Primary care physicians may be unprepared to diagnose and treat rare, yet potentially fatal, illnesses such as acute radiation syndrome (ARS). ARS, also known as radiation sickness, is caused by exposure to a high dose of penetrating, ionizing radiation over a short period of time. The time to onset of ARS is dependent on the dose received, but even at the lowest doses capable of causing illness, this will occur within a matter of hours to days. This article describes the clinical manifestations of ARS, provides guidelines for assessing its severity, and makes recommendations for managing ARS victims.

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Endoscopic ultrasound is a unique tool to acquire in vivo data on alimentary tract wall thicknesses of sufficient resolution needed in radiation dosimetry studies. Through their different echo texture and intensity, five layers of differing echo patterns for superficial mucosa, deep mucosa, submucosa, muscularis externa and serosa/adventitia exist within the walls of organs composing the alimentary tract. In this study, retrospective image analyses of patient video data were made for ten examinations of the stomach and eight examinations of the rectum covering a range of patient ages. Thicknesses for stomach mucosa ranged from 1030 +/- 130 microm to 1640 +/- 80 microm (total stomach wall thicknesses from 2.80 +/- 0.12 to 4.23 +/- 0.03 mm). Measurements made for the rectal images revealed rectal mucosal thicknesses from 660 +/- 50 microm to 1130 +/- 250 microm (total rectal wall thicknesses from 2.28 +/- 0.05 to 3.55 +/- 0.43 mm). The mucosa accounted for approximately 32 +/- 7% and approximately 32 +/- 8% of the total thickness of the stomach and rectal wall, respectively. These values can thus be utilized to investigate uncertainties in alimentary tract dosimetry that are based upon fixed reference individual definitions of organ wall structure.

Risk assessment associated with the inhalation of radioactive aerosols requires as an initial step the determination of particle deposition within the various anatomic regions of the respiratory tract. The model outlined in ICRP Publication 66 represents to date one of the most complete overall descriptions of not only particle deposition, but of particle clearance and local radiation dosimetry of lung tissues. In this study, a systematic review of the deposition component within the ICRP 66 respiratory tract model was conducted in which probability density functions were assigned to all input parameters. These distributions were subsequently incorporated within a computer code LUDUC (LUng Dose Uncertainty Code) in which Latin hypercube sampling techniques are used to generate multiple (e.g., 1,000) sets of input vectors (i.e., trials) for all of the model parameters needed to assess particle deposition within the extrathoracic (anterior and posterior), bronchial, bronchiolar, and alveolar-interstitial regions of the ICRP 66 respiratory tract model. Particle deposition values for the various trial simulations were shown to be well described by lognormal probability distributions. Geometric mean deposition fractions from LUDUC were found to be within approximately +/- 10% of the single-value estimates from the LUDEP computer code for each anatomic region and for particle diameters ranging from 0.001 to 50 microm. In all regions of the respiratory tract, LUDUC simulations for an adult male at light exertion show that uncertainties in particle deposition fractions are distributed only over a range of about a factor of approximately 2-4 for particle sizes between 0.005 to 0.2 microm. Below 0.005 microm, uncertainties increase only for deposition within the alveolar region. At particle sizes exceeding 1 microm, uncertainties in the deposition fraction within the extrathoracic regions are relatively small, but approach a factor of 20 for deposition in the bronchial region. Deposition fractions for particles above 1 microm become very uncertain within the deeper regions of the lungs (bronchiolar and alveolar-interstitial).

Predicting future ecosystem functioning requires a mechanistic understanding of how plants cope with different stressors under future climate conditions with elevated CO2 concentrations and warmer temperatures. Nonetheless, studies of stress responses under combined elevated CO2 and warming remain scarce. We assembled grassland communities in sunlit, climate-controlled greenhouses and subjected these to three stressors (drought, zinc toxicity, nitrogen limitation) and their combinations. Half of the communities were exposed to ambient climate conditions (current climate) and the other half were continuously kept at 3 degrees C above ambient temperatures and at 620 ppm CO2 (future climate). Across all stressors and their combinations, future climate-grown plants coped better with stress, i.e. above-ground biomass production was reduced less in future than in current climate. Among several tested potential biochemical and ecophysiological stress-relief mechanisms, we found three mutually non-exclusive mechanisms underpinning an improved stress protection under future climate conditions: (i) altered sugar metabolism; (ii). up-regulated levels of total antioxidant capacity and polyphenols; and (iii) more efficient use of ascorbate and glutathione as antioxidants. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

To identify effects of chronic internal and external radiation exposure for components of terrestrial ecosystems, a comprehensive study of Scots pine trees in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone was performed. The experimental plan included over 1,100 young trees (up to 20 years old) selected from areas with varying levels of radioactive contamination. These pine trees were planted after the 1986 Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident mainly to prevent radionuclide resuspension and soil erosion. For each tree, the major morphological parameters and radioactive contamination values were identified. Cytological analyses were performed for selected trees representing all dose rate ranges. A specially developed dosimetric model capable of taking into account radiation from the incorporated radionuclides in the trees was developed for the apical meristem

Quantifying radiological risk following the inhalation of radioactive aerosols entails not only an assessment of particle deposition within respiratory tract regions but a full accounting of clearance mechanisms whereby particles may be translocated to adjacent respiratory tissue regions, absorbed to blood, or released to the gastrointestinal tract. The model outlined in ICRP Publication 66 represents to date one of the most complete overall descriptions of particle deposition and clearance, as well as localized radiation dosimetry, within the respiratory tract. In this study, a previous review of the ICRP-66 deposition model is extended to the study of the subsequent clearance model. A systematic review of the clearance component within the ICRP 66 respiratory tract model was conducted in which probability density functions were assigned to all input parameters for both 239PuO2 and 238UO2/238U3O8. These distributions were subsequently incorporated within a computer code LUDUC (Lung Dose Uncertainty Code) in which Latin hypercube sampling techniques are used to generate multiple (e.g., 1,000) sets of input vectors (i.e., trials) for all model parameters needed to assess mechanical clearance and particle dissolution/absorption. Integral numbers of nuclear disintegrations, U(s), in various lung regions were shown to be well-described by lognormal probability distributions. Of the four extrathoracic clearance compartments of the respiratory tract, uncertainties in U(s), expressed as the ratio of its 95% to 5% confidence levels, were highest within the LN(ET) tissues for 239PuO2 (ratio of 50 to 130) and within the ET(seq) tissues for 238UO2/238U3O8 (ratio of 12 to 50). Peak uncertainties in U(s) in these respiratory regions occurred at particle sizes of approximately 0.5-0.6 microm where uncertainties in ET2 particle deposition fractions accounted for only approximately 10% of the total U(s) uncertainty for 239PuO2, and only approximately 30% of the total U(s) uncertainty for 238UO2/238U3O8 (the remainder is attributed to the clearance model alone). Of the eight clearance compartments within the thoracic regions of the respiratory tract, and for particle sizes below approximately 5 microm, uncertainties in U(s) were highest within the LN(TH) tissues for 239PuO2 (ratio of 60 to 80) and within the BB(seq) tissues for 238UO2/238U3O8 (ratio of 20 and 60). At particle sizes exceeding approximately 5 microm in aerodynamic diameter, peak uncertainties in U(s) are noted for the AI, bb(seq), and bb1 clearance compartments. As the particle size approaches 10 microm in size, uncertainties in U(s) within these three thoracic tissue regions approach a factor of 1,000 and are dominated by corresponding uncertainties in particle deposition.

This paper extends an examination of the influence of parameter uncertainties on regional doses to respiratory tract tissues for short-ranged alpha particles using the ICRP-66 respiratory tract model. Previous papers examined uncertainties in the deposition and clearance aspects of the model. The critical parameters examined in this study included target tissue depths, thicknesses, and masses, particularly within the thoracic or lung regions of the respiratory tract. Probability density functions were assigned for the parameters based on published data. The probabilistic computer code LUDUC (Lung Dose Uncertainty Code) was used to assess regional and total lung doses from inhaled aerosols of 239PuO2 and 238UO2/238U3O8. Dose uncertainty was noted to depend on the particle aerodynamic diameter. Additionally, dose distributions were found to follow a lognormal distribution pattern. For 239PuO2 and 238UO2/238U3O8, this study showed that the uncertainty in lung dose increases by factors of approximately 50 and approximately 70 for plutonium and uranium oxides, respectively, over the particle size range from 0.1 to 20 microm. For typical exposure scenarios involving both radionuclides, the ratio of the 95% dose fractile to the 5% dose fractile ranged from approximately 8-10 (corresponding to a geometric standard deviation, or GSD, of about 1.7-2) for particle diameters of 0.1 to 1 microm. This ratio increased to about 370 for plutonium oxide (GSD approximately 4.5) and to about 600 for uranium oxide (GSD approximately 5) as the particle diameter approached 20 microm. However, thoracic tissue doses were quite low at larger particle sizes because most of the deposition occurred in the extrathoracic airways. For 239PuO2, median doses from LUDUC were found be in general agreement with those for Reference Man (via deterministic LUDEP 2.0 calculations) in the particle range of 0.1 to 5 microm. However, median doses to the basal cell nuclei of the bronchial airways (BB(bas)) calculated by LUDUC were found to be approximately 6 times higher than LUDEP reference doses. The higher BB(bas) doses were directly attributed to discrepancies between the ICRP default thickness for the bronchial epithelium (55 microm) and the probability density function assumed within LUDUC (uniform distribution from 20 to 60 microm based upon detailed literature reviews).