A new version of the popular X-ray tracing code SHADOW is presented. An important step has been made in restructuring the code following new computer engineering standards, ending with a modular Fortran 2003 structure and an application programming interface (API). The new code has been designed to be compatible with the original file-oriented SHADOW philosophy, but simplifying the compilation, installation and use. In addition, users can now become programmers using the newly designed SHADOW3 API for creating scripts, macros and programs; being able to deal with optical system optimization, image simulation, and also low transmission calculations requiring a large number of rays (>10 6 ). Plans for future development and questions on how to accomplish them are also discussed.

Low-cost, easy-to-use cell concentration tools are in urgent demand for biomedical diagnosis in resource-poor settings. Herein, we propose a novel inertial microfluidic syringe cell (IMSC) concentrator that employs inertial focusing to increase cell concentration through ordering the cell and removing the cell-free fluid. A three-part structure, consisting of a cap-shaped upper housing, a circular gasket, and a lower housing with a spiral channel, is adopted for simple fabricating and assembling, which enables the seamless translation of our IMSC concentrator into commercial outcomes without additional redesigning. The performance characterization indicates that our IMSC concentrator is capable of processing samples with different initial concentrations over a broad flow rate range. The satisfactory concentration performances over a broad driving flow rate range make it possible for our IMSC concentrator to be driven by pushing the syringe with single hand. Finally, pollen particles and MCF-7 cells are successfully concentrated at a high throughput of 3.0 mL/min (up to 4.2 × 10 counts/mL) under the hand-powered drive. We envision wide applications of our IMSC concentrator as "centrifugation on a syringe tip" to various cell concentration pretreatments in resource-poor settings.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been widely considered as promising novel biomarkers for molecular research and clinical diagnosis of cancer. However, the sorting of CTCs is very challenging due to...

Halogen substitution creates a promising platform for designing and optimizing materials with a combination of attractive dielectric and semiconductor properties.