Respiratory motor training and neuromuscular plasticity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A pilot study.

The objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of a full-scale investigation of the neurophysiological mechanisms of COPD-induced respiratory neuromuscular control deficits. Characterization of respiratory single- and multi-muscle activation patterns using surface electromyography (sEMG) were assessed along with functional measures at baseline and following 21±2 (mean±SD) sessions of respiratory motor training (RMT) performed during a one-month period in four patients with GOLD stage II or III COPD. Pre-training, the individuals with COPD showed significantly increased (p<0.

Nondestructive method for quantifying thallium dopant concentrations in CsI:Tl crystals.

We report a quantitative method for using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to nondestructively measure the true content of Tl dopant in CsI:Tl scintillator crystals. The instrument is the handheld LeadTracer™, originally developed at RMD Instruments for measuring Pb concentration in electronic components. We describe both the measurement technique and specific findings on how changes in crystal size and growth parameters affect Tl concentration.

Low-Afterglow CsI:Tl microcolumnar films for small animal high-speed microCT.

Dedicated high-speed microCT systems are being developed for noninvasive screening of small animals. Such systems require scintillators with high spatial resolution, high light yield, and minimal persistence to ensure ghost free imaging. Unfortunately, the afterglow associated with conventional CsI:Tl microcolumnar films used in current high-speed systems introduces image lag, leading to substantial artifacts in reconstructed images, especially when the detector is operated at several hundreds of frames per second.

Multiple doping of CsI:Tl crystals and its effect on afterglow.

Despite the acknowledged advantages of CsI:Tl in many scintillator applications, a characteristic property that undermines its use in high-speed radiographic and radionuclide imaging is the presence of a strong afterglow component in its scintillation decay. This causes pulse pileup in high count-rate applications, reduced energy resolution in radionuclide imaging, and reconstruction artifacts in computed tomography applications. The research outlined here addresses the specific issue of suppressing the afterglow in CsI:Tl crystals by modifying them with codopants.