Anatomical Increased/Decreased Changes in the Brain Area Following Individuals with Chronic Traumatic Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate anatomical changes in the brain following chronic complete traumatic thoracic spinal cord injury (ThSCI) using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). That is, it attempted to examine dynamic physical change following thoracic injury and the presence or absence of regions with decreased and increased changes in whole brain volume associated with change in the manner of how activities of daily living are performed. Methods: Twelve individuals with chronic traumatic complete ThSCI (age; 21-63 years, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale; grade C-D) participated in this study. VBM was used to investigate the regions with increased volume and decreased volume in the brain in comparison with healthy control individuals. Results: Decreases in volume were noted in areas associated with motor and somatosensory functions, including the right paracentral lobule (PCL)―the primary motor sensory area for lower limbs, left dorsal premotor cortex, and left superior parietal lobule (SPL). Furthermore, increased gray matter volume was noted in the primary sensorimotor area for fingers and arms, as well as in higher sensory areas. Conclusions: Following SCI both regions with increased volume and regions with decreased volume were present in the brain in accordance with changes in physical function. Using longitudinal observation, anatomical changes in the brain may be used to determine the rehabilitation effect by comparing present cases with cases with cervical SCI or cases with incomplete palsy.     

采用铜铝复合管的翅片管换热器性能试验研究

针对铜铝复合管(ACC管)在空调用翅片管换热器中替代铜管应用进行了试验研究。分别对Ф7.94mm型管的全铜管、过冷段铜铝复合管、全铜铝复合管三种换热器进行了性能比较和成本分析。研究结果表明,在风速和风量不变的情况下,过冷段铜铝复合管换热器能力为8634.22W,高于全铜铝复合管的换热器的8389.36W,低于全铜管换热器的8989.07W。制冷剂侧能力测试中,过冷段铜铝复合管换热器平均值为8.885kW,与全铜铝复合管换热器平均值8.775kW相比高1.24%,与全铜管换热器平均值9.101kW相比低2.37%,与能力测试结果基本一致。与原换热器铜管相比,在相同条件下,铜铝复合管可以降低管材成本29.5%。综上所述,过冷段采用铜铝复合管的换热器能够取代铜管换热器应用在空调中,在不影响其换热性能的基础上,降低成本效果明显。     

二维Janus结构的PdSSe/石墨烯接触特性的第一性原理探究

Janus结构由于其两侧的原子不同,存在一个内建电场.在本工作中,将具有Janus结构的六角PdSSe与石墨烯复合,构成范德瓦尔斯异质结构.通过基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理计算对其几何结构和电子结构进行了研究.计算中考虑了两种堆叠方式,即Se侧与石墨烯接触和S侧与石墨烯接触.当S侧与石墨烯接触时,体系具有更小的平衡间距和更大的电荷转移,结合能更低. S侧与石墨烯接触时形成了为n型欧姆接触;Se侧与石墨烯接触时形成了势垒极低的n型肖特基接触.最后,讨论了垂直应变对接触特性的影响.通过施加垂直应变,PdSSe/石墨烯的接触类型具有显著的可调性.     

精确的量子化条件和不变量

提出并证明了一维量子系统和三维球对称量子系统的一个精确的量子化条件.在此精确量子化条件中, 除了通常的Nπ项外, 还有一积分项, 称为修正项. 发现该修正项正是在超对称量子力学中所谓的有形状不变势的量子系统的一个不变量，它不依赖于波函数的节点数.对这些系统, 可用基态能级和波函数确定此不变量的值, 从而由精确的量子化条件容易算出全部束缚态的能级. 计算得到能级的正确性又反过来验证了在有形状不变势的量子系统中此修正项确实是不变量.计算的有形状不变势的量子系统, 包括一维的有限方势阱、Morse势及其变形、R 关键词： 量子化条件 超对称量子力学 形状不变势 不变量     

Critical opalescence in baryonic QCD matter

We show that critical opalescence, a clear signature of second-order phase transition in conventional matter, manifests itself as critical intermittency in QCD matter produced in experiments with nuclei. This behavior is revealed in transverse momentum spectra as a pattern of power laws in factorial moments, to all orders, associated with baryon production. This phenomenon together with a similar effect in the isoscalar sector of pions (sigma mode) provide us with a set of observables associated with the search for the QCD critical point in experiments with nuclei at high energies.     

The variation of defect damage with depth in molybdenum irradiated with 2MeV nitrogen ions

Transmission electron microscopy has been used to examine the damage produced in specimens of high purity molybdenum following irradiation with 2 MeV nitrogen ions in the Van de Graaff accelerator. A simple electropolishing technique was developed to allow the defect damage to be examined at different depths on a single specimen. Some results are presented here for specimens irradiated in the range 600–800°C, together with theoretical predictions of the nitrogen range and the variation of displacement damage with range, The experimental results show that the defect damage to the lattice results in a structure of dislocation loops, interstitial in nature, whose size drops with distance from the bombarded surface and whose concentration increases. Nevertheless the retained defect damage, measured by integrated loop area, agrees reasonably with the theoretical variation of displacement damage with range while the increase in loop concentration with depth coincides with the variation in ratio of nitrogen concentration to displacement damage. This latter result agrees with the hypothesis that the nucleation of damage is controlled to a large extent by the ratio of impurity atoms to displaced atoms.     

超薄GaMnAs外延膜空穴浓度和应变弛豫研究

稀磁GaMnAs外延膜中的Mn含量会影响外延膜的空穴浓度和应变弛豫.Raman散射研究表明,Mn含量为3%的超薄GaMnAs样品的空穴浓度大于2%样品,4%样品的空穴浓度小于3%样品.应变弛豫理论和高分辨X射线衍射研究表明,Mn含量为2%和3%的超薄GaMnAs外延层分别处于准共格或低弛豫状态,Mn含量为4%的GaMnAs外延层的弛豫度明显大于3%样品的弛豫度.我们认为,准共格或低弛豫度状态对空穴浓度随Mn含量的变化趋势几乎没有影响,较大弛豫度的应变状态将导致样品外延层产生较多缺陷,影响能带结构和能级,引起空穴浓度异常减小. 关键词： 空穴浓度 应变弛豫 倒易空间图 准共格     

Propagation of Four-Petal Gaussian Beams in Turbulent Atmosphere

An analytical expression for the average intensity of four-petal Gaussian beams in turbulent atmosphere is derived. Studies show that in turbulent atmosphere, the contour lines of four-petal Gaussian beams with lower order N evolve into a number of petals with the increase in propagation distance, the contour lines with higher order N can reserve four-petal distribution at longer propagation distance than that with lower order N. These properties are similar to those in free space. However, with further increases of the propagation distance, the contours lines in turbulent atmosphere are different from those in free space.     

Numerical solutions of the acoustic eigenvalue equation in the rectangular room with arbitrary (uniform) wall impedances

Two numerical procedures for finding the acoustic eigenvalues in the rectangular room with arbitrary (uniform) wall impedances are developed. One numerical procedure applies Newton's method. Here, starting with soft walls, the eigenvalues are found by increasing the impedances of each wall pair in small increments up to the terminal impedances. Another procedure poses the eigenvalue problem as one of homotopic continuation from a non-physical reference configuration in which all eigenvalues are known and obvious. The continuation is performed by the numerical integration of two differential equations. The latter procedure was found to be faster and finds all possible solutions. The set of eigenvalues allowed the room modal natural frequencies and damping constants to be obtained. From sound decays measured in a hard-walled rectangular room, and from the collective-modal-decay curve, the impedances of the hard walls are estimated. These are then used to find the reverberation times of the modes in the room with the floor lined with sound absorbing material of known acoustic impedance. It was found that a single reverberation time, for all modes, is only supported in the rectangular room with hard walls and at the higher frequency bands, consistent with Sabine's theory, which assumes a diffuse sound field. In the rectangular room with hard walls and at the lower frequency bands, and in the rectangular room with the floor lined with sound absorbing material and for all frequency bands, modes with rather distinctive reverberation times may produce sound decays not always consistent with Sabine's prediction.     

Enlarged endolymphatic duct and sac syndrome: relationship between MR findings and genotype of mutation in Pendred syndrome gene

Pendred syndrome (PDS) is characterized by profound deafness in childhood, positive perchlorate challenge, and goiter. PDS is often associated with enlarged endolymphatic duct and sac (EEDS), and recently, PDS gene mutations have been reported even in those patients with EEDS without classic Pendred syndrome. In a previous report, the number of mutant alleles was correlated with the degree of subclinical thyroid abnormality, but not with hearing loss, in patients with missense mutation H723R. It also has been reported that the hearing loss in EEDS was not correlated with the EEDS volume, cochlear modiolar area, or signal intensity of the endolymphatic sac. We evaluated the correlations between the number of mutant alleles and these parameters in patients with EEDS to investigate the mechanisms underlying this condition. The study group was comprised of 16 Japanese patients with EEDS diagnosed by MR imaging. The H723R mutation was homozygous in six patients and heterozygous in six patients, with no mutation found in four patients. The modiolar area, EEDS volume, and signal intensity ratio (sac signal/cerebrospinal fluid signal) were not significantly correlated with the number of mutant alleles. PDS gene mutations may not be the only cause of EEDS, and the mechanisms underlying EEDS remain unclear.     

Effect of surface defects on radiative interband recombination in silicon nanocrystals highly doped with hydrogen-like impurities

The role of surface defects at the Si nanocrystal boundary during the process of interband radiative recombination is studied in the case in which nanocrystals are doped with hydrogen-like impurities with shallow energy levels. It is shown that, in the case of a nonpassivated surface with a large number of dangling bonds, the rate of radiative transitions in nanocrystals doped with donors can be larger than that in nondoped crystallites. On the other hand, doping with acceptors leads to a decrease in the rate of transitions. In the case of a completely passivated surface, the recombination rate remains almost unchanged irrespective of the type of dope.     

Excess-noise suppression in a fibre-optic balanced heterodyne detection system

We have investigated balanced heterodyne detection in applications where laser intensity fluctuations are the dominant noise source, as, for example, in laser Doppler velocimetry with a He-Ne laser. The suppression of excess noise in comparison with a single receiver detection system is analysed theoretically. In our heterodyne experiment we have compared two different fibre-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometers, both with single-mode polarization-preserving fibres, one in integrated form using a directional coupler, the other one with a dielectric beam-splitter as the optical mixing element. With the former we have verified the theoretical results; with the latter we have demonstrated that with a good balance the fundamental short noise detection limit can be reached.     

In vivo measurements of relaxation process in the human liver by MRI. The role of respiratory gating/triggering

In vivo estimation of relaxation processes in the liver by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be helpful for characterization of various pathological conditions in the liver. However, such measurements may be significantly hampered by movement of the liver with the respiration. The effect of synchronization of data acquisition to the respiratory cycle on measured T1- and T2-relaxation curves was studied in normal subjects, patients with diffuse liver disease, and patients with focal liver pathology. Multi spin echo sequences with five different repetition times were used. The measurements were carried out with and without respiratory gating/triggering. In the healthy subjects as well as in the patients with diffuse liver diseases respiratory synchronization did not alter the obtained relaxation curves. However, in the patients with focal pathology the relaxation curves were significantly different, when respiratory synchronization was employed. The results indicate that respiratory synchronization is only necessary for estimation of relaxation processes in the liver with focal pathology.     

On the absence of logarithmic growths in mass parameters in renormalized perturbation theory

A systematic analysis is carried out in order to prove, under some given conditions, the absence of logarithmic growths in mass parameters in the theory, when the latter are scaled to zero, in renormalized perturbation theory in Euclidean space with non-exceptional external momenta. The rules developed are simple to apply and to verify in terms of the structure of the proper and connected graph associated with the amplitude in question. All subtractions of renormalization are carried directly in momentum space, about the origin, with the degree of divergence of a subtraction coinciding with the dimensionality of the corresponding subdiagram.     

Role of local geometry in the spin and orbital structure of transition metal compounds

We analyze the role of local geometry in the spin and orbital interaction in transition metal compounds with orbital degeneracy. We stress that the tendency observed in the most studied case (transition metals in O₆ octahedra with one common oxygen—common corner of neighboring octahedra—and with ~180° metal–oxygen–metal bonds), that ferro-orbital ordering renders antiferro-spin coupling and, vice versa, antiferro-orbitals give ferro-spin ordering, is not valid in the general case, in particular, for octahedra with a common edge and with ~90° M–O–M bonds. Special attention is paid to the “third case,” that of neighboring octahedra with a common face (three common oxygens), which has largely been disregarded until now, although there are many real systems with this geometry. Interestingly enough, the spin-orbit exchange in this case turns out to be simpler and more symmetric than in the first two cases. We also consider, which form the effective exchange takes for different geometries in the case of strong spin–orbit coupling.     

Enhancing signal to noise ratio by fine-tuning tapers of cladded/uncladded buffer rods in ultrasonic time domain reflectometry in smelters

Buffer rods (BR) as waveguides in ultrasonic time domain reflectometry (TDR) can somewhat extend the range of industrial applications of ultrasonics. Level, temperature and flow measurements involving elevated temperatures, corrosive fluids and generally harsh environments are some of the applications in which conventional ultrasonic transducers cannot be used directly in contact with the media. In such cases, BRs with some design modifications can make ultrasonic TDR measurements possible with limited success. This paper deals with TDR in conjunction with distance measurements in extremely hot fluids, using conventional ultrasonic transducers in combination with BRs. When using BRs in the ultrasonic measurement systems in extreme temperatures, problems associated with size and the material of the buffer, have to be addressed. The resonant frequency of the transducer and the relative size of the transducer with respect to the diameter of BR are also important parameters influencing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the signal processing system used in the ultrasonic TDR. This paper gives an overview of design aspects related to the BRs with special emphasis on tapers and cladding used on BRs. As protective cladding, zirconium oxide–yttrium oxide composite was used, with its proven thermal stability in withstanding temperatures in rocket and jet engines up to 1650 °C. In general a BR should guide the signals through to the medium and from and back to the transducer without excessive attenuation and at the same time not exacerbate the noise in the measurement system. The SNR is the decisive performance indicator to consider in the design of BR based ultrasonic TDR, along with appropriate transducer, with suitable size and operating frequency. This work presents and analyses results from extensive experiments related to fine-tuning both geometry of and signals in cladded/uncladded BRs used in high temperature ultrasonic TDR with focus on overall performance based on measured values of SNR.     

Activation volume vs BOLD signal change as measures of fMRI activation – Its impact on GABA – fMRI activation correlation

PurposeTo explore the relative robustness of functional MRI (fMRI) activation volume and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal change as fMRI metric, and to study the effect of relative robustness on the correlation between fMRI activation and cortical gamma amino butyric acid (GABA) in healthy controls and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).MethodsfMRI data were acquired from healthy controls and patients with MS, with the subjects peforming self paced bilateral finger tapping in block design. GABA spectroscopy was performed with voxel placed on the area of maximum activation during fMRI. Activation volume and BOLD signal changes at primary motor cortex (M1), as well as GABA concentration were calculated for each patient.ResultsActivation volume correlated with BOLD signal change in healthy controls, but no such correlation was observed in patients with MS. This difference was likely the result of higher intersubject noise variance in the patient population. GABA concentration correlated with M1 activation volume in patients but not in controls, and did not correlate with any fMRI metric in patients or controls.ConclusionOur data suggest that activation volume is a more robust measure than BOLD signal change in a group with high intersubject noise variance as in patients with MS. Additionally, this study demonstrated difference in correlation behavior between GABA concentration and the 2 fMRI metrics in patients with MS, suggesting that GABA - activation volume correlation is more appropriate measure in the patient group.     

A theoretical analysis of mode-mixing in optical waveguides with nearest-neighbour mode coupling

Properties of the solutions of the coupled equations describing the flow of average mode power in optical waveguides are investigated. All of the important properties and their theoretical foundations are first reviewed for systems with arbitrary coupling and loss coefficients. It is then shown that, for the special class of systems with nearest-neighbour coupling, the solutions are expressible in terms of orthogonal polynomials. In particular, for systems obeying a quasi-uniform loss model and having coupling coefficients with simple dependence on mode number (uniform or linear), the solutions are associated with the classical polynomials. As illustrations of this analysis, the characteristics of optical power flow in three such systems are studied in detail. These include a slab-waveguide with uniform coupling, the corresponding cylindrical waveguide with uniform coupling, and a parabolic-index fibre with linear coupling dependence.     

Potential of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to detect metastasis in axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer

Focused pathological evaluation of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer is gaining importance. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy that assesses the whole of the specimen has the potential in evaluating micrometastases. The biochemical changes associated with breast cancer metastases in axillary nodes by in vitro NMR and its use in the detection of axillary metastases in a clinical setting in comparison with conventional histopathology is presented in this study. Eighty-eight lymph nodes obtained from 30 patients with breast cancer were investigated. Histopathology revealed metastases in 20 nodes from 11 patients, while in vitro NMR spectroscopy revealed metastases in 22 nodes. Out of these 22 nodes, 16 were the same, which showed metastases on histopathology, while 6 nodes have shown metastases only on in vitro magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). These 6 nodes with suspicion of metastases on MRS were subjected to reevaluation with serial sectioning and immunohistochemistry, but no additional metastases were revealed. Forty metabolites could be identified from the MR spectrum of lymph nodes. The levels of the glycerophosphocholine-phosphocholine (GPC-PC), choline, lactate, alanine and uridine diphosphoglucose were elevated significantly in nodes with metastases. In addition, the intensity ratio of GPC-PC/threonine (Thr) was higher in nodes with metastases, and using this as marker, MRS detected the axillary metastases with a sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 80%, 91% and 88%, respectively. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) lowered the concentrations of GPC-PC and GPC-PC/Thr ratio. The accuracy of MRS in detecting metastases was 75% in patients who received NACT (n=9) as compared to 96% in those who did not (n=21). Our results demonstrate the potential of in vitro MRS in characterizing the metabolite profile of the axillary nodes with breast cancer metastases. It detected axillary metastases with reasonable accuracy and can be complementary to histopathological evaluation and immunohistochemistry.     

Pair-density-wave pseudogap and superconducting states in cuprates

Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference and localized high-energy excitations observed in cuprates in nodal and antinodal regions of the momentum space, respectively, would lead to a conclusion that only the nodal region might give rise to superconductivity whereas the antinodal one might be associated with the pseudogap. We argue that both pseudogap and superconducting states arise exactly in the antinodal region with pronounced nesting feature of the Fermi contour as spatially inhomogeneous incoherent and coherent states of pairs with large momentum. The nodal region gives rise to conventional superconducting pairing with zero momentum which, together with the pairing with large momentum in the antinodal region, forms a biordered superconducting state in the whole of the Brillouin zone. This coherent state with complicated momentum dependence of the order parameter manifests itself as a pair-density wave that can exist without any driving insulating order. We believe that quasiparticle interference, other than observed in the nodal region, should be observable in the antinodal region as well.