Radiotracer techniques courses at Eastern Michigan University: Evolution with changing clientele

The radiochemistry program at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) was initiated twenty years ago. A three-semester-hour lecture/laboratory course was offered specifically for chemistry and biology seniors and first year graduate students. As demand increased from medical technologists, a special course was introduced in radiation and radioimmunoassay. The Nuclear Medicine Technology program required a different approach. A special mini course was also taught for biologists. At present the 3-hour course is being reevaluated to address the needs of biochemists and toxicologists. The evolution of nuclear science courses at EMU and their current status is discussed.     

The United States Department of Energy funded program: Summer schools in nuclear and radio-chemistry

Following several national surveys that clearly indicated both a paucity of universities offering nuclear chemistry courses, and a severe shortage of personnel trained and educated in nuclear sciences, the US Department of Energy (DOE) agreed to fund a special summer program. This program would take 12 undergraduates on a competitive scholarship basis from across the nation, and provide them with an intensive 6 week course in the fundamentals of nuclear science. The first such course was taught in the summer of 1984 at San Jose State University in California, and has met each summer since that time. In this course, the students cover material equivalent to approximately 2 semester units of health physics and radiological safety, 3 semester units of lecture material on nuclear chemistry, radiochemistry, uses of radionuclides, and nuclear instrumentation, and 3 semester units of laboratory work in radiochemistry, radiation chemistry, and associated topics in nuclear science. A second course was opened in 1989, with the same curriculum and intent, and sited at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. With regard to intent, both courses are very successful, with a majority of persons going on to complete graduate degrees in some aspect of nuclear science (nuclear chemistry, nuclear physics, health physics, nuclear medicine PhD programs, and synthesis with radio-nuclides or programs such as nuclear pharmacy or pharmacology) or nuclear medicine and oncology via MD programs.Presently a member of the Chemistry Department, formerly Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, and now Dean of the College of Science at SJSU.     

Synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted naphth [1,2-d]imidazole-4,5-diones

A convenient synthesis of 3-acylamino-1,2-naphthoquinones (I) is presented. The addition of aromatic and aliphatic amines to I followed by exposure to oxygen gives the corresponding 4-arylamino- or 4-alkylamino-3-acylamino-1,2-naphthoquinones (II). The addition of 4-cyclo-hexylbutylamine to 3-trichloroacetamino-1,2-naphthoquinone took an anomalous course and 1-(4′-cyclohexylbutyl)-3(H)-naphth[1,2-d]imidazoline-2,4,5-trione (VII) was obtained. Treatment of II with refluxing acetic acid gave 1,2-disubstituted naphth[1,2-d]imidazole-4,5-diones (III). The reaction was successful with a variety of 4-substituted amino-3-acylamino-1,2-naphthoquinones (II) and usually occurred in excellent yield. However, the cyclization of II to III is subject to steric limitation and attempts to cyclize 4-tert-butylamino-3-acetamino-1,2-naphthoquinone to the corresponding imidazole derivative was unsuccessful. The infrared, ultraviolet and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of I, II, and III are discussed in relation to their structures.     

The Nuclear and Radiochemistry in Chemistry Education Curriculum Project

Summary We present the outline of a comprehensive website based offering of a basic graduate level or senior undergraduate level course in nuclear and radiochemistry. This password protected course follows classical pedagogical treatment of the subject. However, it has been augmented by the implementation of Flash animations to better teach basic nuclear and radiochemistry concepts. As well, the website is linked to many Internet related resources. All lectures and problems are presented in Microsoft Power Point format with Flash animations incorporated. A series of six experiments in radiochemistry, also offered in the course is available in a downloadable Microsoft Word format.     

课程思政背景下分析化学辩证元素探索及教学实践

In the university, analytical chemistry is an important basic course for junior college students. There is a variety of dialectical views, rules, and relationships of materialism in analytical chemistry. Fully excavating these dialectical elements and infiltrating them into the classroom teaching process is necessary. This will not only help students deeply understand the subject knowledge, but also cultivate their dialectical thinking mode, establish the correct worldview and scientific methodology. This is conducive to the same resonance frequency between knowledge education and thinking education, and fits the current course ideological and political education. In the present paper, combining many years of teaching practice, the author briefly explains the integration of dialectical elements in analytical chemistry with the corresponding teaching content.     

核药物发展小记

简要回顾了20世纪70年代以来核药物领域发展的主要成就,并对目前在临床上应用最为广泛的核药物探针[18F]FDG作了重点介绍。[18F]FDG的发展可追溯至20世纪20年代,历经半个世纪终于成功应用于临床,在肿瘤、神经退行性疾病、心血管疾病的诊断中发挥了巨大作用。除此以外,本文也介绍了多肽类及蛋白类核药物的最新进展。在梳理核药物发展脉络的同时,本文也借此机会向读者介绍了几位为核药物发展做出巨大贡献的科学家,并作为晚辈向其致以崇高的敬意。最终,笔者希望向读者阐明核药物研究立足基础研究、面向临床问题的学科特色,也希望读者能通过对经典核药物发展脉络的了解,对自身的科学研究有所启发。     

Nuclear chemistry in the traditional undergraduate chemistry program: Activity across the curriculum

The traditional undergraduate program for chemistry majors, especially at institutions devoted solely to undergraduate education, has limited space for special topics courses in areas such as nuclear and radiochemistry. I propose a scheme whereby the basic topics covered in an introductory radiochemistry course are touched upon, and in some cases covered in detail, at some time during the four-year sequence of courses taken by a chemistry major.     

A web-based course in nuclear and radiochemistry

Over the last six years through a Department of Energy Radiochemistry Education Award Program (REAP) we have developed a completely web-based course in nuclear and radiochemistry given at the University of Texas at Austin. This course has had nuclear and radiation engineering and chemistry graduate students. While the course also has an extensive laboratory component only the lectures are web based. The lectures begin with a historical introduction of radiochemistry followed by two movies on Madame Curie. This is followed by the usual lectures on radioactivity, fundamental properties, radioactive decay, decay modes, and nuclear reactions. As section on radioactive waste management and nuclear fuel cycle is also presented. Lectures in neutron activation analysis, geo- and cosmochemistry, and plutonium chemistry have also been developed. All lectures are in power point with many animations and a significant number of solved problems. All students are required to make a short oral presentation on some aspect of nuclear and radiochemistry in their research or a chosen topic.     

Site-Specific Fluorescent Labeling of RNA Interior Positions

The introduction of fluorophores into RNA for both in vitro and in cellulo studies of RNA function and cellular distribution is a subject of great current interest. Here I briefly review methods, some well-established and others newly developed, which have been successfully exploited to site-specifically fluorescently label interior positions of RNAs, as a guide to investigators seeking to apply this approach to their studies. Most of these methods can be applied directly to intact RNAs, including (1) the exploitation of natural posttranslational modifications, (2) the repurposing of enzymatic transferase reactions, and (3) the nucleic acid-assisted labeling of intact RNAs. In addition, several methods are described in which specifically labeled RNAs are prepared de novo.     

Nuclear science summer school for high school students

We have developed a two-week summer lecture and laboratory course that introduces high school students to concepts in nuclear science. The program has operated at the San Jose State University Nuclear Science Facility for two years. Experienced high school science teachers run the summer school, assisted by other science teachers. Students consider the program to be effective. Its popularity is shown by numerous requests for reservations and the necessity to offer multiple sections in 1997. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A0553010 00006     

Engineering shapes of active colloids for tunable dynamics

Active particles can autonomously propel and have the tendency to organize into high-order ensembles and phases that evolve and reconfigure. They have emerged as a focused subject in contemporary colloid science, holding great promise in advancing fields, such as cargo delivery, sensing, micromachinery and microrobotics, and materials science. Realization of the full potentials of active particles requires delicate control of their dynamics in propulsion and assembly, which is challenging due to the out-of-equilibrium nature of such systems. Recently, systematically engineered colloidal shapes have been exploited as an effective means to tune and even program the dynamic behaviors of active particles. Various anisotropic particles, with controlled geometries and possessing either homogeneous or heterogeneous composition, have been fabricated, regulating how particles actively propel, interact, and assemble under several chemical and physical stimuli. In this paper, we provide an overview of these progresses. We also briefly discuss our view on the future directions and challenges.     

Determination of long-lived radionuclides in environmental media around a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant

Methods for the analysis of¹²⁹I and²⁴¹Pu are described briefly. Neutron activation is necessary to achieve an adequate degree of sensitivity for the measurement of¹²⁹I, but otherwise all laboratory manipulations are straightforward and use commonly-found, well-tried techniques. With these methods, both radionuclides can be measured easily in the terrestrial environment around a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant;²⁴¹Pu is measureable elsewhere in integrating media such as undisturbed soil.     

Chemical Reactivity of Alkylidene Phosphoranes and the Relevant Phosphonium Salts Toward Some Carbon-Nitrogen Systems

The published work on the main chemical reactions of alkylidene phosphoranes and the relevant phosphonium salts with different carbon-nitrogen systems are thoroughly discussed, whereas their importance as synthones in heterocyclic chemistry are indicated briefly, and the long controversy concerning their structure is only summarized in order to expose the latest results on the subject. The literature has been fully covered up the last two decades.     

Anthropogenic radioactive particles in the environment

Radioactive particles have been released from multiple sources since the mid-twentieth century. Famous examples include nuclear fuel particles from Chernobyl, glassy microparticles from Fukushima as well as particles from nuclear weapons production facilities (e.g., Windscale, United Kingdom and the facilities in the former Soviet Union), nuclear weapons accidents at Palomares (Spain) and Thule (Greenland), and atmospheric nuclear explosions. Current challenges in environmental research of radioactive particles include the drying of the cooling pond of Chernobyl NPP, which will cause the weathering of previously preserved fuel particles in the (former) sediment of the pond. Environmental aspects of resuspended particles as well as natural particles and aerosols contaminated with radionuclides (e.g., ¹³¹I) are briefly discussed.     

Radioisotope methodology course: Radioprotection aspects

Since 1962 a Radioisotopes Methodology Course is given annually at the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Buenos Aires University, Argentina, where usually professionals of the biomedical area assists. The current program has 222 hours of training: 122 hours devoted to theoretical aspects and 100 hours to intensive practical work. The training in radioprotection include subjects as: definitions, dosimetrical magnitudes and units, dose rate, equivalent dose, effective dose, exposition, dosimetry of internal and external sources, shielding, classification of working conditions and areas, transportation of radioactive materials, instrumentation associated to radioprotection and many application excersises. A total of 1085 professionals have passed their examination. Percentage distribution according to different professions can be resumed as follows: 16.1 physicians, 65.1 biochemists, 0.7 engineers, 2.0 biologist and 16.1 from others professions such pharmacists, etc. The training in radioprotection throughout the whole program is oriented to consolidate the general knowledge on the subject, independently from the previous universitary formation. We stress also the importance and differentiate the applications to biochemistry, principally those concerning the use of 125-I, as well as to nuclear medicine fundamentally through the utilisation of 99m-Tc generators.     

On-the-fly localization of electronic orbitals in Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics

The ab initio molecular-dynamics formalism of Car and Parrinello is extended to preserve the locality of the orbitals. The supplementary term in the Lagrangian does not affect the nuclear dynamics, but ensures "on the fly" localization of the electronic orbitals within a periodic supercell in the Gamma-point approximation. The relationship between the resulting equations of motion and the formation of a gauge-invariant Lagrangian combined with a gauge-fixing procedure is briefly discussed. The equations of motion can be used to generate a very stable and easy to implement numerical integration algorithm. It is demonstrated that this algorithm can be used to compute the trajectory of the maximally localized orbitals, known as Wannier orbitals, in ab initio molecular dynamics with only a modest increase in the overall computer time. In the present paper, the new method is implemented within the generalized gradient approximation to Kohn-Sham density-functional theory employing plane wave basis sets and atomic pseudopotentials. In the course of the presentation, we briefly discuss how the present approach can be combined with localized basis sets to design fast linear scaling ab initio molecular-dynamics methods.     

Radiochemical investigations of fast neutron-induced low-yield nuclear reactions

Radiochemical separation methods for K, Mn, Cu, Ga, Sr, Y, Nb, Ag, I, Ce, Eu, Lu and Pt, employing precipitation, adsorption, distillation, solvent extraction or ion-exchange, as used in the investigations of rare nuclear reactions such as (n, t) and (n,³He) at 14. 6 MeV, are described. For studying the (n, t) reaction at 23 MeV a method for the vacuum extraction and “low-level” gas-phase counting of tritium is outlined. The measured nuclear reaction cross-section data are discussed briefly.     

Analysis of Student Use of a World Wide Web Site Created as a Supplement for General Chemistry Instruction

A World Wide Web (WWW) site was developed on the subject of acids and bases for use as a supplement to the General Chemistry course. The site was used in two consecutive years of the course. Its effectiveness was assessed with surveys and with comparisons of grades for users and nonusers. Results show that students in general do not use the site to target their self-reported problem areas; instead, they tend to progress through the site in a linear fashion. Those students who used the site to help them with their problem areas were able to achieve a modest grade improvement over their performance on other exams.     

Fluorimetry compared to spectrophotometry for uranium evaluation in liquid waste

Uranium concentration levels in surface waters are of great importance because uranium presents both chemical and radiological hazard to the environment. The subject of this article is to establish that spectrophotometric method for uranium evaluation in effluents collected from liquid waste treatment generated during fabrication of nuclear fuel elements could be replaced by the optical fluorimetric technique. Both methods are briefly described. The comparison of the two methods was carried out with regard to international standards and national regulations offering from a statistical point of view a useful approach to compare two analytical measurement techniques. This methodology can be applied to any other measurement procedures. A discussion about the compliance of the fluorimetric analytical method with the mandatory discharge level of uranium concentration in surface waters is also presented.     

The American Chemical Society's Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology's summer schools in nuclear and radiochemistry

This successful educational program in nuclear and radiochemistry for advanced undergraduate students is described. Funding from the U.S. Department of Energy supports 24 fellowships for participants in the intensive six-week programs at San Jose State University (CA) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY). Students are provided transportation to and from the school site, room and board, books, lab supplies, and six units of college credit. The instructional program consists of lectures and laboratory exercises that cover the fundamentals of nuclear theory, radiochemistry, nuclear instrumentation, radiological safety, and applications in research, midicine, and industry. Guest lectures and field trips broaden the students' exposure to nuclear science. Assistance is provided in the following year to those students who wish to join a research project at a university or national laboratory, and thereafter, in their applications to graduate or professional school.