Lung Cancer Detection by Native Fluorescence Spectra of Body Fluids—A Preliminary Study

Lung cancer takes a heavy toll every year, since the survival rate is not more than 15%. In this paper, we present results of a novel technique based on the autofluorescence of body fluids like blood plasma, acetone extract of cellular components, sputa and urine of lung cancer patients (N = 27). A set of ratio parameters based on the fluorescence peaks of tryptophan and elastin, in plasma and sputum; flavin, NADH (reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) and porphyrin in urine; porphyrin alone in acetone extract of formed elements, were all evaluated. Similar sets of ratios were obtained for age adjusted normal controls (N = 27) and all these ratios were given as inputs to multivariate (principle component and discriminant) analyses, which showed that the two groups could be classified with an accuracy of about 90%. Since the instrumentation involved was an ordinary steady state Xe lamp based spectrofluorometer, the technique is of significant advantage in screening and early detection of lung cancer in high risk population such as heavy smokers.     

Robust adaptive synchronization for a general class of uncertain chaotic systems with application to Chua's circuit

The synchronization problem for a general class of uncertain chaotic systems is addressed. The underlying systems may be perturbed by unknown time-varying parameters, unstructured uncertainties, and external disturbances. Meanwhile, the time-varying parameters and disturbances are neither required to be periodic nor to have known bounds. Assuming the disturbances are L(2) signals, an adaptive control incorporated with H(∞) control technique is employed to construct a robust adaptive synchronization algorithm. Then, removing such assumption, a novel adaptive-based method is developed to achieve the goal of synchronization. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, such methods are applied to solve the synchronization problem of uncertain chaotic Chua's circuits.     

Experimental verification of subwavelength acoustic focusing using a near-field array of closely spaced elements

A linear array of closely spaced sound transducers is presented that can produce a subwavelength-focused intensity profile at a distance of a quarter wavelength. This work is related to research on super-resolution using metamaterials in both the acoustic and optical domains. It is designed using the principle of shifted beams, a near-field antenna array theory developed for the subwavelength focusing of electromagnetic waves. Once the spatial sound pattern is characterized for each source, the optimal weights for a minimum beam width can be calculated. An experiment operating at 4 kHz was able to successfully construct a super-focused beam.     

Suppressing shape instabilities to discover the Bjerknes force instability (L)

For sufficiently strong acoustic forcing in a standing wave field, subresonant size bubbles are predicted to be repelled from the pressure antinode. Single bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL) conditions in water do not allow the observation of this instability. This study investigates the possibility that increasing the viscosity of the host liquid can preferentially suppress shape instabilities of a bubble and allow SBSL experiments to be limited by the Bjerknes force instability.     

Analysis of coir fiber acoustical characteristics

Coir fiber from coconut husk is an important agricultural waste in Malaysia. Acoustic absorption coefficient of the fiber as a porous material is studied in this paper. Two types of fiber are investigated, fresh from wet market and industrial prepared mixed with binder. Moreover two analytical models, namely; Delany–Bazley and Biot–Allard are used for analysis. Experimental measurements in impedance tube are conducted to validate the analytical outcomes. Results show that fresh coir fiber has an average absorption coefficient of 0.8 at f > 1360 Hz and 20 mm thickness. Increasing the thickness is improved the sound absorption in lower frequencies, having the same average at f > 578 Hz and 45 mm thickness. Delany–Bazley technique can be used for both types of fiber while Biot–Allard method is compensated for the industrial prepared fiber considering the binder additive. This form generally shows poor acoustical absorption in low frequencies. Inevitably, fiber has to be mixed with additives in commercial use to enhance its characteristics such as stiffness, unti-fungus and flammability. Hence other approaches such as adding air gap or perforated plate should be used to improve the acoustical properties of industrial treated coir fiber.     

All optical switch based on Fano resonance in metal nanocomposite photonic crystals

We investigate the potential of plasmonic resonance in metal nanocomposite materials for the design of photonic crystal all optical switches by numerical methods. We study the absorption effect of the plasmonic resonance on the Fano resonances of one dimensional photonic crystal slabs covered by a metal nanocomposite layer. It is shown that the absorption reduces the contrast of the Fano resonances. However, for adequate metal nanoparticle concentrations it is possible to achieve both sufficiently sharp Fano resonance and strong Kerr nonlinearity, which provides a suitable condition for the design of high contrast and low threshold switches.     

Pulsed electron-electron double resonance (PELDOR) distance measurements in detergent micelles

Pulsed electron-electron double resonance (PELDOR) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for measuring nanometer distances in spin-labeled systems. A common approach is doubly covalent spin-labeling of a macromolecule and measurement of the inter-spin distance, or to use singly-labeled components of a system that forms aggregates or oligomers. This situation has been described as a spin-cluster. The PELDOR signal, however, does not only contain the desired dipolar coupling between the spin-labels of the molecule or cluster under study. In samples of finite concentration the dipolar coupling between the spin-labels of the randomly distributed molecules or spin-clusters also contributes significantly. In homogeneous frozen solutions or lipid vesicle membranes this second contribution can be considered to be an exponential or stretched exponential decay, respectively. In this study, we show that this assumption is not valid in detergent micelles. Spin-labeled fatty acids that are randomly partitioned into different detergent micelles give rise to PELDOR time traces which clearly deviate from stretched exponential decays. The obtained signals can be modeled quantitatively based on the size of the micelles, their aggregation number, the spin-label concentration and the degree of spin-labeling. As a main conclusion a PELDOR signal deviating from a stretched exponential decay does not necessarily prove the observation of specific distance information on the molecule or cluster. These results are important for the interpretation of PELDOR experiments on membrane proteins or lipophilic peptides solubilized in detergent micelles or small vesicles, which often do not show pronounced dipolar oscillations in their time traces.     

Estimates of B-decays into K-resonances and dileptons

Short and long distance contributions to the exclusive B-decays into various K-resonances and dileptons, i.e. $B \to K^i \ell \bar \ell (\ell = e,\mu ,\nu )$ , are examined. The heavy quark effective theory has been used to calculate the hadronic matrix elements. Substantial branching fractions are obtained for the dileptonic B-decays into some higher excited states of K-mesons. The long distance (resonance) contributions to these exclusive rare B-decay modes dominate the short distance contributions mostly by two orders of magnitude. It is pointed out that, excluding the resonance contributions, the P-wave channels are dominant, accounting for about 50% of the inclusiveB??X _s ? ⁺ ? ^? branching fraction.     

Doping effect of Ag nanoparticles on critical current of YBa2Cu3O7−δ bulk superconductor

The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of Ag nanoparticles on critical current of YBa₂Cu₃O_7?δ (YBCO) superconductor. Ag nanoparticles with different particle sizes from 30 to 1000 nm were prepared through the chemical reduction of AgNO₃ in an alcohol solution. Then, samples of YBCO superconductors were doped by 1 and 2 wt.% of Ag nanoparticles with different sizes. Samples were characterized with XRD, SEM and EDX measurements. Critical current measurements were performed using a standard four-probe technique at liquid nitrogen temperature. The results showed by increasing of Ag nanoparticles up to 700 nm the J_c increases, but decreases by further increase in Ag particles size. The critical current enhancement is attributed to the improved connectivity between the grain boundaries and better crystallization of the grains.