scholarly journals To a Burst of 137Cs Activity in the Air under the “Arch” Object on October 17, 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
V. K. Shynkarenko ◽  
◽  
V. A. Kashpur ◽  
G. G. Skorjak ◽  
P. V. Sabenin

The construction of a New Safe Confinement (NSC) is one of the main stages in the transformation of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant 4th power unit into an ecologically safe system. On the one hand, this system is designed to ensure the safety of personnel, the population and the environment, on the other — to allow safe work with the remnants of the unit. At the same time, the project allows quite high levels of bulk activity of radioactive aerosols inside the NSC — up to 210 Bq/m3 for total β-activity. The sharp increase in the volumetric air activity, observed on October 17–19, 2019 in a number of rooms of the Shelter object and in the space under the “Arch” object in the absence of a burst of activity outside these objects, can be considered as a successful kind of spontaneous test of the NSC isolation systems. The chronology of the dynamics of volume activity according to the act of official investigation of the precedent is given. The results of studies of aerosol filters exposed in the near zone of the Chornobyl NPP before and after the burst of activity in the air under the “Arсh” object are presented. Autoradiograms of fragments of these filters demonstrate a significant (≈2 orders of magnitude) increase in the number of hot particles immediately after the fall of the concrete fragment of the floor in the room 402/3. The analysis of features of the hot particles after the collapse indicates a significant contribution to the total activity of a large number of low-activity particles (0.005÷5 Bq), and the low 137Cs/241Am ratio that indicates their fuel nature. Based on the assumption about the fuel nature of hot particles, their minimum possible aerodynamic diameters were calculated, which are in the range 2.91<d<36.7 μm, which does not exclude the presence of smaller hot particles on the filter that are not visible using this method. The contribution of particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 μm, determined using the impactor, did not exceed 20% of the total beta activity of the aerosol.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
M. M. Таlerko ◽  
◽  
Т. D. Lev ◽  
V. O. Кashpur ◽  
◽  
...  

On April 16, 2020, a strong dust storm was observed in the northern regions of Ukraine, which coincided with the period of intense wildland fires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone. The activity of 137Cs in aerosol particles released into the atmosphere as a result of resuspension from burned areas in the meadow biocenoses in the exclusion zone is evaluated in the article. Resuspension of radioactively contaminated particles from burned areas formed after fires in meadow biocenoses of the exclusion zone can be a powerful source of air contamination in the zone itself, as well as increase of the radionuclides transport outside it. The total 137Cs activity that entered the atmosphere during the dust storm was estimated to be about 162 GBq, i. e. up to 20% of the total activity emitted in the air during the entire period of forest fires on April 3–20, 2020. The 137Cs emission from burned areas during the dust storm on April 16 and 17 amounted to 0.24% of the total stock of 137Cs activity in this territory. According to the results of modeling, the relative contribution of wildland fires and resuspension due to the dust storm on April 16 and 17 significantly depends on the distance to the emission sources. It was found that the resuspension of radioactive particles from burned areas during the dust storm determined 80–95% of the 137Cs activity concentration in the surface air near Chornobyl nuclear power plant and in Chornobyl city and the rest was due to the continuing forest fires in neighboring territories. The maximum 3-hour averaged value of the 137Cs activity concentration in the air due to resuspension from the burned areas was obtained for the location of the monitoring post VRP-750 of SSE “Ecocenter” to be about 28 mBq/m3 for the period 9–12 hours on April 16. In Kyiv, the 3-hour averaged 137Cs activity concentration due to the dust storm in the Exclusion Zone was calculated as 44 μBq/m3 in the period from 9 to 12 hours on April 17, 2020. This value was only about 4% of the total 137Cs activity in the air in this period.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Palapan Kampan ◽  
Adam Richard Tanielian

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 488-495
Author(s):  
Cláudia Martins ◽  
Sérgio Ferreira

AbstractThe linguistic rights of Mirandese were enshrined in Portugal in 1999, though its “discovery” dates back to the very end of the 19th century at the hands of Leite de Vasconcellos. For centuries, it was the first or only language spoken by people living in the northeast of Portugal, particularly the district of Miranda do Douro. As a minority language, it has always moved among three dimensions. On the one hand, the need to assert and defend this language and have it acknowledged by the country, which proudly believe(d) in their monolingual history. Unavoidably, this has ensued the action of translation, especially active from the mid of the 20th century onwards, with an emphasis on the translation of the Bible and Portuguese canonical literature, as well as other renowned literary forms (e.g. The Adventures of Asterix). Finally, the third axis lies in migration, either within Portugal or abroad. Between the 1950s and the 1960s, Mirandese people were forced to leave Miranda do Douro and villages in the outskirts in the thousands. They fled not only due to the deeply entrenched poverty, but also the almost complete absence of future prospects, enhanced by the fact that they were regarded as not speaking “good” Portuguese, but rather a “charra” language, and as ignorant backward people. This period coincided with the building of dams on the river Douro and the cultural and linguistic shock that stemmed from this forceful contact, which exacerbated their sense of not belonging and of social shame. Bearing all this in mind, we seek to approach the role that migration played not only in the assertion of Mirandese as a language in its own right, but also in the empowerment of new generations of Mirandese people, highly qualified and politically engaged in the defence of this minority language, some of whom were former migrants. Thus, we aim to depict Mirandese’s political situation before and after the endorsement of the Portuguese Law no. 7/99.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Ching Chang ◽  
Chien-Hao Huang ◽  
Hsiao-Jung Tseng ◽  
Fang-Chen Yang ◽  
Rong-Nan Chien

Background: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a neuropsychiatric complication of decompensated cirrhosis, is associated with high mortality and high risk of recurrence. Rifaximin add-on to lactulose for 3 to 6 months is recommended for the prevention of recurrent episodes of HE after the second episode. However, whether the combination for more than 6 months is superior to lactulose alone in the maintenance of HE remission is less evident. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the one-year efficacy of rifaximin add-on to lactulose for the maintenance of HE remission in Taiwan. Methods: We conducted a real-world single-center retrospective cohort study to compare the long-term efficacy of rifaximin add-on to lactulose (group R + L) versus lactulose alone (group L, control group). Furthermore, the treatment efficacy before and after rifaximin add-on to lactulose was also analyzed. The primary endpoint of our study was time to first HE recurrence (Conn score ≥ 2). All patients were followed up every three months until death, and censored at one year if still alive. Results and Conclusions: 12 patients were enrolled in group R + L. Another 31 patients were stratified into group L. Sex, comorbidity, ammonia level, and ascites grade were matched while age, HE grade, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score were adjusted in the multivariable logistic regression model. Compared with group L, significant improvement in the maintenance of HE remission and decreased episodes and days of HE-related hospitalizations were demonstrated in group R + L. The serum ammonia levels were significantly lower at the 3rd and 6th month in group 1. Concerning changes before and after rifaximin add-on in group R + L, mini-mental status examination (MMSE), episodes of hospitalization, and variceal bleeding also improved at 6 and 12 months. Days of hospitalization, serum ammonia levels also improved at 6th month. Except for concern over price, no patients discontinued rifaximin due to adverse events or complications. The above results provide evidence for the one-year use of rifaximin add-on to lactulose in reducing HE recurrence and HE-related hospitalization for patients with decompensated cirrhosis.


Introduction .—In nearly all the previous determinations of the ratio of the specific heats of gases, from measurements of the pressures and temperature before and after an adiabatic expansion, large expansion chambers of fror 50 to 130 litres capacity have been used. Professor Callendar first suggests the use of smaller vessels, and in 1914, Mercer (‘Proc. Phys. Soc.,’ vol. 26 p. 155) made some measurements with several gases, but at room temperature only, using volumes of about 300 and 2000 c. c. respectively. He obtained values which indicated that small vessels could be used, and that, with proper corrections, a considerable degree of accuracy might be obtained. The one other experimenter who has used a small expansion chamber, capacity about 1 litre, is M. C. Shields (‘Phys. Rev.,’ 1917), who measured this ratio for air and for hydrogen at room temperature, about 18° C., and its value for hydroger at — 190° C. The chief advantage gained by the use of large expansion chambers is that no correction, or at the most, a very small one, has to be made for any systematic error due to the size of the containing vessels, but it is clear that, in the determinations of the ratio of the specific heats of gases at low temperatures, the use of small vessels becomes a practical necessity in order that uniform and steady temperature conditions may be obtained. Owing, however, to the presence of a systematic error depending upon the dimensions of the expansion chamber, the magnitude of which had not been definitely settled by experiment, the following work was undertaken with the object of investigating the method more fully, especially with regard to it? applicability to the determination of this ratio at low temperatures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 999-1014
Author(s):  
Amín Pérez

This article proposes a new understanding of the constraints and opportunities that lead intellectuals engaged in different political and social fields to create alternative modes of resistance to domination. The study of the Algerian sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad offers insights into the social conditions of this mode of committed scholarship. On the one hand, this article applies Sayad’s theory of immigration to his transnational intellectual engagements. It establishes how immigrants’ intellectual work are conditioned by their trajectories, both before and after leaving their country, and by the stages of emigration (from playing a role in the society of origin to becoming caught up in the reality of the host society). On the other hand, the article illuminates the constraints and the spaces of possible action intellectuals face while moving across national universes and disparate political and academic fields. Sayad’s marginal position within the academy constrained him to work for the French and Algerian governments and international organizations while he was simultaneously engaged with political dissidents, unionists, writers, and social movements. In tracking Sayad’s roles as an academic, expert and public sociologist, the article uncovers the conditions that grounded improbable alliances between those fields and produced new forms of critique and political action. The article concludes by drawing out some reflections that ‘collective intellectual’ engagements elicit to the sociology of intellectuals.


1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla A. Kubitz ◽  
Konstantinos Pothakos

In the present study, participants were randomly assigned to an exercise or a nonexercise group to measure brain activation (spontaneous EEG activity), affect, and cognitive functioning before and after a 15-min treatment period. Exercisers (a) sat quietly for 5 min, (b) exercised for 15 min, (c) recovered for 5 min, and (d) completed a 15-min vigilance task. Nonexercisers did not exercise. There was a significant (a) Condition × Band × Time interaction for EEG activity, (b) Condition × Time interaction for Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist (AD ACL) scores, and (c) Condition × Time interaction for reaction times (RTs). Post hoc tests showed (a) no significant group effects at the baseline and 15-min vigilance periods, and (b) significant group effects at the postexercise and 5-min vigilance periods. Exercisers had lower levels of brain activation (i.e., more theta and alpha activity and less beta activity), higher AD ACL scores, and slower RTs than nonexercisers during these periods.


Energy ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Idee Winfield-Laird ◽  
Matthew Hastings ◽  
Margaret E. Cawley

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Wilson Matsumoto ◽  
Paula Pastana Beraldo ◽  
Rossana Pereira de Almeida ◽  
Ana Paula Macedo ◽  
Beatriz Roque Kubata ◽  
...  

Purpose. The objective of this study was to evaluate the marginal fit and the flexural resistance of nickel-chromium frameworks welded by different techniques, gas-torch, laser, and tungsten inert gas (TIG), compared with that of frameworks made via one-piece casting. Methods. To evaluate the marginal fit, a master model was fabricated simulating four implants. Transfers and replicas were used to transfer the positions of the implants to the model, using a silicone matrix. The bars were waxed up and casted. Three assessments of misfit were performed for each implant using a stereomicroscope before and after welding in two predetermined regions, totaling six readings for each implant. To evaluate the flexural resistance, one group was made casting the specimens in one piece. Other 3 groups using gas-torch, laser, and TIG welding techniques were made after sectioned transversally. The data showed normal distribution and two-way ANOVA for marginal fit and one-way ANOVA for flexural resistance, and Tukey’s posttest (α=0.05) was performed. Results. For the marginal fit, the three welding methods presented similar results and were different from one-piece casting. For the flexural resistance, significant differences were observed among the studied groups (p<0.001), and the one-piece group presented higher resistance compared to the three welding techniques. Conclusions. Within the limits of this study, the three welding techniques yielded similar misfit results, and the laser and TIG techniques presented similar flexural resistance but lower than gas-torch and one-piece casting.


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