Pyrococcus abyssi virus 1 (PAV1) was the first virus particle infecting a hyperthermophilic Euryarchaeota (Pyrococcus abyssi strain GE23) that has been isolated and characterized. It is lemon shaped and is decorated with a short fibered tail. PAV1 morphologically resembles the fusiform members of the family Fuselloviridae or the genus Salterprovirus. The 18 kb dsDNA genome of PAV1 contains 25 p...

The use of brachytherapy sources in radiation oncology requires their proper calibration to guarantee the correctness of the dose delivered to the treatment volume of a patient. One of the elements to take into account in the dose calculation formalism is the non-uniformity of the photon fluence due to the beam divergence that causes a steep dose gradient near the source. The correction factors...

During Chernobyl accident a large amount of radionuclides were released into atmosphere and added to atmospheric nuclide inventory from weapons tests. In early May of 1986 in South Korea, radioactivities such as 1-131 and Cs-137 were detected in surface air and rain water. That indicated that Chernobyl debris spreaded to far eastern Asia. In the present time, the long-lived radionuclides have b...

1175 PERSPECTIVES M ost of us use the Internet to exchange information in everyday life. The ever-increasing rate at which Internet connections transmit data requires faster and faster conversion of local information into signals that can be easily transmitted over long distances. For example , the information sent by your computer is converted from electronic signals into optical signals, whic...