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The aim of this article is to show how Taguchi methods can be applied to health care to improve the quality of medical images. Quality is often integrated with the performance and parameters of the design of medical applications. Many imaging methods can be designed by setting the correct combination of parameters and estimating the contribution of individual quality influencing factors by means of incorporating parameter design and orthogonal arrays. The performance of any imaging equipment can be measured by signal‐to‐noise ratio. This inherent index can give a sense of how close the performance is to the ideal.

Data were collected from a database of 82 diagnostic thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans. Signal‐to‐noise ratios (S/N) were calculated.

Given the S/N's, the best CT level was found to be level 4.

To reduce bias resulting from the observer's readings, robust equipments should be designed incorporating Taguchi's experimental design. Further work is needed to establish imaging protocols and new hardware design.

Reviews some of the improvements in image sensor technology that are yielding applications in the medical field.

Discusses the characteristics and gives examples of cameras and imaging sensors used in endoscopy, microscopy, pharmaceutical label inspection and X‐radiography. Reviews some innovative camera‐based products for endoscopy, skin imaging and health monitoring.

Improvements in camera resolution, miniaturisation and interfacing are widening the applications in medical imaging and enabling the development of some exciting new products addressing the needs of patients and medical staff.

Identifies some suppliers of medical imaging devices and their applications.

The continuing trend towards miniaturisation is constantly driving the printed circuit manufacturer to seek new or improved methods of imaging the circuit pattern onto base laminates. Significant advances have recently been made in conventional dry film technology to meet the needs for fine‐line applications. However, a new technology—Laser Direct Imaging of the dry film—is also emerging as a viable alternative. This paper will examine the state‐of‐the‐art of both conventional dry film technology and laser direct imaging of a photoresist for production of the next generation of high density printed circuit boards.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relation between radiology and sustainable development with emphasis on the UK and European countries, and to spotlight its possible application in the developing countries.

This is a review paper where data about sustainable development and radiology are collected from selected journals, websites, articles and conferences, e.g. Royal College of Radiology, European Society of Radiology, World Health Organization and other different radiology societies.

Adoption of sustainable diagnostic radiology by many countries in Europe and the UK helps to provide imaging services efficiently and effectively, with simultaneous preservation of the natural resources, patient health and environment much better than before. The developing and underdeveloped countries should follow this knowledge hoping to reach the same goals.

Limiting the use of radiologic examinations, guide the clinicians to use clinical skills before rushing to radiology examinations will save money, preserve equipment and protect patients from possible radiation hazards. The use of teleradiology will indirectly reduce global warming, and will deliver medical services to poor countries.

Improving the health of people of poor countries will improve their socioeconomic level.

This paper focuses on the value of applying sustainable development in radiology not only in general medicine.

Describes a non‐contact optical sensing technology called C3D that is based on speckle texture projection photogrammetry. C3D has been applied to capturing all‐round 3D models of the human body of high dimensional accuracy and photorealistic appearance. The essential strengths and limitation of the C3D approach are presented and the basic principles of this stereo‐imaging approach are outlined, from image capture and basic 3D model construction to multi‐view capture and all‐round 3D model integration. A number of law enforcement, medical and commercial applications are described briefly including prisoner 3D face models, maxillofacial and orofacial cleft assessment, breast imaging and foot scanning. Ongoing research in real‐time capture and processing, and model construction from naturally illuminated image sources is also outlined.

Gliomas are common intracranial tumors with the characteristic of diffuse and invasive growth. The prognosis is poor, and the recurrence rate and mortality are higher. With the development of big data technology, many methods such as natural language processing, computer vision and image processing have been deeply applied in the medical field. This can help clinicians to provide personalized and precise diagnosis and therapeutic schedule for patients with different type of gliomas to achieve the best therapeutic effect. The purpose of this paper is to summarize and extract useful information from published research results by conducting a secondary analysis of the literature.

The PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) literature database were used to retrieve published Chinese and English research papers about human gliomas. Comprehensive analysis was applied to conduct this research. The factors affecting survival and prognosis were screened and analyzed respectively in this paper, and different methods for multidimensional data of patients were discussed.

This paper identified biomarkers and therapeutic modalities associated with prognosis for different grade of gliomas. This paper investigated the relationship among these clinical prognostic factors and different histopathologic tying and grade of gliomas by comprehensive analysis. This paper summarizes the research progress of biomarker in medical imaging and genomics of gliomas to improve prognosis and the current status of treatment in China.

Combined with multimodal data such as genomics data, medical image data and clinical information data, this paper comprehensively analyzed the prognostic factors of glioma and provided guidance and evidence for rational treatment planning and improvement of clinical treatment prognosis.

This paper seeks to present a novel X‐ray system and associated image segmentation algorithm for imaging the below‐ground root structures of plants.

A matched filter design for segmenting the important root structures from the background clutter in the X‐ray images was presented.

The feasibility of root imaging and the applicability of matched filters to this problem domain have been demonstrated.

This research offers a novel approach over existing methods for in situ monitoring of root structures through the application of matched filters for image segmentation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a realistic computational model of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) structures dedicated for in-silico investigations of the use of X-ray-based imaging techniques as non-destructive testing (NDT) of CFRP parts.

CFRPs contain layers of carbon-fibres bundles within resin. Bundles’ orientation in the different layers is arranged with respect to each other at a well-defined primary direction. In the model, the bundle was simulated as a circular cylinder. The resulted model is a stack of layers of unidirectional bundles having orientation of 0°/90°/45°/−45°. Two CFRP structures were modelled: a flat CFRP part and a real shaped CFRP clip. A porous layer and non-carbon fibres were inserted within each model, respectively. X-ray projection images were generated with a dedicated simulation programme. Three setups were investigated: radiography, tomosynthesis and cone-beam CT (CBCT).

Results showed that porosity and non-carbon fibres were visible with all X-ray-based techniques. Tomosynthesis and CBCT, however, provide higher quality image of defects.

The CFRP computational model is a valuable tool in design, testing and optimization phase of X-ray-based imaging techniques for use in NDT of composite materials. Simulated images are generated within a short time; thus results from virtual optimization and testing are obtained very fast and at low cost.

An innovative computational model of CFRP structures, dedicated for X-ray imaging simulations, has been developed. The model is characterized by simplicity in its creation and realistic visual appearance of the produced X-ray images.

The reliable transcranial imaging of brain inner structures for diagnostic purposes is deemed crucial owing to the decisive importance and contribution of the brain in human life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential application of medical ultrasounds to transcranial imaging using advanced techniques, such as the total focussing method.

Initially, the fundamental details of the total focussing method are presented, while the skull properties, such as the increased acoustic velocity and scattering, are thoroughly examined. Although, these skull characteristics constitute the main drawback of typical transcranial ultrasonic propagation algorithms, they are exploited to focus the acoustic waves towards the brain. To this goal, a virtual source is designed, considering the wave refraction, to efficiently correct the reconstructed brain image. Finally, the verification of the novel method is conducted through numerical simulations of various realistic setups.

The theoretically designed virtual source resembles a focussed sensor; therefore, the directivity increment, owing to the propagation through the skull, is confirmed. Moreover, numerical simulations of real-world scenarios indicate that the typical artifacts of the conventional total focussing method are fully overcome because of the increased directivity of the proposed technique, while the reconstructed image is efficiently corrected when the proposed virtual source is used.

A new systematic methodology along with the design of a flexible virtual source is developed in this paper for the reliable and precise transcranial ultrasonic image reconstruction of the brain. Despite the slight degradation owing to the skull scattering, the combined application of the total focussing method and the featured virtual source can successfully detect arbitrary anomalies in the brain that cannot be spotted by conventional techniques.

Today, medical models can be made by the use of medical imaging systems through modern image processing methods and rapid prototyping (RP) technology. In ultrasound imaging systems, as images are not layered and are of lower quality as compared to those of computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the process for making physical models requires a series of intermediate processes and it is a challenge to fabricate a model using ultrasound images due to the inherent limitations of the ultrasound imaging process. The purpose of this paper is to make high quality, physical models from medical ultrasound images by combining modern image processing methods and RP technology.

A novel and effective semi‐automatic method was developed to improve the quality of 2D image segmentation process. In this new method, a partial histogram of 2D images was used and ideal boundaries were obtained. A 3D model was achieved using the exact boundaries and then the 3D model was converted into the stereolithography (STL) format, suitable for RP fabrication. As a case study, the foetus was chosen for this application since ultrasonic imaging is commonly used for foetus imaging so as not to harm the baby. Finally, the 3D Printing (3DP) and PolyJet processes, two types of RP technique, were used to fabricate the 3D physical models.

The physical models made in this way proved to have sufficient quality and shortened the process time considerably.

It is still a challenge to fabricate an exact physical model using ultrasound images. Current commercial histogram‐based segmentation method is time‐consuming and results in a less than optimum 3D model quality. In this research work, a novel and effective semi‐automatic method was developed to select the threshold optimum value easily.