CORAM (COsmic RAy Mission): An outreach program one century after Pacini and Hess works

Abstract CORAM (COsmic RAy Mission) is an outreach program carried out by INFN and the University of Salento in close collaboration with high schools. Students and their teachers are involved in the design, construction, test and operation of detectors for the measurement of several properties of the cosmic ray flux. The results of a set of measurements, made with a first detector prototype at different altitudes and underground, will be described

The front end electronics for the drift chamber readout in MEG experiment upgrade

Front-end electronics plays an essential role in drift chambers for time resolution and, therefore, spatial resolution. The use of cluster timing techniques, by measuring the arriving times of all the individual ionization clusters after the first one, may enable to reach resolutions even below 100 μm in the measurement of the impact parameter. A high performance front-end electronics, characterized by low distortion, low noise and a wide bandwidth has been developed with the purpose to implement cluster timing techniques in the new drift chamber for the upgrade of the MEG experiment at Paul Sherrer Institut (CH)

Commissioning of the MEG II tracker system

The MEG experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) represents the state of the art in the search for the charged Lepton Flavour Violating (cLFV) $\mu^+ \rightarrow e^+ \gamma$ decay. With the phase 1, MEG set the new world best upper limit on the \mbox{BR}(\mu^+ \rightarrow e^+ \gamma) < 4.2 \times 10^{-13} (90% C.L.). With the phase 2, MEG II, the experiment aims at reaching a sensitivity enhancement of about one order of magnitude compared to the previous MEG result. The new Cylindrical Drift CHamber (CDCH) is a key detector for MEG II. CDCH is a low-mass single volume detector with high granularity: 9 layers of 192 drift cells, few mm wide, defined by $\sim 12000$ wires in a stereo configuration for longitudinal hit localization. The filling gas mixture is Helium:Isobutane (90:10). The total radiation length is $1.5 \times 10^{-3}$ \mbox{X}_0, thus minimizing the Multiple Coulomb Scattering (MCS) contribution and allowing for a single-hit resolution $< 120$ $\mu$m and an angular and momentum resolutions of 6 mrad and 90 keV/c respectively. This article presents the CDCH commissioning activities at PSI after the wiring phase at INFN Lecce and the assembly phase at INFN Pisa. The endcaps preparation, HV tests and conditioning of the chamber are described, aiming at reaching the final stable working point. The integration into the MEG II experimental apparatus is described, in view of the first data taking with cosmic rays and $\mu^+$ beam during the 2018 and 2019 engineering runs. The first gas gain results are also shown. A full engineering run with all the upgraded detectors and the complete DAQ electronics is expected to start in 2020, followed by three years of physics data taking.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, proceeding at INSTR'20 conference, accepted for publication in JINS

Single-hit resolution measurement with MEG II drift chamber prototypes

Drift chambers operated with helium-based gas mixtures represent a common solution for tracking charged particles keeping the material budget in the sensitive volume to a minimum. The drawback of this solution is the worsening of the spatial resolution due to primary ionisation fluctuations, which is a limiting factor for high granularity drift chambers like the MEG II tracker. We report on the measurements performed on three different prototypes of the MEG II drift chamber aimed at determining the achievable single-hit resolution. The prototypes were operated with helium/isobutane gas mixtures and exposed to cosmic rays, electron beams and radioactive sources. Direct measurements of the single hit resolution performed with an external tracker returned a value of 110 $\mu$m, consistent with the values obtained with indirect measurements performed with the other prototypes.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figure

New concepts for light mechanical structures of cylindrical drift chambers

A significant reduction in the amount of material at the end plates of a drift chamber can be obtained by the simple consideration of separating, in the mechanical structure, the gas containment function from the wire tension support function. According to this scheme, the wires are anchored to a self-sustaining light structure ("wire cage") surrounded by a very thin skin ("gas envelope") of suitable profile to compensate for the gas differential pressure with respect to the outside. The "wire cage" is schematically made of a set of radial spokes, constrained into a polygonal shape at the inner ends and extended to the outer endplate rim, thus subdividing the chamber in identical sectors. The drift chamber is, then, built by stacking up radially, in each of the sectors and between adjacent spokes, printed circuit boards, where the ends of the wires are soldered, alternated with proper spacers, to define the cell width. A system of adjustable tie-rods steers the wire tension to the outer endplate rim, where a rigid cylindrical carbon fibre support structure, bearing the total wire load, is attached. Two thin carbon fibre domes, free to deform under the gas pressure without affecting the wire tension and conveniently shaped to minimize the stress at the inner rim, contribute to the "gas envelope" and, together with an inner thin cylindrical foil and with the outer structural support, enclose the gas volume

A 10-3 drift velocity monitoring chamber

The MEG-II experiment searches for the lepton flavor violating decay: mu in electron and gamma. The reconstruction of the positron trajectory uses a cylindrical drift chamber operated with a mixture of He and iC4H10 gas. It is important to provide a stable performance of the detector in terms of its electron transport parameters, avalanche multiplication, composition and purity of the gas mixture. In order to have a continuous monitoring of the quality of gas, we plan to install a small drift chamber, with a simple geometry that allows to measure very precisely the electron drift velocity in a prompt way. This monitoring chamber will be supplied with gas coming from the inlet and the outlet of the detector to determine if gas contaminations originate inside the main chamber or in the gas supply system. The chamber is a small box with cathode walls, that define a highly uniform electric field inside two adjacent drift cells. Along the axis separating the two drift cells, four staggered sense wires alternated with five guard wires collect the drifting electrons. The trigger is provided by two 90Sr weak calibration radioactive sources placed on top of a two thin scintillator tiles telescope. The whole system is designed to give a prompt response (within a minute) about drift velocity variations at the 0.001 level

Radioligand therapy (RLT) as neoadjuvant treatment for inoperable pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: a literature review

In the last 10 years, several literature reports supported radioligand therapy (RLT) in neoadjuvant settings for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs). Indeed, primary tumor shrinkage has been frequently reported following RLT in unresectable or borderline resectable PanNETs. Moreover, RLT-induced intratumoral modifications facilitate surgery, both on primary tumor and metastasis, having a great impact on progression free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and quality of life (QoL). However, prospective controlled investigations are necessary to confirm preliminary data and to define the best RLT scheme and the ideal patient that, in a multidisciplinary approach, should be referred to neoadjuvant RLT

PET-Derived Radiomics and Artificial Intelligence in Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Breast cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous malignancy that still represents the second cause of cancer-related death among women worldwide. Due to the heterogeneity of BC, the correct identification of valuable biomarkers able to predict tumor biology and the best treatment approaches are still far from clear. Although molecular imaging with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has improved the characterization of BC, these methods are not free from drawbacks. In recent years, radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) have been playing an important role in the detection of several features normally unseen by the human eye in medical images. The present review provides a summary of the current status of radiomics and AI in different clinical settings of BC. A systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus was conducted, including all articles published in English that explored radiomics and AI analyses of PET/CT images in BC. Several studies have demonstrated the potential role of such new features for the staging and prognosis as well as the assessment of biological characteristics. Radiomics and AI features appear to be promising in different clinical settings of BC, although larger prospective trials are needed to confirm and to standardize this evidence

The Tracking performance for the IDEA drift chamber

The IDEA detector concept for a future e+e- collider adopts an ultra-low mass drift chamber as a central tracking system. The He-based ultra-low mass drift chamber is designed to provide efficient tracking, a high-precision momentum measurement, and excellent particle identification by exploiting the cluster counting technique. This paper describes the expected tracking performance, obtained with full and fast simulation, for track reconstruction on detailed simulated physics events. Moreover, the details of the construction parameters of the drift chamber, including the inspection of new material for the wires, new techniques for soldering the wires, the development of an improved schema for the drift cell, and the choice of a gas mixture, will be described

PSMA PET/CT in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: Myth or Reality?

Background: prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand PET has been recently incorporated into international guidelines for several different indications in prostate cancer (PCa) patients. However, there are still some open questions regarding the role of PSMA ligand PET in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The aim of this work is to assess the clinical value of PSMA ligand PET/CT in patients with CRPC. Results: PSMA ligand PET has demonstrated higher detection rates in comparison to conventional imaging and allows for a significant reduction in the number of M0 CRPC patients. However, its real impact on patients’ prognosis is still an open question. Moreover, in CRPC patients, PSMA ligand PET presents some sensitivity and specificity limitations. Due to its heterogeneity, CRPC may present a mosaic of neoplastic clones, some of which could be PSMA−/FDG+, or vice versa. Likewise, unspecific bone uptake (UBU) and second primary neoplasms (SNPs) overexpressing PSMA in the neoangiogenic vessels represent potential specificity issues. Integrated multi-tracer imaging (PSMA ligand and [18F]FDG PET) together with a multidisciplinary discussion could allow for reaching the most accurate evaluation of each patient from a precision medicine point of view