Image Processing Algorithms for Detection of Anomalies in Orthopedic Surgery Implants

Orthopedic implant procedures for hip implants are performed on 300,000 patients annually in the United States, with 22.3 million procedures worldwide. While most such operations are successfully performed to relieve pain and restore joint function for the duration of the patient\u27s life, advances in medicine have enabled patients to outlive the life of their implant, increasing the likelihood of implant failure. There is significant advantage to the patient, the surgeon, and the medical community in early detection of implant failures.The research work presented in this thesis demonstrates a non-invasive digital image processing technique for the automated detection of specific arthroplasty failures before requiring revision surgery. This thesis studies hip implant loosening as the primary cause of failure. A combination of digital image segmentation, representation and numerical description is employed and validated on 2-D X-ray images of hip implant phantoms to detect 3-D rotations of the implant, with the support of radial basis function neural networks to accomplish this task. A successful clinical implementation of the methods developed in this thesis can eliminate the need for revision surgery and prolong the life of the orthopedic implant

Death of a Myth: The Patenting of Internet Business Models after State Street Bank

The case of State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., which extended patent protection to a computerized financial method, was regarded by many as a revolutionary expansion of patentable subject matter. The author, however, argues that this notion is overstated. The author explains that the State Street Bank decision will be of little consequence because the business exception was a myth in the first place. The author reasons that courts often cited other bars to patentability when denying business methods protection. Furthermore, the author argues that the recent relaxation of the patentability requirements of computer related inventions would likely include the business method exception, rendering any change created by State Street Bank meaningless. Finally, the author asserts that claims for Internet business models will still be rejected by the PTO and courts under the patentability requirements of the Patent Act

Veterinary Medical Libraries in the 21st Century

The purpose of this volume is to present a picture of information access and delivery by United States and Canadian academic veterinary medical libraries (VMLs) to the veterinary community and others with interests in the profession. This is done by discussing the resources that are available, as well as methods of delivery of that information. Our discussion of these topics will not only point out the unique aspects of these collections and services, but will also illustrate much that is in common with all medical collections and library services. As with all libraries, the goal of VMLs is to provide high quality service while looking after the information needs of their clientele through selection, acquisition, cataloging, and dissemination of materials and familiarizing their users with these resources. In the past decade, new challenges and opportunities for information specialists stem from the impact of technology on VMLs. Our goal with this volume is to be concise, but thorough about all of these topics.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/library_books/1000/thumbnail.jp

On the generation of the coefficient field of a newform by a single Hecke eigenvalue

Let f be a non-CM newform of weight k > 1. Let L be a subfield of the coefficient field of f. We completely settle the question of the density of the set of primes p such that the p-th coefficient of f generates the field L. This density is determined by the inner twists of f. As a particular case, we obtain that in the absence of non-trivial inner twists, the density is 1 for L equal to the whole coefficient field. We also present some new data on reducibility of Hecke polynomials, which suggest questions for further investigation.Comment: 13 pages, more complete result, some corollaries adde

On the behavior of random RNA secondary structures near the glass transition

RNA forms elaborate secondary structures through intramolecular base pairing. These structures perform critical biological functions within each cell. Due to the availability of a polynomial algorithm to calculate the partition function over these structures, they are also a suitable system for the statistical physics of disordered systems. In this model, below the denaturation temperature, random RNA secondary structures exist in one of two phases: a strongly disordered, low-temperature glass phase, and a weakly disordered, high-temperature molten phase. The probability of two bases to pair decays with their distance with an exponent 3/2 in the molten phase, and about 4/3 in the glass phase. Inspired by previous results from a renormalized field theory of the glass transition separating the two phases, we numerically study this transition. We introduce distinct order parameters for each phase, that both vanish at the critical point. We finally explore the driving mechanism behind this transition

Master\u27s and Doctoral Thesis Citations: Analysis and Trends of a Longitudinal Study

This article reports the results of a longitudinal study of over 9100 citations from 629 master’s and doctoral theses written between 1973 and 1992 at a large mid-western landgrant university. The results of this study suggest that graduate students writing theses favor current research regardless of disciplinary affiliation. The length of theses increased over time and the number of citations in thesis bibliographies varied by discipline. Implications of the results for collection development and scholarship as well as areas for future research are discussed

Viscous regularization and r-adaptive remeshing for finite element analysis of lipid membrane mechanics

As two-dimensional fluid shells, lipid bilayer membranes resist bending and stretching but are unable to sustain shear stresses. This property gives membranes the ability to adopt dramatic shape changes. In this paper, a finite element model is developed to study static equilibrium mechanics of membranes. In particular, a viscous regularization method is proposed to stabilize tangential mesh deformations and improve the convergence rate of nonlinear solvers. The Augmented Lagrangian method is used to enforce global constraints on area and volume during membrane deformations. As a validation of the method, equilibrium shapes for a shape-phase diagram of lipid bilayer vesicle are calculated. These numerical techniques are also shown to be useful for simulations of three-dimensional large-deformation problems: the formation of tethers (long tube-like exetensions); and Ginzburg-Landau phase separation of a two-lipid-component vesicle. To deal with the large mesh distortions of the two-phase model, modification of vicous regularization is explored to achieve r-adaptive mesh optimization

Holistic processing, contact, and the other-race effect in face recognition

Face recognition, holistic processing, and processing of configural and featural facial information are known to be influenced by face race, with better performance for own- than other-race faces. However, whether these various other-race effects (OREs) arise from the same underlying mechanisms or from different processes remains unclear. The present study addressed this question by measuring the OREs in a set of face recognition tasks, and testing whether these OREs are correlated with each other. Participants performed different tasks probing (1) face recognition, (2) holistic processing, (3) processing of configural information, and (4) processing of featural information for both own- and other-race faces. Their contact with other-race people was also assessed with a questionnaire. The results show significant OREs in tasks testing face memory and processing of configural information, but not in tasks testing either holistic processing or processing of featural information. Importantly, there was no cross-task correlation between any of the measured OREs. Moreover, the level of other-race contact predicted only the OREs obtained in tasks testing face memory and processing of configural information. These results indicate that these various cross-race differences originate from different aspects of face processing, in contrary to the view that the ORE in face recognition is due to cross-race differences in terms of holistic processing

Investigating the Near-Infrared Properties of Planetary Nebula II. Medium Resolution Spectra

We present medium-resolution (R~700) near-infrared (lambda = 1 - 2.5 micron) spectra of a sample of planetary nebulae (PNe). A narrow slit was used which sampled discrete locations within the nebulae; observations were obtained at one or more positions in the 41 objects included in the survey. The PN spectra fall into one of four general categories: H I emission line-dominated PNe, H I and H_2 emission line PNe, H_2-dominated PNe, and continuum-dominated PNe. These categories correlate with morphological type, with the elliptical PNe falling into the first group, and the bipolar PNe primarily in the H_2 and continuum emission groups. Other spectral features were observed in all categories, such as continuum emission from the central star, C_2, CN, and CO emission, and warm dust continuum emission. Molecular hydrogen was detected for the first time in four PNe. An excitation analysis was performed using the H_2 line ratios for all of the PN spectra in the survey where a sufficient number of lines were observed. One unexpected result from this analysis is that the H_2 is excited by absorption of ultraviolet photons in most of the PNe surveyed, although for several PNe in our survey collisional excitation in moderate velocity shocks plays an important role. The correlation between bipolar morphology and H_2 emission has been strengthened with the new detections of H_2 in this survey.Comment: 13 pages, 8 tables, 33 figure

The ends of a large RNA molecule are necessarily close

We show on general theoretical grounds that the two ends of single-stranded (ss) RNA molecules (consisting of roughly equal proportions of A, C, G and U) are necessarily close together, largely independent of their length and sequence. This is demonstrated to be a direct consequence of two generic properties of the equilibrium secondary structures, namely that the average proportion of bases in pairs is ∼60% and that the average duplex length is ∼4. Based on mfold and Vienna computations on large numbers of ssRNAs of various lengths (1000–10 000 nt) and sequences (both random and biological), we find that the 5′–3′ distance—defined as the sum of H-bond and covalent (ss) links separating the ends of the RNA chain—is small, averaging 15–20 for each set of viral sequences tested. For random sequences this distance is ∼12, consistent with the theory. We discuss the relevance of these results to evolved sequence complementarity and specific protein binding effects that are known to be important for keeping the two ends of viral and messenger RNAs in close proximity. Finally we speculate on how our conclusions imply indistinguishability in size and shape of equilibrated forms of linear and covalently circularized ssRNA molecules