Regional differences and sources of organochlorine pesticides in soils surrounding chemical industrial parks

Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs; dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB)) were investigated in 105 soil samples collected in vicinity of the chemical industrial parks in Tianjin, China. OCP concentrations significantly varied in the study area, high HCH and DDT levels were found close to the chemical industrial parks. The intensity of agricultural activity and distance from the potential OCP emitters have important influences on the OCP residue distributions. Principal component analysis indicates that HCH pollution is a mix of historical technical HCH and current lindane pollution and DDT pollution input is only due to technical DDT sources. The significant correlations of OCP compounds reveal that HCHs, DDTs and HCB could have some similar sources of origin

Universality in quantum chaos and the one parameter scaling theory

We adapt the one parameter scaling theory (OPT) to the context of quantum chaos. As a result we propose a more precise characterization of the universality classes associated to Wigner-Dyson and Poisson statistics which takes into account Anderson localization effects. Based also on the OPT we predict a new universality class in quantum chaos related to the metal-insulator transition and provide several examples. In low dimensions it is characterized by classical superdiffusion or a fractal spectrum, in higher dimensions it can also have a purely quantum origin as in the case of disordered systems. Our findings open the possibility of studying the metal insulator transition experimentally in a much broader type of systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, acknowledgment added, typos correcte

Identification of sources of elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in an industrial area in Tianjin, China

The concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined by gas chromatography equipped with a mass spectrometry detector in 105 topsoil samples from an industrial area around Bohai Bay, Tianjin in the North of China. Results demonstrated that concentrations of PAHs in 104 soil samples from this area ranged from 68.7 to 5,590 ng g (-aEuro parts per thousand 1) dry weight with a mean of a16PAHs 814 +/- 813 ng g (-aEuro parts per thousand 1), which suggests that there exists mid to high levels of PAH contamination. The concentration of a16PAHs in one soil sample from Tianjin Port was exceptionally high (48,700 ng g (-aEuro parts per thousand 1)). Ninety-three of the 105 soil samples were considered to be contaminated with PAHs (> 200 ng g (-aEuro parts per thousand 1)), and 25 were heavily polluted (> 1,000 ng g (-aEuro parts per thousand 1)). The sites with high PAHs concentration are mainly distributed around chemical industry parks and near highways. Two low molecular weight PAHs, naphthalene and phenanthrene, were the dominant components in the soil samples, which accounted for 22.1% and 10.7% of the a16PAHs concentration, respectively. According to the observed molecular indices, house heating in winter, straw stalk combustion in open areas after harvest, and petroleum input were common sources of PAHs in this area, while factory discharge and vehicle exhaust were the major sources around chemical industrial parks and near highways. Biological processes were probably another main source of low molecular weight PAHs

Is it possible to observe experimentally a metal-insulator transition in ultra cold atoms?

Kicked rotors with certain non-analytic potentials avoid dynamical localization and undergo a metal-insulator transition. We show that typical properties of this transition are still present as the non-analyticity is progressively smoothed out provided that the smoothing is less than a certain limiting value. We have identified a smoothing dependent time scale such that full dynamical localization is absent and the quantum momentum distribution develops power-law tails with anomalous decay exponents as in the case of a conductor at the metal-insulator transition. We discuss under what conditions these findings may be verified experimentally by using ultra cold atoms techniques. It is found that ultra-cold atoms can indeed be utilized for the experimental investigation of the metal-insulator transition.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

En-route to the fission-fusion reaction mechanism: a status update on laser-driven heavy ion acceleration

The fission-fusion reaction mechanism was proposed in order to generate extremely neutron-rich nuclei close to the waiting point N = 126 of the rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis process (r-process). The production of such isotopes and the measurement of their nuclear properties would fundamentally help to increase the understanding of the nucleosynthesis of the heaviest elements in the universe. Major prerequisite for the realization of this new reaction scheme is the development of laser-based acceleration of ultra-dense heavy ion bunches in the mass range of A = 200 and above. In this paper, we review the status of laser-driven heavy ion acceleration in the light of the fission-fusion reaction mechanism. We present results from our latest experiment on heavy ion acceleration, including a new milestone with laser-accelerated heavy ion energies exceeding 5 MeV/u

Experimental investigation of the shearing resistance of SODA-Lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and strain rates of 10^6 s^(-1)

Pressure-Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experiments were conducted to measure the high-rate shearing resistance of soda-lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and at shearing rates of approximately 10^6 s^(−1). Samples of soda lime glass, 5 µm thick, were sandwiched between pure tungsten carbide (WC) plates and impacted by pure WC flyers. Impacting plates were inclined to the direction of approach by an angle of 18°. Normal stress and shearing resistance of the sample were calculated from measured free surface velocities using 1D elastic wave theory. The experimental results show that, at a pressure of 9GPa, the shear stress increases almost linearly up to 1 GPa and then falls quickly to approximately 0.3 GPa — after which it decreases slowly to approximately 0.17 GPa. Comparisons with results of previous experiments on nominally identical samples, impacted to generate lower peak pressures, showed the peak shearing resistance to be much higher at higher pressures; however, the sharp fall in shearing resistance occurs at comparable shear strains (1.5-2)

Density of States for a Specified Correlation Function and the Energy Landscape

The degeneracy of two-phase disordered microstructures consistent with a specified correlation function is analyzed by mapping it to a ground-state degeneracy. We determine for the first time the associated density of states via a Monte Carlo algorithm. Our results are described in terms of the roughness of the energy landscape, defined on a hypercubic configuration space. The use of a Hamming distance in this space enables us to define a roughness metric, which is calculated from the correlation function alone and related quantitatively to the structural degeneracy. This relation is validated for a wide variety of disordered systems.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Alternate cyclin D1 mRNA splicing modulates P27\u3csup\u3eKlP1\u3c/sup\u3e binding and cell migration

Cyclin D1 is an important cell cycle regulator but in cancer its overexpression also increases cellular migration mediated by p27KlP1 stabilization and RhoA inhibition. Recently, a common polymorphism at the exon 4-intron 4 boundary of the human cyclin D1 gene within a splice donor region was associated with an altered risk of developing cancer. Altered RNA splicing caused by this polymorphism gives rise to a variant cyclin D1 isoform termed cyclin D1b, which has the same N-terminus as the canonical cyclin D1a isoform but a distinct C-terminus. In this study we show that these different isoforms have unique properties with regard to the cellular migration function of cyclin D1. Whereas they displayed little difference in transcriptional co-repression assays on idealized reporter genes, microarray cDNA expression analysis revealed differential regulation of genes including those that influence cellular migration. Additionally, while cyclin D1a stabilized p27KIP1 and inhibited RhoA-induced ROCK kinase activity, promoting cellular migration, cyclin D1b failed to stabilize p27KIP1 or inhibit ROCK kinase activity and had no effect on migration. Our findings argue that alternate splicing is an important determinant of the function of cyclin D1 in cellular migration

Experimental investigation of the shearing resistance of SODA-Lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and strain rates of 10^6 s^(-1)

Pressure-Shear Plate Impact (PSPI) experiments were conducted to measure the high-rate shearing resistance of soda-lime glass at pressures of 9 GPa and at shearing rates of approximately 10^6 s^(−1). Samples of soda lime glass, 5 µm thick, were sandwiched between pure tungsten carbide (WC) plates and impacted by pure WC flyers. Impacting plates were inclined to the direction of approach by an angle of 18°. Normal stress and shearing resistance of the sample were calculated from measured free surface velocities using 1D elastic wave theory. The experimental results show that, at a pressure of 9GPa, the shear stress increases almost linearly up to 1 GPa and then falls quickly to approximately 0.3 GPa — after which it decreases slowly to approximately 0.17 GPa. Comparisons with results of previous experiments on nominally identical samples, impacted to generate lower peak pressures, showed the peak shearing resistance to be much higher at higher pressures; however, the sharp fall in shearing resistance occurs at comparable shear strains (1.5-2)