This open access book gives a complete and comprehensive introduction to the fields of medical imaging systems, as designed for a broad range of applications. The authors of the book first explain the foundations of system theory and image processing, before highlighting several modalities in a dedicated chapter. The initial focus is on modalities that are closely related to traditional camera systems such as endoscopy and microscopy. This is followed by more complex image formation processes: magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray projection imaging, computed tomography, X-ray phase-contrast imaging, nuclear imaging, ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography.

Passenger screening at commercial airports in the United States has gone through significant changes since the events of September 11, 2001. In response to increased concern over terrorist attacks on aircrafts, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has deployed security systems of advanced imaging technology (AIT) to screen passengers at airports. To date (December 2014), TSA has deployed AITs in U.S. airports of two different technologies that use different types of radiation to detect threats: millimeter wave and X-ray backscatter AIT systems. X-ray backscatter AITs were deployed in U.S. airports in 2008 and subsequently removed from all airports by June 2013 due to privacy concerns. TSA is looking to deploy a second-generation X-ray backscatter AIT equipped with privacy software to eliminate production of an image of the person being screened in order to alleviate these concerns. This report reviews previous studies as well as current processes used by the Department of Homeland Security and equipment manufacturers to estimate radiation exposures resulting from backscatter X-ray advanced imaging technology system use in screening air travelers. Airport Passenger Screening Using Backscatter X-Ray Machines examines whether exposures comply with applicable health and safety standards for public and occupational exposures to ionizing radiation and whether system design, operating procedures, and maintenance procedures are appropriate to prevent over exposures of travelers and operators to ionizing radiation. This study aims to address concerns about exposure to radiation from X-ray backscatter AITs raised by Congress, individuals within the scientific community, and others.

This volume continues the tradition of the Advances series. It contains contributions from experts in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. The articles contain some review material, but are intended to provide a comprehensive picture of recent important developments in AMO physics. Both theoretical and experimental articles are included in the volume. - International experts - Comprehensive articles - New developments

A wide range of atomic and solid state phenomena is studied today by means of x-ray excitation or inner-shell ionization, as this volume strikingly illustrates. The strong link between these two fields of investigation is partly the result of the extensive developments within each and also largely due to the broad variety of theoretical and experimental techniques now available. All im portant recent advances are to be found highlighted here; most are substantially reviewed. Two dominant research threads are evident in, the chapters of this book. While clearly distinguishable, they are inescapably en twined. One is concerned with x-ray processes as probes for the study of solid-state effects, the other with the measurement and interpretation of inner-shell and bremsstrahlung processes in iso lated systems. In the first, a given material is made the target in an x-ray tube; in the second, free atoms form the target while a solid material can be used when the effect of the solid environ ment on the excitation processes is negligible. Thus, although inner-shell ionization is predominantly concerned with atoms and x-ray processes with the solid state, there are large regions of overlap which have arisen when a given research technique has de veloped from studies in both areas. To bring out these features we have arranged the chapters in the order: atomic, solid-state, chemical.

Ionization and Transition Probabilities is the first volume in Atomic Inner Shell Processes which describes the relative status of the physics of atomic inner shells. Both volumes can be applied and used in various traditional scientific disciplines. Volume I consists of 11 chapters written by different authors, each an expert in the field. The book discusses mainly the inner-shell excitation by electrons, heavy-charged particles, and photons and the atomic excitation as seen in nuclear decay. The theory of radiative and radiationless transitions is also explored in terms of single-particle descriptions and many-body approaches. Other major concepts covered in this comprehensive volume include the developments in theory of multiple decay processes; transition energies and their calculations; and energy shifts that are results of chemical environment and hyperfine interactions. This first volume serves as a valuable reference to many scientists and researchers in various fields like atomic and nuclear physics, astrophysics, chemistry, surface and materials science, and engineering or radiation shields.

The physics of atomic inner shells has undergone significant advances in recent years. Fast computers and new experimental tools, notably syn chrotron-radiation sources and heavy-ion accelerators, have greatly enhan ced the scope of problems that are accessible. The level of research activity is growing substantially; added incentives are provided by the importance of inner-shell processes in such diverse areas as plasma studies, astrophysics, laser technology, biology, medicine, and materials science. The main reason for all this exciting activity in atomic inner-shell physics, to be sure, lies in the significance of the fundamental problems that are coming within grasp. The large energies of many inner-shell processes cause relativistic and quantum-electrodynamic effects to become strong. Unique opportunities exist for delicate tests of such phenomena as the screening of the electron self-energy and the limits of validity of the present form of the frequency-dependent Breit interaction, to name but two. The many-body problem, which pervades virtually all of physics, presents somewhat less intractable aspects in the atomic inner-shell regime: correlations are relatively weak so that they can be treated perturbatively, and the basic potential is simple and known! The dynamics of inner-shell processes are characterized by exceedingly short lifetimes and high transition rates that strain perturbation theory to its limits and obliterate the traditional separation of excitation and deexcitation. These factors are only now being explored, as are interference phenomena between the various channels.

This book offers readers an overview of some of the most recent advances in the field of technology for X-ray medical imaging. Coverage includes both technology and applications in SPECT, PET and CT, with an in-depth review of the research topics from leading specialists in the field. Coverage includes conversion of the X-ray signal into analogue/digital value, as well as a review of CMOS chips for X-ray image sensors. Emphasis is on high-Z materials like CdTe, CZT and GaAs, since they offer the best implementation possibilities for direct conversion X-ray detectors. The discussion includes material challenges, detector operation physics and technology and readout integrated circuits required to detect signals processes by high-Z sensors. Authors contrast these emerging technologies with more established ones based on scintillator materials. This book is an excellent reference for people already working in the field as well as for people wishing to enter it.