Secondments are the key activities that increase the competitiveness of the participating organisations and allow high expertise and knowledge to be transferred to the younger generation, by giving them the opportunity to work and directly communicate with high-level researchers from both academia and SME.
MUV researcher to BIOEMTECH
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Tsvetelina Teneva | MUV | BIOEMTECH | 26.03.2023 – 26.04.2023 |
MORPHE researcher to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Nikiforos Okkalidis | MORPHE | MUV | 22.03.2023 – 30.06.2023 |
UNINA researcher to BIOEMTECH
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | BIOEMTECH | 24.03.2023 – 26.04.2023 |
| Giovanni Mettivier | UNINA | BIOEMTECH | 31.03.2023 – 15.04.2023 |
During this secondment, the developed segmentation algorithm was tested by comparing it with the segmentation provided by a reference dataset and using the indication of breast radiologist as well. Ten cases were studied. First conceptual project of the Monte Carlo software for x-ray breast imaging simulation was drafted and implemented via Gate toolkit. First validation tests meant to compare the new software code with the previous one developed at UNINA were successfully implemented.
BIOEMTECH researcher to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Vasilleios Eleftheriadis | BIOEMTECH | MUV | 05.03.2023 – 10.06.2023 |
MORPHE researcher to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Filippos Okkalidis | MORPHE | UNINA | 27.02.2023 – 03.06.2023 |
MICROSYSTEMS researcher to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Ivan Buliev | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 27.02.2023 – 29.03.2023 |
| Nikolay Nikolov | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 13.03.2023 – 29.03.2023 |
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Giovanni Mettivier | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 19.02.2023 – 05.03.2023 |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 12.02.2023 – 23.02.2023 |
During this secondment, a first version of the segmentation algorithm was completed. At the end of the process, the software code provides the following sets of images: fat mask image, glandular mask image, skin mask image, tumour mask image, complete tissue segmentation without tumour, complete tissue segmentation with tumour. The compression algorithm was improved and several extensive tests were performed.
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Paolo Russo | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 14.01.2023 – 29.01.2023 |
| Giovanni Mettivier | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 14.01.2023 – 29.01.2023 |
During this secondment we worked on the definition of the activities to be implemented for the validation of the technique, based on the use of inkjet printers with iodine ink for the implementation of physical phantoms. In particular, a phantom based on this technique was created and phantom images were acquired with a clinical CT scanner.
MUV researcher to MORPHE
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Zhivko Bliznakov | MUV | MORPHE | 09.01.2023 – 05.02.2023 |
| Nikolay Dukov | MUV | MORPHE | 09.01.2023 – 05.02.2023 |
| Tihomir Georgiev | MUV | MORPHE | 09.01.2023 – 05.02.2023 |
| Minko Milev | MUV | MORPHE | 09.01.2023 – 05.02.2023 |
| Petar Valchanov | MUV | MORPHE | 09.01.2023 – 22.01.2023 |
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 02.01.2023 – 12.01.2023 |
MUV researcher to MORPHE
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Zhivko Bliznakov | MUV | MORPHE | 20.11.2022 – 19.12.2022 |
The main activities during the secondment were related to the investigation of suitable materials for anthropomorphic breast modeling, and appropriate thermoplastic methods for their mixing and combination, in order to obtain new mixtures for prototyping anthropomorphic models. Further on, the characteristics of the obtained mixed new materials have been examined to realistically reproduce the characteristics of individual breast tissues related to x-ray examination.
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Paolo Russo | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 20.11.2022 – 04.12.2022 |
During the secondment, work on the segmentation of the breast tumours activities have been effectively continued. Further on, analysis of the CT scans of MORPHE 3D printed test samples; and preparation of a new protocol for new CT scans of these tissue-mimicking samples have been elaborated. The further advancement and development of the breast compression algorithm have been also on focus, as well as possible future applications.
MICROSYSTEMS researcher to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Nikolay Nikolov | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 13.11.2022 – 27.11.2022 |
| Ivan Buliev | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 13.11.2022 – 13.12.2022 |
The secondment activities were dedicated to the (i) development of the improved breast compression software algorithm and tools, and (ii) defining the requirements towards the PHENOMENO database. The work was focused on the required computational power, identifying the type of the computations, and the eventual possibilities for their parallelization, identifying the major categories of information, which could be of interest for the users. This will serve as a basis for developing the architecture of the database.
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 09.09.2022 – 21.09.2022 |
MORPHE researcher to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Chrysoula Chatzigeorgiou | MORPHE | MUV | 31.08.2022 – 01.02.2023 |
MORPHE researcher to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Filippos Okkalidis | MORPHE | UNINA | 31.08.2022 – 01.12.2022 |
During the secondment, some issues with the CT scans of the 3D printed materials have been examined. We have discussed several parameters that influence the quality of the CT scans. We have performed a number of experiments using the in-house developed x-ray system and estimated the x-ray attenuation properties of the in-house developed 3D printed materials. Preliminary validation of some results have been performed using the possibilities of the GEANT4 software code for performing Monte Carlo simulations.
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Giovanni Mettivier | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 22.08.2022 – 03.09.2022 |
MUV researcher to MORPHE
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Zhivko Bliznakov | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.08.2022 |
| Kristina Bliznakova | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.08.2022 |
| Nikolay Dukov | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.08.2022 |
| Tihomir Georgiev | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.08.2022 |
| Petar Valchanov | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.07.2022 |
| Yanita Chernogorova | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 31.08.2022 |
| Minko Milev | MUV | MORPHE | 17.07.2022 – 06.08.2022 |
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Paolo Russo | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 01.07.2022 – 17.07.2022 |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 01.07.2022 – 17.07.2022 |
UNINA researcher to BIOEMTECH
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | BIOEMTECH | 23.04.2022 – 07.05.2022 |
Dr. Antonio Sarno continued the activities of Prof. G. Mettivier related to the segmentation of MRI breast images, begun in his previous secondments at BIOEMTECH. In particular, the activities focused on the evaluation of the first version of the algorithm. The last part of the secondment also included a first discussion and design of a Monte Carlo software necessary for imaging simulations.
MICROSYSTEMS researchers to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Nikolay Nikolov | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 08.04.2022 – 22.04.2022 |
| Ivan Buliev | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 08.04.2022 – 22.04.2022 |
This secondment was entirely dedicated to the preparation and the development of the framework for improving the breast compression software as part of the technology for creating of realistic anthropomorphic breast phantoms. During the secondment period, it was created the skeleton of the new tool, allowing to import phantoms of different complexity, 3D resampling of phantom volumes using different resolution, and exporting the 3D output volume in an appropriate file format, as well as, MATLAB scripts that can be used to verify the functionality of the new tool.
UNINA researcher to BIOEMTECH
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Giovanni Mettivier | UNINA | BIOEMTECH | 26.03.2022 – 10.04.2022 |
During the secondment period, Giovanni Mettivier worked on the realization of a procedure for the Breast MRI image segmentation. The aim of the procedure is the identification of four different structures in the MRI images: skin, glandular, fat and tumour. In order to develop the segmentation procedure, a dedicated algorithm in MATLAB was developed. The segmentation procedure was initially tested on 10 patients’ images datasets and showed very satisfactory results.
MORPHE researcher to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Filippos Okkalidis | MORPHE | MUV | 01.03.2022 – 03.04.2022 |
MORPHÉ has started developing new filaments for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printers for the fabrication of anthropomorphic phantoms. Filippos Okkalidis is in charge for the development and investigation of the x-ray characteristics of those materials. Furthermore, a wide variety of commercial filaments have been employed for a comparison analysis. A series of calibration cubes from all the aforementioned materials were 3D printed by MORPHÉ, and CT scanned on Medical University of Varna, followed by an analysis of the retrieved results.
BIOEMTECH researchers to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Theodoros Karampelas | BIOEMTECH | MUV | 02.02.2022 – 08.04.2022 |
| Maria Georgiou | BIOEMTECH | MUV | 03.02.2022 – 21.05.2022 |
During the period of this secondment, the seconded members focused primarily on the characterization of the data from the available databases of MRI images containing breast cancers. Upon interaction with the hosting institute, the secondees identified various characteristics and significant data to be exploited for the purposes of PHENOMENO project. Importantly, the data were diverse in terms of the age range of the patients the molecular characterization of the tumors etc. The MRI images from these databases are also utilized to train a machine learning algorithm in order to optimally define / segment the regions of interest (ROI) that will be used for the creation of the breast tumour models.
UNINA researcher to MICROSYSTEMS
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Antonio Sarno | UNINA | MICROSYSTEMS | 28.01.2022 – 18.02.2022 |
In this secondments period, Dr Antonio Sarno contributed in defining the methodologies for creating anthropomorphic phantoms were studied. In particular, this task, as part of the project WP2, focused on 1) the segmentation of clinical images in order to produce digital phantoms representing the uncompressed breast and 2) on the implementation and development of an algorithm for producing compressed breast phantoms from the uncompressed ones. The first task was performed starting from an insight in a previous software developed at UNINA, to be adapted for the MRI case. On the other hand, the task (2) started with the improvement of a compression algorithm and software developed by prof K Bliznakova. Improvements moved toward an increasing of the software speed and reduction of tissue loss.
MUV researchers to MORPHE
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Zhivko Bliznakov | MUV | MORPHE | 08.01.2022 – 26.01.2022 |
| Nikolay Dukov | MUV | MORPHE | 08.01.2022 – 26.01.2022 |
| Tihomir Georgiev | MUV | MORPHE | 08.01.2022 – 26.01.2022 |
| Petar Valchanov | MUV | MORPHE | 08.01.2022 – 26.01.2022 |
| Yanita Chernogorova | MUV | MORPHE | 08.01.2022 – 26.01.2022 |
For the second time researchers from the Medical University of Varna have been seconded to the partner organization MORPHE in Thessaloniki, Greece. Both project partner groups carried out joint activities under Work package 2: Computational methods for creation of anthropomorphic phantoms of female breast and its structures and Work package 3: 3D printing technologies.
Along with the progress on the development of methodology for creation of anthropomorphic breast phantoms, the team members started an investigation of the materials used with fused deposition 3D printing technology.
MICROSYSTEMS researchers to UNINA
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Nikolay Nikolov | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 28.11.2021 – 12.12.2021 |
| Ivan Buliev | MICROSYSTEMS | UNINA | 28.11.2021 – 12.12.2021 |
A dedicated whole-day discussion on the quality and limitations of the available 3D printing technologies took place in the very beginning of the visit. That proved to be quite useful on the common view and approach, as well on planning future work related to 3D printing tests. A largely time-consuming work was brought on focus – the simulated compression of segmented breast CT scans. The idea to accelerate the computations was well appreciated by MS and was set as one the main tasks to work on during the secondment period.
MUV researchers to MORPHE
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Kristina Bliznakova | MUV | MORPHE | 26.07.2021 – 31.08.2021 |
| Zhivko Bliznakov | MUV | MORPHE | 26.07.2021 – 31.08.2021 |
| Nikolay Dukov | MUV | MORPHE | 26.07.2021 – 31.08.2021 |
| Tihomir Georgiev | MUV | MORPHE | 26.07.2021 – 31.08.2021 |
| Yanita Chernogorova | MUV | MORPHE | 31.07.2021 – 29.08.2021 |
In August 2021, team members of the Medical University of Varna performed their first secondments in the partner organization MORPHE in Thessaloniki, Greece. Both project partner groups carried out joint activities under Work package 2: Computational methods for creation of anthropomorphic phantoms of female breast and its structures.
The fruitful collaboration set the stage for the development of methodology for creation of anthropomorphic breast phantoms based on MRI images. Hosted organization members from MORPHE, together with seconded staff from MUV, applied their knowledge in practical realisation of methods for creation of anthropomorphic breast phantoms.
MORPHE researchers to MUV
| Seconded researchers | Seconded from | Seconded to | Period |
| Nikiforos Okkalidis | MORPHE | MUV | 20.06.2021 – 02.03.2022 |
During the secondment period, one of the main tasks was the development of a new 3D printing approach for the fabrication of an anthropomorphic breast phantom using Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printing technology. In collaboration with the Medical University of Varna, a series of segmented images based on a MRI data set were used for the fabrication of the phantom. To achieve a realistic appearance from an MRI dataset and a correspondence to CT Hounsfield Units (HU), two 3D printing patterns were employed. The algorithmic process was written in MATLAB and was embedded on a custom-made software developed by MORPHÉ. Furthermore, for a first time, constant extrusion rates were used for each identified entity, based on referenced HU from the literature. CT scan images were retrieved from the phantom and a thorough analysis of the results took place. The final results demonstrated a high radiological similarity, while a single material was used only to replicate the x-ray characteristic of four breast tissues.
