resonance in impedance for an array between electrodes, allows for a convenient
and accurate determination of the resonance frequencies, and may thus be used
as a tool for the design of materials with a specific dielectric response. For
the opposite case of linear arrays in a large network, where periodic boundary
condition do not apply, several asymptotic properties are derived. Throughout
the article, the derived analytic results are compared to numerical models,
based on either Exact Numerical Renormalisation or the spectral method.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Resolving the wave-vector in negative refractive media: The sign of
We address the general issue of resolving the wave-vector in complex
electromagnetic media including negative refractive media. This requires us to
make a physical choice for the sign of a square-root imposed merely by
conditions of causality. By considering the analytic behaviour of the
wave-vector in the complex plane, it is shown that there are a total of eight
physically distinct cases in the four quadrants of two Riemann sheets.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, RevTe
3D Anisotropic Hybrid Network: Transferring Convolutional Features from 2D Images to 3D Anisotropic Volumes
While deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been successfully applied
for 2D image analysis, it is still challenging to apply them to 3D anisotropic
volumes, especially when the within-slice resolution is much higher than the
between-slice resolution and when the amount of 3D volumes is relatively small.
On one hand, direct learning of CNN with 3D convolution kernels suffers from
the lack of data and likely ends up with poor generalization; insufficient GPU
memory limits the model size or representational power. On the other hand,
applying 2D CNN with generalizable features to 2D slices ignores between-slice
information. Coupling 2D network with LSTM to further handle the between-slice
information is not optimal due to the difficulty in LSTM learning. To overcome
the above challenges, we propose a 3D Anisotropic Hybrid Network (AH-Net) that
transfers convolutional features learned from 2D images to 3D anisotropic
volumes. Such a transfer inherits the desired strong generalization capability
for within-slice information while naturally exploiting between-slice
information for more effective modelling. The focal loss is further utilized
for more effective end-to-end learning. We experiment with the proposed 3D
AH-Net on two different medical image analysis tasks, namely lesion detection
from a Digital Breast Tomosynthesis volume, and liver and liver tumor
segmentation from a Computed Tomography volume and obtain the state-of-the-art
results
Life history parameters in acellular extrinsic fiber cementum microstructure
Life-history parameters such as pregnancies, skeletal trauma, and renal disease have previously been identified from hypomineralized growth layers (incremental lines) of acellular extrinsic fiber cementum (AEFC). The precise periodicity of these growth layers remains vaguely approximated, so causal life-history explanations using tooth cementum cannot yet be rigorously calculated or tested. On the other hand, we show how life history parameters in AEFC can be identified by two contrasting elemental detection methods. Based on our results we reject the possibility of accurate estimation of pregnancies and other life history parameters from cementum using scanning electron microscopy alone. Here, we propose a new methodological approach for cementum research, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), to measure degree and distribution of mineralization of cementum growth layers. Our results show that Tof-SIMS can significantly increase our knowledge of cementum composition and is therefore a powerful new tool for life history researchers
A spherical perfect lens
It has been recently proved that a slab of negative refractive index material
acts as a perfect lens in that it makes accessible the sub-wavelength image
information contained in the evanescent modes of a source. Here we elaborate on
perfect lens solutions to spherical shells of negative refractive material
where magnification of the near-field images becomes possible. The negative
refractive materials then need to be spatially dispersive with and . We concentrate on lens-like solutions for the
extreme near-field limit. Then the conditions for the TM and TE polarized modes
become independent of and respectively.Comment: Revtex4, 9 pages, 2 figures (eps
Temperature range of superconducting fluctuations above T_c in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta} single crystals
Microwave absorption measurements in magnetic fields from zero up to 16 T
were used to determine the temperature range of superconducting fluctuations
above the superconducting critical temperature T_c in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}.
Measurements were performed on deeply underdoped, slightly underdoped, and
overdoped single crystals. The temperature range of the superconducting
fluctuations above T_c is determined by an experimental method which is free
from arbitrary assumptions about subtracting the nonsuperconducting
contributions to the total measured signal, and/or theoretical models to
extract the unknown parameters. The superconducting fluctuations are detected
in the ab-plane, and c-axis conductivity, by identifying the onset temperature
T'. Within the sensitivity of the method, this fluctuation regime is found only
within a fairly narrow region above T_c. Its width increases from 7 K in the
overdoped sample (T_c = 89 K), to at most 23 K in the deeply underdoped sample
(T_c = 57 K), so that T' falls well below the pseudogap temperature T*.
Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of other
experimental probes of superconducting fluctuations in the cuprates
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