Development of a general surface contour by ion erosion. Theory and computer simulation

An analytical treatment of the development of a general contour under ion bombardment is proposed. The derived equations relate the properties of the eroded material through its yield variation upon the angle of incidence,S (θ). New specific angles (θs ₁ andθs ₂) are introduced which limit regions where the evolution process of the surface may be different. The theory allows prediction of the number of angular points which will appear in each region. A computer simulation program is used to describe the evolution of sine-type surfaces. With infinite time, such profiles in relief above a horizontal plane, tend towards the steady state which exists in a horizontal plane. The model is compared to one previously described.     

Towards a proposition of a diagnostic (dose) reference level for mammographic acquisitions in breast screening measurements in Belgium

A diagnostic reference level (DRL) is a dose level for a typical X-ray examination of a group of patients with standard body sizes and for broadly defined types of equipment. These levels are expected not to be exceeded for standard procedures when good and normal practice regarding diagnostic and technical performance is applied. In this paper, we have calculated DRLs for screening mammography in Belgium. The 95th percentile of the mean average glandular dose is 2.46 mGy. The DRL based on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) measurements was 2.08 mGy. Correlation coefficient (R) between doses from patient studies and phantom studies was 0.90, with an average underestimation of the phantom measurements of 15% for systems that use only Mo/Mo anode/filter. For the centres that use other anode/filters, there is not enough scientific evidence that a single phantom measurement of a standard PMMA block is representative for the patient dose.     

FuzzyBagging: A novel ensemble of classifiers

In this work, a new method for the creation of classifier ensembles is introduced. The patterns are partitioned into clusters to group together similar patterns, a training set is built using the patterns that belong to a cluster. Each of the new sets is used to train a classifier. We show that the approach here presented, called FuzzyBagging, obtains performance better than Bagging.     

Primary transitional cell carcinoma of the prostate. An infrequent tumor

Primary prostatic carcinoma accounts for 2% to 4.5% of all neoplasias to this organ, and it has been observed in 2.8% of all radical cystoprostatectomies performed in the Mayo clinic. It originates in the poorly differentiated reservoir cells of the prostatic periurethral ductus which explains why diagnosis is most often obtained in advanced stages (stromal involvement), thus limiting its management to radical surgery. This paper contributes one case report of a patient diagnosed by transrectal biopsy of a primary prostatic transitional carcinoma presenting with incoercible rectorrahges and urinary obstruction symptoms. Treatment was through pelvic exenteration, and urinary and gut by-pass.     

A simple method for improving local binary patterns by considering non-uniform patterns

The basic idea behind LBP is that an image is composed of micropatterns. A histogram of these micropatterns contains information about the local features in an image. These micropatterns can be divided into two types: uniform and non-uniform. In standard applications using LBP, only the uniform patterns are used. The non-uniform patterns are considered in only a single bin of the histogram that is used to extract features in the classification stage. Non-uniform patterns have undesirable characteristics: they are of a high dimension, partially correlated, and introduce unwanted noise. To offset these disadvantages, we explore using random subspace, well-known to work well with noise and correlated features, to train features based also on non-uniform patterns. We find that a stand-alone support vector machine performs best with the uniform patterns and random subspace with histograms of 50 bins performs best with the non-uniform patterns. Superior results are obtained when the two are combined. Based on extensive experiments conducted in several domains using several benchmark databases, it is our conclusion that non-uniform patterns improve classifier performance.     

Nano-alpha-Al2O3 by liquid-feed flame spray pyrolysis

Nanometre-sized particles of transition (t)-aluminas are important for the fabrication of high-quality alumina ceramics. Multiple tons are produced each year using a variety of gas-phase processes. The nanoparticles produced by these methods consist mainly of the undesired delta phase with some gamma- and theta-Al(2)O(3). Nano-t-aluminas should provide access to dense nano/submicrometre-grained alpha-Al(2)O(3) shapes offering significant advantages over micrometre-grained shapes. Unfortunately, polymorphism coupled with the high activation energy for nucleating alpha-Al(2)O(3) greatly impedes efforts to process dense alpha-Al(2)O(3) with controlled grain sizes, especially for submicrometre materials. Typically alpha-Al(2)O(3) nucleation within t-aluminas is sporadic rather than uniform, leading to exaggerated grain growth and vermicular microstructures without full densification (5). Thus, production of quantities of nano-alpha-Al(2)O(3) from multiple nano-t-aluminas for seeding or direct processing of alpha-Al(2)O(3) monoliths could greatly change how alpha-Al(2)O(3) components are processed. We report here that liquid-feed flame spray pyrolysis of nano-t-aluminas converts them to dispersible 30-80 nm alpha-Al(2)O(3) powders (50-85% phase transformed). Surprisingly, the powder surfaces are fully dehydrated. These powders pressureless sinter to more than 99.5% dense alpha-Al(2)O(3) with final grain sizes < or =500 nm without sintering aids.     

Spectrograph based on a single diffractive element for real-time measurement of circular dichroism

In this study, a novel and simple diffractive spectrographic method for real-time measurements of circular dichroism (CD) is considered from a theoretical and experimental approach. A demonstrator prototype of the CD spectrograph has been developed and its performance has been compared with a commercial phase-modulation CD spectrometer. The main element of the device is a polarization holographic grating, recorded in a thin photosensitive organic film, by two interfering opposite circularly polarized beams. A peculiarity of this grating is that the amplitude of the +1 (-1) order of diffraction is proportional to the right (left) circular polarization component of the incoming beam. Here we demonstrate that the CD spectrum of a specimen can be easily evaluated from the intensities of the diffracted beams. A white light beam passing through the specimen is diffracted from the grating and the intensities of the +/-1 orders of diffraction are measured. Due to the spectral selectivity of the grating, the CD at each wavelength can be evaluated at the same time using two linear array detectors.     

Separation of middle rare earths by solvent extraction using 2-ethylhexylphosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester as an extractant

The extraction of the trivalent middle rare earths from chloride media by kerosene solutions of 2-ethylhexylphosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester as an extractant was studied. The separation factors between the elements using solution simulating wastes from NiMH spent batteries have been evaluated: the order of the extractive ability of extractant can be confirmed in ThGdEuSm.