137 research outputs found
Current state of the art of regional hyperthermia treatment planning: A review
Locoregional hyperthermia, i.e. increasing the tumor temperature to 40-45 °C using an external heating device, is a very effective radio and chemosensitizer, which significantly improves clinical outcome. There is a clear thermal dose-effect relation, but the pursued optimal thermal dose of 43 °C for 1 h can often not be realized due to treatment limiting hot spots in normal tissue. Modern heating devices have a large number of independent antennas, which provides flexible power steering to optimize tumor heating and minimize hot spots, but manual selection of optimal settings is difficult. Treatment planning is a very valuable tool to improve locoregional heating. This paper reviews the developments in treatment planning software for tissue segmentation, electromagnetic field calculations, thermal modeling and optimization techniques. Over the last decade, simulation tools have become more advanced. On-line use has become possible by implementing algorithms on the graphical processing unit, which allows real-time computations. The number of applications using treatment planning is increasing rapidly and moving on from retrospective analyses towards assisting prospective clinical treatment strategies. Some clinically relevant applications will be discussed
Majority versus minority dynamics: Phase transition in an interacting two-state spin system
We introduce a simple model of opinion dynamics in which binary-state agents
evolve due to the influence of agents in a local neighborhood. In a single
update step, a fixed-size group is defined and all agents in the group adopt
the state of the local majority with probability p or that of the local
minority with probability 1-p. For group size G=3, there is a phase transition
at p_c=2/3 in all spatial dimensions. For p>p_c, the global majority quickly
predominates, while for p<p_c, the system is driven to a mixed state in which
the densities of agents in each state are equal. For p=p_c, the average
magnetization (the difference in the density of agents in the two states) is
conserved and the system obeys classical voter model dynamics. In one dimension
and within a Kirkwood decoupling scheme, the final magnetization in a
finite-length system has a non-trivial dependence on the initial magnetization
for all p.ne.p_c, in agreement with numerical results. At p_c, the exact 2-spin
correlation functions decay algebraically toward the value 1 and the system
coarsens as in the classical voter model.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, revtex4 2-column format; minor revisions for
publication in PR
Fluoroscopy-guided procedures in cardiology: is patient exposure being reduced over time?
The number of fluoroscopy-guided procedures in cardiology is increasing over time and it is appropriate to wonder whether technological progress or change of techniques is influencing patient exposure. The aim of this study is to examine whether patient dose has been decreasing over the years. Patient dose data of more than 7700 procedures were collected from two cardiology centres. A steady increase in the patient dose over the years was observed in both the centres for the two cardiological procedures included in this study. Significant increase in dose was also observed after the installation of a flat-panel detector. The increasing use of radial access may lead to an increase in the patient exposure. The monitoring of dose data over time showed a considerable increase in the patient exposure over time. Actions have to be taken towards dose reduction in both the centres
A model for gelation with explicit solvent effects: Structure and dynamics
We study a two-component model for gelation consisting of -functional
monomers (the gel) and inert particles (the solvent). After equilibration as a
simple liquid, the gel particles are gradually crosslinked to each other until
the desired number of crosslinks has been attained. At a critical crosslink
density the largest gel cluster percolates and an amorphous solid forms. This
percolation process is different from ordinary lattice or continuum percolation
of a single species in the sense that the critical exponents are new. As the
crosslink density approaches its critical value , the shear viscosity
diverges: with a nonuniversal
concentration-dependent exponent.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figure
Hopping Transport in the Presence of Site Energy Disorder: Temperature and Concentration Scaling of Conductivity Spectra
Recent measurements on ion conducting glasses have revealed that conductivity
spectra for various temperatures and ionic concentrations can be superimposed
onto a common master curve by an appropriate rescaling of the conductivity and
frequency. In order to understand the origin of the observed scaling behavior,
we investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the diffusion of particles in a
lattice with site energy disorder for a wide range of both temperatures and
concentrations. While the model can account for the changes in ionic activation
energies upon changing the concentration, it in general yields conductivity
spectra that exhibit no scaling behavior. However, for typical concentrations
and sufficiently low temperatures, a fairly good data collapse is obtained
analogous to that found in experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Acute coronary syndrome in patients younger than 30 years--aetiologies, baseline characteristics and long-term clinical outcome.
Coronary atherosclerosis begins early in life, but acute coronary syndromes in adults aged <30 years are exceptional. We aimed to investigate the rate of occurrence, clinical and angiographic characteristics, and long-term clinical outcome of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in young patients who were referred to two Swiss hospitals.
From 1994 to 2010, data on all patients with ACS aged <30 years were retrospectively retrieved from our database and the patients were contacted by phone or physician's visit. Baseline, lesion and procedural characteristics, and clinical outcome were compared between patients in whom an underlying atypical aetiology was found (non-ATS group; ATS: atherosclerosis) and patients in whom no such aetiology was detected (ATS group). The clinical endpoint was freedom from any major adverse cardiac event (MACE) during follow-up.
A total of 27 young patients with ACS aged <30 years were admitted during the study period. They accounted for 0.05% of all coronary angiograms performed. Mean patient age was 26.8 ± 3.5 years and 22 patients (81%) were men. Current smoking (81%) and dyslipidaemia (59%) were the most frequent risk factors. Typical chest pain (n = 23; 85%) and ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; n = 18 [67%]) were most often found. The ATS group consisted of 17 patients (63%) and the non-ATS group of 10 patients (37%). Hereditary thrombophilia was the most frequently encountered atypical aetiology (n = 4; 15%). At 5 years, mortality and MACE rate were 7% and 19%, respectively.
ACS in young patients is an uncommon condition with a variety of possible aetiologies and distinct risk factors. In-hospital and 5-year clinical outcome is satisfactory
Algebraic Self-Similar Renormalization in Theory of Critical Phenomena
We consider the method of self-similar renormalization for calculating
critical temperatures and critical indices. A new optimized variant of the
method for an effective summation of asymptotic series is suggested and
illustrated by several different examples. The advantage of the method is in
combining simplicity with high accuracy.Comment: 1 file, 44 pages, RevTe
Dynamic structure factor of the Ising model with purely relaxational dynamics
We compute the dynamic structure factor for the Ising model with a purely
relaxational dynamics (model A). We perform a perturbative calculation in the
expansion, at two loops in the high-temperature phase and at one
loop in the temperature magnetic-field plane, and a Monte Carlo simulation in
the high-temperature phase. We find that the dynamic structure factor is very
well approximated by its mean-field Gaussian form up to moderately large values
of the frequency and momentum . In the region we can investigate,
, , where is the correlation
length and the zero-momentum autocorrelation time, deviations are at
most of a few percent.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figure
Universality and scaling study of the critical behavior of the two-dimensional Blume-Capel model in short-time dynamics
In this paper we study the short-time behavior of the Blume-Capel model at
the tricritical point as well as along the second order critical line. Dynamic
and static exponents are estimated by exploring scaling relations for the
magnetization and its moments at early stage of the dynamic evolution. Our
estimates for the dynamic exponents, at the tricritical point, are and .Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Opinion dynamics: models, extensions and external effects
Recently, social phenomena have received a lot of attention not only from
social scientists, but also from physicists, mathematicians and computer
scientists, in the emerging interdisciplinary field of complex system science.
Opinion dynamics is one of the processes studied, since opinions are the
drivers of human behaviour, and play a crucial role in many global challenges
that our complex world and societies are facing: global financial crises,
global pandemics, growth of cities, urbanisation and migration patterns, and
last but not least important, climate change and environmental sustainability
and protection. Opinion formation is a complex process affected by the
interplay of different elements, including the individual predisposition, the
influence of positive and negative peer interaction (social networks playing a
crucial role in this respect), the information each individual is exposed to,
and many others. Several models inspired from those in use in physics have been
developed to encompass many of these elements, and to allow for the
identification of the mechanisms involved in the opinion formation process and
the understanding of their role, with the practical aim of simulating opinion
formation and spreading under various conditions. These modelling schemes range
from binary simple models such as the voter model, to multi-dimensional
continuous approaches. Here, we provide a review of recent methods, focusing on
models employing both peer interaction and external information, and
emphasising the role that less studied mechanisms, such as disagreement, has in
driving the opinion dynamics. [...]Comment: 42 pages, 6 figure
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