Abstract: Purpose: Initial auto-adjustment of the window level WL and width WW applied to mammographic images. The proposed intensity windowing (IW) method is based on the maximization of the mutual information (MI) between a perceptual decomposition of the original 12-bit sources and their screen displayed 8-bit version. Besides zoom, color inversion and panning operations, IW is the most commonly performed task in daily screening and has a direct impact on diagnosis and the time involved in the process. Methods: The authors present a human visual system and perception-based algorithm named GRAIL (Gabor-relying adjustment of image levels). GRAIL initially measures a mammogram's quality based on the MI between the original instance and its Gabor-filtered derivations. From this point on, the algorithm performs an automatic intensity windowing process that outputs the WL/WW that best displays each mammogram for screening. GRAIL starts with the default, high contrast, wide dynamic range 12-bit data, and then maximizes the graphical information presented in ordinary 8-bit displays. Tests have been carried out with several mammogram databases. They comprise correlations and an ANOVA analysis with the manual IW levels established by a group of radiologists. A complete MATLAB implementation of GRAIL is available at . Results: Auto-leveled images show superior quality both perceptually and objectively compared to their full intensity range and compared to the application of other common methods like global contrast stretching (GCS). The correlations between the human determined intensity values and the ones estimated by our method surpass that of GCS. The ANOVA analysis with the upper intensity thresholds also reveals a similar outcome. GRAIL has also proven to specially perform better with images that contain micro-calcifications and/or foreign X-ray-opaque elements and with healthy BI-RADS A-type mammograms. It can also speed up the initial screening time by a mean of 4.5 s per image. Conclusions: A novel methodology is introduced that enables a quality-driven balancing of the WL/WW of mammographic images. This correction seeks the representation that maximizes the amount of graphical information contained in each image. The presented technique can contribute to the diagnosis and the overall efficiency of the breast screening session by suggesting, at the beginning, an optimal and customized windowing setting for each mammogram.

Abstract: The gamma decay from the low-lying dipole states of Ce-140 excited via inelastic scattering of O-17 at bombarding energy of 340 MeV was measured using the high resolution AGATA-Demonstrator array in coincidence with scattered ions detected in two segmented Delta E-E silicon detectors of the TRACE array. Particular attention is here given to the decay of the first 1(-) state at 3643 keV which is considered to be of two-phonon character. The gamma-gamma coincidence method was applied to select desired decay branch. No direct decay from this state was observed to 2(+) and 3(-) phonon states which would be the proof of the pure harmonic coupling. The comparison between experimentally obtained differential cross sections and analysis with distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) allowed to conclude that the first 1(-) state has a different nature than higher-lying pygmy dipole states. This was possible using the form factor obtained by folding a microscopically calculated transition density.

Abstract: Beta-delayed neutrons play a key role in the formation of heavy elements in explosive stellar environments. The final r-process abundance distribution, including the rare-earth peak, is tailored to a large extent by the neutrons released after the beta decay of very exotic neutron-rich nuclei encountered along the r-process path and during the freeze-out phase. Such scenarios involve a vast amount of – yet undiscovered – nuclei, and most of them are expected to be neutron emitters. In this respect, existing beta-delayed neutron emission data is rather scarce, spanning from the lightest isotopes up to the region of the fission-fragments with masses up to A similar to 150. This contribution gives an overview on the latest measurements of neutron branching ratios in the heavy mass region around N = 126, which was practically unexplored in the past. Present plans to access very exotic nuclei at the RIB-facility of RIKEN in the framework of the BRIKEN project, are presented, together with the expected impact in r-process nucleosynthesis studies.

Abstract: Hg-206 was populated in the fragmentation of an E/A = 1 GeV Pb-208 beam at GSI. It was part of a campaign to study nuclei around Pb-208 via relativistic Coulomb excitation. The observation of the known isomeric states confirmed the identification of the fragmentation products. The isomeric decays were also used to prove that the correlations between beam identification detectors and the AGATA gamma-ray tracking array worked properly and that the tracking efficiency was independent of the time relative to the prompt flash.

Abstract: In this paper, we present strategies and results of nine searches for exotic physics performed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments with 2012 pp collision data taken at LHC energy root s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV. Among them, there are searches from one object to many objects in the final state covering mono-X, two leptons, two jets, photon+X, microscopic black holes, dibosons, t (t) over bar resonances and vector-like top quark analyses.