Performance of a novel wafer scale CMOS active pixel sensor for bio-medical imaging

Recently CMOS Active Pixels Sensors (APSs) have become a valuable alternative to amorphous Silicon and Selenium Flat Panel Imagers (FPIs) in bio-medical imaging applications. CMOS APSs can now be scaled up to the standard 20 cm diameter wafer size by means of a reticle stitching block process. However despite wafer scale CMOS APS being monolithic, sources of non-uniformity of response and regional variations can persist representing a significant challenge for wafer scale sensor response. Non-uniformity of stitched sensors can arise from a number of factors related to the manufacturing process, including variation of amplification, variation between readout components, wafer defects and process variations across the wafer due to manufacturing processes. This paper reports on an investigation into the spatial non-uniformity and regional variations of a wafer scale stitched CMOS APS. For the first time a per-pixel analysis of the electro-optical performance of a wafer CMOS APS is presented, to address inhomogeneity issues arising from the stitching techniques used to manufacture wafer scale sensors. A complete model of the signal generation in the pixel array has been provided and proved capable of accounting for noise and gain variations across the pixel array. This novel analysis leads to readout noise and conversion gain being evaluated at pixel level, stitching block level and in regions of interest, resulting in a coefficient of variation ≤ 1.9%. The uniformity of the image quality performance has been further investigated in a typical X-ray application, i.e. mammography, showing a uniformity in terms of CNR among the highest when compared with mammography detectors commonly used in clinical practise. Finally, in order to compare the detection capability of this novel APS with the currently used technology (i.e. FPIs), theoretical evaluation of the Detection Quantum Efficiency (DQE) at zero-frequency has been performed, resulting in a higher DQE for this detector compared to FPIs. Optical characterization, X-ray contrast measurements and theoretical DQE evaluation suggest that a trade off can be found between the need of a large imaging area and the requirement of a uniform imaging performance, making the DynAMITe large area CMOS APS suitable for a range of bio-medical applications

Vampires in the village Žrnovo on the island of Korčula: following an archival document from the 18th century

Središnja tema rada usmjerena je na raščlambu spisa pohranjenog u Državnom arhivu u Mlecima (fond: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) koji se odnosi na događaj iz 1748. godine u korčulanskom selu Žrnovo, kada su mještani – vjerujući da su se pojavili vampiri – oskvrnuli nekoliko mjesnih grobova. U radu se podrobno iznose osnovni podaci iz spisa te rečeni događaj analizira u širem društvenom kontekstu i prate se lokalna vjerovanja.The main interest of this essay is the analysis of the document from the State Archive in Venice (file: Capi del Consiglio de’ Dieci: Lettere di Rettori e di altre cariche) which is connected with the episode from 1748 when the inhabitants of the village Žrnove on the island of Korčula in Croatia opened tombs on the local cemetery in the fear of the vampires treating. This essay try to show some social circumstances connected with this event as well as a local vernacular tradition concerning superstitions

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI 2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/images/research_banner_face_lab_290.jpgunderweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity

Cartography courses in Hungary

W artykule przedstawiono nauczanie kartografii na Węgrzech poczynając od lat pięćdziesiątych ubiegłego wieku. Znaczna część artykułu poświęcona jest modernizacji programów studiów w związku z wdrażaniem procesu bolońskiego na Węgrzech od 2002 roku.After the 1990 political reforms, it took several years until Hungary officially signed the Bologna Declaration (1999). The progress was very slow: the implementation of the Bologna principles only started in 2002. The nation-wide introduction of the BA and BSc system began in 2006. The new system is now complete with the start of training at MA and MSc levels in autumn 2009. One of the most important bodies in this process has been the Hungarian Accreditation Commit-tee. This Board consists of university professors and academics and has control over the establishment and introduction of curricula in all higher education institutions in Hungary. As for cartography and geodesy, we had two independent 5-year degree programmes in the pre-Bologna system: Cartography training was available at Eótvós Lorand University, while Surveying and Geoinformatical Engineering training was offered by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The College of Surveying and Land Administration in Szekesfehervar offered two 3-year degree programmes. Due to the integration of Hungarian higher education institutions in 2000, which drastically reduced the number of institutions, this college was incorpo-rated as a faculty into the University of West Hungary based in Sopran. These three institutions had worked a lot on establishing and developing their own programmes. However, these individual programmes have lost their independence with the generał implementation of the Bologna process in Hungary. It is only natural that every institution was interested in finding a way to keep as much of their original curricula as only possible. Although about 140 BA and BSc programmes were established at national level, the Bologna system in Hungary did not allow any BSc programme in cartography. However, Eótvós Lorand University established its MSc programme in cartography and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics established an MSc programme related to cartography. Four Hungarian universities agreed on starting a new MSc programme in GIS, but the Hungarian Accreditation Committee refused the approval of their joint proposal. Some BSc and MSc programmes (such as geography and informatics) established specialization in GIS, and this gives us the opportunity of teaching cartography to a larger number of students. There are still other cartography-related MSc programmes waiting for approval by the Hungarian Accreditation Committee. The paper sums up the conclusions of the Bologna process and the visions after the first BSc students have just completed their studies

Converting films for x-ray detectors, applied to amorphous silicon arrays.

This paper presents results from our on-going efforts to characterize semiconductor thin films for direct x-ray conversion. We deposit these thin films onto an amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) readout array with the overall goal of developing a large area x-ray detector for protein crystallography, and for other x-ray imaging fields

Charge-coupled-device fiber optic taper array x-ray detector for protein crystallography

A large area, charge-couple-device (CCD) based fiberoptic taper array detector (APS-1) has been installed at the insertion-device beamline of the Structural Biology Center at the ANL Advanced Photon Source. The detector is used in protein crystallography diffraction experiments, where the objective is to measure the position and intensity of X-ray Bragg peaks in diffraction images. Large imaging area, very high spatial resolution, high X-ray sensitivity, good detective quantum efficiency, low noise, wide dynamic range, excellent stability and short readout time are all fundamental requirements in this application. The APS-1 detector converts the two-dimensional X-ray patterns to a visible light images by a thin layer of X-ray sensitive phosphor. The phosphor coating is directly deposited on the large ends of nine fiberoptic tapers arranged in a 3x3 array. Nine, thermoelectrically cooled 1024 x 1024 pixel CCD`s image the patterns, demagnified by the tapers. After geometrical and uniformity corrections, the nine areas give a continuous image of the detector face with virtually no gaps between the individual tapers. The 18 parallel analog signal-processing channels and analog-to-digital converters assure short readout time and low readout noise