Photoluminescence (PL) and scintillation properties of Ce:SrY2O4 single crystals were investigated. The PL quantum yield (QY) of the 2 % Ce-doped sample was the highest, and it decreased in the high ...Ce concentrations samples. The undoped SrY2O4 single crystal exhibited a broad emission band at 380 nm due to host defects, and the scintillation decay time constant was about 4.2 μs. The pulse height spectrum of 137Cs γ-rays using the undoped SrY2O4 single crystal revealed the scintillation light yield of 830 photons/MeV.
Undoped and Ce-doped LiAlO2 single crystals, a novel neutron scintillator, were synthesized by the floating zone method, and the photoluminescence and scintillation properties were investigated. ...Under X-ray irradiation, all the synthesized crystals showed luminescence due to oxygen vacancies with decay time constants of 250 ns and 2 µs, and Ce-doped LiAlO2 crystals showed luminescence due to the 5d–4f transition of Ce3+ with a decay time constant of 40 ns as well. In the pulse height spectra under neutron irradiation from 252Cf, the synthesized crystals exhibited thermal neutron peak, and scintillation light yields increased by doping of Ce. Furthermore, neutron and gamma-ray pulse shape discrimination was examined, and 0.5 and 1.0 % Ce-doped ones showed a distinction of neutron and gamma-ray events.
Cu-Nb/Nb 3 Sn wires have high mechanical strength and large compressive residual strain. In this study, we successfully developed thin Cu-Nb/Nb 3 Sn round wires and tapes to avoid the critical ...current ( I c ) degradation caused by damage of brittle Nb 3 Sn filaments in React-and-Wind (R&W) process with small bending diameters. Both the Cu-Nb/Nb 3 Sn round wires of 0.45 mm diameter and the tapes of 0.40 mm thickness had I c increase by pre-bending treatments up to bending strains of ±0.6% in the Nb 3 Sn filamentary area including the tin-diffusion barrier. The pre-bent tapes of thicknesses 0.9-0.25 mm (aspect ratio 1.5-10.2) showed higher I c characteristics than as-reacted tapes independently of magnetic field directions. The R&W spiral coils of 39 mm diameter, which were wound with the pre-bent round wire of 0.45 mm diameter and the pre-bent tape of 0.48 mm thickness, retained higher I c - B characteristics than those of the W&R spiral ones.
Currently, cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation methods require a purification step after CM induction to ensure the high purity of the cell population. Here we show an improved human CM ...differentiation protocol with which high-purity ventricular-type CMs can be obtained and maintained without any CM purification process. We induced and collected a mesodermal cell population (platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α (PDGFRα)-positive cells) that can respond to CM differentiation cues, and then stimulated CM differentiation by means of Wnt inhibition. This method reproducibly generated CMs with purities above 95% in several human pluripotent stem cell lines. Furthermore, these CM populations were maintained in culture at such high purity without any further CM purification step for over 200 days. The majority of these CMs (>95%) exhibited a ventricular-like phenotype with a tendency to structural and electrophysiological maturation, including T-tubule-like structure formation and the ability to respond to QT prolongation drugs. This is a simple and valuable method to stably generate CM populations suitable for cardiac toxicology testing, disease modeling and regenerative medicine.
Photoluminescence and thermally-stimulated luminescence (TSL) characteristics of BaCaBO3F doped with various amounts of Tm were evaluated. The Tm-doped BaCaBO3F showed an emission with a sharp peak ...around 460 nm originating from the 4f-4f transition of Tm3+ in photoluminescence and scintillation. Their photoluminescence and scintillation decay times for the Tm-doped BaCaBO3F were 0.68–0.73 and 1.28–1.55 ms, respectively. Furthermore, the TSL dynamic range of the glow peaks at 190 °C for the 0.5% Tm-doped BaCaBO3F was from 0.1 mGy to 1000 mGy. Furthermore, the TSL isothermal analysis of the Tm-doped BaCaBO3F suggested that at least 12 different activation energies related to TSL were confirmed.
•Tm-doped BaCaBO3F was fabricated by the conventional solid-state reaction.•Tm-doped BaCaBO3F showed efficient TSL with several glow peaks.•Linear TSL dose response was confirmed to be in the dose range from 0.1 to 1000 mGy.
To detect pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) at any early stage is a promising approach to optimize the outcome.
To investigate the impact of school ECG-based screening on detecting idiopathic or ...heritable (I/H)-PAH in the general pediatric population.
This was a nationwide survey of patients with I/H-PAH newly diagnosed at 3 months to 18 years of age in Japan during 2005-2012.
Eighty-seven eligible patients (age range, 1-16 yr) were recruited. Among 68 (78%) patients diagnosed at greater than or equal to 6 years of age (the age of the first ECG-based screening), 28 (41%) were detected by the ECG-based screening (screening group) and 40 (59%) were recognized by their symptoms (
= 37) or coincidental occasions (
= 3; nonscreening group). In the screening group, the proportion of patients in World Health Organization functional class I/II at diagnosis was higher (96% vs. 60%;
< 0.001), plasma brain natriuretic peptide level was lower (149 ± 290 vs. 398 ± 559 pg/ml;
= 0.045), and 6-minute-walk distance was longer (420 ± 109 vs. 327 ± 104 m;
< 0.001) than the nonscreening group, despite similar values in mean pulmonary artery pressure (58 ± 17 vs. 61 ± 17 mm Hg;
= 0.42) and pulmonary vascular resistance index (18 ± 8 vs. 21 ± 11 Wood units ⋅ m
;
= 0.24) between groups. The proportion of patients on intravenous epoprostenol at the final visit was lower in the screening group than the nonscreening group (14% vs. 50;
= 0.004).
These findings suggest that the ECG-based screening detects a unique subpopulation of pediatric patients with I/H-PAH that is associated with already established pulmonary hypertension but without obvious right heart failure and warrants investigating the prognostic significance of this system.
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