Study of the glow curve structure of the minerals separated from black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

The inorganic mineral fraction extracted from black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) has been analysed using a thermoluminescence (TL) method, investigating the glow curve structure, including an evaluation of the kinetic parameters. Different grain sizes, i.e. 10, 74, and 149 μm, were selected from commercial black pepper. The X-ray diffraction of the inorganic fraction shows that quartz is the main mineral present in it. The samples were exposed to 1–25 kGy doses by gamma rays of ⁶⁰Co in order to analyse the thermally stimulated luminescence response as a function of the delivered dose. The glow curves show a complex structure for different grain sizes of the pepper mineral samples. The fading of the TL signal at room temperature was obtained after irradiation, and it was observed that the maximum peaks of the glow curves shift towards higher values of the temperature when the elapsed time from irradiation increases. It seems that the fading characteristic may be related to a continuous trap distribution responsible for the complex structure of the glow curve. Similar glow curves structure behaviour was found under ultraviolet irradiation of the samples. The activation energy and the frequency factor were determined from the glow curves of different grain sizes using a deconvolution programme because of the evident complexity of the structure.     

Albedo factors of 279, 320, 511 and 662 keV backscattered gamma photons

The backscattered peak and albedos are important for the estimation of exposure distribution and for better understanding the phenomenon of the backscattering of gamma photons. To characterize the backscattering probability of gamma photons interacting with different atomic numbers (Z), number (A _N), energy (A _E) and dose (A _D) albedos are experimentally evaluated. The response function converts the observed pulse-height distribution of a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector to a true photon spectrum. For each of the incident gamma photon energies, the number and energy albedos show an increase with the increasing target thickness, and finally saturate. The energy albedos are found to be decreasing with the increase in the atomic number of the target material and incident gamma photon energy. The dose albedos do not differ significantly from the energy albedos for the chosen incident gamma photon energies.     

Ion induced silicide formation in niobium thin films

MeV ⁴He backscattering and x-ray diffraction analysis were used to examine the intermixing of niobium thin films on single crystal silicon during ²⁸Si⁺ ion bombardment. The ambient temperature dependence of the intermixing is reported. The dependence cannot be explained by either radiation-enhanced diffusion or cascade mixing alone. The silicides. NbSi₂ and Nb₅Si₃, were both observed. Silicide growth was found to be proportional to the square root of the fluence for the case in which the ion range exceeds the film thickness.     

Composition,temperature and radiation induced changes in gamma irradiated AAAMPS copolymer

Effect of composition, temperature and radiation dose in gamma irradiated acrylamide-2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulphonic acid (AA) copolymer has been investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) techniques. ESR spectra of gamma irradiated AA copolymer have been recorded under different conditions. The observed ESR spectra are analysed by computer simulation techniques, to separate the constituent component spectra. Magnetic parameters employed to simulate the component spectra enabled the identification of corresponding free radicals. The AA copolymer with low acrylamide content composed of macroradicals of the type ?CH₂?CH?CH₂? and methyl radicals (CH₃) whereas the copolymer with high acryl amide content possess methyl radicals and radicals of the type ?CH₂?C(CONH₂)?CH₂?/CH₃?C?CH₃. Reasons for the variation in the formation of free radicals have been explained. The observed changes in ESR spectra of irradiated AA copolymer at higher temperatures are thought to be due to the recombination of free radicals. Formation of free radicals found to be enhanced with the increase in dose of irradiation. FTIR spectra of pure and irradiated copolymers have also confirmed the previous results.     

Optimal tube potential and tube current for radiation dose reduction in routine adult head computed tomography scanning

ABSTRACT

We proposed a new, optimised scanning parameter that can reduce the patient’s radiation dose while maintaining image quality in a head computed tomography (CT) scan. We evaluated the clinical CT scan parameters (tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness pitch, scan range, rotation time, and CT dose index) for brain CT examination in a total of 52 multi-detector row spiral CTs (SOMATOM Definition AS+, Siemens Healthcare, Germany). The data were analysed, and the range of valid scan parameters was determined clinically using quartile distribution within the 95% confidence interval. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine performance evaluation phantom was used to acquire images using these scan parameters, and new, optimised CT scan parameters were proposed by analysing CT number accuracy, noise, uniformity, spatial resolution, and contrast resolution. The new CT scan parameters proposed were determined as tube voltage 100?kVp and tube current 300?mAs. Compared with conventional clinical scan parameters, tube voltage was reduced by 16.7% and tube current was decreased by 33.3%. Loss in imaging accuracy and uniformity of CT number was less than 20%, loss in noise was less than 40%, and no change in resolution was observed. Conversely, the CT dose index and effective dose was 20%–50%. A new systematic method for clinically assessing the optimised CT scan parameters were proposed, and the effective dose was decreased, with changing exposure conditions.     

Thermal neutron equivalent dose measurements with nanostructured zirconia

This paper reports the experimental results concerning the thermoluminescent measurements of thermal neutron using nanostructured zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) powder prepared by the sol–gel method. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques were used for morphological and structural characterization of the compound. Thermal annealing processes for the precipitates were studied. It was observed that the crystalline structure and the crystallinity of the powders depend on the annealing temperature. For temperatures higher than 1100 °C, the material presents the monoclinic phase with average nanocrystallite sizes ranging from 8–10 nm up to ～40 nm. These zirconium oxide materials developed in our laboratory were used in this investigation. Within the experimental uncertainties, these measurements were compared with those obtained using the well-known gamma rays sensitive lithium fluoride (LiF:Mg,Cu,P), also developed in our laboratory.     

Assessment of natural radioactivity in rice and their associated population dose estimation

ABSTRACT

The concentration of natural radioactivity in rice is an important parameter for the determination of population exposure by the ingestion of natural radionuclides during habitual consumption of food. All types of food including rice contain a detectable amount of natural radioactivity which successively relocate into the human body via the ingestion pathway. Rice is the main cultivated crop in Bangladesh and most of the Bangladeshi people consume rice as their staple food. Hence, studies on the evaluation of natural radioactivity in rice have been performed by gamma-ray spectrometry using High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector in order to estimate various radiation hazards due to rice consumption. The average activity levels of natural radionuclides ²²⁶Ra, ²²⁸Ra and ⁴⁰K in the rice samples were 1.09?±?0.31, 0.17?±?0.21 and 4.70?±?1.59?Bq?kg^?1, respectively. The estimated effective doses for the respective radionuclides caused by the rice consumption were 43.69, 16.39 and 4.15?µSv?y^?1, respectively which was below the UNSCEAR compiled value. The calculated excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) values via rice consumption were found below the acceptable limit of 0.29?×?10^?3 for radiological risk.     

总剂量辐照效应对窄沟道SOI NMOSFET器件的影响

本文深入研究了130 nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) 技术下的窄沟道n型metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) 器件的总剂量辐照效应. 在总剂量辐照下, 相比于宽沟道器件, 窄沟道器件的阈值电压漂移更为明显. 论文利用电荷守恒定律很好地解释了辐照增强的窄沟道效应. 另外, 本文首次发现, 对于工作在线性区的窄沟道器件, 辐照产生的浅沟槽隔离氧化物(STI) 陷阱正电荷会增加沟道区载流子之间的碰撞概率和沟道表面粗糙度散射, 从而导致主沟道晶体管的载流子迁移率退化以及跨导降低. 最后, 对辐照增强的窄沟效应以及迁移率退化进行了三维器件仿真模拟, 仿真结果与实验结果符合得很好. 关键词： 总剂量效应(TID) 浅沟槽隔离(STI) 氧化层陷阱正电荷 SOI MOSFET     

血液中Na活化放射性测量的蒙特卡罗模拟

针对超临界事故中人体受到中子辐照后感生的24Na活度测量,采用MCNP软件建立蒙特卡罗模拟模型,分别模拟不同类型NaI探测器对24Na衰变的两条射线全能峰的探测效率和塑料闪烁体探测器对24Na衰变的射线总计数的探测器效率。模拟结果表明:井型NaI探测器与圆柱型相比,24Na衰变的1.38 MeV和2.76 MeV 射线全能峰探测效率分别提高了4.30倍和4.11倍;塑料闪烁体探测器对24Na衰变的射线的探测效率是NaI探测器对24Na 射线的探测效率的1.72倍;同时粗略计算了探测器计数与人体所受中子辐照剂量之间的关系。     

The Calculation of the Relative Irradiation Dose Rate of a High-Power Gamma-Source by Digital Computer

Authors have elaborated a method which allows a digital computer to be applied for the calculaiton of the relative irradiation dose rates of the K-120.000 ⁶⁰Co gamma irradiation source with a specific activity of 80.000 Ci. The model used takes into consideration is the joint effect of 80 source-elements which were one-dimensional but of different activities and arranged in four layers one above the other, around one/two imaginary cylinder superficies. In possession of chemical or physical dosimetry data this method can be applied also for the calculation of the absolute irradiation dose ratres. According to the experiences obtained so far, over a distance of 6 cm-s from the source-elements the error of the computed absolute irradiation dose rate data is less than 5%.