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Automatic detection of circulating tumor cells and cancer associated fibroblasts using deep learning
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from whole blood are emerging as important biomarkers that potentially aid in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. The microfilter technology provides an efficient capture platform for them but is confounded by two challenges. First, uneven microfilter surfaces makes it hard for commercial scanners to obtain images with all cells in-focus. Second, current analysis is labor-intensive with long turnaround time and user-to-user variability. Here we addressed the first challenge through developing a customized imaging system and data pre-processing algorithms. Utilizing cultured cancer and CAF cells captured by microfilters, we showed that images from our custom system are 99.3% in-focus compared to 89.9% from a top-of-the-line commercial scanner. Then we developed a deep-learning-based method to automatically identify tumor cells serving to mimic CTC (mCTC) and CAFs. Our deep learning method achieved precision and recall of 94% (± 0.2%) and 96% (± 0.2%) for mCTC detection, and 93% (± 1.7%) and 84% (± 3.1%) for CAF detection, significantly better than a conventional computer vision method, whose numbers are 92% (± 0.2%) and 78% (± 0.3%) for mCTC and 58% (± 3.9%) and 56% (± 3.5%) for CAF. Our custom imaging system combined with deep learning cell identification method represents an important advance on CTC and CAF analysis
Conceptual design of a Robotic Arm for the maintenance of the Read-Out Units of the Mu2e electromagnetic calorimeter
The Calorimeter of the Mu2e experiment is a complicated detector made of crystal scintillators with dedicated read-out electronics per crystals. The compactness of the Front-End Units matrix, the complexity of the necessary services, and the limited space available after detector installation in the experimental hall make access, manipulation and maintenance of the Front-End Units very hard. This paper reports on the conceptual mechanical design of a robotic arm composed of a gantry structure for xyz positioning on the desired Front-End Unit and equipped with custom-designed grippers to perform the necessary maintenance operations. This includes the optimization of the Front-End Units cables routing
Magnetic field reversal in the turbulent environment around a repeating fast radio burst
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief, intense flashes of radio waves from unidentified extragalactic sources. Polarized FRBs originate in highly magnetized environments. We report observations of the repeating FRB 20190520B spanning 17 months, which show that the FRB’s Faraday rotation is highly variable and twice changes sign. The FRB also depolarizes below radio frequencies of about 1 to 3 gigahertz. We interpret these properties as being due to changes in the parallel component of the magnetic field integrated along the line of sight, including reversing direction of the field. This could result from propagation through a turbulent magnetized screen of plasma, located 10–5 to 100
parsecs from the FRB source. This is consistent with the bursts passing through the stellar wind of a binary companion of the FRB source
Addressable and adaptable intercellular communication via DNA messaging
Engineered consortia are a major research focus for synthetic biologists because they can implement sophisticated behaviors inaccessible to single-strain systems. However, this functional capacity is constrained by their constituent strains’ ability to engage in complex communication. DNA messaging, by enabling information-rich channel-decoupled communication, is a promising candidate architecture for implementing complex communication. But its major advantage, its messages’ dynamic mutability, is still unexplored. We develop a framework for addressable and adaptable DNA messaging that leverages all three of these advantages and implement it using plasmid conjugation in E. coli. Our system can bias the transfer of messages to targeted receiver strains by 100- to 1000-fold, and their recipient lists can be dynamically updated in situ to control the flow of information through the population. This work lays the foundation for future developments that further utilize the unique advantages of DNA messaging to engineer previously-inaccessible levels of complexity into biological systems
Collaboration With Cellular Networks for RFI Cancellation at Radio Telescope
The growing need for electromagnetic spectrum to support the next generation (xG) communication networks increasingly generate unwanted radio frequency interference (RFI) in protected bands for radio astronomy. RFI is commonly mitigated at the Radio Telescope without any active collaboration with the interfering sources. In this work, we provide a method of signal characterization and its use in subsequent cancellation, that uses Eigenspaces derived from the telescope and the transmitter signals. This is different from conventional time-frequency domain analysis, which is limited to fixed characterizations (e.g., complex exponential in Fourier methods) that cannot adapt to the changing statistics (e.g., autocorrelation) of the RFI, typically observed in communication systems. We have presented effectiveness of this collaborative method using real-world astronomical signals and practical simulated LTE signals (downlink and uplink) as source of RFI along with propagation conditions based on preset benchmarks and standards. Through our analysis and simulation using these signals, we are able to remove 89.04% of the RFI from cellular networks, which reduces excision at the Telescope and is capable of significantly improving throughput as corrupted time-frequency bins of data become usable
X-ray polarization evidence for a 200-year-old flare of Sgr A*
The centre of the Milky Way Galaxy hosts a black hole with a solar mass of about 4 million (Sagittarius A* (Sgr A)) that is very quiescent at present with a luminosity many orders of magnitude below those of active galactic nuclei1. Reflection of X-rays from Sgr A* by dense gas in the Galactic Centre region offers a means to study its past flaring activity on timescales of hundreds and thousands of years2. The shape of the X-ray continuum and the strong fluorescent iron line observed from giant molecular clouds in the vicinity of Sgr A* are consistent with the reflection scenario3,4,5. If this interpretation is correct, the reflected continuum emission should be polarized6. Here we report observations of polarized X-ray emission in the direction of the molecular clouds in the Galactic Centre using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. We measure a polarization degree of 31% ± 11%, and a polarization angle of −48° ± 11°. The polarization angle is consistent with Sgr A* being the primary source of the emission, and the polarization degree implies that some 200 years ago, the X-ray luminosity of Sgr A* was briefly comparable to that of a Seyfert galaxy
Deep Synoptic Array Science: A Massive Elliptical Host Among Two Galaxy-cluster Fast Radio Bursts
The stellar population environments that are associated with fast radio burst (FRB) sources provide important insights for developing their progenitor theories. We expand the diversity of known FRB host environments by reporting two FRBs in massive galaxy clusters that were discovered by the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-110) during its commissioning observations. FRB 20220914A has been localized to a star-forming, late-type galaxy at a redshift of 0.1139 with multiple starbursts at lookback times less than ∼3.5 Gyr in the A2310 galaxy cluster. Although the host galaxy of FRB 20220914A is similar to typical FRB hosts, the FRB 20220509G host stands out as a quiescent, early-type galaxy at a redshift of 0.0894 in the A2311 galaxy cluster. The discovery of FRBs in both late- and early-type galaxies adds to the body of evidence that the FRB sources have multiple formation channels. Therefore, even though FRB hosts are typically star-forming, there must exist formation channels that are consistent with old stellar population in galaxies. The varied star formation histories of the two FRB hosts that we report here indicate a wide delay-time distribution of FRB progenitors. Future work in constraining the FRB delay-time distribution, using the methods that we develop herein, will prove crucial in determining the evolutionary histories of FRB sources
Aims and Scope of JAMES
The mission of AGU's Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES) is to publish original research papers that advance the science underlying Earth system models and emerging from their use. JAMES' scope encompasses the outer envelope of the Earth system including the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and cryosphere. It publishes papers that expand capabilities to model, understand, and predict the Earth system and the physical, chemical, and biological processes shaping it. In this editorial, we present general principles as well as specific notions that guide the strategy of JAMES' editors in realizing the journal's mission. This document serves as an update to Griffies et al. (2021), https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002567
Measurement of the double-differential muon-neutrino charged-current inclusive cross section in the NOvA near detector
We report cross-section measurements of the final-state muon kinematics for ν_μ charged-current interactions in the NOvA near detector using an accumulated 8.09×10²⁰ protons on target in the NuMI beam. We present the results as a double-differential cross section in the observed outgoing muon energy and angle, as well as single-differential cross sections in the derived neutrino energy, E_ν, and square of the four-momentum transfer, Q². We compare the results to inclusive cross-section predictions from various neutrino event generators via χ² calculations using a covariance matrix that accounts for bin-to-bin correlations of systematic uncertainties. These comparisons show a clear discrepancy between the data and each of the tested predictions at forward muon angle and low Q², indicating a missing suppression of the cross section in current neutrino-nucleus scattering models
Plasma lensing with magnetic field and a small correction to the Faraday rotation measurement
Plasma lensing displays interesting characteristics that set it apart from gravitational lensing. The magnetized medium induces birefringence in the two polarization modes. As the lensing deflection grows stronger, e.g. when images form near the critical curve, the geometric delay of the signal can cause rotation in linear polarization, in addition to Faraday rotation. This rotation has a frequency dependence to the power of four. We study the geometric rotation of the lensed image in a Gaussian density model and find that it is necessary to take into account the geometric rotation when estimating magnetized media, especially in the underdense lens. At frequencies of ∼1 GHz or lower, the geometric rotation can dominate. We simulate the flux of lensed images and find that when the image forms near the lensing critical curve, the birefringence can convert the linear polarization and un-polarization pulse into a circular mode. The lensing magnification has the potential to increase the probability of detecting such events