Dependencies of multi-component T2 and T1ρ relaxation on the anisotropy of collagen fibrils in bovine nasal cartilage

Both NMR spectroscopy and MRI were used to investigate the dependencies of multi-component T2 and T1ρ relaxation on the anisotropy of bovine nasal cartilage (BNC). The non-negative least square (NNLS) method and the multi-exponential fitting method were used to analyze all experimental data. When the collagen fibrils in nasal cartilage were oriented at the magic angle (55°) to the magnetic field B0, both T2 and T1ρ were single component, regardless of the spin-lock field strength or the echo spacing time in the pulse sequences. When the collagen fibrils in nasal cartilage were oriented at 0° to B0, both T2 and T1ρ at a spin-lock field of 500 Hz had two components. When the spin-lock field was increased to 1000 Hz or higher, T1ρ relaxation in nasal cartilage became a single component, even when the specimen orientation was 0°. These results demonstrate that the specimen orientation must be considered for any multi-component analysis, even for nasal cartilage that is commonly considered homogenously structured. Since the rapidly and slowly relaxing components can be attributed to different portions of the water population in tissue, the ability to resolve different relaxation components could be used to quantitatively examine individual molecular components in connective tissues.     

MR T1ρ quantification of cartilage focal lesions in acutely injured knees: correlation with arthroscopic evaluation

Objective

Quantitative T₁ρ MRI has been suggested as a promising tool to detect changes in cartilage composition that are characteristic of cartilage damage and degeneration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the capability of MR T₁ρ to detect cartilage lesions as evaluated by arthroscopy in acutely ACL-injured knees and to compare with the Whole-Organ Magnetic Resonance Imaging Score (WORMS) using clinical standard MRI.

Method

Ten healthy controls (mean age 35) with no ACL injury or history of osteoarthritis (OA) and 10 patients with acute ACL injuries (mean age 39) were scanned at 3 Tesla (3 T). ACL patients underwent ACL reconstruction, where focal lesions were graded according to an Outerbridge grading system during arthroscopic evaluation. Normalized MR T₁ρ values (T₁ρ z-scores normalized to control values in matched regions) in full thickness, and superficial and deep layers of cartilage were compared between defined sub-compartments with and without focal lesions. Intraclass (ICC) correlation and the root mean square coefficient of variation (RMS-CV) were performed to evaluate the inter-observer reproducibility of T₁ρ quantification. Sub-compartments of cartilage were also evaluated using WORMS scoring and compared to their Outerbridge score respectively.

Results

The inter-observer ICC and the RMS-CV of the sub-compartment T₁ρ quantification were 0.961 and 3.9%, respectively. The average T₁ρ z-scores were significantly increased in sub-compartments with focal lesions compared to those without focal lesions and to the control cohort (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Our results indicate that T₁ρ provided a better diagnostic capability than clinical standard MRI grading in detecting focal cartilage abnormalities after acute injuries. Quantitative MRI may have great potential in detecting cartilage abnormalities and degeneration non-invasively, which are occult with standard morphological MRI.     

Do formalin fixation and freeze‐thaw affect near‐infrared Raman spectroscopy of cartilaginous tissue? A preliminary ex vivo analysis of native human articular cartilage

Near‐infrared (NIR) Raman microprobe spectroscopy has been applied to the non‐invasive characterization of the biochemical structure of extracellular matrix in articular cartilage, a step forward along the path of in vivo diagnostic application of chondropathy. In most studies handling ex vivo cartilage specimens, formalin fixation or freeze‐thaw treatments have been applied in order to stabilize tissue and cell constituents prior to spectroscopic measurements. However, these pre‐processing manipulations might significantly affect certain target bands of the cartilage spectra, thus introducing biases in the characterizations, and potentially leading to data misinterpretation. In this study, we evaluated how formalin fixing and freeze‐thaw processes affect Raman spectra from human femur cartilage. Healthy cartilage specimens were fixed/stored either in a 10% neutral buffered formalin solution or in a deep freezer set at −80 °C. The results of this study show that formalin fixation significantly affects the NIR Raman spectra of cartilage specimens due to concurrent formalin absorption and water dehydration within both collagen and glycosaminoglycan macromolecules. Water dehydration was also confirmed in the amide I structure in the frozen‐thawed specimen, but to a much lesser extent. Furthermore, soaking the tissues in phosphate‐buffered saline solution minimized the storage‐induced Raman artifacts, but its immersion had limited effectiveness in formalin‐fixed specimens, predominantly due to an overlap of signals from the formalin liquid (i.e. emitting at 1046 and 1492 cm⁻¹). Therefore, to provide a highly accurate biochemical evaluation of extracellular matrix using NIR Raman spectroscopy, freeze‐thaw processes are more suitable for ex vivo samples of human cartilage than formalin fixation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depth and orientational dependencies of MRI T(2) and T(1ρ) sensitivities towards trypsin degradation and Gd-DTPA(2-) presence in articular cartilage at microscopic resolution

Depth and orientational dependencies of microscopic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T(2) and T(1ρ) sensitivities were studied in native and trypsin-degraded articular cartilage before and after being soaked in 1 mM Gd-DTPA(2-) solution. When the cartilage surface was perpendicular to B(0), a typical laminar appearance was visible in T(2)-weighted images but not in T(1ρ)-weighted images, especially when the spin-lock field was high (2 kHz). At the magic angle (55°) orientation, neither T(2)- nor T(1ρ)-weighted image had a laminar appearance. Trypsin degradation caused a depth- and orientational-dependent T(2) increase (4%-64%) and a more uniform T(1ρ) increase at a sufficiently high spin-lock field (55%-81%). The presence of the Gd ions caused both T(2) and T(1ρ) to decrease significantly in the degraded tissue (6%-38% and 44%-49%, respectively) but less notably in the native tissue (5%-10% and 16%-28%, respectively). A quantity Sensitivity was introduced that combined both the percentage change and the absolute change in the relaxation analysis. An MRI experimental protocol based on two T(1ρ) measurements (without and with the presence of the Gd ions) was proposed to be a new imaging marker for cartilage degradation.     

Quantitative MRI using T1ρ and T2 in human osteoarthritic cartilage specimens: correlation with biochemical measurements and histology

Purpose

A direct correlation between T_1ρ, T₂ and quantified proteoglycan and collagen contents in human osteoarthritic cartilage has yet to be documented. We aimed to investigate the orientation effect on T_1ρ and T₂ values in human osteoarthritic cartilage and to quantify the correlation between T_1ρ, T₂ vs. biochemical composition and histology in human osteoarthritic cartilage.

Materials and methods

Thirty-three cartilage specimens were collected from patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty due to severe osteoarthritis and scanned with a 3T MR scanner for T_1ρ and T₂ quantification. Nine specimens were scanned at three different orientations with respect to the B₀: 0°, 90° and 54.7°. Core punches were taken after MRI. Collagen and proteoglycan contents were quantified using biochemical assays. Histology sections were graded using Mankin scores. The correlation between imaging parameters, biochemical contents and histological scores were studied.

Results

Both mean T_1ρ and T₂ at 54.7° were significantly higher than those measured at 90° and 0°, with T_1ρ showing less increase compared to T₂. R_1ρ (1/T_1ρ) values had a significant but moderate correlation with proteoglycan contents (R=.45, P=.002), while R₂ (1/T₂) was not correlated with proteoglycan. No significant correlation was found between relaxation times (T_1ρ or T₂) and collagen contents. The T_1ρ values of specimen sections with high Mankin scores were significantly higher than those with low Mankin scores (P<.05).

Conclusions

Quantitative MRI has a great potential to provide noninvasive imaging biomarkers for cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis.     

Influence of Self-Interaction ofσ Meson to the Equation of State of Nuclear Matter

In the relativistic σ-ωmodel, the influence of the parameters in self-interaction of a meson to the equation of state of normal nuclear matter, especially, to incompressibility, effective mass, and coupling constants, is studied in detail. We find that these parameters have an intense relationship to the property of nuclear matter. At the same time , we study the relation between the binding energy and pressure of relativestic △-resonance nuclear matter and temperature using using above results in the relativistic σ-ω-π model,and it is interesting to compare it to our prior work. In all these studies, the vacuum fluctuation on nucleon, △-isobar, and σmeson is considered.     

Analysis of the causes of formation of negative loss factors

I-IatroductionStatisticalEnergyAnalysis(SEA)isakindofeffective,simpleanddirectapproachforan-alyzingvibrationandsound,andithasbeenfoundwidelyapplicationsinanalysisofmechanicalnoiseandvibrationcolltrolsince198osl1-4].However,forgeneralindustrialmachineswhichalwayconsistofcomPlexandheaVystructures,thedeterminationmethodsofSEAparametersintheclassicalSEAtheoryareinapplicable[5]because:(1)SEAparametersofthesekindsofstructuresaredifficulttoobtainfromthetheory(2)theconditionofconservativeandweak…     

Teleportation of an arbitrary mixture of diagonal states of multiqudit

This paper proposes a scheme to teleport an arbitrary mixture of diagonal states of multiqutrit via classical correlation and classical communication. To teleport an arbitrary mixture of diagonal states of N qutrits, N classically correlated pairs of two qutrits are used as channel. The sender （Alice） makes Fourier transform and conditional gate （i.e., XOR（3） gate） on her qutrits and does measurement in appropriate computation bases. Then she sends N ctrits to the receiver （Bob）. Based on the received information, Bob performs the corresponding unitary transformation on his qutrits and obtains the teleported state. Teleportation of an arbitrary mixture of diagonal states of multiqudit is also discussed.     

Analysis of Frequency Spectrum of Laser-Induced Vibration of Microbeam Resonators

The vibration phenomenon during pulsed laser heating of micro-beams is investigated. The beam is made of silicon and is heated by a laser pulse with a non-Gaussian temporal profile and with an ultrashort pulse duration of 2ps, which incites vibration due to the thermoelastic damping effect. This coupled thermoelastic problem is solved using an analytical-numerical technique based on the Laplace transformation. The damping ratio and resonant frequency shift ratio of beams due to the air damping effect and the thermoelastic damping effect are also examined and discussed.     

Measurement of Eccentricity of the Centre of Mass from the Geometric Centre of a Sphere

The eccentricity of the centre of mass from the geometric centre of a spherical attracting mass in determining the Newtonian gravitational constant G is tested by means of an electronic balance. The experimental result shows that the eccentricity of the sample is about 0.31 μm with uncertainty of 0.05μm. Two density distribution models are discussed to estimate the uncertainty to G by the eccentricities of the attracting masses.     

Improvement of Synchronizability of Scale-Free Networks

We investigate the factors that affect synchronizability of coupled oscillators on scale-free networks. Using the memory Tabu search （MTS） algorithm, we improve the eigen-ratio Q of a coupling matrix by edge intercrossing. The numerical results show that the synchronizatlon-improved scale-free networks should have distinctive both small average distance and larger clustering coefficient, which are consistent with some real-world networks. Moreover, the synchronizability-improved networks demonstrate the disassortative coefficient.     

Symmetry of Lagrangians of nonholonomic systems of non-Chetaev’s type

This paper studies the symmetry of Lagrangians of nonholonomic systems of non-Chetaev's type. First, the definition and the criterion of the symmetry of the system are given. Secondly, it obtains the condition under which there exists a conserved quantity and the form of the conserved quantity. Finally, an example is shown to illustrate the application of the result.     

Relative Entropy of Entanglement of a Kind of Two-Qubit Entangled States

We strictly prove that some block diagonalizable two-qubit entangled state with six non-zero elements reaches its quantum relative entropy entanglement by a separable state having the same matrix structure. The entangled state comprises local filtering result state as a special case.     

Ellipticity of motion of particle in field of inhomogeneous plane wave

lIntroductionThephysicalmodelofinhomogeneousplanewaveofacousticsisusedtostudythewavepropagationinthermoviscoelasticmaterials.Inrecentyears,alotofworksandsomesignificafltresultshavebeenpublished,inwhichthegeneration,propagation,reflectionandrefractiononaninterfacefortheinhomogeneousplanewaveaswellastomeasurethecoefficientsofviscosityofmaterialsbyusingthemodelofinhomogeneousplanewavewerec..ce...dt1-2o].Inthispaper,under.thehighfrequency,westudytheellipticalmotionofparticleinthefieldofinhomogeneo…     

Influence of purity of HfO_2 on reflectance of ultraviolet multilayer

The impurities in two kinds of HfO_2 materials and in their corresponding single layer thin films were determined through glow discharge mass spectrum technology and secondary ion mass spectrometry(SIMS) equipment respectively.It was found that ZrO_2 was the main impurity in the two kinds of HfO_2 either in the original HfO_2 materials or in the electron beam deposited films.In addition,the difference of Zr content in the two kinds of HfO_2 single layer films was much larger than that of the other impurities such as Ti and Fe,which showed that it was just ZrO_2 that made the difference between the optical performance of the film products including the two kinds of HfO_2.With these two kinds of HfO_2 and the same kind of SiO_2,we deposited HfO_2/SiO_2 multilayer reflective coatings at the wavelength of 266 nm.Experimental results showed that the reflectances of these two mirrors were about 99.85% and 99.15% respectively, which agreed well with the designed results what were based on the optical constants obtained from the corresponding single layer thin films.     

Investigation of the radiation fields of narrow-collimated sources of γ radiation

This paper presents the results of an investigation of the radial distributions of radiation from collimated sources in Al and H₂O. The calculations were carried out by the Monte Carlo method. The experiment was conducted with a¹³⁷Cs source and in a small-scale betatron with a maximum energy of 6 MeV.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 99–103, January, 1977.     

Calibration of Membrane Viscosity of the Reconstituted Vesicles by Measurement of the Rotational DIffusion of Bacteriorhodopsin

Membrane viscosity of the reconstituted vesicles was calibrated by rotational diffusion of bacteriorhodopin(BR) in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine(DMPC) and egg phosphatidylcholine(PC) vesicles.Rotational diffusion of BR in the vesicles was measured by flash-induced absorption anisotropy decay.BR was,for the first time ,reconstituted successfully into DMPC and egg PC vesicles,From the measurement of flash-induced absorption anisotropy decay of BR,the value of rotational diffusion coefficient D was obtained from each curve fitting by a global fitting procedure and ,in turn,membrane viscosity η was estimated from D.The results have shown that membrane viscosity is temperature-dependent,It was decreased as temperature increased,but a transition occurred in the region of the respective phase transition of DMPC and egg PC,respectively,The decrease of η was fast near the phase transition for DMPC and egg PC.Few effects of lipid/BR ratio and glycerol or sucrose in suspension medium on membrane viscosity were found.     

Investigation of the Spectral Line Intensities of the ν9 Band of the Trans-Conformer of Ethylene

Russian Physics Journal - The intensities of 740 vibrational-rotational lines of the ν9 fundamental band in the IR spectrum of the trans-C2H2D2 molecule are first analyzed. The...