We'd like to invite you to our Women in Translation Month Discussion Panel, this Friday,
Aug. 27, from 12:30–2 p.m. (via Zoom).
According to the University of Rochester only about 3% of all books published in the
United States are works in translation. Of that 3%, fewer than 30% of those books
translated into English are written by women.
The Women in Translation initiative aims to raise awareness of translated literature
by women, queer, and nonbinary authors and promote gender and cultural diversity in
literary publishing.
Kathleen Maris Paltrineri is a poet and literary translator from Iowa. She is the recipient of a 2021-2022 Fulbright Fellowship to edit and translate an anthology of contemporary Norwegian ecopoetry. She holds
an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative
Writing from the University of New Hampshire. Her poems are forthcoming from Bennington
Review and her translations of Kristin Berget's poetry collection and when the light
comes it will be fantastic are forthcoming from Brink Literary Journal. Her interviews
with translators and authors have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Exchanges:
Journal of Literary Translation, and Origins: The International Writing Program Podcast,
which she created and edited while she was the Fall Residency coordinator at the IWP.
Jenna Tang is a Taiwanese writer and a literary translator from Chinese and Spanish. She graduated
with an MFA in Fiction Creative Writing from The New School in New York City. Her
translations are published in Restless Books' international anthology And We Came
Outside and Saw the Stars Again, Latin American Literature Today, AAWW, McSweeney's,
Catapult, and elsewhere. Her interviews can be found at World Literature Today and
Words Without Borders. She is currently based in Long Island City, New York, working
on her novel The Sirens. She was selected as one of the eight emerging translators
for the 2021 ALTA Emerging Translators Mentorship program. She is mentored by Mike
Fu, translator of Sanmao's Stories of the Sahara.
Helsinki University Hospital is working with industry partners to realize the clinical potential of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) for complex cancer treatments
Clinical translation: the new BNCT treatment room at Helsinki University Hospital, showing the beam-shaping assembly (left), robotic couch (centre) and in-room CT scanner (right). (Courtesy: Neutron Therapeutics)
Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is a biologically guided radiotherapy modality that has shown significant promise in clinical trials for the treatment of malignant brain tumours and locally recurrent head-and-neck cancers – complex indications that are difficult to address using conventional radiotherapy techniques. Now, clinicians and physicists at Helsinki University Hospital in Finland – supported by a network of industry partners including Neutron Therapeutics, Siemens Healthineers and BEC – are aiming to take BNCT into the clinical mainstream by exploiting a compact, accelerator-based neutron source that forms part of a purpose-built treatment unit within Helsinki’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Commissioning of the accelerator-based BNCT facility is already well advanced, with an initial clinical trial scheduled for mid-2022 on a small cohort of patients (around 30 or so) with inoperable head-and-neck cancers. “The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority has approved the new facility for neutron-beam commissioning,” explains Liisa Porra, project manager of the work-in-progress facility and a medical physicist at Helsinki University Hospital. “Over the coming months,” she adds, “the project team’s focus will shift to verification and validation of the neutron source and the end-to-end treatment workflow, including the patient-positioning robot and in-room CT scanner.”
Biological targeting
In terms of fundamentals, BNCT uses a non-invasive two-step process to target cancer at the cellular level while minimizing collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The first step of the treatment sees patients infused with a tumour-seeking drug (most commonly the boronated amino acid boronophenylalanine) containing a non-radioactive, enriched isotope of boron (10B). Subsequently, the tumour target volume is exposed to a beam of low-energy neutrons, which split the 10B atoms into alpha particles and 7Li nuclei – highly ionizing particles that cause significant damage to the DNA of cancer cells.
Owing to the enhanced accumulation of the 10B carrier in tumour cells, BNCT is characterized by steep dose gradients between cancerous tissue and normal tissue (with significantly more radiation dose deposited in the tumour). “The radiobiology is such that BNCT can be used to treat areas that have been previously irradiated with conventional radiotherapy as well as tumours located adjacent to sensitive organs like the brain stem or the spinal cord,” notes Heikki Joensuu, professor of radiotherapy and oncology at Helsinki University Hospital and senior clinical consultant to the Helsinki BNCT facility.
Joensuu, for his part, is one of the main-movers within Finland’s pioneering BNCT development programme, having worked on clinical trials at the FiR 1 nuclear research reactor in Espoo from 1999 up to its closure in 2012. “We treated more than 200 patients at FiR 1 with malignant brain or head-and-neck cancers,” he explains. “The results demonstrated the clinical efficacy and safety of the technique, while yielding best-practice approaches for BNCT dosimetry and patient/machine QA.”
Figure 1: The key enabling technologies in Helsinki University Hospital’s BNCT facility. (A) compact proton accelerator; (B) proton beam optics; (C) beam-shaping assembly; (D) robotic couch; (E) rail-mounted CT scanner. (Courtesy: Neutron Therapeutics)
Yet it was the reliance on access to a modified nuclear reactor – a common feature of all BNCT clinical studies over recent decades – that hitherto limited the clinical potential of BNCT R&D efforts. “Our new accelerator-based BNCT facility is located on the hospital campus – a strategic breakthrough that will transform the logistics and economics of patient treatment with neutrons,” Joensuu adds. “Other key innovations – the use of robotic patient positioning and in-room CT for image guidance, for example – will deliver greatly enhanced treatment accuracy, streamlined workflows and increased patient throughput. Having a CT capability in the treatment room will also support future research studies on functional imaging, including the use of functional CT perfusion to evaluate treatment response to BNCT.”
Taking BNCT into the clinic
At the heart of Helsinki’s hospital-based BNCT facility is nuBeam, a compact accelerator-based neutron source from Neutron Therapeutics, a specialist BNCT equipment maker headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts. The neutron source is housed in a dedicated accelerator and beamline room (65 m2) and comprises a number of discrete building blocks: a single-ended 2.6 MeV electrostatic proton accelerator designed to operate at 30 mA; a beam transport system; an online proton-beam monitoring system; a rotating solid lithium target for neutron generation; a beam shaping assembly (with circular beam delimiter sizes from 8 cm to 20 cm); and an online neutron-beam monitoring system (see figures 1 and 2).
Treatment planning, meanwhile, is based on full Monte Carlo (MC) simulation using CT, MR and PET images, with the planning software defining the patient geometric model including target volumes, organs at risk and their tissue compositions. Worth noting as well that the treatment dose is controlled via direct measurement of the neutron fluence by the online beam-monitoring detectors (rather than relying on calibrated proton current data).
Figure 2: Layout of the Helsinki BNCT facility. The accelerator and beamline, treatment room, control room and patient preparation room are all located on the ground floor. Laboratories and offices are on the upper floor, with restricted access for approved clinical personnel. (Courtesy: Helsinki University Hospital)
Downstream from the nuBeam source, the patient treatment room (55 m2) is fitted out with a robotic patient positioning system, exacure, from German medical technology specialist BEC. The custom-modified industrial robot can not only be positioned in all three dimensions, and with six degrees of freedom, but also be moved along the ceiling towards and away from the neutron-beam nozzle. An integrated optical tracking system monitors the treatment couch position 500x per second to apply corrections (accurate to ±0.5 mm) for patient positioning and CT imaging. The latter is performed with a rail-mounted Siemens Healthineers SOMATOM CT Sliding Gantry, which takes in-room CT images for comparison with the planning images to ensure precise patient set-up ahead of treatment delivery.
“Patient positioning for BNCT is even more challenging than for conventional radiotherapy modalities,” explains Mikko Tenhunen, chief medical physicist at Helsinki University Hospital. “The horizontal nature of the neutron beam means we will often require two or even three unique couch set-ups to deliver a range of treatment fields.”
More broadly, implementing a new BNCT workflow from scratch brings its own unique set of challenges. Any equipment placed near the neutron beam – the positioning robot, for example – is covered with neutron-absorbing material to inhibit activation, while all patient-support devices – such as pillows, cushions and restraints – are tested for susceptibility to neutron activation before being cleared for use in the treatment room. The treatment facility is also equipped with a high-purity Ge gamma spectrometer for neutron activation analysis; paired ionization chambers with water and PMMA phantoms for estimating neutron and gamma-ray absorbed dose to reference tissue; and an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry device for analysis of blood-boron concentration prior to treatment.
Due diligence
Right now, Tenhunen and colleagues are laser-focused on equipment commissioning in advance of the BNCT clinical trial next summer. “All of the main subsystems of the BNCT facility have been tested separately,” he says, “while end-to-end validation of the treatment workflow will follow later this year. Ultimately, clinical success is all about how the various subsystems integrate together to deliver optimum outcomes across treatment planning, treatment delivery and treatment management.”
The outlook, it seems, is bright for the clinical application of BNCT technology. “The new Helsinki facility will be the first in-hospital BNCT treatment system in Europe,” concludes Joensuu. “It’s a significant landmark – one that we hope will promote clinical validation and wide-scale adoption of BNCT by cancer treatment centres around the world.”
The infectious track, named after a “pepa” -- meaning pill in English -- narrates the story of someone who only wants to party all night long and live the moment.
Below, check out the full lyrics translated to English.
I don’t care what people say about me
Live your life that I live mine
It’s only one life, enjoy the moment
That time ends and it doesn’t turn back
Drinking, smoking, and joking around
I continue partying every day
Continue, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh (Farru)
Continue, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh (Farru)
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Wild
Drugged
What a freaking vibe
Rainbow
Fa-Fa-rru
Raise your hands and bottles
We always have the movie in play
Today we’re going to party until it’s daytime
I’m relaxed, I’m enjoying myself
The sun is out
Bring out the hookah and alcohol
And light it up, oh-oh, woh-oh-oh
This got out of control
And continue it, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Fa-Fa-rru
What a freaking vibe
Rainbow
I don’t care what people say about me
Live your life that I live mine
It’s only one life, enjoy the moment
That time ends and it doesn’t turn back
Drinking, smoking, and joking around
I continue partying every day
Continue, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh (Farru)
Continue, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh (Farru)
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Pepa and water for the hangover
Everyone on pills at the club
Wild
Drugged
What a freaking vibe
Rainbow
Fa-Fa-rru
Dímelo, Chino
The Most Winning
Victor Cárdenas
White Star
Sharo Towers
La 167
La 167
Victims could be identified as ‘martyrs, but not freedom fighters’: ICHR sources
The martyrs of Wagon Tragedy too would be de-listed from the compendium on martyrs of India’s Freedom struggle. A three-member review panel of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is understood to have proposed the removal of the names, including four Hindus, from the 5th volume of the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle (1857-1947).
While majority of the dead were Muslims, Kunnapalli Achuthan Nayar, Meletath Sankaran Nayar, two tenant-cultivators, and Kizhakkilaapalathil Tatan Unnipurayan and Cholakarambayil Chetti Chipu, two ‘coolies,’ were the Hindus among the victims.
The Hindu had earlier reported that the panel had suggested the exclusion of the martyrs of the 1921 Malabar rebellion, from the list.
The dictionary edition that is being reviewed had noted that the Wagon Tragedy victims were “taken into custody in connection with the Malabar rebellion of 1921 against the combination of the British colonial authorities and the exploitative Jenmis,” and “transported to Podanur Central Prison, near Coimbatore, from Tirur, in an almost air-tight railway goods wagon on 19 November 1921.”
As many as 56 persons were found dead due to suffocation, when the condition of the captives was checked at Podanur. Six prisoners died en route to hospital and eight in the hospital, it was noted.
The ICHR sources felt that the victims could very well be identified as “martyrs but not freedom fighters.” They did not qualify to be included in the dictionary on martyrs of Indian Freedom Struggle. The police records and other historical documents proved that the victims were booked for rioting and forceful religious conversions among other charges, they said.
Cause of agitation
While reviewing the entries, the panel looked into the cause of the agitation and the events that led to the tragedy. The protesters never addressed the issues of nationality or national freedom but fought for establishing a Caliphate. The “Khilafat” agitation had turned violent, ignoring the appeal of the national leaders of the freedom movement for peaceful protests, they said.
The Wagon Tragedy had left a deep impact in the socio-political history of the Malabar region. The Tirur municipality had named its town hall after the victims and a replica of the wagon was set up there.
