Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “IONIZATION”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 595 records · Page 33Linked to original sources

Ionized magnesium in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with head injuries.

BACKGROUND: In head injury patients, a decrease in the serum ionized magnesium (iMg) concentration is considered to be related to the severity of the injury, however, this phenomenon is still not completely understood. The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) iMg concentration has not been well documented under such conditions and, moreover, its normal value has not yet been established. We hereby intended to investigate the role of the iMg concentration and other parameters in both the serum and CSF of head injury patients and identify any relationship with other parameters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects consisted of head injury patients without any other serious injuries. Ten healthy volunteers were selected as control subjects. Arterial blood and CSF specimens were simultaneously obtained and measured. We measured the Glasgow Coma Scale scores (GCS), the intracranial pressure (ICP), pH, po2, pco2, sodium, potassium, iCa, iMg, glucose, lactate, urea nitrogen. All data are expressed as the mean+/-SD and the units of iMg and iCa (corrected under pH 7.40) are given in mmol/L. RESULTS: In the healthy subjects, the iMg concentration in the serum/CSF was 0.48 +/- 0.02 / 0.66 +/- 0.14, and iCa was 1.14 +/- 0.05 / 0.94 +/- 0.07. The GCS of the 15 head injury subjects at examination was 8.7 +/- 4.5. When the subjects were divided into 3 groups according to the GCS level (3 and 4, 5-8, and > or =9) at the time of examination, the serum iMg concentration was thus found to be related to the severity of injury based on the GCS level (p = 0.028), but not the CSF iMg concentration (p = 0.89). No relationship was observed between the iMg concentration in the serum and CSF when all specimens were compared, but an extremely close correlation was seen in the group with GCS 3 and 4 (p < 0.0001, r = 0.995), although no such correlation was seen in the other 2 groups (p = 0.12, r = -0.56 in the group with GCS 5-8, and p = 0.26, r = -0.35 in the group with GCS > or = 9). There was a significant correlation between the serum iMg and iCa (p = 0.0093, r = 0.47), and also between the CSF iMg and iCa concentrations (p < 0.0001, r = 0.67). CONCLUSION: The serum iMg concentration has been suggested to possibly affect the neurologic state through CSF iMg in patients with the most severe head injury. In patients with moderate or mild head injuries, however, the ionized magnesium concentration is also probably associated with the degree of neurologic deficit based on the ionized calcium level. The CSF and serum ionized magnesium dissociation may thus result from the slow movement of ionized magnesium through the blood brain barrier.

Adolescent↗

Spatiotemporal laser perturbation of competing ionization waves in a neon glow discharge

The experimental verification of spatiotemporal periodic pulling, a specific but universal phenomenon associated with driven, nonlinear, spatiotemporal systems, is reported as part of a study characterizing the ability of dc and chopped laser light to induce periodic pulling in ionization waves propagating in a neon glow-discharge plasma. The degree to which a single-mode laser beam at a metastable transition of 6401 A (1s(5)-2p(9)) influences the discharge is found to depend on the location and magnitude of the perturbation. Cases of ac (chopping the light) and dc perturbation are presented. In a range of chopping frequencies above and below the ionization wave's undriven frequency, the wave can become synchronized to the perturbation. This entrainment range is shown to depend on the frequency difference between the wave and the perturbation, as well as on the perturbation distance from the cathode. Hysteresis is found in the value of the perturbation frequency associated with transitions into and out of entrainment. Outside of entrainment, periodic pulling of a self-excited, propagating, ionization wave by the laser perturbation is observed. This is a case of frequency pulling, or temporal periodic pulling. Inside of entrainment, the chopped laser light controls the frequency and amplitude of the mode. By properly adjusting the frequency and amplitude of one mode with respect to a second mode, periodic pulling of one ionization wave by the mode-locked, propagating, original ionization wave is demonstrated. This is a case of spatiotemporal pulling, involving both wavelength pulling and frequency pulling. Under proper conditions, competition between temporal and spatiotemporal periodic pulling results in a modulation in the dynamics of the system, a process referred to as dynamics modulation.

Journal Article↗

Chaotic versus random ionization.

We use Kepler maps to study the classical ionization of the hydrogen atom driven by electric fields; we compare the ionization rate (IR) due to chaotic motion (constant field amplitude) with the IR due to randomness (random field amplitude). We find that for weak fields the ionization due to random amplitude is more effective, while for strong fields the ionization due to chaos is more effective; so, there is a cross of such ionization curves. A physical explanation of this phenomenon, based on the trajectory behavior, is given.

Journal Article↗

Nonlinear ionization of organic molecules in high intensity laser fields

We use a series of 23 organic molecules to study ionization of complex media caused by their interaction with intense 40 fs, 0.8 &mgr;m pulses. All molecules reach saturated ionization at higher intensities than would be expected for atoms of the same ionization potential, reminiscent to what has been reported for dielectric breakdown with femtosecond pulses. Dependence of the ionization rate on the alignment of the molecule with the laser field is ruled out as the cause of the high saturation intensities. All molecules allow a significant range of intensities between the region of approximately 100% ionization and before the second and subsequent electrons are removed.

Journal Article↗

Charge-state resolved above threshold ionization

Photoelectron energy resolved spectra recorded in coincidence with singly and doubly ionized atoms are reported for the interaction of xenon with 60 fs laser pulses at 800 nm and 1x10(14) W/cm(2). Double ionization contributions in the spectrum have been established. The appearance of a single ionization plateau in above threshold ionization is verified. A hotter electron distribution is found for the double ionization.

Journal Article↗

Electron energy spectra from intense laser double ionization of helium.

The double ionization of helium in the strong-field limit has been studied using an electron-ion coincidence technique. The observed double ionization electron energy spectra differ significantly from the single ionization distributions. This gives new support to the rescattering model of double ionization and explicitly reveals the role of backward electron emission following the e-2e ionizing collision.

Journal Article↗

Quantum suppression of microwave ionization of Rydberg atoms at high scaled frequency.

Microwave ionization of Rydberg atoms is well described as the onset of classical chaos when the microwave frequency omega is less than the Kepler frequency 1/n(3). However, when omega>1/n(3), i.e., at high scaled frequency Omega=omegan(3)>1, classical ionization is predicted to be suppressed by quantum interference, an analogue to Anderson localization in a solid. Using 17.55 GHz microwave fields we have observed the ionization of Sr Rydberg atoms in the regime 1</=Omega</=5 . Our measurements demonstrate the quantum suppression of classical diffusive ionization and show the ionization field to be n independent in this regime.

Journal Article↗

Unexpected higher-order effects in charged particle impact ionization at high energies.

Most of the experimental and theoretical studies of electron-impact ionization of atoms, referred to as (e, 2e), have concentrated on the scattering plane. The assumption has been that all the important physical effects will be observable in the scattering plane. However, very recently it has been shown that, for C6+-helium ionization, experiment and theory are in nice agreement in the scattering plane and in very bad agreement out of the scattering plane. This lack of agreement between experiment and theory has been explained in terms of higher-order scattering effects between the projectile and target ion. We have examined electron-impact ionization of magnesium and have observed similar higher-order effects. The results of the electron-impact ionization of magnesium indicate the possible deficiencies in the calculation of fully differential cross sections in previous heavy particle ionization work.

Journal Article↗

Ionized calcium in calf serum: relation to total serum calcium, albumin, total protein and pH.

Serum ionized calcium, total calcium, albumin, total protein and pH were determined in 340 female Italian Friesian calves, aged from 1 day to 6 months. Analyses of data from calves divided into 7 age groups showed only occasional correlations between Ca++ and the other parameters. For pooled values for the calves aged 1-6 months, there were significant positive correlations between ionized and total calcium and between total calcium and albumin, and a negative correlation between ionized calcium and serum pH. However, the correlation coefficients were too low to be usable for prediction of the levels of ionized calcium from the levels of total calcium or from the other parameters. When it is essential to evaluate the calcium status of a calf, direct measurement of ionized calcium must be done.

Animals↗

Ionized calcium influences gastrin stimulated histamine release and acid secretion, but not histamine stimulated acid output in the totally isolated vascularly perfused rat stomach.

When changing from bovine serum albumin to dextran T70 as colloid without adjusting the total calcium concentration in the vascular perfusate of the totally isolated vascularly perfused rat stomach, we noticed a drastic fall in gastrin-stimulated acid secretion. In the present study the effect of the two colloids on ionized calcium in the vascular perfusate as well as the effect on acid secretion and vascular histamine release were studied. There was no difference in gastrin-stimulated acid secretion or vascular histamine release between the two colloids after adjusting the total calcium concentrations so that ionized calcium was similar. Whereas baseline acid secretion showed no marked dependency of ionized calcium within the range tested (0.73-1.54 mmol l-1, gastrin-stimulated acid secretion was highly dependent on ionized calcium being reduced at the higher concentration of Ca2+. Histamine stimulated acid secretion, on the other hand, was virtually unaffected by the concentration of ionized calcium in the same range. Like gastrin-stimulated acid secretion, gastrin-stimulated histamine release was inhibited at higher Ca2+ concentrations. Thus, elevated Ca2+ concentrations seemed to reduce gastrin-stimulated acid secretion by inhibiting vascular histamine release.

Animals↗

Inhibition of hepatic microsomal monooxygenase activity by cinchocaine: mechanistic studies and effects of ionization.

The quinoline-based local anaesthetic cinchocaine (dibucaine) was found to be a mixed-type inhibitor of microsomal aminopyrine N-demethylase and 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase activities from control and phenobarbitone-induced rat liver in-vitro. Cinchocaine also elicited a characteristic type I optical difference spectrum in oxidized liver microsomes (Ks = 24 microM; delta Amax = 3.4 X 10(-3) absorbance units (nmol cytochrome P450)-1) but did not appear to bind to the reduced form of the cytochrome. Additional studies indicated that cinchocaine competitively inhibited the type I spectral binding of substrate (aminopyrine) to ferric cytochrome P450. Studies of monooxygenase inhibition by cinchocaine over a relatively narrow pH range (6.5-8.5) indicated that, as might be expected, the un-ionized form of the drug is associated with inhibitory potency superior to that of the ionized form. Thus 40% inhibition of aminopyrine N-demethylase activity was observed with 100 microM cinchocaine at pH 8.0 and 8.5 (24% and 50% un-ionized drug, respectively), whereas only 16% inhibition was observed at pH 6.5 (1% un-ionized drug). These findings suggest that the inhibitory action of cinchocaine is mediated exclusively via an interaction with ferric cytochrome P450 and that the extent of ionization is a determinant of mixed function oxidase inhibition.

7-Alkoxycoumarin O-Dealkylase↗

Determination of the depth of 50% of maximum ionization, I50, for electron beams by the divided difference method.

A new characterization of depth-ionization parameters for electron beams is empirically deduced from our data analysis based on the divided difference method (the DD method), which employs the numerical differential of an ionization curve. The important feature of the present method is that it does not necessarily require normalized percent depth-ionization (NPDI) data. The depth of 50% of maximum ionization, I50, which is an important parameter for electron beam dosimetry, can be deduced from the analysis of an unnormalized (or partial) depth-ionization (UDI) curve obtained over a short interval of depth. The values of I50 determined by the DD method are in agreement to within 0.1 mm for energies of 4, 6, and 9 MeV, compared with the ones determined by the TG-51 protocol method (or the conventional method), and the difference was 0.9 mm for 12 and 15 MeV. The dose at the reference depth, dref, calculated from I50 by the DD method, is found to be in agreement with TG-51 to within 0.1%. The field size dependence of the DD method using UDI data was studied for three field sizes: 6 x 6, 10 x 10, and 20 x 20 cm2. For all energies, the discrepancies of I50 as determined by both methods were 0.9 mm on average for the 6 x 6 cm2 fields and 0.6 mm for the other two field sizes. This dependence was remarkable for 6 x 6 cm2 fields for 12 and 15 MeV, and the discrepancies shown by the DD method were 1.2 mm for 12 MeV and 1.8 mm for 15 MeV, respectively. Since the reference field size in clinical dosimetry is usually 10 x 10 cm2, this dependence will not affect clinical dosimetry. The DD method could be an alternative option for checking beam quality in dose calibration.

Algorithms↗

Ionization chamber-based reference dosimetry of intensity modulated radiation beams.

The present paper addresses reference dose measurements using thimble ionization chambers for quality assurance in IMRT fields. In these radiation fields, detector fluence perturbation effects invalidate the application of open-field dosimetry protocol data for the derivation of absorbed dose to water from ionization chamber measurements. We define a correction factor C(Q)IMRT to correct the absorbed dose to water calibration coefficient N(D, w)Q for fluence perturbation effects in individual segments of an IMRT delivery and developed a calculation method to evaluate the factor. The method consists of precalculating, using accurate Monte Carlo techniques, ionization chamber, type-dependent cavity air dose, and in-phantom dose to water at the reference point for zero-width pencil beams as a function of position of the pencil beams impinging on the phantom surface. These precalculated kernels are convolved with the IMRT fluence distribution to arrive at the dose-to-water-dose-to-cavity air ratio [D(a)w (IMRT)] for IMRT fields and with a 10x10 cm2 open-field fluence to arrive at the same ratio D(a)w (Q) for the 10x10 cm2 reference field. The correction factor C(Q)IMRT is then calculated as the ratio of D(a)w (IMRT) and D(a)w (Q). The calculation method was experimentally validated and the magnitude of chamber correction factors in reference dose measurements in single static and dynamic IMRT fields was studied. The results show that, for thimble-type ionization chambers the correction factor in a single, realistic dynamic IMRT field can be of the order of 10% or more. We therefore propose that for accurate reference dosimetry of complete n-beam IMRT deliveries, ionization chamber fluence perturbation correction factors must explicitly be taken into account.

Algorithms↗

Determination of electron beam mean incident energy from d50 (ionization) values.

Depth-ionization measurements have been obtained with an air-filled Nordic Association of Clinical Physicists (NACP) design parallel-plate ionization chamber in a water phantom for ten foil-scattered electron beams from two different machines with nominal energies between 6 and 20 MeV and field sizes from 6 X 6 to 25 X 25 cm2. Depths of 50% ionization and practical range have been determined from least-squares fits to both the raw data and values corrected to parallel-beam geometry using measured virtual source distances. Depths of 50% dose have also been obtained from fits to divergence-corrected depth-dose measurements performed under identical conditions using, a p-type silicon diode detector. Utilizing accepted conversion factors between mean incident energy (E0) and depth of 50% dose for parallel incident beams, and taking advantage of the fact that p-type silicon diode detector readings are nearly directly indicative of relative dose, conversion factors between E0 and depth of 50% ionization for divergence-corrected and raw, uncorrected finite source-surface distance depth-ionization data are empirically determined. Those values, obtained using the results of both ETRAN and EGS4 dose calculations as base lines, are compared to values currently recommended for use in clinical dosimetry.

Electrons↗

Closed-shell molecules that ionize more readily than cesium.

We report a class of molecules with extremely low ionization enthalpies, one member of which has been determined to have a gas-phase ionization energy (onset, 3.51 electron volts) lower than that of the cesium atom (which has the lowest gas-phase ionization energy of the elements) or of any other known closed-shell molecule or neutral transient species reported. The molecules are dimetal complexes with the general formula M2(hpp)4 (where M is Cr, Mo, or W, and hpp is the anion of 1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-2H-pyrimido[1,2-a]pyrimidine), structurally characterized in the solid state, spectroscopically characterized in the gas phase, and modeled with theoretical computations. The low-energy ionization of each molecule corresponds to the removal of an electron from the delta bonding orbital of the quadruple metal-metal bond, and a strong interaction of this orbital with a filled orbital on the hpp ligands largely accounts for the low ionization energies.

Journal Article↗

Ionized calcium levels in coronary sinus blood during coronary angiography: effects of four contrast media.

The changes in ionized calcium level in the coronary sinus during coronary angiography were compared for four contrast media (meglumine sodium diatrizoate, iohexol, iopamidol, and meglumine sodium ioxaglate) in 44 subjects. Blood samples were collected before and 5, 15, and 30 seconds after injection of contrast medium into the left coronary artery. The hematocrit and ionized calcium level of each specimen were measured. Meglumine sodium diatrizoate produced the largest changes in hematocrit and ionized calcium level. The time-concentration curve of the hematocrit was similar for all four contrast media, but diatrizoate and ioxaglate produced a prolonged decrease of ionized calcium. The cause of this is not clear, but the phenomenon may be related to differences of ionic status among the contrast media. With respect to maintenance of the ionized calcium level, nonionic low-osmolality contrast medium with added calcium may be preferable for coronary angiography.

Adult↗

Increased tumorigenicity and sensitivity to ionizing radiation upon loss of chromosomal protein HMGN1.

We report that loss of HMGN1, a nucleosome-binding protein that alters the compaction of the chromatin fiber, increases the cellular sensitivity to ionizing radiation and the tumor burden of mice. The mortality and tumor burden of ionizing radiation-treated Hmgn1-/- mice is higher than that of their Hmgn1+/+ littermates. Hmgn1-/- fibroblasts have an altered G2-M checkpoint activation and are hypersensitive to ionizing radiation. The ionizing radiation hypersensitivity and the aberrant G2-M checkpoint activation of Hmgn1-/- fibroblasts can be reverted by transfections with plasmids expressing wild-type HMGN1, but not with plasmids expressing mutant HMGN proteins that do not bind to chromatin. Transformed Hmgn1-/- fibroblasts grow in soft agar and produce tumors in nude mice with a significantly higher efficiency than Hmgn1+/+ fibroblasts, suggesting that loss of HMGN1 protein disrupts cellular events controlling proliferation and growth. Hmgn1-/- mice have a higher incidence of multiple malignant tumors and metastases than their Hmgn1+/+ littermates. We suggest that HMGN1 optimizes the cellular response to ionizing radiation and to other tumorigenic events; therefore, loss of this protein increases the tumor burden in mice.

Animals↗

Identification of novel p53 target genes in ionizing radiation response.

The tumor suppressor p53 plays an essential role in cellular adaptation to stress. In response to ionizing radiation, p53 regulates the transcription of genes in a diverse set of pathways including DNA repair, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. Previously, we identified by microarray analysis a set of genes that are transcriptionally activated or repressed in response to radiation exposure. In this study, we use computational methods and molecular techniques, including location analysis (ChIP-on-chip assay), to identify ionizing radiation-responsive genes that are directly regulated by p53. Among the 489 ionizing radiation-responsive genes examined, 38 genes were found to be p53 targets. Some of these genes are previously known to be directly regulated by p53 whereas others are novel p53 targets. We further showed that the novel p53 target genes are transcriptionally regulated by p53. The binding of p53 to promoters of target genes correlated with increased transcript levels of these genes in cells with functional p53. However, p53 binding and subsequent transcriptional activation of these target genes were significantly diminished in cells with mutant p53 and in cells from patients with ataxia telangiectasia, which have impaired p53 activation following ionizing radiation exposure. Identification and characterization of ionizing radiation-responsive p53 target genes extend our knowledge of the diverse role that p53 plays in the DNA damage response.

Ataxia Telangiectasia↗