Sequential CW-EPR image acquisition with 760-MHz surface coil array

This paper describes the development of a surface coil array that consists of two inductively coupled surface-coil resonators, for use in continuous-wave electron paramagnetic resonance (CW-EPR) imaging at 760 MHz. To make sequential EPR image acquisition possible, we decoupled the surface coils using PIN-diode switches, to enable the shifting of the resonators resonance frequency by more than 200 MHz. To assess the effectiveness of the surface coil array in CW-EPR imaging, two-dimensional images of a solution of nitroxyl radicals were measured with the developed coil array. Compared to equivalent single coil acquired images, we found the visualized area to be extended approximately 2-fold when using the surface coil array. The ability to visualize larger regions of interest through the use of a surface coil array, may offer great potential in future EPR imaging studies.     

Investigation of high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging by means of surface and array radiofrequency coils at 7 T

In this investigation, high-resolution, 1×1×1-mm³ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 7 T is performed using a multichannel array head coil and a surface coil approach. Scan geometry was optimized for each coil separately to exploit the strengths of both coils. Acquisitions with the surface coil focused on partial brain coverage, while whole-brain coverage fMRI experiments were performed with the array head coil. BOLD sensitivity in the occipital lobe was found to be higher with the surface coil than with the head array, suggesting that restriction of signal detection to the area of interest may be beneficial for localized activation studies.     

Design of a capacitively decoupled transmit/receive NMR phased array for high field microscopy at 14.1T

A design is presented for a "phased array" of four transmit/receive saddle-geometry volume coils for microimaging at 600 MHz within a 45 mm clear-bore vertical magnet. The small size of the coils, approximately 10 mm in length, and high frequency of operation both present considerable challenges for the design of a phased array. The particular design consists of four saddle coils, stacked vertically, in order to produce an array suitable for imaging samples, typical of many microimaging studies, with a large length:diameter ratio. Optimal coil overlap is used to reduce the mutual inductance between adjacent coils, and capacitive networks are used to maximize the isolation between all of the coils. Standard 50 Omega input impedance preamplifiers are used so that the preamplifiers do not have to be integrated directly into the probe. Isolation between coils was better than 20 dB for all coil pairs. An increase in signal-to-noise of 70 +/- 3% was achieved, averaged over the whole array, compared to a single coil of the same dimensions. High resolution phased array images are shown for ex vivo tissue samples.     

磁液变形镜的镜面动力学建模和实验验证

磁性液体是磁性纳米微粒分散在基液中形成的具有磁性又具有流动性的稳定胶体.磁性液体的流动性会随着周围磁场的变化而改变,基于磁性液体的变形镜的反射镜面通过液面下方驱动器阵列所产生的局部扰动磁场而变形.磁性液体变形镜与传统的变形镜相比,具有镜面连续平滑、变形行程大、制造成本低、易扩展等优点.本文以基于方形驱动器阵列的磁液变形镜为例,考虑磁性液体受重力场、电场、磁场多物理场耦合的作用,在笛卡尔坐标系中建立了磁液变形镜的动力学模型;然后基于推导出的理论模型,设计了磁液变形镜的结构和参数,并用MATLAB,COMSOL Multiphysics和Tracepro软件联合仿真了磁液变形镜镜面响应性能;最后搭建基于磁液变形镜原型样机的自适应光学系统,测试了磁液变形镜的镜面响应线性度和动力学特性,实验结果验证了所建模型的准确性和磁液变形镜面形控制性能.     

Fast two-dimensional MR imaging by multiple acquisition with micro B(0) array (MAMBA)

A new method for acquiring MR data in two dimensions is described. This is achieved by combining coils into an array so as to produce a unique local magnetic field within each coil when placed within the B(0) field of a standard MRI scanner. In this way each known location of a coil is associated with a unique resonant frequency. Each coil now represents a location of a pixel in the plane, and after Fourier transformation of the signal the resulting frequency spectrum gives immediately the spin distribution in the plane of the array. In effect, the two-dimensional spatial distribution is frequency encoded without the use of switched gradients or phase encoding. As only static fields are used, this technique offers the potential of fast imaging. Furthermore, signals from different locations would also be inherently time-registered. Initial experiments to demonstrate the principle are described, using a square array of 5 by 5 coils. The currents in the coils were determined by using a genetic algorithm. Echoes from pellet phantoms placed in the array were acquired using standard spin-echo sequences with gradients switched off. The results are promising, with the spectra showing generally good resolution between peaks, enabling localisation in up to half the pixels. Technical difficulties are discussed and possible applications are outlined.     

A Novel Magnetic Resonance Phased-Array Coil Designed with FDTD Algorithm

Radio-frequency receiver phased-array coils in magnetic resonance imaging systems are used to pick up the signals emitted by the nuclei with high signal-to-noise ratio and a large region of sensitivity. Since the quality of obtained images strongly depends upon the correct choice of the coil geometry and position, array coils have to be designed by minimizing the mutual interaction among nearby coil elements and this is generally achieved by overlapping such adjacent elements. In this paper, we describe the use of a numerical solver based on finite-difference time-domain method to determine the optimal overlap distance, which guarantees the maximum decoupling level between the coil loops, for array coils constituted by various geometry elements. A novel array coil was designed, constituted by a couple of elliptical geometry elements in “folding” version around the animals’ spine curvature, for small animals’ imaging applications.     

Noise properties of a NMR transceiver coil array

The use of multiple radiofrequency (RF) surface coil elements has applications in both fast parallel imaging and conventional imaging techniques. Through implementation of a simple magnetic decoupling network, 50 Omega matching can be achieved in both the transmitter and receiver chains, enabling the use of conventional RF power amplifiers and preamplifiers for transceive applications. Unlike phased array coil arrangements using low impedance preamplifiers for decoupling, the noise correlation between 50 Omega coils decoupled with discrete components has not been characterized. We have measured the dependence of coil quality factor (Q-factor) and noise correlation on coil separation and shown these quantities to be consistent with theoretical arguments, at least at 4 T (170 MHz). Our results suggest that a coil system for transmission and reception of NMR signals with 50 Omega coils can be built to take advantage of all the benefits of conventional array coils and with the added advantages of using conventional amplifiers.     

Nano liquid-metal fluid as ultimate coolant

We proposed for the first time the concept of the nano liquid-metal fluid, aiming to establish an engineering route to make the highest conductive coolant. Using several widely accepted theoretical models for characterizing the nano fluid, the thermal conductivity enhancement of the liquid-metal fluid due to addition of more conductive nano particles was predicted. Further, the effects of particle size, cluster of nano particle, solid-like layer due to adsorption, volume fraction and particle types were evaluated. Having the highest conductivity, being electromagnetically drivable, the liquid metal with low melting point is expected to be an idealistic base fluid for making super conductive solution which may lead to the ultimate coolant in a wide variety of heat transfer enhancement area.     

Design considerations and coil comparisons for 7 T brain imaging

The development of 300 MHz radio-frequency (RF) head coils analogous to those used at field strengths of 1.5 and 3 T is complicated by increased dissipative losses in conductive tissue, effects arising from the short RF wavelength in biological tissue (about 13 cm at 300 MHz), and the constraints imposed by the use of head gradient sets desirable for mitigating increased static field susceptibility effects. In this study, five RF head coils were constructed and tested on a 7 T scanner including 2 TEM designs, 2 birdcage designs and a local receive-only array. Signal-to-noise ratio, coil reception profiles and interactions between the coil and dielectric head were examined. Particular attention was placed on the coil’s reception in the neck and shoulders, where the head gradient is unable to spatially encode the image. With the use of conductive shields and distributed capacitance, all of the coil designs could be made to image effectively at high field, but each design was found to have subtle differences in field distribution, interaction with the dielectric boundary conditions of the head and fringe fields in the neck and shoulders. In particular, the birdcage and array coils were found to have reducedB ₁ reception field profiles in the neck and shoulders which helped reduce signal detection outside the linear region of the head gradient coil. Although the TEM coils exhibited higher signal detection in the neck and shoulders, all the coils picked up enough signal from these regions to produce artifacts in the brain. These artifacts could be mitigated through use of a conductive shield or by small local dephasing shims sewn into the shoulders of a jacket worn by the subject. Although homogeneous in low-dielectric-constant phantoms, the volume coil’sB ₁ profile was strongly peaked in the center of the head, rendering them spatially complementary to that observed in the surface coil array. The image profile of the surface coil was found to be less dramatically changed from patterns observed at lower field strength. Its dielectric brightening pattern was found to depend on the orientation of the coil with respect to the head.     

4 T Actively detuneable double-tuned 1H/31P head volume coil and four-channel 31P phased array for human brain spectroscopy

Typically 31P in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies are limited by SNR considerations. Although phased arrays can improve the SNR; to date 31P phased arrays for high-field systems have not been combined with 31P volume transmit coils. Additionally, to provide anatomical reference for the 31P studies, without removal of the coil or patient from the magnet, double-tuning (31P/1H) of the volume coil is required. In this work we describe a series of methods for active detuning and decoupling enabling use of phased arrays with double-tuned volume coils. To demonstrate these principles we have built and characterized an actively detuneable 31P/1H TEM volume transmit/four-channel 31P phased array for 4 T magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) of the human brain. The coil can be used either in volume-transmit/array-receive mode or in TEM transmit/receive mode with the array detuned. Threefold SNR improvement was obtained at the periphery of the brain using the phased array as compared to the volume coil.     

Towards a complete coil array

A complete RF coil system, as has been previously defined, is capable of generating any steady-state RF field, at the MR frequency, that is compatible with Maxwell's equations. A coil system is complete if it is capable of generating all basis vector fields in the multipole expansion of the electromagnetic fields. A complete coil system has the potential to reach the ultimate intrinsic signal-to-noise as an MRI receiver coil. It also offers maximum flexibility in tailoring the spatial RF field distribution as an excitation coil. Here, computer simulations have been performed on array coils employing composite coil elements, assuming the current loops are small and can be approximated by magnetic dipoles. We demonstrate that a coil array can be configured to approximate a truncated complete array coil and to generate the basis magnetic vector fields up to certain orders in the multipole expansion of the electromagnetic fields.     

Acoustic streaming in an ultrasonic air pump with three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain analysis and comparison to the measurement

The direct finite-difference fluid simulation of acoustic streaming on a fine-meshed three-dimensional model using a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based calculation array is discussed. Airflows are induced by an acoustic traveling wave when an intense sound field is generated in a gap between a bending transducer and a reflector. The calculation results showed good agreement with measurements in a pressure distribution. Several flow vortices were observed near the boundary layer of the reflector and the transducer, which have often been observed near the boundary of acoustic tubes, but have not been observed in previous calculations for this type of ultrasonic air pump.     

Analytical model of tilted driver–pickup coils for eddy current nondestructive evaluation

A driver-pickup probe possesses better sensitivity and flexibility due to individual optimization of a coil. It is frequently observed in an eddy current (EC) array probe. In this work, a tilted non-coaxial driver-pickup probe above a multilayered conducting plate is analytically modeled with spatial transformation for eddy current nondestructive evaluation. Basically, the core of the formulation is to obtain the projection of magnetic vector potential (MVP) from the driver coil onto the vector along the tilted pickup coil, which is divided into two key steps. The first step is to make a projection of MVP along the pickup coil onto a horizontal plane, and the second one is to build the relationship between the projected MVP and the MVP along the driver coil. Afterwards, an analytical model for the case of a layered plate is established with the reflection and transmission theory of electromagnetic fields. The calculated values from the resulting model indicate good agreement with those from the finite element model (FEM) and experiments, which validates the developed analytical model.     

基于LB方法的非均质砂质砾岩渗吸规律数值模拟

采用随机四参数法对非均质砂质砾岩孔隙结构进行重构, 基于改进的SC-LBM(Shan-Chen格子玻尔兹曼)模型研究润湿流体在多孔介质中的渗吸行为。结果表明: 初始阶段的界面动力学与孔隙骨架的排列有很大关系, 会形成以基质为主的渗吸界面; 流体流经孔喉部分时, 流动断面瞬间缩小, 导致压力梯度和流动阻力迅速增加, 孔吼压力的存在导致流动断面瞬间缩小, 提高了流动阻力, 说明孔隙半径变化对渗吸速率影响较大; 后期阶段, 润湿流体会形成优势渗吸通道, 降低了波及面积, 大幅度降低了渗吸驱油速率。研究结果有助于理解流体在非均质孔隙中的自发渗吸规律, 对发挥裂缝性致密油藏渗吸驱油作用具有重要意义。     

Equivalent magnetic dipole method used to design gradient coil for unilateral magnetic resonance imaging

The conventional magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) equipment cannot measure large volume samples nondestructively in the engineering site for its heavy weight and closed structure. In order to realize the mobile MRI, this study focuses on the design of gradient coil of unilateral magnet. The unilateral MRI system is used to image the local area above the magnet. The current density distribution of the gradient coil cannot be used as a series of superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance gradient coils, because the region of interest(ROI) and the wiring area of the unilateral magnet are both cylindrical side arc surfaces. Therefore, the equivalent magnetic dipole method is used to design the gradient coil, and the algorithm is improved for the special case of the wiring area and the ROI, so the X and Y gradient coils are designed.Finally, a flexible printed circuit board(PCB) is used to fabricate the gradient coil, and the magnetic field distribution of the ROI is measured by a Gauss meter, and the measured results match with the simulation results. The gradient linearities of x and y coils are 2.82% and 3.56%, respectively, less than 5% of the commercial gradient coil requirement.     

Degradation of the performance of a YBCO-coated conductor double pancake coil due to epoxy impregnation

Now that YBCO-coated conductors have been commercialized, a number of YBCO coils have been developed. However, their basic performances have not been systematically investigated so far. Here, we demonstrate that of a YBCO double pancake coil. The critical current of an epoxy impregnated YBCO double pancake coil was substantially degraded, i.e. the normal voltage appears above 8 A, only 18% of that for the dry coil. It was inferred that degradation occurs if the cumulative radial stress developed during cool down exceeds the critical transverse stress for the YBCO-coated conductor (typically 10 MPa). Under these conditions, the conductor was debonded at the interface between the buffer layer and YBCO layers, or fractured in the YBCO layer itself, causing cracks on the YBCO layer, resulting in a significant decline of the critical current. These negative effects are suppressed if the coils are dry wound or impregnated with paraffin, as the bonding strengths between turns are negligible and therefore turns are separated if the cumulative radial stress tends to be tensile. For non-circular coils in which epoxy impregnation is inevitable, degradation due to cumulative tensile transverse stress is still the major problem.     

Actively shielded multi-layer gradient coil designs with improved cooling properties

In standard cylindrical gradient coils consisting of a single layer of wires, a limiting factor in achieving very large magnetic field gradients is the rapid increase in coil resistance with efficiency. This is a particular problem in small-bore scanners, such as those used for MR microscopy. By adopting a multi-layer design in which the coil wires are allowed to spread out into multiple layers wound at increasing radii, a more favourable scaling of resistance with efficiency is achieved, thus allowing the design of more powerful gradient coils with acceptable resistance values. Previously this approach has been applied to the design of unshielded, longitudinal, and transverse gradient coils. Here, the multi-layer approach has been extended to allow the design of actively shielded multi-layer gradient coils, and also to produce coils exhibiting enhanced cooling characteristics. An iterative approach to modelling the steady-state temperature distribution within the coil has also been developed. Results indicate that a good level of screening can be achieved in multi-layer coils, that small versions of such coils can yield higher efficiencies at fixed resistance than conventional two-layer (primary and screen) coils, and that performance improves as the number of layers of increases. Simulations show that by optimising multi-layer coils for cooling it is possible to achieve significantly higher gradient strengths at a fixed maximum operating temperature. A four-layer coil of 8 mm inner diameter has been constructed and used to test the steady-state temperature model.     

Are upwind techniques in multi-phase flow models necessary?

Two alternatives of primary variables are compared for two-phase flow in heterogeneous media by solving fully established benchmarks. The first combination utilizes pressure of the wetting fluid and saturation of the non-wetting fluid as primary variables, while the second employs capillary pressure of the wetting fluid and pressure of the non-wetting fluid. While the standard Galerkin finite element method (SGFEM) is known to fail in the physical reproduction of two-phase flow in heterogeneous media (unless employing a fully upwind correction), the second scheme with capillary pressure as a primary variable without applying an upwind technique produces correct physical fluid behaviour in heterogeneous media, as observed from experiments.     

Theory of a proton spin maser with two emission coils

A nuclear maser oscillator with two emission coils, coupled solely by a stream of a prepolarized liquid which is initially at negative spin temperature, is investigated theoretically. The second emission coil is assumed to be tuned by a condenser to the proton spin resonance, while the first emission coil can be detuned. If the spin-spin interaction time is sufficiently long, then the voltage amplitude available from the terminals of the second coil can go through two maxima as the first coil is detuned. For maximum detuning of the first coil, a self-modulation effect can arise in the second resonance circuit.     

Signal-to-noise ratio comparison of phased-array vs. implantable coil for rat spinal cord MRI

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance and practicality issues of a four-element phased-array coil and an implantable coil system were compared for rat spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 7 T. MRI scans of the rat spinal cord at T10 were acquired from eight rats over a 3 week period using both coil systems, with and without laminectomy. The results demonstrate that both the phased array and the implantable coil systems are feasible options for rat spinal cord imaging at 7 T, with both systems providing adequate SNR for 100-mum spatial resolution at reasonable imaging times. The implantable coils provided significantly higher SNR, as compared to the phased array (average SNR gain of 5.3x between the laminectomy groups and 2.5x between the nonlaminectomy groups). The implantable coil system should be used if maximal SNR is critical, whereas the phased array is a good choice for its ease of use and lesser invasiveness.