Background. While near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has recognized relevance for developing countries, biomedical applications are rare. This reflects the cost and complexity of NIRS and the convention of comprehensive training for accurate data collection. In an international initiative using transcutaneous NIRS to screen for bladder disease in Africa, we evaluated if interactive training enabled clinic staff to collect data accurately. Methods. Workshop training in a Ugandan medical clinic on NIRS monitoring theory; bladder physiology and chromophore changes occurring with disease; device orientation; device positioning over the bladder, monitoring subjects during voiding; and saving/uploading data. Participation in patient screening followed with observation, assistance, and then data collection. Evaluation comprised conduct of serial independent screenings with analysis if saved files were of diagnostic quality. Results. 10 individuals attended 1-hour workshops and then 0.5–3.0 hours of screening. Five then felt able to conduct screening independently and all collected data were of diagnostic quality (>5 consecutive patients); all had participated in screening for >1.5 hours (6+ subjects); less participation allowed competent assistance but not consistent adherence to the monitoring protocol. Conclusion. A simplified NIRS system, small-group theory/orientation workshops, and >I.5 hours of 1 : 1 training during screening enabled clinic staff in Africa to collect accurate NIRS data.

Lynn Stothers

Andrew Macnab

Sharif Mutabazi

Ronald Mukisa

Behnam Molavi

Babak Shadgan

Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Screening for Bladder Disease in Africa: Training Rural Clinic Staff to Collect Data of Diagnostic Quality

Nanometric thin films have always been chiefly used for decoration; however they are now being widely used as the basis of high technology. Among the various physical qualities that characterize them, the thickness strongly influences their properties. Thus, a new procedure is hereby proposed and developed for determining the thickness of V2O5 nanometric thin films deposited on the glass surface using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (PXRF) equipment and the attenuation of the radiation intensity K&#x3b1; of calcium present in the glass. It is shown through the present paper that the radiation intensity of calcium K&#x3b1; rays is proportional to film thickness in nanometric films of vanadium deposited on the glass surface.

Fabio Lopes

Lu&#xed;s Henrique Cardozo Amorin

Larissa da Silva Martins

Alexandre Urbano

Carlos Roberto Appoloni

Roberto Cesareo

Thickness Measurement of V2O5 Nanometric Thin Films Using a Portable XRF

Willemite glass-ceramics were successfully derived from conventional melt-quench ZnO-SLS precursor glass by an isothermal heat treatment process. The effect of heat treatment temperatures on the physical properties was investigated by Archimedes principle and linear shrinkage. The generation of willemite crystal phase and morphology with increase in heat treatment temperature was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. X-ray diffraction revealed that the metastable <svg xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="vertical-align:-3.42947pt" id="M1" height="12.7178pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -9.28833 7.68094 12.7178" width="7.68094pt"><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,0,0)"><path id="g113-224" d="M558 587C558 666 497 712 432 712C379 712 330 691 284 650C212 586 178 508 148 348L71 -65C49 -185 35 -229 23 -235L27 -261C49 -259 101 -251 124 -224C131 -216 138 -178 159 -24C171 66 197 200 227 356C264 550 295 668 393 668C443 668 479 632 479 575C479 516 446 458 383 418C361 404 344 398 318 397L296 350C395 338 460 281 460 192C460 110 411 40 300 40C258 40 215 55 192 69L181 51C191 18 222 -16 266 -16C308 -16 351 1 397 26C471 67 545 142 545 221C545 315 486 365 401 395C469 437 558 498 558 587Z"/></g></svg>-Zn2SiO4 and thermodynamically stable zinc orthosilicate α-Zn2SiO4 phases can be observed at temperatures above 700°C. The experimental results indicated that the density and shrinkage of the glass-ceramic vary with increasing the sintering temperature. FTIR studies showed that the structure of glass-ceramic consists of SiO2 and ZnO4 units and exhibits the structural evolution of willemite glass-ceramics. The characteristic of strong vibrational bands can be related to the <svg xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="vertical-align:-3.181499pt" id="M2" height="14.7729pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -11.5914 43.9284 14.7729" width="43.9284pt"><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,0,0)"><path id="g113-92" d="M290 -163V-135C183 -126 181 -122 181 -44V583C181 662 184 666 290 675V703H120V-163H290Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,4.485,0)"><path id="g121-81" d="M409 504C401 567 396 607 392 642C354 654 312 665 266 665C137 665 60 583 60 487C60 374 161 325 225 290C300 250 355 215 355 141C355 68 311 21 235 21C131 21 86 122 71 183L41 176C48 128 61 42 68 21C78 16 93 8 118 0C142 -7 175 -15 216 -15C349 -15 438 69 438 174C438 287 344 333 265 374C186 414 138 449 138 522C138 576 172 631 249 631C336 631 363 562 380 499L409 504Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,10.569,0)"><path id="g121-103" d="M135 536C164 536 186 560 186 587C186 617 164 639 136 639C109 639 85 617 85 587C85 560 109 536 135 536ZM252 0V26C188 32 181 38 181 106V451C138 433 90 420 39 412V388C99 379 102 374 102 312V106C102 38 95 32 32 26V0H252Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,14.053,0)"><path id="g121-77" d="M381 665C170 665 44 498 44 318C44 125 188 -15 369 -15C552 -15 703 117 703 333C703 534 550 665 381 665ZM359 629C491 629 601 517 601 306C601 114 502 21 390 21C249 21 146 158 146 346S248 629 359 629Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.0091,0,0,-0.0091,23.836,3.132)"><path id="g50-53" d="M462 177V227H365V632H320C217 496 116 350 21 208V177H284V109C284 43 280 38 190 31V0H451V31C369 38 365 43 365 108V177H462ZM284 227H88C155 336 218 430 282 519H284V227Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,28.783,0)"><path id="g113-94" d="M226 -163V703H56V676C162 667 165 662 165 584V-43C165 -122 162 -126 56 -136V-163H226Z"/></g><g transform="matrix(.0091,0,0,-0.0091,33.268,-5.741)"><use xlink:href="#g50-53"/></g><g transform="matrix(.0091,0,0,-0.0091,37.7,-5.741)"><path id="g54-33" d="M556 236V289H56V236H556Z"/></g></svg> tetrahedron corresponding to reference spectra of willemite.

Mohd Hafiz Mohd Zaid

Khamirul Amin Matori

Sidek Hj. Abdul Aziz

Halimah Mohamed Kamari

Wan Mahmood Mat Yunus

Zaidan Abdul Wahab

Nur Farhana Samsudin

Fabrication and Crystallization of ZnO-SLS Glass Derived Willemite Glass-Ceramics as a Potential Material for Optics Applications

The potential of using mid-infrared transmittance spectroscopy combined with pattern recognition algorithm to identify coffee variety was investigated. Four coffee varieties in China were studied, including Typica Arabica coffee from Yunnan Province, Catimor Arabica coffee from Yunnan Province, Fushan Robusta coffee from Hainan Province, and Xinglong Robusta coffee from Hainan Province. Ten different pattern recognition methods were applied on the optimal wavenumbers selected by principal component analysis loadings. These methods were classified as highly effective methods (soft independent modelling of class analogy, support vector machine, back propagation neural network, radial basis function neural network, extreme learning machine, and relevance vector machine), methods of medium effectiveness (partial least squares-discrimination analysis, <svg xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="vertical-align:-0.0498209pt" id="M1" height="8.68572pt" version="1.1" viewBox="-0.0498162 -8.6359 9.95144 8.68572" width="9.95144pt"><g transform="matrix(.013,0,0,-0.013,0,0)"><path id="g113-76" d="M743 650H503L496 622L527 618C563 613 564 603 532 573C449 495 371 431 323 392C301 374 272 355 246 346L280 522C297 609 300 614 379 622L385 650H135L129 622C209 614 215 609 198 522L124 133C106 39 99 35 23 28L17 0H271L277 28C193 35 192 39 208 133L239 316C264 328 280 325 303 288C368 183 435 90 502 0H652L659 28C602 34 584 43 543 94C495 154 403 283 347 369L574 554C634 603 659 612 735 624L743 650Z"/></g></svg> nearest neighbors, and random forest), and methods of low effectiveness (Naive Bayes classifier) according to the classification accuracy for coffee variety identification.

Chu Zhang

Chang Wang

Fei Liu

Yong He

Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy for Coffee Variety Identification: Comparison of Pattern Recognition Methods

We have demonstrated the application of optical coherence tomography (OCT) in diagnosis of growth and spread of the gray leaf spot disease in Capsicum annuum leaf caused by the fungus Stemphylium lycopersici. Using 2D cross-sectional and 3D volumetric images of OCT, in vivo study of layer differences between fungus infected leaves and healthy leaves was observed with distinctive features. We observed that the internal layers of the disease-affected parts of the leaf seem to merge forming a single thick layer. The obtained OCT results verify the noninvasive diagnosis ability of fungal growth and spread in Capsicum annuum leaves and the applicability of this methodology for other plant diseases.

Naresh Kumar Ravichandran

Ruchire Eranga Wijesinghe

Muhammad Faizan Shirazi

Kibeom Park

Seung-Yeol Lee

Hee-Young Jung

Mansik Jeon

Jeehyun Kim

In Vivo Monitoring on Growth and Spread of Gray Leaf Spot Disease in Capsicum annuum Leaf Using Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography

This paper proposed the joint use of Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance Spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and Partial Least Square (PLS) regression for the simultaneous quantification of four adulterants (coffee husks, spent coffee grounds, barley, and corn) in roasted and ground coffee. Roasted coffee samples were intentionally blended with the adulterants, at adulteration levels ranging from 0.5 to 66&#x25;&#x2009;w/w. A robust methodology was implemented in which the identification of outliers was carried out. High correlation coefficients (0.99 for both calibration and validation) coupled with low degrees of error (0.69&#x25; for calibration; 2.00&#x25; for validation) confirmed that FTIR-ATR can be a valuable analytical tool for quantification of adulteration in roasted and ground coffee. This method is simple, fast, and reliable for the proposed purpose.

N&#xe1;dia Reis

Adriana S. Franca

Leandro S. Oliveira

Concomitant Use of Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance Spectroscopy and Chemometrics for Quantification of Multiple Adulterants in Roasted and Ground Coffee

Presented work focuses the attention on two regions of MOS structure placed in the vicinity of the semiconductor/dielectric interface, in particular: on part of dielectric layer and thin layer of the substrate. In the presented work the application of absorption as a tool that can vary the absorption depth of excitation light into the semiconductor substrate is discussed. The changes of the absorption depth of visible light allows to obtain Raman signal from places in the substrate placed at different distances from the dielectric/semiconductor interface. The series of Raman spectra obtained from visible excitation in the case of varying absorption depth allowed to analyze the structure of the substrate as a function of distance from the interface. Deep ultraviolet Raman study regarding part of silicon dioxide layer placed directly at the interface is not discussed so far which makes the analysis of the structure of this part of dielectric layer possible. Comparison of reported in this work Raman data with structure of silicon/silicon dioxide interface obtained from other experimental techniques proves the applicability of proposed methodology.

Pawe&#x142; Borowicz

Depth-Sensitive Raman Investigation of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Structures: Absorption as a Tool for Variation of Exciting Light Penetration Depth

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Journal of Spectroscopy publishes research into the theory and application of spectroscopy across all disciplines, including biology, chemistry, engineering, earth sciences, medicine, materials science, physics, and space science.

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Chief Editor&nbsp;Dr Daniel Cozzolino&nbsp;is based at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on the developments of chemometric and spectroscopic methods for use in agriculture and food applications.

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Journal of Spectroscopy - Table of contents 2016

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Journal of Spectroscopy publishes research into the theory and application of spectroscopy across all disciplines, including biology, chemistry, engineering, earth sciences, medicine, materials science, physics, and space science.

Journal of Spectroscopy