Cartographic interpretation of chemical and radiation contamination of Russian soils

At the end of the 20th century, a geoinformation database on soil degradation in Russia, relied on the soil map of Russia at a scale of 1 : 5 million, was developed under the leadership of V.S. Stolbovoy. As part of the development of this problem and in the course of obtaining new information on soil degradation, an attempt was made to refine and supplement this database, that relies on the soil map of the Russian Federation 1 : 2.5 million scale. Soil degradation resulted from the impact of various types of pollution was taken into account, including industrial emissions, leakage of oil products, excessive application of pesticides, the impact of vehicles and radiation pollution. Each soil polygon of the soil map exposed to the pollution was characterized by the degree and area of pollution in accordance with the developed scales. The results of the analysis were used to construct cartograms illustrating the spatial distribution of chemical and radiation degradation of the country soils. According to the data obtained, in the zone of pollution derived from industrial enterprises and oil pollution, 20% of the soil-geographic polygons of the map are characterized by a strong degree of pollution, and 30% and 50% – by weak and medium, respectively. Agricultural pollution due to excessive use of plant protection products in Russia does not exceed 10% of the area of polygons and is characterized by a low degree. About 10% of the soil polygons of the basic soil map are heavily contaminated with radioactive contamination, while 40% and 50% of the polygons are moderately and weakly contaminated, respectively. Pollution from vehicles is weak and generally has low level. At the same time, megacities and highways with heavy traffic are distinguished by relatively high level of pollution

Special features of the 9^9Be→\to2He fragmentation in emulsion at an energy of 1.2~A~GeV

The results of investigations of the relativistic $^9$Be nucleus fragmentation in emulsion which entails the production of two He fragments of an energy of 1.2~A~GeV are presented. The results of the angular measurements of the $^9$Be$\to$2He events are analyzed. The $^9$Be$\to^8$Be+n fragmentation channel involving the $^8$Be decay from the ground (0$^+$) and the first excited (2$^+$) states to two $\alpha$ particles is observed to be predominant.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, conference: Conference on Physics of Fundamental Interactions, Moscow, Russia, 5-9 Dec 2005 (Author's translation

Fragmentation of relativistic nuclei in peripheral interactions in nuclear track emulsion

The technique of nuclear track emulsions is used to explore the fragmentation of light relativistic nuclei down to the most peripheral interactions - nuclear "white" stars. A complete pattern of therelativistic dissociation of a $^8$B nucleus with target fragment accompaniment is presented. Relativistic dissociation $^{9}$Be$\to2\alpha$ is explored using significant statistics and a relative contribution of $^{8}$Be decays from 0$^+$ and 2$^+$ states is established. Target fragment accompaniments are shown for relativistic fragmentation $^{14}$N$\to$3He+H and $^{22}$Ne$\to$5He. The leading role of the electromagnetic dissociation on heavy nuclei with respect to break-ups on target protons is demonstrated in all these cases. It is possible to conclude that the peripheral dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion is a unique tool to study many-body systems composed of lightest nuclei and nucleons in the energy scale relevant for nuclear astrophysics.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, conference: Relativistic nuclear physics: from Nuclotron to LHC energies, Kiev, June 18-22, 200

Topology of "white" stars in relativistic fragmentation of light nuclei

In the present paper, experimental observations of the multifragmentation processes of light relativistic nuclei carried out by means of emulsions are reviewed. Events of the type of "white" stars in which the dissociation of relativistic nuclei is not accompanied by the production of mesons and the target-nucleus fragments are considered. A distinctive feature of the charge topology in the dissociation of the Ne, Mg, Si, and S nuclei is an almost total suppression of the binary splitting of nuclei to fragments with charges higher than 2. The growth of the nuclear fragmentation degree is revealed in an increase in the multiplicity of singly and doubly charged fragments with decreasing charge of the non-excited part of the fragmenting nucleus. The processes of dissociation of stable Li, Be, B, C, N, and O isotopes to charged fragments were used to study special features of the formation of systems consisting of the lightest $\alpha$, d, and t nuclei. Clustering in form of the $^3$He nucleus can be detected in "white" stars via the dissociation of neutron-deficient Be, B, C, and N isotopes.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables, conference: Conference on Physics of Fundamental Interactions, Moscow, Russia, 1-5 Mar 2004.(Author's translation

Epigenome-wide association studies identify novel DNA methylation sites associated with PTSD: A meta-analysis of 23 military and civilian cohorts

BACKGROUND: The occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a traumatic event is associated with biological differences that can represent the susceptibility to PTSD, the impact of trauma, or the sequelae of PTSD itself. These effects include differences in DNA methylation (DNAm), an important form of epigenetic gene regulation, at multiple CpG loci across the genome. Moreover, these effects can be shared or specific to both central and peripheral tissues. Here, we aim to identify blood DNAm differences associated with PTSD and characterize the underlying biological mechanisms by examining the extent to which they mirror associations across multiple brain regions. METHODS: As the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) PTSD Epigenetics Workgroup, we conducted the largest cross-sectional meta-analysis of epigenome-wide association studies (EWASs) of PTSD to date, involving 5077 participants (2156 PTSD cases and 2921 trauma-exposed controls) from 23 civilian and military studies. PTSD diagnosis assessments were harmonized following the standardized guidelines established by the PGC-PTSD Workgroup. DNAm was assayed from blood using either Illumina HumanMethylation450 or MethylationEPIC (850K) BeadChips. A common QC pipeline was applied. Within each cohort, DNA methylation was regressed on PTSD, sex (if applicable), age, blood cell proportions, and ancestry. An inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis was performed. We conducted replication analyses in tissue from multiple brain regions, neuronal nuclei, and a cellular model of prolonged stress. RESULTS: We identified 11 CpG sites associated with PTSD in the overall meta-analysis (1.44e-09 < p < 5.30e-08), as well as 14 associated in analyses of specific strata (military vs civilian cohort, sex, and ancestry), including CpGs in AHRR and CDC42BPB. Many of these loci exhibit blood-brain correlation in methylation levels and cross-tissue associations with PTSD in multiple brain regions. Methylation at most CpGs correlated with their annotated gene expression levels. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies 11 PTSD-associated CpGs, also leverages data from postmortem brain samples, GWAS, and genome-wide expression data to interpret the biology underlying these associations and prioritize genes whose regulation differs in those with PTSD

MAP OF PLOWED SOILS OF RUSSIA

The paper presents the results of the of the country's plowed area assessment on the basis of the Unified State Register of Soil Resources of Russia, a digital land cover map created on the basis of MODIS satellite data, and study of plowed land areas according to the data of the Internet service Google Earth. Information on the plowing of soils is tied to the soil-geographical units. The map shows the actually plowed soils and soils under the layland. Independent verification of the plowland soil digital map of Russia showed its high enough accuracy (an error of about 8–9%). The share of all plowed soils of the Unified State Register of Soil Resources in Russia has been determined. It is found that chernozem soils predominate on the arable land of Russia, from the northernmost subtypes to the most southern ones. Somewhat unexpected is the presence in this list of meadow chernozem solonetzic and solonchak soils. The map is intended for applied analysis and accounting of soil resources at the national level