526 research outputs found
Monte Carlo simulation of kilovolt electron transport in solids
A Monte Carlo procedure to simulate the penetration and energy loss of low¿energy electron beams through solids is presented. Elastic collisions are described by using the method of partial waves for the screened Coulomb field of the nucleus. The atomic charge density is approximated by an analytical expression with parameters determined from the Dirac¿Hartree¿Fock¿Slater self¿consistent density obtained under Wigner¿Seitz boundary conditions in order to account for solid¿state effects; exchange effects are also accounted for by an energy¿dependent local correction. Elastic differential cross sections are then easily computed by combining the WKB and Born approximations to evaluate the phase shifts. Inelastic collisions are treated on the basis of a generalized oscillator strength model which gives inelastic mean free paths and stopping powers in good agreement with experimental data. This scattering model is accurate in the energy range from a few hundred eV up to about 50 keV. The reliability of the simulation method is analyzed by comparing simulation results and experimental data from backscattering and transmission measurements
Producció de biometà a partir de la co-digestió d'aigües residuals porcines i vitivinícoles
One of the largest winery and cattle industry's environmental impacts is the one derived from the waste waters management. In this study, the problematic setting of residual waste waters produced in winery industry and swine industry is exposed, as well as the process, the microorganisms, the advantages and the limitations of co-digestion. A future application project of anaerobic co-digestion is proposed with an example focused on a catalane vineyard and a swine farm, with the purpose of reducing wastes, the main environmental impacts and the economic costs through both methane and electricity productio
Use of the Bethe equation for inner-shell ionization by electron impact
We analyzed calculated cross sections for K-, L-, and M-shell ionization by electron impact to determine the energy ranges over which these cross sections are consistent with the Bethe equation for inner-shell ionization. Our analysis was performed with K-shell ionization cross sections for 26 elements, with L-shell ionization cross sections for seven elements, L-3-subshell ionization cross sections for Xe, and M-shell ionization cross sections for three elements. The validity (or otherwise) of the Bethe equation could be checked with Fano plots based on a linearized form of the Bethe equation. Our Fano plots, which display theoretical cross sections and available measured cross sections, reveal two linear regions as predicted by de Heer and Inokuti [in Electron Impact Ionization, edited by T. D. Mark and G. H. Dunn, (Springer-Verlag, Vienna, 1985), Chap. 7, pp. 232-276]. For each region, we made linear fits and determined values of the two element-specific Bethe parameters. We found systematic variations of these parameters with atomic number for both the low-and the high-energy linear regions of the Fano plots. We also determined the energy ranges over which the Bethe equation can be used
A simplified model of the source channel of the Leksell Gamma Knife: testing multisource configurations with PENELOPE
A simplification of the source channel geometry of the Leksell Gamma
Knife, recently proposed by the authors and checked for a single
source configuration (Al-Dweri et al 2004), has been used to calculate the dose
distributions along the , and axes in a water phantom with a
diameter of 160~mm, for different configurations of the Gamma Knife including
201, 150 and 102 unplugged sources. The code PENELOPE (v. 2001) has been used
to perform the Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the output factors for the
14, 8 and 4~mm helmets have been calculated. The results found for the dose
profiles show a qualitatively good agreement with previous ones obtained with
EGS4 and PENELOPE (v. 2000) codes and with the predictions of
GammaPlan. The output factors obtained with our model agree
within the statistical uncertainties with those calculated with the same Monte
Carlo codes and with those measured with different techniques. Owing to the
accuracy of the results obtained and to the reduction in the computational time
with respect to full geometry simulations (larger than a factor 15), this
simplified model opens the possibility to use Monte Carlo tools for planning
purposes in the Gamma Knife.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 5 table
Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron Backscattering in Solids Using a General-Purpose Computer Code
A Monte Carlo study of backscattering of kilovolt electrons in solids, a process of primary importance in electron microscopy and surface analytical techniques, is carried out. Simulations have been performed using the general-purpose simulation code PENELOPE (an acronym for Penetration and ENErgy LOss of Positrons and Electrons ), which generates electron-photon showers in arbitrary materials. A systematic comparison of results from PENELOPE with available experimental data, and with results from simulations with a much more sophisticated code, is given for electron beams with energies between 2.5 and 60 keV and elemental solids with atomic numbers Z = 4 to 92. It is concluded that PENELOPE gives a reliable description of the backscattering process, even for relatively low electron energies and thin targets
Ecosystem function and biodiversity on coral reefs
The article highlights a workshop held in Key West, Florida in November 1993 attended by a group of 35 international scientists where topics of ecosystem function and biodiversity on coral reefs were discussed
Low Energy Electron Point Projection Microscopy of Suspended Graphene, the Ultimate "Microscope Slide"
Point Projection Microscopy (PPM) is used to image suspended graphene using
low-energy electrons (100-200eV). Because of the low energies used, the
graphene is neither damaged or contaminated by the electron beam. The
transparency of graphene is measured to be 74%, equivalent to electron
transmission through a sheet as thick as twice the covalent radius of
sp^2-bonded carbon. Also observed is rippling in the structure of the suspended
graphene, with a wavelength of approximately 26 nm. The interference of the
electron beam due to the diffraction off the edge of a graphene knife edge is
observed and used to calculate a virtual source size of 4.7 +/- 0.6 Angstroms
for the electron emitter. It is demonstrated that graphene can be used as both
anode and substrate in PPM in order to avoid distortions due to strong field
gradients around nano-scale objects. Graphene can be used to image objects
suspended on the sheet using PPM, and in the future, electron holography
Development of a GPU-based Monte Carlo dose calculation code for coupled electron-photon transport
Monte Carlo simulation is the most accurate method for absorbed dose
calculations in radiotherapy. Its efficiency still requires improvement for
routine clinical applications, especially for online adaptive radiotherapy. In
this paper, we report our recent development on a GPU-based Monte Carlo dose
calculation code for coupled electron-photon transport. We have implemented the
Dose Planning Method (DPM) Monte Carlo dose calculation package (Sempau et al,
Phys. Med. Biol., 45(2000)2263-2291) on GPU architecture under CUDA platform.
The implementation has been tested with respect to the original sequential DPM
code on CPU in phantoms with water-lung-water or water-bone-water slab
geometry. A 20 MeV mono-energetic electron point source or a 6 MV photon point
source is used in our validation. The results demonstrate adequate accuracy of
our GPU implementation for both electron and photon beams in radiotherapy
energy range. Speed up factors of about 5.0 ~ 6.6 times have been observed,
using an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card against a 2.27GHz Intel Xeon CPU
processor.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table. Paper revised. Figures update
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