Lung function measurement with multiple-breath-helium washout system.

Multiple-breath-washout (MBW) measurements are regarded as a sensitive technique which can reflect the ventilation inhomogeneity of respiratory airways. Typically nitrogen is used as the tracer gas and is washed out by pure oxygen in multiple-breath-nitrogen washout (MBNW) tests. In this study, instead of using nitrogen, (4)He is used as the tracer gas with smaller gas density which may be able to reach deeper into our lungs in a given time and the helium washout results may be more sensitive to the ventilation inhomogeneity in small airways.

Low-temperature and high magnetic field dynamic scanning capacitance microscope.

We demonstrate a dynamic scanning capacitance microscope (DSCM) that operates at large bandwidths, cryogenic temperatures, and high magnetic fields. The setup is based on a noncontact atomic force microscope (AFM) with a quartz tuning fork sensor for the nonoptical excitation and readout in topography, force, and dissipation measurements. The metallic AFM tip forms part of a rf resonator with a transmission characteristics modulated by the sample properties and the tip-sample capacitance.