4,321 research outputs found
Environmental concentrations of anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals do not impact sexual disruption in fish alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens
This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Sexual disruption in wild fish has been linked to the contamination of river systems with steroid oestrogens, including the pharmaceutical 17α-ethinylestradiol, originating from domestic wastewaters. As analytical chemistry has advanced, more compounds derived from the human usage of pharmaceuticals have been identified in the environment and questions have arisen as to whether these additional pharmaceuticals may also impact sexual disruption in fish. Indeed, pharmaceutical anti-androgens have been shown to induce such effects under laboratory conditions. These are of particular interest since anti-androgenic biological activity has been identified in the aquatic environment and is potentially implicated in sexual disruption alone and in combination with steroid oestrogens. Consequently, predictive modelling was employed to determine the concentrations of two anti-androgenic human pharmaceuticals, bicalutamide and cyproterone acetate, in UK sewage effluents and river catchments and their combined impacts on sexual disruption were then assessed in two fish models. Crucially, fish were also exposed to the anti-androgens in combination with steroid oestrogens to determine whether they had any additional impact on oestrogen induced feminisation. Modelling predicted that the anti-androgenic pharmaceuticals were likely to be widespread in UK river catchments. However, their concentrations were not sufficient to induce significant responses in plasma vitellogenin concentrations, secondary sexual characteristics or gross indices in male fathead minnow or intersex in Japanese medaka alone or in combination with steroid oestrogens. However, environmentally relevant mixtures of oestrone, 17β-oestradiol and 17α-ethinylestradiol did induce vitellogenin and intersex, supporting their role in sexual disruption in wild fish populations. Unexpectedly, a male dominated sex ratio (100% in controls) was induced in medaka and the potential cause and implications are briefly discussed, highlighting the potential of non-chemical modes of action on this endpoint
Optical control of magnetization of micron-size domains in antiferromagnetic NiO single crystals
We propose Raman-induced collinear difference-frequency generation (DFG) as a
method to manipulate dynamical magnetization. When a fundamental beam
propagates along a threefold rotational axis, this coherent second-order
optical process is permitted by angular momentum conservation through the
rotational analogue of the Umklapp process. As a demonstration, we
experimentally obtained polarization properties of collinear magnetic DFG along
a [111] axis of a single crystal of antiferromagnetic NiO with micro
multidomain structure, which excellently agreed with the theoretical
prediction.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter
The application of semiconductors to quasi- optical isolators for use at submillimeter wavelengths
Semiconductor application to quasi-optical isolators - nonreciprocal reflection beam isolator and far infrared isolators using Faraday rotatio
Probing Rotation of Core-collapse Supernova with Concurrent Analysis of Gravitational Waves and Neutrinos
The next time a core-collapse supernova (SN) explodes in our galaxy, vari-
ous detectors will be ready and waiting to detect its emissions of
gravitational waves (GWs) and neutrinos. Current numerical simulations have
successfully introduced multi-dimensional effects to produce exploding SN
models, but thus far the explosion mechanism is not well understood. In this
paper, we focus on an investigation of progenitor core rotation via comparison
of the start time of GW emission and that of the neutronization burst. The GW
and neutrino de- tectors are assumed to be, respectively, the KAGRA detector
and a co-located gadolinium-loaded water Cherenkov detector, either EGADS or
GADZOOKS!. Our detection simulation studies show that for a nearby supernova
(0.2 kpc) we can confirm the lack of core rotation close to 100% of the time,
and the presence of core rotation about 90% of the time. Using this approach
there is also po- tential to confirm rotation for considerably more distant
Milky Way supernova explosions.Comment: 31pages, 15figures, submit to Ap
Effects of boundaries in mesoscopic superconductors
A thin superconducting disk, with radius and height , is
studied in the presence of an applied magnetic field parallel to its major
axis. We study how the boundaries influence the decay of the order parameter
near the edges for three-dimensional vortex states.Comment: To appear in Physica C as a special issue of M2S-HTS
The formation of disinfection by-products from the chlorination and chloramination of amides
This study examined the potential of six aliphatic and aromatic amides, commonly found in natural waters or used as chemical aids in water treatment, to act as organic precursors for nine haloacetamides (HAcAms), five haloacetonitriles (HANs), regulated trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) upon chlorination and chloramination. The impact of key experimental conditions, representative of drinking water, including pH (7 & 8), retention time (4 & 24 h) and bromide levels (0 & 100 μg/L), on the generation of the target DBPs was investigated. The highest aggregate DBP yields upon chlor(am)ination were reported for the aromatic and hydrophobic hydroxybenzamide; 2.7% ± 0.1% M/M (chlorination) and 1.7% M/M (chloramination). Increased reactivity was observed in aliphatic and hydrophilic compounds, acrylamide (2.5 ± 0.2% M/M) and acetamide (1.3 ± 0.2% M/M), in chlorination and chloramination, respectively. The addition of bromide increased average DBP yields by 50–70%. Relative to chlorination, the application of chloramines reduced DBP formation by 66.5% (without Br−) and by 46.4% (with Br−). However, bromine incorporation in HAAs and HAcAms was enhanced following chloramination, of concern due to the higher toxicological potency of brominated compounds
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Removal of priority hazardous pollutants in municipal sewage effluent to meet environmental quality standards of the European Water Framework Directive using TAML Activators
The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) commits EU member states to achieve good qualitative
and quantitative status of water bodies. The directive is designed to help protect and improve the ecological health of
groundwater, rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters. Under the WFD, chemicals posing the greatest risk of harm
to the aquatic environment are classed as priority substances (or priority hazardous substances); environmental
quality standards (EQS) are used to assess risks to the ecological quality of the water environment and to identify the
improvements needed to bring these waters into a good condition.
The current status in terms of EQS compliance with respect to these chemicals shows that only half of European
waters will meet the required standards, making major improvements in wastewater treatment necessary. Advanced
wastewater treatment processes (GAC and ozone) capable of removing problematic water pollutants across Europe
are estimated to incur additional costs at hundreds of billions of Euros. These enormous costs, together with the large
energy requirements present substantial barriers to implementation, with only Switzerland planning on making such
investment in the near future. In the absence of a sustainable low cost solution to water pollution to meet these
standards it is likely that improvements in water quality will not be economically viable for many European countries.
The TAML process provides a significant cost and energy advantage to water operators and a viable and sustainable
eco-innovative, Green Chemistry-driven tertiary wastewater treatment option that can overcome these barriers. TAML
activators have been shown to be highly effective in meeting the EQS for some of the most persistent substances in
real world samples and these studies are presented in this paper
Role of dynamic Jahn-Teller distortions in Na2C60 and Na2CsC60 studied by NMR
Through 13C NMR spin lattice relaxation (T1) measurements in cubic Na2C60, we
detect a gap in its electronic excitations, similar to that observed in
tetragonal A4C60. This establishes that Jahn-Teller distortions (JTD) and
strong electronic correlations must be considered to understand the behaviour
of even electron systems, regardless of the structure. Furthermore, in metallic
Na2CsC60, a similar contribution to T1 is also detected for 13C and 133Cs NMR,
implying the occurence of excitations typical of JT distorted C60^{2-} (or
equivalently C60^{4-}). This supports the idea that dynamic JTD can induce
attractive electronic interactions in odd electron systems.Comment: 3 figure
Vortex patterns in a superconducting-ferromagnetic rod
A superconducting rod with a magnetic moment on top develops vortices
obtained here through 3D calculations of the Ginzburg-Landau theory. The
inhomogeneity of the applied field brings new properties to the vortex patterns
that vary according to the rod thickness. We find that for thin rods (disks)
the vortex patterns are similar to those obtained in presence of a homogeneous
magnetic field instead because they consist of giant vortex states. For thick
rods novel patterns are obtained as vortices are curve lines in space that exit
through the lateral surface.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figues, Proceeding of the Sixth International Conference
in School Format on Vortex Matter in Nanostructured Superconductors (VORTEX
VI
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