Automated Quantification of Atherosclerosis in CTA of Carotid Arteries

How is the human body built and how does it function? What are the causes of disease, and where is disease located? Throughout the history of mankind these questions were answered by the use of invasive methods that included the “opening” of the human body, mainly cadavers. Thanks to these invasive techniques the first precise and complete anatomy works started to appear in the 16th century. The most influential works were published by Leonardo da Vinci and the anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius. The discovery of X-rays in 1895, and their use for medical applications, introduced a new era, in which non-invasive imaging of the functioning human body became feasible. Nowadays, medical imaging includes many different imaging modalities, such as X-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound (US), nuclear and optical imaging, and has become an indispensable diagnostic tool for a wide range of applications. Initially, the application of medical imaging focused on the visualization of anatomy and on the detection and localization of disease. However, with the development of different modalities it has evolved into a much more versatile tool providing important information on e.g. physiology and organ function, biochemistry and metabolism using nuclear imaging (mainly positron emission tomography (PET) imaging), molecular and processes on the molecular and cellular level using molecular imaging techniques

A novel macroporous polymer-inorganic nanocomposite as a sorbent for pertechnetate ions

A novel magnetic macroporous poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (mPGME) was prepared by suspension copolymerization and functionalized with diethylenetriamine (mPGME-deta). The samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, mercury porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and SQUID magnetometry. The sorption behavior of mPGME-deta toward pertechnetate ions (TcO4-) from aqueous solution was studied. Experimental results indicated relatively fast TcO4- sorption kinetics that depends on pH and ionic strength, with a high removal efficiency of 99% within 180 min in the pH range 3.0-5.0. The pseudo-second-order model yielded the best fit for the kinetic data

Leaf segmentation in plant phenotyping: a collation study

Image-based plant phenotyping is a growing application area of computer vision in agriculture. A key task is the segmentation of all individual leaves in images. Here we focus on the most common rosette model plants, Arabidopsis and young tobacco. Although leaves do share appearance and shape characteristics, the presence of occlusions and variability in leaf shape and pose, as well as imaging conditions, render this problem challenging. The aim of this paper is to compare several leaf segmentation solutions on a unique and first-of-its-kind dataset containing images from typical phenotyping experiments. In particular, we report and discuss methods and findings of a collection of submissions for the first Leaf Segmentation Challenge of the Computer Vision Problems in Plant Phenotyping workshop in 2014. Four methods are presented: three segment leaves by processing the distance transform in an unsupervised fashion, and the other via optimal template selection and Chamfer matching. Overall, we find that although separating plant from background can be accomplished with satisfactory accuracy (>>90 % Dice score), individual leaf segmentation and counting remain challenging when leaves overlap. Additionally, accuracy is lower for younger leaves. We find also that variability in datasets does affect outcomes. Our findings motivate further investigations and development of specialized algorithms for this particular application, and that challenges of this form are ideally suited for advancing the state of the art. Data are publicly available (online at http://​www.​plant-phenotyping.​org/​datasets) to support future challenges beyond segmentation within this application domain

Automated Detection of Mycosphaerella Melonis Infected Cucumber Fruits

In this paper we present a novel method for automated detection of Mycosphaerella melonis infected cucumber fruits. The two-step method consists of machine learning approach using: shape based features extracted from cucumber color images and light transmission spectra based features. The automated detection rate was compared to the manual detection rate of the human workers. Our automated method reached the 95% detection accuracy, which is comparable to the manual detection accuracy of 96%

COMBINING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS AND ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS FOR EFFICIENT INLAND PORT SERVICES: CASE STUDY OF THE PORT DUNAV PANCEVO

This paper shows the process of decision making in order to choose the most efficient technology for dry bulk cargo handling at an inland port. The port operator's objective is to maximize the efficiency of cargo handling services, in order to primarily minimize total vessel time in the port. Proposed combinations of major and auxiliary handling equipment, vehicles, and corresponding labour, together with dry bulk cargo packing options are systematized into 16 variants defined by a survey from experts in the field. We proposed a three-step approach to select the most efficient among them. In the first step we used simulation to obtain performance indicators for each variant. In the second step, AHP is used to quantify qualitative data. Finally, the CCR DEA model and super-efficiency DEA modelare used to identify the most efficient variant(s)

Forensic Psychiatric Nursing : Literature Review

本論文の意図は、触法精神障害者の看護の現状や研究について他職種の視点も踏まえながら文献を概観し、その内容を明らかにすることである。看護職の立場からは、これまで触法患者のケアを困難にしてきた要因と同時に、医療観察法施行(2005年)後の新しい看護ケアの試行が報告されており、今後の成果が期待されていた。但し、触法患者ケアへの地域住民の不安は大きく、専門病棟建設や地域への退院についても拒否的、消極的であり、触法患者の看護ケアを妨げる要因の1つとなっていた。他職種の立場からは、入院施設や地域処遇の整備不足、触法患者の長期にわたる自由剥奪の危険性、さらに被害者の立場からは、司法手続きについての情報不足が指摘されていた。以上の状況から今後、看護師は触法精神障害者の看護プログラムの研究・開発・導入を継続し、多職種との連携を深め、当事者・被害者等の主張に耳を傾け、解決策を共に探る姿勢が求められる

Het winterlicht gewas : proof off principle met komkommer

In winter, for almost all crops light is the limiting factor for production. In the search for the maximum use of the limited light in the winter months, it is important to convert the light into crop production as optimal as possible. In order to improve, the knowledge gained in the project “verbetering lichtinval winterlicht”, where natural light entrance of the greenhouse roof for the winter period was optimized, in this project the scope was on the crop itself. The work in this project has been funded by the research program Kas Als Energiebron. This research program is a cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality and LTO-Glaskracht Nederland. To maximize light interception by the crop, an east-west oriented crop direction is the first step. The characteristics of the chosen cucumber variety, due to the variation in leaf size during cultivation from large to small leaves, require adaptation of crop management to the change in plant shape. A narrow trough distance showed a lot of damage of the crop. The best results were shown by the biggest gutter distance