Role of contrast-enhanced serial/spot abdominal X-rays in perioperative follow-up of patients undergoing abdominal surgery:An observational clinical study

BACKGROUND Many imaging methods such as ultrasonography,computed tomography(CT),magnetic resonance imaging,and endoscopy are used to identify the problems or complications that occur in the perioperative period and to determine the appropriate therapeutic approach.Specialists at surgical clinics and intensive care units sometimes need diagnostic procedures that can give quick results or reveal unexpected results.In particular,rapid on-site evaluation of patients followed under intensive care conditions has several advantages.AIM To determine the problems developing in patients in the perioperative period by contrast-enhanced abdominal X-ray(CE-AXR),revealing their current status or defining the effectiveness of CE-AXR.METHODS The files of the patients who underwent hepatopancreatobiliary or upper gastrointestinal surgery,whose CE-AXR film was taken,were reviewed retrospectively.Abdominal X-ray radiographs taken after ingestion of a watersoluble contrast agent(iohexol,300 mg,50 cc vial)and its application in a drain,nasogastric tube,or stent were evaluated.The contribution of the data obtained in patients who underwent CE-AXR to the diagnosis,follow-up,and treatment processes and the effectiveness of the application were investigated.RESULTS CE-AXR was applied to 131 patients in our clinic,most of whom underwent hepatopancreatobiliary or upper gastrointestinal surgery.It was determined that the data obtained from CE-AXR films taken in 98(74.8%)of the patients contributed to the diagnosis,treatment,and follow-up expectations and positively affected the clinical processes.CONCLUSION CE-AXR is a simple procedure that can be applied anywhere,especially in intensive care patients and at bedside,with a portable X-ray device.The simplicity of the procedure,less radiation exposure for the patients,less time wastage,reduction in the CT and endoscopy procedure burden and costs,quick results,rapid assessment of the situation,and enabling the monitoring of processes with repetitive procedures are important advantages.X-rays taken will be useful in terms of being a reference value during the follow-up period of the patient and determining the situation in medicolegal processes.

Histogram Matched Chest X-Rays Based Tuberculosis Detection Using CNN

Tuberculosis(TB)is a severe infection that mostly affects the lungs and kills millions of people’s lives every year.Tuberculosis can be diagnosed using chest X-rays(CXR)and data-driven deep learning(DL)approaches.Because of its better automated feature extraction capability,convolutional neural net-works(CNNs)trained on natural images are particularly effective in image cate-gorization.A combination of 3001 normal and 3001 TB CXR images was gathered for this study from different accessible public datasets.Ten different deep CNNs(Resnet50,Resnet101,Resnet152,InceptionV3,VGG16,VGG19,DenseNet121,DenseNet169,DenseNet201,MobileNet)are trained and tested for identifying TB and normal cases.This study presents a deep CNN approach based on histogram matched CXR images that does not require object segmenta-tion of interest,and this coupled methodology of histogram matching with the CXRs improves the accuracy and detection performance of CNN models for TB detection.Furthermore,this research contains two separate experiments that used CXR images with and without histogram matching to classify TB and non-TB CXRs using deep CNNs.It was able to accurately detect TB from CXR images using pre-processing,data augmentation,and deep CNN models.Without histogram matching the best accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,precision and F1-score in the detection of TB using CXR images among ten models are 99.25%,99.48%,99.52%,99.48%and 99.22%respectively.With histogram matching the best accuracy,sensitivity,specificity,precision and F1-score are 99.58%,99.82%,99.67%,99.65%and 99.56%respectively.The proposed meth-odology,which has cutting-edge performance,will be useful in computer-assisted TB diagnosis and aids in minimizing irregularities in TB detection in developing countries.

肺癌骨转移^(99m)Tc-MDP骨显像的临床价值及与CT、X-rays检查对比观察

目的 评价99mTc MDP骨显像诊断肺癌骨转移的临床价值。方法 12 8例肺癌骨转移患者常规行99mTc MDP骨显像检查。 91例患者同时行骨显像、CT检查 :74例病变部位相符者同时行骨显像、X rays检查。分别对比观察99mTc MDP骨显像与CT、X rays诊断肺癌骨转移的阳性检出率 ,并分析相互之间产生差异的原因和机制。结果 全部病例中 ,99mTc MDP骨显像阳性检出率为 91.4% (117/12 8) ,假阳性率为 12 .0 % (16/13 3 ) ,假阴性率 8.5 9% (11/12 8) ;对比观察99mTc MDP骨显像与CT ,阳性检出率分别为 85 .7% (78/91)、2 9.7% (2 2 /74) ,(P <0 .0 1,已剔除部位不相符因素 ,但未剔除X线检查部位包括不全因素 )。结论 99mTc MDP骨显像诊断肺癌骨转移具有较高的临床价值 ,辅以CT、X rays检查可提高阳性诊断的准确性。

The development,performances and applications of the monochromatic X-rays facilities in(0.218–301)keV at NIM,China

Space scientific exploration is rapidly becoming the primary battlefield for humankind to explore the universe.Countries worldwide have launched numerous space exploration satellites.Accurate calibration of the detectors on the ground is a crucial element for space science satellites to obtain observational results.For the purpose of providing calibration for various satellite-borne detectors,multiple monochromatic X-rays facilities have been built at the National Institute of Metrology,P.R.China(NIM).These facilities mainly pertain to grating diffraction and Bragg diffraction,and the energy range of the produced monochromatic X-rays is 0.218–301 ke V.These facilities have a high performance in terms of energy stability,monochromaticity,and flux stability.The monochromaticity was greater than 3.0%.The energy stability of the facility is 0.02%at 25 ke V over 8 h,and the flux stability was within 1.0%at 25 ke V over 8 h.Calibration experiments on the properties of satellite-borne detectors,such as energy linearity,energy resolution,detection efficiency,and temperature response,can be conducted at the facilities.Thus far,the calibration of two satellites has been completed by the authors,and the work on three other satellites is in progress.This study will contribute to the advancement of X-ray astronomy the development of Chinese space science.

Attenuation coefficients of gamma and X-rays passing through six materials

The aim of this study was to determine the attenuation of gamma and X-rays with different energies caused by passage through different materials.To this end,different materials with a range of atomic numbers were chosen to measure gamma and X-ray attenuation coefficients and to explore the mechanisms of interaction of gamma and X-rays with matter of various kinds.It is shown that the attenuation coefficients first decrease and then increase with increase in the radiation(photon)energy.The attenuation of gamma and X-rays passing through materials with high atomic number is greater than that in materials with low atomic number.The attenuation minimum is related to the atomic number of the irradiated materials.The larger the atomic number is,the lower the energy corresponding to attenuation minimum is.Photoelectric and Compton effects are the main processes when gamma rays pass through individual materials with high and low atomic numbers,respectively.Therefore,for radiotherapy and radiation protection,different methods should be considered and selected for the use of gamma and X-rays of different energies for use in different materials.

Chest X-rays in detecting injuries caused by blunt trauma

BACKGROUND:The appropriate sequence of different imagings and indications of thoracic computed tomography(TCT)in evaluating chest trauma have not yet been clarified at present.The current study was undertaken to determine the value of chest X-ray(CXR)in detecting chest injuries in patients with blunt trauma.METHODS:A total of 447 patients with blunt thoracic trauma who had been admitted to the emergency department(ED)in the period of 2009–2013 were retrospectively reviewed.The patients met inclusion criteria(age>8 years,blunt injury to the chest,hemodynamically stable,and neurologically intact)and underwent both TCT and upright CXR in the ED.Radiological imagings were re-interpreted after they were collected from the hospital database by two skilled radiologists.RESULTS:Of the 447 patients,309(69.1%)were male.The mean age of the 447 patients was 39.5±19.2(range 9 and 87 years).158(35.3%)patients were injured in motor vehicle accidents(MVA).CXR showed the highest sensitivity in detecting clavicle fractures[95%CI 78.3(63.6–89)]but the lowest in pneuomediastinum[95%CI 11.8(1.5–36.4)].The specificity of CXR was close to 100%in detecting a wide array of entities.CONCLUSION:CXR remains to be the first choice in hemodynamically unstable patients with blunt chest trauma.Moreover,stable patients with normal CXR are candidates who should undergo TCT if significant injury has not been ruled out.

Determination of Residuals Stresses Induced by the Autofrettage Treatment by the X-Rays Diffraction Method

Some meaningful advances have been made these last years to value precise and reliable way the residual stresses experimentally created by the autofrettage. The autofrettage process is used widely to introduce residual stresses into thick walled tubes;traditionally residual stresses have been measured using the Sachs method destructive or non-destructive methods. In this paper we describe the application of the X-rays diffraction;this technique permits to justify the presence of the compressive tangential residual stresses, and to value their distribution after two different autofrettage internal pressures loading. The results show that there is a large difference in the residual stresses find in the different autofrettege pressure. One can see the influence of the autofrettage’s pressure quantity on residual stresses created in the thickness of the test tubes.

Diagnostic Value of the Thoracic Ultrasonography Compared to Conventional Chest X-Rays in Pneumonia for Children between 0 to 15 Years: Case Study in Two Hospitals in Yaoundé

Introduction: The diagnosis of pneumonia is usually made based on clinical manifestations and chest X-ray. The use of ultrasound in detecting pulmonary diseases in general, and especially consolidation syndrome has been demonstrated. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of thoracic ultrasound compared to chest X-ray in the diagnosis of infectious pneumonia in children. Methods: Children between 0 to 15 years were included in our study. The lung ultrasound results obtained were compared with those of the chest X-ray used as the reference. Our data were introduced into the EpiInfo 3.5.4 software and analyzed with the EpiInfo 3.5.4 and IBMSPSS Statistics version 20.0 softwares. Microsoft Office Excel 2016 was used to produce Charts. Continuous quantitative variables were presented. Cohen’s Kappa concordance test was applied with confidence interval of 95%. Results: 52 children were enrolled in the study. In imaging, the dominant sign was consolidation syndrome (75.0%) of cases by chest radiography, and in 78.8% of cases by lung ultrasound (p Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that lung echography is a non-ionizing and reliable tool in the diagnosis of childhood’s pneumonia.

Poor Reproducibility in the Evaluation of Paranasal Sinus X-Rays in Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of sinus x-rays in comparison to sinus computed tomography (CT) in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients. Methods: This was a prospective controlled study for which 14 adult CRS patients were recruited. Patients underwent a sinus multi-detector CT scan as well as additional sinus x-rays at the same time. Symptom interview and skin prick tests were performed. Lund-Mackay (LM) scores and 43 other findings in paranasal sinuses were analyzed by three blinded observers from CT-scans and x-rays. We compared agreement between sinus CT and x-rays (intra-observer reproducibility) and between three observers (inter-observer reproducibility) by Cohen’s kappa. Results: In at least 90% of the cases, the status of 47/49 structures was detectable in CT scans, whereas the status of only 8/49 structures was detectable in x-rays. The majority of the 25 visualized structures had poor intra-observer and inter-observer reproducibility. Conclusion: Only a few structures can be visualized in paranasal sinus x-rays and compared to paranasal sinus CT-scans, their reproducibility is poor. Our results strongly support the current consensus of radiation dose reduction by limiting the number of x-rays.

X-Pinches as Broadband Sources of X-Rays for Radiography

Two methods of using the X-pinch as a source of X-ray radiation for radiography of biological objects are presented. X-pinches are found to be a very flexible method for generation of radiation over a wide spectral range and provide a high spatial and temporal resolution.

Measurement of Mass Attenuation Coefficients of Indium With Characteristic X-rays From Targets Excited by Energetic Proton

The mass attenuation coefficients of indium are systematically measured byusing the characteristic X-rays from elemental or compound targets excited by energeticproton in the X-ray energy range 2.6 to 29.1 keV.The accuracy of experimental data isimproved to be±1%.The photoeletric cross sections are obtained by subtracting thescattering cross section from the measured total cross sections.Comparisons of our ex-perimental results with the available data of earlier investigations as well as with thetheoretical calculations are presented and discussed.

Atmospheric transmission algorithm for pulsed X-rays from high-altitude nuclear detonations based on scattering correction

In high-altitude nuclear detonations,the proportion of pulsed X-ray energy can exceed 70%,making it a specific monitoring signal for such events.These pulsed X-rays can be captured using a satellite-borne X-ray detector following atmospheric transmission.To quantitatively analyze the effects of different satellite detection altitudes,burst heights,and transmission angles on the physical processes of X-ray transport and energy fluence,we developed an atmospheric transmission algorithm for pulsed X-rays from high-altitude nuclear detonations based on scattering correction.The proposed method is an improvement over the traditional analytical method that only computes direct-transmission X-rays.The traditional analytical method exhibits a maximum relative error of 67.79% compared with the Monte Carlo method.Our improved method reduces this error to within 10% under the same conditions,even reaching 1% in certain scenarios.Moreover,its computation time is 48,000 times faster than that of the Monte Carlo method.These results have important theoretical significance and engineering application value for designing satellite-borne nuclear detonation pulsed X-ray detectors,inverting nuclear detonation source terms,and assessing ionospheric effects.

Study of Type-B QPOs Observed in Black Hole X-Ray Binary Swift J1728.9-3613

We report the detection of type-B quasi-periodic oscillation(QPO)of the black hole X-ray binary Swift J1728.9-3613 observed by NICER during the 2019 outburst.A type-B QPO was observed for the first two days and it disappeared as flux increased,but again appeared at∼7.70 Hz when flux was dramatically decreased.The source was found in the soft intermediate state during these observations.We further studied the energy dependence of the QPO.We found that QPO was observed only for a higher energy range implying that the origin of QPO is possibly due to the corona emitting higher energy photons by the inverse Compton process.The variation of spectral parameters can be explained with the disk truncation model.The fractional rms was found to be monotonically increased with energy.The phase lag spectrum followed the“U-shaped”curve.The rms and phase lag spectrum are modeled and explained with the single-component Comptonization model vkompthdk.

On the apparent line-of-sight alignment of the peak X-ray intensity of the magnetosheath and the tangent to the magnetopause,as viewed by SMILE-SXI

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)on board the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)spacecraft will be able to view the Earth’s magnetosheath in soft X-rays.Simulated images of the X-ray emission visible from the position of SMILE are created for a range of solar wind densities by using 3 years of the SMILE mission orbit,together with models of the expected X-ray emissivity from the Earth’s magnetosheath.Results from global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and a simple model for exospheric neutral densities are used to compare the locations of the lines of sight along which integrated soft X-ray intensities peak with the lines of sight lying tangent to surfaces(defined here to be the magnetopause)along which local soft X-ray intensities peak or exhibit their strongest gradients,or both,for strongly southward interplanetary magnetic field conditions when no depletion or low-latitude boundary layers are expected.Where,in the parameter space of the various times and seasons,orbital phases,solar wind conditions,and magnetopause models,the alignment of the X-ray emission peak with the magnetopause tangent is good,or is not,is presented.The main results are as follows.The spacecraft needs to be positioned well outside the magnetopause;low-altitude times near perigee are not good.In addition,there are seasonal aspects:dayside-apogee orbits are generally very good because the spacecraft travels out sunward at high altitude,but nightside-apogee orbits,behind the Earth,are bad because the spacecraft only rarely leaves the magnetopause.Dusk-apogee and dawnapogee orbits are intermediate.Dayside-apogee orbits worsen slightly over the first three mission years,whereas nightside-apogee orbits improve slightly.Additionally,many more times of good agreement with the peak-to-tangent hypothesis occur when the solar wind is in a high-density state,as opposed to a low-density state.In a high-density state,the magnetopause is compressed,and the spacecraft is more often a good distance outside the magnetopause.

Solar wind ion charge state distributions and compound cross sections for solar wind charge exchange X-ray emission

Solar Wind Charge eXchange X-ray(SWCX) emission in the heliosphere and Ea rth’s exosphere is a hard to avoid signal in soft Xray obse rvations of astrophysical targets.On the other hand,the X-ray imaging possibilities offered by the SWCX process has led to an increasing number of future dedicated space missions for investigating the solar wind-terrestrial inte ractions and magnetospheric interfaces.In both cases,accurate modelling of the SWCX emission is key to correctly interpret its signal,and remove it from obse rvations,when needed.In this paper,we compile solar wind abundance measurements from ACE for different solar wind types,and atomic data from literature,including charge exchange cross-sections and emission probabilities,used fo r calculating the compound cross-section a for the SWCX X-ray emission.We calculate a values for charge-exchange with H and He,relevant to soft X-ray energy bands(0.1-2.0 keV)for various solar wind types and solar cycle conditions.

Observation and Analysis of VLF Nocturnal Multimode Interference Phenomenon based on Waveguide Mode Theory

Very low frequency(VLF)signals are propagated between the ground-ionosphere.Multimode interference will cause the phase to show oscillatory changes with distance while propagating at night,leading to abnormalities in the received VLF signal.This study uses the VLF signal received in Qingdao City,Shandong Province,from the Russian Alpha navigation system to explore the multimode interference problem of VLF signal propagation.The characteristics of the effect of multimode interference phenomena on the phase are analyzed according to the variation of the phase of the VLF signal.However,the phase of VLF signals will also be affected by the X-ray and energetic particles that are released during the eruption of solar flares,therefore the two phenomena are studied in this work.It is concluded that the X-ray will not affect the phase of VLF signals at night,but the energetic particles will affect the phase change,and the influence of energetic particles should be excluded in the study of multimode interference phenomena.Using VLF signals for navigation positioning in degraded or unavailable GPS conditions is of great practical significance for VLF navigation systems as it can avoid the influence of multimode interference and improve positioning accuracy.

Spin Evolution of the Magnetar SGR J1935+2154

Fast radio bursts(FRBs)are short pulses observed in radio frequencies usually originating from cosmological distances.The discovery of FRB 200428 and its X-ray counterpart from the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154suggests that at least some FRBs can be generated by magnetars.However,the majority of X-ray bursts from magnetars are not associated with radio emission.The fact that only in rare cases can an FRB be generated raises the question regarding the special triggering mechanism of FRBs.Here we report long time spin evolution of SGR J1935+2154 until the end of 2022.According to v and v,the spin evolution of SGR J1935+2154 could be divided into two stages.The first stage evolves relatively steady evolution until 2020 April 27.After the burst activity in2020,the spin of SGR J1935+2154 shows strong variations,especially for v.After the burst activity in 2022October,a new spin-down glitch with△v/v=(-7.2±0.6)×10^(-6)is detected around MJD 59876,which is the second event in SGR J1935+2154.At the end,spin frequency and pulse profile do not show variations around the time of FRB 200428 and radio bursts 221014 and 221021,which supply strong clues to constrain the trigger mechanism of FRBs or radio bursts.

基于CT图像的水泥稳定RAP材料细观结构研究

研究沥青混合料回收料(RAP)掺加对混合料组成与结构特性的影响,可为其应用在路面结构层以及材料参数设计提供理论支撑。基于X-ray CT与图像处理技术,提出了一种可区分新旧集料的冷再生混合料细观结构识别方法,分析了RAP团粒、旧集料与新集料的细观特征的差异,研究了RAP的掺加对水泥稳定材料细观结构的影响。结果表明:提出的细观结构识别方法可准确识别水泥稳定RAP材料断面图像中的空隙、砂浆、新集料与旧集料四类区域,完整地保留新旧集料的原始轮廓、大小与形状等信息;RAP团粒中分布较多初始微细裂缝,且旧集料扁平比与棱角性系数均大于新集料;RAP的掺加一方面增加了再生混合料中体积小于0.01 mm3的微空隙与大于100 mm3的大空隙数量,导致材料的密实度降低;另一方面也增加了材料的沥青砂浆含量,提高了再生混合料的平均砂浆膜厚度,使混合料骨架内部力传导更均匀;提高水泥稳定RAP材料中石屑与碎石比例,可使材料的平均空隙体积减小、平均砂浆膜厚度增大,从而改善再生混合料的骨架填充状态。

X-ray在鱼体组织及微量元素检测中的应用

鱼类硬质组织物,特别是骨骼支持鱼体和保护其体内器官的组织,对其进行特征检测分析是研究鱼类游泳运动、鱼类解剖、鱼体建模等的数据基础。随着X-ray技术的发展和国产设备的广泛应用,其仪器设备成本明显降低,使得X-ray在渔业研究与自动化生产中的应用成为可能。首先介绍了X-ray技术的基本原理与其在鱼体组织检测中的应用,X-ray技术在鱼体组织及微量元素检测中的应用主要分为鱼类组织器官的无损检测和鱼体微量元素检测两部分,其中分别介绍了包括照相法、数字成像法、衍射技术和吸收光谱法等X-ray技术;然后综述其在鱼体组织器官建模、鱼骨检测、鱼类化石研究、鱼耳石分析和鱼体微量元素检测方面的应用,总结了Xray在渔业领域应用中存在的问题;最后对X-ray的渔业应用方向进行展望。

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)on the SMILE Mission

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)is part of the scientific payload of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)mission.SMILE is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency(ESA)and the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and is due for launch in 2025.SXI is a compact X-ray telescope with a wide field-of-view(FOV)capable of encompassing large portions of Earth’s magnetosphere from the vantage point of the SMILE orbit.SXI is sensitive to the soft X-rays produced by the Solar Wind Charge eXchange(SWCX)process produced when heavy ions of solar wind origin interact with neutral particles in Earth’s exosphere.SWCX provides a mechanism for boundary detection within the magnetosphere,such as the position of Earth’s magnetopause,because the solar wind heavy ions have a very low density in regions of closed magnetic field lines.The sensitivity of the SXI is such that it can potentially track movements of the magnetopause on timescales of a few minutes and the orbit of SMILE will enable such movements to be tracked for segments lasting many hours.SXI is led by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom(UK)with collaborating organisations on hardware,software and science support within the UK,Europe,China and the United States.