Search results for "Polarization"
showing 10 items of 1884 documents
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging with hyperpolarised helium-3
1996
Abstract Summary Background Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) relies on magnetisation of hydrogen nuclei (protons) of water molecules in tissue as source of the signal. This technique has been valuable for studying tissues that contain significant amounts of water, but biological settings with low proton content, notably the lungs, are difficult to image. We report use of spin-polarised helium-3 for lung MRI. Methods A volunteer inhaled hyperpolarised 3 He to fill the lungs, which were imaged with a conventional MRI detector assembly. The nuclear spin polarisation of helium, and other noble gases, can be greatly enhanced by laser optical pumping and is about 10 5 times larger than the polari…
Quantification of Regional Intrapulmonary Oxygen Partial Pressure Evolution during Apnea by 3He MRI
1999
We present a new method to determine in vivo the temporal evolution of intrapulmonary oxygen concentrations by functional lung imaging with hyperpolarized (3)Helium ((3)He-->). Single-breath, single-bolus visualization of (3)He--> administered to the airspaces is used to analyze nuclear spin relaxation caused by the local oxygen partial pressure p(O(2))(t). We model the dynamics of hyperpolarization in the lung by rate equations. Based hereupon, a double acquisition technique is presented to separate depolarization by RF pulses and oxygen induced relaxation. It permits the determination of p(O(2)) with a high accuracy of up to 3% with simultaneous flip angle calibration using no additional …
Macrophage phenotype in the subclinical gut inflammation of patients with ankylosing spondylitis
2014
OBJECTIVE: Long-term evolution of subclinical gut inflammation to overt Crohn's disease (CD) has been described in AS patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate macrophage polarization occurring in the inflamed gut of patients with AS. METHODS: Twenty-seven HLA-B27(+) AS patients, 20 CD patients and 17 normal controls were consecutively enrolled. Classic M1 (iNOS(+)IL-10(-)), resolution phase (iNOS(+)IL-10(+)), M2 and CD14(+) macrophages were characterized by immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. Quantitative gene expression analysis of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, IL-33 and STAT6 was performed by real time PCR. RESULTS: Classic M1 macrophages were expanded in CD and AS, where resolution phas…
The Disease-Specific Phenotype in Cardiomyocytes Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells of Two Long QT Syndrome Type 3 Patients
2013
Long QT syndromes (LQTS) are heritable diseases characterized by prolongation of the QT interval on an electrocardiogram, which often leads to syncope and sudden cardiac death. Here we report the generation of induced pluripotent stems (iPS) cells from two patients with LQTS type 3 carrying a different point mutation in a sodium channel Nav1.5 (p.V240M and p.R535Q) and functional characterization of cardiomyocytes (CM) derived from them. The iPS cells exhibited all characteristic properties of pluripotent stem cells, maintained the disease-specific mutation and readily differentiated to CM. The duration of action potentials at 50% and 90% repolarization was longer in LQTS-3 CM as compared t…
Subchronic haloperidol downregulates dopamine synthesis capacity in the brain of schizophrenic patients in vivo
2003
Udgivelsesdato: 2003-Apr The antipsychotic effect of neuroleptics cannot be attributed entirely to acute blockade of postsynaptic D(2)-like dopamine (DA) receptors, but may arise in conjunction with the delayed depolarization block of the presynaptic neurons and reduced DA synthesis capacity. Whereas the phenomenon of depolarization block is well established in animals, it is unknown if a similar phenomenon occurs in humans treated with neuroleptics. We hypothesized that haloperidol treatment should result in decreased DA synthesis capacity. We used 6-[(18)F]fluoro-L-dopa (FDOPA) and positron emission tomography (PET) in conjunction with compartmental modeling to measure the relative activi…
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of airways in humans with use of hyperpolarized3He
1996
The nuclear spin polarization of noble gases can be enhanced strongly by laser optical pumping followed by electron-nuclear polarization transfer. Direct optical pumping of metastable 3He atoms has been shown to produce enormous polarization on the order of 0.4-0.6. This is about 105 times larger than the polarization of water protons at thermal equilibrium used in conventional MRI. We demonstrate that hyperpolarized 3 He gas can be applied to nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of organs with air-filled spaces in humans. In vivo 3 He MR experiments were performed in a whole-body MR scanner with a superconducting magnet ramped down to 0.8 T. Anatomical details of the upper respiratory tract …
The polarization of European agriculture: spatial and dynamic features within a non parametric framework
2009
We present a study of the polarization of European agriculture at NUTS2 regional level. The analysis of selected indicators focuses on spatial and dynamic features of distributions. We make use of the non parametric technique of stochastic kernel which allows to explore the features of a whole distribution and to point out the clustering of statistical units.
Stochastic kernel and conditioning schemes: a study about the influence of spatial factor on agriculture of EU NUTS2
2009
Besides to be an useful methodology for the detection of distribution dynamics of indicators, stochastic kernel has been generalized to a regression-like rationale (Quah, 1997). The latter allows to determine how a distribution is influenced by a "factor", through a "conditioning scheme" which is a set of rules stating how the original distribution is altered in order to obtain its "conditioned" version. This paper aims to study the influence of the "spatial factor" on distributions of selected agriculture impact indicators across EU NUTS2. The present work offers an empirical analysis of dynamics of selected indicators of agriculture across NUTS2. Our scope is to give an overlook of EU ter…
Waveguiding properties of a photonic crystal fiber with a solid core surrounded by four large air holes
2009
The polarization-dependent guiding properties of a hexagonal-lattice photonic crystal fiber with a solid-core surrounded by four large air holes are investigated. The appearance of a polarization dependent cutoff frequency, together with several parameters as the birefringence, the modal effective area, the group velocity dispersion and the polarization dependent loss are analyzed. A collection of fibers with different structural parameters were fabricated and characterized. An effective anti-guide structure from at least 450 nm to 1750 nm, a polarizing fiber with a polarization dependent loss of 16 dB/m at 1550 nm, and an endlessly singlemode polarization-maintaining fiber with group biref…
Visible Light Generation and its Influence on Supercontinuum in Chalcogenide As2S3 Microstructured Optical Fiber
2011
We demonstrate visible light generation in chalcogenide As2S3 microstructured optical fiber. The generated visible light causes irreversible damage to the fiber core because of the high absorption coefficient of chalcogenide glasses in the visible band. The SCs (supercontinua) are measured in both untapered and tapered As2S3 fibers, no wider SC is obtained in the tapered one. The SC growth is prevented by the visible light generation since the damage to the fiber core decreases the fiber transmission substantially. This effect can be avoided by designing the fiber to enable the pump source to work in single-mode operation.