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Monitoring Progressive Multiple Sclerosis with Novel Imaging Techniques.

Imaging markers for monitoring disease progression in progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) are scarce, thereby limiting the possibility to monitor disease evolution and to test effective treatments in clinical trials. Advanced imaging techniques that have the advantage of metrics with increased sensitivity to short-term tissue changes and increased specificity to the structural abnormalities characteristic of PMS have recently been applied in clinical trials of PMS. In this review, we (1) provide an overview of the pathological features of PMS, (2) summarize the findings of research and clinical trials conducted in PMS which have applied conventional and advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques and (3) discuss recent advancements and future perspectives in monitoring PMS with imaging techniques

Monitoring Progressive Multiple Sclerosis with Novel Imaging Techniques

Imaging markers for monitoring disease progression in progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) are scarce, thereby limiting the possibility to monitor disease evolution and to test effective treatments in clinical trials. Advanced imaging techniques that have the advantage of metrics with increased sensitivity to short-term tissue changes and increased specificity to the structural abnormalities characteristic of PMS have recently been applied in clinical trials of PMS. In this review, we (1) provide an overview of the pathological features of PMS, (2) summarize the findings of research and clinical trials conducted in PMS which have applied conventional and advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques and (3) discuss recent advancements and future perspectives in monitoring PMS with imaging techniques

An electromagnetic shashlik calorimeter with longitudinal segmentation

A novel technique for longitudinal segmentation of shashlik calorimeters has been tested in the CERN West Area beam facility. A 25 tower very fine samplings e.m. calorimeter has been built with vacuum photodiodes inserted in the first 8 radiation lengths to sample the initial development of the shower. Results concerning energy resolution, impact point reconstruction and electron/pion separation are reported.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Debris disks in main sequence binary systems

We observed 69 A3-F8 main sequence binary star systems using the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find emission significantly in excess of predicted photospheric flux levels for 9(+4/-3)% and 40(+7/-6)% of these systems at 24 and 70 microns, respectively. Twenty two systems total have excess emission, including four systems that show excess emission at both wavelengths. A very large fraction (nearly 60%) of observed binary systems with small (<3 AU) separations have excess thermal mission. We interpret the observed infrared excesses as thermal emission from dust produced by collisions in planetesimal belts. The incidence of debris disks around main sequence A3-F8 binaries is marginally higher than that for single old AFGK stars. Whatever combination of nature (birth conditions of binary systems) and nurture (interactions between the two stars) drives the evolution of debris disks in binary systems, it is clear that planetesimal formation is not inhibited to any great degree. We model these dust disks through fitting the spectral energy distributions and derive typical dust temperatures in the range 100--200 K and typical fractional luminosities around 10^-5, with both parameters similar to other Spitzer-discovered debris disks. Our calculated dust temperatures suggest that about half the excesses we observe are derived from circumbinary planetesimal belts and around one third of the excesses clearly suggest circumstellar material. Three systems with excesses have dust in dynamically unstable regions, and we discuss possible scenarios for the origin of this short-lived dust.Comment: ApJ, in press. 57 pages, including 7 figures (one of which is in color