The Indoor Radon Concentration within the Tunnels of the Cholula Pyramid Through a Nuclear Tracks Methodology

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41008

AUTHORS

A. Lima Flores, R. Palomino-Merino, E. Espinosa, V. M. Casta ño, E. Merlo Juárez, M. Cruz Sanchez, G. Espinosa

ABSTRACT

Global organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States (US-EPA) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) recognize that radon gas as one of the main contributors to environmental radiation exposure for humans. Accordingly, a study and analysis of the indoors radon concentrate in the Cholula Pyramid contributes to understand the Radon dynamic inside of the Pyramid tunnels and to evaluate the radiological health risk to visitors, archaeologists, anthropologists and persons who spend extended periods inside the Pyramid. In this paper, the radon measurements along the Pyramid tunnels are presented. The Nuclear Track Methodology (NTM) was chosen for the measurements, using a close end-cup device developed at the Dosimetry Application Project (DAP) of the Physics Institute UNAM, following very well established protocols for the chemical etching and reading with the Counting Analysis Digital Imaging System (CADIS). The Cholula Pyramid consists of eight stages of constructions, each built in different periods of time. Cholula Pyramid is recognized as the pyramid with the largest base in the World, with 400 meters per side and 65 meters high. The tunnels of the pyramid were built in 1931 by architect Ignacio Marquina, with the aim of exploring and studying the structure. The results show an important indoor radon concentration in the measured tunnels, several times higher than levels recommended by United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA). The recommendation will be to mitigate the radon concentration levels, in order to avoid unnecessary exposition to the people.

KEYWORDS

Indoor radon, radon concentration, Nuclear Track Methodology, Cholula pyramid

LINK: http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=476#exactabstracts

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A Scaling Law for L-Shell X-Ray Production Cross Sections Induced by Impact of 4He+, 9Be2+, and N2+ Ions

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41007

AUTHORS

Javier Miranda

ABSTRACT

Experimental results of L-subshell X-ray production cross sections induced by the impact of several ions heavier than protons were compiled in order to propose possible scaling laws. The ions of interest in this work are ⁴He+, ⁹Be²+, and ¹⁴N²+. A feasible universal scaling for the x-ray production cross sections of the Lα (L₃M₄ + L₃M₅) line is based on a reduced velocity parameter ξ R L. In this scheme, the experimental data follow well resolved curves for each ion. A similar scaling for the Lγ line (L₂N₄ + L₁N₂ + L₁N₃ + L₁O₃ + L₁O₂ + L₂N₁ + L₂O₄) is also recommended, based on a different reduced velocity parameter ξ R L1,2. These results appear to be useful for all the studied projectile-target combinations covered in this work, supporting the idea that more theoretical studies in this direction should be done. However, the behavior of the fitting does not seem to follow the previously observed one.

KEYWORDS

X-rays, cross sections, heavy ion impact, PIXE.

LINK: http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=475#exactabstracts

REFERENCES

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Theoretical Model to Estimate the Distribution of Radon in Alveolar Membrane Neighborhood

DOI

110.15415/jnp.2016.41006

AUTHORS

J. C. Corona, F. Zaldívar, L. A. Mandujan o-Rosas, F. Méndez, J. Mulia, D. Osorio-González

ABSTRACT

Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas which tends to concentrate indoors, easily emanates from the ground into the air, where it disintegrates and emits radioactive particles. It can enter the human body through breathing or ingesting mostly water. When radon inhaled, travels through the respiratory tract to alveoli where the majority is expelled into the environment. Moreover, when ingested in water, it passes into the intestine where it is absorbed and driven from the bloodstream to the lungs; in these organs, due to differences in partial pressures, it is transported to alveoli by simple diffusion process. When radon is not removed, it decays in short-lived solid disintegration products (218Po and 214Po) with high probability of being deposited in biological tissues, causing DNA damage because of the densely ionizing alpha radiation emitted. We propose a semi-empirical, smooth, and continuous pair potential function in order to model the molecular interactions between radon and lung alveolar walls; we use Molecular Dynamics (MD) to determine the gas distribution in an alveolar neighborhood wall, and estimate the quantity thereof it diffuses through the alveolar membrane as a concentration function.

KEYWORDS

Radon distribution; alveolar membrane; molecular dynamics; radon in alveoli

LINK:http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=474#exactabstracts 

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Using Green Fluorescent Protein to Correlate Temperature and Fluorescence Intensity into Bacterial Systems

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41005

AUTHORS

K. Beltrán, J. M. de Jesús-Miranda, J. A. Castro, L. A. Mandujano-Rosas, J. M. Paulin-Fuentes, D. Osorio-González

ABSTRACT

The unique and stunning spectroscopic properties of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, not to mention of its remarkable structural stability, have made it one of the most widely studied and used molecular tool in medicine, biochemistry, and cell biology. Its high fluorescent quantum yield is due to its chromophore, structure responsible of emitting green visible light when excited at 395 nm. Although it is noteworthy that there is enormous available information of the wonderful luminescent properties of GFP, the fact is that there are features and properties unexplored yet, particulary about its capabilities as molecular reporter in several biological processes. In this work, we used recombinant DNA technology to express the protein in bacteria; prepared the bacterial system both in liquid and solid media, and assembled an experimental set to expose those media to a laser beam; thereby we excited the protein chromophore and used emission spectroscopy in order to observe variations in fluorescence when the bacterial system is exposed to different temperatures.

KEYWORDS

green fluorescent protein; bacterial systems; bacterial temperature; spectroscopic properties

REFERENCES

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On the Equivalent Sources and Geometric Factor Calculation for a Circular Detection

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41004

AUTHORS

Tony Viloria A., Luis Montiel, Laszlo Sajo-Bohus, Daniel Palacios

ABSTRACT

In all absolute measurements of the intensity of the radioactive materials and calibration of the detectors, it is essential the knowledge of the geometric efficiency. This work describes how to obtain the sources with different geometries and equal geometric efficiency (equivalent sources for geometric factor), corresponding to a linear, circumferential and circular homogeneous sources parallel to a circular detector. It is estimated the geometric factor of them by the Monte Carlo method. The results are compared with the published in the literature, thus confirming the validity of this method.

KEYWORDS

geometric factor, Monte Carlo method, equivalent source.

LINK:http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=472#exactabstracts

REFERENCES

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X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of Fine Atmospheric Aerosols from a Site in Mexico City

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41003

AUTHORS

A. E. Hernández-López, J. Miranda, J. C. Pineda

ABSTRACT

A study was performed in the Winter of the year 2015 in a Southwestern site in the MAMC (Ciudad Universitaria), collecting PM2.5 samples with a MiniVol. As a part of wider study focused to fully characterize aerosols at this site, an X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer (based on an Rh X-ray tube) built to analyze environmental samples, was used to characterize the sample set. A total of 16 elements (Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb) were detected in most samples and mean concentrations were calculated. Cluster analysis was also applied to the elemental concentrations to find possible correlations among the elements.

KEYWORDS

XRF, atmospheric aerosols

REFERENCES

• Díaz, R. V., López-Monroy, J., Miranda, J., Espinosa, A. A.. PIXE and XRF analysis of atmospheric aerosols from a site in the West area of Mexico City. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 318, 135-138, (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2013.05.095
• Espinosa, A., Reyes-Herrera, J., Miranda, J., Mercado, F., Veytia, M. A., et al. Development of an X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer for environmental science applications.InstrumentationScience&Technology, 40(6), 603-617, (2012). http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10739149.2012.693560
• Espinosa, J., Miranda, J., Pineda, J.C. Evaluación de la incertidumbre en cantidades correlacionadas: aplicación al análisis elemental de aerosoles atmosféricos. Revista Mexicana de Física, 56(1), 123-134, (2010).
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Experimental Setups for Single Event Effect Studies

DOI

10.15415/jnp.2016.41002

AUTHORS

N. H. Medina, V. A. P. Aguiar, N. Added, F. Aguirre, E. L. A. Macchione, S. G. Alberton, M. A. G. Silve ira, J. Benfica, F. Vargas, B. Porcher

ABSTRACT

Experimental setups are being prepared to test and to qualify electronic devices regarding their tolerance to Single Event Effect (SEE). A multiple test setup and a new beam line developed especially for SEE studies at the São Paulo 8 UD Pelletron accelerator were prepared. This accelerator produces proton beams and heavy ion beams up to 107Ag. A Super conducting Linear accelerator, which is under construction, may fulfill all of the European Space Agency requirements to qualify electronic components for SEE.

KEYWORDS

Radiation effects, electronic devices, single event effects.

LINK: http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=470#exactabstracts

REFERENCES

• Aguiar, V.A.P., et al., “Experimental Setup for Single Event Effects at Sao Paulo Pelletron Accelerator” Nucl. Inst. Meth. Phys. Res. B., 332, p. 397, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2014.02.105
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Revisiting Natural Radiation in Itacaré and Guarapari Beaches

AUTHORS

M. A. G. Silveira, J. M. Oliveira, V A. P. Aguiar, N. H. Medina

ABSTRACT

Human beings are constantly exposed to several types of natural radiation. This paper aims to study the total external dose from northwestern Brazilian beach sands. The samples were collected at Prainha in Itacaré, Bahia, and Praia de AreiaPreta in Guarapari, Espírito Santo. Gamma spectrometry is a very useful technique to estimate the effective dose due to naturally occurring radionuclides, such as 40K and daughters of 238U and 232Th. In order to confirm the high activity present in these two regions, the effective dose due to each natural radionuclide was determined. Moreover, the Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) microanalysis was used to characterize the soil composition and the minerals responsible for the high activity. In addition, the sand samples were separated in to magnetic and non-magnetic fractions in order to identify the contribution from each portion of the activity. Finally, the radionuclides and their dispersion in those places are consistent with previous studies, indicating effective doses above the world average that is between 0.3 mSv/year and 1.0 mSv/year.

KEYWORDS

Natural radionuclides, beach sands, gamma-ray spectrometry.

LINK: http://jnp.chitkara.edu.in/abstract.php?id=469#exactabstracts

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