Eikonal formulation of the minimal principle for scroll wave filaments

Recently, Wellner et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 8015 (2002)]] proposed a principle for predicting a stable scroll wave filament shape as a geodesic in a 3D space with a metric determined by the inverse diffusivity tensor of the medium. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi theory we show that this geodesic is the shortest path for a wave propagating through the medium. This allows the use of shortest path algorithms to predict filament shapes, which we confirm numerically for a medium with orthotropic anisotropy. Our method can be used in cardiac tissue experiments since it does not require knowledge of the tissue anisotropy.     

Hepatic lipid composition analysis using 3.0-T MR spectroscopy in a steatotic rat model

Purpose

To investigate the feasibility of in vivo assessment of hepatic lipid composition using 3.0-T proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS) in a steatotic rat model and compare it to histopathological and biochemical assessment.

Materials and Methods

Hepatic steatosis was induced by feeding rats with a methionine/choline-deficient (MCD) diet for 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 weeks (n=5 per group). At the end of the diet period, ¹H-MRS of the liver was performed, and rats were sacrificed for histopathological and biochemical assessment of the liver. Spectra were acquired in a single voxel (1.2 cc) using a point-resolved spectroscopic sequence with TE/TR=35/2000 ms and 64 signal acquisitions. From the MR spectra, peak area ratios were calculated to estimate hepatic lipid composition.

Results

During MCD diet periods, hepatic steatosis significantly increased on histopathology (P<.001). The ¹H-MRS measurements of total hepatic fat content [1.3/(1.3+4.65) ppm] correlated strongly with histological macrovesicular hepatic steatosis (r=0.93, P<.001) and with the biochemical total hepatic fatty acids (r=0.94, P<.001). Total unsaturated fatty acids [TUFA, 5.4/(1.3+4.65) ppm] estimated with ¹H-MRS strongly correlated with the biochemical unsaturated fatty acids (r=0.90, P<.001). Polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFA, 2.8/(1.3+4.65) ppm] estimated with ¹H-MRS strongly correlated with biochemical PUFA (r=0.91, P<.001). The proportion of total unsaturated fatty acids relative to the amount of total fatty acids (rTUFA, 5.4/1.3ppm) measured with ¹H-MRS strongly correlated with the biochemical amount of unsaturated relative to total hepatic fatty acids (r=0.81, P<.001). The proportion of PUFA relative to the amount of total fatty acids (rPUFA, 2.8/1.3 ppm) measured with ¹H-MRS correlated with the biochemical amount of PUFA relative to total fatty acids (r=0.59, P=0.005,) and with the biochemical amount of omega-6 PUFA relative to total fatty acids (r=0.73, P<.001).PUFA at ¹H-MRS correlated with the histopathologically assessed degree of lobular inflammation in the liver (r=0.57, P=.001).

Conclusion

3.0T ¹H-MRS is able to measure poly- and unsaturated hepatic fatty acids and this strongly correlates with biochemical assessment. This study provides evidence that 3.0-T ¹H-MRS is a noninvasive technique to assess hepatic lipid composition.     

Electron–electron interaction induced spin thermalization in quasi-low-dimensional spin valves

We study the spin thermalization, i.e., the inter-spin energy relaxation mediated by electron–electron scattering in small spin valves. When one or two of the dimensions of the spin valve spacer are smaller than the thermal coherence length, the direct spin energy exchange rate diverges and needs to be regularized by the sample dimensions. Here we consider two model systems: a long quasi-1D wire and a thin quasi-2D sheet.     

Influence of benzo-bridging on the stability of 6aλ4-thia-1,2,5,6-tetraazapentalenic systems

Methylation of the phenylhydrazone derived from 8-oxo-8H-indeno[1,2-d]-1,2,3-thiadiazole 5 with Meerwein's reagent furnishes the two methylated products 7 and 8. Single crystal X-ray analyses of these compounds reveal no significant S…NPh interaction, thus excluding a thiapentalene structure.     

The Concept of Fact in German Physics around 1900: A Comparison between Mach and Einstein

Physics in Perspective - The concept of “fact” has a history. Over the past centuries, physicists have appropriated it in various ways. In this article, we compare Ernst Mach and Albert...     

Methane activation on a La0.6Sr0.4Co0.8Fe0.2O3 perovsksite; catalytic and electrocatalytic results

The catalytic and electrocatalytic behaviour of the La_0.6Sr_0.4Co_0.8Fe_0.2O₃ (LSCF) perovskite deposited on yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), was studied during the reaction of methane oxidation. Experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure, and at temperatures between 600 and 900 °C. When, instead of cofeeding with methane in the gas phase, oxygen was electrochemically supplied as O²⁻, considerable changes in the methane conversion and product selectivity were observed. The non-faradaic effects (NEMCA) were also studied and compared to those observed with metal catalysts. Paper presented at the 4th Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Renvyle, Galway, Ireland, Sept. 13–19, 1997     

Convergence analysis of the local defect correction method for diffusion equations

Summary. This paper is concerned with the convergence analysis of the local defect correction (LDC) method for diffusion equations. We derive a general expression for the iteration matrix of the method. We consider the model problem of Poisson's equation on the unit square and use standard five-point finite difference discretizations on uniform grids. It is shown via both an upper bound for the norm of the iteration matrix and numerical experiments, that the rate of convergence of the LDC method is proportional to H ² with H the grid size of the global coarse grid. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000):65N22, 65N50     

Hierarchical Layer Engineering Using Supramolecular Double‐Comb Diblock Copolymers

The formation of unusual multilayered parallel lamellae‐in‐lamellae in symmetric supramolecular double‐comb diblock copolymers is presented. While keeping the concentration of surfactant fixed, the number of internal layers was found to increase with molecular weight M up to 34 for the largest block copolymer. The number of internal structures n was established to scale as M^0.67 and therefore enables easy design of such structures with great precision.