Description: Purpose: To investigate the topologic reorganization of the default-mode network (DMN) in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and whether, relative to healthy control subjects, patients with MCI would be more likely to show disrupted functional connectivity and altered topological configuration of the DMN during the memory task compared with that observed during the resting state. Materials and Methods: This study was approved by the institutional review board of Beijing Normal University Imaging Center for Brain Research. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant. Healthy control subjects ( n = 26) and patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) ( n = 25) performed an episodic memory task and also rested while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Task-induced deactivations were identified and parcellated into different regions associated with the DMN. Functional connectivity across all pairs of regions was computed to construct the DMN architecture. Graph theoretical approaches were used to characterize topological properties of this network. Results: Patients with aMCI showed similar deactivation in the DMN to that observed in healthy control subjects ( P 〉 .05) but showed significantly decreased anterior-to-posterior functional connectivity only during the task ( P 〈 .05). Significant increases in local efficiency ( P 〈 .05), but not in global efficiency ( P 〉 .05), were observed in aMCI only during the task. Decreased functional connectivity was predictive of increased local efficiency ( r = –0.35, P = .015). Significant correlations between these network measures and cognitive performance ( P 〈 .05) indicated their potential use as early markers to assess the risk of Alzheimer disease (AD). Conclusion: This study suggests the early onset functional reorganization of the DMN toward a nonoptimized regularity configuration in aMCI and expands the understanding of dynamic functional reorganization in brain networks along the continuum from normal aging to AD dementia. © RSNA, 2013 Supplemental material: http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.13121573/-/DC1

Description: Purpose: To compare gadoteridol and ferumoxytol for measurement of relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) in patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) who showed progressive disease at conventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging after chemo- and radiation therapy (hereafter, chemoradiotherapy) and to correlate rCBV with survival. Materials and Methods: Informed consent was obtained from all participants before enrollment in one of four institutional review board–approved protocols. Contrast agent leakage maps and rCBV were derived from perfusion MR imaging with gadoteridol and ferumoxytol in 19 patients with apparently progressive GBM on conventional MR images after chemoradiotherapy. Patients were classified as having high rCBV (〉1.75), indicating tumor, and low rCBV (≤1.75), indicating pseudoprogression, for each contrast agent separately, and with or without contrast agent leakage correction for imaging with gadoteridol. Statistical analysis was performed by using Kaplan-Meier survival plots with the log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards models. Results: With ferumoxytol, rCBV was low in nine (47%) patients, with median overall survival (mOS) of 591 days, and high rCBV in 10 (53%) patients, with mOS of 163 days. A hazard ratio of 0.098 ( P = .004) indicated significantly improved survival. With gadoteridol, rCBV was low in 14 (74%) patients, with mOS of 474 days, and high in five (26%), with mOS of 156 days and a nonsignificant hazard ratio of 0.339 ( P = .093). Five patients with mismatched high rCBV with ferumoxytol and low rCBV with gadoteridol had an mOS of 171 days. When leakage correction was applied, rCBV with gadoteridol was significantly associated with survival (hazard ratio, 0.12; P = .003). Conclusion: Ferumoxytol as a blood pool agent facilitates differentiation between tumor progression and pseudoprogression, appears to be a good prognostic biomarker, and unlike gadoteridol, does not require contrast agent leakage correction. © RSNA, 2012

Description: Purpose: To investigate the topological alterations of whole-brain white matter structural connectivity in patients with different types of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), including single-domain (SD) and multidomain (MD) aMCI, and to explore the relationship of such connectivity with neuropsychologic performance. Materials and Methods: This study was approved by the institutional review board of Imaging Center for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant. The present study involved 38 patients with aMCI (SD aMCI, n = 18; MD aMCI, n = 20) and 36 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects. White-matter connectional architecture in each participant was depicted with diffusion-weighted MR imaging and represented in terms of a connectivity matrix by using a deterministic tractography method. Graph theory–based analyses were then performed to characterize brain network properties. Results: The global topological organization of white matter networks was significantly disrupted in patients with MD aMCI ( P 〈 .01 for all) but not in those with SD aMCI, as compared with control subjects. Connectivity impairment in patients with MD aMCI was found in the temporal, frontal, and parietal cortices ( P 〈 .05, corrected). MD aMCI had decreased network efficiency relative to SD aMCI ( P = .016), with the most pronounced differences located in the frontal cortex ( P 〈 .01 for all). Strong associations between cognitive impairments and disrupted topological features (global, P 〈 .05; regional, P 〈 .002) were identified in patients with aMCI. Conclusion: The present study suggests early onset disruption of whole-brain white matter connectivity in patients with aMCI, especially in those with the MD subtype, supporting the view that MD aMCI is a more advanced form of disease than is SD aMCI. Moreover, cognitive correlations with topological network properties suggest their potential use as markers to assess the risk of Alzheimer disease. © RSNA, 2012 Supplemental material: http://radiology.rsna.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.12112361/-/DC1

Description: Fractured rocks are known to exhibit seismic anisotropy and shear wave splitting (SWS). SWS is commonly used for fractured rock characterization and has been shown to be sensitive to fluid type. The presence of partial liquid/gas saturation is also known to affect the elastic properties of rocks. The combined effect of both fractures and partial liquid/gas saturation is still unknown. Using synthetic, silica-cemented sandstones with aligned penny-shaped voids, we conducted laboratory ultrasonic experiments to investigate the effect fractures aligned at an oblique angle to wave propagation would have on SWS under partial liquid/gas saturation conditions. The result for the fractured rock shows a saturation dependence which can be explained by combining a fractured rock model and a partial saturation model. At high to full water saturation values, SWS decreases as a result of the fluid bulk modulus effect on the quasi-shear wave. This bulk modulus effect is frequency dependent as a result of wave-induced fluid flow mechanisms, which would in turn lead to frequency dependent SWS. This result suggests the possible use of SWS for discriminating between full liquid saturation and partial liquid/gas saturation.

Description: High-rate GNSS has attracted increasing attention and numerous applications in geohazard monitoring and early warning. In this paper, we investigate three current existing single-receiver approaches for real-time GNSS seismology, comparing their observation models for equivalence and assessing the impact of main error components. We propose some refinements to the variometric approach and especially consider compensating the geometry error component by using the accurate initial coordinates before the earthquake to eliminate the drift trend in the integrated coseismic displacements. After careful corrections of satellite ephemeris, ionospheric delay, tropospheric delay and geometry errors, the refined variometric approach and the temporal point positioning (TPP) method have equivalent mathematical model with the converged precise point positioning (PPP). We evaluated the precision of the variometric and TPP approaches with various error correction schemes and duration time using numerous data sets and demonstrated that few centimetres accuracy of coseismic displacements is achievable even for 20 min interval. We applied these single-receiver approaches to process 1 Hz GPS data collected from the Tohoku-Oki earthquake ( M w 9.0, 2011 March 11) in Japan to capture coseismic displacement, and further, inverted the obtained displacement fields for fault slip distribution and moment magnitude. Comparisons of the results obtained using the refined variometric approach and TPP, as well as the converged PPP, displayed very good consistence both in coseismic displacements within few centimetres and in the slip distribution patterns and moment magnitudes.