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The surface-matching registration method in the current neuronavigation completes the coarse registration mainly by manually selecting anatomical landmarks, which increases the registration time, makes the automatic registration impossible and sometimes results in mismatch. It may be more practical to use a fast, accurate, and automatic spatial registration method for the patient-to-image registration. Methods: A coarse-to-fine spatial registration method to automatically register the patient space to the image space without placing any markers on the head of the patient was proposed. Three-dimensional (3D) keypoints were extracted by 3D Harris corner detector from the point clouds in the patient and image spaces, and used as input to the 4-points congruent sets (4PCS) algorithm which automatically registered the keypoints in the patient space with the keypoints in the image space without any assumptions about initial alignment. Coarsely aligned point clouds in the patient and image space were then fine-registered with a variant of the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. Two experiments were designed based on one phantom and five patients to validate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method. Results: Keypoints were extracted within 7.0 s with a minimum threshold 0.001. In the phantom experiment, the mean target registration error (TRE) of 15 targets on the surface of the elastic phantom in the five experiments was 1.17 AE 0.04 mm, and the average registration time was 17.4 s. In the clinical experiments, the mean TRE of the targets on the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth patient's head surface were 1.70 AE 0.32 mm, 1.83 AE 0.38 mm, 1.64 AE 0.3 mm, 1.67 AE 0.35 mm, and 1.72 AE 0.31 mm, respectively, and the average registration time was 21.4 s. Compared with the method only based on the 4PCS and ICP algorithm and the current clinical method, the proposed method has obvious speed advantage while ensuring the registration accuracy. Conclusions: The proposed method greatly improves the registration speed while guaranteeing the equivalent or higher registration accuracy, and avoids a tedious manual process for the coarse registration.

Process monitoring of full mass production phase of multistage manufacturing processes (MMPs) has been successfully implemented in many applications; however, monitoring of ramp-up phase of MMPs is often more difficult to conduct due to the limited information to establish valid process control parameters (such as mean and variance). This paper focuses on the estimation of the process control parameters used for monitoring scheme design of ramp-up phase of MMPs. An engineering model of variation propagation of an MMP is developed and reconstructed to a linear model, establishing a relationship between the error sources and the variation of product characteristics. Based on the developed linear model, a two-step Bayesian method is proposed to estimate the process control parameters. The performance of the proposed Bayesian method is validated with simulation data and real-world data, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively estimate process parameters during ramp-up phase of MMP.

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Background White matter (WM) impairment is a hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study evaluated the capacity of mean apparent propagator magnetic resonance imaging (MAP-MRI) for detecting ALS-related WM alterations. Methods Diffusion images were obtained from 52 ALS patients and 51 controls. MAP-derived indices [return-to-origin/-axis/-plane probability (RTOP/RTAP/RTPP) and non-Gaussianity (NG)/perpendicular/parallel NG (NG ⊥ /NG || )] were computed. Measures from diffusion tensor/kurtosis imaging (DTI/DKI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) were also obtained. Voxel-wise analysis (VBA) was performed to determine differences in these parameters. Relationship between MAP parameters and disease severity (assessed by the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R)) was evaluated by Pearson’s correlation analysis in a voxel-wise way. ALS patients were further divided into two subgroups: 29 with limb-only involvement and 23 with both bulbar and limb involvement. Subgroup analysis was then conducted to investigate diffusion parameter differences related to bulbar impairment. Results The VBA (with threshold of P < 0.05 after family-wise error correction (FWE)) showed that ALS patients had significantly decreased RTOP/RTAP/RTPP and NG/ NG ⊥ /NG || in a set of WM areas, including the bilateral precentral gyrus, corona radiata, posterior limb of internal capsule, midbrain, middle corpus callosum, anterior corpus callosum, parahippocampal gyrus, and medulla. MAP-MRI had the capacity to capture WM damage in ALS, which was higher than DTI and similar to DKI/NODDI. RTOP/RTAP/NG/NG ⊥ /NG || parameters, especially in the bilateral posterior limb of internal capsule and middle corpus callosum, were significantly correlated with ALSFRS-R (with threshold of FWE-corrected P < 0.05). The VBA (with FWE-corrected P < 0.05) revealed the significant RTAP reduction in subgroup with both bulbar and limb involvement, compared with those with limb-only involvement. Conclusions Microstructural impairments in corticospinal tract and corpus callosum represent the consistent characteristic of ALS. MAP-MRI could provide alternative measures depicting ALS-related WM alterations, complementary to the common diffusion imaging methods.

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