[Clinical approach to the patient with obesity document by the Argentine Society of Medicine, the Uruguayan Society of Internal Medicine, and the International Forum of Internal Medicine].

Obesity is one of the non-communicable chronic diseases with the highest increase in recent decades in Latin America, affecting children, adolescents, and especially young adults. Forty percent of adults have a body mass index greater than 25 kg/m2. Numerous studies have demonstrated a relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, diabetes, sleep apnea, and oncological diseases, among others.

Clinical Implementation of Proton Therapy Using Pencil-Beam Scanning Delivery Combined With Static Apertures.

Proton therapy makes use of the favorable depth-dose distribution with its characteristic Bragg peak to spare normal tissue distal of the target volume. A steep dose gradient would be desired in lateral dimensions, too. The widespread spot scanning delivery technique is based, however, on pencil-beams with in-air spot full-widths-at-half-maximum of typically 1 cm or more.

Evaluation of the activation of brass apertures in proton therapy using gamma-ray spectrometry and Monte Carlo simulations.

Collimating apertures are used in proton therapy to laterally conform treatment fields to the target volume. While this is a standard technique in passive spreading treatment heads, patient-specific apertures can supplement pencil-beam scanning (PBS) techniques to sharpen the lateral dose fall-off. A radiation protection issue is that proton-induced nuclear reactions can lead to the formation of radionuclides in the apertures.

Improvements to the muon veto of the Dortmund Low Background Facility.

The Dortmund Low Background Facility is a germanium gamma-ray spectrometry laboratory situated above ground. A massive artificial shielding, corresponding to 10m of water equivalent in combination with an active muon veto results in a background level comparable to laboratories situated underground. Due to the recent completion of the muon veto, the background is lowered by 20% compared to previously reported values (Gastrich et al.

The Dortmund Low Background Facility - Low-background gamma ray spectrometry with an artificial overburden.

The Dortmund Low Background Facility is an instrument for low-level gamma ray spectrometry with an artificial overburden of ten meters of water equivalent, an inner shielding, featuring a neutron absorber, and an active muon veto. An integral background count rate between 40keV and 2700keV of (2.528±0.