Notes

Optimisation in the Heterologous Phrase in the Cannabinoid Type-1 (CB1) Receptor.
We compared the simulations with recordings from healthy volunteers. Main results We found that the auditory-nerve fibers, the cochlear nuclei and the inferior colliculus all contributed to the speech-evoked brainstem response, although the dominant contribution came from the inferior colliculus. The delay of the response corresponded to that observed in experiments. We further found that a broad range of harmonics of the fundamental frequency, up to about 8 kHz, contributed to the brainstem response. The response declined with increasing fundamental frequency, although the signal-to-noise ratio was largely unaffected. Significance Our results suggest that the scalp-recorded brainstem response at the fundamental frequency of speech originates predominantly in the inferior colliculus. They further show that the response is shaped by a large number of higher harmonics of the fundamental frequency, reflecting highly nonlinear processing in the auditory periphery and illustrating the complexity of the response.We report a new allotrope of carbon predicted from first principles simulations. This allotrope is formed in a simulated conversion of two-dimensional polymeric C60 precursor subjected to uniaxial compression at high temperature. The structure is made up of 240 carbon atoms in an orthorhombic unit cell (termed as o-C240) having a mixed sp2/sp3 hybridization with the ratio of about 15. o-C240 is stable at ambient condition and exhibits superior mechanical performance including optimum Vickers hardness (45 GPa) and fracture toughness (4.10 MPa m1/3), outperforming most of widely used hard ceramics. AM-2282 ic50 The electronic structure reveals semiconducting ground state with an indirect band gap of 1.72 eV. The simple reaction pathway could accelerate discovery of this allotrope in laboratory, and the simultaneous occurrence of high fracture toughness, superhardness and semiconductivity is expected to find applications for this material.The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the shielding material and its' thickness on the measured skin dose to the breasts to the breast during the CT examination of the head. The helical and axial head CT was performed on an anthropomorphic phantom (PBU 60). Two types of shielding were tested - lead and non-lead (antimony-bismuth) shielding. Measurements with different thicknesses were performed and the shielding efficiency was compared between both materials. Skin dose to the breasts was measured with an Educational Direct Dosimeter (EDD-30). The shielding efficiency during both scanning protocols indicated an increased dose reduction with the thicker equivalent thickness in both shielding materials. Dose reduction was the highest at 0.5 mm equivalent thickness for both materials; lead shielding reduced the dose by 91% and 83%, the antimony-bismuth shielding by 90% and 86%, during the axial and helical head CT protocol, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found between both materials of the same equivalent thickness (0.175, 0.25 and 0.5 mm) during the helical protocol in the favor of the antimony-bismuth shielding. During the axial protocol there was no statistically significant differences. Shielding of radiosensitive organs can prevent unnecessary exposure of radiosensitive organs outside the primary beam. Due to the significant decrease of radiation dose to the breasts and many other positive attributes, the antimony-bismuth shielding instead of the lead shielding should be considered, especially during the helical CT scan of the head.Treating multiple brain metastases with a single isocenter improves efficiency but requires margins to account for rotation induced shifts that increase with target-to-isocenter distance. A method to select the single isocenter position that minimizes the total volume of normal tissue treated during multi-target stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is presented. A statistical framework was developed to quantify the impact of uncertainties on planning target volumes (PTV). Translational and rotational shifts were modeled with independent, zero mean, Gaussian distributions in three dimensions added in quadrature. The standard deviations of errors were varied from 0.5-2.0 mm and 0.5°-2.0°. link2 The volume of normal tissue treated due to margin expansions required to maintain a 95% probability of target coverage was computed. Tumors were modeled as 4-40 mm diameter spheres. Target separation distance was varied from 40-100 mm for two- and three-lesion scenarios. The percent increase in PTV was determined relative to an isocenter at the geometric centroid of the targets for the optimal isocenter that minimized the total normal tissue treated, and isocenters at the center-of-mass (COM) and center-of-surface-area (CSA). For two targets, isocenter placement at the optimal location, COM, and CSA, reduced the total margin versus an isocenter at midline up to 17.8%, 17.7%, and 17.8%, respectively, for 0.5 mm and 0.5° errors. For three targets, optimal isocenter placement reduced the margin volume up to 21%, 19%, and 14%, for uncertainties of (0.5 mm, 0.5°), (1.0 mm, 1.0°), and (2.0 mm, 2.0°), respectively. COM and CSA provide useful approximations to select the optimal isocenter for multi-target single-isocenter SRS for two or three targets with maximum dimensions ≤40 mm and separation distances ≤100 mm when uncertainties are ≤1.0 mm and ≤1.0°. CSA provides a more accurate approximation than COM. Optimal treatment isocenter selection for multiple targets of large size differences can significantly reduce total margin volume.The properties of the foot deployed in a bipedal robot that targets the rendering of a human-like dynamic gait are crucial. Firstly, it has to implement a set of mechanical mechanisms/properties that improve the efficiency of the locomotion. Secondly, it has to integrate a sensory system that captures the interaction with the ground with suitable precision. Both systems - the mechanical and the sensory system - have to be integrated as tightly as possible to keep the overall dimensions and weight low. Being the most distal element of the leg, especially the latter is crucial for favorable leg dynamics. Regarding the structural properties, a modern prosthetic foot poses a good solution and has hence been adopted in various bipeds. Their elaborated structures - mostly made from carbon fiber composites - are designed to imitate the mechanisms of the anthropomorphic counterpart. The following presents a concept to estimate the ground interaction based on the intrinsic deformation of a commercially available prosthesis. To measure the deformation, a strain gauges are applied to its main structural elements. Using this information, the center of pressure and the normal force acting on it are estimated. The performance of two approaches - linear regression and neural networks - is presented and compared. Finally, the accuracy of the strain- based estimation is evaluated in two experiments and compared to a conventional force/torque sensor ( FTS )-based system and a pressure insole. While the presented work is initially motivated by robotics research, it might as well be transferred to the design of a modern actively actuated prosthesis.This paper presents a generic method to reduce the radiofrequency (RF) induced heating of external fixation devices during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure. A simplified equivalent circuit model was developed to illustrate the interactions between the external fixation device and the MRI RF field. Carefully designed mechanical structures, which utilize capacitive reactance from the circuit model, were applied to the external fixation devices to mitigate the coupling between the external fixation device and the MRI RF field for RF-induced heating reduction. Both numerical and experimental studies were performed to demonstrate the validity of the circuit model and the effectiveness of the proposed method. link3 By adding capacitive structures in both the clamp-pin and rod-clamp joints, the peak specific absorption rate averaged in 1 gram (SAR1g) near the pin tips were reduced from 760.4 W/kg to 12.0 W/kg at 1.5 T and 391.5 W/kg to 25.2 W/kg at 3 T from numerical simulations. Experimental results showed that RF-induced heating was reduced from 7.85 °C to 1.01 °C at 1.5 T and from 16.70 °C to 0.32 °C at 3 T for the external fixation device studied here. The carefully designed capacitive structures can be used to detune the coupling between the external fixation device and the MRI fields to reduce the RF-induced heating in the human body for both 1.5 T and 3 T MRI systems.A systematic study of electronic structure, mechanical and transport properties of RuV-based half-Heusler alloys (RuVZ, Z=As, P, Sb) have been presented using itab-itinitio Density Functional and Boltzmann transport theory. The electronic structures are obtained using generalized gradient approximation(GGA) with Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof(PBE) functional. All the compounds are crystallized in face centered cubic(fcc) phase with space group #216. Our preliminary electronic structure simulations reveal that all the alloys are non-magnetic semiconductors. Additionally, the phonon dispersion and elastic constants (along with the related elastic moduli) also verify mechanical stability of the alloys. Due to strong dependence on the electronic bandgap in thermoelectric materials, we have estimated bandgap using more accurate hybrid functional i.e. Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof(HSE). The transport coefficients (e.g. Seebeck, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity due to electrons) are calculated by solving the Boltzmann transport equation for charge carriers as implemented in BoltztraP software under constant relaxation time approximation. The lattice thermal conductivity due to phonons is calculated using more reliable shengBTE code based upon the Boltzmann transport equation for phonons. We have calculated the more reliable value of the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT (related to the conversion efficiency) for all the compounds. The obtained ZT for RuVAs, RuVP and RuVSb is 0.41(0.32), 0.21(0.16) and 0.70(0.61) for p(n)-type behavior at 900K. The corresponding carrier concentrations are also predicted. High value of ZT is obtained for RuVSb alloy due to low lattice thermal conductivity. Among these compounds, RuVSb emerged out as a most suitable candidate for thermoelectric power generation device. Minimum lattice thermal conductivity in theoretical limit along with the corresponding maximum value of ZT is also predicted in these alloys.Grating-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging provides three simultaneous image channels originating from a single image acquisition. While the phase signal provides direct access to the electron density in tomography, there is additional information on sub-resolutional structural information which is called dark-field signal in analogy to optical microscopy. The additional availability of the conventional attenuation image qualifies the method for implementation into existing diagnostic routines. The simultaneous access to the attenuation coefficient and the electron density allows for quantitative two-material discrimination as demonstrated lately for measurements at a quasi-monochromatic compact synchrotron source. Here, we investigate the transfer of the method to conventional polychromatic X-ray sources and the additional inclusion of the dark-field signal for three-material decomposition. We evaluate the future potential of grating-based X-ray phase-contrast CT for quantitative three-material discrimination for the specific case of early stroke diagnosis at conventional polychromatic X-ray sources.
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