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Understanding the influence of exposure of biological systems to THz radiation is becoming increasingly important. There is some evidence to suggest that THz radiation can influence important activities within mammalian cells. This study evaluated the influence of the high peak power, low average power THz radiation produced by the ALICE (Daresbury Laboratory, UK) synchrotron source on human epithelial and embryonic stem cells. The cells were maintained under standard tissue culture conditions, during which the THz radiation was delivered directly into the incubator for various exposure times. The influence of the THz radiation on cell morphology, attachment, proliferation and differentiation was evaluated. The study demonstrated that there was no difference in any of these parameters between irradiated and control cell cultures. It is suggested that under these conditions the cells are capable of compensating for any effects caused by exposure to THz radiation with the peak powers levels employed in these studies.

We demonstrate that the normalised phase space can be used to improve the quality of the reconstructed image in phase space tomography. This study uses the Filtered Back Projection (FBP) for reconstruction. We simulate the tomographic projections of a Gaussian phase space distribution in real phase space and in normalised phase space. The reconstruction can be carried out in real phase space directly. It can also be done first in normalised phase space, and then the coordinates can be transformed to real phase space. Using FBP, we show that the latter procedure produces images that agree well with the original distribution even when there are only three angles. It also gives better resolution for a more complex distribution, which we simulate with a random collection of Gaussian spots.

Recent developments for the delivery of proton and ion beam therapy have been significant, and a number of technological solutions now exist for the creation and utilisation of these particles for the treatment of cancer. In this paper we review the historical development of particle accelerators used for external beam radiotherapy and discuss the more recent progress towards more capable and cost-effective sources of particles.