The biosocial subject: sensor technologies and worldly sensibility

Sensor technologies are increasingly part of everyday life, embedded in buildings (movement, sound, temperature) and worn on persons (heart rate, electro-dermal activity, eye tracking). This paper presents a theoretical framework for research on computational sensor data. My approach moves away from theories of agent-centered perceptual synthesis (on behalf of a perceiving organism) and towards a more expansive understanding of the biosocial learning environment. The focus is on sensor technologies that track sensation below the bandwidth of human consciousness. I argue that there is an urgent need to reclaim this kind of biodata as part of an unequally distributed worldly sensibility, and to thereby undermine more narrow reductive readings of such data. The paper explores the biopolitical implications of recasting biodata in terms of trans-individual inhuman forces, while continuing to track the distinctive power of humans

Probing the effects of ionizing radiation on young's modulus of human erythrocytes cytoskeleton using atomic force microscopy

Purpose/Aim: In this work, we examined the possible effects of ionizing radiation (IR) on biomechanical properties of the membrane-cytoskeleton of human erythrocytes, after X-ray irradiation. Materials and Methods: Whole human blood from three healthy middle-Aged volunteers was drawn by venipuncture and stored in tubes containing anticoagulant. Six blood samples were collected for each volunteer. Five of them were irradiated in the range of 0.1 Gy-2.0 Gy doses and one was used as control. The morphology and the elastic modulus of the erythrocytes were examined using atomic force microscopy and just few drops of whole blood. Results: No morphological changes appeared according to the shape and the morphology of the erythrocytes. The elastic modulus of the irradiated samples was reduced with the increase of radiation dose. The findings indicate that X-ray irradiation affects the biomechanical properties of erythrocyte cytoskeleton. The mean value of Young's modulus of all the irradiated blood samples was significant difference from the control at a level,P < 0.01. Conclusions: The elastic modulus of the erythrocytes could be an indicator of the adverse effect in the human blood generated by IR exposure through a radiotherapy treatment. © 2019 Journal of Medical Physics Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow

Participation of women medical Physicists in European scientific events: The European experience

Purpose: Though the number of women scientists is increasing over the years, studies show that they are still under-represented in leadership roles. The purpose of this work is to establish the percentage of women Medical Physicists (wMPs) that have participated in European scientific events and evaluate it as an indication of the current position of women in the field of Medical Physics in Europe and to propose possible ways to encourage their participation. Materials and Methods: Data regarding the participants in European scientific events of Medical Physics were collected. The participants were divided into categories according to the program of the events and their gender was identified. The percentage of wMPs in each category was evaluated. Results: The participation of wMPs attending courses is greater than 50%. The categories with the greatest participation are “Organizing Committees” “Chairpersons-Moderators” and “Oral Presentations”. The categories with the lower participation of wMPs are “Scientific Committee” “Symposiums” and “Invited Speakers”. None of wMPs were represented as “Course Directors”. Conclusions: The attendance of wMPs in courses is slightly greater than average. However, wMPs do not have an equally important recognition in special invited roles in conferences. They are still under-represented in “Scientific Committees” “Invited Speakers” “Symposiums” and “Course directors”. wMPs should be encouraged to participate even more actively in European conferences and the organizing committees should invite more wMPs in special roles. More studies concerning the status of female MPs in each country separately should be encouraged as they will help in understanding the position of wMPS in Europe. © 2018 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medic

Functional MRI Study to Examine Possible Emotional Connectedness in Identical Twins: A Case Study

In the present case study, we investigated possible emotional connectedness between monozygotic twins by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). During the experimental condition, Twin 2 was randomly selected to participate in the neuroimaging protocol while Twin 1 participated in the experimental condition outside the MRI scanner (none of them was aware of the experimental procedure). The experimental condition included two sessions with visual and acoustic stimuli, respectively. Between the two experimental conditions, there was a 2-min break with Twin 1 (i.e., the subject outside the scanner) relaxing with eyes closed. Data analysis revealed significant brain activation in three regions, namely left orbitofrontal gyrus (during visual condition) and left cingulum and precentral gyrus (during the acoustic condition). Our findings denote emotional connectedness between a pair of monozygotic twins using fMRI. Further studies in larger sample sizes are needed to investigate if this is a generalized and systematic phenomenon or an incidental finding. © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Radiotherapy in conjunction with superficial and intracavitary hyperthermia for the treatment of solid tumors: Survival and thermal parameters

Hyperthermia is an effective modality for the treatment of cancer, which is mainly used in conjunction with radiotherapy as this combined treatment offers a better clinical outcome. There are many ways that hyperthermia can be applied and depends on the kind of tumor of the patients. The great advantage of this method is that it is tolerable for the majority of patients without severe toxicity. Many clinical trials have been realized in order to prove that hyperthermia in addition to radiotherapy offers an advantage in the survival and local control of patients in comparison to radiotherapy alone. Many studies have also investigated if exists any correlation between the thermal parameters of hyperthermia and the clinical outcome. This is a review of these studies and it concerns superficial hyperthermia for superficial tumors - melanoma, head and neck, breast cancer - and intracavitary hyperthermia for rectal cancer, esophageal cancer and prostate carcinoma. © 2012 Federación de Sociedades Españolas de Oncología (FESEO)

Quantification of Nanoscale Dose Enhancement in Gold Nanoparticle-Aided External Photon Beam Radiotherapy

The recent progress in Nanotechnology has introduced Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) as promising radiosensitizing agents in radiation oncology. This work aims to estimate dose enhancement due to the presence of AuNPs inside an irradiated water region through Monte Carlo calculations. The GATE platform was used to simulate 6 MV photon histories generated from a TrueBeam® linear accelerator with and without a Flattening Filter (FF) and model AuNPs clusters. The AuNPs size, concentration and distribution pattern were examined. To investigate different clinical irradiation conditions, the effect of field size, presence of FF and placement of AuNPs in water were evaluated. The range of Dose Enhancement Factors (DEF = DoseAu/DoseWater) calculated in this study is 0.99 ± 0.01–1.26 ± 0.02 depending on photon beam quality, distance from AuNPs surface, AuNPs size and concentration and pattern of distribution. The highest DEF is reported for irradiation using un-flattened photon beams and at close distances from AuNPs. The obtained findings suggest that dose deposition could be increased in regions that represent whole cells or subcellular targets (mitochondria, cell nucleus, etc.). Nevertheless, further and consistent research is needed in order to make a step toward AuNP-aided radiotherapy in clinical practice. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Deformable image registration to assist clinical decision for radiotherapy treatment adaptation for head and neck cancer patients

Head and neck (H&N) cancer patients often present anatomical and geometrical changes in tumors and organs at risk (OARs) during radiotherapy treatment. These changes may result in the need to adapt the existing treatment planning, using an expert’s subjective opinion, for offline adaptive radiotherapy and a new treatment planning before each treatment, for online adaptive radiotherapy. In the present study, a fast methodology is proposed to assist in planning adaptation clinical decision using tumor and parotid glands percentage volume changes during treatment. The proposed approach was applied to 40 Η&Ν cases, with one planning Computed Tomography (pCT) image and CBCT scans for 6 weeks of treatment per case. Deformable registration was used for each patient’s pCT image alignment to its weekly CBCT. The calculated transformations were used to align each patient’s anatomical structures to the weekly anatomy. Clinical target volume (CTV) and parotid gland volume percentage changes were calculated in each case. The accuracy of the achieved image alignment was validated qualitatively and quantitatively. Furthermore, statistical analysis was performed to test if there is a statistically significant correlation between CTV and parotid glands volume percentage changes. Average MDA for CTV and parotid glands between corresponding structures defined by an expert in CBCTs and automatically calculated through registration was 1.4 ± 0.1 mm and 1.5 ± 0.1 mm, respectively. The mean registration time of the first CBCT image registration for 40 cases was lower than 3.4 min. Five patients show more than 20% tumor volume change. Six patients show more than 30% parotid glands volume change. Ten out of 40 patients proposed for planning adaptation. All the statistical tests performed showed no correlation between CTV/parotid glands percentage volume changes. The aim to assist in clinical decision making on a fast and automatic way was achieved using the proposed methodology, thereby reducing workload in clinical practice. © 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd

Treatment plan verification: A review on the comparison of dose distributions

Purpose: The aim of this review article is to provide a useful reference for dose comparison techniques within the frame of treatment plan verification. Each technique is presented with a general description given along with advantages and disadvantage and the rationale for its development. Methods: The review was conducted in PubMed from 1993 to 2019 including articles referring to the methodology of dose comparison for treatment plan verification. Results: The search identified thirty-one dose comparison methods that were categorized according to the number of physical parameters that take into account for dose comparison. Conclusions: Among the available methods for the comparison of two dose distributions, the γ-analysis (gamma analysis) has been widely adopted as the gold standard in verification procedures. However, due to various intrinsic limitations of gamma index, the development of a better metric taking into account both statistical and in clinical parameters is required. © 2019 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medic