The First 500 Registrations to the Research Registry®: Advancing Registration of Under-Registered Study Types.

PubMed

Agha, Riaz; Fowler, Alexander J; Limb, Christopher; Al Omran, Yasser; Sagoo, Harkiran; Koshy, Kiron; Jafree, Daniyal J; Anwar, Mohammed Omer; McCullogh, Peter; Orgill, Dennis Paul

2016-01-01

The Declaration of Helsinki 2013 encourages the registration of all research studies involving human participants. However, emphasis has been placed on prospective clinical trials, and it is estimated that only 10% of observational studies are registered. In response, Research Registry ® was launched in February 2015; a retrospectively curated registry that is free and easy to use. Research Registry ® enables prospective or retrospective registration of studies, including those study types that cannot be registered on existing registries. In this study, we describe the first 500 registrations on Research Registry ® . Since the launch of Research Registry ® in February 2015, data of registrations have been collected, including type of studies registered, country of origin, and data curation activity. Inappropriate registrations, such as duplicates, were identified by the data curation process. These were removed from the database or modified as required. A quality score was assigned for each registration, based on Sir Austin Bradford Hill's criteria on what research studies should convey. Changes in quality scores over time were assessed. A total of 500 studies were registered on Research Registry ® from February 2015 to October 2015, with a total of 1.7 million patients enrolled. The most common study types were retrospective cohort studies (37.2%), case series (14.8%), and first-in-man case reports (10.4%). Registrations were received from 57 different countries; the most submissions were received from Turkey, followed by China and the United Kingdom. Retrospective data curation identified 80 studies that were initially registered as the incorrect study type, and were subsequently correct. The Kruskal-Wallis test identified a significant improvement in quality scores for registrations from February 2015 to October 2015 ( p  < 0.0001). Since its conception in February 2015, Research Registry ® has established itself as a new registry that is free, easy to use, and enables the registration of various study types, including observational studies and first-in-man case reports. Going forward, our plan is to continue developing Research Registry ® in line with user feedback and usability studies. We plan to further promote Research Registry ® to advance the cause of registration of research, to increase compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki 2013.

Measures of Public Service: The Past Decade (1977-1986).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New York State Education Dept., Albany. Office of the Professions.

Professional and vocational licensing and registration information is presented for the New York State fiscal years 1977-78 through 1986-87. For each fiscal year, the total number of new licenses, certificates or registrations, and total number of licensees registered to practice in the state, and the current registration period are provided for…

Fully automated deformable registration of breast DCE-MRI and PET/CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dmitriev, I. D.; Loo, C. E.; Vogel, W. V.; Pengel, K. E.; Gilhuijs, K. G. A.

2013-02-01

Accurate characterization of breast tumors is important for the appropriate selection of therapy and monitoring of the response. For this purpose breast imaging and tissue biopsy are important aspects. In this study, a fully automated method for deformable registration of DCE-MRI and PET/CT of the breast is presented. The registration is performed using the CT component of the PET/CT and the pre-contrast T1-weighted non-fat suppressed MRI. Comparable patient setup protocols were used during the MRI and PET examinations in order to avoid having to make assumptions of biomedical properties of the breast during and after the application of chemotherapy. The registration uses a multi-resolution approach to speed up the process and to minimize the probability of converging to local minima. The validation was performed on 140 breasts (70 patients). From a total number of registration cases, 94.2% of the breasts were aligned within 4.0 mm accuracy (1 PET voxel). Fused information may be beneficial to obtain representative biopsy samples, which in turn will benefit the treatment of the patient.

Measurement of pelvic osteolytic lesions in follow-up studies after total hip arthroplasty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castaneda, Benjamin; Tamez-Pena, Jose G.; Totterman, Saara; O'Keefe, Regis; Looney, R. John

2006-03-01

Previous studies have demonstrated the plausibility of using volumetric computerized tomography to provide an accurate representation and measurement of volume for pelvic osteolytic lesions following total hip joint replacement. These studies have been performed manually (or computed-assisted) by expert radiologists with the disadvantage of poor reproducibility of the experiment. The purpose of this work is to minimize the effect of user interaction in these experiments by introducing Laplacian level set methods in the volume segmentation process and using temporal articulated registration in order to follow the evolution of a lesion over time. Laplacian level set methods reduce the inter and intra-observer variability by attaching the segmented contour to edges defined in the image while keeping smoothness. The registration process allows the information of the lesion from the first visit to be used in the segmentation process of the current visit. This work compares the automated results on 7 volunteers versus the volume measured manually. Results have shown that the proposed technique is able to track osteolytic lesions and detect changes in volume over time. Intra-reader and inter-observer variabilities were reduced.

These terrifying three words: A qualitative, mixed methods study of students' and mentors' understandings of 'fitness to practise'.

PubMed

Haycock-Stuart, Elaine; MacLaren, Jessica; McLachlan, Alison; James, Christine

2016-08-01

There is little empirical published research pertaining to fitness to practise and pre-registration nursing students. Much of the existing fitness to practise literature focuses on medical students and there is a preponderance of literature reviews and descriptive or discursive papers. The multicentre study aimed to explore students' and mentor's understandings of fitness to practise processes in pre-registration nursing programmes. A qualitative study in the interpretive paradigm with interpretive analysis involving 6 focus groups and 4 face-to-face interviews with nursing students and mentors. Eleven Higher Education Institutions providing pre-registration nursing education in the UK. Data were collected January 2014-March 2015 following ethical approval. Purposive sampling was used to recruit mentors and nursing (but not midwifery) students from pre-registration nursing programmes at different stages of educational preparation. Qualitatively driven semi-structured focus groups (n=6) and interviews (n=4) were conducted with a total of 35 participants (17 pre-registration nursing students and 18 nursing mentors). Three themes identified from the student and mentor data are considered: Conceptualising Fitness to Practise; Good Health and Character; and Fear and Anxiety Surrounding Fitness to Practise Processes. Uncertainty about understandings of fitness to practise contributed to a pervasive fear among students and reluctance among mentors to raise concerns about a student's fitness to practise. Both students and mentors expressed considerable anxiety and engaged in catastrophic thinking about fitness to practise processes. Higher Education Institutes should reinforce to students that they are fit to practise the majority of the time and reduce the negative emotional loading of fitness to practise processes and highlight learning opportunities. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Time process study with UML.

PubMed

Shiki, N; Ohno, Y; Fujii, A; Murata, T; Matsumura, Y

2009-01-01

We propose a new business-process analysis approach, Time Process Study (TPS), which comprises process analysis and time and motion studies (TMS). TPS offsets weaknesses of TMS; the cost of field studies and the difficulties in applying them to tasks whose time span differs from those of usual tasks. In TPS, the job procedures are first displayed using a unified modeling language (UML). Next, time and manpower for each procedure are studied through interviews and TMS, and the information is appended to the UML diagram. We applied TPS in the case of a hospital-based cancer registry (HCR) of a university hospital to clarify the work procedure and the time required, and investigated TPS's availability. Meetings for the study were held once a month from July to September in 2008, and one inquirer committed a total of eight hours to the hospital survey. TPS revealed that HCR consisted of three tasks and 14 functions. The registration required 123 hours/month/person, the quality control required 6.5 hours/ 6 months/person and filing data into the population-based cancer registry required 0.5 hours/6 months/person. Of the total tasks involved in registration, 116.5 hours/month/person were undertaken by a registration worker, which shows the necessity of employing one full-time staff. With TPS, it is straightforward to share the concept among the study-team because the job procedure is first displayed using UML. Therefore, it requires a few workload to conduct TMS and interview. The obtained results were adopted for the review of staff assignment of HCR by Japanese government.

Image-guided radiotherapy quality control: Statistical process control using image similarity metrics.

PubMed

Shiraishi, Satomi; Grams, Michael P; Fong de Los Santos, Luis E

2018-05-01

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate an objective quality control framework for the image review process. A total of 927 cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) registrations were retrospectively analyzed for 33 bilateral head and neck cancer patients who received definitive radiotherapy. Two registration tracking volumes (RTVs) - cervical spine (C-spine) and mandible - were defined, within which a similarity metric was calculated and used as a registration quality tracking metric over the course of treatment. First, sensitivity to large misregistrations was analyzed for normalized cross-correlation (NCC) and mutual information (MI) in the context of statistical analysis. The distribution of metrics was obtained for displacements that varied according to a normal distribution with standard deviation of σ = 2 mm, and the detectability of displacements greater than 5 mm was investigated. Then, similarity metric control charts were created using a statistical process control (SPC) framework to objectively monitor the image registration and review process. Patient-specific control charts were created using NCC values from the first five fractions to set a patient-specific process capability limit. Population control charts were created using the average of the first five NCC values for all patients in the study. For each patient, the similarity metrics were calculated as a function of unidirectional translation, referred to as the effective displacement. Patient-specific action limits corresponding to 5 mm effective displacements were defined. Furthermore, effective displacements of the ten registrations with the lowest similarity metrics were compared with a three dimensional (3DoF) couch displacement required to align the anatomical landmarks. Normalized cross-correlation identified suboptimal registrations more effectively than MI within the framework of SPC. Deviations greater than 5 mm were detected at 2.8σ and 2.1σ from the mean for NCC and MI, respectively. Patient-specific control charts using NCC evaluated daily variation and identified statistically significant deviations. This study also showed that subjective evaluations of the images were not always consistent. Population control charts identified a patient whose tracking metrics were significantly lower than those of other patients. The patient-specific action limits identified registrations that warranted immediate evaluation by an expert. When effective displacements in the anterior-posterior direction were compared to 3DoF couch displacements, the agreement was ±1 mm for seven of 10 patients for both C-spine and mandible RTVs. Qualitative review alone of IGRT images can result in inconsistent feedback to the IGRT process. Registration tracking using NCC objectively identifies statistically significant deviations. When used in conjunction with the current image review process, this tool can assist in improving the safety and consistency of the IGRT process. © 2018 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in Craighead County, Arkansas, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Office in Craighead County, Arkansas. The number of withdrawal registrations for Craighead County was 2,384 (2,187 groundwater and 197 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 1.45 Mgal/d (0.50 Mgal/d groundwater and 0.95 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 287.20 Mgal/d (261.52 Mgal/d groundwater and 25.68 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 168,003 acres of land to irrigate rice, sorghum, corn, soybeans, milo, cotton, hay, vegetables, nuts, and sod as well as for the agricultural uses of animal aquaculture and sports clubs.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in Prairie County, Arkansas, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Office in Prairie County, Arkansas. The number of withdrawal registrations for Prairie County was 2,187 (1,786 groundwater and 401 surface water). Water with- drawals reported during the registration process total 26.93 Mgal/d (26.84 Mgal/d groundwater and 0.09 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 191.08 Mgal/d (138.79 Mgal/d groundwater and 52.29 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 144,956 acres of land to irrigate rice, corn, soybeans, milo, cash grains, unknown crop, cotton hay, berries, and fruit trees as well as for the agricultural uses of animal aquaculture, minnows, timber, and ducks.

Identifying types and causes of errors in mortality data in a clinical registry using multiple information systems.

PubMed

Koetsier, Antonie; Peek, Niels; de Keizer, Nicolette

2012-01-01

Errors may occur in the registration of in-hospital mortality, making it less reliable as a quality indicator. We assessed the types of errors made in in-hospital mortality registration in the clinical quality registry National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) by comparing its mortality data to data from a national insurance claims database. Subsequently, we performed site visits at eleven Intensive Care Units (ICUs) to investigate the number, types and causes of errors made in in-hospital mortality registration. A total of 255 errors were found in the NICE registry. Two different types of software malfunction accounted for almost 80% of the errors. The remaining 20% were five types of manual transcription errors and human failures to record outcome data. Clinical registries should be aware of the possible existence of errors in recorded outcome data and understand their causes. In order to prevent errors, we recommend to thoroughly verify the software that is used in the registration process.

Research on land registration procedure ontology of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Zhongjun; Du, Qingyun; Zhang, Weiwei; Liu, Tao

2009-10-01

Land registration is public act which is to record the state-owned land use right, collective land ownership, collective land use right and land mortgage, servitude, as well as other land rights required the registration according to laws and regulations onto land registering books. Land registration is one of the important government affairs , so it is very important to standardize, optimize and humanize the process of land registration. The management works of organization are realized through a variety of workflows. Process knowledge is in essence a kind of methodology knowledge and a system which including the core and the relational knowledge. In this paper, the ontology is introduced into the field of land registration and management, trying to optimize the flow of land registration, to promote the automation-building and intelligent Service of land registration affairs, to provide humanized and intelligent service for multi-types of users . This paper tries to build land registration procedure ontology by defining the land registration procedure ontology's key concepts which represent the kinds of processes of land registration and mapping the kinds of processes to OWL-S. The land registration procedure ontology shall be the start and the basis of the Web service.

Registration and Marking Requirements for UAS. Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2005-01-01

The registration of an aircraft is a prerequisite for issuance of a U.S. certificate of airworthiness by the FAA. The procedures and requirements for aircraft registration, and the subsequent issuance of registration numbers, are contained in FAR Part 47. However, the process/method(s) for applying the requirements of Parts 45 & 47 to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has not been defined. This task resolved the application of 14 CFR Parts 45 and 47 to UAS. Key Findings: UAS are aircraft systems and as such the recommended approach to registration is to follow the same process for registration as manned aircraft. This will require manufacturers to comply with the requirements for 14 CFR 47, Aircraft Registration and 14 CFR 45, Identification and Registration Marking. In addition, only the UA should be identified with the N number registration markings. There should also be a documentation link showing the applicability of the control station and communication link to the UA. The documentation link can be in the form of a Type Certificate Data Sheet (TCDS) entry or a UAS logbook entry. The recommended process for the registration of UAS is similar to the manned aircraft process and is outlined in a 6-step process in the paper.

A new system of computer-assisted navigation leading to reduction in operating time in uncemented total hip replacement in a matched population.

PubMed

Chaudhry, Fouad A; Ismail, Sanaa Z; Davis, Edward T

2018-05-01

Computer-assisted navigation techniques are used to optimise component placement and alignment in total hip replacement. It has developed in the last 10 years but despite its advantages only 0.3% of all total hip replacements in England and Wales are done using computer navigation. One of the reasons for this is that computer-assisted technology increases operative time. A new method of pelvic registration has been developed without the need to register the anterior pelvic plane (BrainLab hip 6.0) which has shown to improve the accuracy of THR. The purpose of this study was to find out if the new method reduces the operating time. This was a retrospective analysis of comparing operating time in computer navigated primary uncemented total hip replacement using two methods of registration. Group 1 included 128 cases that were performed using BrainLab versions 2.1-5.1. This version relied on the acquisition of the anterior pelvic plane for registration. Group 2 included 128 cases that were performed using the newest navigation software, BrainLab hip 6.0 (registration possible with the patient in the lateral decubitus position). The operating time was 65.79 (40-98) minutes using the old method of registration and was 50.87 (33-74) minutes using the new method of registration. This difference was statistically significant. The body mass index (BMI) was comparable in both groups. The study supports the use of new method of registration in improving the operating time in computer navigated primary uncemented total hip replacements.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in White County, Arkansas, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Office in White County, Arkansas. The number of withdrawal registrations for White County was 1,365 (1,146 groundwater and 219 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 1.37 Mgal/d (0.95 Mgal/d groundwater and 0.42 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 69.91 Mgal/d (43.78 Mgal/d groundwater and 26.13 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was supplied to 46,315 acres of land to irrigate rice, sorghum, corn, soybeans, milo, cash grains, hay, vegetables, berries, grapes, fruit trees, sod, and unknown crop as well as for the agricultural uses of animal aquaculture, minnows, ducks, and sport clubs.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in Monroe County, Arkansas, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Office in Monroe County, Arkansas. The number of withdrawal registrations for Monroe County was 1,886 (1,677 groundwater and 209 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 8.87 Mgal/d (5.75 Mgal/d groundwater and 3.12 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 210.61 Mgal/d (190.99 Mgal/d groundwater and 19.62 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 127,670 acres of land to irrigate rice, sorghum, soybeans, milo, cash grains, cotton, hay, and unknown crops, as well as for agricultural uses of animal aquaculture, minnows, and ducks. {descriptors: *Water use, *Arkansas, *Monroe County, Selective withdrawal, Groundwater, Surface water

Plane-Based Registration of Several Thousand Laser Scans on Standard Hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wujanz, D.; Schaller, S.; Gielsdorf, F.; Gründig, L.

2018-05-01

The automatic registration of terrestrial laser scans appears to be a solved problem in science as well as in practice. However, this assumption is questionable especially in the context of large projects where an object of interest is described by several thousand scans. A critical issue inherently linked to this task is memory management especially if cloud-based registration approaches such as the ICP are being deployed. In order to process even thousands of scans on standard hardware a plane-based registration approach is applied. As a first step planar features are detected within the unregistered scans. This step drastically reduces the amount of data that has to be handled by the hardware. After determination of corresponding planar features a pairwise registration procedure is initiated based on a graph that represents topological relations among all scans. For every feature individual stochastic characteristics are computed that are consequently carried through the algorithm. Finally, a block adjustment is carried out that minimises the residuals between redundantly captured areas. The algorithm is demonstrated on a practical survey campaign featuring a historic town hall. In total, 4853 scans were registered on a standard PC with four processors (3.07 GHz) and 12 GB of RAM.

Multimodality Non-Rigid Image Registration for Planning, Targeting and Monitoring during CT-guided Percutaneous Liver Tumor Cryoablation

PubMed Central

Elhawary, Haytham; Oguro, Sota; Tuncali, Kemal; Morrison, Paul R.; Tatli, Servet; Shyn, Paul B.; Silverman, Stuart G.; Hata, Nobuhiko

2010-01-01

Rationale and Objectives To develop non-rigid image registration between pre-procedure contrast enhanced MR images and intra-procedure unenhanced CT images, to enhance tumor visualization and localization during CT-guided liver tumor cryoablation procedures. Materials and Methods After IRB approval, a non-rigid registration (NRR) technique was evaluated with different pre-processing steps and algorithm parameters and compared to a standard rigid registration (RR) approach. The Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC), Target Registration Error (TRE), 95% Hausdorff distance (HD) and total registration time (minutes) were compared using a two-sided Student’s t-test. The entire registration method was then applied during five CT-guided liver cryoablation cases with the intra-procedural CT data transmitted directly from the CT scanner, with both accuracy and registration time evaluated. Results Selected optimal parameters for registration were section thickness of 5mm, cropping the field of view to 66% of its original size, manual segmentation of the liver, B-spline control grid of 5×5×5 and spatial sampling of 50,000 pixels. Mean 95% HD of 3.3mm (2.5x improvement compared to RR, p<0.05); mean DSC metric of 0.97 (13% increase); and mean TRE of 4.1mm (2.7x reduction) were measured. During the cryoablation procedure registration between the pre-procedure MR and the planning intra-procedure CT took a mean time of 10.6 minutes, the MR to targeting CT image took 4 minutes and MR to monitoring CT took 4.3 minutes. Mean registration accuracy was under 3.4mm. Conclusion Non-rigid registration allowed improved visualization of the tumor during interventional planning, targeting and evaluation of tumor coverage by the ice ball. Future work is focused on reducing segmentation time to make the method more clinically acceptable. PMID:20817574

76 FR 41246 - Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, Pesticide Registration Improvement Act Process Improvement...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-13

... Committee, Pesticide Registration Improvement Act Process Improvement Workgroup; Notice of Public Meeting...) Process Improvement Work Group. EPA plans to meet its ESA consultation obligations through the pesticide... a pesticide during the registration review process. This meeting of the PRIA Process Improvement...

A sequential decision framework for increasing college students' support for organ donation and organ donor registration.

PubMed

Peltier, James W; D'Alessandro, Anthony M; Dahl, Andrew J; Feeley, Thomas Hugh

2012-09-01

Despite the fact that college students support social causes, this age group has underparticipated in organ donor registration. Little research attention has been given to understanding deeper, higher-order relationships between the antecedent attitudes toward and perceptions of organ donation and registration behavior. To test a process model useful for understanding the sequential ordering of information necessary for moving college students along a hierarchical decision-making continuum from awareness to support to organ donor registration. The University of Wisconsin organ procurement organization collaborated with the Collegiate American Marketing Association on a 2-year grant funded by the US Health Resources and Services Administration. A total of 981 association members responded to an online questionnaire. The 5 antecedent measures were awareness of organ donation, need acknowledgment, benefits of organ donation, social support, and concerns about organ donation. The 2 consequence variables were support for organ donation and organ donation registration. Structural equation modeling indicated that 5 of 10 direct antecedent pathways led significantly into organ donation support and registration. The impact of the nonsignificant variables was captured via indirect effects through other decision variables. Model fit statistics were good: the goodness of fit index was .998, the adjusted goodness of fit index was .992, and the root mean square error of approximation was .001. This sequential decision-making model provides insight into the need to enhance the acceptance of organ donation and organ donor registration through a series of communications to move people from awareness to behavior.

Development of a piecewise linear omnidirectional 3D image registration method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bae, Hyunsoo; Kang, Wonjin; Lee, SukGyu; Kim, Youngwoo

2016-12-01

This paper proposes a new piecewise linear omnidirectional image registration method. The proposed method segments an image captured by multiple cameras into 2D segments defined by feature points of the image and then stitches each segment geometrically by considering the inclination of the segment in the 3D space. Depending on the intended use of image registration, the proposed method can be used to improve image registration accuracy or reduce the computation time in image registration because the trade-off between the computation time and image registration accuracy can be controlled for. In general, nonlinear image registration methods have been used in 3D omnidirectional image registration processes to reduce image distortion by camera lenses. The proposed method depends on a linear transformation process for omnidirectional image registration, and therefore it can enhance the effectiveness of the geometry recognition process, increase image registration accuracy by increasing the number of cameras or feature points of each image, increase the image registration speed by reducing the number of cameras or feature points of each image, and provide simultaneous information on shapes and colors of captured objects.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in west-central Arkansas counties, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Offices in the following west-central Arkansas counties: Conway, Crawford, Faulkner, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Perry, Pope, Scott, Sebastian, and Yell. The number of withdrawal registrations for west-central Arkansas counties was 307 (90 groundwater and 217 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 1.00 Mgal/d (0.15 Mgal/d groundwater and 0.85 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 32.07 Mgal/d (5.67 Mgal/d groundwater and 26.40 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 22,856 acres of land to irrigate rice, corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, cash grains, hay, milo, vegetables, sod, berries, grapes, and fruit trees as well as for the agricultural uses of catfish and ducks.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in southwestern Arkansas counties, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Offices in the following southwestern Arkansas counties: Bradley, Calhoun, Clark, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Garland, Grant, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Little River, Montgomery, Nevada, Ouachita, Pike, Polk, Saline, Sevier, and Union. The number of withdrawal registrations for southwestern Arkansas counties was 132 (31 groundwater and 101 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 0.84 Mgal/d (none from groundwater and 0.84 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 14.22 Mgal/d (1.64 Mgal/d groundwater and 12.58 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 8,455 acres of land to irrigate rice, corn, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, cash grains, vegetables, sod, berries, fruit trees, timber, shrubs, and nuts as well as for the agricultural use of animal aquaculture.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in northwestern Arkansas counties, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Offices in the following northwestern Arkansas counties: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cleburne, Fulton, Izard, Madison, Marion, Newton, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, and Washington. The number of withdrawal registrations for northwestern Arkansas counties was 106 (16 groundwater and 90 surface water). Water withdrawals reported during the registration process total 41.72 Mgal/d (0.74 Mgal/d groundwater and 40.98 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 3.33 Mgal/d (0.27 Mgal/d groundwater and 3.06 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registration reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 3,588 acres of land to irrigate rice, soybeans, cash grains, hay, oats, vegetables, sod, berries, fruit trees, and timber as well as for the agricultural use of animal aquaculture.

Automated retina identification based on multiscale elastic registration.

PubMed

Figueiredo, Isabel N; Moura, Susana; Neves, Júlio S; Pinto, Luís; Kumar, Sunil; Oliveira, Carlos M; Ramos, João D

2016-12-01

In this work we propose a novel method for identifying individuals based on retinal fundus image matching. The method is based on the image registration of retina blood vessels, since it is known that the retina vasculature of an individual is a signature, i.e., a distinctive pattern of the individual. The proposed image registration consists of a multiscale affine registration followed by a multiscale elastic registration. The major advantage of this particular two-step image registration procedure is that it is able to account for both rigid and non-rigid deformations either inherent to the retina tissues or as a result of the imaging process itself. Afterwards a decision identification measure, relying on a suitable normalized function, is defined to decide whether or not the pair of images belongs to the same individual. The method is tested on a data set of 21721 real pairs generated from a total of 946 retinal fundus images of 339 different individuals, consisting of patients followed in the context of different retinal diseases and also healthy patients. The evaluation of its performance reveals that it achieves a very low false rejection rate (FRR) at zero FAR (the false acceptance rate), equal to 0.084, as well as a low equal error rate (EER), equal to 0.053. Moreover, the tests performed by using only the multiscale affine registration, and discarding the multiscale elastic registration, clearly show the advantage of the proposed approach. The outcome of this study also indicates that the proposed method is reliable and competitive with other existing retinal identification methods, and forecasts its future appropriateness and applicability in real-life applications. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Functional food and nutraceutical registration processes in Japan and China: a diffusion of innovation perspective.

PubMed

Patel, Darshika; Dufour, Yvon; Domigan, Neil

2008-01-01

Purpose - This paper looks into the functional food and nutraceutical registration processes in Japan and China. The Japanese have developed the Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) registration process whereas the Chinese have put into place the Health Food (HF) registration process. The aim of this paper is to compare the regulation processes between the two countries in search for answers to three core empirical questions: (1) how have the registration processes developed and changed? (2) What are the similarities and differences between the processes of registration in the two countries investigated? (3) Why are the registration processes similar/different? Method - The study was conducted using secondary sources. The literature surveyed covered academic journals, trade journals, magazine and newspaper articles, market reports, proceedings, books and web pages of relevant regulatory authorities and regulatory consultants. Information from the more recently published sources was used preferentially over older sources. As well as using the most recent sources, information was selected on the basis of which source it was from. Official regulations and SFDA and MHLW websites would contain accurate and up to date information and information from here would be taken as true over other sources of information. Results - The two diagrams of the registration processes respectively in Japan and China clearly show that there are similarities and differences. There are six categories under which these can be found: (1) the scientific evidence required; (2) the application process; (3) the evaluation process; (4) the law and the categories of products; (5) the labels and the types of claims; and finally (6) the cost and the time involved. Conclusions -The data analysis suggests that the process of diffusion of innovation played a role in the development of the regulations. Further it was found that while Japan was at the outset a pioneer innovator in nutraceutical registration processes, there are indications that in more recent years it too imitated other countries. NOVELTY STATEMENT: The assortment of regulatory regimes creates much uncertainty for the firms and the lack of familiarity and poor knowledge of the regulatory situation increases the risk of failure. The research presented in this paper provides highly valuable information to any biotech/pharmaceutical/nutraceutical companies developing their market entry strategy in Japan and China. There are few national and international studies of drug registration application processes but even fewer comparative studies of functional food and neutraceutical registration application processes such as this one and none using a diffusion of innovation perspective.

School Administrators' Beliefs that School Improvements Were Due to Formal School Registration: A Rasch Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witten, Harm; Waugh, Russell; Gray, Jan

2012-01-01

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the attitudes of School Administrators to the relationship between formal school registration and school improvement. It concerns a mandatory inspection-type registration process for all Non-Government Schools in Western Australia. Part of the aim of this registration process was to help…

Gaussian Process Interpolation for Uncertainty Estimation in Image Registration

PubMed Central

Wachinger, Christian; Golland, Polina; Reuter, Martin; Wells, William

2014-01-01

Intensity-based image registration requires resampling images on a common grid to evaluate the similarity function. The uncertainty of interpolation varies across the image, depending on the location of resampled points relative to the base grid. We propose to perform Bayesian inference with Gaussian processes, where the covariance matrix of the Gaussian process posterior distribution estimates the uncertainty in interpolation. The Gaussian process replaces a single image with a distribution over images that we integrate into a generative model for registration. Marginalization over resampled images leads to a new similarity measure that includes the uncertainty of the interpolation. We demonstrate that our approach increases the registration accuracy and propose an efficient approximation scheme that enables seamless integration with existing registration methods. PMID:25333127

[Consideration about chemistry, manufacture and control (CMC) key problems in simplified registration of classical traditional Chinese medicine excellent prescriptions].

PubMed

Wang, Zhi-Min; Liu, Ju-Yan; Liu, Xiao-Qian; Wang, De-Qin; Yan, Li-Hua; Zhu, Jin-Jin; Gao, Hui-Min; Li, Chun; Wang, Jin-Yu; Li, Chu-Yuan; Ni, Qing-Chun; Huang, Ji-Sheng; Lin, Juan

2017-05-01

As an outstanding representative of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) prescriptions accumulated from famous TCM doctors' clinical experiences in past dynasties, classical TCM excellent prescriptions (cTCMeP) are the most valuable part of TCM system. To support the research and development of cTCMeP, a series of regulations and measures were issued to encourage its simplified registration. There is still a long-way to go because many key problems and puzzles about technology, registration and administration in cTCMeP R&D process are not resolved. Based on the analysis of registration and management regulations of botanical drug products in FDA of USA and Japan, and EMA of Europe, the possible key problems and countermeasures in chemistry, manufacture and control (CMC) of simplified registration of cTCMeP were analyzed on the consideration of its actual situation. The method of "reference decoction extract by traditional prescription" (RDETP) was firstly proposed as standard to evaluate the quality and preparation uniformity between the new developing product under simplified registration and traditional original usages of cTCMeP, instead of Standard Decoction method in Japan. "Totality of the evidence" approach, mass balance and bioassay/biological assay of cTCMeP were emphatically suggested to introduce to the quality uniformity evaluation system in the raw drug material, drug substance and final product between the modern product and traditional decoction. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

School Administrators' Beliefs that School Improvements Were Due to Formal School Registration Guttman Scales and their Inter-Correlations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witten, Harm; Waugh, Russell; Gray, Jan

2012-01-01

This paper presents an investigation into the attitudes of School Administrators to the relationship between formal school registration and school improvement. It concerns a mandatory inspection-type registration process for all Non-Government Schools in Western Australia. Part of the aim of this registration process was to help schools improve…

Reduction of accounts receivable through total quality management.

PubMed

LaFleur, N

1994-01-01

On October 1, 1990, The Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., converted to a new computer system for patient accounting applications and on-line registration functions. The new system automated the hospital's patient accounting, registration, and medical records functions and interfaced registration with patient accounts for billing purposes.

Petition for Rulemaking to Evaluate Synergestic Effects of Pesticides during Registration and Registration Review

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This petition from the Center for Biological Diversity asks that the Agency require all applicants and registrants to provide data on the potential synergistic effects of pesticides during the registration and registration review processes.

3D point cloud analysis of structured light registration in computer-assisted navigation in spinal surgeries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gupta, Shaurya; Guha, Daipayan; Jakubovic, Raphael; Yang, Victor X. D.

2017-02-01

Computer-assisted navigation is used by surgeons in spine procedures to guide pedicle screws to improve placement accuracy and in some cases, to better visualize patient's underlying anatomy. Intraoperative registration is performed to establish a correlation between patient's anatomy and the pre/intra-operative image. Current algorithms rely on seeding points obtained directly from the exposed spinal surface to achieve clinically acceptable registration accuracy. Registration of these three dimensional surface point-clouds are prone to various systematic errors. The goal of this study was to evaluate the robustness of surgical navigation systems by looking at the relationship between the optical density of an acquired 3D point-cloud and the corresponding surgical navigation error. A retrospective review of a total of 48 registrations performed using an experimental structured light navigation system developed within our lab was conducted. For each registration, the number of points in the acquired point cloud was evaluated relative to whether the registration was acceptable, the corresponding system reported error and target registration error. It was demonstrated that the number of points in the point cloud neither correlates with the acceptance/rejection of a registration or the system reported error. However, a negative correlation was observed between the number of the points in the point-cloud and the corresponding sagittal angular error. Thus, system reported total registration points and accuracy are insufficient to gauge the accuracy of a navigation system and the operating surgeon must verify and validate registration based on anatomical landmarks prior to commencing surgery.

3D registration of surfaces for change detection in medical images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fisher, Elizabeth; van der Stelt, Paul F.; Dunn, Stanley M.

1997-04-01

Spatial registration of data sets is essential for quantifying changes that take place over time in cases where the position of a patient with respect to the sensor has been altered. Changes within the region of interest can be problematic for automatic methods of registration. This research addresses the problem of automatic 3D registration of surfaces derived from serial, single-modality images for the purpose of quantifying changes over time. The registration algorithm utilizes motion-invariant, curvature- based geometric properties to derive an approximation to an initial rigid transformation to align two image sets. Following the initial registration, changed portions of the surface are detected and excluded before refining the transformation parameters. The performance of the algorithm was tested using simulation experiments. To quantitatively assess the registration, random noise at various levels, known rigid motion transformations, and analytically-defined volume changes were applied to the initial surface data acquired from models of teeth. These simulation experiments demonstrated that the calculated transformation parameters were accurate to within 1.2 percent of the total applied rotation and 2.9 percent of the total applied translation, even at the highest applied noise levels and simulated wear values.

The impact of managed care contracts on the admission and registration process.

PubMed

Tilley, B G

1993-04-01

With increasing demand placed on the admission and registration process, hospitals are undergoing dramatic operational changes. These changes are necessary to maintain the vital cash flow of the hospitals. A major factor forcing hospitals to rethink the front line process in the admission and registration area is the impact of managed care.

SU-F-I-09: Improvement of Image Registration Using Total-Variation Based Noise Reduction Algorithms for Low-Dose CBCT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mukherjee, S; Farr, J; Merchant, T

Purpose: To study the effect of total-variation based noise reduction algorithms to improve the image registration of low-dose CBCT for patient positioning in radiation therapy. Methods: In low-dose CBCT, the reconstructed image is degraded by excessive quantum noise. In this study, we developed a total-variation based noise reduction algorithm and studied the effect of the algorithm on noise reduction and image registration accuracy. To study the effect of noise reduction, we have calculated the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). To study the improvement of image registration, we performed image registration between volumetric CT and MV- CBCT images of different head-and-neck patientsmore » and calculated the mutual information (MI) and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) as a similarity metric. The PSNR, MI and PCC were calculated for both the noisy and noise-reduced CBCT images. Results: The algorithms were shown to be effective in reducing the noise level and improving the MI and PCC for the low-dose CBCT images tested. For the different head-and-neck patients, a maximum improvement of PSNR of 10 dB with respect to the noisy image was calculated. The improvement of MI and PCC was 9% and 2% respectively. Conclusion: Total-variation based noise reduction algorithm was studied to improve the image registration between CT and low-dose CBCT. The algorithm had shown promising results in reducing the noise from low-dose CBCT images and improving the similarity metric in terms of MI and PCC.« less

Exploring the process of professional socialisation and development during pharmacy pre-registration training in England.

PubMed

Jee, Samuel D; Schafheutle, Ellen I; Noyce, Peter R

2016-08-01

To explore the process of professional socialisation in pharmacy trainees during pre-registration training. A prospective, longitudinal qualitative design was used. A purposive sample of 20 trainees from community and hospital pharmacy in North West England was recruited. A total of 79 semi-structured interviews were conducted with trainees on three occasions during training and once four months after training. Data were analysed thematically using template analysis. Early on in training, non-pharmacists played a significant role in socialising trainees into the work setting; pharmacists played the stronger role towards the end. Pre-registration tutors were strong role models throughout training. Training experiences differed between settings, where services provided and patient mix varied. Hospital trainees learnt about specialist medicines on ward rotations. Community trainees developed knowledge of over-the-counter, and less complex, medicines. In hospital, trainees were exposed to a range of role models in comparison to community where this was generally limited to a small pharmacy team. Newly qualified pharmacists were challenged by having full responsibility and accountability. This study showed the experiences encountered by trainees that affect their professional socialisation. More standardisation across training sites may reduce the variation in experiences and professional socialisation and development. Formal training for pre-registration tutors and support staff that play a key role in supporting trainees could be considered. Support for newly qualified pharmacists may allay the challenging transition they face when entering practice. © 2016 Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Unified Modeling Language (UML) for hospital-based cancer registration processes.

PubMed

Shiki, Naomi; Ohno, Yuko; Fujii, Ayumi; Murata, Taizo; Matsumura, Yasushi

2008-01-01

Hospital-based cancer registry involves complex processing steps that span across multiple departments. In addition, management techniques and registration procedures differ depending on each medical facility. Establishing processes for hospital-based cancer registry requires clarifying specific functions and labor needed. In recent years, the business modeling technique, in which management evaluation is done by clearly spelling out processes and functions, has been applied to business process analysis. However, there are few analytical reports describing the applications of these concepts to medical-related work. In this study, we initially sought to model hospital-based cancer registration processes using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), to clarify functions. The object of this study was the cancer registry of Osaka University Hospital. We organized the hospital-based cancer registration processes based on interview and observational surveys, and produced an As-Is model using activity, use-case, and class diagrams. After drafting every UML model, it was fed-back to practitioners to check its validity and improved. We were able to define the workflow for each department using activity diagrams. In addition, by using use-case diagrams we were able to classify each department within the hospital as a system, and thereby specify the core processes and staff that were responsible for each department. The class diagrams were effective in systematically organizing the information to be used for hospital-based cancer registries. Using UML modeling, hospital-based cancer registration processes were broadly classified into three separate processes, namely, registration tasks, quality control, and filing data. An additional 14 functions were also extracted. Many tasks take place within the hospital-based cancer registry office, but the process of providing information spans across multiple departments. Moreover, additional tasks were required in comparison to using a standardized system because the hospital-based cancer registration system was constructed with the pre-existing computer system in Osaka University Hospital. Difficulty of utilization of useful information for cancer registration processes was shown to increase the task workload. By using UML, we were able to clarify functions and extract the typical processes for a hospital-based cancer registry. Modeling can provide a basis of process analysis for establishment of efficient hospital-based cancer registration processes in each institute.

76 FR 14677 - General Meeting Registration and Evaluation

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-17

... (capital/startup): $0. Total Burden Cost (operating/maintaining): $20,757. Post-Meeting/Workshop/Training..., including conferences, meetings, workshops, etc. The general registration form, general pre-meeting form...

Registration status and methodological reporting of randomized controlled trials in obesity research: A review.

PubMed

Byrne, Jillian L S; Yee, Tamara; O'Connor, Kathleen; Dyson, Michele P; Ball, Geoff D C

2017-04-01

To assess registration and reporting details of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from 2011 to 2016 across four obesity journals. All issues from four leading obesity journals were searched systematically for RCTs from January 2011 to June 2016. Data on registration status were extracted from manuscripts, online trial registries, and a trial database; corresponding authors were contacted for registration details, when necessary. The methodological reporting of RCTs was assessed on specific criteria from the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials. A total of 223 RCTs were reviewed. Three-quarters (n = 170) were registered publicly; 94 (55.3%) reported registration details in the manuscript, and 82 (48.2%) were registered prospectively. Newer RCTs were more likely to be registered prospectively than older RCTs (2014-2016: 57.3% vs. 2011-2013: 39.2%; c 2  = 5.5, P = 0.02). Assessment on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials demonstrated that less than half of all studies reported data collection dates (n = 108; 48.4%) or included "randomized trial" in the title (n = 89; 39.9%). The methodological reporting of RCTs published in obesity journals is suboptimal, despite current guidelines and policies. To complement existing standards, editorial boards should incorporate mandatory fields within the online manuscript submission process to enhance the quality, transparency, and comprehensiveness of reporting RCTs in obesity journals. © 2017 The Obesity Society.

A fast alignment method for breast MRI follow-up studies using automated breast segmentation and current-prior registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Lei; Strehlow, Jan; Rühaak, Jan; Weiler, Florian; Diez, Yago; Gubern-Merida, Albert; Diekmann, Susanne; Laue, Hendrik; Hahn, Horst K.

2015-03-01

In breast cancer screening for high-risk women, follow-up magnetic resonance images (MRI) are acquired with a time interval ranging from several months up to a few years. Prior MRI studies may provide additional clinical value when examining the current one and thus have the potential to increase sensitivity and specificity of screening. To build a spatial correlation between suspicious findings in both current and prior studies, a reliable alignment method between follow-up studies is desirable. However, long time interval, different scanners and imaging protocols, and varying breast compression can result in a large deformation, which challenges the registration process. In this work, we present a fast and robust spatial alignment framework, which combines automated breast segmentation and current-prior registration techniques in a multi-level fashion. First, fully automatic breast segmentation is applied to extract the breast masks that are used to obtain an initial affine transform. Then, a non-rigid registration algorithm using normalized gradient fields as similarity measure together with curvature regularization is applied. A total of 29 subjects and 58 breast MR images were collected for performance assessment. To evaluate the global registration accuracy, the volume overlap and boundary surface distance metrics are calculated, resulting in an average Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.96 and root mean square distance (RMSD) of 1.64 mm. In addition, to measure local registration accuracy, for each subject a radiologist annotated 10 pairs of markers in the current and prior studies representing corresponding anatomical locations. The average distance error of marker pairs dropped from 67.37 mm to 10.86 mm after applying registration.

TU-B-19A-01: Image Registration II: TG132-Quality Assurance for Image Registration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brock, K; Mutic, S

2014-06-15

AAPM Task Group 132 was charged with a review of the current approaches and solutions for image registration in radiotherapy and to provide recommendations for quality assurance and quality control of these clinical processes. As the results of image registration are always used as the input of another process for planning or delivery, it is important for the user to understand and document the uncertainty associate with the algorithm in general and the Result of a specific registration. The recommendations of this task group, which at the time of abstract submission are currently being reviewed by the AAPM, include themore » following components. The user should understand the basic image registration techniques and methods of visualizing image fusion. The disclosure of basic components of the image registration by commercial vendors is critical in this respect. The physicists should perform end-to-end tests of imaging, registration, and planning/treatment systems if image registration is performed on a stand-alone system. A comprehensive commissioning process should be performed and documented by the physicist prior to clinical use of the system. As documentation is important to the safe implementation of this process, a request and report system should be integrated into the clinical workflow. Finally, a patient specific QA practice should be established for efficient evaluation of image registration results. The implementation of these recommendations will be described and illustrated during this educational session. Learning Objectives: Highlight the importance of understanding the image registration techniques used in their clinic. Describe the end-to-end tests needed for stand-alone registration systems. Illustrate a comprehensive commissioning program using both phantom data and clinical images. Describe a request and report system to ensure communication and documentation. Demonstrate an clinically-efficient patient QA practice for efficient evaluation of image registration.« less

78 FR 72899 - Draft Guidance for Industry on Registration for Human Drug Compounding Outsourcing Facilities...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-04

... facilities. The draft guidance discusses the process for registration of outsourcing facilities. The draft... outsourcing facilities that will participate in the process. Estimated reporting burden until September 30...] Draft Guidance for Industry on Registration for Human Drug Compounding Outsourcing Facilities Under...

Automatic intraoperative fiducial-less patient registration using cortical surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Xiaoyao; Roberts, David W.; Olson, Jonathan D.; Ji, Songbai; Paulsen, Keith D.

2017-03-01

In image-guided neurosurgery, patient registration is typically performed in the operating room (OR) at the beginning of the procedure to establish the patient-to-image transformation. The accuracy and efficiency of patient registration are crucial as they are associated with surgical outcome, workflow, and healthcare costs. In this paper, we present an automatic fiducial-less patient registration (FLR) by directly registering cortical surface acquired from intraoperative stereovision (iSV) with preoperative MR (pMR) images without incorporating any prior information, and illustrate the method using one patient example. T1-weighted MR images were acquired prior to surgery and the brain was segmented. After dural opening, an image pair of the exposed cortical surface was acquired using an intraoperative stereovision (iSV) system, and a three-dimensional (3D) texture-encoded profile of the cortical surface was reconstructed. The 3D surface was registered with pMR using a multi-start binary registration method to determine the location and orientation of the iSV patch with respect to the segmented brain. A final transformation was calculated to establish the patient-to-MR relationship. The total computational time was 30 min, and can be significantly improved through code optimization, parallel computing, and/or graphical processing unit (GPU) acceleration. The results show that the iSV texture map aligned well with pMR using the FLR transformation, while misalignment was evident with fiducial-based registration (FBR). The difference between FLR and FBR was calculated at the center of craniotomy and the resulting distance was 4.34 mm. The results presented in this paper suggest potential for clinical application in the future.

Automatically processed alpha-track radon monitor

DOEpatents

Langner, Jr., G. Harold

1993-01-01

An automatically processed alpha-track radon monitor is provided which includes a housing having an aperture allowing radon entry, and a filter that excludes the entry of radon daughters into the housing. A flexible track registration material is located within the housing that records alpha-particle emissions from the decay of radon and radon daughters inside the housing. The flexible track registration material is capable of being spliced such that the registration material from a plurality of monitors can be spliced into a single strip to facilitate automatic processing of the registration material from the plurality of monitors. A process for the automatic counting of radon registered by a radon monitor is also provided.

Automatically processed alpha-track radon monitor

DOEpatents

Langner, G.H. Jr.

1993-01-12

An automatically processed alpha-track radon monitor is provided which includes a housing having an aperture allowing radon entry, and a filter that excludes the entry of radon daughters into the housing. A flexible track registration material is located within the housing that records alpha-particle emissions from the decay of radon and radon daughters inside the housing. The flexible track registration material is capable of being spliced such that the registration material from a plurality of monitors can be spliced into a single strip to facilitate automatic processing of the registration material from the plurality of monitors. A process for the automatic counting of radon registered by a radon monitor is also provided.

Experimental study of digital image processing techniques for LANDSAT data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rifman, S. S. (Principal Investigator); Allendoerfer, W. B.; Caron, R. H.; Pemberton, L. J.; Mckinnon, D. M.; Polanski, G.; Simon, K. W.

1976-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Results are reported for: (1) subscene registration, (2) full scene rectification and registration, (3) resampling techniques, (4) and ground control point (GCP) extraction. Subscenes (354 pixels x 234 lines) were registered to approximately 1/4 pixel accuracy and evaluated by change detection imagery for three cases: (1) bulk data registration, (2) precision correction of a reference subscene using GCP data, and (3) independently precision processed subscenes. Full scene rectification and registration results were evaluated by using a correlation technique to measure registration errors of 0.3 pixel rms thoughout the full scene. Resampling evaluations of nearest neighbor and TRW cubic convolution processed data included change detection imagery and feature classification. Resampled data were also evaluated for an MSS scene containing specular solar reflections.

An Improved InSAR Image Co-Registration Method for Pairs with Relatively Big Distortions or Large Incoherent Areas

PubMed Central

Chen, Zhenwei; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, Guo

2016-01-01

Co-registration is one of the most important steps in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data processing. The standard offset-measurement method based on cross-correlating uniformly distributed patches takes no account of specific geometric transformation between images or characteristics of ground scatterers. Hence, it is inefficient and difficult to obtain satisfying co-registration results for image pairs with relatively big distortion or large incoherent areas. Given this, an improved co-registration strategy is proposed in this paper which takes both the geometric features and image content into consideration. Firstly, some geometric transformations including scale, flip, rotation, and shear between images were eliminated based on the geometrical information, and the initial co-registration polynomial was obtained. Then the registration points were automatically detected by integrating the signal-to-clutter-ratio (SCR) thresholds and the amplitude information, and a further co-registration process was performed to refine the polynomial. Several comparison experiments were carried out using 2 TerraSAR-X data from the Hong Kong airport and 21 PALSAR data from the Donghai Bridge. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method brings accuracy and efficiency improvements for co-registration and processing abilities in the cases of big distortion between images or large incoherent areas in the images. For most co-registrations, the proposed method can enhance the reliability and applicability of co-registration and thus promote the automation to a higher level. PMID:27649207

An Improved InSAR Image Co-Registration Method for Pairs with Relatively Big Distortions or Large Incoherent Areas.

PubMed

Chen, Zhenwei; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, Guo

2016-09-17

Co-registration is one of the most important steps in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data processing. The standard offset-measurement method based on cross-correlating uniformly distributed patches takes no account of specific geometric transformation between images or characteristics of ground scatterers. Hence, it is inefficient and difficult to obtain satisfying co-registration results for image pairs with relatively big distortion or large incoherent areas. Given this, an improved co-registration strategy is proposed in this paper which takes both the geometric features and image content into consideration. Firstly, some geometric transformations including scale, flip, rotation, and shear between images were eliminated based on the geometrical information, and the initial co-registration polynomial was obtained. Then the registration points were automatically detected by integrating the signal-to-clutter-ratio (SCR) thresholds and the amplitude information, and a further co-registration process was performed to refine the polynomial. Several comparison experiments were carried out using 2 TerraSAR-X data from the Hong Kong airport and 21 PALSAR data from the Donghai Bridge. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method brings accuracy and efficiency improvements for co-registration and processing abilities in the cases of big distortion between images or large incoherent areas in the images. For most co-registrations, the proposed method can enhance the reliability and applicability of co-registration and thus promote the automation to a higher level.

Summary of reported agriculture and irrigation water use in Lonoke County, Arkansas, 1991

USGS Publications Warehouse

Holland, T.W.; Manning, C.A.; Stafford, K.L.

1993-01-01

This report summarizes the 1991 water-use reporting through the Conservation District Office in Lonoke County, Arkansas. The number of withdrawal registrations for Lonoke County was 3,313 (2,587 groundwater and 726 surface water). Water with drawals reported during the registration process total 61.30 Mgal/d (59.50 Mgal/d groundwater and 1.80 Mgal/d surface water) for agriculture and 300.45 Mgal/d (241.86 Mgal/d groundwater and 58.59 Mgal/d surface water) for irrigation. The registra- tion reports for 1991 indicate that this water was applied to 238,457 acres of land to irrigate rice, sorghum, corn, soybeans, milo, cash grains, cotton, and sod as well as for the agricultural uses of animal aquaculture, hatcheries, and ducks.

SU-C-BRA-03: An Automated and Quick Contour Errordetection for Auto Segmentation in Online Adaptive Radiotherapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, J; Ates, O; Li, X

Purpose: To develop a tool that can quickly and automatically assess contour quality generated from auto segmentation during online adaptive replanning. Methods: Due to the strict time requirement of online replanning and lack of ‘ground truth’ contours in daily images, our method starts with assessing image registration accuracy focusing on the surface of the organ in question. Several metrics tightly related to registration accuracy including Jacobian maps, contours shell deformation, and voxel-based root mean square (RMS) analysis were computed. To identify correct contours, additional metrics and an adaptive decision tree are introduced. To approve in principle, tests were performed withmore » CT sets, planned and daily CTs acquired using a CT-on-rails during routine CT-guided RT delivery for 20 prostate cancer patients. The contours generated on daily CTs using an auto-segmentation tool (ADMIRE, Elekta, MIM) based on deformable image registration of the planning CT and daily CT were tested. Results: The deformed contours of 20 patients with total of 60 structures were manually checked as baselines. The incorrect rate of total contours is 49%. To evaluate the quality of local deformation, the Jacobian determinant (1.047±0.045) on contours has been analyzed. In an analysis of rectum contour shell deformed, the higher rate (0.41) of error contours detection was obtained compared to 0.32 with manual check. All automated detections took less than 5 seconds. Conclusion: The proposed method can effectively detect contour errors in micro and macro scope by evaluating multiple deformable registration metrics in a parallel computing process. Future work will focus on improving practicability and optimizing calculation algorithms and metric selection.« less

A Review on Medical Image Registration as an Optimization Problem

PubMed Central

Song, Guoli; Han, Jianda; Zhao, Yiwen; Wang, Zheng; Du, Huibin

2017-01-01

Objective: In the course of clinical treatment, several medical media are required by a phy-sician in order to provide accurate and complete information about a patient. Medical image registra-tion techniques can provide a richer diagnosis and treatment information to doctors and to provide a comprehensive reference source for the researchers involved in image registration as an optimization problem. Methods: The essence of image registration is associating two or more different images spatial asso-ciation, and getting the translation of their spatial relationship. For medical image registration, its pro-cess is not absolute. Its core purpose is finding the conversion relationship between different images. Result: The major step of image registration includes the change of geometrical dimensions, and change of the image of the combination, image similarity measure, iterative optimization and interpo-lation process. Conclusion: The contribution of this review is sort of related image registration research methods, can provide a brief reference for researchers about image registration. PMID:28845149

Applications of digital image processing techniques to problems of data registration and correlation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Green, W. B.

1978-01-01

An overview is presented of the evolution of the computer configuration at JPL's Image Processing Laboratory (IPL). The development of techniques for the geometric transformation of digital imagery is discussed and consideration is given to automated and semiautomated image registration, and the registration of imaging and nonimaging data. The increasing complexity of image processing tasks at IPL is illustrated with examples of various applications from the planetary program and earth resources activities. It is noted that the registration of existing geocoded data bases with Landsat imagery will continue to be important if the Landsat data is to be of genuine use to the user community.

Lesson 6: Registration

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Lesson 6 provides CROMERR checklist items grouped under the Registration Process, where users establish their accounts in the system. This process typically requires users to provide information about them.

49 CFR 385.306 - What are the consequences of furnishing misleading information or making a false statement in...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... information or making a false statement in connection with the registration process? 385.306 Section 385.306... information or making a false statement in connection with the registration process? A carrier that furnishes false or misleading information, or conceals material information in connection with the registration...

Infrared thermal facial image sequence registration analysis and verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chieh-Li; Jian, Bo-Lin

2015-03-01

To study the emotional responses of subjects to the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), infrared thermal facial image sequence is preprocessed for registration before further analysis such that the variance caused by minor and irregular subject movements is reduced. Without affecting the comfort level and inducing minimal harm, this study proposes an infrared thermal facial image sequence registration process that will reduce the deviations caused by the unconscious head shaking of the subjects. A fixed image for registration is produced through the localization of the centroid of the eye region as well as image translation and rotation processes. Thermal image sequencing will then be automatically registered using the two-stage genetic algorithm proposed. The deviation before and after image registration will be demonstrated by image quality indices. The results show that the infrared thermal image sequence registration process proposed in this study is effective in localizing facial images accurately, which will be beneficial to the correlation analysis of psychological information related to the facial area.

The hidden KPI registration accuracy.

PubMed

Shorrosh, Paul

2011-09-01

Determining the registration accuracy rate is fundamental to improving revenue cycle key performance indicators. A registration quality assurance (QA) process allows errors to be corrected before bills are sent and helps registrars learn from their mistakes. Tools are available to help patient access staff who perform registration QA manually.

Using the online and offline change model to improve efficiency for fast-track patients in an emergency department.

PubMed

Docimo, A B; Pronovost, P J; Davis, R O; Concordia, E B; Gabrish, C M; Adessa, M S; Bessman, E

2000-09-01

In 1998 the emergency department (ED) Work Group at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (Baltimore) worked to reinvigorate the fast-track program within the ED to improve throughput for patients with minor illnesses and injuries who present for care. There had been two prior unsuccessful attempts to overhaul the fast-track process. The work group used a change model intended to improve both processes and relationships for complex organizational problems that span departments and functional units. Before the first work group meeting, the work group evaluated the institutional commitment to address the issue. The next step was to find data to fully understand the issues and establish a baseline for evaluating improvements--for example, patients with minor illnesses and injuries had excessively long total ED (registration to discharge) times: 5 hours 57 minutes on average for nonacute patients. ONLINE AND OFFLINE MEETINGS: The work group identified process problems, but relationship barriers became evident as the new processes were discussed. Yet offline work was needed to minimize the potential for online surprises. The work group leaders met separately in small groups with nursing staff, lab staff, x-ray staff, registrars, and physician's assistants to inform them of data, obtain input about process changes, and address any potential concerns. The group conducted four tests of change (using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles) to eliminate the root causes of slow turnaround identified previously. Total ED time decreased to an average of 1 hour 47 minutes; the practice of placing nonacute patients in fast track before all higher-acuity patients were seen gained acceptance. The percentage of higher-acuity patients sent to fast track decreased from 17% of all patients seen in fast track in January 1998 to 8.5% by February 1999. Patients with minor illnesses and injuries no longer had to wait behind higher-acuity patients just to be registered. The average wait for registration decreased from 42 minutes in January 1998 to 14 minutes in February 1999. Physician's assistant, nursing, and technician staff all report improved working relationships and feeling a team spirit. The offline component of the integrated model helped to improve organizational relationships and dialogue among team members, thereby facilitating the effectiveness of online efforts to improve processes. This model has also been applied to improve patient registration (revenue recovery) and the emergency transfer and admissions process.

Electronic Submission of Labels

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Pesticide registrants can provide draft and final labels to EPA electronically for our review as part of the pesticide registration process. The electronic submission of labels by registrants is voluntary but strongly encouraged.

Pesticide Registration Information System

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

PRISM provides an integrated, web portal for all pesticide related data, communications, registrations and transactions for OPP and its stakeholders, partners and customers. PRISM supports Strategic Goal 4 by automating pesticide registration processes.

Registration Review Process

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA will review each registered pesticide at least every 15 years to determine whether it continues to meet the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) standard for registration. There are currently 745 registration review cases.

A Parallel Nonrigid Registration Algorithm Based on B-Spline for Medical Images.

PubMed

Du, Xiaogang; Dang, Jianwu; Wang, Yangping; Wang, Song; Lei, Tao

2016-01-01

The nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline Free-Form Deformation (FFD) plays a key role and is widely applied in medical image processing due to the good flexibility and robustness. However, it requires a tremendous amount of computing time to obtain more accurate registration results especially for a large amount of medical image data. To address the issue, a parallel nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline is proposed in this paper. First, the Logarithm Squared Difference (LSD) is considered as the similarity metric in the B-spline registration algorithm to improve registration precision. After that, we create a parallel computing strategy and lookup tables (LUTs) to reduce the complexity of the B-spline registration algorithm. As a result, the computing time of three time-consuming steps including B-splines interpolation, LSD computation, and the analytic gradient computation of LSD, is efficiently reduced, for the B-spline registration algorithm employs the Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient (NCG) optimization method. Experimental results of registration quality and execution efficiency on the large amount of medical images show that our algorithm achieves a better registration accuracy in terms of the differences between the best deformation fields and ground truth and a speedup of 17 times over the single-threaded CPU implementation due to the powerful parallel computing ability of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

Influence of image registration on apparent diffusion coefficient images computed from free-breathing diffusion MR images of the abdomen.

PubMed

Guyader, Jean-Marie; Bernardin, Livia; Douglas, Naomi H M; Poot, Dirk H J; Niessen, Wiro J; Klein, Stefan

2015-08-01

To evaluate the influence of image registration on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) images obtained from abdominal free-breathing diffusion-weighted MR images (DW-MRIs). A comprehensive pipeline based on automatic three-dimensional nonrigid image registrations is developed to compensate for misalignments in DW-MRI datasets obtained from five healthy subjects scanned twice. Motion is corrected both within each image and between images in a time series. ADC distributions are compared with and without registration in two abdominal volumes of interest (VOIs). The effects of interpolations and Gaussian blurring as alternative strategies to reduce motion artifacts are also investigated. Among the four considered scenarios (no processing, interpolation, blurring and registration), registration yields the best alignment scores. Median ADCs vary according to the chosen scenario: for the considered datasets, ADCs obtained without processing are 30% higher than with registration. Registration improves voxelwise reproducibility at least by a factor of 2 and decreases uncertainty (Fréchet-Cramér-Rao lower bound). Registration provides similar improvements in reproducibility and uncertainty as acquiring four times more data. Patient motion during image acquisition leads to misaligned DW-MRIs and inaccurate ADCs, which can be addressed using automatic registration. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

75 FR 71376 - Simplified Network Application Processing System, On-Line Registration and Account Maintenance

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-23

...-02] RIN 0694-AE98 Simplified Network Application Processing System, On-Line Registration and Account...'') electronically via BIS's Simplified Network Application Processing (SNAP-R) system. Currently, parties must... Network Applications Processing System (SNAP-R) in October 2006. The SNAP-R system provides a Web based...

Registration factors that limit international mobility of people holding physiotherapy qualifications: A systematic review.

PubMed

Foo, Jonathan S; Storr, Michael; Maloney, Stephen

2016-06-01

There is no enforced international standardisation of the physiotherapy profession. Thus, registration is used in many countries to maintain standards of care and to protect the public. However, registration may also limit international workforce mobility. What is known about the professional registration factors that may limit the international mobility of people holding physiotherapy qualifications? Systematic review using an electronic database search and hand searching of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy and International Network of Physiotherapy Regulatory Authorities websites. Analysis was conducted using thematic analysis. 10 articles and eight websites were included from the search strategy. Data is representative of high-income English speaking countries. Four themes emerged regarding limitations to professional mobility: practice context, qualification recognition, verification of fitness to practice, and incidental limitations arising from the registration process. Professional mobility is limited by differences in physiotherapy education programmes, resulting in varying standards of competency. Thus, it is often necessary to verify clinical competencies through assessments, as well as determining professional attributes and ability to apply competencies in a different practice context, as part of the registration process. There has been little evaluation of registration practices, and at present, there is a need to re-evaluate current registration processes to ensure they are efficient and effective, thereby enhancing workforce mobility. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the use of registration stickers.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-04-01

This research evaluated the potential costs and benefits of doing away with license plate registration stickers as part : of the registration renewal process for Pennsylvania. The research consisted of a comprehensive literature review, a : survey of...

A combined registration and finite element analysis method for fast estimation of intraoperative brain shift; phantom and animal model study.

PubMed

Mohammadi, Amrollah; Ahmadian, Alireza; Rabbani, Shahram; Fattahi, Ehsan; Shirani, Shapour

2017-12-01

Finite element models for estimation of intraoperative brain shift suffer from huge computational cost. In these models, image registration and finite element analysis are two time-consuming processes. The proposed method is an improved version of our previously developed Finite Element Drift (FED) registration algorithm. In this work the registration process is combined with the finite element analysis. In the Combined FED (CFED), the deformation of whole brain mesh is iteratively calculated by geometrical extension of a local load vector which is computed by FED. While the processing time of the FED-based method including registration and finite element analysis was about 70 s, the computation time of the CFED was about 3.2 s. The computational cost of CFED is almost 50% less than similar state of the art brain shift estimators based on finite element models. The proposed combination of registration and structural analysis can make the calculation of brain deformation much faster. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Registration of heat capacity mapping mission day and night images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watson, K.; Hummer-Miller, S.; Sawatzky, D. L.

1982-01-01

Registration of thermal images is complicated by distinctive differences in the appearance of day and night features needed as control in the registration process. These changes are unlike those that occur between Landsat scenes and pose unique constraints. Experimentation with several potentially promising techniques has led to selection of a fairly simple scheme for registration of data from the experimental thermal satellite HCMM using an affine transformation. Two registration examples are provided.

Registration of PET and CT images based on multiresolution gradient of mutual information demons algorithm for positioning esophageal cancer patients.

PubMed

Jin, Shuo; Li, Dengwang; Wang, Hongjun; Yin, Yong

2013-01-07

Accurate registration of 18F-FDG PET (positron emission tomography) and CT (computed tomography) images has important clinical significance in radiation oncology. PET and CT images are acquired from (18)F-FDG PET/CT scanner, but the two acquisition processes are separate and take a long time. As a result, there are position errors in global and deformable errors in local caused by respiratory movement or organ peristalsis. The purpose of this work was to implement and validate a deformable CT to PET image registration method in esophageal cancer to eventually facilitate accurate positioning the tumor target on CT, and improve the accuracy of radiation therapy. Global registration was firstly utilized to preprocess position errors between PET and CT images, achieving the purpose of aligning these two images on the whole. Demons algorithm, based on optical flow field, has the features of fast process speed and high accuracy, and the gradient of mutual information-based demons (GMI demons) algorithm adds an additional external force based on the gradient of mutual information (GMI) between two images, which is suitable for multimodality images registration. In this paper, GMI demons algorithm was used to achieve local deformable registration of PET and CT images, which can effectively reduce errors between internal organs. In addition, to speed up the registration process, maintain its robustness, and avoid the local extremum, multiresolution image pyramid structure was used before deformable registration. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing cases with esophageal cancer, the registration scheme proposed in this paper can improve registration accuracy and speed, which is helpful for precisely positioning tumor target and developing the radiation treatment planning in clinical radiation therapy application.

Registration of PET and CT images based on multiresolution gradient of mutual information demons algorithm for positioning esophageal cancer patients

PubMed Central

Jin, Shuo; Li, Dengwang; Yin, Yong

2013-01-01

Accurate registration of  18F−FDG PET (positron emission tomography) and CT (computed tomography) images has important clinical significance in radiation oncology. PET and CT images are acquired from  18F−FDG PET/CT scanner, but the two acquisition processes are separate and take a long time. As a result, there are position errors in global and deformable errors in local caused by respiratory movement or organ peristalsis. The purpose of this work was to implement and validate a deformable CT to PET image registration method in esophageal cancer to eventually facilitate accurate positioning the tumor target on CT, and improve the accuracy of radiation therapy. Global registration was firstly utilized to preprocess position errors between PET and CT images, achieving the purpose of aligning these two images on the whole. Demons algorithm, based on optical flow field, has the features of fast process speed and high accuracy, and the gradient of mutual information‐based demons (GMI demons) algorithm adds an additional external force based on the gradient of mutual information (GMI) between two images, which is suitable for multimodality images registration. In this paper, GMI demons algorithm was used to achieve local deformable registration of PET and CT images, which can effectively reduce errors between internal organs. In addition, to speed up the registration process, maintain its robustness, and avoid the local extremum, multiresolution image pyramid structure was used before deformable registration. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing cases with esophageal cancer, the registration scheme proposed in this paper can improve registration accuracy and speed, which is helpful for precisely positioning tumor target and developing the radiation treatment planning in clinical radiation therapy application. PACS numbers: 87.57.nj, 87.57.Q‐, 87.57.uk PMID:23318381

Mammogram registration using the Cauchy-Navier spline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirth, Michael A.; Choi, Christopher

2001-07-01

The process of comparative analysis involves inspecting mammograms for characteristic signs of potential cancer by comparing various analogous mammograms. Factors such as the deformable behavior of the breast, changes in breast positioning, and the amount/geometry of compression may contribute to spatial differences between corresponding structures in corresponding mammograms, thereby significantly complicating comparative analysis. Mammogram registration is a process whereby spatial differences between mammograms can be reduced. Presented in this paper is a nonrigid approach to matching corresponding mammograms based on a physical registration model. Many of the earliest approaches to mammogram registration used spatial transformations which were innately rigid or affine in nature. More recently algorithms have incorporated radial basis functions such as the Thin-Plate Spline to match mammograms. The approach presented here focuses on the use of the Cauchy-Navier Spline, a deformable registration model which offers approximate nonrigid registration. The utility of the Cauchy-Navier Spline is illustrated by matching both temporal and bilateral mammograms.

Plant-Incorporated Protectants Data Symposium

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA held a public symposium on data that support registration of plant incorporated protectants (PIPs). It provided firsthand information on the scope of the scientific review process regarding the safety of PIPs and on the pesticide registration process.

Range image registration based on hash map and moth-flame optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Li; Ge, Baozhen; Chen, Lei

2018-03-01

Over the past decade, evolutionary algorithms (EAs) have been introduced to solve range image registration problems because of their robustness and high precision. However, EA-based range image registration algorithms are time-consuming. To reduce the computational time, an EA-based range image registration algorithm using hash map and moth-flame optimization is proposed. In this registration algorithm, a hash map is used to avoid over-exploitation in registration process. Additionally, we present a search equation that is better at exploration and a restart mechanism to avoid being trapped in local minima. We compare the proposed registration algorithm with the registration algorithms using moth-flame optimization and several state-of-the-art EA-based registration algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a lower computational cost than other algorithms and achieves similar registration precision.

Review Process for the Registration and Use Directions for Floor Wipe Towelette Products

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This guidance provides Antimicrobials Division staff with guidance related to the registration requirements and use directions for presaturated/impregnated floor wipe towelette products. This document will be used for new and existing wipe registrations.

A Parallel Nonrigid Registration Algorithm Based on B-Spline for Medical Images

PubMed Central

Wang, Yangping; Wang, Song

2016-01-01

The nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline Free-Form Deformation (FFD) plays a key role and is widely applied in medical image processing due to the good flexibility and robustness. However, it requires a tremendous amount of computing time to obtain more accurate registration results especially for a large amount of medical image data. To address the issue, a parallel nonrigid registration algorithm based on B-spline is proposed in this paper. First, the Logarithm Squared Difference (LSD) is considered as the similarity metric in the B-spline registration algorithm to improve registration precision. After that, we create a parallel computing strategy and lookup tables (LUTs) to reduce the complexity of the B-spline registration algorithm. As a result, the computing time of three time-consuming steps including B-splines interpolation, LSD computation, and the analytic gradient computation of LSD, is efficiently reduced, for the B-spline registration algorithm employs the Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient (NCG) optimization method. Experimental results of registration quality and execution efficiency on the large amount of medical images show that our algorithm achieves a better registration accuracy in terms of the differences between the best deformation fields and ground truth and a speedup of 17 times over the single-threaded CPU implementation due to the powerful parallel computing ability of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). PMID:28053653

Application modeling ipv6 (internet protocol version 6) on e-id card for identification number for effectiveness and efficiency of registration process identification of population

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pardede, A. M. H.; Maulita, Y.; Buaton, R.

2018-03-01

When someone wants to be registered in an institution such as Birth Certificate, School, Higher Education, e-ID card, Tax, BPJS, Bank, Driving License, Passport and others then have to register and do registration one by one and have registration number or account respectively agency. It may be said that everyone is bothered with the registration process, from the moment of birth must be registered to be registered as a resident, to enter the school must also registration, it is considered ineffective and efficient because one must continue to register one by one and there is repetition of ownership registration number which vary each agency. Seeing these problems need to find a solution or attempt how to keep the affairs of registration is not repetitive and quite once and the number applies to all agencies. The presence of the latest technology that IPv6 brings opportunities for the efficiency and effectiveness of the registration system. The method used in this research is the exploration and modeling of system development with NDLC (Network Development Life Cycle) to produce a model to build IPv6 implementation on e-ID card. The results of the study will show that the public has one registration number.

Accuracy of computer-assisted navigation: significant augmentation by facial recognition software.

PubMed

Glicksman, Jordan T; Reger, Christine; Parasher, Arjun K; Kennedy, David W

2017-09-01

Over the past 20 years, image guidance navigation has been used with increasing frequency as an adjunct during sinus and skull base surgery. These devices commonly utilize surface registration, where varying pressure of the registration probe and loss of contact with the face during the skin tracing process can lead to registration inaccuracies, and the number of registration points incorporated is necessarily limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of novel facial recognition software for image guidance registration. Consecutive adults undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) were prospectively studied. Patients underwent image guidance registration via both conventional surface registration and facial recognition software. The accuracy of both registration processes were measured at the head of the middle turbinate (MTH), middle turbinate axilla (MTA), anterior wall of sphenoid sinus (SS), and nasal tip (NT). Forty-five patients were included in this investigation. Facial recognition was accurate to within a mean of 0.47 mm at the MTH, 0.33 mm at the MTA, 0.39 mm at the SS, and 0.36 mm at the NT. Facial recognition was more accurate than surface registration at the MTH by an average of 0.43 mm (p = 0.002), at the MTA by an average of 0.44 mm (p < 0.001), and at the SS by an average of 0.40 mm (p < 0.001). The integration of facial recognition software did not adversely affect registration time. In this prospective study, automated facial recognition software significantly improved the accuracy of image guidance registration when compared to conventional surface registration. © 2017 ARS-AAOA, LLC.

A fast and fully automatic registration approach based on point features for multi-source remote-sensing images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Le; Zhang, Dengrong; Holden, Eun-Jung

2008-07-01

Automatic registration of multi-source remote-sensing images is a difficult task as it must deal with the varying illuminations and resolutions of the images, different perspectives and the local deformations within the images. This paper proposes a fully automatic and fast non-rigid image registration technique that addresses those issues. The proposed technique performs a pre-registration process that coarsely aligns the input image to the reference image by automatically detecting their matching points by using the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method and an affine transformation model. Once the coarse registration is completed, it performs a fine-scale registration process based on a piecewise linear transformation technique using feature points that are detected by the Harris corner detector. The registration process firstly finds in succession, tie point pairs between the input and the reference image by detecting Harris corners and applying a cross-matching strategy based on a wavelet pyramid for a fast search speed. Tie point pairs with large errors are pruned by an error-checking step. The input image is then rectified by using triangulated irregular networks (TINs) to deal with irregular local deformations caused by the fluctuation of the terrain. For each triangular facet of the TIN, affine transformations are estimated and applied for rectification. Experiments with Quickbird, SPOT5, SPOT4, TM remote-sensing images of the Hangzhou area in China demonstrate the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed technique for multi-source remote-sensing image registration.

Report: EPA Did Not Properly Process a Hospital Disinfectant and Sanitizer Registration

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Report #2007-P-00018, March 29, 2007. EPA’s Office of Pesticides Program-Antimicrobials Division (OPP-AD) did not properly process registration for an antimicrobial pesticide that was the subject of our review.

Research based on the SoPC platform of feature-based image registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Yue-dong; Wang, Zhi-hui

2015-12-01

This paper focuses on the study of implementing feature-based image registration by System on a Programmable Chip (SoPC) hardware platform. We solidify the image registration algorithm on the FPGA chip, in which embedded soft core processor Nios II can speed up the image processing system. In this way, we can make image registration technology get rid of the PC. And, consequently, this kind of technology will be got an extensive use. The experiment result indicates that our system shows stable performance, particularly in terms of matching processing which noise immunity is good. And feature points of images show a reasonable distribution.

MRI signal intensity based B-spline nonrigid registration for pre- and intraoperative imaging during prostate brachytherapy.

PubMed

Oguro, Sota; Tokuda, Junichi; Elhawary, Haytham; Haker, Steven; Kikinis, Ron; Tempany, Clare M C; Hata, Nobuhiko

2009-11-01

To apply an intensity-based nonrigid registration algorithm to MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy clinical data and to assess its accuracy. A nonrigid registration of preoperative MRI to intraoperative MRI images was carried out in 16 cases using a Basis-Spline algorithm in a retrospective manner. The registration was assessed qualitatively by experts' visual inspection and quantitatively by measuring the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) for total gland (TG), central gland (CG), and peripheral zone (PZ), the mutual information (MI) metric, and the fiducial registration error (FRE) between corresponding anatomical landmarks for both the nonrigid and a rigid registration method. All 16 cases were successfully registered in less than 5 min. After the nonrigid registration, DSC values for TG, CG, PZ were 0.91, 0.89, 0.79, respectively, the MI metric was -0.19 +/- 0.07 and FRE presented a value of 2.3 +/- 1.8 mm. All the metrics were significantly better than in the case of rigid registration, as determined by one-sided t-tests. The intensity-based nonrigid registration method using clinical data was demonstrated to be feasible and showed statistically improved metrics when compare to only rigid registration. The method is a valuable tool to integrate pre- and intraoperative images for brachytherapy.

Non-rigid CT/CBCT to CBCT registration for online external beam radiotherapy guidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zachiu, Cornel; de Senneville, Baudouin Denis; Tijssen, Rob H. N.; Kotte, Alexis N. T. J.; Houweling, Antonetta C.; Kerkmeijer, Linda G. W.; Lagendijk, Jan J. W.; Moonen, Chrit T. W.; Ries, Mario

2018-01-01

Image-guided external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) allows radiation dose deposition with a high degree of accuracy and precision. Guidance is usually achieved by estimating the displacements, via image registration, between cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and computed tomography (CT) images acquired at different stages of the therapy. The resulting displacements are then used to reposition the patient such that the location of the tumor at the time of treatment matches its position during planning. Moreover, ongoing research aims to use CBCT-CT image registration for online plan adaptation. However, CBCT images are usually acquired using a small number of x-ray projections and/or low beam intensities. This often leads to the images being subject to low contrast, low signal-to-noise ratio and artifacts, which ends-up hampering the image registration process. Previous studies addressed this by integrating additional image processing steps into the registration procedure. However, these steps are usually designed for particular image acquisition schemes, therefore limiting their use on a case-by-case basis. In the current study we address CT to CBCT and CBCT to CBCT registration by the means of the recently proposed EVolution registration algorithm. Contrary to previous approaches, EVolution does not require the integration of additional image processing steps in the registration scheme. Moreover, the algorithm requires a low number of input parameters, is easily parallelizable and provides an elastic deformation on a point-by-point basis. Results have shown that relative to a pure CT-based registration, the intrinsic artifacts present in typical CBCT images only have a sub-millimeter impact on the accuracy and precision of the estimated deformation. In addition, the algorithm has low computational requirements, which are compatible with online image-based guidance of EBRT treatments.

Research on registration algorithm for check seal verification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shuang; Liu, Tiegen

2008-03-01

Nowadays seals play an important role in China. With the development of social economy, the traditional method of manual check seal identification can't meet the need s of banking transactions badly. This paper focus on pre-processing and registration algorithm for check seal verification using theory of image processing and pattern recognition. First of all, analyze the complex characteristics of check seals. To eliminate the difference of producing conditions and the disturbance caused by background and writing in check image, many methods are used in the pre-processing of check seal verification, such as color components transformation, linearity transform to gray-scale image, medium value filter, Otsu, close calculations and labeling algorithm of mathematical morphology. After the processes above, the good binary seal image can be obtained. On the basis of traditional registration algorithm, a double-level registration method including rough and precise registration method is proposed. The deflection angle of precise registration method can be precise to 0.1°. This paper introduces the concepts of difference inside and difference outside and use the percent of difference inside and difference outside to judge whether the seal is real or fake. The experimental results of a mass of check seals are satisfied. It shows that the methods and algorithmic presented have good robustness to noise sealing conditions and satisfactory tolerance of difference within class.

EVALUATION OF REGISTRATION, COMPRESSION AND CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHMS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jayroe, R. R.

1994-01-01

Several types of algorithms are generally used to process digital imagery such as Landsat data. The most commonly used algorithms perform the task of registration, compression, and classification. Because there are different techniques available for performing registration, compression, and classification, imagery data users need a rationale for selecting a particular approach to meet their particular needs. This collection of registration, compression, and classification algorithms was developed so that different approaches could be evaluated and the best approach for a particular application determined. Routines are included for six registration algorithms, six compression algorithms, and two classification algorithms. The package also includes routines for evaluating the effects of processing on the image data. This collection of routines should be useful to anyone using or developing image processing software. Registration of image data involves the geometrical alteration of the imagery. Registration routines available in the evaluation package include image magnification, mapping functions, partitioning, map overlay, and data interpolation. The compression of image data involves reducing the volume of data needed for a given image. Compression routines available in the package include adaptive differential pulse code modulation, two-dimensional transforms, clustering, vector reduction, and picture segmentation. Classification of image data involves analyzing the uncompressed or compressed image data to produce inventories and maps of areas of similar spectral properties within a scene. The classification routines available include a sequential linear technique and a maximum likelihood technique. The choice of the appropriate evaluation criteria is quite important in evaluating the image processing functions. The user is therefore given a choice of evaluation criteria with which to investigate the available image processing functions. All of the available evaluation criteria basically compare the observed results with the expected results. For the image reconstruction processes of registration and compression, the expected results are usually the original data or some selected characteristics of the original data. For classification processes the expected result is the ground truth of the scene. Thus, the comparison process consists of determining what changes occur in processing, where the changes occur, how much change occurs, and the amplitude of the change. The package includes evaluation routines for performing such comparisons as average uncertainty, average information transfer, chi-square statistics, multidimensional histograms, and computation of contingency matrices. This collection of routines is written in FORTRAN IV for batch execution and has been implemented on an IBM 360 computer with a central memory requirement of approximately 662K of 8 bit bytes. This collection of image processing and evaluation routines was developed in 1979.

78 FR 31945 - Clinical Development Programs for Opioid Conversion; Public Workshop; Request for Comments

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-28

... gaps in existing knowledge regarding equianalgesic opioid conversion in clinical practice, to develop a... organization as well as the total number of participants based on space limitations. Registrants will receive... be based on space availability. If registration reaches maximum capacity, FDA will post a notice...

Student Evaluation of Summer Orientation, Learning, Advising, and Registration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, David F.

Incoming freshmen at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington completed evaluations of their two-day orientation. The Orientation Evaluation is administered to freshmen who have chosen to participate in one of three sessions: Summer Orientation, Learning, Advising, and Registration sessions (SOLAR). A total of 166 students completed the…

Real-time CT-video registration for continuous endoscopic guidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Merritt, Scott A.; Rai, Lav; Higgins, William E.

2006-03-01

Previous research has shown that CT-image-based guidance could be useful for the bronchoscopic assessment of lung cancer. This research drew upon the registration of bronchoscopic video images to CT-based endoluminal renderings of the airway tree. The proposed methods either were restricted to discrete single-frame registration, which took several seconds to complete, or required non-real-time buffering and processing of video sequences. We have devised a fast 2D/3D image registration method that performs single-frame CT-Video registration in under 1/15th of a second. This allows the method to be used for real-time registration at full video frame rates without significantly altering the physician's behavior. The method achieves its speed through a gradient-based optimization method that allows most of the computation to be performed off-line. During live registration, the optimization iteratively steps toward the locally optimal viewpoint at which a CT-based endoluminal view is most similar to a current bronchoscopic video frame. After an initial registration to begin the process (generally done in the trachea for bronchoscopy), subsequent registrations are performed in real-time on each incoming video frame. As each new bronchoscopic video frame becomes available, the current optimization is initialized using the previous frame's optimization result, allowing continuous guidance to proceed without manual re-initialization. Tests were performed using both synthetic and pre-recorded bronchoscopic video. The results show that the method is robust to initialization errors, that registration accuracy is high, and that continuous registration can proceed on real-time video at >15 frames per sec. with minimal user-intervention.

Hierarchical and successive approximate registration of the non-rigid medical image based on thin-plate splines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Jinyan; Li, Li; Yang, Yunfeng

2017-06-01

The hierarchical and successive approximate registration method of non-rigid medical image based on the thin-plate splines is proposed in the paper. There are two major novelties in the proposed method. First, the hierarchical registration based on Wavelet transform is used. The approximate image of Wavelet transform is selected as the registered object. Second, the successive approximation registration method is used to accomplish the non-rigid medical images registration, i.e. the local regions of the couple images are registered roughly based on the thin-plate splines, then, the current rough registration result is selected as the object to be registered in the following registration procedure. Experiments show that the proposed method is effective in the registration process of the non-rigid medical images.

Non-rigid ultrasound image registration using generalized relaxation labeling process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Jong-Ha; Seong, Yeong Kyeong; Park, MoonHo; Woo, Kyoung-Gu; Ku, Jeonghun; Park, Hee-Jun

2013-03-01

This research proposes a novel non-rigid registration method for ultrasound images. The most predominant anatomical features in medical images are tissue boundaries, which appear as edges. In ultrasound images, however, other features can be identified as well due to the specular reflections that appear as bright lines superimposed on the ideal edge location. In this work, an image's local phase information (via the frequency domain) is used to find the ideal edge location. The generalized relaxation labeling process is then formulated to align the feature points extracted from the ideal edge location. In this work, the original relaxation labeling method was generalized by taking n compatibility coefficient values to improve non-rigid registration performance. This contextual information combined with a relaxation labeling process is used to search for a correspondence. Then the transformation is calculated by the thin plate spline (TPS) model. These two processes are iterated until the optimal correspondence and transformation are found. We have tested our proposed method and the state-of-the-art algorithms with synthetic data and bladder ultrasound images of in vivo human subjects. Experiments show that the proposed method improves registration performance significantly, as compared to other state-of-the-art non-rigid registration algorithms.

Quality assurance for a six degrees-of-freedom table using a 3D printed phantom.

PubMed

Woods, Kyle; Ayan, Ahmet S; Woollard, Jeffrey; Gupta, Nilendu

2018-01-01

To establish a streamlined end-to-end test of a 6 degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) robotic table using a 3D printed phantom for periodic quality assurance. A 3D printed phantom was fabricated with translational and rotational offsets and an imbedded central ball-bearing (BB). The phantom underwent each step of the radiation therapy process: CT simulation in a straight orientation, plan generation using the treatment planning software, setup to offset marks at the linac, registration and corrected 6DoF table adjustments via hidden target test, delivery of a Winston-Lutz test to the BB, and verification of table positioning via field and laser lights. The registration values, maximum total displacement of the combined Winston-Lutz fields, and a pass or fail criterion of the laser and field lights were recorded. The quality assurance process for each of the three linacs were performed for the first 30 days. Within a 95% confidence interval, the overall uncertainty values for both translation and rotation were below 1.0 mm and 0.5° for each linac respectively. When combining the registration values and other uncertainties for all three linacs, the average deviations were within 2.0 mm and 1.0° of the designed translation and rotation offsets of the 3D print respectively. For all three linacs, the maximum total deviation for the Winston-Lutz test did not exceed 1.0 mm. Laser and light field verification was within tolerance every day for all three linacs given the latest guidance documentation for table repositioning. The 3D printer is capable of accurately fabricating a quality assurance phantom for 6DoF positioning verification. The end-to-end workflow allows for a more efficient test of the 6DoF mechanics while including other important tests needed for routine quality assurance. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

The perceived impact of the European registration system for genetic counsellors and nurses.

PubMed

Paneque, Milena; Moldovan, Ramona; Cordier, Christophe; Serra-Juhé, Clara; Feroce, Irene; Pasalodos, Sara; Haquet, Emmanuelle; Lambert, Debby; Bjørnevoll, Inga; Skirton, Heather

2017-09-01

The aim of the European Board of Medical Genetics has been to develop and promote academic and professional standards necessary in order to provide competent genetic counselling services. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of the European registration system for genetic nurses and counsellors from the perspectives of those professionals who have registered. Registration system was launched in 2013. A cross-sectional, online survey was used to explore the motivations and experiences of those applying for, and the effect of registration on their career. Fifty-five Genetic Nurses and Counsellors are registered till now, from them, thirty-three agreed to participate on this study. The main motivations for registering were for recognition of their work value and competence (30.3%); due to the absence of a registration system in their own country (15.2%) and the possibility of obtaining a European/international certification (27.3%), while 27.3% of respondents registered to support recognition of the genetic counselling profession. Some participants valued the registration process as an educational activity in its own right, while the majority indicated the greatest impact of the registration process was on their clinical practice. The results confirm that registrants value the opportunity to both confirm their own competence and advance the genetic counselling profession in Europe.

Serious adverse events and compensation in registration trials: a review of data from a Japanese university hospital

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Clinical trials leading to regulatory approval, or registration trials, play a central role in the development of drugs and medical devices. The contribution of support staff, such as the clinical research coordinator (CRC) and administrative officers, in registration trials is now widely recognized. Attending to serious adverse events is an important duty of the CRC and investigators alike, and managing these complications and compensation constitutes a key responsibility. We retrospectively examined the frequency of serious adverse events and compensation events reported from 2007 through 2011 at Tokushima University Hospital, an academic hospital in rural Japan. We present herein the results of our analysis. Results Over the five-year period, 284 subjects participating in 106 registration trials experienced a total of 43 serious adverse events, and eight compensation events were documented. Among the serious adverse events, 35 (81.4%) were considered not related to the investigational drug, and 17 (39.5%) resulted in withdrawal of the study drug. Patients with malignant diseases experienced serious adverse events significantly more frequently compared to those with non-malignant diseases (28.3% versus 8.2%, respectively; P < 0.01). Conclusions The CRC should be vigilant for serious adverse events in oncology clinical trials due to the generally higher frequency of these complications in subjects with malignancy. However, on an individual basis, the CRC may be seldom involved in the process for compensating serious adverse events. Therefore, the CRC’s ability to share such experiences may serve as an opportunity for educating clinical trial support staff at the study site as well as those at other sites. However, further study is warranted to determine the role of the clinical trial support staff in optimizing methods for managing adverse events requiring compensation in registration trials. PMID:24742228

Image Registration Workshop Proceedings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

LeMoigne, Jacqueline (Editor)

1997-01-01

Automatic image registration has often been considered as a preliminary step for higher-level processing, such as object recognition or data fusion. But with the unprecedented amounts of data which are being and will continue to be generated by newly developed sensors, the very topic of automatic image registration has become and important research topic. This workshop presents a collection of very high quality work which has been grouped in four main areas: (1) theoretical aspects of image registration; (2) applications to satellite imagery; (3) applications to medical imagery; and (4) image registration for computer vision research.

78 FR 76187 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Exchange Programs Alumni Web Site Registration

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-16

...: Exchange Programs Alumni Web Site Registration ACTION: Notice of request for public comment and submission... Information Collection: Exchange Programs Alumni Web site Registration. OMB Control Number: 1405-0192. Type of... proposed collection: The International Exchange Alumni Web site requires information to process users...

9 CFR 590.650 - Exempted plant registration number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Exempted plant registration number. 590.650 Section 590.650 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Egg Products Plants § 590.650 Exempted plant registration number. Each plant processing egg products...

9 CFR 590.650 - Exempted plant registration number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Exempted plant registration number. 590.650 Section 590.650 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Egg Products Plants § 590.650 Exempted plant registration number. Each plant processing egg products...

9 CFR 590.650 - Exempted plant registration number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Exempted plant registration number. 590.650 Section 590.650 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Egg Products Plants § 590.650 Exempted plant registration number. Each plant processing egg products...

A Framework for a WAP-Based Course Registration System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AL-Bastaki, Yousif; Al-Ajeeli, Abid

2005-01-01

This paper describes a WAP-based course registration system designed and implemented to facilitating the process of students' registration at Bahrain University. The framework will support many opportunities for applying WAP based technology to many services such as wireless commerce, cashless payment... and location-based services. The paper…

76 FR 30092 - Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information Collection; Select Agent Registration

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-24

...] Notice of Request for Extension of Approval of an Information Collection; Select Agent Registration... . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information regarding the select agent registration process... Dr. Charles Divan, Branch Chief, Agriculture Select Agent Program, RIPPS, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road...

Effect of iris registration on outcomes of FEMTOLASIK for myopia and myopic astigmatism.

PubMed

Ghoreishi, Mohammad; Beni, Zahra Naderi; Beni, Afsaneh Naderi; Kianersi, Farzan

2017-09-05

To compare the visual and refractive outcomes after FEMTOLASIK with and without iris registration. In this randomized, prospective, comparative, contralateral eye study, 118 eyes of 59 patients with myopia and myopic astigmatism underwent LASIK using the Femto LDV femtosecond laser (160 µm) and the MEL80 with or without iris registration. For each patient, iris registration FEMTOLASIK was performed on one eye and non-iris registration FEMTOLASIK was performed on the other eye, assigned at random. Patients were evaluated before and 12 months. Uncorrected visual acuity, best-corrected visual acuity, manifest refraction, contrast sensitivity, and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) were evaluated. At 12 months, the mean UDVA was 0.002 ± 0.07 logMAR (20/19) in iris registration eyes and 0.00 ± 0.06 logMAR (20/24) in non-iris registration eyes (P = 0.9). 61% of iris registration eyes and 71.2% of non-iris registration eyes achieved a UDVA of 20/20 or better (P = 0.31); 98.3% of eyes with the iris registration FEMTOLASIK and 94.9% with the non-iris registration FEMTOLASIK were within ±0.50 D from emmetropia (P = 0.71). No statistically significant difference was found in postoperative contrast sensitivity between groups at 3, 6, 12, or 18 cycles/degree (P > 0.05). There was significant increase in total HOA root mean square in two groups. The mean error magnitude of surgically induced astigmatism 12 months postoperatively was -0.33 in iris registration eyes and -0.24 in the non-iris registration eyes (P = 0.36). FEMTOLASIK with and without iris registration provides similar results in myopic and myopic astigmatism patients.

A Competitive Benchmarking Study of Noncredit Program Administration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alstete, Jeffrey W.

1996-01-01

A benchmarking project to measure administrative processes and financial ratios received 57 usable replies from 300 noncredit continuing education programs. Programs with strong financial surpluses were identified and their processes benchmarked (including response to inquiries, registrants, registrant/staff ratio, new courses, class size,…

76 FR 823 - Registration of Municipal Advisors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-06

... Reference Room, 100 F Street, NE., Washington, DC 20549, on official business days between the hours of 10 a... Municipal Advisor B. Approval or Denial of Registration C. Proposed Rule 15Ba1-7: Books and Records to be.... Outside Counsel 7. Maintenance of Books and Records 8. Total Burden E. Collections of Information Are...

MRI Signal Intensity Based B-Spline Nonrigid Registration for Pre- and Intraoperative Imaging During Prostate Brachytherapy

PubMed Central

Oguro, Sota; Tokuda, Junichi; Elhawary, Haytham; Haker, Steven; Kikinis, Ron; Tempany, Clare M.C.; Hata, Nobuhiko

2009-01-01

Purpose To apply an intensity-based nonrigid registration algorithm to MRI-guided prostate brachytherapy clinical data and to assess its accuracy. Materials and Methods A nonrigid registration of preoperative MRI to intraoperative MRI images was carried out in 16 cases using a Basis-Spline algorithm in a retrospective manner. The registration was assessed qualitatively by experts’ visual inspection and quantitatively by measuring the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) for total gland (TG), central gland (CG), and peripheral zone (PZ), the mutual information (MI) metric, and the fiducial registration error (FRE) between corresponding anatomical landmarks for both the nonrigid and a rigid registration method. Results All 16 cases were successfully registered in less than 5 min. After the nonrigid registration, DSC values for TG, CG, PZ were 0.91, 0.89, 0.79, respectively, the MI metric was −0.19 ± 0.07 and FRE presented a value of 2.3 ± 1.8 mm. All the metrics were significantly better than in the case of rigid registration, as determined by one-sided t-tests. Conclusion The intensity-based nonrigid registration method using clinical data was demonstrated to be feasible and showed statistically improved metrics when compare to only rigid registration. The method is a valuable tool to integrate pre- and intraoperative images for brachytherapy. PMID:19856437

Video registration of trauma team performance in the emergency department: the results of a 2-year analysis in a Level 1 trauma center.

PubMed

Lubbert, Pieter H W; Kaasschieter, Edgar G; Hoorntje, Lidewij E; Leenen, Loek P H

2009-12-01

Trauma teams responsible for the first response to patients with multiple injuries upon arrival in a hospital consist of medical specialists or resident physicians. We hypothesized that 24-hour video registration in the trauma room would allow for precise evaluation of team functioning and deviations from Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) protocols. We analyzed all video registrations of trauma patients who visited the emergency room of a Level I trauma center in the Netherlands between September 1, 2000, and September 1, 2002. Analysis was performed with a score list based on ATLS protocols. From a total of 1,256 trauma room presentations, we found a total of 387 video registrations suitable for analysis. The majority of patients had an injury severity score lower than 17 (264 patients), whereas 123 patients were classified as multiple injuries (injury severity score >or=17). Errors in team organization (omission of prehospital report, no evident leadership, unorganized resuscitation, not working according to protocol, and no continued supervision of the patient) lead to significantly more deviations in the treatment than when team organization was uncomplicated. Video registration of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures by a multidisciplinary trauma team facilitates an accurate analysis of possible deviations from protocol. In addition to identifying technical errors, the role of the team leader can clearly be analyzed and related to team actions. Registration strongly depends on availability of video tapes, timely started registration, and hardware functioning. The results from this study were used to develop a training program for trauma teams in our hospital that specifically focuses on the team leader's functioning.

MREG V1.1 : a multi-scale image registration algorithm for SAR applications.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eichel, Paul H.

2013-08-01

MREG V1.1 is the sixth generation SAR image registration algorithm developed by the Signal Processing&Technology Department for Synthetic Aperture Radar applications. Like its predecessor algorithm REGI, it employs a powerful iterative multi-scale paradigm to achieve the competing goals of sub-pixel registration accuracy and the ability to handle large initial offsets. Since it is not model based, it allows for high fidelity tracking of spatially varying terrain-induced misregistration. Since it does not rely on image domain phase, it is equally adept at coherent and noncoherent image registration. This document provides a brief history of the registration processors developed by Dept. 5962more » leading up to MREG V1.1, a full description of the signal processing steps involved in the algorithm, and a user's manual with application specific recommendations for CCD, TwoColor MultiView, and SAR stereoscopy.« less

A hybrid patient-specific biomechanical model based image registration method for the motion estimation of lungs.

PubMed

Han, Lianghao; Dong, Hua; McClelland, Jamie R; Han, Liangxiu; Hawkes, David J; Barratt, Dean C

2017-07-01

This paper presents a new hybrid biomechanical model-based non-rigid image registration method for lung motion estimation. In the proposed method, a patient-specific biomechanical modelling process captures major physically realistic deformations with explicit physical modelling of sliding motion, whilst a subsequent non-rigid image registration process compensates for small residuals. The proposed algorithm was evaluated with 10 4D CT datasets of lung cancer patients. The target registration error (TRE), defined as the Euclidean distance of landmark pairs, was significantly lower with the proposed method (TRE = 1.37 mm) than with biomechanical modelling (TRE = 3.81 mm) and intensity-based image registration without specific considerations for sliding motion (TRE = 4.57 mm). The proposed method achieved a comparable accuracy as several recently developed intensity-based registration algorithms with sliding handling on the same datasets. A detailed comparison on the distributions of TREs with three non-rigid intensity-based algorithms showed that the proposed method performed especially well on estimating the displacement field of lung surface regions (mean TRE = 1.33 mm, maximum TRE = 5.3 mm). The effects of biomechanical model parameters (such as Poisson's ratio, friction and tissue heterogeneity) on displacement estimation were investigated. The potential of the algorithm in optimising biomechanical models of lungs through analysing the pattern of displacement compensation from the image registration process has also been demonstrated. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A web-based appointment system to reduce waiting for outpatients: a retrospective study.

PubMed

Cao, Wenjun; Wan, Yi; Tu, Haibo; Shang, Fujun; Liu, Danhong; Tan, Zhijun; Sun, Caihong; Ye, Qing; Xu, Yongyong

2011-11-22

Long waiting times for registration to see a doctor is problematic in China, especially in tertiary hospitals. To address this issue, a web-based appointment system was developed for the Xijing hospital. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the web-based appointment system in the registration service for outpatients. Data from the web-based appointment system in Xijing hospital from January to December 2010 were collected using a stratified random sampling method, from which participants were randomly selected for a telephone interview asking for detailed information on using the system. Patients who registered through registration windows were randomly selected as a comparison group, and completed a questionnaire on-site. A total of 5641 patients using the online booking service were available for data analysis. Of them, 500 were randomly selected, and 369 (73.8%) completed a telephone interview. Of the 500 patients using the usual queuing method who were randomly selected for inclusion in the study, responses were obtained from 463, a response rate of 92.6%. Between the two registration methods, there were significant differences in age, degree of satisfaction, and total waiting time (P<0.001). However, gender, urban residence, and valid waiting time showed no significant differences (P>0.05). Being ignorant of online registration, not trusting the internet, and a lack of ability to use a computer were three main reasons given for not using the web-based appointment system. The overall proportion of non-attendance was 14.4% for those using the web-based appointment system, and the non-attendance rate was significantly different among different hospital departments, day of the week, and time of the day (P<0.001). Compared to the usual queuing method, the web-based appointment system could significantly increase patient's satisfaction with registration and reduce total waiting time effectively. However, further improvements are needed for broad use of the system.

40 CFR 68.160 - Registration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... purposes of correcting minor clerical errors, updating administrative information, providing missing data... substances handled in covered processes. (b) The registration shall include the following data: (1...

40 CFR 68.160 - Registration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... purposes of correcting minor clerical errors, updating administrative information, providing missing data... substances handled in covered processes. (b) The registration shall include the following data: (1...

40 CFR 68.160 - Registration.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... purposes of correcting minor clerical errors, updating administrative information, providing missing data... substances handled in covered processes. (b) The registration shall include the following data: (1...

Fast interactive elastic registration of 12-bit multi-spectral images with subvoxel accuracy using display hardware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noordmans, Herke Jan; de Roode, Rowland; Verdaasdonk, Rudolf

2007-03-01

Multi-spectral images of human tissue taken in-vivo often contain image alignment problems as patients have difficulty in retaining their posture during the acquisition time of 20 seconds. Previously, it has been attempted to correct motion errors with image registration software developed for MR or CT data but these algorithms have been proven to be too slow and erroneous for practical use with multi-spectral images. A new software package has been developed which allows the user to play a decisive role in the registration process as the user can monitor the progress of the registration continuously and force it in the right direction when it starts to fail. The software efficiently exploits videocard hardware to gain speed and to provide a perfect subvoxel correspondence between registration field and display. An 8 bit graphic card was used to efficiently register and resample 12 bit images using the hardware interpolation modes present on the graphic card. To show the feasibility of this new registration process, the software was applied in clinical practice evaluating the dosimetry for psoriasis and KTP laser treatment. The microscopic differences between images of normal skin and skin exposed to UV light proved that an affine registration step including zooming and slanting is critical for a subsequent elastic match to have success. The combination of user interactive registration software with optimal addressing the potentials of PC video card hardware greatly improves the speed of multi spectral image registration.

Fast interactive registration tool for reproducible multi-spectral imaging for wound healing and treatment evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noordmans, Herke J.; de Roode, Rowland; Verdaasdonk, Rudolf

2007-02-01

Multi-spectral images of human tissue taken in-vivo often contain image alignment problems as patients have difficulty in retaining their posture during the acquisition time of 20 seconds. Previously, it has been attempted to correct motion errors with image registration software developed for MR or CT data but these algorithms have been proven to be too slow and erroneous for practical use with multi-spectral images. A new software package has been developed which allows the user to play a decisive role in the registration process as the user can monitor the progress of the registration continuously and force it in the right direction when it starts to fail. The software efficiently exploits videocard hardware to gain speed and to provide a perfect subvoxel correspondence between registration field and display. An 8 bit graphic card was used to efficiently register and resample 12 bit images using the hardware interpolation modes present on the graphic card. To show the feasibility of this new registration process, the software was applied in clinical practice evaluating the dosimetry for psoriasis and KTP laser treatment. The microscopic differences between images of normal skin and skin exposed to UV light proved that an affine registration step including zooming and slanting is critical for a subsequent elastic match to have success. The combination of user interactive registration software with optimal addressing the potentials of PC video card hardware greatly improves the speed of multi spectral image registration.

Robust multi-site MR data processing: iterative optimization of bias correction, tissue classification, and registration.

PubMed

Young Kim, Eun; Johnson, Hans J

2013-01-01

A robust multi-modal tool, for automated registration, bias correction, and tissue classification, has been implemented for large-scale heterogeneous multi-site longitudinal MR data analysis. This work focused on improving the an iterative optimization framework between bias-correction, registration, and tissue classification inspired from previous work. The primary contributions are robustness improvements from incorporation of following four elements: (1) utilize multi-modal and repeated scans, (2) incorporate high-deformable registration, (3) use extended set of tissue definitions, and (4) use of multi-modal aware intensity-context priors. The benefits of these enhancements were investigated by a series of experiments with both simulated brain data set (BrainWeb) and by applying to highly-heterogeneous data from a 32 site imaging study with quality assessments through the expert visual inspection. The implementation of this tool is tailored for, but not limited to, large-scale data processing with great data variation with a flexible interface. In this paper, we describe enhancements to a joint registration, bias correction, and the tissue classification, that improve the generalizability and robustness for processing multi-modal longitudinal MR scans collected at multi-sites. The tool was evaluated by using both simulated and simulated and human subject MRI images. With these enhancements, the results showed improved robustness for large-scale heterogeneous MRI processing.

Automatic Co-Registration of QuickBird Data for Change Detection Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bryant, Nevin A.; Logan, Thomas L.; Zobrist, Albert L.

2006-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the use Automatic Fusion of Image Data System (AFIDS) for Automatic Co-Registration of QuickBird Data to ascertain if changes have occurred in images. The process is outlined, and views from Iraq and Los Angelels are shown to illustrate the process.

Data management procedures for Tiepoint Registration, pre and post processing, and ICD116

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nowakowski, B. S.

1983-01-01

The data management procedures for tiepoint registration, pre and post processing, and "ICD116' are described. With each procedure description, the pertinent execs are listed and purposes defined. An example run of each of the 32 execs is included with user inputs identified.

Congestion estimation technique in the optical network unit registration process.

PubMed

Kim, Geunyong; Yoo, Hark; Lee, Dongsoo; Kim, Youngsun; Lim, Hyuk

2016-07-01

We present a congestion estimation technique (CET) to estimate the optical network unit (ONU) registration success ratio for the ONU registration process in passive optical networks. An optical line terminal (OLT) estimates the number of collided ONUs via the proposed scheme during the serial number state. The OLT can obtain congestion level among ONUs to be registered such that this information may be exploited to change the size of a quiet window to decrease the collision probability. We verified the efficiency of the proposed method through simulation and experimental results.

Use of image registration and fusion algorithms and techniques in radiotherapy: Report of the AAPM Radiation Therapy Committee Task Group No. 132.

PubMed

Brock, Kristy K; Mutic, Sasa; McNutt, Todd R; Li, Hua; Kessler, Marc L

2017-07-01

Image registration and fusion algorithms exist in almost every software system that creates or uses images in radiotherapy. Most treatment planning systems support some form of image registration and fusion to allow the use of multimodality and time-series image data and even anatomical atlases to assist in target volume and normal tissue delineation. Treatment delivery systems perform registration and fusion between the planning images and the in-room images acquired during the treatment to assist patient positioning. Advanced applications are beginning to support daily dose assessment and enable adaptive radiotherapy using image registration and fusion to propagate contours and accumulate dose between image data taken over the course of therapy to provide up-to-date estimates of anatomical changes and delivered dose. This information aids in the detection of anatomical and functional changes that might elicit changes in the treatment plan or prescription. As the output of the image registration process is always used as the input of another process for planning or delivery, it is important to understand and communicate the uncertainty associated with the software in general and the result of a specific registration. Unfortunately, there is no standard mathematical formalism to perform this for real-world situations where noise, distortion, and complex anatomical variations can occur. Validation of the software systems performance is also complicated by the lack of documentation available from commercial systems leading to use of these systems in undesirable 'black-box' fashion. In view of this situation and the central role that image registration and fusion play in treatment planning and delivery, the Therapy Physics Committee of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine commissioned Task Group 132 to review current approaches and solutions for image registration (both rigid and deformable) in radiotherapy and to provide recommendations for quality assurance and quality control of these clinical processes. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

[Application of elastic registration based on Demons algorithm in cone beam CT].

PubMed

Pang, Haowen; Sun, Xiaoyang

2014-02-01

We applied Demons and accelerated Demons elastic registration algorithm in radiotherapy cone beam CT (CBCT) images, We provided software support for real-time understanding of organ changes during radiotherapy. We wrote a 3D CBCT image elastic registration program using Matlab software, and we tested and verified the images of two patients with cervical cancer 3D CBCT images for elastic registration, based on the classic Demons algorithm, minimum mean square error (MSE) decreased 59.7%, correlation coefficient (CC) increased 11.0%. While for the accelerated Demons algorithm, MSE decreased 40.1%, CC increased 7.2%. The experimental verification with two methods of Demons algorithm obtained the desired results, but the small difference appeared to be lack of precision, and the total registration time was a little long. All these problems need to be further improved for accuracy and reducing of time.

76 FR 42684 - Statutory Invention Registration

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-19

... 3.00 Totals 8 10.00 There is annual (non-hour) cost burden in the way of filing fees associated with...) Filing fee $ cost burden (a) (b) (a x b) (c) Statutory Invention Registration (Requested prior to 2 $920...) respondent cost burden for this collection in the form of postage costs and filing fees will be $8,170. IV...

NOTE: Optimization of megavoltage CT scan registration settings for thoracic cases on helical tomotherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodford, Curtis; Yartsev, Slav; Van Dyk, Jake

2007-08-01

This study aims to investigate the settings that provide optimum registration accuracy when registering megavoltage CT (MVCT) studies acquired on tomotherapy with planning kilovoltage CT (kVCT) studies of patients with lung cancer. For each experiment, the systematic difference between the actual and planned positions of the thorax phantom was determined by setting the phantom up at the planning isocenter, generating and registering an MVCT study. The phantom was translated by 5 or 10 mm, MVCT scanned, and registration was performed again. A root-mean-square equation that calculated the residual error of the registration based on the known shift and systematic difference was used to assess the accuracy of the registration process. The phantom study results for 18 combinations of different MVCT/kVCT registration options are presented and compared to clinical registration data from 17 lung cancer patients. MVCT studies acquired with coarse (6 mm), normal (4 mm) and fine (2 mm) slice spacings could all be registered with similar residual errors. No specific combination of resolution and fusion selection technique resulted in a lower residual error. A scan length of 6 cm with any slice spacing registered with the full image fusion selection technique and fine resolution will result in a low residual error most of the time. On average, large corrections made manually by clinicians to the automatic registration values are infrequent. Small manual corrections within the residual error averages of the registration process occur, but their impact on the average patient position is small. Registrations using the full image fusion selection technique and fine resolution of 6 cm MVCT scans with coarse slices have a low residual error, and this strategy can be clinically used for lung cancer patients treated on tomotherapy. Automatic registration values are accurate on average, and a quick verification on a sagittal MVCT slice should be enough to detect registration outliers.

SU-F-T-251: The Quality Assurance for the Heavy Patient Load Department in the Developing Country: The Primary Experience of An Entire Workflow QA Process Management in Radiotherapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xie, J; Wang, J; Peng, J

Purpose: To implement an entire workflow quality assurance (QA) process in the radiotherapy department and to reduce the error rates of radiotherapy based on the entire workflow management in the developing country. Methods: The entire workflow QA process management starts from patient registration to the end of last treatment including all steps through the entire radiotherapy process. Error rate of chartcheck is used to evaluate the the entire workflow QA process. Two to three qualified senior medical physicists checked the documents before the first treatment fraction of every patient. Random check of the treatment history during treatment was also performed.more » A total of around 6000 patients treatment data before and after implementing the entire workflow QA process were compared from May, 2014 to December, 2015. Results: A systemic checklist was established. It mainly includes patient’s registration, treatment plan QA, information exporting to OIS(Oncology Information System), documents of treatment QAand QA of the treatment history. The error rate derived from the chart check decreases from 1.7% to 0.9% after our the entire workflow QA process. All checked errors before the first treatment fraction were corrected as soon as oncologist re-confirmed them and reinforce staff training was accordingly followed to prevent those errors. Conclusion: The entire workflow QA process improved the safety, quality of radiotherapy in our department and we consider that our QA experience can be applicable for the heavily-loaded radiotherapy departments in developing country.« less

Deformable structure registration of bladder through surface mapping.

PubMed

Xiong, Li; Viswanathan, Akila; Stewart, Alexandra J; Haker, Steven; Tempany, Clare M; Chin, Lee M; Cormack, Robert A

2006-06-01

Cumulative dose distributions in fractionated radiation therapy depict the dose to normal tissues and therefore may permit an estimation of the risk of normal tissue complications. However, calculation of these distributions is highly challenging because of interfractional changes in the geometry of patient anatomy. This work presents an algorithm for deformable structure registration of the bladder and the verification of the accuracy of the algorithm using phantom and patient data. In this algorithm, the registration process involves conformal mapping of genus zero surfaces using finite element analysis, and guided by three control landmarks. The registration produces a correspondence between fractions of the triangular meshes used to describe the bladder surface. For validation of the algorithm, two types of balloons were inflated gradually to three times their original size, and several computerized tomography (CT) scans were taken during the process. The registration algorithm yielded a local accuracy of 4 mm along the balloon surface. The algorithm was then applied to CT data of patients receiving fractionated high-dose-rate brachytherapy to the vaginal cuff, with the vaginal cylinder in situ. The patients' bladder filling status was intentionally different for each fraction. The three required control landmark points were identified for the bladder based on anatomy. Out of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved study of 20 patients, 3 had radiographically identifiable points near the bladder surface that were used for verification of the accuracy of the registration. The verification point as seen in each fraction was compared with its predicted location based on affine as well as deformable registration. Despite the variation in bladder shape and volume, the deformable registration was accurate to 5 mm, consistently outperforming the affine registration. We conclude that the structure registration algorithm presented works with reasonable accuracy and provides a means of calculating cumulative dose distributions.

Mapping the lack of public initiative against female genital mutilation in Denmark.

PubMed

Christoffersen, Gro Møller; Bruhn, Peter James; de Neergaard, Rosanna; Engel, Susanne; Naeser, Vibeke

2018-04-07

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful practice prevalent in 35 countries, mainly in Africa, as well as in some Middle Eastern countries and a few Asian countries. FGM comprises all procedures that involve partial or complete resection of, or other injury to, external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. The practice of FGM has spread to Western countries due to migration. The European Institute for Gender Equality recommend that FGM be combatted by nationally coordinated efforts through implementation of national action plans, guidelines for professionals as well as comprehensive research in the field. FGM was outlawed in Denmark 2003, but no national actions plan has been implemented. Instead, the task of combatting FGM is currently under the responsibility of local governments in the form of the 98 municipalities. The aim of this study is to investigate the Danish municipalities' efforts to prevent FGM on the local level, and whether these initiatives are in accordance with international recommendations and standards. All 98 Danish municipalities were invited to respond to a questionnaire regarding FGM in their respective municipalities. The inclusion process and questionnaire was designed after a pilot study, which included 29 municipalities. The questionnaire consisted of four overall areas of focus: "action plan", "registration", "information material" and "preventive initiatives". Demographic data were gathered from the 2017 census by Statistics Denmark. Risk countries were defined as countries with a tradition for FGM, identified from the 2016 UNICEF definition. A total of 67 municipalities participated in the study. At the time of census, 1.8% of the Danish population was immigrants with origins in risk countries. A total of 10.4% of the responding municipalities indicated to have implemented a specific action plan against FGM. A total of 7,5% had implemented specific preventive initiatives against FGM. Registration of reported FGM cases were indicated to be performed in 73.1% of the responding municipalities; however, only 17.9% stated to perform registration of FGM specifically as such, and not as general child abuse. Our study shows that the current situation of FGM registration and prevention being under local administrative responsibility in the 98 Danish municipalities has led to a severe lack of coordinated public initiative against FGM.

An incompressible fluid flow model with mutual information for MR image registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Leo; Chang, Herng-Hua

2013-03-01

Image registration is one of the fundamental and essential tasks within image processing. It is a process of determining the correspondence between structures in two images, which are called the template image and the reference image, respectively. The challenge of registration is to find an optimal geometric transformation between corresponding image data. This paper develops a new MR image registration algorithm that uses a closed incompressible viscous fluid model associated with mutual information. In our approach, we treat the image pixels as the fluid elements of a viscous fluid flow governed by the nonlinear Navier-Stokes partial differential equation (PDE). We replace the pressure term with the body force mainly used to guide the transformation with a weighting coefficient, which is expressed by the mutual information between the template and reference images. To solve this modified Navier-Stokes PDE, we adopted the fast numerical techniques proposed by Seibold1. The registration process of updating the body force, the velocity and deformation fields is repeated until the mutual information weight reaches a prescribed threshold. We applied our approach to the BrainWeb and real MR images. As consistent with the theory of the proposed fluid model, we found that our method accurately transformed the template images into the reference images based on the intensity flow. Experimental results indicate that our method is of potential in a wide variety of medical image registration applications.

Registration practices for observational studies on ClinicalTrials.gov indicated low adherence.

PubMed

Boccia, Stefania; Rothman, Kenneth J; Panic, Nikola; Flacco, Maria Elena; Rosso, Annalisa; Pastorino, Roberta; Manzoli, Lamberto; La Vecchia, Carlo; Villari, Paolo; Boffetta, Paolo; Ricciardi, Walter; Ioannidis, John P A

2016-02-01

The study aims to assess the status of registration of observational studies. We identified studies on cancer research with prospective recruitment of participants that were registered from February 2000 to December 2011 in ClinicalTrials.gov. We recorded the dates of registration and start of recruitment, outcomes, and description of statistical method. We searched for publications corresponding to the registered studies through May 31, 2014. One thousand one hundred nine registered studies were eligible. Primary and secondary outcomes were reported in 809 (73.0%) and 464 (41.8%) of them. The date of registration preceded the month of the study start in 145 (13.8%) and coincided in 205 (19.5%). A total of 151 publications from 120 (10.8%) registered studies were identified. In 2 (33.3%) of the 6 publications where ClinicalTrials.gov reported that the study started recruitment after registration, and in 9 (50.0%) of 18 publications where ClinicalTrials.gov reported the same date for registration and start of recruitment, the articles showed that the study had actually started recruiting before registration. During the period reviewed, few observational studies have been registered. Registration usually occurred after the study started, and prespecification of outcomes and statistical analysis rarely occurred. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Image navigation and registration performance assessment tool set for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Luccia, Frank J.; Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian C.; Graybill, Justin; Haas, Evan; Johnson, Patrick D.; Isaacson, Peter J.; Reth, Alan D.

2016-05-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. For ABI, these metrics are the 3-sigma errors in navigation (NAV), channel-to-channel registration (CCR), frame-to-frame registration (FFR), swath-to-swath registration (SSR), and within frame registration (WIFR) for the Level 1B image products. For GLM, the single metric of interest is the 3-sigma error in the navigation of background images (GLM NAV) used by the system to navigate lightning strikes. 3-sigma errors are estimates of the 99. 73rd percentile of the errors accumulated over a 24 hour data collection period. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24 hour evaluation period. Another aspect of the IPATS design that vastly reduces execution time is the off-line propagation of Landsat based truth images to the fixed grid coordinates system for each of the three GOES-R satellite locations, operational East and West and initial checkout locations. This paper describes the algorithmic design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeLuccia, Frank J.; Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian C.; Graybill, Justin; Haas, Evan; Johnson, Patrick D.; Isaacson, Peter J.; Reth, Alan D.

2016-01-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. For ABI, these metrics are the 3-sigma errors in navigation (NAV), channel-to-channel registration (CCR), frame-to-frame registration (FFR), swath-to-swath registration (SSR), and within frame registration (WIFR) for the Level 1B image products. For GLM, the single metric of interest is the 3-sigma error in the navigation of background images (GLM NAV) used by the system to navigate lightning strikes. 3-sigma errors are estimates of the 99.73rd percentile of the errors accumulated over a 24 hour data collection period. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24 hour evaluation period. Another aspect of the IPATS design that vastly reduces execution time is the off-line propagation of Landsat based truth images to the fixed grid coordinates system for each of the three GOES-R satellite locations, operational East and West and initial checkout locations. This paper describes the algorithmic design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

Image Navigation and Registration Performance Assessment Tool Set for the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De Luccia, Frank J.; Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian C.; Graybill, Justin; Haas, Evan; Johnson, Patrick D.; Isaacson, Peter J.; Reth, Alan D.

2016-01-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. For ABI, these metrics are the 3-sigma errors in navigation (NAV), channel-to-channel registration (CCR), frame-to-frame registration (FFR), swath-to-swath registration (SSR), and within frame registration (WIFR) for the Level 1B image products. For GLM, the single metric of interest is the 3-sigma error in the navigation of background images (GLM NAV) used by the system to navigate lightning strikes. 3-sigma errors are estimates of the 99.73rd percentile of the errors accumulated over a 24-hour data collection period. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24-hour evaluation period. Another aspect of the IPATS design that vastly reduces execution time is the off-line propagation of Landsat based truth images to the fixed grid coordinates system for each of the three GOES-R satellite locations, operational East and West and initial checkout locations. This paper describes the algorithmic design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

Automated reconstruction of standing posture panoramas from multi-sector long limb x-ray images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Linzey; Trier, Caroline; Ben-Zikri, Yehuda K.; Linte, Cristian A.

2016-03-01

Due to the digital X-ray imaging system's limited field of view, several individual sector images are required to capture the posture of an individual in standing position. These images are then "stitched together" to reconstruct the standing posture. We have created an image processing application that automates the stitching, therefore minimizing user input, optimizing workflow, and reducing human error. The application begins with pre-processing the input images by removing artifacts, filtering out isolated noisy regions, and amplifying a seamless bone edge. The resulting binary images are then registered together using a rigid-body intensity based registration algorithm. The identified registration transformations are then used to map the original sector images into the panorama image. Our method focuses primarily on the use of the anatomical content of the images to generate the panoramas as opposed to using external markers employed to aid with the alignment process. Currently, results show robust edge detection prior to registration and we have tested our approach by comparing the resulting automatically-stitched panoramas to the manually stitched panoramas in terms of registration parameters, target registration error of homologous markers, and the homogeneity of the digitally subtracted automatically- and manually-stitched images using 26 patient datasets.

Improvement of registration accuracy in accelerated partial breast irradiation using the point-based rigid-body registration algorithm for patients with implanted fiducial markers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Inoue, Minoru; Yoshimura, Michio, E-mail: myossy@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Sato, Sayaka

2015-04-15

Purpose: To investigate image-registration errors when using fiducial markers with a manual method and the point-based rigid-body registration (PRBR) algorithm in accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) patients, with accompanying fiducial deviations. Methods: Twenty-two consecutive patients were enrolled in a prospective trial examining 10-fraction APBI. Titanium clips were implanted intraoperatively around the seroma in all patients. For image-registration, the positions of the clips in daily kV x-ray images were matched to those in the planning digitally reconstructed radiographs. Fiducial and gravity registration errors (FREs and GREs, respectively), representing resulting misalignments of the edge and center of the target, respectively, were comparedmore » between the manual and algorithm-based methods. Results: In total, 218 fractions were evaluated. Although the mean FRE/GRE values for the manual and algorithm-based methods were within 3 mm (2.3/1.7 and 1.3/0.4 mm, respectively), the percentages of fractions where FRE/GRE exceeded 3 mm using the manual and algorithm-based methods were 18.8%/7.3% and 0%/0%, respectively. Manual registration resulted in 18.6% of patients with fractions of FRE/GRE exceeding 5 mm. The patients with larger clip deviation had significantly more fractions showing large FRE/GRE using manual registration. Conclusions: For image-registration using fiducial markers in APBI, the manual registration results in more fractions with considerable registration error due to loss of fiducial objectivity resulting from their deviation. The authors recommend the PRBR algorithm as a safe and effective strategy for accurate, image-guided registration and PTV margin reduction.« less

Factors influencing litter size and puppy losses in the Entlebucher Mountain dog.

PubMed

Schrack, J; Dolf, G; Reichler, I M; Schelling, C

2017-06-01

A good reproductive performance is a central element of animal breeding. The breeders of Entlebucher Mountain dogs observed a decrease of the mean litter size and an increase of the number of unsuccessful matings in the past years. The aim of the present study was to identify factors with an influence on fertility in this breed. In total, 915 litters from 202 sires and 348 dams from 1986 to 2013 entered the analyses. The total puppy losses (7.4%) reduced the mean litter size at birth of 5.49 ± 2.13 to a mean litter size at registration of 5.08 ± 2.05. There was no deviation from the expected equal sex distribution for puppies at birth and at registration, as well as for puppy losses consisting of stillborn puppies and puppies which died or had to be euthanized before registration. The mean annual litter inbreeding coefficient increased from 0.37 in 1986 to 0.40 in 2013 and was correlated with the year of birth of the litter (Kendall's tau b = 0.46). The age of the dam and parental inbreeding were identified as significant predictors with a negative effect on litter size at birth. For the litter size at registration the age and inbreeding of the dam had a significant negative effect and a 1% increase of dam inbreeding is expected to decrease the litter size at birth and registration by 0.1 and 0.09 puppies, respectively. The occurrence of total puppy losses decreased during the years and was more frequent in larger litters. In addition, in litters of older parents the occurrence of puppy losses was more frequent than in litters from younger parents. The final generalized linear mixed-effects models for litter size at birth, litter size at registration and for total puppy losses explained 36%, 33% and 22% of the total variance, respectively. The impact of inbreeding and parental age on fertility of the Entlebucher Mountain dog was small and the influence of the dam was much bigger than the one of the sire. Other factors must be responsible for the variability of litter sizes not explained by the models. Without changes of breeding circumstances, a further increase of inbreeding must be expected. Therefore, a close monitoring and minimizing of inbreeding must be followed up by the breeding community. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Towards operational multisensor registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rignot, Eric J. M.; Kwok, Ronald; Curlander, John C.

1991-01-01

To use data from a number of different remote sensors in a synergistic manner, a multidimensional analysis of the data is necessary. However, prior to this analysis, processing to correct for the systematic geometric distortion characteristic of each sensor is required. Furthermore, the registration process must be fully automated to handle a large volume of data and high data rates. A conceptual approach towards an operational multisensor registration algorithm is presented. The performance requirements of the algorithm are first formulated given the spatially, temporally, and spectrally varying factors that influence the image characteristics and the science requirements of various applications. Several registration techniques that fit within the structure of this algorithm are also presented. Their performance was evaluated using a multisensor test data set assembled from LANDSAT TM, SEASAT, SIR-B, Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS), and SPOT sensors.

76 FR 7102 - Simplified Network Application Processing System, On-line Registration and Account Maintenance

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-09

... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Bureau of Industry and Security 15 CFR Part 748 [Docket No. 100826397-1059-02] RIN 0694-AE98 Simplified Network Application Processing System, On-line Registration and Account Maintenance AGENCY: Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Bureau of...

Making a decision about trial participation: the feasibility of measuring deliberation during the informed consent process for clinical trials.

PubMed

Gillies, Katie; Elwyn, Glyn; Cook, Jonathan

2014-07-30

Informed consent of trial participants is both an ethical and a legal requirement. When facing a decision about trial participation, potential participants are provided with information about the trial and have the opportunity to have any questions answered before their degree of 'informed-ness' is assessed, usually subjectively, and before they are asked to sign a consent form. Currently, standardised methods for assessing informed consent have tended to be focused on aspects of understanding and associated outcomes, rather than on the process of consent and the steps associated with decision-making. Potential trial participants who were approached regarding participation in one of three randomised controlled trials were asked to complete a short questionnaire to measure their deliberation about trial participation. A total of 136 participants completed the 10-item questionnaire (DelibeRATE) before they made an explicit decision about trial participation (defined as signing the clinical trial consent form). Overall DelibeRATE scores were compared and investigated for differences between trial consenters and refusers. No differences in overall DelibeRATE scores were identified. In addition, there was no significant difference between overall score and the decision to participate, or not, in the parent trial. To our knowledge, this is the first study to prospectively measure the deliberation stage of the informed consent decision-making process of potential trial participants across different conditions and clinical areas. Although there were no differences detected in overall scores or scores of trial consenters and refusers, we did identify some interesting findings. These findings should be taken into consideration by those designing trials and others interested in developing and implementing measures of potential trial participants decision making during the informed consent process for research. International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) Register ISRCTN60695184 (date of registration: 13 May 2009), ISRCTN80061723 (date of registration: 8 March 2010), ISRCTN69423238 (date of registration: 18 November 2010).

Image Processing Of Images From Peripheral-Artery Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, David L.; Tarbox, Lawrence R.; Cist, David B.; Faul, David D.

1988-06-01

A system is being developed to test the possibility of doing peripheral, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) with a single contrast injection using a moving gantry system. Given repositioning errors that occur between the mask and contrast-containing images, factors affecting the success of subtractions following image registration have been investigated theoretically and experimentally. For a 1 mm gantry displacement, parallax and geometric image distortion (pin-cushion) both give subtraction errors following registration that are approximately 25% of the error resulting from no registration. Image processing techniques improve the subtractions. The geometric distortion effect is reduced using a piece-wise, 8 parameter unwarping method. Plots of image similarity measures versus pixel shift are well behaved and well fit by a parabola, leading to the development of an iterative, automatic registration algorithm that uses parabolic prediction of the new minimum. The registration algorithm converges quickly (less than 1 second on a MicroVAX) and is relatively immune to the region of interest (ROI) selected.

a Global Registration Algorithm of the Single-Closed Ring Multi-Stations Point Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, R.; Pan, L.; Xiang, Z.; Zeng, H.

2018-04-01

Aimed at the global registration problem of the single-closed ring multi-stations point cloud, a formula in order to calculate the error of rotation matrix was constructed according to the definition of error. The global registration algorithm of multi-station point cloud was derived to minimize the error of rotation matrix. And fast-computing formulas of transformation matrix with whose implementation steps and simulation experiment scheme was given. Compared three different processing schemes of multi-station point cloud, the experimental results showed that the effectiveness of the new global registration method was verified, and it could effectively complete the global registration of point cloud.

[Medical image elastic registration smoothed by unconstrained optimized thin-plate spline].

PubMed

Zhang, Yu; Li, Shuxiang; Chen, Wufan; Liu, Zhexing

2003-12-01

Elastic registration of medical image is an important subject in medical image processing. Previous work has concentrated on selecting the corresponding landmarks manually and then using thin-plate spline interpolating to gain the elastic transformation. However, the landmarks extraction is always prone to error, which will influence the registration results. Localizing the landmarks manually is also difficult and time-consuming. We the optimization theory to improve the thin-plate spline interpolation, and based on it, used an automatic method to extract the landmarks. Combining these two steps, we have proposed an automatic, exact and robust registration method and have gained satisfactory registration results.

Self-correcting multi-atlas segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Yi; Wilford, Andrew; Guo, Liang

2016-03-01

In multi-atlas segmentation, one typically registers several atlases to the new image, and their respective segmented label images are transformed and fused to form the final segmentation. After each registration, the quality of the registration is reflected by the single global value: the final registration cost. Ideally, if the quality of the registration can be evaluated at each point, independent of the registration process, which also provides a direction in which the deformation can further be improved, the overall segmentation performance can be improved. We propose such a self-correcting multi-atlas segmentation method. The method is applied on hippocampus segmentation from brain images and statistically significantly improvement is observed.

17 CFR 229.1208 - (Item 1208) Oil and gas properties, wells, operations, and acreage.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 AND ENERGY POLICY AND CONSERVATION ACT OF 1975-REGULATION S-K Disclosure by... a well or acre in which the registrant owns a working interest. The number of gross wells is the total number of wells in which the registrant owns a working interest. Count one or more completions in...

Mass preserving registration for heart MR images.

PubMed

Zhu, Lei; Haker, Steven; Tannenbaum, Allen

2005-01-01

This paper presents a new algorithm for non-rigid registration between two doubly-connected regions. Our algorithm is based on harmonic analysis and the theory of optimal mass transport. It assumes an underlining continuum model, in which the total amount of mass is exactly preserved during the transformation of tissues. We use a finite element approach to numerically implement the algorithm.

Mass Preserving Registration for Heart MR Images

PubMed Central

Zhu, Lei; Haker, Steven; Tannenbaum, Allen

2013-01-01

This paper presents a new algorithm for non-rigid registration between two doubly-connected regions. Our algorithm is based on harmonic analysis and the theory of optimal mass transport. It assumes an underlining continuum model, in which the total amount of mass is exactly preserved during the transformation of tissues. We use a finite element approach to numerically implement the algorithm. PMID:16685954

Overlay improvement by exposure map based mask registration optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Irene; Guo, Eric; Chen, Ming; Lu, Max; Li, Gordon; Li, Rivan; Tian, Eric

2015-03-01

Along with the increased miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices, the design rules of advanced semiconductor devices shrink dramatically. [1] One of the main challenges of lithography step is the layer-to-layer overlay control. Furthermore, DPT (Double Patterning Technology) has been adapted for the advanced technology node like 28nm and 14nm, corresponding overlay budget becomes even tighter. [2][3] After the in-die mask registration (pattern placement) measurement is introduced, with the model analysis of a KLA SOV (sources of variation) tool, it's observed that registration difference between masks is a significant error source of wafer layer-to-layer overlay at 28nm process. [4][5] Mask registration optimization would highly improve wafer overlay performance accordingly. It was reported that a laser based registration control (RegC) process could be applied after the pattern generation or after pellicle mounting and allowed fine tuning of the mask registration. [6] In this paper we propose a novel method of mask registration correction, which can be applied before mask writing based on mask exposure map, considering the factors of mask chip layout, writing sequence, and pattern density distribution. Our experiment data show if pattern density on the mask keeps at a low level, in-die mask registration residue error in 3sigma could be always under 5nm whatever blank type and related writer POSCOR (position correction) file was applied; it proves random error induced by material or equipment would occupy relatively fixed error budget as an error source of mask registration. On the real production, comparing the mask registration difference through critical production layers, it could be revealed that registration residue error of line space layers with higher pattern density is always much larger than the one of contact hole layers with lower pattern density. Additionally, the mask registration difference between layers with similar pattern density could also achieve under 5nm performance. We assume mask registration excluding random error is mostly induced by charge accumulation during mask writing, which may be calculated from surrounding exposed pattern density. Multi-loading test mask registration result shows that with x direction writing sequence, mask registration behavior in x direction is mainly related to sequence direction, but mask registration in y direction would be highly impacted by pattern density distribution map. It proves part of mask registration error is due to charge issue from nearby environment. If exposure sequence is chip by chip for normal multi chip layout case, mask registration of both x and y direction would be impacted analogously, which has also been proved by real data. Therefore, we try to set up a simple model to predict the mask registration error based on mask exposure map, and correct it with the given POSCOR (position correction) file for advanced mask writing if needed.

Challenging an immediate suspension of a DEA registration: is it time for a new tact?

PubMed

Behr, Douglas J

2014-01-01

A Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") registration is not only a necessity, but also an invaluable commodity for doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and drug wholesalers who prescribe, stock, and distribute controlled substances. While the DEA may only suspend a registration by issuing an immediate suspension order ("ISO) after an ex parte finding of "imminent danger to the public health or safety," the law fails to explicitly protect the registrant by way of a post-suspension hearing on the ISO, despite the registrant's constitutionally protected property interest in the registration. A registrant has only two procedural options--which are often unsuccessful--to challenge the ISO: endure a long and arduous administrative review proceeding or petition the court for a "not-so-easily proven" injunction, all the while the suspension remains in effect and the controlled substance business operations cease. Accordingly, a suspension of the registration may be certain death to doctors and pharmacists without the financial means to operate the business in the absence of the registration. Because the DEA registration is a constitutionally-protected interest, there is a better way to challenge the suspension. The Supreme Court has held that once a license is issued, the continued possession of it is essential to the registrant's livelihood. Therefore suspension or revocation of such a protected interest requires due process. Due-process hearings, while varied, will provide the necessary avenues of review to provide a fair review of the justification of the suspension and its continuance, i.e., whether there truly is imminent danger to public health or safety and whether the suspension is overbroad and should be limited. To date, this thesis remains to be tested and awaits a petitioner with a justiciable claim and the financial resources to challenge the DEA in court. But in the field of DEA ISO challenges, it is time for a new tact!

9 CFR 590.650 - Exempted plant registration number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION INSPECTION OF EGGS AND EGG PRODUCTS (EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION ACT) Exempted Egg Products Plants § 590.650 Exempted plant registration number. Each plant processing egg products...

9 CFR 590.650 - Exempted plant registration number.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... AGRICULTURE EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION INSPECTION OF EGGS AND EGG PRODUCTS (EGG PRODUCTS INSPECTION ACT) Exempted Egg Products Plants § 590.650 Exempted plant registration number. Each plant processing egg products...

21 CFR 807.35 - Notification of registrant.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... manufacture or process biological products (including devices licensed under section 351 of the Public Health... device activities described in § 807.20, validation of registration and the assignment of a device...

21 CFR 807.35 - Notification of registrant.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... manufacture or process biological products (including devices licensed under section 351 of the Public Health... device activities described in § 807.20, validation of registration and the assignment of a device...

Agile Multi-Scale Decompositions for Automatic Image Registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, James M.; Leija, Omar Navarro; Le Moigne, Jacqueline

2016-01-01

In recent works, the first and third authors developed an automatic image registration algorithm based on a multiscale hybrid image decomposition with anisotropic shearlets and isotropic wavelets. This prototype showed strong performance, improving robustness over registration with wavelets alone. However, this method imposed a strict hierarchy on the order in which shearlet and wavelet features were used in the registration process, and also involved an unintegrated mixture of MATLAB and C code. In this paper, we introduce a more agile model for generating features, in which a flexible and user-guided mix of shearlet and wavelet features are computed. Compared to the previous prototype, this method introduces a flexibility to the order in which shearlet and wavelet features are used in the registration process. Moreover, the present algorithm is now fully coded in C, making it more efficient and portable than the MATLAB and C prototype. We demonstrate the versatility and computational efficiency of this approach by performing registration experiments with the fully-integrated C algorithm. In particular, meaningful timing studies can now be performed, to give a concrete analysis of the computational costs of the flexible feature extraction. Examples of synthetically warped and real multi-modal images are analyzed.

[New electronic data carriers in Bosnia-Herzegovina].

PubMed

Masić, I; Pandza, H; Knezević, Z; Toromanović, S

1999-01-01

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been developing new Health Care System based on Electronic Registration Card. Developing countries proceeded from the manual and semiautomatic method of medical data processing to the new method of entering, storage, transfer, searching and protection of data using electronic equipment. Currently, many European countries have developed a Medical Card Based Electronic Information System. Both technologies offer the advantages and disadvantages. Three types of electronic card are currently in use: Hybrid Card, Smart Card and Laser Card. Hybrid Card offers characteristics of both Smart Card and Laser Card. The differences among these cards, such as a capacity, total price, price per byte, security system are discussed here. The dilemma is, which card should be used as a data carrier. The Electronic Family Registration Card is a question of strategic interest for B&H, but also a big investment. We should avoid the errors of other countries that have been developing card-based system. In this article we present all mentioned cards and compare advantages and disadvantages of different technologies.

Vehicle registration compliance in Wisconsin : [summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-03-01

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) conducted an investigation : to improve its passenger vehicle registration processes, with the goals to modernize : techniques, reduce costs, enhance security and maximize compliance. WisDOTs : D...

Geometric registration of remotely sensed data with SAMIR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gianinetto, Marco; Barazzetti, Luigi; Dini, Luigi; Fusiello, Andrea; Toldo, Roberto

2015-06-01

The commercial market offers several software packages for the registration of remotely sensed data through standard one-to-one image matching. Although very rapid and simple, this strategy does not take into consideration all the interconnections among the images of a multi-temporal data set. This paper presents a new scientific software, called Satellite Automatic Multi-Image Registration (SAMIR), able to extend the traditional registration approach towards multi-image global processing. Tests carried out with high-resolution optical (IKONOS) and high-resolution radar (COSMO-SkyMed) data showed that SAMIR can improve the registration phase with a more rigorous and robust workflow without initial approximations, user's interaction or limitation in spatial/spectral data size. The validation highlighted a sub-pixel accuracy in image co-registration for the considered imaging technologies, including optical and radar imagery.

CSPP CDX Registration Guide

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

CDX allows users submitting data to the EPA to register for the specific program of interest. This Guide describes the registration process and information requirements associated with Submissions for the Chemical Safety and Pesticide Programs (CSPP).

Social media and internet driven study recruitment: evaluating a new model for promoting collaborator engagement and participation.

PubMed

Khatri, Chetan; Chapman, Stephen J; Glasbey, James; Kelly, Michael; Nepogodiev, Dmitri; Bhangu, Aneel; Fitzgerald, J Edward

2015-01-01

A substantial challenge facing multicentre audit and research projects is timely recruitment of collaborators and their study centres. Cost-effective strategies are required and fee-free social media has previously been identified as a potential conduit. We investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of a novel multi-format social media and Internet strategy for targeted recruitment to a national multicentre cohort study. Interventions involved a new Twitter account, including weekly live question-and-answer sessions, a new Facebook group page, online YouTube presentations and an information page on a national association website. Link tracking analysis was undertaken using Google Analytics, which was then related to subsequent registration. Social influence was calculated using the proprietary Klout score. Internet traffic analysis identified a total of 1562 unique registration site views, of which 285 originated from social media (18.2%). Some 528 unique registrations were received, with 96 via social media platforms (18.2%). Traffic source analysis identified a separate national association webpage as resulting in the majority of registration page views (15.8%), followed by Facebook (11.9%), Twitter (4.8%) and YouTube (1.5%). A combination of publicity through Facebook, Twitter and the dedicated national association webpage contributed to the greatest rise in registration traffic and accounted for 312 (48%) of the total registrations within a 2-week period. A Twitter 'social influence' (Klout) score of 42/100 was obtained during this period. Targeted social media substantially aided study dissemination and collaborator recruitment. It acted as an adjunct to traditional methods, accounting for 18.2% of collaborator registration in a short time period with no associated financial costs. We provide a practical model for designing future recruitment campaigns, and recommend Facebook, Twitter and targeted websites as the most effective adjuncts for maximising cost-effective study recruitment.

Social Media and Internet Driven Study Recruitment: Evaluating a New Model for Promoting Collaborator Engagement and Participation

PubMed Central

Khatri, Chetan; Chapman, Stephen J.; Glasbey, James; Kelly, Michael; Nepogodiev, Dmitri; Bhangu, Aneel; Fitzgerald, J. Edward

2015-01-01

Aims A substantial challenge facing multicentre audit and research projects is timely recruitment of collaborators and their study centres. Cost-effective strategies are required and fee-free social media has previously been identified as a potential conduit. We investigated and evaluated the effectiveness of a novel multi-format social media and Internet strategy for targeted recruitment to a national multicentre cohort study. Methods Interventions involved a new Twitter account, including weekly live question-and-answer sessions, a new Facebook group page, online YouTube presentations and an information page on a national association website. Link tracking analysis was undertaken using Google Analytics, which was then related to subsequent registration. Social influence was calculated using the proprietary Klout score. Results Internet traffic analysis identified a total of 1562 unique registration site views, of which 285 originated from social media (18.2%). Some 528 unique registrations were received, with 96 via social media platforms (18.2%). Traffic source analysis identified a separate national association webpage as resulting in the majority of registration page views (15.8%), followed by Facebook (11.9%), Twitter (4.8%) and YouTube (1.5%). A combination of publicity through Facebook, Twitter and the dedicated national association webpage contributed to the greatest rise in registration traffic and accounted for 312 (48%) of the total registrations within a 2-week period. A Twitter ‘social influence’ (Klout) score of 42/100 was obtained during this period. Conclusions Targeted social media substantially aided study dissemination and collaborator recruitment. It acted as an adjunct to traditional methods, accounting for 18.2% of collaborator registration in a short time period with no associated financial costs. We provide a practical model for designing future recruitment campaigns, and recommend Facebook, Twitter and targeted websites as the most effective adjuncts for maximising cost-effective study recruitment. PMID:25775005

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li Xiong; Viswanathan, Akila; Stewart, Alexandra J.

Cumulative dose distributions in fractionated radiation therapy depict the dose to normal tissues and therefore may permit an estimation of the risk of normal tissue complications. However, calculation of these distributions is highly challenging because of interfractional changes in the geometry of patient anatomy. This work presents an algorithm for deformable structure registration of the bladder and the verification of the accuracy of the algorithm using phantom and patient data. In this algorithm, the registration process involves conformal mapping of genus zero surfaces using finite element analysis, and guided by three control landmarks. The registration produces a correspondence between fractionsmore » of the triangular meshes used to describe the bladder surface. For validation of the algorithm, two types of balloons were inflated gradually to three times their original size, and several computerized tomography (CT) scans were taken during the process. The registration algorithm yielded a local accuracy of 4 mm along the balloon surface. The algorithm was then applied to CT data of patients receiving fractionated high-dose-rate brachytherapy to the vaginal cuff, with the vaginal cylinder in situ. The patients' bladder filling status was intentionally different for each fraction. The three required control landmark points were identified for the bladder based on anatomy. Out of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved study of 20 patients, 3 had radiographically identifiable points near the bladder surface that were used for verification of the accuracy of the registration. The verification point as seen in each fraction was compared with its predicted location based on affine as well as deformable registration. Despite the variation in bladder shape and volume, the deformable registration was accurate to 5 mm, consistently outperforming the affine registration. We conclude that the structure registration algorithm presented works with reasonable accuracy and provides a means of calculating cumulative dose distributions.« less

Splint sterilization--a potential registration hazard in computer-assisted surgery.

PubMed

Figl, Michael; Weber, Christoph; Assadian, Ojan; Toma, Cyril D; Traxler, Hannes; Seemann, Rudolf; Guevara-Rojas, Godoberto; Pöschl, Wolfgang P; Ewers, Rolf; Schicho, Kurt

2012-04-01

Registration of preoperative targeting information for the intraoperative situation is a crucial step in computer-assisted surgical interventions. Point-to-point registration using acrylic splints is among the most frequently used procedures. There are, however, no generally accepted recommendations for sterilization of the splint. An appropriate method for the thermolabile splint would be hydrogen peroxide-based plasma sterilization. This study evaluated the potential deformation of the splint undergoing such sterilization. Deformation was quantified using image-processing methods applied to computed tomographic (CT) volumes before and after sterilization. An acrylic navigation splint was used as the study object. Eight metallic markers placed in the splint were used for registration. Six steel spheres in the mouthpiece were used as targets. Two CT volumes of the splint were acquired before and after 5 sterilization cycles using a hydrogen peroxide sterilizer. Point-to-point registration was applied, and fiducial and target registration errors were computed. Surfaces were extracted from CT scans and Hausdorff distances were derived. Effectiveness of sterilization was determined using Geobacillus stearothermophilus. Fiducial-based registration of CT scans before and after sterilization resulted in a mean fiducial registration error of 0.74 mm; the target registration error in the mouthpiece was 0.15 mm. The Hausdorff distance, describing the maximal deformation of the splint, was 2.51 mm. Ninety percent of point-surface distances were shorter than 0.61 mm, and 95% were shorter than 0.73 mm. No bacterial growth was found after the sterilization process. Hydrogen peroxide-based low-temperature plasma sterilization does not deform the splint, which is the base for correct computer-navigated surgery. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

It is more efficient to type: innovative self-registration and appointment self-arrival system improves the patient reception process.

PubMed

Knight, Vickie; Guy, Rebecca J; Handan, Wand; Lu, Heng; McNulty, Anna

2014-06-01

In 2010, we introduced an express sexually transmitted infection/HIV testing service at a large metropolitan sexual health clinic, which significantly increased clinical service capacity. However, it also increased reception staff workload and caused backlogs of patients waiting to register or check in for appointments. We therefore implemented a new electronic self-registration and appointment self-arrival system in March 2012 to increase administrative efficiency and reduce waiting time for patients. We compared the median processing time overall and for each step of the registration and arrival process as well as the completeness of patient contact information recorded, in a 1-week period before and after the redesign of the registration system. χ2 Test and rank sum tests were used. Before the redesign, the median processing time was 8.33 minutes (interquartile range [IQR], 6.82-15.43), decreasing by 30% to 5.83 minutes (IQR, 4.75-7.42) when the new electronic self-registration and appointment self-arrival system was introduced (P < 0.001). The largest gain in efficiency was in the time taken to prepare the medical record for the clinician, reducing from a median of 5.31 minutes (IQR, 4.02-8.29) to 0.57 minutes (IQR, 0.38-1) in the 2 periods. Before implementation, 20% of patients provided a postal address and 31% an e-mail address, increasing to 60% and 70% post redesign, respectively (P < 0.001). Our evaluation shows that an electronic patient self-registration and appointment self-arrival system can improve clinic efficiency and save patient time. Systems like this one could be used by any outpatient service with large patient volumes as an integrated part of the electronic patient management system or as a standalone feature.

Challenges for the registration of vaccines in emerging countries: Differences in dossier requirements, application and evaluation processes.

PubMed

Dellepiane, Nora; Pagliusi, Sonia

2018-06-07

The divergence of regulatory requirements and processes in developing and emerging countries contributes to hamper vaccines' registration, and therefore delay access to high-quality, safe and efficacious vaccines for their respective populations. This report focuses on providing insights on the heterogeneity of registration requirements in terms of numbering structure and overall content of dossiers for marketing authorisation applications for vaccines in different areas of the world. While it also illustrates the divergence of regulatory processes in general, as well as the need to avoid redundant reviews, it does not claim to provide a comprehensive view of all processes nor existing facilitating mechanisms, nor is it intended to touch upon the differences in assessments made by different regulatory authorities. This report describes the work analysed by regulatory experts from vaccine manufacturing companies during a meeting held in Geneva in May 2017, in identifying and quantifying differences in the requirements for vaccine registration in three aspects for comparison: the dossier numbering structure and contents, the application forms, and the evaluation procedures, in different countries and regions. The Module 1 of the Common Technical Document (CTD) of 10 countries were compared. Modules 2-5 of the CTDs of two regions and three countries were compared to the CTD of the US FDA. The application forms of eight countries were compared and the registration procedures of 134 importing countries were compared as well. The analysis indicates a high degree of divergence in numbering structure and content requirements. Possible interventions that would lead to significant improvements in registration efficiency include alignment in CTD numbering structure, a standardised model-application form, and better convergence of evaluation procedures. Copyright © 2018.

Text messaging as a new method for injury registration in sports: a methodological study in elite female football.

PubMed

Nilstad, A; Bahr, R; Andersen, T E

2014-02-01

Methodological differences in epidemiologic studies have led to significant discrepancies in injury incidences reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate text messaging as a new method for injury registration in elite female football players and to compare this method with routine medical staff registration. Twelve teams comprising 228 players prospectively recorded injuries and exposure through one competitive football season. Players reported individually by answering three text messages once a week. A designated member of the medical staff conducted concurrent registrations of injuries and exposure. Injuries and exposure were compared between medical staff registrations from nine teams and their 159 affiliated players. During the football season, a total of 232 time-loss injuries were recorded. Of these, 62% were captured through individual registration only, 10% by the medical staff only, and 28% were reported through both methods. The incidence of training injuries was 3.7 per 1000 player hours when calculated from individual registration vs 2.2 from medical staff registration [rate ratio (RR): 1.7, 1.2-2.4]. For match injuries, the corresponding incidences were 18.6 vs 5.4 (RR: 3.4, 2.4-4.9), respectively. There was moderate agreement for severity classifications in injury cases reported by both methods (kappa correlation coefficient: 0.48, confidence interval: 0.30-0.66). © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Medical image registration based on normalized multidimensional mutual information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Qi; Ji, Hongbing; Tong, Ming

2009-10-01

Registration of medical images is an essential research topic in medical image processing and applications, and especially a preliminary and key step for multimodality image fusion. This paper offers a solution to medical image registration based on normalized multi-dimensional mutual information. Firstly, affine transformation with translational and rotational parameters is applied to the floating image. Then ordinal features are extracted by ordinal filters with different orientations to represent spatial information in medical images. Integrating ordinal features with pixel intensities, the normalized multi-dimensional mutual information is defined as similarity criterion to register multimodality images. Finally the immune algorithm is used to search registration parameters. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed registration scheme.

Extra-dimensional Demons: a method for incorporating missing tissue in deformable image registration.

PubMed

Nithiananthan, Sajendra; Schafer, Sebastian; Mirota, Daniel J; Stayman, J Webster; Zbijewski, Wojciech; Reh, Douglas D; Gallia, Gary L; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H

2012-09-01

A deformable registration method capable of accounting for missing tissue (e.g., excision) is reported for application in cone-beam CT (CBCT)-guided surgical procedures. Excisions are identified by a segmentation step performed simultaneous to the registration process. Tissue excision is explicitly modeled by increasing the dimensionality of the deformation field to allow motion beyond the dimensionality of the image. The accuracy of the model is tested in phantom, simulations, and cadaver models. A variant of the Demons deformable registration algorithm is modified to include excision segmentation and modeling. Segmentation is performed iteratively during the registration process, with initial implementation using a threshold-based approach to identify voxels corresponding to "tissue" in the moving image and "air" in the fixed image. With each iteration of the Demons process, every voxel is assigned a probability of excision. Excisions are modeled explicitly during registration by increasing the dimensionality of the deformation field so that both deformations and excisions can be accounted for by in- and out-of-volume deformations, respectively. The out-of-volume (i.e., fourth) component of the deformation field at each voxel carries a magnitude proportional to the excision probability computed in the excision segmentation step. The registration accuracy of the proposed "extra-dimensional" Demons (XDD) and conventional Demons methods was tested in the presence of missing tissue in phantom models, simulations investigating the effect of excision size on registration accuracy, and cadaver studies emulating realistic deformations and tissue excisions imparted in CBCT-guided endoscopic skull base surgery. Phantom experiments showed the normalized mutual information (NMI) in regions local to the excision to improve from 1.10 for the conventional Demons approach to 1.16 for XDD, and qualitative examination of the resulting images revealed major differences: the conventional Demons approach imparted unrealistic distortions in areas around tissue excision, whereas XDD provided accurate "ejection" of voxels within the excision site and maintained the registration accuracy throughout the rest of the image. Registration accuracy in areas far from the excision site (e.g., > ∼5 mm) was identical for the two approaches. Quantitation of the effect was consistent in analysis of NMI, normalized cross-correlation (NCC), target registration error (TRE), and accuracy of voxels ejected from the volume (true-positive and false-positive analysis). The registration accuracy for conventional Demons was found to degrade steeply as a function of excision size, whereas XDD was robust in this regard. Cadaver studies involving realistic excision of the clivus, vidian canal, and ethmoid sinuses demonstrated similar results, with unrealistic distortion of anatomy imparted by conventional Demons and accurate ejection and deformation for XDD. Adaptation of the Demons deformable registration process to include segmentation (i.e., identification of excised tissue) and an extra dimension in the deformation field provided a means to accurately accommodate missing tissue between image acquisitions. The extra-dimensional approach yielded accurate "ejection" of voxels local to the excision site while preserving the registration accuracy (typically subvoxel) of the conventional Demons approach throughout the rest of the image. The ability to accommodate missing tissue volumes is important to application of CBCT for surgical guidance (e.g., skull base drillout) and may have application in other areas of CBCT guidance.

Extra-dimensional Demons: A method for incorporating missing tissue in deformable image registration

PubMed Central

Nithiananthan, Sajendra; Schafer, Sebastian; Mirota, Daniel J.; Stayman, J. Webster; Zbijewski, Wojciech; Reh, Douglas D.; Gallia, Gary L.; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H.

2012-01-01

Purpose: A deformable registration method capable of accounting for missing tissue (e.g., excision) is reported for application in cone-beam CT (CBCT)-guided surgical procedures. Excisions are identified by a segmentation step performed simultaneous to the registration process. Tissue excision is explicitly modeled by increasing the dimensionality of the deformation field to allow motion beyond the dimensionality of the image. The accuracy of the model is tested in phantom, simulations, and cadaver models. Methods: A variant of the Demons deformable registration algorithm is modified to include excision segmentation and modeling. Segmentation is performed iteratively during the registration process, with initial implementation using a threshold-based approach to identify voxels corresponding to “tissue” in the moving image and “air” in the fixed image. With each iteration of the Demons process, every voxel is assigned a probability of excision. Excisions are modeled explicitly during registration by increasing the dimensionality of the deformation field so that both deformations and excisions can be accounted for by in- and out-of-volume deformations, respectively. The out-of-volume (i.e., fourth) component of the deformation field at each voxel carries a magnitude proportional to the excision probability computed in the excision segmentation step. The registration accuracy of the proposed “extra-dimensional” Demons (XDD) and conventional Demons methods was tested in the presence of missing tissue in phantom models, simulations investigating the effect of excision size on registration accuracy, and cadaver studies emulating realistic deformations and tissue excisions imparted in CBCT-guided endoscopic skull base surgery. Results: Phantom experiments showed the normalized mutual information (NMI) in regions local to the excision to improve from 1.10 for the conventional Demons approach to 1.16 for XDD, and qualitative examination of the resulting images revealed major differences: the conventional Demons approach imparted unrealistic distortions in areas around tissue excision, whereas XDD provided accurate “ejection” of voxels within the excision site and maintained the registration accuracy throughout the rest of the image. Registration accuracy in areas far from the excision site (e.g., > ∼5 mm) was identical for the two approaches. Quantitation of the effect was consistent in analysis of NMI, normalized cross-correlation (NCC), target registration error (TRE), and accuracy of voxels ejected from the volume (true-positive and false-positive analysis). The registration accuracy for conventional Demons was found to degrade steeply as a function of excision size, whereas XDD was robust in this regard. Cadaver studies involving realistic excision of the clivus, vidian canal, and ethmoid sinuses demonstrated similar results, with unrealistic distortion of anatomy imparted by conventional Demons and accurate ejection and deformation for XDD. Conclusions: Adaptation of the Demons deformable registration process to include segmentation (i.e., identification of excised tissue) and an extra dimension in the deformation field provided a means to accurately accommodate missing tissue between image acquisitions. The extra-dimensional approach yielded accurate “ejection” of voxels local to the excision site while preserving the registration accuracy (typically subvoxel) of the conventional Demons approach throughout the rest of the image. The ability to accommodate missing tissue volumes is important to application of CBCT for surgical guidance (e.g., skull base drillout) and may have application in other areas of CBCT guidance. PMID:22957637

Influence of image registration on ADC images computed from free-breathing diffusion MRIs of the abdomen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guyader, Jean-Marie; Bernardin, Livia; Douglas, Naomi H. M.; Poot, Dirk H. J.; Niessen, Wiro J.; Klein, Stefan

2014-03-01

The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is an imaging biomarker providing quantitative information on the diffusion of water in biological tissues. This measurement could be of relevance in oncology drug development, but it suffers from a lack of reliability. ADC images are computed by applying a voxelwise exponential fitting to multiple diffusion-weighted MR images (DW-MRIs) acquired with different diffusion gradients. In the abdomen, respiratory motion induces misalignments in the datasets, creating visible artefacts and inducing errors in the ADC maps. We propose a multistep post-acquisition motion compensation pipeline based on 3D non-rigid registrations. It corrects for motion within each image and brings all DW-MRIs to a common image space. The method is evaluated on 10 datasets of free-breathing abdominal DW-MRIs acquired from healthy volunteers. Regions of interest (ROIs) are segmented in the right part of the abdomen and measurements are compared in the three following cases: no image processing, Gaussian blurring of the raw DW-MRIs and registration. Results show that both blurring and registration improve the visual quality of ADC images, but compared to blurring, registration yields visually sharper images. Measurement uncertainty is reduced both by registration and blurring. For homogeneous ROIs, blurring and registration result in similar median ADCs, which are lower than without processing. In a ROI at the interface between liver and kidney, registration and blurring yield different median ADCs, suggesting that uncorrected motion introduces a bias. Our work indicates that averaging procedures on the scanner should be avoided, as they remove the opportunity to perform motion correction.

A fast image registration approach of neural activities in light-sheet fluorescence microscopy images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui; Hui, Hui; Hu, Chaoen; Yang, Xin; Tian, Jie

2017-03-01

The ability of fast and single-neuron resolution imaging of neural activities enables light-sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) as a powerful imaging technique in functional neural connection applications. The state-of-art LSFM imaging system can record the neuronal activities of entire brain for small animal, such as zebrafish or C. elegans at single-neuron resolution. However, the stimulated and spontaneous movements in animal brain result in inconsistent neuron positions during recording process. It is time consuming to register the acquired large-scale images with conventional method. In this work, we address the problem of fast registration of neural positions in stacks of LSFM images. This is necessary to register brain structures and activities. To achieve fast registration of neural activities, we present a rigid registration architecture by implementation of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). In this approach, the image stacks were preprocessed on GPU by mean stretching to reduce the computation effort. The present image was registered to the previous image stack that considered as reference. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm was used for calculating the shift of the image stack. The calculations for image registration were performed in different threads while the preparation functionality was refactored and called only once by the master thread. We implemented our registration algorithm on NVIDIA Quadro K4200 GPU under Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) programming environment. The experimental results showed that the registration computation can speed-up to 550ms for a full high-resolution brain image. Our approach also has potential to be used for other dynamic image registrations in biomedical applications.

Efficient methods for implementation of multi-level nonrigid mass-preserving image registration on GPUs and multi-threaded CPUs.

PubMed

Ellingwood, Nathan D; Yin, Youbing; Smith, Matthew; Lin, Ching-Long

2016-04-01

Faster and more accurate methods for registration of images are important for research involved in conducting population-based studies that utilize medical imaging, as well as improvements for use in clinical applications. We present a novel computation- and memory-efficient multi-level method on graphics processing units (GPU) for performing registration of two computed tomography (CT) volumetric lung images. We developed a computation- and memory-efficient Diffeomorphic Multi-level B-Spline Transform Composite (DMTC) method to implement nonrigid mass-preserving registration of two CT lung images on GPU. The framework consists of a hierarchy of B-Spline control grids of increasing resolution. A similarity criterion known as the sum of squared tissue volume difference (SSTVD) was adopted to preserve lung tissue mass. The use of SSTVD consists of the calculation of the tissue volume, the Jacobian, and their derivatives, which makes its implementation on GPU challenging due to memory constraints. The use of the DMTC method enabled reduced computation and memory storage of variables with minimal communication between GPU and Central Processing Unit (CPU) due to ability to pre-compute values. The method was assessed on six healthy human subjects. Resultant GPU-generated displacement fields were compared against the previously validated CPU counterpart fields, showing good agreement with an average normalized root mean square error (nRMS) of 0.044±0.015. Runtime and performance speedup are compared between single-threaded CPU, multi-threaded CPU, and GPU algorithms. Best performance speedup occurs at the highest resolution in the GPU implementation for the SSTVD cost and cost gradient computations, with a speedup of 112 times that of the single-threaded CPU version and 11 times over the twelve-threaded version when considering average time per iteration using a Nvidia Tesla K20X GPU. The proposed GPU-based DMTC method outperforms its multi-threaded CPU version in terms of runtime. Total registration time reduced runtime to 2.9min on the GPU version, compared to 12.8min on twelve-threaded CPU version and 112.5min on a single-threaded CPU. Furthermore, the GPU implementation discussed in this work can be adapted for use of other cost functions that require calculation of the first derivatives. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-rigid multi-frame registration of cell nuclei in live cell fluorescence microscopy image data.

PubMed

Tektonidis, Marco; Kim, Il-Han; Chen, Yi-Chun M; Eils, Roland; Spector, David L; Rohr, Karl

2015-01-01

The analysis of the motion of subcellular particles in live cell microscopy images is essential for understanding biological processes within cells. For accurate quantification of the particle motion, compensation of the motion and deformation of the cell nucleus is required. We introduce a non-rigid multi-frame registration approach for live cell fluorescence microscopy image data. Compared to existing approaches using pairwise registration, our approach exploits information from multiple consecutive images simultaneously to improve the registration accuracy. We present three intensity-based variants of the multi-frame registration approach and we investigate two different temporal weighting schemes. The approach has been successfully applied to synthetic and live cell microscopy image sequences, and an experimental comparison with non-rigid pairwise registration has been carried out. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Process Evaluation of a School-Based Education Program about Organ Donation and Registration, and the Intention for Continuance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reubsaet, A.; Reinaerts, E. B. M.; Brug, J.; van Hooff, J. P.; van den Borne, H. W.

2004-01-01

This paper describes the process evaluation of an organ donation education program for high school students aged 15-18 years of which the effectiveness was established. The program consisted of three components: a video with group discussion, an interactive computer-tailored program and a registration training session. A cross-sectional survey was…

On-line range images registration with GPGPU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Będkowski, J.; Naruniec, J.

2013-03-01

This paper concerns implementation of algorithms in the two important aspects of modern 3D data processing: data registration and segmentation. Solution proposed for the first topic is based on the 3D space decomposition, while the latter on image processing and local neighbourhood search. Data processing is implemented by using NVIDIA compute unified device architecture (NIVIDIA CUDA) parallel computation. The result of the segmentation is a coloured map where different colours correspond to different objects, such as walls, floor and stairs. The research is related to the problem of collecting 3D data with a RGB-D camera mounted on a rotated head, to be used in mobile robot applications. Performance of the data registration algorithm is aimed for on-line processing. The iterative closest point (ICP) approach is chosen as a registration method. Computations are based on the parallel fast nearest neighbour search. This procedure decomposes 3D space into cubic buckets and, therefore, the time of the matching is deterministic. First technique of the data segmentation uses accele-rometers integrated with a RGB-D sensor to obtain rotation compensation and image processing method for defining pre-requisites of the known categories. The second technique uses the adapted nearest neighbour search procedure for obtaining normal vectors for each range point.

Research on interpolation methods in medical image processing.

PubMed

Pan, Mei-Sen; Yang, Xiao-Li; Tang, Jing-Tian

2012-04-01

Image interpolation is widely used for the field of medical image processing. In this paper, interpolation methods are divided into three groups: filter interpolation, ordinary interpolation and general partial volume interpolation. Some commonly-used filter methods for image interpolation are pioneered, but the interpolation effects need to be further improved. When analyzing and discussing ordinary interpolation, many asymmetrical kernel interpolation methods are proposed. Compared with symmetrical kernel ones, the former are have some advantages. After analyzing the partial volume and generalized partial volume estimation interpolations, the new concept and constraint conditions of the general partial volume interpolation are defined, and several new partial volume interpolation functions are derived. By performing the experiments of image scaling, rotation and self-registration, the interpolation methods mentioned in this paper are compared in the entropy, peak signal-to-noise ratio, cross entropy, normalized cross-correlation coefficient and running time. Among the filter interpolation methods, the median and B-spline filter interpolations have a relatively better interpolating performance. Among the ordinary interpolation methods, on the whole, the symmetrical cubic kernel interpolations demonstrate a strong advantage, especially the symmetrical cubic B-spline interpolation. However, we have to mention that they are very time-consuming and have lower time efficiency. As for the general partial volume interpolation methods, from the total error of image self-registration, the symmetrical interpolations provide certain superiority; but considering the processing efficiency, the asymmetrical interpolations are better.

Perceptions of the living dead: An assessment of knowledge and opinions about whole body donation, its process, and willingness to become cadaveric donors in Pennsylvania.

PubMed

Larner, Sean P; Mcquone, Brian; Schober, Justine M; Loukas, Marios; Terrell, Mark

2015-05-01

Despite the many important uses for human cadavers, there is a relative shortage of bodies donated to the scientific community in the United States of America. The purpose of this study was to determine the community's perceptions regarding whole body donation and their willingness to become donors. Moreover, we aimed to investigate people's understanding of the process of whole body donation, and examine their opinions regarding its importance. Individuals in Erie, Pennsylvania were surveyed. Data were collected via a questionnaire, which was offered to friends and family members of patients in the waiting area of the UPMC Hamot Surgery Center. All participants were residents of Erie County. The questionnaire was designed to evaluate knowledge and opinions about whole body donation. A total of 123 people completed the survey. We found people were willing to become whole body donors and understood the importance of this giving act, but lacked understanding about the registration process and the use of donated bodies. Participants revealed the belief that they have the right to decide what is to be done with their bodies after death, but did not indicate specific negative repercussions of becoming whole body donors. In conclusion, our findings indicate that the shortage of cadaveric donors could be due to lack of understanding about whole body donation and the registration process. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Demons deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT using an iterative intensity matching approach.

PubMed

Nithiananthan, Sajendra; Schafer, Sebastian; Uneri, Ali; Mirota, Daniel J; Stayman, J Webster; Zbijewski, Wojciech; Brock, Kristy K; Daly, Michael J; Chan, Harley; Irish, Jonathan C; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H

2011-04-01

A method of intensity-based deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT (CBCT) images is described, in which intensity correction occurs simultaneously within the iterative registration process. The method preserves the speed and simplicity of the popular Demons algorithm while providing robustness and accuracy in the presence of large mismatch between CT and CBCT voxel values ("intensity"). A variant of the Demons algorithm was developed in which an estimate of the relationship between CT and CBCT intensity values for specific materials in the image is computed at each iteration based on the set of currently overlapping voxels. This tissue-specific intensity correction is then used to estimate the registration output for that iteration and the process is repeated. The robustness of the method was tested in CBCT images of a cadaveric head exhibiting a broad range of simulated intensity variations associated with x-ray scatter, object truncation, and/or errors in the reconstruction algorithm. The accuracy of CT-CBCT registration was also measured in six real cases, exhibiting deformations ranging from simple to complex during surgery or radiotherapy guided by a CBCT-capable C-arm or linear accelerator, respectively. The iterative intensity matching approach was robust against all levels of intensity variation examined, including spatially varying errors in voxel value of a factor of 2 or more, as can be encountered in cases of high x-ray scatter. Registration accuracy without intensity matching degraded severely with increasing magnitude of intensity error and introduced image distortion. A single histogram match performed prior to registration alleviated some of these effects but was also prone to image distortion and was quantifiably less robust and accurate than the iterative approach. Within the six case registration accuracy study, iterative intensity matching Demons reduced mean TRE to (2.5 +/- 2.8) mm compared to (3.5 +/- 3.0) mm with rigid registration. A method was developed to iteratively correct CT-CBCT intensity disparity during Demons registration, enabling fast, intensity-based registration in CBCT-guided procedures such as surgery and radiotherapy, in which CBCT voxel values may be inaccurate. Accurate CT-CBCT registration in turn facilitates registration of multimodality preoperative image and planning data to intraoperative CBCT by way of the preoperative CT, thereby linking the intraoperative frame of reference to a wealth of preoperative information that could improve interventional guidance.

Computer image-guided surgery for total maxillectomy.

PubMed

Homma, Akihiro; Saheki, Masahiko; Suzuki, Fumiyuki; Fukuda, Satoshi

2008-12-01

In total maxillectomy, the entire upper jaw including the tumor is removed en bloc from the facial skeleton. An intraoperative computed tomographic guidance system (ICTGS) can improve orientation during surgical procedures. However, its efficacy in head and neck surgery remains controversial. This study evaluated the use of an ICTGS in total maxillectomy. Five patients with maxillary sinus neoplasms underwent surgery using a StealthStation ICTGS. The headset was used for anatomic registration during the preoperative CT scan and surgical procedure. The average accuracy was 0.95 mm. The ICTGS provided satisfactory accuracy until the end of resection in all cases, and helped the surgeon to confirm the anatomical location and decide upon the extent of removal in real time. It was particularly useful when the zygoma, maxillary frontal process, orbital floor, and pterygoid process were divided. All patients remained alive and disease free during short-term follow-up. The ICTGS played a supplementary role in total maxillectomy, helping the surgeon to recognize target points accurately in real time, to determine the minimum accurate bone-resection line, and to use the most direct route to reach the lesion. It could also reduce the extent of the skin incision and removal, thus maintaining oncological safety.

Image Navigation and Registration Performance Assessment Evaluation Tools for GOES-R ABI and GLM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Houchin, Scott; Porter, Brian; Graybill, Justin; Slingerland, Philip

2017-01-01

The GOES-R Flight Project has developed an Image Navigation and Registration (INR) Performance Assessment Tool Set (IPATS) for measuring Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) INR performance metrics in the post-launch period for performance evaluation and long term monitoring. IPATS utilizes a modular algorithmic design to allow user selection of data processing sequences optimized for generation of each INR metric. This novel modular approach minimizes duplication of common processing elements, thereby maximizing code efficiency and speed. Fast processing is essential given the large number of sub-image registrations required to generate INR metrics for the many images produced over a 24 hour evaluation period. This paper describes the software design and implementation of IPATS and provides preliminary test results.

78 FR 76613 - Registration Applications for Pesticide Products Containing New Active Ingredients; Corrections

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-18

..., 2012, concerning a new active ingredient (AI). The name of an AI was changed during the registration assessment process. This document corrects the name of the AI. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert...

Joint image registration and fusion method with a gradient strength regularization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lidong, Huang; Wei, Zhao; Jun, Wang

2015-05-01

Image registration is an essential process for image fusion, and fusion performance can be used to evaluate registration accuracy. We propose a maximum likelihood (ML) approach to joint image registration and fusion instead of treating them as two independent processes in the conventional way. To improve the visual quality of a fused image, a gradient strength (GS) regularization is introduced in the cost function of ML. The GS of the fused image is controllable by setting the target GS value in the regularization term. This is useful because a larger target GS brings a clearer fused image and a smaller target GS makes the fused image smoother and thus restrains noise. Hence, the subjective quality of the fused image can be improved whether the source images are polluted by noise or not. We can obtain the fused image and registration parameters successively by minimizing the cost function using an iterative optimization method. Experimental results show that our method is effective with transformation, rotation, and scale parameters in the range of [-2.0, 2.0] pixel, [-1.1 deg, 1.1 deg], and [0.95, 1.05], respectively, and variances of noise smaller than 300. It also demonstrated that our method yields a more visual pleasing fused image and higher registration accuracy compared with a state-of-the-art algorithm.

Band co-registration modeling of LAPAN-A3/IPB multispectral imager based on satellite attitude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hakim, P. R.; Syafrudin, A. H.; Utama, S.; Jayani, A. P. S.

2018-05-01

One of significant geometric distortion on images of LAPAN-A3/IPB multispectral imager is co-registration error between each color channel detector. Band co-registration distortion usually can be corrected by using several approaches, which are manual method, image matching algorithm, or sensor modeling and calibration approach. This paper develops another approach to minimize band co-registration distortion on LAPAN-A3/IPB multispectral image by using supervised modeling of image matching with respect to satellite attitude. Modeling results show that band co-registration error in across-track axis is strongly influenced by yaw angle, while error in along-track axis is fairly influenced by both pitch and roll angle. Accuracy of the models obtained is pretty good, which lies between 1-3 pixels error for each axis of each pair of band co-registration. This mean that the model can be used to correct the distorted images without the need of slower image matching algorithm, nor the laborious effort needed in manual approach and sensor calibration. Since the calculation can be executed in order of seconds, this approach can be used in real time quick-look image processing in ground station or even in satellite on-board image processing.

Phantom Study Investigating the Accuracy of Manual and Automatic Image Fusion with the GE Logiq E9: Implications for use in Percutaneous Liver Interventions.

PubMed

Burgmans, Mark Christiaan; den Harder, J Michiel; Meershoek, Philippa; van den Berg, Nynke S; Chan, Shaun Xavier Ju Min; van Leeuwen, Fijs W B; van Erkel, Arian R

2017-06-01

To determine the accuracy of automatic and manual co-registration methods for image fusion of three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) with real-time ultrasonography (US) for image-guided liver interventions. CT images of a skills phantom with liver lesions were acquired and co-registered to US using GE Logiq E9 navigation software. Manual co-registration was compared to automatic and semiautomatic co-registration using an active tracker. Also, manual point registration was compared to plane registration with and without an additional translation point. Finally, comparison was made between manual and automatic selection of reference points. In each experiment, accuracy of the co-registration method was determined by measurement of the residual displacement in phantom lesions by two independent observers. Mean displacements for a superficial and deep liver lesion were comparable after manual and semiautomatic co-registration: 2.4 and 2.0 mm versus 2.0 and 2.5 mm, respectively. Both methods were significantly better than automatic co-registration: 5.9 and 5.2 mm residual displacement (p < 0.001; p < 0.01). The accuracy of manual point registration was higher than that of plane registration, the latter being heavily dependent on accurate matching of axial CT and US images by the operator. Automatic reference point selection resulted in significantly lower registration accuracy compared to manual point selection despite lower root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) values. The accuracy of manual and semiautomatic co-registration is better than that of automatic co-registration. For manual co-registration using a plane, choosing the correct plane orientation is an essential first step in the registration process. Automatic reference point selection based on RMSD values is error-prone.

3D ultrasound volume stitching using phase symmetry and harris corner detection for orthopaedic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalvi, Rupin; Hacihaliloglu, Ilker; Abugharbieh, Rafeef

2010-03-01

Stitching of volumes obtained from three dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) scanners improves visualization of anatomy in many clinical applications. Fast but accurate volume registration remains the key challenge in this area.We propose a volume stitching method based on efficient registration of 3D US volumes obtained from a tracked US probe. Since the volumes, after adjusting for probe motion, are coarsely registered, we obtain salient correspondence points in the central slices of these volumes. This is done by first removing artifacts in the US slices using intensity invariant local phase image processing and then applying the Harris Corner detection algorithm. Fast sub-volume registration on a small neighborhood around the points then gives fast, accurate 3D registration parameters. The method has been tested on 3D US scans of phantom and real human radius and pelvis bones and a phantom human fetus. The method has also been compared to volumetric registration, as well as feature based registration using 3D-SIFT. Quantitative results show average post-registration error of 0.33mm which is comparable to volumetric registration accuracy (0.31mm) and much better than 3D-SIFT based registration which failed to register the volumes. The proposed method was also much faster than volumetric registration (~4.5 seconds versus 83 seconds).

Introduction to Remote Sensing Image Registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Le Moigne, Jacqueline

2017-01-01

For many applications, accurate and fast image registration of large amounts of multi-source data is the first necessary step before subsequent processing and integration. Image registration is defined by several steps and each step can be approached by various methods which all present diverse advantages and drawbacks depending on the type of data, the type of applications, the a prior information known about the data and the type of accuracy that is required. This paper will first present a general overview of remote sensing image registration and then will go over a few specific methods and their applications

Monitoring tumor motion by real time 2D/3D registration during radiotherapy.

PubMed

Gendrin, Christelle; Furtado, Hugo; Weber, Christoph; Bloch, Christoph; Figl, Michael; Pawiro, Supriyanto Ardjo; Bergmann, Helmar; Stock, Markus; Fichtinger, Gabor; Georg, Dietmar; Birkfellner, Wolfgang

2012-02-01

In this paper, we investigate the possibility to use X-ray based real time 2D/3D registration for non-invasive tumor motion monitoring during radiotherapy. The 2D/3D registration scheme is implemented using general purpose computation on graphics hardware (GPGPU) programming techniques and several algorithmic refinements in the registration process. Validation is conducted off-line using a phantom and five clinical patient data sets. The registration is performed on a region of interest (ROI) centered around the planned target volume (PTV). The phantom motion is measured with an rms error of 2.56 mm. For the patient data sets, a sinusoidal movement that clearly correlates to the breathing cycle is shown. Videos show a good match between X-ray and digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRR) displacement. Mean registration time is 0.5 s. We have demonstrated that real-time organ motion monitoring using image based markerless registration is feasible. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Correlation and registration of ERTS multispectral imagery. [by a digital processing technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bonrud, L. O.; Henrikson, P. J.

1974-01-01

Examples of automatic digital processing demonstrate the feasibility of registering one ERTS multispectral scanner (MSS) image with another obtained on a subsequent orbit, and automatic matching, correlation, and registration of MSS imagery with aerial photography (multisensor correlation) is demonstrated. Excellent correlation was obtained with patch sizes exceeding 16 pixels square. Qualities which lead to effective control point selection are distinctive features, good contrast, and constant feature characteristics. Results of the study indicate that more than 300 degrees of freedom are required to register two standard ERTS-1 MSS frames covering 100 by 100 nautical miles to an accuracy of 0.6 pixel mean radial displacement error. An automatic strip processing technique demonstrates 600 to 1200 degrees of freedom over a quater frame of ERTS imagery. Registration accuracies in the range of 0.3 pixel to 0.5 pixel mean radial error were confirmed by independent error analysis. Accuracies in the range of 0.5 pixel to 1.4 pixel mean radial error were demonstrated by semi-automatic registration over small geographic areas.

Automating measurement of subtle changes in articular cartilage from MRI of the knee by combining 3D image registration and segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lynch, John A.; Zaim, Souhil; Zhao, Jenny; Peterfy, Charles G.; Genant, Harry K.

2001-07-01

In osteoarthritis, articular cartilage loses integrity and becomes thinned. This usually occurs at sites which bear weight during normal use. Measurement of such loss from MRI scans, requires precise and reproducible techniques, which can overcome the difficulties of patient repositioning within the scanner. In this study, we combine a previously described technique for segmentation of cartilage from MRI of the knee, with a technique for 3D image registration that matches localized regions of interest at followup and baseline. Two patients, who had recently undergone meniscal surgery, and developed lesions during the 12 month followup period were examined. Image registration matched regions of interest (ROI) between baseline and followup, and changes within the cartilage lesions were estimate to be about a 16% reduction in cartilage volume within each ROI. This was more than 5 times the reproducibility of the measurement, but only represented a change of between 1 and 2% in total femoral cartilage volume. Changes in total cartilage volume may be insensitive for quantifying changes in cartilage morphology. A combined used of automated image segmentation, with 3D image registration could be a useful tool for the precise and sensitive measurement of localized changes in cartilage from MRI of the knee.

[Research on non-rigid registration of multi-modal medical image based on Demons algorithm].

PubMed

Hao, Peibo; Chen, Zhen; Jiang, Shaofeng; Wang, Yang

2014-02-01

Non-rigid medical image registration is a popular subject in the research areas of the medical image and has an important clinical value. In this paper we put forward an improved algorithm of Demons, together with the conservation of gray model and local structure tensor conservation model, to construct a new energy function processing multi-modal registration problem. We then applied the L-BFGS algorithm to optimize the energy function and solve complex three-dimensional data optimization problem. And finally we used the multi-scale hierarchical refinement ideas to solve large deformation registration. The experimental results showed that the proposed algorithm for large de formation and multi-modal three-dimensional medical image registration had good effects.

Optimizing image registration and infarct definition in stroke research.

PubMed

Harston, George W J; Minks, David; Sheerin, Fintan; Payne, Stephen J; Chappell, Michael; Jezzard, Peter; Jenkinson, Mark; Kennedy, James

2017-03-01

Accurate representation of final infarct volume is essential for assessing the efficacy of stroke interventions in imaging-based studies. This study defines the impact of image registration methods used at different timepoints following stroke, and the implications for infarct definition in stroke research. Patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke were imaged serially using magnetic resonance imaging. Infarct volume was defined manually using four metrics: 24-h b1000 imaging; 1-week and 1-month T2-weighted FLAIR; and automatically using predefined thresholds of ADC at 24 h. Infarct overlap statistics and volumes were compared across timepoints following both rigid body and nonlinear image registration to the presenting MRI. The effect of nonlinear registration on a hypothetical trial sample size was calculated. Thirty-seven patients were included. Nonlinear registration improved infarct overlap statistics and consistency of total infarct volumes across timepoints, and reduced infarct volumes by 4.0 mL (13.1%) and 7.1 mL (18.2%) at 24 h and 1 week, respectively, compared to rigid body registration. Infarct volume at 24 h, defined using a predetermined ADC threshold, was less sensitive to infarction than b1000 imaging. 1-week T2-weighted FLAIR imaging was the most accurate representation of final infarct volume. Nonlinear registration reduced hypothetical trial sample size, independent of infarct volume, by an average of 13%. Nonlinear image registration may offer the opportunity of improving the accuracy of infarct definition in serial imaging studies compared to rigid body registration, helping to overcome the challenges of anatomical distortions at subacute timepoints, and reducing sample size for imaging-based clinical trials.

Local-search based prediction of medical image registration error

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saygili, Görkem

2018-03-01

Medical image registration is a crucial task in many different medical imaging applications. Hence, considerable amount of work has been published recently that aim to predict the error in a registration without any human effort. If provided, these error predictions can be used as a feedback to the registration algorithm to further improve its performance. Recent methods generally start with extracting image-based and deformation-based features, then apply feature pooling and finally train a Random Forest (RF) regressor to predict the real registration error. Image-based features can be calculated after applying a single registration but provide limited accuracy whereas deformation-based features such as variation of deformation vector field may require up to 20 registrations which is a considerably high time-consuming task. This paper proposes to use extracted features from a local search algorithm as image-based features to estimate the error of a registration. The proposed method comprises a local search algorithm to find corresponding voxels between registered image pairs and based on the amount of shifts and stereo confidence measures, it predicts the amount of registration error in millimetres densely using a RF regressor. Compared to other algorithms in the literature, the proposed algorithm does not require multiple registrations, can be efficiently implemented on a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) and can still provide highly accurate error predictions in existence of large registration error. Experimental results with real registrations on a public dataset indicate a substantially high accuracy achieved by using features from the local search algorithm.

Image segmentation and registration for the analysis of joint motion from 3D MRI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Yangqiu; Haynor, David R.; Fassbind, Michael; Rohr, Eric; Ledoux, William

2006-03-01

We report an image segmentation and registration method for studying joint morphology and kinematics from in vivo MRI scans and its application to the analysis of ankle joint motion. Using an MR-compatible loading device, a foot was scanned in a single neutral and seven dynamic positions including maximal flexion, rotation and inversion/eversion. A segmentation method combining graph cuts and level sets was developed which allows a user to interactively delineate 14 bones in the neutral position volume in less than 30 minutes total, including less than 10 minutes of user interaction. In the subsequent registration step, a separate rigid body transformation for each bone is obtained by registering the neutral position dataset to each of the dynamic ones, which produces an accurate description of the motion between them. We have processed six datasets, including 3 normal and 3 pathological feet. For validation our results were compared with those obtained from 3DViewnix, a semi-automatic segmentation program, and achieved good agreement in volume overlap ratios (mean: 91.57%, standard deviation: 3.58%) for all bones. Our tool requires only 1/50 and 1/150 of the user interaction time required by 3DViewnix and NIH Image Plus, respectively, an improvement that has the potential to make joint motion analysis from MRI practical in research and clinical applications.

The timing of introduction of pharmaceutical innovations in seven European countries

PubMed Central

Westerling, Ragnar; Westin, Marcus; McKee, Martin; Hoffmann, Rasmus; Plug, Iris; Rey, Grégoire; Jougla, Eric; Lang, Katrin; Pärna, Kersti; Alfonso, José L; Mackenbach, Johan P

2014-01-01

Rationale, aims and objectives Differences in the performance of medical care may be due to variation in the introduction and diffusion of medical innovations. The objective of this paper is to compare seven European countries (United Kingdom, the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Spain, Estonia and Sweden) with regard to the year of introduction of six specific pharmaceutical innovations (antiretroviral drugs, cimetidine, tamoxifen, cisplatin, oxalaplatin and cyclosporin) that may have had important population health impacts. Methods We collected information on introduction and further diffusion of drugs using searches in the national and international literature, and questionnaires to national informants. We combined various sources of information, both official years of registration and other indicators of introduction (clinical trials, guidelines, evaluation reports, sales statistics). Results and conclusions The total length of the period between first and last introduction varied between 8 years for antiretroviral drugs and 22 years for cisplatin. Introduction in Estonia was generally delayed until the 1990s. The average time lags were smallest in France (2.2 years), United Kingdom (2.8 years) and the Netherlands (3.5 years). Similar rank orders were seen for year of registration suggesting that introduction lags are not only explained by differences in the process of registration. We discuss possible reasons for these between-country differences and implications for the evaluation of medical care. PMID:24750393

The timing of introduction of pharmaceutical innovations in seven European countries.

PubMed

Westerling, Ragnar; Westin, Marcus; McKee, Martin; Hoffmann, Rasmus; Plug, Iris; Rey, Grégoire; Jougla, Eric; Lang, Katrin; Pärna, Kersti; Alfonso, José L; Mackenbach, Johan P

2014-08-01

Differences in the performance of medical care may be due to variation in the introduction and diffusion of medical innovations. The objective of this paper is to compare seven European countries (United Kingdom, the Netherlands, West Germany, France, Spain, Estonia and Sweden) with regard to the year of introduction of six specific pharmaceutical innovations (antiretroviral drugs, cimetidine, tamoxifen, cisplatin, oxalaplatin and cyclosporin) that may have had important population health impacts. We collected information on introduction and further diffusion of drugs using searches in the national and international literature, and questionnaires to national informants. We combined various sources of information, both official years of registration and other indicators of introduction (clinical trials, guidelines, evaluation reports, sales statistics). The total length of the period between first and last introduction varied between 8 years for antiretroviral drugs and 22 years for cisplatin. Introduction in Estonia was generally delayed until the 1990s. The average time lags were smallest in France (2.2 years), United Kingdom (2.8 years) and the Netherlands (3.5 years). Similar rank orders were seen for year of registration suggesting that introduction lags are not only explained by differences in the process of registration. We discuss possible reasons for these between-country differences and implications for the evaluation of medical care. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Closing the loop of the medication use process using electronic medication administration registration.

PubMed

Lenderink, Bertil W; Egberts, Toine C G

2004-08-01

Recent reports and studies of errors in the medication process have raised the awareness of the threat to public health. An essential step in this multi-stage process is the actual administration of a medicine to the patient. The closed loop system is thought to be a way of preventing medication errors. Current information technology can facilitate this process. This article describes the way barcode technology is being used to facilitate medication administration registration on several wards in our hospital and nursing home.

Strengthening of local vital events registration: lessons learnt from a voluntary sector initiative in a district in southern India.

PubMed

Mony, Prem; Sankar, Kiruba; Thomas, Tinku; Vaz, Mario

2011-05-01

Birth and death registration rates are low in most parts of India. Poor registration rates are due to constraints in both the government system (supply-side) and the general population (demand-side). We strengthened vital event registration at the local level within the existing legal framework by: (i) involving a non-profit organization as an interface between the government and the community; (ii) conducting supply-side interventions such as sensitization workshops for government officials, training for hospital staff and building data-sharing partnerships between stakeholders; (iii) monitoring for vital events by active surveillance through lay-informants; and (iv) conducting demand-side interventions such as publicity campaigns, education of families and assistance with registration. In the government sector, registration is given low priority and there is an attitude of blaming the victim, ascribing low levels of vital event registration to "cultural reasons/ignorance ". In the community, low registration was due to lack of awareness about the importance of and procedures for registration. This initiative helped improve registration of births and deaths at the subdistrict level. Vital event registration was significantly associated with local equity stratifiers such as gender, socioeconomic status and geography. The voluntary sector can interface effectively between the government and the community to strengthen vital registration. With political support from the government, outreach activities can dramatically improve vital event registration rates, especially in disadvantaged populations. The potential relevance of the data and the data collection process to stakeholders at the local level is a critical factor for success.

Image Registration of High-Resolution Uav Data: the New Hypare Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bahr, T.; Jin, X.; Lasica, R.; Giessel, D.

2013-08-01

Unmanned aerial vehicles play an important role in the present-day civilian and military intelligence. Equipped with a variety of sensors, such as SAR imaging modes, E/O- and IR sensor technology, they are due to their agility suitable for many applications. Hence, the necessity arises to use fusion technologies and to develop them continuously. Here an exact image-to-image registration is essential. It serves as the basis for important image processing operations such as georeferencing, change detection, and data fusion. Therefore we developed the Hybrid Powered Auto-Registration Engine (HyPARE). HyPARE combines all available spatial reference information with a number of image registration approaches to improve the accuracy, performance, and automation of tie point generation and image registration. We demonstrate this approach by the registration of 39 still images from a high-resolution image stream, acquired with a Aeryon Photo3S™ camera on an Aeryon Scout micro-UAV™.

Learning intervention-induced deformations for non-rigid MR-CT registration and electrode localization in epilepsy patients

PubMed Central

Onofrey, John A.; Staib, Lawrence H.; Papademetris, Xenophon

2015-01-01

This paper describes a framework for learning a statistical model of non-rigid deformations induced by interventional procedures. We make use of this learned model to perform constrained non-rigid registration of pre-procedural and post-procedural imaging. We demonstrate results applying this framework to non-rigidly register post-surgical computed tomography (CT) brain images to pre-surgical magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of epilepsy patients who had intra-cranial electroencephalography electrodes surgically implanted. Deformations caused by this surgical procedure, imaging artifacts caused by the electrodes, and the use of multi-modal imaging data make non-rigid registration challenging. Our results show that the use of our proposed framework to constrain the non-rigid registration process results in significantly improved and more robust registration performance compared to using standard rigid and non-rigid registration methods. PMID:26900569

The accuracy of a designed software for automated localization of craniofacial landmarks on CBCT images.

PubMed

Shahidi, Shoaleh; Bahrampour, Ehsan; Soltanimehr, Elham; Zamani, Ali; Oshagh, Morteza; Moattari, Marzieh; Mehdizadeh, Alireza

2014-09-16

Two-dimensional projection radiographs have been traditionally considered the modality of choice for cephalometric analysis. To overcome the shortcomings of two-dimensional images, three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) has been used to evaluate craniofacial structures. However, manual landmark detection depends on medical expertise, and the process is time-consuming. The present study was designed to produce software capable of automated localization of craniofacial landmarks on cone beam (CB) CT images based on image registration and to evaluate its accuracy. The software was designed using MATLAB programming language. The technique was a combination of feature-based (principal axes registration) and voxel similarity-based methods for image registration. A total of 8 CBCT images were selected as our reference images for creating a head atlas. Then, 20 CBCT images were randomly selected as the test images for evaluating the method. Three experts twice located 14 landmarks in all 28 CBCT images during two examinations set 6 weeks apart. The differences in the distances of coordinates of each landmark on each image between manual and automated detection methods were calculated and reported as mean errors. The combined intraclass correlation coefficient for intraobserver reliability was 0.89 and for interobserver reliability 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.82 to 0.93). The mean errors of all 14 landmarks were <4 mm. Additionally, 63.57% of landmarks had a mean error of <3 mm compared with manual detection (gold standard method). The accuracy of our approach for automated localization of craniofacial landmarks, which was based on combining feature-based and voxel similarity-based methods for image registration, was acceptable. Nevertheless we recommend repetition of this study using other techniques, such as intensity-based methods.

Zooming in: high resolution 3D reconstruction of differently stained histological whole slide images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lotz, Johannes; Berger, Judith; Müller, Benedikt; Breuhahn, Kai; Grabe, Niels; Heldmann, Stefan; Homeyer, André; Lahrmann, Bernd; Laue, Hendrik; Olesch, Janine; Schwier, Michael; Sedlaczek, Oliver; Warth, Arne

2014-03-01

Much insight into metabolic interactions, tissue growth, and tissue organization can be gained by analyzing differently stained histological serial sections. One opportunity unavailable to classic histology is three-dimensional (3D) examination and computer aided analysis of tissue samples. In this case, registration is needed to reestablish spatial correspondence between adjacent slides that is lost during the sectioning process. Furthermore, the sectioning introduces various distortions like cuts, folding, tearing, and local deformations to the tissue, which need to be corrected in order to exploit the additional information arising from the analysis of neighboring slide images. In this paper we present a novel image registration based method for reconstructing a 3D tissue block implementing a zooming strategy around a user-defined point of interest. We efficiently align consecutive slides at increasingly fine resolution up to cell level. We use a two-step approach, where after a macroscopic, coarse alignment of the slides as preprocessing, a nonlinear, elastic registration is performed to correct local, non-uniform deformations. Being driven by the optimization of the normalized gradient field (NGF) distance measure, our method is suitable for differently stained and thus multi-modal slides. We applied our method to ultra thin serial sections (2 μm) of a human lung tumor. In total 170 slides, stained alternately with four different stains, have been registered. Thorough visual inspection of virtual cuts through the reconstructed block perpendicular to the cutting plane shows accurate alignment of vessels and other tissue structures. This observation is confirmed by a quantitative analysis. Using nonlinear image registration, our method is able to correct locally varying deformations in tissue structures and exceeds the limitations of globally linear transformations.

A simulator for evaluating methods for the detection of lesion-deficit associations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Megalooikonomou, V.; Davatzikos, C.; Herskovits, E. H.

2000-01-01

Although much has been learned about the functional organization of the human brain through lesion-deficit analysis, the variety of statistical and image-processing methods developed for this purpose precludes a closed-form analysis of the statistical power of these systems. Therefore, we developed a lesion-deficit simulator (LDS), which generates artificial subjects, each of which consists of a set of functional deficits, and a brain image with lesions; the deficits and lesions conform to predefined distributions. We used probability distributions to model the number, sizes, and spatial distribution of lesions, to model the structure-function associations, and to model registration error. We used the LDS to evaluate, as examples, the effects of the complexities and strengths of lesion-deficit associations, and of registration error, on the power of lesion-deficit analysis. We measured the numbers of recovered associations from these simulated data, as a function of the number of subjects analyzed, the strengths and number of associations in the statistical model, the number of structures associated with a particular function, and the prior probabilities of structures being abnormal. The number of subjects required to recover the simulated lesion-deficit associations was found to have an inverse relationship to the strength of associations, and to the smallest probability in the structure-function model. The number of structures associated with a particular function (i.e., the complexity of associations) had a much greater effect on the performance of the analysis method than did the total number of associations. We also found that registration error of 5 mm or less reduces the number of associations discovered by approximately 13% compared to perfect registration. The LDS provides a flexible framework for evaluating many aspects of lesion-deficit analysis.

Evolving a NASA Digital Object Identifiers System with Community Engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wanchoo, L.; James, N.

2016-12-01

In 2010, NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) Project began investigating the assignment of unique identifiers to its suite of data products being stewarded at data centers distributed across the country. This process led to the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and the development of an automated system for the registration of these DOIs. Since that time, the ESDIS DOI registration system has evolved to be fully functional with over 3000 publicly accessible DOIs and over 1000 being held in reserve status until the information required for registration is obtained. The goal is to assign DOIs to the entire 7000+ data collections under ESDIS management via its network of discipline-oriented data centers. A key factor in the successful evolution of the DOI registration system has been the incorporation of community input. Over the last 3 years, ESDIS has solicited community input for making the DOI registration process more efficient through three focus groups under NASA's Earth Science Data System Working Group (ESDSWG). These groups were largely composed of DOI submitters and data curators from the 12 data centers serving user communities of various science disciplines. The suggestions from these groups were formulated into recommendations for ESDIS consideration and implementation. This poster will describe the process and the activities of each focus group, their recommendations, and how these recommendations were implemented.

Comparison of digital and conventional impression techniques: evaluation of patients' perception, treatment comfort, effectiveness and clinical outcomes.

PubMed

Yuzbasioglu, Emir; Kurt, Hanefi; Turunc, Rana; Bilir, Halenur

2014-01-30

The purpose of this study was to compare two impression techniques from the perspective of patient preferences and treatment comfort. Twenty-four (12 male, 12 female) subjects who had no previous experience with either conventional or digital impression participated in this study. Conventional impressions of maxillary and mandibular dental arches were taken with a polyether impression material (Impregum, 3 M ESPE), and bite registrations were made with polysiloxane bite registration material (Futar D, Kettenbach). Two weeks later, digital impressions and bite scans were performed using an intra-oral scanner (CEREC Omnicam, Sirona). Immediately after the impressions were made, the subjects' attitudes, preferences and perceptions towards impression techniques were evaluated using a standardized questionnaire. The perceived source of stress was evaluated using the State-Trait Anxiety Scale. Processing steps of the impression techniques (tray selection, working time etc.) were recorded in seconds. Statistical analyses were performed with the Wilcoxon Rank test, and p < 0.05 was considered significant. There were significant differences among the groups (p < 0.05) in terms of total working time and processing steps. Patients stated that digital impressions were more comfortable than conventional techniques. Digital impressions resulted in a more time-efficient technique than conventional impressions. Patients preferred the digital impression technique rather than conventional techniques.

Object-constrained meshless deformable algorithm for high speed 3D nonrigid registration between CT and CBCT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen Ting; Kim, Sung; Goyal, Sharad

2010-01-15

Purpose: High-speed nonrigid registration between the planning CT and the treatment CBCT data is critical for real time image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) to improve the dose distribution and to reduce the toxicity to adjacent organs. The authors propose a new fully automatic 3D registration framework that integrates object-based global and seed constraints with the grayscale-based ''demons'' algorithm. Methods: Clinical objects were segmented on the planning CT images and were utilized as meshless deformable models during the nonrigid registration process. The meshless models reinforced a global constraint in addition to the grayscale difference between CT and CBCT in order to maintainmore » the shape and the volume of geometrically complex 3D objects during the registration. To expedite the registration process, the framework was stratified into hierarchies, and the authors used a frequency domain formulation to diffuse the displacement between the reference and the target in each hierarchy. Also during the registration of pelvis images, they replaced the air region inside the rectum with estimated pixel values from the surrounding rectal wall and introduced an additional seed constraint to robustly track and match the seeds implanted into the prostate. The proposed registration framework and algorithm were evaluated on 15 real prostate cancer patients. For each patient, prostate gland, seminal vesicle, bladder, and rectum were first segmented by a radiation oncologist on planning CT images for radiotherapy planning purpose. The same radiation oncologist also manually delineated the tumor volumes and critical anatomical structures in the corresponding CBCT images acquired at treatment. These delineated structures on the CBCT were only used as the ground truth for the quantitative validation, while structures on the planning CT were used both as the input to the registration method and the ground truth in validation. By registering the planning CT to the CBCT, a displacement map was generated. Segmented volumes in the CT images deformed using the displacement field were compared against the manual segmentations in the CBCT images to quantitatively measure the convergence of the shape and the volume. Other image features were also used to evaluate the overall performance of the registration. Results: The algorithm was able to complete the segmentation and registration process within 1 min, and the superimposed clinical objects achieved a volumetric similarity measure of over 90% between the reference and the registered data. Validation results also showed that the proposed registration could accurately trace the deformation inside the target volume with average errors of less than 1 mm. The method had a solid performance in registering the simulated images with up to 20 Hounsfield unit white noise added. Also, the side by side comparison with the original demons algorithm demonstrated its improved registration performance over the local pixel-based registration approaches. Conclusions: Given the strength and efficiency of the algorithm, the proposed method has significant clinical potential to accelerate and to improve the CBCT delineation and targets tracking in online IGRT applications.« less

The Performance and Registration Information Systems Management (PRISM) pilot demonstration project

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1999-12-01

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 mandated a study to explore the potential of the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) registration process as a safety enforcement tool for reducing CMV accidents. The project sought to establish...

Guidance on FIFRA 24(c) Registrations

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Under the authority of §24(c) of FIFRA, states may register an additional use of a federally registered pesticide product, or a new end use product to meet special local needs. Learn about the process and how EPA reviews these registrations.

Groupwise registration of MR brain images with tumors.

PubMed

Tang, Zhenyu; Wu, Yihong; Fan, Yong

2017-08-04

A novel groupwise image registration framework is developed for registering MR brain images with tumors. Our method iteratively estimates a normal-appearance counterpart for each tumor image to be registered and constructs a directed graph (digraph) of normal-appearance images to guide the groupwise image registration. Particularly, our method maps each tumor image to its normal appearance counterpart by identifying and inpainting brain tumor regions with intensity information estimated using a low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition based image representation technique. The estimated normal-appearance images are groupwisely registered to a group center image guided by a digraph of images so that the total length of 'image registration paths' to be the minimum, and then the original tumor images are warped to the group center image using the resulting deformation fields. We have evaluated our method based on both simulated and real MR brain tumor images. The registration results were evaluated with overlap measures of corresponding brain regions and average entropy of image intensity information, and Wilcoxon signed rank tests were adopted to compare different methods with respect to their regional overlap measures. Compared with a groupwise image registration method that is applied to normal-appearance images estimated using the traditional low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition based image inpainting, our method achieved higher image registration accuracy with statistical significance (p  =  7.02  ×  10 -9 ).

Improving oncoplastic breast tumor bed localization for radiotherapy planning using image registration algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wodzinski, Marek; Skalski, Andrzej; Ciepiela, Izabela; Kuszewski, Tomasz; Kedzierawski, Piotr; Gajda, Janusz

2018-02-01

Knowledge about tumor bed localization and its shape analysis is a crucial factor for preventing irradiation of healthy tissues during supportive radiotherapy and as a result, cancer recurrence. The localization process is especially hard for tumors placed nearby soft tissues, which undergo complex, nonrigid deformations. Among them, breast cancer can be considered as the most representative example. A natural approach to improving tumor bed localization is the use of image registration algorithms. However, this involves two unusual aspects which are not common in typical medical image registration: the real deformation field is discontinuous, and there is no direct correspondence between the cancer and its bed in the source and the target 3D images respectively. The tumor no longer exists during radiotherapy planning. Therefore, a traditional evaluation approach based on known, smooth deformations and target registration error are not directly applicable. In this work, we propose alternative artificial deformations which model the tumor bed creation process. We perform a comprehensive evaluation of the most commonly used deformable registration algorithms: B-Splines free form deformations (B-Splines FFD), different variants of the Demons and TV-L1 optical flow. The evaluation procedure includes quantitative assessment of the dedicated artificial deformations, target registration error calculation, 3D contour propagation and medical experts visual judgment. The results demonstrate that the currently, practically applied image registration (rigid registration and B-Splines FFD) are not able to correctly reconstruct discontinuous deformation fields. We show that the symmetric Demons provide the most accurate soft tissues alignment in terms of the ability to reconstruct the deformation field, target registration error and relative tumor volume change, while B-Splines FFD and TV-L1 optical flow are not an appropriate choice for the breast tumor bed localization problem, even though the visual alignment seems to be better than for the Demons algorithm. However, no algorithm could recover the deformation field with sufficient accuracy in terms of vector length and rotation angle differences.

Research Issues in Image Registration for Remote Sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eastman, Roger D.; LeMoigne, Jacqueline; Netanyahu, Nathan S.

2007-01-01

Image registration is an important element in data processing for remote sensing with many applications and a wide range of solutions. Despite considerable investigation the field has not settled on a definitive solution for most applications and a number of questions remain open. This article looks at selected research issues by surveying the experience of operational satellite teams, application-specific requirements for Earth science, and our experiments in the evaluation of image registration algorithms with emphasis on the comparison of algorithms for subpixel accuracy. We conclude that remote sensing applications put particular demands on image registration algorithms to take into account domain-specific knowledge of geometric transformations and image content.

Homographic Patch Feature Transform: A Robustness Registration for Gastroscopic Surgery.

PubMed

Hu, Weiling; Zhang, Xu; Wang, Bin; Liu, Jiquan; Duan, Huilong; Dai, Ning; Si, Jianmin

2016-01-01

Image registration is a key component of computer assistance in image guided surgery, and it is a challenging topic in endoscopic environments. In this study, we present a method for image registration named Homographic Patch Feature Transform (HPFT) to match gastroscopic images. HPFT can be used for tracking lesions and augmenting reality applications during gastroscopy. Furthermore, an overall evaluation scheme is proposed to validate the precision, robustness and uniformity of the registration results, which provides a standard for rejection of false matching pairs from corresponding results. Finally, HPFT is applied for processing in vivo gastroscopic data. The experimental results show that HPFT has stable performance in gastroscopic applications.

TU-AB-303-08: GPU-Based Software Platform for Efficient Image-Guided Adaptive Radiation Therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Park, S; Robinson, A; McNutt, T

2015-06-15

Purpose: In this study, we develop an integrated software platform for adaptive radiation therapy (ART) that combines fast and accurate image registration, segmentation, and dose computation/accumulation methods. Methods: The proposed system consists of three key components; 1) deformable image registration (DIR), 2) automatic segmentation, and 3) dose computation/accumulation. The computationally intensive modules including DIR and dose computation have been implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU). All required patient-specific data including the planning CT (pCT) with contours, daily cone-beam CTs, and treatment plan are automatically queried and retrieved from their own databases. To improve the accuracy of DIR between pCTmore » and CBCTs, we use the double force demons DIR algorithm in combination with iterative CBCT intensity correction by local intensity histogram matching. Segmentation of daily CBCT is then obtained by propagating contours from the pCT. Daily dose delivered to the patient is computed on the registered pCT by a GPU-accelerated superposition/convolution algorithm. Finally, computed daily doses are accumulated to show the total delivered dose to date. Results: Since the accuracy of DIR critically affects the quality of the other processes, we first evaluated our DIR method on eight head-and-neck cancer cases and compared its performance. Normalized mutual-information (NMI) and normalized cross-correlation (NCC) computed as similarity measures, and our method produced overall NMI of 0.663 and NCC of 0.987, outperforming conventional methods by 3.8% and 1.9%, respectively. Experimental results show that our registration method is more consistent and roust than existing algorithms, and also computationally efficient. Computation time at each fraction took around one minute (30–50 seconds for registration and 15–25 seconds for dose computation). Conclusion: We developed an integrated GPU-accelerated software platform that enables accurate and efficient DIR, auto-segmentation, and dose computation, thus supporting an efficient ART workflow. This work was supported by NIH/NCI under grant R42CA137886.« less

Registration performance on EUV masks using high-resolution registration metrology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steinert, Steffen; Solowan, Hans-Michael; Park, Jinback; Han, Hakseung; Beyer, Dirk; Scherübl, Thomas

2016-10-01

Next-generation lithography based on EUV continues to move forward to high-volume manufacturing. Given the technical challenges and the throughput concerns a hybrid approach with 193 nm immersion lithography is expected, at least in the initial state. Due to the increasing complexity at smaller nodes a multitude of different masks, both DUV (193 nm) and EUV (13.5 nm) reticles, will then be required in the lithography process-flow. The individual registration of each mask and the resulting overlay error are of crucial importance in order to ensure proper functionality of the chips. While registration and overlay metrology on DUV masks has been the standard for decades, this has yet to be demonstrated on EUV masks. Past generations of mask registration tools were not necessarily limited in their tool stability, but in their resolution capabilities. The scope of this work is an image placement investigation of high-end EUV masks together with a registration and resolution performance qualification. For this we employ a new generation registration metrology system embedded in a production environment for full-spec EUV masks. This paper presents excellent registration performance not only on standard overlay markers but also on more sophisticated e-beam calibration patterns.

Registration System's User Guide for the Renewable Fuel Standard Program

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This EPA document is the User Guide for the OTAQ Fuels Program Registration (OTAQReg) online application describing the processes a user must follow to register; update their user profile; associate to companies as well as create, view and edit companies.

[Optimization of end-tool parameters based on robot hand-eye calibration].

PubMed

Zhang, Lilong; Cao, Tong; Liu, Da

2017-04-01

A new one-time registration method was developed in this research for hand-eye calibration of a surgical robot to simplify the operation process and reduce the preparation time. And a new and practical method is introduced in this research to optimize the end-tool parameters of the surgical robot based on analysis of the error sources in this registration method. In the process with one-time registration method, firstly a marker on the end-tool of the robot was recognized by a fixed binocular camera, and then the orientation and position of the marker were calculated based on the joint parameters of the robot. Secondly the relationship between the camera coordinate system and the robot base coordinate system could be established to complete the hand-eye calibration. Because of manufacturing and assembly errors of robot end-tool, an error equation was established with the transformation matrix between the robot end coordinate system and the robot end-tool coordinate system as the variable. Numerical optimization was employed to optimize end-tool parameters of the robot. The experimental results showed that the one-time registration method could significantly improve the efficiency of the robot hand-eye calibration compared with the existing methods. The parameter optimization method could significantly improve the absolute positioning accuracy of the one-time registration method. The absolute positioning accuracy of the one-time registration method can meet the requirements of the clinical surgery.

Trends in Florida's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program registration and utilization: Implications for increasing voluntary use.

PubMed

Delcher, Chris; Wang, Yanning; Young, Henry W; Goldberger, Bruce A; Schmidt, Siegfried; Reisfield, Gary M

Effective use of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to track controlled substance prescribing and dispensing may help mitigate the current opioid crisis. Our objective was to examine trends in registration for and use of Florida's PDMP by physicians and pharmacists, from 2013 to 2016. We discuss implications for PDMP uptake and policy. Key measures, such as cumulative number of registrants per license type and monthly utilization intensity, are presented. A time series forecasting approach was used to (1) model the monthly count of new PDMP registrants and users from January 2013 to December 2016 and (2) estimate cumulative registration totals after 1 year. Florida. As of November 2016, there were 16,498 physicians (representing 31 percent of Drug Enforcement Administration licensees) and 17,241 pharmacists registered with the PDMP, representing 21 and 57 percent of professional licensees, respectively. Of note, the PDMP's designation as a "specialized registry" for electronic medical record "meaningful use" criteria led to a nearly sevenfold increase in physician registrations in a single month. In November 2016, pharmacists displayed a higher past-month PDMP utilization rate (52.2 percent vs 30.1 percent), while physicians displayed a higher past-month PDMP utilization intensity (58.1 vs. 36.1 queries per user). Approximately 25,000 physicians and 31,000 pharmacists must register by the end of 2017 to meet national policy goals. PDMP registration among physicians and pharmacists is limited, and the use of the PDMP among registrants is more limited still. Our findings suggest that Florida will not meet national policy goals for registrants by the end of 2017, although new initiatives may alter this trend. Allowing the PDMP to help prescribers meet other professional needs, such as "meaningful use" or similar efforts, may be effective in increasing PDMP use.

Demons deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT using an iterative intensity matching approach

PubMed Central

Nithiananthan, Sajendra; Schafer, Sebastian; Uneri, Ali; Mirota, Daniel J.; Stayman, J. Webster; Zbijewski, Wojciech; Brock, Kristy K.; Daly, Michael J.; Chan, Harley; Irish, Jonathan C.; Siewerdsen, Jeffrey H.

2011-01-01

Purpose: A method of intensity-based deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT (CBCT) images is described, in which intensity correction occurs simultaneously within the iterative registration process. The method preserves the speed and simplicity of the popular Demons algorithm while providing robustness and accuracy in the presence of large mismatch between CT and CBCT voxel values (“intensity”). Methods: A variant of the Demons algorithm was developed in which an estimate of the relationship between CT and CBCT intensity values for specific materials in the image is computed at each iteration based on the set of currently overlapping voxels. This tissue-specific intensity correction is then used to estimate the registration output for that iteration and the process is repeated. The robustness of the method was tested in CBCT images of a cadaveric head exhibiting a broad range of simulated intensity variations associated with x-ray scatter, object truncation, and∕or errors in the reconstruction algorithm. The accuracy of CT-CBCT registration was also measured in six real cases, exhibiting deformations ranging from simple to complex during surgery or radiotherapy guided by a CBCT-capable C-arm or linear accelerator, respectively. Results: The iterative intensity matching approach was robust against all levels of intensity variation examined, including spatially varying errors in voxel value of a factor of 2 or more, as can be encountered in cases of high x-ray scatter. Registration accuracy without intensity matching degraded severely with increasing magnitude of intensity error and introduced image distortion. A single histogram match performed prior to registration alleviated some of these effects but was also prone to image distortion and was quantifiably less robust and accurate than the iterative approach. Within the six case registration accuracy study, iterative intensity matching Demons reduced mean TRE to (2.5±2.8) mm compared to (3.5±3.0) mm with rigid registration. Conclusions: A method was developed to iteratively correct CT-CBCT intensity disparity during Demons registration, enabling fast, intensity-based registration in CBCT-guided procedures such as surgery and radiotherapy, in which CBCT voxel values may be inaccurate. Accurate CT-CBCT registration in turn facilitates registration of multimodality preoperative image and planning data to intraoperative CBCT by way of the preoperative CT, thereby linking the intraoperative frame of reference to a wealth of preoperative information that could improve interventional guidance. PMID:21626913

Demons deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT using an iterative intensity matching approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nithiananthan, Sajendra; Schafer, Sebastian; Uneri, Ali

2011-04-15

Purpose: A method of intensity-based deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT (CBCT) images is described, in which intensity correction occurs simultaneously within the iterative registration process. The method preserves the speed and simplicity of the popular Demons algorithm while providing robustness and accuracy in the presence of large mismatch between CT and CBCT voxel values (''intensity''). Methods: A variant of the Demons algorithm was developed in which an estimate of the relationship between CT and CBCT intensity values for specific materials in the image is computed at each iteration based on the set of currently overlapping voxels. This tissue-specificmore » intensity correction is then used to estimate the registration output for that iteration and the process is repeated. The robustness of the method was tested in CBCT images of a cadaveric head exhibiting a broad range of simulated intensity variations associated with x-ray scatter, object truncation, and/or errors in the reconstruction algorithm. The accuracy of CT-CBCT registration was also measured in six real cases, exhibiting deformations ranging from simple to complex during surgery or radiotherapy guided by a CBCT-capable C-arm or linear accelerator, respectively. Results: The iterative intensity matching approach was robust against all levels of intensity variation examined, including spatially varying errors in voxel value of a factor of 2 or more, as can be encountered in cases of high x-ray scatter. Registration accuracy without intensity matching degraded severely with increasing magnitude of intensity error and introduced image distortion. A single histogram match performed prior to registration alleviated some of these effects but was also prone to image distortion and was quantifiably less robust and accurate than the iterative approach. Within the six case registration accuracy study, iterative intensity matching Demons reduced mean TRE to (2.5{+-}2.8) mm compared to (3.5{+-}3.0) mm with rigid registration. Conclusions: A method was developed to iteratively correct CT-CBCT intensity disparity during Demons registration, enabling fast, intensity-based registration in CBCT-guided procedures such as surgery and radiotherapy, in which CBCT voxel values may be inaccurate. Accurate CT-CBCT registration in turn facilitates registration of multimodality preoperative image and planning data to intraoperative CBCT by way of the preoperative CT, thereby linking the intraoperative frame of reference to a wealth of preoperative information that could improve interventional guidance.« less

Quality assurance of registration of CT and MRI data sets for treatment planning of radiotherapy for head and neck cancers

PubMed Central

Moore, Craig S.; Liney, Gary P.; Beavis, Andrew W.

2004-01-01

We are implementing the use of magnetic resonance (MR) images for head and neck radiotherapy planning, which involves their registration with computed tomography (CT). The quality assurance (QA) of the registration process was an initial step of this program. A phantom was built, and appropriate materials were identified to produce clinically relevant MR T1 and T2 contrast for its constituent “anatomy.” We performed a characterization of the distortion detectable within our phantom. Finally, we assessed the accuracy of image registration by contouring structures in the registered/fused data sets using the treatment planning system. Each structure was contoured using each modality, in turn, blind of the other. The position, area, and perimeter of each structure were assessed as a measure of accuracy of the entire image registration process. Distortion effects in the MR image were shown to be minimized by choosing a suitable (≥±30 kHz) receiver bandwidth. Remaining distortion was deemed clinically acceptable within ±15 cm of the magnetic field isocenter. A coefficient of agreement (A) analysis gave values to be within 9% of unity, where A=RaRp and Ra/p is the ratio of the area/perimeter of a particular structure on CT to that on MR. The center of each structure of interest agreed to within 1.8 mm. A QA process has been developed to assess the accuracy of using multimodality image registration in the planning of radiotherapy for the head and neck; we believe its introduction is feasible and safe. PACS numbers: 87.53.Xd, 87.57.Gg, 87.59.Fm; 87.61.‐c, 87.66.Xa PMID:15753931

Accelerated gradient-based free form deformable registration for online adaptive radiotherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Gang; Liang, Yueqiang; Yang, Guanyu; Shu, Huazhong; Li, Baosheng; Yin, Yong; Li, Dengwang

2015-04-01

The registration of planning fan-beam computed tomography (FBCT) and daily cone-beam CT (CBCT) is a crucial step in adaptive radiation therapy. The current intensity-based registration algorithms, such as Demons, may fail when they are used to register FBCT and CBCT, because the CT numbers in CBCT cannot exactly correspond to the electron densities. In this paper, we investigated the effects of CBCT intensity inaccuracy on the registration accuracy and developed an accurate gradient-based free form deformation algorithm (GFFD). GFFD distinguishes itself from other free form deformable registration algorithms by (a) measuring the similarity using the 3D gradient vector fields to avoid the effect of inconsistent intensities between the two modalities; (b) accommodating image sampling anisotropy using the local polynomial approximation-intersection of confidence intervals (LPA-ICI) algorithm to ensure a smooth and continuous displacement field; and (c) introducing a ‘bi-directional’ force along with an adaptive force strength adjustment to accelerate the convergence process. It is expected that such a strategy can decrease the effect of the inconsistent intensities between the two modalities, thus improving the registration accuracy and robustness. Moreover, for clinical application, the algorithm was implemented by graphics processing units (GPU) through OpenCL framework. The registration time of the GFFD algorithm for each set of CT data ranges from 8 to 13 s. The applications of on-line adaptive image-guided radiation therapy, including auto-propagation of contours, aperture-optimization and dose volume histogram (DVH) in the course of radiation therapy were also studied by in-house-developed software.

Automatic Marker-free Longitudinal Infrared Image Registration by Shape Context Based Matching and Competitive Winner-guided Optimal Corresponding

PubMed Central

Lee, Chia-Yen; Wang, Hao-Jen; Lai, Jhih-Hao; Chang, Yeun-Chung; Huang, Chiun-Sheng

2017-01-01

Long-term comparisons of infrared image can facilitate the assessment of breast cancer tissue growth and early tumor detection, in which longitudinal infrared image registration is a necessary step. However, it is hard to keep markers attached on a body surface for weeks, and rather difficult to detect anatomic fiducial markers and match them in the infrared image during registration process. The proposed study, automatic longitudinal infrared registration algorithm, develops an automatic vascular intersection detection method and establishes feature descriptors by shape context to achieve robust matching, as well as to obtain control points for the deformation model. In addition, competitive winner-guided mechanism is developed for optimal corresponding. The proposed algorithm is evaluated in two ways. Results show that the algorithm can quickly lead to accurate image registration and that the effectiveness is superior to manual registration with a mean error being 0.91 pixels. These findings demonstrate that the proposed registration algorithm is reasonably accurate and provide a novel method of extracting a greater amount of useful data from infrared images. PMID:28145474

Phantom Study Investigating the Accuracy of Manual and Automatic Image Fusion with the GE Logiq E9: Implications for use in Percutaneous Liver Interventions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burgmans, Mark Christiaan, E-mail: m.c.burgmans@lumc.nl; Harder, J. Michiel den, E-mail: chiel.den.harder@gmail.com; Meershoek, Philippa, E-mail: P.Meershoek@lumc.nl

PurposeTo determine the accuracy of automatic and manual co-registration methods for image fusion of three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) with real-time ultrasonography (US) for image-guided liver interventions.Materials and MethodsCT images of a skills phantom with liver lesions were acquired and co-registered to US using GE Logiq E9 navigation software. Manual co-registration was compared to automatic and semiautomatic co-registration using an active tracker. Also, manual point registration was compared to plane registration with and without an additional translation point. Finally, comparison was made between manual and automatic selection of reference points. In each experiment, accuracy of the co-registration method was determined bymore » measurement of the residual displacement in phantom lesions by two independent observers.ResultsMean displacements for a superficial and deep liver lesion were comparable after manual and semiautomatic co-registration: 2.4 and 2.0 mm versus 2.0 and 2.5 mm, respectively. Both methods were significantly better than automatic co-registration: 5.9 and 5.2 mm residual displacement (p < 0.001; p < 0.01). The accuracy of manual point registration was higher than that of plane registration, the latter being heavily dependent on accurate matching of axial CT and US images by the operator. Automatic reference point selection resulted in significantly lower registration accuracy compared to manual point selection despite lower root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) values.ConclusionThe accuracy of manual and semiautomatic co-registration is better than that of automatic co-registration. For manual co-registration using a plane, choosing the correct plane orientation is an essential first step in the registration process. Automatic reference point selection based on RMSD values is error-prone.« less

Multi-institutional Feasibility Study of a Fast Patient Localization Method in Total Marrow Irradiation With Helical Tomotherapy: A Global Health Initiative by the International Consortium of Total Marrow Irradiation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Takahashi, Yutaka; Vagge, Stefano; Agostinelli, Stefano

2015-01-01

Purpose: To develop, characterize, and implement a fast patient localization method for total marrow irradiation. Methods and Materials: Topographic images were acquired using megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) detector data by delivering static orthogonal beams while the couch traversed through the gantry. Geometric and detector response corrections were performed to generate a megavoltage topogram (MVtopo). We also generated kilovoltage topograms (kVtopo) from the projection data of 3-dimensional CT images to reproduce the same geometry as helical tomotherapy. The MVtopo imaging dose and the optimal image acquisition parameters were investigated. A multi-institutional phantom study was performed to verify the image registration uncertainty. Forty-fivemore » MVtopo images were acquired and analyzed with in-house image registration software. Results: The smallest jaw size (front and backup jaws of 0) provided the best image contrast and longitudinal resolution. Couch velocity did not affect the image quality or geometric accuracy. The MVtopo dose was less than the MVCT dose. The image registration uncertainty from the multi-institutional study was within 2.8 mm. In patient localization, the differences in calculated couch shift between the registration with MVtopo-kVtopo and MVCT-kVCT images in lateral, cranial–caudal, and vertical directions were 2.2 ± 1.7 mm, 2.6 ± 1.4 mm, and 2.7 ± 1.1 mm, respectively. The imaging time in MVtopo acquisition at the couch speed of 3 cm/s was <1 minute, compared with ≥15 minutes in MVCT for all patients. Conclusion: Whole-body MVtopo imaging could be an effective alternative to time-consuming MVCT for total marrow irradiation patient localization.« less

Association between prospective registration and overall reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews: a meta-epidemiological study.

PubMed

Ge, Long; Tian, Jin-Hui; Li, Ya-Nan; Pan, Jia-Xue; Li, Ge; Wei, Dang; Xing, Xin; Pan, Bei; Chen, Yao-Long; Song, Fu-Jian; Yang, Ke-Hu

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in main characteristics, reporting and methodological quality between prospectively registered and nonregistered systematic reviews. PubMed was searched to identify systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials published in 2015 in English. After title and abstract screening, potentially relevant reviews were divided into three groups: registered non-Cochrane reviews, Cochrane reviews, and nonregistered reviews. For each group, random number tables were generated in Microsoft Excel, and the first 50 eligible studies from each group were randomly selected. Data of interest from systematic reviews were extracted. Regression analyses were conducted to explore the association between total Revised Assessment of Multiple Systematic Review (R-AMSTAR) or Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) scores and the selected characteristics of systematic reviews. The conducting and reporting of literature search in registered reviews were superior to nonregistered reviews. Differences in 9 of the 11 R-AMSTAR items were statistically significant between registered and nonregistered reviews. The total R-AMSTAR score of registered reviews was higher than nonregistered reviews [mean difference (MD) = 4.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.70, 5.94]. Sensitivity analysis by excluding the registration-related item presented similar result (MD = 4.34, 95% CI: 3.28, 5.40). Total PRISMA scores of registered reviews were significantly higher than nonregistered reviews (all reviews: MD = 1.47, 95% CI: 0.64-2.30; non-Cochrane reviews: MD = 1.49, 95% CI: 0.56-2.42). However, the difference in the total PRISMA score was no longer statistically significant after excluding the item related to registration (item 5). Regression analyses showed similar results. Prospective registration may at least indirectly improve the overall methodological quality of systematic reviews, although its impact on the overall reporting quality was not significant. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Assessment of Registration Information on Methodological Design of Acupuncture RCTs: A Review of 453 Registration Records Retrieved from WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform

PubMed Central

Gu, Jing; Wang, Qi; Wang, Xiaogang; Li, Hailong; Gu, Mei; Ming, Haixia; Dong, Xiaoli; Yang, Kehu; Wu, Hongyan

2014-01-01

Background. This review provides the first methodological information assessment of protocol of acupuncture RCTs registered in WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). Methods. All records of acupuncture RCTs registered in the ICTRP have been collected. The methodological design assessment involved whether the randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding were adequate or not based on the information of registration records (protocols of acupuncture RCTs). Results. A total of 453 records, found in 11 registries, were examined. Methodological details were insufficient in registration records; there were 76.4%, 89.0%, and 21.4% records that did not provide information on randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding respectively. The proportions of adequate randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding were only 107 (23.6%), 48 (10.6%), and 210 (46.4%), respectively. The methodological design improved year by year, especially after 2007. Additionally, methodology of RCTs with ethics approval was clearly superior to those without ethics approval and different among registries. Conclusions. The overall methodological design based on registration records of acupuncture RCTs is not very well but improved year by year. The insufficient information on randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding maybe due to the relevant description is not taken seriously in acupuncture RCTs' registration. PMID:24688591

Assessment of Registration Information on Methodological Design of Acupuncture RCTs: A Review of 453 Registration Records Retrieved from WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform.

PubMed

Gu, Jing; Wang, Qi; Wang, Xiaogang; Li, Hailong; Gu, Mei; Ming, Haixia; Dong, Xiaoli; Yang, Kehu; Wu, Hongyan

2014-01-01

Background. This review provides the first methodological information assessment of protocol of acupuncture RCTs registered in WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). Methods. All records of acupuncture RCTs registered in the ICTRP have been collected. The methodological design assessment involved whether the randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding were adequate or not based on the information of registration records (protocols of acupuncture RCTs). Results. A total of 453 records, found in 11 registries, were examined. Methodological details were insufficient in registration records; there were 76.4%, 89.0%, and 21.4% records that did not provide information on randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding respectively. The proportions of adequate randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding were only 107 (23.6%), 48 (10.6%), and 210 (46.4%), respectively. The methodological design improved year by year, especially after 2007. Additionally, methodology of RCTs with ethics approval was clearly superior to those without ethics approval and different among registries. Conclusions. The overall methodological design based on registration records of acupuncture RCTs is not very well but improved year by year. The insufficient information on randomization methods, allocation concealment, and blinding maybe due to the relevant description is not taken seriously in acupuncture RCTs' registration.

SU-F-I-51: CT/MR Image Deformation: The Clinical Assessment QA in Target Delineation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, C; Chen, Y

Purpose: To study the deformation effects in CT/MR image registration of head and neck (HN) cancers. We present a clinical indication in guiding and simplifying registration procedures of this process while CT images possessed artifacts. Methods: CT/MR image fusion provides better soft tissue contrast in intracranial GTV definition with artifacts. However, whether the fusion process should include the deformation process is questionable and not recommended. We performed CT/MR image registration of a HN patient with tonsil GTV and nodes delineation on Varian Velocity™ system. Both rigid transformation and deformable registration of the same CT/MR imaging data were processed separately. Physician’smore » selection of target delineation was implemented to identify the variations. Transformation matrix was shown with visual identification, as well as the deformation QA numbers and figures were assessed. Results: The deformable CT/MR images were traced with the calculated matrix, both translation and rotational parameters were summarized. In deformable quality QA, the calculated Jacobian matrix was analyzed, which the min/mean/max of 0.73/0/99/1.37, respectively. Jacobian matrix of right neck node was 0.84/1.13/1.41, which present dis-similarity of the nodal area. If Jacobian = 1, the deformation is at the optimum situation. In this case, the deformation results have shown better target delineation for CT/MR deformation than rigid transformation. Though the root-mean-square vector difference is 1.48 mm, with similar rotational components, the cord and vertebrae position were aligned much better in the deformable MR images than the rigid transformation. Conclusion: CT/MR with/without image deformation presents similar image registration matrix; there were significant differentiate the anatomical structures in the region of interest by deformable process. Though vendor suggested only rigid transformation between CT/MR assuming the geometry remain similar, our findings indicated with patient positional variations, deformation registration is needed to generate proper GTV coverage, which will be irradiated more accurately in the following boost phase.« less

78 FR 52808 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-26

.... Please direct your written comments to Thomas Bayer, Chief Information Officer, Securities and Exchange....) (``Securities Act''). The primary purpose of the registration process is to provide disclosure of financial and... policy-making roles. The Commission estimates that there are 162 initial registration statements and 29...

22 CFR 122.5 - Maintenance of records by registrants.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... Section 122.5 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS REGISTRATION... related documentation), of defense articles; of technical data; the provision of defense services... a process or system capable of reproducing all records on paper. Such records when displayed on a...

22 CFR 122.5 - Maintenance of records by registrants.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... Section 122.5 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS REGISTRATION... related documentation), of defense articles; of technical data; the provision of defense services... a process or system capable of reproducing all records on paper. Such records when displayed on a...

22 CFR 122.5 - Maintenance of records by registrants.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Section 122.5 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS REGISTRATION... related documentation), of defense articles; of technical data; the provision of defense services... a process or system capable of reproducing all records on paper. Such records when displayed on a...

22 CFR 122.5 - Maintenance of records by registrants.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... Section 122.5 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS REGISTRATION... related documentation), of defense articles; of technical data; the provision of defense services... a process or system capable of reproducing all records on paper. Such records when displayed on a...

22 CFR 122.5 - Maintenance of records by registrants.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... Section 122.5 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS REGISTRATION... related documentation), of defense articles; of technical data; the provision of defense services... a process or system capable of reproducing all records on paper. Such records when displayed on a...

Guidance to Registrants: Process for Making Claims Against Emerging Viral Pathogens not on EPA-Registered Disinfectant Labels

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This guidance proposes to use an organism hierarchy to identify effective products for use with emerging pathogens and to permit registrants to make limited statements against such pathogens. It provides general guidance to interested parties.

Using the Integration of Discrete Event and Agent-Based Simulation to Enhance Outpatient Service Quality in an Orthopedic Department.

PubMed

Kittipittayakorn, Cholada; Ying, Kuo-Ching

2016-01-01

Many hospitals are currently paying more attention to patient satisfaction since it is an important service quality index. Many Asian countries' healthcare systems have a mixed-type registration, accepting both walk-in patients and scheduled patients. This complex registration system causes a long patient waiting time in outpatient clinics. Different approaches have been proposed to reduce the waiting time. This study uses the integration of discrete event simulation (DES) and agent-based simulation (ABS) to improve patient waiting time and is the first attempt to apply this approach to solve this key problem faced by orthopedic departments. From the data collected, patient behaviors are modeled and incorporated into a massive agent-based simulation. The proposed approach is an aid for analyzing and modifying orthopedic department processes, allows us to consider far more details, and provides more reliable results. After applying the proposed approach, the total waiting time of the orthopedic department fell from 1246.39 minutes to 847.21 minutes. Thus, using the correct simulation model significantly reduces patient waiting time in an orthopedic department.

Using the Integration of Discrete Event and Agent-Based Simulation to Enhance Outpatient Service Quality in an Orthopedic Department

PubMed Central

Kittipittayakorn, Cholada

2016-01-01

Many hospitals are currently paying more attention to patient satisfaction since it is an important service quality index. Many Asian countries' healthcare systems have a mixed-type registration, accepting both walk-in patients and scheduled patients. This complex registration system causes a long patient waiting time in outpatient clinics. Different approaches have been proposed to reduce the waiting time. This study uses the integration of discrete event simulation (DES) and agent-based simulation (ABS) to improve patient waiting time and is the first attempt to apply this approach to solve this key problem faced by orthopedic departments. From the data collected, patient behaviors are modeled and incorporated into a massive agent-based simulation. The proposed approach is an aid for analyzing and modifying orthopedic department processes, allows us to consider far more details, and provides more reliable results. After applying the proposed approach, the total waiting time of the orthopedic department fell from 1246.39 minutes to 847.21 minutes. Thus, using the correct simulation model significantly reduces patient waiting time in an orthopedic department. PMID:27195606

GPU-based streaming architectures for fast cone-beam CT image reconstruction and demons deformable registration.

PubMed

Sharp, G C; Kandasamy, N; Singh, H; Folkert, M

2007-10-07

This paper shows how to significantly accelerate cone-beam CT reconstruction and 3D deformable image registration using the stream-processing model. We describe data-parallel designs for the Feldkamp, Davis and Kress (FDK) reconstruction algorithm, and the demons deformable registration algorithm, suitable for use on a commodity graphics processing unit. The streaming versions of these algorithms are implemented using the Brook programming environment and executed on an NVidia 8800 GPU. Performance results using CT data of a preserved swine lung indicate that the GPU-based implementations of the FDK and demons algorithms achieve a substantial speedup--up to 80 times for FDK and 70 times for demons when compared to an optimized reference implementation on a 2.8 GHz Intel processor. In addition, the accuracy of the GPU-based implementations was found to be excellent. Compared with CPU-based implementations, the RMS differences were less than 0.1 Hounsfield unit for reconstruction and less than 0.1 mm for deformable registration.

Planetary Crater Detection and Registration Using Marked Point Processes, Multiple Birth and Death Algorithms, and Region-Based Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Solarna, David; Moser, Gabriele; Le Moigne-Stewart, Jacqueline; Serpico, Sebastiano B.

2017-01-01

Because of the large variety of sensors and spacecraft collecting data, planetary science needs to integrate various multi-sensor and multi-temporal images. These multiple data represent a precious asset, as they allow the study of targets spectral responses and of changes in the surface structure; because of their variety, they also require accurate and robust registration. A new crater detection algorithm, used to extract features that will be integrated in an image registration framework, is presented. A marked point process-based method has been developed to model the spatial distribution of elliptical objects (i.e. the craters) and a birth-death Markov chain Monte Carlo method, coupled with a region-based scheme aiming at computational efficiency, is used to find the optimal configuration fitting the image. The extracted features are exploited, together with a newly defined fitness function based on a modified Hausdorff distance, by an image registration algorithm whose architecture has been designed to minimize the computational time.

How to engage in a reflective discussion for revalidation.

PubMed

Middleton, Lyn; Llewellyn, Denise

2016-07-20

Rationale and key points This is the sixth in a series of eight articles providing information about the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) revalidation process. This article focuses on the requirement for nurses and midwives to engage in a reflective discussion with an NMC registrant. The purpose of the reflective discussion is to encourage a culture of sharing information to support professional development and improve practice. » The reflective discussion must be undertaken with an NMC registrant. » The reflective discussion should cover the five written reflective accounts required to renew registration. Reflective activity 'How to' revalidate articles can help to update your practice and provide information about the revalidation process, including how you can engage in a reflective discussion. Reflect on and write a short account of: 1. How engaging in a reflective discussion with an NMC registrant helps you to view a situation from another person's perspective. 2. How you could use this article to educate your colleagues. Subscribers can upload their reflective accounts at: rcni.com/portfolio.

An Iterative Closest Points Algorithm for Registration of 3D Laser Scanner Point Clouds with Geometric Features.

PubMed

He, Ying; Liang, Bin; Yang, Jun; Li, Shunzhi; He, Jin

2017-08-11

The Iterative Closest Points (ICP) algorithm is the mainstream algorithm used in the process of accurate registration of 3D point cloud data. The algorithm requires a proper initial value and the approximate registration of two point clouds to prevent the algorithm from falling into local extremes, but in the actual point cloud matching process, it is difficult to ensure compliance with this requirement. In this paper, we proposed the ICP algorithm based on point cloud features (GF-ICP). This method uses the geometrical features of the point cloud to be registered, such as curvature, surface normal and point cloud density, to search for the correspondence relationships between two point clouds and introduces the geometric features into the error function to realize the accurate registration of two point clouds. The experimental results showed that the algorithm can improve the convergence speed and the interval of convergence without setting a proper initial value.

An Iterative Closest Points Algorithm for Registration of 3D Laser Scanner Point Clouds with Geometric Features

PubMed Central

Liang, Bin; Yang, Jun; Li, Shunzhi; He, Jin

2017-01-01

The Iterative Closest Points (ICP) algorithm is the mainstream algorithm used in the process of accurate registration of 3D point cloud data. The algorithm requires a proper initial value and the approximate registration of two point clouds to prevent the algorithm from falling into local extremes, but in the actual point cloud matching process, it is difficult to ensure compliance with this requirement. In this paper, we proposed the ICP algorithm based on point cloud features (GF-ICP). This method uses the geometrical features of the point cloud to be registered, such as curvature, surface normal and point cloud density, to search for the correspondence relationships between two point clouds and introduces the geometric features into the error function to realize the accurate registration of two point clouds. The experimental results showed that the algorithm can improve the convergence speed and the interval of convergence without setting a proper initial value. PMID:28800096

Marker Registration Technique for Handwritten Text Marker in Augmented Reality Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thanaborvornwiwat, N.; Patanukhom, K.

2018-04-01

Marker registration is a fundamental process to estimate camera poses in marker-based Augmented Reality (AR) systems. We developed AR system that creates correspondence virtual objects on handwritten text markers. This paper presents a new method for registration that is robust for low-content text markers, variation of camera poses, and variation of handwritten styles. The proposed method uses Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSER) and polygon simplification for a feature point extraction. The experiment shows that we need to extract only five feature points per image which can provide the best registration results. An exhaustive search is used to find the best matching pattern of the feature points in two images. We also compared performance of the proposed method to some existing registration methods and found that the proposed method can provide better accuracy and time efficiency.

Visual impairment in Northern Ireland.

PubMed Central

Canavan, Y. M.; Jackson, A. J.; Stewart, A.

1997-01-01

Statistics on the registration of blind and partially-sighted patients in Northern Ireland underestimate the true extent of visual impairment within our community. In comparison to other UK regions, where between 0.53% and 0.59% of the population avail of blind or partial sight registration, only 0.35% of residents in Northern Ireland appear on the respective registers. Most patients on the combined registers are in the older age groups and many also suffer from other disabilities. Regional discrepancies may be attributed to a combination of factors including: patient attitudes to the registration process, medical attitudes to registration and local anomalies in the way in which social services departments both record and present annual registration returns. Better liaison is necessary between the community, hospital and voluntary sector providers to improve identification and support services for the visually impaired in the future. PMID:9414937

Deformable Medical Image Registration: A Survey

PubMed Central

Sotiras, Aristeidis; Davatzikos, Christos; Paragios, Nikos

2013-01-01

Deformable image registration is a fundamental task in medical image processing. Among its most important applications, one may cite: i) multi-modality fusion, where information acquired by different imaging devices or protocols is fused to facilitate diagnosis and treatment planning; ii) longitudinal studies, where temporal structural or anatomical changes are investigated; and iii) population modeling and statistical atlases used to study normal anatomical variability. In this paper, we attempt to give an overview of deformable registration methods, putting emphasis on the most recent advances in the domain. Additional emphasis has been given to techniques applied to medical images. In order to study image registration methods in depth, their main components are identified and studied independently. The most recent techniques are presented in a systematic fashion. The contribution of this paper is to provide an extensive account of registration techniques in a systematic manner. PMID:23739795

CLASSIFYING MEDICAL IMAGES USING MORPHOLOGICAL APPEARANCE MANIFOLDS.

PubMed

Varol, Erdem; Gaonkar, Bilwaj; Davatzikos, Christos

2013-12-31

Input features for medical image classification algorithms are extracted from raw images using a series of pre processing steps. One common preprocessing step in computational neuroanatomy and functional brain mapping is the nonlinear registration of raw images to a common template space. Typically, the registration methods used are parametric and their output varies greatly with changes in parameters. Most results reported previously perform registration using a fixed parameter setting and use the results as input to the subsequent classification step. The variation in registration results due to choice of parameters thus translates to variation of performance of the classifiers that depend on the registration step for input. Analogous issues have been investigated in the computer vision literature, where image appearance varies with pose and illumination, thereby making classification vulnerable to these confounding parameters. The proposed methodology addresses this issue by sampling image appearances as registration parameters vary, and shows that better classification accuracies can be obtained this way, compared to the conventional approach.

78 FR 65717 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-01

... sending an email to: [email protected] ; and (ii) Thomas Bayer, Chief Information Officer....) (``Securities Act''). The primary purpose of the registration process is to provide disclosure of financial and... policy-making roles. The Commission estimates that there are 162 initial registration statements and 29...

SAR image registration based on Susan algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chun-bo; Fu, Shao-hua; Wei, Zhong-yi

2011-10-01

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active remote sensing system which can be installed on aircraft, satellite and other carriers with the advantages of all day and night and all-weather ability. It is the important problem that how to deal with SAR and extract information reasonably and efficiently. Particularly SAR image geometric correction is the bottleneck to impede the application of SAR. In this paper we introduces image registration and the Susan algorithm knowledge firstly, then introduces the process of SAR image registration based on Susan algorithm and finally presents experimental results of SAR image registration. The Experiment shows that this method is effective and applicable, no matter from calculating the time or from the calculation accuracy.

Support for the 2001 Gordon Research Conference on the Origins of Solar Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stevenson, David J.

2002-01-01

This grant provided partial support for participants at the Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems, held at Connecticut College, June 17 through June 22, 2001. This conference was chaired by the PI (David Stevenson) and Pat Cassell (NASA Ames) was Vice-Chair. In addition to the money provided by this grant ($15,000), the Gordon Research Conference organization provided about $22,000 (in large part from registration fees) and BPI provided $10,000 (through Director David Black); the latter targeted primarily for students and postdocs. Accordingly the grant money from NASA was used to cover the costs of registration and travel for about one half of the invited speakers (22 in total) and discussion leaders (about 10 in total).

Support for the 2001 Gordon Research Conference on the Origins of Solar Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stevenson, David J.

2002-01-01

This grant provided partial support for participants at the Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems, held at Connecticut College, June 17 through June 22, 2001. This conference was chaired by the PI (David Stevenson) and Pat Cassell (NASA Ames) was Vice-Chair. In addition to the money provided by this grant (15,000), the Gordon Research Conference organization provided about 22,000 (in large part from registration fees) and BPI provided 10,000 (through Director David Black); the latter targeted primarily for students and postdocs. Accordingly the grant money from NASA was used to cover the costs of registration and travel for about one half of the invited speakers (22 in total) and discussion leaders (about 10 in total).

[Improved opportunities for the identification of people with a migrant background for mortality research using the example of Bremen].

PubMed

Makarova, N; Reiss, K; Zeeb, H; Razum, O; Spallek, J

2013-06-01

19.6% of Germany's population has a "migrant" background. Comprehensive epidemiological research on health and health development of this large, heterogeneous and increasingly important population group in Germany is still deficient. There is a lack of results on mortality and morbidity, particularly concerning chronic diseases and disease processes. The aim of this paper is to combine and to compare already applied methods with new methodological approaches for determining the vital status and the mortality of immigrants from Turkey and the former Soviet Union. For this purpose we used data from the state of Bremen (666 709 residents, last update 2010). We examined 2 methodological aspects: (i) possibilities for identifying immigrant background in the data of residents' registration office with different methods (onomastic, toponomastic, etc.) and (ii) opportunities for record linkage of the obtained data with the Bremen mortality index. Immigrants from Turkey and the former Soviet Union were successfully identified in databases of the residents' registration office by a combination of different methods. The combination of different methodological approaches proved to be considerably better than using one method only. Through the application of a name-based algorithm we found that Turkish immigrants comprise 6.9% of the total population living in Bremen. By combining the variables "citizenship" and "country of birth" the total population proportion of immigrants from the former Soviet Union was found to be 5%. We also identified the deceased immigrant population in Bremen. The information obtained from residents' registration office could be successfully linked by death register number with the data of the Bremen mortality index. This information can be used in further detailed mortality analyses. The results of this analysis show the existing opportunities to consider the heterogeneity of the German population in mortality research, especially by means of combination of different methods to identify the immigrant background. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

A comparative study between evaluation methods for quality control procedures for determining the accuracy of PET/CT registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cha, Min Kyoung; Ko, Hyun Soo; Jung, Woo Young; Ryu, Jae Kwang; Choe, Bo-Young

2015-08-01

The Accuracy of registration between positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) images is one of the important factors for reliable diagnosis in PET/CT examinations. Although quality control (QC) for checking alignment of PET and CT images should be performed periodically, the procedures have not been fully established. The aim of this study is to determine optimal quality control (QC) procedures that can be performed at the user level to ensure the accuracy of PET/CT registration. Two phantoms were used to carry out this study: the American college of Radiology (ACR)-approved PET phantom and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) body phantom, containing fillable spheres. All PET/CT images were acquired on a Biograph TruePoint 40 PET/CT scanner using routine protocols. To measure registration error, the spatial coordinates of the estimated centers of the target slice (spheres) was calculated independently for the PET and the CT images in two ways. We compared the images from the ACR-approved PET phantom to that from the NEMA IEC body phantom. Also, we measured the total time required from phantom preparation to image analysis. The first analysis method showed a total difference of 0.636 ± 0.11 mm for the largest hot sphere and 0.198 ± 0.09 mm for the largest cold sphere in the case of the ACR-approved PET phantom. In the NEMA IEC body phantom, the total difference was 3.720 ± 0.97 mm for the largest hot sphere and 4.800 ± 0.85 mm for the largest cold sphere. The second analysis method showed that the differences in the x location at the line profile of the lesion on PET and CT were (1.33, 1.33) mm for a bone lesion, (-1.26, -1.33) mm for an air lesion and (-1.67, -1.60) mm for a hot sphere lesion for the ACR-approved PET phantom. For the NEMA IEC body phantom, the differences in the x location at the line profile of the lesion on PET and CT were (-1.33, 4.00) mm for the air lesion and (1.33, -1.29) mm for a hot sphere lesion. These registration errors from this study were reasonable compared to the errors reported in previous studies. Meanwhile, the total time required from phantom preparation was 67.72 ± 4.50 min for the ACR-approved PET phantom and 96.78 ± 8.50 min for the NEMA IEC body phantom. When the registration errors and the lead times are considered, the method using the ACR-approved PET phantom was more practical and useful than the method using the NEMA IEC body phantom.

A Multistage Approach for Image Registration.

PubMed

Bowen, Francis; Hu, Jianghai; Du, Eliza Yingzi

2016-09-01

Successful image registration is an important step for object recognition, target detection, remote sensing, multimodal content fusion, scene blending, and disaster assessment and management. The geometric and photometric variations between images adversely affect the ability for an algorithm to estimate the transformation parameters that relate the two images. Local deformations, lighting conditions, object obstructions, and perspective differences all contribute to the challenges faced by traditional registration techniques. In this paper, a novel multistage registration approach is proposed that is resilient to view point differences, image content variations, and lighting conditions. Robust registration is realized through the utilization of a novel region descriptor which couples with the spatial and texture characteristics of invariant feature points. The proposed region descriptor is exploited in a multistage approach. A multistage process allows the utilization of the graph-based descriptor in many scenarios thus allowing the algorithm to be applied to a broader set of images. Each successive stage of the registration technique is evaluated through an effective similarity metric which determines subsequent action. The registration of aerial and street view images from pre- and post-disaster provide strong evidence that the proposed method estimates more accurate global transformation parameters than traditional feature-based methods. Experimental results show the robustness and accuracy of the proposed multistage image registration methodology.

Scale invariant feature transform in adaptive radiation therapy: a tool for deformable image registration assessment and re-planning indication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paganelli, Chiara; Peroni, Marta; Riboldi, Marco; Sharp, Gregory C.; Ciardo, Delia; Alterio, Daniela; Orecchia, Roberto; Baroni, Guido

2013-01-01

Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) aims at compensating for anatomic and pathological changes to improve delivery along a treatment fraction sequence. Current ART protocols require time-consuming manual updating of all volumes of interest on the images acquired during treatment. Deformable image registration (DIR) and contour propagation stand as a state of the ART method to automate the process, but the lack of DIR quality control methods hinder an introduction into clinical practice. We investigated the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method as a quantitative automated tool (1) for DIR evaluation and (2) for re-planning decision-making in the framework of ART treatments. As a preliminary test, SIFT invariance properties at shape-preserving and deformable transformations were studied on a computational phantom, granting residual matching errors below the voxel dimension. Then a clinical dataset composed of 19 head and neck ART patients was used to quantify the performance in ART treatments. For the goal (1) results demonstrated SIFT potential as an operator-independent DIR quality assessment metric. We measured DIR group systematic residual errors up to 0.66 mm against 1.35 mm provided by rigid registration. The group systematic errors of both bony and all other structures were also analyzed, attesting the presence of anatomical deformations. The correct automated identification of 18 patients who might benefit from ART out of the total 22 cases using SIFT demonstrated its capabilities toward goal (2) achievement.

Avoiding Stair-Step Artifacts in Image Registration for GOES-R Navigation and Registration Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grycewicz, Thomas J.; Tan, Bin; Isaacson, Peter J.; De Luccia, Frank J.; Dellomo, John

2016-01-01

In developing software for independent verification and validation (IVV) of the Image Navigation and Registration (INR) capability for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R Series (GOES-R) Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), we have encountered an image registration artifact which limits the accuracy of image offset estimation at the subpixel scale using image correlation. Where the two images to be registered have the same pixel size, subpixel image registration preferentially selects registration values where the image pixel boundaries are close to lined up. Because of the shape of a curve plotting input displacement to estimated offset, we call this a stair-step artifact. When one image is at a higher resolution than the other, the stair-step artifact is minimized by correlating at the higher resolution. For validating ABI image navigation, GOES-R images are correlated with Landsat-based ground truth maps. To create the ground truth map, the Landsat image is first transformed to the perspective seen from the GOES-R satellite, and then is scaled to an appropriate pixel size. Minimizing processing time motivates choosing the map pixels to be the same size as the GOES-R pixels. At this pixel size image processing of the shift estimate is efficient, but the stair-step artifact is present. If the map pixel is very small, stair-step is not a problem, but image correlation is computation-intensive. This paper describes simulation-based selection of the scale for truth maps for registering GOES-R ABI images.

Optometrists Association Australia Universal (entry-level) and Therapeutic Competency Standards for Optometry 2008.

PubMed

Kiely, Patricia M

2009-07-01

Competency standards for entry-level to the profession of optometry in Australia were first developed in 1993, revised in 1997 and expanded in 2000 to include therapeutic competency standards. The entry-level standards cover the competencies required by a person entering the profession without therapeutic endorsement of their registration. The therapeutic competency standards address the additional competencies required for therapeutic endorsement of registration. This paper presents a revised version of the universal (entry-level) and therapeutic competency standards for the profession of optometry in Australia in 2008. Expert members of the profession and representatives from schools of optometry, registration boards in Australia, state divisions of Optometrists Association Australia and the New Zealand Association of Optometrists were consulted in the process of updating the standards. Three new elements of competency have been added to the standards. Twenty-three new performance criteria with associated indicators have been added. Some performance criteria from the earlier document have been combined. Substantial alterations were made to the presentation of indicators throughout the document. The updated entry-level (universal) and therapeutic competency standards were adopted on behalf of the profession by the National Council of Optometrists Association Australia in November 2008. Competency standards are used by Australian and New Zealand registration authorities for the purposes of registration and therapeutic endorsement of registration via the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand accreditation and assessment processes. They have also been used as the basis of the World Council of Optometry Global Competency-Based Model.

Improving Productivity in Copyright Registration. Report by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comptroller General of the U.S., Washington, DC.

The productivity of the copyright registration process, which is administered by the Copyright Office within the Library of Congress, can be improved by streamlining the workflow, reducing and streamlining the handling of correspondence, measuring productivity/performance, increasing the use of automation, improving records management, and…

Facilitating the Transition to Postgraduate Attainment: The Experience of One Postgraduate, Pre-Registration Physiotherapy Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spearing, Rachel

2014-01-01

Students on the MSc Physiotherapy (pre-registration) programme at Manchester Metropolitan University work at postgraduate level, whilst studying to become physiotherapists. To facilitate the transition to postgraduate attainment, students participated in two sessions designed to inform them about assessment processes and standards. The hypothesis…

PRN 97-3: Guidelines for Expedited Review of Conventional Pesticides under the Reduced-Risk Initiative and for Biological Pesticides

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA encourages the development, registration and use of lower-risk pesticide products which would result in reduced risks to human health and the environment. This Pesticide Registration notice and the related web page explain the process and criteria.

76 FR 64960 - Extension of Agency Information Collection Activity Under OMB Review: Flight Crew Self-Defense...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-19

... Information Collection Activity Under OMB Review: Flight Crew Self-Defense Training--Registration and... self-defense training class provided by TSA, the collection process involves requesting, the name.... Information Collection Requirement Title: Flight Crew Self-Defense Training--Registration and Evaluation. Type...

Modeling Academic Education Processes by Dynamic Storyboarding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sakurai, Yoshitaka; Dohi, Shinichi; Tsuruta, Setsuo; Knauf, Rainer

2009-01-01

In high-level education such as university studies, there is a flexible but complicated system of subject offerings and registration rules such as prerequisite subjects. Those offerings, connected with registration rules, should be matched to the students' learning needs and desires, which change dynamically. Students need assistance in such a…

77 FR 1935 - Information Collection Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-12

...-0645. Title: Sections 17.4, 17.48 and 17.49, Antenna Structure Registration Requirements. Form Number... uniform registration process as well as safe and effective lighting procedures for owners of antenna structures. Section 17.4 requires the owner of any proposed or existing antenna structure that requires...

28 CFR 51.33 - Notice to registrants concerning submissions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Notice to registrants concerning submissions. 51.33 Section 51.33 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) PROCEDURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SECTION 5 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED Processing of Submissions § 51.33 Notice...

17 CFR 3.2 - Registration processing by the National Futures Association; notification and duration of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... any registration form, any schedule or supplement thereto, any fingerprint card or other document... complete photocopy of that form, schedule, supplement, fingerprint card, or other document is filed... original form, schedule, supplement, fingerprint card, or other document. (c) The National Futures...

Serial volumetric registration of pulmonary CT studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, José Silvestre; Silva, Augusto; Sousa Santos, Beatriz

2008-03-01

Detailed morphological analysis of pulmonary structures and tissue, provided by modern CT scanners, is of utmost importance as in the case of oncological applications both for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. In this case, a patient may go through several tomographic studies throughout a period of time originating volumetric sets of image data that must be appropriately registered in order to track suspicious radiological findings. The structures or regions of interest may change their position or shape in CT exams acquired at different moments, due to postural, physiologic or pathologic changes, so, the exams should be registered before any follow-up information can be extracted. Postural mismatching throughout time is practically impossible to avoid being particularly evident when imaging is performed at the limiting spatial resolution. In this paper, we propose a method for intra-patient registration of pulmonary CT studies, to assist in the management of the oncological pathology. Our method takes advantage of prior segmentation work. In the first step, the pulmonary segmentation is performed where trachea and main bronchi are identified. Then, the registration method proceeds with a longitudinal alignment based on morphological features of the lungs, such as the position of the carina, the pulmonary areas, the centers of mass and the pulmonary trans-axial principal axis. The final step corresponds to the trans-axial registration of the corresponding pulmonary masked regions. This is accomplished by a pairwise sectional registration process driven by an iterative search of the affine transformation parameters leading to optimal similarity metrics. Results with several cases of intra-patient, intra-modality registration, up to 7 time points, show that this method provides accurate registration which is needed for quantitative tracking of lesions and the development of image fusion strategies that may effectively assist the follow-up process.

CATE 2016 Indonesia: normalized radial graded filtering, site-to-site image registration, and preliminary results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen, L.; Kovac, S. A.; Hare, H. S.; Mitchell, A. M.; McKay, M. A.; Bosh, R.; Watson, Z.; Penn, M.

2016-12-01

An area of the solar corona from 1 out to approximately 2.5 solar radii is currently poorly sampled in astronomy. This is largely due to difficulties inherent in observing the sun from space and from the ground. Specifically focusing on ground based observations, the main problem is scattered light in the Earth's atmosphere and in the telescopes themselves. A total solar eclipse solves this problem by blocking the light from the photosphere of the sun before it enters the atmosphere, reducing the scattered light in the atmosphere by a factor of 10,000. However, using a total solar eclipse introduces another challenge due to the small window of time it provides. At any given location in 2017, the totality will last for only about 2.5 minutes and such a small data set limits the studies that can be done on the inner corona. The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse Experiment plans to overcome this issue by taking advantage of America's infrastructure and using 60 identical telescopes to collect continuous data of the solar eclipse as the shadow travels from Oregon to South Carolina. By splicing these data together 90 minutes of one-of-a-kind data can be collected, revealing the dynamics of the inner corona as never seen before. For the 2016 Indonesian total solar eclipse the CATE project collected data using 5 sites along the eclipse path. These data were then used to develop processing programs to use on future data. These processes included site-to-site image registration as well as normalized radial graded filtering of the images. Programs were also developed to begin performing studies on the data including overlapping CATE and LASCO space telescope data for a total coronal image as well as thread tracing routines to quantify direction in the coronal filaments. This work was made possible through the National Solar Observatory Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, which is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSO Training for 2017 Citizen CATE Experiment, funded by NASA (NASA NNX16AB92A), also provided support for this project. The National Solar Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the NSF.

Licensing procedures and registration of medical doctors in the European Union.

PubMed

Kovacs, Eszter; Schmidt, Andrea E; Szocska, Gabor; Busse, Reinhard; McKee, Martin; Legido-Quigley, Helena

2014-06-01

The current proposals to update the European Union (EU) directive on professional qualifications will have potentially important implications for health professions. Yet those discussing it will struggle to find basic information on key issues such as licensing and registration of physicians in different countries. A survey was conducted among national experts in 14 EU member states, supplemented by literature and independent expert review. The questionnaire covered five components of licensing and registration: (1) definitions, (2) regulatory basis, (3) governance, (4) the process of registration and (5) flow and quantity of applications. We identify seven areas of concern: (1) the meaning of terminology, which is inconsistent; (2) the role of language assessments and the responsibility for them; (3) whether approval to practise should be lifelong or time limited, subject to periodic assessment; (4) the need for improved systems to identify those deemed no longer fit to practise in one member state; (5) the complexity of processes for graduates from non-EU/European Economic Area (EAA) countries; (6) public access to registers; and (7) transparency of systems of governance. The systems of licensing and registration of doctors in Europe have developed within specific national contexts and vary widely. This creates inevitable problems in the context of free movement of professionals and increasing mobility. © 2014 Royal College of Physicians.

Non-invasive breast biopsy method using GD-DTPA contrast enhanced MRI series and F-18-FDG PET/CT dynamic image series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magri, Alphonso William

This study was undertaken to develop a nonsurgical breast biopsy from Gd-DTPA Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance (CE-MR) images and F-18-FDG PET/CT dynamic image series. A five-step process was developed to accomplish this. (1) Dynamic PET series were nonrigidly registered to the initial frame using a finite element method (FEM) based registration that requires fiducial skin markers to sample the displacement field between image frames. A commercial FEM package (ANSYS) was used for meshing and FEM calculations. Dynamic PET image series registrations were evaluated using similarity measurements SAVD and NCC. (2) Dynamic CE-MR series were nonrigidly registered to the initial frame using two registration methods: a multi-resolution free-form deformation (FFD) registration driven by normalized mutual information, and a FEM-based registration method. Dynamic CE-MR image series registrations were evaluated using similarity measurements, localization measurements, and qualitative comparison of motion artifacts. FFD registration was found to be superior to FEM-based registration. (3) Nonlinear curve fitting was performed for each voxel of the PET/CT volume of activity versus time, based on a realistic two-compartmental Patlak model. Three parameters for this model were fitted; two of them describe the activity levels in the blood and in the cellular compartment, while the third characterizes the washout rate of F-18-FDG from the cellular compartment. (4) Nonlinear curve fitting was performed for each voxel of the MR volume of signal intensity versus time, based on a realistic two-compartment Brix model. Three parameters for this model were fitted: rate of Gd exiting the compartment, representing the extracellular space of a lesion; rate of Gd exiting a blood compartment; and a parameter that characterizes the strength of signal intensities. Curve fitting used for PET/CT and MR series was accomplished by application of the Levenburg-Marquardt nonlinear regression algorithm. The best-fit parameters were used to create 3D parametric images. Compartmental modeling evaluation was based on the ability of parameter values to differentiate between tissue types. This evaluation was used on registered and unregistered image series and found that registration improved results. (5) PET and MR parametric images were registered through FEM- and FFD-based registration. Parametric image registration was evaluated using similarity measurements, target registration error, and qualitative comparison. Comparing FFD and FEM-based registration results showed that the FEM method is superior. This five-step process constitutes a novel multifaceted approach to a nonsurgical breast biopsy that successfully executes each step. Comparison of this method to biopsy still needs to be done with a larger set of subject data.

Results of a voter registration project at 2 family medicine residency clinics in the Bronx, New York.

PubMed

Liggett, Alisha; Sharma, Manisha; Nakamura, Yumiko; Villar, Ryna; Selwyn, Peter

2014-01-01

Federally qualified health centers provide care to medically underserved populations, the same individuals often underrepresented in the electoral process. These centers are unique venues to access patients for voter registration services. We undertook a clinician-led, nonpartisan voter registration drive within 2 university-affiliated federally qualified health centers in the Bronx, New York. Patients were approached by voter registration volunteers in clinic waiting areas during a 12-week period. Volunteers directly engaged with 304 patients. Of the 128 patients who were eligible and not currently registered, 114 (89%) registered to vote through this project. This number corresponded to 38% of all patients engaged. Sixty-five percent of new registrants were aged younger than 40 years. This project was successful in registering clinic patients to vote. Clinics are not only health centers, but also powerful vehicles for bringing a voice to civically disenfranchised communities. © 2014 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

Study on Huizhou architecture of point cloud registration based on optimized ICP algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Runmei; Wu, Yulu; Zhang, Guangbin; Zhou, Wei; Tao, Yuqian

2018-03-01

In view of the current point cloud registration software has high hardware requirements, heavy workload and moltiple interactive definition, the source of software with better processing effect is not open, a two--step registration method based on normal vector distribution feature and coarse feature based iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is proposed in this paper. This method combines fast point feature histogram (FPFH) algorithm, define the adjacency region of point cloud and the calculation model of the distribution of normal vectors, setting up the local coordinate system for each key point, and obtaining the transformation matrix to finish rough registration, the rough registration results of two stations are accurately registered by using the ICP algorithm. Experimental results show that, compared with the traditional ICP algorithm, the method used in this paper has obvious time and precision advantages for large amount of point clouds.

Image registration assessment in radiotherapy image guidance based on control chart monitoring.

PubMed

Xia, Wenyao; Breen, Stephen L

2018-04-01

Image guidance with cone beam computed tomography in radiotherapy can guarantee the precision and accuracy of patient positioning prior to treatment delivery. During the image guidance process, operators need to take great effort to evaluate the image guidance quality before correcting a patient's position. This work proposes an image registration assessment method based on control chart monitoring to reduce the effort taken by the operator. According to the control chart plotted by daily registration scores of each patient, the proposed method can quickly detect both alignment errors and image quality inconsistency. Therefore, the proposed method can provide a clear guideline for the operators to identify unacceptable image quality and unacceptable image registration with minimal effort. Experimental results demonstrate that by using control charts from a clinical database of 10 patients undergoing prostate radiotherapy, the proposed method can quickly identify out-of-control signals and find special cause of out-of-control registration events.

Decisions to register for the National Marrow Donor Program: rational vs emotional appeals.

PubMed

Studts, J L; Ruberg, J L; McGuffin, S A; Roetzer, L M

2010-03-01

Little research has examined how the content of health communications regarding the need for BM and stem cell donation affects the intentions and attitudes of potential National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) donors. This study used an experimental design to test the hypothesis that an emotional appeal (EA) to potential donors would lead to higher rates of NMDP registration than a rational appeal (RA). Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a RA or an EA and then asked if they would (1) register with the NMDP and (2) talk with family members about NMDP registration. A total of 85% of individuals receiving the EA agreed to register for the NMDP, whereas only 49% of the participants receiving the RA agreed to register. The EA (72%) and RA (54%) groups did not differ significantly in their reported willingness to talk with family members about NMDP registration. However, multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that the EA group endorsed significantly greater willingness to engage in both outcomes. Results suggest that an EA was more effective in motivating participants, but other sociodemographic factors were also associated with decisions about NMDP registration. EA may provide a useful and cost-effective method for increasing NMDP registration.

A fast rigid-registration method of inferior limb X-ray image and 3D CT images for TKA surgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ito, Fumihito; O. D. A, Prima; Uwano, Ikuko; Ito, Kenzo

2010-03-01

In this paper, we propose a fast rigid-registration method of inferior limb X-ray films (two-dimensional Computed Radiography (CR) images) and three-dimensional Computed Tomography (CT) images for Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) surgery planning. The position of the each bone, such as femur and tibia (shin bone), in X-ray film and 3D CT images is slightly different, and we must pay attention how to use the two different images, since X-ray film image is captured in the standing position, and 3D CT is captured in decubitus (face up) position, respectively. Though the conventional registration mainly uses cross-correlation function between two images,and utilizes optimization techniques, it takes enormous calculation time and it is difficult to use it in interactive operations. In order to solve these problems, we calculate the center line (bone axis) of femur and tibia (shin bone) automatically, and we use them as initial positions for the registration. We evaluate our registration method by using three patient's image data, and we compare our proposed method and a conventional registration, which uses down-hill simplex algorithm. The down-hill simplex method is an optimization algorithm that requires only function evaluations, and doesn't need the calculation of derivatives. Our registration method is more effective than the downhill simplex method in computational time and the stable convergence. We have developed the implant simulation system on a personal computer, in order to support the surgeon in a preoperative planning of TKA. Our registration method is implemented in the simulation system, and user can manipulate 2D/3D translucent templates of implant components on X-ray film and 3D CT images.

Comparative Evaluation of Registration Algorithms in Different Brain Databases With Varying Difficulty: Results and Insights

PubMed Central

Akbari, Hamed; Bilello, Michel; Da, Xiao; Davatzikos, Christos

2015-01-01

Evaluating various algorithms for the inter-subject registration of brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) is a necessary topic receiving growing attention. Existing studies evaluated image registration algorithms in specific tasks or using specific databases (e.g., only for skull-stripped images, only for single-site images, etc.). Consequently, the choice of registration algorithms seems task- and usage/parameter-dependent. Nevertheless, recent large-scale, often multi-institutional imaging-related studies create the need and raise the question whether some registration algorithms can 1) generally apply to various tasks/databases posing various challenges; 2) perform consistently well, and while doing so, 3) require minimal or ideally no parameter tuning. In seeking answers to this question, we evaluated 12 general-purpose registration algorithms, for their generality, accuracy and robustness. We fixed their parameters at values suggested by algorithm developers as reported in the literature. We tested them in 7 databases/tasks, which present one or more of 4 commonly-encountered challenges: 1) inter-subject anatomical variability in skull-stripped images; 2) intensity homogeneity, noise and large structural differences in raw images; 3) imaging protocol and field-of-view (FOV) differences in multi-site data; and 4) missing correspondences in pathology-bearing images. Totally 7,562 registrations were performed. Registration accuracies were measured by (multi-)expert-annotated landmarks or regions of interest (ROIs). To ensure reproducibility, we used public software tools, public databases (whenever possible), and we fully disclose the parameter settings. We show evaluation results, and discuss the performances in light of algorithms’ similarity metrics, transformation models and optimization strategies. We also discuss future directions for the algorithm development and evaluations. PMID:24951685

Automatic image fusion of real-time ultrasound with computed tomography images: a prospective comparison between two auto-registration methods.

PubMed

Cha, Dong Ik; Lee, Min Woo; Kim, Ah Yeong; Kang, Tae Wook; Oh, Young-Taek; Jeong, Ja-Yeon; Chang, Jung-Woo; Ryu, Jiwon; Lee, Kyong Joon; Kim, Jaeil; Bang, Won-Chul; Shin, Dong Kuk; Choi, Sung Jin; Koh, Dalkwon; Seo, Bong Koo; Kim, Kyunga

2017-11-01

Background A major drawback of conventional manual image fusion is that the process may be complex, especially for less-experienced operators. Recently, two automatic image fusion techniques called Positioning and Sweeping auto-registration have been developed. Purpose To compare the accuracy and required time for image fusion of real-time ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) images between Positioning and Sweeping auto-registration. Material and Methods Eighteen consecutive patients referred for planning US for radiofrequency ablation or biopsy for focal hepatic lesions were enrolled. Image fusion using both auto-registration methods was performed for each patient. Registration error, time required for image fusion, and number of point locks used were compared using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results Image fusion was successful in all patients. Positioning auto-registration was significantly faster than Sweeping auto-registration for both initial (median, 11 s [range, 3-16 s] vs. 32 s [range, 21-38 s]; P < 0.001] and complete (median, 34.0 s [range, 26-66 s] vs. 47.5 s [range, 32-90]; P = 0.001] image fusion. Registration error of Positioning auto-registration was significantly higher for initial image fusion (median, 38.8 mm [range, 16.0-84.6 mm] vs. 18.2 mm [6.7-73.4 mm]; P = 0.029), but not for complete image fusion (median, 4.75 mm [range, 1.7-9.9 mm] vs. 5.8 mm [range, 2.0-13.0 mm]; P = 0.338]. Number of point locks required to refine the initially fused images was significantly higher with Positioning auto-registration (median, 2 [range, 2-3] vs. 1 [range, 1-2]; P = 0.012]. Conclusion Positioning auto-registration offers faster image fusion between real-time US and pre-procedural CT images than Sweeping auto-registration. The final registration error is similar between the two methods.

Demonstration of accuracy and clinical versatility of mutual information for automatic multimodality image fusion using affine and thin-plate spline warped geometric deformations.

PubMed

Meyer, C R; Boes, J L; Kim, B; Bland, P H; Zasadny, K R; Kison, P V; Koral, K; Frey, K A; Wahl, R L

1997-04-01

This paper applies and evaluates an automatic mutual information-based registration algorithm across a broad spectrum of multimodal volume data sets. The algorithm requires little or no pre-processing, minimal user input and easily implements either affine, i.e. linear or thin-plate spline (TPS) warped registrations. We have evaluated the algorithm in phantom studies as well as in selected cases where few other algorithms could perform as well, if at all, to demonstrate the value of this new method. Pairs of multimodal gray-scale volume data sets were registered by iteratively changing registration parameters to maximize mutual information. Quantitative registration errors were assessed in registrations of a thorax phantom using PET/CT and in the National Library of Medicine's Visible Male using MRI T2-/T1-weighted acquisitions. Registrations of diverse clinical data sets were demonstrated including rotate-translate mapping of PET/MRI brain scans with significant missing data, full affine mapping of thoracic PET/CT and rotate-translate mapping of abdominal SPECT/CT. A five-point thin-plate spline (TPS) warped registration of thoracic PET/CT is also demonstrated. The registration algorithm converged in times ranging between 3.5 and 31 min for affine clinical registrations and 57 min for TPS warping. Mean error vector lengths for rotate-translate registrations were measured to be subvoxel in phantoms. More importantly the rotate-translate algorithm performs well even with missing data. The demonstrated clinical fusions are qualitatively excellent at all levels. We conclude that such automatic, rapid, robust algorithms significantly increase the likelihood that multimodality registrations will be routinely used to aid clinical diagnoses and post-therapeutic assessment in the near future.

A software tool of digital tomosynthesis application for patient positioning in radiotherapy.

PubMed

Yan, Hui; Dai, Jian-Rong

2016-03-08

Digital Tomosynthesis (DTS) is an image modality in reconstructing tomographic images from two-dimensional kV projections covering a narrow scan angles. Comparing with conventional cone-beam CT (CBCT), it requires less time and radiation dose in data acquisition. It is feasible to apply this technique in patient positioning in radiotherapy. To facilitate its clinical application, a software tool was developed and the reconstruction processes were accelerated by graphic process-ing unit (GPU). Two reconstruction and two registration processes are required for DTS application which is different from conventional CBCT application which requires one image reconstruction process and one image registration process. The reconstruction stage consists of productions of two types of DTS. One type of DTS is reconstructed from cone-beam (CB) projections covering a narrow scan angle and is named onboard DTS (ODTS), which represents the real patient position in treatment room. Another type of DTS is reconstructed from digitally reconstructed radiography (DRR) and is named reference DTS (RDTS), which represents the ideal patient position in treatment room. Prior to the reconstruction of RDTS, The DRRs are reconstructed from planning CT using the same acquisition setting of CB projections. The registration stage consists of two matching processes between ODTS and RDTS. The target shift in lateral and longitudinal axes are obtained from the matching between ODTS and RDTS in coronal view, while the target shift in longitudinal and vertical axes are obtained from the matching between ODTS and RDTS in sagittal view. In this software, both DRR and DTS reconstruction algorithms were implemented on GPU environments for acceleration purpose. The comprehensive evaluation of this software tool was performed including geometric accuracy, image quality, registration accuracy, and reconstruction efficiency. The average correlation coefficient between DRR/DTS generated by GPU-based algorithm and CPU-based algorithm is 0.99. Based on the measurements of cube phantom on DTS, the geometric errors are within 0.5 mm in three axes. For both cube phantom and pelvic phantom, the registration errors are within 0.5 mm in three axes. Compared with reconstruction performance of CPU-based algorithms, the performances of DRR and DTS reconstructions are improved by a factor of 15 to 20. A GPU-based software tool was developed for DTS application for patient positioning of radiotherapy. The geometric and registration accuracy met the clinical requirement in patient setup of radiotherapy. The high performance of DRR and DTS reconstruction algorithms was achieved by the GPU-based computation environments. It is a useful software tool for researcher and clinician in evaluating DTS application in patient positioning of radiotherapy.

The Potential (F)utility of a Passive Organ Donor Registration Opportunity: A Conceptual Replication.

PubMed

Siegel, Jason T; Alvaro, Eusebio M; Tan, Cara N; Navarro, Mario A; Garner, Lori R; Jones, Sara Pace

2016-06-01

Approximately 22 people die each day in the United States as a result of the shortage of transplantable organs. This is particularly problematic among Spanish-dominant Hispanics. Increasing the number of registered organ donors can reduce this deficit. The goal of the current set of studies was to conceptually replicate a prior study indicating the lack of utility of a lone, immediate and complete registration opportunity (ICRO). The study, a quasi-experimental design involving a total of 4 waves of data collection, was conducted in 2 different Mexican consulates in the United States. Guided by the IIFF Model (ie, an ICRO, information, focused engagement, and favorable activation), each wave compared a lone ICRO to a condition that likewise included an ICRO but also included the 3 additional intervention components recommended by the model (ie, information, focused engagement, and favorable activation). Visitors to the Mexican consulates in Tucson, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, constituted the participant pool. New organ donor registrations represented the dependent variable. When all 4 components of the IIFF Model were present, approximately 4 registrations per day were recorded; the lone ICRO resulted in approximately 1 registration every 15 days. An ICRO, without the other components of the IIFF Model, is of minimal use in regard to garnering organ donor registrations. Future studies should use the IIFF Model to consider how the utility of ICROs can be maximized. © 2016, NATCO.

Comparison of digital and conventional impression techniques: evaluation of patients’ perception, treatment comfort, effectiveness and clinical outcomes

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The purpose of this study was to compare two impression techniques from the perspective of patient preferences and treatment comfort. Methods Twenty-four (12 male, 12 female) subjects who had no previous experience with either conventional or digital impression participated in this study. Conventional impressions of maxillary and mandibular dental arches were taken with a polyether impression material (Impregum, 3 M ESPE), and bite registrations were made with polysiloxane bite registration material (Futar D, Kettenbach). Two weeks later, digital impressions and bite scans were performed using an intra-oral scanner (CEREC Omnicam, Sirona). Immediately after the impressions were made, the subjects’ attitudes, preferences and perceptions towards impression techniques were evaluated using a standardized questionnaire. The perceived source of stress was evaluated using the State-Trait Anxiety Scale. Processing steps of the impression techniques (tray selection, working time etc.) were recorded in seconds. Statistical analyses were performed with the Wilcoxon Rank test, and p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results There were significant differences among the groups (p < 0.05) in terms of total working time and processing steps. Patients stated that digital impressions were more comfortable than conventional techniques. Conclusions Digital impressions resulted in a more time-efficient technique than conventional impressions. Patients preferred the digital impression technique rather than conventional techniques. PMID:24479892

A gaussian mixture + demons deformable registration method for cone-beam CT-guided robotic transoral base-of-tongue surgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reaungamornrat, S.; Liu, W. P.; Schafer, S.; Otake, Y.; Nithiananthan, S.; Uneri, A.; Richmon, J.; Sorger, J.; Siewerdsen, J. H.; Taylor, R. H.

2013-03-01

Purpose: An increasingly popular minimally invasive approach to resection of oropharyngeal / base-of-tongue cancer is made possible by a transoral technique conducted with the assistance of a surgical robot. However, the highly deformed surgical setup (neck flexed, mouth open, and tongue retracted) compared to the typical patient orientation in preoperative images poses a challenge to guidance and localization of the tumor target and adjacent critical anatomy. Intraoperative cone-beam CT (CBCT) can account for such deformation, but due to the low contrast of soft-tissue in CBCT images, direct localization of the target and critical tissues in CBCT images can be difficult. Such structures may be more readily delineated in preoperative CT or MR images, so a method to deformably register such information to intraoperative CBCT could offer significant value. This paper details the initial implementation of a deformable registration framework to align preoperative images with the deformed intraoperative scene and gives preliminary evaluation of the geometric accuracy of registration in CBCT-guided TORS. Method: The deformable registration aligns preoperative CT or MR to intraoperative CBCT by integrating two established approaches. The volume of interest is first segmented (specifically, the region of the tongue from the tip to the hyoid), and a Gaussian mixture (GM) mode1 of surface point clouds is used for rigid initialization (GMRigid) as well as an initial deformation (GMNonRigid). Next, refinement of the registration is performed using the Demons algorithm applied to distance transformations of the GM-registered and CBCT volumes. The registration accuracy of the framework was quantified in preliminary studies using a cadaver emulating preoperative and intraoperative setups. Geometric accuracy of registration was quantified in terms of target registration error (TRE) and surface distance error. Result: With each step of the registration process, the framework demonstrated improved registration, achieving mean TRE of 3.0 mm following the GM rigid, 1.9 mm following GM nonrigid, and 1.5 mm at the output of the registration process. Analysis of surface distance demonstrated a corresponding improvement of 2.2, 0.4, and 0.3 mm, respectively. The evaluation of registration error revealed the accurate alignment in the region of interest for base-of-tongue robotic surgery owing to point-set selection in the GM steps and refinement in the deep aspect of the tongue in the Demons step. Conclusions: A promising framework has been developed for CBCT-guided TORS in which intraoperative CBCT provides a basis for registration of preoperative images to the highly deformed intraoperative setup. The registration framework is invariant to imaging modality (accommodating preoperative CT or MR) and is robust against CBCT intensity variations and artifact, provided corresponding segmentation of the volume of interest. The approach could facilitate overlay of preoperative planning data directly in stereo-endoscopic video in support of CBCT-guided TORS.

Application of a spectrally filtered probing light beam and RGB decomposition of microphotographs for flow registration of ultrasonically enhanced agglutination of erythrocytes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doubrovski, V. A.; Ganilova, Yu. A.; Zabenkov, I. V.

2013-08-01

We propose a development of the flow microscopy method to increase the resolving power upon registration of erythrocyte agglutination. We experimentally show that the action of a ultrasonic standing wave on an agglutinating mixture blood-serum leads to the formation of so large erythrocytic immune complexes that it seems possible to propose a new two-wave optical method of registration of the process of erythrocyte agglutination using the RGB decomposition of microphotographs of the flow of the mixture under study. This approach increases the reliability of registration of erythrocyte agglutination and, consequently, increases the reliability of blood typing. Our results can be used in the development of instruments for automatic human blood typing.

Automatic Registration of GF4 Pms: a High Resolution Multi-Spectral Sensor on Board a Satellite on Geostationary Orbit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, M.; Li, J.

2018-04-01

Geometric correction is an important preprocessing process in the application of GF4 PMS image. The method of geometric correction that is based on the manual selection of geometric control points is time-consuming and laborious. The more common method, based on a reference image, is automatic image registration. This method involves several steps and parameters. For the multi-spectral sensor GF4 PMS, it is necessary for us to identify the best combination of parameters and steps. This study mainly focuses on the following issues: necessity of Rational Polynomial Coefficients (RPC) correction before automatic registration, base band in the automatic registration and configuration of GF4 PMS spatial resolution.

Building an outpatient imaging center: A case study at genesis healthcare system, part 2.

PubMed

Yanci, Jim

2006-01-01

In the second of 2 parts, this article will focus on process improvement projects utilizing a case study at Genesis HealthCare System located in Zanesville, OH. Operational efficiency is a key step in developing a freestanding diagnostic imaging center. The process improvement projects began with an Expert Improvement Session (EIS) on the scheduling process. An EIS session is a facilitated meeting that can last anywhere from 3 hours to 2 days. Its intention is to take a group of people involved with the problem or operational process and work to understand current failures or breakdowns in the process. Recommendations are jointly developed to overcome any current deficiencies, and a work plan is structured to create ownership over the changes. A total of 11 EIS sessions occurred over the course of this project, covering 5 sections: Scheduling/telephone call process, Pre-registration, Verification/pre-certification, MRI throughput, CT throughput. Following is a single example of a project focused on the process improvement efforts. All of the process improvement projects utilized a quasi methodology of "DMAIC" (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control).

Intraoperative Image-based Multiview 2D/3D Registration for Image-Guided Orthopaedic Surgery: Incorporation of Fiducial-Based C-Arm Tracking and GPU-Acceleration

PubMed Central

Armand, Mehran; Armiger, Robert S.; Kutzer, Michael D.; Basafa, Ehsan; Kazanzides, Peter; Taylor, Russell H.

2012-01-01

Intraoperative patient registration may significantly affect the outcome of image-guided surgery (IGS). Image-based registration approaches have several advantages over the currently dominant point-based direct contact methods and are used in some industry solutions in image-guided radiation therapy with fixed X-ray gantries. However, technical challenges including geometric calibration and computational cost have precluded their use with mobile C-arms for IGS. We propose a 2D/3D registration framework for intraoperative patient registration using a conventional mobile X-ray imager combining fiducial-based C-arm tracking and graphics processing unit (GPU)-acceleration. The two-stage framework 1) acquires X-ray images and estimates relative pose between the images using a custom-made in-image fiducial, and 2) estimates the patient pose using intensity-based 2D/3D registration. Experimental validations using a publicly available gold standard dataset, a plastic bone phantom and cadaveric specimens have been conducted. The mean target registration error (mTRE) was 0.34 ± 0.04 mm (success rate: 100%, registration time: 14.2 s) for the phantom with two images 90° apart, and 0.99 ± 0.41 mm (81%, 16.3 s) for the cadaveric specimen with images 58.5° apart. The experimental results showed the feasibility of the proposed registration framework as a practical alternative for IGS routines. PMID:22113773

Automated robust registration of grossly misregistered whole-slide images with varying stains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Litjens, G.; Safferling, K.; Grabe, N.

2016-03-01

Cancer diagnosis and pharmaceutical research increasingly depend on the accurate quantification of cancer biomarkers. Identification of biomarkers is usually performed through immunohistochemical staining of cancer sections on glass slides. However, combination of multiple biomarkers from a wide variety of immunohistochemically stained slides is a tedious process in traditional histopathology due to the switching of glass slides and re-identification of regions of interest by pathologists. Digital pathology now allows us to apply image registration algorithms to digitized whole-slides to align the differing immunohistochemical stains automatically. However, registration algorithms need to be robust to changes in color due to differing stains and severe changes in tissue content between slides. In this work we developed a robust registration methodology to allow for fast coarse alignment of multiple immunohistochemical stains to the base hematyoxylin and eosin stained image. We applied HSD color model conversion to obtain a less stain color dependent representation of the whole-slide images. Subsequently, optical density thresholding and connected component analysis were used to identify the relevant regions for registration. Template matching using normalized mutual information was applied to provide initial translation and rotation parameters, after which a cost function-driven affine registration was performed. The algorithm was validated using 40 slides from 10 prostate cancer patients, with landmark registration error as a metric. Median landmark registration error was around 180 microns, which indicates performance is adequate for practical application. None of the registrations failed, indicating the robustness of the algorithm.

75 FR 66413 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Exchange Programs Alumni Web Site Registration...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-28

...: Exchange Programs Alumni Web Site Registration, DS-7006 ACTION: Notice of request for public comment and... Collection The Exchange Programs Alumni Web site requires information to process users' voluntary requests for participation in the Web site. Other than contact information, which is required for website...

77 FR 38838 - Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 230.110-Registration of Blood Banks, Other Firms Collecting...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-29

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration [Docket No. FDA-2012-D-0558] Compliance Policy Guide Sec. 230.110--Registration of Blood Banks, Other Firms Collecting, Manufacturing, Preparing, or Processing Human Blood or Blood Products; Withdrawal AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS...

A Teacher's Guide to Selective Service Registration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selective Service System, Washington, DC.

This guide is designed to assist high school teachers in their preparation of lessons covering the Selective Service System. The guide is organized into seven chapters. Chapter 1 describes Selective Service as it exists today, explains the registration process and its role in the national defense system, details who must register, and emphasizes…

The International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) and International Registration Plan (IRP) : allocating commercial fuel tax and registration fee payments across multiple jurisdictions.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-02-01

This report provides: (1) an overview of the IFTA and IRP processes for allocating fuel tax revenues across jurisdictions; and (2) an assessment of these systems in regard to their effectiveness at allocating the tax and fee burden among commercial c...

Sample registration software for process automation in the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Facility in Malaysia nuclear agency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahman, Nur Aira Abd; Yussup, Nolida; Salim, Nazaratul Ashifa Bt. Abdullah; Ibrahim, Maslina Bt. Mohd; Mokhtar, Mukhlis B.; Soh@Shaari, Syirrazie Bin Che; Azman, Azraf B.; Ismail, Nadiah Binti

2015-04-01

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) had been established in Nuclear Malaysia since 1980s. Most of the procedures established were done manually including sample registration. The samples were recorded manually in a logbook and given ID number. Then all samples, standards, SRM and blank were recorded on the irradiation vial and several forms prior to irradiation. These manual procedures carried out by the NAA laboratory personnel were time consuming and not efficient. Sample registration software is developed as part of IAEA/CRP project on `Development of Process Automation in the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Facility in Malaysia Nuclear Agency (RC17399)'. The objective of the project is to create a pc-based data entry software during sample preparation stage. This is an effective method to replace redundant manual data entries that needs to be completed by laboratory personnel. The software developed will automatically generate sample code for each sample in one batch, create printable registration forms for administration purpose, and store selected parameters that will be passed to sample analysis program. The software is developed by using National Instruments Labview 8.6.

Improvement of the Accuracy of InSAR Image Co-Registration Based On Tie Points - A Review.

PubMed

Zou, Weibao; Li, Yan; Li, Zhilin; Ding, Xiaoli

2009-01-01

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a new measurement technology, making use of the phase information contained in the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. InSAR has been recognized as a potential tool for the generation of digital elevation models (DEMs) and the measurement of ground surface deformations. However, many critical factors affect the quality of InSAR data and limit its applications. One of the factors is InSAR data processing, which consists of image co-registration, interferogram generation, phase unwrapping and geocoding. The co-registration of InSAR images is the first step and dramatically influences the accuracy of InSAR products. In this paper, the principle and processing procedures of InSAR techniques are reviewed. One of important factors, tie points, to be considered in the improvement of the accuracy of InSAR image co-registration are emphatically reviewed, such as interval of tie points, extraction of feature points, window size for tie point matching and the measurement for the quality of an interferogram.

Improvement of the Accuracy of InSAR Image Co-Registration Based On Tie Points – A Review

PubMed Central

Zou, Weibao; Li, Yan; Li, Zhilin; Ding, Xiaoli

2009-01-01

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a new measurement technology, making use of the phase information contained in the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. InSAR has been recognized as a potential tool for the generation of digital elevation models (DEMs) and the measurement of ground surface deformations. However, many critical factors affect the quality of InSAR data and limit its applications. One of the factors is InSAR data processing, which consists of image co-registration, interferogram generation, phase unwrapping and geocoding. The co-registration of InSAR images is the first step and dramatically influences the accuracy of InSAR products. In this paper, the principle and processing procedures of InSAR techniques are reviewed. One of important factors, tie points, to be considered in the improvement of the accuracy of InSAR image co-registration are emphatically reviewed, such as interval of tie points, extraction of feature points, window size for tie point matching and the measurement for the quality of an interferogram. PMID:22399966

Navigation-based femorotibial rotation pattern correlated with flexion angle after total knee arthroplasty.

PubMed

Ishida, Kazunari; Shibanuma, Nao; Matsumoto, Tomoyuki; Sasaki, Hiroshi; Takayama, Koji; Matsuzaki, Tokio; Tei, Katsumasa; Kuroda, Ryosuke; Kurosaka, Masahiro

2016-01-01

To investigate whether intraoperative kinematics obtained by navigation systems can be divided into several kinematic patterns and to assess the correlation between the intraoperative kinematics with maximum flexion angles before and after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Fifty-four posterior-stabilised (PS) TKA implanted using an image-free navigation system were evaluated. At registration and after implantation, tibial internal rotation angles at maximum extension, 30°, 45°, 60°, 90°, and maximum flexion were collected. The rotational patterns were divided into four groups and were examined the correlation with maximum flexion before and after operation. Tibial internal rotation from 90° of flexion to maximum flexion at registration was correlated with maximum flexion angles pre- and postoperatively. The four groups showed statistically different kinematic patterns. The group with tibial external rotation up to 90° of flexion, following tibial internal rotation at registration, achieved better flexion angles, compared to those of another groups (126.7° ± 12.0°, p < 0.05). The group with tibial external rotation showed the worst flexion angles (80.0° ± 40.4°, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the group with limited extension showed worse flexion angles (111.6° ± 8.9°, p < 0.05). Navigation-based kinematic patterns found at registration predict postoperative maximum flexion angle in PS TKA. Navigation-based kinematics can be useful information during TKA surgery. Diagnostic studies, development of diagnostic criteria in a consecutive series of patients and a universally applied "gold" standard, Level II.

Registration of T-2 mycotoxin with total internal reflection ellipsometry and QCM impedance methods.

PubMed

Nabok, A V; Tsargorodskaya, A; Holloway, A; Starodub, N F; Gojster, O

2007-01-15

A sensitive optical method of total internal reflection ellipsometry (TIRE) in conjunction with immune assay approach was exploited for the registration of T-2 mycotoxin in a wide range of concentrations from 100 microg/ml down to 0.15 ng/ml. Association constants of 1.4x10(6) and 1.9x10(7)mol(-1)s for poly- and monoclonal T-2 antibodies, respectively, were evaluated from TIRE kinetic measurements. According to TIRE data fitting, binding of T-2 molecules to antibodies (at saturation) has resulted in the increase in adsorbed layer thickness of 4-5 nm. The QCM impedance measurements data showed anomalously large mass increase and film softening, most likely, due to the binding of large T-2 aggregates to antibodies.

High-performance GPU-based rendering for real-time, rigid 2D/3D-image registration and motion prediction in radiation oncology.

PubMed

Spoerk, Jakob; Gendrin, Christelle; Weber, Christoph; Figl, Michael; Pawiro, Supriyanto Ardjo; Furtado, Hugo; Fabri, Daniella; Bloch, Christoph; Bergmann, Helmar; Gröller, Eduard; Birkfellner, Wolfgang

2012-02-01

A common problem in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) of lung cancer as well as other malignant diseases is the compensation of periodic and aperiodic motion during dose delivery. Modern systems for image-guided radiation oncology allow for the acquisition of cone-beam computed tomography data in the treatment room as well as the acquisition of planar radiographs during the treatment. A mid-term research goal is the compensation of tumor target volume motion by 2D/3D Registration. In 2D/3D registration, spatial information on organ location is derived by an iterative comparison of perspective volume renderings, so-called digitally rendered radiographs (DRR) from computed tomography volume data, and planar reference x-rays. Currently, this rendering process is very time consuming, and real-time registration, which should at least provide data on organ position in less than a second, has not come into existence. We present two GPU-based rendering algorithms which generate a DRR of 512×512 pixels size from a CT dataset of 53 MB size at a pace of almost 100 Hz. This rendering rate is feasible by applying a number of algorithmic simplifications which range from alternative volume-driven rendering approaches - namely so-called wobbled splatting - to sub-sampling of the DRR-image by means of specialized raycasting techniques. Furthermore, general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) programming paradigms were consequently utilized. Rendering quality and performance as well as the influence on the quality and performance of the overall registration process were measured and analyzed in detail. The results show that both methods are competitive and pave the way for fast motion compensation by rigid and possibly even non-rigid 2D/3D registration and, beyond that, adaptive filtering of motion models in IGRT. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

High-performance GPU-based rendering for real-time, rigid 2D/3D-image registration and motion prediction in radiation oncology

PubMed Central

Spoerk, Jakob; Gendrin, Christelle; Weber, Christoph; Figl, Michael; Pawiro, Supriyanto Ardjo; Furtado, Hugo; Fabri, Daniella; Bloch, Christoph; Bergmann, Helmar; Gröller, Eduard; Birkfellner, Wolfgang

2012-01-01

A common problem in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) of lung cancer as well as other malignant diseases is the compensation of periodic and aperiodic motion during dose delivery. Modern systems for image-guided radiation oncology allow for the acquisition of cone-beam computed tomography data in the treatment room as well as the acquisition of planar radiographs during the treatment. A mid-term research goal is the compensation of tumor target volume motion by 2D/3D registration. In 2D/3D registration, spatial information on organ location is derived by an iterative comparison of perspective volume renderings, so-called digitally rendered radiographs (DRR) from computed tomography volume data, and planar reference x-rays. Currently, this rendering process is very time consuming, and real-time registration, which should at least provide data on organ position in less than a second, has not come into existence. We present two GPU-based rendering algorithms which generate a DRR of 512 × 512 pixels size from a CT dataset of 53 MB size at a pace of almost 100 Hz. This rendering rate is feasible by applying a number of algorithmic simplifications which range from alternative volume-driven rendering approaches – namely so-called wobbled splatting – to sub-sampling of the DRR-image by means of specialized raycasting techniques. Furthermore, general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) programming paradigms were consequently utilized. Rendering quality and performance as well as the influence on the quality and performance of the overall registration process were measured and analyzed in detail. The results show that both methods are competitive and pave the way for fast motion compensation by rigid and possibly even non-rigid 2D/3D registration and, beyond that, adaptive filtering of motion models in IGRT. PMID:21782399

Automatic Registration of Terrestrial Laser Scanner Point Clouds Using Natural Planar Surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Theiler, P. W.; Schindler, K.

2012-07-01

Terrestrial laser scanners have become a standard piece of surveying equipment, used in diverse fields like geomatics, manufacturing and medicine. However, the processing of today's large point clouds is time-consuming, cumbersome and not automated enough. A basic step of post-processing is the registration of scans from different viewpoints. At present this is still done using artificial targets or tie points, mostly by manual clicking. The aim of this registration step is a coarse alignment, which can then be improved with the existing algorithm for fine registration. The focus of this paper is to provide such a coarse registration in a fully automatic fashion, and without placing any target objects in the scene. The basic idea is to use virtual tie points generated by intersecting planar surfaces in the scene. Such planes are detected in the data with RANSAC and optimally fitted using least squares estimation. Due to the huge amount of recorded points, planes can be determined very accurately, resulting in well-defined tie points. Given two sets of potential tie points recovered in two different scans, registration is performed by searching for the assignment which preserves the geometric configuration of the largest possible subset of all tie points. Since exhaustive search over all possible assignments is intractable even for moderate numbers of points, the search is guided by matching individual pairs of tie points with the help of a novel descriptor based on the properties of a point's parent planes. Experiments show that the proposed method is able to successfully coarse register TLS point clouds without the need for artificial targets.

Improving multispectral satellite image compression using onboard subpixel registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albinet, Mathieu; Camarero, Roberto; Isnard, Maxime; Poulet, Christophe; Perret, Jokin

2013-09-01

Future CNES earth observation missions will have to deal with an ever increasing telemetry data rate due to improvements in resolution and addition of spectral bands. Current CNES image compressors implement a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) followed by a bit plane encoding (BPE) but only on a mono spectral basis and do not profit from the multispectral redundancy of the observed scenes. Recent CNES studies have proven a substantial gain on the achievable compression ratio, +20% to +40% on selected scenarios, by implementing a multispectral compression scheme based on a Karhunen Loeve transform (KLT) followed by the classical DWT+BPE. But such results can be achieved only on perfectly registered bands; a default of registration as low as 0.5 pixel ruins all the benefits of multispectral compression. In this work, we first study the possibility to implement a multi-bands subpixel onboard registration based on registration grids generated on-the-fly by the satellite attitude control system and simplified resampling and interpolation techniques. Indeed bands registration is usually performed on ground using sophisticated techniques too computationally intensive for onboard use. This fully quantized algorithm is tuned to meet acceptable registration performances within stringent image quality criteria, with the objective of onboard real-time processing. In a second part, we describe a FPGA implementation developed to evaluate the design complexity and, by extrapolation, the data rate achievable on a spacequalified ASIC. Finally, we present the impact of this approach on the processing chain not only onboard but also on ground and the impacts on the design of the instrument.

Development and application of pulmonary structure-function registration methods: towards pulmonary image-guidance tools for improved airway targeted therapies and outcomes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Fumin; Pike, Damien; Svenningsen, Sarah; Coxson, Harvey O.; Drozd, John J.; Yuan, Jing; Fenster, Aaron; Parraga, Grace

2014-03-01

Objectives: We aimed to develop a way to rapidly generate multi-modality (MRI-CT) pulmonary imaging structurefunction maps using novel non-rigid image registration methods. This objective is part of our overarching goal to provide an image processing pipeline to generate pulmonary structure-function maps and guide airway-targeted therapies. Methods: Anatomical 1H and functional 3He MRI were acquired in 5 healthy asymptomatic ex-smokers and 7 ex-smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at inspiration breath-hold. Thoracic CT was performed within ten minutes of MRI using the same breath-hold volume. Landmark-based affine registration methods previously validated for imaging of COPD, was based on corresponding fiducial markers located in both CT and 1H MRI coronal slices and compared with shape-based CT-MRI non-rigid registration. Shape-based CT-MRI registration was developed by first identifying the shapes of the lung cavities manually, and then registering the two shapes using affine and thin-plate spline algorithms. We compared registration accuracy using the fiducial localization error (FLE) and target registration error (TRE). Results: For landmark-based registration, the TRE was 8.4±5.3 mm for whole lung and 7.8±4.6 mm for the R and L lungs registered independently (p=0.4). For shape-based registration, the TRE was 8.0±4.6 mm for whole lung as compared to 6.9±4.4 mm for the R and L lung registered independently and this difference was significant (p=0.01). The difference for shape-based (6.9±4.4 mm) and landmark-based R and L lung registration (7.8±4.6 mm) was also significant (p=.04) Conclusion: Shape-based registration TRE was significantly improved compared to landmark-based registration when considering L and R lungs independently.

Deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT with local intensity matching.

PubMed

Park, Seyoun; Plishker, William; Quon, Harry; Wong, John; Shekhar, Raj; Lee, Junghoon

2017-02-07

Cone-beam CT (CBCT) is a widely used intra-operative imaging modality in image-guided radiotherapy and surgery. A short scan followed by a filtered-backprojection is typically used for CBCT reconstruction. While data on the mid-plane (plane of source-detector rotation) is complete, off-mid-planes undergo different information deficiency and the computed reconstructions are approximate. This causes different reconstruction artifacts at off-mid-planes depending on slice locations, and therefore impedes accurate registration between CT and CBCT. In this paper, we propose a method to accurately register CT and CBCT by iteratively matching local CT and CBCT intensities. We correct CBCT intensities by matching local intensity histograms slice by slice in conjunction with intensity-based deformable registration. The correction-registration steps are repeated in an alternating way until the result image converges. We integrate the intensity matching into three different deformable registration methods, B-spline, demons, and optical flow that are widely used for CT-CBCT registration. All three registration methods were implemented on a graphics processing unit for efficient parallel computation. We tested the proposed methods on twenty five head and neck cancer cases and compared the performance with state-of-the-art registration methods. Normalized cross correlation (NCC), structural similarity index (SSIM), and target registration error (TRE) were computed to evaluate the registration performance. Our method produced overall NCC of 0.96, SSIM of 0.94, and TRE of 2.26 → 2.27 mm, outperforming existing methods by 9%, 12%, and 27%, respectively. Experimental results also show that our method performs consistently and is more accurate than existing algorithms, and also computationally efficient.

Deformable registration of CT and cone-beam CT with local intensity matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Seyoun; Plishker, William; Quon, Harry; Wong, John; Shekhar, Raj; Lee, Junghoon

2017-02-01

Cone-beam CT (CBCT) is a widely used intra-operative imaging modality in image-guided radiotherapy and surgery. A short scan followed by a filtered-backprojection is typically used for CBCT reconstruction. While data on the mid-plane (plane of source-detector rotation) is complete, off-mid-planes undergo different information deficiency and the computed reconstructions are approximate. This causes different reconstruction artifacts at off-mid-planes depending on slice locations, and therefore impedes accurate registration between CT and CBCT. In this paper, we propose a method to accurately register CT and CBCT by iteratively matching local CT and CBCT intensities. We correct CBCT intensities by matching local intensity histograms slice by slice in conjunction with intensity-based deformable registration. The correction-registration steps are repeated in an alternating way until the result image converges. We integrate the intensity matching into three different deformable registration methods, B-spline, demons, and optical flow that are widely used for CT-CBCT registration. All three registration methods were implemented on a graphics processing unit for efficient parallel computation. We tested the proposed methods on twenty five head and neck cancer cases and compared the performance with state-of-the-art registration methods. Normalized cross correlation (NCC), structural similarity index (SSIM), and target registration error (TRE) were computed to evaluate the registration performance. Our method produced overall NCC of 0.96, SSIM of 0.94, and TRE of 2.26 → 2.27 mm, outperforming existing methods by 9%, 12%, and 27%, respectively. Experimental results also show that our method performs consistently and is more accurate than existing algorithms, and also computationally efficient.

Stopping Criteria for Log-Domain Diffeomorphic Demons Registration: An Experimental Survey for Radiotherapy Application.

PubMed

Peroni, M; Golland, P; Sharp, G C; Baroni, G

2016-02-01

A crucial issue in deformable image registration is achieving a robust registration algorithm at a reasonable computational cost. Given the iterative nature of the optimization procedure an algorithm must automatically detect convergence, and stop the iterative process when most appropriate. This paper ranks the performances of three stopping criteria and six stopping value computation strategies for a Log-Domain Demons Deformable registration method simulating both a coarse and a fine registration. The analyzed stopping criteria are: (a) velocity field update magnitude, (b) mean squared error, and (c) harmonic energy. Each stoping condition is formulated so that the user defines a threshold ∊, which quantifies the residual error that is acceptable for the particular problem and calculation strategy. In this work, we did not aim at assigning a value to e, but to give insights in how to evaluate and to set the threshold on a given exit strategy in a very popular registration scheme. Experiments on phantom and patient data demonstrate that comparing the optimization metric minimum over the most recent three iterations with the minimum over the fourth to sixth most recent iterations can be an appropriate algorithm stopping strategy. The harmonic energy was found to provide best trade-off between robustness and speed of convergence for the analyzed registration method at coarse registration, but was outperformed by mean squared error when all the original pixel information is used. This suggests the need of developing mathematically sound new convergence criteria in which both image and vector field information could be used to detect the actual convergence, which could be especially useful when considering multi-resolution registrations. Further work should be also dedicated to study same strategies performances in other deformable registration methods and body districts. © The Author(s) 2014.

Registration and fusion quantification of augmented reality based nasal endoscopic surgery.

PubMed

Chu, Yakui; Yang, Jian; Ma, Shaodong; Ai, Danni; Li, Wenjie; Song, Hong; Li, Liang; Chen, Duanduan; Chen, Lei; Wang, Yongtian

2017-12-01

This paper quantifies the registration and fusion display errors of augmented reality-based nasal endoscopic surgery (ARNES). We comparatively investigated the spatial calibration process for front-end endoscopy and redefined the accuracy level of a calibrated endoscope by using a calibration tool with improved structural reliability. We also studied how registration accuracy was combined with the number and distribution of the deployed fiducial points (FPs) for positioning and the measured registration time. A physically integrated ARNES prototype was customarily configured for performance evaluation in skull base tumor resection surgery with an innovative approach of dynamic endoscopic vision expansion. As advised by surgical experts in otolaryngology, we proposed a hierarchical rendering scheme to properly adapt the fused images with the required visual sensation. By constraining the rendered sight in a known depth and radius, the visual focus of the surgeon can be induced only on the anticipated critical anatomies and vessel structures to avoid misguidance. Furthermore, error analysis was conducted to examine the feasibility of hybrid optical tracking based on point cloud, which was proposed in our previous work as an in-surgery registration solution. Measured results indicated that the error of target registration for ARNES can be reduced to 0.77 ± 0.07 mm. For initial registration, our results suggest that a trade-off for a new minimal time of registration can be reached when the distribution of five FPs is considered. For in-surgery registration, our findings reveal that the intrinsic registration error is a major cause of performance loss. Rigid model and cadaver experiments confirmed that the scenic integration and display fluency of ARNES are smooth, as demonstrated by three clinical trials that surpassed practicality. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

RAMTaB: Robust Alignment of Multi-Tag Bioimages

PubMed Central

Raza, Shan-e-Ahmed; Humayun, Ahmad; Abouna, Sylvie; Nattkemper, Tim W.; Epstein, David B. A.; Khan, Michael; Rajpoot, Nasir M.

2012-01-01

Background In recent years, new microscopic imaging techniques have evolved to allow us to visualize several different proteins (or other biomolecules) in a visual field. Analysis of protein co-localization becomes viable because molecules can interact only when they are located close to each other. We present a novel approach to align images in a multi-tag fluorescence image stack. The proposed approach is applicable to multi-tag bioimaging systems which (a) acquire fluorescence images by sequential staining and (b) simultaneously capture a phase contrast image corresponding to each of the fluorescence images. To the best of our knowledge, there is no existing method in the literature, which addresses simultaneous registration of multi-tag bioimages and selection of the reference image in order to maximize the overall overlap between the images. Methodology/Principal Findings We employ a block-based method for registration, which yields a confidence measure to indicate the accuracy of our registration results. We derive a shift metric in order to select the Reference Image with Maximal Overlap (RIMO), in turn minimizing the total amount of non-overlapping signal for a given number of tags. Experimental results show that the Robust Alignment of Multi-Tag Bioimages (RAMTaB) framework is robust to variations in contrast and illumination, yields sub-pixel accuracy, and successfully selects the reference image resulting in maximum overlap. The registration results are also shown to significantly improve any follow-up protein co-localization studies. Conclusions For the discovery of protein complexes and of functional protein networks within a cell, alignment of the tag images in a multi-tag fluorescence image stack is a key pre-processing step. The proposed framework is shown to produce accurate alignment results on both real and synthetic data. Our future work will use the aligned multi-channel fluorescence image data for normal and diseased tissue specimens to analyze molecular co-expression patterns and functional protein networks. PMID:22363510

Automatic selection of landmarks in T1-weighted head MRI with regression forests for image registration initialization.

PubMed

Wang, Jianing; Liu, Yuan; Noble, Jack H; Dawant, Benoit M

2017-10-01

Medical image registration establishes a correspondence between images of biological structures, and it is at the core of many applications. Commonly used deformable image registration methods depend on a good preregistration initialization. We develop a learning-based method to automatically find a set of robust landmarks in three-dimensional MR image volumes of the head. These landmarks are then used to compute a thin plate spline-based initialization transformation. The process involves two steps: (1) identifying a set of landmarks that can be reliably localized in the images and (2) selecting among them the subset that leads to a good initial transformation. To validate our method, we use it to initialize five well-established deformable registration algorithms that are subsequently used to register an atlas to MR images of the head. We compare our proposed initialization method with a standard approach that involves estimating an affine transformation with an intensity-based approach. We show that for all five registration algorithms the final registration results are statistically better when they are initialized with the method that we propose than when a standard approach is used. The technique that we propose is generic and could be used to initialize nonrigid registration algorithms for other applications.

Objective and expert-independent validation of retinal image registration algorithms by a projective imaging distortion model.

PubMed

Lee, Sangyeol; Reinhardt, Joseph M; Cattin, Philippe C; Abràmoff, Michael D

2010-08-01

Fundus camera imaging of the retina is widely used to diagnose and manage ophthalmologic disorders including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration. Retinal images typically have a limited field of view, and multiple images can be joined together using an image registration technique to form a montage with a larger field of view. A variety of methods for retinal image registration have been proposed, but evaluating such methods objectively is difficult due to the lack of a reference standard for the true alignment of the individual images that make up the montage. A method of generating simulated retinal images by modeling the geometric distortions due to the eye geometry and the image acquisition process is described in this paper. We also present a validation process that can be used for any retinal image registration method by tracing through the distortion path and assessing the geometric misalignment in the coordinate system of the reference standard. The proposed method can be used to perform an accuracy evaluation over the whole image, so that distortion in the non-overlapping regions of the montage components can be easily assessed. We demonstrate the technique by generating test image sets with a variety of overlap conditions and compare the accuracy of several retinal image registration models. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Entomopathogenic nematodes in the European biocontrol market.

PubMed

Ehlers, R U

2003-01-01

In Europe total revenues in the biocontrol market have reached approximately 200 million Euros. The sector with the highest turn-over is the market for beneficial invertebrates with a 55% share, followed by microbial agents with approximately 25%. Annual growth rates of up to 20% have been estimated. Besides microbial plant protection products that are currently in the process of re-registration, several microbial products have been registered or are in the process of registration, following the EU directive 91/414. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) are exceptionally safe biocontrol agents. Until today, they are exempted from registration in most European countries, the reason why SMEs were able to offer economically reasonable nematode-based products. The development of technology for mass production in liquid media significantly reduced the product costs and accelerated the introduction of nematode products in tree nurseries, ornamentals, strawberries, mushrooms, citrus and turf. Progress in storage and formulation technology has resulted in high quality products which are more resistant to environmental extremes occurring during transportation to the user. The cooperation between science, industry and extension within the EU COST Action 819 has supported the development of quality control methods. Today four companies produce EPN in liquid culture, offering 8 different nematode species. Problems with soil insects are increasing. Grubs, like Melolontha melolontha and other scarabaeidae cause damage in orchards and turf. Since the introduction of the Western Corn Rootworm Diabrotica virgifera into Serbia in 1992, this pests as spread all over the Balkan Region and has reached Italy, France and Austria. These soil insect pests are potential targets for EPN. The development of insecticide resistance has opened another sector for EPN. Novel adjuvants used to improve formulation of EPN have enabled the foliar application against Western Flower Thrips and Plutella xylostella. To reach these markets, the product costs for EPN will have to further decrease in the future. One possibility to reduce application costs related with the use of EPN is the inoculative application to cause long term effects on pest populations.

WHOLE BODY NONRIGID CT-PET REGISTRATION USING WEIGHTED DEMONS.

PubMed

Suh, J W; Kwon, Oh-K; Scheinost, D; Sinusas, A J; Cline, Gary W; Papademetris, X

2011-03-30

We present a new registration method for whole-body rat computed tomography (CT) image and positron emission tomography (PET) images using a weighted demons algorithm. The CT and PET images are acquired in separate scanners at different times and the inherent differences in the imaging protocols produced significant nonrigid changes between the two acquisitions in addition to heterogeneous image characteristics. In this situation, we utilized both the transmission-PET and the emission-PET images in the deformable registration process emphasizing particular regions of the moving transmission-PET image using the emission-PET image. We validated our results with nine rat image sets using M-Hausdorff distance similarity measure. We demonstrate improved performance compared to standard methods such as Demons and normalized mutual information-based non-rigid FFD registration.

A MULTICORE BASED PARALLEL IMAGE REGISTRATION METHOD

PubMed Central

Yang, Lin; Gong, Leiguang; Zhang, Hong; Nosher, John L.; Foran, David J.

2012-01-01

Image registration is a crucial step for many image-assisted clinical applications such as surgery planning and treatment evaluation. In this paper we proposed a landmark based nonlinear image registration algorithm for matching 2D image pairs. The algorithm was shown to be effective and robust under conditions of large deformations. In landmark based registration, the most important step is establishing the correspondence among the selected landmark points. This usually requires an extensive search which is often computationally expensive. We introduced a nonregular data partition algorithm using the K-means clustering algorithm to group the landmarks based on the number of available processing cores. The step optimizes the memory usage and data transfer. We have tested our method using IBM Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) platform. PMID:19964921

A Technique for Digital Impression and Bite Registration for a Single Edentulous Arch.

PubMed

Fang, Yiqin; Fang, Jing-Huan; Jeong, Seung-Mi; Choi, Byung-Ho

2018-03-09

Few studies have reported the application of digital technology for the process of impression and interocclusal recordings in edentulous patients. This article describes a digitizing system for generating digital edentulous models with a jaw relationship by taking direct digital impressions and a virtual bite registration using intraoral digital scanning. A specialized scan retractor was used to make digital impressions of edentulous jaws in patients' mouths using an intraoral scanner. Virtual bite registration was obtained with optical scanning of the buccal surfaces of both jaws at the occlusal vertical dimension. The registration was then used as a reference for aligning both jaws. Digital edentulous models that include the jaw relationship would be clinically beneficial for the fabrication of complete dentures in edentulous patients. © 2018 by the American College of Prosthodontists.

Registration of interferometric SAR images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Qian; Vesecky, John F.; Zebker, Howard A.

1992-01-01

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (INSAR) is a new way of performing topography mapping. Among the factors critical to mapping accuracy is the registration of the complex SAR images from repeated orbits. A new algorithm for registering interferometric SAR images is presented. A new figure of merit, the average fluctuation function of the phase difference image, is proposed to evaluate the fringe pattern quality. The process of adjusting the registration parameters according to the fringe pattern quality is optimized through a downhill simplex minimization algorithm. The results of applying the proposed algorithm to register two pairs of Seasat SAR images with a short baseline (75 m) and a long baseline (500 m) are shown. It is found that the average fluctuation function is a very stable measure of fringe pattern quality allowing very accurate registration.

Project Management Series Case Study: The Office of Registration and Records

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgher, Karl E.; Snyder, Michael

2012-01-01

This is the third in a series of eight articles on project management (PM) in the academy. In this article, the authors describe the step-by-step implementation of a structural change to Indiana State University's (ISU's) Office of Registration and Records (ORR). The process described may vary as it is implemented elsewhere, but the authors…

41 CFR 102-173.70 - Where do I register my dot-gov domain name?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... dot-gov domain name? 102-173.70 Section 102-173.70 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-INTERNET GOV DOMAIN Registration § 102-173.70 Where do I register my dot-gov domain name? Registration is an online process at the General Services Administration's Web site at http://www.nic.gov. At the...

41 CFR 102-173.70 - Where do I register my dot-gov domain name?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... dot-gov domain name? 102-173.70 Section 102-173.70 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-INTERNET GOV DOMAIN Registration § 102-173.70 Where do I register my dot-gov domain name? Registration is an online process at the General Services Administration's Web site at http://www.nic.gov. At the...

41 CFR 102-173.70 - Where do I register my dot-gov domain name?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... dot-gov domain name? 102-173.70 Section 102-173.70 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-INTERNET GOV DOMAIN Registration § 102-173.70 Where do I register my dot-gov domain name? Registration is an online process at the General Services Administration's Web site at http://www.nic.gov. At the...

41 CFR 102-173.70 - Where do I register my dot-gov domain name?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... dot-gov domain name? 102-173.70 Section 102-173.70 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-INTERNET GOV DOMAIN Registration § 102-173.70 Where do I register my dot-gov domain name? Registration is an online process at the General Services Administration's Web site at http://www.nic.gov. At the...

41 CFR 102-173.70 - Where do I register my dot-gov domain name?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... dot-gov domain name? 102-173.70 Section 102-173.70 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal...-INTERNET GOV DOMAIN Registration § 102-173.70 Where do I register my dot-gov domain name? Registration is an online process at the General Services Administration's Web site at http://www.nic.gov. At the...

Real-time Enhancement, Registration, and Fusion for an Enhanced Vision System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hines, Glenn D.; Rahman, Zia-ur; Jobson, Daniel J.; Woodell, Glenn A.

2006-01-01

Over the last few years NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has been developing an Enhanced Vision System (EVS) to aid pilots while flying in poor visibility conditions. The EVS captures imagery using two infrared video cameras. The cameras are placed in an enclosure that is mounted and flown forward-looking underneath the NASA LaRC ARIES 757 aircraft. The data streams from the cameras are processed in real-time and displayed on monitors on-board the aircraft. With proper processing the camera system can provide better-than-human-observed imagery particularly during poor visibility conditions. However, to obtain this goal requires several different stages of processing including enhancement, registration, and fusion, and specialized processing hardware for real-time performance. We are using a real-time implementation of the Retinex algorithm for image enhancement, affine transformations for registration, and weighted sums to perform fusion. All of the algorithms are executed on a single TI DM642 digital signal processor (DSP) clocked at 720 MHz. The image processing components were added to the EVS system, tested, and demonstrated during flight tests in August and September of 2005. In this paper we briefly discuss the EVS image processing hardware and algorithms. We then discuss implementation issues and show examples of the results obtained during flight tests.

The prediction, observation and study of long-distant undamped thermal waves generated in pulse radiative processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vysotskii, V. I.; Kornilova, A. A.; Vasilenko, A. O.; Krit, T. B.; Vysotskyy, M. V.

2017-07-01

The problems of the existence, generation, propagation and registration of long-distant undamped thermal waves formed in pulse radiative processes have been theoretically analyzed and confirmed experimentally. These waves may be used for the analysis of short-time processes of interaction of particles or electromagnetic fields with different targets. Such undamped waves can only exist in environments with a finite (nonzero) time of local thermal relaxation and their frequencies are determined by this time. The results of successful experiments on the generation and registration of undamped thermal waves at a large distance (up to 2 m) are also presented.

Survey of Non-Rigid Registration Tools in Medicine.

PubMed

Keszei, András P; Berkels, Benjamin; Deserno, Thomas M

2017-02-01

We catalogue available software solutions for non-rigid image registration to support scientists in selecting suitable tools for specific medical registration purposes. Registration tools were identified using non-systematic search in Pubmed, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore® Digital Library, Google Scholar, and through references in identified sources (n = 22). Exclusions are due to unavailability or inappropriateness. The remaining (n = 18) tools were classified by (i) access and technology, (ii) interfaces and application, (iii) living community, (iv) supported file formats, and (v) types of registration methodologies emphasizing the similarity measures implemented. Out of the 18 tools, (i) 12 are open source, 8 are released under a permissive free license, which imposes the least restrictions on the use and further development of the tool, 8 provide graphical processing unit (GPU) support; (ii) 7 are built on software platforms, 5 were developed for brain image registration; (iii) 6 are under active development but only 3 have had their last update in 2015 or 2016; (iv) 16 support the Analyze format, while 7 file formats can be read with only one of the tools; and (v) 6 provide multiple registration methods and 6 provide landmark-based registration methods. Based on open source, licensing, GPU support, active community, several file formats, algorithms, and similarity measures, the tools Elastics and Plastimatch are chosen for the platform ITK and without platform requirements, respectively. Researchers in medical image analysis already have a large choice of registration tools freely available. However, the most recently published algorithms may not be included in the tools, yet.

Accurate CT-MR image registration for deep brain stimulation: a multi-observer evaluation study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rühaak, Jan; Derksen, Alexander; Heldmann, Stefan; Hallmann, Marc; Meine, Hans

2015-03-01

Since the first clinical interventions in the late 1980s, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus has evolved into a very effective treatment option for patients with severe Parkinson's disease. DBS entails the implantation of an electrode that performs high frequency stimulations to a target area deep inside the brain. A very accurate placement of the electrode is a prerequisite for positive therapy outcome. The assessment of the intervention result is of central importance in DBS treatment and involves the registration of pre- and postinterventional scans. In this paper, we present an image processing pipeline for highly accurate registration of postoperative CT to preoperative MR. Our method consists of two steps: a fully automatic pre-alignment using a detection of the skull tip in the CT based on fuzzy connectedness, and an intensity-based rigid registration. The registration uses the Normalized Gradient Fields distance measure in a multilevel Gauss-Newton optimization framework and focuses on a region around the subthalamic nucleus in the MR. The accuracy of our method was extensively evaluated on 20 DBS datasets from clinical routine and compared with manual expert registrations. For each dataset, three independent registrations were available, thus allowing to relate algorithmic with expert performance. Our method achieved an average registration error of 0.95mm in the target region around the subthalamic nucleus as compared to an inter-observer variability of 1.12 mm. Together with the short registration time of about five seconds on average, our method forms a very attractive package that can be considered ready for clinical use.

Scope and applications of translation invariant wavelets to image registration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chettri, Samir; LeMoigne, Jacqueline; Campbell, William

1997-01-01

The first part of this article introduces the notion of translation invariance in wavelets and discusses several wavelets that have this property. The second part discusses the possible applications of such wavelets to image registration. In the case of registration of affinely transformed images, we would conclude that the notion of translation invariance is not really necessary. What is needed is affine invariance and one way to do this is via the method of moment invariants. Wavelets or, in general, pyramid processing can then be combined with the method of moment invariants to reduce the computational load.

Reasons for (not) signing the state registry: surveying Department of Motor Vehicles customers in New York state.

PubMed

Feeley, Thomas Hugh; Reynolds-Tylus, Tobias; Anker, Ashley E; Evans, Melanie

2014-03-01

Prior research examining rationales for enrolling as an organ donor is biased because of its reliance on college student samples and retrospective recall. To characterize New York state residents' registry enrollment decisions in close proximity to a registration opportunity. -Surveys were conducted with customers exiting Department of Motor Vehicle offices. A total of 1325 customers were surveyed upon exiting 1 of 18 Department of Motor Vehicle offices spanning 9 counties. Customers making donation-relevant transactions (ie, license renewal/registration) reported whether they had registered as a donor that day, and all other customers reported whether they had registered as a donor in the past. Customers reported reasons to justify their enrollment decision through short interview questions. Among current donation-relevant transactions (n = 299), 27% reported enrolling in the registry. Of remaining customers, 39% reported enrolling in the state registry in the past. For those who elected not to enroll, many failed to communicate a reason for their decision, or reported a lack of opportunity to sign or decisional uncertainty. Among enrollees, reasons for registration included the altruistic benefits of donation, prior registration, personal experience with donation, and rational arguments for donation. The value of point-of-decision survey data are discussed in relation to strategic efforts to promote organ donor registration.

Complex background suppression using global-local registration strategy for the detection of small-moving target on moving platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Tianhao; Zuo, Zhengrong

2018-02-01

Target detection is a very important and basic problem of computer vision and image processing. The most often case we meet in real world is a detection task for a moving-small target on moving platform. The commonly used methods, such as Registration-based suppression, can hardly achieve a desired result. To crack this hard nut, we introduce a Global-local registration based suppression method. Differ from the traditional ones, the proposed Global-local Registration Strategy consider both the global consistency and the local diversity of the background, obtain a better performance than normal background suppression methods. In this paper, we first discussed the features about the small-moving target detection on unstable platform. Then we introduced a new strategy and conducted an experiment to confirm its noisy stability. In the end, we confirmed the background suppression method based on global-local registration strategy has a better perform in moving target detection on moving platform.

Image Registration Algorithm Based on Parallax Constraint and Clustering Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhe; Dong, Min; Mu, Xiaomin; Wang, Song

2018-01-01

To resolve the problem of slow computation speed and low matching accuracy in image registration, a new image registration algorithm based on parallax constraint and clustering analysis is proposed. Firstly, Harris corner detection algorithm is used to extract the feature points of two images. Secondly, use Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) function to perform the approximate matching of feature points, and the initial feature pair is obtained. Then, according to the parallax constraint condition, the initial feature pair is preprocessed by K-means clustering algorithm, which is used to remove the feature point pairs with obvious errors in the approximate matching process. Finally, adopt Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm to optimize the feature points to obtain the final feature point matching result, and the fast and accurate image registration is realized. The experimental results show that the image registration algorithm proposed in this paper can improve the accuracy of the image matching while ensuring the real-time performance of the algorithm.

Multimodal registration of three-dimensional maxillodental cone beam CT and photogrammetry data over time.

PubMed

Bolandzadeh, N; Bischof, W; Flores-Mir, C; Boulanger, P

2013-01-01

In recent years, one of the foci of orthodontics has been on systems for the evaluation of treatment results and the tracking of tissue variations over time. This can be accomplished through analysing three-dimensional orthodontic images obtained before and after the treatments. Since complementary information is achieved by integrating multiple imaging modalities, cone beam CT (CBCT) and stereophotogrammetry technologies are used in this study to develop a method for tracking bone, teeth and facial soft-tissue variations over time. We propose a two-phase procedure of multimodal (Phase 1) and multitemporal (Phase 2) registration which aligns images taken from the same patient by different imaging modalities and at different times. Extrinsic (for Phase 1) and intrinsic (for Phase 2) landmark-based registration methods are employed as an initiation for a robust iterative closest points algorithm. Since the mandible moves independently of the upper skull, the registration procedure is applied separately on the mandible and the upper skull. The results show that the signed error distributions of both mandible and skull registrations follow a mixture of two Gaussian distributions, corresponding to alignment errors (due to our method) and temporal change over time. We suggest that the large values among the total registration errors correspond to the temporal change resulting from (1) the effect of treatment (i.e. the orthodontic changes of teeth positions); (2) the biological changes such as teeth growth over time, especially for teenagers; and (3) the segmentation procedure and CBCT precision change over time.

Time-Of-Flight Camera, Optical Tracker and Computed Tomography in Pairwise Data Registration.

PubMed

Pycinski, Bartlomiej; Czajkowska, Joanna; Badura, Pawel; Juszczyk, Jan; Pietka, Ewa

2016-01-01

A growing number of medical applications, including minimal invasive surgery, depends on multi-modal or multi-sensors data processing. Fast and accurate 3D scene analysis, comprising data registration, seems to be crucial for the development of computer aided diagnosis and therapy. The advancement of surface tracking system based on optical trackers already plays an important role in surgical procedures planning. However, new modalities, like the time-of-flight (ToF) sensors, widely explored in non-medical fields are powerful and have the potential to become a part of computer aided surgery set-up. Connection of different acquisition systems promises to provide a valuable support for operating room procedures. Therefore, the detailed analysis of the accuracy of such multi-sensors positioning systems is needed. We present the system combining pre-operative CT series with intra-operative ToF-sensor and optical tracker point clouds. The methodology contains: optical sensor set-up and the ToF-camera calibration procedures, data pre-processing algorithms, and registration technique. The data pre-processing yields a surface, in case of CT, and point clouds for ToF-sensor and marker-driven optical tracker representation of an object of interest. An applied registration technique is based on Iterative Closest Point algorithm. The experiments validate the registration of each pair of modalities/sensors involving phantoms of four various human organs in terms of Hausdorff distance and mean absolute distance metrics. The best surface alignment was obtained for CT and optical tracker combination, whereas the worst for experiments involving ToF-camera. The obtained accuracies encourage to further develop the multi-sensors systems. The presented substantive discussion concerning the system limitations and possible improvements mainly related to the depth information produced by the ToF-sensor is useful for computer aided surgery developers.

Predicting 3D pose in partially overlapped X-ray images of knee prostheses using model-based Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA).

PubMed

Hsu, Chi-Pin; Lin, Shang-Chih; Shih, Kao-Shang; Huang, Chang-Hung; Lee, Chian-Her

2014-12-01

After total knee replacement, the model-based Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA) technique has been used to monitor the status of prosthetic wear, misalignment, and even failure. However, the overlap of the prosthetic outlines inevitably increases errors in the estimation of prosthetic poses due to the limited amount of available outlines. In the literature, quite a few studies have investigated the problems induced by the overlapped outlines, and manual adjustment is still the mainstream. This study proposes two methods to automate the image processing of overlapped outlines prior to the pose registration of prosthetic models. The outline-separated method defines the intersected points and segments the overlapped outlines. The feature-recognized method uses the point and line features of the remaining outlines to initiate registration. Overlap percentage is defined as the ratio of overlapped to non-overlapped outlines. The simulated images with five overlapping percentages are used to evaluate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed methods. Compared with non-overlapped images, overlapped images reduce the number of outlines available for model-based RSA calculation. The maximum and root mean square errors for a prosthetic outline are 0.35 and 0.04 mm, respectively. The mean translation and rotation errors are 0.11 mm and 0.18°, respectively. The errors of the model-based RSA results are increased when the overlap percentage is beyond about 9%. In conclusion, both outline-separated and feature-recognized methods can be seamlessly integrated to automate the calculation of rough registration. This can significantly increase the clinical practicability of the model-based RSA technique.

Robust feature estimation by non-rigid hierarchical image registration and its application in disparity measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badshah, Amir; Choudhry, Aadil Jaleel; Ullah, Shan

2017-03-01

Industries are moving towards automation in order to increase productivity and ensure quality. Variety of electronic and electromagnetic systems are being employed to assist human operator in fast and accurate quality inspection of products. Majority of these systems are equipped with cameras and rely on diverse image processing algorithms. Information is lost in 2D image, therefore acquiring accurate 3D data from 2D images is an open issue. FAST, SURF and SIFT are well-known spatial domain techniques for features extraction and henceforth image registration to find correspondence between images. The efficiency of these methods is measured in terms of the number of perfect matches found. A novel fast and robust technique for stereo-image processing is proposed. It is based on non-rigid registration using modified normalized phase correlation. The proposed method registers two images in hierarchical fashion using quad-tree structure. The registration process works through global to local level resulting in robust matches even in presence of blur and noise. The computed matches can further be utilized to determine disparity and depth for industrial product inspection. The same can be used in driver assistance systems. The preliminary tests on Middlebury dataset produced satisfactory results. The execution time for a 413 x 370 stereo-pair is 500ms approximately on a low cost DSP.

Robust inverse-consistent affine CT-MR registration in MRI-assisted and MRI-alone prostate radiation therapy.

PubMed

Rivest-Hénault, David; Dowson, Nicholas; Greer, Peter B; Fripp, Jurgen; Dowling, Jason A

2015-07-01

CT-MR registration is a critical component of many radiation oncology protocols. In prostate external beam radiation therapy, it allows the propagation of MR-derived contours to reference CT images at the planning stage, and it enables dose mapping during dosimetry studies. The use of carefully registered CT-MR atlases allows the estimation of patient specific electron density maps from MRI scans, enabling MRI-alone radiation therapy planning and treatment adaptation. In all cases, the precision and accuracy achieved by registration influences the quality of the entire process. Most current registration algorithms do not robustly generalize and lack inverse-consistency, increasing the risk of human error and acting as a source of bias in studies where information is propagated in a particular direction, e.g. CT to MR or vice versa. In MRI-based treatment planning where both CT and MR scans serve as spatial references, inverse-consistency is critical, if under-acknowledged. A robust, inverse-consistent, rigid/affine registration algorithm that is well suited to CT-MR alignment in prostate radiation therapy is presented. The presented method is based on a robust block-matching optimization process that utilises a half-way space definition to maintain inverse-consistency. Inverse-consistency substantially reduces the influence of the order of input images, simplifying analysis, and increasing robustness. An open source implementation is available online at http://aehrc.github.io/Mirorr/. Experimental results on a challenging 35 CT-MR pelvis dataset demonstrate that the proposed method is more accurate than other popular registration packages and is at least as accurate as the state of the art, while being more robust and having an order of magnitude higher inverse-consistency than competing approaches. The presented results demonstrate that the proposed registration algorithm is readily applicable to prostate radiation therapy planning. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

SU-E-J-91: FFT Based Medical Image Registration Using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

PubMed

Luce, J; Hoggarth, M; Lin, J; Block, A; Roeske, J

2012-06-01

To evaluate the efficiency gains obtained from using a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to perform a Fourier Transform (FT) based image registration. Fourier-based image registration involves obtaining the FT of the component images, and analyzing them in Fourier space to determine the translations and rotations of one image set relative to another. An important property of FT registration is that by enlarging the images (adding additional pixels), one can obtain translations and rotations with sub-pixel resolution. The expense, however, is an increased computational time. GPUs may decrease the computational time associated with FT image registration by taking advantage of their parallel architecture to perform matrix computations much more efficiently than a Central Processor Unit (CPU). In order to evaluate the computational gains produced by a GPU, images with known translational shifts were utilized. A program was written in the Interactive Data Language (IDL; Exelis, Boulder, CO) to performCPU-based calculations. Subsequently, the program was modified using GPU bindings (Tech-X, Boulder, CO) to perform GPU-based computation on the same system. Multiple image sizes were used, ranging from 256×256 to 2304×2304. The time required to complete the full algorithm by the CPU and GPU were benchmarked and the speed increase was defined as the ratio of the CPU-to-GPU computational time. The ratio of the CPU-to- GPU time was greater than 1.0 for all images, which indicates the GPU is performing the algorithm faster than the CPU. The smallest improvement, a 1.21 ratio, was found with the smallest image size of 256×256, and the largest speedup, a 4.25 ratio, was observed with the largest image size of 2304×2304. GPU programming resulted in a significant decrease in computational time associated with a FT image registration algorithm. The inclusion of the GPU may provide near real-time, sub-pixel registration capability. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

FZUImageReg: A toolbox for medical image registration and dose fusion in cervical cancer radiotherapy

PubMed Central

Bai, Penggang; Du, Min; Ni, Xiaolei; Ke, Dongzhong; Tong, Tong

2017-01-01

The combination external-beam radiotherapy and high-dose-rate brachytherapy is a standard form of treatment for patients with locally advanced uterine cervical cancer. Personalized radiotherapy in cervical cancer requires efficient and accurate dose planning and assessment across these types of treatment. To achieve radiation dose assessment, accurate mapping of the dose distribution from HDR-BT onto EBRT is extremely important. However, few systems can achieve robust dose fusion and determine the accumulated dose distribution during the entire course of treatment. We have therefore developed a toolbox (FZUImageReg), which is a user-friendly dose fusion system based on hybrid image registration for radiation dose assessment in cervical cancer radiotherapy. The main part of the software consists of a collection of medical image registration algorithms and a modular design with a user-friendly interface, which allows users to quickly configure, test, monitor, and compare different registration methods for a specific application. Owing to the large deformation, the direct application of conventional state-of-the-art image registration methods is not sufficient for the accurate alignment of EBRT and HDR-BT images. To solve this problem, a multi-phase non-rigid registration method using local landmark-based free-form deformation is proposed for locally large deformation between EBRT and HDR-BT images, followed by intensity-based free-form deformation. With the transformation, the software also provides a dose mapping function according to the deformation field. The total dose distribution during the entire course of treatment can then be presented. Experimental results clearly show that the proposed system can achieve accurate registration between EBRT and HDR-BT images and provide radiation dose warping and fusion results for dose assessment in cervical cancer radiotherapy in terms of high accuracy and efficiency. PMID:28388623

Iterative Most-Likely Point Registration (IMLP): A Robust Algorithm for Computing Optimal Shape Alignment

PubMed Central

Billings, Seth D.; Boctor, Emad M.; Taylor, Russell H.

2015-01-01

We present a probabilistic registration algorithm that robustly solves the problem of rigid-body alignment between two shapes with high accuracy, by aptly modeling measurement noise in each shape, whether isotropic or anisotropic. For point-cloud shapes, the probabilistic framework additionally enables modeling locally-linear surface regions in the vicinity of each point to further improve registration accuracy. The proposed Iterative Most-Likely Point (IMLP) algorithm is formed as a variant of the popular Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm, which iterates between point-correspondence and point-registration steps. IMLP’s probabilistic framework is used to incorporate a generalized noise model into both the correspondence and the registration phases of the algorithm, hence its name as a most-likely point method rather than a closest-point method. To efficiently compute the most-likely correspondences, we devise a novel search strategy based on a principal direction (PD)-tree search. We also propose a new approach to solve the generalized total-least-squares (GTLS) sub-problem of the registration phase, wherein the point correspondences are registered under a generalized noise model. Our GTLS approach has improved accuracy, efficiency, and stability compared to prior methods presented for this problem and offers a straightforward implementation using standard least squares. We evaluate the performance of IMLP relative to a large number of prior algorithms including ICP, a robust variant on ICP, Generalized ICP (GICP), and Coherent Point Drift (CPD), as well as drawing close comparison with the prior anisotropic registration methods of GTLS-ICP and A-ICP. The performance of IMLP is shown to be superior with respect to these algorithms over a wide range of noise conditions, outliers, and misalignments using both mesh and point-cloud representations of various shapes. PMID:25748700

Registration of angiographic image on real-time fluoroscopic image for image-guided percutaneous coronary intervention.

PubMed

Kim, Dongkue; Park, Sangsoo; Jeong, Myung Ho; Ryu, Jeha

2018-02-01

In percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), cardiologists must study two different X-ray image sources: a fluoroscopic image and an angiogram. Manipulating a guidewire while alternately monitoring the two separate images on separate screens requires a deep understanding of the anatomy of coronary vessels and substantial training. We propose 2D/2D spatiotemporal image registration of the two images in a single image in order to provide cardiologists with enhanced visual guidance in PCI. The proposed 2D/2D spatiotemporal registration method uses a cross-correlation of two ECG series in each image to temporally synchronize two separate images and register an angiographic image onto the fluoroscopic image. A guidewire centerline is then extracted from the fluoroscopic image in real time, and the alignment of the centerline with vessel outlines of the chosen angiographic image is optimized using the iterative closest point algorithm for spatial registration. A proof-of-concept evaluation with a phantom coronary vessel model with engineering students showed an error reduction rate greater than 74% on wrong insertion to nontarget branches compared to the non-registration method and more than 47% reduction in the task completion time in performing guidewire manipulation for very difficult tasks. Evaluation with a small number of experienced doctors shows a potentially significant reduction in both task completion time and error rate for difficult tasks. The total registration time with real procedure X-ray (angiographic and fluoroscopic) images takes [Formula: see text] 60 ms, which is within the fluoroscopic image acquisition rate of 15 Hz. By providing cardiologists with better visual guidance in PCI, the proposed spatiotemporal image registration method is shown to be useful in advancing the guidewire to the coronary vessel branches, especially those difficult to insert into.

Automated Registration of Sequential Breath-Hold Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Images: a Comparison of 3 Techniques

PubMed Central

Rajaraman, Sivaramakrishnan; Rodriguez, Jeffery J.; Graff, Christian; Altbach, Maria I.; Dragovich, Tomislav; Sirlin, Claude B.; Korn, Ronald L.; Raghunand, Natarajan

2011-01-01

Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is increasingly in use as an investigational biomarker of response in cancer clinical studies. Proper registration of images acquired at different time-points is essential for deriving diagnostic information from quantitative pharmacokinetic analysis of these data. Motion artifacts in the presence of time-varying intensity due to contrast-enhancement make this registration problem challenging. DCE-MRI of chest and abdominal lesions is typically performed during sequential breath-holds, which introduces misregistration due to inconsistent diaphragm positions, and also places constraints on temporal resolution vis-à-vis free-breathing. In this work, we have employed a computer-generated DCE-MRI phantom to compare the performance of two published methods, Progressive Principal Component Registration and Pharmacokinetic Model-Driven Registration, with Sequential Elastic Registration (SER) to register adjacent time-sample images using a published general-purpose elastic registration algorithm. In all 3 methods, a 3-D rigid-body registration scheme with a mutual information similarity measure was used as a pre-processing step. The DCE-MRI phantom images were mathematically deformed to simulate misregistration which was corrected using the 3 schemes. All 3 schemes were comparably successful in registering large regions of interest (ROIs) such as muscle, liver, and spleen. SER was superior in retaining tumor volume and shape, and in registering smaller but important ROIs such as tumor core and tumor rim. The performance of SER on clinical DCE-MRI datasets is also presented. PMID:21531108

MO-FG-204-02: Reference Image Selection in the Presence of Multiple Scan Realizations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ruan, D; Dou, T; Thomas, D

Purpose: Fusing information from multiple correlated realizations (e.g., 4DCT) can improve image quality. This process often involves ill-conditioned and asymmetric nonlinear registration and the proper selection of a reference image is important. This work proposes to examine post-registration variation indirectly for such selection, and develops further insights to reduce the number of cross-registrations needed. Methods: We consider each individual scan as a noisy point in the vicinity of an image manifold, related by motion. Nonrigid registration “transports” a scan along the manifold to the reference neighborhood, and the residual is a surrogate for local variation. To test this conjecture, 10more » thoracic scans from the same session were reconstructed from a recently developed low-dose helical 4DCT protocol. Pairwise registration was repeated bi-directionally (81 times) and fusion was performed with each candidate reference. The fused image quality was assessed with SNR and CNR. Registration residuals in SSD, harmonic energy, and deformation Jacobian behavior were examined. The semi-symmetry is further utilized to reduce the number of registration needed. Results: The comparison of image quality between single image and fused ones identified reduction of local intensity variance as the major contributor of image quality, boosting SNR and CNR by 5 to 7 folds. This observation further suggests the criticality of good agreement across post-registration images. Triangle inequality on the SSD metric provides a proficient upper-bound and surrogate on such disagreement. Empirical observation also confirms that fused images with high residual SSD have lower SNR and CNR than the ones with low or intermediate SSDs. Registration SSD is structurally close enough to symmetry for reduced computation. Conclusion: Registration residual is shown to be a good predictor of post-fusion image quality and can be used to identify good reference centers. Semi-symmetry of the registration residual further reduces computation cost. Supported by in part by NIH R01 CA096679.« less

Diffraction based overlay metrology for α-carbon applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saravanan, Chandra Saru; Tan, Asher; Dasari, Prasad; Goelzer, Gary; Smith, Nigel; Woo, Seouk-Hoon; Shin, Jang Ho; Kang, Hyun Jae; Kim, Ho Chul

2008-03-01

Applications that require overlay measurement between layers separated by absorbing interlayer films (such as α- carbon) pose significant challenges for sub-50nm processes. In this paper scatterometry methods are investigated as an alternative to meet these stringent overlay metrology requirements. In this article, a spectroscopic Diffraction Based Overlay (DBO) measurement technique is used where registration errors are extracted from specially designed diffraction targets. DBO measurements are performed on detailed set of wafers with varying α-carbon (ACL) thicknesses. The correlation in overlay values between wafers with varying ACL thicknesses will be discussed. The total measurement uncertainty (TMU) requirements for these layers are discussed and the DBO TMU results from sub-50nm samples are reviewed.

Lung texture in serial thoracic CT scans: Assessment of change introduced by image registration1

PubMed Central

Cunliffe, Alexandra R.; Al-Hallaq, Hania A.; Labby, Zacariah E.; Pelizzari, Charles A.; Straus, Christopher; Sensakovic, William F.; Ludwig, Michelle; Armato, Samuel G.

2012-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of four image registration methods on lung texture features extracted from serial computed tomography (CT) scans obtained from healthy human subjects. Methods: Two chest CT scans acquired at different time points were collected retrospectively for each of 27 patients. Following automated lung segmentation, each follow-up CT scan was registered to the baseline scan using four algorithms: (1) rigid, (2) affine, (3) B-splines deformable, and (4) demons deformable. The registration accuracy for each scan pair was evaluated by measuring the Euclidean distance between 150 identified landmarks. On average, 1432 spatially matched 32 × 32-pixel region-of-interest (ROI) pairs were automatically extracted from each scan pair. First-order, fractal, Fourier, Laws’ filter, and gray-level co-occurrence matrix texture features were calculated in each ROI, for a total of 140 features. Agreement between baseline and follow-up scan ROI feature values was assessed by Bland–Altman analysis for each feature; the range spanned by the 95% limits of agreement of feature value differences was calculated and normalized by the average feature value to obtain the normalized range of agreement (nRoA). Features with small nRoA were considered “registration-stable.” The normalized bias for each feature was calculated from the feature value differences between baseline and follow-up scans averaged across all ROIs in every patient. Because patients had “normal” chest CT scans, minimal change in texture feature values between scan pairs was anticipated, with the expectation of small bias and narrow limits of agreement. Results: Registration with demons reduced the Euclidean distance between landmarks such that only 9% of landmarks were separated by ≥1 mm, compared with rigid (98%), affine (95%), and B-splines (90%). Ninety-nine of the 140 (71%) features analyzed yielded nRoA > 50% for all registration methods, indicating that the majority of feature values were perturbed following registration. Nineteen of the features (14%) had nRoA < 15% following demons registration, indicating relative feature value stability. Student's t-tests showed that the nRoA of these 19 features was significantly larger when rigid, affine, or B-splines registration methods were used compared with demons registration. Demons registration yielded greater normalized bias in feature value change than B-splines registration, though this difference was not significant (p = 0.15). Conclusions: Demons registration provided higher spatial accuracy between matched anatomic landmarks in serial CT scans than rigid, affine, or B-splines algorithms. Texture feature changes calculated in healthy lung tissue from serial CT scans were smaller following demons registration compared with all other algorithms. Though registration altered the values of the majority of texture features, 19 features remained relatively stable after demons registration, indicating their potential for detecting pathologic change in serial CT scans. Combined use of accurate deformable registration using demons and texture analysis may allow for quantitative evaluation of local changes in lung tissue due to disease progression or treatment response. PMID:22894392

Real-time Enhancement, Registration, and Fusion for a Multi-Sensor Enhanced Vision System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hines, Glenn D.; Rahman, Zia-ur; Jobson, Daniel J.; Woodell, Glenn A.

2006-01-01

Over the last few years NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) has been developing an Enhanced Vision System (EVS) to aid pilots while flying in poor visibility conditions. The EVS captures imagery using two infrared video cameras. The cameras are placed in an enclosure that is mounted and flown forward-looking underneath the NASA LaRC ARIES 757 aircraft. The data streams from the cameras are processed in real-time and displayed on monitors on-board the aircraft. With proper processing the camera system can provide better-than- human-observed imagery particularly during poor visibility conditions. However, to obtain this goal requires several different stages of processing including enhancement, registration, and fusion, and specialized processing hardware for real-time performance. We are using a real-time implementation of the Retinex algorithm for image enhancement, affine transformations for registration, and weighted sums to perform fusion. All of the algorithms are executed on a single TI DM642 digital signal processor (DSP) clocked at 720 MHz. The image processing components were added to the EVS system, tested, and demonstrated during flight tests in August and September of 2005. In this paper we briefly discuss the EVS image processing hardware and algorithms. We then discuss implementation issues and show examples of the results obtained during flight tests. Keywords: enhanced vision system, image enhancement, retinex, digital signal processing, sensor fusion

An Optimised System for Generating Multi-Resolution Dtms Using NASA Mro Datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Y.; Muller, J.-P.; Sidiropoulos, P.; Veitch-Michaelis, J.; Yershov, V.

2016-06-01

Within the EU FP-7 iMars project, a fully automated multi-resolution DTM processing chain, called Co-registration ASP-Gotcha Optimised (CASP-GO) has been developed, based on the open source NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP). CASP-GO includes tiepoint based multi-resolution image co-registration and an adaptive least squares correlation-based sub-pixel refinement method called Gotcha. The implemented system guarantees global geo-referencing compliance with respect to HRSC (and thence to MOLA), provides refined stereo matching completeness and accuracy based on the ASP normalised cross-correlation. We summarise issues discovered from experimenting with the use of the open-source ASP DTM processing chain and introduce our new working solutions. These issues include global co-registration accuracy, de-noising, dealing with failure in matching, matching confidence estimation, outlier definition and rejection scheme, various DTM artefacts, uncertainty estimation, and quality-efficiency trade-offs.

Automated Geo/Co-Registration of Multi-Temporal Very-High-Resolution Imagery.

PubMed

Han, Youkyung; Oh, Jaehong

2018-05-17

For time-series analysis using very-high-resolution (VHR) multi-temporal satellite images, both accurate georegistration to the map coordinates and subpixel-level co-registration among the images should be conducted. However, applying well-known matching methods, such as scale-invariant feature transform and speeded up robust features for VHR multi-temporal images, has limitations. First, they cannot be used for matching an optical image to heterogeneous non-optical data for georegistration. Second, they produce a local misalignment induced by differences in acquisition conditions, such as acquisition platform stability, the sensor's off-nadir angle, and relief displacement of the considered scene. Therefore, this study addresses the problem by proposing an automated geo/co-registration framework for full-scene multi-temporal images acquired from a VHR optical satellite sensor. The proposed method comprises two primary steps: (1) a global georegistration process, followed by (2) a fine co-registration process. During the first step, two-dimensional multi-temporal satellite images are matched to three-dimensional topographic maps to assign the map coordinates. During the second step, a local analysis of registration noise pixels extracted between the multi-temporal images that have been mapped to the map coordinates is conducted to extract a large number of well-distributed corresponding points (CPs). The CPs are finally used to construct a non-rigid transformation function that enables minimization of the local misalignment existing among the images. Experiments conducted on five Kompsat-3 full scenes confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed framework, showing that the georegistration performance resulted in an approximately pixel-level accuracy for most of the scenes, and the co-registration performance further improved the results among all combinations of the georegistered Kompsat-3 image pairs by increasing the calculated cross-correlation values.

Automatic patient alignment system using 3D ultrasound.

PubMed

Kaar, Marcus; Figl, Michael; Hoffmann, Rainer; Birkfellner, Wolfgang; Stock, Markus; Georg, Dietmar; Goldner, Gregor; Hummel, Johann

2013-04-01

Recent developments in radiation therapy such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) or dose painting promise to provide better dose distribution on the tumor. For effective application of these methods the exact positioning of the patient and the localization of the irradiated organ and surrounding structures is crucial. Especially with respect to the treatment of the prostate, ultrasound (US) allows for differentiation between soft tissue and was therefore applied by various repositioning systems, such as BAT or Clarity. The authors built a new system which uses 3D US at both sites, the CT room and the intervention room and applied a 3D/3D US/US registration for automatic repositioning. In a first step the authors applied image preprocessing methods to prepare the US images for an optimal registration process. For the 3D/3D registration procedure five different metrics were evaluated. To find the image metric which fits best for a particular patient three 3D US images were taken at the CT site and registered to each other. From these results an US registration error was calculated. The most successful image metric was then applied for the US/US registration process. The success of the whole repositioning method was assessed by taking the results of an ExacTrac system as golden standard. The US/US registration error was found to be 2.99 ± 1.54 mm with respect to the mutual information metric by Mattes (eleven patients) which revealed to be the most suitable of the assessed metrics. For complete repositioning chain the error amounted to 4.15 ± 1.20 mm (ten patients). The authors developed a system for patient repositioning which works automatically without the necessity of user interaction with an accuracy which seems to be suitable for clinical application.

Sample registration software for process automation in the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Facility in Malaysia nuclear agency

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rahman, Nur Aira Abd, E-mail: nur-aira@nuclearmalaysia.gov.my; Yussup, Nolida; Ibrahim, Maslina Bt. Mohd

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) had been established in Nuclear Malaysia since 1980s. Most of the procedures established were done manually including sample registration. The samples were recorded manually in a logbook and given ID number. Then all samples, standards, SRM and blank were recorded on the irradiation vial and several forms prior to irradiation. These manual procedures carried out by the NAA laboratory personnel were time consuming and not efficient. Sample registration software is developed as part of IAEA/CRP project on ‘Development of Process Automation in the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) Facility in Malaysia Nuclear Agency (RC17399)’. The objective ofmore » the project is to create a pc-based data entry software during sample preparation stage. This is an effective method to replace redundant manual data entries that needs to be completed by laboratory personnel. The software developed will automatically generate sample code for each sample in one batch, create printable registration forms for administration purpose, and store selected parameters that will be passed to sample analysis program. The software is developed by using National Instruments Labview 8.6.« less

Simultaneous 3D–2D image registration and C-arm calibration: Application to endovascular image-guided interventions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mitrović, Uroš; Pernuš, Franjo; Likar, Boštjan

Purpose: Three-dimensional to two-dimensional (3D–2D) image registration is a key to fusion and simultaneous visualization of valuable information contained in 3D pre-interventional and 2D intra-interventional images with the final goal of image guidance of a procedure. In this paper, the authors focus on 3D–2D image registration within the context of intracranial endovascular image-guided interventions (EIGIs), where the 3D and 2D images are generally acquired with the same C-arm system. The accuracy and robustness of any 3D–2D registration method, to be used in a clinical setting, is influenced by (1) the method itself, (2) uncertainty of initial pose of the 3Dmore » image from which registration starts, (3) uncertainty of C-arm’s geometry and pose, and (4) the number of 2D intra-interventional images used for registration, which is generally one and at most two. The study of these influences requires rigorous and objective validation of any 3D–2D registration method against a highly accurate reference or “gold standard” registration, performed on clinical image datasets acquired in the context of the intervention. Methods: The registration process is split into two sequential, i.e., initial and final, registration stages. The initial stage is either machine-based or template matching. The latter aims to reduce possibly large in-plane translation errors by matching a projection of the 3D vessel model and 2D image. In the final registration stage, four state-of-the-art intrinsic image-based 3D–2D registration methods, which involve simultaneous refinement of rigid-body and C-arm parameters, are evaluated. For objective validation, the authors acquired an image database of 15 patients undergoing cerebral EIGI, for which accurate gold standard registrations were established by fiducial marker coregistration. Results: Based on target registration error, the obtained success rates of 3D to a single 2D image registration after initial machine-based and template matching and final registration involving C-arm calibration were 36%, 73%, and 93%, respectively, while registration accuracy of 0.59 mm was the best after final registration. By compensating in-plane translation errors by initial template matching, the success rates achieved after the final stage improved consistently for all methods, especially if C-arm calibration was performed simultaneously with the 3D–2D image registration. Conclusions: Because the tested methods perform simultaneous C-arm calibration and 3D–2D registration based solely on anatomical information, they have a high potential for automation and thus for an immediate integration into current interventional workflow. One of the authors’ main contributions is also comprehensive and representative validation performed under realistic conditions as encountered during cerebral EIGI.« less

Comparison of arterial spin labeling registration strategies in the multi-center GENetic frontotemporal dementia initiative (GENFI).

PubMed

Mutsaerts, Henri J M M; Petr, Jan; Thomas, David L; De Vita, Enrico; Cash, David M; van Osch, Matthias J P; Golay, Xavier; Groot, Paul F C; Ourselin, Sebastien; van Swieten, John; Laforce, Robert; Tagliavini, Fabrizio; Borroni, Barbara; Galimberti, Daniela; Rowe, James B; Graff, Caroline; Pizzini, Francesca B; Finger, Elizabeth; Sorbi, Sandro; Castelo Branco, Miguel; Rohrer, Jonathan D; Masellis, Mario; MacIntosh, Bradley J

2018-01-01

To compare registration strategies to align arterial spin labeling (ASL) with 3D T1-weighted (T1w) images, with the goal of reducing the between-subject variability of cerebral blood flow (CBF) images. Multi-center 3T ASL data were collected at eight sites with four different sequences in the multi-center GENetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative (GENFI) study. In a total of 48 healthy controls, we compared the following image registration options: (I) which images to use for registration (perfusion-weighted images [PWI] to the segmented gray matter (GM) probability map (pGM) (CBF-pGM) or M0 to T1w (M0-T1w); (II) which transformation to use (rigid-body or non-rigid); and (III) whether to mask or not (no masking, M0-based FMRIB software library Brain Extraction Tool [BET] masking). In addition to visual comparison, we quantified image similarity using the Pearson correlation coefficient (CC), and used the Mann-Whitney U rank sum test. CBF-pGM outperformed M0-T1w (CC improvement 47.2% ± 22.0%; P < 0.001), and the non-rigid transformation outperformed rigid-body (20.6% ± 5.3%; P < 0.001). Masking only improved the M0-T1w rigid-body registration (14.5% ± 15.5%; P = 0.007). The choice of image registration strategy impacts ASL group analyses. The non-rigid transformation is promising but requires validation. CBF-pGM rigid-body registration without masking can be used as a default strategy. In patients with expansive perfusion deficits, M0-T1w may outperform CBF-pGM in sequences with high effective spatial resolution. BET-masking only improves M0-T1w registration when the M0 image has sufficient contrast. 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:131-140. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Alcohol education and training in pre-registration nursing: a national survey to determine curriculum content in the United Kingdom (UK).

PubMed

Holloway, Aisha S; Webster, Brian J

2013-09-01

Alcohol-related harm impacts significantly on the health of the population. Nurses are often among the first health professionals that many patients with alcohol-related problems come into contact with and have been identified as playing a key role but may be ill-prepared to respond. Future nurses need to have the skills, knowledge and clinical confidence to respond to patients suffering from alcohol-related harm. A pre-registration curriculum that ensures a nursing workforce fit for practice in responding to alcohol-related harm is necessary. To determine the level of alcohol education and training content in the pre-registration curriculum for nursing in the United Kingdom (UK). To establish whether there are variations in the pre-registration curriculum content across the UK. A descriptive study. All 68 UK Higher Education Institutions offering a total of 111 pre-registration courses for nurses were invited to participate in the study. Twenty nine completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 26%. The largest number of identified responders were from England (n=15), with 3 from Scotland and 1 each from Wales and Northern Ireland. Nine Universities chose not to identify themselves. An online semi-structured questionnaire survey was used to collect the study data. Teaching of alcohol and alcohol related harm was mainly delivered during the second year of a pre-registration nursing programme provided mainly to adult and mental health students. Overall, the majority of alcohol related content that is provided within the responding pre-registration nursing courses relates to biophysiology, aetiology, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. This study highlights the need for a greater and more relevant focus of alcohol education to pre-registration nursing students of all fields of practice incorporating an integrated approach across all years of study. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Political Socialization of Adolescent Children of Immigrants.

PubMed

Humphries, Melissa; Muller, Chandra; Schiller, Kathryn S

2013-12-01

This study aims to evaluate the adolescent political socialization processes that predict political participation in young adulthood, and whether these processes are different for children of immigrants compared to white 3 rd -plus generation adolescents. We focus on socialization agents based in the family, community and school. We use a nationally representative longitudinal survey of adolescents to evaluate the predictors of three measures of political participation: Voter registration, voting, and political party identification, and whether the process leading to political participation varies by immigrant status and race/ethnic group. We find that the parental education level of adolescents is not as predictive for many minority children of immigrants compared to white children of native-born parents for registration. Additionally, the academic rigor of the courses taken in high school has a greater positive estimated effect on the likelihood of registration and party identification for Latino children of immigrants compared to white 3 rd -plus generation young adults. The process of general integration into U.S. society for adolescent children of immigrants may lead to differing pathways to political participation in young adulthood, with certain aspects of their schooling experience having particular importance in developing political participation behaviors.

The Political Socialization of Adolescent Children of Immigrants*

PubMed Central

Humphries, Melissa; Muller, Chandra; Schiller, Kathryn S.

2013-01-01

Objectives This study aims to evaluate the adolescent political socialization processes that predict political participation in young adulthood, and whether these processes are different for children of immigrants compared to white 3rd-plus generation adolescents. We focus on socialization agents based in the family, community and school. Methods We use a nationally representative longitudinal survey of adolescents to evaluate the predictors of three measures of political participation: Voter registration, voting, and political party identification, and whether the process leading to political participation varies by immigrant status and race/ethnic group. Results We find that the parental education level of adolescents is not as predictive for many minority children of immigrants compared to white children of native-born parents for registration. Additionally, the academic rigor of the courses taken in high school has a greater positive estimated effect on the likelihood of registration and party identification for Latino children of immigrants compared to white 3rd-plus generation young adults. Conclusions The process of general integration into U.S. society for adolescent children of immigrants may lead to differing pathways to political participation in young adulthood, with certain aspects of their schooling experience having particular importance in developing political participation behaviors. PMID:24489413

High-Precision Registration of Point Clouds Based on Sphere Feature Constraints.

PubMed

Huang, Junhui; Wang, Zhao; Gao, Jianmin; Huang, Youping; Towers, David Peter

2016-12-30

Point cloud registration is a key process in multi-view 3D measurements. Its precision affects the measurement precision directly. However, in the case of the point clouds with non-overlapping areas or curvature invariant surface, it is difficult to achieve a high precision. A high precision registration method based on sphere feature constraint is presented to overcome the difficulty in the paper. Some known sphere features with constraints are used to construct virtual overlapping areas. The virtual overlapping areas provide more accurate corresponding point pairs and reduce the influence of noise. Then the transformation parameters between the registered point clouds are solved by an optimization method with weight function. In that case, the impact of large noise in point clouds can be reduced and a high precision registration is achieved. Simulation and experiments validate the proposed method.

High-Precision Registration of Point Clouds Based on Sphere Feature Constraints

PubMed Central

Huang, Junhui; Wang, Zhao; Gao, Jianmin; Huang, Youping; Towers, David Peter

2016-01-01

Point cloud registration is a key process in multi-view 3D measurements. Its precision affects the measurement precision directly. However, in the case of the point clouds with non-overlapping areas or curvature invariant surface, it is difficult to achieve a high precision. A high precision registration method based on sphere feature constraint is presented to overcome the difficulty in the paper. Some known sphere features with constraints are used to construct virtual overlapping areas. The virtual overlapping areas provide more accurate corresponding point pairs and reduce the influence of noise. Then the transformation parameters between the registered point clouds are solved by an optimization method with weight function. In that case, the impact of large noise in point clouds can be reduced and a high precision registration is achieved. Simulation and experiments validate the proposed method. PMID:28042846

A robust cloud registration method based on redundant data reduction using backpropagation neural network and shift window

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xin, Meiting; Li, Bing; Yan, Xiao; Chen, Lei; Wei, Xiang

2018-02-01

A robust coarse-to-fine registration method based on the backpropagation (BP) neural network and shift window technology is proposed in this study. Specifically, there are three steps: coarse alignment between the model data and measured data, data simplification based on the BP neural network and point reservation in the contour region of point clouds, and fine registration with the reweighted iterative closest point algorithm. In the process of rough alignment, the initial rotation matrix and the translation vector between the two datasets are obtained. After performing subsequent simplification operations, the number of points can be reduced greatly. Therefore, the time and space complexity of the accurate registration can be significantly reduced. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the computational efficiency without loss of accuracy.

Automatic Image Registration of Multimodal Remotely Sensed Data with Global Shearlet Features

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, James M.; Le Moigne, Jacqueline; Harding, David J.

2015-01-01

Automatic image registration is the process of aligning two or more images of approximately the same scene with minimal human assistance. Wavelet-based automatic registration methods are standard, but sometimes are not robust to the choice of initial conditions. That is, if the images to be registered are too far apart relative to the initial guess of the algorithm, the registration algorithm does not converge or has poor accuracy, and is thus not robust. These problems occur because wavelet techniques primarily identify isotropic textural features and are less effective at identifying linear and curvilinear edge features. We integrate the recently developed mathematical construction of shearlets, which is more effective at identifying sparse anisotropic edges, with an existing automatic wavelet-based registration algorithm. Our shearlet features algorithm produces more distinct features than wavelet features algorithms; the separation of edges from textures is even stronger than with wavelets. Our algorithm computes shearlet and wavelet features for the images to be registered, then performs least squares minimization on these features to compute a registration transformation. Our algorithm is two-staged and multiresolution in nature. First, a cascade of shearlet features is used to provide a robust, though approximate, registration. This is then refined by registering with a cascade of wavelet features. Experiments across a variety of image classes show an improved robustness to initial conditions, when compared to wavelet features alone.

Automatic Image Registration of Multi-Modal Remotely Sensed Data with Global Shearlet Features

PubMed Central

Murphy, James M.; Le Moigne, Jacqueline; Harding, David J.

2017-01-01

Automatic image registration is the process of aligning two or more images of approximately the same scene with minimal human assistance. Wavelet-based automatic registration methods are standard, but sometimes are not robust to the choice of initial conditions. That is, if the images to be registered are too far apart relative to the initial guess of the algorithm, the registration algorithm does not converge or has poor accuracy, and is thus not robust. These problems occur because wavelet techniques primarily identify isotropic textural features and are less effective at identifying linear and curvilinear edge features. We integrate the recently developed mathematical construction of shearlets, which is more effective at identifying sparse anisotropic edges, with an existing automatic wavelet-based registration algorithm. Our shearlet features algorithm produces more distinct features than wavelet features algorithms; the separation of edges from textures is even stronger than with wavelets. Our algorithm computes shearlet and wavelet features for the images to be registered, then performs least squares minimization on these features to compute a registration transformation. Our algorithm is two-staged and multiresolution in nature. First, a cascade of shearlet features is used to provide a robust, though approximate, registration. This is then refined by registering with a cascade of wavelet features. Experiments across a variety of image classes show an improved robustness to initial conditions, when compared to wavelet features alone. PMID:29123329

Pre-processing, registration and selection of adaptive optics corrected retinal images.

PubMed

Ramaswamy, Gomathy; Devaney, Nicholas

2013-07-01

In this paper, the aim is to demonstrate enhanced processing of sequences of fundus images obtained using a commercial AO flood illumination system. The purpose of the work is to (1) correct for uneven illumination at the retina (2) automatically select the best quality images and (3) precisely register the best images. Adaptive optics corrected retinal images are pre-processed to correct uneven illumination using different methods; subtracting or dividing by the average filtered image, homomorphic filtering and a wavelet based approach. These images are evaluated to measure the image quality using various parameters, including sharpness, variance, power spectrum kurtosis and contrast. We have carried out the registration in two stages; a coarse stage using cross-correlation followed by fine registration using two approaches; parabolic interpolation on the peak of the cross-correlation and maximum-likelihood estimation. The angle of rotation of the images is measured using a combination of peak tracking and Procrustes transformation. We have found that a wavelet approach (Daubechies 4 wavelet at 6th level decomposition) provides good illumination correction with clear improvement in image sharpness and contrast. The assessment of image quality using a 'Designer metric' works well when compared to visual evaluation, although it is highly correlated with other metrics. In image registration, sub-pixel translation measured using parabolic interpolation on the peak of the cross-correlation function and maximum-likelihood estimation are found to give very similar results (RMS difference 0.047 pixels). We have confirmed that correcting rotation of the images provides a significant improvement, especially at the edges of the image. We observed that selecting the better quality frames (e.g. best 75% images) for image registration gives improved resolution, at the expense of poorer signal-to-noise. The sharpness map of the registered and de-rotated images shows increased sharpness over most of the field of view. Adaptive optics assisted images of the cone photoreceptors can be better pre-processed using a wavelet approach. These images can be assessed for image quality using a 'Designer Metric'. Two-stage image registration including correcting for rotation significantly improves the final image contrast and sharpness. © 2013 The Authors Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics © 2013 The College of Optometrists.

Device and methods for "gold standard" registration of clinical 3D and 2D cerebral angiograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Madan, Hennadii; Likar, Boštjan; Pernuš, Franjo; Å piclin, Žiga

2015-03-01

Translation of any novel and existing 3D-2D image registration methods into clinical image-guidance systems is limited due to lack of their objective validation on clinical image datasets. The main reason is that, besides the calibration of the 2D imaging system, a reference or "gold standard" registration is very difficult to obtain on clinical image datasets. In the context of cerebral endovascular image-guided interventions (EIGIs), we present a calibration device in the form of a headband with integrated fiducial markers and, secondly, propose an automated pipeline comprising 3D and 2D image processing, analysis and annotation steps, the result of which is a retrospective calibration of the 2D imaging system and an optimal, i.e., "gold standard" registration of 3D and 2D images. The device and methods were used to create the "gold standard" on 15 datasets of 3D and 2D cerebral angiograms, whereas each dataset was acquired on a patient undergoing EIGI for either aneurysm coiling or embolization of arteriovenous malformation. The use of the device integrated seamlessly in the clinical workflow of EIGI. While the automated pipeline eliminated all manual input or interactive image processing, analysis or annotation. In this way, the time to obtain the "gold standard" was reduced from 30 to less than one minute and the "gold standard" of 3D-2D registration on all 15 datasets of cerebral angiograms was obtained with a sub-0.1 mm accuracy.

Impact of advanced onboard processing concepts on end-to-end data system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sos, J. Y.

1978-01-01

An investigation is conducted of the impact of advanced onboard data handling concepts on the total system in general and on ground processing operations, such as those being performed in the central data processing facility of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In one of these concepts, known as the instrument telemetry packet (ITP) system, telemetry data from a single instrument is encoded into a packet, along with other ancillary data, and transmitted in this form to the ground. Another concept deals with onboard temporal registration of image data from such sensors as the thematic mapper, to be carried onboard the Landsat-D spacecraft in 1981. It is found that the implementation of the considered concepts will result in substantial simplification of the ground processing element of the system. With the projected tenfold increase in the data volume expected in the next decade, the introduction of ITP should keep the cost of the ground data processing function within reasonable bounds and significantly contribute to a more timely delivery of data/information to the end user.

[Registration and 3D rendering of serial tissue section images].

PubMed

Liu, Zhexing; Jiang, Guiping; Dong, Wu; Zhang, Yu; Xie, Xiaomian; Hao, Liwei; Wang, Zhiyuan; Li, Shuxiang

2002-12-01

It is an important morphological research method to reconstruct the 3D imaging from serial section tissue images. Registration of serial images is a key step to 3D reconstruction. Firstly, an introduction to the segmentation-counting registration algorithm is presented, which is based on the joint histogram. After thresholding of the two images to be registered, the criterion function is defined as counting in a specific region of the joint histogram, which greatly speeds up the alignment process. Then, the method is used to conduct the serial tissue image matching task, and lies a solid foundation for 3D rendering. Finally, preliminary surface rendering results are presented.

Methods And Systems For Using Reference Images In Acoustic Image Processing

DOEpatents

Moore, Thomas L.; Barter, Robert Henry

2005-01-04

A method and system of examining tissue are provided in which a field, including at least a portion of the tissue and one or more registration fiducials, is insonified. Scattered acoustic information, including both transmitted and reflected waves, is received from the field. A representation of the field, including both the tissue and the registration fiducials, is then derived from the received acoustic radiation.

How Would Children Register Their Own Births? Insights from a Survey of Students Regarding Birth Registration Knowledge and Policy Suggestions in Kenya

PubMed Central

Pelowski, Matthew; Wamai, Richard G.; Wangombe, Joseph; Nyakundi, Hellen; Oduwo, Geofrey O.; Ngugi, Benjamin K.; Ogembo, Javier G.

2016-01-01

Birth registration and obtaining physical birth certificates impose major challenges in developing countries, with impact on child and community health, education, planning, and all levels of development. However despite initiatives, universal registration is elusive, leading to calls for new approaches to understanding the decisions of parents. In this paper, we report results of a survey of students in grades six to eight (age ~12–16) in an under-registered area of Kenya regarding their own understanding of registration issues and their suggestions for improvement. These students were selected because they themselves were also nearing the age for high school enrollment/entrance examinations, which specifically requires possession of a birth certificate. This assessment was also a companion to our previous representative survey of adults in the same Kenyan region, allowing for parent-child comparison. Results supported previous research, showing that only 43% had birth certificates. At the same time, despite these low totals, students were themselves quite aware of registration factors and purposes. The students also made quite prescient sources for understanding their households’ motivations, with many of their suggestions—for focus on communication of pragmatic benefits, or automatic measures shifting responsibility from parents—mirroring our own previous suggestions, and showing a level of pragmatism not witnessed when surveying their parents. This paper therefore adds evidence to the discussion of registration policy planning. More generally, it also builds on an important trend regarding the treatment of children as stakeholders and important sources of information, and raising an intriguing new avenue for future research. PMID:26939000

Automated Registration of Multimodal Optic Disc Images: Clinical Assessment of Alignment Accuracy.

PubMed

Ng, Wai Siene; Legg, Phil; Avadhanam, Venkat; Aye, Kyaw; Evans, Steffan H P; North, Rachel V; Marshall, Andrew D; Rosin, Paul; Morgan, James E

2016-04-01

To determine the accuracy of automated alignment algorithms for the registration of optic disc images obtained by 2 different modalities: fundus photography and scanning laser tomography. Images obtained with the Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II and paired photographic optic disc images of 135 eyes were analyzed. Three state-of-the-art automated registration techniques Regional Mutual Information, rigid Feature Neighbourhood Mutual Information (FNMI), and nonrigid FNMI (NRFNMI) were used to align these image pairs. Alignment of each composite picture was assessed on a 5-point grading scale: "Fail" (no alignment of vessels with no vessel contact), "Weak" (vessels have slight contact), "Good" (vessels with <50% contact), "Very Good" (vessels with >50% contact), and "Excellent" (complete alignment). Custom software generated an image mosaic in which the modalities were interleaved as a series of alternate 5×5-pixel blocks. These were graded independently by 3 clinically experienced observers. A total of 810 image pairs were assessed. All 3 registration techniques achieved a score of "Good" or better in >95% of the image sets. NRFNMI had the highest percentage of "Excellent" (mean: 99.6%; range, 95.2% to 99.6%), followed by Regional Mutual Information (mean: 81.6%; range, 86.3% to 78.5%) and FNMI (mean: 73.1%; range, 85.2% to 54.4%). Automated registration of optic disc images by different modalities is a feasible option for clinical application. All 3 methods provided useful levels of alignment, but the NRFNMI technique consistently outperformed the others and is recommended as a practical approach to the automated registration of multimodal disc images.

Enhanced Optical Head Tracking for Cranial Radiation Therapy: Supporting Surface Registration by Cutaneous Structures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wissel, Tobias, E-mail: wissel@rob.uni-luebeck.de; Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Science, University of Lübeck, Lübeck; Stüber, Patrick

2016-06-01

Purpose: To support surface registration in cranial radiation therapy by structural information. The risk for spatial ambiguities is minimized by using tissue thickness variations predicted from backscattered near-infrared (NIR) light from the forehead. Methods and Materials: In a pilot study we recorded NIR surface scans by laser triangulation from 30 volunteers of different skin type. A ground truth for the soft-tissue thickness was segmented from MR scans. After initially matching the NIR scans to the MR reference, Gaussian processes were trained to predict tissue thicknesses from NIR backscatter. Moreover, motion starting from this initial registration was simulated by 5000 randommore » transformations of the NIR scan away from the MR reference. Re-registration to the MR scan was compared with and without tissue thickness support. Results: By adding prior knowledge to the backscatter features, such as incident angle and neighborhood information in the scanning grid, we showed that tissue thickness can be predicted with mean errors of <0.2 mm, irrespective of the skin type. With this additional information, the average registration error improved from 3.4 mm to 0.48 mm by a factor of 7. Misalignments of more than 1 mm were almost thoroughly (98.9%) pushed below 1 mm. Conclusions: For almost all cases tissue-enhanced matching achieved better results than purely spatial registration. Ambiguities can be minimized if the cutaneous structures do not agree. This valuable support for surface registration increases tracking robustness and avoids misalignment of tumor targets far from the registration site.« less

Alternative radiation-free registration technique for image-guided pedicle screw placement in deformed cervico-thoracic segments.

PubMed

Kantelhardt, Sven R; Neulen, Axel; Keric, Naureen; Gutenberg, Angelika; Conrad, Jens; Giese, Alf

2017-10-01

Image-guided pedicle screw placement in the cervico-thoracic region is a commonly applied technique. In some patients with deformed cervico-thoracic segments, conventional or 3D fluoroscopy based registration of image-guidance might be difficult or impossible because of the anatomic/pathological conditions. Landmark based registration has been used as an alternative, mostly using separate registration of each vertebra. We here investigated a routine for landmark based registration of rigid spinal segments as single objects, using cranial image-guidance software. Landmark based registration of image-guidance was performed using cranial navigation software. After surgical exposure of the spinous processes, lamina and facet joints and fixation of a reference marker array, up to 26 predefined landmarks were acquired using a pointer. All pedicle screws were implanted using image guidance alone. Following image-guided screw placement all patients underwent postoperative CT scanning. Screw positions as well as intraoperative and clinical parameters were retrospectively analyzed. Thirteen patients received 73 pedicle screws at levels C6 to Th8. Registration of spinal segments, using the cranial image-guidance succeeded in all cases. Pedicle perforations were observed in 11.0%, severe perforations of >2 mm occurred in 5.4%. One patient developed a transient C8 syndrome and had to be revised for deviation of the C7 pedicle screw. No other pedicle screw-related complications were observed. In selected patients suffering from pathologies of the cervico-thoracic region, which impair intraoperative fluoroscopy or 3D C-arm imaging, landmark based registration of image-guidance using cranial software is a feasible, radiation-saving and a safe alternative.

Registration of surface structures using airborne focused ultrasound.

PubMed

Sundström, N; Börjesson, P O; Holmer, N G; Olsson, L; Persson, H W

1991-01-01

A low-cost measuring system, based on a personal computer combined with standard equipment for complex measurements and signal processing, has been assembled. Such a system increases the possibilities for small hospitals and clinics to finance advanced measuring equipment. A description of equipment developed for airborne ultrasound together with a personal computer-based system for fast data acquisition and processing is given. Two air-adapted ultrasound transducers with high lateral resolution have been developed. Furthermore, a few results for fast and accurate estimation of signal arrival time are presented. The theoretical estimation models developed are applied to skin surface profile registrations.

A software tool of digital tomosynthesis application for patient positioning in radiotherapy

PubMed Central

Dai, Jian‐Rong

2016-01-01

Digital Tomosynthesis (DTS) is an image modality in reconstructing tomographic images from two‐dimensional kV projections covering a narrow scan angles. Comparing with conventional cone‐beam CT (CBCT), it requires less time and radiation dose in data acquisition. It is feasible to apply this technique in patient positioning in radiotherapy. To facilitate its clinical application, a software tool was developed and the reconstruction processes were accelerated by graphic processing unit (GPU). Two reconstruction and two registration processes are required for DTS application which is different from conventional CBCT application which requires one image reconstruction process and one image registration process. The reconstruction stage consists of productions of two types of DTS. One type of DTS is reconstructed from cone‐beam (CB) projections covering a narrow scan angle and is named onboard DTS (ODTS), which represents the real patient position in treatment room. Another type of DTS is reconstructed from digitally reconstructed radiography (DRR) and is named reference DTS (RDTS), which represents the ideal patient position in treatment room. Prior to the reconstruction of RDTS, The DRRs are reconstructed from planning CT using the same acquisition setting of CB projections. The registration stage consists of two matching processes between ODTS and RDTS. The target shift in lateral and longitudinal axes are obtained from the matching between ODTS and RDTS in coronal view, while the target shift in longitudinal and vertical axes are obtained from the matching between ODTS and RDTS in sagittal view. In this software, both DRR and DTS reconstruction algorithms were implemented on GPU environments for acceleration purpose. The comprehensive evaluation of this software tool was performed including geometric accuracy, image quality, registration accuracy, and reconstruction efficiency. The average correlation coefficient between DRR/DTS generated by GPU‐based algorithm and CPU‐based algorithm is 0.99. Based on the measurements of cube phantom on DTS, the geometric errors are within 0.5 mm in three axes. For both cube phantom and pelvic phantom, the registration errors are within 0.5 mm in three axes. Compared with reconstruction performance of CPU‐based algorithms, the performances of DRR and DTS reconstructions are improved by a factor of 15 to 20. A GPU‐based software tool was developed for DTS application for patient positioning of radiotherapy. The geometric and registration accuracy met the clinical requirement in patient setup of radiotherapy. The high performance of DRR and DTS reconstruction algorithms was achieved by the GPU‐based computation environments. It is a useful software tool for researcher and clinician in evaluating DTS application in patient positioning of radiotherapy. PACS number(s): 87.57.nf PMID:27074482

SU-F-J-57: Effectiveness of Daily CT-Based Three-Dimensional Image Guided and Adaptive Proton Therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moriya, S; National Cancer Center, Kashiwa, Chiba; Tachibana, H

Purpose: Daily CT-based three-dimensional image-guided and adaptive (CTIGRT-ART) proton therapy system was designed and developed. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the CTIGRT-ART. Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed in three lung cancer patients: Proton treatment planning was performed using CT image datasets acquired by Toshiba Aquilion ONE. Planning target volume and surrounding organs were contoured by a well-trained radiation oncologist. Dose distribution was optimized using 180-deg. and 270-deg. two fields in passive scattering proton therapy. Well commissioned Simplified Monte Carlo algorithm was used as dose calculation engine. Daily consecutive CT image datasets was acquired by an in-room CT (Toshiba Aquilionmore » LB). In our in-house program, two image registrations for bone and tumor were performed to shift the isocenter using treatment CT image dataset. Subsequently, dose recalculation was performed after the shift of the isocenter. When the dose distribution after the tumor registration exhibits change of dosimetric parameter of CTV D90% compared to the initial plan, an additional process of was performed that the range shifter thickness was optimized. Dose distribution with CTV D90% for the bone registration, the tumor registration only and adaptive plan with the tumor registration was compared to the initial plan. Results: In the bone registration, tumor dose coverage was decreased by 16% on average (Maximum: 56%). The tumor registration shows better coverage than the bone registration, however the coverage was also decreased by 9% (Maximum: 22%) The adaptive plan shows similar dose coverage of the tumor (Average: 2%, Maximum: 7%). Conclusion: There is a high possibility that only image registration for bone and tumor may reduce tumor coverage. Thus, our proposed methodology of image guidance and adaptive planning using the range adaptation after tumor registration would be effective for proton therapy. This research is partially supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).« less

The Insight ToolKit image registration framework

PubMed Central

Avants, Brian B.; Tustison, Nicholas J.; Stauffer, Michael; Song, Gang; Wu, Baohua; Gee, James C.

2014-01-01

Publicly available scientific resources help establish evaluation standards, provide a platform for teaching and improve reproducibility. Version 4 of the Insight ToolKit (ITK4) seeks to establish new standards in publicly available image registration methodology. ITK4 makes several advances in comparison to previous versions of ITK. ITK4 supports both multivariate images and objective functions; it also unifies high-dimensional (deformation field) and low-dimensional (affine) transformations with metrics that are reusable across transform types and with composite transforms that allow arbitrary series of geometric mappings to be chained together seamlessly. Metrics and optimizers take advantage of multi-core resources, when available. Furthermore, ITK4 reduces the parameter optimization burden via principled heuristics that automatically set scaling across disparate parameter types (rotations vs. translations). A related approach also constrains steps sizes for gradient-based optimizers. The result is that tuning for different metrics and/or image pairs is rarely necessary allowing the researcher to more easily focus on design/comparison of registration strategies. In total, the ITK4 contribution is intended as a structure to support reproducible research practices, will provide a more extensive foundation against which to evaluate new work in image registration and also enable application level programmers a broad suite of tools on which to build. Finally, we contextualize this work with a reference registration evaluation study with application to pediatric brain labeling.1 PMID:24817849

42 CFR 493.55 - Application for registration certificate and certificate of accreditation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... government laboratories that engage in limited (not more than a combination of 15 moderately complex or... performed by the laboratory including— (i) The name and total number of tests and examinations performed...

11 CFR 106.1 - Allocation of expenses between candidates.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... compared to the total receipts by all candidates. In the case of a phone bank, the attribution shall be... campaign seminars, for training of campaign workers, and for registration or get-out-the-vote drives of...

Phantom study and accuracy evaluation of an image-to-world registration approach used with electro-magnetic tracking system for neurosurgery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Senhu; Sarment, David

2015-12-01

Minimally invasive neurosurgery needs intraoperative imaging updates and high efficient image guide system to facilitate the procedure. An automatic image guided system utilized with a compact and mobile intraoperative CT imager was introduced in this work. A tracking frame that can be easily attached onto the commercially available skull clamp was designed. With known geometry of fiducial and tracking sensor arranged on this rigid frame that was fabricated through high precision 3D printing, not only was an accurate, fully automatic registration method developed in a simple and less-costly approach, but also it helped in estimating the errors from fiducial localization in image space through image processing, and in patient space through the calibration of tracking frame. Our phantom study shows the fiducial registration error as 0.348+/-0.028mm, comparing the manual registration error as 1.976+/-0.778mm. The system in this study provided a robust and accurate image-to-patient registration without interruption of routine surgical workflow and any user interactions involved through the neurosurgery.

Feature-based three-dimensional registration for repetitive geometry in machine vision

PubMed Central

Gong, Yuanzheng; Seibel, Eric J.

2016-01-01

As an important step in three-dimensional (3D) machine vision, 3D registration is a process of aligning two or multiple 3D point clouds that are collected from different perspectives together into a complete one. The most popular approach to register point clouds is to minimize the difference between these point clouds iteratively by Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm. However, ICP does not work well for repetitive geometries. To solve this problem, a feature-based 3D registration algorithm is proposed to align the point clouds that are generated by vision-based 3D reconstruction. By utilizing texture information of the object and the robustness of image features, 3D correspondences can be retrieved so that the 3D registration of two point clouds is to solve a rigid transformation. The comparison of our method and different ICP algorithms demonstrates that our proposed algorithm is more accurate, efficient and robust for repetitive geometry registration. Moreover, this method can also be used to solve high depth uncertainty problem caused by little camera baseline in vision-based 3D reconstruction. PMID:28286703

Medical imaging and registration in computer assisted surgery.

PubMed

Simon, D A; Lavallée, S

1998-09-01

Imaging, sensing, and computing technologies that are being introduced to aid in the planning and execution of surgical procedures are providing orthopaedic surgeons with a powerful new set of tools for improving clinical accuracy, reliability, and patient outcomes while reducing costs and operating times. Current computer assisted surgery systems typically include a measurement process for collecting patient specific medical data, a decision making process for generating a surgical plan, a registration process for aligning the surgical plan to the patient, and an action process for accurately achieving the goals specified in the plan. Some of the key concepts in computer assisted surgery applied to orthopaedics with a focus on the basic framework and underlying technologies is outlined. In addition, technical challenges and future trends in the field are discussed.

Joint detection of anatomical points on surface meshes and color images for visual registration of 3D dental models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Destrez, Raphaël.; Albouy-Kissi, Benjamin; Treuillet, Sylvie; Lucas, Yves

2015-04-01

Computer aided planning for orthodontic treatment requires knowing occlusion of separately scanned dental casts. A visual guided registration is conducted starting by extracting corresponding features in both photographs and 3D scans. To achieve this, dental neck and occlusion surface are firstly extracted by image segmentation and 3D curvature analysis. Then, an iterative registration process is conducted during which feature positions are refined, guided by previously found anatomic edges. The occlusal edge image detection is improved by an original algorithm which follows Canny's poorly detected edges using a priori knowledge of tooth shapes. Finally, the influence of feature extraction and position optimization is evaluated in terms of the quality of the induced registration. Best combination of feature detection and optimization leads to a positioning average error of 1.10 mm and 2.03°.

Support for infants and young people with sight loss: a qualitative study of sight impairment certification and referral to education and social care services

PubMed Central

Boyce, Tammy; Dahlmann-Noor, Annegret; Bowman, Richard; Keil, Sue

2015-01-01

Objectives To examine the experience of infants, children and their parents, the role of ophthalmologists and other health, social care and education professionals in the certification and registration processes and examine the relationship between certification and referrals and pathways to support. Design Qualitative study. Setting Telephone interviews with health and, social care professionals, qualified teachers of children and young people with vision impairment (QTVIs) and parents of infants/children in England. Participants 52 health, social care and education professionals who are part of the certification or registration process. 26 parents of infants and children with vision impairment. Results Referrals to education do not require a Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI); however, the majority of parents received support from education and social services only after an offer of the CVI, which was often dependent on having a formal diagnosis. Parents stated they wanted support sooner, particularly parents of children with additional complex needs who experienced longer delays. Areas with multidisciplinary teams and support roles such as eye clinic liaison officers (ECLOs) appeared to have more reliable referral pathways. Conclusions For infants and children with vision impairment, there should be a consistent mechanism for triggering education and social care support even with uncertainty about diagnosis and/or prognosis. All professionals involved in the certification and registration processes (ophthalmologists, optometrists, ECLOs, orthoptists, social workers, QTVIs) can better communicate the value and benefits of certification and registration. PMID:26685033

Technical note: DIRART--A software suite for deformable image registration and adaptive radiotherapy research.

PubMed

Yang, Deshan; Brame, Scott; El Naqa, Issam; Aditya, Apte; Wu, Yu; Goddu, S Murty; Mutic, Sasa; Deasy, Joseph O; Low, Daniel A

2011-01-01

Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in image guide radiotherapy technology and a growing interest in the possibilities for adapting treatment planning and delivery over the course of treatment. One obstacle faced by the research community has been the lack of a comprehensive open-source software toolkit dedicated for adaptive radiotherapy (ART). To address this need, the authors have developed a software suite called the Deformable Image Registration and Adaptive Radiotherapy Toolkit (DIRART). DIRART is an open-source toolkit developed in MATLAB. It is designed in an object-oriented style with focus on user-friendliness, features, and flexibility. It contains four classes of DIR algorithms, including the newer inverse consistency algorithms to provide consistent displacement vector field in both directions. It also contains common ART functions, an integrated graphical user interface, a variety of visualization and image-processing features, dose metric analysis functions, and interface routines. These interface routines make DIRART a powerful complement to the Computational Environment for Radiotherapy Research (CERR) and popular image-processing toolkits such as ITK. DIRART provides a set of image processing/registration algorithms and postprocessing functions to facilitate the development and testing of DIR algorithms. It also offers a good amount of options for DIR results visualization, evaluation, and validation. By exchanging data with treatment planning systems via DICOM-RT files and CERR, and by bringing image registration algorithms closer to radiotherapy applications, DIRART is potentially a convenient and flexible platform that may facilitate ART and DIR research. 0 2011 Ameri-

In-die mask registration measurement on 28nm-node and beyond

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shen Hung; Cheng, Yung Feng; Chen, Ming Jui

2013-09-01

As semiconductor go to smaller node, the critical dimension (CD) of process become more and more small. For lithography, RET (Resolution Enhancement Technology) applications can be used for wafer printing of smaller CD/pitch on 28nm node and beyond. SMO (Source Mask Optimization), DPT (Double Patterning Technology) and SADP (Self-Align Double Patterning) can provide lower k1 value for lithography. In another way, image placement error and overlay control also become more and more important for smaller chip size (advanced node). Mask registration (image placement error) and mask overlay are important factors to affect wafer overlay control/performance especially for DPT or SADP. In traditional method, the designed registration marks (cross type, square type) with larger CD were put into scribe-line of mask frame for registration and overlay measurement. However, these patterns are far way from real patterns. It does not show the registration of real pattern directly and is not a convincing method. In this study, the in-die (in-chip) registration measurement is introduced. We extract the dummy patterns that are close to main pattern from post-OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) gds by our desired rule and choose the patterns that distribute over whole mask uniformly. The convergence test shows 100 points measurement has a reliable result.

3D/2D image registration using weighted histogram of gradient directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghafurian, Soheil; Hacihaliloglu, Ilker; Metaxas, Dimitris N.; Tan, Virak; Li, Kang

2015-03-01

Three dimensional (3D) to two dimensional (2D) image registration is crucial in many medical applications such as image-guided evaluation of musculoskeletal disorders. One of the key problems is to estimate the 3D CT- reconstructed bone model positions (translation and rotation) which maximize the similarity between the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) and the 2D fluoroscopic images using a registration method. This problem is computational-intensive due to a large search space and the complicated DRR generation process. Also, finding a similarity measure which converges to the global optimum instead of local optima adds to the challenge. To circumvent these issues, most existing registration methods need a manual initialization, which requires user interaction and is prone to human error. In this paper, we introduce a novel feature-based registration method using the weighted histogram of gradient directions of images. This method simplifies the computation by searching the parameter space (rotation and translation) sequentially rather than simultaneously. In our numeric simulation experiments, the proposed registration algorithm was able to achieve sub-millimeter and sub-degree accuracies. Moreover, our method is robust to the initial guess. It can tolerate up to +/-90°rotation offset from the global optimal solution, which minimizes the need for human interaction to initialize the algorithm.

Preliminary results in large bone segmentation from 3D freehand ultrasound

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fanti, Zian; Torres, Fabian; Arámbula Cosío, Fernando

2013-11-01

Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery (CAOS) requires a correct registration between the patient in the operating room and the virtual models representing the patient in the computer. In order to increase the precision and accuracy of the registration a set of new techniques that eliminated the need to use fiducial markers have been developed. The majority of these newly developed registration systems are based on costly intraoperative imaging systems like Computed Tomography (CT scan) or Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). An alternative to these methods is the use of an Ultrasound (US) imaging system for the implementation of a more cost efficient intraoperative registration solution. In order to develop the registration solution with the US imaging system, the bone surface is segmented in both preoperative and intraoperative images, and the registration is done using the acquire surface. In this paper, we present the a preliminary results of a new approach to segment bone surface from ultrasound volumes acquired by means 3D freehand ultrasound. The method is based on the enhancement of the voxels that belongs to surface and its posterior segmentation. The enhancement process is based on the information provided by eigenanalisis of the multiscale 3D Hessian matrix. The preliminary results shows that from the enhance volume the final bone surfaces can be extracted using a singular value thresholding.

Co-registration of cone beam CT and preoperative MRI for improved accuracy of electrode localization following cochlear implantation.

PubMed

Dragovic, A S; Stringer, A K; Campbell, L; Shaul, C; O'Leary, S J; Briggs, R J

2018-05-01

To investigate the clinical usefulness and practicality of co-registration of Cone Beam CT (CBCT) with preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for intracochlear localization of electrodes after cochlear implantation. Images of 20 adult patients who underwent CBCT after implantation were co-registered with preoperative MRI scans. Time taken for co-registration was recorded. The images were analysed by clinicians of varying levels of expertise to determine electrode position and ease of interpretation. After a short learning curve, the average co-registration time was 10.78 minutes (StdDev 2.37). All clinicians found the co-registered images easier to interpret than CBCT alone. The mean concordance of CBCT vs. co-registered image analysis between consultant otologists was 60% (17-100%) and 86% (60-100%), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for CBCT to identify Scala Vestibuli insertion or translocation was 100 and 75%, respectively. The negative predictive value was 100%. CBCT should be performed following adult cochlear implantation for audit and quality control of surgical technique. If SV insertion or translocation is suspected, co-registration with preoperative MRI should be performed to enable easier analysis. There will be a learning curve for this process in terms of both the co-registration and the interpretation of images by clinicians.

An accuracy assessment of different rigid body image registration methods and robotic couch positional corrections using a novel phantom

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Arumugam, Sankar; Xing Aitang; Jameson, Michael G.

2013-03-15

Purpose: Image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images greatly reduces interfractional patient positional uncertainties. An understanding of uncertainties in the IGRT process itself is essential to ensure appropriate use of this technology. The purpose of this study was to develop a phantom capable of assessing the accuracy of IGRT hardware and software including a 6 degrees of freedom patient positioning system and to investigate the accuracy of the Elekta XVI system in combination with the HexaPOD robotic treatment couch top. Methods: The constructed phantom enabled verification of the three automatic rigid body registrations (gray value, bone,more » seed) available in the Elekta XVI software and includes an adjustable mount that introduces known rotational offsets to the phantom from its reference position. Repeated positioning of the phantom was undertaken to assess phantom rotational accuracy. Using this phantom the accuracy of the XVI registration algorithms was assessed considering CBCT hardware factors and image resolution together with the residual error in the overall image guidance process when positional corrections were performed through the HexaPOD couch system. Results: The phantom positioning was found to be within 0.04 ({sigma}= 0.12) Degree-Sign , 0.02 ({sigma}= 0.13) Degree-Sign , and -0.03 ({sigma}= 0.06) Degree-Sign in X, Y, and Z directions, respectively, enabling assessment of IGRT with a 6 degrees of freedom patient positioning system. The gray value registration algorithm showed the least error in calculated offsets with maximum mean difference of -0.2({sigma}= 0.4) mm in translational and -0.1({sigma}= 0.1) Degree-Sign in rotational directions for all image resolutions. Bone and seed registration were found to be sensitive to CBCT image resolution. Seed registration was found to be most sensitive demonstrating a maximum mean error of -0.3({sigma}= 0.9) mm and -1.4({sigma}= 1.7) Degree-Sign in translational and rotational directions over low resolution images, and this is reduced to -0.1({sigma}= 0.2) mm and -0.1({sigma}= 0.79) Degree-Sign using high resolution images. Conclusions: The phantom, capable of rotating independently about three orthogonal axes was successfully used to assess the accuracy of an IGRT system considering 6 degrees of freedom. The overall residual error in the image guidance process of XVI in combination with the HexaPOD couch was demonstrated to be less than 0.3 mm and 0.3 Degree-Sign in translational and rotational directions when using the gray value registration with high resolution CBCT images. However, the residual error, especially in rotational directions, may increase when the seed registration is used with low resolution images.« less

Describing the Sequence of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease Patients: Results from an Observational Study.

PubMed

Henneges, Carsten; Reed, Catherine; Chen, Yun-Fei; Dell'Agnello, Grazia; Lebrec, Jeremie

2016-01-01

Improved understanding of the pattern of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) would be useful to assist primary care physicians in explaining AD progression to patients and caregivers. To identify the sequence in which cognitive abilities decline in community-dwelling patients with AD. Baseline data were analyzed from 1,495 patients diagnosed with probable AD and a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≤ 26 enrolled in the 18-month observational GERAS study. Proportional odds logistic regression models were applied to model MMSE subscores (orientation, registration, attention and concentration, recall, language, and drawing) and the corresponding subscores of the cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-cog), using MMSE total score as the index of disease progression. Probabilities of impairment start and full impairment were estimated at each MMSE total score level. From the estimated probabilities for each MMSE subscore as a function of the MMSE total score, the first aspect of cognition to start being impaired was recall, followed by orientation in time, attention and concentration, orientation in place, language, drawing, and registration. For full impairment in subscores, the sequence was recall, drawing, attention and concentration, orientation in time, orientation in place, registration, and language. The sequence of cognitive decline for the corresponding ADAS-cog subscores was remarkably consistent with this pattern. The sequence of cognitive decline in AD can be visualized in an animation using probability estimates for key aspects of cognition. This might be useful for clinicians to set expectations on disease progression for patients and caregivers.

SU-E-J-08: A Hybrid Three Dimensional Registration Framework for Image-Guided Accurate Radiotherapy System ARTS-IGRT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Q; School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Hefei, Anhui; Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to develop a registration framework and method based on the software platform of ARTS-IGRT and implement in C++ based on ITK libraries to register CT images and CBCT images. ARTS-IGRT was a part of our self-developed accurate radiation planning system ARTS. Methods: Mutual information (MI) registration treated each voxel equally. Actually, different voxels even having same intensity should be treated differently in the registration procedure. According to their importance values calculated from self-information, a similarity measure was proposed which combined the spatial importance of a voxel with MI (S-MI). For lung registration, Firstly,more » a global alignment method was adopted to minimize the margin error and achieve the alignment of these two images on the whole. The result obtained at the low resolution level was then interpolated to become the initial conditions for the higher resolution computation. Secondly, a new similarity measurement S-MI was established to quantify how close the two input image volumes were to each other. Finally, Demons model was applied to compute the deformable map. Results: Registration tools were tested for head-neck and lung images and the average region was 128*128*49. The rigid registration took approximately 2 min and converged 10% faster than traditional MI algorithm, the accuracy reached 1mm for head-neck images. For lung images, the improved symmetric Demons registration process was completed in an average of 5 min using a 2.4GHz dual core CPU. Conclusion: A registration framework was developed to correct patient's setup according to register the planning CT volume data and the daily reconstructed 3D CBCT data. The experiments showed that the spatial MI algorithm can be adopted for head-neck images. The improved Demons deformable registration was more suitable to lung images, and rigid alignment should be applied before deformable registration to get more accurate result. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO.81101132) and Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (NO.11040606Q55)« less

A stochastic approach to estimate the uncertainty of dose mapping caused by uncertainties in b-spline registration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hub, Martina; Thieke, Christian; Kessler, Marc L.

2012-04-15

Purpose: In fractionated radiation therapy, image guidance with daily tomographic imaging becomes more and more clinical routine. In principle, this allows for daily computation of the delivered dose and for accumulation of these daily dose distributions to determine the actually delivered total dose to the patient. However, uncertainties in the mapping of the images can translate into errors of the accumulated total dose, depending on the dose gradient. In this work, an approach to estimate the uncertainty of mapping between medical images is proposed that identifies areas bearing a significant risk of inaccurate dose accumulation. Methods: This method accounts formore » the geometric uncertainty of image registration and the heterogeneity of the dose distribution, which is to be mapped. Its performance is demonstrated in context of dose mapping based on b-spline registration. It is based on evaluation of the sensitivity of dose mapping to variations of the b-spline coefficients combined with evaluation of the sensitivity of the registration metric with respect to the variations of the coefficients. It was evaluated based on patient data that was deformed based on a breathing model, where the ground truth of the deformation, and hence the actual true dose mapping error, is known. Results: The proposed approach has the potential to distinguish areas of the image where dose mapping is likely to be accurate from other areas of the same image, where a larger uncertainty must be expected. Conclusions: An approach to identify areas where dose mapping is likely to be inaccurate was developed and implemented. This method was tested for dose mapping, but it may be applied in context of other mapping tasks as well.« less

A stochastic approach to estimate the uncertainty of dose mapping caused by uncertainties in b-spline registration

PubMed Central

Hub, Martina; Thieke, Christian; Kessler, Marc L.; Karger, Christian P.

2012-01-01

Purpose: In fractionated radiation therapy, image guidance with daily tomographic imaging becomes more and more clinical routine. In principle, this allows for daily computation of the delivered dose and for accumulation of these daily dose distributions to determine the actually delivered total dose to the patient. However, uncertainties in the mapping of the images can translate into errors of the accumulated total dose, depending on the dose gradient. In this work, an approach to estimate the uncertainty of mapping between medical images is proposed that identifies areas bearing a significant risk of inaccurate dose accumulation. Methods: This method accounts for the geometric uncertainty of image registration and the heterogeneity of the dose distribution, which is to be mapped. Its performance is demonstrated in context of dose mapping based on b-spline registration. It is based on evaluation of the sensitivity of dose mapping to variations of the b-spline coefficients combined with evaluation of the sensitivity of the registration metric with respect to the variations of the coefficients. It was evaluated based on patient data that was deformed based on a breathing model, where the ground truth of the deformation, and hence the actual true dose mapping error, is known. Results: The proposed approach has the potential to distinguish areas of the image where dose mapping is likely to be accurate from other areas of the same image, where a larger uncertainty must be expected. Conclusions: An approach to identify areas where dose mapping is likely to be inaccurate was developed and implemented. This method was tested for dose mapping, but it may be applied in context of other mapping tasks as well. PMID:22482640

Re-Irradiation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Clinical Applicability of Deformable Image Registration.

PubMed

Lee, Dong Soo; Woo, Joong Yeol; Kim, Jun Won; Seong, Jinsil

2016-01-01

This study aimed to evaluate whether the deformable image registration (DIR) method is clinically applicable to the safe delivery of re-irradiation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Between August 2010 and March 2012, 12 eligible HCC patients received re-irradiation using helical tomotherapy. The median total prescribed radiation doses at first irradiation and re-irradiation were 50 Gy (range, 36-60 Gy) and 50 Gy (range, 36-58.42 Gy), respectively. Most re-irradiation therapies (11 of 12) were administered to previously irradiated or marginal areas. Dose summation results were reproduced using DIR by rigid and deformable registration methods, and doses of organs-at-risk (OARs) were evaluated. Treatment outcomes were also assessed. Thirty-six dose summation indices were obtained for three OARs (bowel, duodenum, and stomach doses in each patient). There was no statistical difference between the two different types of DIR methods (rigid and deformable) in terms of calculated summation ΣD (0.1 cc, 1 cc, 2 cc, and max) in each OAR. The median total mean remaining liver doses (M(RLD)) in rigid- and deformable-type registration were not statistically different for all cohorts (p=0.248), although a large difference in M(RLD) was observed when there was a significant difference in spatial liver volume change between radiation intervals. One duodenal ulcer perforation developed 20 months after re-irradiation. Although current dose summation algorithms and uncertainties do not warrant accurate dosimetric results, OARs-based DIR dose summation can be usefully utilized in the re-irradiation of HCC. Appropriate cohort selection, watchful interpretation, and selective use of DIR methods are crucial to enhance the radio-therapeutic ratio.

Localization accuracy from automatic and semi-automatic rigid registration of locally-advanced lung cancer targets during image-guided radiation therapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robertson, Scott P.; Weiss, Elisabeth; Hugo, Geoffrey D.

2012-01-15

Purpose: To evaluate localization accuracy resulting from rigid registration of locally-advanced lung cancer targets using fully automatic and semi-automatic protocols for image-guided radiation therapy. Methods: Seventeen lung cancer patients, fourteen also presenting with involved lymph nodes, received computed tomography (CT) scans once per week throughout treatment under active breathing control. A physician contoured both lung and lymph node targets for all weekly scans. Various automatic and semi-automatic rigid registration techniques were then performed for both individual and simultaneous alignments of the primary gross tumor volume (GTV{sub P}) and involved lymph nodes (GTV{sub LN}) to simulate the localization process in image-guidedmore » radiation therapy. Techniques included ''standard'' (direct registration of weekly images to a planning CT), ''seeded'' (manual prealignment of targets to guide standard registration), ''transitive-based'' (alignment of pretreatment and planning CTs through one or more intermediate images), and ''rereferenced'' (designation of a new reference image for registration). Localization error (LE) was assessed as the residual centroid and border distances between targets from planning and weekly CTs after registration. Results: Initial bony alignment resulted in centroid LE of 7.3 {+-} 5.4 mm and 5.4 {+-} 3.4 mm for the GTV{sub P} and GTV{sub LN}, respectively. Compared to bony alignment, transitive-based and seeded registrations significantly reduced GTV{sub P} centroid LE to 4.7 {+-} 3.7 mm (p = 0.011) and 4.3 {+-} 2.5 mm (p < 1 x 10{sup -3}), respectively, but the smallest GTV{sub P} LE of 2.4 {+-} 2.1 mm was provided by rereferenced registration (p < 1 x 10{sup -6}). Standard registration significantly reduced GTV{sub LN} centroid LE to 3.2 {+-} 2.5 mm (p < 1 x 10{sup -3}) compared to bony alignment, with little additional gain offered by the other registration techniques. For simultaneous target alignment, centroid LE as low as 3.9 {+-} 2.7 mm and 3.8 {+-} 2.3 mm were achieved for the GTV{sub P} and GTV{sub LN}, respectively, using rereferenced registration. Conclusions: Target shape, volume, and configuration changes during radiation therapy limited the accuracy of standard rigid registration for image-guided localization in locally-advanced lung cancer. Significant error reductions were possible using other rigid registration techniques, with LE approaching the lower limit imposed by interfraction target variability throughout treatment.« less

The New Drug Conditional Approval Process in China: Challenges and Opportunities.

PubMed

Yao, Xuefang; Ding, Jinxi; Liu, Yingfang; Li, Penghui

2017-05-01

Our aim was to characterize the newly established new drug conditional approval process in China and discuss the challenges and opportunities with respect to new drug research and development and registration. We examined the new approval program through literature review, law analysis, and data analysis. Data were derived from published materials, such as journal articles, government publications, press releases, and news articles, along with statistical data from INSIGHT-China Pharma Databases, the China Food and Drug Administration website, the Center for Drug Evaluation website, the US Food and Drug Administration website, and search results published by Google. Currently, there is a large backlog of New Drug Applications in China, mainly because of the prolonged review time at the China Food and Drug Administration, resulting in a lag in drug approvals. In 2015, the Chinese government implemented the drug review and registration system reform and tackled this issue through various approaches, such as setting up a drug review fee system, adjusting the drug registration classification, and establishing innovative review pathways, including the conditional approval process. In Europe and the United States, programs comparable to the conditional approval program in China have been well developed. The conditional approval program recently established in China is an expedited new drug approval process that is expected to affect new drug development at home and abroad and profoundly influence the public health and the pharmaceutical industry in China. Like any program in its initial stage, the conditional approval program is facing several challenges, including setting up a robust system, formatting new drug clinical research requirements, and improving the regulatory agency's function for drug review and approval. The program is expected to evolve and improve as part of the government mandate of the drug registration system reform. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

Automatic initialization for 3D bone registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foroughi, Pezhman; Taylor, Russell H.; Fichtinger, Gabor

2008-03-01

In image-guided bone surgery, sample points collected from the surface of the bone are registered to the preoperative CT model using well-known registration methods such as Iterative Closest Point (ICP). These techniques are generally very sensitive to the initial alignment of the datasets. Poor initialization significantly increases the chances of getting trapped local minima. In order to reduce the risk of local minima, the registration is manually initialized by locating the sample points close to the corresponding points on the CT model. In this paper, we present an automatic initialization method that aligns the sample points collected from the surface of pelvis with CT model of the pelvis. The main idea is to exploit a mean shape of pelvis created from a large number of CT scans as the prior knowledge to guide the initial alignment. The mean shape is constant for all registrations and facilitates the inclusion of application-specific information into the registration process. The CT model is first aligned with the mean shape using the bilateral symmetry of the pelvis and the similarity of multiple projections. The surface points collected using ultrasound are then aligned with the pelvis mean shape. This will, in turn, lead to initial alignment of the sample points with the CT model. The experiments using a dry pelvis and two cadavers show that the method can align the randomly dislocated datasets close enough for successful registration. The standard ICP has been used for final registration of datasets.

Pesticides used in forest nursery management in the United States and the impact of the Food Quality Protection Act and other regulatory actions

Treesearch

Jesus A. Cota

2002-01-01

The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 has placed new standards on the registration and regulation of pesticides intended to protect children. The most significant changed mandated by FQPA relate to the registration process termed the "Risk Cup." This approach to risk analysis has resulted in greater restrictions on the application of pesticides used...

Ground registration of data from an airborne scatterometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richter, J. C.

1981-01-01

A portion of the data for the agricultural soil moisture experiment, conducted near Colby, Kansas, was collected from four scatterometers mounted on an aircraft. A method is outlined for locating the scatterometer footprints with respect to a ground-based coordinate system. The method requires the airplane's flight parameters along with aerial photography acquired simultaneously with the scatterometer data. Listings of the programs used in the registration process are included.

Demons registration for in vivo and deformable laser scanning confocal endomicroscopy.

PubMed

Chiew, Wei-Ming; Lin, Feng; Seah, Hock Soon

2017-09-01

A critical effect found in noninvasive in vivo endomicroscopic imaging modalities is image distortions due to sporadic movement exhibited by living organisms. In three-dimensional confocal imaging, this effect results in a dataset that is tilted across deeper slices. Apart from that, the sequential flow of the imaging-processing pipeline restricts real-time adjustments due to the unavailability of information obtainable only from subsequent stages. To solve these problems, we propose an approach to render Demons-registered datasets as they are being captured, focusing on the coupling between registration and visualization. To improve the acquisition process, we also propose a real-time visual analytics tool, which complements the imaging pipeline and the Demons registration pipeline with useful visual indicators to provide real-time feedback for immediate adjustments. We highlight the problem of deformation within the visualization pipeline for object-ordered and image-ordered rendering. Visualizations of critical information including registration forces and partial renderings of the captured data are also presented in the analytics system. We demonstrate the advantages of the algorithmic design through experimental results with both synthetically deformed datasets and actual in vivo, time-lapse tissue datasets expressing natural deformations. Remarkably, this algorithm design is for embedded implementation in intelligent biomedical imaging instrumentation with customizable circuitry. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

3D medical volume reconstruction using web services.

PubMed

Kooper, Rob; Shirk, Andrew; Lee, Sang-Chul; Lin, Amy; Folberg, Robert; Bajcsy, Peter

2008-04-01

We address the problem of 3D medical volume reconstruction using web services. The use of proposed web services is motivated by the fact that the problem of 3D medical volume reconstruction requires significant computer resources and human expertise in medical and computer science areas. Web services are implemented as an additional layer to a dataflow framework called data to knowledge. In the collaboration between UIC and NCSA, pre-processed input images at NCSA are made accessible to medical collaborators for registration. Every time UIC medical collaborators inspected images and selected corresponding features for registration, the web service at NCSA is contacted and the registration processing query is executed using the image to knowledge library of registration methods. Co-registered frames are returned for verification by medical collaborators in a new window. In this paper, we present 3D volume reconstruction problem requirements and the architecture of the developed prototype system at http://isda.ncsa.uiuc.edu/MedVolume. We also explain the tradeoffs of our system design and provide experimental data to support our system implementation. The prototype system has been used for multiple 3D volume reconstructions of blood vessels and vasculogenic mimicry patterns in histological sections of uveal melanoma studied by fluorescent confocal laser scanning microscope.

Demons registration for in vivo and deformable laser scanning confocal endomicroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiew, Wei Ming; Lin, Feng; Seah, Hock Soon

2017-09-01

A critical effect found in noninvasive in vivo endomicroscopic imaging modalities is image distortions due to sporadic movement exhibited by living organisms. In three-dimensional confocal imaging, this effect results in a dataset that is tilted across deeper slices. Apart from that, the sequential flow of the imaging-processing pipeline restricts real-time adjustments due to the unavailability of information obtainable only from subsequent stages. To solve these problems, we propose an approach to render Demons-registered datasets as they are being captured, focusing on the coupling between registration and visualization. To improve the acquisition process, we also propose a real-time visual analytics tool, which complements the imaging pipeline and the Demons registration pipeline with useful visual indicators to provide real-time feedback for immediate adjustments. We highlight the problem of deformation within the visualization pipeline for object-ordered and image-ordered rendering. Visualizations of critical information including registration forces and partial renderings of the captured data are also presented in the analytics system. We demonstrate the advantages of the algorithmic design through experimental results with both synthetically deformed datasets and actual in vivo, time-lapse tissue datasets expressing natural deformations. Remarkably, this algorithm design is for embedded implementation in intelligent biomedical imaging instrumentation with customizable circuitry.

Evaluation of a deformable registration algorithm for subsequent lung computed tomography imaging during radiochemotherapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stützer, Kristin; Haase, Robert; Exner, Florian

2016-09-15

Purpose: Rating both a lung segmentation algorithm and a deformable image registration (DIR) algorithm for subsequent lung computed tomography (CT) images by different evaluation techniques. Furthermore, investigating the relative performance and the correlation of the different evaluation techniques to address their potential value in a clinical setting. Methods: Two to seven subsequent CT images (69 in total) of 15 lung cancer patients were acquired prior, during, and after radiochemotherapy. Automated lung segmentations were compared to manually adapted contours. DIR between the first and all following CT images was performed with a fast algorithm specialized for lung tissue registration, requiring themore » lung segmentation as input. DIR results were evaluated based on landmark distances, lung contour metrics, and vector field inconsistencies in different subvolumes defined by eroding the lung contour. Correlations between the results from the three methods were evaluated. Results: Automated lung contour segmentation was satisfactory in 18 cases (26%), failed in 6 cases (9%), and required manual correction in 45 cases (66%). Initial and corrected contours had large overlap but showed strong local deviations. Landmark-based DIR evaluation revealed high accuracy compared to CT resolution with an average error of 2.9 mm. Contour metrics of deformed contours were largely satisfactory. The median vector length of inconsistency vector fields was 0.9 mm in the lung volume and slightly smaller for the eroded volumes. There was no clear correlation between the three evaluation approaches. Conclusions: Automatic lung segmentation remains challenging but can assist the manual delineation process. Proven by three techniques, the inspected DIR algorithm delivers reliable results for the lung CT data sets acquired at different time points. Clinical application of DIR demands a fast DIR evaluation to identify unacceptable results, for instance, by combining different automated DIR evaluation methods.« less

Automatic extraction of plots from geo-registered UAS imagery of crop fields with complex planting schemes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hearst, Anthony A.

Complex planting schemes are common in experimental crop fields and can make it difficult to extract plots of interest from high-resolution imagery of the fields gathered by Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). This prevents UAS imagery from being applied in High-Throughput Precision Phenotyping and other areas of agricultural research. If the imagery is accurately geo-registered, then it may be possible to extract plots from the imagery based on their map coordinates. To test this approach, a UAS was used to acquire visual imagery of 5 ha of soybean fields containing 6.0 m2 plots in a complex planting scheme. Sixteen artificial targets were setup in the fields before flights and different spatial configurations of 0 to 6 targets were used as Ground Control Points (GCPs) for geo-registration, resulting in a total of 175 geo-registered image mosaics with a broad range of geo-registration accuracies. Geo-registration accuracy was quantified based on the horizontal Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of targets used as checkpoints. Twenty test plots were extracted from the geo-registered imagery. Plot extraction accuracy was quantified based on the percentage of the desired plot area that was extracted. It was found that using 4 GCPs along the perimeter of the field minimized the horizontal RMSE and enabled a plot extraction accuracy of at least 70%, with a mean plot extraction accuracy of 92%. Future work will focus on further enhancing the plot extraction accuracy through additional image processing techniques so that it becomes sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes in agricultural research and potentially other areas of research.

Health economics of market access for biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars.

PubMed

Simoens, Steven

2009-09-01

This article discusses health economic challenges of research and development, registration, pricing and reimbursement of biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars. A literature search was carried out of PubMed, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination databases, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and EconLit up to March 2009. The development process of biopharmaceuticals is risky, lengthy, complex and expensive. Registration is complicated by the inherent variation between biopharmaceuticals. Also, as biopharmaceuticals are likely to be efficacious in a subgroup of the patient population, there is a need to select the most responsive target population and to identify biomarkers. To inform pricing and reimbursement decisions, the development process needs to collect comparative data to calculate the incremental cost effectiveness and budget impact of biopharmaceuticals. There is a role for innovative mechanisms such as risk-sharing arrangements to reimburse biopharmaceuticals. Given that biosimilars are similar, but not identical to the reference biopharmaceutical, the development process needs to generate clinical trial data in order to gain marketing authorisation. From a health economic perspective, the question arises whether inherent differences between biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars produce differences in safety, effectiveness and costs: to date, this question is unresolved. The early inclusion of health economics in the process of developing biopharmaceuticals and biosimilars is imperative with a view to demonstrating their relative (cost) effectiveness and informing registration, pricing and reimbursement decisions.

Total integrated performance excellence system (TIPES): A true north direction for a clinical trial support center.

PubMed

Sather, Mike R; Parsons, Sherry; Boardman, Kathy D; Warren, Stuart R; Davis-Karim, Anne; Griffin, Kevin; Betterton, Jane A; Jones, Mark S; Johnson, Stanley H; Vertrees, Julia E; Hickey, Jan H; Salazar, Thelma P; Huang, Grant D

2018-03-01

This paper presents the quality journey taken by a Federal organization over more than 20 years. These efforts have resulted in the implementation of a Total Integrated Performance Excellence System (TIPES) that combines key principles and practices of established quality systems. The Center has progressively integrated quality system frameworks including the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) Framework and Criteria for Performance Excellence, ISO 9001, and the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), as well as supplemental quality systems of ISO 15378 (packaging for medicinal products) and ISO 21500 (guide to project management) to systematically improve all areas of operations. These frameworks were selected for applicability to Center processes and systems, consistency and reinforcement of complimentary approaches, and international acceptance. External validations include the MBNQA, the highest quality award in the US, continued registration and conformance to ISO standards and guidelines, and multiple VA and state awards. With a focus on a holistic approach to quality involving processes, systems and personnel, this paper presents activities and lessons that were critical to building TIPES and establishing the quality environment for conducting clinical research in support of Veterans and national health care.

Fast algorithm for probabilistic bone edge detection (FAPBED)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scepanovic, Danilo; Kirshtein, Joshua; Jain, Ameet K.; Taylor, Russell H.

2005-04-01

The registration of preoperative CT to intra-operative reality systems is a crucial step in Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery (CAOS). The intra-operative sensors include 3D digitizers, fiducials, X-rays and Ultrasound (US). FAPBED is designed to process CT volumes for registration to tracked US data. Tracked US is advantageous because it is real time, noninvasive, and non-ionizing, but it is also known to have inherent inaccuracies which create the need to develop a framework that is robust to various uncertainties, and can be useful in US-CT registration. Furthermore, conventional registration methods depend on accurate and absolute segmentation. Our proposed probabilistic framework addresses the segmentation-registration duality, wherein exact segmentation is not a prerequisite to achieve accurate registration. In this paper, we develop a method for fast and automatic probabilistic bone surface (edge) detection in CT images. Various features that influence the likelihood of the surface at each spatial coordinate are combined using a simple probabilistic framework, which strikes a fair balance between a high-level understanding of features in an image and the low-level number crunching of standard image processing techniques. The algorithm evaluates different features for detecting the probability of a bone surface at each voxel, and compounds the results of these methods to yield a final, low-noise, probability map of bone surfaces in the volume. Such a probability map can then be used in conjunction with a similar map from tracked intra-operative US to achieve accurate registration. Eight sample pelvic CT scans were used to extract feature parameters and validate the final probability maps. An un-optimized fully automatic Matlab code runs in five minutes per CT volume on average, and was validated by comparison against hand-segmented gold standards. The mean probability assigned to nonzero surface points was 0.8, while nonzero non-surface points had a mean value of 0.38 indicating clear identification of surface points on average. The segmentation was also sufficiently crisp, with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) value of 1.51 voxels.

GPU accelerated optical coherence tomography angiography using strip-based registration (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heisler, Morgan; Lee, Sieun; Mammo, Zaid; Jian, Yifan; Ju, Myeong Jin; Miao, Dongkai; Raposo, Eric; Wahl, Daniel J.; Merkur, Andrew; Navajas, Eduardo; Balaratnasingam, Chandrakumar; Beg, Mirza Faisal; Sarunic, Marinko V.

2017-02-01

High quality visualization of the retinal microvasculature can improve our understanding of the onset and development of retinal vascular diseases, which are a major cause of visual morbidity and are increasing in prevalence. Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCT-A) images are acquired over multiple seconds and are particularly susceptible to motion artifacts, which are more prevalent when imaging patients with pathology whose ability to fixate is limited. The acquisition of multiple OCT-A images sequentially can be performed for the purpose of removing motion artifact and increasing the contrast of the vascular network through averaging. Due to the motion artifacts, a robust registration pipeline is needed before feature preserving image averaging can be performed. In this report, we present a novel method for a GPU-accelerated pipeline for acquisition, processing, segmentation, and registration of multiple, sequentially acquired OCT-A images to correct for the motion artifacts in individual images for the purpose of averaging. High performance computing, blending CPU and GPU, was introduced to accelerate processing in order to provide high quality visualization of the retinal microvasculature and to enable a more accurate quantitative analysis in a clinically useful time frame. Specifically, image discontinuities caused by rapid micro-saccadic movements and image warping due to smoother reflex movements were corrected by strip-wise affine registration estimated using Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) keypoints and subsequent local similarity-based non-rigid registration. These techniques improve the image quality, increasing the value for clinical diagnosis and increasing the range of patients for whom high quality OCT-A images can be acquired.

Integrated bronchoscopic video tracking and 3D CT registration for virtual bronchoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Higgins, William E.; Helferty, James P.; Padfield, Dirk R.

2003-05-01

Lung cancer assessment involves an initial evaluation of 3D CT image data followed by interventional bronchoscopy. The physician, with only a mental image inferred from the 3D CT data, must guide the bronchoscope through the bronchial tree to sites of interest. Unfortunately, this procedure depends heavily on the physician's ability to mentally reconstruct the 3D position of the bronchoscope within the airways. In order to assist physicians in performing biopsies of interest, we have developed a method that integrates live bronchoscopic video tracking and 3D CT registration. The proposed method is integrated into a system we have been devising for virtual-bronchoscopic analysis and guidance for lung-cancer assessment. Previously, the system relied on a method that only used registration of the live bronchoscopic video to corresponding virtual endoluminal views derived from the 3D CT data. This procedure only performs the registration at manually selected sites; it does not draw upon the motion information inherent in the bronchoscopic video. Further, the registration procedure is slow. The proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it tracks the 3D motion of the bronchoscope using the bronchoscopic video; (2) it uses the tracked 3D trajectory of the bronchoscope to assist in locating sites in the 3D CT "virtual world" to perform the registration. In addition, the method incorporates techniques to: (1) detect and exclude corrupted video frames (to help make the video tracking more robust); (2) accelerate the computation of the many 3D virtual endoluminal renderings (thus, speeding up the registration process). We have tested the integrated tracking-registration method on a human airway-tree phantom and on real human data.

Time-Of-Flight Camera, Optical Tracker and Computed Tomography in Pairwise Data Registration

PubMed Central

Badura, Pawel; Juszczyk, Jan; Pietka, Ewa

2016-01-01

Purpose A growing number of medical applications, including minimal invasive surgery, depends on multi-modal or multi-sensors data processing. Fast and accurate 3D scene analysis, comprising data registration, seems to be crucial for the development of computer aided diagnosis and therapy. The advancement of surface tracking system based on optical trackers already plays an important role in surgical procedures planning. However, new modalities, like the time-of-flight (ToF) sensors, widely explored in non-medical fields are powerful and have the potential to become a part of computer aided surgery set-up. Connection of different acquisition systems promises to provide a valuable support for operating room procedures. Therefore, the detailed analysis of the accuracy of such multi-sensors positioning systems is needed. Methods We present the system combining pre-operative CT series with intra-operative ToF-sensor and optical tracker point clouds. The methodology contains: optical sensor set-up and the ToF-camera calibration procedures, data pre-processing algorithms, and registration technique. The data pre-processing yields a surface, in case of CT, and point clouds for ToF-sensor and marker-driven optical tracker representation of an object of interest. An applied registration technique is based on Iterative Closest Point algorithm. Results The experiments validate the registration of each pair of modalities/sensors involving phantoms of four various human organs in terms of Hausdorff distance and mean absolute distance metrics. The best surface alignment was obtained for CT and optical tracker combination, whereas the worst for experiments involving ToF-camera. Conclusion The obtained accuracies encourage to further develop the multi-sensors systems. The presented substantive discussion concerning the system limitations and possible improvements mainly related to the depth information produced by the ToF-sensor is useful for computer aided surgery developers. PMID:27434396

14 CFR 298.22 - Processing by the Department.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... PROCEEDINGS) ECONOMIC REGULATIONS EXEMPTIONS FOR AIR TAXI AND COMMUTER AIR CARRIER OPERATIONS Registration for Exemption by Air Taxi Operators § 298.22 Processing by the Department. After examination of the OST Form...

14 CFR 298.22 - Processing by the Department.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... PROCEEDINGS) ECONOMIC REGULATIONS EXEMPTIONS FOR AIR TAXI AND COMMUTER AIR CARRIER OPERATIONS Registration for Exemption by Air Taxi Operators § 298.22 Processing by the Department. After examination of the OST Form...

Development of automation software for neutron activation analysis process in Malaysian nuclear agency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yussup, N.; Rahman, N. A. A.; Ibrahim, M. M.; Mokhtar, M.; Salim, N. A. A.; Soh@Shaari, S. C.; Azman, A.

2017-01-01

Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) process has been established in Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia) since 1980s. Most of the procedures established especially from sample registration to sample analysis are performed manually. These manual procedures carried out by the NAA laboratory personnel are time consuming and inefficient. Hence, a software to support the system automation is developed to provide an effective method to replace redundant manual data entries and produce faster sample analysis and calculation process. This paper describes the design and development of automation software for NAA process which consists of three sub-programs. The sub-programs are sample registration, hardware control and data acquisition; and sample analysis. The data flow and connection between the sub-programs will be explained. The software is developed by using National Instrument LabView development package.

Non-rigid registration of 3D ultrasound for neurosurgery using automatic feature detection and matching.

PubMed

Machado, Inês; Toews, Matthew; Luo, Jie; Unadkat, Prashin; Essayed, Walid; George, Elizabeth; Teodoro, Pedro; Carvalho, Herculano; Martins, Jorge; Golland, Polina; Pieper, Steve; Frisken, Sarah; Golby, Alexandra; Wells, William

2018-06-04

The brain undergoes significant structural change over the course of neurosurgery, including highly nonlinear deformation and resection. It can be informative to recover the spatial mapping between structures identified in preoperative surgical planning and the intraoperative state of the brain. We present a novel feature-based method for achieving robust, fully automatic deformable registration of intraoperative neurosurgical ultrasound images. A sparse set of local image feature correspondences is first estimated between ultrasound image pairs, after which rigid, affine and thin-plate spline models are used to estimate dense mappings throughout the image. Correspondences are derived from 3D features, distinctive generic image patterns that are automatically extracted from 3D ultrasound images and characterized in terms of their geometry (i.e., location, scale, and orientation) and a descriptor of local image appearance. Feature correspondences between ultrasound images are achieved based on a nearest-neighbor descriptor matching and probabilistic voting model similar to the Hough transform. Experiments demonstrate our method on intraoperative ultrasound images acquired before and after opening of the dura mater, during resection and after resection in nine clinical cases. A total of 1620 automatically extracted 3D feature correspondences were manually validated by eleven experts and used to guide the registration. Then, using manually labeled corresponding landmarks in the pre- and post-resection ultrasound images, we show that our feature-based registration reduces the mean target registration error from an initial value of 3.3 to 1.5 mm. This result demonstrates that the 3D features promise to offer a robust and accurate solution for 3D ultrasound registration and to correct for brain shift in image-guided neurosurgery.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kang, H; Malin, M; Chmura, S

Purpose: For African-American patients receiving breast radiotherapy with a bolus, skin darkening can affect the surface visualization when using optical imaging for daily positioning and gating at deep-inspiration breath holds (DIBH). Our goal is to identify a region-of-interest (ROI) that is robust against deteriorating surface image quality due to skin darkening. Methods: We study four patients whose post-mastectomy surfaces are imaged daily with AlignRT (VisionRT, UK) for DIBH radiotherapy and whose surface image quality is degraded toward the end of treatment. To simulate the effects of skin darkening, surfaces from the first ten fractions of each patient are systematically degradedmore » by 25–35%, 40–50% and 65–75% of the total area of the clinically used ROI-ipsilateral-chestwall. The degraded surfaces are registered to the reference surface in six degrees-of-freedom. To identify a robust ROI, three additional reference ROIs — ROI-chest+abdomen, ROI-bilateral-chest and ROI-extended-ipsilateral-chestwall are created and registered to the degraded surfaces. Differences in registration using these ROIs are compared to that using ROI-ipsilateral-chestwall. Results: For three patients, the deviations in the registrations to ROI-ipsilateral-chestwall are > 2.0, 3.1 and 7.9mm on average for 25–35%, 40–50% and 65–75% degraded surfaces, respectively. Rotational deviations reach 11.1° in pitch. For the last patient, registration is consistent to within 2.6mm even on the 65–75% degraded surfaces, possibly because the surface topography has more distinct features. For ROI-bilateral-chest and ROI-extended-ipsilateral-chest registrations deviate in a similar pattern. However, registration on ROI-chest+abdomen is robust to deteriorating image qualities to within 4.2mm for all four patients. Conclusion: Registration deviations using ROI-ipsilateral-chestwall can reach 9.8mm on the 40–50% degraded surfaces. Caution is required when using AlignRT for patients experiencing skin darkening since the accuracy of AlignRT registration deteriorates. To avoid this inaccuracy, we recommend use of ROI-chest+abdomen, on which registration is consistent within 4.2mm even for highly degraded surfaces.« less

Registration using natural features for augmented reality systems.

PubMed

Yuan, M L; Ong, S K; Nee, A Y C

2006-01-01

Registration is one of the most difficult problems in augmented reality (AR) systems. In this paper, a simple registration method using natural features based on the projective reconstruction technique is proposed. This method consists of two steps: embedding and rendering. Embedding involves specifying four points to build the world coordinate system on which a virtual object will be superimposed. In rendering, the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker is used to track the natural feature correspondences in the live video. The natural features that have been tracked are used to estimate the corresponding projective matrix in the image sequence. Next, the projective reconstruction technique is used to transfer the four specified points to compute the registration matrix for augmentation. This paper also proposes a robust method for estimating the projective matrix, where the natural features that have been tracked are normalized (translation and scaling) and used as the input data. The estimated projective matrix will be used as an initial estimate for a nonlinear optimization method that minimizes the actual residual errors based on the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) minimization method, thus making the results more robust and stable. The proposed registration method has three major advantages: 1) It is simple, as no predefined fiducials or markers are used for registration for either indoor and outdoor AR applications. 2) It is robust, because it remains effective as long as at least six natural features are tracked during the entire augmentation, and the existence of the corresponding projective matrices in the live video is guaranteed. Meanwhile, the robust method to estimate the projective matrix can obtain stable results even when there are some outliers during the tracking process. 3) Virtual objects can still be superimposed on the specified areas, even if some parts of the areas are occluded during the entire process. Some indoor and outdoor experiments have been conducted to validate the performance of this proposed method.

Mutual information registration of multi-spectral and multi-resolution images of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 imaging satellite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miecznik, Grzegorz; Shafer, Jeff; Baugh, William M.; Bader, Brett; Karspeck, Milan; Pacifici, Fabio

2017-05-01

WorldView-3 (WV-3) is a DigitalGlobe commercial, high resolution, push-broom imaging satellite with three instruments: visible and near-infrared VNIR consisting of panchromatic (0.3m nadir GSD) plus multi-spectral (1.2m), short-wave infrared SWIR (3.7m), and multi-spectral CAVIS (30m). Nine VNIR bands, which are on one instrument, are nearly perfectly registered to each other, whereas eight SWIR bands, belonging to the second instrument, are misaligned with respect to VNIR and to each other. Geometric calibration and ortho-rectification results in a VNIR/SWIR alignment which is accurate to approximately 0.75 SWIR pixel at 3.7m GSD, whereas inter-SWIR, band to band registration is 0.3 SWIR pixel. Numerous high resolution, spectral applications, such as object classification and material identification, require more accurate registration, which can be achieved by utilizing image processing algorithms, for example Mutual Information (MI). Although MI-based co-registration algorithms are highly accurate, implementation details for automated processing can be challenging. One particular challenge is how to compute bin widths of intensity histograms, which are fundamental building blocks of MI. We solve this problem by making the bin widths proportional to instrument shot noise. Next, we show how to take advantage of multiple VNIR bands, and improve registration sensitivity to image alignment. To meet this goal, we employ Canonical Correlation Analysis, which maximizes VNIR/SWIR correlation through an optimal linear combination of VNIR bands. Finally we explore how to register images corresponding to different spatial resolutions. We show that MI computed at a low-resolution grid is more sensitive to alignment parameters than MI computed at a high-resolution grid. The proposed modifications allow us to improve VNIR/SWIR registration to better than ¼ of a SWIR pixel, as long as terrain elevation is properly accounted for, and clouds and water are masked out.

SU-F-J-180: A Reference Data Set for Testing Two Dimension Registration Algorithms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dankwa, A; Castillo, E; Guerrero, T

Purpose: To create and characterize a reference data set for testing image registration algorithms that transform portal image (PI) to digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR). Methods: Anterior-posterior (AP) and Lateral (LAT) projection and DRR image pairs from nine cases representing four different anatomical sites (head and neck, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvis) were selected for this study. Five experts will perform manual registration by placing landmarks points (LMPs) on the DRR and finding their corresponding points on the PI using computer assisted manual point selection tool (CAMPST), a custom-made MATLAB software tool developed in house. The landmark selection process will be repeatedmore » on both the PI and the DRR in order to characterize inter- and -intra observer variations associated with the point selection process. Inter and an intra observer variation in LMPs was done using Bland-Altman (B&A) analysis and one-way analysis of variance. We set our limit such that the absolute value of the mean difference between the readings should not exceed 3mm. Later on in this project we will test different two dimension (2D) image registration algorithms and quantify the uncertainty associated with their registration. Results: Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) there was no variations within the readers. When Bland-Altman analysis was used the variation within the readers was acceptable. The variation was higher in the PI compared to the DRR.ConclusionThe variation seen for the PI is because although the PI has a much better spatial resolution the poor resolution on the DRR makes it difficult to locate the actual corresponding anatomical feature on the PI. We hope this becomes more evident when all the readers complete the point selection. The reason for quantifying inter- and -intra observer variation tells us to what degree of accuracy a manual registration can be done. Research supported by William Beaumont Hospital Research Start Up Fund.« less

Reflection on fitness to practise.

PubMed

Brindley, J

2016-10-21

Aim The focus of this review was to identify the role of reflection in continuing dental education. By understanding the expectations that our statutory regulative authority has of their registrants there is an opportunity to help to shape the continued professional development activities undertaken by current registrants in the future.Objective Conduct a review of General Dental Council (GDC) Fitness to Practise cases which were given conditions (restrictions) between February 2012 and November 2015, identifying relevant emergent outcomes in relation the Fitness to Practise (FTP) process.Design A Framework Approach (FA) was used to interrogate the qualitative data generated from GDC cases, the data were reviewed by a secondary person to ensure inter-rater reliability. Ethical approval was not sought for this research project as the GDC cases are published and available for open access via the internet. However, this does not negate the need for consideration of those GDC registrants who have been reviewed by the FTP process, indeed information regarding their identities was removed during data collection, as individual identification as part of this research project may have impacted on these individuals (bearing in mind the principle of non-maleficence; do no harm) and disclosure of personal information would not have contributed to the findings of this review. Although FTP cases are in the public domain, the information is still sensitive to those registrants, therefore it was not possible to review those cases which were not available for public view. To ensure that individual identification of registrants did not occur for the available to view cases (n = 56), each case file was individually downloaded from the GDC website and immediately given an individual numerical identifier before the frame work analysis. For the purpose of this research only the data from the FTP cases which resulted in 'conditions' were subject to review, as these were cases where it was felt that the registrants were able to remedy their personal professional practices.

SU-F-T-421: Dosimetry Change During Radiotherapy and Dosimetry Difference for Rigid and Deformed Registration in the Mid-Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tao, C; Liu, T; Chen, J

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze dosimetry changes during radiotherapy for the mid-thoracic esophageal carcinoma, and investigate dosimetry difference between rigid and deformed registration. Methods: Twelve patients with primary middle thoracic esophageal carcinoma were selected randomly. Based on first CT scanning of each patient, plans-o were generated by experience physicists. After 20 fractions treatment, the corresponding plans-re were created with second CT scanning. And then, these two CT images were rigid and deformed registration respectively, and the dose was accumulated plan-o with plan-re. The dosimetry variation of these plans (plan-o: with 30 fractions, plan-rig: the accumulated dose with rigid registrationmore » and plan-def: the accumulated dose with deformed registration) were evaluated by paired T-test. Results: The V20 value of total lung were 32.68%, 30.3% and 29.71% for plan-o, plan-rig and plan-def respectively. The mean dose of total lung was 17.19 Gy, 16.67 Gy and 16.51 Gy for plan-o plan-rig and plan-def respectively. There were significant differences between plan-o and plan-rig or plan-def for both V20 and mean dose of total lung (with p= 0.003, p= 0.000 for V20 and p=0.008, p= 0.000 for mean dose respectively). There was no significant difference between plan-rig and plan-def (with p=0.118 for V20 and p=0.384 for mean dose). The max dose of spinal-cord was 41.95 Gy, 41.48 Gy and 41.4 Gy for plan-o, plan-rig and plan-def respectively. There were no significant differences for the max dose of spinal-cord between these plans. Conclusion: The target volume changes and anatomic position displacement of mid-thoracic esophageal carcinoma should not be neglected in clinics. These changes would cause overdose in normal tissue. Therefore, it is necessary to have another CT scanning and re-plan during the mid-thoracic esophageal carcinoma radiotherapy. And the dosimetry difference between rigid and deformed fusions was not found in this study.« less

Geometric validation of MV topograms for patient localization on TomoTherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blanco Kiely, Janid P.; White, Benjamin M.; Low, Daniel A.; Qi, Sharon X.

2016-01-01

Our goal was to geometrically validate the use of mega-voltage orthogonal scout images (MV topograms) as a fast and low-dose alternative to mega-voltage computed tomography (MVCT) for daily patient localization on the TomoTherapy system. To achieve this, anthropomorphic head and pelvis phantoms were imaged on a 16-slice kilo-voltage computed tomography (kVCT) scanner to synthesize kilo-voltage digitally reconstructed topograms (kV-DRT) in the Tomotherapy detector geometry. MV topograms were generated for couch speeds of 1-4 cm s-1 in 1 cm s-1 increments with static gantry angles in the anterior-posterior and left-lateral directions. Phantoms were rigidly translated in the anterior-posterior (AP), superior-inferior (SI), and lateral (LAT) directions to simulate potential setup errors. Image quality improvement was demonstrated by estimating the noise level in the unenhanced and enhanced MV topograms using a principle component analysis-based noise level estimation algorithm. Average noise levels for the head phantom were reduced by 2.53 HU (AP) and 0.18 HU (LAT). The pelvis phantom exhibited average noise level reduction of 1.98 HU (AP) and 0.48 HU (LAT). Mattes Mutual Information rigid registration was used to register enhanced MV topograms with corresponding kV-DRT. Registration results were compared to the known rigid displacements, which assessed the MV topogram localization’s sensitivity to daily positioning errors. Reduced noise levels in the MV topograms enhanced the registration results so that registration errors were  <1 mm. The unenhanced head MV topograms had discrepancies  <2.1 mm and the pelvis topograms had discrepancies  <2.7 mm. Result were found to be consistent regardless of couch speed. In total, 64.7% of the head phantom MV topograms and 60.0% of the pelvis phantom MV topograms exactly measured the phantom offsets. These consistencies demonstrated the potential for daily patient positioning using MV topogram pairs in the context bony-anatomy based procedures such as total marrow irradiation, total body irradiation, and cranial spinal irradiation.

A GPU-based symmetric non-rigid image registration method in human lung.

PubMed

Haghighi, Babak; D Ellingwood, Nathan; Yin, Youbing; Hoffman, Eric A; Lin, Ching-Long

2018-03-01

Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) of the lungs plays an increasing role in identifying sub-phenotypes of pathologies previously lumped into broad categories such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Methods for image matching and linking multiple lung volumes have proven useful in linking structure to function and in the identification of regional longitudinal changes. Here, we seek to improve the accuracy of image matching via the use of a symmetric multi-level non-rigid registration employing an inverse consistent (IC) transformation whereby images are registered both in the forward and reverse directions. To develop the symmetric method, two similarity measures, the sum of squared intensity difference (SSD) and the sum of squared tissue volume difference (SSTVD), were used. The method is based on a novel generic mathematical framework to include forward and backward transformations, simultaneously, eliminating the need to compute the inverse transformation. Two implementations were used to assess the proposed method: a two-dimensional (2-D) implementation using synthetic examples with SSD, and a multi-core CPU and graphics processing unit (GPU) implementation with SSTVD for three-dimensional (3-D) human lung datasets (six normal adults studied at total lung capacity (TLC) and functional residual capacity (FRC)). Success was evaluated in terms of the IC transformation consistency serving to link TLC to FRC. 2-D registration on synthetic images, using both symmetric and non-symmetric SSD methods, and comparison of displacement fields showed that the symmetric method gave a symmetrical grid shape and reduced IC errors, with the mean values of IC errors decreased by 37%. Results for both symmetric and non-symmetric transformations of human datasets showed that the symmetric method gave better results for IC errors in all cases, with mean values of IC errors for the symmetric method lower than the non-symmetric methods using both SSD and SSTVD. The GPU version demonstrated an average of 43 times speedup and ~5.2 times speedup over the single-threaded and 12-threaded CPU versions, respectively. Run times with the GPU were as fast as 2 min. The symmetric method improved the inverse consistency, aiding the use of image registration in the QCT-based evaluation of the lung.

Report on radio observation of meteors (Iža, Slovakia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolinský, Peter; Dorotovič, Ivan; Vidovenec, Marian

2014-02-01

During the period from 1 to 17 August 2014 meteors were experimentally registered using radio waves. This experiment was conducted in the village of Iža, Slovakia. Its main objective was to test the technical equipment intended for continuous registration of meteor echoes, which will be located in the Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo. These tests are an indirect continuation of previous experiments of observation of meteor showers using the technology available in Hurbanovo at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The device consists of two independent receiver systems. One recorded echoes of the transmitter Graves 143.050 MHz (N47.3480° E5.5151°, France) and the second one recorded echoes of the TV transmitter Lviv 49.739583 MHz (N49.8480° E24.0369°, Ukraine). The apparatus for tracking radio echoes of the transmitter Graves consists of a 9-element Yagi antenna with vertical polarization (oriented with an elevation of 0° at azimuth 270°), the receiver Yaesu VR-5000 in CW mode, and a computer with registration using the program HROFFT v1.0.0f. The second apparatus recording the echoes of the transmitter Lviv consists of a LP (log-periodic) antenna with horizontal polarization (elevation of 0° and azimuth of 90°), the receiver ICOM R-75 in the CW mode, and also a computer with registration using HROFFT v1.0.0f. A total of about 78000 echoes have been registered during around 700 hours of registration. Probably not all of them are caused by meteors. These data were statistically processed and compared with visual observations in the IMO database. Planned own visual observations could not be performed due to unfavourable weather conditions lasting from 4 to 13 August 2014. The registered data suggest that observations were performed in the back-scatter mode in this configuration and not in the planned forward-scatter mode. Deeper analysis and longer data sets are, however, necessary to calibrate the observation system and this will be subject of our future work. A realization of a custom radio system similar to the BRAMS system is also being considered.

Resource requirements for cancer registration in areas with limited resources: Analysis of cost data from four low- and middle-income countries☆

PubMed Central

Tangka, Florence K.L.; Subramanian, Sujha; Edwards, Patrick; Cole-Beebe, Maggie; Parkin, D. Maxwell; Bray, Freddie; Joseph, Rachael; Mery, Les; Saraiya, Mona

2018-01-01

Background The key aims of this study were to identify sources of support for cancer registry activities, to quantify resource use and estimate costs to operate registries in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) at different stages of development across three continents. Methods Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) International Registry Costing Tool (IntRegCosting Tool), cost and resource use data were collected from eight population-based cancer registries, including one in a low-income country (Uganda [Kampala)]), two in lower to middle-income countries (Kenya [Nairobi] and India [Mumbai]), and five in an upper to middle-income country (Colombia [Pasto, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Manizales and Cali cancer registries]). Results Host institution contributions accounted for 30%–70% of total investment in cancer registry activities. Cancer registration involves substantial fixed cost and labor. Labor accounts for more than 50% of all expenditures across all registries. The cost per cancer case registered in low-income and lower-middle-income countries ranged from US $3.77 to US $15.62 (United States dollars). In Colombia, an upper to middle-income country, the cost per case registered ranged from US $41.28 to US $113.39. Registries serving large populations (over 15 million inhabitants) had a lower cost per inhabitant (less than US $0.01 in Mumbai, India) than registries serving small populations (under 500,000 inhabitants) [US $0.22] in Pasto, Colombia. Conclusion This study estimates the total cost and resources used for cancer registration across several countries in the limited-resource setting, and provides cancer registration stakeholders and registries-with opportunities to identify cost savings and efficiency improvements. Our results suggest that cancer registration involve substantial fixed costs and labor, and that partnership with other institutions is critical for the operation and sustainability of cancer registries in limited resource settings. Although we included registries from a variety of limited-resource areas, information from eight registries in four countries may not be large enough to capture all the potential differences among the registries in limited-resource settings. PMID:27793574

Resource requirements for cancer registration in areas with limited resources: Analysis of cost data from four low- and middle-income countries.

PubMed

Tangka, Florence K L; Subramanian, Sujha; Edwards, Patrick; Cole-Beebe, Maggie; Parkin, D Maxwell; Bray, Freddie; Joseph, Rachael; Mery, Les; Saraiya, Mona

2016-12-01

The key aims of this study were to identify sources of support for cancer registry activities, to quantify resource use and estimate costs to operate registries in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) at different stages of development across three continents. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) International Registry Costing Tool (IntRegCosting Tool), cost and resource use data were collected from eight population-based cancer registries, including one in a low-income country (Uganda [Kampala)]), two in lower to middle-income countries (Kenya [Nairobi] and India [Mumbai]), and five in an upper to middle-income country (Colombia [Pasto, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Manizales and Cali cancer registries]). Host institution contributions accounted for 30%-70% of total investment in cancer registry activities. Cancer registration involves substantial fixed cost and labor. Labor accounts for more than 50% of all expenditures across all registries. The cost per cancer case registered in low-income and lower-middle-income countries ranged from US $3.77 to US $15.62 (United States dollars). In Colombia, an upper to middle-income country, the cost per case registered ranged from US $41.28 to US $113.39. Registries serving large populations (over 15 million inhabitants) had a lower cost per inhabitant (less than US $0.01 in Mumbai, India) than registries serving small populations (under 500,000 inhabitants) [US $0.22] in Pasto, Colombia. This study estimates the total cost and resources used for cancer registration across several countries in the limited-resource setting, and provides cancer registration stakeholders and registries with opportunities to identify cost savings and efficiency improvements. Our results suggest that cancer registration involve substantial fixed costs and labor, and that partnership with other institutions is critical for the operation and sustainability of cancer registries in limited resource settings. Although we included registries from a variety of limited-resource areas, information from eight registries in four countries may not be large enough to capture all the potential differences among the registries in limited-resource settings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

2D and 3D registration methods for dual-energy contrast-enhanced digital breast tomosynthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lau, Kristen C.; Roth, Susan; Maidment, Andrew D. A.

2014-03-01

Contrast-enhanced digital breast tomosynthesis (CE-DBT) uses an iodinated contrast agent to image the threedimensional breast vasculature. The University of Pennsylvania is conducting a CE-DBT clinical study in patients with known breast cancers. The breast is compressed continuously and imaged at four time points (1 pre-contrast; 3 postcontrast). A hybrid subtraction scheme is proposed. First, dual-energy (DE) images are obtained by a weighted logarithmic subtraction of the high-energy and low-energy image pairs. Then, post-contrast DE images are subtracted from the pre-contrast DE image. This hybrid temporal subtraction of DE images is performed to analyze iodine uptake, but suffers from motion artifacts. Employing image registration further helps to correct for motion, enhancing the evaluation of vascular kinetics. Registration using ANTS (Advanced Normalization Tools) is performed in an iterative manner. Mutual information optimization first corrects large-scale motions. Normalized cross-correlation optimization then iteratively corrects fine-scale misalignment. Two methods have been evaluated: a 2D method using a slice-by-slice approach, and a 3D method using a volumetric approach to account for out-of-plane breast motion. Our results demonstrate that iterative registration qualitatively improves with each iteration (five iterations total). Motion artifacts near the edge of the breast are corrected effectively and structures within the breast (e.g. blood vessels, surgical clip) are better visualized. Statistical and clinical evaluations of registration accuracy in the CE-DBT images are ongoing.

A Qualitative Study of Turning Points or Aha! Moments in Older Adults' Discussions About Organ Donation.

PubMed

Downing, Kimberly; Jones, Linda L

2018-01-01

Older adults (50-70 years old) have lower organ donor registration rates than younger adults. Older adults have different informational needs and donor registration behavior than younger age groups. The objective of this qualitative study was to understand insights of older adults about organ donation to effectively address the barriers to becoming an organ donor. This study identified turning points as "Aha!" moments that occurred during a dialogue intervention where older adults discussed benefits, barriers, and process to organ donation. Dialogues were held with small groups of older adults in 11 communities in a Midwestern organ procurement organization service area. Participants were positive to organ donation, but not registered as an organ donor. Methods/Approach: Qualitative analysis of verbatim comments from the dialogue and a follow-up survey were used to examine turning points or "Aha!" moments of participants' decision-making about organ donation and organ donor registration. Twenty-one separate in-depth dialogues were conducted with 198 participants, with mean age of 60.57 years. There were 2757 separate comments coded with 465 of the comments (17%) identified as providing Aha! moments during the dialogue. Three themes include benefits of organ donation (30%), barriers about organ donation (39%), and organ donation process (31%). The research identified moments in the dialogue where possible learning about organ donation may have occurred. After participation in the dialogue process, there was an increase in intent to register to be an organ donor, organ donation discussion with family and friends, and organ donor registration.

The analysis of selected orientation methods of architectural objects' scans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markiewicz, Jakub S.; Kajdewicz, Irmina; Zawieska, Dorota

2015-05-01

The terrestrial laser scanning is commonly used in different areas, inter alia in modelling architectural objects. One of the most important part of TLS data processing is scans registration. It significantly affects the accuracy of generation of high resolution photogrammetric documentation. This process is time consuming, especially in case of a large number of scans. It is mostly based on an automatic detection and a semi-automatic measurement of control points placed on the object. In case of the complicated historical buildings, sometimes it is forbidden to place survey targets on an object or it may be difficult to distribute survey targets in the optimal way. Such problems encourage the search for the new methods of scan registration which enable to eliminate the step of placing survey targets on the object. In this paper the results of target-based registration method are presented The survey targets placed on the walls of historical chambers of the Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów and on the walls of ruins of the Bishops Castle in Iłża were used for scan orientation. Several variants of orientation were performed, taking into account different placement and different number of survey marks. Afterwards, during next research works, raster images were generated from scans and the SIFT and SURF algorithms for image processing were used to automatically search for corresponding natural points. The case of utilisation of automatically identified points for TLS data orientation was analysed. The results of both methods for TLS data registration were summarized and presented in numerical and graphical forms.

Minimisation of Signal Intensity Differences in Distortion Correction Approaches of Brain Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging.

PubMed

Lee, Dong-Hoon; Lee, Do-Wan; Henry, David; Park, Hae-Jin; Han, Bong-Soo; Woo, Dong-Cheol

2018-04-12

To evaluate the effects of signal intensity differences between the b0 image and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in the image registration process. To correct signal intensity differences between the b0 image and DTI data, a simple image intensity compensation (SIMIC) method, which is a b0 image re-calculation process from DTI data, was applied before the image registration. The re-calculated b0 image (b0 ext ) from each diffusion direction was registered to the b0 image acquired through the MR scanning (b0 nd ) with two types of cost functions and their transformation matrices were acquired. These transformation matrices were then used to register the DTI data. For quantifications, the dice similarity coefficient (DSC) values, diffusion scalar matrix, and quantified fibre numbers and lengths were calculated. The combined SIMIC method with two cost functions showed the highest DSC value (0.802 ± 0.007). Regarding diffusion scalar values and numbers and lengths of fibres from the corpus callosum, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and cortico-spinal tract, only using normalised cross correlation (NCC) showed a specific tendency toward lower values in the brain regions. Image-based distortion correction with SIMIC for DTI data would help in image analysis by accounting for signal intensity differences as one additional option for DTI analysis. • We evaluated the effects of signal intensity differences at DTI registration. • The non-diffusion-weighted image re-calculation process from DTI data was applied. • SIMIC can minimise the signal intensity differences at DTI registration.

A two-step framework for the registration of HE stained and FTIR images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peñaranda, Francisco; Naranjo, Valery; Verdú, Rafaél.; Lloyd, Gavin R.; Nallala, Jayakrupakar; Stone, Nick

2016-03-01

FTIR spectroscopy is an emerging technology with high potential for cancer diagnosis but with particular physical phenomena that require special processing. Little work has been done in the field with the aim of registering hyperspectral Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic images and Hematoxilin and Eosin (HE) stained histological images of contiguous slices of tissue. This registration is necessary to transfer the location of relevant structures that the pathologist may identify in the gold standard HE images. A two-step registration framework is presented where a representative gray image extracted from the FTIR hypercube is used as an input. This representative image, which must have a spatial contrast as similar as possible to a gray image obtained from the HE image, is calculated through the spectrum variation in the fingerprint region. In the first step of the registration algorithm a similarity transformation is estimated from interest points, which are automatically detected by the popular SURF algorithm. In the second stage, a variational registration framework defined in the frequency domain compensates for local anatomical variations between both images. After a proper tuning of some parameters the proposed registration framework works in an automated way. The method was tested on 7 samples of colon tissue in different stages of cancer. Very promising qualitative and quantitative results were obtained (a mean correlation ratio of 92.16% with a standard deviation of 3.10%).

The influence of CT based attenuation correction on PET/CT registration: an evaluation study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yaniv, Ziv; Wong, Kenneth H.; Banovac, Filip; Levy, Elliot; Cleary, Kevin

2007-03-01

We are currently developing a PET/CT based navigation system for guidance of biopsies and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of early stage hepatic tumors. For these procedures, combined PET/CT data can potentially improve current interventions. The diagnostic efficacy of biopsies can potentially be improved by accurately targeting the region within the tumor that exhibits the highest metabolic activity. For RFA procedures the system can potentially enable treatment of early stage tumors, targeting tumors before structural abnormalities are clearly visible on CT. In both cases target definition is based on the metabolic data (PET), and navigation is based on the spatial data (CT), making the system highly dependent upon accurate spatial alignment between these data sets. In our institute all clinical data sets include three image volumes: one CT, and two PET volumes, with and without CT-based attenuation correction. This paper studies the effect of the CT-based attenuation correction on the registration process. From comparing the pairs of registrations from five data sets we observe that the point motion magnitude difference between registrations is on the same scale as the point motion magnitude in each one of the registrations, and that visual inspection cannot identify this discrepancy. We conclude that using non-rigid registration to align the PET and CT data sets is too variable, and most likely does not provide sufficient accuracy for interventional procedures.

Multibeam 3D Underwater SLAM with Probabilistic Registration.

PubMed

Palomer, Albert; Ridao, Pere; Ribas, David

2016-04-20

This paper describes a pose-based underwater 3D Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) using a multibeam echosounder to produce high consistency underwater maps. The proposed algorithm compounds swath profiles of the seafloor with dead reckoning localization to build surface patches (i.e., point clouds). An Iterative Closest Point (ICP) with a probabilistic implementation is then used to register the point clouds, taking into account their uncertainties. The registration process is divided in two steps: (1) point-to-point association for coarse registration and (2) point-to-plane association for fine registration. The point clouds of the surfaces to be registered are sub-sampled in order to decrease both the computation time and also the potential of falling into local minima during the registration. In addition, a heuristic is used to decrease the complexity of the association step of the ICP from O(n2) to O(n) . The performance of the SLAM framework is tested using two real world datasets: First, a 2.5D bathymetric dataset obtained with the usual down-looking multibeam sonar configuration, and second, a full 3D underwater dataset acquired with a multibeam sonar mounted on a pan and tilt unit.

[Algorithm for the automated processing of rheosignals].

PubMed

Odinets, G S

1988-01-01

Algorithm for rheosignals recognition for a microprocessing device with a representation apparatus and with automated and manual cursor control was examined. The algorithm permits to automate rheosignals registrating and processing taking into account their changeability.

Validation of a deformable MRI to CT registration algorithm employing same day planning MRI for surrogate analysis.

PubMed

Padgett, Kyle R; Stoyanova, Radka; Pirozzi, Sara; Johnson, Perry; Piper, Jon; Dogan, Nesrin; Pollack, Alan

2018-03-01

Validating deformable multimodality image registrations is challenging due to intrinsic differences in signal characteristics and their spatial intensity distributions. Evaluating multimodality registrations using these spatial intensity distributions is also complicated by the fact that these metrics are often employed in the registration optimization process. This work evaluates rigid and deformable image registrations of the prostate in between diagnostic-MRI and radiation treatment planning-CT by utilizing a planning-MRI after fiducial marker placement as a surrogate. The surrogate allows for the direct quantitative analysis that can be difficult in the multimodality domain. For thirteen prostate patients, T2 images were acquired at two different time points, the first several weeks prior to planning (diagnostic-MRI) and the second on the same day as the planning-CT (planning-MRI). The diagnostic-MRI was deformed to the planning-CT utilizing a commercially available algorithm which synthesizes a deformable image registration (DIR) algorithm from local rigid registrations. The planning-MRI provided an independent surrogate for the planning-CT for assessing registration accuracy using image similarity metrics, including Pearson correlation and normalized mutual information (NMI). A local analysis was performed by looking only within the prostate, proximal seminal vesicles, penile bulb, and combined areas. The planning-MRI provided an excellent surrogate for the planning-CT with residual error in fiducial alignment between the two datasets being submillimeter, 0.78 mm. DIR was superior to the rigid registration in 11 of 13 cases demonstrating a 27.37% improvement in NMI (P < 0.009) within a regional area surrounding the prostate and associated critical organs. Pearson correlations showed similar results, demonstrating a 13.02% improvement (P < 0.013). By utilizing the planning-MRI as a surrogate for the planning-CT, an independent evaluation of registration accuracy is possible. This population provides an ideal testing ground for MRI to CT DIR by obviating the need for multimodality comparisons which are inherently more challenging. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

SU-E-J-89: Comparative Analysis of MIM and Velocity’s Image Deformation Algorithm Using Simulated KV-CBCT Images for Quality Assurance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cline, K; Narayanasamy, G; Obediat, M

Purpose: Deformable image registration (DIR) is used routinely in the clinic without a formalized quality assurance (QA) process. Using simulated deformations to digitally deform images in a known way and comparing to DIR algorithm predictions is a powerful technique for DIR QA. This technique must also simulate realistic image noise and artifacts, especially between modalities. This study developed an algorithm to create simulated daily kV cone-beam computed-tomography (CBCT) images from CT images for DIR QA between these modalities. Methods: A Catphan and physical head-and-neck phantom, with known deformations, were used. CT and kV-CBCT images of the Catphan were utilized tomore » characterize the changes in Hounsfield units, noise, and image cupping that occur between these imaging modalities. The algorithm then imprinted these changes onto a CT image of the deformed head-and-neck phantom, thereby creating a simulated-CBCT image. CT and kV-CBCT images of the undeformed and deformed head-and-neck phantom were also acquired. The Velocity and MIM DIR algorithms were applied between the undeformed CT image and each of the deformed CT, CBCT, and simulated-CBCT images to obtain predicted deformations. The error between the known and predicted deformations was used as a metric to evaluate the quality of the simulated-CBCT image. Ideally, the simulated-CBCT image registration would produce the same accuracy as the deformed CBCT image registration. Results: For Velocity, the mean error was 1.4 mm for the CT-CT registration, 1.7 mm for the CT-CBCT registration, and 1.4 mm for the CT-simulated-CBCT registration. These same numbers were 1.5, 4.5, and 5.9 mm, respectively, for MIM. Conclusion: All cases produced similar accuracy for Velocity. MIM produced similar values of accuracy for CT-CT registration, but was not as accurate for CT-CBCT registrations. The MIM simulated-CBCT registration followed this same trend, but overestimated MIM DIR errors relative to the CT-CBCT registration.« less

A Rigid Image Registration Based on the Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform and Genetic Algorithms

PubMed Central

Meskine, Fatiha; Chikr El Mezouar, Miloud; Taleb, Nasreddine

2010-01-01

Image registration is a fundamental task used in image processing to match two or more images taken at different times, from different sensors or from different viewpoints. The objective is to find in a huge search space of geometric transformations, an acceptable accurate solution in a reasonable time to provide better registered images. Exhaustive search is computationally expensive and the computational cost increases exponentially with the number of transformation parameters and the size of the data set. In this work, we present an efficient image registration algorithm that uses genetic algorithms within a multi-resolution framework based on the Non-Subsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT). An adaptable genetic algorithm for registration is adopted in order to minimize the search space. This approach is used within a hybrid scheme applying the two techniques fitness sharing and elitism. Two NSCT based methods are proposed for registration. A comparative study is established between these methods and a wavelet based one. Because the NSCT is a shift-invariant multidirectional transform, the second method is adopted for its search speeding up property. Simulation results clearly show that both proposed techniques are really promising methods for image registration compared to the wavelet approach, while the second technique has led to the best performance results of all. Moreover, to demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, these registration techniques have been successfully applied to register SPOT, IKONOS and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The algorithm has been shown to work perfectly well for multi-temporal satellite images as well, even in the presence of noise. PMID:22163672

A rigid image registration based on the nonsubsampled contourlet transform and genetic algorithms.

PubMed

Meskine, Fatiha; Chikr El Mezouar, Miloud; Taleb, Nasreddine

2010-01-01

Image registration is a fundamental task used in image processing to match two or more images taken at different times, from different sensors or from different viewpoints. The objective is to find in a huge search space of geometric transformations, an acceptable accurate solution in a reasonable time to provide better registered images. Exhaustive search is computationally expensive and the computational cost increases exponentially with the number of transformation parameters and the size of the data set. In this work, we present an efficient image registration algorithm that uses genetic algorithms within a multi-resolution framework based on the Non-Subsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT). An adaptable genetic algorithm for registration is adopted in order to minimize the search space. This approach is used within a hybrid scheme applying the two techniques fitness sharing and elitism. Two NSCT based methods are proposed for registration. A comparative study is established between these methods and a wavelet based one. Because the NSCT is a shift-invariant multidirectional transform, the second method is adopted for its search speeding up property. Simulation results clearly show that both proposed techniques are really promising methods for image registration compared to the wavelet approach, while the second technique has led to the best performance results of all. Moreover, to demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, these registration techniques have been successfully applied to register SPOT, IKONOS and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. The algorithm has been shown to work perfectly well for multi-temporal satellite images as well, even in the presence of noise.

Registration of 2D to 3D joint images using phase-based mutual information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalvi, Rupin; Abugharbieh, Rafeef; Pickering, Mark; Scarvell, Jennie; Smith, Paul

2007-03-01

Registration of two dimensional to three dimensional orthopaedic medical image data has important applications particularly in the area of image guided surgery and sports medicine. Fluoroscopy to computer tomography (CT) registration is an important case, wherein digitally reconstructed radiographs derived from the CT data are registered to the fluoroscopy data. Traditional registration metrics such as intensity-based mutual information (MI) typically work well but often suffer from gross misregistration errors when the image to be registered contains a partial view of the anatomy visible in the target image. Phase-based MI provides a robust alternative similarity measure which, in addition to possessing the general robustness and noise immunity that MI provides, also employs local phase information in the registration process which makes it less susceptible to the aforementioned errors. In this paper, we propose using the complex wavelet transform for computing image phase information and incorporating that into a phase-based MI measure for image registration. Tests on a CT volume and 6 fluoroscopy images of the knee are presented. The femur and the tibia in the CT volume were individually registered to the fluoroscopy images using intensity-based MI, gradient-based MI and phase-based MI. Errors in the coordinates of fiducials present in the bone structures were used to assess the accuracy of the different registration schemes. Quantitative results demonstrate that the performance of intensity-based MI was the worst. Gradient-based MI performed slightly better, while phase-based MI results were the best consistently producing the lowest errors.

Trial Registration at ClinicalTrials.gov between May and October 2005

PubMed Central

Zarin, Deborah A.; Tse, Tony; Ide, Nicholas C.

2006-01-01

BACKGROUND Clinical trial registration allows interested parties to obtain information about ongoing and completed trials, but there are few data indicating the quality of the information provided during the registration process. We used information in the publicly available ClinicalTrials.gov database to describe patterns of trial registration before and after the implementation by journal editors of a new policy requiring registration as a prerequisite for publication. METHODS We reviewed ClinicalTrials.gov records to determine patterns of completion of the “Intervention Name” and “Primary Outcome Measure” data fields for trials registered on May 20 and October 11, 2005, and for trials registered during the interval between these two dates, inclusively. RESULTS During the interval studied, the number of registrations in ClinicalTrials.gov increased by 73 percent from 13,153 to 22,714. The percentage of interventional trials registered by industry with nonspecific Intervention Name entries (attributable to four drug companies) decreased from 10 percent to 2 percent; all other industry and nonindustry records contained specific entries in this field. Of the 2670 studies registered by industry between the two dates, 76 percent provided information in the Primary Outcome Measure field, although these entries varied markedly in their degree of specificity. In the remaining 24 percent of the records, this field was blank. CONCLUSIONS During the summer of 2005, there were large increases in the number of clinical trial registrations. Overall, the data contained in records were more complete in October than they were in May, but there still is room for substantial improvement. PMID:16382064

LANDSAT-4 MSS Geometric Correction: Methods and Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brooks, J.; Kimmer, E.; Su, J.

1984-01-01

An automated image registration system such as that developed for LANDSAT-4 can produce all of the information needed to verify and calibrate the software and to evaluate system performance. The on-line MSS archive generation process which upgrades systematic correction data to geodetic correction data is described as well as the control point library build subsystem which generates control point chips and support data for on-line upgrade of correction data. The system performance was evaluated for both temporal and geodetic registration. For temporal registration, 90% errors were computed to be .36 IFOV (instantaneous field of view) = 82.7 meters) cross track, and .29 IFOV along track. Also, for actual production runs monitored, the 90% errors were .29 IFOV cross track and .25 IFOV along track. The system specification is .3 IFOV, 90% of the time, both cross and along track. For geodetic registration performance, the model bias was measured by designating control points in the geodetically corrected imagery.

Risk Factors for Retreatment Following Myopic LASIK with Femtosecond Laser and Custom Ablation for the Treatment of Myopia.

PubMed

Kruh, Jonathan N; Garrett, Kenneth A; Huntington, Brian; Robinson, Steve; Melki, Samir A

2017-01-01

To identify risks factors for retreatment post-laser in situ keratomeliusis (LASIK). A retrospective chart review from December 2008 to September 2012 identified 1,402 patients (2,581 eyes) that underwent LASIK treatment for myopia with the Intralase™ FS, STAR S4 IR™ Excimer Laser, and WaveScan WaveFront™ technology. In this group, 83 patients were retreated. All charts were reviewed for preoperative age, gender, initial manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE), total astigmatism, and iris registration. Increased incidence rates of retreatment post-LASIK were preoperative age >40 years (p < 0.001), initial MRSE > -3.0 D (p = 0.02), and astigmatism >1D (p = 0.001). Iris registration capture did not significantly reduce the retreatment rate (p = 0.12). Risk factors for retreatment included preoperative age >40 years, initial MRSE > -3.0 D, and astigmatism >1D. There was no difference in retreatment rate for patients based on gender or iris registration capture.

Cancer prevalence in Italian cancer registry areas: the ITAPREVAL study. ITAPREVAL Working Group.

PubMed

Micheli, A; Francisci, S; Krogh, V; Rossi, A G; Crosignani, P

1999-01-01

To present data on cancer prevalence for the areas covered by Italian cancer registries, by using a standardized set of data collection and elaboration criteria, and a single method of data analysis. Data on over 250,000 patients with cancer, diagnosed between 1978 and 1992, from 11 Italian cancer registries covering about 12% of the Italian population were collected, validated and analyzed according to the unified protocol of the ITAPREVAL project. The method implemented in the PREVAL computer program was used to provide prevalence estimates for the period covered by cancer registration. The total prevalence for each registry and for the pool of all registries was then estimated by correcting for incomplete observations due to the period in which the registration was not yet activated. All prevalence estimates were for 1992. Prevalence figures are presented by cancer site, age, sex, years from diagnosis and registry area. For all malignancies combined, total prevalence ranged from 1,350 per 100,000 inhabitants in Ragusa to 3,650 per 100,000 inhabitants in Romagna, the ratio between these two extremes being 2.7. For the pool of the areas covered by registration cancer prevalence was 3,100 per 100,000 females and 2,250 per 100,000 males. About a third of the total female cases and about half the male cases were diagnosed in the previous five years. Among those aged over 75 years, total prevalence was higher for males than for females: 11,300 versus 8,900 per 100,000 respectively. This is the first large-scale estimate of the burden of cancer in Italy. It is also one of the first studies in the world which was aimed to study cancer prevalence in detail. These data are necessary for predicting health service needs and help in the evaluation of differences in health service demand by sex, age and Italian regions.

Development, implementation, and pilot study of a sentinel network ("The Watchtowers") for monitoring emergency primary health care activity in Norway

PubMed Central

Hansen, Elisabeth Holm; Hunskaar, Steinar

2008-01-01

Background In Norway there is a shortage of valid health activity statistics from the primary care out-of-hours services and the pre-hospital emergency health care system. There is little systematic information available because data registration is lacking or is only recorded periodically, and definitions of variables are not consistent. Method A representative sample of Norwegian municipalities and out-of-hours districts was contracted to establish a sentinel network, "The Watchtowers", and procedures were developed for collecting continuous data from out-of-hours services. All contacts, either per telephone or direct attendance, are recorded during day and night. The variables are registered in a computer program developed by the National Centre for Emergency Primary Health Care, and sent by email in Excel-file format to the Centre on a monthly basis. Results The selection process yielded a group of 18 municipalities, with a fair degree of representativeness for Norwegian municipalities as a whole. The sample has 212,921 inhabitants, which constitutes 4.6% of the total Norwegian population. During a pilot period lasting three months the Watchtowers recorded all individual contacts. The procedures for registration, submitting and checking data worked satisfactorily. There was little data missing, and during the last three months of 2006 a total of 23,346 contacts were registered. Conclusion We have been able to establish a sentinel network with a fair degree of representativeness for Norwegian out-of-hours districts and municipalities. The data collected reflect national activities from casualty clinics in Norway. Such data are useful for both research and system improvements. PMID:18366754

Evaluation of similarity measures for use in the intensity-based rigid 2D-3D registration for patient positioning in radiotherapy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu Jian; Kim, Minho; Peters, Jorg

2009-12-15

Purpose: Rigid 2D-3D registration is an alternative to 3D-3D registration for cases where largely bony anatomy can be used for patient positioning in external beam radiation therapy. In this article, the authors evaluated seven similarity measures for use in the intensity-based rigid 2D-3D registration using a variation in Skerl's similarity measure evaluation protocol. Methods: The seven similarity measures are partitioned intensity uniformity, normalized mutual information (NMI), normalized cross correlation (NCC), entropy of the difference image, pattern intensity (PI), gradient correlation (GC), and gradient difference (GD). In contrast to traditional evaluation methods that rely on visual inspection or registration outcomes, themore » similarity measure evaluation protocol probes the transform parameter space and computes a number of similarity measure properties, which is objective and optimization method independent. The variation in protocol offers an improved property in the quantification of the capture range. The authors used this protocol to investigate the effects of the downsampling ratio, the region of interest, and the method of the digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR) calculation [i.e., the incremental ray-tracing method implemented on a central processing unit (CPU) or the 3D texture rendering method implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU)] on the performance of the similarity measures. The studies were carried out using both the kilovoltage (kV) and the megavoltage (MV) images of an anthropomorphic cranial phantom and the MV images of a head-and-neck cancer patient. Results: Both the phantom and the patient studies showed the 2D-3D registration using the GPU-based DRR calculation yielded better robustness, while providing similar accuracy compared to the CPU-based calculation. The phantom study using kV imaging suggested that NCC has the best accuracy and robustness, but its slow function value change near the global maximum requires a stricter termination condition for an optimization method. The phantom study using MV imaging indicated that PI, GD, and GC have the best accuracy, while NCC and NMI have the best robustness. The clinical study using MV imaging showed that NCC and NMI have the best robustness. Conclusions: The authors evaluated the performance of seven similarity measures for use in 2D-3D image registration using the variation in Skerl's similarity measure evaluation protocol. The generalized methodology can be used to select the best similarity measures, determine the optimal or near optimal choice of parameter, and choose the appropriate registration strategy for the end user in his specific registration applications in medical imaging.« less

Maintenance of the Maxillomandibular Position with Digital Workflow in Oral Rehabilitation: A Technical Note.

PubMed

Li, Zhongjie; Xia, Yingfeng; Chen, Kai; Zhao, Hanchi; Liu, Yang

Prosthodontic oral rehabilitation procedures are time consuming and require efforts to maintain the confirmed maxillomandibular relationship. Several occlusal registrations and impressions are needed, and cross-mounting is performed to transfer the diagnostic wax-up to master working casts. The introduction of a digital workflow protocol reduces steps in the required process, and occlusal registrations with less deformation are used. The outcome is a maintained maxillomandibular position that is accurately and conveniently transferred.

Caring: the socialisation of pre-registration student nurses: a longitudinal qualitative descriptive study.

PubMed

Mackintosh, Carolyn

2006-11-01

This study explores the impact of the process of socialisation on pre-registration student nurses views about care, and their personal ability to cope with becoming a nurse. It aims to identify the effect time has on participants attitudes and views of care and becoming a nurse, during pre-registration nurse training, by using a descriptive longitudinal qualitative design. Data collection took place within the School of Health or on student's clinical placement areas, using a random sample of 16 pre-registration student nurses obtained from a convenience sample of 52 volunteers. Participants were involved in two semi-structured in depth interviews, the first 6-9 months after entering nurse training and the second 6-9 months prior to completion. Interviews were tape recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using Morse and Field's (1996) four stages of analysis. Identified changes between data collection stages suggest socialisation results in a loss of idealism about care within nursing, as well as the identification of negative aspects of care. Loss of care is linked to increased abilities to cope with the nursing role, although this is not uniform and some participants clearly discriminate and reject negative exposures. In conclusion this study identifies an under recognised dichotomy between the caring ethos of professional nursing and the professional socialisation processes student nurses are subject to, which directly mitigate against the individual nurses abilities to care.

Implementation and evaluation of a new workflow for registration and segmentation of pulmonary MRI data for regional lung perfusion assessment.

PubMed

Böttger, T; Grunewald, K; Schöbinger, M; Fink, C; Risse, F; Kauczor, H U; Meinzer, H P; Wolf, Ivo

2007-03-07

Recently it has been shown that regional lung perfusion can be assessed using time-resolved contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Quantification of the perfusion images has been attempted, based on definition of small regions of interest (ROIs). Use of complete lung segmentations instead of ROIs could possibly increase quantification accuracy. Due to the low signal-to-noise ratio, automatic segmentation algorithms cannot be applied. On the other hand, manual segmentation of the lung tissue is very time consuming and can become inaccurate, as the borders of the lung to adjacent tissues are not always clearly visible. We propose a new workflow for semi-automatic segmentation of the lung from additionally acquired morphological HASTE MR images. First the lung is delineated semi-automatically in the HASTE image. Next the HASTE image is automatically registered with the perfusion images. Finally, the transformation resulting from the registration is used to align the lung segmentation from the morphological dataset with the perfusion images. We evaluated rigid, affine and locally elastic transformations, suitable optimizers and different implementations of mutual information (MI) metrics to determine the best possible registration algorithm. We located the shortcomings of the registration procedure and under which conditions automatic registration will succeed or fail. Segmentation results were evaluated using overlap and distance measures. Integration of the new workflow reduces the time needed for post-processing of the data, simplifies the perfusion quantification and reduces interobserver variability in the segmentation process. In addition, the matched morphological data set can be used to identify morphologic changes as the source for the perfusion abnormalities.

Model-based registration for assessment of spinal deformities in idiopathic scoliosis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forsberg, Daniel; Lundström, Claes; Andersson, Mats; Knutsson, Hans

2014-01-01

Detailed analysis of spinal deformity is important within orthopaedic healthcare, in particular for assessment of idiopathic scoliosis. This paper addresses this challenge by proposing an image analysis method, capable of providing a full three-dimensional spine characterization. The proposed method is based on the registration of a highly detailed spine model to image data from computed tomography. The registration process provides an accurate segmentation of each individual vertebra and the ability to derive various measures describing the spinal deformity. The derived measures are estimated from landmarks attached to the spine model and transferred to the patient data according to the registration result. Evaluation of the method provides an average point-to-surface error of 0.9 mm ± 0.9 (comparing segmentations), and an average target registration error of 2.3 mm ± 1.7 (comparing landmarks). Comparing automatic and manual measurements of axial vertebral rotation provides a mean absolute difference of 2.5° ± 1.8, which is on a par with other computerized methods for assessing axial vertebral rotation. A significant advantage of our method, compared to other computerized methods for rotational measurements, is that it does not rely on vertebral symmetry for computing the rotational measures. The proposed method is fully automatic and computationally efficient, only requiring three to four minutes to process an entire image volume covering vertebrae L5 to T1. Given the use of landmarks, the method can be readily adapted to estimate other measures describing a spinal deformity by changing the set of employed landmarks. In addition, the method has the potential to be utilized for accurate segmentations of the vertebrae in routine computed tomography examinations, given the relatively low point-to-surface error.

Pharmacy Students' Knowledge and Attitude toward Registration Trials and Clinical Research: A Survey in a Japanese University Hospital.

PubMed

Ise, Natsuko; Takechi, Kenshi; Miyamoto, Toshiko; Ishizawa, Keisuke; Yanagawa, Hiroaki

2017-12-11

Clinical research plays a fundamental role in establishing new treatments. Clinical research coordinators are considered essential in clinical research, and medical professionals such as pharmacists often take on this role. Pharmacy students can be considered future candidates for this task. We used questionnaires to survey the knowledge of and attitudes toward registration trials and clinical research of pharmacy students at Tokushima University Hospital. All pharmacy students (103) to whom questionnaires were sent responded. Almost all respondents were aware of registration trials and clinical research. More than 90% were aware of the existence of clinical research coordinators, and about half (48.6%) understood their role. In clinical research terminology, most respondents were aware of informed consent and related issues, but fewer than 20% were aware of more practical things. In total, 29.1% and 40.8% of the respondents were willing to carry out and coordinate research. These findings suggest that pharmacy students have basic knowledge of clinical research and that many students are willing to carry out and coordinate clinical research. More practical exposure to clinical research may help to strengthen their future contribution. Further studies may help to determine how to provide education on registration trials and clinical research to pharmacy students.

Influence of erroneous patient records on population pharmacokinetic modeling and individual bayesian estimation.

PubMed

van der Meer, Aize Franciscus; Touw, Daniël J; Marcus, Marco A E; Neef, Cornelis; Proost, Johannes H

2012-10-01

Observational data sets can be used for population pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling. However, these data sets are generally less precisely recorded than experimental data sets. This article aims to investigate the influence of erroneous records on population PK modeling and individual maximum a posteriori Bayesian (MAPB) estimation. A total of 1123 patient records of neonates who were administered vancomycin were used for population PK modeling by iterative 2-stage Bayesian (ITSB) analysis. Cut-off values for weighted residuals were tested for exclusion of records from the analysis. A simulation study was performed to assess the influence of erroneous records on population modeling and individual MAPB estimation. Also the cut-off values for weighted residuals were tested in the simulation study. Errors in registration have limited the influence on outcomes of population PK modeling but can have detrimental effects on individual MAPB estimation. A population PK model created from a data set with many registration errors has little influence on subsequent MAPB estimates for precisely recorded data. A weighted residual value of 2 for concentration measurements has good discriminative power for identification of erroneous records. ITSB analysis and its individual estimates are hardly affected by most registration errors. Large registration errors can be detected by weighted residuals of concentration.

Automatic pattern localization across layout database and photolithography mask

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morey, Philippe; Brault, Frederic; Beisser, Eric; Ache, Oliver; Röth, Klaus-Dieter

2016-03-01

Advanced process photolithography masks require more and more controls for registration versus design and critical dimension uniformity (CDU). The distribution of the measurement points should be distributed all over the whole mask and may be denser in areas critical to wafer overlay requirements. This means that some, if not many, of theses controls should be made inside the customer die and may use non-dedicated patterns. It is then mandatory to access the original layout database to select patterns for the metrology process. Finding hundreds of relevant patterns in a database containing billions of polygons may be possible, but in addition, it is mandatory to create the complete metrology job fast and reliable. Combining, on one hand, a software expertise in mask databases processing and, on the other hand, advanced skills in control and registration equipment, we have developed a Mask Dataprep Station able to select an appropriate number of measurement targets and their positions in a huge database and automatically create measurement jobs on the corresponding area on the mask for the registration metrology system. In addition, the required design clips are generated from the database in order to perform the rendering procedure on the metrology system. This new methodology has been validated on real production line for the most advanced process. This paper presents the main challenges that we have faced, as well as some results on the global performances.

Selecting registration schemes in case of interstitial lung disease follow-up in CT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vlachopoulos, Georgios; Korfiatis, Panayiotis; Skiadopoulos, Spyros

Purpose: Primary goal of this study is to select optimal registration schemes in the framework of interstitial lung disease (ILD) follow-up analysis in CT. Methods: A set of 128 multiresolution schemes composed of multiresolution nonrigid and combinations of rigid and nonrigid registration schemes are evaluated, utilizing ten artificially warped ILD follow-up volumes, originating from ten clinical volumetric CT scans of ILD affected patients, to select candidate optimal schemes. Specifically, all combinations of four transformation models (three rigid: rigid, similarity, affine and one nonrigid: third order B-spline), four cost functions (sum-of-square distances, normalized correlation coefficient, mutual information, and normalized mutual information),more » four gradient descent optimizers (standard, regular step, adaptive stochastic, and finite difference), and two types of pyramids (recursive and Gaussian-smoothing) were considered. The selection process involves two stages. The first stage involves identification of schemes with deformation field singularities, according to the determinant of the Jacobian matrix. In the second stage, evaluation methodology is based on distance between corresponding landmark points in both normal lung parenchyma (NLP) and ILD affected regions. Statistical analysis was performed in order to select near optimal registration schemes per evaluation metric. Performance of the candidate registration schemes was verified on a case sample of ten clinical follow-up CT scans to obtain the selected registration schemes. Results: By considering near optimal schemes common to all ranking lists, 16 out of 128 registration schemes were initially selected. These schemes obtained submillimeter registration accuracies in terms of average distance errors 0.18 ± 0.01 mm for NLP and 0.20 ± 0.01 mm for ILD, in case of artificially generated follow-up data. Registration accuracy in terms of average distance error in clinical follow-up data was in the range of 1.985–2.156 mm and 1.966–2.234 mm, for NLP and ILD affected regions, respectively, excluding schemes with statistically significant lower performance (Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, p < 0.05), resulting in 13 finally selected registration schemes. Conclusions: Selected registration schemes in case of ILD CT follow-up analysis indicate the significance of adaptive stochastic gradient descent optimizer, as well as the importance of combined rigid and nonrigid schemes providing high accuracy and time efficiency. The selected optimal deformable registration schemes are equivalent in terms of their accuracy and thus compatible in terms of their clinical outcome.« less

Dependence of energy resolution of a plane-parallel HPGe detector on bias voltage upon registration of low-energy X-rays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Samedov, V. V., E-mail: v-samedov@yandex.ru

2016-12-15

In this study, we theoretically analyze the processes in a plane-parallel high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector. The generating function of factorial moments describing the process of registration of low-energy X-rays by the HPGe detector with consideration of capture of charge carriers by traps is obtained. It is demonstrated that the coefficients of expansion of the average signal amplitude and variance in power series over the quantity inversely proportional to the bias voltage of the detector allow one to determine the Fano factor, the product of the charge carrier lifetime and mobility, and other characteristics of the semiconductor material of the detector.

Automated Student Aid Processing: The Challenge and Opportunity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St. John, Edward P.

1985-01-01

To utilize automated technology for student aid processing, it is necessary to work with multi-institutional offices (student aid, admissions, registration, and business) and to develop automated interfaces with external processing systems at state and federal agencies and perhaps at need-analysis organizations and lenders. (MLW)

2D-3D rigid registration to compensate for prostate motion during 3D TRUS-guided biopsy.

PubMed

De Silva, Tharindu; Fenster, Aaron; Cool, Derek W; Gardi, Lori; Romagnoli, Cesare; Samarabandu, Jagath; Ward, Aaron D

2013-02-01

Three-dimensional (3D) transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided systems have been developed to improve targeting accuracy during prostate biopsy. However, prostate motion during the procedure is a potential source of error that can cause target misalignments. The authors present an image-based registration technique to compensate for prostate motion by registering the live two-dimensional (2D) TRUS images acquired during the biopsy procedure to a preacquired 3D TRUS image. The registration must be performed both accurately and quickly in order to be useful during the clinical procedure. The authors implemented an intensity-based 2D-3D rigid registration algorithm optimizing the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) metric using Powell's method. The 2D TRUS images acquired during the procedure prior to biopsy gun firing were registered to the baseline 3D TRUS image acquired at the beginning of the procedure. The accuracy was measured by calculating the target registration error (TRE) using manually identified fiducials within the prostate; these fiducials were used for validation only and were not provided as inputs to the registration algorithm. They also evaluated the accuracy when the registrations were performed continuously throughout the biopsy by acquiring and registering live 2D TRUS images every second. This measured the improvement in accuracy resulting from performing the registration, continuously compensating for motion during the procedure. To further validate the method using a more challenging data set, registrations were performed using 3D TRUS images acquired by intentionally exerting different levels of ultrasound probe pressures in order to measure the performance of our algorithm when the prostate tissue was intentionally deformed. In this data set, biopsy scenarios were simulated by extracting 2D frames from the 3D TRUS images and registering them to the baseline 3D image. A graphics processing unit (GPU)-based implementation was used to improve the registration speed. They also studied the correlation between NCC and TREs. The root-mean-square (RMS) TRE of registrations performed prior to biopsy gun firing was found to be 1.87 ± 0.81 mm. This was an improvement over 4.75 ± 2.62 mm before registration. When the registrations were performed every second during the biopsy, the RMS TRE was reduced to 1.63 ± 0.51 mm. For 3D data sets acquired under different probe pressures, the RMS TRE was found to be 3.18 ± 1.6 mm. This was an improvement from 6.89 ± 4.1 mm before registration. With the GPU based implementation, the registrations were performed with a mean time of 1.1 s. The TRE showed a weak correlation with the similarity metric. However, the authors measured a generally convex shape of the metric around the ground truth, which may explain the rapid convergence of their algorithm to accurate results. Registration to compensate for prostate motion during 3D TRUS-guided biopsy can be performed with a measured accuracy of less than 2 mm and a speed of 1.1 s, which is an important step toward improving the targeting accuracy of a 3D TRUS-guided biopsy system.

A Parallel Point Matching Algorithm for Landmark Based Image Registration Using Multicore Platform

PubMed Central

Yang, Lin; Gong, Leiguang; Zhang, Hong; Nosher, John L.; Foran, David J.

2013-01-01

Point matching is crucial for many computer vision applications. Establishing the correspondence between a large number of data points is a computationally intensive process. Some point matching related applications, such as medical image registration, require real time or near real time performance if applied to critical clinical applications like image assisted surgery. In this paper, we report a new multicore platform based parallel algorithm for fast point matching in the context of landmark based medical image registration. We introduced a non-regular data partition algorithm which utilizes the K-means clustering algorithm to group the landmarks based on the number of available processing cores, which optimize the memory usage and data transfer. We have tested our method using the IBM Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) platform. The results demonstrated a significant speed up over its sequential implementation. The proposed data partition and parallelization algorithm, though tested only on one multicore platform, is generic by its design. Therefore the parallel algorithm can be extended to other computing platforms, as well as other point matching related applications. PMID:24308014

Digital data registration and differencing compression system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ransford, Gary A. (Inventor); Cambridge, Vivien J. (Inventor)

1990-01-01

A process is disclosed for x ray registration and differencing which results in more efficient compression. Differencing of registered modeled subject image with a modeled reference image forms a differenced image for compression with conventional compression algorithms. Obtention of a modeled reference image includes modeling a relatively unrelated standard reference image upon a three-dimensional model, which three-dimensional model is also used to model the subject image for obtaining the modeled subject image. The registration process of the modeled subject image and modeled reference image translationally correlates such modeled images for resulting correlation thereof in spatial and spectral dimensions. Prior to compression, a portion of the image falling outside a designated area of interest may be eliminated, for subsequent replenishment with a standard reference image. The compressed differenced image may be subsequently transmitted and/or stored, for subsequent decompression and addition to a standard reference image so as to form a reconstituted or approximated subject image at either a remote location and/or at a later moment in time. Overall effective compression ratios of 100:1 are possible for thoracic x ray digital images.

A discriminative structural similarity measure and its application to video-volume registration for endoscope three-dimensional motion tracking.

PubMed

Luo, Xiongbiao; Mori, Kensaku

2014-06-01

Endoscope 3-D motion tracking, which seeks to synchronize pre- and intra-operative images in endoscopic interventions, is usually performed as video-volume registration that optimizes the similarity between endoscopic video and pre-operative images. The tracking performance, in turn, depends significantly on whether a similarity measure can successfully characterize the difference between video sequences and volume rendering images driven by pre-operative images. The paper proposes a discriminative structural similarity measure, which uses the degradation of structural information and takes image correlation or structure, luminance, and contrast into consideration, to boost video-volume registration. By applying the proposed similarity measure to endoscope tracking, it was demonstrated to be more accurate and robust than several available similarity measures, e.g., local normalized cross correlation, normalized mutual information, modified mean square error, or normalized sum squared difference. Based on clinical data evaluation, the tracking error was reduced significantly from at least 14.6 mm to 4.5 mm. The processing time was accelerated more than 30 frames per second using graphics processing unit.

Digital Data Registration and Differencing Compression System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ransford, Gary A. (Inventor); Cambridge, Vivien J. (Inventor)

1996-01-01

A process for X-ray registration and differencing results in more efficient compression. Differencing of registered modeled subject image with a modeled reference image forms a differenced image for compression with conventional compression algorithms. Obtention of a modeled reference image includes modeling a relatively unrelated standard reference image upon a three-dimensional model, which three-dimensional model is also used to model the subject image for obtaining the modeled subject image. The registration process of the modeled subject image and modeled reference image translationally correlates such modeled images for resulting correlation thereof in spatial and spectral dimensions. Prior to compression, a portion of the image falling outside a designated area of interest may be eliminated, for subsequent replenishment with a standard reference image. The compressed differenced image may be subsequently transmitted and/or stored, for subsequent decompression and addition to a standard reference image so as to form a reconstituted or approximated subject image at either a remote location and/or at a later moment in time. Overall effective compression ratios of 100:1 are possible for thoracic X-ray digital images.

Digital data registration and differencing compression system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ransford, Gary A. (Inventor); Cambridge, Vivien J. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

A process for x ray registration and differencing results in more efficient compression is discussed. Differencing of registered modeled subject image with a modeled reference image forms a differential image for compression with conventional compression algorithms. Obtention of a modeled reference image includes modeling a relatively unrelated standard reference image upon a three dimensional model, which three dimensional model is also used to model the subject image for obtaining the modeled subject image. The registration process of the modeled subject image and modeled reference image translationally correlates such modeled images for resulting correlation thereof in spatial and spectral dimensions. Prior to compression, a portion of the image falling outside a designated area of interest may be eliminated, for subsequent replenishment with a standard reference image. The compressed differenced image may be subsequently transmitted and/or stored, for subsequent decompression and addition to a standard reference image so as to form a reconstituted or approximated subject image at either remote location and/or at a later moment in time. Overall effective compression ratios of 100:1 are possible for thoracic x ray digital images.

Image Segmentation, Registration, Compression, and Matching

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yadegar, Jacob; Wei, Hai; Yadegar, Joseph; Ray, Nilanjan; Zabuawala, Sakina

2011-01-01

A novel computational framework was developed of a 2D affine invariant matching exploiting a parameter space. Named as affine invariant parameter space (AIPS), the technique can be applied to many image-processing and computer-vision problems, including image registration, template matching, and object tracking from image sequence. The AIPS is formed by the parameters in an affine combination of a set of feature points in the image plane. In cases where the entire image can be assumed to have undergone a single affine transformation, the new AIPS match metric and matching framework becomes very effective (compared with the state-of-the-art methods at the time of this reporting). No knowledge about scaling or any other transformation parameters need to be known a priori to apply the AIPS framework. An automated suite of software tools has been created to provide accurate image segmentation (for data cleaning) and high-quality 2D image and 3D surface registration (for fusing multi-resolution terrain, image, and map data). These tools are capable of supporting existing GIS toolkits already in the marketplace, and will also be usable in a stand-alone fashion. The toolkit applies novel algorithmic approaches for image segmentation, feature extraction, and registration of 2D imagery and 3D surface data, which supports first-pass, batched, fully automatic feature extraction (for segmentation), and registration. A hierarchical and adaptive approach is taken for achieving automatic feature extraction, segmentation, and registration. Surface registration is the process of aligning two (or more) data sets to a common coordinate system, during which the transformation between their different coordinate systems is determined. Also developed here are a novel, volumetric surface modeling and compression technique that provide both quality-guaranteed mesh surface approximations and compaction of the model sizes by efficiently coding the geometry and connectivity/topology components of the generated models. The highly efficient triangular mesh compression compacts the connectivity information at the rate of 1.5-4 bits per vertex (on average for triangle meshes), while reducing the 3D geometry by 40-50 percent. Finally, taking into consideration the characteristics of 3D terrain data, and using the innovative, regularized binary decomposition mesh modeling, a multistage, pattern-drive modeling, and compression technique has been developed to provide an effective framework for compressing digital elevation model (DEM) surfaces, high-resolution aerial imagery, and other types of NASA data.

Automated Registration of Images from Multiple Bands of Resourcesat-2 Liss-4 camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radhadevi, P. V.; Solanki, S. S.; Jyothi, M. V.; Varadan, G.

2014-11-01

Continuous and automated co-registration and geo-tagging of images from multiple bands of Liss-4 camera is one of the interesting challenges of Resourcesat-2 data processing. Three arrays of the Liss-4 camera are physically separated in the focal plane in alongtrack direction. Thus, same line on the ground will be imaged by extreme bands with a time interval of as much as 2.1 seconds. During this time, the satellite would have covered a distance of about 14 km on the ground and the earth would have rotated through an angle of 30". A yaw steering is done to compensate the earth rotation effects, thus ensuring a first level registration between the bands. But this will not do a perfect co-registration because of the attitude fluctuations, satellite movement, terrain topography, PSM steering and small variations in the angular placement of the CCD lines (from the pre-launch values) in the focal plane. This paper describes an algorithm based on the viewing geometry of the satellite to do an automatic band to band registration of Liss-4 MX image of Resourcesat-2 in Level 1A. The algorithm is using the principles of photogrammetric collinearity equations. The model employs an orbit trajectory and attitude fitting with polynomials. Then, a direct geo-referencing with a global DEM with which every pixel in the middle band is mapped to a particular position on the surface of the earth with the given attitude. Attitude is estimated by interpolating measurement data obtained from star sensors and gyros, which are sampled at low frequency. When the sampling rate of attitude information is low compared to the frequency of jitter or micro-vibration, images processed by geometric correction suffer from distortion. Therefore, a set of conjugate points are identified between the bands to perform a relative attitude error estimation and correction which will ensure the internal accuracy and co-registration of bands. Accurate calculation of the exterior orientation parameters with GCPs is not required. Instead, the relative line of sight vector of each detector in different bands in relation to the payload is addressed. With this method a band to band registration accuracy of better than 0.3 pixels could be achieved even in high hill areas.

Nursing sans frontières: a three year case study of multi-state registration to support nursing practice using information technology.

PubMed

Clark, Robyn A; Yallop, Julie; Wickett, Di; Krum, Henry; Tonkin, Andrew; Stewart, Simon

2006-01-01

To highlight the registration issues for nurses who wish to practice nationally, particularly those practicing within the telehealth sector. As part of a national clinical research study, applications were made to every state and territory for mutual recognition of nursing registration and fee waiver for telenursing cross border practice for a period of three years. These processes are described using a case study approach. The aim of this case study was to achieve registration in every state and territory of Australia without paying multiple fees by using mutual recognition provisions and the cross-border fee waiver policy of the nurse regulatory authorities in order to practice telenursing. Mutual recognition and fee waiver for cross-border practice was granted unconditionally in two states: Victoria (Vic) and Tasmania (Tas), and one territory: the Northern Territory (NT). The remainder of the Australian states and territories would only grant temporary registration for the period of the project or not at all, due to policy restrictions or nurse regulatory authority (NRA) Board decisions. As a consequence of gaining fee waiver the annual cost of registration was a maximum of dollars 145 per annum as opposed to the potential dollars 959 for initial registration and dollars 625 for annual renewal. Having eight individual nurses Acts and NRAs for a population of 265,000 nurses would clearly indicate a case for over regulation in this country. The structure of regulation of nursing in Australia is a barrier to the changing and evolving role of nurses in the 21st century and a significant factor when considering workforce planning.

Unpacking the performance of a mobile health information messaging program for mothers (MomConnect) in South Africa: evidence on program reach and messaging exposure

PubMed Central

Dane, Pierre; Copley, Charles J; Pienaar, Cara; Parsons, Annie Neo; Engelhard, Matt; Woods, David; Bekker, Marcha; Benjamin, Peter; Pillay, Yogan; Barron, Peter; Mohan, Diwakar

2018-01-01

Despite calls to address broader evidence gaps in linking digital technologies to outcome and impact level health indicators, limited attention has been paid to measuring processes pertaining to the performance of programs. In this paper, we assess the program reach and message exposure of a mobile health information messaging program for mothers (MomConnect) in South Africa. In this descriptive study, we draw from system generated data to measure exposure to the program through registration attempts and conversions, message delivery, opt-outs and drop-outs. Using a logit model, we additionally explore determinants for early registration, opt-outs and drop-outs. From August 2014 to April 2017, 1 159 431 women were registered to MomConnect; corresponding to half of women attending antenatal care 1 (ANC1) and nearly 60% of those attending ANC1 estimated to own a mobile phone. In 2016, 26% of registrations started to get women onto MomConnect did not succeed. If registration attempts were converted to successful registrations, coverage of ANC1 attendees would have been 74% in 2016 and 86% in 2017. When considered as percentage of ANC1 attendees with access to a mobile phone, addressing conversion challenges bring registration coverage to an estimated 83%–89% in 2016 and 97%–100% in 2017. Among women registered, nearly 80% of expected short messaging service messages were received. While registration coverage and message delivery success rates exceed those observed for mobile messaging programs elsewhere, study findings highlight opportunities for program improvement and reinforce the need for rigorous and continuous monitoring of delivery systems. PMID:29713510

Unpacking the performance of a mobile health information messaging program for mothers (MomConnect) in South Africa: evidence on program reach and messaging exposure.

PubMed

LeFevre, Amnesty E; Dane, Pierre; Copley, Charles J; Pienaar, Cara; Parsons, Annie Neo; Engelhard, Matt; Woods, David; Bekker, Marcha; Benjamin, Peter; Pillay, Yogan; Barron, Peter; Seebregts, Christopher John; Mohan, Diwakar

2018-01-01

Despite calls to address broader evidence gaps in linking digital technologies to outcome and impact level health indicators, limited attention has been paid to measuring processes pertaining to the performance of programs. In this paper, we assess the program reach and message exposure of a mobile health information messaging program for mothers (MomConnect) in South Africa. In this descriptive study, we draw from system generated data to measure exposure to the program through registration attempts and conversions, message delivery, opt-outs and drop-outs. Using a logit model, we additionally explore determinants for early registration, opt-outs and drop-outs. From August 2014 to April 2017, 1 159 431 women were registered to MomConnect; corresponding to half of women attending antenatal care 1 (ANC1) and nearly 60% of those attending ANC1 estimated to own a mobile phone. In 2016, 26% of registrations started to get women onto MomConnect did not succeed. If registration attempts were converted to successful registrations, coverage of ANC1 attendees would have been 74% in 2016 and 86% in 2017. When considered as percentage of ANC1 attendees with access to a mobile phone, addressing conversion challenges bring registration coverage to an estimated 83%-89% in 2016 and 97%-100% in 2017. Among women registered, nearly 80% of expected short messaging service messages were received. While registration coverage and message delivery success rates exceed those observed for mobile messaging programs elsewhere, study findings highlight opportunities for program improvement and reinforce the need for rigorous and continuous monitoring of delivery systems.

A fast and mobile system for registration of low-altitude visual and thermal aerial images using multiple small-scale UAVs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yahyanejad, Saeed; Rinner, Bernhard

2015-06-01

The use of multiple small-scale UAVs to support first responders in disaster management has become popular because of their speed and low deployment costs. We exploit such UAVs to perform real-time monitoring of target areas by fusing individual images captured from heterogeneous aerial sensors. Many approaches have already been presented to register images from homogeneous sensors. These methods have demonstrated robustness against scale, rotation and illumination variations and can also cope with limited overlap among individual images. In this paper we focus on thermal and visual image registration and propose different methods to improve the quality of interspectral registration for the purpose of real-time monitoring and mobile mapping. Images captured by low-altitude UAVs represent a very challenging scenario for interspectral registration due to the strong variations in overlap, scale, rotation, point of view and structure of such scenes. Furthermore, these small-scale UAVs have limited processing and communication power. The contributions of this paper include (i) the introduction of a feature descriptor for robustly identifying corresponding regions of images in different spectrums, (ii) the registration of image mosaics, and (iii) the registration of depth maps. We evaluated the first method using a test data set consisting of 84 image pairs. In all instances our approach combined with SIFT or SURF feature-based registration was superior to the standard versions. Although we focus mainly on aerial imagery, our evaluation shows that the presented approach would also be beneficial in other scenarios such as surveillance and human detection. Furthermore, we demonstrated the advantages of the other two methods in case of multiple image pairs.

Deformable registration of x-ray to MRI for post-implant dosimetry in prostate brachytherapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Seyoun; Song, Danny Y.; Lee, Junghoon

2016-03-01

Post-implant dosimetric assessment in prostate brachytherapy is typically performed using CT as the standard imaging modality. However, poor soft tissue contrast in CT causes significant variability in target contouring, resulting in incorrect dose calculations for organs of interest. CT-MR fusion-based approach has been advocated taking advantage of the complementary capabilities of CT (seed identification) and MRI (soft tissue visibility), and has proved to provide more accurate dosimetry calculations. However, seed segmentation in CT requires manual review, and the accuracy is limited by the reconstructed voxel resolution. In addition, CT deposits considerable amount of radiation to the patient. In this paper, we propose an X-ray and MRI based post-implant dosimetry approach. Implanted seeds are localized using three X-ray images by solving a combinatorial optimization problem, and the identified seeds are registered to MR images by an intensity-based points-to-volume registration. We pre-process the MR images using geometric and Gaussian filtering. To accommodate potential soft tissue deformation, our registration is performed in two steps, an initial affine transformation and local deformable registration. An evolutionary optimizer in conjunction with a points-to-volume similarity metric is used for the affine registration. Local prostate deformation and seed migration are then adjusted by the deformable registration step with external and internal force constraints. We tested our algorithm on six patient data sets, achieving registration error of (1.2+/-0.8) mm in < 30 sec. Our proposed approach has the potential to be a fast and cost-effective solution for post-implant dosimetry with equivalent accuracy as the CT-MR fusion-based approach.

Semi-automatic registration of 3D orthodontics models from photographs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Destrez, Raphaël.; Treuillet, Sylvie; Lucas, Yves; Albouy-Kissi, Benjamin

2013-03-01

In orthodontics, a common practice used to diagnose and plan the treatment is the dental cast. After digitization by a CT-scan or a laser scanner, the obtained 3D surface models can feed orthodontics numerical tools for computer-aided diagnosis and treatment planning. One of the pre-processing critical steps is the 3D registration of dental arches to obtain the occlusion of these numerical models. For this task, we propose a vision based method to automatically compute the registration based on photos of patient mouth. From a set of matched singular points between two photos and the dental 3D models, the rigid transformation to apply to the mandible to be in contact with the maxillary may be computed by minimizing the reprojection errors. During a precedent study, we established the feasibility of this visual registration approach with a manual selection of singular points. This paper addresses the issue of automatic point detection. Based on a priori knowledge, histogram thresholding and edge detection are used to extract specific points in 2D images. Concurrently, curvatures information detects 3D corresponding points. To improve the quality of the final registration, we also introduce a combined optimization of the projection matrix with the 2D/3D point positions. These new developments are evaluated on real data by considering the reprojection errors and the deviation angles after registration in respect to the manual reference occlusion realized by a specialist.

Optimal full motion video registration with rigorous error propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolloff, John; Hottel, Bryant; Doucette, Peter; Theiss, Henry; Jocher, Glenn

2014-06-01

Optimal full motion video (FMV) registration is a crucial need for the Geospatial community. It is required for subsequent and optimal geopositioning with simultaneous and reliable accuracy prediction. An overall approach being developed for such registration is presented that models relevant error sources in terms of the expected magnitude and correlation of sensor errors. The corresponding estimator is selected based on the level of accuracy of the a priori information of the sensor's trajectory and attitude (pointing) information, in order to best deal with non-linearity effects. Estimator choices include near real-time Kalman Filters and batch Weighted Least Squares. Registration solves for corrections to the sensor a priori information for each frame. It also computes and makes available a posteriori accuracy information, i.e., the expected magnitude and correlation of sensor registration errors. Both the registered sensor data and its a posteriori accuracy information are then made available to "down-stream" Multi-Image Geopositioning (MIG) processes. An object of interest is then measured on the registered frames and a multi-image optimal solution, including reliable predicted solution accuracy, is then performed for the object's 3D coordinates. This paper also describes a robust approach to registration when a priori information of sensor attitude is unavailable. It makes use of structure-from-motion principles, but does not use standard Computer Vision techniques, such as estimation of the Essential Matrix which can be very sensitive to noise. The approach used instead is a novel, robust, direct search-based technique.

Registration Methods for IVUS: Transversal and Longitudinal Transducer Motion Compensation.

PubMed

Talou, Gonzalo D Maso; Blanco, Pablo J; Larrabide, Ignacio; Bezerra, Cristiano Guedes; Lemos, Pedro A; Feijoo, Raul A

2017-04-01

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a fundamental imaging technique for atherosclerotic plaque assessment, interventionist guidance, and, ultimately, as a tissue characterization tool. The studies acquired by this technique present the spatial description of the vessel during the cardiac cycle. However, the study frames are not properly sorted. As gating methods deal with the cardiac phase classification of the frames, the gated studies lack motion compensation between vessel and catheter. In this study, we develop registration strategies to arrange the vessel data into its rightful spatial sequence. Registration is performed by compensating longitudinal and transversal relative motion between vessel and catheter. Transversal motion is identified through maximum likelihood estimator optimization, while longitudinal motion is estimated by a neighborhood similarity estimator among the study frames. A strongly coupled implementation is proposed to compensate for both motion components at once. Loosely coupled implementations (DLT and DTL) decouple the registration process, resulting in more computationally efficient algorithms in detriment of the size of the set of candidate solutions. The DTL outperforms DLT and coupled implementations in terms of accuracy by a factor of 1.9 and 1.4, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that perivascular tissue must be considered to obtain the best registration outcome. Evidences suggest that the method is able to measure axial strain along the vessel wall. The proposed registration sorts the IVUS frames for spatial location, which is crucial for a correct interpretation of the vessel wall kinematics along the cardiac phases.

Schaltenbrand-Wahren-Talairach-Tournoux brain atlas registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowinski, Wieslaw L.; Fang, Anthony; Nguyen, Bonnie T.

1995-04-01

The CIeMed electronic brain atlas system contains electronic versions of multiple paper brain atlases with 3D extensions; some other 3D brain atlases are under development. Its primary goal is to provide automatic labeling and quantification of brains. The atlas data are digitized, enhanced, color coded, labeled, and organized into volumes. The atlas system provides several tools for registration, 3D display and real-time manipulation, object extraction/editing, quantification, image processing and analysis, reformatting, anatomical index operations, and file handling. The two main stereotactic atlases provided by the system are electronic and enhanced versions of Atlas of Stereotaxy of the Human Brain by Schaltenbrand and Wahren and Co-Planar Stereotactic Atlas of the Human Brain by Talairach and Tournoux. Each of these atlases has its own strengths and their combination has several advantages. First, a complementary information is merged and provided to the user. Second, the user can register data with a single atlas only, as the Schaltenbrand-Wahren-Talairach-Tournoux registration is data-independent. And last but not least, a direct registration of the Schaltenbrand-Wahren microseries with MRI data may not be feasible, since cerebral deep structures are usually not clearly discernible on MRI images. This paper addresses registration of the Schaltenbrand- Wahren and Talairach-Tournoux brain atlases. A modified proportional grid system transformation is introduced and suitable sets of landmarks identifiable in both atlases are defined. The accuracy of registration is discussed. A continuous navigation in the multi- atlas/patient data space is presented.

Feature and Intensity Based Medical Image Registration Using Particle Swarm Optimization.

PubMed

Abdel-Basset, Mohamed; Fakhry, Ahmed E; El-Henawy, Ibrahim; Qiu, Tie; Sangaiah, Arun Kumar

2017-11-03

Image registration is an important aspect in medical image analysis, and kinds use in a variety of medical applications. Examples include diagnosis, pre/post surgery guidance, comparing/merging/integrating images from multi-modal like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Computed Tomography (CT). Whether registering images across modalities for a single patient or registering across patients for a single modality, registration is an effective way to combine information from different images into a normalized frame for reference. Registered datasets can be used for providing information relating to the structure, function, and pathology of the organ or individual being imaged. In this paper a hybrid approach for medical images registration has been developed. It employs a modified Mutual Information (MI) as a similarity metric and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. Computation of mutual information is modified using a weighted linear combination of image intensity and image gradient vector flow (GVF) intensity. In this manner, statistical as well as spatial image information is included into the image registration process. Maximization of the modified mutual information is effected using the versatile Particle Swarm Optimization which is developed easily with adjusted less parameter. The developed approach has been tested and verified successfully on a number of medical image data sets that include images with missing parts, noise contamination, and/or of different modalities (CT, MRI). The registration results indicate the proposed model as accurate and effective, and show the posture contribution in inclusion of both statistical and spatial image data to the developed approach.

Extending the Reach of IGSN Beyond Earth: Implementing IGSN Registration to Link Nasa's Apollo Lunar Samples and Their Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Todd, Nancy S.

2016-01-01

The rock and soil samples returned from the Apollo missions from 1969-72 have supported 46 years of research leading to advances in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the inner Solar System. NASA has been engaged in several initiatives that aim to restore, digitize, and make available to the public existing published and unpublished research data for the Apollo samples. One of these initiatives is a collaboration with IEDA (Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance) to develop MoonDB, a lunar geochemical database modeled after PetDB (Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor). In support of this initiative, NASA has adopted the use of IGSN (International Geo Sample Number) to generate persistent, unique identifiers for lunar samples that scientists can use when publishing research data. To facilitate the IGSN registration of the original 2,200 samples and over 120,000 subdivided samples, NASA has developed an application that retrieves sample metadata from the Lunar Curation Database and uses the SESAR API to automate the generation of IGSNs and registration of samples into SESAR (System for Earth Sample Registration). This presentation will describe the work done by NASA to map existing sample metadata to the IGSN metadata and integrate the IGSN registration process into the sample curation workflow, the lessons learned from this effort, and how this work can be extended in the future to help deal with the registration of large numbers of samples.

Extending the Reach of IGSN Beyond Earth: Implementing IGSN Registration to Link NASA's Apollo Lunar Samples and their Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Todd, N. S.

2016-12-01

The rock and soil samples returned from the Apollo missions from 1969-72 have supported 46 years of research leading to advances in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the inner Solar System. NASA has been engaged in several initiatives that aim to restore, digitize, and make available to the public existing published and unpublished research data for the Apollo samples. One of these initiatives is a collaboration with IEDA (Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance) to develop MoonDB, a lunar geochemical database modeled after PetDB. In support of this initiative, NASA has adopted the use of IGSN (International Geo Sample Number) to generate persistent, unique identifiers for lunar samples that scientists can use when publishing research data. To facilitate the IGSN registration of the original 2,200 samples and over 120,000 subdivided samples, NASA has developed an application that retrieves sample metadata from the Lunar Curation Database and uses the SESAR API to automate the generation of IGSNs and registration of samples into SESAR (System for Earth Sample Registration). This presentation will describe the work done by NASA to map existing sample metadata to the IGSN metadata and integrate the IGSN registration process into the sample curation workflow, the lessons learned from this effort, and how this work can be extended in the future to help deal with the registration of large numbers of samples.

77 FR 55795 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-11

... occasion. Total Burden Hours: 344. Title: Citrus from Peru. OMB Control Number: 0579-0289. Summary of..., mandarin oranges, or tangerines, sweet oranges, and tangelos) from approved areas of Peru into the United... national plant protection organization officials from Peru, grower registration and agreement, fruit fly...

78 FR 73876 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Passenger and Crew Manifest

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-09

... private aircraft flights. Specific data elements required for each passenger and crew member include: Full... expiration date; and alien registration number where applicable. APIS is authorized under the Aviation and...,937. Private Aircraft Pilots: Estimated Number of Respondents: 460,000. Estimated Number of Total...

Strategies for registering range images from unknown camera positions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardini, Fausto; Rushmeier, Holly E.

2000-03-01

We describe a project to construct a 3D numerical model of Michelangelo's Florentine Pieta to be used in a study of the sculpture. Here we focus on the registration of the range images used to construct the model. The major challenge was the range of length scales involved. A resolution of 1 mm or less required for the 2.25 m tall piece. To achieve this resolution, we could only acquire an area of 20 by 20 cm per scan. A total of approximately 700 images were required. Ideally, a tracker would be attached to the scanner to record position and pose. The use of a tracker was not possible in the field. Instead, we used a crude-to-fine approach to registering the meshes to one another. The crudest level consisted of pairwise manual registration, aided by texture maps containing laser dots that were projected onto the sculpture. This crude alignment was refined by an automatic registration of laser dot centers. In this phase, we found that consistency constraints on dot matches were essential to obtaining accurate results. The laser dot alignment was refined by an automatic registration of laser dot centers. In this phase, we found that consistency constraints on dot matches were essential to obtaining accurate results. The laser dot alignment was further refined using a variation of the ICP algorithm developed by Besl and McKay. In the application of ICP to global registration, we developed a method to avoid one class of local minima by finding a set of points, rather than the single point, that matches each candidate point.

Concepts for on-board satellite image registration, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ruedger, W. H.; Daluge, D. R.; Aanstoos, J. V.

1980-01-01

The NASA-NEEDS program goals present a requirement for on-board signal processing to achieve user-compatible, information-adaptive data acquisition. One very specific area of interest is the preprocessing required to register imaging sensor data which have been distorted by anomalies in subsatellite-point position and/or attitude control. The concepts and considerations involved in using state-of-the-art positioning systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) in concert with state-of-the-art attitude stabilization and/or determination systems to provide the required registration accuracy are discussed with emphasis on assessing the accuracy to which a given image picture element can be located and identified, determining those algorithms required to augment the registration procedure and evaluating the technology impact on performing these procedures on-board the satellite.

Medical image registration: basic science and clinical implications.

PubMed

Imran, Muhammad Babar; Meo, Sultan Ayoub; Yousuf, Mohammad; Othman, Saleh; Shahid, Abubakar

2010-01-01

Image Registration is a process of aligning two or more images so that corresponding feature can be related objectively. Integration of corresponding and complementary information from various images has become an important area of computation in medical imaging. Merging different images of the same patient taken by different modalities or acquired at different times is quite useful in interpreting lower resolution functional images, such as those provided by nuclear medicine, in determining spatial relationships of structures seen in different modalities. This will help in planning surgery and longitudinal follow up. The aim of this article was to introduce image registration to all those who are working in field of medical sciences in general and medical doctors in particular; and indicate how and where this specialty is moving to provide better health care services.

dPIRPLE: a joint estimation framework for deformable registration and penalized-likelihood CT image reconstruction using prior images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dang, H.; Wang, A. S.; Sussman, Marc S.; Siewerdsen, J. H.; Stayman, J. W.

2014-09-01

Sequential imaging studies are conducted in many clinical scenarios. Prior images from previous studies contain a great deal of patient-specific anatomical information and can be used in conjunction with subsequent imaging acquisitions to maintain image quality while enabling radiation dose reduction (e.g., through sparse angular sampling, reduction in fluence, etc). However, patient motion between images in such sequences results in misregistration between the prior image and current anatomy. Existing prior-image-based approaches often include only a simple rigid registration step that can be insufficient for capturing complex anatomical motion, introducing detrimental effects in subsequent image reconstruction. In this work, we propose a joint framework that estimates the 3D deformation between an unregistered prior image and the current anatomy (based on a subsequent data acquisition) and reconstructs the current anatomical image using a model-based reconstruction approach that includes regularization based on the deformed prior image. This framework is referred to as deformable prior image registration, penalized-likelihood estimation (dPIRPLE). Central to this framework is the inclusion of a 3D B-spline-based free-form-deformation model into the joint registration-reconstruction objective function. The proposed framework is solved using a maximization strategy whereby alternating updates to the registration parameters and image estimates are applied allowing for improvements in both the registration and reconstruction throughout the optimization process. Cadaver experiments were conducted on a cone-beam CT testbench emulating a lung nodule surveillance scenario. Superior reconstruction accuracy and image quality were demonstrated using the dPIRPLE algorithm as compared to more traditional reconstruction methods including filtered backprojection, penalized-likelihood estimation (PLE), prior image penalized-likelihood estimation (PIPLE) without registration, and prior image penalized-likelihood estimation with rigid registration of a prior image (PIRPLE) over a wide range of sampling sparsity and exposure levels.

Three-Dimensional Recording of Bastion Middleburg Monument Using Terrestrial Laser Scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Majid, Z.; Lau, C. L.; Yusoff, A. R.

2016-06-01

This paper describes the use of terrestrial laser scanning for the full three-dimensional (3D) recording of historical monument, known as the Bastion Middleburg. The monument is located in Melaka, Malaysia, and was built by the Dutch in 1660. This monument serves as a major hub for the community when conducting commercial activities in estuaries Malacca and the Dutch build this monument as a control tower or fortress. The monument is located on the banks of the Malacca River was built between Stadhuys or better known as the Red House and Mill Quayside. The breakthrough fort on 25 November 2006 was a result of the National Heritage Department through in-depth research on the old map. The recording process begins with the placement of measuring targets at strategic locations around the monument. Spherical target was used in the point cloud data registration. The scanning process is carried out using a laser scanning system known as a terrestrial scanner Leica C10. This monument was scanned at seven scanning stations located surrounding the monument with medium scanning resolution mode. Images of the monument have also been captured using a digital camera that is setup in the scanner. For the purposes of proper registration process, the entire spherical target was scanned separately using a high scanning resolution mode. The point cloud data was pre-processed using Leica Cyclone software. The pre-processing process starting with the registration of seven scan data set through overlapping spherical targets. The post-process involved in the generation of coloured point cloud model of the monument using third-party software. The orthophoto of the monument was also produced. This research shows that the method of laser scanning provides an excellent solution for recording historical monuments with true scale of and texture.

CT to Cone-beam CT Deformable Registration With Simultaneous Intensity Correction

PubMed Central

Zhen, Xin; Gu, Xuejun; Yan, Hao; Zhou, Linghong; Jia, Xun; Jiang, Steve B.

2012-01-01

Computed tomography (CT) to cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) deformable image registration (DIR) is a crucial step in adaptive radiation therapy. Current intensity-based registration algorithms, such as demons, may fail in the context of CT-CBCT DIR because of inconsistent intensities between the two modalities. In this paper, we propose a variant of demons, called Deformation with Intensity Simultaneously Corrected (DISC), to deal with CT-CBCT DIR. DISC distinguishes itself from the original demons algorithm by performing an adaptive intensity correction step on the CBCT image at every iteration step of the demons registration. Specifically, the intensity correction of a voxel in CBCT is achieved by matching the first and the second moments of the voxel intensities inside a patch around the voxel with those on the CT image. It is expected that such a strategy can remove artifacts in the CBCT image, as well as ensuring the intensity consistency between the two modalities. DISC is implemented on computer graphics processing units (GPUs) in compute unified device architecture (CUDA) programming environment. The performance of DISC is evaluated on a simulated patient case and six clinical head-and-neck cancer patient data. It is found that DISC is robust against the CBCT artifacts and intensity inconsistency and significantly improves the registration accuracy when compared with the original demons. PMID:23032638

Groupwise Registration and Atlas Construction of 4th-Order Tensor Fields Using the ℝ+ Riemannian Metric*

PubMed Central

Barmpoutis, Angelos

2010-01-01

Registration of Diffusion-Weighted MR Images (DW-MRI) can be achieved by registering the corresponding 2nd-order Diffusion Tensor Images (DTI). However, it has been shown that higher-order diffusion tensors (e.g. order-4) outperform the traditional DTI in approximating complex fiber structures such as fiber crossings. In this paper we present a novel method for unbiased group-wise non-rigid registration and atlas construction of 4th-order diffusion tensor fields. To the best of our knowledge there is no other existing method to achieve this task. First we define a metric on the space of positive-valued functions based on the Riemannian metric of real positive numbers (denoted by ℝ+). Then, we use this metric in a novel functional minimization method for non-rigid 4th-order tensor field registration. We define a cost function that accounts for the 4th-order tensor re-orientation during the registration process and has analytic derivatives with respect to the transformation parameters. Finally, the tensor field atlas is computed as the minimizer of the variance defined using the Riemannian metric. We quantitatively compare the proposed method with other techniques that register scalar-valued or diffusion tensor (rank-2) representations of the DWMRI. PMID:20436782

Panorama imaging for image-to-physical registration of narrow drill holes inside spongy bones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergmeier, Jan; Fast, Jacob Friedemann; Ortmaier, Tobias; Kahrs, Lüder Alexander

2017-03-01

Image-to-physical registration based on volumetric data like computed tomography on the one side and intraoperative endoscopic images on the other side is an important method for various surgical applications. In this contribution, we present methods to generate panoramic views from endoscopic recordings for image-to-physical registration of narrow drill holes inside spongy bone. One core application is the registration of drill poses inside the mastoid during minimally invasive cochlear implantations. Besides the development of image processing software for registration, investigations are performed on a miniaturized optical system, achieving 360° radial imaging with one shot by extending a conventional, small, rigid, rod lens endoscope. A reflective cone geometry is used to deflect radially incoming light rays into the endoscope optics. Therefore, a cone mirror is mounted in front of a conventional 0° endoscope. Furthermore, panoramic images of inner drill hole surfaces in artificial bone material are created. Prior to drilling, cone beam computed tomography data is acquired from this artificial bone and simulated endoscopic views are generated from this data. A qualitative and quantitative image comparison of resulting views in terms of image-to-image registration is performed. First results show that downsizing of panoramic optics to a diameter of 3mm is possible. Conventional rigid rod lens endoscopes can be extended to produce suitable panoramic one-shot image data. Using unrolling and stitching methods, images of the inner drill hole surface similar to computed tomography image data of the same surface were created. Registration is performed on ten perturbations of the search space and results in target registration errors of (0:487 +/- 0:438)mm at the entry point and (0:957 +/- 0:948)mm at the exit as well as an angular error of (1:763 +/- 1:536)°. The results show suitability of this image data for image-to-image registration. Analysis of the error components in different directions reveals a strong influence of the pattern structure, meaning higher diversity results into smaller errors.

Improved multimodality data fusion of late gadolinium enhancement MRI to left ventricular voltage maps in ventricular tachycardia ablation.

PubMed

Roujol, Sebastien; Basha, Tamer A; Tan, Alex; Khanna, Varun; Chan, Raymond H; Moghari, Mehdi H; Rayatzadeh, Hussein; Shaw, Jaime L; Josephson, Mark E; Nezafat, Reza

2013-05-01

Electroanatomical voltage mapping (EAVM) is commonly performed prior to catheter ablation of scar-related ventricular tachycardia (VT) to locate the arrhythmic substrate and to guide the ablation procedure. EAVM is used to locate the position of the ablation catheter and to provide a 3-D reconstruction of left-ventricular anatomy and scar. However, EAVM measurements only represent the endocardial scar with no transmural or epicardial information. Furthermore, EAVM is a time-consuming procedure, with a high operator dependence and has low sampling density, i.e., spatial resolution. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows noninvasive assessment of scar morphology that can depict 3-D scar architecture. Despite the potential use of LGE as a roadmap for VT ablation for identification of arrhythmogenic substrate, its utility has been very limited. To allow for identification of VT substrate, a correlation is needed between the substrates identified by EAVM as the gold standard and LGE-MRI scar characteristics. To do so, a system must be developed to fuse the datasets from these modalities. In this study, a registration pipeline for the fusion of LGE-MRI and EAVM data is presented. A novel surface registration algorithm is proposed, integrating the matching of global scar areas as an additional constraint in the registration process. A preparatory landmark registration is initially performed to expedite the convergence of the algorithm. Numerical simulations were performed to evaluate the accuracy of the registration in the presence of errors in identifying landmarks in EAVM or LGE-MRI datasets as well as additional errors due to respiratory or cardiac motion. Subsequently, the accuracy of the proposed fusion system was evaluated in a cohort of ten patients undergoing VT ablation where both EAVM and LGE-MRI data were available. Compared to landmark registration and surface registration, the presented method achieved significant improvement in registration error. The proposed data fusion system allows the fusion of EAVM and LGE-MRI data in VT ablation with registration errors less than 3.5  mm.

Multi-system verification of registrations for image-guided radiotherapy in clinical trials.

PubMed

Cui, Yunfeng; Galvin, James M; Straube, William L; Bosch, Walter R; Purdy, James A; Li, X Allen; Xiao, Ying

2011-09-01

To provide quantitative information on the image registration differences from multiple systems for image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) credentialing and margin reduction in clinical trials. Images and IGRT shift results from three different treatment systems (Tomotherapy Hi-Art, Elekta Synergy, Varian Trilogy) have been sent from various institutions to the Image-Guided Therapy QA Center (ITC) for evaluation for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) trials. Nine patient datasets (five head-and-neck and four prostate) were included in the comparison, with each patient having 1-4 daily individual IGRT studies. In all cases, daily shifts were re-calculated by re-registration of the planning CT with the daily IGRT data using three independent software systems (MIMvista, FocalSim, VelocityAI). Automatic fusion was used in all calculations. The results were compared with those submitted from institutions. Similar regions of interest (ROIs) and same initial positions were used in registrations for inter-system comparison. Different slice spacings for CBCT sampling and different ROIs for registration were used in some cases to observe the variation of registration due to these factors. For the 54 comparisons with head-and-neck datasets, the absolute values of differences of the registration results between different systems were 2.6±2.1 mm (mean±SD; range 0.1-8.6 mm, left-right [LR]), 1.7±1.3 mm (0.0-4.9 mm, superior-inferior [SI]), and 1.8±1.1 mm (0.1-4.0 mm, anterior-posterior [AP]). For the 66 comparisons in prostate cases, the differences were 1.1±1.0 mm (0.0-4.6 mm, LR), 2.1±1.7 mm (0.0-6.6 mm, SI), and 2.0±1.8 mm (0.1-6.9 mm, AP). The differences caused by the slice spacing variation were relatively small, and the different ROI selections in FocalSim and MIMvista also had limited impact. The extent of differences was reported when different systems were used for image registration. Careful examination and quality assurance of the image registration process are crucial before considering margin reduction using IGRT in clinical trials. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effect of deformable registration on the dose calculated in radiation therapy planning CT scans of lung cancer patients

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cunliffe, Alexandra R.; Armato, Samuel G.; White, Bradley

2015-01-15

Purpose: To characterize the effects of deformable image registration of serial computed tomography (CT) scans on the radiation dose calculated from a treatment planning scan. Methods: Eighteen patients who received curative doses (≥60 Gy, 2 Gy/fraction) of photon radiation therapy for lung cancer treatment were retrospectively identified. For each patient, a diagnostic-quality pretherapy (4–75 days) CT scan and a treatment planning scan with an associated dose map were collected. To establish correspondence between scan pairs, a researcher manually identified anatomically corresponding landmark point pairs between the two scans. Pretherapy scans then were coregistered with planning scans (and associated dose maps)more » using the demons deformable registration algorithm and two variants of the Fraunhofer MEVIS algorithm (“Fast” and “EMPIRE10”). Landmark points in each pretherapy scan were automatically mapped to the planning scan using the displacement vector field output from each of the three algorithms. The Euclidean distance between manually and automatically mapped landmark points (d{sub E}) and the absolute difference in planned dose (|ΔD|) were calculated. Using regression modeling, |ΔD| was modeled as a function of d{sub E}, dose (D), dose standard deviation (SD{sub dose}) in an eight-pixel neighborhood, and the registration algorithm used. Results: Over 1400 landmark point pairs were identified, with 58–93 (median: 84) points identified per patient. Average |ΔD| across patients was 3.5 Gy (range: 0.9–10.6 Gy). Registration accuracy was highest using the Fraunhofer MEVIS EMPIRE10 algorithm, with an average d{sub E} across patients of 5.2 mm (compared with >7 mm for the other two algorithms). Consequently, average |ΔD| was also lowest using the Fraunhofer MEVIS EMPIRE10 algorithm. |ΔD| increased significantly as a function of d{sub E} (0.42 Gy/mm), D (0.05 Gy/Gy), SD{sub dose} (1.4 Gy/Gy), and the algorithm used (≤1 Gy). Conclusions: An average error of <4 Gy in radiation dose was introduced when points were mapped between CT scan pairs using deformable registration, with the majority of points yielding dose-mapping error <2 Gy (approximately 3% of the total prescribed dose). Registration accuracy was highest using the Fraunhofer MEVIS EMPIRE10 algorithm, resulting in the smallest errors in mapped dose. Dose differences following registration increased significantly with increasing spatial registration errors, dose, and dose gradient (i.e., SD{sub dose}). This model provides a measurement of the uncertainty in the radiation dose when points are mapped between serial CT scans through deformable registration.« less

78 FR 17722 - Technological Upgrades to Registration and Recordation Functions

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-22

... 2000, the Copyright Office initiated a comprehensive business process reengineering initiative intended... outside consultants and business analysts, the Office identified opportunities for efficiency enhancements... business processes and the automated production of public copyright records. Funding available for the...

40 CFR 161.165 - Description of formulation process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Description of formulation process. 161.165 Section 161.165 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) PESTICIDE PROGRAMS DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTRATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL PESTICIDES Product Chemistry Data...

40 CFR 161.162 - Description of production process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 25 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Description of production process. 161.162 Section 161.162 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) PESTICIDE PROGRAMS DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTRATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL PESTICIDES Product Chemistry Data Requirements...

40 CFR 161.165 - Description of formulation process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Description of formulation process. 161.165 Section 161.165 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) PESTICIDE PROGRAMS DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTRATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL PESTICIDES Product Chemistry Data...

40 CFR 161.165 - Description of formulation process.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Description of formulation process. 161.165 Section 161.165 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) PESTICIDE PROGRAMS DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR REGISTRATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL PESTICIDES Product Chemistry Data...

Evaluation of the personal dental services (wave 1) for Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham primary care trusts--Part 1: Retrospective analyses of registration data and access issues.

PubMed

Best, Helen; Newton, Tim

2005-06-01

The purpose of the study was to undertake analyses of registration data for the personal dental services (PDS) of Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham primary care trusts and relate the analyses to the PDS goal of increasing uptake of dental services. Secondary analyses of registration statistics provided by the Dental Practice Board were undertaken for both 1 years pre-PDS (October 1997 to September 1998) and post-PDS (October 1998 to March 2003) periods. Three sets of analyses were undertaken to consider different aspects of changing registrations: (1) Absolute numbers of patients registered at each time interval; (2) Rates of change in numbers of patients registered for the entire period after the introduction of PDS; and (3) Rates of change in numbers of patients registered for the most recent 3 years of available data. There was a significant increase in the numbers of children registered under capitation, post-PDS as compared to the pre-PDS level (all ages and both genders combined). Post-PDS, the rate of increase for the children was approximately one additional child per practice per month (0.96, 95% CI 0.41-1.52). Similarly there was a significant trend for increasing adults registrations over time of about two and a half adults per practice per month (2.42, 95% CI 0.90-3.95). There was no evidence of a change in registrations for children or adults in total over the most recent period of 3 years. The analysis of the absolute numbers of registered patients each month indicated that the PDS practices had more children registered than before the implementation of the PDS scheme, but not adults. Overall post-implementation there was a trend for increasing registrations in both children and adults, but the most recent data indicated a plateau effect. Further consideration of facilitators to achieve PDS goals of improved uptake of services is required, particularly as they relate to local contexts.

Using patient-specific phantoms to evaluate deformable image registration algorithms for adaptive radiation therapy

PubMed Central

Stanley, Nick; Glide-Hurst, Carri; Kim, Jinkoo; Adams, Jeffrey; Li, Shunshan; Wen, Ning; Chetty, Indrin J.; Zhong, Hualiang

2014-01-01

The quality of adaptive treatment planning depends on the accuracy of its underlying deformable image registration (DIR). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of two DIR algorithms, B-spline–based deformable multipass (DMP) and deformable demons (Demons), implemented in a commercial software package. Evaluations were conducted using both computational and physical deformable phantoms. Based on a finite element method (FEM), a total of 11 computational models were developed from a set of CT images acquired from four lung and one prostate cancer patients. FEM generated displacement vector fields (DVF) were used to construct the lung and prostate image phantoms. Based on a fast-Fourier transform technique, image noise power spectrum was incorporated into the prostate image phantoms to create simulated CBCT images. The FEM-DVF served as a gold standard for verification of the two registration algorithms performed on these phantoms. The registration algorithms were also evaluated at the homologous points quantified in the CT images of a physical lung phantom. The results indicated that the mean errors of the DMP algorithm were in the range of 1.0 ~ 3.1 mm for the computational phantoms and 1.9 mm for the physical lung phantom. For the computational prostate phantoms, the corresponding mean error was 1.0–1.9 mm in the prostate, 1.9–2.4 mm in the rectum, and 1.8–2.1 mm over the entire patient body. Sinusoidal errors induced by B-spline interpolations were observed in all the displacement profiles of the DMP registrations. Regions of large displacements were observed to have more registration errors. Patient-specific FEM models have been developed to evaluate the DIR algorithms implemented in the commercial software package. It has been found that the accuracy of these algorithms is patient-dependent and related to various factors including tissue deformation magnitudes and image intensity gradients across the regions of interest. This may suggest that DIR algorithms need to be verified for each registration instance when implementing adaptive radiation therapy. PMID:24257278

Using patient‐specific phantoms to evaluate deformable image registration algorithms for adaptive radiation therapy

PubMed Central

Stanley, Nick; Glide‐Hurst, Carri; Kim, Jinkoo; Adams, Jeffrey; Li, Shunshan; Wen, Ning; Chetty, Indrin J

2013-01-01

The quality of adaptive treatment planning depends on the accuracy of its underlying deformable image registration (DIR). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of two DIR algorithms, B‐spline‐based deformable multipass (DMP) and deformable demons (Demons), implemented in a commercial software package. Evaluations were conducted using both computational and physical deformable phantoms. Based on a finite element method (FEM), a total of 11 computational models were developed from a set of CT images acquired from four lung and one prostate cancer patients. FEM generated displacement vector fields (DVF) were used to construct the lung and prostate image phantoms. Based on a fast‐Fourier transform technique, image noise power spectrum was incorporated into the prostate image phantoms to create simulated CBCT images. The FEM‐DVF served as a gold standard for verification of the two registration algorithms performed on these phantoms. The registration algorithms were also evaluated at the homologous points quantified in the CT images of a physical lung phantom. The results indicated that the mean errors of the DMP algorithm were in the range of 1.0~3.1mm for the computational phantoms and 1.9 mm for the physical lung phantom. For the computational prostate phantoms, the corresponding mean error was 1.0–1.9 mm in the prostate, 1.9–2.4 mm in the rectum, and 1.8–2.1 mm over the entire patient body. Sinusoidal errors induced by B‐spline interpolations were observed in all the displacement profiles of the DMP registrations. Regions of large displacements were observed to have more registration errors. Patient‐specific FEM models have been developed to evaluate the DIR algorithms implemented in the commercial software package. It has been found that the accuracy of these algorithms is patient‐dependent and related to various factors including tissue deformation magnitudes and image intensity gradients across the regions of interest. This may suggest that DIR algorithms need to be verified for each registration instance when implementing adaptive radiation therapy. PACS numbers: 87.10.Kn, 87.55.km, 87.55.Qr, 87.57.nj

49 CFR 107.709 - Processing of an application for approval, including an application for renewal or modification.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Processing of an application for approval..., Registrations and Submissions § 107.709 Processing of an application for approval, including an application for... before the disposition of an application. (b) At any time during the processing of an application, the...

TU-G-BRA-05: Predicting Volume Change of the Tumor and Critical Structures Throughout Radiation Therapy by CT-CBCT Registration with Local Intensity Correction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Park, S; Robinson, A; Kiess, A

2015-06-15

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an accurate and effective technique to predict and monitor volume changes of the tumor and organs at risk (OARs) from daily cone-beam CTs (CBCTs). Methods: While CBCT is typically used to minimize the patient setup error, its poor image quality impedes accurate monitoring of daily anatomical changes in radiotherapy. Reconstruction artifacts in CBCT often cause undesirable errors in registration-based contour propagation from the planning CT, a conventional way to estimate anatomical changes. To improve the registration and segmentation accuracy, we developed a new deformable image registration (DIR) that iteratively corrects CBCTmore » intensities using slice-based histogram matching during the registration process. Three popular DIR algorithms (hierarchical B-spline, demons, optical flow) augmented by the intensity correction were implemented on a graphics processing unit for efficient computation, and their performances were evaluated on six head and neck (HN) cancer cases. Four trained scientists manually contoured nodal gross tumor volume (GTV) on the planning CT and every other fraction CBCTs for each case, to which the propagated GTV contours by DIR were compared. The performance was also compared with commercial software, VelocityAI (Varian Medical Systems Inc.). Results: Manual contouring showed significant variations, [-76, +141]% from the mean of all four sets of contours. The volume differences (mean±std in cc) between the average manual segmentation and four automatic segmentations are 3.70±2.30(B-spline), 1.25±1.78(demons), 0.93±1.14(optical flow), and 4.39±3.86 (VelocityAI). In comparison to the average volume of the manual segmentations, the proposed approach significantly reduced the estimation error by 9%(B-spline), 38%(demons), and 51%(optical flow) over the conventional mutual information based method (VelocityAI). Conclusion: The proposed CT-CBCT registration with local CBCT intensity correction can accurately predict the tumor volume change with reduced errors. Although demonstrated only on HN nodal GTVs, the results imply improved accuracy for other critical structures. This work was supported by NIH/NCI under grant R42CA137886.« less

Augmented reality image guidance for minimally invasive coronary artery bypass

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Figl, Michael; Rueckert, Daniel; Hawkes, David; Casula, Roberto; Hu, Mingxing; Pedro, Ose; Zhang, Dong Ping; Penney, Graeme; Bello, Fernando; Edwards, Philip

2008-03-01

We propose a novel system for image guidance in totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB). A key requirement is the availability of 2D-3D registration techniques that can deal with non-rigid motion and deformation. Image guidance for TECAB is mainly required before the mechanical stabilization of the heart, thus the most dominant source of non-rigid deformation is the motion of the beating heart. To augment the images in the endoscope of the da Vinci robot, we have to find the transformation from the coordinate system of the preoperative imaging modality to the system of the endoscopic cameras. In a first step we build a 4D motion model of the beating heart. Intraoperatively we can use the ECG or video processing to determine the phase of the cardiac cycle. We can then take the heart surface from the motion model and register it to the stereo-endoscopic images of the da Vinci robot using 2D-3D registration methods. We are investigating robust feature tracking and intensity-based methods for this purpose. Images of the vessels available in the preoperative coordinate system can then be transformed to the camera system and projected into the calibrated endoscope view using two video mixers with chroma keying. It is hoped that the augmented view can improve the efficiency of TECAB surgery and reduce the conversion rate to more conventional procedures.

75 FR 57283 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Passenger and Crew Manifest

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-20

... private aircraft flights. Specific data elements required for each passenger and crew member include: Full... expiration date; and alien registration number where applicable. APIS is authorized under the Aviation and.... Estimated Time per Response: 1 minute. Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 3,128,861. Private Aircraft...