Adsorption of Line Segments on a Square Lattice

We study the deposition of line segments on a two-dimensional square lattice. The estimates for the coverage at jamming obtained by Monte-Carlo simulations and by $7^{th}$-order time-series expansion are successfully compared. The non-trivial limit of adsorption of infinitely long segments is studied, and the lattice coverage is consistently obtained using these two approaches.Comment: 19 pages in Latex+5 postscript files sent upon request ; PTB93_

A New Approach for Deep Gray Matter Analysis Using Partial-Volume Estimation.

INTRODUCTION: The existence of partial volume effects in brain MR images makes it challenging to understand physio-pathological alterations underlying signal changes due to pathology across groups of healthy subjects and patients. In this study, we implement a new approach to disentangle gray and white matter alterations in the thalamus and the basal ganglia. The proposed method was applied to a cohort of early multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy subjects to evaluate tissue-specific alterations related to diffuse inflammatory or neurodegenerative processes. METHOD: Forty-three relapsing-remitting MS patients and nineteen healthy controls underwent 3T MRI including: (i) fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, double inversion recovery, magnetization-prepared gradient echo for lesion count, and (ii) T1 relaxometry. We applied a partial volume estimation algorithm to T1 relaxometry maps to gray and white matter local concentrations as well as T1 values characteristic of gray and white matter in the thalamus and the basal ganglia. Statistical tests were performed to compare groups in terms of both global T1 values, tissue characteristic T1 values, and tissue concentrations. RESULTS: Significant increases in global T1 values were observed in the thalamus (p = 0.038) and the putamen (p = 0.026) in RRMS patients compared to HC. In the Thalamus, the T1 increase was associated with a significant increase in gray matter characteristic T1 (p = 0.0016) with no significant effect in white matter. CONCLUSION: The presented methodology provides additional information to standard MR signal averaging approaches that holds promise to identify the presence and nature of diffuse pathology in neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases

Fractal formation and ordering in random sequential adsorption

We reveal the fractal nature of patterns arising in random sequential adsorption of particles with continuum power-law size distribution, $P(R)\sim R^{\alpha-1}$, $R \le R_{\rm max}$. We find that the patterns become more and more ordered as $\alpha$ increases, and that the Apollonian packing is obtained at $\alpha \to \infty$ limit. We introduce the entropy production rate as a quantitative criteria of regularity and observe a transition from an irregular regime of the pattern formation to a regular one. We develop a scaling theory that relates kinetic and structural properties of the system.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 4 postscript figures. To appear in Phys.Rev.Let

A multi-contrast MRI study of microstructural brain damage in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate pathological mechanisms underlying brain tissue alterations in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using multi-contrast 3 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: Forty-two MCI patients and 77 healthy controls (HC) underwent T1/T2* relaxometry as well as Magnetization Transfer (MT) MRI. Between-groups comparisons in MRI metrics were performed using permutation-based tests. Using MRI data, a generalized linear model (GLM) was computed to predict clinical performance and a support-vector machine (SVM) classification was used to classify MCI and HC subjects. RESULTS: Multi-parametric MRI data showed microstructural brain alterations in MCI patients vs HC that might be interpreted as: (i) a broad loss of myelin/cellular proteins and tissue microstructure in the hippocampus (p ≤ 0.01) and global white matter (p < 0.05); and (ii) iron accumulation in the pallidus nucleus (p ≤ 0.05). MRI metrics accurately predicted memory and executive performances in patients (p ≤ 0.005). SVM classification reached an accuracy of 75% to separate MCI and HC, and performed best using both volumes and T1/T2*/MT metrics. CONCLUSION: Multi-contrast MRI appears to be a promising approach to infer pathophysiological mechanisms leading to brain tissue alterations in MCI. Likewise, parametric MRI data provide powerful correlates of cognitive deficits and improve automatic disease classification based on morphometric features

In Vitro Analysis of Immersed Human Tissues by Raman Microspectroscopy

Raman microspectroscopy is a powerful tool for the analysis of tissue sections, providing a molecular map of the investigated samples. Nevertheless, data pre-processing and, particularly, the removal of the broad background to the spectra remain problematic. Indeed, the physical origin of the background has not been satisfactorily determined. Using 785 nm as source in a confocal geometry, it is demonstrated for the example of the protein kappa-elastin that the background and resulting quality of the recorded spectrum are dependent on the morphology of the sample. Whereas a fine powder yields a dominant broad background, compressed pellets and solution-cast thin films produce, respectively, improved quality spectra and significantly reduced spectral background. As the chemical composition of the samples is identical, the background is ascribed to stray light due to diffuse scattering rather than an intrinsic photoluminescence. The recorded spectra from a tissue sample exhibit a large and spatially variable background, resulting in poorly defined spectral features. A significant reduction of the background signal as well as improvement of the spectral quality is achieved by immersion of the sample in water and measurement with an immersion objective. The significant improvement in signal to background is attributed to a reduction of the diffuse scattering due to a change in the effective morphology as a result of an improved index matching at the water/tissue interface compared to the air/tissue interface. Compared to sections measured in air, the background is reduced to that of the water, and pre-processing is reduced to the subtraction of the substrate and water signal and correction for the instrument response, both of which are highly reproducible. Data pre-processing is thus greatly simplified and the results significantly more reliable

Metrology in Africa: role of the CAFMET

This article presents the CAFMET (African Committee of Metrology), a non-profit organization that aims to meet the needs of African countries in the field of metrology. Its objectives are to spread a metrology culture in Africa via various domains in metrology such as, analysis, tests, and calibration. The difficulties of the development of metrology in Africa and the different activities, events and projects of the CAFMET are all presented

Universality of low-energy scattering in (2+1) dimensions

We prove that, in (2+1) dimensions, the S-wave phase shift, $\delta_0(k)$, k being the c.m. momentum, vanishes as either $\delta_0 \to {c\over \ln (k/m)} or \delta_0 \to O(k^2)$ as $k\to 0$. The constant $c$ is universal and $c=\pi/2$. This result is established first in the framework of the Schr\"odinger equation for a large class of potentials, second for a massive field theory from proved analyticity and unitarity, and, finally, we look at perturbation theory in $\phi_3^4$ and study its relation to our non-perturbative result. The remarkable fact here is that in n-th order the perturbative amplitude diverges like $(\ln k)^n$ as $k\to 0$, while the full amplitude vanishes as $(\ln k)^{-1}$. We show how these two facts can be reconciled.Comment: 23 pages, Late

MP2RAGE provides new clinically-compatible correlates of mild cognitive deficits in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Despite that cognitive impairment is a known early feature present in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, the biological substrate of cognitive deficits in MS remains elusive. In this study, we assessed whether T1 relaxometry, as obtained in clinically acceptable scan times by the recent Magnetization Prepared 2 Rapid Acquisition Gradient Echoes (MP2RAGE) sequence, may help identifying the structural correlate of cognitive deficits in relapsing-remitting MS patients (RRMS). Twenty-nine healthy controls (HC) and forty-nine RRMS patients underwent high-resolution 3T magnetic resonance imaging to obtain optimal cortical lesion (CL) and white matter lesion (WML) count/volume and T1 relaxation times. T1 z scores were then obtained between T1 relaxation times in lesion and the corresponding HC tissue. Patient cognitive performance was tested using the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuro-psychological Tests. Multivariate analysis was applied to assess the contribution of MRI variables (T1 z scores, lesion count/volume) to cognition in patients and Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple comparison. T1 z scores were higher in WML (p < 0.001) and CL-I (p < 0.01) than in the corresponding normal-appearing tissue in patients, indicating relative microstructural loss. (1) T1 z scores in CL-I (p = 0.01) and the number of CL-II (p = 0.04) were predictors of long-term memory; (2) T1 z scores in CL-I (β = 0.3; p = 0.03) were independent determinants of long-term memory storage, and (3) lesion volume did not significantly influenced cognitive performances in patients. Our study supports evidence that T1 relaxometry from MP2RAGE provides information about microstructural properties in CL and WML and improves correlation with cognition in RRMS patients, compared to conventional measures of disease burden

Polydisperse Adsorption: Pattern Formation Kinetics, Fractal Properties, and Transition to Order

We investigate the process of random sequential adsorption of polydisperse particles whose size distribution exhibits a power-law dependence in the small size limit, $P(R)\sim R^{\alpha-1}$. We reveal a relation between pattern formation kinetics and structural properties of arising patterns. We propose a mean-field theory which provides a fair description for sufficiently small $\alpha$. When $\alpha \to \infty$, highly ordered structures locally identical to the Apollonian packing are formed. We introduce a quantitative criterion of the regularity of the pattern formation process. When $\alpha \gg 1$, a sharp transition from irregular to regular pattern formation regime is found to occur near the jamming coverage of standard random sequential adsorption with monodisperse size distribution.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, to appear in Phys.Rev.