Search

Design of functionalized biomimetic scaffolds is one of the key approaches for regenerative medicine and other biomedical applications. Development of engineered tissue should optimize organization and function of cells and tissue in vitro as well as in vivo. Surface topography is one factor controlling cellular behavior and tissue development. By topographical patterning of biocompatible materials, highly functionalized scaffolds can be developed. Gelatin is hereby a promising candidate due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. It is low in cost and easy to handle, enabling a variety of applications in science and medicine. However, for biomedical applications at physiological conditions, gelatin has to be additionally stabilized since its gel-sol-transition temperature lies beneath the human body temperature. This is realized by a reagent-free cross-linking technique utilizing electron beam treatment. By topographical patterning, gelatin can be functionalized toward scaffolds for cell cultivation and tissue development. Thereby, customized patterns are transferred onto gelatin hydrogels via molds. Thermal stabilization of gelatin is then achieved by electron-induced cross-linking. In this study, we investigate the influence of gelatin concentration and irradiation dose on pattern transfer, long-term stability of topographically patterned gelatin hydrogels, and their impact on the cellular behavior of human umbilical vein endothelial cells as well as normal human dermal fibroblasts. We will show that contact guidance occurs for both cell types due to a concrete stripe pattern. In addition, the presented studies show a high degree of cytocompatibility, indicating a high potential of topographically patterned gelatin hydrogels as tissue development scaffold for prospective biomedical applications.

Plasmas growing or containing nanometric dust particles are widely used and proposed in plasma technological applications for production of nano-crystals and surface deposition. Here, we give a compact review of in situ methods for the diagnostics of nanodust and nanodusty plasmas, which have been developed in the framework of the SFB-TR24 to fully characterize these systems. The methods include kinetic Mie ellipsometry, angular-resolved Mie scattering, and 2D imaging Mie ellipsometry to get information about particle growth processes, particle sizes and particle size distributions. There, also the role of multiple scattering events is analyzed using radiative transfer simulations. Computed tomography and Abel inversion techniques to get the 3D dust density profiles of the particle cloud will be presented. Diagnostics of the dust dynamics yields fundamental dust and plasma properties like particle charges and electron and ion densities. Since nanodusty plasmas usually form dense dust clouds electron depletion (Havnes effect) is found to be significant.

A cloud of nanodust particles is created in a reactive argon-acetylene plasma. It is then transformed into a dusty magnetized argon plasma. Plasma parameters are obtained with the dust-density wave diagnostic introduced by Tadsen et al. [Phys. Plasmas 22, 113701 (2015)10.1063/1.4934927]. A change from an open to a cylindrically enclosed nanodust cloud, which was observed earlier, can now be explained by a stronger electric confinement if a vertical magnetic field is present. Using two-dimensional extinction measurements and the inverse Abel transform to determine the dust density, a redistribution of the dust with increasing magnetic induction is found. The dust-density profile changes from being peaked around the central void to being peaked at an outer torus ring resulting in a hollow profile. As the plasma parameters cannot explain this behavior, we propose a rotation of the nanodust cloud in the magnetized plasma as the origin of the modified profile.

We have built a low background detector, a time projection chamber surrounded by an active anti-Compton, to measure the ν e e − elastic cross section down to the antineutrino energy of 900 keV. With our detector, running at 18 m from the core of a nuclear reactor in Bugey, we could detect reactor antineutrinos by measuring both the energy and the direction of the recoiling electrons. We report here on a first analysis of the data using an automatic scanning procedure. The results we obtain are 1.5σ higher than the ones predicted by the standard model.

We report on the performance of a 1 m$^{3}$ TPC filled with CF$_{4}$ at 3 bar, immersed in liquid scintillator and viewed by photomultipliers. Particle detection, event identification and localization achieved by measuring both the current signal and the scintillation light are presented. Particular features of $\alpha$ particle detection are also discussed. Finally, the ${54}$Mn photopeak, reconstructed from the Compton scattering and recoil angle is shown.

The 3D dust distribution in dense dust clouds confined in argon rf plasmas is measured by a computed tomography (CT) technique based on the extinction of visible light. On the one hand, clouds of micron-sized particles were created by injecting standardized plastic particles into the plasma. On the other hand, sub-micron sized dust with well-defined properties is grown in situ in an argon acetylene mixture. Once created, both kinds of dust clouds decay in the course of minutes to hours. This decay is monitored by CT measurements. It is revealed that micro-dust clouds feature a drastic change of the dust distribution due to a size reduction of the dust. Dust clouds of sub-micron particles, in contrast, show a strong variation of the overall dust density while the relative dust distribution remains nearly unchanged. The evolution of the overall dust density is subject to two effects: the loss of particles due to an imperfect confinement and the reduction of the dust size via etching.

In this paper we present the results from the measurements made with the MUNU TPC at 1bar pressure of CF4 in the energy region below 1 MeV. Electron events down to 80 keV are successfully measured. The electron energy and direction are reconstructed for every contained single electron above 200 keV. As test the 137Cs photopeak is reconstructed by measuring both the energy and direction of the Compton electrons in the TPC., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures (6 figures in color); Figure 10 has been deleted from [v1]. Additional paragraph has been included; Manuscript is submitted to Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A

The MUNU detector was designed to study neutrino-electron elastic scattering at low energy. The central component is a Time Projection Chamber filled with CF4 gas, surrounded by an anti-Compton detector. The experiment was carried out at the Bugey (France) nuclear reactor. In this paper we present the final analysis of the data recorded at 3 bar and 1 bar pressure. Both the energy and the scattering angle of the recoil electron are measured. From the 3 bar data a new upper limit on the neutrino magnetic moment was derived. At 1 bar electron tracks down to 150 keV were reconstructed, demonstrating the potentiality of the experimental technique for future applications in low energy neutrino physics., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures; p. 3: changed definition of fidet

We built a low background detector to measure the νee− elastic cross section at low energy. The detector has been installed close to a nuclear reactor in Bugey and it is running since almost one year. After having reduced the electron background by more than 2 orders of magnitude we are now taking data to be sensitive to a neutrino magnetic moment in the region below 10−10 Bohr magnetons.

We are building a low background detector based on a gas time projection chamber surrounded by an active anti-Compton shielding. The detector will be installed near a nuclear reactor in Bugey for the experimental study of νee− scattering. We give here a general description of the experiment, and an estimate of the expected counting rate and background. The construction of the time projection chamber is described in details. Results of first test measurements concerning the attenuation length and the spatial as well as energy resolution in the CF4 fill gas are reported.