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This paper presents a new method for selecting a patient specific forward model to compensate for anatomical variations in electrical impedance tomography (EIT) monitoring of neonates. The method uses a combination of shape sensors and absolute reconstruction. It takes advantage of a probabilistic approach which automatically selects the best estimated forward model fit from pre-stored library models. Absolute/static image reconstruction is performed as the core of the posterior probability calculations. The validity and reliability of the algorithm in detecting a suitable model in the presence of measurement noise is studied with simulated and measured data from 11 patients. The paper also demonstrates the potential improvements on the clinical parameters extracted from EIT images by considering a unique case study with a neonate patient undergoing computed tomography imaging as clinical indication prior to EIT monitoring. Two well-known image reconstruction techniques, namely GREIT and tSVD, are implemented to create the final tidal images. The impacts of appropriate model selection on the clinical extracted parameters such as center of ventilation and silent spaces are investigated. The results show significant improvements to the final reconstructed images and more importantly to the clinical EIT parameters extracted from the images that are crucial for decision-making and further interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most popular feature extraction algorithms for brain–computer interfaces (BCI) is common spatial patterns (CSPs). Despite its known efficiency and widespread use, CSP is also known to be very sensitive to noise and prone to overfitting. To address this issue, it has been recently proposed to regularize CSP. In this paper, we present a simple and unifying theoretical framework to design such a regularized CSP (RCSP). We then present a review of existing RCSP algorithms and describe how to cast them in this framework. We also propose four new RCSP algorithms. Finally, we compare the performances of 11 different RCSP (including the four new ones and the original CSP), on electroencephalography data from 17 subjects, from BCI competition datasets. Results showed that the best RCSP methods can outperform CSP by nearly 10% in median classification accuracy and lead to more neurophysiologically relevant spatial filters. They also enable us to perform efficient subject-to-subject transfer. Overall, the best RCSP algorithms were CSP with Tikhonov regularization and weighted Tikhonov regularization, both proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, model predictive control (MPC) strategies are applied to the control of human immunodeficiency virus infection, with the final goal of implementing an optimal structured treatment interruptions protocol. The MPC algorithms proposed in this paper use a dynamic model recently developed [1] in order to mimic both transient responses and ultimate behavior, and to describe accordingly the different effect of commonly used drugs in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Simulation studies show that the proposed methods achieve the goal of reducing the drug consumption (thus minimizing the severe side effects of HAART drugs) while respecting the desired constraints on CD4+ cells and free virions concentration. Such promising results are obtained with realistic assumptions of infrequent (possibly noisy) measurements of a subset of model state variables. Furthermore, the control objectives are achieved even in the presence of mismatch between the dynamics of true patients and that of theMPC model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a mathematical model that incorporates the pertinent optical and physiological properties of skin reflections with the objective to increase our understanding of the algorithmic principles behind remote photoplethysmography (rPPG). The model is used to explain the different choices that were made in existing rPPG methods for pulse extraction. The understanding that comes from the model can be used to design robust or application-specific rPPG solutions. We illustrate this by designing an alternative rPPG method, where a projection plane orthogonal to the skin tone is used for pulse extraction. A large benchmark on the various discussed rPPG methods shows that their relative merits can indeed be understood from the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed extensive research activity in modeling biological phenomena as well as in developing intervention strategies for such phenomena. S-systems, which offer a good compromise between accuracy and mathematical flexibility, are a promising framework for modeling the dynamical behavior of biological phenomena. In this paper, two different intervention strategies, namely direct and indirect, are proposed for the S-system model. In the indirect approach, the prespecified desired values for the target variables are used to compute the reference values for the control inputs, and two control algorithms, namely simple sampled-data control and model predictive control (MPC), are developed for transferring the control variables from their initial values to the computed reference ones. In the direct approach, a MPC algorithm is developed that directly guides the target variables to their desired values. The proposed intervention strategies are applied to the glycolytic–glycogenolytic pathway and the simulation results presented demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Detection and delineation of P- and T-waves are important issues in the analysis and interpretation of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. This paper addresses this problem by using Bayesian inference to represent a priori relationships among ECG wave components. Based on the recently introduced partially collapsed Gibbs sampler principle, the wave delineation and estimation are conducted simultaneously by using a Bayesian algorithm combined with a Markov chain Monte Carlo method. This method exploits the strong local dependency of ECG signals. The proposed strategy is evaluated on the annotated QT database and compared to other classical algorithms. An important feature of this paper is that it allows not only for the detection of P- and T-wave peaks and boundaries, but also for the accurate estimation of waveforms for each analysis window. This can be useful for some ECG analysis that require wave morphology information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-Bistable perception refers to the phenomenon of spontaneously alternating percepts while viewing the same stimulus continuously. Bistable stimuli allow dissociation between stimuli and perception, and thus, provide a unique opportunity for understanding the neural basis of visual perception. In this paper, we focus on a relaxation (RELAX) based algorithm to select features from the multitaper spectral estimates of the multichannel intracortical local field potential (LFP), simultaneously collected from the middle temporal visual cortex of a macaque monkey, for decoding its bistable structure-from-motion (SFM) perception. We demonstrate that RELAX surpasses the conventional sequential forward selection (SFS) by offering the flexibility of modifying selected features. We propose a redundancy reduction preprocessing technique to significantly reduce the computational load for both SFS and RELAX. We exploit the support vector machines classifier based on the selected features for single-trial decoding the reported perception. Our results demonstrate the excellent performance of the RELAX feature selection algorithm. Furthermore, we find that the features in the gamma frequency band (30-100 Hz) of LFP are most relevant to bistable SFM perception. This finding is novel in awake monkey studies and suggests that gamma oscillations carry the most discriminative information for bistable perception of SFM stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this paper is to obtain accurate estimation of breathing rate (BR), using only the electrocardiogram (ECG) or the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals, to avoid wearing cumbersome and uncomfortable sensors for direct measurements. Methods: Several respiration waveforms are derived from ECG or PPG signals based on amplitude, frequency, and baseline wander modulations. It is, however, difficult to determine their optimal combination for BR estimation due to the noise and patient specificity. We first propose to quantify the quality of modulation waveforms using respiratory quality indices (RQIs). We then present two methods: the first automatically selects the modulation signal with highest RQI for BR estimation, and the second tracks the respiration signal using the Kalman smoother to fuse modulation signals with highest RQI. Results: These two methods are evaluated on two independent datasets, one benchmark database (DB) with immobilized patients recordings and the second with those performing daily activities. Our results outperform existing methods in the literature in both the cases. Conclusion: Experimental results show that the RQIs coupled with a fusion algorithm increases the accuracy for BR estimations in dealing with derived modulation signals. Significance: This work describes a robust Kalman Smoother method applicable in multiple clinical contexts to improve breathing rate estimation from data fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this paper was to develop and test a novel control algorithm that enables stroke survivors to pedal a cycle in a desired cadence range despite varying levels of functional abilities after stroke. Methods: A novel algorithm was developed which automatically adjusts 1) the intensity of functional electrical stimulation (FES) delivered to the leg muscles, and 2) the current delivered to an electric motor. The algorithm automatically switches between assistive, uncontrolled, and resistive modes to accommodate for differences in functional impairment, based on the mismatch between the desired and actual cadence. Lyapunov-based methods were used to theoretically prove that the rider's cadence converges to the desired cadence range. To demonstrate the controller's real-world performance, nine chronic stroke survivors performed two cycling trials: 1) volitional effort only and 2) volitional effort accompanied by the control algorithm assisting and resisting pedaling as needed. Results: With a desired cadence range of 50–55 r/min, the developed controller resulted in an average rms cadence error of 1.90 r/min, compared to 6.16 r/min during volitional-only trials. Conclusion: Using FES and an electric motor with a two-sided cadence control objective to assist and resist volitional efforts enabled stroke patients with varying strength and abilities to pedal within a desired cadence range. Significance: A protocol design that constrains volitional movements with assistance and resistance from FES and a motor shows potential for FES cycles and other rehabilitation robots during stroke rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Anxiety is a significant clinical concern in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to its negative impact on physical and psychological health. Treatment of anxiety in ASD remains a challenge due to difficulties with self-awareness and communication of anxiety symptoms. To reduce these barriers to treatment, physiological markers of autonomic arousal, collected through wearable sensors, have been proposed as real-time, objective, and language-free measures of anxiety. A critical limitation of the existing anxiety detection systems is that physiological arousal is not specific to anxiety and can occur with other user states such as physical activity. This can result in false positives, which can hinder the operation of these systems in real-world situations. The objective of this paper was to address this challenge by proposing an approach for real-time detection and mitigation of physical activity effects. Methods: A novel multiple model Kalman-like filter is proposed to integrate heart rate and accelerometry signals. The filter tracks user heart rate under different motion assumptions and chooses the appropriate model for anxiety detection based on user motion conditions. Results: Evaluation of the algorithm using data from a sample of children with ASD shows a significant reduction in false positives compared to the state-of-the-art, and an overall arousal detection accuracy of 93%. Conclusion: The proposed method is able to reduce false detections due to user motion and effectively detect arousal states during movement periods. Significance: The results add to the growing evidence supporting the feasibility of wearable technologies for anxiety detection and management in naturalistic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We present a non-invasive wearable device for fertility monitoring and propose an effective and flexible statistical learning algorithm to detect and predict ovulation using data captured by this device. Methods: The system consists of an earpiece, which measures the ear canal temperature every 5 min during night sleep hours, and a base station that transmits data to a smartphone application for analysis. We establish a data-cleaning protocol for data preprocessing and then fit a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with two hidden states of high and low temperature to identify the more probable state of each time point via the predicted probabilities. Finally, a post-processing procedure is developed to incorporate biorhythm information to form a time-course biphasic profile for each subject. Results: The performance of the proposed algorithms applied to data collected by the device are compared with traditional methods in terms of match rate with self-reported ovulation days confirmed with an ovulation test kit. Empirical study results from a group of 34 users yielded significant improvements over the traditional methods in terms of detection accuracy (with sensitivity 92.31%) and prediction power (23.07–31.55% higher). Conclusion: We demonstrated the feasibility for reliable ovulation detection and prediction with high-frequency temperature data collected by a non-invasive wearable device. Significance: Traditional fertility monitoring methods are often either inaccurate or inconvenient. The wearable device and learning algorithm presented in this paper provide a user friendly and reliable platform for tracking ovulation, which may have a broad impact on both fertility research and real-world family planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of the short transient waveform, called a spike, in the cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) plays an important role during diagnosis of neurological disorders such as epilepsy. It has been suggested that artificial neural networks (ANN) can be employed for spike detection in the EEG, if suitable features are provided as input to an ANN. In this paper, we explore the performance of neural network-based classifiers using features selected by algorithms suggested by four previous investigators. Of these, three algorithms model the spike by mathematical parameters and use them as features for classification while the fourth algorithm uses raw EEG to train the classifier. The objective of this paper is to examine if there is any inherent advantage to any particular set of features, subject to the condition that the same data are used for all feature selection algorithms. Our results suggest that artificial neural networks trained with features selected using any one of the above three algorithms as well as raw EEG directly fed to the ANN will yield similar results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiber tractography using diffusion weighted MRI (DWI) is a primary tool for mapping structural connectivity in the human brain in vivo. However, this method suffers from a number of inherent limitations that have a significant impact on its capability in faithfully constructing fiber bundles for specific function. In this paper, a novel tractography algorithm combining DWI and functional MRI (fMRI) was proposed. Specifically, a spatio-temporal correlation tensor that characterizes the anisotropy of fMRI signals in white matter was introduced to complement the estimation of fiber orientation density function from DWI. The proposed method has been demonstrated to identify functional pathways implicated in fMRI task. It can effectively follow tracts in the genu of the corpus callosum that connects to the frontal lobe cortex, obtain connections between the thalamus and the anterior insula under sensory simulation, and reconstruct optic radiations in the visual circuit under visual stimulation. Taken together, the method we proposed in this work may benefit our understanding of structure-function relations in the human brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that a new algorithm for estimating arterial oxygen saturation can be effective even with data corrupted by motion artifacts (MAs). Methods: OxiMA, an algorithm based on the time-frequency components of a photoplethysmogram (PPG), was evaluated using 22-min datasets recorded from 10 subjects during voluntarily-induced hypoxia, with and without subject-induced MAs. A Nellcor OxiMax transmission sensor was used to collect an analog PPG while reference oxygen saturation and pulse rate (PR) were collected simultaneously from an FDA-approved Masimo SET Radical RDS-1 pulse oximeter. Results: The performance of our approach was determined by computing the mean relative error between the PR/oxygen saturation estimated by OxiMA and the reference Masimo oximeter. The average estimation error using OxiMA was 3 beats/min for PR and 3.24% for oxygen saturation, respectively. Conclusion: The results show that OxiMA has great potential for improving the accuracy of PR and oxygen saturation estimation during MAs. Significance: This is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility of a reconstruction algorithm to improve oxygen saturation estimates on a dataset with MAs and concomitant hypoxia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heart rate is an important physiological parameter to assess the cardiac condition of an individual and is traditionally determined by attaching multiple electrodes on the chest of a subject to record the electrical activity of the heart. The installation and handling complexities of such systems does not prove feasible for a user to undergo a long-term monitoring in the home settings. A small-sized, battery-operated wearable monitoring device is placed on the suprasternal notch at neck to record acoustic signals containing information about breathing and cardiac sounds. The heart sounds obtained are heavily corrupted by the respiratory cycles and other external artifacts. This paper presents a novel algorithm for reliably extracting the heart rate from such acoustic recordings, keeping in mind the constraints posed by the wearable technology. The methodology constructs the Hilbert energy envelope of the signal by calculating its instantaneous characteristics to segment and classify a cardiac cycle into S1 and S2 sounds using their timing characteristics. The algorithm is tested on a dataset consisting of 13 subjects with an approximate data length of 75 h and achieves an accuracy of 94.34%, an RMS error of 3.96 bpm and a correlation coefficient of 0.93 with reference to a commercial device in use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal: An accurate rhythm analysis during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would contribute to increase the survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Piston-driven mechanical compression devices are frequently used to deliver CPR. The objective of this paper was to design a method to accurately diagnose the rhythm during compressions delivered by a piston-driven device. Methods: Data was gathered from 230 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients treated with the LUCAS 2 mechanical CPR device. The dataset comprised 201 shockable and 844 nonshockable ECG segments, whereof 270 were asystole (AS) and 574 organized rhythm (OR). A multistage algorithm (MSA) was designed, which included two artifact filters based on a recursive least squares algorithm, a rhythm analysis algorithm from a commercial defibrillator, and an ECG-slope-based rhythm classifier. Data was partitioned randomly and patient-wise into training (60%) and test (40%) for optimization and validation, and statistically meaningful results were obtained repeating the process 500 times. Results: The mean (standard deviation) sensitivity (SE) for shockable rhythms, specificity (SP) for nonshockable rhythms, and the total accuracy of the MSA solution were: 91.7 (6.0), 98.1 (1.1), and 96.9 (0.9), respectively. The SP for AS and OR were 98.0 (1.7) and 98.1 (1.4), respectively. Conclusions: The SE/SP were above the 90%/95% values recommended by the American Heart Association for shockable and nonshockable rhythms other than sinus rhythm, respectively. Significance: It is possible to accurately diagnose the rhythm during mechanical chest compressions and the results considerably improve those obtained by previous algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objectives of this study were to develop a multi-channel trans-impedance leadforming method for beat-to-beat stroke volume (SV) and breath-by-breath tidal volume (TV) measurements and assess its feasibility on an existing in vivo animal dataset. Methods: A deterministic leadforming algorithm was developed to extract a cardiac volume signal (CVS) and a respiratory volume signal (RVS) from 208-channel trans-impedance data acquired every 20 ms by an electrical impedance tomography (EIT) device. SVEIT and TVEIT values were computed as a valley-to-peak value in the CVS and RVS, respectively. The method was applied to the existing dataset from five mechanically-ventilated pigs undergoing ten mini-fluid challenges. An invasive hemodynamic monitor was used in the arterial pressure-based cardiac output (APCO) mode to simultaneously measure SVAPCO values while a mechanical ventilator provided TVVent values. Results: The leadforming method could reliably extract the CVS and RVS from the 208-channel trans-impedance data measured with the EIT device, from which SVEIT and TVEIT were computed. The SVEIT and TVEIT values were comparable to those from the invasive hemodynamic monitor and mechanical ventilator. Using the data from 5 pigs and a simple calibration method to remove bias, the error in SVEIT and TVEIT was 9.5% and 5.4%, respectively. Conclusion: We developed a new leadforming method for the EIT device to robustly extract both SV and TV values in a deterministic fashion. Future animal and clinical studies are needed to validate this leadforming method in various subject populations. Significance: The leadforming method could be an integral component for a new cardiopulmonary monitor in the future to simultaneously measure SV and TV noninvasively, which would be beneficial to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors are portable devices, employed in the treatment of diabetes, able to measure glucose concentration in the interstitium almost continuously for several days. However, CGM sensors are not as accurate as standard blood glucose (BG) meters. Studies comparing CGM versus BG demonstrated that CGM is affected by distortion due to diffusion processes and by time-varying systematic under/overestimations due to calibrations and sensor drifts. In addition, measurement noise is also present in CGM data. A reliable model of the different components of CGM inaccuracy with respect to BG (briefly, “sensor error”) is important in several applications, e.g., design of optimal digital filters for denoising of CGM data, real-time glucose prediction, insulin dosing, and artificial pancreas control algorithms. The aim of this paper is to propose an approach to describe CGM sensor error by exploiting n multiple simultaneous CGM recordings. The model of sensor error description includes a model of blood-to-interstitial glucose diffusion process, a linear time-varying model to account for calibration and sensor drift-in-time, and an autoregressive model to describe the additive measurement noise. Model orders and parameters are identified from the n simultaneous CGM sensor recordings and BG references. While the model is applicable to any CGM sensor, here, it is used on a database of 36 datasets of type 1 diabetic adults in which n = 4 Dexcom SEVEN Plus CGM time series and frequent BG references were available simultaneously. Results demonstrates that multiple simultaneous sensor data and proper modeling allow dissecting the sensor error into its different components, distinguishing those related to physiology from those related to technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a new subspace-based algorithm for the identification of Hammerstein systems. It extends a previous approach which described the Hammerstein cascade by a state-space model and identified it with subspace methods that are fast and require little a priori knowledge. The resulting state-space models predict the system response well but have many redundant parameters and provide limited insight into the system since they depend on both the nonlinear and linear elements. This paper addresses these issues by reformulating the problem so that there are many fewer parameters and each parameter is related directly to either the linear dynamics or the static nonlinearity. Consequently, it is straightforward to construct the continuous-time Hammerstein models corresponding to the estimated state-space model. Simulation studies demonstrated that the new method performs better than other well-known methods in the nonideal conditions that prevail during practical experiments. Moreover, it accurately distinguished changes in the linear component from those in the static nonlinearity. The practical application of the new algorithm was demonstrated by applying it to experimental data from a study of the stretch reflex at the human ankle. Hammerstein models were estimated between the velocity of ankle perturbations and the EMG activity of triceps surae for voluntary contractions in the plantarflexing and dorsiflexion directions. The resulting models described the behavior well, displayed the expected unidirectional rate sensitivity, and revealed that both the gain of the linear element and the threshold of the nonlinear changed with contraction direction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: This paper aims to develop a method for achieving micrometre axial scatterer localization for medical ultrasound, surpassing the inherent, pulse length dependence limiting ultrasound imaging. Methods: The method, directly translated from cellular microscopy, is based on multi-focal imaging and the simple, aberration-dependent, image sharpness metric of a single point scatterer. The localization of a point scatterer relies on the generation of multiple overlapping sharpness curves, created by deploying three foci during receive processing, and by assessing the sharpness values after each acquisition as a function of depth. Each derived curve peaks around the receive focus and the unique position of the scatterer is identified by combining the data from all curves using a maximum likelihood algorithm with a calibration standard. Results: Simulated and experimental ultrasound point scatter data show that the sharpness method can provide scatterer axial localization with an average accuracy down to 10.21 $\mu$ m ( $\approx\lambda /$ 21) and with up to 11.4 times increased precision compared to conventional localization. The improvements depend on the rate of change of sharpness using each focus, and the signal to noise ratio in each image. Conclusion: Super-resolution axial imaging from optical microscopy has been successfully translated into ultrasound imaging by using raw ultrasound data and standard beamforming. Significance: The normalized sharpness method has the potential to be used in scatterer localization applications and contribute in current super-resolution ultrasound imaging techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is currently one of the most effective methods for minimally invasive treatment of hepatic tumors. Planning the probe placements is an essential and challenging step in RFA treatment. To completely destroy the tumor with minimum amount of affected native tissue, a new RFA planning system is proposed in this paper. In the proposed planning system, the minimum number of ablations and a conical insertion region for each ablation session are determined automatically. Based on the geometric character of the tumor, a novel clustering algorithm is developed to allow a better layout of the overlapping ablations. For each case, we force the clustering process under the constraint of a manually defined puncture scope, such that all of the needle trajectories are gathered in a reasonable region. Moreover, the proposed planning system enables the clinician to manually choose a proper insertion path inside the conical insertion region to avoid penetrating large vessels or ribs, which is critical in RFA treatment. The proposed planning system was evaluated on 18 CT scan images and two clinical cases. Results implied that the planning system could provide feasible and accurate RFA treatment plans for hepatic tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: The development of artificial pancreas (AP) technology for deployment in low-energy, embedded devices is contingent upon selecting an efficient control algorithm for regulating glucose in people with type 1 diabetes mellitus. In this paper, we aim to lower the energy consumption of the AP by reducing controller updates, that is, the number of times the decision-making algorithm is invoked to compute an appropriate insulin dose. Methods: Physiological insights into glucose management are leveraged to design an event-triggered model predictive controller (MPC) that operates efficiently, without compromising patient safety. The proposed event-triggered MPC is deployed on a wearable platform. Its robustness to latent hypoglycemia, model mismatch, and meal misinformation is tested, with and without meal announcement, on the full version of the US-FDA accepted UVA/Padova metabolic simulator. Results: The event-based controller remains on for 18 h of 41 h in closed loop with unannounced meals, while maintaining glucose in 70–180 mg/dL for 25 h, compared to 27 h for a standard MPC controller. With meal announcement, the time in 70–180 mg/dL is almost identical, with the controller operating a mere 25.88% of the time in comparison with a standard MPC. Conclusion: A novel control architecture for AP systems enables safe glycemic regulation with reduced processor computations. Significance: Our proposed framework integrated seamlessly with a wide variety of popular MPC variants reported in AP research, customizes tradeoff between glycemic regulation and efficacy according to prior design specifications, and eliminates judicious prior selection of controller sampling times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose novel matching pursuit (MP)-based algorithms for EEG/MEG dipole source localization and parameter estimation for multiple measurement vectors with constant sparsity. The algorithms combine the ideas of MP for sparse signal recovery and source deflation, as employed in estimation via alternating projections. The source-deflated matching pursuit (SDMP) approach mitigates the problem of residual interference inherent in sequential MP-based methods or recursively applied (RAP)-MUSIC. Furthermore, unlike prior methods based on alternating projection, SDMP allows one to efficiently estimate the dipole orientation in addition to its location. Simulations show that the proposed algorithms outperform existing techniques under various conditions, including those with highly correlated sources. Results using real EEG data from auditory experiments are also presented to illustrate the performance of these algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Swallowing accelerometry is a promising noninvasive approach for the detection of swallowing difficulties. In this paper, we propose an approach for classification of swallowing accelerometry recordings containing either healthy swallows or penetration–aspiration (entry of material into the airway) in dysphagic patients. The proposed algorithm is based on the wavelet packet decomposition of swallowing accelerometry signals in combination with linear discriminant analysis as a feature reduction method and Bayes classification. The proposed algorithm was tested using swallowing accelerometry signals collected from 40 patients during the regularly scheduled videoflouroscopy exam. The participants were instructed to swallow several 5-mL sips of thin liquid barium in a head neutral position. The results of our numerical analysis showed that the proposed algorithm can differentiate healthy swallows from aspiration swallows with an accuracy greater than 90%. These results position swallowing accelerometry as a valid approach for the detection of swallowing difficulties, particularly penetration–aspiration in patients suspected of dysphagia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The correlation map of neurons emerges as an important mathematical framework for a spectrum of applications including neural circuit modeling, neurologic disease bio-marking and neuroimaging. However, constructing a correlation map is computationally expensive, especially when the number of neurons is large. This paper proposes a hardware design using hierarchical systolic arrays to calculate pairwise correlations between neurons. Through mapping a computationally efficient algorithm for cross-correlation onto a massively parallel structure, the hardware is able to construct the correlation maps in a much shorter time. The proposed architecture was evaluated using a field programmable gate array. The results show that the computational delay of the hardware for constructing correlation maps increases linearly with the number of neurons, whereas the growth of delay is quadratic for a software-based serial approach. Also, the efficiency of our method for detecting abnormal behaviors of neural circuits is demonstrated by analyzing correlation maps of retinal neurons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A pigment network is one of the most important dermoscopic structures. This paper describes an automatic system that performs its detection in dermoscopy images. The proposed system involves a set of sequential steps. First, a preprocessing algorithm is applied to the dermoscopy image. Then, a bank of directional filters and a connected component analysis are used in order to detect the “lines” of the pigment network. Finally, features are extracted from the detected network and used to train an AdaBoost algorithm to classify each lesion regarding the presence of the pigment network. The algorithm was tested on a dataset of 200 medically annotated images from the database of Hospital Pedro Hispano (Matosinhos), achieving a sensitivity = 91.1% and a specificity = 82.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent advances in programming languages for graphics processing units (GPUs) provide developers with a convenient way of implementing applications which can be executed on the CPU and GPU interchangeably. GPUs are becoming relatively cheap, powerful, and widely available hardware components, which can be used to perform intensive calculations. The last decade of hardware performance developments shows that GPU-based computation is progressing significantly faster than CPU-based computation, particularly if one considers the execution of highly parallelisable algorithms. Future predictions illustrate that this trend is likely to continue. In this paper, we introduce a way of accelerating 2-D/3-D image registration by developing a hybrid system which executes on the CPU and utilizes the GPU for parallelizing the generation of digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs). Based on the advancements of the GPU over the CPU, it is timely to exploit the benefits of many-core GPU technology by developing algorithms for DRR generation. Although some previous work has investigated the rendering of DRRs using the GPU, this paper investigates approximations which reduce the computational overhead while still maintaining a quality consistent with that needed for 2-D/3-D registration with sufficient accuracy to be clinically acceptable in certain applications of radiation oncology. Furthermore, by comparing implementations of 2-D/3-D registration on the CPU and GPU, we investigate current performance and propose an optimal framework for PC implementations addressing the rigid registration problem. Using this framework, we are able to render DRR images from a 256\times 256\times 133 CT volume in \sim24 ms using an NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX and in \sim2 ms using NVidia GeForce GTX 580. In addition to applications requiring fast automatic patient setup, these levels of performance suggest image-guided radiation therapy at video frame rates is technically feasible using relatively low cost PC architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we present an algorithm to detect the presence of diabetic retinopathy (DR)-related lesions from fundus images based on a common analytical approach that is capable of identifying both red and bright lesions without requiring specific pre- or postprocessing. Our solution constructs a visual word dictionary representing points of interest (PoIs) located within regions marked by specialists that contain lesions associated with DR and classifies the fundus images based on the presence or absence of these PoIs as normal or DR-related pathology. The novelty of our approach is in locating DR lesions in the optic fundus images using visual words that combines feature information contained within the images in a framework easily extendible to different types of retinal lesions or pathologies and builds a specific projection space for each class of interest (e.g., white lesions such as exudates or normal regions) instead of a common dictionary for all classes. The visual words dictionary was applied to classifying bright and red lesions with classical cross validation and cross dataset validation to indicate the robustness of this approach. We obtained an area under the curve (AUC) of 95.3% for white lesion detection and an AUC of 93.3% for red lesion detection using fivefold cross validation and our own data consisting of 687 images of normal retinae, 245 images with bright lesions, 191 with red lesions, and 109 with signs of both bright and red lesions. For cross dataset analysis, the visual dictionary also achieves compelling results using our images as the training set and the RetiDB and Messidor images as test sets. In this case, the image classification resulted in an AUC of 88.1% when classifying the RetiDB dataset and in an AUC of 89.3% when classifying the Messidor dataset, both cases for bright lesion detection. The results indicate the potential for training with different acquisition images under different setup conditions with a high accuracy of referral based on the presence of either red or bright lesions or both. The robustness of the visual dictionary against image quality (blurring), resolution, and retinal background, makes it a strong candidate for DR screening of large, diverse communities with varying cameras and settings and levels of expertise for image capture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer worldwide. However, this disease can be prevented by detection and removal of precursor adenomatous polyps during optical colonoscopy (OC). During OC, the endoscopist looks for colon polyps. While hyperplastic polyps are benign lesions, adenomatous polyps are likely to become cancerous. Hence, it is a common practice to remove all identified polyps and send them to subsequent histological analysis. But removal of hyperplastic polyps poses unnecessary risk to patients and incurs unnecessary costs for histological analysis. In this paper, we develop the first part of a novel optical biopsy application based on narrow-band imaging (NBI). A barrier to an automatic system is that polyp classification algorithms require manual segmentations of the polyps, so we automatically segment polyps in colonoscopic NBI data. We propose an algorithm, Shape-UCM, which is an extension of the gPb-OWT-UCM algorithm, a state-of-the-art algorithm for boundary detection and segmentation. Shape-UCM solves the intrinsic scale selection problem of gPb-OWT-UCM by including prior knowledge about the shape of the polyps. Shape-UCM outperforms previous methods with a specificity of 92%, a sensitivity of 71%, and an accuracy of 88% for automatic segmentation of a test set of 87 images. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kidney transplantation is typically the most effective treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease. However, the supply of kidneys is far short of the fast-growing demand. Kidney paired donation (KPD) programs provide an innovative approach for increasing the number of available kidneys. In a KPD program, willing but incompatible donor–candidate pairs may exchange donor organs to achieve mutual benefit. Recently, research on exchanges initiated by altruistic donors (ADs) has attracted great attention because the resultant organ exchange mechanisms offer advantages that increase the effectiveness of KPD programs. Currently, most KPD programs focus on rule-based strategies of prioritizing kidney donation. In this paper, we consider and compare two graph-based organ allocation algorithms to optimize an outcome-based strategy defined by the overall expected utility of kidney exchanges in a KPD program with both incompatible pairs and ADs. We develop an interactive software-based decision support system to model, monitor, and visualize a conceptual KPD program, which aims to assist clinicians in the evaluation of different kidney allocation strategies. Using this system, we demonstrate empirically that an outcome-based strategy for kidney exchanges leads to improvement in both the quantity and quality of kidney transplantation through comprehensive simulation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A computational model is proposed in this paper to capture learning capacity of a human subject adapting his or her movements in novel dynamics. The model uses an iterative learning control algorithm to represent human learning through repetitive processes. The control law performs adaptation using a model designed using experimental data captured from the natural behavior of the individual of interest. The control signals are used by a model of the body to produced motion without the need of inverse kinematics. The resulting motion behavior is validated against experimental data. This new technique yields the capability of subject-specific modeling of the motor function, with the potential to explain individual behavior in physical rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the difficulties in the development of a reliable artificial pancreas for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the lack of accurate models of an individual’s response to insulin. Most control algorithms proposed to control the glucose level in subjects with T1DM are model-based. Avoiding postprandial hypoglycemia (<60 mg/dl) while minimizing prandial hyperglycemia (>180 mg/dl) has shown to be difficult in a closed-loop setting due to the patient–model mismatch. In this paper, control-relevant models are developed for T1DM, as opposed to models that minimize a prediction error. The parameters of these models are chosen conservatively to minimize the likelihood of hypoglycemia events. To limit the conservatism due to large intersubject variability, the models are personalized using a priori patient characteristics. The models are implemented in a zone model predictive control algorithm. The robustness of these controllers is evaluated in silico, where hypoglycemia is completely avoided even after large meal disturbances. The proposed control approach is simple and the controller can be set up by a physician without the need for control expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Precise labeling of subcortical structures plays a key role in functional neurosurgical applications. Labels from an atlas image are propagated to a patient image using atlas-based segmentation. Atlas-based segmentation is highly dependent on the registration framework used to guide the atlas label propagation. This paper focuses on atlas-based segmentation of subcortical brain structures and the effect of different registration methods on the generated subcortical labels. A single-step and three two-step registration methods appearing in the literature based on affine and deformable registration algorithms in the ANTS and FSL algorithms are considered. Experiments are carried out with two atlas databases of IBSR and LPBA40. Six segmentation metrics consisting of Dice overlap, relative volume error, false positive, false negative, surface distance, and spatial extent are used for evaluation. Segmentation results are reported individually and as averages for nine subcortical brain structures. Based on two statistical tests, the results are ranked. In general, among four different registration strategies investigated in this paper, a two-step registration consisting of an initial affine registration followed by a deformable registration applied to subcortical structures provides superior segmentation outcomes. This method can be used to provide an improved labeling of the subcortical brain structures in MRIs for different applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Source signals that have strong temporal correlation can pose a challenge for high-resolution EEG source localization algorithms. In this paper, we present two methods that are able to accurately locate highly correlated sources in situations where other high-resolution methods such as multiple signal classification and linearly constrained minimum variance beamforming fail. These methods are based on approximations to the optimal maximum likelihood (ML) approach, but offer significant computational advantages over ML when estimates of the equivalent EEG dipole orientation and moment are required in addition to the source location. The first method uses a two-stage approach in which localization is performed assuming an unstructured dipole moment model, and then the dipole orientation is obtained by using these estimates in a second step. The second method is based on the use of the noise subspace fitting concept, and has been shown to provide performance that is asymptotically equivalent to the direct ML method. Both techniques lead to a considerably simpler optimization than ML since the estimation of the source locations and dipole moments is decoupled. Examples using data from simulations and auditory experiments are presented to illustrate the performance of the algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose an efficient dictionary learning algorithm for sparse representation of given data and suggest a way to apply this algorithm to 3-D medical image denoising. Our learning approach is composed of two main parts: sparse coding and dictionary updating. On the sparse coding stage, an efficient algorithm named multiple clusters pursuit (MCP) is proposed. The MCP first applies a dictionary structuring strategy to cluster the atoms with high coherence together, and then employs a multiple-selection strategy to select several competitive atoms at each iteration. These two strategies can greatly reduce the computation complexity of the MCP and assist it to obtain better sparse solution. On the dictionary updating stage, the alternating optimization that efficiently approximates the singular value decomposition is introduced. Furthermore, in the 3-D medical image denoising application, a joint 3-D operation is proposed for taking the learning capabilities of the presented algorithm to simultaneously capture the correlations within each slice and correlations across the nearby slices, thereby obtaining better denoising results. The experiments on both synthetically generated data and real 3-D medical images demonstrate that the proposed approach has superior performance compared to some well-known methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Source-space coherence analysis has become a popular method to estimate functional connectivity based on MEG/EEG. Source-space analysis involves solving the inverse problem, estimating the time courses of specific brain regions, and then examining the coherence between activities at different brain regions. However, source-space coherence analysis can be confounded by spurious coherence caused due to the leakage properties of the inverse algorithm employed. Such spurious coherence is typically manifested as an artifactual large peak around the seed voxel, called seed blur, in the resulting coherence images. This seed blur often obscures important details of brain interactions. This paper proposes the use of the imaginary part of the coherence to remove the spurious coherence caused by the leakage of an imaging algorithm. We present a theoretical analysis that explains how the use of imaginary part can remove this spurious coherence. We then present results from both computer simulations and experiments using resting-state MEG data which demonstrate the validity of our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Real signals are often corrupted by noise with a power spectrum variable over time. In applications involving these signals, it is expected that dynamically estimating and correcting for this noise would increase the amount of useful information extracted from the signal. One such application is scalp EEG monitoring in epilepsy, where electrical activity generated by cranio-facial muscles obscure the measured brainwaves. This paper presents a data-selection algorithm based on phase congruency to identify interictal spikes from background EEG; together with a novel statistical method that allows a more comprehensive trade-off based quantitative comparison of two algorithms which have been tested at a fixed threshold in the same database. Here, traditional phase congruency has been modified to incorporate a dynamic estimate of muscle activity present in the input scalp EEG signal. The proposed algorithm achieves 50% data reduction whilst detecting more than 80% of interictal spikes. This represents a significant improvement over the state-of-the-art denoising method for phase congruency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most automatic spike detection systems in the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) focused on the characteristics of “spike.” However, the characteristics of “false positives” (FPs) have not been fully studied. In this paper, we proposed a system that contains a series of algorithms to eliminate FPs and a template method to confirm spikes. The system used large area context available on 49 channels from two common montages. The impact of slow-waves after spikes was taken into consideration, as well as the information from single channel, multichannel, and whole recording. Two types of FPs were identified in this paper. The ones from typical artifacts were identified by analysis of background EEG activities, and the ones from other EEG activities were declared by spatial and temporal characteristics of spike activities. Finally, a multichannel template method was used to assess the performance of the proposed system. The system was evaluated using 17 routine EEG recordings. Spike activities were observed in six of them. Effective multichannel templates were extracted from four recordings containing frequent spikes. The least selectivity was 92.6% and the most false positive rate was 0.26 min ^-1. Proposed algorithms for elimination of FPs are also suitable for other algorithms to enhance performance since most FPs can be identified while few true spikes are eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The goal of this paper is to perform a segmentation of atherosclerotic plaques in view of evaluating their burden and to provide boundaries for computing properties such as the plaque deformation and elasticity distribution (elastogram and modulogram). The echogenicity of a region of interest comprising the plaque, the vessel lumen, and the adventitia of the artery wall in an ultrasonic B-mode image was modeled by mixtures of three Nakagami distributions, which yielded the likelihood of a Bayesian segmentation model. The main contribution of this paper is the estimation of the motion field and its integration into the prior of the Bayesian model that included a local geometrical smoothness constraint, as well as an original spatiotemporal cohesion constraint. The Maximum A Posteriori of the proposed model was computed with a variant of the exploration/selection algorithm. The starting point is a manual segmentation of the first frame. The proposed method was quantitatively compared with manual segmentations of all frames by an expert technician. Various measures were used for this evaluation, including the mean point-to-point distance and the Hausdorff distance. Results were evaluated on 94 sequences of 33 patients (for a total of 8988 images). We report a mean point-to-point distance of 0.24\pm 0.08 mm and a Hausdorff distance of 1.24\pm 0.40 mm. Our tests showed that the algorithm was not sensitive to the degree of stenosis or calcification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Automatic segmentation of the prostate from 2-D transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) is a highly desired tool in many clinical applications. However, it is a very challenging task, especially for segmenting the base and apex of the prostate due to the large shape variations in those areas compared to the midgland, which leads many existing segmentation methods to fail. To address the problem, this paper presents a novel TRUS video segmentation algorithm using both global population-based and patient-specific local shape statistics as shape constraint. By adaptively learning shape statistics in a local neighborhood during the segmentation process, the algorithm can effectively capture the patient-specific shape statistics and quickly adapt to the local shape changes in the base and apex areas. The learned shape statistics is then used as the shape constraint in a deformable model for TRUS video segmentation. The proposed method can robustly segment the entire gland of the prostate with significantly improved performance in the base and apex regions, compared to other previously reported methods. Our method was evaluated using 19 video sequences obtained from different patients and the average mean absolute distance error was 1.65 \,\pm\,0.47 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a method of parametric representation and functional measurement of 3-D cardiac shapes in a deformable nonuniform rational B-splines (NURBS) model. This representation makes it very easy to automatically evaluate the functional parameters and myocardial kinetics of the heart, since quantitative analysis can be followed in a simple way. In the model, local deformation and motion on the cardiac shape are expressed in adjustable parameters. Especially, an effective integral algorithm is used for volumetric measurement of a NURBS shape since the volume is the most basic parameter in cardiac functional analysis. This method promises the numerical computation to be very convenient, efficient, and accurate, in comparison with traditional methods. Practical experiments are carried out, and results show that the algorithm can get satisfactory measurement accuracy and efficiency. The parametric NURBS model in cylindrical coordinates is not only very suitable to fit the anatomical surfaces of a cardiac shape, but also easy for geometric transformation and nonrigid registration, and able to represent local dynamics and kinetics, and thus, can easily be applied for quantitative and functional analysis of the heart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Common spatial pattern (CSP) is a popular algorithm for classifying electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in the context of brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). This paper presents a regularization and aggregation technique for CSP in a small-sample setting (SSS). Conventional CSP is based on a sample-based covariance-matrix estimation. Hence, its performance in EEG classification deteriorates if the number of training samples is small. To address this concern, a regularized CSP (R-CSP) algorithm is proposed, where the covariance-matrix estimation is regularized by two parameters to lower the estimation variance while reducing the estimation bias. To tackle the problem of regularization parameter determination, R-CSP with aggregation (R-CSP-A) is further proposed, where a number of R-CSPs are aggregated to give an ensemble-based solution. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on data set IVa of BCI Competition III against four other competing algorithms. Experiments show that R-CSP-A significantly outperforms the other methods in average classification performance in three sets of experiments across various testing scenarios, with particular superiority in SSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a fully automatic cell extraction process, one of the main issues to overcome is the problem related to extracting overlapped nuclei since such nuclei will often affect the quantitative analysis of cell images. In this paper, we present an unsupervised Bayesian classification scheme for separating overlapped nuclei. The proposed approach first involves applying the distance transform to overlapped nuclei. The topographic surface generated by distance transform is viewed as a mixture of Gaussians in the proposed algorithm. In order to learn the distribution of the topographic surface, the parametric expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is employed. Cluster validation is performed to determine how many nuclei are overlapped. Our segmentation approach incorporates a priori knowledge about the regular shape of clumped nuclei to yield more accurate segmentation results. Experimental results show that the proposed method yields superior segmentation performance, compared to those produced by conventional schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a sparse representation method is proposed for magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) quantification. An observed MR spectrum is composed of a set of metabolic spectra of interest, a baseline and a noise. To separate the spectra of interest, the a priori knowledge about these spectra, such as signal models, the peak frequencies, and linewidth ranges of different resonances, is first integrated to construct a dictionary. The separation of the spectra of interest is then performed by using a pursuit algorithm to find their sparse representations with respect to the dictionary. For the challenging baseline problem, a wavelet filter is proposed to filter the smooth and broad components of both the observed spectra and the basis functions in the dictionary. The computation of sparse representation can then be carried out by using the remaining data. Simulation results show the good performance of this wavelet filtering-based strategy in separating the overlapping components between the baselines and the spectra of interest, when no appropriate model function for the baseline is available. Quantifications of in vivo brain MR spectra from tumor patients in different stages of progression demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a 3-D adaptive mesh refinement technique. The algorithm is constructed with an electric impedance tomography forward problem and the finite-element method in mind, but is applicable to a much wider class of problems. We use the method to evaluate the distribution of currents injected into a model of a human body through skin contact electrodes. We demonstrate that the technique leads to a significantly improved solution, particularly near the electrodes. We discuss error estimation, efficiency, and quality of the refinement algorithm and methods that allow for preserving mesh attributes in the refinement process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a generic and patient-specific classification system designed for robust and accurate detection of ECG heartbeat patterns. The proposed feature extraction process utilizes morphological wavelet transform features, which are projected onto a lower dimensional feature space using principal component analysis, and temporal features from the ECG data. For the pattern recognition unit, feedforward and fully connected artificial neural networks, which are optimally designed for each patient by the proposed multidimensional particle swarm optimization technique, are employed. By using relatively small common and patient-specific training data, the proposed classification system can adapt to significant interpatient variations in ECG patterns by training the optimal network structure, and thus, achieves higher accuracy over larger datasets. The classification experiments over a benchmark database demonstrate that the proposed system achieves such average accuracies and sensitivities better than most of the current state-of-the-art algorithms for detection of ventricular ectopic beats (VEBs) and supra-VEBs (SVEBs). Over the entire database, the average accuracy-sensitivity performances of the proposed system for VEB and SVEB detections are 983%-84.6% and 97.4%-63.5%, respectively. Finally, due to its parameter-invariant nature, the proposed system is highly generic, and thus, applicable to any ECG dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic induction tomography (MIT) is an imaging modality that aims at mapping the distribution of the electrical conductivity inside the body. Eddy currents are induced in the body by magnetic induction and the resulting fields are measured by an array of receiver coils. In MIT, the location of the receivers affects the quality of the image reconstruction. In this paper, a fast deterministic algorithm was applied toobtain optimum receiver array designs for a given specific excitation. The design strategy is based on the iterative exclusion of receiver locations, which yield poor conductivity information, from the space spanning all possible locations until a feasible design is reached. The applicability of "regionally focused" MIT designs that increase the image resolution at a particular region was demonstrated. Currently used design geometries and the corresponding reconstructed images were compared to the images obtained by optimized designs. The eigenvalue analysis of the Hessian matrix showed that the algorithm tends to maintain identical conductivity information content sensed by the receivers. Although the method does not guarantee finding the optimum design globally, the results demonstrate the practical usability of this algorithm in MIT experimental designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernmultislice computed tomography (CT) scanners produce isotropic CT images with a thickness of 0.6 mm. These CT images offer detailed information of lung cavities, which could be used for better surgical planning of treating lung cancer. The major challenge for developing a surgical planning system is the automatic segmentation of lung lobes by identifying the lobar fissures. This paper presents a lobe segmentation algorithm that uses a twostage approach: 1) adaptive fissure sweeping to find fissure regions and 2) wavelet transform to identify the fissure locations and curvatures within these regions. Tested on isotropic CT image stacks from nine anonymous patients with pathological lungs, the algorithm yielded an accuracy of 76.7 %-94.8% with strict evaluation criteria. In comparison, surgeons obtain an accuracy of 80% for localizing the fissure regions in clinical CT images with a thickness of 2.5-7.0 mm. As well, this paper describes a procedure for visualizing lung lobes in three dimensions using software-amira-and the segmentation algorithm. The procedure, including the segmentation, needed about 5 mm for each patient. These results provide promising potential for developing an automatic algorithm to segment lung lobes for surgical planning of treating lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radar-based microwave imaging has been proposed as a complementary modality for early-stage breast cancer screening. This paper presents an algorithm that may be used to accurately predict the time-of-arrival (TOA) of a tumor response contained in sample data acquired from a small number of antennas in a realistic scenario. The TOA information may be used by many of the existing radar-based methods to detect and localize a tumor response. The robustness of the algorithm is demonstrated with data generated from realistic numerical breast models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical models for synthesizing ECGs are important tools in providing reproducible standard signals for biomedical signal processing research and technology. The ECG synthesis model ECGsyn and its extensions are the state of the art and realistically capture: 1) the ECC morphology; 2) the spectrum of heart rate variability; and 3) QT-interval adaptation to heart rate. This paper demonstrates ECGsyn's time-domain limitations at reconstructing an ECG time series from ECG wave annotations. An alternative algorithm, ECGfm, is therefore presented that recreates the event intervals with greater fidelity by applying the wave annotations as a phase constraint. Results on data drawn from the Physionet Physobank QT database demonstrate the improved performance of the ECGfm algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]