Modelling Study on Uranium Migration in Rocks Under Weathering Condition

1994 ◽  
Vol 353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshihiko Ohnuki ◽  
Takashi Murakami ◽  
Hiroshi Isobe ◽  
Tsutomu Sato ◽  
Nobuyuki Yanase

AbstractA modelling study has been completed to understand the effect of rock alteration on uranium migration at the Koongarra ore deposit, Australia. The model considers the weathering process, the mechanism and rate of chlorite alteration, a major mineral of the host rock, and assumes the presence of reversible sorption sites of chlorite and the presence of reversible and irreversible sorption sites of the weathering products. One- and two-dimensional, calculated uranium concentrations were compared with those observed. Good agreement between the calculated and observed uranium concentration profiles was obtained only when an appropriate fraction of uranium is fixed to the irreversible sorption sites of Fe-minerals produced during weathering of chlorite. On the other hand, the conventional Kd model failed to estimate an adequate uranium concentration profile. The results suggest that the fixation of uranium to Fe-minerals has dominated the migration of uranium in the vicinity of the Koongarra ore deposit.

1992 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshihiko Ohnuki ◽  
Takashi Murakami ◽  
Nobuyuki Yanase

ABSTRACTA modelling study has been carried out to understand the effect of rock alteration on the fractionation of uranium among coexisting minerals (chlorite, vermiculite, kaolinite, amorphous and crystalline iron minerals) at the Koongarra ore deposit, Australia. The model considers the chlorite weathering process, its mechanism and rate, and assumes the presence of reversible and irreversible sorption sites in the secondary minerals. The calculated uranium concentrations at the two different sites in the minerals were compared with the results of sequential extraction experiments. Good agreement between the calculated and observed uranium concentrations was obtained only when an appropriate fraction of uranium is fixed to the irreversible sorption sites of the altered clay minerals. However, a conventional Kd model gave inconsistent uranium concentrations. The calculated results show that the crystalline iron minerals sorb uranium during all stages of weathering, and that the uranium fractionation among the minerals varies with time until the end of the weathering.


1992 ◽  
Vol 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Murakami ◽  
Hideo Kimura

ABSTRACTA modelling study was carried out to understand the effect of rock alteration on uranium radionuclide concentrations in rocks, in the vicinity of the Koongarra ore deposit, Australia. The one-dimensional, advection-dispersion-sorption model considers two important factors resulting from the process, mechanism and rate of chlorite weathering, one type of rock alteration that has occurred over a million-year period; (a) the changes in the distribution coefficients of uranium and thorium over time, and (b) that in rock porosity. The distribution coefficient and rock porosity at a given time, are expressed as average values of those of the coexisting minerals. By assuming a Darcy velocity of 0.9 m/y and an initial uranium concentration in the groundwater of 0.5 ppm, similar to present-day values, we were able to derive, from the finite-element modelling, uranium concentrations in the rock which are in good agreement with observed values. The calculated values of 230Th/234U activity ratios show a similar trend to those observed, although more experimental data are necessary to confirm the similarity. However, in the absence of the rock alteration, the calculated results did not agree with those observed. The present study suggests that rock alteration should be included in models used to predict uranium migration over long, geologic timescales.


1990 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Murakami ◽  
Hiroshi Isobe ◽  
Robert Edis

ABSTRACTThe relevance of alteration of chlorite, one of the major constituent minerals of the host rock to uranium ore at Koongarra, to the redistribution of uranium in the vicinity of the ore deposit has been examined. The chlorite alteration is produced by weathering; chlorite is transformed to vermiculite, through regularly interstratified chlorite/vermiculite. The Fe released from chlorite reprecipitates to form iron minerals, possibly ferrihydrite. Vermiculite is then replaced by kaolinite (and possibly smectite), further releasing Fe. On the millimeter scale, an alpha autoradiography study has shown that uranium concentrations are qualitatively proportional to the extent of the alteration; altered chlorite grains having higher uranium concentration. On the meter scale, the X-ray diffraction study has revealed that the abundances of chlorite, vermiculite, and kaolinite correspond well to the low, intermediate, and high uranium concentration zones, respectively. These suggest that the interaction of the uraniferous solution with chlorite causes the alteration of chlorite and the precipitation and sorption of uranium in the alteration products from the solution, and thus, the uranium migration is retarded at Koongarra.


1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Loup Robert ◽  
Mohamed Khelifi ◽  
Ahmed Ghanmi

Since the viscous analogy of turbulence was introduced by Reynolds, many formulations for turbulent viscosity have been proposed. One of them, based on the mixing length concept, is investigated here in a broader point of view. The mixing length concept was used to correctly model turbulent velocity profiles for irregular two-dimensional and three-dimensional domains. Two cases of study were investigated for this purpose: a simple two-dimensional aerodynamic problem and a more complicated three-dimensional hydraulic problem. Results showed that the use of a constant viscosity fails to correctly reproduce experimental observations. On the other hand, the use of the mixing length concept leads to a good agreement between the measured and predicted values.Key words: fluid flow, finite element method, mixing length flow theory, turbulent flow, velocity profiles.


Author(s):  
P.G Kevrekidis ◽  
D.E Pelinovsky

We study discrete vortices in coupled discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations. We focus on the vortex cross configuration that has been experimentally observed in photorefractive crystals. Stability of the single-component vortex cross in the anti-continuum limit of small coupling between lattice nodes is proved. In the vector case, we consider two coupled configurations of vortex crosses, namely the charge-one vortex in one component coupled in the other component to either the charge-one vortex (forming a double-charge vortex) or the charge-negative-one vortex (forming a, so-called, hidden-charge vortex). We show that both vortex configurations are stable in the anti-continuum limit, if the parameter for the inter-component coupling is small and both of them are unstable when the coupling parameter is large. In the marginal case of the discrete two-dimensional Manakov system, the double-charge vortex is stable while the hidden-charge vortex is linearly unstable. Analytical predictions are corroborated with numerical observations that show good agreement near the anti-continuum limit, but gradually deviate for larger couplings between the lattice nodes.


Author(s):  
J.L. Carrascosa ◽  
G. Abella ◽  
S. Marco ◽  
M. Muyal ◽  
J.M. Carazo

Chaperonins are a class of proteins characterized by their role as morphogenetic factors. They trantsiently interact with the structural components of certain biological aggregates (viruses, enzymes etc), promoting their correct folding, assembly and, eventually transport. The groEL factor from E. coli is a conspicuous member of the chaperonins, as it promotes the assembly and morphogenesis of bacterial oligomers and/viral structures.We have studied groEL-like factors from two different bacteria:E. coli and B.subtilis. These factors share common morphological features , showing two different views: one is 6-fold, while the other shows 7 morphological units. There is also a correlation between the presence of a dominant 6-fold view and the fact of both bacteria been grown at low temperature (32°C), while the 7-fold is the main view at higher temperatures (42°C). As the two-dimensional projections of groEL were difficult to interprete, we studied their three-dimensional reconstruction by the random conical tilt series method from negatively stained particles.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1340-1351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ponnurengam M. Sivakumar ◽  
Matin Islami ◽  
Ali Zarrabi ◽  
Arezoo Khosravi ◽  
Shohreh Peimanfard

Background and objective: Graphene-based nanomaterials have received increasing attention due to their unique physical-chemical properties including two-dimensional planar structure, large surface area, chemical and mechanical stability, superconductivity and good biocompatibility. On the other hand, graphene-based nanomaterials have been explored as theranostics agents, the combination of therapeutics and diagnostics. In recent years, grafting hydrophilic polymer moieties have been introduced as an efficient approach to improve the properties of graphene-based nanomaterials and obtain new nanoassemblies for cancer therapy. Methods and results: This review would illustrate biodistribution, cellular uptake and toxicity of polymergraphene nanoassemblies and summarize part of successes achieved in cancer treatment using such nanoassemblies. Conclusion: The observations showed successful targeting functionality of the polymer-GO conjugations and demonstrated a reduction of the side effects of anti-cancer drugs for normal tissues.


Author(s):  
Olivier Ozenda ◽  
Epifanio G. Virga

AbstractThe Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis expresses a kinematic constraint that is assumed to be valid for the deformations of a three-dimensional body when one of its dimensions is much smaller than the other two, as is the case for plates. This hypothesis has a long history checkered with the vicissitudes of life: even its paternity has been questioned, and recent rigorous dimension-reduction tools (based on standard $\varGamma $ Γ -convergence) have proven to be incompatible with it. We find that an appropriately revised version of the Kirchhoff-Love hypothesis is a valuable means to derive a two-dimensional variational model for elastic plates from a three-dimensional nonlinear free-energy functional. The bending energies thus obtained for a number of materials also show to contain measures of stretching of the plate’s mid surface (alongside the expected measures of bending). The incompatibility with standard $\varGamma $ Γ -convergence also appears to be removed in the cases where contact with that method and ours can be made.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Chen ◽  
Chao-Hsiang Sheu ◽  
Mikhail Shifman ◽  
Gianni Tallarita ◽  
Alexei Yung

Abstract We study two-dimensional weighted $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2) supersymmetric ℂℙ models with the goal of exploring their infrared (IR) limit. 𝕎ℂℙ(N,$$ \tilde{N} $$ N ˜ ) are simplified versions of world-sheet theories on non-Abelian strings in four-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 QCD. In the gauged linear sigma model (GLSM) formulation, 𝕎ℂℙ(N,$$ \tilde{N} $$ N ˜ ) has N charges +1 and $$ \tilde{N} $$ N ˜ charges −1 fields. As well-known, at $$ \tilde{N} $$ N ˜ = N this GLSM is conformal. Its target space is believed to be a non-compact Calabi-Yau manifold. We mostly focus on the N = 2 case, then the Calabi-Yau space is a conifold. On the other hand, in the non-linear sigma model (NLSM) formulation the model has ultra-violet logarithms and does not look conformal. Moreover, its metric is not Ricci-flat. We address this puzzle by studying the renormalization group (RG) flow of the model. We show that the metric of NLSM becomes Ricci-flat in the IR. Moreover, it tends to the known metric of the resolved conifold. We also study a close relative of the 𝕎ℂℙ model — the so called zn model — which in actuality represents the world sheet theory on a non-Abelian semilocal string and show that this zn model has similar RG properties.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 499
Author(s):  
Caroline Bonazza ◽  
Jiao Zhu ◽  
Roger Hasler ◽  
Rosa Mastrogiacomo ◽  
Paolo Pelosi ◽  
...  

An electronic biosensor for odors was assembled by immobilizing the silk moth Bombyx mori pheromone binding protein (BmorPBP1) on a reduced graphene oxide surface of a field-effect transistor. At physiological pH, the sensor detects the B. mori pheromones, bombykol and bombykal, with good affinity and specificity. Among the other odorants tested, only eugenol elicited a strong signal, while terpenoids and other odorants (linalool, geraniol, isoamyl acetate, and 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine) produced only very weak responses. Parallel binding assays were performed with the same protein and the same ligands, using the common fluorescence approach adopted for similar proteins. The results are in good agreement with the sensor’s responses: bombykol and bombykal, together with eugenol, proved to be strong ligands, while the other compounds showed only poor affinity. When tested at pH 4, the protein failed to bind bombykol both in solution and when immobilized on the sensor. This result further indicates that the BmorPBP1 retains its full activity when immobilized on a surface, including the conformational change observed in acidic conditions. The good agreement between fluorescence assays and sensor responses suggests that ligand-binding assays in solution can be used to screen mutants of a binding protein when selecting the best form to be immobilized on a biosensor.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document