Comparison of fast field-cycling magnetic resonance imaging methods and future perspectives

ABSTRACT

Fast field-cycling (FFC) nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry is a well-established method to determine the relaxation rates as a function of magnetic field strength. This so-called nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion gives insight into the underlying molecular dynamics of a wide range of complex systems and has gained interest especially in the characterisation of biological tissues and diseases. The combination of FFC techniques with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers a high potential for new types of image contrast more specific to pathological molecular dynamics. This article reviews the progress in FFC-MRI over the last decade and gives an overview of the hardware systems currently in operation. We discuss limitations and error correction strategies specific to FFC-MRI such as field stability and homogeneity, signal-to-noise ratio, eddy currents and acquisition time. We also report potential applications with impact in biology and medicine. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future applications in transferring the underlying molecular dynamics into novel types of image contrast by exploiting the dispersive properties of biological tissue or MRI contrast agents.     

A Deformation-Theoretical Approach to Weyl Quantization on Riemannian Manifolds

By using a sheaf-theoretical language, we introduce a notion of deformation quantization allowing not only for formal deformation parameters but also for real or complex ones as well. As a model for this approach to deformation quantization, we construct a quantization scheme for cotangent bundles of Riemannian manifolds. Here, we essentially use a complete symbol calculus for pseudodifferential operators on a Riemannian manifold. Depending on a scaling parameter, our quantization scheme corresponds to normally ordered, Weyl or antinormally ordered quantization. Finally, it is shown that our quantization scheme induces a family of pairwise isomorphic strongly closed star products on a cotangent bundle.     

A stable approach to the equivariant Hopf theorem

Let G be a finite group. For semi-free G-manifolds which are oriented in the sense of Waner [S. Waner, Equivariant RO(G)-graded bordism theories, Topology and its Applications 17 (1984) 1-26], the homotopy classes of G-equivariant maps into a G-sphere are described in terms of their degrees, and the degrees occurring are characterised in terms of congruences. This is first shown to be a stable problem, and then solved using methods of equivariant stable homotopy theory with respect to a semi-free G-universe.     

Diastereoselective formation of 2-aryl-3-arenesulfonyl 4-ethyl-1,3-oxazolidines: An X-ray crystallographic and H NMR study

N-Arylsulfonamides of (R)- and (S)-2-amino-1-butanol, on condensation with aromatic aldehydes produced diastereomerically pure 2-aryl-3-arenesulfonyl 4-ethyl-1,3-oxazolidines. The absolute configurations of one enantiomeric pair have been determined from two fully refined X-ray structures, supplemented by nmr data.     

The combination technique and some generalisations

The combination technique has repeatedly been shown to be an effective tool for the approximation with sparse grid spaces. Little is known about the reasons of this effectiveness and in some cases the combination technique can even break down. It is known, however, that the combination technique produces an exact result in the case of a projection into a sparse grid space if the involved partial projections commute.

The performance of the combination technique is analysed using a projection framework and the C/S decomposition. Error bounds are given in terms of angles between the spanning subspaces or the projections onto these subspaces. Based on this analysis modified combination coefficients are derived which are optimal in a certain sense and which can substantially extend the applicability and performance of the combination technique.