Multi-Scale Investigation of Human Renal Tissue in Three Dimensions.

Histopathology as a diagnostic mainstay for tissue evaluation is strictly a 2D technology. Combining and supplementing this technology with 3D imaging has been proposed as one future avenue towards refining comprehensive tissue analysis. To this end, we have developed a laboratory-based X-ray method allowing for the investigation of tissue samples in three dimensions with isotropic volume information. To assess the potential of our method for micro-morphology evaluation, we selected several kidney regions from three patients with cystic kidney disease, obstructive nephropathy and diabetic glomerulopathy. Tissue specimens were processed using our in-house-developed X-ray eosin stain and investigated with a commercial microCT and our in-house-built NanoCT. The microCT system provided overview scans with voxel sizes of [Formula: see text] and the NanoCT was employed for higher resolutions including voxel sizes from [Formula: see text] to 210 nm. We present a methodology allowing for a precise micro-morphologic investigation in three dimensions which is compatible with conventional histology. Advantages of our methodology are its versatility with respect to multi-scale investigations, being laboratory-based, allowing for non-destructive imaging and providing isotropic volume information. We believe, that after future developmental work this method might contribute to advanced multi-modal tissue diagnostics.

Dynamic In Vivo Chest X-ray Dark-Field Imaging in Mice.

X-ray grating interferometry is a powerful emerging tool in biomedical imaging, providing access to three complementary image modalities. In addition to the conventional attenuation modality, interferometry provides a phase modality, which visualizes soft tissue structures, and a dark-field modality, which relates to the number and size of sub-resolution scattering objects. A particularly strong dark-field signal originates from the alveoli or air sacs in the lung. Dark-field lung radiographs in animal models have already shown increased sensitivity in diagnosing lung diseases, such as lung cancer or emphysema, compared to conventional X-ray chest radiography. However, to date, X-ray dark-field lung imaging has either averaged information over several breaths or has been captured during a breath hold. In this paper, we demonstrate the first time-resolved dark-field imaging of a breath cycle in a mechanically ventilated mouse, in vivo, which was obtained using a grating interferometer. We achieved a time resolution of 0.1 s, visualizing the changes in the dark-field, phase, and attenuation images during inhalation and exhalation. These measurements show that the dark-field signal depends on the air volume and, hence, the alveolar dimensions of the lung. Conducting this type of scan with animal disease models would help to locate the optimum breath point for single-image diagnostic dark-field imaging and could indicate if the changes in the dark-field signal during breath provide a diagnostically useful complementary measure.

First Limit on the Direct Detection of Lightly Ionizing Particles for Electric Charge as Low as e/1000 with the Majorana Demonstrator.

The Majorana Demonstrator is an ultralow-background experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay in ^{76}Ge. The heavily shielded array of germanium detectors, placed nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, also allows searches for new exotic physics. Free, relativistic, lightly ionizing particles with an electrical charge less than e are forbidden by the standard model but predicted by some of its extensions. If such particles exist, they might be detected in the Majorana Demonstrator by searching for multiple-detector events with individual-detector energy depositions down to 1 keV. This search is background-free, and no candidate events have been found in 285 days of data taking. New direct-detection limits are set for the flux of lightly ionizing particles for charges as low as e/1000.

Development of 100 Mo -containing scintillating bolometers for a high-sensitivity neutrinoless double-beta decay search.

This paper reports on the development of a technology involving 100 Mo -enriched scintillating bolometers, compatible with the goals of CUPID, a proposed next-generation bolometric experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Large mass ( ∼ 1 kg ), high optical quality, radiopure 100 Mo -containing zinc and lithium molybdate crystals have been produced and used to develop high performance single detector modules based on 0.2-0.4 kg scintillating bolometers. In particular, the energy resolution of the lithium molybdate detectors near the Q-value of the double-beta transition of 100 Mo (3034 keV) is 4-6 keV FWHM. The rejection of the α -induced dominant background above 2.6 MeV is better than 8 σ . Less than 10 µ Bq/kg activity of 232 Th ( 228 Th ) and 226 Ra in the crystals is ensured by boule recrystallization. The potential of 100 Mo -enriched scintillating bolometers to perform high sensitivity double-beta decay searches has been demonstrated with only 10 kg × d exposure: the two neutrino double-beta decay half-life of 100 Mo has been measured with the up-to-date highest accuracy as T 1 / 2 = [6.90 ± 0.15(stat.) ± 0.37(syst.)] × 10 18 years . Both crystallization and detector technologies favor lithium molybdate, which has been selected for the ongoing construction of the CUPID-0/Mo demonstrator, containing several kg of 100 Mo .