Magnetic Supraparticles as Identifiers in Single-Layer Lithium-Ion Battery Pouch Cells.

The development of effective recycling technologies is essential for the recovery and reuse of the raw materials required for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Future recycling processes depend on accessible information, necessitating the implementation of a digital battery passport. The European battery regulation mandates the use of a machine-readable identifier physically attached to the batteries for accessing digital information.

The Artificial Neural Twin - Process optimization and continual learning in distributed process chains.

Industrial process optimization and control is crucial to increase economic and ecologic efficiency. However, data sovereignty, differing goals, or the required expert knowledge for implementation impede holistic implementation. Further, the increasing use of data-driven AI-methods in process models and industrial sensory often requires regular fine-tuning to accommodate distribution drifts.

Selected annotated instance segmentation sub-volumes from a large scale CT data-set of a historic aircraft.

The Me 163 was a Second World War fighter airplane and is currently displayed in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. A complete computed tomography (CT) scan was obtained using a large scale industrial CT scanner to gain insights into its history, design, and state of preservation. The CT data enables visual examination of the airplane's structural details across multiple scales, from the entire fuselage to individual sprockets and rivets.

X-ray transmission imaging of waste printed circuit boards for value estimation in recycling using machine learning.

The growing amount of electronic waste is a global challenge: on one hand, it poses a threat to the environment as it may contain toxic or hazardous substances, on the other hand it is a valuable 'urban mine' containing metals like gold and copper. Thus, recycling of electronic waste is not only a measure to reduce environmental pollution but also economically reasonable as prices for raw materials are rising. Within electronic waste, printed circuit boards (PCBs) occupy a prominent position, as they contain most of the valuable material.

Phenotypic screening of seed retention and histological analysis of the abscission zone in Festuca pratensis and Lolium perenne.

Background: Seed retention is the basic prerequisite for seed harvest. However, only little breeding progress has been achieved for this trait in the major forage grasses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of plant genetic resources of the important fodder grasses Festuca pratensis Huds.

"Chamber #8" - a holistic approach of high-throughput non-destructive assessment of plant roots.

Introduction: In the past years, it has been observed that the breeding of plants has become more challenging, as the visible difference in phenotypic data is much smaller than decades ago. With the ongoing climate change, it is necessary to breed crops that can cope with shifting climatic conditions. To select good breeding candidates for the future, phenotypic experiments can be conducted under climate-controlled conditions.

3D segmentation of plant root systems using spatial pyramid pooling and locally adaptive field-of-view inference.

Background: The non-invasive 3D-imaging and successive 3D-segmentation of plant root systems has gained interest within fundamental plant research and selectively breeding resilient crops. Currently the state of the art consists of computed tomography (CT) scans and reconstruction followed by an adequate 3D-segmentation process.

Challenge: Generating an exact 3D-segmentation of the roots becomes challenging due to inhomogeneous soil composition, as well as high scale variance in the root structures themselves.

Non-destructive classification of unlabeled cells: Combining an automated benchtop magnetic resonance scanner and artificial intelligence.

In order to treat degenerative diseases, the importance of advanced therapy medicinal products has increased in recent years. The newly developed treatment strategies require a rethinking of the appropriate analytical methods. Current standards are missing the complete and sterile analysis of the product of interest to make the drug manufacturing effort worthwhile.

The Detection of Foreign Items in Laundry Industry by Dual-Energy X-ray Transmission-Advantages and Limits.

Firefighters, paramedics, nursing staff, and other occupational groups are in constant need of fast and proper cleaning of their professional workwear, not only during a pandemic. Thus, laundry technology needs to become more efficient and automated. Unfortunately, some steps of the cleaning process, such as finding and removing foreign items from pockets or belts, are still completed manually.

Iterative training of robust k-space interpolation networks for improved image reconstruction with limited scan specific training samples.

Purpose: To evaluate an iterative learning approach for enhanced performance of robust artificial-neural-networks for k-space interpolation (RAKI), when only a limited amount of training data (auto-calibration signals [ACS]) are available for accelerated standard 2D imaging.

Methods: In a first step, the RAKI model was tailored for the case of limited training data amount. In the iterative learning approach (termed iterative RAKI [iRAKI]), the tailored RAKI model is initially trained using original and augmented ACS obtained from a linear parallel imaging reconstruction.

High-Energy Computed Tomography as a Prospective Tool for In Situ Monitoring of Mass Transfer Processes inside High-Pressure Reactors-A Case Study on Ammonothermal Bulk Crystal Growth of Nitrides including GaN.

For the fundamental understanding and the technological development of the ammonothermal method for the synthesis and crystal growth of nitrides, an in situ monitoring technique for tracking mass transport of the nitride throughout the entire autoclave volume is desirable. The feasibility of using high-energy computed tomography for this purpose was therefore evaluated using ex situ measurements. Acceleration voltages of 600 kV were estimated to yield suitable transparency in a lab-scale ammonothermal setup for GaN crystal growth designed for up to 300 MPa operating pressure.

Optically Sensitive and Magnetically Identifiable Supraparticles as Indicators of Surface Abrasion.

Identifying and ensuring the integrity of products plays an important role in today's globalized world. Miniaturized information taggants in the packaging surface are therefore required to monitor the product itself instead of applying external labels. Ideally, multiple types of information are stored in such additives.

Potential of Dual and Multi Energy XRT and CT Analyses on Iron Formations.

Dual and multi energy X-ray transmission imaging (DE-/ME-XRT) are powerful tools to acquire quantitative material characteristics of diverse samples without destruction. As those X-ray imaging techniques are based on the projection onto the imaging plane, only two-dimensional data can be obtained. To acquire three-dimensional information and a complete examination on topology and spatial trends of materials, computed tomography (CT) can be used.

Reversible magnetism switching of iron oxide nanoparticle dispersions by controlled agglomeration.

The controlled agglomeration of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) was used to rapidly switch their magnetic properties. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and dynamic light scattering showed that tailored iron oxide nanoparticles with phase-changing organic ligand shells agglomerate at temperatures between 5 °C and 20 °C. We observed the concurrent change in magnetic properties using magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS) with a temporal resolution on the order of seconds and found reversible switching of magnetic properties of SPIONs by changing their agglomeration state.

Semiautomated 3D Root Segmentation and Evaluation Based on X-Ray CT Imagery.

Background: Computed X-ray tomography (CTX) is a high-end nondestructive approach for the visual assessment of root architecture in soil. Nevertheless, in order to evaluate high-resolution CTX data of root architectures, manual segmentation of the depicted root systems from large-scale volume data is currently necessary, which is both time consuming and error prone. The duration of such a segmentation is of importance, especially for time-resolved growth analysis, where several instances of a plant need to be segmented and evaluated.

Serotonin transporter genotype modulates resting state and predator stress-induced amygdala perfusion in mice in a sex-dependent manner.

The serotonin transporter (5-HTT) is a key molecule of serotoninergic neurotransmission and target of many anxiolytics and antidepressants. In humans, 5-HTT gene variants resulting in lower expression levels are associated with behavioral traits of anxiety. Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies reported increased cerebral blood flow (CBF) during resting state (RS) and amygdala hyperreactivity.

Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Particles (VSOPs) Show Genotoxic Effects but No Functional Impact on Human Adipose Tissue-Derived Stromal Cells (ASCs).

Adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASCs) represent a capable source for cell-based therapeutic approaches. For monitoring a cell-based application in vivo, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cells labeled with iron oxide particles is a common method. It is the aim of the present study to analyze potential DNA damage, cytotoxicity and impairment of functional properties of human (h)ASCs after labeling with citrate-coated very small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (VSOPs).

Drought and heat stress tolerance screening in wheat using computed tomography.

Background: Improving abiotic stress tolerance in wheat requires large scale screening of yield components such as seed weight, seed number and single seed weight, all of which is very laborious, and a detailed analysis of seed morphology is time-consuming and visually often impossible. Computed tomography offers the opportunity for much faster and more accurate assessment of yield components.

Results: An X-ray computed tomographic analysis was carried out on 203 very diverse wheat accessions which have been exposed to either drought or combined drought and heat stress.

Comparison of Achievable Contrast Features in Computed Tomography Observing the Growth of a 4H-SiC Bulk Crystal.

Today the physical vapor transport process is regularly applied for the growth of bulk SiC crystals. Due to the required high temperature of up to 2400 °C, and low gas pressure of several Mbar inside the crucible, the systems are encapsulated by several layers for heating, cooling and isolation inhibiting the operator from observing the growth. Also, the crucible itself is fully encapsulated to avoid impurities from being inserted into the crystal or disturbing the temperature field distribution.

Magnetic Particle Imaging meets Computed Tomography: first simultaneous imaging.

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a promising new tomographic modality for fast as well as three-dimensional visualization of magnetic material. For anatomical or structural information an additional imaging modality such as computed tomography (CT) is required. In this paper, the first hybrid MPI-CT scanner for multimodal imaging providing simultaneous data acquisition is presented.

Full utilization of conjugate symmetry: combining virtual conjugate coil reconstruction with partial Fourier imaging for g-factor reduction in accelerated MRI.

Purpose: In this study we propose a method to combine the parallel virtual conjugate coil (VCC) reconstruction with partial Fourier (PF) acquisition to improve reconstruction conditioning and reduce noise amplification in accelerated MRI where PF is used.

Methods: Accelerated measurements are reconstructed in k-space by GRAPPA, with a VCC reconstruction kernel trained and applied in the central, symmetrically sampled part of k-space, while standard reconstruction is performed on the asymmetrically sampled periphery. The two reconstructed regions are merged to form a full reconstructed dataset, followed by PF reconstruction.

Association between Comorbidities and Progression of Transvalvular Pressure Gradients in Patients with Moderate and Severe Aortic Valve Stenosis.

Background: Fast progression of the transaortic mean gradient ( ) is relevant for clinical decision making of valve replacement in patients with moderate and severe aortic stenosis (AS) patients. However, there is currently little knowledge regarding the determinants affecting progression of transvalvular gradient in AS patients.

Methods: This monocentric retrospective study included consecutive patients presenting with at least two transthoracic echocardiography examinations covering a time interval of one year or more between April 2006 and February 2016 and diagnosed as moderate or severe aortic stenosis at the final echocardiographic examination.

Calcium fluoride based multifunctional nanoparticles for multimodal imaging.

New multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) that can be used as contrast agents (CA) in different imaging techniques, such as photoluminescence (PL) microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), open new possibilities for medical imaging, e.g., in the fields of diagnostics or tissue characterization in regenerative medicine.

Controlling the object phase for g-factor reduction in phase-Constrained parallel MRI using spatially selective RF pulses.

Purpose: Parallel imaging generally entails a reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of the final image. Phase-constrained methods aim to improve reconstruction quality by using symmetry properties of k-space. Noise amplification in phase-constrained reconstruction depends heavily on the object background phase.

High isotropic resolution magnetic resonance imaging of the mandibular canal at 1.5 T: a comparison of gradient and spin echo sequences.

Objectives: The precision of localizing the mandibular canal prior to surgical intervention depends on the achievable resolution, whereas identification of the nerve depends on the image contrast. In our study, we developed new protocols based on gradient and spin echo sequences. The results from both sequences were quantitatively compared for their agreement to identify the most suitable approach.