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Chronic gamma radiation effects on vestibular apparatus of guinea pigs and role of time factor in radiation reactions of nervous system
We examine the width of the gamma ray burst luminosity function through the distribution of Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) peak fluxes as detected by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) and the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE). The strength of the analysis is greatly enhanced by using a merged catalog of peak fluxes from both instruments with good cross-calibration of their sensitivities. The range of peak fluxes is increased by approximately a factor of 20 relative to the BATSE catalog. Thus, more sensitive investigations of the log N - log P distribution are possible. We place constraints on the width of the luminosity function of gamma-ray bursts brighter than the BATSE completeness limit by comparing the intensity distribution in the merged catalog with those produced by a variety of spatial density and luminosity functions. For the models examined, 90% of the detectable bursts have peak luminosities within a range of 10, indicating that the peak luminosities of gamma-ray bursts span a markedly less wide range of values than many other of their measurable properties. We also discuss for which slopes of a power-law luminosity function the observed width is at the upper end of the constrained range. This is essential in determining the power-law slopes for which luminosity-duration correlations could be important.
We examine the width of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) luminosity function through the distribution of GRB peak count rates, C(sub peak), as detected by Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) (1993). In the context of Galactic corona spatial distribution models, we attempt to place constaints on the characteristic width of the luminosity function by comparing the observed intensity distribution with those produced by a range of density and luminosity functions. We find that the intrinsic width of the luminosity function cannot be very well restricted. However, the distribution of intrinsic luminosities of detected bursts can be limited: we find that most observed bursts have luminosities that are in a range of one to two decades, but a significant population of undetected less luminous bursts cannot be excluded. These findings demonstrate that the assumption that GRB are standard candles is sufficient but not necessary to explain the observed intensity distribution. We show that the main reason for the relatively poor constraints is the fact that the bright-end part of the GRB flux distribution is not yet sampled by BATSE, and better sampling in the future may lead to significantly stronger constraints on the width of the luminosity function.
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The neutron and gamma radiation from a MHW-RTG was used to evaluate the total response of a shielded 0.3-mm silicon detector. The generator employs a 2200 W(th) PuO2 heat source concept known as the HELIPAK. The total integrated neutron and gamma ray fluxes at 100 cm away from the source along the radial direction were 1.67 x 1,000 n/sq cm/s and 1.49 x 10,000 gamma sq cm/s, respectively. Experimental values of the response function of the shielded silicon detector were used to determine the total counting rates due to photons at bias energies ranging from 50 to 200 keV. For neutrons, analytically computed response functions were used to determine the total counting rates at the same bias energies. It was found that for an aluminum shield the neutrons are not significant, regardless of the thickness of the shield. However, the magnitude of the total counting rate due to neutrons increases with increased atomic number of the shield and becomes comparable to the counting rate due to photons for a platinum shield thickness of 5 cm.
Effect of penetrating radiation on vestibular functions of equilibrium organ after acute whole-body gamma irradiation
The maximum likelihood estimation is a general estimation procedure. It is often compared to estimation procedures like the ordinary least squares regression or generalized method of moments, to name a few. We discuss some basics about the maximum likelihood estimation, its advantages and disadvantages, and provide an example application to a gamma distribution function.
The CMIP5 configurations of the GISS Model-E2 GCM simulated a mid- and high latitude ice IWP that decreased by 50 relative to that simulated for CMIP3 (Jiang et al. 2012; JGR). Tropical IWP increased by 15 in CMIP5. While the tropical IWP was still within the published upper-bounds of IWP uncertainty derived using NASA A-Train satellite observations, it was found that the upper troposphere (200 mb) ice water content (IWC) exceeded the published upper-bound by a factor of 2. This was largely driven by IWC in deep-convecting regions of the tropics.Recent advances in the model-E2 convective parameterization have been found to have a substantial impact on tropical IWC. These advances include the development of both a cold pool parameterization (Del Genio et al. 2015) and new convective ice parameterization. In this presentation, we focus on the new parameterization of convective cloud ice that was developed using data from the NASA TC4 Mission. Ice particle terminal velocity formulations now include information from a number of NASA field campaigns. The new parameterization predicts both an ice water mass weighted-average particle diameter and a particle cross sectional area weighted-average size diameter as a function of temperature and ice water content. By assuming a gamma-distribution functional form for the particle size distribution, these two diameter estimates are all that are needed to explicitly predict the distribution of ice particles as a function of particle diameter.GCM simulations with the improved convective parameterization yield a 50 decrease in upper tropospheric IWC, bringing the tropical and global mean IWP climatologies into even closer agreement with the A-Train satellite observation best estimates.
The maximum likelihood estimation is a general estimation procedure. It is often compared to estimation procedures like the ordinary least squares regression or generalized method of moments, to name a few. We discuss some basics about the maximum likelihood estimation, its advantages and disadvantages, and provide an example application to a gamma distribution function.
Estimates of rain rate derived from a spaceborne weather radar will be most reliable over an intermediate range of values. In forming an area average of the rain rate, an alternative to the averaging of the high-resolution estimates, irrespective of their individual accuracies, is a multiple threshold approach. The method is based on the fact that the fractional area above a particular rain-rate threshold R(j) is related to the cumulative distribution of rain rates evaluated at R(j). Varying the threshold over the effective dynamic range of the radar yields the cumulative distribution function over this range. To obtain the distribution at all rain rates, a lognormal or gamma test function is selected such that the mean-square error between the test function and the measured values is minimized. Once the unknown parameters are determined, the first-order statistics of the areawide rain-rate distribution can be found. Tests of the method with data from the SPANDAR radar provide comparisons between it and the single threshold and the direct averaging approaches.
Radiation damage and recovery of lithium-diffused silicon p-n solar cells, measuring photovoltaic parameters as function of gamma radiation fluence
We calculate the magnetic dipole $\gamma$-ray strength functions in a chain of even-mass neodymium isotopes $^{144-152}$Nd in the framework of the configuration-interaction (CI) shell model. We infer the strength function by applying the maximum entropy method (MEM) to the exact imaginary-time response function calculated with the shell-model Monte Carlo (SMMC) method. The success of the MEM depends on the choice of a good strength function as a prior distribution. We investigate two choices for the prior strength function: the static path approximation (SPA) and the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA). We find that the QRPA is a better approximation at low temperatures (i.e., near the ground state), while the SPA is a better choice at finite temperatures. We identify a low-energy enhancement (LEE) in the MEM deexcitation $M1$ strength functions of the even-mass neodymium isotopes and compare with recent experimental results for the total deexcitation $\gamma$-ray strength functions. The LEE is already seen in the SPA strength function but not in the QRPA strength function, indicating the importance of large-amplitude static fluctuations around the mean field in reproducing the LEE. Our method is currently the only one which can reproduce LEE in heavy open-shell nuclei where conventional CI shell model calculations are prohibited. With the onset of deformation as number of neutrons increases along the chain of neodymium isotopes, we observe that some of the LEE strength transfers to a low-energy excitation, which we interpret as a finite-temperature ``scissors'' mode. Here, we also observe a finite-temperature spin-flip mode.
The gamma rays emitted from the moon or any similar body carry information on the chemical composition of the surface layer. The elements most easily measured are K, U, Th and major elements such as O, Si, Mg, and Fe. The expected fluxes of gamma ray lines were calculated for four lunar compositions and one chondritic chemistry from a consideration of the important emission mechanisms: natural radioactivity, inelastic scatter, neutron capture, and induced radioactivity. The models used for cosmic ray interactions were those of Reedy and Arnold and Lingenfelter. The areal resolution of the experiment was calculated to be around 70 to 140 km under the conditions of the Apollo 15 and 16 experiments. Finally, a method was described for recovering the chemical information from the observed scintillation spectra obtained in these experiments.
The gamma rays emitted from the moon or any similar body carry information on the chemical composition of the surface layer. The elements most easily measured are K, U, Th, and major elements such as O, Si, Mg, and Fe. The expected fluxes of gamma ray lines are calculated for four lunar compositions and one chondritic chemistry from a consideration of the important emission mechanisms: natural radioactivity, inelastic scatter, neutron capture, and induced radioactivity. The models used for cosmic ray interactions are those of Reedy and Arnold (1972) and Lingenfelter et al. (1972). The areal resolution of the experiment is calculated to be around 70-140 km under the conditions of the Apollo 15 and 16 experiments. Finally, a method is described for recovering the chemical information from the observed scintillation spectra obtained in these experiments.
During this research period we have made significant progress in the four proposed areas: (1) design of robust controllers via H infinity optimization; (2) design of robust controllers via mixed H2/H infinity optimization; (3) M-delta structure and robust stability analysis for structured uncertainties; and (4) a study on controllability and observability of perturbed plant. It is well known now that the two-Riccati-equation solution to the H infinity control problem can be used to characterize all possible stabilizing optimal or suboptimal H infinity controllers if the optimal H infinity norm or gamma, an upper bound of a suboptimal H infinity norm, is given. In this research, we discovered some useful properties of these H infinity Riccati solutions. Among them, the most prominent one is that the spectral radius of the product of these two Riccati solutions is a continuous, nonincreasing, convex function of gamma in the domain of interest. Based on these properties, quadratically convergent algorithms are developed to compute the optimal H infinity norm. We also set up a detailed procedure for applying the H infinity theory to robust control systems design. The desire to design controllers with H infinity robustness but H(exp 2) performance has recently resulted in mixed H(exp 2) and H infinity control problem formulation. The mixed H(exp 2)/H infinity problem have drawn the attention of many investigators. However, solution is only available for special cases of this problem. We formulated a relatively realistic control problem with H(exp 2) performance index and H infinity robustness constraint into a more general mixed H(exp 2)/H infinity problem. No optimal solution yet is available for this more general mixed H(exp 2)/H infinity problem. Although the optimal solution for this mixed H(exp 2)/H infinity control has not yet been found, we proposed a design approach which can be used through proper choice of the available design parameters to influence both robustness and performance. For a large class of linear time-invariant systems with real parametric perturbations, the coefficient vector of the characteristic polynomial is a multilinear function of the real parameter vector. Based on this multilinear mapping relationship together with the recent developments for polytopic polynomials and parameter domain partition technique, we proposed an iterative algorithm for coupling the real structured singular value.
The celebrated two-Riccati-equation solution to a standard H-infinity control problem can be used to characterize all possible stabilizing optimal or suboptimal H-infinity controllers if the optimal H-infinity norm or gamma, an upper bound of a suboptimal H-infinity norm, is given. In this note, some properties of these H-infinity Riccati solutions are revealed. Among them, the most prominent one is that the spectral radius of the product of these two Riccati solutions is a continuous, nonincreasing, convex function of gamma on the domain of interest. Based on these properties, a quadratically convergent algorithm is developed to compute the optimal H-infinity norm.
This work reports experimental 70 Ge(d,n) 71 As cross sections producing Arsenic-71 (t 1/2 = 65.3 h, 28% β + ), a potentially useful diagnostic radionuclide. Target stacks containing two nat Ge foils, a nat Ni monitor foil, and an Al degrader were irradiated with 5.5–10 MeV deuterons using an FN Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. 71 As and 61 Cu, 56 Co, and 58 Co (from nat Ni(d,x)) were quantified in the foils by high purity germanium gamma spectrometry. Furthermore, the measured cross sections are larger than previously reported and suitable for producing preclinical quantities of diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals.
The density function and corresponding moments for the ratio of correlated gamma distributed variates were derived. A class of bivariate gamma distributions was also considered, and additional distributional results which use this class of functions were also derived. Similar results, by using a different class of bivariate gamma distributions, are presented.