Real-time programs are, in general, difficult to design and verify. The inheritance mechanism can be useful in reusing well-defined and verified real-time programs. In applications developed by current real-time objectoriented languages, however, changing application requirements or changing real-time specifications in subclasses may require excessive redefinitions although this seems to be intuitively unnecessary. We refer to this as the real-time specification inheritance anomaly. This paper introduces three kinds of real-time specification inheritance anomalies that one may experience while constructing object-oriented programs. As a solution to these anomalies, the concept of real-time composition filters is introduced. Filters affect the real-time characteristics of messages that are received or sent by an object. Through proper configuration of filters, one can specify real-time constraints, and reuse of these constraints without causing inheritance anomalies.

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Purpose To describe clinical use and potential benefits of Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) navigation to perform image guided percutaneous tumor ablations. Materials and Methods All ablations performed between February 2011 and February 2013 using CBCT navigation, were included. Sixteen patients underwent 20 ablations for 29 lesions. CBCT ablation planning capabilities include multimodality image fusion and tumor segmentation for visualization, depiction of the predicted ablation zones for intra-procedural planning and segmentation of the ablated area for immediate post-treatment verification. Number and purpose of CBCT were examined. The initial ablation plan defined as number of probes and duration of energy delivery was recorded for 20/29 lesions. Technical success and local recurrences were recorded. Primary and secondary effectiveness rates were calculated. Results Image fusion was utilized for 16 lesions and intra-procedural ultrasound for 4. Of the 20/29 lesions, where the ablation plans were recorded, there was no deviation from the plan in 14. In the remaining 6/20, iterative planning was needed for complete tumor coverage. An average of 8.7 ± 3.2 CBCT were performed per procedure, including 1.3 ± 0.5 for tumor segmentation and planning, 1.7 ± 0.7 for probe position confirmation, 3.9 ± 2 to ensure complete coverage. Mean follow-up was 18.6 ± 6.5 months. 28/29 ablations were technically successful (96.5%). Of ablations performed with curative intent, technical effectiveness at one-month was 25/26 (96.1%) and 22/26 (84.6%) at last follow-up. Local tumor progression was observed in 11.5% (3/26). Conclusion CBCT navigation may add information to assist and improve ablation guidance and monitoring.

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The full ROB distribution was more extensive than was apparent on cone-beam CT. Quantitative measures of embolic distribution demonstrated significantly better correlation with microCT with decreasing kVp. Similarly, qualitative analysis of MIPs showed improved visualization of beads with decreasing kVp. These findings demonstrate the clinical value of 80 kVp and 100 kVp protocols in the imaging of radiopaque embolizations compared with 120 kVp. However, considerations on X-ray penetration and dose may favor use of 100 kVp imaging over 80 kVp.

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