TY - JOUR A1 - Jahnke, Siegfried A1 - Menzel, Marion I. A1 - Dusschoten, Dagmar van A1 - Roeb, Gerhard W. A1 - Bühler, Jonas A1 - Minwuyelet, Senay A1 - Blümler, Peter A1 - Temperton, Vicky M. A1 - Hombach, Thomas A1 - Streun, Matthias A1 - Beer, Simone A1 - Khodaverdi, Maryam A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Coenen, Heinz H. A1 - Schurr, Ulrich T1 - Combined MRI–PET dissects dynamic changes in plant structures and functions JF - The Plant Journal N2 - Unravelling the factors determining the allocation of carbon to various plant organs is one of the great challenges of modern plant biology. Studying allocation under close to natural conditions requires non-invasive methods, which are now becoming available for measuring plants on a par with those developed for humans. By combining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), we investigated three contrasting root/shoot systems growing in sand or soil, with respect to their structures, transport routes and the translocation dynamics of recently fixed photoassimilates labelled with the short-lived radioactive carbon isotope 11C. Storage organs of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) and radish plants (Raphanus sativus) were assessed using MRI, providing images of the internal structures of the organs with high spatial resolution, and while species-specific transport sectoralities, properties of assimilate allocation and unloading characteristics were measured using PET. Growth and carbon allocation within complex root systems were monitored in maize plants (Zea mays), and the results may be used to identify factors affecting root growth in natural substrates or in competition with roots of other plants. MRI–PET co-registration opens the door for non-invasive analysis of plant structures and transport processes that may change in response to genomic, developmental or environmental challenges. It is our aim to make the methods applicable for quantitative analyses of plant traits in phenotyping as well as in understanding the dynamics of key processes that are essential to plant performance. Y1 - 2009 SN - 1365-313X VL - 59 IS - 4 SP - 634 EP - 644 PB - Wiley CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Bruyndonckx, P. A1 - Perez, J. M. A1 - Pietrzyk, U. A1 - Rato, P. A1 - Tavernier, S. T1 - Beyond ClearPET: Next Aims JF - 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro Symposium Proceedings ISBI 2008 N2 - The CRYSTAL CLEAR collaboration, in short CCC, is a consortium of 12 academic institutions, mainly from Europe, joining efforts in the area of developing instrumentation for nuclear medicine and medical imaging. In the framework of the CCC a high performance small animal PET system, called ClearPET, was developed by using new technologies in electronics and crystals in a phoswich arrangement combining two types of lutetium- based scintillator materials: LSO:Ce and LuYAP:Ce. Our next aim will be the development of hybrid image systems. Hybrid MR-PET imaging has many unique advantages for brain research. This has sparked a new research line within CCC for the development of novel MR-PET compatible technologies. MRI is not as sensitive as PET but PET has poorer spatial resolution than MRI. Two major advantages of PET are sensitivity and its ability to acquire metabolic information. To assess these innovations, the development of a 9.4T hybrid animal MR-PET scanner is proposed based on an existing 9.4T MR scanner that will be adapted to enable simultaneous acquisition of MR and PET data using cutting- edge technology for both MR and PET. Y1 - 2008 SN - 978-1-4244-2003-2 SP - 1421 EP - 1424 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Beer, S. A1 - Hombach, T. A1 - Jahnke, S. A1 - Khodaverdi, M. A1 - Larue, H. A1 - Minwuyelet, S. A1 - Parl, C. A1 - Roeb, G. A1 - Schurr, U. A1 - Ziemons, Karl T1 - PlanTIS: A positron emission tomograph for imaging 11C transport in plants JF - 2007 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, Vol. 6 N2 - Plant growth and transport processes are highly dynamic. They are characterized by plant-internal control processes and by strong interactions with the spatially and temporally varying environment. Analysis of structure- function relations of growth and transport in plants will strongly benefit from the development of non-invasive techniques. PlanTIS (Plant Tomographic Imaging System) is designed for non-destructive 3D-imaging of positron emitting radiotracers. It will permit functional analysis of the dynamics of carbon distribution in plants including bulky organs. It will be applicable for screening transport properties of plants to evaluate e.g. temperature adaptation of genetically modified plants. PlanTIS is a PET scanner dedicated to monitor the dynamics of the 11C distribution within a plant while or after assimilation of 11CO2. Front end electronics and data acquisition architecture of the scanner are based on the ClearPETTM system [1]. Four detector modules form one of two opposing detector blocks. Optionally, a hardware coincidence detection between the blocks can be applied. In general the scan duration is rather long (~ 1 hour) compared to the decay time of 11C (20 min). As a result the count rates can vary over a wide range and accurate dead time correction is necessary. Y1 - 2008 SN - 1082-3654 SP - 4110 EP - 4112 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mosset, J.-B. A1 - Devroede, O. A1 - Krieguer, M. A1 - Rey, M. A1 - Vieira, J.-M. A1 - Jung, J. H. A1 - Kuntner, C. A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Auffray, E. A1 - Sempere-Roldan, P. A1 - Lecoq, P. A1 - Bruyndonckx, P. A1 - Loude, J.-F. A1 - Tavernier, S. A1 - Morcel, C. T1 - Development of an optimized LSO/LuYAP phoswich detector head for the Lausanne ClearPET demonstrator JF - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science N2 - This paper describes the LSO/LuYAP phoswich detector head developed for the ClearPET small animal PET scanner demonstrator that is under construction in Lausanne within the Crystal Clear Collaboration. The detector head consists of a dual layer of 8×8 LSO and LuYAP crystal arrays coupled to a multi-anode photomultiplier tube (Hamamatsu R7600-M64). Equalistion of the LSO/LuYAP light collection is obtained through partial attenuation of the LSO scintillation light using a thin aluminum deposit of 20-35 nm on LSO and appropriate temperature regulation of the phoswich head between 30°C to 60°C. At 511keV, typical FWHM energy resolutions of the pixels of a phoswich head amounts to (28±2)% for LSO and (25±2)% for LuYAP. The LSO versus LuYAP crystal identification efficiency is better than 98%. Six detector modules have been mounted on a rotating gantry. Axial and tangential spatial resolutions were measured up to 4 cm from the scanner axis and compared to Monte Carlo simulations using GATE. FWHM spatial resolution ranges from 1.3 mm on axis to 2.6 mm at 4 cm from the axis. Y1 - 2006 SN - 0018-9499 VL - 53 IS - 1 SP - 25 EP - 29 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khodaverdi, M. A1 - Weber, S. A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Parl, C. A1 - Ziemons, Karl T1 - High resolution imaging with ClearPET™ Neuro - first animal images JF - 2005 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, Vol. 3 N2 - The ClearPET™ Neuro is the first full ring scanner within the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC). It consists of 80 detector modules allocated to 20 cassettes. LSO and LuYAP:Ce crystals in phoswich configuration in combination with position sensitive photomultiplier tubes are used to achieve high sensitivity and realize the acquisition of the depth of interaction (DOI) information. The complete system has been tested concerning the mechanical and electronical stability and interplay. Moreover, suitable corrections have been implemented into the reconstruction procedure to ensure high image quality. We present first results which show the successful operation of the ClearPET™ Neuro for artefact free and high resolution small animal imaging. Based on these results during the past few months the ClearPET™ Neuro System has been modified in order to optimize the performance. Y1 - 2006 SN - 1082-3654 SP - 1641 EP - 1644 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Brandenburg, G. A1 - Khodaverdi, M. A1 - Larue, H. A1 - Parl, C. A1 - Ziemons, Karl T1 - Timemark correction for the ClearPET™ scanners JF - 2005 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, Vol. 4 N2 - The small animal PET scanners developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration (ClearPETtrade) detect coincidences by analyzing timemarks which are attached to each event. The scanners are able to save complete single list mode data which allows analysis and modification of the timemarks after data acquisition. The timemarks are obtained from the digitally sampled detector pulses by calculating the baseline crossing of the rising edge of the pulse which is approximated as a straight line. But the limited sampling frequency causes a systematic error in the determination of the timemark. This error depends on the phase of the sampling clock at the time of the event. A statistical method that corrects these errors will be presented Y1 - 2006 SN - 1082-3654 SP - 2057 EP - 2060 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Brandenburg, G. A1 - Larue, H. A1 - Parl, C. A1 - Ziemons, Karl T1 - The data acquisition system of ClearPET neuro - a small animal PET scanner JF - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science N2 - The Crystal Clear Collaboration has developed a modular system for a small animal PET scanner (ClearPET). The modularity allows the assembly of scanners of different sizes and characteristics in order to satisfy the specific needs of the individual member institutions. The system performs depth of interaction detection by using a phoswich arrangement combining LSO and LuYAP scintillators which are coupled to Multichannel Photomultipliers (PMTs). For each PMT a free running 40 MHz ADC digitizes the signal and the complete scintillation pulse is sampled by an FPGA and sent with 20 MB/s to a PC for preprocessing. The pulse provides information about the gamma energy and the scintillator material which identifies the interaction layer. Furthermore, the exact pulse starting time is obtained from the sampled data. This is important as no hardware coincidence detection is implemented. All single events are recorded and coincidences are identified by software. The system in Jülich (ClearPET Neuro) is equipped with 10240 crystals on 80 PMTs. The paper will present an overview of the data acquisition system. Y1 - 2006 SN - 0018-9499 VL - 53 IS - 3 SP - 700 EP - 703 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khodaverdi, M. A1 - Chatziioannou, A. F. A1 - Weber, S. A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Halling, H. A1 - Pietrzyk, U. T1 - Investigation of different MicroCT scanner configurations by GEANT4 simulations JF - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science N2 - This study has been performed to design the combination of the new ClearPET (ClearPET is a trademark of the Crystal Clear Collaboration), a small animal positron emission tomography (PET) system, with a micro-computed tomography (microCT) scanner. The properties of different microCT systems have been determined by simulations based on GEANT4. We will demonstrate the influence of the detector material and the X-ray spectrum on the obtained contrast. Four different detector materials (selenium, cadmium zinc telluride, cesium iodide and gadolinium oxysulfide) and two X-ray spectra (a molybdenum and a tungsten source) have been considered. The spectra have also been modified by aluminum filters of varying thickness. The contrast between different tissue types (water, air, brain, bone and fat) has been simulated by using a suitable phantom. The results indicate the possibility to improve the image contrast in microCT by an optimized combination of the X-ray source and detector material. Y1 - 2005 SN - 0018-9499 VL - 52 IS - 1 SP - 188 EP - 192 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Auffray, E. A1 - Barbier, R. A1 - Brandenburg, G. A1 - Bruyndonckx, P. T1 - The ClearPET™ project: Development of a 2nd generation high-performance small animal PET scanner JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment N2 - Second generation high-performance PET scanners, called ClearPET™1, have been developed by working groups of the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC). High sensitivity and high spatial resolution for the ClearPET camera is achieved by using a phoswich arrangement combining two different types of lutetium-based scintillator materials: LSO from CTI and LuYAP:Ce from the CCC (ISTC project). In a first ClearPET prototype, phoswich arrangements of 8×8 crystals of 2×2×10 mm3 are coupled to multi-channel photomultiplier tubes (Hamamatsu R7600). A unit of four PMTs arranged in-line represents one of 20 sectors of the ring design. The opening diameter of the ring is 120 mm, the axial detector length is 110 mm.The PMT pulses are digitized by free-running ADCs and digital data processing determines the gamma energy, the phoswich layer and even the exact pulse starting time, which is subsequently used for coincidence detection. The gantry allows rotation of the detector modules around the field of view. Preliminary data shows a correct identification of the crystal layer about (98±1)%. Typically the energy resolution is (23.3±0.5)% for the luyap layer and (15.4±0.4)% for the lso layer. early studies showed the timing resolution of 2 ns FWHM and 4.8 ns FWTM. the intrinsic spatial resolution ranges from 1.37 mm to 1.61 mm full-width of half-maximum (FWHM) with a mean of 1.48 mm FWHM. further improvements in image and energy resolution are expected when the system geometry is fully modeled. Y1 - 2005 SN - 0168-9002 N1 - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Inorganic Scintillators and their Use in Scientific and Industrial Applications VL - 537 IS - 1-2 SP - 307 EP - 311 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Streun, M. A1 - Christ, D. A1 - Hellendung, A. A1 - Larue, H. A1 - Ziemons, Karl A1 - Halling, H. T1 - Effects of crosstalk and gain nonuniformity using multichannel PMTs in the Clearpet® scanner JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment N2 - The ClearPET® scanners developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration use multichannel PMTs as photodetectors with scintillator pixels coupled individually to each channel. In order to localize an event each channel anode is connected to a comparator that triggers when the anode signal exceeds a common predefined threshold. Two major difficulties here are crosstalk of light and the gain nonuniformity of the PMT channels. Crosstalk can generate false triggering in channels adjacent to the actual event. On the one hand this can be suppressed by sufficiently increasing the threshold, but on the other hand a threshold too high can already prevent valid events on the lower gain channels from being detected. Finally, both effects restrict the dynamic range of pulse heights that can be processed. The requirements to the dynamic range are not low as the ClearPET® scanners detect the depth of interaction by phoswich pixels consisting of LSO and Lu0.7Y0.3AP, two scintillators with different light yields. We will present a model to estimate the achievable dynamic range and show solutions to increase it. Y1 - 2005 SN - 0168-9002 N1 - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Inorganic Scintillators and their Use in Scientific and Industrial Applications VL - 537 IS - 1-2 SP - 402 EP - 405 ER -