Spectral reflectance reconstruction based on wideband multi-illuminant imaging and a modified particle swarm optimization algorithm.

A method for spectral reflectance factor reconstruction based on wideband multi-illuminant imaging was proposed, using a programmable LED lighting system and modified Bare Bones Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms. From a set of 16 LEDs with different spectral power distributions, nine light sources with correlated color temperatures in the range of 1924 K - 15746 K, most of them daylight simulators, were generated. Samples from three color charts (X-Rite ColorChecker Digital SG, SCOCIE ScoColor paint chart, and SCOCIE ScoColor textile chart), were captured by a color industrial camera under the nine light sources, and used in sequence as training and/or testing colors. The spectral reconstruction models achieved under multi-illuminant imaging were trained and tested using the canonical Bare Bones Particle Swarm Optimization and its proposed modifications, along with six additional and commonly used algorithms. The impacts of different illuminants, illuminant combinations, algorithms, and training colors on reconstruction accuracy were studied comprehensively. The results indicated that training colors covering larger regions of color space give more accurate reconstructions of spectral reflectance factors, and combinations of two illuminants with a large difference of correlated color temperature achieve more than twice the accuracy of that under a single illuminant. Specifically, the average reconstruction error by the method proposed in this paper for patches from two color charts under A + D90 light sources was 0.94 and 1.08 CIEDE2000 color difference units. The results of the experiment also confirmed that some reconstruction algorithms are unsuitable for predicting spectral reflectance factors from multi-illuminant images due to the complexity of optimization problems and insufficient accuracy. The proposed reconstruction method has many advantages, such as being simple in operation, with no requirement of prior knowledge, and easy to implement in non-contact color measurement and color reproduction devices.

Comparison of the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation for the treatment of unifocal papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: a retrospective study.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided RFA and MWA in the treatment of unifocal PTMC. METHODS: This retrospective study included 512 patients with 512 unifocal papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMCs) who underwent RFA (n = 346) and MWA (n = 166) between January 2021 and December 2021. The volumes of the ablation areas were measured during follow-up, and the volume reduction rates were evaluated. The ablation duration, volume of hydrodissection, and ablation-related complications were also compared between the groups. RESULTS: All lesions received complete ablation and no local or distant recurrences were observed in the two groups. A larger volume of isolation liquid was used for RFA than for MWA (p = 0.000). Hoarseness occurred in seven patients who underwent RFA (p = 0.102). At the 1-week follow-up, the mean volume of the areas ablated by RFA was smaller than that of the areas ablated by MWA (p = 0.049). During follow-ups at months 3, 9, 12, 15, and 18, the mean volumes of the ablated areas were larger in the RFA group than in the MWA group (all, p < 0.05). The mean volume of the ablated lesions increased slightly at the 1-week follow-up and then decreased at 1 month after ablation in both groups. The absorption curve of the ablated lesions in the RFA group was similar to that in the MWA group. CONCLUSIONS: RFA and MWA are both efficient and safe methods for treating unifocal PTMC. They may be alternative techniques for patients who are not eligible or are unwilling to undergo surgery.

Color-difference evaluation for 3D objects.

A psychophysical experiment using 3D printed samples was conducted to investigate the change of perceived color differences caused by two different illuminations and two 3D sample shapes. 150 pairs of 3D printed samples around five CIE color centers [Color Res. Appl. 20, 399-403, 1995], consisting of 75 pairs of spherical samples and 75 pairs of flat samples, with a wide range of color differences covering from small to large magnitude, were printed by an Mcor Iris paper-based 3D color printer. Each pair was assessed twice by a panel of 10 observers using a gray-scale psychophysical method in a spectral tunable LED viewing cabinet with two types of light sources: diffuse lighting with and without an additional overhead spotlight. The experimental results confirmed that the lighting conditions had more effect on the perceived color difference between complex 3D shapes than between 2D objects. The results for 3D and 2D objects were more similar under only diffuse lighting. Current 3D results had good correlations with previous ones [Color Res. Appl. 24, 356-368, 1999; J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 36, 789-799, 2019] using 2D samples with large color differences, meaning that color-difference magnitude had more effect on perceived color differences than sample shape and lighting. Considering ten modern color-difference formulas, the best predictions of the current experimental data were found for CAM02-LCD formula [Color Res. Appl. 31, 320-330, 2006]. For current results, it was also found that predictions of current color-difference formulas were below average inter-observer variability, and remarkable improvements were found by adding power corrections [Opt. Express 23, 597-610, 2015].

Testing uniform colour spaces using colour differences of a wide colour gamut.

An experimental dataset, WCG, was assembled. The set includes 416 pairs of samples that surround 28 colour centres and covers a wide colour gamut. The data were used to test the performance of seven colour-difference models, CIELAB, CIEDE2000, CAM16-UCS, DIN99d, OSAGP, and ICTCP, Jzazbz. Colour discrimination ellipses were also fitted to compare the uniformity of the colour spaces. Different versions of the models were derived to improve the fit to the data, including parametric factors, kL, kC, and a power factor. It was found that the kL optimised CAM16-UCS, DIN99d, OSAGP models significantly outperformed the other colour models. In addition, the magnitude of the colour difference had an impact on visual assessment.

Synthesis and characterization of phenylboronic acid-containing polymer for glucose-triggered drug delivery.

Thermo-, pH- and glucose-responsive polymeric nanoparticles are of great interest in developing a self-regulated drug delivery system. The novel core-shell nanoparticles were synthesized by self-assembly of a phenylboronic acid-based block copolymer poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide)-block-poly(3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid) (PNIPAM136-b-PAPBA16) and a fluorescent complex glucosamine-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/Eu(III) (GA-PNIPAM)/Eu(III) based on the cross-linking between PBA- and GA-containing blocks in this work. The nanoparticles can be tuned via thermo-induced collapse or glucose-induced swelling at appropriate pH and temperatures; they had an average kinetic radius was about 80nm, and which showed excellent fluorescence. MTT assays revealed the nanocarriers had no significant cytotoxic response of the micelle when it was observed in the cell line over the concentration range from 0.1 to 1000 µg/ml at any exposure times.

Color-difference formula for evaluating color pairs with no separation: ΔENS.

All color-difference formulas are developed to evaluate color differences for pairs of stimuli with hairline separation. In printing applications, however, color differences are frequently judged between a pair of samples with no separation (NS) because they are printed adjacently on the same piece of paper. A new formula, ΔENS, has been developed for pairs of stimuli with NS. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different color-difference magnitudes using sample pairs with NS. 1012 printed pairs with NS were prepared around 11 CIE recommended color centers. The pairs, representing four color-difference magnitudes of 1, 2, 4, and 8 CIELAB units were visually evaluated by a panel of 19 observers using the gray-scale method. Comparison of the present data based on pairs with NS, and previously generated data using pairs with hairline separation, showed a clear separation effect. A new color-difference equation for the NS viewing condition (ΔENS) is proposed by modifying the CIEDE2000 formula. The separation effect can be well described by the new formula. For a sample pair with NS, when the CIEDE2000 color difference is less than 9.1, a larger color difference leads to a larger lightness difference, but has no effect on the chromatic difference. When the CIEDE2000 color difference is greater than 9.1, the effect is the opposite. The new formula is recommended for future research to evaluate its performance in appropriate applications.

The Influence of Cellulosic Polymer's Variables on Dissolution/Solubility of Amorphous Felodipine and Crystallization Inhibition from a Supersaturated State.

The collective impact of cellulosic polymers on the dissolution, solubility, and crystallization inhibition of amorphous active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is still far from being adequately understood. The goal of this research was to explore the influence of cellulosic polymers and incubation conditions on enhancement of solubility and dissolution of amorphous felodipine, while inhibiting crystallization of the drug from a supersaturated state. Variables, including cellulosic polymer type, amount, ionic strength, and viscosity, were evaluated for effects on API dissolution/solubility and crystallization processes. Water-soluble cellulosic polymers, including HPMC E15, HPMC E5, HPMC K100-LV, L-HPC, and MC, were studied. All cellulosic polymers could extend API dissolution and solubility to various extents by delaying crystallization and prolonging supersaturation duration, with their effectiveness ranked from greatest to least as HPMC E15 > HPMC E5 > HPMC K100-LV > L-HPC > MC. Decreased polymer amount, lower ionic strength, or higher polymer viscosity tended to decrease dissolution/solubility and promote crystal growth to accelerate crystallization. HPMC E15 achieved greatest extended API dissolution and maintenance of supersaturation from a supersaturated state; this polymer thus had the greatest potential for maintaining sustainable API absorption within biologically relevant time frames.

Perceptually uniform color space for image signals including high dynamic range and wide gamut.

A perceptually uniform color space has been long desired for a wide range of imaging applications. Such a color space should be able to represent a color pixel in three unique and independent attributes (lightness, chroma, and hue). Such a space would be perceptually uniform over a wide gamut, linear in iso-hue directions, and can predict both small and large color differences as well as lightness in high dynamic range environments. It would also have minimum computational cost for real time or quasi-real time processing. Presently available color spaces are not able to achieve these goals satisfactorily and comprehensively. In this study, a uniform color space is proposed and its performance in predicting a wide range of experimental data is presented in comparison with the other state of the art color spaces.

Accurate method for computing correlated color temperature.

For the correlated color temperature (CCT) of a light source to be estimated, a nonlinear optimization problem must be solved. In all previous methods available to compute CCT, the objective function has only been approximated, and their predictions have achieved limited accuracy. For example, different unacceptable CCT values have been predicted for light sources located on the same isotemperature line. In this paper, we propose to compute CCT using the Newton method, which requires the first and second derivatives of the objective function. Following the current recommendation by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) for the computation of tristimulus values (summations at 1 nm steps from 360 nm to 830 nm), the objective function and its first and second derivatives are explicitly given and used in our computations. Comprehensive tests demonstrate that the proposed method, together with an initial estimation of CCT using Robertson's method [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 58, 1528-1535 (1968)], gives highly accurate predictions below 0.0012 K for light sources with CCTs ranging from 500 K to 106 K.

Compact self-cascaded KTA-OPO for 2.6 µm laser generation.

We reported a compact self-cascaded KTA-OPO source for 2.6 µm coherent light generation. The OPO is driven in a diode end-pumped and Q-switched Nd:YVO4 laser cavity. Two OPO processes occurred in the same KTA crystal with non-critical phase matching. At an incident diode pump power of 8.7 W and a pulse repetition frequency of 60 kHz, the OPO can generate a maximum average output power of 445 mW at 2.59 µm. The slope efficiency was about 12.7%, and the power fluctuation was less than 8%. Therefore, the self-cascade OPO based on KTA offers a promise scheme for the rugged and compact mid-infrared 2.6 µm laser generation.

Power functions improving the performance of color-difference formulas.

Color-difference formulas modified by power functions provide results in better agreement with visually perceived color differences. Each of the modified color-difference formulas proposed here adds only one relevant parameter to the corresponding original color-difference formula. Results from 16 visual data sets and 11 color-difference formulas indicate that the modified formulas achieve an average decrease of 5.7 STRESS (Standardized Residual Sum of Squares) units with respect to the original formulas, signifying an improvement of 17.3%. In particular, for these 16 visual data sets, the average decrease for the current CIE/ISO recommended color-difference formula CIEDE2000 modified by an exponent 0.70 was 5.4 STRESS units (17.5%). The improvements of all modified color-difference formulas with respect to the original ones held for each of the 16 visual data sets and were statistically significant in most cases, particularly for all data sets with color differences close to the threshold. Results for 2 additional data sets with color pairs in the blue and black regions of the color space confirmed the usefulness of the proposed power functions. The main reason of the improvements found for the modified color-difference formulas with respect to the original color-difference formulas seems to be the compression provided by power functions.

[Analysis of Observers Metamerism Differences for Different Retinal Cone Visual Responses].

In order to investigate the cone's spectral responses under different conditions for different aged observers with normal color vision, nine color patches with different hue angles distributed uniformly on the CIELAB color space were prepared, and the 27-35 observers were organized to carry out color matching experiments on a monitor to match the nine printed color samples under four different viewing conditions including two illuminances, and two viewing fields. The spectral data obtained from the color matching experiments were compared with the spectral data of the nine target colors and used to test the performances of eleven color matching functions including CIE1931, CIE1964, CIE2006, Sarkar's S1-S8 in terms of the percentage of the minimum CIEDE2000 value. For the four experiments, CIE2006 and S6 performed the best and with S1, S2 the worst. For different observers, the visual spectral responses' of the retinal cone are different and the age has the obvious influence on the visual spectral responses. The observer metamerism is mainly caused by the different spectral response of the (A) channel and for most observers the differences appeared at the responses of the peak wavelength, and the shift of the peak wavelength has no significant influence on the observers metamerism. The experimental results can provide evidences for the classification of the color matching functions for different observer categories and theoretical basis for the investigation of the observers metamerism.

The characteristics of acromegalic patients with hyperprolactinemia and the differences with hyperprolactinemia patients.

A substantial proportion of acromegalic patients have co-existent hyperprolactinaemia. To compare this group of population (AC+HPRL) to those of patients with merely hyperprolactinemia (HPRL), a retrospective analysis of patients was conducted. Data regarding clinical and immunohistochemical features, and outcome for patients were reviewed throughout the follow-up period. Four hundred and twenty-three patients were enrolled, with 329 in patients with HPRL and 94 in patients with AC+HPRL. Patients in the AC+HPRL group had a younger age at diagnosis (38.13 ± 13.31 vs. 41.95 ± 14.70 years; p=0.025) and a higher rate of invasion (p=0.007) than those in the HPRL group. The AC+HPRL group had higher GH levels but relatively lower PRL levels than the HPRL group before and after surgery. The rates of positive staining for GH and PRL in HPRL group were 15.20% and 93.01%, and the rates in AC+HPRL group were 84.04% and 87.23%. Patients with HPRL had a lower recurrence rate compared with patients in AC+HPRL group (p=0.018). Additionally, there were no significant correlations between the mean degree of preoperative GH or PRL and the positive rates of immunostaining (p>0.05, p>0.05). The Ki-67 indexes in HPRL group and AC+HPRL group were 3.07% ± 2.13 and 2.33% ± 1.71, respectively (p=0.001). In conclusion, acromegalic patients with hyperprolactinemia need careful and long-term follow-up following an operation.

Role of Ki-67 in acromegalic patients with hyperprolactinemia: retrospective analysis in 61 Chinese Patients.

To evaluate the specific characteristics in acromegalic patients with hyperprolactinemia by analyzing the differences between patients with different Ki-67 values. Between 2002 and 2010, a set of data on 61 patients undergoing transsphenoidal surgery was available at the Department of Neurosurgery, Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University. Patients were divided into Ki-67 >3% group and <3% group. A retrospective analysis of clinical, hormonal, immunohistochemical, and imaging was observed in all patients. There were no significant differences in age, gender, tumor size and apoplexy between the two groups. Time interval in Ki-67 ≥3% group was longer than <3% group (P=0.037). Patients in Ki-67 >3% group had a higher rate of invasiveness (P=0.048), higher incidences of diabetes mellitus (P=0.036), coarse facial features (P=0.048), large hands and feet (P=0.003), higher GH levels (P<0.05), higher diabetes insipidus rate (P<0.001), and more frequent recurrence (P=0.011) than Ki-67 <3% group. Patients with higher Ki-67 value harbored longer time interval, more aggressive tumors, more acromegaly manifestations, higher GH level, and higher recurrence than patients with lower Ki-67 value.

Diffraction theory of high numerical aperture subwavelength circular binary phase Fresnel zone plate.

An analytical model of vector formalism is proposed to investigate the diffraction of high numerical aperture subwavelength circular binary phase Fresnel zone plate (FZP). In the proposed model, the scattering on the FZP's surface, reflection and refraction within groove zones are considered and diffraction fields are calculated using the vector Rayleigh-Sommerfeld integral. The numerical results obtained by the proposed phase thick FZP (TFZP) model show a good agreement with those obtained by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method within the effective extent of etch depth. The optimal etch depths predicted by both methods are approximately equal. The analytical TFZP model is very useful for designing a phase and hybrid amplitude-phase FZP with high-NA and short focal length.

The role of Ki-67 in women with a resistant prolactinoma: a retrospective analysis in 199 hospitalized patients over a period of 5 years.

Proliferation-associated antigen Ki-67 is used for the histological evaluation of different tumors. Few studies have been conducted on women with a resistant prolactinoma. To better define the characteristics and to evaluate the differences between patients with different Ki-67 labeling index (LI), a retrospective study was designed to recruit 199 females with a resistant prolactinoma. The patients were divided into two groups, patients with Ki-67 LI≥3% and patients with Ki-67 LI<3%. Tumors in the LI>3% group were also larger (p=0.043), had a higher rate of invasion (p=0.014), and were associated with more frequent polyuria and polydipsia (p=0.008) compared to the LI<3% group. The pre- and post-operative PRL levels in the LI>3% group remained significantly higher compared to patients with LI<3% (p<0.05). The incidences of transient diabetes insipidus and hyponatremia in the LI>3% group were also significantly higher (p=0.037, p=0.041). Additionally, the postoperative PRL normalization rate was lower in patients with LI>3% compared with patients with LI<3% (p=0.028). The recurrence rate in the LI>3% and LI<3% groups were 27.27% and 8.47%, respectively. In conclusion, high Ki-67 LI is predictive sign of a poor prognosis in women with resistant prolactinoma.

Application of carboxymethylcellulose in combination with essential oils nano-emulsions edible coating for the preservation of kiwifruit.

The present research investigates the effectiveness of nano-emulsified coatings (C-1, C-2, and C-3) in preserving the kiwifruit at a temperature of 10 ± 2 °C with 90-95 % relative humidity (RH) for 30 days. The nano-emulsions were prepared from varied carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) concentrations with different combinations of essential oils such as thyme, clove, and cardamom. Dynamic light scattering investigation with Zeta Sizer revealed that C-1, C-2, and C-3 nano-emulsions have nano sizes of 81.3 ± 2.3, 115.3 ± 4.2, and 63.2 ± 3.2 nm, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy images showed that the nanoemulsion of C-1 had homogenous spherical globules, C-2 had voids, and C-3 showed a non-porous structure with uniform dispersion. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that C-1, C-2, and C-3 nano-emulsion exhibited distinct crystallinity and peaks. The nano-emulsion C-1 had reduced crystallinity, while C-2 had lower intensity peaks, and C-3 had increased crystallinity. The results documented that compared to control kiwifruit samples, the samples coated with C-3 nano-emulsion have decreased weight loss, decay incidence, soluble solids, maturity index activity, ethylene production, total bacterial count, and increased titratable acid, and firmness attributes. The results of current research are promising and would be applicable in utilization in industrial applications.

Automatic detection of ischemic necrotic sites in small intestinal tissue using hyperspectral imaging and transfer learning.

Acquiring large amounts of hyperspectral data of small intestinal tissue with real labels in the clinic is difficult, and the data shows inter-patient variability. Building an automatic identification model using a small dataset presents a crucial challenge in obtaining a strong generalization of the model. This study aimed to explore the performance of hyperspectral imaging and transfer learning techniques in the automatic identification of normal and ischemic necrotic sites in small intestinal tissue. Hyperspectral data of small intestinal tissues were collected from eight white rabbit samples. The transfer component analysis (TCA) method was performed to transfer learning on hyperspectral data between different samples and the variability of data distribution between samples was reduced. The results showed that the TCA transfer learning method improved the accuracy of the classification model with less training data. This study provided a reliable method for single-sample modelling to detect necrotic sites in small intestinal tissue .

Hyperspectral imaging combined with blood oxygen saturation for in vivo analysis of small intestinal necrosis tissue.

Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is a clinically significant vascular and gastrointestinal condition, which is closely related to the blood supply of the small intestine. Unfortunately, it is still challenging to properly discriminate small intestinal tissues with different degrees of ischemia. In this study, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was used to construct pseudo-color images of oxygen saturation about small intestinal tissues and to discriminate different degrees of ischemia. First, several small intestine tissue models of New Zealand white rabbits were prepared and collected their hyperspectral data. Then, a set of isosbestic points were used to linearly transform the measurement data twice to match the reference spectra of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin, respectively. The oxygen saturation was measured at the characteristic peak band of oxyhemoglobin (560 nm). Ultimately, using the oxygenated hemoglobin reflectance spectrum as the benchmark, we obtained the relative amount of median oxygen saturation in normal tissues was 70.0 %, the IQR was 10.1 %, the relative amount of median oxygen saturation in ischemic tissues was 49.6 %, and the IQR was 14.6 %. The results demonstrate that HSI combined with the oxygen saturation computation method can efficiently differentiate between normal and ischemic regions of the small intestinal tissues. This technique provides a powerful support for internist to discriminate small bowel tissues with different degrees of ischemia, and also provides a new way of thinking for the diagnosis of AMI.

Color-difference evaluation for digital images using a categorical judgment method.

The CIELAB lightness and chroma values of pixels in five of the eight ISO SCID natural images were modified to produce sample images. Pairs of images were displayed on a calibrated monitor and assessed by a panel of 12 observers with normal color vision using a categorical judgment method. The experimental results showed that assuming the lightness parametric factor k(L)=1 to predict color differences in images, CIELAB performed better than CIEDE2000, CIE94, or CMC, which is a different result to the one found in color-difference literature for homogeneous color pairs. However, observers perceived CIELAB lightness and chroma differences in images in different ways. To fit current experimental data, a specific methodology is proposed to optimize k(L) in the color-difference formulas CIELAB, CIEDE2000, CIE94, and CMC. From the standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS) index, it was found that the optimized formulas, CIEDE2000(2.3:1), CIE94(3.0:1), and CMC(3.4:1), performed significantly better than their corresponding original forms with lightness parametric factor k(L)=1. Specifically, CIEDE2000(2.3:1) performed the best, with a satisfactory average STRESS value of 25.8, which is very similar to the 27.5 value that was found from the CIEDE2000(1:1) formula for the combined weighted dataset of homogeneous color samples employed at the development of this formula [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A25, 1828 (2008), Table 2]. However, fitting our experimental data, none of the four optimized formulas CIELAB(1.5:1), CIEDE2000(2.3:1), CIE94(3.0:1), and CMC(3.4:1) is significantly better than the others. Current results roughly agree with the recent CIE recommendation that color difference in images can be predicted by simply adopting a lightness parametric factor k(L)=2 in CIELAB or CIEDE2000 [CIE Publication 199:2011]. It was also found that the different contents of the five images have considerable influence on the performance of the tested color-difference formulas.