Development of T2-relaxation values in regional brain sites during adolescence

Brain tissue changes accompany multiple neurodegenerative and developmental conditions in adolescents. Complex processes that occur in the developing brain with disease can be evaluated accurately only against normal aging processes. Normal developmental changes in different brain areas alter tissue water content, which can be assessed by magnetic resonance (MR) T2 relaxometry. We acquired proton-density (PD) and T2-weighted images from 31 subjects (mean age±S.D., 17.4±4.9 years; 18 male), using a 3.0-T MR imaging scanner. Voxel-by-voxel T2-relaxation values were calculated, and whole-brain T2-relaxation maps constructed and normalized to a common space template. We created a set of regions of interest (ROIs) over cortical gray and white matter, basal ganglia, amygdala, thalamic, hypothalamic, pontine and cerebellar sites, with sizes of ROIs varying from 12 to 243 mm³; regional T2-relaxation values were determined from these ROIs and normalized T2-relaxation maps. Correlations between R2 (1/T2) values in these sites and age were assessed with Pearson's correlation procedures, and gender differences in regional T2-relaxation values were evaluated with independent-samples t tests. Several brain regions, but not all, showed principally positive correlations between R2 values and age; negative correlations emerged in the cerebellar peduncles. No significant differences in T2-relaxation values emerged between males and females for those areas, except for the mid pons and left occipital white matter; males showed higher T2-relaxation values over females. The findings indicate that T2-relaxation values vary with development between brain structures, and emphasize the need to correct for such age-related effects during any determination of potential changes from control values.     

有限宽度楔的反射和衍射实验

通过实验验证了Clay和Kinney提出的楔组合法的时域计算理论,获得了相当一致的结果。     

Pursuing structure in microcrystalline solids with independent molecules in the unit cell using 1H-13C correlation data

The (1)H-(13)C solid-state NMR heteronuclear correlation (HETCOR) experiment is demonstrated to provide shift assignments in certain powders that have two or more structurally independent molecules in the unit cell (i.e. multiple molecules per asymmetric unit). Although this class of solids is often difficult to characterize using other methods, HETCOR provides both the conventional assignment of shifts to molecular positions and associates many resonances with specific molecules in the asymmetric unit. Such assignments facilitate conformational characterization of the individual molecules of the asymmetric unit and the first such characterization solely from solid-state NMR data is described. HETCOR offers advantages in sensitivity over prior methods that assign resonances in the asymmetric unit by (13)C-(13)C correlations and therefore allows shorter average analysis times in natural abundance materials. The (1)H-(13)C analysis is demonstrated first on materials with known shift assignments from INADEQUATE data (santonin and Ca(OAc)(2) phase I) to verify the technique and subsequently is extended to a pair of unknown solids: (+)-catechin and Ca(OAc)(2) phase II. Sufficient sensitivity and resolution is achieved in the spectra to provide assignments to one of the specific molecules of the asymmetric unit at over 54% of the sites.     

Prospects for the search for a standard model Higgs boson in ATLAS using vector boson fusion

The European Physical Journal C - The potential for the discovery of a Standard Model Higgs boson in the mass range m H < 2 m Z in the vector boson fusion mode has been studied for the ATLAS...     

Local Structure Analysis and Modelling of Lignin-Based Carbon Composites through the Hierarchical Decomposition of the Radial Distribution Function

Carbonized lignin has been proposed as a sustainable and domestic source of activated, amorphous, graphitic, and nanostructured carbon for many industrial applications as the structure can be tuned through processing conditions. However, the inherent variability of lignin and its complex physicochemical structure resulting from feedstock and pulping selection make the Process-Structure-Property-Performance (PSPP) relationships hard to define. In this work, radial distribution functions (RDFs) from synchrotron X-ray and neutron scattering of lignin-based carbon composites (LBCCs) are investigated using the Hierarchical Decomposition of the Radial Distribution Function (HDRDF) modelling method to characterize the local atomic environment and develop quantitative PSPP relationships. PSPP relationships for LBCCs defined by this work include crystallite size dependence on lignin feedstock as well as increasing crystalline volume fraction, nanoscale composite density, and crystallite size with increasing reduction temperature.     

Diborane: High resolution infrared rovibration studies of 11B2H6 and 11B2D6

Ground state rotation and quartic distortion constants were obtained for ¹¹B₂D₆ from the analysis of high resolution (～0.05 cm^?1) Fourier transform infrared spectra. The bands studied comprised the ν₁₇, ν₁₈ type A, and ν₁₄, ν₉ + ν₁₅ type C bands of ¹¹B₂H₆ and the ν₁₆, ν₁₇, ν₁₈ type A, ν₈ type B, and ν₁₄ type C bands of ¹¹B₂D₆. In the case of ¹¹B₂H₆, the authors' ground state data were combined with those of Lafferty et al. obtained from a previous study (J. Mol. Spectrosc.33, 345–367 (1970)) at comparable resolution of the ν₁₆ type A and ν₈ type B fundamentals. Information on the ground state rotational energy manifold of ¹¹B₂H₆ was accumulated up to J = 23, K_a = 18, and of ¹¹B₂D₆ up to J = 32, K_a = 22. This permitted rather precise determination of the distortion constants Δ_J⁰, Δ_JK⁰, Δ_K⁰, although δ_J⁰ and δ_K⁰ proved to be too small (< 10^?7 cm^?1) and were constrained to values calculated from the force field. Sets of upper state parameters were determined for all vibrational levels studied. Although these appear to be essentially unperturbed globally, several localized perturbations were observed and identified.     

Time domain investigation of transceiver functions using a known reference target

During August 1998, a bottom scattering tank experiment was performed at the Applied Research Laboratory, University of Texas to measure wideband acoustic reverberation from multiple objects (e.g., cobbles and pebbles) placed on a sediment simulation of the sea floor. In preparation for processing and analyzing the experimental data, time domain scattering measurements made with stainless steel and glass balls suspended in the water column were used to calibrate the sonar transceiver system by deconvolving the theoretical impulse response for steel and glass spheres, obtained via the Faran elastic sphere scattering model, from the scattered time signals. It is the analysis of these calibration measurements which forms the subject of this paper. Results show the critical importance of accurate input-output system calibrations for time domain sound scattering research, and successfully demonstrate a time domain method for accurately calibrating the complete sonar transceiver function, i.e., both the amplitude and time dependence, using a known reference target. The work has implications for boundary and volume scattering applications.