78 research outputs found

    In ovo exposure to o,p -DDE affects sexual development but not sexual differentiation in Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes).

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    Despite being banned in many countries, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD) continue to be found in fish tissues at concentrations of concern. Like o,p -DDT, o,p -DDE is estrogenic and is believed to exert its effects through binding to the estrogen receptor. The limited toxicologic data for o,p -DDE suggest that it decreases fecundity and fertility of fishes. We conducted an egg injection study using the d-rR strain of medaka and environmentally relevant concentrations of o,p -DDE to examine its effects on sexual differentiation and development. The gonads of exposed fish showed no evidence of sex reversal or intersex. However, other gonad abnormalities occurred in exposed individuals. Females exhibited few vitellogenic oocytes and increased atresia. Male testes appeared morphologically normal but were very small. Gonadosomatic index values for both sexes were lower for exposed fish. Our observations of abnormal female and very small male gonads after in ovo o,p -DDE exposure may be indicative of effects on early endocrine processes important for normal ovarian and testicular development

    First-principles study of As interstitials in GaAs: Convergence, relaxation, and formation energy

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    Convergence of density-functional supercell calculations for defect formation energies, charge transition levels, localized defect state properties, and defect atomic structure and relaxation is investigated using the arsenic split interstitial in GaAs as an example. Supercells containing up to 217 atoms and a variety of {\bf k}-space sampling schemes are considered. It is shown that a good description of the localized defect state dispersion and charge state transition levels requires at least a 217-atom supercell, although the defect structure and atomic relaxations can be well converged in a 65-atom cell. Formation energies are calculated for the As split interstitial, Ga vacancy, and As antisite defects in GaAs, taking into account the dependence upon chemical potential and Fermi energy. It is found that equilibrium concentrations of As interstitials will be much lower than equilibrium concentrations of As antisites in As-rich, nn-type or semi-insulating GaAs.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

    Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering: Terrestrial and astrophysical applications

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    Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEν\nuNS) is a process in which neutrinos scatter on a nucleus which acts as a single particle. Though the total cross section is large by neutrino standards, CEν\nuNS has long proven difficult to detect, since the deposited energy into the nucleus is \sim keV. In 2017, the COHERENT collaboration announced the detection of CEν\nuNS using a stopped-pion source with CsI detectors, followed up the detection of CEν\nuNS using an Ar target. The detection of CEν\nuNS has spawned a flurry of activities in high-energy physics, inspiring new constraints on beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, and new experimental methods. The CEν\nuNS process has important implications for not only high-energy physics, but also astrophysics, nuclear physics, and beyond. This whitepaper discusses the scientific importance of CEν\nuNS, highlighting how present experiments such as COHERENT are informing theory, and also how future experiments will provide a wealth of information across the aforementioned fields of physics
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