Search

Infrared image processing is an effective method for diagnosing faults in electrical equipment, in which target device segmentation and temperature feature extraction are key steps. Target device segmentation separates the device to be diagnosed from the image, while temperature feature extraction analyzes whether the device is overheating and has potential faults. However, the segmentation of infrared images of electrical equipment is slow due to issues such as high computational complexity, and the temperature information extracted lacks accuracy due to the insufficient consideration of the non-linear relationship between the image grayscale and temperature. Therefore, in this study, we propose an optimized maximum between-class variance thresholding method (OTSU) segmentation algorithm based on the Gray Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm, which accelerates the segmentation speed by optimizing the threshold determination process using OTSU. The experimental results show that compared to the non-optimized method, the optimized segmentation method increases the threshold calculation time by more than 83.99% while maintaining similar segmentation results. Based on this, to address the issue of insufficient accuracy in temperature feature extraction, we propose a temperature value extraction method for infrared images based on the K-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that compared to traditional linear methods, this method achieves a 73.68% improvement in the maximum residual absolute value of the extracted temperature values and a 78.95% improvement in the average residual absolute value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unusual collection of mass tissue in human body is commonly refereed as tumor. The tumor when it is found in brain. These tumor cells have tendency to multiply and grow in rapid speed. The growth of tumors is generally uncontrollable in nature. Tumor in brain develops along the skull and it evolves to contact with the functioning of the brain. Brain tumor (BT) can be detected at the earlier stages with the help of MRI or CT scan techniques. These scanning techniques are proved to be efficient in detecting the tumor irrespective of its size. Brain tumor being a life‐threatening disease has to be diagnosed at the earliest before it turns to be malignant. The current research work focuses in proposing an efficient image processing techniques by processing the MRI images of human brain which is affected by brain tumor. This process is carried out in two stages as image denoising and image segmentation which are helpful in detecting and localizing the tumor affected region in human brain. Initially, the MRI image is read and preprocessed by converting the input image into a grayscale image and noise removed by involving the proposed method. Later, the proposed image is segmented using sobel edge detection method and the image is enhanced using the image enhancement techniques. It is achieved by using the proficient blended thresholding (PBT) Segmentation method. The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated using PSNR (peak signal noise ratio) and RMSE (root mean square error). The proposed conserve edge scrutinize (CES) filter achieved highest PSNR value. Then segmentation is evaluated by five metrices: Sensitivity, Specificity, Dice, Jaccard, and Accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast fibroadenoma poses a significant health concern, particularly for young women. Computer-aided diagnosis has emerged as an effective and efficient method for the early and accurate detection of various solid tumors. Automatic segmentation of the breast fibroadenoma is important and potentially reduces unnecessary biopsies, but challenging due to the low image quality and presence of various artifacts in sonography. Methods: Human learning involves modularizing complete information and then integrating it through dense contextual connections in an intuitive and efficient way. Here, a human learning paradigm was introduced to guide the neural network by using two consecutive phases: the feature fragmentation stage and the information aggregation stage. To optimize this paradigm, three fragmentation attention mechanisms and information aggregation mechanisms were adapted according to the characteristics of sonography. The evaluation was conducted using a local dataset comprising 600 breast ultrasound images from 30 patients at Suining Central Hospital in China. Additionally, a public dataset consisting of 246 breast ultrasound images from Dataset_BUSI and DatasetB was used to further validate the robustness of the proposed network. Segmentation performance and inference speed were assessed by Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD), and training time and then compared with those of the baseline model (TransUNet) and other state-of-the-art methods. Results: Most models guided by the human learning paradigm demonstrated improved segmentation on the local dataset with the best one (incorporating C3ECA and LogSparse Attention modules) outperforming the baseline model by 0.76% in DSC and 3.14 mm in HD and reducing the training time by 31.25%. Its robustness and efficiency on the public dataset are also confirmed, surpassing TransUNet by 0.42% in DSC and 5.13 mm in HD. Conclusions: Our proposed human learning paradigm has demonstrated the superiority and efficiency of ultrasound breast fibroadenoma segmentation across both public and local datasets. This intuitive and efficient learning paradigm as the core of neural networks holds immense potential in medical image processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important concern with regard to the ensembles of algorithms is that using the individually optimal parameter settings of the members does not necessarily maximize the performance of the ensemble itself. In this paper, we propose a novel evaluation method for simulated annealing that combines dataset sampling and image downscaling to accelerate the parameter optimization of medical image segmentation ensembles. The scaling levels and sample sizes required to maintain the convergence of the search are theoretically determined by adapting previous results for simulated annealing with imprecise energy measurements. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method, we optimize the parameters of an ensemble for lung segmentation in CT scans. Our experimental results show that the proposed method can maintain the solution quality of the base method with significantly lower runtime. In our problem, optimization with simulated annealing yielded an F 1 score of 0.9397 and an associated M C C of 0.7757. Our proposed method maintained the solution quality with an F 1 score of 0.9395 and M C C of 0.7755 while exhibiting a 42.01% reduction in runtime. It was also shown that the proposed method is more efficient than simulated annealing with only sampling-based evaluation when the dataset size is below a problem-specific threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated various methods for image segmentation and image processing for the segmentation of MRI of human medical data, as well as bioinformatics for the segmentation of brain cell details, in this work. The goal is to demonstrate and bring various mathematical analyses for medical and biological image analysis. We proposed new software and methods for improving the segmentation of biological and medical data. This way, we can fi nd new ways to improve the diagnostic process in medical data and improve results in cell and iron diagnostics. We present the GrabCut algorithm as well as new, improved software for this part, a fuzzy approach and fuzzy processing of tissues, and fi nally machine-learning techniques with neural networks. We implemented the new software in the C++ programming language for the Grab cut algorithm. Consequently, we present a fuzzy approach to the diagnosis of image data in Matlab. Finally, a deep learning-based approach is used, with a U-Net-based segmentation architecture proposed to measure the various brain cell parameters. We will be able to proceed with data that we were unable to proceed when using other methods. As a result, we improved biological and medical data segmentation to obtain better boundaries and sharper edges on the objects. There is still space to extend these methods to other medical and biological applications (Tab. 1, Fig. 34, Ref. 46). Text in PDF www.elis.sk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation of random fields (GRF) for image segmentation represents partitioning an image into different regions that are homogeneous or have similar facets of the image. It is one of the most challenging tasks in image processing and a very important pre-processing step in the fields of computer vision, image analysis, medical image processing, pattern recognition, remote sensing, and geographical information system. Many researchers have presented numerous image segmentation approaches, but still, there are challenges like segmentation of low contrast images, removal of shadow in the images, reduction of high dimensional images, and computational complexity of segmentation techniques. In this review paper, the authors address these issues. The experiments are conducted and tested on the Berkely dataset (BSD500), Semantic dataset, and our own dataset, and the results are shown in the form of tables and graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep neural networks have been tremendously successful at segmenting objects in images. However, it has been shown they still have limitations on challenging problems such as the segmentation of medical images. The main reason behind this lower success resides in the reduced size of the object in the image. In this paper we overcome this limitation through a cyclic collaborative framework, CyCoSeg. The proposed framework is based on a deep active shape model (D-ASM), which provides prior information about the shape of the object, and a semantic segmentation network (SSN). These two models collaborate to reach the desired segmentation by influencing each other: SSN helps D-ASM identify relevant keypoints in the image through an Expectation Maximization formulation, while D-ASM provides a segmentation proposal that guides the SSN. This cycle is repeated until both models converge. Extensive experimental evaluation shows CyCoSeg boosts the performance of the baseline models, including several popular SSNs, while avoiding major architectural modifications. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated on the left ventricle segmentation on two benchmark datasets, where our approach achieves one of the most competitive results in segmentation accuracy. Furthermore, its generalization is demonstrated for lungs and kidneys segmentation in CT scans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variation in the thermal state of electrical energy substation equipment is normally associated with natural wear or equipment failure. This can be detected by infrared thermography, but technically it demands a long time to analyze these images. Computational analysis can allow an automated, more agile, and more efficient analysis to detect overheated regions in thermographic images. Therefore, it is necessary to segment the region of interest in the images; however, the results may diverge depending on the technique used. Thus, this article presents the improvement of four different techniques implemented in Python and applied in a substation under real operating conditions for a period of eleven months. The performance of the four methods was compared using eight statistical performance measures, and the efficiency was measured by the runtime. The segmentation results showed that the methods based on a threshold (Otsu and Histogram-Based Threshold) were fast, with processing times of 0.11 to 0.24 s, but caused excessive segmentation, presenting the lowest accuracy (0.160 and 0.444) and precision (0.004 and 0.049, respectively). The clustering-based methods (Cluster K-means and Fuzzy C-means) showed similar results to each other but were more accurate (0.936 to 1.000), more precise (0.965 to 1.000), and slower, with 2.55 and 38.8 s, respectively, compared to the threshold methods. The Fuzzy C-means method obtained the highest values of specificity, accuracy, and precision among the methods under analysis, followed by the Cluster K-means method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Superpixel segmentation is a powerful preprocessing tool to reduce the complexity of image processing. Traditionally, size uniformity is one of the significant features of superpixels. However, in medical images, in which subjects scale varies greatly and background areas are often flat, size uniformity rarely conforms to the varying content. To obtain the fewest superpixels with retaining important details, the size of superpixel should be chosen carefully. Methods: We propose a scale-adaptive superpixel algorithm relaxing the size-uniformity criterion for medical images, especially pathological images. A new path-based distance measure and superpixel region growing schema allow our algorithm to generate superpixels with different scales according to the complexity of image content, that is smaller (larger) superpixels in color-riching areas (flat areas). Results: The proposed superpixel algorithm can generate superpixels with boundary adherence, insensitive to noise, and with extremely big sizes and extremely small sizes on one image. The number of superpixels is much smaller than size-uniformly superpixel algorithms while retaining more details of images. Conclusion: With the proposed algorithm, the choice of superpixel size is automatic, which frees the user from the predicament of setting suitable superpixel size for a given application. The results on the nuclear dataset show that the proposed superpixel algorithm superior to the respective state-of-the-art algorithms on both quantitative and quantitative comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud and cloud shadow segmentation is one of the most important issues in remote sensing image processing. Most of the remote sensing images are very complicated. In this work, a dual-branch model composed of transformer and convolution network is proposed to extract semantic and spatial detail information of the image, respectively, to solve the problems of false detection and missed detection. To improve the model’s feature extraction, a mutual guidance module (MGM) is introduced, so that the transformer branch and the convolution branch can guide each other for feature mining. Finally, in view of the problem of rough segmentation boundary, this work uses different features extracted by the transformer branch and the convolution branch for decoding and repairs the rough segmentation boundary in the decoding part to make the segmentation boundary clearer. Experimental results on the Landsat-8, Sentinel-2 data, the public dataset high-resolution cloud cover validation dataset created by researchers at Wuhan University (HRC_WHU), and the public dataset Spatial Procedures for Automated Removal of Cloud and Shadow (SPARCS) demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and its superiority to the existing state-of-the-art cloud and cloud shadow segmentation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation methods for image processing are studied in the presented work. Image segmentation can be defined as a vital step in digital image processing. Also, it is used in various applications including object co-segmentation, recognition tasks, medical imaging, content based image retrieval, object detection, machine vision and video surveillance. A lot of approaches were created for image segmentation. In addition, the main goal of segmentation is to facilitate and alter the image representation into something which is more important and simply to be analyzed. The approaches of image segmentation are splitting the images into a few parts on the basis of image's features including texture, color, pixel intensity value and so on. With regard to the presented study, many approaches of image segmentation are reviewed and discussed. The techniques of segmentation might be categorized into six classes: First, thresholding segmentation techniques such as global thresholding (iterative thresholding, minimum error thresholding, otsu's, optimal thresholding, histogram concave analysis and entropy based thresholding), local thresholding (Sauvola's approach, T.R Singh's approach, Niblack's approaches, Bernsen's approach Bruckstein's and Yanowitz method and Local Adaptive Automatic Binarization) and dynamic thresholding. Second, edge-based segmentation techniques such as gray-histogram technique, gradient based approach (laplacian of gaussian, differential coefficient approach, canny approach, prewitt approach, Roberts approach and sobel approach). Thirdly, region based segmentation approaches including Region growing techniques (seeded region growing (SRG), statistical region growing, unseeded region growing (UsRG)), also merging and region splitting approaches. Fourthly, clustering approaches, including soft clustering (fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM)) and hard clustering (K-means clustering). Fifth, deep neural network techniques such as convolution neural network, recurrent neural networks (RNNs), encoder-decoder and Auto encoder models and support vector machine. Finally, hybrid techniques such as evolutionary approaches, fuzzy logic and swarm intelligent (PSO and ABC techniques) and discusses the pros and cons of each method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The image processing of muscular fibers has seen significant improvements over the last decades, from light microscopy acquisition to virtual microscopy and from manual segmentation and fiber typing to automatic. The present study aims to discuss the main tools employed in different histo-enzymological image processing phases applied to muscle fibers, which are respectively: the acquisition, segmentation and fiber typing as well as their efficiency in the determination of morphometric parameters. First, the acquisition: to count the cell numbers within the muscle fiber sections, optical microscopic images with different magnifications (x100, x200, x250, and x400) were compared with virtual slides digitized by Slide Scanner. Second, the segmentation: Three softwares (Fiji "Digitizing pen, Mouse", Image Pro Plus 10 [semi-automatic], and Cytoinformatics LLC [automatic]) were compared for image segmentation quality and the determining of fiber numbers. Third, manual fiber typing: employing Fiji of segmented images using the 3 previously mentioned softwares were performed to calculate the accuracy of the morphometric parameter (Cross sectional Area [CSA], perimeter and Minimal Feret's Diameter [MFD]). The results of the acquisition showed that the scanner slides have a better resolution and detected a higher number of cells than when optical microscopes with different magnifications were used; with the latter, the processing can be performed only with an acceptable resolution, where the number of cells is lesser, which unfortunately requires several repetitions and exhausting work. Our findings regarding segmentation indicate that the Cytoinformatics LLC showed the best processing time and the highest quality followed by IP and Fiji. Finally and for the ultimate step, the morphometric parameter calculation: showed that the best accuracy was attained by using Fiji followed by Cytoinformatics and finally by IP. The findings of this study suggest that Fiji (semi-automatic) showed the best quality/price ratio (open access software) for segmentation and fiber typing, but it proved to be time consuming when compared to Image Pro Plus 10 (semi-automatic) and Cytoinformatics LLC (automatic). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ceramic industry, quality control is performed using visual inspection in three different product stages: green, biscuit, and the final ceramic tile. To develop a real-time computer visual inspection system, the necessary step is successful tile segmentation from its background. In this paper, a new statistical multi-line signal change detection (MLSCD) segmentation method based on signal change detection (SCD) method is presented. Through experimental results on seven different ceramic tile image sets, MLSCD performance is analyzed and compared with the SCD method. Finally, recommended parameters are proposed for optimal performance of the MLSCD method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High/very-high-resolution (HR/VHR) multitemporal images are important in remote sensing to monitor the dynamics of the Earth’s surface. Unsupervised object-based image analysis provides an effective solution to analyze such images. Image semantic segmentation assigns pixel labels from meaningful object groups and has been extensively studied in the context of single-image analysis, however not explored for multitemporal one. In this article, we propose to extend supervised semantic segmentation to the unsupervised joint semantic segmentation of multitemporal images. We propose a novel method that processes multitemporal images by separately feeding to a deep network comprising of trainable convolutional layers. The training process does not involve any external label, and segmentation labels are obtained from the argmax classification of the final layer. A novel loss function is used to detect object segments from individual images as well as establish a correspondence between distinct multitemporal segments. Multitemporal semantic labels and weights of the trainable layers are jointly optimized in iterations. We tested the method on three different HR/VHR data sets from Munich, Paris, and Trento, which shows the method to be effective. We further extended the proposed joint segmentation method for change detection (CD) and tested on a VHR multisensor data set from Trento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results from a multi-year effort to develop and validate image processing methods for selecting the best physical models based on solar image observations. The approach consists of selecting the physical models based on their agreement with coronal holes extracted from the images. Ultimately, the goal is to use physical models to predict geomagnetic storms. We decompose the problem into three subproblems: (i) coronal hole segmentation based on physical constraints, (ii) matching clusters of coronal holes between different maps, and (iii) physical map classification. For segmenting coronal holes, we develop a multi-modal method that uses segmentation maps from three different methods to initialize a level-set method that evolves the initial coronal hole segmentation to the magnetic boundary. Then, we introduce a new method based on Linear Programming for matching clusters of coronal holes. The final matching is then performed using Random Forests. The methods were carefully validated using consensus maps derived from multiple readers, manual clustering, manual map classification, and method validation for 50 maps. The proposed multi-modal segmentation method significantly outperformed SegNet, U-net, Henney-Harvey, and FCN by providing accurate boundary detection. Overall, the method gave a 95.5% map classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curvilinear structure restoration in image processing procedures is a difficult task, which can be compounded when these structures are thin, i.e., when their smallest dimension is close to the resolution of the sensor. Many recent restoration methods involve considering a local gradient-based regularization term as prior, assuming gradient sparsity. An isotropic gradient operator is typically not suitable for thin curvilinear structures, since gradients are not sparse for these. In this paper, we propose a mixed gradient operator that combines a standard gradient in the isotropic image regions, and a directional gradient in the regions where specific orientations are likely. In particular, such information can be provided by curvilinear structure detectors (e.g., RORPO or Frangi filters). Our proposed mixed gradient operator, that can be viewed as a companion tool of such detectors, is proposed in a discrete framework and its formulation/computation holds in any dimension; in other words, it is valid in $\mathbb Z^{n}$ , ${n}\geq 1$. We show how this mixed gradient can be used to construct image priors that take edge orientation, as well as intensity, into account, and then involved in various image processing tasks while preserving curvilinear structures. The experiments carried out on 2D, 3D, real, and synthetic images illustrate the relevance of the proposed gradient, and its use in variational frameworks for both denoising and segmentation tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain tumor extraction is challenging task because brain image and its structure are complicated that can be analyzed only by expert physicians or radiologist. Brain tumor detection and segmentation is one of the most challenging and time consuming task in medical image processing. The image segmentation is a very difficult job in the image processing and challenging task for clinical diagnostic tools. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is a visualization medical technique, which provides plentiful information about the human soft tissue, which helps in the diagnosis of brain tumor. Accurate segmentation of the MRI images is extremely important and essential for the exact diagnosis by computer aided clinical tools. There are different types of segmentation algorithms for MRI brain images. This paper is to check existing approaches of Brain tumor segmentation techniques in MRI image for Computer aided diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common problem in wide-baseline matching is the sparse and non-uniform distribution of correspondences when using conventional detectors, such as SIFT, SURF, FAST, A-KAZE, and MSER. In this paper, we introduce a novel segmentation-based feature detector (SFD) that produces an increased number of accurate features for wide-baseline matching. A multi-scale SFD is proposed using bilateral image decomposition to produce a large number of scale-invariant features for wide-baseline reconstruction. All input images are over-segmented into regions using any existing segmentation technique, such as Watershed, Mean-shift, and simple linear iterative clustering. Feature points are then detected at the intersection of the boundaries of three or more regions. The detected feature points are local maxima of the image function. The key advantage of feature detection based on segmentation is that it does not require global threshold setting and can, therefore, detect features throughout the image. A comprehensive evaluation demonstrates that SFD gives an increased number of features that are accurately localized and matched between wide-baseline camera views; the number of features for a given matching error increases by a factor of 3–5 compared with SIFT; feature detection and matching performance are maintained with increasing baseline between views; multi-scale SFD improves matching performance at varying scales. Application of SFD to sparse multi-view wide-baseline reconstruction demonstrates a factor of 10 increases in the number of reconstructed points with improved scene coverage compared with SIFT/MSER/A-KAZE. Evaluation against ground-truth shows that SFD produces an increased number of wide-baseline matches with a reduced error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectness has recently become a standard step in many computer vision tasks. Among various techniques, those based on hierarchical image segmentation play a fundamental role for developments in new data modalities. In this paper, we address the problem of objectness in RGB-D images and propose a novel and effective approach, namely, hierarchical image segmentation ensemble (HISE). Different from existing image segmentation based methods that generate object segments or proposals largely by heuristics or empirical rules, HISE learns superpixel mergings with a hierarchical tree-structured ensemble, where individual merging models of the ensemble are formed by traversing different paths of the tree, and where both the merging accuracy and proposal diversity are emphasized. Furthermore, we use efficient feature measurements that support easy integration of additional clues. Extensive experiments conducted on the benchmark NYU-v2 RGB-D and SUN RGB-D data sets show the competency of our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinal fundus photographs have been used in the diagnosis of many ocular diseases such as glaucoma, pathological myopia, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. With the development of computer science, computer aided diagnosis has been developed to process and analyze the retinal images automatically. One of the challenges in the analysis is that the quality of the retinal image is often degraded. For example, a cataract in human lens will attenuate the retinal image, just as a cloudy camera lens which reduces the quality of a photograph. It often obscures the details in the retinal images and posts challenges in retinal image processing and analyzing tasks. In this paper, we approximate the degradation of the retinal images as a combination of human-lens attenuation and scattering. A novel structure-preserving guided retinal image filtering (SGRIF) is then proposed to restore images based on the attenuation and scattering model. The proposed SGRIF consists of a step of global structure transferring and a step of global edge-preserving smoothing. Our results show that the proposed SGRIF method is able to improve the contrast of retinal images, measured by histogram flatness measure, histogram spread, and variability of local luminosity. In addition, we further explored the benefits of SGRIF for subsequent retinal image processing and analyzing tasks. In the two applications of deep learning-based optic cup segmentation and sparse learning-based cup-to-disk ratio (CDR) computation, our results show that we are able to achieve more accurate optic cup segmentation and CDR measurements from images processed by SGRIF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel hybrid-fitting energy-based active contours model in the level set framework is proposed. The method fuses the local image fitting term and the global image fitting term to drive the contour evolution, and a special extra term that penalizes the deviation of the level set function from a signed distance function is also included in our method, so the complex and costly reinitialization procedure is completely eliminated. Our model can efficiently segment the images with intensity inhomogeneity no matter where the initial curve is located in the image. In its numerical implementation, two efficient numerical schemes are used to ensure the sufficient efficiency of the evolution process, one is the Lattice Boltzmann Model (LBM), which is used for breaking the restrictions on time step, the other is the Sparse Field Method (SFM), which is introduced for fast local computation. Compared with the traditional schemes, these two strategies can further shorten the time consumption of the evolution process, this allows the level set to quickly reach the true target location. The extensive and promising experimental results on numerous synthetic and real images have shown that our method can efficiently improve the image segmentation performance, in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the last two decades, an innovative technology called Tissue Microarray (TMA), which combines multi-tissue and DNA microarray concepts, has been widely used in the field of histology. It consists of a collection of several (up to 1000 or more) tissue samples that are assembled onto a single support – typically a glass slide – according to a design grid (array) layout, in order to allow multiplex analysis by treating numerous samples under identical and standardized conditions. However, during the TMA manufacturing process, the sample positions can be highly distorted from the design grid due to the imprecision when assembling tissue samples and the deformation of the embedding waxes. Consequently, these distortions may lead to severe errors of (histological) assay results when the sample identities are mismatched between the design and its manufactured output. The development of a robust method for de-arraying TMA, which localizes and matches TMA samples with their design grid, is therefore crucial to overcome the bottleneck of this prominent technology. Results: In this paper, we propose an Automatic, fast and robust TMA De-arraying (ATMAD) approach dedicated to images acquired with brightfield and fluorescence microscopes (or scanners). First, tissue samples are localized in the large image by applying a locally adaptive thresholding on the isotropic wavelet transform of the input TMA image. To reduce false detections, a parametric shape model is considered for segmenting ellipse-shaped objects at each detected position. Segmented objects that do not meet the size and the roundness criteria are discarded from the list of tissue samples before being matched with the design grid. Sample matching is performed by estimating the TMA grid deformation under the thin-plate model. Finally, thanks to the estimated deformation, the true tissue samples that were preliminary rejected in the early image processing step are recognized by running a second segmentation step. Conclusions: We developed a novel de-arraying approach for TMA analysis. By combining wavelet-based detection, active contour segmentation, and thin-plate spline interpolation, our approach is able to handle TMA images with high dynamic, poor signal-to-noise ratio, complex background and non-linear deformation of TMA grid. In addition, the deformation estimation produces quantitative information to asset the manufacturing quality of TMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Automated species identification is a long term research subject. Contrary to flowers and fruits, leaves are available throughout most of the year. Offering margin and texture to characterize a species, they are the most studied organ for automated identification. Substantially matured machine learning techniques generate the need for more training data (aka leaf images). Researchers as well as enthusiasts miss guidance on how to acquire suitable training images in an efficient way. Methods: In this paper, we systematically study nine image types and three preprocessing strategies. Image types vary in terms of in-situ image recording conditions: perspective, illumination, and background, while the preprocessing strategies compare non-preprocessed, cropped, and segmented images to each other. Per image type-preprocessing combination, we also quantify the manual effort required for their implementation. We extract image features using a convolutional neural network, classify species using the resulting feature vectors and discuss classification accuracy in relation to the required effort per combination. Results: The most effective, non-destructive way to record herbaceous leaves is to take an image of the leaf's top side. We yield the highest classification accuracy using destructive back light images, i.e., holding the plucked leaf against the sky for image acquisition. Cropping the image to the leaf's boundary substantially improves accuracy, while precise segmentation yields similar accuracy at a substantially higher effort. The permanent use or disuse of a flash light has negligible effects. Imaging the typically stronger textured backside of a leaf does not result in higher accuracy, but notably increases the acquisition cost. Conclusions: In conclusion, the way in which leaf images are acquired and preprocessed does have a substantial effect on the accuracy of the classifier trained on them. For the first time, this study provides a systematic guideline allowing researchers to spend available acquisition resources wisely while yielding the optimal classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correct segmentation of tumours can simplify formulate the diagnostic hypothesis, particularly in cases of irregular shapes, with fuzzy margins or spicules growing into the surrounding tissue, which are more likely to be malignant. In this study, the following active contour methods were used to segment the masses: an edge-based active contour model using an inflation/deflation force with a damping coefficient (EM), a geometric active contour model (GAC) and an active contour without edges (ACWE). The preprocessing techniques presented in this publication are to reduce noise and at the same time amplify uniform areas of images in order to improve segmentation results. In addition, the use of image sampling by bicubic interpolation was tested to shorten the evolution time of active contour methods. The experiments used a test set composed of 100 cases taken from two publicly available databases: Digital Database for Screening Mammography (DDSM) and Mammographic Image Analysis Society (MIAS) database. The qualitative assessment concerned the ability to formulate an adequate diagnostic hypothesis and, for the individual methods (malignant and benign cases together), it amounted to at least: 81% (EM), 76% (GAC), and 69% (ACWE). The quantitative test consisted of measuring the following indexes: overlap value (OV) and extra fraction (EF). The OV of the segmentation for malignant and benign cases had the following average values: 0.81 ± 0.10 (EM), 0.79 ± 0.09 (GAC), 0.76 ± 0.18 (ACWE). The average values of the EF index, in turn, amounted to: 0.07 ± 0.06 (EM), 0.07 ± 0.05 (GAC) 0.34 ± 0.32 (ACWE). The qualitative and quantitative results obtained are the best for EM and are comparable or better than for other methods presented in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Segmentation of skin lesions is an important step in the automated computer aided diagnosis of melanoma. However, existing segmentation methods have a tendency to over- or under-segment the lesions and perform poorly when the lesions have fuzzy boundaries, low contrast with the background, inhomogeneous textures, or contain artifacts. Furthermore, the performance of these methods are heavily reliant on the appropriate tuning of a large number of parameters as well as the use of effective preprocessing techniques, such as illumination correction and hair removal. Methods: We propose to leverage fully convolutional networks (FCNs) to automatically segment the skin lesions. FCNs are a neural network architecture that achieves object detection by hierarchically combining low-level appearance information with high-level semantic information. We address the issue of FCN producing coarse segmentation boundaries for challenging skin lesions (e.g., those with fuzzy boundaries and/or low difference in the textures between the foreground and the background) through a multistage segmentation approach in which multiple FCNs learn complementary visual characteristics of different skin lesions; early stage FCNs learn coarse appearance and localization information while late-stage FCNs learn the subtle characteristics of the lesion boundaries. We also introduce a new parallel integration method to combine the complementary information derived from individual segmentation stages to achieve a final segmentation result that has accurate localization and well-defined lesion boundaries, even for the most challenging skin lesions. Results: We achieved an average Dice coefficient of 91.18% on the ISBI 2016 Skin Lesion Challenge dataset and 90.66% on the PH2 dataset. Conclusion and Significance: Our extensive experimental results on two well-established public benchmark datasets demonstrate that our method is more effective than other state-of-the-art methods for skin lesion segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose a new model to detect multiple objects of various intensities in images having maximum, minimum, or middle-intensity background by evolving only one level set function. In this model, a new signed pressure force function based on novel generalized averages is used for segmentation of images with maximum or minimum intensity background. For images with middle-intensity backgrounds, which are indeed challenging for 2-phase models, we propose a new product generalized signed pressure force function. Finally, to give experimental and qualitative evidence, our model is tested on both synthetic and real images with the Jaccard similarity index. The experimental and qualitative results reveal that the proposed method is efficient in both global and selective segmentation. Our new model is also tested on color images and the results are compared with the state-of-the-art models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We introduce descriptor-based segmentation that extends existing patch-based methods by combining intensities, features, and location information. Since it is unclear which image features are best suited for patch selection, we perform a broad empirical study on a multitude of different features. Methods: We extend nonlocal means segmentation by including image features and location information. We search larger windows with an efficient nearest neighbor search based on kd-trees. We compare a large number of image features. Results: The best results were obtained for entropy image features, which have not yet been used for patch-based segmentation. We further show that searching larger image regions with an approximate nearest neighbor search and location information yields a significant improvement over the bounded nearest neighbor search traditionally employed in patch-based segmentation methods. Conclusion: Features and location information significantly increase the segmentation accuracy. The best features highlight boundaries in the image. Significance: Our detailed analysis of several aspects of nonlocal means-based segmentation yields new insights about patch and neighborhood sizes together with the inclusion of location information. The presented approach advances the state-of-the-art in the segmentation of parotid glands for radiation therapy planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corneal endothelium state is verified on the basis of an in vivo specular microscope image from which the shape and density of cells are exploited for data description. Due to the relatively low image quality resulting from a high magnification of the living, non-stained tissue, both manual and automatic analysis of the data is a challenging task. Although, many automatic or semi-automatic solutions have already been introduced, all of them are prone to inaccuracy. This work presents a comparison of four methods (fully-automated or semi-automated) for endothelial cell segmentation, all of which represent a different approach to cell segmentation; fast robust stochastic watershed (FRSW), KH method, active contours solution (SNAKE), and TOPCON ImageNET. Moreover, an improvement framework is introduced which aims to unify precise cell border location in images pre-processed with differing techniques. Finally, the influence of the selected methods on clinical parameters is examined, both with and without the improvement framework application. The experiments revealed that although the image segmentation approaches differ, the measures calculated for clinical parameters are in high accordance when CV (coefficient of variation), and CVSL (coefficient of variation of cell sides length) are considered. Higher variation was noticed for the H (hexagonality) metric. Utilisation of the improvement framework assured better repeatability of precise endothelial cell border location between the methods while diminishing the dispersion of clinical parameter values calculated for such images. Finally, it was proven statistically that the image processing method applied for endothelial cell analysis does not influence the ability to differentiate between the images using medical parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to improve automation in brick segmentation and crack detection of masonry walls through image-based techniques and machine learning. Initially, a large dataset of hand-labelled images of different in colour, texture, and size of brickwork masonry walls has been developed. Then, different deep learning networks (U-Net, DeepLabV3+, U-Net (SM), LinkNet (SM), and FPN (SM)) were utilised and their quality was assessed. Furthermore, the ability to generate geometric models of masonry structures and the evaluation of the geometric properties of detected cracks was also investigated. Additional metrics were also developed to compare the CNN output with other image-processing algorithms. From the analysis of results it was shown that the use of machine learning, for brick segmentation, provides better outcome than typical image-processing applications. This implementation of deep-learning for crack detection and localisation of bricks in masonry walls highlights the great potential of new technologies for documentation of masonry fabric. • Automatic brick segmentation from images using machine learning. • Automatic crack quantification from images using machine learning. • The brick detection model obtained a validation-accuracy of 96.86%. • The proposed procedure paves the way for automated documentation and inspection of full-scale masonry structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently available perimeters have limited capabilities of performing measurements of the visual field in children. In addition, they do not allow for fully automatic measurement even in adults. The patient in each case (in any type of perimeter) has at his disposal a button which he uses to indicate that he has seen a light stimulus. Such restrictions have been offset in the presented new perimeter ZERK 1.Methods: The paper describes a new type of automated, computerized perimeter designed to test the visual field in children and adults. The new perimeter and proprietary software enable to carry out tests automatically (without the need to press any button). The presented full version of the perimeter has been tested on a head phantom. The next steps will involve clinical trials and a comparison with measurements obtained using other types of perimeters.Results: The perimeter ZERK 1 enables automatic measurement of the visual field in two axes (with a span of 870 mm and a depth of 525 mm) with an accuracy of not less than 1(o) (95 LEDs on each arm) at a typical position of the patient's head. The measurement can be carried out in two modes: default/typical (lasting about 1 min), and accurate (lasting about 10 min). Compared with available and known types of perimeters, it has an open canopy, proprietary software and cameras tracking the eye movement, automatic control of fixation points, light stimuli with automatically preset light stimulus intensity in the following ranges: 550-700 mcd (red 620-630 nm), 1100-1400 mcd (green 515-530 nm), 200-400 mcd (blue 465-475 nm).Conclusions: The paper presents a new approach to the construction of perimeters based on automatic tracking of the eye movements in response to stimuli. The unique construction of the perimeter and the software allow for its mobile use in the examination of children and bedridden patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic segmentation of the primary object in a video clip is a challenging problem as there is no prior knowledge of the primary object. Most existing techniques thus adapt an iterative approach for foreground and background appearance modeling, i.e., fix the appearance model while optimizing the segmentation and fix the segmentation while optimizing the appearance model. However, these approaches may rely on good initialization and can be easily trapped in local optimal. In addition, they are usually time consuming for analyzing videos. To address these limitations, we propose a novel and efficient appearance modeling technique for automatic primary video object segmentation in the Markov random field (MRF) framework. It embeds the appearance constraint as auxiliary nodes and edges in the MRF structure, and can optimize both the segmentation and appearance model parameters simultaneously in one graph cut. The extensive experimental evaluations validate the superiority of the proposed approach over the state-of-the-art methods, in both efficiency and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Image segmentation plays an important role in image processing and computer vision. It is often used to classify an image into separate regions, which ideally correspond to different real-world objects. Several segmentation methods have been proposed in the literature, being thresholding techniques the most popular. In such techniques, it is selected a set of proper threshold values that optimize a determined functional criterion, so that each pixel is assigned to a determined class according to its corresponding threshold points. One interesting functional criterion is the Tsallis entropy, which gives excellent results in bi-level thresholding. However, when it is applied to multilevel thresholding, its evaluation becomes computationally expensive, since each threshold point adds restrictions, multimodality and complexity to its functional formulation. Therefore, in the process of finding the appropriate threshold values, it is desired to limit the number of evaluations of the objective function (Tsallis entropy). Under such circumstances, most of the optimization algorithms do not seem to be suited to face such problems as they usually require many evaluations before delivering an acceptable result. On the other hand, the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is an evolutionary optimization approach which emulates the attraction–repulsion mechanism among charges for evolving the individuals of a population. This technique exhibits interesting search capabilities whereas maintains a low number of function evaluations. In this paper, a new algorithm for multilevel segmentation based on the Electromagnetism-Like algorithm is proposed. In the approach, the optimization algorithm based on the electromagnetism theory is used to find the optimal threshold values by maximizing the Tsallis entropy. Experimental results over several images demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to improve the convergence velocity, compared with similar methods such as Cuckoo search, and Particle Swarm Optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connected operators provide well-established solutions for digital image processing, typically in conjunction with hierarchical schemes. In graph-based frameworks, such operators basically rely on symmetric adjacency relations between pixels. In this article, we introduce a notion of directed connected operators for hierarchical image processing, by also considering non-symmetric adjacency relations. The induced image representation models are no longer partition hierarchies (i.e., trees), but directed acyclic graphs that generalize standard morphological tree structures such as component trees, binary partition trees or hierarchical watersheds. We describe how to efficiently build and handle these richer data structures, and we illustrate the versatility of the proposed framework in image filtering and image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Efficient and accurate segmentation of cellular structures in microscopic data is an essential task in medical imaging. Many state-of-the-art approaches to image segmentation use structured models whose parameters must be carefully chosen for optimal performance. A popular choice is to learn them using a large-margin framework and more specifically structured support vector machines (SSVM). Although SSVMs are appealing, they suffer from certain limitations. First, they are restricted in practice to linear kernels because the more powerful nonlinear kernels cause the learning to become prohibitively expensive. Second, they require iteratively finding the most violated constraints, which is often intractable for the loopy graphical models used in image segmentation. This requires approximation that can lead to reduced quality of learning. In this paper, we propose three novel techniques to overcome these limitations. We first introduce a method to “kernelize” the features so that a linear SSVM framework can leverage the power of nonlinear kernels without incurring much additional computational cost. Moreover, we employ a working set of constraints to increase the reliability of approximate subgradient methods and introduce a new way to select a suitable step size at each iteration. We demonstrate the strength of our approach on both 2-D and 3-D electron microscopic (EM) image data and show consistent performance improvement over state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present two graph-based algorithms for multiclass segmentation of high-dimensional data on graphs. The algorithms use a diffuse interface model based on the Ginzburg-Landau functional, related to total variation and graph cuts. A multiclass extension is introduced using the Gibbs simplex, with the functional’s double-well potential modified to handle the multiclass case. The first algorithm minimizes the functional using a convex splitting numerical scheme. The second algorithm uses a graph adaptation of the classical numerical Merriman-Bence-Osher (MBO) scheme, which alternates between diffusion and thresholding. We demonstrate the performance of both algorithms experimentally on synthetic data, image labeling, and several benchmark data sets such as MNIST, COIL and WebKB. We also make use of fast numerical solvers for finding the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the graph Laplacian, and take advantage of the sparsity of the matrix. Experiments indicate that the results are competitive with or better than the current state-of-the-art in multiclass graph-based segmentation algorithms for high-dimensional data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Segmentation of images from scanning electron microscope, especially multiphase, poses a drawback in their microstructure quantification process. The labeling process must be automatized due to the time consumption and irreproducibility of the manual labeling procedure. Here we show a swarm intelligence-driven filtration methodology performed on raw solid oxide fuel cell anode's material images to improve the segmentation methods' performance. The methodology focused on two significant parts of the segmentation process, which are filtering and labeling. During the first one, the images underwent filtering by applying a series of filters, whose operation parameters were determined using Particle Swarm Optimization upon a dedicated cost function. Next, Seeded Region Growing, k-Means Clustering, Multithresholding, and Simple Linear Iterative Clustering Superpixel algorithms were utilized to label the filtered images' regions into consecutive phases in the microstructure. The improvement was presented for three different metrics: the Misclassification Ratio, Structural Similarity Index Measure, and Mean Squared Error. The obtained distribution of metrics' performances was based on 200 images, with and without filtering. Results indicate an improvement up to 29%, depending on the metric and method used. The presented work contributes to the ongoing efforts to automatize segmentation processes fully for an increasing number of tomographic measurements, particularly in solid oxide fuel cell research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung CT image segmentation is a key process in many applications such as lung cancer detection. It is considered a challenging problem due to existing similar image densities in the pulmonary structures, different types of scanners, and scanning protocols. Most of the current semi-automatic segmentation methods rely on human factors therefore it might suffer from lack of accuracy. Another shortcoming of these methods is their high false-positive rate. In recent years, several approaches, based on a deep learning framework, have been effectively applied in medical image segmentation. Among existing deep neural networks, the U-Net has provided great success in this field. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network architecture to perform an automatic lung CT image segmentation process. In the proposed method, several extensive preprocessing techniques are applied to raw CT images. Then, ground truths corresponding to these images are extracted via some morphological operations and manual reforms. Finally, all the prepared images with the corresponding ground truth are fed into a modified U-Net in which the encoder is replaced with a pre-trained ResNet-34 network (referred to as Res BCDU-Net). In the architecture, we employ BConvLSTM (Bidirectional Convolutional Long Short-term Memory)as an advanced integrator module instead of simple traditional concatenators. This is to merge the extracted feature maps of the corresponding contracting path into the previous expansion of the up-convolutional layer. Finally, a densely connected convolutional layer is utilized for the contracting path. The results of our extensive experiments on lung CT images (LIDC-IDRI database) confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method where a dice coefficient index of 97.31% is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is a widely used non-invasive imaging modality for evaluating cardiovascular diseases. CMR is the gold standard method for left and right ventricular functional assessment due to its ability to characterize myocardial structure and function and low intra- and inter-observer variability. However the post-processing segmentation during the functional evaluation is time-consuming and challenging. A fully automated segmentation method can assist the experts; therefore, they can do more efficient work. In this paper, a regression-based fully automated method is presented for the right- and left ventricle segmentation. For training and evaluation, our dataset contained MRI short-axis scans of 5570 patients, who underwent CMR examinations at Heart and Vascular Center, Semmelweis University Budapest. Our approach is novel and after training the state-of-the-art algorithm on our dataset, our algorithm proved to be superior on both of the ventricles. The evaluation metrics were the Dice index, Hausdorff distance and volume related parameters. We have achieved average Dice index for the left endocardium: 0.927, left epicardium: 0.940 and right endocardium: 0.873 on our dataset. We have also compared the performance of the algorithm to the human-level segmentation on both ventricles and it is similar to experienced readers for the left, and comparable for the right ventricle. We also evaluated the proposed algorithm on the ACDC dataset, which is publicly available, with and without transfer learning. The results on ACDC were also satisfying and similar to human observers. Our method is lightweight, fast to train and does not require more than 2 GB GPU memory for execution and training. • A novel regression-based method for the fully-automatic segmentation of CMR short-axis images on both ventricles. • The algorithm performance is similar to an experienced radiologist on the left and right ventricle. • Our algorithm is more general because our dataset was more comprehensive and diverse compared to the other datasets used for developing segmentation algorithms. It does not contain only healthy subjects but a wide scale of cardiovascular diseases. • More accurate results than the baselines, we trained Bai's method from scratch on our dataset. • Lightweight model, requires fewer memory and computation to train and use the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volumetric and morphometric examination of hippocampus formation subfields in a longitudinal manner using in vivo MRI could lead to more sensitive biomarkers for neuropsychiatric disorders and diseases including Alzheimer's disease, as the anatomical subregions are functionally specialised. Longitudinal processing allows for increased sensitivity due to reduced confounds of inter-subject variability and higher effect-sensitivity than cross-sectional designs. We examined the performance of a new longitudinal pipeline (Longitudinal Automatic Segmentation of Hippocampus Subfields [LASHiS]) against three freely available, published approaches. LASHiS automatically segments hippocampus formation subfields by propagating labels from cross-sectionally labelled time point scans using joint-label fusion to a non-linearly realigned 'single subject template', where image segmentation occurs free of bias to any individual time point. Our pipeline measures tissue characteristics available in in vivo high-resolution MRI scans, at both clinical (3 ​T) and ultra-high field strength (7 ​T) and differs from previous longitudinal segmentation pipelines in that it leverages multi-contrast information in the segmentation process. LASHiS produces robust and reliable automatic multi-contrast segmentations of hippocampus formation subfields, as measured by higher volume similarity coefficients and Dice coefficients for test-retest reliability and robust longitudinal Bayesian Linear Mixed Effects results at 7 ​T, while showing sound results at 3 ​T. All code for this project including the automatic pipeline is available at https://github.com/CAIsr/LASHiS. Image 1 • LASHiS is an automatic pipeline for segmenting hippocampus subfields. • We utilize multi-contrast information to segment subfields and incorporate joint-label fusion for labelling. • LASHiS out-performs other available methods for automatic hippocampal subfield segmentation in test-retest reliability. • We test LASHiS on both 7 T and 3 T MRI data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate 3D computer models of the brain, and also of parts of its structure such as the corpus callosum (CC) are increasingly used in routine clinical diagnostics. This study presents comparative research to assess the utility and performance of three active contour methods (ACMs) for segmenting the CC from magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain, namely: an edge-based active contour model using an inflation/deflation force with a damping coefficient (EM), the Selective Binary and Gaussian Filtering Regularized Level Set (SBGFRLS) method and the Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution (DRLSE) method. The pre-processing methods applied during research work were to improve the contrast, reduce noise and thus help segment the CC better. In this project, 3D CC models reconstructed based on the segmentations of cross-sections of MR images were also visualised. The results, as measured by quantitative tests of the similarity indice (SI) and overlap value (OV) are the best for the EM model (SI = 92%, OV = 82%) and are comparable to or better than those for other methods taken from a literature review. Furthermore, the properties of the EM model consisting in its ability to both expand and shrink at the same time allow segmentations to be better fitted in subsequent CC slices then in state-of-the art ACMs such as DRLSE or SBGFRLS. The CC contours from previous and subsequent iterations produced by the EM model can be used for initiation in subsequent or previous frames of MR images, which makes the segmentation process easier, particularly as the CC area can increase or decrease in subsequent MR image frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image processing has been extensively used in various (human, animal, plant) disease diagnosis approaches, assisting experts to select the right treatment. It has been applied to both images captured from cameras of visible light and from equipment that captures information in invisible wavelengths (magnetic/ultrasonic sensors, microscopes, etc.). In most of the referenced diagnosis applications, the image is enhanced by various filtering methods and segmentation follows isolating the regions of interest. Classification of the input image is performed at the final stage. The disease diagnosis approaches based on these steps and the common methods are described. The features extracted from a plant/skin disease diagnosis framework developed by the author are used here to demonstrate various techniques adopted in the literature. The various metrics along with the available experimental conditions and results presented in the referenced approaches are also discussed. The accuracy achieved in the diagnosis methods that are based on image processing is often higher than 90%. The motivation for this review is to highlight the most common and efficient methods that have been employed in various disease diagnosis approaches and suggest how they can be used in similar or different applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the estimation of the body weight of a person in front of an RGB-D camera. A survey of different methods for body weight estimation based on depth sensors is given. First, an estimation of people standing in front of a camera is presented. Second, an approach based on a stream of depth images is used to obtain the body weight of a person walking towards a sensor. The algorithm first extracts features from a point cloud and forwards them to an artificial neural network (ANN) to obtain an estimation of body weight. Besides the algorithm for the estimation, this paper further presents an open-access dataset based on measurements from a trauma room in a hospital as well as data from visitors of a public event. In total, the dataset contains 439 measurements. The article illustrates the efficiency of the approach with experiments with persons lying down in a hospital, standing persons, and walking persons. Applicable scenarios for the presented algorithm are body weight-related dosing of emergency patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: DNA damage causes aging, cancer, and other serious diseases. The comet assay can detect multiple types of DNA lesions with high sensitivity, and it has been widely applied. Although comet assay platforms have improved the limited throughput and reproducibility of traditional assays in recent times, analyzing large quantities of comet data often requires a tremendous human effort. To overcome this challenge, we proposed HiComet, a computational tool that can rapidly recognize and characterize a large number of comets, using little user intervention. Results: We tested HiComet with real data from 35 high-throughput comet assay experiments, with over 700 comets in total. The proposed method provided unprecedented levels of performance as an automated comet recognition tool in terms of robustness (measured by precision and recall) and throughput. Conclusions: HiComet is an automated tool for high-throughput comet-assay analysis and could significantly facilitate characterization of individual comets by accelerating its most rate-limiting step. An online implementation of HiComet is freely available at https://github.com/taehoonlee/HiComet/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]