Electronic properties of single crystal CVD diamond and its suitability for particle detection in hadron physics experiments

This work presents the study on the suitability of single-crystal CVD diamond for particle-detection systems in present and future hadron physics experiments. Different characterization methods of the electrical and the structural properties were applied to gain a deeper understanding of the crystal quality and the charge transport properties of this novel semiconductor material. First measurements regarding the radiation tolerance of diamond were performed with sensors heavily irradiated with protons and neutrons. Finally, detector prototypes were fabricated and successfully tested in various experiments as time detectors for minimum ionizing particles as well as for spectroscopy of heavy ions at the energy ranges available at the SIS and the UNILAC facilities of GSI. ...Detektorsysteme, implementiert an zentralen Stellen zukünftiger Experimente zur Physik der Hadronen und Kerne, werden höchsten Anforderungen bezüglich Strahlungshärte und Zählratenfestigkeit genügen müssen. Die berechneten Reaktionsraten erreichen Größenordnungen bis zu 10 hoch 8 Ereignissen pro Sekunde. Je nach Einsatz, wird hohe Energie- Zeit- oder Ortsauflösung erwartet und in vielen Fällen, die Kombination mehrerer Eigenschaften gleichzeitig. Darüber hinaus, wird einem möglichst untergrundfreien Einsatz große Bedeutung beigemessen. ..

DIAMOND DETECTORS FOR FAST TRANSIENT SCRAM MEASUREMENTS – THE DETECTOR DEVELOPMENT

This paper presents a development of special diamond detector for time dependent neutron flux measurements in a nuclear reactor. Neutron flux changes during SCRAM are difficult to measure by existing detector technologies. Therefore, a new detector is developed. This new type diamond based detector should allow to perform fast measurements of neutron flux during SCRAM with high pulse count rate. The diamond detector design and signal processing are described in this paper including the pulse shape discrimination method. In addition to theoretical detector study, three detector was manufactured at CEA Saclay. Experience gathered during manufacturing is described as well

Radiation hardness of diamond and silicon sensors compared

The radiation hardness of silicon charged particle sensors is compared with single crystal and polycrystalline diamond sensors, both experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that for Si- and C-sensors, the NIEL hypothesis, which states that the signal loss is proportional to the Non-Ionizing Energy Loss, is a good approximation to the present data. At incident proton and neutron energies well above 0.1 GeV the radiation damage is dominated by the inelastic cross section, while at non-relativistic energies the elastic cross section prevails. The smaller inelastic nucleon-Carbon cross section and the light nuclear fragments imply that at high energies diamond is an order of magnitude more radiation hard than silicon, while at energies below 0.1 GeV the difference becomes significantly smaller.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figurs, invited talk at the Hasselt Diamond Workshop, Feb. 200

Folate receptor-mediated cervical staining as an adjunct to colposcopy which can improve the diagnostic accuracy of detecting high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions

Objectives: Cervical cancer is rated fourth in terms of incidence and cancer-related mortality in women. Cytology-basedscreening programs and colposcopy provided insufficient rates of detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) promptingresearchers to develop new tools. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether folate receptor-mediated staining isuseful in detecting CIN2+ during gynecological examination with colposcopy.Material and methods: In total 96 women with abnormal cytology findings were enrolled. The study was conducted on thePolish population. The diagnostic process consisted of colposcopy, receptor-mediated diagnosis (FRD), and histopathologyexamination. All women were subjected to the same diagnostic procedure.Results: The patient mean age of 96 women was 38 ± 14.5 years. On colposcopy, high-grade lesions were detected in83 women. The FRD gave positive results in 63 women. Histopathology revealed 1 case of carcinoma plano epithelial akeratodes,21 cases of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, 13 cases of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. A totalof 61 cases presented no pathology. FRD as an adjunct to colposcopy gave the following test results in detecting CIN2+lesions: sensitivity — 94.29%, specificity — 46.67%, PPV — 50.77%, NPV — 93.33%, and accuracy — 64.21%. Using bothtechniques provided better results than using each of the tests alone.Conclusions: FRD is a promising test for the diagnosing CIN2+ cervical pathologies because it can increase the probabilityof detecting CIN2+ without any additional burden posed on patients. Further studies should be conducted on large andvarious populations to complement current evidence

Use of electrical impedance spectroscopy as an adjunct to colposcopy in a pathway of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia diagnostics

Objectives: Screening with cytology decreases cervical cancer burden, but new methods have emerged. We assessed the diagnostic value of electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in the real-world gynecological setting. The study aimed to determine the diagnostic usefulness of EIS used as an adjunct to colposcopies in the diagnosis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions in women with abnormal cytology findings. Material and methods: A cross-sectional, single center, observational study considered 143 women. All were subjected to a colposcopy and EIS with ZedScan. ZedScan-guided or colposcopically-guided biopsies were carried out. Results: Data from 118 women were analyzed. The average age of the included women was 38.29 } 12.52 years (range: 22–86 years). Overall, 27 had a diagnosis of CIN2+ and above on histopathological examination, 99 had low-grade colposcopy results, 18 had high-grade colposcopy results, and 80 had positive ZedScan examination. No adverse events related to the examination with ZedScan were observed. EIS used as an adjunct to colposcopies showed sensitivity of 96.30% (95% CI: 81.03–99.91) and specificity of 39.56% (95% CI: 29.46–50.36), and accuracy of 52.54% (95% CI: 43.15–61.81). The procedure allowed to detect 11 additional cases with positive histo-pathological result in comparison to colposcopies alone. Conclusions: Colposcopies performed with ZedScan as an adjunct were effective in detecting high-grade cervical lesions. Advantages of ZedScan include real-time result display, no additional diagnostic burden posed on the patient, and good safety profile. Studies on large patient cohorts are needed for further evaluations of this diagnostic procedure and factors which may affect its diagnostic accuracy

Electronic Properties of a Synthetic Single-Crystal Diamond Exposed to High Temperature and High Radiation

Diamond, as a wide band-gap semiconductor material, has the potential to be exploited under a wide range of extreme operating conditions, including those used for radiation detectors. The radiation tolerance of a single- crystal chemical vapor deposition (scCVD) diamond detector was therefore investigated while heating the device to elevated temperatures. In this way, operation under both high-temperature and high-radiation conditions could be tested simultaneously. To selectively introduce damage in small areas of the detector material, a 5 MeV scanning proton microbeam was used as damaging radiation. The charge collection efficiency (CCE) in the damaged areas was monitored using 2 MeV protons and the ion beam induced charge (IBIC) technique, indicating that the CCE decreases with increasing temperature. This decreasing trend saturates in the temperature range of approximately 660 K, after which CCE recovery is observed. These results suggest that the radiation hardness of diamond detectors deteriorates at elevated temperatures, despite the annealing effects that are also observed. It should be noted that the diamond detector investigated herein retained its very good spectroscopic properties even at an operation temperature of 725 K (≈2% for 2 MeV protons)

The Polish Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians statement on surgery in gynecology during the COVID-19 pandemic

The publication presents recommendations on the performance of surgical procedures in gynecology during the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations were prepared by the Polish Society of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, based oncurrent knowledge of SARS CoV-2. These recommendations contain the latest guidelines of scientific societies related tothe subject of operational procedures

Recommendations of the Polish Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians for removal of the uterus by vaginal, laparoscopic and abdominal routes

The recommendations represent the current procedure, which may be modified and changed where justified, after a thoroughanalysis of the given clinical situation, which may be the basis for their modification and updating in the future