Spatial distribution of Chlorpyrifos and Endosulfan in USA coastal waters and the Great Lakes

Between 1994 and 1997, 258 tissue and 178 sediment samples were analyzed for chlorpyrifos throughout the coastal United States and the Great Lakes. Subsequently, 95 of the 1997 tissue samples were reanalyzed for endosulfan. Tissue chlorpyrifos concentrations, which exceeded the 90th percentile, were found in coastal regions known to have high agricultural use rates but also strongly correlated with sites near high population. The highest concentrations of endosulfans in contrast, were generally limited to agricultural regions of the country. Detections of chlorpyrifos at several Alaskan sites suggest an atmospheric transport mechanism. Many Great Lakes sites had chlorpyrifos tissue concentrations above the 90th percentile which decreased with increasing distance from the Corn Belt region (Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin) where most agriculturally applied chlorpyrifos is used. Correlation analysis suggests that fluvial discharge is the primary transport pathway on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts for chlorpyrifos but not necessarily for endosulfans. (PDF contains 28 pages

The transformation of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene A probe reaction to monitor external surface modifications of HZSM-5?

The transformation of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene is proposed as a new probe reaction to monitor the catalytic effects of inertisation of the external surface of HZSM-5. The external surface has been modified by coating ZSM-5 crystallites with an inert silicalite shell. At 723 K and a WHSV of 0.6 h−1 it has been shown that the isomerisation products 1,2,3-trimethylbenzene and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene reflect changes in external activity. The disproportionation products, 1,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzene and 1,2,3,5-tetramethylbenzene together are shown to indicate changes in overall activity and shape selective properties of the catalyst sample. The results correlate with those observed for the reaction of 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene and n-hexane cracking

The Specific Heat of a Ferromagnetic Film.

We analyze the specific heat for the $O(N)$ vector model on a $d$-dimensional film geometry of thickness $L$ using ``environmentally friendly'' renormalization. We consider periodic, Dirichlet and antiperiodic boundary conditions, deriving expressions for the specific heat and an effective specific heat exponent, \alpha\ef. In the case of $d=3$, for $N=1$, by matching to the exact exponent of the two dimensional Ising model we capture the crossover for \xi_L\ra\infty between power law behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra\infty and logarithmic behaviour in the limit {L\over\xi_L}\ra0 for fixed $L$, where $\xi_L$ is the correlation length in the transverse dimensions.Comment: 21 pages of Plain TeX. Postscript figures available upon request from [email protected]

Notes on noncommutative supersymmetric gauge theory on the fuzzy supersphere

In these notes we review Klimcik's construction of noncommutative gauge theory on the fuzzy supersphere. This theory has an exact SUSY gauge symmetry with a finite number of degrees of freedom and thus in principle it is amenable to the methods of matrix models and Monte Carlo numerical simulations. We also write down in this article a novel fuzzy supersymmetric scalar action on the fuzzy supersphere

Dallas with balls: televized sport, soap opera and male and female pleasures

Two of the most popular of television genres, soap opera and sports coverage have been very much differentiated along gender lines in terms of their audiences. Soap opera has been regarded very much as a 'gynocentric' genre with a large female viewing audience while the audiences for television sport have been predominantly male. Gender differentiation between the genres has had implications for the popular image of each. Soap opera has been perceived as inferior; as mere fantasy and escapism for women while television sports has been perceived as a legitimate, even edifying experience for men. In this article the authors challenge the view that soap opera and television sport are radically different and argue that they are, in fact, very similar in a number of significant ways. They suggest that both genres invoke similar structures of feeling and sensibility in their respective audiences and that television sport is a 'male soap opera'. They consider the ways in which the viewing context of each genre is related to domestic life and leisure, the ways in which the textual structure and conventions of each genre invoke emotional identification, and finally, the ways in which both genres re-affirm gender identities

Generation of neutral atomic beams utilizing photodetachment by high power diode laser stacks

We demonstrate the use of high power diode laser stacks to photodetach fast hydrogen and carbon anions and produce ground term neutral atomic beams. We achieve photodetachment efficiencies of $\sim$7.4\% for H$^-$ at a beam energy of 10\,keV and $\sim$3.7\% for C$^-$ at 28\,keV. The diode laser systems used here operate at 975\,nm and 808\,nm, respectively, and provide high continuous power levels of up to 2\,kW, without the need of additional enhancements like optical cavities. The alignment of the beams is straightforward and operation at constant power levels is very stable, while maintenance is minimal. We present a dedicated photodetachment setup that is suitable to efficiently neutralize the majority of stable negative ions in the periodic table

A New Method of Measuring 81Kr and 85Kr Abundances in Environmental Samples

We demonstrate a new method for determining the 81Kr/Kr ratio in environmental samples based upon two measurements: the 85Kr/81Kr ratio measured by Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) and the 85Kr/Kr ratio measured by Low-Level Counting (LLC). This method can be used to determine the mean residence time of groundwater in the range of 10^5 - 10^6 a. It requires a sample of 100 micro-l STP of Kr extracted from approximately two tons of water. With modern atmospheric Kr samples, we demonstrate that the ratios measured by ATTA and LLC are directly proportional to each other within the measurement error of +/- 10%; we calibrate the 81Kr/Kr ratio of modern air measured using this method; and we show that the 81Kr/Kr ratios of samples extracted from air before and after the development of the nuclear industry are identical within the measurement error

A framework for realistic 3D tele-immersion

Meeting, socializing and conversing online with a group of people using teleconferencing systems is still quite differ- ent from the experience of meeting face to face. We are abruptly aware that we are online and that the people we are engaging with are not in close proximity. Analogous to how talking on the telephone does not replicate the experi- ence of talking in person. Several causes for these differences have been identified and we propose inspiring and innova- tive solutions to these hurdles in attempt to provide a more realistic, believable and engaging online conversational expe- rience. We present the distributed and scalable framework REVERIE that provides a balanced mix of these solutions. Applications build on top of the REVERIE framework will be able to provide interactive, immersive, photo-realistic ex- periences to a multitude of users that for them will feel much more similar to having face to face meetings than the expe- rience offered by conventional teleconferencing systems