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: La valoració de la integritat de la microcirculació coronària aporta informació pronòstica en pacients amb infart agut de miocardi en els que es realitza angioplastia primària. Aquesta valoració és subjectiva i presenta una important variabilitat si no es duta a terme per personal experimentat. Presentem una eina d’anàlisi d’imatge que permet fer una valoració de la microcirculació coronària a partir de seqüències d’angiografia. Hem analitzat les variacions locals en el nivell de gris de la imatge durant la seqüència angiogràfica. Hem identificat els principals fenòmens observats (respiració, batec cardíac, tinció arterial, tinció miocàrdica i soroll radiològic) mitjançant un anàlisi estadístic de l’espectre de Fourier de l’evolució al llarg del temps de la mitja local. Aquest mateix anàlisis permet determinat la influència de cadascun d’ells en la extracció del patró de tinció i selecciona la respiració com el fenomen que més distorsiona el patró de tinció original. Els descriptors proposats s’obtenen fora del rang espectral respiratori. Hem testat la seva capacitat per a detectar els tres fenòmens principals (tinció miocàrdica (MS), tinció arterial (AS) i soroll (NS)) independentment de la respiració. La capacitat de discriminació dels descriptors ha estat valorada mitjançant un mètode de crossvalidation en 30 seqüències d’angiografia. Els descriptors emprats permeten caracteritzar la tinció miocàrdica amb una alta eficiència i fiabilitat. A més no hi ha diferències significatives en l’anàlisi de les seqüències obtingudes amb el pacient respirant amb normalitat o en apnea