Assessment of in situ immobilization of Lead (Pb) and Arsenic (As) in contaminated soils with phosphate and iron: solubility and bioaccessibility

The effect of in situ immobilization of lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) in soil with respectively phosphate and iron is well recognized. However, studies on combined Pb and As-contaminated soil are fewer, and assessment of the effectiveness of the immobilization on mobility and bioaccessibility is also necessary. In this study, a Pb and As-contaminated soil was collected from an abandoned lead/zinc mine in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province of China, which has been treated with three phosphates, i.e., calcium magnesium phosphate (CMP), phosphate rock, and single super-phosphate (SSP) for 6 months in a field study. The ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) at 20 g kg-1 was then amended to the soil samples and incubated for 8 weeks in a greenhouse. The solubility and bioaccessibility tests were used to assess the effectiveness of the in situ immobilization. The result showed that phosphates addition decreased the concentrations of CaCl2-extractable Pb; however, the concentrations of water-soluble As increased upon CMP and SSP addition. With the iron addition, the water-soluble As concentrations decreased significantly, but CaCl2-extractable Pb concentrations increased. The bioaccessibility of As and Pb measured in artificial gastric and small intestinal solutions decreased with phosphate and iron application except for the bioaccessibility of As in the gastric phase with SSP addition. Combined application of phosphates and iron can be an effective approach to lower bioaccessibility of As and Pb, but has opposing effects on mobility of As and Pb in contaminated soil

Humic acid protein complexation

Interactions of purified Aldrich humic acid (PAHA) with lysozyme (LSZ) are investigated. In solution LSZ is moderately positively and PAHA negatively charged at the investigated pH values. The proton binding of PAHA and of LSZ is determined by potentiometric proton titrations at various KCl concentrations. It is also measured for two mixtures of PAHA¿LSZ and compared with theoretically calculated proton binding assuming no mutual interaction. The charge adaptation due to PAHA¿LSZ interaction is relatively small and only significant at low and high pH. Next to the proton binding, the mass ratio PAHA/LSZ at the iso-electric point (IEP) of the complex at given solution conditions is measured together with the pH using the Mütek particle charge detector. From the pH changes the charge adaptation due to the interaction can be found. Also these measurements show that the net charge adaptation is weak for PAHA¿LSZ complexes at their IEP. PAHA/LSZ mass ratios in the complexes at the IEP are measured at pH 5 and 7. At pH 5 and 50 mmol/L KCl the charge of the complex is compensated for 30¿40% by K+; at pH 7, where LSZ has a rather low positive charge, this is 45¿55%. At pH 5 and 5 mmol/L KCl the PAHA/LSZ mass ratio at the IEP of the complex depends on the order of addition. When LSZ is added to PAHA about 25% K+ is included in the complex, but no K+ is incorporated when PAHA is added to LSZ. The flocculation behavior of the complexes is also different. After LSZ addition to PAHA slow precipitation occurs (6¿24 h) in the IEP, but after addition of PAHA to LSZ no precipitation can be seen after 12 h. Clearly, PAHA/LSZ complexation and the colloidal stability of PAHA¿LSZ aggregates depend on the order of addition. Some implications of the observed behavior are discussed

Stochastic reconstruction of filament paths in fibre bundles based on two-dimensional input data

Conventional optical microscopy is an inexpensive technique to analyse fibre bundle micro-structures. Compared to micro-computed tomography, the resolution is higher and larger samples sizes can be analysed. This provides, for example, detailed information of filament spacing which will affect subsequent properties. This paper proposes a probabilistic method to reconstruct paths of individual filaments from a series of two-dimensional micrographs. This allows three-dimensional filament arrangements to be reconstructed and the effects of local arrangements on properties to be quantified. For example, for the small sample analysed in this work, a 15% difference in strength values was found

Spin Susceptibility in Underdoped YBa2Cu3O6+x\bf YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}

We report a comprehensive polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering study of the evolution of the dynamical spin susceptibility with temperature and doping in three underdoped single crystals of the \YBCO{6+x} high temperature superconductor: \YBCO{6.5} (Tc = 52 K), \YBCO{6.7} (Tc = 67 K), and \YBCO{6.85} (T_c = 87 K). Theoretical implications of these data are discussed, and a critique of recent attempts to relate the spin excitations to the thermodynamics of high temperature superconductors is given.Comment: minor revisions, to appear in PR

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02

Fragmentation and Multifragmentation of 10.6A GeV Gold Nuclei

We present the results of a study performed on the interactions of 10.6A GeV gold nuclei in nuclear emulsions. In a minimum bias sample of 1311 interac- tions, 5260 helium nuclei and 2622 heavy fragments were observed as Au projec- tile fragments. The experimental data are analyzed with particular emphasis of target separation interactions in emulsions and study of criticalexponents. Multiplicity distributions of the fast-moving projectile fragments are inves- tigated. Charged fragment moments, conditional moments as well as two and three -body asymmetries of the fast moving projectile particles are determined in terms of the total charge remaining bound in the multiply charged projectile fragments. Some differences in the average yields of helium nuclei and heavier fragments are observed, which may be attributed to a target effect. However, two and three-body asymmetries and conditional moments indicate that the breakup mechanism of the projectile seems to be independent of target mass. We looked for evidence of critical point observable in finite nuclei by study the resulting charged fragments distributions. We have obtained the values for the critical exponents gamma, beta and tau and compare our results with those at lower energy experiment (1.0A GeV data). The values suggest that a phase transition like behavior, is observed.Comment: latex, revtex, 28 pages, 12 figures, 3tables, submitted to Europysics Journal

Measurement of event-shape observables in Z→ℓ+ℓ− events in pp collisions at √ s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Event-shape observables measured using charged particles in inclusive $Z$-boson events are presented, using the electron and muon decay modes of the $Z$ bosons. The measurements are based on an integrated luminosity of $1.1 {\rm fb}^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. Charged-particle distributions, excluding the lepton--antilepton pair from the $Z$-boson decay, are measured in different ranges of transverse momentum of the $Z$ boson. Distributions include multiplicity, scalar sum of transverse momenta, beam thrust, transverse thrust, spherocity, and $\mathcal{F}$-parameter, which are in particular sensitive to properties of the underlying event at small values of the $Z$-boson transverse momentum. The Sherpa event generator shows larger deviations from the measured observables than Pythia8 and Herwig7. Typically, all three Monte Carlo generators provide predictions that are in better agreement with the data at high $Z$-boson transverse momenta than at low $Z$-boson transverse momenta and for the observables that are less sensitive to the number of charged particles in the event.Comment: 36 pages plus author list + cover page (54 pages total), 14 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC, All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2014-0

Operation and performance of the ATLAS semiconductor tracker

The semiconductor tracker is a silicon microstrip detector forming part of the inner tracking system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The operation and performance of the semiconductor tracker during the first years of LHC running are described. More than 99% of the detector modules were operational during this period, with an average intrinsic hit efficiency of (99.74±0.04)%. The evolution of the noise occupancy is discussed, and measurements of the Lorentz angle, δ-ray production and energy loss presented. The alignment of the detector is found to be stable at the few-micron level over long periods of time. Radiation damage measurements, which include the evolution of detector leakage currents, are found to be consistent with predictions and are used in the verification of radiation background simulations

Search for H→γγ produced in association with top quarks and constraints on the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson using data taken at 7 TeV and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is performed for Higgs bosons produced in association with top quarks using the diphoton decay mode of the Higgs boson. Selection requirements are optimized separately for leptonic and fully hadronic final states from the top quark decays. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.5 fb−14.5 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 20.3 fb−1 at 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess over the background prediction is observed and upper limits are set on the tt¯H production cross section. The observed exclusion upper limit at 95% confidence level is 6.7 times the predicted Standard Model cross section value. In addition, limits are set on the strength of the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson, taking into account the dependence of the tt¯H and tH cross sections as well as the H→γγ branching fraction on the Yukawa coupling. Lower and upper limits at 95% confidence level are set at −1.3 and +8.0 times the Yukawa coupling strength in the Standard Model