Visual perception studies and observer models in medical imaging.

Most academic radiologists will be familiar with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) studies. Fundamental studies of human observer performance are now usually performed by forced-choice methods. Both methods are based on signal detection theory. The ROC method gives an operating curve of true-positive versus false-positive probabilities. The area under the curve, A(Z), can be used a summary performance measure. In the forced-choice method, observers are given 2 or more images with one containing the signal. The observer's task is to select the option most likely to contain the signal. The percentage of correct responses, PC, is a summary performance measure. Precise comparison of the 2 methods is limited to very controlled experiments in which signals (simulated lesions for example) are carefully designed and detection or discrimination is limited by true random noise. Under these conditions, theory predicts a simple relationship between summary measures and human results are consistent with theory. There will be a description of forced-choice experimental methods and data analysis. There has also been considerable work on development of theoretic observer models. Human experiment results have used to evaluate the models. Models that correlate well with human performance in turn can be used for preliminary design of new imaging systems and for selection of image quality metrics for comparing equipment performance, this article will provide a summary of work during the last 30 years on evaluating human signal detection capabilities, observer models and image quality metrics.

Treatment of industrial wastewater effluents using hydrodynamic cavitation and the advanced Fenton process.

For the first time, hydrodynamic cavitation induced by a liquid whistle reactor (LWR) has been used in conjunction with the advanced Fenton process (AFP) for the treatment of real industrial wastewater. Semi-batch experiments in the LWR were designed to investigate the performance of the process for two different industrial wastewater samples. The effect of various operating parameters such as pressure, H2O2 concentration and the initial concentration of industrial wastewater samples on the extent of mineralization as measured by total organic carbon (TOC) content have been studied with the aim of maximizing the extent of degradation. It has been observed that higher pressures, sequential addition of hydrogen peroxide at higher loadings and lower concentration of the effluent are more favourable for a rapid TOC mineralization. In general, the novel combination of hydrodynamic cavitation with AFP results in about 60-80% removal of TOC under optimized conditions depending on the type of industrial effluent samples. The combination described herein is most useful for treatment of bio-refractory materials where the diminution in toxicity can be achieved up to a certain level and then conventional biological oxidation can be employed for final treatment. The present work is the first to report the use of a hydrodynamic cavitation technique for real industrial wastewater treatment.

Intensification of oxidation capacity using chloroalkanes as additives in hydrodynamic and acoustic cavitation reactors.

The effect of the presence and absence of the chloroalkanes, dichloromethane (CH(2)Cl(2)), chloroform (CHCl(3)) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) on the extent of oxidation of aqueous I(-) to I(3)(-) has been investigated in (a) a liquid whistle reactor (LWR) generating hydrodynamic cavitation and (b) an ultrasonic probe, which produces acoustic cavitation. The aim has been to examine the intensification achieved in the extent of oxidation due to the generation of additional free radicals/oxidants in the reactor as a result of the presence of chloroalkanes. It has been observed that the extent of increase in the oxidation reaction is strongly dependent on the applied pressure in the case of the LWR. Also, higher volumes of the chloroalkanes favour the intensification and the order of effectiveness is CCl(4)>CHCl(3)>CH(2)Cl(2). However, the results with the ultrasonic probe suggest that an optimum concentration of CH(2)Cl(2) or CHCl(3) exists beyond which there is little increase in the extent of observed intensification. For CCl(4), however, no such optimum concentration was observed and the extent of increase in the rates of oxidation reaction rose with the amount of CCl(4) added. Stage wise addition of the chloroalkanes was found to give marginally better results in the case of the ultrasonic probe as compared to bulk addition at the start of the run. Although CCl(4) is the most effective, its toxicity and carcinogenicity may mean that CH(2)Cl(2) and CHCl(3) offer a safer viable alternative and the present work should be useful in establishing the amount of chloroalkanes required for obtaining a suitable degree of intensification.

Signal detection in power-law noise: effect of spectrum exponents.

Many natural backgrounds have approximately isotropic power spectra of the power-law form, P(f)=K/f(beta), where f is radial frequency. For natural scenes and mammograms, the values of the exponent, beta, range from 1.5 to 3.5. The ideal observer model predicts that for signals with certain properties and backgrounds that can be treated as random noise, a plot of log (contrast threshold) versus log (signal size) will be linear with slope, m, given by: m=(beta-2)/2. This plot is referred to as a contrast-detail (CD) diagram. It is interesting that this predicts a detection threshold that is independent of signal size for beta equal to 2. We present two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) detection results for human and channelized model observers of a simple signal in filtered noise with exponents from 1.5 to 3.5. The CD diagram results are in good agreement with the prediction of this equation.

Intensification of hydroxyl radical production in sonochemical reactors.

The efficacy of sonochemical reactors in chemical processing applications has been well established in the laboratory scale of operation though at a given set of operating parameters and no efforts have been directed in terms of maximizing the free radical production. In the present work, the effect of different operating parameters viz. pH, power dissipation into the system, effect of additives such as air, haloalkanes, titanium dioxide, iron and oxygen on the extent of hydroxyl radical formation in a sonochemical reactor have been investigated using salicylic acid dosimetry. Possible mechanisms for oxidation of salicylic acid in the presence of different additives have also been established. It has been observed that acidic conditions under optimized power dissipation in the presence of iron powder and oxygen result in maximum liberation of hydroxyl radicals as quantified by the kinetic rate constant for production of 2,5- and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid. The study has enabled the optimization of the conditions for maximum efficacy of sonochemical reactors where free radical attack is the controlling mechanism for the chemical processing applications.

Incomplete skin representation in digital mammograms.

Flat-panel digital detector systems have limited dynamic range and saturate at a particular x-ray exposure. Hence some of the breast edge may not be represented in the displayed image. We developed a model to estimate the amount of skin loss. Model predictions agreed well with phantom measurements. In our database of 884 clinical digital mammograms, 98% had saturated backgrounds. The estimated skin loss exceeded 0.5 mm in 5% of images and 1.0 mm in 0.7% of images. Any skin thickening that is present should still be visualized, so we conclude that any skin-line loss may not be of clinical significance.