56 research outputs found
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Mixed radiation field dosimetry utilizing Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance
This project has proposed to develop a novel dosimetry system that is capable of directly evaluating the chemical/biological damage caused by neutrons, photons, or both in a single measurement. The dosimeter itself will consist of a small volume of biological equivalent material that is probed for radiation damage with Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) techniques. NQR has previously been utilized as a sensitive probe of structural and chemical changes at the molecular level for a variety of organic compounds. The biological equivalent materials used in this study will not only have a density similar to tissue (tissue equivalent) but will have the same atomic components as tissue. This is a significant requirement if the important neutron interactions that occur in tissue are to occur in the dosimeter as well. The overall objective of this study is to investigate a methodology to perform accurate mixed-field (neutron and photon) dosimetry for biological systems
Estimated size of the clinical medical imaging physics workforce in the United States
There is no current authoritative accounting of the number of clinical imaging physicists practicing in the United States. Information about the workforce is needed to inform future efforts to secure training pathways and opportunities. In this study, the AAPM Diagnostic Demand and Supply Projection Working Group collected lists of medical physicists from several state registration and licensure programs and the Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) registry. By cross-referencing individuals among these lists, we were able to estimate the current imaging physics workforce in the United States by extrapolating based on population. The imaging physics workforce in the United States in 2019 consisted of approximately 1794 physicists supporting diagnostic X-ray (1073 board-certified) and 934 physicists supporting nuclear medicine (460 board-certified), with a number of individuals practicing in both subfields. There were an estimated 235 physicists supporting nuclear medicine exclusively (150 board-certified). The estimated total workforce, accounting for overlap, was 2029 medical physicists. These estimates are in approximate agreement with other published studies of segments of the workforce
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Final Technical Report
This project was designed to develop tools that would permit an accurate assessment of the patient doses that are received in screening mammography, and to subsequently demonstrate those tools to perform an objective evaluation of patient doses. The project also provides an educational component through the integration of multiple aspects of applied radiological engineering to provide students with realistic applications of many of the theoretical principles that are studied as part of their graduate curriculum
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OSL Based Anthropomorphic Phantom and Real-Time Organ Dosimetry
The overall objective of this project was the development of a dosimetry system that provides the direct measurement of organ does in real-time with a sensitivity that makes it an effective tool for applications in a wide variety of health physics applications. The system included the development of a real-time readout system for fiber optic coupled (FOC) dosimeters that is integrated with a state-of-art anthropomorphic phantom to provide instantaneous measures of organ doses throughout the phantom. The small size of the FOC detectors and optical fibers allow the sensitive volume of the detector to be located at organ centroids (or multiple locations distributed through the organ) within a tissue equivalent, anthropomorphic phantom without perturbing the tissue equivalent features of the phantom. The developed phantom/dosimetry system can be used in any environment where personnel may be exposed to gamma or x-ray radiations to provide the most accurate determinations of organ and effective doses possible to date
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Mixed-Radiation-Field Dosimetry Utilizing Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance
Radiation effects on urea, thiourea, guanidine carbonate and guanine sulfate were evaluated for both photon and neutron irradiations. Hydration of these materials typically provides a greatly increased sensitivity to both forms of radiation exposure, although not all materials lend themselves to this treatment without changing the chemical structure of the compound. Urea was found to be the most stable hydrated compound and provides the best sensitivity for quantifying radiation effects using NQR techniques. Urea permits a straight-forward quantification of each of the important parameters of the observed NQR signal, the FID. Several advanced data analysis methods were developed to assist in quantifying NQR spectra, both from urea and materials having more complex molecular structures, such as thiourea and guanidine sulfate. Unfortunately, these analysis techniques are frequently quite time consuming for the complex NQR spectra that result from some of these materials. The simpler analysis afforded by urea has therefore made it the prime candidate for an NQR dosimetry material. The moderate sensitivity of hydrated urea to photon irradiation does not permit this material to achieve the levels of performance required for a personnel dosimeter. It does, however, demonstrate acceptable sensitivity over dose ranges where it could provide a good biological dosimeter for several areas of radiation processing. The demonstrated photon sensitivity could permit hydrated urea to be used in applications such as food irradiation dosimetry. This material also exhibits a good sensitivity to neutron irradiation. The precise correlation between neutron exposure and the parameters of the resulting NQR spectra are currently being developed
Characterization and validation of the thorax phantom Lungman for dose assessment in chest radiography optimization studies
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