Inelastic electron tunnelling excitation of propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) on a thin gold film is demonstrated. This is done by combining a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) with an inverted optical microscope. Analysis of the leakage radiation in both the image and Fourier planes unambiguously shows that the majority (up to 99.5%) of the detected photons originate from propagating SPPs with propagation lengths of the order of 10  µm. The remaining photon emission is localized under the STM tip and is attributed to a tip-gold film coupled plasmon resonance as evidenced by the bimodal spectral distribution and enhanced emission intensity observed using a silver STM tip for excitation.

The concentrations of total protein, mucus glycoprotein, cyclic-AMP, and apolipoproteins A-I, A-II, and B were determined in the gallbladder bile of patients with cholesterol gallbladder stones and in stone-free controls. The total protein content was significantly increased in gallstone patients (2.03 +/- 0.6 versus 1.31 +/- 0.67 mg/ml; p less than 0.05), as was the mucus glycoprotein concentration (380 +/- 88.5 versus 128 +/- 57.2 micrograms/ml; p less than 0.05). The cyclic-AMP concentration in the gallbladder fluid was increased up to 91 +/- 20 pmol/100 microliters in the gallstone subjects, as compared with 46 +/- 26 pmol/100 microliters (p less than 0.01) in stone-free controls. Cyclic-AMP concentrations correlated positively with the glycoprotein content of the bile in cholesterol gallstone patients (r = 0.66; p less than 0.05). The apolipoprotein concentrations were determined by the radial immundiffusion technique. The corresponding values for patients with stones and controls were 7.5 +/- 0.8 versus 3.0 +/- 0.8 for Apo A-I (p less than 0.025), 10.4 +/- 0.6 versus 6.3 +/- 1.3 for Apo A-II (p less than 0.02), and 1.9 +/- 0.5 versus 1.6 +/- 0.2 mg/dl for Apo B (NS), respectively. Biliary proteins probably play an important role in the nucleation process during the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallbladder stones.

In this work, the long wavelength optical properties of a plasmonic crystal, composed of gold nanorod dimers arranged parallel, have been studied. Due to the strong coupling between incident light and the oscillation of free electrons inside nanorod dimers, the magnetically induced and/or magnetoelectrically coupled plasmonic polaritons can be excited. A theoretical demonstration has been proposed and coupled equations that show similar profiles to the Huang-Kun equations for ionic crystals have been deduced, indicating the constitutive abnormalities and polaritonic bandgap effect. The analogy between the magnetoelectrically coupled metamaterials and ionic crystals may shed light on physical explanations, as well as constitutive parameter retrieval, for the magnetoelectric metamaterials.

Low temperature-controlled radiofrequency exhibited many advantages, including minimal trauma, minimal bleeding, high safety, and few complications. Moreover, treatment of benign vocal cord tumors with a laryngeal endoscopy presented satisfactory outcomes. Therefore, this technology has broad application prospects.