Abstract: Cardiac dynamics suppression is a main issue for visual improvement and computation of tissue mechanical properties in IntraVascular UltraSound (IVUS). Although in recent times several motion compensation techniques have arisen, there is a lack of objective evaluation of motion reduction in in vivo pullbacks. We consider that the assessment protocol deserves special attention for the sake of a clinical applicability as reliable as possible. Our work focuses on defining a quality measure and a validation protocol assessing IVUS motion compensation. On the grounds of continuum mechanics laws we introduce a novel score measuring motion reduction in in vivo sequences. Synthetic experiments validate the proposed score as measure of motion parameters accuracy; while results in in vivo pullbacks show its reliability in clinical cases.

Abstract: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational strategy to improve student’s learning capability that, in recent years, has had a progressive acceptance in undergraduate studies. This methodology is based on solving a problem or project in a student working group. In this way, PBL focuses on learning the necessary tools to correctly find a solution to given problems. Since the learning initiative is transferred to the student, the PBL method promotes students own abilities. This allows a better assessment of the true workload that carries out the student in the subject. It follows that the methodology conforms to the guidelines of the Bologna document, which quantifies the student workload in a subject by means of the European credit transfer system (ECTS). PBL is currently applied in undergraduate studies needing strong practical training such as medicine, nursing or law sciences. Although this is also the case in engineering studies, amazingly, few experiences have been reported. In this paper we propose to use PBL in the educational organization of the Computer Graphics subjects in the Computer Science degree. Our PBL project focuses in the development of a C++ graphical environment based on the OpenGL libraries for visualization and handling of different graphical objects. The starting point is a basic skeleton that already includes lighting functions, perspective projection with mouse interaction to change the point of view and three predefined objects. Students have to complete this skeleton by adding their own functions to solve the project. A total number of 10 projects have been proposed and successfully solved. The exercises range from human face rendering to articulated objects, such as robot arms or puppets. In the present paper we extensively report the statement and educational objectives for two of the projects: solar system visualization and a chess game. We report our earlier educational experience based on the standard classroom theoretical, problem and practice sessions and the reasons that motivated searching for other learning methods. We have mainly chosen PBL because it improves the student learning initiative. We have applied the PBL educational model since the beginning of the second semester. The student’s feedback increases in his interest for the subject. We present a comparative study of the teachers’ and students’ workload between PBL and the classic teaching approach, which suggests that the workload increase in PBL is not as high as it seems.

Abstract: Anisotropic differential operators are widely used in image enhancement processes. Recently, their property of smoothly extending functions to the whole image domain has begun to be exploited. Strong ellipticity of differential operators is a requirement that ensures existence of a unique solution. This condition is too restrictive for operators designed to extend image level sets: their own functionality implies that they should restrict to some vector field. The diffusion tensor that defines the diffusion operator links anisotropic processes with Riemmanian manifolds. In this context, degeneracy implies restricting diffusion to the varieties generated by the vector fields of positive eigenvalues, provided that an integrability condition is satisfied. We will use that any smooth vector field fulfills this integrability requirement to design line connection algorithms for contour completion. As application we present a segmenting strategy that assures convergent snakes whatever the geometry of the object to be modelled is.

Abstract: We introduce in this paper a novel polyp localization method for colonoscopy videos. Our method is based on a model of appearance for polyps which defines polyp boundaries in terms of valley information. We propose the integration of valley information in a robust way fostering complete, concave and continuous boundaries typically associated to polyps. This integration is done by using a window of radial sectors which accumulate valley information to create WMDOVA1 energy maps related with the likelihood of polyp presence. We perform a double validation of our maps, which include the introduction of two new databases, including the first, up to our knowledge, fully annotated database with clinical metadata associated. First we assess that the highest value corresponds with the location of the polyp in the image. Second, we show that WM-DOVA energy maps can be comparable with saliency maps obtained from physicians' fixations obtained via an eye-tracker. Finally, we prove that our method outperforms state-of-the-art computational saliency results. Our method shows good performance, particularly for small polyps which are reported to be the main sources of polyp miss-rate, which indicates the potential applicability of our method in clinical practice.

Abstract: AcriveVessel is a new multimedia workstation which enables the visualization, acquisition and handling of both image modalities, on- and ofline. It enables DICOM v3.0 decompression and browsing, video acquisition,repmduction and storage for IntraVascular UltraSound (IVUS) and angiograms with their corresponding ECG,automatic catheter segmentation in angiography images (using fast marching algorithm). BSpline models definition for vessel layers on IVUS images sequence and an extensively validated tool to fuse information. This approach defines the correspondence of every IVUS image with its correspondent point in the angiogram and viceversa. The 3 0 reconstruction of the NUS catheterhessel enables real distance measurements as well as threedimensional visualization showing vessel tortuosity in the space.