We present a system-level description of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) considered as a differencing polarimeter, and evaluate its expected performance. The LFI is one of the two instruments on board the ESA Planck mission to study the cosmic microwave background. It consists of a set of 22 radiometers sensitive to linear polarisation, arranged in orthogonally-oriented pairs connected to 11...

Background: To evaluate the effects of hyperthermia (HT) on the frequency of chromosomal aberrations induced by a low dose of neutron or γ-rays in human peripheral blood lymphocytes. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were exposed to HT (41.5°C for 30 and 60min, 43°C for 15 and 30min), 10 cGy neutron or γ-rays, HT + neutron/γ, and neutron/γ + HT. After standard cell culture, harvestin...

Background: Neutron contamination is produced in electron beams of linac when tooth or dental materials are located in the path of beam. Objective: This study aims to determine the neutron dose contamination from different dental restoration materials in electron mode of a linac. Material and Methods: In this experimental study, the neutron dose contamination was calculated in the p...

Fluorescence polarisation of 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene was used to study the lymphocyte membrane in rheumatoid arthritis. The increase of polarisation value in the patients (n = 27) compared with healthy controls (n = 32) suggests a decrease of membrane fluidity. Moreover, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and plasma fibrinogen concentrations were positively correlated with lymphocyte fl...

It has been shown by Simmons, Newsam & Willis (1995) (hereafter SNW95) that microlensing of stars can produce a distinctive and significant polarisation signature, even for lensed stars with no net unamplified polarisation. In this contribution, we use the model developed in SNW95 to simulate a series of realistic observations of microlensing events. We use these simulations to examine how much...

Abstract. From the analysis of measurements of the linear polarisation of visible light coming from quasars, the existence of large-scale coherent orientations of quasar polarisation vectors in some regions of the sky has been reported. Here, we show that this can be explained by the mixing of the incoming photons with nearly massless pseudoscalar (axion-like) particles in extragalactic magneti...