Organic atmospheric particulate material

Carbonaceous compounds comprise a substantial fraction of atmospheric particulate matter (PM). Particulate organic material can be emitted directly into the atmosphere or formed in the atmosphere when the oxidation products of certain volatile organic compounds condense. Such products have lower volatilities than their parent molecules as a result of the fact that adding oxygen and/or nitrogen to organic molecules reduces volatility. Formation of secondary organic PM is often described in terms of a fractional mass yield, which relates how much PM is produced when a certain amount of a parent gaseous organic is oxidized. The theory of secondary organic PM formation is outlined, including the role of water, which is ubiquitous in the atmosphere. Available experimental studies on secondary organic PM formation and molecular products are summarized

Voucher Privatization in Russia: First results and experiences

The main political problem faced by architects of the Russian VPP was the question of satisfying the interests of all partners taking part in privatization: employees, management, citizens and potential strategic investors. Therefore, a very rigid procedure of shares distribution was introduced in the program. This procedure assumed three rounds: closed subscription round,voucher auctions round and investment tenders round. Length: 47 PagesVoucher, privatization, transition economies

Identification of Cytotoxic Flavor Chemicals in Top-Selling Electronic Cigarette Refill Fluids.

We identified the most popular electronic cigarette (EC) refill fluids using an Internet survey and local and online sales information, quantified their flavor chemicals, and evaluated cytotoxicities of the fluids and flavor chemicals. "Berries/Fruits/Citrus" was the most popular EC refill fluid flavor category. Twenty popular EC refill fluids were purchased from local shops, and the ingredient flavor chemicals were identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total flavor chemical concentrations ranged from 0.6 to 27.9 mg/ml, and in 95% of the fluids, total flavor concentration was greater than nicotine concentration. The 20 most popular refill fluids contained 99 quantifiable flavor chemicals; each refill fluid contained 22 to 47 flavor chemicals, most being esters. Some chemicals were found frequently, and several were present in most products. At a 1% concentration, 80% of the refill fluids were cytotoxic in the MTT assay. Six pure standards of the flavor chemicals found at the highest concentrations in the two most cytotoxic refill fluids were effective in the MTT assay, and ethyl maltol, which was in over 50% of the products, was the most cytotoxic. These data show that the cytotoxicity of some popular refill fluids can be attributed to their high concentrations of flavor chemicals

Privatization in the Republic of Kazakhstan

In 1991 the Kazakhstan government has embarked on an ambitious economic reform program, in which privatization would be both the driving force and an important component for the successful transformation of the Kazakh economy. A fast transferal of government-owned assets and services to the private sector was regarded as the key to the success of all these transformation efforts. The paper provides an analyses of the first two phases of privatization process in Kazakhstan.Kazakhstan, Privatization, Transition

High concentrations of flavor chemicals are present in electronic cigarette refill fluids.

We characterized the flavor chemicals in a broad sample of commercially available electronic cigarette (EC) refill fluids that were purchased in four different countries. Flavor chemicals in 277 refill fluids were identified and quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and two commonly used flavor chemicals were tested for cytotoxicity with the MTT assay using human lung fibroblasts and epithelial cells. About 85% of the refill fluids had total flavor concentrations >1 mg/ml, and 37% were >10 mg/ml (1% by weight). Of the 155 flavor chemicals identified in the 277 refill fluids, 50 were present at ≥1 mg/ml in at least one sample and 11 were ≥10 mg/ml in 54 of the refill fluids. Sixty-one% (170 out of 277) of the samples contained nicotine, and of these, 56% had a total flavor chemical/nicotine ratio >2. Four chemicals were present in 50% (menthol, triacetin, and cinnamaldehyde) to 80% (ethyl maltol) of the samples. Some products had concentrations of menthol ("Menthol Arctic") and ethyl maltol ("No. 64") that were 30 times (menthol) and 100 times (ethyl maltol) their cytotoxic concentration. One refill fluid contained cinnamaldehyde at ~34% (343 mg/ml), more than 100,000 times its cytotoxic level. High concentrations of some flavor chemicals in EC refill fluids are potentially harmful to users, and continued absence of any regulations regarding flavor chemicals in EC fluids will likely be detrimental to human health

Zur Darstellung nonverbalen Verhaltens in deutschen und schwedischen IRC-Chats. Eine Korpusuntersuchung

The starting point of this paper is the assumption that communication in chat channels is a special kind of computer-mediated discourse in a written (typed) form but with several qualities of oral communication. The paper includes a description of a corpus, which was created by a longitudinal measurement of five German and three Swedish chat channels during two weeks (5th – 19th February 2001). The analysis focuses on those sequences of the discourse which are marked by asterisks like in German chats: *zwinker *, *mitdenfüßennachderfernbedienungfisch* and in Swedish chats: *skrattar * [lach-1-3.Pers.Sg.+Pl.], *börja stappla iväg mot lindsie*[anfang-INFINITIV geh-INFINITIV zu lindsie]. These sequences, which I call *phrases, are linguistically as well as functionally interesting; in both languages namely, they have a special morpho-syntactical structure and are used to represent nonverbal communication like body language, facial expressions and situations or/and activities which accompany the chat discourse in real life. The paper discusses the different verbal structures of the *phrases as well as their nonverbal functions. Among other things, I show that the German *Phrases mostly represent phonations, gestures and facial expressions; they mostly imitate the oral discourse. In these *phrases, the Swedish chat users very often describe the circumstances of the situation where the chat discourse takes place like activities, real place and surroundings of the real life situation