Assessment of fissionable material behaviour in fission chambers

A comprehensive study is performed in order to assess the pertinence of fission chambers coated with different fissile materials for high neutron flux detection. Three neutron scenarios are proposed to study the fast component of a high neutron flux: (i) high neutron flux with a significant thermal contribution such as BR2, (ii) DEMO magnetic fusion reactor, and (iii) IFMIF high flux test module. In this study, the inventory code ACAB is used to analyze the following questions: (i) impact of different deposits in fission chambers; (ii) effect of the irradiation time/burn-up on the concentration; (iii) impact of activation cross-section uncertainties on the composition of the deposit for all the range of burn-up/irradiation neutron fluences of interest. The complete set of nuclear data (decay, fission yield, activation cross-sections, and uncertainties) provided in the EAF2007 data library are used for this evaluation

Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus -- the "D-shuttle" project --

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter "D-shuttle" for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the background radiation level of other regions/countries

Literature survey on epidemiology and pathology of gangliocytic paraganglioma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although gangliocytic paraganglioma (GP) has generally been regarded as a neuroendocrine tumor, its origin remains unclear. We therefore aimed to investigate the details of this disease by carefully analyzing and extracting common features of the disease as presented in selected publications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched for English and Japanese cases of GP using the PubMed and IgakuChuoZasshi databases on August 2010. We then extracted and sampled raw data from the selected publications and performed appropriate statistical analyses. Additionally, we evaluated the expression of hormone receptors based on our previously reported case.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>192 patients with GP were retrieved from the databases. Patient ages ranged from 15 y to 84 y (mean: 52.3 y). The gender ratio was 114:76 (male to female, 2 not reported). Maximum diameter of the tumors ranged from 5.5 mm to 100 mm (mean: 25.0 mm). The duodenum (90.1%, 173/192) was found to be the most common site of the disease. In 173 patients with duodenal GP, gastrointestinal bleeding (45.1%, 78/173) was found to be the most common symptom of the disease, followed by abdominal pain (42.8%, 74/173), and anemia (14.5%, 25/173). Rate of lymph node metastasis was 6.9% (12/173). Our statistical analysis indicated that significant differences were found for gender between GP within the submucosal layer and exceeding the submucosal layer. Furthermore, our immunohistochemical evaluation showed that both epithelioid and pancreatic islet cells showed positive reactivity for progesterone receptors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our literature survey revealed that there were many more cases of GP exceeding the submucosal layer than were expected. Meanwhile, our statistical analyses and immunohistochemical evaluation supported the following two hypotheses. First, vertical growth of GP might be affected by progesterone exposure. Second, the origin of GP might be pancreatic islet cells. However, it is strongly suspected that our data have been affected by publication bias and to confirm these hypotheses, further investigation is required.</p

Novel probes for pH and dissolved oxygen measurements in cultivations from millilitre to benchtop scale

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch)pH value and the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) are key parameters to monitor and control cell growth in cultivation studies. Reliable, robust and accurate methods to measure these parameters in cultivation systems in real time guarantee high product yield and quality. This mini-review summarises the current state of the art of pH and DO sensors that are applied to bioprocesses from millilitre to benchtop scale by means of a short introduction on measuring principles and selected applications. Special emphasis is placed on single-use bioreactors, which have been increasingly employed in bioprocess development and production in recent years. Working principles, applications and the particular requirements of sensors in these cultivation systems are given. In such processes, optical sensors for pH and DO are often preferred to electrochemical probes, as they allow semi-invasive measurements and can be miniaturised to micrometre scale or lower. In addition, selected measuring principles of novel sensing technologies for pH and DO are discussed. These include solid-state sensors and miniaturised devices that are not yet commercially available, but show promising characteristics for possible use in bioprocesses in the near future