Quality of Life and PTSD Symptoms, and Temperament and Coping With Stress

Due to advances in medicine, a malignant neoplasm is a chronic disease that can be treated for a lot of patients for many years. It may lead to profound changes in everyday life and may induce fear of life. The ability to adjust to a new situation may depend on temperamental traits and stress coping strategies. The research presented in this paper explores the relationships between quality of life, PTSD symptoms, temperamental traits, and stress coping in a sample of patients diagnosed with cancer. One hundred and twenty nine participants aged 24–81 years, 69 females diagnosed with breast cancer and 60 males diagnosed with lung cancer completed Formal Characteristics of Behavior – Temperament Inventory, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, PTSD Inventory, and Quality of life SF-36 questionnaire. Higher level of emotional reactivity and higher level of perseveration was associated with lower emotional quality of life. Higher level of emotion oriented-coping and higher level of avoidant-distracted coping was associated with higher level of PTSD symptoms. Emotion-oriented coping and avoidant-distracted coping are ineffective in dealing with stress in the case of patients diagnosed with cancer, because they are associated with a higher level of PTSD symptoms. The significance of temperamental traits for quality of life in the situation of the patients is marginal. Control of specific factors concerned with current health and treatment status is needed the future research

Added Value of Coherent Copolar Polarimetry at X-Band for Crop-Type Mapping

A set of six spotlight TerraSAR-X images acquired at HH and VV polarizations in 2009 over an agricultural site in Germany are employed to evaluate the potential contribution of polarimetric features derived from this copolar mode to crop-type mapping. Results show that the inclusion of the correlation between copolar channels in the set of input features of the classifier consistently improves the classification performance with respect to the use of only backscattering coefficients. An increase around 8%-10% in overall accuracy, depending on the experiment setup, is achieved. Both user and producer accuracies are improved for all crop types, being the most noticeable contribution for barley, oat, and sugar beet. Different sets of input features, as well as classification and evaluation strategies, are tested in order to assess the robustness of this contribution.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, State Research Agency (AEI), and in part by the European Funds for Regional Development (EFRD) under project TEC2017-85244-C2-1-P

Reduction of helium permeation in microfabricated cells using aluminosilicate glass substrates and Al2_2O3_3 coatings

The stability and accuracy of atomic devices can be degraded by the evolution of their cell inner atmosphere. Hence, the undesired entrance or leakage of background or buffer gas, respectively, that can permeate through the cell walls, should be slowed down. In this work, we investigate helium permeation in microfabricated alkali vapor cells filled with He and whose windows are made of borosilicate glass (BSG) or aluminosilicate glass (ASG). The permeation is then derived from routine measurements of the pressure-shifted hyperfine transition frequency of an atomic clock. We first confirm that ASG reduces He permeation rate by more than two orders of magnitude, in comparison with BSG. In addition, we demonstrate that Al$_2$O$_3$ thin-film coatings, known to avoid alkali consumption in vapor cells, can also significantly reduce He permeation. The permeation through BSG is thereby reduced by a factor 110 whereas the one through ASG is decreased by a factor up to 5.8 compared to uncoated substrates. These results may contribute to the development of miniaturized atomic clocks and sensors with improved long-term stability or sensitivity.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

New generation of fully integrated optical microscopes on-chip: application to confocal microscope

International audienceIn the paper the new concept of fully integrated scanning confocal optical microscope on-chip is proposed. The operation of this microscope combines the 3-D transmissive scanning of VCSEL laser beam by use of two MOEMS scanners, and active signal detection, based on the optical feedback in the VCSEL laser cavity. The silicon-based electrostatically driven scanners provide controlled movement of two convex microlenses, working as an objective lens of microscope. Glass microlenses are monolithically integrated on movable silicon tables of scanners. The first results of technological investigation on the microscope components are presented

Silicon comb-drive X-Y microstage with frame-in-the-frame architecture for MOEMS applications

International audienceIn this paper we present the silicon comb-drive X-Y microstage with the frame-in-the-frame architecture intended to be monolithically integrated with a glass microlens as a MOEMS 2D scanner for the Miniaturized Confocal Microscope On-Chip. The microstage is characterized by relatively large travel range (± 35 μm in X-direction and ± 28 μm in Y-direction at 100 V) for a small number of driving electrodes, without noticeable mechanical X-Y crosstalk. We describe the design, ANSYS modeling, fabrication process and static characterization of the device

3D micro-optical lens scanner made by multi-wafer bonding technology

We present the preliminary design, construction and technology of a microoptical, millimeter-size 3-D microlens scanner, which is a key-component for a number of optical on-chip microscopes with emphasis on the architecture of confocal microscope. The construction of the device relies on the vertical integration of micromachined building blocks: top glass lid, silicon electrostatic comb-drive X-Y and Z microactuators with integrated scanning microlenses, ceramic LTCC spacer, and bottom lid with focusing microlens. All components are connected on the wafer level only by sequential anodic bonding. The technology of through wafer vias is applied to create electrical connections through a stack of wafers. More generally, the presented bonding/connection technologies are also of a great importance for the development of various silicon-based devices based on vertical integration scheme. This approach offers a space-effective integration of complex MOEMS devices and an effect ive integration of various heterogeneous technologies

In Quest of Optimal Algorithms for Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Surface Phenomena

In this paper we present short-range molecular dynamics algorithms and programs elaborated for sequential and vector computer architectures. They are suitable for investigations of surface and subsurface layer properties which require of about 10$\text{}^{5}$ molecules in a computational box