• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 1999

Purpose: To simulate and measure the signal intensity of various tissues near bone interface in 2D and 3D neurological MR images. Materials and Methods: In neurological proton density (PD) weighted images, every component in the head including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), muscle and scalp, with the exception of bone, are visualised. It is possible to acquire images in 2D or 3D. A 2D fast spin-echo (FSE) sequence is chosen for the 2D acquisition and a 3D gradient-echo (GE) sequence is chosen for the 3D acquisition. To find out the signal intensities of CSF, muscle and fat (or scalp) for the 2D spin-echo(SE) and 3D gradient-echo (GE) imaging sequences, the theoretical signal intensities for 2D SE and 3D GE were calculated. For the 2D fast spin-echo (FSE) sequence, to produce the PD weighted image, long TR (4000 ms) and short TE$_{eff}$ (22 ms) were employed. For the 3D GE sequence, low flip angle (8$^{\circ}$) with short TR (35 ms) and short TE (3 ms) was used to produce the PD weighted contrast. Results: The 2D FSE sequence has CSF, muscle and scalp with superior image contrast and SNR of 39 - 57 while the 3D GE sequence has CSF, muscle and scalp with broadly similar image contrast and SNR of 26 - 33. SNR in the FSE image were better than those in the GE image and the skull edges appeared very clearly in the FSE image due to the edge enhancement effect in the FSE sequence. Furthermore, the contrast between CSF, muscle and scalp in the 2D FSE image was significantly better than in the 3D GE image, due to the strong signal intensities (or SNR) from CSF, muscle and scalp and enhanced edges of CSF. Conclusion: The signal intensity of various tissues near bone interface in neurological MR images has been simulated and measured. Both the simulation and imaging of the 2D SE and 3D GE sequences have CSF, fat and muscle with broadly similar image intensity and SNR's and have succeeded in getting all tissues about the same signal. However, in the 2D FSE sequence, image contrast between CSF, muscle and scalp was good and SNR was relatively high, imaging time was relatively short.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.251-258
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• 2019

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of the use of spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in livers of children and young adults. Materials and Methods: Patients (${\leq}20$ years old) who underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE were included retrospectively. Subjects were divided into three groups according to the purpose of the liver MRI: suspicion of fatty liver or focal fat deposition in the liver (FAT group), liver fibrosis after receiving a Kasai operation from biliary atresia (BA group), and hepatic iron deposition after receiving chemotherapy or transfusions (IRON group). Technical failure of MRE was defined when a stiffness map showed no pixel value with a confidence index higher than 95%, and the patients were divided as success and failure groups accordingly. Clinical findings including age, gender, weight, height, and body mass index and magnetic resonance imaging results including proton density fat fraction (PDFF), $T2^*$, and MRE values were assessed. Factors affecting failure of MRE were evaluated and the image quality in wave propagation image and stiffness map was evaluated using the appropriate scores. Results: Among total 240 patients (median 15 years, 211 patients in the FAT, 21 patients in the BA, and 8 patients in the IRON groups), technical failure was noted in six patients in the IRON group (6/8 patients, 75%), while there were no failures noted in the FAT and BA groups. These six patients had $T2^*$ values ranging from 0.9 to 3.8 ms. The image quality scores were not significantly different between the FAT and BA groups (P > 0.999), while the scores were significantly lower in the IRON group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE in children and young adults had a high technical success rate. The technical failure was occurred in children with decreased $T2^*$ value (${\leq}3.8ms$) from iron deposition.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.175-179
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• 2015

The half-metallicity and magnetism of the (001) surfaces of $(AlP)_1/(CrP)_1$ superlattice were investigated by means of FLAPW (Full-potential Liniarized Augmented Plane Wave) method. We considered four types of (001) surface termination, i.e., Al(S)-, Cr(S)-, P(S)Al(S-1)- and P(S)Cr(S-1)-term systems. We found that only Cr(S)-term system maintains the half-metallicity at the surface as only this system has the calculated magnetic moment of integer number of bohr magnetons. The magnetic moment of Cr(S) atom in the system was $3.02{\mu}_B$ which was increased from the bulk value by the effects of band narrowing and increased spin-splitting at the surface. The electronic density of states of the P(S) atom in the P(S)Al(S-1)-term showed very sharp surface states due to the broken $p_z$ bonds at the surface. We found there is still a strong p-d hybridization between the P(S) and Cr(S-1) layers in the P(S)Cr(S-1)-term which causes a considerable increase of magnetic moment of P(S) atom.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.43-47
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• 2011

It is known that the Fe-Al transition metal compounds have a lot of disagreement about structural stability and magnetism. In this study, the correlation between magnetism and atomic structure of ordered $B_2$, $L1_2$, and $D0_3$ structured Fe-Al compounds has been investigated using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method based on the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). We found that considered all the structures were calculated to be stabilized in a ferromagnetic state. The calculated spin magnetic moments of the Fe atoms for B2 and $L1_2$ structures were 0.771 and 2.373 ${\mu}_B$, respectively, and that of Fe(I) and Fe(II) in $D0_3$ structure calculated to be 2.409 ${\mu}_B$, 1.911 ${\mu}_B$, respectively. In order to investigate structural stability between $L1_2$ and $D0_3$ structures, we performed the formation enthalpy calculations. As a result, the $D0_3$ structure is found to be more favorable than $L1_2 one by energy difference 16 meV/atom, which is well consistent with the experimental observation. We understood about structural stability and magnetism for Fe-Al compounds in terms of analysis of their atomic and electronic structures.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.131-135
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• 2008

The electronic structures, magnetism, and half-metallicity of the full-Heusler $Co_2TiSn$(001) surfaces have been investigated by using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method within the generalized gradient approximation. We have considered both of the Co atoms terminated(Co-term) and the TiSn atoms terminated(TiSn-term) surfaces. From the calculated density of states, we found that the half-metallicity was destroyed at the surface of the Co-term, while the half-metallicity was retained at the TiSn-term. For the surface of the Co-term, due to the reduced coordination number the occupied minority d-states were shifted to high energy regions and that cross the Fermi level, thus destroy the surface half-metallicity. On the other hand the surface states at the surface of the TiSn-term were located just below the Fermi level, which reduces the minority spin-gap with respect to that of the center layer. The calculated magnetic moment of the surface Co atom for the Co-term was increased by 10 % to 1.16 ${\mu}_B$ with respect to that of the inner-layers, while the magnetic moment of the subsurface Co atom in the TiSn-term has almost same value of the innerlayers(1.03 ${\mu}_B$).