Energetic particle influence on the Earth's atmosphere

This manuscript gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the effects of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) onto the whole atmosphere, from the lower thermosphere/mesosphere through the stratosphere and troposphere, to the surface. The paper summarizes the different sources and energies of particles, principally galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), solar energetic particles (SEPs) and energetic electron precipitation (EEP). All the proposed mechanisms by which EPP can affect the atmosphere are discussed, including chemical changes in the upper atmosphere and lower thermosphere, chemistry-dynamics feedbacks, the global electric circuit and cloud formation. The role of energetic particles in Earth’s atmosphere is a multi-disciplinary problem that requires expertise from a range of scientific backgrounds. To assist with this synergy, summary tables are provided, which are intended to evaluate the level of current knowledge of the effects of energetic particles on processes in the entire atmosphere

Endoscopic optic coherent tomography in diagnosis of early bladder cancer

Our goal was statistical assessment of the in vivo cystoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) ability to detect early neoplasia in human urinary bladder. We analyzed major reasons of false positive and false negative image recognition results. Optical coherence tomography was performed to image the bladder during cystoscopy. The study enrolled 114 zones with suspicion for bladder cancer. The diagnosis was established by histopathology examination of a biopsied tissue. Each biopsy site was examined by OCT. Two physicians blinded to all clinical data participated in the recognition (malignant, suspicion or benign) of the OCT images. 82% sensitivity and 85% specificity for the OCT recognition of dysplastic/malignant versus benign/reactive conditions of the bladder were demonstrated. The interobserver agreement multi-rater kappa coefficient is 0.56. Good sensitivity and specificity of the OCT method in the diagnostics of bladder neoplasia makes OCT a promising complementary cystoscopic technique for non-invasive evaluation of zones suspicious for early cancer