Curium isotopes in Chernobyl fallout

In nuclear reactors plutonium and transplutonium isotopes are produced by multiple neutron capture of uranium and plutonium and are important for the energy production and their composition reflects the core burnout. Under normal operation these elements are not released to the environment in significant amounts. There are accordingly very few areas or source terms where exotic transplutonium elements, such as curium isotopes, can be studied in the environment. The Chernobyl accident provided a complex spectrum of fission and activation products in fallout while the relative amounts, compared to the core inventory, of refractory elements such as transuranium and transplutonium elements were small. The major alpha-activity consisted of ²⁴²Cm (T _1/2 = 163 d) that would have decayed after a few years. In this study we have demonstrated the presence of so called supported ²⁴²Cm from the long-lived ²⁴²Am^m (T _1/2 = 141 a) in environmental samples, following fallout from the Chernobyl accident. It has also been possible to assess the core burn up by using the data obtained for the Cm isotopes. The curium isotopes ²⁴³Cm (T _1/2 = 29.1 a) and ²⁴⁴Cm (T _1/2 = 18.1 a) cannot be resolved by conventional alpha-spectrometry. The assessment of these isotopes in environmental samples contaminated from the Chernobyl accident has been made by studying the effective half-life of the mixture of the isotopes. The data are compared with those previously obtained by high-resolution alpha-spectrometry and spectral deconvolution.     

Pyridazine derivatives. Part 40: Reactivity of 5-alkynylpyridazin-3(2H)-ones toward hydrochloric acid

5-Alkynylpyridazin-3(2H)-ones or 5-(2-chloroalkenyl)pyridazin-3(2H)-ones were isolated during the cleavage of the methoxymethyl group in a series of 5-alkynyl-2-methoxymethylpyridazin-3(2H)-ones by treatment with hydrochloric acid. The efficient and selective cleavage of the methoxymethyl group in these compounds can be performed under mild conditions by employing aluminium chloride.     

Large configuration interaction calculations of nuclear spin-spin coupling constants: III. Vibrational effects in ammonia

Large configuration interaction calculations of the proton—proton coupling constant for several geometrical configurations of the ammonia molecules are reported. The analytical expressions for the energy surface and the coupling constant as functions of two cartesian displacement coordinates are fitted to the calculated values. The potential is used for the calculation of the vibrational wavefunctions for ¹⁵NH₃ and ¹⁵ND₃ species and the vibrational averaging of the coupling constant is carried out using these functions. Though the value of the coupling constants shows a very strong geometry dependence, the vibrational corrections are found to be small. A possible correlation of the proton—proton coupling constant with an angular parameter in the NH₂ group in RNH₂ compounds is indicated.     

Validation of HPLC Analysis of 2-Phenoxyethanol, 1-Phenoxypropan-2-ol, Methyl, Ethyl, Propyl, Butyl and Benzyl 4-Hydroxybenzoate (Parabens) in Cosmetic Products, with Emphasis on Decision Limit and Detection Capability

The Commission Decision of August 12, 2002 on the performance of analytical methods and the interpretation of results was applied to the HPLC method for the analysis of parabens, 2-phenoxyethanol and 1-phenoxypropan-2-ol in cosmetic products. This method is published in the seventh Directive 96/45/EC of the European Commission. Non-compliant concentrations, taking into account the data distribution (CC) and the probability of false negative values (CC) were determined. The repeatability and reproducibility amount to <4% and <7%, respectively. These values were obtained with blanc samples that were fortified in the laboratory. Calibration linearity was confirmed by absence of lack of fit for all seven preservatives. Matrix effects on the determinations of the preservatives in body milk or shampoo are negligible.     

Compound Poisson approximation for unbounded functions on a group,with application to large deviations

Summary A second order error bound is obtained for approximating h d by h d , where is a convolution of measures andQ a compound Poisson measure on a measurable abelian group, and the functionh is not necessarily bounded. This error bound is more refined than the usual total variation bound in the sense that it contains the functionh. The method used is inspired by Stein's method and hinges on bounding Radon-Nikodym derivatives related to . The approximation theorem is then applied to obtain a large deviation result on groups, which in turn is applied to multivariate Poisson approximation.Research of the second author was supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds