Historical variations of Bera Lake (Malaysia) sediments geochemistry using radioisotopes and sediment quality indices

The Bera Lake basin is a lacustrine mire system and the largest natural lake in Peninsular Malaysia. Three cores were collected from the lake sediments in order to assess sediment quality and ecological risks for aquatic life and human health. An index analysis approach (C _f , C _d , E _r , and IR) and fallout ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs radioisotopes were applied to assess the impacts of environmental evolutionary changes. Sediment chronology was determined using the Constant Rate of Supply model with the resultant ages verified by ¹³⁷Cs horizons. Although the general contamination factors indicate low risk conditions in Bera Lake the risks associated with individual layers ranged from moderate to considerable. Five deforestation phases can be identified in the dated sediment cores with distinct variations in heavy metal influxes since 1972. These phases are in excellent agreement with the dates of land clearance and development projects undertaken over the past four decades. This study has highlighted the capability of contamination factors and chronological methods in environmental evolutionary studies where catchments have experienced extensive land use changes. The destiny of heavy metal influxes into a lake can also be revealed using this methodology.     

Simulation of Crack Propagation under Small-Scale Yielding by means of a Non-local GTN-Model

Today, the local approach to fracture is widely applied to simulate the failure of specimens. For ductile damage processes the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman model is the quasi-standard. In the last time non-local extensions allowed a mesh-size independent simulation of crack growth. However, most publications dealing with this subject focus upon the convergence regarding global quantities such as the load-displacement relation. Minor attention is paid to the fields directly at the crack tip. Correspondingly, the interrelationship between the intrinsic length of the model and relevant microscopic damage processes at the crack tip is only partly established until now. In the present study the crack propagation is simulated for an implicitly gradient enriched GTN-model within a boundary layer in order to overcome influences of the specimen geometry. The different stages of damage evolution are resolved by a fine mesh. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Theoretical investigation of an elliptical crack in thermopiezoelectric material. Part I: Analytical development

An elliptical crack subjected to uniform temperature in a thermopiezoelectric solid is investigated in this two-part paper. Part I of the paper is devoted to analytical solutions of stresses and electric displacements near the crack front. The explicit expression of the field intensity factor is given out. The asymptotic fields near the crack front are presented as well.     

Symmetry analysis of the behavior of the family R<Subscript>6</Subscript>M<Subscript>23</Subscript> compounds upon hydrogenation

Symmetry analysis was applied in this work to discuss the behavior of the family R₆M₂₃ compounds upon hydrogenation (deuteration), where different structural transformations and magnetic properties, depending on the type of R and M atoms and hydrogen (deuterium) concentrations, have been found. The crystallographic structure of these compounds is described by the Fm3m space group and contain 116 atoms per unit cell occupying the positions 24e(R), 4b, 24d, 32f₁ and 32f₂(M). Additionally in the elementary cell, there could be up to 100 atoms of hydrogen (or deuterium) occupying the interstitial positions 4a, 32f₃, 96j₁ and 96k₁. The symmetry analysis in the frame of the theory of space groups and their representation gives the opportunity to find all possible transformations from high symmetry parent structure to the structures with symmetry belonging to one of its subgroups. For a given transformation it indicates possible displacements of atoms from initial positions in the parent structure, ordering of hydrogen over interstitial sites and also ordering of magnetic moments, described by the smallest possible number of free parameters. The analysis was carried out by means of the MODY computer program for vectors k = (0; 0; 0) and k = (0; 0; 1) describing the changes of translational symmetry and all positions occupied by the R, M and D atoms.     

An example of an infinite system with zero quantum dynamical entropy

With nary mention of a tree graph, we obtain a cluster expansion bound that includes and vastly generalizes bounds as obtained by extant tree graph inequalities. This includes applications to both two-body and many-body potential situations of the recently obtained new improved tree graph inequalities that have led to the extra 1/N! factors. We work in a formalism coupling a discrete set of boson variables, such as occurs in a lattice system in classical statistical mechanics, or in Euclidean quantum field theory. The estimates of this Letter apply to numerical factors as arising in cluster expansions, due to essentially arbitrary sequences of the basic operations: interpolation of the covariance, interpolation of the interaction, and integration by parts. This includes complicated evolutions, such as the repeated use of interpolation to decouple the same variables several times, to ensure higher connectivity for renormalization purposes, in quantum field theory.This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant no. PHY-87-01329.     

Influence of spray-dried hydroxyapatite-5-fluorouracil granules on cell lines derived from tissues of mesenchymal origin

In our previous work we described the preparation and characterization of spray dried hydroxyapatite micro granules loaded with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). These loaded particles are used as a model drug delivery system (DDS). In this study we examined the in vitro response of two cell lines derived from different tissues to 5-FU loaded granules (LG). Both cell lines, either L929 cells of a mouse fibroblast lineage or cells originating from a rat osteosarcoma (ROS 17/2.8) showed a dose dependent decrease in cell proliferation in response to 5-FU-, either dissolved in the culture medium or loaded onto particles. The response of the two cell lines to loaded and nonloaded particles was different. The effect of LG and of a corresponding concentration of free 5-FU was practically the same for the ROS 17/2.8 cells indicating that ROS 17/2.8 cells were not affected by the carrier material. In contrast, L929 cells showed a slight decrease in cell proliferation also in the presence of granules not loaded with 5-FU. This is thought to be attributed to the inhibition of mitogenesis by phosphocitrates, already demonstrated in fibroblasts. In summary, we found that the loaded 5-FU kept its effectivity after the spray drying process and that the response towards the granules varied with cell type. This is the first step towards a tissue specific DDS.     

Ergodicity of canonical Gibbs measures with respect to the diffeomorphism group

For general potentials we prove that every canonical Gibbs measure on configurations over a manifold X is quasi‐invariant w.r.t. the group of diffeomorphisms on X. We show that this quasi‐invariance property also characterizes the class of canonical Gibbs measures. From this we conclude that the extremal canonical Gibbs measures are just the ergodic ones w.r.t. the diffeomorphism group. Thus we provide a whole class of different irreducible representations. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)