γ-Ray-Radiation-Scissioned Chitosan as a Gene Carrier and Its Improved in uitro Gene Transfection Performance

Chitosan (CS) is expected to be an ideal gene carrier for its high biosafety. In this work, CS with low molecular weight were prepared through the γ-ray radiation on the acetic acid solution of CS. The CS chains were scissioned under the γ-ray radiation, and the molecular weight (MW) of CS decreased with the absorbed dose. When the absorbed dose was above 30 kGy, the molecular weight of CS decreased about an order of magnitude. The γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS can e ectively bind with plasmid (pEGFP) through complex coacervation method, forming pEGFP/ γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles with a size of 200-300 nm. The complex particles have good stability and little cytotoxicity. The in uitro gene transfection efficiencies of the pEGFP/ γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS complex particles were investigated by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry. The results showed that the gene vectors using γ-ray-radiation-scissioned CS as the carrier will possess better gene transfection efficiency than those using natural high-MW CS as the carrier. The higher the absorbed dose, the smaller the MW of CS and the better transfection efficiency of the corresponding gene vector. This work provides a green and simple method on the preparation of CS-based gene vectors with high efficiency and biosafety.     

Verification of radiotherapy doses by EPR dosimetry in patients' teeth

The aim of this work was to verify applicability of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) ex vivo dosimetry in teeth enamel for determination of doses absorbed by patients during radiotherapy with radiation fields covering head regions and to examine with what accuracy the doses predicted by radiotherapy treatment plan (RTP) can be confirmed by doses measured ex post by the EPR method. The doses were determined in 22 enamel samples obtained from 11 patients who, after their radiotherapy treatment underwent extraction of teeth due to medical reasons. The delivered doses were determined by measuring EPR signals in enamel samples from the extracted teeth; magnitude of these signals is proportional to concentration of stable free radicals induced by radiation in the hydroxyapatite content of enamel. The measured doses were compared with doses planned in the teeth locations by RTP systems. The relation between the measured (D_m) and the planned (D_p) doses can be described as a linear function: D_m = s·D_p + b, with the slope s = 0.93 ± 0.03 and the intercept b = 0.67 ± 1.26. The deviations between the measured and calculated doses were in the (−12.6%, +1.9%) range with the average deviation of – 4.6%. It is concluded, than more accurate measurements, achievable when using a higher calibration dose than in the present study, are necessary to confirm or to deny the observed bias between the measured and planned doses.     

Radiation damage in soft X-ray microscopy

The rates of chemical transformation by radiation damage of polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and fibrinogen (Fg) in a X-ray photoemission electron microscope (X-PEEM) and in a scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM) have been measured quantitatively using synchrotron radiation. As part of the method of dose evaluation in X-PEEM, the characteristic (1/e) sampling depth of X-PEEM for polystyrene in the C 1s region was measured to be 4 ± 1 nm. Critical doses for chemical change as monitored by changes in the X-ray absorption spectra are 80 (12), 280 (40) and 1230 (180) MGy (1 MGy = 6.242*ρ eV/nm³, where ρ is the polymer density in g/cm³) at 300 eV photon energy for PMMA, Fg and PS, respectively. The critical dose for each material is comparable in X-PEEM and STXM and the values cited are thus the mean of the values determined by X-PEEM and STXM. C 1s, N 1s and O 1s spectroscopy of the damaged materials is used to gain insight into the chemical changes that soft X-rays induce in these materials.     

Radiation damage and annealing in Sb implanted diamond

The predicted, but as yet unobserved, intradonor absorption spectrum of the hydrogenic-like donors in CdF₂ crystals is presented. The role of phonon coupling in these spectra is discussed. From the data on the insulator-semiconductor transition in CdPbF₂ it is concluded that the dominant factor in convertibility of CdF₂ to a semiconducting state is its electron affinity, the largest among the fluorites (x≈4 eV).     

On the differentiability of depth distribution function of deposited energy, momentum and ion range

Based on the translational invariance of a medium,a new theorem has been proposed and proved rigorously:the depth distributions of the deposited energy,momentum and ion range must be infinitely differentiable functions in amorphous or polycrystalline infinite targets by ion bombardment,if these functions exist.The origin of the “discontinuity”,derived by Dr Glazov in 1995 in J.Phys.:Condens.Matter 7 6365,has been analysed in detail.For the power cross section,neglecting electronic stopping,the linear transport equations determining the depth distribution functions of the deposited energy and monentum (by taking the threshold enerkgy into account )have been solved asymptotically.An important formula derived by Dr Glazov has been confirmed and generalized.The results agree with the new theorem.     

Helium and point defect accumulation: (i) microstructure and mechanical behaviour

Ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steels are good candidate structural materials for the future fusion reactors and spallation sources. However, irradiation of steels is known to produce hardening, loss of ductility, shift in ductile to brittle transition temperature (DBTT) and reduction of fracture toughness and creep resistance starting at low doses. Helium (He), produced by transmutation during the irradiation, also impacts mechanical properties. Numerous experimental and theoretical studies on the evolution of the microstructure of steels under irradiation have been conducted until now. We review the effect of irradiation-induced point defects and in particular of He on the mechanical properties of F/M steels. To cite this article: R. Schäublin et al., C. R. Physique 9 (2008).     

A half-moment model for radiative transfer in a 3D gray medium and its reduction to a moment model for hot, opaque sources

We present in this paper a new 3D half-moment model for radiative transfer in a gray medium, called the model, which uses maximum entropy closure. This model is a generalization to 3D of the 1D version recently proposed in (J. Comp. Phys. 180 (2002) 584). The direction space Ω is divided into two pieces, Ω⁺ and Ω^-, in a dynamical way by the plane perpendicular to the total radiative flux, and the half moments are defined from these subspaces. The model closure and the integrations of the radiative transfer equation performed on the moving Ω^± spaces are detailed. 1D planar results, which have motivated the extension of the model of (J. Comp. Phys. 180 (2002) 584) to multi-dimensions, are shown. These results are very good. The model is thereafter derived for 3D spherically symmetric geometry, where the correctness of the non-trivial border terms can be checked. Two 3D spherically symmetric problems are numerically solved in order to show the accuracy of the closure and the role of the border terms. Once again, compared to the solution obtained with a ray tracing solver, results are very good. From the 3D half-moment model, a new moment model, called , is derived for the particular case of a 3D hot and opaque source radiating into a cold medium, for applications such as simulations of stellar atmospheres and fires. Two-dimensional numerical results are presented and compared to those obtained solving the RTE and with other moment models. They demonstrate the very good accuracy of the model, its good convergence properties, and better prediction compared to all other existing moment models in its domain of applicability.     

Radiative heat transfer analysis in pure water heater used for semiconductor processing

A simplified one-dimensional model is presented to analyze the non-gray radiative transfer in pure water heater used in the rinsing processes within semiconductor production lines, and the ray-tracing method is extended to simulate the radiative heat transfer. To examine the accuracy of the simplified model, the distribution of radiation absorption is determined by the ray-tracing method based the simplified model and compared with the data obtained by three-dimensional non-gray model in combination with Monte Carlo method in reference, and the effects of the water thickness on the radiation absorption are analyzed. The results show that the simplified model has a good accuracy in solving the radiation absorption in the pure water heater. The radiation absorption increases with the water thickness, but when the water thickness is greater than , the radiation absorption increases very slowly with the water thickness.     

Performance Test of CW 300?GHz Gyrotron FU CW I

A 300 GHz CW gyrotron FU CW I has been developed and installed in the Research Center for Development of Far-Infrared Region, University of Fukui as a power source of a high frequency material processing system. Its performance was tested and the maximum power of 1.75 kW / CW has been attained at the beam voltage of 15 kV and the beam current of 1A. The maximum window power efficiency of 15.5% has been obtained at the cathode voltage slightly lower than 15 kV. This gyrotron is designed to deliver a Gaussian beam after mode conversion from the oscillation mode TE_22,8 in the cavity with a complex of an internal radiator and beam shaping mirrors. The detailed measurement with an infrared camera has confirmed that a Gaussian beam is radiated when the magnetic field strength B _c at the cavity is adjusted at a proper value. However, within a range of B _c , the output power is emerged into multiple directions, which suggests simultaneous oscillation of competing cavity modes.