Magnetic structure of the Sm5Ge4-type Tb2Ti3Ge4

The orthorhombic Sm₅Ge₄-type Tb₂Ti₃Ge₄ shows square modulated non-collinear magnetic ordering with wave vector K=[±1/3, 1/2, 1/2] at 2 K. The terbium magnetic moments lie in the bc plane and magnetic moment value of 7.5(2) μ_B/Tb is obtained at 2 K.     

Use of hyperpolarized [1-C]pyruvate and [2-C]pyruvate to probe the effects of the anticancer agent dichloroacetate on mitochondrial metabolism in vivo in the normal rat

Development of hyperpolarized technology utilizing dynamic nuclear polarization has enabled the measurement of ¹³C metabolism in vivo at very high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In vivo mitochondrial metabolism can, in principle, be monitored with pyruvate, which is catalyzed to acetyl-CoA via pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH). The purpose of this work was to determine whether the compound sodium dichloroacetate (DCA) could aid the study of mitochondrial metabolism with hyperpolarized pyruvate. DCA stimulates PDH by inhibiting its inhibitor, pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase. In this work, hyperpolarized [1-¹³C]pyruvate and [2-¹³C]pyruvate were used to probe mitochondrial metabolism in normal rats. Increased conversion to bicarbonate (+ 181±69%, P=.025) was measured when [1-¹³C]pyruvate was injected after DCA administration, and increased glutamate (+ 74±23%, P=.004), acetoacetate (+ 504±281%, P=.009) and acetylcarnitine (+ 377±157%, P=.003) were detected when [2-¹³C]pyruvate was used.     

Magnetic properties of Mn doped BN compound

Electronic and magnetic properties of diluted B_1−xMn_xN alloys are calculated by means of the full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). A half-metallic state is predicted for a composition of 6.25%. The spin majority being metallic and minority being semiconducting. We found a total magnetic moment of 2 μ_B (Bohr-magnetons) per supercell, in agreement with the half-metallic behaviour. The main contribution of the cell magnetic moment is localized at the transition metal site Mn, with a local moment of 1.24 μ_B.     

Biosynthesis and magnetic properties of mesoporous Fe3O4 composites

Magnetic Fe₃O₄ materials with mesoporous structure are synthesized by co-precipitation method using yeast cells as a template. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern indicates that the as-synthesized mesoporous hybrid Fe₃O₄ is well crystallized. The Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) models reveal the existence of mesostructure in the dried sample which has a specific surface area of 96.31 m²/g and a pore size distribution of 8-14 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements confirm the wormhole-like structure of the resulting samples. The composition and chemical bonds of the Fe₃O₄/cells composites are studied by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Preliminary magnetic properties of the mesoporous hybrid Fe₃O₄ are characterized by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The magnetic Fe₃O₄/cells composites with mesoporous structure have potential applications in biomedical areas, such as drug delivery.     

AC susceptibility of magnetic markers in suspension for liquid phase immunoassay

AC susceptibility of magnetic markers in solution was studied for biosensor applications. First, frequency dependence of the susceptibility was measured, and size distribution of the markers was estimated by analyzing the experimental result with the so-called singular value decomposition (SVD) method. The size distribution estimated with the magnetic measurement agreed with that obtained from conventional optical measurement. Next, susceptibility measurement was applied to the liquid-phase immunoassay without bound/free (B/F) separation. We performed the detection of biotin-coated polymer beads in suspension using avidin-coated magnetic markers. Changes of the susceptibility and the size distribution caused by the binding reaction were shown.     

Analysis of magnetic disaccommodation in La-Co-substituted strontium ferrites

M-type strontium ferrites substituted by La³⁺-Co²⁺(Sr_1−xLa_xFe_12−xCo_xO₁₉) were prepared by ceramic process. Effects of the substituted amount of La³⁺ and Co²⁺ on structure and magnetic properties of Sr_1−xLa_xFe_12−xCo_xO₁₉ compounds have systematically been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and magnetic disaccommodation. In the measurement range from 80 to 500 K, the magnetic disaccommodation is represented by means of isochronal curves. It is well known that magnetic disaccommodation cannot be obviously found in the M-type of pure strontium ferrites. However, three peaks were observed in Sr_1−xLa_xFe_12−xCo_xO₁₉, and this behavior is explained in terms of the presence of Fe²⁺ cation and to the site occupation by the magnetic Co²⁺ ionic within the hexagonal structure.     

Two-dimensional spectroscopic imaging for pretreatment evaluation of prostate cancer: comparison with the step-section histology after radical prostatectomy

Purpose

To minimize user and vendor dependence of the spectrum processing of prostate spectra, to measure the ratio of choline (Cho) plus creatine (Cr) to citrate (Cit) in the prostate tissue of normal volunteers and cancer patients, and to compare the results with pathologic findings after radical prostatectomy.

Materials and methods

Four healthy volunteers and 13 patients with prostate cancer were measured. Measurements were performed using two-dimensional magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and endorectal coil. A standard vendor's spectrum processing approach has been modified. An original feature of this methodology was the combination of vendor-optimized and user-independent spectrum preprocessing in the scanner and user-independent quantitation in the environment of an MRUI software package. (Cho+Cr)/Cit ratio was used for the classification of prostate tissue. Results were compared with histopathology after radical prostatectomy.

Results

Eight of 13 cancer patients were classified as suspicious or very suspicious for cancer at spectroscopy, three were ambiguous for cancer and two patients were evaluated as false negative. A considerable overlap of metabolite ratios at various Gleason score was found.

Conclusion

The proposed spectrum processing has the potential to improve the accuracy and user independency of the (Cho+Cr)/Cit quantitation. This study confirmed the previous results that a considerable overlap of (Cho+Cr)/Cit ratios exists at various Gleason score levels.     

AlN/Al dual protective coatings on NdFeB by DC magnetron sputtering

AlN/Al dual protective coatings were prepared on NdFeB by DC magnetron sputtering in a home-made industrial apparatus. Comparing with Al coating, AlN/Al coatings have a denser structure of an outmost AlN amorphous layer following an inner Al columnar crystal layer. The coatings and NdFeB substrate combine well, and moreover, there is occurrence of metallurgy bonding in the interface layer. Both Al and AlN/Al coatings have a good protective ability to NdFeB. Especially, the corrosion resistance of AlN/Al coated NdFeB is improved largely. AlN/Al and Al protective coatings not only do not deteriorate the magnetic properties of NdFeB, but contribute to their slight increase.     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging reference phantom

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is widely used to pinpoint active brain areas. Changes in neuronal activity modulate the local blood oxygenation level, and the associated modulation of the magnetic field homogeneity can be detected with magnetic resonance imaging. Thus, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI indirectly measures neuronal activity. Similar modulation of magnetic field homogeneity was here elicited by other means to generate a BOLD-like change in a new phantom constructed to provide reference activations during fMRI. Magnetic inhomogeneities were produced by applying current to coils located near the phantom containing 1.5 ml of Gd-doped water. The signal-to-noise ratio of the images, produced by gradient-recalled echo-planar imaging, varied between 104 and 107 at a selected voxel when the field was and was not inhomogenized, respectively. The contrast of signals between homogeneous and inhomogeneous conditions was generally stable, except in 3% of time points. During the periods of greatest deviations an observable change would have been detected in a simultaneously measured BOLD signal. Such changes could result from the imaging method or occur through glitches in hardware or alterations in the measurement environment. With identical measurement setups, the phantom could allow comparing intersession or intersubject brain activations.     

Surface reconstruction of clean bcc-Fe{1 1 0}: A quasi-hexagonal top-layer with periodic height modulation

Hexagonal-pillar shaped pure Fe single crystal whiskers with six {1 1 0} side planes were obtained by means of chemical vapor deposition. Atomically resolved scanning tunneling microscopy images obtained on the {1 1 0} surface showed a quasi-hexagonal atomic array with mesoscopic-range periodic height modulation of about 1/3 of an atomic step. This height modulation was found to be a result of an interference between the quasi-hexagonal top-layer and the sub-surface bcc-Fe{1 1 0} layer. Unit vectors of the mesoscopic-range modulation turned out to be expressed as , where and are the primitive vectors of the two-dimensional atomic array in the top-layer and those in the sub-surface layer, respectively. The two-dimensional density of atoms in the top-layer is slightly higher by 0.46% than that in the sub-surface layer.