A study of the optical and radiation damage properties of lead tungstate crystals

A study has been made of the optical and radiation damage properties of undoped and niobium doped lead tungstate crystals. Data were obtained on the optical absorbance, the intensity and decay time of the scintillation light output, and the radioluminescence and photoluminescence emission spectra. Radiation damage was studied in several undoped and niobium doped samples using ^(60)Co gamma ray irradiation. The change in optical absorption and observed scintillation light output was measured as a function of dose up to total cumulative doses on the order of 800 krad. The radiation induced phosphorescence and thermoluminescence was also measured, as well as recovery from damage by optical bleaching and thermal annealing. An investigation was also made to determine trace element impurities in several samples

Reporting Outcomes of Extremely Preterm Births

Published reports of extremely preterm birth outcomes provide important information to families, clinicians, and others and are widely used to make clinical and policy decisions. Misreporting or misunderstanding of outcome reports may have significant consequences. This article presents 7 recommendations to improve reporting of extremely preterm birth outcomes in both the primary and secondary literature. The recommendations should facilitate clarity in communication about extremely preterm birth outcomes and increase the value of existing and future work in this area

A study of the optical and radiation damage properties of lead tungstate crystals

Lead tungstate (PbWO{sub 4}) is a new scintillating material which is of great interest for use in high energy electromagnetic calorimeters. It has a very high density, short radiation length and small Moliere radius and has a scintillation light output which peaks between 450--550 nm with a decay time in the range from 5--15 ns. It is presently being considered for use in two large, high resolution electromagnetic calorimeters, one for the CMS experiment and the other for the ALICE experiment, at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In order to meet the stringent demands of these two experiments, the crystals are required to be of high purity, produced uniform light output, and, in the case of CMS, be resistant to radiation damage up to several megarads. Here, a study has been made of the optical and radiation damage properties of undoped and niobium doped lead tungstate crystals. Data were obtained on the optical absorbance, the intensity and decay time of the scintillation light output, and the radioluminescence and photoluminescence emission spectra. Radiation damage was studied in several undoped and niobium doped samples using {sup 60}Co gamma ray irradiation. The change in optical absorption and observed scintillation light output was measured as a function of dose up to total cumulative doses on the order of 800 krad. The radiation induced phosphorescence and thermoluminescence was also measured, as well as recovery from damage by optical bleaching and thermal annealing. An investigation was also made to determine trace element impurities in several samples

Non-equilibrium relaxation and interface energy of the Ising model

{}From the non-equilibrium critical relaxation study of the two-dimensional Ising model, the dynamical critical exponent $z$ is estimated to be $2.165 \pm 0.010$ for this model. The relaxation in the ordered phase of this model is consistent with $\exp (-\sqrt{t/\tau })$ behavior. The interface energy of the three-dimensional Ising model is studied and the critical exponent of the correlation length $\nu$ and the critical amplitude of the surface tension $\sigma_0$ are estimated to be $0.6250\pm 0.025$ and $1.42\pm 0.04$, respectively. A dynamic Monte Carlo renormalization group method is applied to the equilibrium properties of the three-dimensional Ising model successfully.Comment: 32pages( 15 figures are not included. Their Postscript file is available. Request the author directly. ), LaTe

Type IIn Supernova SN 2010jl: Optical Observations for Over 500 Days After Explosion

We present extensive optical observations of a Type IIn supernova (SN) 2010jl for the first 1.5 years after the discovery. The UBVRI light curves demonstrated an interesting two-stage evolution during the nebular phase, which almost flatten out after about 90 days from the optical maximum. SN 2010jl has one of the highest intrinsic H_alpha luminosity ever recorded for a SN IIn, especially at late phase, suggesting a strong interaction of SN ejecta with the dense circumstellar material (CSM) ejected by the progenitor. This is also indicated by the remarkably strong Balmer lines persisting in the optical spectra. One interesting spectral evolution about SN 2010jl is the appearance of asymmetry of the Balmer lines. These lines can be well decomposed into a narrow component and an intermediate-width component. The intermediate-width component showed a steady increase in both strength and blueshift with time until t ~ 400 days after maximum, but it became less blueshifted at t ~ 500 days when the line profile appeared relatively symmetric again. Owing to that a pure reddening effect will lead to a sudden decline of the light curves and a progressive blueshift of the spectral lines, we therefore propose that the asymmetric profiles of H lines seen in SN 2010jl is unlikely due to the extinction by newly formed dust inside the ejecta, contrary to the explanation by some early studies. Based on a simple CSM-interaction model, we speculate that the progenitor of SN 2010jl may suffer a gigantic mass loss (~ 30-50 M_sun) in a few decades before explosion. Considering a slow moving stellar wind (e.g., ~ 28 km/s) inferred for the preexisting, dense CSM shell and the extremely high mass-loss rate (1-2 M_sun per yr), we suggest that the progenitor of SN 2010jl might have experienced a red supergiant stage and explode finally as a post-red supergiant star with an initial mass above 30-40 M_sun.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A

The speciation and genotyping of Cronobacter isolates from hospitalised patients

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised all Cronobacter species as human pathogens. Among premature neonates and immunocompromised infants, these infections can be life-threatening, with clinical presentations of septicaemia, meningitis and necrotising enterocolitis. The neurological sequelae can be permanent and the mortality rate as high as 40 – 80 %. Despite the highlighted issues of neonatal infections, the majority of Cronobacter infections are in the elderly population suffering from serious underlying disease or malignancy and include wound and urinary tract infections, osteomyelitis, bacteraemia and septicaemia. However, no age profiling studies have speciated or genotyped the Cronobacter isolates. A clinical collection of 51 Cronobacter strains from two hospitals were speciated and genotyped using 7-loci multilocus sequence typing (MLST), rpoB gene sequence analysis, O-antigen typing and pulsed- field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The isolates were predominated by C. sakazakii sequence type 4 (63 %, 32/51) and C. malonaticus sequence type 7 (33 %, 17/51). These had been isolated from throat and sputum samples of all age groups, as well as recal and faecal swabs. There was no apparent relatedness between the age of the patient and the Cronobacter species isolated. Despite the high clonality of Cronobacter , PFGE profiles differentiated strains across the sequence types into 15 pulsotypes. There was almost complete agreement between O-antigen typing and rpoB gene sequence analysis and MLST profiling. This study shows the value of applying MLST to bacterial population studies with strains from two patient cohorts, combined with PFGE for further discrimination of strains

New Dynamic Monte Carlo Renormalization Group Method

The dynamical critical exponent of the two-dimensional spin-flip Ising model is evaluated by a Monte Carlo renormalization group method involving a transformation in time. The results agree very well with a finite-size scaling analysis performed on the same data. The value of $z = 2.13 \pm 0.01$ is obtained, which is consistent with most recent estimates

A study of the optical and radiation damage properties of lead tungstate crystals

A study has been made of the optical and radiation damage properties of undoped and niobium doped lead tungstate crystals. Data were obtained on the optical absorbance, the intensity and decay time of the scintillation light output, and the radioluminescence and photoluminescence emission spectra. Radiation damage was studied in several undoped and niobium doped samples using ^(60)Co gamma ray irradiation. The change in optical absorption and observed scintillation light output was measured as a function of dose up to total cumulative doses on the order of 800 krad. The radiation induced phosphorescence and thermoluminescence was also measured, as well as recovery from damage by optical bleaching and thermal annealing. An investigation was also made to determine trace element impurities in several samples

A study of the optical and radiation damage properties of lead tungstate crystals

A study has been made of the optical and radiation damage properties of undoped and niobium doped lead tungstate crystals. Data were obtained on the optical absorbance, the intensity and decay time of the scintillation light output, and the radioluminescence and photoluminescence emission spectra. Radiation damage was studied in several undoped and niobium doped samples using ^(60)Co gamma ray irradiation. The change in optical absorption and observed scintillation light output was measured as a function of dose up to total cumulative doses on the order of 800 krad. The radiation induced phosphorescence and thermoluminescence was also measured, as well as recovery from damage by optical bleaching and thermal annealing. An investigation was also made to determine trace element impurities in several samples