Radioactivity concentrations in topsoil samples from the Thrace region of Turkey and assessment of radiological hazard

The activity concentrations of gamma emitting radionuclides were measured in surface soil samples from the Thrace region. ²³²Th, ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs activities and physico-chemical parameters of the soil samples were determined in samples collected from 73 sampling stations. Radionuclide concentrations measured were compared with those found in the samples from other locations of Turkey and from different countries. The average activity concentrations of ²³²Th, ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs were found to be 24.71 ± 8.79, 22.30 ± 7.93, 32.09±12.44, 509.00±160.05, 32.74±29.24 Bq kg^?1, respectively. The mean value of the annual effective dose equivalent from the outdoor terrestrial gamma radiation was calculated as 57.2 μ Sv.     

Swelling Kinetics of PAAm–κ-Carrageenan Composites: A Fluorescence Technique

The steady-state fluorescence (SSF) technique was introduced for studying swelling of disc-shaped polyacrylamide (PAAm) gels containing various amount of κ?carrageenan (κC). They were prepared by free-radical cross-linking copolymerization. N,N^′-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS) and ammonium persulfate (APS) were added as a cross-linker and an initiator, respectively. Composite gels were prepared at 80°C with pyranine as a fluorescence probe. After drying of these gels, swelling kinetics were performed in water at 60°C by real-time monitoring of the pyranine fluorescence intensity, I, which decreased as swelling proceeded. The Li–Tanaka equation was used to determine the swelling time constants, τ ₁, and cooperative diffusion coefficients, D ₀, from fluorescence intensity, weight, and volume variations of the gels during the swelling processes in all cases. It was observed that τ ₁ decreased and D ₀ increased as the κC concentrations in the composites were increased indicating that high κC gels swell faster than low κC gels.     

Cold valleys of superheavy elements with deformed targets and projectiles

The dependence of the cold driving potential on the deformation of the incoming target and projectile is investigated in the case of the synthesis of the superheavy nuclei ²⁵⁶No, ²⁸⁶112, ²⁹²114, ²⁹⁶116, and ³⁰⁶122. The occurrence of valleys in the driving potential as a function on the interfragment distance and the mass asymmetry is studied for different fixed orientations of the colliding nuclei such as the pole-pole, pole-equator, equator-equator, and equator-equator-crossed and compared to the case when the nuclei are assumed to be spherical or when the potential is averaged over the orientation.     

Dynamics and nonlinearities of the BOLD response at very short stimulus durations

In designing a functional imaging experiment or analyzing data, it is typically assumed that task duration and hemodynamic response are linearly related to each other. However, numerous human and animal studies have previously reported a deviation from linearity for short stimulus durations (<4 s). Here, we investigated nonlinearities of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals following visual stimulation of 5 to 1000 ms duration at two different luminance levels in human subjects. It was found that (a) a BOLD response to stimulus durations as short as 5 ms can be reliably detected; this stimulus duration is shorter than employed in any previous study investigating BOLD signal time courses; (b) the responses are more nonlinear than in any other previous study: the BOLD response to 1000 ms stimulation is only twice as large as the BOLD response to 5 ms stimulation although 200 times more photons were projected onto the retina; (c) the degree of nonlinearity depends on stimulus intensity; that is, nonlinearities have to be characterized not only by stimulus duration but also by stimulus features like luminance. These findings are especially of most practical importance in rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experimental designs. In addition, an 'initial dip' response--thought to be generated by a rapid increase in cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen metabolism (CMRO2) relative to cerebral blood flow--was observed and shown to colocalize well with the positive BOLD response. Highly intense stimulation, better tolerated by human subjects for short stimulus durations, causes early CMRO2 increase, and thus, the experimental design utilized in this study is better for detecting the initial dip than standard fMRI designs. These results and those from other groups suggest that short stimulation combined with appropriate experimental designs allows neuronal events and interactions to be examined by BOLD signal analysis, despite its slow evolution.     

Reinvestigation of the decay scheme of the short-lived isomeric states in112In

The two short-lived isomeric states in¹¹²In have been reinvestigated by means of the¹¹²Cd(d, 2n) and¹⁰⁹Ag (α, n) reactions. Measurements of delayed X- andγ-ray, lifetime and TDPAD spectra have been performed. A 6.32(3) keVγ-ray has been identified in the isomeric decay and anM1 multipolarity has been assigned to it on the basis of the measured internal conversion coefficients:α _L =196(39) andα _tot=231(35). TheE1+M2(δ =+0.24(4)) andE2 multipolarities have been determined for the 263 and 188 keV transitions deexciting the 8^?(T _1/2=2.82(2) μs) and 7⁺ (T _1/2=0.93(2) μs) isomeric states, respectively. A revised isomeric decay scheme is presented.     

High-spin states in the 96Tc nucleus

High-spin states in the ⁹⁶Tc nucleus have been studied with the reactions ⁸²Se(¹⁹F,5nγ) at 68 MeV and Zn(³⁶S,αpxn) at 130 MeV. Two γ-ray cascades (irregular bandlike structures) have been observed up to an excitation energy of about 10 MeV and spin 21-22?. Received: 19 January 2001 / Accepted: 30 March 2001     

Quantitative Analysis of Acetazolamide in Solid Dosage Forms with 1H-Nmr Spectroscopy

A rapid and specific proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic method was developed for determining acetazolamide in tablets. Maleic acid was used as the internal standard and DMSO-d₆ served as the NMR solvent. the concentration of drug per unit dose was calculated from the integration values for the resonance signals of acetazolamide at 2.14 ppm and maleic acid at 6.20 ppm. the method using commercial products gave comparable results of those obtained by the method of USP XXIII.     

(Co)cyclic (Co)homology of Bialgebroids: An Approach via (Co)monads

For a (co)monad T _l on a category , an object X in , and a functor , there is a (co)simplex in . The aim of this paper is to find criteria for para-(co)cyclicity of Z ^*. Our construction is built on a distributive law of T _l with a second (co)monad T _r on , a natural transformation , and a morphism in . The (symmetrical) relations i and w need to satisfy are categorical versions of Kaygun’s axioms of a transposition map. Motivation comes from the observation that a (co)ring T over an algebra R determines a distributive law of two (co)monads and on the category of R-bimodules. The functor Π can be chosen such that is the cyclic R-module tensor product. A natural transformation is given by the flip map and a morphism is constructed whenever T is a (co)module algebra or coring of an R-bialgebroid. The notion of a stable anti-Yetter-Drinfel’d module over certain bialgebroids, the so-called  ×  _R -Hopf algebras, is introduced. In the particular example when T is a module coring of a  ×  _R -Hopf algebra and X is a stable anti-Yetter-Drinfel’d -module, the para-cyclic object Z _* is shown to project to a cyclic structure on . For a -Galois extension , a stable anti-Yetter-Drinfel’d -module T _S is constructed, such that the cyclic objects and are isomorphic. This extends a theorem by Jara and Ştefan for Hopf Galois extensions. As an application, we compute Hochschild and cyclic homologies of a groupoid with coefficients in a stable anti-Yetter-Drinfel’d module, by tracing it back to the group case. In particular, we obtain explicit expressions for (coinciding relative and ordinary) Hochschild and cyclic homologies of a groupoid. The latter extends results of Burghelea on cyclic homology of groups.     

Improvements of Tolerance to Stress Conditions by Genetic Engineering in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae during Ethanol Production

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, industrial yeast isolate, has been of great interest in recent years for fuel ethanol production. The ethanol yield and productivity depend on many inhibitory factors during the fermentation process such as temperature, ethanol, compounds released as the result of pretreatment procedures, and osmotic stress. An ideal strain should be able to grow under different stress conditions occurred at different fermentation steps. Development of tolerant yeast strains can be achieved by reprogramming pathways supporting the ethanol metabolism by regulating the energy balance and detoxicification processes. Complex gene interactions should be solved for an in-depth comprehension of the yeast stress tolerance mechanism. Genetic engineering as a powerful biotechnological tool is required to design new strategies for increasing the ethanol fermentation performance. Upregulation of stress tolerance genes by recombinant DNA technology can be a useful approach to overcome inhibitory situations. This review presents the application of several genetic engineering strategies to increase ethanol yield under different stress conditions including inhibitor tolerance, ethanol tolerance, thermotolerance, and osmotolerance.