TY - JOUR A1 - Ferrein, Alexander A1 - Meyer, Thomas T1 - A Brief Overview of Artificial Intelligence in South Africa JF - AI Magazine N2 - South Africa in recent years is the establishment of a number of research hubs involved in AI activities ranging from mobile robotics and computational intelligence, to knowledge representation and reasoning, and human language technologies. In this survey we take the reader through a quick tour of the research being conducted at these hubs, and touch on an initiative to maintain and extend the current level of interest in AI research in the country. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v33i1.2357 SN - 0738-4602 VL - 33 IS - 1 SP - 99 EP - 101 PB - AAAI CY - Menlo Park ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ringbeck, Thorsten A1 - Schwarte, Rudolf A1 - Buxbaum, Bernd ED - Korevaar, Eric John T1 - Introduction of a new opto-electrical phase-locked loop in CMOS technology: the PMD-PLL T2 - Optical wireless communications II / [SPIE Conference on Optical Wireless Communications II], 22 September 1999, Boston, Massachusetts. - (SPIE proceedings series ; 3850) Y1 - 1999 SN - 0-8194-3443-4 SN - 0038-7355 SN - 0361-0748 SN - 0277-786X N1 - Conference on Optical Wireless Communications <2, 1999, Boston, Mass. SP - 108 EP - 116 PB - SPIE CY - Bellingham, Wash. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bragard, Michael A1 - van Hoek, H. A1 - De Doncker, R. W. T1 - A major design step in IETO concept realization that allows overcurrent protection and pushes limits of switching performance JF - IEEE transactions on power electronics N2 - This paper presents the latest prototype of the integrated emitter turn-off thyristor concept, which potentially ranks among thyristor high-power devices like the gate turn-off thyristor and the integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT). Due to modifications of the external driver stage and mechanical press-pack design optimization, this prototype allows for full device characterization. The turn-off capability was increased to 1600 A with an active silicon area of 823mm2 . This leads to a transient peak power of 672.1kW/cm² . Within this paper, measurements and concept assessment are presented and a comparison to state-of-the-art IGCT devices is provided. Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2012.2189136 SN - 0885-8993 VL - 27 IS - 9 SP - 4163 EP - 4171 PB - IEEE CY - New York ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bragard, Michael A1 - Gottschlich, J. A1 - De Doncker, R. W. T1 - Design and realization of a credit card size driver stage for high power thyristor based devices with integrated MOS structure T2 - 2011 IEEE 8th International Conference on Power Electronics and ECCE Asia (ICPE & ECCE 2011) : Jeju, South Korea, 30 May 2011 - 3 June 2011 / [co-sponsored by the Korean Institute of Power Electronics ...] Y1 - 2011 SN - 978-1-61284-958-4 (Print) SN - 978-1-61284-956-0 (Online) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/ICPE.2011.5944661 SP - 1182 EP - 1189 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frauenrath, Tobias A1 - Hezel, Fabian A1 - Renz, Wolfgang A1 - de Geyer d'Orth, Thibaut A1 - Dieringer, Matthias A1 - von Knobelsdorf-Brenkenhoff, Florian A1 - Prothmann, Marcel A1 - Schulz-Menger, Jeanette A1 - Niendorf, Thoralf T1 - Acoustic cardiac triggering: a practical solution for synchronization and gating of cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 7 Tesla JF - Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance N2 - Background To demonstrate the applicability of acoustic cardiac triggering (ACT) for imaging of the heart at ultrahigh magnetic fields (7.0 T) by comparing phonocardiogram, conventional vector electrocardiogram (ECG) and traditional pulse oximetry (POX) triggered 2D CINE acquisitions together with (i) a qualitative image quality analysis, (ii) an assessment of the left ventricular function parameter and (iii) an examination of trigger reliability and trigger detection variance derived from the signal waveforms. Results ECG was susceptible to severe distortions at 7.0 T. POX and ACT provided waveforms free of interferences from electromagnetic fields or from magneto-hydrodynamic effects. Frequent R-wave mis-registration occurred in ECG-triggered acquisitions with a failure rate of up to 30% resulting in cardiac motion induced artifacts. ACT and POX triggering produced images free of cardiac motion artefacts. ECG showed a severe jitter in the R-wave detection. POX also showed a trigger jitter of approximately Δt = 72 ms which is equivalent to two cardiac phases. ACT showed a jitter of approximately Δt = 5 ms only. ECG waveforms revealed a standard deviation for the cardiac trigger offset larger than that observed for ACT or POX waveforms. Image quality assessment showed that ACT substantially improved image quality as compared to ECG (image quality score at end-diastole: ECG = 1.7 ± 0.5, ACT = 2.4 ± 0.5, p = 0.04) while the comparison between ECG vs. POX gated acquisitions showed no significant differences in image quality (image quality score: ECG = 1.7 ± 0.5, POX = 2.0 ± 0.5, p = 0.34). Conclusions The applicability of acoustic triggering for cardiac CINE imaging at 7.0 T was demonstrated. ACT's trigger reliability and fidelity are superior to that of ECG and POX. ACT promises to be beneficial for cardiovascular magnetic resonance at ultra-high field strengths including 7.0 T. KW - Interval Time Series KW - Image Quality Score KW - Image Quality Assessment KW - Sound Pressure Level KW - Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1532-429X-12-67 SN - 1532-429X VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Martin, Conrad A1 - Frauenrath, Tobias A1 - Özerdem, Celal A1 - Renz, Wolfgang A1 - Niendorf, Thoralf T1 - Development and evaluation of a small and mobile Magneto Alert Sensor (MALSE) to support safety requirements for magnetic resonance imaging JF - European Radiology N2 - Objective The purpose of this study is to (i) design a small and mobile Magnetic field ALert SEnsor (MALSE), (ii) to carefully evaluate its sensors to their consistency of activation/deactivation and sensitivity to magnetic fields, and (iii) to demonstrate the applicability of MALSE in 1.5 T, 3.0 T and 7.0 T MR fringe field environments. Methods MALSE comprises a set of reed sensors, which activate in response to their exposure to a magnetic field. The activation/deactivation of reed sensors was examined by moving them in/out of the fringe field generated by 7TMR. Results The consistency with which individual reed sensors would activate at the same field strength was found to be 100% for the setup used. All of the reed switches investigated required a substantial drop in ambient magnetic field strength before they deactivated. Conclusions MALSE is a simple concept for alerting MRI staff to a ferromagnetic object being brought into fringe magnetic fields which exceeds MALSEs activation magnetic field. MALSE can easily be attached to ferromagnetic objects within the vicinity of a scanner, thus creating a barrier for hazardous situations induced by ferromagnetic parts which should not enter the vicinity of an MR-system to occur. KW - MRI KW - MR safety KW - Magneto alert sensor KW - High field MRI KW - Uktrahigh field MRI Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-011-2153-z SN - 1432-1084 VL - 21 SP - 2187 EP - 2192 PB - Springer CY - Berlin, Heidelberg ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Penne, Jochen A1 - Profittlich, Martin A1 - Ringbeck, Thorsten A1 - Buxbaum, Bernd ED - D, Nicola D'Apuzzo T1 - Touchless detailed 3D scan of human hand anatomy using time-of-flight cameras T2 - Proceedings of the International Conference on 3D Body Scanning Technologies : Lugano, Switzerland, 19-20 October 2010 Y1 - 2010 SN - 978-3-033-02714-5 SP - 361 EP - 369 PB - Hometrica Consulting CY - Zürich ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schwarte, Rudolf A1 - Buxbaum, Bernd A1 - Heinol, Horst-Guenther A1 - Xu, Zhanping A1 - Ringbeck, Thorsten A1 - Zang, Zhigang T1 - Novel 3D-vision systems based on layout optimized PMD-structures T2 - Proceedings / OPTO 98, Internationaler Kongress und Fachausstellung für Optische Sensorik, Messtechnik und Elektronik, 18. - 20. Mai 1998, Kongreßzentrum Erfurt Y1 - 1998 N1 - Internationaler Kongress und Fachausstellung für Optische Sensorik, Messtechnik & Elektronik <3, 1998, Erfurt> ; International Congress and Exhibition on Optoelectronics, Optical Sensors and Measuring Techniques <3, 1998, Erfurt> ; OPTO <3, 1998, Erfurt> SP - 197 EP - 202 PB - ACS Organisations GmbH CY - Wunsdorf ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dieringer, Matthias A. A1 - Renz, Wolfgang A1 - Lindel, Tomasz D. A1 - Seifert, Frank A1 - Frauenrath, Tobias A1 - von Knobelsdorf-Brenkenhoff, Florian A1 - Waiczies, Helmar A1 - Hoffmann, Werner A1 - Rieger, Jan A1 - Pfeiffer, Harald A1 - Ittermann, Bernd A1 - Schulz-Menger, Jeanette A1 - Niendorf, Thoralf T1 - Design and application of a four-channel transmit/receive surface coil for functional cardiac imaging at 7T JF - Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging N2 - Purpose To design and evaluate a four-channel cardiac transceiver coil array for functional cardiac imaging at 7T. Materials and Methods A four-element cardiac transceiver surface coil array was developed with two rectangular loops mounted on an anterior former and two rectangular loops on a posterior former. specific absorption rate (SAR) simulations were performed and a Burn:x-wiley:10531807:media:JMRI22451:tex2gif-stack-1 calibration method was applied prior to obtain 2D FLASH CINE (mSENSE, R = 2) images from nine healthy volunteers with a spatial resolution of up to 1 × 1 × 2.5 mm3. Results Tuning and matching was found to be better than 10 dB for all subjects. The decoupling (S21) was measured to be >18 dB between neighboring loops, >20 dB for opposite loops, and >30 dB for other loop combinations. SAR values were well within the limits provided by the IEC. Imaging provided clinically acceptable signal homogeneity with an excellent blood-myocardium contrast applying the Burn:x-wiley:10531807:media:JMRI22451:tex2gif-stack-2 calibration approach. Conclusion A four-channel cardiac transceiver coil array for 7T was built, allowing for cardiac imaging with clinically acceptable signal homogeneity and an excellent blood-myocardium contrast. Minor anatomic structures, such as pericardium, mitral, and tricuspid valves and their apparatus, as well as trabeculae, were accurately delineated. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.22451 SN - 1522-2586 VL - 33 IS - 3 SP - 736 EP - 741 PB - Wiley-Liss CY - New York ER - TY - GEN A1 - Tkachenko, Valeriy A1 - von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff, Florian A1 - Kleindienst, Denise A1 - Winter, Lukas A1 - Rieger, Jan A1 - Frauenrath, Tobias A1 - Dieringer, Matthias A. A1 - Santoro, Davide A1 - Niendorf, Thoralf A1 - Schulz-Menger, Jeanette T1 - Cardiovasular MR at 7Tesla: assessment of the right ventricle T2 - 2012 ISMRM Annual Meeting Proceedings N2 - The assessment of the right ventricle (RV) is a challenge in today's cardiology, but of growing clinical impact regarding patient prognosis in different cardiac diseases. The detection and differentiation of small wall motion abnormalities may help to enhance the differentiation of cardiomyopathies including Arrhythmogenic Rightventricular Cardiomyopathy. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at 1.5T is the accepted gold standard for RV quantification. The higher spatial resolution achievable at ultrahigh field strength (UHF) offers the potential to gain new insights into the structure and function of the RV. To approach this goal accurate RV chamber quantification at 7T has to be proven. Consequently this study examines the feasibility of assessment of RV dimensions and function at 7T using improved spatial resolution enabled by the intrinsic sensitivity gain of UHF CMR. For this purpose, a dedicated 16 channel TX/RX RF coil array is used together with 2D CINE fast gradient echo (FGRE) imaging. For comparison RV chamber quantification is conducted at 1.5T using a SSFP based state of the art clinical protocol. Y1 - 2012 SN - 1545-4428 N1 - ISMRM 20th Annual Meeting & Exhibition, 5-11 May 2012, Melbourne, Australia ER -