Radiation dose effects on the morphological development of M_(1) generation pea(Pisum sativum)

We irradiated pea seeds with neutrons from a ^(252)Cf source and studied the radiation dose effects on various morphological development parameters during the growth of M_(1) generation peas.We found that in the dose range of 0.51-9.27 Gy,with the increase in neutron-absorbed dose,the morphological development parameters of M_(1) generation peas at the initial seedling stage showed an obvious trend with three fluctuations.With the development of pea,this trend gradually weakened.Further analysis and verification showed that the main trend in the M_(1) generation of pea seeds was an inhibitory effect induced by neutron irradiation and there was a good linear correlation between the inhibitory effect and neutron absorption dose We successfully demonstrated the background removal of mutant plants and defined morphological developmen parameters for peas that match the overall development of plants.Our results will positively impact neutron mutation breeding and automatic agriculture.

Calibration of a neutron dose rate meter in various neutron standard fields

This paper presents the calibration of a neutron dose rate meter and the evaluation of its calibration factors(CFs)in several neutron standard fields(i.e.,two standard fields with bare sources of252Cf and241Am-Be,and five simulated workplace fields with241Am-Be moderated sources).The calibration in standard fields with bare sources was conducted by following the recommendations of the ISO 8529 standard.The measured total neutron ambient dose equivalent rates,denoted as H*(10)tot,were analyzed to obtain direct components,denoted as H*(10)dir,using a reduced fitting method.The CF was then calculated as the ratio between the conventional true value of the neutron ambient dose equivalent rate in a free field,denoted as H*(10)FF,and the value of H*(10)dir.In contrast,in the simulated workplace neutron fields,the calibration of the neutron dose rate meter was conducted by following the ISO 12789 standard.The CF was calculated as the ratio between the values of H*(10)totmeasured by a standard instrument(i.e.,Bonner sphere spectrometer)and the neutron dose rate meter.The CF values were obtained in the range of 0.88–1.0.The standard uncertainties(k=1)of the CFs were determined to be in the range of approximately 6.6–13.1%.

Analysis on the Infectious Characteristics of African Swine Fever Virus

African swine fever virus(ASFV)is the only pathogen that causes African swine fever(ASF).The virus has strong viability outside of pigs,easily causing cross-border transmission,and bringing great harm to the pig industry.This paper mainly introduced the biological characteristics and transmission methods of ASFV,and provides a certain theoretical basis for preventing ASF.

Image reconstruction of a neutron scatter camera

Recently, Sandia Laboratories developed a neutron scatter camera to detect special nuclear materials. This camera exhibits the following advantages: high efficiency, direction discrimination, neutron-gamma discrimination ability, and wide field of view. However, using the direct projection method, the angular resolution of this camera is limited by uncertainties in the energies estimated from pulse height and time of flight measurements. In this study, we established an eight-element neutron scatter camera and conducted the experiment with a ^(252)Cf neutron source. The results show that it has an angular resolution better than 8°(1s) and a detection efficiency of approximately 2.6′10-4. Using maximum likelihood expectation maximization method, the image artifact was eliminated, and the angular resolution was improved. We proposed an average scattering angle method to estimate the scattering energy of neutrons and Compton gamma rays. As such, we can obtain a recognizable image and energy spectrum of the source with some degradation of energy and image resolutions. Finally, a newly measured light response function based on the MPD^(-4) device was used for image reconstruction. Although we did not obtain a better result than that of the standard light response function, we have observed the effects of light response function on image reconstruction.