Measurement of age-dependent radiation ingestion doses due to gross alpha and gross beta exposure from medicinal plants.

This article presents the results of a study conducted to measure the gross alpha, gross beta activities in medicinal plant samples collected from different districts of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. The ASC-950-DP gasless high-speed counter was used for the measurement of gross / activities. Measured activities have been used to assess age-dependent annual effective doses for infants, one-, five-, ten-, and fifteen-year-old and adult people.

Detection and Quantification of Precious Elements in Astrophyllite Mineral by Optical Spectroscopy.

With many advantages over well-established methods, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has emerged as a useful analytical technique for the compositional analysis of multi-elemental geological materials. In this study, LIBS was employed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of a rare mineral, astrophyllite, bearing precious elements of industrial and technological interest. The experiment was carried out using second harmonic generation of Nd:YAG laser of pulse width 5 ns and repetition rate of 10 Hz.

A new strategy of using dielectric barrier discharge plasma in tubular geometry for surface coating and extension to biomedical application.

There has always been a quest for nanotechnology to develop inexpensive coating methods with the capability of depositing biocompatible nanomaterials on biomedical and surgical tools. In this mini-report, a plasma-based innovative idea of coating a solid surface with antibacterial/antimicrobial nanosilver is floated and experimentally realized. The desired antibacterial nanosilver was obtained from laser ablation and directly entrained in an outflowing plasma jet, excited in the flow of argon at 10 l min using 20 kV/20 kHz.

Calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopic analysis of copper-rich mineral collected from the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan.

In this paper, we present the results of compositional analysis of a copper-rich mineral known as malachite, collected from the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. A calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) technique is employed for determination of elemental composition of the sample. The study aims at the investigation of the presence of precious elements, if any, in minerals of local origin.