Nowadays neutron capture therapy looks very promising method of cancer treatment, especially for brain tumors by reason of selective damage cancer cells. Treatment effect of this method based on neutrons nuclear reaction with nuclides B, Gd. These nuclides have high cross-section of interaction with thermal neutrons. Unfortunately, thermal neutrons could enter only in near surface tissue and co...

In the framework of the Italian BNCT research program, the low-power (5 kW), fast-flux, TAPIRO research reactor, located at the ENEA Casaccia Centre near Rome, is foreseen to be implemented as the national facility devoted to supply an epithermal neutron beam required for malignant brain tumor treatment[1]. The feasibility to provide both thermal and epithermal suitable neutron beams in the mai...

The acanthocephalan parasite Acanthocephalus dirus infects the freshwater isopod Caecidotea intermedius as an intermediate host before completing its life cycle in a fish. Transmission to the definitive host occurs after the parasite has reached the cystacanth stage and development into this stage is associated with changes in several behavioral and physiological traits of the host. Despite the...

BACKGROUND Predicting the spatial distribution of pathogens with an environmental stage is challenging because of the difficulty to detect them in environmental samples. Among these pathogens, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the causative agent of the zoonosis toxoplasmosis, which is responsible for public health issues. Oocysts of T. gondii are excreted by infected cats in the environment, w...

Introduction During 1983-1986, the four year period covered by this review, emphasis in the study of mantle convection shifted away from fluid mechanical analysis of simple systems with uniform material properties and simple geometries, toward analyzing the effects of more complicated, presumably more realistic models. This shift received impetus from developments in other branches of earth sci...