Method and apparatus for eliminating luminol interference material

A method and apparatus for removing porphyrins from a fluid sample which are unrelated to the number of bacteria present in the sample and prior to combining the sample with luminol reagent to produce a light reaction is disclosed. The method involves a pre-incubation of the sample with a dilute concentration of hydrogen peroxide which inactivates the interfering soluble porphyrins. Further, by delaying taking a light measurement for a predetermined time period after combining the hydrogen peroxide-treated water sample with a luminol reagent, the luminescence produced by the reaction of the luminol reagent with ions present in the solution, being short lived, will have died out so that only porphyrins within the bacteria which have been released by rupturing the cells with the sodium hydroxide in the luminol reagent, will be measured. The measurement thus obtained can then be related to the concentration of live and dead bacteria in the fluid sample

The Ubiquity of Sidon Sets That Are Not I0I_0

We prove that every infinite, discrete abelian group admits a pair of $I_0$ sets whose union is not $I_0$. In particular, this implies that every such group contains a Sidon set that is not $I_{0}$

Aspects of Neutrino Interactions (Scattering at small Q2Q^2- Region)

The article begins with a description of chiral symmetry and its application to neutrino induced reactions. For small $Q^2$ (forward direction) the process is dominated by the amplitute with helicity zero where the pion pole disappears when multiplied with the polarization vector. The remaining part of the amplitude is determined by PCAC. For $E_\nu > 2$ GeV the computed cross sections are in good agreement with data. In coherent pion production we expect equal yields for neutrinos and antineutrinos a relation which for $E_\nu > 2$ GeV is fulfilled. We discuss specific features of the data and suggest methods for improving them by presenting new estimates for the incoherent background.Comment: Presented at the CETUP-Workshop on Neutrino Interactions, July 22-31, 2014 at Lead/Dead Wood, South Dakota, USA. The resubmission contains minor correction

Northeastern Atlantic benthic foraminifera during the last 45,000 years: Changes in productivity seen from the bottom up

We studied benthic foraminifera from the last 45 kyr in the >63 mu m size fraction in Biogeochemical Ocean Flux Studies (BOFS) cores 5K (50 degrees 41.3'N, 21 degrees 51.9'W, depth 3547 m) and 14K (58 degrees 37.2'N, 19 degrees 26.2'W, depth 1756 m), at a time resolution of several hundreds to a thousand years. The deepest site showed the largest fluctuations in faunal composition, species richness, and benthic foraminiferal accumulation rates; the fluctuations resulted from changes in abundance of Epistominella exigua and Alabaminella weddellensis. In the present oceans, these species bloom opportunistically when a spring plankton bloom results in seasonal deposition of phytodetritus on the seafloor. The ''phytodetritus species'' had very low relative abundances and accumulation rates during the last glacial maximum. A strong increase in absolute and relative abundance of E. exigua and A weddellensis during deglaciation paralleled the decrease in abundance of the polar planktonic foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (s), and the increase in abundance of warmer water planktonic species such as Globigerina bulloides. This strong increase in relative abundance of the ''phytodetritus species'' and the coeval increase in benthic foraminiferal accumulation rate were thus probably caused by an increase in the deposition of phytodetritus to the seafloor (and thus probably of surface productivity) when the polar front retreated to higher latitudes. The abundance of ''phytodetritus species'' decreased during the Younger Dryas, but not to the low levels of fully glacial conditions. During Heinrich events (periods of excessive melt-water formation and ice rafting) benthic accumulation rates were very low, as were the absolute and relative abundances of the ''phytodetritus species'', supporting suggestions that surface productivity was very low during these events. In both cores Pullenia and Cassidulina species were common during isotope stages 2, 3 and 4, as were bolivinid, buliminid and uvigerinid species. High relative abundances of these species have been interpreted as indicative either of sluggish deep water circulation or of high organic carbon fluxes to the seafloor. In our cores, relative abundances of these species are negatively correlated with benthic foraminiferal accumulation rates, and we can thus not interpret them as indicative of increased productivity during glacials. The percentage of these ''low oxygen'' species calculated on a ''phytodetritus species'' - free basis decreased slightly at deglaciation at 5K, but not at 14K. This suggests that decreased production of North Atlantic Deep Water during the last glacial might have slightly affected benthic foraminiferal faunas in the eastern North Atlantic at 3547 m depth, but not at 1756 m. In conclusion, major changes in deep-sea benthic foraminiferal faunas over the last 45,000 years in our cores from the northeastern Atlantic were the result of changes in surface water productivity, not of changes in deep water circulation; productivity was lower during the glacial, probably because of extensive ice cover