Beam angle optimization for proton therapy via group-sparsity based angle generation method.

Background: In treatment planning, beam angle optimization (BAO) refers to the selection of a subset with a given number of beam angles from all available angles that provides the best plan quality. BAO is a NP-hard combinatorial problem. Although exhaustive search (ES) can exactly solve BAO by exploring all possible combinations, ES is very time-consuming and practically infeasible.

A treatment plan optimization method with direct minimization of number of energy jumps for proton arc therapy.

. The optimization of energy layer distributions is crucial to proton arc therapy: on one hand, a sufficient number of energy layers is needed to ensure the plan quality; on the other hand, an excess number of energy jumps (NEJ) can substantially slow down the treatment delivery. This work will develop a new treatment plan optimization method with direct minimization of (NEJ), which will be shown to outperform state-of-the-art methods in both plan quality and delivery efficiency.

Effects and Mechanisms of Acupuncture on Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review.

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder of gut-brain interaction with challenging treatment. According to evidence-based studies, acupuncture is likely to be a promising therapy and subservient adjunct for IBS. Mechanism study of acupuncture based on related clinical trials of high quality, nevertheless, is still vacant.

Energy layer optimization via energy matrix regularization for proton spot-scanning arc therapy.

Purpose: Spot-scanning arc therapy (SPArc) is an emerging proton modality that can potentially offer a combination of advantages in plan quality and delivery efficiency, compared with traditional IMPT of a few beam angles. Unlike IMPT, frequent low-to-high energy layer switching (so called switch-up (SU)) can degrade delivery efficiency for SPArc. However, it is a tradeoff between the minimization of SU times and the optimization of plan quality.