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Matsuya, Yusuke; Saga, Ryo*
Radiation Environment and Medicine, 12(2), p.81 - 90, 2023/08
Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations and biophysical models are powerful tools to evaluate the biological effects after ionizing radiation in radiation protection and radiation therapy. When exposing human body to radiation, DNA lesions as an early biological response are induced by deposition energy, leading to cell death with a certain probability. To precisely evaluate such effects, it is needed to perform translational studies among radiation physics, chemistry, and biology. Here, we introduce two simulation tools for predicting biological effects, i.e., Particle and Heavy-Ion Transport code System (PHITS) and integrated microdosimetric-kinetic model (IMKM). First, PHITS track-structure calculation at DNA scale enables to estimate the DNA damage yields by electrons and protons. Meanwhile, the IMKM considering various biological factors such as DSB repair kinetics and cancer stem-liken cells can successfully reproduce in vitro cell survival and clinical outcome. This review shows the development history and future prospect of the PHITS and the IMKM, which can expect to be further applied to the research fields of radiation research and quantum life science.
Kuwata, Haruka*; Misono, Toshiharu; Fujiwara, Kenso; Takeishi, Minoru; Manabe, Sachi*; Kitamura, Akihiro
Radiation Environment and Medicine, 9(1), p.28 - 34, 2020/02
The analysis of tritium in aquatic biota is one of the most important research areas in Fukushima. The conventional method for measuring the concentration of tritium consists of complicated pretreatment procedures and requires skillful techniques as well as a significant amount of time. Consequently, there are only a few reports on tritium monitoring data in marine products from the coast of Fukushima. In this study, we measured the Tissue Free Water Tritium (TFWT) and Organically Bound Tritium (OBT) in flounders collected from the coast of Fukushima to examine the impacts of the nuclear accident on aquatic biota. The study was done for a period of 4 years; from 2015 to 2018. The conventional method of analysis was firstly used, after which the method was modified by improving the freeze-drying and combustion water recovery processes. Results from both methods show that the most of the concentrations of the TFWT and OBT in the flounder were below the detection or quantitative limit. The effect of the nuclear accident on humans, through internal exposure, was also examined and found to be negligible. Although some uncertainties exist due to the short cut of the processes, the modified version could be considered an effective and practical approximate method.
Yamada, Ryohei; Odagiri, Taiki*; Iwaoka, Kazuki*; Hosoda, Masahiro*; Tokonami, Shinji*
Radiation Environment and Medicine, 8(1), p.21 - 25, 2019/02
We evaluate radon/thoron and its progeny concentration using passive-type monitors using CR-39 plates. After exposure, it is necessary to do chemical etching for CR-39 plates. In the present study, we considered shortening of chemical etching time for CR-39 and enlargement of the track diameter (i.e. etch pit diameter) aiming for introduction of automatic counting system in the future. Optimum conditions were determined by changing solution concentration, solution temperature and etching time. As a result, the optimized conditions (concentration, temperature and etching time) were determined to be 8 M NaOH solution, 75 degrees Celsius and 10 hours. This result of etching time showed that the chemical etching was completed in less than half of conventional etching time. Furthermore, it was suggested that shorter etching time would be possible if we do not consider the enlargement of conventional track diameter.
