Automatic 3D tracking of cardiac material markers using slice-following and harmonic-phase MRI

A method to track a grid of cardiac material points in three dimensions using slice-following (SF) tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and harmonic-phase MRI is presented. A three-dimensional grid of material points on the lines of intersections of short-axis (SA) and long-axis (LA) planes is automatically tracked by combining two-dimensional pathlines that are computed on both SA and LA image planes. This process yields the true three-dimensional motion of points originating on the image plane intersections. Experimental data from normal volunteers, each obtained in four short breath-holds using the SF harmonic phase MRI pulse sequence, is presented. A validation of two-dimensional in-plane tracks using this pulse sequence on a moving phantom is also presented.     

Buckling-driven morphological transformation of droplets of a mixed colloidal suspension during evaporation-induced self-assembly by spray drying

Morphological transformation during evaporation-induced self-assembly of a mixed colloidal suspension in micrometric droplets has been investigated. It has been demonstrated that a buckling-driven shape transition of drying droplets of mixed colloidal suspension takes place during evaporation-induced self-assembly. Further, it is also shown that the distortion modulations get significantly amplified with enhancement in volume fraction of anisotropic soft colloidal component of the mixed colloids. It has been argued that the reduction in elastic modulus of formed shell, at the boundary of a drying droplet, and the anisotropic nature of one of the colloidal components facilitate the deformation process. Hierarchical structures of these assembled colloidal grains have been probed using electron microscopy and scattering techniques.     

Room-temperature fluorescence of a charge-transfer complex of reserpine in aqueous and aqueous–ethanol media

The room-temperature fluorescence of a charge-transfer (CT) complex different from those of the component donor/acceptor in polar organic solvent is not very common. The phenomenon is even rarer in aqueous medium. The present work demonstrates that a CT complex formed between reserpine (Res) and 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) in aqueous and aqueous–ethanol media exhibits fluorescence at room temperature that is entirely different from those of the components, Res and DDQ. With decreasing polarity of the medium on the addition of ethanol, the fluorescence intensity and also the fluorimetrically determined formation constant of the complex increase, but the fluorescence emission wavelength does not change significantly. The quantum yield of fluorescence of the CT complex systematically decreases with increasing ethanol content of the medium. That the observed fluorescence is due to the CT complex is established by the constancy of the assumed proportionality constant (β) between the fluorescence intensity and the complex concentration measured using different equilibrium concentrations of the complex and also by demonstrating the mirror image relationship between its excitation and emission spectra in aqueous medium. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the room-temperature fluorescence of a CT complex in aqueous solution.     

Effect of hydrogen bond formation on the NMR properties of microhydrated ortho-aminobenzoic acid

The in?uence of the hydrogen bond formation on the nuclear magnetic resonance parameters has been investigated in the case of microhydrated ortho-aminobenzoic acid (o-Abz) in the gas-phase. DFT-B3LYP/aug-cc-pVDZ predicted ¹H and ¹³C isotropic chemical shifts with respect to TMS of the isolated o-Abz are in reasonable agreement with available experimental data. The isotropic and anisotropic chemical shifts for all atoms of o-Abz within the o-Abz?···?(H₂O)_1-3 complexes have been calculated at the Hartree–Fock, and density functional (B3LYP) theoretical levels using the 6-31++G(2d,2p) and aug-cc-pVDZ basis sets and considering the counterpoise corrections for the basis set superposition errors. The chemical shift values of the carboxyl group atoms of microhydrated o-Abz relative to isolated o-abz do not show significant basis set dependence. Both the hydrogen and carbon atoms constituting the carboxyl group of o-Abz suffer downfield shift due to formation of hydrogen bond with water. The length of hydrogen bond formed between o-Abz and water is found to vary with the number of water molecules present around o-Abz. A direct correlation between the hydrogen bond length and isotropic chemical shift of the bridging hydrogen is observed for both C?=?O?···?H-O and O-H?···?O interactions.     

Effect of Ag nanoparticle addition and ultrasonic treatment on a stable TiO2 nanofluid

Nanoparticles, when homogeneously dispersed in a base fluid, e.g. water, ethylene glycol etc. are commonly known as nanofluids. Nanofluids have gained attention in the scientific community for their enhanced thermal properties. One of the major problems in using nanofluids as a heat transfer medium for commercial applications is that, in most of the closed circuit industrial cooling processes, the cooling fluid has to be replaced after several cycles of cooling operation because of an increased presence of contaminants. If nanofluids were used as a coolant, it would be very hard to separate the nanoparticles from the waste fluid. The present work is aimed at the separation and recycling of nanoparticles from fluid waste by means of quick settling of titanium dioxide nanoparticles using silver nanoparticles along with ultrasonic treatment. It is observed that with increasing silver concentration and time of ultrasonication, the stability of the dispersion decreases. There is a value for both the silver concentration and ultrasonication time above which the settling time decreases drastically.     

The randomly fluctuating impurity strength initiated excitation in doped quantum dots

We investigate the excitation behavior of a repulsive impurity doped quantum dot under the influence of randomly fluctuating dopant potential. We have considered Gaussian impurity centers doped at different locations. The investigation reveals the interplay between dopant location and dopant’s spatial stretch in modulating the excitation pattern. Maximization in the excitation rate has been observed as a function of fluctuating dopant strength owing to the conflict between opposing influences that promote and hinder excitation.