Analysis of Spectral Reflectance Using Normalization Method from Endoscopic Spectroscopy System

Objective assessment of gastrointestinal mucosal color is extremely important in the endoscopic diagnosis of digestive tract disease. In this paper, we propose a method to clarify the spectral characteristics of gastric and colon cancer. A large number of spectral reflectance data of mucous membrane are measured by the endoscopic spectroscopy system (ESS) in the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan and the Department of Internal Medicine, Self-Defense Force Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. We assume that early cancer appears primarily in the spectral data of short wavelength, because it is usually present in a superficial cell where short wavelength light is scattered more strongly than long wavelength light. To identify the features in the short wavelength components, the spectral reflectance was divided by the reflectance of a long wavelength. We investigated the possibility of distinguishing early cancer from normal spectral data through statistical analysis, employing the projection axis as the mean difference between them. Early cancer and normal spectral data were projected on the projection axis, and the Student’s T-test was applied to evaluate the mean of the distribution between these data.     

A Genus-3 Topological Recursion Relation

In this paper, we give a new genus-3 topological recursion relation for Gromov-Witten invariants of compact symplectic manifolds. This formula also applies to intersection numbers on moduli spaces of spin curves. A by-product of the proof of this formula is a new relation in the tautological ring of the moduli space of 1-pointed genus-3 stable curves. Research of the first author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0204824 Research of the second author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0505835     

A C + + computational environment for biomolecular sequence management

The wide production of biomolecular data of the last 30 years, mainly due to the rapid evolving of technologies as well as to the accomplishment of the Genome Projects, led to the necessity of appropriate computational approaches for data storage, manipulation and analyses, giving place to a fast evolving area of Biology: Computational Biology or Bioinformatics.We propose here a new method for the storage of the sequences and their analyses using the C + + programming language, checking the effectiveness of an object oriented approach for new models, suitable to manage data representation and analyses, to improve the efficiency of computational methodologies to solve problems of general interest in bioinformatics. We developed a framework with the aim to decrease the computational costs for the storage and some basic manipulations of nucleic acid sequences. The remarkable reduction of memory requirements with no loss of efficiency makes this approach a first well promising step in order to get a more efficient environment for the manipulation and the management of nucleic acid data sets, in a field of research with hard challenges for Computer and Life Sciences.Mathematics Subject Classification: 68U99G. Toraldo, via Universita’ 100, 80055 Portici, Napoli, Italy     

Palladium-catalyzed novel addition-elimination reaction of alkenyltin reagents to norbornene

Palladium-catalyzed reaction between 1-alkenyltin trichlorides and norbornene resulted in stereoselective formation of 3-alkylidenepentacyclo[9.2.1.^5,81.^1,110.^2,100^4,9]pentadecane instead of an expected simple alkenylstannylation product. Generation of trichlorostannane and its decomposition product, tin(II) chloride, was confirmed by trapping it with methyl propiolate and norbornene and analysis of the reaction by ¹¹⁹Sn NMR, respectively.     

Aharonov–Bohm oscillations observed in nanoscale open-dot structures fabricated in an InAs surface inversion layer

We fabricated nanoscale open-dot structures in an InAs surface inversion layer using an atomic-force-microscope oxidation process. Due to its superior nanofabrication capability, small open-dot structures with the feature size ranging between 100 and 300 nm were successfully fabricated. The magnetoresistance signal measured at 4.2 K showed reproducible fluctuations and a periodic oscillation component that varies in both amplitude and periodicity depending on the dot size. We show that the period of the oscillations corresponds to that of the Aharonov–Bohm effect and propose that the possible mechanism for the oscillations is due to the formation of a one-dimensional electron channel enclosing the open-dot structure as a result of the electron transfer from the InAs oxide to InAs.     

Alternating copolymerization of carbon dioxide and epoxide by manganese porphyrin: The first example of polycarbonate synthesis from 1-atm carbon dioxide

The first successful example of the formation of polycarbonate from 1-atm carbon dioxide and epoxide was demonstrated by the alternating copolymerization of carbon dioxide and epoxide with manganese porphyrin as a catalyst. The copolymerization of carbon dioxide and cyclohexene oxide with (porphinato)manganese acetate proceeded under the 1-atm pressure of carbon dioxide to give a copolymer with an alternating sequence. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3549–3555, 2003     

Performance of noise barriers with various edge shapes and acoustical conditions

The performances of barriers having different shapes and surface conditions were tested using the boundary element method in a well-controlled environment. The heights and widths of the barriers were standardized and the insertion losses for six receiver positions were averaged and compared. Figures displaying the results allow for straightforward barrier performance estimation. It was shown that absorbing and soft edges significantly improve the efficiency of the barrier, but configuration modifications provide only a slight improvement. The soft T-shaped barrier produces the highest performance. A 3 m high T-shaped barrier provides the same performance as a 10 m high plain barrier. The spectral efficiency was also investigated. The insertion loss spectra for the absorbing and the soft barriers exhibit a similar shape, but the rigid barrier differs from these two.     

TG of polytetrahydrofuran/ isophoronediisocyanate reaction products

TG, swelling, and viscometric studies are presented for the residues, PTHF/IPDI polymer networks, and the extracts, the linear polymers and unreacted IPDI, after Soxhlet extraction of PTHF/IPDI reaction products. The products are obtained by reacting PTHF with 650, 1400, (2×650+1×2900), or 2900 of molecular mass with IPDI at various concentrations in bulk. The results on the swelling and the viscosity experiments suggest that the PTHF/IPDI reaction products have a usual expectable structure. All the TG curves are a double stage curve. The initial stage and the last stage seem to reflect decomposition of PTHF chains and vaporization of the remainder, IPDI, respectively. These are analyzed by a trial-and-error construction, supposing double event behavior. The values of ratio of mass loss associated with the initial event, W0₁, to the mass loss associated with the last event, W0₂, are smaller than the expectable those. This suggests that Event 2 involves vaporization of the decomposition products of PTHF moieties bonded to IPDI in addition to vaporization of IPDI. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.