Description: SPECT with submegabecquerel amounts of tracer or subsecond time resolution would enable a wide range of new imaging protocols such as screening tracers with initially low yield or labeling efficiency, imaging low receptor densities, or even performing SPECT outside regular radiation laboratories. To this end we developed dedicated ultra-high-sensitivity pinhole SPECT. Methods: A cylindric collimator with 54 focused 2.0-mm-diameter conical pinholes was manufactured and mounted in a stationary small-animal SPECT system. The system matrix for image reconstruction was calculated via a hybrid method based on both 99m Tc point source measurements and ray-tracing analytic modeling. SPECT images were reconstructed using pixel-based ordered-subsets expectation maximization. Performance was evaluated with phantoms and low-dose bone, dynamic kidney, and cardiac mouse scans. Results: The peak sensitivity reached 1.3% (13,080 cps/MBq). The reconstructed spatial resolution (rod visibility in a micro-Jaszczak phantom) was 0.85 mm. Even with only a quarter megabecquerel of activity, 30-min bone SPECT scans provided surprisingly high levels of detail. Dynamic dual-isotope kidney and 99m Tc-sestamibi cardiac scans were acquired with a time-frame resolution down to 1 s. Conclusion: The high sensitivity achieved increases the range of mouse SPECT applications by enabling in vivo imaging with less than a megabecquerel of tracer activity or down to 1-s frame dynamics.

Description: The combined α-, -, and x-ray emitter 213 Bi (half-life, 46 min) is promising for radionuclide therapy. SPECT imaging of 213 Bi is challenging, because most emitted photons have a much higher energy (440 keV) than common in SPECT. We assessed 213 Bi imaging capabilities of the Versatile Emission Computed Tomograph (VECTor) dedicated to (simultaneous) preclinical imaging of both SPECT and PET isotopes over a wide photon energy range of 25–600 keV. Methods: VECTor was equipped with a dedicated clustered pinhole collimator. Both the 79 keV x-rays and the 440 keV -rays emitted by 213 Bi could be imaged. Phantom experiments were performed to determine the maximum resolution, contrast-to-noise ratio, and activity recovery coefficient for different energy window settings. Additionally, imaging of [ 213 Bi-DOTA,Tyr 3 ]octreotate and 213 Bi-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) in mouse models was performed. Results: Using 440 keV -rays instead of 79 keV x-rays in image reconstruction strongly improved the resolution (0.75 mm) and contrast-to-noise characteristics. Results obtained with a single 440 keV energy window setting were close to those with a combined 79 keV/440 keV window. We found a reliable activity recovery coefficient down to 0.240 MBq/mL with 30-min imaging time. In a tumor-bearing mouse injected with 3 MBq of [ 213 Bi-DOTA,Tyr 3 ]octreotate, tumor uptake could be visualized with a 1-h postmortem scan. Imaging a nontumor mouse at 5-min frames after injection of 7.4 MBq of 213 Bi-DTPA showed renal uptake and urinary clearance, visualizing the renal excretion pathway from cortex to ureter. Quantification of the uptake data allowed kinetic modeling and estimation of the absorbed dose to the kidneys. Conclusion: It is feasible to image 213 Bi down to a 0.75-mm resolution using a SPECT system equipped with a dedicated collimator.

Description: We construct a new-generation 3D density model of the upper mantle of Asia and its surrounding areas based on a joint interpretation of several data sets. A recent model of the crust combining nearly all available seismic data is employed to calculate the impact of the crust on the gravity anomalies and observed topography and to estimate the residual mantle anomalies and residual topography. These fields are jointly inverted to calculate the density variations in the lithosphere and upper mantle down to 325 km. As an initial approximation, we estimate density variations using a seismic tomography model. Seismic velocity variations are converted into temperatures and then to density variations based on mineral physics constraints. In the Occam-type inversion, we fit both the residual mantle gravity anomalies and residual topography by finding deviations to the initial model. The obtained corrections improve the resolution of the initial model and reflect important features of the mantle structure that are not well resolved by the seismic tomography. The most significant negative corrections of the upper mantle density, found in the Siberian and East European cratons, can be associated with depleted mantle material. The most pronounced positive density anomalies are found beneath the Tarim and South Caspian basins, Barents Sea, and Bay of Bengal. We attribute these anomalies to eclogites in the uppermost mantle, which have substantially affected the evolution of the basins. Furthermore, the obtained results provide evidence for the presence of eclogites in the oceanic subducting mantle lithosphere.

Description: Dataset

Description: This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) on an iron powder – quartz sand mixture (weight ratio 1:3). This material is used in particular as marker material in analogue experiments that are monitored with CT-scanners in the Tectonic Laboratory (TecLab) at Utrecht University (NL) (Pueyo et al., 2017; 2018). The material has been characterized by means of internal friction coefficients µ and cohesions C as a remote service by the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam in the framework of the EPOS (European Plate Observing System) Transnational Access (TNA) call of the Thematic Core Service (TCS) Multi-scale Laboratories (MSL) in 2017. According to our analysis the material behaves as a Mohr-Coulomb material characterized by a linear failure envelope. Peak, dynamic and reactivation friction coefficients are µP = 0.65, µD = 0.53, and µR = 0.62, respectively. Cohesions C are in the range of 70 to 100 Pa. A minor rate-weakening of ~3% per ten-fold change in shear velocity v is evident.