Review of online educational resources for medical physicists

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135684/1/acm20368.pd

Two phase partitioning bioreactor applied to produced water treatment

Produced waters are the largest waste associated with the production of oil and gas; they contain dissolved salts, oil (dissolved and scattered organic compounds), chemicals and additives involved in the oil well operations, suspended particles, sand and other compounds, making their treatment very complex. In this paper, we propose the use of a TPPB (two phase partitioning bioreactor) for the biological treatment of produced waters. We model the application of the TPPB on the stream after classical pre-treatment stages: the reactor behaviour is based on the controlled release of substrate by means of an organic solvent. This study aims at developing a mathematical model for a TPPB adopting oleic alcohol (Adol 85 NF) as a solvent: we test model reliability by means of a sensitivity analysis in order to evaluate the reactor efficiency for chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal in a produced water stream, aimed at water reuse

BIODEGRADATION OF ACRYLIC PAINTS: PROCESS MODELLING OF BIOCIDE EFFECT ON BIOMASS GROWTH AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES

Abstract Acrylic paint, notwithstanding the attention paid during the production process, couldbe contaminated by bacteria. This is a consequence of microbiological residuals on the can, resulting in the alterationof paint characteristics. It is therefore necessary to provide an in-canpreservation of the paint by using a biocide.In this paper, the evolution of an in-can system, using a thermo-fluid dynamic model is presented; as a biocide, 2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one, commercially known as MIT,was considered. The model was implemented on gPROMSsoftware and it was possible to determine the inhibitory concentration of the biocideinorder to guarantee both the protection of the can and the protection of thecover phase. To develop the model, kinetic parameters have been found by fitting available literature experimental data. As far as the thermodynamical parameters, theequilibrium between liquid and vapor phases was described bythe NRTLmodel (ASPEN Plus). The model has been validated through a comparison with experimental literature results using MIT alone and a mixture of biocides (MIT/BIT). The main results are that,at the maximum allowable concentration (100 ppm as imposed by law), the MIT biocide is able to protectthe paint for long periods, even when the temperature varies cyclically from 10 to 40°C

Changes and demands in the higher education sector are increasingly making advanced degree medical physics programs nonviable and the profession will have to develop a new model for delivering such education

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141195/1/mp12645_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141195/2/mp12645.pd

Lung cancer stage distribution from before COVID-19 through 18 months of the pandemic: the experience of a large-volume oncological referral centre

We observed a significant decrease in early-stage cases at our national oncological referral centre for thoracic surgery and lung cancer screening. This cannot plausibly be ascribed to a lower lung cancer incidence. On the other end, the impact of lockdown measures on the reduction of early-stage lung cancer and other malignancies diagnoses should be investigated and addressed. People's fear of hospitals resulted in a diagnostic delay, whose most severe effects occurred in the first months of 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for a digital revolution in health car

Study of charmless B(s) meson decays involving η' and Φ intermediate states at the LHCb experiment

LHCb is one of the four main experiments located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and has collected about 3 fb-¹ of proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV between December 2009 and December 2012. Designed for the study of B-meson decays and for precision CP-violation measurements, the LHCb detector requires a high resolution vertex reconstruction, a precise measurement of the charged particle’s momentum and an excellent particle identification. In this thesis, a study of the LHCb magnetic field map and two physics analyses are presented. Based on the magnetic field measurements collected during a dedicated campaign in February 2011, the magnetic field map is corrected for mis-alignments, considering global translations and rotations. A more reliable mapping of the field is provided, and is used for the LHCb event reconstruction since June 2011. As a consequence of this study, the mass resolution is improved, and a better agreement between the software alignment and the survey measurements of the tracking stations is obtained [...

Not everything is what it seems: malignant pleural mesothelioma mimicking lung cancer

Malignant pleural mesothelioma usually arises from the pleural surface and progressively encases the lungs. Pulmonary involvement generally occurs at an advanced stage, while intraparenchymal nodules, in the absence of pleural lesions, constitute a less frequent presentation. We describe the case of a patient with multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules, mediastinal lymphadenopathies and left pleural effusion in the absence of pleural lesions, simulating advanced stage lung cancer. Thoracoscopic inspection did not detect any lesions. Pathological examination on one pulmonary nodule revealed malignant pleural mesothelioma. Despite its rarity, intraparenchymal malignant pleural mesothelioma should always be taken into account, when  lung nodules are present, to prevent misdiagnosis and avoid delayed treatmen

Technical Report: Evaluation of peripheral dose for flattening filter free photon beams

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135019/1/mp8963.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135019/2/mp8963_am.pd