Micromachined bulk PZT tissue contrast sensor for fine needle aspiration biopsy

This paper describes a micromachined piezoelectric sensor, integrated into a cavity at the tip of a biopsy needle, and preliminary experiments to determine if such a device can be used for real-time tissue differentiation, which is needed for needle positioning guidance during fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. The sensor is fabricated from bulk lead zirconate titanate (PZT), using a customized process in which micro electro-discharge machining is used to form a steel tool that is subsequently used for batch-mode ultrasonic micromachining of bulk PZT ceramic. The resulting sensor is 50 microm thick and 200 microm in diameter. It is placed in the biopsy needle cavity, against a steel diaphragm which is 300 microm diameter and has an average thickness of 23 microm. Devices were tested in materials that mimic the ultrasound characteristics of human tissue, used in the training of physicians, and with porcine fat and muscle tissue. In both schemes, the magnitude and frequency of an electrical impedance resonance peak showed tissue-specific characteristics as the needle was inserted. For example, in the porcine tissue, the impedance peak frequency changed approximately 13 MHz from the initial 163 MHz, and the magnitude changed approximately 1600 Omega from the initial 2100 Omega, as the needle moved from fat to muscle. Samples including oils and saline solution were tested for calibration, and an empirical tissue contrast model shows an approximately proportional relationship between measured frequency shift and sample acoustic impedance. These results suggest that the device can complement existing methods for guidance during biopsies.     

求解复杂湍流的非线性涡黏性系数模型和代数应力模型

非线性涡黏性系数模型和代数应力模型联系了线性涡黏性系数湍流模型和完整的微分 雷诺应力模型.随着它们受到日益关注,其形式也越来越多样化.本篇综述的目的是对这些模 型加以总结并比较它们之间的共同点及不同之处,指出它们与完整微分雷诺应力模型之间的 关系,以及相对于线性涡黏性系数模型而言它们在预报流场上所具有的优势.     

Fusion around the barrier for 7Li+12C

Fusion cross-sections for the ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction have been measured at energies above the Coulomb barrier by the direct detection of evaporation residues. The heavy evaporation residues with energies below 3 MeV could not be separated out from the α-particles in the spectrum and hence their contribution was estimated using statistical model calculations. The present work indicates that suppression of fusion cross-sections due to the breakup of ⁷Li may not be significant for ⁷Li + ¹²C reaction at energies around the barrier.     

On the value distribution of the Matsumoto zeta-function

The Matsumoto zeta-function is defined by a polynomial Euler product and is a generalization of classical zeta-functions. In the paper a discrete limit theorem in the sense of the weak convergence of probability measures on the complex plane for the Matsumoto zeta-function is proved.     

Nonmonotone curvilinear line search methods for unconstrained optimization

We present a new algorithmic framework for solving unconstrained minimization problems that incorporates a curvilinear linesearch. The search direction used in our framework is a combination of an approximate Newton direction and a direction of negative curvature. Global convergence to a stationary point where the Hessian matrix is positive semidefinite is exhibited for this class of algorithms by means of a nonmonotone stabilization strategy. An implementation using the Bunch-Parlett decomposition is shown to outperform several other techniques on a large class of test problems.The work of this author was based on research supported by the National Science Foundation Grant CCR-9157632, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-94-1-0036 and the Department of Energy Grant DE-FG03-94ER61915.These authors were partially supported by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Roma, Italy.     

Reduced-size polarized basis sets for calculations of molecular electric properties. II. Simulation of the Raman spectra

The accuracies of the calculated vibrational frequencies and Raman intensities given by two new, highly compact Pol-type basis sets, Z2PolX and Z3PolX, have been determined and compared to the 6-31G(d), PolX, and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. Calculation of accurate Raman intensities has previously required large basis sets, but the ZmPolX basis sets are smaller even than PolX, which are the most compact basis sets able to calculate accurate Raman intensities. For the largest compound studied, C5H10O2, Z3PolX required more than an order of magnitude less CPU time than PolX, which has been shown to be 10 times faster than aug-cc-pVTZ. Two sets of test molecules were studied: one was a series of small molecules for which experimental values for absolute Raman activities were available; the second was a series of medium-sized molecules (mainly common organic solvents) where only relative Raman band intensities were available. The accuracies of the Raman intensities given by both of the ZmPolX basis sets were good compared to those of the PolX and aug-cc-pVTZ sets, and much better than the 6-31G(d) values. The errors in even unscaled frequency values <2000 cm(-1) were also acceptable and were slightly lower for Z3PolX than Z2PolX (30 cm(-1) vs. 48 cm(-1)). The combination of good intensity and frequency data meant that for the medium-sized organic molecules there was a close correspondence between the simulated Raman spectra and experimental data, and that the observed bands could easily be assigned on the basis of these calculations. Achieving this level of accuracy in the simulations at modest computational cost should now allow computational methods to be combined with experimental Raman studies much more widely than is currently the case.     

On some examples of obstructed irregular surfaces

We determine the base space of the Kuranishi family of some complete intersections in the product of an abelian variety and a projective space.As a consequence,we obtain new examples of obstructed irregular surfaces with ample canonical bundle and maximal Albanese dimension.     

Semiempirical model for adsorption of polyatomics

Multisite-occupancy adsorption is described by using a new formalism based on the occupation balance approximation (Roma, F.; Ramirez-Pastor, A. J.; Riccardo, J. L. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 114, 10932). In this framework, the adsorption isotherm is characterized by a correction function C, which relates to the conditional probability of finding the ith empty site to a lattice with i - 1 already vacant sites. A simple semiempirical adsorption isotherm is proposed by approximating C as a combination of the correction functions corresponding to exact 1-D calculations and the Guggenheim-DiMarzio approximation, with adequate weights. Results are compared with corresponding ones from Monte Carlo simulations.