Abstract: Fluoroscopy guided interventional procedures provide remarkable benefits to patients. However, medical staff working near the scattered radiation field may be exposed to high cumulative equivalent doses, thus requiring shielding devices such as lead aprons and thyroid collars. In this situation, it remains an acceptable practice to derive equivalent doses to the eye lenses or other unprotected soft tissues with a dosimeter placed above these protective devices. Nevertheless, the radiation backscattered by the lead shield differs from that generated during dosimeter calibration with a water phantom. In this study, a passive personal thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) was modelled by means of the Monte Carlo (MC) code Penelope. The results obtained were validated against measurements performed in reference conditions in a secondary standard dosimetry laboratory. Next, the MC model was used to evaluate the backscatter correction factor needed for the case where the dosimeter is worn over a lead shield to estimate the personal equivalent dose H-p(0.07) to unprotected soft tissues. For this purpose, the TLD was irradiated over a water slab phantom with a photon beam representative of the result of a fluoroscopy beam scattered by a patient. Incident beam angles of 0 degrees and 60 degrees, and lead thicknesses between the TLD and phantom of 0.25 and 0.5 mm Pb were considered. A backscatter correction factor of 1.23 (independent of lead thickness) was calculated comparing the results with those faced in reference conditions (i.e., without lead shield and with an angular incidence of 0 degrees). The corrected dose algorithm was validated in laboratory conditions with dosi-meters irradiated over a thyroid collar and angular incidences of 0 degrees, 40 degrees and 60 degrees, as well as with dosimeters worn by interventional radiologists and cardiologists. The corrected dose algorithm provides a better approach to estimate the equivalent dose to unprotected soft tissues such as eye lenses. Dosimeters that are not shielded from backscatter radiation might underestimate personal equivalent doses when worn over a lead apron and, therefore, should be specifically characterized for this purpose.

Abstract: Thin S-33 samples for the study of the S-33(n,alpha)Si-30 cross-section at the n_TOF facility at CERN were made by thermal evaporation of S-33 powder onto a dedicated substrate made of kapton covered with thin layers of copper, chromium and titanium. This method has provided for the first time bare sulfur samples a few centimeters in diameter. The samples have shown an excellent adherence with no mass loss after few years and no sublimation in vacuum at room temperature. The determination of the mass thickness of S-33 has been performed by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The samples have been successfully tested under neutron irradiation.

Abstract: We revisit the relation between the neutrino masses and the spontaneous breaking of the B-L gauge symmetry. We discuss the main scenarios for Dirac and Majorana neutrinos and point out two simple mechanisms for neutrino masses. In this context the neutrino masses can be generated either at tree level or at quantum level and one predicts the existence of very light sterile neutrinos with masses below the eV scale. The predictions for lepton number violating processes such as μ-> e and μ-> e gamma are discussed in detail. The impact from the cosmological constraints on the effective number of relativistic degree of freedom is investigated.

Abstract: We look into the newly observed Omega (2012) state from the molecular perspective in which the resonance is generated from the (K) over bar Xi*, eta Omega and (K) over bar Xi channels. We find that this picture provides a natural explanation of the properties of the Omega (2012) state. We stress that the molecular nature of the resonance is revealed with a large coupling of the Omega (2012) to the (K) over bar Xi* channel, that can be observed in the Omega (2012) -> (K) over bar pi Xi decay which is incorporated automatically in our chiral unitary approach via the use of the spectral function of Xi* in the evaluation of the (K) over bar Xi* loop function.

Abstract: We show that the tau(-) decay into f(1)(1285) pi(-)nu(tau) is dominated by a triangle loop mechanism with K*, (K) over bar* and K( or (K) over bar) as internal lines, which manifests a strong enhancement reminiscent of a nearby singularity present in the narrow K* limit and the near (K) over bar* K* threshold of the internal K* propagators. The f1(1285) is then produced by its coupling to the K* (K) over bar and (K) over bar* K which is obtained from a previous model where this resonance was dynamically generated as a molecular K* (K) over bar (or (K) over bar* K) state using the techniques of the chiral unitary approach. We make predictions for the f(1)pi mass distribution which significantly deviates from the phase-space shape, due to the distortion caused by the triangle mechanism and the K* (K) over bar threshold. We find a good agreement with the experimental value within uncertainties for the integrated partial decay width, which is a clear indication of the importance of the triangle mechanism in this decay and supports the dynamical origin of the f(1)(1285) as a K* (K) over bar and (K) over bar* K molecular state.