A luminescence dating intercomparison based on a Danish beach-ridge sand

There is a need for large scale intercomparisons to determine the degree of coherence of luminescence dating measurements made by different laboratories. Here we describe results from a laboratory intercomparison sample based on a quartz-rich aeolian and/or coastal marine sand ridge from the Skagen peninsula, northern Jutland (Denmark). About 200 kg of sand was sampled at night from a single beach ridge. The sand was homogenised using a cement mixer and packed in ∼700 moisture and light-tight bags for distribution. The quartz luminescence characteristics are satisfactory (e.g. fast-component dominated and good dose recovery) and our own equivalent dose determinations and measurements of radionuclide concentrations for twenty of these bags demonstrate the degree of homogenisation. One natural sample and one sample of pre-processed quartz was made available on request; analysis of all the responses gives a mean dose (pre-processed quartz) of 4.58 Gy, σ = 0.40 (n = 26), to be compared to the mean dose (self-extracted quartz) of 4.52 Gy, σ = 0.55 (n = 21). The mean age is 3.99 ± 0.14 ka, σ = 0.71 (n = 22), i.e. a relative standard deviation of 18%. We present an analysis of all the important quantitative and qualitative responses we received between 2007 and 2012 and discuss the implications for our dating community and for users of luminescence ages.     

Dose rate estimates due to gas bremsstrahlung for a photon shutter and collimator unit of the VESPERS beamline at the Canadian Light Source

A radiation shielding study against primary and secondary gas bremsstrahlung is carried out for a tungsten collimator/stop, which is one of the components employed in the VESPERS beamline at the Canadian Light Source. The dose and dose rate are obtained by calculating the energy deposition in a water phantom which surrounds the collimator/stop unit. The dose rate behind a vacuum hole of the collimator/stop which leads to the experimental hutch is closely examined. The dose rates are further investigated with the addition of a tungsten shutter that is positioned in front of the collimator/stop.     

CFETR氦冷包层放射性废物包装容器的屏蔽设计

对中国聚变工程实验堆(CFETR)氦冷陶瓷产氚包层放射性废物包装容器进行了屏蔽设计。分析了CFETR氦冷陶瓷包层放射源项特点,阐述了容器屏蔽厚度的计算模型,使用蒙特卡罗程序MCNP5计算容器表面剂量率。结果表明包装容器表面剂量率与容器厚度之间呈现指数衰减关系。再根据中国现行标准,给出普通碳钢材料和普通碳钢-铅夹层材料两种方案。     

Investigation of metastable superconducting alloys produced by low temperature ion implantation

The suitability of the perturbed γγ angular correlation technique (PAC) for studies of the diffusion behaviour of He in metals is discussed. Using the example of He implanted into stainless steel, some features of the PAC using ¹¹¹In as radioactive probe atom are demonstrated. The results are compared with those in Ni, Cu and Au also obtained by PAC.     

Exact Stratified Linear Rank Tests for Ordered Categorical and Binary Data

Abstract

We present an efficient algorithm for generating exact permutational distributions for linear rank statistics defined on stratified 2 × c contingency tables. The algorithm can compute exact p values and confidence intervals for a rich class of nonparametric problems. These include exact p values for stratified two-population Wilcoxon, Logrank, and Van der Waerden tests, exact p values for stratified tests of trend across several binomial populations, exact p values for stratified permutation tests with arbitrary scores, and exact confidence intervals for odds ratios embedded in stratified 2 × c tables. The algorithm uses network-based recursions to generate stratum-specific distributions and then combines them into an overall permutation distribution by convolution. Where only the tail area of a permutation distribution is desired, additional efficiency gains are achieved by backward induction and branch-and-bound processing of the network. The algorithm is especially efficient for highly imbalanced categorical data, a situation where the asymptotic theory is unreliable. The backward induction component of the algorithm can also be used to evaluate the conditional maximum likelihood, and its higher order derivatives, for the logistic regression model with grouped data. We illustrate the techniques with an analysis of two data sets: The leukemia data on survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and data from an animal toxicology experiment provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.     

Dynamics of emotional contagion in dense pedestrian crowds

In places with high-density pedestrian movements, irrational emotions can quickly spread out under emergency, which may eventually lead to asphyxiation and crushing. It was noticed that a pedestrian's emotion in crowd would change as a result of the influence from other pedestrians. Thus, to explore the dynamics of emotion contagion process in dense pedestrians, two types of pedestrian emotions, i.e., negative and positive have been identified. Taking into account the emotional transit of a pedestrian, a crowd movement model is established in the present paper. We simulate pedestrian movement in a region with periodic boundary condition to study the dynamics of emotional contagion in dense crowds. Influences of the initial negative pedestrian proportion, pedestrian crowd density, emotion influence radius, and dose factor on the transition of overall crowd emotion state have been investigated. We expect this study could provide theoretical suggestions for crowd management.     

利用拉曼光谱研究~(60)Co γ射线对EC9706细胞的辐射损伤

将EC9706细胞经不同剂量^60Coγ射线辐照后继续培养24 h。利用激光拉曼光谱分析EC9706细胞内部蛋白质、核酸、脂类等生物大分子的构象和含量变化。分析结果发现,各剂量组拉曼谱的峰强和频移与空白对照组之间存在较大的差异,主要表现是蛋白质酰胺Ⅲ带1 244 cm^-1谱带在中等剂量组（4、5Gy）β折叠结构向无规卷曲转化;色氨酸残基的吲哚环振动谱带1 341 cm^-1在各剂量组中出现不同程度的红移;782 cm^-1谱带在大剂量组（7、8Gy）红移2～3 cm^-1,说明大剂量γ射线辐照导致DNA中的磷酸二酯（O—P—O）基团的非氢键化程度增强。脂类的CH2和CH3弯曲振动谱带1 446 cm^-1在2、4Gy组蓝移4 cm^-1,其他剂量组频移不大,这与60Coγ射线对EC9706细胞的生物膜造成一定损伤有关。拉曼特征峰在不同剂量组中的变化,为进一步研究60Coγ射线辐照损伤EC9706细胞的最佳剂量提供了一定实验依据。     

Watching at the correlation between the specific track-etch rate and the primary physical parameters of the swift ion interaction with the CR-39

Analysis of etched nuclear tracks in CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors has recently been made possible by the confocal microscope. This recent innovation has opened up some particularly interesting perspectives. The main originality of this microscopy technique is that it makes it possible to work on numerical, three-dimensional images of chemically etched nuclear tracks in the CR-39. We have studied the performances of this new approach for light ions (H, He, Li and C) with kinetic energies typically of the order of the MeV per nucleus. First, we determined the response functions of the CR-39 for these ions. We were then able to show that aside from decreasing the analysis time of traditional methods, the confocal microscope greatly increases the sensibility of the detection. The aim of this study was to find a correlation between the response functions and the primary physical parameters of the interaction between the ion and the material, such as the linear energy transfer (LET), the restricted energy transfer (REL_ω0), the integrated radial dose or the rate of ionization. Although these parameters presented a strong resemblance to the experimental response functions (they are all “Bragg” curves), none of them were correlated to the response function in an unambiguous way.     

Preliminary measurements of natural radioactivity at Madurai district of Tamilnadu, India

In dwellings, the radon and their daughter products contribute the largest fraction to the doses received from natural background radiation. In the present study, the radon levels at Madurai district of Tamilnadu have been measured initially for 15 dwellings using cellulose nitrate (C₆H₈O₉N₂) LR-115 type II (non-pelliculable) films and the dose assessment due to radon and its daughter product concentrations is calculated. These results were intercompared with other terrains viz. Jodhpur district of Rajasthan which is considered as semi-desert terrain and Jammu district of Jammu & Kashmir which is the hilly area. Also the natural radioactivity in soil samples of Madurai have been measured using NaI(Tl) detector based gamma spectrometry. From these radioactivity levels, the radium equivalent activity is calculated and a correlation between this and radon concentration has been tried out.