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Advances in neonatal care have improved the survival of infants born prematurely although these infants remain at increased risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcome. The measurement of white matter structure and features of the cortical surface can help define biomarkers that predict this risk. The measurement of these structures relies upon accurate automated segmentation routines, but these are often confounded by neonatal-specific imaging difficulties including poor contrast, low resolution, partial volume effects and the presence of significant natural and pathological anatomical variability. In this work we develop and evaluate an adaptive preterm multi-modal maximum a posteriori expectation-maximisation segmentation algorithm (AdaPT) incorporating an iterative relaxation strategy that adapts the tissue proportion priors toward the subject data. Also incorporated are intensity non-uniformity correction, a spatial homogeneity term in the form of a Markov random field and furthermore, the proposed method explicitly models the partial volume effect specifically mitigating the neonatal specific grey and white matter contrast inversion. Spatial priors are iteratively relaxed, enabling the segmentation of images with high anatomical disparity from a normal population. Experiments performed on a clinical cohort of 92 infants are validated against manual segmentation of normal and pathological cortical grey matter, cerebellum and ventricular volumes. Dice overlap scores increase significantly when compared to a widely-used maximum likelihood expectation maximisation algorithm for pathological cortical grey matter, cerebellum and ventricular volumes. Adaptive maximum a posteriori expectation maximisation is shown to be a useful tool for accurate and robust neonatal brain segmentation. ► Very preterm birth increases the risk of subsequent learning difficulties. ► Accurate segmentation may allow predictive biomarkers to be established. ► Adaptive segmentation allows improved segmentation in pathological cases. ► Comparison of the algorithm to manual segmentation shows significant improvement.

Twelve experimental steels with a base composition 1.5wt% Mn, 0.01 wt% V and 0.1 wt% Nb and varying C (0.05, 010 and 0.20 wt%), Ti (20 – 260 ppm) and B (0 – 100 ppm) contents have been systematically examined to quantify the effects of composition on precipitation behavio-ur and hot ductility during simulated continuous casting conditions. Nb-rich precipitates were present in the alloys with 0.10 wt-% C and 0.20 wt-% C. Alloys with 0.05, 010 and 0.20wt% C contained 50 – 100 nm size Ti-Nb carbonitrides. Boron was bound in 20 – 100 nm size boronitrides located in prior austenite grain boundaries. A Gleeble 3800 was used to study hot ductility and strain induced precipitation processes in the alloys. Alloys without B and Ti additions exhibited poor hot ductility at 850°C and 950°C, whereas the 0.05 wt-% C and 0.10 wt-% C alloys showed improved hot ductility (reduction in area 40-50%) by the addition of either >50 ppm B or 250 ppm Ti. The 0.2 wt-% C alloys showed no improvement from B or Ti additions. Examination of fracture surfaces of hot ductility specimens showed that boronitrides were located at prior austenite grain boundaries in alloys containing 80 – 100 ppm of B. Compression-relaxation tests showed that alloying with boron caused a noticeable decrease of the start temperature of strain-induced precipitation in the alloys.

The effect of the prior austenite grain size on the yielding behavior of as-quenched low-C martensitic stainless steel was investigated. Martensite (Fe-16%Cr-7%Ni-1.2%Mo-1.8%Cu-0.01%C alloy) samples with different prior austenite grain sizes were prepared by heat treatment for various times at 1273K. The microstructures of the martensite were observed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and X-ray diffractometry. Tensile tests were undertaken at various test speeds. Also, a relaxation test was performed before the tensile tests to determine the behavior of mobile dislocations. A lower elastic limit was observed at lower test speeds and a larger prior austenite grain size. Moreover, a lower tensile strength was observed at a larger prior austenite grain size.

We present a novel convex shape prior functional with potential for application in variational image segmentation. Starting point is the Gromov-Wasserstein Distance which is successfully applied in shape recognition and classification tasks but involves solving a non-convex optimization problem and which is non-convex as a function of the involved shape representations. In two steps we derive a convex approximation which takes the form of a modified transport problem and inherits the ability to incorporate vast classes of geometric invariances beyond rigid isometries. We propose ways to counterbalance the loss of descriptiveness induced by the required approximations and to process additional (non-geometric) feature information. We demonstrate combination with a linear appearance term and show that the resulting functional can be minimized by standard linear programming methods and yields a bijective registration between a given template shape and the segmented foreground image region. Key aspects of the approach are illustrated by numerical experiments.

Background: Tinnitus is a common problem for which many treatments have been proposed and implemented. Patients tend to seek renewed treatment after treatment failure. The aim of this descriptive study was to describe a group of consecutive tinnitus patients in terms of prior treatments received. Methods: Sixty-nine tinnitus patients seeking treatment were asked about prior treatments and completed the short Tinnitus Effect Questionnaire (TEQ). Four groups were obtained: No treatment (n = 24), acupuncture (n = 19), relaxation (n = 13), and other treatments (n = 13). Six subscales were derived from the TEQ measuring helplessness, capacity for rest, acceptability of change, emotional effects, hearing speech and sounds, and ability to ignore. The groups were compared with multivariate analyses of covariance and Tukey's post-hoc tests. Results: Results showed minor differences between the groups, the exception being that the untreated group showed more acceptability for change. Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware of the fact that patients may have tried at least one treatment when entering the audiology clinic. Controlled studies are needed in order to avoid the spread of nonspecific and non-effective treatments in the management of tinnitus.

When I work with actors learning scripts for movies or plays I have them listen to audio recordings of themselves reading their part just before they go to sleep. Listening to an audio recording of the main points you wish to remember just before you go to sleep greatly increases your chances of recalling it.

Directive Group Therapy: Innovative Mental Health Treatment. Kaplan, Kathy K. , M.A., OTR. Slack Inc. Thorofare, New Jersey 08086, 1988, 162p, $21.95(U.S.)

Author Janet Smith provides activities for encouraging and improving speech in non-verbal and speech delayed children