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DOE OSTI2016

Close to Home: Employment Outcomes for Recent Radiation Oncology Graduates

Purpose: To characterize the practice type and location of radiation oncology (RO) residents graduating in 2013. Methods and Materials: Graduates completing RO residency in 2013 were identified, and for each, postgraduate practice setting (academic vs private practice) and location were identified. Characteristics of the graduates, including details regarding their institutions of medical school and residency education, were collected and analyzed. Results: Data were obtained from 146 of the 154 RO graduates from the class of 2013. Employment data were available for 142 graduates. Approximately one-third of graduates were employed in the same state as residency (36.6%), approximately two-thirds (62.0%) in the same region as residency, and nearly three-fourths (73.9%) in the same region as medical school or residency completion. Of the 66 graduates (46.5%) working in academics, 40.9% were at the same institution where they completed residency. Most trainees (82.4%) attended medical schools with RO residency programs. Conclusions: Although personal factors may attract students to train in a particular area, the location of medical school and residency experiences may influence RO graduate practice location choice. Trends in the geographic distribution of graduating radiation oncologists can help identify and better understand disparities in access to RO care. Steps to improve access to RO care may include interventions at the medical student or resident level, such as targeting students at medical schools without associated residency programs and greater resident exposure to underserved areas.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2018

Teaching the Teacher: The Impact of a Workshop Developed for Radiation Therapists

Enhancing the teaching skills of radiation therapists is of benefit to both students and therapists and is ultimately important for patient outcomes. However, there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions for improving the teaching skills of radiation therapists. An intervention was developed to tackle this initiative. In accordance with a local, quality improvement initiative, a two-part workshop was developed for radiation therapists to improve their ability to (1) effectively communicate with students, (2) provide meaningful feedback to students, (3) increase consistency in conducting competency assessments, and (4) increase an understanding of cultural competency as it pertains to both teaching and health care more broadly.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

DOE OSTI2017

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Nuclear Physics

University of Dallas (UD) physics majors are offered a variety of undergraduate research opportunities in nuclear physics through an established program at the University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory (UKAL). The 7-MV Model CN Van de Graaff accelerator and the neutron production and detection facilities located there are used by UD students to investigate how neutrons scatter from materials that are important in nuclear energy production and for our basic understanding of how neutrons interact with matter. Recent student projects include modeling of the laboratory using the neutron transport code MCNP to investigate the effectiveness of laboratory shielding, testing the long-term gain stability of C 6 D 6 liquid scintillation detectors, and deducing neutron elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections for 12 C. Finally, results of these student projects are presented that indicate the pit below the scattering area reduces background by as much as 30%; the detectors show no significant gain instabilities; and new insights into existing 12 C neutron inelastic scattering cross-section discrepancies near a neutron energy of 6.0 MeV are obtained.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Safety moments in chemical safety education.

Chemical safety education is a critical aspect of an integrated culture of safety in academic research settings. Showcasing best practices and sharing practical solutions for recognizing hazards and minimizing risks represent one way of reinforcing a research community's actions, attitudes, and behavior toward safety. For goals of improving chemical safety education with nonformal endeavors, safety moments are similar to 1-2 slides that focus on raising awareness and knowledge for routine safety issues in research laboratories. Intended to catalyze brief discussions at the beginning of meetings and presentations, these materials provide a proactive way for students and faculty to engage in open communication on diverse research safety topics across science and engineering. This commentary provides an overview of designing effective safety moments and tailoring them to highlight practical safety needs and considerations. Key components of model safety moment slides are presented, alongside centralized resources assembled by student-led laboratory safety teams, which can also be extended to posters, social media platforms, online videos, and other forms of scientific communication. Combined with both top-down backing from institution leaders and bottom-up support from student researchers, safety moments remain a low-barrier risk reduction strategy that is easy to implement, encourages local dialogue on safety, combats complacency, and holds potential for facilitating long-term improvements to academic lab safety culture.

Communication/Writing↗

DOE OSTI2017

Preparing and Testing a Magnetic Antimicrobial Silver Nanocomposite for Water Disinfection To Gain Experience at the Nanochemistry–Microbiology Interface

In this article, we describe a 2 h introductory laboratory procedure that prepares a novel magnetic antimicrobial activated carbon nanocomposite in which nanoscale sized magnetite and silver particles are incorporated (MACAg). The MACAg nanocomposite has achieved the synergistic properties derived from its components and demonstrated its applicability as an effective and recoverable antimicrobial agent for water disinfection. The principle is successfully illustrated by a significant reduction in the number of microbes in an Escherichia coli (E. coli) solution of 2 × 10 6 colony forming units following its treatment with MACAg for 10 min. The exercise allows the college students to (1) be introduced to an exciting class of advanced materials, known as nanocomposites, at an early stage, (2) gain working experiences at nanochemistry–microbiology interface, and (3) see the use and experience the fun of chemistry. The experiment uses readily available materials, can be run in a general or introductory chemistry laboratory environment, and is well received and enjoyed by the students. Lastly, the experiment is also suitable for advanced high school students.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2019

Integrating Systems Thinking into Teaching Emerging Technologies.

Collaborations and partnerships across disciplines are becoming increasingly recognized as valuable endeavors toward solving emerging global challenges in our rapidly changing world. Thus, it is crucial to create STEM educational strategies that infuse diverse and interconnected perspectives among scientists, policymakers, and the general public. Systems thinking represents one such pedagogical approach, in which a holistic framework empowers both teachers and students to recognize how fundamental concepts taught in the classroom can be used as resourceful tools to better address complex, multicomponent modern challenges. For chemical educators, topics on technology (the "T" in STEM education) represent a particularly meaningful avenue to introduce and study the effectiveness of systems thinking, but there have been few examples reported to date. Here, we show that a molecular engineering course introduced at the University of Chicago 5 years ago ("Introduction to Emerging Technologies") provides a model course to this end, where explicitly designing in elements of systems thinking to the course could further strengthen students' understanding of the already well suited, holistic course topics. Integrating systems thinking would illuminate how tissue engineering, nanomedicine, batteries, quantum information, and meat alternatives are developed from multiple, interrelated fields as well as from basic science to a practical reality. For each technology, we outline the direct connections between the current course topics and future opportunities to incorporate systems thinking strategies, challenging students to identify the interdependence of components in a successful technology. Finally, to offer further insight for instructors interested in utilizing systems thinking, we broaden our discussion to reflect on the challenges of redesigning any STEM course to utilize systems thinking, and we present corresponding teaching strategies to overcome them.

Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary↗

DOE OSTI2022

Development of a Freeze-Dried CRISPR-Cas12 Sensor for Detecting Wolbachia in the Secondary Science Classroom

Training the future synthetic biology workforce requires the opportunity for students to be exposed to biotechnology concepts and activities in secondary education. Detecting Wolbachia bacteria in arthropods using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has become a common way for secondary students to investigate and apply recombinant DNA technology in the science classroom. Despite this important activity, cutting-edge biotechnologies such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-based diagnostics have yet to be widely implemented in the classroom. To address this gap, we present a freeze-dried CRISPR-Cas12 sensing reaction to complement traditional recombinant DNA technology education and teach synthetic biology concepts. The reactions accurately detect Wolbachia from arthropod-derived PCR samples in under 2 h and can be stored at room temperature for over a month without appreciable degradation. Here, the reactions are easy-to-use and cost less than $40 to implement for a classroom of 22 students including the cost of reusable equipment. We see these freeze-dried CRISPR-Cas12 reactions as an accessible way to incorporate synthetic biology education into the existing biology curriculum, which will expand biology educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2014

Dark Field Microscopy for Analytical Laboratory Courses

An innovative and inexpensive optical microscopy experiment for a quantitative analysis or an instrumental analysis chemistry course is described. The students have hands-on experience with a dark field microscope and investigate the wavelength dependence of localized surface plasmon resonance in gold and silver nanoparticles. Students also observe and measure individual crystal growth during a replacement reaction between copper and silver nitrate. The experiment allows for quantitative, qualitative, and image data analyses for undergraduate students.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2014

The CMS Masterclass and Particle Physics Outreach

The CMS Masterclass enables high school students to analyse authentic CMS data. Students can draw conclusions on key ratios and particle masses by combining their analyses. In particular, they can use the ratio of W^+ to W^- candidates to probe the structure of the proton, they can find the mass of the Z boson, and they can identify additional particles including, tentatively, the Higgs boson. In the United States, masterclasses are part of QuarkNet, a long-term program that enables students and teachers to use cosmic ray and particle physics data for learning with an emphasis on data from CMS.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Implementation multi representation and oral communication skills in Department of Physics Education on Elementary Physics II

The ability of multi representation has been widely studied, but there has been no implementation through a model of learning. This study aimed to determine the ability of the students multi representation, relationships multi representation capabilities and oral communication skills, as well as the application of the relations between the two capabilities through learning model Presentatif Based on Multi representation (PBM) in solving optical geometric (Elementary Physics II). A concurrent mixed methods research methods with qualitative–quantitative weights. Means of collecting data in the form of the pre-test and post-test with essay form, observation sheets oral communication skills, and assessment of learning by observation sheet PBM–learning models all have a high degree of respectively validity category is 3.91; 4.22; 4.13; 3.88. Test reliability with Alpha Cronbach technique, reliability coefficient of 0.494. The students are department of Physics Education Unnes as a research subject. Sequence multi representation tendency of students from high to low in sequence, representation of M, D, G, V; whereas the order of accuracy, the group representation V, D, G, M. Relationship multi representation ability and oral communication skills, comparable/proportional. Implementation conjunction generate grounded theory. This study should be applied to the physics of matter, or any other university for comparison.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2019

Undergraduate education at the University of Kentucky accelerator laboratory

The University of Kentucky accelerator laboratory provides undergraduate students an opportunity to experience scientific research in nuclear physics. They are introduced to our research program, which focuses on the examination of basic nuclear properties using the 7 MV CN Van de Graaff accelerator and the time-of-flight facility to perform inelastic neutron scattering measurements with g-ray and neutron detection. Furthermore, students are given a series of projects to support the measurements including experimental equipment setup, kinematic calculations, data collection, experimental diagnostics, MCNP simulations, analysis code development, and preliminary analysis of the data. Undergraduate physics majors from the University of Dallas took part in (n,n'g) measurements for LiF. Neutron scattering cross sections for these nuclei, which are of significant interest in coolant designs for molten salt reactors, were determined for incident neutron energies between 0.8 and 4.5 MeV. By measuring the g-ray production cross sections and feeding contributions from higher-lying levels, students extracted the neutron level cross sections for Li and F. Additional (n,n'g) measurements for Li metal will be performed in the near future to supplement the g-ray data.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Foreword to special issue: Papers from the 63rd annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, November 8–12, 2021

The 63rd annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) was held on November 8–12, 2021 in Pittsburgh at the David Lawrence Convention Center with both a live (in person) component and a virtual component. Following guidance from an APS COVID task force, all in-person attendees were fully vaccinated and masked. More than 800 physicists attended, safely, in-person. With both virtual and on-site participants, discussions were lively, and the research presentations showed unmatched mastery in the modern observation, theory, simulation, and manipulation of plasma. The presentations included four invited review talks, 97 invited talks, four tutorials, and four presentations from this year's prize and award recipients. There were more than 1200 contributed poster presentations and 725 contributed oral presentations. Including both in-person and remote attendees, DPP 2021 had a record of 2232 participants. As a hybrid meeting, in-person presentations of all invited presentations were broadcast live and were accompanied by a Q&A discussion. Contributed oral and poster presentations were prerecorded along with options to schedule in-person discussions on demand. Five mini-conferences were held: “Gatekeeper Workshop: Creating a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Pipeline,” “Collisionless Shocks in Laboratory and Space Plasmas,” “The High Repetition Rate Frontier in High-Energy-Density Physics,” “Measuring and Modeling Plasma Surface Interactions,” and “The Second Mini-Conference on Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Plasma Research.” Finally, on the day before the official start of the meeting, an afternoon “for students, by students” included lightning talks, plasma trivia, and an informal occasion to connect with other students, learn how to get the most from the DPP Annual Meeting, and share successful ways to connect with colleagues and advance their professional careers.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Distilling particle knowledge for fast reconstruction at high-energy physics experiments

Knowledge distillation is a form of model compression that allows artificial neural networks of different sizes to learn from one another. Its main application is the compactification of large deep neural networks to free up computational resources, in particular on edge devices. In this article, we consider proton-proton collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) and demonstrate a successful knowledge transfer from an event-level graph neural network (GNN) to a particle-level small deep neural network (DNN). Our algorithm, DistillNet, is a DNN that is trained to learn about the provenance of particles, as provided by the soft labels that are the GNN outputs, to predict whether or not a particle originates from the primary interaction vertex. The results indicate that for this problem, which is one of the main challenges at the HL-LHC, there is minimal loss during the transfer of knowledge to the small student network, while improving significantly the computational resource needs compared to the teacher. This is demonstrated for the distilled student network on a CPU, as well as for a quantized and pruned student network deployed on a field programmable gate array. Our study proves that knowledge transfer between networks of different complexity can be used for fast artificial intelligence (AI) in high-energy physics that improves the expressiveness of observables over non-AI-based reconstruction algorithms. Such an approach can become essential at the HL-LHC experiments, e.g. to comply with the resource budget of their trigger stages.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

PDB‐101: Molecular Explorations through Biology and Medicine

PDB‐101 is an online portal for teachers, students, and the general public to promote exploration of the structural biology of proteins and nucleic acids ( pdb101.rcsb.org ). Learning about the diverse shapes and functions of these biological macromolecules helps to understand all aspects of biomedicine and agriculture, from protein synthesis to health and disease to biological energy. Why PDB‐101? Researchers around the world are studying these molecules at the atomic level. These 3D structures are freely available at the Protein Data Bank (PDB), the central storehouse of biomolecular structures. This website builds introductory materials to help beginners get started in the basics of biomolecular structure and function (“101”, as in an entry level course) as well as resources for extended learning. Since 2011, PDB‐101 has been developed by the RCSB PDB , a global resource for the advancement of research and education in biology and medicine. Along with our Worldwide PDB collaborators, RCSB PDB curates, annotates, and makes publicly available the PDB data deposited by scientists around the globe. The RCSB PDB then provides a window to these data through a rich online resource with powerful searching, reporting, and visualization tools for researchers. This information is then streamlined for students and teachers at PDB‐101. Features include the ongoing Molecule of the Month series, educational materials such as paper models, posters, molecular animations, educational curricula and more. The section “Guide to Understanding PDB Data” is a primer for detailed PDB‐specific information: PDB Data, Visualizing Structures, Reading Coordinate Files, scientific methods for structure determination, and more. PDB‐101 also runs annual Video Challenges for high school students. Participants create short videos that tell molecular stories that connect structural biology and medicine. Previous topics have included HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and antimicrobial resistance. The 2022 challenge will focus on Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer. PDB‐101 activities are evaluated using user surveys, feedback from in‐person activities, and website analytics. In 2020, PDB‐101 hosted >850,000 users and >2.6 million page views.

Zardecki, Christine↗

DOE OSTI2024

Electrifying Education: Insights into Charging Electric School Buses in the United States

To combat climate change, the United States joined 193 Parties in committing to the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 2 degrees C or less, and decarbonizing transportation will be a key requirement for achieving this goal. School buses (SBs) are a common form of student transport in the U.S. with nearly all SBs today powered by fossil fuels (primarily diesel). As a result, SBs have historically been a concerning source of both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local air pollutants with negative health impacts for students and others living nearby. Electric SBs (ESBs) are a promising emerging technology for decarbonizing student transport, however, ESB adoption in the U.S. remains at an early stage (approximate 1.1%) with many outstanding uncertainties. This study aims to elucidate several of these by taking inventory of the total SB stock within U.S. states and studying real-world SB operating profiles to infer potential battery range requirements, daily charging opportunities, and charging infrastructure requirements for ESBs. In addition, we observe the geographic trends of early-stage ESB adoption, which can be used to better understand early adopter patterns and train vehicle technology adoption models.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗

DOE OSTI2019

A New Hands-On Course in Characterization of Wide-Bandgap Devices

As wide-bandgap (WBG) devices and applications move from niche to mainstream, a new generation of engineers trained in this area is critical to continue the development of the field. This paper introduces a new hands-on course in characterization of WBG devices, which is an emerging and fundamental topic in WBG-based techniques. First, the lecture-simulation-experiment format based course structure and design considerations, such as safety, are presented. Then, the necessary facilities to support this hands-on course are summarized, including classroom preparation, software tools, and laboratory equipment. Afterward, the detailed course implementation flow is presented to illustrate the approach of close interaction among lecture, simulation, and experiment to maximize students' learning outcomes. Finally, grading for students and course evaluation by students are discussed, highlighting the findings and potential improvements. Furthermore, detailed course materials are provided via potenntial.eecs.utk.edu/WBGLab for educational use.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2015

SU-A-210-01: Why Should We Learn Radiation Oncology Billing?

The purpose of this student annual meeting is to address topics that are becoming more relevant to medical physicists, but are not frequently addressed, especially for students and trainees just entering the field. The talk is divided into two parts: medical billing and regulations. Hsinshun Wu – Why should we learn radiation oncology billing? Many medical physicists do not like to be involved with medical billing or coding during their career. They believe billing is not their responsibility and sometimes they even refuse to participate in the billing process if given the chance. This presentation will talk about a physicist’s long career and share his own experience that knowing medical billing is not only important and necessary for every young medical physicist, but that good billing knowledge could provide a valuable contribution to his/her medical physics development. Learning Objectives: The audience will learn the basic definition of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes performed in a Radiation Oncology Department. Understand the differences between hospital coding and physician-based or freestanding coding. Apply proper CPT coding for each Radiation Oncology procedure. Each procedure with its specific CPT code will be discussed in detail. The talk will focus on the process of care and use of actual workflow to understand each CPT code. Example coding of a typical Radiation Oncology procedure. Special procedure coding such as brachytherapy, proton therapy, radiosurgery, and SBRT. Maryann Abogunde – Medical physics opportunities at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) The NRC’s responsibilities include the regulation of medical uses of byproduct (radioactive) materials and oversight of medical use end-users (licensees) through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing, safety oversight including inspection and enforcement, operational experience evaluation, and regulatory support activities. This presentation will explore the career options for medical physicists in the NRC, how the NRC interacts with clinical medical physicists, and a physicist’s experience as a regulator. Learning Objectives: Explore non-clinical career pathways for medical physics students and trainees at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Overview of NRC medical applications and medical use regulations. Understand the skills needed for physicists as regulators. Abogunde is funded to attend the meeting by her employer, the NRC.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

DOE OSTI2015

SU-A-210-02: Medical Physics Opportunities at the NRC

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗