[en] The French fast breeder Super-Phenix SPX must annually discharge 24 spent absorber rods, when operating at full power. For these rods, interim storage is the best option, because reprocessing is not appropriate due to the presence of tritium, and a final repository is not available. For this purpose, transport and storage casks of the type CASTOR BARRE were designed and fabricated to accommodate 12 such rods each. As a special feature, the cask is equipped with tritium getter material, so that in case of a possible release of tritium from the rods, it will be preferentially absorbed by the getter material

[en] Deep photoelectric sequences have been obtained to the 21st B and V magnitudes in 17 regions at galactic latitudes ranging from -45 deg to +86 86 deg. The observations were carried out using the prime-focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope at Kitt Peak. The plates are used to study the large scale distribution of quasars; the redshifts and clustering properties of faint galaxies; and the characteristics of faint stars in the Galaxy. Finding charts and tables listing the B and V magnitudes of the objects (typically 30-40 per field) are given. The precisions of the observations are discussed. It is expected that the accuracies of the calibrating sequences are of the order of 0.05 mag. 9 references

[en] Automated software was developed to process slitless spectra. The software automatically separates stars from extended objects and quasars from stars. Among the many parameters output by the program, are narrow-band and broad-band photometric indices, spectra discontinuities, and emission and absorption lines. The lines are found with respect to an automatic continuum fit. All of these quantities are given with associated errors and signal-to-noise ratios. A considerable effort was made to calibrate the data and to understand systematic effects. An attempt was made to give all relevant quantities in terms of signal-to-noise ratios. Extensive use was made of computer simulations to understand the algorithms and check systematic errors. The program does not depend on the measurement of direct plates. The paper discusses in detail the techniques and algorithms used. The software can be used to study stars, galaxies, and quasars. 29 references

[en] The Muon Spectrometer of the Atlas experiment has been designed to identify and precisely measure muon tracks over a wide range of transverse momentum, pseudorapidity, and azimuthal angle. At the time of writing this report (June 2008), the installation of the detector is almost completed and the commissioning with cosmic rays is well advanced. Atlas is approaching a turning point. In August the experimental hall will be closed and the Lhc machine will start its commissioning phase. The experiment will then be in continuous running mode waiting for the first circulating beam and for the first proton-proton collisions. The status of the assembly of the spectrometer and the relative tests are discussed and the first experience in reconstructing cosmic-ray tracks are presented.

[en] To assess whether levels of trace metals and oxidative species are involved in Parkinson's disease (PD), Al, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb and V were measured in urine, serum, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum peroxides and antioxidant capacity were determined in 26 patients with PD and 13 control subjects. The quantification of metals was based on the 1+4 water dilution of CSF, serum and urine, the acid-assisted microwave digestion under atmospheric pressure of blood and final determination by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS). Results indicated a significant increase of Pb and V concentrations in blood and urine (P≤0.03, in both cases) related to the disease. Parkinson disease also seemed to be closely associated (P≤0.003) with a reduction in levels of Al, Cd, Hg and Pb in serum and of Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Pb in CSF. As regards Mn, a lower mean concentration was found in the CSF and whole blood of PD patients than in control group, although this trend was not statistically significant. Levels of peroxides were also increased (P≤0.001), while antioxidant capacity was lower (P≤0.002) in PD patients than in controls

[en] Short communication

[en] The Muon Spectrometer of the ATLAS experiment is made of large toroidal magnets, arrays of high-pressure drift tubes for precise tracking and dedicated fast detectors for the first-level trigger. All the detectors in the barrel toroid have been installed and commissioning has started with cosmic rays. These detectors are arranged in three concentric rings and the total area is about 6000 square meters. During the installation and commissioning of the detectors, data are usually taken with the magnet off, but a dedicated run took place with the magnetic field of the barrel toroid turned on. We present the procedure to control the response of the single detectors installed in the barrel toroid, Monitored Drift Tubes and Resistive Plate Chambers, and results of the first tests done with cosmic rays triggered by the first-level processor and read-out trough the ATLAS data acquisition. Details on the installation and commissioning schedule will be given in view of the completion of the instrumentation of the muon spectrometer for the first period of data taking with proton-proton collisions

[en] The design of the beam line for a high-energy electron cooling device is presented. In order to avoid an electron dump of the order of few MW and to save the installed power, an efficient energy recovery system has been designed. The computer simulations of the electron gun and collecting device are discussed

[en] The detector here described constitutes the inner tracking part of the experiment E760 which will study charmonium spectroscopy on the antiproton accumulator at FNAL (Fermi National Accelerator Lab). It is composed of a multiwire proportional chamber and a radial projection chamber on the same mechanical structure with cylindrical symmetry. Some special features are described to get field shaping, to minimize space charge effects, multiple scattering and photon conversion

[en] A new read-out for the drift chambers (DCH) (8192 channels) of the NA48 experiment at CERN has been developed and realized by the Ferrara and Torino INFN sites and has taken data during the 2002 run. The core of the system is a set of 32 VME-9U Time-to-Digital-Converter boards (NA48-TDC). The NA48-TDCs record the time of arrival of signals from the DCH and store them in 40 MHz pipelined ring memories pending the trigger supervisor's decision. Dual memories and data extraction resources allow independent and simultaneous processing of level-1 and level-2 trigger requests. Time measurements are performed by the TDC-F1 commercial ASICs, having an intrinsic time resolution of 120 ps and multi-hit capabilities. The NA48-TDC board features a maximum sustained rate of 500 kHz per channel