Lung Segmentation Algorithm for CAD System in CTA Images

In this study, we present a new and fast algorithm for lung segmentation using CTA images. This process is quite important especially at lung vessel segmentation, detection of pulmonary emboly, finding nodules or segmentation of airways. Applied method has been carried out at four steps. At first step, images have been applied optimal threshold. At the second one, the subsegment vessels, which have a place in lung region and which are in small dimension, have been removed. At the third one, identifying and segmentation of lungs and airway edges have been carried out. Lastly, by throwing away the airway, lung segmentation has been presented.

Stages of Changes for Physical Activity among Iranian Adolescent Girls

Background: Regular physical activity contributes positively to physical and psychological health. In the present study, the stages of change of physical activity and the total physical Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion of adolescent girls in each stages of change and the causative factors associated with physical activity such as the related social support and self efficacy in a sample of the high school students. Methods: In this study, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and the Transtheorical Model (TTM) guided instrument development. The data regarding the demographics, psychosocial determinants of physical activity, stage of change and physical activity was gathered by questionnaires. Several measures of psychosocial determinants of physical activity were translated from English into Persian using the back-translation technique. These translated measures were administered to 512 ninth and tenth-grade Iranian high school students for factor analysis. Results: The distribution of the stage of change for physical activity was as follow: 18/5% in precontemplation, 23.4% in contemplation, 38.2% in preparation, 4.6% in action and 15.3% in maintenance. They were in 80.1% pre-adoption stages (precontemplation stage, contemplation stage and preparation stage) and 19.9% post-adoption stages (action stage and maintenance stage) of physical activity. There was a significant relate between age and physical activity in adolescent girls (age-related decline of physical activity) p

Non-Invasive Capillary Blood Flow Measurement: Laser Speckle and Laser Doppler

Microcirculation is essential for the proper supply of oxygen and nutritive substances to the biological tissue and the removal of waste products of metabolism. The determination of blood flow in the capillaries is therefore of great interest to clinicians. A comparison has been carried out using the developed non-invasive, non-contact and whole field laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) based technique and as well as a commercially available laser Doppler blood flowmeter (LDF) to evaluate blood flow at the finger tip and elbow and is presented here. The LSCI technique gives more quantitative information on the velocity of blood when compared to the perfusion values obtained using the LDF. Measurement of blood flow in capillaries can be of great interest to clinicians in the diagnosis of vascular diseases of the upper extremities.

Injuries Related to Kitesurfing

Participation in sporting activities can lead to injury. Sport injuries have been widely studied in many sports including the more extreme categories of aquatic board sports. Kitesurfing is a relatively new water surface action sport, and has not yet been widely studied in terms of injuries and stress on the body. The aim of this study was to get information about which injuries that are most common among kitesurfing participants, where they occur, and their causes. Injuries were studied using an international open web questionnaire (n=206). The results showed that many respondents reported injuries, in total 251 injuries to knee (24%), ankle (17%), trunk (16%) and shoulders (10%), often sustained while doing jumps and tricks (40%). Among the reported injuries were joint injuries (n=101), muscle/tendon damages (n=47), wounds and cuts (n=36) and bone fractures (n=28). Also environmental factors and equipment can influence the risk of injury, or the extent of injury in a hazardous situation. Conclusively, the information from this retrospective study supports earlier studies in terms of prevalence and site of injuries. Suggestively, this information should be used for to build a foundation of knowledge about the sport for development of applications for physical training and product development.

Physiological and Pathology Demographics of Veteran Rugby Athletes: Golden Oldies Rugby Festival

Recently, the health of retired National Football League players, particularly lineman has been investigated. A number of studies have reported increased cardiometabolic risk, premature ardiovascular disease and incidence of type 2 diabetes. Rugby union players have somatotypes very similar to National Football league players which suggest that rugby players may have similar health risks. The International Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival (GORF) provided a unique opportunity to investigate the demographics of veteran rugby players. METHODOLOGIES: A cross-sectional, observational study was completed using an online web-based questionnaire that consisted of medical history and physiological measures. Data analysis was completed using a one sample t-test (50yrs) and Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 216 veteran rugby competitors (response rate = 6.8%) representing 10 countries, aged 35-72 yrs (mean 51.2, S.D. ±8.0), participated in the online survey. As a group, the incidence of current smokers was low at 8.8% (avg 72.4 cigs/wk) whilst the percentage consuming alcohol was high (93.1% (avg 11.2 drinks/wk). Competitors reported the following top six chronic diseases/disorders; hypertension (18.6%), arthritis (OA/RA, 11.5%), asthma (9.3%), hyperlipidemia (8.2%), diabetes (all types, 7.5%) and gout (6%), there were significant differences between groups with regard to cancer (all types) and migraines. When compared to the Australian general population (Australian Bureau of Statistics data, n=18,000), GORF competitors had a Climstein Mike, Walsh Joe (corresponding author) and Burke Stephen School of Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University, 25A Barker Road, Strathfield, Sydney, NSW, 2016, Australia (e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]). John Best is with Orthosports, 160 Belmore Rd., Randwick, Sydney,NSW 2031, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]). Heazlewood, Ian Timothy is with School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty Education, Health and Science, Charles Darwin University, Precinct Yellow Building 2, Charles Darwin University, NT 0909, Australia (e-mail: [email protected]). Kettunen Jyrki Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Jan-Magnus Janssonin aukio 1, FI-00550, Helsinki, Finland (e-mail: [email protected]). Adams Kent is with California State University Monterey Bay, Kinesiology Department, 100 Campus Center, Seaside, CA., 93955, USA (email: [email protected]). DeBeliso Mark is with Department of Physical Education and Human Performance, Southern Utah University, 351 West University Blvd, Cedar City, Utah, USA (e-mail: [email protected]). significantly lower incidence of anxiety (p

Feature Selection for Breast Cancer Diagnosis: A Case-Based Wrapper Approach

This article addresses feature selection for breast cancer diagnosis. The present process contains a wrapper approach based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) and case-based reasoning (CBR). GA is used for searching the problem space to find all of the possible subsets of features and CBR is employed to estimate the evaluation result of each subset. The results of experiment show that the proposed model is comparable to the other models on Wisconsin breast cancer (WDBC) dataset.

Body Mass Index for Australian Athletes Participating in Rugby Union, Soccer and Touch Football at the World Masters Games

Whilst there is growing evidence that activity across the lifespan is beneficial for improved health, there are also many changes involved with the aging process and subsequently the potential for reduced indices of health. Data gathered on a subsample of 535 football code athletes, aged 31-72 yrs ( = 47.4, s = ±7.1), competing at the Sydney World Masters Games (2009) demonstrated a significantly (p < 0.001), reduced classification of obesity using Body Mass Index (BMI) when compared to the general Australian population. This evidence of improved classification in one index of health (BMI < 30) for master athletes (when compared to the general population) implies there are either improved levels of this index of health due to adherence to sport or possibly the reduced BMI is advantageous and contributes to this cohort adhering (or being attracted) to masters sport. Demonstration of this proportionately under-investigated World Masters Games population having improved health over the general population is of particular interest.

Computer Modeling of Drug Distribution after Intravitreal Administration

Intravitreal injection (IVI) is the most common treatment for eye posterior segment diseases such as endopthalmitis, retinitis, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, and retinal detachment. Most of the drugs used to treat vitreoretinal diseases, have a narrow concentration range in which they are effective, and may be toxic at higher concentrations. Therefore, it is critical to know the drug distribution within the eye following intravitreal injection. Having knowledge of drug distribution, ophthalmologists can decide on drug injection frequency while minimizing damage to tissues. The goal of this study was to develop a computer model to predict intraocular concentrations and pharmacokinetics of intravitreally injected drugs. A finite volume model was created to predict distribution of two drugs with different physiochemical properties in the rabbit eye. The model parameters were obtained from literature review. To validate this numeric model, the in vivo data of spatial concentration profile from the lens to the retina were compared with the numeric data. The difference was less than 5% between the numerical and experimental data. This validation provides strong support for the numerical methodology and associated assumptions of the current study.