Radionuclides for theranostic applications

High Specific Activity Radionuclides (HSARNs), obtained by either proton, deuteron or alpha cyclotron irradiation, followed by selective radiochemical separation from the irradiated target in No Carrier Added (NCA) form represent a powerful analytical tool in pure and applied sciences and technologicies. One of the main applications of HSARNs concern medical radiodiagnostics and metabolic radiotherapy in the relatively novel theranostic paradigm that involves individual \u201cdual-purpose\u201d radionuclides or radionuclide pairs with emissions suitable for both imaging and therapy in the contest of the age-long dream of personalized medicine. We present some examples of radionuclides produced by deuteron beams irradiation, suitable for theranostics applications

Stage per studenti delle scuole secondarie nell’ambito del PLS-Fisica

Il Piano Lauree Scientifiche Fisica pone da sempre grande attenzione alla partecipazione di studenti delle scuole secondarie ad attivita' laboratoriali e stage organizzati presso le strutture universitarie al fine di stimolare la curiosit`a, incoraggiare la passione per la scienza, illustrare il percorso accademico in fisica e le prospettive lavorative. Le iniziative sono ricche e variegate in tutte le sedi e riscontrano sempre un elevato gradimento da parte di studenti, insegnanti e famiglie. La comunicazione che proponiamo illustra lo stato dell\u2019arte di queste iniziative, i loro punti di forza e le criticit`a, anche confrontandosi con la letteratura scientifica di riferimento

Evaluating the effectiveness of interactive map interface designs: a case study with eye movement analysis

This paper proposes combining traditional usability methods with the analysis of eye movement recordings to evaluate interactive map interfaces, and presents a case study in support of this approach. This case study evaluates of two informationally equivalent but differently-designed online interactive map interfaces presented to users. In a mixed factorial experiment thirty participants were asked to solve three typical map use tasks using one of the two interfaces, while we measured user Satisfaction, Efficiency (completion time) and Effectiveness (accuracy) with standard SEE usability metrics. While traditional (bottom line) usability metrics can reveal a range of usability problems, they may be enhanced by additional procedural measures such as eye movement recordings. Eye movements have been shown to reveal the amount of cognitive processing a display requires and where these cognitive resources are required. Therefore, we can establish how a display may or may not facilitate task completion by analyzing eye movement recordings. User satisfaction information related to stimuli (i.e., collected through standardized questionnaires) can also be linked to eye tracking data for further analysis. We hope that the presented methodology and case study will help cartographers and map interface designers to better identify design issues in their products, and that these insights will eventually lead to more effective and efficient online map interfaces

Evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of visual variables for geographic information visualization

We propose an empirical, perception-based evaluation approach for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of longstanding cartographic design principles applied to 2D map displays. The approach includes bottom-up visual saliency models that are compared with eye-movement data collected in human-subject experiments on map stimuli embedded in the so-called flicker paradigm. The proposed methods are applied to the assessment of four commonly used visual variables for designing 2D maps: size, color value, color hue, and orientation. The empirical results suggest that the visual variable size is the most efficient (fastest) and most effective (accurate) visual variable to detect change under flicker conditions. The visual variable orientation proved to be the least efficient and effective of the tested visual variables. These empirical results shed new light on the implied ranking of the visual variables that have been proposed over 40 years ago. With the presented approach we hope to provide cartographers, GIScientists and visualization designers a systematic assessment method to develop effective and efficient geovisualization displays

BE-7 as tracer for size distribution of particulate at different locations and under different meteorological conditions

The aerosol particles in the atmosphere are liquid or solid particles, with sizes from fraction of \u3bcm to several hundreds of \u3bcm. Atmospheric aerosols may be emitted by both natural and anthropogenic sources. Airborne radionuclides that absorbed on the surface of aerosol particles form the radioactive aerosols and their behaviour is determined by the behaviour of their carrier aerosol particles. Beryllium-7 is a cosmogenic radionuclide that decays with a 53.3 day half-life: once it is formed is attached to aerosol particles, transported by winds and removed by wet and dry deposition in the troposphere. The particle composition and size distribution of radioactive aerosols and their carrier aerosol particles at a site affected by a number of factors like their source, fog and cloud droplet formation, evaporation and condensation, washout, rainout, dispersion conditions, the season of the year and the local meteorological conditions. We study the size distribution of aerosol particles at different locations during the four seasons of a year by mean the Be-7 activity. Since local meteorological conditions might affect strongly the AMAD (Activity Median Aerodynamic Diameter) of 7Be aerosols and disappear any fluctuation due to the location, all measurements under different seasons and under different environments were carried out with a parallel measurement at a reference station, thanking to that we can use two compatible 1ACFM cascade impactors

Excitation function measurements for MN-52 production by deuteron beams irradiation for theranostic applications

Manganese-52 is a radionuclide which decays with positron emission and electron capture, with a medium-long half-life (T1/2 = 5.591 d). As a positron emitter, 52Mn has a possible and promising use in Nuclear Medicine as a radiotracer for PET diagnostic tests, useful to investigate biological and physiological processes occurring on the same time scale of its decay; the low energy of the positrons emitted (244.6 keV) and the short range in the tissues (0.63 mm) would allow to acquire diagnostic images of a quality similar to those obtained with radiotracers already in use, such as Fluorine-18 (252 keV; 0.66 mm). Moreover, the stable isotope of manganese Mn2+presents paramagnetic properties that make it suitable for use in MRI, opening the possibility of obtaining multi-modal PET / MEMRI images. Currently manganese is produced by irradiation with protons on chromium targets. We have studied the production by deuteron beams irradiation, that could be more advantageous