A broadband pulsed radio frequency electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer for biological applications

A time-domain radio frequency (rf) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer/imager (EPRI) capable of detecting and imaging free radicals in biological objects is described. The magnetic field was 10 mT which corresponds to a resonance frequency of 300 MHz for paramagnetic species. Short pulses of 20-70 ns from the signal generator, with rise times of less than 4 ns, were generated using high speed gates, which after amplification to 283 Vpp, were deposited into a resonator containing the object of interest. Cylindrical resonators containing parallel loops at uniform spacing were used for imaging experiments. The resonators were maintained at the resonant frequency by tuning and matching capacitors. A parallel resistor and overcoupled circuit was used to achieve Q values in the range 20-30. The transmit and receive arms were isolated using a transmit/receive diplexer. The dead time following the trailing edge of the pulse was about 450 ns. The first stage of the receive arm contained a low noise, high gain and fast recovery amplifier, suitable for detection of spin probes with spin-spin relaxation times (T2) in the order of μs. Detection of the induction signal was carried out by mixing the signals in the receiver arm centered around 300 MHz with a local oscillator at a frequency of 350 MHz. The amplified signals were digitized and summed using a 1 GHz digitizer/summer to recover the signals and enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The time-domain signals were transformed into frequency-domain spectra, using Fourier transformation (FT). With the resonators used, objects of size up to 5 cm3 could be studied in imaging experiments. Spatial encoding of the spins was accomplished by volume excitation of the sample in the presence of static field gradients in the range of 1.0-1.5 G/cm. The spin densities were produced in the form of plane integrals and images were reconstructed using standard back-projection methods. The image resolution of the phantom objects containing the spin probe surrounded by lossy biologic medium was better than 0.2 mm with the gradients used. To examine larger objects at local sites, surface coils were used to detect and image spin probes successfully. The results from this study indicate the potential of rf FT EPR for in vivo applications. In particular, rf FT EPR may provide a means to obtain physiologic information such as tissue oxygenation and redox status

Reconstruction for Time-Domain In Vivo EPR 3D Multigradient Oximetric Imaging—A Parallel Processing Perspective

Three-dimensional Oximetric Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging using the Single Point Imaging modality generates unpaired spin density and oxygen images that can readily distinguish between normal and tumor tissues in small animals. It is also possible with fast imaging to track the changes in tissue oxygenation in response to the oxygen content in the breathing air. However, this involves dealing with gigabytes of data for each 3D oximetric imaging experiment involving digital band pass filtering and background noise subtraction, followed by 3D Fourier reconstruction. This process is rather slow in a conventional uniprocessor system. This paper presents a parallelization framework using OpenMP runtime support and parallel MATLAB to execute such computationally intensive programs. The Intel compiler is used to develop a parallel C++ code based on OpenMP. The code is executed on four Dual-Core AMD Opteron shared memory processors, to reduce the computational burden of the filtration task significantly. The results show that the parallel code for filtration has achieved a speed up factor of 46.66 as against the equivalent serial MATLAB code. In addition, a parallel MATLAB code has been developed to perform 3D Fourier reconstruction. Speedup factors of 4.57 and 4.25 have been achieved during the reconstruction process and oximetry computation, for a data set with 23 × 23 × 23 gradient steps. The execution time has been computed for both the serial and parallel implementations using different dimensions of the data and presented for comparison. The reported system has been designed to be easily accessible even from low-cost personal computers through local internet (NIHnet). The experimental results demonstrate that the parallel computing provides a source of high computational power to obtain biophysical parameters from 3D EPR oximetric imaging, almost in real-time

Diaspora identification and long-distance nationalism among Tamil migrants of diverse state origins in the UK

Accounts of Tamil long-distance nationalism have focused on Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. But the UK is also home to Tamils of non-Sri Lankan state origins. While these migrants may be nominally incorporated into a 'Tamil diaspora', they are seldom present in scholarly accounts. Framed by Werbner's (2002) conception of diasporas as 'aesthetic' and 'moral' communities, this article explores whether engagement with a Tamil diaspora and long-distance nationalism is expressed by Tamil migrants of diverse state origins. While migrants identify with an aesthetic community, 'membership' of the moral community is contested between those who hold direct experience of suffering as central to belonging, and those who imagine the boundaries of belonging more fluidly - based upon primordial understandings of essential ethnicity and a narrative of Tamil 'victimhood' that incorporates experiences of being Tamil in Sri Lanka, India and in other sites, despite obvious differences in these experiences. © 2013 Taylor & Francis

Fever as a Cause of Hypophosphatemia in Patients with Malaria

Hypophosphatemia occurs in 40 to 60% of patients with acute malaria, and in many other conditions associated with elevations of body temperature. To determine the prevalence and causes of hypophosphatemia in patients with malaria, we retrospectively studied all adults diagnosed with acute malaria during a 12-year period. To validate our findings, we analyzed a second sample of malaria patients during a subsequent 10-year period. Serum phosphorus correlated inversely with temperature (n = 59, r = −0.62; P<0.0001), such that each 1°C increase in body temperature was associated with a reduction of 0.18 mmol/L (0.56 mg/dL) in the serum phosphorus level (95% confidence interval: −0.12 to −0.24 mmol/L [−0.37 to −0.74 mg/dL] per 1°C). A similar effect was observed among 19 patients who had repeat measurements of serum phosphorus and temperature. In a multiple linear regression analysis, the relation between temperature and serum phosphorus level was independent of blood pH, PCO2, and serum levels of potassium, bicarbonate, calcium, albumin, and glucose. Our study demonstrates a strong inverse linear relation between body temperature and serum phosphorus level that was not explained by other factors known to cause hypophosphatemia. If causal, this association can account for the high prevalence of hypophosphatemia, observed in our patients and in previous studies of patients with malaria. Because hypophosphatemia has been observed in other clinical conditions characterized by fever or hyperthermia, this relation may not be unique to malaria. Elevation of body temperature should be added to the list of causes of hypophosphatemia

Dancing with the Electrons: Time-Domain and CW In Vivo EPR Imaging

The progress in the development of imaging the distribution of unpaired electrons in living systems and the functional and the potential diagnostic dimensions of such an imaging process, using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI), is traced from its origins with emphasis on our own work. The importance of EPR imaging stems from the fact that many paramagnetic probes show oxygen dependent spectral broadening. Assessment of in vivo oxygen concentration is an important factor in radiation oncology in treatment-planning and monitoring treatment-outcome. The emergence of narrow-line trairylmethyl based, bio-compatible spin probes has enabled the development of radiofrequency time-domain EPRI. Spectral information in time-domain EPRI can be achieved by generating a time sequence of T2* or T2 weighted images. Progress in CW imaging has led to the use of rotating gradients, more recently rapid scan with direct detection, and a combination of all the three. Very low field MRI employing Dynamic Nuclear polarization (Overhauser effect) is also employed for monitoring tumor hypoxia, and re-oxygenation in vivo. We have also been working on the co-registration of MRI and time domain EPRI on mouse tumor models at 300 MHz using a specially designed resonator assembly. The mapping of the unpaired electron distribution and unraveling the spectral characteristics by using magnetic resonance in presence of stationary and rotating gradients in indeed ‘dancing with the (unpaired) electrons’, metaphorically speaking