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One of the biggest fears and challenges a parent of a child with special needs faces is navigating the post-22 landscape. When a child hits the age of 22, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is no longer required to provide daily services and support. Whatever the abilities, or disabilities, of a child, every parent has the same concerns about how their child will productively fill their days and live as independently as possible without the safety net of the DESE. One of the transition paths most frequented is entering the workforce. Public and private schools alike work to teach their students the basic skills they need to work. In fact, the national Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states that students must have a transition plan in formulation by the age of 16. This article describes the vocational program developed by the League School of Greater Boston which specifically addresses the challenges students, their parents, and their employers face when they are on their own. The strength of the program lies in its integration into the school's everyday curriculum from the earliest ages so that students are well-prepared with the life and functional skills they need to maintain success on the job site. The program is based on the school's over-all directive of working with students in multiple contexts--classroom, community, and home--to gain the skills they need to be independent. It is also supported by a team approach, with teachers, vocational staff, parents, businesses and residential staff working together with the student to build the social as well as the practical skills to get the job done. A vocational program that incorporates life skills at an early age is critical to the success of future employees with special needs. Bringing young students into the community to gain familiarity and comfort with appropriate life and functional skills, and having a broad and unified support team to reinforce these skills, are the critical components to developing future happy, satisfied and successful employees.

Purpose: Synchrotron Radiation Therapy techniques are currently being trialed and commissioned at synchrotrons around the world. The patient treatment planning systems (TPS) developed for these treatments use simulated data of the synchrotron x‐ray beam to produce the dosimetry in the treatment plan. The purpose of this study was to investigate a water equivalent PRESAGE® dosimeter capable of 3D dosimetry over an energy range suitable for synchrotron x‐ray beams. Methods: Water equivalent PRESAGE® dosimeters were fabricated with a radiological effective atomic number similar to water over an energy range of 10 keV to 10 MeV. The dosimeters were irradiated at various energies, scanned using optical CT (OCT) scanning and compared to ion chamber measurements. Percentage depth dose and beam profiles of the synchrotron beam were compared to Monte Carlo (MC) model simulations. Results: The PDD profiles of the water equivalent PRESAGE® agreed with ion chamber measurements and MC calculations within 2% for all keV energies investigated. The PRESAGE® also showed good agreement to the MC model for depths below 5 mm of the synchrotron beam where ion chamber data do not exist. The spatial resolution of the OCT was not sufficient to accurately measure the penumbra of the synchrotron beams compared to MC calculations or EBT3 film; however, the water equivalent PRESAGE® was able to verify dose profile characteristics of the MC model. Conclusions: The radiological response of a water equivalent PRESAGE® dosimeter has been validated for synchrotron x‐ray beam energies along with the ability to independently verify dose distributions of a MC model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effectiveness of a new business strategy thourhg transformation of data. Topics discussed include the requirement for business decision makers to build an innovated business models promoting knowledge-based activities, impact of applying knowledge-based activities in producing high-quality products and services, and improve market share.

The article focuses on the significance of an effective learning program to organizational success. The author stresses that effective learning programs allows the company to deal with market changes, new trends and technologies. He relates the topic to the government's project which illustrate the benefits of an effective core competency program. Discussion on the conceptual framework of effect learning program is also offered.

This research investigated the dose response and post-irradiation stability of water-equivalent PRESAGE ® dosimeters exposed to synchrotron radiation. Water-equivalent PRESAGE ® dosimeters were irradiated up to 1000 Gy in a synchrotron x-ray beam with a mean energy of 95.3 keV. The change in optical density was measured using UV/visible spectrophotometry pre- and post-irradiation using a wavelength of 630 nm. Dose response was found to be approximately linear from 0-200 Gy with saturation occurring above 300 Gy. The post-irradiation stability was determined by measuring the change in optical density at 10, 30, 60, 180, 420 min and 7, 21 and 33 d post-irradiation for three groups of dosimeters stored at different temperatures. Each group had two dosimeters irradiated at 50, 100, 200 and 300 Gy and each group was stored at a different temperature following irradiation: room temperature (22 °C), 4 °C and  -18 °C. The optimal time for readout of the dosimeters varied with the post-irradiation storage temperature. The room temperature group had an optimal time-to-readout of 10 min for maximum signal before fading, while the 4 °C group was reasonably stable from 90 min to 1 week. The  -18 °C group showed the least amount of ongoing post-irradiation development and fading with an optimal readout window from 30 min to 21 d. The intra-batch variation between the mean of each temperature control group was 4.2% at 10 min post-irradiation.

Purpose: Synchrotron Radiation Therapy techniques are currently being trialed and commissioned at synchrotrons around the world. The patient treatment planning systems (TPS) developed for these treatments use simulated data of the synchrotron x-ray beam to produce the dosimetry in the treatment plan. The purpose of this study was to investigate a water equivalent PRESAGE ® dosimeter capable of 3D dosimetry over an energy range suitable for synchrotron x-ray beams., Methods: Water equivalent PRESAGE ® dosimeters were fabricated with a radiological effective atomic number similar to water over an energy range of 10 keV to 10 MeV. The dosimeters were irradiated at various energies, scanned using optical CT (OCT) scanning and compared to ion chamber measurements. Percentage depth dose and beam profiles of the synchrotron beam were compared to Monte Carlo (MC) model simulations., Results: The PDD profiles of the water equivalent PRESAGE ® agreed with ion chamber measurements and MC calculations within 2% for all keV energies investigated. The PRESAGE ® also showed good agreement to the MC model for depths below 5 mm of the synchrotron beam where ion chamber data do not exist. The spatial resolution of the OCT was not sufficient to accurately measure the penumbra of the synchrotron beams compared to MC calculations or EBT3 film; however, the water equivalent PRESAGE ® was able to verify dose profile characteristics of the MC model., Conclusions: The radiological response of a water equivalent PRESAGE ® dosimeter has been validated for synchrotron x-ray beam energies along with the ability to independently verify dose distributions of a MC model., (© 2018 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.)

Alanine dosimeters are limited in radiotherapy by poor sensitivity at low doses (< 5Gy). A set of alanine dosimeters were 'spiked' with a large dose of radiation, (~30Gy, 6MV X-rays) and additional doses ranging between 0.5 and 10Gy. The radical yield was measured by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and after subtraction of the contribution from the "spike" dose, a linear correlation between the radiation dose and the area of the central EPR signal was obtained for doses between 0.5 and 10Gy (regression value of 0.9890), and for the central peak's amplitude (regression value of 0.9895). Overall, this method is easy to perform, requires no complex EPR signal analysis, and offers much potential to extend the current usage of alanine dosimeters in radiotherapy., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)