Condensed Matter Systems Exposed to Radiation: Multiscale Theory, Simulations, and Experiment.

This roadmap reviews the new, highly interdisciplinary research field studying the behavior of condensed matter systems exposed to radiation. The Review highlights several recent advances in the field and provides a roadmap for the development of the field over the next decade. Condensed matter systems exposed to radiation can be inorganic, organic, or biological, finite or infinite, composed of different molecular species or materials, exist in different phases, and operate under different thermodynamic conditions.

Food Credence Attributes: A Conceptual Framework of Supply Chain Stakeholders, Their Motives, and Mechanisms to Address Information Asymmetry.

Food credence attributes (e.g., food safety, organic, and carbon neutral production methods) are quality characteristics of products that cannot be assessed by buyers at the point of sale without additional information (e.

The Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group (PCCG) Consensus Conference Methodology.

Objective: This article describes the methodology used for the Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group (PCCG) Consensus Conference.

Design: This is a novel Consensus Conference of national experts in Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery and Anesthesia, who will follow standards set by the Institute of Medicine and using the Research and Development/University of California, Los Angeles appropriateness method, modeled after the Pediatric Critical Care Transfusion and Anemia Expertise Initiative. Topics related to pediatric craniofacial anesthesia for open cranial vault surgery were divided into twelve subgroups with a systematic review of the literature.

The impact of an enhanced recovery perioperative pathway for pediatric pectus deformity repair.

Purpose: Pediatric repair of chest wall deformities is associated with significant pain, morbidity, and resource utilization. We sought to determine outcomes of a perioperative enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathway for patients undergoing minimally invasive (Nuss) and traditional (Ravitch) corrective procedures.

Methods: Our ERAS protocol was implemented in 2015.

Radiobiological Implications of Nanoparticles Following Radiation Treatment.

Materials with a high atomic number (Z) are shown to cause an increase in the level of cell kill by ionizing radiation when introduced into tumor cells. This study uses in vitro experiments to investigate the differences in radiosensitization between two cell lines (MCF-7 and U87) and three commercially available nanoparticles (gold, gadolinium, and iron oxide) irradiated by 6 MV X-rays. To assess cell survival, clonogenic assays are carried out for all variables considered, with a concentration of 0.

Opioid-prescribing patterns, storage, handling, and disposal in postoperative pediatric urology patients.

Background: Emerging research on surgeons and the opioid epidemic have focused on the adult population. Consequently, little is known regarding opioid-prescribing practices in the pediatric population. The goal of this study is to examine postoperative opioid-prescribing and consumption patterns, as well as storage and disposal trends for specific pediatric urologic procedures.

Impact of post mastectomy radiotherapy on the silicone breast implant.

Implant based reconstruction accounts for over half of breast reconstruction performed in the UK. Patients with implant based breast reconstructions undergoing post mastectomy radiotherapy are at increased risk of capsular contracture and reconstructive failure. This study sought to determine the effect of treatment dose radiotherapy on the bulk mechanical, surface chemical properties of silicone implants as well as their cellular response.

Recommendations for clinical translation of nanoparticle-enhanced radiotherapy.

A multi-disciplinary cooperative for nanoparticle-enhanced radiotherapy (NERT) has been formed to review the current status of the field and identify key stages towards translation. Supported by the Colorectal Cancer Healthcare Technologies Cooperative, the cooperative comprises a diverse cohort of key contributors along the translation pathway including academics of physics, cancer and radio-biology, chemistry, nanotechnology and clinical trials, clinicians, manufacturers, industry, standards laboratories, policy makers and patients. Our aim was to leverage our combined expertise to devise solutions towards a roadmap for translation and commercialisation of NERT, in order to focus research in the direction of clinical implementation, and streamline the critical pathway from basic science to the clinic.

A methodology to extract outcomes from routine healthcare data for patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Outcomes for patients in UK with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA NSCLC) are amongst the worst in Europe. Assessing outcomes is important for analysing the effectiveness of current practice. However, data quality is inconsistent and regular large scale analysis is challenging.

Endoscopic Versus Open Repair for Craniosynostosis in Infants Using Propensity Score Matching to Compare Outcomes: A Multicenter Study from the Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group.

Background: The North American Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group (PCCG) established the Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery Perioperative Registry to evaluate outcomes in infants and children undergoing craniosynostosis repair. The goal of this multicenter study was to utilize this registry to assess differences in blood utilization, intensive care unit (ICU) utilization, duration of hospitalization, and perioperative complications between endoscopic-assisted (ESC) and open repair in infants with craniosynostosis. We hypothesized that advantages of ESC from single-center studies would be validated based on combined data from a large multicenter registry.

Perioperative Outcomes and Management in Pediatric Complex Cranial Vault Reconstruction: A Multicenter Study from the Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group.

Background: The Pediatric Craniofacial Collaborative Group established the Pediatric Craniofacial Surgery Perioperative Registry to elucidate practices and outcomes in children with craniosynostosis undergoing complex cranial vault reconstruction and inform quality improvement efforts. The aim of this study is to determine perioperative management, outcomes, and complications in children undergoing complex cranial vault reconstruction across North America and to delineate salient features of current practices.

Methods: Thirty-one institutions contributed data from June 2012 to September 2015.

Clinical Experience and Evaluation of Patient Treatment Verification With a Transit Dosimeter.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate a protocol for transit dosimetry on a patient population undergoing intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and to assess the issues in clinical implementation of electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) for treatment verification.

Methods And Materials: Fifty-eight patients were enrolled in the study. Amorphous silicon EPIDs were calibrated for dose and used to acquire images of delivered fields.

Investigation into the effects of high-Z nano materials in proton therapy.

High-Z nano materials have been previously shown to increase the amount of dose deposition within the tumour due to an increase in secondary electrons. This study evaluates the effects of high-Z nano materials in combination with protons, and the impact of proton energy, nanoparticle material and concentration. These effects were studied in silico through Monte Carlo simulation and experimentally through a phantom study, with particular attention to macroscale changes to the Bragg peak in the presence of nanoparticles.

Implementation and evaluation of a transit dosimetry system for treatment verification.

Purpose: To evaluate a formalism for transit dosimetry using a phantom study and prospectively evaluate the protocol on a patient population undergoing 3D conformal radiotherapy.

Methods: Amorphous silicon EPIDs were calibrated for dose and used to acquire images of delivered fields. The measured EPID dose map was back-projected using the planning CT images to calculate dose at pre-specified points within the patient using commercially available software, EPIgray (DOSIsoft, France).

Mainstreaming nutrition metrics in household surveys--toward a multidisciplinary convergence of data systems.

Since the 2008 food price crisis, food and nutrition security are back on the global development agenda, with particular emphasis on agricultural pathways toward improved nutrition. Parallel efforts are being promoted to improve the data and metrics for monitoring progress toward positive nutritional outcomes, especially for women and children. Despite the increased investment in tracking nutritional outcomes, these efforts are often made in silos, which create challenges for integrating nutritional data with other sectoral data, such as those related to agriculture.

Automated estimation of disease recurrence in head and neck cancer using routine healthcare data.

Background: Overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS) are key outcome measures for head and neck cancer as they reflect treatment efficacy, and have implications for patients and health services. The UK has recently developed a series of national cancer audits which aim to estimate survival and recurrence by relying on institutions manually submitting interval data on patient status, a labour-intensive method. However, nationally, data are routinely collected on hospital admissions, surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Assessment of the dosimetric accuracies of CATPhan 504 and CIRS 062 using kV-CBCT for performing direct calculations.

The dosimetric accuracies of CATPhan 504 and CIRS 062 have been evaluated using the kV-CBCT of Varian TrueBeam linac and Eclipse TPS. The assessment was done using the kV-CBCT as a standalone tool for dosimetric calculations towards Adaptive replanning. Dosimetric calculations were made without altering the HU-ED curves of the planning computed tomography (CT) scanner that is used by the Eclipse TPS.

A 3D in vitro cancer model as a platform for nanoparticle uptake and imaging investigations.

In order to maximize the potential of nanoparticles (NPs) in cancer imaging and therapy, their mechanisms of interaction with host tissue need to be fully understood. NP uptake is known to be dramatically influenced by the tumor microenvironment, and an imaging platform that could replicate in vivo cellular conditions would make big strides in NP uptake studies. Here, a novel NP uptake platform consisting of a tissue-engineered 3D in vitro cancer model (tumoroid), which mimics the microarchitecture of a solid cancer mass and stroma, is presented.

Toward adaptive radiotherapy for head and neck patients: Feasibility study on using CT-to-CBCT deformable registration for "dose of the day" calculations.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of using computed tomography (CT) to cone-beam CT (CBCT) deformable image registration (DIR) for the application of calculating the "dose of the day" received by a head and neck patient.

Methods: NiftyReg is an open-source registration package implemented in our institution. The affine registration uses a Block Matching-based approach, while the deformable registration is a GPU implementation of the popular B-spline Free Form Deformation algorithm.

An x-ray fluorescence imaging system for gold nanoparticle detection.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) may be used as a contrast agent to identify tumour location and can be modified to target and image specific tumour biological parameters. There are currently no imaging systems in the literature that have sufficient sensitivity to GNP concentration and distribution measurement at sufficient tissue depth for use in in vivo and in vitro studies. We have demonstrated that high detecting sensitivity of GNPs can be achieved using x-ray fluorescence; furthermore this technique enables greater depth imaging in comparison to optical modalities.

A quantitative x-ray detection system for gold nanoparticle tumour biomarkers.

X-ray fluorescence techniques have proven beneficial for identifying and quantifying trace elements in biological tissues. A novel approach is being developed that employs x-ray fluorescence with an aim to locate heavy nanoparticles, such as gold, which are embedded into tissues. Such nanoparticles can be functionalized to act as markers for tumour characteristics to map the disease state, with the future aim of imaging them to inform cancer therapy regimes.

Results of a pilot program to improve phosphorus outcomes in hemodialysis patients.

Objective: End-stage renal disease causes dysregulation of bone and mineral metabolism, including increased serum phosphorus levels. Kidney Foundation Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative 2003 guidelines recommend maintaining phosphorus levels between 3.5 and 5.

Substantial postoperative pain is common among children undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy.

Background: Laparoscopic appendectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in children. However, to our knowledge, the postoperative pain experience of children undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy has never been described. In this study, we assessed the postoperative pain experience of children undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy.