PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Computer Terminals”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15Linked to original sources

Energy and nutrient calculations using an Optical Character Reader system.

A new application of the Optical Character Reader (OCR) system for dietary data tabulation has been presented. Comparison of the reproducibility of energy and nutrient values, when hand calculation, on-line computer, and OCR methods of calculation are used, revealed no significant differences. The OCR system increased turn-around time for obtaining results, but use of a clinician's time was greatly reduced in comparison to either the hand calculation or the on-line computer method. Once the initial investment for an OCR system had been made, a significant reduction was realized in the cost of a clinician's time used for energy and nutrient calculations. When the factors of reproducibility, time, and cost were considered, this study found the OCR method for dietary calculations as acceptable as either hand calculation or on-line computer methods. Clinicans using the OCR or hand calculation method did not need computer facilities, but computer keyboard terminals were required for the on-line method.

Computers

Simple and rapid production of radiographic slides or prints using a personal computer and a laser imager.

A simplified and rapid method for making radiographic slides or prints using a personal computer, a computer monitor adapter and a laser imager is described. When the divided monitor output of a personal computer is connected to a laser imager in the Radiology Department, radiographs and text on the personal computer can be printed out from the laser imager. By selecting slide size print format, 12 slide-sized images can be printed on a film. In addition, by selecting other print formats various sized images can be printed on film, which then can be used as teaching files or as backlight display panels for scientific exhibits. This method can only produce gray-scale printouts, which are sufficient for radiological presentations. Any radiology department can utilize this system by simply installing a computer monitor adapter.

Audiovisual Aids

Perception of detail and greyscale range in X-ray fluoroscopy images captured with a personal computer and frame-grabber.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the dynamic range of radiological images captured with a personal computer frame-grabbing system coupled to an X-ray fluoroscopy machine. METHODS: A 386DX-40 MHz, IBM compatible, computer with an SVGA monochrome graphics subsystem and a 387 co-processor, installed with a Screen Machine frame-grabber and controlled by a program specially written was used. Various systems were examined and the observer's perceptions of the results assessed. RESULTS: The dynamic range available to an ordinary X-ray fluoroscopy system was found to be restricted to about 750 mV. Similar measurements showed that the dynamic range was always restricted to 3/4-1/2 of the full available signal because of a high value of the dark voltage of the TV camera's target on all seven systems measured. The dynamic range of the computer-frame grabber system was found to be significantly wider than the Image Intensifier-TV camera chain but, surprisingly, it was affected by the type of file format used for image storing on disk. Clinical images from a barium meal examination as well as CT images captured after optimisation of the frame-grabber were found to contain large quantities of noise in the first two least significant bit planes making them redundant and limiting the grey levels needed for image display to less than 64. This number was also less than the 80 grey levels that could be discriminated by the human eye on the computer monitor. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that 6 bit digitisation would have been sufficient for image capture. The advantages of the wider dynamic range of the frame-grabber and the processing capabilities of the computer were tested for the possibility of improving the perception of detail. However, the results were negative. The limiting spatial resolution measured with a variable density bar pattern at all magnifications was about 0.4 lp/mm lower from that measured directly on the fluoroscopic screen. A detail perception test had the same result. The perception success was significantly lower with the digital images at all but the highest of the exposure rates and despite the use of image processing filters.

Artifacts

New visualization techniques for in utero surgery: amnioscopy with a three-dimensional head-mounted display and a computer-controlled endoscope.

Endoscopic fetal surgery may reduce preterm labor associated with open hysterotomy but is partially limited by current visualization technology. We investigated a three-dimensional (3D) imaging system coupled to a head-mounted display (3D-HMD) and also employed a computer-controlled zoom endoscope for noninsufflated amnioscopy. Pregnant sheep were prepared in aseptic fashion for general anesthesia. Uterine access was obtained following maternal laparoscopy. A 10-mm zoom endoscope (Vista Medical Technologies, Carlsbad, CA) was used to examine the fetus and uterine contents. Fetal limbs were exteriorized for microsurgery. A new system (Vista Medical Technologies) was attached to an operative microscope, permitting projection of a 3D image via an HMD. The fetus and umbilical cord were inspected using the zoom endoscope, which changes the depth of focus under computer control. Basic manipulations of the fetus and cord were easily completed. Real-time 3D fetal imaging was accomplished. The added depth perception enabled detailed fetal and placental examination, fostering manipulation of the fetus and cord. The HMD was adjusted to fit several surgeons, permitting a natural operative posture. This unit has the capacity to display any video, CT, MR, or ultrasound image as a picture-in-picture. The success of minimally invasive fetal surgery is in part dependent on the development of video technologies capable of providing both magnification and optimal resolution. The zoom endoscope affords excellent visibility of multiple surgical targets without instrument repositioning. A 3D HMD system such as this provides greater anatomic detail and an appreciation of fetal movements that may make intrauterine procedures more feasible.

Animals

The Psychophysics Toolbox.

The Psychophysics Toolbox is a software package that supports visual psychophysics. Its routines provide an interface between a high-level interpreted language (MATLAB on the Macintosh) and the video display hardware. A set of example programs is included with the Toolbox distribution.

Computer Terminals

Computer-assisted 3D reconstruction of the terminal branches of the cerebral arteries. III. Posterior cerebral artery and circle of Willis.

We present a three-dimensional anatomical computer model of the terminal branches of the posterior cerebral artery and circle of Willis, acquired from equidistant serial anatomical slices of three brains. The reconstructions provide a clear picture from all angles of the complicated course of the terminal branches of the cerebral arteries. This can help to identify the arteries in conventional and magnetic resonance angiography. Our rendition of the cerebral arteries can be matched with CT, MR und PET images to indicate the areas of extension of the individual branches, allowing neuromorphological and functional correlations.

Basilar Artery

Accommodative and binocular vision disorders associated with video display terminals: diagnosis and management issues.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid computerization of the workplace, school and home office, it is likely that a vast majority of Americans will be using computers for significant amounts of time in the near future. Research has demonstrated a high prevalence of accommodative and binocular vision disorders in symptomatic VDT users, which underscores the importance of the assessment and management of accommodation and binocular vision for patients working with computers. METHODS/RESULTS: This paper presents a simplified approach for the diagnosis and management of accommodative and binocular vision disorders in VDT users. The emphasis is on modifications of the traditional examination routine to make the assessment as sensitive as possible to the vision problems associated with VDT use. CONCLUSIONS: To meet the needs of symptomatic VDT users, optometrists must perform a comprehensive assessment of accommodation and binocular vision. The use of appropriate testing, when combined with attention to the environmental factors associated with VDT use, will enable optometrists to understand the reasons for symptoms and design an effective treatment program.

Accommodation, Ocular

A note on luminance calibration of raster-scan cathode-ray tubes: temporal resolution, ripple, and accuracy.

Accurate luminance calibration is an important issue for stimuli in vision research. Raster-scan cathode-ray tubes present a rapidly scanning spot with a luminance of the order of 10,000 cd m-2 (the actual value depends on video timing and phosphor persistence). With little spatial integration this may result in overloading of the front stage of a photometer. More importantly, even if averaged over hundreds of milliseconds, the pulsed nature of the luminance signal will markedly reduce accuracy of the luminance measurement. A frame-synchronised photometer is described to increase measurement accuracy whilst still rapidly acquiring the result.

Computer Terminals

Computer study of presynaptic inhibition controlling the spread of action potentials into axonal terminals.

1. The effect of presynaptic, axoaxonal inhibition, that exerts its action by producing a local conductance increase, on the behavior of action potentials at postsynaptic axon terminals is analyzed computationally. The significance of the location and strength of the presynaptic inhibition, as well as the morphology and membrane properties of the axonal terminals, are considered. 2. Keeping the specific properties of terminal membrane and axoplasm constant, the critical "silent" steady-state conductance change (gcrit) that blocks propagation is linearly scaled with the terminal diameter raised to the 3/2 power. At the midpoint of a 5 lambda long, 1 micron diameter axon that has the standard Hodgkin and Huxley (1952) kinetics at 18 degrees C (and an input conductance of 8.7 nS), gcrit is 72 nS. At 0 degrees C, gcrit = 200 nS, whereas at 30 degrees C gcrit = 30 nS. 3. The critical conductance change that blocks propagation depends steeply on the density of excitable channels (gNa) at the terminal. For a geometrically uniform terminal at 18 degrees C, the action potential can not be blocked by a local shunt when gNa greater than 600 mS/cm2. 4. An axoaxonal synapse in the proximity of the postsynaptic release site has graded control over the spike amplitude (and, therefore, over the postsynaptic output) at that site. Presynaptic inhibition located remotely from the release site has an all-or-none effect at the release site. 5. Inhibition is more effective in attenuating the spike at the terminal when it impinges onto a passive terminal rather than on an excitable one. 6. The detectability of the conductance increase as well as the change in action potential amplitude associated with the presynaptic inhibition is poor at only a short distance from the axoaxonal synapse. The presence of bottlenecks and varicosities at some axonal terminals enhances this decoupling effect even more. Thus presynaptic inhibition may reduce the potential near the output site of the affected axon significantly, without producing any noticeable conductance or voltage change at a distance of only several tens of micrometers (a few tenths of a space constant) away from it. 7. Varicosities and bottlenecks typically found along axonal terminals are the optimal loci for presynaptic inhibition to be most effective in attenuating the action potential at the terminal. Even with high density of excitable channels, propagation with such terminal geometry is insecure, and one, or few, quanta of inhibitory transmitter (a conductance change of several nanosiemens) can block propagation there.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Action Potentials

A pilot study of eye movement during mammography interpretation: eyetracker results and workstation design implications.

Digital mammography can potentially improve mammography image and interpretation quality. On-line interpretation from a workstation may improve interpretation logistics and increase availability of comparison images. Interpretation of eight 4k- x 5k-pixel mammograms on two to four 2k- x 2.5k-pixel monitors is problematic because of the time spent in choosing which images display on which monitors, and zooming and roaming on individual images that are too large to display completely at full resolution. The authors used an eyetracker to measure radiologists viewing behavior during mammography interpretation with film on a viewbox. It was observed that a significant portion of the mammographers' time is spent viewing "comparison pairs" (typically two or more comparisons per case), such as the left mediolateral and craniocaudal images or old and new images. From the eyetracker measurements, we estimated that the number of image display, roam, and zoom operations decreases from an average of 64 for one monitor to 31 for four monitors, with the largest change going from one to two monitors. We also show that fewer monitors with a faster response time is superior to more monitors with a slower response time. Finally, the authors demonstrate the applicability of time-motion analysis to mammographic workstation design.

Adult

The health care professional multimedia workstation: development and integration issues.

Workstations for health care professionals provide access to distributed healthcare information systems. They are complex systems that have to manage, in a unified framework, the distributed and multimedia information needed for optimal patient care. The objective is to provide the end-user with a virtual and unified device that conceals the complexity of the underlying information system. Integration and reuse of modular software components are important in the development of such a workstation. A reference set of evaluation criteria is proposed that includes functional, technical, organizational, medical, cultural and ethical, economic and industrial components.

Computer Communication Networks

Visual increment and decrement threshold curves as a function of luminance range and noise in simulated computed tomographic scans.

OBJECTIVES: The effect of luminance range compression on the visual threshold of a target in a computed tomographic (CT) scan was investigated in eight experiments. METHODS: Both visual increment thresholds of a hot target and visual decrement thresholds of a cold target were obtained. Realistic noisy CT images simulating a scan reconstruction and partial volume blurring were tested as representative of complex medical images. Negative versions, high luminance versions, and noise-free versions of these CT images also were tested. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In all the noisy images, as the luminance range of the image was compressed, proportionately smaller physical luminance differences between the target and its local background were needed to reach visual threshold. However, the thresholds were the same in terms of the difference in CT numbers between target and background. Noise in terms of CT numbers sets the threshold for a wide range of display conditions. In the noise-free CTs, as the luminance range was compressed, the luminance differences between the target and background needed to reach threshold also decreased, but only marginally. However, in terms of CT numbers, the thresholds were increased.

Analysis of Variance

A universal system for interactive image-directed neurosurgery.

Stereotactic methods confer great accuracy to intracranial target localization, but require strict adherence to a complex program of mechanical and computational maneuvers. A computerized, articulated, localizing 'arm' has been developed that frees the neurosurgeon of these constraints and provides a completely intuitive, 'user-friendly' interface. This universal system is independent of whatever localizing fiducial system is selected. The arm may be sterilized for intracranial use. A variety of intraoperative end effectors may be selected. The patient's CT/MR/PET scans are loaded into computer memory and a three-dimensional shaded surface wireframe diagram of the patient's head is displayed simultaneously with up to 3 independent sets of cross-referenced CT/MR/PET scan images on the intraoperative video screen. The arm's endpoint location and the directional vector are shown as cursors on the relevant scan slices, and change continuously as the surgeon moves the arm. Because the information is continuously updated, an unlimited number of targets and trajectories may be displayed throughout the operation. The arm has an ultimate design accuracy for end-point localization to within 0.1 mm throughout a target volume of 40 x 40 x 40 cm. The tested application accuracy of the first prototype model is 0.31 mm. In clinical use during 30 surgeries, its real-world application accuracy is 0.9 mm. This system provides stereotactic accuracy and universally compatible, intuitive, interactive operation.

Biopsy