Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnosis performance of time-harmonic elastography (THE) technique in real life in assessing liver fibrosis, considering vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) as a reference method. Material and Method: We prospectively evaluated outpatients from the gastroenterology department. Liver stiffness (LS) was measured by the THE system by dedicated operators, and by VCTE by experienced operators. The diagnostic accuracy of THE in staging liver fibrosis was assessed. We also performed an intra- and interobserver reproducibility sub-analysis on a sub-group of 27 subjects, where liver stiffness measurements (LSM) were performed by a novice, an elastography expert, and an ultrasound expert. Results: Of the 165 patients, using VCTE cut-off values, 49.6% were F0-F1, 15.7% were F2, 6.6% were F3, and 28.1% were F4. A direct, significant and strong correlation (r = 0.82) was observed between LSM assessed by VCTE and THE, p < 0.0001. The cut-off for ruling out liver cirrhosis (LC) by THE on our study group was <1.61 m/s (7.77 kPa)–AUROC = 0.90 [95% CI (0.82–0.93)], Se = 90.7%, Sp = 66.6%, PPV = 55.7%, NPV = 93.9%. The cut-off for ruling in LC by THE was >1.83 m/s (10 kPa)-AUROC = 0.90 [95% CI (0.82–0.93)], p < 0.0001, Se = 65.1%, Sp = 96.7%, PPV = 90.3%, NPV = 85.7%. The overall agreement between examiners was excellent: 0.94 (95% CI: 0.89–0.97); still, the ICCs were higher for the more experienced elastography examiner: 0.92 (95% CI: 0.82–0.96) vs. 0.94 (95% CI: 0.87–0.97) vs. 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95–0.99). Conclusions: THE is a feasible and reproducible elastography technique that can accurately rule in and rule out advanced liver disease.
Musicians in the orchestra pit in opera houses are exposed to relatively high sound pressure levels during the rehearsals and the performance. As a consequence, the communication between the diverse musicians is disturbed and potentially the hearing ability is endangered. In order to improve the situation for the musicians in-situ measurements of the room acoustic properties are performed (e.g. reverberation time T, clarity C 80 , strength G etc.) in order to provide evaluation data. On the other hand, acoustic simulations of the entire opera house or parts of it are performed by both the Finite Element Method (FEM) for low frequencies and the ray tracing approach for middle and high frequencies.The results are compared to the experimental data. Subsequently, optimization measures, like additional absorbers or diffusers, can be investigated in detail by the simulations. The most promising will eventually be chosen for realization and be measured in-situ.
The inner ear or cochlea processes the acoustic signals that enter the oval window into a specific time-frequency pattern. Many acoustic signal processing methods are based on this behaviour. A fundamental method is to calculate this time-frequency response by solving the differential equation of the movement of the basilar membrane, followed by a visualisation of the excitation patterns in a time-frequency plot. For that purpose Continuity Preserving Signal Processing (CPSP) is a promising method. In the presentation an overview will be given of a project that is carried out by TUD (University of Technology Delft) together with RUG (University of Groningen) being sponsored by STW (Dutch Technology Foundation). The project divides into four sub-projects which are closely related: Automatic Keyword Spotting, Machine Analysis and Diagnostics, Speech Intelligibility Enhancement for Hearing Aids and Quality Assessment of Room Acoustics. Results that have been obtained in the project will be summarised. Detailed results of the sub-projects will be presented in separate presentations.
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