PON1 status does not influence cholinesterase activity in Egyptian agricultural workers exposed to chlorpyrifos.

Animal studies have shown that paraoxonase 1 (PON1) genotype can influence susceptibility to the organophosphorus pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF). However, Monte Carlo analysis suggests that PON1 genotype may not affect CPF-related toxicity at low exposure conditions in humans. The current study sought to determine the influence of PON1 genotype on the activity of blood cholinesterase as well as the effect of CPF exposure on serum PON1 in workers occupationally exposed to CPF. Saliva, blood and urine were collected from agricultural workers (n=120) from Egypt's Menoufia Governorate to determine PON1 genotype, blood cholinesterase activity, serum PON1 activity towards chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPOase) and paraoxon (POase), and urinary levels of the CPF metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy). The PON1 55 (P≤0.05) but not the PON1 192 genotype had a significant effect on CPOase activity. However, both the PON1 55 (P≤0.05) and PON1 192 (P≤0.001) genotypes had a significant effect on POase activity. Workers had significantly inhibited AChE and BuChE after CPF application; however, neither CPOase activity nor POase activity was associated with ChE depression when adjusted for CPF exposure (as determined by urinary TCPy levels) and stratified by PON1 genotype. CPOase and POase activity were also generally unaffected by CPF exposure although there were alterations in activity within specific genotype groups. Together, these results suggest that workers retained the capacity to detoxify chlorpyrifos-oxon under the exposure conditions experienced by this study population regardless of PON1 genotype and activity and that effects of CPF exposure on PON1 activity are minimal

Simple Front End Electronics for Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers

A simple circuit for the presentation of the signals from Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs) to standard existing digitization electronics is described. The circuit is based on "off-the-shelf" discrete components. An optimization of the values of specific components is required to match the aspects of the MRPCs for the given application. This simple circuit is an attractive option for the initial signal processing for MRPC prototyping and bench- or beam-testing efforts, as well as for final implementations of small-area Time-of-Flight systems with existing data acquisition systems.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Inst. and Methods, Section

From 'River Cottage' to 'Chicken Run': Hugh Fearnley-Whttingstall and the class politics of ethical consumption

Lifestyle television provides a key site through which to explore the dilemmas of ethical consumption, as the genre shifts to consider the ethics of different consumption practices and taste cultures. UK television cook Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV programmes offer fertile ground not only for thinking about television personalities as lifestyle experts and moral entrepreneurs, but also for thinking about how the meanings and uses of their television image are inflected by genre. In this article we explore how the shift from the lifestyled downshifting narrative of the River Cottage series to the 'campaigning culinary documentary' Hugh's Chicken Run exposes issues of celebrity, class and ethics. While both series are concerned with ethical consumption, they work in different ways to reveal a distinction between 'ethical' and 'unethical' consumption practices and positions - positions that are inevitably classed

Resonance production from jet fragmentation

Short lived resonances are sensitive to the medium properties in heavy-ion collisions. Heavy hadrons have larger probability to be produced within the quark gluon plasma phase due to their short formation times. Therefore heavy mass resonances are more likely to be affected by the medium, and the identification of early produced resonances from jet fragmentation might be a viable option to study chirality. The high momentum resonances on the away-side of a triggered di-jet are likely to be the most modified by the partonic or early hadronic medium. We will discuss first results of triggered hadron-resonance correlations in Cu+Cu heavy ion collisions.Comment: Hot Quarks Colorado 2008 Proceedings, 4 pages 5 figure

A Strategy for Interpretation of Microearthquake Tomography Results in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field Based upon Rock Physics Interpretations of State 2-14 Borehole Logs

We devise a strategy for analysis of Vp and Vs microearthquake tomography results in the Salton Sea geothermal field to identify important features of the geothermal reservoir. We first interpret rock properties in State 2-14 borehole based upon logged core through the reservoir. Then, we interpret seismic recordings in the well (Daley et al., 1988) to develop the strategy. We hypothesize that mapping Poisson's ratio has two applications for the Salton Sea geothermal reservoir: (1) to map the top of the reservoir, and (2) as a diagnostic for permeable zones. Poisson's ratio can be obtained from Vp and Vs. In the State 2-14 borehole, Poisson's ratio calculated from large scale averages ({approx} 150 m) shows a monotonic decrease with depth to about 1300 m, at which point it increases with depth. Our model is that the monotonic decrease is due to compaction, and the increase below 1300 m is due to the rocks being hydrothermally altered. We hypothesize we can map the depth to alteration by identifying the transition from decreasing to increasing values; and thus, map the top of the reservoir, which is associated with a known increase in sulfite, chlorite, and epidote alteration that may be indicative of hydrothermal activity. We also observe (from Daley et. al. plots) an anomalous drop in Poisson's ratio at a depth of about 900 m, within a sandstone formation. The sandstone has a P-wave velocity significantly higher than the siltstone above it but a lower velocity in the lower half of the formation relative to the upper half. We interpret the relative decrease in velocity to be due to fracturing and chemical alteration caused by permeability. We conclude that using Vp and Vs tomography results to obtain images of Poisson's ratio has the potential to identify significant features in the geothermal reservoir in this geologic setting. Seismic attenuation tomography results (mapped as Qp and Qs) should also be useful for evaluating geothermal reservoirs, but that is not addressed at this time

Complete homochirality induced by the nonlinear autocatalysis and recycling

A nonlinear autocatalysis of a chiral substance is shown to achieve homochirality in a closed system, if the back-reaction is included. Asymmetry in the concentration of two enantiomers or the enantiometric excess increases due to the nonlinear autocatalysis. Furthermore, when the back-reaction is taken into account, the reactant supplied by the decomposition of the enantiomers is recycled to produce more and more the dominant one, and eventually the homochirality is established.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

A Combined Spitzer and Chandra Survey of Young Stellar Objects in the Serpens Cloud Core

We present Spitzer and Chandra observations of the nearby (~260 pc) embedded stellar cluster in the Serpens Cloud Core. We observed, using Spitzer's IRAC and MIPS instruments, in six wavelength bands from 3 to 70 ${\mu}m$, to detect thermal emission from circumstellar disks and protostellar envelopes, and to classify stars using color-color diagrams and spectral energy distributions (SEDs). These data are combined with Chandra observations to examine the effects of circumstellar disks on stellar X-ray properties. Young diskless stars were also identified from their increased X-ray emission. We have identified 138 YSOs in Serpens: 22 class 0/I, 16 flat spectrum, 62 class II, 17 transition disk, and 21 class III stars; 60 of which exhibit X-ray emission. Our primary results are the following: 1.) ten protostars detected previously in the sub-millimeter are detected at lambda < 24 microns, seven at lambda < 8 microns, 2.) the protostars are more closely grouped than more evolved YSOs (median separation : ~0.024 pc, and 3.) the luminosity and temperature of the X-ray emitting plasma around these YSOs does not show any significant dependence on evolutionary class. We combine the infrared derived values of AK and X-ray values of NH for 8 class III objects and find that the column density of hydrogen gas per mag of extinctions is less than half the standard interstellar value, for AK > 1. This may be the result of grain growth through coagulation and/or the accretion of volatiles in the Serpens cloud core.Comment: 69 pages, 16 figures, accepted to ApJ. Higher Resolution Figures at: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~ewinston

Thermodynamic Properties and Elementary Excitations in Quantum Sine-Gordon Spin System KCuGaF6

Thermodynamic properties and elementary excitations in $S=1/2$ one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCuGaF$_6$ were investigated by magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and ESR measurements. Due to the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction with alternating $D$-vectors and/or the staggered $g$-tensor, the staggered magnetic field is induced when subjected to external magnetic field. Specific heat in magnetic field clearly shows the formation of excitation gap, which is attributed to the staggered magnetic field. The specific heat data was analyzed on the basis of the quantum sine-Gordon (SG) model. We observed many ESR modes including one soliton and three breather excitations characteristic of the quantum SG model.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn., vol. 76, no.

Quantum Spin Chains and the Conformal Anomaly

The conformal anomaly c determines the universality class of a model system in statistical mechanics. The value of c characterizes both 2D classical models and their 1D quantum counterparts. The conformal anomaly may therefore be determined numerically for quantum spin chains using the relation: E 0(N)≂E 0(∞)−(NΔE/12)c(1/N 2), where E 0 (N) is the ground‐state energy of an N‐spin finite system, E 0 (∞) is the ground‐state energy in the thermodynamic limit, and ΔE is the energy gap between the ground state at k=0 and the first excited state of the dispersion curve at k=2π/N. The numerical approach is highly successful when tested on the integrable s= 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic X X Z chain and the integrable s=1 SU(2) model. The method gives c=1 to within 2% accuracy for the s=1 and (3)/(2) X Y chains, placing them in the universality class of the 2D X Y model. The result c=1 (2% accuracy) is obtained for the s= (3)/(2) Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain, in agreement with the Haldane prediction. The s=1 pure antiferromagnetic biquadratic chain and the s=1 X X Z model with uniaxial anisotropy in the vicinity of the critical point Δ=Δ2 ∼1.15 −1.18 have also been studied