Objectives: Recently, there have been important advances in the clinical application of targeted hybrid near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent-radioactive tracers. ICG-99mTc-nanocolloid, for example, is already being used by some centres for sentinel lymph node biopsy in head and neck cancer. The radioactive component allows imaging at depths which would not be possible with NIR alone and, once exposed, the NIR fluorescence reporter can be imaged at very high resolution. Gamma detection is currently carried out with a separate hand-held gamma camera or with a non-imaging probe. Visualisation of NIR fluorescence during surgery requires a dedicated NIR camera, several of which are available commercially. We describe a novel hand-held hybrid NIR-gamma small field of view camera, capable of displaying co-aligned images from both modalities, which can be fused into one image or viewed separately. This study is a preliminary investigation of the performance of the fluorescence component of this camera, including phantom studies and first images from a preclinical pilot study. Methods: The hybrid camera consists of a 1500 µm thick thallium doped caesium iodide columnar (CsI:Tl) scintillator coupled to an electron multiplying charged coupled device (EMCCD). A 1.0mm diameter tungsten pinhole collimator gives a 40mm x 40mm nominal field of view for an 8mm x 8mm CCD detection area. A fluorescence camera was aligned to provide the same field of view as the gamma camera with an LED ring as the excitation source. The performance of the fluorescence imaging was quantified in this study for the fluorophores ICG and IRDye800CW (CW800) using a range of bespoke phantom experiments. In vivo images were also obtained from a preclinical study of a targeted hybrid tracer (cRGD-CW800-TCO + TCO-DOTA-111In) in mice with HT29 colorectal cancer xenografts. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The portable hybrid camera prototype has been shown to successfully image dual NIR-gamma tracers using both in vitro and in vivo experimental models. With further development, this camera could be used intraoperatively, offering the benefits of gamma imaging at depth in tissues and high resolution surface NIR fluorescence imaging in a single imaging system.
<p>In combinatorial testing development, the fabrication of covering arrays is the key challenge by the multiple aspects that influence it. A wide range of combinatorial problems can be solved using metaheuristic and greedy techniques. Combining the greedy technique utilizing a metaheuristic search technique like hill climbing (HC), can produce feasible results for combinatorial tests. Methods based on metaheuristics are used to deal with tuples that may be left after redundancy using greedy strategies; then the result utilization is assured to be near-optimal using a metaheuristic algorithm. As a result, the use of both greedy and HC algorithms in a single test generation system is a good candidate if constructed correctly. T
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Background: The pandemic crisis prompted the world to adopt unexpected approaches to continue life as normally as possible. The education sector, including professors, students, and the overall teaching system, has been particularly affected. Objective: This study seeks to evaluate the benefits, challenges, and strategies related to COVID-19 from the perspectives of college students, particularly those in higher education in Iraq. Method: The online survey questionnaire was distributed via Google Forms and specifically aimed at undergraduate dental students. Results: A total of 348 students participated in the survey. There was a significant correlation (P > 0.01) between student satisfaction with hybrid learning and their experi
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This paper proposes a new approach, of Clustering Ultrasound images using the Hybrid Filter (CUHF) to determine the gender of the fetus in the early stages. The possible advantage of CUHF, a better result can be achieved when fuzzy c-mean FCM returns incorrect clusters. The proposed approach is conducted in two steps. Firstly, a preprocessing step to decrease the noise presented in ultrasound images by applying the filters: Local Binary Pattern (LBP), median, median and discrete wavelet (DWT),(median, DWT & LBP) and (median & Laplacian) ML. Secondly, implementing Fuzzy C-Mean (FCM) for clustering the resulted images from the first step. Amongst those filters, Median & Laplace has recorded a better accuracy. Our experimental evaluation on re
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Compression is the reduction in size of data in order to save space or transmission time. For data transmission, compression can be performed on just the data content or on the entire transmission unit (including header data) depending on a number of factors. In this study, we considered the application of an audio compression method by using text coding where audio compression represented via convert audio file to text file for reducing the time to data transfer by communication channel. Approach: we proposed two coding methods are applied to optimizing the solution by using CFG. Results: we test our application by using 4-bit coding algorithm the results of this method show not satisfy then we proposed a new approach to compress audio fil
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Non uniform channelization is a crucial task in cognitive radio receivers for obtaining separate channels from the digitized wideband input signal at different intervals of time. The two main requirements in the channelizer are reconfigurability and low complexity. In this paper, a reconfigurable architecture based on a combination of Improved Coefficient Decimation Method (ICDM) and Coefficient Interpolation Method (CIM) is proposed. The proposed Hybrid Coefficient Decimation-Interpolation Method (HCDIM) based filter bank (FB) is able to realize the same number of channels realized using (ICDM) but with a maximum decimation factor divided by the interpolation factor (L), which leads to less deterioration in stop band at
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Objective of this work is the mixing between human biometric characteristics and unique attributes of the computer in order to protect computer networks and resources environments through the development of authentication and authorization techniques. In human biometric side has been studying the best methods and algorithms used, and the conclusion is that the fingerprint is the best, but it has some flaws. Fingerprint algorithm has been improved so that their performance can be adapted to enhance the clarity of the edge of the gully structures of pictures fingerprint, taking into account the evaluation of the direction of the nearby edges and repeat. In the side of the computer features, computer and its components like human have uniqu
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