Development of an energy-binned photon-counting detector for X-ray and gamma-ray imaging

The aim of this study is to develop an energy-binned photon-counting (EBPC) detector that enables us to provide energy information of x-rays with a reasonable count statistics. We used Al-pixel/CdTe/Pt semiconductor detectors, which had an active area of 8 mm×144 mm and consisted of 18 modules aligned linearly. The size of a CdTe detector module was 8 mm×8 mm and the thickness of the CdTe crystal was 1 mm. Each module consisted of 40×40 pixels and the pixel size was 200 μm×200 μm. We applied the bias voltage of −500 V to the Pt common electrode. The detector counted the number of x-ray photons with four different energy windows, and output four energy-binned images with pixel depths of 12, 12, 11 and 10 bits at a frame rate of 1200 Hz (300 Hz×4 energy bins). The basic performance of the detector was evaluated in several experiments. The results showed that the detector realized the photon counting rate of 0.4×10⁶ counts/sec/pixel (10⁷ counts/sec/mm²), energy resolution 4.4% FWHM at 122 keV. The integral uniformity of the detector was about 1% and the differential uniformity was about 1%. In addition, the image quality was examined with a resolution chart and step-wedge phantoms made of aluminum and polymethyl methacrylate. And we compared the quality of an acquired image with that acquired with an energy integration detector. The results of these experiments showed that the developed detector had desirable intrinsic characteristics for x-ray photon counting imaging.     

Experimental study of perforation and cracking of water-filled aluminum tubes impacted by steel spheres

Water-filled aluminum tubes were subjected to impact by six steel spherical projectiles of different diameters at impact velocities of 40–200 m/s. The effects of the diameter of the steel projectiles and of the material properties of the tubes on cracking and perforation were discussed. Water decreased the wall strength of the aluminum alloy tubes, and the impact velocity at which a steel projectile first passes through the tube wall decreased with increasing diameter of the steel projectile. Using the velocity at which the steel projectile perforates the tube wall, empirical equations of the energies required to perforate the tube wall were derived. Also, the energy balance in the steel projectile during a collision is discussed referring to the pressure history in the filled water and the velocities of the steel projectile before and after collision.     

High-throughput immunophenotyping by surface plasmon resonance imaging

Cell binding assays on antibody arrays permit the rapid immunophenotyping of living cells. The throughput of the analysis, however, is still limited due to our inability to perform parallel and quantitative detection of cells captured on the array. To address this limitation, we employed here an imaging technique based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). SPR has been frequently used to monitor capture of proteins on antibody microarrays, while few cases were reported for capture of cells. Antibody arrays were prepared through the photopatterning of an alkanethiol monolayer on a gold-evaporated glass plate and the subsequent immobilization of various antibodies onto 4-9 separate spots created by photopatterning. A glass slip was mounted onto the array with a thin spacer to construct a parallel-plate chamber. Leukemia cells were injected into the chamber to conduct a binding assay, while refractive index changes at the vicinity of the array surface were monitored by SPR imaging. We observed that SPR signals were intensified on specific antibody spots but not on nonspecific spots. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that the observed SPR signals were attributed to cell deformations caused by multivalent interactions with immobilized antibody, which effectively elevated the refractive index of a medium phase within an evanescent field. This effect could be suitably utilized to monitor quantitatively cell binding to multiple spots from a heterogeneous cell population.     

Pressureless sintering and characterization of cordierite/ZrO2 composites

Cordierite/ZrO₂ composites with 5 to 25 wt% ZrO₂ were fabricated by conventional powder mixing and pressureless sintering method. Their densification behavior, microstructure, mechanical and thermal properties were studied. By dispersing 25 wt% (9.57 vol%) ZrO₂, densified cordierite/ZrO₂ composite with a relative density of 98.5% was obtained at an optimum sintering condition of 1440 °C and 2 h. ZrO₂ particles were homogenously dispersed within matrix grains and at the grain boundaries. The intragranular particles were finer than 100 nm and the intergranular particles were coarser. Both fracture strength and toughness could be enhanced more than two times higher, compare to those of monolithic cordierite, by dispersing 25 wt% ZrO₂ into the cordierite matrix. The toughening mechanism in the present composites was mainly attributed to martensitic transformation due to ZrO₂ dispersion. Electronic Publication     

A Microcomputer System for Spatiotemporal Visual Receptive Field Analysis

A microcomputer system was developed to measure visual spatiotemporal receptive fields. The system performs three functions: 1) generation of a binary spatiotemporal white-noise stimulus, 2) acquisition of spike discharges from retinal ganglion cells, and 3) extraction of the linear part of the spatiotemporal receptive flelds by cross correlating the input against the output. We have applied this system to the measurement of the spatiotemporal receptive fields of cat and catfish retinal ganglion cells.     

High-speed and high-power GaInAsP/InP junction field-effecttransistor with submicron gate

Depletion-mode GaInAsP/InP junction field-effect transistors have been fabricated on Fe-doped semi-insulating InP substrates using liquid-phase epitaxial growth techniques. The authors achieved transconductance of 24 mS (160 mS/mm), drain-source saturation current at an on gate bias of 486 mA/mm and current cutoff frequency of 18.8 GHz using a GaInAsP channel layer owing to the gate length reduction     

典型含氮有机物的氯消毒副产物生成潜能研究

污水再生利用是解决我国城市水资源短缺的有效途径，消毒是保证再生水水质安全的必要措施。氯消毒可以有效杀灭病原微生物，但同时也会生成各种具有毒性和“三致”效应的消毒副产物。由于含氮有机物是污水氯消毒副产物的一类重要前体物，故选取20种基本氨基酸为研究对象，考察了它们经氯消毒后生成三氯甲烷、卤乙酸、卤乙腈、三氯硝基甲烷、1，1-二氯-2-丙酮和1，1，1-三氯-2-丙酮的潜能。结果表明，各种氨基酸的消毒副产物生成潜能与它们的R基结构密切相关，其中R基上带有活性苯环的色氨酸和酪氨酸均表现出了较高的三氯甲烷、卤乙酸和卤乙腈生成潜能。     

Mercury and selenium concentrations in the internal organs of toothed whales and dolphins marketed for human consumption in Japan

Small cetaceans (toothed whales odontoceti and dolphins delphinidae) have been traditionally hunted along the coast of Japan and fresh red meat and blubber, as well as boiled internal organs such as liver, kidney, lung and small intestine, are still being sold for human consumption. We surveyed mercury contamination in boiled liver, kidney and lung products marketed in Japan between 1999-2001. The average +/- S.D. of total mercury (T-Hg) was 370 +/- 525 (range: 7.60 approximately 1980, n = 26) microg/g in liver, 40.5 +/- 48.5 (7.30-95.1, n = 15) microg/g in kidney and 42.8 +/- 43.8 (2.10-79.6, n = 23) microg/g in lung. A high correlation was observed between T-Hg and selenium (Se) concentrations in these organs, supporting the formation of a Hg-Se complex. The formation of a Hg-Se complex probably contribute to the detoxification of Hg for cetaceans and allows a very large accumulation of Hg in livers. The provisional permitted level of T-Hg in marine foods set by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare is 0.4 microg/ g, and the provisional permitted weekly intake (PTWI) set by WHO is 5 microg/kg bw/week. The maximal T-Hg detected in boiled liver (1,980 microg/g) exceeds the permitted level by approximately 5,000 times and the consumption of only 0.15 g of liver exceeds the PTWI of 60 kg of body weight of the consumer, suggesting the possibility of an acute intoxication by T-Hg even after a single consumption of the product.     

波形测量技术的发展趋势--兼谈YOKOGAWADE的示波器发展

本文着重论述了波形测量技术的最新发展趋势。