Abstract
A new variety of nanoparticles showing unique and characteristic optical properties, appeals for its use as contrast agents in medical imaging. Gold nanospheres, nanorods and nanoshells with a silica core are new forms of promising contrast agents which can be tuned to specific absorption or scattering characteristics within the near-infrared (NIR) spectrum ranging from 650 - 1300 nm. They have the ability to be used for both image enhancement and as photosensitive markers due to their well designable scattering and absorption properties. Furthermore, their strong optical absorption permits treatment of malignant cells by photoablation processes, induced when heating them with a matched light source. Differential absorption optical coherence tomography (DA-OCT) allows for the detection and depth resolved concentration measurement of such markers. So far, reports on DA-OCT systems used A-scan based imaging systems to assess depth resolved information about the absorption properties and the concentration of a chemical compound. En-face OCT (B(T) or C(T) scan based) images allow for better depth localization and a depth resolved concentration measurement of the compound under investigation. For this aim, we evaluate the suitability of a multiscan time-domain OCT set-up, compatible with different light sources providing different wavelengths and bandwidths in the NIR, to perform differential absorption OCT measurements, using gold nanorods as the contrast agent.

Abstract
A versatile optical imaging system is presented that provides imaging resolutions down to the micrometer range. The system is built for time domain optical coherence tomography, with versatility in the scanning regime to be employed when scanning samples in the transverse and depth directions, thus generating cross-section images (B-scans) by using either transverse priority or depth priority. The system is targeted for eye fundus imaging but is easily adapted for the imaging of other biological samples, in vivo, by using its non-invasive property.

Abstract
The XENON10 experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory uses a 15 kg xenon dual phase time projection chamber to search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The detector measures simultaneously the scintillation and the ionization produced by radiation in pure liquid xenon to discriminate signal from background down to 4.5 keV nuclear-recoil energy. A blind analysis of 58.6 live days of data, acquired between October 6, 2006, and February 14, 2007, and using a fiducial mass of 5.4 kg, excludes previously unexplored parameter space, setting a new 90% C.L. upper limit for the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of 8.8x10(-44) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV/c(2), and 4.5x10(-44) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 30 GeV/c(2). This result further constrains predictions of supersymmetric models.

Abstract
XENON10 is an experiment to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which may comprise the bulk of the nonbaryonic dark matter in our Universe. We report new results for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions with (129)Xe and (131)Xe from 58.6 live days of operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Based on the nonobservation of a WIMP signal in 5.4 kg of fiducial liquid xenon mass, we exclude previously unexplored regions in the theoretically allowed parameter space for neutralinos. We also exclude a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass in the range of similar to 10 GeV/c(2) -2 TeV/c(2) as a dark matter candidate under standard assumptions for its density and distribution in the galactic halo.

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