Noise Reduction in Quadrupolar Echo Spectra at Short Echo Times

The phase cycling scheme Exorcycle embedded into the quadrupolar echo pulse sequence is presented as a tool for reducing ringing effects in broad quadrupolar spectra.     

适用于探地雷达应用的低振铃单周期脉冲发生器

设计了一种新型的适用于道路检测探地雷达的单周期脉冲发生器。该脉冲发生器包含驱动电路、阶跃恢复二极管(SRD)脉冲形成电路和脉冲整形电路三部分。驱动电路可以使TTL形式的触发脉冲变为电流更大的快前沿脉冲,用来形成给后级电路的驱动脉冲;SRD脉冲产生电路选取渡越时间较小的阶跃恢复二极管结构,通过对前级电路产生的驱动脉冲整形得到负极性高斯脉冲,然后利用微带短路线、肖特基二极管和电容并联实现生成单周期脉冲和振铃抑制的功能,提高超宽带天线辐射的效率以及测量信噪比。测量结果表明,在1 MHz脉冲重复频率的情况下,峰峰值最大为23 V,脉冲半高宽为138 ps,振铃水平为1.25%,而当脉冲重复频率提高到5 MHz,该脉冲发生器产生脉冲波形幅度和带宽基本没有太大变化。这些特征说明,该脉冲发生器具有很高的频率稳定性,且在高分辨率探测应用情景中将会有很好的表现。     

Suppressing ringing caused by large photomultiplier tube signals

We describe here the characteristic features of the ringing we observed following large PMT signals in the Daya Bay reactor antineutrino experiment. We conclude that the ceramic capacitors used in the circuitry of the PMT bases and the HV-signal decouplers are the primary cause for this ringing. We present some possible schemes to reduce the ringing when replacing these ceramic capacitors is not feasible.     

Improved depiction of small anatomic structures in MR images using Gaussian-weighted spirals and zero-filled interpolation

Partial-volume artifacts reduce the contrast and continuity of small structures in magnetic resonance images. Zero-filled interpolation (ZFI) has been known for some time as a useful technique to reduce partial-volume artifacts and improve the appearance of small structures and edges. However, its use is limited by the fact that ZFI can exacerbate image artifacts. For example, it can exacerbate Gibbs ringing, also known as the truncation artifact, which manifests itself as spurious ringing around sharp edges. Currently, the most common technique to address this problem is post-acquisition filtering, which causes blurring in the image. Using ZFI in conjunction with a variable-density sampling method designed to reduce ringing is proposed as a possible solution to this problem. This approach is demonstrated with a Gaussian-weighted spiral and is compared to conventional spiral sampling both with and without the application of a filter used to reduce ringing. The two spiral sampling techniques are compared using simulations, phantom images, and in vivo brain images. The Gaussian-weighted spiral demonstrates reduced ringing without the loss of spatial resolution commonly associated with post-acquisition filtering. Additionally, this sampling technique is shown to work well in conjunction with ZFI to reduce partial-volume artifacts without the apparent increase in Gibbs ringing usually associated with zero-filled reconstruction. This approach will be most useful for imaging techniques such as MR angiography which are known to be sensitive to partial-volume effects, as well as when imaging anatomic regions associated with more severe Gibbs ringing.     

低场核磁共振仪器振铃抑制新方法及其电路实现

加快天线残余能量释放以减弱天线振铃信号有利于缩短低场核磁共振仪器的回波间隔（TE）,从而提高快弛豫组分的测量分辨率和信噪比（SNR）．而天线Q值对能量的发射效率和泄放速度起着相反的作用．为此,我们首先设计了一种新型Q转换电路,在保证发射效率的同时,可以大大缩短能量泄放时间．在此基础上,应用了一种优化的脉冲序列以弥补传统相位交替对脉冲序列（PAPs）不能消除90°脉冲振铃的缺陷,通过相位循环的方法进一步提高了信噪比．最后,在2 MHz岩心分析仪上测试了新型Q转换电路,当天线Q值降为发射期间的约1/5时,天线恢复时间由280.0 μs降为18.2 μs;而且,使用新型Q转换电路和优化的脉冲序列后,TE=60 μs时,可以有效获得快弛豫组分的T₂信号．     

EASY: A simple tool for simultaneously removing background,deadtime and acoustic ringing in quantitative NMR spectroscopy—Part I: Basic principle and applications

Elimination of Artifacts in NMR SpectroscopY (EASY) is a simple but very effective tool to remove simultaneously any real NMR probe background signal, any spectral distortions due to deadtime ringdown effects and -specifically- severe acoustic ringing artifacts in NMR spectra of low-gamma nuclei. EASY enables and maintains quantitative NMR (qNMR) as only a single pulse (preferably 90°) is used for data acquisition. After the acquisition of the first scan (it contains the wanted NMR signal and the background/deadtime/ringing artifacts) the same experiment is repeated immediately afterwards before the T1 waiting delay. This second scan contains only the background/deadtime/ringing parts. Hence, the simple difference of both yields clean NMR line shapes free of artefacts.In this Part I various examples for complete ¹H, ¹¹B, ¹³C, ¹⁹F probe background removal due to construction parts of the NMR probes are presented. Furthermore, ²⁵Mg EASY of Mg(OH)₂ is presented and this example shows how extremely strong acoustic ringing can be suppressed (more than a factor of 200) such that phase and baseline correction for spectra acquired with a single pulse is no longer a problem. EASY is also a step towards deadtime-free data acquisition as these effects are also canceled completely. EASY can be combined with any other NMR experiment, including 2D NMR, if baseline distortions are a big problem.     

爆炸物检测中NQR信号的处理及判识

介绍了基于核四极矩技术的爆炸物检测原理及信号处理方法.系统分析了NQR信号检测中主要误差来源,提出多种方法消除NQR信号处理中检测误差,主要包括相关累加消除随机噪声;单通道自适应消除振铃影响;相关性检测抑制同频干扰.实验表明相关检测可有效提高NQR信号信噪比,提高微弱NQR信号检测的准确性.     

EPR spectroscopy and imaging of TEMPO-labeled magnetite nanoparticles

The article presents results of a study of TEMPO-labeled polymer coated superparamagnetic iron(II,III) oxide nanoparticles using both Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance imaging technique (EPRI). The X-band (9.4 GHz) EPR spectroscopy was used to investigate the behavior of TEMPO-labeled polymer coated magnetite nanoparticles in different conditions (temperature and orientation in magnetic field). The broad line, which comes from the core of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles, shows anisotropy. This signal broadens with decreasing temperature, its intensity increases with increasing temperature and the g factor decreases with increasing temperature. The shape of the signal from nitroxide radical strongly depends on temperature. When temperature is higher than 200 K, a narrow triplet appears, but when it is lower than 200 K the signal consists of broad asymmetric lines. Analysis of the signal allowed characterization of the motion of the spin label attached to nanoparticles. Values of anisotropy parameter ɛ and rotational correlation time τ_c were calculated for TEMPO in the fast rotation regime.The ability of TEMPO-labeled PEG coated magnetite nanoparticles to diffuse within the hydrogel medium was also investigated. The EPR imaging of nanoparticles diffusion in hydrogel was made at room temperature using an EPR L-band (1 GHz) spectrometer. EPRI has been proved effective for evaluation of changes in the spatial distribution of nanoparticles in the sample.     

The optical parametric oscillator as a means for intracavity absorption spectroscopy

In view of the recent progress in the detection of narrow and weak absorption lines as provided by the intracavity technique which utilizes lasers with broad homogeneous emission lines, it appears to interesting to investigate also other light sources with regard to their suitability for intracavity spectroscopic measurements. A promising candidate is an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) pumped by a one-mode field and oscillating in several signal and idler modes, since, as will be shown, this light source exhibits a strong competition effect which, as known from the laser, gives rise to a drastic enhancement in detection sensitivity. In this paper, we calculate the enhancement factor utilizing a simple OPO model which takes account of the spontaneous production of signal and idler photons (parametric fluorescence). The result is similar to that for a laser operated such that spontaneous emission is the only mechanism which prevents a mode with higher losses to be extinguished. Moreover, the OPO offers a possibility to perform the measurement at a frequency which is complementary (with respect to the pump frequency) to the frequency of the absorption line to be detected.     

An improved image deconvolution approach using local constraint

Conventional deblurring approaches such as the Richardson–Lucy (RL) algorithm will introduce strong noise and ringing artifacts, though the point spread function (PSF) is known. Since it is difficult to estimate an accurate PSF in real imaging system, the results of those algorithms will be worse. A spatial weight matrix (SWM) is adopted as local constraint, which is incorporated into image statistical prior to improve the RL approach. Experiments show that our approach can make a good balance between preserving image details and suppressing ringing artifacts and noise.     

An improved Richardson-Lucy algorithm based on local prior

Ringing is one of the most common disturbing artifacts in image deconvolution. With a totally known kernel, the standard Richardson-Lucy (RL) algorithm succeeds in many motion deblurring processes, but the resulting images still contain visible ringing. When the estimated kernel is different from the real one, the result of the standard RL iterative algorithm will be worse. To suppress the ringing artifacts caused by failures in the blur kernel estimation, this paper improves the RL algorithm based on the local prior. Firstly, the standard deviation of pixels in the local window is computed to find the smooth region and the image gradient in the region is constrained to make its distribution consistent with the deblurring image gradient. Secondly, in order to suppress the ringing near the edge of a rigid body in the image, a new mask was obtained by computing the sharp edge of the image produced using the first step. If the kernel is large-scale, where the foreground is rigid and the background is smoothing, this step could produce a significant inhibitory effect on ringing artifacts. Thirdly, the boundary constraint is strengthened if the boundary is relatively smooth. As a result of the steps above, high-quality deblurred images can be obtained even when the estimated kernels are not perfectly accurate. On the basis of blurred images and the related kernel information taken by the additional hardware, our approach proved to be effective.     

Restoration of low resolution metabolic images with a priori anatomic information: 23Na MRI in myocardial infarction

A new iterative extrapolation image reconstruction algorithm is presented, which enhances low resolution metabolic magnetic resonance images (MRI) with information about the bounds of signal sources obtained from a priori anatomic proton ((1)H) MRI. The algorithm ameliorates partial volume and ringing artefacts, leaving unchanged local metabolic heterogeneity that is present in the original dataset but not evident at (1)H MRI. Therefore, it is ideally suited to metabolic studies of ischemia, infarction and other diseases where the extent of the abnormality at (1)H MRI is uncertain. The performance of the algorithm is assessed by simulations, MRI of phantoms, and by surface coil 23Na MRI studies of canine myocardial infarction on a clinical scanner where the injury was not evident at (1)H MRI. The algorithm includes corrections for transverse field inhomogeneity, and for the leakage of intense signals into regions of interest such as 23Na MRI signals from ventricular blood ringing into the myocardium. The simulations showed that the algorithm reduced ringing artefacts by 15%, was stable at low SNR ( approximately 7), but is sensitive to the positioning of the (1)H MRI boundaries. The 23Na MRI showed hyperenhancement of regions identified as infarcted at post-mortem histological staining. The areas of hyperenhancement were measured by five independent observers in four 23Na images of infarction reconstructed with and without the algorithm. The infarct areas were correlated with areas determined by post-mortem histological staining with coefficient 0.85 for the enhanced images, compared to 0.58 with the conventional images. The scatter in the amplitude and in the area measurements of ischemia-associated hyper-enhancement in 23Na MRI was reduced by the algorithm by 1.6-fold and by at least 3-fold, respectively, demonstrating its ability to substantially improve quantification of the extent and intensity of metabolic changes in injured tissue that is not evident by (1)H MRI.     

Absorption line CW EPR using an amplitude modulated longitudinal field

In standard continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW-EPR) experiments, the first derivative of absorption lines is detected. This type of a line shape is caused by the magnetic field modulation and is usually an undesired feature, since the sensitivity of CW-EPR drastically decreases with increasing linewidth. A new approach is introduced, which allows for the measurement of absorption line EPR spectra in systems with broad inhomogeneous lines. The method makes use of multiple-photon transitions that are induced in spin systems when a transverse microwave and a longitudinal radio frequency field are simultaneously applied. The absorption lines are obtained by using amplitude modulation of the radio frequency field and slight saturation of the spectral lines. The basics of the new approach are discussed and experimental examples are given.     

一种降低井下核磁共振振铃的新方法

核磁共振（NMR）测井仪在测量过程中,振铃噪声幅度一般很高,会影响回波信号的检测. 常用的交叉相位对脉冲序列（PAPS）虽然能有效地降低振铃影响,但由于振铃与频率有关,使PAPS叠加只能在同频率之间展开,大大降低了NMR测井的纵向分辨率. 利用回波信号和振铃噪声的相位特征,设计了一种脉冲序列,采用PAPS和回波间叠加相结合的方式降低振铃噪声. 研究表明,相对于PAPS技术,提高了测量效率,同时提高了回波串的信噪比和NMR测井的纵向分辨率.     

Fractal analysis of powder X-ray diffraction patterns

X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns with broad background are commonly found in the characterization of materials with a certain degree of amorphicity, so the sharp intensity peaks associated with material phases are not well defined. This work used rescaled range (denoted by R/S) analysis, a method intended for fractal analysis of noisy signals, to characterize XRD patterns with broad background. It is found that XRD patterns with broad background are not random at all, but contain information on regularities expressed as autocorrelations of the intensity signal. Sol-gel alumina fired at different temperatures was used as an example to illustrate the applicability of the method. It is shown that fractal R/S analysis is able to locate angular regions that can be associated to ideal International Centre for Diffraction Data Powder Diffraction File (ICDD PDF) lines of diverse alumina phases.     

Circularly Polarized RF Magnetic Fields for Spin-1 NQR

The low sensitivity of nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) of powders is due, in part, to the inability to efficiently excite and detect nuclei at all crystal orientations. Here we describe the use of circularly polarized RF magnetic fields for excitation followed by detection of the resultant circular RF magnetization in I=1 NQR to increase the fraction of nuclei excited and detected. We show that the technique can greatly improve the effective RF field homogeneity and increase the largest signal amplitude by a factor of 1.72. In favorable cases, the resulting circularly polarized NQR signal can be separated from linearly polarized magnetoacoustic and piezoelectric ringing artifacts that occur in some NQR materials detection applications.     

10-GHz Optical Comb in L-Band Region With Brillouin/Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser

A multiwavelength Brillouin/erbium fibre laser (BEFL) which operates in the long wavelength (L-band) region is demonstrated for potential applications in an L-band wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication system. The laser configuration consists of a long erbium-doped fibre to enable L-band amplification where two 3-dB couplers take a portion of the generated BEFL signal and re-inject it into the single mode fibre to seed a cascaded BEFL line in the same direction as the first BEFL line. A stable and strong laser comb of up to five lines with 10-GHz spacing has been obtained with a Brillouin pump (BP) of 9.2 mW and a 980 nm pump of 92 mW. The BEFL has shown a broad tuning range with a tuning characteristic for line #1 which is flat over a range greater than 9.9 nm.     

可编程成像系统中莫尔条纹处理方法研究

使用对傅里叶变换频谱进行空间滤波的方法,根据“切口”滤波器在频谱突变位置出现振铃现象的缺点,设计了基于“切口”滤波器的多点高斯滤波器.实验表明:使用该方法可以有效降低莫尔条纹对系统采集到图像质量的影响,得到的重构图像清晰,基本无振铃现象,可以满足系统需要.使用该方法运算量小、处理简单,能够由嵌入式系统完成.     

MR diffusion - "diffraction" phenomenon in multi-pulse-field-gradient experiments

Using pulsed-field-gradient (PFG) experiments, the sizes of the pores in ordered porous media can be estimated from the "diffraction" pattern that the signal attenuation curves exhibit. A different diffraction pattern is observed when the experiment is extended to a larger number (N) of diffusion gradient pulse pairs. Simulations to calculate signal values from arbitrary gradient waveforms are performed for diffusion in restricted geometries using a matrix operator formalism. The simulations suggest that the differences in the characteristics of the attenuation curves are expected to make it possible to measure smaller pore sizes, to improve the accuracy of pore size measurements and potentially to distinguish different pore shapes using the N-PFG technique. Moreover, when an even number of PFG pairs is used, it is possible to observe the diffraction pattern at shorter diffusion times and measure an approximation to the average pore size even when the sample contains pores with a broad distribution of sizes.