Acceleration-based Kalman tracking for super-resolution ultrasound imaging in vivo

Super-resolution ultrasound can image microvascular structure and flow at sub-wave-diffraction resolution based on localising and tracking microbubbles. Currently, tracking microbubbles accurately under limited imaging frame rates and high microbubble concentrations remains a challenge, especially under the effect of cardiac pulsatility and in highly curved vessels. In this study, an acceleration-incorporated microbubble motion model is introduced into a Kalman tracking framework. The tracking performance was evaluated using simulated microvasculature with different microbubble motion parameters, concentrations and acquisition frame rates, and in vivo human breast tumour ultrasound datasets. The simulation results show that the acceleration-based method outperformed the non-acceleration-based method at different levels of acceleration and acquisition frame rates and achieved significant improvement in true positive rate (up to 11.3%), false negative rate (up to 13.2%). The proposed method can also reduce errors in vasculature reconstruction via the acceleration-based nonlinear interpolation, compared with linear interpolation (up to 16.7 μm). The tracking results from temporally downsampled low frame rate in vivo datasets from human breast tumours show that the proposed method has better microbubble tracking performance than the baseline method, if using results from the initial high frame data as reference. Finally, the acceleration estimated from tracking results also provides a spatial speed gradient map that may contain extra valuable diagnostic information

Two approaches to developing low carbon dwellings in west Wales

In October 2010 Pembrokeshire Housing Association (PHA) completed a development of six residential units, in Pembroke Dock, in west Wales, as part of a Welsh Government pilot project to promote the development of low carbon housing in Wales based on the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH). In the same year, in the same town, a small scale developer undertook the design and construction of two houses based on ecological principles using strawbale construction. The houses built by this developer were designed and built outside of the requirements of the CfSH and utilised passive design approaches along with local and natural materials to reduce operational and embodied energy. Researchers from the Ecological Built Environment Research and Enterprise group, at Cardiff Metropolitan University, are working in collaboration with PHA to develop a best practice model for low carbon housing in rural areas of Wales and these two projects provide an opportunity for the researchers to investigate and compare two distinct approaches to low carbon design each with the aim to deliver sustainable, affordable dwellings. To evaluate these two schemes structured interviews were held with the design team of the pilot project and the designer/builder of the eco-house to understand their respective approaches; the influences and obstacles that affected the development of the schemes; and how they considered user behaviour. The paper concludes by considering the lessons that registered social landlords might learn from small scale ecological developers for the design and construction of low and zero energy housing in rural areas

An exploration of the challenges facing developers of affordable dwellings following low carbon and ecological principles, in rural locations in Wales

This paper discusses the challenges in developing ecological, low carbon and affordable dwellings in rural areas of Wales; since much of the funding in the UK is often focused on urban development. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) is committed to the aim that the construction of new homes moves towards zero carbon as soon as possible. There is a need to ensure that this strategy recognises that one size does not fit all; and understanding and addressing these issues will be fundamental if WAG objectives are too achieved in rural areas. This paper discusses a three year research project, which commenced in autumn 2010 in collaboration with the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) and Pembrokeshire Housing Association (PHA), a registered social landlord and developer of affordable dwellings; to create a development model for affordable, low carbon, ecological rural dwellings to achieve WAG targets. This paper will be of use to rural developers, designers and architects

Visual perceptual load induces inattentional deafness

In this article, we establish a new phenomenon of “inattentional deafness” and highlight the level of load on visual attention as a critical determinant of this phenomenon. In three experiments, we modified an inattentional blindness paradigm to assess inattentional deafness. Participants made either a low- or high-load visual discrimination concerning a cross shape (respectively, a discrimination of line color or of line length with a subtle length difference). A brief pure tone was presented simultaneously with the visual task display on a final trial. Failures to notice the presence of this tone (i.e., inattentional deafness) reached a rate of 79% in the high-visual-load condition, significantly more than in the low-load condition. These findings establish the phenomenon of inattentional deafness under visual load, thereby extending the load theory of attention (e.g., Lavie, Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 25, 596–616, 1995) to address the cross-modal effects of visual perceptual load

Anaesthesia of three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) for fracture repair

Three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were presented separately for fracture repair to the veterinary teaching hospital of University College Dublin. The seals were premedicated with a combination of pethidine, midazolam and atropine; anaesthesia was induced with propofol via the front flipper vein and maintained with sevoflurane or isoflurane in oxygen. One of the seals did not breathe spontaneously after anaesthesia; a cardiac arrest, resulting in death, occurred after several hours of mechanical ventilation. Post-mortem examination revealed a severe lungworm infestation and parasitic pneumonia in this animal. The two other seals recovered uneventfully from anaesthesia

Contributions of green infrastructure to enhancing urban resilience

© 2018, The Author(s). After briefly reviewing key resilience engineering perspectives and summarising some green infrastructure (GI) tools, we present the contributions that GI can make to enhancing urban resilience and maintaining critical system functionality across complex integrated social–ecological and technical systems. We then examine five key challenges for the effective implementation of GI that include (1) standards; (2) regulation; (3) socio-economic factors; (4) financeability; and (5) innovation. We highlight ways in which these challenges are being dealt with around the world, particularly through the use of approaches that are both context appropriate and socially inclusive. Although progress surmounting these challenges has been made, more needs to be done to ensure that GI approaches are inclusive and appropriate and feature equally alongside more traditional ‘grey’ infrastructure in the future of urban resilience planning. This research was undertaken for the Resilience Shift initiative to shift the approach to resilience in practice for critical infrastructure sectors. The programme aims to help practitioners involved in critical infrastructure to make decisions differently, contributing to a safer and better world

On the Immortality of Television Sets: "Function" in the Human Genome According to the Evolution-Free Gospel of ENCODE

A recent slew of ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE) Consortium publications, specifically the article signed by all Consortium members, put forward the idea that more than 80% of the human genome is functional. This claim flies in the face of current estimates according to which the fraction of the genome that is evolutionarily conserved through purifying selection is less than 10%. Thus, according to the ENCODE Consortium, a biological function can be maintained indefinitely without selection, which implies that at least 80 − 10 = 70% of the genome is perfectly invulnerable to deleterious mutations, either because no mutation can ever occur in these “functional” regions or because no mutation in these regions can ever be deleterious. This absurd conclusion was reached through various means, chiefly by employing the seldom used “causal role” definition of biological function and then applying it inconsistently to different biochemical properties, by committing a logical fallacy known as “affirming the consequent,” by failing to appreciate the crucial difference between “junk DNA” and “garbage DNA,” by using analytical methods that yield biased errors and inflate estimates of functionality, by favoring statistical sensitivity over specificity, and by emphasizing statistical significance rather than the magnitude of the effect. Here, we detail the many logical and methodological transgressions involved in assigning functionality to almost every nucleotide in the human genome. The ENCODE results were predicted by one of its authors to necessitate the rewriting of textbooks. We agree, many textbooks dealing with marketing, mass-media hype, and public relations may well have to be rewritten