IRMIRS:Inception-ResNet-Based Network for MRI Image Super-Resolution

Medical image super-resolution is a fundamental challenge due to absorption and scattering in tissues.These challenges are increasing the interest in the quality of medical images.Recent research has proven that the rapid progress in convolutional neural networks(CNNs)has achieved superior performance in the area of medical image super-resolution.However,the traditional CNN approaches use interpolation techniques as a preprocessing stage to enlarge low-resolution magnetic resonance(MR)images,adding extra noise in the models and more memory consumption.Furthermore,conventional deep CNN approaches used layers in series-wise connection to create the deeper mode,because this later end layer cannot receive complete information and work as a dead layer.In this paper,we propose Inception-ResNet-based Network for MRI Image Super-Resolution known as IRMRIS.In our proposed approach,a bicubic interpolation is replaced with a deconvolution layer to learn the upsampling filters.Furthermore,a residual skip connection with the Inception block is used to reconstruct a high-resolution output image from a low-quality input image.Quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the proposed method are supported through extensive experiments in reconstructing sharper and clean texture details as compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

Efficient Body-Transfer Wheelchair for Assisting Functionally Impaired People

Functionally impaired people always have difficulty accomplishing activities of daily living.In this regard,tasks including toileting and bathing have a higher prevalence rate of injuries and greater risk of falling.In this study,a body-transfer wheelchair was developed to assist people in transferring from bed to wheelchair for bathing,and toileting.The bodytransfer wheelchair is a semi-automatic wheelchair that has features such as a controlled leg and backrest,linkage commode slot,and height adjustment.The wheelchair consists of a seat and a main frame that can be detached to enable bathtub transfer.This mechanism lets the user stay on the seat while being transferred into the bathtub without any risk of falling.A linkage mechanism was developed as a part of the seat for ease of toileting.Kinematic and force analysis was conducted to calculate the force required for each actuator.It has been proved by the experimental results that the wheelchair can securely and comfortably transfer a patient from the bed to the toilet or bathtub.A survey has been conducted to evaluate the wheelchair prototype design idea.Two focus groups were chosen:one comprised of functionally impaired people,and the other comprised of caregivers.The results of the survey show that 60%of both functionally impaired people and caregivers would like to use the body-transfer wheelchair for toileting and bathing purpose.Additionally,on average 65%of both focus groups find it convenient to operate the body-transfer wheelchair independently.