Measuring T₂ and T₁, and imaging T₂ without spin echoes

During adiabatic excitation, the nuclear magnetization in the transverse plane is subject to T(2) (spin-spin) relaxation, depending on the pulse length τ. Here, this property is exploited in a method of measuring T(2) using the ratio of NMR signals acquired with short and long-duration self-refocusing adiabatic pulses, without spin-echoes. This Dual-τ method is implemented with B(1)-insensitive rotation (BIR-4) pulses. It is validated theoretically with Bloch equation simulations independent of flip-angle, and experimentally in phantoms. Dual-τT(2) measurements are most accurate at short T(2) where results agree with standard spin-echo measures to within 10% for T(2) ≤ 100 ms. Dual-τ MRI performed with a long 0° BIR-4 pre-pulse provides quantitative T(2) imaging of phantoms and the human foot while preserving desired contrast and functional properties of the rest of the MRI sequence. A single 0° BIR-4 pre-pulse can provide T(2) contrast-weighted MRI and serve as a "T(2)-prep" sequence with a lower B(1) requirement than prior approaches. Finally, a Tri-τ experiment is introduced in which both τ and flip-angle are varied, enabling measurement of T(2), T(1) and signal intensity in just three acquisitions if flip-angles are well-characterized. These new methods can potentially save time and simplify relaxation measurements and/or contrast-weighted NMR and MRI.     

Determination of T1ρ values for head and neck tissues at 0.1 T: a comparison to T1 and T2 relaxation times

In order to optimize head and neck magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with the spin-lock (SL) technique, the T₁ρ relaxation times for normal tissues were determined. Furthermore, T₁ρ was compared to T₁ and T₂ relaxation times. Ten healthy volunteers were studied with a 0.1 T clinical MR imager. T₁ρ values were determined by first measuring the tissue signal intensities with different locking pulse durations (TL), and then by fitting the signal intensity values to the equation with the least-squares method. The T₁ρ relaxation times were shortest for the muscle and tongue, intermediate for lymphatic and parotid gland tissue and longest for fat. T₁ρ demonstrated statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between all tissues, except between muscle and tongue. T₁ρ values measured at locking field strength (B1L) of 35 μT were close to T₂ values, the only exception being fat tissue, which showed T₁ρ values much longer than T₂ values. Determination of tissue relaxation times may be utilized to optimize image contrast, and also to achieve better tissue discrimination potential, by choosing appropriate imaging parameters for the head and neck spin-lock sequences.     

High-p T αα andαp interactions

Properties of secondaries associated with a high-p _T charged trigger particle (3<p _T <5 GeV/c) were studied for αp and αα interactions at c.m. energies \(\sqrt s = 88\) GeV and 125 GeV, respectively. Thep _T distributions of secondaries in the away-jet and trigger-jet regions were compared with those for high-p _{T pp} interactions. No statistically significant differences were seen, except at lowp _T . Momentum and angular distributions of spectator and leading protons were studied as a function of charge and rapidity of the trigger hadron. The observed correlations between trigger charge and number of spectator protons provide evidence of valence quark contributions to the trigger jet.     

New pulse sequences for T1− and T1/T2−contrast enhancing in NMR imaging

Improved pulse sequences DIFN (abbreviation of the words: DIFferentiation by N pulses), 90° − τ₁ − 180° − τ₁ − … 180° − τ_n, with optimised time intervals τ₁ for T₁ measurement and contrast enhancing in NMR imaging are presented. The pulse sequences DIFN have a better sensitivity to T₁ than the well-known pulse sequence SR. In contrast to the IR pulse sequence, the information given by the DIFN pulse sequence is more reliable, because the NMR signal does not change its sign. For a given time interval τ₀ ≤ (0.1 − 0.3) T₁′ the DIFN pulse sequences serve as T₁-filters. They pass the signal components with relatively short T₁ < T₁′ and suppress the components with relatively long T₁ < T₁′. The effects of the radiofrequency field inhomogeneity and inaccurate adjusting of pulse lengths are also considered. It is also proposed in this work to use the joint T₁T₂-contrast in NMR imaging obtained as a result of applying the DIFN pulse sequences in combination with the well-known Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) pulse sequence. The region of interest, where the contrast should be especially enhanced, is specified by the two times at which measurements are performed, which allow the amplitudes of pixels to reach some defined levels by spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation.     

Thermal Shifts and Electron—Phonon Interactions of ^4T2 and ^4T1 Broad Bands for Ruby

For the first time,by taking into account all the irreducible representations and their components in the electron-phonon interaction (EPI) as well as all the levels and the admixtures of wavefunctions within d^3 electronic electron-phonon interaction (EPI) as well as all the levels and the admixtures of wavefunctions within d^3 electronic configuration,the values of parameters in expressions of Raman and optical-branch terms of thermal shifts (TS) due to EPI for three levels,^4T2 band and ^4T1 band of ruby have been evaluated;the contributions to TS of ^4T2 and ^4T1 broad bands from thermal expansion have also been calculated;and then,the TS of the peak energies of ^4T2 and ^4T1 broad bands have been calculated.The results are in satisfactory agreement with observed data.The values of single-electron reduced matrix elements representing the strengths of EPI of ^4T2 and ^4T1 bands have respectively been determined.For TS of the peak energies of ^4T2 and ^4T1 bands,it is found that the contribution to TS from the second-order term in EPI Hamiltonian is dominant;TS due to EPI of acoustic branches are over two times as much as those of optical branches,and both of them increase rapidly with temperature;the neighbor-level term is insignificant;the contribution to TS from thermal expansion is specially important,and all the three terms of TS of ^4T2 or ^4T1 band are red shifts.     

Temperature and density dependence of μ-catalysis cycling rate in dense D/T and H/D/T gas mixtures

Muon catalyzed dt fusion in dense D/T and H/D/T gas mixtures of hydrogen isotopes is studied by the MCF collaboration at JINR. The measurements were carried out with a high pressure target at the JINR phasotron in the temperature range 300-800 K at mixture densities . Tentative experimental results obtained by several analysis methods are presented. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Oxygen deficiency and superconductivity in T-, T'- and T∗-Ln2CuO4

Abstract

Effect of oxygen deficiency on superconductivity is discussed for three well-known systems, T?, T'?, and T?-Ln₂CuO₄. Although their crystal structures are closely related to each other, the oxygen-deficiency effect on superconductivity is different from system to system. In T-(La, Sr)₂CuO₄ and T?-(Nd,Ce,Sr)₂-CuO₄, oxygen defects suppress T _c while they enhance T _c in T'-(Nd,Ce)₂CuO₄. In T-(La,Ba)₂CuO₄, oxygen defects have, for x ～ 0.065, a positive effect on superconductivity as well. This positive effect is discussed related to a low-temperature structural phase transition found in the Ba-system.     

Classical Dynamical r-Matrices¶and Homogeneous Poisson Structures on G/H and K/T

Let G be a finite dimensional simple complex group equipped with the standard Poisson Lie group structure. We show that all G-homogeneous (holomorphic) Poisson structures on G/H, where H⊂G is a Cartan subgroup, come from solutions to the Classical Dynamical Yang–Baxter equations which are classified by Etingof and Varchenko. A similar result holds for a maximal compact subgroup K, and we get a family of K-homogeneous Poisson structures on K/T, where T=K∩H is a maximal torus of K. This family exhausts all K-homogeneous Poisson structures on K/T up to isomorphisms. We study some Poisson geometrical properties of members of this family such as their symplectic leaves, their modular classes, and the moment maps for the T-action. Received: 4 September 1999 / Accepted: 25 January 2000     

High p T correlations of γ and charged hadrons at RHIC

Prompt photon production in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions provides a calibrated probe for the study of the properties of high energy density QCD matter. Especially interesting are the measurements of γ-tagged jets where the hard scattering scale is known and can be used to determine the partonic energy loss in the dense matter. We discuss the potential of γ-jet measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and argue that the observed suppression of the away-side correlations for di-jet production in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN} } = 200$ GeV should significantly reduce the backgrounds for the γ-jet coincidence measurements.     

Hadronic ϕ production and the lund model for lowp T interactions

Experimental results on inclusive ? production are compared with the Lund model for lowp _T hadronic interactions. The data is based on a sample of 600,000 ? mesons in the kinematic rangep _T <1.0 (GeV/c)² and 0.0<x _F<0.4, produced in π^±,K ^±,p and \(\bar p\) Be interactions at 100 GeV/c and 120 GeV/c incident momentum. The Lund model reproduces the shapes of the longitudinal differential cross sections reasonably well, but the relative cross sections for incident, π,K andp show a discrepancy with the data.     

On-shell mediator dark matter models and the Xenon1T excess

We present a dark matter model to explain the excess events in the electron recoil data recently reported by the Xenon1 T experiment. In our model, dark matter χ annihilates into a pair of on-shell particles Φ, which subsequently decay into the ψψ final state;ψ interacts with electrons to generate the observed excess events. Because of the mass hierarchy, the velocity of ψ can be rather large and can have an extended distribution, providing a good fit to the electron recoil energy spectrum. We estimate the flux of ψ from dark matter annihilations in the galaxy and further determine the interaction cross section, which is sizable but sufficiently small to allow ψ to penetrate the rocks to reach the underground labs.     

2T Physics, Scale Invariance and Topological Vector Fields

We construct, in classical two-time physics, the necessary structure for the most general configuration space formulation of quantum mechanics containing gravity in d+2 dimensions. This structure is composed of a symmetric Riemannian metric tensor and of a vector field that defines a section of a flat U(1) bundle over space-time. This construction is possible because of the existence of a finite local scale invariance of the Hamiltonian and because two-time physics contains, at the classical level, a local generalization of the discrete duality symmetry between position and momentum that underlies the structure of quantum mechanics.     

Clinical feasibility of 3D-QALAS – Single breath-hold 3D myocardial T1- and T2-mapping

PurposeTo investigate the in-vivo precision and clinical feasibility of 3D-QALAS - a novel method for simultaneous three-dimensional myocardial T1- and T2-mapping.MethodsTen healthy subjects and 23 patients with different cardiac pathologies underwent cardiovascular 3 T MRI examinations including 3D-QALAS, MOLLI and T2-GraSE acquisitions. Precision was investigated in the healthy subjects between independent scans, between dependent scans and as standard deviation of consecutive scans. Clinical feasibility of 3D-QALAS was investigated for native and contrast enhanced myocardium in patients. Data were analyzed using mean value and 95% confidence interval, Pearson correlation, Paired t-tests, intraclass correlation and Bland-Altman analysis.ResultsAverage myocardial relaxation time values and SD from eight repeated acquisitions within the group of healthy subjects were 1178 ± 18.5 ms (1.6%) for T1 with 3D-QALAS, 52.7 ± 1.2 ms (2.3%) for T2 with 3D-QALAS, 1145 ± 10.0 ms (0.9%) for T1 with MOLLI and 49.2 ± 0.8 ms (1.6%) for T2 with GraSE.Myocardial T1 and T2 relaxation times obtained with 3D-QALAS correlated very well with reference methods; MOLLI for T1 (r = 0.994) and T2-GraSE for T2 (r = 0.818) in the 23 patients. Average native/post-contrast myocardial T1 values from the patients were 1166.2 ms/411.8 ms for 3D-QALAS and 1174.4 ms/438.9 ms for MOLLI. Average native myocardial T2 values from the patients were 53.2 ms for 3D-QALAS and 54.4 ms for T2-GraSE.ConclusionsRepeated independent and dependent scans together with the intra-scan repeatability, demonstrated all a very good precision for the 3D-QALAS method in healthy volunteers. This study shows that 3D T1 and T2 mapping in the left ventricle is feasible in one breath hold for patients with different cardiac pathologies using 3D-QALAS.     

First-Principles Calculations of Atomic and Electronic Properties of T1 and In on Si（111）

The atomic and electronic structures of T1 and In on Si（111） surfaces are investigated using the firstprinciples total energy calculations. Total energy optimizations show that the energetically favored structure is 1/3 ML T1 adsorbed at the T4 sites on Si（111） surfaces. The adsorption energy difference of one T1 adatom between （√3 × √3） and （1 × 1） is less than that of each In adatom. The DOS indicates that TI 6p and Si 3p electrons play a very important role in the formation of the surface states. It is concluded that the bonding of TI adatoms on Si（111） surfaces is mainly polar covalent, which is weaker than that of In on Si（111）. So T1 atom is more easy to be migrated than In atom in the same external electric field and the structures of T1 on Si（111） is prone to switch between （√3 × √3） and （1 × 1）.     

Generation of human thalamus atlases from 7 T data and application to intrathalamic nuclei segmentation in clinical 3 T T1-weighted images

The thalamus serves as the central relay station for the brain. It processes and relays sensory and motor signals between different subcortical regions and the cerebral cortex and it can be divided into several neuronal clusters referred to as nuclei. Each of these can possibly be subdivided into sub-nuclei. Accurate and reliable identification of thalamic nuclei is important for surgical interventions and neuroanatomical studies. This is however a challenging task because the small size of the nuclei and the lack of contrast over the thalamus region in clinically acquired images does not permit the visualization of their boundaries. A number of methods have been developed for thalamus parcellation but the vast majority of these relies on diffusion imaging or functional imaging. The low resolution of these images only permit localizing the largest nuclei. In this work we propose a method to segment smaller nuclei. We first present a protocol to build histological-like atlases from a series of high-field (7 Tesla) MR images acquired with different pulse sequences that each permits to visualize the boundaries of a subset of the nuclei. We use this protocol to scan 9 subjects and we manually delineate 23 thalamic nuclei following the Morel atlas naming convention for each of these subjects. Manual contours for the nuclei are subsequently utilized to create statistical shape models. With these data, we compare four methods for the segmentation of thalamic nuclei in 3 T images we have also acquired for the 9 subjects included in the study: (1) single atlas, (2) multi atlas, (3) statistical shape, and (4) hierarchical statistical shape in which thalamic nuclei are hierarchically fitted to the images, starting from the largest ones. Results of a leave-one-out validation study conducted on the nine image sets we have acquired show that the multi atlas approach improves upon the single atlas approach for most nuclei. Segmentations obtained with the hierarchical statistical shape model yield the highest accuracy, with dice coefficients ranging from 0.53 to 0.90, mean surface errors from 0.27 mm to 0.64 mm, and maximum surface errors from 1.31 mm to 2.52 mm for all nuclei averaged across test cases. This suggests the feasibility of using such approach for localizing thalamic substructures in clinically acquired MR volumes. It may have a direct impact on surgeries such as Deep Brain Stimulation procedures that require the implantation of stimulating electrodes in specific thalamic nuclei.     

Dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking at T = 0 and T ≠ 0 in the Schwinger-Dyson equation with lattice QCD data

Dynamical chiral-symmetry breaking (DCSB) in QCD is investigated in the Schwinger-Dyson (SD) formalism based on lattice QCD data. From the quenched lattice data for the quark propagator in the Landau gauge, we extract the SD integral kernel function, the product of the quark-gluon vertex and the polarization factor in the gluon propagator, in an Ansatz-independent manner. We find that the SD kernel function exhibits the characteristic behavior of nonperturbative physics, such as infrared vanishing and strong enhancement at the intermediate-energy region around p 0.6GeV. The infrared and intermediate energy region (0.4GeV < p < 1.5GeV) is found to be most relevant for DCSB from analysis on the relation between the SD kernel and the quark mass function. We apply the lattice-QCD-based SD equation to thermal QCD, and calculate the quark mass function at the finite temperature. Spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is found to be restored at high temperature above 110 MeV.