Macroeconomic policy change: Ireland in comparative perspective

This paper sets out to develop an improved framework for examining critical junctures. This a priori framework is a significant improvement over existing critical juncture frameworks that lack any predictive element. It is an advance for historical institutionalism in particular, and political science in general. After the new framework is set out in detail here, it is tested. The framework is used to examine a number of potential critical junctures in macroeconomic policy, drawn from Ireland, Sweden, Britain, and America in the latter half of the twentieth century

Rotating Gantries Provide Individualized Beam Arrangements for Charged Particle Therapy

Purpose: This study evaluates beam angles used to generate highly individualized proton therapy treatment plans for patients eligible for carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT). Methods and Materials: We retrospectively evaluated patients treated with pencil beam scanning intensity modulated proton therapy from 2015 to 2020 who had indications for CIRT. Patients were treated with a 190° rotating gantry with a robotic patient positioning system. Treatment plans were individualized to provide maximal prescription dose delivery to the tumor target volume while sparing organs at risk. The utilized beam angles were grouped, and anatomic sites with at least 10 different beam angles were sorted into histograms. Results: A total of 467 patients with 484 plans and 1196 unique beam angles were evaluated and characterized by anatomic treatment site and the number of beam angles utilized. The most common beam angles used were 0° and 180°. A wide range of beam angles were used in treating almost all anatomic sites. Only esophageal cancers had a predominantly unimodal grouping of beam angles. Pancreas cancers showed a modest grouping of beam angles. Conclusions: The wide distribution of beam angles used to treat CIRT-eligible patients suggests that a rotating gantry is optimal to provide highly individualized beam arrangements