PURPOSE This report compares the Nucletron NPS and PLATO planning system for patients treated for cervix cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study compares calculations generated using the older NPS (version 11.43) planning system and the more recent PLATO (version 14.1) system for two cases: 1) a single dwell position and 2) an actual patient application using a tandem and ovoid. RESULTS Fo...

The reliability of the PLATO rubric is defined using Generalizability Theory and FACETS. Results from two G-Theory analyses reveal that the reliabilities of scores from individual PLATO items and the total score across all items are most strongly affected by the number of segments in which teachers’ performance is observed. For example, it is reported that a single rater should observe at least...

Does Plato have a philosophy? If so, what is it and how does he argue for it? Simple questions. But there are well-known obstacles standing in the way of their answer. First of all, Plato writes dialogues; and it is often unclear which character, if any, in a given dialogue speaks for Plato. Secondly, when a character in a dialogue advances a thesis, it is often unclear what the thesis is. And,...

Contrary to what one might have guessed, in posing the famous question, 1 Juvenal was not concerned with affairs of state or politics, but rather trying to convince a friend that marriage is folly, women are not to be trusted, and keeping them locked under guard is not a solution—because the guards could not be trusted either. But, half a millennium or so earlier, Plato did raise a closely rela...

Closed-form solutions were developed to optimize kinematics design of a 2-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) planar parallel manipulator. The optimum design based on the workspace was presented. Meanwhile, a global, comprehensive conditioning index was introduced to evaluate the kinematic designs. The optimal parallel manipulator is incorporated into a 5-DOF hybrid machine tool which includes a 2-DOF rot...

BACKGROUND Assessing the clinical effectiveness of measuring grip strength as a prognostic tool in recovering ambulation in bed-confined frail elderly patients. METHODS A prospective study was carried out with 50 elderly inpatients (mean age: 81.6 years old). Manual muscle test was used for checking strength of hip flexor muscles, hip abductor muscles and knee extensor muscles. Grip strength ...

that directs and is the cause of everything.” [1] With moments to expire before Athens would execute him, Plato’s Socrates was exploring the meaning of a few lines by another philosopher. To the last minute of Socrates’ dramatic life, Plato has him making important criticism on vital literary texts. Textual criticism is found throughout Plato’s works, making it his main philosophical methodolog...