ODE-IVP-PACK via Sinc indefinite integration and Newton's method

This paper describes a package of computer programs for the unified treatment of initial-value problems for systems of ordinary differential equations. The programs implement a numerical method which is efficient for a general class of differential equations. The user may determine the solutions over finite or infinite intervals. The solutions may have singularities at the end-points of the interval for which the solution is sought. Besides giving the initial values and the analytical expression for the differential equations to be solved the user needs to specify the nature of the singularities and give some other analytical information as described in the paper in order to take advantage of the speed and accuracy of the package described here. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Raman spectral analysis of renal tissue: a novel application

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 85% of all primary renal cancers. The definitive diagnosis of RCC relies exclusively on the subjective pathological interpretation of the surgical specimen. In this study, we aimed to analyze renal tissue using objective Raman spectroscopy (RS). We obtained 15 pairs of RCC (T) and corresponding normal renal parenchymal tissues (N) from our biobank. There are three subtypes of RCC: clear cell RCC (ccRCC), papillary RCC (pRCC), and chromophobe RCC (cRCC). Five pairs of tissue of each subtype were enrolled. Fresh‐frozen sliced tissues were used for the RS detection. The Raman spectra between T and N were compared and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) regression. Data for a total of 55 T and 58 N analyzable RS samples were obtained. The spectra were normalized by dividing the intensity of the characteristic peak at 1003 cm⁻¹ using phenylalanine's Raman peak. After further analysis with PLS, the sensitivity and specificity for discriminating T from N were 95% and 93%, respectively. The RCC subtypes can be discriminated at an accuracy of 72% for ccRCC, 88% for cRCC, and 86% for pRCC. This study demonstrates the feasibility of analyzing renal tissue using RS. RS, with its advantages of easy and objective tissue assessment, may be applied to aid intraoperative decision making and pathological tissue assessment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.