Therapeutic US Applications for the Abdomen and Pelvis.

US and MRI-guided therapeutic US (TUS) can aid in the treatment of prostate, liver, and pancreatic cancer, as well as uterine fibroids and osseous metastases, and understanding the selection and optimization of treatment strategies is essential to furthering TUS advances and innovations.

Development of an integrated biomechanics informatics system with knowledge discovery and decision support tools for research of injury prevention and performance enhancement.

The field of biomechanics involves integrating a variety of data types such as waveform, video, discrete, and performance. These different sources of data must be efficiently and accurately associated to provide meaningful feedback to athletes, coaches, and healthcare professionals to prevent injury and improve rehabilitation/performance. There are many challenges in biomechanics research such as data storage, standardization, review, sharing, and accessibility.

A Prehospital Acute Stroke Trial has Only Modest Impact on Enrollment in Concurrent, Post-arrival-Recruiting Stroke Trials.

Background: Because "time is brain," acute stroke trials are migrating to the prehospital setting. The impact upon enrollment in post-arrival trials of earlier recruitment in a prehospital trial requires delineation.

Methods: We analyzed all patients recruited into acute and prevention stroke trials during an 8-year period when an academic medical center (AMC) was participating in a prehospital treatment trial - the NIH Field Administration of Stroke Treatment - Magnesium (FAST-MAG) study.

Dual-modality optical coherence tomography and frequency-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging microscope system for intravascular imaging.

Significance: Detailed biochemical and morphological imaging of the plaque burdened coronary arteries holds the promise of improved understanding of atherosclerosis plaque development, ultimately leading to better diagnostics and therapies.

Aim: Development of a dual-modality intravascular catheter supporting swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) and frequency-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging (FD-FLIM) of endogenous fluorophores with UV excitation.

Approach: We instituted a refined approach to endoscope development that combines simulation in a commercial ray tracing program, fabrication, and a measurement method for optimizing ball-lens performance.

Impact of Covid-19 on the urology service in United States: perspectives and strategies to face a Pandemic.

Over the course of several weeks following the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in the U.S., the virus rapidly spread across our communities.

Deep learning based classification of solid lipid-poor contrast enhancing renal masses using contrast enhanced CT.

Objective: Establish a workflow that utilizes convolutional neural nets (CNN) to classify solid, lipid-poor, contrast enhancing renal masses using multiphase contrast enhanced CT (CECT) images and to assess the performance of the resulting network.

Methods: In this institutional review board approved study of 143 patients with predominantly solid, lipid-poor, contrast enhancing renal lesions (46 benign and 97 malignant), patients with a pre-operative multiphase CECT of the abdomen and pelvis obtained between June 2009 and June 2015 were retrospectively queried. Benign renal masses included oncocytoma and lipid-poor angiomyolipoma and the malignant group included clear cell, papillary, and chromophobe carcinomas.

A UNIVARIATE PERSISTENT BRAIN NETWORK FEATURE BASED ON THE AGGREGATED COST OF CYCLES FROM THE NESTED FILTRATION NETWORKS.

A threshold-free feature in brain network analysis can help circumvent the curse of arbitrary network thresholding for binary network conversions. Here, Persistent Homology is the inspiration for defining a new aggregation cost based on the number of cycles, or for tracking the first Betti number in a nested filtration network within the graph. Our theoretical analysis shows that the proposed aggregated cost of cycles (ACC) is monotonically increasing and thus we define a univariate persistent feature based on the shape of ACC.

A Geometric Framework for Feature Mappings in Multimodal Fusion of Brain Image Data.

Fusing multimodal brain image features to empower statistical analysis has attracted considerable research interest. Generally, a feature mapping is learned in the fusion process so the cross-modality relationship in the multimodal data can be more effectively extracted in a common feature space. Most of the prior work achieve this goal by data-driven approaches without considering the geometry properties of the feature spaces where the data are embedded.

Switchable detector array scheme to reduce the effect of single-photon detector's deadtime in a multi-bit/photon quantum link.

We explore the use of a switchable single-photon detector (SPD) array scheme to reduce the effect of a detector's deadtime for a multi-bit/photon quantum link. The case of data encoding using M possible orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) states is specifically studied in this paper. Our method uses SPDs with a controllable × optical switch and we use a Monte Carlo-based method to simulate the quantum detection process.

Reliability of CT-based texture features: Phantom study.

Objective: To determine the intra-, inter- and test-retest variability of CT-based texture analysis (CTTA) metrics.

Materials And Methods: In this study, we conducted a series of CT imaging experiments using a texture phantom to evaluate the performance of a CTTA panel on routine abdominal imaging protocols. The phantom comprises of three different regions with various textures found in tumors.

MULTI-TASK SPARSE SCREENING FOR PREDICTING FUTURE CLINICAL SCORES USING LONGITUDINAL CORTICAL THICKNESS MEASURES.

Cortical thickness estimation performed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an effective measure of brain atrophy in preclinical individuals at high risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the high dimensionality of individual cortical thickness data coupled with small population samples make it challenging to perform cortical thickness feature selection for AD diagnosis and prognosis. Thus far, there are very few methods that can accurately predict future clinical scores using longitudinal cortical thickness measures.

Dual-axis illumination for virtually augmenting the detection view of optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy.

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) has demonstrated fast, label-free volumetric imaging of optical-absorption contrast within the quasiballistic regime of photon scattering. However, the limited numerical aperture of the ultrasonic transducer restricts the detectability of the photoacoustic waves, thus resulting in incomplete reconstructed features. To tackle the limited-view problem, we added an oblique illumination beam to the original coaxial optical-acoustic scheme to provide a complementary detection view.

EMPOWERING CORTICAL THICKNESS MEASURES IN CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE WITH SPHERICAL SPARSE CODING.

Cortical thickness estimation performed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important technique for the diagnosis and understanding of the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Directly using raw cortical thickness measures as features with Support Vector Machine (SVM) for clinical group classification only yields modest results since brain areas are not equally atrophied during AD progression. Therefore, feature reduction is generally required to retain only the most relevant features for the final classification.

Multi-Source Multi-Target Dictionary Learning for Prediction of Cognitive Decline.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Identifying correct biomarkers may determine pre-symptomatic AD subjects and enable early intervention. Recently, Multi-task sparse feature learning has been successfully applied to many computer vision and biomedical informatics researches.

Hyperbolic Space Sparse Coding with Its Application on Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease in Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a transitional stage between normal age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we introduce a hyperbolic space sparse coding method to predict impending decline of MCI patients to dementia using surface measures of ventricular enlargement. First, we compute diffeomorphic mappings between ventricular surfaces using a canonical hyperbolic parameter space with consistent boundary conditions and surface tensor-based morphometry is computed to measure local surface deformations.

APPLYING SPARSE CODING TO SURFACE MULTIVARIATE TENSOR-BASED MORPHOMETRY TO PREDICT FUTURE COGNITIVE DECLINE.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive brain disease. Accurate diagnosis of AD and its prodromal stage, mild cognitive impairment, is crucial for clinical trial design. There is also growing interests in identifying brain imaging biomarkers that help evaluate AD risk presymptomatically.

MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF HIPPOCAMPUS AND LATERAL VENTRICLE REVEALS REGIONAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COGNITIVELY STABLE AND DECLINING PERSONS.

Alzheimers disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease most prevalent in the elderly. Distinguishing disease-related memory decline from normal age-related memory decline has been clinically difficult due to the subtlety of cognitive change during the preclinical stage of AD. In contrast, sensitive biomarkers derived from in vivo neuroimaging data could improve the early identification of AD.

Multidimensional Interactive Radiology Report and Analysis: Standardization of workflow and reporting for renal mass tracking and quantification.

A conventional radiology report primarily consists of a large amount of unstructured text, and lacks clear, concise, consistent and content-rich information. Hence, an area of unmet clinical need consists of developing better ways to communicate radiology findings and information specific to each patient. Here, we design a new workflow and reporting system that combines and integrates advances in engineering technology with those from the medical sciences, the Multidimensional Interactive Radiology Report and Analysis (MIRRA).

Detecting Genetic Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease in Whole Genome Sequence Data via Lasso Screening.

Genetic factors play a key role in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) whole genome sequence (WGS) data offers new power to investigate mechanisms of AD by combining entire genome sequences with neuroimaging and clinical data. Here we explore the ADNI WGS SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) data in depth and extract approximately six million valid SNP features.

Materials for microfabricated implantable devices: a review.

The application of microfabrication to the development of biomedical implants has produced a new generation of miniaturized technology for assisting treatment and research. Microfabricated implantable devices (μID) are an increasingly important tool, and the development of new μIDs is a rapidly growing field that requires new microtechnologies able to safely and accurately function in vivo. Here, we present a review of μID research that examines the critical role of material choice in design and fabrication.

Metabolic shift in lung alveolar cell mitochondria following acrolein exposure.

Acrolein, an α,β unsaturated electrophile, is an environmental pollutant released in ambient air from diesel exhausts and cooking oils. This study examines the role of acrolein in altering mitochondrial function and metabolism in lung-specific cells. RLE-6TN, H441, and primary alveolar type II (pAT2) cells were exposed to acrolein for 4 h, and its effect on mitochondrial oxygen consumption rates was studied by XF Extracellular Flux analysis.

An invariant shape representation using the anisotropic Helmholtz equation.

Analyzing geometry of sulcal curves on the human cortical surface requires a shape representation invariant to Euclidean motion. We present a novel shape representation that characterizes the shape of a curve in terms of a coordinate system based on the eigensystem of the anisotropic Helmholtz equation. This representation has many desirable properties: stability, uniqueness and invariance to scaling and isometric transformation.

Short-term cigarette smoke exposure induces reversible changes in energy metabolism and cellular redox status independent of inflammatory responses in mouse lungs.

Cigarette smoking leads to alteration in cellular redox status, a hallmark in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This study examines the role of cigarette smoke (CS) exposure in the impairment of energy metabolism and, consequently, mitochondrial dysfunction. Male A/J mice were exposed to CS generated by a smoking machine for 4 or 8 wk.

Intrarenal localization of the plasma membrane ATP channel pannexin1.

In the renal tubules, ATP released from epithelial cells stimulates purinergic receptors, regulating salt and water reabsorption. However, the mechanisms by which ATP is released into the tubular lumen are multifaceted. Pannexin1 (Panx1) is a newly identified.