Estimation of radon and thoron caused dose at exraction and processing sites of mineral sand mining area in Vietnam (HA TINH province)

Mineral sands are mined in several countries to supply to the titanium and zircon producing industries. Coastal black mineral sands usually contain, besides ilmenite (FeTiO₃) and rutile (TiO₂), radioactive minerals such as zircon (ZrSiO₄) and monazite (RePO₄). Radon and thoron activity concentration originated from natural radioactive contents of the black mineral sand was monitored at the extraction and processing for black minerals in the coastal areas of Ha Tinh Province, one of the around 40 coastal mineral sand deposits in Vietnam. The survey was carried out with the Raduet chambers made by Radosys Ltd—Hungary. The obtained results for 25 investigated points show that the measured values are not high in the residential houses and in case of the sand extraction site as well. At the titanium processing plant the measured values were higher than outside the facility (Radon: 18–55 Bq/m³ with average of 34 Bq/³ and Thoron 33–118 Bq/m³ with average of 58 Bq/m³) but still comparable to the average concentration of the world published by UNSCEAR. The typical outdoor levels of radon and thoron gas are each of the order of 10 Bq/m³. Although the radon concentrations were low in the zircon and titanium processing plants, the thoron concentrations in the houses for separating rutile and zircon were very high. At zircon processing factory, the thoron concentration could reach 2,931 Bq/m³ and the estimated annual effective dose would be 21.4 mSv/a. Intervention has to be taken in order to reduce the thoron level in this factory since the level of thoron and its progenies corresponding to an annual occupational effective dose is beyond the action level of 6 mSv/a.     

Specific ion effects on the electrophoretic mobility of small,highly charged peptides: A modeling study

In this work, we use coarse‐grained modeling to study the free solution electrophoretic mobility of small highly charged peptides (lysine, arginine, and short oligos thereof (up to nonapeptides)) in NaCl and Na₂SO₄ aqueous solutions at neutral pH and room temperature. The experimental data are taken from the literature. A bead modeling methodology that treats the electrostatics at the level of the nonlinear Poisson Boltzmann equation developed previously in our laboratory is able to account for the mobility of all peptides in NaCl, but not Na₂SO₄. The peptide mobilities in Na₂SO₄ can be accounted for by including sulfate binding in the model and this is proposed as one possible explanation for the discrepancy. Oligo arginine peptides bind more sulfate than oligo lysines and sulfate binding increases with the oligo length.     

Observations of high-energy electrons in the stratosphere

Summary To investigate the variation of the flux of cosmic radiation in the vicinity of the Earth, stratospheric balloon soundings are performed weekly at Campinas (Brazil). During some soundings, enhancements of the counting rates are detected. In this paper data from these excesses as well as their analysis are shown. It seems to indicate that possibly high-energy electrons are injected from the lower boundary of the radiation belt into the stratosphere.

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Riassunto Per ricercare la variazione del flusso delle radiazioni cosmiche in prossimità della Terra, sono fatti funzionare settimanalmente palloni sonda a Campinas (Brasile). In alcune sonde si registrano aumenti delle frequenze di conteggio. In questo lavoro si mostrano dati da questi eccessi nonché le loro analisi. Ciò sembra indicare che gli elettroni ad alta energia sono probabilmente immessi dallo strato inferiore della fascia di radiazioni nella stratosfera.

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Резюме для исследования изменения потока космического излучения в окрестности Земли еженедельно запускаются стратосферные шары-зонды в лаборатории Кампинас (Бразилия). Во время некоторых зондирований зарегистрированы увеличения интенсивности излучения. В этой статье приводятся данные измерений и их анализ. Проведенный анализ показывает, что эти случаи возможно связаны с электронами высоких энергий, инжектированными из нижней границы радиационного пояса в стратосферу.

     

An ant-based algorithm for coloring graphs

This paper presents an ant-based algorithm for the graph coloring problem. An important difference that distinguishes this algorithm from previous ant algorithms is the manner in which ants are used in the algorithm. Unlike previous ant algorithms where each ant colors the entire graph, each ant in this algorithm colors just a portion of the graph using only local information. These individual coloring actions by the ants form a coloring of the graph. Even with the lack of pheromone laying capacity by the ants, the algorithm performed well on a set of 119 benchmark graphs. Furthermore, the algorithm produced very consistent results, having very small standard deviations over 50 runs of each graph tested.     

Channel effect in isomeric ratio of 137m,gCe produced in different nuclear reactions

This work presents the experimental study of the isomeric ratio of ^137mCe–^137gCe produced in ¹³⁸Ce(γ, n) ^137m,gCe photonuclear reaction, in neutron capture reaction ¹³⁶Ce(n, γ) ^137m,gCe and in the two simultaneous reactions ¹³⁸Ce(γ, n) ^137m,gCe and ¹³⁶Ce(n, γ) ^137m,gCe in the mixed photon—neutron field by the activation method. The investigated samples were irradiated at the bremsstrahlung photon flux, in the epithermal and thermal-epithermal neutron beam and in the mixed photon-neutron field constructed at the electron accelerator Microtron MT-25 of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reaction, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia. The results were analyzed, discussed and compared with those of other authors to examine the role of the channel effect in nuclear reaction and provide the nuclear data for theoretical model interpretation of nuclear reactions.

     

Chemical Composition and Antifungal Activity of Essential Oil from the Roots of Tinomiscium petiolare

Chemistry of Natural Compounds -     

Sobolev spaces and approximation by affine spanning systems

We develop conditions on a Sobolev function \(\psi \in W^{m,p}({\mathbb{R}}^d)\) such that if \(\widehat{\psi}(0) = 1\) and ψ satisfies the Strang–Fix conditions to order m ? 1, then a scale averaged approximation formula holds for all \(f \in W^{m,p}({\mathbb{R}}^d)\) :

$ f(x) = \lim_{J \to \infty} \frac{1}{J} \sum_{j=1}^{J} \sum_{k \in {{\mathbb{Z}}}^d} c_{j,k}\psi(a_j x - k) \quad {\rm in} W^{m, p}({{\mathbb{R}}}^d).$

The dilations { a _j } are lacunary, for example a _j =  2 ^j , and the coefficients c _j,k are explicit local averages of f, or even pointwise sampled values, when f has some smoothness. For convergence just in \({W^{m - 1,p}({\mathbb{R}}^d)}\) the scale averaging is unnecessary and one has the simpler formula \(f(x) = \lim_{j \to \infty} \sum_{k \in {\mathbb{Z}}^d} c_{j,k}\psi(a_j x - k)\) . The Strang–Fix rates of approximation are recovered. As a corollary of the scale averaged formula, we deduce new density or “spanning” criteria for the small scale affine system \(\{\psi(a_j x - k) : j > 0, k \in {\mathbb{Z}}^d \}\) in \(W^{m,p}({\mathbb{R}}^d)\) . We also span Sobolev space by derivatives and differences of affine systems, and we raise an open problem: does the Gaussian affine system span Sobolev space?