Photon gluon fusion cross sections at HERA energy

We present cross sections for heavy flavour production through photon gluon fusion in electron proton collisions at HERA energy. The electron photon vertex is taken into account explicitly, and theQ ² of the exchanged photon ranges from nearly zero (almost real photon) to the kinematically allowed maximum. In our approach the scale is set by the mass of the produced quarks. Our formalism is also applicable to the production of light quarks as long as the invariant mass of the pair is sufficiently high, so we also give cross sections for \(u\bar u,d\bar d\) and \(s\bar s\) production.     

Continuous automatic determination of ammonia by using an integrated separation/detection unit

An automatic continuous-flow photometric method for the determination of ammonia is proposed. It is based on the Berthelot reaction, the product of which is temporarily immobilized on a suitable support (Sephadex QAE) located in the flow-cell. The retained product is eluted after measurement by a cationic surfactant contained in the carrier solution. The method allows the determination of the analyte between 0.4 and 20.0 gmg/ml, with an RSD of 0.8%, at a sampling frequency of 13/hr. The determination limit can be reduced by a factor of ten by using a flow-cell with a two-fold longer path length, but the sampling frequency is also reduced as a result. The method was applied to the determination of this analyte in agricultural samples (plants and soils) and compared with standard methods for these types of samples.     

A random dipole model for spontaneous brain activity

The statistical properties of the EEG and the MEG are described mathematically as the result of randomly distributed dipoles. These dipoles represent the interactions of cortical neurons. For certain dipole distributions, the first- and second-order moments of the electric and magnetic fields are derived analytically. If the dipoles are in a spherical volume conductor and have no preference for any direction, the variance of a differentially measured EEG-signal is only a function of the electrode distance. In this paper, the theoretically derived variance function will be compared with EEG- and MEG-measurements. It is shown that a dipole with a fixed position and a randomly fluctuating amplitude is an adequate model for the alpha-rhythm. An expression for the covariance between the magnetic field and a differentially measured EEG-signal is derived. This covariance is considered as a function of the magnetometer position, and is compared with the measurements of Chapman et al. [23]. The theory can be used to obtain a (spatial) covariance matrix of the background noise, which occurs in evoked potential measurements. Such a covariance matrix can be used to obtain a maximum likelihood estimator of the dipole parameters in evoked potential studies, to evaluate the merits of the so-called "Laplacian derivation," and for the interpolation of electromagnetic data.     

Bayesian estimation of ventricular contours in angiographic images

A method for left ventricular contour determination in digital angiographic images is presented. The problem is formulated in a Bayesian framework, adopting as the estimation criterion the maximum a posterior probability (MAP). The true contour is modeled as a one-dimensional noncausal Gauss-Markov random field and the observed image is described as the superposition of an ideal image (deterministic function of the real contour) with white Gaussian noise. The proposed algorithm estimates simultaneously the contour and the model parameters by implementing an adaptive version of the iterated conditional modes algorithm. The convergence of this scheme is proved and its performance evaluated on both synthetic and real angiographic images. The method exhibits robustness against image artifacts and the contours obtained are considered good by expert clinicians. Being completely data-driven and fast, the proposed algorithm is suitable for routine clinical use.     

Peptide labeling using 188Re, 188Re-MAG3 and 153Sm-H1ETA: A comparison on their in vitro lipophilicity

Lanreotide peptide was labeled with ¹⁵³Sm-H₁ETA and ¹⁸⁸Re-MAG₃ in order to evaluate whether or not their conjugation to the peptide produce significant differences of the in vitro lipophilicity with respect to the ¹⁸⁸Re-lanreotide prepared by the direct labeling method (highly lipophilic). The differences of lipophilicity between the complexes, were evaluated using a reverse phase HPLC system. The measured lipophilicity of ¹⁵³Sm-H₁ETA-lanreotide, ¹⁸⁸Re-MAG₃-lanreotide and ¹⁸⁸Re-lanreotide was taken to be the capacity factor [k" = (t _R-t ₀)/t ₀ where t _R is the retention time and t ₀ is the dead time] for each of the complexes under identical chromatography conditions. Results showed that the in vitro lipophilicity decreased in the order ¹⁸⁸Re-lanreotide (direct labeling), ¹⁸⁸Re-MAG₃-lanreotide and ¹⁵³Sm-H₁ETA-lanreotide. Since the last one has a capacity factor (k") similar to that of ¹⁸⁸Re-MAG₃, some renal elimination for ¹⁵³Sm-H₁ETA-lanreotide could be expected, which probably would reduce the unnecessary radiation dose to normal tissues.