PRESENT STATUS OF HIMAC ECR ION SOURCES

High-energy carbon-ion radiotherapy is being carried out at Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). Over 12000 cancer patients have been treated with carbon beams having energies of between 56-430 MeV/u since 1994. There are two injectors in the HIMAC for medical and experimental use. First injector consists of two ECR ion sources and one PIG ion source, the RFQ linac and the DTL. Usually, this injector suppling the carbon ion for cancer therapy and various ion such as H, He, Fe, Xe are accelerated for biological and physical experiment. The 10 GHz NIRS-ECR ion source produce the carbon ion for cancer therapy. The 18 GHz NIRS-HEC ion source produce He to Xe ions for experimental use. Second injector consists of the compact ECR ion source with all permanent magnet, the RFQ linac and the APF IH-DTL. This injector supplies the carbon ion for experimental use. Additionally, we tried production of the Indium and the Tin ions by using the In(C5H5) and the Sn(i-C3H7)4 at the NIRS-HEC. Beam current of the 115In20+ and 120Sn18+ were 90 and 15 microA, respectively.24th International Workshop on ECR Ion Source

Poly(ethylene glycol) lipid-shelled microbubbles: abundance, stability, and mechanical properties

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is widely used on the outside of biomedical delivery vehicles to impart stealth properties. Encapsulated gas microbubbles (MBs) are being increasingly considered as effective carriers for therapeutic intervention to deliver drug payloads or genetic vectors. MBs have the advantage that they can be imaged and manipulated by ultrasound fields with great potential for targeted therapy and diagnostic purposes. Lipid-shelled MBs are biocompatible and can be functionalized on the outer surface for tissue targeting and new therapeutic methods. As MBs become a key route for drug delivery, exploring the effect of PEG-ylation on the MB properties is important. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of PEG-lipid solution concentration ranging between 0 and 35 mol % on the formation of MBs in a microfluidic flow-focusing device. The abundance of the MBs is correlated with the MB lifetime and the whole MB mechanical response, as measured by AFM compression using a tipless cantilever. The maximal MB concentration and stability (lifetime) occurs at a low concentration of PEG-lipid (∼5 mol %). For higher PEG-lipid concentrations, the lifetime and MB concentration decrease, and are accompanied by a correlation between the predicted surface PEG configuration and the whole MB stiffness, as measured at higher compression loads. These results inform the rationale design and fabrication of lipid-based MBs for therapeutic applications and suggest that only relatively small amounts of PEG incorporation are required for optimizing MB abundance and stability while retaining similar mechanical response at low loads

Beamtest of nonirradiated and irradiated ATLAS SCT microstrip modules at KEK

Nonirradiated and irradiated ATLAS silicon microstrip barrel and endcap modules have been beamtested with 4-GeV/c pions. Pulse shapes confirmed the peaking time of the amplifier to be 22 ns with slight deterioration in the irradiated modules. Median charges saturated around 3.8 fC, both in the nonirradiated and the irradiated modules. Signal/noise ratios, using the noise estimates from the in-situ calibration, were >16 in the nonirradiated (>150 V) and >10 in the irradiated (>300 V) barrel modules. No excess common-mode noise was observed. (10 refs)