ATMTN: a telemammography network architecture

One of the goals of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to reach more than 80% of eligible women in mammography screening by the year 2000 yet remains as a challenge. In fact, a recent medical report reveals that while other types of cancer are experiencing negative growth, breast cancer has been the only one with a positive growth rate over the last few years. This is primarily due to the fact that 1) examination process is a complex and lengthy one and 2) it is not available to the majority of women who live in remote sites. Currently for mammography screening, women have to go to doctors or cancer centers/hospitals annually while high-risk patients may have to visit more often. One way to resolve these problems is by the use of advanced networking technologies and signal processing algorithms. On one hand, software modules can help detect, with high precision, true negatives (TN), while marking true positives (TP) for further investigation. Unavoidably, in this process some false negatives (FN) will be generated that are potentially life threatening; however, inclusion of the detection software improves the TP detection and, hence, reduces FNs drastically. Since TNs are the majority of examinations on a randomly selected population, this first step reduces the load on radiologists by a tremendous amount. On the other hand, high-speed networking equipment can accelerate the required clinic-lab connection and make detection, segmentation, and image enhancement algorithms readily available to the radiologists. This will bring the breast cancer care, caregiver, and the facilities to the patients and expand diagnostics and treatment to the remote sites. This research describes asynchronous transfer mode telemammography network (ATMTN) architecture for real-time, online screening, detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. ATMTN is a unique high-speed network integrated with automatic robust computer-assisted diagnosis-detection/digital signal processing (CAD/DSP) methods for mass detection, region of interest (ROI) compression algorithms using Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) 3.0 medical image standard. While ATMTN has the advantage of higher penetration for cancer screening, it provides the diagnosis with higher efficiency, better accuracy and potentially lower cost. This paper presents the development of the infrastructure and algorithm design for ATMTN-based telemammography. The research goals involved: 1) networking stations for telemammography to demonstrate, evaluate, and validate technologies and methods for delivering mammography screening services via high-speed (155 MB/s) links, performing real-time network-transmitted, high-resolution mammograms for immediate diagnosis as a "second opinion" strategy; 2) development of object-oriented compression methods for storage, retrieval and transmission of mammograms; 3) inclusion and optimization of detection algorithms for identification of normal images in different resolutions to increase the speed and effectiveness of telemammography as a "second opinion" strategy; 4) resolving the compatibility issues between images from different equipment (DICOM standards); and 5) optimization of an integrated ATMTN with adaptive CAD/DSP methods that are robust for large image databases and input sources.     

Use of needle track detection to quantify the displacement of stranded seeds following prostate brachytherapy

We aim to compute the movement of permanent stranded implant brachytherapy radioactive sources (seeds) in the prostate from the planned seed distribution to the intraoperative fluoroscopic distribution, and then to the postimplant computed tomography (CT) distribution. We present a novel approach to matching the seeds in these distributions to the plan by grouping the seeds into needle tracks. First, we identify the implantation axis using a sample consensus algorithm. Then, we use a network flow algorithm to group seeds into their needle tracks. Finally, we match the needles from the three stages using both their transverse plane location and the number of seeds per needle. We validated our approach on eight clinical prostate brachytherapy cases, having a total of 871 brachytherapy seeds distributed in 193 needles. For the intraoperative and postimplant data, 99.31% and 99.41% of the seeds were correctly assigned, respectively. For both the preplan to fluoroscopic and fluoroscopic to CT registrations, 100% of the needles were correctly matched. We show that there is an average intraoperative seed displacement of 4.94±2.42 mm and a further 2.97±1.81 mm of postimplant movement. This information reveals several directional trends and can be used for quality control, treatment planning, and intraoperative dosimetry that fuses ultrasound and fluoroscopy.     

A game theoretic approach to video streaming over peer-to-peer networks

We consider the problem of foresighted multimedia resource reciprocation in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which consist of rational peers aiming at maximizing their individual utilities. We introduce an artificial currency (credit) to take into account the characteristics of different parts of the video signal. The resource reciprocation with the proposed credit metric can be formulated as a stochastic game, in which the peers determine their optimal strategies using Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework. The introduced framework can be applied to the general video coding, and in particular, is suitable for the scalable video where various parts of the encoded bit stream have significantly different importance for the video quality.     

Removal of 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene from Water by Pervaporation Using Styrene–Butadiene–Styrene (SBS) Membrane Incorporated with Carbon Black Nanoparticles

Styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) membranes incorporated with carbon black (CB) were prepared and investigated for pervaporation (PV) removal of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene (TMB) from its aqueous solution. The influence of CB concentration on membrane properties was assessed by applying field emission scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and tensile test. Characterization of the prepared membranes implied increased water contact angles at higher CB concentrations. Moreover, membrane swelling was constant zero for all the membranes. Performance of the prepared membranes in PV separation of a volatile organic compound (1,2,4-TMB) from water was studied. The SBS/CB nanocomposite membranes revealed higher separation factor and PV separation index (PSI) compared to pure SBS membrane because of the CB hydrophobic nature. The separation factor and PSI of the nanocomposite membrane loaded with 1 wt. % CB were 3.6 and 1.8 times more than those of the neat SBS membrane, respectively. The membrane obtained at this appropriate CB concentration provided the total flux of 735 g/m²h, separation factor of 950, and PSI of 700,000 g/m²h. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 60: 257–266, 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers