Magnetic Scanning Microscopy (MSM) emerged with the aim of allowing the visualization of magnetic fields of a sample or material through scanning and proved particularly useful for geology, ...biomedicine, characterization of magnetic materials, and in the steel industry. In this regard, the reading system of an MSM was modified using a μ-metal magnetic shielding structure to analyze remanent fields. The MSM was adapted to perform readings using two different types of sensors. The sensitive area of the sensors was evaluated, and the HQ-0811 (AKM-Asahi KaseiTM Microdevices) and STJ-010 (Micro MagneticsTM) sensors were chosen, with the HQ-0811 standardized on Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) to facilitate handling and increase the system's robustness. In the shielded chamber, two piezoelectric ANC-150 stepper motors (Attocube Systems) were used, arranged planarly, to allow the movement of the analyzed samples under the mounted sensors. To acquire data from the sensors, the Precision Current Source Model 6220 and the Nanovoltmeter Model 2182A (both from Keithley) were used, along with Keithley's Delta-Mode integrated system. To analyze the system's effectiveness, three distinct samples were analyzed for calibration, and a MATLAB program was written to analyze the images and extract the material's magnetization. Additionally, a rock sample from the Parnaíba Basin was mapped to demonstrate the system's capabilities.
The Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications is a comprehensive professional reference book that guides business analysts, scientists, engineers and researchers (both academic ...and industrial) through all stages of data analysis, model building and implementation. The Handbook helps one discern the technical and business problem, understand the strengths and weaknesses of modern data mining algorithms, and employ the right statistical methods for practical application. Use this book to address massive and complex datasets with novel statistical approaches and be able to objectively evaluate analyses and solutions. It has clear, intuitive explanations of the principles and tools for solving problems using modern analytic techniques, and discusses their application to real problems, in ways accessible and beneficial to practitioners across industries - from science and engineering, to medicine, academia and commerce. This handbook brings together, in a single resource, all the information a beginner will need to understand the tools and issues in data mining to build successful data mining solutions. * Written "By Practitioners for Practitioners" * Non-technical explanations build understanding without jargon and equations * Tutorials in numerous fields of study provide step-by-step instruction on how to use supplied tools to build models * Practical advice from successful real-world implementations * Includes extensive case studies, examples, MS PowerPoint slides and datasets * CD-DVD with valuable fully-working 90-day software included: "Complete Data Miner - QC-Miner - Text Miner" bound with book
Harmony can be defined in a musical way as art that combines several musical notes reproduced simultaneously to create sounds that are coherent to human ears and serve as accompaniment and filling. ...However, working out harmony is not a simple task. It requires knowledge, experience, and an intense study of music theory, which takes time to reach good skills. Thus, systems capable of automatically harmonizing melodies are beneficial for experienced and novice musicians. In this paper, a comparative study between distinct architectures and ensembles of Artificial Neural Networks was proposed to solve the problem of musical harmonization, seeking consistent results with rules of music theory: Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function network (RBF), Echo State Network (ESN), Extreme Learning Machines (ELM), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). For this, a processed and defined melody with symbolic musical data serves as input to the system, having been trained from a musical database that contains melody and harmony. The output is the chord sequence to be applied to the melody. The results were analyzed with quantitative measures and the ability to melody adaptation. The performances were favorable to the MLP, which could generate harmonies according to the objectives.
The majority of ovarian cancer patients present with advanced disease and despite aggressive treatment, prognosis remains poor. Significant improvement in ovarian cancer survival will require the ...development of more effective molecularly targeted therapeutics. Commonly, mouse models are used for the in vivo assessment of potential new therapeutic targets in ovarian cancer. However, animal models are costly and time consuming. Other models, such as the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay, are therefore an attractive alternative. CAM assays have been widely used to study angiogenesis and tumor invasion of colorectal, prostate and brain cancers. However, there have been limited studies that have used CAM assays to assess ovarian cancer invasion and metastasis. We have therefore developed a CAM assay protocol to monitor the metastatic properties of ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR-3, SKOV-3 and OV-90) and to study the effect of potential therapeutic molecules in vivo. The results from the CAM assay are consistent with cancer cell motility and invasion observed in in vitro assays. Our results demonstrate that the CAM assay is a robust and cost effective model to study ovarian cancer cell metastasis. It is therefore a very useful in vivo model for screening of potential novel therapeutics.
This study sought to prospectively evaluate the safety and efficacy of the Indigo aspiration system in submassive acute pulmonary embolism (PE).
PE treatment with thrombolytics has bleeding risks. ...Aspiration thrombectomy can remove thrombus without thrombolytics, but data are lacking.
This study was a prospective, single-arm, multicenter study that enrolled patients with symptomatic acute PE ≤14 days, systolic blood pressure ≥90 mm Hg, and right ventricular-to-left ventricular (RV/LV) ratio >0.9. The primary efficacy endpoint was change in RV/LV ratio from baseline to 48 h post-procedure on core lab-adjudicated computed tomography angiography. The primary safety endpoint was a composite of 48-h major adverse events: device-related death, major bleeding, and device-related serious adverse events (clinical deterioration, pulmonary vascular, or cardiac injury). All sites received Institutional Review Board approval.
A total of 119 patients (mean age 59.8 ± 15.0 years) were enrolled at 22 U.S. sites between November 2017 and March 2019. Median device insertion to removal time was 37.0 (interquartile range: 23.5 to 60.0) min. Two (1.7%) patients received intraprocedural thrombolytics. Mean RV/LV ratio reduction from baseline to 48 h post-procedure was 0.43 (95% confidence interval: 0.38 to 0.47; p < 0.0001). Two (1.7%) patients experienced 3 major adverse events. Rates of cardiac injury, pulmonary vascular injury, clinical deterioration, major bleeding, and device-related death at 48 h were 0%, 1.7%, 1.7%, 1.7%, and 0.8%, respectively.
In this prospective, multicenter study the Indigo aspiration system was associated with a significant reduction in the RV/LV ratio and a low major adverse event rate in submassive PE patients. Intraprocedural thrombolytic drugs were avoided in 98.3% of patients. (Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of the Indigo aspiration system in Acute Pulmonary Embolism EXTRACT-PE; NCT03218566).
Organic molecules with heavy main-group elements frequently form supramolecular links to electron-rich centres. One particular case of such interactions is halogen bonding. Most studies of this ...phenomenon have been concerned with either dimers or infinitely extended structures (polymers and lattices) but well-defined cyclic structures remain elusive. Here we present oligomeric aggregates of heterocycles that are linked by chalcogen-centered interactions and behave as genuine macrocyclic species. The molecules of 3-methyl-5-phenyl-1,2-tellurazole 2-oxide assemble a variety of supramolecular aggregates that includes cyclic tetramers and hexamers, as well as a helical polymer. In all these aggregates, the building blocks are connected by Te(…)O-N bridges. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic experiments demonstrate that the two types of annular aggregates are persistent in solution. These self-assembled structures form coordination complexes with transition-metal ions, act as fullerene receptors and host small molecules in a crystal.
We analyze the effects of atmospheric turbulence on the mode power spectrum of beams carrying orbital angular momentum represented by Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes. For an input (p,m) LG mode, i.e. pump, ...we calculate the power transferred to other modes (p',m') due to turbulence. Our analysis is validated against split-step beam propagation simulations and shows agreement into the strong turbulence regime. These results have applications for the design and characterization of free-space laser communication systems.
We improved a magnetic scanning microscope for measuring the magnetic properties of minerals in thin sections of geological samples at submillimeter scales. The microscope is comprised of a 200 µm ...diameter Hall sensor that is located at a distance of 142 µm from the sample; an electromagnet capable of applying up to 500 mT DC magnetic fields to the sample over a 40 mm diameter region; a second Hall sensor arranged in a gradiometric configuration to cancel the background signal applied by the electromagnet and reduce the overall noise in the system; a custom-designed electronics system to bias the sensors and allow adjustments to the background signal cancelation; and a scanning XY stage with micrometer resolution. Our system achieves a spatial resolution of 200 µm with a noise at 6.0 Hz of 300 nT
/(Hz)
in an unshielded environment. The magnetic moment sensitivity is 1.3 × 10
Am². We successfully measured the representative magnetization of a geological sample using an alternative model that takes the sample geometry into account and identified different micrometric characteristics in the sample slice.
The performance of highly nonlinear organic electro-optic (EO) materials incorporated into nanoscale slots is examined. It is shown that EO coefficients as large as 190 pm/V can be obtained in 150 nm ...wide plasmonic slot waveguides but that the coefficients decrease for narrower slots. Possible mechanism that lead to such a decrease are discussed. Monte-Carlo computer simulations are performed, confirming that chromophore-surface interactions are one important factor influencing the EO coefficient in narrow plasmonic slots. These highly nonlinear materials are of particular interest for applications in optical modulators. However, in modulators the key parameters are the voltage-length product U
L and the insertion loss rather than the linear EO coefficients. We show record-low voltage-length products of 70 Vµm and 50 Vµm for slot widths in the order of 50 nm for the materials JRD1 and DLD164, respectively. This is because the nonlinear interaction is enhanced in narrow slot and thereby compensates for the reduced EO coefficient. Likewise, it is found that lowest insertion losses are observed for slot widths in the range 60 to 100 nm.
Optical modulators encode electrical signals to the optical domain and thus constitute a key element in high-capacity communication links. Ideally, they should feature operation at the highest speed ...with the least power consumption on the smallest footprint, and at low cost. Unfortunately, current technologies fall short of these criteria. Recently, plasmonics has emerged as a solution offering compact and fast devices. Yet, practical implementations have turned out to be rather elusive. Here, we introduce a 70 GHz all-plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator that fits into a silicon waveguide of 10 μm length. This dramatic reduction in size by more than two orders of magnitude compared with photonic Mach-Zehnder modulators results in a low energy consumption of 25 fJ per bit up to the highest speeds. The technology suggests a cheap co-integration with electronics.