Automated and Clinically Optimal Treatment Planning for Cancer Radiotherapy.

Each year, approximately 18 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide, and about half must be treated with radiotherapy. A successful treatment requires treatment planning with the customization of penetrating radiation beams to sterilize cancerous cells without harming nearby normal organs and tissues. This process currently involves extensive manual tuning of parameters by an expert planner, making it a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, with quality and immediacy of critical care dependent on the planner's expertise.

Cervical intra-extradural meningioma with en-plaque, dumbbell-shaped, and an unusual calcified pattern in a young patient.

Background: Most spinal meningiomas primarily grow in the intradural extramedullary location. Epidural meningiomas are uncommon; if detected, they usually coexist with intradural lesions. They inhere more aggressive and invasive characteristics compared with their counterparts inside the dura.

Orbital-hybridization-created optical excitations in LiGeO.

The three-dimensional ternary LiGeO compound presents various unusual essential properties. The main features are thoroughly explored from the first-principles calculations. The concise pictures, the critical orbital hybridizations in Li-O and Ge-O bonds, are clearly examined through the optimal geometric structure, the atom-dominated electronic energy spectrum, the spatial charge densities, the atom and orbital-decomposed van Hove singularities, and the strong optical responses.

Rich -type-doping phenomena in boron-substituted silicene systems.

The essential properties of monolayer silicene greatly enriched by boron substitutions are thoroughly explored through first-principles calculations. Delicate analyses are conducted on the highly non-uniform Moire superlattices, atom-dominated band structures, charge density distributions and atom- and orbital-decomposed van Hove singularities. The hybridized 2 -3 and [2s, 2 , 2 ]-[3s, 3 , 3 ] bondings, with orthogonal relations, are obtained from the developed theoretical framework.

Unusual features of nitrogen substitutions in silicene.

The quasiparticle properties resulting from charge and spin are clearly identified in nitrogen-substituted silicenes, for which a theoretical framework is successfully developed from first-principles calculations. Such systems create extremely non-uniform chemical and physical environments through the distribution of the guest atoms. They present unusual geometric, electronic, and magnetic properties, which can be identified from the optimal honeycomb lattices, the atom- and spin-dominated energy spectra, the spatial charge density distributions, and the atom-, orbital- and spin-projected van Hove singularities [the net magnetic moments].

Featured properties of Li-based battery anode: LiTiO.

3D ternary LiTiO, a Li-based battery anode, presents an unusual lattice symmetry (triclinic crystal), band structure, charge density, and density of states under first-principles calculations. It is a large direct-gap semiconductor with ∼ 2.98 eV.

Rich Magnetic Quantization Phenomena in AA Bilayer Silicene.

The rich magneto-electronic properties of AA-bottom-top (bt) bilayer silicene are investigated using a generalized tight-binding model. The electronic structure exhibits two pairs of oscillatory energy bands for which the lowest conduction and highest valence states of the low-lying pair are shifted away from the K point. The quantized Landau levels (LLs) are classified into various separated groups by the localization behaviors of their spatial distributions.

Electric-field-diversified optical properties of bilayer silicene.

The rich optical properties of AA-bottom-top (bt) bilayer silicene (BS) in a uniform perpendicular electric field (E) are investigated through the use of the tight-binding model. The distinctive multivalley band structure presents a semimetallic behavior but with a sizeable intraband gap. The main features of the energy dispersion appear in the optical absorption spectrum through transitions between band-edge states obeying specific selection rules.

Evaluation of respiratory motion-corrected cone-beam CT at end expiration in abdominal radiotherapy sites: a prospective study.

Background: Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) for radiotherapy image guidance suffers from respiratory motion artifacts. This limits soft tissue visualization and localization accuracy, particularly in abdominal sites. We report on a prospective study of respiratory motion-corrected (RMC)-CBCT to evaluate its efficacy in localizing abdominal organs and improving soft tissue visibility at end expiration.

The mechanism of a ligand-promoted C(sp3)-H activation and arylation reaction via palladium catalysis: theoretical demonstration of a Pd(II)/Pd(IV) redox manifold.

Density functional theory (DFT) computations (BP86 and M06-L) have been utilized to elucidate the detailed mechanism of a palladium-catalyzed reaction involving pyridine-type nitrogen-donor ligands that significantly expands the scope of C(sp(3))-H activation and arylation. The reaction begins with precatalyst initiation, followed by substrate binding to the Pd(II) center through an amidate auxiliary, which directs the ensuing bicarbonate-assisted C(sp(3))-H bond activation producing five-membered-ring cyclopalladate(II) intermediates. These Pd(II) complexes further undergo oxidative addition with iodobenzene to form Pd(IV) complexes, which proceed by reductive C-C elimination/coupling to give final products of arylation.

Enhanced optical output power by the silver localized surface plasmon coupling through side facets of micro-hole patterned InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes.

Light extraction efficiency of GaN-based light emitting diodes were significantly enhanced using silver nanostructures incorporated in periodic micro-hole patterned multi quantum wells (MQWs). Our results show an enhancement of 60% in the wall-plug efficiency at an injection current of 100 mA when Ag nano-particles were deposited on side facet of MQWs passivated with SiO2. This improvement can be attributed to an increase in the spontaneous emission rate through resonance coupling between localized surface plasmons in Ag nano-particles and the excitons in MQWs.

Synthesis of the chemically converted graphene xerogel with superior electrical conductivity.

The ultra-low density graphene xerogel was prepared through the chemical reduction of graphene oxide suspension using a hypophosphorous acid-iodine mixture. The chemically converted graphene xerogel (CCGX) exhibited superior electrical conductivity (up to 500 S m(-1)) and high C/O atomic ratio (14.7), which were the highest values reported for the graphene-based xerogel.

One-step synthesis of superior dispersion of chemically converted graphene in organic solvents.

Chemically converted graphene that was reduced with phenylhydrazine was highly dispersed in organic solvents, and its "paper" prepared by filtration of the reduced graphene possessed an electrical conductivity value as high as 20,950 S m(-1).