Paper and proposal deadlines are important milestones, conjuring up emotional memories to researchers. The question is if in the daily challenging world of scholarly research, deadlines truly incur higher sympathetic loading than the alternative. Here we report results from a longitudinal, in the wild study of n = 10 researchers working in the presence and absence of impeding deadlines. Unlike the retrospective, questionnaire-based studies of research deadlines in the past, our study is real-time and multimodal, including physiological, observational, and psychometric measurements. The results suggest that deadlines do not significantly add to the sympathetic loading of researchers. Irrespective of deadlines, the researchers’ sympathetic activation is strongly associated with the amount of reading and writing they do, the extent of smartphone use, and the frequency of physical breaks they take. The latter likely indicates a natural mechanism for regulating sympathetic overactivity in deskbound research, which can inform the design of future break interfaces.
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null (Ed.)This work presents an interventional planning software to be used in conjunction with a robotic manipulator to perform transrectal MR guided prostate biopsies. The interventional software was designed taking in consideration a generic manipulator used under the two modes of operation: side-firing and end-firing of the biopsy needle. Studies were conducted with urologists using the software to plan virtual biopsies. The results show features of software relevant for operating efficiently under the two modes of operation.more » « less
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Heart disease is highly prevalent in developed countries, causing 1 in 4 deaths. In this work we propose a method for a fully automated 4D reconstruction of the left ventricle of the heart. This can provide accurate information regarding the heart wall motion and in particular the hemodynamics of the ventricles. Such metrics are crucial for detecting heart function anomalies that can be an indication of heart disease. Our approach is fast, modular and extensible. In our testing, we found that generating the 4D reconstruction from a set of 250 MRI images takes less than a minute. The amount of time saved as a result of our work could greatly benefit physicians and cardiologist as they diagnose and treat patients.more » « less
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This work presents a novel deep learning architecture called BNU-Net for the purpose of cardiac segmentation based on short-axis MRI images. Its name is derived from the Batch Normalized (BN) U-Net architecture for medical image segmentation. New generations of deep neural networks (NN) are called convolutional NN (CNN). CNNs like U-Net have been widely used for image classification tasks. CNNs are supervised training models which are trained to learn hierarchies of features automatically and robustly perform classification. Our architecture consists of an encoding path for feature extraction and a decoding path that enables precise localization. We compare this approach with a parallel approach named U-Net. Both BNU-Net and U-Net are cardiac segmentation approaches: while BNU-Net employs batch normalization to the results of each convolutional layer and applies an exponential linear unit (ELU) approach that operates as activation function, U-Net does not apply batch normalization and is based on Rectified Linear Units (ReLU). The presented work (i) facilitates various image preprocessing techniques, which includes affine transformations and elastic deformations, and (ii) segments the preprocessed images using the new deep learning architecture. We evaluate our approach on a dataset containing 805 MRI images from 45 patients. The experimental results reveal that our approach accomplishes comparable or better performance than other state-of-the-art approaches in terms of the Dice coefficient and the average perpendicular distance.more » « less
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The emerging potential of augmented reality (AR) to improve 3D medical image visualization for diagnosis, by immersing the user into 3D morphology is further enhanced with the advent of wireless head-mounted displays (HMD). Such information-immersive capabilities may also enhance planning and visualization of interventional procedures. To this end, we introduce a computational platform to generate an augmented reality holographic scene that fuses pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sets, segmented anatomical structures, and an actuated model of an interventional robot for performing MRI-guided and robot-assisted interventions. The interface enables the operator to manipulate the presented images and rendered structures using voice and gestures, as well as to robot control. The software uses forbidden-region virtual fixtures that alerts the operator of collisions with vital structures. The platform was tested with a HoloLens HMD in silico. To address the limited computational power of the HMD, we deployed the platform on a desktop PC with two-way communication to the HMD. Operation studies demonstrated the functionality and underscored the importance of interface customization to fit a particular operator and/or procedure, as well as the need for on-site studies to assess its merit in the clinical realm.more » « less
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Prostate biopsy is considered as a definitive way for diagnosing prostate malignancies. Urologists are currently moving towards MR-guided prostate biopsies over conventional transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsies for prostate cancer detection. Recently, robotic systems have started to emerge as an assistance tool for urologists to perform MR-guided prostate biopsies. However, these robotic assistance systems are designed for a specific clinical environment and cannot be adapted to modifications or changes applied to the clinical setting and/or workflow. This work presents the preliminary design of a cable-driven manipulator developed to be used in both MR scanners and MR-ultrasound fusion systems. The proposed manipulator design and functionality are evaluated on a simulated virtual environment. The simulation is created on an in-house developed interventional planning software to evaluate the ergonomics and usability. The results show that urologists can benefit from the proposed design of the manipulator and planning software to accurately perform biopsies of targeted areas in the prostate.more » « less
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Abstract Background User interfaces play a vital role in the planning and execution of an interventional procedure. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of using different user interfaces for planning transrectal robot‐assisted MR‐guided prostate biopsy (MRgPBx) in an augmented reality (AR) environment.
Method End‐user studies were conducted by simulating an MRgPBx system with end‐ and side‐firing modes. The information from the system to the operator was rendered on HoloLens as an output interface. Joystick, mouse/keyboard, and holographic menus were used as input interfaces to the system.
Results The studies indicated that using a joystick improved the interactive capacity and enabled operator to plan MRgPBx in less time. It efficiently captures the operator's commands to manipulate the augmented environment representing the state of MRgPBx system.
Conclusions The study demonstrates an alternative to conventional input interfaces to interact and manipulate an AR environment within the context of MRgPBx planning.
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Abstract Background This study presents user evaluation studies to assess the effect of information rendered by an interventional planning software on the operator's ability to plan transrectal magnetic resonance (MR)‐guided prostate biopsies using actuated robotic manipulators.
Methods An intervention planning software was developed based on the clinical workflow followed for MR‐guided transrectal prostate biopsies. The software was designed to interface with a generic virtual manipulator and simulate an intervention environment using 2D and 3D scenes. User studies were conducted with urologists using the developed software to plan virtual biopsies.
Results User studies demonstrated that urologists with prior experience in using 3D software completed the planning less time. 3D scenes were required to control all degrees‐of‐freedom of the manipulator, while 2D scenes were sufficient for planar motion of the manipulator.
Conclusions The study provides insights on using 2D versus 3D environment from a urologist's perspective for different operational modes of MR‐guided prostate biopsy systems.
