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Health Hazards of Exposures to Radioiodine

Iodine is a chemical element with atomic number 53. Iodine-127 is stable (non-radioactive) and commonly found in nature. Elemental iodine is a purple-colored solid at room temperature and pressure, but spontaneously sublimates (turns into vapor). Iodine is an essential element for life, and is required for proper functioning of the thyroid. Iodine is present in many foods, and is readily absorbed by the body and concentrated in the thyroid gland. A fraction of iodine ingested or inhaled is rapidly removed by the kidneys. The rest of the inhaled or ingested iodine is absorbed the by thyroid and retained for many months. Iodine has a biological half-life of approximately 120 days in health individuals. The biological half-life can be shorter in individuals with hyperthyroidism, and longer in individuals with hypothyroidism. Iodine has a number of radioactive isotopes, most of which have relatively short half-lives (days or weeks). Short half-life iodine isotopes are useful for a variety of medical applications, including imaging and cancer therapy. For example, Iodine-123 (half-life 13 hours) is commonly used for medical imaging of the thyroid, while iodine-131 (half-life 8 days) is used for suppressing thyroid function in individuals with hyperthyroidism or ablating (killing) thyroid cells to treat thyroid cancer. Iodine-125 (half-life 59 days) is produced in nuclear reactors, and has medical uses. Although iodine-125 can be used for thyroid imaging, Iodine-123 is more commonly used for that purpose because of its shorter half-life and higher-energy emissions. Iodine-125 is more commonly used for cancer treatment, and can be processed into small metal pellets (seeds) inserted directly into a tumor. Iodine-125 emits low-energy x-rays which can kill tumor cells and generally cannot escape the tumor, sparing other tissues. Medical iodine for imaging or treatment is typically administered orally in the form a pill or liquid solution. A typical adult thyroid scan using iodine-123 involves having the patient swallow between one and four 0.1 millicuries pills, with the exact dose dependent on the patient’s weight. This results in a whole-body committed effective dose of 80 – 320 mrem, and a thyroid equivalent dose of 1443 – 5772 mrem. Note that the whole-body effective dose relates to the overall cancer risk, while the larger equivalent dose to the thyroid only indicates that most of this risk is the result of exposure to the thyroid. These doses are considered safe, although the procedure is not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women. In contrast, the quantities of iodine-131 used for treatment of hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancers are much higher. For treatment of hyperthyroidism, 4 – 10 millicuries are administered, while for thyroid cancer the administration can range from 50 – 150 millicuries of I-131. In addition to medical exposures, large populations were exposed to radioiodine as result of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident. These populations have been carefully followed for many years to assess the effect of their radiation exposures on cancer risk. As a result, a great deal is known about the cancer risks associated with radioiodine exposure. Because iodine is concentrated in the thyroid, the principal risk of exposure to radioiodine is thyroid cancer. Children have the highest risk of thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive iodine. According to a large study of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, an effective dose of one Sievert (100,000 mrem) has been observed to increase the risk of thyroid cancer by a factor of 9.5 in children aged zero to nine years old, by a factor of 3 in children aged 10 to 19 years old, and by barely detectable amounts in adults. Another way of quantifying the risk from radioiodine exposure is from risk coefficients, which provide the risk per unit intake of radionuclides in terms of both morbidity (any cancer) and mortality (death). Both morbidity (risk of cancer) and mortality (death) risks are shown in the table below. Note that because thyroid cancer is almost never fatal, the morbidity coefficients are much larger than the mortality coefficients.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗

Vulcan-Forge: Architecture and Design of a Multi-Modal Forensic Analysis Plugin for CALDERA

Forge and VULCAN together describe an open-architecture cybersecurity analysis ecosystem that unifies forensic artifact processing, detection engineering, and vulnerability intelligence within integrated platforms. Forge operates as a plugin for MITRE CALDERA, ingesting diverse evidence formats—including EVTX, PCAP/PCAPNG, CSV, JSON, YAML, XML, binaries, and archives—to construct a unified artifact graph enriched with severity scoring, TLP classification, and audit trails. It provides subsystems for artifact parsing, streaming structured-data visualization, NetworkMiner-based packet inspection, PE/.NET binary analysis, and LLM-assisted triage and rule generation, with outputs validated against CCCS-YARA and pySigma schemas. VULCAN complements this by serving as a cybersecurity analyst platform that integrates a Neo4j knowledge graph, Qdrant vector retrieval, SSVC-based triage, and a local LLM to deliver CVE intelligence and forensic analysis through a multi-source ingest pipeline drawing from NVD, CISA KEV, EPSS, MITRE ATT&CK, and CAPEC. Together, they bridge structured threat intelligence with automated forensic analysis and detection workflows.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The development and use of decision support framework for informing selection of select agent toxins with modelling studies to inform permissible toxin amounts

Many countries have worked diligently to establish and implement policies and processes to regulate high consequence pathogens and toxins that could have a significant public health impact if misused. In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-132, 1996), as amended by the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-188, 2002) requires that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)] establish a list of bacteria, viruses, and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety. Currently, this list is reviewed and updated on a biennial basis using input from subject matter experts (SMEs). We have developed decision support framework (DSF) approaches to facilitate selection of select toxins and, where toxicity data are known, conducted modelling studies to inform selection of toxin amounts that should be excluded from select agent regulations. Exclusion limits allow laboratories to possess toxins under an established limit to support their research or teaching activities without the requirement to register with the Federal Select Agent Program. Fact sheets capturing data from a previously vetted SME workshop convened by CDC, literature review and SME input were developed to assist in evaluating toxins using the DSF approach. The output of the DSF analysis agrees with the current select toxin designations, and no other toxins evaluated in this study were recommended for inclusion on the select agent and toxin list. To inform the selection of exclusion limits, attack scenarios were developed to estimate the amount of toxin needed to impact public health. Scenarios consisted of simulated aerosol releases of a toxin in high-population-density public facilities and the introduction of a toxin into a daily consumable product supply chain. Using published inhalation and ingestion median toxic dose (TD 50 ) and median lethal dose (LD 50 ) values, where available, a range of toxin amounts was examined to estimate the number of people exposed to these amounts in these scenarios. Based on data generated by these models, we proposed toxin exclusion values corresponding to levels below those that would trigger a significant public health response (i.e., amounts estimated to expose up to ten people by inhalation or one hundred people by ingestion to LD 50 or TD 50 levels of toxin in the modeled scenarios).

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

A Stochastic Intracellular Model of Anthrax Infection With Spore Germination Heterogeneity

We present a stochastic mathematical model of the intracellular infection dynamics of Bacillus anthracis in macrophages. Following inhalation of B. anthracis spores, these are ingested by alveolar phagocytes. Ingested spores then begin to germinate and divide intracellularly. This can lead to the eventual death of the host cell and the extracellular release of bacterial progeny. Some macrophages successfully eliminate the intracellular bacteria and will recover. Here, a stochastic birth-and-death process with catastrophe is proposed, which includes the mechanism of spore germination and maturation of B. anthracis . The resulting model is used to explore the potential for heterogeneity in the spore germination rate, with the consideration of two extreme cases for the rate distribution: continuous Gaussian and discrete Bernoulli. We make use of approximate Bayesian computation to calibrate our model using experimental measurements from in vitro infection of murine peritoneal macrophages with spores of the Sterne 34F2 strain of B. anthracis . The calibrated stochastic model allows us to compute the probability of rupture, mean time to rupture, and rupture size distribution, of a macrophage that has been infected with one spore. We also obtain the mean spore and bacterial loads over time for a population of cells, each assumed to be initially infected with a single spore. Our results support the existence of significant heterogeneity in the germination rate, with a subset of spores expected to germinate much later than the majority. Furthermore, in agreement with experimental evidence, our results suggest that most of the spores taken up by macrophages are likely to be eliminated by the host cell, but a few germinated spores may survive phagocytosis and lead to the death of the infected cell. Finally, we discuss how this stochastic modelling approach, together with dose-response data, allows us to quantify and predict individual infection risk following exposure.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Pathway Analysis Revealed Potential Diverse Health Impacts of Flavonoids that Bind Estrogen Receptors

Flavonoids are frequently used as dietary supplements in the absence of research evidence regarding health benefits or toxicity. Furthermore, ingested doses could far exceed those received from diet in the course of normal living. Some flavonoids exhibit binding to estrogen receptors (ERs) with consequential vigilance by regulatory authorities at the U.S. EPA and FDA. Regulatory authorities must consider both beneficial claims and potential adverse effects, warranting the increases in research that has spanned almost two decades. Here, we report pathway enrichment of 14 targets from the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) and the Herbal Ingredients’ Targets (HIT) database for 22 flavonoids that bind ERs. The selected flavonoids are confirmed ER binders from our earlier studies, and were here found in mainly involved in three types of biological processes, ER regulation, estrogen metabolism and synthesis, and apoptosis. Besides cancers, we conjecture that the flavonoids may affect several diseases via apoptosis pathways. Diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, viral myocarditis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease could be implicated. More generally, apoptosis processes may be importantly evolved biological functions of flavonoids that bind ERs and high dose ingestion of those flavonoids could adversely disrupt the cellular apoptosis process.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Epi Archive: automated data collection of notifiable disease data

LANL has built a software program that automatically collects global notifiable disease data—particularly data stored in files—and makes it available and shareable within the Biosurveillance Ecosystem(BSVE) as a new data source. This will improve the prediction and early warning of disease events and other applications. Most countries do not report national notifiable disease data in a machine-readable format. Data are often in the form of a file that contains text, tables and graphs summarizing weekly or monthly disease counts. This presents a problem when information is needed for more data intensive approaches to epidemiology, biosurveillance and public health as exemplified by the Biosurveillance Ecosystem(BSVE).While most nations do likely store their data in a machine-readable format, the governments are often hesitant to share data openly for a variety of reasons that include technical, political, economic, and motivational issues. For example, an attempt by LANL to obtain a weekly version of openly available monthly data, reported by the Australian government, resulted in an onerous bureaucratic reply. The obstacles to obtaining data included: paperwork to request data from each of the Australian states and territories, a long delay to obtain data (up to 3 months) and extensive limitations on the data’s use that prohibit collaboration and sharing. This type of experience when attempting to contact public health departments or ministries of health for data is not uncommon. A survey conducted by LANL of notifiable disease data reporting in 52 countries identified only 10 as being machine-readable and 42 being reported in pdf files on a regular basis. Within the 42 nations that report in pdf files, 32 report in a structured, tabular format and10 in a non-structured way. As a result, LANL has developed a tool-Epi Archive (formerly known as EPIC)-to automatically and continuously collect global notifiable disease data and make it readily accessible. We conducted a survey of the national notifiable disease reporting systems notating how the data is reported in two important dimensions: date standards and case definitions. The development of software to regularly ingests notifiable disease data frand makes this data available involved four main steps scraping, extracting, parsing and persisting. For scraping: we would examine website designs and determine reporting mechanisms for each country/website as well as what varies across the reporting mechanisms. We then designed and wrote code to automate the downloading of report pdf files, for each country. We stored report pdfs along with appropriate metadata for extracting and parsing. For extracting: we developed software that can extract notifiable disease data presented in tabular form from a pdf file. We combined the methodology of figure placement detection with the in-house developed table extraction and annotation heuristics. For parsing: we determined what to extract from each pdf dataset from the survey conducted. We then parsed the extracted data into uniform data structures correctly accommodating the dimensions surveyed and the various human languages. This task involved ingesting notifiable disease data in many disparate formats extracted from pdf files and coalescing the data into a standardized format. For persisting: We then store the data in the Epi Archive PostgreSQL database and make it available through the BSVE. The EpiArchive tool currently contains subnational notifiable disease data from 10 nations. When a user accesses the EpiArchive site, they are prompted with four fields: country, region, disease, and date duration. These fields allow the user to specify the location(down to the state level), the disease of interest, and the duration of interest. Upon form submission, a time series is generated from the users’ specifications. The generated time series can then be downloaded into a csv file if a user is interested in performing personal analysis. Additionally, the data from EpiArchive can be reached through an API. LANL as part of a currently funded DTRA effort so that it will automatically and continuously collect global notifiable disease data—particularly data stored in pdf files—and make it available and shareable within the Biosurveillance Ecosystem (BSVE) as a new data source. This will provide data to analytics and users that will improve the prediction and early warning of disease events and other applications.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

rainwb.b1

The rain ingest has been split-ed to raintb and rainwb ingests and the output datastreams have also been changed.Please assign separate DOI numbers for each of these output

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Ion thruster performance calibration.

The calibration of a typical 20-cm diameter ion thrustor was examined to determine performance penalties that must be assessed in projecting measured performance into a space environment. Four specific areas were investigated. These include (1) double ion content of the beam, (2) back ingestion from the vacuum facility, (3) beam spreading, and (4) propellant flow rate measurements. The double ion content was measured and found to be as high as 5.5% at an arc voltage of 35 volts. Back ingestion was observed to become significant above tank pressures of 6 microtorr. Beam spreading reduced effective thrust on the order of 2.5%.

Pawlik, E. V.↗

Body water compartments during bed rest: Evaluation of analytical methods

Nine healthy young men were studied to determine the reproducibility and interchangeability of the use of radio-iodinated human serum albumin and Evans Blue dye for estimating plasma volume, sodium bromide for extracellular fluid volume, and deuterium oxide for total body water volume. All subjects were tested in a semibasal condition and allowed to rest for at least 30 min. after arriving at the laboratory. The results indicate that there was uniform distribution of I131 and Evans Blue dye 10 min. after injection and of NaBr and D2O 3 hours after oral ingestion; the buildup of residual tracer did not interfere appreciably with the measurement of either or Evans Blue spaces when they are administered at equal intervals, and the buildup of background tracer after ingestion of NaBr and D2O once per week for three consecutive weeks did not affect the accuracy of the measurement. It was found that I131 and Evans Blue may be used interchangeably for estimating plasma volume; for estimating bromide and D2O spaces, one 3-hour equilibrium blood sample gives results similar to the extrapolation of multiple samples.

Young, H. L.↗

Space shuttle orbit maneuvering engine reusable thrust chamber: Adverse operating conditions test report

Test hardware, facilities, and procedures are described along with results of electrically heated tube and channel tests conducted to determine adverse operating condition limits for convectively cooled chambers typical of Space Shuttle Orbit Manuevering Engine designs. Hot-start tests were conducted with corrosion resistant steel and nickel tubes with both monomethylhydrazine and 50-50 coolants. Helium ingestion, in both bubble and froth form, was studied in tubular test sections. Helium bubble ingestion and burn-out limits in rectangular channels were also investigated.

Tobin, R. D.↗

Erosion in radial inflow turbines. Volume 4: Erosion rates on internal surfaces

An analytic study of the rate at which material is removed by ingested dust impinging on the internal surfaces of a typical radial inflow turbine is presented. Results show that there are several regions which experience very severe erosion loss, and other regions that experience moderate levels of erosion loss: (1) the greatest amount of material loss occurs on the trailing edges of the nozzle blades where very high velocity, moderate angle impacts occur. The tip regions of ductile materials are also subjected to serious levels of erosion loss; (2) moderate amounts of erosion occur near the end of the scroll and on a few of the nozzle blades near this location. Results are presented in the form of surface contours that exist on the scroll and blade surfaces after continuous particulate ingestion with time.

Clevenger, W. B., Jr.↗

Wind tunnel test of model target thrust reversers for the Pratt and Whitney aircraft JT8D-100 series engines installed on a 727-200 airplane

The results of a low speed wind tunnel test of 0.046 scale model target thrust reversers installed on a 727-200 model airplane are presented. The full airplane model was mounted on a force balance, except for the nacelles and thrust reversers, which were independently mounted and isolated from it. The installation had the capability of simulating the inlet airflows and of supplying the correct proportions of primary and secondary air to the nozzles. The objectives of the test were to assess the compatibility of the thrust reversers target door design with the engine and airplane. The following measurements were made: hot gas ingestion at the nacelle inlets; model lift, drag, and pitching moment; hot gas impingement on the airplane structure; and qualitative assessment of the rudder effectiveness. The major parameters controlling hot gas ingestion were found to be thrust reverser orientation, engine power setting, and the lip height of the bottom thrust reverser doors on the side nacelles. The thrust reversers tended to increase the model lift, decrease the drag, and decrease the pitching moment.

Hambly, D.↗

Draining characteristics of hemispherically bottomed cylinders in a low-gravity environment

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the phenomenon of vapor ingestion during the draining of a scale model, hemispherically bottomed cylindrical tank in a low-gravity environment. Where possible, experimental results are compared with previously obtained numerical predictions. It was observed that certain combinations of Weber and Bond number resulted in draining-induced axisymmetric slosh motion. The periods of the slosh waves were correlated with the square root of the draining parameter, the ratio (Weber number)/(Bond number plus one), as was the quantity of liquid remaining in the tank when vapor was ingested into the outlet line.

Symons, E. P.↗

Contoured tank outlets for draining of cylindrical tanks in low-gravity environment

An analysis is presented for defining the outlet contour of a hemispherical-bottomed cylindrical tank that will prevent vapor ingestion when the tank is drained. The analysis was used to design two small-scale tanks that were fabricated and then tested in a low gravity environment. The draining performance of the tanks was compared with that for a tank with a conventional outlet having a constant circular cross-sectional area, under identical conditions. Even when drained at off-design conditions, the contoured tank had less liquid residuals at vapor ingestion than the conventional outlet tank. Effects of outflow rate, gravitational environment, and fluid properties on the outlet contour are discussed. Two potential applications of outlet contouring are also presented and discussed.

Symons, E. P.↗

Abatement of gaseous and particulate contamination in a space instrument application to a solar telescope

Methods to prevent the ingestion of external contaminants into the instrument and to limit the effect of the self-generated contaminants during ground, launch, orbiting and landing phases of flight were investigated. It is proposed that a positive pressure and purging flow of clean gas inside the instrument be maintained while on the ground, during launch, and for a period of time in orbit. The pressure to be maintained and the required purging flow are examined in terms of the effectiveness in preventing gaseous and particulate contaminants ingestion and the abatement of the self-generated contaminants. Considerations have been given to the venting requirements for the structural integrity of the instrument during launch, the limitations on the volume and the pressure of the purging gas to be carried along in orbit, and the required venting area is established based on the internal volume of the instrument, the allowable pressure differential, and the rate of external pressure change during launch.

Scialdone, J. J.↗

Abatement of gaseous and particulate contamination in a space instrument

Methods to prevent the ingestion of external contaminants into the instrument and to limit the effect of the self-generated contaminants during ground, launch, orbiting and landing phases of flight were investigated. It is proposed that a positive pressure and purging flow of clean gas inside the instrument be maintained while on the ground, during launch, and for a period of time in orbit. The pressure to be maintained and the required purging flow are examined in terms of the effectiveness in preventing gaseous and particulate contaminants ingestion and the abatement of the self-generated contaminants. Considerations have been given to the venting requirements for the structural integrity of the instrument during launch, the limitations on the volume and the pressure of the purging gas to be carried along in orbit, and the required venting area is established based on the internal volume of the instrument, the allowable pressure differential, and the rate of external pressure change during launch. Previously announced in STAR as N83-23350

Scialdone, J. J.↗

Development of the Centralized Storm Information System (CSIS) for use in severe weather prediction

The centralized storm information system is now capable of ingesting and remapping radar scope presentations on a satellite projection. This can be color enhanced and superposed on other data types. Presentations from more than one radar can be composited on a single image. As with most other data sources, a simple macro establishes the loops and scheduling of the radar ingestions as well as the autodialing. There are approximately 60 NWS network 10 cm radars that can be interrogated. NSSFC forecasters have found this data source to be extremely helpful in severe weather situations. The capability to access lightning frequency data stored in a National Weather Service computer was added. Plans call for an interface with the National Meteorological Center to receive and display prognostic fields from operational computer forecast models. Programs are to be developed to plot and display locations of reported severe local storm events.

Mosher, F. R.↗