scholarly journals Information system for the content of natural and man-made radionuclides in building materials

2020 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 11022
Author(s):  
Daria Buzina ◽  
Igor Engovatov
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Natural Radionuclides ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Urgent Task ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
The Impact

Natural radionuclides include the 238U and 232Th radioactive families with daughter decay products and 40K potassium. In addition to these, the raw materials may contain man-made radioactive nuclides formed due to accidents at the nuclear facilities and its uncontrolled release into the environment (for example, 137Cs). Reducing the impact of radiation exposure on humans and the environment is an urgent task, both in Russia and abroad, given the rapid quantitative growth of the range, manufacturers, suppliers and consumers of building materials associated with the general trend of urbanization. Currently, there is a large number of studies on the natural and man-made radioactivity of building materials. As a rule, they present disparate and local scientific results, which complicates their accessibility to a wide range of interested parties manufacturers and consumers of construction products. Therefore, it is necessary that information on the radiation and environmental cleanliness of various materials and products was easily accessible to all comers. An information system on the natural and man-made radioactivity of building materials and products should become a tool for solving this problem. The work outlines the principles of creation and practical implementation, structure and content, goals, objectives of the field of destination and application of the information system for natural and man-made radioactivity of building materials and products.

scholarly journals Barite-containing radiation protective building materials

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-98
Author(s):  
Nikolay V. Novikov ◽  
Svetlana V. Samchenko ◽  
Galina E. Okolnikova
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Protective Coatings ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Nuclear Facilities ◽  
Linear Absorption ◽  
Environmental Friendliness ◽  
Operational Characteristics ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Creation

Due to the active development of industries using nuclear technology, the creation of highly effective and cost-effective building materials for protection against hazardous ionizing radiation is of increasing interest. Widespread in the field of radiation-protective building materials are barite-containing concrete. The purpose of this article is to establish the prospects of their use in nuclear facilities, as well as to find ways to improve their technical and operational characteristics. For this an analysis of relevant literature and scientific research in the field of radiation-protective materials and, in particular, barite-containing concrete was carried out. The advantages of barite-containing concrete are high radiation-protective properties, environmental friendliness, high density, as well as economic indicators. The disadvantages are high susceptibility to shrinkage deformation and poor resistance to cyclic temperature effects. The addition of barite to the concrete composition allows to increase the coefficient of linear absorption of -rays of the material; also, with the proper selection of the composition, such material may have strength characteristics equal to or superior to the characteristics of concrete with standard compositions. Barite-containing materials have a wide range of applications and can be used both for the production of heavy concrete in the construction of load-bearing structures and in the creation of radiation-protective coatings for walls and floors.

scholarly journals Application of natural language processing methods to extract coded data from administrative data held in the Scottish Prescribing Information System

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Nangle ◽  
Stuart McTaggart ◽  
Margaret MacLeod ◽  
Jackie Caldwell ◽  
Marion Bennie
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Drug Exposure ◽  
Drug Dose ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Prescribing Information

ABSTRACT ObjectivesThe Prescribing Information System (PIS) datamart, hosted by NHS National Services Scotland receives around 90 million electronic prescription messages per year from GP practices across Scotland. Prescription messages contain information including drug name, quantity and strength stored as coded, machine readable, data while prescription dose instructions are unstructured free text and difficult to interpret and analyse in volume. The aim, using Natural Language Processing (NLP), was to extract drug dose amount, unit and frequency metadata from freely typed text in dose instructions to support calculating the intended number of days’ treatment. This then allows comparison with actual prescription frequency, treatment adherence and the impact upon prescribing safety and effectiveness. ApproachAn NLP algorithm was developed using the Ciao implementation of Prolog to extract dose amount, unit and frequency metadata from dose instructions held in the PIS datamart for drugs used in the treatment of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Accuracy estimates were obtained by randomly sampling 0.1% of the distinct dose instructions from source records, comparing these with metadata extracted by the algorithm and an iterative approach was used to modify the algorithm to increase accuracy and coverage. ResultsThe NLP algorithm was applied to 39,943,465 prescription instructions issued in 2014, consisting of 575,340 distinct dose instructions. For drugs used in the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory systems (i.e. chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the British National Formulary (BNF)) the NLP algorithm successfully extracted drug dose amount, unit and frequency metadata from 95.1%, 98.5% and 97.4% of prescriptions respectively. However, instructions containing terms such as ‘as directed’ or ‘as required’ reduce the usability of the metadata by making it difficult to calculate the total dose intended for a specific time period as 7.9%, 0.9% and 27.9% of dose instructions contained terms meaning ‘as required’ while 3.2%, 3.7% and 4.0% contained terms meaning ‘as directed’, for drugs used in BNF chapters 1, 2 and 3 respectively. ConclusionThe NLP algorithm developed can extract dose, unit and frequency metadata from text found in prescriptions issued to treat a wide range of conditions and this information may be used to support calculating treatment durations, medicines adherence and cumulative drug exposure. The presence of terms such as ‘as required’ and ‘as directed’ has a negative impact on the usability of the metadata and further work is required to determine the level of impact this has on calculating treatment durations and cumulative drug exposure.

scholarly journals Understanding the Future Impacts of Electric Vehicles—An Analysis of Multiple Factors That Influence the Market

Vehicles ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-871
Author(s):  
Jonathan Wellings ◽  
David Greenwood ◽  
Stuart R. Coles
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicle ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Vehicle Market

The electric vehicle market is an increasingly important aspect of the automotive industry. However, as a relatively new technology, several issues remain present within the industry. An analysis is utilised to examine these issues, along with how they affect the industry and how they can be tackled. Several key issues that affect the electric vehicle market, as well as how efforts to address these issues influence the market, are identified. The analysis also includes the examination of ethical issues, with the issues that arise from the production of raw materials for electric vehicles. The analysis and examination of ethical issues display a wide range of problems in the industry. However, it did highlight the efforts being made to lessen the effect of these problems by various groups, such as regulation by EU and US governing bodies on the materials mined. From this analysis, this paper identifies that many of the other factors examined are directly or indirectly influenced by political and economic factors, also examined in this review. This highlights the impact that governing bodies and businesses have on a vast number of issues that are present within the market and how they can resolve the harmful factors examined.

scholarly journals Facilitating spatially-explicit assessments of ecosystem service delivery to support land use planning

One Ecosystem ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Vrebos ◽  
Jan Staes ◽  
Steven Broekx ◽  
Leo de Nocker ◽  
Karen Gabriels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Time Investment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Since the early 2000s, there have been substantial efforts to transform the concept of ecosystem services into practice. Spatial assessment tools are being developed to evaluate the impact of spatial planning on a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the actual implementation in decision-making remains limited. To improve implementation, tools that are tailored to local conditions can provide accurate, meaningful information. Instead of a generic and widely-applicable tool, we developed a regional, spatially-explicit tool (ECOPLAN-SE) to analyse the impact of changes in land use on the delivery of 18 ecosystem services in Flanders (Belgium). The tool incorporates ecosystem services relevant to policy-makers and managers and makes use of detailed local data and knowledge. By providing an easy-to-use tool, including the required spatial geodatasets, time investment and the learning curve remain limited for the user. With this tool, constraints to implement ecosystem service assessments in local decision-making are drastically reduced. We believe that region-specific decision support systems, like ECOPLAN-SE, are indispensable intermediates between the conceptual ecosystem service frameworks and the practical implementation in planning processes.

Ceramic Composition Material with Mullite Crystals Obtained from the Clayy Raw Material of Yakutia

2020 ◽  
Vol 992 ◽  
pp. 253-258
Author(s):  
M.P. Lebedev ◽  
V.N. Tagrov ◽  
E.S. Lukin
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Practical Interest ◽  
Physical And Mechanical Properties ◽  
Ceramic Materials ◽  
Strength Properties ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Composition Material ◽  
Material Base ◽  
Wide Range

The article deals with the manufacture of modern structural ceramic materials from clay and loam deposits of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The importance and relevance of the development of the production of building materials from local raw materials is emphasized, since this will certainly affect the effectiveness of the construction complex as a whole. The successful development of the construction complex is capable of not only stimulating growth in all sectors of the economy, but also contributes to solving the most pressing social problems. Today, Yakutia has huge reserves of mineral raw materials for the production of a wide range of building materials and products. Of practical interest are wall materials made from clay soils. Given the features of the region’s raw material base, this work focuses on additional processing of traditional material. Controlling the complex physicochemical and structural-mechanical transformations that occur during heat treatment, a methodology has been developed for creating a composite material that will allow competitive innovative materials with enhanced strength properties to be produced with a reinforcing element with a glassy phase matrix of mullite crystals. The fabricated samples have a wide range of physical and mechanical properties and allow using it as a high-quality structural building ceramics, as well as industrial floor technical tile.

Natural Radioactivity in Clay Ceramics and their Raw Materials in Latvia

2018 ◽  
Vol 788 ◽  
pp. 51-55
Author(s):  
Daina Riekstina ◽  
Tamara Krasta ◽  
Ruta Švinka
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Activity Index ◽  
Natural Radionuclides ◽  
Natural Radionuclide ◽  
Decay Chain ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
Clay Bricks ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Clay Ceramics

Natural radionuclides K-40, and Th-232, U-238 (Ra-226) decay chain products contained in building materials are the main source of radiation dose received by population and the only source of indoor radiation exposure. Present work contains results of the study of natural radionuclide activity level in clay, clay ceramics and silica bricks used in Latvia. Obtained data show that radionuclide content in different clay products can differ up to five times. However, determined activity index values for all tested materials, except fireproof bricks, were below radionuclide concentration level permitted by EU and Latvian national regulations. Comparison with analogous data from other North European and Baltic countries shows that average concentrations of natural radionuclides and activity index values for clay and clay bricks used in Latvia are on the same level as in other countries, except Sweden.

Evaluation of citations: a proposition to supplement the corresponding rule book in Serbia

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 598-614
Author(s):  
Bojana Dimic Surla ◽  
Dusan Ilija Surla ◽  
Dragan Ivanovic
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Information System ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Scientific Results ◽  
Number Of Citations ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe a proposition for the evaluation of citations of scientific papers, which could serve as a supplement to the existing Rule Book of the Ministry of the Republic of Serbia, which is used in the procedure of electing candidates for particular academic and research titles. The evaluation and quantitative presentation of the results and evaluation of citations were carried out on data taken from the database of the Current Research Information System of the University of Novi Sad (CRIS UNS), which is harmonized with the Rule Book of the Ministry with respect to the evaluation of published scientific results of researchers. Design/methodology/approach There are different criteria to evaluate the quality of scientific papers based on their citations. The pertinent parameters can be the total number of citations, the number of citations in a defined time period and by assigning the appropriate weighting values to the citations. This work proposes a procedure of assigning the citation weighting values based on the evaluation of the scientific results in which the citation appeared according to the Rule Book in the Republic of Serbia. Based on this, the authors introduced the impact factor of researchers as the ratio of the number of points of the evaluated citations and the number of points of the evaluated papers of the researcher. Findings Results showed that the research information system CRIS UNS can be extended to the evaluation of citations for a single researcher, groups of researchers and institutions. Practical implications The proposed solution enables the evaluation of citations in the process of election and promotion of academic staff. In this way, there is a means for measuring the scientific influence of a researcher in the relevant scientific area. Social implications The evaluation of citations may be included in the national strategies of scientific development, funding and evaluation of research projects; for promotions of academic staff at the universities and other academic institutions; and ranking of researchers and research organizations. Originality/value The main idea presented in the paper is the definition of a rule book (or several rule books) for the evaluation of citations. Based on the evaluation of citations, the authors proposed the term “the impact factor of researcher”.

scholarly journals Ecological conditions affecting mycotoxin production in cereals: a review

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 8) ◽  
pp. 405-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
JM Milani
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Metabolites ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Mycotoxin Production ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
Post Harvest ◽  
Critical Control Points ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Available Information ◽  
The Impact

Spoilage fungi are ubiquitous contaminants of cereals, pre- and post-harvest. These fungi can produce a wide range of secondary metabolites under ecological conditions which are conducive for growth. However, some of these secondary metabolites are toxic and have a significant impact if they enter the production and animal food chains. Prevention of mycotoxin contamination of feed and food raw materials is now considered more important than subsequent cure. The key ecological determinants pre- and post-harvest are water availability and temperature (climate). Accurate information is therefore needed on the impact of an association between these key factors, and it is necessary to understand which are marginal and which critical for germination and toxin production. There have only been a few studies where attempts have been made to integrate the available information on these factors in relation to different raw materials for feed and food processing, especially cereals. This review will examine the available information on the main climatic factors, i.e., water availability and temperature affecting mycotoxin production such as, aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins, zearalenone, deoxynivalenol and citrinin. This information is crucial for accurately focusing and monitoring key critical control points in the feed and food chain to optimise prevention strategies.  

The impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on international commodity prices

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofen Tan ◽  
Yongjiao Ma
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Commodity Price ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Vector Autoregressive ◽  
Macroeconomic Uncertainty ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low Uncertainty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on a large sample of 19 commodity markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors rely on Jurado et al.’s (2015) measure of macroeconomic uncertainty based on a wide range of monthly macroeconomic and financial indicators and estimate a threshold VAR model to assess whether the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on commodity prices differs under the high- or low-uncertainty state. Findings The findings show that positive macroeconomic uncertainty shocks affect commodity prices returns negatively on average and the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty is generally higher in high-uncertainty states compared with low-uncertainty states. Besides, although the safe-haven role of precious metals is confirmed, energy and industrial markets are more sensitive to short-run and long-run macroeconomic uncertainty, respectively. Research limitations/implications The findings in this study suggest that commodity prices reflect not only the level of economic fundamental but also the volatility of economic fundamental. Originality/value This study empirically analyzes and verifies the influence of macroeconomic uncertainty not only on oil prices but also on four groups of 19 raw materials. As for the methodological issues, the authors rely on a structural threshold vector autoregressive specification for modeling commodity price returns to account for potentially different effects depending on the macroeconomic uncertainty states.

scholarly journals Elemental Analysis and Natural Radioactivity Levels of Clay by Gamma Ray Spectrometer and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. R. Alharbi ◽  
A. El-Taher
Keyword(s):  
Elemental Analysis ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Gamma Ray ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Natural Radionuclides ◽  
Radiation Hazard ◽  
Hazard Indices ◽  
Gamma Ray Spectrometer ◽  
Radium Equivalent ◽  
Effective Doses

Due to increased global demand for clay, the present work involves the use of INAA for elemental analysis and pollutants concentration in clay. The samples were collected from Aswan in South Egypt. The samples were irradiated using the thermal neutrons “at the TRIGA Mainz research reactor” and at a neutron flux “of 7 × 10 n/cm s”. Twenty-six elements quantitatively and qualitatively were specified for the first time upon studying the samples. The elements determined are U, Th, Ta, Hf, Lu, Eu, Ce, Ba, Sn, Nb, Rb, Zn, Co, Fe, Cr, Sc, Sm, La, Yb, As, Ga, K, Mn, Na, Ti, and Mg. The concentrations of natural radionuclides232Th,226Ra, and40K were also calculated. Based on these concentrations, to estimate the exposure risk for using clay as raw materials in building materials, the radiation hazard indices such as radium equivalent activities, effective doses rate, and the external hazard indices have been computed. The obtained results were compared with analogous studies carried out in other countries and with the UNSCEAR reports.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document