(Press-News.org) Three-dimensional or "volumetric" images are widely used in medical imaging. These images faithfully represent the 3D spatial relationships present in the body. Yet 3D images are typically displayed on a two-dimensional monitor, which creates a dimensionality mismatch that must be resolved in a clinical setting where practitioners must search a 2D or a 3D image to find a particular trait or target of interest.
To learn more about this problem, Craig K. Abbey, Miguel A. Lago, and Miguel P. Eckstein, of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at University of California Santa Barbara, used techniques from the field of vision science to examine how the observers use information in images to perform a given task. Their research, published in the Journal of Medical Imaging, evaluates human performance in localization tasks which involve searching a 2D or a 3D image to find a target that is masked by noise. The addition of noise makes the task difficult, similar to reading images in a clinical setting.
The images in the study were simulations intended to approximate high-resolution x-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging. The images were generated in 3D and viewed as 2D "slices," and the test subjects in the experiment were able to freely inspect the images, including scrolling through 3D images. Abbey explains, "Many techniques for image display have been developed
but it is not uncommon for volumetric images to be read in a clinical setting by simply scrolling through a ‘stack' of 2D sections." The study aimed to compare components of reader performance in 3D images to 2D images, where scrolling is not possible, to see if subjects are capable of integrating multiple slices into a localization response identifying a target of interest.
A total of eight experimental conditions were evaluated (2D versus 3D images, large versus small targets, power-law versus white noise). The team evaluated performance in terms of task efficiency and classification image technique, which shows how observers use noisy images to perform visual tasks, such as target localization.
According to Abbey, "The somewhat surprising finding of the paper was that the classification images showed almost no evidence of combining information over multiple sections of the image to localize a target that spans multiple sections of the image. The observers are essentially treating the volumetric image as a stack of independent 2D images. This leads to a dissociation in which observers are more efficient at localizing larger targets in 2D images, and smaller targets (that don't extend over many volumetric sections) in 3D images."
The findings warrant further investigation, but they support and help to explain the need for multiple views in 3D image reading, and they provide useful information for modeling observer performance in volumetric images.
Read the open access research article by Abbey, Lago, and Eckstein, "Comparative observer effects in 2D and 3D localization tasks," J. Medical Imaging 8(4), 041206 (2021), doi 10.1117/1.JMI.8.4.041206. The article is part of a JMI Special Series on 2D and 3D Imaging: Perspectives in Human and Model Observer Performance, guest edited by Claudia R. Mello-Thoms, Craig K. Abbey, and Elizabeth A. Krupinski.
Medical imaging dimensionality mismatch
Researchers investigated observer performance for 2D and 3D image localization tasks; they found that when observers scrolled through a 3D image, there was little evidence of integrating information in the scrolling direction
2021-03-24
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Family ties protect against opioid misuse among U.S. young adults
2021-03-24
Syracuse, N.Y. - As opioid use disorders and overdoses continue to skyrocket in the United States, a study by researchers from Syracuse University and Pennsylvania State University shows that unmarried young adults who do not have children are mostly likely to misuse opioids.
The growing number of these "disconnected" young adults may also result in continued rises in substance use disorders and overdoses, the researchers say. The study, "Opioid misuse and family structure: Changes and continuities in the role of marriage and children over two decades," was published ...
Small robot swimmers that heal themselves from damage (video)
2021-03-24
Living tissue can heal itself from many injuries, but giving similar abilities to artificial systems, such as robots, has been extremely challenging. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Nano Letters have developed small, swimming robots that can magnetically heal themselves on-the-fly after breaking into two or three pieces. The strategy could someday be used to make hardier devices for environmental or industrial clean up, the researchers say. Watch a video of the self-healing swimmers here.
Scientists have developed small robots that can "swim" through fluids ...
Updated Cochrane review assesses how accurate rapid tests are for detecting COVID-19
2021-03-24
Today, Cochrane, a global independent network that gathers and summarizes the best evidence from research to help informed health decision-making, publishes an updated systematic review assessing rapid tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19). The review shows that rapid antigen tests are better at correctly identifying cases of COVID-19 in people with symptoms than in people without symptoms. There are large differences in the accuracy of different brands of test, with very few meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum acceptable performance standards.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, swift diagnosis of people who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 is important. Then decisions ...
Even small levels of nitrate in drinking water results in smaller babies
2021-03-24
The more nitrate there is in mothers' drinking water, the smaller the babies they give birth to. But alarmingly, the declining birth weight can also be registered when the women are exposed to nitrate levels below the EU's threshold of 50 milligrams of nitrate per litre.
This is shown by a register-based study of more than 850,000 births in Denmark carried out in a Danish-American partnership led by Professor Torben Sigsgaard from the Department of Public Health at Aarhus University and Professor Leslie Stayner and Dr. Vanessa Coffman from the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health.
On the ...
'Mother's own milk' for premature infants: Minority mothers need effective strategies
2021-03-24
March 24, 2021 - For premature infants who can't breastfeed on their own, "mother's own milk" (MOM) is by far the best nutrition. There's an urgent need for effective ways to increase the relatively low rates of MOM feeding for preterm infants born to Black and Hispanic mothers. But so far, research has offered little or no specific guidance, concludes an evidence-based review in Advances in Neonatal Care, official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.
Until studies of targeted, culturally appropriate interventions are performed, available evidence points to some promising approaches to overcoming obstacles and facilitating ...
Dangerous landfill pollutants ranked in order of toxicity by MU researchers
2021-03-24
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Nearly 2,000 active landfills are spread across the U.S., with the majority of garbage discarded by homes and businesses finding its way to a landfill. The resulting chemicals and toxins that build up at these sites can then leach into soil and groundwater, and this "leachate" can present serious hazards to the environment and to the people who live nearby.
To help environmental agencies battle the toxic threats posed by landfills, researchers at the University of Missouri -- in partnership with the USDA Forest Service -- have developed a system ...
A novel marker of adult human neural stem cells discovered
2021-03-24
HOUSTON - (Mar 24, 2021) -The mammalian center for learning and memory, hippocampus, has a remarkable capacity to generate new neurons throughout life. Newborn neurons are produced by neural stem cells (NSCs) and they are crucial for forming neural circuits required for learning and memory, and mood control. During aging, the number of NSCs declines, leading to decreased neurogenesis and age-associated cognitive decline, anxiety, and depression. Thus, identifying the core molecular machinery responsible for NSC preservation is of fundamental importance if we are to use neurogenesis to halt or reverse hippocampal age-related pathology.
While there are increasing number of tools available to study NSCs and neurogenesis in mouse models, one of the major ...
A better treatment for sickle cell disease
2021-03-24
Sickle cell disease is the most prevalent inherited blood disorder in the world, affecting 70,000 to 100,000 Americans. However, it is considered an orphan disease, meaning it impacts less than 200,000 people nationally, and is therefore underrepresented in therapeutic research.
A team led by Abhishek Jain from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University is working to address this disease.
"I'm trying to create these new types of disease models that can impact health care, with the long-term goal of emphasizing on applying these tools ...
New research finds seating assignments on airplanes can reduce the spread of COVID-19
2021-03-24
>
CATONSVILLE, MD, March 24, 2021 - COVID-19 has been shown to spread on airplanes by infected passengers, so minimizing the risk of secondary infections aboard aircraft may save lives. New research in the INFORMS journal Service Science uses two models to help solve the airplane seating assignment problem (ASAP). The models can lower the transmission risk of COVID-19 more so than the strategy of blocking the middle seats, given the same number of passengers.
"Blocking the middle seat on an airplane may provide limited benefit in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Rather, other health protocols are better supported at preventing the transmission ...
New drug candidate against COVID-19
2021-03-24
SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, arrived one year ago and turned our lives upside-down.
While worldwide vaccination programs are currently ongoing, we do not yet know for how long the vaccine will provide immune protection against infection, and if the currently approved vaccines can provide protection against the emerging virus variants.
In addition, it appears that vaccines cannot prevent illness for people who have already been infected. In contrast to vaccines, there are currently no effective drugs that act against the virus SARS-CoV-2.
New research by Associate Professor Jasmin Mecinovic and co-workers from the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, now presents a compound that might provide a basis for the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Older teens who start vaping post-high school risk rapid progress to frequent use
Corpse flowers are threatened by spotty recordkeeping
Riding the AI wave toward rapid, precise ocean simulations
Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?
Pink skies
Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research
Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered
% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?
An app can change how you see yourself at work
NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds
Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea
New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea
Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes
Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others
Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke
Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition
Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life
Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy
Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming
Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly
Alcohol makes male flies sexy
TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income
Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression
Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring
Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs
AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders
First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes
Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows
[Press-News.org] Medical imaging dimensionality mismatchResearchers investigated observer performance for 2D and 3D image localization tasks; they found that when observers scrolled through a 3D image, there was little evidence of integrating information in the scrolling direction