To promote consistency in clinical trials by recommending a uniform framework as it relates to radiation transport and dose calculation in water versus in medium. Methods: The Global Quality Assurance of Radiation Therapy Clinical Trials Harmonisation Group (GHG; www.rtqaharmonization.org) compared the differences between dose to water in water (D w,w ), dose to water in medium (D w,m ), and dose to medium in medium (D m,m ). This was done based on a review of historical frameworks, existing literature and standards, clinical issues in the context of clinical trials, and the trajectory of radiation dose calculations. Based on these factors, recommendations were developed. Results: No framework was found to be ideal or perfect given the history, complexity, and current status of radiation therapy. Nevertheless, based on the evidence available, the GHG established a recommendation preferring dose to medium in medium (D m,m ). Conclusions: Dose to medium in medium (D m,m ) is the preferred dose calculation and reporting framework. If an institution's planning system can only calculate dose to water in water (D w,w ), this is acceptable.
Plants offer a source of bioinspiration for soft robotics. Nevertheless, a gap remains in designing robots based on the fundamental principles of plant intelligence, rooted in a non-centralized, modular architecture and a highly plastic phenotype. We contend that a holistic approach to plant bioinspiration—one that draws more fully on the features of plant intelligence and behavior—evidences the value of an enactivist perspective. This is because enactivism emphasizes not only features of embodiment such as material composition and morphology, but also autonomy as an important aspect of plant intelligence and behavior. The enactivist sense of autonomy concerns the dynamics of self-producing systems (such as plants) that create a distinction between themselves and a domain of interactions that bear on the conditions of viability of the system. This contrasts with the widespread, but diluted notion of autonomy that merely indicates the independent operability of a system for an arbitrary period. Different notions of autonomy are relevant for soft roboticists, for instance, when evaluating limitations on existing growing robots (“growbots”) that take bioinspiration from plants, but depend on a fixed source of energy and material provided by an external agent. More generally, plant-inspired robots serve as a case study for an enactivist approach to intelligence, while, correspondingly, enactivism calls attention to the possibility of non-zoological forms of intelligence embodied in a self-organizing, autonomous system.
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