Serum samples were studied using Raman spectroscopy and analyzed through the multivariate statistical methods of principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The blood samples were obtained from 11 patients who were clinically diagnosed with breast cancer and 12 healthy volunteer controls. The PCA allowed us to define the wavelength differences between the spectral bands of the control and patient groups. However, since the differences in the involved molecules were in their tertiary or quaternary structure, it was not possible to determine what molecule caused the observed differences in the spectra. The ratio of the corresponding band intensities were analyzed by calculating the p values and it was found that only seven of these band ratios were significant and corresponded to proteins, phospholipids, and polysaccharides. These specific bands might be helpful during screening for breast cancer using Raman Spectroscopy of serum samples. It is also shown that serum samples from patients with breast cancer and from the control group can be discriminated when the LDA is applied to their Raman spectra.

In this article, we present a new photoacoustic technique, based on the conventional photoacoustic configuration, to characterize the thermal effusivity of liquid samples. This new technique is applicable for all kind of liquid samples, including the nontransparent ones. In order to show the usefulness of this new technique, we measured the thermal effusivity of a variety of liquid samples including: distilled water, ethanol, methanol, chloroform, glycerol, and car oil. The comparison with literature values shows a remarkable agreement. Also, we show measurements of the thermal effusivity of acetone in distilled water mixtures, showing the graphical dependence of this thermal property with the concentration of one of the components.

The optical reflectance method provides sensitivity to detect small numbers of melanoma cells without created false-positive signals from pyroelectric interference, showing promise as a means to perform tests for circulating melanoma cells in blood samples.

The time evolution of the inhomogeneous curing process of polystyrene emulsions is studied using a variant of the conventional photoacoustic (PA) technique. The thermal effusivity, as a function of time, is determined in order to monitor the sintering process of a styrene emulsion in different steps of the manufacturing procedure. PA measurements of thermal effusivity show a sigmoidal growth as a function of time during the curing process. The parameterization of these curves permits the determination of the characteristic curing time and velocity of the process. A decreasing of the curing time and an increasing curing velocity for the final steps of the manufacturing process are observed. The feasibility of our approach and its potentiality for the characterization of other curing process are discussed.