Hueso-Gonzalez, F., Ballester, F., Perez-Calatayud, J., Siebert, F. A., & Vijande, J. (2017). Towards clinical application of RayStretch for heterogeneity corrections in LDR permanent I-125 prostate brachytherapy. Brachytherapy, 16(3), 616–623.
Abstract: PURPOSE: RayStretch is a simple algorithm proposed for heterogeneity corrections in low-dose-rate brachytherapy. It is built on top of TG-43 consensus data, and it has been validated with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In this study, we take a real clinical prostate implant with 71 1251 seeds as reference and we apply RayStretch to analyze its performance in worst-case scenarios. METHODS AND MATERIALS: To do so, we design two cases where large calcifications are located in the prostate lobules. RayStretch resilience under various calcification density values is also explored. Comparisons against MC calculations are performed. RESULTS: Dose volume histogram related parameters like prostate D-90, rectum D-2cc, or urethra D-10 obtained with RayStretch agree within a few percent with the detailed MC results for all cases considered. CONCLUSIONS: The robustness and compatibility of RayStretch with commercial treatment planning systems indicate its applicability in clinical practice for dosimetric corrections in prostate calcifications. Its use during intraoperative ultrasound planning is foreseen.
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Carames, T. F., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2012). Too many X's, Y's and Z's? Phys. Lett. B, 709(4-5), 358–361.
Abstract: A large number of new states have been reported during the last few years in charmonium spectroscopy above the charmed meson production threshold. They have been called X's, Y's, and Z's. We reflect on the influence of thresholds on heavy meson spectroscopy comparing different flavor sectors and quantum numbers. The validity of a quark-model picture above open-flavor thresholds would severely restrict the number of channels that may lodge meson-meson molecules.
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Granero, D., Candela-Juan, C., Vijande, J., Ballester, F., Perez-Calatayud, J., Jacob, D., et al. (2016). Technical Note: Dosimetry of Leipzig and Valencia applicators without the plastic cap. Med. Phys., 43(5), 2087–4pp.
Abstract: Purpose: High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for treatment of small skin lesions using the Leipzig and Valencia applicators is a widely used technique. These applicators are equipped with an attachable plastic cap to be placed during fraction delivery to ensure electronic equilibrium and to prevent secondary electrons from reaching the skin surface. The purpose of this study is to report on the dosimetric impact of the cap being absent during HDR fraction delivery, which has not been explored previously in the literature. Methods: GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations (version 10.0) have been performed for the Leipzig and Valencia applicators with and without the plastic cap. In order to validate the Monte Carlo simulations, experimental measurements using radiochromic films have been done. Results: Dose absorbed within 1 mm of the skin surface increases by a factor of 1500% for the Leipzig applicators and of 180% for the Valencia applicators. Deeper than 1 mm, the overdosage flattens up to a 10% increase. Conclusions: Differences of treating with or without the plastic cap are significant. Users must check always that the plastic cap is in place before any treatment in order to avoid overdosage of the skin. Prior to skin HDR fraction delivery, the timeout checklist should include verification of the cap placement. (C) 2016 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2017). String dynamics and metastability of all-heavy tetraquarks. Phys. Rev. D, 95(5), 054019–7pp.
Abstract: Multiquark states have been advocated to explain recent experimental data in the heavy-light sector, and there are already speculations about multiquarks containing only heavy quarks and antiquarks. With a rigorous treatment of the four-body problem in current quark models, full-charm (cc (c) over bar(c) over bar) and full-beauty(bb (b) over bar(b) over bar) tetraquarks are found to be unbound. Thus their stability should rely on more subtle effects that are not included in the simple picture of constituent quarks. The case of (bc (b) over bar(c) over bar) might be more favorable if the naive color-additive model of confinement is replaced by a string-inspired interaction.
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Richard, J. M., Valcarce, A., & Vijande, J. (2017). Stable heavy pentaquarks in constituent models. Phys. Lett. B, 774, 710–714.
Abstract: It is shown that standard constituent quark models produce ((c)over-barcqqq) hidden-charm pentaquarks, where c denotes the charmed quark and q a light quark, which lie below the lowest threshold for spontaneous dissociation and thus are stable in the limit where the internal (c)over-barc annihilation is neglected. The binding is a cooperative effect of the chromoelectric and chromomagnetic components of the interaction, and it disappears in the static limit with a pure chromoelectric potential. Their wave function contains color sextet and color octet configurations for the subsystems and can hardly be reduced to a molecular state made of two interacting hadrons. These pentaquark states could be searched for in the experiments having discovered or confirmed the hidden-charm meson and baryon resonances.
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