6,930 research outputs found
Sub-millimeter nuclear medical imaging with high sensitivity in positron emission tomography using beta-gamma coincidences
We present a nuclear medical imaging technique, employing triple-gamma
trajectory intersections from beta^+ - gamma coincidences, able to reach
sub-millimeter spatial resolution in 3 dimensions with a reduced requirement of
reconstructed intersections per voxel compared to a conventional PET
reconstruction analysis. This '-PET' technique draws on specific beta^+
- decaying isotopes, simultaneously emitting an additional photon. Exploiting
the triple coincidence between the positron annihilation and the third photon,
it is possible to separate the reconstructed 'true' events from background. In
order to characterize this technique, Monte-Carlo simulations and image
reconstructions have been performed. The achievable spatial resolution has been
found to reach ca. 0.4 mm (FWHM) in each direction for the visualization of a
22Na point source. Only 40 intersections are sufficient for a reliable
sub-millimeter image reconstruction of a point source embedded in a scattering
volume of water inside a voxel volume of about 1 mm^3 ('high-resolution mode').
Moreover, starting with an injected activity of 400 MBq for ^76Br, the same
number of only about 40 reconstructed intersections are needed in case of a
larger voxel volume of 2 x 2 x 3~mm^3 ('high-sensitivity mode'). Requiring such
a low number of reconstructed events significantly reduces the required
acquisition time for image reconstruction (in the above case to about 140 s)
and thus may open up the perspective for a quasi real-time imaging.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figutes, 3 table
Relationship between molecular connectivity and carcinogenic activity: a confirmation with a new software program based on graph theory.
For a database of 826 chemicals tested for carcinogenicity, we fragmented the structural formula of the chemicals into all possible contiguous-atom fragments with size between two and eight (nonhydrogen) atoms. The fragmentation was obtained using a new software program based on graph theory. We used 80% of the chemicals as a training set and 20% as a test set. The two sets were obtained by random sorting. From the training sets, an average (8 computer runs with independently sorted chemicals) of 315 different fragments were significantly (p < 0.125) associated with carcinogenicity or lack thereof. Even using this relatively low level of statistical significance, 23% of the molecules of the test sets lacked significant fragments. For 77% of the molecules of the test sets, we used the presence of significant fragments to predict carcinogenicity. The average level of accuracy of the predictions in the test sets was 67.5%. Chemicals containing only positive fragments were predicted with an accuracy of 78.7%. The level of accuracy was around 60% for chemicals characterized by contradictory fragments or only negative fragments. In a parallel manner, we performed eight paired runs in which carcinogenicity was attributed randomly to the molecules of the training sets. The fragments generated by these pseudo-training sets were devoid of any predictivity in the corresponding test sets. Using an independent software program, we confirmed (for the complex biological endpoint of carcinogenicity) the validity of a structure-activity relationship approach of the type proposed by Klopman and Rosenkranz with their CASE program
Second-Hand Stress: Neurobiological Evidence for a Human Alarm Pheromone
Alarm pheromones are airborne chemical signals, released by an individual into the environment, which transmit warning of danger to conspecifics via olfaction. Using fMRI, we provide the first neurobiological evidence for a human alarm pheromone. Individuals showed activation of the amygdala in response to sweat produced by others during emotional stress, with exercise sweat as a control; behavioral data suggest facilitated evaluation of ambiguous threat
Instantaneous PIV data related to the leakage flow of a low-speed axial-flow fan with rotating shroud
The present paper is companion to Large-scale unsteady flow structures in the leakage flow of a low-speed axial fan with rotating shroud, Canepa et al., 2019. Two-dimensional PIV has been used in order to investigate the leakage flow in a low-speed fan with rotating shroud at three operating conditions. The reported data are constituted by about 3000 instantaneous meridional velocity fields, which are statistically independent. Each velocity field contains 41
7 55 velocity values deployed on a rectangular grid. In order to allow taking ensemble averages of the data, each velocity field has been assigned to a 4-deg bin in the rotor reference. The data are particularly valuable, since no data of this kind and detail have been made available to the scientific community yet
Flavor-Changing Processes in Extended Technicolor
We analyze constraints on a class of extended technicolor (ETC) models from
neutral flavor-changing processes induced by (dimension-six) four-fermion
operators. The ETC gauge group is taken to commute with the standard-model
gauge group. The models in the class are distinguished by how the left- and
right-handed components of the quarks and charged leptons transform
under the ETC group. We consider and other pseudoscalar
meson mixings, and conclude that they are adequately suppressed if the and
components of the relevant quarks are assigned to the same (fundamental or
conjugate-fundamental) representation of the ETC group. Models in which the
and components of the down-type quarks are assigned to relatively conjugate
representations, while they can lead to realistic CKM mixing and intra-family
mass splittings, do not adequately suppress these mixing processes. We identify
an approximate global symmetry that elucidates these behavioral differences and
can be used to analyze other possible representation assignments.
Flavor-changing decays, involving quarks and/or leptons, are adequately
suppressed for any ETC-representation assignment of the and components
of the quarks, as well as the leptons. We draw lessons for future ETC model
building.Comment: 25 page
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