New model for inorganic pollutants dissipation on the northern part of the romanian black sea coast

© 2018, Editura Academiei Romane. All rights reserved. Last decades, pollution became one of the significant issues worldwide. Atmospheric pollution has a negative impact on the population health, especially in the urban agglomeration, where the exceedance of the concentration limits of the toxic gases is recorded. Sulphur dioxide is the inorganic pollutants most spread in the atmosphere in industrial areas. One of these areas is situated in Northern part of the Romanian Black Sea Coast. Therefore, we aim at determining a model for SO2 dissipation, based on the data collected at six locations, as a function of the atmospheric variables

Accuracy of the recombination correction factor (ks) in FFF beams for three ion chamber types

Flattening filter free (FFF) beams pose particular considerations for absolute dosimetry. • These beams are capable to deliver high doses per pulse (DPP) which implies special consideration regarding recombination effects in ionization chambers. • We wanted to know which type of ionization chamber (Farmer, Semiflex or Pinpoint) would be more appropriate for commisioning our new FFF beam

Commissioning of small field size radiosurgery cones in a 6-MV flattening filter-free beam

This study aimed to describe the commissioning of small field size radiosurgery cones in a 6-MV flattening filter free (FFF) beam and report our measured values. Four radiosurgery cones of diameters 5, 10, 12.5, and 15¿mm supplied by Elekta Medical were commissioned in a 6-MV FFF beam from an Elekta Versa linear accelerator. The extraction of a reference signal for measuring small fields in scanning mode is challenging. A transmission chamber was attached to the lower part of the collimators and used for percentage depth dose (PDD) and profile measurements in scanning mode with a stereotactic diode. Tissue-maximum ratios (TMR) and output factors (OF) for all collimators were measured with a stereotactic diode (IBA). TMR and the OF for the largest collimator were also acquired on a polystyrene phantom with a microionization chamber of 0.016¿cm3 volume (PTW Freiburg PinPoint 3D). Measured TMR with diode and PinPoint microionization chamber agreed very well with differences smaller than 1% for depths below 20¿cm, except for the smaller collimator, for which differences were always smaller than 2%. Calculated TMR were significantly different (up to 7%) from measured TMR. OF measured with diode and chamber showed a difference of 3.5%. The use of a transmission chamber allowed the measurement of the small-field dosimetric properties with a simple setup. The commissioning of radiosurgery cones in FFF beams has been performed with essentially the same procedures and recommended ..

Caracterización físicoquímica de acreciones presentes en un horno de lecho fluidizado para la tostación de blenda

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo central, establecer las características fisicoquímicas de acreciones presentes en un horno industrial de tostación de Blenda (ZnS) que opera a 945ºC, y que según observaciones en planta se forman preferentemente en superficies a baja temperatura tales como salida a caldera, tubos de refrigeración y tolvas de alimentación. El estudio por medio de análisis de Difracción de Rayos X, Absorción Atómica y Análisis de Imagen, reveló que los componentes principales de estos depósitos son sulfato de zinc, sulfato de plomo y ferrita de zinc. Un análisis termodinámico basado en la construcción de diagramas de estabilidad para el sistema Zn-Fe-Pb/SO2(g)-O2(g) con XZn ≥ 0,5 (esto es, XFe = 0,125 XPb = 0,015) entre 300 a 900 ºC, confirma la fuerte presencia de ZnSO4, PbSO4, Fe2(SO4)3 y ZnFe2O4 bajo condiciones de operación del reactor de tostación, validándose este análisis con las observaciones experimentales

Synthesis and magnetic properties of NiFe_{2-x}Al_{x}O_{4} nanoparticles

Nanocrystalline Al-doped nickel ferrite powders have been synthesized by sol-gel auto-ignition method and the effect of non-magnetic aluminum content on the structural and magnetic properties has been studied. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the powders obtained are single phase with inverse spinel structure. The calculated grain sizes from XRD data have been verified using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM photographs show that the powders consist of nanometer-sized grains. It was observed that the characteristic grain size decreases from 29 to 6 nm as the non-magnetic Al content increases, which was attributed to the influence of non-magnetic Al concentration on the grain size. Magnetic hysteresis loops were measured at room temperature with a maximum applied magnetic field of 1T. As aluminum content increases, the measured magnetic hysteresis curves become more and more narrow and the saturation magnetization and remanent magnetization both decreased. The reduction of agnetization compared to bulk is a consequence of spin non-collinearity. Further reduction of magnetization with increase of aluminum content is caused by non-magnetic Al^{3+} ions and weakened interaction between sublattices. This, as well as the decrease in hysteresis was understood in terms of the decrease in particle size.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure

A high-throughput screen for the identification of compounds that inhibit nematode gene expression by targeting spliced leader trans-splicing

The work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [Project grant BB/J007137/1] and a Medical Research Council (MRC) Confidence in Concept (2014) - University of Aberdeen Award (MC_PC_14114v.2). AA was supported by a PhD stipend from the Saudi Arabia. Research data will be made available on requestPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Development and clinical evaluation of a simple optical method to detect and measure patient external motion

A simple and independent system to detect and measure the position of a number of points in space was devised and implemented. Its application aimed to detect patient motion during radiotherapy treatments, alert of out-of-tolerances motion, and record the trajectories for subsequent studies. The system obtains the 3D position of points in space, through its projections in 2D images recorded by two cameras. It tracks black dots on a white sticker placed on the surface of the moving object. The system was tested with linear displacements of a phantom, circular trajectories of a rotating disk, oscillations of an in-house phantom, and oscillations of a 4D phantom. It was also used to track 461 trajectories of points on the surface of patients during their radiotherapy treatments. Trajectories of several points were reproduced with accuracy better than 0.3 mm in the three spatial directions. The system was able to follow periodic motion with amplitudes lower than 0.5 mm, to follow trajectories of rotating points at speeds up to 11.5 cm/s, and to track accurately the motion of a respiratory phantom. The technique has been used to track the motion of patients during radiotherapy and to analyze that motion. The method is flexible. Its installation and calibration are simple and quick. It is easy to use and can be implemented at a very affordable price. Data collection does not involve any discomfort to the patient and does not delay the treatment, so the system can be used routinely in all treatments. It has an accuracy similar to that of other, more sophisticated, commercially available systems. It is suitable to implement a gating system or any other application requiring motion detection, such as 4D CT, MRI or PET

New medical imaging systems exploiting the energy dispersive X-ray diffraction with spectrometric CdZnTe based detector

Cette thèse étudie l’intérêt de la mesure de la diffusion cohérente de rayons X dans le cadre de l’imagerie du sein à des fins de diagnostic. Aujourd'hui, la plupart des systèmes d'imagerie médicale par rayons X exploitent le rayonnement transmis à travers les tissus. C’est le cas pour la mammographie, qui est la modalité d’imagerie du sein la plus courante. L'apparition récente de détecteurs résolus en énergie, à base de semi-conducteurs notamment, permet cependant d'envisager l'exploitation en milieu clinique d'un autre phénomène : le rayonnement diffusé cohérent. La mesure de spectres de diffusion peut apporter de nouvelles informations liées à la structure moléculaire des tissus examinés pour mieux les caractériser et ainsi améliorer le diagnostic final. Deux modalités sont envisagées : la détection in vivo de tumeurs du sein, à la suite d’une mammographie présentant un résultat suspect ou l'analyse de biopsie.Le système de mesure de diffusé développé lors de cette thèse exploite les détecteurs résolus en énergie de type CdZnTe, ces derniers présentant des caractéristiques (résolution en énergie, sensibilité, résolution spatiale, compacité) prometteuses pour une utilisation en condition clinique. Il se base par ailleurs sur la pixellisation du détecteur afin de proposer une modalité d’imagerie permettant de caractériser les matériaux ou tissus traversés dans une direction sans translation ni rotation.Cette thèse propose ainsi une étude complète de ce système, articulée autour de trois grandes parties : modélisation puis simulation du système de mesure, développement du traitement des données mesurées par le détecteur afin d’imager et caractériser l’échantillon analysé et enfin, dimensionnement d’un banc expérimental plus complexe intégrant un détecteur complet et un système de collimation multifente. Ces trois parties font par ailleurs l’objet de validations expérimentales associées.This thesis studies the interest of measuring the coherent scattering of X-rays for breast diagnosis imaging. Nowadays, most of X-ray-based medical imaging techniques use the information of X-rays attenuation through the tissues. It is the case for mammography, the most common breast imaging modality. The recent emergence of energy resolved detectors (based on semiconductors in particular) allows to consider using another phenomenon: the coherent X-ray scattering. Measurement of diffracted spectra can provide new information related to the molecular structure of the examined tissues, in order to improve their characterization and therefore improve the final diagnosis. Two modalities are considered: the breast cancer detection in vivo, following a suspicious mammography result, or biopsy analysis.The coherent scattering measurement system developed during this thesis work uses energy-resolved CdZnTe-based detectors, these detectors combining performances (energy resolution, sensitivity, spatial resolution, and compactness) promising for clinical application. This system is also based on the detector pixelation, which allows to provide an imaging modality capable of characterizing analyzed materials or tissues in one direction without any translation or rotation.A complete study of the measurement system is proposed in this thesis, structured in three main parts: modeling and simulation of the system, development of the processing of the data measured by the detector in order to image and characterize the analyzed sample and finally, designing of a new and more complex experimental setup based on a whole detector and multislit collimation system. An experimental validation is proposed for each of these three parts