Role of water vapor and CO2 in the paleoclimatic fluctuations along northwestern and southern Syria, and the adjacent Mediterranean Sea

Microscopic petrified grains were collected from a mafic–ultramafic pipe, NE of Dreikeesh, NW Syria. The grains were identified as anthers/gynoecia in herb/grass flowers. Three of the grains showed evidence of magnetism, two slowly dissolved in concentrated HCl, and three microprobed grains showed a montmorillonitic composition. Iron originating from pyroxene was oxidized to magnetite. Released silica formed the mineral suite agate–chalcedony–opal. Warm/cold paleoclimatic fluctuations, occurring during late Pliocene–Holocene, depended on water vapor, CO₂ production, and cinders in the atmosphere. Most of these were associated with changing volcanic/tectonic events. Fluctuations were controlled by heat reflected from the Earth's surface being absorbed by water vapor and CO₂, which both re-reflected the heat back to the surface, thus, raising the temperature. This cycle was repeated several times during late Pliocene–Holocene.     

WITCH: A Penning Trap Retardation Spectrometer Combination for Precision Studies of the Weak Interaction

We present data from three seasons of experimental field work designed to recreate ancient Andean coastal ceramic firing techniques. Based on the recent discovery of two different archaeological ceramic production sites in the La Leche river valley of northern coastal Peru, the opportunity arose to apply Mössbauer spectroscopy and other analytical methods to reconstruct ancient firing procedures. Two sets of firings took place in 1993 and 1997 in Batán Grande using a partially restored Formative kiln from about 800 BC, local hardwood and cow dung as fuel. A third experiment followed in 2000 after the discovery of a Middle Sicán ceramics workshop in use between ca. AD 950 and 1050 at Huaca Sialupe, where an exact replica of an ancient kiln was built from local clay, and fired with local wood and cow dung. Additionally, inverted urns found at Huaca Sialupe were tested for their potential use as furnaces for metal working. Mössbauer spectroscopy was used to compare the physical and chemical state of specimens produced in the field experiments with ancient ceramics and with specimens produced in controlled laboratory experiments.     

A facile gamma-ray method for radiodegradation of bilirubin in chloroform

Kinetics and concentration profile associated with the regulated radiodegradation of bilirubin in an organic solvent were assessed. The pure unconjugated specimen was prepared in chloroform (40.0 μM). The depletion of bilirubin was almost linear with dose, and complete degradation was accomplished with doses in excess of 100 Gy. The method was also evaluated for the explicit production of the long-wavelength isomer of biliverdin, which was characterized spectrometrically by an absorbance band in the region 600–650 nm. Results including differences in air, N₂ and O₂ purged samples are presented to identify the atmospheric medium for optimum production of biliverdin. The process was regulated by controlling the dose. The general rate constant of the depletion process was estimated at a dose rate of 5.67·10⁻²Gy·s⁻¹. The method is a convenient substitute for light illumination studies of bilirubin. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Weak solutions for a hyperbolic system with unilateral constraint and mass loss

We consider isentropic gas dynamics equations with unilateral constraint on the density and mass loss. The γ and pressureless pressure laws are considered. We propose an entropy weak formulation of the system that incorporates the constraint and Lagrange multiplier, for which we prove weak stability and existence of solutions. The nonzero pressure model is approximated by a kinetic BGK relaxation model, while the pressureless model is approximated by a sticky-blocks dynamics with mass loss.