- Email: [email protected]
A radioactive decay gamma-ray retrieval system
Ann. nucl. Energy,Vol. 19, No. 9, pp. 545-548, 1992 Printed in Great Britain
A RADIOACTIVE
0306-4549/92 $5.00+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd
DECAY GAMMA-RAY
RETRIEVAL
SYSTEM
R. PAVIOTTI CORCUERA, M. DE MORAES CUNHA, ORION DE OLIVEIRA SILVA and O. L. GON~ALEZ Instituto de Estudos Avan~ados (IEAv) Centro T$cnico Aeroespacial (CTA) 12225 S£o Jos6 dos Campos, SP, Brazil
(Received 6 January 199g)
- This report describes the implementation of an Information Retrieval System which is used to help researchers identify the isotopes in a radioactive sample. The system was implemented in Prolog and uses data structure techniques to store the information and speed the retrieval. The main features of scientific systems are static data and a quantity of information well below that of commercial systems. Such features make Prolog the ideal language for programming these applications. This data base includes gamma energies by nuclide in the energy ran(le from 1.6 keV to 9480.4 keV. Data can be retrieved either by energy, nuclide or element. Abstract
1. INTRODUCTION Radioactive decay gamma rays are used by researchers in the fields of activation analysis, cross-section measurements and x-and 7-ray spectroscopies. Once the spectrum of a radioactive sample have been determined, it is necessary to identify the nuclides to which the gamma or x-rays belong. There are several compilations of data in the form of tables on hard copy. There one can search by energy or by isotope and make as many iterations as needed to identify the nuclides. (Tuli, 1988; Lone, 1983; Adams, 1969). This data base management system is intended to help researchers search for possible nuclide assigments of any gamma ray with a reasonably well determined energy. The data files required for the base were obtained through the Nuclear Data Section (NDS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and correspond to the compilation of V. Reus and W. Westmeir (1983). Actually, the data received on magnetic tape belong to an earlier compilation (August 1978). The program for the data base have been entirely written in Prolog (Arity Version 5.0) and linked with the Microsoft linker. The PC-data base contains about 35360 photon energies for aproximately 2500 nuclides in which each nuclide may be given up to 200 gamma-ray energies. The gamma energies are ordered by increasing energy. The energy range is between 1.6 keV and 9480.4 keV. The gamma-ray energy is given in keV rounded off to the nearest 0.1 keV. The uncertainty on the last given digit of the energy value is also provided. The abundance (number of photons emitted per 100 decays of the nuclide) is given for lines with more than 0.5% abundance. Each energy is associated with the decay scheme of a nuclide. This nuclide is shown when data is retrieved. Other quantities shown are the half-life and decay mode. More information about the compilation can be obtained by using the "Help" option of the menu when running the system. 545
R. PAVIOTTICORCUERAet al.
546
2. D E S C R I P T I O N
OF THE SYSTEM
The original compilation, received in tabular form from the NDS-IAEA, was transformed in Prolog readable clauses. The different parts that compose the system are: (See Fig. 1). • A file where data is stored in the form of Prolog clauses. • A module to optimize and manage the storage of data. Because the d a t a base is not going to be updated by the user, it is considered to be a "static data base". This means that the operations of insertion, deletion and updating do not need to be implemented. • An extremely user friendly interface which allows energy, nuclide and element retrievals and selection of d a t a sets in user-created files. DATA STORED IN THE FORM OF PROLOG CLAUSES
IT
MANAGEMENT OF STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
USER FRIENDLY INTERFACE Fig. 1. System architecture The Prolog language is very appropriate for this application, because it has a data storage structure well suited for d a t a in the form of tables (Relational Model, Gallaire et al, 1978; Kowalski, 1981; Parsaye, 1983; Pereira, 1983; Sciore et ai, 1983; Warren, 1981). The system requires an IBM-XT, AT, or compatible, 640 Kb of R A M and 4 Mb of hard disk space. 3. I N T E R A C T I N G
WITH THE USER
The interaction with the user is through the menu at the top of the screen (Fig. 2), where several options are available. These are: Energy, Nuclide, Element, File, Quit and Help. Nuclide Element File Quit Help MESSAGE Data can be retrieved by energy, nuclide or element. The bar at the top of the screen is the menu bar. Use [RIGHT-ARROW] or [LEFT-ARROW] to highlight the selected item, then press [ENTER]. Each time you run the program, a temporary file named "TEMP.RSI" is created. If you want to save it, remember to rename it after ending the session, otherwise you will lose the data in the next session. Using the "FILE" option, you can create new files with different names. All files created will have the extension "RSI". After each retrieval you will have the option to keep or not the data in the previously created file. Choose the item "HELP" for more information.
Energy
H (HELP)
Q (EXIT)
Fig. 2. Menu bar and general instructions about the program The " E n e r g y " option allows the search and retrieval of data in the energy range from 1.6 keV to 9480.4 keV. Energy should be introduced in keV and a tolerance error may be introduced before the search.
An information retrieval system
547
The " N u c l i d e " option searches by nuclide name (eg: Th-232 m, where m means metastable). Upper and lower case letters are accepted. The " E l e m e n t " option will retrieve a list of nuclides available for the element chosen (See Fig.
3). Energy
Nuclide Element File Quit Data(Energy, Delt a,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife,DecayMode) Data Retrieved by Energy: l>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.TM,B-). d(659.0,2,8.8* ,HG- 189B ,8.7M ,EC/B + ). Select with ~ d(659.1,2,.37,BR-75,1.63H,B+/EC). and press 'enter' : d(659.1,3,.36,SR-83G,32.4H,EC/B+). d(659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.TM,B-). PM-149 PM-150 Data Retrieved by Nuclide: PM-151 PM-152G PM-152M1 PM-152M2 PM-153 PM-154G ~>PM-154M
Help
file:
Fig. 3. Element option chosen. The scrollable nuclide window is shown The " F i l e " option has a sub-menu which allows the creation of files in order to keep different sets of data, and the viewing of files containing selected data sets. The " Q u i t " option leaves the program. The " H e l p " option gives instructions about the use of the program and also information about the data compilation. Fig. 4 shows the energy and nuclide retrieval windows. Scrolling is possible in both windows. The same figure shows a window in which the user may choose to save or not the data. It is possible to save the data sets in different files. Energy Nuclide Element File Quit Dat a(Energy,Delta,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife, DecayMode) Data Retrieved by Energy: t>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(659.0,2,8.8*,HG- 189B,8.7M,EC/B+). d(659.1,2,.37,BR-75,1.63H,B+/EC). d(659.1,3,.36,SR-83G,32.4H,EC/B +). d(659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.7M,B-). Data Retrieved by Nuclide: t>d(1840.9,2,3.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1797.6,4,2.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1733.9,3,2.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1719.9,5,.4,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1656.1,2,3.9,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-).
Help
Do you want to select this data set ? (y/n):
Fig. 4. Example of energy (660 +1 keV) and nuclide (Pm-154G) retrievals A sub-menu in the "File" option Mlows the user to see the data sets which were selected in different files (Fig. 5).
548
R. PAVIOTTICARCUERAet al. Help Energy Nuclide Element File Quit Dat a( Energy, Delta,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife, DecayMode to scroll data items [ESC] to escape Data kept in file: t>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d 659.0,2,8.8",HG- 189B,8.TM,EC/B +). d 659.1,2,.37,BR-75 1.63H,B+/EC). FILEONE.RSI d 659.1,3,.36,SR-83G 32AH,EC/B+). d, 659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.TM,B-). d~659.2,2,.161,NE- 18,1.68S,B+). d~659.2,4,.23,RE- 181,20.H,EC). d 659.2,3,3.5",HG- 187G,2.2M,EC/B+/A). d, 659.3,3,.46,AG- 104G,69.2M,EC/B +). d, 659.3,,U,PA-235,24.1M,B-). d~659.4,1,2.0,AT-205,26.2M,EC/B+/A). dq659.4,,U,TH-235,6.gM,B-). File: FILEONE.RSI
Fig. 5. A view of "fileone.rsi" where the energy retrieval was kept 4. GENERAL COMMENTS A decay gamma energy-nuclide retrieval system has been created. This should serve as a very useful tool for researchers in activation analysis and other fields, where gamma spectra are analyzed and nuclides need to be identified. The data base contains more than 35000 tuples of data which could, in principle, be examined manually in a hard copy catalogue to localize the energy and the corresponding isotope. In this work, a data base accessed through a user-friendly menu makes the consultation easy and very fast. (Approximately three seconds are needed for a search by energy and six seconds are needed for a search by nuclide, on an IBM-PC AT with 16 MHz). For this application, Prolog clearly constitutes a well suited tool for modelling the relational data base, the data storage-retrieval structure and the friendly menu query facility. Logic programming in languages such as Prolog should be better exploited in the use of similar scientific data bases because of their many advantages. Conventional data base systems need to interface with a conventional programming language in order to host the data base, express the constraints on the data and generate user applications. Logical languages, in contrast, can be used straightforwardly to express data definitions, queries and integrity constraints as well as to build special user-oriented applications. REFERENCES Adams, F. and Dams R. (1969) A Compilation of Precisely Determined Gamma - Transition Energies of Radionuchdes Produced by Reactor Irradiation, Journal of Radional. Chem. Vol. 3, p.p. 99-125. Gallaire H. and Minker J. (1978) Logic and Data Bases. New York. New York. Planum Press. Kowalski R. (1981) Logic as a Data Base Language. Technical Report, Imperial Valley College Imperial, California. Lone M. A. et al. (1981) Prompt Gamma-Rays from Thermal-Neutron Capture. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables. Vol. 26. N -° 6. Parsaye K. (1983) Logic Programming and Relational Data Bases. Database Engineering. Vol. 8 N -° 4, pp. 20-39. Paviotti Corcuera R. et al, (1988) Designing a Nuclear Data Base Prototype Using Oracle and Prolog. Report ORNL/TM-10984, Oak Ridge. Pereira L. M. (1983) Relational Data Bases a la Carte. Proceedings Logic Programming Workshop. Algarve - Portugal. Reus R. and Westmeier W. (1983) Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tabeles Vol. 29, N Q 1 and N Q 2. Sciore E. and Warren D. S. (1988) Integrating Data Bases and Prolog AI Expert. Vol. 3, N Q 1. Tuli J. K. (1983) Thermal Neutron Capture Gamma-Rays - BNL-NCS-51647. Warren D. H. (1981) Efficient Processing of Interactive Relational Data Base Queries Expressed in Logic. Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Very Large Data Bases - Canes - France.
A RADIOACTIVE
0306-4549/92 $5.00+0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd
DECAY GAMMA-RAY
RETRIEVAL
SYSTEM
R. PAVIOTTI CORCUERA, M. DE MORAES CUNHA, ORION DE OLIVEIRA SILVA and O. L. GON~ALEZ Instituto de Estudos Avan~ados (IEAv) Centro T$cnico Aeroespacial (CTA) 12225 S£o Jos6 dos Campos, SP, Brazil
(Received 6 January 199g)
- This report describes the implementation of an Information Retrieval System which is used to help researchers identify the isotopes in a radioactive sample. The system was implemented in Prolog and uses data structure techniques to store the information and speed the retrieval. The main features of scientific systems are static data and a quantity of information well below that of commercial systems. Such features make Prolog the ideal language for programming these applications. This data base includes gamma energies by nuclide in the energy ran(le from 1.6 keV to 9480.4 keV. Data can be retrieved either by energy, nuclide or element. Abstract
1. INTRODUCTION Radioactive decay gamma rays are used by researchers in the fields of activation analysis, cross-section measurements and x-and 7-ray spectroscopies. Once the spectrum of a radioactive sample have been determined, it is necessary to identify the nuclides to which the gamma or x-rays belong. There are several compilations of data in the form of tables on hard copy. There one can search by energy or by isotope and make as many iterations as needed to identify the nuclides. (Tuli, 1988; Lone, 1983; Adams, 1969). This data base management system is intended to help researchers search for possible nuclide assigments of any gamma ray with a reasonably well determined energy. The data files required for the base were obtained through the Nuclear Data Section (NDS) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and correspond to the compilation of V. Reus and W. Westmeir (1983). Actually, the data received on magnetic tape belong to an earlier compilation (August 1978). The program for the data base have been entirely written in Prolog (Arity Version 5.0) and linked with the Microsoft linker. The PC-data base contains about 35360 photon energies for aproximately 2500 nuclides in which each nuclide may be given up to 200 gamma-ray energies. The gamma energies are ordered by increasing energy. The energy range is between 1.6 keV and 9480.4 keV. The gamma-ray energy is given in keV rounded off to the nearest 0.1 keV. The uncertainty on the last given digit of the energy value is also provided. The abundance (number of photons emitted per 100 decays of the nuclide) is given for lines with more than 0.5% abundance. Each energy is associated with the decay scheme of a nuclide. This nuclide is shown when data is retrieved. Other quantities shown are the half-life and decay mode. More information about the compilation can be obtained by using the "Help" option of the menu when running the system. 545
R. PAVIOTTICORCUERAet al.
546
2. D E S C R I P T I O N
OF THE SYSTEM
The original compilation, received in tabular form from the NDS-IAEA, was transformed in Prolog readable clauses. The different parts that compose the system are: (See Fig. 1). • A file where data is stored in the form of Prolog clauses. • A module to optimize and manage the storage of data. Because the d a t a base is not going to be updated by the user, it is considered to be a "static data base". This means that the operations of insertion, deletion and updating do not need to be implemented. • An extremely user friendly interface which allows energy, nuclide and element retrievals and selection of d a t a sets in user-created files. DATA STORED IN THE FORM OF PROLOG CLAUSES
IT
MANAGEMENT OF STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION
USER FRIENDLY INTERFACE Fig. 1. System architecture The Prolog language is very appropriate for this application, because it has a data storage structure well suited for d a t a in the form of tables (Relational Model, Gallaire et al, 1978; Kowalski, 1981; Parsaye, 1983; Pereira, 1983; Sciore et ai, 1983; Warren, 1981). The system requires an IBM-XT, AT, or compatible, 640 Kb of R A M and 4 Mb of hard disk space. 3. I N T E R A C T I N G
WITH THE USER
The interaction with the user is through the menu at the top of the screen (Fig. 2), where several options are available. These are: Energy, Nuclide, Element, File, Quit and Help. Nuclide Element File Quit Help MESSAGE Data can be retrieved by energy, nuclide or element. The bar at the top of the screen is the menu bar. Use [RIGHT-ARROW] or [LEFT-ARROW] to highlight the selected item, then press [ENTER]. Each time you run the program, a temporary file named "TEMP.RSI" is created. If you want to save it, remember to rename it after ending the session, otherwise you will lose the data in the next session. Using the "FILE" option, you can create new files with different names. All files created will have the extension "RSI". After each retrieval you will have the option to keep or not the data in the previously created file. Choose the item "HELP" for more information.
Energy
H (HELP)
Q (EXIT)
Fig. 2. Menu bar and general instructions about the program The " E n e r g y " option allows the search and retrieval of data in the energy range from 1.6 keV to 9480.4 keV. Energy should be introduced in keV and a tolerance error may be introduced before the search.
An information retrieval system
547
The " N u c l i d e " option searches by nuclide name (eg: Th-232 m, where m means metastable). Upper and lower case letters are accepted. The " E l e m e n t " option will retrieve a list of nuclides available for the element chosen (See Fig.
3). Energy
Nuclide Element File Quit Data(Energy, Delt a,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife,DecayMode) Data Retrieved by Energy: l>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.TM,B-). d(659.0,2,8.8* ,HG- 189B ,8.7M ,EC/B + ). Select with ~ d(659.1,2,.37,BR-75,1.63H,B+/EC). and press 'enter' : d(659.1,3,.36,SR-83G,32.4H,EC/B+). d(659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.TM,B-). PM-149 PM-150 Data Retrieved by Nuclide: PM-151 PM-152G PM-152M1 PM-152M2 PM-153 PM-154G ~>PM-154M
Help
file:
Fig. 3. Element option chosen. The scrollable nuclide window is shown The " F i l e " option has a sub-menu which allows the creation of files in order to keep different sets of data, and the viewing of files containing selected data sets. The " Q u i t " option leaves the program. The " H e l p " option gives instructions about the use of the program and also information about the data compilation. Fig. 4 shows the energy and nuclide retrieval windows. Scrolling is possible in both windows. The same figure shows a window in which the user may choose to save or not the data. It is possible to save the data sets in different files. Energy Nuclide Element File Quit Dat a(Energy,Delta,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife, DecayMode) Data Retrieved by Energy: t>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(659.0,2,8.8*,HG- 189B,8.7M,EC/B+). d(659.1,2,.37,BR-75,1.63H,B+/EC). d(659.1,3,.36,SR-83G,32.4H,EC/B +). d(659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.7M,B-). Data Retrieved by Nuclide: t>d(1840.9,2,3.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1797.6,4,2.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1733.9,3,2.1,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1719.9,5,.4,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d(1656.1,2,3.9,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-).
Help
Do you want to select this data set ? (y/n):
Fig. 4. Example of energy (660 +1 keV) and nuclide (Pm-154G) retrievals A sub-menu in the "File" option Mlows the user to see the data sets which were selected in different files (Fig. 5).
548
R. PAVIOTTICARCUERAet al. Help Energy Nuclide Element File Quit Dat a( Energy, Delta,Abundance,Nuclide,Halflife, DecayMode to scroll data items [ESC] to escape Data kept in file: t>d(659.0,4,.6,PM- 154M,2.7M,B-). d 659.0,2,8.8",HG- 189B,8.TM,EC/B +). d 659.1,2,.37,BR-75 1.63H,B+/EC). FILEONE.RSI d 659.1,3,.36,SR-83G 32AH,EC/B+). d, 659.1,2,91.*,AC-229,62.TM,B-). d~659.2,2,.161,NE- 18,1.68S,B+). d~659.2,4,.23,RE- 181,20.H,EC). d 659.2,3,3.5",HG- 187G,2.2M,EC/B+/A). d, 659.3,3,.46,AG- 104G,69.2M,EC/B +). d, 659.3,,U,PA-235,24.1M,B-). d~659.4,1,2.0,AT-205,26.2M,EC/B+/A). dq659.4,,U,TH-235,6.gM,B-). File: FILEONE.RSI
Fig. 5. A view of "fileone.rsi" where the energy retrieval was kept 4. GENERAL COMMENTS A decay gamma energy-nuclide retrieval system has been created. This should serve as a very useful tool for researchers in activation analysis and other fields, where gamma spectra are analyzed and nuclides need to be identified. The data base contains more than 35000 tuples of data which could, in principle, be examined manually in a hard copy catalogue to localize the energy and the corresponding isotope. In this work, a data base accessed through a user-friendly menu makes the consultation easy and very fast. (Approximately three seconds are needed for a search by energy and six seconds are needed for a search by nuclide, on an IBM-PC AT with 16 MHz). For this application, Prolog clearly constitutes a well suited tool for modelling the relational data base, the data storage-retrieval structure and the friendly menu query facility. Logic programming in languages such as Prolog should be better exploited in the use of similar scientific data bases because of their many advantages. Conventional data base systems need to interface with a conventional programming language in order to host the data base, express the constraints on the data and generate user applications. Logical languages, in contrast, can be used straightforwardly to express data definitions, queries and integrity constraints as well as to build special user-oriented applications. REFERENCES Adams, F. and Dams R. (1969) A Compilation of Precisely Determined Gamma - Transition Energies of Radionuchdes Produced by Reactor Irradiation, Journal of Radional. Chem. Vol. 3, p.p. 99-125. Gallaire H. and Minker J. (1978) Logic and Data Bases. New York. New York. Planum Press. Kowalski R. (1981) Logic as a Data Base Language. Technical Report, Imperial Valley College Imperial, California. Lone M. A. et al. (1981) Prompt Gamma-Rays from Thermal-Neutron Capture. Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables. Vol. 26. N -° 6. Parsaye K. (1983) Logic Programming and Relational Data Bases. Database Engineering. Vol. 8 N -° 4, pp. 20-39. Paviotti Corcuera R. et al, (1988) Designing a Nuclear Data Base Prototype Using Oracle and Prolog. Report ORNL/TM-10984, Oak Ridge. Pereira L. M. (1983) Relational Data Bases a la Carte. Proceedings Logic Programming Workshop. Algarve - Portugal. Reus R. and Westmeier W. (1983) Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tabeles Vol. 29, N Q 1 and N Q 2. Sciore E. and Warren D. S. (1988) Integrating Data Bases and Prolog AI Expert. Vol. 3, N Q 1. Tuli J. K. (1983) Thermal Neutron Capture Gamma-Rays - BNL-NCS-51647. Warren D. H. (1981) Efficient Processing of Interactive Relational Data Base Queries Expressed in Logic. Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Very Large Data Bases - Canes - France.