Evaluation of accidental radioactive 'atmospheric discharges by nuclear reactors

The primary consideration concerning the safety of a nuclear installation refers to the protection of operators and the surrounding public both during normal operation as well as during an accidental release of radioactive contaminants into the atmosphere. The nuclear electricity generation has proved to be a safe technology, despite the generation of an enormous quantity of radioactive isotopes, both actinides and products of activation, considering the small number of accidental atmospheric dispersion events. In modern reactor installations like that of Angra I in Brazil, the monitoring of radioactivity has not lead to radioactive levels higher than normal accepted environmental levels. This is a consequence of safety features built into the plant in order that, should there be a radioactive release, no members of the public would be subjected to unacceptable levels of risk. Since there have been a very few number of reported reactor accidents, the design of a nuclear plant must resort to theoretical calculations and simulations of hypothetical releases to study the consequences of accidental dispersion of radioactive effluents. In this paper we consider the various stages related with the release of radioactivity from the irradiated nuclear fuel to the calculation of doses, starting from the radioactive inventory calculation followed with the model of radioactive release and the standard treatment for the effluents behavior in the atmosphere suggesting the gamma doses calculation to the public based in the use of the adjoint flux calculations, used as importance function, instead of the direct calculation. This new methodology will be more effective, considering the inherent large uncertainties in each stage of the radioactive release and dispersion computations. It is also necessary to remember that the system of dose limitation is based on maximum allowed levels of accidental release and maximum pollutants concentration (MCP) on air or on water and in this case the adjoint flux takes the function of the Importance of a particular radioactive release for the dose received by each irradiated individual, or for any other integral response

Nonlinear Shear-free Radiative Collapse

We study realistic models of relativistic radiating stars undergoing gravitational collapse which have vanishing Weyl tensor components. Previous investigations are generalised by retaining the inherent nonlinearity at the boundary. We transform the boundary condition to an Abel equation of the first kind. A variety of nonlinear solutions are generated all of which can be written explicitly. Several classes of infinite solutions exist.Comment: 13 pages, To appear in Math. Meth. Appl. Sc

Epitope-targeted peptide inhibitors of Myc-Max Dimerization

Myc is a popular transcription factor that is found in about 30% of human cancers. Along with being present in many cancers, it is also a potent oncogenic driver. Myc dimerizes with Max in order to promote transcription of genes that are associated with cellular proliferation, differentiation, and survival. In cancers that are Myc-driven, the Myc concentrations are higher than in healthy cells. Developing drugs in which impede Myc-Max dimerization has been difficult because there are many interactions that occur over large interfaces. This project hypothesizes that using molecular peptide ligands that adsorb to Myc at the Myc-Max dimer interface will disrupt the intermolecular interactions between Myc-Max. Molecular screening is used to identify cyclic peptide ligands that will have a high binding affinity to epitopes on Myc. By using the peptide ligands, they can be tested to measure their affinity to the Mac protein, the location of the binding on Myc, and its ability to inhibit the formation of the dimer by Myc-Max. By having this data, it then can be used to engineer peptides that are potent inhibitors of Myc-Max dimerization

POLA KEJADIAN PENYAKIT KOMORBID DAN EFEK SAMPING OAT PADA PASIEN TUBERKULOSIS DI RSUP DR. KARIADI

Background : Tuberculosis has a high prevalence in Indonesia.Management of tuberculosis require antituberculosis drug combination strategy. However, side effects of these drugs sometimes interrupts treatment process. These side effects can be affected by many factors, for example comorbidites. Aim : To identity the pattern of comorbidites and side effects of first line antituberculosis drugs in RSUP dr. Kariadi Methods : This study was using descriptive observational with cross sectional design. Samples of this study were medical records of tuberculosis patients underwent treatment using first line antituberculosis drugs in Kariadi General Hospital in 2015. Results : There were 167 cases that met the inclusion criteria. From these samples, 30 cases experienced side effects. Most side effects cases were vomitus and nausea (12 cases). From these 30 samples, 18 samples had comorbidities, mostly diabetes. Characteristic of those with side effects were mostly women (53,5%), with age ranged from 40-59 years (53,3%), treatment duration 3-4 months (43,4%), and BMI <18,5 (70%). Comorbidities didn’t have any significant relation with side effects of antituberculosis drugs. (p=0,871) Conclusions : Samples with side effects are 18% from total samples, with vomitus and nausea be the most common. Comorbidites are around 58,7% of total samples, mostly HIV. Comorbities from samples with side effects are 60% and mostly diabetes. Characteristic of those with side effects were women, with age ranged from 40-59 years, treatment duration 3-4 months, and BMI <18,5. Comorbities didn’t have any significant relation with side effects Keywords : tuberculosis, first line antituberculosis drug, side effects, comorbities, age, gender, treatment duration, BM

THE IMPACT OF ONLINE ADVERTISMENT PERSONALIZATION AND TRANSPARENCY ON INDIVIDUAL DEFENSIVE RESPONSES AND ENGAGMENT

This study identifies the different individual defensive responses that are triggered by ad personalization. We investigate how these responses impact user engagement behavior on social media. The study also examines the role of transparency in advertising and the perceived benefits of personalization on user engagement in Europe. To conduct our study, we are theoretically grounded in the defensive response model. A multi-step quantitative approach constituting two experiments and a survey is used. With 154 and 199 participants each, the experiments allowed us to define the theoretical model. The experiment identified paradoxical findings. We indent surveying online ads-users to examine the impact of personalization on individual defensive responses and the role transparency plays in predicting user engagement. Our research contributes to the theory by identifying defensive responses that explain the engagement behavior, and the impact of transparency on personalized advertising

The hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to aμa_{\mu} from full lattice QCD

We determine the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the $\alpha^2_{\mathrm{QED}}$ hadronic vacuum polarization diagram using full lattice QCD and including $u/d$ quarks with physical masses for the first time. We use gluon field configurations that include $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$ quarks in the sea at multiple values of the lattice spacing, multiple $u/d$ masses and multiple volumes that allow us to include an analysis of finite-volume effects. We obtain a result for $a_{\mu}^{\mathrm{HVP,LO}}$ of $667(6)(12)$, where the first error is from the lattice calculation and the second includes systematic errors from missing QED and isospin-breaking effects and from quark-line disconnected diagrams. Our result implies a discrepancy between the experimental determination of $a_{\mu}$ and the Standard Model of 3$\sigma$.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Discussion of method extended with additional tests and figures added. Typographical errors correcte

Strain Insensitive Optical Phase Locked Loop

An apparatus is provided to allow for quasi distributed sensing of strain within a test object. Strain insensitive fiber is used to deliver a light signal to a strain sensitive fiber in an optical phase locked loop sensor configuration. The use of strain insensitive delivery fiber allows for non-integrated measurements of strain without the use of expensive electronics such as those employed in ODTR techniques. The novelty of the present invention lies in the use of strain insensitive multimode fiber. The inventors had previously developed a similar sensor with strain insensitive fiber, however it was restricted to the use of single or few mode fibers. The use of an optical phase locked loop arrangement allows for the use of multimode strain insensitive fiber

Comparative Causality Analyses between Hydrological Natural Inflow and Climate Variables in Brazil

Numbers of studies have proved the significant influence of climate variables on hydrologicalseries. Considering the pivotal role of the hydroelectric power plants play in the electricity production in Brazil this paper considers the natural hydrological inflow data from 15 major basins and 8 climate variables containing 7 El Ni˜no Southern Oscillation proxies and the sunspot numbers. The causal relationships between hydrological natural inflows and climate variables are investigated by adopting and comparing 5 different causality detection methods (Granger Causality test, Frequency Domain Causality test, Convergent Cross Mapping, Causality test, Single Spectrum Analysis (SSA) Causality test and Periodic Autoregressive Model Causality test) that cover both well established and novel empirical approaches. Both time domain and frequency domain causality tests gain valid evidences of unidirectional causality for a group of series; CCM achieved unidirectional causality for 18% of pairs and overwhelmingly indicated the opposite direction of causality; a mixture of results are concluded by SSA causality test; PAR based causality test obtained six unidirectional causality, but only one is really significant