Ratio Measurements Research Articles

Evaluation of Normal Ranges of Wrist Radiologic Indexes in Jordanian Population.

The wrist is a complex joint that plays a role in several everyday tasks. Various radiological indices have been created to assess the alignment and structure of the wrist using standard X-ray images. Nevertheless, these indicators may differ based on variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, handedness, and wrist position. This research aimed to assess the radiological indices of the wrist in a group of healthy people from Jordan and investigate the impact of age and gender on these indices. We obtained data from a sample of 385 patients who presented at our hospital with minor non-specific wrist pain and satisfied the specified criteria for inclusion. We conducted measurements of radial inclination, radial height, volar tilt, ulnar variance, and carpal height ratio using both anteroposterior and lateral views of the wrist. We used linear regression and independent sample t-test to examine the correlation between age, gender, and radiological indicators. The reliability of the measurements was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Our study revealed a negative correlation between age and carpal height ratio (r = -0.13, p = 0.03). However, no significant gender differences were seen in any of the radiological indices (p > 0.05). Our findings indicate that ulnar variance had the greatest level of reliability across observers, with an intra-observer intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.95 and an inter-observer ICC of 0.8. Conversely, volar tilt exhibited the lowest inter-observer reliability, with an ICC of 0.1.Our results provide a valuable point of reference for the wrist morphology and alignment in the Jordanian population. Our suggestion is that the carpal height ratio might indicate alterations in the wrist joint due to aging, whereas ulnar variation may serve as a dependable indicator of wrist alignment. We suggest doing more research to investigate the biological and anatomical factors behind these results and to compare them with other demographic groups.

Sealing efficiency performance of four different rim seals in turbine cavity

In modern aero-engine, the turbine rim seals whose purpose is to reduce the ingress are located in a complex flow region between the mainstream and secondary air flows. The sealing air discharged from the compressor of engine is used to purge turbine cavity. In order to examine the effects of ingress through four distinct rim seals, a one-stage test rig was used in the experiments presented in this work. At a Reynolds number of 5.16 × 105 in the mainstream and (0.85–2.13) × 106 in the rotational, the radial pressure distribution on the stator was determined. To assess flow characteristics and sealing efficacy, measurements of the swirl ratio and CO2 concentration were made. The reliability of turbine rim-seals is determined by the locations of the hook and teeth, as well as their effect on hot gas ingestion. To evaluate the performance of four types of seals: a datum double-rim seal and three derivatives with different clearances, the data are employed. Due to the inlet air position, the swirl ratio exhibited a pronounced inflection for all the rim seals. The sealing efficiency can be decreased by putting the hook closer to the rim or by taking the teeth out. Static pressure measurements in the turbine cavity indicate that the seal position has a significant impact. The analysis results revealed that the existence of slot vortex is beneficial to improving efficiency.

Reliability and agreement of manual and automated morphological radiographic hip measurements

ObjectiveTo determine the reliability and agreement of manual and automated morphological measurements, and agreement in morphological diagnoses. MethodsThirty pelvic radiographs were randomly selected from the World COACH consortium. Manual and automated measurements of acetabular depth-width ratio (ADR), modified acetabular index (mAI), alpha angle (AA), Wiberg center edge angle (WCEA), lateral center edge angle (LCEA), extrusion index (EI), neck-shaft angle (NSA), and triangular index ratio (TIR) were performed. Bland-Altman plots and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were used to test reliability. Agreement in diagnosing acetabular dysplasia, pincer and cam morphology by manual and automated measurements was assessed using percentage agreement. Visualizations of all measurements were scored by a radiologist. ResultsThe Bland-Altman plots showed no to small mean differences between automated and manual measurements for all measurements except for ADR. Intraobserver ICCs of manual measurements ranged from 0.26 (95%-CI 0–0.57) for TIR to 0.95 (95%-CI 0.87–0.98) for LCEA. Interobserver ICCs of manual measurements ranged from 0.43 (95%-CI 0.10–0.68) for AA to 0.95 (95%-CI 0.86–0.98) for LCEA. Intermethod ICCs ranged from 0.46 (95%-CI 0.12–0.70) for AA to 0.89 (95%-CI 0.78–0.94) for LCEA. Radiographic diagnostic agreement ranged from 47% to 100% for the manual observers and 63%–96% for the automated method as assessed by the radiologist. ConclusionThe automated algorithm performed equally well compared to manual measurement by trained observers, attesting to its reliability and efficiency in rapidly computing morphological measurements. This validated method can aid clinical practice and accelerate hip osteoarthritis research.

CBCT-based synthetic CT image generation using a diffusion model for CBCT-guided lung radiotherapy.

Although cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) has lower resolution compared to planning CTs (pCT), its lower dose, higher high-contrast resolution, and shorter scanning time support its widespread use in clinical applications, especially in ensuring accurate patient positioning during the image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) process. While CBCT is critical to IGRT, CBCT image quality can be compromised by severe stripe and scattering artifacts. Tumor movement secondary to respiratory motion also decreases CBCT resolution. In order to improve the image quality of CBCT, we propose a Lung Diffusion Model (L-DM) framework. Our proposed algorithm is based on a conditional diffusion model trained on pCT and deformed CBCT (dCBCT) image pairs to synthesize lung CT images from dCBCT images and benefit CBCT-based radiotherapy. dCBCT images were used as the constraint for the L-DM. The image quality and Hounsfield unit (HU) values of the synthetic CTs (sCT) images generated by the proposed L-DM were compared to three selected mainstream generation models. We verified our model in both an institutional lung cancer dataset and a selected public dataset. Our L-DM showed significant improvement in the four metrics of mean absolute error (MAE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), normalized cross-correlation (NCC), and structural similarity index measure (SSIM). In our institutional dataset, our proposed L-DM decreased the MAE from 101.47 to 37.87HU and increased the PSNR from 24.97 to 29.89 dB, the NCC from 0.81 to 0.97, and the SSIM from 0.80 to 0.93. In the public dataset, our proposed L-DM decreased the MAE from 173.65 to 58.95HU, while increasing the PSNR, NCC, and SSIM from 13.07 to 24.05 dB, 0.68 to 0.94, and 0.41 to 0.88, respectively. The proposed L-DM significantly improved sCT image quality compared to the pre-correction CBCT andthree mainstream generative models. Our model can benefit CBCT-based IGRT and other potential clinical applications as it increases the HU accuracy and decreases the artifacts from input CBCT images.

Comparison of golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP) and conventional cartesian sampling in 3D dynamic contrast-enhanced mri for bladder cancer: a preliminary study.

To compare the image quality, inter-reader agreement, and diagnostic capability for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) of the reconstructed images in sections orthogonal to the bladder tumor obtained by 3D Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI using the Golden-angle Radial Sparse Parallel (GRASP) technique with the images directly captured using the Cartesian sampling. This study involved 68 initial cases of bladder cancer examined with DCE-MRI (GRASP: n = 34, Cartesian: n = 34) at 3 Tesla. Four radiologists conducted qualitative evaluations (overall image quality, absence of motion artifact, absence of streak artifact, and tumor conspicuity) using a five-point Likert scale (5 = Excellent/None) and quantitative signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements. The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves (AUCs) for the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VI-RADS) DCE score for MIBC assessment were calculated. Inter-reader agreement was also assessed. GRASP notably enhanced overall image quality (pooled score: GRASP 4 vs. Cartesian 3, P < 0.0001), tumor conspicuity (5 vs. 3, P < 0.05), SNR (Median 38.2 vs. 19.0, P < 0.0001), and CNR (7.9 vs. 6.0, P = 0.005), with fewer motion artifacts (5 vs. 3, P < 0.0001) and minor streak artifacts (5 vs. 5, P > 0.05). Although no significant differences were observed, the GRASP group tended to have higher AUCs for MIBC (pooled AUCs: 0.92 vs. 0.88) and showed a trend toward higher inter-reader agreement (pooled kappa-value: 0.70 vs. 0.63) compared to the Cartesian group. Using the GRASP for 3D DCE-MRI, the reconstructed images in sections orthogonal to the bladder tumor achieved higher image quality and improve the clinical work flow, compared to the images directly captured using the Cartesian. GRASP tended to have higher diagnostic ability for MIBC and showed a trend toward higher inter-reader agreement compared to the Cartesian.

Image restoration model for microscopic defocused images based on blurring kernel guidance

Defocus blurring imaging seriously affects the observation accuracy and application range of optical microscopes, and the blurring kernel function is a key parameter for high-resolution image restoration. However, its solving process is complicated and high in computational cost. Image restoration based on most neural networks has high requirements on data sets and the image resolution after restoration is limited because of the lack of quantitative estimation of blurring kernels. In this study, an image restoration method guided by blurring kernel estimation for microscopic defocused images is proposed. First, to reduce the blurring kernel estimation error caused by the positive and negative difference in microscopic defocused imaging, a defocused image classification network is designed to classify the input defocused images with different defocus distances and directions, and its output images are input into the blurring kernel extraction network composed of the feature extraction, correlation, and blurring kernel reconstruction layers. Second, a non-blind defocused image restoration model to restore the high-resolution images is proposed by introducing the blurring kernel extraction module into the restoration network based on U-Net, and the blurring kernel estimation and image restoration losses are jointly trained to realize image restoration guided by blurring kernel estimation. Finally, the experimental results of our proposed method demonstrate significant improvements in both the peak signal-to-noise ratio and structural similarity index measure when compared to other methods.

TCBR and TCBD: Evaluation metrics for tamper coincidence problem in fragile image watermarking

This paper proposed two evaluation metrics of the tamper coincidence in a block map design for image watermarking. These evaluation metrics are called Tamper Coincidence Block Ratio (TCBR) and Tamper Coincidence Block Density (TCBD). A tamper coincidence occurred in image authentication and self-recovery when the recovery data and the original block location were tampered with simultaneously. A high tamper coincidence limits image inpainting’s capability to recover the region, leading to an imprecise recovered image. The ratio and density of the tamper coincidence may significantly affect the final recovered image quality. Previously, researchers mentioned the tamper coincidence in their experiment but did not evaluate it with any metrics. They evaluated the robustness of their technique based on the final recovered image quality using the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). Tamper coincidences are primarily affected by the block map design implemented by the researcher. Thus, TCBR and TCBD provide valuable insight into the block map design’s effectiveness in preventing tamper coincidence. The experimental result shows that the TCBR and TCBD values are inversely proportional to the recovered image quality. A high TCBR and TCBD value leads to low recovered image quality. Therefore, this paper will help the researchers design an effective block map by minimizing the TCBR and TCBD values to obtain the highest recovered image quality.

Refining CycleGAN with attention mechanisms and age-Aware training for realistic Deepfakes

In the evolving landscape of deep learning technologies, the emergence of Deepfakes and synthetic media is becoming increasingly prominent within digital media production. This research addresses the limitations inherent in existing face image generation algorithms based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), particularly the challenges of domain irrelevancy and inadequate facial detail representation. The study introduces an enhanced face image generation algorithm, aiming to refine the CycleGAN framework. The enhancement involves a two-fold strategy: firstly, the generator's architecture is refined through the integration of an attention mechanism and adaptive residual blocks, enabling the extraction of more nuanced facial features. Secondly, the discriminator's accuracy in distinguishing real from synthetic images is improved by incorporating a relative loss concept into the loss function. Additionally, this study presents a novel model training approach that incorporates age constraints, thereby mitigating the effects of age variations on the synthesized images. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is empirically validated through comparative analysis with existing methodologies, utilizing the CelebA dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm significantly enhances the realism of generated face images, outperforming current methods in terms of Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM), while also achieving notable improvements in subjective visual quality. The implementation of this advanced method is anticipated to substantially elevate the efficiency and quality of digital media production, contributing positively to the broader field of digital media creation.

Clinical value of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase to platelet ratio and triglyceride measurement in the diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A cross-sectional study

ObjectiveIn clinical practice, there are few effective biomarkers for identifying non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic value of γ-glutamyl transpeptidase to platelet ratio (GPR) combined with triglyceride (TG) in NAFLD. MethodsA total of 14,415 individuals participated in the annual physical examination. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the exposure factors associated with NAFLD. Spearman's analysis was performed to assess the correlation among the exposure factors of NAFLD. Furthermore, the diagnostic efficacy of the combination of GPR and TG in NAFLD was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). ResultsThe results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that BMI (OR = 1.619), Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) (OR = 1.014), Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) (OR = 1.028), GPR (OR = 12.809), and TG (OR = 2.936) were all risk factors for NAFLD, while HDL-C (OR = 0.215) was a protective factor. Spearman correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations between GPR and SBP, DBP, BMI, TG (p < 0.01), but a negative correlation between GPR and HDL-C (p < 0.01). TG was only positively correlated with GPR (p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis demonstrated that the area under the curve (AUC) of GPR combined with TG for diagnosis of NAFLD was 0.855 (95 % CI: 0.819–0.891), sensitivity was 83.45 % and specificity was 73.56 %. ConclusionThis study indicated that high levels of GPR and TG were risk factors for NAFLD and demonstrated good clinical value in diagnosing NAFLD.

Intercontinental frequency ratio measurement of 171 Yb and 88 Sr optical lattice clocks

We report a remote, intercontinental frequency comparison between 171Yb (NMIJ) and 88Sr (UMK) optical lattice clocks. The frequencies were compared via the Global Positioning System Precise Point Positioning technique over the period from 10 March 2020, 00:00 UTC until 15 March 2020, 00:00 UTC. The comparison of the optical clocks yields results with a relative frequency uncertainty of 6.3×10−15 .

An Analytical Method for Quantification of Sn Isotope Variations in Geological Materials Using MC‐ICP‐MS

A robust analytical method is presented here, for measurements of Sn isotope variations with high precision using a multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometer (MC‐ICP‐MS). A silicate rock dissolution procedure was used, together with means to remove organic matter introduced by the resin during ion‐exchange chromatography. The two‐stage ion exchange chromatography efficiently isolates Sn from the matrix and isobarically interfering elements, from samples with variable Sn mass fractions (~ 0.03 to 7 μg g−1). A double spike technique was also implemented to correct any secondary mass bias induced during sample processing and isotope ratio measurements. An intermediate precision (2s) of ± 0.47 was obtained for ε122/118Sn (using internal normalisation; n = 70 over a period of 29 months), ± 0.021‰ for δ122/118Sn (using double spike; n = 176 over a period of 29 months) and ± 0.059‰ for δ122/118Sn (using Sb doping; n = 34 over a period of 4.5 months) for the Sn standard solution, NIST SRM 3161a (Lot# 140917). The δ122/118SnNIST SRM 3161a of eleven geological reference materials are reported for the first time (BIR‐1a, BRP‐1, DTS‐2b, ECRM 782‐1, JP‐1, OKUM, QLO‐1a, RGM‐2, SGR‐1b, STM‐2 and UB‐N), with five others (AGV‐2, BCR‐2, BHVO‐2, GSP‐2 and W‐2a) showing similar results to previous studies, generally with improved precision. The intermediate precision (2s) of replicate dissolutions of ten RMs (AGV‐2, BCR‐2, BHVO‐2, BIR‐1a, DTS‐2b, GSP‐2, OKUM, SGR‐1b, STM‐2 and W‐2a) varied from 0.003 to 0.054‰. Typical repeatability precision (2SE) of individual measurements of these ten RMs over multiple measurement sessions varied from 0.031 to 0.297‰ (with 120Sn+ beam intensity &lt; 2.37 V) and 0.017 to 0.025‰ (with 120Sn+ beam intensity &gt; 2.37 V).

Analysis of Waist-to-Hip Ratio with Total Cholesterol Levels in Obese and Non-Obese Employees at El Tari Airport Kupang

Increased cholesterol levels are one of the causes of obesity. One type of obesity is central obesity, characterized by the amount of accumulation of fat in the abdominal area. Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) measurement is more potent than Body Mass Index (BMI) in predicting cardiovascular disease risk. WHR is also used to identity the occurrence of central obesity, which is a risk factor for elevated cholesterol levels. This study aimed to analyze the difference in total cholesterol levels in the group of normal and above normal WHR employees at El Tari Airport, Kupang. This study was an observational analytic type with the cross-sectional method and used venous blood samples to measure total cholesterol levels and WHR. Data analysis using independent sample t-test. The results of the independent sample t-test showed a significant difference in total cholesterol levels between obese employees (above normal WHR) and non-obese employees (normal WHR). The significance result is 0.027 (p &lt; 0.05) in the independent sample t-test. This indicates that WHR can be used to identify central obesity in a person and also person with above normal WHR tend to have high total cholesterol levels.

Photonic integrated interference imaging system based on front-end S-shaped microlens array and Con-DDPM

Aiming at the problems of uneven UV spatial frequency sampling and inverse Fourier transform (IFT) artifacts of the photonic integrated interference imaging system, this study proposes a new imaging system based on a front-end S-shaped microlens array, combined with a conditional denoising diffusion probabilistic model (Con-DDPM). The front-end S-shaped microlens array improves the uniformity of UV spatial frequency sampling, increasing the average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structure similarity index measure (SSIM) by approximately 5 dB and 0.16, respectively. In addition, the deep learning reconstruction algorithm based on Con-DDPM is employed to process the IFT images. This algorithm effectively removes artifacts and restores the detailed information of the images. As a result, the average PSNR and SSIM are improved by approximately 9 dB and 0.38, respectively. These enhancements have significantly improved the imaging quality, laying a solid foundation for the future development of space-based telescopes.

Point Cloud Measurement of Rubber Tread Dimension Based on RGB-Depth Camera

To achieve an accurate measurement of tread size after fixed-length cutting, this paper proposes a point-cloud-based tread size measurement method. Firstly, a mathematical model of corner points and a reprojection error is established, and the optimal solution of the number of corner points is determined by the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II), which reduces the reprojection error of the RGB-D camera. Secondly, to address the problem of the low accuracy of the traditional pixel metric ratio measurement method, the random sampling consensus point cloud segmentation algorithm (RANSAC) and the oriented bounding box (OBB) collision detection algorithm are introduced to complete the accurate detection of the tread size. By comparing the absolute error and relative error data of several groups of experiments, the accuracy of the detection method in this paper reaches 1 mm, and the measurement deviation is between 0.14% and 2.67%, which is in line with the highest accuracy standard of the national standard. In summary, the RGB-D visual inspection method constructed in this paper has the characteristics of low cost and high inspection accuracy, which is a potential solution to enhance the pickup guidance of tread size measurement.

Analysis of Financial Statements to Assess Financial Performance of Food and Beverage Industry Companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange

Financial performance assessments are based on increased sales. This can be reflected in a report, a report that describes the development of the company's financial performance in a certain period. These reports are commonly called financial statements. In order for financial statements to be meaningful to interested parties, it is necessary to conduct a relationship analysis of the posts in the financial statements, which is often called financial statement analysis. The purpose of this study is to find out how the financial performance of PT. Sentra Food Indonesia Tbk, PT Mayora Indah Tbk, and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk based on an analysis of liquidity, solvency, and profitability ratios. The data analysis method used is a quantitative descriptive method using the measurement of liquidity, solvency, and profitability ratios. The results of the study show that financial performance in terms of liquidity as measured by the Current Ratio during the pandemic there was a decline in performance at PT. Sentra Food Indonesia, while in terms of solvency and profitability, the value of debt to equity ratio and return on equity of the three companies tends to fluctuate from year to year.

Accuracy Improvement in the LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS Measurement of 87Sr/86Sr in Bioapatite Using Dentin of Carcharinus leucas (Bull shark) to Estimate 87Rb/85Rb Instrument Induced Fractionation

In situ 87Sr/86Sr microanalysis in bioapatite using laser ablation (LA‐)MC‐ICP‐MS is an essential tool for provenance studies, as enamel tissue build‐up records the regional Sr isotopic composition of ingested food and water sources. Several factors hamper the acquisition of reliable and precise 87Sr/86Sr data: isobaric interferences, elemental and isotopic fractionation of Rb and Sr, and the lack of certified reference materials. Here we thoroughly characterise several teeth from Carcharinus leucas (Bull shark) for the spatial distribution of Sr and Rb mass fraction by LA‐ICP‐Q‐MS, and their 87Sr/86Sr ratio by solution MC‐ICP‐MS, MC‐TIMS and LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS, and which were used subsequently as a reference material during laser ablation measurement of Sr isotope ratios in bioapatite. We establish a protocol to estimate the 85Rb/87Rb mass bias from the analysis of shark teeth that demonstrates that the common assumption of equal Sr and Rb instrument induced fractionation can lead to a systematic bias in 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios. Using the shark teeth as an "external" reference material to measure βRb yielded 87Sr/86Sr compositions in unknown samples that are within approximately ‐42 ppm to +66 ppm of expected values, instead of approximately ‐50 ppm to +190 ppm if assuming βRb = βSr. Finally, this methodology was tested on fossil gomphotherid (Rhynchotherium sp.) enamel, allowing us to make preliminary inferences about its palaeobiogeography.

High‐Resolution In Situ Fe Isotope Measurements of Silicate Minerals and Glasses by Femtosecond Laser Ablation MC‐ICP‐MS

In this study, we present a high precision and high spatial resolution in situ Fe isotope protocol using femtosecond (fs) laser ablation multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS). The intermediate measurement precision obtained over a period of ca. 3 years for the USGS glass BIR‐1G against the Puratronic reference material is 0.17‰ (2s) for δ56Fe. Uncertainties achieved on individual analyses of glass and olivines were &lt; 0.15‰ for δ56Fe. This high precision is associated with high spatial resolution of about 170 × 25 μm. Our results display good consistency between LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS and solution nebulisation MC‐ICP‐MS data from the literature. Obtained δ56Fe values on different USGS glasses (BIR‐1G, BHVO‐2G and BCR‐2G) show that these reference materials have homogenous Fe isotope ratio and therefore can be used as bracketing calibrators during laser ablation measurement sessions. On the other hand, the San Carlos Olivine displays high Fe isotope heterogeneity, and therefore cannot be considered as a good bracketing standard (calibrator). We also applied our fs‐LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS protocol to olivines and pyroxene from the Kerguelen Archipelago. This technique appears to be a relevant tool to resolve isotopic zoning in chemically zoned silicate phenocrysts, even of small size (&lt; 1 mm). We demonstrate that within single lavas, olivine crystals display various zoning depending on their size, related to their residence time in the magma. Both equilibrium and diffusive processes were observed in olivine crystals from Kerguelen, uncovering complex histories. Hence, iron isotope ratio measurements by fs‐LA‐MC‐ICP‐MS open new possibilities for studying highly zoned silicate minerals in magmatic rocks to better understand their formation.

Autonomic and Enteric Profiling May Help Predict Response to Diverse Obesity Therapies.

Changes in autonomic (ANS) and enteric nervous systems (ENS) may be involved in pathogenesis of obesity. We hypothesized that baseline autonomic and enteric parameters may predict outcomes of diverse obesity therapies. We studied ANS and ENS physiology in 37 patients (8 male, 29 female, age 45years, weight 129.7kg) at 4 centers in patients undergoing medical (9: low-calorie diet) versus invasive (22: 16 sleeve, 6 bypass) and semi-invasive (6: 2 band, 2 high energy stimulation, 2 aspiration) weight loss therapies. Weight loss was reported as percent weight loss from baseline to latest values at 1year and in some up to 5years; classified as < or > /= 20% for each group. ANS testing included sympathetic adrenergic function by measuring reflex vasoconstriction and postural adjustment ratio. ENS was measured non-invasively using cutaneous low-resolution electrogastrogram. Percent weight loss was greater with the invasive (28.5%) than semi-invasive (9.1%) or non-invasive low-calorie diet (4.4%) (p < .001). Percent weight loss at 1year (and up to 5years) corresponded to the adrenergic measure of postural adjustment ratio (r = .42, p = .012), total pulse amplitude at rest (r = .56, p < .001), and electrogastrogram standing-to-rest difference (r = .33, p = .056). Baseline autonomic and enteric function measures correspond to percentage with loss in this pilot study using diverse weight loss methods. Autonomic and enteric profiling has potential clinical use for evaluation and treatment of obesity but needed larger controlled trials.

Towards Improved Measurement of Chemical Composition and Isotope Ratios of Rare-earth Phosphates in Atom Probe Tomography

Towards Improved Measurement of Chemical Composition and Isotope Ratios of Rare-earth Phosphates in Atom Probe Tomography

Coaxial-Tube Quantitative Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Various Solutions Using SI-Traceable Concentration References.

Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) is an accepted method for determining analyte concentrations using quantitative substances in one spectrum. Conventional qNMR is performed using a mixture of analytes and reference substances. In coaxial-tube NMR, two tubes are used as different solutions, similar to normal NMR spectra. Currently, coaxial tubes with various diameters are available; however, coaxial-tube qNMR is limited, and a general analytical protocol is yet to be proposed. In this study, we established an effective volume ratio (EVR) measurement method using the weight density and qNMR methods. Various analyte concentrations were determined using coaxial-tube qNMR and an SI-traceable reagent. The EVR required for the qNMR concentration calculation was determined using a coefficient of variation (CV) of <1% for an inner tube of ϕ 3 mm or less. The peak integral of each substance was correlated with the effective volume, depending on the abundance of the tube and matched 1H in the solution. The T1 relaxation times differed depending on the substructure, and the T1 values of the formate and OH groups varied for each tube set. Thus, each partial structural characteristic of the peak must be understood before qNMR is performed. The concentrations of various substances, including hygroscopic substances, were determined using coaxial-tube qNMR. Coaxial tubes eliminate the need to mix the analyte with the reference substance; thus, we can quantify the analyte without causing pH and structural changes caused by other mixtures and reuse the analyte for other test systems.