162,331 research outputs found
A software for the reliable automatic estimation of endothelial cell density
Purpose: The problem of reliable automatic estimation of density of corneal endothelial cells in images from optical microscopy was addressed. The reliability of estimated densities should be comparable to that of manual cell count.
Methods: The spatial frequencies contained in endothelium images are extracted with suitable mathematical techniques (2-dimension Discrete Fourier Transform, DFT). A circular band in the DFT of the images is shown to contain the frequency information related to the cell density. An algorithm for reliably identifying this spatial frequency information and for extracting from it an estimate of the cell density has been developed. A prototype of the algorithm was implemented in the Matlab® language and run on a personal computer. A preliminary evaluation was performed on a data set containing 50 corneas, with two 100X images each; manual count was performed by an expert ophthalmologist on two 200X images for each cornea.
Results: Mean percent difference of automatic densities vs. manual ones was 2.6% (std dev 5.5%, max 15.7%), with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.90. Mean percent absolute difference was 4.7% (std dev 3.8%). Running times of the prototype were in the order of 40 seconds per image.
Conclusions: A new algorithm was developed for the reliable automatic estimation of endothelial cell density. A preliminary clinical evaluation of the proposed technique confirmed its capability of reliably estimating corneal endothelium cell density. Implementation of the algorithm with a more efficient computer language, e.g. C++, will allow execution times in the order of 5-10 seconds
A new system for the automatic estimation of endothelial cell density in donor corneas
Aims: The problem of automatic estimation of endothelial cell density from microscopy images in donor corneas was addressed.
Methods: The spatial frequencies contained in digital endothelium images are extracted with a two dimension discrete Fourier transform (DFT) technique. A circular band in the DFT of the images is shown to contain the frequency information related to the cell density. An algorithm for reliably recovering this spatial frequency information and for extracting from it an estimate of endothelial cell density has been developed and implemented in a computer program. An evaluation was performed on a data set containing 100 donor corneas, by comparing automatic values with manual counts performed by three eye bank experts on two images for each cornea.
Results: The mean difference of automatic densities v manual ones was 14 cells/mm2 (0.9%), with a standard deviation of 119 cells/mm2 (5.1%) and mean absolute difference of 92 cells/mm2(3.9%). The ANOVA based overall inter-rater reliability was 0.935. The algorithm was also capable of identifying all non-processable images. Running times were in the order of 1–2 seconds per image.
Conclusion: A new algorithm was developed for the fully automatic estimation of endothelial cell density. The results of a clinical evaluation on 100 corneas suggest that it is capable of reliably estimating endothelium cell density in donor corneas
[Report to Chief J. E. Curry, by an unknown author #1]
Report to Chief J. E. Curry, by an unknown author. The report contains a list of officers who gave depositions to the United States Attorney
[Report to Chief J. E. Curry, by an unknown author #2]
Report to Chief J. E. Curry, by an unknown author. The report contains a list of officers who gave depositions to the United States Attorney
Composites Made of Polypropylene Nonwoven Fabric with Plasmas Layers
Engineering of materials used for shielding from electromagnetic fields is currently one of the most extensively developing field of applications of composite materials (Bula et al., 2006; Jaroszewski & Ziaja, 2010; Koprowska et al., 2004, 2008; Sarto et al. 2003, 2005; Wei et al., 2006; Ziaja et al., 2008, 2009, 2010). The choice of suitable materials for the shields and their appropriate arrangement have an essential meaning. Development of lightweight and resistant to environmental exposure shielding materials is possible by using substrates of polypropylene and plasma technology (Ziaja&Jaroszewski, 2011). The shields for suppression of electric field were made in the form of composites of polypropylene unwoven fabrics with deposited plasma layers. Additional advantage of the application of the method is the possibility of plasma cleaning of a fabric surface and modifying its surface properties. The unique properties of pulse plasma make possible to obtain metallic and dielectric coatings on polypropylene fabrics, which are not achievable by standard methods. The coatings are characterized by a good adhesion to the substrates. The surface of the samples was examined in two ways: by metallurgical microscope Nikon MA200 and scanning microscope Quanta 200 in the low vacuum mode. To identify the structure of the obtained layers the X-Ray radiography was used. Additionally properties of the composites was studied using impedance spectroscopy. The method of impedance spectroscopy allows one to connect the measured frequency characteristics with the physical structure of tested material and the alternations in the structure. This method has been used by the authors to determine the properties of plasma layers deposited on a polypropylene nonwoven fabric (Jaroszewski et al., 2010a; Pospieszna et al., 2010; Pospieszna et al., 2010b)
Murder on the mountain: author talk with Peter J. Wosh
Author talk by Peter J. Wosh on May 5th, 2022, on his book, "Murder on the Mountain: crime, passion, and punishment in gilded age New Jersey.
Mr. Melvin J. Collier, RWWL AUC, June 2011
This video is a conversation with Mr. Melvin J. Collier. Mr. Collier talks about his book, "From Mississippi to Africa: A Journey of Discovery". Daniel Le, AUC Woodruff Library, is the interviewer
Protolytic properties of polyamine wasp toxin analogues studied by 13C NMR spectroscopy
Acid-base properties of the natural polyamine wasp toxin PhTX-433 (1) and seven synthetic analogues [PhTX-343 (2), PhTX-334 (3), PhTX-443 (4), PhTX-434 (5), PhTX-344 (6), PhTX-444 (7), and PhTX-333 (8)], each having four protolytic sites, were characterized by (13)C NMR spectroscopy. Nonlinear, multiparameter, simultaneous fit of all chemical shift data obtained from the NMR titration curves yielded macroscopic pK(a) values as well as intrinsic chemical shift data of all differently protonated macrospecies. Analyses of the chemical shift data demonstrated strong interactions between all four sites and provided information about complex relationships between chemical shift values and protonation state. Deprotonation of fully protonated forms starts at the central amino group of the polyamine moiety, and the extent of this trend depends on the distance to the flanking, protonated amino groups. The pK(a1) values of 1-8 are in the range 8.2-9.4. Hence, some of the toxins are incompletely protonated at the pH and ionic strength conditions used for assessment of their interactions with ionotropic glutamate and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and the degree of protonation is expected to have pharmacological importance in the ion-channel binding event
A Tripartite Post-Recession Rebalancing
In this latest Advance & Rutgers Report, entitled “A Tripartite Post-Recession Rebalancing,” Dean James W. Hughes and Professor Joseph J. Seneca deliver an incisive assessment of the current market conditions and obstacles in the path of our economic recovery. They offer a statistical cautionary tale that the private and public sector need to hear and acknowledge in order for the economy to make continued progress.This report was published as Issue Paper Number 7, November 2011, in Advance & Rutgers Report
Evidence for the decay B0→J/ψω and measurement of the relative branching fractions of meson decays to J/ψη and J/ψη′
First evidence of the B 0 → J / ψ ω decay is found and the B s 0 → J / ψ η and B s 0 → J / ψ η ′ decays are studied using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb -1 collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. The branching fractions of these decays are measured relative to that of the B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0 decay:frac(B (B 0 → J / ψ ω), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 0.89 ± 0.19 (stat) - 0.13 + 0.07 (syst),frac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 14.0 ± 1.2 (stat) - 1.5 + 1.1 (syst) - 1.0 + 1.1 (frac(f d, f s)),frac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η ′), B (B 0 → J / ψ ρ 0)) = 12.7 ± 1.1 (stat) - 1.3 + 0.5 (syst) - 0.9 + 1.0 (frac(f d, f s)), where the last uncertainty is due to the knowledge of f d / f s, the ratio of b-quark hadronization factors that accounts for the different production rate of B 0 and B s 0 mesons. The ratio of the branching fractions of B s 0 → J / ψ η ′ and B s 0 → J / ψ η decays is measured to befrac(B (B s 0 → J / ψ η ′), B (B s 0 → J / ψ η)) = 0.90 ± 0.09 (stat) - 0.02 + 0.06 (syst)
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