Database Analysis Of State Surface Soil Regulatory Guidance Values

A 2001 study of Cleveland, Ohio brownfield surface soil contamination led to the examination of state regulatory guidance values for soils. Surface soils were of particular interest since these generally pose the greatest risk to human health at brownfield sites. This investigation initially focused on heavy metals, common contaminants at Cleveland brownfields. However, the observation of significant variability in guidance values applied to Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn led to questions about other state-regulated components and ultimately to research examining the origins, magnitudes, and explanations for regulatory guidance value variability. The results presented here are based on the compilation of an 18,776 state surface soil database assembled from regulatory guidance for organic, inorganic, and element contaminants. All values were captured electronically from internet sources. The structure of each guidance value dataset was then standardized in a database-compatible format. Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) registry numbers were added to each record if they were not already provided. Identification of all records by CAS number resolves the problem of chemical synonyms. All value datasets were then assembled into the ACCESS database S3GVD (State Surface Soil Guidance Value Database) Statistical analysis is presented to characterize the nature and extent of variability in state surface soil guidance values. The organics, inorganics, and elements most and least commonly regulated and the range of guidance values are discussed. Log-scale Ordered Column Diagrams (LOCDs) are used to explore the nature of individual chemical guidance value distributions

Mean-field description of ground-state properties of drip-line nuclei. (I) Shell-correction method

A shell-correction method is applied to nuclei far from the beta stability line and its suitability to describe effects of the particle continuum is discussed. The sensitivity of predicted locations of one- and two-particle drip lines to details of the macroscopic-microscopic model is analyzed.Comment: 22 REVTeX pages, 13 uuencoded postscript figures available upon reques

Listen to Nice

In describing Humphrey Jennings’ wartime documentary propaganda film, 'Listen to Britain' (1942), a film with an overtly poetic sensibility and dominantly musical soundtrack, John Corner asserts that ‘through listening to Britain, we are enabled to properly look at it'. This idea of sound leading our attention to the images has underpinned much of the collaborative work between composer and sound designer, Geoffrey Cox, and documentary filmmaker, Keith Marley. It is in this context that the article will analyse an extract of A Film About Nice (Marley and Cox 2010), a contemporary re-imagining of Jean Vigo’s silent documentary, 'A propos de Nice' (1930). Reference will be made throughout to the historical context, and the filmic and theoretical influences that have informed the way music and creative sound design have been used to place emphasis on hearing a place, as much as seeing it

A-dependence of nuclear transparency in quasielastic A(e,e'p) at high Q^2

The A-dependence of the quasielastic A(e,e'p) reaction has been studied at SLAC with H-2, C, Fe, and Au nuclei at momentum transfers Q^2 = 1, 3, 5, and 6.8 (GeV/c)^2. We extract the nuclear transparency T(A,Q^2), a measure of the average probability that the struck proton escapes from the nucleus A without interaction. Several calculations predict a significant increase in T with momentum transfer, a phenomenon known as Color Transparency. No significant rise within errors is seen for any of the nuclei studied.Comment: 5 pages incl. 2 figures, Caltech preprint OAP-73

The ASEAN community-based tourism standards: looking beyond certification

This paper reports findings from an opportunity study on the appropriateness of implementing community-based tourism standards (CBTS) certification through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) criteria, as a way to improve sustainable tourism provision in the region. Framed by critical reflections on community-based tourism (CBT) literature and existing sustainable tourism standards (STS) practices, qualitative research consisting of interviews with six key industry experts provided core insights into a number of CBTS’ implementation challenges. Findings indicate the main hindering factors for the implementation of CBTS to be the lack of adequate governance, limited funding and insufficient community capacity. The study concluded that although at the moment the full implementation of CBTS as a certification programme would be premature, ASEAN-CBTS’ criteria are a useful benchmarking and strategic planning tool for local communities, which would eventually lead to improved CBT benefits, standards and performance in the region. At the same time, this paper argues that aspects including CBT competitiveness and service delivery need to be tackled first to create fruitful grounding for CBT certification

In Vivo Tissue Regeneration with Robotic Implants

Robots that reside inside the body to restore or enhance biological function have long been a staple of science fiction. Creating such robotic implants poses challenges both in signaling between the implant and the biological host as well as in implant design. To investigate these challenges, we created a robotic implant to perform in vivo tissue regeneration via mechano-stimulation. The robot is designed to induce lengthening of tubular organs, such as the esophagus and intestines, by computer-controlled application of traction forces. Esophageal testing in swine demonstrates that the applied forces can induce cell proliferation and lengthening of the organ without a reduction in diameter, while the animal is awake, mobile and able to eat normally. Such robots can serve as research tools for studying mechanotransduction-based signaling and can also be employed clinically for conditions such as long-gap esophageal atresia and short bowel syndrome

Establishing tephrostratigraphic frameworks to aid the study of abrupt climatic and glacial transitions: a case study of the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition in the British Isles (c. 16-8 ka BP)

Distally dispersed tephra layers have become an important tool in the investigation of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records across the globe. They offer possibilities for the synchronisation and improved chronological control in those records to which they can be traced and hence contribute to an improved understanding of the pattern and timing of environmental and archaeological change during periods of rapid climatic adjustment. However, their use as robust isochronous markers for synchronising records is frequently compromised by uncertainties relating to stratigraphical context, precise chronology and chemical composition. Here we collate and review the tephrostratigraphical information dating to the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT; c. 16-8 ka BP) in the British Isles based on published and unpublished records obtained from 54 sites. Based on details of their stratigraphic position, chronology and chemical composition, we propose that 26 individual eruption events may be represented in this collective record which spans the LGIT. The great majority of these eruptives can be traced in origin to Iceland, but we also report on the recent discoveries of ultra-distal tephra from the North American Cascades range, including for the first time the Mount St Helens J Tephra at a site in southern Ireland. These particular ultra-distal discoveries have resulted from a reinterpretation of older data, demonstrating the potential importance of ‘unknown’ analyses in older tephra datasets. The outcome of this review is a comprehensive but provisional tephrostratigraphic framework for the LGIT in the British Isles, which helps to focus future research on parts of the scheme that are in need of further development or testing. The results, therefore, make an important contribution to the wider European tephrostratigraphic framework, while adding new discoveries of transcontinental isochronous tephra markers