Natural radioactivity and radon exhalation rates in building materials used in Egypt

Natural and fabricated building materials commonly used in Egypt were surveyed for both natural radionuclides content and radon exhalation rate. These include raw as well as construction products. Concentration of natural radionuclides in all samples were determined by γ-ray spectroscopy with HPGe detector. For Radon exhalation rate measurements of fabricated samples, the seal can-technique has been applied using CR-39 plastic track detectors. The radiation hazard indices of the total natural radioactivity in the studied samples were estimated. The results were compared with the corresponding results of different countries and were found to be lying within the average world values. Radon exhalation rate in the studied samples varied between 197 (cement brick) and 907 mBq m⁻² h⁻¹ (blast furnace slag cement). The results of this survey suggest that, using blast furnace slag cement for pre-coating the internal walls of buildings in the Urban region of Egypt is discouraged and the replacement of clay brick by cement brick will be more healthy for the public.     

The effect of increasing the excitation level of the sodium atom on the structure of the NaArn polyatomic exciplexes

In this work, the geometrical structures, the formation energies, and electronic states of the Na(ms)Ar_n polyatomic exciplexes with m = 3-6 and n = 2-5 are studied by using a quantum-classical method. The interaction potential between an electronically excited sodium atom and argon atoms are calculated by using a one-electron model involving electron-Ar and electron-Na⁺ pseudopotentials, in which the Hamiltonian is diagonalized at every optimization step in the Basin Hopping algorithm. The relationship between the position of the electronically excited levels and the cluster geometry is investigated as a function of the excitation level and of the spatial extension of the excited electron orbital. We show that the equilibrium structures of the ground state Na(3s)Ar_n and those of the electronically excited states Na(4s)Ar_n, Na(5s)Ar_n, and Na(6s)Ar_n are significantly different. As a result of the detailed examination of the relationships between the geometrical structure and density distribution of the Na valence electron of the Na^∗Ar_n with n = 2-5 polyatomic exciplexes, we can see that for the Na(4s)Ar_n polyatomic exciplexes, the two extreme geometries, neutral Na(3s)Ar_n and ionic Na⁺Ar_n compete. It appears that none of them is the actual one. For Na(5s)Ar_n and Na(6s)Ar_n the valence electron is very weakly bound to the ionic core and described by a more diffused orbital so that the geometry and the formation energies of this excited state called Rydberg states converge towards those of the ionic cores.     

Efficient removal of iodine and chromium as anionic species from radioactive liquid waste using prepared iron oxide nanofibers

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Three synthetic hematite (SH) materials as iron oxides nanofibers were prepared and applied for the removal of 51Cr and radioiodine (131I) as...     

Ab initio and Monte Carlo studies of phase transitions and magnetic properties of YCrO3: Heisenberg model

By using the density functional theory (DFT) and Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) with the Heisenberg model, we have studied magnetic properties of the bulk perovskite YCrO₃. The exchange couplings of the Heisenberg model and the magnetic anisotropy are investigated. The 110 direction in the crystalline structure of the compound has shown the minimum energy, it is the easy magnetic direction. Using Monte Carlo simulations, the magnetizations behavior, the effects of system parameters and the critical exponents of the compound YCrO₃ are implemented. It is shown that the bulk perovskite YCrO₃ belongs to the 3D Heisenberg universality class.     

Broadening the frequency bandwidth of a finite extensibility nonlinear vibration absorber by exploiting its internal resonances

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this paper, the dynamics response of a finite extensibility nonlinear elastic (FENE) absorber attached to a nonlinear primary system is investigated by writing the modal...     

Structural characterization,thermal, DFT,cytotoxicity, and antimetastatic properties of cocaine complexes with La(III), Er(III), and Yb(III)

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Reaction of cocaine (Cn) with Ln(III) chloride salts [where Ln?=?La(III), Er(III), and Yb(III)] afforded complexes of the [Ln(Cn)Cl(OH2)3].2Cl type...     

Model for nucleon valence structure functions at allx,allp ⊥ and allQ 2 from the correspondence between QCD and DTU

We propose a simple parametrization of the nucleon valence structure functions at allx, allp _⊥ and allQ ². We use the DTU parton model to fix the parametrization at a reference point (Q ₀ ² =3 GeV²) and we mimic the QCD evolution by replacing the dimensioned parameters of the DTU parton model by functions depending onQ ². Excellent agreement is obtained with existing data.     

Dual model foru,d, s andc quark fragmentation functions

In the dual topological unitarization scheme, we derive a model for theu, d, ands quark fragmentation into mesons by considering the parton interpretation of planar one particle inclusive cross sections. A good agreement with experiment is obtained. Relying on these results, we generalize the model in order to include the charm fragmentation functions into any meson and again get a nice agreement with data.     

Quantum Discord in Optical Coherent States

We study the dynamics of quantum correlation of optical coherent-state qubits affected by the environment. It consists in sending these states via a decohering quantum channel. The states used as the support of the encoding information are affected by an amplitude damping channel. The quantum discord is one of type of quantum correlations between the qubits. The discord and its dynamics of two qubits in non-Markovian environments are evaluated.