Semiconductor-metal core-shell plasmonic nanolasers with a bowtie antenna cross section

A new plasmonic bowtie nanolaser structure is fabricated where a semiconductor gain core is enclosed by a metal shell with bowtie cross section built-in. Light emission characteristics under electrical injection will be reported

Automated Discrimination of Pathological Regions in Tissue Images: Unsupervised Clustering vs Supervised SVM Classification

Recognizing and isolating cancerous cells from non pathological tissue areas (e.g. connective stroma) is crucial for fast and objective immunohistochemical analysis of tissue images. This operation allows the further application of fully-automated techniques for quantitative evaluation of protein activity, since it avoids the necessity of a preventive manual selection of the representative pathological areas in the image, as well as of taking pictures only in the pure-cancerous portions of the tissue. In this paper we present a fully-automated method based on unsupervised clustering that performs tissue segmentations highly comparable with those provided by a skilled operator, achieving on average an accuracy of 90%. Experimental results on a heterogeneous dataset of immunohistochemical lung cancer tissue images demonstrate that our proposed unsupervised approach overcomes the accuracy of a theoretically superior supervised method such as Support Vector Machine (SVM) by 8%

Crocin from Crocus sativus possesses significant antiproliferation effects on human colorectal cancer cells

Aim: To investigate the anti-proliferative effects of Crocus sativus extract and its major constituent, crocin, on three colorectal cancer cell lines (HCT-116, SW-480, and HT-29). The cell growth inhibition effect was compared to that of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. In addition, Crocus sativus’ effect on non-cancer cells was evaluated. Methods: Using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the purity of crocin and the content of crocin extract were determined. Anti-proliferative effects of Crocus sativus extract and crocin on test cells was evaluated by MTS assay. Results: The purity of crocin was found to be 95.9% and the content of crocin in the extract was 22.9%. Significant concentration-related inhibition effects of the extract on all three colorectal cancer cell lines were observed (P < 0.01). The proliferation was reduced most significantly in HCT-116 cells, to 45.5% at 1.0 mg/ml and to 6.8 % at 3.0 mg/ml. Crocin at 1.0 mM, significantly reduced HCT-116, SW-480, and HT-29 cell proliferation to 2.8%, 52%, and 16.8%, respectively (P < 0.01). Since 3.0 mg/ml Crocus sativus extract contained approximately 0.6 mM crocin, the observed effects suggest that crocin is a major responsible constituent in the extract. Significant anti-proliferative effects were also observed in non-small cell lung cancer cells. However, Crocus sativus extract did not significantly affect the growth of non-cancer young adult mouse colon cells. Conclusion: Data from this study demonstrated that Crocus sativus extract and its major constituent, crocin, significantly inhibited the growth of colorectal cancer cells while not affecting normal cells. Crocus sativus extract should be investigated further as a viable option in the treatment of colorectal cancer.Цель: исследовать антипролиферативный эффект экстракта Crocus sativus и его главного действующего вещества, кроцина, на три клеточные линии колоректального рака человека (HCT-116, SW-480 и HT-29). Эффект ингибирования роста клеток оценивали по отношению к таковому для клеток немелкоклеточного рака легкого (НМРЛ) и немалигнизированных клеток. Методы: для очистки кроцина и составляющих экстракта C. sativus применяли высокоэффективную жидкостную хроматографию (ВЭЖХ). Антипролиферативный эффект экстракта и кроцина по отношению к клеткам оценивали при помощи MTS-теста. Результаты: степень очистки кроцина составляла 95,9%, а содержание кроцина в экстракте –22,9%. Отмечали существенное дозозависимое угнетение пролиферации клеток трех линий экстрактом C. sativus (P < 0.01). Наиболее выраженное снижение пролиферативной активности оотмечали для клеток HCT-116 (дo 45,5 % при 1,0 мг/мл и до 6,8 % при 3,0 мг/мл). Кроцин в концентрации 1,0 мM, значительно ингибирует пролиферацию клеток HCT-116, SW-480 и HT-29 (до 2,8, 52 и 16,8% соответственно, P < 0,01). Поскольку 3,0 мг/мл экстракта C. sativus содержат приблизительно 0,6 мM кроцина, отмеченное действие первого подтверждает тот факт, что кроцин — главное действующее начало экстракта. Также показано существенное антипролиферативное действие по отношению к клеткам НМРЛ. Однако C. sativus не оказывал выраженного действия на рост немалигнизированных клеток толстого кишечника молодых мышей. Выводы: данные представленного исследования показывают, что экстракт Crocus sativus и его главный действующий компонент кроцин значительно ингибируют рост клеточных линий колоректального рака и в то же время не влияют на рост нормальных клеток. В дальнейшем следует изучить возможность применения Crocus sativus для лечения больных колоректальным раком

Relative phase between strong and electromagnetic amplitudes in psi(2S) to 0- 0- decays

With the known branching ratios of psi(2S) to pi+pi- and psi(2S) to K+K-, the branching ratio of psi(2S) to K0short K0long is calculated as a function of the relative phase between the strong and the electromagnetic amplitudes of the psi(2S) decays. The study shows that the branching ratio of psi(2S) to K0short K0long is sensitive to the relative phase and a measurement of the K0short K0long branching ratio will shed light on the relative phase determination in psi(2S) to 0- 0- decays.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

The upper limit of the e+e- partial width of X(3872)

The e+e- decay partial width of the recently observed state, X(3872), is estimated using the ISR data collected at the center of mass energy 4.03 GeV in e+e- annihilation experiment by BES at BEPC. It is found that the product of the e+e- partial width and X(3872) --> pi+ pi- J/psi decay branching fraction is less than 10 eV at 90 % confidence level if the J(PC) of X(3872) is 1(--). Together with the potential models and other information, we conclude that X(3872) is very unlikely to be a vector state.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Baryon Antibaryon Nonets

The baryon-antibaryon SU(3) nonets are proposed as a scheme to classify the increased number of experimentally observed enhancements near the baryon antibaryon mass threshold. The scheme is similar to the Fermi-Yang-Sakata model, which was put forth about fifty years ago in explaining the mesons observed at that time. According to the present scheme, many new baryon-antibaryon bound states are predicted, and their possible productions in quarkonium decays and B decays are suggested for experimental search.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

InPBi Single Crystals Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

InPBi was predicted to be the most robust infrared optoelectronic material but also the most difficult to synthesize within In-VBi (V = P, As and Sb) 25 years ago. We report the first successful growth of InPBi single crystals with Bi concentration far beyond the doping level by gas source molecular beam epitaxy. The InPBi thin films reveal excellent surface, structural and optical qualities making it a promising new III–V compound family member for heterostructures. The Bi concentration is found to be 2.4 ± 0.4% with 94 ± 5% Bi atoms at substitutional sites. Optical absorption indicates a band gap of 1.23 eV at room temperature while photoluminescence shows unexpectedly strong and broad light emission at 1.4–2.7 μm which can't be explained by the existing theory

The interference between virtual photon and 1-- charmonium in e+e-experiment

e+e- Experiments producing charmonium are reviewed. It is found that the contribution of the continuum amplitude via virtual photon was neglected in almost all the experiments and the channels analyzed. It is shown that the contribution of the continuum part may affect the final results significantly in psi(2S) and psi(3770) decays, while the interference between continuum and resonance amplitudes may even affect the J/psi decays as well as the psi(2S) and psi(3770). This should be considered in analyzing the "rho-pi puzzle" between J/psi and psi(2s) decays, and the difference between inclusive hadron and DDbar cross sections in psi(3770) decays.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Structure of Si(114) determined by global optimization methods

In this article we report the results of global structural optimization of the Si(114) surface, which is a stable high-index orientation of silicon. We use two independent procedures recently developed for the determination of surface reconstructions, the parallel-tempering Monte Carlo method and the genetic algorithm. These procedures, coupled with the use of a highly-optimized interatomic potential for silicon, lead to finding a set of possible models for Si(114), whose energies are recalculated with ab-initio density functional methods. The most stable structure obtained here without experimental input coincides with the structure determined from scanning tunneling microscopy experiments and density functional calculations by Erwin, Baski and Whitman [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 687 (1996)].Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure