Study of the inhomogeneity of an alpha-particle source

A mathematically simple methodology is presented for detecting spatial inhomogeneities of counts. The method is based on the use of Legendre polynomials. The methodology turned out to be appropriate also when applied to an a-particle source with a relatively small spatial inhomogeneity of a-particle emitters. For its simplicity its use may turn out to be advantageous also in other experiments also.     

Time of acquisition and high spatial resolution mass spectrometry imaging

The field of mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is constantly evolving to analyze a diverse array of biological systems. A common goal is the need to resolve cellular and subcellular heterogeneity with high spatial resolution. As the field continues to progress towards high spatial resolution, other parameters must be considered when developing a practical method. Here, we discuss the impacts of high spatial resolution on the time of acquisition and the associated implications they have on an MSI analysis (e.g., area of the region of interest). This work presents a brief tutorial serving to evaluate high spatial resolution MSI relative to time of acquisition and data file size.     

Emission plasma tomography with large acceptance angle apertures relevant to laser induced plasma spectroscopy

It is proposed to use apertures with large acceptance angles to reduce the integration time when studying the emissivity of laser induced plasmas by means of the Abel inversion method. The spatial resolution lost due to contributions of angled lines of sight to the intensity data collected along the plasma plume diameter is restored by a special numerical data processing. The procedure is meant for the laser induced plasma diagnostics and tomography when the integration time needed to achieve a reasonable signal to noise ratio exceeds a characteristic time scale of the plasma state variations which is short especially at early stages of the plasma evolution. It can also be used to improve the spatial resolution in a conventional experimental setup for plasma diagnostics.     

Sur la mesure locale du champ d'absorption d'un milieu axisymétrique à indice de réfraction variable

We present a method to reconstruct the absorption field inside an axisymmetra semi-transparent medium under the geometrical optics hypothesis when the real refrac tive index is a known spatial function.     

A Fast Method to Simulate Travelling Waves in Nonhomogeneous Chemical or Biological Media

Waves in excitable media can be treated by a simple geometric theory. The propagation velocity is assumed known and evolution of wave fronts is determined by elementary physical principles (Fermat's principle, Huygens' principle). Based on this geometric theory a fast computational method is developed. By this method the distorting effect of the spatial grid is avoided. The method is applied to the cases when a circular obstacle is surrounded by a homogeneous and heterogeneous medium, respectively. The numerical simulations show that the method is convenient, fast and reliable.     

三变量反应扩散方程的空间周期解析解

对三变量反应扩散方程进行了稳定性分析, 确定了反应系统失稳后出现空间周期有序结构时系统的可调参数μ的临界值μc. 求出了空间周期解析解的表达式, 此结果与实验结果相符.     

Near-field two-photon-induced photoluminescence from single gold nanorods and imaging of plasmon modes

We investigated the two-photon-induced photoluminescence properties of single gold nanorods by scanning near-field spectroscopy. The process was found to be initiated by a sequential one-photon absorption for creating a pair of an electron and a hole in the sp and d bands. Photoluminescence is then radiated when the electron near the Fermi surface recombines with the hole near the X and L symmetry points. The polarization characteristics of emitted photons from the X and L regions were found to be different. These characteristics can be understood by the crystalline structure and the band structure of the gold nanorod. We found characteristic spatial oscillatory features along the long axis of the nanorods in photoluminescence excitation images. The images were well reproduced by density-of-states maps of the nanorods calculated with Green's dyadic method and were attributed to the spatial characteristics of the wave functions of the plasmon modes inside the nanorods.     

Comportement d'une couche limite thermique en écoulement cisaillé avec chauffage spatio-périodique à la paroi

The evolution in time of a thermal boundary layer generated at the interface shear flow/flat plate is studied by means of an integral method, when the plate is suddenly heated with a periodical flux density in space. From the deduced analytical steady state solution based on the use of a no-thickness plate hypothesis, it is shown that the thermal boundary layer is more influenced by spatial cooling phases than by heating phases.     

3D visualization of the microstructure of Quedius beesoni Cameron using micro-CT

The investigation of the internal morphology of insects is usually performed using classical microtomy yielding optical micrographs of stained thin sections. The achievement of high-quality cross sections for microtomy is time-consuming and the risk of damaging sections is unavoidable. Moreover, the approach is impractical, in particular when quick acquisition of 3D structural information is required. Recently, X-ray computed microtomography (micro-CT) with a high spatial resolution was considered as a potential tool for the morphological classification of insects. We used micro-CT to investigate Quedius beesoni Cameron at the cellular length scale. This method provides a new powerful and nondestructive approach to obtain 3D structural information on the biological organization of insects. The preliminary images presented in this contribution clearly reveal the endoskeleton and the muscles of the head and the thorax with a full 3D structure. We also reconstructed the 3D structure of the brain of Quedius beesoni Cameron, and this is the first reconstruction in Staphylinidae, which will be a great advancement for morphological and phylogenic research. We claim that both the spatial resolution and the contrast characteristic of micro-CT imaging may fulfill the requirements necessary for zoological insect morphology and phylogeny, in particular, when a classification of a rare and unique insect specimen is required.     

Blind decomposition of low‐dimensional multi‐spectral image by sparse component analysis

A multilayer hierarchical alternating least square nonnegative matrix factorization approach has been applied to blind decomposition of low‐dimensional multi‐spectral image. The method performs blind decomposition exploiting spectral diversity and spatial sparsity between materials present in the image and, unlike many blind source separation methods, is invariant with respect to statistical (in)dependence among spatial distributions of the materials. As opposed to many existing blind source separation algorithms, the method is capable of estimating the unknown number of materials present in the image. This number can be less than, equal to, or greater than the number of spectral bands. The method is validated on underdetermined blind source separation problems associated with blind decomposition of experimental red‐green‐blue images composed of four materials. Achieved performance has been superior when compared against methods based on minimization of the ℓ₁‐norm: linear programming and interior‐point methods. In addition to tumor demarcation, as demonstrated in the paper, other areas that can also benefit from the proposed method include cell, chemical, and tissue imaging. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fourier synthesis techniques for NMR spectroscopy in inhomogeneous fields

This paper describes a method for synthesizing spin rotations with arbitrary space dependence on a sample of noninteracting spin 12 by using nonselective radio frequency pulses and pulsed field gradients. This method is used to map out spatial distribution of inhomogeneous B(0) field and to engineer a space dependent evolution of spins that cancels the space dependent phase spins acquire when precessing in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. The technique allows one to record high resolution spectra in inhomogeneous magnetic field by using only time varying linear gradients and rf fields and is expected to find applications in ex situ NMR.     

A smoothing method for X-ray spectrum based on best beamforming

X-ray spectrum is widely used in the field of analysis and measurement. Due to the effect of electronic noise and statistical fluctuation of particle, the measurement spectrum is unsmoothed. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectrum, many smoothing methods were applied to process spectrum. The conventional smoothing algorithms regard the spectra as time series. In fact, X-ray spectrum is an angle series, and its essential is spatial spectrum. So the conventional smoothing algorithms are not fit for smoothing X-ray spectrum. In this paper, a new measuring model for X-ray spectrum is built up, and a new smoothing method based on best beam forming is proposed for X-ray spectrum. It regards the measured X-ray spectrum as the classic spectrum estimation result of array signal. The spatial spectrum is re-estimated to smooth the spectrum by best beam forming. The relationship between cross-correlation coefficient and number of array cell is applied to choose parameter q. The experimental results show that the method is effective to smooth X-ray spectrum with high resolution when q is larger than 200.     

Threshold Sensing through a Synthetic Enzymatic Reaction–Diffusion Network

A wet stamping method to precisely control concentrations of enzymes and inhibitors in place and time inside layered gels is reported. By combining enzymatic reactions such as autocatalysis and inhibition with spatial delivery of components through soft lithographic techniques, a biochemical reaction network capable of recognizing the spatial distribution of an enzyme was constructed. The experimental method can be used to assess fundamental principles of spatiotemporal order formation in chemical reaction networks.     

Spatial resolution optimization of backscattered electron images using Monte Carlo simulation

The relation between probe size and spatial resolution of backscattered electron (BSE) images was studied. In addition, the effect of the accelerating voltage, the current intensity and the sample geometry and composition were analyzed. An image synthesis method was developed to generate the images from backscattered electron coefficients obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Spatial resolutions of simulated images were determined with the SMART-J method, which is based on the Fourier transform of the image. The resolution can be improved by either increasing the signal or decreasing the noise of the backscattered electron image. The analyses demonstrate that using a probe size smaller than the size of the observed object (sample features) does not improve the spatial resolution. For a probe size larger than the feature size, the spatial resolution is proportional to the probe size.     

Proof of principle of a generalized fuzzy Hough transform approach to peak alignment of one-dimensional <Superscript>1</Superscript>H NMR data

In metabolic profiling, multivariate data analysis techniques are used to interpret one-dimensional (1D) ¹H NMR data. Multivariate data analysis techniques require that peaks are characterised by the same variables in every spectrum. This location constraint is essential for correct comparison of the intensities of several NMR spectra. However, variations in physicochemical factors can cause the locations of the peaks to shift. The location prerequisite may thus not be met, and so, to solve this problem, alignment methods have been developed. However, current state-of-the-art algorithms for data alignment cannot resolve the inherent problems encountered when analysing NMR data of biological origin, because they are unable to align peaks when the spatial order of the peaks changes—a commonly occurring phenomenon. In this paper a new algorithm is proposed, based on the Hough transform operating on an image representation of the NMR dataset that is capable of correctly aligning peaks when existing methods fail. The proposed algorithm was compared with current state-of-the-art algorithms operating on a selected plasma dataset to demonstrate its potential. A urine dataset was also processed using the algorithm as a further demonstration. The method is capable of successfully aligning the plasma data but further development is needed to address more challenging applications, for example urine data. Figure Traces of NMR peaks visualizing the Generalized Fuzzy Hough Transform (GFHT) method for elucidating peak correspondence between samples. The spectra are sorted according to one shift sensitive peak and reveals that other peaks exhibit a similar shift pattern. This pattern(s) can now be searched for using the GFHT. The red and black spectra in the figure are the most shifting spectra (top and bottom), by following the GFHT traces peak correspondence is easily established although peaks change spatial location Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Calculation of the dynamic temperature characteristics of a heated graphite tube used in electrothermal atomic absorption measurements

A method and computer program were developed for calculating the temperature of any part of a graphite furnace tube at any instant of time after onset of the heating cycle. Results for tubes of the Massman design show large differences in spatial temperature distributions during and at the end of the heating cycle when equilibrium is reached. When constant current is applied to contoured tubes, greater heating rates at the tube centres are obtained than with standard tubes.     

A Study of Two-Dimensional Microdischarge Pattern Formation in Dielectric Barrier Discharges

Although microdischarges in dielectric-barrier discharges (DBDs) have been studied for the past century, their mutual interaction was explained only recently. This interaction is responsible for the formation of microdischarge patterns reminiscent of two-dimensional crystals. Depending on the application, microdischarge patterns may have a significant influence on DBD performance, particularly when spatial uniformity is desired. This paper presents the results of study of regular microdischarge pattern formation in DBD in air at atmospheric pressure. Experimental images of DBD (Lichtenberg figures) were obtained using photostimulable phosphors. A new method for analysis of microdischarge patterns that allow measuring the degree of pattern regularity was developed. Simulated and experimental patterns were compared using the newly developed method and comparison indicates the presence of interaction between microdischarges. Analysis of microdischarge patterns shows that regularity of the patterns increases with the number of excitation cycles used to produce the pattern.     

Accurate Physical Property Predictions via Deep Learning

Neural networks and deep learning have been successfully applied to tackle problems in drug discovery with increasing accuracy over time. There are still many challenges and opportunities to improve molecular property predictions with satisfactory accuracy even further. Here, we proposed a deep-learning architecture model, namely Bidirectional long short-term memory with Channel and Spatial Attention network (BCSA), of which the training process is fully data-driven and end to end. It is based on data augmentation and SMILES tokenization technology without relying on auxiliary knowledge, such as complex spatial structure. In addition, our model takes the advantages of the long- and short-term memory network (LSTM) in sequence processing. The embedded channel and spatial attention modules in turn specifically identify the prime factors in the SMILES sequence for predicting properties. The model was further improved by Bayesian optimization. In this work, we demonstrate that the trained BSCA model is capable of predicting aqueous solubility. Furthermore, our proposed method shows noticeable superiorities and competitiveness in predicting oil–water partition coefficient, when compared with state-of-the-art graphs models, including graph convoluted network (GCN), message-passing neural network (MPNN), and AttentiveFP.     

纳米电极时空分辨监测单个PC12细胞多巴胺量子释放

细胞作为有机体结构与生命活动的基本单位 ,在生命体内的新陈代谢和信息传递等方面起着关键作用 .而细胞受激释放是其参与生命活动的形式之一 ,在整个生命活动中起着非常重要的作用 ,不正常的细胞释放会导致生物体功能紊乱 ,以致产生各种疾病 .对细胞释放进行研究在神经生物学、生物化学、临床、病理和药学等多个学科领域中都具有非常重要的意义[1] .由于细胞的超微体积以及胞内单个囊泡量子释放发生的时间是毫秒级的 ,因此需要一种快速灵敏检测的手段才能对胞内释放情况进行实时监测 .对于多巴胺、肾上腺素、去甲肾上腺素及五羟色胺等具有…     

Sequence Hiberarchy Evolution Measurement Method and its Application

A novel method based on discrete wavelet transform （DWT） and cross-covariance for revealing the evolution of species at different spatial resolutions is presented. The trypsin proteins of different species are chosen as an example to describe the evolution relationship according to the evolution vectors by using this method. The results indicated that this method is a promising approach to reveal species evolution at different spatial resolutions.