Anisotropic Acoustic Plasmons in Black Phosphorus

Recently, it was demonstrated that a graphene/dielectric/metal configuration can support acoustic plasmons, which exhibit extreme plasmon confinement an order of magnitude higher than that of conventional graphene plasmons. Here, we investigate acoustic plasmons supported in a monolayer and multilayers of black phosphorus (BP) placed just a few nanometers above a conducting plate. In the presence of a conducting plate, the acoustic plasmon dispersion for the armchair direction is found to exhibit the characteristic linear scaling in the mid- and far-infrared regime while it largely deviates from that in the long wavelength limit and near-infrared regime. For the zigzag direction, such scaling behavior is not evident due to relatively tighter plasmon confinement. Further, we demonstrate a new design for an acoustic plasmon resonator that exhibits higher plasmon confinement and resonance efficiency than BP ribbon resonators in the mid-infrared and longer wavelength regime. Theoretical framework and new resonator design studied here provide a practical route toward the experimental verification of the acoustic plasmons in BP and open up the possibility to develop novel plasmonic and optoelectronic devices that can leverage its strong in-plane anisotropy and thickness-dependent band gap

Stereotactic MRI-guided Adaptive Radiation Therapy (SMART) for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: A Promising Approach.

Locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) is characterized by poor prognosis and low response durability with standard-of-care chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy treatment. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), which has a shorter treatment course than conventionally fractionated radiotherapy and allows for better integration with systemic therapy, may confer a survival benefit but is limited by gastrointestinal toxicity. Stereotactic MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy (SMART) has recently gained attention for its potential to increase treatment precision and thus minimize this toxicity through continuous real-time soft-tissue imaging during radiotherapy. The case presented here illustrates the promising outcome of a 69-year-old male patient with LAPC treated with SMART with daily adaptive planning and respiratory-gated technique

Mejoramiento de los procesos en el quirófano mediante la aplicación de la metodología Lean de Toyota

ResumenEl sector de la atención en salud está necesitando un cambio fundamental a fin de mejorar significativamente los resultados y limitar al mismo tiempo los costos. Los métodos Lean desarrollados inicialmente en la industria manufacturera han demostrado mejorar realmente la calidad, la productividad y la seguridad, a la vez que permiten utilizar menos recursos en la gestión de la salud. Estas herramientas, prácticas gerenciales y filosofías se han adaptado con éxito en los servicios de cirugía del SC. Pueden transformar el sistema y la cultura mediante el compromiso del personal de asistencia para el desarrollo de un servicio que mejora continuamente y permite obtener mejores resultados clínicos duraderos.AbstractHealthcare is in need of fundamental change if we are going to make significant improvements in outcomes while limiting costs. Lean methods, initially developed in the manufacturing industry, have been shown to deliver real improvements in quality, productivity, and safety while using fewer resources in healthcare service settings. These tools, management practices and philosophies have been successfully adapted in operative services at SC. They can transform your system and culture through engagement of frontline staff into a continuously improving service with real and sustainable enhancements in clinical outcomes

Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy: Implementation of a New Process of Care.

Onboard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided radiotherapy is now clinically available in nine centers in the world. This technology has facilitated the clinical implementation of online adaptive radiotherapy (OART), or the ability to alter the daily treatment plan based on tumor and anatomical changes in real-time while the patient is on the treatment table. However, due to the time sensitive nature of OART, implementation in a large and busy clinic has many potential obstacles as well as patient-related safety considerations. In this work, we have described the implementation of this new process of care in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). We describe the rationale, the initial challenges such as treatment time considerations, technical issues during the process of re-contouring, re-optimization, quality assurance, as well as our current solutions to overcome these challenges. In addition, we describe the implementation of a coverage system with a physician of the day as well as online planners (physicists or dosimetrists) to oversee each OART treatment with patient-specific 'hand-off' directives from the patient's treating physician. The purpose of this effort is to streamline the process without compromising treatment quality and patient safety. As more MRI-guided radiotherapy programs come online, we hope that our experience can facilitate successful adoption of OART in a way that maximally benefits the patient

Integral dose investigation of non‐coplanar treatment beam geometries in radiotherapy

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134886/1/mp5055.pd

Alterations in Event Related Potentials (ERP) Associated with Tinnitus Distress and Attention

Tinnitus related distress corresponds to different degrees of attention paid to the tinnitus. Shifting attention to a signal other than the tinnitus is therefore particularly difficult for patients with high tinnitus related distress. As attention effects on Event Related Potentials (ERP) have been shown this should be reflected in ERP measurements (N100, phase locking). In order to prove this hypothesis single sweep ERP recordings were obtained in 41 tinnitus patients as well as 10 control subjects during a period of time when attention was shifted to a tone (attended) and during a second phase (unattended) when they did not focus attention to the tone. Whereas tinnitus patients with low distress showed a significant reduction in both N100 amplitude and phase locking when comparing the attended and unattended measurement condition a group of patients with high tinnitus related distress did not show such ERP alterations. Using single sweep ERP measurements the results of our study show, that attention in high tinnitus related distress patients is captured by their tinnitus significantly more than in low distress patients. Furthermore our results provide the basis for future neurofeedback based tinnitus therapies aiming at maximizing the ability to shift attention away from the tinnitus. © 2008 The Author(s)

Phenomenology of Mirror Fermions in the Littlest Higgs Model with T-Parity

Little Higgs models are an interesting alternative to explain electroweak symmetry breaking without fine-tuning. Supplemented with a discrete symmetry (T-parity) constraints from electroweak precision data are naturally evaded and also a viable dark matter candidate is obtained. T-parity implies the existence of new (mirror) fermions in addition to the heavy gauge bosons of the little Higgs models. In this paper we consider the effects of the mirror fermions on the phenomenology of the littlest Higgs model with T-parity at the LHC. We study the most promising production channels and decay chains for the new particles. We find that the mirror fermions have a large impact on the magnitude of signal rates and on the new physics signatures. Realistic background estimates are given.Comment: 13 p