Influence of attention focus on neural activity in the human spinal cord during thermal sensory stimulation

Perceptions of sensation and pain in healthy people are believed to be the net result of sensory input and descending modulation from brainstem and cortical regions depending on emotional and cognitive factors. Here, the influence of attention on neural activity in the spinal cord during thermal sensory stimulation of the hand was investigated with functional magnetic resonance imaging by systematically varying the participants' attention focus across and within repeated studies. Attention states included (1) attention to the stimulus by rating the sensation and (2) attention away from the stimulus by performing various mental tasks of watching a movie and identifying characters, detecting the direction of coherently moving dots within a randomly moving visual field and answering mentally-challenging questions. Functional MRI results spanning the cervical spinal cord and brainstem consistently demonstrated that the attention state had a significant influence on the activity detected in the cervical spinal cord, as well as in brainstem regions involved with the descending analgesia system. These findings have important implications for the detection and study of pain, and improved characterization of the effects of injury or disease.     

Apparent diffusion coefficient of line scan diffusion image in normal prostate and prostate cancer—comparison with single-shot echo planner image

Purpose

This retrospective study was designed to evaluate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of line scan diffusion images (LSDI) in normal prostate and prostate cancer. Single-shot echo planner images (SS-EPI) were used for comparison.

Materials and Methods

Twenty prostate tumors were examined by conventional MRI in 14 patients prior to radical prostatectomy. All patients were examined with a 1.5-T MR imager (Signa CV/i ver. 9.1 GE Medical System Milwaukee, WI, USA). Diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) using LSDI was performed with a pelvic phased-array coil, with b values of 5 and 800 s/mm². DWI using SS-EPI was performed with a body coil, with b values of 0 and 800 s/mm². The ADCs of each sequence for 14 normal prostate and 20 prostate cancers were histopathologically assessed. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on DWI was estimated and compared for each sequence.

Results

The mean ADCs (±S.D.) of normal peripheral zones (PZ), transition zones (TZ) and cancer (in 10⁻³ mm²/s) that used LSDI were 1.42±0.12, 1.23±0.10 and 0.79±0.19, respectively. Those that used SS-EPI were 1.76±0.26, 1.38±0.20 and 1.05±0.27, respectively. Using unpaired t test (P<.05), we found a significant difference in each sequence between normal tissue (both PZ and TZ) and the cancer. Paired t test (P<.05) also registered a significant difference between LSDI and SS-EPI. Mean SNR for DWI using LSDI was 16.49±5.03, while the DWI using SS-EPI was 18.85±9.26. The difference between the SNR of each sequence was not statistically significant by paired t test.

Conclusion

We found that ADCs using LSDI and SS-EPI showed similar tendencies in the same patients. However, in all regions, LSDI ADCs had smaller standard deviations than SS-EPI ADCs.     

Differentiation between intra-axial metastatic tumor progression and radiation injury following fractionated radiation therapy or stereotactic radiosurgery using MR spectroscopy, perfusion MR imaging or volume progression modeling

Objective

To determine the accuracy of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), perfusion MR imaging (MRP), or volume modeling in distinguishing tumor progression from radiation injury following radiotherapy for brain metastasis.

Methods

Twenty-six patients with 33 intra-axial metastatic lesions who underwent MRS (n=41) with or without MRP (n=32) after cranial irradiation were retrospectively studied. The final diagnosis was based on histopathology (n=4) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) follow-up with clinical correlation (n=29). Cho/Cr (choline/creatinine), Cho/NAA (choline/N-acetylaspartate), Cho/nCho (choline/contralateral normal brain choline) ratios were retrospectively calculated for the multi-voxel MRS. Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), relative peak height (rPH) and percentage of signal-intensity recovery (PSR) were also retrospectively derived for the MRPs. Tumor volumes were determined using manual segmentation method and analyzed using different volume progression modeling. Different ratios or models were tested and plotted on the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), with their performances quantified as area under the ROC curve (AUC). MRI follow-up time was calculated from the date of initial radiotherapy until the last MRI or the last MRI before surgical diagnosis.

Results

Median MRI follow-up was 16 months (range: 2-33). Thirty percent of lesions (n=10) were determined to be radiation injury; 70% (n=23) were determined to be tumor progression. For the MRS, Cho/nCho had the best performance (AUC of 0.612), and Cho/nCho >1.2 had 33% sensitivity and 100% specificity in predicting tumor progression. For the MRP, rCBV had the best performance (AUC of 0.802), and rCBV >2 had 56% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The best volume model was percent increase (AUC of 0.891); 65% tumor volume increase had 100% sensitivity and 80% specificity.

Conclusion

Cho/nCho of MRS, rCBV of MRP, and percent increase of MRI volume modeling provide the best discrimination of intra-axial metastatic tumor progression from radiation injury for their respective modalities. Cho/nCho and rCBV appear to have high specificities but low sensitivities. In contrast, percent volume increase of 65% can be a highly sensitive and moderately specific predictor for tumor progression after radiotherapy. Future incorporation of 65% volume increase as a pretest selection criterion may compensate for the low sensitivities of MRS and MRP.     

基于线性霍尔传感器的太阳能磁悬浮演示仪

应用电磁学理论、机械力学以及电子技术自制了一套太阳能磁悬浮演示仪,该演示实验仪由太阳能电池供电,利用线性霍尔传感器来探测悬浮物体的位移,以达到控制悬浮的目的,添加数码管电压显示电路,可以定量显示电磁铁的磁性在悬浮过程中随悬浮物位置变化的自动调整,能精确而直观地演示磁悬浮的物理现象该仪器结构简单、性能稳定、操作方便,能广...     

强磁场中氢原子的能级结构

发展了一套简单高效的非微扰理论方法研究强磁场中的原子能级结构.作为例子,给出了磁场强度从0到1000个原子单位,氢原子基态和低激发态的结合能以及四极矩等重要原子能级结构参数.结果表明:相对于其他的高精度计算方法,该方法不仅能计算出高精度的能级位置而且可方便给出精确的电子波函数.此外,该法还具有很强的普适性,可直接推广到原子与任意方向的交叉电磁场相互作用的研究. 关键词： 强磁场 CWDVR谱方法 氢原子能级结构 四极矩     

通电螺线管2维磁场有限元计算

 通过对通电螺线管磁系统理论分析,实现了通电螺线管2维磁场计算。该算法是采用一次、二次插值函数计算螺线管模型磁场的有限元算法,用于求解螺线管内外任意位置处的磁感应强度分布。实现了螺线管及周期结构的计算,并将结果与Ansoft Maxwell 2-D的计算结果进行了对比。结果表明：较一次插值函数有限元算法相比,二次插值函数算法在对称轴上轴向磁感应强度的分布更准确,体现了该算法的优越性,具有显著的工程应用价值。     

Numerical simulations of thermal convection under the influence of an inclined magnetic field by using solenoidal bases

The effect of an inclined homogeneous magnetic field on thermal convection between rigid plates heated from below under the influence of gravity is numerically simulated in a computational domain with periodic horizontal extent. The numerical technique is based on solenoidal (divergence‐free) basis functions satisfying the boundary conditions for both the velocity and the induced magnetic field. Thus, the divergence‐free conditions for both velocity and magnetic field are satisfied exactly. The expansion bases for the thermal field are also constructed to satisfy the boundary conditions. The governing partial differential equations are reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations under Galerkin projection and subsequently integrated in time numerically. The projection is performed by using a dual solenoidal bases set such that the pressure term is eliminated in the process. The quasi‐steady relationship between the velocity and the induced magnetic field corresponding to the liquid metals or melts is used to generate the solenoidal bases for the magnetic field from those for the velocity field. The technique is validated in the linear case for both oblique and vertical case by reproducing the marginal stability curves for varying Chandrasekhar number. Some numerical simulations are performed for either case in the nonlinear regime for Prandtl numbers Pr = 0.05 and Pr = 0.1. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

梯度磁场中薄膜厚度梯度的形成机理

借助于基片下方放置的磁铁，在溅射的放电空间中引入了纵向的梯度磁场，辉光放电时，其外貌发生了显著的收缩，由此沉积的薄膜在平面内存在明显的厚度梯度，用磁场中带电粒子的运动理论解释了此种薄膜的形成机制。     

A regularity criterion for 2D MHD flows with horizontal dissipation and horizontal magnetic diffusion

This paper concerns the conditional global regularity of incompressible MHD equations with horizontal dissipation and horizontal magnetic diffusion in two dimension. When only horizontal dissipation and horizontal magnetic diffusion are present, there is no control on the vertical derivatives of velocity field and magnetic field, which is the main difficulty to establish the global regularity. In this paper, we establish a global regularity criterion in terms of one entry of the velocity gradient tensor or one entry of the magnetic field gradient tensor, which extends the recent work (Fan and Ozawa, 2014).     

Influence of moving magnetic field on three dimensional Couette flow

A three dimensional steady fully developed MHD Couette flow of a viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid is analysed. The lower stationary porous plate is subjected to a periodic injection velocity and the upper porous plate in uniform motion to a constant suction velocity. A magnetic field of uniform strength applied normal to the planes of the plates is fixed with the moving plate. Neglecting the induced magnetic field, an approximate solution for the flow field is obtained and discussed with the help of graphs.