Fred: A GPU-accelerated fast-Monte Carlo code for rapid treatment plan recalculation in ion beam therapy

Ion beam therapy is a rapidly growing technique for tumor radiation therapy. Ions allow for a high dose deposition in the tumor region, while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. For this reason, the highest possible accuracy in the calculation of dose and its spatial distribution is required in treatment planning. On one hand, commonly used treatment planning software solutions adopt a simplified beam-body interaction model by remapping pre-calculated dose distributions into a 3D water-equivalent representation of the patient morphology. On the other hand, Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, which explicitly take into account all the details in the interaction of particles with human tissues, are considered to be the most reliable tool to address the complexity of mixed field irradiation in a heterogeneous environment. However, full MC calculations are not routinely used in clinical practice because they typically demand substantial computational resources. Therefore MC simulations are usually only used to check treatment plans for a restricted number of difficult cases. The advent of general-purpose programming GPU cards prompted the development of trimmed-down MC-based dose engines which can significantly reduce the time needed to recalculate a treatment plan with respect to standard MC codes in CPU hardware. In this work, we report on the development of fred, a new MC simulation platform for treatment planning in ion beam therapy. The code can transport particles through a 3D voxel grid using a class II MC algorithm. Both primary and secondary particles are tracked and their energy deposition is scored along the trajectory. Effective models for particle-medium interaction have been implemented, balancing accuracy in dose deposition with computational cost. Currently, the most refined module is the transport of proton beams in water: single pencil beam dose-depth distributions obtained with fred agree with those produced by standard MC codes within 1-2% of the Bragg peak in the therapeutic energy range. A comparison with measurements taken at the CNAO treatment center shows that the lateral dose tails are reproduced within 2% in the field size factor test up to 20 cm. The tracing kernel can run on GPU hardware, achieving 10 million primary on a single card. This performance allows one to recalculate a proton treatment plan at 1% of the total particles in just a few minutes

Independent tuning of acoustic and mechanical properties of phantoms for biomedical applications of ultrasound

In this work the preparation of tissue mimicking materials (TMMs) with independently tunable acoustic and elastic properties is reported. Although a large number of hydrogel, synthetic polymer, polysaccharides or other natural based materials have been proposed and used for the realization of TMMs, both for diagnostic and therapeutic applications of ultrasounds, up to today, simulation of acoustic properties was often performed using solid particles, reducing dramatically the transparency and inevitably affecting the homogeneity and the elastic properties of the TMM. By means of concentrated salts solutions and different polysaccharides, an easy method to prepare these TMMs have been developed. This approach would lead to obtain homogenous TMMs with Young modulus ranging over 3 orders of magnitude, i.e. from 2 to 1500 kPa, with independently tunable attenuation properties. An accurate mechanical and acoustic characterization of these TMMs have been performed. Finally, by means of a preliminary trials on protein denaturation induced by a high focused ultrasound transducer in a transparent TMMs with different attenuation values, the mechanism underlying on the formation and propagation of lesion has been investigated. Obtained results suggest that this 'chemical' approach would strongly support in vitro investigations on the open issues related to diagnostic and therapeutic application of ultrasounds

Reliability of digital mems sensors: Metrological characterization of accelerometersand microphones

The reliability of digital MEMS accelerometer and microphone sensors is investigated, on the basis of suitable calibration procedures developed at INRiM, in order to provide the metrological traceability and the proper sensitivity in the digital domain. Nowadays, digital sensing systems, based on MEMS technology, are largely used in a wide range of advanced industrial, environmental, energy and medical applications. The possibility to have many accurate, low-power consuming and low-cost sensors present undoubted advantages, in terms of costs reduction and energy saving, while maintaining high quality in the control processes, monitoring or measurements and being flexible in providing enhanced data collection, automation and operation. Nevertheless, at present, digital MEMS sensors are not always reliable to quantify with adequate accuracy the measured physical phenomena, due to the lack of metrological traceability and sensitivity parameters for digital sensors

A fast - Monte Carlo toolkit on GPU for treatment plan dose recalculation in proton therapy

In the context of the particle therapy a crucial role is played by Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs), tools aimed to compute and optimize the tratment plan. Nowadays one of the major issues related to the TPS in particle therapy is the large CPU time needed. We developed a software toolkit (FRED) for reducing dose recalculation time by exploiting Graphics Processing Units (GPU) hardware. Thanks to their high parallelization capability, GPUs significantly reduce the computation time, up to factor 100 respect to a standard CPU running software. The transport of proton beams in the patient is accurately described through Monte Carlo methods. Physical processes reproduced are: Multiple Coulomb Scattering, energy straggling and nuclear interactions of protons with the main nuclei composing the biological tissues. FRED toolkit does not rely on the water equivalent translation of tissues, but exploits the Computed Tomography anatomical information by reconstructing and simulating the atomic composition of each crossed tissue. FRED can be used as an efficient tool for dose recalculation, on the day of the treatment. In fact it can provide in about one minute on standard hardware the dose map obtained combining the treatment plan, earlier computed by the TPS, and the current patient anatomic arrangement

Attosecond sampling of arbitrary optical waveforms

Advances in the generation of ultrashort laser pulses, and the emergence of new research areas such as attosecond science, nanoplasmonics, coherent control, and multidimensional spectroscopy, have led to the need for a new class of ultrafast metrology that can measure the electric field of complex optical waveforms spanning the ultraviolet to the infrared. Important examples of such waveforms are those produced by spectral control of ultrabroad bandwidth pulses, or by Fourier synthesis. These are typically tailored for specific purposes, such as to increase the photon energy and flux of high-harmonic radiation, or to control dynamical processes by steering electron dynamics on subcycle time scales. These applications demand a knowledge of the full temporal evolution of the field. Conventional pulse measurement techniques that provide estimates of the relative temporal or spectral phase are unsuited to measure such waveforms. Here we experimentally demonstrate a new, all-optical method for directly measuring the electric field of arbitrary ultrafast optical waveforms. Our method is based on high-harmonic generation (HHG) driven by a field that is the collinear superposition of the waveform to be measured with a stronger probe laser pulse. As the delay between the pulses is varied, we show that the field of the unknown waveform is mapped to energy shifts in the high-harmonic spectrum, allowing a direct, accurate, and rapid retrieval of the electric field with subcycle temporal resolution at the location of the HHG

Mixture distribution modelling of the sensitivities of a digital 3-axis MEMS accelerometers large batch

Huge quantities of low-cost analogue or digital MEMS sensors, in the order of millions per week, are produced by manufacturers. Their use is broad, from consumer electronic devices to Industry 4.0, Internet of Things and Smart Cities. In many cases, such sensors have to be calibrated by accredited laboratories to provide traceable measurements. However, at present, such a massive number of sensors cannot be calibrated and large-scale calibration systems and procedures are still missing. A first step to implementing these methods can be based on the distribution of the sensitivities of the large batches produced. Such distribution is also useful for sensor network end-users who need a single sensitivity, with the associated uncertainty, to be attributed to the whole network. Recently, a large batch of 100 digital 3-axis MEMS accelerometers was calibrated with a primary calibration system developed at INRiM and suitable for 3-axis accelerometers. Distributions of their sensitivities as a function of axis and frequency were analyzed and their non-normal behaviour was shown. However, in the preliminary phase of the study, the calibration uncertainties were not considered in these distributions. Therefore, in this paper, a mixture distribution modelling, based on Monte Carlo simulations and aimed at including the calibration uncertainties in the sensitivity distributions, is implemented and the resulting distributions are compared to the previous ones in histogram form. These distributions are also fitted with Johnson's unbounded and bimodal functions to get continuous distributions. This paper represents a further step towards the development of large-scale statistical calibration methods

Dynamic calibration system for seismometers: Traceability from 0.03 Hz up to 30 Hz

Mechanical calibration and traceability of seismometers in operating conditions are still a technical challenge, since very low-frequency ranges (below 0.1 Hz) are involved, and sensors under investigation are generally heavy and bulky. Recently, within the vibration metrology field, some pioneering works proposed to evaluate the seismometers’ sensitivity by applying laboratory mechanical calibration procedures, against primary or secondary standards, according to the ISO 16063 methods. By following this path, at INRIM, it has been developed a suitable system for short period horizontal and vertical ground velocity calibration of 3-axis seismometers. The calibration system allows to directly evaluate the sensitivities of the 2 axes perpendicular to the gravity field, with respect to the horizontal ground velocity (S-waves), and to derive the sensitivity of the vertical axis, parallel to the gravity field, with respect to the vertical ground velocity (P-waves), in the frequency range between 0.03 Hz and 30 Hz

Indentation modulus, indentation work and creep of metals and alloys at the macro-scale level: Experimental insights into the use of a primary Vickers hardness standard machine

In this work, the experimental method and the calculation model for the determination of indentation moduli, indentation work, and indentation creep of metallic materials, by means of macroscale-level forces provided by a primary hardness standard machine at the National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM) at the at room temperature were described. Indentation moduli were accurately determined from measurements of indentation load, displacement, contact stiffness and hardness indentation imaging and from the slope of the indentation unloading curve by applying the Doerner-Nix linear model; indentation work, representing the mechanical work spent during the force application of the indentation procedure, was determined by calculating the areas under the loading–unloading indentation curve, through fitting experimental data with a polynomial law. Measurements were performed with a pyramidal indenter (Vickers test). The applied force was provided by a deadweight machine, and the related displacement was measured by a laser interferometric system. Applied forces and the occurring indentation depths were simultaneously measured: The resulting loading–unloading indentation curve was achieved. Illustrative tests were performed on metals and alloy samples. Discussion and comments on the suitability of the proposed method and analysis were reported