Adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of trace level Ricin in castor seeds using a boron-doped diamond electrode.

Ricin, (Ricinus communis agglutinin, RCA) is one of the most poisonous of naturally occurring substances and has great potential for bioterrorism because no antidote exists. Fast detection at low concentrations is a challenge, and vital to the development of proper countermeasures. In this study, a square wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric (SWAdSV) method for determining RCA using a cathodically polarized boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode is presented. An irreversible electrochemical RCA oxidation peak was identified on the BDD electrode by different voltammetric techniques using both direct and adsorptive stripping modes. An adsorption-controlled (slope log Ip vs log v of 0.80) pHdependent process was observed. For values of 1.0pH 9.0, the numbers of protons and electrons associated with the oxidation reaction were estimated (ca. 1.0) by differential pulse voltammetry. The RCA oxidation step may correspond to the oxidation of tryptophan amino acid residues, and occurs in a complex mechanism. The excellent analytical performance of the cathodically polarized BDD electrode in combination with the stripping mode ramp was verified with RCA by using a short deposition time in an open circuit potential (120 s). Under optimized analysis conditions, a linear response in the range of (3.3?94.0)3109 mol L1 (r2=0.9944) and a limit of detection of 6.231010 mol L1 were estimated. This LOD is lower than several methods found in the literature. For example, it is 168 times lower than that obtained by using square wave voltammetric with a glassy carbon electrode. Moreover, an even lower LOD might be achieved by using the SWAdSV method with a higher pre-concentration time. In addition, trace levels of RCA were successfully determined in different castor seed cultivars with an overall average recovery from 99.2 1.6% for the three different RCA-A concentration levels. The high accuracy of the analytical data highlights the use of the proposed method for determining RCA in other samples

Intermediate mass dimuon production in Indium-Indium collisions at the CERN SPS

We present preliminary results on the production of intermediate mass dimuons in 158 A·GeV In-In collisions at the CERN SPS. NA38 and NA50 observed a strong excess in this region in S-U and Pb-Pb interactions with respect to the dimuon production rate expected from p-A data. Thanks to the use of a pixel vertex tracker, NA60 can separate the prompt dimuons from the pairs resulting from open charm decays and show that the excess dimuons are of prompt origin

Study of the production of charged pions, kaons, and protons in pPb collisions at √SNN=5.02 TeV

Peer reviewe

Evidence for light-by-light scattering and searches for axion-like particles in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Evidence for the light-by-light scattering process, gamma gamma -> gamma gamma, in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV is reported. The analysis is conducted using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 390 mu b(-1) recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Light-by-light scattering processes are selected in events with two photons exclusively produced, each with transverse energy E-T(gamma) > 2 GeV, pseudorapidity vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar 5 GeV, diphoton transverse momentum p(T)(gamma gamma) gamma gamma) = 120 +/- 46(stat) +/- 28(syst) +/- 12(theo) nb, is consistent with the standard model prediction. The m(gamma gamma) distribution is used to set new exclusion limits on the production of pseudoscalar axion-like particles, via the gamma gamma -> a -> gamma gamma process, in the mass range m(a) = 5-90 GeV. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter and unparticles produced in association with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Correction: DOI 10.1103/PhysRevD.97.099903Peer reviewe

VEGF, VEGFR2 and GSTM1 polymorphisms in outcome of multiple myeloma patients in the thalidomide era

sem informação27641st ESMO Congress2016-10-07Copenhagen, Dinamarcasem informaçã

Progress control in iterated local search for nurse rostering

This paper describes an approach in which a local search technique is alternated with a process which ‘jumps’ to another point in the search space. After each ‘jump’ a (time-intensive) local search is used to obtain a new local optimum. The focus of the paper is in monitoring the progress of this technique on a set of real world nurse rostering problems. We propose a model for estimating the quality of this new local optimum. We can then decide whether to end the local search based on the predicted quality. The fact that we avoid searching these bad neighbourhoods enables us to reach better solutions in the same amount of time. We evaluate the approach on five highly constrained problems in nurse rostering. These problems represent complex and challenging real world rostering situations and the approach described here has been developed during a commercial implementation project by ORTEC bv

Influence of gas type on the thermal efficiency of microwave plasmas for the sintering of metal powders

Microwave plasmas have enormous potential as a rapid and energy efficient sintering technology. This paper evaluates the influence of both plasma atmosphere and metal powder type on the sintering temperatures achieved and the properties of the sintered powder metal compacts. The sintering is carried out using a 2.45 GHz microwave-plasma process called rapid discharge sintering (RDS). The sintering of three types of metal powder are evaluated in this study: nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and 316L stainless steel (SS). An in-depth study of the effects of the plasma processing parameters on the sintered powder compacts are investigated. These parameters are correlated with the mechanical performance of the sintered compacts to help understand the effect of the plasma heating process. The substrate materials are sintered in four different gas discharges, namely hydrogen, nitrogen oxygen and argon. Thermocouple, pyrometer and emission spectroscopy measurements were taken to determine the substrate and the discharge temperatures. The morphology and structure were examined using scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The density and hardness of the sintered compacts were correlated with the plasma processing conditions. As expected higher densities were obtained with powders with lower sintering temperatures i.e. nickel and copper when compared with stainless steel. Under the power input and pressure conditions used the highest substrate temperature attained was 1100 ∘ C for Cu powder sintered in a nitrogen atmosphere. In contrast under the same processing conditions but in an argon plasma, the temperature achieved with SS was only 500 ∘ C. The effect of the plasma gas type on the sintered powder compact chemistry was also monitored, both hydrogen and nitrogen yielded a reducing effect for the metal in contrast with the oxidising effect observed in an oxygen plasma.Science Foundation IrelandAuthor has checked copyrightAD 22/01/201

Month Of Birth Does Not Seem To Interfere With The Development Of Multiple Sclerosis Later In Life In Brazilian Patients

[No abstract available]3917071Givon, U., Zeilig, G., Dolev, M., Achiron, A., The month of birth and the incidence of multiple sclerosis in the Israeli population (2012) Neuroepidemiology, 38, pp. 64-68Templer, D.I., Trent, N.H., Spencer, D.A., Trent, A., Corgiat, M.D., Mortensen, P.B., Gordon, M., Season of birth in multiple sclerosis (1992) Acta Neurol Scand, 85, pp. 107-109Wiberg, M., Templer, D.I., Season of birth in multiple sclerosis in Sweden: Replication of Denmark findings (1994) J Orthomol Med, 9, pp. 71-74Bharanidharan, P., Monthly distribution of multiple sclerosis patients' births (1997) International Journal of Biometeorology, 40 (2), pp. 117-118Willer, C.J., Dyment, D.A., Sadovnick, A.D., Rothwell, P.M., Murray, C.J., Ebers, G.C., Timing of birth and risk of multiple sclerosis (2005) BMJ, 330, p. 120Staples, J., Ponsonby, A.L., Lim, L., Low maternal exposure to ultraviolet radiation in pregnancy, month of birth, and risk of multiple sclerosis in offspring: Longitudinal analysis (2010) BMJ, 340, pp. c1640Salzer, J., Svenningsson, A., Sundström, P., Season of birth and multiple sclerosis in Sweden (2010) Acta Neurol Scand, 122, pp. 70-73Bayes, H.K., Weir, C.J., O'Leary, C., Timing of birth and risk of multiple sclerosis in the Scottish population (2010) Eur Neur, 63, pp. 36-40Saastamoinen, K.P., Auvinen, M.K., Tienari, P.J., Month of birth is associated with multiple sclerosis but not with HLA-DR15 in Finland (2012) Mult Scler, 18, pp. 563-568Sadovnick, A.D., Yee, I.M.L., Season of birth in multiple sclerosis (1994) Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 89 (3), pp. 190-19