Raman spectroscopic study on classification of cervical cell specimens

Cervix-cancer is the third most common female cancer worldwide. Papanicolaou (Pap) test, a well-recognized screening tool, is labor intensive, time consuming and prone to subjective interpretations. Optical spectroscopic methods, sensitive to molecular changes are being pursued as potential diagnostics tool. In this study we have explored Raman spectroscopic approach to differentiate exfoliated cell pellets using 94 cervical cell specimens (45-normal and 49-abnormal specimens). Study was carried out by two approaches. In the first approach, spectral data from 37 cell specimens were acquired and analyzed by Principal Component-Linear Discriminant Analysis (PC-LDA), which yielded classification efficiencies of 86% and 84% for normal and abnormal specimens, respectively. Mean and difference spectra suggest presence of blood in abnormal specimen as a major cause of discrimination. However, as tumor is vascular, bleeding was observed during abnormal sample collection. Hence, spectra of abnormal specimens show heme and fibrin features, and this can lead to false interpretations, as bleeding also occur in several non-cancerous conditions. Therefore, remaining 57 specimens were treated with Red Blood Corpuscles (RBC) lysis buffer in order to remove the RBC influence. PC-LDA resulted classification efficiency of about 79% and 78% for normal and abnormal smear, respectively – comparable to Pap test. Thus finding of the study suggests feasibility of Raman spectroscopic classification of normal and cancerous exfoliated cervical cell specimens.     

An asynchronous high‐speed synchrotron shutter

A high‐repetition‐rate mechanical shutter with asynchronous control and sub‐millisecond operation has been developed and tested for specialist X‐ray systems in the field of medical diagnostics and radiation therapy. Capacitor‐coupled linear voice coil actuators are utilized to achieve opening and closing speeds as fast as 700 µs for an aperture height of 4 mm. The design allows for asynchronous control, permitting slave operation of the shutter, a feature that is distinctly suitable for a number of applications including particle image velocimetry, where high‐frame‐rate operation must be accurately synchronized and triggered by the image acquisition sequence of the detector or timing device. The design and construction of the shutter also makes it ideal, with simple and limited modifications, for applications requiring larger apertures, in particular wide beams as found in many synchrotron beamlines.     

Structural and electronic properties of type-I and type-VIII Ba8Ga16Sn30 clathrates under compression

The total energy and electronic structures for type-I (β phase) and type-VIII (α phase) Ba₈Ga₁₆Sn₃₀ clathrates under hydrostatic pressure have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It was found that the type-VIII phase is more stable than the type-I one at ambient conditions and that β→α phase transition can not occur under hydrostatic pressure. The band structures show that the type-I and type-VIII Ba₈Ga₁₆Sn₃₀ are indirect semiconductors with band gaps of 0.24 eV and 0.19 eV, respectively. The results suggested that type-I clathrate Ba₈Ga₁₆Sn₃₀ has a larger value of the thermoelectric (TE) power than that of type-VIII clathrate. We found that pressure tuning changes the k-point of conduction band minimum (CBM) in the Brillouin zone for β-phase, but it is not the case for α-phase. Furthermore, the results show that the pressure can change the interaction between guest atoms and the host lattice, and consequently results in the decrease of the band gap of β-phase and the increase of the band gap of α-phase, indicating that the pressure effect can play an important role in the magnitude of the TE power.     

Non-Poissonian statistics in an optical analog of quantum billiard with perfectly square boundaries

We study deviation from the Poissonian statistics of the frequency spacing distribution, appearing due to coupling of polarizational and transverse degrees of freedom in a perfectly square vertical cavity surface emitting laser. The deviation can be controlled by strength of the intracavity anisotropy and its alignment to the device boundaries.     

Plasma generation in silicon-based inductive grid arrays

Selective illumination of a silicon wafer can be used for the construction of non-permanent inductive grids. A numerical model is used for the calculation of plasma density distribution in silicon as a function of time. Some indicative results on the microwave properties of the device are presented.     

Structural and optical characterization of CdS nanoparticles prepared by chemical precipitation method

In the present study we have synthesized CdS semiconducting quantum dots by the chemical precipitation method using Thioglycerol as the capping agent. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are employed to characterize the size, morphology and crystalline structure of the as-prepared material. The synthesized QPs have a mixture of cubical and hexagonal crystal symmetry with 12 nm average diameter. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectroscopy is used to calculate the band gap of the material and blue shift in absorption edge. Confinement of the optical phonon modes in the QPs is studied by Raman spectroscopy, while FTIR for identification of chemical bonds in the nanomaterial. Multiple cadmium and sulphur defects were observed by employing the photoluminescence (PL) method.     

Parallel Schwarz alternating methods for anisotropic diffusion of speckled medical images

This paper deals with ultrasound medical image processing, particularly to filter the noise while preserving the edges and structures of information. The mathematical processing consists in solving by a numerical way a nonlinear evolutive boundary value problem. Several numerical semi-implicit time marching schemes are considered and analyzed. At each time step, parallel synchronous or asynchronous Schwarz alternating methods are used to solve the linear system and its convergence is studied. Lastly, the results of sequential and parallel simulations are presented.      

A topological phase transition between small-worlds and fractal scaling in urban railway transportation networks?

Fractal and small-worlds scaling laws are applied to study the growth of urban railway transportation networks using total length and total population as observational parameters. In spite of the variety of populations and urban structures, the variation of the total length of the railway network with the total population of conurbations follows similar patterns for large and middle metropolis. Diachronous analysis of data for urban transportation networks suggests that there is second-order phase transition from small-worlds behaviour to fractal scaling during their early stages of development.     

黑体辐射公式的量纲分析

量纲分析是研究物理问题的重要方法之一.本文对量纲分析的解题步骤做了梳理归纳,并对于黑体辐射公式进行了量纲分析.