Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited

Thomas Lindner

Michael Gunter Helle

Matthias Link

Horst Grzonka

Michael Helle

Frank Plueckhahn

Dietmar Franke

A method of treating cut stem tobacco material by expanding the cut stem to provide a first expanded tobacco material having a fill value at least about 10% greater than the fill value of the untreated cut stem tobacco material; intermittently contacting the first expanded tobacco material with a heated surface to provide a second expanded tobacco material with a moisture content of from 0 to about 10% OV and a fill value at least 5% greater than the fill value of the first expanded tobacco material; and (c) adjusting the moisture content of the second expanded tobacco material from about 5% to about 30% OV to provide an expanded product, wherein the fill value of the expanded product is at least 50% greater than the fill value of the untreated cut stem tobacco material when measured at a normalized moisture content of 14.5% OV.

Methods of treating cut stem tobacco material

The invention provides for a medical imaging system () comprising a processor () for controlling the medical imaging system. Execution of machine executable instructions () causes the processor to receive () a static angiographic image () of a region of interest (), receive () a time series of angiographic images (') of the region of interest, construct () an image mask () using the static angiographic image, determine () a time dependent signal () for each voxel within the image mask using the time series of angiographic images, construct () a composite angiographic image by: assigning () a fill time () to each voxel within the image mask using an extremum () of the time dependent signal if the extremum deviates from an average of the time dependent signal more than a predetermined threshold, and identifying () voxels within the image mask as being unfilled voxels.

Combination of temporally resolved angiographic images with a spatially resolved angiographic image

A magnetic resonance imaging system () for acquiring magnetic resonance data () from an imaging zone () includes a memory () for storing machine executable instructions () and pulse sequence commands (). The pulse sequence commands cause the magnetic resonance imaging system to provide at least one spatially selective saturation pulse () to at least one selected volume (') that is at least partially outside of a region of interest () and within the imaging zone. The magnetic resonance imaging system performs a non-selective inversion () of spins in the region of interest followed by a readout () of the magnetic resonance data which is reconstructed () into an image ().

Imaging fluid flow into a region of interest

A method of magnetic resonance imaging () includes acquiring () tagged magnetic resonance data () by controlling the magnetic resonance imaging system with tagging pulse sequence commands (). The tagging pulse sequence commands include a tagging inversion pulse portion () for spin labeling a tagging location (') within a subject (). The tagging pulse sequence commands comprise a phase-contrast readout portion () which phase-contrast encodes in at least one direction. The control pulse sequence commands include a control inversion pulse portion () and the phase-contrast readout portion. A tagged magnitude image () is reconstructed () using the tagged magnetic resonance data. A control magnitude image () is reconstructed () using the control magnetic resonance data. An arterial image () is reconstructed () by subtracting the control magnitude image and the tagged magnitude image. At least one phase image () is reconstructed () using either the tagged magnetic resonance data and/or the control magnetic resonance data.

Magnetic resonance imaging of arterial structures

A medical imaging system () includes a memory () for storing machine executable instructions (), and a processor () for controlling the medical imaging system. Execution of the machine executable instructions causes the processor to: receive () a tagged arterial spin labeled (ASL) magnitude image () of a region of interest of a subject (); receive () a control ASL magnitude image () of the region of interest of the subject; construct () an arterial image () by subtracting the control ASL magnitude image and the tagged ASL magnitude image; construct () an arterial mask () using the arterial image by identifying arteries in the arterial image; receive () a phase contrast magnetic resonance image () of at least a portion of the region of interest of the subject; and construct a venous image () at least partially by setting voxels of the phase contrast image within the at least a portion of the region of interest that are within the arterial mask to a predetermined background value.

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Hamburg, Germany

Thomas Lindner