Lateral Patellar Inclination Angle Measured via a Two-Image Technique on Axial Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Lateral patellar inclination (LPI) measures patellar tilt and is historically described on axial X-ray or a single magnetic resonance image (MRI). Given the variability in patellar height, LPI may be better represented by performing this measurement on two separate axial MRI images. We hypothesized that a two-image LPI measurement would be different from the current single-image LPI and have similar, if not superior reliability. Sixty-five patients treated for patellar instability (PI) between 2014 and 2017 were identified. Single image and two-image LPI were measured on axial MRI images. All measurements were performed by two independent observers. Reliability analysis was based on three observers' measurements of 30 randomly selected patients. Both the one image and two image LPI showed good inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.71 and 0.89, respectively), although the two image LPI had less variability. Both single image and two image LPI had near perfect intra-rater reliability (ICC = 0.98 and 0.98, respectively). Average single image LPI (14.6 ± 9.9 degrees) was 6.1 ± 3.4 degrees less than the average two image LPI (19.6 ± 9.4 degrees) (p = 0.037). Referencing a previously described 13.5 degrees maximum threshold, 54% of the patients had excessive patellar tilt based on single image LPI, while 73% had pathologic patellar tilt based on two image LPI. Two image LPI has similar reliability with less inter-rater variability compared with the historical single image LPI measurement. Significantly greater patellar tilt was identified with two image LPI that was found with single image LPI. A larger percentage of patients were classified as having pathologic patellar tilt based on two image LPI than single image LPI. The two image LPI provides more consistent and representative measurements of patellar tilt. Previously described threshold values for patellar tilt should be re-examined using this new measurement technique to appropriately risk stratify patients with PI and patellofemoral pain.

SHIP-SHIP HYDRODYNAMIC INTERACTION IN CONFINED WATERS WITH COMPLEX BOUNDARIES BY A PANELLED MOVING PATCH METHOD

This paper presents a potential flow solution for online estimation of hydrodynamic interaction between ships moving in restricted waters with complex boundaries. Each ship in concern is linked with a moving patch representing the arbitrary bathymetry beneath it. The wetted surfaces of ship hulls are meshed and loaded prior to the simulation, while the moving patches are dynamically discretized by a fast and robust mesh generator. The proposed method is validated for the ship- ship interaction case in the shallow water case with a flat and horizontal seabed where the mirror image technique is applicable, and satisfactory agreement is obtained. The method is further applied to simulate two interaction scenarios involving arbitrary seabed topography, and the numerical results are obtained and discussed.

Ground Displacements due to the Deformations of Shallow Tunnels with Arbitrary Cross Sections in Soft Ground

Nowadays, a huge number of shield-driven tunnels with noncircular cross sections are constructed in urban areas all around the world. However, the ground displacements associated with tunneling still form a difficult issue, especially for noncircular tunnels. In this study, an analytical solution is derived to estimate the ground displacements induced by the deformations of shallow noncircular tunnels in soft ground. First, a solution for the stresses and displacements around a deep tunnel in a full plane is formulated by imposing a specified convergence pattern over the cavity boundary. Subsequently, this solution is validated using finite element simulations in a case study of an elliptical tunnel with four different convergence patterns. Afterward, the solution in the full plane is extended to a half plane using the virtual image technique to estimate the ground displacements around shallow tunnels. The solution is also validated using finite element simulations.

What Do You Want to Eat? Influence of Menu Description and Design on Consumer’s Mind: An fMRI Study

The main objective of this research was to analyse the active regions when processing dishes with a pleasant (vs. unpleasant) design and the effect of the previously read rational (vs. emotional) description when visualising the dish. The functional magnetic resonance image technique was used for the study. The results showed that participants who visualised pleasant vs. unpleasant dishes became active in several domains (e.g., attention, cognition and reward). On the other side, visualisation of unpleasant dishes activated stronger regions linked to inhibition, rejection, and related ambiguity. We found that subjects who read rational descriptions when visualising pleasant dishes activated regions related to congruence integration, while subjects who visualised emotional descriptions showed an increased neuronal response to pleasant dishes in the regions related to memory, emotion and congruence.

Improving the Recognition Performance of Lip Reading Using the Concatenated Three Sequence Keyframe Image Technique

This paper proposes a lip reading method based on convolutional neural networks applied to Concatenated Three Sequence Keyframe Image (C3-SKI), consisting of (a) the Start-Lip Image (SLI), (b) the Middle-Lip Image (MLI), and (c) the End-Lip Image (ELI) which is the end of the pronunciation of that syllable. The lip area’s image dimensions were reduced to 32×32 pixels per image frame and three keyframes concatenate together were used to represent one syllable with a dimension of 96×32 pixels for visual speech recognition. Every three concatenated keyframes representing any syllable are selected based on the relative maximum and relative minimum related to the open lip’s width and height. The evaluation results of the model’s effectiveness, showed accuracy, validation accuracy, loss, and validation loss values at 95.06%, 86.03%, 4.61%, and 9.04% respectively, for the THDigits dataset. The C3-SKI technique was also applied to the AVDigits dataset, showing 85.62% accuracy. In conclusion, the C3-SKI technique could be applied to perform lip reading recognition.

The Classification and Segmentation of Fetal Anatomies Ultrasound Image: A Survey

Ultrasound imaging processing technology has been used in obstetric observation of the fetus and diagnosis of fetal diseases for more than half a century. It contains certain advantages and unique challenges which has been developed rapidly. From the perspective of ultrasound image analysis, at the very beginning, it is essential to determine fetal survival, gestational age and so on. Currently, the fetal anatomies ultrasound image analysis approaches have been studies and it has become an indispensable diagnostic tool for diagnosing fetal abnormalities, in order to gain more insight into the ongoing development of the fetus. Presently, it is the time to review previous approaches systematically in this field and to predict the directions of the future. Thus, this article reviews state-of-art approaches with the basic ideas, theories, pros and cons of ultrasound image technique for whole fetus with other anatomies. First of all, it summarizes the current pending problems and introduces the popular image processing methods, such as classification, segmentation etc. After that, the advantages and disadvantages in existing approaches as well as new research ideas are briefly discussed. Finally, the challenges and future trend are discussed.