We present EGS4 Monte Carlo calculations of the spatial distribution of the dose deposited by a single x-ray pencil beam, a planar microbeam, and an array of parallel planar microbeams as used in radiation therapy research. The profiles of the absorbed dose distribution in a phantom, including the peak-to-valley ratio of the dose distribution from microbeam arrays, were calculated at micrometer resolution. We determined the dependence of the findings on the main parameters of photon and electron transport. The results illustrate the dependence of the electron range and the deposited in-beam dose on the cut-off energy, of the electron transport, as well as the effects on the dose profiles of the beam energy, the array size, and the beam spacing. The effect of beam polarization also was studied for a single pencil beam and for an array of parallel planar microbeams. The results show that although the polarization effect on the dose distribution from a 3 cm x 3 cm microbeam array inside a water phantom is large enough to be measured at the outer side of the array (16% difference of the deposited dose for x-ray beams of 200 keV), it is not detectable at the array's center, thus being irrelevant for the radiation therapy purposes. Finally we show that to properly compare the dose profiles determined with a metal oxide semiconductor field emission transistor detector with the computational method predictions, it is important to simulate adequately the size and the material of the device's Si active element.

Myelin is a multi-lamellar membrane surrounding neuronal axons and increasing their conduction velocity. When investigated by small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), the lamellar quasi-periodical arrangement of the myelin sheath gives rise to distinct peaks, which allow the determination of its molecular organization and the dimensions of its substructures. In this study we report on the myelin sheath structural determination carried out on a set of human brain tissue samples coming from surgical biopsies of two patients: a man around 60 and a woman nearly 90 years old. The samples were extracted either from white or grey cerebral matter and did not undergo any manipulation or chemical-physical treatment, which could possibly have altered their structure, except dipping them into a formalin solution for their conservation. Analysis of the scattered intensity from white matter of intact human cerebral tissue allowed the evaluation not only of the myelin sheath periodicity but also of its electronic charge density profile. In particular, the thicknesses of the cytoplasm and extracellular regions were established, as well as those of the hydrophilic polar heads and hydrophobic tails of the lipid bilayer. SAXS patterns were measured at several locations on each sample in order to establish the statistical variations of the structural parameters within a single sample and among different samples. This work demonstrates that a detailed structural analysis of the myelin sheath can also be carried out in randomly oriented samples of intact human white matter, which is of importance for studying the aetiology and evolution of the central nervous system pathologies inducing myelin degeneration.

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