Examines in detail the different clinical applications of microbubble-based contrast agents. Explains the principles underlying the use of contrast-specific imaging techniques and the examination methodology. Contains numerous high-quality illustrations, including many in color. Written by recognized experts.
The book Theory and Practice of Contrast completes, corrects and integrates the foundations of science and humanities, which include: theory of art, philosophy (aesthetics, epistemology, ontology, axiology), cognitive science, theory of information, theory of complexity and physics. Through the integration of these distant disciplines, many unresolved issues in contemporary science have been clarified or better understood, among others: defining impact (contrast) and using this definition in different fields of knowledge; understanding what beauty/art is and what our aesthetic preferences depend on; deeper understanding of what complexity and information are in essence, and providing their general definitions. Complexity means integration, value and goodness - concepts that seem to be neglected today. The book also has a high degree of integration/complexity, although each chapter introduces a new issue. The last chapter: "Binary Model of the Universe" draws attention to the need for including in physics the analysis of our mind and the resulting new possibilities, which include the mentioned (digital) model of the universe. Despite the difficult issues raised here, this study is written in accessible language and may be interesting not only for scientists and academics.
Extracellular MRI and X-ray contrast agents are characterized by their phar- cokinetic behaviour.After intravascular injection their plasma-level time curve is characeterized by two phases. The agents are rapidly distributed between plasma and interstitial spaces followed by renal elimination with a terminal half-live of approximatly 1–2 hours. They are excreted via the kidneys in unchanged form by glomerular filtration. Extracellular water-soluble contrast agents to be applied for X-ray imaging were introduced into clinical practice in 1923. Since that time they have proved to be most valuable tools in diagnostics.They contain iodine as the element of choice with a sufficiently high atomic weight difference to organic tissue. As positive contrast agents their attenuation of radiation is higher compared with the attenuation of the surrounding tissue. By this contrast enhancement X-ray diagnostics could be improved dramatically. In 2,4,6-triiodobenzoic acid derivatives iodine is firmly bound. Nowadays diamides of the 2,4,6-triiodo-5-acylamino-isophthalic acid like iopromide (Ultravist, Fig. 1) are used as non-ionic (neutral) X-ray contrast agents in most cases [1].
In 1967, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in America. Devin Hughes was born two years later to a black father and white mother who fled to Washington DC to escape the racism of the Deep South. Bigotry still ran rampant up North, and light-skinned, greeneyed Devin felt its pull from both ends: strangers who didn't know he was half-black and friends who didn't care he was half-white. In racial limbo, Devin found himself more consumed with his dysfunctional family life-a father who offered an alternative "street" education and a mother whose drug use zombified her for most of his childhood. Despite his parents' flaws, they were Devin's greatest believers. From his dad founding a neighborhood baseball team to his mom advocating for him in school, they taught Devin that anything imaginable was within reach, that their mistakes needn't be his choices, and that his destiny was for greatness. Ultimately, Contrast: A Biracial Man's Journey to Desegregate His Past isn't a book about race; it's a book about acceptance, perseverance, and love.
Generalized Phase Contrast elevates the phase contrast technique not only to improve phase imaging but also to cross over and interface with diverse and seemingly disparate fields of contemporary optics and photonics. This book presents a comprehensive introduction to the Generalized Phase Contrast (GPC) method including an overview of the range of current and potential applications of GPC in wavefront sensing and phase imaging, structured laser illumination and image projection, optical trapping and manipulation, and optical encryption and decryption. The GPC method goes further than the restrictive assumptions of conventional Zernike phase contrast analysis and achieves an expanded range of validity beyond weak phase perturbations. The generalized analysis yields design criteria for tuning experimental parameters to achieve optimal performance in terms of accuracy, fidelity and light efficiency. Optimization can address practical issues, such as finding an optimal spatial filter for the chosen application, and can even enable a Reverse Phase Contrast mode where intensity patterns are converted into a phase modulation.
This book takes contrast, an issue that has been central to phonological theory since Saussure, as its central theme, making explicit its importance to phonological theory, perception, and acquisition. The volume brings together a number of different contemporary approaches to the theory of contrast, including chapters set within more abstract representation-based theories, as well as chapters that focus on functional phonetic theories and perceptual constraints. This book will be of interest to phonologists, phoneticians, psycholinguists, researchers in first and second language acquisition, and cognitive scientists interested in current thinking on this exciting topic.
From Shakespeare to cop shows, sitcoms to docudramas, for over three decades the CBC has presented viewers with every variety of television drama and has become Canada's closest equivalent to a national theatre. Turn Up the Contrast is the first book to explore the content of Canadian television drama and is both a critical analysis and a survey history of how Canadians have used the medium to tell themselves their own stories. As a part of her research, Mary Jane Miller watched thousands of hours of television, sampling series and viewing in their entirety shorter programs such as movies and mini-series. Asking a variety of questions, she selected a number of programs for detailed analysis, and devotees of The Beachcombers, King of Kensington, Seeing Things, Cariboo Country, Wojeck or A Gift to Last will be pleased to find their favourites among those discussed at length. A University of British Columbia Press / CBC Enterprises Co-Publication.