钢轨缺陷的超声相控阵波数成像算法*

该文应用超声相控阵全矩阵捕获的波数成像算法,检测带有通孔缺陷的钢轨和B型相控阵试块。以实验获取的全矩阵数据为基础,研究了自发自收模式和全矩阵模式的波数成像算法,理论上分析了全聚焦方法和波数算法的计算性能,取得波数成像的结果并与全聚焦方法的成像结果做了对比。实验结果表明:波数成像算法具有更快的计算速度和更高的横向分辨率,且能够更加精准地还原钢轨中缺陷大小和形状,而传统的全聚焦方法计算耗时长,聚焦点分布不均匀,重建较大的缺陷出现了纵向拉长的现象,不能够较好地反映钢轨中的大缺陷。波数成像算法在各向同性材料实时检测中有很大的应用潜能。     

Signal enhancement in 5QMAS spectra of spin-5/2 quadrupolar nuclei

5QMAS experiments on spin-5/2 systems display a low sensitivity compared with their 3QMAS counterparts. Nevertheless, the superior resolution of 5QMAS over 3QMAS makes these experiments a favorable choice for many materials. We report an enhancement scheme for the 5QMAS experiment, using an improved five-quantum excitation pulse scheme combined with a FAM-II conversion pulse. The results are verified experimentally on a polycrystalline sample of gamma-(27)Al(2)O(3), showing an enhancement factor of 2.4 over the simple two-pulse (CW) 5QMAS scheme. Numerical computations of the efficiency parameter epsilon support these results.     

The Lattice Solid Model to Simulate the Physics of Rocks and Earthquakes: Incorporation of Friction

The particle-based lattice solid model developed to study the physics of rocks and the nonlinear dynamics of earthquakes is refined by incorporating intrinsic friction between particles. The model provides a means for studying the causes of seismic wave attenuation, as well as frictional heat generation, fault zone evolution, and localisation phenomena. A modified velocity–Verlat scheme that allows friction to be precisely modelled is developed. This is a difficult computational problem given that a discontinuity must be accurately simulated by the numerical approach (i.e., the transition from static to dynamical frictional behaviour). This is achieved using a half time step integration scheme. At each half time step, a nonlinear system is solved to compute the static frictional forces and states of touching particle-pairs. Improved efficiency is achieved by adaptively adjusting the time step increment, depending on the particle velocities in the system. The total energy is calculated and verified to remain constant to a high precision during simulations. Numerical experiments show that the model can be applied to the study of earthquake dynamics, the stick–slip instability, heat generation, and fault zone evolution. Such experiments may lead to a conclusive resolution of the heat flow paradox and improved understanding of earthquake precursory phenomena and dynamics.     

Ultrasound line-by-line scanning method of spatial–temporal active cavitation mapping for high-intensity focused ultrasound

This paper presented an ultrasound line-by-line scanning method of spatial–temporal active cavitation mapping applicable in a liquid or liquid filled tissue cavities exposed by high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Scattered signals from cavitation bubbles were obtained in a scan line immediately after one HIFU exposure, and then there was a waiting time of 2 s long enough to make the liquid back to the original state. As this pattern extended, an image was built up by sequentially measuring a series of such lines. The acquisition of the beamformed radiofrequency (RF) signals for a scan line was synchronized with HIFU exposure. The duration of HIFU exposure, as well as the delay of the interrogating pulse relative to the moment while HIFU was turned off, could vary from microseconds to seconds. The feasibility of this method was demonstrated in tap-water and a tap-water filled cavity in the tissue-mimicking gelatin–agar phantom as capable of observing temporal evolutions of cavitation bubble cloud with temporal resolution of several microseconds, lateral and axial resolution of 0.50 mm and 0.29 mm respectively. The dissolution process of cavitation bubble cloud and spatial distribution affected by cavitation previously generated were also investigated. Although the application is limited by the requirement for a gassy fluid (e.g. tap water, etc.) that allows replenishment of nuclei between HIFU exposures, the technique may be a useful tool in spatial–temporal cavitation mapping for HIFU with high precision and resolution, providing a reference for clinical therapy.     

A feasibility study of temperature rise measurement in a tissue phantom as an alternative way for characterization of the therapeutic high intensity focused ultrasonic field

The feasibility that temperature field measurements in vitro as an alternative way to characterize the high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) field used in therapeutic applications has been explored in a phantom study. Thermocouples (copper-constantan, diameter 0.125 mm) are embedded in a phantom filled with tissue mimicking material that simulates the thermal and acoustic properties of soft-tissue. The temperature rises as a function of ultrasound exposure time near the focus of a HIFU transducer (1.1 MHz, active radius a = 32 mm, geometric focal length = 62 mm) of various acoustic powers up to 30 W are measured and compared with predicted values using a simple nonlinear Gaussian model. The experimental results can be explained well by the model if no acoustic cavitation takes place. When the acoustic power become higher (>5 W) and the local temperature elevation >15 °C and the local temperature is >40 °C at the focal point, cavitation vapor bubbles appear. The presence of the cavitation bubbles may increase the temperature rise rate initially. The bubble aggregates may form along the beam axis under sonication and then eventually makes the temperature elevation reach a saturated value. When acoustic cavitation occurs, the bubble-assisted enhancement of the initial temperature rise (exposure time t < 2 s) can still be predicted by the theory.     

改进的同步迭代算法在光声血管成像中的应用

光声成像结合了光学成像和声学成像的优点，是一种高分辨率，高对比度的无损伤医学成像技术.一种改进的同步迭代算法应用于光声图像重建.仿真和模拟结果表明，与传统的代数迭代算法相比，在90°，135°，180°的有限场光声成像中，此算法对测量误差的校正和迭代次数的收敛上具有较大的优势，图像重建的速度和成像质量都有了明显的提高.实验中，一种圆形扫描结构的光声成像装置，用于180°的有限场扫描，利用改进的同步迭代算法，重建出了高对比度和高分辨率（60μm）的鸡胚胎光声血管图像.实验证明，这种算法的应用，大幅度减少了数据采集时间，为光声成像技术运用于实时监测血流灌注和肿瘤光动力治疗的血管损伤效应提供了潜在的应用价值. 关键词： 光声成像 有限角度 代数迭代算法 光声血管成像     

A nonrigid registration algorithm for longitudinal breast MR images and the analysis of breast tumor response

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) can estimate parameters relating to blood flow and tissue volume fractions and therefore may be used to characterize the response of breast tumors to treatment. To assess treatment response, values of these DCE-MRI parameters are observed at different time points during the course of treatment. We propose a method whereby DCE-MRI data sets obtained in separate imaging sessions can be co-registered to a common image space, thereby retaining spatial information so that serial DCE-MRI parameter maps can be compared on a voxel-by-voxel basis. In performing inter-session breast registration, one must account for patient repositioning and breast deformation, as well as changes in tumor shape and volume relative to other imaging sessions. One challenge is to optimally register the normal tissues while simultaneously preventing tumor distortion. We accomplish this by extending the adaptive bases algorithm through adding a tumor-volume preserving constraint in the cost function. We also propose a novel method to generate the simulated breast magnetic resonance (MR) images, which can be used to evaluate the proposed registration algorithm quantitatively. The proposed nonrigid registration algorithm is applied to both simulated and real longitudinal 3D high resolution MR images and the obtained transformations are then applied to lower resolution physiological parameter maps obtained via DCE-MRI. The registration results demonstrate the proposed algorithm can successfully register breast MR images acquired at different time points and allow for analysis of the registered parameter maps.     

A fast digital image correlation method for deformation measurement

Fast and high-accuracy deformation analysis using digital image correlation (DIC) has been increasingly important and highly demanded in recent years. In literature, the DIC method using the Newton-Rapshon (NR) algorithm has been considered as a gold standard for accurate sub-pixel displacement tracking, as it is insensitive to the relative deformation and rotation of the target subset and thus provides highest sub-pixel registration accuracy and widest applicability. A significant drawback of conventional NR-algorithm-based DIC method, however, is its extremely huge computational expense. In this paper, a fast DIC method is proposed deformation measurement by effectively eliminating the repeating redundant calculations involved in the conventional NR-algorithm-based DIC method. Specifically, a reliability-guided displacement scanning strategy is employed to avoid time-consuming integer-pixel displacement searching for each calculation point, and a pre-computed global interpolation coefficient look-up table is utilized to entirely eliminate repetitive interpolation calculation at sub-pixel locations. With these two approaches, the proposed fast DIC method substantially increases the calculation efficiency of the traditional NR-algorithm-based DIC method. The performance of proposed fast DIC method is carefully tested on real experimental images using various calculation parameters. Results reveal that the computational speed of the present fast DIC is about 120-200 times faster than that of the traditional method, without any loss of its measurement accuracy     

混沌背景中信号参数估计的新方法

怎样提取混沌背景中信号的参数具有重要意义.在重构的相空间中,叠加有其他信号的混沌信号时间序列重构的点集会偏离混沌吸引子所在光滑流形,依据这一性质并综合利用混沌背景中信号本身的特性,提出一种参数估计的新方法：最小相对奇异值(MRSV)法.该方法先建立逆滤波器,由其输出重构相空间,然后改变其参数,使输出信号在嵌入空间中作局部奇异值分解的相对奇异值最小,来实现参数估计.AR模型参数和正弦信号频率估计的仿真结果验证了该方法的有效性. 关键词： 混沌 参数估计 最小相对奇异值(MRSV) 逆滤波器     

Modern Spectral Estimation for Signal Processing in the Frequency Domain

Modern power spectral estimation technique was applied to the signal analysis of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) in the present work. Two methods, Levinson-Durbin and Burg methods, were used to calculate auto-regression (AR) model parameters and the comparison was made. the influence of different AR model orders was studied to find the optimal order by calculating AR model parameters and power spectral density. Results showed that the Burg method gave higher resolution. Characteristics of real ICP-AES measurements were studied and compared by the two methods.     

High accuracy digital image correlation powered by GPU-based parallel computing

A sub-pixel digital image correlation (DIC) method with a path-independent displacement tracking strategy has been implemented on NVIDIA compute unified device architecture (CUDA) for graphics processing unit (GPU) devices. Powered by parallel computing technology, this parallel DIC (paDIC) method, combining an inverse compositional Gauss–Newton (IC-GN) algorithm for sub-pixel registration with a fast Fourier transform-based cross correlation (FFT-CC) algorithm for integer-pixel initial guess estimation, achieves a superior computation efficiency over the DIC method purely running on CPU. In the experiments using simulated and real speckle images, the paDIC reaches a computation speed of 1.66×10⁵ POI/s (points of interest per second) and 1.13×10⁵ POI/s respectively, 57–76 times faster than its sequential counterpart, without the sacrifice of accuracy and precision. To the best of our knowledge, it is the fastest computation speed of a sub-pixel DIC method reported heretofore.     

A stereoscopic digital speckle photography system for 3-D displacement field measurements

Stereoscopic digital speckle photography offers a technique to measure object shapes and 3-D displacement fields in experimental mechanics. The system measures the displacement of a random white light speckle pattern, which somehow is present on the object surface, using digital correlation. This paper describes a general physical model for stereo imaging systems. A camera calibration algorithm, which takes the distortion in the lenses into account, is also presented and evaluated by real experiments. Standard deviations of small deformations as low as 1% of the pixel size for in-plane deformations and 6% of the pixel size for the out-of-plane component are reported. Using the calibration algorithm described, the main source of errors is random errors originating from the correlation algorithm.     

Noise robustness and parallel computation of the inverse compositional Gauss–Newton algorithm in digital image correlation

The inverse compositional Gauss–Newton (IC-GN) algorithm is one of the most popular sub-pixel registration algorithms in digital image correlation (DIC). The IC-GN algorithm, compared with the traditional forward additive Newton–Raphson (FA-NR) algorithm, can achieve the same accuracy in less time. However, there are no clear results regarding the noise robustness of IC-GN algorithm and the computational efficiency is still in need of further improvements. In this paper, a theoretical model of the IC-GN algorithm was derived based on the sum of squared differences correlation criterion and linear interpolation. The model indicates that the IC-GN algorithm has better noise robustness than the FA-NR algorithm, and shows no noise-induced bias if the gray gradient operator is chosen properly. Both numerical simulations and experiments show good agreements with the theoretical predictions. Furthermore, a seed point-based parallel method is proposed to improve the calculation speed. Compared with the recently proposed path-independent method, our model is feasible and practical, and it can maximize the computing speed using an improved initial guess. Moreover, we compared the computational efficiency of our method with that of the reliability-guided method using a four-point bending experiment, and the results show that the computational efficiency is greatly improved. This proposed parallel IC-GN algorithm has good noise robustness and is expected to be a practical option for real-time DIC.     

一种基于最优频段的X射线脉冲星累积轮廓时延估计方法

为提高X射线脉冲星导航中累积脉冲轮廓的时间延迟估计精度, 分析了X射线脉冲星累积脉冲轮廓的频谱特性和现有Taylor快速傅立叶变换时延估计算法的缺陷, 提出了一种基于最优频段的累积轮廓时延估计算法, 并通过建立不同信噪比下时延估计误差与所采用频段之间的关系以确定最优频段. 数值及实测数据实验结果表明: 在短时观测或光子流量较小时, 该算法优于常用的近似最大似然 (FAML)、相关 (CC)、最小二乘 (NLS) 及加权最小二乘 (WNLS) 方法; 在观测时间较长或光子流量较大时, 该算法的估计精度与CC及NLS方法相当, 但其运算量低于NLS, FAML 及WNLS方法. 本文所提算法适用于短时观测脉冲轮廓或低流量脉冲星的高精度时延估计.     

基于改进的FAST-SURF快速图像拼接算法

针对SURF（speeded-up robust features）算法计算量大、图像拼接效率低的不足,以FAST （features from accelerated segment test）角点取代SURF斑点在图像重合区域提取特征点,使用SURF描述子进行特征点描述,通过描述子降维、自适应最近邻与次近邻比值法、几何约束法剔除错误匹配点,提高匹配的准确性。匹配完成后,通过减少样本集的个数和舍弃不合理参数模型来改进RANSAC（random sample consensus）方法,获取单应性矩阵,最后进行图像变换、融合和拼接。实验结果显示,该图像拼接算法与传统的SURF算法相比,图像拼接总时间减少了12%,拼接效率得到了显著提高。     

预测搜索算法在图像相关中的应用

数字散斑相关方法在亚像素测量过程中运算量大,在对实时性要求较高的系统中该方法的应用受到了限制。提出了一种原理简单、搜索速度快、精度高的预测搜索算法,介绍了预测搜索算法的原理,并给出预测位移的公式。通过实验验证了对算法的精度、效率和鲁棒性,说明对数字散斑相关方法进行优化后,既不损失亚像素位移的计算精度又提高了图像处理的效率。     

Initial guess by improved population-based intelligent algorithms for large inter-frame deformation measurement using digital image correlation

Digital image correlation (DIC) has received a widespread research and application in experimental mechanics. In DIC, the performance of subpixel registration algorithm (e.g., Newton-Raphson method, quasi-Newton method) relies heavily on the initial guess of deformation. In the case of small inter-frame deformation, the initial guess could be found by simple search scheme, the coarse-fine search for instance. While for large inter-frame deformation, it is difficult for simple search scheme to robustly estimate displacement parameters and deformation parameters simultaneously with low computational cost. In this paper, we proposed three improving strategies, i.e. Q-stage evolutionary strategy (T), parameter control strategy (C) and space expanding strategy (E), and then combined them into three population-based intelligent algorithms (PIAs), i.e. genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), and finally derived eighteen different algorithms to calculate the initial guess for qN. The eighteen algorithms were compared in three sets of experiments including large rigid body translation, finite uniaxial strain and large rigid body rotation, and the results showed the effectiveness of proposed improving strategies. Among all compared algorithms, DE-TCE is the best which is robust, convenient and efficient for large inter-frame deformation measurement.     

基于压缩感知超分辨鬼成像

分辨率是成像系统的一个重要参数, 获得高分辨率图像一直是鬼成像系统的一个目标. 本文提出了以成像系统点扩散函数作为先验知识, 基于稀疏测量的超分辨压缩感知鬼成像重建模型. 搭建了一套计算鬼成像实验装置, 用于验证该模型对于提高鬼成像系统分辨率的有效性, 并与传统的鬼成像计算模型进行了对比. 实验表明, 利用该模型可突破成像系统衍射极限分辨率的限制, 得到超分辨鬼成像. 关键词： 鬼成像 压缩感知 超分辨 稀疏测量     

非线性合成孔径聚焦超声成像

论文介绍了合成孔径聚焦超声成像系统原理。建立了一个无损检测超声成像系统。同时，为了进一步提高分辨率，设计了基于相关系数的非线性合成孔径聚焦算法。然后利用此算法对试块成像，结果表明，与延时叠加合成孔径算法相比，基于相关性分析的非线性合成孔径算法提高了图像的分辨率，改善了图像质量。     

Low dimensional optimization for in vivo real-time porcine liver motion estimation using ultrasound imaging

This study presents a contribution to the tracking of a moving target during high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment. Indeed, HIFU has proved to be highly efficient in inducing homogeneous and reproducible tumor destruction by thermal coagulation necrosis. However, accurate targeting of human abdominal tumors is difficult to maintain due to the motion induced by breathing. An algorithm is presented to track a region of interest of fixed size in a sequence of images. This algorithm was evaluated on synthetic data and on in vivo sequences of ultrasound liver images acquired using 12 MHz ultrasound imaging probe at a rate of 16 frames/s.The algorithm presented here was derived from the non-linear constant brightness assumption. Since the motion was smooth it was possible to reduce the space of admissible displacements; hence the number of unknown parameters was small compared with the size of the data. The optimal displacement was estimated by a Gauss-Newton method, and the matrix required at each step was assembled by reading the data only once. This algorithm was applied to simulated data, where the true displacement was known and a precise evaluation was possible. The relative error was about 2%. The algorithm was also applied to a video sequence of sonograms acquired during in vivo experiments. These trials were conducted on porcine liver since its size and physiology are similar to humans. Movements were induced by breathing and heart-beating. Two particular frequencies representing breathing (0.26 Hz) and heart beat (1.14 Hz) were identified in the estimated displacement and were correlated with the monitored breathing (0.27 Hz) and electrocardiograms (1.28 Hz). In addition, a region of interest (ROI) modeling the focal zone of a HIFU transducer was tracked along time. Therefore this study provides a mean of determining the location of the targeted region in vivo during HIFU treatments. This can be applied to correct the location of the focal zone accordingly. This method can preferentially be applied to the liver or to any other moving organ.