background: radon, an invisible, odorless, heaviest (nine times heavier than air) and radioactive gas is an aberration (the only gas in the long decay chain of heavy metal elements). it is ubiquitously present in dwellings and in the environment. humans receive the greatest radiation dose in their homes. that's where they spend most time - typically 70%, more for small children. recent wor...

Alpha interferon (IFN-alpha) restricts multiple steps of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) life cycle. A well-described effect of IFN-alpha is in the modulation of viral nucleic acid synthesis. We demonstrate that IFN-alpha influences HIV-1 DNA synthesis principally by reducing the production of late products of reverse transcription. The magnitude of IFN-alpha-induced downregulat...

Radon progeny concentration is measured with a total alpha counting system in 185 dwellings in the town of Thessaloniki. The Equilibrium Equivalent radon Concentration (EEC Rn) follows a lognormal distribution with an arithmetic and geometric mean value of 28 Bq/m and 16 Bq/m respectively. Simultaneous in situ alpha and gamma spectroscopy measurements were performed in 60 schools of Thessalonik...

Hd6 is a quantitative trait locus involved in rice photoperiod sensitivity. It was detected in backcross progeny derived from a cross between the japonica variety Nipponbare and the indica variety Kasalath. To isolate a gene at Hd6, we used a large segregating population for the high-resolution and fine-scale mapping of Hd6 and constructed genomic clone contigs around the Hd6 region. Linkage an...

Solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) in diffusion chambers have been routinely used for long-term measurements of radon gas concentrations. In usual practice, a filter is added across the top of the diffusion chamber to stop the progeny from entering. Thoron can also be deterred from entering the diffusion chamber by using a polyethylene (PE) membrane. However, the thickness of the PE m...

Inhalation of the short-lived radon decay products, Po, Pb, Bi/Po, in homes, in the outdoor atmosphere and at work places yield the greatest amount of the natural radiation exposure of the human. In all dosimetric models the dominant parameter related to dose is the activity size distribution of the decay products in the air because the original deposition destination and amount of the inhaled ...

To calculate the absorbed dose in the human lung due to inhaled radon progeny, ICRP focussed on the layers containing the target cells, i.e., the basal and secretory cells. Such an approach did not consider details of the sensitive cells in the layers. The present work uses the microdosimetric approach and determines the absorbed alpha-particle energy in non-spherical nuclei of target cells (ba...

Radon, Rn, is radioactive noble gas which decays by alpha emission with half-life of 3.825 d. Its short-lived progeny, Po, Pb and Bi (Po), are alpha and beta radioactive and they emit gamma radiation as well. Radon progeny can be inhaled by humans where they deposit on the inner layers of bronchi, and bronchioles. Particles (alpha, beta and gamma) emitted in radioactive decay damage surrounding...

In this paper, we propose a method to determine the equilibrium factor using a bare LR 115 detector. The partial sensitivities rhoi of the LR 115 detector to 222Rn and its alpha-emitting short-lived progeny, 218Po and 214Po, were investigated. We first determined the distributions of lengths of major and minor axes of the perforated alpha tracks in the LR 115 detector produced by 222Rn, 218Po a...