Quantitative discrimination between oil and water in drilled bore cores via Fast-Neutron Resonance Transmission Radiography.

A novel method utilizing the Fast Neutron Resonance Transmission Radiography is proposed for non-destructive, quantitative determination of the weight percentages of oil and water in cores taken from subterranean or underwater geological formations. The ability of the method to distinguish water from oil stems from the unambiguously-specific energy dependence of the neutron cross-sections for the principal elemental constituents. Monte-Carlo simulations and initial results of experimental investigations indicate that the technique may provide a rapid, accurate and non-destructive method for quantitative evaluation of core fluids in thick intact cores, including those of tight shales for which the use of conventional core analytical approaches appears to be questionable.

New prospective for non-invasive detection, grading, size evaluation, and tumor location of prostate cancer.

Background: PSA blood test and other present screening tools fail to provide the required sensitivity and specificity and, at early stages, lack correlation with tumor grade, volume, and location. Thus alternative approaches are highly desired. We present and assess a novel method for PCa detection, grading, volume evaluation and tumor location, based on non-invasive zinc concentration mapping in the gland by means of a dedicated rectal probe.

Evaluating the cancer detection and grading potential of prostatic-zinc imaging: a simulation study.

The present work deals with the analysis of prostatic-zinc-concentration images. The goal is to evaluate potential clinically relevant information that can be extracted from such images. In the absence of experimental images, synthetic ones are produced from clinically measured zinc-concentration distributions in certified benign and cancerous tissue samples, classified by the lesion grade.

Prostatic Zn determination for prostate cancer diagnosis.

We present our studies of prostatic Zn concentration measurements, carried out in the light of a novel prostate cancer (CAP) diagnosis method proposed by us. The method is based on in vivo prostatic Zn mapping by XRF trans-rectal probe. We report on the extensive clinical studies, intended to assess the validity of the novel proposed diagnostic method.

Clinical assessment of the cancer diagnostic value of prostatic zinc: a comprehensive needle-biopsy study.

Background: The correlation between Zinc concentration in the prostate's peripheral zone to the onset or presence of malignant process needs to be evaluated in detail.

Methods: Zinc concentration was measured in approximately 1-4 mm3 segments of fresh needle-biopsy cores, with X-ray fluorescence, and correlated with the histological findings of these tissue segments.

Results: Local Zinc concentration is correlated with the presence of cancer (PCa); the higher the Gleason score the greater the Local Zinc depletion.