Abstract: Purpose: Initial auto-adjustment of the window level WL and width WW applied to mammographic images. The proposed intensity windowing (IW) method is based on the maximization of the mutual information (MI) between a perceptual decomposition of the original 12-bit sources and their screen displayed 8-bit version. Besides zoom, color inversion and panning operations, IW is the most commonly performed task in daily screening and has a direct impact on diagnosis and the time involved in the process. Methods: The authors present a human visual system and perception-based algorithm named GRAIL (Gabor-relying adjustment of image levels). GRAIL initially measures a mammogram's quality based on the MI between the original instance and its Gabor-filtered derivations. From this point on, the algorithm performs an automatic intensity windowing process that outputs the WL/WW that best displays each mammogram for screening. GRAIL starts with the default, high contrast, wide dynamic range 12-bit data, and then maximizes the graphical information presented in ordinary 8-bit displays. Tests have been carried out with several mammogram databases. They comprise correlations and an ANOVA analysis with the manual IW levels established by a group of radiologists. A complete MATLAB implementation of GRAIL is available at . Results: Auto-leveled images show superior quality both perceptually and objectively compared to their full intensity range and compared to the application of other common methods like global contrast stretching (GCS). The correlations between the human determined intensity values and the ones estimated by our method surpass that of GCS. The ANOVA analysis with the upper intensity thresholds also reveals a similar outcome. GRAIL has also proven to specially perform better with images that contain micro-calcifications and/or foreign X-ray-opaque elements and with healthy BI-RADS A-type mammograms. It can also speed up the initial screening time by a mean of 4.5 s per image. Conclusions: A novel methodology is introduced that enables a quality-driven balancing of the WL/WW of mammographic images. This correction seeks the representation that maximizes the amount of graphical information contained in each image. The presented technique can contribute to the diagnosis and the overall efficiency of the breast screening session by suggesting, at the beginning, an optimal and customized windowing setting for each mammogram.

Abstract: A search for cosmic neutrino sources using the data collected with the ANTARES neutrino telescope between early 2007 and the end of 2015 is performed. For the first time, all neutrino interactions-charged and neutral-current interactions of all flavors-are considered in a search for point-like sources with the ANTARES detector. In previous analyses, only muon neutrino charged-current interactions were used. This is achieved by using a novel reconstruction algorithm for shower-like events in addition to the standard muon track reconstruction. The shower channel contributes about 23% of all signal events for an E-2 energy spectrum. No significant excess over background is found. The most signal-like cluster of events is located at (alpha, delta) = (343.8 degrees, 23.5 degrees) with a significance of 1.9 sigma. The neutrino flux sensitivity of the search is about E(2)d Phi/dE = 6 x 10(-9) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) for declinations from -90 degrees up to -42 degrees, and below 10(-8) GeV cm(-2) s(-1) for declinations up to 5 degrees. The directions of 106 source candidates and 13 muon track events from the IceCube high-energy sample events are investigated for a possible neutrino signal and upper limits on the signal flux are determined.

Abstract: A novel algorithm to reconstruct neutrino-induced particle showers within the ANTARES neutrino telescope is presented. The method achieves a median angular resolution of 6. for shower energies below 100TeV. Applying this algorithm to 6 years of data taken with theANTARES detector, 8 events with reconstructed shower energies above 10TeV are observed. This is consistent with the expectation of about 5 events from atmospheric backgrounds, but also compatible with diffuse astrophysical flux measurements by the IceCube collaboration, from which 2-4 additional events are expected. A 90% C.L. upper limit on the diffuse astrophysical neutrino flux with a value per neutrino flavour of E-2.Phi(90%) = 4.9 . 10(-8) GeV.cm(-2).s(-1).sr(-1) is set, applicable to the energy range from 23TeV to 7.8PeV, assuming an unbroken E-2 spectrum and neutrino flavour equipartition at Earth.

Abstract: ANTARES is currently the largest neutrino telescope operating in the Northern Hemisphere, aiming at the detection of high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources. Neutrino telescopes constantly monitor at least one complete hemisphere of the sky, and are thus well-suited to detect neutrinos produced in transient astrophysical sources. A time-dependent search has been applied to a list of 33 X-ray binaries undergoing high flaring activities in satellite data (RXTE/ASM, MAXI and Swift/BAT) and during hardness transition states in the 2008-2012 period. The background originating from interactions of charged cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere is drastically reduced by requiring a directional and temporal coincidence with astrophysical phenomena. The results of this search are presented together with comparisons between the neutrino flux upper limits and the neutrino flux predictions from astrophysical models. The neutrino flux upper limits resulting from this search limit the jet parameter space for some astrophysical models.

Abstract: The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observatories recently discovered gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral. A short gamma-ray burst (GRB) that followed the merger of this binary was also recorded by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (Fermi-GBM), and the Anti-Coincidence Shield for the Spectrometer for the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), indicating particle acceleration by the source. The precise location of the event was determined by optical detections of emission following the merger. We searched for high-energy neutrinos from the merger in the GeV-EeV energy range using the ANTARES, IceCube, and Pierre Auger Observatories. No neutrinos directionally coincident with the source were detected within +/- 500 s around the merger time. Additionally, no MeV neutrino burst signal was detected coincident with the merger. We further carried out an extended search in the direction of the source for high-energy neutrinos within the 14 day period following the merger, but found no evidence of emission. We used these results to probe dissipation mechanisms in relativistic outflows driven by the binary neutron star merger. The non-detection is consistent with model predictions of short GRBs observed at a large off-axis angle.