The contest between internal and external-beam dosimetry: The Zeno's paradox of Achilles and the tortoise.

Radionuclide therapy, also called molecular radiotherapy (MRT), has come of age, with several novel radiopharmaceuticals being approved for clinical use or under development in the last decade. External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is a well-established treatment modality, with about half of all oncologic patients expected to receive at least one external radiation treatment over their disease course. The efficacy and the toxicity of both types of treatment rely on the interaction of radiation with biological tissues. Dosimetry played a fundamental role in the scientific and technological evolution of EBRT, and absorbed doses to the target and to the organs at risk are calculated on a routine basis. In contrast, in MRT the usefulness of internal dosimetry has long been questioned, and a structured path to include absorbed dose calculation is missing. However, following a similar route of development as EBRT, MRT treatments could probably be optimized in a significant proportion of patients, likely based on dosimetry and radiobiology. In the present paper we describe the differences and the similarities between internal and external-beam dosimetry in the context of radiation treatments, and we retrace the main stages of their development over the last decades

Interest of pet imaging in multiple myeloma

The interest of 18Fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in the management of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) for the workup at diagnosis and for therapeutic evaluation has recently been demonstrated. FDG-PET is a powerful imaging tool for bone lesions detection at initial diagnosis with high sensitivity and specificity values. The independent pejorative prognostic value on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of baseline PET-derived parameters (presence of extra-medullary disease (EMD), number of focal bone lesions (FLs), and maximum standardized uptake values [SUVmax]) has been reported in several large independent prospective studies. During therapeutic evaluation, FDG-PET is considered as the reference imaging technique, because it can be performed much earlier than MRI which lacks specificity. Persistence of significant FDG uptake after treatment, notably before maintenance therapy, is an independent pejorative prognostic factor, especially for patients with a complete biological response. So FDG-PET and medullary flow cytometry are complementary tools for detection of minimal residual disease before maintenance therapy. However, the definition of PET metabolic complete response should be standardized. In patients with smoldering multiple myeloma, the presence of at least one hyper-metabolic lytic lesions on FDG-PET may be considered as a criterion for initiating therapy. FDG-PET is also indicated for initial staging of a solitary plasmacytoma so as to not disregard other bone or extra-medullary localizations. Development of nuclear medicine offer new perspectives for MM imaging. Recent PET tracers are willing to overcome limitations of FDG. (11)C-Methionine, which uptake reflects the increased protein synthesis of malignant cells seems to correlate well with bone marrow infiltration. Lipid tracers, such as Choline or acetate, and some peptide tracers, such as (68) Ga-Pentixafor, that targets CXCR4 (chemokine receptor-4, which is often expressed with high density by myeloma cells), are other promising PET ligands. 18F-fludarabine and immuno-PET targeting CD138 and CD38 also showed promising results in preclinical models

Теоремы сходимости и компактности для уравнений Бельтрами

Доведено ряд теорем збіжності та компактності класів регулярних розв'язків вироджених рівнянь Бельтрамі з обмеженнями інтегрального типу на дилатацію.A number of convergence and compactness theorems for classes of regular solutions of the degenerate Beltrami equations with restrictions of the integral type on a dilatation is proved

A Study of Cosmic Ray Secondaries Induced by the Mir Space Station Using AMS-01

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a high energy particle physics experiment that will study cosmic rays in the $\sim 100 \mathrm{MeV}$ to $1 \mathrm{TeV}$ range and will be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 3 years. A first version of AMS-02, AMS-01, flew aboard the space shuttle \emph{Discovery} from June 2 to June 12, 1998, and collected $10^8$ cosmic ray triggers. Part of the \emph{Mir} space station was within the AMS-01 field of view during the four day \emph{Mir} docking phase of this flight. We have reconstructed an image of this part of the \emph{Mir} space station using secondary $\pi^-$ and $\mu^-$ emissions from primary cosmic rays interacting with \emph{Mir}. This is the first time this reconstruction was performed in AMS-01, and it is important for understanding potential backgrounds during the 3 year AMS-02 mission.Comment: To be submitted to NIM B Added material requested by referee. Minor stylistic and grammer change

Isotopic Composition of Light Nuclei in Cosmic Rays: Results from AMS-01

The variety of isotopes in cosmic rays allows us to study different aspects of the processes that cosmic rays undergo between the time they are produced and the time of their arrival in the heliosphere. In this paper we present measurements of the isotopic ratios 2H/4He, 3He/4He, 6Li/7Li, 7Be/(9Be+10Be) and 10B/11B in the range 0.2-1.4 GeV of kinetic energy per nucleon. The measurements are based on the data collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, AMS-01, during the STS-91 flight in 1998 June.Comment: To appear in ApJ. 12 pages, 11 figures, 6 table

Search for an Invisibly-Decaying Higgs Boson at LEP

A search for a Higgs boson produced in e^+e^- collisions in association with a Z boson and decaying into invisible particles is performed. Data collected at LEP with the L3 detector at centre-of-mass energies from 189 GeV to 209 GeV are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.63/fb. Events with hadrons, electrons or muons with visible masses compatible with a Z boson and missing energy and momentum are selected. They are consistent with the Standard Model expectations. A lower limit of 112.3 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of the invisibly-decaying Higgs boson in the hypothesis that its production cross section equals that of the Standard Model Higgs boson. Relaxing this hypothesis, upper limits on the production cross section are derived

Relative Composition and Energy Spectra of Light Nuclei in Cosmic Rays: Results from AMS-01

Measurement of the chemical and isotopic composition of cosmic rays is essential for the precise understanding of their propagation in the galaxy. While the model parameters are mainly determined using the B/C ratio, the study of extended sets of ratios can provide stronger constraints on the propagation models. In this paper, the relative abundances of light-nuclei lithium, beryllium, boron, and carbon are presented. The secondary-to-primary ratios Li/C, Be/C, and B/C have been measured in the kinetic energy range 0.35-45 GeV nucleon[superscript –1]. The isotopic ratio [superscript 7]Li/[superscript 6]Li is also determined in the magnetic rigidity interval 2.5-6.3 GV. The secondary-to-secondary ratios Li/Be, Li/B, and Be/B are also reported. These measurements are based on the data collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer AMS-01 during the STS-91 space shuttle flight in 1998 June. Our experimental results are in substantial agreement with other measurements, where they exist. We describe our light-nuclei data with a diffusive-reacceleration model. A 10%-15% overproduction of Be is found in the model predictions and can be attributed to uncertainties in the production cross-section data

Cosmic-ray positron fraction measurement from 1 to 30 GeV with AMS-01

A measurement of the cosmic ray positron fraction e+/(e+ + e-) in the energy range of 1-30 GeV is presented. The measurement is based on data taken by the AMS-01 experiment during its 10 day Space Shuttle flight in June 1998. A proton background suppression on the order of 10^6 is reached by identifying converted bremsstrahlung photons emitted from positrons