Medical applications of diamond magnetometry: commercial viability

The sensing of magnetic fields has important applications in medicine, particularly to the sensing of signals in the heart and brain. The fields associated with biomagnetism are exceptionally weak, being many orders of magnitude smaller than the Earth's magnetic field. To measure them requires that we use the most sensitive detection techniques, however, to be commercially viable this must be done at an affordable cost. The current state of the art uses costly SQUID magnetometers, although they will likely be superseded by less costly, but otherwise limited, alkali vapour magnetometers. Here, we discuss the application of diamond magnetometers to medical applications. Diamond magnetometers are robust, solid state devices that work in a broad range of environments, with the potential for sensitivity comparable to the leading technologies.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Optically generated hyperpolarization for sensitivity enhancement in solution-state NMR spectroscopy

We show that optical excitation of radical triplet pair systems can produce a fourfold NMR signal enhancement in solution, without the need for microwave pumping. Development of optical hyperpolarization methods will significantly impact all NMR user groups by boosting sensitivity and reducing signal averaging times

Medical applications of diamond magnetometry : commercial viability

The sensing of magnetic fields has important applications in medicine, particularly to the sensing of signals in the heart and brain. The fields associated with biomagnetism are exceptionally weak, being many orders of magnitude smaller than the Earth's magnetic field. To measure them requires that we use the most sensitive detection techniques, however, to be commercially viable this must be done at an affordable cost. The current state of the art uses costly SQUID magnetometers, although they will likely be superseded by less costly, but otherwise limited, alkali vapour magnetometers. Here, we discuss the application of diamond magnetometers to medical applications. Diamond magnetometers are robust, solid state devices that work in a broad range of environments, with the potential for sensitivity comparable to the leading technologies

Particulate Matter Exposure Impairs Systemic Microvascular Endothelium-Dependent Dilation

Acute exposure to airborne pollutants, such as solid particulate matter (PM), increases the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction, but the mechanisms by which PM evokes systemic effects remain to be identified. The purpose of this study was to determine if pulmonary exposure to a PM surrogate, such as residual oil fly ash (ROFA), affects endothelium-dependent dilation in the systemic microcirculation. Rats were intratracheally instilled with ROFA at 0.1, 0.25, 1 or 2 mg/rat 24 hr before experimental measurements. Rats intratracheally instilled with saline or titanium dioxide (0.25 mg/rat) served as vehicle or particle control groups, respectively. In vivo microscopy of the spinotrapezius muscle was used to study systemic arteriolar dilator responses to the Ca(2+) ionophore A23187, administered by ejection via pressurized micropipette into the arteriolar lumen. We used analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples to monitor identified pulmonary inflammation and damage. To determine if ROFA exposure affected arteriolar nitric oxide sensitivity, sodium nitroprusside was iontophoretically applied to arterioles of rats exposed to ROFA. In saline-treated rats, A23187 dilated arterioles up to 72 ± 7% of maximum. In ROFA- and TiO(2)-exposed rats, A23187-induced dilation was significantly attenuated. BAL fluid analysis revealed measurable pulmonary inflammation and damage after exposure to 1 and 2 mg ROFA (but not TiO(2) or < 1 mg ROFA), as evidenced by significantly higher polymorphonuclear leukocyte cell counts, enhanced BAL albumin levels, and increased lactate dehydrogenase activity in BAL fluid. The sensitivity of arteriolar smooth muscle to NO was similar in saline-treated and ROFA-exposed rats, suggesting that pulmonary exposure to ROFA affected endothelial rather than smooth muscle function. A significant increase in venular leukocyte adhesion and rolling was observed in ROFA-exposed rats, suggesting local inflammation at the systemic microvascular level. These results indicate that pulmonary PM exposure impairs systemic endothelium-dependent arteriolar dilation. Moreover, because rats exposed to < 1 mg ROFA or TiO(2) did not exhibit BAL signs of pulmonary damage or inflammation, it appears that PM exposure can impair systemic microvascular function independently of detectable pulmonary inflammation

Colour centres on demand in diamond

This thesis reports research on point defects in single crystal synthetic diamond. A number of techniques have been used including electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), infrared (IR) absorption, ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. The effect of perturbations by uniaxial stress on defect formation and migration have been investigated. Photo- and thermo-chromic effects have been investigated in irradiated and annealed type-IaA diamond. Charge transfer between nitrogen and di-nitrogen vacancy defects together with quantification in their negative charge states has allowed their calibration constants to be determined. Improvements have been made in the 13C hyperfine parameters for N2V− and its observation in diamond of natural isotopic abundance has allowed its 14N quadrupole parameters to be determined. Defects in neutron irradiated diamond have been studied by annealing isochronally up to 1600 XC. The majority of nitrogen could be accounted for through all annealing stages in a variety of defects including a maximum of 72(7) ppm of NV−. The annealing behaviour strongly supports the involvement of interstitials in interstitial mediated nitrogen aggregation in addition to vacancy assisted nitrogen aggregation. A model of the mechanisms has been proposed and simulated with chemical kinetics, the result of which agrees well with experiment. The effect of applying up to 3.0 GPa (0 0 1) uniaxial stresses to type-IIa samples during electron irradiation has been investigated. The treatment caused very little preferential orientation of the single interstitial and nearest neighbour di-interstitial, however it caused significant preferential orientation of 3H, believed to be the next nearest neighbour di-interstitial. The production rate of both di-interstitials was also increased by stress. Irradiated samples have been annealed under [0 0 1] uniaxial stresses. The annealing successfully created preferentially oriented populations of the (0 0 1)-split self interstitial with up to 93(1)% efficiency. Preferentially oriented interstitials have been annealed in situ in an EPR spectrometer allowing the site populations to be determined throughout the anneal

Entrepreneurship: One Key To Integrated Business Education

This paper presents a case study of the key issues in implementing an innovative approach to teaching the business core curriculum.  The program utilizes entrepreneurship as a key integrating theme and is designed to include two major active learning components: the development of a business plan and the implementation of a student business.  The course integrates cross-functional topic areas including accounting, finance, international business, management, and marketing.  The paper describes the program in detail and identifies the key challenges and opportunities that remain.  From the student and faculty feedback it appears obvious that while certain improvements need to be made and institutional resources increased, the course offers a unique educational experience

Entrepreneurship: One Key To Integrated Business Education

This paper presents a case study of the key issues in implementing an innovative approach to teaching the business core curriculum.   The program utilizes entrepreneurship as a key integrating theme and is designed to include two major active learning components: the development of a business plan and the implementation of a student business.  The course integrates cross-functional topic areas including accounting, finance, international business, management, and marketing.  The paper describes the program in detail and identifies the key challenges and opportunities that remain.  From the student and faculty feedback it appears obvious that while certain improvements need to made and institutional resources increased, the course offers a unique educational experience

Precursors To and Pathways Through Conversion: Catalytic Experiences of Born Again Christian College Students

Born again Christians are a significant religious population in the United States, and throughout the world. The process by which a born again identity is assumed is not clearly described in the research literature. Therefore, we asked 18 born again Christian college students a series of questions designed to uncover what led to their identity of being born again. Responses fell into three overarching themes. First, participants described exposure within relationships to God’s principles. Second, participants noted the influence of introspection and reflection on their lives apart from the influence of God. Third, participants had an active response in which they reported such things as recognizing conviction by the Holy Spirit, that they decided to act on that conviction, and that they took action to follow Jesus. Findings are discussed within the framework of Cohen and Hill’s (2007) theory of religion as culture

Three-Dimensional Structure of Conotoxin tx3a: A m-1 Branch Peptide of the M-Superfamily

The M-superfamily, one of eight major conotoxin superfamilies found in the venom of the cone snail, contains a Cys framework with disulfide-linked loops labeled 1, 2, and 3 (- CC1C2C3CC-). M-superfamily conotoxins can be divided into the m-1, -2, -3 and -4 branches, based upon the number of residues located in the third Cys loop between the fourth and fifth Cys residues. Here we provide a three-dimensional solution structure for the m-1 conotoxin tx3a found in the venom of Conus textile. The 15 amino acid peptide, CCSWDVCDHPSCTCC, has disulfide bonds between Cys1 and Cys14, Cys2 and Cys12, and Cys7 and Cys15 typical of the C1- C5, C2-C4, and C3-C6 connectivity pattern seen in m-1 branch peptides. The tertiary structure of tx3a was determined by 2D 1H NMR in combination with the combined assignment and dynamics algorithm for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) applications CYANA program. Input for structure calculations consisted of 62 inter- and intraproton, 5 phi angle, and 4 hydrogen bond constraints. The root-mean-square deviation values for the 20 final structures are 0.32 +/- 0.07 Å and 0.84 +/- 0.11 Å for the backbone and heavy atoms, respectively. Surprisingly, the structure of tx3a has a “triple-turn” motif seen in the m-2 branch conotoxin mr3a, which is absent in mr3e, the only other member of the m-1 branch of the M-superfamily whose structure is known. Interestingly, injection of tx3a into mice elicits an excitatory response similar to that of the m-2 branch peptide mr3a, even though the conotoxins have different disulfide connectivity patterns