Abstract: Owing to the introduction of new diagnostic procedures, such as computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), the individual dose caused by medical exposures has grown rapidly in the last years. This is especially a subject to radiation protection for nuclear medical diagnosis, since in this case radiopharmaceuticals are administered to the patient, meaning not only a radiation exposure to the diseased tissue but also to the healthy tissues of large parts of the body. 'Minimizing Activity and Dose with Enhanced Image quality by Radiopharmaceutical Administrations' (MADEIRA) is a project cofunded by the European Commission within the Seventh Euratom Framework Programme that aims to improve three-dimensional (3D) nuclear medical imaging technologies significantly. MADEIRA is aiming to improve the efficacy and safety of 3D PET and SPECT functional imaging by optimising the spatial resolution and the signal-to-noise ratio, improving the knowledge of the temporal variation of the radiopharmaceuticals' uptake in and clearance from tumourous and healthy tissues, and evaluation of the corresponding patient dose. Using an optimised imaging procedure that improves the information gained per unit administered dose, MADEIRA aims especially to reduce the dose to healthy tissues of the patient. In this paper, an overall summary of the current achievements will be presented.

Abstract: The transfer of neutrons onto Ne-24 has been measured using a reaccelerated radioactive beam of Ne-24 to study the (d, p) reaction in inverse kinematics. The unusual raising of the first 3/2(+) level in Ne-25 and its significance in terms of the migration of the neutron magic number from N = 20 to N = 16 is put on a firm footing by confirmation of this state's identity. The raised 3/2(+) level is observed simultaneously with the intruder negative parity 7/2(-) and 3/2(-) levels, providing evidence for the reduction in the N = 20 gap. The coincident gamma-ray decays allowed the assignment of spins as well as the transferred orbital angular momentum. The excitation energy of the 3/2(+) state shows that the established USD shell model breaks down well within the sd model space and requires a revised treatment of the proton-neutron monopole interaction.

Abstract: We analyze the spectral moments of the V – A two-point correlation function. Using all known short-distance constraints and the most recent experimental data from tau decays, we determine the lowest spectral moments, trying to assess the uncertainties associated with the so-called violations of quark-hadron duality. We have generated a large number of acceptable spectral functions, satisfying all conditions, and have used them to extract the wanted hadronic parameters through a careful statistical analysis. We obtain accurate values for the chi PT couplings L-10 and C-87, and a realistic determination of the dimension six and eight contributions in the operator product expansion, O-6 = (-5.4(-1.6)(+3.6)) . 10(-3) GeV6 and O-8 = d(-8.9-(12.6)(7.4+)) 10(-3) GeV8, showing that the duality-violation effects have been underestimated in previous literature.