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Geometric Centre (geometric + centre)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Calibration of the pass-through magnetometer,II.

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2002
Application
Summary We describe the experimental procedure we use to calibrate a cryogenic pass-through magnetometer. The procedure is designed to characterize the magnetometer sensitivity as a function of position within the sensing region. Then we extend a theory developed in an earlier paper to cover inexact observations and apply it to the data set. The theory allows the calculation of a smooth, harmonic, internally consistent interpolating function for each of the nine components of the response tensor of the magnetometer. With these functions we can calculate the response to a dipole source in any orientation and position, and predict the magnetometer signal from any kind of specimen. The magnetometer in the paleomagnetic laboratory onboard the research vessel Joides Resolution is the subject of one such experiment and we present the results. The variation with position of sensitivity is displayed in a series of plane slices through the magnetometer. We discover from the calibration model that the X and Z coils are misaligned so that the magnetic centre of the coils is displaced from the geometric centre by approximately 0.7 cm. We synthesize the signal expected from the magnetometer when a variety of simple cores are measured. We find that, unless appropriate corrections are made, changes in magnetization direction can appear as variations in magnetic intensity, and conversely, fluctuations in the magnetization strength can produce apparent swings in declination and inclination. The magnitude of these effects is not small and is certainly worth taking into account in the interpretation of records from this kind of instrument. In a pilot study on data from a core measured with the shipboard magnetometer, we observe some large distortions, particularly in declination, that are attributable to uncorrected instrumental effects. [source]

Experimental pancreatitis disturbs gastrointestinal and colonic motility in mice: effect of the prokinetic agent tegaserod

NEUROGASTROENTEROLOGY & MOTILITY, Issue 10 2007
T. C. Seerden
Abstract, Acute pancreatitis remains a potentially life-threatening disease associated with gastrointestinal motility disturbances. Prokinetic agents may be useful to overcome these motility disturbances. In this study, we investigated the effect of acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) on gastrointestinal motility in female mice and evaluated the effect of tegaserod, a prokinetic 5-hydroxytryptamine-4 (5HT4) receptor agonist. ANP was induced by feeding mice a choline-deficient ethionine-supplemented diet during 72 h. In vivo intestinal motility was measured as the geometric centre (GC) of 25 glass beads 30-120-360 min after gavage. Colonic peristaltic activity was studied using a modified Trendelenburg set-up. ANP significantly decreased GC 30-120-360 min after bead gavage, associated with a significant increase of myeloperoxidase in the proximal small intestine and colon, but not in the stomach or distal small intestine. Tegaserod significantly ameliorated GC 360 min after bead gavage in control and pancreatitis mice. In isolated colonic segments, ANP significantly decreased the amplitude of peristaltic waves and increased the interval between peristaltic contractions. Tegaserod normalized the disturbed interval. In conclusion, ANP impairs gastric, small intestinal and colonic motility in mice. Tegaserod improves ANP-induced motility disturbances in vivo and in vitro, suggesting a therapeutic benefit of prokinetic 5HT4 receptor agonists in the treatment of pancreatitis-induced ileus. [source]

Simplified scintigraphic methods for measuring gastrointestinal transit times

CLINICAL PHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTIONAL IMAGING, Issue 4 2000
Graff
To investigate whether simple transit measurements based on scintigraphy performed only 0, 2, 4 and 24 h after intake of a radiolabelled meal can be used to predict the mean transit time values for the stomach, the small intestine, and the colon, a study was conducted in 16 healthy volunteers. After ingestion of a meal containing 111indium-labelled water and 99mtechnetium-labelled omelette, imaging was performed at intervals of 30 min until all radioactivity was located in the colon and henceforth at intervals of 24 h until all radioactivity had cleared from the colon. Gastric, small intestinal and colonic mean transit times were calculated for both markers and compared with fractional gastric emptying at 2 h, fractional colonic filling at 4 h, and geometric centre of colonic content at 24 h, respectively. Highly significant correlations were found between gastric mean transit time and fractional gastric emptying at 2 h (111In: r=0·95, P<0·00001; 99mTc: r=0·96, P<0·00001), between small intestinal mean transit time and fractional colonic filling at 4 h (111In: r=,0·97, P<0·00001; 99mTc: r=,0·89, P<0·00001), and between colonic mean transit time and geometric centre of colonic content at 24 h (111In: r=, 0·88, P<0·00001). We therefore conclude that reliable regional gastrointestinal transit times can be estimated from scintigraphic images taken 0, 2, 4 and 24 h after intake of radiolabelled markers. [source]

The haloes of planetary nebulae in the mid-infrared: evidence for interaction with the interstellar medium

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009
G. Ramos-Larios
ABSTRACT The motion of planetary nebulae through the interstellar medium (ISM) is thought to lead to a variety of observational consequences, including the formation of bright rims, deformation and fragmentation of the shells, and a shift of the central stars away from the geometric centres of the envelopes. These and other characteristics have been noted through imaging in the visual wavelength regime. We report further observations of such shells taken in the mid-infrared (MIR), acquired through programmes of Infrared Array Camera imaging undertaken using the SpitzerSpace Telescope. NGC 2440 and NGC 6629 are shown to possess likely interacting haloes, together with ram-pressure-stripped material to one side of their shells. Similarly, the outer haloes of NGC 3242 and NGC 6772 appear to have been fragmented through Rayleigh,Taylor (RT) instabilities, leading to a possible flow of ISM material towards the inner portions of their envelopes. If this interpretation is correct, then it would suggest that NGC 3242 is moving towards the NE, a suggestion which is also supported through the presence of a 60 ,m tail extending in the opposite direction, and curved bands of H, emission in the direction of motion , components which may arise through RT instabilities in the magnetized ISM. NGC 2438 possesses strong scalloping at the outer limits of its asymptotic giant branch (AGB) halo, probably reflecting RT instabilities at the nebular/ISM interface We also note that the interior structure of the source has been interpreted in terms of a recombining shell, a hypothesis which may not be consistent with the central star luminosities. Finally, we point out that two of the rims (and likely shock interfaces) appear to have a distinct signature in the MIR, whereby relative levels of 8.0 ,m emission are reduced. This may imply that the grain emission agents are depleted in the post-shock AGB regimes. [source]