Personalized X-Ray Reconstruction of the Proximal Femur via Intensity-Based Non-rigid 2D-3D Registration

This paper presents a new approach for reconstructing a patient-specific shape model and internal relative intensity distribution of the proximal femur from a limited number (e.g., 2) of calibrated C-arm images or X-ray radiographs. Our approach uses independent shape and appearance models that are learned from a set of training data to encode the a priori information about the proximal femur. An intensity-based non-rigid 2D-3D registration algorithm is then proposed to deformably fit the learned models to the input images. The fitting is conducted iteratively by minimizing the dissimilarity between the input images and the associated digitally reconstructed radiographs of the learned models together with regularization terms encoding the strain energy of the forward deformation and the smoothness of the inverse deformation. Comprehensive experiments conducted on images of cadaveric femurs and on clinical datasets demonstrate the efficacy of the present approach.

The macromolecular complex of ICP and falcipain-2 from Plasmodium: preparation, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis

The malaria parasite Plasmodium depends on the tight control of cysteine-protease activity throughout its life cycle. Recently, the characterization of a new class of potent inhibitors of cysteine proteases (ICPs) secreted by Plasmodium has been reported. Here, the recombinant production, purification and crystallization of the inhibitory C-terminal domain of ICP from P. berghei in complex with the P. falciparum haemoglobinase falcipain-2 is described. The 1:1 complex was crystallized in space group P4(3), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 71.15, c = 120.09 A. A complete diffraction data set was collected to a resolution of 2.6 A.

Line focusing for soft x-ray laser-plasma lasing

A computational study of line-focus generation was done using a self-written ray-tracing code and compared to experimental data. Two line-focusing geometries were compared, i.e., either exploiting the sagittal astigmatism of a tilted spherical mirror or using the spherical aberration of an off-axis- illuminated spherical mirror. Line focusing by means of astigmatism or spherical aberration showed identical results as expected for the equivalence of the two frames of reference. The variation of the incidence angle on the target affects the line-focus length, which affects the amplification length such that as long as the irradiance is above the amplification threshold, it is advantageous to have a longer line focus. The amplification threshold is physically dependent on operating parameters and plasma-column conditions and in the present study addresses four possible cases.