Control of optical absorption of silica glass by Ag ion implantation and subsequent heavy ion irradiation.

Silica glass samples were implanted with 50-380 keV Ag ions. After ion implantation, some samples were subsequently irradiated with 16 MeV Au ions. The effects of the implantation and the subsequent Au ion irradiation on the optical absorption spectra and morphologies of the Ag nanoparticles produced in the samples were studied by using an ultraviolet-visible scanning spectrophotometer and a transmission electron microscope, respectively.

A liquid-helium-free superconducting coil system forming a flat minimum-magnetic-field distribution of an electron cyclotron resonance ion source.

A flat distribution of the minimum magnetic field (flat-Bmin) of an electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) is expected to perform better in highly charged ion production than classical Bmin. To form a flat-Bmin structure with a liquid helium-free superconducting device, a coil system of seven coils with four current leads has been designed. The lead number was reduced by connecting the plural coils in series to maintain the flat-Bmin structure even when the coil currents are changed for adjustment.

Uncertainty in patient set-up margin analysis in radiation therapy.

We investigated the uncertainty in patient set-up margin analysis with a small dataset consisting of a limited number of clinical cases over a short time period, and propose a method for determining the optimum set-up margin. Patient set-up errors from 555 registration images of 15 patients with prostate cancer were tested for normality using a quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plot and a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test with the hypothesis that the data were not normally distributed. The ranges of set-up errors include the set-up errors within the 95% interval of the entire patient data histogram, and their equivalent normal distributions were compared.

Analysis of post-exposure density growth in radiochromic film with respect to the radiation dose.

The post-exposure density growth (PEDG) is one of the characteristics of radiochromic film (RCF). In film dosimetry using RCF and a flatbed scanner, pixel values read out from the RCF are converted to dose (hereafter, film dose) by using a calibration curve. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the pixel value read out from the RCF and the PEDG, and that between the film dose converted from the RCF and the PEDG.

Transmission of cluster ions through a tandem accelerator of several stripper gases.

The transmissions of carbon cluster ion beams through a tandem accelerator using several stripper gases (He, N2, CO2, and SF6) with a terminal voltage of 2.5 MV were measured as a function of the gas pressure in investigating the most suitable gas for cluster ion acceleration. This resulted in it being demonstrated that the highest transmission could be obtained using the smaller size gas, i.

The prognostic value of carcinoembryonic antigen in T1N1M0 and T2N1M0 non-small cell carcinoma of the lung.

Objective: To evaluate the significance of preoperative clinicopathological factors, including serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), as well as postoperative clinicopathological factors in T1-2N1M0 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who underwent curative pulmonary resection.

Methods: Twenty T1N1M0 disease patients and 25 T2N1M0 patients underwent standard surgical procedures between September 1996 and December 2005, and were found to have non-small lung cancer. As prognostic factors, we retrospectively investigated age, sex, Brinkman index, histologic type, primary site, tumor diameter, clinical T factor, clinical N factor, pathological T factor, preoperative serum CEA levels, surgical procedure, visceral pleural involvement, and the status of lymph node involvement (level and number).