The zonal architecture of human articular cartilage described by T2 relaxation time in the presence of Gd-DTPA2-

The depth-wise variation of T(2) relaxation time is known to reflect the collagen network architecture in cartilage, while the delayed Gadolinium Enhanced MRI of Cartilage (dGEMRIC) technique is sensitive to tissue proteoglycan (PG) concentration. As the cartilage PG content varies along the tissue depth, the depth-dependent accumulation of the contrast agent may affect the inherent T(2) of cartilage in a nonconstant manner. Therefore, T(2) and dGEMRIC are typically measured in separate MRI sessions. In the present in vitro MRI study at 9.4 T, depth-wise T(2) profiles and collagenous zone thicknesses as determined from T(2) maps in the absence and presence of Gd-DTPA(2-) (T(2) and T(2Gd), respectively) were compared in samples of intact human articular cartilage (n=65). These T(2) measures were further correlated with birefringence (BF) of polarized light microscopy (PLM) to quantify the ability of MRI to predict the properties of the collagen fibril network. The reproducibility of the T(2) measurement in the current setup was also studied. Typical tri-laminar collagen network architecture was observed both with and without Gd-DTPA(2-). The inverse of BF (1/BF) correlated significantly with both T(2) and T(2Gd) (r=0.91, slope=0.56 and r=0.90, slope=0.63), respectively. The statistically significant linear correlations between zone thicknesses as determined from T(2) and T(2Gd) were r=0.55 (slope=0.49), r=0.74 (slope=0.71) and r=0.95 (slope=0.94) for superficial, middle and deep tissue zones, respectively. Reproducibility of the T(2) measurement was worst for superficial cartilage. Consistent with PLM, T(2) and T(2Gd) measurements reveal highly similar depth-dependent information on collagen network in intact human cartilage. Thus, dGEMRIC and T(2) measurements in one MRI session are feasible for intact articular cartilage in vitro.     

聚合物侧基NMR弛豫相关函数

本文导出了聚合物为链段运动时,侧基进行非等价二位置和三位置跃迁内旋转、随机自由扩散内旋转以及受阻内旋转时的NMR弛豫相关函数,同时给出了相应的谱密度函数,并讨论了两个应用实例。     

From crystal steps to continuum laws: Behavior near large facets in one dimension

The passage from discrete schemes for surface line defects (steps) to nonlinear macroscopic laws for crystals is studied via formal asymptotics in one space dimension. Our goal is to illustrate by explicit computations the emergence from step motion laws of continuum-scale power series expansions for the slope near the edges of large, flat surface regions (facets). We consider surface diffusion kinetics via the Burton, Cabrera and Frank (BCF) model by which adsorbed atoms diffuse on terraces and attach-detach at steps. Nearest-neighbor step interactions are included. The setting is a monotone train of N steps separating two semi-infinite facets at fixed heights. We show how boundary conditions for the continuum slope and flux, and expansions in the height variable near facets, may emerge from the algebraic structure of discrete schemes as N→∞. Our technique relies on the use of self-similar discrete slopes, conversion of discrete schemes to sum equations, and their reduction to nonlinear integral equations for the continuum-scale slope. Approximate solutions to the continuum equations near facet edges are constructed formally by direct iterations. For elastic-dipole and multipole step interactions, the continuum slope is found in agreement with a previous hypothesis of ‘local equilibrium’.     

Relaxation in cooperative systems: Use of mixture virial coefficients

The coefficients in power series in the variable time that describe relaxation in a cooperative system can be calculated using a combinatorial approach where one considers how many ways one can introduce a given number of properly defined events in a system. The coefficients obtained in this manner can be related to the equilibrium virial coefficients for a mixture. If one assumes rapid internal equilibration, the relaxation process can be expressed completely in terms of the viral coefficients for a mixture with at most one solute particle, or, in some cases, just the virial coefficients for a single-component system. Thus, equilibrium virial coefficients can give useful information about the time evolution of processes in cooperative systems.     

Application of trilinear SLICING to analyse a single relaxation curve

Determining the time constants and amplitudes of exponential decays from relaxation data is a common task in LF-NMR. In this communication, we present an application of the SLICING algorithm to evaluate its possibilities for solving this problem. The method, originally introduced to compare different samples, is applied here to analyse a single relaxation curve, using the embedding technique. To test this procedure, we acquired data sets from samples of liquids properly separated, and characterized by different relaxation times. The results show a good estimation of parameters, comparable with those obtained applying Marquardt's algorithm, when the components have sufficiently different relaxation times.     

Relaxation of Paramagnetic Centers during Modulation of a Stationary Magnetic Field

It has been found that the phase shift _min in the synchronous detection block that ensures the minimum amplitude of the EPR lines of ruby, diphenylpicrylhydrazyl, and MnSO₄·5H₂O, depends on the amplitude of the modulationH _m of a stationary magnetic field. The dependence of _min on H _m is explained by the inertial nature of the recovery of the stationary states of paramagnetic centers on a change in the magnetic field strength.     

A relaxation times coupling method to construct acoustic relaxation calibration for two-frequency measuring gas compositions

In our previous work (Hu et al., 2014), a method has been proposed to detect gas compositions by locating the acoustic spectral peaks, which can be detected only by two-frequency acoustic measurements in practice. However, as a ‘Detection Calibration’, the effective relaxation area (ERA) constructed by existing theoretical model cannot match the two-frequency measurements when there are more than one strong relaxational components in gas mixtures. This paper proposes a method to construct the ERA by coupling the decoupled single relaxation times together to a whole relaxation time. For gas mixtures with only one single relaxation process, the predicted ERA results match with the experimental data better than those predicted by the existing model. Moreover, for gas mixtures in which more than one relaxation process are significant, the ERA results predicted by the proposed method also match with the detection results of two-frequency measurements better than the existing model. This relaxation time coupling based ERA constructing method is validated by the application in low-quality natural gas detection.     

Study of scanning tunneling microscopy images and probable relaxations of the SrTiO3(100) surface by electronic structure calculations

Partial electron density plots were calculated for a model SrTiO₃(100) surface with √5 × √5 ordered oxygen vacancy to examine why the bright spots of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of SrTiO₃(100) observed in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) correspond to the oxygen vacancy sites. Possible dependence of the image on the polarity and magnitude of the bias voltage was also discussed on the basis of partial electron density plot calculations. Our study strongly suggests that the UHV STM imaging involves the lowest-lying d-block level of every two Ti³⁺ centers adjacent to an oxygen vacancy, the tip-sample distance involved in the UHV STM experiments is substantially larger than that involved in typical ambient-condition STM imaging, and the Ti⁴⁺ and Ti³⁺ sites of SrTiO₃(100) are reconstructed.     

Defects,phase transitions and dynamical disorder in superionic protonic conductors H3OUO2PO4 · 3H2O and CsHSO4

Specific properties of the hydrogen bond and protons appear to be responsible for the formation of the quasi-liquid state of conducting ions and the resulting superionic behaviour. This state is reached by successive phase transitions involving the mobile species and their interactions with a more or less rigid framework. H₃OUO₂PO₄ · 3H₂O (HUP) and CsHSO₄ can be considered as models of wet and dry superionic conduction, respectively. Interactions between static effects and dynamical disorder as well as the coupling between sublattices are discussed in relation to results obtained by calorimetry, impedance spectroscopy (up to 10 GHz), vibrational spectroscopy and quasi-elastic neutron scattering.     

Molecular motion and interactions in aqueous carbohydrate solutions. I. Dielectric-relaxation studies

Dielectric-relaxation studies in the frequency range 200 kHz to 35 GHz are reported for a range of sugars (from mono- to trisaccharides) in aqueous solution. The complex dielectric spectra were analyzed using a weighted least-squares minimization method to resolve the various component relaxations, and the implications of the analyses in terms of the molecular dynamics of solute and solvent and the interactions between solute and solvent are discussed. For the highest concentration studied (ca. 2M), it was found that the most significant analysis required three discrete relaxation processes, whereas lower concentration samples could usually be satisfactorily fitted with two. Irrespective of any uncertainty in model selection, a number of conclusions regarding the solute-solvent interactions can be made, and it is shown how final quantification of the extents of hydration can be made using the input of information from other techniques.