Objective
The aim of the study was to assess the performance and diagnostic value of a dual energy CT approach to reduce metal artefacts in subjects with metallic implants.
Methods
31 patients were ...examined in the area of their metallic implants using a dual energy CT protocol (filtered 140 kVp and 100 kVp spectrum, tube current relation: 3:1). Specific post-processing was applied to generate energies of standard 120 and 140 kVp spectra as well as a filtered 140 kVp spectrum with mean photon energies of 64, 69 and 88 keV, respectively, and an optimized hard spectrum of 95–150 keV. Image quality and diagnostic value were subjectively and objectively determined.
Results
Image quality was rated superior to the standard image in 29/31 high energy reconstructions; the diagnostic value was rated superior in 27 patients. Image quality and diagnostic value scores improved significantly from 3.5 to 2.1 and from 3.6 to 1.9, respectively. In several exams decisive diagnostic features were only discernible in the high energy reconstructions. The density of the artefacts decreased from −882 to −341 HU.
Conclusions
Dual Energy CT with specific postprocessing can reduce metal artefacts and may significantly enhance diagnostic value in the evaluation of metallic implants.
The Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) investigation on the NASA Radiation Belt Storm Probes (now named the Van Allen Probes) mission provides key wave and very ...low frequency magnetic field measurements to understand radiation belt acceleration, loss, and transport. The key science objectives and the contribution that EMFISIS makes to providing measurements as well as theory and modeling are described. The key components of the instruments suite, both electronics and sensors, including key functional parameters, calibration, and performance, demonstrate that EMFISIS provides the needed measurements for the science of the RBSP mission. The EMFISIS operational modes and data products, along with online availability and data tools provide the radiation belt science community with one the most complete sets of data ever collected.
Abstract
The problem of flow moving purely in the azimuthal direction on a sphere is considered. An exact solution for an incompressible (constant density), inviscid fluid, which admits a velocity ...profile below the surface and along the surface, is constructed; this can be regarded as a model for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The new approach adopted here is to model the processes that produce the observed structure of the ACC by the introduction of a nonconservative body force. It is shown that if the body force is conservative, then the governing equations necessarily lead to profiles that are quite unrealistic. However, with a suitable choice of body force, which reverts to conservative outside the ACC, any velocity profile of any width can be constructed as an exact solution of the system. A fairly simple choice is made in this note in order to present some specific results: a profile on the surface that is zero outside the arc of the ACC, with a maximum at its center and decaying with depth. It is shown that the methods developed here can be used to produce ever more complicated profiles to correspond to different data. Indeed, the basic example that this study introduces can be regarded as one of the jets that compose the ACC, and the results allow for any number of such jets. Although only one velocity profile is described, it is emphasized that many different choices, motivated by direct velocity observations in specific regions, are possible within the model. In conclusion, a few comments are made outlining the way in which this exact solution can be embedded within more general and complete discussions of the ACC and its properties.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We propose a new, simple model - but one which has far-reaching consequences - to describe the interaction between waves that propagate across the Pacific Ocean and the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC). ...This involves a detailed discussion of the full linear problem as it relates to the dynamic coupling between the surface waves and the internal waves on the thermocline. The result is a comprehensive description of the system close to the Equator, and how the structure of the EUC affects the wave properties; in particular, the analysis holds for arbitrary wavelengths and finite depths. Although the final expressions, for general wavelengths, are too cumbersome for direct interpretation, we are able to produce simple formulae for the speeds of the waves, and the attenuation factor between the two families of waves, for short, intermediate and long waves. Further, our results predict the appearance of critical layers under certain circumstances; by reverting to our original system of governing equations, we are able to derive the relevant nonlinear structure of the flow in these layers. Our results are in good agreement with the available field data.
Ultralow friction can be achieved with 2D materials, particularly graphene and MoS2. The nanotribological properties of these different 2D materials have been measured in previous atomic force ...microscope (AFM) experiments sequentially, precluding immediate and direct comparison of their frictional behavior. Here, friction is characterized at the nanoscale using AFM experiments with the same tip sliding over graphene, MoS2, and a graphene/MoS2 heterostructure in a single measurement, repeated hundreds of times, and also measured with a slowly varying normal force. The same material systems are simulated using molecular dynamics (MD) and analyzed using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In both experiments and MD simulations, graphene consistently exhibits lower friction than the MoS2 monolayer and the heterostructure. In some cases, friction on the heterostructure is lower than that on the MoS2 monolayer. Quasi-static MD simulations and DFT calculations show that the origin of the friction contrast is the difference in energy barriers for a tip sliding across each of the three surfaces.
The EULAR/ACR 2019 classification criteria for SLE constitute a current and optimized clinical approach to SLE classification. Classification is still not based on molecular approaches and the ...results from large studies using polyomics may be interpreted as demonstrating the relevance of the genetic and environmental background rather than splitting SLE into several entities. In fact, an association study within the EULAR/ACR classification criteria project found associations between manifestations only within organ domains. This independency of various organ manifestations argues for SLE as one disease entity. The current review article will therefore concentrate on the clinical and immunological manifestations of SLE and on what we have already learned in this century. Moreover, the structure and essential rules of the EULAR/ACR 2019 classification criteria will be discussed. While classification and diagnosis are distinct concepts, which have to remain clearly separated, information derived from the process towards the classification criteria is also useful for diagnostic purposes. Therefore this article also tries to delineate what classification can teach us for diagnosis, covering a wide variety of SLE manifestations.
This review makes a case for describing many of the flows observed in our oceans, simply based on the Euler equation, with (piecewise) constant density and with suitable boundary conditions. The ...analyses start from the Euler and mass conservation equations, expressed in a rotating, spherical coordinate system (but the f-plane and β-plane approximations are also mentioned); five examples are discussed. For three of them, a suitable non-dimensionalization is introduced, and a single small parameter is identified in each case. These three examples lead straightforwardly and directly to new results for: waves on the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) with a thermocline (in the f-plane); a nonlinear, three-dimensional model for EUC-type flows (in the β-plane); and a detailed model for large gyres. The other two examples are exact solutions of the complete system: a flow which corresponds to the underlying structure of the Pacific EUC; and a flow based on the necessary requirement to use a non-conservative body force, which produces the type of flow observed in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. (All these examples have been discussed in detail in the references cited.) This review concludes with a few comments on how these solutions can be extended and expanded.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Nonlinear water waves’.
Understanding cells as integrated systems is central to modern biology. Although fluorescence microscopy can resolve subcellular structure in living cells, it is expensive, is slow, and can damage ...cells. We present a label-free method for predicting three-dimensional fluorescence directly from transmitted-light images and demonstrate that it can be used to generate multi-structure, integrated images. The method can also predict immunofluorescence (IF) from electron micrograph (EM) inputs, extending the potential applications.