High concentrations of natural radionuclides in building materials can result in high dose rates indoors, from both internal and external exposure. In dose calculations, the main radionuclides of interest are 226Ra, 232Th and 40K. Usually much attention is paid to 226Ra due to 222Rn exhalation and the subsequent internal exposure. Other radionuclides of the uranium series such as 238U and 210Pb...

Manure, an animal waste product with many negative economic and environmental issues, can today be converted using anaerobic digestion technology into a number of commercial products ranging from fertilizer, compost, animal bedding, and plant bedding. A number of new uses are now being explored such as bioenergy (both electrical and biofuel) and a lignocellulose-rich potential feedstock for eng...

In recent years, there have been many attempts to reuse molten slag. Molten slag is obtained through further treatment of incinerated ash produced in the disposal process of garbage or sewage sludge and is used in building materials, such as brick. To establish the safety of such slag, its physical properties and metal contents were investigated in this study. After examining the physical and c...

The purpose of the investigation is to analyze the pros and cons of existing sorption models, as well as experimental methods. In addition, it summarizes existing sorption data in order to understand the phenomenon of VOC sorption on building materials better and to direct future research. We found that existing sorption models can be generally classified into either first order adsorption/deso...

Writing a good textbook is akin to writing a useful software package. Both are highly creative endeavors that require a combination of sharp technical skills and artful design. In recent years, the software community has developed the open-source approach to software construction, in which improved results are obtained by sharing the talents of multiple developers. We propose to extend these id...

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DNA nanostructures are promising construction materials to bridge the gap between self-assembly of functional molecules and conventional top-down fabrication methods in nanotechnology. Their positioning onto specific locations of a microstructured substrate is an important task towards this aim. Here we study manipulation and positioning of pristine and of gold nanoparticle-conjugated tubular D...

Hydrothermally cured or autoclaved cement-based building products have provided many challenges to researchers, manufacturers, and users since their inception nearly 100 years ago. The advantages, including the development of high strength within a few hours and a reduction of drying shrinkage, of the hydrothermal curing process have resulted in a variety of building products; inevitably, the t...

Sensory responses to clean air and air polluted by five building materials under different combinations of temperature and humidity in the ranges 18-28æC and 30-70%RH were studied in the laboratory. A specially designed test system was built and a set of experiments was designed to observe separately the impact of temperature and humidity on the perception of air quality/odour intensity, and on...

Mercury has a strong environmental impact since both its organic and inorganic forms are toxic, and it represents a pollutant of global concern. Liquid Hg is highly volatile and can be released during natural and anthropogenic processes in the hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. In this study, the distribution of Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) and the total and leached mercury concentration...