Development and test of the high-precision gamma-beam monitor at the ESFRI facility ELI-NP

This document describes the development of a fission chamber for gamma beam intensity monitoring at the high-energy gamma line at ELI-NP. The fission chamber foreseen for monitoring the gamma beam intensity on the high-energy beam line at ELI-NP is an ionization chamber with several 238U deposits of a thickness in the range from 100 to 150 μg/cm2 in a compact design. The innovative design of the chamber allows measuring for each individual micro pulse arriving at a time interval of 1.6x10^-8 s.JRC.G.2-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard

Quality of life after liver transplantation : state of the art

Quality of life (QoL) after deceased donor liver transplantation is increasingly recognized as a major outcome parameter. We reviewed recent publications in this rapidly evolving field in order to summarize recent achievements in the field and to define opportunities and perspectives for research and improvement of patient care. QoL does improve after liver transplantation according to a typical pattern. During the first year, there is a significant improvement in QoL. After one year, the improvement does stabilise and tends to decline slightly. In addition to the physical condition, different psychological parameters (such as depression, anxiety, sexual function) and socio-demographic elements (professional state, sex, marital state) seem to impact QoL. Opportunities for further research are the use of dedicated questionnaires and identification of influencing factors for QoL

Prompt fission neutron emission: Problems and challenges

This paper presents some of the challenges ahead of us even after 75 years of the discovery of the fission process and large progress made since then. The focus is on application orientation, which requires improved measurements on fission cross-sections and neutron and γ-ray multiplicities. Experimental possibilities have vastly improved the past decade leading to developments of highly sophisticated detector systems and the use of digital data acquisition and signal processing. The development of innovative fast nuclear reactor technology needs improved respective nuclear data. Advancements in theoretical modelling also require better experimental data. Theory has made progress in calculating fission fragment distributions (i.e. GEF code) as well as prompt neutron and γ-ray emission to catch up with the improved experiments.JRC.D.4-Standards for Nuclear Safety, Security and Safeguard

Complexity and composition of synthesized web services

The paper investigates fundamental decision problems and composition synthesis for Web services commonly found in practice. We propose a notion of synthesized Web services (SWS’s) to specify the behaviors of the services. Upon receiving a sequence of input messages, an SWS issues multiple queries to a database and generates actions, in parallel; it produces external messages and database updates by synthesizing the actions parallelly generated. In contrast to previous models for Web services, SWS’s advocate parallel processing and (deterministic) synthesis of actions. We classify SWS’s based on what queries an SWS can issue, how the synthesis of actions is expressed, and whether unbounded input sequences are allowed in a single interaction session. We show that the behaviors of Web services supported by various prior models, data-driven or not, can be specified by different SWS classes. For each of these classes we study the non-emptiness, validation and equivalence problems, and establish matching upper and lower bounds on these problems. We also provide complexity bounds on composition synthesis for these SWS classes, identifying decidable cases

Loss of DPP6 in neurodegenerative dementia : a genetic player in the dysfunction of neuronal excitability

Emerging evidence suggested a converging mechanism in neurodegenerative brain diseases (NBD) involving early neuronal network dysfunctions and alterations in the homeostasis of neuronal firing as culprits of neurodegeneration. In this study, we used paired-end short-read and direct long-read whole genome sequencing to investigate an unresolved autosomal dominant dementia family significantly linked to 7q36. We identified and validated a chromosomal inversion of ca. 4Mb, segregating on the disease haplotype and disrupting the coding sequence of dipeptidyl-peptidase 6 gene (DPP6). DPP6 resequencing identified significantly more rare variants-nonsense, frame-shift, and missense-in early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD, p value = 0.03, OR = 2.21 95% CI 1.05-4.82) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD, p = 0.006, OR = 2.59, 95% CI 1.28-5.49) patient cohorts. DPP6 is a type II transmembrane protein with a highly structured extracellular domain and is mainly expressed in brain, where it binds to the potassium channel K(v)4.2 enhancing its expression, regulating its gating properties and controlling the dendritic excitability of hippocampal neurons. Using in vitro modeling, we showed that the missense variants found in patients destabilize DPP6 and reduce its membrane expression (p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001) leading to a loss of protein. Reduced DPP6 and/or K(v)4.2 expression was also detected in brain tissue of missense variant carriers. Loss of DPP6 is known to cause neuronal hyperexcitability and behavioral alterations in Dpp6-KO mice. Taken together, the results of our genomic, genetic, expression and modeling analyses, provided direct evidence supporting the involvement of DPP6 loss in dementia. We propose that loss of function variants have a higher penetrance and disease impact, whereas the missense variants have a variable risk contribution to disease that can vary from high to low penetrance. Our findings of DPP6, as novel gene in dementia, strengthen the involvement of neuronal hyperexcitability and alteration in the homeostasis of neuronal firing as a disease mechanism to further investigate

Nieuw onderzoek op het sitecomplex langs de Molse Nete te Lommel

Voorafgaand aan de inrichting van het bedrijventerrein "Kristalpark III" te Lommel vond tussen half juni en eind september 2009 een grootschalig booronderzoek plaats ten noorden van de vallei van de Molse Nete. Een terrein van ongeveer 11 ha groot werd onderzocht door middel van veldkartering, paleolandschappelijke boringen en een 4000-tal boringen met de megaboor. De bewaringstoestand van de bodem werd in kaart gebracht en bleek zeer variabel te zijn. Op enkele plaatsen bevond zich onder de podsolbodem een paleobodem, de zogenaamde Usselobodem. De aanwezigheid van een uitgestrekt steentijdsitecomplex werd geattesteerd. Zeer waarschijnlijk strekt het zich in de tijd uit van het finaalpaleolithicum tot en met het laatneolithicum.status: publishe

Identification of Prompt Fission Gamma-rays with Lanthanum-chloride Scintillation Detectors

In this paper we demonstrate the employment of LaCl3:Ce scintillation detectors for the identification of prompt fission gamma-rays from gamma-radiation in contrast to other reactions. We present the properties of cylindrical 1.5 in.×1.5 in. detectors in terms of intrinsic activity, energy resolution, intrinsic full peak efficiency and intrinsic timing resolution. In addition, we show results from the measurement of gamma-rays emitted in coincidence with the spontaneous fission of 252Cf, which lead us to the conclusion that the properties of the detectors used in this work, in particular the good timing resolution and a reasonably good energy resolution, are more than just sufficient for the assessment of prompt γ-heat in future nuclear reactors as requested by the OECD. Hence, in our opinion, LaCl3:Ce detectors, compared to those made out of LaBr3:Ce crystals, represent an appropriate and quasi low-cost choice for the above mentioned applications.JRC.D.4-Nuclear physic