andrew breitbart dead sheriff joe arpaio limbaugh aaron smith wilt chamberlain joe arpaio cat in the hat
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Computing the best high-resolution 3-D tissue images
ScienceDaily (Apr. 23, 2012) ? Real-time, 3-D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery and ophthalmology. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus.
The computational technique could provide faster, less expensive and higher resolution tissue imaging to a broader population of users. The group describes its technique this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Computational techniques allow you to go beyond what the optical system can do alone, to ultimately get the best quality images and three-dimensional datasets," said Steven Adie, a postdoctoral researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. "This would be very useful for real-time imaging applications such as image-guided surgery."
Aberrations, such as astigmatism or distortion, plague high-resolution imaging. They make objects that should look like fine points appear to be blobs or streaks. The higher the resolution, the worse the problem becomes. It's especially tricky in tissue imaging, when precision is vital to a correct diagnosis.
Adaptive optics can correct aberrations in imaging. It's widely used in astronomy to correct for distortion as starlight filters through the atmosphere. A complex system of mirrors smooth out the scattered light before it enters the lens. Medical scientists have begun applying adaptive optics hardware to microscopes, hoping to improve cell and tissue imaging.
"It's the same challenge, but instead of imaging through the atmosphere, we're imaging through tissue, and instead of imaging a star, we're imaging a cell," said Stephen Boppart, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, of bioengineering and of internal medicine at the U. of I. "But a lot of the optical problems are the same."
Unfortunately, hardware-based adaptive optics are complicated, tedious to align and extremely expensive. They can only focus on one focal plane at a time, so for tomography -- 3-D models constructed from sectional images as in a CT scan, for example -- the mirrors have to be adjusted and a new image scanned for each focal plane. In addition, complex corrective systems are impractical for handheld or portable devices, such as surgical probes or retinal scanners.
Therefore, instead of using hardware to correct a light profile before it enters the lens, the Illinois team uses computer software to find and correct aberrations after the image is taken. Boppart's group teamed up with with Scott Carney, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the head of the Optical Science Group at the Beckman Institute, to develop the technique, called computational adaptive optics. They demonstrated the technique in gel-based phantoms laced with microparticles as well as in rat lung tissue. They scan a tissue sample with an interferometric microscope, which is an optical imaging device using two beams of light. The computer collects all of the data and then corrects the images at all depths within the volume. Blurry streaks become sharp points, features emerge from noise, and users can change parameters with the click of a mouse.
"Being able to correct aberrations of the entire volume helps us to get a high-resolution image anywhere in that volume," said Adie. "Now you can see tissue structures that previously were not very clear at all."
Computed adaptive optics can be applied to any type of interferometric imaging, such as optical coherence tomography, and the computations can be performed on an ordinary desktop computer, making it accessible for many hospitals and clinics.
Next, the researchers are working to refine the algorithms and explore applications. They are combining their computational adaptive optics with graphics processors, looking forward to real-time in-vivo applications for surgery, minimally invasive biopsy and more.
For example, computational adaptive optics could be very useful for ophthalmologists. Boppart's group previously has developed various handheld optical tomography devices for imaging inside the eye, particularly retinal scanning. Aberrations are very common in the human eye, making it difficult to acquire clear images. But adaptive optics hardware is too expensive or too complicated for most practicing ophthalmologists. With a computational solution, many more ophthalmologists could more effectively examine and treat their patients.
"The effectiveness is striking," Boppart said. "Because of the aberrations of the human eye, when you look at the retina without adaptive optics you just see variations of light and dark areas that represent the rods and cones. But when you use adaptive optics, you see the rods and cones as distinct objects."
In addition, the ability to correct data post-acquisition allows the researchers to develop microscope systems that maximize light collection instead of worrying about minimizing aberrations. This could lead to better data for better image rendering.
"We are working to compute the best image possible," said Boppart, who also is affiliated with the Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I.
The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation supported this work.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
dexter facebook timeline kim jong il kim jong il vaclav havel vaclav havel kim jong ii dead
Stylish Vac Compresses Your Dirt Into Easily Disposable Cubes [Vacuums]
born to run pranks pregnancy test april fools day 2012 ja rule amityville horror acm
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Katie Price Wants Us All To Go ?Natural? Like Her
Katie Price Wants Us All To Go “Natural” Like Her
Former glamor model Katie Price tweeted her more “natural” look without make-up or hair extensions to her followers. Price, who is dating Argentinian model Leandro [...]
Katie Price Wants Us All To Go “Natural” Like Her Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News
harvard yale joe paterno lung cancer joe paterno lung cancer john tucker must die uk basketball iowa state faroe islands
Bullet Time Light Painting Makes Beautiful 3D Graffiti [Video]
'Think Like A Man' Ends 'Hunger Games' Box-Office Streak
Zac Efron's 'The Lucky One' also beat out 'Games' over the weekend.
By Ryan J. Downey
Meagan Good and Romany Malco in "Think Like a Man"
Photo: Screen Gems Productions
In the end, it wasn't any sort of dastardly villain who conquered the heroes of "The Hunger Games." No, the four-week box-office reign of the adaptation of the popular YA novel was ended by none other than Steve Harvey and Zac Efron, whose respective new movies performed quite impressively over the weekend.
"Think Like a Man" was #1 with a $33 million opening, boasting a higher per-screen average than any other movie with a nationwide release this year, save for "Games" and "Dr. Seuss the Lorax." With a story based on the lessons given in comedian Steve Harvey's self-help tome "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man," the film gave Screen Gems their second-best opening (behind "The Vow") and third #1 in 2012 so far.
Screen Gems only spent a reported $13 million making "Think Like a Man." Many industry watchers predicted an opening at least $10 million lower, more in line with the intake of the #2 movie at the box office this week, "The Lucky One." The Zac Efron-led tearjerker opened with $22.8 million. That's much higher than Efron's "Charlie St. Cloud" ($12.4 million) though somewhat less than "17 Again" ($23.7 million). It's the second-biggest opening for a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks book, behind "Dear John" ($30.5 million). Box Office Mojo noted that "The Lucky One" actually sold more tickets than "The Notebook" too, though it earned less actual cash.
"The Lucky One" was pretty unlucky with critics, however. Richard Roeper called it "well-acted schmaltz with some gaping plot holes." Eric D. Snider described "The Lucky One" as "exactly the kind of sappy hogwash that Efron's detractors think is the only thing he's capable of doing." The movie did receive a B+ CinemaScore from moviegoers who saw it, although 56 percent of them admitted that Efron was the main reason they went to see the film, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"The Hunger Games" was #3 with $14.5 million for a five-week total of $356.9 million. The first in a planned trilogy, "Games" now sits at #19 on the list of all-time box-office grosses, right between "Jurassic Park" ($357 million) and the third "Transformers" movie, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" ($352.3 million). "The Hunger Games" has made more than any "Twilight" movie and is ahead of every "Harry Potter" flick except "Deathly Hallows, Part 2," which made $381 million.
"Games" did manage to hold off one of the weekend's new films, "Chimpanzee," though the Disneynature film still managed the third-highest opening for a documentary ever. "Chimpanzee" was #4 with $10.2 million, placing it behind docs "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" ($29.5 million) and "Fahrenheit 9/11" ($23.9 million). "Chimpanzee" had a 77 percent "fresh" score on film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. "Walt Disney himself couldn't have scripted 'Chimpanzee' any better," wrote Newsday's Rafer Guzman. The Washington Post's Michael O'Sullivan wrote, "one wonders whether more than a few viewers won't want to take home a baby chimp."
The Farrelly brothers' take on "The Three Stooges" rounded out the top five with $9.2 million during its second weekend, bringing the comedy's total to $29.4 million.
"Titanic 3-D" continued to top the international box office, bringing its overseas total to $225.7 million. "Battleship" has made $129.6 million abroad.
Next weekend's new films include "The Raven," starring John Cusack as a fictionalized version of Edgar Allan Poe; Jason Statham action flick "Safe"; R-rated comedy "The Five-Year Engagement," from the team behind "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"; and animated kids' movie "Pirates! Band of Misfits."
Check out everything we've got on "The Hunger Games" and "The Lucky One." For young Hollywood news, fashion and "Twilight" updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
Related Videosbudweiser shootout animal house invincible jesse jackson whitney houston funeral video tyler perry whitney houston r kelly
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)