Surface analysis of Mercury with a mass-spectrometer

Introduction: The European Space Agency BepiColombo mission to Mercury will include a lander, the Mercury Surface Element (MSE). Although the final configuration of instruments is still to be decided, we are developing a mass spectrometer suitable for use on this lander, or in other missions where low mass and low power consumption are a priority. Advantages of a mass-spectrometer over other analytical instruments include sensitivity to almost all elements, high dynamic range, spatially resolved measurements (with an appropriate sampling technique) and the potential to determine isotopic compositions

In Search of a Uniform Policy: State and Federal Sources of Consumer Financial Services Law

Any effort to project the vectors of development in the law affecting consumer financial services for the 1980s must take into account the sources from which the legal ground rules will emanate. Those sources are in one sense bifurcated-i.e., the states have long had a significant role in regulating consumer credit and related consumer transactions, and, since 1968, the federal government has been substantially and increasingly involved in standard setting for consumer financial transactions. At these two levels of government there is further fragmentation of the lawmaking function. Each of the fifty states, and countless local government entities, enact laws without reference to the lawmaking in neighboring jurisdictions or in Washington; attempts to generate uniform state laws have had limited success. At the federal level, it is tempting to think that congressional legislation is perforce of uniform applicability across the nation, and that friction between federal and state initiatives (posed in terms of the preemption of state and local laws by federal standards) can be kept to a minimum. Yet a cursory examination reveals that standards explicitly set by Congress are barely the tip of the federal lawmaking iceberg. The most voluminous federal regulations are generated from federal administrative agencies, among whom there is as much balkanization as among the states. This article reviews these complex sources of law, and suggests the possible courses of evolution over the next decade

In Search of a Uniform Policy: State and Federal Sources of Consumer Financial Services Law

Any effort to project the vectors of development in the law affecting consumer financial services for the 1980s must take into account the sources from which the legal ground rules will emanate. Those sources are in one sense bifurcated-i.e., the states have long had a significant role in regulating consumer credit and related consumer transactions, and, since 1968, the federal government has been substantially and increasingly involved in standard setting for consumer financial transactions. At these two levels of government there is further fragmentation of the lawmaking function. Each of the fifty states, and countless local government entities, enact laws without reference to the lawmaking in neighboring jurisdictions or in Washington; attempts to generate uniform state laws have had limited success. At the federal level, it is tempting to think that congressional legislation is perforce of uniform applicability across the nation, and that friction between federal and state initiatives (posed in terms of the preemption of state and local laws by federal standards) can be kept to a minimum. Yet a cursory examination reveals that standards explicitly set by Congress are barely the tip of the federal lawmaking iceberg. The most voluminous federal regulations are generated from federal administrative agencies, among whom there is as much balkanization as among the states. This article reviews these complex sources of law, and suggests the possible courses of evolution over the next decade

Identification of a Hemolysis Threshold That Increases Plasma and Serum Zinc Concentration.

Background: Plasma or serum zinc concentration (PZC or SZC) is the primary measure of zinc status, but accurate sampling requires controlling for hemolysis to prevent leakage of zinc from erythrocytes. It is not established how much hemolysis can occur without changing PZC/SZC concentrations.Objective: This study determines a guideline for the level of hemolysis that can significantly elevate PZC/SZC.Methods: The effect of hemolysis on PZC/SZC was estimated by using standard hematologic variables and mineral content. The calculated hemolysis threshold was then compared with results from an in vitro study and a population survey. Hemolysis was assessed by hemoglobin and iron concentrations, direct spectrophotometry, and visual assessment of the plasma or serum. Zinc and iron concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry.Results: A 5% increase in PZC/SZC was calculated to result from the lysis of 1.15% of the erythrocytes in whole blood, corresponding to ∼1 g hemoglobin/L added into the plasma or serum. Similarly, the addition of simulated hemolysate to control plasma in vitro caused a 5% increase in PZC when hemoglobin concentrations reached 1.18 ± 0.10 g/L. In addition, serum samples from a population nutritional survey were scored for hemolysis and analyzed for changes in SZC; samples with hemolysis in the range of 1-2.5 g hemoglobin/L showed an estimated increase in SZC of 6% compared with nonhemolyzed samples. Each approach indicated that a 5% increase in PZC/SZC occurs at ∼1 g hemoglobin/L in plasma or serum. This concentration of hemoglobin can be readily identified directly by chemical hemoglobin assays or indirectly by direct spectrophotometry or matching to a color scale.Conclusions: A threshold of 1 g hemoglobin/L is recommended for PZC/SZC measurements to avoid increases in zinc caused by hemolysis. The use of this threshold may improve zinc assessment for monitoring zinc status and nutritional interventions

Southern American University Undergraduates\u27 Attitudes toward Intrauterine Insemination Undertaken by Women of Differing Age, Marital Status and Sexual Orientation

Undergraduate college students in the southern U.S. were presented with vignettes about a fictional woman seeking to become pregnant via intrauterine insemination (IUI). Participants were randomly assigned to conditions in which the woman described was 26 or 41 years old, and single, married to a man, or married to a woman. After reading the vignettes, participants rated their expectations of the prospective mother’s preparedness for parenting, ability to provide quality of life for a child, risk for pregnancy complications and achieving a healthy pregnancy. Results yielded marginally significantly (p = .05) lower expectations of achieving a healthy pregnancy when the mother was over 40, and significantly (p \u3c .05) lower anticipation of preparedness for parenting and ability to provide quality of life when she was designated as single or married to a woman. We discuss findings in terms of bias favoring traditional families with a mother and father begun when the parents were in their twenties

Can power-sharing foster peace? Evidence from Northern Ireland*

In the absence of power-sharing, minority groups in opposition have powerful incentives to substitute the ballot with the bullet. In contrast, when power is shared among all major groups in society, the relative gains of sticking to electoral politics are larger for minority groups. After making the theoretical argument, we provide in the current paper an empirical analysis of the impact of power-sharing at the local level, making use of fine-grained data from Northern Ireland’s 26 local district councils over the 1973–2001 period. We find that power-sharing has a sizable and robust conflict-reducing impact

Study of peptide on-line complexation with transition-metal ions generated from sacrificial electrodes in thin-chip polymer microsprays

A miniaturized polymer electrospray-type interface is used to study metal-ion chelation with model peptides. Taking advantage of the intrinsic electrochemical behavior of electrospray, a sacrificial electrode is used to generate at the same time electrospray and transition-metal ions coming from the anodic dissolution of the electrode. The microspray interface provides enhanced mass transport due to its small dimensions, increasing the yield of possible reactions, in particular complex formation. Transition-metal electrodes, e.g. copper, zinc, nickel, iron and silver, are used to obtain on-line complexation with model peptides. It is demonstrated that the use of in-reservoir sacrificial electrodes is an efficient way to generate metal ions in order to form and study complexes with peptides, avoiding the addition of metallic salts

Peripheral, but not central, CB1 antagonism provides food intake-independent metabolic benefits in diet-induced obese rats.

OBJECTIVE Blockade of the CB1 receptor is one of the promising strategies for the treatment of obesity. Although antagonists suppress food intake and reduce body weight, the role of central versus peripheral CB1 activation on weight loss and related metabolic parameters remains to be elucidated. We therefore specifically assessed and compared the respective potential relevance of central nervous system (CNS) versus peripheral CB1 receptors in the regulation of energy homeostasis and lipid and glucose metabolism in diet-induced obese (DIO) rats. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Both lean and DIO rats were used for our experiments. The expression of key enzymes involved in lipid metabolism was measured by real-time PCR, and euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps were used for insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism studies. RESULTS Specific CNS-CB1 blockade decreased body weight and food intake but, independent of those effects, had no beneficial influence on peripheral lipid and glucose metabolism. Peripheral treatment with CB1 antagonist (Rimonabant) also reduced food intake and body weight but, in addition, independently triggered lipid mobilization pathways in white adipose tissue and cellular glucose uptake. Insulin sensitivity and skeletal muscle glucose uptake were enhanced, while hepatic glucose production was decreased during peripheral infusion of the CB1 antagonist. However, these effects depended on the antagonist-elicited reduction of food intake. CONCLUSIONS Several relevant metabolic processes appear to independently benefit from peripheral blockade of CB1, while CNS-CB1 blockade alone predominantly affects food intake and body weight

Overfeeding, Autonomic Regulation and Metabolic Consequences

The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in the regulation of body processes in health and disease. Overfeeding and obesity (a disproportional increase of the fat mass of the body) are often accompanied by alterations in both sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic functions. The overfeeding-induced changes in autonomic outflow occur with typical symptoms such as adiposity and hyperinsulinemia. There might be a causal relationship between autonomic disturbances and the consequences of overfeeding and obesity. Therefore studies were designed to investigate autonomic functioning in experimentally and genetically hyperphagic rats. Special emphasis was given to the processes that are involved in the regulation of peripheral energy substrate homeostasis. The data revealed that overfeeding is accompanied by increased parasympathetic outflow. Typical indices of vagal activity (such as the cephalic insulin release during food ingestion) were increased in all our rat models for hyperphagia. Overfeeding was also accompanied by increased sympathetic tone, reflected by enhanced baseline plasma norepinephrine (NE) levels in both VMH-lesioned animals and rats rendered obese by hyperalimentation. Plasma levels of NE during exercise were, however, reduced in these two groups of animals. This diminished increase in the exercise-induced NE outflow could be normalized by prior food deprivation. It was concluded from these experiments that overfeeding is associated with increased parasympathetic and sympathetic tone. In models for hyperphagia that display a continuously elevated nutrient intake such as the VMH-lesioned and the overfed rat, this increased sympathetic tone was accompanied by a diminished NE response to exercise. This attenuated outflow of NE was directly related to the size of the fat reserves, indicating that the feedback mechanism from the periphery to the central nervous system is altered in the overfed state.

Heterogeneous dermatitis complaints after change in drinking water treatment: a case report

BACKGROUND: The disinfectant monochloramine minimizes the formation of potentially hazardous and regulated byproducts, and many drinking water utilities are shifting to its use. CASE PRESENTATION: After a drinking water utility serving 2.4 million people switched to monochloramine for residual disinfection, a small number of residents complained of dermatitis reactions. We interviewed 17 people about their symptoms. Skin appearance, symptoms, and exposures were heterogeneous. Five respondents had history of hives or rash that preceded the switch to monochloramine. CONCLUSION: The complaints described were heterogeneous, and many of the respondents had underlying or preexisting conditions that would offer plausible alternative explanations for their symptoms. We did not recommend further study of these complaints