低剂量X射线照射诱导HeLa细胞存活的

采用集落形成法观察了低剂量X射线照射HeLa细胞的存活率，结果表明，小于0．5Gy的X射线照射细胞的存活率高于对照，得到了HeLa细胞存活的“兴奋效应”，而且在0．25Gy附近这种效应更为明显；低剂量D1（0．05，0．75Gy)的预照射降低了随后攻击量D2对细胞的损伤程度，反映出低剂量照射可诱发细胞存活的“适应性反应”。     

Langmuir films of polycyclic molecules on mercury

Langmuir films (LFs) of biphenyl and anthracene derivatives on the surface of liquid mercury were studied by surface-specific X-ray and surface tension measurements. Phases of lying-down, side-lying and standing-up molecules were found, some of which exhibit long-range lateral order. The molecular symmetry and the position and nature of the side-, end-, and headgroups are shown to dominate the structural evolution of the LFs with surface coverage.     

Structural Analogies and Differences Between Graphite Oxide and C60 and C70 Polymeric Oxides (Fullerene Ozopolymers)

A brief survey of the chemical structural analogies and differences between graphite oxide and fullerene ozopolymers or polymeric fullerene oxides (PFO) is presented. Graphite oxide is the product of oxidation of graphite prepared with strong oxidizing agents while PFO is the products formed by prolonged ozonation of C₆₀ or C₇₀ in solution. Notwithstanding the different starting substrates and oxidation conditions, elemental analyses, FT-IR spectroscopy and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy suggest a very similar chemical structure for graphite oxide and PFO. A further analogy is the possibility to perform reduction or oxidation reactions on both substrates considered. Graphite oxide and PFO have also in common the ability to act as ion exchangers and as metal ion binders. Even the thermal behavior is comparable. However, X-ray powder diffraction has confirmed that graphite oxide still has a layered structure derived from graphite but with the graphene sheets at much bigger distance from each other due to the intercalation of oxidized groups and solvent molecules, while PFO do not show at all any sign of layered structure either from the X-ray spectra and also by its behavior in solution which is strikingly different from that shown by graphite oxide.     

Detection of COVID-19 from chest X-ray images: Boosting the performance with convolutional neural network and transfer learning

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has caused thousands of casualties and impacts all over the world. Most countries are facing a shortage of COVID-19 test kits in hospitals due to the daily increase in the number of cases. Early detection of COVID-19 can protect people from severe infection. Unfortunately, COVID-19 can be misdiagnosed as pneumonia or other illness and can lead to patient death. Therefore, in order to avoid the spread of COVID-19 among the population, it is necessary to implement an automated early diagnostic system as a rapid alternative diagnostic system. Several researchers have done very well in detecting COVID-19; however, most of them have lower accuracy and overfitting issues that make early screening of COVID-19 difficult. Transfer learning is the most successful technique to solve this problem with higher accuracy. In this paper, we studied the feasibility of applying transfer learning and added our own classifier to automatically classify COVID-19 because transfer learning is very suitable for medical imaging due to the limited availability of data. In this work, we proposed a CNN model based on deep transfer learning technique using six different pre-trained architectures, including VGG16, DenseNet201, MobileNetV2, ResNet50, Xception, and EfficientNetB0. A total of 3886 chest X-rays (1200 cases of COVID-19, 1341 healthy and 1345 cases of viral pneumonia) were used to study the effectiveness of the proposed CNN model. A comparative analysis of the proposed CNN models using three classes of chest X-ray datasets was carried out in order to find the most suitable model. Experimental results show that the proposed CNN model based on VGG16 was able to accurately diagnose COVID-19 patients with 97.84% accuracy, 97.90% precision, 97.89% sensitivity, and 97.89% of F1-score. Evaluation of the test data shows that the proposed model produces the highest accuracy among CNNs and seems to be the most suitable choice for COVID-19 classification. We believe that in this pandemic situation, this model will support healthcare professionals in improving patient screening.     

Drug self-assembly: A phenomenon at the nanometer scale with major impact in the structure–biological properties relationship and the treatment of disease

Under water-rich conditions, small amphiphilic and hydrophobic drug molecules self-assemble into supramolecular nanostructures. Thus, substantial modifications in their interaction with cellular structures and the ability to reach intracellular targets could happen. Additionally, drug aggregates could be more toxic than the non-aggregated counterparts, or vice versa. Moreover, since self-aggregation reduces the number of effective “monomeric” molecules that interact with the target, the drug potency could be underestimated. In other cases, the activity could be ascribed to the non-aggregated molecule while it stems from its aggregates. Thus, drug self-assembly could mislead from drug throughput screening assays to advanced preclinical and clinical trials. Finally, aggregates could serve as crystallization nuclei. The impact that this phenomenon has on the biological performance of active compounds, the inconsistent and often controversial nature of the published data and the need for recommendations/guidelines as preamble of more harmonized research protocols to characterize drug self-aggregation were main motivations for this review. First, the key molecular and environmental parameters governing drug self-aggregation, the main drug families for which this phenomenon and the methods used for its characterization are described. Then, promising nanotechnology platforms investigated to prevent/control it towards a more efficient drug development process are briefly discussed.     

An X-ray beam position monitor based on the photoluminescence of helium gas

A new method for white beam position monitoring for both bend magnet and wiggler synchrotron X-ray radiation has been developed. This method utilizes visible light luminescence generated as a result of ionization by the intense X-ray flux. In video beam position monitors (VBPMs), the luminescence of helium gas at atmospheric pressure is observed through a view port using a CCD camera next to the beam line. The beam position, profile, integrated intensity and FWHM are calculated from the distribution of luminescence intensity in each captured image by custom software. Misalignment of upstream apertures changes the image profile making VBPMs helpful for initial alignment of upstream beam line components. VBPMs can thus provide more information about the X-ray beam than most beam position monitors (BPMs). A beam position calibration procedure, employing a tilted plane-parallel glass plate placed in front of the camera lens, has also been developed. The accuracy of the VBPM system was measured during a bench-top experiment to be better than 1 μm. The He-luminescence-based VBPM system has been operative on three CHESS beam lines (F hard-bend and wiggler, A-line wiggler and G-line wiggler) for about a year. The beam positions are converted to analog voltages and used as feedback signals for beam stabilization. In our paper we discuss details of VBPM construction and describe further results of its performance.     

Current dependence of performance of TES microcalorimeters and characteristics of excess noise

We are developing transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter arrays for future Japanese astronomy missions. Although 6.6 eV energy resolution for 5.9 keV and 74 μs decay time are achieved, our energy resolution was limited by the excess noise of unknown origin. The dominant noise showed 1/R dependence and it only appeared when the current through the TES, I, is larger than 10 μA. This is explained if we assume a constant voltage noise source with a level of 2(4kT_CR_n)^1/2. We also investigated the influence of I on the TES performance and found the TES sensitivity is reduced when the ratio of current to the critical current I/I_C is large. It can explain the reduction of observed when operated without a magnetic shield. We also found a strong correlation between I_C and or the baseline width. Thus, we conclude that I_C is an essential parameter for the TES performance.     

X射线照射后EL-4细胞p16mRNA和P16蛋白表达的变化

采用RT?PCR(逆转录聚合酶链反应)半定量方法检测p16基因转录水平的变化,采用免疫细胞化学方法检测蛋白表达,观察X射线照射对离体培养的EL?4细胞p16基因转录及蛋白表达的影响,证实p16基因转录表达在辐射诱导EL?4细胞G1期阻滞中的重要作用。结果表明,2.0GyX射线照射后2—48h,EL?4细胞p16mRNA水平增高,照射后72h恢复正常水平。P16蛋白表达于照射后2h开始增高,照射后12hP16蛋白表达非常显著高于对照组(p<0.01)。剂量?效应实验表明,0.5—6.0GyX射线照射后12h,?4细胞p16mRNAEL水平明显提高。2.0、4.0、6.0Gy组P16蛋白表达均非常显著增加(分别p<0.01)。研究证实,电离辐射能够诱导EL?4细胞p16基因转录及蛋白表达增高,其增幅呈现明显的剂量依赖性。提示辐射诱导p16基因转录表达增加在辐射诱导EL?4细胞G1期阻滞中发挥重要作用。     

低剂量X射线全身照射对小鼠脾细胞糖皮质激素受体表？…

采用放射性配体结合法,观察了不同低剂量Ｘ射线全身照射对小鼠脾细胞糖皮质激素受体（ＧＣＲ）表达的影响及７５ｍＧｙ全身照射后ＧＣＲ表达的时程变化。结果显示,２５、５０、７５ｍＧｙＸ射线全身照射后８ｈ小鼠脾细胞ＧＣＲ表达明显下降;７５ｍＧｙＸ射线全身照射后４ｈＧＣＲ表达开始下降,８ｈＧＣＲ表达显著低于对照组。低剂量Ｘ射线全身照射可降低小鼠脾细胞ＧＣＲ的表达,提示ＧＣＲ表达下调可能在低剂量辐射免疫增强效应     

一种应用于MCA中的高速高精度峰值保持器PKD01

高性能峰值保持在核脉冲信号处理过程中具有重要的意义。结合实际x射线探测器输出脉冲特点,利用了一种运用跨导型运算放大器PKD01峰值保持芯片,该芯片具有通频带宽、响应速度快、峰值保持精度高、线性好等一系列优点,经过实际测量,可以准确的对脉冲信号进行峰值保持。