Treatment plan evaluation for interstitial photodynamic therapy in a mouse model by Monte Carlo simulation with FullMonte

Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is recognized as the gold standard for biophotonic simulation, capturing all relevant physics and material properties at the perceived cost of high computing demands. Tetrahedral-mesh-based MC simulations particularly are attractive due to the ability to refine the mesh at will to conform to complicated geometries or user-defined resolution requirements. Since no approximations of material or light-source properties are required, MC methods are applicable to the broadest set of biophotonic simulation problems. MC methods also have other implementation features including inherent parallelism, and permit a continuously-variable quality-runtime tradeoff. We demonstrate here a complete MC-based prospective fluence dose evaluation system for interstitial PDT to generate dose-volume histograms on a tetrahedral mesh geometry description. To our knowledge, this is the first such system for general interstitial photodynamic therapy employing MC methods and is therefore applicable to a very broad cross-section of anatomy and material properties. We demonstrate that evaluation of dose-volume histograms is an effective variance-reduction scheme in its own right which greatly reduces the number of packets required and hence runtime required to achieve acceptable result confidence. We conclude that MC methods are feasible for general PDT treatment evaluation and planning, and considerably less costly than widely believed

The particle detector in your pocket: The Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory

The total area of silicon in cell phone camera sensors worldwide surpasses that in any experiment to date. Based on semiconductor technology similar to that found in modern astronomical telescopes and particle detectors, these sensors can detect ionizing radiation in addition to photons. The Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory (DECO) uses the global network of active cell phones in order to detect cosmic rays and other energetic particles such as those produced by radioactive decays. DECO consists of an Android application, database, and public data browser available to citizen scientists around the world (https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco). Candidate cosmic-ray events have been detected on all seven continents and can be categorized by the morphology of their corresponding images. We present the DECO project, a novel particle detector with wide applications in public outreach and education.Comment: Presented at ICRC 2017, Busan, Korea. See https://wipac.wisc.edu/deco for more informatio

Frontiers in Pigment Cell and Melanoma Research

We identify emerging frontiers in clinical and basic research of melanocyte biology and its associated biomedical disciplines. We describe challenges and opportunities in clinical and basic research of normal and diseased melanocytes that impact current approaches to research in melanoma and the dermatological sciences. We focus on four themes: (1) clinical melanoma research, (2) basic melanoma research, (3) clinical dermatology, and (4) basic pigment cell research, with the goal of outlining current highlights, challenges, and frontiers associated with pigmentation and melanocyte biology. Significantly, this document encapsulates important advances in melanocyte and melanoma research including emerging frontiers in melanoma immunotherapy, medical and surgical oncology, dermatology, vitiligo, albinism, genomics and systems biology, epidemiology, pigment biophysics and chemistry, and evolution

Reflective structured dialogue as a tool for addressing wicked public health problems

IntroductionAttempts to address wicked public health problems can benefit from collaborative approaches to problem-solving, such as dialogue through structured conversations, that engage a wide range of stakeholders in deliberate inquiry to build trust and mutual understanding. This study seeks to assess the effects of participation in Reflective Structured Dialogue (RSD) on university students’ polarization-related attitudes.MethodsThe BYU Campus Conversations project held 27 structured conversations with 139 participants on three divisive public health topics: COVID-19, mental health, and racism. The conversation structure encouraged students to share their personal experiences and learn from others in an environment that promoted vulnerability and confidentiality.ResultsPre- and post-conversation surveys measured participant outcomes and found that participation in conversations was strongly associated with improved attitudes related to openness, tribal identity, and moral disdain. Over 95% of participants reported that they enjoyed taking part in the conversations and that it helped them better understand the experiences of others.DiscussionThe results of this project indicate similar conversations could be an effective tool in helping build understanding around divisive public health issues in university and community settings