Molecular and Cellular Imaging with Targeted Contrast Ultrasound

Molecular imaging is an expanding field that involves the noninvasive detection of cellular and molecular mediators of disease using a range of imaging modalities. Molecular imaging using contrast-enhanced ultrasound relies on the detection of novel site-targeted ultrasound contrast agents. Gas-filled encapsulated microbubbles provide a sensitive and high-resolution ultrasound contrast agent, and site-targeted imaging is facilitated by the manipulation of the shell surface of these microbubbles. Nonmicrobubble agents such as immunoliposomes and small nanoemulsion agents have also been developed for targeting purposes. These contrast agents are retained within regions of a specific pathophysiological process, thereby allowing noninvasive phenotypic characterization of tissue. Since microbubbles are pure intravascular tracers, they provide an optimal agent to assess molecular processes occurring on the vascular endothelial surface. Accordingly, the pathologic states that have been targeted include inflammation, angiogenesis associated with ischemia and neoplasms, and thrombus formation. This review describes: 1) the potential clinical and research uses for targeted imaging; 2) strategies that have been employed for the creation of site-targeted ultrasound contrast agents; 3) the unique challenges for imaging targeted ultrasound contrast agents; and 4) initial results and experience in the imaging of molecular events in animal models of disease.     

Nonlocal Means-Based Speckle Filtering for Ultrasound Images

In image processing, restoration is expected to improve the qualitative inspection of the image and the performance of quantitative image analysis techniques. In this paper, an adaptation of the nonlocal (NL)-means filter is proposed for speckle reduction in ultrasound (US) images. Originally developed for additive white Gaussian noise, we propose to use a Bayesian framework to derive a NL-means filter adapted to a relevant ultrasound noise model. Quantitative results on synthetic data show the performances of the proposed method compared to well-established and state-of-the-art methods. Results on real images demonstrate that the proposed method is able to preserve accurately edges and structural details of the image.     

乳腺肿瘤超声图像纹理特征分析

提取乳腺肿瘤超声图像的肿瘤区域,计算乳腺肿瘤图像的纹理特征参数,研究纹理特征与肿瘤良恶性的关系。基于综合空间灰度共生矩阵计算11个乳腺肿瘤超声图像的纹理特征参数,然后分别利用模糊C均值和K-medoid聚类算法对乳腺肿瘤进行良恶性判别,同时,通过重复实验找到判别肿瘤良恶性的最佳特征参数组合。实验结果表明相关性、和方差、相关信息度量1和相关信息度量2四个特征参数组合的判别结果最好,达到了72.64%。因此,纹理特征在一定程度上能够反映良恶性乳腺肿瘤的区别,其对于鉴别乳腺肿瘤的良恶性是有效的。     

红外序列图像的双滤波侧抑制边缘检测算法

针对红外图像的特点，重点研究了采用双滤波的方法及侧抑制网络的“突出边框，增强反差”的功能，提出一种图像边缘检测方法．对噪声有一定的抑帆作用，边缘检测果明显。还结合序列图像的相关性，运用免疫计算方法，分割出目标运动区域，形成目标模板，然后在运动序列的各帧动态更新模板。最后得到具有低对比度、低信噪比、边缘模糊的红外图像目标的序列边缘。     

Adaptive Polarization Contrast Techniques for Through-Wall Microwave Imaging Applications

In this paper, we describe and utilize polarization contrast techniques of the adaptive polarization difference imaging algorithm and its transient modification for through-wall microwave imaging (TWMI) applications. Originally developed for optical imaging and sensing of polarization information in nature, this algorithm is modified to serve for target detection purposes in a through-wall environment. The proposed techniques exploit the polarization statistics of the observed scene for the detection and identification of changes within the scene and are not only capable of mitigating and substantially removing the wall effects but also useful in detecting motion, when conventional Doppler techniques are not applicable. Applications of the techniques to several TWMI scenarios including both homogeneous and periodic wall cases are presented.     

Wavelet Techniques for Medical Images Performance Analysis and Observations with EZW and Underwater Image Processing

Massive multiple-input multiple output (mMIMO) is considered as one of the most in demand and innovative technologies for the fifth-generation wireless communication systems. This paper attempts to frame a mMIMO system model, intends to improve the spectral efficiency, energy efficiency and performance gain. Here, the system performance achievements are premeditated in a multi-cell downlink mMIMO system under the core considerations such as “imperfect channel estimation, perfect channel estimation and the effect of interference among cells due to pilot sequences contamination”. The performance gains such as “spatial multiplexing gain, array gain and spatial diversity gain” are considered to maximize in this paper. For attaining this multi-objective function, an improved meta-heuristic algorithm called rider optimization algorithm (ROA) known as trial-based ROA adopted, and analyse the performance of the proposed model by comparing over existing models.

     

Information Theory-Based Approach for Contrast Analysis in Polarimetric and/or Interferometric SAR Images

We propose a new approach for evaluating the contribution of the different channels of polarimetric and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) images. For that purpose, we demonstrate that the Bhattacharyya distance between the probability density functions of neighboring regions in the image provides an efficient scalar contrast measure. We show that the analysis of this contrast measure allows one to precisely characterize the contribution of each channel for different system configurations, including intensity, polarimetric, and interferometric images. We illustrate this approach using a real synthetic aperture radar image to compare several polarimetric system architectures. Since PolInSAR imaging configurations can correspond to complex and expensive systems, the proposed method can be helpful in system imaging optimization.      

Effective GPS Jamming Techniques for UAVs Using Low-Cost SDR Platforms

Lately, a rising number of incidents between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and airplanes have been reported in airports and airfields. In order to help cope with the problem of unauthorized UAV operations, in this paper we evaluate the use of low cost SDR platforms (software defined radio) for the implementation of a jammer able to generate an effective interfering signal aimed at the GPS navigation system. Using a programmable BladeRF x40 platform from Nuand and the GNU radio software development toolkit, several interference techniques were studied and evaluated, considering the spectral efficiency, energy efficiency and complexity. It was shown that the tested approaches are capable of stopping the reliable reception of the radionavigation signal in real-life scenarios, neutralizing the capacity for autonomous operation of the vehicle.

     

心脏B超轮廓光流场的一种检测方法

本文介绍一种心脏Ｂ超轮廓光流场的检测方法－－边缘聚类中心匹配法，这是变形体光流场的一种检测方法。文章还介绍这种方法被应用于检测心脏机构轮廓光流场的实际操作与结果。     

Classification of Amniotic Fluid Level Using Bi-LSTM with Homomorphic filter and Contrast Enhancement Techniques

Wireless Personal Communications - Ultrasound scan plays a predominant role in assisting the health care provider for monitoring pregnancy. This methods is employed for providing insights about...     

Improvement of Lesion Detection in Scintigraphic Images by SVD Techniques for Resolution Recovery

The properties of singular value decomposition (SVD) are used to implement an SVD spatial domain pseudoinverse restoration filter. This type of filter is attractive for poor imaging conditions (low spatial resolution, high image noise) and is thus appealing for nuclear medicine images. The method might offer some advantages over more traditional frequency domain filter techniques since the restoration is performed on a local rather than global basis. High-contrast thyroid phantom images collected at different count densities and low-contrast liver phantom images were processed with the SVD filter. Restored images yielded improved spatial resolution, lesion contrast, and signal-to-noise ratio. The SVD pseudoinverse restoration filter implemented as an interactive process permits the operator to terminate filtering at a stage where the visually "best" image is obtained compared to the original data. Processed images suggest that the technique may have potential for improving lesion detection in nuclear medicine.     

Active Contours Guided by Echogenicity and Texture for Delineation of Thyroid Nodules in Ultrasound Images

Thyroid nodules are solid or cystic lumps formed in the thyroid gland and may be caused by a variety of thyroid disorders. This paper presents a novel active contour model for precise delineation of thyroid nodules of various shapes according to their echogenicity and texture, as displayed in ultrasound (US) images. The proposed model, named joint echogenicity–texture (JET), is based on a modified Mumford–Shah functional that, in addition to regional image intensity, incorporates statistical texture information encoded by feature distributions. The distributions are aggregated within the functional through new log-likelihood goodness-of-fit terms. The JET model requires only a rough region of interest within the thyroid gland as input and automatically proceeds with precise delineation of the nodules, revealing their shape and size. The performance of the JET model was validated on a range of US images displaying hypoechoic and isoechoic nodules of various shapes. The quantification of the results shows that the JET model: 1) provides precise delineations of thyroid nodules as compared to “ground truth” delineations obtained by experts and 2) copes with the limitations of the previous thyroid US delineation approaches as it is capable of delineating thyroid nodules regardless of their echogenicity or shape.      

A Tracking System for Pulsed Ultrasound Images: Application to Quantification of Fetal Breathing Movements

A tracking system for quantification of moving structures from a real-time B-scan ultrasound image is described. The system provides a hard copy tracing of the movements with a resolution that is uncoupled from the wavelength of the ultrasound frequency employed. In the present instrument, a laboratory resolution of 0.06 mm and a differential target velocity of 961 mm/s has been achieved which has been more than adequate for tracking and recording all observed fetal movements, including the relatively high speed fetal hiccough. Both mechanical target tests and in vivo fetal breathing movements associated with maternal glucose loading are reported herein.     

几种双馈式变速恒频风电机组低电压穿越技术对比分析

新电网运行规则要求风力发电机组在电网故障出现电压跌落的情况下不脱网运行,并在故障切除后能尽·陕帮助电力系统恢复稳定运行,要求风电机组具有一定低电压穿越能力。由于双馈感应发电机（DFIG）励磁变换器容量有限,电网故障时会产生转子过电流和变换器直流环节过电压,须实行保护和控制。本文对国内外学术界和工程界对电网故障时双馈感应发电机的保护原理与控制策略进行了大量研究。以便具体设计时根据要求合理选择。     

基于中值的图像椒盐噪声的非迭代滤除

去除椒盐脉冲噪声是图像处理中的一个重要问题。标准的中值滤波能消除大部分椒盐噪声,但是却毁坏了图像中的部分细节,基于最大最小值的波峰波谷滤波虽在一定程度上对这个问题有所改善,但效果却不是很好。改进方法与基于最大最小值的波峰波谷滤波方法的区别是在如何探索噪声点上又考虑了中心象素与其邻域象素的相似性。实验结果证明了新方法在图像的峰值信噪比和噪声对原图像的毁坏程度两方面的优越性。     

二维离散傅立叶-离散小波混合变换及其在超声波医学图像去噪中的应用

如果二维信号沿水平方向和沿垂直方向的干扰和噪声是异类的,如沿水平方向为窄带频率干扰,而沿垂直方向为高斯白噪声,使用传统的二维离散傅立叶离散变换(2-D Drr)或二维离散小波变换(2-D DWT)可能造成信号成分的丢失和不必要的计算,而采用[1,2]提出的一种混合的二维变换:二维离散傅立叶离散小波混合变换(2-D DFF-DWT),可有效Ё解决异类的干扰和噪声中的信号提取问题.本文在[1,2]的基础上,进一步补充了2-D DFT-DWT的定义和算法,指出这种混合变换可被用来从不同方向去除二维信号中的噪声和干扰.通过这种变换可以结合离散傅立叶变换和离散小波变换二者的优点从干扰和噪声中提取有效信号.本文通过对超声波医学图像去除斑点噪声的具体实例说明了它的应用.     

A System for Real-Time Measurement of the Brachial Artery Diameter in B-Mode Ultrasound Images

The measurement of the brachial artery diameter is frequently used in clinical studies for evaluating the flow-mediated dilation and, in conjunction with the blood pressure value, for assessing arterial stiffness. This paper presents a system for computing the brachial artery diameter in real-time by analyzing B-mode ultrasound images. The method is based on a robust edge detection algorithm which is used to automatically locate the two walls of the vessel. The measure of the diameter is obtained with subpixel precision and with a temporal resolution of 25 samples/s, so that the small dilations induced by the cardiac cycle can also be retrieved. The algorithm is implemented on a standalone video processing board which acquires the analog video signal from the ultrasound equipment. Results are shown in real-time on a graphical user interface. The system was tested both on synthetic ultrasound images and in clinical studies of flow-mediated dilation. Accuracy, robustness, and intra/inter observer variability of the method were evaluated     

Using Convex Set Techniques for Combined Pixel and Frequency Domain Coding of Time-Varying Images

Projection onto convex sets has recently been suggested as an approach to time-varying image compression. In this paper, an image coding technique based on such an approach is developed. In particular, pixel and frequency domain information is combined in order to improve image quality over standard transform coding at given bit rates. The use of nonintersecting convex sets is shown to be optimum for two sets and a given error measure. Convex sets and projections are discussed in general and then in the context of image compression. Simulation results are presented for single frame images as well as for image sequences.