1,660 research outputs found
High-resolution DCE-MRI of the pituitary gland using radial k-space acquisition with compressed sensing reconstruction
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The pituitary gland is located outside of the blood-brain barrier. Dynamic T1 weighted contrast enhanced sequence is considered to be the gold standard to evaluate this region. However, it does not allow assessment of intrinsic permeability properties of the gland. Our aim was to demonstrate the utility of radial volumetric interpolated brain examination with the golden-angle radial sparse parallel technique to evaluate permeability characteristics of the individual components (anterior and posterior gland and the median eminence) of the pituitary gland and areas of differential enhancement and to optimize the study acquisition time.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was performed in 52 patients (group 1, 25 patients with normal pituitary glands; and group 2, 27 patients with a known diagnosis of microadenoma). Radial volumetric interpolated brain examination sequences with goldenangle radial sparse parallel technique were evaluated with an ROI-based method to obtain signal-time curves and permeability measures of individual normal structures within the pituitary gland and areas of differential enhancement. Statistical analyses were performed to assess differences in the permeability parameters of these individual regions and optimize the study acquisition time.
RESULTS: Signal-time curves from the posterior pituitary gland and median eminence demonstrated a faster wash-in and time of
maximum enhancement with a lower peak of enhancement compared with the anterior pituitary gland (P .005). Time-optimization
analysis demonstrated that 120 seconds is ideal for dynamic pituitary gland evaluation. In the absence of a clinical history, differences in the signal-time curves allow easy distinction between a simple cyst and a microadenoma.
CONCLUSIONS: This retrospective study confirms the ability of the golden-angle radial sparse parallel technique to evaluate the
permeability characteristics of the pituitary gland and establishes 120 seconds as the ideal acquisition time for dynamic pituitary gland
imaging
The Effect of Atomic Hydrogen on the Growth of Gallium Nitride by Molecular Beam Epitaxy
GaN was grown by molecular beam epitaxy using an rf plasma source. Growth under galliumârich conditions at 730â°C was required to produce high quality layers as indicated by photoluminescence, Hall effect, atomic force microscopy, and xâray diffraction measurements. Atomic hydrogen has a significant effect for Gaârich growth, increasing growth rates by as much as a factor of 2
Radiative association and inverse predissociation of oxygen atoms
The formation of \mbox{O}_2 by radiative association and by inverse
predissociation of ground state oxygen atoms is studied using
quantum-mechanical methods. Cross sections, emission spectra, and rate
coefficients are presented and compared with prior experimental and theoretical
results. At temperatures below 1000~K radiative association occurs by approach
along the state of \mbox{O}_2 and above 1000~K inverse
predissociation through the \mbox{B}\,{}^3\Sigma_u^- state is the dominant
mechanism. This conclusion is supported by a quantitative comparison between
the calculations and data obtained from hot oxygen plasma spectroscopy.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. A (Sept. 7., 1994), 19 pages, 4 figures,
latex (revtex3.0 and epsf.sty
Theoretical study of the absorption spectra of the lithium dimer
For the lithium dimer we calculate cross sections for absorption of radiation
from the vibrational-rotational levels of the ground X [singlet Sigma g +]
electronic state to the vibrational levels and continua of the excited A
[singlet Sigma u +] and B [singlet Pi u] electronic states. Theoretical and
experimental data are used to characterize the molecular properties taking
advantage of knowledge recently obtained from photoassociation spectroscopy and
ultra-cold atom collision studies. The quantum-mechanical calculations are
carried out for temperatures in the range from 1000 to 2000 K and are compared
with previous calculations and measurements.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, epsf, 6 fig
Exact Casimir-Polder potential between a particle and an ideal metal cylindrical shell and the proximity force approximation
We derive the exact Casimir-Polder potential for a polarizable microparticle
inside an ideal metal cylindrical shell using the Green function method. The
exact Casimir-Polder potential for a particle outside a shell, obtained
recently by using the Hamiltonian approach, is rederived and confirmed. The
exact quantum field theoretical result is compared with that obtained using the
proximity force approximation and a very good agreement is demonstrated at
separations below 0.1, where is the radius of the cylinder. The
developed methods are applicable in the theory of topological defects.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
Borrelia burgdorferi EbfC defines a newly-identified, widespread family of bacterial DNA-binding proteins
The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, encodes a novel type of DNA-binding protein named EbfC. Orthologs of EbfC are encoded by a wide range of bacterial species, so characterization of the borrelial protein has implications that span the eubacterial kingdom. The present work defines the DNA sequence required for high-affinity binding by EbfC to be the 4 bp broken palindrome GTnAC, where ânâ can be any nucleotide. Two high-affinity EbfC-binding sites are located immediately 5âČ of B. burgdorferi erp transcriptional promoters, and binding of EbfC was found to alter the conformation of erp promoter DNA. Consensus EbfC-binding sites are abundantly distributed throughout the B. burgdorferi genome, occurring approximately once every 1 kb. These and other features of EbfC suggest that this small protein and its orthologs may represent a distinctive type of bacterial nucleoid-associated protein. EbfC was shown to bind DNA as a homodimer, and site-directed mutagenesis studies indicated that EbfC and its orthologs appear to bind DNA via a novel α-helical âtweezerâ-like structure
Retrieval of atmospheric attenuation using combined ground-based and airborne 95-GHz cloud radar measurements
Includes bibliographical references (page 1353).Cloud measurements at millimeter-wave frequencies are affected by attenuation due to atmospheric gases, clouds, and precipitation. Estimation of the true equivalent radar reflectivity, Ze, is complicated because extinction mechanisms are not well characterized at these short wavelengths. This paper discusses cloud radar calibration and intercomparison of airborne and ground-based radar measurements and presents a unique algorithm for attenuation retrieval. This algorithm is based on dual 95-GHz radar measurements of the same cloud and precipitation volumes collected from opposing viewing angles. True radar reflectivity is retrieved by combining upward-looking and downward-looking radar profiles. This method reduces the uncertainty in radar reflectivity and attenuation estimates, since it does not require a priori knowledge of hydrometeors' microphysical properties. Results from this technique are compared with results retrieved from the Hitschfeld and Bordan algorithm, which uses single-radar measurements with path-integrated attenuation as a constraint. Further analysis is planned to employ this dual-radar algorithm in order to refine single-radar attenuation retrieval techniques, which will be used by operational sensors such as the CloudSat radar
Theoretical study of the absorption spectra of the sodium dimer
Absorption of radiation from the sodium dimer molecular states correlating to
Na(3s)-Na(3s) is investigated theoretically. Vibrational bound and continuum
transitions from the singlet X Sigma-g+ state to the first excited singlet A
Sigma-u+ and singlet B Pi-u states and from the triplet a Sigma-u+ state to the
first excited triplet b Sigma-g+ and triplet c Pi-g states are studied
quantum-mechanically. Theoretical and experimental data are used to
characterize the molecular properties taking advantage of knowledge recently
obtained from ab initio calculations, spectroscopy, and ultra-cold atom
collision studies. The quantum-mechanical calculations are carried out for
temperatures in the range from 500 to 3000 K and are compared with previous
calculations and measurements where available.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, revtex, eps
Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state
A search is presented for a massive particle, generically referred to as a
Z', decaying into a t t-bar pair. The search focuses on Z' resonances that are
sufficiently massive to produce highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks, which yield
collimated decay products that are partially or fully merged into single jets.
The analysis uses new methods to analyze jet substructure, providing
suppression of the non-top multijet backgrounds. The analysis is based on a
data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV,
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. Upper limits
in the range of 1 pb are set on the product of the production cross section and
branching fraction for a topcolor Z' modeled for several widths, as well as for
a Randall--Sundrum Kaluza--Klein gluon. In addition, the results constrain any
enhancement in t t-bar production beyond expectations of the standard model for
t t-bar invariant masses larger than 1 TeV.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics; this version
includes a minor typo correction that will be submitted as an erratu
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