Image post-processing corrects for cardiac and respiratory motion (MoCo) during cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) stress perfusion. The study analyzed its influence on visual image evaluation.
Materials and methods
Sixty-two patients with (suspected) coronary artery disease underwent a standard CMR stress perfusion exam during free-breathing. Image post-processing was performed without (non-MoCo) and with MoCo (image intensity normalization; motion extraction with iterative non-rigid registration; motion warping with the combined displacement field). Images were evaluated regarding the perfusion pattern (perfusion deficit, dark rim artifact, uncertain signal loss, and normal perfusion), the general image quality (non-diagnostic, imperfect, good, and excellent), and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images (not confident, confident, very confident).
Results
Fifty-three (non-MoCo) and 52 (MoCo) myocardial segments were rated as ‘perfusion deficit’, 113 vs. 109 as ‘dark rim artifacts’, 9 vs. 7 as ‘uncertain signal loss’, and 817 vs. 824 as ‘normal’. Agreement between non-MoCo and MoCo was high with no diagnostic difference per-patient. The image quality of MoCo was rated more often as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ (92 vs. 63%), and the diagnostic confidence more often as “very confident” (71 vs. 45%) compared to non-MoCo.
Conclusions
The comparison of perfusion images acquired during free-breathing and post-processed with and without motion correction demonstrated that both methods led to a consistent evaluation of the perfusion pattern, while the image quality and the reader’s subjective confidence to assess the images were rated more favorably for MoCo.
Most migratory bird populations are composed of individuals that migrate and individuals that remain resident. While the role of ecological factors in maintaining this behavioral dimorphism has received much attention, the importance of genetic constraints on the evolution of avian migration has not yet been considered. Drawing on the recorded migratory activities of 775 blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) from a partially migratory population in southern France, we tested two alternative genetic models about the relationship between incidence and amount of migratory activity. The amount of migratory activity could be the continuous variable "underlying" the phenotypic expression of migratory urge, or, alternatively, the expression of both traits could be controlled by two separate genetic systems. The distributions of migratory activities in five different cohorts and the inheritance pattern derived from selective breeding experiments both indicate that incidence and amount of migratory activity are two aspects of one trait. Thus, all birds without measurable activity have activity levels at the low end of a continuous distribution, below the limit of expression or detection. The phenotypic dichotomy "migrant-nonmigrant" is caused by a threshold which may not be fixed but influenced both genetically and environmentally. This finding has profound implications for the evolution of migration: the transition from migratoriness to residency should not only be driven by selection favoring resident birds but also by selection for lower migratory activity. This potential for selection on two aspects, residency and migration distance, of the same trait may enable extremely rapid evolutionary changes to occur in migratory behavior. 相似文献
Explanation prompts usually foster conceptual understanding. However, it has been claimed within cognitive load theory that prompts can take cognitive load to the upper limit when learning complex contents. Under such circumstances, prompts focusing the learners’ attention on specific aspects (e.g., conceptual aspects such as elaborations on domain principles) might have some costs: Other important aspects (e.g., procedural aspects such as how to calculate) cannot be processed deeply. Thus, we expected that conceptually-oriented explanation prompts would foster the detailedness of explanations, the number of elaborations on domain principles, and conceptual knowledge. In addition, we tested the influence of such prompts on the number of calculations performed during learning and procedural knowledge. We conducted an experiment in which we employed conceptually-oriented explanation prompts in a complex e-learning module on tax law. Tax law university students (N = 40) worked on this e-learning module under two conditions: (a) conceptually-oriented explanation prompts, (b) no prompts. The prompts led to double-edged effects: positive effects on the detailedness of explanations and on the number of elaborations on domain principles, as well as on conceptual knowledge and simultaneously negative effects on the number of calculations performed during learning as well as on procedural knowledge. 相似文献
Many real-world applications have very high dimensionality and require very complex decision borders. In this case, the number of fuzzy rules can proliferate, and the easy interpretability of fuzzy models can progressively disappear. An important part of the model interpretation lies on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the input features on the decision process. In this paper, we present a method that quantifies the discriminative power of the input features in a fuzzy model. The separability among all the rules of the fuzzy model produces a measure of the information available in the system. Such measure of information is calculated to characterize the system before and after each input feature is used for classification. The resulting information gain quantifies the discriminative power of that input feature. The comparison among the information gains of the different input features can yield better insights into the selected fuzzy classification strategy, even for very high dimensional cases, and can lead to a possible reduction of the input space dimension. Several artificial and real-world data analysis scenarios are reported as examples in order to illustrate the characteristics and potentialities of the proposed method. 相似文献
Zusammenfassung Eine Anordnung für Durchschlagsversuche in verdichteter Luft und Stickstoff bis zu 40 atü wird beschrieben. Die Messungen im ebenen Feld ergänzen frühere Untersuchungen anderer Verfasser. Die Messungen im ungleichförmigen Feld mit Kugeln verschiedenen Durchmessers gegen Platte, mit Spitze gegen Platte sowie Spitze gegen Spitze dienen der systematischen Durchforschung dieses bis jetzt kaum beachteten Gebietes und erbringen interessante Züge über die Druckabhängigkeit der Durchschlagspannung für beide Polaritäten. Für den Fall Spitze gegen Platte werden die Untersuchungen auch auf Kohlensäure ausgedehnt.Von der T. H. Karlsruhe genehmigte Dissertation. 相似文献