Differentiation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) including lung cancer from healthy control group by breath analysis using ion mobility spectrometry

Non-invasive methods with potential for diagnosis of lung diseases gain increasing interest. Within the present study the exhaled breath of 132 persons (97 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients [35 COPD without lung cancer, 62 COPD with lung cancer] and 35 healthy volunteers) was investigated using an Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) coupled to a Multi-Capillary Column (MCC) without any pre-separation or pre-enrichment. One hundred four different peaks were considered within the IMS-Chromatograms of the 10 mL breath samples of both groups. A principal component analysis (PCA) of these 104 peaks identified a single analyte, that allowed a separation of the healthy persons and the COPD patients (with and without lung cancer). The sensitivity obtained was 60%, the specificity 91%, the positive predictive value 95%. The peak was characterized as cyclohexanone (CAS 108-94-1). Subsequent studies must validate the identity of the peak used for separation of the two groups with a greater population and external standards. Breath gas analysis using ion mobility spectrometry offers a chance of separating healthy persons and COPD patients using a single analyte at a defined concentration.     

CO(2)-laser micromachining and back-end processing for rapid production of PMMA-based microfluidic systems

In this article, we focus on the enormous potential of a CO(2)-laser system for rapidly producing polymer microfluidic structures. The dependence was assessed of the depth and width of laser-cut channels on the laser beam power and on the number of passes of the beam along the same channel. In the experiments the laser beam power was varied between 0 and 40 W and the passes were varied in the range of 1 to 7 times. Typical channel depths were between 100 and 300 microm, while the channels were typically 250 microm wide. The narrowest produced channel was 85 microm wide. Several bonding methods for microstructured PMMA [poly(methyl methacrylate)] parts were investigated, such as solvent-assisted glueing, melting, laminating and surface activation using a plasma asher. A solvent-assisted thermal bonding method proved to be the most time-efficient one. Using laser micromachining together with bonding, a three-layer polymer microstructure with included optical fibers was fabricated within two days. The use of CO(2)-laser systems to produce microfluidic systems has not been published before. These systems provide a cost effective alternative to UV-laser systems and they are especially useful in microfluidic prototyping due to the very short cycle time of production.     

Large scale synthesis of dysprosium and neodymium diiodides

DyI(2) and NdI(2), which may become useful reagents in organic synthesis, can be prepared in up to 50 g quantities in a few hours without using welded tantalum tubes or temperatures over 1000 degrees C by direct reaction of the metal and iodine.     

Synthesis and proposed crystal structure of a disordered cadmium arsenate apatite Cd5(AsO4)3Cl(1-2x-y)O(x)[symbol: see text](x)OH(y)

During a study into the synthesis of minerals composed of mining wastes aimed at improving their immobilisation, a cadmium arsenate apatite has been prepared by hydrothermal methods. The structure of this apatite was analysed by single crystal X-ray diffraction, and was found to consist of a standard apatite framework based on Cd(5)(AsO(4))(3)X, where X represents an anion resident on the (0,0,0.25) site. The framework is hexagonal with the space group P6(3)/m(no 176), a= 9.9709(8), c= 6.4916(4)[Angstrom]. The X ion site is predominantly occupied by Cl(-) ions; however due to significant shortening of the c axis exhibited by all cadmium containing apatite phases, a pure chlorapatite is not possible without a significant cation deficiency. No evidence of the necessary deficiency was found in the crystal structure. For larger bromo- and iodo-apatites significant modulations along the c-axis are required to accommodate the halide. This paper examines a number of compensation mechanisms and proposes that a minor disorder of chloride, oxide and hydroxide located on the X ion site provides the required charge compensation mechanism. This is contrary to previous complex modulations proposed in the literature. The proposed chemical formula is Cd(5)(AsO(4))(3)Cl(1-2x-y)O(x)[symbol:see text](x)OH(y) where [symbol: see text] represents a vacancy.     

Modeling of intramolecular reactions of polymers: an efficient method based on Brownian dynamics simulations

By the traditional approach to the Brownian dynamics simulations of intrachain reactions of polymers, the initial chain conformation is sampled from the equilibrium distribution. A dynamic trajectory is carried out until a "collision" of the reactive groups takes place, i.e., the distance between their centers becomes less that a certain reaction radius. The average length of the trajectory is equal to the mean time tauF of a diffusion-controlled reaction. In this work we propose another computational scheme. The trajectory begins at the instant of collision and is carried out until the chain is relaxed. The length of the trajectory has the order of the relaxation time taurel of the distance between the reactive groups. For polymer systems with taurel < tauF, this scheme allows the computation of tauF with considerable gain in computational time. Using the present approach, we calculated the mean time of DNA cyclization for the molecule length in the range from 50 to 500 nm.     

Two Examples Concerning Martingales in Banach Spaces

The analytic concepts of martingale type p and cotype q of aBanach space have an intimate relation with the geometric conceptsof p-concavity and q-convexity of the space under consideration,as shown by pisier. In particular, for a banach space X, havingmartingale type p for some p > 1 implies that X has martingalecotype q for some q < . The generalisation of these concepts to linear operators wasstudied by the author, and it turns out that the duality aboveonly holds in a weaker form. An example is constructed showingthat this duality result is best possible. So-called random martingale unconditionality estimates, introducedby Garling as a decoupling of the unconditional martingale differences(UMD) inequality, are also examined. It is shown that the random martingale unconditionality constantof for martingales of length n asymptotically behaves like n. This improves previous estimatesby Geiss, who needed martingales of length 2ⁿ to show this asymptotic.At the same time the order in the paper is the best that canbe expected.     

On Waring's Problem for Cubes and Smooth Weyl Sums

Non-trivial estimates for fractional moments of smooth cubicWeyl sums are developed. Complemented by bounds for such sumsof use on both the major and minor arcs in a Hardy-Littlewooddissection, these estimates are applied to derive an upper boundfor the sth moment of the smooth cubic Weyl sum of the expectedorder of magnitude as soon as s> 7.691. Related argumentsdemonstrate that all large integers n are represented as thesum of eight cubes of natural numbers, all of whose prime divisorsare at most exp (c(log nlog log n)^1/2}, for a suitable positivenumber c. This conclusion improves a previous result of G. Harcosin which nine cubes are required. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification:11P05, 11L15, 11P55.     

Solid luminescent CdSe‐thiolated porous phosphate heterostructures. Application in fingermark detection in different surfaces

A fluorescent hybrid material (PPH‐S‐CdSe), which comprises cadmium selenide sulphide nanoparticles assembled onto thiol functionalised porous phosphate heterostructures (PPH‐SH), was synthesised in aqueous media. This material presents a high stability towards photo‐degradation. The obtained nanocomposite was characterised by various techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy dispersive X‐ray, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. This fluorescent material showed a red emission at 576 nm combined with other at 473 nm, explained as different CdS_0.42Se_0.58 nanoparticles size, supported by TEM images. It was suitable for latent fingermark analysis in a wide range of surfaces. Because of its sensitivity and low cost, it is an actual alternative to conventional powdering materials. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.