Observed eastward progression of the Fukushima 134Cs signal across the North Pacific

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 42 (2015): 7139–7147, doi:10.1002/2015GL065259.Radionuclide samples taken as part of hydrographic surveys at 30°N in the North Pacific reveal that the easternmost edge of Fukushima-derived 134Cs observed at 174.3°W in 2012 had progressed eastward across the basin to 160.6°W by 2013. The 2013 30°N observations indicate surface 134Cs concentrations of 3–5 Bq/m3 between 160°E and 160°W, slightly lower concentrations west of 160°E and no detectable signal east of 160.6°W. Profile samples show 134Cs penetration to 500 m west of 180° with shoaling penetration depth toward to the east. The near-uniform vertical distribution of 137Cs between 152°W and 121.3°W in the top 500 m is indicative of trace amounts of radionuclides remaining from weapons testing. The physical processes responsible for the deep 134Cs penetration in the western Pacific appear to be related to distinct water mass subduction pathways; however, the timing and rapidity of deep penetration over the broad scales observed has yet to be clarified.National Science Foundation Grant Number: OCE-1356630, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant Number: GBMF3007, Deerbrook Charitable Trust Grant Number: WHOI-DCT#12-122016-03-0

Drifter-based estimate of the 5 year dispersal of Fukushima-derived radionuclides

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 8177–8193, doi:10.1002/2014JC010306.Employing some 40 years of North Pacific drifter-track observations from the Global Drifter Program database, statistics defining the horizontal spread of radionuclides from Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean are investigated over a time scale of 5 years. A novel two-iteration method is employed to make the best use of the available drifter data. Drifter-based predictions of the temporal progression of the leading edge of the radionuclide distribution are compared to observed radionuclide concentrations from research surveys occupied in 2012 and 2013. Good agreement between the drifter-based predictions and the observations is found.This work was supported by the grant OCE-1356630 from the National Science Foundation. Data for cesium isotopes was supported by grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant GBMF3007) and the Deerbrook Charitable Trust

Short-term dispersal of Fukushima-derived radionuclides off Japan : modeling efforts and model-data intercomparison

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 10 (2013): 4973-4990, doi:10.5194/bg-10-4973-2013.The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that caused a loss of power at the Fukushima nuclear power plants (FNPP) resulted in emission of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere and the ocean. In June of 2011, an international survey measuring a variety of radionuclide isotopes, including 137Cs, was conducted in surface and subsurface waters off Japan. This paper presents the results of numerical simulations specifically aimed at interpreting these observations and investigating the spread of Fukushima-derived radionuclides off the coast of Japan and into the greater Pacific Ocean. Together, the simulations and observations allow us to study the dominant mechanisms governing this process, and to estimate the total amount of radionuclides in discharged coolant waters and atmospheric airborne radionuclide fallout. The numerical simulations are based on two different ocean circulation models, one inferred from AVISO altimetry and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis wind stress, and the second generated numerically by the NCOM model. Our simulations determine that > 95% of 137Cs remaining in the water within ~600 km of Fukushima, Japan in mid-June 2011 was due to the direct oceanic discharge. The estimated strength of the oceanic source is 16.2 ± 1.6 PBq, based on minimizing the model-data mismatch. We cannot make an accurate estimate for the atmospheric source strength since most of the fallout cesium had left the survey area by mid-June. The model explained several key features of the observed 137Cs distribution. First, the absence of 137Cs at the southernmost stations is attributed to the Kuroshio Current acting as a transport barrier against the southward progression of 137Cs. Second, the largest 137Cs concentrations were associated with a semi-permanent eddy that entrained 137Cs-rich waters, collecting and stirring them around the eddy perimeter. Finally, the intermediate 137Cs concentrations at the westernmost stations are attributed to younger, and therefore less Cs-rich, coolant waters that continued to leak from the reactor in June of that year.Irina Rypina was partially supported by Grant NSF-OCE-0725796. This work is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant GBMF3007 to Ken Buesseler

Mechanical Robustness of Graphene on Flexible Transparent Substrates.

This study reports on a facile and widely applicable method of transferring chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene uniformly onto optically transparent and mechanically flexible substrates using commercially available, low-cost ultraviolet adhesive (UVA) and hot-press lamination (HPL). We report on the adhesion potential between the graphene and the substrate, and we compare these findings with those of the more commonly used cast polymer handler transfer processes. Graphene transferred with the two proposed methods showed lower surface energy and displayed a higher degree of adhesion (UVA: 4.40 ± 1.09 N/m, HPL: 0.60 ± 0.26 N/m) compared to equivalent CVD-graphene transferred using conventional poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA: 0.44 ± 0.06 N/m). The mechanical robustness of the transferred graphene was investigated by measuring the differential resistance as a function of bend angle and repeated bend-relax cycles across a range of bend radii. At a bend angle of 100° and a 2.5 mm bend radius, for both transfer techniques, the normalized resistance of graphene transferred on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was around 80 times less than that of indium-tin oxide on PET. After 10(4) bend cycles, the resistance of the transferred graphene on PET using UVA and HPL was found to be, on average, around 25.5 and 8.1% higher than that of PMMA-transferred graphene, indicating that UVA- and HPL-transferred graphene are more strongly adhered compared to PMMA-transferred graphene. The robustness, in terms of maintained electrical performance upon mechanical fatigue, of the transferred graphene was around 60 times improved over ITO/PET upon many thousands of repeated bending stress cycles. On the basis of present production methods, the development of the next-generation of highly conformal, diverse form factor electronics, exploiting the emerging family of two-dimensional materials, necessitates the development of simple, low-cost, and mechanically robust transfer processes; the developed UVA and HPL approaches show significant potential and allow for large-area-compatible, near-room temperature transfer of graphene onto a diverse range of polymeric supports.Oppenheimer Research Fellowship, Royal Society, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Impact Acceleration Account grant), Innovate UK (Advanced Materials Feasibility Study award

Radium-based estimates of cesium isotope transport and total direct ocean discharges from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 10 (2013): 2159-2167, doi:10.5194/bg-10-2159-2013.Radium has four naturally occurring isotopes that have proven useful in constraining water mass source, age, and mixing rates in the coastal and open ocean. In this study, we used radium isotopes to determine the fate and flux of runoff-derived cesium from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP). During a June 2011 cruise, the highest cesium (Cs) concentrations were found along the eastern shelf of northern Japan, from Fukushima south, to the edge of the Kuroshio Current, and in an eddy ~ 130 km from the FNPP site. Locations with the highest cesium also had some of the highest radium activities, suggesting much of the direct ocean discharges of Cs remained in the coastal zone 2–3 months after the accident. We used a short-lived Ra isotope (223Ra, t1/2 = 11.4 d) to derive an average water mass age (Tr) in the coastal zone of 32 days. To ground-truth the Ra age model, we conducted a direct, station-by-station comparison of water mass ages with a numerical oceanographic model and found them to be in excellent agreement (model avg. Tr = 27 days). From these independent Tr values and the inventory of Cs within the water column at the time of our cruise, we were able to calculate an offshore 134Cs flux of 3.9–4.6 × 1013 Bq d−1. Radium-228 (t1/2 = 5.75 yr) was used to derive a vertical eddy diffusivity (Kz) of 0.7 m2 d−1 (0.1 cm2 s−1); from this Kz and 134Cs inventory, we estimated a 134Cs flux across the pycnocline of 1.8 × 104 Bq d−1 for the same time period. On average, our results show that horizontal mixing loss of Cs from the coastal zone was ~ 109 greater than vertical exchange below the surface mixed layer. Finally, a mixing/dilution model that utilized our Ra-based and oceanographic model water mass ages produced a direct ocean discharge of 134Cs from the FNPP of 11–16 PBq at the time of the peak release in early April 2011. Our results can be used to calculate discharge of other water-soluble radionuclides that were released to the ocean directly from the Fukushima NPP.The authors thank the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for funding this effort

Mechanical Robustness of Graphene on Flexible Transparent Substrates

This study reports on a facile and widely applicable method of transferring chemical vapor deposited (CVD) graphene uniformly onto optically transparent and mechanically flexible substrates using commercially available, low-cost ultraviolet adhesive (UVA) and hot-press lamination (HPL). We report on the adhesion potential between the graphene and the substrate, and we compare these findings with those of the more commonly used cast polymer handler transfer processes. Graphene transferred with the two proposed methods showed lower surface energy and displayed a higher degree of adhesion (UVA: 4.40 ± 1.09 N/m, HPL: 0.60 ± 0.26 N/m) compared to equivalent CVD-graphene transferred using conventional poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA: 0.44 ± 0.06 N/m). The mechanical robustness of the transferred graphene was investigated by measuring the differential resistance as a function of bend angle and repeated bend–relax cycles across a range of bend radii. At a bend angle of 100° and a 2.5 mm bend radius, for both transfer techniques, the normalized resistance of graphene transferred on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was around 80 times less than that of indium–tin oxide on PET. After 104 bend cycles, the resistance of the transferred graphene on PET using UVA and HPL was found to be, on average, around 25.5 and 8.1% higher than that of PMMA-transferred graphene, indicating that UVA- and HPL-transferred graphene are more strongly adhered compared to PMMA-transferred graphene. The robustness, in terms of maintained electrical performance upon mechanical fatigue, of the transferred graphene was around 60 times improved over ITO/PET upon many thousands of repeated bending stress cycles. On the basis of present production methods, the development of the next-generation of highly conformal, diverse form factor electronics, exploiting the emerging family of two-dimensional materials, necessitates the development of simple, low-cost, and mechanically robust transfer processes; the developed UVA and HPL approaches show significant potential and allow for large-area-compatible, near-room temperature transfer of graphene onto a diverse range of polymeric supports

The pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor reduces development of lung fibrosis and attenuates cardiorespiratory manifestations in a transgenic mouse model of systemic sclerosis

Background: The TβRII∆k-fib transgenic (TG) mouse model of scleroderma replicates key fibrotic and vasculopathic complications of systemic sclerosis through fibroblast-directed upregulation of TGFβ signalling. We have examined peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) pathway perturbation in this model and explored the impact of the pan-PPAR agonist lanifibranor on the cardiorespiratory phenotype. Methods: PPAR pathway gene and protein expression differences from TG and WT sex-matched littermate mice were determined at baseline and following administration of one of two doses of lanifibranor (30 mg/kg or 100 mg/kg) or vehicle administered by daily oral gavage up to 4 weeks. The prevention of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and SU5416-induced pulmonary hypertension by lanifibranor was explored. Results: Gene expression data were consistent with the downregulation of the PPAR pathway in the TβRII∆k-fib mouse model. TG mice treated with high-dose lanifibranor demonstrated significant protection from lung fibrosis after bleomycin and from right ventricular hypertrophy following induction of pulmonary hypertension by SU5416, despite no significant change in right ventricular systolic pressure. Conclusions: In the TβRII∆k-fib mouse strain, treatment with 100 mg/kg lanifibranor reduces the development of lung fibrosis and right ventricular hypertrophy induced by bleomycin or SU5416, respectively. Reduced PPAR activity may contribute to the exaggerated fibroproliferative response to tissue injury in this transgenic model of scleroderma and its pulmonary complications

The Carnot Cycle for Small Systems: Irreversibility and the Cost of Operations

We employ the recently developed framework of the energetics of stochastic processes (called `stochastic energetics'), to re-analyze the Carnot cycle in detail, taking account of fluctuations, without taking the thermodynamic limit. We find that both processes of connection to and disconnection from heat baths and adiabatic processes that cause distortion of the energy distribution are sources of inevitable irreversibility within the cycle. Also, the so-called null-recurrence property of the cumulative efficiency of energy conversion over many cycles and the irreversible property of isolated, purely mechanical processes under external `macroscopic' operations are discussed in relation to the impossibility of a perpetual machine, or Maxwell's demon.Comment: 11 pages with 3 figures. Resubmitted to Physical Review E. Many paragraphs have been modifie