Alternative techniques for high-resolution spectral estimation of spectrally encoded endoscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mousavi, Mahta; Duan, Lian; Javidi, Tara; Ellerbee, Audrey K.

2015-09-01

Spectrally encoded endoscopy (SEE) is a minimally invasive optical imaging modality capable of fast confocal imaging of internal tissue structures. Modern SEE systems use coherent sources to image deep within the tissue and data are processed similar to optical coherence tomography (OCT); however, standard processing of SEE data via the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) leads to degradation of the axial resolution as the bandwidth of the source shrinks, resulting in a well-known trade-off between speed and axial resolution. Recognizing the limitation of FFT as a general spectral estimation algorithm to only take into account samples collected by the detector, in this work we investigate alternative high-resolution spectral estimation algorithms that exploit information such as sparsity and the general region position of the bulk sample to improve the axial resolution of processed SEE data. We validate the performance of these algorithms using bothMATLAB simulations and analysis of experimental results generated from a home-built OCT system to simulate an SEE system with variable scan rates. Our results open a new door towards using non-FFT algorithms to generate higher quality (i.e., higher resolution) SEE images at correspondingly fast scan rates, resulting in systems that are more accurate and more comfortable for patients due to the reduced image time.

Controlled power delivery for super-resolution imaging of biological samples using digital micromirror device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valiya Peedikakkal, Liyana; Cadby, Ashley

2017-02-01

Localization based super resolution images of a biological sample is generally achieved by using high power laser illumination with long exposure time which unfortunately increases photo-toxicity of a sample, making super resolution microscopy, in general, incompatible with live cell imaging. Furthermore, the limitation of photobleaching reduces the ability to acquire time lapse images of live biological cells using fluorescence microscopy. Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology can deliver light at grey scale levels by flickering digital micromirrors at around 290 Hz enabling highly controlled power delivery to samples. In this work, Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) is implemented in an inverse Schiefspiegler telescope setup to control the power and pattern of illumination for super resolution microscopy. We can achieve spatial and temporal patterning of illumination by controlling the DMD pixel by pixel. The DMD allows us to control the power and spatial extent of the laser illumination. We have used this to show that we can reduce the power delivered to the sample to allow for longer time imaging in one area while achieving sub-diffraction STORM imaging in another using higher power densities.

Super-resolved microsphere-assisted Mirau digital holography by oblique illumination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbasian, Vahid; Ganjkhani, Yasaman; Akhlaghi, Ehsan A.; Anand, Arun; Javidi, Bahram; Moradi, Ali-Reza

2018-06-01

In this paper, oblique illumination is used to improve the lateral resolution and edge sharpness in microsphere (MS)-assisted Mirau digital holographic microscopy (Mirau-DHM). Abbe showed that tilting the illumination light allows entrance of higher spatial frequencies into the imaging system thus increasing the resolution power. We extended the idea to common-path DHM, based on Mirau objective, toward super-resolved 3D imaging. High magnification Mirau objectives are very expensive and low-magnification ones suffer from low resolution, therefore, any attempt to increase the effective resolution of the system may be of a great interest. We have already demonstrated the effective resolution increasing of a Mirau-DHM system by incorporating a transparent MS within the working distance of the objective. Here, we show that by integrating a MS-assisted Mirau-DHM with the oblique illumination even higher resolutions can be achieved. We have applied the technique for various samples and have shown the increase in the lateral resolution for the both cases of Mirau-DHM with and without the MS.

Aggression, conflict resolution, popularity, and attitude to school in Russian adolescents.

PubMed

Butovskaya, Marina L; Timentschik, Vera M; Burkova, Valentina N

2007-01-01

The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of aggression and conflict-managing skills on popularity and attitude to school in Russian adolescents. Three types of aggression (physical, verbal, and indirect), constructive conflict resolution, third-party intervention, withdrawal, and victimization were examined using the Peer-Estimated Conflict Behavior (PECOBE) inventory [Bjorkquist and Osterman, 1998]. Also, all respondents rated peer and self-popularity with same-sex classmates and personal attitude to school. The sample consisted of 212 Russian adolescents (101 boys, 111 girls) aged between 11 and 15 years. The findings attest to significant sex differences in aggression and conflict resolution patterns. Boys scored higher on physical and verbal aggression, and girls on indirect aggression. Girls were socially more skillful than boys in the use of peaceful means of conflict resolution (they scored higher on constructive conflict resolution and third-party intervention). The attributional discrepancy index (ADI) scores were negative for all three types of aggression in both sexes. Verbal aggression is apparently more condemned in boys than in girls. ADI scores were positive for constructive conflict resolution and third-party intervention in both genders, being higher in boys. In girls, verbal aggression was positively correlated with popularity. In both sexes, popularity showed a positive correlation with constructive conflict resolution and third-party intervention, and a negative correlation with withdrawal and victimization. Boys who liked school were popular with same-sex peers and scored higher on constructive conflict resolution. Girls who liked school were less aggressive according to peer rating. They also rated higher on conflict resolution and third-party intervention. Physical aggression was related to age. The results are discussed in a cross-cultural perspective. Copyright 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Continuous electrophoretic purification of individual analytes from multicomponent mixtures.

PubMed

McLaren, David G; Chen, David D Y

2004-04-15

Individual analytes can be isolated from multicomponent mixtures and collected in the outlet vial by carrying out electrophoretic purification through a capillary column. Desired analytes are allowed to migrate continuously through the column under the electric field while undesired analytes are confined to the inlet vial by application of a hydrodynamic counter pressure. Using pressure ramping and buffer replenishment techniques, 18% of the total amount present in a bulk sample can be purified when the resolution to the adjacent peak is approximately 3. With a higher resolution, the yield could be further improved. Additionally, by periodically introducing fresh buffer into the sample, changes in pH and conductivity can be mediated, allowing higher purity (>or=99.5%) to be preserved in the collected fractions. With an additional reversed cycle of flow counterbalanced capillary electrophoresis, any individual component in a sample mixture can be purified providing it can be separated in an electrophoresis system.

Process dependent thermoelectric properties of EDTA assisted bismuth telluride

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kulsi, Chiranjit; Banerjee, Dipali, E-mail: dipalibanerjeebesu@gmail.com; Kargupta, Kajari

2016-04-13

Comparison between the structure and thermoelectric properties of EDTA (Ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid) assisted bismuth telluride prepared by electrochemical deposition and hydrothermal route is reported in the present work. The prepared samples have been structurally characterized by high resolution X-ray diffraction spectra (HRXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopic images (HRTEM). Crystallite size and strain have been determined from Williamson-Hall plot of XRD which is in conformity with TEM images. Measurement of transport properties show sample in the pellet form (S{sub 1}) prepared via hydrothermal route has higher value of thermoelectric power (S) than the electrodepositedmore » film (S{sub 2}). But due to a substantial increase in the electrical conductivity (σ) of the film (S{sub 2}) over the pellet (S{sub 1}), the power factor and the figure of merit is higher for sample S{sub 2} than the sample S{sub 1} at room temperature.« less

Nonlinear vibrational microscopy

DOEpatents

Holtom, Gary R.; Xie, Xiaoliang Sunney; Zumbusch, Andreas

2000-01-01

The present invention is a method and apparatus for microscopic vibrational imaging using coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering or Sum Frequency Generation. Microscopic imaging with a vibrational spectroscopic contrast is achieved by generating signals in a nonlinear optical process and spatially resolved detection of the signals. The spatial resolution is attained by minimizing the spot size of the optical interrogation beams on the sample. Minimizing the spot size relies upon a. directing at least two substantially co-axial laser beams (interrogation beams) through a microscope objective providing a focal spot on the sample; b. collecting a signal beam together with a residual beam from the at least two co-axial laser beams after passing through the sample; c. removing the residual beam; and d. detecting the signal beam thereby creating said pixel. The method has significantly higher spatial resolution then IR microscopy and higher sensitivity than spontaneous Raman microscopy with much lower average excitation powers. CARS and SFG microscopy does not rely on the presence of fluorophores, but retains the resolution and three-dimensional sectioning capability of confocal and two-photon fluorescence microscopy. Complementary to these techniques, CARS and SFG microscopy provides a contrast mechanism based on vibrational spectroscopy. This vibrational contrast mechanism, combined with an unprecedented high sensitivity at a tolerable laser power level, provides a new approach for microscopic investigations of chemical and biological samples.

High-Resolution Audio with Inaudible High-Frequency Components Induces a Relaxed Attentional State without Conscious Awareness.

PubMed

Kuribayashi, Ryuma; Nittono, Hiroshi

2017-01-01

High-resolution audio has a higher sampling frequency and a greater bit depth than conventional low-resolution audio such as compact disks. The higher sampling frequency enables inaudible sound components (above 20 kHz) that are cut off in low-resolution audio to be reproduced. Previous studies of high-resolution audio have mainly focused on the effect of such high-frequency components. It is known that alpha-band power in a human electroencephalogram (EEG) is larger when the inaudible high-frequency components are present than when they are absent. Traditionally, alpha-band EEG activity has been associated with arousal level. However, no previous studies have explored whether sound sources with high-frequency components affect the arousal level of listeners. The present study examined this possibility by having 22 participants listen to two types of a 400-s musical excerpt of French Suite No. 5 by J. S. Bach (on cembalo, 24-bit quantization, 192 kHz A/D sampling), with or without inaudible high-frequency components, while performing a visual vigilance task. High-alpha (10.5-13 Hz) and low-beta (13-20 Hz) EEG powers were larger for the excerpt with high-frequency components than for the excerpt without them. Reaction times and error rates did not change during the task and were not different between the excerpts. The amplitude of the P3 component elicited by target stimuli in the vigilance task increased in the second half of the listening period for the excerpt with high-frequency components, whereas no such P3 amplitude change was observed for the other excerpt without them. The participants did not distinguish between these excerpts in terms of sound quality. Only a subjective rating of inactive pleasantness after listening was higher for the excerpt with high-frequency components than for the other excerpt. The present study shows that high-resolution audio that retains high-frequency components has an advantage over similar and indistinguishable digital sound sources in which such components are artificially cut off, suggesting that high-resolution audio with inaudible high-frequency components induces a relaxed attentional state without conscious awareness.

Image reconstructions from super-sampled data sets with resolution modeling in PET imaging.

PubMed

Li, Yusheng; Matej, Samuel; Metzler, Scott D

2014-12-01

Spatial resolution in positron emission tomography (PET) is still a limiting factor in many imaging applications. To improve the spatial resolution for an existing scanner with fixed crystal sizes, mechanical movements such as scanner wobbling and object shifting have been considered for PET systems. Multiple acquisitions from different positions can provide complementary information and increased spatial sampling. The objective of this paper is to explore an efficient and useful reconstruction framework to reconstruct super-resolution images from super-sampled low-resolution data sets. The authors introduce a super-sampling data acquisition model based on the physical processes with tomographic, downsampling, and shifting matrices as its building blocks. Based on the model, we extend the MLEM and Landweber algorithms to reconstruct images from super-sampled data sets. The authors also derive a backprojection-filtration-like (BPF-like) method for the super-sampling reconstruction. Furthermore, they explore variant methods for super-sampling reconstructions: the separate super-sampling resolution-modeling reconstruction and the reconstruction without downsampling to further improve image quality at the cost of more computation. The authors use simulated reconstruction of a resolution phantom to evaluate the three types of algorithms with different super-samplings at different count levels. Contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) versus background variability, as an image-quality metric, is calculated at each iteration for all reconstructions. The authors observe that all three algorithms can significantly and consistently achieve increased CRCs at fixed background variability and reduce background artifacts with super-sampled data sets at the same count levels. For the same super-sampled data sets, the MLEM method achieves better image quality than the Landweber method, which in turn achieves better image quality than the BPF-like method. The authors also demonstrate that the reconstructions from super-sampled data sets using a fine system matrix yield improved image quality compared to the reconstructions using a coarse system matrix. Super-sampling reconstructions with different count levels showed that the more spatial-resolution improvement can be obtained with higher count at a larger iteration number. The authors developed a super-sampling reconstruction framework that can reconstruct super-resolution images using the super-sampling data sets simultaneously with known acquisition motion. The super-sampling PET acquisition using the proposed algorithms provides an effective and economic way to improve image quality for PET imaging, which has an important implication in preclinical and clinical region-of-interest PET imaging applications.

High Resolution Mass Spectrometry of Seasonal Aerosol Samples From an Urban Location in the Italian Po Valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahon, Brendan; Giorio, Chiara; Gallimore, Peter J.; Zielinski, Arthur T.; Tapparo, Andrea; Kalberer, Markus

2016-04-01

The Po Valley in Northern Italy represents one of the most polluted environments in Europe, with PM2.5 and ozone concentrations regularly exceeding 100μg/m3 and 50ppb respectively. Particularly during winter, prolonged inversion conditions together with biomass burning and anthropogenic emissions regularly lead to severe air pollution events. Over the course of several months in 2013-14, we carried out a sampling program at a city-centre site in Padova, Italy, collecting 24-hour high-volume aerosol filter samples, 18 in winter (mid December - mid March) and 20 in summer (late May - late July). Utilising high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry techniques, we have characterised these sample sets to examine the long-term variation in aerosol composition over the sampling campaign and to determine the effect of anthropogenic gaseous pollutants such as NOx and SO2 on the composition of organic particle components. The results showed that between ca. 450-700 ions were measured in each sample in both the summer and winter sample sets, however the majority (90%) of ions in the winter samples were below 300m/z and below 380m/z in the summer samples. A much higher percentage of CHO-only ions were found in winter (ca. 27%) compared to the summer samples (ca. 6%), indicating a higher degree of photochemical reactions taking place involving pollutants such as NOx and SO2 in summer. Our results represent the first long term data set of high-resolution measurements of aerosol composition and demonstrate that this technique is an important tool in evaluating the composition of aerosol particles in complex polluted urban areas.

High-resolution microbiome profiling uncovers Fusobacterium nucleatum, Lactobacillus gasseri/johnsonii, and Lactobacillus vaginalis associated to oral and oropharyngeal cancer in saliva from HPV positive and HPV negative patients treated with surgery and chemo-radiation

PubMed Central

Guerrero-Preston, Rafael; White, James Robert; Godoy-Vitorino, Filipa; Rodríguez-Hilario, Arnold; Navarro, Kelvin; González, Herminio; Michailidi, Christina; Jedlicka, Anne; Canapp, Sierra; Bondy, Jessica; Dziedzic, Amanda; Mora-Lagos, Barbara; Rivera-Alvarez, Gustavo; Ili-Gangas, Carmen; Brebi-Mieville, Priscilla; Westra, William; Koch, Wayne; Kang, Hyunseok; Marchionni, Luigi; Kim, Young; Sidransky, David

2017-01-01

Microbiome studies show altered microbiota in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), both in terms of taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity. These studies utilized a traditional bioinformatics methodology, which allows for accurate taxonomic assignment down to the genus level, but cannot accurately resolve species level membership. We applied Resphera Insight, a high-resolution methodology for 16S rRNA taxonomic assignment that is able to provide species-level context in its assignments of 16S rRNA next generation sequencing (NGS) data. Resphera Insight applied to saliva samples from HNSCC patients and healthy controls led to the discovery that a subset of HNSCC saliva samples is significantly enriched with commensal species from the vaginal flora, including Lactobacillus gasseri/johnsonii (710x higher in saliva) and Lactobacillus vaginalis (52x higher in saliva). These species were not observed in normal saliva from Johns Hopkins patients, nor in 16S rRNA NGS saliva samples from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). Interestingly, both species were only observed in saliva from Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) positive and HPV negative oropharyngeal cancer patients. We confirmed the representation of both species in HMP data obtained from mid-vagina (n=128) and vaginal introitus (n=121) samples. Resphera Insight also led to the discovery that Fusobacterium nucleatum, an oral cavity flora commensal bacterium linked to colon cancer, is enriched (600x higher) in saliva from a subset of HNSCC patients with advanced tumors stages. Together, these high-resolution analyses on 583 samples suggest a possible role for bacterial species in the therapeutic outcome of HPV positive and HPV negative HNSCC patients. PMID:29340028

High-resolution microbiome profiling uncovers Fusobacterium nucleatum, Lactobacillus gasseri/johnsonii, and Lactobacillus vaginalis associated to oral and oropharyngeal cancer in saliva from HPV positive and HPV negative patients treated with surgery and chemo-radiation.

PubMed

Guerrero-Preston, Rafael; White, James Robert; Godoy-Vitorino, Filipa; Rodríguez-Hilario, Arnold; Navarro, Kelvin; González, Herminio; Michailidi, Christina; Jedlicka, Anne; Canapp, Sierra; Bondy, Jessica; Dziedzic, Amanda; Mora-Lagos, Barbara; Rivera-Alvarez, Gustavo; Ili-Gangas, Carmen; Brebi-Mieville, Priscilla; Westra, William; Koch, Wayne; Kang, Hyunseok; Marchionni, Luigi; Kim, Young; Sidransky, David

2017-12-19

Microbiome studies show altered microbiota in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), both in terms of taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity. These studies utilized a traditional bioinformatics methodology, which allows for accurate taxonomic assignment down to the genus level, but cannot accurately resolve species level membership. We applied Resphera Insight, a high-resolution methodology for 16S rRNA taxonomic assignment that is able to provide species-level context in its assignments of 16S rRNA next generation sequencing (NGS) data. Resphera Insight applied to saliva samples from HNSCC patients and healthy controls led to the discovery that a subset of HNSCC saliva samples is significantly enriched with commensal species from the vaginal flora, including Lactobacillus gasseri/johnsonii (710x higher in saliva) and Lactobacillus vaginalis (52x higher in saliva). These species were not observed in normal saliva from Johns Hopkins patients, nor in 16S rRNA NGS saliva samples from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP). Interestingly, both species were only observed in saliva from Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) positive and HPV negative oropharyngeal cancer patients. We confirmed the representation of both species in HMP data obtained from mid-vagina (n=128) and vaginal introitus (n=121) samples. Resphera Insight also led to the discovery that Fusobacterium nucleatum , an oral cavity flora commensal bacterium linked to colon cancer, is enriched (600x higher) in saliva from a subset of HNSCC patients with advanced tumors stages. Together, these high-resolution analyses on 583 samples suggest a possible role for bacterial species in the therapeutic outcome of HPV positive and HPV negative HNSCC patients.

Lateral resolution improvement in scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy by measuring super-higher-order nonlinear dielectric constants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinone, N.; Yamasue, K.; Hiranaga, Y.; Honda, K.; Cho, Y.

2012-11-01

Scanning nonlinear dielectric microscopy (SNDM) can be used to visualize polarization distributions in ferroelectric materials and dopant profiles in semiconductor devices. Without using a special sharp tip, we achieved an improved lateral resolution in SNDM through the measurement of super-higher-order nonlinearity up to the fourth order. We observed a multidomain single crystal congruent LiTaO3 (CLT) sample, and a cross section of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) field-effect-transistor (FET). The imaged domain boundaries of the CLT were narrower in the super-higher-order images than in the conventional image. Compared to the conventional method, the super-higher-order method resolved the more detailed structure of the MOSFET.

Application of Super-Resolution Convolutional Neural Network for Enhancing Image Resolution in Chest CT.

PubMed

Umehara, Kensuke; Ota, Junko; Ishida, Takayuki

2017-10-18

In this study, the super-resolution convolutional neural network (SRCNN) scheme, which is the emerging deep-learning-based super-resolution method for enhancing image resolution in chest CT images, was applied and evaluated using the post-processing approach. For evaluation, 89 chest CT cases were sampled from The Cancer Imaging Archive. The 89 CT cases were divided randomly into 45 training cases and 44 external test cases. The SRCNN was trained using the training dataset. With the trained SRCNN, a high-resolution image was reconstructed from a low-resolution image, which was down-sampled from an original test image. For quantitative evaluation, two image quality metrics were measured and compared to those of the conventional linear interpolation methods. The image restoration quality of the SRCNN scheme was significantly higher than that of the linear interpolation methods (p < 0.001 or p < 0.05). The high-resolution image reconstructed by the SRCNN scheme was highly restored and comparable to the original reference image, in particular, for a ×2 magnification. These results indicate that the SRCNN scheme significantly outperforms the linear interpolation methods for enhancing image resolution in chest CT images. The results also suggest that SRCNN may become a potential solution for generating high-resolution CT images from standard CT images.

Visualizing the root-PDL-bone interface using high-resolution microtomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalstra, Michel; Cattaneo, Paolo M.; Herzen, Julia; Beckmann, Felix

2008-08-01

The root/periodontal ligament/bone (RPB) interface is important for a correct understanding of the load transfer mechanism of masticatory forces and orthodontic loads. It is the aim of this study to assess the three-dimensional structure of the RPB interface using high-resolution microtomography. A human posterior jaw segment, obtained at autopsy from a 22-year old male donor was first scanned using a tomograph at the HASYLAB/DESY synchrotron facility (Hamburg, Germany) at 31μm resolution. Afterwards the first molar and its surrounding bone were removed with a 10mm hollow core drill. From this cylindrical sample smaller samples were drilled out in the buccolingual direction with a 1.5mm hollow core drill. These samples were scanned at 4μm resolution. The scans of the entire segment showed alveolar bone with a thin lamina dura, supported by an intricate trabecular network. Although featuring numerous openings between the PDL and the bone marrow on the other side to allow blood vessels to transverse, the lamina dura seems smooth at this resolution. First at high resolution, however, it becomes evident that it is irregular with bony spiculae and pitted surfaces. Therefore the stresses in the bone during physiological or orthodontic loading are much higher than expected from a smooth continuous alveolus.

Study of the Effect of Temporal Sampling Frequency on DSCOVR Observations Using the GEOS-5 Nature Run Results (Part I): Earths Radiation Budget

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holdaway, Daniel; Yang, Yuekui

2016-01-01

Satellites always sample the Earth-atmosphere system in a finite temporal resolution. This study investigates the effect of sampling frequency on the satellite-derived Earth radiation budget, with the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) as an example. The output from NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS-5) Nature Run is used as the truth. The Nature Run is a high spatial and temporal resolution atmospheric simulation spanning a two-year period. The effect of temporal resolution on potential DSCOVR observations is assessed by sampling the full Nature Run data with 1-h to 24-h frequencies. The uncertainty associated with a given sampling frequency is measured by computing means over daily, monthly, seasonal and annual intervals and determining the spread across different possible starting points. The skill with which a particular sampling frequency captures the structure of the full time series is measured using correlations and normalized errors. Results show that higher sampling frequency gives more information and less uncertainty in the derived radiation budget. A sampling frequency coarser than every 4 h results in significant error. Correlations between true and sampled time series also decrease more rapidly for a sampling frequency less than 4 h.

Continuous flow electrophoresis: The effect of sample concentration on throughput and resolution in an upward flowing system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jandebeur, T. S.

1980-01-01

The effect of sample concentration on throughput and resolution in a modified continuous particle electrophoresis (CPE) system with flow in an upward direction is investigated. Maximum resolution is achieved at concentrations ranging from 2 x 10 to the 8th power cells/ml to 8 x 10 to the 8th power cells/ml. The widest peak separation is at 2 x 10 to the 8th power cells/ml; however, the sharpest peaks and least overlap between cell populations is at 8 x 10 to the 8th power cells/ml. Apparently as a result of improved electrophoresis cell performance due to coasting the chamber with bovine serum albumin, changing the electrode membranes and rinse, and lowering buffer temperatures, sedimentation effects attending to higher concentrations are diminished. Throughput as measured by recovery of fixed cells is diminished at the concentrations judged most likely to yield satisfactory resolution. The tradeoff appears to be improved recovery/throughput at the expense of resolution.

Wavefront propagation simulations for a UV/soft x-ray beamline: Electron Spectro-Microscopy beamline at NSLS-II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canestrari, N.; Bisogni, V.; Walter, A.; Zhu, Y.; Dvorak, J.; Vescovo, E.; Chubar, O.

2014-09-01

A "source-to-sample" wavefront propagation analysis of the Electron Spectro-Microscopy (ESM) UV / soft X-ray beamline, which is under construction at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) in the Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been conducted. All elements of the beamline - insertion device, mirrors, variable-line-spacing gratings and slits - are included in the simulations. Radiation intensity distributions at the sample position are displayed for representative photon energies in the UV range (20 - 100 eV) where diffraction effects are strong. The finite acceptance of the refocusing mirrors is the dominating factor limiting the spatial resolution at the sample (by ~3 μm at 20 eV). Absolute estimates of the radiation flux and energy resolution at the sample are also obtained from the electromagnetic calculations. The analysis of the propagated UV range undulator radiation at different deflection parameter values demonstrates that within the beamline angular acceptance a slightly "red-shifted" radiation provides higher flux at the sample and better energy resolution compared to the on-axis resonant radiation of the fundamental harmonic.

Improved spatial resolution in PET scanners using sampling techniques

PubMed Central

Surti, Suleman; Scheuermann, Ryan; Werner, Matthew E.; Karp, Joel S.

2009-01-01

Increased focus towards improved detector spatial resolution in PET has led to the use of smaller crystals in some form of light sharing detector design. In this work we evaluate two sampling techniques that can be applied during calibrations for pixelated detector designs in order to improve the reconstructed spatial resolution. The inter-crystal positioning technique utilizes sub-sampling in the crystal flood map to better sample the Compton scatter events in the detector. The Compton scatter rejection technique, on the other hand, rejects those events that are located further from individual crystal centers in the flood map. We performed Monte Carlo simulations followed by measurements on two whole-body scanners for point source data. The simulations and measurements were performed for scanners using scintillators with Zeff ranging from 46.9 to 63 for LaBr3 and LYSO, respectively. Our results show that near the center of the scanner, inter-crystal positioning technique leads to a gain of about 0.5-mm in reconstructed spatial resolution (FWHM) for both scanner designs. In a small animal LYSO scanner the resolution improves from 1.9-mm to 1.6-mm with the inter-crystal technique. The Compton scatter rejection technique shows higher gains in spatial resolution but at the cost of reduction in scanner sensitivity. The inter-crystal positioning technique represents a modest acquisition software modification for an improvement in spatial resolution, but at a cost of potentially longer data correction and reconstruction times. The Compton scatter rejection technique, while also requiring a modest acquisition software change with no increased data correction and reconstruction times, will be useful in applications where the scanner sensitivity is very high and larger improvements in spatial resolution are desirable. PMID:19779586

High-resolution imaging of magnetic fields using scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fong de Los Santos, Luis E.

Development of a scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscope system with interchangeable sensor configurations for imaging magnetic fields of room-temperature (RT) samples with sub-millimeter resolution. The low-critical-temperature (Tc) niobium-based monolithic SQUID sensor is mounted in the tip of a sapphire rod and thermally anchored to the cryostat helium reservoir. A 25 mum sapphire window separates the vacuum space from the RT sample. A positioning mechanism allows adjusting the sample-to-sensor spacing from the top of the Dewar. I have achieved a sensor-to-sample spacing of 100 mum, which could be maintained for periods of up to 4 weeks. Different SQUID sensor configurations are necessary to achieve the best combination of spatial resolution and field sensitivity for a given magnetic source. For imaging thin sections of geological samples, I used a custom-designed monolithic low-Tc niobium bare SQUID sensor, with an effective diameter of 80 mum, and achieved a field sensitivity of 1.5 pT/Hz1/2 and a magnetic moment sensitivity of 5.4 x 10-18 Am2/Hz1/2 at a sensor-to-sample spacing of 100 mum in the white noise region for frequencies above 100 Hz. Imaging action currents in cardiac tissue requires higher field sensitivity, which can only be achieved by compromising spatial resolution. I developed a monolithic low-Tc niobium multiloop SQUID sensor, with sensor sizes ranging from 250 mum to 1 mm, and achieved sensitivities of 480 - 180 fT/Hz1/2 in the white noise region for frequencies above 100 Hz, respectively. For all sensor configurations, the spatial resolution was comparable to the effective diameter and limited by the sensor-to-sample spacing. Spatial registration allowed us to compare high-resolution images of magnetic fields associated with action currents and optical recordings of transmembrane potentials to study the bidomain nature of cardiac tissue or to match petrography to magnetic field maps in thin sections of geological samples.

Optimal design of waveform digitisers for both energy resolution and pulse shape discrimination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cang, Jirong; Xue, Tao; Zeng, Ming; Zeng, Zhi; Ma, Hao; Cheng, Jianping; Liu, Yinong

2018-04-01

Fast digitisers and digital pulse processing have been widely used for spectral application and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) owing to their advantages in terms of compactness, higher trigger rates, offline analysis, etc. Meanwhile, the noise of readout electronics is usually trivial for organic, plastic, or liquid scintillator with PSD ability because of their poor intrinsic energy resolution. However, LaBr3(Ce) has been widely used for its excellent energy resolution and has been proven to have PSD ability for alpha/gamma particles. Therefore, designing a digital acquisition system for such scintillators as LaBr3(Ce) with both optimal energy resolution and promising PSD ability is worthwhile. Several experimental research studies about the choice of digitiser properties for liquid scintillators have already been conducted in terms of the sampling rate and vertical resolution. Quantitative analysis on the influence of waveform digitisers, that is, fast amplifier (optional), sampling rates, and vertical resolution, on both applications is still lacking. The present paper provides quantitative analysis of these factors and, hence, general rules about the optimal design of digitisers for both energy resolution and PSD application according to the noise analysis of time-variant gated charge integration.

The effects of spatial sampling choices on MR temperature measurements.

PubMed

Todd, Nick; Vyas, Urvi; de Bever, Josh; Payne, Allison; Parker, Dennis L

2011-02-01

The purpose of this article is to quantify the effects that spatial sampling parameters have on the accuracy of magnetic resonance temperature measurements during high intensity focused ultrasound treatments. Spatial resolution and position of the sampling grid were considered using experimental and simulated data for two different types of high intensity focused ultrasound heating trajectories (a single point and a 4-mm circle) with maximum measured temperature and thermal dose volume as the metrics. It is demonstrated that measurement accuracy is related to the curvature of the temperature distribution, where regions with larger spatial second derivatives require higher resolution. The location of the sampling grid relative temperature distribution has a significant effect on the measured values. When imaging at 1.0 × 1.0 × 3.0 mm(3) resolution, the measured values for maximum temperature and volume dosed to 240 cumulative equivalent minutes (CEM) or greater varied by 17% and 33%, respectively, for the single-point heating case, and by 5% and 18%, respectively, for the 4-mm circle heating case. Accurate measurement of the maximum temperature required imaging at 1.0 × 1.0 × 3.0 mm(3) resolution for the single-point heating case and 2.0 × 2.0 × 5.0 mm(3) resolution for the 4-mm circle heating case. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Random phase detection in multidimensional NMR.

PubMed

Maciejewski, Mark W; Fenwick, Matthew; Schuyler, Adam D; Stern, Alan S; Gorbatyuk, Vitaliy; Hoch, Jeffrey C

2011-10-04

Despite advances in resolution accompanying the development of high-field superconducting magnets, biomolecular applications of NMR require multiple dimensions in order to resolve individual resonances, and the achievable resolution is typically limited by practical constraints on measuring time. In addition to the need for measuring long evolution times to obtain high resolution, the need to distinguish the sign of the frequency constrains the ability to shorten measuring times. Sign discrimination is typically accomplished by sampling the signal with two different receiver phases or by selecting a reference frequency outside the range of frequencies spanned by the signal and then sampling at a higher rate. In the parametrically sampled (indirect) time dimensions of multidimensional NMR experiments, either method imposes an additional factor of 2 sampling burden for each dimension. We demonstrate that by using a single detector phase at each time sample point, but randomly altering the phase for different points, the sign ambiguity that attends fixed single-phase detection is resolved. Random phase detection enables a reduction in experiment time by a factor of 2 for each indirect dimension, amounting to a factor of 8 for a four-dimensional experiment, albeit at the cost of introducing sampling artifacts. Alternatively, for fixed measuring time, random phase detection can be used to double resolution in each indirect dimension. Random phase detection is complementary to nonuniform sampling methods, and their combination offers the potential for additional benefits. In addition to applications in biomolecular NMR, random phase detection could be useful in magnetic resonance imaging and other signal processing contexts.

Lead screening in DBS by solid sampling high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry: application to newborns and pregnant women.

PubMed

Rello, Luis; Aramendía, Maite; Belarra, Miguel A; Resano, Martín

2015-01-01

DBS have become a clinical specimen especially adequate for establishing home-based collection protocols. In this work, high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry is evaluated for the direct monitoring of Pb in DBS, both as a quantitative tool and a screening method. The development of the screening model is based on the establishment of the unreliability region around the threshold limits, 100 or 50 μg l(-1). More than 500 samples were analyzed to validate the model. The screening method demonstrated high sensitivity (the rate of true positives detected was always higher than 95%), an excellent LOD (1 µg l(-1)) and high throughput (10 min per sample).

Reducing risk and increasing confidence of decision making at a lower cost: In-situ pXRF assessment of metal-contaminated sites.

PubMed

Rouillon, Marek; Taylor, Mark P; Dong, Chenyin

2017-10-01

This study evaluates the in-situ use of field portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for metal-contaminated site assessments, and assesses the advantages of increased sampling to reduce risk, and increase confidence of decision making at a lower cost. Five metal-contaminated sites were assessed using both in-situ pXRF and ex-situ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses at various sampling resolutions. Twenty second in-situ pXRF measurements of Mn, Zn and Pb were corrected using a subset of parallel ICP-MS measurements taken at each site. Field and analytical duplicates revealed sampling as the major contributor (>95% variation) to measurement uncertainties. This study shows that increased sampling led to several benefits including more representative site characterisation, higher soil-metal mapping resolution, reduced uncertainty around the site mean, and reduced sampling uncertainty. Real time pXRF data enabled efficient, on-site decision making for further judgemental sampling, without the need to return to the site. Additionally, in-situ pXRF was more cost effective than the current approach of ex-situ sampling and ICP-MS analysis, even with higher sampling at each site. Lastly, a probabilistic site assessment approach was applied to demonstrate the advantages of integrating estimated measurement uncertainties into site reporting. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial and temporal trends of mercury and other metals in landlocked char from lakes in the Canadian Arctic archipelago.

PubMed

Muir, Derek; Wang, Xiaowa; Bright, Doug; Lockhart, Lyle; Köck, Günter

2005-12-01

Spatial and temporal trends of mercury (Hg) and 22 other elements were examined in landlocked Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) from six lakes in the Canadian Arctic (Char, Resolute and North Lakes, and Amituk Lake on Cornwallis Island, Sapphire Lake on Devon Island and Boomerang Lake on Somerset Island). The objectives of the study were to compare recent concentrations of Hg and other metals in char with older data from Amituk, Resolute and Char Lakes, in order to examine temporal trends as well as to investigate factors influencing spatial trends in contaminant levels such as lake characteristics, trophic position, size and age of the fish. Geometric mean Hg concentrations in dorsal muscle ranged from 0.147 microg/g wet weight (ww) in Resolute Lake to 1.52 microg/g ww in Amituk Lake for samples collected over the period 1999-2003. Char from Amituk Lake also had significantly higher selenium (Se). Mercury in char from Resolute Lake was strongly correlated with fish length, weight, and age, as well as with thallium, lead and Se. In 5 of 6 lakes, Hg concentrations were correlated with stable nitrogen isotope ratios (delta15N) and larger char were feeding at a higher trophic level presumably due to feeding on smaller char. Weight adjusted mean Hg concentrations in char from Amituk Lake, and unadjusted geometric means in Char Lake and Resolute Lakes, did not show any statistically significant increase from the early 1990s to 2003. However, small sample sizes from 1999-2003 for fish <1000 g limited the power of this comparison in Char and Amituk Lakes. In Resolute Lake char, manganese, strontium and zinc showed consistent decreases from 1997 or 1999 to 2003 while nickel generally increased over the 6 year period. Differences in char trophic level inferred from delta15N values best explained the higher concentrations of Hg in Amituk Lake compared to the other lakes.

Blind identification of full-field vibration modes of output-only structures from uniformly-sampled, possibly temporally-aliased (sub-Nyquist), video measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yongchao; Dorn, Charles; Mancini, Tyler; Talken, Zachary; Nagarajaiah, Satish; Kenyon, Garrett; Farrar, Charles; Mascareñas, David

2017-03-01

Enhancing the spatial and temporal resolution of vibration measurements and modal analysis could significantly benefit dynamic modelling, analysis, and health monitoring of structures. For example, spatially high-density mode shapes are critical for accurate vibration-based damage localization. In experimental or operational modal analysis, higher (frequency) modes, which may be outside the frequency range of the measurement, contain local structural features that can improve damage localization as well as the construction and updating of the modal-based dynamic model of the structure. In general, the resolution of vibration measurements can be increased by enhanced hardware. Traditional vibration measurement sensors such as accelerometers have high-frequency sampling capacity; however, they are discrete point-wise sensors only providing sparse, low spatial sensing resolution measurements, while dense deployment to achieve high spatial resolution is expensive and results in the mass-loading effect and modification of structure's surface. Non-contact measurement methods such as scanning laser vibrometers provide high spatial and temporal resolution sensing capacity; however, they make measurements sequentially that requires considerable acquisition time. As an alternative non-contact method, digital video cameras are relatively low-cost, agile, and provide high spatial resolution, simultaneous, measurements. Combined with vision based algorithms (e.g., image correlation or template matching, optical flow, etc.), video camera based measurements have been successfully used for experimental and operational vibration measurement and subsequent modal analysis. However, the sampling frequency of most affordable digital cameras is limited to 30-60 Hz, while high-speed cameras for higher frequency vibration measurements are extremely costly. This work develops a computational algorithm capable of performing vibration measurement at a uniform sampling frequency lower than what is required by the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem for output-only modal analysis. In particular, the spatio-temporal uncoupling property of the modal expansion of structural vibration responses enables a direct modal decoupling of the temporally-aliased vibration measurements by existing output-only modal analysis methods, yielding (full-field) mode shapes estimation directly. Then the signal aliasing properties in modal analysis is exploited to estimate the modal frequencies and damping ratios. The proposed method is validated by laboratory experiments where output-only modal identification is conducted on temporally-aliased acceleration responses and particularly the temporally-aliased video measurements of bench-scale structures, including a three-story building structure and a cantilever beam.

High resolution subsurface imaging using resonance-enhanced detection in 2nd-harmonic KPFM.

PubMed

Cadena, Maria Jose; Reifenberger, Ronald G; Raman, Arvind

2018-06-28

Second harmonic Kelvin probe force microscopy is a robust mechanism for subsurface imaging at the nanoscale. Here we exploit resonance-enhanced detection as a way to boost the subsurface contrast with higher force sensitivity using lower bias voltages, in comparison to the traditional off-resonance case. In this mode, the second harmonic signal of the electrostatic force is acquired at one of the eigenmode frequencies of the microcantilever. As a result, high-resolution subsurface images are obtained in a variety of nanocomposites. To further understand the subsurface imaging detection upon electrostatic forces, we use a finite element model that approximates the geometry of the probe and sample. This allows the investigation of the contrast mechanism, the depth sensitivity and lateral resolution depending on tip-sample properties. © 2018 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Review of recent advances in analytical techniques for the determination of neurotransmitters

PubMed Central

Perry, Maura; Li, Qiang; Kennedy, Robert T.

2009-01-01

Methods and advances for monitoring neurotransmitters in vivo or for tissue analysis of neurotransmitters over the last five years are reviewed. The review is organized primarily by neurotransmitter type. Transmitter and related compounds may be monitored by either in vivo sampling coupled to analytical methods or implanted sensors. Sampling is primarily performed using microdialysis, but low-flow push-pull perfusion may offer advantages of spatial resolution while minimizing the tissue disruption associated with higher flow rates. Analytical techniques coupled to these sampling methods include liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, enzyme assays, sensors, and mass spectrometry. Methods for the detection of amino acid, monoamine, neuropeptide, acetylcholine, nucleoside, and soluable gas neurotransmitters have been developed and improved upon. Advances in the speed and sensitivity of these methods have enabled improvements in temporal resolution and increased the number of compounds detectable. Similar advances have enabled improved detection at tissue samples, with a substantial emphasis on single cell and other small samples. Sensors provide excellent temporal and spatial resolution for in vivo monitoring. Advances in application to catecholamines, indoleamines, and amino acids have been prominent. Improvements in stability, sensitivity, and selectivity of the sensors have been of paramount interest. PMID:19800472

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Küchemann, Stefan; Mahn, Carsten; Samwer, Konrad

The investigation of short time dynamics using X-ray scattering techniques is commonly limited either by the read out frequency of the detector or by a low intensity. In this paper, we present a chopper system, which can increase the temporal resolution of 2D X-ray detectors by a factor of 13. This technique only applies to amorphous or polycrystalline samples due to their circular diffraction patterns. Using the chopper, we successfully increased the temporal resolution up to 5.1 ms during synchrotron experiments. For the construction, we provide a mathematical formalism, which, in principle, allows an even higher increase of the temporalmore » resolution.« less

Evaluation of the sparse coding super-resolution method for improving image quality of up-sampled images in computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ota, Junko; Umehara, Kensuke; Ishimaru, Naoki; Ohno, Shunsuke; Okamoto, Kentaro; Suzuki, Takanori; Shirai, Naoki; Ishida, Takayuki

2017-02-01

As the capability of high-resolution displays grows, high-resolution images are often required in Computed Tomography (CT). However, acquiring high-resolution images takes a higher radiation dose and a longer scanning time. In this study, we applied the Sparse-coding-based Super-Resolution (ScSR) method to generate high-resolution images without increasing the radiation dose. We prepared the over-complete dictionary learned the mapping between low- and highresolution patches and seek a sparse representation of each patch of the low-resolution input. These coefficients were used to generate the high-resolution output. For evaluation, 44 CT cases were used as the test dataset. We up-sampled images up to 2 or 4 times and compared the image quality of the ScSR scheme and bilinear and bicubic interpolations, which are the traditional interpolation schemes. We also compared the image quality of three learning datasets. A total of 45 CT images, 91 non-medical images, and 93 chest radiographs were used for dictionary preparation respectively. The image quality was evaluated by measuring peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structure similarity (SSIM). The differences of PSNRs and SSIMs between the ScSR method and interpolation methods were statistically significant. Visual assessment confirmed that the ScSR method generated a high-resolution image with sharpness, whereas conventional interpolation methods generated over-smoothed images. To compare three different training datasets, there were no significance between the CT, the CXR and non-medical datasets. These results suggest that the ScSR provides a robust approach for application of up-sampling CT images and yields substantial high image quality of extended images in CT.

High-resolution room-temperature sample scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscope configurable for geological and biomagnetic applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fong, L. E.; Holzer, J. R.; McBride, K. K.; Lima, E. A.; Baudenbacher, F.; Radparvar, M.

2005-05-01

We have developed a scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) microscope system with interchangeable sensor configurations for imaging magnetic fields of room-temperature (RT) samples with submillimeter resolution. The low-critical-temperature (Tc) niobium-based monolithic SQUID sensors are mounted on the tip of a sapphire and thermally anchored to the helium reservoir. A 25μm sapphire window separates the vacuum space from the RT sample. A positioning mechanism allows us to adjust the sample-to-sensor spacing from the top of the Dewar. We achieved a sensor-to-sample spacing of 100μm, which could be maintained for periods of up to four weeks. Different SQUID sensor designs are necessary to achieve the best combination of spatial resolution and field sensitivity for a given source configuration. For imaging thin sections of geological samples, we used a custom-designed monolithic low-Tc niobium bare SQUID sensor, with an effective diameter of 80μm, and achieved a field sensitivity of 1.5pT/Hz1/2 and a magnetic moment sensitivity of 5.4×10-18Am2/Hz1/2 at a sensor-to-sample spacing of 100μm in the white noise region for frequencies above 100Hz. Imaging action currents in cardiac tissue requires a higher field sensitivity, which can only be achieved by compromising spatial resolution. We developed a monolithic low-Tc niobium multiloop SQUID sensor, with sensor sizes ranging from 250μm to 1mm, and achieved sensitivities of 480-180fT /Hz1/2 in the white noise region for frequencies above 100Hz, respectively. For all sensor configurations, the spatial resolution was comparable to the effective diameter and limited by the sensor-to-sample spacing. Spatial registration allowed us to compare high-resolution images of magnetic fields associated with action currents and optical recordings of transmembrane potentials to study the bidomain nature of cardiac tissue or to match petrography to magnetic field maps in thin sections of geological samples.

1300 nm and 890 nm OCT images of oral cancer tissue engineered models and biopsy samples offer complimentary performance (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boadi, Joseph; Byers, Robert A.; Fernandes, Jon; Mittar, Shweta; Hearnden, Vanessa; Lu, Zenghai; MacNeil, Sheila; Thornhill, Martin; Murdoch, Craig; Hunter, Keith D.; McKechnie, Alasdair; Matcher, Stephen J.

2016-02-01

OCT has demonstrated great potential to non-invasively detect oral epithelial cancers, potentially guiding biopsy and surgical resection. On non-ophthalmic tissues the preferred illumination wavelength is 1300 nm. Previous studies on skin have shown that useful image data can also be obtained at shorter wavelengths, with systems at 1060 nm and 820 nm offering reduced depth penetration but higher contrast. Here we apply a similar comparison to tissue engineered models of oral cancer and also to human biopsy samples, generally finding a similar trend. 1300 nm multi-beam OCT (Michelson Diagnostics EX1301) visualises stromal structures and surface keratin more clearly, providing useful image contrast down to around 1 mm. This system was compared with an ultra-high resolution home-built system operating at 890 nm (2.5 micron resolution vs 7.5 micron axial resolution for the EX1301). The UHR system reveals epithelial features more clearly, especially in the DOK pre-invasive cell line model and the biopsy samples. The relative effects of center wavelength vs axial resolution in generating the differential, wavelength-dependent contrast are assessed and the OCT biopsy images are compared with contemporary histology.

Measuring Dynamic Signals with Direct Sensor-to-Microcontroller Interfaces Applied to a Magnetoresistive Sensor

PubMed Central

Sifuentes, Ernesto; Gonzalez-Landaeta, Rafael; Cota-Ruiz, Juan; Reverter, Ferran

2017-01-01

This paper evaluates the performance of direct interface circuits (DIC), where the sensor is directly connected to a microcontroller, when a resistive sensor subjected to dynamic changes is measured. The theoretical analysis provides guidelines for the selection of the components taking into account both the desired resolution and the bandwidth of the input signal. Such an analysis reveals that there is a trade-off between the sampling frequency and the resolution of the measurement, and this depends on the selected value of the capacitor that forms the RC circuit together with the sensor resistance. This performance is then experimentally proved with a DIC measuring a magnetoresistive sensor exposed to a magnetic field of different frequencies, amplitudes, and waveforms. A sinusoidal magnetic field up to 1 kHz can be monitored with a resolution of eight bits and a sampling frequency of around 10 kSa/s. If a higher resolution is desired, the sampling frequency has to be lower, thus limiting the bandwidth of the dynamic signal under measurement. The DIC is also applied to measure an electrocardiogram-type signal and its QRS complex is well identified, which enables the estimation, for instance, of the heart rate. PMID:28524078

Measuring Dynamic Signals with Direct Sensor-to-Microcontroller Interfaces Applied to a Magnetoresistive Sensor.

PubMed

Sifuentes, Ernesto; Gonzalez-Landaeta, Rafael; Cota-Ruiz, Juan; Reverter, Ferran

2017-05-18

This paper evaluates the performance of direct interface circuits (DIC), where the sensor is directly connected to a microcontroller, when a resistive sensor subjected to dynamic changes is measured. The theoretical analysis provides guidelines for the selection of the components taking into account both the desired resolution and the bandwidth of the input signal. Such an analysis reveals that there is a trade-off between the sampling frequency and the resolution of the measurement, and this depends on the selected value of the capacitor that forms the RC circuit together with the sensor resistance. This performance is then experimentally proved with a DIC measuring a magnetoresistive sensor exposed to a magnetic field of different frequencies, amplitudes, and waveforms. A sinusoidal magnetic field up to 1 kHz can be monitored with a resolution of eight bits and a sampling frequency of around 10 kSa/s. If a higher resolution is desired, the sampling frequency has to be lower, thus limiting the bandwidth of the dynamic signal under measurement. The DIC is also applied to measure an electrocardiogram-type signal and its QRS complex is well identified, which enables the estimation, for instance, of the heart rate.

High-resolution scanning electron microscopy of frozen-hydrated cells.

PubMed

Walther, P; Chen, Y; Pech, L L; Pawley, J B

1992-11-01

Cryo-fixed yeast Paramecia and sea urchin embryos were investigated with an in-lens type field-emission SEM using a cold stage. The goal was to further develop and investigate the processing of frozen samples for the low-temperature scanning electron microscope (LTSEM). Uncoated frozen-hydrated samples were imaged with the low-voltage backscattered electron signal (BSE). Resolution and contrast were sufficient to visualize cross-fractured membranes, nuclear pores and small vesicles in the cytoplasm. It is assumed that the resolution of this approach is limited by the extraction depth of the BSE which depends upon the accelerating voltage of the primary beam (V0). In this study, the lowest possible V0 was 2.6 kV because below this value the sensitivity of the BSE detector is insufficient. It is concluded that the resolution of the uncoated specimen could be improved if equipment were available for high-resolution BSE imaging at 0.5-2 kV. Higher resolution was obtained with platinum cryo-coated samples, on which intramembranous particles were easily imaged. These images even show the ring-like appearance of the hexagonally arranged intramembranous particles known from high-resolution replica studies. On fully hydrated samples at high magnification, the observation time for a particular area is limited by mass loss caused by electron irradiation. Other potential sources of artefacts are the deposition of water vapour contamination and shrinkage caused by the sublimation of ice. Imaging of partially dehydrated (partially freeze-dried) samples, e.g. high-pressure frozen Paramecium and sea urchin embryos, will probably become the main application in cell biology. In spite of possible shrinkage problems, this approach has a number of advantages compared with any other electron microscopy preparation method: no chemical fixation is necessary, eliminating this source of artefacts; due to partial removal of the water additional structures in the cytoplasm can be investigated; and finally, the mass loss due to electron beam irradiation is greatly reduced compared to fully frozen-hydrated specimens.

Removing Contamination-Induced Reconstruction Artifacts from Cryo-electron Tomograms

PubMed Central

Fernandez, Jose-Jesus; Laugks, Ulrike; Schaffer, Miroslava; Bäuerlein, Felix J.B.; Khoshouei, Maryam; Baumeister, Wolfgang; Lucic, Vladan

2016-01-01

Imaging of fully hydrated, vitrified biological samples by electron tomography yields structural information about cellular protein complexes in situ. Here we present a computational procedure that removes artifacts of three-dimensional reconstruction caused by contamination present in samples during imaging by electron microscopy. Applying the procedure to phantom data and electron tomograms of cellular samples significantly improved the resolution and the interpretability of tomograms. Artifacts caused by surface contamination associated with thinning by focused ion beam, as well as those arising from gold fiducial markers and from common, lower contrast contamination, could be removed. Our procedure is widely applicable and is especially suited for applications that strive to reach a higher resolution and involve the use of recently developed, state-of-the-art instrumentation. PMID:26743046

Enabling low-noise null-point scanning thermal microscopy by the optimization of scanning thermal microscope probe through a rigorous theory of quantitative measurement.

PubMed

Hwang, Gwangseok; Chung, Jaehun; Kwon, Ohmyoung

2014-11-01

The application of conventional scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) is severely limited by three major problems: (i) distortion of the measured signal due to heat transfer through the air, (ii) the unknown and variable value of the tip-sample thermal contact resistance, and (iii) perturbation of the sample temperature due to the heat flux through the tip-sample thermal contact. Recently, we proposed null-point scanning thermal microscopy (NP SThM) as a way of overcoming these problems in principle by tracking the thermal equilibrium between the end of the SThM tip and the sample surface. However, in order to obtain high spatial resolution, which is the primary motivation for SThM, NP SThM requires an extremely sensitive SThM probe that can trace the vanishingly small heat flux through the tip-sample nano-thermal contact. Herein, we derive a relation between the spatial resolution and the design parameters of a SThM probe, optimize the thermal and electrical design, and develop a batch-fabrication process. We also quantitatively demonstrate significantly improved sensitivity, lower measurement noise, and higher spatial resolution of the fabricated SThM probes. By utilizing the exceptional performance of these fabricated probes, we show that NP SThM can be used to obtain a quantitative temperature profile with nanoscale resolution independent of the changing tip-sample thermal contact resistance and without perturbation of the sample temperature or distortion due to the heat transfer through the air.

Correlation of Non-proportionality and Scintillation Properties with Cerium Concentration in YAlO 3:Ce

DOE PAGES

Donnald, Samuel B.; Williams, Richard; Melcher, Charles L.; ...

2018-04-19

Cerium doped YAlO3 (YAP:Ce) is an interesting oxide scintillator in that it exhibits a wider range of light yield non-proportionality on a sample-to-sample basis than most other well-known oxide scintillators. In general, most oxide materials, such as BGO and LSO:Ce, are thought to have an intrinsic proportional response that is nearly constant between samples and independent of growth conditions. Since light yield nonproportionality is responsible for degrading the achievable energy resolution of all known scintillators, it is important to understand what contributes to the behavior. In this study, in an attempt to understand if the phenomenon can be affected bymore » growth parameters or by other means, seven samples of YAP:Ce were collected from various sources, and eight samples were grown inhouse using the Czochralski method. Based on optical and scintillation measurement as well as direct measurement of the cerium concentration, it was determined that the light yield proportionality in YAlO3:Ce is strongly related to the cerium concentration. Samples that were found to have a higher relative cerium concentration displayed a more proportional light yield response. In addition, it was determined that samples with a higher cerium concentration also exhibit a faster decay time and an enhanced energy resolution when compared to samples with less cerium. Finally, it was also determined that growth in a reducing atmosphere can effectively suppress a parasitic optical absorption band.« less

Correlation of Non-proportionality and Scintillation Properties with Cerium Concentration in YAlO 3:Ce

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Donnald, Samuel B.; Williams, Richard; Melcher, Charles L.

Cerium doped YAlO3 (YAP:Ce) is an interesting oxide scintillator in that it exhibits a wider range of light yield non-proportionality on a sample-to-sample basis than most other well-known oxide scintillators. In general, most oxide materials, such as BGO and LSO:Ce, are thought to have an intrinsic proportional response that is nearly constant between samples and independent of growth conditions. Since light yield nonproportionality is responsible for degrading the achievable energy resolution of all known scintillators, it is important to understand what contributes to the behavior. In this study, in an attempt to understand if the phenomenon can be affected bymore » growth parameters or by other means, seven samples of YAP:Ce were collected from various sources, and eight samples were grown inhouse using the Czochralski method. Based on optical and scintillation measurement as well as direct measurement of the cerium concentration, it was determined that the light yield proportionality in YAlO3:Ce is strongly related to the cerium concentration. Samples that were found to have a higher relative cerium concentration displayed a more proportional light yield response. In addition, it was determined that samples with a higher cerium concentration also exhibit a faster decay time and an enhanced energy resolution when compared to samples with less cerium. Finally, it was also determined that growth in a reducing atmosphere can effectively suppress a parasitic optical absorption band.« less

A stochastically fully connected conditional random field framework for super resolution OCT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boroomand, A.; Tan, B.; Wong, A.; Bizheva, K.

2017-02-01

A number of factors can degrade the resolution and contrast of OCT images, such as: (1) changes of the OCT pointspread function (PSF) resulting from wavelength dependent scattering and absorption of light along the imaging depth (2) speckle noise, as well as (3) motion artifacts. We propose a new Super Resolution OCT (SR OCT) imaging framework that takes advantage of a Stochastically Fully Connected Conditional Random Field (SF-CRF) model to generate a Super Resolved OCT (SR OCT) image of higher quality from a set of Low-Resolution OCT (LR OCT) images. The proposed SF-CRF SR OCT imaging is able to simultaneously compensate for all of the factors mentioned above, that degrade the OCT image quality, using a unified computational framework. The proposed SF-CRF SR OCT imaging framework was tested on a set of simulated LR human retinal OCT images generated from a high resolution, high contrast retinal image, and on a set of in-vivo, high resolution, high contrast rat retinal OCT images. The reconstructed SR OCT images show considerably higher spatial resolution, less speckle noise and higher contrast compared to other tested methods. Visual assessment of the results demonstrated the usefulness of the proposed approach in better preservation of fine details and structures of the imaged sample, retaining biological tissue boundaries while reducing speckle noise using a unified computational framework. Quantitative evaluation using both Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) and Edge Preservation (EP) parameter also showed superior performance of the proposed SF-CRF SR OCT approach compared to other image processing approaches.

Spectroscopie par transformee de fourier des spectres etroits: application aux interferometres statiques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vermande, P.; Gilard, O.; Rosak, A.

2017-11-01

The Fourier transform spectrometry is useful to obtain optical spectra with high resolution. But in case of narrow band spectra, the number of sample become very important, related to the useful information (the sampling is proportional to the higher wavelength). By changing the sampling, it is possible to obtain narrow band spectra with far less samples. With fewer samples, static interferometers become possible to use. So with these two ideas (a better sampling and static interferometer) we can build a very simple, compact, and static instrument. We will show several possible application of this instrument.

Lensfree on-chip microscopy over a wide field-of-view using pixel super-resolution

PubMed Central

Bishara, Waheb; Su, Ting-Wei; Coskun, Ahmet F.; Ozcan, Aydogan

2010-01-01

We demonstrate lensfree holographic microscopy on a chip to achieve ~0.6 µm spatial resolution corresponding to a numerical aperture of ~0.5 over a large field-of-view of ~24 mm2. By using partially coherent illumination from a large aperture (~50 µm), we acquire lower resolution lensfree in-line holograms of the objects with unit fringe magnification. For each lensfree hologram, the pixel size at the sensor chip limits the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image. To circumvent this limitation, we implement a sub-pixel shifting based super-resolution algorithm to effectively recover much higher resolution digital holograms of the objects, permitting sub-micron spatial resolution to be achieved across the entire sensor chip active area, which is also equivalent to the imaging field-of-view (24 mm2) due to unit magnification. We demonstrate the success of this pixel super-resolution approach by imaging patterned transparent substrates, blood smear samples, as well as Caenoharbditis Elegans. PMID:20588977

Influence of imaging resolution on color fidelity in digital archiving.

PubMed

Zhang, Pengchang; Toque, Jay Arre; Ide-Ektessabi, Ari

2015-11-01

Color fidelity is of paramount importance in digital archiving. In this paper, the relationship between color fidelity and imaging resolution was explored by calculating the color difference of an IT8.7/2 color chart with a CIELAB color difference formula for scanning and simulation images. Microscopic spatial sampling was used in selecting the image pixels for the calculations to highlight the loss of color information. A ratio, called the relative imaging definition (RID), was defined to express the correlation between image resolution and color fidelity. The results show that in order for color differences to remain unrecognizable, the imaging resolution should be at least 10 times higher than the physical dimension of the smallest feature in the object being studied.

The Influence of Sampling Density on Bayesian Age-Depth Models and Paleoclimatic Reconstructions - Lessons Learned from Lake Titicaca - Bolivia/Peru

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salenbien, W.; Baker, P. A.; Fritz, S. C.; Guedron, S.

2014-12-01

Lake Titicaca is one of the most important archives of paleoclimate in tropical South America, and prior studies have elucidated patterns of climate variation at varied temporal scales over the past 0.5 Ma. Yet, slow sediment accumulation rates in the main deeper basin of the lake have precluded analysis of the lake's most recent history at high resolution. To obtain a paleoclimate record of the last few millennia at multi-decadal resolution, we obtained five short cores, ranging from 139 to 181 cm in length, from the shallower Wiñaymarka sub-basin of of Lake Titicaca, where sedimentation rates are higher than in the lake's main basin. Selected cores have been analyzed for their geochemical signature by scanning XRF, diatom stratigraphy, sedimentology, and for 14C age dating. A total of 72 samples were 14C-dated using a Gas Ion Source automated high-throughput method for carbonate samples (mainly Littoridina sp. and Taphius montanus gastropod shells) at NOSAMS (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute) with an analytical precision higher than 2%. The method has lower analytical precision compared with traditional AMS radiocarbon dating, but the lower cost enables analysis of a larger number of samples, and the error associated with the lower precision is relatively small for younger samples (< ~8,000 years). A 172-cm-long core was divided into centimeter long sections, and 47 14C dates were obtained from 1-cm intervals, averaging one date every 3-4 cm. The other cores were radiocarbon dated with a sparser sampling density that focused on visual unconformities and shell beds. The high-resolution radiocarbon analysis reveals complex sedimentation patterns in visually continuous sections, with abundant indicators of bioturbated or reworked sediments and periods of very rapid sediment accumulation. These features are not evident in the sparser sampling strategy but have significant implications for reconstructing past lake level and paleoclimatic history.

Lensfree fluorescent on-chip imaging of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans over an ultra-wide field-of-view.

PubMed

Coskun, Ahmet F; Sencan, Ikbal; Su, Ting-Wei; Ozcan, Aydogan

2011-01-06

We demonstrate lensfree on-chip fluorescent imaging of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) over an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) of e.g., >2-8 cm(2) with a spatial resolution of ∼10 µm. This is the first time that a lensfree on-chip platform has successfully imaged fluorescent C. elegans samples. In our wide-field lensfree imaging platform, the transgenic samples are excited using a prism interface from the side, where the pump light is rejected through total internal reflection occurring at the bottom facet of the substrate. The emitted fluorescent signal from C. elegans samples is then recorded on a large area opto-electronic sensor-array over an FOV of e.g., >2-8 cm(2), without the use of any lenses, thin-film interference filters or mechanical scanners. Because fluorescent emission rapidly diverges, such lensfree fluorescent images recorded on a chip look blurred due to broad point-spread-function of our platform. To combat this resolution challenge, we use a compressive sampling algorithm to uniquely decode the recorded lensfree fluorescent patterns into higher resolution images, demonstrating ∼10 µm resolution. We tested the efficacy of this compressive decoding approach with different types of opto-electronic sensors to achieve a similar resolution level, independent of the imaging chip. We further demonstrate that this wide FOV lensfree fluorescent imaging platform can also perform sequential bright-field imaging of the same samples using partially-coherent lensfree digital in-line holography that is coupled from the top facet of the same prism used in fluorescent excitation. This unique combination permits ultra-wide field dual-mode imaging of C. elegans on a chip which could especially provide a useful tool for high-throughput screening applications in biomedical research.

Lensfree Fluorescent On-Chip Imaging of Transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans Over an Ultra-Wide Field-of-View

PubMed Central

Ozcan, Aydogan

2011-01-01

We demonstrate lensfree on-chip fluorescent imaging of transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) over an ultra-wide field-of-view (FOV) of e.g., >2–8 cm2 with a spatial resolution of ∼10µm. This is the first time that a lensfree on-chip platform has successfully imaged fluorescent C. elegans samples. In our wide-field lensfree imaging platform, the transgenic samples are excited using a prism interface from the side, where the pump light is rejected through total internal reflection occurring at the bottom facet of the substrate. The emitted fluorescent signal from C. elegans samples is then recorded on a large area opto-electronic sensor-array over an FOV of e.g., >2–8 cm2, without the use of any lenses, thin-film interference filters or mechanical scanners. Because fluorescent emission rapidly diverges, such lensfree fluorescent images recorded on a chip look blurred due to broad point-spread-function of our platform. To combat this resolution challenge, we use a compressive sampling algorithm to uniquely decode the recorded lensfree fluorescent patterns into higher resolution images, demonstrating ∼10 µm resolution. We tested the efficacy of this compressive decoding approach with different types of opto-electronic sensors to achieve a similar resolution level, independent of the imaging chip. We further demonstrate that this wide FOV lensfree fluorescent imaging platform can also perform sequential bright-field imaging of the same samples using partially-coherent lensfree digital in-line holography that is coupled from the top facet of the same prism used in fluorescent excitation. This unique combination permits ultra-wide field dual-mode imaging of C. elegans on a chip which could especially provide a useful tool for high-throughput screening applications in biomedical research. PMID:21253611

Analyzing indirect secondary electron contrast of unstained bacteriophage T4 based on SEM images and Monte Carlo simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ogura, Toshihiko, E-mail: t-ogura@aist.go.jp

2009-03-06

The indirect secondary electron contrast (ISEC) condition of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) produces high contrast detection with minimal damage of unstained biological samples mounted under a thin carbon film. The high contrast image is created by a secondary electron signal produced under the carbon film by a low acceleration voltage. Here, we show that ISEC condition is clearly able to detect unstained bacteriophage T4 under a thin carbon film (10-15 nm) by using high-resolution field emission (FE) SEM. The results show that FE-SEM provides higher resolution than thermionic emission SEM. Furthermore, we investigated the scattered electron area within themore » carbon film under ISEC conditions using Monte Carlo simulation. The simulations indicated that the image resolution difference is related to the scattering width in the carbon film and the electron beam spot size. Using ISEC conditions on unstained virus samples would produce low electronic damage, because the electron beam does not directly irradiate the sample. In addition to the routine analysis, this method can be utilized for structural analysis of various biological samples like viruses, bacteria, and protein complexes.« less

[Influence of organizational commitment and professional nurses in conflict resolution strategies].

PubMed

Pinho, Paula; Albuquerque, Carlos

2013-01-01

INTRODUCE: The changes in the health area and the set of structural changes in the nursing profession and career interfere in the dynamics and stability of the future of the nurses. To study the influence of organizational and professional commitment of the nurses in the strategies of conflict resolution. This is a quantitative, transversal and non-experimental research, following a descriptive-correlational way. Non-probabilistic sample of 102 nurses to perform duties in Health Units, mostly female (82.4%) with a mean age of 39.33 years and standard deviation 9.226. The measuring instrument consists of three scales calibrated and validated for the portuguese population: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, Professional Commitment Scale and Inventory Strategies for Conflict Resolution, which assesses how individuals deal with conflict situations before higher (Form A), subordinate (Form B) and colleagues (Form C). Nurses demonstrate a moderate organizational commitment and higher affective commitment and normative commitment to the instrumental. Nurses demonstrate a moderate professional commitment and the results show that nurses have higher values on the dimensions of that interest and challenge the relevance dimension of nursing as a profession. The organizational commitment influences the adoption of strategies of conflict resolution as a conflict situation arises with the boss, subordinates or colleagues. The higher the level of organizational commitment higher the level of professional commitment. Nurses more engaged professionally demonstrate strategies that use more integrative and compromise in conflict resolution whether against the boss, subordinates or colleagues. The results ensure the need to promote and stimulate the affective commitment by the positive consequences it entails the organization and the profession. The organizational performance benefits from the stimulation of the conflict under certain conditions and that the constructive management of conflict is essential to organizational effectiveness.

Auto-calibrated scanning-angle prism-type total internal reflection microscopy for nanometer-precision axial position determination and optional variable-illumination-depth pseudo total internal reflection microscopy

DOEpatents

Fang, Ning; Sun, Wei

2015-04-21

A method, apparatus, and system for improved VA-TIRFM microscopy. The method comprises automatically controlled calibration of one or more laser sources by precise control of presentation of each laser relative a sample for small incremental changes of incident angle over a range of critical TIR angles. The calibration then allows precise scanning of the sample for any of those calibrated angles for higher and more accurate resolution, and better reconstruction of the scans for super resolution reconstruction of the sample. Optionally the system can be controlled for incident angles of the excitation laser at sub-critical angles for pseudo TIRFM. Optionally both above-critical angle and sub critical angle measurements can be accomplished with the same system.

Fast arsenic speciation in water by on-site solid phase extraction and high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mihucz, Victor G.; Bencs, László; Koncz, Kornél; Tatár, Enikő; Weiszburg, Tamás; Záray, Gyula

2017-02-01

A method of high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFAAS), combined with on-site separation/solid phase extraction (SPE) has been developed for the speciation of inorganic As (iAs) in geothermal and drinking water samples. The HR-CS-GFAAS calibration curves were linear up to 200 μg/L As, but using second order polynomial fitting, accurate calibration could be performed up to 500 μg/L. It has been demonstrated that sample pH should not be higher than 8 for an accurate speciation of As(V) with a recovery of ≈ 95%. Geothermal water had fairly high salt content (≈ 2200 mg/L) due to the presence of chlorides and sulfates at mg/L levels. Therefore, a two-fold dilution of these types of samples before SPE is recommended, especially, for total As determinations, when the As concentration is as high as 400 μg/L. For drinking water, sampled from public wells with records of As concentrations higher than the 10 μg/L in the past, the reduction of As contamination below the WHO's health limit value could be observed. However, the electrical conductivity was close to 2500 μS/cm, i.e., the guideline limit for drinking water, which was due to their higher chloride content. The proposed fit-for-purpose SPE-HR-CS-GFAAS method could be a candidate for screening drinking water quality.

Correlative Super-Resolution Microscopy: New Dimensions and New Opportunities.

PubMed

Hauser, Meghan; Wojcik, Michal; Kim, Doory; Mahmoudi, Morteza; Li, Wan; Xu, Ke

2017-06-14

Correlative microscopy, the integration of two or more microscopy techniques performed on the same sample, produces results that emphasize the strengths of each technique while offsetting their individual weaknesses. Light microscopy has historically been a central method in correlative microscopy due to its widespread availability, compatibility with hydrated and live biological samples, and excellent molecular specificity through fluorescence labeling. However, conventional light microscopy can only achieve a resolution of ∼300 nm, undercutting its advantages in correlations with higher-resolution methods. The rise of super-resolution microscopy (SRM) over the past decade has drastically improved the resolution of light microscopy to ∼10 nm, thus creating exciting new opportunities and challenges for correlative microscopy. Here we review how these challenges are addressed to effectively correlate SRM with other microscopy techniques, including light microscopy, electron microscopy, cryomicroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and various forms of spectroscopy. Though we emphasize biological studies, we also discuss the application of correlative SRM to materials characterization and single-molecule reactions. Finally, we point out current limitations and discuss possible future improvements and advances. We thus demonstrate how a correlative approach adds new dimensions of information and provides new opportunities in the fast-growing field of SRM.

Analogous on-axis interference topographic phase microscopy (AOITPM).

PubMed

Xiu, P; Liu, Q; Zhou, X; Xu, Y; Kuang, C; Liu, X

2018-05-01

The refractive index (RI) of a sample as an endogenous contrast agent plays an important role in transparent live cell imaging. In tomographic phase microscopy (TPM), 3D quantitative RI maps can be reconstructed based on the measured projections of the RI in multiple directions. The resolution of the RI maps not only depends on the numerical aperture of the employed objective lens, but also is determined by the accuracy of the quantitative phase of the sample measured at multiple scanning illumination angles. This paper reports an analogous on-axis interference TPM, where the interference angle between the sample and reference beams is kept constant for projections in multiple directions to improve the accuracy of the phase maps and the resolution of RI tomograms. The system has been validated with both silica beads and red blood cells. Compared with conventional TPM, the proposed system acquires quantitative RI maps with higher resolution (420 nm @λ = 633 nm) and signal-to-noise ratio that can be beneficial for live cell imaging in biomedical applications. © 2018 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2018 Royal Microscopical Society.

Development of the Low-cost Analog-to-Digital Converter (for nuclear physics experiments) with PC sound card

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sugihara, Kenkoh

2009-10-01

A low-cost ADC (Analogue-to-Digital Converter) with shaping embedded for undergraduate physics laboratory is developed using a home made circuit and a PC sound card. Even though an ADC is needed as an essential part of an experimental set up, commercially available ones are very expensive and are scarce for undergraduate laboratory experiments. The system that is developed from the present work is designed for a gamma-ray spectroscopy laboratory with NaI(Tl) counters, but not limited. For this purpose, the system performance is set to sampling rate of 1-kHz with 10-bit resolution using a typical PC sound card with 41-kHz or higher sampling rate and 16-bit resolution ADC with an addition of a shaping circuit. Details of the system and the status of development will be presented. Ping circuit and PC soundcard as typical PC sound card has 41.1kHz or heiger sampling rate and 16bit resolution ADCs. In the conference details of the system and the status of development will be presented.

Blind identification of full-field vibration modes of output-only structures from uniformly-sampled, possibly temporally-aliased (sub-Nyquist), video measurements

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Yongchao; Dorn, Charles; Mancini, Tyler

Enhancing the spatial and temporal resolution of vibration measurements and modal analysis could significantly benefit dynamic modelling, analysis, and health monitoring of structures. For example, spatially high-density mode shapes are critical for accurate vibration-based damage localization. In experimental or operational modal analysis, higher (frequency) modes, which may be outside the frequency range of the measurement, contain local structural features that can improve damage localization as well as the construction and updating of the modal-based dynamic model of the structure. In general, the resolution of vibration measurements can be increased by enhanced hardware. Traditional vibration measurement sensors such as accelerometers havemore » high-frequency sampling capacity; however, they are discrete point-wise sensors only providing sparse, low spatial sensing resolution measurements, while dense deployment to achieve high spatial resolution is expensive and results in the mass-loading effect and modification of structure's surface. Non-contact measurement methods such as scanning laser vibrometers provide high spatial and temporal resolution sensing capacity; however, they make measurements sequentially that requires considerable acquisition time. As an alternative non-contact method, digital video cameras are relatively low-cost, agile, and provide high spatial resolution, simultaneous, measurements. Combined with vision based algorithms (e.g., image correlation or template matching, optical flow, etc.), video camera based measurements have been successfully used for experimental and operational vibration measurement and subsequent modal analysis. However, the sampling frequency of most affordable digital cameras is limited to 30–60 Hz, while high-speed cameras for higher frequency vibration measurements are extremely costly. This work develops a computational algorithm capable of performing vibration measurement at a uniform sampling frequency lower than what is required by the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem for output-only modal analysis. In particular, the spatio-temporal uncoupling property of the modal expansion of structural vibration responses enables a direct modal decoupling of the temporally-aliased vibration measurements by existing output-only modal analysis methods, yielding (full-field) mode shapes estimation directly. Then the signal aliasing properties in modal analysis is exploited to estimate the modal frequencies and damping ratios. Furthermore, the proposed method is validated by laboratory experiments where output-only modal identification is conducted on temporally-aliased acceleration responses and particularly the temporally-aliased video measurements of bench-scale structures, including a three-story building structure and a cantilever beam.« less

Blind identification of full-field vibration modes of output-only structures from uniformly-sampled, possibly temporally-aliased (sub-Nyquist), video measurements

DOE PAGES

Yang, Yongchao; Dorn, Charles; Mancini, Tyler; ...

2016-12-05

Enhancing the spatial and temporal resolution of vibration measurements and modal analysis could significantly benefit dynamic modelling, analysis, and health monitoring of structures. For example, spatially high-density mode shapes are critical for accurate vibration-based damage localization. In experimental or operational modal analysis, higher (frequency) modes, which may be outside the frequency range of the measurement, contain local structural features that can improve damage localization as well as the construction and updating of the modal-based dynamic model of the structure. In general, the resolution of vibration measurements can be increased by enhanced hardware. Traditional vibration measurement sensors such as accelerometers havemore » high-frequency sampling capacity; however, they are discrete point-wise sensors only providing sparse, low spatial sensing resolution measurements, while dense deployment to achieve high spatial resolution is expensive and results in the mass-loading effect and modification of structure's surface. Non-contact measurement methods such as scanning laser vibrometers provide high spatial and temporal resolution sensing capacity; however, they make measurements sequentially that requires considerable acquisition time. As an alternative non-contact method, digital video cameras are relatively low-cost, agile, and provide high spatial resolution, simultaneous, measurements. Combined with vision based algorithms (e.g., image correlation or template matching, optical flow, etc.), video camera based measurements have been successfully used for experimental and operational vibration measurement and subsequent modal analysis. However, the sampling frequency of most affordable digital cameras is limited to 30–60 Hz, while high-speed cameras for higher frequency vibration measurements are extremely costly. This work develops a computational algorithm capable of performing vibration measurement at a uniform sampling frequency lower than what is required by the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem for output-only modal analysis. In particular, the spatio-temporal uncoupling property of the modal expansion of structural vibration responses enables a direct modal decoupling of the temporally-aliased vibration measurements by existing output-only modal analysis methods, yielding (full-field) mode shapes estimation directly. Then the signal aliasing properties in modal analysis is exploited to estimate the modal frequencies and damping ratios. Furthermore, the proposed method is validated by laboratory experiments where output-only modal identification is conducted on temporally-aliased acceleration responses and particularly the temporally-aliased video measurements of bench-scale structures, including a three-story building structure and a cantilever beam.« less

Higher Signal-to-Noise Measurements of Alpha-element Abundances in the M31 System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Escala, Ivanna; Kirby, Evan N.

2018-06-01

The stellar halo and tidal streams of M31 provide an essential counterpoint to the same structures around the Milky Way (MW). While measurements of [Fe/H] and [$\\alpha$/Fe] have been made in the MW, little is known about the detailed chemical abundances of the M31 system. To make progress with existing telescopes, we expand upon the technique first presented by Kirby et al., applying spectral synthesis to medium-resolution spectroscopy at lower spectral resolution (R $\\sim$ 1800) across an optical range (4100~\\AA \\ $<$ $\\lambda$ $<$ 9100~\\AA) that extends down the blue. We have obtained deep spectra of red giants in the tidal streams, smooth halo, and disk of M31 using the DEIMOS 600ZD grating, resulting in higher signal-to-noise per spectral resolution element (S/N $\\sim$ 30 \\AA$^{-1}$). By applying our technique to red giant stars in MW globular clusters with higher-resolution ($R$ $\\sim$ 6000) spectra in the blue (4100 - 6300 \\AA), we demonstrate that our technique reproduces previous measurements derived from the red side of the optical (6300 - 9100 \\AA). For the first time, we present measurements of [Fe/H] and [$\\alpha$/Fe] of sufficient quality and sample size to construct quantitative models of galactic chemical evolution in the M31 system.

Novel NMR tools to study structure and dynamics of biomembranes.

PubMed

Gawrisch, Klaus; Eldho, Nadukkudy V; Polozov, Ivan V

2002-06-01

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies on biomembranes have benefited greatly from introduction of magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR techniques. Improvements in MAS probe technology, combined with the higher magnetic field strength of modern instruments, enables almost liquid-like resolution of lipid resonances. The cross-relaxation rates measured by nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY) provide new insights into conformation and dynamics of lipids with atomic-scale resolution. The data reflect the tremendous motional disorder in the lipid matrix. Transfer of magnetization by spin diffusion along the proton network of lipids is of secondary relevance, even at a long NOESY mixing time of 300 ms. MAS experiments with re-coupling of anisotropic interactions, like the 13C-(1)H dipolar couplings, benefit from the excellent resolution of 13C shifts that enables assignment of the couplings to specific carbon atoms. The traditional 2H NMR experiments on deuterated lipids have higher sensitivity when conducted on oriented samples at higher magnetic field strength. A very large number of NMR parameters from lipid bilayers is now accessible, providing information about conformation and dynamics for every lipid segment. The NMR methods have the sensitivity and resolution to study lipid-protein interaction, lateral lipid organization, and the location of solvents and drugs in the lipid matrix.

MERLIN - A meV Resolution Beamline at the ALS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reininger, Ruben; Bozek, John; Chuang, Y.-D.

2007-01-19

An ultra-high resolution beamline is being constructed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) for the study of low energy excitations in strongly correlated systems with the use of high-resolution inelastic scattering and angle-resolved photoemission. This new beamline, given the acronym Merlin (for meV resolution line), will cover the energy range 10-150 eV. The monochromator has fixed entrance and exit slits and a plane mirror that can illuminate a spherical grating at the required angle of incidence (as in the SX-700 mechanism). The monochromator can be operated in two different modes. In the highest resolution mode, the energy scanning requires translatingmore » the monochromator chamber (total travel 1.1 m) as well as rotating the grating and the plane mirror in front of the grating. The resolution in this mode is practically determined by the slits width. In the second mode, the scanning requires rotating the grating and the plane mirror. This mode can be used to scan a few eV without a significant resolution loss. The source for the beamline is a 1.9 m long, 90 mm period quasi periodic EPU. The expected flux at the sample is higher than 1011 photons/s at a resolving power of 5 x 104 in the energy range 16-130 eV. A second set of gratings can be used to obtain higher flux at the expense of resolution.« less

Evidence for a Population of High-Redshift Submillimeter Galaxies from Interferometric Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Younger, Joshua D.; Fazio, Giovanni G.; Huang, Jia-Sheng; Yun, Min S.; Wilson, Grant W.; Ashby, Matthew L. N.; Gurwell, Mark A.; Lai, Kamson; Peck, Alison B.; Petitpas, Glen R.; Wilner, David J.; Iono, Daisuke; Kohno, Kotaro; Kawabe, Ryohei; Hughes, David H.; Aretxaga, Itziar; Webb, Tracy; Martínez-Sansigre, Alejo; Kim, Sungeun; Scott, Kimberly S.; Austermann, Jason; Perera, Thushara; Lowenthal, James D.; Schinnerer, Eva; Smolčić, Vernesa

2007-12-01

We have used the Submillimeter Array to image a flux-limited sample of seven submillimeter galaxies, selected by the AzTEC camera on the JCMT at 1.1 mm, in the COSMOS field at 890 μm with ~2" resolution. All of the sources-two radio-bright and five radio-dim-are detected as single point sources at high significance (>6 σ), with positions accurate to ~0.2" that enable counterpart identification at other wavelengths observed with similarly high angular resolution. All seven have IRAC counterparts, but only two have secure counterparts in deep HST ACS imaging. As compared to the two radio-bright sources in the sample, and those in previous studies, the five radio-dim sources in the sample (1) have systematically higher submillimeter-to-radio flux ratios, (2) have lower IRAC 3.6-8.0 μm fluxes, and (3) are not detected at 24 μm. These properties, combined with size constraints at 890 μm (θ<~1.2''), suggest that the radio-dim submillimeter galaxies represent a population of very dusty starbursts, with physical scales similar to local ultraluminous infrared galaxies, with an average redshift higher than radio-bright sources.

Chirped or time modulated excitation compared to short pulses for photoacoustic imaging in acoustic attenuating media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgholzer, P.; Motz, C.; Lang, O.; Berer, T.; Huemer, M.

2018-02-01

In photoacoustic imaging, optically generated acoustic waves transport the information about embedded structures to the sample surface. Usually, short laser pulses are used for the acoustic excitation. Acoustic attenuation increases for higher frequencies, which reduces the bandwidth and limits the spatial resolution. One could think of more efficient waveforms than single short pulses, such as pseudo noise codes, chirped, or harmonic excitation, which could enable a higher information-transfer from the samples interior to its surface by acoustic waves. We used a linear state space model to discretize the wave equation, such as the Stoke's equation, but this method could be used for any other linear wave equation. Linear estimators and a non-linear function inversion were applied to the measured surface data, for onedimensional image reconstruction. The proposed estimation method allows optimizing the temporal modulation of the excitation laser such that the accuracy and spatial resolution of the reconstructed image is maximized. We have restricted ourselves to one-dimensional models, as for higher dimensions the one-dimensional reconstruction, which corresponds to the acoustic wave without attenuation, can be used as input for any ultrasound imaging method, such as back-projection or time-reversal method.

Nanoscale measurement of trace element distributions in Spartina alterniflora root tissue during dormancy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feng, Huan; Qian, Yu; Cochran, J. Kirk

Here, this article reports a nanometer-scale investigation of trace element (As, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, S and Zn) distributions in the root system Spartina alterniflora during dormancy. The sample was collected on a salt marsh island in Jamaica Bay, New York, in April 2015 and the root was cross-sectioned with 10 μm resolution. Synchrotron X-ray nanofluorescence was applied to map the trace element distributions in selected areas of the root epidermis and endodermis. The sampling resolution was 60 nm to increase the measurement accuracy and reduce the uncertainty. The results indicate that the elemental concentrations in the epidermis,more » outer endodermis and inner endodermis are significantly (p < 0.01) different. The root endodermis has relatively higher concentrations of these elements than the root epidermis. Furthermore, this high resolution measurement indicates that the elemental concentrations in the outer endodermis are significantly (p < 0.01) higher than those in the inner endodermis. These results suggest that the Casparian strip may play a role in governing the aplastic transport of these elements. Pearson correlation analysis on the average concentrations of each element in the selected areas shows that most of the elements are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated, which suggests that these elements may share the same transport pathways.« less

Nanoscale measurement of trace element distributions in Spartina alterniflora root tissue during dormancy

DOE PAGES

Feng, Huan; Qian, Yu; Cochran, J. Kirk; ...

2017-01-18

Here, this article reports a nanometer-scale investigation of trace element (As, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, S and Zn) distributions in the root system Spartina alterniflora during dormancy. The sample was collected on a salt marsh island in Jamaica Bay, New York, in April 2015 and the root was cross-sectioned with 10 μm resolution. Synchrotron X-ray nanofluorescence was applied to map the trace element distributions in selected areas of the root epidermis and endodermis. The sampling resolution was 60 nm to increase the measurement accuracy and reduce the uncertainty. The results indicate that the elemental concentrations in the epidermis,more » outer endodermis and inner endodermis are significantly (p < 0.01) different. The root endodermis has relatively higher concentrations of these elements than the root epidermis. Furthermore, this high resolution measurement indicates that the elemental concentrations in the outer endodermis are significantly (p < 0.01) higher than those in the inner endodermis. These results suggest that the Casparian strip may play a role in governing the aplastic transport of these elements. Pearson correlation analysis on the average concentrations of each element in the selected areas shows that most of the elements are significantly (p < 0.05) correlated, which suggests that these elements may share the same transport pathways.« less

Comparing high-resolution microscopy techniques for potential intraoperative use in guiding low-grade glioma resections.

PubMed

Meza, Daphne; Wang, Danni; Wang, Yu; Borwege, Sabine; Sanai, Nader; Liu, Jonathan T C

2015-04-01

Fluorescence image-guided surgery (FIGS), with contrast provided by 5-ALA-induced PpIX, has been shown to enable a higher extent of resection of high-grade gliomas. However, conventional FIGS with low-power microscopy lacks the sensitivity to aid in low-grade glioma (LGG) resection because PpIX signal is weak and sparse in such tissues. Intraoperative high-resolution microscopy of PpIX fluorescence has been proposed as a method to guide LGG resection, where sub-cellular resolution allows for the visualization of sparse and punctate mitochondrial PpIX production in tumor cells. Here, we assess the performance of three potentially portable high-resolution microscopy techniques that may be used for the intraoperative imaging of human LGG tissue samples with PpIX contrast: high-resolution fiber-optic microscopy (HRFM), high-resolution wide-field microscopy (WFM), and dual-axis confocal (DAC) microscopy. Thick unsectioned human LGG tissue samples (n = 7) with 5-ALA-induced PpIX contrast were imaged using three imaging techniques (HRFM, WFM, DAC). The average signal-to-background ratio (SBR) was then calculated for each imaging modality (5 images per tissue, per modality). HRFM provides the ease of use and portability of a flexible fiber bundle, and is simple and inexpensive to build. However, in most cases (6/7), HRFM is not capable of detecting PpIX signal from LGGs due to high autofluorescence, generated by the fiber bundle under laser illumination at 405 nm, which overwhelms the PpIX signal and impedes its visualization. WFM is a camera-based method possessing high lateral resolution but poor axial resolution, resulting in sub-optimal image contrast. Consistent successful detection of PpIX signal throughout our human LGG tissue samples (n = 7), with an acceptable image contrast (SBR >2), was only achieved using DAC microscopy, which offers superior image resolution and contrast that is comparable to histology, but requires a laser-scanning mechanism to achieve optical sectioning. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Recent Advances in 3D Time-Resolved Contrast-Enhanced MR Angiography

PubMed Central

Riederer, Stephen J.; Haider, Clifton R.; Borisch, Eric A.; Weavers, Paul T.; Young, Phillip M.

2015-01-01

Contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) was first introduced for clinical studies approximately 20 years ago. Early work provided 3 to 4 mm spatial resolution with acquisition times in the 30 sec range. Since that time there has been continuing effort to provide improved spatial resolution with reduced acquisition time, allowing high resolution three-dimensional (3D) time-resolved studies. The purpose of this work is to describe how this has been accomplished. Specific technical enablers have been: improved gradients allowing reduced repetition times, improved k-space sampling and reconstruction methods, parallel acquisition particularly in two directions, and improved and higher count receiver coil arrays. These have collectively made high resolution time-resolved studies readily available for many anatomic regions. Depending on the application, approximate 1 mm isotropic resolution is now possible with frame times of several seconds. Clinical applications of time-resolved CE-MRA are briefly reviewed. PMID:26032598

On high-resolution reciprocal-space mapping with a triple-crystal diffractometer for high-energy X-rays.

PubMed

Liss, K D; Royer, A; Tschentscher, T; Suortti, P; Williams, A P

1998-03-01

High-energy X-rav diffraction by means of triple-crystal techniques is a powerful tool for investigating dislocations and strain in bulk materials. Radiation with an energy typically higher than 80 keV combines the advantage of low attenuation with high resolution at large momentum transfers. The triple-crystal diffractometer at the High Energy Beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility is described. It is shown how the transverse and longitudinal resolution depend on the choice of the crystal reflection, and how the orientation of a reciprocal-lattice distortion in an investigated sample towards the resolution element of the instrument can play an important role. This effect is demonstrated on a single crystal of silicon where a layer of macro pores reveals satellites around the Bragg reflection. The resulting longitudinal distortion can be investigated using the high transverse resolution of the instrument when choosing an appropriate reflection.

Determination of gold and cobalt dopants in advanced materials based on tin oxide by slurry sampling high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filatova, Daria G.; Eskina, Vasilina V.; Baranovskaya, Vasilisa B.; Vladimirova, Svetlana A.; Gaskov, Alexander M.; Rumyantseva, Marina N.; Karpov, Yuri A.

2018-02-01

A novel approach is developed for the determination of Co and Au dopants in advanced materials based on tin oxide using high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (HR CS GFAAS) with direct slurry sampling. Sodium carboxylmethylcellulose (Na-CMC) is an effective stabilizer for diluted suspensions. Use Na-CMC allows to transfer the analytes into graphite furnace completely and reproducibly. The relative standard deviation obtained by HR CS GFAAS was not higher than 4%. Accuracy was proven by means inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in solutions after decomposition as a comparative technique. To determine Au and Co in the volume of SnO2, the acid decomposition conditions (HCl, HF) of the samples were suggested by means of an autoclave in a microwave oven.

Computational considerations for collecting and using data in the equidistant cylindrical map projection and the bounds of sampling geographic data at progressively higher resolution

USGS Publications Warehouse

Foley, Kevin M.

2011-01-01

The Equidistant Cylindrical Map projection is popular with digital modelers and others for storing and processing worldwide data sets because of the simple association of latitude and longitude to cell values or pixels in the resulting grid. This projection does not accurately display area, and the diminished geographic area represented by cells at high latitudes is not often carefully considered. A simple mathematical analysis quantifies the discrepancy in area sampled by cells at different latitudes. The presence of this discrepancy indicates that the use of this projection can induce bias in data sets when both sampling and reporting data. It is demonstrated that as the resolution requirements of input data for models increase, the necessity of providing data to accurately describe smaller cells, particularly at high latitude, will be a challenge.

Self-sensing cantilevers with integrated conductive coaxial tips for high-resolution electrical scanning probe metrology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Haemmerli, Alexandre J.; Pruitt, Beth L., E-mail: pruitt@stanford.edu; Harjee, Nahid

The lateral resolution of many electrical scanning probe techniques is limited by the spatial extent of the electrostatic potential profiles produced by their probes. Conventional unshielded conductive atomic force microscopy probes produce broad potential profiles. Shielded probes could offer higher resolution and easier data interpretation in the study of nanostructures. Electrical scanning probe techniques require a method of locating structures of interest, often by mapping surface topography. As the samples studied with these techniques are often photosensitive, the typical laser measurement of cantilever deflection can excite the sample, causing undesirable changes electrical properties. In this work, we present the design,more » fabrication, and characterization of probes that integrate coaxial tips for spatially sharp potential profiles with piezoresistors for self-contained, electrical displacement sensing. With the apex 100 nm above the sample surface, the electrostatic potential profile produced by our coaxial tips is more than 2 times narrower than that of unshielded tips with no long tails. In a scan bandwidth of 1 Hz–10 kHz, our probes have a displacement resolution of 2.9 Å at 293 K and 79 Å at 2 K, where the low-temperature performance is limited by amplifier noise. We show scanning gate microscopy images of a quantum point contact obtained with our probes, highlighting the improvement to lateral resolution resulting from the coaxial tip.« less

Higher sensitivity secondary ion mass spectrometry of biological molecules for high resolution, chemically specific imaging.

PubMed

McDonnell, Liam A; Heeren, Ron M A; de Lange, Robert P J; Fletcher, Ian W

2006-09-01

To expand the role of high spatial resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in biological studies, numerous developments have been reported in recent years for enhancing the molecular ion yield of high mass molecules. These include both surface modification, including matrix-enhanced SIMS and metal-assisted SIMS, and polyatomic primary ions. Using rat brain tissue sections and a bismuth primary ion gun able to produce atomic and polyatomic primary ions, we report here how the sensitivity enhancements provided by these developments are additive. Combined surface modification and polyatomic primary ions provided approximately 15.8 times more signal than using atomic primary ions on the raw sample, whereas surface modification and polyatomic primary ions yield approximately 3.8 and approximately 8.4 times more signal. This higher sensitivity is used to generate chemically specific images of higher mass biomolecules using a single molecular ion peak.

Systematic assessment of survey scan and MS2-based abundance strategies for label-free quantitative proteomics using high-resolution MS data.

PubMed

Tu, Chengjian; Li, Jun; Sheng, Quanhu; Zhang, Ming; Qu, Jun

2014-04-04

Survey-scan-based label-free method have shown no compelling benefit over fragment ion (MS2)-based approaches when low-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) was used, the growing prevalence of high-resolution analyzers may have changed the game. This necessitates an updated, comparative investigation of these approaches for data acquired by high-resolution MS. Here, we compared survey scan-based (ion current, IC) and MS2-based abundance features including spectral-count (SpC) and MS2 total-ion-current (MS2-TIC), for quantitative analysis using various high-resolution LC/MS data sets. Key discoveries include: (i) study with seven different biological data sets revealed only IC achieved high reproducibility for lower-abundance proteins; (ii) evaluation with 5-replicate analyses of a yeast sample showed IC provided much higher quantitative precision and lower missing data; (iii) IC, SpC, and MS2-TIC all showed good quantitative linearity (R(2) > 0.99) over a >1000-fold concentration range; (iv) both MS2-TIC and IC showed good linear response to various protein loading amounts but not SpC; (v) quantification using a well-characterized CPTAC data set showed that IC exhibited markedly higher quantitative accuracy, higher sensitivity, and lower false-positives/false-negatives than both SpC and MS2-TIC. Therefore, IC achieved an overall superior performance than the MS2-based strategies in terms of reproducibility, missing data, quantitative dynamic range, quantitative accuracy, and biomarker discovery.

Systematic Assessment of Survey Scan and MS2-Based Abundance Strategies for Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics Using High-Resolution MS Data

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Survey-scan-based label-free method have shown no compelling benefit over fragment ion (MS2)-based approaches when low-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) was used, the growing prevalence of high-resolution analyzers may have changed the game. This necessitates an updated, comparative investigation of these approaches for data acquired by high-resolution MS. Here, we compared survey scan-based (ion current, IC) and MS2-based abundance features including spectral-count (SpC) and MS2 total-ion-current (MS2-TIC), for quantitative analysis using various high-resolution LC/MS data sets. Key discoveries include: (i) study with seven different biological data sets revealed only IC achieved high reproducibility for lower-abundance proteins; (ii) evaluation with 5-replicate analyses of a yeast sample showed IC provided much higher quantitative precision and lower missing data; (iii) IC, SpC, and MS2-TIC all showed good quantitative linearity (R2 > 0.99) over a >1000-fold concentration range; (iv) both MS2-TIC and IC showed good linear response to various protein loading amounts but not SpC; (v) quantification using a well-characterized CPTAC data set showed that IC exhibited markedly higher quantitative accuracy, higher sensitivity, and lower false-positives/false-negatives than both SpC and MS2-TIC. Therefore, IC achieved an overall superior performance than the MS2-based strategies in terms of reproducibility, missing data, quantitative dynamic range, quantitative accuracy, and biomarker discovery. PMID:24635752

High temporal resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI using compressed sensing-combined sequence in quantitative renal perfusion measurement.

PubMed

Chen, Bin; Zhao, Kai; Li, Bo; Cai, Wenchao; Wang, Xiaoying; Zhang, Jue; Fang, Jing

2015-10-01

To demonstrate the feasibility of the improved temporal resolution by using compressed sensing (CS) combined imaging sequence in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) of kidney, and investigate its quantitative effects on renal perfusion measurements. Ten rabbits were included in the accelerated scans with a CS-combined 3D pulse sequence. To evaluate the image quality, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were compared between the proposed CS strategy and the conventional full sampling method. Moreover, renal perfusion was estimated by using the separable compartmental model in both CS simulation and realistic CS acquisitions. The CS method showed DCE-MRI images with improved temporal resolution and acceptable image contrast, while presenting significantly higher SNR than the fully sampled images (p<.01) at 2-, 3- and 4-X acceleration. In quantitative measurements, renal perfusion results were in good agreement with the fully sampled one (concordance correlation coefficient=0.95, 0.91, 0.88) at 2-, 3- and 4-X acceleration in CS simulation. Moreover, in realistic acquisitions, the estimated perfusion by the separable compartmental model exhibited no significant differences (p>.05) between each CS-accelerated acquisition and the full sampling method. The CS-combined 3D sequence could improve the temporal resolution for DCE-MRI in kidney while yielding diagnostically acceptable image quality, and it could provide effective measurements of renal perfusion. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Computer-aided Prognosis of Neuroblastoma on Whole-slide Images: Classification of Stromal Development

PubMed Central

Sertel, O.; Kong, J.; Shimada, H.; Catalyurek, U.V.; Saltz, J.H.; Gurcan, M.N.

2009-01-01

We are developing a computer-aided prognosis system for neuroblastoma (NB), a cancer of the nervous system and one of the most malignant tumors affecting children. Histopathological examination is an important stage for further treatment planning in routine clinical diagnosis of NB. According to the International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (the Shimada system), NB patients are classified into favorable and unfavorable histology based on the tissue morphology. In this study, we propose an image analysis system that operates on digitized H&E stained whole-slide NB tissue samples and classifies each slide as either stroma-rich or stroma-poor based on the degree of Schwannian stromal development. Our statistical framework performs the classification based on texture features extracted using co-occurrence statistics and local binary patterns. Due to the high resolution of digitized whole-slide images, we propose a multi-resolution approach that mimics the evaluation of a pathologist such that the image analysis starts from the lowest resolution and switches to higher resolutions when necessary. We employ an offine feature selection step, which determines the most discriminative features at each resolution level during the training step. A modified k-nearest neighbor classifier is used to determine the confidence level of the classification to make the decision at a particular resolution level. The proposed approach was independently tested on 43 whole-slide samples and provided an overall classification accuracy of 88.4%. PMID:20161324

Thermodynamic limitations on the resolution obtainable with metal replicas.

PubMed

Woodward, J T; Zasadzinski, J A

1996-12-01

The major factor limiting resolution of metal-shadowed surfaces for electron and scanning tunnelling microscopy is the granularity of the metal film. This granularity had been believed to result from a recrystallization of the evaporated film, and hence could be limited by use of higher melting point materials for replication, or inhibited by adding carbon or other impurities to the film. However, evaporated and sputtered films of amorphous metal alloys that do not crystallize also show a granularity that decreases with increasing alloy melting point. A simple thermodynamic analysis shows that the granularity results from a dewetting of the typically low surface energy sample by the high surface energy metal film, similar to the beading up of drops of spilled mercury. The metal granularity and the resulting resolution of the metal-coated surface is proportional to the mobility of the metal on the surface after evaporation, which is related to the difference in temperature between the melting point of the metal and the sample surface temperature.

Investigation of noise properties in grating-based x-ray phase tomography with reverse projection method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, Yuan; Wang, Yan; Gao, Kun; Wang, Zhi-Li; Zhu, Pei-Ping; Wu, Zi-Yu

2015-10-01

The relationship between noise variance and spatial resolution in grating-based x-ray phase computed tomography (PCT) imaging is investigated with reverse projection extraction method, and the noise variances of the reconstructed absorption coefficient and refractive index decrement are compared. For the differential phase contrast method, the noise variance in the differential projection images follows the same inverse-square law with spatial resolution as in conventional absorption-based x-ray imaging projections. However, both theoretical analysis and simulations demonstrate that in PCT the noise variance of the reconstructed refractive index decrement scales with spatial resolution follows an inverse linear relationship at fixed slice thickness, while the noise variance of the reconstructed absorption coefficient conforms with the inverse cubic law. The results indicate that, for the same noise variance level, PCT imaging may enable higher spatial resolution than conventional absorption computed tomography (ACT), while ACT benefits more from degraded spatial resolution. This could be a useful guidance in imaging the inner structure of the sample in higher spatial resolution. Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB825800), the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups, the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. KJCX2-YW-N42 and Y4545320Y2), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11475170, 11205157, 11305173, 11205189, 11375225, 11321503, 11179004, and U1332109).

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ogura, Toshihiko, E-mail: t-ogura@aist.go.jp

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been widely used to examine biological specimens of bacteria, viruses and proteins. Until now, atmospheric and/or wet biological specimens have been examined using various atmospheric holders or special equipment involving SEM. Unfortunately, they undergo heavy radiation damage by the direct electron beam. In addition, images of unstained biological samples in water yield poor contrast. We recently developed a new analytical technology involving a frequency transmission electric-field (FTE) method based on thermionic SEM. This method is suitable for high-contrast imaging of unstained biological specimens. Our aim was to optimise the method. Here we describe a high-resolutionmore » FTE system based on field-emission SEM; it allows for imaging and nanoscale examination of various biological specimens in water without radiation damage. The spatial resolution is 8 nm, which is higher than 41 nm of the existing FTE system. Our new method can be easily utilised for examination of unstained biological specimens including bacteria, viruses and protein complexes. Furthermore, our high-resolution FTE system can be used for diverse liquid samples across a broad range of scientific fields, e.g. nanoparticles, nanotubes and organic and catalytic materials. - Highlights: • We developed a high-resolution frequency transmission electric-field (FTE) system. • High-resolution FTE system is introduced in the field-emission SEM. • The spatial resolution of high-resolution FTE method is 8 nm. • High-resolution FTE system enables observation of the intact IgM particles in water.« less

Local and Systemic Inflammatory Responses to Experimentally Induced Gingivitis

PubMed Central

Leishman, Shaneen J.; Seymour, Gregory J.; Ford, Pauline J.

2013-01-01

This study profiled the local and systemic inflammatory responses to experimentally induced gingivitis. Eight females participated in a 21-day experimental gingivitis model followed by a 14-day resolution phase. Bleeding on probing and plaque index scores were assessed before, during, and after resolution of gingival inflammation, and samples of saliva, GCF, and plasma were collected. Samples were assessed for biomarkers of inflammation using the BioPlex platform and ELISA. There were no significant changes in GCF levels of cytokines during the experimental phase; however, individual variability in cytokine profiles was noted. During resolution, mean GCF levels of IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α decreased and were significantly lower than baseline levels (P = 0.003, P = 0.025, and P = 0.007, resp.). Furthermore, changes in GCF levels of IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α during resolution correlated with changes in plaque index scores (r = 0.88, P = 0.004; r = 0.72, P = 0.042; r = 0.79, P = 0.019, resp.). Plasma levels of sICAM-1 increased significantly during the experimental phase (P = 0.002) and remained elevated and significantly higher than baseline levels during resolution (P < 0.001). These results support the concept that gingivitis adds to the systemic inflammatory burden of an individual. PMID:24227893

Local and systemic inflammatory responses to experimentally induced gingivitis.

PubMed

Leishman, Shaneen J; Seymour, Gregory J; Ford, Pauline J

2013-01-01

This study profiled the local and systemic inflammatory responses to experimentally induced gingivitis. Eight females participated in a 21-day experimental gingivitis model followed by a 14-day resolution phase. Bleeding on probing and plaque index scores were assessed before, during, and after resolution of gingival inflammation, and samples of saliva, GCF, and plasma were collected. Samples were assessed for biomarkers of inflammation using the BioPlex platform and ELISA. There were no significant changes in GCF levels of cytokines during the experimental phase; however, individual variability in cytokine profiles was noted. During resolution, mean GCF levels of IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α decreased and were significantly lower than baseline levels (P = 0.003, P = 0.025, and P = 0.007, resp.). Furthermore, changes in GCF levels of IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-α during resolution correlated with changes in plaque index scores (r = 0.88, P = 0.004; r = 0.72, P = 0.042; r = 0.79, P = 0.019, resp.). Plasma levels of sICAM-1 increased significantly during the experimental phase (P = 0.002) and remained elevated and significantly higher than baseline levels during resolution (P < 0.001). These results support the concept that gingivitis adds to the systemic inflammatory burden of an individual.

Sediment Core Extrusion Method at Millimeter Resolution Using a Calibrated, Threaded-rod.

PubMed

Schwing, Patrick T; Romero, Isabel C; Larson, Rebekka A; O'Malley, Bryan J; Fridrik, Erika E; Goddard, Ethan A; Brooks, Gregg R; Hastings, David W; Rosenheim, Brad E; Hollander, David J; Grant, Guy; Mulhollan, Jim

2016-08-17

Aquatic sediment core subsampling is commonly performed at cm or half-cm resolution. Depending on the sedimentation rate and depositional environment, this resolution provides records at the annual to decadal scale, at best. An extrusion method, using a calibrated, threaded-rod is presented here, which allows for millimeter-scale subsampling of aquatic sediment cores of varying diameters. Millimeter scale subsampling allows for sub-annual to monthly analysis of the sedimentary record, an order of magnitude higher than typical sampling schemes. The extruder consists of a 2 m aluminum frame and base, two core tube clamps, a threaded-rod, and a 1 m piston. The sediment core is placed above the piston and clamped to the frame. An acrylic sampling collar is affixed to the upper 5 cm of the core tube and provides a platform from which to extract sub-samples. The piston is rotated around the threaded-rod at calibrated intervals and gently pushes the sediment out the top of the core tube. The sediment is then isolated into the sampling collar and placed into an appropriate sampling vessel (e.g., jar or bag). This method also preserves the unconsolidated samples (i.e., high pore water content) at the surface, providing a consistent sampling volume. This mm scale extrusion method was applied to cores collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon submarine oil release. Evidence suggests that it is necessary to sample at the mm scale to fully characterize events that occur on the monthly time-scale for continental slope sediments.

Sediment Core Extrusion Method at Millimeter Resolution Using a Calibrated, Threaded-rod

PubMed Central

Schwing, Patrick T.; Romero, Isabel C.; Larson, Rebekka A.; O'Malley, Bryan J.; Fridrik, Erika E.; Goddard, Ethan A.; Brooks, Gregg R.; Hastings, David W.; Rosenheim, Brad E.; Hollander, David J.; Grant, Guy; Mulhollan, Jim

2016-01-01

Aquatic sediment core subsampling is commonly performed at cm or half-cm resolution. Depending on the sedimentation rate and depositional environment, this resolution provides records at the annual to decadal scale, at best. An extrusion method, using a calibrated, threaded-rod is presented here, which allows for millimeter-scale subsampling of aquatic sediment cores of varying diameters. Millimeter scale subsampling allows for sub-annual to monthly analysis of the sedimentary record, an order of magnitude higher than typical sampling schemes. The extruder consists of a 2 m aluminum frame and base, two core tube clamps, a threaded-rod, and a 1 m piston. The sediment core is placed above the piston and clamped to the frame. An acrylic sampling collar is affixed to the upper 5 cm of the core tube and provides a platform from which to extract sub-samples. The piston is rotated around the threaded-rod at calibrated intervals and gently pushes the sediment out the top of the core tube. The sediment is then isolated into the sampling collar and placed into an appropriate sampling vessel (e.g., jar or bag). This method also preserves the unconsolidated samples (i.e., high pore water content) at the surface, providing a consistent sampling volume. This mm scale extrusion method was applied to cores collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon submarine oil release. Evidence suggests that it is necessary to sample at the mm scale to fully characterize events that occur on the monthly time-scale for continental slope sediments. PMID:27585268

Improving the UNC Passive Aerosol Sampler Model Based on Comparison with Commonly Used Aerosol Sampling Methods.

PubMed

Shirdel, Mariam; Andersson, Britt M; Bergdahl, Ingvar A; Sommar, Johan N; Wingfors, Håkan; Liljelind, Ingrid E

2018-03-12

In an occupational environment, passive sampling could be an alternative to active sampling with pumps for sampling of dust. One passive sampler is the University of North Carolina passive aerosol sampler (UNC sampler). It is often analysed by microscopic imaging. Promising results have been shown for particles above 2.5 µm, but indicate large underestimations for PM2.5. The aim of this study was to evaluate, and possibly improve, the UNC sampler for stationary sampling in a working environment. Sampling was carried out at 8-h intervals during 24 h in four locations in an open pit mine with UNC samplers, respirable cyclones, PM10 and PM2.5 impactors, and an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). The wind was minimal. For quantification, two modifications of the UNC sampler analysis model, UNC sampler with hybrid model and UNC sampler with area factor, were compared with the original one, UNC sampler with mesh factor derived from wind tunnel experiments. The effect of increased resolution for the microscopic imaging was examined. Use of the area factor and a higher resolution eliminated the underestimation for PM10 and PM2.5. The model with area factor had the overall lowest deviation versus the impactor and the cyclone. The intraclass correlation (ICC) showed that the UNC sampler had a higher precision and better ability to distinguish between different exposure levels compared to the cyclone (ICC: 0.51 versus 0.24), but lower precision compared to the impactor (PM10: 0.79 versus 0.99; PM2.5: 0.30 versus 0.45). The particle size distributions as calculated from the different UNC sampler analysis models were visually compared with the distributions determined by APS. The distributions were obviously different when the UNC sampler with mesh factor was used but came to a reasonable agreement when the area factor was used. High resolution combined with a factor based on area only, results in no underestimation of small particles compared to impactors and cyclones and a better agreement with the APS's particle size distributions. The UNC sampler had lower precision than the impactors, but higher than the respirable cyclone. The UNC sampler with area factor could be used for PM2.5, PM10 and respirable fraction measurements in this working environment without wind.

Improving the UNC Passive Aerosol Sampler Model Based on Comparison with Commonly Used Aerosol Sampling Methods

PubMed Central

Shirdel, Mariam; Andersson, Britt M; Bergdahl, Ingvar A; Sommar, Johan N; Wingfors, Håkan; Liljelind, Ingrid E

2018-01-01

Abstract Objectives In an occupational environment, passive sampling could be an alternative to active sampling with pumps for sampling of dust. One passive sampler is the University of North Carolina passive aerosol sampler (UNC sampler). It is often analysed by microscopic imaging. Promising results have been shown for particles above 2.5 µm, but indicate large underestimations for PM2.5. The aim of this study was to evaluate, and possibly improve, the UNC sampler for stationary sampling in a working environment. Methods Sampling was carried out at 8-h intervals during 24 h in four locations in an open pit mine with UNC samplers, respirable cyclones, PM10 and PM2.5 impactors, and an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). The wind was minimal. For quantification, two modifications of the UNC sampler analysis model, UNC sampler with hybrid model and UNC sampler with area factor, were compared with the original one, UNC sampler with mesh factor derived from wind tunnel experiments. The effect of increased resolution for the microscopic imaging was examined. Results Use of the area factor and a higher resolution eliminated the underestimation for PM10 and PM2.5. The model with area factor had the overall lowest deviation versus the impactor and the cyclone. The intraclass correlation (ICC) showed that the UNC sampler had a higher precision and better ability to distinguish between different exposure levels compared to the cyclone (ICC: 0.51 versus 0.24), but lower precision compared to the impactor (PM10: 0.79 versus 0.99; PM2.5: 0.30 versus 0.45). The particle size distributions as calculated from the different UNC sampler analysis models were visually compared with the distributions determined by APS. The distributions were obviously different when the UNC sampler with mesh factor was used but came to a reasonable agreement when the area factor was used. Conclusions High resolution combined with a factor based on area only, results in no underestimation of small particles compared to impactors and cyclones and a better agreement with the APS’s particle size distributions. The UNC sampler had lower precision than the impactors, but higher than the respirable cyclone. The UNC sampler with area factor could be used for PM2.5, PM10 and respirable fraction measurements in this working environment without wind. PMID:29300818

Element Specific Imaging Using Muonic X-rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hillier, Adrian; Ishida, Katsu; Seller, Paul; Veale, Matthew C.; Wilson, Matthew D.

The RIKEN-RAL facility provides a source of negative muons that can be used to non-destructively determine the elemental composition of bulk samples. A negative muon can replace an electron in an atom and subsequently transition to lower orbital positions. As with conventional X-ray fluorescence, an X-ray photon is emitted with a characteristic energy to enable the transition between orbitals of an atom. As the mass of a negative muon is much greater than that of an electron, a higher energy X-ray photon is emitted when the negative muon transitions between orbitals compared to conventional X-ray fluorescence. The higher energy muonic X-rays are able to escape large samples even when they are emitted from lower Z atoms, making muonic X-rays fluorescence a unique method to characterize the elemental content of a sample. In a typical experiment a section of a sample will be probed with negative muons with the muon momentum tuned to interact at a desired depth in the sample. A small number of single element high purity Ge detectors are positioned to capture up to one photon each from each of the forty muon pulses per second at the RIKEN-RAL facility. This can provide a high resolution and high dynamic range X-ray energy spectrum when collected for several hours but can only provide a spatial average or single point elemental distribution per collection. Here, an STFC developed CdTe detector with 80 × 80 energy resolving channels has been used to demonstrate the ability to image the elemental distribution of a test sample. A test sample of C, Al, and Fe2O3 was positioned close to the detector surface and each of the 250 µm pitch pixels recorded a muonic X-ray energy spectrum. Results are presented to show the principal of this new technique and potential improvements to provide higher resolution and larger area elemental imaging using muonic X-rays are discussed.

Ultrasound Imaging Using Diffraction Tomography in a Cylindrical Geometry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chambers, D H; Littrup, P

2002-01-24

Tomographic images of tissue phantoms and a sample of breast tissue have been produced from an acoustic synthetic array system for frequencies near 500 kHz. The images for sound speed and attenuation show millimeter resolution and demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining high-resolution tomographic images with frequencies that can deeply penetrate tissue. The image reconstruction method is based on the Born approximation to acoustic scattering and is a simplified version of a method previously used by Andre (Andre, et. al., Int. J. Imaging Systems and Technology, Vol 8, No. 1, 1997) for a circular acoustic array system. The images have comparablemore » resolution to conventional ultrasound images at much higher frequencies (3-5 MHz) but with lower speckle noise. This shows the potential of low frequency, deeply penetrating, ultrasound for high-resolution quantitative imaging.« less

A multimodel intercomparison of resolution effects on precipitation: simulations and theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rauscher, Sara A.; O'Brien, Travis A.; Piani, Claudio; Coppola, Erika; Giorgi, Filippo; Collins, William D.; Lawston, Patricia M.

2016-10-01

An ensemble of six pairs of RCM experiments performed at 25 and 50 km for the period 1961-2000 over a large European domain is examined in order to evaluate the effects of resolution on the simulation of daily precipitation statistics. Application of the non-parametric two-sample Kolmorgorov-Smirnov test, which tests for differences in the location and shape of the probability distributions of two samples, shows that the distribution of daily precipitation differs between the pairs of simulations over most land areas in both summer and winter, with the strongest signal over southern Europe. Two-dimensional histograms reveal that precipitation intensity increases with resolution over almost the entire domain in both winter and summer. In addition, the 25 km simulations have more dry days than the 50 km simulations. The increase in dry days with resolution is indicative of an improvement in model performance at higher resolution, while the more intense precipitation exceeds observed values. The systematic increase in precipitation extremes with resolution across all models suggests that this response is fundamental to model formulation. Simple theoretical arguments suggest that fluid continuity, combined with the emergent scaling properties of the horizontal wind field, results in an increase in resolved vertical transport as grid spacing decreases. This increase in resolution-dependent vertical mass flux then drives an intensification of convergence and resolvable-scale precipitation as grid spacing decreases. This theoretical result could help explain the increasingly, and often anomalously, large stratiform contribution to total rainfall observed with increasing resolution in many regional and global models.

Application of CRAFT (complete reduction to amplitude frequency table) in nonuniformly sampled (NUS) 2D NMR data processing.

PubMed

Krishnamurthy, Krish; Hari, Natarajan

2017-09-15

The recently published CRAFT (complete reduction to amplitude frequency table) technique converts the raw FID data (i.e., time domain data) into a table of frequencies, amplitudes, decay rate constants, and phases. It offers an alternate approach to decimate time-domain data, with minimal preprocessing step. It has been shown that application of CRAFT technique to process the t 1 dimension of the 2D data significantly improved the detectable resolution by its ability to analyze without the use of ubiquitous apodization of extensively zero-filled data. It was noted earlier that CRAFT did not resolve sinusoids that were not already resolvable in time-domain (i.e., t 1 max dependent resolution). We present a combined NUS-IST-CRAFT approach wherein the NUS acquisition technique (sparse sampling technique) increases the intrinsic resolution in time-domain (by increasing t 1 max), IST fills the gap in the sparse sampling, and CRAFT processing extracts the information without loss due to any severe apodization. NUS and CRAFT are thus complementary techniques to improve intrinsic and usable resolution. We show that significant improvement can be achieved with this combination over conventional NUS-IST processing. With reasonable sensitivity, the models can be extended to significantly higher t 1 max to generate an indirect-DEPT spectrum that rivals the direct observe counterpart. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A novel super-resolution camera model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Xiaopeng; Wang, Yi; Xu, Jie; Wang, Lin; Liu, Fei; Luo, Qiuhua; Chen, Xiaodong; Bi, Xiangli

2015-05-01

Aiming to realize super resolution(SR) to single image and video reconstruction, a super resolution camera model is proposed for the problem that the resolution of the images obtained by traditional cameras behave comparatively low. To achieve this function we put a certain driving device such as piezoelectric ceramics in the camera. By controlling the driving device, a set of continuous low resolution(LR) images can be obtained and stored instantaneity, which reflect the randomness of the displacements and the real-time performance of the storage very well. The low resolution image sequences have different redundant information and some particular priori information, thus it is possible to restore super resolution image factually and effectively. The sample method is used to derive the reconstruction principle of super resolution, which analyzes the possible improvement degree of the resolution in theory. The super resolution algorithm based on learning is used to reconstruct single image and the variational Bayesian algorithm is simulated to reconstruct the low resolution images with random displacements, which models the unknown high resolution image, motion parameters and unknown model parameters in one hierarchical Bayesian framework. Utilizing sub-pixel registration method, a super resolution image of the scene can be reconstructed. The results of 16 images reconstruction show that this camera model can increase the image resolution to 2 times, obtaining images with higher resolution in currently available hardware levels.

Conditions of High Resolution Melting Analysis on the Cobas z480 Instrument for the Genotyping of VKORC1 in the Clinical Routine Laboratory.

PubMed

Paar, Christian; Hammerl, Verena; Blessberger, Hermann; Stekel, Herbert; Steinwender, Clemens; Berg, Jörg

2016-12-01

High resolution melting (HRM) of amplicons is a simple method for genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Albeit many applications reported, HRM seems to be rarely used in clinical laboratories. The suitability of HRM-PCR for the clinical laboratory was investigated for genotyping of SNPs of the vitamin K epoxide reductase complex unit 1 gene. About 100 DNA samples were analyzed by two different HRM-PCRs on the Cobas z480 instrument and compared with a PCR with fluorescently labeled probes (HybProbe-PCR) on the LightCycler 2.0 instrument as reference. Reliable genotyping with 100% matching results was obtained, when the amplicon size was small (63 bp) and DNA input was limited by e.g., sample dilution with salt-free water. DNA extracted by differing methods may be used for genotyping by HRM-PCR. Compared with HybProbe-PCR, HRM-PCR on the Cobas z480 instrument allows for higher through-put, however, at the cost of a higher degree of laboratory standardization and a slower turnaround.

High current table-top setup for femtosecond gas electron diffraction.

PubMed

Zandi, Omid; Wilkin, Kyle J; Xiong, Yanwei; Centurion, Martin

2017-07-01

We have constructed an experimental setup for gas phase electron diffraction with femtosecond resolution and a high average beam current. While gas electron diffraction has been successful at determining molecular structures, it has been a challenge to reach femtosecond resolution while maintaining sufficient beam current to retrieve structures with high spatial resolution. The main challenges are the Coulomb force that leads to broadening of the electron pulses and the temporal blurring that results from the velocity mismatch between the laser and electron pulses as they traverse the sample. We present here a device that uses pulse compression to overcome the Coulomb broadening and deliver femtosecond electron pulses on a gas target. The velocity mismatch can be compensated using laser pulses with a tilted intensity front to excite the sample. The temporal resolution of the setup was determined with a streak camera to be better than 400 fs for pulses with up to half a million electrons and a kinetic energy of 90 keV. The high charge per pulse, combined with a repetition rate of 5 kHz, results in an average beam current that is between one and two orders of magnitude higher than previously demonstrated.

Spectral domain optical coherence tomography with extended depth-of-focus by aperture synthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bo, En; Liu, Linbo

2016-10-01

We developed a spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) with an extended depth-of-focus (DOF) by synthetizing aperture. For a designated Gaussian-shape light source, the lateral resolution was determined by the numerical aperture (NA) of the objective lens and can be approximately maintained over the confocal parameter, which was defined as twice the Rayleigh range. However, the DOF was proportional to the square of the lateral resolution. Consequently, a trade-off existed between the DOF and lateral resolution, and researchers had to weigh and judge which was more important for their research reasonably. In this study, three distinct optical apertures were obtained by imbedding a circular phase spacer in the sample arm. Due to the optical path difference between three distinct apertures caused by the phase spacer, three images were aligned with equal spacing along z-axis vertically. By correcting the optical path difference (OPD) and defocus-induced wavefront curvature, three images with distinct depths were coherently summed together. This system digitally refocused the sample tissue and obtained a brand new image with higher lateral resolution over the confocal parameter when imaging the polystyrene calibration beads.

Influence of Molecular Resolution on Sequence-Based Discovery of Ecological Diversity among Synechococcus Populations in an Alkaline Siliceous Hot Spring Microbial Mat ▿ †

PubMed Central

Melendrez, Melanie C.; Lange, Rachel K.; Cohan, Frederick M.; Ward, David M.

2011-01-01

Previous research has shown that sequences of 16S rRNA genes and 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer regions may not have enough genetic resolution to define all ecologically distinct Synechococcus populations (ecotypes) inhabiting alkaline, siliceous hot spring microbial mats. To achieve higher molecular resolution, we studied sequence variation in three protein-encoding loci sampled by PCR from 60°C and 65°C sites in the Mushroom Spring mat (Yellowstone National Park, WY). Sequences were analyzed using the ecotype simulation (ES) and AdaptML algorithms to identify putative ecotypes. Between 4 and 14 times more putative ecotypes were predicted from variation in protein-encoding locus sequences than from variation in 16S rRNA and 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer sequences. The number of putative ecotypes predicted depended on the number of sequences sampled and the molecular resolution of the locus. Chao estimates of diversity indicated that few rare ecotypes were missed. Many ecotypes hypothesized by sequence analyses were different in their habitat specificities, suggesting different adaptations to temperature or other parameters that vary along the flow channel. PMID:21169433

High current table-top setup for femtosecond gas electron diffraction

DOE PAGES

Zandi, Omid; Wilkin, Kyle J.; Xiong, Yanwei; ...

2017-05-08

Here, we have constructed an experimental setup for gas phase electron diffraction with femtosecond resolution and a high average beam current. While gas electron diffraction has been successful at determining molecular structures, it has been a challenge to reach femtosecond resolution while maintaining sufficient beam current to retrieve structures with high spatial resolution. The main challenges are the Coulomb force that leads to broadening of the electron pulses and the temporal blurring that results from the velocity mismatch between the laser and electron pulses as they traverse the sample. We also present here a device that uses pulse compression tomore » overcome the Coulomb broadening and deliver femtosecond electron pulses on a gas target. The velocity mismatch can be compensated using laser pulses with a tilted intensity front to excite the sample. The temporal resolution of the setup was determined with a streak camera to be better than 400 fs for pulses with up to half a million electrons and a kinetic energy of 90 keV. Finally, the high charge per pulse, combined with a repetition rate of 5 kHz, results in an average beam current that is between one and two orders of magnitude higher than previously demonstrated.« less

Spatiotemporal Pixelization to Increase the Recognition Score of Characters for Retinal Prostheses

PubMed Central

Kim, Hyun Seok; Park, Kwang Suk

2017-01-01

Most of the retinal prostheses use a head-fixed camera and a video processing unit. Some studies proposed various image processing methods to improve visual perception for patients. However, previous studies only focused on using spatial information. The present study proposes a spatiotemporal pixelization method mimicking fixational eye movements to generate stimulation images for artificial retina arrays by combining spatial and temporal information. Input images were sampled with a resolution that was four times higher than the number of pixel arrays. We subsampled this image and generated four different phosphene images. We then evaluated the recognition scores of characters by sequentially presenting phosphene images with varying pixel array sizes (6 × 6, 8 × 8 and 10 × 10) and stimulus frame rates (10 Hz, 15 Hz, 20 Hz, 30 Hz, and 60 Hz). The proposed method showed the highest recognition score at a stimulus frame rate of approximately 20 Hz. The method also significantly improved the recognition score for complex characters. This method provides a new way to increase practical resolution over restricted spatial resolution by merging the higher resolution image into high-frame time slots. PMID:29073735

The scale dependence of optical diversity in a prairie ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gamon, J. A.; Wang, R.; Stilwell, A.; Zygielbaum, A. I.; Cavender-Bares, J.; Townsend, P. A.

2015-12-01

Biodiversity loss, one of the most crucial challenges of our time, endangers ecosystem services that maintain human wellbeing. Traditional methods of measuring biodiversity require extensive and costly field sampling by biologists with extensive experience in species identification. Remote sensing can be used for such assessment based upon patterns of optical variation. This provides efficient and cost-effective means to determine ecosystem diversity at different scales and over large areas. Sampling scale has been described as a "fundamental conceptual problem" in ecology, and is an important practical consideration in both remote sensing and traditional biodiversity studies. On the one hand, with decreasing spatial and spectral resolution, the differences among different optical types may become weak or even disappear. Alternately, high spatial and/or spectral resolution may introduce redundant or contradictory information. For example, at high resolution, the variation within optical types (e.g., between leaves on a single plant canopy) may add complexity unrelated to specie richness. We studied the scale-dependence of optical diversity in a prairie ecosystem at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Minnesota, USA using a variety of spectrometers from several platforms on the ground and in the air. Using the coefficient of variation (CV) of spectra as an indicator of optical diversity, we found that high richness plots generally have a higher coefficient of variation. High resolution imaging spectrometer data (1 mm pixels) showed the highest sensitivity to richness level. With decreasing spatial resolution, the difference in CV between richness levels decreased, but remained significant. These findings can be used to guide airborne studies of biodiversity and develop more effective large-scale biodiversity sampling methods.

High-speed imaging using CMOS image sensor with quasi pixel-wise exposure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sonoda, T.; Nagahara, H.; Endo, K.; Sugiyama, Y.; Taniguchi, R.

2017-02-01

Several recent studies in compressive video sensing have realized scene capture beyond the fundamental trade-off limit between spatial resolution and temporal resolution using random space-time sampling. However, most of these studies showed results for higher frame rate video that were produced by simulation experiments or using an optically simulated random sampling camera, because there are currently no commercially available image sensors with random exposure or sampling capabilities. We fabricated a prototype complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor with quasi pixel-wise exposure timing that can realize nonuniform space-time sampling. The prototype sensor can reset exposures independently by columns and fix these amount of exposure by rows for each 8x8 pixel block. This CMOS sensor is not fully controllable via the pixels, and has line-dependent controls, but it offers flexibility when compared with regular CMOS or charge-coupled device sensors with global or rolling shutters. We propose a method to realize pseudo-random sampling for high-speed video acquisition that uses the flexibility of the CMOS sensor. We reconstruct the high-speed video sequence from the images produced by pseudo-random sampling using an over-complete dictionary.

Time-Distance Helioseismology with the HMI Instrument

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duvall, Thomas L., Jr.

2010-01-01

We expect considerable improvement of time-distance results from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument as opposed to the earlier MDI and GONG data. The higher data rate makes possible several improvements, including faster temporal sampling (45 sec), smaller spatial pixels (0.5 arc sec), better wavelength coverage (6 samples across the line all transmitted to the ground), and year-round coverage of the full disk. The higher spatial resolution makes possible better longitude coverage of active regions and supergranulation and also better latitude coverage. Doppler, continuum, and line depth images have a strong granulation signal. Line core images show little granulation. Analyses to test the limits of these new capabilities will be presented.

Detection of silver nanoparticles in parsley by solid sampling high-resolution-continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry.

PubMed

Feichtmeier, Nadine S; Leopold, Kerstin

2014-06-01

In this work, we present a fast and simple approach for detection of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in biological material (parsley) by solid sampling high-resolution-continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry (HR-CS AAS). A novel evaluation strategy was developed in order to distinguish AgNPs from ionic silver and for sizing of AgNPs. For this purpose, atomisation delay was introduced as significant indication of AgNPs, whereas atomisation rates allow distinction of 20-, 60-, and 80-nm AgNPs. Atomisation delays were found to be higher for samples containing silver ions than for samples containing silver nanoparticles. A maximum difference in atomisation delay normalised by the sample weight of 6.27 ± 0.96 s mg(-1) was obtained after optimisation of the furnace program of the AAS. For this purpose, a multivariate experimental design was used varying atomisation temperature, atomisation heating rate and pyrolysis temperature. Atomisation rates were calculated as the slope of the first inflection point of the absorbance signals and correlated with the size of the AgNPs in the biological sample. Hence, solid sampling HR-CS AAS was proved to be a promising tool for identifying and distinguishing silver nanoparticles from ionic silver directly in solid biological samples.

Quantum state atomic force microscopy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Passian, Ali; Siopsis, George

New classical modalities of atomic force microscopy continue to emerge to achieve higher spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution for nanometrology of materials. Here, we introduce the concept of a quantum mechanical modality that capitalizes on squeezed states of probe displacement. We show that such squeezing is enabled nanomechanically when the probe enters the van der Waals regime of interaction with a sample. The effect is studied in the non-contact mode, where we consider the parameter domains characterizing the attractive regime of the probe-sample interaction force.

Quantum state atomic force microscopy

DOE PAGES

Passian, Ali; Siopsis, George

2017-04-10

New classical modalities of atomic force microscopy continue to emerge to achieve higher spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution for nanometrology of materials. Here, we introduce the concept of a quantum mechanical modality that capitalizes on squeezed states of probe displacement. We show that such squeezing is enabled nanomechanically when the probe enters the van der Waals regime of interaction with a sample. The effect is studied in the non-contact mode, where we consider the parameter domains characterizing the attractive regime of the probe-sample interaction force.

Implications of complete watershed soil moisture measurements to hydrologic modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Engman, E. T.; Jackson, T. J.; Schmugge, T. J.

1983-01-01

A series of six microwave data collection flights for measuring soil moisture were made over a small 7.8 square kilometer watershed in southwestern Minnesota. These flights were made to provide 100 percent coverage of the basin at a 400 m resolution. In addition, three flight lines were flown at preselected areas to provide a sample of data at a higher resolution of 60 m. The low level flights provide considerably more information on soil moisture variability. The results are discussed in terms of reproducibility, spatial variability and temporal variability, and their implications for hydrologic modeling.

[Effect of the near infrared spectrum resolution on the nitrogen content model in green tea].

PubMed

Yang, Dan; Liu, Xin; Liu, Hong-Gang; Zhang, Ying-Bin; Yin, Peng

2013-07-01

The effect of different resolutions(2, 4, 6, 8, 16 cm(-1)) on the near infrared spectrogram and nitrogen content model for green tea was studied. Test results showed that instrument resolution could influence the spectra quality. The higher the resolution was, the richer the information would be, but the noise would increase. With lower resolution, spectrogram would be much more smooth, but get seriously distorted, and prediction accuracy would decrease at the same time. The partial least squares model was built after spectral pretreatment. When resolution was 4 cm(-1), the RMSEP value of external validation set was 0.054 6, which was obviously lower than others. The Corr. Coeff. was 0.998 2. Its prediction performance was the best and the prediction accuracy better. STDEV and RSD were 0.020 and 0.334 respectively. Resolution 4 cm(-1) for near infrared spectrometer collecting green tea samples was the optimal resolution. This research can provide a reference for parameters selection when collecting green tea spectra with near infrared spectrometer, improve the stability and prediction performance of the model and promote the application and promotion of the near infrared spectroscopy for tea.

Mapping atomic motions with ultrabright electrons: towards fundamental limits in space-time resolution.

PubMed

Manz, Stephanie; Casandruc, Albert; Zhang, Dongfang; Zhong, Yinpeng; Loch, Rolf A; Marx, Alexander; Hasegawa, Taisuke; Liu, Lai Chung; Bayesteh, Shima; Delsim-Hashemi, Hossein; Hoffmann, Matthias; Felber, Matthias; Hachmann, Max; Mayet, Frank; Hirscht, Julian; Keskin, Sercan; Hada, Masaki; Epp, Sascha W; Flöttmann, Klaus; Miller, R J Dwayne

2015-01-01

The long held objective of directly observing atomic motions during the defining moments of chemistry has been achieved based on ultrabright electron sources that have given rise to a new field of atomically resolved structural dynamics. This class of experiments requires not only simultaneous sub-atomic spatial resolution with temporal resolution on the 100 femtosecond time scale but also has brightness requirements approaching single shot atomic resolution conditions. The brightness condition is in recognition that chemistry leads generally to irreversible changes in structure during the experimental conditions and that the nanoscale thin samples needed for electron structural probes pose upper limits to the available sample or "film" for atomic movies. Even in the case of reversible systems, the degree of excitation and thermal effects require the brightest sources possible for a given space-time resolution to observe the structural changes above background. Further progress in the field, particularly to the study of biological systems and solution reaction chemistry, requires increased brightness and spatial coherence, as well as an ability to tune the electron scattering cross-section to meet sample constraints. The electron bunch density or intensity depends directly on the magnitude of the extraction field for photoemitted electron sources and electron energy distribution in the transverse and longitudinal planes of electron propagation. This work examines the fundamental limits to optimizing these parameters based on relativistic electron sources using re-bunching cavity concepts that are now capable of achieving 10 femtosecond time scale resolution to capture the fastest nuclear motions. This analysis is given for both diffraction and real space imaging of structural dynamics in which there are several orders of magnitude higher space-time resolution with diffraction methods. The first experimental results from the Relativistic Electron Gun for Atomic Exploration (REGAE) are given that show the significantly reduced multiple electron scattering problem in this regime, which opens up micron scale systems, notably solution phase chemistry, to atomically resolved structural dynamics.

Non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA of the carotids: optimization and clinical feasibility.

PubMed

Raoult, H; Gauvrit, J Y; Schmitt, P; Le Couls, V; Bannier, E

2013-11-01

To optimise and assess the clinical feasibility of a carotid non-ECG-gated unenhanced MRA sequence. Sixteen healthy volunteers and 11 patients presenting with internal carotid artery (ICA) disease underwent large field-of-view balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) unenhanced MRA at 3T. Sampling schemes acquiring the k-space centre either early (kCE) or late (kCL) in the acquisition window were evaluated. Signal and image quality was scored in comparison to ECG-gated kCE unenhanced MRA and TOF. For patients, computed tomography angiography was used as the reference. In volunteers, kCE sampling yielded higher image quality than kCL and TOF, with fewer flow artefacts and improved signal homogeneity. kCE unenhanced MRA image quality was higher without ECG-gating. Arterial signal and artery/vein contrast were higher with both bSSFP sampling schemes than with TOF. The kCE sequence allowed correct quantification of ten significant stenoses, and it facilitated the identification of an infrapetrous dysplasia, which was outside of the TOF imaging coverage. Non-ECG-gated bSSFP carotid imaging offers high-quality images and is a promising sequence for carotid disease diagnosis in a short acquisition time with high spatial resolution and a large field of view. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA offers high-quality imaging of the carotid arteries. • Sequences using early acquisition of the k-space centre achieve higher image quality. • Non-ECG-gated unenhanced bSSFP MRA allows quantification of significant carotid stenosis. • Short MR acquisition times and ungated sequences are helpful in clinical practice. • High 3D spatial resolution and a large field of view improve diagnostic performance.

A multimodel intercomparison of resolution effects on precipitation: simulations and theory

DOE PAGES

Rauscher, Sara A.; O?Brien, Travis A.; Piani, Claudio; ...

2016-02-27

An ensemble of six pairs of RCM experiments performed at 25 and 50 km for the period 1961–2000 over a large European domain is examined in order to evaluate the effects of resolution on the simulation of daily precipitation statistics. Application of the non-parametric two-sample Kolmorgorov–Smirnov test, which tests for differences in the location and shape of the probability distributions of two samples, shows that the distribution of daily precipitation differs between the pairs of simulations over most land areas in both summer and winter, with the strongest signal over southern Europe. Two-dimensional histograms reveal that precipitation intensity increases with resolutionmore » over almost the entire domain in both winter and summer. In addition, the 25 km simulations have more dry days than the 50 km simulations. The increase in dry days with resolution is indicative of an improvement in model performance at higher resolution, while the more intense precipitation exceeds observed values. The systematic increase in precipitation extremes with resolution across all models suggests that this response is fundamental to model formulation. Simple theoretical arguments suggest that fluid continuity, combined with the emergent scaling properties of the horizontal wind field, results in an increase in resolved vertical transport as grid spacing decreases. This increase in resolution-dependent vertical mass flux then drives an intensification of convergence and resolvable-scale precipitation as grid spacing decreases. In conclusion, this theoretical result could help explain the increasingly, and often anomalously, large stratiform contribution to total rainfall observed with increasing resolution in many regional and global models.« less

Single mimivirus particles intercepted and imaged with an X-ray laser

PubMed Central

Seibert, M. Marvin; Ekeberg, Tomas; Maia, Filipe R. N. C.; Svenda, Martin; Andreasson, Jakob; Jönsson, Olof; Odić, Duško; Iwan, Bianca; Rocker, Andrea; Westphal, Daniel; Hantke, Max; DePonte, Daniel P.; Barty, Anton; Schulz, Joachim; Gumprecht, Lars; Coppola, Nicola; Aquila, Andrew; Liang, Mengning; White, Thomas A.; Martin, Andrew; Caleman, Carl; Stern, Stephan; Abergel, Chantal; Seltzer, Virginie; Claverie, Jean-Michel; Bostedt, Christoph; Bozek, John D.; Boutet, Sébastien; Miahnahri, A. Alan; Messerschmidt, Marc; Krzywinski, Jacek; Williams, Garth; Hodgson, Keith O.; Bogan, Michael J.; Hampton, Christina Y.; Sierra, Raymond G.; Starodub, Dmitri; Andersson, Inger; Bajt, Saša; Barthelmess, Miriam; Spence, John C. H.; Fromme, Petra; Weierstall, Uwe; Kirian, Richard; Hunter, Mark; Doak, R. Bruce; Marchesini, Stefano; Hau-Riege, Stefan P.; Frank, Matthias; Shoeman, Robert L.; Lomb, Lukas; Epp, Sascha W.; Hartmann, Robert; Rolles, Daniel; Rudenko, Artem; Schmidt, Carlo; Foucar, Lutz; Kimmel, Nils; Holl, Peter; Rudek, Benedikt; Erk, Benjamin; Hömke, André; Reich, Christian; Pietschner, Daniel; Weidenspointner, Georg; Strüder, Lothar; Hauser, Günter; Gorke, Hubert; Ullrich, Joachim; Schlichting, Ilme; Herrmann, Sven; Schaller, Gerhard; Schopper, Florian; Soltau, Heike; Kühnel, Kai-Uwe; Andritschke, Robert; Schröter, Claus-Dieter; Krasniqi, Faton; Bott, Mario; Schorb, Sebastian; Rupp, Daniela; Adolph, Marcus; Gorkhover, Tais; Hirsemann, Helmut; Potdevin, Guillaume; Graafsma, Heinz; Nilsson, Björn; Chapman, Henry N.; Hajdu, Janos

2014-01-01

X-ray lasers offer new capabilities in understanding the structure of biological systems, complex materials and matter under extreme conditions1–4. Very short and extremely bright, coherent X-ray pulses can be used to outrun key damage processes and obtain a single diffraction pattern from a large macromolecule, a virus or a cell before the sample explodes and turns into plasma1. The continuous diffraction pattern of non-crystalline objects permits oversampling and direct phase retrieval2. Here we show that high-quality diffraction data can be obtained with a single X-ray pulse from a non-crystalline biological sample, a single mimivirus particle, which was injected into the pulsed beam of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source5. Calculations indicate that the energy deposited into the virus by the pulse heated the particle to over 100,000 K after the pulse had left the sample. The reconstructed exit wavefront (image) yielded 32-nm full-period resolution in a single exposure and showed no measurable damage. The reconstruction indicates inhomogeneous arrangement of dense material inside the virion. We expect that significantly higher resolutions will be achieved in such experiments with shorter and brighter photon pulses focused to a smaller area. The resolution in such experiments can be further extended for samples available in multiple identical copies. PMID:21293374

Radially polarized tip-enhanced near-field coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy for vibrational nano-imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Jian; Zi Jian Er, Kenneth; Zheng, Wei; Huang, Zhiwei

2013-08-01

We report a radially polarized tip-enhanced near-field coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (RP-TE-CARS) microscopy technique for high-contrast vibrational imaging of subcellular organelles at nano-scale resolutions. The radially polarized pump and Stokes laser beams are tightly focused onto the sample while a gold-coated metallic probe is placed at the upper surface of the sample to enhance the electric field and CARS signals. The back-scattered CARS signal is measured with the gold-coated nano-tip being stationary at the focal region of laser beams. The RP-TE-CARS signal is ˜6-fold higher than that using linearly polarized laser excitation. We demonstrate the good performance of the RP-TE-CARS technique developed by imaging sub-micron polystyrene beads and mitochondria at nano-scale resolutions.

Multistage remote sensing: toward an annual national inventory

Treesearch

Raymond L. Czaplewski

1999-01-01

Remote sensing can improve efficiency of statistical information. Landsat data can identify and map a few broad categories of forest cover and land use. However, more-detailed information requires a sample of higher-resolution imagery, which costs less than field data but considerably more than Landsat data. A national remote sensing program would be a major...

Design consideration of a multipinhole collimator with septa for ultra high-resolution silicon drift detector modules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, Byung Jun; Choi, Yong; Lee, Nam-Yong; Lee, Kisung; Ahn, Young Bok; Joung, Jinhun

2009-07-01

The aim of this study was to design a multipinhole (MP) collimator with lead vertical septa coupled to a high-resolution detector module containing silicon drift detectors (SDDs) with an intrinsic resolution approaching the sub-millimeter level. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to determine pinhole parameters such as pinhole diameter, focal length, and number of pinholes. Effects of parallax error and collimator penetration were investigated for the new MP collimator design. The MP detector module was evaluated using reconstructed images of resolution and mathematical cardiac torso (MCAT) phantoms. In addition, the reduced angular sampling effect was investigated over 180°. The images were reconstructed using dedicated maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm. An MP collimator with 81-pinhole was designed with a 2-mm-diameter pinhole and a focal length of 40 mm . Planar sensitivity and resolution obtained using the devised MP collimator were 3.9 cps/μCi and 6 mm full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) at a 10 cm distance. The parallax error and penetration ratio were significantly improved using the proposed MP collimation design. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed MP detector provided enlarged imaging field of view (FOV) and improved the angular sampling effect in resolution and MCAT phantom studies. Moreover, the novel design enables tomography images by simultaneously obtaining eight projections with eight-detector modules located along the 180° orbit surrounding a patient, which allows designing of a stationary cardiac SPECT. In conclusion, the MP collimator with lead vertical septa was designed to have comparable system resolution and sensitivity to those of the low-energy high-resolution (LEHR) collimator per detector. The system sensitivity with an eight-detector configuration would be four times higher than that with a standard dual-detector cardiac SPECT.

Feasibility study of the application of radially polarized illumination to solid immersion lens-based near-field optics.

PubMed

Yoon, Yong-Joong; Kim, Wan-Chin; Park, No-Cheol; Park, Kyoung-Su; Park, Young-Pil

2009-07-01

We analyzed the behavior of the electric field in a focal plane consisting of a solid immersion lens (SIL), an air gap, and a measurement sample for radially polarized illumination in SIL-based near-field optics with an annular aperture. The analysis was based on the Debye diffraction integral and multiple beam interference. For SIL-based near-field optics whose NA is higher than unity, radially polarized light generates a smaller beam spot on the bottom surface of a SIL than circularly polarized light; however, the beam spot on the measurement sample is broadened with a more dominant transverse electric field. By introducing an annular aperture technique, it is possible to decrease the effects of the transverse electric field, and therefore the size of the beam spot on the measurement sample can be small. This analysis could have various applications in near-field optical storage, near-field microscopy, lithography at ultrahigh resolution, and other applications that use SILs for high resolution.

Application of the correlation constrained multivariate curve resolution alternating least-squares method for analyte quantitation in the presence of unexpected interferences using first-order instrumental data.

PubMed

Goicoechea, Héctor C; Olivieri, Alejandro C; Tauler, Romà

2010-03-01

Correlation constrained multivariate curve resolution-alternating least-squares is shown to be a feasible method for processing first-order instrumental data and achieve analyte quantitation in the presence of unexpected interferences. Both for simulated and experimental data sets, the proposed method could correctly retrieve the analyte and interference spectral profiles and perform accurate estimations of analyte concentrations in test samples. Since no information concerning the interferences was present in calibration samples, the proposed multivariate calibration approach including the correlation constraint facilitates the achievement of the so-called second-order advantage for the analyte of interest, which is known to be present for more complex higher-order richer instrumental data. The proposed method is tested using a simulated data set and two experimental data systems, one for the determination of ascorbic acid in powder juices using UV-visible absorption spectral data, and another for the determination of tetracycline in serum samples using fluorescence emission spectroscopy.

Ultra trace determination of 31 pesticides in water samples by direct injection-rapid resolution liquid chromatography-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Díaz, Laura; Llorca-Pórcel, Julio; Valor, Ignacio

2008-08-22

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based method for the detection of pesticides in tap and treated wastewater was developed and validated according to the ISO/IEC 17025:1999. Key features of this method include direct injection of 100 microL of sample, an 11 min separation by means of a rapid resolution liquid chromatography system with a 4.6 mm x 50 mm, 1.8 microm particle size reverse phase column and detection by electrospray ionization (ESI) MS-MS. The limits of detection were below 15 ng L(-1) and correlation coefficients for the calibration curves in the range of 30-2000 ng L(-1) were higher than 0.99. Precision was always below 20% and accuracy was confirmed by external evaluation. The main advantages of this method are direct injection of sample without preparative procedures and low limits of detection that fulfill the requirements established by the current European regulations governing pesticide detection.

Building Practical Apertureless Scanning Near-Field Microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gungordu, M. Zeki

The fundamental objective of this study is to establish a functional, practical apertureless type scanning near-field optical microscope, and to figure out the working mechanism behind it. Whereas a far-field microscope can measure the propagating field's components, this gives us little information about the features of the sample. The resolution is limited to about half of the wavelength of the illuminating light. On the other hand, the a-SNOM system enables achieving non-propagating components of the field, which provides more details about the sample's features. It is really difficult to measure because the amplitude of this field decays exponentially when the tip is moved away from the sample. The sharpness of the tip is the only limitation for resolution of the a-SNOM system. Consequently, the sharp tips are achieved by using electrochemical etching, and these tips are used to detect near-field signal. Separating the weak a-SNOM system signals from the undesired background signal, the higher demodulation background suppression is utilized by lock-in detection.

Extraction of the 3D local orientation of myocytes in human cardiac tissue using X-ray phase-contrast micro-tomography and multi-scale analysis.

PubMed

Varray, François; Mirea, Iulia; Langer, Max; Peyrin, Françoise; Fanton, Laurent; Magnin, Isabelle E

2017-05-01

This paper presents a methodology to access the 3D local myocyte arrangements in fresh human post-mortem heart samples. We investigated the cardiac micro-structure at a high and isotropic resolution of 3.5 µm in three dimensions using X-ray phase micro-tomography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. We then processed the reconstructed volumes to extract the 3D local orientation of the myocytes using a multi-scale approach with no segmentation. We created a simplified 3D model of tissue sample made of simulated myocytes with known size and orientations, to evaluate our orientation extraction method. Afterwards, we applied it to 2D histological cuts and to eight 3D left ventricular (LV) cardiac tissue samples. Then, the variation of the helix angles, from the endocardium to the epicardium, was computed at several spatial resolutions ranging from 3.6 3  mm 3 to 112 3  µm 3 . We measure an increased range of 20° to 30° from the coarsest resolution level to the finest level in the experimental samples. This result is in line with the higher values measured from histology. The displayed tractography demonstrates a rather smooth evolution of the transmural helix angle in six LV samples and a sudden discontinuity of the helix angle in two septum samples. These measurements bring a new vision of the human heart architecture from macro- to micro-scale. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

X-Ray Nanofocus CT: Visualising Of Internal 3D-Structures With Submicrometer Resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weinekoetter, Christian

2008-09-01

High-resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) allows the visualization and failure analysis of the internal micro structure of objects—even if they have complicated 3D-structures where 2D X-ray microscopy would give unclear information. During the past several years, computed tomography has progressed to higher resolution and quicker reconstruction of the 3D-volume. Most recently it even allows a three-dimensional look into the inside of materials with submicron resolution. With the use of nanofocus® tube technology, nanoCT®-systems are pushing forward into application fields that were exclusive to high cost and rare available synchrotron techniques. The study was performed with the new nanotom, a very compact laboratory system which allows the analysis of samples up to 120 mm in diameter and weighing up to 1 kg with exceptional voxel-resolution down to <500 nm (<0.5 microns). It is the first 180 kV nanofocus® computed tomography system in the world which is tailored specifically to the highest-resolution applications in the fields of material science, micro electronics, geology and biology. Therefore it is particularly suitable for nanoCT-examinations e.g. of synthetic materials, metals, ceramics, composite materials, mineral and organic samples. There are a few physical effects influencing the CT quality, such as beam-hardening within the sample or ring-artefacts, which can not be completely avoided. To optimize the quality of high resolution 3D volumes, the nanotom® includes a variety of effective software tools to reduce ring-artefacts and correct beam hardenings or drift effects which occurred during data acquisition. The resulting CT volume data set can be displayed in various ways, for example by virtual slicing and sectional views in any direction of the volume. By the fact that this requires only a mouse click, this technique will substitute destructive mechanical slicing and cutting in many applications. The initial CT results obtained with the nanotom® demonstrate that it is now possible to analyze the three-dimensional micro structure of materials and small objects with submicrometer resolution. Any internal difference in material, density or porosity within a sample can be visualized and data like distances can be measured. NanoCT® widely expands the spectrum of detectable micro-structures. The nanotom® opens a new dimension of 3D-microanalysis and will replace more destructive methods—saving costs and time per sample inspected.

High throughput screening of ligand binding to macromolecules using high resolution powder diffraction

DOEpatents

Von Dreele, Robert B.; D'Amico, Kevin

2006-10-31

A process is provided for the high throughput screening of binding of ligands to macromolecules using high resolution powder diffraction data including producing a first sample slurry of a selected polycrystalline macromolecule material and a solvent, producing a second sample slurry of a selected polycrystalline macromolecule material, one or more ligands and the solvent, obtaining a high resolution powder diffraction pattern on each of said first sample slurry and the second sample slurry, and, comparing the high resolution powder diffraction pattern of the first sample slurry and the high resolution powder diffraction pattern of the second sample slurry whereby a difference in the high resolution powder diffraction patterns of the first sample slurry and the second sample slurry provides a positive indication for the formation of a complex between the selected polycrystalline macromolecule material and at least one of the one or more ligands.

A novel approach of an absolute coding pattern based on Hamiltonian graph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ya'nan; Wang, Huawei; Hao, Fusheng; Liu, Liqiang

2017-02-01

In this paper, a novel approach of an optical type absolute rotary encoder coding pattern is presented. The concept is based on the principle of the absolute encoder to find out a unique sequence that ensures an unambiguous shaft position of any angular. We design a single-ring and a n-by-2 matrix absolute encoder coding pattern by using the variations of Hamiltonian graph principle. 12 encoding bits is used in the single-ring by a linear array CCD to achieve an 1080-position cycle encoding. Besides, a 2-by-2 matrix is used as an unit in the 2-track disk to achieve a 16-bits encoding pattern by using an area array CCD sensor (as a sample). Finally, a higher resolution can be gained by an electronic subdivision of the signals. Compared with the conventional gray or binary code pattern (for a 2n resolution), this new pattern has a higher resolution (2n*n) with less coding tracks, which means the new pattern can lead to a smaller encoder, which is essential in the industrial production.

Using Synchrotron Radiation Microtomography to Investigate Multi-scale Three-dimensional Microelectronic Packages.

PubMed

Carlton, Holly D; Elmer, John W; Li, Yan; Pacheco, Mario; Goyal, Deepak; Parkinson, Dilworth Y; MacDowell, Alastair A

2016-04-13

Synchrotron radiation micro-tomography (SRµT) is a non-destructive three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that offers high flux for fast data acquisition times with high spatial resolution. In the electronics industry there is serious interest in performing failure analysis on 3D microelectronic packages, many which contain multiple levels of high-density interconnections. Often in tomography there is a trade-off between image resolution and the volume of a sample that can be imaged. This inverse relationship limits the usefulness of conventional computed tomography (CT) systems since a microelectronic package is often large in cross sectional area 100-3,600 mm(2), but has important features on the micron scale. The micro-tomography beamline at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), in Berkeley, CA USA, has a setup which is adaptable and can be tailored to a sample's properties, i.e., density, thickness, etc., with a maximum allowable cross-section of 36 x 36 mm. This setup also has the option of being either monochromatic in the energy range ~7-43 keV or operating with maximum flux in white light mode using a polychromatic beam. Presented here are details of the experimental steps taken to image an entire 16 x 16 mm system within a package, in order to obtain 3D images of the system with a spatial resolution of 8.7 µm all within a scan time of less than 3 min. Also shown are results from packages scanned in different orientations and a sectioned package for higher resolution imaging. In contrast a conventional CT system would take hours to record data with potentially poorer resolution. Indeed, the ratio of field-of-view to throughput time is much higher when using the synchrotron radiation tomography setup. The description below of the experimental setup can be implemented and adapted for use with many other multi-materials.

Combination of Liquid Chromatography with Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least-Squares (MCR-ALS) in the Quantitation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Present in Paprika Samples.

PubMed

Monago-Maraña, Olga; Pérez, Rocío L; Escandar, Graciela M; Muñoz de la Peña, Arsenio; Galeano-Díaz, Teresa

2016-11-02

This work presents a strategy for quantitating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in smoked paprika samples. For this, a liquid chromatographic method with fluorimetric detection (HPLC-FLD) was optimized. To resolve some interference co-eluting with the target analytes, the second-order multivariate curve resolution-alternating least-squares (MCR-ALS) algorithm has been employed combined with this liquid chromatographic method. Among the eight PAHs quantified (fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[a]pyrene) by HPLC-FLD, only in the case of fluorene, pyrene, and benzo[b]fluoranthene was it necessary to apply the second-order algorithm for their resolution. Limits of detection and quantitation were between 0.015 and 0.45 mg/kg and between 0.15 and 1.5 mg/kg, respectively. Good recovery results (>80%) for paprika were obtained via the complete extraction procedure, consisting of an extraction from the matrix and the cleanup of the extract by means of silica cartridges. Higher concentrations of chrysene, benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, and benzo[a]pyrene were found in the paprika samples, with respect to the maximal amounts allowed for other spices that are under European Regulation (EU) N° 2015/1933.

Year-round record of dissolved and particulate metals in surface snow at Dome Concordia (East Antarctica).

PubMed

Grotti, Marco; Soggia, Francesco; Ardini, Francisco; Magi, Emanuele; Becagli, Silvia; Traversi, Rita; Udisti, Roberto

2015-11-01

From January to December 2010, surface snow samples were collected with monthly resolution at the Concordia station (75°06'S, 123°20'E), on the Antarctic plateau, and analysed for major and trace elements in both dissolved and particulate (i.e. insoluble particles, >0.45 μm) phase. Additional surface snow samples were collected with daily resolution, for the determination of sea-salt sodium and not-sea-salt calcium, in order to support the discussion on the seasonal variations of trace elements. Concentrations of alkaline and alkaline-earth elements were higher in winter (April-October) than in summer (November-March) by a factor of 1.2-3.3, in agreement with the higher concentration of sea-salt atmospheric particles reaching the Antarctic plateau during the winter. Similarly, trace elements were generally higher in winter by a factor of 1.2-1.5, whereas Al and Fe did not show any significant seasonal trend. Partitioning between dissolved and particulate phases did not change with the sampling period, but it depended only on the element: alkaline and alkaline-earth elements, as well as Co, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn were for the most part (>80%) in the dissolved phase, whereas Al and Fe were mainly associated with the particulate phase (>80%) and Cd, Cr, V were nearly equally distributed between the phases. Finally, the estimated marine and crustal enrichment factors indicated that Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn have a dominant anthropogenic origin, with a possible contribution from the Concordia station activities. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-Throughput Effect-Directed Analysis Using Downscaled in Vitro Reporter Gene Assays To Identify Endocrine Disruptors in Surface Water

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Effect-directed analysis (EDA) is a commonly used approach for effect-based identification of endocrine disruptive chemicals in complex (environmental) mixtures. However, for routine toxicity assessment of, for example, water samples, current EDA approaches are considered time-consuming and laborious. We achieved faster EDA and identification by downscaling of sensitive cell-based hormone reporter gene assays and increasing fractionation resolution to allow testing of smaller fractions with reduced complexity. The high-resolution EDA approach is demonstrated by analysis of four environmental passive sampler extracts. Downscaling of the assays to a 384-well format allowed analysis of 64 fractions in triplicate (or 192 fractions without technical replicates) without affecting sensitivity compared to the standard 96-well format. Through a parallel exposure method, agonistic and antagonistic androgen and estrogen receptor activity could be measured in a single experiment following a single fractionation. From 16 selected candidate compounds, identified through nontargeted analysis, 13 could be confirmed chemically and 10 were found to be biologically active, of which the most potent nonsteroidal estrogens were identified as oxybenzone and piperine. The increased fractionation resolution and the higher throughput that downscaling provides allow for future application in routine high-resolution screening of large numbers of samples in order to accelerate identification of (emerging) endocrine disruptors. PMID:29547277

A comb-sampling method for enhanced mass analysis in linear electrostatic ion traps.

PubMed

Greenwood, J B; Kelly, O; Calvert, C R; Duffy, M J; King, R B; Belshaw, L; Graham, L; Alexander, J D; Williams, I D; Bryan, W A; Turcu, I C E; Cacho, C M; Springate, E

2011-04-01

In this paper an algorithm for extracting spectral information from signals containing a series of narrow periodic impulses is presented. Such signals can typically be acquired by pickup detectors from the image-charge of ion bunches oscillating in a linear electrostatic ion trap, where frequency analysis provides a scheme for high-resolution mass spectrometry. To provide an improved technique for such frequency analysis, we introduce the CHIMERA algorithm (Comb-sampling for High-resolution IMpulse-train frequency ExtRAaction). This algorithm utilizes a comb function to generate frequency coefficients, rather than using sinusoids via a Fourier transform, since the comb provides a superior match to the data. This new technique is developed theoretically, applied to synthetic data, and then used to perform high resolution mass spectrometry on real data from an ion trap. If the ions are generated at a localized point in time and space, and the data is simultaneously acquired with multiple pickup rings, the method is shown to be a significant improvement on Fourier analysis. The mass spectra generated typically have an order of magnitude higher resolution compared with that obtained from fundamental Fourier frequencies, and are absent of large contributions from harmonic frequency components. © 2011 American Institute of Physics

Understanding and improving mitigation strategies for reducing catchment scale nutrient loads using high resolution observations and uncertainty analysis approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collins, A.; Lloyd, C.; Freer, J. E.; Johnes, P.; Stirling, M.

2012-12-01

One of the biggest challenges in catchment water quality management is tackling the problem of reducing water pollution from agriculture whilst ensuring food security nationally. Improvements to catchment management plans are needed if we are to enhance biodiversity and maintain good ecological status in freshwater ecosystems, while producing enough food to support a growing global population. In order to plan for a more sustainable and secure future, research needs to quantify the uncertainties and understand the complexities in the source-mobilisation-delivery-impact continuum of pollution and nutrients at all scales. In the UK the Demonstration Test Catchment (DTC) project has been set up to improve water quality specifically from diffuse pollution from agriculture by enhanced high resolution monitoring and targeted mitigation experiments. The DTC project aims to detect shifts in the baseline trend of the most ecologically-significant pollutants resulting from targeted on-farm measures at field to farm scales and assessing their effects on ecosystem function. The DTC programme involves three catchments across the UK that are indicative of three different typologies and land uses. This paper will focus on the Hampshire Avon DTC, where a total of 12 parameters are monitored by bank-side stations at two sampling sites, including flow, turbidity, phosphate and nitrate concentrations at 30 min resolution. This monitoring is supported by daily resolution sampling at 5 other sites and storm sampling at all locations. Part of the DTC project aims to understand how observations of water quality within river systems at different temporal resolutions and types of monitoring strategies enable us to understand and detect changes over and above the natural variability. Baseline monitoring is currently underway and early results show that high-resolution data is essential at this sub-catchment scale to understand important process dynamics. This is critical if we are to design cost efficient and effective management strategies. The high-resolution dataset means that there are new opportunities to explore the associated uncertainties in monitoring water quality and assessing ecological status and how that relates to current monitoring networks. For example, concurrent grab samples at the high-resolution sampling stations allow the assessment of the uncertainties which would be generated through coarser sampling strategies. This is just the beginning of the project, however, as the project progresses, the high resolution dataset will provide higher statistical power compared with previous data collection schemes and allow the employment of more complex methods such as signal decomposition e.g. wavelet analysis, which can allow us to start to decipher the complex interactions occurring at sub-catchment scale which may not be immediately detectable in bulk signals. In this paper we outline our methodological approach, present some of the initial findings of this research and how we can quantify changes to nutrient loads whilst taking account the main uncertainties and the inherent natural variability.

Performance Evaluation and Analysis for Gravity Matching Aided Navigation.

PubMed

Wu, Lin; Wang, Hubiao; Chai, Hua; Zhang, Lu; Hsu, Houtse; Wang, Yong

2017-04-05

Simulation tests were accomplished in this paper to evaluate the performance of gravity matching aided navigation (GMAN). Four essential factors were focused in this study to quantitatively evaluate the performance: gravity database (DB) resolution, fitting degree of gravity measurements, number of samples in matching, and gravity changes in the matching area. Marine gravity anomaly DB derived from satellite altimetry was employed. Actual dynamic gravimetry accuracy and operating conditions were referenced to design the simulation parameters. The results verified that the improvement of DB resolution, gravimetry accuracy, number of measurement samples, or gravity changes in the matching area generally led to higher positioning accuracies, while the effects of them were different and interrelated. Moreover, three typical positioning accuracy targets of GMAN were proposed, and the conditions to achieve these targets were concluded based on the analysis of several different system requirements. Finally, various approaches were provided to improve the positioning accuracy of GMAN.

Performance Evaluation and Analysis for Gravity Matching Aided Navigation

PubMed Central

Wu, Lin; Wang, Hubiao; Chai, Hua; Zhang, Lu; Hsu, Houtse; Wang, Yong

2017-01-01

Simulation tests were accomplished in this paper to evaluate the performance of gravity matching aided navigation (GMAN). Four essential factors were focused in this study to quantitatively evaluate the performance: gravity database (DB) resolution, fitting degree of gravity measurements, number of samples in matching, and gravity changes in the matching area. Marine gravity anomaly DB derived from satellite altimetry was employed. Actual dynamic gravimetry accuracy and operating conditions were referenced to design the simulation parameters. The results verified that the improvement of DB resolution, gravimetry accuracy, number of measurement samples, or gravity changes in the matching area generally led to higher positioning accuracies, while the effects of them were different and interrelated. Moreover, three typical positioning accuracy targets of GMAN were proposed, and the conditions to achieve these targets were concluded based on the analysis of several different system requirements. Finally, various approaches were provided to improve the positioning accuracy of GMAN. PMID:28379178

Adolescent Ego-Development Trajectories and Young Adult Relationship Outcomes

PubMed Central

Hennighausen, Katherine H.; Hauser, Stuart T.; Billings, Rebecca L.; Schultz, Lynn Hickey; Allen, Joseph P.

2006-01-01

Adolescent ego-development trajectories were related to close-relationship outcomes in young adulthood. An adolescent sample completed annual measures of ego development from ages 14 through 17. The authors theoretically determined and empirically traced five ego-development trajectories reflecting stability or change. At age 25, the sample completed a close-relationship interview and consented for two peers to rate the participants’ego resiliency and hostility. Participants who followed the profound-arrest trajectory in adolescence reported more mundane sharing of experiences, more impulsive or egocentric conflict-resolution tactics, and less mature interpersonal understanding in their young adult relationships, and their young adult peers described these participants as more hostile. Participants who attained or maintained higher levels of ego development in adolescence reported more complex sharing of experiences, more collaborative conflict-resolution strategies, and greater interpersonal understanding, and their young adult peers rated them as less hostile and as more flexible. PMID:17404603

Enhancing sensitivity of high resolution optical coherence tomography using an optional spectrally encoded extended source (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Xiaojun; Liu, Xinyu; Chen, Si; Wang, Xianghong; Liu, Linbo

2016-03-01

High-resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) is of critical importance to disease diagnosis because it is capable of providing detailed microstructural information of the biological tissues. However, a compromise usually has to be made between its spatial resolutions and sensitivity due to the suboptimal spectral response of the system components, such as the linear camera, the dispersion grating, and the focusing lenses, etc. In this study, we demonstrate an OCT system that achieves both high spatial resolutions and enhanced sensitivity through utilizing a spectrally encoded source. The system achieves a lateral resolution of 3.1 μm and an axial resolution of 2.3 μm in air; when with a simple dispersive prism placed in the infinity space of the sample arm optics, the illumination beam on the sample is transformed into a line source with a visual angle of 10.3 mrad. Such an extended source technique allows a ~4 times larger maximum permissible exposure (MPE) than its point source counterpart, which thus improves the system sensitivity by ~6dB. In addition, the dispersive prism can be conveniently switched to a reflector. Such flexibility helps increase the penetration depth of the system without increasing the complexity of the current point source devices. We conducted experiments to characterize the system's imaging capability using the human fingertip in vivo and the swine eye optic never disc ex vivo. The higher penetration depth of such a system over the conventional point source OCT system is also demonstrated in these two tissues.

High Resolution Continuous Flow Analysis System for Polar Ice Cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dallmayr, Remi; Azuma, Kumiko; Yamada, Hironobu; Kjær, Helle Astrid; Vallelonga, Paul; Azuma, Nobuhiko; Takata, Morimasa

2014-05-01

In the last decades, Continuous Flow Analysis (CFA) technology for ice core analyses has been developed to reconstruct the past changes of the climate system 1), 2). Compared with traditional analyses of discrete samples, a CFA system offers much faster and higher depth resolution analyses. It also generates a decontaminated sample stream without time-consuming sample processing procedure by using the inner area of an ice-core sample.. The CFA system that we have been developing is currently able to continuously measure stable water isotopes 3) and electrolytic conductivity, as well as to collect discrete samples for the both inner and outer areas with variable depth resolutions. Chemistry analyses4) and methane-gas analysis 5) are planned to be added using the continuous water stream system 5). In order to optimize the resolution of the current system with minimal sample volumes necessary for different analyses, our CFA system typically melts an ice core at 1.6 cm/min. Instead of using a wire position encoder with typical 1mm positioning resolution 6), we decided to use a high-accuracy CCD Laser displacement sensor (LKG-G505, Keyence). At the 1.6 cm/min melt rate, the positioning resolution was increased to 0.27mm. Also, the mixing volume that occurs in our open split debubbler is regulated using its weight. The overflow pumping rate is smoothly PID controlled to maintain the weight as low as possible, while keeping a safety buffer of water to avoid air bubbles downstream. To evaluate the system's depth-resolution, we will present the preliminary data of electrolytic conductivity obtained by melting 12 bags of the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) ice core. The samples correspond to different climate intervals (Greenland Stadial 21, 22, Greenland Stadial 5, Greenland Interstadial 5, Greenland Interstadial 7, Greenland Stadial 8). We will present results for the Greenland Stadial -8, whose depths and ages are between 1723.7 and 1724.8 meters, and 35.520 to 35.636 kyr b2k 7), respectively. The results show the conductivity measured upstream and downstream of the debubbler. We will calculate the depth resolution of our system and compare it with earlier studies. 1) Bigler at al, "Optimization of High-Resolution Continuous Flow Analysis For Transient Climate Signals in Ice Cores". Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 4483-4489 2) Kaufmann et al, "An Improved Continuous Flow Analysis System for High Resolution Field Measurements on Ice Cores". Environmental Environ. Sci. Technol. 2008, 42, 8044-8050 3) Gkinis, V., T. J. Popp, S. J. Johnsen and T, Blunier, 2010: A continuous stream flash evaporator for the calibration of an IR cavity ring down spectrometer for the isotopic analysis of water. Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies, 46(4), 463-475. 4) McConnell et al, "Continuous ice-core chemical analyses using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2002, 36, 7-11 5) Rhodes et al, "Continuous methane measurements from a late Holocene Greenland ice core : Atmospheric and in-situ signals" Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 2013, 368, 9-19 6) Breton et al, "Quantifying Signal Dispersion in a Hybrid Ice Core Melting System". Environ. Sci. Technol. 2012, 46, 11922-11928 7) Rasmussen et al, " A first chronology for the NEEM ice core". Climate of the Past. 2013, 9, 2967--3013

Dual-wavelength OR-PAM with compressed sensing for cell tracking in a 3D cell culture system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Rou-Xuan; Fu, Ying; Liu, Wang; Ma, Yu-Ting; Hsieh, Bao-Yu; Chen, Shu-Ching; Sun, Mingjian; Li, Pai-Chi

2018-02-01

Monitoring dynamic interactions of T cells migrating toward tumor is beneficial to understand how cancer immunotherapy works. Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscope (OR-PAM) can provide not only high spatial resolution but also deeper penetration than conventional optical microscopy. With the aid of exogenous contrast agents, the dual-wavelength OR-PAM can be applied to map the distribution of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) with gold nanospheres (AuNS) under 523nm laser irradiation and Hepta1-6 tumor spheres with indocyanine green (ICG) under 800nm irradiation. However, at 1K laser PRF, it takes approximately 20 minutes to obtain a full sample volume of 160 × 160 × 150 μm3 . To increase the imaging rate, we propose a random non-uniform sparse sampling mechanism to achieve fast sparse photoacoustic data acquisition. The image recovery process is formulated as a low-rank matrix recovery (LRMR) based on compressed sensing (CS) theory. We show that it could be stably recovered via nuclear-norm minimization optimization problem to maintain image quality from a significantly fewer measurement. In this study, we use the dual-wavelength OR-PAM with CS to visualize T cell trafficking in a 3D culture system with higher temporal resolution. Data acquisition time is reduced by 40% in such sample volume where sampling density is 0.5. The imaging system reveals the potential to understand the dynamic cellular process for preclinical screening of anti-cancer drugs.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ogura, Toshihiko, E-mail: t-ogura@aist.go.jp

Highlights: • We developed a high-sensitive frequency transmission electric-field (FTE) system. • The output signal was highly enhanced by applying voltage to a metal layer on SiN. • The spatial resolution of new FTE method is 41 nm. • New FTE system enables observation of the intact bacteria and virus in water. - Abstract: The high-resolution structural analysis of biological specimens by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) presents several advantages. Until now, wet bacterial specimens have been examined using atmospheric sample holders. However, images of unstained specimens in water using these holders exhibit very poor contrast and heavy radiation damage. Recently,more » we developed the frequency transmission electric-field (FTE) method, which facilitates the SEM observation of biological specimens in water without radiation damage. However, the signal detection system presents low sensitivity. Therefore, a high EB current is required to generate clear images, and thus reducing spatial resolution and inducing thermal damage to the samples. Here a high-sensitivity detection system is developed for the FTE method, which enhances the output signal amplitude by hundredfold. The detection signal was highly enhanced when voltage was applied to the metal layer on silicon nitride thin film. This enhancement reduced the EB current and improved the spatial resolution as well as the signal-to-noise ratio. The spatial resolution of a high-sensitive FTE system is 41 nm, which is considerably higher than previous FTE system. New FTE system can easily be utilised to examine various unstained biological specimens in water, such as living bacteria and viruses.« less

Wave optics theory and 3-D deconvolution for the light field microscope

PubMed Central

Broxton, Michael; Grosenick, Logan; Yang, Samuel; Cohen, Noy; Andalman, Aaron; Deisseroth, Karl; Levoy, Marc

2013-01-01

Light field microscopy is a new technique for high-speed volumetric imaging of weakly scattering or fluorescent specimens. It employs an array of microlenses to trade off spatial resolution against angular resolution, thereby allowing a 4-D light field to be captured using a single photographic exposure without the need for scanning. The recorded light field can then be used to computationally reconstruct a full volume. In this paper, we present an optical model for light field microscopy based on wave optics, instead of previously reported ray optics models. We also present a 3-D deconvolution method for light field microscopy that is able to reconstruct volumes at higher spatial resolution, and with better optical sectioning, than previously reported. To accomplish this, we take advantage of the dense spatio-angular sampling provided by a microlens array at axial positions away from the native object plane. This dense sampling permits us to decode aliasing present in the light field to reconstruct high-frequency information. We formulate our method as an inverse problem for reconstructing the 3-D volume, which we solve using a GPU-accelerated iterative algorithm. Theoretical limits on the depth-dependent lateral resolution of the reconstructed volumes are derived. We show that these limits are in good agreement with experimental results on a standard USAF 1951 resolution target. Finally, we present 3-D reconstructions of pollen grains that demonstrate the improvements in fidelity made possible by our method. PMID:24150383

Optimization schemes for the inversion of Bouguer gravity anomalies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zamora, Azucena

Data sets obtained from measurable physical properties of the Earth structure have helped advance the understanding of its tectonic and structural processes and constitute key elements for resource prospecting. 2-Dimensional (2-D) and 3-D models obtained from the inversion of geophysical data sets are widely used to represent the structural composition of the Earth based on physical properties such as density, seismic wave velocities, magnetic susceptibility, conductivity, and resistivity. The inversion of each one of these data sets provides structural models whose consistency depends on the data collection process, methodology, and overall assumptions made in their individual mathematical processes. Although sampling the same medium, seismic and non-seismic methods often provide inconsistent final structural models of the Earth with varying accuracy, sensitivity, and resolution. Taking two or more geophysical data sets with complementary characteristics (e.g. having higher resolution at different depths) and combining their individual strengths to create a new improved structural model can help achieve higher accuracy and resolution power with respect to its original components while reducing their ambiguity and uncertainty effects. Gravity surveying constitutes a cheap, non-invasive, and non-destructive passive remote sensing method that helps to delineate variations in the gravity field. These variations can originate from regional anomalies due to deep density variations or from residual anomalies related to shallow density variations [41]. Since gravity anomaly inversions suffer from significant non-uniqueness (allowing two or more distinct density structures to have the same gravity signature) and small changes in parameters can highly impact the resulting model, the inversion of gravity data represents an ill-posed mathematical problem. However, gravity studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this method to trace shallow subsurface density variations associated with structural changes [16]; therefore, it complements those geophysical methods with the same depth resolution that sample a different physical property (e.g. electromagnetic surveys sampling electric conductivity) or even those with different depth resolution sampling an alternative physical property (e.g. large scale seismic reflection surveys imaging the crust and top upper mantle using seismic velocity fields). In order to improve the resolution of Bouguer gravity anomalies, and reduce their ambiguity and uncertainty for the modeling of the shallow crust, we propose the implementation of primal-dual interior point methods for the optimization of density structure models through the introduction of physical constraints for transitional areas obtained from previously acquired geophysical data sets. This dissertation presents in Chapter 2 an initial forward model implementation for the calculation of Bouguer gravity anomalies in the Porphyry Copper-Molybdenum (Cu-Mo) Copper Flat Mine region located in Sierra County, New Mexico. In Chapter 3, we present a constrained optimization framework (using interior-point methods) for the inversion of 2-D models of Earth structures delineating density contrasts of anomalous bodies in uniform regions and/or boundaries between layers in layered environments. We implement the proposed algorithm using three different synthetic gravitational data sets with varying complexity. Specifically, we improve the 2-dimensional density structure models by getting rid of unacceptable solutions (geologically unfeasible models or those not satisfying the required constraints) given the reduction of the solution space. Chapter 4 shows the results from the implementation of our algorithm for the inversion of gravitational data obtained from the area surrounding the Porphyry Cu-Mo Cooper Flat Mine in Sierra County, NM. Information obtained from previous induced polarization surveys and core samples served as physical constraints for the inversion parameters. Finally, in order to achieve higher resolution, Chapter 5 introduces a 3-D theoretical framework for the joint inversion of Bouguer gravity anomalies and surface wave dispersion using interior-point methods. Through this work, we expect to contribute to the creation of additional tools for the development of 2- and 3-D models depicting the Earth's geological processes and to the widespread use of constrained optimization techniques for the inversion of geophysical data sets.

The spatial sensitivity of the spectral diversity-biodiversity relationship: an experimental test in a prairie grassland.

PubMed

Wang, Ran; Gamon, John A; Cavender-Bares, Jeannine; Townsend, Philip A; Zygielbaum, Arthur I

2018-03-01

Remote sensing has been used to detect plant biodiversity in a range of ecosystems based on the varying spectral properties of different species or functional groups. However, the most appropriate spatial resolution necessary to detect diversity remains unclear. At coarse resolution, differences among spectral patterns may be too weak to detect. In contrast, at fine resolution, redundant information may be introduced. To explore the effect of spatial resolution, we studied the scale dependence of spectral diversity in a prairie ecosystem experiment at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, Minnesota, USA. Our study involved a scaling exercise comparing synthetic pixels resampled from high-resolution images within manipulated diversity treatments. Hyperspectral data were collected using several instruments on both ground and airborne platforms. We used the coefficient of variation (CV) of spectral reflectance in space as the indicator of spectral diversity and then compared CV at different scales ranging from 1 mm 2 to 1 m 2 to conventional biodiversity metrics, including species richness, Shannon's index, Simpson's index, phylogenetic species variation, and phylogenetic species evenness. In this study, higher species richness plots generally had higher CV. CV showed higher correlations with Shannon's index and Simpson's index than did species richness alone, indicating evenness contributed to the spectral diversity. Correlations with species richness and Simpson's index were generally higher than with phylogenetic species variation and evenness measured at comparable spatial scales, indicating weaker relationships between spectral diversity and phylogenetic diversity metrics than with species diversity metrics. High resolution imaging spectrometer data (1 mm 2 pixels) showed the highest sensitivity to diversity level. With decreasing spatial resolution, the difference in CV between diversity levels decreased and greatly reduced the optical detectability of biodiversity. The optimal pixel size for distinguishing α diversity in these prairie plots appeared to be around 1 mm to 10 cm, a spatial scale similar to the size of an individual herbaceous plant. These results indicate a strong scale-dependence of the spectral diversity-biodiversity relationships, with spectral diversity best able to detect a combination of species richness and evenness, and more weakly detecting phylogenetic diversity. These findings can be used to guide airborne studies of biodiversity and develop more effective large-scale biodiversity sampling methods. ©2018 The Authors Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Ecological Society of America.

High resolution microphotonic needle for endoscopic imaging (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tadayon, Mohammad Amin; Mohanty, Aseema; Roberts, Samantha P.; Barbosa, Felippe; Lipson, Michal

2017-02-01

GRIN (Graded index) lens have revolutionized micro endoscopy enabling deep tissue imaging with high resolution. The challenges of traditional GRIN lenses are their large size (when compared with the field of view) and their limited resolution. This is because of the relatively weak NA in standard graded index lenses. Here we introduce a novel micro-needle platform for endoscopy with much higher resolution than traditional GRIN lenses and a FOV that corresponds to the whole cross section of the needle. The platform is based on polymeric (SU-8) waveguide integrated with a microlens micro fabricated on a silicon substrate using a unique molding process. Due to the high index of refraction of the material the NA of the needle is much higher than traditional GRIN lenses. We tested the probe in a fluorescent dye solution (19.6 µM Alexa Flour 647 solution) and measured a numerical aperture of 0.25, focal length of about 175 µm and minimal spot size of about 1.6 µm. We show that the platform can image a sample with the field of view corresponding to the cross sectional area of the waveguide (80x100 µm2). The waveguide size can in principle be modified to vary size of the imaging field of view. This demonstration, combined with our previous work demonstrating our ability to implant the high NA needle in a live animal, shows that the proposed system can be used for deep tissue imaging with very high resolution and high field of view.

Recent advancements in structured-illumination microscopy toward live-cell imaging.

PubMed

Hirano, Yasuhiro; Matsuda, Atsushi; Hiraoka, Yasushi

2015-08-01

Fluorescence microscopy allows us to observe fluorescently labeled molecules in diverse biological processes and organelle structures within living cells. However, the diffraction limit restricts its spatial resolution to about half of its wavelength, limiting the capability of biological observation at the molecular level. Structured-illumination microscopy (SIM), a type of super-resolution microscopy, doubles the spatial resolution in all three dimensions by illuminating the sample with a patterned excitation light, followed by computer reconstruction. SIM uses a relatively low illumination power compared with other methods of super-resolution microscopy and is easily available for multicolor imaging. SIM has great potential for meeting the requirements of live-cell imaging. Recent developments in diverse types of SIM have achieved higher spatial (∼50 nm lateral) and temporal (∼100 Hz) resolutions. Here, we review recent advancements in SIM and discuss its application in noninvasive live-cell imaging. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Sharpening advanced land imager multispectral data using a sensor model

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lemeshewsky, G.P.; ,

2005-01-01

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument on NASA's Earth Observing One (EO-1) satellite provides for nine spectral bands at 30m ground sample distance (GSD) and a 10m GSD panchromatic band. This report describes an image sharpening technique where the higher spatial resolution information of the panchromatic band is used to increase the spatial resolution of ALI multispectral (MS) data. To preserve the spectral characteristics, this technique combines reported deconvolution deblurring methods for the MS data with highpass filter-based fusion methods for the Pan data. The deblurring process uses the point spread function (PSF) model of the ALI sensor. Information includes calculation of the PSF from pre-launch calibration data. Performance was evaluated using simulated ALI MS data generated by degrading the spatial resolution of high resolution IKONOS satellite MS data. A quantitative measure of performance was the error between sharpened MS data and high resolution reference. This report also compares performance with that of a reported method that includes PSF information. Preliminary results indicate improved sharpening with the method reported here.

Holographic pixel super-resolution in portable lensless on-chip microscopy using a fiber-optic array.

PubMed

Bishara, Waheb; Sikora, Uzair; Mudanyali, Onur; Su, Ting-Wei; Yaglidere, Oguzhan; Luckhart, Shirley; Ozcan, Aydogan

2011-04-07

We report a portable lensless on-chip microscope that can achieve <1 µm resolution over a wide field-of-view of ∼ 24 mm(2) without the use of any mechanical scanning. This compact on-chip microscope weighs ∼ 95 g and is based on partially coherent digital in-line holography. Multiple fiber-optic waveguides are butt-coupled to light emitting diodes, which are controlled by a low-cost micro-controller to sequentially illuminate the sample. The resulting lensfree holograms are then captured by a digital sensor-array and are rapidly processed using a pixel super-resolution algorithm to generate much higher resolution holographic images (both phase and amplitude) of the objects. This wide-field and high-resolution on-chip microscope, being compact and light-weight, would be important for global health problems such as diagnosis of infectious diseases in remote locations. Toward this end, we validate the performance of this field-portable microscope by imaging human malaria parasites (Plasmodium falciparum) in thin blood smears. Our results constitute the first-time that a lensfree on-chip microscope has successfully imaged malaria parasites.

Effects of coupling between sample and electrode on the electrical resistivity measurements of conductive samples

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, T. J.; Lee, S. K.

2015-12-01

A resistivity measurement system for conductive core samples has been setup using a high resolution nano-voltmeter. Using the system, in this study, various coupling effects between electrodes and the samples are discussed including contact resistance, lead resistance, temperature dependence, and heat produced within the samples by applied current. The lead resistance was over 10 times higher than the resistance of the conductive samples such as graphite or nichrome, even though the electrodes and lead lines were made of silver. Furthermore, lead resistance itself showed very strong temperature dependence, so that it is essential to subtract the lead resistance from the measured values at corresponding temperature. Minimization of contact resistance is very important, so that the axial loads are needed as big as possible unless the deformation of sample occurs.

Local X-ray Computed Tomography Imaging for Mineralogical and Pore Characterization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mills, G.; Willson, C. S.

2015-12-01

Sample size, material properties and image resolution are all tradeoffs that must be considered when imaging porous media samples with X-ray computed tomography. In many natural and engineered samples, pore and throat sizes span several orders of magnitude and are often correlated with the material composition. Local tomography is a nondestructive technique that images a subvolume, within a larger specimen, at high resolution and uses low-resolution tomography data from the larger specimen to reduce reconstruction error. The high-resolution, subvolume data can be used to extract important fine-scale properties but, due to the additional noise associated with the truncated dataset, it makes segmentation of different materials and mineral phases a challenge. The low-resolution data of a larger specimen is typically of much higher-quality making material characterization much easier. In addition, the imaging of a larger domain, allows for mm-scale bulk properties and heterogeneities to be determined. In this research, a 7 mm diameter and ~15 mm in length sandstone core was scanned twice. The first scan was performed to cover the entire diameter and length of the specimen at an image voxel resolution of 4.1 μm. The second scan was performed on a subvolume, ~1.3 mm in length and ~2.1 mm in diameter, at an image voxel resolution of 1.08 μm. After image processing and segmentation, the pore network structure and mineralogical features were extracted from the low-resolution dataset. Due to the noise in the truncated high-resolution dataset, several image processing approaches were applied prior to image segmentation and extraction of the pore network structure and mineralogy. Results from the different truncated tomography segmented data sets are compared to each other to evaluate the potential of each approach in identifying the different solid phases from the original 16 bit data set. The truncated tomography segmented data sets were also compared to the whole-core tomography segmented data set in two ways: (1) assessment of the porosity and pore size distribution at different scales; and (2) comparison of the mineralogical composition and distribution. Finally, registration of the two datasets will be used to show how the pore structure and mineralogy details at the two scales can be used to supplement each other.

Density‐weighted concentric circle trajectories for high resolution brain magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging at 7T

PubMed Central

Hingerl, Lukas; Moser, Philipp; Považan, Michal; Hangel, Gilbert; Heckova, Eva; Gruber, Stephan; Trattnig, Siegfried; Strasser, Bernhard

2017-01-01

Purpose Full‐slice magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging at ≥7 T is especially vulnerable to lipid contaminations arising from regions close to the skull. This contamination can be mitigated by improving the point spread function via higher spatial resolution sampling and k‐space filtering, but this prolongs scan times and reduces the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) efficiency. Currently applied parallel imaging methods accelerate magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging scans at 7T, but increase lipid artifacts and lower SNR‐efficiency further. In this study, we propose an SNR‐efficient spatial‐spectral sampling scheme using concentric circle echo planar trajectories (CONCEPT), which was adapted to intrinsically acquire a Hamming‐weighted k‐space, thus termed density‐weighted‐CONCEPT. This minimizes voxel bleeding, while preserving an optimal SNR. Theory and Methods Trajectories were theoretically derived and verified in phantoms as well as in the human brain via measurements of five volunteers (single‐slice, field‐of‐view 220 × 220 mm2, matrix 64 × 64, scan time 6 min) with free induction decay magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. Density‐weighted‐CONCEPT was compared to (a) the originally proposed CONCEPT with equidistant circles (here termed e‐CONCEPT), (b) elliptical phase‐encoding, and (c) 5‐fold Controlled Aliasing In Parallel Imaging Results IN Higher Acceleration accelerated elliptical phase‐encoding. Results By intrinsically sampling a Hamming‐weighted k‐space, density‐weighted‐CONCEPT removed Gibbs‐ringing artifacts and had in vivo +9.5%, +24.4%, and +39.7% higher SNR than e‐CONCEPT, elliptical phase‐encoding, and the Controlled Aliasing In Parallel Imaging Results IN Higher Acceleration accelerated elliptical phase‐encoding (all P < 0.05), respectively, which lead to improved metabolic maps. Conclusion Density‐weighted‐CONCEPT provides clinically attractive full‐slice high‐resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging with optimal SNR at 7T. Magn Reson Med 79:2874–2885, 2018. © 2017 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. PMID:29106742

Improving lateral resolution and image quality of optical coherence tomography by the multi-frame superresolution technique for 3D tissue imaging.

PubMed

Shen, Kai; Lu, Hui; Baig, Sarfaraz; Wang, Michael R

2017-11-01

The multi-frame superresolution technique is introduced to significantly improve the lateral resolution and image quality of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Using several sets of low resolution C-scan 3D images with lateral sub-spot-spacing shifts on different sets, the multi-frame superresolution processing of these sets at each depth layer reconstructs a higher resolution and quality lateral image. Layer by layer processing yields an overall high lateral resolution and quality 3D image. In theory, the superresolution processing including deconvolution can solve the diffraction limit, lateral scan density and background noise problems together. In experiment, the improved lateral resolution by ~3 times reaching 7.81 µm and 2.19 µm using sample arm optics of 0.015 and 0.05 numerical aperture respectively as well as doubling the image quality has been confirmed by imaging a known resolution test target. Improved lateral resolution on in vitro skin C-scan images has been demonstrated. For in vivo 3D SD-OCT imaging of human skin, fingerprint and retina layer, we used the multi-modal volume registration method to effectively estimate the lateral image shifts among different C-scans due to random minor unintended live body motion. Further processing of these images generated high lateral resolution 3D images as well as high quality B-scan images of these in vivo tissues.

Use of vancomycin silica stationary phase in packed capillary electrochromatography. II. Enantiomer separation of venlafaxine and O-desmethylvenlafaxine in human plasma.

PubMed

Fanali, S; Rudaz, S; Veuthey, J L; Desiderio, C

2001-06-01

A capillary electrochromatography method, using vancomycin chiral stationary phase packed capillary, was optimized for the simultaneous chiral separation of the antidepressant drug venlafaxine and its main active metabolite O-desmethylvenlafaxine. Simultaneous baseline enantiomeric separation of the two compounds was obtained using a mobile phase composed of 100 mM ammonium acetate buffer pH 6/water/acetonitrile (5:5:90, v/v). The electrokinetic injection for sample introduction provided a limit of quantitation for both the compounds of 0.05 microg/ml racemate concentration suitable for the analysis of venlafaxine and metabolite in biological samples. The acetonitrile mobile phase concentration was found to modulate the analytes elution times, the enantiomeric resolution and the efficiency of the separation. The column was tested for repeatability and linearity showing RSD values (%) in the range of 0.13-0.24, 2.47-3.66 and 1.35-2.50 for migration time, sample/internal standard peak area ratio and enantiomeric resolution, respectively and correlation coefficients higher than 0.9990. The method was applied to the analysis of clinical samples of patients under depression therapy showing a stereoselective metabolism for venlafaxine.

Sex Differences in Brain Volume Are Related to Specific Skills, Not to General Intelligence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgaleta, Miguel; Head, Kevin; Alvarez-Linera, Juan; Martinez, Kenia; Escorial, Sergio; Haier, Richard; Colom, Roberto

2012-01-01

It has been proposed that males would show higher mean scores than females in general intelligence ("g") because (1) men have, on average, larger brains than women, and (2) brain volume correlates with "g." Here we report a failure to support the conclusion derived from these premises. High resolution MRIs were acquired in a sample of one hundred…

Matrix-effect free multi-residue analysis of veterinary drugs in food samples of animal origin by nanoflow liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Alcántara-Durán, Jaime; Moreno-González, David; Gilbert-López, Bienvenida; Molina-Díaz, Antonio; García-Reyes, Juan F

2018-04-15

In this work, a sensitive method based on nanoflow liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry has been developed for the multiresidue determination of veterinary drugs residues in honey, veal muscle, egg and milk. Salting-out supported liquid extraction was employed as sample treatment for milk, veal muscle and egg, while a modified QuEChERS procedure was used in honey. The enhancement of sensitivity provided by the nanoflow LC system also allowed the implementation of high dilution factors as high as 100:1. For all matrices tested, matrix effects were negligible starting from a dilution factor of 100, enabling, thus, the use of external standard calibration instead of matrix-matched calibration of each sample, and the subsequent increase of laboratory throughput. At spiked levels as low as 0.1 or 1 µg kg -1 before the 1:100 dilution, the obtained signals were still significantly higher than the instrumental limit of quantitation (S/N 10). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Rapid screening of acidity regulators in dairy by ion chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry].

PubMed

Yun, Huan; Liu, Xin; Cui, Jie; Yang, Jing; Liu, Ying

2017-08-08

A method for screening of acidity regulators in dairy based on ion chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry technology (IC-HRMS) was set up. The dairy samples were extracted by KOH (pH 7-8) and Oasis MAX SPE column, and separated by a Dionex IonPac AS11-HC column (250 mm×4 mm). All the acidity regulators were detected by Orbitrap full scan mode. Taking six organic acids as an example, the calibration curves showed good linearities in the range of 0.05-5.00 mg/L, and the correlation coefficients ( r ) were higher than 0.99. By detecting the spiked samples, the recoveries were in the range of 74.3%-115.5% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) between 0.64% and 4.81%. Malic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, succinic acid and adipic acid could be detected by IC-HRMS in the commercial dairy samples. The results indicate that the method is simple, rapid and suitable for the qualitative screening of acidity regulators in dairy products.

Benefits and Limitations of Low-kV Macromolecular Imaging of Frozen-Hydrated Biological Samples

PubMed Central

Majorovits, Endre; Angert, Isabel; Kaiser, Ute; Schröder, Rasmus R.

2016-01-01

Object contrast is one of the most important parameters of macromolecular imaging. Low-voltage transmission electron microscopy has shown an increased atom contrast for carbon materials, indicating that amplitude contrast contributions increase at a higher rate than phase contrast and inelastic scattering. Here, we studied image contrast using ice-embedded tobacco mosaic virus particles as test samples at 20–80 keV electron energy. The particles showed the expected increase in contrast for lower energies, but at the same time the 2.3-nm-resolution measure decayed more rapidly. We found a pronounced signal loss below 60 keV, and therefore we conclude that increased inelastic scattering counteracts increased amplitude contrast. This model also implies that as long as the amplitude contrast does not increase with resolution, beam damage and multiple scattering will always win over increased contrast at the lowest energies. Therefore, we cannot expect that low-energy imaging of conventionally prepared samples would provide better data than state-of-the-art 200–300 keV imaging. PMID:26910420

Wavelength scanning achieves pixel super-resolution in holographic on-chip microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Wei; Göröcs, Zoltan; Zhang, Yibo; Feizi, Alborz; Greenbaum, Alon; Ozcan, Aydogan

2016-03-01

Lensfree holographic on-chip imaging is a potent solution for high-resolution and field-portable bright-field imaging over a wide field-of-view. Previous lensfree imaging approaches utilize a pixel super-resolution technique, which relies on sub-pixel lateral displacements between the lensfree diffraction patterns and the image sensor's pixel-array, to achieve sub-micron resolution under unit magnification using state-of-the-art CMOS imager chips, commonly used in e.g., mobile-phones. Here we report, for the first time, a wavelength scanning based pixel super-resolution technique in lensfree holographic imaging. We developed an iterative super-resolution algorithm, which generates high-resolution reconstructions of the specimen from low-resolution (i.e., under-sampled) diffraction patterns recorded at multiple wavelengths within a narrow spectral range (e.g., 10-30 nm). Compared with lateral shift-based pixel super-resolution, this wavelength scanning approach does not require any physical shifts in the imaging setup, and the resolution improvement is uniform in all directions across the sensor-array. Our wavelength scanning super-resolution approach can also be integrated with multi-height and/or multi-angle on-chip imaging techniques to obtain even higher resolution reconstructions. For example, using wavelength scanning together with multi-angle illumination, we achieved a halfpitch resolution of 250 nm, corresponding to a numerical aperture of 1. In addition to pixel super-resolution, the small scanning steps in wavelength also enable us to robustly unwrap phase, revealing the specimen's optical path length in our reconstructed images. We believe that this new wavelength scanning based pixel super-resolution approach can provide competitive microscopy solutions for high-resolution and field-portable imaging needs, potentially impacting tele-pathology applications in resource-limited-settings.

Molecular-level evidence provided by ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry for oil-derived doc in groundwater at Bemidji, Minnesota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Islam, Ananna; Ahmed, Arif; Hur, Manhoi; Thorn, Kevin A.; Kim, Sunghwan

2016-01-01

Dissolved organic matter samples extracted from ground water at the USGS Bemidji oil spill site in Minnesota were investigated by ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry. Principle component analysis (PCA) of the elemental composition assignments of the samples showed that the score plots for the contaminated sites were well separated from those for the uncontaminated sites. Additionally, spectra obtained from the same sampling site 7 and 19 years after the spill were grouped together in the score plot, strongly suggesting a steady state of contamination within the 12 year interval. The double bond equivalence (DBE) of Ox class compounds was broader for the samples from the contaminated sites, because of the complex nature of oil and the consequent formation of compounds with saturated and/or aromatic structures from the oxygenated products of oil. In addition, Ox class compounds with a relatively smaller number of x (x < 8; x = number of oxygen) and OxS1 class compounds were more abundant in the samples from the contaminated sites, because of the lower oxygen and higher sulfur contents of the oil compared to humic substances. The molecular-level signatures presented here can be a fundamental basis for in-depth analysis of oil contamination.

Multidimensional High-Resolution Magic Angle Spinning and Solution-State NMR Characterization of 13C-labeled Plant Metabolites and Lignocellulose

PubMed Central

Mori, Tetsuya; Tsuboi, Yuuri; Ishida, Nobuhiro; Nishikubo, Nobuyuki; Demura, Taku; Kikuchi, Jun

2015-01-01

Lignocellulose, which includes mainly cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, is a potential resource for the production of chemicals and for other applications. For effective production of materials derived from biomass, it is important to characterize the metabolites and polymeric components of the biomass. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has been used to identify biomass components; however, the NMR spectra of metabolites and lignocellulose components are ambiguously assigned in many cases due to overlapping chemical shift peaks. Using our 13C-labeling technique in higher plants such as poplar samples, we demonstrated that overlapping peaks could be resolved by three-dimensional NMR experiments to more accurately assign chemical shifts compared with two-dimensional NMR measurements. Metabolites of the 13C-poplar were measured by high-resolution magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy, which allows sample analysis without solvent extraction, while lignocellulose components of the 13C-poplar dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide/pyridine solvent were analyzed by solution-state NMR techniques. Using these methods, we were able to unambiguously assign chemical shifts of small and macromolecular components in 13C-poplar samples. Furthermore, using samples of less than 5 mg, we could differentiate between two kinds of genes that were overexpressed in poplar samples, which produced clearly modified plant cell wall components. PMID:26143886

High-resolution gel electrophoresis and sodium dodecyl sulphate-agarose gel electrophoresis on urine samples for qualitative analysis of proteinuria in dogs.

PubMed

Giori, Luca; Tricomi, Flavia Marcella; Zatelli, Andrea; Roura, Xavier; Paltrinieri, Saverio

2011-07-01

The aims of the current study were to assess whether sodium dodecyl sulphate-agarose gel electrophoresis (SDS-AGE) and high-resolution electrophoresis (HRE) can identify dogs with a urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPC ratio) >0.2 and whether HRE can provide preliminary information about the type of proteinuria, using SDS-AGE as a reference method. HRE and SDS-AGE were conducted on 87 urine samples classified according to the International Renal Interest Society as non-proteinuric (NP; UPC ratio: <0.20; 32/87), borderline proteinuric (BP; UPC ratio: 0.21-0.50; 15/87), or proteinuric (P; UPC ratio: >0.51; 40/87). SDS-AGE and HRE were positive in 14 out of 32 and 3 out of 32 NP samples and in 52 out of 55 and 40 out of 55 samples with a UPC ratio >0.20, respectively. The concordance between HRE or SDS and UPC ratio was comparable (κ = 0.59; κ = 0.55). However, specificity (90%) and positive likelihood ratio (7.76) were higher for HRE than for SDS-AGE (56% and 2.16) while sensitivity was lower (73% vs. 94%). The analysis of HRE results revealed that a percentage of albumin >41.4% and an albumin/α(1)-globulin ratio (alb/α(1) ratio) >1.46 can identify samples classified by SDS-AGE as affected by glomerular proteinuria while a percentage of α(1)-globulin >40.8% and an alb/α(1) ratio <0.84 can identify samples classified by SDS-AGE as affected by tubular proteinuria. In conclusion, both SDS-AGE and HRE could misclassify samples with a UPC ratio higher or lower than 0.20. Therefore, UPC ratio must always be determined before conducting these tests. The percentage of albumin and α(1)-globulin or the alb/α(1) ratio determined by HRE can provide preliminary information about the origin of proteinuria.

Methods of analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Quality Laboratory; processing, taxonomy, and quality control of benthic macroinvertebrate samples

USGS Publications Warehouse

Moulton, Stephen R.; Carter, James L.; Grotheer, Scott A.; Cuffney, Thomas F.; Short, Terry M.

2000-01-01

Qualitative and quantitative methods to process benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) samples have been developed and tested by the U.S. Geological Survey?s National Water Quality Laboratory Biological Group. The qualitative processing method is based on visually sorting a sample for up to 2 hours. Sorting focuses on attaining organisms that are likely to result in taxonomic identifications to lower taxonomic levels (for example, Genus or Species). Immature and damaged organisms are also sorted when they are likely to result in unique determinations. The sorted sample remnant is scanned briefly by a second person to determine if obvious taxa were missed. The quantitative processing method is based on a fixed-count approach that targets some minimum count, such as 100 or 300 organisms. Organisms are sorted from randomly selected 5.1- by 5.1-centimeter parts of a gridded subsampling frame. The sorted remnant from each sample is resorted by a second individual for at least 10 percent of the original sort time. A large-rare organism search is performed on the unsorted remnant to sort BMI taxa that were not likely represented in the sorted grids. After either qualitatively or quantitatively sorting the sample, BMIs are identified by using one of three different types of taxonomic assessment. The Standard Taxonomic Assessment is comparable to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocol III and typically provides Genus- or Species-level taxonomic resolution. The Rapid Taxonomic Assessment is comparable to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Rapid Bioassessment Protocol II and provides Familylevel and higher taxonomic resolution. The Custom Taxonomic Assessment provides Species-level resolution whenever possible for groups identified to higher taxonomic levels by using the Standard Taxonomic Assessment. The consistent use of standardized designations and notes facilitates the interpretation of BMI data within and among water-quality studies. Taxonomic identifications are quality assured by verifying all referenced taxa and randomly reviewing 10 percent of the taxonomic identifications performed weekly by Biological Group taxonomists. Taxonomic errors discovered during this review are corrected. BMI data are reviewed for accuracy and completeness prior to release. BMI data are released phylogenetically in spreadsheet format and unprocessed abundances are corrected for laboratory and field subsampling when necessary.

Simultaneous Multi-Slice fMRI using Spiral Trajectories

PubMed Central

Zahneisen, Benjamin; Poser, Benedikt A.; Ernst, Thomas; Stenger, V. Andrew

2014-01-01

Parallel imaging methods using multi-coil receiver arrays have been shown to be effective for increasing MRI acquisition speed. However parallel imaging methods for fMRI with 2D sequences show only limited improvements in temporal resolution because of the long echo times needed for BOLD contrast. Recently, Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) imaging techniques have been shown to increase fMRI temporal resolution by factors of four and higher. In SMS fMRI multiple slices can be acquired simultaneously using Echo Planar Imaging (EPI) and the overlapping slices are un-aliased using a parallel imaging reconstruction with multiple receivers. The slice separation can be further improved using the “blipped-CAIPI” EPI sequence that provides a more efficient sampling of the SMS 3D k-space. In this paper a blipped-spiral SMS sequence for ultra-fast fMRI is presented. The blipped-spiral sequence combines the sampling efficiency of spiral trajectories with the SMS encoding concept used in blipped-CAIPI EPI. We show that blipped spiral acquisition can achieve almost whole brain coverage at 3 mm isotropic resolution in 168 ms. It is also demonstrated that the high temporal resolution allows for dynamic BOLD lag time measurement using visual/motor and retinotopic mapping paradigms. The local BOLD lag time within the visual cortex following the retinotopic mapping stimulation of expanding flickering rings is directly measured and easily translated into an eccentricity map of the cortex. PMID:24518259

Quantitative DLA-based compressed sensing for T1-weighted acquisitions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svehla, Pavel; Nguyen, Khieu-Van; Li, Jing-Rebecca; Ciobanu, Luisa

2017-08-01

High resolution Manganese Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MEMRI), which uses manganese as a T1 contrast agent, has great potential for functional imaging of live neuronal tissue at single neuron scale. However, reaching high resolutions often requires long acquisition times which can lead to reduced image quality due to sample deterioration and hardware instability. Compressed Sensing (CS) techniques offer the opportunity to significantly reduce the imaging time. The purpose of this work is to test the feasibility of CS acquisitions based on Diffusion Limited Aggregation (DLA) sampling patterns for high resolution quantitative T1-weighted imaging. Fully encoded and DLA-CS T1-weighted images of Aplysia californica neural tissue were acquired on a 17.2T MRI system. The MR signal corresponding to single, identified neurons was quantified for both versions of the T1 weighted images. For a 50% undersampling, DLA-CS can accurately quantify signal intensities in T1-weighted acquisitions leading to only 1.37% differences when compared to the fully encoded data, with minimal impact on image spatial resolution. In addition, we compared the conventional polynomial undersampling scheme with the DLA and showed that, for the data at hand, the latter performs better. Depending on the image signal to noise ratio, higher undersampling ratios can be used to further reduce the acquisition time in MEMRI based functional studies of living tissues.

Incoherent Diffractive Imaging via Intensity Correlations of Hard X Rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Classen, Anton; Ayyer, Kartik; Chapman, Henry N.; Röhlsberger, Ralf; von Zanthier, Joachim

2017-08-01

Established x-ray diffraction methods allow for high-resolution structure determination of crystals, crystallized protein structures, or even single molecules. While these techniques rely on coherent scattering, incoherent processes like fluorescence emission—often the predominant scattering mechanism—are generally considered detrimental for imaging applications. Here, we show that intensity correlations of incoherently scattered x-ray radiation can be used to image the full 3D arrangement of the scattering atoms with significantly higher resolution compared to conventional coherent diffraction imaging and crystallography, including additional three-dimensional information in Fourier space for a single sample orientation. We present a number of properties of incoherent diffractive imaging that are conceptually superior to those of coherent methods.

Geomagnetic Paleointensity Variations as a Cheap, High-Resolution Geochronometer for Recent Mid-Ocean Ridge Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DYMENT, J.; HEMOND, C.

2001-12-01

The sequence of geomagnetic field reversals is widely used to date events younger than 160 Ma, with a resolution of a million years. In oceanic domains, Vine and Matthews (1963) magnetic anomalies have been successfully used for more than 35 years. The major limitation of this chronometer is its low temporal resolution, especially for the recent times: the youngest polarity reversal, between Brunhes normal and Matuyama reversed periods, is dated ~800 ka. Studies of pelagic sedimentary cores have shown the existence of consistent variations of the geomagnetic field intensity within this period. If accurately dated, these variations may refine the magnetic geochronometer to a much higher resolution of 10-100 ka. Recent studies have demonstrated that the "tiny wiggles" of lower amplitude and shorter wavelength superimposed to the Vine and Matthews anomalies are of geomagnetic origin and correspond to the paleointensity variations identified on sediment cores. Using a large set of magnetic data acquired in 1996 on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 21° N (surface and submersible magnetic anomalies, natural remanent magnetization and absolute paleointensities measured on samples), we have shown that the oceanic crust confidently records the geomagnetic intensity variations. It was unfortunately impossible to date the samples, made of basalt too depleted in K2O and in trace elements required by the various methods of radiochronology. In 2000 we have collected a similar data set at the Central Indian Ridge axis at 19° S (surface, deep-tow, and submersible magnetic anomalies, natural remanent magnetization and absolute paleointensities measured on samples). This area offers the advantages of 1) a faster spreading rate, and therefore a higher temporal resolution of the geomagnetic signal, and 2) the presence of moderately enriched basalt as a consequence of the interaction of the ridge with the nearby Reunion hotspot, making possible radiochronologic dating. Our first evaluation of the data confirms the quality of the oceanic crust as a recorder of the geomagnetic variations. Future work in the framework of Project GIMNAUT include 1) the processing and interpretation of the available magnetic signals to obtain a detailed sequence of the geomagnetic fluctuations for the last 800 ka; 2) the dating of collected samples with different radiochronologic methods such as K-Ar and Ar-Ar for samples older than 100-150 ka and 230Th-238U for samples aged between 300-10 ka; and 3) the calibration of the geomagnetic intensity variation sequence as a high resolution geochronometer for the last 800 ka. Such a magnetic geochronometer would present an obvious interest for mid-ocean ridge studies, because of its low cost and simplicity of operation: it would only require the addition of a deep-sea magnetometer onto existing means of investigation such as submersibles, ROVs or AUVs. Beyond this application, this magnetic geochronometer could also be used for accurate dating of pelagic sedimentary sequences, through the analysis of relative paleointensities on cores, or of continental or island volcanic flows, through the determination of absolute paleointensities by the Thellier-Thellier method. (*) N. Arnaud, C. Bassoullet, M.. Benoit, A. Briais, F. Chabaux, A.K. Chaubey, A. Chauvin, P. Gente, H. Guillou, H. Horen, M. Kitazawa, B. Le Gall, M. Maia, M. Ravilly

"Unresolved Complex Mixture" (UCM): A brief history of the term and moving beyond it.

PubMed

Farrington, John W; Quinn, James G

2015-07-15

The term "Unresolved Complex Mixture" (UCM) has been used extensively for decades to describe a gas chromatographic characteristic indicative of the presence of fossil fuel hydrocarbons (mainly petroleum hydrocarbons) in hydrocarbons isolated from aquatic samples. We chronicle the origin of the term. While it is still a useful characteristic for screening samples, more modern higher resolution two dimensional gas chromatography and gas chromatography coupled with advanced mass spectrometry techniques (Time-of-Flight or Fourier Transform-Ion Cyclotron Resonance) should be employed for analyses of petroleum contaminated samples. This will facilitate advances in understanding of the origins, fates and effects of petroleum compounds in aquatic environments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Image superresolution of cytology images using wavelet based patch search

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vargas, Carlos; García-Arteaga, Juan D.; Romero, Eduardo

2015-01-01

Telecytology is a new research area that holds the potential of significantly reducing the number of deaths due to cervical cancer in developing countries. This work presents a novel super-resolution technique that couples high and low frequency information in order to reduce the bandwidth consumption of cervical image transmission. The proposed approach starts by decomposing into wavelets the high resolution images and transmitting only the lower frequency coefficients. The transmitted coefficients are used to reconstruct an image of the original size. Additional details are added by iteratively replacing patches of the wavelet reconstructed image with equivalent high resolution patches from a previously acquired image database. Finally, the original transmitted low frequency coefficients are used to correct the final image. Results show a higher signal to noise ratio in the proposed method over simply discarding high frequency wavelet coefficients or replacing directly down-sampled patches from the image-database.

High-Resolution Characterization of UMo Alloy Microstructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Devaraj, Arun; Kovarik, Libor; Joshi, Vineet V.

2016-11-30

This report highlights the capabilities and procedure for high-resolution characterization of UMo fuels in PNNL. Uranium-molybdenum (UMo) fuel processing steps, from casting to forming final fuel, directly affect the microstructure of the fuel, which in turn dictates the in-reactor performance of the fuel under irradiation. In order to understand the influence of processing on UMo microstructure, microstructure characterization techniques are necessary. Higher-resolution characterization techniques like transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) are needed to interrogate the details of the microstructure. The findings from TEM and APT are also directly beneficial for developing predictive multiscale modeling tools thatmore » can predict the microstructure as a function of process parameters. This report provides background on focused-ion-beam–based TEM and APT sample preparation, TEM and APT analysis procedures, and the unique information achievable through such advanced characterization capabilities for UMo fuels, from a fuel fabrication capability viewpoint.« less

Scintillation properties of Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce3+ single crystal scintillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakthong, Ongsa; Chewpraditkul, Weerapong; Wanarak, Chalerm; Kamada, Kei; Yoshikawa, Akira; Prusa, Petr; Nikl, Martin

2014-07-01

The scintillation properties of Gd3Al2Ga3O12:Ce3+ (GAGG:Ce) single crystals grown by the Czochralski method with 1 at% cerium in the melt were investigated and results were compared with so far published results in the literature. The light yield (LY) and energy resolution were measured using a XP5200B photomultiplier. Despite about twice higher LY for GAGG:Ce, the energy resolution is only slightly better than that of LuAG:Ce due to its worse intrinsic resolution and non-proportionality of LY. The LY dependences on the sample thickness and amplifier shaping time were measured. The estimated photofraction in pulse height spectra of 320 and 662 keV γ-rays and the total mass attenuation coefficient at 662 keV γ-rays were also determined and compared with the theoretical ones calculated using the WinXCom program.

Errors in the estimation of approximate entropy and other recurrence-plot-derived indices due to the finite resolution of RR time series.

PubMed

García-González, Miguel A; Fernández-Chimeno, Mireya; Ramos-Castro, Juan

2009-02-01

An analysis of the errors due to the finite resolution of RR time series in the estimation of the approximate entropy (ApEn) is described. The quantification errors in the discrete RR time series produce considerable errors in the ApEn estimation (bias and variance) when the signal variability or the sampling frequency is low. Similar errors can be found in indices related to the quantification of recurrence plots. An easy way to calculate a figure of merit [the signal to resolution of the neighborhood ratio (SRN)] is proposed in order to predict when the bias in the indices could be high. When SRN is close to an integer value n, the bias is higher than when near n - 1/2 or n + 1/2. Moreover, if SRN is close to an integer value, the lower this value, the greater the bias is.

Scanning electron microscopy of cells and tissues under fully hydrated conditions

PubMed Central

Thiberge, Stephan; Nechushtan, Amotz; Sprinzak, David; Gileadi, Opher; Behar, Vered; Zik, Ory; Chowers, Yehuda; Michaeli, Shulamit; Schlessinger, Joseph; Moses, Elisha

2004-01-01

A capability for scanning electron microscopy of wet biological specimens is presented. A membrane that is transparent to electrons protects the fully hydrated sample from the vacuum. The result is a hybrid technique combining the ease of use and ability to see into cells of optical microscopy with the higher resolution of electron microscopy. The resolution of low-contrast materials is ≈100 nm, whereas in high-contrast materials the resolution can reach 10 nm. Standard immunogold techniques and heavy-metal stains can be applied and viewed in the fluid to improve the contrast. Images present a striking combination of whole-cell morphology with a wealth of internal details. A possibility for direct inspection of tissue slices transpires, imaging only the external layer of cells. Simultaneous imaging with photons excited by the electrons incorporates data on material distribution, indicating a potential for multilabeling and specific scintillating markers. PMID:14988502

Quality evaluation of pansharpened hyperspectral images generated using multispectral images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsuoka, Masayuki; Yoshioka, Hiroki

2012-11-01

Hyperspectral remote sensing can provide a smooth spectral curve of a target by using a set of higher spectral resolution detectors. The spatial resolution of the hyperspectral images, however, is generally much lower than that of multispectral images due to the lower energy of incident radiation. Pansharpening is an image-fusion technique that generates higher spatial resolution multispectral images by combining lower resolution multispectral images with higher resolution panchromatic images. In this study, higher resolution hyperspectral images were generated by pansharpening of simulated lower hyperspectral and higher multispectral data. Spectral and spatial qualities of pansharpened images, then, were accessed in relation to the spectral bands of multispectral images. Airborne hyperspectral data of AVIRIS was used in this study, and it was pansharpened using six methods. Quantitative evaluations of pansharpened image are achieved using two frequently used indices, ERGAS, and the Q index.

Persistent aryl hydrocarbon receptor inducers increase with altitude, and estrogen-like disrupters are low in soils of the Alps.

PubMed

Levy, Walkiria; Henkelmann, Bernhard; Bernhöft, Silke; Bovee, Toine; Buegger, Franz; Jakobi, Gert; Kirchner, Manfred; Bassan, Rodolfo; Kräuchi, Norbert; Moche, Wolfgang; Offenthaler, Ivo; Simončič, Primoz; Weiss, Peter; Schramm, Karl-Werner

2011-01-01

Soil samples from remote Alpine areas were analyzed for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans and polychlorinated biphenyls by high-resolution gas chromatography/high-resolution gas spectrometry. Additionally, the EROD micro-assay and a genetically modified yeast estrogen bioassay were carried out to determine persistent aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AhR) and estrogen receptors (ER) agonists, respectively. Regarding the AhR agonists, the toxicity equivalents of analytical and EROD determined values were compared, targeting both altitude of samples and their soil organic content. The ratio between bioassay derived equivalents and analytical determinations suggested no significant contribution of unknown AhR inducers in these sampling sites and some antagonism in soils with relatively high PCB loading. More CYP1A1 expression was induced at the highest sites or about 1400-1500 m a.s.l. along the altitude profiles. Surprisingly, no clear tendencies with the soil organic content were found for dioxin-like compounds. Mean values obtained in the present study were for ER agonists, 2: 0.37±0.12ng 17ß-estradiol EQ g-1 dry soil [corrected] and 6.1 ± 4.2 pg TCDD-EQ g⁻¹ dry soil for AhR agonists. Low bioassay responses with a higher relative amount of ER disrupters than AhR inducers were detected,indicating the higher abundance of estrogen-like than persistent dioxin-like compounds in these forested areas [corrected].

Imaging of pore networks and related interfaces in soil systems by using high resolution X-ray micro-CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zacher, Gerhard; Eickhorst, Thilo; Schmidt, Hannes; Halisch, Matthias

2016-04-01

Today's high-resolution X-ray CT with its powerful tubes and great detail detectability lends itself naturally to geological and pedological applications. Those include the non-destructive interior examination and textural analysis of rock and soil samples and their permeability and porosity - to name only a few. Especially spatial distribution and geometry of pores, mineral phases and fractures are important for the evaluation of hydrologic and aeration properties in soils as well as for root development in the soil matrix. The possibility to visualize a whole soil aggregate or root tissue in a non-destructive way is undoubtedly the most valuable feature of this type of analysis and is a new area for routine application of high resolution X-ray micro-CT. The paper outlines recent developments in hard- and software requirements for high resolution CT. It highlights several pedological applications which were performed with the phoenix nanotom m, the first 180 kV nanofocus CT system tailored specifically for extremely high-resolution scans of variable sized samples with voxel-resolutions down to < 300 nm. In addition very good contrast resolution can be obtained as well which is necessary to distinguish biogenic material in soil aggregates amongst others. We will address visualization and quantification of porous networks in 3D in different environmental samples ranging from clastic sedimentary rock to soil cores and individual soil aggregates. As several processes and habitat functions are related to various pore sizes imaging of the intact soil matrix will be presented on different scales of interest - from the mm-scale representing the connectivity of macro-pores down to the micro-scale representing the space of microbial habitats. Therefore, soils were impregnated with resin and scanned via X-ray CT. Scans at higher resolution were obtained from sub-volumes cut from the entire resin impregnated block and from crop roots surrounded by rhizosphere soil. Within the scanned structures we will highlight interfaces i.e. pore-solid interface and soil-root interface. The latter will be linked to examples of fluorescent microscopy and scanning electron microscopy obtained from 2D sections revealing additional biological and chemical information in the respective microenvironment. Based on the combination of all 3D and 2D imaging data habitat features of soils can be characterized and combined with studies analyzing microbial rhizosphere colonization.

Identification of the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ethane in the environment.

PubMed

Kierkegaard, Amelie; Björklund, Jonas; Fridén, Ulrika

2004-06-15

The brominated flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ethane, DeBDethane, is marketed as an alternative to decabromodiphenyl ether, BDE209. There are currently no data available about the presence of DeBDethane in the environment. In this study, DeBDethane was positively identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry and quantified by low-resolution mass spectrometry with electron capture negative ionization in sewage sludge, sediment, and indoor air. It was found in 25 of the 50 Swedish sewage treatment plants investigated, with estimated levels up to about 100 ng/g dry weight. The concentration of DeBDethane in sediment from Western Scheldt in The Netherlands was 24 ng/g dry weight, and in an air sample from a Swedish electronics dismantling facility it was 0.6 ng/m3. DeBDethane was also found together with nonabromodiphenyl ethanes in water piping insulation. All samples contained BDE209 in higher concentrations as compared to DeBDethane (DeBDethane/BDE209 ratios ranging from 0.02 to 0.7), probably reflecting the higher and longer usage of BDE209. There is an ongoing risk assessment within the European Union regarding BDE209. Since DeBDethane has similar applications, it is important to investigate its environmental behavior before using it to replace BDE209.

Coral δ18O records Porites vs. Diploastrea - sampling resolution and climatic signal!

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dassie, E. P.; Linsley, B. K.; Lambdin, S.

2013-12-01

Narrowing uncertainties in climate prediction is an economical and social need that could partially be addressed by the development of robust paleoclimatic networks. Porites is the most widely used genus in studies using massive corals from the Pacific Ocean, however only a few Pacific Porites records span more than 100 years. A different slower growing coral genius, Diploastrea, has the potential to also generate multi-century length paleo-records. Recent Paleoclimatic studies utilizing this genus have shown promising results (Watanabe et al., 2003; Bagnato et al., 2004, 2005). However, some sampling concerns still remain. Diploastrea has large individual corallites (4-5 times larger than Porites); these corallites include a straight inner portion (columella) surrounded by a radiating portion (septa). The septa portion does not grow perpendicular to the direction of the coral growth, but instead radiates at a 45° angle from the columella. Sampling both the columnar and septal portions simultaneously might produce erroneous climatic reconstructions, reflecting a combination of corallite material precipitated several months apart. Additionally, due to Diploastrea slower growing rate, a millimeter sampling resolution might not be enough to retrieve robust climatic information. This study determined the optimal sampling resolution for Diploastrea from Fiji and verified the fidelity of this archive to reconstruct climatic variability. δ18O and δ13C measurements were made on one Diploastrea and one Porites coral colonies from a lagoon in Kandavu, Fiji. Diploastrea (FKD2) was sampled and analyzed at a 0.25mm resolution and Porites (FKD1) at a one-mm resolution; taking into consideration the growth rate of these two cores, both sampling resolution corresponds to a nearly monthly resolution. We created low-resolution sampling from the high-resolution sampling of the Diploastrea and compared it to the Porites measurements. This leads to determine the optimal sampling strategy for Diploastrea as well as to validate the use of Diploastrea analysis for climatic reconstruction.

Soil Organic Carbon Estimation and Mapping Using "on-the-go" VisNIR Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, D. J.; Bricklemyer, R. S.; Christy, C.

2007-12-01

Soil organic carbon (SOC) and other soil properties related to carbon sequestration (eg. soil clay content and mineralogy) vary spatially across landscapes. To cost effectively capture this variability, new technologies, such as Visible and Near Infrared (VisNIR) spectroscopy, have been applied to soils for rapid, accurate, and inexpensive estimation of SOC and other soil properties. For this study, we evaluated an "on the go" VisNIR sensor developed by Veris Technologies, Inc. (Salinas, KS) for mapping SOC, soil clay content and mineralogy. The Veris spectrometer spanned 350 to 2224 nm with 8 nm spectral resolution, and 25 spectra were integrated every 2 seconds resulting in 3 -5 m scanning distances on the ground. The unit was mounted to a mobile sensor platform pulled by a tractor, and scanned soils at an average depth of 10 cm through a quartz-sapphire window. We scanned eight 16.2 ha (40 ac) wheat fields in north central Montana (USA), with 15 m transect intervals. Using random sampling with spatial inhibition, 100 soil samples from 0-10 cm depths were extracted along scanned transects from each field and were analyzed for SOC. Neat, sieved (<2 mm) soil sample materials were also scanned in the lab using an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD, Boulder, CO, USA) Fieldspec Pro FR spectroradiometer with a spectral range of 350-2500 and spectral resolution of 2-10 nm. The analyzed samples were used to calibrate and validate a number of partial least squares regression (PLSR) VisNIR models to compare on-the-go scanning vs. higher spectral resolution laboratory spectroscopy vs. standard SOC measurement methods.

Speech processing: from peripheral to hemispheric asymmetry of the auditory system.

PubMed

Lazard, Diane S; Collette, Jean-Louis; Perrot, Xavier

2012-01-01

Language processing from the cochlea to auditory association cortices shows side-dependent specificities with an apparent left hemispheric dominance. The aim of this article was to propose to nonspeech specialists a didactic review of two complementary theories about hemispheric asymmetry in speech processing. Starting from anatomico-physiological and clinical observations of auditory asymmetry and interhemispheric connections, this review then exposes behavioral (dichotic listening paradigm) as well as functional (functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography) experiments that assessed hemispheric specialization for speech processing. Even though speech at an early phonological level is regarded as being processed bilaterally, a left-hemispheric dominance exists for higher-level processing. This asymmetry may arise from a segregation of the speech signal, broken apart within nonprimary auditory areas in two distinct temporal integration windows--a fast one on the left and a slower one on the right--modeled through the asymmetric sampling in time theory or a spectro-temporal trade-off, with a higher temporal resolution in the left hemisphere and a higher spectral resolution in the right hemisphere, modeled through the spectral/temporal resolution trade-off theory. Both theories deal with the concept that lower-order tuning principles for acoustic signal might drive higher-order organization for speech processing. However, the precise nature, mechanisms, and origin of speech processing asymmetry are still being debated. Finally, an example of hemispheric asymmetry alteration, which has direct clinical implications, is given through the case of auditory aging that mixes peripheral disorder and modifications of central processing. Copyright © 2011 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

Single-particle coherent diffractive imaging with a soft x-ray free electron laser: towards soot aerosol morphology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogan, Michael J.; Starodub, Dmitri; Hampton, Christina Y.; Sierra, Raymond G.

2010-10-01

The first of its kind, the Free electron LASer facility in Hamburg, FLASH, produces soft x-ray pulses with unprecedented properties (10 fs, 6.8-47 nm, 1012 photons per pulse, 20 µm diameter). One of the seminal FLASH experiments is single-pulse coherent x-ray diffractive imaging (CXDI). CXDI utilizes the ultrafast and ultrabright pulses to overcome resolution limitations in x-ray microscopy imposed by x-ray-induced damage to the sample by 'diffracting before destroying' the sample on sub-picosecond timescales. For many lensless imaging algorithms used for CXDI it is convenient when the data satisfy an oversampling constraint that requires the sample to be an isolated object, i.e. an individual 'free-standing' portion of disordered matter delivered to the centre of the x-ray focus. By definition, this type of matter is an aerosol. This paper will describe the role of aerosol science methodologies used for the validation of the 'diffract before destroy' hypothesis and the execution of the first single-particle CXDI experiments being developed for biological imaging. FLASH CXDI now enables the highest resolution imaging of single micron-sized or smaller airborne particulate matter to date while preserving the native substrate-free state of the aerosol. Electron microscopy offers higher resolution for single-particle analysis but the aerosol must be captured on a substrate, potentially modifying the particle morphology. Thus, FLASH is poised to contribute significant advancements in our knowledge of aerosol morphology and dynamics. As an example, we simulate CXDI of combustion particle (soot) morphology and introduce the concept of extracting radius of gyration of fractal aggregates from single-pulse x-ray diffraction data. Future upgrades to FLASH will enable higher spatially and temporally resolved single-particle aerosol dynamics studies, filling a critical technological need in aerosol science and nanotechnology. Many of the methodologies described for FLASH will directly translate to use at hard x-ray free electron lasers.

Improving lateral resolution and image quality of optical coherence tomography by the multi-frame superresolution technique for 3D tissue imaging

PubMed Central

Shen, Kai; Lu, Hui; Baig, Sarfaraz; Wang, Michael R.

2017-01-01

The multi-frame superresolution technique is introduced to significantly improve the lateral resolution and image quality of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Using several sets of low resolution C-scan 3D images with lateral sub-spot-spacing shifts on different sets, the multi-frame superresolution processing of these sets at each depth layer reconstructs a higher resolution and quality lateral image. Layer by layer processing yields an overall high lateral resolution and quality 3D image. In theory, the superresolution processing including deconvolution can solve the diffraction limit, lateral scan density and background noise problems together. In experiment, the improved lateral resolution by ~3 times reaching 7.81 µm and 2.19 µm using sample arm optics of 0.015 and 0.05 numerical aperture respectively as well as doubling the image quality has been confirmed by imaging a known resolution test target. Improved lateral resolution on in vitro skin C-scan images has been demonstrated. For in vivo 3D SD-OCT imaging of human skin, fingerprint and retina layer, we used the multi-modal volume registration method to effectively estimate the lateral image shifts among different C-scans due to random minor unintended live body motion. Further processing of these images generated high lateral resolution 3D images as well as high quality B-scan images of these in vivo tissues. PMID:29188089

[An effective method for improving the imaging spatial resolution of terahertz time domain spectroscopy system].

PubMed

Zhang, Zeng-yan; Ji, Te; Zhu, Zhi-yong; Zhao, Hong-wei; Chen, Min; Xiao, Ti-qiao; Guo, Zhi

2015-01-01

Terahertz radiation is an electromagnetic radiation in the range between millimeter waves and far infrared. Due to its low energy and non-ionizing characters, THz pulse imaging emerges as a novel tool in many fields, such as material, chemical, biological medicine, and food safety. Limited spatial resolution is a significant restricting factor of terahertz imaging technology. Near field imaging method was proposed to improve the spatial resolution of terahertz system. Submillimeter scale's spauial resolution can be achieved if the income source size is smaller than the wawelength of the incoming source and the source is very close to the sample. But many changes were needed to the traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system, and it's very complex to analyze sample's physical parameters through the terahertz signal. A method of inserting a pinhole upstream to the sample was first proposed in this article to improve the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system. The measured spatial resolution of terahertz time domain spectroscopy system by knife edge method can achieve spatial resolution curves. The moving stage distance between 10 % and 90 Yo of the maximum signals respectively was defined as the, spatial resolution of the system. Imaging spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system was improved dramatically after inserted a pinhole with diameter 0. 5 mm, 2 mm upstream to the sample. Experimental results show that the spatial resolution has been improved from 1. 276 mm to 0. 774 mm, with the increment about 39 %. Though this simple method, the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system was increased from millimeter scale to submillimeter scale. A pinhole with diameter 1 mm on a polyethylene plate was taken as sample, to terahertz imaging study. The traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system and pinhole inserted terahertz time domain spectroscopy system were applied in the imaging experiment respectively. The relative THz-power loss imaging of samples were use in this article. This method generally delivers the best signal to noise ratio in loss images, dispersion effects are cancelled. Terahertz imaging results show that the sample's boundary was more distinct after inserting the pinhole in front of, sample. The results also conform that inserting pinhole in front of sample can improve the imaging spatial resolution effectively. The theoretical analyses of the method which improve the spatial resolution by inserting a pinhole in front of sample were given in this article. The analyses also indicate that the smaller the pinhole size, the longer spatial coherence length of the system, the better spatial resolution of the system. At the same time the terahertz signal will be reduced accordingly. All the experimental results and theoretical analyses indicate that the method of inserting a pinhole in front of sample can improve the spatial resolution of traditional terahertz time domain spectroscopy system effectively, and it will further expand the application of terahertz imaging technology.

Solving matrix-effects exploiting the second order advantage in the resolution and determination of eight tetracycline antibiotics in effluent wastewater by modelling liquid chromatography data with multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares and unfolded-partial least squares followed by residual bilinearization algorithms I. Effect of signal pre-treatment.

PubMed

De Zan, M M; Gil García, M D; Culzoni, M J; Siano, R G; Goicoechea, H C; Martínez Galera, M

2008-02-01

The effect of piecewise direct standardization (PDS) and baseline correction approaches was evaluated in the performance of multivariate curve resolution (MCR-ALS) algorithm for the resolution of three-way data sets from liquid chromatography with diode-array detection (LC-DAD). First, eight tetracyclines (tetracycline, oxytetracycline, chlorotetracycline, demeclocycline, methacycline, doxycycline, meclocycline and minocycline) were isolated from 250 mL effluent wastewater samples by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with Oasis MAX 500 mg/6 mL cartridges and then separated on an Aquasil C18 150 mm x 4.6mm (5 microm particle size) column by LC and detected by DAD. Previous experiments, carried out with Milli-Q water samples, showed a considerable loss of the most polar analytes (minocycline, oxitetracycline and tetracycline) due to breakthrough. PDS was applied to overcome this important drawback. Conversion of chromatograms obtained from standards prepared in solvent was performed obtaining a high correlation with those corresponding to the real situation (r2 = 0.98). Although the enrichment and clean-up steps were carefully optimized, the sample matrix caused a large baseline drift, and also additive interferences were present at the retention times of the analytes. These problems were solved with the baseline correction method proposed by Eilers. MCR-ALS was applied to the corrected and uncorrected three-way data sets to obtain spectral and chromatographic profiles of each tetracycline, as well as those corresponding to the co-eluting interferences. The complexity of the calibration model built from uncorrected data sets was higher, as expected, and the quality of the spectral and chromatographic profiles was worse.

A nano ultra-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry approach for global metabolomic profiling and case study on drug-resistant multiple myeloma.

PubMed

Jones, Drew R; Wu, Zhiping; Chauhan, Dharminder; Anderson, Kenneth C; Peng, Junmin

2014-04-01

Global metabolomics relies on highly reproducible and sensitive detection of a wide range of metabolites in biological samples. Here we report the optimization of metabolome analysis by nanoflow ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution orbitrap mass spectrometry. Reliable peak features were extracted from the LC-MS runs based on mandatory detection in duplicates and additional noise filtering according to blank injections. The run-to-run variation in peak area showed a median of 14%, and the false discovery rate during a mock comparison was evaluated. To maximize the number of peak features identified, we systematically characterized the effect of sample loading amount, gradient length, and MS resolution. The number of features initially rose and later reached a plateau as a function of sample amount, fitting a hyperbolic curve. Longer gradients improved unique feature detection in part by time-resolving isobaric species. Increasing the MS resolution up to 120000 also aided in the differentiation of near isobaric metabolites, but higher MS resolution reduced the data acquisition rate and conferred no benefits, as predicted from a theoretical simulation of possible metabolites. Moreover, a biphasic LC gradient allowed even distribution of peak features across the elution, yielding markedly more peak features than the linear gradient. Using this robust nUPLC-HRMS platform, we were able to consistently analyze ~6500 metabolite features in a single 60 min gradient from 2 mg of yeast, equivalent to ~50 million cells. We applied this optimized method in a case study of drug (bortezomib) resistant and drug-sensitive multiple myeloma cells. Overall, 18% of metabolite features were matched to KEGG identifiers, enabling pathway enrichment analysis. Principal component analysis and heat map data correctly clustered isogenic phenotypes, highlighting the potential for hundreds of small molecule biomarkers of cancer drug resistance.

OCAMS: The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rizk, B.; Drouet d'Aubigny, C.; Golish, D.; Fellows, C.; Merrill, C.; Smith, P.; Walker, M. S.; Hendershot, J. E.; Hancock, J.; Bailey, S. H.; DellaGiustina, D. N.; Lauretta, D. S.; Tanner, R.; Williams, M.; Harshman, K.; Fitzgibbon, M.; Verts, W.; Chen, J.; Connors, T.; Hamara, D.; Dowd, A.; Lowman, A.; Dubin, M.; Burt, R.; Whiteley, M.; Watson, M.; McMahon, T.; Ward, M.; Booher, D.; Read, M.; Williams, B.; Hunten, M.; Little, E.; Saltzman, T.; Alfred, D.; O'Dougherty, S.; Walthall, M.; Kenagy, K.; Peterson, S.; Crowther, B.; Perry, M. L.; See, C.; Selznick, S.; Sauve, C.; Beiser, M.; Black, W.; Pfisterer, R. N.; Lancaster, A.; Oliver, S.; Oquest, C.; Crowley, D.; Morgan, C.; Castle, C.; Dominguez, R.; Sullivan, M.

2018-02-01

The OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) will acquire images essential to collecting a sample from the surface of Bennu. During proximity operations, these images will document the presence of satellites and plumes, record spin state, enable an accurate model of the asteroid's shape, and identify any surface hazards. They will confirm the presence of sampleable regolith on the surface, observe the sampling event itself, and image the sample head in order to verify its readiness to be stowed. They will document Bennu's history as an example of early solar system material, as a microgravity body with a planetesimal size-scale, and as a carbonaceous object. OCAMS is fitted with three cameras. The MapCam will record color images of Bennu as a point source on approach to the asteroid in order to connect Bennu's ground-based point-source observational record to later higher-resolution surface spectral imaging. The SamCam will document the sample site before, during, and after it is disturbed by the sample mechanism. The PolyCam, using its focus mechanism, will observe the sample site at sub-centimeter resolutions, revealing surface texture and morphology. While their imaging requirements divide naturally between the three cameras, they preserve a strong degree of functional overlap. OCAMS and the other spacecraft instruments will allow the OSIRIS-REx mission to collect a sample from a microgravity body on the same visit during which it was first optically acquired from long range, a useful capability as humanity reaches out to explore near-Earth, Main-Belt and Jupiter Trojan asteroids.

Method and system for near-field spectroscopy using targeted deposition of nanoparticles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anderson, Mark S. (Inventor)

2012-01-01

There is provided in one embodiment of the invention a method for analyzing a sample material using surface enhanced spectroscopy. The method comprises the steps of imaging the sample material with an atomic force microscope (AFM) to select an area of interest for analysis, depositing nanoparticles onto the area of interest with an AFM tip, illuminating the deposited nanoparticles with a spectrometer excitation beam, and disengaging the AFM tip and acquiring a localized surface enhanced spectrum. The method may further comprise the step of using the AFM tip to modulate the spectrometer excitation beam above the deposited nanoparticles to obtain improved sensitivity data and higher spatial resolution data from the sample material. The invention further comprises in one embodiment a system for analyzing a sample material using surface enhanced spectroscopy.

High-numerical-aperture cryogenic light microscopy for increased precision of superresolution reconstructions

PubMed Central

Nahmani, Marc; Lanahan, Conor; DeRosier, David; Turrigiano, Gina G.

2017-01-01

Superresolution microscopy has fundamentally altered our ability to resolve subcellular proteins, but improving on these techniques to study dense structures composed of single-molecule-sized elements has been a challenge. One possible approach to enhance superresolution precision is to use cryogenic fluorescent imaging, reported to reduce fluorescent protein bleaching rates, thereby increasing the precision of superresolution imaging. Here, we describe an approach to cryogenic photoactivated localization microscopy (cPALM) that permits the use of a room-temperature high-numerical-aperture objective lens to image frozen samples in their native state. We find that cPALM increases photon yields and show that this approach can be used to enhance the effective resolution of two photoactivatable/switchable fluorophore-labeled structures in the same frozen sample. This higher resolution, two-color extension of the cPALM technique will expand the accessibility of this approach to a range of laboratories interested in more precise reconstructions of complex subcellular targets. PMID:28348224

A subwavelength metal-grating assisted sensor of Kretschmann style for investigating the sample with high refractive index

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu-Feng, Li; Wei, Peng; Ya-Li, Zhao; Qiao, Wang; Ji-Lin, Wei

2016-03-01

In this paper, a subwavelength metal-grating assisted sensor of Kretschmann style that is capable of detecting the sample with a refractive index higher than that of the substrate is proposed. The sensor configuration is similar to the traditional Kretschmann structure, but the metal film is pattered into a grating. As a TM-polarized laser beam impinges from the substrate, a resonant dip point in reflectance curve is produced at a certain incident angle. Our studies indicate that the sensing sensitivity and resolution are affected by the grating’s gap and period, and after these parameters have been optimized, a sensing sensitivity of 51.484°/RIU is obtained with a slightly changing resolution. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61137005 and 61178067), the Science Foundation of Shanxi Province, China (Grant No. 2013021004-3/2014021021-1), the Pre-studied Project on Weapon Equipment, China (Grant No. 201262401090404), and the Specialized Research Foundation for Doctor of School, China (Grant No. 20122027).

Theory and optical design of x-ray echo spectrometers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shvyd'ko, Yuri

X-ray echo spectroscopy, a space-domain counterpart of neutron spin echo, is a recently proposed inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) technique. X-ray echo spectroscopy relies on imaging IXS spectra and does not require x-ray monochromatization. Due to this, the echo-type IXS spectrometers are broadband, and thus have a potential to simultaneously provide dramatically increased signal strength, reduced measurement times, and higher resolution compared to the traditional narrow-band scanning-type IXS spectrometers. The theory of x-ray echo spectrometers presented earlier [Yu. Shvyd'ko, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 080801 (2016)] is developed here further with a focus on questions of practical importance, which could facilitate opticalmore » design and assessment of the feasibility and performance of the echo spectrometers. Among others, the following questions are addressed: spectral resolution, refocusing condition, echo spectrometer tolerances, refocusing condition adjustment, effective beam size on the sample, spectral window of imaging and scanning range, impact of the secondary source size on the spectral resolution, angular dispersive optics, focusing and collimating optics, and detector's spatial resolution. In conclusion, examples of optical designs and characteristics of echo spectrometers with 1-meV and 0.1-meV resolutions are presented.« less

Theory and optical design of x-ray echo spectrometers

DOE PAGES

Shvyd'ko, Yuri

2017-08-02

X-ray echo spectroscopy, a space-domain counterpart of neutron spin echo, is a recently proposed inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) technique. X-ray echo spectroscopy relies on imaging IXS spectra and does not require x-ray monochromatization. Due to this, the echo-type IXS spectrometers are broadband, and thus have a potential to simultaneously provide dramatically increased signal strength, reduced measurement times, and higher resolution compared to the traditional narrow-band scanning-type IXS spectrometers. The theory of x-ray echo spectrometers presented earlier [Yu. Shvyd'ko, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 080801 (2016)] is developed here further with a focus on questions of practical importance, which could facilitate opticalmore » design and assessment of the feasibility and performance of the echo spectrometers. Among others, the following questions are addressed: spectral resolution, refocusing condition, echo spectrometer tolerances, refocusing condition adjustment, effective beam size on the sample, spectral window of imaging and scanning range, impact of the secondary source size on the spectral resolution, angular dispersive optics, focusing and collimating optics, and detector's spatial resolution. In conclusion, examples of optical designs and characteristics of echo spectrometers with 1-meV and 0.1-meV resolutions are presented.« less

Alpha particle spectrometry using superconducting microcalorimeters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horansky, Robert; Ullom, Joel; Beall, James; Hilton, Gene; Stiehl, Gregory; Irwin, Kent; Plionis, Alexander; Lamont, Stephen; Rudy, Clifford; Rabin, Michael

2009-03-01

Alpha spectrometry is the preferred technique for analyzing trace samples of radioactive material because the alpha particle flux can be significantly higher than the gamma-ray flux from nuclear materials of interest. Traditionally, alpha spectrometry is performed with Si detectors whose resolution is at best 8 keV FWHM. Here, we describe the design and operation of a microcalorimeter alpha detector with an energy resolution of 1.06 keV FWHM at 5 MeV. We demonstrate the ability of the microcalorimeter to clearly resolve the alpha particles from Pu-239 and Pu-240, whose ratio differentiates reactor-grade Pu from weapons-grade. We also show the first direct observation of the decay of Po-209 to the ground state of Pb-205 which has traditionally been obscured by a much stronger alpha line 2 keV away. Finally, the 1.06 keV resolution observed for alpha particles is far worse than the 0.12 keV resolution predicted from thermal fluctuations and measurement of gamma-rays. The cause of the resolution degradation may be ion damage in the tin. Hence, alpha particle microcalorimeters may provide a novel tool for studying ion damage and lattice displacement energies in bulk materials.

A high time resolution x-ray diagnostic on the Madison Symmetric Torus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DuBois, Ami M.; Lee, John David; Almagri, Abdulgadar F.

2015-07-01

A new high time resolution x-ray detector has been installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) to make measurements around sawtooth events. The detector system is comprised of a silicon avalanche photodiode, a 20 ns Gaussian shaping amplifier, and a 500 MHz digitizer with 14-bit sampling resolution. The fast shaping time diminishes the need to restrict the amount of x-ray flux reaching the detector, limiting the system dead-time. With a much higher time resolution than systems currently in use in high temperature plasma physics experiments, this new detector has the versatility to be used in a variety of discharges with varying flux and the ability to study dynamics on both slow and fast time scales. This paper discusses the new fast x-ray detector recently installed on MST and the improved time resolution capabilities compared to the existing soft and hard x-ray diagnostics. In addition to the detector hardware, improvements to the detector calibration and x-ray pulse identification software, such as additional fitting parameters and a more sophisticated fitting routine are discussed. Finally, initial data taken in both high confinement and standard reversed-field pinch plasma discharges are compared.

Estimating the gas transfer velocity: a prerequisite for more accurate and higher resolution GHG fluxes (lower Aare River, Switzerland)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sollberger, S.; Perez, K.; Schubert, C. J.; Eugster, W.; Wehrli, B.; Del Sontro, T.

2013-12-01

Currently, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions from lakes, reservoirs and rivers are readily investigated due to the global warming potential of those gases and the role these inland waters play in the carbon cycle. However, there is a lack of high spatiotemporally-resolved emission estimates, and how to accurately assess the gas transfer velocity (K) remains controversial. In anthropogenically-impacted systems where run-of-river reservoirs disrupt the flow of sediments by increasing the erosion and load accumulation patterns, the resulting production of carbonic greenhouse gases (GH-C) is likely to be enhanced. The GH-C flux is thus counteracting the terrestrial carbon sink in these environments that act as net carbon emitters. The aim of this project was to determine the GH-C emissions from a medium-sized river heavily impacted by several impoundments and channelization through a densely-populated region of Switzerland. Estimating gas emission from rivers is not trivial and recently several models have been put forth to do so; therefore a second goal of this project was to compare the river emission models available with direct measurements. Finally, we further validated the modeled fluxes by using a combined approach with water sampling, chamber measurements, and highly temporal GH-C monitoring using an equilibrator. We conducted monthly surveys along the 120 km of the lower Aare River where we sampled for dissolved CH4 (';manual' sampling) at a 5-km sampling resolution, and measured gas emissions directly with chambers over a 35 km section. We calculated fluxes (F) via the boundary layer equation (F=K×(Cw-Ceq)) that uses the water-air GH-C concentration (C) gradient (Cw-Ceq) and K, which is the most sensitive parameter. K was estimated using 11 different models found in the literature with varying dependencies on: river hydrology (n=7), wind (2), heat exchange (1), and river width (1). We found that chamber fluxes were always higher than boundary layer results based on ';manual' sampling. The closest flux approximation was obtained using the river width-dependent model. The higher fluxes obtained by the chambers could partially be explained by an enhanced turbulence created in the chambers themselves, especially because the ratio between the water surface area and chamber volume was rather small. The high resolution combined sampling approach helped constrain K and determine which river model best fits Aare River emissions. This experimental setup ultimately allows us to (1) define the dependence of K, (2) measure CH4 and CO2 fluxes from the main river and different tributaries more accurately, (3) estimate more spatially-resolved fluxes via either models or water sampling and the newly found K, and (4) determine one of the fates of carbon in the Aare River.

Ultrahigh-resolution endoscopic optical coherence tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Yu; Herz, Paul R.; Hsiung, Pei-Lin; Aguirre, Aaron D.; Mashimo, Hiroshi; Desai, Saleem; Pedrosa, Macos; Koski, Amanda; Schmitt, Joseph M.; Fujimoto, James G.

2005-01-01

Early detection of gastrointestinal cancer is essential for the patient treatment and medical care. Endoscopically guided biopsy is currently the gold standard for the diagnosis of early esophageal cancer, but can suffer from high false negative rates due to sampling errors. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging medical imaging technology which can generate high resolution, cross-sectional images of tissue in situ and in real time, without the removal of tissue specimen. Although endoscopic OCT has been used successfully to identify certain pathologies in the gastrointestinal tract, the resolution of current endoscopic OCT systems has been limited to 10 - 15 m for clinical procedures. In this study, in vivo imaging of the gastrointestinal tract is demonstrated at a three-fold higher resolution (< 5 m), using a portable, broadband, Cr4+:Forsterite laser as the optical light source. Images acquired from the esophagus, gastro-esophageal junction and colon on animal model display tissue microstructures and architectural details at high resolution, and the features observed in the OCT images are well-matched with histology. The clinical feasibility study is conducted through delivering OCT imaging catheter using standard endoscope. OCT images of normal esophagus, Barrett's esophagus, and esophageal cancers are demonstrated with distinct features. The ability of high resolution endoscopic OCT to image tissue morphology at an unprecedented resolution in vivo would facilitate the development of OCT as a potential imaging modality for early detection of neoplastic changes.

When Can Clades Be Potentially Resolved with Morphology?

PubMed Central

Bapst, David W.

2013-01-01

Morphology-based phylogenetic analyses are the only option for reconstructing relationships among extinct lineages, but often find support for conflicting hypotheses of relationships. The resulting lack of phylogenetic resolution is generally explained in terms of data quality and methodological issues, such as character selection. A previous suggestion is that sampling ancestral morphotaxa or sampling multiple taxa descended from a long-lived, unchanging lineage can also yield clades which have no opportunity to share synapomorphies. This lack of character information leads to a lack of ‘intrinsic’ resolution, an issue that cannot be solved with additional morphological data. It is unclear how often we should expect clades to be intrinsically resolvable in realistic circumstances, as intrinsic resolution must increase as taxonomic sampling decreases. Using branching simulations, I quantify intrinsic resolution across several models of morphological differentiation and taxonomic sampling. Intrinsically unresolvable clades are found to be relatively frequent in simulations of both extinct and living taxa under realistic sampling scenarios, implying that intrinsic resolution is an issue for morphology-based analyses of phylogeny. Simulations which vary the rates of sampling and differentiation were tested for their agreement to observed distributions of durations from well-sampled fossil records and also having high intrinsic resolution. This combination only occurs in those datasets when differentiation and sampling rates are both unrealistically high relative to branching and extinction rates. Thus, the poor phylogenetic resolution occasionally observed in morphological phylogenetics may result from a lack of intrinsic resolvability within groups. PMID:23638034

Depth Resolution Dependence on Sample Thickness and Incident Energy in On-Axis Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction in Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

PubMed

Brodu, Etienne; Bouzy, Emmanuel

2017-12-01

Transmission Kikuchi diffraction is an emerging technique aimed at producing orientation maps of the structure of materials with a nanometric lateral resolution. This study investigates experimentally the depth resolution of the on-axis configuration, via a twinned silicon bi-crystal sample specifically designed and fabricated. The measured depth resolution varies from 30 to 65 nm in the range 10-30 keV, with a close to linear dependence with incident energy and no dependence with the total sample thickness. The depth resolution is explained in terms of two mechanisms acting concomitantly: generation of Kikuchi diffraction all along the thickness of the sample, associated with continuous absorption on the way out. A model based on the electron mean free path is used to account for the dependence with incident energy of the depth resolution. In addition, based on the results in silicon, the use of the mean absorption coefficient is proposed to predict the depth resolution for any atomic number and incident energy.

Sampling And Resolution Enhancement Techniques For The Infrared Analysis Of Adsorbed Proteins.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuller, Michael P.; Singh, Bal R.

1989-12-01

In this report, we have analyzed the secondary structures of the dichain form of tetanus neurotoxin using. FT-IR and circular dichroic spectroscopies for a-helix, β-sheets, β-turns and random coils. These results indicate that the secondary structures are significantly different from those reported in earlier studies in that it shows much higher content of ordered structures (~50%) which could be significant for the function of the neurotoxin.

Shallow Water Marine UXO Detection Survey, United States Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-01

resolution time-domain EM metal detector that is capable of detecting both ferrous and nonferrous metallic objects. The EM61 consists of air-cored...modifications to the Geonics EM61 metal detector . Modifications include higher transmitter power and frequency, faster sampling rates, and flexible...towed array (UUTA) electromagnetic system designed by 3Dgeophysics.com (3Dg) utilizes modified and improved Geonics, Ltd. electromagnetic (EM)61 metal

Improving Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Image Quality with Image Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarolli, Jay G.; Jackson, Lauren M.; Winograd, Nicholas

2014-12-01

The spatial resolution of chemical images acquired with cluster secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is limited not only by the size of the probe utilized to create the images but also by detection sensitivity. As the probe size is reduced to below 1 μm, for example, a low signal in each pixel limits lateral resolution because of counting statistics considerations. Although it can be useful to implement numerical methods to mitigate this problem, here we investigate the use of image fusion to combine information from scanning electron microscope (SEM) data with chemically resolved SIMS images. The advantage of this approach is that the higher intensity and, hence, spatial resolution of the electron images can help to improve the quality of the SIMS images without sacrificing chemical specificity. Using a pan-sharpening algorithm, the method is illustrated using synthetic data, experimental data acquired from a metallic grid sample, and experimental data acquired from a lawn of algae cells. The results show that up to an order of magnitude increase in spatial resolution is possible to achieve. A cross-correlation metric is utilized for evaluating the reliability of the procedure.

Recent observations with phase-contrast x-ray computed tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Momose, Atsushi; Takeda, Tohoru; Itai, Yuji; Tu, Jinhong; Hirano, Keiichi

1999-09-01

Recent development in phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography using an X-ray interferometer is reported. To observe larger samples than is possible with our previous X-ray interferometer, a large monolithic X-ray interferometer and a separated-type X-ray interferometer were studied. At the present time, 2.5 cm X 1.5 cm interference patterns have been generated with the X-ray interferometers using synchrotron X-rays. The large monolithic X-ray interferometer has produced interference fringes with 80% visibility, and has been used to measure various tissues. To produce images with higher spatial resolution, we fabricated another X-ray interferometer whose wafer was partially thinned by chemical etching. A preliminary test suggested that the spatial resolution has been improved.

All-optical optoacoustic microscopy system based on probe beam deflection technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maswadi, Saher M.; Tsyboulskic, Dmitri; Roth, Caleb C.; Glickman, Randolph D.; Beier, Hope T.; Oraevsky, Alexander A.; Ibey, Bennett L.

2016-03-01

It is difficult to achieve sub-micron resolution in backward mode OA microscopy using conventional piezoelectric detectors, because of wavefront distortions caused by components placed in the optical path, between the sample and the objective lens, that are required to separate the acoustic wave from the optical beam. As an alternate approach, an optoacoustic microscope (OAM) was constructed using the probe beam deflection technique (PBDT) to detect laserinduced acoustic signals. The all-optical OAM detects laser-generated pressure waves using a probe beam passing through a coupling medium, such as water, filling the space between the microscope objective lens and sample. The acoustic waves generated in the sample propagate through the coupling medium, causing transient changes in the refractive index that deflect the probe beam. These deflections are measured with a high-speed, balanced photodiode position detector. The deflection amplitude is directly proportional to the magnitude of the acoustic pressure wave, and provides the data required for image reconstruction. The sensitivity of the PBDT detector expressed as noise equivalent pressure was 12 Pa, comparable to that of existing high-performance ultrasound detectors. Because of the unimpeded working distance, a high numerical aperture objective lens, i.e. NA = 1, was employed in the OAM to achieve near diffraction-limited lateral resolution of 0.5 μm at 532nm. The all-optical OAM provides several benefits over current piezoelectric detector-based systems, such as increased lateral and axial resolution, higher sensitivity, robustness, and potentially more compatibility with multimodal instruments.

Evaluation of permeability and non-Darcy flow in vuggy macroporous limestone aquifer samples with lattice Boltzmann methods

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sukop, Michael C.; Huang, Haibo; Alvarez, Pedro F.; Variano, Evan A.; Cunningham, Kevin J.

2013-01-01

Lattice Boltzmann flow simulations provide a physics-based means of estimating intrinsic permeability from pore structure and accounting for inertial flow that leads to departures from Darcy's law. Simulations were used to compute intrinsic permeability where standard measurement methods may fail and to provide better understanding of departures from Darcy's law under field conditions. Simulations also investigated resolution issues. Computed tomography (CT) images were acquired at 0.8 mm interscan spacing for seven samples characterized by centimeter-scale biogenic vuggy macroporosity from the extremely transmissive sole-source carbonate karst Biscayne aquifer in southeastern Florida. Samples were as large as 0.3 m in length; 7–9 cm-scale-length subsamples were used for lattice Boltzmann computations. Macroporosity of the subsamples was as high as 81%. Matrix porosity was ignored in the simulations. Non-Darcy behavior led to a twofold reduction in apparent hydraulic conductivity as an applied hydraulic gradient increased to levels observed at regional scale within the Biscayne aquifer; larger reductions are expected under higher gradients near wells and canals. Thus, inertial flows and departures from Darcy's law may occur under field conditions. Changes in apparent hydraulic conductivity with changes in head gradient computed with the lattice Boltzmann model closely fit the Darcy-Forchheimer equation allowing estimation of the Forchheimer parameter. CT-scan resolution appeared adequate to capture intrinsic permeability; however, departures from Darcy behavior were less detectable as resolution coarsened.

High resolution DNA melting analysis: an application for prenatal control of alpha-thalassemia.

PubMed

Sirichotiyakul, Supatra; Wanapirak, Chanane; Saetung, Rattika; Sanguansermsri, Torpong

2010-04-01

To report the use of real-time gap-PCR using SYTO9 with high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) in prenatal diagnosis of alpha-thalassemia 1. Real-time gap-PCR using SYTO9 with HRMA was performed in 33 DNA samples from chorionic villi sampling (8 normal, 16 heterozygous, and 9 homozygous) to determine the alpha-thalassemia 1 gene [normal and Southeast Asia (-SEA) allele]. The dissociation curve analysis in normal and - SEA allele gave a peak of T(m) at 91.80 +/- 0.14 degrees C and 88.67 +/- 0.08 degrees C, respectively. Normal genotype and homozygous alpha-thalassemia 1 showed a single peak of T(m) that corresponded to their alleles. The heterozygotes gave both peaks with higher normal peak and smaller - SEA peak. Thirty one samples showed consistent results with the conventional gap-PCR. Two samples with ambiguous results were confirmed to be maternal DNA contamination on real-time quantitative PCR and microsatellite assay. HRMA from both samples showed similar pattern to that of heterozygotes. However, they showed much smaller normal peak compared with the - SEA peak, which is in contrast to those of heterozygotes and can readily be distinguished. HRMA with SYTO9 is feasible for prenatal diagnosis of alpha-thalassemia. It had potential advantage of prompt detection maternal DNA contamination. Copyright (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Characterization of metabolic profile of intact non-tumor and tumor breast cells by high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

PubMed

Maria, Roberta M; Altei, Wanessa F; Andricopulo, Adriano D; Becceneri, Amanda B; Cominetti, Márcia R; Venâncio, Tiago; Colnago, Luiz A

2015-11-01

(1)H high-resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H HR-MAS NMR) spectroscopy was used to analyze the metabolic profile of an intact non-tumor breast cell line (MCF-10A) and intact breast tumor cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). In the spectra of MCF-10A cells, six metabolites were assigned, with glucose and ethanol in higher concentrations. Fifteen metabolites were assigned in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 (1)H HR-MAS NMR spectra. They did not show glucose and ethanol, and the major component in both tumor cells was phosphocholine (higher in MDA-MB-231 than in MCF-7), which can be considered as a tumor biomarker of breast cancer malignant transformation. These tumor cells also show acetone signal that was higher in MDA-MB-231 cells than in MCF-7 cells. The high acetone level may be an indication of high demand for energy in MDA-MB-231 to maintain cell proliferation. The higher acetone and phosphocholine levels in MDA-MB-231 cells indicate the higher malignance of the cell line. Therefore, HR-MAS is a rapid reproducible method to study the metabolic profile of intact breast cells, with minimal sample preparation and contamination, which are critical in the analyses of slow-growth cells. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic Applications of Next Generation Sequencing in Immunogenetics and Molecular Oncology

PubMed Central

Grumbt, Barbara; Eck, Sebastian H.; Hinrichsen, Tanja; Hirv, Kaimo

2013-01-01

Summary With the introduction of the next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, remarkable new diagnostic applications have been established in daily routine. Implementation of NGS is challenging in clinical diagnostics, but definite advantages and new diagnostic possibilities make the switch to the technology inevitable. In addition to the higher sequencing capacity, clonal sequencing of single molecules, multiplexing of samples, higher diagnostic sensitivity, workflow miniaturization, and cost benefits are some of the valuable features of the technology. After the recent advances, NGS emerged as a proven alternative for classical Sanger sequencing in the typing of human leukocyte antigens (HLA). By virtue of the clonal amplification of single DNA molecules ambiguous typing results can be avoided. Simultaneously, a higher sample throughput can be achieved by tagging of DNA molecules with multiplex identifiers and pooling of PCR products before sequencing. In our experience, up to 380 samples can be typed for HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 in high-resolution during every sequencing run. In molecular oncology, NGS shows a markedly increased sensitivity in comparison to the conventional Sanger sequencing and is developing to the standard diagnostic tool in detection of somatic mutations in cancer cells with great impact on personalized treatment of patients. PMID:23922545

Generating High-Temporal and Spatial Resolution TIR Image Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herrero-Huerta, M.; Lagüela, S.; Alfieri, S. M.; Menenti, M.

2017-09-01

Remote sensing imagery to monitor global biophysical dynamics requires the availability of thermal infrared data at high temporal and spatial resolution because of the rapid development of crops during the growing season and the fragmentation of most agricultural landscapes. Conversely, no single sensor meets these combined requirements. Data fusion approaches offer an alternative to exploit observations from multiple sensors, providing data sets with better properties. A novel spatio-temporal data fusion model based on constrained algorithms denoted as multisensor multiresolution technique (MMT) was developed and applied to generate TIR synthetic image data at both temporal and spatial high resolution. Firstly, an adaptive radiance model is applied based on spectral unmixing analysis of . TIR radiance data at TOA (top of atmosphere) collected by MODIS daily 1-km and Landsat - TIRS 16-day sampled at 30-m resolution are used to generate synthetic daily radiance images at TOA at 30-m spatial resolution. The next step consists of unmixing the 30 m (now lower resolution) images using the information about their pixel land-cover composition from co-registered images at higher spatial resolution. In our case study, TIR synthesized data were unmixed to the Sentinel 2 MSI with 10 m resolution. The constrained unmixing preserves all the available radiometric information of the 30 m images and involves the optimization of the number of land-cover classes and the size of the moving window for spatial unmixing. Results are still being evaluated, with particular attention for the quality of the data streams required to apply our approach.

Implications from Near-Shoemaker Imaging of Eros for Small-Scale Structure and Surface Sampling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chapman, C. R.

2000-01-01

What we know about asteroids has always been bifurcated by the enormous gap between astronomical studies of small, distant bodies, and the close-up laboratory measurements of hand-sample sized meteorites. The gulf has been narrowed somewhat by improvements in Earth-based astronomical techniques (e.g. Hubble Space Telescope, radar, adaptive optics) and especially by spacecraft fly-bys of asteroids. But the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission has gone considerably more in the direction of bridging the gap. Any consideration of intelligent sample-return from an asteroid must be based on the best possible knowledge of the asteroid at the spatial scales pertinent to operations at the asteroid and of the sample/s. Otherwise, we are in danger of succumbing to the 'Martian Horror Story' that Bruce Murray, in the 1960's, envisioned might impair our exploration of the surface of the red planet if we tried to land on it without first bolstering the information content of our database about Mars, especially at high resolutions. NEAR-Shoemaker is helping to bridge that gap in the case of Eros. The best resolution obtained by the Galileo spacecraft on Ida was 25 m/pixel. As of this writing, NEAR has already obtained images with resolutions at least five times better (information content 25 times better) and vastly better images may be available at the time of this Workshop from the late October low flyby. Already, we are seeing that the Martian horror story looks tame compared with Eros. Everywhere we have landed on Mars, the surface has been covered with rocks and boulders, with much higher spatial coverage than seen anywhere on the lunar surface. We have, in fact, been rather lucky that none of our Martian landers have tipped over so far, and there were justified fears in the early aftermath of last year's failure of Mars Polar Lander that it had suffered from inadequate high-resolution characterization of polar regions on Mars (the failure is now known to have had another cause). Eros looks potentially even more terrifying. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

High spatial resolution shortwave infrared imaging technology based on time delay and digital accumulation method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, Jianxin; Wang, Yueming; Zhuang, Xiaoqiong; Yao, Yi; Wang, Shengwei; Zhao, Ding; Shu, Rong; Wang, Jianyu

2017-03-01

Shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging technology attracts more and more attention by its fascinating ability of penetrating haze and smoke. For application of spaceborne remote sensing, spatial resolution of SWIR is lower compared with that of visible light (VIS) wavelength. It is difficult to balance between the spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio (SNR). Some conventional methods, such as enlarging aperture of telescope, image motion compensation, and analog time delay and integration (TDI) technology are used to gain SNR. These techniques bring in higher cost of satellite, complexity of system or other negative factors. In this paper, time delay and digital accumulation (TDDA) method is proposed to achieve higher spatial resolution. The method can enhance the SNR and non-uniformity of system theoretically. A prototype of SWIR imager consists of opto-mechanical, 1024 × 128 InGaAs detector, and electronics is designed and integrated to prove TDDA method. Both of measurements and experimental results indicate TDDA method can promote SNR of system approximated of the square root of accumulative stage. The results exhibit that non-uniformity of system is also improved by this approach to some extent. The experiment results are corresponded with the theoretical analysis. Based on the experiments results, it is proved firstly that the goal of 1 m ground sample distance (GSD) in orbit of 500 km is feasible with the TDDA stage of 30 for SWIR waveband (0.9-1.7 μm).

The evolution of solid density within a thermal explosion II. Dynamic proton radiography of cracking and solid consumption by burning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smilowitz, L.; Henson, B. F.; Romero, J. J.; Asay, B. W.; Saunders, A.; Merrill, F. E.; Morris, C. L.; Kwiatkowski, K.; Grim, G.; Mariam, F.; Schwartz, C. L.; Hogan, G.; Nedrow, P.; Murray, M. M.; Thompson, T. N.; Espinoza, C.; Lewis, D.; Bainbridge, J.; McNeil, W.; Rightley, P.; Marr-Lyon, M.

2012-05-01

We report proton transmission images obtained subsequent to the laser assisted thermal ignition of a sample of PBX 9501 (a plastic bonded formulation of the explosive nitramine octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX)). We describe the laser assisted thermal ignition technique as a means to synchronize a non-linear thermal ignition event while preserving the subsequent post-ignition behavior. We have obtained dynamic proton transmission images at two spatial magnifications and viewed both the radial and transverse axis of a solid cylindrical sample encased in aluminum. Images have been obtained with 3 to 15 μs temporal resolution and approximately 100 μm spatial resolution at the higher magnification. We observe case expansion from very early in the experiment, until case fragmentation. We observe spatially anisotropic features in the transmission which we attribute to cracking in the solid explosive, in agreement with previous measurements conducted on two dimensional samples with optical viewing. Digital analysis of the images also reveals spatially isotropic features which we attribute to the evolution of the loss of density by burning subsequent to thermal ignition.

Cold SQUIDs and hot samples

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, T.S.C.

1997-05-01

Low transition temperature (low-{Tc}) and high-{Tc} Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) have been used to perform high-resolution magnetic measurements on samples whose temperatures are much higher than the operating temperatures of the devices. Part 1 of this work focuses on measurements of the rigidity of flux vortices in high-{Tc} superconductors using two low-{Tc} SQUIDs, one on either side of a thermally-insulated sample. The correlation between the signals of the SQUIDs is a direct measure of the extent of correlation between the movements of opposite ends of vortices. These measurements were conducted under the previously-unexplored experimental conditions of nominally-zero applied magneticmore » field, such that vortex-vortex interactions were unimportant, and with zero external current. At specific temperatures, the authors observed highly-correlated noise sources, suggesting that the vortices moved as rigid rods. At other temperatures, the noise was mostly uncorrelated, suggesting that the relevant vortices were pinned at more than one point along their length. Part 2 describes the design, construction, performance, and applications of a scanning high-{Tc} SQUID microscope optimized for imaging room-temperature objects with very high spatial resolution and magnetic source sensitivity.« less

High-Speed Tandem Mass Spectrometric in Situ Imaging by Nanospray Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lanekoff, Ingela T.; Burnum-Johnson, Kristin E.; Thomas, Mathew

Nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano-DESI) combined with tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), high-resolution mass analysis (m/m=17,500 at m/z 200), and rapid spectral acquisition enabled simultaneous imaging and identification of more than 300 molecules from 92 selected m/z windows (± 1 Da) with a spatial resolution of better than 150 um. Uterine sections of implantation sites on day 6 of pregnancy were analyzed in the ambient environment without any sample pre-treatment. MS/MS imaging was performed by scanning the sample under the nano-DESI probe at 10 um/s while acquiring higher-energy collision-induced dissociation (HCD) spectra for a targeted inclusion list of 92 m/z valuesmore » at a rate of ~6.3 spectra/s. Molecular ions and their corresponding fragments, separated using high-resolution mass analysis, were assigned based on accurate mass measurement. Using this approach, we were able to identify and image both abundant and low-abundance isobaric species within each m/z window. MS/MS analysis enabled efficient separation and identification of isobaric sodium and potassium adducts of phospholipids. Furthermore, we identified several metabolites associated with early pregnancy and obtained the first 2D images of these molecules.« less

Characterization of polyesters by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization and Fourier transform mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Mize, Todd H; Simonsick, William J; Amster, I Jonathan

2003-01-01

Two homopolyesters, poly(neopentyl glycol-alt-isophthalic acid) and poly(hexanediol-alt-azelaic acid), and two copolyesters, poly(dipropoxylated bisphenol-A-alt-(isophthalic acid-co-adipic acid)) and poly(neopentyl glycol-alt-(adipic acid-co-isophthalic acid)) were analyzed by internal source matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS). The high resolution and high mass accuracy provided by FTMS greatly facilitate the characterization of the polyester and copolyester samples. Isobaric resolution allows the ion abundances of overlapping isotopic envelopes to be assessed. Repeat units were confirmed and end functionality assigned. Single shot mass spectra of the entire polymeric distribution demonstrate that the dynamic range of this internal MALDI source instrument and the analyzer cell exceeds performance of those previously reported for higher field instruments. Corrections of space charge mass shift effects are demonstrated for the analytes using an external calibrant and (subsequent to confirmation of structure) via internal calibration which removes ambiguity due to space charge differences in calibrant and analyte spectra. Capillary gel permeation chromatography was used to prepare low polydispersity samples from a high polydispersity polyester, improving the measurement of molecular weight distribution two-fold while retaining the benefits of high resolution mass spectrometry for elucidation of oligomer identity.

State and evolution of the African rainforests between 1990 and 2010

PubMed Central

Mayaux, Philippe; Pekel, Jean-François; Desclée, Baudouin; Donnay, François; Lupi, Andrea; Achard, Frédéric; Clerici, Marco; Bodart, Catherine; Brink, Andreas; Nasi, Robert; Belward, Alan

2013-01-01

This paper presents a map of Africa's rainforests for 2005. Derived from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data at a spatial resolution of 250 m and with an overall accuracy of 84%, this map provides new levels of spatial and thematic detail. The map is accompanied by measurements of deforestation between 1990, 2000 and 2010 for West Africa, Central Africa and Madagascar derived from a systematic sample of Landsat images—imagery from equivalent platforms is used to fill gaps in the Landsat record. Net deforestation is estimated at 0.28% yr−1 for the period 1990–2000 and 0.14% yr−1 for the period 2000–2010. West Africa and Madagascar exhibit a much higher deforestation rate than the Congo Basin, for example, three times higher for West Africa and nine times higher for Madagascar. Analysis of variance over the Congo Basin is then used to show that expanding agriculture and increasing fuelwood demands are key drivers of deforestation in the region, whereas well-controlled timber exploitation programmes have little or no direct influence on forest-cover reduction at present. Rural and urban population concentrations and fluxes are also identified as strong underlying causes of deforestation in this study. PMID:23878331

Estimating Morning Change in Land Surface Temperature from MODIS Day/Night Observations: Applications for Surface Energy Balance Modeling.

PubMed

Hain, Christopher R; Anderson, Martha C

2017-10-16

Observations of land surface temperature (LST) are crucial for the monitoring of surface energy fluxes from satellite. Methods that require high temporal resolution LST observations (e.g., from geostationary orbit) can be difficult to apply globally because several geostationary sensors are required to attain near-global coverage (60°N to 60°S). While these LST observations are available from polar-orbiting sensors, providing global coverage at higher spatial resolutions, the temporal sampling (twice daily observations) can pose significant limitations. For example, the Atmosphere Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) surface energy balance model, used for monitoring evapotranspiration and drought, requires an observation of the morning change in LST - a quantity not directly observable from polar-orbiting sensors. Therefore, we have developed and evaluated a data-mining approach to estimate the mid-morning rise in LST from a single sensor (2 observations per day) of LST from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor on the Aqua platform. In general, the data-mining approach produced estimates with low relative error (5 to 10%) and statistically significant correlations when compared against geostationary observations. This approach will facilitate global, near real-time applications of ALEXI at higher spatial and temporal coverage from a single sensor than currently achievable with current geostationary datasets.

Drivers of workplace discrimination against people with disabilities: the utility of Attribution Theory.

PubMed

Chan, Fong; McMahon, Brian T; Cheing, Gladys; Rosenthal, David A; Bezyak, Jill

2005-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to determine what drives workplace discrimination against people with disabilities. These findings are then compared to available literature on attribution theory, which concerns itself with public perceptions of the controllability and stability of various impairments. The sample included 35,763 allegations of discriminations filed by people with disabilities under the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Group A included impairments deemed by Corrigan et al. [1988] to be uncontrollable but stable: visual impairment (representing 13% of the total allegations in this study), cancer (12%), cardiovascular disease (19%), and spinal cord injuries (5%). The controllable but unstable impairments in group B included depression (38%), schizophrenia (2%), alcohol and other drug abuse (4%), and HIV/AIDS (7%). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had resolved all allegations in terms of merit Resolutions (a positive finding of discrimination) and Resolutions without merit. Allegations of workplace discrimination were found to center mainly on hiring, discharge, harassment, and reasonable accommodation issues. Perceived workplace discrimination (as measured by allegations filed with EEOC) does occur at higher levels in Group B, especially when serious issues involving discharge and disability harassment are involved. With the glaring exception of HIV/AIDS, however, actual discrimination (as measured by EEOC merit Resolutions) occurs at higher levels for Group A.

Comparison of Cornea Module and DermaInspect for noninvasive imaging of ocular surface pathologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steven, Philipp; Müller, Maya; Koop, Norbert; Rose, Christian; Hüttmann, Gereon

2009-11-01

Minimally invasive imaging of ocular surface pathologies aims at securing clinical diagnosis without actual tissue probing. For this matter, confocal microscopy (Cornea Module) is in daily use in ophthalmic practice. Multiphoton microscopy is a new optical technique that enables high-resolution imaging and functional analysis of living tissues based on tissue autofluorescence. This study was set up to compare the potential of a multiphoton microscope (DermaInspect) to the Cornea Module. Ocular surface pathologies such as pterygia, papillomae, and nevi were investigated in vivo using the Cornea Module and imaged immediately after excision by DermaInspect. Two excitation wavelengths, fluorescence lifetime imaging and second-harmonic generation (SHG), were used to discriminate different tissue structures. Images were compared with the histopathological assessment of the samples. At wavelengths of 730 nm, multiphoton microscopy exclusively revealed cellular structures. Collagen fibrils were specifically demonstrated by second-harmonic generation. Measurements of fluorescent lifetimes enabled the highly specific detection of goblet cells, erythrocytes, and nevus-cell clusters. At the settings used, DermaInspect reaches higher resolutions than the Cornea Module and obtains additional structural information. The parallel detection of multiphoton excited autofluorescence and confocal imaging could expand the possibilities of minimally invasive investigation of the ocular surface toward functional analysis at higher resolutions.

Exploring proximity effects and large depth of field in helium ion beam lithography: large-area dense patterns and tilted surface exposure.

PubMed

Flatabø, Ranveig; Agarwal, Akshay; Hobbs, Richard; Greve, Martin M; Holst, Bodil; Berggren, Karl K

2018-07-06

Helium ion beam lithography (HIL) is an emerging nanofabrication technique. It benefits from a reduced interaction volume compared to that of an electron beam of similar energy, and hence reduced long-range scattering (proximity effect), higher resist sensitivity and potentially higher resolution. Furthermore, the small angular spread of the helium ion beam gives rise to a large depth of field. This should enable patterning on tilted and curved surfaces without the need of any additional adjustments, such as laser-auto focus. So far, most work on HIL has been focused on exploiting the reduced proximity effect to reach single-digit nanometer resolution, and has thus been concentrated on single-pixel exposures over small areas. Here we explore two new areas of application. Firstly, we investigate the proximity effect in large-area exposures and demonstrate HIL's capabilities in fabricating precise high-density gratings on large planar surfaces (100 μm × 100 μm, with pitch down to 35 nm) using an area dose for exposure. Secondly, we exploit the large depth of field by making the first HIL patterns on tilted surfaces (sample stage tilted 45°). We demonstrate a depth of field greater than 100 μm for a resolution of about 20 nm.

High-Resolution Autoradiography

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Towe, George C; Gomberg, Henry J; Freemen, J W

1955-01-01

This investigation was made to adapt wet-process autoradiography to metallurgical samples to obtain high resolution of segregated radioactive elements in microstructures. Results are confined to development of the technique, which was perfected to a resolution of less than 10 microns. The radioactive samples included carbon-14 carburized iron and steel, nickel-63 electroplated samples, a powder product containing nickel-63, and tungsten-185 in N-155 alloy.

Characterization of large TSV MPPC arrays (4 × 4 ch and 8 × 8 ch) in scintillation spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grodzicka-Kobylka, M.; Szczesniak, T.; Moszyński, M.; Korolczuk, S.; Baszak, J.; Kapusta, M.

2017-10-01

The main objective of this work was to characterize the new multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) arrays with a 12 × 12mm2 and a 24 × 24mm2 active area, made using through-silicon via (TSV) technology and with trenches introduced between the cells, in gamma-ray spectrometry with five different scintillators: CsI:Tl, NaI:Tl, LSO/LYSO, BGO, and LaBr3. The results of the study are compared to those obtained previously with the older sample of the 12 × 12mm2 MPPC array made as a monolithic device. TSV MPPC array with the size of 24 × 24mm2 is one of the first commercially available SiPM with such a large active area and with the dead space between channels minimized to only 0.2 mm. Moreover, in these devices, Hamamatsu introduced trenches between cells to reduce cross-talk. Hence excess noise factor (ENF) was also reduced from a value of 1.7 to 1.2 in comparison to the "old" monolithic sample (data for the same overvoltage of 1.3V). Whereby for the new MPPCs, the optimum operating voltage is higher by about 0.6V. In consequence, this higher optimal overvoltage means a higher photon detection efficiency (PDE) and number of photoelectrons, and leads to improved energy resolution. Energy resolution measured for the 662keV full energy peak in a 137 Csγ-source spectrum recorded with 12 × 12mm2 TSV MPPC and two CsI:Tl scintillators (12 × 12 × 12mm3 and 1 × 1 in) equals to 5.8% and 6.8%, respectively. For the "old" MPPC with the same CsI:Tl scintillators energy resolution is equal to 6.4% and 7.1%, respectively. These improved TSV MPPC arrays can be commercially used for scintillation light readout of "large" crystals with a diameter of 1 × 1 in or 2 × 2 in, suitable for gamma spectrometry in a wide range of applications. The combination of new 8 × 8 ch (24 × 24mm2) TSV MPPC and 2 × 2 in NaI:Tl gives an excellent energy resolution below 8%, despite the incomplete match of the scintillator surface to the active area of MPPC and loss of the part of the light.

Identification and quantification of the main isoflavones and other phytochemicals in soy based nutraceutical products by liquid chromatography-orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry.

PubMed

López-Gutiérrez, Noelia; Romero-González, Roberto; Garrido Frenich, Antonia; Martínez Vidal, José Luis

2014-06-27

The specific phytochemicals composition of soy nutritional supplements is usually not labelled. Hence, 12 dietary supplements were analyzed in order to detect and identify the main phytochemicals present in these samples, using a database containing 60 compounds. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to single-stage Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS) has been used. Two consecutive extractions, using as extraction solvent a mixture of methanol:water (80:20, v/v), were employed, followed by two dilutions (10 or 100 times depending on the concentration of the components in the sample) with a mixture of an aqueous solution of ammonium acetate 30mM:methanol (50:50, v/v). The method was validated, obtaining adequate recovery and precision values. Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were calculated, ranging from 2 to 150μgL(-1). Isoflavones were the predominant components present in the analyzed supplements with values higher than 93% of the total amount of phytochemicals in all cases. The aglycones (genistein, daidzein, glycitein and biochanin A) as well as their three conjugated forms, β-glucosides (genistin, daizin and glycitin) were detected and quantified, being daidzein the isoflavone detected at higher concentration in 8 out of 12 samples reported, with values ranging from 684 to 35,970mgkg(-1), whereas biochanin A was detected at very low concentrations, ranging from 18 to 50mgkg(-1). Moreover, other phytochemicals as flavones, flavonols, flavanones and phenolic acids were also detected and quantified. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Spatial and Spectral Resolution in Determining NDVI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boelman, N. T.

2003-12-01

We explore the impact that varying spatial and spectral resolutions of several sensors (a field portable spectroradiometer, Landsat, MODIS and AVHRR) has in determining the average Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at Imnavait Creek, a small arctic tundra watershed located on the north slope of Alaska. We found that at the field-of-views (FOVs) of less than 20 m2 that were sampled, the average NDVI value for this watershed is 0.65, compared to 0.77 at FOVs equal to and greater than 20 m2. In addition, we found that at FOVs less than 20 m2, the average NDVI value calculated according to each of Landsat, MODIS and AVHRR band definitions (controlled by spectral resolution) was similar. However, at FOVs equal to and greater than 20 m2, the average NDVI value calculated according to AVHRR's broad-band definitions was significantly and consistently higher than that from both Landsat and MODIS's narrow-band NDVI values. We speculate that these differences in NDVI exist because high leaf-area-index vegetation communities associated with watertracks are commonly spaced between 10 and 20 m apart in arctic tundra landscapes and are often only included when spectral sampling is conducted at FOVs greater than tens of square meters. These results suggest that both spatial resolution alone and its interaction with spectral resolution have to be considered when interpreting commonly used global-scale NDVI datasets. This is because traditionally, the fundamental relationships established between NDVI and ecosystem parameters, such as CO2 fluxes, aboveground biomass and net primary productivity, have been established at scales less than 20 m2. Other ecosystems, such as landscapes with isolated tree islands in boreal forest-tundra ecotones, may exhibit similar scaling patterns that need to be considered when interpreting global-scale NDVI datasets.

Super-resolution depth information from a short-wave infrared laser gated-viewing system by using correlated double sampling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Göhler, Benjamin; Lutzmann, Peter

2017-10-01

Primarily, a laser gated-viewing (GV) system provides range-gated 2D images without any range resolution within the range gate. By combining two GV images with slightly different gate positions, 3D information within a part of the range gate can be obtained. The depth resolution is higher (super-resolution) than the minimal gate shift step size in a tomographic sequence of the scene. For a state-of-the-art system with a typical frame rate of 20 Hz, the time difference between the two required GV images is 50 ms which may be too long in a dynamic scenario with moving objects. Therefore, we have applied this approach to the reset and signal level images of a new short-wave infrared (SWIR) GV camera whose read-out integrated circuit supports correlated double sampling (CDS) actually intended for the reduction of kTC noise (reset noise). These images are extracted from only one single laser pulse with a marginal time difference in between. The SWIR GV camera consists of 640 x 512 avalanche photodiodes based on mercury cadmium telluride with a pixel pitch of 15 μm. A Q-switched, flash lamp pumped solid-state laser with 1.57 μm wavelength (OPO), 52 mJ pulse energy after beam shaping, 7 ns pulse length and 20 Hz pulse repetition frequency is used for flash illumination. In this paper, the experimental set-up is described and the operating principle of CDS is explained. The method of deriving super-resolution depth information from a GV system by using CDS is introduced and optimized. Further, the range accuracy is estimated from measured image data.

Antibody levels correlate with detection of Trypanosoma cruzi DNA by sensitive PCR assays in seropositive blood donors and possible resolution of infection over time

PubMed Central

Sabino, E.C.; Lee, T.H.; Montalvo, L.; Nguyen, M.L.; Leiby, D.A.; Carrick, D.M.; Otani, M.M.; Vinelli, E.; Wright, D.; Stramer, S.L.; Busch, M.

2013-01-01

Background The clinical significance of anti-T. cruzi low-level reactive samples is incompletely understood. PCR-positive rates and antibody levels among seropositive blood donors in three countries are described. Methods Follow-up whole blood and plasma samples were collected from T. cruzi-seropositive donors from 2008-2010 in the US (n=195) and Honduras (n=58). Also 143 samples from Brazil in 1996-2002, originally positive by three serological assays, were available and paired with contemporary follow-up samples from these donors. All samples were retested with the FDA-approved Ortho ELISA. PCR assays were performed on coded sample panels by two laboratories (BSRI and ARC) that amplified kinetoplast minicircle DNA sequences of T. cruzi. Results PCR testing at BSRI yielded slightly higher overall sensitivity and specificity (33% and 98%) compared with the ARC lab (28% and 94%). Among seropositive donors, PCR-positive rates varied by country (p<0.0001) for the BSRI laboratory: Brazil (57%), Honduras (32%) and the US (14%). ELISA signal/cutoff (S/CO) ratios were significantly higher for PCR-positive compared to PCR-negative donors (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Additionally, PCR-negative Brazilian donors exhibited greater frequencies of antibody decline over time versus PCR-positive donors (p=0.003). Conclusion For all three countries, persistent DNA positivity correlated with higher ELISA S/CO values, suggesting that high-level seroreactivity reflects chronic parasitemia. The higher rate of PCR positivity for Brazilian donors was likely attributable to required reactivity on three assays available a decade ago. Significant S/CO declines in 10% of the PCR-negative Brazilian donors may indicate seroreversion following parasite clearance in the absence of treatment. PMID:23002996

Cosine beamforming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruigrok, Elmer; Wapenaar, Kees

2014-05-01

In various application areas, e.g., seismology, astronomy and geodesy, arrays of sensors are used to characterize incoming wavefields due to distant sources. Beamforming is a general term for phased-adjusted summations over the different array elements, for untangling the directionality and elevation angle of the incoming waves. For characterizing noise sources, beamforming is conventionally applied with a temporal Fourier and a 2D spatial Fourier transform, possibly with additional weights. These transforms become aliased for higher frequencies and sparser array-element distributions. As a partial remedy, we derive a kernel for beamforming crosscorrelated data and call it cosine beamforming (CBF). By applying beamforming not directly to the data, but to crosscorrelated data, the sampling is effectively increased. We show that CBF, due to this better sampling, suffers less from aliasing and yields higher resolution than conventional beamforming. As a flip-side of the coin, the CBF output shows more smearing for spherical waves than conventional beamforming.

A facile hydrothermal approach to synthesize rGO/BiVO4 photocatalysts for visible light induced degradation of RhB dye

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pal, Shreyasi; Dutta, Shibsankar; De, Sukanta

2018-05-01

RGO/BiVO4 composites were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and surface analysis (BET). The photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared samples was evaluated by studying the degradation of model dyes rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light. The prepared rGO/BiVO4 composites exhibited higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB with a maximum removal rate of 86% under visible light irradiation under visible-light irradiation than pure BiVO4 nanoparticles (63%). This behavior could be associated to their higher specific surface area (BET), increased light absorption intensity and the degradation of electron-hole pair recombination in BiVO4 with the introduction of the rGO.

Study of the Vibrational Modes of Subsurface Oxygen on Al (111) Using Diode Laser Infrared Reflection-Absorption Spectroscopy.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-10-15

apparent shift of this band to higher energy with increasing coverage, observed at lower resolution (but higher sensitivity) in electron energy loss...apparent shift of this band to higher energy with increasing coverage, observed at lower resolution (but higher sen- sitivity) in electron energy ...11 using high-resolution electron energy -loss spectroscopy (EELS), is especially intriguing. 02 dissociates on this surface to populate two types of

High resolution MR microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciobanu, Luisa

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) microscopy [1] has the potential to bring the full capabilities of NMR to arbitrarily specified localized positions within small samples. The most interesting target of study is the living biological cell, with typical dimensions ˜100 mum, but with substructures that are much smaller, such as the cell nucleus (typically ˜10 mu m) and mitochondria (1--10 mum). One anticipates that the development of MR microscopy with resolution at the level of these substructures or better and with a wide, three dimensional field-of-view could open a new avenue of investigation into the biology of the living cell. Although the first MR image of a single biological cell was reported in 1987 [2], the cell imaged had quite large (˜1 mm diameter) spatial dimensions and the resolution obtained (on the order of 10 mu m) was not adequate for meaningful imaging of more typically sized cells. The quest for higher resolution has continued. In 1989 Zhou et al. [3] obtained fully three dimensional images with spatial resolution of (6.37 mum)3, or 260 femtoliters. While better "in-plane" resolutions (i.e., the resolution in 2 of the 3 spatial dimensions) have since been obtained, [4, 5] this volume resolution was not exceeded until quite recently by Lee et al., [6] who report 2D images having volume resolution of 75 mum 3 and in-plane resolution of 1 mum. In parallel with these advances in raw resolution several investigators [7, 8, 9] have focused on localized spectroscopy and/or chemical shift imaging. The key obstacles to overcome in MR microscopy are (1) the loss of signal to noise that occurs when observing small volumes and (2) molecular diffusion during the measurement or encoding. To date the problem of sensitivity has typically been addressed by employing small micro-coil receivers. [10] The problem of molecular diffusion can only be defeated with strong magnetic field gradients that can encode spatial information quickly. We report MR microscopy images on phantoms [11, 12] and biological samples (paramecia, algae, brain tissue, lipidic mesophases) obtained using using magnetic field gradients as large as 50 Tesla/meter (5000 G/cm) [13] and micro-coils [14]. Images have voxel resolution as high as (3.7 mum by 3.3 mum by 3.3 mum), or 41 mu m3 (41 femtoliters, containing 2.7 x 10 12 proton spins) [12], marginally the highest voxel resolution reported to date. They are also fully three dimensional, with wide fields of view.

Major and trace elements in organically or conventionally produced milk.

PubMed

Hermansen, John E; Badsberg, Jens H; Kristensen, Troels; Gundersen, Vagn

2005-08-01

A total of 480 samples of milk from 10 organically and 10 conventionally producing dairy farms in Denmark and covering 8 sampling periods over 1 year (triplicate samplings) were analysed for 45 trace elements and 6 major elements by high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Sampling, sample preparation, and analysis of the samples were performed under carefully controlled contamination-free conditions. The dairy cattle breeds were Danish-Holstein or Jersey. Sources of variance were quantified, and differences between production systems and breeds were tested. The major source of variation for most elements was week of sampling. Concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mo, Rb, Se, and Zn were within published ranges. Concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Mn and Pb were lower, and concentrations of Co and Sr were higher than published ranges. Compared with Holsteins, Jerseys produced milk with higher concentrations of Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Rh, and Zn and with a lower concentration of Bi. The organically produced milk, compared with conventionally produced milk, contained a significantly higher concentration of Mo (48 v. 37 ng/g) and a lower concentration of Ba (43 v. 62 ng/g), Eu (4 v. 7 ng/g), Mn (16 v. 20 ng/g) and Zn (4400 v. 5150 ng/g respectively). The investigation yielded typical concentrations for the following trace elements in milk, for which no or very few data are available: Ba, Bi, Ce, Cs, Eu, Ga, Gd, In, La, Nb, Nd, Pd, Pr, Rh, Sb, Sm, Tb, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, Y, and Zr.

Polystyrene latex separations by continuous flow electrophoresis on the Space Shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snyder, R. S.; Rhodes, P. H.; Miller, T. Y.; Micale, F. J.; Mann, R. V.

1986-01-01

The seventh mission of the Space Shuttle carried two NASA experiments in the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Corporation continuous flow electrophoresis system. The objectives were to test the operation of continuous flow electrophoresis in a reduced gravity environment using stable particles with established electrokinetic properties and specifically to evaluate the influence of the electrical properties of the sample constituents on the resolution of the continuous flow electrophoretic device. Polystrene latex microspheres dispersed in a solution with three times the electrical conductivity of the curtain buffer separated with a significantly larger band spread compared to the second experiment under matched conductivity conditions. It is proposed that the sample of higher electrical conductivity distorted the electric field near the sample stream so that the polystyrene latex particles migrated toward the chamber walls where electroosmosis retarded and spread the sample.

X-ray tomography characterization of density gradient aerogel in laser targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borisenko, L.; Orekhov, A.; Musgrave, C.; Nazarov, W.; Merkuliev, Yu; Borisenko, N.

2016-04-01

The low-density solid laser target characterization studies begun with the SkyScan 1074 computer microtomograph (CMT) [1, 2] are now continued with higher resolution of SkyScan 1174. The research is particularly focused on the possibility to obtain, control and measure precisely the gradient density polymers for laser target production. Repeatability of the samples and possibility to obtain stable gradients are analysed. The measurements were performed on the mm-scale divinyl benzene (DVB) rods.

SRRF: Universal live-cell super-resolution microscopy.

PubMed

Culley, Siân; Tosheva, Kalina L; Matos Pereira, Pedro; Henriques, Ricardo

2018-08-01

Super-resolution microscopy techniques break the diffraction limit of conventional optical microscopy to achieve resolutions approaching tens of nanometres. The major advantage of such techniques is that they provide resolutions close to those obtainable with electron microscopy while maintaining the benefits of light microscopy such as a wide palette of high specificity molecular labels, straightforward sample preparation and live-cell compatibility. Despite this, the application of super-resolution microscopy to dynamic, living samples has thus far been limited and often requires specialised, complex hardware. Here we demonstrate how a novel analytical approach, Super-Resolution Radial Fluctuations (SRRF), is able to make live-cell super-resolution microscopy accessible to a wider range of researchers. We show its applicability to live samples expressing GFP using commercial confocal as well as laser- and LED-based widefield microscopes, with the latter achieving long-term timelapse imaging with minimal photobleaching. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Particle-bound PCDD/Fs in the atmosphere of an electronic waste dismantling area in China.

PubMed

Wen, Sheng; Gong, Yan; Li, Jingguang; Shi, Tingming; Zhao, Yunfeng; Wu, Yongning

2011-04-01

Particulate samples from the atmosphere in an electronic waste dismantling area were collected to investigate the levels and sources of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Particulate samples including total suspended particulates (TSP) and particulate matter <2.5 μm diameter (PM(2.5)) were collected on selected non-rainy days in summer (Jul 10-12, 2006) and winter (Jan 11-13, 2007) from Fengjiang (FJ), an electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling area in eastern China, and an adjacent area Luqiao (LQ). The samples were analyzed by isotope dilution - high resolution gas chromatography / high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). In FJ, the mean PCDD/F concentrations (mean TEQ values) were 280.6 pg Nm(-3) (3.432 pg WHO-TEQ Nm(-3)) for the TSP samples and 223.3 pg Nm(-3) (3.180 pg WHO-TEQ Nm(-3)) for the PM(2.5) samples. The total PCDD/F concentrations and TEQs in the PM(2.5) samples were about 66.8%-108.0% of the TSP samples, indicating that the fine particles contained higher levels of PCDD/Fs than coarse particles. The PCDD/F levels in FJ were much higher than those detected in common urban areas around the world, suggesting that the study area was heavily polluted by PCDD/Fs. Furthermore, the total average daily PCDD/F intake in FJ was estimated at 62.11 pg WHO-TEQ kg(-1)·day(-1) for adults and 110.11 pg WHO-TEQ kg(-1)·day(-1) for children, which greatly exceeds the WHO (1998) tolerable daily intake of 1-4 pg of WHO-TEQ kg(-1)·day(-1). The PCDD/F homologues and congener profiles confirmed that the PCDD/Fs in FJ originated from crude e-waste recycling activities. The severe dioxin pollution present in FJ has also substantially influenced the adjacent area of LQ through atmospheric transport. Open burning of medical waste was another source of PCDD/Fs identified in LQ. Copyright © 2011 The Editorial Board of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Towards breaking the spatial resolution barriers: An optical flow and super-resolution approach for sea ice motion estimation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrou, Zisis I.; Xian, Yang; Tian, YingLi

2018-04-01

Estimation of sea ice motion at fine scales is important for a number of regional and local level applications, including modeling of sea ice distribution, ocean-atmosphere and climate dynamics, as well as safe navigation and sea operations. In this study, we propose an optical flow and super-resolution approach to accurately estimate motion from remote sensing images at a higher spatial resolution than the original data. First, an external example learning-based super-resolution method is applied on the original images to generate higher resolution versions. Then, an optical flow approach is applied on the higher resolution images, identifying sparse correspondences and interpolating them to extract a dense motion vector field with continuous values and subpixel accuracies. Our proposed approach is successfully evaluated on passive microwave, optical, and Synthetic Aperture Radar data, proving appropriate for multi-sensor applications and different spatial resolutions. The approach estimates motion with similar or higher accuracy than the original data, while increasing the spatial resolution of up to eight times. In addition, the adopted optical flow component outperforms a state-of-the-art pattern matching method. Overall, the proposed approach results in accurate motion vectors with unprecedented spatial resolutions of up to 1.5 km for passive microwave data covering the entire Arctic and 20 m for radar data, and proves promising for numerous scientific and operational applications.

Wideband Spectroscopy: The Design and Implementation of a 3 GHz Bandwidth, 8192 Channel, Polyphase Digital Spectrometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Monroe, Ryan M.

2011-01-01

A family of state-of-the-art digital Fourier transform spectrometers has been developed, with a combination of high bandwidth and fine resolution unavailable elsewhere. Analog signals consisting of radiation emitted by constituents in planetary atmospheres or galactic sources are downconverted and subsequently digitized by a pair of interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters, (ADC). This 6 Gsps (giga-sample per second) digital representation of the analog signal is then processed through an FPGA-based streaming Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the key development described below. Digital spectrometers have many advantages over previously used analog spectrometers, especially in terms of accuracy and resolution, both of which are particularly important for the type of scientific questions to be addressed with next-generation radiometers. the implementation, results and underlying math for this spectrometer, as well as, potential for future extension to even higher bandwidth, resolution and channel orthogonality, needed to support proposed future advanced atmospheric science and radioastronomy, are discussed.

Wideband Spectroscopy: The Design and Implementation of a 3 GHz, 2048 Channel Digital Spectrometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Monroe, Ryan M.

2011-01-01

A state-of-the-art digital Fourier Transform spectrometer has been developed, with a combination of high bandwidth and fine resolution unavailable elsewhere. Analog signals consisting of radiation emitted by constituents in planetary atmospheres or galactic sources are downconverted and subsequently digitized by a pair of interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). This 6 Gsps (giga sample per second) digital representation of the analog signal is then processed through an FPGA-based streaming Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the key development described below. Digital spectrometers have many advantages over previously used analog spectrometers, especially in terms of accuracy and resolution, both of which are particularly important for the type of scientific questions to be addressed with next-generation radiometers. The implementation, results and underlying math for this spectrometer, as well as potential for future extension to even higher bandwidth, resolution and channel orthogonality, needed to support proposed future advanced atmospheric science and radioastronomy, are discussed.

Time multiplexing super-resolution nanoscopy based on the Brownian motion of gold nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilovitsh, Tali; Ilovitsh, Asaf; Wagner, Omer; Zalevsky, Zeev

2017-02-01

Super-resolution localization microscopy can overcome the diffraction limit and achieve a tens of order improvement in resolution. It requires labeling the sample with fluorescent probes followed with their repeated cycles of activation and photobleaching. This work presents an alternative approach that is free from direct labeling and does not require the activation and photobleaching cycles. Fluorescently labeled gold nanoparticles in a solution are distributed on top of the sample. The nanoparticles move in a random Brownian motion, and interact with the sample. By obscuring different areas in the sample, the nanoparticles encode the sub-wavelength features. A sequence of images of the sample is captured and decoded by digital post processing to create the super-resolution image. The achievable resolution is limited by the additive noise and the size of the nanoparticles. Regular nanoparticles with diameter smaller than 100nm are barely seen in a conventional bright field microscope, thus fluorescently labeled gold nanoparticles were used, with proper

Improving Numerical Weather Predictions of Summertime Precipitation Over the Southeastern U.S. Through a High-Resolution Initialization of the Surface State

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Case, Jonathan L.; Kumar, Sujay V.; Krikishen, Jayanthi; Jedlovec, Gary J.

2011-01-01

It is hypothesized that high-resolution, accurate representations of surface properties such as soil moisture and sea surface temperature are necessary to improve simulations of summertime pulse-type convective precipitation in high resolution models. This paper presents model verification results of a case study period from June-August 2008 over the Southeastern U.S. using the Weather Research and Forecasting numerical weather prediction model. Experimental simulations initialized with high-resolution land surface fields from the NASA Land Information System (LIS) and sea surface temperature (SST) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are compared to a set of control simulations initialized with interpolated fields from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction 12-km North American Mesoscale model. The LIS land surface and MODIS SSTs provide a more detailed surface initialization at a resolution comparable to the 4-km model grid spacing. Soil moisture from the LIS spin-up run is shown to respond better to the extreme rainfall of Tropical Storm Fay in August 2008 over the Florida peninsula. The LIS has slightly lower errors and higher anomaly correlations in the top soil layer, but exhibits a stronger dry bias in the root zone. The model sensitivity to the alternative surface initial conditions is examined for a sample case, showing that the LIS/MODIS data substantially impact surface and boundary layer properties.

A global reference database from very high resolution commercial satellite data and methodology for application to Landsat derived 30 m continuous field tree cover data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Pengra, Bruce; Long, Jordan; Dahal, Devendra; Stehman, Stephen V.; Loveland, Thomas R.

2015-01-01

The methodology for selection, creation, and application of a global remote sensing validation dataset using high resolution commercial satellite data is presented. High resolution data are obtained for a stratified random sample of 500 primary sampling units (5 km  ×  5 km sample blocks), where the stratification based on Köppen climate classes is used to distribute the sample globally among biomes. The high resolution data are classified to categorical land cover maps using an analyst mediated classification workflow. Our initial application of these data is to evaluate a global 30 m Landsat-derived, continuous field tree cover product. For this application, the categorical reference classification produced at 2 m resolution is converted to percent tree cover per 30 m pixel (secondary sampling unit)for comparison to Landsat-derived estimates of tree cover. We provide example results (based on a subsample of 25 sample blocks in South America) illustrating basic analyses of agreement that can be produced from these reference data. Commercial high resolution data availability and data quality are shown to provide a viable means of validating continuous field tree cover. When completed, the reference classifications for the full sample of 500 blocks will be released for public use.

Superresolution parallel magnetic resonance imaging: Application to functional and spectroscopic imaging

PubMed Central

Otazo, Ricardo; Lin, Fa-Hsuan; Wiggins, Graham; Jordan, Ramiro; Sodickson, Daniel; Posse, Stefan

2009-01-01

Standard parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques suffer from residual aliasing artifacts when the coil sensitivities vary within the image voxel. In this work, a parallel MRI approach known as Superresolution SENSE (SURE-SENSE) is presented in which acceleration is performed by acquiring only the central region of k-space instead of increasing the sampling distance over the complete k-space matrix and reconstruction is explicitly based on intra-voxel coil sensitivity variation. In SURE-SENSE, parallel MRI reconstruction is formulated as a superresolution imaging problem where a collection of low resolution images acquired with multiple receiver coils are combined into a single image with higher spatial resolution using coil sensitivities acquired with high spatial resolution. The effective acceleration of conventional gradient encoding is given by the gain in spatial resolution, which is dictated by the degree of variation of the different coil sensitivity profiles within the low resolution image voxel. Since SURE-SENSE is an ill-posed inverse problem, Tikhonov regularization is employed to control noise amplification. Unlike standard SENSE, for which acceleration is constrained to the phase-encoding dimension/s, SURE-SENSE allows acceleration along all encoding directions — for example, two-dimensional acceleration of a 2D echo-planar acquisition. SURE-SENSE is particularly suitable for low spatial resolution imaging modalities such as spectroscopic imaging and functional imaging with high temporal resolution. Application to echo-planar functional and spectroscopic imaging in human brain is presented using two-dimensional acceleration with a 32-channel receiver coil. PMID:19341804

Two-Dimensional Standing Wave Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy: Superresolution Imaging of Single Molecular and Biological Specimens

PubMed Central

Chung, Euiheon; Kim, Daekeun; Cui, Yan; Kim, Yang-Hyo; So, Peter T. C.

2007-01-01

The development of high resolution, high speed imaging techniques allows the study of dynamical processes in biological systems. Lateral resolution improvement of up to a factor of 2 has been achieved using structured illumination. In a total internal reflection fluorescence microscope, an evanescence excitation field is formed as light is total internally reflected at an interface between a high and a low index medium. The <100 nm penetration depth of evanescence field ensures a thin excitation region resulting in low background fluorescence. We present even higher resolution wide-field biological imaging by use of standing wave total internal reflection fluorescence (SW-TIRF). Evanescent standing wave (SW) illumination is used to generate a sinusoidal high spatial frequency fringe pattern on specimen for lateral resolution enhancement. To prevent thermal drift of the SW, novel detection and estimation of the SW phase with real-time feedback control is devised for the stabilization and control of the fringe phase. SW-TIRF is a wide-field superresolution technique with resolution better than a fifth of emission wavelength or ∼100 nm lateral resolution. We demonstrate the performance of the SW-TIRF microscopy using one- and two-directional SW illumination with a biological sample of cellular actin cytoskeleton of mouse fibroblast cells as well as single semiconductor nanocrystal molecules. The results confirm the superior resolution of SW-TIRF in addition to the merit of a high signal/background ratio from TIRF microscopy. PMID:17483188

Metrological 2iOF fibre-optic system for position and displacement measurement with 31 pm resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orłowska, Karolina; Świåtkowski, Michał; Kunicki, Piotr; Gotszalk, Teodor

2018-04-01

In the present paper, we describe a high sensitivity intensity fibre-optic displacement sensor with tens of picometre resolution combined with a sub-picometre resolution interferometric calibration system. Both integrated components form the so-called "2 in one ferrule" system 2iOF. The design and construction of the presented device depend on integrating two sensors' systems within one fibre-optic measuring head, which allows performing in situ calibration process with no additional time-consuming adjustment procedure. The resolution of the 2iOF system is 31 pm/Hz1/2 obtained with an interferometric Fabry-Perot based calibration system—providing accuracy better than tens of fm/Hz1/2 within 1 MHz bandwidth in the measurement range of up to 100 μm. The direct response from the intensity sensor is then the 2iOF output one. It is faster and more convenient to analyze in comparison, with much better resolution (3 orders of magnitude higher) but on the other hand also more time consuming and dependent on the absolute sample position interferometer. The proposed system is flexible and open to various applications. We will present the results of the piezoelectrical actuator displacement measurements, which were performed using the developed system.

Swept Field Laser Confocal Microscopy for Enhanced Spatial and Temporal Resolution in Live-Cell Imaging

PubMed Central

Castellano-Muñoz, Manuel; Peng, Anthony Wei; Salles, Felipe T.; Ricci, Anthony J.

2013-01-01

Confocal fluorescence microscopy is a broadly used imaging technique that enhances the signal-to-noise ratio by removing out of focal plane fluorescence. Confocal microscopes come with a variety of modifications depending on the particular experimental goals. Microscopes, illumination pathways, and light collection were originally focused upon obtaining the highest resolution image possible, typically on fixed tissue. More recently, live-cell confocal imaging has gained importance. Since measured signals are often rapid or transient, thus requiring higher sampling rates, specializations are included to enhance spatial and temporal resolution while maintaining tissue viability. Thus, a balance between image quality, temporal resolution, and tissue viability is needed. A subtype of confocal imaging, termed swept field confocal (SFC) microscopy, can image live cells at high rates while maintaining confocality. SFC systems can use a pinhole array to obtain high spatial resolution, similar to spinning disc systems. In addition, SFC imaging can achieve faster rates by using a slit to sweep the light across the entire image plane, thus requiring a single scan to generate an image. Coupled to a high-speed charge-coupled device camera and a laser illumination source, images can be obtained at greater than 1,000 frames per second while maintaining confocality. PMID:22831554

X-ray detection properties of plastic scintillators containing surface-modified Bi2O3 nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiyama, Fumiyuki; Noguchi, Takio; Koshimizu, Masanori; Kishimoto, Shunji; Haruki, Rie; Nishikido, Fumihiko; Fujimoto, Yutaka; Aida, Tsutomu; Takami, Seiichi; Adschiri, Tadafumi; Asai, Keisuke

2018-05-01

Plastic scintillators containing Bi2O3 nanoparticles (NPs) were developed as detectors for X-ray synchrotron radiation. A hydrothermal method was used to synthesize the NPs that had average particle sizes of less than 10 nm. Higher NP concentration led to a higher detection efficiency at 67.4 keV. The light yield of the scintillator containing 5 wt % Bi2O3 NPs was comparable with or higher than that of the commercially available plastic scintillator, EJ 256. The time resolution of the developed scintillation detector equipped with each sample scintillator was approximately 0.6 ns. Dispersion of nanoparticles within plastic scintillators is generally applicable and has wide application as a method for preparation of plastic scintillators for detecting X-ray synchrotron radiation.

Comparing the imaging performance of computed super resolution and magnification tomosynthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maidment, Tristan D.; Vent, Trevor L.; Ferris, William S.; Wurtele, David E.; Acciavatti, Raymond J.; Maidment, Andrew D. A.

2017-03-01

Computed super-resolution (SR) is a method of reconstructing images with pixels that are smaller than the detector element size; superior spatial resolution is achieved through the elimination of aliasing and alteration of the sampling function imposed by the reconstructed pixel aperture. By comparison, magnification mammography is a method of projection imaging that uses geometric magnification to increase spatial resolution. This study explores the development and application of magnification digital breast tomosynthesis (MDBT). Four different acquisition geometries are compared in terms of various image metrics. High-contrast spatial resolution was measured in various axes using a lead star pattern. A modified Defrise phantom was used to determine the low-frequency spatial resolution. An anthropomorphic phantom was used to simulate clinical imaging. Each experiment was conducted at three different magnifications: contact (1.04x), MAG1 (1.3x), and MAG2 (1.6x). All images were taken on our next generation tomosynthesis system, an in-house solution designed to optimize SR. It is demonstrated that both computed SR and MDBT (MAG1 and MAG2) provide improved spatial resolution over non-SR contact imaging. To achieve the highest resolution, SR and MDBT should be combined. However, MDBT is adversely affected by patient motion at higher magnifications. In addition, MDBT requires more radiation dose and delays diagnosis, since MDBT would be conducted upon recall. By comparison, SR can be conducted with the original screening data. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that computed SR and MDBT are both viable methods of imaging the breast.

Coherence and diffraction limited resolution in microscopic OCT by a unified approach for the correction of dispersion and aberrations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulz-Hildebrandt, H.; Münter, Michael; Ahrens, M.; Spahr, H.; Hillmann, D.; König, P.; Hüttmann, G.

2018-03-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images scattering tissues with 5 to 15 μm resolution. This is usually not sufficient for a distinction of cellular and subcellular structures. Increasing axial and lateral resolution and compensation of artifacts caused by dispersion and aberrations is required to achieve cellular and subcellular resolution. This includes defocus which limit the usable depth of field at high lateral resolution. OCT gives access the phase of the scattered light and hence correction of dispersion and aberrations is possible by numerical algorithms. Here we present a unified dispersion/aberration correction which is based on a polynomial parameterization of the phase error and an optimization of the image quality using Shannon's entropy. For validation, a supercontinuum light sources and a costume-made spectrometer with 400 nm bandwidth were combined with a high NA microscope objective in a setup for tissue and small animal imaging. Using this setup and computation corrections, volumetric imaging at 1.5 μm resolution is possible. Cellular and near cellular resolution is demonstrated in porcine cornea and the drosophila larva, when computational correction of dispersion and aberrations is used. Due to the excellent correction of the used microscope objective, defocus was the main contribution to the aberrations. In addition, higher aberrations caused by the sample itself were successfully corrected. Dispersion and aberrations are closely related artifacts in microscopic OCT imaging. Hence they can be corrected in the same way by optimization of the image quality. This way microscopic resolution is easily achieved in OCT imaging of static biological tissues.

High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography (CE-MRA) using Compressed Sensing with Magnitude Image Subtraction

PubMed Central

Rapacchi, Stanislas; Han, Fei; Natsuaki, Yutaka; Kroeker, Randall; Plotnik, Adam; Lehman, Evan; Sayre, James; Laub, Gerhard; Finn, J Paul; Hu, Peng

2014-01-01

Purpose We propose a compressed-sensing (CS) technique based on magnitude image subtraction for high spatial and temporal resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA). Methods Our technique integrates the magnitude difference image into the CS reconstruction to promote subtraction sparsity. Fully sampled Cartesian 3D CE-MRA datasets from 6 volunteers were retrospectively under-sampled and three reconstruction strategies were evaluated: k-space subtraction CS, independent CS, and magnitude subtraction CS. The techniques were compared in image quality (vessel delineation, image artifacts, and noise) and image reconstruction error. Our CS technique was further tested on 7 volunteers using a prospectively under-sampled CE-MRA sequence. Results Compared with k-space subtraction and independent CS, our magnitude subtraction CS provides significantly better vessel delineation and less noise at 4X acceleration, and significantly less reconstruction error at 4X and 8X (p<0.05 for all). On a 1–4 point image quality scale in vessel delineation, our technique scored 3.8±0.4 at 4X, 2.8±0.4 at 8X and 2.3±0.6 at 12X acceleration. Using our CS sequence at 12X acceleration, we were able to acquire dynamic CE-MRA with higher spatial and temporal resolution than current clinical TWIST protocol while maintaining comparable image quality (2.8±0.5 vs. 3.0±0.4, p=NS). Conclusion Our technique is promising for dynamic CE-MRA. PMID:23801456

Numerous Submarine Radial Vents Revealed on Mauna Loa Volcano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wanless, D.; Garcia, M. O.; Rhodes, J. M.; Trusdell, F. A.; Schilling, S.; Weis, D.; Fornari, D.; Vollinger, M.

2003-12-01

Among Hawaiian shield volcanoes, Mauna Loa is distinct in having vents outside of its summit and rift zones. These radial vents are located on its northern and western flanks and account for approximately 10% of historic eruptions outside the summit region. Thirty-three subaerial and one submarine vent (active in 1877) were known prior to our work. During a recent Jason2 expedition to the volcano's western flank, nine new submarine radial vents were discovered. Eighty-five samples were collected from these and the 1877 radial vent. Bathymetry and side-scan imagery were acquired using an EM300 multibeam echo sounder. The high resolution data (vertical resolution of approximately 4 m and horizontal resolution of 25 m) allowed us to create the first detailed geologic map of Mauna Loa's western submarine flank. The map was compiled using video and still photography from the Jason2 ROV and geochemical analysis of the samples. The geochemistry includes microprobe glass and XRF whole rock major and trace element data. Eight of the submarine radial vents sampled erupted tholeiitic lavas that are geochemically similar to historical subaerial eruptions on Mauna Loa. However, in contrast to all previously collected Mauna Loa lavas, two of the young vents erupted alkalic basalts. These lavas may have been derived from Mauna Loa, as they have somewhat higher FeO and TiO2 values at a given MgO content than alkalic lavas from neighboring Hualalai volcano, whose vents are located only on rifts 16 km away. Alkalic lavas are indicative of the postshield stage of volcanism and may signal the impending demise of Mauna Loa volcano.

Local sample thickness determination via scanning transmission electron microscopy defocus series.

PubMed

Beyer, A; Straubinger, R; Belz, J; Volz, K

2016-05-01

The usable aperture sizes in (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM) have significantly increased in the past decade due to the introduction of aberration correction. In parallel with the consequent increase of convergence angle the depth of focus has decreased severely and optical sectioning in the STEM became feasible. Here we apply STEM defocus series to derive the local sample thickness of a TEM sample. To this end experimental as well as simulated defocus series of thin Si foils were acquired. The systematic blurring of high resolution high angle annular dark field images is quantified by evaluating the standard deviation of the image intensity for each image of a defocus series. The derived dependencies exhibit a pronounced maximum at the optimum defocus and drop to a background value for higher or lower values. The full width half maximum (FWHM) of the curve is equal to the sample thickness above a minimum thickness given by the size of the used aperture and the chromatic aberration of the microscope. The thicknesses obtained from experimental defocus series applying the proposed method are in good agreement with the values derived from other established methods. The key advantages of this method compared to others are its high spatial resolution and that it does not involve any time consuming simulations. © 2015 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2015 Royal Microscopical Society.

Fast, High Resolution, and Wide Modulus Range Nanomechanical Mapping with Bimodal Tapping Mode.

PubMed

Kocun, Marta; Labuda, Aleksander; Meinhold, Waiman; Revenko, Irène; Proksch, Roger

2017-10-24

Tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM), also known as amplitude modulated (AM) or AC mode, is a proven, reliable, and gentle imaging mode with widespread applications. Over the several decades that tapping mode has been in use, quantification of tip-sample mechanical properties such as stiffness has remained elusive. Bimodal tapping mode keeps the advantages of single-frequency tapping mode while extending the technique by driving and measuring an additional resonant mode of the cantilever. The simultaneously measured observables of this additional resonance provide the additional information necessary to extract quantitative nanomechanical information about the tip-sample mechanics. Specifically, driving the higher cantilever resonance in a frequency modulated (FM) mode allows direct measurement of the tip-sample interaction stiffness and, with appropriate modeling, the set point-independent local elastic modulus. Here we discuss the advantages of bimodal tapping, coined AM-FM imaging, for modulus mapping. Results are presented for samples over a wide modulus range, from a compliant gel (∼100 MPa) to stiff materials (∼100 GPa), with the same type of cantilever. We also show high-resolution (subnanometer) stiffness mapping of individual molecules in semicrystalline polymers and of DNA in fluid. Combined with the ability to remain quantitative even at line scan rates of nearly 40 Hz, the results demonstrate the versatility of AM-FM imaging for nanomechanical characterization in a wide range of applications.

Deconvolution imaging of weak reflective pipe defects using guided-wave signals captured by a scanning receiver.

PubMed

Sun, Zeqing; Sun, Anyu; Ju, Bing-Feng

2017-02-01

Guided-wave echoes from weak reflective pipe defects are usually interfered by coherent noise and difficult to interpret. In this paper, a deconvolution imaging method is proposed to reconstruct defect images from synthetically focused guided-wave signals, with enhanced axial resolution. A compact transducer, circumferentially scanning around the pipe, is used to receive guided-wave echoes from discontinuities at a distance. This method achieves a higher circumferential sampling density than arrayed transducers-up to 72 sampling spots per lap for a pipe with a diameter of 180 mm. A noise suppression technique is used to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio. The enhancement in both signal-to-noise ratio and axial resolution of the method is experimentally validated by the detection of two kinds of artificial defects: a pitting defect of 5 mm in diameter and 0.9 mm in maximum depth, and iron pieces attached to the pipe surface. A reconstructed image of the pitting defect is obtained with a 5.87 dB signal-to-noise ratio. It is revealed that a high circumferential sampling density is important for the enhancement of the inspection sensitivity, by comparing the images reconstructed with different down-sampling ratios. A modified full width at half maximum is used as the criterion to evaluate the circumferential extent of the region where iron pieces are attached, which is applicable for defects with inhomogeneous reflection intensity.

Rapid brain MRI acquisition techniques at ultra-high fields

PubMed Central

Setsompop, Kawin; Feinberg, David A.; Polimeni, Jonathan R.

2017-01-01

Ultra-high-field MRI provides large increases in signal-to-noise ratio as well as enhancement of several contrast mechanisms in both structural and functional imaging. Combined, these gains result in a substantial boost in contrast-to-noise ratio that can be exploited for higher spatial resolution imaging to extract finer-scale information about the brain. With increased spatial resolution, however, is a concurrent increased image encoding burden that can cause unacceptably long scan times for structural imaging and slow temporal sampling of the hemodynamic response in functional MRI—particularly when whole-brain imaging is desired. To address this issue, new directions of imaging technology development—such as the move from conventional 2D slice-by-slice imaging to more efficient Simultaneous MultiSlice (SMS) or MultiBand imaging (which can be viewed as “pseudo-3D” encoding) as well as full 3D imaging—have provided dramatic improvements in acquisition speed. Such imaging paradigms provide higher SNR efficiency as well as improved encoding efficiency. Moreover, SMS and 3D imaging can make better use of coil sensitivity information in multi-channel receiver arrays used for parallel imaging acquisitions through controlled aliasing in multiple spatial directions. This has enabled unprecedented acceleration factors of an order of magnitude or higher in these imaging acquisition schemes, with low image artifact levels and high SNR. Here we review the latest developments of SMS and 3D imaging methods and related technologies at ultra-high field for rapid high-resolution functional and structural imaging of the brain. PMID:26835884

Detection of somatic mutations by high-resolution DNA melting (HRM) analysis in multiple cancers.

PubMed

Gonzalez-Bosquet, Jesus; Calcei, Jacob; Wei, Jun S; Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Sherman, Mark E; Hewitt, Stephen; Vockley, Joseph; Lissowska, Jolanta; Yang, Hannah P; Khan, Javed; Chanock, Stephen

2011-01-17

Identification of somatic mutations in cancer is a major goal for understanding and monitoring the events related to cancer initiation and progression. High resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis represents a fast, post-PCR high-throughput method for scanning somatic sequence alterations in target genes. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of HRM analysis for tumor mutation screening in a range of tumor samples, which included 216 frozen pediatric small rounded blue-cell tumors as well as 180 paraffin-embedded tumors from breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers (60 of each). HRM analysis was performed in exons of the following candidate genes known to harbor established commonly observed mutations: PIK3CA, ERBB2, KRAS, TP53, EGFR, BRAF, GATA3, and FGFR3. Bi-directional sequencing analysis was used to determine the accuracy of the HRM analysis. For the 39 mutations observed in frozen samples, the sensitivity and specificity of HRM analysis were 97% and 87%, respectively. There were 67 mutation/variants in the paraffin-embedded samples, and the sensitivity and specificity for the HRM analysis were 88% and 80%, respectively. Paraffin-embedded samples require higher quantity of purified DNA for high performance. In summary, HRM analysis is a promising moderate-throughput screening test for mutations among known candidate genomic regions. Although the overall accuracy appears to be better in frozen specimens, somatic alterations were detected in DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded samples.

Detection of Somatic Mutations by High-Resolution DNA Melting (HRM) Analysis in Multiple Cancers

PubMed Central

Gonzalez-Bosquet, Jesus; Calcei, Jacob; Wei, Jun S.; Garcia-Closas, Montserrat; Sherman, Mark E.; Hewitt, Stephen; Vockley, Joseph; Lissowska, Jolanta; Yang, Hannah P.; Khan, Javed; Chanock, Stephen

2011-01-01

Identification of somatic mutations in cancer is a major goal for understanding and monitoring the events related to cancer initiation and progression. High resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis represents a fast, post-PCR high-throughput method for scanning somatic sequence alterations in target genes. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity and specificity of HRM analysis for tumor mutation screening in a range of tumor samples, which included 216 frozen pediatric small rounded blue-cell tumors as well as 180 paraffin-embedded tumors from breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers (60 of each). HRM analysis was performed in exons of the following candidate genes known to harbor established commonly observed mutations: PIK3CA, ERBB2, KRAS, TP53, EGFR, BRAF, GATA3, and FGFR3. Bi-directional sequencing analysis was used to determine the accuracy of the HRM analysis. For the 39 mutations observed in frozen samples, the sensitivity and specificity of HRM analysis were 97% and 87%, respectively. There were 67 mutation/variants in the paraffin-embedded samples, and the sensitivity and specificity for the HRM analysis were 88% and 80%, respectively. Paraffin-embedded samples require higher quantity of purified DNA for high performance. In summary, HRM analysis is a promising moderate-throughput screening test for mutations among known candidate genomic regions. Although the overall accuracy appears to be better in frozen specimens, somatic alterations were detected in DNA extracted from paraffin-embedded samples. PMID:21264207

Sunlight creates oxygenated species in water-soluble fractions of Deepwater Horizon oil.

PubMed

Ray, Phoebe Z; Chen, Huan; Podgorski, David C; McKenna, Amy M; Tarr, Matthew A

2014-09-15

In order to assess the impact of sunlight on oil fate, Macondo well oil from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) rig was mixed with pure water and irradiated with simulated sunlight. After irradiation, the water-soluble organics (WSO) from the dark and irradiated samples were extracted and characterized by ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Liquid-liquid extraction yielded two fractions from dark and irradiated water/oil mixtures: acidic WSOs (negative-ion electrospray (ESI)), and base/neutral WSOs (positive-ion ESI) coupled to FT-ICR MS to catalog molecular-level transformations that occur to Macondo-derived WSOs after solar irradiation. Such direct measure of oil phototransformation has not been previously reported. The most abundant heteroatom class detected in the irradiated WSO acid fractions correspond to molecules that contain five oxygens (O5), while the most abundant acids in the dark samples contain two oxygen atoms per molecule (O2). Higher-order oxygen classes (O5-O9) were abundant in the irradiated samples, but <1.5% relative abundance in the dark sample. The increased abundance of higher-order oxygen classes in the irradiated samples relative to the dark samples indicates that photooxidized components of the Macondo crude oil become water-soluble after irradiation. The base/neutral fraction showed decreased abundance of pyridinic nitrogen (N1) concurrent with an increased abundance of N1Ox classes after irradiation. The predominance of higher-order oxygen classes indicates that multiple photochemical pathways exist that result in oxidation of petroleum compounds. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Graphene-enabled electron microscopy and correlated super-resolution microscopy of wet cells.

PubMed

Wojcik, Michal; Hauser, Margaret; Li, Wan; Moon, Seonah; Xu, Ke

2015-06-11

The application of electron microscopy to hydrated biological samples has been limited by high-vacuum operating conditions. Traditional methods utilize harsh and laborious sample dehydration procedures, often leading to structural artefacts and creating difficulties for correlating results with high-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Here, we utilize graphene, a single-atom-thick carbon meshwork, as the thinnest possible impermeable and conductive membrane to protect animal cells from vacuum, thus enabling high-resolution electron microscopy of wet and untreated whole cells with exceptional ease. Our approach further allows for facile correlative super-resolution and electron microscopy of wet cells directly on the culturing substrate. In particular, individual cytoskeletal actin filaments are resolved in hydrated samples through electron microscopy and well correlated with super-resolution results.

Quantitation of the cellular content of saliva and buccal swab samples.

PubMed

Theda, Christiane; Hwang, Seo Hye; Czajko, Anna; Loke, Yuk Jing; Leong, Pamela; Craig, Jeffrey M

2018-05-02

Buccal swabs and saliva are the two most common oral sampling methods used for medical research. Often, these samples are used interchangeably, despite previous evidence that both contain buccal cells and blood leukocytes in different proportions. For some research, such as epigenetic studies, the cell types contributing to the analysis are highly relevant. We collected such samples from twelve children and twenty adults and, using Papanicolaou staining, measured the proportions of epithelial cells and leukocytes through microscopy. To our knowledge, no studies have compared cellular heterogeneity in buccal swab and saliva samples from adults and children. We confirmed that buccal swabs contained a higher proportion of epithelial cells than saliva and that children have a greater proportion of such cells in saliva compared to adults. At this level of resolution, buccal swabs and saliva contained similar epithelial cell subtypes. Gingivitis in children was associated with a higher proportion of leukocytes in saliva samples but not in buccal swabs. Compared to more detailed and costly methods such as flow cytometry or deconvolution methods used in epigenomic analysis, the procedure described here can serve as a simple and low-cost method to characterize buccal and saliva samples. Microscopy provides a low-cost tool to alert researchers to the presence of oral inflammation which may affect a subset of their samples. This knowledge might be highly relevant to their specific research questions, may assist with sample selection and thus might be crucial information despite the ability of data deconvolution methods to correct for cellular heterogeneity.

Food safety traits of mussels and clams: distribution of PCBs, PBDEs, OCPs, PAHs and PFASs in sample from different areas using HRMS-Orbitrap® and modified QuEChERS extraction followed by GC-MS/MS.

PubMed

Chiesa, Luca Maria; Nobile, Maria; Malandra, Renato; Pessina, Davide; Panseri, Sara; Labella, Giuseppe Federico; Arioli, Francesco

2018-05-01

Reviewing the presence of contaminant residues is important both for food safety and for monitoring of environmental pollution. Here, the occurrence of 6 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 15 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), 7 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), 4 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 17 perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) was evaluated in mussels and clams. A liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS) and an innovative QuEChERS extraction followed by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) methods were developed, validated and applied. We demonstrate good linearity, repeatability and accuracy of these methods, confirming that they are suitable for the analyses of mollusc samples. The prevalence of PCBs, OCPs and PAHs was higher in mussels than in clams. For PFASs, contamination was higher in clams than in mussels. The samples were all compliant with the regulations, and, for the compounds without legislative limits, a risk assessment confirmed that the values were lower than the tolerable intakes.

Measurement of specimen-induced aberrations of biological samples using phase stepping interferometry.

PubMed

Schwertner, M; Booth, M J; Neil, M A A; Wilson, T

2004-01-01

Confocal or multiphoton microscopes, which deliver optical sections and three-dimensional (3D) images of thick specimens, are widely used in biology. These techniques, however, are sensitive to aberrations that may originate from the refractive index structure of the specimen itself. The aberrations cause reduced signal intensity and the 3D resolution of the instrument is compromised. It has been suggested to correct for aberrations in confocal microscopes using adaptive optics. In order to define the design specifications for such adaptive optics systems, one has to know the amount of aberrations present for typical applications such as with biological samples. We have built a phase stepping interferometer microscope that directly measures the aberration of the wavefront. The modal content of the wavefront is extracted by employing Zernike mode decomposition. Results for typical biological specimens are presented. It was found for all samples investigated that higher order Zernike modes give only a small contribution to the overall aberration. Therefore, these higher order modes can be neglected in future adaptive optics sensing and correction schemes implemented into confocal or multiphoton microscopes, leading to more efficient designs.

Confocal Imaging of porous media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shah, S.; Crawshaw, D.; Boek, D.

2012-12-01

Carbonate rocks, which hold approximately 50% of the world's oil and gas reserves, have a very complicated and heterogeneous structure in comparison with sandstone reservoir rock. We present advances with different techniques to image, reconstruct, and characterize statistically the micro-geometry of carbonate pores. The main goal here is to develop a technique to obtain two dimensional and three dimensional images using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy. CLSM is used in epi-fluorescent imaging mode, allowing for the very high optical resolution of features well below 1μm size. Images of pore structures were captured using CLSM imaging where spaces in the carbonate samples were impregnated with a fluorescent, dyed epoxy-resin, and scanned in the x-y plane by a laser probe. We discuss the sample preparation in detail for Confocal Imaging to obtain sub-micron resolution images of heterogeneous carbonate rocks. We also discuss the technical and practical aspects of this imaging technique, including its advantages and limitation. We present several examples of this application, including studying pore geometry in carbonates, characterizing sub-resolution porosity in two dimensional images. We then describe approaches to extract statistical information about porosity using image processing and spatial correlation function. We have managed to obtain very low depth information in z -axis (~ 50μm) to develop three dimensional images of carbonate rocks with the current capabilities and limitation of CLSM technique. Hence, we have planned a novel technique to obtain higher depth information to obtain high three dimensional images with sub-micron resolution possible in the lateral and axial planes.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) assessment in a multistorey shopping mall by high-spatial-resolution monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOC).

PubMed

Amodio, M; Dambruoso, P R; de Gennaro, Gianluigi; de Gennaro, L; Loiotile, A Demarinis; Marzocca, A; Stasi, F; Trizio, L; Tutino, M

2014-12-01

In order to assess indoor air quality (IAQ), two 1-week monitoring campaigns of volatile organic compounds (VOC) were performed in different areas of a multistorey shopping mall. High-spatial-resolution monitoring was conducted at 32 indoor sites located in two storehouses and in different departments of a supermarket. At the same time, VOC concentrations were monitored in the mall and parking lot area as well as outdoors. VOC were sampled at 48-h periods using diffusive samplers suitable for thermal desorption. The samples were then analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The data analysis and chromatic maps indicated that the two storehouses had the highest VOC concentrations consisting principally of terpenes. These higher TVOC concentrations could be a result of the low efficiency of the air exchange and intake systems, as well as the large quantity of articles stored in these small spaces. Instead, inside the supermarket, the food department was the most critical area for VOC concentrations. To identify potential emission sources in this department, a continuous VOC analyzer was used. The findings indicated that the highest total VOC concentrations were present during cleaning activities and that these activities were carried out frequently in the food department. The study highlights the importance of conducting both high-spatial-resolution monitoring and high-temporal-resolution monitoring. The former was able to identify critical issues in environments with a complex emission scenario while the latter was useful in interpreting the dynamics of each emission source.

Timing capabilities of garnet crystals for detection of high energy charged particles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucchini, M. T.; Gundacker, S.; Lecoq, P.; Benaglia, A.; Nikl, M.; Kamada, K.; Yoshikawa, A.; Auffray, E.

2017-04-01

Particle detectors at future collider experiments will operate at high collision rates and thus will have to face high pile up and a harsh radiation environment. Precision timing capabilities can help in the reconstruction of physics events by mitigating pile up effects. In this context, radiation tolerant, scintillating crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) can provide a flexible and compact option for the implementation of a precision timing layer inside large particle detectors. In this paper, we compare the timing performance of aluminum garnet crystals (YAG: Ce, LuAG: Ce, GAGG: Ce) and the improvements of their time resolution by means of codoping with Mg2+ ions. The crystals were read out using SiPMs from Hamamatsu glued to the rear end of the scintillator and their timing performance was evaluated by measuring the coincidence time resolution (CTR) of 150 GeV charged pions traversing a pair of crystals. The influence of crystal properties, such as density, light yield and decay kinetics on the timing performance is discussed. The best single detector time resolutions are in the range of 23-30 ps (sigma) and only achieved by codoping the garnet crystals with divalent ions, such as Mg2+. The much faster scintillation decay in the co-doped samples as compared to non co-doped garnets explains the higher timing performance. Samples of LSO: Ce, Ca and LYSO:Ce crystals have also been used as reference time device and showed a time resolution at the level of 17 ps, in agreement with previous results.

Diffraction and microscopy with attosecond electron pulse trains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morimoto, Yuya; Baum, Peter

2018-03-01

Attosecond spectroscopy1-7 can resolve electronic processes directly in time, but a movie-like space-time recording is impeded by the too long wavelength ( 100 times larger than atomic distances) or the source-sample entanglement in re-collision techniques8-11. Here we advance attosecond metrology to picometre wavelength and sub-atomic resolution by using free-space electrons instead of higher-harmonic photons1-7 or re-colliding wavepackets8-11. A beam of 70-keV electrons at 4.5-pm de Broglie wavelength is modulated by the electric field of laser cycles into a sequence of electron pulses with sub-optical-cycle duration. Time-resolved diffraction from crystalline silicon reveals a < 10-as delay of Bragg emission and demonstrates the possibility of analytic attosecond-ångström diffraction. Real-space electron microscopy visualizes with sub-light-cycle resolution how an optical wave propagates in space and time. This unification of attosecond science with electron microscopy and diffraction enables space-time imaging of light-driven processes in the entire range of sample morphologies that electron microscopy can access.

Quantitative Proteomics via High Resolution MS Quantification: Capabilities and Limitations

PubMed Central

Higgs, Richard E.; Butler, Jon P.; Han, Bomie; Knierman, Michael D.

2013-01-01

Recent improvements in the mass accuracy and resolution of mass spectrometers have led to renewed interest in label-free quantification using data from the primary mass spectrum (MS1) acquired from data-dependent proteomics experiments. The capacity for higher specificity quantification of peptides from samples enriched for proteins of biological interest offers distinct advantages for hypothesis generating experiments relative to immunoassay detection methods or prespecified peptide ions measured by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) approaches. Here we describe an evaluation of different methods to post-process peptide level quantification information to support protein level inference. We characterize the methods by examining their ability to recover a known dilution of a standard protein in background matrices of varying complexity. Additionally, the MS1 quantification results are compared to a standard, targeted, MRM approach on the same samples under equivalent instrument conditions. We show the existence of multiple peptides with MS1 quantification sensitivity similar to the best MRM peptides for each of the background matrices studied. Based on these results we provide recommendations on preferred approaches to leveraging quantitative measurements of multiple peptides to improve protein level inference. PMID:23710359

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ibrahim, Yehia M.; Garimella, Sandilya V. B.; Prost, Spencer A.

Complex samples benefit from multidimensional measurements where higher resolution enables more complete characterization of biological and environmental systems. To address this challenge, we developed a drift tube-based ion mobility spectrometry-Orbitrap mass spectrometer (IMS-Orbitrap MS) platform. To circumvent the time scale disparity between the fast IMS separation and the much slower Orbitrap MS acquisition, we utilized a dual gate and pseudorandom sequences to multiplexed injection of ions and allowing operation in signal averaging (SA), single multiplexing (SM) and double multiplexing (DM) IMS modes to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements. For the SM measurements, a previously developed algorithm was usedmore » to reconstruct the IMS data. A new algorithm was developed for the DM analyses involving a two-step process that first recovers the SM data and then decodes the SM data. The algorithm also performs multiple refining procedures in order to minimize demultiplexing artifacts. The new IMS-Orbitrap MS platform was demonstrated by the analysis of proteomic and petroleum samples, where the integration of IMS and high mass resolution proved essential for accurate assignment of molecular formulae.« less

Multi-Wavelength Photomagnetic Imaging for Oral Cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marks, Michael

In this study, a multi-wavelength Photomagnetic Imaging (PMI) system is developed and evaluated with experimental studies.. PMI measures temperature increases in samples illuminated by near-infrared light sources using magnetic resonance thermometry. A multiphysics solver combining light and heat transfer models the spatiotemporal distribution of the temperature change. The PMI system develop in this work uses three lasers of varying wavelength (785 nm, 808 nm, 860 nm) to heat the sample. By using multiple wavelengths, we enable the PMI system to quantify the relative concentrations of optical contrast in turbid media and monitor their distribution, at a higher resolution than conventional diffuse optical imaging. The data collected from agarose phantoms with multiple embedded contrast agents designed to simulate the optical properties of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin is presented. The reconstructed images demonstrate that multi-wavelength PMI can resolve this complex inclusion structure with high resolution and recover the concentration of each contrast agent with high quantitative accuracy. The modified multi-wavelength PMI system operates under the maximum skin exposure limits defined by the American National Standards Institute, to enable future clinical applications.

High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging of carotid atherosclerotic plaques - a correlation study with histopathology.

PubMed

Xia, Zhangyong; Yang, Hua; Yuan, Xiaochun; Wang, Jiyue; Zhang, Shigang; Zhang, Liyong; Qu, Yang; Chen, Jun; Jiao, Liqun; Wang, Le-Xin; Du, Yifeng

2017-07-01

This study aimed to utilize high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the characteristics of stable and vulnerable carotid arteriosclerotic plaques, with correlations to histopathological findings. High-resolution MRI was performed in 817 patients, using three-dimensional magnetic resonance angiography. Plaque composition was evaluated by measuring the areas occupied by calcification, a lipid-rich necrotic core, intra-plaque haemorrhage, and fibrous cap rupture. Plaque morphology was analysed by measuring vessel wall area, thickness, and luminal area at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. Plaque tissues were sampled during carotid endarterectomy and examined using haematoxylin-eosin, Oil Red O, Masson trichrome staining, and immunohistochemical staining for CD68. Patients were divided into stable plaque group (n = 462) and vulnerable plaque group (n = 355), based on intraoperative observations and postoperative histopathological findings. Compared to the stable plaque group, the vulnerable plaque group exhibited increased vessel wall areas and thickness, and decreased mean luminal areas (P < 0.001). The vulnerable plaque group also had a lower collagen content, a higher lipid content, and higher CD68 expression in plaque tissues on histological examinations (P < 0.01). Incidences of lipid-rich necrotic core (38.1 % vs. 34.3 %), intra-plaque haemorrhage (26.9 % vs. 22.8 %), plaque calcification (45.2 % vs. 40.9 %), and fibrous cap rupture (36.0 % vs 39.8 %) in the plaques were concordant with MRI observations and histopathological findings (p > 0.05). Stable and vulnerable carotid plaques had different morphologies and compositions. High-resolution MRI can assess such differences qualitatively and quantitatively in vivo and provide guidance for risk stratification and management.

A Data Matrix Method for Improving the Quantification of Element Percentages of SEM/EDX Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lane, John

2009-01-01

A simple 2D M N matrix involving sample preparation enables the microanalyst to peer below the noise floor of element percentages reported by the SEM/EDX (scanning electron microscopy/ energy dispersive x-ray) analysis, thus yielding more meaningful data. Using the example of a 2 3 sample set, there are M = 2 concentration levels of the original mix under test: 10 percent ilmenite (90 percent silica) and 20 percent ilmenite (80 percent silica). For each of these M samples, N = 3 separate SEM/EDX samples were drawn. In this test, ilmenite is the element of interest. By plotting the linear trend of the M sample s known concentration versus the average of the N samples, a much higher resolution of elemental analysis can be performed. The resulting trend also shows how the noise is affecting the data, and at what point (of smaller concentrations) is it impractical to try to extract any further useful data.

GRACE time-variable gravity field recovery using an improved energy balance approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shang, Kun; Guo, Junyi; Shum, C. K.; Dai, Chunli; Luo, Jia

2015-12-01

A new approach based on energy conservation principle for satellite gravimetry mission has been developed and yields more accurate estimation of in situ geopotential difference observables using K-band ranging (KBR) measurements from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) twin-satellite mission. This new approach preserves more gravity information sensed by KBR range-rate measurements and reduces orbit error as compared to previous energy balance methods. Results from analysis of 11 yr of GRACE data indicated that the resulting geopotential difference estimates agree well with predicted values from official Level 2 solutions: with much higher correlation at 0.9, as compared to 0.5-0.8 reported by previous published energy balance studies. We demonstrate that our approach produced a comparable time-variable gravity solution with the Level 2 solutions. The regional GRACE temporal gravity solutions over Greenland reveals that a substantially higher temporal resolution is achievable at 10-d sampling as compared to the official monthly solutions, but without the compromise of spatial resolution, nor the need to use regularization or post-processing.

Improving Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Image Quality with Image Fusion

PubMed Central

Tarolli, Jay G.; Jackson, Lauren M.; Winograd, Nicholas

2014-01-01

The spatial resolution of chemical images acquired with cluster secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is limited not only by the size of the probe utilized to create the images, but also by detection sensitivity. As the probe size is reduced to below 1 µm, for example, a low signal in each pixel limits lateral resolution due to counting statistics considerations. Although it can be useful to implement numerical methods to mitigate this problem, here we investigate the use of image fusion to combine information from scanning electron microscope (SEM) data with chemically resolved SIMS images. The advantage of this approach is that the higher intensity and, hence, spatial resolution of the electron images can help to improve the quality of the SIMS images without sacrificing chemical specificity. Using a pan-sharpening algorithm, the method is illustrated using synthetic data, experimental data acquired from a metallic grid sample, and experimental data acquired from a lawn of algae cells. The results show that up to an order of magnitude increase in spatial resolution is possible to achieve. A cross-correlation metric is utilized for evaluating the reliability of the procedure. PMID:24912432

Bearing faults identification and resonant band demodulation based on wavelet de-noising methods and envelope analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdelrhman, Ahmed M.; Sei Kien, Yong; Salman Leong, M.; Meng Hee, Lim; Al-Obaidi, Salah M. Ali

2017-07-01

The vibration signals produced by rotating machinery contain useful information for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. Fault severities assessment is a challenging task. Wavelet Transform (WT) as a multivariate analysis tool is able to compromise between the time and frequency information in the signals and served as a de-noising method. The CWT scaling function gives different resolutions to the discretely signals such as very fine resolution at lower scale but coarser resolution at a higher scale. However, the computational cost increased as it needs to produce different signal resolutions. DWT has better low computation cost as the dilation function allowed the signals to be decomposed through a tree of low and high pass filters and no further analysing the high-frequency components. In this paper, a method for bearing faults identification is presented by combing Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with envelope analysis for bearing fault diagnosis. The experimental data was sampled by Case Western Reserve University. The analysis result showed that the proposed method is effective in bearing faults detection, identify the exact fault’s location and severity assessment especially for the inner race and outer race faults.

Search for Bs0 oscillations using inclusive lepton events

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

ALEPH Collaboration; Barate, R.; et al.

1999-03-01

A search for Bs0 oscillations is performed using a sample of semileptonic b-hadron decays collected by the ALEPH experiment during 1991-95. Compared to previous inclusive lepton analyses, the proper time resolution and b-flavour mistag rate are significantly improved. Additional sensitivity to Bs0 mixing is obtained by identifying subsamples of events having a Bs0 purity which is higher than the average for the whole data sample. Unbinned maximum likelihood amplitude fits are performed to derive a lower limit of Δ m s > 9.5 ps-1 at the 95% confidence limit (95% CL). Combining with the ALEPH Ds--based analyses yields Δ m s > 9.6 ps-1 at 95% CL.

Apparatus and method for measuring critical current properties of a coated conductor

DOEpatents

Mueller, Fred M [Los Alamos, NM; Haenisch, Jens [Dresden, DE

2012-07-24

The transverse critical-current uniformity in a superconducting tape was determined using a magnetic knife apparatus. A critical current I.sub.c distribution and transverse critical current density J.sub.c distribution in YBCO coated conductors was measured nondestructively with high resolution using a magnetic knife apparatus. The method utilizes the strong depression of J.sub.c in applied magnetic fields. A narrow region of low, including zero, magnetic field in a surrounding higher field is moved transversely across a sample of coated conductor. This reveals the critical current density distribution. A Fourier series inversion process was used to determine the transverse J.sub.c distribution in the sample.

Ultrafast scanning probe microscopy

DOEpatents

Weiss, S.; Chemla, D.S.; Ogletree, D.F.; Botkin, D.

1995-05-16

An ultrafast scanning probe microscopy method is described for achieving subpicosecond-temporal resolution and submicron-spatial resolution of an observation sample. In one embodiment of the present claimed invention, a single short optical pulse is generated and is split into first and second pulses. One of the pulses is delayed using variable time delay means. The first pulse is then directed at an observation sample located proximate to the probe of a scanning probe microscope. The scanning probe microscope produces probe-sample signals indicative of the response of the probe to characteristics of the sample. The second pulse is used to modulate the probe of the scanning probe microscope. The time delay between the first and second pulses is then varied. The probe-sample response signal is recorded at each of the various time delays created between the first and second pulses. The probe-sample response signal is then plotted as a function of time delay to produce a cross-correlation of the probe sample response. In so doing, the present invention provides simultaneous subpicosecond-temporal resolution and submicron-spatial resolution of the sample. 6 Figs.

Ultrafast scanning probe microscopy

DOEpatents

Weiss, Shimon; Chemla, Daniel S.; Ogletree, D. Frank; Botkin, David

1995-01-01

An ultrafast scanning probe microscopy method for achieving subpicosecond-temporal resolution and submicron-spatial resolution of an observation sample. In one embodiment of the present claimed invention, a single short optical pulse is generated and is split into first and second pulses. One of the pulses is delayed using variable time delay means. The first pulse is then directed at an observation sample located proximate to the probe of a scanning probe microscope. The scanning probe microscope produces probe-sample signals indicative of the response of the probe to characteristics of the sample. The second pulse is used to modulate the probe of the scanning probe microscope. The time delay between the first and second pulses is then varied. The probe-sample response signal is recorded at each of the various time delays created between the first and second pulses. The probe-sample response signal is then plotted as a function of time delay to produce a cross-correlation of the probe sample response. In so doing, the present invention provides simultaneous subpicosecond-temporal resolution and submicron-spatial resolution of the sample.

Beryllium 7 and lead 210 in the Western Hemisphere Arctic atmosphere - Observations from three recent aircraft-based sampling programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dibb, Jack E.; Talbot, Robert W.; Gregory, Gerald L.

1992-01-01

Concentrations of the natural radionuclides Be-7 and Pb-210 in the Western Hemisphere Arctic atmosphere were determined during the recent NOAA Arctic Gas and Aerosol Sampling Program (AGASP 3) and NASA Global Tropospheric Experiment/Arctic Boundary Layer Expeditions (GTE/ABLE 3A and ABLE 3B) missions. Be-7 concentrations measured during the AGASP 3 mission north and west of Norway are in accord with previous results for high northern latitudes, but suggest that the 'stratospheric' air masses sampled at the highest elevations reached were significantly diluted with tropospheric air. Higher resolution sampling in the free troposphere of the North American Arctic during ABLE 3B revealed a layer of elevated Be-7 concentrations near 5 km. The distribution of Pb-210 in the high-altitude troposphere of North America during the summer was quite similar to distributions of more frequently measured aerosol species.

Volumetric CT with sparse detector arrays (and application to Si-strip photon counters).

PubMed

Sisniega, A; Zbijewski, W; Stayman, J W; Xu, J; Taguchi, K; Fredenberg, E; Lundqvist, Mats; Siewerdsen, J H

2016-01-07

Novel x-ray medical imaging sensors, such as photon counting detectors (PCDs) and large area CCD and CMOS cameras can involve irregular and/or sparse sampling of the detector plane. Application of such detectors to CT involves undersampling that is markedly different from the commonly considered case of sparse angular sampling. This work investigates volumetric sampling in CT systems incorporating sparsely sampled detectors with axial and helical scan orbits and evaluates performance of model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) with spatially varying regularization in mitigating artifacts due to sparse detector sampling. Volumetric metrics of sampling density and uniformity were introduced. Penalized-likelihood MBIR with a spatially varying penalty that homogenized resolution by accounting for variations in local sampling density (i.e. detector gaps) was evaluated. The proposed methodology was tested in simulations and on an imaging bench based on a Si-strip PCD (total area 5 cm  ×  25 cm) consisting of an arrangement of line sensors separated by gaps of up to 2.5 mm. The bench was equipped with translation/rotation stages allowing a variety of scanning trajectories, ranging from a simple axial acquisition to helical scans with variable pitch. Statistical (spherical clutter) and anthropomorphic (hand) phantoms were considered. Image quality was compared to that obtained with a conventional uniform penalty in terms of structural similarity index (SSIM), image uniformity, spatial resolution, contrast, and noise. Scan trajectories with intermediate helical width (~10 mm longitudinal distance per 360° rotation) demonstrated optimal tradeoff between the average sampling density and the homogeneity of sampling throughout the volume. For a scan trajectory with 10.8 mm helical width, the spatially varying penalty resulted in significant visual reduction of sampling artifacts, confirmed by a 10% reduction in minimum SSIM (from 0.88 to 0.8) and a 40% reduction in the dispersion of SSIM in the volume compared to the constant penalty (both penalties applied at optimal regularization strength). Images of the spherical clutter and wrist phantoms confirmed the advantages of the spatially varying penalty, showing a 25% improvement in image uniformity and 1.8  ×  higher CNR (at matched spatial resolution) compared to the constant penalty. The studies elucidate the relationship between sampling in the detector plane, acquisition orbit, sampling of the reconstructed volume, and the resulting image quality. They also demonstrate the benefit of spatially varying regularization in MBIR for scenarios with irregular sampling patterns. Such findings are important and integral to the incorporation of a sparsely sampled Si-strip PCD in CT imaging.

Volumetric CT with sparse detector arrays (and application to Si-strip photon counters)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sisniega, A.; Zbijewski, W.; Stayman, J. W.; Xu, J.; Taguchi, K.; Fredenberg, E.; Lundqvist, Mats; Siewerdsen, J. H.

2016-01-01

Novel x-ray medical imaging sensors, such as photon counting detectors (PCDs) and large area CCD and CMOS cameras can involve irregular and/or sparse sampling of the detector plane. Application of such detectors to CT involves undersampling that is markedly different from the commonly considered case of sparse angular sampling. This work investigates volumetric sampling in CT systems incorporating sparsely sampled detectors with axial and helical scan orbits and evaluates performance of model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) with spatially varying regularization in mitigating artifacts due to sparse detector sampling. Volumetric metrics of sampling density and uniformity were introduced. Penalized-likelihood MBIR with a spatially varying penalty that homogenized resolution by accounting for variations in local sampling density (i.e. detector gaps) was evaluated. The proposed methodology was tested in simulations and on an imaging bench based on a Si-strip PCD (total area 5 cm  ×  25 cm) consisting of an arrangement of line sensors separated by gaps of up to 2.5 mm. The bench was equipped with translation/rotation stages allowing a variety of scanning trajectories, ranging from a simple axial acquisition to helical scans with variable pitch. Statistical (spherical clutter) and anthropomorphic (hand) phantoms were considered. Image quality was compared to that obtained with a conventional uniform penalty in terms of structural similarity index (SSIM), image uniformity, spatial resolution, contrast, and noise. Scan trajectories with intermediate helical width (~10 mm longitudinal distance per 360° rotation) demonstrated optimal tradeoff between the average sampling density and the homogeneity of sampling throughout the volume. For a scan trajectory with 10.8 mm helical width, the spatially varying penalty resulted in significant visual reduction of sampling artifacts, confirmed by a 10% reduction in minimum SSIM (from 0.88 to 0.8) and a 40% reduction in the dispersion of SSIM in the volume compared to the constant penalty (both penalties applied at optimal regularization strength). Images of the spherical clutter and wrist phantoms confirmed the advantages of the spatially varying penalty, showing a 25% improvement in image uniformity and 1.8  ×  higher CNR (at matched spatial resolution) compared to the constant penalty. The studies elucidate the relationship between sampling in the detector plane, acquisition orbit, sampling of the reconstructed volume, and the resulting image quality. They also demonstrate the benefit of spatially varying regularization in MBIR for scenarios with irregular sampling patterns. Such findings are important and integral to the incorporation of a sparsely sampled Si-strip PCD in CT imaging.

Volumetric CT with sparse detector arrays (and application to Si-strip photon counters)

PubMed Central

Sisniega, A; Zbijewski, W; Stayman, J W; Xu, J; Taguchi, K; Fredenberg, E; Lundqvist, Mats; Siewerdsen, J H

2016-01-01

Novel x-ray medical imaging sensors, such as photon counting detectors (PCDs) and large area CCD and CMOS cameras can involve irregular and/or sparse sampling of the detector plane. Application of such detectors to CT involves undersampling that is markedly different from the commonly considered case of sparse angular sampling. This work investigates volumetric sampling in CT systems incorporating sparsely sampled detectors with axial and helical scan orbits and evaluates performance of model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) with spatially varying regularization in mitigating artifacts due to sparse detector sampling. Volumetric metrics of sampling density and uniformity were introduced. Penalized-likelihood MBIR with a spatially varying penalty that homogenized resolution by accounting for variations in local sampling density (i.e. detector gaps) was evaluated. The proposed methodology was tested in simulations and on an imaging bench based on a Si-strip PCD (total area 5 cm × 25 cm) consisting of an arrangement of line sensors separated by gaps of up to 2.5 mm. The bench was equipped with translation/rotation stages allowing a variety of scanning trajectories, ranging from a simple axial acquisition to helical scans with variable pitch. Statistical (spherical clutter) and anthropomorphic (hand) phantoms were considered. Image quality was compared to that obtained with a conventional uniform penalty in terms of structural similarity index (SSIM), image uniformity, spatial resolution, contrast, and noise. Scan trajectories with intermediate helical width (~10 mm longitudinal distance per 360° rotation) demonstrated optimal tradeoff between the average sampling density and the homogeneity of sampling throughout the volume. For a scan trajectory with 10.8 mm helical width, the spatially varying penalty resulted in significant visual reduction of sampling artifacts, confirmed by a 10% reduction in minimum SSIM (from 0.88 to 0.8) and a 40% reduction in the dispersion of SSIM in the volume compared to the constant penalty (both penalties applied at optimal regularization strength). Images of the spherical clutter and wrist phantoms confirmed the advantages of the spatially varying penalty, showing a 25% improvement in image uniformity and 1.8 × higher CNR (at matched spatial resolution) compared to the constant penalty. The studies elucidate the relationship between sampling in the detector plane, acquisition orbit, sampling of the reconstructed volume, and the resulting image quality. They also demonstrate the benefit of spatially varying regularization in MBIR for scenarios with irregular sampling patterns. Such findings are important and integral to the incorporation of a sparsely sampled Si-strip PCD in CT imaging. PMID:26611740

Sensitivity of Global Methane Bayesian Inversion to Surface Observation Data Sets and Chemical-Transport Model Resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lew, E. J.; Butenhoff, C. L.; Karmakar, S.; Rice, A. L.; Khalil, A. K.

2017-12-01

Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. In efforts to control emissions, a careful examination of the methane budget and source strengths is required. To determine methane surface fluxes, Bayesian methods are often used to provide top-down constraints. Inverse modeling derives unknown fluxes using observed methane concentrations, a chemical transport model (CTM) and prior information. The Bayesian inversion reduces prior flux uncertainties by exploiting information content in the data. While the Bayesian formalism produces internal error estimates of source fluxes, systematic or external errors that arise from user choices in the inversion scheme are often much larger. Here we examine model sensitivity and uncertainty of our inversion under different observation data sets and CTM grid resolution. We compare posterior surface fluxes using the data product GLOBALVIEW-CH4 against the event-level molar mixing ratio data available from NOAA. GLOBALVIEW-CH4 is a collection of CH4 concentration estimates from 221 sites, collected by 12 laboratories, that have been interpolated and extracted to provide weekly records from 1984-2008. Differently, the event-level NOAA data records methane mixing ratios field measurements from 102 sites, containing sampling frequency irregularities and gaps in time. Furthermore, the sampling platform types used by the data sets may influence the posterior flux estimates, namely fixed surface, tower, ship and aircraft sites. To explore the sensitivity of the posterior surface fluxes to the observation network geometry, inversions composed of all sites, only aircraft, only ship, only tower and only fixed surface sites, are performed and compared. Also, we investigate the sensitivity of the error reduction associated with the resolution of the GEOS-Chem simulation (4°×5° vs 2°×2.5°) used to calculate the response matrix. Using a higher resolution grid decreased the model-data error at most sites, thereby increasing the information at that site. These different inversions—event-level and interpolated data, higher and lower resolutions—are compared using an ensemble of descriptive and comparative statistics. Analyzing the sensitivity of the inverse model leads to more accurate estimates of the methane source category uncertainty.

A Framework for Mapping Global Evapotranspiration using 375-m VIIRS LST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hain, C.; Anderson, M. C.; Schull, M. A.; Neale, C. M. U.

2017-12-01

As the world's water resources come under increasing tension due to dual stressors of climate change and population growth, accurate knowledge of water consumption through evapotranspiration (ET) over a range in spatial scales will be critical in developing adaptation strategies. Remote sensing methods for monitoring consumptive water use are becoming increasingly important, especially in areas of food insecurity. One method to estimate ET from satellite-based methods, the Atmosphere Land Exchange Inverse (ALEXI) model uses the change in morning land surface temperature to estimate the partitioning of sensible/latent heat fluxes which are then used to estimate daily ET. This presentation will outline several recent enhancements to the ALEXI modeling system, with a focus on global ET and drought monitoring. Until recently, ALEXI has been limited to areas with high resolution temporal sampling of geostationary sensors. The use of geostationary sensors makes global mapping a complicated process, especially for real-time applications, as data from as many as five different sensors are required to be ingested and harmonized to create a global mosaic. However, our research team has developed a new and novel method of using twice-daily observations from polar-orbiting sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS to estimate the mid-morning rise in LST that is used to drive the energy balance estimations within ALEXI. This allows the method to be applied globally using a single sensor rather than a global compositing of all available geostationary data. Other advantages of this new method include the higher spatial resolution provided by MODIS and VIIRS and the increased sampling at high latitudes where oblique view angles limit the utility of geostationary sensors. Improvements to the spatial resolution of the thermal infrared wavelengths on the VIIRS instrument, as compared to MODIS (375-m VIIRS vs. 1-km MODIS), allows for a much higher resolution ALEXI product than has been previously available. Therefore, recent developments have been to generate 375-m ALEXI ET products over several pilot regions (e.g. western US and the MENA region). The monitoring of consumptive water use over regions where significant groundwater pumping for irrigation is employed is important to accurately quantify the efficiency of water use in the region.

Coherent optical adaptive technique improves the spatial resolution of STED microscopy in thick samples

PubMed Central

Yan, Wei; Yang, Yanlong; Tan, Yu; Chen, Xun; Li, Yang; Qu, Junle; Ye, Tong

2018-01-01

Stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED) is one of far-field optical microscopy techniques that can provide sub-diffraction spatial resolution. The spatial resolution of the STED microscopy is determined by the specially engineered beam profile of the depletion beam and its power. However, the beam profile of the depletion beam may be distorted due to aberrations of optical systems and inhomogeneity of specimens’ optical properties, resulting in a compromised spatial resolution. The situation gets deteriorated when thick samples are imaged. In the worst case, the sever distortion of the depletion beam profile may cause complete loss of the super resolution effect no matter how much depletion power is applied to specimens. Previously several adaptive optics approaches have been explored to compensate aberrations of systems and specimens. However, it is hard to correct the complicated high-order optical aberrations of specimens. In this report, we demonstrate that the complicated distorted wavefront from a thick phantom sample can be measured by using the coherent optical adaptive technique (COAT). The full correction can effectively maintain and improve the spatial resolution in imaging thick samples. PMID:29400356

Geostatistics and the representative elementary volume of gamma ray tomography attenuation in rocks cores

USGS Publications Warehouse

Vogel, J.R.; Brown, G.O.

2003-01-01

Semivariograms of samples of Culebra Dolomite have been determined at two different resolutions for gamma ray computed tomography images. By fitting models to semivariograms, small-scale and large-scale correlation lengths are determined for four samples. Different semivariogram parameters were found for adjacent cores at both resolutions. Relative elementary volume (REV) concepts are related to the stationarity of the sample. A scale disparity factor is defined and is used to determine sample size required for ergodic stationarity with a specified correlation length. This allows for comparison of geostatistical measures and representative elementary volumes. The modifiable areal unit problem is also addressed and used to determine resolution effects on correlation lengths. By changing resolution, a range of correlation lengths can be determined for the same sample. Comparison of voxel volume to the best-fit model correlation length of a single sample at different resolutions reveals a linear scaling effect. Using this relationship, the range of the point value semivariogram is determined. This is the range approached as the voxel size goes to zero. Finally, these results are compared to the regularization theory of point variables for borehole cores and are found to be a better fit for predicting the volume-averaged range.

Simulation of Wind Profile Perturbations for Launch Vehicle Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adelfang, S. I.

2004-01-01

Ideally, a statistically representative sample of measured high-resolution wind profiles with wavelengths as small as tens of meters is required in design studies to establish aerodynamic load indicator dispersions and vehicle control system capability. At most potential launch sites, high- resolution wind profiles may not exist. Representative samples of Rawinsonde wind profiles to altitudes of 30 km are more likely to be available from the extensive network of measurement sites established for routine sampling in support of weather observing and forecasting activity. Such a sample, large enough to be statistically representative of relatively large wavelength perturbations, would be inadequate for launch vehicle design assessments because the Rawinsonde system accurately measures wind perturbations with wavelengths no smaller than 2000 m (1000 m altitude increment). The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Jimsphere wind profiles (150/month and seasonal 2 and 3.5-hr pairs) are the only adequate samples of high resolution profiles approx. 150 to 300 m effective resolution, but over-sampled at 25 m intervals) that have been used extensively for launch vehicle design assessments. Therefore, a simulation process has been developed for enhancement of measured low-resolution Rawinsonde profiles that would be applicable in preliminary launch vehicle design studies at launch sites other than KSC.

Using high resolution computed tomography to visualize the three dimensional structure and function of plant vasculature.

PubMed

McElrone, Andrew J; Choat, Brendan; Parkinson, Dilworth Y; MacDowell, Alastair A; Brodersen, Craig R

2013-04-05

High resolution x-ray computed tomography (HRCT) is a non-destructive diagnostic imaging technique with sub-micron resolution capability that is now being used to evaluate the structure and function of plant xylem network in three dimensions (3D) (e.g. Brodersen et al. 2010; 2011; 2012a,b). HRCT imaging is based on the same principles as medical CT systems, but a high intensity synchrotron x-ray source results in higher spatial resolution and decreased image acquisition time. Here, we demonstrate in detail how synchrotron-based HRCT (performed at the Advanced Light Source-LBNL Berkeley, CA, USA) in combination with Avizo software (VSG Inc., Burlington, MA, USA) is being used to explore plant xylem in excised tissue and living plants. This new imaging tool allows users to move beyond traditional static, 2D light or electron micrographs and study samples using virtual serial sections in any plane. An infinite number of slices in any orientation can be made on the same sample, a feature that is physically impossible using traditional microscopy methods. Results demonstrate that HRCT can be applied to both herbaceous and woody plant species, and a range of plant organs (i.e. leaves, petioles, stems, trunks, roots). Figures presented here help demonstrate both a range of representative plant vascular anatomy and the type of detail extracted from HRCT datasets, including scans for coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), walnut (Juglans spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), and maple (Acer spp.) tree saplings to sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), grapevines (Vitis spp.), and ferns (Pteridium aquilinum and Woodwardia fimbriata). Excised and dried samples from woody species are easiest to scan and typically yield the best images. However, recent improvements (i.e. more rapid scans and sample stabilization) have made it possible to use this visualization technique on green tissues (e.g. petioles) and in living plants. On occasion some shrinkage of hydrated green plant tissues will cause images to blur and methods to avoid these issues are described. These recent advances with HRCT provide promising new insights into plant vascular function.

Using High Resolution Computed Tomography to Visualize the Three Dimensional Structure and Function of Plant Vasculature

PubMed Central

McElrone, Andrew J.; Choat, Brendan; Parkinson, Dilworth Y.; MacDowell, Alastair A.; Brodersen, Craig R.

2013-01-01

High resolution x-ray computed tomography (HRCT) is a non-destructive diagnostic imaging technique with sub-micron resolution capability that is now being used to evaluate the structure and function of plant xylem network in three dimensions (3D) (e.g. Brodersen et al. 2010; 2011; 2012a,b). HRCT imaging is based on the same principles as medical CT systems, but a high intensity synchrotron x-ray source results in higher spatial resolution and decreased image acquisition time. Here, we demonstrate in detail how synchrotron-based HRCT (performed at the Advanced Light Source-LBNL Berkeley, CA, USA) in combination with Avizo software (VSG Inc., Burlington, MA, USA) is being used to explore plant xylem in excised tissue and living plants. This new imaging tool allows users to move beyond traditional static, 2D light or electron micrographs and study samples using virtual serial sections in any plane. An infinite number of slices in any orientation can be made on the same sample, a feature that is physically impossible using traditional microscopy methods. Results demonstrate that HRCT can be applied to both herbaceous and woody plant species, and a range of plant organs (i.e. leaves, petioles, stems, trunks, roots). Figures presented here help demonstrate both a range of representative plant vascular anatomy and the type of detail extracted from HRCT datasets, including scans for coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), walnut (Juglans spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), and maple (Acer spp.) tree saplings to sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), grapevines (Vitis spp.), and ferns (Pteridium aquilinum and Woodwardia fimbriata). Excised and dried samples from woody species are easiest to scan and typically yield the best images. However, recent improvements (i.e. more rapid scans and sample stabilization) have made it possible to use this visualization technique on green tissues (e.g. petioles) and in living plants. On occasion some shrinkage of hydrated green plant tissues will cause images to blur and methods to avoid these issues are described. These recent advances with HRCT provide promising new insights into plant vascular function. PMID:23609036

Microfocusing at the PG1 beamline at FLASH

DOE PAGES

Dziarzhytski, Siarhei; Gerasimova, Natalia; Goderich, Rene; ...

2016-01-01

The Kirkpatrick–Baez (KB) refocusing mirror system installed at the PG1 branch of the plane-grating monochromator beamline at the soft X-ray/XUV free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) is designed to provide tight aberration-free focusing down to 4 µm × 6 µm full width at half-maximum (FWHM) on the sample. Such a focal spot size is mandatory to achieve ultimate resolution and to guarantee best performance of the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) off-axis parabolic double-monochromator Raman spectrometer permanently installed at the PG1 beamline as an experimental end-station. The vertical beam size on the sample of the Raman spectrometer, which operates without entrance slit, defines andmore » limits the energy resolution of the instrument which has an unprecedented design value of 2 meV for photon energies below 70 eV and about 15 meV for higher energies up to 200 eV. In order to reach the designed focal spot size of 4 µm FWHM (vertically) and to hold the highest spectrometer resolution, special fully motorized in-vacuum manipulators for the KB mirror holders have been developed and the optics have been aligned employing wavefront-sensing techniques as well as ablative imprints analysis. Lastly, aberrations like astigmatism were minimized. In this article the design and layout of the KB mirror manipulators, the alignment procedure as well as microfocus optimization results are presented.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dziarzhytski, Siarhei; Gerasimova, Natalia; Goderich, Rene

The Kirkpatrick–Baez (KB) refocusing mirror system installed at the PG1 branch of the plane-grating monochromator beamline at the soft X-ray/XUV free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) is designed to provide tight aberration-free focusing down to 4 µm × 6 µm full width at half-maximum (FWHM) on the sample. Such a focal spot size is mandatory to achieve ultimate resolution and to guarantee best performance of the vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) off-axis parabolic double-monochromator Raman spectrometer permanently installed at the PG1 beamline as an experimental end-station. The vertical beam size on the sample of the Raman spectrometer, which operates without entrance slit, defines andmore » limits the energy resolution of the instrument which has an unprecedented design value of 2 meV for photon energies below 70 eV and about 15 meV for higher energies up to 200 eV. In order to reach the designed focal spot size of 4 µm FWHM (vertically) and to hold the highest spectrometer resolution, special fully motorized in-vacuum manipulators for the KB mirror holders have been developed and the optics have been aligned employing wavefront-sensing techniques as well as ablative imprints analysis. Lastly, aberrations like astigmatism were minimized. In this article the design and layout of the KB mirror manipulators, the alignment procedure as well as microfocus optimization results are presented.« less

Compressed sensing reconstruction of cardiac cine MRI using golden angle spiral trajectories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolouee, Azar; Alirezaie, Javad; Babyn, Paul

2015-11-01

In dynamic cardiac cine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the spatiotemporal resolution is limited by the low imaging speed. Compressed sensing (CS) theory has been applied to improve the imaging speed and thus the spatiotemporal resolution. The purpose of this paper is to improve CS reconstruction of under sampled data by exploiting spatiotemporal sparsity and efficient spiral trajectories. We extend k-t sparse algorithm to spiral trajectories to achieve high spatio temporal resolutions in cardiac cine imaging. We have exploited spatiotemporal sparsity of cardiac cine MRI by applying a 2D + time wavelet-Fourier transform. For efficient coverage of k-space, we have used a modified version of multi shot (interleaved) spirals trajectories. In order to reduce incoherent aliasing artifact, we use different random undersampling pattern for each temporal frame. Finally, we have used nonuniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT) algorithm to reconstruct the image from the non-uniformly acquired samples. The proposed approach was tested in simulated and cardiac cine MRI data. Results show that higher acceleration factors with improved image quality can be obtained with the proposed approach in comparison to the existing state-of-the-art method. The flexibility of the introduced method should allow it to be used not only for the challenging case of cardiac imaging, but also for other patient motion where the patient moves or breathes during acquisition.

Sub-nanometer Resolution Imaging with Amplitude-modulation Atomic Force Microscopy in Liquid

PubMed Central

Farokh Payam, Amir; Piantanida, Luca; Cafolla, Clodomiro; Voïtchovsky, Kislon

2016-01-01

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become a well-established technique for nanoscale imaging of samples in air and in liquid. Recent studies have shown that when operated in amplitude-modulation (tapping) mode, atomic or molecular-level resolution images can be achieved over a wide range of soft and hard samples in liquid. In these situations, small oscillation amplitudes (SAM-AFM) enhance the resolution by exploiting the solvated liquid at the surface of the sample. Although the technique has been successfully applied across fields as diverse as materials science, biology and biophysics and surface chemistry, obtaining high-resolution images in liquid can still remain challenging for novice users. This is partly due to the large number of variables to control and optimize such as the choice of cantilever, the sample preparation, and the correct manipulation of the imaging parameters. Here, we present a protocol for achieving high-resolution images of hard and soft samples in fluid using SAM-AFM on a commercial instrument. Our goal is to provide a step-by-step practical guide to achieving high-resolution images, including the cleaning and preparation of the apparatus and the sample, the choice of cantilever and optimization of the imaging parameters. For each step, we explain the scientific rationale behind our choices to facilitate the adaptation of the methodology to every user's specific system. PMID:28060262

Imaging MS Methodology for More Chemical Information in Less Data Acquisition Time Utilizing a Hybrid Linear Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Perdian, D. C.; Lee, Young Jin

2010-11-15

A novel mass spectrometric imaging method is developed to reduce the data acquisition time and provide rich chemical information using a hybrid linear ion trap-orbitrap mass spectrometer. In this method, the linear ion trap and orbitrap are used in tandem to reduce the acquisition time by incorporating multiple linear ion trap scans during an orbitrap scan utilizing a spiral raster step plate movement. The data acquisition time was decreased by 43-49% in the current experiment compared to that of orbitrap-only scans; however, 75% or more time could be saved for higher mass resolution and with a higher repetition rate laser.more » Using this approach, a high spatial resolution of 10 {micro}m was maintained at ion trap imaging, while orbitrap spectra were acquired at a lower spatial resolution, 20-40 {micro}m, all with far less data acquisition time. Furthermore, various MS imaging methods were developed by interspersing MS/MS and MSn ion trap scans during orbitrap scans to provide more analytical information on the sample. This method was applied to differentiate and localize structural isomers of several flavonol glycosides from an Arabidopsis flower petal in which MS/MS, MSn, ion trap, and orbitrap images were all acquired in a single data acquisition.« less

Scintillation properties of the silver doped lithium iodide single crystals at room and low temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Sajid; Kim, H. J.; Lee, M. H.

2016-06-01

This study presents luminescence and scintillation properties of Silver doped LiI crystals. Single crystals of LiI: x% Ag (x=0.02, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5) were grown by using the Bridgman technique. X-ray induced luminescence spectra show emission bands spanning from 275 nm to 675 nm, dominated by Ag+ band having a peak at 300 nm. Under UV-luminescence, a similar emission band was observed with the peak excitation wavelength of 265 nm. Energy resolution, light yield and decay time profiles of the samples were measured under a 137Cs γ-ray irradiation. The LiI(0.1%Ag) showed the highest light yield and the best energy resolution among the samples. The light yield of LiI(0.1%Ag) is higher than commercially available LiI(Eu) crystal (15,000±1500 ph/MeV). The LiI(Ag) samples exhibit three exponential decay time components except the LiI(0.02%Ag), where the fitting found two decay time components. Temperature dependences of emission spectra, light yield and decay time were studied from 300 K to 10 K. The LiI(0.1%Ag) crystal showed an increase in the light yield and a shortening of decay time with a decrease in temperature..

Age differences in behavioral and neural correlates of proactive interference: Disentangling the role of overall working memory performance.

PubMed

Loosli, Sandra V; Rahm, Benjamin; Unterrainer, Josef M; Mader, Irina; Weiller, Cornelius; Kaller, Christoph P

2016-02-15

Reliable performance in working memory (WM) critically depends on the ability to resist proactive interference (PI) from previously relevant WM contents. Both WM performance and PI susceptibility are subject to cognitive decline at older adult age. However, the behavioral and neural processes underlying these co-evolving developmental changes and their potential interdependencies are not yet understood. Here, we investigated PI using a recent-probes WM paradigm and functional MRI in a cross-sectional sample of younger (n=18, 10 female, 23.4 ± 2.7 years) and older adults (n=18, 10 female, 70.2 ± 2.7 years). As expected, older adults showed lower WM performance and higher PI susceptibility than younger adults. Resolution of PI activated a mainly bilateral frontal network across all participants. Significant interactions with age indicated reduced neural activation in older adults for PI resolution. A second analysis in a selection of younger and older adults (n=12 each) with matched WM performance also revealed significant differences in PI between both age groups and - on a descriptive level - again a hypo-activation of the older adults' PI network. But the differential effect of age on the neural PI effects did not reach significance in this smaller sample most likely to the reduced statistical power. However, given the highly similar patterns in both the overall and the WM-matched samples, we propose that the hypo-activation of the PI network in the older adults may not be attributable to age-related differences in overall WM performance, hence suggesting that higher PI susceptibility in older adult age does not directly depend on their lower WM performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Study of Heavy Metals in a Wetland Area Adjacent to a Waste Disposal Site Near Resolute Bay, Canadian High Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lund, K. E.; Young, K. L.

2004-05-01

Heavy metal contamination in High Arctic systems is of growing concern. Studies have been conducted measuring long range and large point source pollutants, but little research has been done on small point sources such as municipal waste disposal sites. Many Arctic communities are coastal, and local people consume marine wildlife in which concentrations of heavy metals can accumulate. Waste disposal sites are often located in very close proximity to the coastline and leaching of these metals could contaminate food sources on a local scale. Cadmium and lead are the metals focussed on by this study, as the Northern Contaminants Program recognizes them as metals of concern. During the summer of 2003 a study was conducted near Resolute, Nunavut, Canada, to determine the extent of cadmium and lead leaching from a local dumpsite to an adjacent wetland. The ultimate fate of these contaminants is approximately 1 km downslope in the ocean. Transects covering an area of 0.3 km2 were established downslope from the point of disposal and water and soil samples were collected and analyzed for cadmium and lead. Only trace amounts of cadmium and lead were found in the water samples. In the soil samples, low uniform concentrations of cadmium were found that were slightly above background levels, except for adjacent to the point of waste input where higher concentrations were found. Lead soil concentrations were higher than cadmium and varied spatially with soil material and moisture. Overall, excessive amounts of cadmium and lead contamination do not appear to be entering the marine ecosystem. However, soil material and moisture should be considered when establishing waste disposal sites in the far north

Repeated sampling of genes from a single cell - implications for gravitropism research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scherp, P.; Hasenstein, K. H.

The need for repeated but independent extractions of mRNA from single cells and plant tissues prompted the development of Solid Phase Gene Extraction (SPGE, patent pending). Oligo dT18 coated glass needles hybridize during a 2 to 3 min sampling time with the poly A+ mRNA. The needle is withdrawn and can be used directly for RT-PCR. Because of the small probe size, no cytoplasm is lost and repeated sampling of the same cell is possible. SPGE of Chara rhizoids and internodal cells showed fluctuations of type and quantity of mRNA in specific areas of the cytoplasm of rhizoids and time-dependent gene expression in internodal cells as a function of light/dark intervals. Despite extensive cytoplasmic streaming, mRNA-samples taken in the vicinity of the nucleus revealed a higher variability than the distal ends of the cell. In rhizoids, the mRNA/cDNA varied between the different zones of cytoplasm. In Arabidopsis, we isolated cDNA species from root tips, shoots and leaves and determined their sequences. Growth studies on SPGE-sampled individuals showed that after a short recovery period, all sampled plants resumed growth with normal growth rates and graviresponse. The data indicate that SPGE is a powerful method to study gene expression in single cells and in tissues of higher plants with high spatial and temporal resolution. Supported by NASA: NAG 2-1423

Soil sampling strategies for site assessments in petroleum-contaminated areas.

PubMed

Kim, Geonha; Chowdhury, Saikat; Lin, Yen-Min; Lu, Chih-Jen

2017-04-01

Environmental site assessments are frequently executed for monitoring and remediation performance evaluation purposes, especially in total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH)-contaminated areas, such as gas stations. As a key issue, reproducibility of the assessment results must be ensured, especially if attempts are made to compare results between different institutions. Although it is widely known that uncertainties associated with soil sampling are much higher than those with chemical analyses, field guides or protocols to deal with these uncertainties are not stipulated in detail in the relevant regulations, causing serious errors and distortion of the reliability of environmental site assessments. In this research, uncertainties associated with soil sampling and sample reduction for chemical analysis were quantified using laboratory-scale experiments and the theory of sampling. The research results showed that the TPH mass assessed by sampling tends to be overestimated and sampling errors are high, especially for the low range of TPH concentrations. Homogenization of soil was found to be an efficient method to suppress uncertainty, but high-resolution sampling could be an essential way to minimize this.

Imaging whole mouse brains with a dual resolution serial swept-source optical coherence tomography scanner

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lefebvre, Joël.; Castonguay, Alexandre; Lesage, Frédéric

2018-02-01

High resolution imaging of whole rodent brains using serial OCT scanners is a promising method to investigate microstructural changes in tissue related to the evolution of neuropathologies. Although micron to sub-micron sampling resolution can be obtained by using high numerical aperture objectives and dynamic focusing, such an imaging system is not adapted to whole brain imaging. This is due to the large amount of data it generates and the significant computational resources required for reconstructing such volumes. To address this limitation, a dual resolution serial OCT scanner was developed. The optical setup consists in a swept-source OCT made of two sample and reference arms, each arm being coupled with different microscope objectives (3X / 40X). Motorized flip mirrors were used to switch between each OCT arm, thus allowing low and high resolution acquisitions within the same sample. The low resolution OCT volumes acquired with the 3X arm were stitched together, providing a 3D map of the whole mouse brain. This brain can be registered to an OCT brain template to enable neurological structures localization. The high resolution volumes acquired with the 40X arm were also stitched together to create local high resolution 3D maps of the tissue microstructure. The 40X data can be acquired at any arbitrary location in the sample, thus limiting storage-heavy high resolution data to application restricted to specific regions of interest. By providing dual-resolution OCT data, this setup can be used to validate diffusion MRI with tissue microstructure derived metrics measured at any location in ex vivo brains.

The Influence of Beam Broadening on the Spatial Resolution of Annular Dark Field Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy.

PubMed

de Jonge, Niels; Verch, Andreas; Demers, Hendrix

2018-02-01

The spatial resolution of aberration-corrected annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy was studied as function of the vertical position z within a sample. The samples consisted of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) positioned in different horizontal layers within aluminum matrices of 0.6 and 1.0 µm thickness. The highest resolution was achieved in the top layer, whereas the resolution was reduced by beam broadening for AuNPs deeper in the sample. To examine the influence of the beam broadening, the intensity profiles of line scans over nanoparticles at a certain vertical location were analyzed. The experimental data were compared with Monte Carlo simulations that accurately matched the data. The spatial resolution was also calculated using three different theoretical models of the beam blurring as function of the vertical position within the sample. One model considered beam blurring to occur as a single scattering event but was found to be inaccurate for larger depths of the AuNPs in the sample. Two models were adapted and evaluated that include estimates for multiple scattering, and these described the data with sufficient accuracy to be able to predict the resolution. The beam broadening depended on z 1.5 in all three models.

An Automated Algorithm to Screen Massive Training Samples for a Global Impervious Surface Classification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tan, Bin; Brown de Colstoun, Eric; Wolfe, Robert E.; Tilton, James C.; Huang, Chengquan; Smith, Sarah E.

2012-01-01

An algorithm is developed to automatically screen the outliers from massive training samples for Global Land Survey - Imperviousness Mapping Project (GLS-IMP). GLS-IMP is to produce a global 30 m spatial resolution impervious cover data set for years 2000 and 2010 based on the Landsat Global Land Survey (GLS) data set. This unprecedented high resolution impervious cover data set is not only significant to the urbanization studies but also desired by the global carbon, hydrology, and energy balance researches. A supervised classification method, regression tree, is applied in this project. A set of accurate training samples is the key to the supervised classifications. Here we developed the global scale training samples from 1 m or so resolution fine resolution satellite data (Quickbird and Worldview2), and then aggregate the fine resolution impervious cover map to 30 m resolution. In order to improve the classification accuracy, the training samples should be screened before used to train the regression tree. It is impossible to manually screen 30 m resolution training samples collected globally. For example, in Europe only, there are 174 training sites. The size of the sites ranges from 4.5 km by 4.5 km to 8.1 km by 3.6 km. The amount training samples are over six millions. Therefore, we develop this automated statistic based algorithm to screen the training samples in two levels: site and scene level. At the site level, all the training samples are divided to 10 groups according to the percentage of the impervious surface within a sample pixel. The samples following in each 10% forms one group. For each group, both univariate and multivariate outliers are detected and removed. Then the screen process escalates to the scene level. A similar screen process but with a looser threshold is applied on the scene level considering the possible variance due to the site difference. We do not perform the screen process across the scenes because the scenes might vary due to the phenology, solar-view geometry, and atmospheric condition etc. factors but not actual landcover difference. Finally, we will compare the classification results from screened and unscreened training samples to assess the improvement achieved by cleaning up the training samples. Keywords:

The extent of forest in dryland biomes.

PubMed

Bastin, Jean-François; Berrahmouni, Nora; Grainger, Alan; Maniatis, Danae; Mollicone, Danilo; Moore, Rebecca; Patriarca, Chiara; Picard, Nicolas; Sparrow, Ben; Abraham, Elena Maria; Aloui, Kamel; Atesoglu, Ayhan; Attore, Fabio; Bassüllü, Çağlar; Bey, Adia; Garzuglia, Monica; García-Montero, Luis G; Groot, Nikée; Guerin, Greg; Laestadius, Lars; Lowe, Andrew J; Mamane, Bako; Marchi, Giulio; Patterson, Paul; Rezende, Marcelo; Ricci, Stefano; Salcedo, Ignacio; Diaz, Alfonso Sanchez-Paus; Stolle, Fred; Surappaeva, Venera; Castro, Rene

2017-05-12

Dryland biomes cover two-fifths of Earth's land surface, but their forest area is poorly known. Here, we report an estimate of global forest extent in dryland biomes, based on analyzing more than 210,000 0.5-hectare sample plots through a photo-interpretation approach using large databases of satellite imagery at (i) very high spatial resolution and (ii) very high temporal resolution, which are available through the Google Earth platform. We show that in 2015, 1327 million hectares of drylands had more than 10% tree-cover, and 1079 million hectares comprised forest. Our estimate is 40 to 47% higher than previous estimates, corresponding to 467 million hectares of forest that have never been reported before. This increases current estimates of global forest cover by at least 9%. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A multi-emitter fitting algorithm for potential live cell super-resolution imaging over a wide range of molecular densities.

PubMed

Takeshima, T; Takahashi, T; Yamashita, J; Okada, Y; Watanabe, S

2018-05-25

Multi-emitter fitting algorithms have been developed to improve the temporal resolution of single-molecule switching nanoscopy, but the molecular density range they can analyse is narrow and the computation required is intensive, significantly limiting their practical application. Here, we propose a computationally fast method, wedged template matching (WTM), an algorithm that uses a template matching technique to localise molecules at any overlapping molecular density from sparse to ultrahigh density with subdiffraction resolution. WTM achieves the localization of overlapping molecules at densities up to 600 molecules μm -2 with a high detection sensitivity and fast computational speed. WTM also shows localization precision comparable with that of DAOSTORM (an algorithm for high-density super-resolution microscopy), at densities up to 20 molecules μm -2 , and better than DAOSTORM at higher molecular densities. The application of WTM to a high-density biological sample image demonstrated that it resolved protein dynamics from live cell images with subdiffraction resolution and a temporal resolution of several hundred milliseconds or less through a significant reduction in the number of camera images required for a high-density reconstruction. WTM algorithm is a computationally fast, multi-emitter fitting algorithm that can analyse over a wide range of molecular densities. The algorithm is available through the website. https://doi.org/10.17632/bf3z6xpn5j.1. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Microscopy published by JohnWiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Microscopical Society.

An XPS study on the impact of relative humidity on the aging of UO 2 powders

DOE PAGES

Donald, Scott B.; Dai, Zurong R.; Davisson, M. Lee; ...

2017-02-10

High resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize the chemical speciation of high purity uranium dioxide (UO 2) powder samples following aging for periods of up to one year under controlled conditions with relative humidity ranging from 34% to 98%. A systematic shift to higher uranium oxidation states, and thus an increase in the mean uranium valence, was found to directly correlate with the dose of water received (i.e. the product of exposure time and relative humidity). Exposure duration was found to have a greater impact on sample aging than relative humidity. Lastly, the sample aged at 98%more » relative humidity was found to have unique structural differences for exposure time beyond 180 days when observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).« less

An XPS study on the impact of relative humidity on the aging of UO 2 powders

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Donald, Scott B.; Dai, Zurong R.; Davisson, M. Lee

High resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize the chemical speciation of high purity uranium dioxide (UO 2) powder samples following aging for periods of up to one year under controlled conditions with relative humidity ranging from 34% to 98%. A systematic shift to higher uranium oxidation states, and thus an increase in the mean uranium valence, was found to directly correlate with the dose of water received (i.e. the product of exposure time and relative humidity). Exposure duration was found to have a greater impact on sample aging than relative humidity. Lastly, the sample aged at 98%more » relative humidity was found to have unique structural differences for exposure time beyond 180 days when observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).« less

Molecular dynamics simulations using temperature-enhanced essential dynamics replica exchange.

PubMed

Kubitzki, Marcus B; de Groot, Bert L

2007-06-15

Today's standard molecular dynamics simulations of moderately sized biomolecular systems at full atomic resolution are typically limited to the nanosecond timescale and therefore suffer from limited conformational sampling. Efficient ensemble-preserving algorithms like replica exchange (REX) may alleviate this problem somewhat but are still computationally prohibitive due to the large number of degrees of freedom involved. Aiming at increased sampling efficiency, we present a novel simulation method combining the ideas of essential dynamics and REX. Unlike standard REX, in each replica only a selection of essential collective modes of a subsystem of interest (essential subspace) is coupled to a higher temperature, with the remainder of the system staying at a reference temperature, T(0). This selective excitation along with the replica framework permits efficient approximate ensemble-preserving conformational sampling and allows much larger temperature differences between replicas, thereby considerably enhancing sampling efficiency. Ensemble properties and sampling performance of the method are discussed using dialanine and guanylin test systems, with multi-microsecond molecular dynamics simulations of these test systems serving as references.

Probe for high resolution NMR with sample reorientation

DOEpatents

Pines, Alexander; Samoson, Ago

1990-01-01

An improved NMR probe and method are described which substantially improve the resolution of NMR measurements made on powdered or amorphous or otherwise orientationally disordered samples. The apparatus mechanically varies the orientation of the sample such that the time average of two or more sets of spherical harmonic functions are zero.

The Analytical Limits of Modeling Short Diffusion Timescales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bradshaw, R. W.; Kent, A. J.

2016-12-01

Chemical and isotopic zoning in minerals is widely used to constrain the timescales of magmatic processes such as magma mixing and crystal residence, etc. via diffusion modeling. Forward modeling of diffusion relies on fitting diffusion profiles to measured compositional gradients. However, an individual measurement is essentially an average composition for a segment of the gradient defined by the spatial resolution of the analysis. Thus there is the potential for the analytical spatial resolution to limit the timescales that can be determined for an element of given diffusivity, particularly where the scale of the gradient approaches that of the measurement. Here we use a probabilistic modeling approach to investigate the effect of analytical spatial resolution on estimated timescales from diffusion modeling. Our method investigates how accurately the age of a synthetic diffusion profile can be obtained by modeling an "unknown" profile derived from discrete sampling of the synthetic compositional gradient at a given spatial resolution. We also include the effects of analytical uncertainty and the position of measurements relative to the diffusion gradient. We apply this method to the spatial resolutions of common microanalytical techniques (LA-ICP-MS, SIMS, EMP, NanoSIMS). Our results confirm that for a given diffusivity, higher spatial resolution gives access to shorter timescales, and that each analytical spacing has a minimum timescale, below which it overestimates the timescale. For example, for Ba diffusion in plagioclase at 750 °C timescales are accurate (within 20%) above 10, 100, 2,600, and 71,000 years at 0.3, 1, 5, and 25 mm spatial resolution, respectively. For Sr diffusion in plagioclase at 750 °C, timescales are accurate above 0.02, 0.2, 4, and 120 years at the same spatial resolutions. Our results highlight the importance of selecting appropriate analytical techniques to estimate accurate diffusion-based timescales.

Utilizing Higher Resolution Land Surface Remote Sensing Data for Assessing Recent Trends over Asia Monsoon Region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shen, Suhung; Leptoukh, Gregory

2010-01-01

The slide presentation discusses the integration of 1-kilometer spatial resolution land temperature data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), with 8-day temporal resolution, into the NASA Monsoon-Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) Data Center. The data will be available for analysis and visualization in the Giovanni data system. It discusses the NASA MAIRS Data Center, presents an introduction to the data access tools, and an introduction of Products available from the service, discusses the higher resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST) and presents preliminary results of LST Trends over China.

MWIR imaging spectrometer with digital time delay integration for remote sensing and characterization of solar system objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendrick, Stephen E.; Harwit, Alex; Kaplan, Michael; Smythe, William D.

2007-09-01

An MWIR TDI (Time Delay and Integration) Imager and Spectrometer (MTIS) instrument for characterizing from orbit the moons of Jupiter and Saturn is proposed. Novel to this instrument is the planned implementation of a digital TDI detector array and an innovative imaging/spectroscopic architecture. Digital TDI enables a higher SNR for high spatial resolution surface mapping of Titan and Enceladus and for improved spectral discrimination and resolution at Europa. The MTIS imaging/spectroscopic architecture combines a high spatial resolution coarse wavelength resolution imaging spectrometer with a hyperspectral sensor to spectrally decompose a portion of the data adjacent to the data sampled in the imaging spectrometer. The MTIS instrument thus maps with high spatial resolution a planetary object while spectrally decomposing enough of the data that identification of the constituent materials is highly likely. Additionally, digital TDI systems have the ability to enable the rejection of radiation induced spikes in high radiation environments (Europa) and the ability to image in low light levels (Titan and Enceladus). The ability to image moving objects that might be missed utilizing a conventional TDI system is an added advantage and is particularly important for characterizing atmospheric effects and separating atmospheric and surface components. This can be accomplished with on-orbit processing or collecting and returning individual non co-added frames.

Microscopic dual-energy CT (microDECT): a flexible tool for multichannel ex vivo 3D imaging of biological specimens.

PubMed

Handschuh, S; Beisser, C J; Ruthensteiner, B; Metscher, B D

2017-07-01

Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) uses two different x-ray energy spectra in order to differentiate between tissues, materials or elements in a single sample or patient. DECT is becoming increasingly popular in clinical imaging and preclinical in vivo imaging of small animal models, but there have been only very few reports on ex vivo DECT of biological samples at microscopic resolutions. The present study has three main aims. First, we explore the potential of microscopic DECT (microDECT) for delivering isotropic multichannel 3D images of fixed biological samples with standard commercial laboratory-based microCT setups at spatial resolutions reaching below 10 μm. Second, we aim for retaining the maximum image resolution and quality during the material decomposition. Third, we want to test the suitability for microDECT imaging of different contrast agents currently used for ex vivo staining of biological samples. To address these aims, we used microCT scans of four different samples stained with x-ray dense contrast agents. MicroDECT scans were acquired with five different commercial microCT scanners from four companies. We present a detailed description of the microDECT workflow, including sample preparation, image acquisition, image processing and postreconstruction material decomposition, which may serve as practical guide for applying microDECT. The MATLAB script (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA, USA) used for material decomposition (including a graphical user interface) is provided as a supplement to this paper (https://github.com/microDECT/DECTDec). In general, the presented microDECT workflow yielded satisfactory results for all tested specimens. Original scan resolutions have been mostly retained in the separate material fractions after basis material decomposition. In addition to decomposition of mineralized tissues (inherent sample contrast) and stained soft tissues, we present a case of double labelling of different soft tissues with subsequent material decomposition. We conclude that, in contrast to in vivo DECT examinations, small ex vivo specimens offer some clear advantages regarding technical parameters of the microCT setup and the use of contrast agents. These include a higher flexibility in source peak voltages and x-ray filters, a lower degree of beam hardening due to small sample size, the lack of restriction to nontoxic contrast agents and the lack of a limit in exposure time and radiation dose. We argue that microDECT, because of its flexibility combined with already established contrast agents and the vast number of currently unexploited stains, will in future represent an important technique for various applications in biological research. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Microscopy © 2017 Royal Microscopical Society.

Toward high-resolution NMR spectroscopy of microscopic liquid samples

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Butler, Mark C.; Mehta, Hardeep S.; Chen, Ying

A longstanding limitation of high-resolution NMR spectroscopy is the requirement for samples to have macroscopic dimensions. Commercial probes, for example, are designed for volumes of at least 5 mL, in spite of decades of work directed toward the goal of miniaturization. Progress in miniaturizing inductive detectors has been limited by a perceived need to meet two technical requirements: (1) minimal separation between the sample and the detector, which is essential for sensitivity, and (2) near-perfect magnetic-field homogeneity at the sample, which is typically needed for spectral resolution. The first of these requirements is real, but the second can be relaxed,more » as we demonstrate here. By using pulse sequences that yield high-resolution spectra in an inhomogeneous field, we eliminate the need for near-perfect field homogeneity and the accompanying requirement for susceptibility matching of microfabricated detector components. With this requirement removed, typical imperfections in microfabricated components can be tolerated, and detector dimensions can be matched to those of the sample, even for samples of volume << 5 uL. Pulse sequences that are robust to field inhomogeneity thus enable small-volume detection with optimal sensitivity. We illustrate the potential of this approach to miniaturization by presenting spectra acquired with a flat-wire detector that can easily be scaled to subnanoliter volumes. In particular, we report high-resolution NMR spectroscopy of an alanine sample of volume 500 pL.« less

Cryogenic coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of biological samples at SACLA: a correlative approach with cryo-electron and light microscopy.

PubMed

Takayama, Yuki; Yonekura, Koji

2016-03-01

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging at cryogenic temperature (cryo-CXDI) allows the analysis of internal structures of unstained, non-crystalline, whole biological samples in micrometre to sub-micrometre dimensions. Targets include cells and cell organelles. This approach involves preparing frozen-hydrated samples under controlled humidity, transferring the samples to a cryo-stage inside a vacuum chamber of a diffractometer, and then exposing the samples to coherent X-rays. Since 2012, cryo-coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) experiments have been carried out with the X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the SPring-8 Ångstrom Compact free-electron LAser (SACLA) facility in Japan. Complementary use of cryo-electron microscopy and/or light microscopy is highly beneficial for both pre-checking samples and studying the integrity or nature of the sample. This article reports the authors' experience in cryo-XFEL-CDI of biological cells and organelles at SACLA, and describes an attempt towards reliable and higher-resolution reconstructions, including signal enhancement with strong scatterers and Patterson-search phasing.

Multiplexed Western Blotting Using Microchip Electrophoresis.

PubMed

Jin, Shi; Furtaw, Michael D; Chen, Huaxian; Lamb, Don T; Ferguson, Stephen A; Arvin, Natalie E; Dawod, Mohamed; Kennedy, Robert T

2016-07-05

Western blotting is a commonly used protein assay that combines the selectivity of electrophoretic separation and immunoassay. The technique is limited by long time, manual operation with mediocre reproducibility, and large sample consumption, typically 10-20 μg per assay. Western blots are also usually used to measure only one protein per assay with an additional housekeeping protein for normalization. Measurement of multiple proteins is possible; however, it requires stripping membranes of antibody and then reprobing with a second antibody. Miniaturized alternatives to Western blot based on microfluidic or capillary electrophoresis have been developed that enable higher-throughput, automation, and greater mass sensitivity. In one approach, proteins are separated by electrophoresis on a microchip that is dragged along a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane so that as proteins exit the chip they are captured on the membrane for immunoassay. In this work, we improve this method to allow multiplexed protein detection. Multiple injections made from the same sample can be deposited in separate tracks so that each is probed with a different antibody. To further enhance multiplexing capability, the electrophoresis channel dimensions were optimized for resolution while keeping separation and blotting times to less than 8 min. Using a 15 μm deep × 50 μm wide × 8.6 cm long channel, it is possible to achieve baseline resolution of proteins that differ by 5% in molecular weight, e.g., ERK1 (44 kDa) from ERK2 (42 kDa). This resolution allows similar proteins detected by cross-reactive antibodies in a single track. We demonstrate detection of 11 proteins from 9 injections from a single Jurkat cell lysate sample consisting of 400 ng of total protein using this procedure. Thus, multiplexed Western blots are possible without cumbersome stripping and reprobing steps.

Quantitative analysis of antibiotics in aquifer sediments by liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Tong, Lei; Liu, Hui; Xie, Cong; Li, Minjing

2016-06-24

A highly effective analytical method for multi-residue determination of antibiotics in aquifer sediments was first established in this study. Microwave-assisted solvent extraction (MASE) and solid-phase extraction were used for sample pre-concentration and purification, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to hybrid quadrupole-high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap) was applied for detection. For high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), the target compounds were tentatively identified by retention time and accurate mass which was measured with precursor ions in Target-SIM scan, and then confirmed by the monitoring of daughter ion fragments which were generated in dd-MS(2) scan. The results provided good mass accuracy with mass deviations below 2ppm (except norfloxacin with -2.3ppm) for quantitative analysis of the compounds by HRMS. Reasonable recoveries of all analytes were obtained more than 60% (except doxytetracycline) in fortification samples at concentrations higher than 10μgkg(-1). Relative standard deviations of repeatability and inter-day precision were below 21% and 11%. Limits of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.1 to 3.8μgkg(-1), whereas limits of quantification (LOQ) were established between 0.3-9.0μgkg(-1). The method was applied to analyze real aquifer sediment samples in different aquifer depth of 4.0, 7.5, 13.0 and 18.0m. Chlorotetracycline and ofloxacin were observed at relative high concentrations of 53 and 19μgkg(-1) respectively in 18.0m deepness. The exposure to low doses of these compounds in subsurface environment increases concerns on long-term ecological security of underground system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determination of rare earth elements in environmental matrices by sector-field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Riondato, J; Vanhaecke, F; Moens, L; Dams, R

2001-07-01

In the framework of an international certification campaign, sector-field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (sector-field ICP-MS) was used for the accurate determination of the rare earth elements in five candidate reference materials: aquatic plant, calcareous soil, mussel tissue, river sediment, and tuna muscle. All samples were taken into solution by use of microwave-assisted or mixed microwave-assisted / open beaker acid digestion. Subsequently, the samples were appropriately diluted and subjected to ICP-MS analysis. Except for Sc, all the elements involved were determined at low mass resolution (R = 300). For Sc, application of a higher resolution setting (R = 3,000) was required to separate the analyte signal from those of several molecular ions which gave rise to spectral overlap at low mass resolution. Some of the heavier REE can also suffer from spectral overlap attributed to the occurrence of oxide ions (MO+) of the lighter REE and Ba. This spectral overlap could be successfully overcome by mathematical correction. Matrix effects were overcome by use of two carefully selected internal standards, such that external calibration could be used. On each occasion, a geological reference material was analyzed as a quality-control sample and the reliability of all results obtained was additionally checked by means of chondrite normalization. For tuna muscle the content of all REE was below the limit of detection. For calcareous soil and river sediment, low to sub microg g(-1) values were observed, whereas the REE content of aquatic plant and mussel tissue was considerably lower (low to sub ng g(-1)). Overall, the results obtained were in excellent agreement with the average values, calculated on the basis of all "accepted" values, obtained in different laboratories using different techniques.

Towards native-state imaging in biological context in the electron microscope

PubMed Central

Weston, Anne E.; Armer, Hannah E. J.

2009-01-01

Modern cell biology is reliant on light and fluorescence microscopy for analysis of cells, tissues and protein localisation. However, these powerful techniques are ultimately limited in resolution by the wavelength of light. Electron microscopes offer much greater resolution due to the shorter effective wavelength of electrons, allowing direct imaging of sub-cellular architecture. The harsh environment of the electron microscope chamber and the properties of the electron beam have led to complex chemical and mechanical preparation techniques, which distance biological samples from their native state and complicate data interpretation. Here we describe recent advances in sample preparation and instrumentation, which push the boundaries of high-resolution imaging. Cryopreparation, cryoelectron microscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy strive to image samples in near native state. Advances in correlative microscopy and markers enable high-resolution localisation of proteins. Innovation in microscope design has pushed the boundaries of resolution to atomic scale, whilst automatic acquisition of high-resolution electron microscopy data through large volumes is finally able to place ultrastructure in biological context. PMID:19916039

Design challenges of EO polymer based leaky waveguide deflector for 40 Gs/s all-optical analog-to-digital converters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadjloum, Massinissa; El Gibari, Mohammed; Li, Hongwu; Daryoush, Afshin S.

2016-08-01

Design challenges and performance optimization of an all-optical analog-to-digital converter (AOADC) is presented here. The paper addresses both microwave and optical design of a leaky waveguide optical deflector using electro-optic (E-O) polymer. The optical deflector converts magnitude variation of the applied RF voltage into variation of deflection angle out of a leaky waveguide optical beam using the linear E-O effect (Pockels effect) as part of the E-O polymer based optical waveguide. This variation of deflection angle as result of the applied RF signal is then quantized using optical windows followed by an array of high-speed photodetectors. We optimized the leakage coefficient of the leaky waveguide and its physical length to achieve the best trade-off between bandwidth and the deflected optical beam resolution, by improving the phase velocity matching between lightwave and microwave on one hand and using pre-emphasis technique to compensate for the RF signal attenuation on the other hand. In addition, for ease of access from both optical and RF perspective, a via-hole less broad bandwidth transition is designed between coplanar pads and coupled microstrip (CPW-CMS) driving electrodes. With the best reported E-O coefficient of 350 pm/V, the designed E-O deflector should allow an AOADC operating over 44 giga-samples-per-seconds with an estimated effective resolution of 6.5 bits on RF signals with Nyquist bandwidth of 22 GHz. The overall DC power consumption of all components used in this AOADC is of order of 4 W and is dominated by power consumption in the power amplifier to generate a 20 V RF voltage in 50 Ohm system. A higher sampling rate can be achieved at similar bits of resolution by interleaving a number of this elementary AOADC at the expense of a higher power consumption.

Investigation of spatial resolution dependent variability in transcutaneous oxygen saturation using point spectroscopy system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Philimon, Sheena P.; Huong, Audrey K. C.; Ngu, Xavier T. I.

2017-08-01

This paper aims to investigate the variation in one’s percent mean transcutaneous oxygen saturation (StO2) with differences in spatial resolution of data. This work required the knowledge of extinction coefficient of hemoglobin derivatives in the wavelength range of 520 - 600 nm to solve for the StO2 value via an iterative fitting procedure. A pilot study was conducted on three healthy subjects with spectroscopic data collected from their right index finger at different arbitrarily selected distances. The StO2 value estimated by Extended Modified Lambert Beer (EMLB) model revealed a higher mean StO2 of 91.1 ± 1.3% at a proximity distance of 30 mm compared to 60.83 ± 2.8% at 200 mm. The results showed a high correlation between data spatial resolution and StO2 value, and revealed a decrease in StO2 value as the sampling distance increased. The preliminary findings from this study contribute to the knowledge of the appropriate distance range for consistent and high repeatability measurement of skin oxygenation.

Use of high-resolution ultrasound to measure changes in plantar fascia thickness resulting from tissue creep in runners and walkers.

PubMed

Welk, Aaron B; Haun, Daniel W; Clark, Thomas B; Kettner, Norman W

2015-01-01

This study sought to use high-resolution ultrasound to measure changes in plantar fascia thickness as a result of tissue creep generated by walking and running. Independent samples of participants were obtained. Thirty-six walkers and 25 runners walked on a treadmill for 10 minutes or ran for 30 minutes, respectively. Standardized measures of the thickness of the plantar fascia were obtained in both groups using high-resolution ultrasound. The mean thickness of the plantar fascia was measured immediately before and after participation. The mean plantar fascia thickness was decreased by 0.06 ± 0.33 mm SD after running and 0.03 ± 0.22 mm SD after walking. The difference between groups was not significant. Although the parameters of this study did not produce significant changes in the plantar fascia thickness, a slightly higher change in the mean thickness of the plantar fascia in the running group deserves further investigation. Copyright © 2015 National University of Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Low-power noncontact photoacoustic microscope for bioimaging applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sathiyamoorthy, Krishnan; Strohm, Eric M.; Kolios, Michael C.

2017-04-01

An inexpensive noncontact photoacoustic (PA) imaging system using a low-power continuous wave laser and a kilohertz-range microphone has been developed. The system operates in both optical and PA imaging modes and is designed to be compatible with conventional optical microscopes. Aqueous coupling fluids are not required for the detection of the PA signals; air is used as the coupling medium. The main component of the PA system is a custom designed PA imaging sensor that consists of an air-filled sample chamber and a resonator chamber that isolates a standard kilohertz frequency microphone from the input laser. A sample to be examined is placed on the glass substrate inside the chamber. A laser focused to a small spot by a 40× objective onto the substrate enables generation of PA signals from the sample. Raster scanning the laser over the sample with micrometer-sized steps enables high-resolution PA images to be generated. A lateral resolution of 1.37 μm was achieved in this proof of concept study, which can be further improved using a higher numerical aperture objective. The application of the system was investigated on a red blood cell, with a noise-equivalent detection sensitivity of 43,887 hemoglobin molecules (72.88×10-21 mol or 72.88 zeptomol). The minimum pressure detectable limit of the system was 19.1 μPa. This inexpensive, compact noncontact PA sensor is easily integrated with existing commercial optical microscopes, enabling optical and PA imaging of the same sample. Applications include forensic measurements, blood coagulation tests, and monitoring the penetration of drugs into human membrane.

A DNA methylation fingerprint of 1628 human samples

PubMed Central

Fernandez, Agustin F.; Assenov, Yassen; Martin-Subero, Jose Ignacio; Balint, Balazs; Siebert, Reiner; Taniguchi, Hiroaki; Yamamoto, Hiroyuki; Hidalgo, Manuel; Tan, Aik-Choon; Galm, Oliver; Ferrer, Isidre; Sanchez-Cespedes, Montse; Villanueva, Alberto; Carmona, Javier; Sanchez-Mut, Jose V.; Berdasco, Maria; Moreno, Victor; Capella, Gabriel; Monk, David; Ballestar, Esteban; Ropero, Santiago; Martinez, Ramon; Sanchez-Carbayo, Marta; Prosper, Felipe; Agirre, Xabier; Fraga, Mario F.; Graña, Osvaldo; Perez-Jurado, Luis; Mora, Jaume; Puig, Susana; Prat, Jaime; Badimon, Lina; Puca, Annibale A.; Meltzer, Stephen J.; Lengauer, Thomas; Bridgewater, John; Bock, Christoph; Esteller, Manel

2012-01-01

Most of the studies characterizing DNA methylation patterns have been restricted to particular genomic loci in a limited number of human samples and pathological conditions. Herein, we present a compromise between an extremely comprehensive study of a human sample population with an intermediate level of resolution of CpGs at the genomic level. We obtained a DNA methylation fingerprint of 1628 human samples in which we interrogated 1505 CpG sites. The DNA methylation patterns revealed show this epigenetic mark to be critical in tissue-type definition and stemness, particularly around transcription start sites that are not within a CpG island. For disease, the generated DNA methylation fingerprints show that, during tumorigenesis, human cancer cells underwent a progressive gain of promoter CpG-island hypermethylation and a loss of CpG methylation in non-CpG-island promoters. Although transformed cells are those in which DNA methylation disruption is more obvious, we observed that other common human diseases, such as neurological and autoimmune disorders, had their own distinct DNA methylation profiles. Most importantly, we provide proof of principle that the DNA methylation fingerprints obtained might be useful for translational purposes by showing that we are able to identify the tumor type origin of cancers of unknown primary origin (CUPs). Thus, the DNA methylation patterns identified across the largest spectrum of samples, tissues, and diseases reported to date constitute a baseline for developing higher-resolution DNA methylation maps and provide important clues concerning the contribution of CpG methylation to tissue identity and its changes in the most prevalent human diseases. PMID:21613409

High-resolution phylogenetic microbial community profiling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Singer, Esther; Coleman-Derr, Devin; Bowman, Brett

2014-03-17

The representation of bacterial and archaeal genome sequences is strongly biased towards cultivated organisms, which belong to merely four phylogenetic groups. Functional information and inter-phylum level relationships are still largely underexplored for candidate phyla, which are often referred to as microbial dark matter. Furthermore, a large portion of the 16S rRNA gene records in the GenBank database are labeled as environmental samples and unclassified, which is in part due to low read accuracy, potential chimeric sequences produced during PCR amplifications and the low resolution of short amplicons. In order to improve the phylogenetic classification of novel species and advance ourmore » knowledge of the ecosystem function of uncultivated microorganisms, high-throughput full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing methodologies with reduced biases are needed. We evaluated the performance of PacBio single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing in high-resolution phylogenetic microbial community profiling. For this purpose, we compared PacBio and Illumina metagenomic shotgun and 16S rRNA gene sequencing of a mock community as well as of an environmental sample from Sakinaw Lake, British Columbia. Sakinaw Lake is known to contain a large age of microbial species from candidate phyla. Sequencing results show that community structure based on PacBio shotgun and 16S rRNA gene sequences is highly similar in both the mock and the environmental communities. Resolution power and community representation accuracy from SMRT sequencing data appeared to be independent of GC content of microbial genomes and was higher when compared to Illumina-based metagenome shotgun and 16S rRNA gene (iTag) sequences, e.g. full-length sequencing resolved all 23 OTUs in the mock community, while iTags did not resolve closely related species. SMRT sequencing hence offers various potential benefits when characterizing uncharted microbial communities.« less

Compensation of missing wedge effects with sequential statistical reconstruction in electron tomography.

PubMed

Paavolainen, Lassi; Acar, Erman; Tuna, Uygar; Peltonen, Sari; Moriya, Toshio; Soonsawad, Pan; Marjomäki, Varpu; Cheng, R Holland; Ruotsalainen, Ulla

2014-01-01

Electron tomography (ET) of biological samples is used to study the organization and the structure of the whole cell and subcellular complexes in great detail. However, projections cannot be acquired over full tilt angle range with biological samples in electron microscopy. ET image reconstruction can be considered an ill-posed problem because of this missing information. This results in artifacts, seen as the loss of three-dimensional (3D) resolution in the reconstructed images. The goal of this study was to achieve isotropic resolution with a statistical reconstruction method, sequential maximum a posteriori expectation maximization (sMAP-EM), using no prior morphological knowledge about the specimen. The missing wedge effects on sMAP-EM were examined with a synthetic cell phantom to assess the effects of noise. An experimental dataset of a multivesicular body was evaluated with a number of gold particles. An ellipsoid fitting based method was developed to realize the quantitative measures elongation and contrast in an automated, objective, and reliable way. The method statistically evaluates the sub-volumes containing gold particles randomly located in various parts of the whole volume, thus giving information about the robustness of the volume reconstruction. The quantitative results were also compared with reconstructions made with widely-used weighted backprojection and simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique methods. The results showed that the proposed sMAP-EM method significantly suppresses the effects of the missing information producing isotropic resolution. Furthermore, this method improves the contrast ratio, enhancing the applicability of further automatic and semi-automatic analysis. These improvements in ET reconstruction by sMAP-EM enable analysis of subcellular structures with higher three-dimensional resolution and contrast than conventional methods.

Frequency Compounded Imaging with a High-Frequency Dual Element Transducer

PubMed Central

Chang, Jin Ho; Kim, Hyung Ham; Lee, Jungwoo; Shung, K. Kirk

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a frequency compounding method to reduce speckle interferences, where a concentric annular type high-frequency dual element transducer is used to broaden the bandwidth of an imaging system. In frequency compounding methods, frequency division is carried out to obtain sub-band images containing uncorrelated speckles, which sacrifices axial resolution. Therefore, frequency compounding often deteriorates the target-detecting capability, quantified by the total signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), when the speckle’s SNR (SSNR) is not improved as much as the degraded axial resolution. However, this could be avoided if the effective bandwidth required for frequency compounding is increased. The primary goal of the proposed approach, hence, is to improve SSNR by a factor of two under the condition where axial resolution is degraded by a factor of less than two, which indicates the total SNR improvement to higher than 40% compared to that of an original image. Since the method here employs a dual element transducer operating at 20 and 40 MHz, the effective bandwidth necessary for frequency compounding becomes broadened. By dividing each spectrum of RF samples from both elements into two sub-bands, this method eventually enables four sets of the sub-band samples to contain uncorrelated speckles. This causes the axial resolution to be reduced by a factor of as low as 1.85, which means that this method would improve total SNR by at least 47 %. An in vitro experiment on an excised pig eye was performed to validate the proposed approach, and the results showed that the SSNR was improved from 2.081±0.365 in the original image to 4.206±0.635 in the final compounding image. PMID:19914674

Frequency compounded imaging with a high-frequency dual element transducer.

PubMed

Chang, Jin Ho; Kim, Hyung Ham; Lee, Jungwoo; Shung, K Kirk

2010-04-01

This paper proposes a frequency compounding method to reduce speckle interferences, where a concentric annular type high-frequency dual element transducer is used to broaden the bandwidth of an imaging system. In frequency compounding methods, frequency division is carried out to obtain sub-band images containing uncorrelated speckles, which sacrifices axial resolution. Therefore, frequency compounding often deteriorates the target-detecting capability, quantified by the total signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), when the speckle's SNR (SSNR) is not improved as much as the degraded axial resolution. However, this could be avoided if the effective bandwidth required for frequency compounding is increased. The primary goal of the proposed approach, hence, is to improve SSNR by a factor of two under the condition where axial resolution is degraded by a factor of less than two, which indicates the total SNR improvement to higher than 40% compared to that of an original image. Since the method here employs a dual element transducer operating at 20 and 40MHz, the effective bandwidth necessary for frequency compounding becomes broadened. By dividing each spectrum of RF samples from both elements into two sub-bands, this method eventually enables four sets of the sub-band samples to contain uncorrelated speckles. This causes the axial resolution to be reduced by a factor of as low as 1.85, which means that this method would improve total SNR by at least 47%. An in vitro experiment on an excised pig eye was performed to validate the proposed approach, and the results showed that the SSNR was improved from 2.081+/-0.365 in the original image to 4.206+/-0.635 in the final compounding image. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhancing spatial resolution of (18)F positron imaging with the Timepix detector by classification of primary fired pixels using support vector machine.

PubMed

Wang, Qian; Liu, Zhen; Ziegler, Sibylle I; Shi, Kuangyu

2015-07-07

Position-sensitive positron cameras using silicon pixel detectors have been applied for some preclinical and intraoperative clinical applications. However, the spatial resolution of a positron camera is limited by positron multiple scattering in the detector. An incident positron may fire a number of successive pixels on the imaging plane. It is still impossible to capture the primary fired pixel along a particle trajectory by hardware or to perceive the pixel firing sequence by direct observation. Here, we propose a novel data-driven method to improve the spatial resolution by classifying the primary pixels within the detector using support vector machine. A classification model is constructed by learning the features of positron trajectories based on Monte-Carlo simulations using Geant4. Topological and energy features of pixels fired by (18)F positrons were considered for the training and classification. After applying the classification model on measurements, the primary fired pixels of the positron tracks in the silicon detector were estimated. The method was tested and assessed for [(18)F]FDG imaging of an absorbing edge protocol and a leaf sample. The proposed method improved the spatial resolution from 154.6   ±   4.2 µm (energy weighted centroid approximation) to 132.3   ±   3.5 µm in the absorbing edge measurements. For the positron imaging of a leaf sample, the proposed method achieved lower root mean square error relative to phosphor plate imaging, and higher similarity with the reference optical image. The improvements of the preliminary results support further investigation of the proposed algorithm for the enhancement of positron imaging in clinical and preclinical applications.

Enhancing spatial resolution of 18F positron imaging with the Timepix detector by classification of primary fired pixels using support vector machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Qian; Liu, Zhen; Ziegler, Sibylle I.; Shi, Kuangyu

2015-07-01

Position-sensitive positron cameras using silicon pixel detectors have been applied for some preclinical and intraoperative clinical applications. However, the spatial resolution of a positron camera is limited by positron multiple scattering in the detector. An incident positron may fire a number of successive pixels on the imaging plane. It is still impossible to capture the primary fired pixel along a particle trajectory by hardware or to perceive the pixel firing sequence by direct observation. Here, we propose a novel data-driven method to improve the spatial resolution by classifying the primary pixels within the detector using support vector machine. A classification model is constructed by learning the features of positron trajectories based on Monte-Carlo simulations using Geant4. Topological and energy features of pixels fired by 18F positrons were considered for the training and classification. After applying the classification model on measurements, the primary fired pixels of the positron tracks in the silicon detector were estimated. The method was tested and assessed for [18F]FDG imaging of an absorbing edge protocol and a leaf sample. The proposed method improved the spatial resolution from 154.6   ±   4.2 µm (energy weighted centroid approximation) to 132.3   ±   3.5 µm in the absorbing edge measurements. For the positron imaging of a leaf sample, the proposed method achieved lower root mean square error relative to phosphor plate imaging, and higher similarity with the reference optical image. The improvements of the preliminary results support further investigation of the proposed algorithm for the enhancement of positron imaging in clinical and preclinical applications.

Data-resolution matrix and model-resolution matrix for Rayleigh-wave inversion using a damped least-squares method

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xia, J.; Miller, R.D.; Xu, Y.

2008-01-01

Inversion of multimode surface-wave data is of increasing interest in the near-surface geophysics community. For a given near-surface geophysical problem, it is essential to understand how well the data, calculated according to a layered-earth model, might match the observed data. A data-resolution matrix is a function of the data kernel (determined by a geophysical model and a priori information applied to the problem), not the data. A data-resolution matrix of high-frequency (>2 Hz) Rayleigh-wave phase velocities, therefore, offers a quantitative tool for designing field surveys and predicting the match between calculated and observed data. We employed a data-resolution matrix to select data that would be well predicted and we find that there are advantages of incorporating higher modes in inversion. The resulting discussion using the data-resolution matrix provides insight into the process of inverting Rayleigh-wave phase velocities with higher-mode data to estimate S-wave velocity structure. Discussion also suggested that each near-surface geophysical target can only be resolved using Rayleigh-wave phase velocities within specific frequency ranges, and higher-mode data are normally more accurately predicted than fundamental-mode data because of restrictions on the data kernel for the inversion system. We used synthetic and real-world examples to demonstrate that selected data with the data-resolution matrix can provide better inversion results and to explain with the data-resolution matrix why incorporating higher-mode data in inversion can provide better results. We also calculated model-resolution matrices in these examples to show the potential of increasing model resolution with selected surface-wave data. ?? Birkhaueser 2008.

Investigating the performance of reconstruction methods used in structured illumination microscopy as a function of the illumination pattern's modulation frequency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shabani, H.; Sánchez-Ortiga, E.; Preza, C.

2016-03-01

Surpassing the resolution of optical microscopy defined by the Abbe diffraction limit, while simultaneously achieving optical sectioning, is a challenging problem particularly for live cell imaging of thick samples. Among a few developing techniques, structured illumination microscopy (SIM) addresses this challenge by imposing higher frequency information into the observable frequency band confined by the optical transfer function (OTF) of a conventional microscope either doubling the spatial resolution or filling the missing cone based on the spatial frequency of the pattern when the patterned illumination is two-dimensional. Standard reconstruction methods for SIM decompose the low and high frequency components from the recorded low-resolution images and then combine them to reach a high-resolution image. In contrast, model-based approaches rely on iterative optimization approaches to minimize the error between estimated and forward images. In this paper, we study the performance of both groups of methods by simulating fluorescence microscopy images from different type of objects (ranging from simulated two-point sources to extended objects). These simulations are used to investigate the methods' effectiveness on restoring objects with various types of power spectrum when modulation frequency of the patterned illumination is changing from zero to the incoherent cut-off frequency of the imaging system. Our results show that increasing the amount of imposed information by using a higher modulation frequency of the illumination pattern does not always yield a better restoration performance, which was found to be depended on the underlying object. Results from model-based restoration show performance improvement, quantified by an up to 62% drop in the mean square error compared to standard reconstruction, with increasing modulation frequency. However, we found cases for which results obtained with standard reconstruction methods do not always follow the same trend.

Comparison of reduced metagenome and 16S rRNA gene sequencing for determination of genetic diversity and mother-child overlap of the gut associated microbiota.

PubMed

Ravi, Anuradha; Avershina, Ekaterina; Angell, Inga Leena; Ludvigsen, Jane; Manohar, Prasanth; Padmanaban, Sumathi; Nachimuthu, Ramesh; Snipen, Lars; Rudi, Knut

2018-06-01

Use of the 16S rRNA gene in microbiota studies is limited by the lack of taxonomic and functional resolution. High resolution analyses are particularly important for understanding transmission and persistence of bacteria. The aim of our work was therefore to compare a novel reduced metagenome sequencing (RMS) approach with 16S rRNA gene sequencing to determine both the metagenome genetic diversity and the mother-to-child sharing of the microbiota in a cohort of 17 mother-child pairs. We found that although both approaches gave comparable results with respect to sample separation and taxonomy, RMS gave higher resolution and the potential for genomic-/functional assignment. Using RMS we estimated that the metagenome size increased from about 60 Mbp for 4-day-old children to about 225 Mbp for mothers. The 4-day-old children shared 7% of the metagenome sequences with the mothers, while the metagenome sequence sharing was >30% among the mothers. We found 15 genomes shared across >50% of the mothers, of which 10 belonged to Clostridia. Only Bacteroides showed a direct mother-child association, with B. vulgatus being abundant in both 4-day-old children and mothers. For the functional assignments, we identified a significant association between antibiotic usage during labor, and quantity of Fosfomycin resistance genes. In conclusion, our results show a higher functional and taxonomic resolution for RMS compared to 16S rRNA gene sequencing, where RMS enabled a detailed description of mother to child gut microbiota transmission - supporting a late recruitment of most gut bacteria and an effect of antibiotic treatment during labor on infant antibiotic resistance gene patterns. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Requirements for an Advanced Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Sounder (ALS) for Improved Regional Weather Prediction and Monitoring of Greenhouse Gases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pagano, Thomas S.; Chahine, Moustafa T.; Susskind, Joel

2008-01-01

Hyperspectral infrared atmospheric sounders (e.g., the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on Aqua and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on Met Op) provide highly accurate temperature and water vapor profiles in the lower to upper troposphere. These systems are vital operational components of our National Weather Prediction system and the AIRS has demonstrated over 6 hrs of forecast improvement on the 5 day operational forecast. Despite the success in the mid troposphere to lower stratosphere, a reduction in sensitivity and accuracy has been seen in these systems in the boundary layer over land. In this paper we demonstrate the potential improvement associated with higher spatial resolution (1 km vs currently 13.5 km) on the accuracy of boundary layer products with an added consequence of higher yield of cloud free scenes. This latter feature is related to the number of samples that can be assimilated and has also shown to have a significant impact on improving forecast accuracy. We also present a set of frequencies and resolutions that will improve vertical resolution of temperature and water vapor and trace gas species throughout the atmosphere. Development of an Advanced Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Sounder (ALS) with these improvements will improve weather forecast at the regional scale and of tropical storms and hurricanes. Improvements are also expected in the accuracy of the water vapor and cloud properties products, enhancing process studies and providing a better match to the resolution of future climate models. The improvements of technology required for the ALS are consistent with the current state of technology as demonstrated in NASA Instrument Incubator Program and NOAA's Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) formulation phase development programs.

The optics of microscope image formation.

PubMed

Wolf, David E

2013-01-01

Although geometric optics gives a good understanding of how the microscope works, it fails in one critical area, which is explaining the origin of microscope resolution. To accomplish this, one must consider the microscope from the viewpoint of physical optics. This chapter describes the theory of the microscope-relating resolution to the highest spatial frequency that a microscope can collect. The chapter illustrates how Huygens' principle or construction can be used to explain the propagation of a plane wave. It is shown that this limit increases with increasing numerical aperture (NA). As a corollary to this, resolution increases with decreasing wavelength because of how NA depends on wavelength. The resolution is higher for blue light than red light. Resolution is dependent on contrast, and the higher the contrast, the higher the resolution. This last point relates to issues of signal-to-noise and dynamic range. The use of video and new digital cameras has necessitated redefining classical limits such as those of Rayleigh's criterion. Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Minimal modeling of the extratropical general circulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

O'Brien, Enda; Branscome, Lee E.

1989-01-01

The ability of low-order, two-layer models to reproduce basic features of the mid-latitude general circulation is investigated. Changes in model behavior with increased spectral resolution are examined in detail. Qualitatively correct time-mean heat and momentum balances are achieved in a beta-plane channel model which includes the first and third meridional modes. This minimal resolution also reproduces qualitatively realistic surface and upper-level winds and mean meridional circulations. Higher meridional resolution does not result in substantial changes in the latitudinal structure of the circulation. A qualitatively correct kinetic energy spectrum is produced when the resolution is high enough to include several linearly stable modes. A model with three zonal waves and the first three meridional modes has a reasonable energy spectrum and energy conversion cycle, while also satisfying heat and momentum budget requirements. This truncation reproduces the basic mechanisms and zonal circulation features that are obtained at higher resolution. The model performance improves gradually with higher resolution and is smoothly dependent on changes in external parameters.

Application of Deep Learning in GLOBELAND30-2010 Product Refinement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, T.; Chen, X.

2018-04-01

GlobeLand30, as one of the best Global Land Cover (GLC) product at 30-m resolution, has been widely used in many research fields. Due to the significant spectral confusion among different land cover types and limited textual information of Landsat data, the overall accuracy of GlobeLand30 is about 80 %. Although such accuracy is much higher than most other global land cover products, it cannot satisfy various applications. There is still a great need of an effective method to improve the quality of GlobeLand30. The explosive high-resolution satellite images and remarkable performance of Deep Learning on image classification provide a new opportunity to refine GlobeLand30. However, the performance of deep leaning depends on quality and quantity of training samples as well as model training strategy. Therefore, this paper 1) proposed an automatic training sample generation method via Google earth to build a large training sample set; and 2) explore the best training strategy for land cover classification using GoogleNet (Inception V3), one of the most widely used deep learning network. The result shows that the fine-tuning from first layer of Inception V3 using rough large sample set is the best strategy. The retrained network was then applied in one selected area from Xi'an city as a case study of GlobeLand30 refinement. The experiment results indicate that the proposed approach with Deep Learning and google earth imagery is a promising solution for further improving accuracy of GlobeLand30.

A new method for simultaneous detection and discrimination of Bovine herpesvirus types 1 (BoHV-1) and 5 (BoHV-5) using real time PCR with high resolution melting (HRM) analysis.

PubMed

Marin, M S; Quintana, S; Leunda, M R; Recavarren, M; Pagnuco, I; Späth, E; Pérez, S; Odeón, A

2016-01-01

Bovine herpesvirus types 1 (BoHV-1) and 5 (BoHV-5) are antigenically and genetically similar. The aim of this study was to develop a simple and reliable one-step real time PCR assay with high resolution melting (HRM) analysis for the simultaneous detection and differentiation of BoHV-1 and BoHV-5. Optimization of assay conditions was performed with DNA from reference strains. Then, DNA from field isolates, clinical samples and tissue samples of experimentally infected animals were studied by real time PCR-HRM. An efficient amplification of real time PCR products was obtained, and a clear melting curve and appropriate melting peaks for both viruses were achieved in the HRM curve analysis for BoHV type identification. BoHV was identified in all of the isolates and clinical samples, and BoHV types were properly differentiated. Furthermore, viral DNA was detected in 12/18 and 7/18 samples from BoHV-1- and BoHV-5-infected calves, respectively. Real time PCR-HRM achieved a higher sensitivity compared with virus isolation or conventional PCR. In this study, HRM was used as a novel procedure. This method provides rapid, sensitive, specific and simultaneous detection of bovine alpha-herpesviruses DNA. Thus, this technique is an excellent tool for diagnosis, research and epidemiological studies of these viruses in cattle. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exploring Galaxy Formation and Evolution via Structural Decomposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelvin, Lee; Driver, Simon; Robotham, Aaron; Hill, David; Cameron, Ewan

2010-06-01

The Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) structural decomposition pipeline (GAMA-SIGMA Structural Investigation of Galaxies via Model Analysis) will provide multi-component information for a sample of ~12,000 galaxies across 9 bands ranging from near-UV to near-IR. This will allow the relationship between structural properties and broadband, optical-to-near-IR, spectral energy distributions of bulge, bar, and disk components to be explored, revealing clues as to the history of baryonic mass assembly within a hierarchical clustering framework. Data is initially taken from the SDSS & UKIDSS-LAS surveys to test the robustness of our automated decomposition pipeline. This will eventually be replaced with the forthcoming higher-resolution VST & VISTA surveys data, expanding the sample to ~30,000 galaxies.

Probe for high resolution NMR with sample reorientation

DOEpatents

Pines, A.; Samoson, A.

1990-02-06

An improved NMR probe and method are described which substantially improve the resolution of NMR measurements made on powdered or amorphous or otherwise orientationally disordered samples. The apparatus mechanically varies the orientation of the sample such that the time average of two or more sets of spherical harmonic functions are zero. 8 figs.

Identifying Li-rich giants from low-resolution spectroscopic survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Yerra Bharat; Reddy, Bacham Eswar; Zhao, Gang

2018-04-01

In this paper we discuss our choice of a large unbiased sample used for the survey of red giant branch stars for finding Li-rich K giants, and the method used for identifying Li-rich candidates using low-resolution spectra. The sample has 2000 giants within a mass range of 0.8 to 3.0it{M}_{⊙}. Sample stars were selected from the Hipparcos catalogue with colour (B-V) and luminosity (it{L}/it{L}_{⊙}) in such way that the sample covers RGB evolution from its base towards RGB tip passing through first dredge-up and luminosity bump. Low-resolution (R ≈ 2000, 3500, 5000) spectra were obtained for all sample stars. Using core strength ratios of lines at Li I 6707 Å and its adjacent line Ca I 6717 Å we successfully identified 15 K giants with A(Li) > 1.5 dex, which are defined as Li-rich K giants. The results demonstrate the usefulness of low-resolution spectra to measure Li abundance and identify Li-rich giants from a large sample of stars in relatively shorter time periods.

High Resolution Measurements In U-Channel Technique And Implications For Sedimentological Purposes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acar, Dursun; Cagatay, Namık; Sarı, Erol; Eris, Kadir; Biltekin, Demet; Akcer, Sena; Meydan Gokdere, Feray; Makaroglu, Ozlem; Bulkan, Ozlem; Arslan, Tugce; Albut, Gulum; Yalamaz, Burak; Yakupoglu, Nurettin; Sabuncu, Asen; Fillikci, Betul; Yıldız, Guliz

2016-04-01

Mechanical features in-stu drilling for sediment cores and vacuum forces that affect while obtaining the sediments to the core tube are formed concave shaped deformations. Even in the half sections, concave deformation form still appears. During MCSL measurements, Laminae which forms concave shaped deformation, show interference thus, values indicate overall results for several laminae instead of single lamina. These interferenced data is not appropriate for paleoceanography studies which require extend accuracy and high frequency data set to describe geochemical and climatological effects in high resolution. U-Channel technique provides accurate location and isolated values for each lamina. In EMCOL Laboratories, U-channel provide well saturated and air-free environment for samples and, by using these technique U-channels are prepared with modificated MCSL for data acquisition. Even below millimeter scale sampling rate provides the separation of each lamina and, physical properties of every each lamina. Cover of u-channel is made by homogenous plastic in shape of rectangular prism geometry. Thus, during measurement, MSCL sensors may harm the sediment; however u-channel covers the sediment from this unwanted deformation from MSCL itself. U-channel technique can present micro scale angular changes in the laminae. Measurements that have been taken from U-channel are compared with the traditional half core measurements. Interestingly, accuracy of the positions for each lamina is much more detailed and, the resolution is progressively higher. Results from P Wave and Gamma ray density provide removed interference effects on each lamina. In this technique, it is high recommended that U-channel widens the resolution of core logging and generates more cleansed measurements in MCSL. For P- Wave Used Synthetic seismograms that modelled by MSCL data set which created from U-channel technique dictates each anomalies related with climatological and geological changes. Keywords: u channel , P-Wave, Gamma Ray Density, High resolution measurements, Data accuracy

Development of Turbulence-Measuring Equipment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kovasznay, Leslie S G

1954-01-01

Hot wire turbulence-measuring equipment has been developed to meet the more stringent requirements involved in the measurement of fluctuations in flow parameters at supersonic velocities. The higher mean speed necessitates the resolution of higher frequency components than at low speed, and the relatively low turbulence level present at supersonic speed makes necessary an improved noise level for the equipment. The equipment covers the frequency range from 2 to about 70,000 cycles per second. Constant-current operation is employed. Compensation for hot-wire lag is adjusted manually using square-wave testing to indicate proper setting. These and other features make the equipment adaptable to all-purpose turbulence work with improved utility and accuracy over that of older types of equipment. Sample measurements are given to demonstrate the performance.

Estimation of time-series properties of gourd observed solar irradiance data using cloud properties derived from satellite observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, T.; Nohara, D.

2017-12-01

The shorter temporal scale variation in the downward solar irradiance at the ground level (DSI) is not understood well because researches in the shorter-scale variation in the DSI is based on the ground observation and ground observation stations are located coarsely. Use of dataset derived from satellite observation will overcome such defect. DSI data and MODIS cloud properties product are analyzed simultaneously. Three metrics: mean, standard deviation and sample entropy, are used to evaluate time-series properties of the DSI. Three metrics are computed from two-hours time-series centered at the observation time of MODIS over the ground observation stations. We apply the regression methods to design prediction models of each three metrics from cloud properties. The validation of the model accuracy show that mean and standard deviation are predicted with a higher degree of accuracy and that the accuracy of prediction of sample entropy, which represents the complexity of time-series, is not high. One of causes of lower prediction skill of sample entropy is the resolution of the MODIS cloud properties. Higher sample entropy is corresponding to the rapid fluctuation, which is caused by the small and unordered cloud. It seems that such clouds isn't retrieved well.

The influence of spatial resolution and smoothing on the detectability of resting-state and task fMRI.

PubMed

Molloy, Erin K; Meyerand, Mary E; Birn, Rasmus M

2014-02-01

Functional MRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes can be subtle, motivating the use of imaging parameters and processing strategies that maximize the temporal signal-to-noise ratio (tSNR) and thus the detection power of neuronal activity-induced fluctuations. Previous studies have shown that acquiring data at higher spatial resolutions results in greater percent BOLD signal changes, and furthermore that spatially smoothing higher resolution fMRI data improves tSNR beyond that of data originally acquired at a lower resolution. However, higher resolution images come at the cost of increased acquisition time, and the number of image volumes also influences detectability. The goal of our study is to determine how the detection power of neuronally induced BOLD fluctuations acquired at higher spatial resolutions and then spatially smoothed compares to data acquired at the lower resolutions with the same imaging duration. The number of time points acquired during a given amount of imaging time is a practical consideration given the limited ability of certain populations to lie still in the MRI scanner. We compare acquisitions at three different in-plane spatial resolutions (3.50×3.50mm(2), 2.33×2.33mm(2), 1.75×1.75mm(2)) in terms of their tSNR, contrast-to-noise ratio, and the power to detect both task-related activation and resting-state functional connectivity. The impact of SENSE acceleration, which speeds up acquisition time increasing the number of images collected, is also evaluated. Our results show that after spatially smoothing the data to the same intrinsic resolution, lower resolution acquisitions have a slightly higher detection power of task-activation in some, but not all, brain areas. There were no significant differences in functional connectivity as a function of resolution after smoothing. Similarly, the reduced tSNR of fMRI data acquired with a SENSE factor of 2 is offset by the greater number of images acquired, resulting in few significant differences in detection power of either functional activation or connectivity after spatial smoothing. © 2013.

Geomagnetic Excursions and High-Latitude Paleomagnetic Records of Glaciomarine Sediments from the Western Greenland Margin (Baffin Bay)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Richter, C.; Jensen, S. R.; Acton, G. D.; Evans, H. F.

2017-12-01

We present new paleomagnetic results from Quaternary sediment samples recovered during the Baffin Bay Scientific Coring Expedition conducted by the JOIDES Resolution in 2012. The expedition recovered well-preserved core material from the Arctic Basin, providing an outstanding opportunity for the study of the behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitude. We analyzed material from 12 sites cored at latitudes between 74°45.32'N and 75°46.68'N in the Melville Bay region (Cape York and Melville Ridge) of Baffin Bay located at an average water depth of 394 m. The Quaternary glaciomarine sediments are up to 150 m thick and consist of very soft diatom-bearing muds to clast-rich sandy and muddy diamicts, which suggest deposition in a subglacial to ice-procimal environment. We carried out paleomagnetic and rock magnetic measurements on the shipboard cryogenic magnetometer at 5-cm resolution on 32 split-core sections and a selected number of discrete samples, and recently processed measurements taken at 1-cm resolution on eight U-channel samples from the uppermost Holocene part of the section. Stepwise demagnetization of the NRM demonstrates excellent demagnetization behavior, with a viscous isothermal remanent magnetization overprint, induced by the coring and sampling process, and typically removed by the 20 mT demagnetization step. The magnetic inclination data are characterized by steep, 80°, normal inclinations, consistent with the site position near the North Pole. Thermal demagnetization, magnetic susceptibility, isothermal remanent magnetization, and hysteresis parameters indicate that the primary magnetic carrier consists of a low-coercivity mineral, e.g., magnetite and/or titanomagnetite, with minor traces of higher-coercivity minerals. Well-developed geomagnetic excursions in the upper part of the section can be correlated between several sites. Although dating of these sediments remains a challenge because of the lack of carbonates we will discuss possible age models and use them to assign ages to the geomagnetic excursions.

Magnetic Resonance Super-resolution Imaging Measurement with Dictionary-optimized Sparse Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jun-Bao; Liu, Jing; Pan, Jeng-Shyang; Yao, Hongxun

2017-06-01

Magnetic Resonance Super-resolution Imaging Measurement (MRIM) is an effective way of measuring materials. MRIM has wide applications in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, medical and material science, especially in medical diagnosis. It is feasible to improve the resolution of MR imaging through increasing radiation intensity, but the high radiation intensity and the longtime of magnetic field harm the human body. Thus, in the practical applications the resolution of hardware imaging reaches the limitation of resolution. Software-based super-resolution technology is effective to improve the resolution of image. This work proposes a framework of dictionary-optimized sparse learning based MR super-resolution method. The framework is to solve the problem of sample selection for dictionary learning of sparse reconstruction. The textural complexity-based image quality representation is proposed to choose the optimal samples for dictionary learning. Comprehensive experiments show that the dictionary-optimized sparse learning improves the performance of sparse representation.

Atomic resolution images of graphite in air

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grigg, D.A.; Shedd, G.M.; Griffis, D.

One sample used for proof of operation for atomic resolution in STM is highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). This sample has been imaged with many different STM`s obtaining similar results. Atomic resolution images of HOPG have now been obtained using an STM designed and built at the Precision Engineering Center. This paper discusses the theoretical predictions and experimental results obtained in imaging of HOPG.

High Resolution Tissue Imaging Using the Single-probe Mass Spectrometry under Ambient Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rao, Wei; Pan, Ning; Yang, Zhibo

2015-06-01

Ambient mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is an emerging field with great potential for the detailed spatial analysis of biological samples with minimal pretreatment. We have developed a miniaturized sampling and ionization device, the Single-probe, which uses in-situ surface micro-extraction to achieve high detection sensitivity and spatial resolution during MSI experiments. The Single-probe was coupled to a Thermo LTQ Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer and was able to create high spatial and high mass resolution MS images at 8 ± 2 and 8.5 μm on flat polycarbonate microscope slides and mouse kidney sections, respectively, which are among the highest resolutions available for ambient MSI techniques. Our proof-of-principle experiments indicate that the Single-probe MSI technique has the potential to obtain ambient MS images with very high spatial resolutions with minimal sample preparation, which opens the possibility for subcellular ambient tissue MSI to be performed in the future.

Probing the effect of electron channelling on atomic resolution energy dispersive X-ray quantification.

PubMed

MacArthur, Katherine E; Brown, Hamish G; Findlay, Scott D; Allen, Leslie J

2017-11-01

Advances in microscope stability, aberration correction and detector design now make it readily possible to achieve atomic resolution energy dispersive X-ray mapping for dose resilient samples. These maps show impressive atomic-scale qualitative detail as to where the elements reside within a given sample. Unfortunately, while electron channelling is exploited to provide atomic resolution data, this very process makes the images rather more complex to interpret quantitatively than if no electron channelling occurred. Here we propose small sample tilt as a means for suppressing channelling and improving quantification of composition, whilst maintaining atomic-scale resolution. Only by knowing composition and thickness of the sample is it possible to determine the atomic configuration within each column. The effects of neighbouring atomic columns with differing composition and of residual channelling on our ability to extract exact column-by-column composition are also discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A novel weighted-direction color interpolation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Jin-you; Yang, Jianfeng; Xue, Bin; Liang, Xiaofen; Qi, Yong-hong; Wang, Feng

2013-08-01

A digital camera capture images by covering the sensor surface with a color filter array (CFA), only get a color sample at pixel location. Demosaicking is a process by estimating the missing color components of each pixel to get a full resolution image. In this paper, a new algorithm based on edge adaptive and different weighting factors is proposed. Our method can effectively suppress undesirable artifacts. Experimental results based on Kodak images show that the proposed algorithm obtain higher quality images compared to other methods in numerical and visual aspects.

Adaptive optics improves multiphoton super-resolution imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Wei; Wu, Yicong; Winter, Peter; Shroff, Hari

2018-02-01

Three dimensional (3D) fluorescence microscopy has been essential for biological studies. It allows interrogation of structure and function at spatial scales spanning the macromolecular, cellular, and tissue levels. Critical factors to consider in 3D microscopy include spatial resolution, signal-to-noise (SNR), signal-to-background (SBR), and temporal resolution. Maintaining high quality imaging becomes progressively more difficult at increasing depth (where optical aberrations, induced by inhomogeneities of refractive index in the sample, degrade resolution and SNR), and in thick or densely labeled samples (where out-of-focus background can swamp the valuable, in-focus-signal from each plane). In this report, we introduce our new instrumentation to address these problems. A multiphoton structured illumination microscope was simply modified to integrate an adpative optics system for optical aberrations correction. Firstly, the optical aberrations are determined using direct wavefront sensing with a nonlinear guide star and subsequently corrected using a deformable mirror, restoring super-resolution information. We demonstrate the flexibility of our adaptive optics approach on a variety of semi-transparent samples, including bead phantoms, cultured cells in collagen gels and biological tissues. The performance of our super-resolution microscope is improved in all of these samples, as peak intensity is increased (up to 40-fold) and resolution recovered (up to 176+/-10 nm laterally and 729+/-39 nm axially) at depths up to 250 μm from the coverslip surface.

A Study of the Extratropical Tropopause from Observations and Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Shu Meir

The extratropical tropopause is a familiar feature in meteorology; however, the understanding of the mechanisms for its existence, formation, maintenance and sharpness is still an active area of research. Son and Povalni (2007) used a simple general circulation model to produce the TIL (Tropopause Inversion Layer), and they found that the extratropical tropopause is more sensitive to the change of the horizontal resolution than to the change of the vertical resolution. The extratropical tropopause is sharper and lower in higher horizontal resolution. They also successfully mimicked the seasonal variation of the extratropical tropopause by changing the Equator-to-Pole temperature difference. They found these features of the extratropical tropopause, but they did not explain why these features were seen in their simplified model. In this research, we try to explain why these features of the extratropical tropopause are seen from both observations and the models. I have shown in my MS thesis that the distance from the jet is more associated with the extratropical tropopause than is the upper tropospheric relative vorticity (Wirth, 2001) from observations. In this research, the reproduction of the work is done from both the idealized and the full model run, and the results are similar to those from the observations, which show that even on synoptic time scales, the distance from the jet is more important in determining the extratropical tropopause height than is the upper tropospheric relative vorticity. It also explains the seasonal variations of the extratropical tropopause since the jet is more poleward in summer than in winter (the Equator-to-Pole temperature difference is smaller in summer than in winter), thus there is larger area at south of the jet which means the extratropical tropopause is sharper and higher at midlatitudes in summer than in winter. We believe that baroclinic mixing of PV is the key factor that sharpens the extratropical tropopause, and adequate horizontal resolution is needed to resolve the baroclinic mixing and the small-scale filamentary structures. We used many methods in this study to show that there is more baroclinic activity seen in higher horizontal resolution. We also compared the correlations of the tropopause height with three variations in different quantities (PV fluxes, the upper tropospheric vorticity, and heat fluxes), and found that the correlations of the tropopause height and PV fluxes are the highest among the three. Thus, we conclude that baroclinic mixing is the most important factor that controls the extratropical tropopause sharpness. This also explains why the extratropical tropopause is sharper at midlatitudes when higher horizontal resolution is used (see figure 2.4 in the thesis and figure 2 in Son and Polvani's (2007)) since there is more baroclinic activity in the higher horizontal resolution models. Since there is more baroclinic activity seen in higher horizontal resolution, the baroclinic eddy drag is larger, which intensifies the thermally direct cell. The stronger thermally direct cell with higher horizontal resolution has greater downward motion in higher latitudes, and thus lowers the extratropical tropopause more in higher horizontal resolution models, which explains why the extratropical tropopause is lower in higher horizontal than in lower horizontal resolution models, as in Son and Polvani's (2007) paper.

Far-field optical imaging with subdiffraction resolution enabled by nonlinear saturation absorption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Chenliang; Wei, Jingsong

2016-01-01

The resolution of far-field optical imaging is required to improve beyond the Abbe limit to the subdiffraction or even the nanoscale. In this work, inspired by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) imaging, in which carbon (or Au) thin films are usually required to be coated on the sample surface before imaging to remove the charging effect while imaging by electrons. We propose a saturation-absorption-induced far-field super-resolution optical imaging method (SAI-SRIM). In the SAI-SRIM, the carbon (or Au) layers in SEM imaging are replaced by nonlinear-saturation-absorption (NSA) thin films, which are directly coated onto the sample surfaces using advanced thin film deposition techniques. The surface fluctuant morphologies are replicated to the NSA thin films, accordingly. The coated sample surfaces are then imaged using conventional laser scanning microscopy. Consequently, the imaging resolution is greatly improved, and subdiffraction-resolved optical images are obtained theoretically and experimentally. The SAI-SRIM provides an effective and easy way to achieve far-field super-resolution optical imaging for sample surfaces with geometric fluctuant morphology characteristics.

Experimental study on microsphere assisted nanoscope in non-contact mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ling, Jinzhong; Li, Dancui; Liu, Xin; Wang, Xiaorui

2018-07-01

Microsphere assisted nanoscope was proposed in existing literatures to capture super-resolution images of the nano-structures beneath the microsphere attached on sample surface. In this paper, a microsphere assisted nanoscope working in non-contact mode is designed and demonstrated, in which the microsphere is controlled with a gap separated to sample surface. With a gap, the microsphere is moved in parallel to sample surface non-invasively, so as to observe all the areas of interest. Furthermore, the influence of gap size on image resolution is studied experimentally. Only when the microsphere is close enough to the sample surface, super-resolution image could be obtained. Generally, the resolution decreases when the gap increases as the contribution of evanescent wave disappears. To keep an appropriate gap size, a quantitative method is implemented to estimate the gap variation by observing Newton's rings around the microsphere, serving as a real-time feedback for tuning the gap size. With a constant gap, large-area image with high resolution can be obtained during microsphere scanning. Our study of non-contact mode makes the microsphere assisted nanoscope more practicable and easier to implement.

SPICA, Stellar Parameters and Images with a Cophased Array: a 6T visible combiner for the CHARA array.

PubMed

Mourard, Denis; Bério, Philippe; Perraut, Karine; Clausse, Jean-Michel; Creevey, Orlagh; Martinod, Marc-Antoine; Meilland, Anthony; Millour, Florentin; Nardetto, Nicolas

2017-05-01

High angular resolution studies of stars in the optical domain have highly progressed in recent years. After the results obtained with the visible instrument Visible spEctroGraph and polArimeter (VEGA) on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) array and the recent developments on adaptive optics and fibered interferometry, we have started the design and study of a new six-telescope visible combiner with single-mode fibers. It is designed as a low spectral resolution instrument for the measurement of the angular diameter of stars to make a major step forward in terms of magnitude and precision with respect to the present situation. For a large sample of bright stars, a medium spectral resolution mode will allow unprecedented spectral imaging of stellar surfaces and environments for higher accuracy on stellar/planetary parameters. To reach the ultimate performance of the instrument in terms of limiting magnitude (Rmag≃8 for diameter measurements and Rmag≃4 to 5 for imaging), Stellar Parameters and Images with a Cophased Array (SPICA) includes the development of a dedicated fringe tracking system in the H band to reach "long" (200 ms to 30 s) exposures of the fringe signal in the visible.

The evolution of inner disk winds from a large survey of high-resolution [OI] spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banzatti, Andrea; Pascucci, Illaria; Edwards, Suzan

2018-01-01

Current theoretical work suggests that protoplanetary disk evolution and dispersal could be driven by radially extended disk winds. I will present new observational results on the evolution of inner disk winds as linked to jets and to the dispersal of disks. The analysis is based on a large survey of forbidden emission from oxygen ([OI]) as observed in the optical (5577 and 6300 ang) at the spectral resolution of ~7 km/s, and it is part of a large recent effort (Rigliaco et al. 2013, Simon et al. 2016) to study winds at higher resolution than in the past. Past work identified two largely distinct components in [OI] emission: a high-velocity-component (HVC) that has been related to collimated jets, and a low-velocity-component (LVC) that has been attributed to slow disk winds (MHD and/or photoevaporative). The larger sample, high resolution, and improved correction for photospheric absorption now allow us to find new important clues, in particular in terms of the evolution of line blue-shifts and of 5577/6300 line flux ratios in the LVC. I will discuss these findings in the context of the properties and evolution of wind process(es) that are proposed to produce them.

Multispectral multisensor image fusion using wavelet transforms

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lemeshewsky, George P.

1999-01-01

Fusion techniques can be applied to multispectral and higher spatial resolution panchromatic images to create a composite image that is easier to interpret than the individual images. Wavelet transform-based multisensor, multiresolution fusion (a type of band sharpening) was applied to Landsat thematic mapper (TM) multispectral and coregistered higher resolution SPOT panchromatic images. The objective was to obtain increased spatial resolution, false color composite products to support the interpretation of land cover types wherein the spectral characteristics of the imagery are preserved to provide the spectral clues needed for interpretation. Since the fusion process should not introduce artifacts, a shift invariant implementation of the discrete wavelet transform (SIDWT) was used. These results were compared with those using the shift variant, discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Overall, the process includes a hue, saturation, and value color space transform to minimize color changes, and a reported point-wise maximum selection rule to combine transform coefficients. The performance of fusion based on the SIDWT and DWT was evaluated with a simulated TM 30-m spatial resolution test image and a higher resolution reference. Simulated imagery was made by blurring higher resolution color-infrared photography with the TM sensors' point spread function. The SIDWT based technique produced imagery with fewer artifacts and lower error between fused images and the full resolution reference. Image examples with TM and SPOT 10-m panchromatic illustrate the reduction in artifacts due to the SIDWT based fusion.

Monitoring of urban and rural basins: water quality of Mourão basin.

PubMed

Passig, F H; Lima, S B; Carvalho, K Q; Halmeman, M C R; Souza, P C; Gusmão, L K

2015-12-01

The Mourão River basin is located on the central western region of the Paraná State - Brazil, between coordinates 23º 44' - 24º 25 South latitude and 52º 12' - 52º 30' West longitude, between 270 and 820 m above sea level, and 1,648.21 km2 drainage area. Water quality was evaluated by monitoring physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. Monthly samplings were performed for a year at five sites in the basin for analysis of: pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, total nitrogen, ammoniacal nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, total phosphorus, turbidity, total solids, volatile solids and fecal coliforms. The results of the evaluated parameters showed higher values than the limits set by CONAMA Resolution 357 from 2005 for Class 2 in some samples. The Water Quality Index (WQI) indicated that 72% of samples had average quality and 28% had good quality for the Mourão River basin. Higher values of WQI were observed after rainfall period with median of 75 compared to the dry period with median of 62. The source of the Mourão River is contaminated with fecal coliforms, evidencing the real need to treat sewage in rural areas.

Chemical synthesis of hierarchical NiCo2S4 nanosheets like nanostructure on flexible foil for a high performance supercapacitor.

PubMed

Kim, D -Y; Ghodake, G S; Maile, N C; Kadam, A A; Sung Lee, Dae; Fulari, V J; Shinde, S K

2017-08-29

In this study, hierarchical interconnected nickel cobalt sulfide (NiCo 2 S 4 ) nanosheets were effectively deposited on a flexible stainless steel foil by the chemical bath deposition method (CBD) for high-performance supercapacitor applications. The resulting NiCo 2 S 4 sample was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and electrochemical measurements. XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results confirmed the formation of the ternary NiCo 2 S 4 sample with a pure cubic phase. FE-SEM and HR-TEM revealed that the entire foil surface was fully covered with the interconnected nanosheets like surface morphology. The NiCo 2 S 4 nanosheets demonstrated impressive electrochemical characteristics with a specific capacitance of 1155 F g -1 at 10 mV s -1 and superior cycling stability (95% capacity after 2000 cycles). These electrochemical characteristics could be attributed to the higher active area and higher conductivity of the sample. The results demonstrated that the interconnected NiCo 2 S 4 nanosheets are promising as electrodes for supercapacitor and energy storage applications.

72-directional display having VGA resolution for high-appearance image generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takaki, Yasuhiro; Dairiki, Takeshi

2006-02-01

The high-density directional display, which was originally developed in order to realize a natural 3D display, is not only a 3D display but also a high-appearance display. The appearances of objects, such as glare and transparency, are the results of the reflection and the refraction of rays. The faithful reproduction of such appearances of objects is impossible using conventional 2D displays because rays diffuse on the display screen. The high-density directional display precisely controls the horizontal ray directions so that it can reproduce the appearances of objects. The fidelity of the reproduction of object appearances depends on the ray angle sampling pitch. The angle sampling pitch is determined by considering the human eye imaging system. In the present study the high-appearance display which has the resolution of 640×400 and emits rays in 72 different horizontal directions with the angle pitch of 0.38° was constructed. Two 72-directional displays were combined, each of which consisted of a high-resolution LCD panel (3,840×2,400) and a slanted lenticular sheet. Two images produced by two displays were superimposed by a half mirror. A slit array was placed at the focal plane of the lenticular sheet for each display to reduce the horizontal image crosstalk in the combined image. The impression analysis shows that the high-appearance display provides higher appearances and presence than the conventional 2D displays do.

Ultra-high speed digital micro-mirror device based ptychographic iterative engine method

PubMed Central

Sun, Aihui; He, Xiaoliang; Kong, Yan; Cui, Haoyang; Song, Xiaojun; Xue, Liang; Wang, Shouyu; Liu, Cheng

2017-01-01

To reduce the long data acquisition time of the common mechanical scanning based Ptychographic Iterative Engine (PIE) technique, the digital micro-mirror device (DMD) is used to form the fast scanning illumination on the sample. Since the transverse mechanical scanning in the common PIE is replaced by the on/off switching of the micro-mirrors, the data acquisition time can be reduced from more than 15 minutes to less than 20 seconds for recording 12 × 10 diffraction patterns to cover the same field of 147.08 mm2. Furthermore, since the precision of DMD fabricated with the optical lithography is always higher than 10 nm (1 μm for the mechanical translation stage), the time consuming position-error-correction procedure is not required in the iterative reconstruction. These two improvements fundamentally speed up both the data acquisition and the reconstruction procedures in PIE, and relax its requirements on the stability of the imaging system, therefore remarkably improve its applicability for many practices. It is demonstrated experimentally with both USAF resolution target and biological sample that, the spatial resolution of 5.52 μm and the field of view of 147.08 mm2 can be reached with the DMD based PIE method. In a word, by using the DMD to replace the translation stage, we can effectively overcome the main shortcomings of common PIE related to the mechanical scanning, while keeping its advantages on both the high resolution and large field of view. PMID:28717560

Manage Your Life Online (MYLO): a pilot trial of a conversational computer-based intervention for problem solving in a student sample.

PubMed

Gaffney, Hannah; Mansell, Warren; Edwards, Rachel; Wright, Jason

2014-11-01

Computerized self-help that has an interactive, conversational format holds several advantages, such as flexibility across presenting problems and ease of use. We designed a new program called MYLO that utilizes the principles of METHOD of Levels (MOL) therapy--based upon Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). We tested the efficacy of MYLO, tested whether the psychological change mechanisms described by PCT mediated its efficacy, and evaluated effects of client expectancy. Forty-eight student participants were randomly assigned to MYLO or a comparison program ELIZA. Participants discussed a problem they were currently experiencing with their assigned program and completed measures of distress, resolution and expectancy preintervention, postintervention and at 2-week follow-up. MYLO and ELIZA were associated with reductions in distress, depression, anxiety and stress. MYLO was considered more helpful and led to greater problem resolution. The psychological change processes predicted higher ratings of MYLO's helpfulness and reductions in distress. Positive expectancies towards computer-based problem solving correlated with MYLO's perceived helpfulness and greater problem resolution, and this was partly mediated by the psychological change processes identified. The findings provide provisional support for the acceptability of the MYLO program in a non-clinical sample although its efficacy as an innovative computer-based aid to problem solving remains unclear. Nevertheless, the findings provide tentative early support for the mechanisms of psychological change identified within PCT and highlight the importance of client expectations on predicting engagement in computer-based self-help.

High-speed and high-resolution quantitative phase imaging with digital-micromirror device-based illumination (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Renjie; Jin, Di; Yaqoob, Zahid; So, Peter T. C.

2017-02-01

Due to the large number of available mirrors, the patterning speed, low-cost, and compactness, digital-micromirror devices (DMDs) have been extensively used in biomedical imaging system. Recently, DMDs have been brought to the quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) field to achieve synthetic-aperture imaging and tomographic imaging. Last year, our group demonstrated using DMD for QPM, where the phase-retrieval is based on a recently developed Fourier ptychography algorithm. In our previous system, the illumination angle was varied through coding the aperture plane of the illumination system, which has a low efficiency on utilizing the laser power. In our new DMD-based QPM system, we use the Lee-holograms, which is conjugated to the sample plane, to change the illumination angles for much higher power efficiency. Multiple-angle illumination can also be achieved with this method. With this versatile system, we can achieve FPM-based high-resolution phase imaging with 250 nm lateral resolution using the Rayleigh criteria. Due to the use of a powerful laser, the imaging speed would only be limited by the camera acquisition speed. With a fast camera, we expect to achieve close to 100 fps phase imaging speed that has not been achieved in current FPM imaging systems. By adding reference beam, we also expect to achieve synthetic-aperture imaging while directly measuring the phase of the sample fields. This would reduce the phase-retrieval processing time to allow for real-time imaging applications in the future.

An Adaptation of the Distance Driven Projection Method for Single Pinhole Collimators in SPECT Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ihsani, Alvin; Farncombe, Troy

2016-02-01

The modelling of the projection operator in tomographic imaging is of critical importance especially when working with algebraic methods of image reconstruction. This paper proposes a distance-driven projection method which is targeted to single-pinhole single-photon emission computed tomograghy (SPECT) imaging since it accounts for the finite size of the pinhole, and the possible tilting of the detector surface in addition to other collimator-specific factors such as geometric sensitivity. The accuracy and execution time of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing to a ray-driven approach where the pinhole is sub-sampled with various sampling schemes. A point-source phantom whose projections were generated using OpenGATE was first used to compare the resolution of reconstructed images with each method using the full width at half maximum (FWHM). Furthermore, a high-activity Mini Deluxe Phantom (Data Spectrum Corp., Durham, NC, USA) SPECT resolution phantom was scanned using a Gamma Medica X-SPECT system and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and structural similarity of reconstructed images was compared at various projection counts. Based on the reconstructed point-source phantom, the proposed distance-driven approach results in a lower FWHM than the ray-driven approach even when using a smaller detector resolution. Furthermore, based on the Mini Deluxe Phantom, it is shown that the distance-driven approach has consistently higher SNR and structural similarity compared to the ray-driven approach as the counts in measured projections deteriorates.

Versatile lipid profiling by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry using all ion fragmentation and polarity switching. Preliminary application for serum samples phenotyping related to canine mammary cancer.

PubMed

Gallart-Ayala, H; Courant, F; Severe, S; Antignac, J-P; Morio, F; Abadie, J; Le Bizec, B

2013-09-24

Lipids represent an extended class of substances characterized by such high variety and complexity that makes their unified analyses by liquid chromatography coupled to either high resolution or tandem mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS or LC-MS/MS) a real challenge. In the present study, a new versatile methodology associating ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS/MS) have been developed for a comprehensive analysis of lipids. The use of polarity switching and "all ion fragmentation" (AIF) have been two action levels particularly exploited to finally permit the detection and identification of a multi-class and multi-analyte extended range of lipids in a single run. For identification purposes, both higher energy collision dissociation (HCD) and in-source CID (collision induced dissociation) fragmentation were evaluated in order to obtain information about the precursor and product ions in the same spectra. This approach provides both class-specific and lipid-specific fragments, enhancing lipid identification. Finally, the developed method was applied for differential phenotyping of serum samples collected from pet dogs developing spontaneous malignant mammary tumors and health controls. A biological signature associated with the presence of cancer was then successfully revealed from this lipidome analysis, which required to be further investigated and confirmed at larger scale. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Demosaicking for full motion video 9-band SWIR sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanaev, Andrey V.; Rawhouser, Marjorie; Kutteruf, Mary R.; Yetzbacher, Michael K.; DePrenger, Michael J.; Novak, Kyle M.; Miller, Corey A.; Miller, Christopher W.

2014-05-01

Short wave infrared (SWIR) spectral imaging systems are vital for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) applications because of their abilities to autonomously detect targets and classify materials. Typically the spectral imagers are incapable of providing Full Motion Video (FMV) because of their reliance on line scanning. We enable FMV capability for a SWIR multi-spectral camera by creating a repeating pattern of 3x3 spectral filters on a staring focal plane array (FPA). In this paper we present the imagery from an FMV SWIR camera with nine discrete bands and discuss image processing algorithms necessary for its operation. The main task of image processing in this case is demosaicking of the spectral bands i.e. reconstructing full spectral images with original FPA resolution from spatially subsampled and incomplete spectral data acquired with the choice of filter array pattern. To the best of author's knowledge, the demosaicking algorithms for nine or more equally sampled bands have not been reported before. Moreover all existing algorithms developed for demosaicking visible color filter arrays with less than nine colors assume either certain relationship between the visible colors, which are not valid for SWIR imaging, or presence of one color band with higher sampling rate compared to the rest of the bands, which does not conform to our spectral filter pattern. We will discuss and present results for two novel approaches to demosaicking: interpolation using multi-band edge information and application of multi-frame super-resolution to a single frame resolution enhancement of multi-spectral spatially multiplexed images.

Replication of Muscle Cell Using Bioimprint

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samsuri, Fahmi; Mitchell, John S.; Alkaisi, Maan M.; Evans, John J.

2009-07-01

In our earlier study a heat-curable PDMS or a UV curable elastomer, was used as the replicating material to introduce Bioimprint methodology to facilitate cell imaging [1-2] But, replicating conditions for thermal polymerization is known to cause cell dehydration during curing. In this study, a new type of polymer was developed for use in living cell replica formation, and it was tested on human muscle cells. The cells were incubated and cultured according to standard biological culturing procedures, and they were grown for about 10 days. The replicas were then separated from the muscle cells and taken for analysis under an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The new polymer was designed to be biocompatible with higher resolution and fast curing process compared to other types of silicon-based organic polymers such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Muscle cell imprints were achieved and higher resolution images were able to show the micro structures of the muscle cells, including the cellular fibers and cell membranes. The AFM is able to image features at nanoscale resolution. This capacity enables a number of characteristics of biological cells to be visualized in a unique manner. Polymer and muscle cells preparations were developed at Hamilton, in collaboration between Plant and Food Research and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury. Tapping mode was used for the AFM image analysis as it has low tip-sample forces and non-destructive imaging capability. We will be presenting the bioimprinting processes of muscle cells, their AFM imaging and characterization of the newly developed polymer.

Apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope working with or without laser source.

PubMed

Formanek, F; De Wilde, Y; Aigouy, L; Chen, Y

2004-01-01

An apertureless near-field scanning optical microscope (ANSOM), used indifferent configurations, is presented. Our versatile home-made setup, based on a sharp tungsten tip glued onto a quartz tuning fork and working in tapping mode, allows to perform imaging over a broad spectral range. We have recorded optical images in the visible (wavelength, lambda = 655 nm) and in the infrared (lambda = 10.6 microm), proving that the setup routinely achieves an optical resolution of <50 nm regardless of the illumination wavelength. We have also shown optical images recorded in the visible (lambda = 655 nm) in an inverted configuration where the tip does not perturb the focused spot of the illumination laser. Approach curves as well as image profiles have revealed that on demodulating the optical signal at higher harmonics, we can obtain an effective probe sharpening which results in an improvement of the resolution. Finally, we have presented optical images recorded in the infrared without any illumination, that is, the usual laser source is replaced by a simple heating of the sample. This has shown that the ANSOM can be used as a near-field thermal optical microscope (NTOM) to probe the near field generated by the thermal emission of the sample.

The outlook for precipitation measurements from space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Atlas, D.; Eckerman, J.; Meneghini, R.; Moore, R. K.

1981-01-01

To provide useful precipitation measurements from space, two requirements must be met: adequate spatial and temporal sampling of the storm and sufficient accuracy in the estimate of precipitation intensity. Although presently no single instrument or method completely satisfies both requirements, the visible/IR, microwave radiometer and radar methods can be used in a complementary manner. Visible/IR instruments provide good temporal sampling and rain area depiction, but recourse must be made to microwave measurements for quantitative rainfall estimates. The inadequacy of microwave radiometer measurements over land suggests, in turn, the use of radar. Several recently developed attenuating-wavelength radar methods are discussed in terms of their accuracy, dynamic range and system implementation. Traditionally, the requirements of high resolution and adequate dynamic range led to fairly costly and complex radar systems. Some simplications and cost reduction can be made; however, by using K-band wavelengths which have the advantages of greater sensitivity at the low rain rates and higher resolution capabilities. Several recently proposed methods of this kind are reviewed in terms of accuracy and system implementation. Finally, an adaptive-pointing multi-sensor instrument is described that would exploit certain advantages of the IR, radiometric and radar methods.

Linking metabolite production to taxonomic identity in environmental samples by (MA)LDI-FISH

PubMed Central

Kaltenpoth, Martin; Strupat, Kerstin; Svatoš, Aleš

2016-01-01

One of the greatest challenges in microbial ecology remains to link the metabolic activity of individual cells to their taxonomic identity and localization within environmental samples. Here we combined mass-spectrometric imaging (MSI) through (matrix-assisted) laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MSI ([MA]LDI-TOF/MSI) with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to monitor antibiotic production in the defensive symbiosis between beewolf wasps and ‘Streptomyces philanthi' bacteria. Our results reveal similar distributions of the different symbiont-produced antibiotics across the surface of beewolf cocoons, which colocalize with the producing cell populations. Whereas FISH achieves single-cell resolution, MSI is currently limited to a step size of 20–50 μm in the combined approach because of the destructive effects of high laser intensities that are associated with tighter laser beam focus at higher lateral resolution. However, on the basis of the applicability of (MA)LDI-MSI to a broad range of small molecules, its combination with FISH provides a powerful tool for studying microbial interactions in situ, and further modifications of this technique could allow for linking metabolic profiling to gene expression. PMID:26172211

Digitally controlled analog proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for high-speed scanning probe microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dukic, Maja; Todorov, Vencislav; Andany, Santiago; Nievergelt, Adrian P.; Yang, Chen; Hosseini, Nahid; Fantner, Georg E.

2017-12-01

Nearly all scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) contain a feedback controller, which is used to move the scanner in the direction of the z-axis in order to maintain a constant setpoint based on the tip-sample interaction. The most frequently used feedback controller in SPMs is the proportional-integral (PI) controller. The bandwidth of the PI controller presents one of the speed limiting factors in high-speed SPMs, where higher bandwidths enable faster scanning speeds and higher imaging resolution. Most SPM systems use digital signal processor-based PI feedback controllers, which require analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. These converters introduce additional feedback delays which limit the achievable imaging speed and resolution. In this paper, we present a digitally controlled analog proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. The controller implementation allows tunability of the PID gains over a large amplification and frequency range, while also providing precise control of the system and reproducibility of the gain parameters. By using the analog PID controller, we were able to perform successful atomic force microscopy imaging of a standard silicon calibration grating at line rates up to several kHz.

Digitally controlled analog proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for high-speed scanning probe microscopy.

PubMed

Dukic, Maja; Todorov, Vencislav; Andany, Santiago; Nievergelt, Adrian P; Yang, Chen; Hosseini, Nahid; Fantner, Georg E

2017-12-01

Nearly all scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) contain a feedback controller, which is used to move the scanner in the direction of the z-axis in order to maintain a constant setpoint based on the tip-sample interaction. The most frequently used feedback controller in SPMs is the proportional-integral (PI) controller. The bandwidth of the PI controller presents one of the speed limiting factors in high-speed SPMs, where higher bandwidths enable faster scanning speeds and higher imaging resolution. Most SPM systems use digital signal processor-based PI feedback controllers, which require analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters. These converters introduce additional feedback delays which limit the achievable imaging speed and resolution. In this paper, we present a digitally controlled analog proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. The controller implementation allows tunability of the PID gains over a large amplification and frequency range, while also providing precise control of the system and reproducibility of the gain parameters. By using the analog PID controller, we were able to perform successful atomic force microscopy imaging of a standard silicon calibration grating at line rates up to several kHz.

Estimation and Validation of Oceanic Mass Circulation from the GRACE Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boy, J.-P.; Rowlands, D. D.; Sabaka, T. J.; Luthcke, S. B.; Lemoine, F. G.

2011-01-01

Since the launch of the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) in March 2002, the Earth's surface mass variations have been monitored with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. Compared to the classical spherical harmonic solutions, global high-resolution mascon solutions allows the retrieval of mass variations with higher spatial and temporal sampling (2 degrees and 10 days). We present here the validation of the GRACE global mascon solutions by comparing mass estimates to a set of about 100 ocean bottom pressure (OSP) records, and show that the forward modelling of continental hydrology prior to the inversion of the K-band range rate data allows better estimates of ocean mass variations. We also validate our GRACE results to OSP variations modelled by different state-of-the-art ocean general circulation models, including ECCO (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean) and operational and reanalysis from the MERCATOR project.

Shot-noise limited throughput of soft x-ray ptychography for nanometrology applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koek, Wouter; Florijn, Bastiaan; Bäumer, Stefan; Kruidhof, Rik; Sadeghian, Hamed

2018-03-01

Due to its potential for high resolution and three-dimensional imaging, soft x-ray ptychography has received interest for nanometrology applications. We have analyzed the measurement time per unit area when using soft x-ray ptychography for various nanometrology applications including mask inspection and wafer inspection, and are thus able to predict (order of magnitude) throughput figures. Here we show that for a typical measurement system, using a typical sampling strategy, and when aiming for 10-15 nm resolution, it is expected that a wafer-based topology (2.5D) measurement takes approximately 4 minutes per μm2 , and a full three-dimensional measurement takes roughly 6 hours per μm2 . Due to their much higher reflectivity EUV masks can be measured considerably faster; a measurement speed of 0.1 seconds per μm2 is expected. However, such speeds do not allow for full wafer or mask inspection at industrially relevant throughput.

Reconciling CloudSat and GPM Estimates of Falling Snow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Munchak, S. Joseph; Jackson, Gail Skofronick; Kulie, Mark; Wood, Norm; Miliani, Lisa

2017-01-01

Satellite-based estimates of falling snow have been provided by CloudSat (launched in 2006) and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core satellite (launched in 2014). The CloudSat estimates are derived from W-band radar measurements whereas the GPM estimates are derived from its scanning Ku- and Ka-band Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and 13-channel microwave imager (GMI). Each platform has advantages and disadvantages: CloudSat has higher resolution (approximately 1.5 km) and much better sensitivity (-28 dBZ), but poorer sampling (nadir-only and daytime-only since 2011) and the reflectivity-snowfall (Z-S) relationship is poorly constrained with single-frequency measurements. Meanwhile, DPR suffers from relatively poor resolution (5 km) and sensitivity (approximately 13 dBZ), but has cross-track scanning capability to cover a 245-km swath. Additionally, where Ku and Ka measurements are available, the conversion of reflectivity to snowfall rate is better-constrained than with a single frequency.

Optical rotation based chirality detection of enantiomers via weak measurement in frequency domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Dongmei; Guan, Tian; Liu, Fang; Yang, Anping; He, Yonghong; He, Qinghua; Shen, Zhiyuan; Xin, Meiguo

2018-05-01

A transmission optical rotation detection scheme based on a weak measurement was proposed for the chirality detection of enantiomers. In this transmission weak measurement system in the frequency domain, the optical activity of the chiral liquid sample was estimated with the central wavelength shift, by modifying the preselected polarization state with the optical rotation (OR). The central wavelength shift of output spectra is sensitive to the OR angle but immune to the interference of the refractive index change caused by measuring circumstances. Two isomers of chiral amino acid acquired opposite responses with this system, and a resolution of 2.17 × 10-9 mol/ml for Proline detection could be obtained. Such a resolution is about 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of common methods, which shows a high sensitivity. This proposed weak measurement scenario suggested an approach to polarimetry and provided a way to accurately assess molecular chirality.

Measuring saccade peak velocity using a low-frequency sampling rate of 50 Hz.

PubMed

Wierts, Roel; Janssen, Maurice J A; Kingma, Herman

2008-12-01

During the last decades, small head-mounted video eye trackers have been developed in order to record eye movements. Real-time systems-with a low sampling frequency of 50/60 Hz-are used for clinical vestibular practice, but are generally considered not to be suited for measuring fast eye movements. In this paper, it is shown that saccadic eye movements, having an amplitude of at least 5 degrees, can, in good approximation, be considered to be bandwidth limited up to a frequency of 25-30 Hz. Using the Nyquist theorem to reconstruct saccadic eye movement signals at higher temporal resolutions, it is shown that accurate values for saccade peak velocities, recorded at 50 Hz, can be obtained, but saccade peak accelerations and decelerations cannot. In conclusion, video eye trackers sampling at 50/60 Hz are appropriate for detecting the clinical relevant saccade peak velocities in contrast to what has been stated up till now.

Magnetoacoustic Imaging of Electrical Conductivity of Biological Tissues at a Spatial Resolution Better than 2 mm

PubMed Central

Hu, Gang; He, Bin

2011-01-01

Magnetoacoustic tomography with magnetic induction (MAT-MI) is an emerging approach for noninvasively imaging electrical impedance properties of biological tissues. The MAT-MI imaging system measures ultrasound waves generated by the Lorentz force, having been induced by magnetic stimulation, which is related to the electrical conductivity distribution in tissue samples. MAT-MI promises to provide fine spatial resolution for biological tissue imaging as compared to ultrasound resolution. In the present study, we first estimated the imaging spatial resolution by calculating the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the system point spread function (PSF). The actual spatial resolution of our MAT-MI system was experimentally determined to be 1.51 mm by a parallel-line-source phantom with Rayleigh criterion. Reconstructed images made from tissue-mimicking gel phantoms, as well as animal tissue samples, were consistent with the morphological structures of the samples. The electrical conductivity value of the samples was determined directly by a calibrated four-electrode system. It has been demonstrated that MAT-MI is able to image the electrical impedance properties of biological tissues with better than 2 mm spatial resolution. These results suggest the potential of MAT-MI for application to early detection of small-size diseased tissues (e.g. small breast cancer). PMID:21858111

Seasonal Synechococcus and Thaumarchaeal population dynamics examined with high resolution with remote in situ instrumentation

PubMed Central

Robidart, Julie C; Preston, Christina M; Paerl, Ryan W; Turk, Kendra A; Mosier, Annika C; Francis, Christopher A; Scholin, Christopher A; Zehr, Jonathan P

2012-01-01

Monterey Bay, CA is an Eastern boundary upwelling system that is nitrogen limited much of the year. In order to resolve population dynamics of microorganisms important for nutrient cycling in this region, we deployed the Environmental Sample Processor with quantitative PCR assays targeting both ribosomal RNA genes and functional genes for subclades of cyanobacteria (Synechococcus) and ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (Thaumarchaeota) populations. Results showed a strong correlation between Thaumarchaea abundances and nitrate during the spring upwelling but not the fall sampling period. In relatively stratified fall waters, the Thaumarchaeota community reached higher numbers than in the spring, and an unexpected positive correlation with chlorophyll concentration was observed. Further, we detected drops in Synechococcus abundance that occurred on short (that is, daily) time scales. Upwelling intensity and blooms of eukaryotic phytoplankton strongly influenced Synechococcus distributions in the spring and fall, revealing what appear to be the environmental limitations of Synechococcus populations in this region. Each of these findings has implications for Monterey Bay biogeochemistry. High-resolution sampling provides a better-resolved framework within which to observe changes in the plankton community. We conclude that controls on these ecosystems change on smaller scales than are routinely assessed, and that more predictable trends will be uncovered if they are evaluated within seasonal (monthly), rather than on annual or interannual scales. PMID:21975596

First Results From High-Resolution Front End Electronics for Water Cherenkov Air Shower Detectors Equipped With Cyclone® V FPGA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szadkowski, Zbigniew

2016-06-01

The paper presents first results from the Front-End Board (FEB) with the biggest Cyclone® V E FPGA 5CEFA9F31I7N, supporting 8 channels sampled up to 250 MSps @ 14-bit resolution. Considered sampling for the planned upgrade of the Pierre Auger surface detector array is 120 MSps, however, the FEB has been developed with external anti-aliasing filters to keep a maximal flexibility. Six channels are targeted to the SD, two the rest for other experiments like: Auger Engineering Radio Array and additional muon counters. More channels and higher sampling generate larger size of registered events. We used the standard radio channel for a radio transmission from the detectors to the Central Data Acquisition Station (CDAS) to avoid at present a significant modification of a software in both sides: the detector and the CDAS (planned in a future for a final design). Several variants of the FPGA code were tested for 120, 160, 200 and even 240 MSps DAQ. Tests confirmed a stability and reliability of the FEB design in real pampas conditions with more than 40°C daily temperature variation and a strong sun exposition with a limited power budget only from a single solar panel. Seven FEBs have been deployed in a hexagon of test detectors on a dedicated Engineering Array.

[Screening and confirmation of 24 hormones in cosmetics by ultra high performance liquid chromatography-linear ion trap/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry].

PubMed

Li, Zhaoyong; Wang, Fengmei; Niu, Zengyuan; Luo, Xin; Zhang, Gang; Chen, Junhui

2014-05-01

A method of ultra high performance liquid chromatography-linear ion trap/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-LTQ/Orbitrap MS) was established to screen and confirm 24 hormones in cosmetics. Various cosmetic samples were extracted with methanol. The extract was loaded onto a Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column (50 mm x 2.1 mm, 1.7 microm) using a gradient elution of acetonitrile/water containing 0.1% (v/v) formic acid for the separation. The accurate mass of quasi-molecular ion was acquired by full scanning of electrostatic field orbitrap. The rapid screening was carried out by the accurate mass of quasi-molecular ion. The confirmation analysis for targeted compounds was performed with the retention time and qualitative fragments obtained by data dependent scan mode. Under the optimal conditions, the 24 hormones were routinely detected with mass accuracy error below 3 x 10(-6) (3 ppm), and good linearities were obtained in their respective linear ranges with correlation coefficients higher than 0.99. The LODs (S/N = 3) of the 24 compounds were < or = 10 microg/kg, which can meet the requirements for the actual screening of cosmetic samples. The developed method was applied to screen the hormones in 50 cosmetic samples. The results demonstrate that the method is a useful tool for the rapid screening and identification of the hormones in cosmetics.

Taxonomic discrimination of higher plants by pyrolysis mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Kim, S W; Ban, S H; Chung, H J; Choi, D W; Choi, P S; Yoo, O J; Liu, J R

2004-02-01

Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PyMS) is a rapid, simple, high-resolution analytical method based on thermal degradation of complex material in a vacuum and has been widely applied to the discrimination of closely related microbial strains. Leaf samples of six species and one variety of higher plants (Rosa multiflora, R. multiflora var. platyphylla, Sedum kamtschaticum, S. takesimense, S. sarmentosum, Hepatica insularis, and H. asiatica) were subjected to PyMS for spectral fingerprinting. Principal component analysis of PyMS data was not able to discriminate these plants in discrete clusters. However, canonical variate analysis of PyMS data separated these plants from one another. A hierarchical dendrogram based on canonical variate analysis was in agreement with the known taxonomy of the plants at the variety level. These results indicate that PyMS is able to discriminate higher plants based on taxonomic classification at the family, genus, species, and variety level.

Resolution and quality enhancement in terahertz in-line holography by sub-pixel sampling with double-distance reconstruction.

PubMed

Li, Zeyu; Li, Lei; Qin, Yu; Li, Guangbin; Wang, Du; Zhou, Xun

2016-09-05

We demonstrate the enhancement of resolution and image quality in terahertz (THz) lens-free in-line digital holography by sub-pixel sampling with double-distance reconstruction. Multiple sub-pixel shifted low-resolution (LR) holograms recorded by a pyroelectric array detector (100 μm × 100 μm pixel pitch, 124 × 124 pixels) are aligned precisely to synthesize a high-resolution (HR) hologram. By this method, the lateral resolution is no more limited by the pixel pitch, and lateral resolution of 150 μm is obtained, which corresponds to 1.26λ with respect to the illuminating wavelength of 118.8 μm (2.52 THz). Compared with other published works, to date, this is the highest resolution in THz digital holography when considering the illuminating wavelength. In addition, to suppress the twin-image and zero-order artifacts, the complex amplitude distributions of both object and illuminaing background wave fields are reconstructed simultaneously. This is achieved by iterative phase retrieval between the double HR holograms and background images at two recording planes, which does not require any constraints on object plane or a priori knowledge of the sample.

High quality transmission Kikuchi diffraction analysis of deformed alloys - Case study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tokarski, Tomasz, E-mail: tokarski@agh.edu.pl

Modern scanning electron microscopes (SEM) equipped with thermally assisted field emission guns (Schottky FEG) are capable of imaging with a resolution in the range of several nanometers or better. Simultaneously, the high electron beam current can be used, which enables fast chemical and crystallographic analysis with a higher resolution than is normally offered by SEM with a tungsten cathode. The current resolution that limits the EDS and EBSD analysis is related to materials' physics, particularly to the electron-specimen interaction volume. The application of thin, electron-transparent specimens, instead of bulk samples, improves the resolution and allows for the detailed analysis ofmore » very fine microstructural features. Beside the typical imaging mode, it is possible to use a standard EBSD camera in such a configuration that only transmitted and scattered electrons are detected. This modern approach was successfully applied to various materials giving rise to significant resolution improvement, especially for the light element magnesium based alloys. This paper presents an insight into the application of the transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) technique applied to the most troublesome, heavily-deformed materials. In particular, the values of the highest possible acquisition rates for high resolution and high quality mapping were estimated within typical imaging conditions of stainless steel and magnesium-yttrium alloy. - Highlights: •Monte Carlo simulations were used to simulate EBSD camera intensity for various measuring conditions. •Transmission Kikuchi diffraction parameters were evaluated for highly deformed, light and heavy elements based alloys. •High quality maps with 20 nm spatial resolution were acquired for Mg and Fe based alloys. •High speed TKD measurements were performed at acquisition rates comparable to the reflection EBSD.« less

Landsat multispectral sharpening using a sensor system model and panchromatic image

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lemeshewsky, G.P.; ,

2003-01-01

The thematic mapper (TM) sensor aboard Landsats 4, 5 and enhanced TM plus (ETM+) on Landsat 7 collect imagery at 30-m sample distance in six spectral bands. New with ETM+ is a 15-m panchromatic (P) band. With image sharpening techniques, this higher resolution P data, or as an alternative, the 10-m (or 5-m) P data of the SPOT satellite, can increase the spatial resolution of the multispectral (MS) data. Sharpening requires that the lower resolution MS image be coregistered and resampled to the P data before high spatial frequency information is transferred to the MS data. For visual interpretation and machine classification tasks, it is important that the sharpened data preserve the spectral characteristics of the original low resolution data. A technique was developed for sharpening (in this case, 3:1 spatial resolution enhancement) visible spectral band data, based on a model of the sensor system point spread function (PSF) in order to maintain spectral fidelity. It combines high-pass (HP) filter sharpening methods with iterative image restoration to reduce degradations caused by sensor-system-induced blurring and resembling. Also there is a spectral fidelity requirement: sharpened MS when filtered by the modeled degradations should reproduce the low resolution source MS. Quantitative evaluation of sharpening performance was made by using simulated low resolution data generated from digital color-IR aerial photography. In comparison to the HP-filter-based sharpening method, results for the technique in this paper with simulated data show improved spectral fidelity. Preliminary results with TM 30-m visible band data sharpened with simulated 10-m panchromatic data are promising but require further study.

Geomorphometric multi-scale analysis for the recognition of Moon surface features using multi-resolution DTMs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ke; Chen, Jianping; Sofia, Giulia; Tarolli, Paolo

2014-05-01

Moon surface features have great significance in understanding and reconstructing the lunar geological evolution. Linear structures like rilles and ridges are closely related to the internal forced tectonic movement. The craters widely distributed on the moon are also the key research targets for external forced geological evolution. The extremely rare availability of samples and the difficulty for field works make remote sensing the most important approach for planetary studies. New and advanced lunar probes launched by China, U.S., Japan and India provide nowadays a lot of high-quality data, especially in the form of high-resolution Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), bringing new opportunities and challenges for feature extraction on the moon. The aim of this study is to recognize and extract lunar features using geomorphometric analysis based on multi-scale parameters and multi-resolution DTMs. The considered digital datasets include CE1-LAM (Chang'E One, Laser AltiMeter) data with resolution of 500m/pix, LRO-WAC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Wide Angle Camera) data with resolution of 100m/pix, LRO-LOLA (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) data with resolution of 60m/pix, and LRO-NAC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Narrow Angle Camera) data with resolution of 2-5m/pix. We considered surface derivatives to recognize the linear structures including Rilles and Ridges. Different window scales and thresholds for are considered for feature extraction. We also calculated the roughness index to identify the erosion/deposits area within craters. The results underline the suitability of the adopted methods for feature recognition on the moon surface. The roughness index is found to be a useful tool to distinguish new craters, with higher roughness, from the old craters, which present a smooth and less rough surface.

Super-resolution convolutional neural network for the improvement of the image quality of magnified images in chest radiographs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Umehara, Kensuke; Ota, Junko; Ishimaru, Naoki; Ohno, Shunsuke; Okamoto, Kentaro; Suzuki, Takanori; Shirai, Naoki; Ishida, Takayuki

2017-02-01

Single image super-resolution (SR) method can generate a high-resolution (HR) image from a low-resolution (LR) image by enhancing image resolution. In medical imaging, HR images are expected to have a potential to provide a more accurate diagnosis with the practical application of HR displays. In recent years, the super-resolution convolutional neural network (SRCNN), which is one of the state-of-the-art deep learning based SR methods, has proposed in computer vision. In this study, we applied and evaluated the SRCNN scheme to improve the image quality of magnified images in chest radiographs. For evaluation, a total of 247 chest X-rays were sampled from the JSRT database. The 247 chest X-rays were divided into 93 training cases with non-nodules and 152 test cases with lung nodules. The SRCNN was trained using the training dataset. With the trained SRCNN, the HR image was reconstructed from the LR one. We compared the image quality of the SRCNN and conventional image interpolation methods, nearest neighbor, bilinear and bicubic interpolations. For quantitative evaluation, we measured two image quality metrics, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM). In the SRCNN scheme, PSNR and SSIM were significantly higher than those of three interpolation methods (p<0.001). Visual assessment confirmed that the SRCNN produced much sharper edge than conventional interpolation methods without any obvious artifacts. These preliminary results indicate that the SRCNN scheme significantly outperforms conventional interpolation algorithms for enhancing image resolution and that the use of the SRCNN can yield substantial improvement of the image quality of magnified images in chest radiographs.

The Value of Context Images at the Mars Surveyor Landing Sites: Insights from Deep Ocean Exploration on Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gregg, T. K.; Bulmer, M. H.

1999-06-01

Exploration of the Martian surface with a rover is similar to investigation of Earth's oceans using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) or deep submergence vehicles (DSVs). In the case of Mars, the techniques required to perform a robust scientific survey are similar to those that have been developed by the deep ocean research community. In both instances, scientists are challenged by having to choose and characterize a target site, identify favorable sites for detailed analysis and possible sample collection, only being able to maneuver within a few meters of the landing site and integrating data sets with a range of spatial resolutions that span 1-2 orders of magnitude (rover data versus satellite data, or submersible data versus bathymetric data). In the search for biologic communities at Earth's mid-ocean ridges, it is important to note that the vast majority of the terrain is completely barren of life: no microbes live in the thousands to hundreds of thousands of meters that separate the life-sustaining hydrothermal vent fields. In attempts to better understanding the origin and emplacement of geologic and biologic features on the seafloor, techniques have been developed to select sites of special interest (target sites), by combining the low-resolution, high spatial-coverage data with medium-resolution, higher spatial-coverage data. Once individual sites are selected, then a DSV or ROV is used to obtain high-resolution, low-spatial-coverage data. By integrating the different resolution data sets, the individual target sites can be placed into the larger context of the regional and global geologic system. Methods of exploration of the oceans are pertinent to the Mars Lander Missions because they highlight the importance and value of the acquisition of 'context' images. Over 60% of Earth's mid-ocean ridge crests have been surveyed using multibeam bathymetry. The typical resolution of such data is 100 m in the vertical and 20 m in the horizontal. This data set is comparable to the Viking Orbiter images of Mars. Only 7% of Earth's seafloor has been imaged using side-scan sonar systems which are towed behind a surface ship at an altitude of approx. 20 m to 200 m above the seafloor. This data set provides textural information on the target surface. The resolution of these instruments varies from 50 m for GLORIA to 1 m across and 2-4 m in the vertical for the DSL-120. Higher resolution is provided by camera sleds such as ARGO II, which is towed at altitudes of about 3 - 15 m above the seafloor. Videos on these instrument platforms can provide continuous real-time video imagery via a fiber-optic tether. Still and video photographic and digital images are typically collected every approx. 10 - 15 seconds. The typical field of view of images from these cameras is 5 m. Added flexibility is provided when DSVs such as Alvin are used since they are capable of more autonomous exploration and can collect and return samples.

Environmental scanning electron microscopy in cell biology.

PubMed

McGregor, J E; Staniewicz, L T L; Guthrie Neé Kirk, S E; Donald, A M

2013-01-01

Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) (1) is an imaging technique which allows hydrated, insulating samples to be imaged under an electron beam. The resolution afforded by this technique is higher than conventional optical microscopy but lower than conventional scanning electron microscopy (CSEM). The major advantage of the technique is the minimal sample preparation needed, making ESEM quick to use and the images less susceptible to the artifacts that the extensive sample preparation usually required for CSEM may introduce. Careful manipulation of both the humidity in the microscope chamber and the beam energy are nevertheless essential to prevent dehydration and beam damage artifacts. In some circumstances it is possible to image live cells in the ESEM (2).In the following sections we introduce the fundamental principles of ESEM imaging before presenting imaging protocols for plant epidermis, mammalian cells, and bacteria. In the first two cases samples are imaged using the secondary electron (topographic) signal, whereas a transmission technique is employed to image bacteria.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Di, Zichao; Chen, Si; Hong, Young Pyo

X-ray fluorescence tomography is based on the detection of fluorescence x-ray photons produced following x-ray absorption while a specimen is rotated; it provides information on the 3D distribution of selected elements within a sample. One limitation in the quality of sample recovery is the separation of elemental signals due to the finite energy resolution of the detector. Another limitation is the effect of self-absorption, which can lead to inaccurate results with dense samples. To recover a higher quality elemental map, we combine x-ray fluorescence detection with a second data modality: conventional x-ray transmission tomography using absorption. By using these combinedmore » signals in a nonlinear optimization-based approach, we demonstrate the benefit of our algorithm on real experimental data and obtain an improved quantitative reconstruction of the spatial distribution of dominant elements in the sample. Furthermore, compared with single-modality inversion based on x-ray fluorescence alone, this joint inversion approach reduces ill-posedness and should result in improved elemental quantification and better correction of self-absorption.« less

The low-temperature method for study of coniferous tissues in the environmental scanning electron microscope.

PubMed

Neděla, Vilém; Tihlaříková, Eva; Hřib, Jiří

2015-01-01

The use of non-standard low-temperature conditions in environmental scanning electron microscopy might be promising for the observation of coniferous tissues in their native state. This study is aimed to analyse and evaluate the method based on the principle of low-temperature sample stabilization. We demonstrate that the upper mucous layer is sublimed and a microstructure of the sample surface can be observed with higher resolution at lower gas pressure conditions, thanks to a low-temperature method. An influence of the low-temperature method on sample stability was also studied. The results indicate that high-moisture conditions are not suitable for this method and often cause the collapse of samples. The potential improvement of stability to beam damage has been demonstrated by long-time observation at different operation parameters. We finally show high applicability of the low-temperature method on different types of conifers and Oxalis acetosella. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Joint reconstruction of x-ray fluorescence and transmission tomography

PubMed Central

Di, Zichao Wendy; Chen, Si; Hong, Young Pyo; Jacobsen, Chris; Leyffer, Sven; Wild, Stefan M.

2017-01-01

X-ray fluorescence tomography is based on the detection of fluorescence x-ray photons produced following x-ray absorption while a specimen is rotated; it provides information on the 3D distribution of selected elements within a sample. One limitation in the quality of sample recovery is the separation of elemental signals due to the finite energy resolution of the detector. Another limitation is the effect of self-absorption, which can lead to inaccurate results with dense samples. To recover a higher quality elemental map, we combine x-ray fluorescence detection with a second data modality: conventional x-ray transmission tomography using absorption. By using these combined signals in a nonlinear optimization-based approach, we demonstrate the benefit of our algorithm on real experimental data and obtain an improved quantitative reconstruction of the spatial distribution of dominant elements in the sample. Compared with single-modality inversion based on x-ray fluorescence alone, this joint inversion approach reduces ill-posedness and should result in improved elemental quantification and better correction of self-absorption. PMID:28788848

Super resolution reconstruction of μ-CT image of rock sample using neighbour embedding algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yuzhu; Rahman, Sheik S.; Arns, Christoph H.

2018-03-01

X-ray computed tomography (μ-CT) is considered to be the most effective way to obtain the inner structure of rock sample without destructions. However, its limited resolution hampers its ability to probe sub-micro structures which is critical for flow transportation of rock sample. In this study, we propose an innovative methodology to improve the resolution of μ-CT image using neighbour embedding algorithm where low frequency information is provided by μ-CT image itself while high frequency information is supplemented by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image. In order to obtain prior for reconstruction, a large number of image patch pairs contain high- and low- image patches are extracted from the Gaussian image pyramid generated by SEM image. These image patch pairs contain abundant information about tomographic evolution of local porous structures under different resolution spaces. Relying on the assumption of self-similarity of porous structure, this prior information can be used to supervise the reconstruction of high resolution μ-CT image effectively. The experimental results show that the proposed method is able to achieve the state-of-the-art performance.

Correlative Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy and Electron Microscopy

PubMed Central

Kim, Doory; Deerinck, Thomas J.; Sigal, Yaron M.; Babcock, Hazen P.; Ellisman, Mark H.; Zhuang, Xiaowei

2015-01-01

Correlative fluorescence light microscopy and electron microscopy allows the imaging of spatial distributions of specific biomolecules in the context of cellular ultrastructure. Recent development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy allows the location of molecules to be determined with nanometer-scale spatial resolution. However, correlative super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy (EM) still remains challenging because the optimal specimen preparation and imaging conditions for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and EM are often not compatible. Here, we have developed several experiment protocols for correlative stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) and EM methods, both for un-embedded samples by applying EM-specific sample preparations after STORM imaging and for embedded and sectioned samples by optimizing the fluorescence under EM fixation, staining and embedding conditions. We demonstrated these methods using a variety of cellular targets. PMID:25874453

Device for high spatial resolution chemical analysis of a sample and method of high spatial resolution chemical analysis

DOEpatents

Van Berkel, Gary J.

2015-10-06

A system and method for analyzing a chemical composition of a specimen are described. The system can include at least one pin; a sampling device configured to contact a liquid with a specimen on the at least one pin to form a testing solution; and a stepper mechanism configured to move the at least one pin and the sampling device relative to one another. The system can also include an analytical instrument for determining a chemical composition of the specimen from the testing solution. In particular, the systems and methods described herein enable chemical analysis of specimens, such as tissue, to be evaluated in a manner that the spatial-resolution is limited by the size of the pins used to obtain tissue samples, not the size of the sampling device used to solubilize the samples coupled to the pins.

A new PET detector concept for compact preclinical high-resolution hybrid MR-PET

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berneking, Arne; Gola, Alberto; Ferri, Alessandro; Finster, Felix; Rucatti, Daniele; Paternoster, Giovanni; Jon Shah, N.; Piemonte, Claudio; Lerche, Christoph

2018-04-01

This work presents a new PET detector concept for compact preclinical hybrid MR-PET. The detector concept is based on Linearly-Graded SiPM produced with current FBK RGB-HD technology. One 7.75 mm x 7.75 mm large sensor chip is coupled with optical grease to a black coated 8 mm x 8 mm large and 3 mm thick monolithic LYSO crystal. The readout is obtained from four readout channels with the linear encoding based on integrated resistors and the Center of Gravity approach. To characterize the new detector concept, the spatial and energy resolutions were measured. Therefore, the measurement setup was prepared to radiate a collimated beam to 25 different points perpendicular to the monolithic scintillator crystal. Starting in the center point of the crystal at 0 mm / 0 mm and sampling a grid with a pitch of 1.75 mm, all significant points of the detector were covered by the collimator beam. The measured intrinsic spatial resolution (FWHM) was 0.74 +/- 0.01 mm in x- and 0.69 +/- 0.01 mm in the y-direction at the center of the detector. At the same point, the measured energy resolution (FWHM) was 13.01 +/- 0.05 %. The mean intrinsic spatial resolution (FWHM) over the whole detector was 0.80 +/- 0.28 mm in x- and 0.72 +/- 0.19 mm in y-direction. The energy resolution (FWHM) of the detector was between 13 and 17.3 % with an average energy resolution of 15.7 +/- 1.0 %. Due to the reduced thickness, the sensitivity of this gamma detector is low but still higher than pixelated designs with the same thickness due to the monolithic crystals. Combining compact design, high spatial resolution, and high sensitivity, the detector concept is particularly suitable for applications where the scanner bore size is limited and high resolution is required - as is the case in small animal hybrid MR-PET.

Parameter dependence of the MCNP electron transport in determining dose distributions.

PubMed

Reynaert, N; Palmans, H; Thierens, H; Jeraj, R

2002-10-01

In this paper, a detailed study of the electron transport in MCNP is performed, separating the effects of the energy binning technique on the energy loss rate, the scattering angles, and the sub-step length as a function of energy. As this problem is already well known, in this paper we focus on the explanation as to why the default mode of MCNP can lead to large deviations. The resolution dependence was investigated as well. An error in the MCNP code in the energy binning technique in the default mode (DBCN 18 card = 0) was revealed, more specific in the updating of cross sections when a sub-step is performed corresponding to a high-energy loss. This updating error is not present in the ITS mode (DBCN 18 card = 1) and leads to a systematically lower dose deposition rate in the default mode. The effect is present for all energies studied (0.5-10 MeV) and depends on the geometrical resolution of the scoring regions and the energy grid resolution. The effect of the energy binning technique is of the same order of that of the updating error for energies below 2 MeV, and becomes less important for higher energies. For a 1 MeV point source surrounded by homogeneous water, the deviation of the default MCNP results at short distances attains 9% and remains approximately the same for all energies. This effect could be corrected by removing the completion of an energy step each time an electron changes from an energy bin during a sub-step. Another solution consists of performing all calculations in the ITS mode. Another problem is the resolution dependence, even in the ITS mode. The higher the resolution is chosen (the smaller the scoring regions) the faster the energy is deposited along the electron track. It is proven that this is caused by starting a new energy step when crossing a surface. The resolution effect should be investigated for every specific case when calculating dose distributions around beta sources. The resolution should not be higher than 0.85*(1-EFAC)*CSDA, where EFAC is the energy loss per energy step and CSDA a continuous slowing down approximation range. This effect could as well be removed by determining the cross sections for energy loss and multiple scattering at the average energy of an energy step and by sampling the cross sections for each sub-step. Overall, we conclude that MCNP cannot be used without a caution due to possible errors in the electron transport. When care is taken, it is possible to obtain correct results that are in agreement with other Monte Carlo codes.

Smart-phone based computational microscopy using multi-frame contact imaging on a fiber-optic array.

PubMed

Navruz, Isa; Coskun, Ahmet F; Wong, Justin; Mohammad, Saqib; Tseng, Derek; Nagi, Richie; Phillips, Stephen; Ozcan, Aydogan

2013-10-21

We demonstrate a cellphone based contact microscopy platform, termed Contact Scope, which can image highly dense or connected samples in transmission mode. Weighing approximately 76 grams, this portable and compact microscope is installed on the existing camera unit of a cellphone using an opto-mechanical add-on, where planar samples of interest are placed in contact with the top facet of a tapered fiber-optic array. This glass-based tapered fiber array has ~9 fold higher density of fiber optic cables on its top facet compared to the bottom one and is illuminated by an incoherent light source, e.g., a simple light-emitting-diode (LED). The transmitted light pattern through the object is then sampled by this array of fiber optic cables, delivering a transmission image of the sample onto the other side of the taper, with ~3× magnification in each direction. This magnified image of the object, located at the bottom facet of the fiber array, is then projected onto the CMOS image sensor of the cellphone using two lenses. While keeping the sample and the cellphone camera at a fixed position, the fiber-optic array is then manually rotated with discrete angular increments of e.g., 1-2 degrees. At each angular position of the fiber-optic array, contact images are captured using the cellphone camera, creating a sequence of transmission images for the same sample. These multi-frame images are digitally fused together based on a shift-and-add algorithm through a custom-developed Android application running on the smart-phone, providing the final microscopic image of the sample, visualized through the screen of the phone. This final computation step improves the resolution and also removes spatial artefacts that arise due to non-uniform sampling of the transmission intensity at the fiber optic array surface. We validated the performance of this cellphone based Contact Scope by imaging resolution test charts and blood smears.

Smart-phone based computational microscopy using multi-frame contact imaging on a fiber-optic array

PubMed Central

Navruz, Isa; Coskun, Ahmet F.; Wong, Justin; Mohammad, Saqib; Tseng, Derek; Nagi, Richie; Phillips, Stephen; Ozcan, Aydogan

2013-01-01

We demonstrate a cellphone based contact microscopy platform, termed Contact Scope, which can image highly dense or connected samples in transmission mode. Weighing approximately 76 grams, this portable and compact microscope is installed on the existing camera unit of a cellphone using an opto-mechanical add-on, where planar samples of interest are placed in contact with the top facet of a tapered fiber-optic array. This glass-based tapered fiber array has ∼9 fold higher density of fiber optic cables on its top facet compared to the bottom one and is illuminated by an incoherent light source, e.g., a simple light-emitting-diode (LED). The transmitted light pattern through the object is then sampled by this array of fiber optic cables, delivering a transmission image of the sample onto the other side of the taper, with ∼3× magnification in each direction. This magnified image of the object, located at the bottom facet of the fiber array, is then projected onto the CMOS image sensor of the cellphone using two lenses. While keeping the sample and the cellphone camera at a fixed position, the fiber-optic array is then manually rotated with discrete angular increments of e.g., 1-2 degrees. At each angular position of the fiber-optic array, contact images are captured using the cellphone camera, creating a sequence of transmission images for the same sample. These multi-frame images are digitally fused together based on a shift-and-add algorithm through a custom-developed Android application running on the smart-phone, providing the final microscopic image of the sample, visualized through the screen of the phone. This final computation step improves the resolution and also gets rid of spatial artefacts that arise due to non-uniform sampling of the transmission intensity at the fiber optic array surface. We validated the performance of this cellphone based Contact Scope by imaging resolution test charts and blood smears. PMID:23939637

Heavy metals in soils of Hechuan County in the upper Yangtze (SW China): Comparative pollution assessment using multiple indices with high-spatial-resolution sampling.

PubMed

Ni, Maofei; Mao, Rong; Jia, Zhongmin; Dong, Ruozhu; Li, Siyue

2018-02-01

In order to assess heavy metals (HMs) in soils of the upper Yangtze Basin, a very high-spatial-resolution sampling (582 soil samples) was conducted from Hechuan County, an important agricultural practice area in the Southwest China. Multiple indices including geoaccumulation index (I geo ), enrichment factor (EF), sediment pollution index (SPI) and risk index (RI), as well as multivariate statistics were employed for pollution assessment and source identification of HMs in soils. Our results demonstrated that the averages of eight HMs decreased in the following order: Zn (82.8 ± 15.9) > Cr (71.6 ± 12.2) > Ni (32.1 ± 9.89) > Pb (27.6 ± 13.8) > Cu (25.9 ± 11.8) > As (5.48 ± 3.42) > Cd (0.30 ± 0.077) > Hg (0.082 ± 0.092). Averages of HMs except Cd were lower than threshold value of Environmental Quality Standard for Soils, while 43% of total samples had Cd concentration exceeding the national standard, 1% of samples for Hg and 5% samples for Ni, moreover, Cd and Hg averages were much higher than their background levels. I geo and EF indicated that their levels decreased as follows: Cd > Hg > Zn > Pb > Ni > Cu > Cr > As, with moderate enrichments of Cd and Hg. RI indicated that 61.7% of all samples showed moderate risk, while 6.5% of samples with greater than considerable risk due to human activities should be paid more attention. Multivariate analysis showed lithogenic source of Cu, Cr, Ni and Zn, while Cd and Hg were largely contributed by anthropogenic activities such as agricultural practices. Our study would be helpful for improving soil environmental quality in SW, China, as well as supplying modern approaches for other areas with soil HM pollution. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Molecular formula composition of β-caryophyllene ozonolysis SOA formed in humid and dry conditions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kundu, Shuvashish; Fisseha, Rebeka; Putman, Annie L.

Here, we studied the molecular formula composition of six β-caryophyllene SOA samples using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry under various reaction conditions. The SOA samples were generated in dry or low relative humidity (RH) chamber conditions with or without cyclohexane. All of the studied SOA mass spectra have three distinct clusters of hundreds of negative ions referred to as Group I (100 < m/z < 400), Group II (400 < m/z < 700) and Group III (700 < m/z < 1 000) compounds. C 14-16H 22-28O 2-11, C 28-29H 42-48O 6-16 and C 42-43H 68-70O 14-16more » were observed as highly abundant organic compounds in the compound class of Group I, II and III, respectively. The relative intensities of most analytes were higher in humid conditions compared to those in dry conditions, indicating the importance of water-dependent reactions and the catalytic role of water both in the presence and absence of cyclohexane. In addition, molecular formulas with higher average carbon numbers were observed in humid SOA than in dry SOA in the absence of cyclohexane, suggesting a decrease of cleavage reactions in humid condition. This study characterizes β-caryophyllene ozonolysis SOA based on ultrahigh mass resolution and demonstrates the significance of humidity in terms of the molecular distributions and relative abundances of the analytes. We also discuss the possible mechanism for the formation of Group I-III compounds based on the current understanding of SOA formation in the atmosphere.« less

Molecular formula composition of β-caryophyllene ozonolysis SOA formed in humid and dry conditions

DOE PAGES

Kundu, Shuvashish; Fisseha, Rebeka; Putman, Annie L.; ...

2016-12-22

Here, we studied the molecular formula composition of six β-caryophyllene SOA samples using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry under various reaction conditions. The SOA samples were generated in dry or low relative humidity (RH) chamber conditions with or without cyclohexane. All of the studied SOA mass spectra have three distinct clusters of hundreds of negative ions referred to as Group I (100 < m/z < 400), Group II (400 < m/z < 700) and Group III (700 < m/z < 1 000) compounds. C 14-16H 22-28O 2-11, C 28-29H 42-48O 6-16 and C 42-43H 68-70O 14-16more » were observed as highly abundant organic compounds in the compound class of Group I, II and III, respectively. The relative intensities of most analytes were higher in humid conditions compared to those in dry conditions, indicating the importance of water-dependent reactions and the catalytic role of water both in the presence and absence of cyclohexane. In addition, molecular formulas with higher average carbon numbers were observed in humid SOA than in dry SOA in the absence of cyclohexane, suggesting a decrease of cleavage reactions in humid condition. This study characterizes β-caryophyllene ozonolysis SOA based on ultrahigh mass resolution and demonstrates the significance of humidity in terms of the molecular distributions and relative abundances of the analytes. We also discuss the possible mechanism for the formation of Group I-III compounds based on the current understanding of SOA formation in the atmosphere.« less

X-ray fluorescence results from IODP Expedition 355 sediments in Laxmi Basin, eastern Arabian Sea: Insights into late Miocene and Pleistocene carbonate production and burial and possible variations in monsoon intensit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowen, M. G.; Kulhanek, D. K.; Lyle, M. W.; Hahn, A.

2017-12-01

Variations in CaCO3 accumulation on the seafloor depend on a number of factors, including productivity of carbonate-producing organisms in the overlying water column, input of siliciclastic material from nearby continents, and changes in ocean chemistry. These factors are affected by variations in tectonics and climate. Here we use X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning data to develop high-resolution chemical profiles calibrated with discrete samples to examine changes in carbonate production and burial in the eastern Arabian Sea. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 355 cored two sites in the Indus Fan in Laxmi Basin. We scanned the Pleistocene composite sections from both sites at 2 cm resolution ( 150-300 year sampling resolution) using the Avaatech XRF core scanner at the IODP Gulf Coast Repository. In addition, we scanned a hemipelagic interval dated to the late Miocene ( 8 to 6 Ma) that spans the late Miocene climate transition to drier conditions globally, as documented by an expansion in C4 plants. The 2 cm scanning resolution represents 500 years between samples for the upper Miocene section. We used carbonate measurements on discrete samples to calibrate the XRF data, supplemented by analysis using a quantitative benchtop XRF at the University of Bremen. We find large variability in carbonate content in the Pleistocene and upper Miocene, varying from 15-80 wt%, with higher carbonate content correlating with lighter colored sediment. The aluminosilicate composition varies in part because of carbonate dilution but also because of changes in the source of clays and turbidites through the section. We also explore the use of chemical ratios to better understand the variations through the section. Changes in Ca/Fe (biogenic/terrestrial component) and Rb/Zr (fine/coarse grained) match well with visual observation of sediment composition in the cores. We can combine these with the oxygen isotope-derived age model for the Pleistocene section to examine orbital-scale variations in carbonate production and terrigenous input at the sites. We also explore proxies for precipitation (Ti/Ca) and weathering (Fe/K and Al/K) to elucidate changes in monsoon strength during the Pleistocene, although these results are preliminary.

Advances and Challenges in Super-Resolution

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-03-15

resolution in video. In: Proc. European Conf on Computer Vision (ECCV), May 2002, pp. 331–336. N. Sochen, R . Kimmel, R . Malladi . 1998. A general...2004a). 48 Vol. 14, 47–57 (2004) distinguish between a generic down-sampling operation (or CCD decimation by a factor r ) and the sampling...factor r often depends on the number of available low-resolution frames, the computational limitations (exponential in r ), and the accuracy of motion

An Overview of Numerical Weather Prediction on Various Scales

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, J.-W.

2009-04-01

The increasing public need for detailed weather forecasts, along with the advances in computer technology, has motivated many research institutes and national weather forecasting centers to develop and run global as well as regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) models at high resolutions (i.e., with horizontal resolutions of ~10 km or higher for global models and 1 km or higher for regional models, and with ~60 vertical levels or higher). The need for running NWP models at high horizontal and vertical resolutions requires the implementation of non-hydrostatic dynamic core with a choice of horizontal grid configurations and vertical coordinates that are appropriate for high resolutions. Development of advanced numerics will also be needed for high resolution global and regional models, in particular, when the models are applied to transport problems and air quality applications. In addition to the challenges in numerics, the NWP community is also facing the challenges of developing physics parameterizations that are well suited for high-resolution NWP models. For example, when NWP models are run at resolutions of ~5 km or higher, the use of much more detailed microphysics parameterizations than those currently used in NWP model will become important. Another example is that regional NWP models at ~1 km or higher only partially resolve convective energy containing eddies in the lower troposphere. Parameterizations to account for the subgrid diffusion associated with unresolved turbulence still need to be developed. Further, physically sound parameterizations for air-sea interaction will be a critical component for tropical NWP models, particularly for hurricane predictions models. In this review presentation, the above issues will be elaborated on and the approaches to address them will be discussed.

Ultra-high spatial resolution multi-energy CT using photon counting detector technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leng, S.; Gutjahr, R.; Ferrero, A.; Kappler, S.; Henning, A.; Halaweish, A.; Zhou, W.; Montoya, J.; McCollough, C.

2017-03-01

Two ultra-high-resolution (UHR) imaging modes, each with two energy thresholds, were implemented on a research, whole-body photon-counting-detector (PCD) CT scanner, referred to as sharp and UHR, respectively. The UHR mode has a pixel size of 0.25 mm at iso-center for both energy thresholds, with a collimation of 32 × 0.25 mm. The sharp mode has a 0.25 mm pixel for the low-energy threshold and 0.5 mm for the high-energy threshold, with a collimation of 48 × 0.25 mm. Kidney stones with mixed mineral composition and lung nodules with different shapes were scanned using both modes, and with the standard imaging mode, referred to as macro mode (0.5 mm pixel and 32 × 0.5 mm collimation). Evaluation and comparison of the three modes focused on the ability to accurately delineate anatomic structures using the high-spatial resolution capability and the ability to quantify stone composition using the multi-energy capability. The low-energy threshold images of the sharp and UHR modes showed better shape and texture information due to the achieved higher spatial resolution, although noise was also higher. No noticeable benefit was shown in multi-energy analysis using UHR compared to standard resolution (macro mode) when standard doses were used. This was due to excessive noise in the higher resolution images. However, UHR scans at higher dose showed improvement in multi-energy analysis over macro mode with regular dose. To fully take advantage of the higher spatial resolution in multi-energy analysis, either increased radiation dose, or application of noise reduction techniques, is needed.

Integral imaging based light field display with enhanced viewing resolution using holographic diffuser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Zhiqiang; Yan, Xingpeng; Jiang, Xiaoyu; Gao, Hui; Wen, Jun

2017-11-01

An integral imaging based light field display method is proposed by use of holographic diffuser, and enhanced viewing resolution is gained over conventional integral imaging systems. The holographic diffuser is fabricated with controlled diffusion characteristics, which interpolates the discrete light field of the reconstructed points to approximate the original light field. The viewing resolution can thus be improved and independent of the limitation imposed by Nyquist sampling frequency. An integral imaging system with low Nyquist sampling frequency is constructed, and reconstructed scenes of high viewing resolution using holographic diffuser are demonstrated, verifying the feasibility of the method.

Application of up-sampling and resolution scaling to Fresnel reconstruction of digital holograms.

PubMed

Williams, Logan A; Nehmetallah, Georges; Aylo, Rola; Banerjee, Partha P

2015-02-20

Fresnel transform implementation methods using numerical preprocessing techniques are investigated in this paper. First, it is shown that up-sampling dramatically reduces the minimum reconstruction distance requirements and allows maximal signal recovery by eliminating aliasing artifacts which typically occur at distances much less than the Rayleigh range of the object. Second, zero-padding is employed to arbitrarily scale numerical resolution for the purpose of resolution matching multiple holograms, where each hologram is recorded using dissimilar geometric or illumination parameters. Such preprocessing yields numerical resolution scaling at any distance. Both techniques are extensively illustrated using experimental results.

Copper Decoration of Carbon Nanotubes and High Resolution Electron Microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Probst, Camille

A new process of decorating carbon nanotubes with copper was developed for the fabrication of nanocomposite aluminum-nanotubes. The process consists of three stages: oxidation, activation and electroless copper plating on the nanotubes. The oxidation step was required to create chemical function on the nanotubes, essential for the activation step. Then, catalytic nanoparticles of tin-palladium were deposited on the tubes. Finally, during the electroless copper plating, copper particles with a size between 20 and 60 nm were uniformly deposited on the nanotubes surface. The reproducibility of the process was shown by using another type of carbon nanotube. The fabrication of nanocomposites aluminum-nanotubes was tested by aluminum vacuum infiltration. Although the infiltration of carbon nanotubes did not produce the expected results, an interesting electron microscopy sample was discovered during the process development: the activated carbon nanotubes. Secondly, scanning transmitted electron microscopy (STEM) imaging in SEM was analysed. The images were obtained with a new detector on the field emission scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-4700). Various parameters were analysed with the use of two different samples: the activated carbon nanotubes (previously obtained) and gold-palladium nanodeposits. Influences of working distance, accelerating voltage or sample used on the spatial resolution of images obtained with SMART (Scanning Microscope Assessment and Resolution Testing) were analysed. An optimum working distance for the best spatial resolution related to the sample analysed was found for the imaging in STEM mode. Finally, relation between probe size and spatial resolution of backscattered electrons (BSE) images was studied. An image synthesis method was developed to generate the BSE images from backscattered electrons coefficients obtained with CASINO software. Spatial resolution of images was determined using SMART. The analysis shown that using a probe size smaller than the size of the observed object (sample features) does not improve the spatial resolution. In addition, the effects of the accelerating voltage, the current intensity and the sample geometry and composition were analysed.

Enhanced spectral resolution by high-dimensional NMR using the filter diagonalization method and "hidden" dimensions.

PubMed

Meng, Xi; Nguyen, Bao D; Ridge, Clark; Shaka, A J

2009-01-01

High-dimensional (HD) NMR spectra have poorer digital resolution than low-dimensional (LD) spectra, for a fixed amount of experiment time. This has led to "reduced-dimensionality" strategies, in which several LD projections of the HD NMR spectrum are acquired, each with higher digital resolution; an approximate HD spectrum is then inferred by some means. We propose a strategy that moves in the opposite direction, by adding more time dimensions to increase the information content of the data set, even if only a very sparse time grid is used in each dimension. The full HD time-domain data can be analyzed by the filter diagonalization method (FDM), yielding very narrow resonances along all of the frequency axes, even those with sparse sampling. Integrating over the added dimensions of HD FDM NMR spectra reconstitutes LD spectra with enhanced resolution, often more quickly than direct acquisition of the LD spectrum with a larger number of grid points in each of the fewer dimensions. If the extra-dimensions do not appear in the final spectrum, and are used solely to boost information content, we propose the moniker hidden-dimension NMR. This work shows that HD peaks have unmistakable frequency signatures that can be detected as single HD objects by an appropriate algorithm, even though their patterns would be tricky for a human operator to visualize or recognize, and even if digital resolution in an HD FT spectrum is very coarse compared with natural line widths.

Enhanced spectral resolution by high-dimensional NMR using the filter diagonalization method and “hidden” dimensions

PubMed Central

Meng, Xi; Nguyen, Bao D.; Ridge, Clark; Shaka, A. J.

2009-01-01

High-dimensional (HD) NMR spectra have poorer digital resolution than low-dimensional (LD) spectra, for a fixed amount of experiment time. This has led to “reduced-dimensionality” strategies, in which several LD projections of the HD NMR spectrum are acquired, each with higher digital resolution; an approximate HD spectrum is then inferred by some means. We propose a strategy that moves in the opposite direction, by adding more time dimensions to increase the information content of the data set, even if only a very sparse time grid is used in each dimension. The full HD time-domain data can be analyzed by the Filter Diagonalization Method (FDM), yielding very narrow resonances along all of the frequency axes, even those with sparse sampling. Integrating over the added dimensions of HD FDM NMR spectra reconstitutes LD spectra with enhanced resolution, often more quickly than direct acquisition of the LD spectrum with a larger number of grid points in each of the fewer dimensions. If the extra dimensions do not appear in the final spectrum, and are used solely to boost information content, we propose the moniker hidden-dimension NMR. This work shows that HD peaks have unmistakable frequency signatures that can be detected as single HD objects by an appropriate algorithm, even though their patterns would be tricky for a human operator to visualize or recognize, and even if digital resolution in an HD FT spectrum is very coarse compared with natural line widths. PMID:18926747

Global tropospheric ozone modeling: Quantifying errors due to grid resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wild, Oliver; Prather, Michael J.

2006-06-01

Ozone production in global chemical models is dependent on model resolution because ozone chemistry is inherently nonlinear, the timescales for chemical production are short, and precursors are artificially distributed over the spatial scale of the model grid. In this study we examine the sensitivity of ozone, its precursors, and its production to resolution by running a global chemical transport model at four different resolutions between T21 (5.6° × 5.6°) and T106 (1.1° × 1.1°) and by quantifying the errors in regional and global budgets. The sensitivity to vertical mixing through the parameterization of boundary layer turbulence is also examined. We find less ozone production in the boundary layer at higher resolution, consistent with slower chemical production in polluted emission regions and greater export of precursors. Agreement with ozonesonde and aircraft measurements made during the NASA TRACE-P campaign over the western Pacific in spring 2001 is consistently better at higher resolution. We demonstrate that the numerical errors in transport processes on a given resolution converge geometrically for a tracer at successively higher resolutions. The convergence in ozone production on progressing from T21 to T42, T63, and T106 resolution is likewise monotonic but indicates that there are still large errors at 120 km scales, suggesting that T106 resolution is too coarse to resolve regional ozone production. Diagnosing the ozone production and precursor transport that follow a short pulse of emissions over east Asia in springtime allows us to quantify the impacts of resolution on both regional and global ozone. Production close to continental emission regions is overestimated by 27% at T21 resolution, by 13% at T42 resolution, and by 5% at T106 resolution. However, subsequent ozone production in the free troposphere is not greatly affected. We find that the export of short-lived precursors such as NOx by convection is overestimated at coarse resolution.

Feedback Augmented Sub-Ranging (FASR) Quantizer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guilligan, Gerard

2012-01-01

This innovation is intended to reduce the size, power, and complexity of pipeline analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that require high resolution and speed along with low power. Digitizers are important components in any application where analog signals (such as light, sound, temperature, etc.) need to be digitally processed. The innovation implements amplification of a sampled residual voltage in a switched capacitor amplifier stage that does not depend on charge redistribution. The result is less sensitive to capacitor mismatches that cause gain errors, which are the main limitation of such amplifiers in pipeline ADCs. The residual errors due to mismatch are reduced by at least a factor of 16, which is equivalent to at least 4 bits of improvement. The settling time is also faster because of a higher feedback factor. In traditional switched capacitor residue amplifiers, closed-loop amplification of a sampled and held residue signal is achieved by redistributing sampled charge onto a feedback capacitor around a high-gain transconductance amplifier. The residual charge that was sampled during the acquisition or sampling phase is stored on two or more capacitors, often equal in value or integral multiples of each other. During the hold or amplification phase, all of the charge is redistributed onto one capacitor in the feedback loop of the amplifier to produce an amplified voltage. The key error source is the non-ideal ratios of feedback and input capacitors caused by manufacturing tolerances, called mismatches. The mismatches cause non-ideal closed-loop gain, leading to higher differential non-linearity. Traditional solutions to the mismatch errors are to use larger capacitor values (than dictated by thermal noise requirements) and/or complex calibration schemes, both of which increase the die size and power dissipation. The key features of this innovation are (1) the elimination of the need for charge redistribution to achieve an accurate closed-loop gain of two, (2) a higher feedback factor in the amplifier stage giving a higher closed-loop bandwidth compared to the prior art, and (3) reduced requirement for calibration. The accuracy of the new amplifier is mainly limited by the sampling networks parasitic capacitances, which should be minimized in relation to the sampling capacitors.

Porosity characterization for heterogeneous shales using integrated multiscale microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rassouli, F.; Andrew, M.; Zoback, M. D.

2016-12-01

Pore size distribution analysis plays a critical role in gas storage capacity and fluid transport characterization of shales. Study of the diverse distribution of pore size and structure in such low permeably rocks is withheld by the lack of tools to visualize the microstructural properties of shale rocks. In this paper we try to use multiple techniques to investigate the full pore size range in different sample scales. Modern imaging techniques are combined with routine analytical investigations (x-ray diffraction, thin section analysis and mercury porosimetry) to describe pore size distribution of shale samples from Haynesville formation in East Texas to generate a more holistic understanding of the porosity structure in shales, ranging from standard core plug down to nm scales. Standard 1" diameter core plug samples were first imaged using a Versa 3D x-ray microscope at lower resolutions. Then we pick several regions of interest (ROIs) with various micro-features (such as micro-cracks and high organic matters) in the rock samples to run higher resolution CT scans using a non-destructive interior tomography scans. After this step, we cut the samples and drill 5 mm diameter cores out of the selected ROIs. Then we rescan the samples to measure porosity distribution of the 5 mm cores. We repeat this step for samples with diameter of 1 mm being cut out of the 5 mm cores using a laser cutting machine. After comparing the pore structure and distribution of the samples measured form micro-CT analysis, we move to nano-scale imaging to capture the ultra-fine pores within the shale samples. At this stage, the diameter of the 1 mm samples will be milled down to 70 microns using the laser beam. We scan these samples in a nano-CT Ultra x-ray microscope and calculate the porosity of the samples by image segmentation methods. Finally, we use images collected from focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) to be able to compare the results of porosity measurements from all different imaging techniques. These multi-scale characterization techniques are then compared with traditional analytical techniques such as Mercury Porosimetry.

A trade-off between model resolution and variance with selected Rayleigh-wave data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Xia, J.; Miller, R.D.; Xu, Y.

2008-01-01

Inversion of multimode surface-wave data is of increasing interest in the near-surface geophysics community. For a given near-surface geophysical problem, it is essential to understand how well the data, calculated according to a layered-earth model, might match the observed data. A data-resolution matrix is a function of the data kernel (determined by a geophysical model and a priori information applied to the problem), not the data. A data-resolution matrix of high-frequency (??? 2 Hz) Rayleigh-wave phase velocities, therefore, offers a quantitative tool for designing field surveys and predicting the match between calculated and observed data. First, we employed a data-resolution matrix to select data that would be well predicted and to explain advantages of incorporating higher modes in inversion. The resulting discussion using the data-resolution matrix provides insight into the process of inverting Rayleigh-wave phase velocities with higher mode data to estimate S-wave velocity structure. Discussion also suggested that each near-surface geophysical target can only be resolved using Rayleigh-wave phase velocities within specific frequency ranges, and higher mode data are normally more accurately predicted than fundamental mode data because of restrictions on the data kernel for the inversion system. Second, we obtained an optimal damping vector in a vicinity of an inverted model by the singular value decomposition of a trade-off function of model resolution and variance. In the end of the paper, we used a real-world example to demonstrate that selected data with the data-resolution matrix can provide better inversion results and to explain with the data-resolution matrix why incorporating higher mode data in inversion can provide better results. We also calculated model-resolution matrices of these examples to show the potential of increasing model resolution with selected surface-wave data. With the optimal damping vector, we can improve and assess an inverted model obtained by a damped least-square method.

Dynamic-focusing microscope objective for optical coherence tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murali, Supraja; Rolland, Jannick

2007-01-01

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a novel optical imaging technique that has assumed significant importance in bio-medical imaging in the last two decades because it is non-invasive and provides accurate, high resolution images of three dimensional cross-sections of body tissue, exceeding the capabilities of the current predominant imaging technique - ultrasound. In this paper, the application of high resolution OCT, known as optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is investigated for in vivo detection of abnormal skin pathology for the early diagnosis of cancer. A main challenge in OCM is maintaining invariant resolution throughout the sample. The technology presented is based on a dynamic focusing microscope imaging probe conceived for skin imaging and the detection of abnormalities in the epithelium. A novel method for dynamic focusing in the biological sample is presented using variable-focus lens technology to obtain three dimensional images with invariant resolution throughout the cross-section and depth of the sample is presented and discussed. A low coherence broadband source centered at near IR wavelengths is used to illuminate the sample. The design, analysis and predicted performance of the dynamic focusing microscope objective designed for dynamic three dimensional imaging at 5μm resolution for the chosen broadband spectrum is presented.

Light sheet theta microscopy for rapid high-resolution imaging of large biological samples.

PubMed

Migliori, Bianca; Datta, Malika S; Dupre, Christophe; Apak, Mehmet C; Asano, Shoh; Gao, Ruixuan; Boyden, Edward S; Hermanson, Ola; Yuste, Rafael; Tomer, Raju

2018-05-29

Advances in tissue clearing and molecular labeling methods are enabling unprecedented optical access to large intact biological systems. These developments fuel the need for high-speed microscopy approaches to image large samples quantitatively and at high resolution. While light sheet microscopy (LSM), with its high planar imaging speed and low photo-bleaching, can be effective, scaling up to larger imaging volumes has been hindered by the use of orthogonal light sheet illumination. To address this fundamental limitation, we have developed light sheet theta microscopy (LSTM), which uniformly illuminates samples from the same side as the detection objective, thereby eliminating limits on lateral dimensions without sacrificing the imaging resolution, depth, and speed. We present a detailed characterization of LSTM, and demonstrate its complementary advantages over LSM for rapid high-resolution quantitative imaging of large intact samples with high uniform quality. The reported LSTM approach is a significant step for the rapid high-resolution quantitative mapping of the structure and function of very large biological systems, such as a clarified thick coronal slab of human brain and uniformly expanded tissues, and also for rapid volumetric calcium imaging of highly motile animals, such as Hydra, undergoing non-isomorphic body shape changes.

Substrate preparation for reliable imaging of DNA molecules with the scanning force microscope.

PubMed

Vesenka, J; Guthold, M; Tang, C L; Keller, D; Delaine, E; Bustamante, C

1992-07-01

A simple method of substrate preparation for imaging circular DNA molecules with the scanning force microscope (SFM) is presented. These biomolecules are adsorbed onto mica that has been soaked in magnesium acetate, sonicated and glow-discharged. The stylus-sample forces that may be endured before sample damage occurs depends on the ambient relative humidity. Images of circular DNA molecules have been obtained routinely using tips specially modified by an electron beam with a radius of curvature, Rc, of about 10 nm [D. Keller and C. Chih-Chung, Surf. Sci. 268 (1992) 333]. The resolution of these adsorbed biomolecules is determined by the Rc. At higher forces individual circular DNA molecules can be manipulated with the SFM stylus. Strategies to develop still sharper probes will be discussed.

Luma-chroma space filter design for subpixel-based monochrome image downsampling.

PubMed

Fang, Lu; Au, Oscar C; Cheung, Ngai-Man; Katsaggelos, Aggelos K; Li, Houqiang; Zou, Feng

2013-10-01

In general, subpixel-based downsampling can achieve higher apparent resolution of the down-sampled images on LCD or OLED displays than pixel-based downsampling. With the frequency domain analysis of subpixel-based downsampling, we discover special characteristics of the luma-chroma color transform choice for monochrome images. With these, we model the anti-aliasing filter design for subpixel-based monochrome image downsampling as a human visual system-based optimization problem with a two-term cost function and obtain a closed-form solution. One cost term measures the luminance distortion and the other term measures the chrominance aliasing in our chosen luma-chroma space. Simulation results suggest that the proposed method can achieve sharper down-sampled gray/font images compared with conventional pixel and subpixel-based methods, without noticeable color fringing artifacts.

Phase-contrast x-ray computed tomography for biological imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Momose, Atsushi; Takeda, Tohoru; Itai, Yuji

1997-10-01

We have shown so far that 3D structures in biological sot tissues such as cancer can be revealed by phase-contrast x- ray computed tomography using an x-ray interferometer. As a next step, we aim at applications of this technique to in vivo observation, including radiographic applications. For this purpose, the size of view field is desired to be more than a few centimeters. Therefore, a larger x-ray interferometer should be used with x-rays of higher energy. We have evaluated the optimal x-ray energy from an aspect of does as a function of sample size. Moreover, desired spatial resolution to an image sensor is discussed as functions of x-ray energy and sample size, basing on a requirement in the analysis of interference fringes.

Comparative study of LaNiO3/LaAlO3 heterostructures grown by pulsed laser deposition and oxide molecular beam epitaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wrobel, F.; Mark, A. F.; Christiani, G.; Sigle, W.; Habermeier, H.-U.; van Aken, P. A.; Logvenov, G.; Keimer, B.; Benckiser, E.

2017-01-01

Variations in growth conditions associated with different deposition techniques can greatly affect the phase stability and defect structure of complex oxide heterostructures. We synthesized superlattices of the paramagnetic metal LaNiO3 and the large band gap insulator LaAlO3 by atomic layer-by-layer molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and compared their crystallinity and microstructure as revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images and resistivity. The MBE samples show a higher density of stacking faults but smoother interfaces and generally higher electrical conductivity. Our study identifies the opportunities and challenges of MBE and PLD growth and serves as a general guide for the choice of the deposition technique for perovskite oxides.

Is High Resolution Melting Analysis (HRMA) Accurate for Detection of Human Disease-Associated Mutations? A Meta Analysis

PubMed Central

Ma, Feng-Li; Jiang, Bo; Song, Xiao-Xiao; Xu, An-Gao

2011-01-01

Background High Resolution Melting Analysis (HRMA) is becoming the preferred method for mutation detection. However, its accuracy in the individual clinical diagnostic setting is variable. To assess the diagnostic accuracy of HRMA for human mutations in comparison to DNA sequencing in different routine clinical settings, we have conducted a meta-analysis of published reports. Methodology/Principal Findings Out of 195 publications obtained from the initial search criteria, thirty-four studies assessing the accuracy of HRMA were included in the meta-analysis. We found that HRMA was a highly sensitive test for detecting disease-associated mutations in humans. Overall, the summary sensitivity was 97.5% (95% confidence interval (CI): 96.8–98.5; I2 = 27.0%). Subgroup analysis showed even higher sensitivity for non-HR-1 instruments (sensitivity 98.7% (95%CI: 97.7–99.3; I2 = 0.0%)) and an eligible sample size subgroup (sensitivity 99.3% (95%CI: 98.1–99.8; I2 = 0.0%)). HRMA specificity showed considerable heterogeneity between studies. Sensitivity of the techniques was influenced by sample size and instrument type but by not sample source or dye type. Conclusions/Significance These findings show that HRMA is a highly sensitive, simple and low-cost test to detect human disease-associated mutations, especially for samples with mutations of low incidence. The burden on DNA sequencing could be significantly reduced by the implementation of HRMA, but it should be recognized that its sensitivity varies according to the number of samples with/without mutations, and positive results require DNA sequencing for confirmation. PMID:22194806

On the influence of crystal size and wavelength on native SAD phasing.

PubMed

Liebschner, Dorothee; Yamada, Yusuke; Matsugaki, Naohiro; Senda, Miki; Senda, Toshiya

2016-06-01

Native SAD is an emerging phasing technique that uses the anomalous signal of native heavy atoms to obtain crystallographic phases. The method does not require specific sample preparation to add anomalous scatterers, as the light atoms contained in the native sample are used as marker atoms. The most abundant anomalous scatterer used for native SAD, which is present in almost all proteins, is sulfur. However, the absorption edge of sulfur is at low energy (2.472 keV = 5.016 Å), which makes it challenging to carry out native SAD phasing experiments as most synchrotron beamlines are optimized for shorter wavelength ranges where the anomalous signal of sulfur is weak; for longer wavelengths, which produce larger anomalous differences, the absorption of X-rays by the sample, solvent, loop and surrounding medium (e.g. air) increases tremendously. Therefore, a compromise has to be found between measuring strong anomalous signal and minimizing absorption. It was thus hypothesized that shorter wavelengths should be used for large crystals and longer wavelengths for small crystals, but no thorough experimental analyses have been reported to date. To study the influence of crystal size and wavelength, native SAD experiments were carried out at different wavelengths (1.9 and 2.7 Å with a helium cone; 3.0 and 3.3 Å with a helium chamber) using lysozyme and ferredoxin reductase crystals of various sizes. For the tested crystals, the results suggest that larger sample sizes do not have a detrimental effect on native SAD data and that long wavelengths give a clear advantage with small samples compared with short wavelengths. The resolution dependency of substructure determination was analyzed and showed that high-symmetry crystals with small unit cells require higher resolution for the successful placement of heavy atoms.

Relationship between perception of image resolution and peripheral visual field in stereoscopic images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogawa, Masahiko; Shidoji, Kazunori

2011-03-01

High-resolution stereoscopic images are effective for use in virtual reality and teleoperation systems. However, the higher the image resolution, the higher is the cost of computer processing and communication. To reduce this cost, numerous earlier studies have suggested the use of multi-resolution images, which have high resolution in region of interests and low resolution in other areas. However, observers can perceive unpleasant sensations and incorrect depth because they can see low-resolution areas in their field of vision. In this study, we conducted an experiment to research the relationship between the viewing field and the perception of image resolution, and determined respective thresholds of image-resolution perception for various positions of the viewing field. The results showed that participants could not distinguish between the high-resolution stimulus and the decreased stimulus, 63 ppi, at positions more than 8 deg outside the gaze point. Moreover, with positions shifted a further 11 and 13 deg from the gaze point, participants could not distinguish between the high-resolution stimulus and the decreased stimuli whose resolution densities were 42 and 25 ppi. Hence, we will propose the composition of multi-resolution images in which observers do not perceive unpleasant sensations and incorrect depth with data reduction (compression).

An investigation of the impact of variations of DVH calculation algorithms on DVH dependant radiation therapy plan evaluation metrics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kennedy, A. M.; Lane, J.; Ebert, M. A.

2014-03-01

Plan review systems often allow dose volume histogram (DVH) recalculation as part of a quality assurance process for trials. A review of the algorithms provided by a number of systems indicated that they are often very similar. One notable point of variation between implementations is in the location and frequency of dose sampling. This study explored the impact such variations can have on DVH based plan evaluation metrics (Normal Tissue Complication Probability (NTCP), min, mean and max dose), for a plan with small structures placed over areas of high dose gradient. Dose grids considered were exported from the original planning system at a range of resolutions. We found that for the CT based resolutions used in all but one plan review systems (CT and CT with guaranteed minimum number of sampling voxels in the x and y direction) results were very similar and changed in a similar manner with changes in the dose grid resolution despite the extreme conditions. Differences became noticeable however when resolution was increased in the axial (z) direction. Evaluation metrics also varied differently with changing dose grid for CT based resolutions compared to dose grid based resolutions. This suggests that if DVHs are being compared between systems that use a different basis for selecting sampling resolution it may become important to confirm that a similar resolution was used during calculation.

Fractional screen video enhancement apparatus

DOEpatents

Spletzer, Barry L [Albuquerque, NM; Davidson, George S [Albuquerque, NM; Zimmerer, Daniel J [Tijeras, NM; Marron, Lisa C [Albuquerque, NM

2005-07-19

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for displaying two portions of an image at two resolutions. For example, the invention can display an entire image at a first resolution, and a subset of the image at a second, higher resolution. Two inexpensive, low resolution displays can be used to produce a large image with high resolution only where needed.

Driven Boson Sampling.

PubMed

Barkhofen, Sonja; Bartley, Tim J; Sansoni, Linda; Kruse, Regina; Hamilton, Craig S; Jex, Igor; Silberhorn, Christine

2017-01-13

Sampling the distribution of bosons that have undergone a random unitary evolution is strongly believed to be a computationally hard problem. Key to outperforming classical simulations of this task is to increase both the number of input photons and the size of the network. We propose driven boson sampling, in which photons are input within the network itself, as a means to approach this goal. We show that the mean number of photons entering a boson sampling experiment can exceed one photon per input mode, while maintaining the required complexity, potentially leading to less stringent requirements on the input states for such experiments. When using heralded single-photon sources based on parametric down-conversion, this approach offers an ∼e-fold enhancement in the input state generation rate over scattershot boson sampling, reaching the scaling limit for such sources. This approach also offers a dramatic increase in the signal-to-noise ratio with respect to higher-order photon generation from such probabilistic sources, which removes the need for photon number resolution during the heralding process as the size of the system increases.

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging of the Spatial Distribution of Free Radicals in PMR-15 Polyimide Resins

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahn, Myong K.; Eaton, Sandra S.; Eaton, Gareth R.; Meador, Mary Ann B.

1997-01-01

Prior studies have shown that free radicals generated by heating polyimides above 300 C are stable at room temperature and are involved in thermo-oxidative degradation in the presence of oxygen gas. Electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI) is a technique to determine the spatial distribution of free radicals. X-band (9.5 GHz) EPR images of PMR-15 polyimide were obtained with a spatial resolution of approximately 0.18 mm along a 2-mm dimension of the sample. In a polyimide sample that was not thermocycled, the radical distribution was uniform along the 2-mm dimension of the sample. For a polyimide sample that was exposed to thermocycling in air for 300 1-h cycles at 335 C, one-dimensional EPRI showed a higher concentration of free radicals in the surface layers than in the bulk sample. A spectral-spatial two-dimensional image showed that the EPR lineshape of the surface layer remained the same as that of the bulk. These EPRI results suggest that the thermo-oxidative degradation of PMR-15 resin involves free radicals present in the oxygen-rich surface layer.

Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging of the Spatial Distribution of Free Radicals in PMR-15 Polyimide Resins

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahn, Myong K.; Eaton, Sandra S.; Eaton, Gareth R.; Meador, Mary Ann B.

1997-01-01

Prior studies have shown that free radicals generated by heating polyimides above 300 C are stable at room temperature and are involved in thermo-oxidative degradation in the presence of oxygen gas. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) is a technique to determine the spatial distribution of free radicals. X-band (9.5 GHz) EPR images of PMR-15 polyimide were obtained with a spatial resolution of about 0.18 mm along a 2 mm dimension of the sample. In a polyimide sample that was not thermocycled, the radical distribution was uniform along the 2 mm dimension of the sample. For a polyimide sample that was exposed to thermocycling in air for 300 one-hour cycles at 335 C, one-dimensional EPRI showed a higher concentration of free radicals in the surface layers than in the bulk sample. A spectral-spatial two-dimensional image showed that the EPR lineshape of the surface layer remained the same as that of the bulk. These EPRI results suggest that the thermo-oxidative degradation of PMR-15 resin involves free radicals present in the oxygen-rich surface layer.

Aquifer environment selects for microbial species cohorts in sediment and groundwater

PubMed Central

Hug, Laura A; Thomas, Brian C; Brown, Christopher T; Frischkorn, Kyle R; Williams, Kenneth H; Tringe, Susannah G; Banfield, Jillian F

2015-01-01

Little is known about the biogeography or stability of sediment-associated microbial community membership because these environments are biologically complex and generally difficult to sample. High-throughput-sequencing methods provide new opportunities to simultaneously genomically sample and track microbial community members across a large number of sampling sites or times, with higher taxonomic resolution than is associated with 16 S ribosomal RNA gene surveys, and without the disadvantages of primer bias and gene copy number uncertainty. We characterized a sediment community at 5 m depth in an aquifer adjacent to the Colorado River and tracked its most abundant 133 organisms across 36 different sediment and groundwater samples. We sampled sites separated by centimeters, meters and tens of meters, collected on seven occasions over 6 years. Analysis of 1.4 terabase pairs of DNA sequence showed that these 133 organisms were more consistently detected in saturated sediments than in samples from the vadose zone, from distant locations or from groundwater filtrates. Abundance profiles across aquifer locations and from different sampling times identified organism cohorts that comprised subsets of the 133 organisms that were consistently associated. The data suggest that cohorts are partly selected for by shared environmental adaptation. PMID:25647349

Fast and simultaneous determination of phenolic compounds and caffeine in teas, mate, instant coffee, soft drink and energetic drink by high-performance liquid chromatography using a fused-core column.

PubMed

Rostagno, M A; Manchón, N; D'Arrigo, M; Guillamón, E; Villares, A; García-Lafuente, A; Ramos, A; Martínez, J A

2011-01-31

A fast HPLC method with diode-array absorbance detector and fluorescence detector for the analysis of 19 phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols, flavones, flavonols and caffeine in different types of samples was developed. Using a C(18) reverse-phase fused-core column separation of all compounds was achieved in less than 5 min with an overall sample-to-sample time of 10 min. Evaluation of chromatographic performance revealed excellent reproducibility, resolution, selectivity and peak symmetry. Limits of detection for all analyzed compounds ranged from 0.5 to 211 μg L(-1), while limits of quantitation ranged between 1.5 and 704 μg L(-1). The developed method was used for the determination of analytes present in different samples, including teas (black, white, green), mate, coffee, cola soft drink and an energetic drink. Concentration of the analyzed compounds occurring in the samples ranged from 0.4 to 314 mg L(-1). Caffeine was the analyte found in higher concentrations in all samples. Phytochemical profiles of the samples were consistent with those reported in the literature. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Front-End Board with Cyclone V as a Test High-Resolution Platform for the Auger_Beyond_2015 Front End Electronics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szadkowski, Zbigniew

2015-06-01

The surface detector (SD) array of the Pierre Auger Observatory needs an upgrade which allows space for more complex triggers with higher bandwidth and greater dynamic range. To this end this paper presents a front-end board (FEB) with the largest Cyclone V E FPGA 5CEFA9F31I7N. It supports eight channels sampled with max. 250 MSps@14-bit resolution. Considered sampling for the SD is 120 MSps; however, the FEB has been developed with external anti-aliasing filters to retain maximal flexibility. Six channels are targeted at the SD, two are reserved for other experiments like: Auger Engineering Radio Array and additional muon counters. The FEB is an intermediate design plugged into a unified board communicating with a micro-controller at 40 MHz; however, it provides 250 MSPs sampling with an 18-bit dynamic range, is equipped with a virtual NIOS processor and supports 256 MB of SDRAM as well as an implemented spectral trigger based on the discrete cosine transform for detection of very inclined “old” showers. The FEB can also support neural network development for detection of “young” showers, potentially generated by neutrinos. A single FEB was already tested in the Auger surface detector in Malargüe (Argentina) for 120 and 160 MSps. Preliminary tests showed perfect stability of data acquisition for sampling frequency three or four times greater. They allowed optimization of the design before deployment of seven or eight FEBs for several months of continuous tests in the engineering array.

Chip-LC-MS for label-free profiling of human serum.

PubMed

Horvatovich, Peter; Govorukhina, Natalia I; Reijmers, Theo H; van der Zee, Ate G J; Suits, Frank; Bischoff, Rainer

2007-12-01

The discovery of biomarkers in easily accessible body fluids such as serum is one of the most challenging topics in proteomics requiring highly efficient separation and detection methodologies. Here, we present the application of a microfluidics-based LC-MS system (chip-LC-MS) to the label-free profiling of immunodepleted, trypsin-digested serum in comparison to conventional capillary LC-MS (cap-LC-MS). Both systems proved to have a repeatability of approximately 20% RSD for peak area, all sample preparation steps included, while repeatability of the LC-MS part by itself was less than 10% RSD for the chip-LC-MS system. Importantly, the chip-LC-MS system had a two times higher resolution in the LC dimension and resulted in a lower average charge state of the tryptic peptide ions generated in the ESI interface when compared to cap-LC-MS while requiring approximately 30 times less (~5 pmol) sample. In order to characterize both systems for their capability to find discriminating peptides in trypsin-digested serum samples, five out of ten individually prepared, identical sera were spiked with horse heart cytochrome c. A comprehensive data processing methodology was applied including 2-D smoothing, resolution reduction, peak picking, time alignment, and matching of the individual peak lists to create an aligned peak matrix amenable for statistical analysis. Statistical analysis by supervised classification and variable selection showed that both LC-MS systems could discriminate the two sample groups. However, the chip-LC-MS system allowed to assign 55% of the overall signal to selected peaks against 32% for the cap-LC-MS system.

Ozone Production in Global Tropospheric Models: Quantifying Errors due to Grid Resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wild, O.; Prather, M. J.

2005-12-01

Ozone production in global chemical models is dependent on model resolution because ozone chemistry is inherently nonlinear, the timescales for chemical production are short, and precursors are artificially distributed over the spatial scale of the model grid. In this study we examine the sensitivity of ozone, its precursors, and its production to resolution by running a global chemical transport model at four different resolutions between T21 (5.6° × 5.6°) and T106 (1.1° × 1.1°) and by quantifying the errors in regional and global budgets. The sensitivity to vertical mixing through the parameterization of boundary layer turbulence is also examined. We find less ozone production in the boundary layer at higher resolution, consistent with slower chemical production in polluted emission regions and greater export of precursors. Agreement with ozonesonde and aircraft measurements made during the NASA TRACE-P campaign over the Western Pacific in spring 2001 is consistently better at higher resolution. We demonstrate that the numerical errors in transport processes at a given resolution converge geometrically for a tracer at successively higher resolutions. The convergence in ozone production on progressing from T21 to T42, T63 and T106 resolution is likewise monotonic but still indicates large errors at 120~km scales, suggesting that T106 resolution is still too coarse to resolve regional ozone production. Diagnosing the ozone production and precursor transport that follow a short pulse of emissions over East Asia in springtime allows us to quantify the impacts of resolution on both regional and global ozone. Production close to continental emission regions is overestimated by 27% at T21 resolution, by 13% at T42 resolution, and by 5% at T106 resolution, but subsequent ozone production in the free troposphere is less significantly affected.

High resolution broad-band spectroscopy in the NIR using the Triplespec externally dispersed interferometer at the Hale telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erskine, David J.; Edelstein, J.; Sirk, M.; Wishnow, E.; Ishikawa, Y.; McDonald, E.; Shourt, W. V.

2014-07-01

High resolution broad-band spectroscopy at near-infrared wavelengths has been performed using externally dis- persed interferometry (EDI) at the Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar. The EDI technique uses a field-widened Michelson interferometer in series with a dispersive spectrograph, and is able to recover a spectrum with a resolution 4 to 10 times higher than the existing grating spectrograph. This method increases the resolution well beyond the classical limits enforced by the slit width and the detector pixel Nyquist limit and, in principle, decreases the effect of pupil variation on the instrument line-shape function. The EDI technique permits arbi- trarily higher resolution measurements using the higher throughput, lower weight, size, and expense of a lower resolution spectrograph. Observations of many stars were performed with the TEDI interferometer mounted within the central hole of the 200 inch primary mirror. Light from the interferometer was then dispersed by the TripleSpec near-infrared echelle spectrograph. Continuous spectra between 950 and 2450 nm with a resolution as high as ~27,000 were recovered from data taken with TripleSpec at a native resolution of ˜2,700. Aspects of data analysis for interferometric spectral reconstruction are described. This technique has applications in im- proving measurements of high-resolution stellar template spectra, critical for precision Doppler velocimetry using conventional spectroscopic methods. A new interferometer to be applied for this purpose at visible wavelengths is under construction.

Dependence of Hurricane intensity and structures on vertical resolution and time-step size

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Da-Lin; Wang, Xiaoxue

2003-09-01

In view of the growing interests in the explicit modeling of clouds and precipitation, the effects of varying vertical resolution and time-step sizes on the 72-h explicit simulation of Hurricane Andrew (1992) are studied using the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU/NCAR) mesoscale model (i.e., MM5) with the finest grid size of 6 km. It is shown that changing vertical resolution and time-step size has significant effects on hurricane intensity and inner-core cloud/precipitation, but little impact on the hurricane track. In general, increasing vertical resolution tends to produce a deeper storm with lower central pressure and stronger three-dimensional winds, and more precipitation. Similar effects, but to a less extent, occur when the time-step size is reduced. It is found that increasing the low-level vertical resolution is more efficient in intensifying a hurricane, whereas changing the upper-level vertical resolution has little impact on the hurricane intensity. Moreover, the use of a thicker surface layer tends to produce higher maximum surface winds. It is concluded that the use of higher vertical resolution, a thin surface layer, and smaller time-step sizes, along with higher horizontal resolution, is desirable to model more realistically the intensity and inner-core structures and evolution of tropical storms as well as the other convectively driven weather systems.

High-resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopy using a solid-state spin sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glenn, David R.; Bucher, Dominik B.; Lee, Junghyun; Lukin, Mikhail D.; Park, Hongkun; Walsworth, Ronald L.

2018-03-01

Quantum systems that consist of solid-state electronic spins can be sensitive detectors of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals, particularly from very small samples. For example, nitrogen–vacancy centres in diamond have been used to record NMR signals from nanometre-scale samples, with sensitivity sufficient to detect the magnetic field produced by a single protein. However, the best reported spectral resolution for NMR of molecules using nitrogen–vacancy centres is about 100 hertz. This is insufficient to resolve the key spectral identifiers of molecular structure that are critical to NMR applications in chemistry, structural biology and materials research, such as scalar couplings (which require a resolution of less than ten hertz) and small chemical shifts (which require a resolution of around one part per million of the nuclear Larmor frequency). Conventional, inductively detected NMR can provide the necessary high spectral resolution, but its limited sensitivity typically requires millimetre-scale samples, precluding applications that involve smaller samples, such as picolitre-volume chemical analysis or correlated optical and NMR microscopy. Here we demonstrate a measurement technique that uses a solid-state spin sensor (a magnetometer) consisting of an ensemble of nitrogen–vacancy centres in combination with a narrowband synchronized readout protocol to obtain NMR spectral resolution of about one hertz. We use this technique to observe NMR scalar couplings in a micrometre-scale sample volume of approximately ten picolitres. We also use the ensemble of nitrogen–vacancy centres to apply NMR to thermally polarized nuclear spins and resolve chemical-shift spectra from small molecules. Our technique enables analytical NMR spectroscopy at the scale of single cells.

The Resolution Sensitivity of Northern Hemisphere Blocking in Four 25-km Atmospheric Global Circulation Models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schiemann, Reinhard; Demory, Marie-Estelle; Shaffrey, Len C.

The aim of this study is to investigate if the representation of Northern Hemisphere blocking is sensitive to resolution in current-generation atmospheric global circulation models (AGCMs). An evaluation is thus conducted of how well atmospheric blocking is represented in four AGCMs whose horizontal resolution is increased from a grid spacing of more than 100 km to about 25 km. It is shown that Euro-Atlantic blocking is simulated overall more credibly at higher resolution (i.e., in better agreement with a 50-yr reference blocking climatology created from the reanalyses ERA-40 and ERA-Interim). The improvement seen with resolution depends on the season andmore » to some extent on the model considered. Euro-Atlantic blocking is simulated more realistically at higher resolution in winter, spring, and autumn, and robustly so across the model ensemble. The improvement in spring is larger than that in winter and autumn. Summer blocking is found to be better simulated at higher resolution by one model only, with little change seen in the other three models. The representation of Pacific blocking is not found to systematically depend on resolution. Despite the improvements seen with resolution, the 25-km models still exhibit large biases in Euro-Atlantic blocking. For example, three of the four 25-km models underestimate winter northern European blocking frequency by about one-third. The resolution sensitivity and biases in the simulated blocking are shown to be in part associated with the mean-state biases in the models' midlatitude circulation.« less

Predictors of heartburn resolution and erosive esophagitis in patients with GERD.

PubMed

Orlando, Roy C; Monyak, John T; Silberg, Debra G

2009-09-01

The primary objective was to assess gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptom resolution rates with esomeprazole by erosive esophagitis (EE) status, and the secondary objective was to evaluate potential predictors of the presence of EE and heartburn resolution. Patients with GERD who have EE have higher reported symptom resolution rates than those with nonerosive reflux disease (NERD) when treated with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). This open-label multicenter study included adults with GERD symptoms. Patients were stratified by EE status after endoscopy and received once-daily esomeprazole 40 mg for 4 weeks. Questionnaires determined symptom response rates, and baseline predictors of EE or heartburn resolution were evaluated. Potential predictors, including years with GERD, history of EE, and time to relief with antacids, were examined. Heartburn resolution rates at 4 weeks were higher for patients with EE than NERD (69% [124/179] vs. 48% [85/177]; p < 0.0001). Multivariate models had moderate predictive ability for EE (c-index, 0.76) and poor predictive ability (c-index, 0.57) for heartburn resolution. However, faster heartburn relief with antacid use, particularly within 15 min, was predictive of EE and heartburn resolution. Patients with EE have higher heartburn resolution rates than patients with NERD after treatment, although recall bias may be possible. Fast relief with antacid use is predictive of EE and heartburn resolution with a PPI and suggests that a history of antacid relief may provide corroborative evidence to empiric PPI therapy in determining whether patients with heartburn have acid reflux disease. ClinicalTrials.Gov IDENTIFIER: NCT00242736.

The Resolution Sensitivity of Northern Hemisphere Blocking in Four 25-km Atmospheric Global Circulation Models

DOE PAGES

Schiemann, Reinhard; Demory, Marie-Estelle; Shaffrey, Len C.; ...

2016-12-19

The aim of this study is to investigate if the representation of Northern Hemisphere blocking is sensitive to resolution in current-generation atmospheric global circulation models (AGCMs). An evaluation is thus conducted of how well atmospheric blocking is represented in four AGCMs whose horizontal resolution is increased from a grid spacing of more than 100 km to about 25 km. It is shown that Euro-Atlantic blocking is simulated overall more credibly at higher resolution (i.e., in better agreement with a 50-yr reference blocking climatology created from the reanalyses ERA-40 and ERA-Interim). The improvement seen with resolution depends on the season andmore » to some extent on the model considered. Euro-Atlantic blocking is simulated more realistically at higher resolution in winter, spring, and autumn, and robustly so across the model ensemble. The improvement in spring is larger than that in winter and autumn. Summer blocking is found to be better simulated at higher resolution by one model only, with little change seen in the other three models. The representation of Pacific blocking is not found to systematically depend on resolution. Despite the improvements seen with resolution, the 25-km models still exhibit large biases in Euro-Atlantic blocking. For example, three of the four 25-km models underestimate winter northern European blocking frequency by about one-third. The resolution sensitivity and biases in the simulated blocking are shown to be in part associated with the mean-state biases in the models' midlatitude circulation.« less

PTR, PCR and Energy Resolution Study of GAGG:Ce Scintillator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Limkitjaroenporn, Pruittipol; Hongtong, Wiraporn; Kim, Hong Joo; Kaewkhao, Jakrapong

2018-03-01

In this paper, the peak to total ratio (PTR), the peak to Compton ratio (PCR) and the energy resolution of cerium doped gadolinium aluminium gallium garnet (GAGG:Ce) scintillator are measured in the range of energy from 511 keV to 1332 keV using the radioactive source Na-22, Cs-137 and Co-60. The crystal is coupled with the PMT number R1306 and analyzed by the nuclear instrument module (NIM). The results found that the PTR and PCR of GAGG:Ce scintillator decrease with the increasing of energy. The results of energy resolution show the trend is decrease with the increasing of energy which corresponding to the higher energy resolution at higher energy. Moreover the energy resolution found to be linearly with.

AirCore-HR: a high-resolution column sampling to enhance the vertical description of CH4 and CO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Membrive, Olivier; Crevoisier, Cyril; Sweeney, Colm; Danis, François; Hertzog, Albert; Engel, Andreas; Bönisch, Harald; Picon, Laurence

2017-06-01

An original and innovative sampling system called AirCore was presented by NOAA in 2010 Karion et al.(2010). It consists of a long ( > 100 m) and narrow ( < 1 cm) stainless steel tube that can retain a profile of atmospheric air. The captured air sample has then to be analyzed with a gas analyzer for trace mole fraction. In this study, we introduce a new AirCore aiming to improve resolution along the vertical with the objectives to (i) better capture the vertical distribution of CO2 and CH4, (ii) provide a tool to compare AirCores and validate the estimated vertical resolution achieved by AirCores. This (high-resolution) AirCore-HR consists of a 300 m tube, combining 200 m of 0.125 in. (3.175 mm) tube and a 100 m of 0.25 in. (6.35 mm) tube. This new configuration allows us to achieve a vertical resolution of 300 m up to 15 km and better than 500 m up to 22 km (if analysis of the retained sample is performed within 3 h). The AirCore-HR was flown for the first time during the annual StratoScience campaign from CNES in August 2014 from Timmins (Ontario, Canada). High-resolution vertical profiles of CO2 and CH4 up to 25 km were successfully retrieved. These profiles revealed well-defined transport structures in the troposphere (also seen in CAMS-ECMWF high-resolution forecasts of CO2 and CH4 profiles) and captured the decrease of CO2 and CH4 in the stratosphere. The multi-instrument gondola also carried two other low-resolution AirCore-GUF that allowed us to perform direct comparisons and study the underlying processing method used to convert the sample of air to greenhouse gases vertical profiles. In particular, degrading the AirCore-HR derived profiles to the low resolution of AirCore-GUF yields an excellent match between both sets of CH4 profiles and shows a good consistency in terms of vertical structures. This fully validates the theoretical vertical resolution achievable by AirCores. Concerning CO2 although a good agreement is found in terms of vertical structure, the comparison between the various AirCores yields a large and variable bias (up to almost 3 ppm in some parts of the profiles). The reasons of this bias, possibly related to the drying agent used to dry the air, are still being investigated. Finally, the uncertainties associated with the measurements are assessed, yielding an average uncertainty below 3 ppb for CH4 and 0.25 ppm for CO2 with the major source of uncertainty coming from the potential loss of air sample on the ground and the choice of the starting and ending point of the collected air sample inside the tube. In an ideal case where the sample would be fully retained, it would be possible to know precisely the pressure at which air was sampled last and thus to improve the overall uncertainty to about 0.1 ppm for CO2 and 2 ppb for CH4.

Ecosystem services from converted land: the importance of tree cover in Amazonian pastures

USGS Publications Warehouse

Barrett, Kirsten; Valentim, Judson; Turner, B. L.

2013-01-01

Deforestation is responsible for a substantial fraction of global carbon emissions and changes in surface energy budgets that affect climate. Deforestation losses include wildlife and human habitat, and myriad forest products on which rural and urban societies depend for food, fiber, fuel, fresh water, medicine, and recreation. Ecosystem services gained in the transition from forests to pasture and croplands, however, are often ignored in assessments of the impact of land cover change. The role of converted lands in tropical areas in terms of carbon uptake and storage is largely unknown. Pastures represent the fastest-growing form of converted land use in the tropics, even in some areas of rapid urban expansion. Tree biomass stored in these areas spans a broad range, depending on tree cover. Trees in pasture increase carbon storage, provide shade for cattle, and increase productivity of forage material. As a result, increasing fractional tree cover can provide benefits land managers as well as important ecosystem services such as reducing conversion pressure on forests adjacent to pastures. This study presents an estimation of fractional tree cover in pasture in a dynamic region on the verge of large-scale land use change. An appropriate sampling interval is established for similar studies, one that balances the need for independent samples of sufficient number to characterize a pasture in terms of fractional tree cover. This information represents a useful policy tool for government organizations and NGOs interested in encouraging ecosystem services on converted lands. Using high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery, fractional tree cover in pasture is quantified for the municipality of Rio Branco, Brazil. A semivariogram and devolving spatial resolution are employed to determine the coarsest sampling interval that may be used, minimizing effects of spatial autocorrelation. The coarsest sampling interval that minimizes spatial dependence was about 22 m. The area-weighted fractional tree cover for the study area was 1.85 %, corrected for a slight bias associated with the coarser sampling resolution. The pastures sampled for fractional tree cover were divided between ‘high’ and ‘low’ tree cover, which may be the result of intentional incorporation of arboreal species in pasture. Further research involving those ranchers that have a higher fractional tree cover may indicate ways to promote the practice on a broader scale in the region.

Wiener-matrix image restoration beyond the sampling passband

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rahman, Zia-Ur; Alter-Gartenberg, Rachel; Fales, Carl L.; Huck, Friedrich O.

1991-01-01

A finer-than-sampling-lattice resolution image can be obtained using multiresponse image gathering and Wiener-matrix restoration. The multiresponse image gathering weighs the within-passband and aliased signal components differently, allowing the Wiener-matrix restoration filter to unscramble these signal components and restore spatial frequencies beyond the sampling passband of the photodetector array. A multiresponse images can be reassembled into a single minimum mean square error image with a resolution that is sq rt A times finer than the photodetector-array sampling lattice.

Electrical and morphological properties of magnetocaloric nano ZnNi ferrite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemeda, O. M.; Mostafa, Nasser Y.; Abd Elkader, Omar H.; Hemeda, D. M.; Tawfik, A.; Mostafa, M.

2015-11-01

A series of Zn1-xNixFe2O4 nano ferrite (with x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) compositions were synthesized using the combustion technique. The powder samples were characterized by XRD. The X-ray analysis showed that the samples were single phase spinel cubic structure. The AC resistivity decreases by increasing the frequency from 1 kHz to 10 kHz. As the frequency of the applied field increases the hopping of charge carrier also increase, thereby decreasing the resistivity. A shift in dielectric maximum is observed toward higher temperature with increasing the Ni content from 536 K to 560 K at 1 kHz. The HRTEM (high resolution TEM) images of four compositions have lattice spacing which confirms the crystalline nature of the samples. The surface morphology SEM of the sample consists of some grains with relatively homogenies distribution with an average size varying from 0.85 to 0.92 μm. The values for entropy change in this work are still small but are significally higher than the values that have been reported for iron oxide nanoparticle. The magnetic entropy change was calculated from measurements of M (H, T) where H is the magnetic field and T is the temperature. The maximum value of entropy change (ΔS) obtained near Curie temperature which makes these material candidates for magnetocaloric applications.

Multiple double cross-section transmission electron microscope sample preparation of specific sub-10 nm diameter Si nanowire devices.

PubMed

Gignac, Lynne M; Mittal, Surbhi; Bangsaruntip, Sarunya; Cohen, Guy M; Sleight, Jeffrey W

2011-12-01

The ability to prepare multiple cross-section transmission electron microscope (XTEM) samples from one XTEM sample of specific sub-10 nm features was demonstrated. Sub-10 nm diameter Si nanowire (NW) devices were initially cross-sectioned using a dual-beam focused ion beam system in a direction running parallel to the device channel. From this XTEM sample, both low- and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (TEM) images were obtained from six separate, specific site Si NW devices. The XTEM sample was then re-sectioned in four separate locations in a direction perpendicular to the device channel: 90° from the original XTEM sample direction. Three of the four XTEM samples were successfully sectioned in the gate region of the device. From these three samples, low- and high-resolution TEM images of the Si NW were taken and measurements of the NW diameters were obtained. This technique demonstrated the ability to obtain high-resolution TEM images in directions 90° from one another of multiple, specific sub-10 nm features that were spaced 1.1 μm apart.

Prediction of protein loop conformations using multiscale modeling methods with physical energy scoring functions.

PubMed

Olson, Mark A; Feig, Michael; Brooks, Charles L

2008-04-15

This article examines ab initio methods for the prediction of protein loops by a computational strategy of multiscale conformational sampling and physical energy scoring functions. Our approach consists of initial sampling of loop conformations from lattice-based low-resolution models followed by refinement using all-atom simulations. To allow enhanced conformational sampling, the replica exchange method was implemented. Physical energy functions based on CHARMM19 and CHARMM22 parameterizations with generalized Born (GB) solvent models were applied in scoring loop conformations extracted from the lattice simulations and, in the case of all-atom simulations, the ensemble of conformations were generated and scored with these models. Predictions are reported for 25 loop segments, each eight residues long and taken from a diverse set of 22 protein structures. We find that the simulations generally sampled conformations with low global root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) for loop backbone coordinates from the known structures, whereas clustering conformations in RMSD space and scoring detected less favorable loop structures. Specifically, the lattice simulations sampled basins that exhibited an average global RMSD of 2.21 +/- 1.42 A, whereas clustering and scoring the loop conformations determined an RMSD of 3.72 +/- 1.91 A. Using CHARMM19/GB to refine the lattice conformations improved the sampling RMSD to 1.57 +/- 0.98 A and detection to 2.58 +/- 1.48 A. We found that further improvement could be gained from extending the upper temperature in the all-atom refinement from 400 to 800 K, where the results typically yield a reduction of approximately 1 A or greater in the RMSD of the detected loop. Overall, CHARMM19 with a simple pairwise GB solvent model is more efficient at sampling low-RMSD loop basins than CHARMM22 with a higher-resolution modified analytical GB model; however, the latter simulation method provides a more accurate description of the all-atom energy surface, yet demands a much greater computational cost. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Detection of depleted uranium in urine of veterans from the 1991 Gulf War.

PubMed

Gwiazda, R H; Squibb, K; McDiarmid, M; Smith, D

2004-01-01

American soldiers involved in "friendly fire" accidents during the 1991 Gulf War were injured with depleted-uranium-containing fragments or possibly exposed to depleted uranium via other routes such as inhalation, ingestion, and/or wound contamination. To evaluate the presence of depleted uranium in these soldiers eight years later, the uranium concentration and depleted uranium content of urine samples were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in (a) depleted uranium exposed soldiers with embedded shrapnel, (b) depleted uranium exposed soldiers with no shrapnel, and (c) a reference group of deployed soldiers not involved in the friendly fire incidents. Uranium isotopic ratios measured in many urine samples injected directly into the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and analyzed at a mass resolution m/delta m of 300 appeared enriched in 235U with respect to natural abundance (0.72%) due to the presence of an interference of a polyatomic molecule of mass 234.81 amu that was resolved at a mass resolution m/delta m of 4,000. The 235U abundance measured on uranium separated from these urines by anion exchange chromatography was clearly natural or depleted. Urine uranium concentrations of soldiers with shrapnel were higher than those of the two other groups, and 16 out of 17 soldiers with shrapnel had detectable depleted uranium in their urine. In depleted uranium exposed soldiers with no shrapnel, depleted uranium was detected in urine samples of 10 out of 28 soldiers. The median uranium concentration of urines with depleted uranium from soldiers without shrapnel was significantly higher than in urines with no depleted uranium, though substantial overlap in urine uranium concentrations existed between the two groups. Accordingly, assessment of depleted uranium exposure using urine must rely on uranium isotopic analyses, since urine uranium concentration is not an unequivocal indicator of depleted uranium presence in soldiers with no embedded shrapnel.

An Australian study to evaluate worker exposure to chrysotile in the automotive service industry.

PubMed

Yeung, P; Patience, K; Apthorpe, L; Willcocks, D

1999-07-01

A study was conducted in Sydney, Australia, in 1996 to investigate the current exposure levels, control technologies, and work practices in five service garages (four car and one bus), three brake bonding workshops, and one gasket processing workshop. This study formed part of the assessment of chrysotile as a priority existing chemical under the Australian National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme. A total of 68 (11 personal and 57 area) air samples were collected, in accordance with the Australian standard membrane filter method. Fiber concentrations were determined by the traditional phase contrast microscopy (PCM) method and 16 selected samples were analyzed by the more powerful transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Chrysotile exposure of car mechanics measured by PCM was typically below the reportable detection limit of 0.05 f/mL, irrespective of whether disc brake, drum brake, or clutch was being serviced. These low levels can be attributed to the wet cleaning or aerosol spray methods used in recent years to replace the traditional compressed air jet cleaning. In the three brake shoe relining workshops, task-specific exposure reached up to 0.16 f/mL in the processes of cutting and radius grinding. TEM results were generally higher, due to its higher resolution power. The median diameter on samples taken from the service garages (passenger cars), as determined by TEM, was 0.5-1.0 micron; and was between 0.2-0.5 micron for the brake bonding and gasket processing workshops, while that for the bus service depot was 0.1-0.2 micron. Most of the respirable fibers (84%, mainly forsterite) from the bus service depot were below 0.2 micron in diameter which is the resolution limit of PCM. In the brake bonding and gasket cutting workshops, 34 percent and 44 percent of the chrysotile fibers were below 0.2 micron in diameter.

Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) for the imaging of biological samples at sub-nanometer resolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joens, Matthew S.; Huynh, Chuong; Kasuboski, James M.; Ferranti, David; Sigal, Yury J.; Zeitvogel, Fabian; Obst, Martin; Burkhardt, Claus J.; Curran, Kevin P.; Chalasani, Sreekanth H.; Stern, Lewis A.; Goetze, Bernhard; Fitzpatrick, James A. J.

2013-12-01

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) has long been the standard in imaging the sub-micrometer surface ultrastructure of both hard and soft materials. In the case of biological samples, it has provided great insights into their physical architecture. However, three of the fundamental challenges in the SEM imaging of soft materials are that of limited imaging resolution at high magnification, charging caused by the insulating properties of most biological samples and the loss of subtle surface features by heavy metal coating. These challenges have recently been overcome with the development of the Helium Ion Microscope (HIM), which boasts advances in charge reduction, minimized sample damage, high surface contrast without the need for metal coating, increased depth of field, and 5 angstrom imaging resolution. We demonstrate the advantages of HIM for imaging biological surfaces as well as compare and contrast the effects of sample preparation techniques and their consequences on sub-nanometer ultrastructure.

Helium Ion Microscopy (HIM) for the imaging of biological samples at sub-nanometer resolution.

PubMed

Joens, Matthew S; Huynh, Chuong; Kasuboski, James M; Ferranti, David; Sigal, Yury J; Zeitvogel, Fabian; Obst, Martin; Burkhardt, Claus J; Curran, Kevin P; Chalasani, Sreekanth H; Stern, Lewis A; Goetze, Bernhard; Fitzpatrick, James A J

2013-12-17

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) has long been the standard in imaging the sub-micrometer surface ultrastructure of both hard and soft materials. In the case of biological samples, it has provided great insights into their physical architecture. However, three of the fundamental challenges in the SEM imaging of soft materials are that of limited imaging resolution at high magnification, charging caused by the insulating properties of most biological samples and the loss of subtle surface features by heavy metal coating. These challenges have recently been overcome with the development of the Helium Ion Microscope (HIM), which boasts advances in charge reduction, minimized sample damage, high surface contrast without the need for metal coating, increased depth of field, and 5 angstrom imaging resolution. We demonstrate the advantages of HIM for imaging biological surfaces as well as compare and contrast the effects of sample preparation techniques and their consequences on sub-nanometer ultrastructure.

The sensitivity of catchment hypsometry and hypsometric properties to DEM resolution and polynomial order

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liffner, Joel W.; Hewa, Guna A.; Peel, Murray C.

2018-05-01

Derivation of the hypsometric curve of a catchment, and properties relating to that curve, requires both use of topographical data (commonly in the form of a Digital Elevation Model - DEM), and the estimation of a functional representation of that curve. An early investigation into catchment hypsometry concluded 3rd order polynomials sufficiently describe the hypsometric curve, without the consideration of higher order polynomials, or the sensitivity of hypsometric properties relating to the curve. Another study concluded the hypsometric integral (HI) is robust against changes in DEM resolution, a conclusion drawn from a very limited sample size. Conclusions from these earlier studies have resulted in the adoption of methods deemed to be "sufficient" in subsequent studies, in addition to assumptions that the robustness of the HI extends to other hypsometric properties. This study investigates and demonstrates the sensitivity of hypsometric properties to DEM resolution, DEM type and polynomial order through assessing differences in hypsometric properties derived from 417 catchments and sub-catchments within South Australia. The sensitivity of hypsometric properties across DEM types and polynomial orders is found to be significant, which suggests careful consideration of the methods chosen to derive catchment hypsometric information is required.

FPGA-Based Front-End Electronics for Positron Emission Tomography

PubMed Central

Haselman, Michael; DeWitt, Don; McDougald, Wendy; Lewellen, Thomas K.; Miyaoka, Robert; Hauck, Scott

2010-01-01

Modern Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are capable of performing complex discrete signal processing algorithms with clock rates above 100MHz. This combined with FPGA’s low expense, ease of use, and selected dedicated hardware make them an ideal technology for a data acquisition system for positron emission tomography (PET) scanners. Our laboratory is producing a high-resolution, small-animal PET scanner that utilizes FPGAs as the core of the front-end electronics. For this next generation scanner, functions that are typically performed in dedicated circuits, or offline, are being migrated to the FPGA. This will not only simplify the electronics, but the features of modern FPGAs can be utilizes to add significant signal processing power to produce higher resolution images. In this paper two such processes, sub-clock rate pulse timing and event localization, will be discussed in detail. We show that timing performed in the FPGA can achieve a resolution that is suitable for small-animal scanners, and will outperform the analog version given a low enough sampling period for the ADC. We will also show that the position of events in the scanner can be determined in real time using a statistical positioning based algorithm. PMID:21961085

Optical system design with wide field of view and high resolution based on monocentric multi-scale construction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Fang; Wang, Hu; Xiao, Nan; Shen, Yang; Xue, Yaoke

2018-03-01

With the development of related technology gradually mature in the field of optoelectronic information, it is a great demand to design an optical system with high resolution and wide field of view(FOV). However, as it is illustrated in conventional Applied Optics, there is a contradiction between these two characteristics. Namely, the FOV and imaging resolution are limited by each other. Here, based on the study of typical wide-FOV optical system design, we propose the monocentric multi-scale system design method to solve this problem. Consisting of a concentric spherical lens and a series of micro-lens array, this system has effective improvement on its imaging quality. As an example, we designed a typical imaging system, which has a focal length of 35mm and a instantaneous field angle of 14.7", as well as the FOV set to be 120°. By analyzing the imaging quality, we demonstrate that in different FOV, all the values of MTF at 200lp/mm are higher than 0.4 when the sampling frequency of the Nyquist is 200lp/mm, which shows a good accordance with our design.

Comparison of diffraction-enhanced computed tomography and monochromatic synchrotron radiation computed tomography of human trabecular bone.

PubMed

Connor, D M; Hallen, H D; Lalush, D S; Sumner, D R; Zhong, Z

2009-10-21

Diffraction-enhanced imaging (DEI) is an x-ray-based medical imaging modality that, when used in tomography mode (DECT), can generate a three-dimensional map of both the apparent absorption coefficient and the out-of-plane gradient of the index of refraction of the sample. DECT is known to have contrast gains over monochromatic synchrotron radiation CT (SRCT) for soft tissue structures. The goal of this experiment was to compare contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and resolution in images of human trabecular bone acquired using SRCT with images acquired using DECT. All images were acquired at the National Synchrotron Light Source (Upton, NY, USA) at beamline X15 A at an x-ray energy of 40 keV and the silicon [3 3 3] reflection. SRCT, apparent absorption DECT and refraction DECT slice images of the trabecular bone were created. The apparent absorption DECT images have significantly higher spatial resolution and CNR than the corresponding SRCT images. Thus, DECT will prove to be a useful tool for imaging applications in which high contrast and high spatial resolution are required for both soft tissue features and bone.

Hybrid Microscopy: Enabling Inexpensive High-Performance Imaging through Combined Physical and Optical Magnifications.

PubMed

Zhang, Yu Shrike; Chang, Jae-Byum; Alvarez, Mario Moisés; Trujillo-de Santiago, Grissel; Aleman, Julio; Batzaya, Byambaa; Krishnadoss, Vaishali; Ramanujam, Aishwarya Aravamudhan; Kazemzadeh-Narbat, Mehdi; Chen, Fei; Tillberg, Paul W; Dokmeci, Mehmet Remzi; Boyden, Edward S; Khademhosseini, Ali

2016-03-15

To date, much effort has been expended on making high-performance microscopes through better instrumentation. Recently, it was discovered that physical magnification of specimens was possible, through a technique called expansion microscopy (ExM), raising the question of whether physical magnification, coupled to inexpensive optics, could together match the performance of high-end optical equipment, at a tiny fraction of the price. Here we show that such "hybrid microscopy" methods--combining physical and optical magnifications--can indeed achieve high performance at low cost. By physically magnifying objects, then imaging them on cheap miniature fluorescence microscopes ("mini-microscopes"), it is possible to image at a resolution comparable to that previously attainable only with benchtop microscopes that present costs orders of magnitude higher. We believe that this unprecedented hybrid technology that combines expansion microscopy, based on physical magnification, and mini-microscopy, relying on conventional optics--a process we refer to as Expansion Mini-Microscopy (ExMM)--is a highly promising alternative method for performing cost-effective, high-resolution imaging of biological samples. With further advancement of the technology, we believe that ExMM will find widespread applications for high-resolution imaging particularly in research and healthcare scenarios in undeveloped countries or remote places.

Direct mass spectrometry approaches to characterize polyphenol composition of complex samples.

PubMed

Fulcrand, Hélène; Mané, Carine; Preys, Sébastien; Mazerolles, Gérard; Bouchut, Claire; Mazauric, Jean-Paul; Souquet, Jean-Marc; Meudec, Emmanuelle; Li, Yan; Cole, Richard B; Cheynier, Véronique

2008-12-01

Lower molecular weight polyphenols including proanthocyanidin oligomers can be analyzed after HPLC separation on either reversed-phase or normal phase columns. However, these techniques are time consuming and can have poor resolution as polymer chain length and structural diversity increase. The detection of higher molecular weight compounds, as well as the determination of molecular weight distributions, remain major challenges in polyphenol analysis. Approaches based on direct mass spectrometry (MS) analysis that are proposed to help overcome these problems are reviewed. Thus, direct flow injection electrospray ionization mass spectrometry analysis can be used to establish polyphenol fingerprints of complex extracts such as in wine. This technique enabled discrimination of samples on the basis of their phenolic (i.e. anthocyanin, phenolic acid and flavan-3-ol) compositions, but larger oligomers and polymers were poorly detectable. Detection of higher molecular weight proanthocyanidins was also restricted with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) MS, suggesting that they are difficult to desorb as gas-phase ions. The mass distribution of polymeric fractions could, however, be determined by analyzing the mass distributions of bovine serum albumin/proanthocyanidin complexes using MALDI-TOF-MS.

Unraveling Deformation Mechanisms in Gradient Structured Metals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moering, Jordan Alexander

Gradient structures have demonstrated high strength and high ductility, introducing new mechanisms to challenge conventional mechanics. This work develops a method for characterizing the shear strain in gradient structured steel and presents evidence of a texture gradient that develops in Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment (SMAT). Mechanics underlying some theories of the strengthening mechanisms in gradient structured metals are introduced, followed by the fabrication and testing of gradient structured aluminum rod. The round geometry is intrinsically different from its flat counterparts, which leads to a multiaxial stress state evolving in tension. The aluminum exhibits strengthening beyond rule of mixtures, and texture evolution in the post-mortem sample indicates that out of plane stresses operate within the gradient. Finally, another gradient structured aluminum rod is shown to exhibit higher strength and higher elongation to failure in a variety of sample diameters and processing conditions. The GND density and microstructural evolution showed no significant changes during mechanical testing, and high resolution strain mapping was successfully completed within the core of the material. These discoveries and contributions to the field should help continue unraveling the deformation mechanisms of gradient structured metals.

Super resolution imaging of HER2 gene amplification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okada, Masaya; Kubo, Takuya; Masumoto, Kanako; Iwanaga, Shigeki

2016-02-01

HER2 positive breast cancer is currently examined by counting HER2 genes using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)-stained breast carcinoma samples. In this research, two-dimensional super resolution fluorescence microscopy based on stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), with a spatial resolution of approximately 20 nm in the lateral direction, was used to more precisely distinguish and count HER2 genes in a FISH-stained tissue section. Furthermore, by introducing double-helix point spread function (DH-PSF), an optical phase modulation technique, to super resolution microscopy, three-dimensional images were obtained of HER2 in a breast carcinoma sample approximately 4 μm thick.

Digital Fresnel reflection holography for high-resolution 3D near-wall flow measurement.

PubMed

Kumar, S Santosh; Hong, Jiarong

2018-05-14

We propose a novel backscatter holographic imaging system, as a compact and effective tool for 3D near-wall flow diagnostics at high resolutions, utilizing light reflected at the solid-liquid interface as a reference beam. The technique is fully calibrated, and is demonstrated in a densely seeded channel to achieve a spatial resolution of near-wall flows equivalent to or exceeding prior digital inline holographic measurements using local tracer seeding technique. Additionally, we examined the effects of seeding concentration and laser coherence on the measurement resolution and sample volume resolved, demonstrating the potential to manipulate sample domain by tuning the laser coherence profile.

Raman spectroscopy-based detection of chemical contaminants in food powders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chao, Kuanglin; Dhakal, Sagar; Qin, Jianwei; Kim, Moon; Bae, Abigail

2016-05-01

Raman spectroscopy technique has proven to be a reliable method for qualitative detection of chemical contaminants in food ingredients and products. For quantitative imaging-based detection, each contaminant particle in a food sample must be detected and it is important to determine the necessary spatial resolution needed to effectively detect the contaminant particles. This study examined the effective spatial resolution required for detection of maleic acid in tapioca starch and benzoyl peroxide in wheat flour. Each chemical contaminant was mixed into its corresponding food powder at a concentration of 1% (w/w). Raman spectral images were collected for each sample, leveled across a 45 mm x 45 mm area, using different spatial resolutions. Based on analysis of these images, a spatial resolution of 0.5mm was selected as effective spatial resolution for detection of maleic acid in starch and benzoyl peroxide in flour. An experiment was then conducted using the 0.5mm spatial resolution to demonstrate Raman imaging-based quantitative detection of these contaminants for samples prepared at 0.1%, 0.3%, and 0.5% (w/w) concentrations. The results showed a linear correlation between the detected numbers of contaminant pixels and the actual concentrations of contaminant.

A description and evaluation of an air quality model nested within global and regional composition-climate models using MetUM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neal, Lucy S.; Dalvi, Mohit; Folberth, Gerd; McInnes, Rachel N.; Agnew, Paul; O'Connor, Fiona M.; Savage, Nicholas H.; Tilbee, Marie

2017-11-01

There is a clear need for the development of modelling frameworks for both climate change and air quality to help inform policies for addressing these issues simultaneously. This paper presents an initial attempt to develop a single modelling framework, by introducing a greater degree of consistency in the meteorological modelling framework by using a two-step, one-way nested configuration of models, from a global composition-climate model (GCCM) (140 km resolution) to a regional composition-climate model covering Europe (RCCM) (50 km resolution) and finally to a high (12 km) resolution model over the UK (AQUM). The latter model is used to produce routine air quality forecasts for the UK. All three models are based on the Met Office's Unified Model (MetUM). In order to better understand the impact of resolution on the downscaling of projections of future climate and air quality, we have used this nest of models to simulate a 5-year period using present-day emissions and under present-day climate conditions. We also consider the impact of running the higher-resolution model with higher spatial resolution emissions, rather than simply regridding emissions from the RCCM. We present an evaluation of the models compared to in situ air quality observations over the UK, plus a comparison against an independent 1 km resolution gridded dataset, derived from a combination of modelling and observations, effectively producing an analysis of annual mean surface pollutant concentrations. We show that using a high-resolution model over the UK has some benefits in improving air quality modelling, but that the use of higher spatial resolution emissions is important to capture local variations in concentrations, particularly for primary pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. For secondary pollutants such as ozone and the secondary component of PM10, the benefits of a higher-resolution nested model are more limited and reasons for this are discussed. This study highlights the point that the resolution of models is not the only factor in determining model performance - consistency between nested models is also important.

Resolution limits of ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desailly, Yann; Pierre, Juliette; Couture, Olivier; Tanter, Mickael

2015-11-01

As in other imaging methods based on waves, the resolution of ultrasound imaging is limited by the wavelength. However, the diffraction-limit can be overcome by super-localizing single events from isolated sources. In recent years, we developed plane-wave ultrasound allowing frame rates up to 20 000 fps. Ultrafast processes such as rapid movement or disruption of ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) can thus be monitored, providing us with distinct punctual sources that could be localized beyond the diffraction limit. We previously showed experimentally that resolutions beyond λ/10 can be reached in ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy (uULM) using a 128 transducer matrix in reception. Higher resolutions are theoretically achievable and the aim of this study is to predict the maximum resolution in uULM with respect to acquisition parameters (frequency, transducer geometry, sampling electronics). The accuracy of uULM is the error on the localization of a bubble, considered a point-source in a homogeneous medium. The proposed model consists in two steps: determining the timing accuracy of the microbubble echo in radiofrequency data, then transferring this time accuracy into spatial accuracy. The simplified model predicts a maximum resolution of 40 μm for a 1.75 MHz transducer matrix composed of two rows of 64 elements. Experimental confirmation of the model was performed by flowing microbubbles within a 60 μm microfluidic channel and localizing their blinking under ultrafast imaging (500 Hz frame rate). The experimental resolution, determined as the standard deviation in the positioning of the microbubbles, was predicted within 6 μm (13%) of the theoretical values and followed the analytical relationship with respect to the number of elements and depth. Understanding the underlying physical principles determining the resolution of superlocalization will allow the optimization of the imaging setup for each organ. Ultimately, accuracies better than the size of capillaries are achievable at several centimeter depths.

Design and evaluation of a THz time domain imaging system using standard optical design software.

PubMed

Brückner, Claudia; Pradarutti, Boris; Müller, Ralf; Riehemann, Stefan; Notni, Gunther; Tünnermann, Andreas

2008-09-20

A terahertz (THz) time domain imaging system is analyzed and optimized with standard optical design software (ZEMAX). Special requirements to the illumination optics and imaging optics are presented. In the optimized system, off-axis parabolic mirrors and lenses are combined. The system has a numerical aperture of 0.4 and is diffraction limited for field points up to 4 mm and wavelengths down to 750 microm. ZEONEX is used as the lens material. Higher aspherical coefficients are used for correction of spherical aberration and reduction of lens thickness. The lenses were manufactured by ultraprecision machining. For optimization of the system, ray tracing and wave-optical methods were combined. We show how the ZEMAX Gaussian beam analysis tool can be used to evaluate illumination optics. The resolution of the THz system was tested with a wire and a slit target, line gratings of different period, and a Siemens star. The behavior of the temporal line spread function can be modeled with the polychromatic coherent line spread function feature in ZEMAX. The spectral and temporal resolutions of the line gratings are compared with the respective modulation transfer function of ZEMAX. For maximum resolution, the system has to be diffraction limited down to the smallest wavelength of the spectrum of the THz pulse. Then, the resolution on time domain analysis of the pulse maximum can be estimated with the spectral resolution of the center of gravity wavelength. The system resolution near the optical axis on time domain analysis of the pulse maximum is 1 line pair/mm with an intensity contrast of 0.22. The Siemens star is used for estimation of the resolution of the whole system. An eight channel electro-optic sampling system was used for detection. The resolution on time domain analysis of the pulse maximum of all eight channels could be determined with the Siemens star to be 0.7 line pairs/mm.

Monitoring uranium, hydrogen, and lithium and their isotopes using a compact laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) probe and high-resolution spectrometer.

PubMed

Cremers, David A; Beddingfield, Alan; Smithwick, Robert; Chinni, Rosemarie C; Jones, C Randy; Beardsley, Burt; Karch, Larry

2012-03-01

The development of field-deployable instruments to monitor radiological, nuclear, and explosive (RNE) threats is of current interest for a number of assessment needs such as the on-site screening of suspect facilities and nuclear forensics. The presence of uranium and plutonium and radiological materials can be determined through monitoring the elemental emission spectrum using relatively low-resolution spectrometers. In addition, uranium compounds, explosives, and chemicals used in nuclear fuel processing (e.g., tributyl-phosphate) can be identified by applying chemometric analysis to the laser-induced breakdown (LIBS) spectrum recorded by these spectrometers. For nuclear forensic applications, however, isotopes of U and Pu and other elements (e.g., H and Li) must also be determined, requiring higher resolution spectrometers given the small magnitude of the isotope shifts for some of these elements (e.g., 25 pm for U and 13 pm for Pu). High-resolution spectrometers will be preferred for several reasons but these must fit into realistic field-based analysis scenarios. To address the need for field instrumentation, we evaluated a previously developed field-deployable hand-held LIBS interrogation probe combined with two relatively new high-resolution spectrometers (λ/Δλ ~75,000 and ~44,000) that have the potential to meet field-based analysis needs. These spectrometers are significantly smaller and lighter in weight than those previously used for isotopic analysis and one unit can provide simultaneous wide spectral coverage and high resolution in a relatively small package. The LIBS interrogation probe was developed initially for use with low resolution compact spectrometers in a person-portable backpack LIBS instrument. Here we present the results of an evaluation of the LIBS probe combined with a high-resolution spectrometer and demonstrate rapid detection of isotopes of uranium and hydrogen and highly enriched samples of (6)Li and (7)Li. © 2012 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

A Compressed Sensing Based Method for Reducing the Sampling Time of A High Resolution Pressure Sensor Array System

PubMed Central

Sun, Chenglu; Li, Wei; Chen, Wei

2017-01-01

For extracting the pressure distribution image and respiratory waveform unobtrusively and comfortably, we proposed a smart mat which utilized a flexible pressure sensor array, printed electrodes and novel soft seven-layer structure to monitor those physiological information. However, in order to obtain high-resolution pressure distribution and more accurate respiratory waveform, it needs more time to acquire the pressure signal of all the pressure sensors embedded in the smart mat. In order to reduce the sampling time while keeping the same resolution and accuracy, a novel method based on compressed sensing (CS) theory was proposed. By utilizing the CS based method, 40% of the sampling time can be decreased by means of acquiring nearly one-third of original sampling points. Then several experiments were carried out to validate the performance of the CS based method. While less than one-third of original sampling points were measured, the correlation degree coefficient between reconstructed respiratory waveform and original waveform can achieve 0.9078, and the accuracy of the respiratory rate (RR) extracted from the reconstructed respiratory waveform can reach 95.54%. The experimental results demonstrated that the novel method can fit the high resolution smart mat system and be a viable option for reducing the sampling time of the pressure sensor array. PMID:28796188

Interpolation of diffusion weighted imaging datasets.

PubMed

Dyrby, Tim B; Lundell, Henrik; Burke, Mark W; Reislev, Nina L; Paulson, Olaf B; Ptito, Maurice; Siebner, Hartwig R

2014-12-01

Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is used to study white-matter fibre organisation, orientation and structural connectivity by means of fibre reconstruction algorithms and tractography. For clinical settings, limited scan time compromises the possibilities to achieve high image resolution for finer anatomical details and signal-to-noise-ratio for reliable fibre reconstruction. We assessed the potential benefits of interpolating DWI datasets to a higher image resolution before fibre reconstruction using a diffusion tensor model. Simulations of straight and curved crossing tracts smaller than or equal to the voxel size showed that conventional higher-order interpolation methods improved the geometrical representation of white-matter tracts with reduced partial-volume-effect (PVE), except at tract boundaries. Simulations and interpolation of ex-vivo monkey brain DWI datasets revealed that conventional interpolation methods fail to disentangle fine anatomical details if PVE is too pronounced in the original data. As for validation we used ex-vivo DWI datasets acquired at various image resolutions as well as Nissl-stained sections. Increasing the image resolution by a factor of eight yielded finer geometrical resolution and more anatomical details in complex regions such as tract boundaries and cortical layers, which are normally only visualized at higher image resolutions. Similar results were found with typical clinical human DWI dataset. However, a possible bias in quantitative values imposed by the interpolation method used should be considered. The results indicate that conventional interpolation methods can be successfully applied to DWI datasets for mining anatomical details that are normally seen only at higher resolutions, which will aid in tractography and microstructural mapping of tissue compartments. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The influence of spatially and temporally high-resolution wind forcing on the power input to near-inertial waves in the ocean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rimac, Antonija; von Storch, Jin-Song; Eden, Carsten

2013-04-01

The estimated power required to sustain global general circulation in the ocean is about 2 TW. This power is supplied with wind stress and tides. Energy spectrum shows pronounced maxima at near-inertial frequency. Near-inertial waves excited by high-frequency winds represent an important source for deep ocean mixing since they can propagate into the deep ocean and dissipate far away from the generation sites. The energy input by winds to near-inertial waves has been studied mostly using slab ocean models and wind stress forcing with coarse temporal resolution (e.g. 6-hourly). Slab ocean models lack the ability to reproduce fundamental aspects of kinetic energy balance and systematically overestimate the wind work. Also, slab ocean models do not account the energy used for the mixed layer deepening or the energy radiating downward into the deep ocean. Coarse temporal resolution of the wind forcing strongly underestimates the near-inertial energy. To overcome this difficulty we use an eddy permitting ocean model with high-frequency wind forcing. We establish the following model setup: We use the Max Planck Institute Ocean Model (MPIOM) on a tripolar grid with 45 km horizontal resolution and 40 vertical levels. We run the model with wind forcings that vary in horizontal and temporal resolution. We use high-resolution (1-hourly with 35 km horizontal resolution) and low-resolution winds (6-hourly with 250 km horizontal resolution). We address the following questions: Is the kinetic energy of near-inertial waves enhanced when high-resolution wind forcings are used? If so, is this due to higher level of overall wind variability or higher spatial or temporal resolution of wind forcing? How large is the power of near-inertial waves generated by winds? Our results show that near-inertial waves are enhanced and the near-inertial kinetic energy is two times higher (in the storm track regions 3.5 times higher) when high-resolution winds are used. Filtering high-resolution winds in space and time, the near-inertial kinetic energy reduces. The reduction is faster when a temporal filter is used suggesting that the high-frequency wind forcing is more efficient in generating near-inertial wave energy than the small-scale wind forcing. Using low-resolution wind forcing the wind generated power to near-inertial waves is 0.55 TW. When we use high-resolution wind forcing the result is 1.6 TW meaning that the result increases by 300%.

X-ray microscopy using reflection targets based on SEM with tungsten filament

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Junbiao; Ma, Yutian; Zhao, Weixia; Niu, Geng; Chu, Mingzhang; Yin, Bohua; Han, Li; Liu, Baodong

2016-10-01

X-ray MicroandNano imaging is developed based on the conventional x-ray tomography, it can not only provide nondestructive testing with higher resolution measurement, but also be used to examine the material or the structure with low atomic number and low density. The source with micro-focal spot size is one of the key components of x-ray MicroandNano imaging. The focused electron beam from SEM bombarding the metal target can generate x-ray with ultra-small size. It is convenient to set up x-ray microscopy based on SEM for laboratory use. This paper describes a new x-ray microscopy using reflection targets based on FEI Quanta600 SEM with tungsten filament. The flat panel detector is placed outside of the vacuum chamber with 300μm thickness Be-window to isolate vacuum from the air. A stage with 3 DOFs is added to adjust the positions of the target, the SEM's sample stage is used to move sample. And the shape of target is designed as cone with 60° half cone angle to get the maximum x-ray dosage. The attenuation coefficient of Bewindow for x-ray is about 25%. Finally, the line pair card is used to evaluate the resolution and the result shows that the resolution of the system can receive less than 750nm, when the acceleration voltage is 30keV, the beam current is 160nA, the SEM working distance is 5mm and the acquisition time of the detector is 60s.

Taxonomic resolutions based on 18S rRNA genes: a case study of subclass copepoda.

PubMed

Wu, Shu; Xiong, Jie; Yu, Yuhe

2015-01-01

Biodiversity studies are commonly conducted using 18S rRNA genes. In this study, we compared the inter-species divergence of variable regions (V1-9) within the copepod 18S rRNA gene, and tested their taxonomic resolutions at different taxonomic levels. Our results indicate that the 18S rRNA gene is a good molecular marker for the study of copepod biodiversity, and our conclusions are as follows: 1) 18S rRNA genes are highly conserved intra-species (intra-species similarities are close to 100%); and could aid in species-level analyses, but with some limitations; 2) nearly-whole-length sequences and some partial regions (around V2, V4, and V9) of the 18S rRNA gene can be used to discriminate between samples at both the family and order levels (with a success rate of about 80%); 3) compared with other regions, V9 has a higher resolution at the genus level (with an identification success rate of about 80%); and 4) V7 is most divergent in length, and would be a good candidate marker for the phylogenetic study of Acartia species. This study also evaluated the correlation between similarity thresholds and the accuracy of using nuclear 18S rRNA genes for the classification of organisms in the subclass Copepoda. We suggest that sample identification accuracy should be considered when a molecular sequence divergence threshold is used for taxonomic identification, and that the lowest similarity threshold should be determined based on a pre-designated level of acceptable accuracy.

Taxonomic Resolutions Based on 18S rRNA Genes: A Case Study of Subclass Copepoda

PubMed Central

Wu, Shu; Xiong, Jie; Yu, Yuhe

2015-01-01

Biodiversity studies are commonly conducted using 18S rRNA genes. In this study, we compared the inter-species divergence of variable regions (V1–9) within the copepod 18S rRNA gene, and tested their taxonomic resolutions at different taxonomic levels. Our results indicate that the 18S rRNA gene is a good molecular marker for the study of copepod biodiversity, and our conclusions are as follows: 1) 18S rRNA genes are highly conserved intra-species (intra-species similarities are close to 100%); and could aid in species-level analyses, but with some limitations; 2) nearly-whole-length sequences and some partial regions (around V2, V4, and V9) of the 18S rRNA gene can be used to discriminate between samples at both the family and order levels (with a success rate of about 80%); 3) compared with other regions, V9 has a higher resolution at the genus level (with an identification success rate of about 80%); and 4) V7 is most divergent in length, and would be a good candidate marker for the phylogenetic study of Acartia species. This study also evaluated the correlation between similarity thresholds and the accuracy of using nuclear 18S rRNA genes for the classification of organisms in the subclass Copepoda. We suggest that sample identification accuracy should be considered when a molecular sequence divergence threshold is used for taxonomic identification, and that the lowest similarity threshold should be determined based on a pre-designated level of acceptable accuracy. PMID:26107258

Serial isoelectric focusing as an effective and economic way to obtain maximal resolution and high-throughput in 2D-based comparative proteomics of scarce samples: proof-of-principle.

PubMed

Farhoud, Murtada H; Wessels, Hans J C T; Wevers, Ron A; van Engelen, Baziel G; van den Heuvel, Lambert P; Smeitink, Jan A

2005-01-01

In 2D-based comparative proteomics of scarce samples, such as limited patient material, established methods for prefractionation and subsequent use of different narrow range IPG strips to increase overall resolution are difficult to apply. Also, a high number of samples, a prerequisite for drawing meaningful conclusions when pathological and control samples are considered, will increase the associated amount of work almost exponentially. Here, we introduce a novel, effective, and economic method designed to obtain maximum 2D resolution while maintaining the high throughput necessary to perform large-scale comparative proteomics studies. The method is based on connecting different IPG strips serially head-to-tail so that a complete line of different IPG strips with sequential pH regions can be focused in the same experiment. We show that when 3 IPG strips (covering together the pH range of 3-11) are connected head-to-tail an optimal resolution is achieved along the whole pH range. Sample consumption, time required, and associated costs are reduced by almost 70%, and the workload is reduced significantly.

Visible Human 2.0--the next generation.

PubMed

Ratiu, Peter; Hillen, Berend; Glaser, Jack; Jenkins, Donald P

2003-01-01

The National Library of Medicine has initiated the development of new anatomical methods and techniques for the acquisition of higher resolution data sets, aiming to address the anatomical artifacts encountered in the development of the Visible Human Male and Female and to insure enhanced detection of structures, providing data in greater depth and breadth. Given this framework, we acquired a complete data set of the head and neck. CT and MR scans were also obtained with registration hardware inserted prior to imaging. The arterial and venous systems were injected with colorized araldite-F. After freezing, axial cryosectioning and digital photography at 147 microns/voxel resolution was performed. Two slabs of the specimen were acquired with a special tissue harvesting technique. The resulting tissue slices of the whole specimen were stained for different tissue types. The resulting histological material was then scanned at a 60x magnification using the Virtual Slice technology at 2 microns/pixel resolution (each slide approximately 75,000 x 100,000 pixels). In this data set, for the first time anatomy is presented as a continuum from a radiologic granularity of 1 mm/voxel, to a macroscopic resolution of .147 mm/voxel, to microscopic resolution of 2 microns/pixel. The hiatus between gross anatomy and histology has been assumed insurmountable, and until the present time this gap was bridged by extrapolating findings on minute samples. The availability of anatomical data with the fidelity presented will render it possible to perform a seamless study of whole organs at a cellular level and provide a testbed for the validation of histological estimation techniques. A future complete Visible Human created from data acquired at a cellular resolution, aside from its daunting size, will open new possibilities in multiple directions in medical research and simulation.

A multi-threshold sampling method for TOF-PET signal processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, H.; Kao, C. M.; Xie, Q.; Chen, C. T.; Zhou, L.; Tang, F.; Frisch, H.; Moses, W. W.; Choong, W. S.

2009-04-01

As an approach to realizing all-digital data acquisition for positron emission tomography (PET), we have previously proposed and studied a multi-threshold sampling method to generate samples of a PET event waveform with respect to a few user-defined amplitudes. In this sampling scheme, one can extract both the energy and timing information for an event. In this paper, we report our prototype implementation of this sampling method and the performance results obtained with this prototype. The prototype consists of two multi-threshold discriminator boards and a time-to-digital converter (TDC) board. Each of the multi-threshold discriminator boards takes one input and provides up to eight threshold levels, which can be defined by users, for sampling the input signal. The TDC board employs the CERN HPTDC chip that determines the digitized times of the leading and falling edges of the discriminator output pulses. We connect our prototype electronics to the outputs of two Hamamatsu R9800 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) that are individually coupled to a 6.25×6.25×25 mm3 LSO crystal. By analyzing waveform samples generated by using four thresholds, we obtain a coincidence timing resolution of about 340 ps and an ˜18% energy resolution at 511 keV. We are also able to estimate the decay-time constant from the resulting samples and obtain a mean value of 44 ns with an ˜9 ns FWHM. In comparison, using digitized waveforms obtained at a 20 GSps sampling rate for the same LSO/PMT modules we obtain ˜300 ps coincidence timing resolution, ˜14% energy resolution at 511 keV, and ˜5 ns FWHM for the estimated decay-time constant. Details of the results on the timing and energy resolutions by using the multi-threshold method indicate that it is a promising approach for implementing digital PET data acquisition.

Coherent diffractive imaging of time-evolving samples with improved temporal resolution

DOE PAGES

Ulvestad, A.; Tripathi, A.; Hruszkewycz, S. O.; ...

2016-05-19

Bragg coherent x-ray diffractive imaging is a powerful technique for investigating dynamic nanoscale processes in nanoparticles immersed in reactive, realistic environments. Its temporal resolution is limited, however, by the oversampling requirements of three-dimensional phase retrieval. Here, we show that incorporating the entire measurement time series, which is typically a continuous physical process, into phase retrieval allows the oversampling requirement at each time step to be reduced, leading to a subsequent improvement in the temporal resolution by a factor of 2-20 times. The increased time resolution will allow imaging of faster dynamics and of radiation-dose-sensitive samples. Furthermore, this approach, which wemore » call "chrono CDI," may find use in improving the time resolution in other imaging techniques.« less

Handling Different Spatial Resolutions in Image Fusion by Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least Squares for Incomplete Image Multisets.

PubMed

Piqueras, Sara; Bedia, Carmen; Beleites, Claudia; Krafft, Christoph; Popp, Jürgen; Maeder, Marcel; Tauler, Romà; de Juan, Anna

2018-06-05

Data fusion of different imaging techniques allows a comprehensive description of chemical and biological systems. Yet, joining images acquired with different spectroscopic platforms is complex because of the different sample orientation and image spatial resolution. Whereas matching sample orientation is often solved by performing suitable affine transformations of rotation, translation, and scaling among images, the main difficulty in image fusion is preserving the spatial detail of the highest spatial resolution image during multitechnique image analysis. In this work, a special variant of the unmixing algorithm Multivariate Curve Resolution Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) for incomplete multisets is proposed to provide a solution for this kind of problem. This algorithm allows analyzing simultaneously images collected with different spectroscopic platforms without losing spatial resolution and ensuring spatial coherence among the images treated. The incomplete multiset structure concatenates images of the two platforms at the lowest spatial resolution with the image acquired with the highest spatial resolution. As a result, the constituents of the sample analyzed are defined by a single set of distribution maps, common to all platforms used and with the highest spatial resolution, and their related extended spectral signatures, covering the signals provided by each of the fused techniques. We demonstrate the potential of the new variant of MCR-ALS for multitechnique analysis on three case studies: (i) a model example of MIR and Raman images of pharmaceutical mixture, (ii) FT-IR and Raman images of palatine tonsil tissue, and (iii) mass spectrometry and Raman images of bean tissue.

Patterned thin metal film for the lateral resolution measurement of photoacoustic tomography

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Image quality assessment method of photoacoustic tomography has not been completely standardized yet. Due to the combined nature of photonic signal generation and ultrasonic signal transmission in biological tissue, neither optical nor ultrasonic traditional methods can be used without modification. An optical resolution measurement technique was investigated for its feasibility for resolution measurement of photoacoustic tomography. Methods A patterned thin metal film deposited on silica glass provides high contrast in optical imaging due to high reflectivity from the metal film and high transmission from the glass. It provides high contrast when it is used for photoacoustic tomography because thin metal film can absorb pulsed laser energy. An US Air Force 1951 resolution target was used to generate patterned photoacoustic signal to measure the lateral resolution. Transducer with 2.25 MHz bandwidth and a sample submerged in water and gelatinous block were tested for lateral resolution measurement. Results Photoacoustic signal generated from a thin metal film deposited on a glass can propagate along the surface or through the surrounding medium. First, a series of experiments with tilted sample confirmed that the measured photoacoustic signal is what is propagating through the medium. Lateral resolution of the photoacoustic tomography system was successfully measured for water and gelatinous block as media: 0.33 mm and 0.35 mm in water and gelatinous material, respectively, when 2.25 MHz transducer was used. Chicken embryo was tested for biomedical applications. Conclusions A patterned thin metal film sample was tested for its feasibility of measuring lateral resolution of a photoacoustic tomography system. Lateral resolutions in water and gelatinous material were successfully measured using the proposed method. Measured resolutions agreed well with theoretical values. PMID:22794510

Defining the healthy "core microbiome" of oral microbial communities

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Most studies examining the commensal human oral microbiome are focused on disease or are limited in methodology. In order to diagnose and treat diseases at an early and reversible stage an in-depth definition of health is indispensible. The aim of this study therefore was to define the healthy oral microbiome using recent advances in sequencing technology (454 pyrosequencing). Results We sampled and sequenced microbiomes from several intraoral niches (dental surfaces, cheek, hard palate, tongue and saliva) in three healthy individuals. Within an individual oral cavity, we found over 3600 unique sequences, over 500 different OTUs or "species-level" phylotypes (sequences that clustered at 3% genetic difference) and 88 - 104 higher taxa (genus or more inclusive taxon). The predominant taxa belonged to Firmicutes (genus Streptococcus, family Veillonellaceae, genus Granulicatella), Proteobacteria (genus Neisseria, Haemophilus), Actinobacteria (genus Corynebacterium, Rothia, Actinomyces), Bacteroidetes (genus Prevotella, Capnocytophaga, Porphyromonas) and Fusobacteria (genus Fusobacterium). Each individual sample harboured on average 266 "species-level" phylotypes (SD 67; range 123 - 326) with cheek samples being the least diverse and the dental samples from approximal surfaces showing the highest diversity. Principal component analysis discriminated the profiles of the samples originating from shedding surfaces (mucosa of tongue, cheek and palate) from the samples that were obtained from solid surfaces (teeth). There was a large overlap in the higher taxa, "species-level" phylotypes and unique sequences among the three microbiomes: 84% of the higher taxa, 75% of the OTUs and 65% of the unique sequences were present in at least two of the three microbiomes. The three individuals shared 1660 of 6315 unique sequences. These 1660 sequences (the "core microbiome") contributed 66% of the reads. The overlapping OTUs contributed to 94% of the reads, while nearly all reads (99.8%) belonged to the shared higher taxa. Conclusions We obtained the first insight into the diversity and uniqueness of individual oral microbiomes at a resolution of next-generation sequencing. We showed that a major proportion of bacterial sequences of unrelated healthy individuals is identical, supporting the concept of a core microbiome at health. PMID:20003481

Atmospheric chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in East Asia.

PubMed

Kakimoto, Kensaku; Nagayoshi, Haruna; Konishi, Yoshimasa; Kajimura, Keiji; Ohura, Takeshi; Hayakawa, Kazuichi; Toriba, Akira

2014-09-01

This study estimates atmospheric concentrations of chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (ClPAHs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in East Asia using a Gas Chromatograph with High Resolution Mass Spectrometer (GC-HRMS). ClPAHs are ubiquitously generated from PAHs through substitution, and some ClPAHs show higher aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR)-mediated activities than their parent PAHs. Atmospheric particles were collected using a high-volume air sampler equipped with a quartz-fiber filter. We determined the ClPAH concentrations of atmospheric particles collected in Japan (Sapporo, Sagamihara, Kanazawa, and Kitakyushu), Korea (Busan), and China (Beijing). The concentrations of ClPAHs were highest in the winter Beijing sample, where the total mean concentration was approximately 15-70 times higher than in the winter samples from Japan and Korea. The concentrations of Σ19ClPAHs and Σ9PAHs were significantly correlated in the Kanazawa and the Busan samples. This indicates that within those cities ClPAHs and PAHs share the same origin, implying direct chlorination of parent PAHs. Toxic equivalent concentrations (TEQs) of the total ClPAHs and PAHs were lowest in Kanazawa in the summer, reaching 1.18 and 2610fg-TEQm(-3) respectively, and highest in Beijing in the winter, reaching 627 and 4240000fg-TEQm(-3) respectively. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increasing vertical resolution in US models to improve track forecasts of Hurricane Joaquin with HWRF as an example

PubMed Central

Zhang, Banglin; Tallapragada, Vijay; Weng, Fuzhong; Liu, Qingfu; Sippel, Jason A.; Ma, Zaizhong; Bender, Morris A.

2016-01-01

The atmosphere−ocean coupled Hurricane Weather Research and Forecast model (HWRF) developed at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is used as an example to illustrate the impact of model vertical resolution on track forecasts of tropical cyclones. A number of HWRF forecasting experiments were carried out at different vertical resolutions for Hurricane Joaquin, which occurred from September 27 to October 8, 2015, in the Atlantic Basin. The results show that the track prediction for Hurricane Joaquin is much more accurate with higher vertical resolution. The positive impacts of higher vertical resolution on hurricane track forecasts suggest that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/NCEP should upgrade both HWRF and the Global Forecast System to have more vertical levels. PMID:27698121

Ocean wavenumber estimation from wave-resolving time series imagery

USGS Publications Warehouse

Plant, N.G.; Holland, K.T.; Haller, M.C.

2008-01-01

We review several approaches that have been used to estimate ocean surface gravity wavenumbers from wave-resolving remotely sensed image sequences. Two fundamentally different approaches that utilize these data exist. A power spectral density approach identifies wavenumbers where image intensity variance is maximized. Alternatively, a cross-spectral correlation approach identifies wavenumbers where intensity coherence is maximized. We develop a solution to the latter approach based on a tomographic analysis that utilizes a nonlinear inverse method. The solution is tolerant to noise and other forms of sampling deficiency and can be applied to arbitrary sampling patterns, as well as to full-frame imagery. The solution includes error predictions that can be used for data retrieval quality control and for evaluating sample designs. A quantitative analysis of the intrinsic resolution of the method indicates that the cross-spectral correlation fitting improves resolution by a factor of about ten times as compared to the power spectral density fitting approach. The resolution analysis also provides a rule of thumb for nearshore bathymetry retrievals-short-scale cross-shore patterns may be resolved if they are about ten times longer than the average water depth over the pattern. This guidance can be applied to sample design to constrain both the sensor array (image resolution) and the analysis array (tomographic resolution). ?? 2008 IEEE.

Diverse protocols for correlative super-resolution fluorescence imaging and electron microscopy of chemically fixed samples

PubMed Central

Kopek, Benjamin G.; Paez-Segala, Maria G.; Shtengel, Gleb; Sochacki, Kem A.; Sun, Mei G.; Wang, Yalin; Xu, C. Shan; van Engelenburg, Schuyler B.; Taraska, Justin W.; Looger, Loren L.; Hess, Harald F.

2017-01-01

Our groups have recently developed related approaches for sample preparation for super-resolution imaging within endogenous cellular environments using correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). Four distinct techniques for preparing and acquiring super-resolution CLEM datasets on aldehyde-fixed specimens are provided, including Tokuyasu cryosectioning, whole-cell mount, cell unroofing and platinum replication, and resin embedding and sectioning. Choice of the best protocol for a given application depends on a number of criteria that are discussed in detail. Tokuyasu cryosectioning is relatively rapid but is limited to small, delicate specimens. Whole-cell mount has the simplest sample preparation but is restricted to surface structures. Cell unroofing and platinum replica creates high-contrast, 3-dimensional images of the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane, but is more challenging than whole-cell mount. Resin embedding permits serial sectioning of large samples, but is limited to osmium-resistant probes, and is technically difficult. Expected results from these protocols include super-resolution localization (~10–50 nm) of fluorescent targets within the context of electron microscopy ultrastructure, which can help address cell biological questions. These protocols can be completed in 2–7 days, are compatible with a number of super-resolution imaging protocols, and are broadly applicable across biology. PMID:28384138

Design of Multishell Sampling Schemes with Uniform Coverage in Diffusion MRI

PubMed Central

Caruyer, Emmanuel; Lenglet, Christophe; Sapiro, Guillermo; Deriche, Rachid

2017-01-01

Purpose In diffusion MRI, a technique known as diffusion spectrum imaging reconstructs the propagator with a discrete Fourier transform, from a Cartesian sampling of the diffusion signal. Alternatively, it is possible to directly reconstruct the orientation distribution function in q-ball imaging, providing so-called high angular resolution diffusion imaging. In between these two techniques, acquisitions on several spheres in q-space offer an interesting trade-off between the angular resolution and the radial information gathered in diffusion MRI. A careful design is central in the success of multishell acquisition and reconstruction techniques. Methods The design of acquisition in multishell is still an open and active field of research, however. In this work, we provide a general method to design multishell acquisition with uniform angular coverage. This method is based on a generalization of electrostatic repulsion to multishell. Results We evaluate the impact of our method using simulations, on the angular resolution in one and two bundles of fiber configurations. Compared to more commonly used radial sampling, we show that our method improves the angular resolution, as well as fiber crossing discrimination. Discussion We propose a novel method to design sampling schemes with optimal angular coverage and show the positive impact on angular resolution in diffusion MRI. PMID:23625329

O-space with high resolution readouts outperforms radial imaging.

PubMed

Wang, Haifeng; Tam, Leo; Kopanoglu, Emre; Peters, Dana C; Constable, R Todd; Galiana, Gigi

2017-04-01

While O-Space imaging is well known to accelerate image acquisition beyond traditional Cartesian sampling, its advantages compared to undersampled radial imaging, the linear trajectory most akin to O-Space imaging, have not been detailed. In addition, previous studies have focused on ultrafast imaging with very high acceleration factors and relatively low resolution. The purpose of this work is to directly compare O-Space and radial imaging in their potential to deliver highly undersampled images of high resolution and minimal artifacts, as needed for diagnostic applications. We report that the greatest advantages to O-Space imaging are observed with extended data acquisition readouts. A sampling strategy that uses high resolution readouts is presented and applied to compare the potential of radial and O-Space sequences to generate high resolution images at high undersampling factors. Simulations and phantom studies were performed to investigate whether use of extended readout windows in O-Space imaging would increase k-space sampling and improve image quality, compared to radial imaging. Experimental O-Space images acquired with high resolution readouts show fewer artifacts and greater sharpness than radial imaging with equivalent scan parameters. Radial images taken with longer readouts show stronger undersampling artifacts, which can cause small or subtle image features to disappear. These features are preserved in a comparable O-Space image. High resolution O-Space imaging yields highly undersampled images of high resolution and minimal artifacts. The additional nonlinear gradient field improves image quality beyond conventional radial imaging. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Determination of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in human serum using programmable-temperature vaporization gas chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Zhang, Lei; Zhong, Yuxin; Liu, Xin; Bao, Yan; Zhao, Yunfeng; Wu, Yongning; Cai, Zongwei; Li, Jingguang

2017-09-01

The determination of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in blood from a non-occupational population is essential for the investigation of adverse health effects from these pollutants. In this study, a sensitive method based on programmable-temperature vaporization with large-volume injection coupled with gas chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry was developed to determine these pollutants in 1-2 mL of human serum samples. Various key parameters of programmable-temperature vaporization injector, including vent temperature, vent time, vent flow, transfer temperature and transfer time were optimized by factorial design. The accuracy and precision as well as applicability were assessed by determining polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in calibration standard solutions, standard reference materials and real human serum samples from non-occupational population. The method detection limits of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls were 1.5-9.0 and 0.005-0.02 ng/kg wet weight, respectively. By comparing with typically splitless injection, the application of programmable-temperature vaporization injector could effectively lead to higher detectable rate of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in 1-2 mL of human serum samples. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

[Determination of hydroxyproline in liver tissue by hydrophilic interaction chromatography-quadrupole/electrostatic field orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry].

PubMed

Liu, Wei; Qi, Shenglan; Xu, Ying; Xiao, Zhun; Fu, Yadong; Chen, Jiamei; Yang, Tao; Liu, Ping

2017-12-08

A method for the determination of hydroxyproline (Hyp) in liver tissue of mice by hydrophilic interaction chromatography-quadrupole/electrostatic field orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (HILIC-HRMS) was developed. The liver tissue samples of normal mice and liver fibrosis mice induced by carbon tetrachloride were hydrolyzed by concentrated hydrochloric acid. After filtrated and diluted by solution, the diluent was separated on an Hypersil GOLD HILIC column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 3 μm). Water-acetonitrile (28:72, v/v)were used as the mobile phases with isocratic elution. Finally, the target analytes were detected in positive model by HRMS equipped with an electrospray ionization source. The linear range of hydroxyproline was from 0.78 to 100.00 μg/L with the correlation coefficient ( R 2 ) of 0.9983. The limit of quantification was 0.78 μg/L. By detecting the spiked samples, the recoveries were in the range of 97.4%-100.9% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) between 1.4% and 2.0%. In addition, comparison of the measurement results by this method and the chloramine T method was proceeded. It was found that the linear correlation between the two methods was very good, and the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.927. And this method had simpler operation procedure and higher accuracy than chloramine T method. This method can be used for the quick determination of hydroxyproline in liver tissue samples.

Linear chirped slope profile for spatial calibration in slope measuring deflectometry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Siewert, F., E-mail: frank.siewert@helmholtz-berlin.de; Zeschke, T.; Arnold, T.

2016-05-15

Slope measuring deflectometry is commonly used by the X-ray optics community to measure the long-spatial-wavelength surface figure error of optical components dedicated to guide and focus X-rays under grazing incidence condition at synchrotron and free electron laser beamlines. The best performing instruments of this kind are capable of absolute accuracy on the level of 30-50 nrad. However, the exact bandwidth of the measurements, determined at the higher spatial frequencies by the instrument’s spatial resolution, or more generally by the instrument’s modulation transfer function (MTF) is hard to determine. An MTF calibration method based on application of a test surface withmore » a one-dimensional (1D) chirped height profile of constant amplitude was suggested in the past. In this work, we propose a new approach to designing the test surfaces with a 2D-chirped topography, specially optimized for MTF characterization of slope measuring instruments. The design of the developed MTF test samples based on the proposed linear chirped slope profiles (LCSPs) is free of the major drawback of the 1D chirped height profiles, where in the slope domain, the amplitude strongly increases with the local spatial frequency of the profile. We provide the details of fabrication of the LCSP samples. The results of first application of the developed test samples to measure the spatial resolution of the BESSY-NOM at different experimental arrangements are also presented and discussed.« less

The high throughput virtual slit enables compact, inexpensive Raman spectral imagers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gooding, Edward; Deutsch, Erik R.; Huehnerhoff, Joseph; Hajian, Arsen R.

2018-02-01

Raman spectral imaging is increasingly becoming the tool of choice for field-based applications such as threat, narcotics and hazmat detection; air, soil and water quality monitoring; and material ID. Conventional fiber-coupled point source Raman spectrometers effectively interrogate a small sample area and identify bulk samples via spectral library matching. However, these devices are very slow at mapping over macroscopic areas. In addition, the spatial averaging performed by instruments that collect binned spectra, particularly when used in combination with orbital raster scanning, tends to dilute the spectra of trace particles in a mixture. Our design, employing free space line illumination combined with area imaging, reveals both the spectral and spatial content of heterogeneous mixtures. This approach is well suited to applications such as detecting explosives and narcotics trace particle detection in fingerprints. The patented High Throughput Virtual Slit1 is an innovative optical design that enables compact, inexpensive handheld Raman spectral imagers. HTVS-based instruments achieve significantly higher spectral resolution than can be obtained with conventional designs of the same size. Alternatively, they can be used to build instruments with comparable resolution to large spectrometers, but substantially smaller size, weight and unit cost, all while maintaining high sensitivity. When used in combination with laser line imaging, this design eliminates sample photobleaching and unwanted photochemistry while greatly enhancing mapping speed, all with high selectivity and sensitivity. We will present spectral image data and discuss applications that are made possible by low cost HTVS-enabled instruments.

First test results from the Front-End Board with Cyclone V as a test high-resolution platform for the Auger-Beyond-2015 Front End Electronics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Szadkowski, Zbigniew

2015-07-01

The paper presents the first results from the Front- End Board (FEB) with the biggest Cyclone{sup R} V E FPGA 5CEFA9F31I7N, supporting 8 channels sampled up to 250 MSps at 14-bit resolution. Considered sampling for the SD is 120 MSps, however, the FEB has been developed with external anti-aliasing filters to keep a maximal flexibility. Six channels are targeted to the SD, two the rest for other experiments like: Auger Engineering Radio Array and additional muon counters. More channels and higher sampling generate larger size of registered events. We used the standard radio channel for a radio transmission from themore » detectors to the Central Data Acquisition Station (CDAS) to avoid at present a significant modification of a software in both sides: the detector and the CDAS (planned in a future for a final design). Seven FEBs have been deployed in the test detectors on a dedicated Engineering Array in a hexagon. Several variants of the FPGA code were tested for 120, 160, 200 and even 240 MSps DAQ. Tests confirmed a stability and reliability of the FEB design in real pampas conditions with more than 40 deg. C daily temperature variation and a strong sun exposition with a limited power budget only from a single solar panel. (authors)« less

High Spatial Resolution Commercial Satellite Imaging Product Characterization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryan, Robert E.; Pagnutti, Mary; Blonski, Slawomir; Ross, Kenton W.; Stnaley, Thomas

2005-01-01

NASA Stennis Space Center's Remote Sensing group has been characterizing privately owned high spatial resolution multispectral imaging systems, such as IKONOS, QuickBird, and OrbView-3. Natural and man made targets were used for spatial resolution, radiometric, and geopositional characterizations. Higher spatial resolution also presents significant adjacency effects for accurate reliable radiometry.

Resolution versus speckle relative to geologic interpretability of spaceborne radar images - A survey of user preference

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ford, J. P.

1982-01-01

A survey conducted to evaluate user preference for resolution versus speckle relative to the geologic interpretability of spaceborne radar images is discussed. Thirteen different resolution/looks combinations are simulated from Seasat synthetic-aperture radar data of each of three test sites. The SAR images were distributed with questionnaires for analysis to 85 earth scientists. The relative discriminability of geologic targets at each test site for each simulation of resolution and speckle on the images is determined on the basis of a survey of the evaluations. A large majority of the analysts respond that for most targets a two-look image at the highest simulated resolution is best. For a constant data rate, a higher resolution is more important for target discrimination than a higher number of looks. It is noted that sand dunes require more looks than other geologic targets. At all resolutions, multiple-look images are preferred over the corresponding single-look image. In general, the number of multiple looks that is optimal for discriminating geologic targets is inversely related to the simulated resolution.

National surveillance of 2,3,7,8-substituted polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans in soil in Taiwan.

PubMed

Hsu, Yi-Chyun; Que, Danielle E; Gou, Yan-You; Tsou, Tsui-Chun; Liu, Chung-Kun; Wang, Yen-Ling; Hou, Wen-Che; Lin, Yi-Hsien; Liu, Wen-Yao; Chao, How-Ran; Lee, Wen-Jhy

2018-07-01

In this study, the polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/furan (PCDD/F) levels in 381 soil samples coming from different background areas (n = 238) and contaminated areas (n = 143) in Taiwan were investigated from 2011 to 2015 using high resolution gas chromatograph/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRGC/HRMS). The contaminated areas showed higher PCDD/F contamination as compared to the background areas (1230 vs 749 pg/g dry weight (dw)); 14.0 vs 6.25 pg WHO 2005 -TEQ/g dw). The lowest levels were recorded in the outlying islands (1.28 pg WHO 2005 -TEQ/g dw). PCDD/F congener distribution profiles in the background and contaminated areas as well as on the islands varied. OCDD was the dominant congener in almost all locations, including the northern background (87.7%) and central contaminated (74.2%) areas. Other dominant species included OCDF and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD. Levels of PCDD/F-TEQs in Taiwanese soils, including the background areas, were higher than in some developing countries and regions with global background levels due to high industrialization except for the contaminated areas. Geographic differences in dioxin-contaminated soils were also shown in this study. Higher soil dioxin-TEQs were observed in locations with high populations and population densities. Despite the limitations, the economic status of Taiwan represented by the annual averaged family income (AAFI) was positively correlated to soil dioxin-TEQs. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Q Exactive HF, a Benchtop Mass Spectrometer with a Pre-filter, High-performance Quadrupole and an Ultra-high-field Orbitrap Analyzer*

PubMed Central

Scheltema, Richard Alexander; Hauschild, Jan-Peter; Lange, Oliver; Hornburg, Daniel; Denisov, Eduard; Damoc, Eugen; Kuehn, Andreas; Makarov, Alexander; Mann, Matthias

2014-01-01

The quadrupole Orbitrap mass spectrometer (Q Exactive) made a powerful proteomics instrument available in a benchtop format. It significantly boosted the number of proteins analyzable per hour and has now evolved into a proteomics analysis workhorse for many laboratories. Here we describe the Q Exactive Plus and Q Exactive HF mass spectrometers, which feature several innovations in comparison to the original Q Exactive instrument. A low-resolution pre-filter has been implemented within the injection flatapole, preventing unwanted ions from entering deep into the system, and thereby increasing its robustness. A new segmented quadrupole, with higher fidelity of isolation efficiency over a wide range of isolation windows, provides an almost 2-fold improvement of transmission at narrow isolation widths. Additionally, the Q Exactive HF has a compact Orbitrap analyzer, leading to higher field strength and almost doubling the resolution at the same transient times. With its very fast isolation and fragmentation capabilities, the instrument achieves overall cycle times of 1 s for a top 15 to 20 higher energy collisional dissociation method. We demonstrate the identification of 5000 proteins in standard 90-min gradients of tryptic digests of mammalian cell lysate, an increase of over 40% for detected peptides and over 20% for detected proteins. Additionally, we tested the instrument on peptide phosphorylation enriched samples, for which an improvement of up to 60% class I sites was observed. PMID:25360005

An investigation into the effects of temporal resolution on hepatic dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in volunteers and in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Andrew B.; Black, Richard T.; Bowden, David J.; Priest, Andrew N.; Graves, Martin J.; Lomas, David J.

2014-06-01

This study investigated the effect of temporal resolution on the dual-input pharmacokinetic (PK) modelling of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) data from normal volunteer livers and from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Eleven volunteers and five patients were examined at 3 T. Two sections, one optimized for the vascular input functions (VIF) and one for the tissue, were imaged within a single heart-beat (HB) using a saturation-recovery fast gradient echo sequence. The data was analysed using a dual-input single-compartment PK model. The VIFs and/or uptake curves were then temporally sub-sampled (at interval ▵t = [2-20] s) before being subject to the same PK analysis. Statistical comparisons of tumour and normal tissue PK parameter values using a 5% significance level gave rise to the same study results when temporally sub-sampling the VIFs to HB < ▵t <4 s. However, sub-sampling to ▵t > 4 s did adversely affect the statistical comparisons. Temporal sub-sampling of just the liver/tumour tissue uptake curves at ▵t ≤ 20 s, whilst using high temporal resolution VIFs, did not substantially affect PK parameter statistical comparisons. In conclusion, there is no practical advantage to be gained from acquiring very high temporal resolution hepatic DCE-MRI data. Instead the high temporal resolution could be usefully traded for increased spatial resolution or SNR.

Multiview boosting digital pathology analysis of prostate cancer.

PubMed

Kwak, Jin Tae; Hewitt, Stephen M

2017-04-01

Various digital pathology tools have been developed to aid in analyzing tissues and improving cancer pathology. The multi-resolution nature of cancer pathology, however, has not been fully analyzed and utilized. Here, we develop an automated, cooperative, and multi-resolution method for improving prostate cancer diagnosis. Digitized tissue specimen images are obtained from 5 tissue microarrays (TMAs). The TMAs include 70 benign and 135 cancer samples (TMA1), 74 benign and 89 cancer samples (TMA2), 70 benign and 115 cancer samples (TMA3), 79 benign and 82 cancer samples (TMA4), and 72 benign and 86 cancer samples (TMA5). The tissue specimen images are segmented using intensity- and texture-based features. Using the segmentation results, a number of morphological features from lumens and epithelial nuclei are computed to characterize tissues at different resolutions. Applying a multiview boosting algorithm, tissue characteristics, obtained from differing resolutions, are cooperatively combined to achieve accurate cancer detection. In segmenting prostate tissues, the multiview boosting method achieved≥ 0.97 AUC using TMA1. For detecting cancers, the multiview boosting method achieved an AUC of 0.98 (95% CI: 0.97-0.99) as trained on TMA2 and tested on TMA3, TMA4, and TMA5. The proposed method was superior to single-view approaches, utilizing features from a single resolution or merging features from all the resolutions. Moreover, the performance of the proposed method was insensitive to the choice of the training dataset. Trained on TMA3, TMA4, and TMA5, the proposed method obtained an AUC of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96-0.98), 0.98 (95% CI: 0.96-0.99), and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96-0.98), respectively. The multiview boosting method is capable of integrating information from multiple resolutions in an effective and efficient fashion and identifying cancers with high accuracy. The multiview boosting method holds a great potential for improving digital pathology tools and research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.