2,570 research outputs found
Assessing the performance of ultrafast vector flow imaging in the neonatal heart via multiphysics modeling and In vitro experiments
Ultrafast vector flow imaging would benefit newborn patients with congenital heart disorders, but still requires thorough validation before translation to clinical practice. This paper investigates 2-D speckle tracking (ST) of intraventricular blood flow in neonates when transmitting diverging waves at ultrafast frame rate. Computational and in vitro studies enabled us to quantify the performance and identify artifacts related to the flow and the imaging sequence. First, synthetic ultrasound images of a neonate's left ventricular flow pattern were obtained with the ultrasound simulator Field II by propagating point scatterers according to 3-D intraventricular flow fields obtained with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Noncompounded diverging waves (opening angle of 60 degrees) were transmitted at a pulse repetition frequency of 9 kHz. ST of the B-mode data provided 2-D flow estimates at 180 Hz, which were compared with the CFD flow field. We demonstrated that the diastolic inflow jet showed a strong bias in the lateral velocity estimates at the edges of the jet, as confirmed by additional in vitro tests on a jet flow phantom. Furthermore, ST performance was highly dependent on the cardiac phase with low flows (< 5 cm/s), high spatial flow gradients, and out-of-plane flow as deteriorating factors. Despite the observed artifacts, a good overall performance of 2-D ST was obtained with a median magnitude underestimation and angular deviation of, respectively, 28% and 13.5 degrees during systole and 16% and 10.5 degrees during diastole
Independent Confirmation of the Pioneer 10 Anomalous Acceleration
I perform an independent analysis of radio Doppler tracking data from the
Pioneer 10 spacecraft for the time period 1987-1994. All of the tracking data
were taken from public archive sources, and the analysis tools were developed
independently by myself. I confirm that an apparent anomalous acceleration is
acting on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, which is not accounted for by present
physical models of spacecraft navigation. My best fit value for the
acceleration, including corrections for systematic biases and uncertainties, is
(8.60 +/- 1.34) x 10^{-8} cm s^{-2}, directed towards the Sun. This value
compares favorably to previous results. I examine the robustness of my result
to various perturbations of the analysis method, and find agreement to within
+/- 5%. The anomalous acceleration is reasonably constant with time, with a
characteristic variation time scale of > 70 yr. Such a variation timescale is
still too short to rule out on-board thermal radiation effects, based on this
particular Pioneer 10 data set.Comment: RevTeX, 29 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys Rev
The analysis of the algorithms of the complex optimal estimates interpolation in tasks of satellite navigation
For the tasks of satellite navigation, we conduct the synthesis of the interpolation algorithms within the fixed interval and in the fixed point, when the complex processing of measurements of the range and Doppler frequency is implemented. The simulation results are provided
Comb-calibrated solar spectroscopy through a multiplexed single-mode fiber channel
We investigate a new scheme for astronomical spectrograph calibration using
the laser frequency comb at the Solar Vacuum Tower Telescope on Tenerife. Our
concept is based upon a single-mode fiber channel, that simultaneously feeds
the spectrograph with comb light and sunlight. This yields nearly perfect
spatial mode matching between the two sources. In combination with the absolute
calibration provided by the frequency comb, this method enables extremely
robust and accurate spectroscopic measurements. The performance of this scheme
is compared to a sequence of alternating comb and sunlight, and to absorption
lines from Earth's atmosphere. We also show how the method can be used for
radial-velocity detection by measuring the well-explored 5-minute oscillations
averaged over the full solar disk. Our method is currently restricted to solar
spectroscopy, but with further evolving fiber-injection techniques it could
become an option even for faint astronomical targets.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. A video abstract for this paper is available on
youtube. For watching the video, please follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshdZgrt89I . The video abstract is also
available for streaming and download on the related article website of New
Journal of Physic
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