In this paper, we propose a sketch-based editable polycube mapping method that, given a general mesh and a simple polycube that coarsely resembles the shape of the object, plus sketched features indicating relevant correspondences between the two, provides a uniform, regular, and user-controllable quads-only mesh that can be used as ...

The recovery of structure from motion in real time over extended areas demands methods that mitigate the effects of computational complexity and arithmetical inconsistency. In this paper, we develop SCISM, an algorithm based on relative frame bundle adjustment, which splits the recovered map of 3D landmarks and keyframes poses so ...

We present a needle deflection estimation method to anticipate needle bending during insertion into deformable tissue. Using limited additional sensory information, our approach reduces the estimation error caused by uncertainties inherent in the conventional needle deflection estimation methods. We use Kalman filters to combine a kinematic needle deflection model with ...

We report a study of the basins of attraction for potential energy minima defined by different minimization algorithms for an atomic system. We find that whereas some minimization algorithms produce compact basins, others produce basins with complex boundaries or basins consisting of disconnected parts. Such basins deviate from the 'correct' ...

PURPOSE: The use of projector-based augmented reality (AR) in surgery may enable surgeons to directly view anatomical models and surgical data from the patient's surface (skin). It has the advantages of a consistent viewing focus on the patient, an extended field of view and augmented interaction. This paper presents an ...

We propose a biharmonic model for cross-object volumetric mapping. This new computational model aims to facilitate the mapping of solid models with complicated geometry or heterogeneous inner structures. In order to solve cross-shape mapping between such models through divide and conquer, solid models can be decomposed into subparts upon which ...

The increasing importance of multimedia applications is placing a great insist on content protection and customer privacy. Communications can be intercepted, especially over wireless links. Since encryption can effectively prevent eavesdropping, its use is widely advocated. The codec G. 729 based CS-ACELP algorithm is standardized as voice codec by ITU-T ...

Urban areas present highly complex radiation environments; with small scale features resulting from different construction materials, topographic effects and potential anthropogenic inputs from past industrial activity or other sources. Mapping of the radiation fields in urban areas allows a detailed assessment of exposure pathways for the people who live and ...

Abstract Facebook is a popular social media Web site that has been hypothesized to exert potential influence over users' attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual framework to explain influential aspects of Facebook. This mixed methods study applied concept mapping methodology, a validated ...

BACKGROUND: Somitogenesis is a fundamental characteristic feature of development in various animal embryos. Molecular evidence has proved that the Notch and Wnt pathways play important roles in regulating the process of somitogenesis and there is crosstalk between these two pathways. However, it is difficult to investigate the detailed mechanism of ...

Microwave ablation is a technique used in treating hepatocellular carcinoma, especially in cases where surgical removal is impossible. In the present study we are investigating the effects of design characteristics of a coaxial slot antenna (single- versus double-slot, slot-to-tip distance and slot size) on the ablation zone characteristics (dimensions and ...

This paper describes an integrated approach of site suitability mapping and ranking of the most suitable sites, for the implementation of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) projects, using spatial multicriteria decision analysis (SMCDA) techniques and mathematical modelling. The SMCDA procedure contains constraint mapping, site suitability analysis with criteria standardization and weighting, ...

An increasing number of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) density maps are being generated with suitable resolution to trace the protein backbone and guide sidechain placement. Generating and evaluating atomic models based on such maps would be greatly facilitated by independent validation metrics for assessing the fit of the models to the ...

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a hybrid ablative technique based on applying electroporation (EP) pulses just before conducting radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The rationale was that the EP-induced reduction in blood perfusion could be sufficient to reduce the thermal sink effect and hence ...

Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) breeding in eastern North America are famous for their annual fall migration to their overwintering grounds in Mexico. However, the mechanisms they use to successfully reach these sites remain poorly understood. Here, we test whether monarchs are true navigators who can determine their location relative to ...

PURPOSE: Most nosocomial urinary tract infections are related to urinary catheters and their biofilm. For the research in this province, animal models are needed to explain the host-pathogen interactions and have an advantage in controlling external interference. This study investigated the validity of the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique ...

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subcallosal cingulate white matter (SCCWM) is an experimental therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD). The specific axonal pathways that mediate the anti-depressant effects of DBS remain unknown. Patient-specific tractography-activation models (TAMs) are a new tool to help identify pathways modulated by DBS. TAMs consist ...

Although tractography can noninvasively map axonal pathways, current approaches are typically incomplete or computationally intensive. Fast, complete maps may serve as a useful clinical tool for assessing neurological disorders stemming from pathological anatomical connections such as epilepsy. We re-frame tractography in terms of logic and conditional probabilities. The formalism inherently ...

Conductance catheters are known to have a nonuniform spatial sensitivity due to the distribution of the electric field. The Geselowitz relation is applied to murine and multi-segment conductance catheters using finite element models to determine the spatial sensitivity in a uniform medium and simplified left ventricle models. A new formulation ...

Passive haptics, also known as tactile augmentation, denotes the use of a physical counterpart to a virtual environment to provide tactile feedback. Employing passive haptics can result in more realistic touch sensations than those from active force feedback, especially for rigid contacts. However, changes in the virtual environment would necessitate ...

We reported a developed methodology to design superhard materials for given chemical systems under external conditions (here, pressure). The new approach is based on the CALYPSO algorithm and requires only the chemical compositions to predict the hardness vs. energy map, from which the energetically preferable superhard structures are readily accessible. ...

We present Bristle Map, a novel method for the aggregation and abstraction of spatiotemporal data that enables multi-attribute visualization, exploration, and analysis. This visualization technique supports the display of multidimensional data by providing users with a multi-parameter encoding scheme within a single visual encoding paradigm. Given a set of spatiotemporal ...

In radiofrequency ablation (RFA), saline infusion is beneficial for enhancing electrical conductivity, which allows more energy dissipation into target tissue, resulting in increased lesion size. Computational simulation has been a popular method to estimate lesion size from RFA treatment, but it has not been used effectively for saline-infused RFA, for ...

Agriculture is historically a dominant form of global environmental degradation and the potential for increased future degradation may be driven by growing demand for food and biofuels. While these impacts have been explored using global gridded maps of croplands, such maps are based on relatively coarse spatial data. Here we ...

Placement of a bicaval dual-lumen (BCDL) catheter demands sophisticated visualization in patients to assure proper positioning in order to administer single-site venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO). Large animal models are needed and thus appropriate procedures to assure anatomic and functional cannula placement would assist in experimental design and procedures. ...

BACKGROUND: Robust risk-adjustment algorithms are often necessary if data from clinical registries is to be used to compare rates of important clinical outcomes between participating centers. Although such algorithms have been successfully developed for surgical and catheter-based cardiac interventions in children, outcomes of pediatric and congenital catheter ablation have not ...

Sampling technique is a concern for standardization of thromboelastography (TEG), as it contributes towards preanalytical variation in TEG tracings. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of catheter lumen diameter on TEG parameters with kaolin-activated native blood in a swine haemorrhagic shock model, using standardized sampling techniques. ...

In severe lymphedema, indocyanine green lymphography cannot be used to map lymphatic channels before lymphaticovenular anastomosis (LVA) because linear lymphatics cannot be detected in a severely affected leg. Here, we describe a new method, which we refer to as predictive lymphatic mapping, to predict the location of lymphatics for anastomosis ...

Phylogenetic studies based on molecular sequence alignments are expected to become more accurate as the the number of sites in the alignments increases. With the advent of genomic-scale data, where alignments have very large numbers of sites, bootstrap values close to 100% and posterior probabilities close to 1 are the ...

The constant improvement of high-throughput technologies has led to a great increase in generated data per single experiment. Pathway analysis is a widespread method to understand experimental results at the system level. Pathway Processor 2.0 is an upgrade over the original Pathway Processor program developed in 2002, extended to support ...

Objectives: The logistic kernel machine test (LKMT) is a testing procedure tailored towards high-dimensional genetic data. Its use in pathway analyses of case-control genome-wide association studies results from its computational efficiency and flexibility in incorporating additional information via the kernel. The kernel can be any positive definite function; unfortunately, its ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The rapid growth of short read datasets poses a new challenge to the short read mapping problem in terms of sensitivity and execution speed. Existing methods often use a restrictive error model for computing the alignments to improve speed, whereas more flexible error models are generally too slow ...

Cryoprobes are minimally invasive tools that apply extremely low temperatures to eradicate undesirable cancerous tissue during cryosurgery. At times, they may generate thermal injury to neighboring good tissue leading to the case of over-ablation. The magnitude of this problem becomes significant when tumors are complex, large size and irregular in ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The KEGG PATHWAY database provides a plethora of pathways for a diversity of organisms. All pathway components are directly linked to other KEGG databases, such as KEGG COMPOUND or KEGG REACTION. Therefore, the pathways can be extended with an enormous amount of information and provide a foundation for ...

Current inverse treatment planning methods that optimize both catheter positions and dwell times in prostate HDR brachytherapy use surrogate linear or quadratic objective functions that have no direct interpretation in terms of dose-volume histogram (DVH) criteria, do not result in an optimum or have long solution times. We decrease the ...

The paper introduces a general approach to constructing mixture-based gatekeeping procedures in multiplicity problems with two or more families of hypotheses. Mixture procedures serve as extensions of and overcome limitations of some previous gatekeeping approaches such as parallel gatekeeping and tree-structured gatekeeping. This paper offers a general theory of mixture ...

Model-based analyses of natural selection often categorize sites into a relatively small number of site classes. Forcing each site to belong to one of these classes places unrealistic constraints on the distribution of selection parameters, which can result in misleading inference due to model misspecification. We present an approximate hierarchical ...

Noise mapping allows the characterization of environmental variables, such as noise pollution or soundscape, depending on the task. Strategic noise mapping (as per Directive 2002/49/EC, 2002) is a tool intended for the assessment of noise pollution at the European level every five years. These maps are based on common methods ...

Sinus nitric oxide (NO) measurements present a novel and promising approach to help overcome difficulties and confounding variables associated with nasal NO measurements such as the nasal cycle, ostial patency, and individual contribution to total NO production of each sinus. Conflicting results reported on nasal NO measurements in various sinonasal ...

Diatomic ligand migration in globins has been the subject of numerous studies. Still, a consensus picture for the ligand entrance is not clear, with a growing concern among experimental researchers that computational simulations always show multiple pathways for any globin. Modeling non-biased ligand entrance from conventional molecular dynamics techniques, however, ...

PURPOSE: This study is a feasibility assessment to determine the ability of novice users to utilize an infrared (IR) sensor stylet as a guide to position the tip of the endotracheal tube (ETT) 40 mm proximal to the carina in the swine trachea. METHODS: We developed a stylet system using an ...

Radiofrequency-assisted methods have been used in hepatectomy-the resection process of removing liver tissue which encapsulates the tumor from the liver organ. A prototype was built to enable smooth surgical transition between radiofrequency ablation and liver resection. There is a lack of literature on mechanical properties of radiofrequency-ablated liver tissue and ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: A remote sensing technique was developed which combines a Geographic Information System (GIS); Google Earth, and Microsoft Excel to identify home locations for a random sample of households in rural Haiti. The method was used to select homes for ethnographic and water quality research in a region of ...

There is concern that exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from mobile phone base stations might lead to adverse health effects. In order to assess potential health risks, reliable exposure assessment is necessary. Geospatial exposure modelling is a promising approach to quantify ambient exposure to RF-EMF for epidemiological studies ...

Numerous techniques developed in medicine require careful evaluation to determine their indications, limitations and potential side effects prior to their clinical use. At present this generally involves the use of animal models which is undesirable from an ethical standpoint, requires complex and time-consuming authorization, and is very expensive. This process ...

Human exposure to background radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) has been increasing with the introduction of new technologies. There is a definite need for the quantification of RF-EMF exposure but a robust exposure assessment is not yet possible, mainly due to the lack of a fast and efficient measurement procedure. In ...

SUMMARY: CePa is an R package aiming to find significant pathways through network topology information. The package has several advantages compared to current pathway enrichment tools. First, pathway node instead of single gene is taken as the basic unit when analyzing networks, in order to meet the fact that genes ...

Pathway databases collect the bioreactions and molecular interactions that define the processes of life. The MetaCyc family of pathway databases consists of thousands of databases that were derived through computational inference of metabolic pathways from the MetaCyc pathway/genome database (PGDB). In some cases, these DBs underwent subsequent manual curation. Curated ...

The aim of this paper was to show that easily interpretable maps of local and national prescribing data, available from open sources, can be used to demonstrate meaningful variations in prescribing performance. The prescription dispensing data from the National Health Service (NHS) Information Centre for the medications metformin hydrochloride and ...

Many studies utilize the signal strength of short-range radio systems (such as WiFi, ultrasound and infrared) to build a radio map for indoor localization, by deploying a large number of beacon nodes within a building. The drawback of such an infrastructure-based approach is that the deployment and calibration of the ...