This paper presents a termination criterion for active contour that does not involve alteration of the energy functional. The criterion is based on the area difference of the contour during evolution. In this criterion, the evolution of the contour terminates when the area difference fluctuates around a constant. The termination criterion is tested using parametric gradient vector flow active contour with contour resampling and normal force selection. The usefulness of the criterion is shown through its trend, speed, accuracy, shape insensitivity, and insensitivity to contour resampling. The metric used in the proposed criterion demonstrated a steadily decreasing trend. For automatic implementation in which different shapes need to be segmented, the proposed criterion demonstrated almost 50% and 60% total time reduction while achieving similar accuracy as compared with the pixel movement-based method in the segmentation of synthetic and real medical images, respectively. Our results also show that the proposed termination criterion is insensitive to shape variation and contour resampling. The criterion also possesses potential to be used for other kinds of snakes.

The development of teleradiology brings the convenience of global medical record access along with the concerns over the security of medical images transmitted over the open network. With the prevailing adoption of three-dimensional (3-D) imaging modalities, it is vital to develop a security mechanism to provide large volumes of medical images with privacy and reliability. This paper presents the development of a new and improved method of implementing tamper detection and localization based on a fully reversible digital watermarking scheme for the protection of volumetric DICOM images. This tamper detection and localization method utilizes the 3-D property of volumetric data to achieve much faster processing time at both sender and receiver sides without compromising tamper localization accuracy. The performance of the proposed scheme was evaluated by using sample volumetric DICOM images. Results show that the scheme achieved on average about 65 % and 72 % reduction in watermarking and dewatermarking processing time, respectively. For cases where the images had been tampered, it is possible to detect and localize the tampered areas with improved localization resolution in the images using the scheme.

Teleradiology applications and universal availability of patient records using web-based technology are rapidly gaining importance. Consequently, digital medical image security has become an important issue when images and their pertinent patient information are transmitted across public networks, such as the Internet. Health mandates such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act require healthcare providers to adhere to security measures in order to protect sensitive patient information. This paper presents a fully reversible, dual-layer watermarking scheme with tamper detection capability for medical images. The scheme utilizes concepts of public-key cryptography and reversible data-hiding technique. The scheme was tested using medical images in DICOM format. The results show that the scheme is able to ensure image authenticity and integrity, and to locate tampered regions in the images.

Visualization of bone marrow lesion (BML) can improve the diagnosis of many bone disorders that are associated with it. A quantitative approach in detecting BML could increase the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosing those bone disorders. In this paper, we investigated the feasibility of using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based texture to (a) identify slices and (b) classify subjects with and without BML. A total of 58 subjects were studied; 29 of them were affected by BML. The ages of subjects ranged from 45 to 74 years with a mean age of 59. Texture parameters were calculated for the weight-bearing region of distal femur. The parameters were then analyzed using Mann–Whitney U test and individual feature selection methods to identify potentially discriminantive parameters. Forward feature selection was applied to select features subset for classification. Classification results from eight classifiers were studied. Results show that 98 of the 147 parameters studied are statistically significantly different between the normal and affected marrows: parameters based on co-occurrence matrix are ranked highest in their separability. The classification of subjects achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.914, and the classification of slices achieved an AUC of 0.780. The results show that MRI-texture-based classification can effectively classify subjects/slices with and without BML.

•A significant speedup of 4.73-fold was achieved with the employment of BCEN.•BCEN provides a reusable framework for clinical feature pre-selection.•Efficient redevelopment of up-to-date clinical classification models is possible with BCEN.•Risk factors identified in BCEN highly overlap those found in previous clinical studies.Clinical feature selection problem is the task of selecting and identifying a subset of informative clinical features that are useful for promoting accurate clinical diagnosis. This is a significant task of pragmatic value in the clinical settings as each clinical test is associated with a different financial cost, diagnostic value, and risk for obtaining the measurement. Moreover, with continual introduction of new clinical features, the need to repeat the feature selection task can be very time consuming. Therefore to address this issue, we propose a novel feature selection technique for diagnosis of myocardial infarction – one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in many high-income countries. This method adopts the conceptual framework of biological continuum, the optimization capability of genetic algorithm for performing feature selection and the classification ability of support vector machine. Together, a network of clinical risk factors, called the biological continuum based etiological network (BCEN), was constructed. Evaluation of the proposed methods was carried out using the cardiovascular heart study (CHS) dataset. Results demonstrate a significant speedup of 4.73-fold can be achieved for the development of MI classification model. The key advantage of this methodology is the provision of a reusable (feature subset) paradigm for efficient development of up-to-date and efficacious clinical classification models.Download high-res image (118KB)Download full-size image

Modeling of biological parts is of crucial importance as it enables the in silico study of synthetic biological systems prior to the actual construction of genetic circuits, which can be time consuming and costly. Because standard biological parts are utilized to build the synthetic systems, it is important that each of these standard parts is well characterized and has a corresponding mathematical model that could simulate the characteristics of the part. These models could be used in computer aided design (CAD) tools during the design stage to facilitate the building of the model of biological systems. This paper describes the development of a mathematical model that is able to simulate both the dynamic and static performance of a biological device created using standard parts. We modeled an example quorum sensing device that produces green fluorescent protein (GFP) as reporter in the presence of Acyl Homoserine Lactone (AHL). The parameters of the model were estimated using experimental results. The simulation results show that the model was able to simulate behavior similar to experimental results. Since it is important that these models and the content in the models can be searchable and readable by machines, standard SBML (system biology markup language) format was used to store the models. All parts and reactions are fully annotated to enable easy searching, and the models follow the Minimum Information Requested In the Annotation of Models (MIRIAM) compliance as well as the Minimum Information About a Simulation Experiment (MIASE).Highlights► We developed mathematical model that simulates dynamic and static performance of a biological device. ► We modeled an example quorum sensing device that produces GFP in the presence of AHL. ► Simulation results show that the model was able to simulate behavior similar to experimental results. ► Standard SBML (system biology markup language) format was used to store the model. ► The model follows the MIRIAM and MIASE compliances.