INTRODUCTION The use of a pre-contrast reference image, referred to as a mask, to suppress background signal and improve output contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) through subtraction is common in contrast-enhanced MR angiography. It is critical that this operation be performed to optimize output image quality. As has been previously reported [1-3] it is advantageous to use complex subtraction for th...

Recent studies suggest that physiological noise, which determines the SNR of the fMRI time course at commonly used spatial resolutions, is largely spatially coherent. It is theoretically shown that the ratio of such a spatially coherent physiological to thermal noise determines the optimum voxel volume for maximizing BOLD CNR, relatively independent of the size of activation.

Abstract Business ethics can be regarded as a field dealing with corporate self-regulation it relates to the treatment of stakeholders. However, concern for stakeholders need not take corporate-centric perspective, shown by recent efforts (especially Singer in Bus Ethics Q 25(1):65–92, 2015) situate conduct within Rawls’ political theory. Although Rawls was largely mute on subject himself, his ...