Techniques for processing remote field eddy current signals from bend regions of steam generator tubes of prototype fast breeder reactor

Steam generator (SG) is one of the most critical components of sodium cooled fast breeder reactor. Remote field eddy current (RFEC) technique has been chosen for in-service inspection (ISI) of these ferromagnetic SG tubes made of modified 9Cr–1Mo steel (Grade 91). Expansion bends are provided in the SGs to accommodate differential thermal expansion. During ISI using RFEC technique, in expansion bend regions, exciter–receiver coil misalignment, bending stresses, probe wobble and magnetic permeability variations produce disturbing noise hindering detection of defects. Fourier filtering, cross-correlation and wavelet transform techniques have been studied for noise reduction as well as enhancement of RFEC signals of defects in bend regions, having machined grooves and localized defects. Performance of these three techniques has been compared using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Fourier filtering technique has shown better performance for noise reduction while cross-correlation technique has resulted in significant enhancement of signals. Wavelet transform technique has shown the combined capability of noise reduction and signal enhancement and resulted in unambiguous detection of 10% of wall loss grooves and localized defects in the bend regions with SNR better than 7 dB.     

同态滤波法消除γ能谱混合噪声

针对γ能谱传统消噪方法的不足,提出了γ能谱的混合噪声模型和基于小波变换的同态滤波消噪法。本文对γ能谱存在乘性噪声进行了论证,并详细介绍了消噪算法。通过Matlab软件对~(60)Co γ能谱消噪处理结果表明,与传统消噪方法相比,以混合噪声模型为基础的同态滤波法较大幅度地提高了γ能谱的信噪比,同时还在一定程度上消除了谱线的"展宽效应"。研究表明,混合噪声模型和同态滤波消噪法是合理有效的,而且消噪结果优于传统消噪方法。     

基于小波递归滤波的X射线图像实时降噪技术

通常射线图像降噪常常利用空间域滤波或时间域滤波,这两种方法都只考虑了各自域的像素之间的相关性,将空间滤波方法与时间滤波方法结合起来,可以达到比它们单独使用更好的效果.帧内与帧间结合的数字视频降噪方法,是将递归滤波和小波算法相结合的复合算法.试验证明该方法可以有效去除射线图像随机噪声.     

小波分析在X荧光光谱去噪声中的应用

核辐射探测器中固有统计涨落、电子学噪声,使X射线荧光光谱中带有噪声,主要表现为出现假峰或丢失弱峰.论文探讨使用Mallat算法对X射线荧光光谱信号进行小波分解,采用阈值滤波算法在小波域内将噪声抑制或消除,最后重构除去噪声后的能谱信号.通过与多项式最小二乘拟合光滑除去噪声的光谱做定性和定量分析的比较,表明小波分析能够较好除去X射线荧光光谱中的噪声.     

基于剪切波变换的辐射图像泊松噪声降噪技术研究

为了降低由统计涨落引起的辐射图像噪声，提出了一种基于剪切波变换的降噪方法。该方法以低剂量射线或质量厚度大的物体的辐射图像为研究对象，对此类辐射图像进行了噪声分析，利用Anscombe变换将统计涨落引起的泊松噪声转换为高斯噪声，再运用剪切波分解、阈值去噪、剪切波重构和Anscombe逆变换得到降噪图像。结果表明，当剪切波分解层数为5，采用改进阈值函数及极小极大原理阈值时可达到最优降噪效果，该方法能较好地去除辐射图像中的泊松噪声并保留边缘、细节信息，在视觉和量化指标上均优于传统降噪方法。     

Scatter reduction with energy-weighted acquisition

The theory of energy-weighted acquisition (EWA) in nuclear medicine imaging is outlined, and a system that implements EWA is described. EWA reduces the effects of scattered radiation by allowing events of all energies to contribute to image formation, processing each energy with its own short-range spatial filter. This approach implements short-range energy-dependent filtering with an image buffer called a weighted acquisition module, providing scatter reduction with controllable noise and resolution properties. The system's response to point sources and planar distributions of radioactivity embedded in radiation-scattering media have been measured. EWA is compared to conventional energy-window acquisition, showing that the EWA approach provides improved image contrast     

蒙特卡罗临界计算能量偏倚的最佳源偏倚方法

使用堆用蒙特卡罗程序RMC进行临界计算时采用了传统的裂变源迭代法,即每代源中子按照真实物理过程产生、存库和再抽样。传统裂变源迭代法的计算代之间存在较大的相关性,导致了方差低估计现象,同时总体方差未实现最优化。为实现源中子在空间和能量上的最佳分布,并消除方差低估计现象,提出了能量偏倚的最佳源偏倚方法。该方法基于最佳分层抽样法,结合香农熵诊断和组统计方法,对源中子的空间和能量进行偏倚,实现了全局减方差的计算效果。在RMC程序中开发了能量偏倚的最佳源偏倚方法,并对典型压水堆组件进行测试,计算结果证明了该方法的正确性和有效性。     

Imaging performance evaluation in depth-of-interaction PET with a new method of sinogram generation:A Monte Carlo simulation study

In conventional PET systems,the parallax error degrades image resolution and causes image distortion.To remedy this,a PET ring diameter has to be much larger than the required size of field of view(FOV),and therefore the cost goes up.Measurement of depth-of-interaction(DOI)information is effective to reduce the parallax error and improve the image quality.This study is aimed at developing a practical method to incorporate DOI information in PET sinogram generation and image reconstruction processes and evaluate its efficacy through Monte Carlo simulation.An animal PET system with 30-mm long LSO crystals and 2-mm DOI measurement accuracy was simulated and list-mode PET data were collected.A sinogram generation method was proposed to bin each coincidence event to the correct LOR location according to both incident crystal indices and DOI positions of the two annihilation photons.The sinograms were reconstructed with an iterative OSMAPEM(ordered subset maximum a posteriori expectation maximization)algorithm.Two phantoms(a rod source phantom and a Derenzo phantom)were simulated,and the benefits of DOI were investigated in terms of reconstructed source diameter(FWHM)and source positioning accuracy.The results demonstrate that the proposed method works well to incorporate DOI information in data processing,which not only overcomes the image distortion problem but also significantly improves image resolution and resolution uniformity and results in satisfactory image quality.     

Calculation of the rotational centers in computed tomographysinograms

An efficient method for accurately calculating the center-of-rotation, or projection center, for parallel computed tomography projection data, or sinograms, is described. This method uses all the data in the sinogram to estimate the center by a least-squares technique and requires no previous calibration scan. The method also finds the object's center-of-mass without reconstructing its image. Since the method uses the measured data, it is sensitive to noise in the measurements, but that sensitivity is relatively small compared to other techniques. Examples of its use on simulated and actual data are included. For fan-beam data over 360°, two related methods are described to find the center in the presence or absence of a midline offset     

Validation of reactor noise linear stability methods by means of advanced stochastic differential equation models

The aim of this paper is to show a validation method of a stability monitor using a BWR model with multiple Wiener noise sources, of additive and multiplicative nature. This model is solved using the modern methods to integrate stochastic differential equation systems, that are based on the stochastic Îto-Taylor expansion, and developed by Kloeden and Platen (1995), Kloeden et al. (1994). The synthetic signals generated with this BWR reduced order model with multiple Wiener processes are then used to obtain what are the optimal ways of filtering the signals for the different methods to estimate the decay ration (DR) and the natural frequency (ω) of the system. Also, for each DR estimation method, we study what is the optimal combination of algorithms to obtain the order and coefficients of the AR model that yields the best prediction of the reactor stability parameters for a broad range of DR values.     

Spatial variation of SNR in two- and three-dimensional neuro-PET

A method for region of interest (ROI) evaluation for three-dimensional (3-D) positron emission tomography (PET) in the sinogram space was implemented, according to the fully 3-D filtered back-projection algorithm. With this method, the statistical error in the image that propagates from the Poisson noise in the raw data was computed. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for ROIs at various locations inside a cylindrical phantom was computed from both scanner data and simulation data and was verified via the standard deviation method through multiple measurements. As a comparison, two-dimensional (2-D) scans were also collected and similar computations carried out, Results show that the SNR increases with radius due to decreased attenuation at the edge of the phantom. For 3-D scans, the SNR drops gradually for ROIs outside the central 8 cm of the field of view (FOV). Also, it was found that the random events must be recorded and considered in the error computation     

In-line X-ray phase-contrast imaging of murine liver microvasculature ex vivo

Imaging blood vessels is of importance for determining the vascular distribution of organs and tumors.Phase-contrast X-ray imaging can reveal the vessels in much more detail than conventional X-ray absorption method.Visualizing murine liver microvasculature ex vivo with phase-contrast X-ray imaging was performed at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility.Barium sulfate and physiological saline were used as contrast agents for the blood vessels.Blood vessels of <Φ20μm could be detected by replacing resident blood with physiological saline or barium sulfate.An entire branch of the portal vein (from the main axial portal vein to the ninth generation of branching) could be captured in a single phase-contrast image.It is demonstrated that selective angiography based on phase contrast X-ray imaging,with a physiological material of low Z elements (such as saline) being the contrast agent,is a viable imaging strategy.Further efforts will be focused on using the technique to image tumor angiogenesis.     

基于模极大值法的γ能谱数据处理与分析

本文研究了Lipschitz指数与小波变换应用于γ能谱数据奇异点的使用方法,分析了模极大值去噪原理和Mallat提出的交替投影重构算法,建立了基于模极大值法γ能谱数据处理模型,基于MATLAB设计了小波变换模极大值去噪软件,通过实测γ能谱数据仿真分析基于模极大值法的γ能谱数据处理模型的效果。结果表明,利用小波变换模极大值法降噪,用交替投影法重构能谱数据,降噪效果较好。     

Iterative PET Image Reconstruction Using Translation Invariant Wavelet Transform

The present work describes a Bayesian maximum a posteriori (MAP) method using a statistical multiscale wavelet prior model. Rather than using the orthogonal discrete wavelet transform (DWT), this prior is built on the translation invariant wavelet transform (TIWT). The statistical modeling of wavelet coefficients relies on the generalized Gaussian distribution. Image reconstruction is performed in spatial domain with a fast block sequential iteration algorithm. We study theoretically the TIWT MAP method by analyzing the Hessian of the prior function to provide some insights on noise and resolution properties of image reconstruction. We adapt the key concept of local shift invariance and explore how the TIWT MAP algorithm behaves with different scales. It is also shown that larger support wavelet filters do not offer better performance in contrast recovery studies. These theoretical developments are confirmed through simulation studies. The results show that the proposed method is more attractive than other MAP methods using either the conventional Gibbs prior or the DWT-based wavelet prior.     

Design and performance of a low-noise, low-power consumption CMOS charge amplifier for capacitive detectors

In this paper, a new design of low noise, low-power consumption charge amplifier is described. Theoretical results show that a total output noise voltage reduction of 0.261 mV has been obtained. This value corresponds to a 46% reduction compared to the noise performance of a conventional charge amplifier. A complete readout system including the proposed charge amplifier has been realized in a 0.8-/spl mu/m semiconductor on insulator (SOI) bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) process. A measured noise performance of 450 electrons at 0 pF with a slope of 44 electrons/pF for a shaping time of 45 ns, a conversion gain of 20 mV/fC and 1-mW power consumption have been obtained.     

Slice-wise reconstruction for low-dose cone-beam CT using a deep residual convolutional neural network

Because of the growing concern over the radiation dose delivered to patients, X-ray cone-beam CT(CBCT) imaging of low dose is of great interest. It is difficult for traditional reconstruction methods such as Feldkamp to reduce noise and keep resolution at low doses. A typical method to solve this problem is using optimizationbased methods with careful modeling of physics and additional constraints. However, it is computationally expensive and very time-consuming to reach an optimal solution. Recently, some pioneering work applying deep neural networks had some success in characterizing and removing artifacts from a low-dose data set. In this study,we incorporate imaging physics for a cone-beam CT into a residual convolutional neural network and propose a new end-to-end deep learning-based method for slice-wise reconstruction. By transferring 3D projection to a 2D problem with a noise reduction property, we can not only obtain reconstructions of high image quality, but also lower the computational complexity. The proposed network is composed of three serially connected sub-networks: a cone-to-fan transformation sub-network, a 2D analytical inversion sub-network, and an image refinement sub-network. This provides a comprehensive solution for end-to-end reconstruction for CBCT. The advantages of our method are that the network can simplify a 3D reconstruction problem to a 2D slice-wise reconstruction problem and can complete reconstruction in an end-to-end manner with the system matrix integrated into the network design. Furthermore, reconstruction can be less computationally expensive and easily parallelizable compared with iterative reconstruction methods.     

ITER软X射线检测系统及其电磁兼容设计

国际热核聚变实验反应堆是世界上在建的最大的磁约束聚变装置托克马克装置,通过对其中软X射线的测量,可实现等离子体辐射对锯齿、色骨模等磁流体现象的物理研究和成像反演。软X射线诊断系统就是用来检测软X射线的设备。由于热核聚变时恶劣电磁环境及远距离传输,在设计信号检测系统时必须进行电磁兼容设计,以降低系统噪声、提高检测精度。本文中使用的检测电路采用差分结构实现电流信号到电压信号的转换,重点研究检测电路的实现及其电磁兼容设计。从电磁抗干扰的三要素出发,结合实验测试,针对电磁干扰的特殊性,讨论了滤波电路设计、印制电路板(Printed Circuit Board,PCB)走线、电磁屏蔽及信号接地在系统中实现。本文采用32通道板卡集成设计;信号增益提高至107 V?A-1;放大器带宽达到120 k Hz。通过测试结果可以看出,信号噪声降至8 mV。通过优化设计提高了检测电路的集成度和放大电路的增益及带宽,同时降低了检测电路的噪声。     

On-line fault detection of a fuel rod temperature measurement sensor in a nuclear reactor core using ANNs

In this paper a detailed method for fault detection of an in-core three wires Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTD) sensor is introduced. The method is mainly based on the dependence of the fuel rod temperature profile on control rods elevation and coolant flow rate in a given nuclear reactor. For the implementation, an artificial neural network (ANN) technique has been developed to model the dynamic behaviour of the considered temperature sensor. In order to have more refined model estimation, ANN has been combined with additional noise reduction algorithms. The effective denoising work was done via the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to remove various kinds of artefacts such as inherent measurement noise. The principle of the adopted fault detection task is based on the calculation of the difference between the ANN model estimated temperature and the online being measured temperature and then compare the deviation with a certain detection threshold to decide the sensor fault. The efficiency of the method is evaluated first on a simulated case and then on the on-line measurements obtained from a real plant. Results confirm the capacity of the developed ANN-based model to estimate a fuel rod temperature with a reasonable accuracy.     

基于FMmlet变换塔形分解的地震信号滤波

研究了基于FM^mlet变换自适应匹配投影塔形分解原理的地震信号滤波方法。该方法在不提供地震信号背景噪声统计特性的前提下,能有效地去除地震信号中的噪声和干扰,实现地震信号的滤波。分别以实验信号和实际地震信号为例进行了实验,并将实验结果与传统的带通滤波结果进行对比,证明该方法不但可以有效地恢复受干扰污染的或淹没于噪声中的真实信号,且滤波效果优于带通滤波的效果。