Publications by authors named "Balik S"

Objective: To describe the presentation, clinical findings, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of cases of trismus (lockjaw) in cold-stunned sea turtles.

Animals: 4 Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) and 1 loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtle.

Methods: Cold-stunned sea turtles that presented with difficulty or inability to open their jaw between 2009 and 2023 were included.

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Backround: The utilization of high-quality water in agriculture is increasingly constrained by climate change, affecting availability, quality, and distribution due to altered precipitation patterns, increased evaporation, extreme weather events, and rising salinity levels. Salinity significantly challenges salt-sensitive vegetables like lettuce, particularly in a greenhouse. Hydroponics water quality ensures nutrient solution stability, enhances nutrient uptake, prevents contamination, regulates pH and electrical conductivity, and maintains system components.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Using a water tank system, dosimetric parameters such as percentage depth dose (PDD), peak to valley dose ratios (PVDR), and output factors (OFs) were measured and compared with planning system calculations, showing notable changes in PDD across different energies.
  • * Findings indicate significant variations in GRID fields based on energy, with two Truebeam linacs showing less than 2% difference in PVDRs, while a set of equations and reference tables for GRID therapy are proposed for
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The purpose of this guideline is to provide a list of critical performance tests to assist the Qualified Medical Physicist (QMP) in establishing and maintaining a safe and effective quality assurance (QA) program. The performance tests on a linear accelerator (linac) should be selected to fit the clinical patterns of use of the accelerator and care should be given to perform tests which are relevant to detecting errors related to the specific use of the accelerator. Current recommendations for linac QA were reviewed to determine any changes required to those tests highlighted by the original report as well as considering new components of the treatment process that have become common since its publication.

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A complete postmortem examination, including a computed tomography scan "virtopsy" (virtual necropsy), gross necropsy, cytology, histology, and molecular diagnostics were performed to investigate the cause of death of a deceased adult male Atlantic spotted dolphin () that stranded on Pensacola Beach, Florida, USA in February 2020. Significant findings included chronic inflammation of the meninges, brain, and spinal cord with intralesional protozoa (identified as 18S rRNA and ITS-1 sequences), suppurative fungal tracheitis and bronchopneumonia (identified as ITS-2 gene sequence) and ulcerative bacterial glossitis (associated with a novel species, Treponema stenella, identified 23S rRNA gene sequence). This is the first reported case of in a marine mammal.

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Purposes: Preimplant diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging is the gold standard for image-guided tandem-and-ovoids (T&O) brachytherapy for cervical cancer. However, high dose rate brachytherapy planning is typically done on postimplant CT-based high-risk clinical target volume (HR-CTV ) because the transfer of preimplant Magnetic resonance (MR)-based HR-CTV (HR-CTV ) to the postimplant planning CT is difficult due to anatomical changes caused by applicator insertion, vaginal packing, and the filling status of the bladder and rectum. This study aims to train a dual-path convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic segmentation of HR-CTV on postimplant planning CT with guidance from preimplant diagnostic MR.

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Purpose: Vertebral compression fractures (VCF) are a common and severe complication of spine stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). We sought to analyze how volumetric dosimetry and clinical factors were associated with the risk of VCF.

Methods And Materials: We evaluated 173 spinal segments that underwent single fraction SBRT in 85 patients from a retrospective database.

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Detection of brain metastases is a paramount task in cancer management due both to the number of high-risk patients and the difficulty of achieving consistent detection. In this study, we aim to improve the accuracy of automated brain metastasis (BM) detection methods using a novel asymmetric UNet (asym-UNet) architecture. An end-to-end asymmetric 3D-UNet architecture, with two down-sampling arms and one up-sampling arm, was constructed to capture the imaging features.

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Adenoviruses have been reported to affect a broad range of host species, tend to be species specific, and often affect the respiratory system. This report describes the isolation of an adenovirus from deep nasal swabs of two wild North American porcupines () with respiratory diseases that presented to a wildlife hospital. Partial sequences of the deoxyribonucleic acid polymerase gene of the isolated virus were identical to skunk adenovirus (SkAdV-1), also known as pygmy marmoset adenovirus.

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Purpose: The greater soft tissue contrast of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows improved accuracy in prostate contouring compared to transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) and helps in identifying specific regions within the prostate. This study attempts to evaluate the potential benefit of MRI-TRUS fusion in treatment planning for more accurate prostate contouring and tumor dose escalation.

Material And Methods: 14 patients with previous MRI-guided prostate biopsy and an low-dose-rate (LDR) permanent prostate seed implant have been selected.

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Objective: Sciatic nerve neuropathy can be observed following intramuscular gluteal injections. The histopathological examination of sciatic nerve damage following intramuscular injection in the gluteal region for acute pain treatment is not feasible in humans due to the inability to dissect and examine the nerve tissue. To overcome this issue, we used a rat model for demonstrating damage to the sciatic nerve tissue after the application of commonly used drug injections.

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Turkey is a rich source of European hazelnut (Corylus avellana) germplasm with nearly 400 accessions in the national collection. This genetic material encompasses cultivars, landraces and wild genotypes which were characterized for 12 nut and 13 kernel traits over 2 years in the 1990s. Analysis of these attributes revealed both the positive and negative impacts that human selection and breeding have had on hazelnut.

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Purpose: To compare the plan quality and organs at risk (OAR) sparing of auto-planned volumetric modulated art therapy (VMAT) and Gamma Knife (GK) for stereotactic radiosurgery of pituitary adenomas (PA) and vestibular schwannomas (VS).

Methods: VMAT radiosurgery plans were made using auto planning tool for eight vestibular schwannoma and eight pituitary adenoma patients previously treated with GK. VMAT plans were made with three non-coplanar arcs using 315, 0 and 45 degrees angles, 6MV FFF energy at 1400 MU/min dose rate and 2.

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Purpose: To describe in detail a dataset consisting of serial four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) and 4D cone beam CT (4DCBCT) images acquired during chemoradiotherapy of 20 locally advanced, nonsmall cell lung cancer patients we have collected at our institution and shared publicly with the research community.

Acquisition And Validation Methods: As part of an NCI-sponsored research study 82 4DCT and 507 4DCBCT images were acquired in a population of 20 locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. All subjects underwent concurrent radiochemotherapy to a total dose of 59.

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Purpose: To analyze primary tumor (PT) and lymph node (LN) position changes relative to each other and relative to anatomic landmarks during conventionally fractionated radiation therapy for patients with locally advanced lung cancer.

Methods And Materials: In 12 patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer PT, LN, carina, and 1 thoracic vertebra were manually contoured on weekly 4-dimensional fan-beam CT scans. Systematic and random interfraction displacements of all contoured structures were identified in the 3 cardinal directions, and resulting setup margins were calculated.

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Purpose: A novel method called respiratory triggered 4D cone-beam computed tomography (RT 4D CBCT) is described whereby imaging dose can be reduced without degrading image quality. RT 4D CBCT utilizes a respiratory signal to trigger projections such that only a single projection is assigned to a given respiratory bin for each breathing cycle. In contrast, commercial 4D CBCT does not actively use the respiratory signal to minimize image dose.

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Purpose: To test the feasibility of a planned phase 1 study of image-guided adaptive radiation therapy in locally advanced lung cancer.

Methods And Materials: Weekly 4-dimensional fan beam computed tomographs (4D FBCT) of 10 lung cancer patients undergoing concurrent chemoradiation therapy were used to simulate adaptive radiation therapy: After an initial intensity modulated radiation therapy plan (0-30 Gy/2 Gy), adaptive replanning was performed on week 2 (30-50 Gy/2 Gy) and week 4 scans (50-66 Gy/2 Gy) to adjust for volume and shape changes of primary tumors and lymph nodes. Week 2 and 4 clinical target volumes (CTV) were deformably warped from the initial planning scan to adjust for anatomical changes.

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Purpose: To evaluate 2 deformable image registration (DIR) algorithms for the purpose of contour mapping to support image-guided adaptive radiation therapy with 4-dimensional cone-beam CT (4DCBCT).

Methods And Materials: One planning 4D fan-beam CT (4DFBCT) and 7 weekly 4DCBCT scans were acquired for 10 locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients. The gross tumor volume was delineated by a physician in all 4D images.

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Purpose: To evaluate two deformable image registration (DIR) algorithms for the purpose of contour mapping to support image guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART) with 4D cone beam CT (4DCBCT).

Methods: Eleven locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients underwent one planning 4D fan- beam CT (4DFBCT) and seven weekly 4DCBCT scans. Gross tumor volume (GTV) and carina were delineated by a physician in all 4D images.

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the New Drug Application for Wellbutrin sustained release (SR) 100 mg tablets on October 4, 1996. However, by 1998, the FDA expressed concern about the stability of this drug product based on an increase in the dissolution profile on storage. Data submitted in the annual report showed that this drug product could not meet the expiry of 18 months at the International Committee on Harmonization storage condition of 25 degrees C/60% relative humidity.

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