Gamma radiation effects on silicon photonic waveguides

To support the use of integrated photonics in harsh environments, such as outer space, the hardness threshold to high-energy radiation must be established. Here, we investigate the effects of gamma (γ) rays, with energy in the MeV-range, on silicon photonic waveguides. By irradiation of high-quality factor amorphous silicon core resonators, we measure the impact of γ rays on the materials incorporated in our waveguide system, namely amorphous silicon, silicon dioxide, and polymer. While we show the robustness of amorphous silicon and silicon dioxide up to an absorbed dose of 15 Mrad, more than 100x higher than previous reports on crystalline silicon, polymer materials exhibit changes with doses as low as 1 Mrad

Effects of High-Energy Irradiation on Silicon Oxynitride and Silicon Photonic Waveguides

We investigate the effects of high-energy radiation (in the MeV-energy-range), such as alpha and gamma rays, on the optical properties of silicon oxynitride and silicon photonic waveguides and microring resonators

6a-Nitro-6-(2,2,7,7-tetramethyltetrahydro-3aH-bis[1,3]dioxolo[4,5-b:4′,5′-d]pyran-5-yl)-6a,6b,7,8,9,11a-hexahydro-6H-spiro[chromeno[3,4-a]pyrrolizine-11,11′-indeno[1,2-b]quinoxaline]

In the title compound, C39H38N4O8, the quinoxaline and indene subunits are essentially planar, with maximum deviations of 0.071 (2) and 0.009 (2) Å, respectively. The indenoquinoxaline system forms a dihedral angle of 72.81 (3)° with the chromenopyrrolizine system. The two dioxolane rings, as well as the pyran ring of the chromeno group and the terminal pyrrolizine, each adopt an envelope conformation with O and C as flap atoms. The central pyrrolizine ring adopts a twisted conformation. Intramolecular C—H...O and C—H...N hydrogen bonds occur. The crystal structure exhibits C—H...O hydrogen bonds, and is further stablized by C—H...π interactions, forming a two-dimensional network along the bc plane

Estimation of ALU Repetitive Elements in Plasma as a Cost-Effective Liquid Biopsy Tool for Disease Prognosis in Breast Cancer

Background: Liquid biopsy is widely recognized as an efficient diagnostic method in oncology for disease detection and monitoring. Though the examination of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is mostly implemented for the assessment of genomic aberrations, the need of complex methodologies for their detection has impeded its acceptance in low-resource settings. We evaluated cell-free DNA (cfDNA) as a liquid biopsy tool and investigated its utility in breast cancer patients. Methods: Total cell-free DNA was extracted from the plasma of breast cancer patients (n = 167) with a median follow-up of more than 5 years, at various stages of the disease. Quantitative PCR was performed to estimate the copy numbers of two fractions of ALU repetitive elements (ALU 115 and ALU 247), and DNA integrity (DI) was calculated as the ratio of ALU 247/115. Mutations in TP53 and PIK3CA in the cfDNA were estimated by next-gen sequencing (NGS) in a subset of samples. Associations of the levels of both the ALU fragments with various clinico-pathological factors and disease-free survival at various stages were examined. Nomogram models were constructed with clinical variables and ALU 247 levels to predict disease-free survival and the best performing model was evaluated by decision curve analysis. Results: DI and ALU 247 levels were significantly lower (p p p = 0.005). Higher levels of ALU 247 in the circulation also correlated with low tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) within their primary tumors in the ER-negative breast cancer subtype (p = 0.01). Cox proportional hazard analysis confirmed ALU 247 as an independent variable of disease-free survival both in univariate and multivariate analysis [HR 1.3 (95% CI 1.047 to 1.613, p = 0.017)]. The nomogram model showed that the addition of ALU 247 with other variables significantly improved (C-index 0.823) the predictive ability of the model. Conclusion: Our results confirm the utility of cfDNA as an evolving liquid biopsy tool for molecular analysis. Evaluation of larger fragments of cfDNA estimated through ALU 247 can provide vital information concurrent with the pathological process of disease evolution in breast cancer and warrants expansion to other cancer types