Dosimetric and Biological Validation of a Proton Therapy Research Line using a Murine-Based Phantom

During pre-clinical research on proton therapy, validating the dosimetry is important for accurate and representable results. To ensure that research outcomes can eventually be implemented in clinical practices, it is equally as important to also take biological effects into account. The aim of this thesis was, therefore, to dosimetrically and...

Dosimetric verification of murine proton irradiations and in vitro analysis of DNA damage repair modulators and FLASH irradiations

With almost 900.000 new patients per year suffering from head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), who after radiotherapy treatments experience severe side effects, the focus is drawn to proton therapy. Proton therapy results to less side effects since healthy tissues surrounding the tumour receive less radiation dose. This results from...

Explaining the FLASH Effect: Investigating the Oxygen Hypothesis of the Proton FLASH Effect in Zebrafish

This thesis investigates the tissue sparing effect of FLASH (>40 Gy/s) radiation, as opposed to CONV (conventional, dose rates typically between 0.01­0.1 Gy/s) radiation. We irradiated zebrafish embryos (4 days past fertilisation) with 116 MeV protons. The aim was (1) to measure the effect, and (2) if the effect were significant, see whether...

Feasibility study for an in-vivo scintillator-fibre dosimeter design for Ir-192 brachytherapy

High dose-rate (HDR) brachytheraphy (BT) is radiation therapy (RT) which temporarily inserts a highly radioactive source into the planning target volume (PTV) with the use of an afterloader, applicator, transfer tubes, needles and planning software. The dose delivered to a point in the tumour depends on the type and activity of the source, the...

The quest for new thermoluminescence and optically stimulated luminescence materials: Needs, strategies and pitfalls

The quest for new materials for thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimetry continues to be a central line of research in luminescence dosimetry, occupying many groups and investigators, and is the topic of many publications. Nevertheless, it has also been a research area with many pitfalls, slow advances in...

Spatiotemporal Distribution of Nanodroplet Vaporization in a Proton Beam Using Real-Time Ultrasound Imaging for Range Verification

The potential of proton therapy to improve the conformity of the delivered dose to the tumor volume is currently limited by range uncertainties. Injectable superheated nanodroplets have recently been proposed for ultrasound-based in vivo range verification, as these vaporize into echogenic microbubbles on proton irradiation. In previous...

Metrology for Inductive Charging of Electric Vehicles (MICEV)

The European Union funded project MICEV aims at improving the traceability of electrical and magnetic measurement at charging stations and to better assess the safety of this technology with respect to human exposure. The paper describes some limits of the instrumentation used for electrical measurements in the charging stations, and briefly...

On energy storage of Lu2O3:Tb,M (M=Hf, Ti, Nb) sintered ceramics: Glow curves, dose-response dependence, radiation hardness and self-dose effect

Thermoluminescent properties and energy storage characteristics of Lu₂O₃:Tb,M (M = Hf, Ti, Nb) sintered ceramics induced by ionizing radiation are presented and discussed. Dose-response dependence, radiation hardness and fading are studied. A linearity of the former exceeding seven orders of magnitude is confirmed for Lu...