The main objective of the facial edema evaluation is providing the needed information to determine the effectiveness of the anti-inflammatory drugs in development. This paper presents a system that measures the four main variables present in facial edemas: trismus, blush (coloration), temperature, and inflammation. Measurements are obtained by using image processing and the combination of different devices such as a projector, a PC, a digital camera, a thermographic camera, and a cephalostat. Data analysis and processing are performed using MATLAB. Facial inflammation is measured by comparing three-dimensional reconstructions of inflammatory variations using the fringe projection technique. Trismus is measured by converting pixels to centimeters in a digitally obtained image of an open mouth. Blushing changes are measured by obtaining and comparing the RGB histograms from facial edema images at different times. Finally, temperature changes are measured using a thermographic camera. Some tests using controlled measurements of every variable are presented in this paper. The results allow evaluating the measurement system before its use in a real test, using the pain model approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which consists in extracting the third molar to generate the facial edema.
Image segmentation applied to medical image analysis is still a critical and important task. Although there exist several segmentation algorithms that have been widely studied in literature, these are subject to segmentation problems such as over- and under-segmentation as well as non-closed edges. In this paper, a simple method that combines well-known segmentation algorithms is presented. This method is applied to detect acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in bacilloscopies used to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). This diagnosis can be performed through different tests, and the most used worldwide is smear microscopy because of its low cost and effectiveness. This diagnosis technique is based on the analysis and counting of the bacilli in the bacilloscopy observed under an optical microscope. The proposed method is used to segment the bacilli in digital images from bacilloscopies processed using Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) staining. The proposed method is fast, has a low computational cost and good efficiency compared to other methods. The bacilli image segmentation is performed by image processing and analysis techniques, probability concepts and classifiers. In this work, a Bayesian classifier based on a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used. The segmentations' results are validated by using the Jaccard index, which indicates the efficiency of the classifier.
There is a worldwide need for new methodologies to prediagnose breast cancer in an early stage, which helps to notably increase the possibility of saving the mammary gland or patient's life. This work describes a new methodology proposal based on electrical impedance for the localization of preclinical carcinoma emulators in agar phantoms of the breast. The impedance is systematically measured through eight Ag/AgCl electrodes uniformly distributed in a ring arrangement placed on the breast agar phantom. The fundamental idea of the proposed location algorithm, named Anomaly Tracking Circle algorithm, is to find the breast agar area defined by straight lines joining the electrode pairs having the minimum difference value of the defined normalized impedance magnitude along the measurement sweep. Such difference is obtained with respect to a breast agar phantom without carcinoma emulator. The proposed methodology was evaluated through seven experimental agar models, six of them having carcinoma lobe emulators with different locations and electrical conductivities. According to the obtained results, the described methodology can obtain the location zone of preclinical-emulated carcinomas with an 83.33% success.
The smart grid revolution has only been possible, thanks to the development and proliferation of smart meters. The increasingly growing computing capabilities for Internet of Things devices have made it possible for data to be processed directly from the devices where it is produced; this has been called edge computing. Edge computing is allowing the smart grid to become increasingly intelligent to solve problems that make electricity consumption more efficient and environmentally friendly. This work presents the implementation of a smart metering system that allows data analytics using a multiprocessing architecture directly on the smart meter. The results show that the development of smart meters with data analytics capabilities at the edge is a reality today, and the use of multiprocessing permits the improvement of data processing.
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