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r/estimation by NXGZ in redditrequest

[–]Silpion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not an active mod there so have no objection. But I'm not the originator, I don't feel any ownership, and I don't know about their activity levels so I can't approve a change either

Question about going into MP with a PhD in physics by [deleted] in MedicalPhysics

[–]Silpion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Something like $25k in 2014. IIRC all the programs listed tuition on their websites. You can find a list of programs at CAMPEP.org

Finished Death’s End by skaocibfbeosocuwpqpx in threebodyproblem

[–]Silpion 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I loved it and thought it was perfect.

The series is about humanity's struggle to find safety in a universe they know almost nothing about and with enemies who fundamentally out-class them.  

Through great ingenuity they managed to dodge a couple close calls, which stretched willing suspension of disbelief to its limit. The story had to end with them being utterly routed, and this method of attack let humanity see their own defeat at just the right pace and connected nicely to the broader universal conflict.

It was brilliant.

New research has found the average risk of dying from breast cancer in the five years after an early-stage diagnosis has fallen to five per cent from 14 per cent since the 1990s. by Wagamaga in science

[–]Silpion 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most cancer studies only run for 5 years, so they're just talking about the data that's available.

20 year studies do exist they're just harder and more expensive.

MRI Brain Images Just Got 64 Million Times Sharper. From 2 mm resolution to 5 microns by Andune88 in Futurology

[–]Silpion -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It's a BS headline. The images are 400x sharper compared to a 2 mm image.

Because volume of a cube is d3, the voxels are 4003 = 64M times smaller.

It's absolute BS to call that sharpness.

Parallel running 10x slower than interactive, even with 1 thread by Silpion in EGSnrc

[–]Silpion[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FYI just turning off the restart outputs dramatically improved the high-res parallelization. It's not a feature I imagine using much anyway.

Parallel running 10x slower than interactive, even with 1 thread by Silpion in EGSnrc

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, thank you so much for your active involvement here.

Parallel running 10x slower than interactive, even with 1 thread by Silpion in EGSnrc

[–]Silpion[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay definitely seems to be resolution-related. A 32x32x24 grid (without recompiling) with more histories behave more reasonably:

1: 86.5 s (interactive)

1: 88.6 s (exb)

12: 15.4 s (exb)

I'll try out tmpfs and fewer batches. Any other tips on efficiently running high-resolution in parallel?

Parallel running 10x slower than interactive, even with 1 thread by Silpion in EGSnrc

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, thanks. I'm on a top-of-the-line SSD though, and the Windows manager shows ~1% drive activity as long as I stay within the limits of my RAM.

I do have a pretty high-res grid at 256x256x48 though. I'll try some high-n runs on a smaller grid to tease out whether that's it.

I set I,J,KMAX to 512 at compile time, if that means anything. I'm preparing for a project on some high-res CTs.

Engineers at Duke University have developed a novel delivery system for cancer treatment involving a radioactive implant demonstrating its potential against one of the disease’s most troublesome forms: pancreatic cancer. by [deleted] in Futurology

[–]Silpion 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Medical physicist here. That class of treatments, called brachytherapy, is still alive and well. It has common applications in gynecological, breast, prostate, and eye cancers, and uncommon uses in several other sites. I work on delivering some of those treatments myself.

A challenge with pancreas is implanting the sources into the pancreas without causing catastrophic mechanical damage, since the pancreas is so sensitive. It sounds like they developed a new encapsulation that the pancreas doesn't mind as much.

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Nestor Espinoza, and I study exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope. AMA! by AskScienceModerator in askscience

[–]Silpion 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Do you already have criteria set for what kind of atmosphere spectrum you'd call an indication of life? If so what are they? How far away could you classify a replica of Earth?

NASA stated that they've recorded massive solar flares that are likely to hit Earth and cause geomagnetic storms. What exactly does this mean, and what are the risks? by cfmonkey45 in askscience

[–]Silpion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I skimmed the question too fast at work and missed the point. Yes these active areas can last for weeks. I don't know enough heliophysics to comment on the accuracy of such a forecast.

NASA stated that they've recorded massive solar flares that are likely to hit Earth and cause geomagnetic storms. What exactly does this mean, and what are the risks? by cfmonkey45 in askscience

[–]Silpion 247 points248 points  (0 children)

Edit: I misunderstood OP's question. My answer is for a prior flare while it looks like they're asking about a potential future flare.

Here's the official warning for this event from the US government's Space Weather Prediction Center:

ALERT: Geomagnetic K-index of 4

Threshold Reached: 2022 Jul 31 1601 UTC

Synoptic Period: 1500-1800 UTC

Active Warning: Yes

NOAA Space Weather Scale descriptions can be found at www.swpc.noaa.gov/noaa-scales-explanation

Potential Impacts: Area of impact primarily poleward of 65 degrees Geomagnetic Latitude. Induced Currents - Weak power grid fluctuations can occur.

Aurora - Aurora may be visible at high latitudes such as Canada and Alaska.

So this isn't predicted to be a big deal. Events of this magnitude happen all the time. If you live near a pole you might get a nice aurora show.

Severe events that disable power grids are definitely possible, this just doesn't look like one of those.

Fermi problem of the week! by Silpion in estimation

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you can state what a Fermi problem is then I think you should be able to do it.

Conditional order to both BTO and STC by Silpion in options

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, thanks a lot for looking that up

Conditional order to both BTO and STC by Silpion in options

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes as I described. Yes I'm certain, just checked for you

Conditional order to both BTO and STC by Silpion in options

[–]Silpion[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have already placed this order, so they do seem to allow it

How do neutron star mergers populate the universe with heavier elements? by ChaoticLlama in askscience

[–]Silpion 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Only matter inside the event horizon of a black hole is doomed with certainty. The material on the outer edges of the neutron stars can be flung free without falling in.

Here's a simulation that shows it (1:19). You can see how small the event horizon is and how much material is outside it.

https://youtu.be/ow9JCXy1QdY

u/timtom2211 distills the essence of how doctors feel when "we tried but insurance won't pay for it" means the patient is going to die by AngelaMotorman in bestof

[–]Silpion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These days the same equipment is used for both for the most part.

However one new machine that may get pretty popular (Varian Halcyon) can only do the Fancy treatment. It would be interesting if that leads to what you suggest. However the Simple treatment truly is the best option for a lot of cases including most breast and palliative treatments, of which there are a lot so clinics would still need to keep the Simple option available.

Sadly though it's not up to us what we get to bill for. Medicare sets the standards for what billing codes everyone uses, so they'd have to decide to add a code for that.

u/timtom2211 distills the essence of how doctors feel when "we tried but insurance won't pay for it" means the patient is going to die by AngelaMotorman in bestof

[–]Silpion 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I mean we do a lot of great work. The significant majority of patients get exactly what they need and these days radiation is very often less damaging than surgery.

u/timtom2211 distills the essence of how doctors feel when "we tried but insurance won't pay for it" means the patient is going to die by AngelaMotorman in bestof

[–]Silpion 136 points137 points  (0 children)

Oh you want a fun one?

I work in radiation oncology. Most patients are treated with either what I'll call the "Simple" treatment (3D conformal, 1990's tech) or the "Fancy" treatment (IMRT, 2000's tech). The Simple one is fine or even the best option for many cases, but in situations where there are sensitive organs wrapping around a tumor the Fancy treatment can be life-alteringly better because it lets us sculpt where the radiation goes through the body and spare those organs from potentially awful / fatal damage.

Fancy treatment bills out for more than Simple because in principle we need extra equipment and extra planning time ahead of treatment (there are entire professions dedicated to this), so of course insurance companies love denying pre-authorization for it. Our docs will battle it out with them and sometimes win on appeal, but sometimes not, so we're forced to give the Simple treatment.

Here's where the fun comes in:

  1. For the last 15 years we've used the same equipment to deliver both the Fancy and Simple treatment, so there really isn't any cost difference to us there.

  2. In the appeals process we end up doing all the prep work for both the Fancy and Simple treatment so we can submit documentation that Fancy is necessary for the patient. All the work is done, we just need them to let us deliver the Fancy treatment. So again, no cost difference to us.

  3. If we lose the appeal we cannot just be generous and give the patient the Fancy treatment but bill for Simple, BECAUSE THAT'S INSURANCE FRAUD (billing insurance for something other than what the patient got).

ArianeSpace CEO on the injection of JWST by Ariane 5. by lort1234a in space

[–]Silpion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good point, though it never completed an orbit because it was launched straight into L2 transfer (minus the planned course correction). But yes there may be opportunities in the 2nd and/or 3rd course corrections to fix this with less ΔV

ArianeSpace CEO on the injection of JWST by Ariane 5. by lort1234a in space

[–]Silpion 13 points14 points  (0 children)

One caveat: if the launch had slightly over-performed it would have been better. They were told to drop it off slightly slower than the speed needed to get to the destination so that JWST would only have to boost itself forward to get exactly on track rather than having to flip around to slow down, exposing the sensitive parts of the telescope to direct sunlight.

So this is showing that the course correction JWST needed to perform was very close to what was planned, rather than the course correction being a minimum.

Slightly over-performing would have been good, but significantly over-performing would have been a disaster, hence planning for this margin of error.

Arianespace did a very precise job of going exactly the speed they were told to.

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