One of the many attempts to stop the danger of tobacco smoking is the development of an anti-smoking vaccine using nicotine butyric acid (NBA) linked to a carrier protein to produce anti-nicotine antibodies. NBA is a chiral molecule and there is a need to obtain a high degree of enantiomeric ...

An emerging body of research suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may be beneficial for smoking cessation and the treatment of other addictive disorders. One way that mindfulness may facilitate smoking cessation is through the reduction of craving to smoking cues. The present work considers whether mindful attention can reduce self-reported and ...

New legislation in the U.S. prohibits tobacco companies from labeling cigarette packs with terms such as light, mild, or low after June 2010. However, experience from countries that have removed these descriptors suggests that different terms, colors, or numbers communicating the same messages may replace them. The main purpose of ...

We present for the first time a complete characterization of a micro-solenoid for high resolution MR imaging of mass- and volume-limited samples based on three-dimensional B(0), B(1) per unit current (B(1)(unit)) and SNR maps. The micro-solenoids are fabricated using a fully micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) compatible process in conjunction with an ...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to identify the normal anatomy of the anal region on magnetic resonance images. METHODS: T1-weighted turbo spin-echo images of anal sagittal sections, anal coronal sections, and oblique anal transverse planes were obtained with a body coil in 60 normal volunteers (30 women and ...

An endorectal coil and an eight-element microstrip array were compared for prostate imaging at 7 T. An extensive radiofrequency safety assessment was performed with the use of finite difference time domain simulations to determine safe scan parameters. These simulations showed that the endorectal coil can deliver substantially more B(1) (+) ...

Until now, only one-dimensional navigator-echo techniques have been implemented with multielement RF coils. For the multidimensional navigator echoes, which extract six-degree of freedom motion information from the raw k-space data, an efficient raw data combination approach is needed. In this work, three combination approaches, including summation of the complex raw ...

Sensitivity enhancement by the use of inductively coupled milli- and microcoils has been demonstrated in solid-state as well as liquid-state NMR. In this work, we discuss the practical aspects of using inductively coupled solenoid coils of different sizes in a liquid-state NMR spectrometer. The sensitivity and resolution enhancements from these ...

Within the scope of long term research on imaging diagnostics for steady-state plasmas and understanding of edge plasma physics through diagnostics with conventional spectroscopic methods, we have constructed a linear electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma device named Research on Advanced Plasma Imaging and Dynamics (RAPID). It has a variety of ...

The de novo designed heterodimeric E/K coiled-coil system has been previously demonstrated to be an excellent capture/dimerization system applicable to various needs in both biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields. Those include controlled protein dimerization, capture, purification and Western-blot detection. We here report the development of a new generation of ELISA test ...

To prospectively and intraindividually compare single-source radiofrequency (RF) excitation and dual-source parallel RF excitation in 3.0-T magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the spine. Institutional review board approval and written informed patient consent were obtained. The RF power of a 3.0-T MR imaging system was distributed to two ports of the ...

Existing gradient coil design methods typically require some predetermined surface to be specified upon which the precise locations of coil windings are optimised with respect to gradient homogeneity and other measures of coil performance. In contrast, in this paper an analytic inverse method is presented for the theoretical design of ...

To develop and validate a post-processing correction algorithm to remove the effect of the inhomogeneous reception profile of the endorectal coil on MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) data. A post-processing algorithm to correct for the endorectal coil reception effects on MRSI data was developed based upon theoretical modeling of the endorectal ...

Three different coil configurations were evaluated through simulation and experimentally to determine safe operating limits and evaluate subject size-dependent performance for prostate imaging at 7 T. The coils included a transceiver endorectal coil (trERC), a 16-channel transceiver external surface array (trESA) and a trESA combined with a receive-only ERC (trESA+roERC). ...

In this paper, a novel sensitivity mapping method is proposed for the image domain parallel MRI (pMRI) technique. Instead of refining raw sensitivity maps by means of conventional image processing operations such as polynomial fitting, the presented method determines coil sensitivity profiles through an iterative optimization process. During the algorithm ...

The combination of sensitive magnetic resonance techniques with a selective site-targeted nanoparticle contrast agent has a demonstrated utility for molecular imaging studies. By detecting a unique signature of the contrast agent, this approach can be employed to identify specific bio-molecular markers and observe cellular-level processes within a large and complex ...

Recent improvements in parallel imaging have been driven by the use of greater numbers of independent surface coils placed so as to minimize aliasing along the phase-encode direction(s). However, gains from increasing the number of coils diminish as coil coupling problems begin to dominate and the ratio of acceleration gain ...

We demonstrate the possibility of multidimensional contrast (T(1)-, T(2)-weighted and triple-quantum filtered) magnetic resonance imaging using a simple and effective solid-state NMR technique, stray-field imaging with sample magic-angle spinning (STRAFI-MAS). This imaging technique can be easily implemented in today's standard solid-state NMR laboratory, making it a potentially valuable imaging application ...

The feasibility of detecting a cerebral haemorrhage with a hemispherical MIT coil array consisting of 56 exciter/sensor coils of 10 mm radius and operating at 1 and 10 MHz was investigated. A finite difference method combined with an anatomically realistic head model comprising 12 tissue types was used to simulate ...

PURPOSE: Signal encoding in magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is achieved by moving a field-free point (FFP) through the region of interest. One way to increase the sensitivity of the method is to scan the region of interest with a field-free line (FFL) instead of the FFP. Recently, the first feasible ...

PURPOSE: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of rodents can be expected to be a growing application, particularly when translatory imaging research "from mouse to man" is envisioned. 7 T high-field human whole-body MR systems provide a powerful platform for high-resolution small animal imaging. For achieving adequate spatial resolution, dedicated radiofrequency coils ...

MR imaging of nuclei other than hydrogen has been used to investigate metabolism in humans and animals. However, MRI observable nuclei other than hydrogen are not as abundant and as a result the image SNR is lower. Dual-tuned radio frequency (RF) coils are developed for these studies in which high-resolution ...

Developing a method to noninvasively monitor tissue-engineered constructs is critical for the optimization of construct design and for assessing therapeutic efficacy. For this purpose, NMR is a powerful technique that can be used to obtain both images and spectroscopic data. But the inherent sensitivity of NMR limits the observation of ...

High-performance shim coils are required for high-field magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. Complete sets of high-power and high-performance shim coils were designed using two different methods: the minimum inductance and the minimum power target field methods. A quantitative comparison of shim performance in terms of merit of inductance (ML) and ...

NMR q-space imaging is a powerful non-invasive technique used to determine structural characteristics of pores in applications ranging from medical to material science. To date, the application of q-space imaging has primarily been limited to microscopic pores in part because of limitations of the effective observation time due to relaxation. ...

Partially parallel imaging with localized sensitivities is a fast parallel image reconstruction method for both Cartesian and non-Cartesian trajectories, but suffers from aliasing artifacts when there are deviations from the assumption of perfect localization. Such reconstructions would normally crop the individual coil images to remove the artifacts prior to combination. ...

This report describes recent efforts on our continuous development of a synthetic signal injection method for quantification of metabolite content in MR spectroscopy and MRI. Previous work showed that conversion of spectral peaks to quantitative units of metabolite content could be achieved with a calibrated synthetic free induction decay generated ...

The quality of an RF detector coil design is commonly judged on how it compares with other coil configurations. The aim of this article is to develop a tool for evaluating the absolute performance of RF coil arrays. An algorithm to calculate the ultimate intrinsic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was implemented ...

The present study proposes a catheter system with an expandable coil etched on a polyimide foil. The catheter system combines the advantages of a small insertion diameter when the coil is rolled up in a protective carrier sheath with an increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and penetration depth when the coil ...

PURPOSE: To evaluate three multicoil breast arrays for both conventional and SENSE-accelerated imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two commercially available 8-element coils and a prototype 16-element coil were compared. One 8-element array had adjustable coils located next to the breast tissue and the other had a fixed coil arrangement; both were ...

To develop a dedicated radiofrequency (RF) coil for high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of finger joints at 3T to improve diagnostic evaluation of arthritic diseases. A dedicated cylindrical RF receive coil was developed for imaging finger joints at 3T. A planar coil, a saddle coil, and a 1.5T coil with ...

This paper reports our results in developing a simple MRI system for teaching the basics of MR Engineering at the undergraduate or graduate level. LabVIEW data acquisition cards were used for generating and digitizing the RF signals and controlling gradients and transmit/receive and blanking switches. A very inexpensive and simple ...

PURPOSE: To enable volume visualization of endolymphatic hydrops of M?ni?re's disease via a volume rendering (VR) technique, a three-dimensional (3D) inversion-recovery (IR) sequence with real reconstruction (3D-real IR) sequence after intratympanic injection of Gd-DTPA was optimized for higher spatial resolution using a 32-channel head coil at 3T. MATERIALS AND METHODS: ...

In this work we have combined (1)H and (19)F NMR chemical shift images to investigate the dynamic processes of gel formation of a cellulose solution. Chemical shift imaging (CSI) NMR is shown to be a valuable technique for studying phase changes in soft materials. The technique provides spatial position of ...

We have investigated the design and construction of liquid nitrogen cooled surface coils made from stranded (litz) copper wire for low field MRI applications. If designed correctly, cooled litz coils can provide a competitive alternative to high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils without the complications associated with flux trapping. Litz coils ...

An overview of 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy methods and their applications in the study of the metabolism of brain cells in vitro and in the in vivo brain is presented as well as their implications for modern molecular imaging techniques. Various topics will be discussed, such as general ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Metallic implants induce massive artifacts in CT images which deteriorate image quality and often superimpose structures of interest. The purpose of this study was to apply and evaluate a dedicated MAR method for neuroradiologic intracranial clips and detachable platinum coiling events. We here report the first clinical ...

Morphometry of brain structures based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data has become an important tool in neurobiology. Recent multicenter studies in neurodegenerative diseases raised the issue of the precision of volumetric measures, and their dependence on the scanner properties and imaging protocol. A large dataset consisting of 1073 MRI ...

OBJECT: Imaging of intracranial aneurysms using conventional multidetector CT (MDCT) is limited because of nonvisualization of features such as perforating vessels, pulsatile blebs, and neck remnants after clip placement or coil embolization. In this study, a model of intracranial saccular aneurysms in rabbits was used to assess the ultra-high resolution ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a transmit/receive radiofrequency (RF) array for MR imaging of the human spine at 7 T. The prototype is characterized in simulations and bench measurements, and the feasibility of high-resolution spinal cord imaging at 7 T is demonstrated in in vivo images of volunteers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The ...

The pursuit of ever higher field strengths and faster data acquisitions has led to the construction of coil arrays with high numbers of elements. With the sensitivity encoding (SENSE) technique, it has been shown that the sensitivity of those elements can be used for spatial image encoding. Here, a proof-of-principle ...

Encoding of spatial information in magnetic resonance imaging is conventionally accomplished by using magnetic field gradients. During gradient encoding, the position in k-space is determined by a time-integral of the gradient field, resulting in a limitation in imaging speed due to either gradient power or secondary effects such as peripheral ...

To design and compare an eight-channel phased array (PA) coil for carotid imaging to an established four-channel PA design at 3T. An eight-channel PA (8PA) coil was designed specifically for imaging the carotid bifurcation and compared with the existing four-channel (4PA) design using a phantom and by in vivo black-blood ...

The ability to accelerate the spatial encoding process during a chemical shift imaging (CSI) scan of hyperpolarized compounds is demonstrated through parallel imaging. A hardware setup designed to simultaneously acquire (13)C data from multiple receivers is presented here. A system consisting of four preamplifiers, four gain stages, a transmit coil, ...

The research on advanced plasma imaging and dynamics (RAPID) device is a newly developed linear electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma device. It has a variety of axial magnetic field profiles provided by eight water-cooled magnetic coils and two dc power supplies. The positions of the magnetic coils are freely adjustable ...

In conventional NMR, samples from works of art in sizes above those considered acceptable in the field of art conservation would have to be removed to place them into the bore of large superconducting magnets. The portable permanent-magnet-based systems, by contrast, can be used in situ to study works of ...

Recent studies have shown that rotating a single RF transceive coil (RRFC) provides a uniform coverage of the object and brings a number of hardware advantages (i.e. requires only one RF channel, averts coil-coil coupling interactions and facilitates large-scale multi-nuclear imaging). Motion of the RF coil sensitivity profile however violates ...

The benefits and challenges of highly parallel array coils for head imaging were investigated through the development of a 3T receive-only phased-array head coil with 96 receive elements constructed on a close-fitting helmet-shaped former. We evaluated several designs for the coil elements and matching circuitry, with particular attention to sources ...

Ultrahigh-field human spine RF transceiver coil arrays face daunting technical challenges in achieving large imaging coverage with sufficient B(1) penetration and sensitivity, and in attaining robust decoupling among coil elements. In this paper, human spine coil arrays for ultrahigh field were built and studied. Transceiver arrays with loop-shaped microstrip transmission ...

The rationale of this work is to point out the relevance of in vivo MR images of mice obtained using a dedicated low-field system. For this purpose a small 0.1 T water-cooled electro-magnet and solenoidal radio frequency (RF) transmit-receive coils were used. All MR images were acquired in three-dimensional (3D) ...