Preliminary results of electrical characterization of GO towards MCF7 and MCF10a at different concentrations

GO is the 2D carbon sheet with additional functional groups, is more stable in various solvents, easy to be produced and manipulated especially in biological system. At the moment, GO is only utilized as the drug delivery agent during treatment. In this study, the resistivity of GO towards breast cancer cell (MCF7) and normal breast cell (MCF10a) using interdigitated electrodes (IDE) were investigated. The interaction of different concentrations of GO as the sensing material on the tested cells which act as analyte can change electrical response. The tested cell were treated with six different concentrations of GO and was dropped to the IDE with different period of time in order to examine electrical behavior. For MCF10a, at high concentration the resistances of MCF10 remain in the same order of magnitude with increasing time of detection while for MCF7 at high concentration, the resistances were greatly influenced by the time of detection where the value significantly changed after 5 minutes and 10 minutes. The number of viable cell does not give effect to the resistance

Electrical characterization of GO at different pH towards MCF7 and MCF10a: preliminary result

The intracellular pH of cancerous cell is commonly acidic while the intracellular pH of normal cell is neutral. The objective of this study is to study the electrical characterization in terms of resistance between the pH of sensing material with the intracellular pH of the cells. Three different pH of Graphene Oxide (GO) were used as a solvent to analyze their interaction towards breast cancer cells (MCF7) and breast normal cells (MCF10a). GO which produced by Hummer's method was used due to their solubility and biocompatibility characteristics which easily diffuse through the cell. In this experiment, the characteristics of GO were analyzed and confirmed by using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). In order to measure the resistance of MCF7 and MCF10a cells after treated with GO for 24 hours, gold electrodes with 10 μ-gaps of interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were used. The results were obtained for three periods of time which were immediate, 5 minutes and 10 minutes after the treated cells being exposed at room temperature. The results show that the resistance of MCF10a cells increased after treated with higher pH of GO which is pH 7 and the resistances of the MCF7 cells decreased as the pH of GO increased to pH 7. Finally, the viable cells were calculated by using haemocytometer in order to prove that the increased of the resistances were due to the increased number of viable cells

Measurement of the 14^{14}N(n,p)14^{14}C cross section at the CERN n_TOF facility from sub-thermal energy to 800 keV

Background: The $^{14}$N(n,p)$^{14}$C reaction is of interest in neutron capture therapy, where nitrogen-related dose is the main component due to low-energy neutrons, and in astrophysics, where 14N acts as a neutron poison in the s-process. Several discrepancies remain between the existing data obtained in partial energy ranges: thermal energy, keV region and resonance region. Purpose: Measuring the 14N(n,p)14C cross section from thermal to the resonance region in a single measurement for the first time, including characterization of the first resonances, and providing calculations of Maxwellian averaged cross sections (MACS). Method: Time-of-flight technique. Experimental Area 2 (EAR-2) of the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) facility at CERN. $^{10}$B(n,${\alpha}$)$^7$Li and $^{235}$U(n,f) reactions as references. Two detection systems running simultaneously, one on-beam and another off-beam. Description of the resonances with the R-matrix code sammy. Results: The cross section has been measured from sub-thermal energy to 800 keV resolving the two first resonances (at 492.7 and 644 keV). A thermal cross-section (1.809$\pm$0.045 b) lower than the two most recent measurements by slightly more than one standard deviation, but in line with the ENDF/B-VIII.0 and JEFF-3.3 evaluations has been obtained. A 1/v energy dependence of the cross section has been confirmed up to tens of keV neutron energy. The low energy tail of the first resonance at 492.7 keV is lower than suggested by evaluated values, while the overall resonance strength agrees with evaluations. Conclusions: Our measurement has allowed to determine the $^{14}$N(n,p) cross-section over a wide energy range for the first time. We have obtained cross-sections with high accuracy (2.5 %) from sub-thermal energy to 800 keV and used these data to calculate the MACS for kT = 5 to kT = 100 keV.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 4 table

Measurement of the 77Se(n,γ)^{77}Se ( n , γ ) cross section up to 200 keV at the n_TOF facility at CERN

The $^{77}Se ( n , γ )$ reaction is of importance for $^{77}Se$ abundance during the slow neutron capture process in massive stars. We have performed a new measurement of the $^{77}Se$ radiative neutron capture cross section at the Neutron Time-of-Flight facility at CERN. Resonance capture kernels were derived up to 51 keV and cross sections up to 200 keV. Maxwellian-averaged cross sections were calculated for stellar temperatures between $kT=5 \space keV$ and $kT=100\space keV$, with uncertainties between 4.2% and 5.7%. Our results lead to substantial decreases of 14% and 19% in $^{77}Se$ abundances produced through the slow neutron capture process in selected stellar models of $15M⊙$ and $2M⊙$, respectively, compared to using previous recommendation of the cross section

Neutron capture cross section measurements of Am-241 at the n_TOF facility

Neutron capture on Am-241 plays an important role in the nuclear energy production and also provides valuable information for the improvement of nuclear models and the statistical interpretation of the nuclear properties. A new experiment to measure the Am-241(n,gamma) cross section in the thermal region and the first few resonances below 10 eV has been carried out at EAR2 of the n_TOF facility at CERN. Three neutron-insensitive C6D6 detectors have been used to measure the neutron-capture gamma cascade as a function of the neutron time of flight, and then deduce the neutron capture yield. Preliminary results will be presented and compared with previously obtained results at the same facility in EAR1. In EAR1 the gamma-ray background at thermal energies was about 90% of the signal while in EAR2 is up to a 25 factor much more favorable signal to noise ratio. We also extended the low energy limit down to subthermal energies. This measurement will allow a comparison with neutron capture measurements conducted at reactors and using a different experimental technique

Production of Mass-Separated Erbium-169 Towards the First Preclinical in vitro Investigations

The β−-particle-emitting erbium-169 is a potential radionuclide toward therapy of metastasized cancer diseases. It can be produced in nuclear research reactors, irradiating isotopically-enriched 168Er2O3. This path, however, is not suitable for receptor-targeted radionuclide therapy, where high specific molar activities are required. In this study, an electromagnetic isotope separation technique was applied after neutron irradiation to boost the specific activity by separating 169Er from 168Er targets. The separation efficiency increased up to 0.5% using resonant laser ionization. A subsequent chemical purification process was developed as well as activity standardization of the radionuclidically pure 169Er. The quality of the 169Er product permitted radiolabeling and pre-clinical studies. A preliminary in vitro experiment was accomplished, using a 169Er-PSMA-617, to show the potential of 169Er to reduce tumor cell viability. © Copyright © 2021 Talip, Borgna, Müller, Ulrich, Duchemin, Ramos, Stora, Köster, Nedjadi, Gadelshin, Fedosseev, Juget, Bailat, Fankhauser, Wilkins, Lambert, Marsh, Fedorov, Chevallay, Fernier, Schibli and van der Meulen.The authors thank CERN ISOLDE and RILIS teams for the laser operation (Maxim D. Seliverstov, Katerina Chrysalidis), radiation protection and logistic teams of PSI (Tobias Schneider) and CERN (Alexandre Dorsival, Matthieu Deschamps and Elodie Aubert, Philippe Bertreix, Nicolas Riggaz, Nabil Menaa, Aurore Boscher, Jeremie Comte, Benjamin Juif); the LARISSA workgroup of Mainz University for the laser preparation and erbium laser ionization scheme development (Prof. Dr. Klaus Wendt and Dr. Dominik Studer). The authors are grateful to Fan Sozzi-Guo, Muhamet Djelili, Alexander V?gele and Walter Hirzel (PSI) and Bernard Cr?pieux, Giacomo Lunghi, Francesco Riccardi, Miranda Van Stenis, Thomas Schneider (CERN) for technical support. Funding. ZT and NM received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF Grant Number: 200021_188495). CM obtained funding for this project from the Swiss Cancer Research (KFS-4678-02-2019-R). FB received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 701647

Measurement of the radiative capture cross section of the s-process branching points 204Tl and 171Tm at the n-TOF facility (CERN)

The neutron capture cross section of some unstable nuclei is especially relevant for s-process nucleosynthesis studies. This magnitude is crucial to determine the local abundance pattern, which can yield valuable information of the s-process stellar environment. In this work we describe the neutron capture (n,γ) measurement on two of these nuclei of interest, 204Tl and 171Tm, from target production to the final measurement, performed successfully at the n-TOF facility at CERN in 2014 and 2015. Preliminary results on the ongoing experimental data analysis will also be shown. These results include the first ever experimental observation of capture resonances for these two nuclei

Measurement of the 244^{244}Cm and 246^{246}Cm Neutron-Induced Cross Sections at the n_TOF Facility

The neutron capture reactions of the $^{244}$Cm and $^{246}$Cm isotopes open the path for the formation of heavier Cm isotopes and of heavier elements such as Bk and Cf in a nuclear reactor. In addition, both isotopes belong to the minor actinides with a large contribution to the decay heat and to the neutron emission in irradiated fuels proposed for the transmutation of nuclear waste and fast critical reactors. The available experimental data for both isotopes are very scarce. We measured the neutron capture cross section with isotopically enriched samples of $^{244}$Cm and $^{246}$Cm provided by JAEA. The measurement covers the range from 1 eV to 250 eV in the n_TOF Experimental Area 2 (EAR-2). In addition, a normalization measurement with the $^{244}$Cm sample was performed at Experimental Area 1 (EAR-1) with the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC)