Estimating weak ratiometric signals in imaging data. I. Dual-channel data

Ratiometric fluorescent indicators are becoming increasingly prevalent in many areas of biology. They are used for making quantitative measurements of intracellular free calcium both in vitro and in vivo, as well as measuring membrane potentials, pH, and other important physiological variables of interest to researchers in many subfields. Often, functional changes in the fluorescent yield of ratiometric indicators are small, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is of order unity or less. In particular, variability in the denominator of the ratio can lead to very poor ratio estimates. We present a statistical optimization method for objectively detecting and estimating ratiometric signals in dual-wavelength measurements of fluorescent, ratiometric indicators that improves on standard methods. With the use of an appropriate statistical model for ratiometric signals and by taking the pixel-pixel covariance of an imaging dataset into account, we are able to extract user-independent spatiotemporal information that retains high resolution in both space and time.     

Demand information sharing and channel choice in a dual-channel supply chain with multiple retailers

In this paper, under a dual-channel supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and multiple retailers, we investigate vertical and horizontal information sharing in different channel structures and the manufacturer’s choice on whether or not to keep a direct channel. To this end, we first study the dual-channel structure where uncertain demand is a linear function of price with a generalised-distribution base demand and show that the retailers have incentives to share information horizontally but not vertically, while the manufacturer is better off with vertical information sharing but its expected profit is not affected by horizontal information sharing. We next examine the retail-channel structure and find the basic results remain unchanged. Finally, we provide closed-form internal and external conditions under which the manufacturer can benefit from owning a dual-channel structure. Our study extends the existing literature by combining information sharing and dual-channel choice, introducing channel difference, discussing the impact of channel structure on horizontal and vertical sharing as well as providing interesting managerial insights for channel choice.     

Assessing mean and median filters in multiple testing for large-scale imaging data

A new multiple testing procedure, called the FDR _L procedure, was proposed by Zhang et al. (Ann Stat 39:613–642, 2011) for detecting the presence of spatial signals for large-scale 2D and 3D imaging data. In contrast to the conventional multiple testing procedure, the FDR _L procedure substitutes each p-value by a locally aggregated median filter of p-values. This paper examines the performance of another commonly used filter, mean filter, in the FDR _L procedure. It is demonstrated that when the p-values are independent and uniformly distributed under the true null hypotheses, (i) in view of estimating the resulting false discovery rate, the mean filter better alleviates the “lack of identification phenomenon” of the FDR _L procedure than the median filter; (ii) in view of signal detection, the median filter enjoys the “edge-preserving property” and lends support to its better performance in detecting sparse signals than the mean filter.     

Use of modulated excitation signals in medical ultrasound. Part II: Design and performance for medical imaging applications

In the first paper, the superiority of linear FM signals was shown in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and robustness to tissue attenuation. This second paper in the series of three papers on the application of coded excitation signals in medical ultrasound presents design methods of linear FM signals and mismatched filters, in order to meet the higher demands on resolution in ultrasound imaging. It is shown that for the small time-bandwidth (TB) products available in ultrasound, the rectangular spectrum approximation is not valid, which reduces the effectiveness of weighting. Additionally, the distant range sidelobes are associated with the ripples of the spectrum amplitude and, thus, cannot be removed by weighting. Ripple reduction is achieved through amplitude or phase predistortion of the transmitted signals. Mismatched filters are designed to efficiently use the available bandwidth and at the same time to be insensitive to the transducer's impulse response. With these techniques, temporal sidelobes are kept below 60 to 100 dB, image contrast is improved by reducing the energy within the sidelobe region, and axial resolution is preserved. The method is evaluated first for resolution performance and axial sidelobes through simulations with the program Field II. A coded excitation ultrasound imaging system based on a commercial scanner and a 4 MHz probe driven by coded sequences is presented and used for the clinical evaluation of the coded excitation/compression scheme. The clinical images show a significant improvement in penetration depth and contrast, while they preserve both axial and lateral resolution. At the maximum acquisition depth of 15 cm, there is an improvement of more than 10 dB in the signal-to-noise ratio of the images. The paper also presents acquired images, using complementary Golay codes, that show the deleterious effects of attenuation on binary codes when processed with a matched filter, also confirmed by presented simulated images.     

一种强干扰下超弱水声信号自适应盲分离的快速算法

许多盲源分离算法对超弱信号收敛速度变慢甚至失效。文章提出一种算法 ,用FASTICA算法所得的分离矩阵作为一种基于输出去相关自适应盲分离算法的初始值 ,算法的收敛速度得到明显改善。算法的学习速率通过一种自适应算法选取 ,从而降低了算法收敛速度对学习步长的依赖。仿真结果表明 ,文中提出的算法对超弱信号特别有效 ,算法收敛速度大大增强。该算法可以用于分离强干扰下的弱水声信号     

Snow in strong or weak temperature gradients. Part II: Section-plane analysis

Photomicrographs of section-planes from snow samples exposed to very strong or very weak temperature gradients were converted to video images and digitized. Brightness levels were set to discriminate ice from pore profiles. Section-plane density, mean and maximum intercept lengths for the ice profiles, and surface area per unit mass were measured and compared. Although results were somewhat obscured by density variations, the mean and maximum intercept lengths increased and the surface area per unit mass decreased under the influence of strong or weak gradients. The increase in maximum intercept length was more pronounced in the strong gradient tests.     

Probability of loss of assured safety in temperature dependent systems with multiple weak and strong links

Relationships to determine the probability that a weak link (WL)/strong link (SL) safety system will fail to function as intended in a fire environment are investigated. In the systems under study, failure of the WL system before failure of the SL system is intended to render the overall system inoperational and thus prevent the possible occurrence of accidents with potentially serious consequences. Formal developments of the probability that the WL system fails to deactivate the overall system before failure of the SL system (i.e. the probability of loss of assured safety, PLOAS) are presented for several WL/SL configurations: (i) one WL, one SL; (ii) multiple WLs, multiple SLs with failure of any SL before any WL constituting failure of the safety system; (iii) multiple WLs, multiple SLs with failure of all SLs before any WL constituting failure of the safety system; and (iv) multiple WLs, multiple SLs and multiple sublinks in each SL with failure of any sublink constituting failure of the associated SL and failure of all SLs before failure of any WL constituting failure of the safety system. The indicated probabilities derive from time-dependent temperatures in the WL/SL system and variability (i.e. aleatory uncertainty) in the temperatures at which the individual components of this system fail and are formally defined as multidimensional integrals. Numerical procedures based on quadrature (i.e. trapezoidal rule, Simpson's rule) and also on Monte Carlo techniques (i.e. simple random sampling, importance sampling) are described and illustrated for the evaluation of these integrals.     

Use of modulated excitation signals in medical ultrasound. Part III: High frame rate imaging

This paper, the last from a series of three papers on the application of coded excitation signals in medical ultrasound, investigates the possibility of increasing the frame rate in ultrasound imaging by using modulated excitation signals. Linear array-coded imaging and sparse synthetic transmit aperture imaging are considered, and the trade-offs between frame rate, image quality, and SNR are discussed. It is shown that FM codes can be used to increase the frame rate by a factor of two without a degradation in image quality and by a factor of 5, if a slight decrease in image quality can be accepted. The use of synthetic transmit aperture imaging is also considered, and it is here shown that Hadamard spatial encoding in transmit with FM emission signals can be used to increase the frame rate by 12 to 25 times with either a slight or no reduction in signal-to-noise ratio and image quality. By using these techniques a complete ultrasound-phased array image can be created using only two emissions.     

Microscopic origins of band broadening in chromatography. Polarity distribution in C(18) stationary phase probed by confocal ratiometric imaging of Nile red

Band broadening is a major factor that influences the efficiency and resolution of chromatographic separations. Studies of microscopic origins of band broadening, such as the micropolarity distribution of chromatographic stationary phase, can provide a better understanding of many chromatographic phenomena and retention behavior. In this work, we probe the chemical environments of C18 chromatographic stationary phase with quantitative confocal fluorescence microscopy under real reversed-phase liquid chromatography conditions. Ratiometric imaging of C18 interface is achieved by loading the stationary phase with a polarity-sensitive dye, Nile red, and optical sectioning with confocal microscopy. The results reveal that there are uniform micropolarity distributions inside individual chromatographic beads, but the polarity may differ between stationary-phase particles. The homogeneity of micropolarity of individual beads suggests that there are not any spatially large exposed silica sites beyond the optical resolution in C18 stationary phase. The strong adsorption sites are smaller in size than the optical resolution of a few hundred nanometers. The heterogeneity between chromatographic beads indicates that the interactions of Nile red with C18 bonded phase are different between beads. This contributes to the broad overall polarity distribution of the C18 stationary phase and can be one of the factors that cause band broadening in separations. With its high spatial resolution and optical sectioning capabilities, confocal fluorescence imaging is shown to be an ideal method to probe the chromatographic stationary phase. The distribution of micropolarity sheds light on the microscopic heterogeneity in chromatographic processes and its influence on chemical separations.     

Lasing in active, sub-mean-free path-sized systems with dense, random, weak scatterers

We report enhanced emission and gain narrowing in Rhodamine 590 perchlorate dye in an aqueous suspension of polystyrene microspheres. A systematic experimental study of the threshold condition for and the gain narrowing of the stimulated emission over a wide range of dye concentrations and scatterer number densities showed several interesting features, even though the transport mean free path far exceeded the system size. The conventional diffusive-reactive approximation to radiative transfer in an inhomogeneously illuminated random amplifying medium, which is valid for a transport mean-free path much smaller than the system size, is clearly inapplicable here. We propose a new probabilistic approach for the present case of dense, random, weak scatterers involving the otherwise rare and ignorable sub-mean-free-path scatterings, now made effective by the high gain in the medium, which is consistent with experimentally observed features.     

Background signals in wavelength-modulation spectrometry with frequency-doubled diode-laser light. I. Theory

Various types of background signals appear when wavelength-modulated (WM) diode-laser light is frequency doubled. We present a theoretical analysis of such background signals in terms of a previously derived formalism for WM spectrometry that is based on a Fourier series. Explicit expressions for various nf harmonics of the background signals are derived. The analysis shows that 2f detection will be plagued by significant background signals when frequency-doubled WM diode-laser light is used. It also demonstrates that 4f and 6f detection will experience background signals but not, however, to the same extent as 2f detection. The analysis illustrates clearly how the various nf harmonics of the background signals depend on entities such as modulation amplitude, associated intensity modulation, dispersion of the frequency-doubling material, laser power, and detuning. The background signals can take both positive and negative values, depending on the relation between these entities. Guidelines for how to minimize these background signals are given.     

A closed loop ML algorithm for phase aberration correction in phased array imaging systems. II. Performance analysis [Ultrasound medical imaging

For pt.I see ibid., vol.44, pp.259-70 (1997). The performance of the maximum likelihood closed loop circuits, proposed in part I for phase aberration correction in phased array imaging systems, is analysed. This analysis is helpful in designing and also in determining the tracking mode phase error variance performance of both closed loop circuits (1-D and 2-D). It is an approximate analysis, suitable under small errors conditions, and considered accurate for high values of the signal to noise ratio.     

Detecting multiple special causes from multivariate data with applications to fault detection in manufacturing

Several articles in the recent literature propose linear models of product quality for both single station and multistation manufacturing processes. We show how these models may be used in conjunction with statistical methods to design a procedure for multivariate Statistical Process Control (SPC) that outperforms direct application of multivariate SPC. We show how to design the procedure and evaluate its performance in shift detection for models with and without singularities. The use of the procedure is illustrated using two examples from automobile body assembly.     

Verification of the calculation of probability of loss of assured safety in temperature-dependent systems with multiple weak and strong links

Two approaches to the calculation of probability of loss of assured safety (PLOAS) in temperature dependent weak link/strong link systems are described and compared on the basis of three test problems. The approaches differ in that the first approach permits a separation of epistemic and aleatory uncertainty in the calculation of PLOAS and the second approach combines epistemic and aleatory uncertainty before the calculation of PLOAS. A discrepancy in the results obtained with the test problems led to the identification of an implementation error for one of the approaches. The importance and efficacy of well-designed verification test problems are demonstrated.     

星载合成孔径雷达多普勒调频斜率的时频估计方法

分析了星载合成孔径雷达（ＳＡＲ）回波的时频特性，提出了利用Ｖｉｌｌｅ－Ｍｏｙａｌ分布估计星载ＳＡＲ多普勒调频斜率的方法，处理ＥＲＳ－１实测数据的结果表明，其结果优于目前常的子孔径相关方法。     

Effect of delayed link failure on probability of loss of assured safety in temperature-dependent systems with multiple weak and strong links

Weak link (WL)/strong link (SL) systems constitute important parts of the overall operational design of high-consequence systems, with the SL system designed to permit operation of the system only under intended conditions and the WL system designed to prevent the unintended operation of the system under accident conditions. Degradation of the system under accident conditions into a state in which the WLs have not deactivated the system and the SLs have failed in the sense that they are in a configuration that could permit operation of the system is referred to as loss of assured safety. The probability of such degradation conditional on a specific set of accident conditions is referred to as probability of loss of assured safety (PLOAS). Previous work has developed computational procedures for the calculation of PLOAS under fire conditions for a system involving multiple WLs and SLs and with the assumption that a link fails instantly when it reaches its failure temperature. Extensions of these procedures are obtained for systems in which there is a temperature-dependent delay between the time at which a link reaches its failure temperature and the time at which that link actually fails.     

Error in Digital Computation,Vol. II

Dunnett has prepared tables for making multiple comparisons with a control for single-factor (or multi-factor) experiments involving means of normal populations. In the present paper the author uees the multiplicative model for variances which he introduced in an earlier paper, aa the basis for making multiple comparisons with a control for multi-factor experiments involving variances of normal populations. A limited set of tables for uee with this procedure is included.     

Eddy current testing of anomalies in conductive materials. II.Quantitative imaging via deterministic and stochastic inversiontechniques

For pt.I, see ibid., vol.27, no.6, p.4416-37 (1991). Application of deterministic and stochastic quantitative inversion techniques to configurations similar to those treated in Pt.I by tomographic techniques is discussed. The defects are modeled as cylindrical inhomogeneities concealed within a homogeneous nonmagnetic metallic half-space. Values of the conductivity within the anomaly cross section have to be retrieved from multifrequency anomalous fields observed on a line above and parallel with the surface on the damaged block when a known time-harmonic source illuminates the block. Such quantitative imaging involves the ill-posed inversion of a Fredholm first-kind integral equation with exponentially damped kernel and requires some kind of regularization. In a deterministic context, an iterative algorithm provides a regularized generalized inverse, with the inconvenience that the stopping parameter should be appropriately chosen. In a stochastic context. Kalman filtering rapidly yields a good estimate of the conductivities, which could lead to a more precise but costlier solution     

Healing and relaxation in flows of helium II. Part II. First,second, and fourth sound

In Part I of this series, a theory of helium II incorporating the effects of quantum healing and relaxation was developed. In this paper, the propagation of first, second, and fourth sound is discussed. Particular attention is paid to sound propagation in the vicinity of the point where the effects of relaxation and quantum healing become important.Supported in part by a special research grant GR/A/0556 from the Science Research Council of Great Britain, and (for RNH) by U.S. Air Force grant AFOSR 76-2880 and National Science Foundation grant ENG-76-07354.