We have recently proposed a compact, dual-head PET scanner configuration for providing high-sensitivity imaging of small animals. Although the scanner is able to reach a sensitivity of about 30% at the center of imaging field-of-view, its compact configuration produces substantial depth-of-interaction (DOI) blurring and results in significantly degraded spatial resolution. It is known that DOI ...

BACKGROUND Local failure is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Although surgery or brachytherapy may be feasible in selected cases, most patients with local failure require external beam re-irradiation. Stereotactic radiation using single or multiple fractions have been employed in re-irradiation of NPC, but the optimal fractionation scheme and dose...

BACKGROUND Approximately half recurrent miscarriage (RM) cases remain unexplained after standard investigations. Secondary RM (SRM) is, in contrast to primary RM, preceded by a birth, which increases the transfer of fetal cells into the maternal circulation. Mothers of boys are often immunized against male-specific minor histocompatibility (H-Y) antigens, and H-Y immunity can cause graft-versus...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to evaluate if physical functions usually associated with a younger population were of importance for an older population, and to construct an outcome measure for hip osteoarthritis with improved responsiveness compared to the Western Ontario McMaster osteoarthritis score (WOMAC LK 3.0). METHODS A 40 item questionnaire (hip disability and osteoarthritis out...

Purpose To evaluate the clinical safety and natural history of active surveillance (AS) for incidentally diagnosed small renal mass (SRM). Materials and Methods We analyzed prospective data for patients who underwent AS for SRM. From 2010 to 2016, 37 SRMs of less than 3 cm were registered. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging were used for initial diagnosis and CT, ultrason...

OBJECTIVE Spatial release from masking (SRM) can increase speech intelligibility in complex listening environments. The goal of the present study was to document how speech-in-speech stimuli could be best processed to encourage optimum SRM for listeners who represent a range of ages and amounts of hearing loss. We examined the effects of equating stimulus audibility among listeners, presenting ...

The control of SRM was discussed: current chopping control, angle position control. This paper presents an inverter circuit and a fuzzy sliding mode control method to minimize the torque fluctuation and noise of the SRM. Based on the experimental results, Using the inverter circuit and fuzzy sliding mode control method can effectively minimize the torque fluctuation and noise of the SRM, For th...

Fig. 5. Comparison of the SRM-based algorithms for the " Bad " channel, SNR = 10 dB. SG: Standard stochastic gradient algorithm. Norm: Normalized stochastic gradient algorithm. SRM: Off-line SRM algorithm of [3], where S k is obtained at time k by averaging all of the data through time k to estimate ensemble averages. Conj Grad: Conjugate gradient algorithm. The results are averaged over 200 sa...

Oral estrogens are directly associated with changes in plasma levels of coagulation proteins. Thus, the detection of any variation in protein concentrations due to estrogen contraceptives, by a simultaneous analysis of both coagulation proteins and estrogens, would be a very informative tool. In the present study, the merit of photo-selected reaction monitoring (SRM), a new analytical tool, was...