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Abstract: In order to better understand the behavior of 210Pb deposition in Far East Asia, comprehensive data of monthly 210Pb deposition, which includes several time-series and spatial distribution data at 14 stations in Japan and 2 stations in Taiwan, were analyzed. Pb-210 deposition at most of the sites exhibited a typical seasonal change with higher values in winter and lower values in summer; especially, the greatest 210Pb deposition in the world occurred in winter at sites beside the Japan Sea. The deposition behavior of 210Pb in Far East Asia differed between winter and summer. The meteorological phenomenon peculiar to winter of the Japan Sea side, i.e., formation of the Japan Sea convergence zone, might cause the high 210Pb concentration in rainwater, as may heavy snowfall. The 210Pb concentration in rainwater showed long-term variability, although this differed between winter and summer. This long-term variability may be related to climatological factors such as El Niño. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study, we statistically demonstrated that an anomalous high of 40 K fallout in the atmospheric fallout in Kagoshima City is caused by heavy ashfall associated with eruptions of Sakurajima volcano. Sakurajima is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, and its repeated explosive eruptions cause large amounts of ash to fall on Kagoshima City. The fallout of crust-derived natural radionuclides, 40 K, 212 Pb, and 214 Bi, from the atmosphere in Kagoshima City showed a significant correlation with the number of eruptions of Sakurajima volcano and the amount of ashfall in Kagoshima City. In contrast, no significant correlation was found between 40 K and 7 Be fallout. The 40 K fallout indicates that almost all of the atmospheric fallout in Kagoshima City is composed of volcanic ash particles. The contribution from mineral and sea salt particles other than volcanic ash is minimal. The mass balance of the observed 40 K fallout, ashfall, and atmospheric fallout yield indicates that there is a significant amount of volcanic ash deposition that is not accounted for as ashfall. In most cases, the ash deposition observed as ashfall is only 30-70 wt% of the total deposition collected as atmospheric fallout samples, and the remaining portion is fine-grained and behaves as suspended volcanic ash particles, which significantly impact the atmospheric environment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the terrestrial environment became severely contaminated with radiocesium. Consequently, the river and lake water in the Fukushima area exhibited high radiocesium levels, which declined subsequently. The partition coefficient of 137 Cs between the suspended sediment (SS) and dissolved phases, K d , was introduced to better understand the dynamic behavior of 137 Cs in different systems. However, the K d values in river water, ranging from 2 × 10 4 to 7 × 10 6  L kg -1 , showed large spatiotemporal variability. Therefore, the factors controlling the 137 Cs partition coefficient in natural water systems should be identified. Herein, we introduce a chemical model to explain the variability in 137 Cs K d in natural water systems. The chemical model includes the complexation of Cs + with mineral and organic binding sites in SS, metal exchange reactions, and the presence of colloidal species. The application of the chemical model to natural water systems revealed that Cs + is strongly associated with binding sites in SS, and a major chemical interaction between 137 Cs and the binding sites in SS is the isotope exchange reaction between stable Cs and 137 Cs, rather than metal exchange reactions with other metal ions such as potassium ions. To explain the effect of the SS concentration on K d , the presence of colloidal 137 Cs passing through a filter is significant as the dominant dissolved species of 137 Cs in river water. These results suggest that a better understanding of stable Cs dissolved in natural water is important for discerning the geochemical and ecological behaviors of 137 Cs in natural water., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In earlier quantum chemical calculations of isotope effects, chemical species in the liquid phase were generally treated as existing in the gas phase. In recent years, however, advances in computational programs have made it easier for the self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) method to handle chemical species in the liquid phase, and as a result, it has become easier to apply the SCRF method to isotope effect calculations. This paper concerns the scope of application of the DFT-SCRF method to reversible processes for hydrogen isotope enrichment. It is found that the applicability of the method depends on the type of the intermolecular interaction in the liquid phase and the degree of hydrogen isotope effect (separation factor) on which the process is based. When the magnitude of the isotope effect of the separation system is greater than 10 -1 , the simple SCRF method is fully applicable; when the magnitude is around 10 -2 , SCRF with a dimer model, in which the monomer is replaced by a dimer, is applicable for the analysis of the liquid phase with relatively strong intermolecular interactions. Anharmonic correction to the separation factor calculated based on harmonic frequencies may be effective to systems with the liquid phase with weak intermolecular interactions.

A density functional theory (DFT) computation on oxygen species adsorbed on platinum (Pt) catalyst surfaces has been carried out to elucidate oxygen isotope fractionation observed at the cathode of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The Pt(111) catalyst surface was modelled by a Pt 19 cluster, and O, OH, OHH, OO, OOH, OHOH and HOHOH were assumed to be the oxygen species adsorbed on the Pt(111) surface. The oxygen isotope reduced partition function ratios (RPFRs) of the adsorbed species were calculated using the vibrational frequencies obtained by normal mode analyses performed on the optimized structures. Various oxygen isotope exchange equilibria among the adsorbed oxygen species and oxygen and water molecules in the gas phase were examined using their RPFRs. Experimental observation that the lighter 16 O is enriched in water molecules exhausted from the cathode is explainable in a satisfactory manner by assuming oxygen isotope exchange equilibria of O 2 molecule with O, OH, OO and OOH adsorbed on the Pt(111) surface that appear in the first half of the conversion reaction from O 2 to H 2 O and those of H 2 O molecule with the adsorbed oxygen species, OHH, OHOH and HOHOH, formed in the latter half of the conversion reaction.

We describe here a first attempt to estimate the water seepage rate of an active crater lake using radioactive cesium dispersed into the environment by the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011 as a hydrological tracer. Kusatsu-Shirane volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in Japan and has an active crater lake named Yugama. There is no outflow such as a river from Yugama crater lake. The content level of stable cesium ( 133 Cs) in Yugama water was almost constant at 15-20 nM during the sampling period of Nov. 2011 to Nov. 2014. In contrast to 133 Cs, however, the radioactive cesium ( 134 Cs and 137 Cs) concentrations in Yugama water decreased at a more rapid rate than expected by radioactive decay. Based on the decreasing rates of activity concentrations of 134 Cs and 137 Cs in Yugama water during the three years between 2012 and 2014, it is estimated that 700-800 m 3 of the Yugama water, which corresponds approximately to 0.1% of the total volume, leaks through the lakebed per day. In the estimation, balance between leakage of radioactive cesium contaminated water though lake bed and geothermal inflow of radioactive cesium-free water in the volcano was taken into account. Consequently, the water seepage rate of the Yugama crater lake was calculated to be 8.1-9.3 L s -1 ., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

18 O/ 16 O isotope effects were observed at the cathode of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell at 25 and 35°C. Results of experiments in which the 18 O/ 16 O isotope ratios of the oxygen gases supplied to and exhausted from the cell were measured revealed that the lighter isotope 16 O reacted more preferentially to form water molecules at the cathode than the heavier one, 18 O. The value of the oxygen isotope separation factor, S 1 , defined as the ratio of the 18 O/ 16 O isotope ratios of the oxygen gases supplied to and exhausted from the cell, ranged from 1.0030 to 1.0139, and tended to decrease with decreasing rate of oxygen utilisation (θ) and with increasing flow rate of the feed oxygen gas (D F ). The value of another separation factor, S 2 , defined as the ratio of the 18 O/ 16 O isotope ratios of the exhausted oxygen gas and oxygen having reacted to form water molecules at the cathode, ranged from 1.0049 to 1.0304. The S 2 value was much less affected by the change in θ and D F than the S 1 value with the majority of the S 2 value being in the range of 1.0240-1.0304.

Vanadium (V) in the sea squirt (Ciona savignyi) from Onagawa Bay, Miyagi, Japan, was isolated and purified through adsorption on a diamine resin and anion and cation exchanges after the dissolution of sea squirt samples with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The (50)V/(51)V isotope ratio of V thus obtained was mass-spectrometrically determined to be from 2.51×10(-3) to 2.55×10(-3) with the average of 2.53×10(-3) by the thermal ionisation technique. This value agreed with those of vanadyl chloride and vanadyl nitrate both prepared from vanadyl sulphate (Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd., Japan) and of V in coastal seawater (Shimokita Peninsula, Aomori, Japan) within experimental uncertainties (standard deviation of±0.04), which suggested that no appreciable V isotope fractionation occurs accompanying V uptake by the sea squirt from sea water.

Temporal variations of monthly thorium (Th) deposition observed at Tsukuba, Japan during the period 1990-2007, comparing with plutonium deposition, was studied. The monthly (232)Th deposition as did (239,240)Pu, varied according to season and inter-annually. In particular, (232)Th deposition increased significantly in spring coinciding with Asian dust (Kosa) events. The (230)Th/(232)Th activity ratios vary according to sources and can therefore be used to differentiate between locally derived and remotely derived (232)Th. The (230)Th/(232)Th activity ratios in deposition samples showed large variability with high ratios occurring in early spring. These high (230)Th/(232)Th ratios in deposition can be attributed to local dust storms, especially in early spring, that cause resuspension of soils from cultivated fields which are characterized by high (230)Th/(232)Th activity ratios. The results reveal that both locally and remotely derived (232)Th deposition showed seasonal variations with maxima in spring, although the remotely derived fraction is dominant rather than the locally derived one. The (232)Th deposition maxima later in spring is attributable to the remotely derived fraction, corresponding to the Kosa events. Annual (232)Th deposition exhibited an increasing trend, suggesting the presence of sources other than soil dust such as fly ash from increasing coal burning., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: An attempt was made to visualize minute intraductal lesions using helical CT in patients with abnormal nipple discharge., Methods: Galactography was performed, immediately followed by CT (ductal CT examination). Based on the image data obtained, ductal images were constructed on a workstation using a Pegasus viewer (ductal CT imaging). Since no criteria for diagnosis by this method are available, ductal CT images were diagnosed by reference to the known ductal fiberscopic findings., Results: Ductal CT examination was performed in 10 cases, in 9 of whom ductal CT images were successfully constructed. Pathological examination was performed in 8 cases. It was possible to observe the structure of the luminal surface on the constructed ductoscopic images from all directions, but the color tone or the presence or absence of hemorrhage could not be observed., Conclusions: In the examination for abnormal nipple discharge, ductal CT examination was useful for intraductal observation. Currently, it is a method that allows for observation of the most minute intraductal lesions. However, some issues still remain unresolved. The results of this study suggest that further studies with more cases hold the promise of making ductal CT imaging a useful examination method.