Abstract: Optical Flow (OF) techniques facing the complexity of real sequences have been developed in the last years. Even using the most appropriate technique for our specific problem, at some points the output flow might fail to achieve the minimum error required for the system. Confidence measures computed from either input data or OF output should discard those points where OF is not accurate enough for its further use. It follows that evaluating the capabilities of a confidence measure for bounding OF error is as important as the definition
itself. In this paper we analyze different confidence measures and point out their advantages and limitations for their use in real world settings. We also explore the agreement with current tools for their evaluation of confidence measures performance.

Abstract: A coordinate system describing the interior of organs is a powerful tool for a systematic localization of injured tissue. If the same coordinate values are assigned to specific anatomical landmarks, the coordinate system allows integration of data across different medical image modalities. Harmonic mappings have been used to produce parametric coordinate systems over the surface of anatomical shapes, given their flexibility to set values
at specific locations through boundary conditions. However, most of the existing implementations in medical imaging restrict to either anatomical surfaces, or the depth coordinate with boundary conditions is given at sites
of limited geometric diversity. In this paper we present a method for anatomical volumetric parameterization that extends current harmonic parameterizations to the interior anatomy using information provided by the
volume medial surface. We have applied the methodology to define a common reference system for the liver shape and functional anatomy. This reference system sets a solid base for creating anatomical models of the patient’s liver, and allows comparing livers from several patients in a common framework of reference.

Abstract: Obstacle avoidance remains a challenging task for Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV), due to their limited payload capacity to carry advanced sensors. Unlike larger vehicles, MAV can only carry light weight sensors, for instance a camera, which is our main assumption in this work. We explore passive monocular depth estimation and propose a novel method Position Aided Depth Estimation
(PADE). We analyse PADE performance and compare it against the extensively used Time To Collision (TTC). We evaluate the accuracy, robustness to noise and speed of three Optical Flow (OF) techniques, combined with both depth estimation methods. Our results show PADE is more accurate than TTC at depths between 0-12 meters and is less sensitive to noise. Our findings highlight the potential application of PADE for MAV to perform safe autonomous navigation in
unknown and unstructured environments.

Abstract: We present in this paper a novel lumen centre detection for gastrointestinal and respiratory endoscopic images. The proposed method is based on the appearance and geometry of the lumen, which we defined as the darkest image region which centre is a hub of image gradients. Experimental results validated on the first public annotated gastro-respiratory database prove the reliability of the method for a wide range of images (with precision over 95 %).

Abstract: Two-state and operational models of both agonism and allosterism are compared to identify and characterize common pharmacological parameters. To account for the receptor-dependent basal response, constitutive receptor activity is considered in the operational models. By arranging two-state models as the fraction of active receptors and operational models as the fractional response relative to the maximum effect of the system, a one-by-one correspondence between parameters is found. The comparative analysis allows a better understanding of complex allosteric interactions. In particular, the inclusion of constitutive receptor activity in the operational model of allosterism allows the characterization of modulators able to lower the basal response of the system; that is, allosteric modulators with negative intrinsic efficacy. Theoretical simulations and overall goodness of fit of the models to simulated data suggest that it is feasible to apply the models to experimental data and constitute one step forward in receptor theory formalism.