44 research outputs found

    Polarized 129Xe129Xe optical pumping/spin exchange and delivery system for magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging studies

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    We describe the design and construction of a laser-polarized 129Xe129Xe production and delivery system that is used in our in vitro and in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiments. The entire apparatus including lasers and optics, rapidly actuated valves, heating and cooling, and transport tubing lies in the high magnetic field environment of a 2 T MRI magnet. With approximately 7.5% 129Xe129Xe polarization, 157 cc atm of xenon gas is produced and stored as xenon ice every 5 min. Large quantities of polarized 129Xe129Xe can be obtained by cycling this process. The xenon is subsequently delivered in a controlled fashion to a sample or subject. With this device we have established the feasibility of using laser-polarized 129Xe129Xe as a magnetic tracer in MRI. This reliable, effective, and relatively simple production method for large volumes of 129Xe129Xe can be applied to other areas of research involving the use of laser-polarized noble gases. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69879/2/RSINAK-70-2-1546-1.pd

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging with laser polarized 129Xe129Xe

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    Magnetic Resonance Imaging with laser-polarized 129Xe129Xe can be utilized to trace blood flow and perfusion in tissue for a variety of biomedical applications. Polarized xenon gas introduced in to the lungs dissolves in the blood and is transported to organs such as the brain where it accumulates in the tissue. Spectroscopic studies combined with imaging have been used to produce brain images of 129Xe129Xe in the rat head. This work establishes that nuclear polarization produced in the gas phases survives transport to the brain where it may be imaged. Increases in polarization and delivered volume of 129Xe129Xe will allow clinical measurements of regional blood flow. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87439/2/200_1.pd

    Incorporating metapopulation Dynamics to Inform Invasive Species Management: Evaluating Bighead and Silver Carp Control Strategies in the Illinois River

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    1. Invasive species management can benefit from predictive models that incorporate spatially explicit demographics and dispersal to guide resource allocation decisions. 2. We used invasive bigheaded carps (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) in the Illinois River, USA as a case study to create a spatially explicit model to evaluate the allocation of future management efforts. Specifically, we compared additional harvest (e.g. near the invasion front vs. source populations) and enhanced movement deterrents to meet the management goal of reducing abundance at the invasion front. 3. We found additional harvest in lower river pools (i.e. targeting source populations) more effectively limited population sizes upriver at the invasion front compared to allocating the same harvest levels near the invasion front. Likewise, decreasing passage (i.e. lock and dam structures) at the farthest, feasible downriver location limited invasion front population size more than placing movement deterrents farther upriver. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our work highlights the benefits of adopting a multipronged approach for invasive species management, combining suppression of source populations with disrupting movement between source and sink populations thereby producing compounding benefits for control. Our results also demonstrate the importance of considering metapopulation dynamics for invasive species control programs when achieving long-term management goals

    Distribution and dynamics of laser-polarized 129 Xe magnetization in vivo

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    The first magnetic resonance imaging studies of laser-polarized 129 Xe, dissolved in the blood and tissue of the lungs and the heart of Sprague-Dawley rats, are described. 129 Xe resonances at 0, 192, 199, and 210 ppm were observed and assigned to xenon in gas, fat, tissue, and blood, respectively. One-dimensional chemical-shift imaging (CSI) reveals xenon magnetization in the brain, kidney, and lungs. Coronal and axial two-dimensional CSI show 129 Xe dissolved in blood and tissue in the thorax. Images of the blood resonance show xenon in the lungs and the heart ventricle. Images of the tissue resonance reveal xenon in lung parenchyma and myocardium. The 129 Xe spectrum from a voxel located in the heart ventricle shows a single blood resonance. Time-resolved spectroscopy shows that the dynamics of the blood resonance match the dynamics of the gas resonance and demonstrates efficient diffusion of xenon gas to the lung parenchyma and then to pulmonary blood. These observations demonstrate the utility of laser-polarized 129 Xe to detect exchange across the gas-blood barrier in the lungs and perfusion into myocardial tissue. Applications to measurement of lung function, kidney perfusion, myocardial perfusion, and regional cerebral blood flow are discussed. Magn Reson Med 42:1137–1145, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34928/1/19_ftp.pd

    Measurement of CD4+ and CD8+ T-Lymphocyte Cytokine Secretion and Gene Expression Changes in p-Phenylenediamine Allergic Patients and Tolerant Individuals

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    Factors predisposing to individual susceptibility to contact allergic dermatitis are ill defined. This study was designed to characterize the response of allergic and tolerant individuals’ T-lymphocytes after exposure to p-phenylenediamine (PPD). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from allergic patients proliferated when treated with PPD and Bandrowski's base (BB) and secreted IL-1α, -1ÎČ, -4, -5, -6, -8, -10, and -13; IFN-Îł; tumor necrosis factor-α; MIP-1α/ÎČ; MCP-1 (monocyte chemotactic protein-1); and RANTES. PBMCs from tolerant individuals were stimulated to proliferate only with BB, and they secreted significantly lower levels of Th2 cytokines. Principal component analysis showed that genes are differentially expressed between the patient groups. A network-based analysis of microarray data showed upregulation of T helper type 2 (Th2) gene pathways, including IL-9, in allergic patients, but a regulatory gene profile in tolerant individuals. Real-time PCR confirmed the observed increase in Th2 cytokine gene transcription in allergic patients. Purified CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from allergic patients were stimulated to proliferate and secrete Th2 cytokines following antigen exposure. Only CD4+ T cells from tolerant individuals were stimulated by BB, and levels of Th2 cytokines were 80% lower. The nature of the antigenic determinant stimulating PBMCs and levels of Th2 cytokines, including IL-9, was confirmed in a validation cohort. These studies show increased activity of Th2 cytokines in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from individuals with allergic contact dermatitis

    Electron scattering from polarized deuterium at VEPP‐3

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    The status, results, and future plans for the experiment measuring the tensor analyzing power of the deuteron using a tensor‐polarized internal target at the VEPP‐3 electron storage ring in Novosibirsk are presented. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87517/2/713_1.pd

    Status of the T20 experiment at VEPP–3

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    Using a gaseous polarized deuterium and the 2 GeV electron beam at 2 GeV beam energy the tensor analyzing power, T20, for the NN potential will be measured with the elastic d↘(e,e) reaction at VEPP‐3, Novosibirsk. A description and progress report of the experiment is given. (AIP)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87524/2/530_1.pd

    Novel study design to assess the utility of the copd assessment test in a primary care setting

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    The quality of a consultation provided by a physician can have a profound impact on the quality of care and patient engagement in treatment decisions. When the COPD Assessment Test (CAT) was developed, one of its aims was to aid the communication between physician and patient about the impact of COPD. We developed a novel study design to assess this in a primary care consultation. Primary care physicians across five countries in Europe conducted videoed consultations with six standardised COPD patients (played by trained actors) which had patient-specific issues that the physician needed to identify through questioning. Half the physicians saw the patients with the completed CAT, and half without. Independent assessors scored the physicians on their ability to identify and address the patient-specific issues, review standard COPD aspects, their understanding of the case and their overall performance. This novel study design presented many challenges which needed to be addressed to achieve an acceptable level of robustness to assess the utility of the CAT. This paper discusses these challenges and the measures adopted to eliminate or minimise their impact on the study results

    Towards an Embodied Sociology of War

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    While sociology has historically not been a good interlocutor of war, this paper argues that the body has always known war, and that it is to the corporeal that we can turn in an attempt to develop a language to better speak of its myriad violences and its socially generative force. It argues that war is a crucible of social change that is prosecuted, lived and reproduced via the occupation and transformation of myriad bodies in numerous ways from exhilaration to mutilation. War and militarism need to be traced and analysed in terms of their fundamental, diverse and often brutal modes of embodied experience and apprehension. This paper thus invites sociology to extend its imaginative horizon to rethink the crucial and enduring social institution of war as a broad array of fundamentally embodied experiences, practices and regimes

    Searching for time reversal invariance violation in polarized neutron decay

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    Time reversal invariance violation is tightly constrained in the Standard Model, and the existence of a T-violating effect above the predicted level would be an indication of new physics. A sensitive probe of this symmetry in the weak interaction is the measurement of the D-coefficient in neutron decay. This parameter characterizes the triple-correlation of neutron spin, electron momentum, and neutrino (or proton) momentum, which changes sign under time reversal. The emiT experiment, now on line, attempts to improve the measurement of D,D, whose current average is 0.3±1.5×10−3.0.3±1.5×10−3. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87907/2/399_1.pd
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