Fast atom diffraction during grazing scattering from a MgO(001) surface

Fast neutral atoms and molecules with energies from 0.4 up to 3 keV are scattered under a grazing angle of incidence from a clean and flat MgO(001) surface. For “axial surface channeling” conditions, we observe defined diffraction patterns in the angular intensity distributions for scattered ³He and ⁴He atoms as well as H₂ molecules. The diffraction patterns are analyzed in terms of semiclassical trajectory calculations making use of projectile surface interaction potentials derived from density functional theory and from pair potentials calculated from Hartree–Fock wave functions. From comparison of measured and calculated diffraction patterns we deduced the rumpling of the topmost surface layer of MgO(001), i.e. an inward shift of Mg²⁺ ions with respect to O^2? ions, of (0.03±0.03) Å.     

Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse-Imaging for the evaluation of the thyroid gland: a limited patient feasibility study

Purpose

Real-time tissue elastography, a qualitative elastography method, has shown promising results in the diagnostic work up of thyroid nodules. However, to our knowledge no study has evaluated a quantitative elastography method in the thyroid gland. The present study is a feasibility study evaluating Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse-Imaging, a novel quantitative elastography method in the thyroid gland.

Methods

ARFI-imaging involves the mechanical excitation of tissue using short-duration acoustic pulses to generate localized displacements in tissue. The displacements induce a lateral shear-wave propagation which is tracked using multiple laterally positioned ultrasound “tracking“ beams. Inclusion criteria were: thyroid nodules ?1 cm, non-functioning or hypo-functioning on radionuclide scanning, and cytological/histological assessment of thyroid nodule as reference method. All patients received conventional ultrasound, and examination of the thyroid gland including Power Doppler Ultrasound using a 9 MHz linear transducer, in addition real-time elastography (RTE) was performed at 9 MHz frequency and ARFI-imaging was performed at 4 MHz using Siemens (ACUSON S2000) B-mode-ARFI combination transducer.

Results

Sixty nodules in 55 patients were analyzed. Three nodules were papillary carcinoma. The stiffer the tissue the faster the shear wave propagates. The results obtained indicated that the shear wave velocity in thyroid lobes ranged between 0.5 and 4.9 m/s. The median velocity of ARFI-imaging in the healthy nodule-free thyroid gland, as well as in benign and malignant thyroid nodules was 1.98 m/s (range: 1.20-3.63 m/s), 2.02 m/s (range: 0.92-3.97 m/s), and 4.30 m/s (range: 2.40-4.50 m/s), respectively. While no significant difference in median velocity was found between healthy thyroid tissue and benign thyroid nodules, a significant difference was found between malignant thyroid nodules on the one hand and healthy thyroid tissue (p = 0.018) or benign thyroid nodules (p = 0.014) on the other hand. Specificity of ARFI-imaging for the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules was comparable with RTE (91-95%).

Conclusions

ARFI can be performed in the thyroid tissue with reliable results.     

用于可见照明的超宽带黄色荧光玻璃

报道了一种新的可用蓝光发光二极管（LED）有效激发的黄色发光玻璃.这种超宽带黄色荧光玻璃样品是在低硅钙铝酸盐玻璃基质中掺杂Ce³⁺,并采用熔融法制备的.通过对吸收光谱、激发光谱、荧光光谱以及不同激发源下荧光强度和峰值波长的测试,分析了样品的发光特性.并利用蓝光LED来激发样品,获得白光发射.从色坐标的计算和玻璃本身的优势来看,这一发光体系在照明和显示等方面具有很大的潜在应用价值.     

Novel complex phenomena in ferroelectric nanocomposites

A first-principles-based effective Hamiltonian is used to investigate finite-temperature properties of ferroelectric nanocomposites made of periodic arrays of ferroelectric nanowires embedded in a matrix formed by another ferroelectric material. Novel transitions and features related to flux-closure configurations are found. Examples include (i)?a vortex core transition, that is characterized by the change of the vortex cores from being axisymmetric to exhibiting a 'broken symmetry'; (ii)?translational mode of the vortex cores; (iii)?striking zigzag dipolar chains along the vortex core axis; and (iv)?phase-locking of ferroelectric vortices accompanied by ferroelectric antivortices. These complex phenomena are all found to coexist with a spontaneous electrical polarization aligned along the normal of the plane containing the vortices.     

Quark and strange quark matter in f(R) gravity for Bianchi type I and V space-times

Behaviors of quark matter and strange quark matter which exist in the first seconds of the early Universe in f(R) gravity are studied for Bianchi I and V universes. In this respect, we obtain exact solutions of the modified Einstein field equations by using anisotropy feature of Bianchi I and V space-times. In particular, we investigate exact f(R) functions for Bianchi I as the contribution of strange quark and quark matter. Also, we have concluded that quark matter may contribute to the early acceleration of the universe since quark matter behaves like phantom-type dark energy. Furthermore, obtained f(R) solutions represents early eras of the Universe since f(R) solutions for quark matter coincide with f(R) equations for inflation. From this point, we can reach the conclusion that quarks may be source of the early dark energy of the universe or source of little inflation due to their repulsive force.     

A Comparison of the LVDP and ΛCDM Cosmological Models

We compare the cosmological kinematics obtained via our law of linearly varying deceleration parameter (LVDP) with the kinematics obtained in the ΛCDM model. We show that the LVDP model is almost indistinguishable from the ΛCDM model up to the near future of our universe as far as the current observations are concerned, though their predictions differ tremendously into the far future.     

甲苯胺蓝共振光散射法测定纳克级脱氧核糖核酸

研究了吩噻嗪类染料甲苯胺蓝 (TB)与DNA作用的共振光散射光谱 ,在pH 1 0～ 1 1的范围内 ,加入DNA导致甲苯胺蓝共振光散射增强 ,在 35 0nm处 ,存在一共振光散射增强峰 ,其强度与DNA浓度呈线性关系 ,据此建立了一种测定DNA的共振光散射法。对于ctDNA ,方法的线性范围为 0～ 90 0ng·mL-1 ,检出限为6 75ng·mL-1 ,RSD为 3 7% ;对于fsDNA ,方法的线性范围为 0～ 90 0ng·mL-1 ,检出限为 2 99ng·mL-1 ,RSD为 5 6 % .已用于合成样品中DNA的测定