Objective imaging-based assessment of smoking behavior from used filters

描述（由申请人提供）：随着FDA履行其监管烟草产品的权力，特别是提出产品标准并考虑批准风险降低的产品，准确测量吸烟行为和暴露可能变得至关重要。最近，已经开发了数字图像分析系统，其可以高精度地识别废香烟过滤嘴上的过滤嘴通风孔的阻塞，并且还可以估计吸烟者补偿的程度。这种数字成像系统有很大的潜力，可以不引人注目地推断出一组丰富的吸烟者地形变量以及吸烟者对毒素的暴露。基于过滤器的检测的现有文献基础正在增长，并指出这些方法对重要研究问题的日益突出和适用性。我们建议修改现有的分析系统，并进行了一系列的研究，以测试其可靠性，有效性和适用性，以确定口水平的香烟烟雾暴露，通过检查焦油污渍的香烟过滤嘴烟蒂。具体目标旨在对系统的实用性进行严格评估，从使用机器吸烟香烟建立预测方程到对人类吸烟样本与其他已建立的口腔水平暴露措施进行交叉验证。在这个项目结束时，我们计划发布一个经过验证的软件套件，以支持外部验证的数字图像分析吸烟相关的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Accurate measurement of smoking behaviors and exposures may become critical as FDA implements its authority to regulate tobacco products, and in particular proposes product standards and considers approval of modified risk products. Recently, digital image analysis systems have been developed that can identify the blocking of filter vents on spent cigarette filters with high accuracy and can also estimate the degree of smoker compensation. There is strong potential for such digital imaging systems to unobtrusively infer a rich set of smoker topography variables as well as a smoker's exposure to toxins. The existing literature base on filter-based assays is growing and points to growing prominence and applicability of these approaches to important research questions. We propose to modify existing analysis systems and conduct a series of studies to test their reliability, validity, and applicability for determining mouth- level cigarette smoke exposure by examining tar stains on cigarette filter butts. The Specific Aims are designed to provide rigorous evaluations of the utility of the systems, from establishing prediction equations using machine-smoked cigarettes to cross- validation in human-smoked samples against other established measures of mouth-level exposure. At the conclusion of this project, we plan to release a validated suite of software to the research community to support external verification of digital image analysis for smoking-related research.