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Recent epidemiological studies suggested to lower the threshold dose for radiation induced cataract in the eye lens. Therefore, eye lens radiation protection became to play a more important role in personal dosimetry. The main objective of this work is to propose a new methodology for prototyping and benchmarking of an eye lens dosiemter based on the equivalent dose to the sensitive part of the eye lens, using CAD Software and Geant 4 Monte Carlo simulations with mesh modeling and 3D printing. A 3D printed dosimeter was type tested based on IEC 62387:2012, in terms of energy and angular dependence for the measurements of Hp(3). The results show that the methodology employed is suitable for the development of new eye lens dosimeters.

The purpose of bowtie filters in CT scanners is to homogenize the x-ray intensity measured by the detectors in order to improve the image quality and at the same time to reduce the dose to the patient because of the preferential filtering near the periphery of the fan beam. For CT dosimetry, especially for Monte Carlo calculations of organ and tissue absorbed doses to patients, it is important to take the effect of bowtie filters into account. However, material composition and dimensions of these filters are proprietary. Consequently, a method for bowtie filter simulation independent of access to proprietary data and/or to a specific scanner would be of interest to many researchers involved in CT dosimetry. This study presents such a method based on the weighted computer tomography dose index, CTDIw, defined in two cylindrical PMMA phantoms of 16 cm and 32 cm diameter. With an EGSnrc-based Monte Carlo (MC) code, ratios CTDIw/CTDI100,a were calculated for a specific CT scanner using PMMA bowtie filter models based on sigmoid Boltzmann functions combined with a scanner filter factor (SFF) which is modified during calculations until the calculated MC CTDIw/CTDI100,a matches ratios CTDIw/CTDI100,a, determined by measurements or found in publications for that specific scanner. Once the scanner-specific value for an SFF has been found, the bowtie filter algorithm can be used in any MC code to perform CT dosimetry for that specific scanner. The bowtie filter model proposed here was validated for CTDIw/CTDI100,a considering 11 different CT scanners and for CTDI100,c, CTDI100,p and their ratio considering 4 different CT scanners. Additionally, comparisons were made for lateral dose profiles free in air and using computational anthropomorphic phantoms. CTDIw/CTDI100,a determined with this new method agreed on average within 0.89% (max. 3.4%) and 1.64% (max. 4.5%) with corresponding data published by CTDosimetry (www.impactscan.org) for the CTDI HEAD and BODY phantoms, respectively. Comparison with results calculated using proprietary data for the PHILIPS Brilliance 64 scanner showed agreement on average within 2.5% (max. 5.8%) and with data measured for that scanner within 2.1% (max. 3.7%). Ratios of CTDI100,c/CTDI100, p for this study and corresponding data published by CTDosimetry (www.impactscan.org) agree on average within about 11% (max. 28.6%). Lateral dose profiles calculated with the proposed bowtie filter and with proprietary data agreed within 2% (max. 5.9%), and both calculated data agreed within 5.4% (max. 11.2%) with measured results. Application of the proposed bowtie filter and of the exactly modelled filter to human phantom Monte Carlo calculations show agreement on the average within less than 5% (max. 7.9%) for organ and tissue absorbed doses.

The calibration procedure in radiotherapy treatments is very important and a sensitive task due to the high doses delivered to the patients. Generally, the air-kerma cavity standards for 60Co gamma rays are graphite cavity ionization chambers. In this work a new parallel-plate graphite ionization chamber was studied to analyze its potential use as a reference instrument. In order to evaluate its performance in 60Co beams, it was submitted to several characterization tests. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations were undertaken using the EGSnrc code to study the influence of the chamber components on its response. The results obtained showed that this new ionization chamber presented a satisfactory performance in all evaluated tests.

The aim of this work was to study the performance of a pencil ionization chamber with a sensitive volume of only 1.06 cm3 and a length of 3.0 cm, developed at the Calibration Laboratory of the IPEN, in very low-energy radiotherapy X-ray beams. These beams are still used for certain skin cancer treatments due to their rapid attenuation in tissue. The dosimeter performance was evaluated in some tests proposed by the IEC 60731 standard: short- and long-term stability and linearity of response. For a complete analysis of the dosimeter response, the EGSnrc Monte Carlo simulation was utilized to investigate the influence of its different parts on the ionization chamber response. All results of the tests were in accordance with the recommended limits, and this work shows that it is possible to extend the application of this pencil-type ionization chamber developed at the LCI.

In geology the simulation of the sedimention process deposition is very used on different kind of studies. However a great problem is to get the information without destroy the architecture of the deposited material (since now named testimonial). Usually they do slice the real sample and they take pictures of it. However this technique is too aggressive (invasive) and usually cause damage to the testimonial. This work aim is to define characteristic of imaging these testimonial to use the medical imaging processing techniques for the analysis of objects made up of coal. Two objects were imaged: a short testimonial with acrylic resin, called Model Carbonated with Acrylic (MCA), and a greater testimony, contained within a PVC container and immersed in water, called Model Carbonated Aquarius (MCAq). Were generated plot profiles and images based on the topogram and sonogram, showing its good contrast and resolution.

The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of the eyelid on the absorbed dose distribution in eye tissues. The study was performed using two versions of the female adult head phantom (FeH) connected to the GEANT4 Monte Carlo code: one has the eyes open and the second, closed. The calculations of organ dose, normalised to air KERMA free-in-air, were done for external exposures to photon radiation with energies between 10 and 200 keV. Three parallel beam sources were studied: anterior-posterior, left lateral and rotational. The doses between the two phantoms were compared with evident differences. The results show that for photon sources with energies lower than 30 keV, the attenuations by the eyelid are relevant in reducing the dose in the eye lens and cornea. This suggests that medical exposure protocols that use this energy range should consider advising patients to close their eyes during the exposure.