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Background: Quality assurance (QA) of echocardiographic studies is vital to ensure that clinicians can act on findings of high quality to deliver excellent patient care. To date, there is a paucity of published guidance on how to perform this QA. The British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) has previously produced an Echocardiography Quality Framework (EQF) to assist departments with their QA processes. This article expands on the EQF with a structured yet versatile approach on how to analyse echocardiographic departments to ensure high-quality standards are met. In addition, a process is detailed for departments that are seeking to demonstrate to external bodies adherence to a robust QA process. Methods: The EQF consists of four domains. These include assessment of Echo Quality (including study acquisition and report generation); Reproducibility & Consistency (including analysis of individual variability when compared to the group and focused clinical audit), Education & Training (for all providers and service users) and Customer & Staff Satisfaction (of both service users and patients/their carers). Examples of what could be done in each of these areas are presented. Furthermore, evidence of participation in each domain is categorised against a red, amber or green rating: with an amber or green rating signifying that a quantifiable level of engagement in that aspect of QA has been achieved. Conclusion: The proposed EQF is a powerful tool that focuses the limited time available for departmental QA on areas of practice where a change in patient experience or outcome is most likely to occur.

Marine controlled-source electromagnetic (MCSEM) technology has been successfully established as an effective tool for offshore hydrocarbon (HC) exploration. In this chapter we consider another application of the MCSEM method for HC reservoir monitoring. We demonstrate that electromagnetic (EM) methods can be successfully used for the monitoring of producing wells in connection with the enhanced recovery of HCs. We have developed a powerful new EM modeling technique based on the integral equation method with an inhomogeneous background conductivity. This new method and the corresponding computer software make it possible to model the EM response over a realistic complex model of a sea-bottom HC reservoir. The numerical modeling results demonstrate that the MCSEM method has the ability to map changes in resistivity caused by the production of HCs over time. In addition, the EM data help to visualize changes in the location of the oil–water contact within a reservoir. This result opens the possibility for practical application of the EM method in HC reservoir monitoring.

Model‐based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) reduces CT imaging dose while maintaining image quality. However, MBIR reduces noise while preserving edges which may impact intensity‐based tasks such as auto‐segmentation. This work evaluates the sensitivity of an auto‐contouring prostate atlas across multiple MBIR reconstruction protocols and benchmarks the results against filtered back projection (FBP). Images were created from raw projection data for 11 prostate cancer cases using FBP and nine different MBIR reconstructions (3 protocols/3 noise reduction levels) yielding 10 reconstructions/patient. Five bony structures, bladder, rectum, prostate, and seminal vesicles (SVs) were segmented using an auto‐segmentation pipeline that renders 3D binary masks for analysis. Performance was evaluated for volume percent difference (VPD) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), using FBP as the gold standard. Nonparametric Friedman tests plus post hoc all pairwise comparisons were employed to test for significant differences (P

A towed streamer electromagnetic system capable of simultaneous seismic and electromagnetic data acquisition has recently been developed and tested in the North Sea. We introduce a 3D inversion methodology for towed streamer electromagnetic data that includes a moving sensitivity domain. Our implementation is based on the 3D integral equation method for computing responses and Frechet derivatives and uses the re‐weighted regularized conjugate gradient method for minimizing the objective functional with focusing regularization. We present two model studies relevant to hydrocarbon exploration in the North Sea. First, we demonstrate the ability of a towed electromagnetic system to detect and characterize the Harding field, a medium‐sized North Sea hydrocarbon target. We compare our 3D inversion of towed streamer electromagnetic data with 3D inversion of conventional marine controlled‐source electromagnetic data and observe few differences between the recovered models. Second, we demonstrate the ability of a towed streamer electromagnetic system to detect and characterize the Peon discovery, which is representative of an infrastructure‐led shallow gas play in the North Sea. We also present an actual case study for the 3D inversion of towed streamer electromagnetic data from the Troll field in the North Sea and demonstrate our ability to image all the Troll West Oil and Gas Provinces and the Troll East Gas Province. We conclude that 3D inversion of data from the current generation of towed streamer electromagnetic systems can adequately recover hydrocarbon‐bearing formations to depths of approximately 2 km. We note that by obviating the need for ocean‐bottom receivers, the towed streamer electromagnetic system enables electromagnetic data to be acquired over very large areas in frontier and mature basins for higher acquisition rates and relatively lower cost than conventional marine controlled‐source electromagnetic methods.

The key to deriving a reliable quantitative interpretation from marine controlledsource electromagnetic data is through the integration of shared earth modeling and robust 3D electromagnetic inversion. Subsurface uncertainty is minimized through efficient workflows that use all available subsurface data as a priori information and which permit multiple resistivity models to explain the same observed data. To this end, we present our implementation of an iterative migration method for controlledsource electromagnetic data that is equivalent to rigorous 3D inversion. Our iterative migration method is based on the 3D integral equation method with inhomogeneous background conductivity and focusing regularization with a priori terms. We will show that focusing stabilizers recover more geologically realistic models with sharper resistivity contrasts and boundaries than traditional smooth stabilizers. Additionally, focusing stabilizers have better convergence properties than smooth stabilizers. Finally, inhomogeneous background informationdescribed as a prioriresistivitymodels can improve the fidelity of the final models. Our method is implemented in a fully parallelized code. This makes it practical to run large-scale 3D iterative migration on multicomponent, multifrequency and multiline controlled-source electromagnetic surveys for 3D models with millions of cells. We present a suite of interpretations obtained from different iterative migration scenarios for a 3D controlled-source electromagnetic feasibility study computed from a detailed model of stacked anticline structures and reservoir units of the Shtokman gasfield in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.

Rapid multi-tracer PET, where two to three PET tracers are rapidly scanned with staggered injections, can recover certain imaging measures for each tracer based on differences in tracer kinetics and decay. We previously showed that single-tracer imaging measures can be recovered to a certain extent from rapid dual-tracer 62Cu-PTSM (blood flow) + 62Cu-ATSM (hypoxia) tumor imaging. In this work, the feasibility of rapidly imaging 18F-FDG plus one or two of these shorter-lived secondary tracers was evaluated in the same tumor model. Dynamic PET imaging was performed in four dogs with pre-existing tumors, and the raw scan data was combined to emulate 60 minute long dual and triple-tracer scans, using the single-tracer scans as gold standards. The multi-tracer data were processed for static (SUV) and kinetic (K1, Knet) endpoints for each tracer, followed by linear regression analysis of multi-tracer versus single-tracer results. Static and quantitative dynamic imaging measures of FDG were both accurately recovered from the multi-tracer scans, closely matching the single-tracer FDG standards (R > 0.99). Quantitative blood flow information, as measured by PTSM K1 and SUV, was also accurately recovered from the multi-tracer scans (R = 0.97). Recovery of ATSM kinetic parameters proved more difficult, though the ATSM SUV was reasonably well recovered (R = 0.92). We conclude that certain additional information from one to two shorter-lived PET tracers may be measured in a rapid multi-tracer scan alongside FDG without compromising the assessment of glucose metabolism. Such additional and complementary information has the potential to improve tumor characterization in vivo, warranting further investigation of rapid multi-tracer techniques.

We are developing methods for imaging multiple PET tracers in a single scan with staggered injections, where imaging measures for each tracer are separated and recovered using differences in tracer kinetics and radioactive decay. In this work, signal separation performance for rapid dual-tracer (62)Cu-PTSM (blood flow) + (62)Cu-ATSM (hypoxia) tumor imaging was evaluated in a large animal model. Four dogs with pre-existing tumors received a series of dynamic PET scans with (62)Cu-PTSM and (62)Cu-ATSM, permitting evaluation of a rapid dual-tracer protocol designed by previous simulation work. Several imaging measures were computed from the dual-tracer data and compared with those from separate, single-tracer imaging. Static imaging measures (e.g. SUV) for each tracer were accurately recovered from dual-tracer data. The wash-in (k(1)) and wash-out (k(2)) rate parameters for both tracers were likewise well recovered (r = 0.87-0.99), but k(3) was not accurately recovered for PTSM (r = 0.19) and moderately well recovered for ATSM (r = 0.70). Some degree of bias was noted, however, which may potentially be overcome through further refinement of the signal separation algorithms. This work demonstrates that complementary information regarding tumor blood flow and hypoxia can be acquired by a single dual-tracer PET scan, and also that the signal separation procedure works effectively for real physiologic data with realistic levels of kinetic model mismatch. Rapid multi-tracer PET has the potential to improve tumor assessment for image-guide therapy and monitoring, and further investigation with these and other tracers is warranted.

Interactions of charmed and strange mesons with baryonic matter can be calculated in the nonrelativistic quark potential model. For KN scattering data exists, and the theoretical results for S-waves are in approximate agreement with experiment. Here we apply the same model to the scattering of open-charm (D) mesons by nucleons, and give quark model predictions for DN scattering amplitudes. Spin-orbit forces in KN and DN will also be discussed.

Summary There is a growing interest in developing innovative geophysical methods for monitoring hydrocarbon reservoirs. One emerging technique is based on using the borehole electric current transmitter and a grid of surface electric field receivers for detailed mapping of the subsurface resistivity of oil- and gas-producing fields. This method is often called Borehole to Surface Electromagnetic (BSEM) surveying. We introduce a rigorous method for 3D inversion of BSEM data based on the integral equation approach and adaptive regularization. We have applied our developed method to 3D inversion of a field BSEM dataset collected in a giant oilfield in Saudi Arabia. It was demonstrated that 3D inversion of the BSEM data can be effectively used for mapping and monitoring fluid distribution inside a reservoirs and imaging the oil-water contact.

Michael S. Zhdanov, Masashi Endo, Noel Black, Lee Spangler, Stacey Fairweather, Andrew Hibbs, George A. Eiskamp and Robert Will present a feasibility study of permanent electromagnetic (EM) monitoring of CO2 sequestration in deep reservoir using a novel borehole-to-surface EM (BSEM) method.

Geophysical monitoring of carbon dioxide (CO2) injections in a deep reservoir has become an important component of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. Until recently, the seismic method was the dominant technique used for reservoir monitoring. In this paper we present a feasibility study of permanent electromagnetic (EM) monitoring of CO2 sequestration in deep reservoir using a novel borehole-to-surface EM (BSEM) method. The advantage of this method is that the sources of the EM field are located within the borehole close to the target reservoir, which increases the sensitivity and resolution of the method. Another innovation is the use of capacitive electric field sensors with an operational lifetime of tens of years. We illustrate the effectiveness of the BSEM method by computer simulating CO2 injection monitoring in the Kevin Dome sequestration site in Montana, USA.

Recent studies have inferred the feasibility of time-lapse controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods for the monitoring of offshore oil and gas fields. The time-lapse CSEM inverse problem is highly constrained though inherently 3D since the geometry of the reservoir is established prior to production from high resolution seismic surveys; rock and fluid properties are measured from well logs; and multiple history matched production scenarios are contained in dynamic reservoir models. Using Archie’s Law, rock and fluid properties from dynamic reservoir simulations of the Harding field in the North Sea were converted to resistivity, from pre-production in 1996 to decommissioning in 2016. CSEM data were simulated for each state. We demonstrate how 3D inversion can be used for monitoring the oil-water contact from pre-production to end of oil production in 2011, and for monitoring of the gas-water contact 2011 to 2016 during gas production. In particular, we show that focusing regularization is able to recover sharp resistivity contrasts across the oil-water and gas-water boundaries, whereas smooth regularization fails to recover an adequate resistivity contrast.

Recent studies have inferred the feasibility of time-lapse controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods for the monitoring of offshore oil and gas fields. The time-lapse CSEM inverse problem is highly constrained though inherently 3D since the geometry of the reservoir is established prior to production from high-resolution seismic surveys, rock and fluid properties are measured from well logs, and multiple history-matched production scenarios are contained in dynamic reservoir models. Using Archie’s Law, rock and fluid properties from dynamic reservoir simulations of the Harding field in the North Sea were converted to resistivity, from preproduction in 1996 to decommissioning in 2016. CSEM data were simulated for each state. We demonstrate how 3D inversion can be used for monitoring the oil-water contact from preproduction to the end of oil production in 2011, and for monitoring of the gas-water contact from 2011 to 2016 during gas production. In particular, we show that focusing regularization is able to recover sharp resistivity contrasts across the oil-water and gas-water boundaries, whereas smooth regularization fails to recover an adequate resistivity contrast.

A towed streamer electromagnetic (EM) system capable of simultaneous seismic and CSEM data acquisition has been developed and tested in the North Sea. The towed EM data are processed and delivered as a time-domain impulse response. In this paper, we use 3D modeling and inversion to investigate the ability of the towed EM system to detect and characterize the Harding field, a typical North Sea-type target. The 3D model of the Harding field itself was constructed from dynamic reservoir simulations. We have compared our 3D inversion of time-domain towed streamer EM data with 3D inversion of conventional frequencydomain CSEM data. We observe similarities in the recovered models. Obviating the need for ocean bottom receivers, the towed-streamer EM system enables CSEM data to be acquired simultaneously with seismic over very large areas in frontier and mature basins for higher production rates and relatively lower cost than conventional CSEM.

Marine controlled-source electromagnetic (MCSEM) technology has been successfully established as an effective tool for offshore hydrocarbon (HC) exploration. In this paper we consider another application of the MCSEM method for HC reservoir monitoring. We demonstrate that EM methods can be successfully used for the monitoring of production wells in connection with the enhanced recovery of hydrocarbons. We have developed a powerful new EM modeling technique based on the integral equation method with an inhomogeneous background conductivity (IE IBC). This new method, and the corresponding computer software, make it possible to model the EM response over a realistic complex model of a sea-bottom HC reservoir. The numerical modeling results demonstrate that the MCSEM method has the ability to map changes in resistivity caused by the production of hydrocarbons over time. In addition, the EM data help to visualize changes in the location of the oil-water contact within a reservoir. This result opens the possibility for practical application of the EM method in HC reservoir monitoring.

Recent studies have inferred the feasibility of time-lapse controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) methods for the surveillance of offshore oil and gas fields. However, quantitative interpretations have not been shown to ascertain what information about the reservoirs that may be recovered. We present a 3D inversion study of synthetic time-lapse CSEM data for the lateral water flooding of a reservoir unit where the hydrocarbon accumulation is trapped by a thin dome structure. We demonstrate that even with few constraints on the model, the flooding front can be recovered from 3D inversion. In this paper, synthetic time-lapse CSEM responses are simulated with the threshold about the noise floor and subject to multiple 3D inversion scenarios. The time-lapse CSEM inverse problem is highly constrained though inherently 3D since the geometry of the reservoir is established prior to production from high resolution seismic surveys; rock and fluid properties are measured from well logs; and multiple history matched production scenarios are contained in dynamic reservoir models.

Summary The integration of shared earth modeling and robust 3D CSEM modeling and inversion is the key to deriving a reliable quantitative interpretation from marine controlledsource electromagnetic (CSEM) data. Workflows should make use of all available subsurface data and enable the interpreter to select the most geologically relevant resistivity model from the multitude of models that satisfy the same CSEM data. To this end, we present our implementation of an iterative migration method for CSEM data, equivalent to rigorous inversion. Our iterative migration method is based on the 3D integral equation method with inhomogeneous background conductivity and focusing regularization with a priori terms. Here, we will show that focusing stabilizers recover more geologically realistic models with sharper geoelectric contrasts and boundaries than traditional smooth stabilizers. Additionally, we will show that focusing stabilizers have better convergence properties than smooth stabilizers. Our method is implemented in a fully parallelized code, which makes it practical to run large-scale 3D iterative migration on multi-component, multi-frequency and multi-line CSEM surveys for models with millions of cells. We present a suite of interpretations obtained from different migration scenarios for a 3D CSEM feasibility study computed from a detailed model of the Shtokman gas field in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea.

Marine controlled-source electromagnetic (MCSEM) technology has been successfully established as an effective tool for offshore hydrocarbon (HC) exploration. In this paper we consider another application of the MCSEM method for HC reservoir monitoring. We demonstrate that EM methods can also be used for the monitoring of producing wells in connection with the enhanced recovery of hydrocarbons. We have developed a powerful new EM modeling technique based on the integral equation method with an inhomogeneous background conductivity (IE IBC). This new method and the corresponding computer software make it possible to model the EM response over a realistic complex model of a sea-bottom HC reservoir. The numerical modeling results demonstrate that the MCSEM method has the ability to map changes in resistivity caused by the production of hydrocarbons over time. In addition, the EM data help to visualize changes in the location of the oil-water contact within the reservoir. This result opens the possibility for practical application of the EM method in HC reservoir monitoring.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the lesion detection performance of four fully-3D positron emission tomography (PET) reconstruction schemes using experimentally acquired data. A multi-compartment anthropomorphic phantom was set up to mimic whole-body (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) cancer imaging and scanned 12 times in 3D mode, obtaining count levels typical of noisy clinical scans. Eight of the scans had 26 (68)Ge "shell-less" lesions (6, 8-, 10-, 12-, 16-mm diameter) placed throughout the phantom with various target:background ratios. This provided lesion-present and lesion-absent datasets with known truth appropriate for evaluating lesion detectability by localization receiver operating characteristic (LROC) methods. Four reconstruction schemes were studied: 1) Fourier rebinning (FORE) followed by 2D attenuation-weighted ordered-subsets expectation-maximization, 2) fully-3D AW-OSEM, 3) fully-3D ordinary-Poisson line-of-response (LOR-)OSEM; and 4) fully-3D LOR-OSEM with an accurate point-spread function (PSF) model. Two forms of LROC analysis were performed. First, a channelized nonprewhitened (CNPW) observer was used to optimize processing parameters (number of iterations, post-reconstruction filter) for the human observer study. Human observers then rated each image and selected the most-likely lesion location. The area under the LROC curve ( A(LROC)) and the probability of correct localization were used as figures-of-merit. The results of the human observer study found no statistically significant difference between FORE and AW-OSEM3D ( A(LROC)=0.41 and 0.36, respectively), an increase in lesion detection performance for LOR-OSEM3D ( A(LROC)=0.45, p=0.076), and additional improvement with the use of the PSF model ( A(LROC)=0.55, p=0.024). The numerical CNPW observer provided the same rankings among algorithms, but obtained different values of A(LROC). These results show improved lesion detection performance for the reconstruction algorithms with more sophisticated statistical and imaging models as compared to the previous-generation algorithms.

Rapid multi-tracer PET, where two to three PET tracers are rapidly scanned with staggered injections, can recover certain imaging measures for each tracer based on differences in tracer kinetics and decay. We previously showed that single-tracer imaging measures can be recovered to a certain extent from rapid dual-tracer 62Cu-PTSM (blood flow) + 62Cu- ATSM (hypoxia) tumor imaging. Here we develop improved tracer-separation algorithms and evaluate signal-separation performance for rapidly imaging various combinations of F- FDG plus 62Cu-PTSM and/or 62Cu-ATSM. Dynamic imaging with these three tracers was performed in four dogs with prexisting tumors, and the raw scan data was combined to emulate dual- and triple-tracer imaging, using the single-tracer scans as gold standards. The multi-tracer data were processed for static (SUV) and kinetic (k1-k3, knet) endpoints for each tracer, followed by linear regression analysis of multi-tracer vs. single-tracer results. The FDG information was largely retained in these multi-tracer protocols. Static imaging measures (SUV) for FDG were accurately recovered, with r>0.99 in all protocols studied (four dual-tracer and one triple-tracer). Dynamic FDG imaging measures (k!-k3, knet) were well-correlated with single-tracer values (r>0.99). SUVs for PTSM and ATSM were also recovered well (r=0.97 and 0.92, respectively), and dynamic measures were recovered to varying degrees. The additional and complementary information obtained from PTSM and ATSM imaged simultaneously with FDG has the potential to improve tumor assessment for image-guided therapy and monitoring, warranting further development of the signal-separation algorithms.

Charmonium dissociation cross sections due to flavor-exchange charmonium-baryon scattering are computed in the constituent quark model. We present results for inelastic $J/\psi N$ and $\eta_c N$ scattering amplitudes and cross sections into 46 final channels, including final states composed of various combinations of $D$, $D^*$, $\Sigma_c$, and $\Lambda_c$. These results are relevant to experimental searches for the deconfined phase of quark matter, and may be useful in identifying the contribution of initial $c\bar c$ production to the open-charm final states observed at RHIC through the characteristic flavor ratios of certain channels. These results are also of interest to possible charmonium-nucleon bound states., Comment: 10 pages, 5 eps figures, revtex

In this paper we evaluate strong decay amplitudes and partial widths of strange mesons (strangeonia and kaonia) in the 3P0 decay model. We give numerical results for all energetically allowed open-flavor two-body decay modes of all nsbar and ssbar strange mesons in the 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, 1D and 1F multiplets, comprising strong decays of a total of 43 resonances into 525 two-body modes, with 891 numerically evaluated amplitudes. This set of resonances includes all strange qqbar states with allowed strong decays expected in the quark model up to ca. 2.2 GeV. We use standard nonrelativistic quark model SHO wavefunctions to evaluate these amplitudes, and quote numerical results for all amplitudes present in each decay mode. We also discuss the status of the associated experimental candidates, and note which states and decay modes would be especially interesting for future experimental study at hadronic, e+e- and photoproduction facilities. These results should also be useful in distinguishing conventional quark model mesons from exotica such as glueballs and hybrids through their strong decays., 69 pages, 5 figures, 39 tables

In this paper we derive quark model results for scattering amplitudes and equivalent low energy potentials for heavy meson pairs, in which each meson contains a heavy quark. This "BB" system is an attractive theoretical laboratory for the study of the nuclear force between color singlets; the hadronic system is relatively simple, and there are lattice gauge theory (LGT) results for V_BB(r) which may be compared to phenomenological models. We find that the quark model potential (after lattice smearing) has qualitative similarities to the LGT potential in the two B*B* channels in which direct comparison is possible, although there is evidence of a difference in length scales. The quark model prediction of equal magnitude but opposite sign for I=0 and I=1 potentials also appears similar to LGT results at intermediate r. There may however be a discrepancy between the LGT and quark model I=1 BB potentials. A numerical study of the two-meson Schrodinger equations in the (bqbar)(bqbar) and (cqbar)(cqbar) sectors with the quark model potentials finds a single "molecule", in the I=0 BB* sector. Binding in other channels might occur if the quark model forces are augmented by pion exchange., 30 pages, 5 figures, revtex and epsfig. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C

We apply a quark interchange model to spin-dependent and exotic meson-meson scattering. The model includes the complete set of standard quark model forces, including OGE spin-orbit and tensor and scalar confinement spin-orbit. Scattering amplitudes derived assuming SHO and Coulomb plus linear plus hyperfine meson wavefunctions are compared. In I=2 pi pi we find approximate agreement with the S-wave phase shift from threshold to 1.5 GeV, where we predict an extremum that is supported by the data. Near threshold we find rapid energy dependence that may reconcile theoretical estimates of small scattering lengths with experimental indications of larger ones based on extrapolation of measurements at moderate kpi^2. In PsV scattering we find that the quark-quark L*S and T forces map into L*S and T meson-meson interactions, and the P-wave L*S force is large. Finally we consider scattering in J^PC-exotic channels, and note that some of the Deck effect mechanisms suggested as possible nonresonant origins of the pi_1(1400) signal are not viable in this model., Comment: 51 pages, 10 figures, uses epsf.sty epsfig.sty

Michael S. Zhdanov, Chris Anderson, Masashi Endo, Leif H. Cox, Martin Cuma, Glenn A. Wilson, Noel Black and Alexander V. Gribenko provide an early study of the challenges involved in validating offshore electromagnetic (EM) data acquired using a towed streamer receiver (currently under development) and compare the results with existing seabed-based marine controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) technology.

Michael S. Zhdanov, Evgeny P. Velikhov, Martin Cuma, Glenn Wilson, Noel Black and Alexander Gribenko argue that the key to deriving a reliable quantitative interpretationfrom marine controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) data is through the integration of shared earth modelling and robust 3D CSEM inversion. An iterative migration method for CSEM data is presented that is equivalent to rigorous inversion, illustrated with a case study of the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea.