Analysis of iodine-129 in environmental materials: Quality assurance and applications

The long-lived radionuclide 129I (T 1/2 = 15.7 My) occurs in the nature in very low concentrations. Since the middle of our century the environmental levels of 129I have been dramatically changed as a consequence of civil and military use of nuclear fission. Its investigation in environmental materials is of interest for environmental surveillance, retrospective dosimetry and for the use as a natural and man-made fracers of environmental processes. We are comparing two analytical methods which presently are capable of determining 129I in environmental materials, namely radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Emphasis is laid upon the quality control and detection capabilities for the analysis of 129I in environmental materials. Some applications are discussed.

Quality assurance plan for a vaccine preventable diseases surveillance program

Public health surveillance programs for vaccine preventable diseases (VPD) need functional quality assurance (QA) in order to operate with high quality activities to prevent preventable communicable diseases from spreading in the community. Having a functional QA plan can assure the performance and quality of a program without putting excessive stress on the resources. A functional QA plan acts as a check on the quality of day-to-day activities performed by the VPD surveillance program while also providing data that would be useful for evaluating the program. This study developed a QA plan that involves collection, collation, analysis and reporting of information based on standardized (predetermined) formats and indicators as an integral part of routine work for the vaccine preventable disease surveillance program at the City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services. The QA plan also provides sampling and analysis plans for assessing various QA indicators, as well as recommendations to the Houston Department of Health and Humans Services for implementation of the QA plan. The QA plan developed for VPD surveillance in the City of Houston is intended to be a low cost system that could serve as a template for QA plans as part of other public health programs not only in the city or the nation, but could be adapted for use anywhere across the globe. Having a QA plan for VPD surveillance in the City of Houston would serve well for the funding agencies like the CDC by assuring that the resources are being expended efficiently, while achieving the real goal of positively impacting the health and lives of the recipient/target population. ^

Development and Implementation of the Use of Optically Stimulated Luminescent Detectors in the Radiological Physics Center Anthropomorphic Quality Assurance Phantoms

The Radiological Physics Center (RPC) uses both on-site and remote reviews to credential institutions for participation in clinical trials. Anthropomorphic quality assurance (QA) phantoms are one tool the RPC uses to remotely audit institutions, which include thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and radiochromic film. The RPC desires to switch from TLD as the absolute dosimeter in the phantoms, to optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLDs), but a problem lies in the angular dependence exhibited by the OSLD. The purpose of this study was to characterize the angular dependence of OSLD and establish a correction factor if necessary, to provide accurate dosimetric measurements as a replacement for TLD in the QA phantoms. A 10 cm diameter high-impact polystyrene spherical phantom was designed and constructed to hold an OSLD to study the angular response of the dosimeter under the simplest of circumstances for both coplanar and non-coplanar treatment deliveries. OSLD were irradiated in the spherical phantom, and the responses of the dosimeter from edge-on angles were normalized to the response when irradiated with the beam incident normally on the surface of the dosimeter. The average normalized response was used to establish an angular correction factor for 6 MV and 18 coplanar treatments, and for 6 MV non-coplanar treatments specific to CyberKnife. The RPC pelvic phantom dosimetry insert was modified to hold OSLD, in addition to the TLD, adjacent to the planes of film. Treatment plans of increasing angular beam delivery were developed, three in Pinnacle v9.0 (4-field box, IMRT, and VMAT) and one in Accuray’s MultiPlan v3.5.3 (CyberKnife). The plans were delivered to the pelvic phantom containing both TLD and OSLD in the target volume. The pelvic phantom was also sent to two institutions to be irradiated as trials, one delivering IMRT, and the other a CyberKnife treatment. For the IMRT deliveries and the two institution trials, the phantom also included film in the sagittal and coronal planes. The doses measured from the TLD and OSLD were calculated for each irradiation, and the angular correction factors established from the spherical phantom irradiations were applied to the OSLD dose. The ratio of the TLD dose to the angular corrected OSLD dose was calculated for each irradiation. The corrected OSLD dose was found to be within 1% of the TLD measured dose for all irradiations, with the exception of the in-house CyberKnife deliveries. The films were normalized to both TLD measured dose and the corrected OSLD dose. Dose profiles were obtained and gamma analysis was performed using a 7%/4 mm criteria, to compare the ability of the OSLD, when corrected for the angular dependence, to provide equivalent results to TLD. The results of this study indicate that the OSLD can effectively be used as a replacement for TLD in the RPC’s anthropomorphic QA phantoms for coplanar treatment deliveries when a correction is applied for the dosimeter’s angular dependence.

Some past decision theory models for euro construction model codes and for road drainage in Spain, and modest hints with multi-criteria methods for agro and environmental assurance

The authors are from UPM and are relatively grouped, and all have intervened in different academic or real cases on the subject, at different times as being of different age. With precedent from E. Torroja and A. Páez in Madrid Spain Safety Probabilistic models for concrete about 1957, now in ICOSSAR conferences, author J.M. Antón involved since autumn 1967 for euro-steel construction in CECM produced a math model for independent load superposition reductions, and using it a load coefficient pattern for codes in Rome Feb. 1969, practically adopted for European constructions, giving in JCSS Lisbon Feb. 1974 suggestion of union for concrete-steel-al.. That model uses model for loads like Gumbel type I, for 50 years for one type of load, reduced to 1 year to be added to other independent loads, the sum set in Gumbel theories to 50 years return period, there are parallel models. A complete reliability system was produced, including non linear effects as from buckling, phenomena considered somehow in actual Construction Eurocodes produced from Model Codes. The system was considered by author in CEB in presence of Hydraulic effects from rivers, floods, sea, in reference with actual practice. When redacting a Road Drainage Norm in MOPU Spain an optimization model was realized by authors giving a way to determine the figure of Return Period, 10 to 50 years, for the cases of hydraulic flows to be considered in road drainage. Satisfactory examples were a stream in SE of Spain with Gumbel Type I model and a paper of Ven Te Chow with Mississippi in Keokuk using Gumbel type II, and the model can be modernized with more varied extreme laws. In fact in the MOPU drainage norm the redacting commission acted also as expert to set a table of return periods for elements of road drainage, in fact as a multi-criteria complex decision system. These precedent ideas were used e.g. in wide Codes, indicated in symposia or meetings, but not published in journals in English, and a condensate of contributions of authors is presented. The authors are somehow involved in optimization for hydraulic and agro planning, and give modest hints of intended applications in presence of agro and environment planning as a selection of the criteria and utility functions involved in bayesian, multi-criteria or mixed decision systems. Modest consideration is made of changing in climate, and on the production and commercial systems, and on others as social and financial.

Quality assurance for precast plants and treatment of imperfections for architectural facades

Quality is the threshold or minimum level required to satisfy the consumer´s demands. In construction the quality is objective, and established by standards. It is very difficult to establish the costs of “no quality” in construction. Each precast unit shall be traceable to a specific set of quality control records.

Long-term quality assurance of fMRI and MRS on a 3.0T clinical scanner

Functional MRI (fMRI) and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) are being increasingly used in clinical protocols. Subsequenly it is crucial to develop a routine quality assurance protocol (QA)of both techniques. This work describes a long-term variability study, as apart of the QA of fMRI and MRS on our institution clinical 3.0 T MR scanner.

A constraint-based approach to quality assurance in service choreographies.

Knowledge about the quality characteristics (QoS) of service com- positions is crucial for determining their usability and economic value. Ser- vice quality is usually regulated using Service Level Agreements (SLA). While end-to-end SLAs are well suited for request-reply interactions, more complex, decentralized, multiparticipant compositions (service choreographies) typ- ically involve multiple message exchanges between stateful parties and the corresponding SLAs thus encompass several cooperating parties with interde- pendent QoS. The usual approaches to determining QoS ranges structurally (which are by construction easily composable) are not applicable in this sce- nario. Additionally, the intervening SLAs may depend on the exchanged data. We present an approach to data-aware QoS assurance in choreographies through the automatic derivation of composable QoS models from partici- pant descriptions. Such models are based on a message typing system with size constraints and are derived using abstract interpretation. The models ob- tained have multiple uses including run-time prediction, adaptive participant selection, or design-time compliance checking. We also present an experimen- tal evaluation and discuss the benefits of the proposed approach.

Quality assurance systems in the production and marketing of fresh peaches.

Due to the fast rate of peach post-harvest ripening, damage due to mechanical handling, externally appreciated as bruises and soft areas, is a real problem that leads to an early harvesting and poor quality of the fruits, as perceived by the consumers. More and more, the European consumer asks for good taste and freshness of fruits and vegetables, and these quality factors are not included in standards, nor in most of the producers' practices. Fruit processing and marketing centres (co-operatives) are increasingly interested in adopting quality controls in their processes. ISO 9000 procedures are being applied in some food areas, primarily milk and meat processors, but no generalised procedures have been developed until the present time to be applied to fresh product processes. All different peach and nectarine varieties that are harvested and handled in Murcia cooperatives and sold in a large supermarket in Madrid were analysed during the whole 1997 season (early May to late August). A total number of 78 samples of 25 fruits (co-operative) or 10 fruits (market), were tested in the laboratory for mechanical, optical, chemical and tasting quality. The variability and relationships between all these quality parameters are presented and discussed, and sampling unit sizes which would be advisable for quality control are calculated.

Bankable procedures for the technical quality assurance of large scale PV plants

Strict technical quality assurance procedures are essential for PV plant bankability. When large-scale PV plants are concerned, this is typically accomplished in three consecutive phases: an energy yield forecast, that is performed at the beginning of the project and is typically accomplished by means of a simulation exercise performed with dedicated software; a reception test campaign, that is performed at the end of the commissioning and consists of a set of tests for determining the efficiency and the reliability of the PV plant devices; and a performance analysis of the first years of operation, that consists in comparing the real energy production with the one calculated from the recorded operating conditions and taking into account the maintenance records. In the last six years, IES-UPM has offered both indoor and on-site quality control campaigns for more than 60 PV plants, with an accumulated power of more than 300 MW, in close contact with Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contractors and financial entities. This paper presents the lessons learned from such experience.

The Effect of the Farmer Assurance Provision of the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 on Biodiversity and Global Food Security

A rider to a US law, the Consolidated and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013, known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, encourages the large-scale genetic modification and global distribution of agricultural crops, thereby undermining the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' determination that food security rests on biodiversity. The rider blocks the US Department of Agriculture's mandate to prohibit farmers from growing crops from biotechnological seeds where the courts have found that this farm practice may cause damage to human health and/or degrade the environment. Despite genetically modified organisms (GMOs) reducing unwanted traits in plants, the paper supports the UN's mission for biodiversity and that more long-term testing was (and is) needed for GMO products, developed from 1994 on, before a hasty piece of Congressional legislation as was made in this case.