Cedars-Sinai's approach to the automation of gated perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is based on the identification of key procedural steps (processing, quantitation, reporting), each of which is then implemented, in completely automated fashion, by use of mathematic algorithms and logical rules combined into expert systems. Our current suite of software applications has been designed to be platform- and operating system-independent, and every algorithm is based on the same 3-dimensional sampling scheme for the myocardium. The widespread acceptance of quantitative software by the nuclear cardiology community (QGS alone is used at over 20,000 locations) has provided the opportunity for extensive validation of quantitative measurements of myocardial perfusion and function, in our opinion, helping to make nuclear cardiology the most accurate and reproducible modality available for the assessment of the human heart.

Expressions for the probability that a player wins a game, set or match of classical or tie-breaker tennis are obtained. Also, expressions for the distribution, the mean and the variance of the number of points in a game, set or match of classical or tie-breaker tennis are obtained. These results explain the long matches often previously observed in classical tennis between two players each with very effective serves on fast grass-court surfaces. The methodology used to derive these expressions could be used to obtain corresponding expressions for other "nested-type'' scoring systems. For example, tennis is 3-nested (game, set, match) whereas squash is only 2-nested (game, match).

Electrically coupled light-emitting diodes have been configured to demonstrate multiple light beams with correlated sub-shot-noise intensity fluctuations. Photocurrent covariance measurements of the two light beams from a pair of series-connected diodes show a positive correlation, similar to that observed with nonlinear crystal down-converters. Shunt-connected diodes are shown to generate negatively correlated light beams.PACS numbers: 42.50.Dv Sub-shot-noise "amplitude-squeezed" operation of laser and light-emitting diodes using the high-impedance "quantum-watchdog" noise suppression technique [1] is now well established [1][2][3]. This technique appears to offer a technically simple way of reducing quantum noise well below the standard quantum limit in tightly coupled optoelectronic systems, constrained only by the magnitude of the attainable quantum transfer efficiency between light emitter and detector. Such a reduction in quantum noise is of great practical interest with potential applications in shot-noise-limited metrology and information transfer.The high-impedance quantum noise suppression technique, which simply involves driving a laser diode or light-emitting diode from a low-noise high-impedance current source, is also of considerable theoretical interest. Particular interest currently centers on the appropriate quantum-mechanical description of the interaction between the classical electrical pump (macroscopic reservoir) and the quantum-mechanical electron-hole recombination (microscopic) system. Richardson and Yamamoto [1] interpret this interaction, in which the junction voltage of a laser diode "measures" the photon number fluctuation, as an example of a quantum-mechanicalwatchdog effect.We have extensively studied the phenomenology of quantum noise reduction using high-efficiency infraredemitting diodes [3]. These are simpler to analyze and measure than laser diodes because of the absence of amplified spontaneous emission. Following the work of Teich and Saleh [4], we have found a conceptual and quantitative description in terms of electronic and photonic stochastic point processes to be entirely adequate. In particular, in investigating the Richardson, Machida, and Yamamoto partition noise model of the transverse junction stripe laser, which they used to obtain an 85% reduction below the shot-noise limit [5], we have been led to the realization of a new class of multiple-beam lightemitting devices. These are arrays of laser or lightemitting diodes which generate twin (or multiple) light beams between which the intensity fluctuations are strongly correlated and in which the correlation extends into the quantum (sub-Poissonian photon statistics) regime.The largest reported (85%) noise reduction, achieved with a transverse junction stripe laser [5], has been the subject of considerable debate. It appears to run counter to the conventional wisdom that the fractional noise reduction, relative to the shot-noise level, is just equal to the quantum efficiency 77 as measured by the current transfer rati...

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Summary The efficiency of a sequential test is related to the “importance” of the trials within the test. This relationship is used to find the optimal test for selecting the greater of two binomial probabilities, pα and pb, namely, the stopping rule is “gambler's ruin” and the optimal discipline when pα+pb≤ 1 (≥ 1) is play‐the‐winner (loser), i.e. an α‐trial which results in a success is followed by an α‐trial (b‐trial) whereas an α‐trial which results in a failure is followed by α b‐trid (α‐trial) and correspondingly for b‐trials.