Development and characteristics study of compact Penning ion source.

A compact-size Penning ion source with a small discharge volume (1.24 cm3) is developed. It consists of two concentric cylinders of different heights that act as cathodes and one hollow cylindrical anode. A homogeneous magnetic field is achieved within the discharge volume with geometrical optimization of the ion source. As a result, dense plasma is generated at low discharge power. The dynamics of the pulse mode discharge at low pulse width and frequency of anode voltage are studied. A high discharge (hundreds of amperes) current pulse with low delay time and fast rise time is recorded. The ion source is equally efficient to operate in continuous as well as pulse modes of ionization for various gases. It is operated in a wide range of low pressure at low anode voltage. An extraction system is designed to extract ions efficiently in the axial direction at a variable extraction voltage. The beam current of 200 µA in continuous mode and 6 A fast pulse in the pulsed mode of discharge have been measured. Variable beam current can be extracted with variable extraction voltage for any potential application.

A novel method to estimate the dead layer of HPGe detector for Monte Carlo FEPE computation.

In this study, a novel method to determine the surface and lateral dead layers of p-type HPGe detector is proposed to compute the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE). The method employed standard radioactive point sources 241Am, 133Ba and FEPE measurement at low energies to estimate the thickness of frontal and lateral dead layers. The method is simple to apply, requires only two standard radioactive sources to estimate the optimum thickness of frontal and lateral dead layers. The proposed method is validated by measuring the efficiency of various point sources and a volume source in the energy range from 59 to 1408 keV. The measured efficiencies agree to simulation with relative deviation less than 4.0% at each energy. The proposed detector model enables to calibrate the detector for environmental radioactivity measurement without standard volume sources.

Dosimetric properties of thermoluminescent NaCl pellets from Khewra Salt Mines, Pakistan.

Thermoluminescence (TL) and extended dosimetric characteristics of naturally occurring sodium chloride (NaCl) salt were studied. Pellets were prepared from mined crystalline salt obtained from Khewra Salt Mines, Pakistan and irradiated from 1 mGy to 10,000 mGy using cobalt-60 gamma source. The TL response showed two dominant peaks around 125°C and 230°C, respectively, at low doses, with an additional peak in between at doses beyond 300 mGy. A linear and supra-linear TL response was observed between 1 mGy-100 mGy and 100 mGy-10 Gy dose ranges, respectively. During the first 24 h post-irradiation, the TL intensity dropped by 20%. A maximum angular dependence of up to 50% was observed between 0° to 360°. For photon energies between 33 keV and 1.25 MeV significant energy dependence was observed for photons < 100 keV only. Sample sensitivity increased with dose a qualitatively similar behaviour to TLD-200. Effective atomic number (Zeff ) of the sample (14.6) was comparable to TLD-200 (16.3). No significant dose rate effects (deviation for a cobalt-60 source within 3.5%) on the TL sensitivity of the sample were found. The lowest detectable dose limit (LDDL) for salt sample was found to be 0.8 mGy whereas the sample reproducibility test showed a maximum of ±11% deviation from the first value.

Isolated Idiopathic Right Common Iliac Artery Aneurysm Presenting as Acute Appendicitis in a 9-Year-Old Girl: A Case Report and Literature Review.

The prevalence of iliac artery aneurysms is extremely rare in children. The most common etiologies for developing an aneurysm in children are infections, inflammatory diseases, and trauma. An idiopathic or congenital etiology is the least common cause in the pediatric population. We report a case of a 9-year-old girl with no previous history of trauma, intervention, or family history of vascular diseases who presented with a sudden severe right lower quadrant pain suggesting appendicitis. Upon examination, a large tender pulsatile mass was felt in the right lower quadrant. Ultrasound and computed tomography scans revealed a large right common iliac aneurysm. The aneurysm was noted to have a high risk of rupture due to the sudden symptomatic presentation and its large size. Therefore, the patient underwent an urgent operation, during which an aneurysmal repair was performed with an interposition graft. Postoperative ultrasound imaging showed a patent graft and no residual aneurysm. The patient has been followed up for two years, and no complications were found.

Phosphorus sorption and availability in soils amended with animal manures and sewage sludge.

Soils that receive large applications of animal wastes and sewage sludge are vulnerable to releasing environmentally significant concentrations of dissolved P available to subsurface flow owing to the gradual saturation of the soil's P sorption capacity. This study evaluated P sorption (calculated from Langmuir isotherms) and availability of P (as CaCl2-P and resin P) in soils incubated for 20 d with poultry litter, poultry manure, cattle slurry, municipal sewage sludge, or KH2PO4, added on a P-equivalent basis (100 mg P kg(-1)). All the P sources had a marked negative effect on P sorption and a positive effect on P availability in all soils. In the cattle slurry- and KH2PO4-treated soils, the decreases in P sorption maximum (19-66%) and binding energy (25-89%) were consistently larger than the corresponding decreases (7-41% and 11-30%) in poultry litter-, poultry manure-, and sewage sludge-treated soils. The effects of cattle slurry and KH2PO4 on P availability were, in most cases, larger than those of the other P sources. In the poultry litter, poultry manure, and sewage sludge treatments, the increase in soil solution P was inversely related (R2 = 0.75) to the input of Ca from these relatively high Ca (13.5-42 g kg(-1)) sources. Correlation analyses implied that the magnitude of the changes in P sorption and availability was not related to the water-extractable P content of the P sources. Future research on the sustainable application of organic wastes to agricultural soils needs to consider the non-P- as well as P-containing components of the waste.