Modeling Cell Reactions to Ionizing Radiation: From a Lesion to a Cancer.

This article focuses on the analytic modeling of responses of cells in the body to ionizing radiation. The related mechanisms are consecutively taken into account and discussed. A model of the dose- and time-dependent adaptive response is considered for 2 exposure categories: acute and protracted. In case of the latter exposure, we demonstrate that the response plateaus are expected under the modelling assumptions made. The expected total number of cancer cells as a function of time turns out to be perfectly described by the Gompertz function. The transition from a collection of cancer cells into a tumor is discussed at length. Special emphasis is put on the fact that characterizing the growth of a tumor (ie, the increasing mass and volume), the use of differential equations cannot properly capture the key dynamics-formation of the tumor must exhibit properties of the phase transition, including self-organization and even self-organized criticality. As an example, a manageable percolation-type phase transition approach is used to address this problem. Nevertheless, general theory of tumor emergence is difficult to work out mathematically because experimental observations are limited to the relatively large tumors. Hence, determination of the conditions around the critical point is uncertain.

Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus-the 'D-shuttle' project.

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.

Determination of the Mössbauer absorption cross section and reconstruction of hyperfine field distribution by the maximum entropy method.

Determination of the Mössbauer absorption cross section, σ(E), and accurate reconstruction of the hyperfine field distributions of the invar alloy, Fe(64)Ni(36), by the maximum entropy method (MEM) is presented. The procedure consists of three steps: deconvolution of the Mössbauer spectra with the instrumental resolution function using MEM, nonlinear transformation of the deconvoluted spectrum into σ(E), and reconstruction of the hyperfine field distribution. In order to test the procedure of the deconvolution and correction for thickness effect, several simulated spectra with thickness parameter 1 < t < 50 and different values of Lorentzian FWHM of the source and absorber were analyzed. It is shown that the procedure of the deconvolution and extraction of σ(E) works well for spectra whose lines contain at least five experimental points per FWHM. Reconstructed distributions of hyperfine field parameters, based on the extracted Mössbauer cross section of the Fe-Ni invar alloy, measured with and without application of an external magnetic field, are discussed. The reconstruction has been made to test the earlier postulated non-collinear ferromagnetic state of invar without referring to any specific model in the analysis of the Mössbauer results. It is shown that marginal probability distribution of hyperfine magnetic field consists of the main maximum at about 28 T and a broad tail extending down to 5 T. Observed isomer shift of the main maximum is small and positive. The isomer shift decreases with magnetic field and attains negative values at the lowest fields. It is shown that the magnetic texture parameter does not depend on the hyperfine magnetic field. One thus concludes that in the invar Ni-Fe alloys, in contrast to some theoretical predictions, there is no evidence for different arrangements of the iron magnetic moments as a function of the magnetic hyperfine field.

Nanoscale plasmon waveguide including cavity resonator.

The propagation and filtering of surface plasmon polaritons in metal-insulator-metal nanosandwiches are investigated by using finite-difference time domain simulation. We study the optical transmission of a nanoscale waveguide coupled to a cavity situated either in the vicinity or in the interior of the waveguide. Depending on whether the cavity is inside or at the side of the waveguide, the transmission spectrum displays respectively peaks or dips which occur at the same frequencies. We study the dip and peak frequencies in the transmission spectrum as a function of the geometrical parameters of the cavity and the thickness of the metallic gap separating the guide from the cavity.

Simple acoustic multiplexer.

Simple structures enabling the multiplexing of acoustic waves are presented. Such structures are constructed out of two monomode acoustic wires and two masses bound together, and to the wires by springs. We show analytically that these simple structures can transfer with selectivity and in one direction one acoustic wavelength from one wire to the other, leaving neighbor acoustic wavelengths unaffected. We give closed-form relations enabling to obtain the values of the relevant physical parameters for this multiplexing phenomena to happen at a chosen wavelength. Finally, we illustrate this general theory by an application.

Band structure and omnidirectional photonic band gap in lamellar structures with left-handed materials.

We theoretically investigate the photonic band structure of one-dimensional superlattices composed of alternating layers of right-handed and left-handed materials (RHM and LHM). The dispersion curves are mainly studied by assuming that the dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability are constant in each layer. It is shown that such structures can exhibit new types of electromagnetic modes and dispersion curves that do not exist in usual superlattices composed only of RHM. In particular, we emphasize the possibility of bands that originate from the interface modes localized at the boundary between a LHM and RHM or from confined modes in one type of layers. These waves are evanescent in both or in one constituent of the superlattice. One of the pass bands may lie below the light lines of the constituting material and go down to the static limit of a vanishing frequency omega, even at a value of the wave vector k(//) (parallel to the layers) that is different from zero. For a given value of the wave vector k(//), the dispersion curves omega versus k(z) (where k(z) is the Bloch wave vector of the periodic system along the axis of the superlattice) may exist only in a limited part of the superlattice Brillouin zone and exhibit a zigzag behavior instead of a monotonic behavior as in usual superlattices. With an appropriate choice of the parameters, we show that it is possible to realize an absolute (or omnidirectional) band gap for either transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) polarization of the electromagnetic waves. A combination of two multilayer structures composed of RHM and LHM is proposed to realize, in a certain range of frequency, an omnidirectional reflector of light for both polarizations.

Simple nanometric plasmon multiplexer.

We present a simple multiplexing structure made of two discrete plasmon wires coupled by two metal nanoclusters. We show that this simple nanosystem can transfer one plasmon wavelength from one wire to the other. Closed-form relations between the transmission coefficients and the nanocluster distances are given to optimize the desired directional plasmon ejection.

Directional photon transfer between two wires.

The directional transfer of a single photon from one wire to another, leaving all other neighbor states unaffected, is of great importance. We present a simple coupling structure that makes such transfer possible, for any given photon wavelength and linewidth. We give closed-form expressions for the parameters necessary to build such a structure. An illustration of our analytic study is given for the directional transmission of a telecommunication signal between two lines.

Phononic crystal with low filling fraction and absolute acoustic band gap in the audible frequency range: a theoretical and experimental study.

The propagation of acoustic waves in a two-dimensional composite medium constituted of a square array of parallel copper cylinders in air is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The band structure is calculated with the plane wave expansion (PWE) method by imposing the condition of elastic rigidity to the solid inclusions. The PWE results are then compared to the transmission coefficients computed with the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for finite thickness composite samples. In the low frequency regime, the band structure calculations agree with the FDTD results indicating that the assumption of infinitely rigid inclusion retains the validity of the PWE results to this frequency domain. These calculations predict that this composite material possesses a large absolute forbidden band in the domain of the audible frequencies. The FDTD spectra reveal also that hollow and filled cylinders produce very similar sound transmission suggesting the possibility of realizing light, effective sonic insulators. Experimental measurements show that the transmission through an array of hollow Cu cylinders drops to noise level throughout frequency interval in good agreement with the calculated forbidden band.

Stopping of acoustic waves by sonic polymer-fluid composites.

A two-dimensional periodic array of air cylinders in water is known to have giant acoustic stop bands [M.S. Kushwaha and B. Djafari-Rouhani, J. Appl. Phys. 84 (1998) 4677]. It is shown in the present paper that hollow cylinders made of an elastically-soft polymer containing air inside and arranged on a square lattice in water can still give rise to large acoustic band gaps. Similar properties can also be obtained with a close-packed array of tubes containing water when arranged on a honeycomb lattice in air. The transmission coefficient of films made of such polymer-fluid composites has been calculated by finite difference time domain method. With film thickness not exceeding 75 mm, a deep sonic attenuation band was found with, in the best cases, a lower limit below 1 kHz and an upper limit above 10 kHz.

Experimental and theoretical evidence for the existence of absolute acoustic band gaps in two-dimensional solid phononic crystals.

Experimental measurements of acoustic transmission through a solid-solid two-dimensional binary-composite medium constituted of a triangular array of parallel circular steel cylinders in an epoxy matrix are reported. Attention is restricted to propagation of elastic waves perpendicular to the cylinders. Measured transmitted spectra demonstrate the existence of absolute stop bands, i.e., band gaps independent of the direction of propagation in the plane perpendicular to the cylinders. Theoretical calculations of the band structure and transmission spectra using the plane wave expansion and the finite difference time domain methods support unambiguously the absolute nature of the observed band gaps.