Scintillating fibres

This review first describes the basic working principles of scintillating fibres together with their most common readout techniques. It concentrates on plastic fibres, since they are better suited for application in High Energy Physics. The following section reviews fibre trackers and lead/scintillating calorimeters. Both detector devices are compared with competing techniques based on other media. The review continues with dose rates at the LHC-collider and discusses the radiation damage on scintillating fibres. The conclusion covers the progress achieved with the fibre technique and presents an outlook on future developments

Hybrid photon detectors

Hybrid photon detectors detect light via vacuum photocathodes and accelerate the emitted photoelectrons by an electric field towards inversely polarized silicon anodes, where they are absorbed, thus producing electron-hole pairs. These, in turn, are collected and generate electronic signals on their ohmic contacts. This review first describes the characteristic properties of the main components of hybrid photon detectors: light entrance windows, photocathodes, and silicon anodes. Then, essential relations describing the trajectories of photoelectrons in electric and magnetic fields and their backscattering from the silicon anodes are derived. Depending on their anode configurations, three families of hybrid photon detectors are presented: hybrid photomultiplier tubes with single anodes for photon counting with high sensitivity and for gamma spectroscopy; multi-anode photon detector tubes with anodes subdivided into square or hexagonal pads for position-sensitive photon detection; imaging silicon pixel array tubes with finely segmented anodes for photon-sensitive imaging devices. Some of the hybrid photon detectors’ applications and achievements in radiation detection are discussed and compared with competing devices such as photomultipliers, image intensifiers, photodiodes, silicon drift chambers, charge coupled devices, visible light photon counters, and photographic emulsions

Effects of EGb 761® Ginkgo biloba extract on mitochondrial function and oxidative stress

As major sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial structures are exposed to high concentrations of ROS and may therefore be particularly susceptible to oxidative damage. Mitochondrial damage could play a pivotal role in the cell death decision. A decrease in mitochondrial energy charge and redox state, loss of transmembrane potential (depolarization), mitochondrial respiratory chain impairment, and release of substances such as calcium and cytochrome c all contribute to apoptosis. These mitochondrial abnormalities may constitute a part of the spectrum of chronic oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease. Accumulation of amyloid beta (Abeta) in form of senile plaques is also thought to play a central role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease mediated by oxidative stress. In addition, increasing evidence shows that Abeta generates free radicals in vitro, which mediate the toxicity of this peptide. In our study, PC12 cells were used to examine the protective features of EGb 761(definition see editorial) on mitochondria stressed with hydrogen peroxide and antimycin, an inhibitor of complex III. In addition, we investigated the efficacy of EGb 761 in Abeta-induced MTT reduction in PC12 cells. Moreover, we examined the effects of EGb 761 on ROS levels and ROS-induced apoptosis in lymphocytes from aged mice after in vivo administration. Here, we will report that EGb 761 was able to protect mitochondria from the attack of hydrogen peroxide, antimycin and Abeta. Furthermore, EGb 761 reduced ROS levels and ROS-induced apoptosis in lymphocytes from aged mice treated orally with EGb 761 for 2 weeks. Our data further emphasize neuroprotective properties of EGb 761, such as protection against Abeta-toxicity, and antiapoptotic properties, which are probably due to its preventive effects on mitochondria

Photoelectron backscattering from silicon anodes of hybrid photodetector tubes

The impact of photoelectron backscattering on spectral distributions measured with hybrid photodetector tubes has been calculated. The calculations are based on the backscattering coefficient mu , the average number of photoelectrons N/sub phel/ emitted from the photocathode, and on the distribution of the fractional photoelectron energy q absorbed in silicon during the backscattering process. We obtained the following results: the average number of absorbed (measured) photoelectrons N/sub meas/ in the silicon anode amounts to ~88% of the incident N/sub phel/. Photoelectron- and gamma-absorption peaks are broadened by a factor 1.043 due to backscattering. As an example, for photomultiplier tubes, this broadening can amount to an average factor of 1.18 due to statistic and gain fluctuations on the dynode chain. (15 refs)

Phosphorylation of CREB affects its binding to high and low affinity sites

Cyclic AMP treatment of hepatoma cells leads to increased protein binding at the cyclic AMP response element (CRE) of the tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) gene in vivo, as revealed by genomic footprinting, whereas no increase is observed at the CRE of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) gene. Several criteria establish that the 43 kDa CREB protein is interacting with both of these sites. Two classes of CRE with different affinity for CREB are described. One class, including the TATCRE, is characterized by asymmetric and weak binding sites (CGTCA), whereas the second class containing symmetrical TGACGTCA sites shows a much higher binding affinity for CREB. Both classes show an increase in binding after phosphorylation of CREB by protein kinase A (PKA). An in vivo phosphorylation-dependent change in binding of CREB increases the occupancy of weak binding sites used for transactivation, such as the TATCRE, while high affinity sites may have constitutive binding of transcriptionally active and inactive CREB dimers, as demonstrated by in vivo footprinting at the PEPCK CRE. Thus, lower basal level and higher relative stimulation of transcription by cyclic AMP through low affinity CREs should result, allowing finely tuned control of gene activation

X-ray detection with a scintillating YAP-window hybrid photomultiplier tube

A YAP(YAlO/sub 3/:Ce)-scintillating window, coated on its inner surface with an S20-photocathode, seals a cross-focusing hybrid photomultiplier tube (HPMT) equipped with a small p-i-n anode of 2-mm diameter. This new radiation detector separates X-ray lines down to about 2-keV peak energy from the HPMT noise. Its detection efficiency for high gamma energies depends on the YAP-window thickness and amounts to about 18% attenuation at 400-keV energy in the present version. Competitive radiation detectors like Si photodiodes and Si drift chambers are discussed and compared to our prototype, with particular attention given to their energy resolution and noise performance, which limits their active area considerably. (19 refs)

Theoretical study of Acousto-optical coherence tomography using random phase jumps on US and light

Acousto-Optical Coherence Tomography (AOCT) is variant of Acousto Optic Imaging (called also ultrasonic modulation imaging) that makes possible to get z resolution with acoustic and optic Continuous Wave (CW) beams. We describe here theoretically the AOCT e ect, and we show that the Acousto Optic tagged photons remains coherent if they are generated within a speci c z region of the sample. We quantify the z selectivity for both the tagged photon eld, and for the M. Lesa re et al. photorefractive signal

An ISPA-camera for gamma rays

With the recently developed ISPA (Imaging Silicon Pixel Array)-tube attached either to a planar YAlO3(Ce) (YAP) disc (1mm thick) or to a matrix of optically-separated YAP-crystals (5mm high, 0.6 x 0.6 mm2 cross-section) we achieved high spatial resolution of 57Co-122 keV photons. The vacuum-sealed ISPA-tube is only 4 cm long with 3.5 cm diameter and consists of a photocathode viewed at 3 cm distance by a silicon pixel chip, directly detecting the photoelectrons. The chip-anode consists of 1024 rectangular pixels with 75 µm x 500 µm edges, each bump-bonded to their individual front-end electronics. The total pixel array read-out time is 10 µs. The measured intrinsic spatial resolutions (FWHM) of this ISPA-camera are 700 µm (planar YAP) and 310 µm (YAP-matrix). Apart from its already demonstrated application for particle tracking with scintillating fibres, the ISPA-tube provides also an excellent tool in medicine, biology and chemistry