Research

Magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging is used for diagnostics and therapy monitoring mostly in oncology, neurology and cardiology, providing assessment of the perfusion status of a tissue on the capillary level. However, current MR perfusion imaging methods are still not ready for routine clinical use. They still remain mostly on the experimental level. The main methods for MR perfusion imaging are Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) MRI, Dynamic Susceptibility-Contrast (DSC) MRI and Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL).

Steel is by far the world's most important, multi-functional, and most adaptable material. The excellent mechanical properties of advanced steels are determined by their microstructure. While the microstructural characterization is widely spread and well known, the microstructural classification is done manually by human experts, which results in uncertainties due to subjectivity. The lack of objective microstructural classification methods is a barrier for the further development of a new generation of advanced steels.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established treatment for late motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Although DBS is generally a successful therapy, it has limitations including insufficient clinical effects and adverse side effects. The effect of DBS and disease progression is reflected by modulation of cerebral bioelectrical activity that can be measured by electrophysiological studies. The long-term clinical outcome for PD patients with DBS does not depend exclusively on the efficacy of the DBS therapy.

Over the last almost twenty years, there has been a continuous search for a method of pacing that can avoid adverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling and heart failure. Both apical and right ventricular (RV) septal pacing were found to have similar clinical outcomes, in as much as they both lead to dyssynchronous ventricular contractions. Patients exhibiting substantial ventricular dyssynchrony during pacing are at the highest risk of adverse LV remodeling.

Motion of an optically levitated nanoparticle in high vacuum is sufficiently well isolated from a room temperature environment. Together with recently developed method of cavity cooling by coherent scattering, it has allowed the collaborating group from Vienna to achieve ground state cooling of the nanoparticle motion with an optical cavity, paving the way toward further experiments with nanoparticles in the quantum regime.