Aquilegia, Vol. 26 No. 5, September-October 2002: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1095/thumbnail.jp

Aquilegia, Vol. 26 No. 3, May-June 2002: Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1093/thumbnail.jp

Fluence Beam Monitor for High-Intensity Particle Beams Based on a Multi-Gap Ionization Chamber and a Method for Ion Recombination Correction

This work presents the tests of a multi-gap detector (MGD), composed of three parallel-plate ionization chambers (ICs) with different gap widths, assembled to prove the capability of correcting for charge volume recombination which is expected to occur when high fluence rates are delivered. Such beam conditions occur with a compact accelerator for charged particle therapy developed to reduce the costs, to accomplish faster treatments and to exploit different beam delivery techniques and dose rates as needed, for example, for range modulation and FLASH irradiations, respectively. The MGD was tested with carbon ions at the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO Pavia, Italy), and with protons in two different beam lines: at Bern University Hospital with continuous beams and at the Laboratori Nazionale del Sud (Catania, Italy) of the Italian National Center of Nuclear Physics (INFN) with pulsed beams. For each accelerator, we took measurements with different beam intensities (up to the maximum rate of ionization achievable) and changed the detector bias voltage (V) in order to study the charge collection efficiency. Charge recombination models were used to evaluate the expected collected charge and to measure the linearity of the rate of ionization with the beam fluence rate. A phenomenological approach was used to determine the collection efficiency (f1) of the chamber with thinnest gap from the relative efficiencies, f1/f2 and f1/f3, exploiting the condition that, for each measurement, the three chambers were exposed to the same rate of ionization. Results prove that two calibration curves can be determined and used to correct the online measurements for the charge losses in the ICs for recombination

Superconductivity up to 110 K in Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 compounds

In the Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system, we have studied the compound with the ideal formula Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 , responsible for the superconductivity up to 110 K. The magnetic measurements reveal the presence of two phases in the samples with superconducting transitions up to 80 K and 110 K. By varying the composition and the thermal treatment of those samples, we have succeeded in increasing the amount of the superconducting phase with Tc up to 110 K. The Meissner effect reaches 30 % of - 3/8 π at 90 K for the undoped samples and more than 50 % for the samples doped with Pb. Because of the high reversibility of the magnetization versus magnetic field around Tc, we have evaluated the critical thermodynamic field. This one gives an electronic specific heat coefficient similar to the one of YBaCuO compounds.Nous avons étudié dans le système Bi-Si-Ca-Cu-O le composé responsable de la supraconductivité jusqu'à 110 K, de formule idéale Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10. Les mesures d'aimantation montrent la présence de deux phases dans les échantillons, avec des transitions à 80 K et 110 K. En faisant varier la composition et les traitements thermiques de ces échantillons, nous avons réussi à augmenter la proportion de la phase supraconductrice jusqu'à 110 K. L'effet Meissner atteint 30 % de - 3/8 π à 90 K pour les échantillons non dopés et 50 % pour ceux dopés au plomb. La grande réversibilité des courbes d'aimantation en fonction du champ au voisinage de Tc nous a permis d'évaluer le champ critique thermodynamique. Celui-ci conduit à un coefficient de chaleur spécifique électronique similaire à celui des composés YBaCuO

Online measurement of fluence and position for protontherapy beams

Tumour therapy with proton beams has been used for several decades in many centres with very good results in terms of local control and overall survival. Typical pathologies treated with this technique are located in head and neck, eye, prostate and in general at big depths or close to critical organs. The Experimental Physics Department of the University of Turin and the local Section of INFN, in collaboration with INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud Catania and Centre de Protontherapie de Orsay Paris, have developed detector systems that allow the measurement of beam position and fluence, obtained in real time during beam delivery. The centre in Catania (CATANA: Centro di AdroTerapia ed Applicazioni Nucleari Avanzate) has been treating patients with eye pathologies since spring 2002 using a superconducting cyclotron accelerating protons up to 62 MeV. This kind of treatments need high-resolution monitor systems and for this reason we have developed a 256-strip segmented ionisation chamber, each strip being 400 μm wide, with a total sensitive area 13 × 13 cm2. The Centre de Protontherapie de Orsay (CPO) has been operational since 1991 and features a synchrocyclotron used for eye and head and neck tumours with proton beams up to 200 MeV. The monitor system has to work on a large surface and for this purpose we have designed a pixel-segmented ionisation chamber, each pixel being 5×5 mm2, for a total active area of 16 × 16 cm2. The results obtained with two prototypes of the pixel and strip chambers demonstrate that the detectors allow the measurement of fluence and centre of gravity as requested by clinical specifications

Modulation of the Arginase Pathway in the Context of Microbial Pathogenesis: A Metabolic Enzyme Moonlighting as an Immune Modulator

Arginine is a crucial amino acid that serves to modulate the cellular immune response during infection. Arginine is also a common substrate for both inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and arginase. The generation of nitric oxide from arginine is responsible for efficient immune response and cytotoxicity of host cells to kill the invading pathogens. On the other hand, the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea via the arginase pathway can support the growth of bacterial and parasitic pathogens. The competition between iNOS and arginase for arginine can thus contribute to the outcome of several parasitic and bacterial infections. There are two isoforms of vertebrate arginase, both of which catalyze the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea, but they differ with regard to tissue distribution and subcellular localization. In the case of infection with Mycobacterium, Leishmania, Trypanosoma, Helicobacter, Schistosoma, and Salmonella spp., arginase isoforms have been shown to modulate the pathology of infection by various means. Despite the existence of a considerable body of evidence about mammalian arginine metabolism and its role in immunology, the critical choice to divert the host arginine pool by pathogenic organisms as a survival strategy is still a mystery in infection biology