Laboratory comparison of aging characteristics of warm mix asphalts involving natural and synthetic water containing additives

When comparing the aging characteristics of hot and warm mix asphalts from a technical point of view, it can intuitively be expected that a warm mix asphalt would be less subjected to aging-induced failures due to lower application temperatures. Since the side effects of warm asphalt technology should be investigated distinctly. This study addresses the aging investigation of properties of bituminous mixtures containing two (i.e., natural and synthetic zeolite) water based additives available on the market. Within the scope of this study, short- and long-term aging conditions were simulated on mixtures containing various contents of additives as well as on control specimens. The aging indices were determined based on the hardness ratio employing indirect tensile strength values in order to investigate the aging induced failures betide by time. Aging indices showed that the specimens with water containing additives demonstrate relatively better resistance against hardening than conventional hot mix asphalt specimens

Intraobserver and interobserver agreement for the interpretation of 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen-I&T positron emission tomography/computed tomography imaging

Objectives The use of 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography is spreading due to its clinical benefits. In this study, we aim to determine the intra- and interobserver agreement levels of 68Ga- prostate-specific membrane antigen-I&T positron emission tomography/computed tomography according to molecular imaging tumor-lymph node-metastases reporting system. Materials and methods Eighty prostate cancer patients and underwent 68Ga- prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography were blindly evaluated twice by four nuclear medicine specialists at intervals of 4 weeks. The evaluations were performed according to molecular imaging tumour-lymph node-metastases (miTNM) classification. We used Cohen's Kappa and Fleiss' Kappa analysis to analyse intra- and interobserver agreements. Results When 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography findings were evaluated according to miTNM classification, the obtained kappa values were as follows. The intraobserver Cohen's kappa coefficient was found to be 0.79 (substantial agreement), 0.93 (almost perfect agreement), and 0.94 (almost perfect agreement) for miT, miN, and miM, respectively. During interobserver evaluation between the four observers, the kappa coefficient was 0.52 (moderate agreement) for miT, 0.74 (substantial agreement) for miN, and 0.84 (almost perfect agreement) for miM. Conclusion There is no research on the intraobserver agreement analysis of 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography/computed tomography in the literature. Our findings are the first ones. The intraobserver agreement was almost perfect. Moreover, although 68Ga-prostate-specific membrane antigen I&T positron emission tomography/computed tomography had moderate interobserver evaluation compliance of the primary tumour, it had excellent interobserver agreement levels in local lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis evaluation.4012501255. © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

Medically inoperable early-stage lung cancer treated with stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR): Multicenter study of Turkish radiation oncology group (TROG)

60th Annual Meeting of the American-Society-for-Radiation-Oncology (ASTRO) -- OCT 21-24, 2018 -- San Antonio, TXWOS: 000447811602068Purpose/Objective(s): To review treatment outcomes for SABR inmedically inoperable early stage lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated byTurkish Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) member centers.Materials/Methods:Between 2009 and 2017, a total of 386 patients withNSCLC treated with SABR in 12 TROG centers. Patient, disease, andtreatment related prognostic factors were analyzed. Primary endpointswere, overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), local control (LC) and regional control (RC) and radiation-related toxicities.Results:Median follow-up was 15 months. The median age at diagnosis was72 years (43-93) and 79% were men. Median tumor size was 30 mm (5- 78mm). Seventy-two percent of the patients have histologically confirmed diagnosiswhereas 28%of patientswere treated withclinical and radiologicalfindings only without pathological diagnosis. Staging was as follows; T1N0in 215, T2N0 in 166, T3N0 in 2 and T4N0 in 3 patients because of bilaterallytumors. Median SABR dose was 54Gy (30-70Gy), corresponding to a bio-logical equivalent dose (BED) of 112Gy (48- 180Gy) administered in me-dian5 (1-10) fractions.Responseevaluationwas made either with PET/CTorCTin median 3 months after SABR and complete response, partial response,stable disease and progression rates were 48%, 36%, 5.7% and 0.5%,respectively. The cumulative locoregional failure rate was 15%. Amongthese, 23 were local (6%) and 35 regional (9%) failures. Distant failure wasreported in 67 (17%) patients. One to 3 years LC and RC rates were 97%,91% and 93%, 86%, respectively. One and 3 years PFS and OS were 88%,72% and 90%, 65%, respectively. At their last follow up 271 patients (71%) were alive. Prognostic factors associated with LC, RC and OS were sum-marized in table 1. No severe acute side effects were observed. Overall 18patients experienced grade 3 pneumonitis, 11 patients had chest wall painand 1 patient had rib fracture.Conclusion:The results of this retrospective study have shown that SABRis a promising technique with satisfactory LC and OS rates and minimaltoxicity in patients with medically inoperabl NSCLC.American Society for Radiation Oncolog

Hemorheology and oxidative stress in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer following I-131 ablation/metastasis treatment

BACKGROUND: Although radioiodine theraphy (RAIT) is thought to affect blood cells and oxidative stress, hemorheological alterations following dose-dependent RAIT remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the effects of RAIT on hemorheological and oxidative stress parameters in patients with differentiated thyroid cancers (DTC). METHODS: Totally 31 DTC patients (mean age 46.32±11.15 years) and 26 healthy controls (mean age 50.50±6.22 years) were included. Venous blood samples were collected from each patient before and after treatment (7th day, 1th month and 6th month). Erythrocyte aggregation-deformability and oxidative stress parameters were determined. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: Erythrocyte deformability of the patients determined at 16.87 and 30 Pascal were significantly lower than healthy individuals. Erythrocyte aggregation index (AI) of the patients was higher, whereas erythrocyte aggregation half-time (t½) was lower compared to control. Erythrocyte deformability values and AI were not significantly different from the pre-and post-radioiodine treatment groups. There was no statistically significant difference between the oxidative stress parameters before and after the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Patients were in a worse hemorheological condition compared to healthy individuals. After RAIT, RBC deformability and aggregation were not affected and no significant change in oxidative stress parameters was detected. © 2020-IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved