Access to Healthy Built and Natural Environments and Physical Activity and Screen Time in New Zealand Adolescents: A Geospatial Cross-Sectional Study.

The built and natural environment can facilitate (un)healthy behaviors in adolescence. However, most previous studies have focused on examining associations between singular aspects of the environment. This study examined the association between the mixture of health-promoting and health-constraining environmental features in a Healthy Location Index (HLI) and physical activity and screen time among adolescents.

Experimental validation of a FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation for carbon-ion radiotherapy monitoring via secondary ion tracking.

Background: In-vivo monitoring methods of carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) includes explorations of nuclear reaction products generated by carbon-ion beams interacting with patient tissues. Our research group focuses on in-vivo monitoring of CIRT using silicon pixel detectors. Currently, we are conducting a prospective clinical trial as part of the In-Vivo Monitoring project (InViMo) at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) in Germany.

Exploring the feasibility of linking historical air pollution data to the Christchurch Health and Development study: A birth cohort study in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Spatial life course epidemiological approaches offer promise for prospectively examining the impacts of air pollution exposure on longer-term health outcomes, but existing research is limited. An essential aspect, often overlooked is the comprehensiveness of exposure data across the lifecourse. The primary objective was to meticulously reconstruct historical estimates of air pollution exposure to include prenatal exposure as well as annual exposure from birth to 10 years (1977-1987) for each cohort member.

Particle tracking, recognition and LET evaluation of out-of-field proton therapy delivered to a phantom with implants.

This study aims to assess the composition of scattered particles generated in proton therapy for tumors situated proximal to some titanium (Ti) dental implants. The investigation involves decomposing the mixed field and recording Linear Energy Transfer (LET) spectra to quantify the influence of metallic dental inserts located behind the tumor.A therapeutic conformal proton beam was used to deliver the treatment plan to an anthropomorphic head phantom with two types of implants inserted in the target volume (made of Ti and plastic, respectively).

An in-vivo treatment monitoring system for ion-beam radiotherapy based on 28 Timepix3 detectors.

Ion-beam radiotherapy is an advanced cancer treatment modality offering steep dose gradients and a high biological effectiveness. These gradients make the therapy vulnerable to patient-setup and anatomical changes between treatment fractions, which may go unnoticed. Charged fragments from nuclear interactions of the ion beam with the patient tissue may carry information about the treatment quality.