Cortical Iron Accumulation as an Imaging Marker for Neurodegeneration in Clinical Cognitive Impairment Spectrum: A Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping Study
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- Korean Journal of Radiology
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- v.24 no.11
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- pp.1131-1141
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- 2023
Objective: Cortical iron deposition has recently been shown to occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we aimed to evaluate how cortical gray matter iron, measured using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), differs in the clinical cognitive impairment spectrum. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 73 participants (mean age ± standard deviation, 66.7 ± 7.6 years; 52 females and 21 males) with normal cognition (NC), 158 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 48 patients with AD dementia. The participants underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging using a three-dimensional multi-dynamic multi-echo sequence on a 3-T scanner. We employed a deep neural network (QSMnet+) and used automatic segmentation software based on FreeSurfer v6.0 to extract anatomical labels and volumes of interest in the cortex. We used analysis of covariance to investigate the differences in susceptibility among the clinical diagnostic groups in each brain region. Multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to study the association between susceptibility values and cognitive scores including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Results: Among the three groups, the frontal (P < 0.001), temporal (P = 0.004), parietal (P = 0.001), occipital (P < 0.001), and cingulate cortices (P < 0.001) showed a higher mean susceptibility in patients with MCI and AD than in NC subjects. In the combined MCI and AD group, the mean susceptibility in the cingulate cortex (β = -216.21, P = 0.019) and insular cortex (β = -276.65, P = 0.001) were significant independent predictors of MMSE scores after correcting for age, sex, education, regional volume, and APOE4 carrier status. Conclusion: Iron deposition in the cortex, as measured by QSMnet+, was higher in patients with AD and MCI than in NC participants. Iron deposition in the cingulate and insular cortices may be an early imaging marker of cognitive impairment related neurodegeneration.
Usually the analyses of structures are carried out by assuming the base of structures to be fixed. However, the soil beneath foundation alters the earthquake loading and varies the response of structure. Hence, it is not realistic to analyze structures by considering it to be fixed. The importance of soil-structure interaction was realized from the past failures of massive structures by neglecting the effect of soil in seismic analysis. The analysis of massive structures requires soil flexibility to be considered to avoid failure and ensure safety. Present study, considers the seismic behavior of multi-storey reinforced concrete narrow and wide buildings of various heights with and without shear wall supported on raft foundation incorporating the effect of soil flexibility. Analysis of the three dimensional models of six different shear wall positions founded on four different soils has been carried out using finite element software LS DYNA. The study investigates the differences in spectral acceleration coefficient (Sa/g), base shear and storey shear obtained following the seismic provisions of Indian standard code IS: 1893 (2002) (IS) and International building code IBC: 2012 (IBC). The base shear values obtained as per IBC provisions are higher than IS values.
In order to properly design warning sounds that are affectively suitable to computer users, warning sounds used in Windows operating system were analyzed in terms of their sound properties; frequency band, spectral characteristics and physical intensity. A total of 36 warning sounds (3*4*3) were generated and tested with respect to three experimental variables. Among 178 collected affective adjectives that are related to hearing and sounds, seven representative affective adjectives were abstracted by statistical grouping techniques. In the experiment, subjective preference tests were performed for the 36 warning sounds according to the seven affective factors. From the result, the affective factors were again grouped into three major factors and the 60dB boost-type warning sounds at the low frequency band were, in general, the most preferred. followed by the 70dB cut-type sounds at the middle frequency band. These warning sounds have a characteristic of boost power spectrum below 1000Hz frequency band and received good scores on simplicity, clarity and accurateness.
For improving the seismic performance of the nuclear power plant (NPP) piping system, attempts have been made to apply a dynamic absorber (DA). However, the current piping DA design method is limited because it cannot provide the globally optimum values for the target design seismic loading. Therefore, this study proposes a seismic time history analysis-based DA optimal design method for piping. To this end, the Kriging approach is introduced to reduce the numerical cost required for seismic time history analyses. The appropriate design of the experiment method is used to increase the efficiency in securing response data. A gradient-based method is used to efficiently deal with the multi-dimensional unconstrained optimization problem of the DA optimal design. As a result, the proposed method showed an excellent response reduction effect in several responses compared to other optimal design methods. The proposed method showed that the average response reduction rate was about 9% less at the maximum acceleration, about 5% less at the maximum value of the response spectrum, about 9% less at the maximum relative displacement, and about 4% less at the maximum combined stress compared to existing optimal design methods. Therefore, the proposed method enables an effective optimal DA design method for mitigating seismic response in NPP piping in the future.
This paper presents a method for estimating the contribution of vibration sources in gasoline direct injection engine parts with a multiple-input system. A partial coherence function was used to identify the cause of the linear dependence indicated by an ordinary coherence function. To apply the partial coherence function to vibration source identification in the powertrain system of a gasoline direct injection engine, a virtual model of a two-input and single-output system is simulated. For the validation of this model, the vibration of the powertrain parts was measured by using triaxial accelerometers attached to the selected vibration sources-a high-pressure pump, fuel rail, injector, and pressure sensor. After calculating the partial coherence between each source based on the virtual model, the vibration contribution of the powertrain system is calculated. This virtual model based on the partial coherence function is implemented to determine the quantitative vibration contribution of each powertrain part.
A simulation procedure which can represent time-dependent nuclear characteristics of TRIGA Mark-III reactor is developed. CITATION, a multi-group diffusion-depletion program, has been utilized as calculational tool. The group structure employed in this study consists of 7 groups: -3-fast and 4-thermal-which is conventionally utilized in TRIGA type reactor analysis. Three-dimensional nuclear characteristics are synthesized by combining results from two-dimensional plane calculation and two-dimensional cylinder calculation, since direct three-dimensional approach is not yet possible. An effort ia made to develope a method which can extract effective zone and group dependent bucklings by neutron diffusion theory rather than conventional zone and/or group independent Ducklings by neutron transport theory, since neutron leakage is quite high for small core such as research reactors. It is turned out that the method developed in this study gives satisfactory results. The calculation is performed under assumptions that all control rods are fully withdrawn, that no samples are inserted in the irradiation holes and that the core is located in the center of the reactor pool. Burnup-dependent variation of core excess reactivity, time dependent change of Xe-135 poisoning and reactivity worth of rotary specimen rack are calculated and compared with operation records. Neutron flux and power distribution as well as neutron spectrum in each irradiation .facility are presented.
Interaction between closely-spaced buildings subject to earthquake induced strong ground motions, termed in the literature as "seismic pounding", occurs commonly during major seismic events in contemporary congested urban environments. Seismic pounding is not taken into account by current codes of practice and is rarely considered in practice at the design stage of new buildings constructed "in contact" with existing ones. Thus far, limited research work has been devoted to quantify the influence of slab-to-slab pounding on the inelastic seismic demands at critical locations of structural members in adjacent structures that are not aligned in series. In this respect, this paper considers a typical case study of a "new" reinforced concrete (R/C) EC8-compliant, torsionally sensitive, 7-story corner building constructed within a block, in bi-lateral contact with two existing R/C 5-story structures with same height floors. A non-linear local plasticity numerical model is developed and a series of non-linear time-history analyses is undertaken considering the corner building "in isolation" from the existing ones (no-pounding case), and in combination with the existing ones (pounding case). Numerical results are reported in terms of averages of ratios of peak inelastic rotation demands at all structural elements (beams, columns, shear walls) at each storey. It is shown that seismic pounding reduces on average the inelastic demands of the structural members at the lower floors of the 7-story building. However, the discrepancy in structural response of the entire block due to torsion-induced, bi-directionally seismic pounding is substantial as a result of the complex nonlinear dynamics of the coupled building block system.
This study is to analyze the effect of product involvement on consumer purchase process. From review on previous involvement literatures, enduring product involvement can be defined as "a person's arousal and motivational state activated by product on the basis of his basic value, objective and ego-relevance." To evaluate the effect of involvement on product purchase process, 11 hyphotheses concerning behavioral aspects which is expected to comprise consumer purchase process and to be influenced by degree of involvement were constructed: prepurchase information search, alternative brand comparision, utilization of product attribute, brand differentiation, brand commitment, product knowledge, influence of reference group, dependence on price, price awareness, cognitive dissonance and purchase optimization. Hyphotheses are tested with data from 388 housewives through 20 item involvement scale developed with multi-dimensional perspective on involvement. The scale successfully provides rank order of 8 selected products expected to cover the spectrum of product involvement: formal clothes, coffee, washing machine, shampoo, perfume, detergent, soft drink, pain-reliever as the order of product involvement. Major findings of this study are as follow. First of all, incresed differences were found in hihg involvement product like formal clothes with respect to the degree of prepurchase information search, alternative brand comparision, utilization of product attribute, influence of reference group in any method of analysis. Secondly, invlovement should be interpreted as a consumer characteristic rather than a product one. This means that consumers involve themselves with products, instead products themselves do not have any involvement.
The wall shear stress in the vicinity of end-to end anastomoses under steady flow conditions was measured using a flush-mounted hot-film anemometer(FMHFA) probe. The experimental measurements were in good agreement with numerical results except in flow with low Reynolds numbers. The wall shear stress increased proximal to the anastomosis in flow from the Penrose tubing (simulating an artery) to the PTFE: graft. In flow from the PTFE graft to the Penrose tubing, low wall shear stress was observed distal to the anastomosis. Abnormal distributions of wall shear stress in the vicinity of the anastomosis, resulting from the compliance mismatch between the graft and the host artery, might be an important factor of ANFH formation and the graft failure. The present study suggests a correlation between regions of the low wall shear stress and the development of anastomotic neointimal fibrous hyperplasia(ANPH) in end-to-end anastomoses. 30523 T00401030523 ^x Air pressure decay(APD) rate and ultrafiltration rate(UFR) tests were performed on new and saline rinsed dialyzers as well as those roused in patients several times. C-DAK 4000 (Cordis Dow) and CF IS-11 (Baxter Travenol) reused dialyzers obtained from the dialysis clinic were used in the present study. The new dialyzers exhibited a relatively flat APD, whereas saline rinsed and reused dialyzers showed considerable amount of decay. C-DAH dialyzers had a larger APD(11.70
The wall shear stress in the vicinity of end-to end anastomoses under steady flow conditions was measured using a flush-mounted hot-film anemometer(FMHFA) probe. The experimental measurements were in good agreement with numerical results except in flow with low Reynolds numbers. The wall shear stress increased proximal to the anastomosis in flow from the Penrose tubing (simulating an artery) to the PTFE: graft. In flow from the PTFE graft to the Penrose tubing, low wall shear stress was observed distal to the anastomosis. Abnormal distributions of wall shear stress in the vicinity of the anastomosis, resulting from the compliance mismatch between the graft and the host artery, might be an important factor of ANFH formation and the graft failure. The present study suggests a correlation between regions of the low wall shear stress and the development of anastomotic neointimal fibrous hyperplasia(ANPH) in end-to-end anastomoses. 30523 T00401030523 ^x Air pressure decay(APD) rate and ultrafiltration rate(UFR) tests were performed on new and saline rinsed dialyzers as well as those roused in patients several times. C-DAK 4000 (Cordis Dow) and CF IS-11 (Baxter Travenol) reused dialyzers obtained from the dialysis clinic were used in the present study. The new dialyzers exhibited a relatively flat APD, whereas saline rinsed and reused dialyzers showed considerable amount of decay. C-DAH dialyzers had a larger APD(11.70