Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “algorithm”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,279 records · Page 71
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

WE-AB-204-01: Performance Characterization of Regularized-Reconstruction Algorithm for 90Y PET/CT Images

Purpose: {sup 90}Y PET/CT imaging and quantification have recently been suggested as an approach of treatment verification. However, due to low positron yield (32ppm), the {sup 90}Y-PET/CT images are very noisy. Iterative reconstruction techniques that employ regularization, e.g. block sequential regularized expectation maximization (BSREM) algorithm (recently implemented on GE scanners – QClear™), has the potential to increase quantitative accuracy with lower noise penalty compared to OSEM. Our aim is to investigate the performance of RR algorithms in {sup 90}Y PET/CT studies. Methods: A NEMA IEC phantom filled with 3GBq {sup 90}YCl{sub 2} (to simulate patient treatment) was imaged on GE-D690 for 1800s/bed. The sphere-to-background ratio of 7. The data were reconstructed using OSEM and BSREM with PSF modeling and TOF correction while varying the iterations (IT) from 1–6 with fixed 24subsets. For BSREM, the edge-preservation parameter (γ ) was 2 and the penalty-parameters (β) was varied 350–950. In all cases a post-reconstruction filter of 5.2mm (2pixel) transaxial and standard z-axis were used. Sphere average activity concentration (AC) and background standard deviation (SD) were then calculated from VOIs drawn in the spheres and background. Results: Increasing IT from 1to6, the %SD in OSEM increased from 30% to 80%, whereas %SD in BSREM images increased by <5% for all βs. BSREM with β=350 didn’t offer any improvement over OSEM (convergence of mean achieved at 2 IT, in this study). Increasing β from 350 to 950 reduced the AC accuracy of small spheres (<20mm) by 10% and noise from 40% to 20%, which resulted in CNR increase from 11 to 17. Conclusion: In count-limited studies such as {sup 90}Y PET/CT, BSREM can be used to suppress image noise and increase CNR at the expense of a relatively small decrease of quantitative accuracy. The BSREM parameters need to be optimized for each study depending on the radionuclides and count densities. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01CA13898 and was also partly supported by General Electric.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

WE-F-201-00: Practical Guidelines for Commissioning Advanced Brachytherapy Dose Calculation Algorithms

With the recent introduction of heterogeneity correction algorithms for brachytherapy, the AAPM community is still unclear on how to commission and implement these into clinical practice. The recently-published AAPM TG-186 report discusses important issues for clinical implementation of these algorithms. A charge of the AAPM-ESTRO-ABG Working Group on MBDCA in Brachytherapy (WGMBDCA) is the development of a set of well-defined test case plans, available as references in the software commissioning process to be performed by clinical end-users. In this practical medical physics course, specific examples on how to perform the commissioning process are presented, as well as descriptions of the clinical impact from recent literature reporting comparisons of TG-43 and heterogeneity-based dosimetry. Learning Objectives: Identify key clinical applications needing advanced dose calculation in brachytherapy. Review TG-186 and WGMBDCA guidelines, commission process, and dosimetry benchmarks. Evaluate clinical cases using commercially available systems and compare to TG-43 dosimetry.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Lung motion estimation using dynamic point shifting: An innovative model based on a robust point matching algorithm

Purpose: Image-guided radiotherapy is an advanced 4D radiotherapy technique that has been developed in recent years. However, respiratory motion causes significant uncertainties in image-guided radiotherapy procedures. To address these issues, an innovative lung motion estimation model based on a robust point matching is proposed in this paper. Methods: An innovative robust point matching algorithm using dynamic point shifting is proposed to estimate patient-specific lung motion during free breathing from 4D computed tomography data. The correspondence of the landmark points is determined from the Euclidean distance between the landmark points and the similarity between the local images that are centered at points at the same time. To ensure that the points in the source image correspond to the points in the target image during other phases, the virtual target points are first created and shifted based on the similarity between the local image centered at the source point and the local image centered at the virtual target point. Second, the target points are shifted by the constrained inverse function mapping the target points to the virtual target points. The source point set and shifted target point set are used to estimate the transformation function between the source image and target image. Results: The performances of the authors’ method are evaluated on two publicly available DIR-lab and POPI-model lung datasets. For computing target registration errors on 750 landmark points in six phases of the DIR-lab dataset and 37 landmark points in ten phases of the POPI-model dataset, the mean and standard deviation by the authors’ method are 1.11 and 1.11 mm, but they are 2.33 and 2.32 mm without considering image intensity, and 1.17 and 1.19 mm with sliding conditions. For the two phases of maximum inhalation and maximum exhalation in the DIR-lab dataset with 300 landmark points of each case, the mean and standard deviation of target registration errors on the 3000 landmark points of ten cases by the authors’ method are 1.21 and 1.04 mm. In the EMPIRE10 lung registration challenge, the authors’ method ranks 24 of 39. According to the index of the maximum shear stretch, the authors’ method is also efficient to describe the discontinuous motion at the lung boundaries. Conclusions: By establishing the correspondence of the landmark points in the source phase and the other target phases combining shape matching and image intensity matching together, the mismatching issue in the robust point matching algorithm is adequately addressed. The target registration errors are statistically reduced by shifting the virtual target points and target points. The authors’ method with consideration of sliding conditions can effectively estimate the discontinuous motion, and the estimated motion is natural. The primary limitation of the proposed method is that the temporal constraints of the trajectories of voxels are not introduced into the motion model. However, the proposed method provides satisfactory motion information, which results in precise tumor coverage by the radiation dose during radiotherapy.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Evaluation of the OSC-TV iterative reconstruction algorithm for cone-beam optical CT

Purpose: The present work evaluates an iterative reconstruction approach, namely, the ordered subsets convex (OSC) algorithm with regularization via total variation (TV) minimization in the field of cone-beam optical computed tomography (optical CT). One of the uses of optical CT is gel-based 3D dosimetry for radiation therapy, where it is employed to map dose distributions in radiosensitive gels. Model-based iterative reconstruction may improve optical CT image quality and contribute to a wider use of optical CT in clinical gel dosimetry. Methods: This algorithm was evaluated using experimental data acquired by a cone-beam optical CT system, as well as complementary numerical simulations. A fast GPU implementation of OSC-TV was used to achieve reconstruction times comparable to those of conventional filtered backprojection. Images obtained via OSC-TV were compared with the corresponding filtered backprojections. Spatial resolution and uniformity phantoms were scanned and respective reconstructions were subject to evaluation of the modulation transfer function, image uniformity, and accuracy. The artifacts due to refraction and total signal loss from opaque objects were also studied. Results: The cone-beam optical CT data reconstructions showed that OSC-TV outperforms filtered backprojection in terms of image quality, thanks to a model-based simulation of the photon attenuation process. It was shown to significantly improve the image spatial resolution and reduce image noise. The accuracy of the estimation of linear attenuation coefficients remained similar to that obtained via filtered backprojection. Certain image artifacts due to opaque objects were reduced. Nevertheless, the common artifact due to the gel container walls could not be eliminated. Conclusions: The use of iterative reconstruction improves cone-beam optical CT image quality in many ways. The comparisons between OSC-TV and filtered backprojection presented in this paper demonstrate that OSC-TV can potentially improve the rendering of spatial features and reduce cone-beam optical CT artifacts.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Comparison of proton therapy treatment planning for head tumors with a pencil beam algorithm on dual and single energy CT images

Purpose: Dual energy CT (DECT) has recently been proposed as an improvement over single energy CT (SECT) for stopping power ratio (SPR) estimation for proton therapy treatment planning (TP), thereby potentially reducing range uncertainties. Published literature investigated phantoms. This study aims at performing proton therapy TP on SECT and DECT head images of the same patients and at evaluating whether the reported improved DECT SPR accuracy translates into clinically relevant range shifts in clinical head treatment scenarios. Methods: Two phantoms were scanned at a last generation dual source DECT scanner at 90 and 150 kVp with Sn filtration. The first phantom (Gammex phantom) was used to calibrate the scanner in terms of SPR while the second served as evaluation (CIRS phantom). DECT images of five head trauma patients were used as surrogate cancer patient images for TP of proton therapy. Pencil beam algorithm based TP was performed on SECT and DECT images and the dose distributions corresponding to the optimized proton plans were calculated using a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation platform using the same patient geometry for both plans obtained from conversion of the 150 kVp images. Range shifts between the MC dose distributions from SECT and DECT plans were assessed using 2D range maps. Results: SPR root mean square errors (RMSEs) for the inserts of the Gammex phantom were 1.9%, 1.8%, and 1.2% for SECT phantom calibration (SECT{sub phantom}), SECT stoichiometric calibration (SECT{sub stoichiometric}), and DECT calibration, respectively. For the CIRS phantom, these were 3.6%, 1.6%, and 1.0%. When investigating patient anatomy, group median range differences of up to −1.4% were observed for head cases when comparing SECT{sub stoichiometric} with DECT. For this calibration the 25th and 75th percentiles varied from −2% to 0% across the five patients. The group median was found to be limited to 0.5% when using SECT{sub phantom} and the 25th and 75th percentiles varied from −1% to 2%. Conclusions: Proton therapy TP using a pencil beam algorithm and DECT images was performed for the first time. Given that the DECT accuracy as evaluated by two phantoms was 1.2% and 1.0% RMSE, it is questionable whether the range differences reported here are significant.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-74: High Z Geometric Integrity and Beam Hardening Artifact Assessment Using a Retrospective Metal Artifact Reduction (MAR) Reconstruction Algorithm

Purpose: To test the efficacy of a retrospective metal artifact reduction (MAR) reconstruction algorithm for a commercial computed tomography (CT) scanner for radiation therapy purposes. Methods: High Z geometric integrity and artifact reduction analysis was performed with three phantoms using General Electric’s (GE) Discovery CT. The three phantoms included: a Computerized Imaging Reference Systems (CIRS) electron density phantom (Model 062) with a 6.5 mm diameter titanium rod insert, a custom spine phantom using Synthes Spine hardware submerged in water, and a dental phantom with various high Z fillings submerged in water. Each phantom was reconstructed using MAR and compared against the original scan. Furthermore, each scenario was tested using standard and extended Hounsfield Unit (HU) ranges. High Z geometric integrity was performed using the CIRS phantom, while the artifact reduction was performed using all three phantoms. Results: Geometric integrity of the 6.5 mm diameter rod was slightly overestimated for non-MAR scans for both standard and extended HU. With MAR reconstruction, the rod was underestimated for both standard and extended HU. For artifact reduction, the mean and standard deviation was compared in a volume of interest (VOI) in the surrounding material (water and water equivalent material, ∼0HU). Overall, the mean value of the VOI was closer to 0 HU for the MAR reconstruction compared to the non-MAR scan for most phantoms. Additionally, the standard deviations for all phantoms were greatly reduced using MAR reconstruction. Conclusion: GE’s MAR reconstruction algorithm improves image quality with the presence of high Z material with minimal degradation of its geometric integrity. High Z delineation can be carried out with proper contouring techniques. The effects of beam hardening artifacts are greatly reduced with MAR reconstruction. Tissue corrections due to these artifacts can be eliminated for simple high Z geometries and greatly reduced for more complex geometries.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-J-180: A Reference Data Set for Testing Two Dimension Registration Algorithms

Purpose: To create and characterize a reference data set for testing image registration algorithms that transform portal image (PI) to digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR). Methods: Anterior-posterior (AP) and Lateral (LAT) projection and DRR image pairs from nine cases representing four different anatomical sites (head and neck, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvis) were selected for this study. Five experts will perform manual registration by placing landmarks points (LMPs) on the DRR and finding their corresponding points on the PI using computer assisted manual point selection tool (CAMPST), a custom-made MATLAB software tool developed in house. The landmark selection process will be repeated on both the PI and the DRR in order to characterize inter- and -intra observer variations associated with the point selection process. Inter and an intra observer variation in LMPs was done using Bland-Altman (B&A) analysis and one-way analysis of variance. We set our limit such that the absolute value of the mean difference between the readings should not exceed 3mm. Later on in this project we will test different two dimension (2D) image registration algorithms and quantify the uncertainty associated with their registration. Results: Using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) there was no variations within the readers. When Bland-Altman analysis was used the variation within the readers was acceptable. The variation was higher in the PI compared to the DRR.ConclusionThe variation seen for the PI is because although the PI has a much better spatial resolution the poor resolution on the DRR makes it difficult to locate the actual corresponding anatomical feature on the PI. We hope this becomes more evident when all the readers complete the point selection. The reason for quantifying inter- and -intra observer variation tells us to what degree of accuracy a manual registration can be done. Research supported by William Beaumont Hospital Research Start Up Fund.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-377: Monte Carlo Re-Evaluation of Volumetric-Modulated Arc Plans of Advanced Stage Nasopharygeal Cancers Optimized with Convolution-Superposition Algorithm

Background: Commercial treatment planning system Pinnacle3 (Philips, Fitchburg, WI, USA) employs a convolution-superposition algorithm for volumetric-modulated arc radiotherapy (VMAT) optimization and dose calculation. Study of Monte Carlo (MC) dose recalculation of VMAT plans for advanced-stage nasopharyngeal cancers (NPC) is currently limited. Methods: Twenty-nine VMAT prescribed 70Gy, 60Gy, and 54Gy to the planning target volumes (PTVs) were included. These clinical plans achieved with a CS dose engine on Pinnacle3 v9.0 were recalculated by the Monaco TPS v5.0 (Elekta, Maryland Heights, MO, USA) with a XVMC-based MC dose engine. The MC virtual source model was built using the same measurement beam dataset as for the Pinnacle beam model. All MC recalculation were based on absorbed dose to medium in medium (Dm,m). Differences in dose constraint parameters per our institution protocol (Supplementary Table 1) were analyzed. Results: Only differences in maximum dose to left brachial plexus, left temporal lobe and PTV54Gy were found to be statistically insignificant (p> 0.05). Dosimetric differences of other tumor targets and normal organs are found in supplementary Table 1. Generally, doses outside the PTV in the normal organs are lower with MC than with CS. This is also true in the PTV54-70Gy doses but higher dose in the nasal cavity near the bone interfaces is consistently predicted by MC, possibly due to the increased backscattering of short-range scattered photons and the secondary electrons that is not properly modeled by the CS. The straight shoulders of the PTV dose volume histograms (DVH) initially resulted from the CS optimization are merely preserved after MC recalculation. Conclusion: Significant dosimetric differences in VMAT NPC plans were observed between CS and MC calculations. Adjustments of the planning dose constraints to incorporate the physics differences from conventional CS algorithm should be made when VMAT optimization is carried out directly with MC dose engine.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-560: Measurement of Dose Blurring Effect Due to Respiratory Motion for Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) Using Monte Carlo Based Calculation Algorithm

Purpose: Intra-fractional tumor motion due to respiration may potentially compromise dose delivery for SBRT of lung tumors. Even sufficient margins are used to ensure there is no geometric miss of target volume, there is potential dose blurring effect may present due to motion and could impact the tumor coverage if motions are larger. In this study we investigated dose blurring effect of open fields as well as Lung SBRT patients planned using 2 non-coplanar dynamic conformal arcs(NCDCA) and few conformal beams(CB) calculated with Monte Carlo (MC) based algorithm utilizing phantom with 2D-diode array(MapCheck) and ion-chamber. Methods: SBRT lung patients were planned on Brainlab-iPlan system using 4D-CT scan and ITV were contoured on MIP image set and verified on all breathing phase image sets to account for breathing motion and then 5mm margin was applied to generate PTV. Plans were created using two NCDCA and 4-5 CB 6MV photon calculated using XVMC MC-algorithm. 3 SBRT patients plans were transferred to phantom with MapCheck and 0.125cc ion-chamber inserted in the middle of phantom to calculate dose. Also open field 3×3, 5×5 and 10×10 were calculated on this phantom. Phantom was placed on motion platform with varying motion from 5, 10, 20 and 30 mm with duty cycle of 4 second. Measurements were carried out for open fields as well 3 patients plans at static and various degree of motions. MapCheck planar dose and ion-chamber reading were collected and compared with static measurements and computed values to evaluate the dosimetric effect on tumor coverage due to motion. Results: To eliminate complexity of patients plan 3 simple open fields were also measured to see the dose blurring effect with the introduction of motion. All motion measured ionchamber values were normalized to corresponding static value. For open fields 5×5 and 10×10 normalized central axis ion-chamber values were 1.00 for all motions but for 3×3 they were 1 up to 10mm motion and 0.97 and 0.87 for 20 and 30mm motion respectively. For SBRT plans central axis dose values were within 1% upto 10mm motions but decreased to average of 5% for 20mm and 8% for 30mm motion. Mapcheck comparison with static showed penumbra enlargement due to motion blurring at the edges of the field for 3×3,5×5,10×10 pass rates were 88% to 12%, 100% to 43% and 100% to 63% respectively as motion increased from 5 to 30mm. For SBRT plans MapCheck mean pass rate were decreased from 73.8% to 39.5% as motion increased from 5mm to 30mm. Conclusion: Dose blurring effect has been seen in open fields as well as SBRT lung plans using NCDCA with CB which worsens with increasing respiratory motion and decreasing field size(tumor size). To reduce this effect larger margins and appropriate motion reduction techniques should be utilized.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-609: Impact of Dosimetric Variation for Prescription Dose Using Analytical Anisotropic Algorithm (AAA) in Lung SBRT

Purpose: Actual irradiated prescription dose to patients cannot be verified. Thus, independent dose verification and second treatment planning system are used as the secondary check. AAA dose calculation engine has contributed to lung SBRT. We conducted a multi-institutional study to assess variation of prescription dose for lung SBRT when using AAA in reference to using Acuros XB and Clarkson algorithm. Methods: Six institutes in Japan participated in this study. All SBRT treatments were planed using AAA in Eclipse and Adaptive Convolve (AC) in Pinnacle3. All of the institutes used a same independent dose verification software program (Simple MU Analysis: SMU, Triangle Product, Ishikawa, Japan), which implemented a Clarkson-based dose calculation algorithm using CT image dataset. A retrospective analysis for lung SBRT plans (73 patients) was performed to compute the confidence limit (CL, Average±2SD) in dose between the AAA and the SMU. In one of the institutes, a additional analysis was conducted to evaluate the variations between the AAA and the Acuros XB (AXB). Results: The CL for SMU shows larger systematic and random errors of 8.7±9.9 % for AAA than the errors of 5.7±4.2 % for AC. The variations of AAA correlated with the mean CT values in the voxels of PTV (a correlation coefficient : −0.7) . The comparison of AXB vs. AAA shows smaller systematic and random errors of −0.7±1.7%. The correlation between dose variations for AXB and the mean CT values in PTV was weak (0.4). However, there were several plans with more than 2% deviation of AAPM TG114 (Maximum: −3.3 %). Conclusion: In comparison for AC, prescription dose calculated by AAA may be more variable in lung SBRT patient. Even AXB comparison shows unexpected variation. Care should be taken for the use of AAA in lung SBRT. This research is partially supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED)

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-T-628: An Evaluation of Grid Size in Eclipse AcurosXB Dose Calculation Algorithm for SBRT Lung

Purpose: purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of grid size in Eclipse AcurosXB dose calculation algorithm for SBRT lung. Methods: Five cases of SBRT lung previously treated have been chosen for present study. Four of the plans were 5 fields conventional IMRT and one was Rapid Arc plan. All five cases have been calculated with five grid sizes (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3mm) available for AXB algorithm with same plan normalization. Dosimetric indices relevant to SBRT along with MUs and time have been recorded for different grid sizes. The maximum difference was calculated as a percentage of mean of all five values. All the plans were IMRT QAed with portal dosimetry. Results: The maximum difference of MUs was within 2%. The time increased was as high as 7 times from highest 3mm to lowest 1mm grid size. The largest difference of PTV minimum, maximum and mean dose were 7.7%, 1.5% and 1.6% respectively. The highest D2-Max difference was 6.1%. The highest difference in ipsilateral lung mean, V5Gy, V10Gy and V20Gy were 2.6%, 2.4%, 1.9% and 3.8% respectively. The maximum difference of heart, cord and esophagus dose were 6.5%, 7.8% and 4.02% respectively. The IMRT Gamma passing rate at 2%/2mm remains within 1.5% with at least 98% points passing with all grid sizes. Conclusion: This work indicates the lowest grid size of 1mm available in AXB is not necessarily required for accurate dose calculation. The IMRT passing rate was insignificant or not observed with the reduction of grid size less than 2mm. Although the maximum percentage difference of some of the dosimetric indices appear large, most of them are clinically insignificant in absolute dose values. So we conclude that 2mm grid size calculation is best compromise in light of dose calculation accuracy and time it takes to calculate dose.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-G-IeP1-01: A Novel MRI Post-Processing Algorithm for Visualization of the Prostate LDR Brachytherapy Seeds and Calcifications Based On B0 Field Inhomogeneity Correction and Hough Transform

Purpose: This study aims at developing an MRI-only workflow for post-implant dosimetry of the prostate LDR brachytherapy seeds. The specific goal here is to develop a post-processing algorithm to produce positive contrast for the seeds and prostatic calcifications and differentiate between them on MR images. Methods: An agar-based phantom incorporating four dummy seeds (I-125) and five calcifications of different sizes (from sheep cortical bone) was constructed. Seeds were placed arbitrarily in the coronal plane. The phantom was scanned with 3T Philips Achieva MR scanner using an 8-channel head coil array. Multi-echo turbo spin echo (ME-TSE) and multi-echo gradient recalled echo (ME-GRE) sequences were acquired. Due to minimal susceptibility artifacts around seeds, ME-GRE sequence (flip angle=15; TR/TE=20/2.3/2.3; resolution=0.7×0.7×2mm3) was further processed.The induced field inhomogeneity due to the presence of titaniumencapsulated seeds was corrected using a B0 field map. B0 map was calculated using the ME-GRE sequence by calculating the phase difference at two different echo times. Initially, the product of the first echo and B0 map was calculated. The features corresponding to the seeds were then extracted in three steps: 1) the edge pixels were isolated using “Prewitt” operator; 2) the Hough transform was employed to detect ellipses approximately matching the dimensions of the seeds and 3) at the position and orientation of the detected ellipses an ellipse was drawn on the B0-corrected image. Results: The proposed B0-correction process produced positive contrast for the seeds and calcifications. The Hough transform based on Prewitt edge operator successfully identified all the seeds according to their ellipsoidal shape and dimensions in the edge image. Conclusion: The proposed post-processing algorithm successfully visualized the seeds and calcifications with positive contrast and differentiates between them according to their shapes. Further assessments on more realistic phantoms and patient study are required to validate the outcome.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

MO-FG-CAMPUS-TeP2-01: A Graph Form ADMM Algorithm for Constrained Quadratic Radiation Treatment Planning

Purpose: In radiation therapy optimization the constraints can be either hard constraints which must be satisfied or soft constraints which are included but do not need to be satisfied exactly. Currently the voxel dose constraints are viewed as soft constraints and included as a part of the objective function and approximated as an unconstrained problem. However in some treatment planning cases the constraints should be specified as hard constraints and solved by constrained optimization. The goal of this work is to present a computation efficiency graph form alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm for constrained quadratic treatment planning optimization and compare it with several commonly used algorithms/toolbox. Method: ADMM can be viewed as an attempt to blend the benefits of dual decomposition and augmented Lagrangian methods for constrained optimization. Various proximal operators were first constructed as applicable to quadratic IMRT constrained optimization and the problem was formulated in a graph form of ADMM. A pre-iteration operation for the projection of a point to a graph was also proposed to further accelerate the computation. Result: The graph form ADMM algorithm was tested by the Common Optimization for Radiation Therapy (CORT) dataset including TG119, prostate, liver, and head & neck cases. Both unconstrained and constrained optimization problems were formulated for comparison purposes. All optimizations were solved by LBFGS, IPOPT, Matlab built-in toolbox, CVX (implementing SeDuMi) and Mosek solvers. For unconstrained optimization, it was found that LBFGS performs the best, and it was 3–5 times faster than graph form ADMM. However, for constrained optimization, graph form ADMM was 8 – 100 times faster than the other solvers. Conclusion: A graph form ADMM can be applied to constrained quadratic IMRT optimization. It is more computationally efficient than several other commercial and noncommercial optimizers and it also used significantly less computer memory.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Sci-Sat AM: Radiation Dosimetry and Practical Therapy Solutions - 04: On 3D Fabrication of Phantoms and Experimental Verification of Patient Dose Computation Algorithms

Purpose: Transport based dose calculation algorithm Acuros XB (AXB) has been shown to accurately account for heterogeneities mostly through comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations. This study aims at providing additional experimental verification for AXB for flattened and unflattened clinical energies in low density phantoms of the same material. Materials and Methods: Polystyrene slabs were created using a bench-top 3D printer. Six slabs were printed at varying densities from 0.23 g/cm{sup 3} to 0.68 g/cm{sup 3}, corresponding to different density humanoid tissues. The slabs were used to form different single and multilayer geometries. Dose was calculated with AXB 11.0.31 for 6MV, 15MV flattened and 6FFF (flattening filter free) energies for field sizes of 2×2 cm{sup 2} and 5×5 cm{sup 2}. The phantoms containing radiochromic EBT3 films were irradiated. Absolute dose profiles and 2D gamma analyses were performed for 96 dose planes. Results: For all single slab, multislab configurations and energies, absolute dose differences between the AXB calculation and film measurements remained <3% for both fields, with slightly poor disagreement in penumbra. The gamma index at 2% / 2mm averaged 98% in all combinations of fields, phantoms and photon energies. Conclusions: The transport based dose algorithm AXB is in good agreement with the experimental measurements for small field sizes using 6MV, 6FFF and 15MV beams adjacent to low density heterogeneous media. This work provides sufficient experimental ground to support the use of AXB for heterogeneous dose calculation purposes.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Application of Grover’s Quantum Algorithm for SDES Key Searching

The problem of finding the key of Simplified-DES (SDES)—a model of a block cipher DES—by Grover’s quantum algorithm is considered. Examples of application of Grover’s algorithm are presented. A quantum system with the minimum number of qubits is constructed that implements SDES key searching by a single pair of plaintext and ciphertext and requires only 19 qubits. This quantum circuit is simulated by using a Quipper quantum simulator.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2017

New CSC segment builder algorithm with Monte-Carlo TeV muons in CMS experiment

The performance of the new Cathode Strip Chamber segment builder algorithm with simulated TeV muons is considered. The comparison of some of the main reconstruction characteristics is made. Some case study events are visualized in order to illustrate the improvement that the new algorithm gives to the reconstruction process.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2016

A Thick-Restart Lanczos Algorithm with Polynomial Filtering for Hermitian Eigenvalue Problems

Polynomial filtering can provide a highly effective means of computing all eigenvalues of a real symmetric (or complex Hermitian) matrix that are located in a given interval, anywhere in the spectrum. This paper describes a technique for tackling this problem by combining a thick-restart version of the Lanczos algorithm with deflation ("locking'') and a new type of polynomial filter obtained from a least-squares technique. Furthermore, the resulting algorithm can be utilized in a “spectrum-slicing” approach whereby a very large number of eigenvalues and associated eigenvectors of the matrix are computed by extracting eigenpairs located in different subintervals independently from one another.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗