A study of polarity effect for various ionization chambers in kilovoltage x-ray beams

BACKGROUND

Ionization chambers play an essential role in dosimetry measurements for kilovoltage (kV) x-ray beams. Despite their widespread use, there is limited data on the absolute values for the polarity correction factors across a range of commonly employed ionization chambers.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate the polarity effects for five different ionization chambers in kV x-ray beams.

METHODS

Two plane-parallel chambers being the Advanced Markus and Roos and three cylindrical chambers; 3D PinPoint, Semiflex and Farmer chamber (PTW, Freiburg, Germany), were employed to measure the polarity correction factors. The kV x-ray beams were produced from an Xstrahl 300 unit (Xstrahl Ltd., UK). All measurements were acquired at 2 cm depth in a PTW-MP1 water tank for beams between 60 kVp (HVL 1.29 mm Al) and 300 kVp (HVL 3.08 mm Cu), and field sizes of 2-10 cm diameter for 30 cm focus-source distance (FSD) and 4 × 4 cm2 - 20 × 20 cm2 for 50 cm FSD. The ionization chambers were connected to a PTW-UNIDOS electrometer, and the polarity effect was determined using the AAPM TG-61 code of practice methodology.

RESULTS

The study revealed significant polarity effects in ionization chambers, especially in those with smaller volumes. For the plane-parallel chambers, the Advanced Markus chamber exhibited a maximum polarity effect of 2.5%, whereas the Roos chamber showed 0.3% at 150 KVp with the 10 cm circular diameter open-ended applicator. Among the cylindrical chambers at the same beam energy and applicator, the Pinpoint chamber exhibited a 3% polarity effect, followed by Semiflex with 1.7%, and Farmer with 0.4%. However, as the beam energy increased to 300 kVp, the polarity effect significantly increased reaching 8.5% for the Advanced Markus chamber and 13.5% for the PinPoint chamber at a 20 × 20 cm2 field size. Notably, the magnitude of the polarity effect increased with both the field size and beam energy, and was significantly influenced by the size of the chamber's sensitive volume.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrate that ionization chambers can exhibit substantial polarity effects in kV x-ray beams, particularly for those chambers with smaller volumes. Therefore, it is important to account for polarity corrections when conducting relative dose measurements in kV x-ray beams to enhance the dosimetry accuracy and improve patient dose calculations.

Evaluating and Comparing Behavioural and Electrophysiological Estimates of Neural Health in Cochlear Implant Users

Variations in neural health along the cochlea can degrade the spectral and temporal representation of sounds conveyed by cochlear implants (CIs). We evaluated and compared one electrophysiological measure and two behavioural measures that have been proposed as estimates of neural health patterns, in order to explore the extent to which the different measures provide converging and consistent neural health estimates. All measures were obtained from the same 11 users of the Cochlear Corporation CI. The two behavioural measures were multipulse integration (MPI) and the polarity effect (PE), both measured on each of seven electrodes per subject. MPI was measured as the difference between thresholds at 80 pps and 1000 pps, and PE as the difference in thresholds between cathodic- and anodic-centred quadraphasic (QP) 80-pps pulse trains. It has been proposed that good neural health corresponds to a large MPI and to a large negative PE (lower thresholds for cathodic than anodic pulses). The electrophysiological measure was the effect of interphase gap (IPG) on the offset of the ECAP amplitude growth function (AGF), which has been correlated with spiral ganglion neuron density in guinea pigs. This 'IPG offset' was obtained on the same subset of electrodes used for the behavioural measures. Despite high test-retest reliability, there were no significant correlations between the neural health estimates for either within-subject comparisons across the electrode array, or between-subject comparisons of the means. A phenomenological model of a population of spiral ganglion neurons was then used to investigate physiological mechanisms that might underlie the different neural health estimates. The combined experimental and modelling results provide evidence that PE, MPI and IPG offset may reflect different characteristics of the electrode-neural interface.

Study on the Discharge Characteristics of Single-Pulse Discharge in Micro-EDM

To further study the discharge characteristics and machining mechanism of micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM), the variation trends of the discharge energy and discharge crater size with actual discharge duration are discussed based on single-pulse experiments. The polarity effect of micro-EDM was analyzed according to the motion characteristics of electrons and ions in the discharge plasma channel. The results show that the discharge current and voltage of micro-EDM were independent of the discharge width and open-circuit voltage. The energy utilization rate of the short-pulse discharge was relatively high, and the energy utilization rate decreased gradually as the discharge duration increased. Even if the mass of the positive ion was much larger than that of the electron, the kinetic energy of the positive ion was still less than that of the electron when bombarding the surface of the electrode. The acceleration and speed of electrons were very high, and the number of times that electrons bombarded the surface of positive electrode was more than 600 times that of positive ions bombarding the surface of the negative electrode during the same time.

The role of radiation-induced charge imbalance on the dose-response of a commercial synthetic diamond detector in small field dosimetry

Purpose

Discrepancy between experimental and Monte Carlo simulated dose–response of the microDiamond (mD) detector (type 60019, PTW Freiburg, Germany) at small field sizes has been reported. In this work, the radiation‐induced charge imbalance in the structural components of the detector has been investigated as the possible cause of this discrepancy.

Materials and methods

Output ratio (OR) measurements have been performed using standard and modified versions of the mD detector at nominal field sizes from 6 mm × 6 mm to 40 mm × 40 mm. In the first modified mD detector (mD_reversed), the type of charge carriers collected is reversed by connecting the opposite contact to the electrometer. In the second modified mD detector (mD_shortened), the detector's contacts have been shortened. The third modified mD detector (mD_noChip) is the same as the standard version but the diamond chip with the sensitive volume has been removed. Output correction factors were calculated from the measured OR and simulated using the EGSnrc package. An adapted Monte Carlo user‐code has been used to study the underlying mechanisms of the field size‐dependent charge imbalance and to identify the detector's structural components contributing to this effect.

Results

At the smallest field size investigated, the OR measured using the standard mD detector is >3% higher than the OR obtained using the modified mD detector with reversed contact (mD_reversed). Combining the results obtained with the different versions of the detector, the OR have been corrected for the effect of radiation imbalance. The OR obtained using the modified mD detector with shortened contacts (mD_shortened) agree with the corrected OR, all showing an over‐response of less than 2% at the field sizes investigated. The discrepancy between the experimental and simulated output correction factors has been eliminated after accounting for the effect of charge imbalance.

Discussions and conclusions

The role of radiation‐induced charge imbalance on the dose–response of mD detector in small field dosimetry has been studied and quantified. It has been demonstrated that the effect is significant at small field sizes. Multiple methods were used to quantify the effect of charge imbalance with good agreement between Monte Carlo simulations and experimental results obtained with modified detectors. When this correction is applied to the Monte Carlo data, the discrepancy from experimental data is eliminated. Based on the detailed component analysis using an adapted Monte Carlo user‐code, it has been demonstrated that the effect of charge imbalance can be minimized by modifying the design of the detector's contacts.

The Impact of TiO2 Nanoparticle Concentration Levels on Impulse Breakdown Performance of Mineral Oil-Based Nanofluids

The insulation of mineral oil-based nanofluids was found to vary with different concentration level of nanoparticles. However, the mechanisms behind this research finding are not well studied. In this paper, mineral oil-based nanofluids were prepared by suspending TiO2 nanoparticles with weight percentages ranging from 0.0057% to 0.0681%. The breakdown voltage and chop time of nanofluids were observed under standard lightning impulse waveform. The experimental results show that the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles increases the breakdown voltage of mineral oil under positive polarity. The enhancement of breakdown strength tends to saturate when the concentration of nanoparticle exceeds 0.0227 wt%. Electronic traps formed at the interfacial region of nanoparticles, which could capture fast electrons in bulk oil and reduce the net density of space charge in front of prebreakdown streamers, are responsible for the breakdown strength enhancement. When the particle concentration level is higher, the overlap of Gouy-Chapman diffusion layers results in the saturation of trap density in nanofluids. Consequently, the breakdown strength of nanofluids is saturated. Under negative polarity, the electrons are likely to be scattered by the nanoparticles on the way towards the anode, resulting in enhanced electric fields near the streamer tip and the decrement of breakdown voltage.

Evaluating Psychophysical Polarity Sensitivity as an Indirect Estimate of Neural Status in Cochlear Implant Listeners

The physiological integrity of spiral ganglion neurons is presumed to influence cochlear implant (CI) outcomes, but it is difficult to measure neural health in CI listeners. Modeling data suggest that, when peripheral processes have degenerated, anodic stimulation may be a more effective neural stimulus than cathodic stimulation. The primary goal of the present study was to evaluate the emerging theory that polarity sensitivity reflects neural health in CI listeners. An ideal in vivo estimate of neural integrity should vary independently of other factors known to influence the CI electrode-neuron interface, such as electrode position and tissue impedances. Thus, the present analyses quantified the relationships between polarity sensitivity and (1) electrode position estimated via computed tomography imaging, (2) intracochlear resistance estimated via electrical field imaging, and (3) focused (steered quadrupolar) behavioral thresholds, which are believed to reflect a combination of local neural health, electrode position, and intracochlear resistance. Eleven adults with Advanced Bionics devices participated. To estimate polarity sensitivity, electrode-specific behavioral thresholds in response to monopolar, triphasic pulses where the central high-amplitude phase was either anodic (CAC) or cathodic (ACA) were measured. The polarity effect was defined as the difference in threshold response to the ACA compared to the CAC stimulus. Results indicated that the polarity effect was not related to electrode-to-modiolus distance, electrode scalar location, or intracochlear resistance. Large, positive polarity effects, which may indicate SGN degeneration, were associated with relatively high focused behavioral thresholds. The polarity effect explained a significant portion of the variation in focused thresholds, even after controlling for electrode position and intracochlear resistance. Overall, these results provide support for the theory that the polarity effect may reflect neural integrity in CI listeners. Evidence from this study supports further investigation into the use of polarity sensitivity for optimizing individual CI programming parameters.