Design and test of an extremely high resolution Timing Counter for the MEG II experiment: preliminary results

The design and tests of Timing Counter elements for the upgrade of the MEG experiment, MEG II,is presented. The detector is based on several small plates of scintillator with a Silicon PhotoMultipliers dual-side readout. The optimisation of the single counter elements (SiPMs, scintillators, geometry) is described. Moreover, the results obtained with a first prototype tested at the Beam Test Facility (BTF) of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) are presented.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Presented at the 13th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors (IPRD13) 7-10 October 2013 Siena, Ital

From Risk Communication to Participatory Radiation Risk Assessment

In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident, many of the post-disaster responses undertaken by the Japanese government sparked vivid debates and criticisms from the civil society. These concern emergency responses such as the revision of public exposure dose limit, designation of evacuation zones, distribution of iodine tablets, and risk communication as well as mid and long-term policies including radiation dose monitoring, decontamination, waste management, return of evacuees, and health and food monitoring. Convinced that such public agitation derived from their lack of scientific knowledge, the authorities undertook a strategy to enhance their communication on radiological risk and its health effects. In this paper, we attempt to challenge the traditional notion of “risk communication” which considers that the concerned risks have been clearly defined by the scientific community and that the problem simply remains in communicating them “rightly” to the population. We argue, in contrary, that risks cannot be properly defined without understanding the “real” concern of the population – what they consider as risks - nor taking into account existing scientific controversies and uncertainties. In such a context, what we need is not so much of risk communication but rather participatory risk assessment where risks are debated by multiple stakeholders and actors including counter- or independent experts and third parties such as NPOs, and are defined collectively rather than decided single-handedly by policymakers – the authorities and their affiliated experts. The paper is drawn from the preliminary results of the SHINRAI (‘trust’ in Japanese) project led by the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), in collaboration with Sciences Po Paris and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). This research examines the relation between science, expertise, trust and decisions in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident by conducting an extensive field interviews in the affected areas of the Fukushima prefecture

Multifactor complex containing B element binding factor, BBF, and repressors regulate the human alpha 1(III) collagen gene (COL3A1).

Type III collagen is found in fetal skin and blood vessels. Previously, we characterized the proximal promoter of the human alpha1(III) collagen gene (COL3A1) using the human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line, A204, and NIH3T3 cells (Yoshino et al., Biochim Biophys Acta, 2005). In the present study, we further analyzed this promoter using additional cell lines, namely a human embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma cell line (RD) and bovine vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), both of which show high expression of type III collagen. Using a luciferase assay, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), and DNase footprinting assay, 2 types of multifactor complexes were shown to bind to the DNA region in the vicinity of the B element (- 80 to - 58), depending on the cell type. Next, we used cells stably transfected with a GFP-linked type III collagen promoter fragment for analysis of promoter expression. Usually, transfected cells retained the characteristics of the original cells. However, in several clones derived from RD cells, promoter expression as well as cell shape changed to patterns characteristic of the A204 cell line. Nuclear factors expressed by these clones were also characteristic of the A204 line.</p

Histochemical, Electron Microscopic and X-ray Microanalytic Studies of Pseudomelanosis Cerebelli

Abnormal pigments in the cerebellum of a patient with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were examined histochemically, electron microscopically and X-ray microanalytically. The pigments, which were 2 to 10 microns in diameter and bright brown in color, were observed in astrocytes and Bergmann glia which had proliferated in the dentate nucleus and cerebellar cortex. Morphologically and elementally they were different from calcification, ferrugination, neuromelanin, lipofuscin and melanosis coli pigments. They were presumed to be an intermediate between neuromelanin and lipofuscin occurring in senility and composed mainly of proteinaceous compounds containing sulfur and chlorine. The term "pseudomelanosis cerebelli" was proposed for this abnormality