Three-dimensional data merging is vital for full-field three-dimensional (3D) shape measurement. All 3D range data patches, acquired from either different sensors or the same sensor in different viewing angles, have to be merged into a single piece to facilitate future data analysis. A novel method for 3D data merging using Holoimage is proposed. Similar to the 3D shape measurement system using a phase-shifting method, Holoimage is a phase-shiftingbased computer synthesized fringe image. The 3D information is retrieved from Holoimage using a phase-shifting method. If two patches of 3D data with overlapping areas are rendered by OpenGL, the overlapping areas are resolved by the graphics pipeline, that is, only the front geometry can be visualized. Therefore, the merging is performed if the front geometry information can be obtained. Holoimage is to obtain the front geometry by projecting the fringe

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a new infectious disease with a global impact. Understanding its pathogenesis and developing specific diagnostic methods for its early diagnosis are crucial for the effective management and control of this disease. By using proteomic technology, truncated forms of ₁antitrypsin (TF₁AT) were found to increase significantly and consistently in sera of SARS patients compared to control subjects. The result showed a sensitivity of 100% for SARS patients and a specificity of 92.8% for controls. Furthermore, the levels of these proteins significantly correlated with certain clinicopathological parameters. The dramatic increase in TF₁AT may be the result of degradation of ₁AT. As ₁AT plays an important role in the protection of lung function, its degradation may be an important factor in the pathogenesis of SARS. These findings indicate that increased TF₁AT

A nonlinear, nonlocal cochlear model of the transmission line type is studied in order to capture the multitone interactions and resulting tonal suppression effects. The model can serve as a module for voice signal processing, and is a one-dimensional (in space) damped dispersive nonlinear PDE based on the mechanics and phenomenology of hearing. It describes the motion of the basilar membrane (BM0 in the cochlea driven by input pressure waves. Both elastic dampling and selective longitudinal fluid damping are present. The forner is nonlinear and nonlocal in BM displacement, and plays a kep role in capturing tonal interactions. The latter is active only near the exit boundary (helicotrema), and is built in to damp out the remaining long waves. The initial boundary value problem is numerically solved with a semi-implicit second order finite difference method. Solutions reach a multi-frequency quai-steady state

We simulate blood flow in patient-specific cerebral arteries. The complicated geometry in the human brain makes the problem challenging. We use a fully unstructured three dimensional mesh to cover the artery, and Galerkin/least-squares finite element method to discretize the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, that are employed to model the blood flow, and the resulting large sparse nonlinear system of equations is solved by a Newton-Krylov-Schwarz algorithm. From the computed flow fields, we are able to understand certain behavior of the blood flow of this particular patient before and after a stenosis is surgically removed. We also report the robustness and parallel performance of the domain decomposition based algorithm.

This book presents an overview of recent developments in biostatistics and bioinformatics. Written by active researchers in these emerging areas, it is intended to give graduate students and new researchers an idea of where the frontiers of biostatistics and bioinformatics are as well as a forum to learn common techniques in use, so that they can advance the fields via developing new techniques and new results. Extensive references are provided so that researchers can follow the threads to learn more comprehensively what the literature is and to conduct their own research. In particulars, the book covers three important and rapidly advancing topics in biostatistics: analysis of survival and longitudinal data, statistical methods for epidemiology, and bioinformatics.