Radiation therapy, one of the most common forms of cancer treatment, is continually evolving with the introduction of new technology, more complex treatments and more advanced radiation dose calculations. To ensure the effectiveness and safety of modern radiation therapy, dose measurement tools must improve to accommodate these advances. X-ray computed tomography (CT) polymer gel dosimetry is a unique type of dosimeter that has many advantages and the potential to address some of the challenges in the verification of dose delivery and calculation in radiation therapy. This dissertation investigates the advancement of an x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system for use in clinical applications and in particular for deformable dose verification. The first part of this work consists of a reproducibility study of an established x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system in an effort to determine the accuracy and precision of dose measurements made with this system and the feasibility of interbatch and generic calibration. Gel measurements were found to have excellent agreement with Monte Carlo dose calculation when using a generic calibration curve. The excellent dosimetric and spatial accuracy established in this study suggest that this dosimetry system is ideally suited for the measurement of high-dose fractionation treatments such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The second stage was the development and characterization of the first deformable x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry system. This study established the setup reproducibility, deformation characteristics and dose response of the new deformable system. The dose response was found to be similar to that of the non-deformable system with similar dosimetric and spatial accuracy when compared to Monte Carlo dose calculation. The system was also found to have sub-millimetre setup reproducibility and the deformable dosimeter was found to reproducibly deform and relax for external compression of up to 30 mm and over 100 consecutive compressions. This work established several important characteristics of the new deformable dosimetry system and it shows excellent potential for use in the evaluation of deformable dose accumulation algorithms. The final component of this dissertation was the use of the newly developed deformable dosimetry system in the evaluation of a novel deformable dose accumulation algorithm, defDOSXYZ. Gel measurements and defDOSXYZ showed excellent agreement in the case of a static control case and this set a benchmark for deformable dose measurements. Measurements of deformed dose by the gel dosimeter showed significant disagreement with dose deformed by defDOSXYZ and the dosimetric differences were well outside the uncertainties established in the first two studies of this dissertation. The results from this study provided some insight into potential avenues of improvement for both the deformable dose calculation and deformable dose measurements. These results were also the first example of deforming dose measured by an x-ray CT read out gel dosimetry system. Overall, the results in this dissertation represent a significant advancement in x-ray CT polymer gel dosimetry and establish its suitability for several clinical applications. / Graduate / 2019-12-06

Magnetic resonance (MR) is a highly versatile technique with great potential for use in industrial applications; from the in situ study of unit operations to the optimisation of product properties. This thesis, concerned with the latter, is divided into two parts. Firstly, dynamic MR is applied to characterise the flow behaviour, or rheology, of process fluids. Such characterisation is typically performed using conventional rheometry methods operating offline, with an online, or inline, method sought for process control and optimisation. Until recently, MR was an unlikely choice for this application due to the requirement of high-field MR hardware. However, recent developments in low-field MR hardware mean that the potential of MR in such applications can now be realised. Since the implementation of MR flow imaging is challenging on low-field MR hardware, two new approaches to MR rheometry are described using pulsed field gradient (PFG) MR. A cumulant analysis of the PFG MR signal is first used to characterise the rheology of model power-law fluids, namely xanthan gum-in-water solutions, accurate to within 5% of conventional rheometry, the data being acquired in only 6% of the time required when using MR flow imaging. The second approach utilises a Bayesian analysis of the PFG MR signal to characterise the rheology of model Herschel--Bulkley fluids, namely Carbopol 940-in-water solutions; data are acquired in only 12% of the time required for analysis using MR flow imaging. The suitability of the Bayesian MR approach to study process fluids is demonstrated through experimental study on an alumina-in-acetic acid slurry used by Johnson Matthey. Secondly, MR imaging is used to provide insights into the origins and mechanisms of colloidal gel collapse. Many industrial products are colloidal gels, a space-spanning network of attractive particles with a yield stress. Colloidal gels are, however, known to undergo gravitational collapse after a latency period, thus limiting the shelf-life of products. This remains poorly understood, with a more detailed understanding of both fundamental interest and practical importance. To this end, MR imaging is applied offline to investigate the phase behaviour of colloidal gels. In particular, a comparison of the simulated and experimental phase diagrams suggests gravitational gel collapse to be gravity-driven. Furthermore, measurement of the colloid volume fraction using MR imaging indicates the formation of clusters of colloids at the top of the samples. Whether such clusters initiate gravitational gel collapse is yield stress-dependent; the gravitational stress exerted by a cluster must be sufficient to yield the colloidal gel.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:56:30Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 danelon_m_me_araca.pdf: 771559 bytes, checksum: e2cac1c49604512ad384ef716b5f196f (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O objetivo foi avaliar a capacidade de géis com baixa concentração de F suplementados com trimetafosfato de sódio (TMP), em reduzir a desmineralização (in vitro) e promover a remineralização (in situ) de esmalte dentário. No estudo in vitro, blocos de esmalte bovino (n = 160) selecionados pela dureza de superfície (SHi) foram divididos em oito grupos de géis (n=20): sem F e TMP (Placebo); TMP3%, TMP5%; 4500 μg F/g (4500); 4500 μg F/g + TMP3% (4500 TMP3%), 4500 μg F/g + TMP5% (4500 TMP5%), 9000 μg F/g (9000) e 12300 μg F/g (Gel ácido). Os blocos foram submetidos a ciclagem de pH durante cinco dias, após aplicação tópica dos géis. A seguir, determinou-se a dureza de superfície final (SHf), perda integrada de dureza de subsuperfície (ΔKHN), CaF2, F, Ca, P formados e retidos no esmalte. Os resultados foram submetidos à análise de variância e teste de Bonferroni (p<0,05). Os grupos 4500 TMP5% e Gel ácido apresentaram a menor perda mineral (SHf e DKHN) e similares entre si (p>0,05). O Gel ácido apresentou a maior concentração de CaF2 formado. O grupo 4500 TMP5% apresentou o maior valor de F formado (p<0,05). O Gel ácido apresentou maiores valores de Ca retido (p<0,05), seguido pelos grupos 4500 TMP5% e 9000, que foram similares entre si (p>0,05). O P formado foi semelhante entre os grupos (p>0,05) e o Gel ácido apresentou a maior concentração de P retido no esmalte. Concluiu-se que é possível inibir a desmineralização do esmalte com gel fluoretado de baixa concentração suplementado-o com TMP. Para o estudo in situ, blocos de esmalte bovinos (n=240) foram selecionados pela dureza de superfície (SH1), após desmineralização, e divididos em cinco grupos experimentais: Placebo, 4500, 4500 TMP5%, 9000 e Gel ácido. Doze voluntários utilizaram dispositivos palatinos, com quatro blocos de esmalte desmineralizados, durante três... / The aim of this study was to evaluate the capacity of gels with low concentration of F supplemented with sodium trimetaphosphate (TMP) to reduce the dental enamel demineralization (in vitro) and remineralization (in situ). In the in vitro study blocks of bovine enamel (n=160) were selected through surface hardness (SHi) and divided into eight groups (n = 20): gel without F and TMP (Placebo), TMP3%, TMP5%, 4500 μg F/g (4500), 4500 μg F/g + TMP3% (4500 TMP3%), 4500 μg F/g + TMP5% (4500 TMP5%), 9000 μg F/g (9000) and 12.300 μg F/g (acid gel). The blocks were submitted to pH cycling during five days after topical application of gels. After that, the surface hardness (SHf), the subsurface hardness integrated loss (ΔKHN), CaF2, F, Ca and P formed and retained in enamel were determined. The results were submitted to analysis of variance and Bonferroni tests (p <0.05). Groups 4500 TMP5% and acid gel were similar and showed the best results for SHf and ΔKHN. The acid gel showed the highest concentration of CaF2 formed. The 4500 TMP5% group presented the highest values of F formed (p <0.05). The acid gel had the highest Ca retention (p <0.05), followed by 4500 TMP5% and 9000 groups, which were similar (p> 0.05). The P formed was similar between the groups (p> 0.05) and the acid gel showed the highest concentration of P retained in enamel. It was concluded that it is possible to inhibit enamel demineralization with low F concentration gel by supplementing it with TMP 5%. In the in situ study bovine enamel blocks (n=240) were selected through surface hardness (SH1) after demineralization and divided into five groups: Placebo, 4500, 4500 TMP5%, 9000 and Acid gel). Twelve volunteers wore palatal appliances with four demineralized blocks, during three days after topical application of F (ATF). Two blocks were removed immediately after the ATF to ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

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