A rare late post-castration complication in a bitch – a case report.

A clinical case of a post-castration complication in a bitch is reported. In the paralumbar region, a fistula-forming granuloma located caudally to the left kidney was observed. Granuloma was formed around a piece of multifilament non-absorbable thread used for ligature during an ovariohysterectomy performed two years ago. The operative removal of the granuloma was accompanied by left nephrec-tomy. The post operative period was smooth and 4 months later, the dog was clinically healthy

Bone turnover markers in sheep and goat: a review of the scientific literature

Bone turnover markers (BTMs) are product of bone cell activity and are generally divided in bone formation and bone resorption markers. The purpose of this review was to structure the available information on the use of BTMs in studies on small ruminants, especially for monitoring their variations related to diet, exercise, gestation and metabolic lactation state, circadian and seasonal variations, and also during skeletal growth. Pre-clinical and translational studies using BTMs with sheep and goats as animal models in orthopaedic research studies to help in the evaluation of the fracture healing process and osteoporosis research are also described in this review. The available information from the reviewed studies was systematically organized in order to highlight the most promising BTMs in small ruminant research, as well as provide a wide view of the use of sheep and goat as animal models in orthopaedic research, type of markers and commercial assay kits with cross-reactivity in sheep and goat, method of sample and storage of serum and urine for bone turnover markers determination and the usefulness and limitations of bone turnover markers in the different studies, therefore an effective tool for researchers that seek answers to different questions while using BTMs in small ruminants.José Arthur de A. Camassa acknowledges to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil, for his PhD scholarship 202248/2015-1.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dosimetry tools and techniques for IMRT

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98734/1/MPH001313.pd

Systems and methods for evaluation of potentially irradiated objects using oxygen-17 detection

PatentA system for detection of a potentially irradiated object utilizing oxygen - 17 (¹⁷0) quantities in a local atmosphere contacting the potentially irradiated object. The local atmosphere comprises nitrogen - 14 (¹⁴N) and is typically air. The ¹⁷0 quantity in the local atmosphere is determined through sampling using mass spectroscopy, nuclear resonance magnetic imaging, gas chromatography, or some other method. The ¹⁷0 quantity in the local atmosphere is compared to a baseline quantity of ¹⁷0 and deviations are treated as an indicator that a nuclear reaction converting ¹⁴N to ¹⁷0 has occurred or is occurring. Typically the local atmosphere is isolated to some degree from an external atmosphere via some type of enclosure or container, and the external atmosphere provides the baseline quantity of ¹⁷0 used for the comparison

TH‐D‐M100F‐06: Surface Smoothing of a Tubular Structure Using a Non‐Shrinking Algorithm

Purpose: The modeling of a 3D structure by interpolating a stack of 2D contours may result in an unrealistic faceted shape, even though each contour is smooth. A difficulty with geometric smoothing is that the surface can shrink after a number of iterations. This work investigates the use of a non‐shrinking smoothing algorithm in structure delineation for radiotherapy treatment planning. Materials and methods: The surface of a tubular structure is parameterized by an interpolating function using original contour data points in cylindrical coordinates. The center of the polar coordinates for each axial contour is placed on a smooth fitting function while the contour is still a single‐valued function. By interpolation the surface is re‐sampled into a set of evenly spaced vertices. In an iterative process each vertex is shifted by an average displacement vector from its neighbor vertices and scaled by a factor. Each step of iteration involves two shifts for every vertex with the scaling factor in opposite signs, in order to avoid shrinkage. The iterative process stops after a desired smoothness is achieved with all average displacement vectors smaller than a specified tolerance. This method is tested on five prostate IMRT cases. The axial contours of smoothed structure are displayed with the original contours for validation by three physicians. Results: The resulting surface appeared smooth in all projections. The physician approved the new contours for all five patients. The volume change for each structure was less than 2%. Treatment planning using smoothed CTVs and PTVs reduced the numbers of MU and MLC segments by 8 – 11%. Conclusions: A technique was developed for smoothing a structure surface constructed using 2D contours. The calculation was fast for 3D contouring. Our planning results suggested that unrealistically irregular target shapes can have adverse effects on dose conformity and delivery efficiency