On the Spatial Distribution of Temporal Complexity in Resting State and Task Functional MRI

Measuring the temporal complexity of functional MRI (fMRI) time series is one approach to assess how brain activity changes over time. In fact, hemodynamic response of the brain is known to exhibit critical behaviour at the edge between order and disorder. In this study, we aimed to revisit the spatial distribution of temporal complexity in resting state and task fMRI of 100 unrelated subjects from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). First, we compared two common choices of complexity measures, i.e., Hurst exponent and multiscale entropy, and observed a high spatial similarity between them. Second, we considered four tasks in the HCP dataset (Language, Motor, Social, and Working Memory) and found high task-specific complexity, even when the task design was regressed out. For the significance thresholding of brain complexity maps, we used a statistical framework based on graph signal processing that incorporates the structural connectome to develop the null distributions of fMRI complexity. The results suggest that the frontoparietal, dorsal attention, visual, and default mode networks represent stronger complex behaviour than the rest of the brain, irrespective of the task engagement. In sum, the findings support the hypothesis of fMRI temporal complexity as a marker of cognition.     

实用化超导材料研究进展与展望

超导技术是21世纪具有重大经济和战略意义的高新技术,在国民经济诸多领域具有广阔的应用前景,如在超导弱电应用中的超导量子干涉器、滤波器;在超导强电应用中的电缆、限流器、电机、储能系统、变压器、磁体技术、医疗核磁共振成像、高能物理实验和高速交通输运等。实用化超导材料是超导技术发展的基础。目前,国际上发现的实用化超导材料主要有低温超导线材、铋系高温超导带材、YBCO涂层导体、MgB₂线带材以及新型铁基超导线带材。文章在简要介绍超导材料发展历程的基础上,重点综述了上述实用化超导材料制备及加工、性能和应用方面的最新研究进展,并对相关领域存在的问题及今后的发展作出展望。     

光阴极注入器型能量回收射频加速器

光阴极注入器型能量回收射频加速器（PERL）是新一代加速器,在高平均功率自由电子激光和下一代高亮度光源等研究中有很好的应用前景。分析了PERL的强流与高平均功率特性,对注入器输出束流品质的要求及光阴极注入器、超导加速腔等关键技术进行了研究,设计分析了一种特殊结构的高压DC Gun光阴极注入器,能有效地提高DC加速腔中的加速场强,当高压为1MV和加速场达到10MV/m时,产生的电子束流能够基本满足PERL应用要求。同一超导加速段中的束流加速和能量回收的数值模拟计算结果表明,能获得高效率电子束流能量回收效果。     

射频超导腔的研究新进展

射频超导谐振腔已经大规模地应用到粒子加速器领域,其优越之处在于它可以在CW模式或长宏脉冲模式下,提供高的加速梯度。射频超导已经成为自由电子激光和能量回收直线加速器的关键技术。经过30多年的研究发展,解决了超导腔的热崩溃、场致发射等诸多关键问题,目前加速梯度已经超过40 MV/m。高加速梯度的获得是射频超导领域的前沿热点,电抛光＋低温热处理技术使射频超导腔的加速梯度提高3～4 MV/m。最新发展起来的超导腔的干式处理可以改善超导腔的表面状况,提高超导腔的Q值,抑制次级电子发射效应,有可能成为提高超导腔性能的又一有效手段。     

FAIR收集环二极超导磁体外杜瓦泄放系统的概念设计

对FAIR(Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research)收集环-CR(Collector Ring)二极超导磁体外杜瓦的超压泄放系统进行了概念设计,给出了爆破片式的泄放系统结构,并基于ANSYS的结构分析初步确定了爆破片的结构参数;以及通过ANSYS对波纹管和外杜瓦进行了结构分析,分析结果表明波纹管和外杜瓦在超压状态下安全。文中的设计和分析研究,为外杜瓦的工程设计提供了有益的参考。     

Wireless retrospective gating: Application to cine cardiac imaging

A new “wireless” method of cardiac imaging is introduced, which, unlike ECG triggering, allows imaging the heart at end-diastole, and greatly reduces smearing artifacts in the phase-encoding direction. It is an improvement over ECG-driven retrospective gating, in that patients with poor ECGs can be imaged. This method extends the applicability of cardiac imaging, and since it requires no physiological monitoring hardware, can be implemented easily on any MR imager. The images produced by this method are superior to those from ECG triggering, especially when viewed in a “cine” loop. The technique described herein is, furthermore, extendable to any area where periodic or quasi-periodic motion is a problem.     

The precision of DCE-MRI using the tissue homogeneity model with continuous formulation of the perfusion parameters

The present trend in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI is to increase the number of estimated perfusion parameters using complex pharmacokinetic models. However, less attention is given to the precision analysis of the parameter estimates. In this paper, the distributed capillary adiabatic tissue homogeneity pharmacokinetic model is extended by the bolus arrival time formulated as a free continuous parameter. With the continuous formulation of all perfusion parameters, it is possible to use standard gradient-based optimization algorithms in the approximation of the tissue concentration time sequences. This new six-parameter model is investigated by comparing Monte-Carlo simulations with theoretically derived covariance matrices. The covariance-matrix approach is extended from the usual analysis of the primary perfusion parameters of the pharmacokinetic model to the analysis of the perfusion parameters derived from the primary ones. The results indicate that the precision of the estimated perfusion parameters can be described by the covariance matrix for signal-to-noise ratio higher than ~ 20 dB. The application of the new analysis model on a real DCE-MRI data set is also presented.     

Multiplicative intrinsic component optimization (MICO) for MRI bias field estimation and tissue segmentation

This paper proposes a new energy minimization method called multiplicative intrinsic component optimization (MICO) for joint bias field estimation and segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images. The proposed method takes full advantage of the decomposition of MR images into two multiplicative components, namely, the true image that characterizes a physical property of the tissues and the bias field that accounts for the intensity inhomogeneity, and their respective spatial properties. Bias field estimation and tissue segmentation are simultaneously achieved by an energy minimization process aimed to optimize the estimates of the two multiplicative components of an MR image. The bias field is iteratively optimized by using efficient matrix computations, which are verified to be numerically stable by matrix analysis. More importantly, the energy in our formulation is convex in each of its variables, which leads to the robustness of the proposed energy minimization algorithm. The MICO formulation can be naturally extended to 3D/4D tissue segmentation with spatial/sptatiotemporal regularization. Quantitative evaluations and comparisons with some popular softwares have demonstrated superior performance of MICO in terms of robustness and accuracy.     

Electron phonon interactions and superconductivity in α ′ -TTF[Pd(dmit)2]2

A simple model is developed to understand superconductivity in α ^′ -TTF[Pd(dmit)₂]₂. We include electron-intra molecular and intermolecular phonon interactions as the mechanism of superconductivity. Intramolecular vibrations included are the eight symmetric A_g modes of the Pd(dmit)₂ molecule. Intermolecular vibrations included are the longitudinal acoustic and transverse acoustic (LA and TA) modes of the Pd(dmit)₂ column. All the electron-phonon coupling constants are calculated from first principles. We find that largest el-intramolecular vibration coupling is to the A_g mode with the highest frequency (1449 cm^-1). The el-intermolecular coupling to the LA mode is found to be larger than the total el-intramolecular couplings. We also find el-(TA)phonon coupling to be at least an order of magnitude smaller than el-(LA)phonon coupling. Estimate of superconducting transition temperature is comparable to experimental result. We also provide a detailed discussion, employing the results of recent numerical calculations on two-chain Hubbard model and the specific material parameters, on the relative importance of el-ph and Coulomb-origin mechanisms of superconductivity in α ^′ -TTF[Pd(dmit)₂]₂ and TTF[Ni(dmit) ₂ ] ₂ . Received 29 March 2001 and Received in final form 7 August 2001     

Numerical solutions to the time-dependent Bloch equations revisited

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate a simple and fast method for solving the time-dependent Bloch equations. First, the time-dependent Bloch equations were reduced to a homogeneous linear differential equation, and then a simple equation was derived to solve it using a matrix operation. The validity of this method was investigated by comparing with the analytical solutions in the case of constant radiofrequency irradiation. There was a good agreement between them, indicating the validity of this method. As a further example, this method was applied to the time-dependent Bloch equations in the two-pool exchange model for chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) or amide proton transfer (APT) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and the Z-spectra and asymmetry spectra were calculated from their solutions. They were also calculated using the fourth/fifth-order Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg (RKF) method for comparison. There was also a good agreement between them, and this method was much faster than the RKF method. In conclusion, this method will be useful for analyzing the complex CEST or APT contrast mechanism and/or investigating the optimal conditions for CEST or APT MRI.