Using desulfurization wastewater to mitigate lime disinfectant inhibition and enhance anaerobic digestion of swine manure.

FeMn-layered double hydroxide-modified carbon cloth combined with ion exchange membrane enhanced the degradation of ionic organic pollutants in the capacitive desalination/peroxymonosulfate system.

Nonoperative management of sacral chordomas: A systematic review of the literature.

Optimizing particle beam thermoradiotherapy is hindered by the lack of methods to quantify the biological effects of temporal temperature changes. This study proposes the "dynamic Temperature-dependent Stochastic Microdosimetric Kinetic (TSMK) model," which extends the conventional TSMK model to account for temporal temperature changes, and assesses its capability to predict cell survival by incorporating the temporal dynamics of hyperthermia (HT) after irradiation.
Approach. We hypothesized that the kinetic parameters of the TSMK model hold valid at any given moment, even under time-varying temperature conditions. Based on this, we solved the kinetic differential equations for radiation damage to derive a formula for cell survival dependent on the temporal conditions of HT. To evaluate the dynamic TSMK model, we used survival data from human glioblastoma A-172/neo and A-172/mp53 cells irradiated with X-rays or carbon ions with varying HT durations, and human gastric adenocarcinoma MKN-45 cells irradiated with fast neutrons with varying intervals between irradiation and HT. Model parameters were fitted to the experimental results for each cell line to evaluate the model's accuracy. Subsequently, we estimated how the relationship between HT duration and cell survival changes with absorbed dose and the time interval between irradiation and HT.
Main Results. The dynamic TSMK model successfully reproduced cell survival fractions across varying HT durations and intervals relative to irradiation. The study demonstrated the model's ability to estimate the time window for synergistic effects of combined HT and radiation. Model calculations predicted that the degree of synergy and this time window vary significantly with radiation conditions.
Significance. The dynamic TSMK model is the first biophysical model to quantitatively estimate cell survival fraction in particle beam thermoradiotherapy under time-varying temperatures. Providing a theoretical foundation for these biological effects, this model offers a potential tool for treatment planning systems to optimize thermoradiotherapy.
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Malignant diseases are among the most pressing public health challenges, exerting significant pressure on healthcare resources. Innovative cancer treatments like carbon ion radiation therapy (CIRT) by virtue of its advantages in physical properties, biological effectiveness, and dose distribution compared to photon and proton therapies stands out. This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of CIRT in cancer treatment by systematically reviewing existing economic evaluations. The protocol is registered with PROSPERO and employed PRISMA Guidelines. Systematic searches across PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, between January 2000 and March 2025 were conducted and CIRT pharmacoeconomic articles were included. Screening of the search results, critical quality assessment using Drummond and CHEERS checklist and data extraction were performed. Out of the 10 studies included in this systematic review, seven analysed cost effectiveness and three analysed cost. Total cost for CIRT ranged from €16,937 (approx. USD 19,595) to €43,600 (approx. USD 50,443) and JPY 3,140,000 (approx. USD 20,450) to JPY 4,974,278 (approx. USD 32,396) in Germany and Japan, respectively. Seven studies assessed and reported increased effectiveness of CIRT. Reduction in CIRT technical fees, reirradiation with IMRT, increased survival rate with CIRT, local control rate by 60% with CIRT were found to reduce incremental cost effectiveness ratio. Nine studies show CIRT is cost effective in NSCLC, Adenoid cystic carcinoma, head and neck cancer, skull-based chordoma, recurrent rectal cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The cost-effectiveness of CIRT is likely to improve more in real-world clinical practice due to enhanced efficacy, reduced toxicity, reduced fractionation, and cost reductions.

The increasing demand for ion beams heavier than protons—particularly carbon and helium ions—for cancer therapy has driven the development of advanced accelerator technologies. Although proton therapy is well established, its physical properties limit its effectiveness against certain tumor types, thereby motivating the use of ions with higher linear energy transfer (LET) and greater biological effectiveness. This study presents the design of an Alvarez-type linear accelerator configuration that combines a Quasi-Alvarez Drift Tube Linac (QA-DTL) and a conventional Alvarez Drift Tube Linac (DTL). The proposed systems are intended for accelerating and injecting carbon or helium ions into a cancer therapy synchrotron, as well as accelerating helium ions for radioisotope production. The optimized QA-DTL and DTL structures provide a versatile and efficient solution for future particle therapy facilities, addressing the growing demand for compact, high-performance, and multifunctional accelerator systems. The proposed linac configurations are designed to operate at 352.2 MHz and consist of three sections. For accelerating low-velocity ions, the first section is a QA-DTL, which is the only section powered during the injection of carbon or helium ions (depending on configuration) into the therapy synchrotron at the energy of 5 MeV/u. The QA-DTL is followed by two DTL cavities forming the second and third sections, which further accelerate helium ions to energies of up to 7.1 MeV/u and 10 MeV/u, respectively. The energy of 7.1 MeV/u is chosen because it represents the production threshold of 211At, one of the most promising alpha emitters for targeted alpha therapy.

Objective. This research outlines a time-resolved analytical model that predicts the chance of fixation of radiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) according to oxygen concentration, linear energy transfer (LET), and time of fixation. The objective is to construct a mechanistically founded conceptual framework for interpreting and optimizing heavy-ion radiotherapy in hypoxic tumor microenvironments.Approach. A steady-state solution to the nonlinear oxygen diffusion-reaction equation with Michaelis-Menten metabolic kinetics was employed to estimate the spatial oxygen pressure profile in the nucleus before irradiation. Oxygen-augmented post-irradiation fixation of DSBs was simulated as an LET-dependent, time-evolving exponential process with molecular oxygen availability and local ionization density as controlling variables. Analytical solutions were achieved for carbon ions (C-12) and compared with hypoxic survival and relative biological effectiveness (RBE) experimental data, with parameter values constrained by empirical trends.Main results. The model shows that DSB fixation probability is controlled by oxygen partial pressure, post-irradiation exposure time, and LET. Densely clustered DSBs in high LET require more oxygen exposure for full stabilization, while modest increments in oxygen tension greatly increase fixation efficiency in hypoxic environments. To provide a peaked overkill correction functionψ(LET) to model the saturation in biological effectiveness in high LET, an additional scaling factor, the effective lethal efficiency factorη, accommodates the finding that not all fixed DSBs give rise to clonogenic death. Together, these enhancements lead to excellent agreement with experimental survival fractions and RBE values for carbon-ion irradiation for the whole LET range.Significance. The model is a mechanistically transparent and computationally efficient analytical tool that links radiation track structure, oxygen kinetics, and biological response. With the inclusion of oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent fixation, overkill attenuation, and lethal efficiency, the model reproduces RBE turnover and survival recovery at high LET and offers a predictive tool for biologically optimized, LET-directed particle therapy in hypoxic and treatment-refractory tumors.

Carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) is expected to be effective against hypoxic tumors due to its lower oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) compared to X-ray radiotherapy (XRT). OER is expected to have a significant impact on therapeutic efficacy, especially for prostate cancer, which has low oxygen partial pressure. This study aimed to derive OERs for photon and carbon-ion spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) irradiation through cellular experiments and incorporate them into the tumor control probability (TCP) function to test consistency with clinical outcomes. To derive the OER for photons and the OERs at three depths (proximal, center, and distal) within the carbon-ion SOBP, the dose-dependent survival rate of the prostate cancer cell line PC3 was measured under both aerobic and hypoxic conditions. TCP functions incorporating dose-dependent OERs based on clinical prescription doses were fitted to clinical outcomes of prostate cancer treated with XRT and CIRT to test the clinical relevance of the obtained OERs. The OERs at 10% survival for PC3 cells were 2.12±0.68 for photons, and 1.70±0.13, 1.65±0.19, and 1.56±0.13 at the proximal, center, and distal depths of the carbon-ion SOBP, respectively. The TCP functions calculated using dose-dependent OERs were not inconsistent with the clinical outcomes for both XRT and CIRT, supporting the clinical relevance of the OERs derived from cell experiments. The carbon-ion SOBP used in prostate cancer treatment has a lower OER than photons, suggesting its potential effectiveness against hypoxic tumors.

Neoadjuvant irradiation of extremity soft tissue sarcoma with ions (Extrem‑ion): Interim report of a randomized phase II pilot trial.

A renewed interest in upright particle therapy is currently driven by the availability of upright positioning and imaging systems. The upright positioning system could enhance fixed beamlines for effective carbon ion treatments in central body regions, with a substantial cost and space advantage. In addition, few studies have suggested advantages in patient breathing and lung volume in an upright posture. Comparative dosimetric analyses are needed to determine the clinical viability of upright patient positioning for carbon ion therapy of thoracic cancers but are challenged by various sources of bias. To provide a comprehensive analysis of all parameters influencing the comparison between upright and supine carbon therapy of thoracic patients through 4D dosimetric studies. Paired upright and supine 4DCTs were available for six patients treated at the Northwestern Medicine Proton Centre (NMPC), under the Proton Collaborative Group (PCG) registry. Deformable image registration (DIR) between upright and supine CTs was performed on a region of interest (ROI) including the rib cage for target propagation, to avoid failure in DIR caused by thorax anatomical differences. DIR quality was evaluated on lung structures through Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and average Hausdorff distance (AHD) metrics. Paired 3D plans were optimized on the originally contoured and propagated target volumes, to investigate the effect of segmentation differences. The impact of beam geometry choice was investigated by optimizing plans with a variety of treatment angles. Single-fraction and accumulated 4D doses were calculated with the research treatment planning system TRiP4D to analyze the impact of differences in breathing-induced tumor motion in the two postures. Plan quality between upright and supine plans were assessed through D95%, HI, and V95% for the internal target volume (ITV) and V16Gy(lung) and V20Gy(heart) for lung and heart, respectively. Restraining DIR on the ribcage ROI enabled successful DIR. Within the ribcage ROI an average AHD of 1.5mm and DSC of 0.95 was achieved on the propagated lung structure. Position specific angle selection showed vertical posterior/anterior beams might not be optimal for upright treatments. Comparable 3D treatment quality was achieved for five patients, while an increase of 5 pp occurred in V20Gy(heart) and V16Gy(lung) of patient P6 in upright. The 4D study showed the different positions have clinically relevant impact, increasing D95% of 3 pp for one patient with halved motion amplitude in upright posture. In addition, robustness was similar between postures, even with a more conservative 5%/5mm uncertainty setting for upright. When assuming only a fixed beam line is available, as is the case for most carbon ion centers, a comparable plan quality with 360° beam angle flexibility in upright position was observed. The presented work comprehensively evaluates the influence of various parameters on the comparison of upright and supine therapy of thoracic patients. A solid understanding of these parameters is paramount to reduce bias in future larger patient cohort studies on the viability of upright positioning. The final dosimetric comparison between postures highly depends on patient characteristic and the investigated parameter. More data are needed to provide a resilient comparison between postures.

This study aims to determine the remineralization capacity of etched dentin treated with polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) functionalized with parathyroid hormone (PTH) (PTH-NPs). Dentin etched surfaces were treated with NPs and PTH-NPs. Treated interfaces were 24 h stored and, then, mechanically or thermally loaded. Interfaces were assessed through modulus of Young, Raman analysis and Masson's trichrome staining microscopy. Specimens treated with PTH-NPs infiltration which were load cycled attained the highest modulus of Young. Remineralization throughout the total resin-dentin interface, referred to both phosphate and carbonate ions was unveiled in presence of PTH and dynamic loading, forming peritubular and intertubular dentin. The absence of NPs at the interface conditioned a scarce remineralization. After thermocycling, phosphate remineralization diminished at the interface in all groups, and carbonate only increased in the control group. Load cycling produced a higher minerals content and a major collagen crosslinking, contributing to generally augment both the mineral to matrix ratio and crystallinity. PTH-NPs provoked a higher modulus of Young and a lower unprotected collagen web after conditioning and further resin infiltration, in load cycled samples. After dynamic load cycling, amorphous mineral was lower at the resin dentin interface, and crystallinity relative to phosphate was also greater after thermocycling at both hybrid layer and bottom of hybrid layer in case of PTH-NPs infiltration. Parathyroid hormone dentin infiltration, after phosphoric acid conditioning, has facilitated the reparative dentin formation at the resin-dentin interface, based on the nucleation of a more mature and soluble hydroxyapatite which facilitated remineralization.

Risk of secondary cancer from carbon ion arc therapy in two anatomical sites.

Investigation of relative biological effectiveness for protons, carbon and oxygen ion beams by DNA damage calculations in a fractal fibroblast cell geometry.

The aim of this study is to find an appropriate group of spectral features for a multi-class machine learning (ML) architecture that provides a fast, effective, and accurate discrimination of chondrosarcoma nuclei irradiated with carbon ions (CI), X-rays (XR), and non-irradiated (REF), and that can be used for comparative assessment of the effects caused by the two types of radiation. The candidates were four groups of scalar and vector features drawn from the hyperspectral images (HIS) of the SW1353 chondrosarcoma line whose selection was guided by criteria including features relevance, cross entropy loss, robustness, running times, memory usage, and overall classification accuracy. The best results are obtained for six scalar features restricted to 415–460 nm spectral window. The associated ML classifier is subsequently used to compare the specific changes provoked by X-rays and carbon-ions by the help of the distance metric in the probability space where sorting is formally considered the action of prediction operators. We introduce the concept of confusion domain as a suitable approach able to disclose different shifts of the spectral features of SW1353 cells by type of irradiation. The findings exhibit consistency across all sections of the confusion domain thus supporting the conclusions on the different effects of radiation type. The results indicate that REF class is closer to XR class than to CI class and consequently X-rays produce weaker changes to the relevant spectral properties compared to carbon-ions. The biological resilience of the cells’ nuclei is higher against X-rays than against carbon-ions irradiation. The practical significance of our study lies in demonstrating the possibility to automate the decision-making process in measuring the amplitude of the ionizing radiation effects at single cell level, using HSI of unstained nuclei, with potential impact in radiotherapy of radioresistant cells.

Simulation and optimization of treatment schedule for multi-gantry heavy ion therapy.

Homobimetallic gold(I) compounds exhibit unique properties in photocatalysis. [Au2(μ-dppm)2](OTf)2 (denoted as [Au-Au](OTf)2) demonstrates excellent catalytic activity in the carbocyclization/gem-diborylation cascade of aryl iodides, but the photocatalytic mechanism and electronic structure of the active catalyst remain elusive. This study investigates the detailed catalytic mechanism of photoinduced energy transfer reactions, using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations. Computational results reveal that the coordination of the carbonate ion (CO32-) ligand to [Au2(μ-dppm)2]2+ ([Au-Au]2+) not only shortens the Au-Au bond length, which enhances aurophilic interactions, but also distinctly influences the dinuclear gold architecture. The two structures formed between [Au-Au](OTf)2 and Na2CO3, [Au-Au]CO3-I (axis coordination) and [Au-Au]CO3-II (bond coordination), induce a bathochromic shift in the absorption spectrum. This shift matches the emission spectrum of blue LEDs, enabling the efficient sensitization of triplet-state aryl iodides. Sensitization of the aryl iodide substrate by [Au-Au]CO3-I and [Au-Au]CO3-II via an energy transfer (EnT) process from their high triplet-state energies leads to homolytic C-I bond cleavage, which enables the radical carbocyclization/gem-diborylation cascade. This study unveils the crucial role of carbonate in modulating the photophysical properties and reactivity of dinuclear gold catalysts, providing important insight into the design of efficient gold-based photocatalysts.

Objective.This study evaluates the feasibility of using the high-energy particle accelerators LINAC4 at CERN and the Nuclotron at joint institute for nuclear research for radiobiological experiments under ultra-high dose rate (UHDR) and FLASH-related irradiation conditions with proton and carbon ion beams.Approach.Monte Carlo simulations were performed using the GEANT4 and FLUKA toolkits to model beam transport, dose deposition, and spatial dose characteristics of proton and carbon ion beams generated by the two facilities. Virtual irradiation setups were implemented using water phantoms and digital models of standard cell culture vessels.Main results.The 160 MeV proton beam from LINAC4 and the 430 MeV u-1carbon ion beam from the Nuclotron achieved high spatial precision and uniform dose distributions within approximately 5 ml water equivalent targets, including within the Bragg peak region. Owing to their pulsed beam structures, comprising millisecond-scale pulses with nanosecond-scale micro bunches, both accelerators can deliver several Gy within short irradiation intervals under UHDR conditions. This enables well-defined delivery relevant forin vitroFLASH studies. In contrast to collimated beams and reproducible temporal structures suitable for investigations aimed at elucidating the biological mechanisms underlying the FLASH effect, which require precise control over dose delivery.Significance.These findings support the suitability of research-dedicated accelerator infrastructures such as LINAC4 and the Nuclotron for preclinical UHDR and FLASH-related radiobiological studies. Their ability to deliver pulsed, high-intensity hadron beams under controlled geometric and temporal conditions fulfils the key physical prerequisites for systematicin vitroinvestigations of UHDR and FLASH effects. By extending FLASH-oriented experimentation beyond clinical environments, this work provides a framework for studies addressing dose-threshold behaviours, tissue-specific responses, and the biological mechanisms underlying the FLASH effect.

Particle radiotherapy (RT) offers promising treatment options for sarcomas due to its physical and radiobiological advantages. It enables high doses to be delivered to the tumor while minimizing the impact on surrounding tissue. Additionally, the higher biological effectiveness of carbon ions (C12) helps to overcome the radioresistance of many sarcomas. Although prospective comparative studies are lacking, existing data support the clinical use of particle RT. Future technical and biological optimization of particle RT could further improve the oncological outcome.

In the microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) process, urease-producing bacteria generate carbonate ions that facilitate the precipitation of heavy metals as carbonate salts. The study aimed to investigate heavy metal precipitation as carbonates by urease activity of Sporosarcina pasteurii. This study showed that S. pasteurii lacks resistance to heavy metals even at concentrations as low as 0.1 mM. Therefore, the cells were first grown in a metal-free, urea-containing medium and harvested at the end of the exponential phase. The washed cells, referred to as “non-growing cells,” were then added to urea solutions containing metals at concentrations of 5 and 10 mM of nickel, copper, lead, silver, and cadmium. The mixtures were incubated in a shaker incubator at 120 rpm for 24 h. Semi-quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that, in lead-containing media, the precipitate consisted of 96.5% lead carbonate, whereas in cadmium-containing media, cadmium carbonate accounted for 83.8% of the precipitate. Based on the XRD results, the carbonate precipitates of Ni, Ag, and Cu exhibited an amorphous structure. Field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM–EDS) confirmed the presence of carbon, oxygen, and the corresponding metal elements in all precipitates. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy showed that approximately 89.19% of nickel, 99.51% of copper, 99.97% of lead, 99.72% of silver, and 99.88% of cadmium were removed from the 10 mM metal–urea solutions following precipitation. Despite the absence of distinct XRD diffraction peaks for the Ni, Ag, and Cu precipitates, complementary FESEM-EDS and fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses clearly confirmed the formation of their respective metal carbonates. FTIR spectra verified the presence of carbonate functional groups in all samples. Overall, nearly 90% of heavy metals were successfully precipitated using urease-producing non-growing cells, demonstrating an effective strategy for heavy metal removal without the need for metal-resistant microorganisms. Future studies should focus on evaluating the performance of this approach under diverse environmental conditions and assessing the long-term stability of the precipitated metal carbonates.

Initial validation and commissioning experience of Phoenix Plan treatment planning system for scanned carbon ion beams delivered by Heavy Ion Medical Machine.