• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.85-92
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• 2003

We consider the partially linear model E(Y) : X$^{t}$ $\beta$＋η(Z) when the X's are measured with additive error. The semiparametric likelihood estimation ignoring the measurement error gives inconsistent estimator for both $\beta$ and η(.). In this paper we suggest the SIMEX estimator for f to correct the bias induced by measurement error, and explore its properties. We show that the rational linear extrapolant is proper in extrapolation step in the sense that the SIMEX method under this extrapolant gives consistent estimator It is also shown that the SIMEX estimator is asymptotically equivalent to the semiparametric version of the usual parametric correction for attenuation suggested by Liang et al. (1999) A simulation study is given to compare two variance estimating methods for SIMEX estimator.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.278-284
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• 2023

The synthetic B₂O₃-As₂O₃ glass ceramic are prepared to investigate the physical properties and the radiation shielding capabilities with the variation of concentration of the As₂O₃ with 10, 20, 30, and 40%, respectively. XRD analyses are performed on the fabricated glass-ceramic and depicted the improvement of crystallinity by adding As₂O₃. The radiation shielding properties are studied for the B₂O₃-As₂O₃ glass ceramic. The values of linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) are varied with the variation of incident photon gamma energy (23.1-103 keV). The LAC values enhanced from 12.19 cm^-1-37.75 cm^-1 by raising the As₂O₃ concentration from 10 to 40 mol% at low gamma energy (23.1 keV) for BAs10 and BAs40, respectively. Among the shielding parameters, the half-value layer, transmission factor, and radiation protection efficiency are estimated. Furthermore, the fabricated samples of glass ceramic have low manufacturing costs and good shielding features compared to the previous work. It can be concluded the B₂O₃-As₂O₃ glass ceramic is appropriate to apply in X-ray or low-energy gamma-ray shielding applications.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권7호
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• pp.2444-2451
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• 2024

This work demonstrates a new sol-gel approach for synthesizing PbO₂-doped zirconia using zircon mineral precursors. The streamlined methodology enables straightforward fabrication of the doped zirconia composites. Comprehensive materials characterization was performed using XRD, SEM, and TEM techniques to analyze the crystal structure, microstructure, and morphology. Quantitative analysis of the XRD data provided insights into the nanoscale crystallite sizes achieved, along with their relationship to lattice imperfections. Furthermore, the gamma-ray shielding capacity for the PbO₂-doped zirconia samples was estimated by the Monte Carlo simulation, which proves an increase in the gamma ray shielding properties by raising the Pb concentration. The linear attenuation coefficient increased between 0.467 and 0.499 cm^-1 (at 0.662 MeV) by increasing the Pb content between 11 and 21 wt%. By increasing the Pb content to 21 wt%, the synthesized composites' lead equivalent thickness reaches 2.49 cm. The radiation shielding properties for the synthesized composites revealed a remarkable performance against low and intermediate γ-ray photons, with radiation shielding capacity of 37.3 % and 21.4 % at 0.662 MeV and 2.506 MeV, respectively. As a result, the developed composites can be employed as an alternative shielding material in hospitals and radioactive zones.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.2063-2070
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• 2024

A series of ordinary concrete is casted in order to examine the influence of the manganiferous siltstone rocks on the physical, mechanical, and gamma-ray shielding properties. Thus, a partial replacement for the coarse aggregates by siltstone rocks was performed during the fabrication of the currently ordinary concrete. The test revealed that raising the siltstone concentration improved the mechanical characteristics and density of the developed concretes. The addition of siltstone rocks at concentrations ranging from 0 to 40 wt% of the coarse aggregate concentration raises the density of the concrete from 2.05 g/cm³ to 2.3 g/cm³. Furthermore, partial substitution of basalt with siltstone rocks improves gamma-ray shielding properties. The experimental results for the linear attenuation coefficient show an increase in its value from 0.146 cm1 to 0.160 cm^-1 when the siltstone concentration is increased between 0 and 40 wt% at 0.662 MeV. Furthermore, increasing the concentrations of siltstone affected the half-value thickness, which varied between 4.759 and 4.319 cm at 0.662 MeV. Therefore, the replacement presents a new alternative coarse aggregate that can enhance the mechanical and radiation shielding properties of ordinary concretes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권6호
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• pp.2258-2265
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• 2024

The present investigation aims to study the role of Pr₂O₃ on the structural, physical, and radiation shielding properties of a dense cadmium lead borate glass. The XRD was used to affirm the glassy amorphous structure of fabricated sample materials. Moreover, the FTIR was used to record the change in the FT-IR spectra due to the addition of Pr₂O₃ in the wavenumber interval between 400 and 4000 cm^-1. The features of glass surfaces and the elemental analyses for the synthesized Pr₂O₃-reinforced cadmium lead borate glasses were performed using a SEM, supported by an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The γ-ray protection capacity was evaluated using the Monte Carlo method in a wide energy interval ranging between 0.015 and 15 MeV. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) at 1 MeV was reduced by a factor of 10 % from 0.372 cm^-1 to 0.340 cm^-1. The decrease in the LAC values negatively affected the other shielding properties such as half-value thickness and the transmission factor. Although the linear attenuation coefficient is decreased slightly with the partial substitution of CdO by Pr₂O₃ compound, the fabricated glass samples still have a high shielding capacity compared to the traditional commercial glasses as well as previous similar reported glasses.

• Journal of Communications and Networks
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• 제15권4호
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• pp.383-397
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• 2013

In this paper, the sensitivity of massive antenna arrays and digital beamforming to radio frequency (RF) chain in-phase quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance is studied and analyzed. The analysis shows that massive antenna arrays are increasingly sensitive to such RF chain imperfections, corrupting heavily the radiation pattern and beamforming capabilities. Motivated by this, novel RF-aware digital beamforming methods are then developed for automatically suppressing the unwanted effects of the RF I/Q imbalance without separate calibration loops in all individual receiver branches. More specifically, the paper covers closed-form analysis for signal processing properties as well as the associated radiation and beamforming properties of massive antenna arrays under both systematic and random RF I/Q imbalances. All analysis and derivations in this paper assume ideal signals to be circular. The well-known minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and a widely-linear (WL) extension of it, called WL-MVDR, are analyzed in detail from the RF imperfection perspective, in terms of interference attenuation and beamsteering. The optimum RF-aware WL-MVDR beamforming solution is formulated and shown to efficiently suppress the RF imperfections. Based on the obtained results, the developed solutions and in particular the RF-aware WL-MVDR method can provide efficient beamsteering and interference suppressing characteristics, despite of the imperfections in the RF circuits. This is seen critical especially in the massive antenna array context where the cost-efficiency of individual RF chains is emphasized.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제56권7호
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• pp.2740-2747
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• 2024

The sintering process acquired ferromagnetic copper ferrite ceramic material with a small concentration of Ni ion at 1100 ℃ for 1 h. Previously, copper ferrite with Ni proportions powder was acquired by the wet chemical process according to the relation CuFe_2-xNi_xO₄ where x takes values 0.0, 0.015, 0.03, 0.04, and 0.05. The role of Ni ion in the copper ferrite structure was investigated by X-ray analysis, Scanning electron microscope, EDX analysis, and density measurements. The gamma-ray shielding properties for the fabricated CuFeNiO ceramics samples were evaluated using the Monte Carlo simulation method. The obtained results show an enhancement in the linear attenuation coefficient for the fabricated ceramics with increasing the insertions of Ni ions within the fabricated samples, where increasing the Ni ions concentration between 0 and 1.19 wt% increases the linear attenuation by between 1.581 and 1.771 cm^-1 (at 0.103 MeV), 0.304-0.338 cm^-1 (at 0.662 MeV), and 0.160-0.178 cm^-1 (at 2.506 MeV), respectively. Simultaneously, the radiation protection efficiency for a 1 cm thickness of the fabricated samples increased between 14.8 and 16.3% with increasing the Ni ions between 0 and 1.19 wt%. Although the Ni doping concentration does not exceed 1.5 wt% of the total composition of the fabricated ceramics, the shielding capacity of the fabricated ceramics was enhanced by more than 11%, along the studied energy interval. Therefore, the fabricated samples can be used in gamma-ray shielding applications.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제53권3호
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• pp.949-959
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• 2021

The current study aims to explore the shielding properties of multi-component borate-based glass series. Seven glass-samples with composition of (80-y)H₃BO₃-10ZnO-10Na₂O-yBaO where (y = 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 mol.%) were synthesized by melt-quench method. Various shielding features for photons, neutrons, and protons were determined for all prepared samples. XCOM, Phy-X program, and SRIM code were performed to determine and explain several shielding properties such as equivalent atomic number, exposure build-up factor, specific gamma-ray constants, effective removal cross-section (Σ_R), neutron scattering and absorption, Mass Stopping Power (MSP) and projected range. The energy ranges for photons and protons were 0.015-15 MeV and 0.01-10 MeV, respectively. The mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) was also determined experimentally by utilizing two radioactive sources (¹⁶⁶Ho and ¹³⁷Cs). Consistent results were obtained between experimental and XCOM values in determining μ/ρ of the new glasses. The addition of BaO to the glass matrix led to enhance the μ/ρ and specific gamma-ray constants of glasses. Whereas the remarkable reductions in Σ_R, MSP, and projected range values were reported with increasing BaO concentrations. The acquired results nominate the use of these glasses in different radiation shielding purposes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권3호
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• pp.1061-1070
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• 2023

Over the last few years, lead-free inorganic metal perovskites have gained impressive ground in empowering satellites in space exploration owing to their material stability and performance evolution under extreme space environments. The present work has examined the versatility of eight such perovskites as space radiation shielding materials by computing their photon, charged particles and neutron interaction parameters. Photon interaction parameters were calculated for a wide energy range using PAGEX software. The ranges of heavy charged particles (H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si and Fe ions) in these perovskites were estimated using SRIM software in the energy range 1 keV-10 GeV, and that of electrons was computed using ESTAR NIST software in the energy range 0.01 MeV-1 GeV. Further, the macroscopic fast neutron removal cross-sections were also calculated to estimate the neutron shielding efficiencies. The examined shielding parameters of the perovskites varied depending on the radiation type and energy. Among the selected perovskites, Cs₂TiI₆ and Ba₂AgIO₆ displayed superior photon attenuation properties. A 3.5 cm thick Ba₂AgIO₆-based shield could reduce the incident radiation intensity to half its initial value, a thickness even lesser than that of Pb-glass. Besides, CsSnBr₃ and La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ displayed the highest and lowest range values, respectively, for all heavy charged particles. Ba₂AgIO₆ showed electron stopping power (on par with Kovar) better than that of other examined materials. Interestingly, La_0.8Ca_0.2Ni_0.5Ti_0.5O₃ demonstrated neutron removal cross-section values greater than that of standard neutron shielding materials - aluminium and polyethylene. On the whole, the present study not only demonstrates the employment prospects of eco-friendly perovskites for shielding space radiations but also suggests future prospects for research in this direction.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제42권10호
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• pp.693-701
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• 2019

Plants monitor changes in day length to coordinate their flowering time with appropriate seasons. In Arabidopsis, the diel and seasonal regulation of CONSTANS (CO) protein stability is crucial for the induction of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene in long days. FLAVIN-BINDING, KELCH REPEAT, F-BOX 1 (FKF1) and ZEITLUPE (ZTL) proteins control the shape of CO expression profile antagonistically, although regulation mechanisms remain unknown. In this study, we show that GIGANTEA (GI) protein modulates the stability and nuclear function of FKF1, which is closely related to the stabilization of CO in the afternoon of long days. The abundance of FKF1 protein is decreased by the gi mutation, but increased by GI overexpression throughout the day. Unlike the previous report, the translocation of FKF1 to the nucleus was not prevented by ZTL overexpression. In addition, the FKF1-ZTL complex formation is higher in the nucleus than in the cytosol. GI interacts with ZTL in the nucleus, implicating the attenuation of ZTL activity by the GI binding and, in turn, the sequestration of FKF1 from ZTL in the nucleus. We also found that the CO-ZTL complex presents in the nucleus, and CO protein abundance is largely reduced in the afternoon by ZTL overexpression, indicating that ZTL promotes CO degradation by capturing FKF1 in the nucleus under these conditions. Collectively, our findings suggest that GI plays a pivotal role in CO stability for the precise control of flowering by coordinating balanced functional properties of FKF1 and ZTL.