Repeatability of brown adipose tissue measurements on FDG PET/CT following a simple cooling procedure for BAT activation

Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) is present in a significant number of adult humans and can be activated by exposure to cold. Measurement of active BAT presence, activity, and volume are desirable for determining the efficacy of potential treatments intended to activate BAT. The repeatability of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) measurements of BAT presence, activity, and volume under controlled conditions has not been extensively studied. Eleven female volunteers underwent double baseline FDG PET imaging performed following a simple, regional cold intervention intended to activate brown fat. The cold intervention involved the lightly-clothed participants intermittently placing their feet on a block of ice while sitting in a cooled room. A repeat study was performed under the same conditions within a target of two weeks. FDG scans were obtained and maximum standardized uptake value adjusted for lean body mass (SULmax), CT Hounsfield units (HU), BAT metabolic volume (BMV), and total BAT glycolysis (TBG) were determined according to the Brown Adipose Reporting Criteria in Imaging STudies (BARCIST) 1.0. A Lin's concordance correlation (CCC) of 0.80 was found for BMV between test and retest imaging. Intersession BAT SULmax was significantly correlated (r = 0.54; p < 0.05). The session #1 mean SULmax of 4.92 ± 4.49 g/mL was not significantly different from that of session #2 with a mean SULmax of 7.19 ± 7.34 g/mL (p = 0.16). BAT SULmax was highly correlated with BMV in test and retest studies (r ≥ 0.96, p < 0.001). Using a simplified ice-block cooling method, BAT was activated in the majority (9/11) of a group of young, lean female participants. Quantitative assessments of BAT SUL and BMV were not substantially different between test and retest imaging, but individual BMV could vary considerably. Intrasession BMV and SULmax were strongly correlated. The variability in estimates of BAT activity and volume on test-retest with FDG should inform sample size choice in studies quantifying BAT physiology and support the dynamic metabolic characteristics of this tissue. A more sophisticated cooling method potentially may reduce variations in test-retest BAT studies

Pulse-shape discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils in a NaI(Tl) crystal

We report on the response of a high light-output NaI(Tl) crystal to nuclear recoils induced by neutrons from an Am-Be source and compare the results with the response to electron recoils produced by Compton scattered 662 keV $\gamma$-rays from a $^{137}$Cs source. The measured pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) power of the NaI(Tl) crystal is found to be significantly improved because of the high light output of the NaI(Tl) detector. We quantify the PSD power with a quality factor and estimate the sensitivity to the interaction rate for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with nucleons, and the result is compared with the annual modulation amplitude observed by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment. The sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions based on 100 kg$\cdot$year of data from NaI detectors is estimated with simulated experiments, using the standard halo model.Comment: 11page

The metallic state in disordered quasi-one-dimensional conductors

The unusual metallic state in conjugated polymers and single-walled carbon nanotubes is studied by dielectric spectroscopy (8--600 GHz). We have found an intriguing correlation between scattering time and plasma frequency. This relation excludes percolation models of the metallic state. Instead, the carrier dynamics can be understood in terms of the low density of delocalized states around the Fermi level, which arises from the competion between disorder-induced localization and interchain-interactions-induced delocalization.Comment: 4 pages including 4 figure

Fate and transport of volatile organic compounds in glacial till and groundwater at an industrial site in Northern Ireland

Volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination of subsurface geological material and groundwater was discovered on the Nortel Monkstown industrial site, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The objectives of this study were to (1) investigate the characteristics of the geological material and its influences on contaminated groundwater flow across the site using borehole logs and hydrological evaluations, and (2) identify the contaminants and examine their distribution in the subsurface geological material and groundwater using chemical analysis. This report focuses on the eastern car park (ECP) which was a former storage area associated with trichloroethene (TCE) degreasing operations. This is where the greatest amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particularly TCE, were detected. The study site is on a complex deposit of clayey glacial till with discontinuous coarser grained lenses, mainly silts, sands and gravel, which occur at 0.45-7.82 m below ground level (bgl). The lenses overall form an elongated formation that acts as a small unconfined shallow aquifer. There is a continuous low permeable stiff clayey till layer beneath the lenses that performs as an aquitard to the groundwater. Highest concentrations of VOCs, mainly TCE, in the geological material and groundwater are in these coarser lenses at similar to 4.5-7 m bgl. Highest TCE measurements at 390,000 mu g L-1 for groundwater and at 39,000 mu g kg(-1) at 5.7 m for geological material were in borehole GA19 in the coarse lens zone. It is assumed that TCE gained entrance to the subsurface near this borehole where the clayey till was thin to absent above coarse lenses which provided little retardation to the vertical migration of this dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) into the groundwater. However, TCE is present in low concentrations in the geological material overlying the coarse lens zone. Additionally, VOCs appear to be associated with poorly drained layers and in peat &lt; 3.0 m bgl in the ECP. Some indication of natural attenuation as VOCs degradation products vinyl chloride (VC) and dichloromethane (DCM) also occur on the site

ϕ\phi photoproduction on the proton at EγE_{\gamma} = 1.5 - 2.9 GeV

Differential cross sections at $t=t_{\text{min}}$ and decay asymmetries for the $\gamma p\rightarrow\phi p$ reaction have been measured using linearly polarized photons in the range 1.5 to 2.9 GeV. These cross sections were used to determine the Pomeron strength factor. The cross sections and decay asymmetries are consistently described by the $t$-channel Pomeron and pseudoscalar exchange model in the $E_{\gamma}$ region above 2.37 GeV. In the lower energy region, an excess over the model prediction is observed in the energy dependence of the differential cross sections at $t=t_{\text{min}}$. This observation suggests that additional processes or interference effects between Pomeron exchange and other processes appear near the threshold region.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

3D characterization of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes

The crystallographic structure of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes has been elucidated by means of high resolution transmission electron microscopy and high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography. CdSe rod-like nanoparticles, grown in solution together with carbon nanotubes, undergo a morphological transformation and become attached to the carbon surface. Electron tomography reveals that the nanoparticles are hexagonal-based with the (001) planes epitaxially matched to the outer graphene layer.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Quantum impurity solvers using a slave rotor representation

We introduce a representation of electron operators as a product of a spin-carry ing fermion and of a phase variable dual to the total charge (slave quantum rotor). Based on this representation, a new method is proposed for solving multi-orbital Anderson quantum impurity models at finite interaction strength U. It consists in a set of coupled integral equations for the auxiliary field Green's functions, which can be derived from a controlled saddle-point in the limit of a large number of field components. In contrast to some finite-U extensions of the non-crossing approximation, the new method provides a smooth interpolation between the atomic limit and the weak-coupling limit, and does not display violation of causality at low-frequency. We demonstrate that this impurity solver can be applied in the context of Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, at or close to half-filling. Good agreement with established results on the Mott transition is found, and large values of the orbital degeneracy can be investigated at low computational cost.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figure

A deeply branching thermophilic bacterium with an ancient acetyl-CoA pathway dominates a subsurface ecosystem

<div><p>A nearly complete genome sequence of <em>Candidatus</em> ‘Acetothermum autotrophicum’, a presently uncultivated bacterium in candidate division OP1, was revealed by metagenomic analysis of a subsurface thermophilic microbial mat community. Phylogenetic analysis based on the concatenated sequences of proteins common among 367 prokaryotes suggests that <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ is one of the earliest diverging bacterial lineages. It possesses a folate-dependent Wood-Ljungdahl (acetyl-CoA) pathway of CO₂ fixation, is predicted to have an acetogenic lifestyle, and possesses the newly discovered archaeal-autotrophic type of bifunctional fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase. A phylogenetic analysis of the core gene cluster of the acethyl-CoA pathway, shared by acetogens, methanogens, some sulfur- and iron-reducers and dechlorinators, supports the hypothesis that the core gene cluster of <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ is a particularly ancient bacterial pathway. The habitat, physiology and phylogenetic position of <em>Ca.</em> ‘A. autotrophicum’ support the view that the first bacterial and archaeal lineages were H₂-dependent acetogens and methanogenes living in hydrothermal environments.</p> </div

Mott transition at large orbital degeneracy: dynamical mean-field theory

We study analytically the Mott transition of the N-orbital Hubbard model using dynamical mean-field theory and a low-energy projection onto an effective Kondo model. It is demonstrated that the critical interaction at which the insulator appears (Uc1) and the one at which the metal becomes unstable (Uc2) have different dependence on the number of orbitals as the latter becomes large: Uc1 ~ \sqrt{N} while Uc2 ~ N. An exact analytical determination of the critical coupling Uc2/N is obtained in the large-N limit. The metallic solution close to this critical coupling has many similarities at low-energy with the results of slave boson approximations, to which a comparison is made. We also discuss how the critical temperature associated with the Mott critical endpoint depends on the number of orbitals.Comment: 13 pages. Minor changes in V