Seasonal variations in radon and thoron exhalation rates from solid concrete interior walls observed using in situ measurements

Sakoda, Akihiro; Ishimori, Yuu; Hasan, Md. M.*; Jin, Q.*; Iimoto, Takeshi*

Atmosphere (Internet), 15(6), p.701_1 - 701_12, 2024/06

https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15060701

Building materials such as brick and concrete are known indoor radon (Rn) and thoron (Rn) sources. Most radon and thoron exhalation studies are based on the laboratory testing of pieces and blocks of such materials. To discuss if laboratory findings can be applied to a real-world environment, we conducted intensive in-situ exhalation tests on two solid concrete interior walls of an apartment in Japan for over a year. Exhalation rates of radon () and thoron () were measured by a measurement system, mainly consisting of an accumulation chamber and dedicated monitors. The indoor air temperature () and absolute humidity () were measured in parallel, and the wall-surface temperature and water content were occasionally measured. All data obtained here were investigated to reveal environmental and material-associated factors affecting exhalation from the concrete walls. There were weak correlations between or and T or at one tested wall, and moderate correlations of and strong correlations of with or at the other wall. Our findings on were consistent with those in a previous laboratory work where a concrete sample was subject to various temperatures, although a corresponding laboratory study of could not be collected. Additionally, moderate or strong correlation between and was observed for both tested walls. The comparison of the measured data and theoretical calculations revealed a new issue on how much impact each process of the emanation and migration within concrete pore spaces has on radon and thoron exhalation. This study provides an insight into parameterizing radon and thoron source inputs in modeling the spatiotemporal dynamics of indoor radon and thoron.

Impressions of the 1st Joint Symposium of Japan Health Physics Society and Japanese Society of Radiation Safety

Yamada, Ryohei*; Tamakuma, Yuki*; Kuwata, Haruka*; Saigusa, Yumi*; Watanabe, Yuki; Hirota, Seiko*; Jin, Q.*; Cai, Y.*

Hoken Butsuri (Internet), 58(3), p.169 - 177, 2023/11

https://doi.org/10.5453/jhps.58.169

no abstracts in English

Two-step Mott transition in Ni(S,Se); SR studies and charge-spin percolation model

Sheng, Q.*; Kaneko, Tatsuya*; Yamakawa, Kohtaro*; Guguchia, Z.*; Gong, Z.*; Zhao, G.*; Dai, G.*; Jin, C.*; Guo, S.*; Fu, L.*; et al.

Physical Review Research (Internet), 4(3), p.033172_1 - 033172_14, 2022/09

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.033172

The CIELO collaboration; Progress in international evaluations of neutron reactions on Oxygen, Iron, Uranium and Plutonium

Chadwick, M. B.*; Capote, R.*; Trkov, A.*; Kahler, A. C.*; Herman, M. W.*; Brown, D. A.*; Hale, G. M.*; Pigni, M.*; Dunn, M.*; Leal, L.*; et al.

EPJ Web of Conferences, 146, p.02001_1 - 02001_9, 2017/09

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201714602001

The CIELO collaboration has studied neutron cross sections on nuclides (O, Fe, U and Pu) that significantly impact criticality in nuclear technologies with the aim of improving the accuracy of the data and resolving previous discrepancies in our understanding. This multi-laboratory pilot project, coordinated via the OECD/NEA Working Party on Evaluation Cooperation (WPEC) Subgroup 40 with support also from the IAEA, has motivated experimental and theoretical work and led to suites of new evaluated libraries that accurately reflect measured data and also perform well in integral simulations of criticality.

Pressure effect on intersite charge transfer in A-site-ordered double-perovskite-structure oxide

Long, Y.-W.*; Kawakami, Takateru*; Chen, W.-T.*; Saito, Takashi*; Watanuki, Tetsu; Nakakura, Yuta*; Liu, Q.-Q.*; Jin, C.-Q.*; Shimakawa, Yuichi*

Chemistry of Materials, 24(11), p.2235 - 2239, 2012/06

https://doi.org/10.1021/cm301267e

An A-site ordered perovskite-structure oxide, LaCuFeO, shows unusual intermetallic charge transfer between the A-site Cu and the B-site Fe ions. Like temperature, pressure also induces the intermetallic charge transfer at room temperature and the compound changes from low-pressure LaCuFeO to high-pressure LaCuFeO accompanying with significant volume collapse and as well as unusual softening in bulk modulus. In addition, the material was changed from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a paramagnetic metal transition. Either by physical or chemical (cation substitution) pressure, the charge-transfer transition temperature decreases, and the lower volume phase stabilizes Cu and Fe at the A and B sites, respectively.

The H-Invitational Database (H-InvDB); A Comprehensive annotation resource for human genes and transcripts

Yamasaki, Chisato*; Murakami, Katsuhiko*; Fujii, Yasuyuki*; Sato, Yoshiharu*; Harada, Erimi*; Takeda, Junichi*; Taniya, Takayuki*; Sakate, Ryuichi*; Kikugawa, Shingo*; Shimada, Makoto*; et al.

Nucleic Acids Research, 36(Database), p.D793 - D799, 2008/01

https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkm999

Here we report the new features and improvements in our latest release of the H-Invitational Database, a comprehensive annotation resource for human genes and transcripts. H-InvDB, originally developed as an integrated database of the human transcriptome based on extensive annotation of large sets of fulllength cDNA (FLcDNA) clones, now provides annotation for 120 558 human mRNAs extracted from the International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD), in addition to 54 978 human FLcDNAs, in the latest release H-InvDB. We mapped those human transcripts onto the human genome sequences (NCBI build 36.1) and determined 34 699 human gene clusters, which could define 34 057 protein-coding and 642 non-protein-coding loci; 858 transcribed loci overlapped with predicted pseudogenes.

Study on influence factors on radon exhalation rate from soil; The Improvement of accumulation chamber technique

Jin, Q.*; Sakoda, Akihiro; Iimoto, Takeshi*

no journal, , 

Radon-222, a gaseous decay product in the Uranium decay chain, has been recognized as a significant factor contributing to lung cancer and has also been widely used as a tracer for environmental monitoring. Extensive research has focused on understanding its behavior in the environment along with the measurement technique. Regarding previous research on Radon exhalation rate from the soil, various influence factors such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, soil conditions, and soil water contents have been studied extensively. For in-situ continuous measurement of Radon exhalation rate from the soil, the simplest set-up is the long-term coverage of an accumulation chamber on a soil surface to collect Radon gas from the soil. This may impact the environmental parameters such as the temperature of soil and air in the chamber, and soil conditions including soil water contents and humidity, potentially leading to differences in Radon exhalation rate measurement results between the soil surface in and around the chamber. To investigate the effects of the long-term coverage on the same soil surface on measurement results, an in-situ measurement method based on the open-loop accumulation chamber technique has been obtained for comparing the environmental parameters and the Radon exhalation rates between continuous measurement and spot measurement. This research can provide the Radon exhalation mechanism regarding the change of the environmental parameters, especially during the measurement using the accumulation chamber technique, to decrease the potential effects caused by the variation of influence factors, improving the accuracy of Radon exhalation rate measurement results.