bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Framework for Algorithm Evaluation and Clinical Application Prototyping using ITK
Authors: Rexilius Jan , Spindler Wolf , Jomier Julien , Koenig Matthias , Hahn Horst , Link Florian , Peitgen Heinz-Otto
Published: January 2022

The usage of image processing has become an important and continuous growing field in medical imaging. Although a large amount of algorithms is available, only few are routinely applied within applications for clinical diagnosis support and treatment planning. New tools are required that allow for efficient evaluation and comparison of algorithms as well as the generation of dedicated user interfaces with sophisticated visualization for clinical applications. We propose a generic integration of ITK algorithms into the visual programming and rapid prototyping platform MeVisLab. One of the main limitation of ITK is its lack of visualization and interaction functionality through a dedicated development platform. MeVisLab provides a modular visual programming interface with a comprehensive suite of image processing and visualization tools. The linkage of ITK algorithms to MeVisLab is based on a two step process that consists of a generic XML description for each ITK algorithm and an automatic code generator to create new MeVisLab modules, which will be made publicly available within the free version of MeVisLab. Each module can handle different image types and data dimensions dynamically at runtime. Example applications using registration, segmentation, and visualization modules are presented in order to show the capabilities of the described integration concept.
A Modification to Otsu Thresholding Method for ICV Segmentation
Authors: Li Andrew , Sivaramakrishna Radhika , Ortendahl Doug , Swarnakar Vivek
Published: January 2022

A modification is made to Otsu thresholding method. It provides better results for ICV (Intracranial volume) segmentation on one kind of T2-weighted MRI data.
Helper classes for the BSplineDeformableTransform
Authors: Staring Marius , Klein Stefan
Published: January 2022

noindent This document describes two new classes that facilitate the use of the doxygen{BSplineDeformableTransform} in multiresolution registration algorithms. The first class, doxygen{GridScheduleComputer}, defines the B-spline grid, based on a user-specified grid spacing and an input image (the fixed image in registration). A different grid is determined for each resolution level of the registration, given a multiresolution schedule similar to that of the image pyramids. The second class, doxygen{UpsampleBSplineParametersFilter}, resamples (usually upsamples) the B-spline coefficients to a new control point grid having a different spacing/origin/size. This can be used to transfer the result from one resolution level to that of the next level. Summarising, suitable grid definitions follow from the first class, and are used as input for the second class, which performs the actual resampling.

The classes are implemented using the Insight Toolkit url{www.itk.org}. This paper is accompanied with the source code, including a test program.
Scalable Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SSLIC) Using a Generic and Parallel Approach
Authors: Lowekamp Bradley , Chen David , Yaniv Ziv , Yoo Terry
Published: January 2022

Superpixel algorithms have proven to be a useful initial step for segmentation and subsequent processing of images, reducing computational complexity by replacing the use of expensive per-pixel primitives with a higher-level abstraction, superpixels. They have been successfully applied both in the context of traditional image analysis and deep learning based approaches. In this work, we present a general- ized implementation of the simple linear iterative clustering (SLIC) superpixel algorithm that has been generalized for n-dimensional scalar and multi-channel images. Additionally, the standard iterative im- plementation is replaced by a parallel, multi-threaded one. We describe the implementation details and analyze its scalability using a strong scaling formulation. Quantitative evaluation is performed using a 3D image, the Visible Human cryosection dataset, and a 2D image from the same dataset. Results show good scalability with runtime gains even when using a large number of threads that exceeds the physical number of available cores (hyperthreading).
An ITK Implementation of the Symmetric Log-Domain Diffeomorphic Demons Algorithm
Authors: Dru Florence , Fillard Pierre , Vercauteren Tom
Published: January 2022

This article provides an implementation of the symmetric log-domain diffeomorphic image registration algorithm, or symmetric demons algorithm for short. It generalizes Thirion’s demons and the diffeomorphic demons algorithm. The main practical advantages of the symmetric demons with respect to the other demons variants is that is provides the inverse of the spatial transformation at no additional computational cost and ensures that the registration of image A to image B provides the inverse of the registration from image B to image A. The algorithm works completely in the log-domain, i.e. it uses a stationary velocity field to encode the spatial transformation as its exponential. Within the Insight Toolkit (ITK), the classical demons algorithm is implemented as part of the finite difference solver framework. Our code reuses and extends this generic framework. The source code is composed of a set of reusable ITK filters and classes together with their unit tests. We also provide a small example program that allows the user to compare the different variants of the demons algorithm. This paper gives an overview of the algorithm, an overview of its implementation and a small user guide to ease the use of the registration executable.
N-Dimensional Phase Unwrapping
Authors: Vigneault Davis , Wang Wen-Tung , Tee Michael , Bluemke David , Noble Alison
Published: January 2022

Although phase data can take on any value, it is generally only possible to measure phase as a principle value, i.e., wrapped within the range (-pi,pi]. Determining the unwrapped phase from its principle value is a topic of considerable interest in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as many non-medical disciplines. Despite their importance in image analysis, filters for manipulating phase information have not been incorporated into ITK. This article introduces the ITKPhase module, containing filters useful for understanding, analyzing, and unwrapping n-dimensional phase data, and also serves as a practical introduction to phase unwrapping.
Open Source Software in the Development and Testing of an Image-Guided Robot System
Authors: Kazanzides Peter
Published: January 2022

This paper describes the use of open source software in the development and testing of an image-guided robot system for small animal research, presented at MICCAI 2006. This system relied on a significant amount of open source software, including 3D Slicer, VTK, our own cisst software, the NetLib numerical methods, Python, and wxPython (which uses wxWidgets). In addition, several open source development tools were used, including CVS, CMake, and Swig. The paper will be accompanied by the source code and raw data that were used to obtain the results presented at MICCAI.
A Framework for Comparison and Evaluation of Nonlinear Intra-Subject Image Registration Algorithms
Authors: Urschler Martin , Kluckner Stefan , Bischof Horst
Published: January 2022

Performance validation of nonlinear registration algorithms is a difficult problem due to the lack of a suitable ground truth in most applications. However, the ill-posed nature of the nonlinear registration problem and the large space of possible solutions makes the quantitative evaluation of algorithms extremely important. We argue that finding a standardized way of performing evaluation and comparing existing and new algorithms currently is more important than inventing novel methods. While there are already existing evaluation frameworks for nonlinear inter-subject brain registration applications, there is still a lack of protocols for intra-subject studies or soft tissue organs. In this work we present such a framework which is designed in an ”open-source” and ”open-data” manner around the Insight Segmentation & Registration Toolkit. The goal of our work is to provide the research community with the basis framework that should be extended by interested people in a community effort to gain importance for evaluation studies. We demonstrate our proposed framework on a sample evaluation and release its implementation and associated tools to the public domain.
ND morphological contour interpolation
Authors: Zukić Dženan , Vicory Jared , Mccormick Matthew , Wisse Laura , Gerig Guido , Yushkevich Paul , Aylward Stephen
Published: January 2022

This document describes a new class, itk::MorphologicalContourInterpolator, which implements a method proposed by Albu et al. in 2008. Interpolation is done by first determining correspondence between shapes on adjacent segmented slices by detecting overlaps, then aligning the corresponding shapes, generating transition sequence of one-pixel dilations and taking the median as result. Recursion is employed if the original segmented slices are separated by more than one empty slice.

This class is n-dimensional, and supports inputs of 3 or more dimensions. `Slices’ are n-1-dimensional, and can be both automatically detected and manually set. The class is efficient in both memory used and execution time. It requires little memory in addition to allocation of input and output images. The implementation is multi-threaded, and processing one of the test inputs takes around 1-2 seconds on a quad-core processor.

The class is tested to operate on both itk::Image and itk::RLEImage. Since all the processing is done on extracted slices, usage of itk::RLEImage for input and/or output affects performance to a limited degree.

This class is implemented to ease manual segmentation in ITK-SNAP (www.itksnap.org). The class, along with test data and automated regression tests is packaged as an ITK remote module https://github.com/KitwareMedical/ITKMorphologicalContourInterpolation.
Optimizing ITK’s Registration Methods for Multi-processor, Shared-Memory Systems
Authors: Aylward Stephen , Jomier Julien , BARRE Sebastien , Davis Brad , Ibanez Luis
Published: January 2022

This document describes work-in-progress for refactoring ITK’s registration methods to exploit the parallel, computation power of multi-processor, shared-memory systems. Refactoring includes making the methods multi-threaded as well as optimizing the algorithms. API backward compatibility is being maintained. Helper classes that solve common registration tasks are also being developed.

The refactoring has reduced computation times by factors of 2 to 200 for metrics, interpolators, and transforms computed on multi-processor systems. Extensive sets of tests are being developed to further test operation and backward compatibility.
Kenneth Johnson - Confidence Connected HW
Authors: Johnson Kenneth
Published: January 2022

Kenneth Johnson’s submission for the Open Source Software Practice course homework. Includes an implementation of Confidence Connected. Brain data, Normal007-T2.mha from MIDAS - Kitware is not included, as I don’t have permission to redistribute it.
Comparison of Salient Point Detection Methods for 3D Medical Images
Authors: Lloyd Bryn , Szekely Gabor , Kikinis Ron , Warfield Simon
Published: January 2022

Salient points are used for various applications, such as medical image registration, tracking, stereoscopic matching. The purpose of this paper is to compare two commonly used methods to extract salient points in 3D medical images. We give an interpretation of the methods and validate their performance empirically based on criteria derived for the task of image registration, displacement measurement and tracking in medical images.
Reading a PTX file into an itkMesh
Authors: Doria David
Published: January 2022

This document presents a set of classes to read a PTX file (a common file format produced by LiDAR scanners) into an itkMesh object. We propose these classes as addition to the Insight Toolkit ITK (www.itk.org).
An ITK Implementation of Physics-based Non-rigid Registration Method
Authors: Liu Yixun , Kot Andriy , Drakopoulos Fotios , Fedorov Andriy , Enquobahrie Andinet , Clatz Olivier , Chrisochoides Nikos
Published: January 2022

As part of the ITK v4 project efforts, we have developed ITK filters for physics-based non-rigid registration (PBNRR), which satisfies the following requirements: account for tissue properties in the registration, improve accuracy compared to rigid registration, and reduce execution time using GPU and multi-core accelerators. The implementation has three main components: (1) Feature Point Selection, (2) Block Matching (mapped to both multi-core and GPU processors), and (3) a Robust Finite Element Solver. The use of multi-core and GPU accelerators in ITK v4 provides substantial performance improvements. For example, in average for the non-rigid registration of brain MRIs, the performance of the Block Matching filter is about 12 times faster when 12 hyperthreaded multi-cores are used and about 540 times faster when the Quadro 6000 with 448 threads is used in Dell Workstation.
A new Gray-Level Picture Thresholding method for colonoscopic navigation
Authors: Chettaoui Hanene , Thomann Guillaume , Ben amar Chokri , Redarce Tanneguy
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we propose a vision based navigation system to guide an endoscope inside human colon. The target to pursue is a dark spot on colonoscopic images, called “pattern”. A novel methodology for “pattern” extraction and tracking was designed. Surgeons observations leads to the basic idea of this technique. Information about target position is then continues and makes possible prediction of the “pattern” position. A set of endoscopic images is tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vision technique. An experiment tool to simulate the endoscope navigation was employed to achieve real time performance. An interpretation of the results and the possible amelioration is presented.
Surface Meshes Incremental Decimation Framework
Authors: Gelas Arnaud , Gouaillard Alexandre , Megason Sean
Published: January 2022

When dealing with meshes, it is often preferable to work with a lower resolution mesh for computational time purpose, display. The process of reducing a given mesh, mesh decimation, is thus an important step in most of pipeline dealing with meshes. Incremental decimation algorithms, the most popular ones, consists of iteratively removing one point of the mesh, by Euler operations such as vertex removal or edge collapse. Here we focus on edge collapse based decimation approaches and propose a general framework based on a surface mesh data structure (itk::QuadEdgeMesh [3]). Our implementation intends to be as general and as flexible as possible. Indeed it can theoretically be applied on any polygonal mesh1; the measure, functional to be optimized at each iteration, the objective to be reached, and optional methods like point relocation to enhance the geometry of the resulting mesh, are given by the user. We provide here two specific implementations: itk::QuadEdgeMeshSquaredEdgeLengthDecimation and itk::QuadEdgeMeshQuadricDecimation, that could be used as example to implement additional algorithms.
Medical Image Analysis with VTK: A Tutorial
Authors: Papademetris Xenophon
Published: January 2022

This paper describes a new tutorial book titled “An Introduction to Programming for Medical Image Analysis with the Visualization Toolkit.” This book derived from a set of class handouts used in a biomedical engineering graduate seminar at Yale University. The goal for the seminar was to introduce the students to the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and, to a lesser extent, the Insight Toolkit (ITK). A draft version of the complete book (including all the sample code) is available online at www.bioimagesuite.org/vtkbook.
The Lung Tissue Research Consortium: An extensive open database containing histological, clinical, and radiological data to study chronic lung disease
Authors: Bartholmai Brian , Karwoski Ronald , Zavaletta Vanessa , Robb Richard , Holmes David
Published: January 2022

The Lung Tissue Research Consortium (LTRC) is an NHLBI sponsored project which is studying histological, radiological, and clinical data on patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). At completion, over 1200 subjects will be enrolled. Each subject will have a minimum of one CT scan; however, many will likely have 3 CT scans. Each scan will have a corresponding radiological report, clinical report, and histological report. The NHLBI requires that the data collected through the LTRC be anonymized and available to independent researchers. The LTRC imaging database will be the most comprehensive database of lung CT data available to date and will serve as the basis for imaging studies of chronic lung disease for years to come. It is a significant opportunity for the medical image analysis community to investigate this database with the intent to develop new methods of registration, segmentation, and classification that may be used to diagnosis and treat patients with diffuse lung disease.
Efficient implementation of kernel filtering
Authors: Beare Richard , Lehmann Gaetan
Published: January 2022

Kernel based filtering is one of the fundamental tools of image analysis and processing. A number of approaches have been developed over the years that allow efficient implementation of such filters even when the kernel size is large. This article reviews some of these methods and introduces their ITK implementations.
Tubular Geodesics using Oriented Flux: An ITK Implementation
Authors: Benmansour Fethallah , Turetken Engin , Fua Pascal
Published: January 2022

This document describes an ITK implementation of an interactive method for tracing curvilinear structures. The basic tools provided in this framework are an oriented flux-based tubularity measure and a geodesic path tracer that uses the fast marching algorithm. The framework is efficient and requires minimal user interaction to trace curvilinear structures such as vessels and neurites in 2D images and 3D image stacks.
Probability Distributions for the Insight Toolkit
Authors: Miller James
Published: January 2022

Probability distributions are a key component of clinical research. One only has to make a cursory review of clinical literature to realize that nearly all clinical publications reference some sort of statistical test; be it t-test, chi-squared test, or F-test. In this paper, we describe an architecture for providing the Insight Toolkit with access to probability distributions. The architecture can support parametric and nonparametric probability distributions. Each distribution provides access to its probability density function (PDF), cumulative distribution function (CDF), inverse cumulative distribution function (inverse CDF), mean, and variance. These methods form the basis of statistical tests.
Principal Components Analysis of Scalar, Vector, and Mesh Vertex Data
Authors: Bowers Michael , Younes Laurent
Published: January 2022

This document describes a contribution to the Insight Toolkit intended to support the analysis of the principal components of data sets, optionally point data associated with the vertices of a mesh. This paper is accompanied with the source code, input data, parameters and output data that we used for validating the implementation described in this paper. This adheres to the fundamental principle that scientific publications must facilitate reproducibility of the reported results.
Point Set Surface Reconstruction for VTK
Authors: Doria David
Published: January 2022

This document presents a set of classes (vtkPointSetSurfaceReconstruction, vtkVoxelizePolyData) to produce a surface from an oriented point set. These classes are implemented as VTK filters. A Paraview plugin interface is provided to allow extremely easy experimentation with the new functionality. We propose these classes as an addition to the Visualization Toolkit. The code is available here: https://github.com/daviddoria/PointSetSurfaceReconstruction
A Framework for Improved Regression Testing Based Upon CTest and CDash
Authors: Lowekamp Bradley , Chen David
Published: January 2022

The existing CMake and CTest environment provides an excellent platform for execution and submission of software quality tests. However, there is little support or aid for regression type tests provided to lessen the burden of writing tests and verifying the results. We propose an additional facility to compare measurements generated by a software quality test to a based-line result. Our approach enables the ability to use multiple images as measurements, along with integer, floating point and string values for regression tests. We describe a new testing class framework which provides the functionality of reading, writing, comparing and differentiating named measurements.
A definition of Spatial Orientation for the Insight Toolkit
Authors: Williams Kent
Published: January 2022

A report on the issue of image orientation with respect to the Insight Toolkit. A description of how orientation is defined in ITK, and the tools available for manipulating and detecting image orientation.
2006 MICCAI Open Workshop Announcement
Authors: Aylward Stephen , Ibanez Luis , Kapur Tina
Published: January 2022

The Insight Software Consortium (ISC) and The National Aliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC) are hosting a one-day MICCAI workshop that will feature oral and poster presentations on open-source toolkits and applications as well as freely available data.
Impact of motion correction on the quantitative analysis of DCE-MR Images
Authors: Mosaliganti Kishore , Jia Guang , Heverhagen Johannes , machiraju raghu , Saltz Joel , Knopp Michael
Published: January 2022

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) carried out with contrast media such as Gd-chelate complex (Gd-DTPA) allows the non-invasive assessment of microcirculatory characteristics of malignant lesions. Quantitative estimation of lesion parameters from the passage of the contrast media requires the use of pharmacokinetic two-compartment model. The input to the model is the time-intensity plot from a region of interest (ROI) covering the lesion extent. The lengthy imaging process, elasticity of the organs and patient movement result in complex deformations in the subject requiring 3D motion correction for ROI alignment. This paper presents results on applying the Thirion Demon’s 3D elastic matching procedure in the ITK framework on the two-compartment lesion parameters. Registration, meanwhile involves interpolation and smoothing operations thereby affecting the time-intensity plots. We explore the trade-offs that arise between registration and lesion parameter estimation. Experiments on synthesized and real deformation are presented.
Stratified Mesh Sampling for VTK
Authors: Doria David
Published: January 2022

This document presents an implementation of a stratified mesh sampling algorithm in the VTK framework. This code was adapted directly from the original implementation by Diego Nehab, with permission. We present a class, vtkStratifiedSampling, which uniformly samples a mesh. A Paraview plugin interface is provided to allow extremely easy experimentation with the new functionality. We propose these classes as an addition to the Visualization Toolkit.
MR Parameter Map Suite: ITK Classes for Calculating Magnetic Resonance T2 and T1 Parameter Maps
Authors: Bigler Don , Meadowcroft Mark , Sun Xiaoyan , Vesek Jeffrey , Dresner Alex , Smith Michael , Yang Qing
Published: January 2022

This document describes a suite of new multi-threaded classes for calculating magnetic resonance (MR) T2 and T1 parameter maps implemented using the Insight Toolkit ITK (www.itk.org). Similar to MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), MR T2 and T1 parameter maps provide a non-invasive means for quantitatively measuring disease or pathology in-vivo. Included in the suite are classes for reading proprietary Bruker 2dseq and Philips PAR/REC images and example programs and data for validating the new classes.
Parallel N-Dimensional Exact Signed Euclidean Distance Transform
Authors: Staubs Robert , Fedorov Andriy , Linardakis Leonidas , Dunton Benjamin , Chrisochoides Nikos
Published: January 2022

The computation speed for distance transforms becomes important in a wide variety of image processing applications. Current ITK library filters do not see any benefit from a multithreading environment. We introduce a three-dimensional signed parallel implementation of the exact Euclidean distance transform algorithm developed by Maurer et al. with a theoretical complexity of O(n/p) for n voxels and p threads. Through this parallelization and efficient use of data structures we obtain approximately 3 times mean speedup on standard tests on a 4-processor machine compared with the current ITK exact Euclidean distance transform filter.
itkEllipseBoundaryToImageFilter
Authors: Zhao Zheen
Published: January 2022

The current conversion from an ellipse spatial object to an image using SpatialObjectToImageFilter filter could cost minutes because the filter traverses all pixels in the output image. This delay is quite noticeable during applications such as human-machine interface. This document describes a contribution to the Insight Toolkit ITK www.itk.org, which implements what we call an itk::EllipseBoundaryToImageFilter. This is a derived from SpatialObjectToImageFilter. It marks the output image by setting the pixels along the boundary of the input ellipse to the InsideValue and the OutsideValue elsewhere. This filter is fast because it traverses the boundary only. This paper is accompanied with the source code.
A VTK Interface for the Hokuyo UTM 30LX Laser Range Finder
Authors: Doria David
Published: January 2022

It is convenient to acquire data in a format which VTK can read directly. To enable this, we provide a wrapper of the Hokuyo UTM-30LX interface in a class vtkHokuyo. The code is currently hosted at git@github.com:daviddoria/vtkHokuyo.git. This class only works on Linux systems.
Itk::Transforms supporting spatial derivatives
Authors: Staring Marius , Klein Stefan
Published: January 2022

This document describes the use and implementation of first and second order spatial derivatives of coordinate transformations in the Insight Toolkit url{www.itk.org}). Spatial derivatives are useful for many types of regularising or penalty terms frequently used in image registration. These derivatives are dubbed ‘SpatialJacobian’ and ‘SpatialHessian’ to distinguish with the derivative to the transformation parameters themselves, which is called `Jacobian’ in the ITK.

In addition to the spatial derivatives, we derived and implemented the derivatives to the registration/transform parameters of these spatial derivatives, required for gradient descent type optimisation routines. These derivatives are implemented in a sparse manner, reducing the computation time for transformations which have local support. All of these derivatives are implemented for the most common ITK coordinate transformation, such as the rigid, affine and B-spline transformation. In addition we derive formulae and code for arbitrary compositions of transformations. The spatial derivatives were subsequently exploited by implementing the bending energy penalty term.

This paper is accompanied with the source code, input data, parameters and output data that the authors used for validating the algorithm described in this paper. This adheres to the fundamental principle that scientific publications must facilitate reproducibility of the reported results.
RLEImage: run-length encoded memory compression scheme for an itk::Image
Authors: Zukić Dženan , Mccormick Matthew , Gerig Guido , Yushkevich Paul
Published: January 2022

This document describes a new class, itk::RLEImage, which uses run-length encoding to reduce the memory needed for storage of label maps. This class is accompanied by all the iterators to make it a dropin replacement for itk::Image. By changing the image typedef to itk::RLEImage, many ITK image processing algorithms build without modification and with minimal performance overhead. However, it is not possible if the user code uses GetBufferPointer() or otherwise assumes a linear pixel layout.

This class is implemented to reduce the memory use of ITK-SNAP (www.itksnap.org), so ITKSNAP is the base for measuring the quantitative results.

The class, accompanying iterator specializations, automated regression tests, and test data are all packaged as an ITK remote module https://github.com/KitwareMedical/ITKRLEImage.
User Guide to The Computational Morphometry Toolkit
Authors: Rohlfing Torsten
Published: January 2022

This guide is intended as a very brief introduction of the main tools in the Computational Morphometry Toolkit (CMTK), which is available in source code and as precompiled binaries from http://www.nitrc.org/projects/cmtk/. The target audience of this document are CMTK users, who might use this document as a reference to the most common processing tasks, and prospective users, who may find this information useful to determine whether CMTK provides functionality that they can use. We focus in particular on a simplified workflow for deformation morphometry studies based on magnetic resonance images: DICOM conversion, artifact correction, affine and nonlinear image registration, reformatting, Jacobian determinant map generation, and statistical hypothesis testing.
Integration of Fuzzy Mathematical Morphology and Fuzzy Spatial Relationships into ITK
Authors: Atif Jamal , Nempont Olivier , Angelini Elsa , Bloch Isabelle
Published: January 2022

The aim of this paper is to present the integration of new filters computing fuzzy mathematical morphology and spatial relationships into ITK and to share our experience with the Open source community. Our implementation architecture follows the essential system concepts of ITK. An illustrative application is provided to help ITK users and developers to evaluate the capabilities of these filters.
Exact Geometrical Predicate: Point in circle
Authors: Moreau Bertrand , Gouaillard Alexandre
Published: January 2022

This document describes the implementation in ITK of the “point in circle” geometrical predicate. Based on Jonathan Shewchuk’s work which implements an exact version of the predicate using standard floating point types and arithmetic, the implementation consist of an ITK wrapper around the public domain C routines made available by the author of the precedent paper. Wrapper using itk::PointSet, itk:CellInterface and itk:Mesh / itk:QuadEdgeMesh APIs are provided along with corresponding examples which should provide enough details for users to directly copy paste code in their application.

The application in mind for us is an exact and robust implementation of a delaunay triangulation / voronoi tesselation in ITK, and will be presented in a separate paper.
Development of open source software for computer-assisted intervention systems
Authors: Kazanzides Peter , Deguet Anton , Kapoor Ankur , Sadowsky Ofri , LaMora Andy , Taylor Russell
Published: January 2022

We are developing open source software for computer assisted intervention systems. Our primary experience has been with medical robots, but the concepts (and software) apply to many physical devices that interact with the real world. The real-time performance requirements permeate all levels of our software, including common tools (such as logging, class and object registers), vectors, matrices and transformations. Our software libraries are written in C++, but are also accessible from Python, which provides a convenient environment for rapid prototyping and interactive testing. The real-time support includes a device (hardware) interface and a task library. Device-specific modules such as robot servo control and trajectory generation can be provided by tasks or by external devices. Ultimately, we intend to provide a framework that supports extension via dynamically loaded plug-in modules. Our development process utilizes a multitude of open source tools, including CVS, CMake, Swig, CppUnit, Dart, CVSTrac, Doxygen and LaTeX. These tools help to ensure compliance with our software development procedure.
Multilocal Creaseness Measure
Authors: Vera Sergio , Gil Debora , López Antonio , González Miguel A.
Published: January 2022

This document describes the implementation using the Insight Toolkit of an algorithm for detecting creases (ridges and valleys) in N-dimensional images, based on the Local Structure Tensor of the image. In addition to the filter used to calculate the creaseness image, a filter for the computation of the structure tensor is also included in this submission.
Graph Cuts, Caveat Utilitor, and Euler's Bridges of Konigsberg
Authors: Tustison Nicholas J. , Yushkevich Paul , Song Zhuang , Gee James
Published: January 2022

Graph-based algorithms have enjoyed renewed interest for solving computer vision problems. These algorithms have been the subject of intense interest and research. In order to maintain the ITK library au courant, we developed a framework for graph-based methods of energy minimization in ITK which employ energy functions derived within a Markov Random Field (MRF) context. This required not only the implementation of the energy minimization methodology but also the more general requirement of introducing graph-related data structures into ITK which can be used for other graph-based algorithms pertinent to future extensions of the ITK library.

Please note that some of the algorithms described in this paper may be covered by patents and, as such, it is incumbent upon the user to seek licenses before building the binaries which utilize this code. Also note that “research use” is not exempt from acquiring such licenses. The only exemption from patent restrictions is “. . . amusement, to satisfy idle curiosity, or for strictly philosophical inquiry.”
Fast Marching Minimal Path Extraction in ITK
Authors: Mueller Dan
Published: January 2022

This paper describes the ITK implementation of a minimal path extraction framework based on Fast Marching arrival functions. The method requires the user to provide three inputs: 1. a meaningful speed function to generate an arrival function, 2. path information in the form of start, end, and way-points (which the path must pass near), and 3. an optimizer which steps along the resultant arrival function perpendicular to the Fast Marching front. A number of perspectives for choosing speed functions and optimizers are given, as well as examples using synthetic and real images.
Direct Fourier Tomographic Reconstruction Image-To-Image Filter
Authors: Zosso Dominique , Bach Cuadra Meritxell , Thiran Jean-Philippe
Published: January 2022

We present an open-source ITK implementation of a direct Fourier method for tomographic reconstruction, applicable to parallel-beam x-ray images. Direct Fourier reconstruction makes use of the central-slice theorem to build a polar 2D Fourier space from the 1D transformed projections of the scanned object, that is resampled into a Cartesian grid. Inverse 2D Fourier transform eventually yields the reconstructed image. Additionally, we provide a complex wrapper to the BSplineInterpolateImageFunction to overcome ITK’s current lack for image interpolators dealing with complex data types. A sample application is presented and extensively illustrated on the Shepp-Logan head phantom. We show that appropriate input zeropadding and 2D-DFT oversampling rates together with radial cubic b-spline interpolation improve 2D-DFT interpolation quality and are efficient remedies to reduce reconstruction artifacts.
Anisotropic Fast Marching in ITK
Authors: Mirebeau Jean-marie
Published: January 2022

The Fast Marching algorithm is an efficient numerical method for computing the distance and shortest path between points of a domain. For that purpose, it solves a front propagation problem, which can be of interest in itself. The method has numerous applications, ranging from motion planning to image segmentation. The unit of length, for computing the path length, may vary on the domain. Motivated by applications, we generalize the algorithm to the case where the unit of length also depends on the path direction. Segmentation methods can take advantage of this flexibility to achieve greater sensitivity and specificity, for a comparable computation time.
¿Los gobiernos locales y el desarrollo local una agenda emergente ante la crisis cubana o una transformación del modelo?
Authors: Pérez Díaz Addiel
Published: January 2022

El artículo esboza los antecedentes del desarrollo local que se fueron materializando en la búsqueda de un modelo económico, social y político que comienza a gestarse con el triunfo de la Revolución Cubana. Se presentan las particularidades de los gobiernos locales en nuestro contexto y cómo a diferencia de la ocurrencia de procesos reales de descentralización a nivel regional, nuestro país fue orientándose cada vez más hacia un modelo excesivamente centralizado. Al mismo tiempo se contextualiza el surgimiento del tema del desarrollo local en los noventa y las iniciativas generadas a raíz de los cambios ocurridos en el período señalado. Se ofrecen también las contradicciones y rasgos más esenciales que marcan el debate por el desarrollo y los gobiernos locales en el contexto actual. Se valoran las posibilidades que existen, desde los territorios y en especial en los gobiernos locales para propiciar procesos de desarrollo local.
Educación inclusiva: la educación de las personas con discapacidad
Authors: Acuña Araí Itaí
Published: January 2022

Este artículo tiene como finalidad presentar los marcos legales sobre la educación de las personas con discapacidad, luego de la adhesión a la Convención Internacional de los derechos sobre las personas con discapacidad (año 2006) y su implementación en América Latina. Particularmente me centraré en el caso de Argentina para reflexionar sobre las tensiones, paradojas y discusiones que se están dando actualmente y que son similares a las que se están dando en otras regiones de América. Las mismas son el resultado de varios años de investigación de un grupo de estudio en la temática de un proyecto denominado “Prácticas y Discursos sobre Discapacidad, Cuerpo y Educación”, llevado adelante en la Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación en la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, entre los años 2013 y 2017.
Effect of Polishing Grits, Temperatures and Selected Activators on Electroless-nickel Deposition on Cast Aluminium Substrates
Authors: Olarewaju Ajibola Olawale , Toyin Oloruntoba Daniel , Omotayo Adewuyi Benjamin
Published: January 2022

The state of the surface of a material controls how stable and lasting such material will be under the service condition.Wear and corrosion take palce on the contacting surfaces.For an efficient engineering design,the surface has to be protected by different method of serface deposition technique such as electroless-nickel(EN) plating . The firmness and the dependability is built stronly on the morphology of the metallic film. The paper aimed to study the effect of grinding grits,types of activator and planting operation temperatures.....
Resistance to change during uncertainty-perspective of covid-19: An empirical investigation into resistance management in the healthcare organizations
Authors:   University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom, Ahmad Ali , Chowdhury Dababrata ,   University of Suffolk, United Kingdom
Published: January 2022

Resistance to change is widely recognized as the main reason forfailure whenit comes to any kind of change initiative. Despite its importance, there is still rather limited knowledge concerning the factors that trigger this behaviorinthe workplace. The primary purpose of this research study is to uncover the reason behind the resistance to change during uncertainty (perspective of covid-19). A mixed methodologyapproach was used in this research study to identify the factors that facilitate resistance management in healthcare organizations in Bangladesh. Data collection was semi-structured interviews with purposive sampling to select respondents which included top executives, human resource managers, CEOs,and line managers. To create themes and sub-themes computer software NVIVO has been used and 10 total interviews were recorded by the software. Clustered probability sampling method has been carried out for the questionnaire survey and analyzedthe data with computer software SPSS. The results show that effective communication reduces the intensity of resistance in healthcare organizations.The study also revealed that resistance to change often helps to explore alternative perspectives
Eog-Based Device Control Interface for Patients with Quadriplegia
Authors: Selek Mustafa Berkant , Imamoglu Beste , Yildirim Mehmet Can , Isler Yalcin
Published: January 2022

The life quality of the patients with plegia and their caregivers is drastically reduced in daily life. Quadriplegia, which means that four limbs and the body trunk are affected from the plegia, is known as the most severe type of plegia. Since patients with quadriplegia can only move their eyes in their bodies and cannot meet their needs themselves, this limits them both psychologically and physically. In this study, a new system is proposed to use the device control interface in front of the patient via their eye movements and hence to control a device (or devices) whichever they want. Therefore, an improvement in both the patient’s and their caregivers’ life qualities since the patients will be able to conduct some simple activities alone. As a result of the limited experiments, to turn on and turn off the preprogrammed devices are controlled using the proposed system successfully.
Một số công nghệ xử lý dioxin trong đất và trầm tích tại Việt Nam
Authors: Nguyễn Văn Tài
Published: January 2022

Hậu quả của cuộc chiến tranh hóa học do quân đội Mỹ gây ra (từ năm 1961 đến 1971) đối với nhân dân Việt Nam là vô cùng nặng nề; theo đó, một lượng rất lớn đất, trầm tích ở nhiều địa phương như Đà Nẵng, Biên Hòa, Phù Cát, Dầu Tiếng,... bị nhiễm chất độc dioxin với nồng độ cao, cần sớm được xử lý để bảo vệ sức khỏe con người và môi trường sinh thái. Trên thế giới, đã có nhiều nghiên cứu, thử nghiệm để đưa ra các công nghệ xử lý chất độc hóa học/dioxin. Tuy nhiên, cho tới nay vẫn chưa có giải pháp hoặc công nghệ đơn lẻ nào có thể xử lý triệt để dioxin nhiễm trong đất, trầm tích ở các mức ô nhiễm khác nhau. Bài báo này giới thiệu sơ lược các công nghệ xử lý dioxin trong đất, trầm tích đã thử nghiệm được áp dụng tại Việt Nam. Trên cơ sở đó, đề xuất hướng nghiên cứu, thử nghiệm nhằm tìm ra công nghệ xử lý đất, trầm tích nhiễm chất độc hóa học/dioxin phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế của nước ta trong thời gian tới.
Nghiên cứu thiết kế, chế tạo mạch điều khiển chức năng đầu thu và hiển thị dấu ngắm cho kính ngắm ảnh nhiệt
Authors: Trần Quốc Tuấn
Published: January 2022

Bài báo trình bày giải pháp thiết kế mạch điều khiển các chức năng hiển thị của đầu thu bức xạ nhiệt (core) và chèn các ký tự dấu ngắm, đồ họa lên hình ảnh quan sát thu nhận được; phục vụ bài toán thiết kế chế tạo kính ngắm ảnh nhiệt. Trên cơ sở giải pháp thiết kế, tiến hành gia công chế tạo mạch điều khiển, hiển thị và thử nghiệm trên sản phẩm kính ngắm ảnh nhiệt.
Contents
Authors: Tudball Daniel
Published: January 2022

Contents
Travers Day at Saratoga August 28,2021 and a perfect Pick 6
Authors: Ziemba Bill
Published: January 2022

Bill Ziemba makes a substantial gain and presents us with the strategy and results
The Guarantee Fund FGAR As A Public Mechanism To Promote Entrepreneurship Beyond The Hydrocarbon Sector
Authors: KADDOURI Amar , BOUAZIZ Nawel
Published: January 2022

The promotion of non-hydrocarbon investments remains the main occupation of the Algerian government. The Algerian economy's dependence on hydrocarbons sector remains with 95% of export earnings, despite all the efforts and attempts token by the Algerian state. Over the last few decades, several measures have been adopted to encourage entrepreneurship and boost investment, by lessening the constraints that face the entrepreneur, in particular, the access of finance. To alleviate this problem, the Algerian government has created, in 20014, the Guarantee Fund for Loans to SMEs (FGAR). It provides guarantees on loans to borrowers by covering a share of the default risk. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of this fund, as a guarantee provider, by analyzing its data and examining its effect on the level of the development of entrepreneurship in Algeria since its creation. The main result is that this guarantee fund has a positive tangible impact on the development of entrepreneurship. Though it has grown in terms of number, entrepreneurship still face various challenges and issues in both enterprise and environment levels that undermine their business conduct. Therefore, much effort is needed in the future to promote and boost the entrepreneurship in order to benefit from all the advantages it gives.
Salama Insurance: the need of an Islamic legal framework
Authors: HASSANI Hocine , HIMRANE Mohamed
Published: January 2022

Many Muslims, for religious convictions are reluctant to take up conventional insurance as it is deemed to have uncertainty, gambling and interest, which are prohibited by religion. The purpose of this paper is to examine Islamic Insurance in Algeria and analyse a suitable regulatory framework.

One can argue that the trend towards Islamic insurance in Algeria contributes to raising the level of insurance culture, which will help to mobilize more savings. After studying the topic, we can provide a road map to better regulating the Islamic insurance market because the Islamic companies could not function in the absence of an Islamic insurance act. In the absence of such a framework, regulators often treat Islamic insurance companies similarly to conventional insurance companies, which hinders the development of Islamic Insurance Industry.
Accessibility and attractiveness of primary care services in Algeria: Models of spatial interaction of the NHPF of the Eastern Health Region
Authors: AISSAOUI Nasreddine , BRIKA Said
Published: January 2022

The restructuring of basic health care structures represented by public institutions nearby care in Algeria, according to Executive Decree 07/140 of 19 May 2007, could have effects both positive and negative: positive effects as we quote the approximation of diversified health services towards the citizen. As for the negative effects they live in ignorance of the real role of this kind of structure, namely the prevention in the broad sense of the term before the one of care.

Among the results of our case study on the 7 wilayas of eastern Algeria, we noted: a small financial allocation and a shortage of medical and paramedical human resources, which have frozen the role of these NHPF, and which have favored the caregiver’s recourse to hospital emergencies. On the other hand, we have also noticed the sufficient number of these structures throughout all the communes of the country and their proximity to the living environments, despite the derisory number of services rendered, which were able to meet certain needs of the inhabitants.
The contribution of the banking system to achieving economic growth – Econometric study (1962-2016)
Authors: GUENOUNI Habib , AMEUR Abderrahmane
Published: January 2022

Several economic studies have shown that the banking system has a positive effect on economic development, through its ability to transfer a large mass of savings resources to the productive investment needs of the private sector. This work has a purpose to study these demonstrations in the case of Algerian banks and its role in development. To arrive at the final result, we used an econometric method that helped us to study the impact of banking variables on economic growth - as an indicator of economic development - in Algeria during the period 1962-2016. We have found qs result of this work, that banking variables have a negative effect on economic growth, especially the credit variable, so for this, the banking role in Algeria is still far from achieving economic development.