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Tetrault, M. A., Oliver, J. F., Bergeron, M., Lecomte, R., & Fontaine, R. (2010). Real Time Coincidence Detection Engine for High Count Rate Timestamp Based PET. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 57(1), 117–124.
Abstract: Coincidence engines follow two main implementation flows: timestamp based systems and AND-gate based systems. The latter have been more widespread in recent years because of its lower cost and high efficiency. However, they are highly dependent on the selected electronic components, they have limited flexibility once assembled and they are customized to fit a specific scanner's geometry. Timestamp based systems are gathering more attention lately, especially with high channel count fully digital systems. These new systems must however cope with important singles count rates. One option is to record every detected event and postpone coincidence detection offline. For daily use systems, a real time engine is preferable because it dramatically reduces data volume and hence image preprocessing time and raw data management. This paper presents the timestamp based coincidence engine for the LabPET(TM), a small animal PET scanner with up to 4608 individual readout avalanche photodiode channels. The engine can handle up to 100 million single events per second and has extensive flexibility because it resides in programmable logic devices. It can be adapted for any detector geometry or channel count, can be ported to newer, faster programmable devices and can have extra modules added to take advantage of scanner-specific features. Finally, the user can select between full processing mode for imaging protocols and minimum processing mode to study different approaches for coincidence detection with offline software.
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BABAR Collaboration(Aubert, B. et al), Azzolini, V., Lopez-March, N., Martinez-Vidal, F., Milanes, D. A., & Oyanguren, A. (2010). Observation of inclusive D*(+/-) production in the decay of Y(1S). Phys. Rev. D, 81(1), 011102–8pp.
Abstract: We present a study of the inclusive D*(+/-) production in the decay of Y(1S) using (98.6 +/- 0.9) X 10(6) Y(2S) mesons collected with the BABAR detector at the Y(2S) resonance. Using the decay chain Y(2S) -> pi(+)pi Y-(1S), Y(1S) -> D*X-+/-, where X is unobserved, we measure the branching fraction B[Y(1S) -> D*X-+/-] = (2.52 +/- 0.13(stat) +/- 0.15(syst)% and the D*(+/-) momentum distribution in the rest frame of the Y(1S). We find evidence for an excess of D*+/- production over the expected rate from the virtual photon annihilation process Y(1S) -> gamma* -> c (c) over bar -> D*X-+/-.
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Rivard, M. J., Granero, D., Perez-Calatayud, J., & Ballester, F. (2010). Influence of photon energy spectra from brachytherapy sources on Monte Carlo simulations of kerma and dose rates in water and air. Med. Phys., 37(2), 869–876.
Abstract: Methods: For Ir-192, I-125, and Pd-103, the authors considered from two to five published spectra. Spherical sources approximating common brachytherapy sources were assessed. Kerma and dose results from GEANT4, MCNP5, and PENELOPE-2008 were compared for water and air. The dosimetric influence of Ir-192, I-125, and Pd-103 spectral choice was determined. Results: For the spectra considered, there were no statistically significant differences between kerma or dose results based on Monte Carlo code choice when using the same spectrum. Water-kerma differences of about 2%, 2%, and 0.7% were observed due to spectrum choice for Ir-192, I-125, and Pd-103, respectively (independent of radial distance), when accounting for photon yield per Bq. Similar differences were observed for air-kerma rate. However, their ratio (as used in the dose-rate constant) did not significantly change when the various photon spectra were selected because the differences compensated each other when dividing dose rate by air-kerma strength. Conclusions: Given the standardization of radionuclide data available from the National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC) and the rigorous infrastructure for performing and maintaining the data set evaluations, NNDC spectra are suggested for brachytherapy simulations in medical physics applications.
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Warnecke, S., Sevryuk, M. B., Ceperley, D. M., Toennies, J. P., Guardiola, R., & Navarro, J. (2010). The structure of para-hydrogen clusters. Eur. Phys. J. D, 56(3), 353–358.
Abstract: The path integral Monte Carlo calculated radial distributions of para-hydrogen clusters (p-H-2) N consisting of N = 4-40 molecules interacting via a Lennard-Jones potential at T = 1.5 K show evidence for additional peaks compared to radial distributions calculated by diffusion Monte Carlo (T = 0 K) and path integral Monte Carlo at T <= 0.5 K. The difference in structures is attributed to quantum delocalization at the lowest temperature. The new structures at finite temperatures appear to be consistent with classical structures calculated for an effective Morse potential, which in order to account for the large zero point energy, is substantially softer than the Lennard-Jones potential.
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Carusotto, I., Balbinot, R., Fabbri, A., & Recati, A. (2010). Density correlations and analog dynamical Casimir emission of Bogoliubov phonons in modulated atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Eur. Phys. J. D, 56(3), 391–404.
Abstract: We present a theory of the density correlations that appear in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate as a consequence of the emission of correlated pairs of Bogoliubov phonons by a time-dependent atom-atom scattering length. This effect can be considered as a condensed matter analog of the dynamical Casimir effect of quantum field theory. Different regimes as a function of the temporal shape of the modulation are identified and a simple physical picture of the phenomenon is discussed. Analytical expressions for the density correlation function are provided for the most significant limiting cases. This theory is able to explain some unexpected features recently observed in numerical studies of analog Hawking radiation from acoustic black holes.
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