The Cole Relaxation Frequency as a Parameter to Identify Cancer in Lung Tissue: Preliminary Animal and ex vivo Patient Studies (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths, and diagnosis remains challenging. Lung cancer starts as small nodules; early and accurate diagnosis allows timely surgical resection of malignant nodules while avoiding unnecessary surgery in patients with benign nodules. The Cole Relaxation Frequency (CRF) is a derived electrical bioimpedance signature, which may be utilized to distinguish cancerous tissues from normal tissues. Here we show that CRF allows for diagnosis of cancer in human subjects, based on evaluation of 60 specimens obtained from 30 patients. We observed clear discrimination of CRF values in tumor and distant normal tissues, resulting in a high degree of sensitivity (97%) and specificity (87%) in cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, we tested 20 xenograft small animal model specimens, observing a similar separation of CRF values as in the human in-vivo measurements. We also obtained CRF measurements in pressurized and unpressurized lungs by implanting tumors into ex-vivo porcine lungs. CRF measurements align with previous tests in human and small animal models.

The Cole Relaxation Frequency as a Parameter to Identify Cancer in Lung Tissue: Preliminary Animal and ex vivo Patient Studies

Lung cancer is the world’s leading cause of cancer deaths, and diagnosis remains challenging. Lung cancer starts as small nodules; early and accurate diagnosis allows timely surgical resection of malignant nodules while avoiding unnecessary surgery in patients with benign nodules. The Cole Relaxation Frequency (CRF) is a derived electrical bioimpedance signature, which may be utilized to distinguish cancerous tissues from normal tissues. Here we show that CRF allows for diagnosis of cancer in human subjects, based on evaluation of 60 specimens obtained from 30 patients. We observed clear discrimination of CRF values in tumor and distant normal tissues, resulting in a high degree of sensitivity (97%) and specificity (87%) in cancer diagnosis. Furthermore, we tested 20 xenograft small animal model specimens, observing a similar separation of CRF values as in the human in-vivo measurements. We also obtained CRF measurements in pressurized and unpressurized lungs by implanting tumors into ex-vivo porcine lungs. CRF measurements align with previous tests in human and small animal models.

Nickel Manganite-Sodium Alginate Nano-Biocomposite for Temperature Sensing

Nanocrystalline nickel manganite (NiMn2O4) powder with a pure cubic spinel phase structure was synthesized via sol-gel combustion and characterized with XRD, FT-IR, XPS and SEM. The powder was mixed with sodium alginate gel to form a nano-biocomposite gel, dried at room temperature to form a thick film and characterized with FT-IR and SEM. DC resistance and AC impedance of sensor test structures obtained by drop casting the nano-biocomposite gel onto test interdigitated PdAg electrodes on an alumina substrate were measured in the temperature range of 20–50 °C at a constant relative humidity (RH) of 50% and at room temperature (25 °C) in the RH range of 40–90%. The material constant obtained from the measured decrease in resistance with temperature was determined to be 4523 K, while the temperature sensitivity at room temperature (25 °C) was −5.09%/K. Analysis of the complex impedance plots showed a dominant influence of grains. The decrease in complex impedance with increase in temperature confirmed the negative temperature coefficient effect. The grain resistance and grain relaxation frequency were determined using an equivalent circuit. The activation energy for conduction was determined as 0.45 eV from the temperature dependence of the grain resistance according to the small polaron hopping model, while the activation energy for relaxation was 0.43 eV determined from the Arrhenius dependence of the grain relaxation frequency on temperature.

DIELECTROMETRIC STUDY OF RADIATION PROTECTION ABILITY OF ULTRA-DISPERSED NANODIAMONDS

Radiation protection ability of the ultra-disperse nanodiamonds (UDD) is studied based on the measurements of dielectric permittivity of red blood cells (RBC) affected by cancer. Wistar rats with Guerin's carcinoma were treated by X-ray 5.8 Gy. Some rats received UDD with food during 5 days prior to the X-ray. The groups with UDD, X-ray, and both UDD and X-ray treatments were compared to the control group. The complex dielectric permittivity of the RBC was measured by microwave dielectrometry. It was shown, tumor development leads to the increase in the dielectric permittivity and relaxation frequency. The irradiation promotes further growth of the parameters, while UDD uptake leads to insignificant changes in comparison to the control group. Therefore, UDD occur the radioprotective effect promoting repair, compensation and restoration of body tissues that is demonstrated by normalization of the dielectric parameters of RBC.

RELAXATION FREQUENCY SHIFT IN TRIGLYCINE SULFATE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SILICA NANOPARTICLES AT LOW FREQUENCIES

The present work is devoted to clarifying the influence of silica nanoparticles on dielectric relaxation frequencies of a classical ferroelectric – triglycine sulfate at low frequencies (102 – 107 Hz) from 20 ˚C to phase transition point for composite samples prepared at different composition weight ratios. Theresults indicated the reduction of relaxation frequency with increasing the silica content due to the intensified interaction between nanoparticles and tryglycine sulfate inclusion. The nature of this interaction was thoroughly discussed in this study.

Attenuation and dispersion of P-waves in fluid-saturated porous rocks with a distribution of coplanar cracks - scattering approach

Wave-induced fluid flow (WIFF) between cracks and micro-pores is one of the major mechanisms in causing attenuation and dispersion within seismic frequency ranges. Previous non-interaction-approximation (NIA) models often assume the distribution of cracks is dilute, neglecting the influences of interacting cracks on dispersion and attenuation. To overcome this restriction, we investigate the interaction between coplanar cracks and their influences on seismic dispersion and attenuation. First, a scattering problem for a longitudinal (P) wave normally impinging on a plane with equally distributed coplanar cracks in a porous medium is solved using integral transform approach. Then, based on the solution, an effective wavenumber is derived for P-wave propagation in a porous material with coplanar cracks. It is found that the magnitude of dispersion and attenuation can significantly increase when the spacing between adjacent cracks decreases even if the crack density is unchanged. Moreover, frequency-dependent asymptotic behavior of inverse quality factor is also different from that of the NIA models at frequencies lower than the WIFF relaxation frequency. Specifically, the inverse quality factor scales with the square root of frequency at low frequencies. When the spacing between adjacent cracks is large, an additional frequency-dependent scale occurs at relatively higher frequencies (but still lower than the WIFF relaxation frequency) with inverse quality factor scales with the first power of frequency. When the spacing becomes much larger so that the interaction between the adjacent cracks is negligible, the present model exactly reduces to a NIA model for a distribution of aligned slit cracks and the first power scale can prevail attenuation within low frequencies.