PREFACE


HELP!
This educational package requires a hyper text markup language (HTML) 3.0 compatible browser, such as Netscape Communicator 4.0x or later, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0x or later. This type of browser allows the user to view frames. Three frames will be used in this package to simultaneously display text, graphics, and navigation aids. You are reading this in the text window. The graphics window is in the upper left hand corner of your screen. This window will be used to display animations, static figures, references, symbol definitions, and the glossary. The navigation window appears in the lower left corner of the screen and has one line of options. To experience the full potential of the frames, a screen capable of displaying at least 1024 by 768 pixels with 256 colors is recommended. You may be able to gain a few extra pixels in the vertical direction on your monitor by turning off the show toolbar, show location, and show directory buttons under options at the top of your browser. A computer mouse is necessary to access the contents of this package. The mouse allows you to move up and down in a frame by either moving the slider, or holding the mouse button down on the up or down arrows located at the right of the frame.

Organization
This package is organized into 13 chapters. These thirteen chapters may be accessed by clicking on the chapter title in the table of contents with the mouse. Each chapter has several sub sections. The titles of the sub sections are listed at the top of each chapter. The text of the chapter contains several underlined references to chapters in this book. Clicking on one of these will bring up the location in the new chapter containing the reference material. There are 50 terms defined in the glossary and 65 symbols in a list of symbols. Clicking on one of these will bring up the location in the new chapter containing the reference material. Both the symbols and glossary can be viewed in their entirity in the graphics window by clicking on them in the table of contents. Each entry in the glossary contains a chapter reference. By clicking on this reference you will bring up the chapter where the glossary entry is defined or first used. This feature therefore makes the glossary also serve as an index. You may further search for a term in a chapter with the edit find command of your browser.

Clicking on a reference symbol () brings up a reference in the graphics window. You may view the entire list of references by clicking on the references entry in the table of contents. The text contains several start () and play () icons. These icons display images, figures, and animation in the animation/graphics window. The start icon displays single frame images and figures, while the play icon displays an animation. The answer icon (), located in a problem section at the end of a chapter, displays the answer to a problem in the animation/graphics window. The proof icon () and details icon () bring up in the animation/graphics window a proof of an equation and more details on a topic. The bottom of each text page contains markers to send you to the top of the current chapter, back one chapter, and ahead one chapter. There are occasional references to previous and future chapters in the text. When the word chapter and the accompanying number are underlined you may click on the word and go directly to that chapter.

Some chapters contain audio segments. An audio segment is indicated by the following symbol.

You may start the sound segment playing through your computer's audio system using the play start/stop button. You may jump ahead in a sound segment using the jump forward button or slider. You may jump back in a sound segment using the jump back button or slider. The volume may be decreased from your computer's current setting by clicking on the volume button and adjusting the volume control.

The content of this package has been organized so that background material and underlying principles are introduced first in separate chapters. Each chapter builds on the previous one. The very knowledgeable student may elect to skip these chapters; however this is discouraged as often times nomenclature, conventions, and symbols are introduced in these introductory chapters.

Teaching Philosophy
Did you every think about how you learn? Humans tend to learn by taking information into their brains through their five senses. For most of us the order of importance of the senses for learning is: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Unless you are a wine taster, you probably do not learn too much by taste, and unless you are taking a chemistry lab, not too much by smell. Touch is very important for artists, airline pilots, and the blind. Those of us in the sciences rely on vision and hearing for most of our information, so it should come as no surprise that the formal educational experiences available to us are designed to provide audio and visual information.

There are further differences in learning styles worth mentioning here. Some of us learn better with language and others pictures, while others learn better by doing. That is why some people prefer to learn by reading a description and others seeing a diagram or picture, while still others must work an idea out for themselves. Some language learners learn best by reading a description and others must hear the description. Everyone has a different preferred learning style. For these reasons The Basics of MRI contains a variety of learning experiences. Text for those that learn best by reading, diagrams and animations for those that learn best be seeing pictures, problems for those that learn best by doing, and audio clips to help learn by hearing. It is important for you to understand your preferred learning style and to take advantage of the experiences in this book that help you learn best.

Acknowledgements
The idea for this package grew out of two earlier Microsoft DOS based educational packages on nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Many of the figures used in this package were prepared by Dmitriy Beryoza, Ann Cecchi, Manish Kadaki, and Dimitrios Psarros. The cover design is by Elizabeth Jurkowski. The magnetic resonance images used in this package were collected using a General Electric, 1.5 Tesla, magnetic resonance imager located at the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center at the University of Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital. Dr. Saara M. Totterman's assistance in providing access to this facility is greatly appreciated.

Copyright
Copyright © 1996-2000 J.P. Hornak. All Rights Reserved. No part of this educational package may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means: digital, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author, Joseph P. Hornak, Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623-5604.

A license for this software package may be purchased so you may have a copy for use on your own computer. This will eliminate network download delays associated with accessing the software from our location. Please see Software License in the Table of Contents for details.

Small Monitor
Some users of The Basics of MRI have experienced difficulty viewing the material in the fixed frame format on 12 or 13 inch, low resolution monitors. If you are one of these users, please open the table of contents (contents.htm) in a new browser window. Text and animation will then appear in separate sessions/windows.


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Copyright © 1996-2000 J.P. Hornak.
All Rights Reserved.