Simple design changes to wires to substantially reduce MRI-induced heating at 1.5 T: implications for implanted leads

Reductions in MRI-induced heating at 1.5 T resulting from a simple design change to coiled wires were investigated. MRI-induced heating was assessed for two different coiled wire forms (length, 26 cm): (1) multi-filar coiled wire form and (2) multi-filar coiled wire form having a different coiled pitch, providing an air gap spacing between adjacent five-filar coil loops. Each wire had an electrode and was insulated to create a lead, similar to that which would be used for a medical implant. The wire forms were placed in a gelled-saline-filled head/torso phantom and imaged at 1.5 T [whole-body average specific absorption rate (SAR), 1.79 W/kg]. Fluoroptic thermometry probes were used to measure temperatures at the distal ends of the wires. The experiments demonstrated a substantial reduction in MRI-induced heating for the modified wire compared to the unmodified wire (i.e., 10.5 degrees C difference observed in one experiment and 26 degrees C difference in another). These findings have important implications for MRI-induced heating of leads used for medical implants.     

Evidence for the ground-state resonance of 26O

Evidence for the ground state of the neutron-unbound nucleus (26)O was observed for the first time in the single proton-knockout reaction from a 82 MeV/u (27)F beam. Neutrons were measured in coincidence with (24)O fragments. (26)O was determined to be unbound by 150(-150)(+50) keV from the observation of low-energy neutrons. This result agrees with recent shell-model calculations based on microscopic two- and three-nucleon forces.     

Numerical solution of nonlocal hydrodynamic Drude model for arbitrary shaped nano-plasmonic structures using Nédélec finite elements

Nonlocal material response distinctively changes the optical properties of nano-plasmonic scatterers and waveguides. It is described by the nonlocal hydrodynamic Drude model, which – in frequency domain – is given by a coupled system of equations for the electric field and an additional polarization current of the electron gas modeled analogous to a hydrodynamic flow. Recent attempt to simulate such nonlocal model using the finite difference time domain method encountered difficulties in dealing with the grad–div operator appearing in the governing equation of the hydrodynamic current. Therefore, in these studies the model has been simplified with the curl-free hydrodynamic current approximation; but this causes spurious resonances. In this paper we present a rigorous weak formulation in the Sobolev spaces H(curl) for the electric field and H(div) for the hydrodynamic current, which directly leads to a consistent discretization based on Nédélec’s finite element spaces. Comparisons with the Mie theory results agree well. We also demonstrate the capability of the method to handle any arbitrary shaped scatterer.     

Construction of the Incipient Infinite Cluster for Spread-out Oriented Percolation Above 4 + 1 Dimensions

 We construct the incipient infinite cluster measure (IIC) for sufficiently spread-out oriented percolation on ℤ ^d × ℤ₊, for d +1 > 4+1. We consider two different constructions. For the first construction, we define ℙ ⁿ (E) by taking the probability of the intersection of an event E with the event that the origin is connected to (x,n)  ℤ ^d × ℤ₊, summing this probability over x  ℤ ^d , and normalising the sum to get a probability measure. We let n → ∞ and prove existence of a limiting measure ℙ_∞, the IIC. For the second construction, we condition the connected cluster of the origin in critical oriented percolation to survive to time n, and let n → ∞. Under the assumption that the critical survival probability is asymptotic to a multiple of n ⁻¹, we prove existence of a limiting measure ℚ_∞, with ℚ_∞ = ℙ_∞. In addition, we study the asymptotic behaviour of the size of the level set of the cluster of the origin, and the dimension of the cluster of the origin, under ℙ_∞. Our methods involve minor extensions of the lace expansion methods used in a previous paper to relate critical oriented percolation to super-Brownian motion, for d+1 > 4+1. Received: 13 December 2001 / Accepted: 11 July 2002 Published online: 29 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*" Present address: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. E-mail: rhofstad@win.tue.nl     

Aerosol Measurement in Low‐Pressure Systems with Standard Scanning Mobility Particle Sizers

The scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) is one of the best known instruments for measuring particle size distributions in the submicron range. The SMPS consists of two parts: an electrostatic aerosol classifier (differential mobility particle analyser, DMA), followed by a counting device, in general a condensation particle counter (CPC). Unfortunately, commercial measurement devices such as the TSI DMA Model 3071 and the TSI CPC Model 3022 (TSI Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA), can be used only at nearly atmospheric pressure in the sampling line or in slight overpressure mode, but not in low‐pressure systems. A modification in the sampling line is shown which enhances the operating range of a standard SMPS system to low pressure. Samples taken under standard and low‐pressure conditions show good agreement in the measured particle size distributions and concentration. The behaviour observed in experimental studies agrees well with theoretical predictions.     

Late energy injection and cosmological constraints in axino dark matter scenarios

Taking into account effects of late energy injection, we examine big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints on axino dark matter scenarios with long-lived charged sleptons. We calculate 4-body slepton decays into the axino, a lepton, and a quark–antiquark pair since they govern late hadronic energy injection and associated BBN constraints. For supersymmetric hadronic axion models, we present the obtained hadronic BBN constraints and show that they can be more restrictive than the ones associated with catalyzed BBN via slepton-bound-state formation. From the BBN constraints on hadronic and electromagnetic energy release, we find new upper limits on the Peccei–Quinn scale.     

Chemical reactions of water molecules on Ru(0 0 0 1) induced by selective excitation of vibrational modes

Tunneling electrons in a scanning tunneling microscope were used to excite specific vibrational quantum states of adsorbed water and hydroxyl molecules on a Ru(0 0 0 1) surface. The excited molecules relaxed by transfer of energy to lower energy modes, resulting in diffusion, dissociation, desorption, and surface-tip transfer processes. Diffusion of H₂O molecules could be induced by excitation of the O-H stretch vibration mode at 445 meV. Isolated molecules required excitation of one single quantum while molecules bonded to a C atom required at least two quanta. Dissociation of single H₂O molecules into H and OH required electron energies of 1 eV or higher while dissociation of OH required at least 2 eV electrons. In contrast, water molecules forming part of a cluster could be dissociated with electron energies of 0.5 eV.     

Partial clustering prevents global crystallization in a binary 2D colloidal glass former

A mixture of two types of super-paramagnetic colloidal particles with long-range dipolar interaction is confined by gravity to the flat interface of a hanging water droplet. The particles are observed by video microscopy and the dipolar interaction strength is controlled via an external magnetic field. The system is a model system to study the glass transition in 2D, and it exhibits partial clustering of the small particles (N. Hoffmann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 078301 (2006)). This clustering is strongly dependent on the relative concentration of big and small particles. However, changing the interaction strength reveals that the clustering does not depend on the interaction strength. The partial clustering scenario is quantified using Minkowski functionals and partial structure factors. Evidence that partial clustering prevents global crystallization is discussed.     

Direct evaluation of the subgrid scale scalar flux in turbulent premixed flames with conditioned dual-plane stereo PIV

With the dual-plane stereo PIV technique the instantaneous three-dimensional resolved rate-of-strain tensor is directly measured in turbulent premixed flames. Simultaneously, also the instantaneous subgrid scale (SGS) scalar flux is measured with fine resolution, where for the latter term the conditioned particle image velocimetry (CPIV) technique is applied. The subgrid resolution reaches 118 μm, allowing a 9 × 9 resolution of a subgrid filter with width Δ = 1 mm. This combined measurement approach allows the a-priori comparison of models for the SGS scalar flux term with direct measurements which is important for large eddy simulation methods in turbulent premixed flames. Two different flame conditions of a premixed V-shaped turbulent flame are investigated where the turbulence intensity is varied by a factor of nearly three. The instantaneous radial and axial SGS fluxes are compared with the following three models: gradient model with Smagorinsky approach for the turbulent viscosity, Clark model, and extended gradient model with an anisotropy term. None of these models shows a good correlation with the directly measured flux. The anisotropy term alone (being nearly similar to the Clark model) shows, however, a right trend behaviour. An analysis of the data indicates a significant dependency of the experimentally determined SGS flux on the Favre averaged reaction progress (spatially averaged over the SGS area). A relatively simple closure for the SGS flux, which describes the dilatation due to the gasdynamic expansion, and which is a function proportional to , shows a rather good correlation with direct measurement for some of the components. A successful SGS scalar flux model for premixed turbulent flames most likely needs to include at least two different effects.     

Deterministic joint remote preparation of arbitrary multi-qudit states

In this Letter, we put forward a new nontrivial three-step strategy for joint remote preparation of arbitrary two-qudit states (JRSP) in a deterministic manner from a spatially separated multi-sender to one receiver. The scheme is then extended to the arbitrary multi-qudit case. In our schemes, various partially entangled GHZ-like states with arbitrary complex parameters are used as the quantum channels. It overcomes state preparation failure leading to the loss of valuable quantum channel resource and ensures the prepared data available for the remote terminals under extreme conditions such as limited number of quantum channels and limited quantum information processing technologies.