Statistical analysis of manual segmentations of structures in medical images

The problem of extracting anatomical structures from medical images is both very important and difficult. In this paper we are motivated by a new paradigm in medical image segmentation, termed Citizen Science, which involves a volunteer effort from multiple, possibly non-expert, human participants. These contributors observe 2D images and generate their estimates of anatomical boundaries in the form of planar closed curves. The challenge, of course, is to combine these different estimates in a coherent fashion and to develop an overall estimate of the underlying structure. Treating these curves as random samples, we use statistical shape theory to generate joint inferences and analyze this data generated by the citizen scientists. The specific goals in this analysis are: (1) to find a robust estimate of the representative curve that provides an overall segmentation, (2) to quantify the level of agreement between segmentations, both globally (full contours) and locally (parts of contours), and (3) to automatically detect outliers and help reduce their influence in the estimation. We demonstrate these ideas using a number of artificial examples and real applications in medical imaging, and summarize their potential use in future scenarios.     

Suitable Impact Parameters for High-Speed Joining and Influence on the Bonding Zone Microstructure

Welding by electromagnetic forming is an interesting alternative for material combinations which are not suitable for conventional welding by melting. Even though the underlying bonding mechanisms and the right choice of process parameters are thoroughly discussed in the current literature, there is still a lack of target-oriented process dimensioning. The present paper describes the model experiment used for studying the dependencies between bonding quality and design parameters for three material combinations (mild steel, aluminum base alloy, pure titanium). The resulting bonding zones were analyzed by means of optical microscopy and electron probe microanalyses. Limits for the process parameters are described and the results demonstrate increasing bonding qualities for increasing collision energies and collision angles.     

Charge transfer in thin films of donor–acceptor complexes studied by infrared spectroscopy

The degree of charge transfer in thin films of organic charge transfer (CT)-complexes, which are deposited via thermal evaporation, is examined via infrared-spectroscopy. We demonstrate a linear relationship between the shift in the excitation energy of the CN-stretching mode of CT-complexes with the acceptor 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) and the charge transfer. The measured correlation corresponds very well with DFT calculations. For Na-TCNQ we observe a splitting in the peak of the CN-stretching mode, which can be explained by the coupling of two modes and was confirmed by the calculations. In CT-complexes with partial charge transfer the appearance of an electronic excitation is demonstrated.     

Pairwise testing for software product lines: comparison of two approaches

Software Product Lines (SPL) are difficult to validate due to combinatorics induced by variability, which in turn leads to combinatorial explosion of the number of derivable products. Exhaustive testing in such a large products space is hardly feasible. Hence, one possible option is to test SPLs by generating test configurations that cover all possible t feature interactions (t-wise). It dramatically reduces the number of test products while ensuring reasonable SPL coverage. In this paper, we report our experience on applying t-wise techniques for SPL with two independent toolsets developed by the authors. One focuses on generality and splits the generation problem according to strategies. The other emphasizes providing efficient generation. To evaluate the respective merits of the approaches, measures such as the number of generated test configurations and the similarity between them are provided. By applying these measures, we were able to derive useful insights for pairwise and t-wise testing of product lines.