A screen for Drosophila synaptic dysfunction mutants identified slug-a-bed (slab). The slab gene encodes ceramidase, a central enzyme in sphingolipid metabolism and regulation. Sphingolipids are major constituents of lipid rafts, membrane domains with roles in vesicle trafficking, and signaling pathways. Null slab mutants arrest as fully developed embryos with severely reduced movement. The SLA...

Reducing the settlements of soft foundation effectively is a critical problem of high-speed railway construction in China. The new CFG pile-slab structure composite foundation is a ground treatment technique which is applied on CFG pile foundation and pile-slab structure composite foundation. Based on the experience of constructing Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway in China, the settlement-co...

Helical tomotherapy (HT) can potentially be used for lung cancer treatment including stereotactic radiosurgery because of its advanced image guidance and its ability to deliver highly conformal dose distributions. However, previous theoretical and simulation studies reported that the effect of respiratory motion on statically planned tomotherapy treatments may cause substantial differences betw...

Introduction: In radiation therapy, in order to double-check the dosimetric results of the main treatment planning system (TPS), a distinct TPS, with few capacitances in terms of contouring and a variety of dose calculation algorithms is used. This system has the capability to double check the planification and the accurate prediction of dose distribution in order to be ensured...

A new GPU-based Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithm (GPUMCD), devel-oped by the vendor Elekta for the Monaco treatment planning system (TPS), is capable of modeling dose for both a standard linear accelerator and an Elekta MRI linear accelerator. We have experimentally evaluated this algorithm for a standard Elekta Agility linear accelerator. A beam model was developed in the Monaco TPS (res...

BACKGROUND To analyse limits and capabilities in dose calculation of collapsed-cone-convolution (CCC) algorithm implemented in helical tomotherapy (HT) treatment planning system for thorax lesions. METHODS The agreement between measured and calculated dose was verified both in homogeneous (Cheese Phantom) and in a custom-made inhomogeneous phantom. The inhomogeneous phantom was employed to mi...

background long-term clinical symptoms and functional status of above-knee amputees are not well documented. this study documents the long-term outcomes of war related above-knee amputations. objective to study the long-term outcomes of unilateral above-knee amputation. materials and methods the study consisted of a comprehensive assessment, examination, and review of history and wartime medica...

Experimental demonstrations of two edge-pumped zigzag slab lasers are presented. The Nd:YAG slab laser generated 127 W of multimode output power with 300W of pump power. Preliminary results with a Yb:YAG slab produced 46 W of output power with 315W of pump power. The edge-pumped slab design permits symmetric conduction cooling and efficient pump absorption and accepts large-numerical-aperture p...

Background: HDR brachytherapy is one of the commonest methods of nasopharyngeal cancer treatment. In this method, depending on how advanced one tumor is, 2 to 6 Gy dose as intracavitary brachytherapy is prescribed. Due to high dose rate and tumor location, accuracy evaluation of treatment planning system (TPS) is particularly important. Common methods used in TPS dosimetry are based on computat...

introduction based on task group no. 43 (tg-43u1) recommendations, water phantom is proposed as a reference phantom for the dosimetry of brachytherapy sources. the experimental determination of tg-43 parameters is usually performed in water-equivalent solid phantoms. the purpose of this study was to determine the conversion factors for equalizing solid phantoms to water. materials and methods t...