Study of ProtoPorphyrin IX Elimination by Body Excreta: A new Noninvasive Cancer Diagnostic Method?

This paper describes the elimination of porphyrins by feces. It was demonstrated that porphyrin accumulates substantially more in tumors than in normal tissues, and consequently more PPIX reaches the blood of patients and animals with tumors, and then, it needs to be eliminated. The fluorescence of feces revealed that there are large amounts of PPIX in the excreta of animals with cancer comparing with healthy animals. The autofluorescence of feces porphyrin extracted with acetone was analyzed using fluorescence spectroscopy of animals inoculated with DU145 cells into the prostate and healthy animals to monitor the PPIX concentration. Emission spectra were obtained by exciting the samples at 405 nm. Significant differences were observed in autofluorescence intensities measured in the 575–725 nm spectral regions for the studied groups. The results showed a noninvasive, simple, rapid and sensitive method to detect cancer by feces analysis.     

Nonhomogeneous multiparameter problems in Orlicz–Sobolev spaces

This paper is concerned with the existence and multiplicity of solutions for a class of problems involving the Φ-Laplacian operator with general assumptions on the nonlinearities, which include both semipositone cases and critical concave convex problems. The research is based on the subsupersolution technique combined with a truncation argument and an application of the Mountain Pass Theorem. The results in this paper improve and complement some recent contributions to this field.     

Separation and implantation of relativistic86Kr-fragments at the FrS; half-life measurement by ion-β time-correlations

Neutron-rich Co and Fe isotopes produced by⁸⁶Kr projectile fragmentation at 500 MeV/u were separated and identified using the fragment separator (FrS) in a bunched energy mode.⁶⁶Co and⁶⁵Fe ions were selectively implanted in a double PIN-diode array where the-decay signals were measured. The half-lives were deduced from time correlations between implantation and-decay signals. The remeasurement of the⁶⁶Co half-life confirms the isotope identification. The value of the⁶⁵Fe half-life was found to be 0.45±0.15 s.     

Decay of proton-rich nuclei between 39Ti and 49Ni

Decay studies of very neutron-deficient nuclei ranging from ³⁹Ti to ⁴⁹Ni have been performed during a projectile fragmentation experiment at the GANIL/LISE3 separator. For all nuclei studied in this work, ^{39, 40}Ti, ^{42, 43}Cr, ⁴⁶Mn, ^{45, 46, 47}Fe and ⁴⁹Ni, half-lives and decay spectra have been measured. In a few cases, γ coincidence measurements helped to successfully identify the initial and final states of transitions. In these cases, partial decay scheme are proposed. For the most exotic isotopes, ³⁹Ti, ⁴²Cr, ⁴⁵Fe and ⁴⁹Ni, which are candidates for two-proton radioactivity from the ground state, no clear evidence of this process is seen in our spectra and we conclude rather on a delayed particle decay. Received: 26 July 2000 / Accepted: 20 December 2000     

Delta doping of ferromagnetism in antiferromagnetic manganite superlattices

We demonstrate that delta doping can be used to create a dimensionally confined region of metallic ferromagnetism in an antiferromagnetic (AFM) manganite host, without introducing any explicit disorder due to dopants or frustration of spins. Theoretical consideration of these additional carriers shows that they cause a local enhancement of ferromagnetic double exchange with respect to AFM superexchange, resulting in local canting of the AFM spins. This leads to a highly modulated magnetization, as measured by polarized neutron reflectometry. The spatial modulation of the canting is related to the spreading of charge from the doped layer and establishes a fundamental length scale for charge transfer, transformation of orbital occupancy, and magnetic order in these manganites. Furthermore, we confirm the existence of the canted, AFM state as was predicted by de Gennes [Phys. Rev. 118, 141 (1960)] but had remained elusive.     

An image processing study of a reentrant discotic cholesteric – biaxial cholesteric phase transition

In this work, we study and characterize the cholesteric sequence of phases (Ch_Dr ? Ch_B ? Ch_D), where the first Ch_Dr is the reentrant cholesteric discotic phase, Ch_B is the cholesteric biaxial phase and the second Ch_D is the cholesteric discotic phase. This sequence of phases is studied through polarized light microscopy and image processing technique, where, for the first time, the domains and borders of these transitions are established and characterized. They are also investigated and optically characterized throughout their textures.