Role of the texture features of images in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules in different sizes

Objective： To explore the role of the texture features of images in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules （SPNs） in different sizes. Materials and methods： A total of 379 patients with pathologically confirmed SPNs were enrolled in this study. They were divided into three groups based on the SPN sizes： ≤10, 11-20, and 〉20 mm. Their texture features were segmented and extracted. The differences in the image features between benign and malignant SPNs were compared. The SPNs in these three groups were determined and analyzed with the texture features of images. Results： These 379 SPNs were successfully segmented using the 2D Otsu threshold method and the self-adaptive threshold segmentation method. The texture features of these SPNs were obtained using the method of grey level co-occurrence matrix （GLCM）. Of these 379 patients, 120 had benign SPNs and 259 had malignant SPNs. The entropy, contrast, energy, homogeneity, and correlation were 3.5597±0.6470, 0.5384±0.2561, 0.1921±0.1256, 0.8281±0.0604, and 0.8748±0.0740 in the benign SPNs and 3.8007±0.6235, 0.6088±0.2961, 0.1673±0.1070, 0.7980±0.0555, and 0.8550±0.0869 in the malignant SPNs （all P〈0.05）. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the texture features of images were 83.3%, 90.0%, and 86.8%, respectively, for SPNs sized 〈10 mm, and were 86.6%, 88.2%, and 87.1%, respectively, for SPNs sized 11-20 mm and 94.7%, 91.8%, and 93.9%, respectively, for SPNs sized 〉20 mm. Conclusions： The entropy and contrast of malignant pulmonary nodules have been demonstrated to be higher in comparison to those of benign pulmonary nodules, while the energy, homogeneity correlation of malignant pulmonary nodules are lower than those of benign pulmonary nodules. The texture features of images can reflect the tissue features and have high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in differentiating SPNs. The sensitivity and accuracy increase for larger SPNs.

Discriminatively learning for representing local image features with quadruplet model

Traditional hand-crafted features for representing local image patches are evolving into current data-driven and learning-based image feature, but learning a robust and discriminative descriptor which is capable of controlling various patch-level computer vision tasks is still an open problem. In this work, we propose a novel deep convolutional neural network(CNN) to learn local feature descriptors. We utilize the quadruplets with positive and negative training samples, together with a constraint to restrict the intra-class variance, to learn good discriminative CNN representations. Compared with previous works, our model reduces the overlap in feature space between corresponding and non-corresponding patch pairs, and mitigates margin varying problem caused by commonly used triplet loss. We demonstrate that our method achieves better embedding result than some latest works, like PN-Net and TN-TG, on benchmark dataset.

New Fragile Watermarking Technique to Identify Inserted Video Objects Using H.264 and Color Features

The transmission of video content over a network raises various issues relating to copyright authenticity,ethics,legality,and privacy.The protection of copyrighted video content is a significant issue in the video industry,and it is essential to find effective solutions to prevent tampering and modification of digital video content during its transmission through digital media.However,there are stillmany unresolved challenges.This paper aims to address those challenges by proposing a new technique for detectingmoving objects in digital videos,which can help prove the credibility of video content by detecting any fake objects inserted by hackers.The proposed technique involves using two methods,the H.264 and the extraction color features methods,to embed and extract watermarks in video frames.The study tested the performance of the system against various attacks and found it to be robust.The evaluation was done using different metrics such as Peak-Signal-to-Noise Ratio(PSNR),Mean Squared Error(MSE),Structural Similarity Index Measure(SSIM),Bit Correction Ratio(BCR),and Normalized Correlation.The accuracy of identifying moving objects was high,ranging from 96.3%to 98.7%.The system was also able to embed a fragile watermark with a success rate of over 93.65%and had an average capacity of hiding of 78.67.The reconstructed video frames had high quality with a PSNR of at least 65.45 dB and SSIMof over 0.97,making them imperceptible to the human eye.The system also had an acceptable average time difference(T=1.227/s)compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

Fast Fractal Image Encoding Based on Special Image Features

The fractal image encoding method has received much attention for its many advantages over other methods, such as high decoding quality at high compression ratios. However, because every range block must be compared to all domain blocks in the codebook to find the best-matched one during the coding procedure, baseline fractal coding （BFC） is quite time consuming. To speed up fractal coding, a new fast fractal encoding algorithm is proposed. This algorithm aims at reducing the size of the search window during the domain-range matching process to minimize the computational cost. A new theorem presented in this paper shows that a special feature of the image can be used to do this work. Based on this theorem, the most inappropriate domain blocks, whose features are not similar to that of the given range block, are excluded before matching. Thus, the best-matched block can be captured much more quickly than in the BFC approach. The experimental results show that the runtime of the proposed method is reduced greatly com- pared to the BFC method. At the same time, the new algorithm also achieves high reconstructed image quality. In addition, the method can be incorporated with other fast algorithms to achieve better performance Therefore, the proposed algorithm has a much better application potential than BFC.

Delineation of Mesoscale Features of Ocean on Satellite IR Image

An ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-Detection) algorithm and a series of post-processing technique are discussed for automatic delineation of mesoscale structure of the ocean on digital IR images. The popular derivative-based edge operators are shown to be too sensitive to edge fine-structure and to weak gradients. The new edge-detection algorithm is ICSED (Improved Cluster Shade Edge-detection) method and it is found to be an excel lent edge detector that exhibits the characteristic of fine-structure rejection while retaining edge sharpness. This char acteristic is highly desirable for analyzing oceanographic satellite images. A sorting technique for separating clouds or land well from ocean at both day and night is described in order to obtain high quality mesoscale features on the IR image This procedure is evaluated on an AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) image with Kuroshio. Results and analyses show that the mesoscale features can be well identified by using ICSED algorithm.

Clinical and multimodal imaging features of acute macular neuroretinopathy lesions following recent SARS-CoV-2 infection

AIM:To describe the clinical characteristics of eyes using multimodal imaging features with acute macular neuroretinopathy(AMN)lesions following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)infection.METHODS:Retrospective case series study.From December 18,2022 to February 14,2023,previously healthy cases within 1-week infection with SARS-CoV-2 and examined at Tianjin Eye Hospital to confirm the diagnosis of AMN were included in the study.Totally 5 males and 9 females[mean age:29.93±10.32(16-49)y]were presented for reduced vision,with or without blurred vision.All patients underwent best corrected visual acuity(BCVA),intraocular pressure,slit lamp microscopy,indirect fundoscopy.Simultaneously,multimodal imagings fundus photography(45°or 200°field of view)was performed in 7 cases(14 eyes).Near infrared(NIR)fundus photography was performed in 9 cases(18 eyes),optical coherence tomography(OCT)in 5 cases(10 eyes),optical coherence tomography angiography(OCTA)in 9 cases(18 eyes),and fundus fluorescence angiography(FFA)in 3 cases(6 eyes).Visual field was performed in 1 case(2 eyes).RESULTS:Multimodal imaging findings data from 14 patients with AMN were reviewed.All eyes demonstrated different extent hyperreflective lesions at the level of the inner nuclear layer and/or outer plexus layer on OCT or OCTA.Fundus photography(45°or 200°field of view)showed irregular hypo-reflective lesion around the fovea in 7 cases(14 eyes).OCTA demonstrated that the superficial retinal capillary plexus(SCP)vascular density,deep capillary plexus(DCP)vascular density and choriocapillaris(CC)vascular density was reduced in 9 case(18 eyes).Among the follow-up cases(2 cases),vascular density increased in 1 case with elevated BCVA;another case has vascular density decrease in one eye and basically unchanged in other eye.En face images of the ellipsoidal zone and interdigitation zone injury showed a low wedge-shaped reflection contour appearance.NIR image mainly show the absence of the outer retinal interdigitation zone in AMN.No abnormal fluorescence was observed in FFA.Corresponding partial defect of the visual field were visualized via perimeter in one case.CONCLUSION:The morbidity of SARS-CoV-2 infection with AMN is increased.Ophthalmologists should be aware of the possible,albeit rare,AMN after SARS-CoV-2 infection and focus on multimodal imaging features.OCT,OCTA,and infrared fundus phase are proved to be valuable tools for detection of AMN in patients with SARS-CoV-2.

Image Feature Extraction and Matching of Augmented Solar Images in Space Weather

Augmented solar images were used to research the adaptability of four representative image extraction and matching algorithms in space weather domain.These include the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm,speeded-up robust features algorithm,binary robust invariant scalable keypoints algorithm,and oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm.The performance of these algorithms was estimated in terms of matching accuracy,feature point richness,and running time.The experiment result showed that no algorithm achieved high accuracy while keeping low running time,and all algorithms are not suitable for image feature extraction and matching of augmented solar images.To solve this problem,an improved method was proposed by using two-frame matching to utilize the accuracy advantage of the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm and the speed advantage of the oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm.Furthermore,our method and the four representative algorithms were applied to augmented solar images.Our application experiments proved that our method achieved a similar high recognition rate to the scale-invariant feature transform algorithm which is significantly higher than other algorithms.Our method also obtained a similar low running time to the oriented fast and rotated brief algorithm,which is significantly lower than other algorithms.

Automated Counting of Rice Planthoppers in Paddy Fields Based on Image Processing

A quantitative survey of rice planthoppers in paddy fields is important to assess the population density and make forecasting decisions. Manual rice planthopper survey methods in paddy fields are time-consuming, fatiguing and tedious. This paper describes a handheld device for easily capturing planthopper images on rice stems and an automatic method for counting rice planthoppers based on image processing. The handheld device consists of a digital camera with WiFi, a smartphone and an extrendable pole. The surveyor can use the smartphone to control the camera, which is fixed on the front of the pole by WiFi, and to photograph planthoppers on rice stems. For the counting of planthoppers on rice stems, we adopt three layers of detection that involve the following：（a） the first layer of detection is an AdaBoost classifier based on Haar features;（b） the second layer of detection is a support vector machine（SVM） classifier based on histogram of oriented gradient（HOG） features;（c） the third layer of detection is the threshold judgment of the three features. We use this method to detect and count whiteback planthoppers（Sogatella furcifera） on rice plant images and achieve an 85.2% detection rate and a 9.6% false detection rate. The method is easy, rapid and accurate for the assessment of the population density of rice planthoppers in paddy fields.

Lung imaging characteristics in a patient infected with Elizabethkingia miricola following cerebral hemorrhage surgery: A case report

BACKGROUND Elizabethkingia miricola is a non-fermenting gram-negative bacterium,which was first isolated from the condensate of the Russian peace space station in 2003.Most studies on this bacterium have been carried out in the laboratory,and clinical case studies are rare.To date,a total of 6 clinical cases have been reported worldwide.CASE SUMMARY We present the first case of postoperative pulmonary infection in a patient with intracerebral hemorrhage due to Elizabethkingia miricola.The imaging character-istics of pulmonary infection were identified and the formulation and selection of the clinical treatment plan for this patient are discussed.CONCLUSION Elizabethkingia miricola infection is rare.When pulmonary infection occurs,computed tomography imaging may show diffuse distribution of a ground glass density shadow in both lungs,the air containing bronchial sign in local areas,thickening of bronchial vascular bundle,and pleural effusion.

Image block feature vectors based on a singular-value information metric and color-texture description

In this work, image feature vectors are formed for blocks containing sufficient information, which are selected using a singular-value criterion. When the ratio between the first two SVs axe below a given threshold, the block is considered informative. A total of 12 features including statistics of brightness, color components and texture measures are used to form intermediate vectors. Principal component analysis is then performed to reduce the dimension to 6 to give the final feature vectors. Relevance of the constructed feature vectors is demonstrated by experiments in which k-means clustering is used to group the vectors hence the blocks. Blocks falling into the same group show similar visual appearances.

Features of primary pancreatic lymphoma:A bi-institutional review with an emphasis on typical and atypical imaging features

BACKGROUND Primary pancreatic lymphoma(PPL)is a rare neoplasm.Being able to distinguish it from other pancreatic malignancies such as pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)is important for appropriate management.Unlike PDAC,PPL is highly sensitive to chemotherapy and usually does not require surgery.Therefore,being able to identify PPL preoperatively will not only direct physicians towards the correct avenue of treatment,it will also avoid unnecessary surgical intervention.AIM To evaluate the typical and atypical multi-phasic computed tomography(CT)imaging features of PPL.METHODS A retrospective review was conducted of the clinical,radiological,and pathological records of all subjects with pathologically proven PPL who presented to our institutions between January 2000 and December 2020.Institutional review board approval was obtained for this investigation.The collected data were analyzed for subject demographics,clinical presentation,laboratory values,CT imaging features,and the treatment received.Presence of all CT imaging findings including size,site,morphology and imaging characteristics of PPL such as the presence or absence of nodal,vascular and ductal involvement in these subjects were recorded.Only those subjects who had a pre-treatment multiphasic CT of the abdomen were included in the study.RESULTS Twenty-nine cases of PPL were diagnosed between January 2000 and December 2020(mean age 66 years;13 males/16 females).All twenty-nine subjects were symptomatic but only 4 of the 29 subjects(14%)had B symptoms.Obstructive jaundice occurred in 24%of subjects.Elevated lactate dehydrogenase was seen in 81%of cases,whereas elevated cancer antigen 19-9 levels were present in only 10%of cases for which levels were recorded.The vast majority(90%)of tumors involved the pancreatic head and uncinate process.Mean tumor size was 7.8 cm(range,4.0-13.8 cm).PPL presented homogenous hypoenhancement on CT in 72%of cases.Small volume peripancreatic lymphadenopathy was seen in 28%of subjects.Tumors demonstrated encasement of superior mesenteric vessels in 69%of cases but vascular stenosis or occlusion only manifested in 5 out of the twentynine individuals(17%).Mild pancreatic duct dilatation was also infrequent and seen in only 17%of cases,whereas common bile duct(CBD)dilation was seen in 41%of subjects.Necrosis occurred in 10%of cases.Size did not impact the prevalence of pancreatic and CBD dilation,necrosis,or mesenteric root infiltration(P=0.525,P=0.294,P=0.543,and P=0.097,respectively).Pancreatic atrophy was not present in any of the subjects.CONCLUSION PPL is an uncommon diagnosis best made preoperatively to avoid unnecessary surgery and ensure adequate treatment.In addition to the typical CT findings of PPL,such as homogeneous hypoenhancement,absence of vascular stenosis and occlusion despite encasement,and peripancreatic lymphadenopathy,this study highlighted many less typical findings,including small volume necrosis and pancreatic and bile duct dilation.

Image matching algorithm based on SIFT using color and exposure information

Image matching based on scale invariant feature transform（SIFT） is one of the most popular image matching algorithms, which exhibits high robustness and accuracy. Grayscale images rather than color images are generally used to get SIFT descriptors in order to reduce the complexity. The regions which have a similar grayscale level but different hues tend to produce wrong matching results in this case. Therefore, the loss of color information may result in decreasing of matching ratio. An image matching algorithm based on SIFT is proposed, which adds a color offset and an exposure offset when converting color images to grayscale images in order to enhance the matching ratio. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively differentiate the regions with different colors but the similar grayscale level, and increase the matching ratio of image matching based on SIFT. Furthermore, it does not introduce much complexity than the traditional SIFT.

Evolutionary Computation Based Optimization of Image Zernike Moments Shape Feature Vector

The image shape feature can be described by the image Zernike moments. In this paper, we points out the problem that the high dimension image Zernike moments shape feature vector can describe more detail of the original image but has too many elements making trouble for the next image analysis phases. Then the low dimension image Zernike moments shape feature vector should be improved and optimized to describe more detail of the original image. So the optimization algorithm based on evolutionary computation is designed and implemented in this paper to solve this problem. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the optimization algorithm.

A Method of Using Information Entropy of an Image as an Effective Feature for Com-puter-Aided Diagnostic Applications

Computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) systems are increasingly being used as an aid by clinicians for detection and interpretation of diseases. In general, a CAD system employs a classifier to detect or distinguish between abnormal and normal tissues on images. In the phase of classification, a set of image features and/or texture features extracted from the images are commonly used. In this article, we investigated the characteristic of the output entropy of an image and demonstrated the usefulness of the output entropy acting as a texture feature in CAD systems. In order to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the output-entropy-based texture feature, two well-known texture features, i.e., mean and standard deviation were used for comparison. The database used in this study comprised 50 CT images obtained from 10 patients with pulmonary nodules, and 50 CT images obtained from 5 normal subjects. We used a support vector machine for classification. A leave-one-out method was employed for training and classification. Three combinations of texture features, i.e., mean and entropy, standard deviation and entropy, and standard deviation and mean were used as the inputs to the classifier. Three different regions of interest (ROI) sizes, i.e., 11 × 11, 9 × 9 and 7 × 7 pixels from the database were selected for computation of the feature values. Our experimental results show that the combination of entropy and standard deviation is significantly better than both the combination of mean and entropy and that of standard deviation and mean in the case of the ROI size of 11 × 11 pixels (p < 0.05). These results suggest that information entropy of an image can be used as an effective feature for CAD applications.

Robustness Evaluation of Remote-Sensing Image Feature Detectors with TH Priori-Information Data Set

In this paper,we build a remote-sensing satellite imagery priori-information data set,and propose an approach to evaluate the robustness of remote-sensing image feature detectors.The building TH Priori-Information(TPI)data set with 2297 remote sensing images serves as a standardized high-resolution data set for studies related to remote-sensing image features.The TPI contains 1)raw and calibrated remote-sensing images with high spatial and temporal resolutions(up to 2 m and 7 days,respectively),and 2)a built-in 3-D target area model that supports view position,view angle,lighting,shadowing,and other transformations.Based on TPI,we further present a quantized approach,including the feature recurrence rate,the feature match score,and the weighted feature robustness score,to evaluate the robustness of remote-sensing image feature detectors.The quantized approach gives general and objective assessments of the robustness of feature detectors under complex remote-sensing circumstances.Three remote-sensing image feature detectors,including scale-invariant feature transform(SIFT),speeded up robust features(SURF),and priori information based robust features(PIRF),are evaluated using the proposed approach on the TPI data set.Experimental results show that the robustness of PIRF outperforms others by over 6.2%.

Atypical imaging features of the primary spinal cord glioblastoma:A case report

BACKGROUND Primary spinal cord(PSC)glioblastoma(GB)is an extremely rare but fatal primary tumor of the central nervous system and associated with a poor prognosis.While typical tumor imaging features are generally easy to recognize,glioblastoma multiforme can have a wide range of imaging findings.Atypical GB is often misdiagnosed,which usually delays the optimal time for treatment.In this article,we discuss a clinical case of pathologically confirmed PSC GB under the guise of benign tumor imaging findings,as well as the most recent literature pertaining to PSC GB.CASE SUMMARY A 70-year-old female complained of limb weakness lasting more than 20 d.Irregular masses were observed inside and outside the left foramina of the spinal canal at C7-T1 on medical imaging.Based on the imaging features,radiologists diagnosed the patient with schwannoma.Tumor resection was performed under general anesthesia.The final histopathological findings revealed a final diagnosis of PSC GB,world health organization Grade IV.The patient subsequently underwent a 4-wk course of radiotherapy(60 Gy in 20 fractions)combined with temozolomide chemotherapy.The patient was alive at the time of submission of this manuscript.CONCLUSION Atypical GB presented unusual imaging findings,which led to misdiagnosis.Therefore,a complete recognition of imaging signs may facilitate early accurate diagnosis.

Imaging features of intrathoracic complications of lung transplantation:What the radiologists need to know

Lung transplantation has been a method for treating end stage lung disease for decades. Despite improvements in the preoperative assessment of recipients and donors as well as improved surgical techniques, lung transplant recipients are still at a high risk of developing postoperative complications which tend to impact negatively the patients' outcome if not recognised early. The recognised complications post lung transplantation can be broadly categorised into acute and chronic complications. Recognising the radiological features of these complications has a significant positive impact on patients' survival post transplantation. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review of the radiological features of post lung transplantations complications over a time continuum.

Improved preprocessed Yaroslavsky filter based on shearlet features

An improved preprocessed Yaroslavsky filter（IPYF）is proposed to avoid the nick effects and obtain a better denoising result when the noise variance is unknown.Different from its predecessors,the similarity between two pixels is calculated by shearlet features.The feature vector consists of initial denoised results by the non-subsampled shearlet transform hard thresholding（NSST-HT）and NSST coefficients,which can help allocate the averaging weights more reasonably.With the correct estimated noise variance,the NSST-HT can provide good denoised results as the initial estimation and high-frequency coefficients contribute large weights to preserve textures.In case of the incorrect estimated noise variance,the low-frequency coefficients will mitigate the nick effect in cartoon regions greatly,making the IPYF more robust than the original PYF.Detailed experimental results show that the IPYF is a very competitive method based on a comprehensive consideration involving peak signal to noise ratio（PSNR）,computing time,visual quality and method noise.

Developing global image feature analysis models to predict cancer risk and prognosis

In order to develop precision or personalized medicine,identifying new quantitative imaging markers and building machine learning models to predict cancer risk and prognosis has been attracting broad research interest recently.Most of these research approaches use the similar concepts of the conventional computer-aided detection schemes of medical images,which include steps in detecting and segmenting suspicious regions or tumors,followed by training machine learning models based on the fusion of multiple image features computed from the segmented regions or tumors.However,due to the heterogeneity and boundary fuzziness of the suspicious regions or tumors,segmenting subtle regions is often difficult and unreliable.Additionally,ignoring global and/or background parenchymal tissue characteristics may also be a limitation of the conventional approaches.In our recent studies,we investigated the feasibility of developing new computer-aided schemes implemented with the machine learning models that are trained by global image features to predict cancer risk and prognosis.We trained and tested several models using images obtained from full-field digital mammography,magnetic resonance imaging,and computed tomography of breast,lung,and ovarian cancers.Study results showed that many of these new models yielded higher performance than other approaches used in current clinical practice.Furthermore,the computed global image features also contain complementary information from the features computed from the segmented regions or tumors in predicting cancer prognosis.Therefore,the global image features can be used alone to develop new case-based prediction models or can be added to current tumor-based models to increase their discriminatory power.

Development of a machine learning-based model for predicting risk of early postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND Surgical resection is the primary treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).However,studies indicate that nearly 70%of patients experience HCC recurrence within five years following hepatectomy.The earlier the recurrence,the worse the prognosis.Current studies on postoperative recurrence primarily rely on postoperative pathology and patient clinical data,which are lagging.Hence,developing a new pre-operative prediction model for postoperative recurrence is crucial for guiding individualized treatment of HCC patients and enhancing their prognosis.AIM To identify key variables in pre-operative clinical and imaging data using machine learning algorithms to construct multiple risk prediction models for early postoperative recurrence of HCC.METHODS The demographic and clinical data of 371 HCC patients were collected for this retrospective study.These data were randomly divided into training and test sets at a ratio of 8:2.The training set was analyzed,and key feature variables with predictive value for early HCC recurrence were selected to construct six different machine learning prediction models.Each model was evaluated,and the bestperforming model was selected for interpreting the importance of each variable.Finally,an online calculator based on the model was generated for daily clinical practice.RESULTS Following machine learning analysis,eight key feature variables(age,intratumoral arteries,alpha-fetoprotein,preoperative blood glucose,number of tumors,glucose-to-lymphocyte ratio,liver cirrhosis,and pre-operative platelets)were selected to construct six different prediction models.The XGBoost model outperformed other models,with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in the training,validation,and test datasets being 0.993(95%confidence interval:0.982-1.000),0.734(0.601-0.867),and 0.706(0.585-0.827),respectively.Calibration curve and decision curve analysis indicated that the XGBoost model also had good predictive performance and clinical application value.CONCLUSION The XGBoost model exhibits superior performance and is a reliable tool for predicting early postoperative HCC recurrence.This model may guide surgical strategies and postoperative individualized medicine.