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Loren W. Nolte

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Box 90291, Durham, NC 27708-0291
3471 CIEMAS, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications


Intrinsic structure study of whale vocalizations

Conference OCEANS 2016 MTS/IEEE Monterey, OCE 2016 · November 28, 2016 Whale vocalizations can be modeled as polynomial-phase signals, which are widely used in radar and sonar applications. Such signals lie on a nonlinear manifold parameterized by polynomial phase coefficients. In this paper, we apply manifold learning method ... Full text Cite

Impact of breast structure on lesion detection in breast tomosynthesis, a simulation study.

Journal Article J Med Imaging (Bellingham) · July 2016 This study aims to characterize the effect of background tissue density and heterogeneity on the detection of irregular masses in breast tomosynthesis, while demonstrating the capability of the sophisticated tools that can be used in the design, implementa ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of realistic physical breast phantoms matched to virtual breast phantoms based on human subject data.

Journal Article Med Phys · July 2015 PURPOSE: Physical phantoms are essential for the development, optimization, and evaluation of x-ray breast imaging systems. Recognizing the major effect of anatomy on image quality and clinical performance, such phantoms should ideally reflect the three-di ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of breast structure on lesion detection in breast tomosynthesis

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · January 1, 2015 Virtual clinical trials (VCT) can be carefully designed to inform, orient, or potentially replace clinical trials. The focus of this study was to demonstrate the capability of the sophisticated tools that can be used in the design, implementation, and perf ... Full text Cite

Development and application of a suite of 4-D virtual breast phantoms for optimization and evaluation of breast imaging systems.

Journal Article IEEE Trans Med Imaging · July 2014 Mammography is currently the most widely utilized tool for detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. However, in women with dense breast tissue, tissue overlap may obscure lesions. Digital breast tomosynthesis can reduce tissue overlap. Furthermore, imagin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of matched virtual and physical breast phantoms based on patient data

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · 2013 Physical phantoms are essential for the development, optimization, and clinical evaluation of x-ray systems. These phantoms are used for various tests such as quality assurance testing, system characterization, reconstruction evaluation, and dosimetry. The ... Full text Cite

Application of a dynamic 4D anthropomorphic breast phantom in contrast-based imaging system optimization: Dual-energy or temporal subtraction?

Journal Article Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) · August 15, 2012 We previously developed a dynamic 4D anthropomorphic breast phantom, which can be used to optimize contrast-based breast imaging systems, accounting for patient variability and contrast kinetics [1]. In this study we aim to compare the performance of contr ... Full text Cite

Development of a dynamic 4D anthropomorphic breast phantom for contrast-based breast imaging

Conference Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · May 4, 2012 Mammography is currently the most widely accepted tool for detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. However, the sensitivity of mammography is reduced in women with dense breast tissue due to tissue overlap, which may obscure lesions. Digital breast tomos ... Full text Cite

An anthropomorphic breast model for breast imaging simulation and optimization.

Journal Article Acad Radiol · May 2011 RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Optimization studies for x-ray-based breast imaging systems using computer simulation can greatly benefit from a phantom capable of modeling varying anatomical variability across different patients. This study aimed to develop a t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Computerized detection of low SNR cases in NSECT: An ROC-based sensitivity analysis

Journal Article IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record · January 1, 2011 Neutron stimulated emission computed tomography (NSECT) is an imaging technique that uses gamma energy spectra emitted from inelastic scattering of fast neutrons to extract quantitative elemental information from tissue. The NSECT acquisition system consis ... Full text Cite

Bayesian quantitative electrophysiology and its multiple applications in bioengineering.

Journal Article IEEE reviews in biomedical engineering · January 2010 Bayesian interpretation of observations began in the early 1700s, and scientific electrophysiology began in the late 1700s. For two centuries these two fields developed mostly separately. In part that was because quantitative Bayesian interpretation, in pr ... Full text Cite

Decision-level fusion of EEG and pupil features for single-trial visual detection analysis.

Journal Article IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering · July 2009 Several recent studies have reported success in applying EEG-based signal analysis to achieve accurate single-trial classification of responses to visual target detection. Pupil responses are proposed as a complementary modality that can support improved a ... Full text Cite

Bayesian analysis of fiber impedance measurements.

Journal Article Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference · December 1, 2007 The resistivities of microscale components of excitable tissue include the longitudinal intracellular and interstitial resistivities and the membrane resistivity. Measurements of these tissue micro impedances have rarely been obtained, mainly because of th ... Cite

Decision fusion of circulating markers for breast cancer detection in premenopausal women

Chapter · December 1, 2007 Current mammographic screeningfor breast cancer is less effective for younger women. To complement mammography for premenopausal women, we investigated the feasibility screening test using 98 blood serum proteins. Because the data set was very noisy and co ... Full text Cite

Decision fusion of ground-penetrating radar and metal detector algorithms - A robust approach

Journal Article IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing · February 1, 2007 Numerous detection algorithms, using various sensor modalities, have been developed for the detection of mines in cluttered and noisy backgrounds. The performance for each detection algorithm is typically reported in terms of the receiver operating charact ... Full text Cite

Bayesian analysis of fiber impedance measurements.

Journal Article Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · January 2007 The resistivities of microscale components of excitable tissue include the longitudinal intracellular and interstitial resistivities and the membrane resistivity. Measurements of these tissue micro impedances have rarely been obtained, mainly because of th ... Full text Cite

Bayesian analysis of fiber impedance measurements.

Journal Article Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference · 2007 Cite

Optimized approach to decision fusion of heterogeneous data for breast cancer diagnosis.

Journal Article Med Phys · August 2006 As more diagnostic testing options become available to physicians, it becomes more difficult to combine various types of medical information together in order to optimize the overall diagnosis. To improve diagnostic performance, here we introduce an approa ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effect of data set size on computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer: Comparing decision fusion to a linear discriminant

Journal Article Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE · June 23, 2006 Data sets with relatively few observations (cases) in medical research are common, especially if the data are expensive or difficult to collect. Such small sample sizes usually do not provide enough information for computer models to learn data patterns we ... Full text Cite

Bayesian sonar detection performance prediction with source position uncertainty using SWellEx-96 vertical array data

Journal Article IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering · April 1, 2006 Predicting sonar detection performance is important for the development of sonar systems. The classical sonar equation cannot accurately predict sonar detection performance because it does not incorporate the effect of ocean environmental and source positi ... Full text Cite