110 research outputs found
Use of dual carbon–chlorine isotope analysis to assess the degradation pathways of 1,1,1-trichloroethane in groundwater
Compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) is a powerful tool to track contaminant fate in groundwater. However, the application of CSIA to chlorinated ethanes has received little attention so far. These compounds are toxic and prevalent groundwater contaminants of environmental concern. The high susceptibility of chlorinated ethanes like 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) to be transformed via different competing pathways (biotic and abiotic) complicates the assessment of their fate in the subsurface. In this study, the use of a dual C-Cl isotope approach to identify the active degradation pathways of 1,1,1- TCA is evaluated for the first time in an aerobic aquifer impacted by 1,1,1-TCA and trichloroethylene (TCE) with concentrations of up to 20 mg/L and 3.4 mg/L, respectively. The reaction-specific dual carbon-chlorine (C-Cl) isotope trends determined in a recent laboratory study illustrated the potential of a dual isotope approach to identify contaminant degradation pathways of 1,1,1-TCA. Compared to the dual isotope slopes (Δδ13C/Δδ37CI) previously determined in the laboratory for dehydrohalogenation/hydrolysis (DH/HY, 0.33 ± 0.04) and oxidation by persulfate (∞), the slope determined from field samples (0.6 ± 0.2, r2 = 0.75) is closer to the one observed for DH/HY, pointing to DH/HY as the predominant degradation pathway of 1,1,1-TCA in the aquifer. The observed deviation could be explained by a minor contribution of additional degradation processes. This result, along with the little degradation of TCE determined from isotope measurements, confirmed that 1,1,1-TCA is the main source of the 1,1-dichlorethylene (1,1-DCE) detected in the aquifer with concentrations of up to 10 mg/L. This study demonstrates that a dual C-Cl isotope approach can strongly improve the qualitative and quantitative assessment of 1,1,1-TCA degradation processes in the field
Complete curvature homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds
We exhibit 3 families of complete curvature homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian
manifolds which are modeled on irreducible symmetric spaces and which are not
locally homogeneous. All of the manifolds have nilpotent Jacobi operators; some
of the manifolds are, in addition, Jordan Osserman and Jordan Ivanov-Petrova.Comment: Update paper to fix misprints in original versio
Non-commutative Quantum Mechanics in Three Dimensions and Rotational Symmetry
We generalize the formulation of non-commutative quantum mechanics to three
dimensional non-commutative space. Particular attention is paid to the
identification of the quantum Hilbert space in which the physical states of the
system are to be represented, the construction of the representation of the
rotation group on this space, the deformation of the Leibnitz rule accompanying
this representation and the implied necessity of deforming the co-product to
restore the rotation symmetry automorphism. This also implies the breaking of
rotational invariance on the level of the Schroedinger action and equation as
well as the Hamiltonian, even for rotational invariant potentials. For
rotational invariant potentials the symmetry breaking results purely from the
deformation in the sense that the commutator of the Hamiltonian and angular
momentum is proportional to the deformation.Comment: 21 page
On Pythagoras' theorem for products of spectral triples
We discuss a version of Pythagoras theorem in noncommutative geometry. Usual
Pythagoras theorem can be formulated in terms of Connes' distance, between pure
states, in the product of commutative spectral triples. We investigate the
generalization to both non pure states and arbitrary spectral triples. We show
that Pythagoras theorem is replaced by some Pythagoras inequalities, that we
prove for the product of arbitrary (i.e. non-necessarily commutative) spectral
triples, assuming only some unitality condition. We show that these
inequalities are optimal, and provide non-unital counter-examples inspired by
K-homology.Comment: Paper slightly shortened to match the published version; Lett. Math.
Phys. 201
TIE-2-expressing monocytes are lymphangiogenic and associate specifically with lymphatics of human breast cancer.
In experimental mouse models of cancer, increasingly compelling evidence point toward a contribution of tumor associated macrophages (TAM) to tumor lymphangiogenesis. Corresponding experimental observations in human cancer remain scarce although lymphatic metastasis is widely recognized as a predominant route for tumor spread. We previously showed that, in malignant tumors of untreated breast cancer (BC) patients, TIE-2-expressing monocytes (TEM) are highly proangiogenic immunosuppressive cells and that TIE-2 and VEGFR signaling pathways drive TEM immunosuppressive function. We report here that, in human BC, TEM express the canonical lymphatic markers LYVE-1, Podoplanin, VEGFR-3 and PROX-1. Critically, both TEM acquisition of lymphatic markers and insertion into lymphatic vessels were observed in tumors but not in adjacent non-neoplastic tissues, suggesting that the tumor microenvironment shapes both TEM phenotype and spatial distribution. We assessed the lymphangiogenic activity of TEM isolated from dissociated primary breast tumors in vitro and in vivo using endothelial cells (EC) sprouting assay and corneal vascularization assay, respectively. We show that, in addition to their known hemangiogenic function, TEM isolated from breast tumor display a lymphangiogenic activity. Importantly, TIE-2 and VEGFR pathways display variable contributions to TEM angiogenic and lymphangiogenic activities across BC patients; however, combination of TIE-2 and VEGFR kinase inhibitors abrogated these activities and overcame inter-patient variability. These results highlight the direct contribution of tumor TEM to the breast tumor lymphatic network and suggest a combined use of TIE-2 and VEGFR kinase inhibitors as a therapeutic approach to block hem- and lymphangiogenesis in BC
Curvature homogeneous spacelike Jordan Osserman pseudo-Riemannian manifolds
Let s be at least 2. We construct Ricci flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of
signature (2s,s) which are not locally homogeneous but whose curvature tensors
never the less exhibit a number of important symmetry properties. They are
curvature homogeneous; their curvature tensor is modeled on that of a local
symmetric space. They are spacelike Jordan Osserman with a Jacobi operator
which is nilpotent of order 3; they are not timelike Jordan Osserman. They are
k-spacelike higher order Jordan Osserman for ; they are k-timelike
higher order Jordan Osserman for , and they are not k timelike
higher order Jordan Osserman for .Comment: Update bibliography, fix minor misprint
Centrality dependence of charged hadron production in deuteron+gold and nucleon+gold collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
We present transverse momentum (p_T) spectra of charged hadrons measured in
deuteron-gold and nucleon-gold collisions at \sqrts = 200 GeV for four
centrality classes. Nucleon-gold collisions were selected by tagging events in
which a spectator nucleon was observed in one of two forward rapidity
detectors. The spectra and yields were investigated as a function of the number
of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, \nu, suffered by deuteron nucleons. A
comparison of charged particle yields to those in p+p collisions show that the
yield per nucleon-nucleon collision saturates with \nu for high momentum
particles. We also present the charged hadron to neutral pion ratios as a
function of p_T.Comment: 330 authors, 15 pages text, 16 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. Lett. v2 has minor changes to reflect revisions during review process.
Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
System Size and Energy Dependence of Jet-Induced Hadron Pair Correlation Shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 and 62.4 GeV
We present azimuthal angle correlations of intermediate transverse momentum
(1-4 GeV/c) hadrons from {dijets} in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) =
62.4 and 200 GeV. The away-side dijet induced azimuthal correlation is
broadened, non-Gaussian, and peaked away from \Delta\phi=\pi in central and
semi-central collisions in all the systems. The broadening and peak location
are found to depend upon the number of participants in the collision, but not
on the collision energy or beam nuclei. These results are consistent with sound
or shock wave models, but pose challenges to Cherenkov gluon radiation models.Comment: 464 authors from 60 institutions, 6 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables.
Submitted to Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points
plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be)
publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Developments in cell biology for quantitative immunoelectron microscopy based on thin sections: a review
Quantitative immunoelectron microscopy uses ultrathin sections and gold particle labelling to determine distributions of molecules across cell compartments. Here, we review a portfolio of new methods for comparing labelling distributions between different compartments in one study group (method 1) and between the same compartments in two or more groups (method 2). Specimen samples are selected unbiasedly and then observed and expected distributions of gold particles are estimated and compared by appropriate statistical procedures. The methods can be used to analyse gold label distributed between volume-occupying (organelle) and surface-occupying (membrane) compartments, but in method 1, membranes must be treated as organelles. With method 1, gold counts are combined with stereological estimators of compartment size to determine labelling density (LD). For volume-occupiers, LD can be expressed simply as golds per test point and, for surface-occupiers, as golds per test line intersection. Expected distributions are generated by randomly assigning gold particles to compartments and expressing observed/expected counts as a relative labelling index (RLI). Preferentially-labelled compartments are identified from their RLI values and by Chi-squared analysis of observed and expected distributions. For method 2, the raw gold particle counts distributed between compartments are simply compared across groups by contingency table and Chi-squared analysis. This identifies the main compartments responsible for the differences between group distributions. Finally, we discuss labelling efficiency (the number of gold particles per target molecule) and describe how it can be estimated for volume- or surface-occupiers by combining stereological data with biochemical determinations
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