Perceptual lossless medical image coding

A novel perceptually lossless coder is presented for the compression of medical images. Built on the JPEG 2000 coding framework, the heart of the proposed coder is a visual pruning function, embedded with an advanced human vision model to identify and to remove visually insignificant/irrelevant information. The proposed coder offers the advantages of simplicity and modularity with bit-stream compliance. Current results have shown superior compression ratio gains over that of its information lossless counterparts without any visible distortion. In addition, a case study consisting of 31 medical experts has shown that no perceivable difference of statistical significance exists between the original images and the images compressed by the proposed coder

Juggling Sounds

Bovermann T, Groten J, deCampo A, Eckel G. Juggling Sounds. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Interactive Sonification. York; 2007.In this paper we describe JUGGLING SOUNDS , a system for realtime auditory monitoring of juggling patterns. We explain different approaches to gain insight into the move- ments, and possible applications in both training and jug- gling performance of single-juggler patterns. Furthermore, we report first impressions and experiences gained in a per- formance and its preparation, which took place in the CUBE at the Institute of Electronic Music (IEM), Graz

Stereological Analysis of Neuron, Glial and Endothelial Cell Numbers in the Human Amygdaloid Complex

Cell number alterations in the amygdaloid complex (AC) might coincide with neurological and psychiatric pathologies with anxiety imbalances as well as with changes in brain functionality during aging. This stereological study focused on estimating, in samples from 7 control individuals aged 20 to 75 years old, the number and density of neurons, glia and endothelial cells in the entire AC and in its 5 nuclear groups (including the basolateral (BL), corticomedial and central groups), 5 nuclei and 13 nuclear subdivisions. The volume and total cell number in these territories were determined on Nissl-stained sections with the Cavalieri principle and the optical fractionator. The AC mean volume was 956 mm3 and mean cell numbers (x106) were: 15.3 neurons, 60 glial cells and 16.8 endothelial cells. The numbers of endothelial cells and neurons were similar in each AC region and were one fourth the number of glial cells. Analysis of the influence of the individuals’ age at death on volume, cell number and density in each of these 24 AC regions suggested that aging does not affect regional size or the amount of glial cells, but that neuron and endothelial cell numbers respectively tended to decrease and increase in territories such as AC or BL. These accurate stereological measures of volume and total cell numbers and densities in the AC of control individuals could serve as appropriate reference values to evaluate subtle alterations in this structure in pathological conditions

Perceptually lossless medical image coding and its significance in telemedical applications

A method of encoding medical images to a perceptually lossless quality is presented in this paper. It employs a model of human vision, such that only visually insignif icant/irrelevant information is removed. Current results have shown that it yields greater compression ratio gains over its lossless counterparts without inducing any visible loss in picture quality, which has been veri?ed with 31 medical experts. This is essential in telemedical applica tions, especially when there is a limitation in network trans mission bandwidth. This method can be embedded into any Wavelet based image coder without affecting its bit-stream compliance and therefore specialised decoders are not required

Performance evaluation of a perceptually lossless medical image coder

How to deliver clinically critical information in a 'smaller package'? This paper evaluates a recently proposed perceptually lossless medical image coder (PLMIC) based on the JPEG2000 coding framework. A performance comparison is made between the PLMIC and two benchmark coders LOCO-I and near lossless LOCO-I at two levels in terms of compression ratio and picture fidelity. Subjective assessment in this instance has been carried out with 31 medical experts. The results have shown that the PLMIC delivers significantly higher compression ratio performance than that of the state-of-the-art JPEG-LS LOCO-I lossless algorithm without any visible degradation in image quality or clinical information

Tough photocrosslinked silk fibroin/graphene oxide nanocomposite hydrogels

The development of protein-based hydrogels for tissue engineering applications is often limited by their mechanical properties. Herein, we present the facile fabrication of tough regenerated silk fibroin (RSF)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite hydrogels by a photochemical cross-linking method. The RSF/GO composite hydrogels demonstrated soft and adhesive properties during initial stages of photocrosslinking (<2 min), which is not observed for the pristine RSF hydrogel, and rendered a tough and nonadhesive hydrogel upon complete cross-linking (10 min). The composite hydrogels exhibited superior tensile mechanical properties, increased β-sheet content, and decreased chain mobility compared to that of the pristine RSF hydrogels. The composite hydrogels demonstrated Young’s modulus as high as ∼8 MPa, which is significantly higher than native cartilage (∼1.5 MPa), and tensile toughness as high as ∼2.4 MJ/m3, which is greater than that of electroactive polymer muscles and at par with RSF/GO composite membranes fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly. Small-angle scattering study reveals the hierarchical structure of photocrosslinked RSF hydrogels to comprise randomly distributed water-poor (hydrophobic) and water-rich (hydrophilic) regions at the nanoscale, whereas water pores and channels exhibiting fractal-like characteristics at the microscale. The size of hydrophobic domain (containing β-sheets) was observed to increase slightly with GO incorporation and/or alcohol post-treatment, whereas the size of the hydrophilic domain (intersheet distance containing random coils) was observed to increase significantly, which influences/affects water uptake capacity, cross-link density, and mechanical properties of hydrogels. The presented results have implications for both fundamental understanding of the structure–property relationship of RSF-based hydrogels and their technological applications.Rajkamal Balu, Shaina Reeder, Robert Knott, Jitendra Mata, Liliana de Campo, Naba Kumar Dutta and Namita Roy Choudhur