| Question 1: The major differences between macroscopic and sub-cellular MC simulations include all of the following EXCEPT:
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| Reference: | Incerti, S, M Douglass, S Penfold, S Guatelli, and E Bezak. 2016. “Review of Geant4-DNA Applications for Micro and Nanoscale Simulations.” Physica Medica, September. doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.09.007. |
| Choice A: | Grouped particle interactions vs. explicit simulation of all interactions (track structure). |
| Choice B: | Highly increased simulation time. |
| Choice C: | Explicitly models biological repair processes. |
| Choice D: | Can include modeling of chemical processes (reactive oxygen species). |
| Question 2: The goal of microscopic MC efforts is to:
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| Reference: | Friedland, Werner, Michael Dingfelder, Pavel Kundrát, and Peter Jacob. 2011. “Track Structures, DNA Targets and Radiation Effects in the Biophysical Monte Carlo Simulation Code PARTRAC.” Mutation Research 711 (1-2): 28–40. doi:10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2011.01.003. |
| Choice A: | Avoid uncertainties at voxel boundaries. |
| Choice B: | Understand biological processes from the bottom up. |
| Choice C: | Replace treatment planning systems to optimize cell survival. |
| Choice D: | Calculate the survival probability for each cell in a tumor volume. |
| Question 3: Track structure simulations will soon replace macroscopic MC simulations for patient dose calculations.
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| Reference: | Bernal, M A, M C Bordage, J M C Brown, M Davidkova, E Delage, Z El Bitar, S A Enger, et al. 2015. “Track Structure Modeling in Liquid Water: a Review of the Geant4-DNA Very Low Energy Extension of the Geant4 Monte Carlo Simulation Toolkit.” Physica Medica : PM : an International Journal Devoted to the Applications of Physics to Medicine and Biology : Official Journal of the Italian Association of Biomedical Physics (AIFB) 31 (8): 861–74. doi:10.1016/j.ejmp.2015.10.087. |
| Choice A: | True. |
| Choice B: | False. |
| Question 4: In general, which of the following is not needed for simulating the nonhomogeneous chemistry (e.g., water radiolysis) in Monte-Carlo codes?
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| Reference: | Friedland et al., Mutat. Res. 711, 28-40 (2011). |
| Choice A: | Reaction rate constants. |
| Choice B: | Diffusion coefficients of particles. |
| Choice C: | Ionization cross sections. |
| Choice D: | Concentration of molecules in the medium. |
| Question 5: Which of the following is not a typical interaction of ions with condensed matter?
|
| Reference: | Schardt D et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 383-425 (2010). |
| Choice A: | Compton effect. |
| Choice B: | Excitation of electrons. |
| Choice C: | Ionization of electrons. |
| Choice D: | Charge transfer. |
| Question 6: Which phenomenon does not happen in the first microsecond of the radiation action?
|
| Reference: | Nikhoo H, Iran. J. Radiat. Res. 1, 1-16 (2003). |
| Choice A: | Electron thermalization. |
| Choice B: | Enzymatic reactions. |
| Choice C: | Reactions of free radical species. |
| Choice D: | Ionization of molecules. |
| Question 7: A possible extra-nuclear DNA target is:
|
| Reference: | Zhang B, Davidson M M, Hei T K. 2014. “Mitochondria regulate DNA damage and genomic instability induced by high LET radiation” Life Sciences in Space Research 1, 80-88. doi: 10.1016/j.lssr.2014.02.006. |
| Choice A: | Mitochondrial DNA. |
| Choice B: | Chromosome. |
| Choice C: | Vacuole. |
| Choice D: | All of the above. |
| Question 8: Damage to DNA can be calculated with track structure simulations with either a clustering algorithm or by scoring energy depositions within a geometric 3D model.
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| Reference: | Incerti S, Douglass M, Penfold S, Guatelli S, Bezak E. 2016. “Review of Geant4-DNA applications for micro and nanoscale simulations” Physica Medica 32 (10), 1187–1200. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2016.09.007. |
| Choice A: | True. |
| Choice B: | False. |
| Question 9: Which of the following belongs to chemical stage of water radiolysis?
|
| Reference: | Kalantzis G, Emfietzoglou D and Hadjidoukas P 2012 A unified spatio-temporal parallelization framework for accelerated Monte Carlo radiobiological modeling of electron tracks and subsequent radiation chemistry Computer Physics Communications 183 1683-95. |
| Choice A: | Transport of radiation particles and energy deposition. |
| Choice B: | Generation of ionized and excited water molecules and subexcitation electrons. |
| Choice C: | Dissociation of ionized and excited water molecules, and solvation of subexcitation electrons. |
| Choice D: | Diffusion of the radiolytic molecules and chemical reactions between them. |
| Question 10: Why is the simulation of the chemical stage of water radiolysis more time consuming than the other two stages?
|
| Reference: | Tian Z, Jiang SB, Jia X. “Accelerated Monte Carlo Simulation on the Chemical Stage in Water Radiolysis using GPU”, PMB (in print), 2017. |
| Choice A: | The chemical stage involves several orders of magnitude in terms of time, and requires many time steps to simulate this dynamic process. |
| Choice B: | An incident ionizing particle can generate a large number of radiolytic molecules in water, whose activities need to be simulated in this stage. |
| Choice C: | The mutual and competitive chemical reactions between the radiolytic molecules cause a highly correlated many-body simulation problem. |
| Choice D: | All of the above. |
