Computing the best high-resolution 3-D tissue images

Real-time, 3-D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery and ophthalmology.

University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus.

The computational technique could provide faster, less expensive and higher resolution tissue imaging to a broader population of users. The group describes its technique this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Computational techniques allow you to go beyond what the optical system can do alone, to ultimately get the best quality images and three-dimensional datasets,” said Steven Adie, a postdoctoral researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois. “This would be very useful for real-time imaging applications such as image-guided surgery.” 

Aberrations, such as astigmatism or distortion, plague high-resolution imaging. They make objects that should look like fine points appear to be blobs or streaks. The higher the resolution, the worse the problem becomes. It’s especially tricky in tissue imaging, when precision is vital to a correct diagnosis.

Adaptive optics can correct aberrations in imaging. It’s widely used in astronomy to correct for distortion as starlight filters through the atmosphere. A complex system of mirrors smooth out the scattered light before it enters the lens. Medical scientists have begun applying adaptive optics hardware to microscopes, hoping to improve cell and tissue imaging.

“It’s the same challenge, but instead of imaging through the atmosphere, we’re imaging through tissue, and instead of imaging a star, we’re imaging a cell,” said Stephen Boppart, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, of bioengineering and of internal medicine at the U. of I. “But a lot of the optical problems are the same.”

Unfortunately, hardware-based adaptive optics are complicated, tedious to align and extremely expensive. They can only focus on one focal plane at a time, so for tomography – 3-D models constructed from sectional images as in a CT scan, for example – the mirrors have to be adjusted and a new image scanned for each focal plane. In addition, complex corrective systems are impractical for handheld or portable devices, such as surgical probes or retinal scanners.

Therefore, instead of using hardware to correct a light profile before it enters the lens, the Illinois team uses computer software to find and correct aberrations after the image is taken.

Boppart's group teamed up with with Scott Carney, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the head of the Optical Science Group at the Beckman Institute, to develop the technique, called computational adaptive optics.

They demonstrated the technique in gel-based phantoms laced with microparticles as well as in rat lung tissue. They scan a tissue sample with an interferometric microscope, which is an optical imaging device using two beams of light.

The computer collects all of the data and then corrects the images at all depths within the volume. Blurry streaks become sharp points, features emerge from noise, and users can change parameters with the click of a mouse.

“Being able to correct aberrations of the entire volume helps us to get a high-resolution image anywhere in that volume,” said Adie. “Now you can see tissue structures that previously were not very clear at all.”

Computed adaptive optics can be applied to any type of interferometric imaging, such as optical coherence tomography, and the computations can be performed on an ordinary desktop computer, making it accessible for many hospitals and clinics.

Next, the researchers are working to refine the algorithms and explore applications. They are combining their computational adaptive optics with graphics processors, looking forward to real-time in-vivo applications for surgery, minimally invasive biopsy and more.  

Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: Research and Development Dependencies to 2020

In 2011, CSIRO undertook a national study into Earth observation data dependencies and continuity issues for the Australian research and development sector. Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: Research and Development Dependencies to 2020 (CEODA-R&D) is the report of the study.

Downloads

• Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: Research and Development Dependencies to 2020 (pdf - 3.2mb)
• Continuity of Earth Observation Data for Australia: Research and Development Dependencies to 2020 - Annex (pdf - 2.23mb)

NASA: Progress Docks To Station, Crew 30 Preps for Departure

The Expedition 30 crew members pose for an in-flight crew portrait in the European Space Agency's "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3. Credit NASA

The ISS Progress 47 cargo craft docked to the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment Sunday at 10:39 a.m. EDT.

The Russian resupply craft replenishes the Expedition 30 crew with 2.8 tons of food, fuel and supplies.

The cargo delivery includes 1,988 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,703 pounds of spare parts, resupply items and experiment hardware.

Aboard the station Monday, Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank and Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin continued to prepare for their return to Earth, packing items and conducting a review of undocking and descent procedures for the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft that brought them to the orbiting laboratory back in November.

The trio is scheduled to undock in the Soyuz on Friday at 4:19 a.m. and land in Kazakhstan a little over three hours later ending Expedition 30.

Remaining aboard the station will be Flight Engineers Don Pettit, Andre Kuipers and Oleg Kononenko, who will become the Expedition 31 crew.

They will be joined by Flight Engineers Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin, who are currently at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, preparing for their launch on May 14.

Layer 8: DARPA building test bed for virtual satellite clusters

Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will next month detail what technology they need to build a cluster of 4 wirelessly-interconnected satellites for a 6-month demonstration mission to launch in early to in mid-2015.

The testbed is yet another component of DAPRA's ambitious F6 program is intended to ultimately deploy what DARPA calls "fractionated modules" or individual small satellites that can act together as a traditional large spacecraft.

In such an environment, each module would support a unique capability, such as command and control, data handling, guidance, navigation and payload.

Modules could replicate the functions of other modules as well. Such modules can be physically connected once in orbit or remain nearby to each other in a loose formation, or cluster, harnessed together as a virtual satellite, DARPA stated.

Such architecture has the potential to significantly enhance the adaptability and survivability of satellites, while also shortening development time for complex space systems and reducing the barrier-to-entry for participation in the national security space industry, DARPA says.
DARPA says the F6 On-Orbit Demo Testbed will be made up of four satellite buses with a number of technical requirements including:

• Host a Government-furnished Swift Broadband Satellite transceiver which utilizes the Broadband Global Area Network supported by the Inmarsat I-4 GEO constellation to provide persistent (near 24/7) on-demand broadband connectivity from the F6 demo cluster in low-earth orbit (LEO) to the ground network;
• Supply and host a high-speed space-to-ground downlink transmitter and provide associated data exfiltration capability;
• Supply and host a high-performance computing element that incorporates innovative and cost-effective processor architectures;
• Host a Government-furnished mission sensor payload, while maximizing size, weight, power, and field-of-view capabilities.

The testbed satellites will need to hit on some important objectives such as:
1. The capability to perform semi-autonomous long-duration maintenance of a cluster and cluster network including the ability to add and remove modules;
2. The capability to securely share resources across the cluster network with real time guarantees and among payloads or users in multiple security domains;
3. The capability to autonomously reconfigure the cluster to retain safety and mission critical functionality in the face of network degradation or component failures;
4. The capability to perform a defensive cluster scatter and re-gather maneuver to rapidly evade a debris-like threat.

The testbed program will culminate in a 6-month on-orbit demo mission, with an estimated launch in early to mid-2015, DARPA said.  Details of the System F6 On-Orbit Demonstration Testbed will be shared on Thursday, May 3, 2012 in Arlington, VA.

The testbed announcement is but one part of the F6 program.  In November DARPA issued a call for computer chip and electronics manufacturers to help it build the wireless communication system is will use to facilitate F6.

From DARPA: "Essentially a network computing device, the F6 physically connects to and provides switching and routing functions between the spacecraft bus, the wireless inter-satellite transceivers, shared resource payloads (such as  high-powered computing, data storage, and other communications links) and mission payloads such as sensors.

 The F6 serves as the hardware platform running the software that enables cluster networking including the network protocol stack, real-time resource sharing middleware, cluster flight applications and mission-specific applications.

The F6 also provides cryptographic capability and other security features that enable a multi-level security environment. "

Small, wirelessly-networked, energy efficient systems with sophisticated security policies and powerful processors are commonplace in today's world.

They are not, however, state of the art in space, DARPA said.   "Today's space electronics are clunky," said Paul Eremenko, DARPA program manager in a statement.

"They provide limited processing speed and capability, they're bulky and power-hungry, and they are manufactured as bespoke, one-of-a-kind products."

DARPA has also detailed the system software that will let operators operate and control the F6 virtual satellite system.

The F6 Developer's Kit (FDK) is a set of open source interface standards, protocols, behaviors, and reference implementations thereof, necessary for any party, without any contractual relationship to any System F6 performer, to develop a new module that can fully participate in a fractionated cluster.

Wheels Stopped, Discovery, Welcome Home to Smithsonian

Click on the link to View Zoomable Hi-Res Image

The tow vehicle, beeping while moving backward, tugged Discovery into place in fits and starts, her arrival crew making sure she was aligned perfectly on the floor.

One final movement forward and the United Space Alliance team member signaled to the tow vehicle to shut down yelling, “That’s it!” There were scattered hollers and applause, and then silence.

It felt like it should have been a more familiar and official phrase, spoken after every shuttle landing: “Houston, Discovery. Wheels stopped. Welcome home.”

Astronaut Alan Poindexter, once commander of Discovery on STS-131, walked past her and said heavily, “She looks great, but she’s in the wrong hangar.”

The week was full of both excitement and heavy hearts as the one time daily pride of thousands of NASA workers became the proud new attraction for the residents of the Washington, DC area.

They embraced her with thrilled oohs and ahs during her flyover and cheers as she moved over to the museum flanked by rows of astronauts and shuttle workers.

NASA Image: A New View of the Tarantula Nebula

To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs. 

Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/L.Townsley et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI; Infrared: NASA/JPL/PSU/L.Townsley et al.

A new image from all three of NASA's Great Observatories, Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer, has also been created to mark the event.

The nebula is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest star-forming regions located close to the Milky Way.

At the center of 30 Doradus, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation along with powerful winds.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory detects gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by these stellar winds and also by supernova explosions.

These X-rays, colored blue in this composite image, come from shock fronts--similar to sonic booms--formed by this high-energy stellar activity.

The Hubble data in the composite image, colored green, reveals the light from these massive stars along with different stages of star birth, including embryonic stars a few thousand years old still wrapped in cocoons of dark gas.

Infrared emission data from Spitzer, seen in red, shows cooler gas and dust that have giant bubbles carved into them. These bubbles are sculpted by the same searing radiation and strong winds that comes from the massive stars at the center of 30 Doradus.

Santorini: The Greek volcano Thera, Behind the Legend of Atlantis, Re-Erupts

One of the largest volcanic eruptions in the past 10,000 years occurred in approximately 1620 BC on the volcanic island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea. 

Following the 1620 BC eruption, much of the previous island of Santorini was destroyed or submerged; this event may have been the inspiration for the legend of the lost continent of Atlantis.

CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Thera, the volcano that may have given rise to the legend of Atlantis has awakened, researchers say.

The cataclysmic eruptions of Thera on the Greek isle of Santorini about 3,600 years ago that spewed forth about 9.5 to 14.3 cubic miles (40 to 60 cubic kilometers) of lava devastated the ancient seafaring Minoan civilization, potentially inspiring the legend of the lost city of Atlantis.

From the air, the resulting caldera, or volcanic crater, appears as a small cluster within the larger collection of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

Over the next four millennia, the largely underwater caldera at Santorini has experienced a series of smaller eruptions, with five such outbursts in the past 600 years, ending most recently in 1950.

After a 60-year lull, Santorini awakened in January 2011 with a swarm of tremors, each magnitude 3.2 or less, new GPS research has revealed.

Magma on the move
Investigators had installed a GPS monitoring system in the area in 2006. These sensors keep track of their location in space, and can thus shed light on when the Earth is moving.

The scientists found that by June 2011, the 22 GPS stations had been pushed 0.2 to 1.3 inches (5 to 32 millimeters) farther from the caldera than they had been just six months earlier.

The researchers then improved the existing GPS stations and installed two more GPS stations, and data from September 2011 to January 2012 showed the land near the volcano was swelling at an accelerating rate, reaching 7 inches (180 mm) of growth per year.

Computer models of the deforming Earth suggested the swelling was due to an influx of nearly 500 million cubic feet (14.1 million cubic meters) of magma into a chamber 2.5 to 3.1 miles (4 to 5 kilometers) below the surface.

The scientists note this ongoing influx of magma does not necessarily signal an impending explosion — this swelling is only a fraction of that behind the Minoan eruption. [10 Wild Volcano Facts]

"We've witnessed similar deformation events at other large calderas — Yellowstone, Long Valley California, and Campi Flegrei — without eruption," said researcher Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"Globally, we've observed that on average, 90 percent of magmatic intrusion events do not reach the surface."

"However, we cannot say for certain that this will not erupt either," Newman toldreporters. "Every volcano is somewhat different, and thus we cannot yet directly relate what we've learned at other volcanoes and apply them with complete confidence to this one." And, even a small eruption can spew dangerous ash, or trigger landslides and tsunamis, the scientists cautioned.