This book will summarise recent hardware developments, highlight the challenges facing mobile and generally low-field NMR and MRI and describe various emerging applications - some of which have commercial interest.

The goal of this book is to provide an introduction to the practical use of mobile NMR at a level as basic as the operation of a smart phone. Each description follows the same didactic pattern: introduction, basic theory, pulse sequences and parameters, beginners-level measurements, advanced-level measurements, and data processing. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the most popular method for chemists to analyze molecular structures while Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive diagnostic tool for medical doctors that provides high-contrast images of biological tissue depicting the brain function and the beating heart. In both applications large super-conducting magnets are employed which magnetize atomic nuclei of an object positioned inside the magnet. Their circulating motion is interrogated by radio-frequency waves. Depending on the operating mode, the frequency spectrum provides the chemist with molecular information, the medical doctor with anatomic images, while the materials scientist is interested in NMR relaxation parameters, which scale with material properties and determine the contrast in magnetic resonance images. Recent advances in magnet technology led to a variety of small permanent magnets, by which NMR spectra, images, and relaxation parameters can be measured with mobile and low-cost instruments.

Beginning with a review of the important areas of mathematics, this book then covers many of the underlying theoretical and practical aspects of NMR and MRI spectroscopy from a maths point of view. Competence in algebra and introductory calculus is needed but all other maths concepts are covered. It will bridge a gap between high level and introductory titles used in NMR or MRI spectroscopy. Uniquely, it takes a very careful and pedagogical approach to the mathematics behind NMR and MRI. It leaves out very few steps, which distinguishes it from other books in the field. The author is an NMR laboratory manager and is sympathetic to the frustrations of trying to understand where some of the fundamental equations come from hence his desire to either explicitly derive all equations for the reader or direct them to derivations. This is an essential text aimed at graduate students who are beginning their careers in NMR or MRI spectroscopy and laboratory managers if they need an understanding of the theoretical foundations of the technique.

This book describes the design of the first functioning single-sided tomograph, the related measurement methods, and a number of applications in medicine, materials science, and chemical engineering. It will be the first comprehensive account of this new device and its applications. Among the key advances of this method is that images can be obtained in much shorter times than originally anticipated, and that even vector maps of flow fields can be measured although the magnetic fields are highly inhomogeneous. Furthermore, the equipment is small, mobile and affordable to small and medium enterprises and can be located in doctors’ offices.

This book details constructional information for a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer using the natural magnetic field of the Earth as B0, and presents experiments exploring the impressive range of concepts and techniques which can be demonstrated with such a machine. These include the Free Induction Decay, T1 and T2 time constants, spin echoes with 90 degree and 180 degree B1 pulses, and the effects of B0 field inhomogeneity and shimming. Although chemical shifts of parts per million in spectral line frequency cannot be resolved, the splitting of lines by heteronuclear J-coupling is clearly displayed. The machine can make geomagnetic measurements accurate to 5 significant figures. And it can demonstrate the core principle of Magnetic Resonance Imaging: the encoding of spatial information in the phase and frequency domains using the Pulsed Gradient Spin Echo sequence.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, not so long ago a diagnostic tool of last resort, has become pervasive in the landscape of consumer medicine; images of the forbidding tubes, with their promises of revelation, surround us in commercials and on billboards. Magnetic Appeal offers an in-depth exploration of the science and culture of MRI, examining its development and emergence as an imaging technology, its popular appeal and acceptance, and its current use in health care. Understood as modern and uncontroversial by health care professionals and in public discourse, the importance of MRI—or its supposed infallibility—has rarely been questioned. In Magnetic Appeal, Kelly A. Joyce shows how MRI technology grew out of serendipitous circumstances and was adopted for reasons having little to do with patient safety or evidence of efficacy. Drawing on interviews with physicians and MRI technologists, as well as ethnographic research conducted at imaging sites and radiology conferences, Joyce demonstrates that current beliefs about MRI draw on cultural ideas about sight and technology and are reinforced by health care policies and insurance reimbursement practices. Moreover, her unsettling analysis of physicians' and technologists' work practices lets readers consider that MRI scans do not reveal the truth about the body as is popularly believed, nor do they always lead to better outcomes for patients. Although clearly a valuable medical technique, MRI technology cannot necessarily deliver the health outcomes ascribed to it. Magnetic Appeal also addresses broader questions about the importance of medical imaging technologies in American culture and medicine. These technologies, which include ultrasound, X-ray, and MRI, are part of a larger trend in which visual representations have become central to American health, identity, and social relations.

This open access book gives a complete and comprehensive introduction to the fields of medical imaging systems, as designed for a broad range of applications. The authors of the book first explain the foundations of system theory and image processing, before highlighting several modalities in a dedicated chapter. The initial focus is on modalities that are closely related to traditional camera systems such as endoscopy and microscopy. This is followed by more complex image formation processes: magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray projection imaging, computed tomography, X-ray phase-contrast imaging, nuclear imaging, ultrasound, and optical coherence tomography.

This book is intended as a text/reference for students, researchers, and professors interested in physical and biomedical applications of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Both the theoretical and practical aspects of MRI are emphasized. The book begins with a comprehensive discussion of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) phenomenon based on quantum mechanics and the classical theory of electromagnetism. The first three chapters of this book provide the foundation needed to understand the basic characteristics of MR images, e.g.,image contrast, spatial resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, common image artifacts. Then MRI applications are considered in the following five chapters. Both the theoretical and practical aspects of MRI are emphasized. The book ends with a discussion of instrumentation and the principles of signal detection in MRI. - Clear progression from fundamental physical principles of NMR to MRI and its applications - Extensive discussion of image acquisition and reconstruction of MRI - Discussion of different mechanisms of MR image contrast - Mathematical derivation of the signal-to-noise dependence on basic MR imaging parameters as well as field strength - In-depth consideration of artifacts in MR images - Comprehensive discussion of several techniques used for rapid MR imaging including rapid gradient-echo imaging, echo-planar imaging, fast spin-echo imaging and spiral imaging - Qualitative discussion combined with mathematical description of MR techniques for imaging flow

Energy storage material is a hot topic in material science and chemistry. During the past decade, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has emerged as a powerful tool to aid understanding of the working and failing mechanisms of energy storage materials and devices. The aim of this book is to introduce the use of NMR methods for investigating electrochemical storage materials and devices. Presenting a comprehensive overview of NMR spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on energy storage materials, the book will include the theory of paramagnetic interactions and relevant calculation methods, a number of specific NMR approaches developed in the past decade for battery materials (e.g. in situ, ex situ NMR, MRI, DNP, 2D NMR, NMR dynamics) and case studies on a variety of related materials. Helping both NMR spectroscopists entering the field of batteries and battery specialists seeking diagnostic methods for material and device degradation, it is written by leading authorities from international research groups in this field.

Although nuclear magnetic resonance is perhaps best known for its spectacular utility in medical tomography, its potential applicability to fields such as biology, materials science, and chemical physics is being increasingly recognized as laboratory NMR spectrometers are adapted to enable small scale imaging. This excellent introduction to the subject explores principles and common themes underlying two key variants of NMR microscopy, and provides many examples of their use. Methods discussed are not only important to fundamental biological and physical research, but have applications to a wide variety of industries, including those concerned with petrochemicals, polymers, biotechnology, food processing, and natural product processing. The wide range of scientists interested in NMR microscopy will want to own a copy of this book.