An Automatic System to Discriminate Malignant from Benign Massive Lesions on Mammograms

Mammography is widely recognized as the most reliable technique for early detection of breast cancers. Automated or semi-automated computerized classification schemes can be very useful in assisting radiologists with a second opinion about the visual diagnosis of breast lesions, thus leading to a reduction in the number of unnecessary biopsies. We present a computer-aided diagnosis (CADi) system for the characterization of massive lesions in mammograms, whose aim is to distinguish malignant from benign masses. The CADi system we realized is based on a three-stage algorithm: a) a segmentation technique extracts the contours of the massive lesion from the image; b) sixteen features based on size and shape of the lesion are computed; c) a neural classifier merges the features into an estimated likelihood of malignancy. A dataset of 226 massive lesions (109 malignant and 117 benign) has been used in this study. The system performances have been evaluated terms of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, obtaining A_z = 0.80+-0.04 as the estimated area under the ROC curve.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; Proceedings of the ITBS 2005, 3rd International Conference on Imaging Technologies in Biomedical Sciences, 25-28 September 2005, Milos Island, Greec

Luminescence dating and mineralogical investigations of bricks from erikli basilica in Stratonikeia ancient city (SW-Turkey)

Stratonikeia is one of the oldest settlements in southwestern Anatolia and at the same time significant for an understanding of the Hellenistic period. Archaeological records of Stratonikeia date back to around 2000 BC. This study provides new information not only about luminescence age but also about mineralo-petrographic, geochemical characteristics of bricks taken from Erikli Basilica in Stratonikeia (Turkey). In this study, mineralogical data of TL and OSL dating of two bricks and two sediment samples will be presented. The bricks have highly similar mineralogical composition, consisting mainly of quartz and muscovite. These results are supported by XRD studies. In order to perform the thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, the equivalent dose (ED) and the annual dose (AD) of the samples were determined using different estimation techniques. The TL ages of bricks are determined to be 1189±89 and 576±40 years. The IRSL ages of the bricks are determined to be 1167±85 years and 545±50 years. Additionally, supporting the TL and IRSL ages, the OSL quartz ages of the two sediments obtained from the top of the layer under the floor are discovered to be about 1100 years. Mineralo-petrographic, geochemical, dating and archaeological studies have revealed that the age of bricks is different from each other. Furthermore, Erikli Basillica was built in bricks, consisting of raw materials taken from different quarries in different periods. Within the framework, the first report of the experimental approach has been published from Stratonikeia archaeological site located in Muğla, Agean Anatolia. © 2018 MAA Open Access. Printed in Greece. All rights reserved

Gamma spectroscopy by artificial neural network coupled with MCNP

While neutron activation analysis is widely used in many areas, sensitivity of the analysis depends on how the analysis is conducted. Even though the sensitivity of the techniques carries error, compared to chemical analysis, its range is in parts per million or sometimes billion. Due to this sensitivity, the use of neutron activation analysis becomes important when analyzing bio-samples. Artificial neural network is an attractive technique for complex systems. Although there are neural network applications on spectral analysis, training by simulated data to analyze experimental data has not been made. This study offers an improvement on spectral analysis and optimization on neural network for the purpose. The work considers five elements that are considered as trace elements for bio-samples. However, the system is not limited to five elements. The only limitation of the study comes from data library availability on MCNP. A perceptron network was employed to identify five elements from gamma spectra. In quantitative analysis, better results were obtained when the neural fitting tool in MATLAB was used. As a training function, Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was used with 23 neurons in the hidden layer with 259 gamma spectra in the input. Because the interest of the study deals with five elements, five neurons representing peak counts of five isotopes in the input layer were used. Five output neurons revealed mass information of these elements from irradiated kidney stones. Results showing max error of 17.9% in APA, 24.9% in UA, 28.2% in COM, 27.9% in STRU type showed the success of neural network approach in analyzing gamma spectra. This high error was attributed to Zn that has a very long decay half-life compared to the other elements. The simulation and experiments were made under certain experimental setup (3 hours irradiation, 96 hours decay time, 8 hours counting time). Nevertheless, the approach is subject to be generalized for different setups --Abstract, page iii

Improvement of mammographic mass characterization using spiculation measures and morphological features

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135119/1/mp1548.pd

Reflections of contemporary socio-political and religious controversies in William Shakespeare's Henry IV parts 1 and 2, Henry V and Henry VI parts 1, 2 and 3

While the general idea is to illustrate how William Shakespeare reflected the contemporary conflicts and problems of the Elizabethan society, the particular aim of the thesis is to offer a close critical analysis of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 and Part 2, Henry V and Henry VI Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 plays in an eclectic critical approach derived from the theoretical principles of New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. In order to provide a better understanding of the plays studied in the thesis, there is a presentation of the development of drama, both religious and secular, in the Reformation period. In addition to this, main features of Cultural Materialism and New Historicism are given. The English Reformation and its effects on drama have been given in the introductory chapter. In the first chapter, contemporary religious controversies as reflected in Shakespeare's 1 and 2 Henry VI plays are discussed. The second chapter deals with the reflections of contemporary social conflicts in especially the Jack Cade episode of Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI. In the third chapter, reflections of political conflicts in Shakespeare's Henry V, Henry V, and Henry VI plays are analysed in terms of the appropriation of commoners by the ruling class for the preservation of the dominant order. The thesis concludes that the plays are polyvalent in meaning and thus open to further academic discussions for the years to come

Sturm comparison theorems via Picone-type inequalities for some nonlinear elliptic type equations with damped terms

In this paper, we establish a Picone-type inequality for a class of some nonlinear elliptic type equations with damped terms, and obtain Sturmian comparison theorems using the Picone-type inequality. As an application by using comparison theorem oscillation result and Wirtinger-type inequality are given