Monaco v. Mitsubishi Mtr

United States District Court for the District of New Jerse

Monaco v. Amer Gen Assurance

United States District Court for the District of New Jerse

Steven Monaco v. City of Camden

USDC for the District of New Jerse

Thin low-gain avalanche detectors for particle therapy applications

none18The University of Torino (UniTO) and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN-TO) are investigating the use of Ultra Fast Silicon Detectors (UFSD) for beam monitoring in radiobiological experiments with therapeutic proton beams. The single particle identification approach of solid state detectors aims at increasing the sensitivity and reducing the response time of the conventional monitoring devices, based on gas detectors. Two prototype systems are being developed to count the number of beam particles and to measure the beam energy with time-of-flight (ToF) techniques. The clinically driven precision (< 1%) in the number of particles delivered and the uncertainty < 1 mm in the depth of penetration (range) in radiobiological experiments (up to 108 protons/s fluxes) are the goals to be pursued. The future translation into clinics would allow the implementation of faster and more accurate treatment modalities, nowadays prevented by the limits of state-of-the-art beam monitors. The experimental results performed with clinical proton beams at CNAO (Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica, Pavia) and CPT (Centro di Protonterapia, Trento) showed a counting inefficiency <2% up to 100 MHz/cm2, and a deviation of few hundreds of keV of measured beam energies with respect to nominal ones. The progresses of the project are reported.noneVignati, A.; Donetti, M.; Fausti, F.; Ferrero, M.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Mart Villarreal, O.A.; Mas Milian, F.; Mazza, G.; Monaco, V.; Sacchi, R.; Shakarami, Z.; Sola, V.; Staiano, A.; Tommasino, F.; Verroi, E.; Wheadon, R.; Cirio, R.Vignati, A.; Donetti, M.; Fausti, F.; Ferrero, M.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Mart Villarreal, O. A.; Mas Milian, F.; Mazza, G.; Monaco, V.; Sacchi, R.; Shakarami, Z.; Sola, V.; Staiano, A.; Tommasino, F.; Verroi, E.; Wheadon, R.; Cirio, R

External sensory-motor cues while managing unexpected slippages can violate the planar covariation law.

This study was aimed at investigating the intersegmental coordination of six older adults while managing unexpected slippages delivered during steady walking, and wearing an Active Pelvis Orthosis (APO). The APO was setup either to assist volunteers at the hip levels during balance loss or to be transparent. The Planar Covariation Law (PCL) of the lower limb elevation angles was the main tool used to assess the intersegmental coordination of both limbs (i.e., the perturbed and unperturbed ones). Results revealed that, after the onset of the perturbation, elevation angles of both limbs do not covary, a part from the robot-mediated assistance. These new evidences suggest that external sensory-motor cues can alter the temporal synchronization of elevation angles, thus violating the PCL. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Single Event Upset tests and failure rate estimation for a front-end ASIC adopted in high-flux-particle therapy applications

none8A 64 channels Application Specific Integrated Circuit, named TERA09, designed in a 0.35 m technology for particle therapy applications, has been characterized for Single Event Upset probability. TERA09 is a current-to-frequency converter that offers a wide input range, extending from few nA to hundreds of A, with linearity deviations in the order of a few percent. This device operates as front-end readout electronics for parallel plate ionization chambers adopted in clinical applications. This chip is going to be located beside the monitor chamber, thus not directly exposed to the particle beam. For this reason, no radiation hardening techniques were adopted during the microelectronics design. The intent of the test reported in this paper is to predict the TERA09 upset rate probability in a real application scenario. Due to the fact that TERA09 has an extended digital area with registers and counters, it is interesting to estimate the effect of the secondary neutron field produced during the treatment. The radiation damage test took place at the SIRAD facility of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Padova, Italy. The SIRAD facility allows to study the CMOS upset rate as a function of the energy deposited during irradiation. By irradiating the chip with ions of different Linear Energy Transfer, it is possible to calculate the single event effect cross-section as a function of the deposited energy. It resulted that the minimum deposited energy in a CMOS silicon sensitive volume of , responsible for a Single Event Upset probability higher than zero, is 690 keV. In the last part of the paper, we calculated the expected upset probability in a typical clinical environment, knowing the fluence of secondary, backward-emitted neutrons. Considering as an example a treatment room located at the CNAO particle therapy center in Pavia, the expected upset rate for TERA09 is events/year. Using a redundant and independent monitor chamber, the upset probability expected during one detector readout is lower than , as explained in the document.noneFausti, F.; Mazza, G.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Manganaro, L.; Monaco, V.; Sacchi, R.; Cirio, R.Fausti, F.; Mazza, G.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Manganaro, L.; Monaco, V.; Sacchi, R.; Cirio, R

A high rate silicon detector and front-end electronics prototype for single ion discrimination in particle therapy

none18noThe medical physics group of the Turin section of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, on the behalf of the MoVeIT collaboration, is working for the development of a new prototype of silicon strip detector for particle therapy applications. This device, based on 50 μm thin silicon sensors with internal gain, aims to detect the single beam particle and count their number up to 10 8 cm 2 /s fluxes, with a pileup probability <; 1%. A similar approach would lead to a drastic step forward, compared to the classical and widely used monitoring system based on ionization chambers. The better sensitivity, the higher dynamic range and the fact that the particle counting is independent of the beam energy, pressure and temperature, make this silicon detector suitable for the on-line dose monitoring in particle therapy applications. The prototype detector will cover a 3×3 cm 2 area and at the moment, two sets of strip sensors with different geometry and custom design, have been produced and are currently under investigation. The classic orthogonal strip positioning is used for beam profile measures. For what concerns the front-end electronics, the design of two different solutions is ongoing: one based on a transimpedance preamplifier, with a resistive feedback and the second one based on a charge sensitive amplifier. The challenging task for the design is the expected 3 fC - 130 fC wide input charge range (due to the Landau fluctuation spreading and different beam energies), dealing with a hundreds of MHz instantaneous rate (from 200 MHz up to 500 MHz ideally). To effectively design these components, it is crucial to perform preliminary investigation of the sensor response to the expected stimuli. For this reason an extensive work has been done and is still on going, using 1.2 mm 2 area and 50μm silicon pads with gain, performing test with the clinical beam of the Italian National Center of Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO) in Pavia, Italy.noneFausti, F.; Arcidiacono, R.; Attili, A.; Cartiglia, N.; Cenna, F.; Donetti, M.; Ferrero, M.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Mandurrino, M.; Manganaro, L.; Monaco, V.; Mazza, G.; Sacchi, R.; Sola, V.; Staiano, A.; Vignati, A.; Cirio, R.Fausti, F.; Arcidiacono, R.; Attili, A.; Cartiglia, N.; Cenna, F.; Donetti, M.; Ferrero, M.; Giordanengo, S.; Hammad Ali, O.; Mandurrino, M.; Manganaro, L.; Monaco, V.; Mazza, G.; Sacchi, R.; Sola, V.; Staiano, A.; Vignati, A.; Cirio, R