Measurement of photoneutron doses in and out of high-energy X-ray beam of a SATURNE-20 medical linear accelerator by ECE polycarbonate detectors

Photoneutron contaminations in and out of high energy X-ray beams of the medical linear accelerator SATURNE 20 (CGR) of the Radiotherapy Department of Omeed Hospital in Isfahan, Iran, have been determined using 250 μm polycarbonate (PC) dosimeters, in strips or in sheets, processed by electrochemical etching (ECE) using specially designed ECE chambers to etch larger sheets. A two dimensional or topographical distribution of neutron contamination was also determined in a full size beam. The neutron dose equivalents (Hn) in the beam of 18 MV X-rays at 80 cm FSD were determined to be linear functions of X-ray dose equivalents (Hx) up to 1400 cSv. The distribution of the Hn at different X-ray doses showed bell-shape profiles with maxima at the isocenter. The ratios of dose equivalents of neutrons to those of X-rays increased as the field size increased having values of 0.22%, 0.28%, 0.31% and 0.37% for field sizes of 10×10, 20×20, 30×30, and 40×40 cm² respectively. Although such neutron dose equivalents can be corrected for patient treatment, it can cause radiation protection problems for workers where the design of the facility is not well planned.     

Additive Results for Moore-Penrose Inverse of Lambert Conditional Operators

Analysis Mathematica - In this paper, we discuss measure theoretic characterizations for Moore-Penrose inverse of Lambert conditional operators, denoted by (MwEMu)?, in some operator classes...     

Synthesis of 5-[(2-hydroxynaphthalen-1-yl)diazenyl]isophthalic acid and its application to electrocatalytic oxidation and determination of adrenaline,paracetamol, and tryptophan

In this study,Au nanoparticles/poly 5-[(2-hydroxynaphthalen-l-yl)diazenyl]isophthalic acid film modified glassy carbon electrode(AuNPs/poly(NDI)/GCE) has shown excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of adrenaline(ADR),paracetamol(PAC),and tryptophan(Trp).The bare glassy carbon electrode(GCE) fails to separate the oxidation peak potentials of these molecules,while the poly(NDI) film modified electrode can resolve them.Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)indicates that the charge transfer resistance of the bare electrode decreases as 5-[(2-hydroxynaphthalen-l-yl)diazenyl]isophthalic acid is electropolymerized on the bare electrode.Furthermore,EIS exhibits enhancement of electron transfer kinetics between analytes and the electrode after electrodeposition of Au nanoparticles.Differential pulse voltammetry results show that the electrocatalytic current increases linearly in the ranges of 0.01-680.0 μmol L~1 for ADR,0.05-498.0 μmol L~1 for PAC,and 3.0-632.0 μmol L~1 for Trp;with detection limits(S/N = 3) of 0.009 μmol L~1,0.005 μmol L~1,and 0.09 μmol L~1 for ADR,PAC,and Trp,respectively.The proposed method has been successfully applied for simultaneous determination of ADR,PAC,and Trp in biological samples.     

Mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of CO2 transport through hollow-fiber membranes

Chemical absorption of carbon dioxide was studied theoretically using hollow-fiber membrane contactors in this work. A 2D mathematical model was developed to study CO₂ transport through hollow-fiber membrane contactors. The model considers axial and radial diffusion in the membrane contactor. It also considers convection in the tube and shell side with chemical reaction. The finite element method (FEM) was used to solve the model equations. Modeling predictions were validated with the experimental data obtained from literature for CO₂ absorption in amine aqueous solutions as solvent. The modeling predictions were in good agreement with the experimental data for different values of gas and liquid velocities. The liquid solvents considered for this study include aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) and potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃). The simulation results indicated that amine aqueous solutions were better than K₂CO₃ aqueous solution for CO₂ absorption. Also simulation results revealed that the removal of CO₂ with aqueous solution of MEA was the highest among the amines solvents. The hollow-fiber membrane contactors showed a great potential in the area of CO₂ absorption.     

Synthesis and activity measurement of some water-gas shift reaction catalysts

The effect of calcination temperature on the activity and some properties of low temperature water gas shift reaction catalysts has been investigated. The activities of catalysts have been determined using a fixed bed catalytic reactor. The following results may be deduced from the present study. 1. The catalysts' total surface area decreased with increasing calcination temperature, presumably due to the partial sintering of the catalysts particles. 2. The presence of an amorphous CuO phase within the structure of some catalysts may be related to the desirable conditions prevailing during synthesis of the latter. 3. Observation of a similar trend between the increase in copper crystallite particle size and enhancement of catalyst activities with increasing calcination temperature demonstrates the important contribution made by the copper crystallite phase to the overall activities of water gas shift reaction catalysts. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Some results on the cofiniteness of local cohomology modules

Let R be a commutative Noetherian ring, a an ideal of R, M an R-module and t a non-negative integer. In this paper we show that the class of minimax modules includes the class of AF modules. The main result is that if the R-module Ext _R ^t (R/a,M) is finite (finitely generated), H _a ⁱ (M) is a-cofinite for all i < t and H _a ^t (M) is minimax then H _a ^t (M) is a-cofinite. As a consequence we show that if M and N are finite R-modules and H _a ⁱ (N) is minimax for all i < t then the set of associated prime ideals of the generalized local cohomology module H _a ^t (M,N) is finite.     

The estimation of the hydrophobic and electrostatic contributions to the free energy change upon cationic surfactants binding to Jack bean urease

The binding of a homologous series of n-alkyltrimethyl ammonium bromides with Jack bean urease (JBU) have been studied previously. It has been suggested that both electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions are involved in the formation of surfactant-protein complexes, but there is not any quantities analyzing method for resolution of their contributions in the process. In the present study, at first, the intrinsic Gibbs free energy of binding, ΔG_b,ν, has been calculated for these systems and the trend of variation for both binding sets have been interpreted on basis of cooperativity and hydrophobicity of surfactants. Subsequently, a novel approach has been introduced for estimation of electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions in ΔG_b,ν, by considering of this fact that ΔG_b,ν is the summation of electrostatic, ΔG_b,ν(ele), and hydrophobic, ΔG_b,ν(hyd), parts and considering this fact that just ΔG_b,ν(hyd) is a function of hydrocarbon tail length of surfactant (C_n). The results represents the higher positive rule of electrostatic interactions in binding affinity of first set and inhibiting rule of this interaction in the second binding set. The predominate driving force in the second binding set is entropy statistical effect, which arises from numerous number of binding sites in this set. A binding mechanism on basis of structural changes in JBU due to its interaction with cationic surfactants has also been proposed.     

A review of methods for synthesis of nanostructured metals with emphasis on iron compounds

Synthesis of metal nanoparticles with specific properties is a newly established research area attracting a great deal of attention. Several methods have been put forward for synthesis of these materials, namely chemical vapor condensation, arc discharge, hydrogen plasma—metal reaction, and laser pyrolysis in the vapor phase, microemulsion, hydrothermal, sol-gel, sonochemical, and microbial processes taking place in the liquid phase, and ball milling carried out in the solid phase. The properties of metal nanoparticles depend largely on their synthesis procedures. In this paper the fundamentals, advantages, and disadvantages of each synthesis method are discussed.