12,140 research outputs found
Separation of Parallel Encoded Complex-Valued Slices (SPECS) From A Single Complex-Valued Aliased Coil Image
Purpose
Achieving a reduction in scan time with minimal inter-slice signal leakage is one of the significant obstacles in parallel MR imaging. In fMRI, multiband-imaging techniques accelerate data acquisition by simultaneously magnetizing the spatial frequency spectrum of multiple slices. The SPECS model eliminates the consequential inter-slice signal leakage from the slice unaliasing, while maintaining an optimal reduction in scan time and activation statistics in fMRI studies. Materials and Methods
When the combined k-space array is inverse Fourier reconstructed, the resulting aliased image is separated into the un-aliased slices through a least squares estimator. Without the additional spatial information from a phased array of receiver coils, slice separation in SPECS is accomplished with acquired aliased images in shifted FOV aliasing pattern, and a bootstrapping approach of incorporating reference calibration images in an orthogonal Hadamard pattern. Result
The aliased slices are effectively separated with minimal expense to the spatial and temporal resolution. Functional activation is observed in the motor cortex, as the number of aliased slices is increased, in a bilateral finger tapping fMRI experiment. Conclusion
The SPECS model incorporates calibration reference images together with coefficients of orthogonal polynomials into an un-aliasing estimator to achieve separated images, with virtually no residual artifacts and functional activation detection in separated images
An exactly solvable model of a superconducting to rotational phase transition
We consider a many-fermion model which exhibits a transition from a
superconducting to a rotational phase with variation of a parameter in its
Hamiltonian. The model has analytical solutions in its two limits due to the
presence of dynamical symmetries. However, the symmetries are basically
incompatible with one another; no simple solution exists in intermediate
situations. Exact (numerical) solutions are possible and enable one to study
the behavior of competing but incompatible symmetries and the phase transitions
that result in a semirealistic situation. The results are remarkably simple and
shed light on the nature of phase transitions.Comment: 11 pages including 1 figur
Control of macrophytes by grass carp (ctenopharyngodon idella) in a Waikato drain, New Zealand
Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum L.) and other aquatic macrophytes have historically been mechanically removed from the Rangiriri drain and Churchill East drain to maintain drain efficiency. As an alternative control method for the high plant biomass that accumulates at the end of summer, the effect of stocking diploid grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella L.) on the aquatic vegetation was evaluated in these Waikato drainage systems. At the start of the trial, both drains had a low diversity of aquatic macrophytes, and of the nine species (including the emergents), seven were exotic. Two months after grass carp were released to Churchill East drain (the treated drain) the four submerged and floating macrophyte species became scarce in the main drain. Over the same period, these species increased in biomass in Rangiriri drain (the untreated drain), where hornwort became dense and surface-reaching and remained so for the duration of the trial. However, grass carp did not control submerged vegetation in smaller side drains or the shallow, upper parts of the main drain, or the marginal sprawling species and emergent species. The cost of leasing the grass carp was similar to the cost of clearing the drains mechanically, but grass carp provided continuous weed control. However, subsequent to this trial, 62 dead grass carp were found in Churchill East drain in February 2001, and weed cover subsequently increased. This illustrates that grass carp management in New Zealand agricultural drains can be problematic due to periodic fish kills
Effect of the Pauli principle on photoelectron spin transport in GaAs
In p+ GaAs thin films, the effect of photoelectron degeneracy on spin
transport is investigated theoretically and experimentally by imaging the spin
polarization profile as a function of distance from a tightly-focussed light
excitation spot. Under degeneracy of the electron gas (high concentration, low
temperature), a dip at the center of the polarization profile appears with a
polarization maximum at a distance of about from the center. This
counterintuitive result reveals that photoelectron diffusion depends on spin,
as a direct consequence of the Pauli principle. This causes a concentration
dependence of the spin stiffness while the spin dependence of the mobility is
found to be weak in doped material. The various effects which can modify spin
transport in a degenerate electron gas under local laser excitation are
considered. A comparison of the data with a numerical solution of the coupled
diffusion equations reveals that ambipolar coupling with holes increases the
steady-state photo-electron density at the excitation spot and therefore the
amplitude of the degeneracy-induced polarization dip. Thermoelectric currrents
are predicted to depend on spin under degeneracy (spin Soret currents), but
these currents are negligible except at very high excitation power where they
play a relatively small role. Coulomb spin drag and bandgap renormalization are
negligible due to electrostatic screening by the hole gas
The erosion/corrosion of small superalloy turbine rotors operating in the effluent of a PFB coal combustor
Superalloy turbine rotors in a single stage turbine with 6 percent partial admittance were operated in the effluent of a pressurized fluidized bed coal combustor for up to 164 hours. Total mass flow was 300 kg/hr and average particulate loadings ranged from 600 to 2800 ppm for several coal/sorbent combinations. A 5.5 atm turbine inlet gas pressure and inlet gas temperatures from 700 to 800 C yielded absolute gas velocities at the stator exit of about 500 m/s. The angular rotation speed (40,000 rpm) of the six inch diameter rotors was equivalent to a tip speed of about 300 m/s, and average gas velocities relative to the rotating surface ranged from 260 to 330 m/s at mean radius. The rotor erosion pattern reflects heavy particle separation with severe (5 to 500 cm/yr) erosion at the leading edge, pressure side center, and suction side trailing edge at the tip. The erosion distribution pattern provides a spectrum of erosion/oxidation/deposition as a function of blade position. This spectrum includes enhanced oxidation (10 to 100 x air), mixed oxides in exposed depletion zones, sulfur rich oxides in deposition zones, and rugged areas of erosive oxide removal
Thermoelectricity in Nanowires: A Generic Model
By employing a Boltzmann transport equation and using an energy and size
dependent relaxation time () approximation (RTA), we evaluate
self-consistently the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of a quantum wire
with rectangular cross-section. The inferred shows abrupt enhancement in
comparison to its counterparts in bulk systems. Still, the estimated for
the representative BiTe nanowires and its dependence on wire parameters
deviate considerably from those predicted by the existing RTA models with a
constant . In addition, we address contribution of the higher energy
subbands to the transport phenomena, the effect of chemical potential tuning on
, and correlation of with quantum size effects (QSEs). The obtained
results are of general validity for a wide class of systems and may prove
useful in the ongoing development of the modern thermoelectric applications.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures; Dedicated to the memory of Amirkhan Qezell
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Testing a phantom eye under various signal-to-noise ratio conditions using eleven different OCT devices
We compared eleven OCT devices in their ability to quantify retinal layer thicknesses under different signal-strength conditions, using a commercially available phantom eye. We analyzed a medium-intensity 50 ”m layer in an identical manner for all devices, using the provided log-scale images and a reconstructed linear-scale tissue reflectivity metric. Thickness measurements were highly comparable when the data were analyzed in an identical manner. With optimal signal strength, the thickness of the 50 ”m layer was overestimated by a mean of 4.3 ”m in the log-scale images and of 2.7 ”m in the linear-scale images
Reversable heat flow through the carbon nanotube junctions
Microscopic mechanisms of externally controlled reversable heat flow through
the carbon nanotube junctions (NJ) are studied theoretically. Our model
suggests that the heat is transfered along the tube section by
electrons () and holes () moving ballistically in either in parallel or
in opposite directions and accelerated by the bias source-drain voltage (Peltier effect). We compute the Seebeck coefficient , electric
and thermal conductivities and find that their magnitudes
strongly depend on and . The sign reversal of
versus the sign of formerly observed experimentally is interpreted
in this work in terms of so-called chiral tunneling phenomena (Klein paradox)
Investigation of synthetic aperture methods in ultrasound surface imaging using elementary surface types
Synthetic aperture imaging methods have been employed widely in recent research in non-destructive testing (NDT), but uptake has been more limited in medical ultrasound imaging. Typically offering superior focussing power over more traditional phased array methods, these techniques have been employed in NDT applications to locate and characterise small defects within large samples, but have rarely been used to image surfaces. A desire to ultimately employ ultrasonic surface imaging for bone surface geometry measurement prior to surgical intervention motivates this research, and results are presented for initial laboratory trials of a surface reconstruction technique based on global thresholding of ultrasonic 3D point cloud data. In this study, representative geometry artefacts were imaged in the laboratory using two synthetic aperture techniques; the Total Focusing Method (TFM) and the Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) employing full and narrow synthetic apertures, respectively. Three high precision metallic samples of known geometries (cuboid, sphere and cylinder) which featured a range of elementary surface primitives were imaged using a 5MHz, 128 element 1D phased array employing both SAFT and TFM approaches. The array was manipulated around the samples using a precision robotic positioning system, allowing for repeatable ultrasound derived 3D surface point clouds to be created. A global thresholding technique was then developed that allowed the extraction of the surface profiles, and these were compared with the known geometry samples to provide a quantitative measure of error of 3D surface reconstruction. The mean errors achieved with optimised SAFT imaging for the cuboidal, spherical and cylindrical samples were 1.3 mm, 2.9 mm and 2.0 mm respectively, while those for TFM imaging were 3.7 mm, 3.0 mm and 3.1 mm, respectively. These results were contrary to expectations given the higher information content associated with the TFM images. However, it was established that the reduced error associated with the SAFT technique was associated with significant reductions in side lobe levels of approximately 24dB in comparison to TFM imaging, although this came at the expense of reduced resolution and coverage
Vector coherent state theory of the generic representations of so(5) in an so(3) basis
For applications of group theory in quantum mechanics, one generally needs
explicit matrix representations of the spectrum generating algebras that arise
in bases that reduce the symmetry group of some Hamiltonian of interest. Here
we use vector coherent state techniques to develop an algorithm for
constructing the matrices for arbitrary finite-dimensional irreps of the SO(5)
Lie algebra in an SO(3) basis. The SO(3) subgroup of SO(5) is defined by
regarding SO(5) as linear transformations of the five-dimensional space of an
SO(3) irrep of angular momentum two. A need for such irreps arises in the
nuclear collective model of quadrupole vibrations and rotations. The algorithm
has been implemented in MAPLE, and some tables of results are presented.Comment: 20 pages, uses multirow.sty, submitted to J. Math. Phy
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