A Monte Carlo investigation of some important radiation parameters and tissue equivalency for photons below 1 keV in human tissues

The attenuation coefficients are important input values in estimating not only the dose and exposure in radiotherapy and medical imaging, but also in the proper design of photon shields. While studies are widely available above 1 keV, the attenuation coefficients of human tissues for photon energies less than 1 keV have not been studied yet. In this study, the attenuation coefficients of water and some human tissues were estimated for low energy photons using the MCNP6.1 code in the energy region 0.1 keV-1 keV. Mass attenuation coefficients were estimated at photon energies of 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900, 950 and 1000 eV for water and ten human tissues (Soft, Breast, Lung, Bone, Brain, Eye lens, Ovary, Skin, Thyroid and Prostate). Results were compared with those available in literature and a fairly good agreement has been obtained. These data were then used to calculate the mean free path, half value layer, tenth value layer, effective atomic number and specific gamma-ray constant (useful for calculation of dose rate) as well. Moreover, for comparison the effective atomic number of the water has been obtained using the results of this work and using the data available in NIST database from 0.1 to 1 keV. In addition, the human tissues were compared with some tissue equivalent materials in terms of effective atomic number and specific gamma-ray constant to study the tissue equivalency from the results, the muscle-equivalent liquid with sucrose has been found to be the best tissue equivalent material for soft tissue, eye lens and brain with relative difference below 4.1%.

Calculate Effective Atomic Number, Mass and Cross-Section Attenuation Coefficients for Nonanoic Acid by Using Gamma-Ray Sources

The effective atomic number (Z effective), total atomic cross-section (б Total) electron density (N effective) have been Measured depending on the mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ). By using Gamma-ray radiation (γ), emitted from sources (57𝐶𝑜, 133𝐵𝑎, 22𝑁𝑎, 137𝐶𝑠, 54𝑀𝑛, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 60𝐶𝑜) with energies from (0.122, 0.356, 0.511, 0.662, 0.84, 1.17, 1.275 𝑎𝑛𝑑 1.33𝑀𝑒𝑉) respectively. using the Sodium Iodide Scintillation Detectors NaI (Tl) at 662 keV and resolution about 8.2% have been measured the mass attenuation coefficients for the sample “Nonanoic acid its common name Pelargonic acid” it’s chemical formula C9H18O2. The data from the mass attenuation coefficient were then employed to study Zeffective, Neffective, and бtotal of the sample. In the presence of gamma-ray energy, it was discovered that the effective atomic number and effective electron densities first drop and they tend to remain nearly constant. The experimental values obtained by Zeffective and Neffective were in excellent agreement with the theoretical values. The theoretical data that is accessible is obtained from XCom, which is available online. The study's findings aid in understanding how (μ/ρ) values change when Zeff and Neff values vary in the case of H, C, and O based biological molecules such as fatty acids.

A study of alpha-decay using effective liquid drop model

In this paper, we have made an attempt to analyze the alpha-decay half-lives of in the atomic number range [Formula: see text] by considering an effective liquid drop model. The role of pre-formation probability by including iso-spin effect is included during an evaluation of half-lives. We have also compared the studied alpha-decay half-lives with that of semi-empirical formulae such as Viola Seaborg semi-empirical formulae (VSS) [J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem. 28 (1966) 741; Nucl. Phys. A 848 (2010) 279], Royer formulae [J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 26 (2000) 1149; Phys. Rev. C 101 (2020) 034307] and also with that of the available experiments. From this comparison, it can be concluded that the effective liquid drop model produces an alpha-decay half-lives close to the experiments.

Monte Carlo Calculation of linear attenuation coefficients and photon scattering properties of novel concretes loaded with Osmium, Iridium and Barite nanoparticles

Introduction: Recent studies have shown that the use of high-density nanoparticles (NPs) in concrete composition improves its radiation shielding properties. In the present study, the linear attenuation coefficients and photon scattering properties of newly developed high-density Nano-concretes have been calculated using the MCNPX Monte Carlo code. Material and methods: The shielding properties of Nano-concretes containing 10%, 20%, and 30% weight percentage of Osmium, Iridium and Barite NPs (100 nm) as well as ordinary concrete were investigated. The 6 and 18 MV photon beams of Varian Linac and 60 Co photons were used for simulation. Photon scattering flux was calculated for all Nano-concretes with 30 wt% of NPs and ordinary concrete at different angles. Results: In general, by adding Iridium, Osmium and Barite NPs to ordinary concrete, the linear attenuation coefficients increased. Despite a lower density relative to Iridium and Osmium, Nano-concretes containing Barite exhibited a higher linear attenuation coefficient due to their higher electron density. Conclusions: The results revealed a dependence between the scattered photon flux and the effective atomic number of Nano-concretes. With increasing the atomic number of fillers, the intensity of the scattered photon flux enlarged. Also, the scattered flux was higher for all types of concretes at 180 degrees relative to other angles.

Evaluation of Gamma Radiation Properties of Four Types of Surgical Stainless Steel in the Energy Range of 17.50–25.29 keV

In this study, the gamma radiation properties of four types of surgical-grade stainless steel (304, 304L, 316 and 316L) were investigated. The effective atomic number Zeff, effective electron density Neff and half-value layer (HVL) of four types of surgical-grade stainless steel were determined via the mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ). The μ/ρ coefficients were determined experimentally using an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique and theoretically via the WinXCOM program. The Kα1 of XRF photons in the energy range between 17.50 and 25.29 keV was used from pure metal plates of molybdenum (Mo), palladium (Pd), silver (Ag) and tin (Sn). A comparison between the experimental and theoretical values of μ/ρ revealed that the experimental values were lower than the theoretical calculations. The relative differences between the theoretical and experimental values were found to decrease with increasing photon energy. The lowest percentage difference between the experimental and theoretical values of μ/ρ was between −6.17% and −9.76% and was obtained at a photon energy of 25.29 keV. Sample 316L showed the highest value of μ/ρ at the energies 21.20, 22.19 and 25.29 keV. In addition, the measured results of Zeff and Neff for all samples behaved similarly in the given energy range and were found to be in good agreement with the calculations. The equivalent atomic number (Zeff) of the investigated stainless-steel samples was calculated using the interpolation method to compare the samples at the same source energy. The 316L stainless steel had higher values of μ/ρ, Zeff and Zeq and lower values of HVL compared with the other samples. Therefore, it is concluded that the 316L sample is more effective in absorbing gamma radiation.