University of Zurich

About: University of Zurich is a education organization based out in Zurich, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Transplantation. The organization has 50842 authors who have published 124042 publications receiving 5304521 citations. The organization is also known as: UZH & Uni Zurich.

The Image Biomarker Standardization Initiative: Standardized Quantitative Radiomics for High-Throughput Image-based Phenotyping

Abstract: Background Radiomic features may quantify characteristics present in medical imaging. However, the lack of standardized definitions and validated reference values have hampered clinical use. Purpose To standardize a set of 174 radiomic features. Materials and Methods Radiomic features were assessed in three phases. In phase I, 487 features were derived from the basic set of 174 features. Twenty-five research teams with unique radiomics software implementations computed feature values directly from a digital phantom, without any additional image processing. In phase II, 15 teams computed values for 1347 derived features using a CT image of a patient with lung cancer and predefined image processing configurations. In both phases, consensus among the teams on the validity of tentative reference values was measured through the frequency of the modal value and classified as follows: less than three matches, weak; three to five matches, moderate; six to nine matches, strong; 10 or more matches, very strong. In the final phase (phase III), a public data set of multimodality images (CT, fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET, and T1-weighted MRI) from 51 patients with soft-tissue sarcoma was used to prospectively assess reproducibility of standardized features. Results Consensus on reference values was initially weak for 232 of 302 features (76.8%) at phase I and 703 of 1075 features (65.4%) at phase II. At the final iteration, weak consensus remained for only two of 487 features (0.4%) at phase I and 19 of 1347 features (1.4%) at phase II. Strong or better consensus was achieved for 463 of 487 features (95.1%) at phase I and 1220 of 1347 features (90.6%) at phase II. Overall, 169 of 174 features were standardized in the first two phases. In the final validation phase (phase III), most of the 169 standardized features could be excellently reproduced (166 with CT; 164 with PET; and 164 with MRI). Conclusion A set of 169 radiomics features was standardized, which enabled verification and calibration of different radiomics software. © RSNA, 2020 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Kuhl and Truhn in this issue.

LHAPDF6: parton density access in the LHC precision era

Abstract: The Fortran LHAPDF library has been a long-term workhorse in particle physics, providing standardised access to parton density functions for experimental and phenomenological purposes alike, following on from the venerable PDFLIB package During Run 1 of the LHC, however, several fundamental limitations in LHAPDF’s design have became deeply problematic, restricting the usability of the library for important physics-study procedures and providing dangerous avenues by which to silently obtain incorrect results In this paper we present the LHAPDF 6 library, a ground-up re-engineering of the PDFLIB/LHAPDF paradigm for PDF access which removes all limits on use of concurrent PDF sets, massively reduces static memory requirements, offers improved CPU performance, and fixes fundamental bugs in multi-set access to PDF metadata The new design, restricted for now to interpolated PDFs, uses centralised numerical routines and a powerful cascading metadata system to decouple software releases from provision of new PDF data and allow completely general parton content More than 200 PDF sets have been migrated from LHAPDF 5 to the new universal data format, via a stringent quality control procedure LHAPDF 6 is supported by many Monte Carlo generators and other physics programs, in some cases via a full set of compatibility routines, and is recommended for the demanding PDF access needs of LHC Run 2 and beyond

The state and fate of Himalayan glaciers

Abstract: Himalayan glaciers are a focus of public and scientific debate. Prevailing uncertainties are of major concern because some projections of their future have serious implications for water resources. Most Himalayan glaciers are losing mass at rates similar to glaciers elsewhere, except for emerging indications of stability or mass gain in the Karakoram. A poor understanding of the processes affecting them, combined with the diversity of climatic conditions and the extremes of topographical relief within the region, makes projections speculative. Nevertheless, it is unlikely that dramatic changes in total runoff will occur soon, although continuing shrinkage outside the Karakoram will increase the seasonality of runoff, affect irrigation and hydropower, and alter hazards.

Neuromorphic Silicon Neuron Circuits

Abstract: Hardware implementations of spiking neurons can be extremely useful for a large variety of applications, ranging from high-speed modeling of large-scale neural systems to real-time behaving systems, to bidirectional brain-machine interfaces. The specific circuit solutions used to implement silicon neurons depend on the application requirements. In this paper we describe the most common building blocks and techniques used to implement these circuits, and present an overview of a wide range of neuromorphic silicon neurons, which implement different computational models, ranging from biophysically realistic and conductance-based Hodgkin-Huxley models to bi-dimensional generalized adaptive integrate and fire models. We compare the different design methodologies used for each silicon neuron design described, and demonstrate their features with experimental results, measured from a wide range of fabricated VLSI chips.