The textural patterns in the lung parenchyma, as visible on computed tomography (CT) scans, are essential to make a correct diagnosis in interstitial lung disease. We developed one automatic and two ...interactive protocols for classification of normal and seven types of abnormal lung textures. Lungs were segmented and subdivided into volumes of interest (VOIs) with homogeneous texture using a clustering approach. In the automatic protocol, VOIs were classified automatically by an extra-trees classifier that was trained using annotations of VOIs from other CT scans. In the interactive protocols, an observer iteratively trained an extra-trees classifier to distinguish the different textures, by correcting mistakes the classifier makes in a slice-by-slice manner. The difference between the two interactive methods was whether or not training data from previously annotated scans was used in classification of the first slice. The protocols were compared in terms of the percentages of VOIs that observers needed to relabel. Validation experiments were carried out using software that simulated observer behavior. In the automatic classification protocol, observers needed to relabel on average 58% of the VOIs. During interactive annotation without the use of previous training data, the average percentage of relabeled VOIs decreased from 64% for the first slice to 13% for the second half of the scan. Overall, 21% of the VOIs were relabeled. When previous training data was available, the average overall percentage of VOIs requiring relabeling was 20%, decreasing from 56% in the first slice to 13% in the second half of the scan.
Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is characterized by a skin blistering eruption that develops in sun exposed areas of the skin. It is the most common cutaneous porphyria world-wide, and classically ...associated with hepatic injury but also estrogen use, cigarette smoking, and HIV. In any case of photodistributed persistent blistering skin condition, PCT must be high on the differential. This case of a carpenter diagnosed with PCT not only illustrates a classic case but also the opportunity to achieve significant response to therapy in a motivated patient particularly with improved access to direct-acting antivirals (DAA) for hepatitis C treatment.
Purpose:
Many medical image analysis systems require segmentation of the structures of interest as a first step. For scans with gross pathology, automatic segmentation methods may fail. The authors’ ...aim is to develop a versatile, fast, and reliable interactive system to segment anatomical structures. In this study, this system was used for segmenting lungs in challenging thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans.
Methods:
In volumetric thoracic CT scans, the chest is segmented and divided into 3D volumes of interest (VOIs), containing voxels with similar densities. These VOIs are automatically labeled as either lung tissue or nonlung tissue. The automatic labeling results can be corrected using an interactive or a supervised interactive approach. When using the supervised interactive system, the user is shown the classification results per slice, whereupon he/she can adjust incorrect labels. The system is retrained continuously, taking the corrections and approvals of the user into account. In this way, the system learns to make a better distinction between lung tissue and nonlung tissue. When using the interactive framework without supervised learning, the user corrects all incorrectly labeled VOIs manually. Both interactive segmentation tools were tested on 32 volumetric CT scans of pigs, mice and humans, containing pulmonary abnormalities.
Results:
On average, supervised interactive lung segmentation took under 9 min of user interaction. Algorithm computing time was 2 min on average, but can easily be reduced. On average, 2.0% of all VOIs in a scan had to be relabeled. Lung segmentation using the interactive segmentation method took on average 13 min and involved relabeling 3.0% of all VOIs on average. The resulting segmentations correspond well to manual delineations of eight axial slices per scan, with an average Dice similarity coefficient of 0.933.
Conclusions:
The authors have developed two fast and reliable methods for interactive lung segmentation in challenging chest CT images. Both systems do not require prior knowledge of the scans under consideration and work on a variety of scans.
Bacterial permeability family member A1 (BPIFA1), also known as short palate, lung, and nasal epithelium clone 1 (SPLUNC1), is a protein involved in the antiinflammatory response. The goal of this ...study was to determine whether BPIFA1 expression in asthmatic airways is regulated by genetic variations, altering epithelial responses to type 2 cytokines (e.g., IL-13). Nasal epithelial cells from patients with mild to severe asthma were collected from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Severe Asthma Research Program centers, genotyped for rs750064, and measured for BPIFA1. To determine the function of rs750064, cells were cultured at air-liquid interface and treated with IL-13 with or without recombinant human BPIFA1 (rhBPIFA1). Noncultured nasal cells with the rs750064 CC genotype had significantly less BPIFA1 mRNA expression than the CT and TT genotypes. Cultured CC versus CT and TT cells without stimulation maintained less BPIFA1 expression. With IL-13 treatment, CC genotype cells secreted more eotaxin-3 than CT and TT genotype cells. Also, rhBPIFA1 reduced IL-13-mediated eotaxin-3. BPIFA1 mRNA levels negatively correlated with serum IgE and fractional exhaled nitric oxide. Baseline FEV1% levels were lower in the asthma patients with the CC genotype (n = 1,016). Our data suggest that less BPIFA1 in asthma patients with the CC allele may predispose them to greater eosinophilic inflammation, which could be attenuated by rhBPIFA1 protein therapy.
We describe an interactive system for classification of normal and seven types of abnormal lung tissue in CT scans from interstitial lung disease patients, using training data from previously ...annotated scans and annotations by the observer in the scan under investigation. We compared seven different interactive annotation strategies using different combinations of both types of training data, in order to minimize user effort in the interactive annotation process. The lungs in all scans were divided into roughly spherical volumes of interest (VOIs). An observer labeled all VOIs in 21 thoracic CT scans. Leave-one-scan-out experiments that simulated slice-by-slice interactive annotation sessions were performed. The best results were obtained with a strategy in which the simulated user decides for each slice whether to use a classifier trained on pooled data from prior scans or a classifier trained on data from the current scan. In this approach, the labels of 88% of all VOIs were predicted correctly, meaning that only 12% of all labels needed to be changed by the simulated user.
This paper addresses the claim that the social orders of Western civilization operate on the basis of the law’s presumed sovereignty over life. I demonstrate how the respective works of Italian ...philosopher Giorgio Agamben and French phenomenologist Michel Henry are joined in their concern over this issue, and in their shared belief that life can be made sovereign over the law through a communal life based upon habit. At the same time, I argue that their respective conceptions of this communal life are flawed, and that they would benefit from being brought into a productive dialogue with one another. More specifically, I show that Henry’s account of a Christian communal life based upon the habitual practice of love moves at least some way toward addressing Agamben’s account of a coming community that is decidedly abstract and lacking in a substantial ethic. However, I maintain that Henry’s own account of this community is founded upon a problematic conception of potentiality that would benefit from Agamben’s study of the matter. By bringing these two figures together and drawing out the lessons that can be learnt from each of them, this work provides a more concrete and substantial account of how a coming Christian community can play a role in making life sovereign over the force of the law.
Abstract This paper addresses the views of R.G. Collingwood and Theodor Adorno on the role of amusement and art in what each of them saw as the crisis of contemporary Western civilization. We will ...begin by showing how the aesthetic theories of Collingwood and Adorno develop out of their shared concerns about the harmful effects of amusement and bad art on the consciousness of human beings. We will argue that a productive dialogue between these two figures clarifies that the value of art consists in its ability to remedy the corruption of the mental and emotional lives of human beings and in helping to fashion a different social and political order. As part of this, we will show how, despite appearances, Adorno’s aesthetic cognitivism and Collingwood’s expression theory of art agree with and complement one another in significant ways. In establishing this point, this work will leave us with an understanding of art that is more comprehensive and better equipped to address the crisis of contemporary Western society.
Identifying four spheres of knowledge culture in the history of technology in China, this book offers an introduction to the transmission of knowledge and detailed contextual descriptions of ...individual technologies in China such as porcelain, silk, and agriculture.
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