Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a widely used soft-tissue imaging modality that has evolved over the past several years into a powerful and versatile medical diagnostic tool capable of providing in-vivo diagnostic images of human and animal anatomies. Current research efforts in MRI system design are driven by the need to obtain detailed high resolution images with improved image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at a given magnetic field strength. Invariably, this requirement demands the development of high performance MRI radio frequency (RF) coils. However, the complexities and stringent requirements of modern clinical MRI systems necessitate the development of new modeling methodologies for the design of high performance RF coils. This dissertation addresses this need by developing a distinct Method of Moments (MoM) modeling approach suitable for the simulation of RF coils loaded with biological tissues. The unique implementation utilizes two distinct basis functions in order to collectively describe the surface current density on the RF coil, and the sum of the volume current density and the displacement current density in the associated biological tissue. By selecting basis functions with similar properties to the actual physical quantities they describe, we avoided spurious solutions normally associated with MoM based implementations. The validity of our modeling method was confirmed by comparisons with analytical solutions as well as physical measurements, yielding good agreement. Furthermore, we applied the MoM based modeling method in the design and development of a novel 4-channel receive-only RF coil for breast imaging in a clinical 1.5T system. The new coil design was inspired by the multi-channel array concept, where multiple conducting strips were arranged in an anatomically conforming profile with the intention of improving sensitivity and SNR. In addition, the coil structure featured an open breast coil concept in order to facilitate MRI-guided biopsy and patient comfort. A comparison of simulation results and actual physical measurements from the prototype RF coil demonstrated good agreement with one another. Also, imaging tests were conducted on a pair of MRI phantoms as well as on a human patient after obtaining proper authorization. The tests revealed good magnetic field homogeneity and a high SNR in the region of interest. In addition, performance comparisons between the prototype 4-channel RF coil and existing high end clinical 4-channel RF breast coils indicated an achievement of superior SNR in conjunction with very good magnetic field homogeneity. Currently, the prototype 4-channel RF coil has outperformed all existing high end clinical 4-channel RF coils used in comparison studies.

Thesis (D. SC.)--University of Michigan. / "Photo-lithoprint." Bibliography: p. 37.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-138).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Vita. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Th.--Sci. phys.--Lille 1, 1980. N°: 490. / Extr. en partie de Journal of molecular spectroscopy, 72, 1978, 275-281 ; 84, 1980, 379-387 et de Zeitschrift für naturforschung, 35a, 1980, 442-446 ; 1136-1141. _ Rés.

Ce manuscrit, séparé en deux parties, débute par l’étude des lois et processus -stables et des processus multistables. Après avoir construit et étudié un estimateur basé sur les log-moments de lois stables, on améliore ses performances en le combinant avec l’estimateur de Koutrouvelis. Puis, nous donnons une méthode approchée afin de simuler rapidement un processus multistable et nous construisons un estimateur de la fonction d’intensité de ce processus à l’aide du rapport de moments empiriques. La deuxième partie est consacrée à l’étude des processus stationnaires du second ordre à longue mémoire en temps continu. Ce processus est échantillonné à des instants d’observations aléatoires tels que les inter-arrivées soient i.i.d. Le comportement du processus échantillonné est alors étudié dans les domaines temporel et fréquentiel. Une étude plus précise dans le cas d’une fonction d’autocovariance à variation régulière permet de montrer l’évolution de la mémoire après échantillonnage. De plus, pour un processus initialement gaussien, on étudie le périodogramme, les sommes partielles et la convergence de l’estimateur local Whittle pour le paramètre de mémoire. / This manuscript is divided into two parts. The first one is devoted to the study of - stable distributions and processes and multistable processes. After having built and studied an estimator based on log-moments of the stable distribution, an improvement is obtained by combining it with the Koutrouvelis estimator. Then, we give a nonexact method to simulate efficiently a multistable process, and we construct an estimator of its intensity function using an empirical moments ratio. The second part is devoted to the study of continuous time second order stationary processes with long memory. This process is sampled at random observation times such that inter-arrivals are i.i.d. The behaviour of the sampled process is then studied in time and frequency domains. For autocovariance functions with regular variation, we study the evolution of the memory after sampling. In addition, for an initially Gaussian process, the periodogram, partial sums and convergence of the local Whittle estimator for the memory parameter are studied.

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