Effects of frozen storage and sample temperature on water compartmentation and multiexponential transverse relaxation in cartilage

Multiexponential transverse relaxation in tissue has been interpreted as a marker of water compartmentation. Articular cartilage has been reported to exhibit such relaxation in several studies, with the relative contributions of tissue heterogeneity and tissue microstructure remaining unspecified. In bovine nasal cartilage, conflicting data regarding the existence of multiexponential relaxation have been reported. Imaging and analysis artifacts as well as rapid chemical exchange between tissue compartments have been identified as potential causes for this discrepancy. Here, we find that disruption of cartilage microstructure by freeze-thawing can greatly alter the character of transverse relaxation in this tissue. We conclude that fresh cartilage exhibits multiexponential relaxation based upon its microstructural water compartments, but that multiexponentiality can be lost or rendered undetectable by freeze-thawing. In addition, we find that increasing chemical exchange by raising sample temperature from 4°C to 37°C does not substantially limit the ability to detect multiexponential relaxation.     

Synthesis of luminescent homo-dinuclear cationic lanthanide cyclen complexes bearing amide pendant arms through the use of copper catalysed (1,3-Huisgen, CuAAC) click chemistry

The design and synthesis of dinuclear-lanthanide complexes possessing triazole-based bridges, formed by using copper catalysed 1,3-cycloaddition reactions between heptadentate alkyne functionalised cyclen europium or terbium complexes and di-azides (CuAAC reactions), are described. While this click reaction worked well for the formation of the homo-Eu(III) and Tb(III) bis-tri-arm cyclen N,N-dimethyl acetamide complexes, 2Eu and 2Tb, and for the homo-Eu(III) chiral N-methylnaphthalene based complexes 3Eu (S,S,S) and 4Eu (R,R,R), the formation of the Eu(III) complex of the primary amide analogue of 2, namely 1Eu, was not successful, clearly demonstrating the effect that the nature of the pendant arms has on this reaction. Furthermore, the click reactions between the free alkyne cyclen bis-derivatives (5-8) and the di-azide were unsuccessful, most likely due to the high affinity of the cyclen macrocycles for Cu(II). The Eu(III) complexes of 2-4 and 2Tb all gave rise to sensitised metal ion centred emission upon excitation of the triazole or the naphthalene antennae in methanol solution, and their hydration states were determined, which showed that while the Eu(III) mono-nuclear complexes had q ～ 2, the click products all had q ～ 1. In the case of 3Eu (S,S,S) and 4Eu (R,R,R), the circular polarised emission (CPL) was also observed for both, demonstrating the chiral environment of the lanthanide centres.     

Mid-IR soliton compression in silicon optical fibers and fiber tapers

Numerical simulations are used to investigate soliton compression in silicon core optical fibers at 2.3 μm in the mid-infrared waveguide regime. Compression in both standard silicon fibers and fiber tapers is compared to establish the relative compression ratios for a range of input pulse conditions. The results show that tapered fibers can be used to obtain higher levels of compression for moderate soliton orders and thus lower input powers.     

Deformation and strain analysis for high extrusion ratios and elevated temperatures

A method is described for obtaining full-field distribution of strain during axisymmetric extrusion. Strains are determined from changes in the shapes of flowlines as observed through the deformation of an ink-stamped grid on an axial plane of the extruded billet. Numerical methods are described for approximation and differentiation of the materialflow functions. The method is applied to extrusion of aluminum at 430°C with an extrusion ratio of 12.4 to 1. Good agreement is found between calculated and measured flow patterns.     

Fuzzy logic for auditory evoked response monitoring and control of depth of anaesthesia

This paper describes a self-organizing fuzzy model of patients undergoing surgery which was created from 10 clinical trials with off-line analysis during maintenance of anaesthesia using the drug propofol. The effects of patient sensitivity and surgical disturbances are also represented in this patient model. Hence, this model can be considered to be a qualitative pharmacologically related model for propofol during the anaesthetic maintenance stage. Furthermore, a closed-loop simulation has been designed to validate the patient model and compare the performance of a self-organizing fuzzy logic controller algorithm against a clinically derived linguistic controller. The successful results obtained provide proof-of-concept and encouragement to perform on-line clinical trials using fuzzy logic-based monitoring and control in operating theatre in the near future.     

The fluoride ion affinity of tungsten pentafluoride and the electron affinity of tungsten hexafluoride.

Enthalpies of oxidative alkaline hydrolysis of the salts LiWF₆ and NaWF₆ are −549 and −519 kj mol^-1 respectively. From these results and earlier thermochemical results for KWF₆, RbWF₆, and from crystal structure data for these salts, it has proved possible to assess the charge distribution within the WF₆^- anion in these salts, and to estimate the fluoride ion affinity of WF₅ and the electron affinity of WF₆.