Purpose: To assess image quality and radiation dose reduction in abdominal CT imaging, physical phantoms having realistic background textures and lesions are highly desirable. The purpose of this work was to construct a liver phantom with realistic background and lesions using patient CT images and a 3D printer. Methods: Patient CT images containing liver lesions were segmented into liver tissue, contrast-enhanced vessels, and liver lesions using commercial software (Mimics, Materialise, Belgium). Stereolithography (STL) files of each segmented object were created and imported to a 3D printer (Object350 Connex, Stratasys, MN). After test scans were performed to map the eight available printing materials into CT numbers, printing materials were assigned to each object and a physical liver phantom printed. The printed phantom was scanned on a clinical CT scanner and resulting images were compared with the original patient CT images. Results: The eight available materials used to print the liver phantom had CT number ranging from 62 to 117 HU. In scans of the liver phantom, the liver lesions and veins represented in the STL files were all visible. Although the absolute value of the CT number in the background liver material (approx. 85 HU) was higher than in patients (approx. 40 HU), the difference in CT numbers between lesions and background were representative of the low contrast values needed for optimization tasks. Future work will investigate materials with contrast sufficient to emulate contrast-enhanced arteries. Conclusion: Realistic liver phantoms can be constructed from patient CT images using a commercial 3D printer. This technique may provide phantoms able to determine the effect of radiation dose reduction and noise reduction techniques on the ability to detect subtle liver lesions in the context of realistic background textures.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2013

RHIC performance for FY1012 heavy ion run

N/A

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Asynchronous data change notification between database server and accelerator controls system

Database data change notification (DCN) is a commonly used feature. Not all database management systems (DBMS) provide an explicit DCN mechanism. Even for those DBMS's which support DCN (such as Oracle and MS SQL server), some server side and/or client side programming may be required to make the DCN system work. This makes the setup of DCN between database server and interested clients tedious and time consuming. In accelerator control systems, there are many well established software client/server architectures (such as CDEV, EPICS, and ADO) that can be used to implement data reflection servers that transfer data asynchronously to any client using the standard SET/GET API. This paper describes a method for using such a data reflection server to set up asynchronous DCN (ADCN) between a DBMS and clients. This method works well for all DBMS systems which provide database trigger functionality. Asynchronous data change notification (ADCN) between database server and clients can be realized by combining the use of a database trigger mechanism, which is supported by major DBMS systems, with server processes that use client/server software architectures that are familiar in the accelerator controls community (such as EPICS, CDEV or ADO). This approach makes the ADCN system easy to set up and integrate into an accelerator controls system. Several ADCN systems have been set up and used in the RHIC-AGS controls system.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2011

RHIC performance for FY2011 Au+Au heavy ion run

Following the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 (Run-10) Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Au+Au run, RHIC experiment upgrades sought to improve detector capabilities. In turn, accelerator improvements were made to improve the luminosity available to the experiments for this run (Run-11). These improvements included: a redesign of the stochastic cooling systems for improved reliability; a relocation of 'common' RF cavities to alleviate intensity limits due to beam loading; and an improved usage of feedback systems to control orbit, tune and coupling during energy ramps as well as while colliding at top energy. We present an overview of changes to the Collider and review the performance of the collider with respect to instantaneous and integrated luminosity goals. At the conclusion of the FY 2011 polarized proton run, preparations for heavy ion run proceeded on April 18, with Au+Au collisions continuing through June 28. Our standard operations at 100 GeV/nucleon beam energy was bracketed by two shorter periods of collisions at lower energies (9.8 and 13.5 GeV/nucleon), continuing a previously established program of low and medium energy runs. Table 1 summarizes our history of heavy ion operations at RHIC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗