Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pathophysiology of the rat kidney in streptozotocin-induced diabetes.

Proton magnetic resonance imaging was performed on rats before induction of diabetes with streptozotocin (STZ) and at 2 and 12 days postinduction. Images revealed an increase in maximal longitudinal and axial dimensions of the kidneys at 2 days and a further increase at 12 days. Similarly, an increase in the size of the remaining kidney was seen in a rat which underwent uninephrectomy as a positive control. Two major differences were observed between the kidney undergoing compensatory hypertrophy and those developing diabetic nephropathy: (i) Expansion of the renal vasculature was seen only in images of the diabetic rat; (ii) A loss in conspicuity of the normal corticomedullary junction was seen in the T2-weighted images of the diabetic rat but not in the uninephrectomized rat. Histologic examination revealed that the medulla increased to a size greater than the cortex during diabetic nephropathy whereas the medullary volume was less than that of the cortex during compensatory hypertrophy. In vitro T1 relaxation times in cortex, outer medulla and inner medulla of kidneys from control rats were measured and compared with the same respective regions in diabetic rats. When these values were correlated with tissue water content, a linear increase in relaxation rate versus percent water content from cortex to inner medulla was found in the control kidneys, but this correlation was absent in diabetic nephropathy. These studies demonstrate that MRI is an effective noninvasive tool for studying the course of renal hypertrophy and hydration changes in the development of renal disease in STZ-induced diabetes in the rat.     

Parity violation at neutron p-wave resonances of238U and232Th and related questions

Parity violation effects have been studied at 40 neutron p-wave resonances of the even-even nuclei²³⁸U and²³²Th. Of these 11 show parity violation effects larger than 2 standard deviations, making parity violation a rather common phenomenon. Parity mixing up to 10% has been found. The root-mean squared matrix elements for parity violation derived from these resonances are M=0.58 (+0.50/-0.25) meV for²³⁸U, respectively 1.39 (+0.35/-0.38) meV for²³²Th.     

Speckle metrology employing LCTV spatial light modulators

Liquid crystal televisions have been employed as spatial light modulators in a variety of optical image processing applications. We have used such devices to develop techniques in speckle metrology for the electronic addition of speckle patterns and the display of speckle correlation, and also for the real-time display of object motion. Factors which affect the performance in terms of the useful working range and the accuracy of displacement measurement are discussed. Some modifications to the LCTV which should increase the potential of these devices as spatial light modulators, when used in both amplitude and phase modulation, are considered briefly.     

Hole dispersion and enhancement of antiferromagnetic interaction of localized spins in high-Tc superconductors

In the framework of the extended Hubbard model (copper-oxygen and oxygen-oxygen hopping) the energy and effective mass of a mobile hole is expressed in terms of hopping parameters and the correlators between spins of the background S_nS_n+1. Due to interaction of the mobile hole with localized holes, its effective mass increases about four times.     

Growth of InP/InGaAs multiple quantum well structures by chemical beam epitaxy

InP/InGaAs multiple quantum well structures with up to 200 periods have been grown by CBE. These structures exhibit exceptional lateral uniformity, measured as ±1 Å in period, ±13 ppm in lattice mismatch and ±0.5 nm in wavelength across a 2 inch wafer. Good surface morphology, sharp interfaces and excellent growth control have all been demonstrated.     

Below-bandgap refractive index of AlAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells

Precision reflection measurements were performed on GaAs/AlAs superlattices of the same composition but different layer spacings. Nonlinear-least-squares fits to the data were performed to a single layer. Measurements were extracted for the superlattice thickness, thickness of a disturbed interface layer between the superlattice and substrate, the uniformity in composition and/or spacing and the composition. It was demonstrated that these nondestructive measurements in the infrared region (3000 to 12 000 cm^–1) in conjunction with a simple single layer model are capable of accurately yielding the above quantities with high precision.     

An adaptive filter for gravitational-wave antennas

Summary We report on the development of an adaptive optimum filter for processing the data of a resonant bar gravitational-wave detector. This filter, based on the matched-filter theory, is adaptive in the sense that the function it realizes is derived from the actual noise spectrum of the data being analysed (instead from an idealized model of the noise). Its implementation is mostly based on frequency domain techniques. We also report on the application of the new filter to the data of the cryogenic antenna Explorer of the Rome group, with particular reference to the comparison between its performance and that of an otpimum filter with fixed values of the parameters.     

Uniformization and the diversity of Whitehead groups

Techniques of uniformization are used to prove that it is not consistent that the Whitehead groups of cardinality ℵ₁ are exactly the strongly ℵ₁-free groups. Some consequences of the assumption that every strongly ℵ₁-free group of cardinality ℵ₁ is Whitehead are derived. Other results about uniformization are also proved. Research partially supported by NSERC grant #9848. Research partially supported by the BSF. The authors thank Rutgers University for its support. Publication #441.     

Heat and mass transport in bundles that move and give off gas

Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, No. 6, pp. 96–103, November–December, 1992.