Deformation-based brain morphometry in rats.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based morphometry provides in vivo evidence for macro-structural plasticity of the brain. Experiments on small animals using automated morphometric methods usually require expensive measurements with ultra-high field dedicated animal MRI systems. Here, we developed a novel deformation-based morphometry (DBM) tool for automated analyses of rat brain images measured on a 3-Tesla clinical whole body scanner with appropriate coils.

Possibilities and limitations for high resolution small animal MRI on a clinical whole-body 3T scanner.

Object: To investigate the potential of a clinical 3 T scanner to perform MRI of small rodents.

Materials And Methods: Different dedicated small animal coils and several imaging sequences were evaluated to optimize image quality with respect to SNR, contrast and spatial resolution. As an application, optimal grey-white-matter contrast and resolution were investigated for rats.

Metallization of ultra-thin, non-thiol SAMs with flat-lying molecular units: Pd on 1, 4-dicyanobenzene.

Self-assembled monolayers of 1,4-dicyanobenzene on Au(111) electrodes are studied by cyclic voltammetry, in-situ STM and ex-situ XPS. High-resolution STM images reveal a long-range order of propeller-like assemblies each of which consists of three molecules, all lying flat on the gold substrate with the cyano groups oriented parallel to the metal surface. It is demonstrated that both functional groups can act as complexation sites for metal ions from solution.