Leveraging 3D Echocardiograms to Evaluate AI Model Performance in Predicting Cardiac Function on Out-of-Distribution Data.

Advancements in medical imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) have revolutionized the field of cardiac diagnostics, providing accurate and efficient tools for assessing cardiac function. AI diagnostics claims to improve upon the human-to-human variation that is known to be significant. However, when put in practice, for cardiac ultrasound, AI models are being run on images acquired by human sonographers whose quality and consistency may vary. With more variation than other medical imaging modalities, variation in image acquisition may lead to out-of-distribution (OOD) data and unpredictable performance of the AI tools. Recent advances in ultrasound technology has allowed the acquisition of both 3D as well as 2D data, however 3D has more limited temporal and spatial resolution and is still not routinely acquired. Because the training datasets used when developing AI algorithms are mostly developed using 2D images, it is difficult to determine the impact of human variation on the performance of AI tools in the real world. The objective of this project is to leverage 3D echos to simulate realistic human variation of image acquisition and better understand the OOD performance of a previously validated AI model. In doing so, we develop tools for interpreting 3D echo data and quantifiably recreating common variation in image acquisition between sonographers. We also developed a technique for finding good standard 2D views in 3D echo volumes. We found the performance of the AI model we evaluated to be as expected when the view is good, but variations in acquisition position degraded AI model performance. Performance on far from ideal views was poor, but still better than random, suggesting that there is some information being used that permeates the whole volume, not just a quality view. Additionally, we found that variations in foreshortening didn't result in the same errors that a human would make.

A dataset of direct observations of sea ice drift and waves in ice.

Variability in sea ice conditions, combined with strong couplings to the atmosphere and the ocean, lead to a broad range of complex sea ice dynamics. More in-situ measurements are needed to better identify the phenomena and mechanisms that govern sea ice growth, drift, and breakup. To this end, we have gathered a dataset of in-situ observations of sea ice drift and waves in ice. A total of 15 deployments were performed over a period of 5 years in both the Arctic and Antarctic, involving 72 instruments. These provide both GPS drift tracks, and measurements of waves in ice. The data can, in turn, be used for tuning sea ice drift models, investigating waves damping by sea ice, and helping calibrate other sea ice measurement techniques, such as satellite based observations.

Autonomous Surface and Underwater Vehicles as Effective Ecosystem Monitoring and Research Platforms in the Arctic-The Glider Project.

Effective ocean management requires integrated and sustainable ocean observing systems enabling us to map and understand ecosystem properties and the effects of human activities. Autonomous subsurface and surface vehicles, here collectively referred to as "gliders", are part of such ocean observing systems providing high spatiotemporal resolution. In this paper, we present some of the results achieved through the project "Unmanned ocean vehicles, a flexible and cost-efficient offshore monitoring and data management approach-GLIDER". In this project, three autonomous surface and underwater vehicles were deployed along the Lofoten-Vesterålen (LoVe) shelf-slope-oceanic system, in Arctic Norway. The aim of this effort was to test whether gliders equipped with novel sensors could effectively perform ecosystem surveys by recording physical, biogeochemical, and biological data simultaneously. From March to September 2018, a period of high biological activity in the area, the gliders were able to record a set of environmental parameters, including temperature, salinity, and oxygen, map the spatiotemporal distribution of zooplankton, and record cetacean vocalizations and anthropogenic noise. A subset of these parameters was effectively employed in near-real-time data assimilative ocean circulation models, improving their local predictive skills. The results presented here demonstrate that autonomous gliders can be effective long-term, remote, noninvasive ecosystem monitoring and research platforms capable of operating in high-latitude marine ecosystems. Accordingly, these platforms can record high-quality baseline environmental data in areas where extractive activities are planned and provide much-needed information for operational and management purposes.