1,695 research outputs found
Safety of intracranial electroencephalography during functional electromagnetic resonance imaging in humans at 1.5 tesla using a head transmit RF coil: Histopathological and heat-shock immunohistochemistry observations.
Simultaneous intracranial EEG and functional MRI (icEEG-fMRI) recordings in humans, whereby EEG is recorded from electrodes implanted inside the cranium during fMRI scanning, were made possible following safety studies on test phantoms and our specification of a rigorous data acquisition protocol. In parallel with this work, other investigations in our laboratory revealed the damage caused by the EEG electrode implantation procedure at the cellular level. The purpose of this report is to further explore the safety of performing MRI, including simultaneous icEEG-fMRI data acquisitions, in the presence of implanted intra-cranial EEG electrodes, by presenting some histopathological and heat-shock immunopositive labeling observations in surgical tissue samples from patients who underwent the scanning procedure. We performed histopathology and heat shock protein expression analyses on surgical tissue samples from nine patients who had been implanted with icEEG electrodes. Three patients underwent icEEG-fMRI and structural MRI (sMRI); three underwent sMRI only, all at similar time points after icEEG implantation; and three who did not undergo functional or sMRI with icEEG electrodes. The histopathological findings from the three patients who underwent icEEG-fMRI were similar to those who did not, in that they showed no evidence of additional damage in the vicinity of the electrodes, compared to cases who had no MRI with implanted icEEG electrodes. This finding was similar to our observations in patients who only underwent sMRI with implanted icEEG electrodes. This work provides unique evidence on the safety of functional MRI in the presence of implanted EEG electrodes. In the cases studied, icEEG-fMRI performed in accordance with our protocol based on low-SAR (≤0.1 W/kg) sequences at 1.5T using a head-transmit RF coil, did not result in measurable additional damage to the brain tissue in the vicinity of implanted electrodes. Furthermore, while one cannot generalize the results of this study beyond the specific electrode implantation and scanning conditions described herein, we submit that our approach is a useful framework for the post-hoc safety assessment of MR scanning with brain implants. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Atorvastatin increases oxidative stress and modulates angiogenesis in Ossabaw swine with the metabolic syndrome
ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on oxidative stress and angiogenesis in ischemic myocardium in a clinically relevant porcine model of the metabolic syndrome.MethodsSixteen Ossabaw pigs were fed either a high-fat diet alone or a high-fat diet supplemented with atorvastatin (1.5 mg/kg daily) for 14 weeks. Chronic myocardial ischemia was induced by ameroid constrictor placement around the circumflex artery. After 6 months of the diet, myocardial perfusion was measured at rest and with demand pacing. The heart was harvested for analysis of perfusion, microvessel relaxation, protein expression, and oxidative stress.ResultsBoth groups had similar endothelium-dependent microvessel relaxation to adenosine diphosphate and endothelium-independent relaxation to sodium nitroprusside. Myocardial perfusion in the ischemic territory was also not significantly different either at rest or with demand pacing. Atorvastatin treatment increased total myocardial protein oxidation and serum lipid peroxidation. However, the expression of markers of oxidative stress, including NOX2, RAC1, myeloperoxidase, and superoxide dismutase 1, 2, and 3, were not statistically different. The expression of proangiogenic proteins endothelial nitric oxide synthase, phosphorylated endothelial nitric oxide synthase (Ser 1177), phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate kinase (Thr 172), phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (T202, Y204), and vascular endothelial growth factor were all upregulated in the atorvastatin group.ConclusionsAtorvastatin increased the capillary and arteriolar density and upregulated the proangiogenic proteins endothelial nitric oxide synthase and phosphorylated endothelial nitric oxide synthase, phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate kinase, phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase, and vascular endothelial growth factor in a swine model of the metabolic syndrome. However, it failed to increase myocardial perfusion. Atorvastatin treatment was associated with increased myocardial and serum oxidative stress, which might contribute to the lack of collateral-dependent perfusion in the setting of angiogenesis
X-ray absorption and optical spectroscopy studies of (MgAl)B
X-ray absorption spectroscopy and optical reflectance measurements have been
carried out to elucidate the evolution of the electronic structure in
(MgAl)B for \emph{x} = 0.0,0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4. The
important role of B 2\emph{p} hole states to superconductivity has
been identified, and the decrease in the hole carrier number is
\emph{quantitatively} determined. The rate of the decrease in the hole
concentration agree well with the theoretical calculations. On the other
hand,while the evolution of the electronic structure is gradual through the
doping range, suppression is most significant at \emph{x} = 0.4. These
results suggest that the superstructure in (MgAl)B, in
addition to the holes, can affect the lattice dynamics and contributes
to the suppression effect. Other possible explanations like the
topological change of the band Fermi surface are also discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Phys. Rev. B, in pres
A Simple Model for Anisotropic Step Growth
We consider a simple model for the growth of isolated steps on a vicinal
crystal surface. It incorporates diffusion and drift of adatoms on the terrace,
and strong step and kink edge barriers. Using a combination of analytic methods
and Monte Carlo simulations, we study the morphology of growing steps in
detail. In particular, under typical Molecular Beam Epitaxy conditions the step
morphology is linearly unstable in the model and develops fingers separated by
deep cracks. The vertical roughness of the step grows linearly in time, while
horizontally the fingers coarsen proportional to . We develop scaling
arguments to study the saturation of the ledge morphology for a finite width
and length of the terrace.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures; [email protected]
Quantum feedback with weak measurements
The problem of feedback control of quantum systems by means of weak
measurements is investigated in detail. When weak measurements are made on a
set of identical quantum systems, the single-system density matrix can be
determined to a high degree of accuracy while affecting each system only
slightly. If this information is fed back into the systems by coherent
operations, the single-system density matrix can be made to undergo an
arbitrary nonlinear dynamics, including for example a dynamics governed by a
nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. We investigate the implications of such
nonlinear quantum dynamics for various problems in quantum control and quantum
information theory, including quantum computation. The nonlinear dynamics
induced by weak quantum feedback could be used to create a novel form of
quantum chaos in which the time evolution of the single-system wave function
depends sensitively on initial conditions.Comment: 11 pages, TeX, replaced to incorporate suggestions of Asher Pere
Measurement of Muon Neutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on Carbon
The observation of neutrino oscillations is clear evidence for physics beyond
the standard model. To make precise measurements of this phenomenon, neutrino
oscillation experiments, including MiniBooNE, require an accurate description
of neutrino charged current quasi-elastic (CCQE) cross sections to predict
signal samples. Using a high-statistics sample of muon neutrino CCQE events,
MiniBooNE finds that a simple Fermi gas model, with appropriate adjustments,
accurately characterizes the CCQE events observed in a carbon-based detector.
The extracted parameters include an effective axial mass, M_A^eff = 1.23+/-0.20
GeV, that describes the four-momentum dependence of the axial-vector form
factor of the nucleon; and a Pauli-suppression parameter, kappa =
1.019+/-0.011. Such a modified Fermi gas model may also be used by future
accelerator-based experiments measuring neutrino oscillations on nuclear
targets.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Measurement of the \nu_\mu charged current \pi^+ to quasi-elastic cross section ratio on mineral oil in a 0.8 GeV neutrino beam
Using high statistics samples of charged current interactions,
MiniBooNE reports a measurement of the single charged pion production to
quasi-elastic cross section ratio on mineral oil (CH), both with and
without corrections for hadron re-interactions in the target nucleus. The
result is provided as a function of neutrino energy in the range 0.4 GeV 2.4 GeV with 11% precision in the region of highest statistics. The
results are consistent with previous measurements and the prediction from
historical neutrino calculations.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
First Observation of Coherent Production in Neutrino Nucleus Interactions with 2 GeV
The MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab has amassed the largest sample to date
of s produced in neutral current (NC) neutrino-nucleus interactions at
low energy. This paper reports a measurement of the momentum distribution of
s produced in mineral oil (CH) and the first observation of coherent
production below 2 GeV. In the forward direction, the yield of events
observed above the expectation for resonant production is attributed primarily
to coherent production off carbon, but may also include a small contribution
from diffractive production on hydrogen. Integrated over the MiniBooNE neutrino
flux, the sum of the NC coherent and diffractive modes is found to be (19.5
1.1 (stat) 2.5 (sys))% of all exclusive NC production at
MiniBooNE. These measurements are of immediate utility because they quantify an
important background to MiniBooNE's search for
oscillations.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Lett.
Characterizing early drug resistance-related events using geometric ensembles from HIV protease dynamics:
The use of antiretrovirals (ARVs) has drastically improved the life quality and expectancy of HIV patients since their introduction in health care. Several millions are still afflicted worldwide by HIV and ARV resistance is a constant concern for both healthcare practitioners and patients, as while treatment options are finite, the virus constantly adapts via complex mutation patterns to select for resistant strains under the pressure of drug treatment. The HIV protease is a crucial enzyme for viral maturation and has been a game changing drug target since the first application. Due to similarities in protease inhibitor designs, drug cross-resistance is not uncommon across ARVs of the same class
Non-conserved dynamics of steps on vicinal surfaces during electromigration-induced step bunching
We report new results on the non-conserved dynamics of parallel steps on
vicinal surfaces in the case of sublimation with electromigration and step-step
interactions. The derived equations are valid in the quasistatic approximation
and in the limit , where is the inverse
electromigration length, the diffusion length, the kinetic
lengths and the terrace widths. The coupling between crystal sublimation
and step-step interactions induces non-linear, non-conservative terms in the
equations of motion. Depending on the initial conditions, this leads to
interrupted coarsening, anticoarsening of step bunches or periodic switching
between step trains of different numbers of bunches.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; revised and extended versio
- …