A. Sanpanich

White Blood Cell Segmentation by Distance Mapping Active Contour

White blood cell segmentations are an important research issue in Hematology and related study field. Our research proposes a segmentation of nucleus and cytoplasm of peripheral white blood cell from color image slides. The segmentation is started by using a dilated perimeter of nucleus convex hull which propagated into a surrounding region in order to setup a color reference table of cytoplasm. Primary cytoplasm region was then estimated roughly. Distance mapping was applied to this primary area and used to create a gradient vector flow. The active contouring technique was then implemented according to the vector field and finally segmented the WBC boundary. The obtained segmentation outputs show that active contour which guided by the distance mapping from a surrounding area is able to extract nucleus and cytoplasm region efficiently.

Gaussian curvature-based geometric invariance

In this paper we derive a novel geometric invariance on surfaces that it is preserved under affine and weak perspective transformations, and it is local, intrinsic and computed from the differential geometry of the surface. Our 3D shape features are based on the Gaussian curvature and Mean curvature. When a surface undergoes an affine transformation, the shape features are the affine transformed shape features of the original surface, i.e., they are preserved and hence can be used for shape matching. We have tested robustness of the shape feature on the 3D facial data for various linear geometric transformations. The results show that our purposed shape feature is suitable for further application to 3D face identification due to its robustness to geometric transformation.

2D Ultrasonic Reflection Tomography by Linear Array Transducer and Wave Reflector

In general, it was known that when the series of an ultrasonic broadband pulse travel through living organ or soft tissue, their reflected projection data can be used to reconstruct a novel tomographic image. Whereas, a data obtain from an ultrasonic tomography in transmission mode is not able to be used for reconstruction a characteristic image of soft tissue which naturally shadowed by a bone or hard tissue. An ultrasonic tomography in reflection mode is realized to be a solution for this problem. However the implementation to identify the projection by using an integrated attenuation coefficient of tissue from the pulsed wave ray path in reflection mode is still more complicated. In this paper, we propose a simulation in 2D of a reflection-mode ultrasonic tomographic system by using the linear array transducer and also a frequency centroid shift method to calculate the projection data. The imaging setup system was enhanced by wave reflecting plate in order to increase an echo wave path. The ultrasound wave paths of our simulation system were intend to focus on the fan beam trajectory which is rather close to a real propagation of the ultrasound wave travelling through soft tissue and ART was used finally as an image reconstruction algorithm. The obtained output shows that our system is more practical and possible toward for using in a clinical trial.

Novel approaches for controlling stage structure of metal chloride–graphite intercalation compounds

Intercalation of EuCl 3 TbCl 3 , and AlCl 3 into graphite was carried out in the presence of chlorine. The observation of products by x-ray diffraction showed that the extent of chloride intercalation could be controlled through adjustment of the pressure of chlorine; increasing pressure tended to increase the extent of intercalation. In the case of EuCl 3 , the extent of intercalation varied to show a stage transition. In contrast, TbCl 3 intercalation gave a mixture of stage 2 or stage 4 graphite intercalation compound (GIC) and remaining graphite, where the extent of intercalation is revealed by the ratio of GIC to graphite. With respect to AlCl 3 intercalation, although the preparation of stage 1, 2, and 4 GICs was successful, stage 3 and 5 GICs could not be obtained.

Opened-tip applicator and ex vivo experimental results for microwave breast cancer ablation

Breast cancer is one of the main health hazard that threatening women life all over the world. Not only her own daily life, but also her own family whom suffering from this poor fate. Besides from a breast resection, microwave ablation is also another effective therapeutic technique for glandular tissue cancer treatment due to its minimal invasive maneuver. In this paper, we propose a study of an opened-tip applicator ablation for breast cancer therapy. The investigation was preliminary performed by using finite element method to analyze a characteristic of antenna and to simulate a 2.45 GHz electromagnetic wave phenomenon in living tissue then following by ex vivo experiment with female swine breast. In term of FEM simulation, full 3D distribution pattern of SAR, temperature and also estimated destructive tissue area in a complicated CAD model of cancerous breast was analyzed. Real ablation with an ultrasound-guided applicator insertion was implemented to confirm an effective result. This study not only shows a promising result but also encourage us to develop an advance microwave ablation system in near future.

Effect of phase difference in multi-antenna microwave thermal ablation for breast cancer treatment

It was realized that cancer in breast is one of the most health hazards threatening women around the world for many years. Thermal ablation by using microwave energy is another alternative surgical maneuver due to its minimally invasive therapeutic technique. In this research, we investigate an effect of phase difference between three adjacent openedslot coaxial probes in a multiple antenna alignment of microwave thermal ablation system for breast cancer treatment. FEM by using COMSOL is an implementation tools to simulate for 0, 45, 90, 135 and 180 degree of phase difference. 3D Simulation results show that temperature distribution pattern, destructive volume and SAR in breast tissue are affected from those phase-shift utilization in multi-antenna system significantly.

Finite element analysis on phase shift effect of multi-antenna array alignment for microwave liver ablation

Microwave ablation for liver cancer treatment has been widely performed due to its minimal invasive technique both single and multi probe. Even though, multi antenna ablation system provide a larger destroy area, however effect of phase shift difference between each antenna is still challenge to be investigate for total ablation result. In this research, we propose a preliminary investigate of phase shift effect to a multi antenna system. Two probes array and three probes array was configured as a multi antenna liver ablation system based on each coaxial opened-slot antenna. By using FEM analyze, we present a full 3D simulation results of those multiple antenna system as phase shift between each probe was varied. Total destroy volume is effected significantly when phase shift was differed from 90°, 180° and 270°.

A Study of an Intubated Tracheal Air Flow in a Cuff-Leak Testing Procedure

During an artificial ventilation, an endotracheal tube (ETT) must be inserted into patient airway and following by a balloon cuff blowing in order to function as an artificial airway. However, this implementation adversely affects to a tracheal tissue and all sensitive area and probably damaging a larynx and vocal cord zone. After ETT was removed, some patients always suffering with a larynx or tracheal edema symptom in which patient airway is narrowed due to a long term pressurization by the ETT balloon cuff and causing a difficulty in his spontaneous breathing. In general, a cuff leak test is performed in order to predict a larynx or tracheal edema possibility before ETT extubation from an air volume difference between an inspiration and expiration. In this paper, an investigation of an airflow pattern and air velocity which able to imply as an air volume in the cuff leak test process is proposed in order to understand and support a prediction of the tracheal edema. The study was performed with no edema and edema case at 10, 30 and 50% of trachea internal diameter. The simulations indicate that airflow pattern shows some affects when edema region is higher than 10%. Even though, this preliminary study was intently implemented in a simple intubated trachea model, however the obtain results guide us a practical information and will be used as a basic implementation for a further study, especially in case of variety in the ETT cuff shape and pressure or in cuff less ventilation even more complication case in the near future.

On the performance of algebraic reconstruction technique algorithm for microwave imaging

A microwave imaging system for scanning the presence of cancer in the body is designed. The system uses a pair of dipole antennas as a transmitter and a receiver at frequency of 3 GHz based on Algebraic Reconstruction Tecnique (ART) algorithm. Two types of numerical phantom are used for validating the image reconstruction system, a cylindrical phantom and a Shepp-Logan phantom. The reconstructed image and its histogram show that the system is successful in representing the tissue characteristics of the phantoms for identifying the presence of tumorous tissue.

Contactless palmprint alignment based on intrinsic local affine-invariant feature points

A Palmprint, biométrie characteristics, was mostly found in civil and commercial applications for security system because it has more reliable and easy to capture by low resolution devices. This paper was to develop a new contactless palmprint alignment with general USB camera on tripod. The palmprint image is acquired by this camera and using intrinsic local affine-invariant key points residing on the area patches spanning between two successive fingers to align palmprint image. The key points are relative affine invariant to affine transformations so this algorithm does not need the guidance pegs in acquisition process to fix hand position to avoid the scaling, translation and rotation problems for correctly palmprint image alignment. Finally, the developed algorithm was tested by 10 left-handed palmprint images collected from different subjects. The simulation results indicate by distance map error of 1.4899 pixels.