Micro CT中混叠伪影的消除

Micro CT系统是近几年发展起来的具有极高空间分辨率和探测灵敏度的一种成像技术,专门用于对小动物进行成像,并被广泛应用于药物开发,肿瘤检测.Micro CT的这种高分辨率使存在于CT中的混叠伪影在Micro CT中更为突出,成为影响图像质量,降低图像分辨率的主要因素.本文模拟分析了伪影产生的机理,并提出了一种直接对重构的切片图进行伪影分析及消除的算法,能快速有效的消除Micro CT切片图像里的混叠伪影,伪影消除率达70%以上,并且使图像的对比度提高. 关键词： Micro CT 混叠伪影 自适应滤波     

A Primer on the Analytical Aspects of Silicones at Trace Levels-Challenges and Artifacts – A Review

Silicones (polydimethylsiloxanes) find use in a wide variety of industrial and consumer product applications because of their outstanding properties. Potential human exposure to silicones occurs at the work place during manufacturing and product formulation, as well as through the normal use of consumer products containing them.The entry of silicones into various environmental compartments raised health and safety concerns from potential exposure and mandated numerous environmental and toxicological studies. Such studies require qualitative and quantitative determination of silicone species at trace levels. However, the ubiquitous presence of silicones coupled with their unique chemistry renders their analysis at trace levels challenging.This paper provides a consolidated account of various aspects silicones that must be borne in mind to obtain reliable data. The following are some of topics discussed: differences in the chemistry of silicones vs carbon; precautions in sample handling to avoid losses and inadvertent chemical transformation; potential sources for artifacts and interferences that could lead to systematic errors and data misinterpretation; sources for background and the need for matrix matched blank experiments; distinguishing silicones from silicates to avoid overestimation; potential for incorrect structural assignments; preventing inadvertent contamination; questionable claims on the presence of silicones in biological matrices including that of silicone implants.     

Balanced steady-state free precession with parallel imaging gives distortion-free fMRI with high temporal resolution

Research on the functions of the human brain requires that functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) moves towards producing images with less distortion and higher temporal and spatial resolution. This study compares passband balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) acquisitions with and without parallel imaging (PI) to investigate whether combining PI with this pulse sequence is a viable option for functional MRI. Such a novel combination has the potential to offer the distortion-free advantages of bSSFP with the reduced acquisition time of PI. Scans were done on a Philips 3T Intera, using the installed bSSFP pulse sequence, both with and without the sensitivity encoding (SENSE) PI option. The task was a visual flashing checkerboard, and the viewing window covered the visual cortex. Sensitivity comparisons with and without PI were done using the same manually drawn region of interest for each time course of the subject, and comparing the z-score summary statistics: number of voxels with z>2.3, the mean of those voxels, their 90th percentile and their maximum value. We show that PI greatly improves the temporal resolution in bSSFP, reducing the volume acquisition time by more than half in this study to 0.67 s with 3-mm isotropic voxels. At the same time, a statistically significant increase was found for the maximum z-score using bSSFP with PI as compared to without it (P=.02). This improvement can be understood in terms of physiological noise, as demonstrated by noise measurements. This produces observed increases in the overall temporal signal to noise of the functional time series, giving greater sensitivity to functional activations with PI. This study demonstrates for the first time the possibility of combining PI with bSSFP to achieve distortion-free functional images without loss of sensitivity and with high temporal resolution.     

Single image motion deblurring: An accurate PSF estimation and ringing reduction

In this paper we have proposed a single image motion deblurring algorithm that is based on a novel use of dual Fourier spectrum combined with bit plane slicing algorithm and Radon transform (RT) for accurate estimation of PSF parameters such as, blur length and blur angle. Even after very accurate PSF estimation, the deconvolution algorithms tend to introduce ringing artifacts at boundaries and near strong edges. To prevent this post deconvolution effect, a post processing method is also proposed in the framework of traditional Richardson–Lucy (RL) deconvolution algorithm. Experimental results evaluated on the basis of both qualitative and quantitative (PSNR, SSIM) metrics, verified on the dataset of both grayscale and color blurred images show that the proposed method outperforms the existing algorithms for removal of uniform blur. A comparison with state-of-the-art methods proves the usefulness of the proposed algorithm for deblurring real-life images/photographs.     

Suppression of Defective Data Artifacts for Deblurring Images Corrupted by Random Valued Noise

For deblurring images corrupted by random valued noise, two-phase methods first select likely-to-be reliables (data that are not corrupted by random valued noise) and then deblur images only with selected data. Two-phase methods, however, often cause defective data artifacts, which are mixed results of missing data artifacts caused by the lack of data and noisy data artifacts caused mainly by falsely selected outliers (data that are corrupted by random valued noise). In this paper, to suppress these defective data artifacts, we propose a blurring model based reliable-selection technique to select reliables as many as possible to make all of to-be-recovered pixel values to contribute to selected data, while excluding outliers as accurately as possible. We also propose a normalization technique to compensate for non-uniform rates in recovering pixel values. We conducted simulation studies on Gaussian and diagonal deblurring to evaluate the performance of proposed techniques. Simulation results showed that proposed techniques improved the performance of two-phase methods, by suppressing defective data artifacts effectively.     

结合导航回波与压缩感知进行运动伪影矫正

在一定幅度范围内,导航回波可有效追踪刚体运动,用于矫正k空间数据,从而降低运动伪影对图像质量的影响．然而导航回波技术无法很好地矫正大幅度运动以及非刚体运动导致的图像伪影,运动时刻采集到的k空间数据只能舍弃．压缩感知通过非线性规划法,对欠采样数据进行重建,能恢复出原始信号．该文采用伪随机的方式进行数据采集,结合导航回波技术,用压缩感知对未受运动影响的数据进行图像重建,从而减少运动伪影对图像的干扰．该研究为运动伪影的矫正提供了一种新思路．     

三维多回波流动补偿定量磁化率成像(QSM)方法研究

定量磁化率成像(QSM)利用一般成像技术舍弃的相位信息得到局部磁场变化特性,通过复杂的场到源反演计算,可直接得到定量的磁化率图,它广泛应用于测量血氧饱和度、脑部微出血、铁沉积、组织钙化等方面．然而,梯度磁场中流动会引起相位错误,并且产生显著的流动伪影,最终得到错误的QSM图像．为了矫正流动的影响,该文在3 T磁共振系统上实现了三维多回波流动补偿梯度回波序列,并用该序列采集流动水模和志愿者颅脑数据．流动水模和颅脑数据均显示,流动补偿能够明显矫正相位错误,消除流动伪影．颅脑横断位QSM结果证明,流动补偿序列可以消除血液流动引起的QSM的错误,提高QSM的准确性．     

A novel experimental method for potential controlled electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Abstract  In many cases, impedance spectroscopy on electrochemical systems is performed in combination with a potentiostat. The common way of combining a potentiostat and a frequency response analyzer has a number of restrictions. Bandwidth limitations and artifacts from the setup distort the impedance data in sometimes unpredictable manners, and special care has to be taken in physical interpretation of such data. Therefore, potential controlled measurement of artifact-free impedance spectra in a wide range of frequencies is desirable. In this work, a novel experimental method is presented in which the more reliable two-probe impedance spectroscopy is combined with a potential control by a potentiostat without interfering each other. Results obtained on passive zinc by two-probe EIS, the classical potentiostat—EIS combination and the new setup are compared with each other. For an application of the proposed method in measurements of solid state systems, the specific problems are discussed. Graphical abstract        

Free-breathing 3-dimensional steady-state free precession coronary magnetic resonance angiography: comparison of four navigator gating techniques

This work compared the performance of four navigator gating algorithms [accept/reject (A/R), diminishing variance algorithm (DVA), phase ordering with automatic window selection (PAWS) and retrospective gating (RETRO)] in suppressing respiratory motion artifacts in free-breathing 3D balanced steady-state free precession coronary MRA. In 10 volunteers, the right coronary artery (RCA) or the left anterior descending artery (LAD) was imaged (both if time permitted) at 1.5 T with the four gating techniques in random order. Vessel signal, vessel contrast and motion suppression were scored by the consensus of two blinded readers. In 15 imaged vessels (nine RCA and six LAD), PAWS provided significantly better image quality than A/R (P<.05), DVA (P=.02) and RETRO (P=.002). While the quality difference between A/R and DVA was not statistically significant, both algorithms yielded significantly better image quality than RETRO. PAWS and DVA were the most efficient algorithms, providing an approximately 20% and 40% relative increase in average navigator efficiency compared to A/R and RETRO, respectively.     

Improved functional mapping of the human amygdala using a standard functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence with simple modifications

As the amygdala is involved in various aspects of emotional processing, its characterization using neuroimaging modalities, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), is of great interest. However, in fMRI, the amygdala region suffers from susceptibility artifacts that are composed of signal dropouts and image distortions. Various technically demanding approaches to reduce these artifacts have been proposed, and most require alterations beyond a mere change of the acquisition parameters and cannot be easily implemented by the user without changing the MR sequence code. In the present study, we therefore evaluated the impact of simple alterations of the acquisition parameters of a standard gradient-echo echo-planar imaging technique at 3 T composed of echo times (TEs) of 27 and 36 ms as well as section thicknesses of 2 and 4 mm while retaining a section orientation parallel to the intercommissural plane and an in-plane resolution of 2x2 mm(2). In contrast to previous studies, we based our evaluation on the resulting activation maps using an emotional stimulation paradigm rather than on MR raw image quality only. Furthermore, we tested the effects of spatial smoothing of the functional raw data in the course of postprocessing using spatial filters of 4 and 8 mm. Regarding MR raw image quality, a TE of 27 ms and 2-mm sections resulted in the least susceptibility artifacts in the anteromedial aspect of the temporal lobe. The emotional stimulation paradigm resulted in robust bilateral amygdala activation for the approaches with 2-mm sections only -- but with larger activation volumes for a TE of 36 ms as compared with that of 27 ms. Moderate smoothing with a 4-mm spatial filter represented a good compromise between increased sensitivity and preserved specificity. In summary, we showed that rather than applying advanced modifications of the MR sequence, a simple increase in spatial resolution (i.e., the reduction of section thickness) is sufficient to improve the detectability of amygdala activation.