bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Syahadah dalam statut keterangan mahkamah syariah di Malaysia: asas dan sumber perundangan
Authors: Mohd Rapini Azizah , Md. Noor Ruzman
Published: January 2022

Syahadah atau kesaksian menurut fiqh merupakan salah satu alat pembuktian yang kuat setaraf dengan iqrar (pengakuan) yang perlu dikendalikan  dengan tegas tetapi pada masa yang sama mengambil kira aspek maslahah dan keadilan.  Syahadah seperti yang diperuntukkan dalam statut keterangan mahkamah syariah (SKMS) di Malaysia adalah bersumberkan hukum syarak hasil dari  kajian terperinci para penggubal undang-undang terhadap kitab-kitab fiqh pelbagai mazhab bagi memilih pandangan yang sesuai untuk dimuatkan dalam SKMS. Ini berbeza dengan kebanyakan peruntukan lain yang diadaptasi dari Akta Keterangan (AK) 1950 seperti keterangan dokumen dan pemeriksaan saksi atau pun yang melalui proses pengubahsuaian di antara peruntukan dalam AK 1950 dengan prinsip keterangan Islam seperti qarinah. Oleh kerana syahadah dalam SKMS diambil berasaskan hukum syarak dan kitab-kitab fiqh maka timbul isu dari aspek pemakaiannya pada masa kini apabila syarat-syarat syahadah yang diperuntukkan kelihatan masih agak sukar untuk dipenuhi bagi melayakkan  keterangan seseorang saksi itu diterima sebagai syahadah. Implikasinya, kebanyakan keterangan yang dikemukakan di mahkamah syariah diterima sebagai bayyinah sahaja menggunapakai konsep keterangan yang diadaptasi dari pandangan Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Kajian ini cuba menganalisis asas dan sumber penggubalan bagi setiap peruntukan berkaitan syahadah dalam statut keterangan mahkamah syariah (SKMS) di Malaysia dengan perhatian khusus terhadap aspek-aspek syahadah setakat yang diperuntukkan yang hanya melibatkan definisi, syarat, bilangan, testimoni saksi atau tazkiyah al-shuhud (TS) serta keterangan dengar cakap.  Berpandukan metode temubual dan kajian kepustakaan, penulis mendapati bahawa konsep syahadah dalam SKMS kebanyakannya berasaskan mazhab utama rujukan hukum syarak dalam sistem perundangan di Malaysia iaitu mazhab Shafi’i. Walau bagaimanapun, dengan sifat keterbukaan sumber hukum dalam SKMS seperti undang-undang Islam yang lain di Malaysia, pandangan fiqh dari sumber mazhab yang lain juga diterima dalam sesetengah situasi seperti penerimaan konsep bayyinah mengikut pandangan Ibnu Qayyim al-Jawziyyah dan bilangan saksi yang mengambil kira juga pandangan dari mazhab Hanafi dan Hambali.
Spiritual di dalam al-Quran: konsep dan konstruk
Authors: Sudi Suriani , Md Sham Fariza , Yama Phayilah
Published: January 2022

Keperluan manusia terhadap spiritual dan hidup yang lebih bermakna sebagai satu solusi terhadap krisis spiritual yang dihadapi oleh masyarakat moden kini, telah sekian lama diperbincangkan oleh para sarjana. Beberapa ahli Psikologi Barat seperti Maslow, Frankl, Zohar dan Marshall telah menunjukkan signifikan hubungan antara jasad dan spiritual manusia dengan kejayaan hidup seseorang. Namun, teori mereka menolak perkaitan antara spiritual  dengan agama dan mereka  mengatakan spiritual hanyalah aspirasi manusia untuk hidup. Pandangan tersebut bertentangan dengan apa yang dibawa oleh Islam. Justeru, kertas kerja ini mengupas berkaitan konsep spiritual di dalam al-Quran dengan menggunakan kaedah analisis kandungan secara tematik iaitu dengan mengenal pasti ayat-ayat al-Quran yang berkaitan dengan spiritual seterusnya memaparkan bagaimana al-Quran membahaskan konstruk spiritual ini di dalam ayat-ayatnya. Kajian mendapati, al-Quran menekankan bahawa spiritual merupakan kebangkitan atau pencerahan diri dalam mencapai tujuan atau makna kehidupan, di mana asas kebahagiaan dan kesejahteraan seseorang datang dari spiritual yang baik. Al-Quran turut menyebut al-lubb, al–sadr, al-ra’y dan al-fu’ad sebagai konstruk  spiritual di samping al-qalb, al-ruh, al-nafs dan al-‘aql yang sememangnya telah pun digariskan oleh para sarjana Muslim sebelum ini.
The converts and zakat distribution in state of Selangor
Authors: Shaharuddin Syarul Azman , Abd Hamid Zulkifli , Sungit Fakhri
Published: January 2022

The knowledge about zakat distribution method is a vital issue because it leaves an impact to the converts regarding fairness and satisfaction. The aim of the study is to analyze the zakat distribution method in the state of Selangor. In addition, the study is to delve the statisctics in the form of assistance programs received by the converts in Selangor. The study employs mixed method which adopts both quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative study employs the questionnaire instrument to 454 converts in Selangor. Meanwhile, the qualitative study employs the library study. The finding of the study indicates that there are twelve zakat distribution methods. The study also shows the statistics in the form of assistance program received by converts.There are fifteen forms of aid received by converts. In the one hand, the highest form of assistance program received by converts are hari raya allowance and monthly financial assistance which are amounted to 54.4% and 47.6% respectively. On the other hand, the lowest form of assistance program is printing and publication assistance which is amounted to 7%. The implication signifies that the zakat distribution method is dessiminated either in the form of money as well as services. Thus, the study finds that the zakat authority in Selangor has fairly distributed the funds into 1/8 of the right of zakat recipients.
Kefahaman mahasiswa Muslim lembah Klang tentang konsep hak kebebasan beragama di Malaysia
Authors: Abd Rahman Kamal Azmi , Mohd Salleh Norsaleha , Ismail Nazneen
Published: January 2022

Konsep hak kebebasan beragama yang difahami berdasarkan kepada prinsip Islam dan Perlembagaan Negara tidak bersifat mutlak dan terbatas. Rentetan itu, terbentuknya beberapa kumpulan Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) baru seperti IFC (Islam Interfaith Commision) atau nama sebenarnya IRC (Inter Religious Centre), Kumpulan Artikel 11 dan COMANGO (Coalition of Malaysian NGOs in the UPR Process) atau Gabungan Pertubuhan Bukan Kerajaan Malaysia yang menuntut agar hak kebebasan beragama difahami secara terbuka sepertimana yang termaktub di dalam Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948. Antara isu yang seringkali dikaitkan dengan hak kebebasan beragama di Malaysia ialah isu murtad atau menukar agama. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti tahap kefahaman mahasiswa Muslim di Lembah Klang tentang konsep hak kebebasan beragama di Malaysia. Kajian adalah berbentuk kuantitatif dan tinjauan yang akan menggunakan set soal selidik sebagai instrumen untuk mendapatkan data. Sampel seramai 404 orang responden telah dipilih dengan menggunakan kaedah persampelan bertujuan (purposive sampling) dalam kalangan mahasiswa Muslim yang sedang mengikuti pengajian di institusi pengajian tinggi awam dan swasta di sekitar Lembah Klang. Kajian mendapati tahap kefahaman mahasiswa Muslim di Lembah Klang tentang konsep hak kebebasan beragama adalah tinggi dengan skor min 4.32 (sp = 0.82). Dapatan ini menunjukkan bahawa walaupun terdapat isu tentang hak kebebasan beragama serta pelbagai tuntutan yang telah dibuat oleh beberapa NGO yang mempromosikan konsep hak kebebasan yang baru dan terbuka, mahasiswa Muslim masih lagi mengekalkan konsep kefahaman hak kebebasan beragama yang menepati Perlembagaan Negara dan prinsip Islam.
Pencegahan dadah dalam kalangan belia berisiko melalui elemen penghayatan akidah
Authors: Wazir Rosni , Usman Abur Hamdi , Mohd Salleh Norsaleha , Sudi Suriani , Awang Abdul Hadi , Rosman Syamim
Published: January 2022

Akidah merupakan kunci hubungan dan keyakinan umat Islam kepada Allah SWT. Perkara pertama yang dilakukan Rasulullah SAW ketika diutuskan sebagai Rasul adalah membetulkan akidah masyarakat yang telah terpesong. Di Malaysia, umat Islam berpegang dengan akidah berdasarkan aliran Ahli Sunnah Waljamaah. Meskipun pembelajaran akidah ini telah diterapkan sejak bangku sekolah lagi, namun cabaran penghayatan akidah belia kini berada di tahap yang membimbangkan. Hal ini mengakibatkan pelbagai krisis dan masalah. Dalam menangani isu belia, permasalahan dadah merupakan isu serius yang sering diberi perhatian. Statisitik pertambahan penagih dadah belia baru dan berulang pada saban tahun amat meresahkan meskipun pelbagai pendekatan telah diambil untuk menyelesaikan isu ini. Terdapat keperluan untuk mengenalpasti elemen penghayatan akidah dalam membina daya tahan belia untuk menangani isu dadah. Hal ini kerana daya tahan yang kuat dilihat sebagai faktor pelindung daripada terjebak dengan najis dadah. Justeru, berdasarkan metode kualitatif kepustakaan, artikel ini membincangkan elemen penghayatan akidah yang dapat membina daya tahan belia lalu membentuk pencegahan dadah yang berkesan. Dapatan artikel ini menunjukkan elemen penghayatan akidah, iaitu kefahaman, perasaan dan amalan mempunyai faktor pelindung kepercayaan, pengharapan, pengawasan, konsep balasan, ketaatan, pengawasan, keredaan, kesyukuran, penghargaan, kecintaan, kecekalan, kepatuhan, pengurusan diri dan ketekunan. Nilai-nilai ini menyumbang kepada daya tahan indvidu. Oleh yang demikian, elemen penghayatan akidah hendaklah diperkasakan dalam strategi pencegahan dan diberi perhatian oleh pihak sewajarnya supaya usaha pencegahan dadah di negara ini dapat diperkasakan.
Implementation of General Education Subject (MPU) in Malaysia: an overview
Authors: Md Soh Noor Syahida , Ismail Huzaimah
Published: January 2022

Human development encompasses a complete process of forming a knowledgeable, moral, skilled, competitive, and resilient human workforce. Human development has become the main focus and agenda of the country’s leadership to be realized primarily through the education system undergone by citizens’ children. In this regard, the Ministry of Education Malaysia has reviewed the curriculum for Compulsory Subjects (MPW) in all Higher Education Institutions in the country. Thus, the General Education Subject (MPU) has been introduced based on the branch of philosophy of knowledge, which involves humanities, pure sciences, and social sciences. However, with many students in a single lecture, the MPU course has its constraints. Some students consider this course as a subject that can be studied on their own. As a result, it is impossible to realizing future proof graduates. Therefore, this article aims to explain the current situation of implementing MPU courses in Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia. The paper is based on findings by reviewing a thorough literature review on the General Education Subject (MPU) courses. This research has applied the document analysis method by analyzing related documents for MPU courses. The data obtained are thematically analyzed via ATLAS.ti 8 software. The research finding has discovered four themes of the General Education Subject (MPU) implementation in Malaysia: its implementation, relevancy, impact, and teaching approach. Finally, the literature conclusion could be used as an initial guide for Higher Education Institutions to improve MPU courses’ implementation in producing future-proof graduates.
Verbal processes in the Covid-19 news discourses: An analysis of ‘aswaqpress.com’ coverage on Malaysia
Authors: Ismail Muhammad Marwan , Harun Farah Nadia , Mohammad Wan Moharani , Muhammad Saad Nurhasma , Ismail Sulaiman
Published: January 2022

December 2019 marked the emergence of a deadly virus known as Covid-19. Since then, we have been battling the virus, which has infected more than 250 million people and killed 4.5 million globally. The pandemic has become the headline of almost every media outlet, local and international news agency. Hence, this article aims to examine the Arabic online news discourse of the event by focusing on the verbal processes strategically utilised in reporting the pandemic in Malaysia. This study's data consists of Modern Standard Arabic online news published by Aswaq (aswaqpress.com) news portal between January and July 2021. Aswaq provides Arabic news and information on Malaysia to the Arab world. Hence, the information provided by the portal is vital in portraying Malaysia to Arab audiences, particularly in framing the way Malaysia deals with the Covid-19. The study employs corpus linguistics analytical tools using corpus software AntConc 3.5.8 (2019). Then, the quantitative result will be analysed using a qualitative approach based on the textual-oriented Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Fairclough (1992). It is shown that Aswaq has strategically utilised various verbal processes to report on the word said and articulated around the pandemic. The diversity of verbal processes usage indicates different connotations that hint at different strategic approaches in reporting the news. Hence, it may lead to uncovering the outlet stance of the event. Finally, the study will present suggestions for other related studies in the future.
A Toolkit for Developing Effective Projects Under the Federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program
Authors: Paul Kylie , Wearn Anna , Ament Rob , Fairbank Elizabeth , Wurtzebach Zack
Published: January 2022

In November 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, now referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes multiple provisions related to conserving fish and wildlife. One of the most exciting elements of this historic legislation is a dedicated $350 million competitive grant program called the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. In order to assist eligible applicants and partners to understand and take advantage of these new funding and policy opportunities, the Center for Large Landscape Conservation’s Corridors & Crossings Program has created “A Toolkit for Developing Effective Projects Under the Federal Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.” The document provides: An overview of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program and other fish and wildlife provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, suggestions for how applicants and their partners can engage, best practices, examples, and resources for designing effective wildlife crossing projects in accordance with each of the grant application criterion of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program.
Strategies and Techniques for the Internationalization of Non-Dominant Firms: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Makaya Wilson Freddy , Nwachukwu Chijioke , Hieu Vu Minh
Published: January 2022

This study focuses on the strategies and techniques used by small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to join and dominate large firms in global markets. The analytical works refer to the prevailing writings on international markets and entrepreneurship. Based on the categorizations and analyses of the themes and sub-themes, the historical development of global markets and theories is recounted, thereby creating a foundation for assessing the strategies and techniques of non-dominant firms. The findings indicate that the number of small and medium enterprises joining international markets is growing due to the adoption of robust strategies and techniques. An international model is proposed, which consists of three techniques of the Diaspora approach, social media approach, and re-approach, along with strategies that consist of three dimensions: a big dream or desire to internationalize, a need to internationalize, and an ability to internationalize." This paper provides a point of reference for practitioners and researchers interested in attaining comprehensive insight into internationalization.
Investigation of the Lorenz number and the carrier concentration of the GaAs semiconductor depending on temperature
Authors: ÇOPUROĞLU Ebru
Published: January 2022

As is known, semiconductors are insulators under normal conditions but can become conductive with external excitation. Considering the effects of acting on these materials, the number of free electrons and the electrical conductivity will increase with increasing temperature. The increase in the concentration of free electrons in the semiconductor can be shown as the increase in electrical conductivity. If a semiconductor is exposed to an electric field with increasing concentration, we can have an idea about how the number of free electrons or the speed of free electrons will be affected. It is well known that it is necessary to calculate two-parameter Fermi functions to solve the properties of kinetic effects and electron transport phenomena in semiconductors. Effective methods have been developed for the calculation of two-parameter Fermi functions in literature. In this study, analytical calculations for the Lorenz number and the carrier concentration of the GaAs semiconductor were made using the two-parameter Fermi function.
Properties of invertible elements in complete intuitionistic fuzzy pseudo normed algebra
Authors: DİNDA Bivas , GHOSH Santanu Kumar , SAMANTA Tapas
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we deal with the invertible elements in a complete intuitionistic fuzzy pseudo normed algebra (in short, IFPNA) with respect to Archimedean t-norm and Archimedean t-conorm. It is done by studying the continuity of algebraic operations in a complete IFPNA and investigating the condition for existence of inverse of an element in a complete IFPNA. Also some properties of invertible elements are studied. It is observed that the set of invertible elements in a complete IFPNA is an open set.
On some identities and Hankel matrices norms involving new defined generalized modified pell numbers
Authors: ÖZKAN KIZILIRMAK Gül
Published: January 2022

The aim of this paper is to introduce a generalization of Modified Pell numbers. Some identities about this new sequence are obtained and also investigated some relationships with another sequence. Finally, using these sequences the row and column norms of the Hankel matrices are presented.
The Effects of Calcination on Mineral Composition and Physical Properties of Limestones and Oyster Shells Derived from Different Sources
Authors: . Khalil , Rusli Ridho Kurniawan , . Andri
Published: January 2022

Limestones and oyster shells are normally used in raw or roasted meal form in the livestock diet. Calcination is intended to improve the mineral concentration and physical characteristics of limestones and oyster shells which vary based on different chemical compositions, textures, and impurities of their types and habitats. The present research aimed to study the effects of calcination on mineral composition and the physical properties of limestones and oyster derived from various sources. Limestone samples from three local limestone mining and oyster shell samples from three shellfish species were calcined by burning at a temperature of 800-1000°C. The calcined products were analyzed for mineral content (Ca, P, Mg, Cu, Zn, and Mn), physical properties (bulk density, tapped density, specific density, and angle of repose), and particle size. Results indicated that calcination had no significant effect on Ca and P concentrations but reduced micro mineral concentration. Limestones had a higher Mg concentration than that of oyster shells, and calcination increased Mg concentration. Calcined oyster shells had higher densities, percentages of fine particles, and lower angles of response. The results suggested that the type of limestones and oyster shells could determine their thermal decomposition properties.
Detection of Cryptosporidiosis in Dogs of Veterinary Clinics in Surabaya City Using Acid-Fast Staining and PCR
Authors: Mufa Romy Muhammad Dary , Lastuti Nunuk Dyah Retno , Legowo Djoko , . Mufasirin
Published: January 2022

The need for maintaining pets, such as dogs, is increasing along with the human population. When individuals keep dogs as their pets, they must be aware of disease transmission from dogs. One of the disease agents transmitted from pets to their owners is Cryptosporidium spp. causing cryptosporidiosis. The aim of the present study was to detect Cryptosporidium spp. infection in dogs through a fecal examination using the acid-fast staining method (Ziehl Neelsen) confirmed with the molecular examination of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Detection of Cryptosporidium sp. in feces of dogs was set up by using an acid-fast staining method. Positive results of the acid-fast staining were further confirmed using PCR. Polymerase Chain Reaction used primary AB210854 specific to the Cryptosporidium canis and S139-S141 genes which were specific primary for the Cryptosporidium parvum gene. Results of the acid-fast staining showed that 80% of the samples (40 samples from total samples) were infected with Cryptosporidium spp. Further detection using PCR showed that four samples were positive for Cryptosporidium canis infection, and two samples showed positive results of Cryptosporidium parvum infection. Dog samples were mostly infected with Cryptosporidium spp. including Cryptosporidium canis and Cryptosporidium parvum through a fecal examination using acid-fast staining and PCR. Keywords: Acid-fast staining, Cryptosporidium spp., Dogs, PCR
Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Methicillin, Vancomycin, and Erythromycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Milk and Dairy Products
Authors: Omara Shimaa Tawfeeq , Hakim Ashraf Samir , Bakry Magdy Ali
Published: January 2022

Detailed information on the resistance patterns of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in milk and cheese is strongly required to facilitate risk assessment analysis in case of food poisoning context and to improve therapeutic approaches used in dairy farms. The present study aimed to perform phenotypic and genotypic antimicrobial characterizations of methicillin, vancomycin, and erythromycin-resistant S. aureus isolated from milk and dairy products through screening mecA, vanA, and ermC using molecular PCR amplification technology. Moreover, the association between each genotypic and its related antibiotic resistance phenotypic features within the isolated S. aureus strains were analyzed. Moreover, the current study aimed to study MRSA's ability to form biofilms. Out of 226 milk and dairy product samples collected from different retailers in Giza Governorate, 69.5% of the samples were positive for the presence of S. aureus. The isolation rate of S. aureus strains from cattle milk, sheep milk, white cheese, flamenco, and mesh samples were 79.7%, 76.5%, 56.0%, 40.0%, and 94.7%, respectively. Multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDR) was detected in 51% of all isolated S. aureus strains. All tested S. aureus strains were sensitive to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, linezolid, ciprofloxacin, and gentamycin. However, their resistance rates against penicillin, oxacillin, vancomycin, erythromycin, tetracycline, clindamycin and chloramphenicol were 62.4%, 65.0%, 44.6%, 45.9%, 21.0%, 14.0%, and 2.5%, respectively. Of the isolated S. aureus strains, 72.6%, 40.1%, and 48.4% were carriers for mecA, vanA, and ermC genes and the amplified products were at 310, 1030, and 295 bp, respectively. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates were detected in 47.1% of all isolated S. aureus strains. The results indicated that 35.0% of the tested S. aureus strains were genotypic vanA gene carriers and phenotypic resistant to vancomycin representing vancomycin-resistant S. aureus strains. Moreover, 42.7% of all isolated S. aureus strains were carriers for ermC gene and were phenotypic resistant to erythromycin representing erythromycin-resistant S. aureus. The presence of mecA, vanA, and ermC genes in S. aureus was statistically associated with their related phenotypic resistance patterns against both penicillin and oxacillin, vancomycin, and erythromycin, respectively. Moreover, along with an increase in the frequency of mecA, vanA, and ermC genes, their phenotypic antibiotic resistance patterns sharply increased with an odd ratio >1. Of MRSA isolates, 6.8% indicated weak biofilm-formation ability, while 93.2% exhibit no biofilm-forming ability.
First report of Oenospila flavifusata Walker (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) as a pest of Garcinia xanthochymus Hook. f. ex T. Anderson (Clusiaceae)
Authors: Sabu T. , Shameer P.S. , Mohanan N.
Published: January 2022

Oenospila flavifusata Walker is recorded as a pest of Garcinia xanthochymus Hook. f. ex T. Anderson from Southern Western Ghats. About 40% of the plants were infested by the pest. Young leaves and immature fruits are eaten by the larva.
Flexible architecture and modularity requirements for image guided cardiovascular surgeries
Authors: Moore John , Linte Cristian , Wedlake Chris , Chen Elvis , Peters Terry
Published: January 2022

Research and development of image guided surgery techniques requires software that provides a high degree of flexibility, with easy access to reliable functionality for common tasks. The goal of this paper is to highlight this claim in the context of image guided cardiac surgery applications. Cardiac surgery traditionally involves very invasive surgical procedures. Minimally invasive surgical techniques can greatly reduce the invasiveness of these procedures, thus reducing patient trauma. Implementing new image guidance systems for cardiac surgery is a complex process, requiring the integration of a wide variety of physical and software systems, involving both research and clinical personnel. Modular software design is essential to accommodate this complexity. Furthermore, software architecture must be highly flexible in order to facilitate both the adaptability necessary in research, and the tested reliability needed for clinical applications. Over the past decade, our laboratory has created a comprehensive system for research and development, testing and implementation of new surgical guidance techniques in the operating room. This paper provides an overview of our approach to the development and implementation of image guided therapy software for cardiovascular surgeries, ranging from the simple (needle guidance for central line access) to highly complex and experimental (intracardiac beating heart mitral valve repair/replacement).
Automated Walks using Machine Learning for Segmentation
Authors: Vyas Saurabh , Burlina Philippe , Kleissas Dean , Mukherjee Ryan
Published: January 2022

This paper describes an automated algorithm for segmentation of brain structures (CSF, white matter, and gray matter) in MR images. We employ machine learning, i.e. k-Nearest Neighbors, of features derived from k-means, Canny edge detection, and Tourist Walks to fully automate the seeding process of the Random Walker algorithm. We test our methods on a dataset of 12 diabetes patients with atrophy and varying degrees of white matter lesions provided by the MRBrainS13 Challenge, and find encouraging segmentation performance.
A Distributed Software Framework for Robotic Surgery
Authors: Staub Christoph , Ning Yu , Can Salman , Knoll Alois
Published: January 2022

The ARAMIS research platform is a telesurgical robotic system for minimally invasive surgery with focus on autonomous functionality. The original software architecture was a hierarchical one, based on the model-view-controller paradigm. To handle the growing number of devices, we introduce a new framework that facilitates the decomposition of system functionality into separate programs, as well as the data sharing between them. This allows us to integrate and test new functionality more quickly. Our work heavily utilizes the cisst libraries, developed by the Johns Hopkins University. In particular, we take advantage of cisst’s multiprocess networking capabilities. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the integration of an eye-tracking based endoscope control.
Carotid arteries segmentation in CT images with use of a right generalized cylinder model
Authors: Flórez valencia Leonardo , Azencot Jacques , Orkisz Maciej
Published: January 2022

The arterial lumen is modeled by a spatially continuous right generalized cylinder with piece-wise constant parameters. The method is the identifies the parameters of each cylinder piece from a series of planar contours extracted along an approximate axis of the artery. This curve is defined by a minimal path between the artery end-points. The contours are extracted by use of a 2D Fast Marching algorithm. The identification of the axial parameters is based on a geometrical analogy with piece-wise helical curves, while the identification of the surface parameters uses the Fourier series decomposition of the contours. Thus identified parameters are used as observations in a Kalman optimal estimation scheme that manages the spatial consistency from each piece to another. The method was was evaluated on 15 training and 31 testing datasets from the MICCAI 3D Segmentation in the Clinic Grand Challenge: Carotid Bifurcation Lumen Segmentation and Stenosis Grading (http://cls2009.bigr.nl/).
The Role of DICOM for Modular Perioperative Surgical Assist Systems Design
Authors: Burgert Oliver , Treichel Thomas , Gessat Michael
Published: January 2022

This document describes the role of DICOM as one major standard which will enable interoperability between systems used for surgical planning, intraoperative surgical assist systems and postoperative documentation. We first give an brief overview about DICOM and how it is constantly adapted and extended to cover the needs of new devices and application fields. We describe some of the recent additions which are relevant for image processing and intraoperative support in more detail, followed by a description of the current and future work of DICOM working group 24 “Surgery”.
Segmenting the Left Ventricle in 3D Using a Coupled ASM and a Learned Non-Rigid Spatial Model
Authors: O'brien Stephen , Ghita Ovidiu , Whelan Paul F.
Published: January 2022

This paper presents a new approach to higher dimensional segmentation. We present an extended Active Shape Model (ASM) formulation for the segmentation of multi-contour anatomical structures. We employ coupling and weighting schemes to improve the robustness of ASM segmentation. 3D segmentation is achieved through propagation of a 2D ASM using a learned non-rigid spatial model. This approach does not suﬀer from the training and aligning diﬃculties faced by direct 3D model-based methods. Experimental results are encouraging at this early stage, and future directions of research are provided.
Multi-Atlas Brain MRI Segmentation with Multiway Cut
Authors: Sarikaya Duygu , Zhao Liang , Corso Jason J.
Published: January 2022

Characterization of anatomical structure of the brain and efficient algorithms for automatically analyzing brain MRI have gained an increasing interest in recent years. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that automatically segments the anatomical structures of magnetic resonance human brain images. Our method uses the prior knowledge of labels given by experts to statistically investigate the spatial correspondences of brain structures in subject images. We create a multi-atlas by registering the training images to the subject image and then propagating corresponding labels to the graph of the image. Label fusion then combines these multiple labels of atlases into one label at each voxel with intensity similarity based weighted voting. Finally we cluster the graph using multiway cut in order to achieve the final 3D segmentation of the subject image. The promising evaluation results of our segmentation method on the MRBrainS13 Test Dataset shows the efficiency and robustness of our algorithm.
Kinematics Based Safety Operation Mechanism for Robotic Surgery extending the JHU SAW Framework
Authors: Malpani Anand , Vagvolgyi Balazs , Kumar Rajesh
Published: January 2022

As robotic surgery gains popularity [1, 2, 3], methods for improving situational awareness during tele- operation have become an active area of research. Literature has attempted to incorporate haptic feedback displays to enhance and improve user performance. For example, Massimino et al. [4] showed that a combi- nation of vibrotactile and auditory substitutions lead to task performance (peg-in hole task) comparable to that using a force feedback. Kitagawa et al. [5] extended this approach by using visual force displays and and auditory cues, in experiments showing comparable performance in surgical tasks (knot-tying). Reiley et al. [6] used a visual force display in a teleoperated knot-tying task to demonstrate lower forces and reduced suture breakage by trainees. The above art demonstrates the need for information overlays in telerobotic surgical tasks. However, this literature also used prototype software and tools intended only for the specic experiments. By contrast, we use the Surgical Assistant Workstation (SAW) [7, 8] in development at Johns Hopkins University to create a general information overlay, and demonstrate its utility by creating a visual warning display for telerobotic surgery that detects instruments being operated outside of the eld of view of the endoscopic camera. SAW is a modular framework for rapid prototyping of new tools and methods for robotic surgery. It includes methods for image guidance, registration with pre-operative and intra-operative images, and ability to interact with the graphical objects rendered within the display with the master or slave manipulators in a teleoperation environment. The common telesurgical system in use is the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical Inc.). It consists of a surgeon’s console containing the two master manipulators, a patient side cart with up to four robotic arms - three for the slave instrument manipulators which can be equipped with the removable instruments and an endoscope camera manipulator connected to a high-performance stereo vision system. The da Vinci also provides a research and development application programming interface (DiMaio, et al., [9]) that streams kinematics data and system events at congurable rates of up to 100Hz. The SAW/cisst framework also contains an interface to the da Vinci API. We present an overlay architecture (Figure 1) implemented using the cisst/SAW libraries to integrate contextual procedure and system information for improving safety, and situational awareness during these delicate and complex manipulations. While the presented methods can be modied for use with any robotic system, we used our da Vinci S Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical Inc.) for the validation experiments (Figure 2) here. Results from validation experiments with 17 users and a total of 50 training sessions totaling 214350 image frames are presented.
Fuzzy Magnetic Color Image Segmentation and Advanced Edge Detection
Authors: George Christy
Published: January 2022

In this paper, color image segmentation based on fuzzy logic has been studied. Anefficient Fuzzy logic inference engine based on magnetic fields has been implemented in this project so as to intelligently extract color information in the given image and classify it into the predominant color pyramid with the help of artificial color magnets. This also forms the basis for the priority based edge detection. Sobel operator is used in this project which is intelligently fused with the result of the above mentioned method to enhance the output so as to obtain a priority based enhanced edge detection output. Experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method after extensive set of color images was tested.
Orientation definition of anisotropy is important to finite element simulation of bone material properties
Authors: Yang Haisheng , Guo Tongtong , Ma Xin
Published: January 2022

The assignment of bone material properties to finite element model is a fundamental step in finite element analysis and has great influence on analysis results. Most work done in this area has adopted isotropic assignment strategy as its simplicity. However, bone material is widely recognized as being anisotropic rather than isotropic. Therefore, this work is aimed to simulate the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of femur by assigning each element of the mesh model the material properties with a numerical integration method and properly defining the principal material orientation, and then compare the biomechanical analysis results of isotropic model with that of anisotropic model under six different loading conditions. Based on the analysis results of the equivalent Von Mises stress and the nodal displacement, four different regions of interest are chosen to achieve this comparison. The results show that significant differences between the two material property assignments exist in the regions where anisotropic material property is sensitive to orientation definition. Thus, orientation definition is important to finite element simulation of bone material properties.
Fully Automatic Left Ventricle Segmentation in Cardiac Cine MR Images Using Registration and Minimum Surfaces
Authors: Jolly Marie-pierre
Published: January 2022

This paper describes a fully automatic system to segment the left ventricle in all slices and all phases of a magnetic resonance cardiac cine study. After localizing the left ventricle blood pool using motion, thresholding and clustering, slices are segmented sequentially. For each slice, deformable registration is used to align all the phases, candidate contours are recovered in the average image using shortest paths, and a minimal surface is built to generate the final contours. The advantage of our method is that the resulting contours follow the edges in each phase and are consistent over time. As part of the MICCAI grand challenge on left ventricle segmentation, we demonstrate using 15 training datasets and 15 validation datasets that the results are very good with average errors around 2 mm and the method is ready for clinical routine.
Automatic Brain Tissue Segmentation of Multi-sequence MR Images Using Random Decision Forests
Authors: Pereira Sérgio , Festa Joana , Mariz José António , Sousa Nuno , Silva Carlos
Published: January 2022

This work is integrated in the MICCAI Grand Challenge: MR Brain Image Segmentation 2013. It aims for the automatic segmentation of brain into Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Gray matter (GM) and White matter (WM). The provided dataset contains patients with white matter lesions, which makes the segmentation task more challenging. The proposed algorithm uses multi-sequence MR images to extract meaningful features and learn a Random Decision Forest that classifies each voxel of the image. The results show that it is robust to the presence of the white matter lesions, and the metrics show that the overall results are competitive.
Facet Analyser: ParaView plugin for automated facet detection and measurement of interplanar angles of tomographic objects
Authors: Grothausmann Roman , Beare Richard
Published: January 2022

The presented ParaView plugin allows easy access to the algorithm described in Ref 1. It enables analysis of faceted objects that exhibit distortions in their digital representation, e.g. due to tomographic reconstruction artifacts. The contributed functionality can also be used outside ParaView in e.g. command-line programs. The code, data, a test and an example program are included.
Connected Component and Morphology Based Extraction of Arterial Centerlines of the Heart (CocomoBeach)
Authors: Kitslaar Pieter , Frenay Michel , Oost Elco , Dijkstra Jouke , Stoel Berend , Reiber Johan H.C
Published: January 2022

This document describes a novel scheme for the automated extraction of the central lumen lines of coronary arteries from computed tomography angiography (CTA) data. The scheme ﬁrst obtains a seg- mentation of the whole coronary tree and subsequently extracts the centerlines from this segmentation. The ﬁrst steps of the segmentation algorithm consist of the detection of the aorta and the entire heart region. Next, candidate coronary artery components are detected in the heart region after the masking of the cardiac blood pools. Based on their location and geometrical properties the structures representing the right and left arterties are selected from the candidate list. Starting from the aorta, connections between these structures are made resulting in a ﬁnal segmentation of the whole coronary artery tree, A fast-marching level set method combined with a backtracking algorithm is employed to obtain the initial centerlines within this segmentation. For all vessels a curved multiplanar reformatted image (CMPR) is constructed and used to detect the lumen contours. The ﬁnal centerline was then deﬁned by determining the center of gravity of the detected lumen in the transversal CMPR slices. Within the scope of the MICCAI Challenge “Coronary Artery Tracking 2008”, the coronary tree segmentation and centerline extraction scheme was used to automatically detect a set of centerlines in 24 datasets. For 8 data sets reference centerlines were available. This training data was used during the development and tuning of the algorithm. Sixteen other data sets were provided as testing data. Evaluation of the proposed methodology was performed through submission of the resulting centerlines to the MICCAI Challenge website
Automatic accuracy measurement for multi-modal rigid registration using feature descriptors
Authors: Hauler Frida , Jurisic Miro , Furtado Hugo , Sabatini Umberto , Laprie Anne , Nestle Ursula , Birkfellner Wolfgang
Published: January 2022

In radiotherapy (RT) for tumor delineation and diagnostics, complementary information of multi-modal images is used. Using high ionizing radiation, the accuracy of registered volume data is crucial; therefore a reliable and robust evaluation method for registered images is needed in clinical practice. Multi-modal image registration aligns images from different modalities like computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) into one common frame of reference. The gold standard validation methods are visual inspection by radiation oncology experts and fiducial-based evaluation. However, visual inspection is a qualitative measure with a range of 2-6 mm inaccuracy, it is time consuming and prone to errors. The fiducial-based evaluation is an invasive method when fiducial markers are fixated to bone or implanted in organs. Therefore, in clinical practice a robust non-invasive automated method is needed to validate registration of multi-modal images. The aim of this study is to introduce and validate an automatic landmark-based accuracy measure for multi-modal image rigid registration using feature descriptors. A porcine dataset with fixed fiducial markers was used to compare our accuracy measure with the target registration error of fiducial markers.In addition, the robustness of our evaluation method was tested on multi-vendor database consisted of 10 brain and 20 lung cases comparing the automatic landmark accuracy measure based on feature descriptors with manual landmark based evaluation. An automatic, non-invasive method based on feature descriptors for accuracy evaluation of multi-modal rigid registration was introduced. The method can be used to provide accuracy information slice-by slice on CT, CBCT and CT, MR-T1, -T2 weighted, MR-T1 contrast enhanced (ce) multi-modal images.
Multimodal MR Brain Segmentation Using Bayesian-based Adaptive Mean-Shift (BAMS)
Authors: Mahmood Qaiser , Alipoor Mohammad , Chodorowski Artur , Mehnert1 Andrew , Persson Mikael
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we validate our proposed segmentation algorithm called Bayesian-based adaptive mean-shift (BAMS) on real mul-timodal MR images provided by the MRBrainS challenge. BAMS is a fully automatic unsupervised segmentation algorithm. It is based on the adaptive mean shift wherein the adaptive bandwidth of the kernel for each feature point is estimated using our proposed Bayesian approach [1]. BAMS is designed to segment the brain into three tissues; white matter (WM), gray matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The performance of the algorithm is evaluated relative to the manual segmentation (ground truth). The results of our proposed algorithm show the average Dice index 0.8377±0.036 for the WM, 0.7637±0.038 for the GM and 0.6835 ±0.023 for the CSF.
Automatized Evaluation of the Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction from Echocardiographic Images Using Graph Cut
Authors: Bernier Michael , Jodoin Pierre-Marc , Lalande Alain
Published: January 2022

In this paper, we present a fast and interactive graph cut method for 3D segmentation of the endocardial wall of the left ventricle (LV) given 3D echocardiographic images. This is a challenging task due to the poor contrast and the low signal-to-noise ratio typical of echocardiographic images. The method is carried out in 3 steps. First, 3D sampling of the LV cavity is made in a spherical-cylindrical coordinate system. Then, a gradient-based energy term is assigned to each voxel, some of which being given an infinite energy to make sure the resulting volume passes through key anatomical points. Then, a graph-cut procedure provides delineation of the endocardial surface. Results obtained on 30 exams from the 2014 CETUS MICCAI challenge dataset reveal that our method takes between 5 and 10 seconds to segment a 3D volume with an overall mean surface distance lower than 2.3 mm and an ejection fraction error of less than 5% compared to a manual tracing by an expert.
Leveraging Open Source for Geographically Dispersed Workflows
Authors: Biancardi Alberto , Arenas Juan , Coto Ernesto , Rammohan Vignesh , Pozo-Soler Jose , Castro Isaac , Frangi Alejandro
Published: January 2022

Personalized simulations can help assess and predict the clinical status of patients and are a key tenet of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) framework. This paper shows how the turnkey access of GIMIAS, an open source software platform built on open source toolkits (VTK, MITK,ITK), thanks to his inclusion in VPH-Share, an infrastructure European project with open-source components, was key to progressing the deployment effectiveness for MySpine, a VPH European project, among his geographically dispersed community
Biomarker Detection in Whole Slide Imaging based on Statistical Color Models
Authors: Shu Jie , Qiu Guoping , Ilyas Mohammad , Kaye Philip
Published: January 2022

This paper presents a technique for immunostaining biomarker detection in digital slides. We treat immunostaining detection as a color image analysis problem and build statistical color models using a large number of labeled positive and negative immunostaining pixels. We have implemented the statistical models in different color spaces and show that the opponent chromaticity signals effectively characterize the color distributions of the immunostaining biomarkers and that the luminance is an unreliable and distractive signal. We have applied the technique to the detection of positive P53 immunostaining in digital slides of oesophagitis and colorectal biopsies. We present experimental results and show that the technique can achieve a biomarker detection rate of over 98% with 5% false positives.
Transitively Consistent and Unbiased Multi-Image Registration using Numerically Stable Transformation Synchronisation
Authors: Bernard Florian , Thunberg Johan , Husch Andreas , Salamanca Luis , Gemmar Peter , Hertel Frank , Goncalves Jorge
Published: January 2022

Transitive consistency of pairwise transformations is a desirable property of groupwise image registration procedures. The transformation synchronisation method (Bernard et al., 2015) is able to retrieve transitively consistent pairwise transformations from pairwise transformations that are initially not transitively consistent. In the present paper, we present a numerically stable implementation of the transformation synchronisation method for affine transformations, which can deal with very large translations, such as those occurring in medical images where the coordinate origins may be far away from each other. By using this method in conjunction with any pairwise (affine) image registration algorithm, a transitively consistent and unbiased groupwise image registration can be achieved. Experiments involving the average template generation from 3D brain images demonstrate that the method is more robust with respect to outliers and achieves higher registration accuracy compared to reference-based registration.