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At least 703 records · Page 39

SU-E-J-181: Magnetic Resonance Image-Guided Radiation Therapy Workflow: Initial Clinical Experience

Purpose: The aims of this work are to describe the workflow and initial clinical experience treating patients with an MRI-guided radiotherapy (MRIGRT) system. Methods: Patient treatments with a novel MR-IGRT system started at our institution in mid-January. The system consists of an on-board 0.35-T MRI, with IMRT-capable delivery via doubly-focused MLCs on three {sup 60} Co heads. In addition to volumetric MR-imaging, real-time planar imaging is performed during treatment. So far, eleven patients started treatment (six finished), ranging from bladder to lung SBRT. While the system is capable of online adaptive radiotherapy and gating, a conventional workflow was used to start, consisting of volumetric imaging for patient setup using visible tumor, evaluation of tumor motion outside of PTV on cine images, and real-time imaging. Workflow times were collected and evaluated to increase efficiency and evaluate feasibility of adding the adaptive and gating features while maintaining a reasonable patient throughput. Results: For the first month, physicians attended every fraction to provide guidance on identifying the tumor and an acceptable level of positioning and anatomical deviation. Average total treatment times (including setup) were reduced from 55 to 45 min after physician presence was no longer required and the therapists had learned to align patients based on soft-tissue imaging. Presently, the source strengths were at half maximum (7.7K Ci each), therefore beam-on times will be reduced after source replacement. Current patient load is 10 per day, with increase to 25 anticipated in the near future. Conclusion: On-board, real-time MRI-guided RT has been incorporated into clinical use. Treatment times were kept to reasonable lengths while including volumetric imaging, previews of tumor movement, and physician evaluation. Workflow and timing is being continuously evaluated to increase efficiency. In near future, adaptive and gating capabilities of the system will be implemented.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Noble gas magnetic resonator

Precise measurements of a precessional rate of noble gas in a magnetic field is obtained by constraining the time averaged direction of the spins of a stimulating alkali gas to lie in a plane transverse to the magnetic field. In this way, the magnetic field of the alkali gas does not provide a net contribution to the precessional rate of the noble gas.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Elastomeric actuator devices for magnetic resonance imaging

The present invention is directed to devices and systems used in magnetic imaging environments that include an actuator device having an elastomeric dielectric film with at least two electrodes, and a frame attached to the actuator device. The frame can have a plurality of configurations including, such as, for example, at least two members that can be, but not limited to, curved beams, rods, plates, or parallel beams. These rigid members can be coupled to flexible members such as, for example, links wherein the frame provides an elastic restoring force. The frame preferably provides a linear actuation force characteristic over a displacement range. The linear actuation force characteristic is defined as .+-.20% and preferably 10% over a displacement range. The actuator further includes a passive element disposed between the flexible members to tune a stiffness characteristic of the actuator. The passive element can be a bi-stable element. The preferred embodiment actuator includes one or more layers of the elastomeric film integrated into the frame. The elastomeric film can be made of many elastomeric materials such as, for example, but not limited to, acrylic, silicone and latex.

Dubowsky, Steven↗

Magnetic resonance in bilayers of ferrite and functionally graded piezoelectric

Highlights: • Ferromagnetic resonance in a ferrite-piezoelectric laminate is studied. • An electric field induced FMR line broadening results from bending the sample. • Ferrite layer between the two piezoelectric layers shows a large line broadening. - Abstract: The particular purpose of this paper is theoretical modeling of magnetoelectric interactions at the ferromagnetic resonance in a layered structure of a ferrite and a piezoelectric with through-thickness graded polarization. We show that using the functionally graded piezoelectric with through-thickness variation of polarization can lead to an electric field induced broadening of ferromagnetic resonance line. As an example, we consider the laminate based on the yttrium iron garnet layer which is placed between two lead zirconate titanate layers with different poling direction. The maximal ferromagnetic resonance line broadening of 9.3 Oe is obtained for the yttrium iron garnet to lead zirconate titanate layer thickness ratio of 1.7 at 9.3 GHz for E equal to 10 kV/cm.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Observations of heteroclinic bifurcations in resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the plasma response to resonant magnetic perturbations

A class of topological magnetic island bifurcations that has not previously been observed in toroidal plasmas is described. Increasing an externally applied three-dimensional magnetic field in resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations results in the asymmetric elongation of resonant island flux surfaces followed by a sequence of heteroclinic bifurcations. Here, these bifurcations produce new sets of hyperbolic-elliptic fixed points as predicted by the Poincaré-Birkoff fixed point theorem. Field line calculations verify that the new fixed points do not connect to those of the prebifurcated islands as required for heteroclinic bifurcations on a torus with winding numbers composed of common integer factors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Magnetic Resonance in Gadolinium Nanoparticles near the Curie Point

The Influence of temperature in the range from 275 to 320 K on ESR spectra and magnetization m of ensembles of spherical gadolinium nanoparticles with the diameter from 89 to 18 nm was studied. The particles with d = 18 nm had a cubic face centered structure and no magnetic transition. At T > T{sub C} all particles were paramagnetic, and their g factors were g = 1.98 ± 0.02 irrespective of their size and structure. At T = T{sub C} the particles having 28 to 89 nm in size experienced a magnetic and orientation transition; at T < T{sub C} their m(H) dependences were described by the Langevin function, and the FMR lines broadened and shifted towards H = 0. FMR lines of the Gd particle ensembles showed a hysteresis behavior during magnetization reversal, which did not correlate with the coercivity of the particles. Dependences of the Gd nanoparticles FMR linewidth ΔH(T) changed proportionally to |T–T{sub C}|.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Magnetic resonance investigation of Zn{sub 1−x}Fe{sub x}O properties influenced by annealing atmosphere

ZnO is an attractive system for a wide variety of practical applications, being a chemically stable oxide semiconductor. It has been shown that Fe doping produces ferromagnetic semiconductor at room temperature. This material, therefore, has the potential for use in spintronic devices such as spin transistors, spin light emitting diodes, very high density nonvolatile semiconductor memory and optical emitters. It is believed that oxygen vacancies and substitutional incorporation are important to produce ferromagnetism in semiconductor oxide doped with transition metal ions. The present paper reports detailed electron paramagnetic resonance investigations (EPR) of the samples in order to investigate how annealing atmosphere (Air and Argon) influenced the magnetic behavior of the samples. X-band electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies of Fe{sup 3+} ions in Zn{sub 1−x}Fe{sub x}O powders with x = 1%, 3% is reported. These samples are interesting to investigate as Fe doping produce ferromagnetism in ZnO, making a promising ferromagnetic semiconductor at room temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Magnetic Resonated Bilayer Square-Ring–Enabled Dual-Peak Metamaterial Absorber in P-Band

In order to investigate the effect of magnetic metal on the absorption performance of metamaterial absorber (MMA), a dual-peak MMA based on magnetic metal nickel is designed and demonstrated in the P-band (300–1000 MHz). Two-layer square-ring-metal resonator arrays and two-layer dielectric substrates are arranged alternately with each other to constitute the proposed dual-peak MMA backed with a reflective metal plate. The influences of copper or nickel metallic layers on the absorption coefficients are comparatively analyzed. For the nickel MMA, the dual-peak absorption coefficients of 99.82% and 99.09% are achieved at 394 MHz and 605 MHz, respectively. Moreover, the thickness of dual-peak MMA could be reduced to 9 mm by employing magnetic metal nickel. The physical mechanism of dual-peak absorption is illustrated by surface current distributions, magnetic field distributions and power loss density distributions. The relationship between the changes of geometric dimensions and the shift of peak absorption frequencies is ultimately discussed. These results could provide instructive guidance for realizing a thin dual-peak MMA in the P-band.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Numerical study of $\delta$-function current sheets arising from resonant magnetic perturbations

We report general three-dimensional toroidal ideal magnetohydrodynamic equilibria with a continuum of nested flux surfaces are susceptible to forming singular current sheets when resonant perturbations are applied. The presence of singular current sheets indicates that, in the presence of non-zero resistivity, magnetic reconnection will ensue, leading to the formation of magnetic islands and potentially regions of stochastic field lines when islands overlap. Numerically resolving singular current sheets in the ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) limit has been a significant challenge. This work presents numerical solutions of the Hahm–Kulsrud–Taylor (HKT) problem, which is a prototype for resonant singular current sheet formation. The HKT problem is solved by two codes: a Grad–Shafranov (GS) solver and the Stepped Pressure Equilibrium Code (SPEC) code. The GS solver has built-in nested flux surfaces with prescribed magnetic fluxes. The SPEC code implements multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MRxMHD), whereby the solution relaxes to a Taylor state in each region while maintaining force balance across the interfaces between regions. As the number of regions increases, the MRxMHD solution appears to approach the ideal MHD solution assuming a continuum of nested flux surfaces. We demonstrate agreement between the numerical solutions obtained from the two codes through a convergence study.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Resonant magnetic fields from inflation

We propose a novel scenario to generate primordial magnetic fields during inflation induced by an oscillating coupling of the electromagnetic field to the inflaton. This resonant mechanism has two key advantages over previous proposals. First of all, it generates a narrow band of magnetic fields at any required wavelength, thereby allaying the usual problem of a strongly blue spectrum and its associated backreaction. Secondly, it avoids the need for a strong coupling as the coupling is oscillating rather than growing or decaying exponentially. Despite these major advantages, we find that the backreaction is still far too large during inflation if the generated magnetic fields are required to have a strength of O(10{sup −15} Gauss) today on observationally interesting scales. We provide a more general no-go argument, proving that this problem will apply to any model in which the magnetic fields are generated on subhorizon scales and freeze after horizon crossing.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Novel motor design for rotating anode x-ray tubes operating in the fringe field of a magnetic resonance imaging system

Purpose: Using hybrid x-ray/MR (XMR) systems for image guidance during interventional procedures could enhance the diagnosis and treatment of neurologic, oncologic, cardiovascular, and other disorders. The authors propose a close proximity hybrid system design in which a C-arm fluoroscopy unit is placed immediately adjacent to the solenoid magnet of a MR system with a minimum distance of 1.2 m between the x-ray and MR imaging fields of view. Existing rotating anode x-ray tube designs fail within MR fringe field environments because the magnetic fields alter the electron trajectories in the x-ray tube and act as a brake on the induction motor, reducing the rotation speed of the anode. In this study the authors propose a novel motor design that avoids the anode rotation speed reduction. Methods: The proposed design replaces the permanent magnet stator found in brushed dc motors with the radial component of the MR fringe field. The x-ray tube is oriented such that the radial component of the MR fringe field is orthogonal to the cathode-anode axis. Using a feedback position sensor and the support bearings as electrical slip rings, the authors use electrical commutation to eliminate the need for mechanical brushes and commutators. A vacuum compatible prototype of the proposed motor design was assembled, and its performance was evaluated at various operating conditions. The prototype consisted of a 3.1 in. diameter anode rated at 300 kHU with a ceramic rotor that was 5.6 in. in length and had a 2.9 in. diameter. The material chosen for all ceramic components was MACOR, a machineable glass ceramic developed by Corning Inc. The approximate weight of the entire assembly was 1750 g. The maximum rotation speed, angular acceleration, and acceleration time of the motor design were investigated, as well as the dependence of these parameters on rotor angular offset, magnetic field strength, and field orientation. The resonance properties of the authors' assembly were also evaluated to determine its stability during acceleration, and a pulse width modulation algorithm was implemented to control the rotation speed of the motor. Results: At a magnetic flux density of 41 mT orthogonal to the axis of rotation (on the lower end of the expected flux density in the MR suite) the maximum speed of the motor was found to be 5150 revolutions per minute (rpm). The acceleration time necessary to reach 3000 rpm was found to be approximately 10 s at 59 mT. The resonance frequency of the assembly with the anode attached was 1310 rpm (21.8 Hz) which is far below the desired operating speeds. Pulse width modulation provides an effective method to control the speed of the motor with a resolution of 100 rpm. Conclusions: The proposed design can serve as a direct replacement to the conventional induction motor used in rotating anode x-ray tubes. It does not suffer from a reduced rotation speed when operating in a MR environment. The presence of chromic steel bearings in the prototype prevented testing at the higher field strengths, and future iterations of the design could eliminate this shortcoming. The prototype assembly demonstrates proof of concept of the authors' design and overcomes one of the major obstacles for a MR compatible rotating anode x-ray tube.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Advances in the Understanding of ELM Suppression by Resonant Magnetic Perturbations (RMPs) in DIII-D and Implications for ITER

Experiments on DIII-D have expanding the operating window for RMP ELM suppression to higher q95 with dominant electron heating and fully non-inductive current drive relevant to advanced modes of ITER operation. Robust ELM suppression has also been obtained with a reduced coil set, mitigating the risk of coil failure in maintaining ELM suppression in ITER. These results significantly expand the operating space and reduce risk for obtaining RMP ELM suppression in ITER. Efforts have also been made to search for 3D cause of ELM suppression. No internal non-axisymmetric structure is detected at the top of the pedestal, indicating that the dominant effect of the RMP is to produce an n=0 transport modification of the profiles. Linear two fluid MHD simulations using M3D-C1 indicate resonant field penetration and significant magnetic stochasticity at the top of the pedestal, consistent with the absence of detectable 3D structure in that region. A profile database was developed to compare the scaling of the pedestal and global confinement with the applied 3D field strength in ELM suppressed and ELM mitigated plasmas. The EPED pedestal model accurately predicts the measured pedestal pressure at the threshold of ELM suppression, increasing confidence in theoretical projections to ITER pedestal conditions. Both the H-factor (H(sub)98y2) and thermal energy confinement time do not degrade substantially with applied RMP fields near the threshold of ELM suppression, enhancing confidence in the compatibility of ITER high performance operation with RMP ELM suppression.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Toward Ultra‐High‐Quality‐Factor Wireless Masing Magnetic Resonance Sensing

It has recently been shown that a bolus of hyperpolarized nuclear spins can yield stimulated emission signals similar in nature to maser signals, potentially enabling new ways of sensing hyperpolarized contrast media, including most notably [1- 13 C]pyruvate that is under evaluation in over 50 clinical trials for metabolic imaging of cancer. The stimulated NMR signal emissions lasting for minutes do not require radio-frequency excitation, offering unprecedented advantages compared to conventional MR sensing. However, creating nuclear spin maser emission is challenging in practice due to stringent fundamental requirements, making practical in vivo applications hardly possible using conventional passive MR detectors. Here, in this study, we demonstrate the utility of a wireless NMR maser detector, the quality factor of which was enhanced 22-fold (to 1,670) via parametric pumping. This active-feedback technique breaks the intrinsic fundamental limit of NMR detector circuit quality factor. We show the use of parametric pumping to reduce the threshold requirement for inducing nuclear spin masing at 300 MHz resonance frequency in a preclinical MRI scanner. Indeed, stimulated emission from hyperpolarized protons was obtained under highly unfavorable conditions of low magnetic field homogeneity (T 2 * of 3 ms). Greater gains of the quality factor of the MR detector (up to 1 million) were also demonstrated.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

WE-G-17A-04: Measurements of the Electron-Return-Effect in a Commercial Magnetic Resonance Image Guided Radiation Therapy (MR-IGRT) System

Purpose: The aim of this work was to measure the influences of the Lorentz force (electron return effect) on secondary electron transport in the presence of a low magnetic field produced in a commercial MR-IGRT system using a custom heterogeneous phantom. Methods: A commercial MR-IGRT system has been commissioned in our department. The system combines real-time imaging using a split-bore 0.35-T MRI and three Co-60 heads, each collimated with a doubly-focused MLC. The integrated treatment planning system uses a Monte-Carlo algorithm that models the magnetic field effects on scattered electrons. During commissioning, a custom heterogeneity phantom was designed to acquire ionization chamber and film measurements. The 30 cm cubic phantom consists of two waterfilled annuli, each containing a central region that simulates a 6 cm cubic lung tumor using polystyrene embedded in cork. Film may be placed inbetween the halves, and small-volume ionization chambers may be placed in different positions to measure dose to the tumor and near interfaces where the electron return effect is expected. The treatment planning system was used to create open-field and IMRT treatment plans on a CT scan of the phantom. Plans were delivered to the phantom, and radiographic film and ionization chamber measurements were obtained. Results: The mean ionization chamber measured dose ratio for 27 measurements for 5 plans was 0.993 ± 0.027. Lateral profile film measurements confirm that the electron-return-effect is observable, producing local dose variations of less than 10% over 5 mm with 0.35 T magnetic field for single field treatment plans. The effect becomes negligible for opposing-field and IMRT treatments. Conclusion: A heterogeneous phantom for measurement of the electron-return-effect has been designed. Ionization chamber and film measurements made with the phantom indicate that the dosimetric effect is minimal, and the treatment planning system predicts dose reasonably well for complex heterogeneous scenarios.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Markov Chain Monte Carlo Used in Parameter Inference of Magnetic Resonance Spectra

In this paper, we use Boltzmann statistics and the maximum likelihood distribution derived from Bayes’ Theorem to infer parameter values for a Pake Doublet Spectrum, a lineshape of historical significance and contemporary relevance for determining distances between interacting magnetic dipoles. A Metropolis Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm is implemented and designed to find the optimum parameter set and to estimate parameter uncertainties. In conclusion, the posterior distribution allows us to define a metric on parameter space that induces a geometry with negative curvature that affects the parameter uncertainty estimates, particularly for spectra with low signal to noise.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and macromolecular migration in a melt or in concentrated solutions

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the migration process of long polymer molecules in a melt or in concentrated solutions as it may be observed from the dynamics of the transverse magnetization of nuclear spins linked to these chains. The low frequency viscoelastic relaxation of polymer systems is known to be mainly controlled by the mechanism of dissociation of topological constraints excited on chains and which are called entanglements. This mechanism exhibits a strong dependence upon the chain molecular weight. These topological constraints also govern the diffusion process of polymer chains. So, the accurate description of the diffusion motion of a chain may be a convenient way to characterize disentanglement processes necessarily involved in any model proposed to explain viscoelastic effects.

Addad, J. P. C.↗