Cutaneous effects of exposure to polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs): The Michigan PBB incident

In 1973 an environmental accident occurred in northern Michigan in which 1000-2000 pounds of the toxic fire retardant polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) was added to the livestock food supply of much of northern Michigan. PBB is highly lipophilic, poorly metabolized, and biocumulative. It subsequently entered the human food chain of the entire state of Michigan. Health effects were noted in contaminated animals and among exposed farmers some months after the contamination; these often included cutaneous problems. Three years later a multidisciplinary study of the farming population was undertaken. Detected cutaneous abnormalities included halogen acne, hair loss, skin redness, skin peeling, and scaling, itching, increased sweating, and increased growth of fingernails and toenails. The mechanisms underlying these effects are unknown. PBBs appear to be etiologically implicated for significant cutaneous toxicity.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23843/1/0000082.pd

Multiparton interactions and production of minijets in high energy hadronic collisions

We discuss the inclusive cross section to produce two minijets with a large separation in rapidity in high energy hadronic collisions. The contribution to the inclusive cross section from the exchange of a BFKL Pomeron is compared with the contribution from the exchange of two BFKL Pomerons, which is induced by the unitarization of the semi-hard interaction. The effect of the multiple exchange is studied both as a function of the azimuthal correlation and as a function of the transverse momentum of the observed minijets.Comment: TeX file, 20 pages, 4 figures available on reques

Rapidity gaps and production of minijets in high-energy hadronic collisions

High energy hadronic interactions can produce a final state characterized by minijets separated by a large gap in the rapidity distribution of the produced secondary particles. We discuss the process by keeping into account the possibility of having multiple parton collisions in the hadronic interaction. At Tevatron energy the correction to the single scattering term induced by the presence of multiparton interactions is large for transverse momenta smaller than 6 GeV.Comment: 29 pages, TeX file, 2 figures which are now include