Interplay between intensity standardization and inhomogeneity correction in MR image processing

Image intensity standardization is a postprocessing method designed for correcting acquisition-to-acquisition signal intensity variations (nonstandardness) inherent in magnetic resonance (MR) images. Inhomogeneity correction is a process used to suppress the low frequency background nonuniformities (inhomogeneities) of the image domain that exist in MR images. Both these procedures have important implications in MR image analysis. The effects of these postprocessing operations on improvement of image quality in isolation has been well documented. However, the combined effects of these two processes on MR images and how the processes influence each other have not been studied thus far. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of inhomogeneity correction followed by standardization and vice-versa on MR images in order to determine the best sequence to follow for enhancing image quality. We conducted experiments on several clinical and phantom data sets (nearly 4000 three-dimensional MR images were analyzed) corresponding to four different MRI protocols. Different levels of artificial nonstandardness, and different models and levels of artificial background inhomogeneity were used in these experiments. Our results indicate that improved standardization can be achieved by preceding it with inhomogeneity correction. There is no statistically significant difference in image quality obtained between the results of standardization followed by correction and that of correction followed by standardization from the perspective of inhomogeneity correction. The correction operation is found to bias the effect of standardization. We demonstrate this bias both qualitatively and quantitatively by using two different methods of inhomogeneity correction. We also show that this bias in standardization is independent of the specific inhomogeneity correction method used. The effect of this bias due to correction was also seen in magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) images, which are naturally endowed with the standardness property. Standardization, on the other hand, does not seem to influence the correction operation. It is also found that longer sequences of repeated correction and standardization operations do not considerably improve image quality. These results were found to hold for the clinical and the phantom data sets, for different MRI protocols, for different levels of artificial nonstandardness, for different models and levels of artificial inhomogeneity, for different correction methods, and for images that were endowed with inherent standardness as well as for those that were standardized by using the intensity standardization method. Overall, we conclude that inhomogeneity correction followed by intensity standardization is the best sequence to follow from the perspective of both image quality and computational efficiency.     

基于改进ANE的视频强弱光消除算法

针对监控杭州湾大桥南接线高速公路隧道的摄像头存在受强弱光影响较严重的问题,提出了改进的自适应直方图算法。该算法首先根据实际视频确定滑动窗口的尺寸和直方图均衡化公式参数,以获得最佳画面效果为准,然后以此滑动窗口对视频某一通道图像作卷积,根据改进的直方图均衡化公式计算每个像素点的灰度值,并最终对其余的视频通道分别作卷积。通过该算法能消除强弱光,增强画面质量,便于后续的目标分类和跟踪。     

Speeded up robust features for efficient iris recognition

Iris recognition system is one of the biometric systems in which the development is growing rapidly. In this paper, speeded up robust features (SURFs) are used for detecting and describing iris keypoints. For feature matching, simple fusion rules are applied at different levels. Contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) is applied on the normalized image and is compared with histogram equalization (HE) and adaptive histogram equalization (AHE). The aim is to find the best enhancement technique with SURF and to verify the necessity of iris image enhancement. The recognition accuracy in each case is calculated. Experimental results demonstrate that CLAHE is a crucial enhancement step for SURF-based iris recognition. More keypoints can be extracted with enhancement using CLAHE compared to HE and AHE. This alleviates the problem of feature loss and increases the recognition accuracy. The accuracies of recognition using left and right iris images are 99 and 99.5 %, respectively. Fusion of local distances and choosing suitable fusion rules affect the recognition accuracy, noticeably. The proposed SURF-based algorithm is compared with scale-invariant feature transform, histogram of oriented gradients, maximally stable extremal regions and DAISY. Results show that the proposed algorithm is robust to different image variations and gives the highest recognition accuracy.     

On Nonuniform Windowing M-ary FSK Data in a DFT-Based Detector

Nonuniform amplitude windowingM-ary frequency shiftkeying (FSK) data prior to demodulation reduces the crosstalk normally caused by Doppler and oscillator drift. A major disadvantage of such nonuniform windowing is the loss in signal detectability as a result of the mismatch between the nonuniform windowed signal and the uniform windowed detectors. This paper is concerned with the tradeoff of nonuniform windowing to combat frequency offset degradation and signal detectability losses caused by the use of such windows in a DFT (discrete Fourier transform)-based detector of noncoherentM-ary FSK. What is shown here is that if a frequency control system can maintain frequency to within a certain deviation (which depends on error rate and nonuniform window), nonuniform windowing is not warranted; on the other hand, if the frequency deviation becomes too large, nonuniform windowing is advised. A technique is developed that will determine this crossover deviation.     

Multiband Spectrum Sensing Using Modified Daniell Windowing Technique in Full-Duplex Cognitive Radio Networks: A Performance Study

Full-duplex cognitive radio (CR) is a promising technology for upcoming 5G wireless communication systems. This paper presents a robust fast Fourier transform (FFT) based multiband spectrum sensing using two-dimensional averaging algorithms in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems in full-duplex CR networks with residual self interference under Rayleigh flat fading scenario. In the proposed algorithm, we have used modified Daniell windowing technique both in time and frequency dimensions to smoothen the FFT spectrum under full-duplex scenario. The analytical expressions for the performance metrics are derived for the aforementioned algorithm. The simulated and analytical results, obtained for the proposed algorithm using modified Daniell windowing technique are found in good agreement. Finally, the comparison studies between the proposed scheme using modified Daniel windowing technique and the conventional rectangular windowing scheme clearly depict that the proposed scheme gives optimal performance even at low SNR using fewer filter lengths in time and frequency dimensions as the modified Daniell windowing algorithm is less influenced due to spectral leakage.

     

Alternatives to the discrete cosine transform for irreversible tomographic image compression

Full-frame irreversible compression of medical images is currently being performed using the discrete cosine transform (DCT). Although the DCT is the optimum fast transform for video compression applications, the authors show here that it is outperformed by the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and discrete Hartley transform (DHT) for images obtained using positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and possibly for certain types of digitized radiographs. This difference occurs because PET and MRI images are characterized by a roughly circular region D of non-zero intensity bounded by a region R in which the image intensity is essentially zero. Clipping R to its minimum extent can reduce the number of low-intensity pixels but the practical requirement that images be stored on a rectangular grid means that a significant region of zero intensity must remain an integral part of the image to be compressed. With this constraint imposed, the DCT loses its advantage over the DFT because neither transform introduces significant artificial discontinuities. The DFT and DHT have the further important advantage of requiring less computation time than the DCT.     

Analysis and measurement of timing error effects in a SAW-basedgroup demodulator

This paper examines the effect of timing errors on QPSK/FDMA signals regenerated by a SAW-based group demodulator. The presence of a timing offset not only degrades the performance of that channel, but also increases the amount of its interference into other channels. Time windowing of the input to the chirp Fourier transform is shown to reduce the impact of the timing errors, but at the cost of an increased output noise variance. Measurements are presented for the bit-error rate (BER) performance of a single channel with a fixed timing offset using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) group demodulator based on the convolve-multiply-convolve (CMC) configuration with Kaiser-Bessel windowing     

基于小波变换的红外偏振图像融合算法

为了改善红外图像质量、提高人造目标的可识别率,基于偏振度图像能够较好地凸显人造目标,偏振角较好地描述不同物体表面取向,I图像能反映场景的强度信息的特征,采用对红外图像进行偏振图像融合的算法,即先通过红外热像仪和偏振片拍摄到偏振角度为0°,60°和120°3幅红外图像,再通过计算得到I,Q,U图像,进而得到偏振度图像和偏振角图像,最后对I图像、偏振度和偏振角图像进行红外偏振图像融合,得到高质量的红外偏振图像,由理论分析得到了各个图像的性能指标数据。结果表明,基于小波变换的红外偏振图像融合算法得到的图像数据合理,达到了改善红外图像质量和提高图像中的人造目标的可识别率的目的。     

Sea surface imaging with an across-track interferometric syntheticaperture radar: the SINEWAVE experiment

An across track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is used to image ocean waves. Across track InSAR data were acquired during the SAR INnterferometry Experiment for validation of ocean Wave imaging models (SINEWAVE) in the North Sea using an airborne X-band radar with horizontal polarization. A wind sea system was imaged at different flight levels and with different flight directions with respect to the ocean wave propagation direction. Simultaneously, ocean wave spectra were measured by a directional wave rider buoy. Thus, the experiment data comprises synthetic aperture radar (SAR) intensity, coherence, and phase images together with in situ measurements. As shown in a recent theoretical study by Schulz-Stellenfleth and Lehner (2001), across track InSAR provides distorted (bunched) digital elevation models (DEMs) of the sea surface. Using SINEWAVE data the DEM bunching mechanism is verified with in situ ocean wave measurements available for the first time. It is shown that significant waveheight as well as one-dimensional (1D) wavenumber spectra derived from bunched DEMs and buoy data are in good agreement for small nonlinearities. Peak wave directions and peak wavelength detected in bunched DEMs and SAR intensity images are compared with the buoy spectrum. Peak rotations of up to 30° with respect to the buoy spectrum are found depending on flight direction and flight level. Two-dimensional (2D) spectra of bunched DEMs, corresponding coherency maps, and SAR intensity images are intercompared. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of bunched DEM spectra is shown to be about 5 to 10 dB higher than the SNR of SAR intensity image spectra     

Time-frequency distribution kernels using FIR filter designtechniques

In this correspondence, time-frequency distribution (TFD) kernels are obtained using finite impulse response (FIR) filter design methods, namely, the windowing method and the equiripple approximation method based on Chebyshev criterion. It is shown that the class of the window-designed kernels are simple to obtain and can handle most time-varying environments     

Intensity-based 2-D-3-D registration of cerebral angiograms

We propose a new method for aligning three-dimensional (3-D) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with 2-D X-ray digital subtraction angiograms (DSA). Our method is developed from our algorithm to register computed tomography volumes to X-ray images based on intensity matching of digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs). To make the DSA and DRR more similar, we transform the MRA images to images of the vasculature and set to zero the contralateral side of the MRA to that imaged with DSA. We initialize the search for a match on a user defined circular region of interest. We have tested six similarity measures using both unsegmented MRA and three segmentation variants of the MRA. Registrations were carried out on images of a physical neuro-vascular phantom and images obtained during four neuro-vascular interventions. The most accurate and robust registrations were obtained using the pattern intensity, gradient difference, and gradient correlation similarity measures, when used in conjunction with the most sophisticated MRA segmentations. Using these measures, 95% of the phantom start positions and 82% of the clinical start positions were successfully registered. The lowest root mean square reprojection errors were 1.3 mm (standard deviation 0.6) for the phantom and 1.5 mm (standard deviation 0.9) for the clinical data sets. Finally, we present a novel method for the comparison of similarity measure performance using a technique borrowed from receiver operator characteristic analysis.     

Nonrigid Registration of Joint Histograms for Intensity Standardization in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

A major disadvantage of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared to other imaging modalities like computed tomography is the fact that its intensities are not standardized. Our contribution is a novel method for MRI signal intensity standardization of arbitrary MRI scans, so as to create a pulse sequence dependent standard intensity scale. The proposed method is the first approach that uses the properties of all acquired images jointly (e.g., T1- and T2-weighted images). The image properties are stored in multidimensional joint histograms. In order to normalize the probability density function (pdf) of a newly acquired data set, a nonrigid image registration is performed between a reference and the joint histogram of the acquired images. From this matching a nonparametric transformation is obtained, which describes a mapping between the corresponding intensity spaces and subsequently adapts the image properties of the newly acquired series to a given standard. As the proposed intensity standardization is based on the probability density functions of the data sets only, it is independent of spatial coherence or prior segmentations of the reference and current images. Furthermore, it is not designed for a particular application, body region or acquisition protocol. The evaluation was done using two different settings. First, MRI head images were used, hence the approach can be compared to state-of-the-art methods. Second, whole body MRI scans were used. For this modality no other normalization algorithm is known in literature. The Jeffrey divergence of the pdfs of the whole body scans was reduced by 45%. All used data sets were acquired during clinical routine and thus included pathologies.      

Enhancement of contrast echocardiography by image variabilityanalysis

BACKGROUND: Although there have been recent advances in echocardiography, many studies remain suboptimal due to poor image quality and unclear blood-myocardium border. We developed a novel image processing technique, cardiac variability imaging (CVI), based on the variance of pixel intensity values during passage of ultrasound microbubble contrast into the left ventricle chamber, with the aim of enhancing endocardial border delineation and image quality. METHODS AND RESULTS: CVI analysis was performed on simulated data to test and verify the mechanism of image enhancement. Then CVI analysis was applied to echocardiographic images obtained in two different clinical studies, and still images were interpreted by expert reviewers. In the first study (N = 15), using contrast agent EchoGen, the number of observable wall segments in end-diastolic images, for example, was significantly increased by CVI (4.93) as compared to precontrast (3.28) and contrast images (3.36), P < 0.001 for both comparisons to CVI. In the second study (N = 8), using contrast agent Optison, interobserver variability of manually traced end-diastolic volumes was significantly decreased using CVI (22.3 ml) as compared to precontrast (63.4) and contrast images (49.0), P < 0.01 for both comparisons to CVI. CONCLUSION: CVI can substantially enhance endocardial border delineation and improve echocardiographic image quality and image interpretation.     

一种可用于实时成像的改进PGA算法

相位梯度自聚焦算法(Phase Gradient Autofocus, PGA)可有效补偿高次相位误差, 对实时成像系统获取高分辨图像有重要意义。但是该算法一般需要迭代多次, 运算耗时, 且在不同场景的应用中算法的聚焦性能不够稳定, 这些严重限制了PGA算法在实时处理中的应用。选点和加窗是PGA算法的两个关键步骤, 该文提出一种基于数据均值的选点方法和一种基于脉冲包络的窗宽估计方法, 这两种方法对数据的自适应能力较强, 可使算法获得稳定的聚焦性能, 并有效减少迭代次数。实测数据处理结果证实改进的PGA算法可用于实时成像。      

基于EMD和GEP的急性低血压预测方法研究

急性低血压（AcuteHypotensiveEpisodes，AHE）是ICU重症监护室中患者常见且危害严重的术后发症状之一。AHE的有效诊断与预测，给予医生足够时间实现干预措施，具有十分重要的临床意义。但由于血压时间序列数据高度非线性和复杂性，使得AHE的诊断与预测尤为困难。为此，面向复杂非线性时间序列的建模，本文提出一种基于经验模态分解（EmpiricalModeDecomposition，EMD）和基因表达式程序设计（GeneExpressionProgramming，GEP）的综合方法，并构建相似性匹配模版方法来提高建模的稳定性。应用PhysioNet？中MIMIC—Ⅱ的数据进行实验分析，发现本方法是有效、可行的。为复杂非线性时间序列数据的建模预测提供了一条可参考的路径。     

A convolve–multiply–convolve SAW processor for a transmultiplexer

A study of an analogue transmultiplexer element of an on-board multicarrier demodulator (MCD) using a surface acoustic wave (SAW) processor is made in this paper. The theoretical analysis and simulation results applying various windowing techniques on a convolve–multiply–convolve (CMC) SAW processor are presented. The primary objective of this analysis/simulation is to study the effect of windowing on the side-lobe rejection ratio (SLRR) of the analogue transmultiplexer. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical comparison of sensor signal processing enhancements forNDT synthetic aperture ultrasonic imaging

The results of a detailed analytical study of the effects of sensor processing techniques on clutter suppression and image enhancement for nondestructive testing (NDT) systems are presented. A relatively simple beamforming/diffraction model is developed for near-field, wideband, synthetic aperture ultrasonic imaging in NDT systems. The physical model is used to quantitatively evaluate a variety of front-end sensor signal processing tradeoffs for the enhanced detection and sizing of defects. It is shown using statistical microscopic scattering calculations that a combination of increased spatial sampling and rectangular windowing can increase the signal-to-clutter ratio by ~10 dB while maintaining crack size resolutions well below future projected specifications. The sensor signal processing image enhancements are demonstrated by the construction of simulated strip-map SAFT (synthetic aperture focusing technique) images of metallic crack defects in the presence of large numbers of randomly distributed clutter (simulated grain boundary) scatterers.     

Mildly suboptimal digital filters using a host windowing approach

A digital-filter design technique is described which employs simple trigonometric windowing of a `host? digital filter. In contrast to the usual windowing rationale which uses a truncated ideal impulse response, this approach uses an optimal (finite-length-minimax) host impulse response. It is shown that optimal Hilbert-transform filters serve as suitable hosts for lowpass filters of even-length impulse response, and optimal differentiators can be used as hosts for odd-length impulse responses. The resulting windowed filters are no longer optimal, but yield approximation errors under most operating conditions.     

Expanding window fountain codes for unequal error protection

A novel approach to provide unequal error protection (UEP) using rateless codes over erasure channels, named Expanding Window Fountain (EWF) codes, is developed and discussed. EWF codes use a windowing technique rather than a weighted (non-uniform) selection of input symbols to achieve UEP property. The windowing approach introduces additional parameters in the UEP rateless code design, making it more general and flexible than the weighted approach. Furthermore, the windowing approach provides better performance of UEP scheme, which is confirmed both theoretically and experimentally.     

Room-temperature ferromagnetic ordering in Mn-doped ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

The ferromagnetic ordering in Mn-doped ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) as a function of oxygen pressure and substrate temperature has been investigated. Room-temperature ferromagnetic behaviors in the Mn-doped ZnO films grown at 700°C and 800°C under 10⁻¹ torr in oxygen pressure were found, whereas ferromagnetic ordering in the films grown under 10⁻³ torr disappeared at 300 K. The large positive magnetoresistance (MR), ∼10%, was observed at 5 K at low fields and small negative MR was observed at high fields, irrespective of oxygen pressure. In particular, anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the Mn-doped ZnO film grown at 700°C under 10⁻¹ Torr has been observed up to 210 K. In this work, the observed AHE is believed to be further direct evidence demonstrating that the Mn-doped ZnO thin films are ferromagnetic.