MRI of thermally denatured blood: methemoglobin formation and relaxation effects

Focal regions of T₁-shortening have been observed in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-monitored thermal ablations of perfused tissues. The aims of this study were two-fold: to find evidence for heat-induced conversion of hemoglobin (Hb) to methemoglobin (mHb), and to investigate the effects of heat treatment of in-vitro blood components upon their MR relaxation times. Spectrophotometric studies were performed to confirm the heat-induced formation of methemoglobin. Preparations of whole and fractionated blood, previously submitted to elevated temperatures of 40°C to 80°C, were imaged and the relaxation times were calculated. Optical absorption spectra of samples containing free Hb, heated to 60°C, showed increased light absorption at 630 nm, evident of mHb presence. Short T₁ values in whole blood (1.13 s) and packed red blood cell (0.65 s) compartments, heated at 60°C, compared to their baseline values (1.62 s and 0.83 s, respectively), were attributed to mHb formation. In relation to MRI-guided thermal interventions, these results suggest a possible explanation for observation of hyperintense regions on T₁-weighted images.     

Spin concentration in a possible ESR dosimeter: An electron spin echo study on X-irradiated ammonium tartrate

Several single crystals and powder samples of ammonium tartrate, recently proposed as a possible ESR dosimeter, have been X-irradiated with different doses. The total radical concentration has been determined by quantitative cw ESR, by comparison with a standard. The samples have been studied by electron spin echo spectroscopy. The two-pulse echo decay has been obtained and simulated by a single exponential function for different values of the microwave power of the pulses and for different pulse lengths. The dependence of the phase memory time TM on the microwave power has been exploited to get information on the contribution of the instantaneous diffusion to spin dephasing. At room temperature in the range of radical concentrations of 10(18)-10(19) spins/cm3 the instantaneous diffusion is the dominant spin dephasing mechanism. The linear dependence of the instantaneous diffusion on the total concentration of the radicals is in agreement with the theory. From the latter result we conclude that the average radical-radical distance corresponds to a random distribution of the radicals in the matrix. A simple method of measuring the radical concentration by the ESE decays in powder samples of irradiated ammonium tartrate is described.     

Sensitivity-enhanced sim-CT HMQC PFG-HBHA(CO)NH and PFG-CBCA(CO)NH triple-resonance experiments

Short transverse relaxation times of Calpha and Cbeta single-quantum coherences reduce the sensitivity of triple-resonance experiments involving transfers of Calpha/Cbeta or Halpha/Hbeta coherences. Multiple-quantum line-narrowing techniques improve the relaxation properties of 13C coherences, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the experiment. In the present work, we describe PFG-CBCA(CO)NH and PFG-HBHA(CO)NH experiments that utilize heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherences in a simultaneous constant-time period to obtain completely decoupled spectra with improved sensitivity. Results indicate that approximately 30% of cross peaks show an average enhancement of approximately 15% in the CBCA(CO)NH experiment. In the related HBHA(CO)NH experiment, approximately 97% of the cross peaks show an average enhancement of approximately 40%.     

Asymptotic properties of the fenchel dual functional and applications to decomposition problems

We study dual functionals which have two fundamental properties. Firstly, they have a good asymptotical behavior. Secondly, to each dual sequence of subgradients converging to zero, one can associate a primal sequence which converges to an optimal solution of the primal problem. Furthermore, minimal conditions for the convergence of the Gauss-Seidel methods are given and applied to such kinds of functionals.     

解线性不等式的神经网络

本文提出两个解线性不等式的Hopfiedl-Tank型的神经网络。第一个网络模拟同时松弛投影方法，第二个网络是二次规划方法。当线性不等式的解集非空时，这两个方法都给出该线性不等式的解。同时我们还给出了这两个网络的数值模拟。     

Probing buried interfaces with non-linear optical spectroscopy

The importance of buried interfaces in our everyday lives and in current scientific research is highlighted, along with experimental difficulty associated with studying such systems. We present an overview of the application of second harmonic generation and sum-frequency spectroscopy to the study of buried interfaces. Several examples from the current literature are presented, ranging from chemical and biological, to electrical and magnetic interfaces. The importance of this work in the context of ongoing research in these areas is discussed. Finally, we provide a snapshot of the state of the art in non-linear optical spectroscopy by mentioning several new directions that are likely to have a large impact on future research into the physics and chemistry of buried interfaces.     

An atomistic view of electrochemistry

One of the most important tasks of modern, physical electrochemistry is the development of an atomistic picture of the solid/liquid interface in order to provide the basis for a mechanistic understanding of electrochemical processes. Electrochemists seek answers to the same questions as their surface science colleagues (e.g., electronic and structure properties of surfaces and adlayers), but are faced with the fact that in electrochemistry the contact of the solid with a condensed phase, the electrolyte, makes life much more difficult. Nevertheless, electrochemists succeeded in the last 20 years to develop an electrochemical surface science by adopting experimental techniques and theoretical concepts from surface physicists.

This article describes the various routes electrochemists have used to obtain a detailed characterization of electrode surfaces in particular, and of the electrochemical interface in general. Success in physical electrochemistry is based on the development of non-traditional in situ methods to complement the classical, current- and voltage-based techniques. The former range from optical spectroscopies, linear and non-linear, to in situ X-ray diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy. The current status of electrochemical surface science and its most important future goals are briefly addressed.     

Local convergence of quasi-Newton methods for B-differentiable equations

We study local convergence of quasi-Newton methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations defined by B-differentiable functions. We extend the classical linear and superlinear convergence results for general quasi-Newton methods as well as for Broyden's method. We also show how Broyden's method may be applied to nonlinear complementarity problems and illustrate its computational performance on two small examples.     

Fourier acceleration of iterative processes in disordered systems

Technical details are given on how to use Fourier acceleration with iterative processes such as relaxation and conjugate gradient methods. These methods are often used to solve large linear systems of equations, but become hopelessly slow very rapidly as the size of the set of equations to be solved increases. Fourier acceleration is a method designed to alleviate these problems and result in a very fast algorithm. The method is explained for the Jacobi relaxation and conjugate gradient methods and is applied to two models: the random resistor network and the random central-force network. In the first model, acceleration works very well; in the second, little is gained. We discuss reasons for this. We also include a discussion of stopping criteria.