Determination of Uranium in Human Hair by Acid Digestion and FIAS-ICPMS

The content of heavy metals in human hair may serve as an indicator of occupational or environmental exposure to metal compounds. However, before such exposure can be determined, the level of the element in a "normal" population must be established. The concentration of uranium in human hair was measured by flow injection — inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (FIAS-ICPMS) after acid digestion of the hair samples. All hair samples were rinsed in order to remove external contamination prior to the digestion in a 2:1 solution of concentrated nitric acid and 30% hydrogen peroxide. The limit of detection of the method, for a 50 mg hair sample, was 0.015µg/g, mainly due to the presence of impurities in the hydrogen peroxide. The range of uranium concentration in the initial test group was found to be 0.01–0.18 µg/g. The mean and median values of the entire study population were 0.062 and 0.050 µg U/g hair, respectively. Differences between the following sub-populations: male and female, smokers and non-smokers and people below and above 45 years of age were examined. The only statistically significant difference was found in the latter group (p = 0.03).     

Resilience of the internet to random breakdowns

A common property of many large networks, including the Internet, is that the connectivity of the various nodes follows a scale-free power-law distribution, P(k) = ck(-alpha). We study the stability of such networks with respect to crashes, such as random removal of sites. Our approach, based on percolation theory, leads to a general condition for the critical fraction of nodes, p(c), that needs to be removed before the network disintegrates. We show analytically and numerically that for alpha0.99.     

The azaquinone-methide elimination: comparison study of 1,6- and 1,4-eliminations under physiological conditions

The azaquinone-methide elimination is a powerful and efficient reaction useful for disassembly of spacers in prodrug systems. We and others have used the spacer-technique to develop dendritic and polymeric self-immolative molecular systems that can disassemble through a domino-like mechanism upon a stimulus event. In this report, we study the disassembly of a system that can disintegrate through para- and ortho-azaquinone-methide eliminations. The disassembly was evaluated with molecules that undergo single 1,6- or 1,4-elimination and with molecules that undergo double 1,6- and 1,4-elimination. The 1,6-elimination was slightly faster than the 1,4-elimination under physiological conditions. This study sheds light on the disassembly-behavior of prodrug systems.     

Coriolis effect in optics: unified geometric phase and spin-Hall effect

We examine the spin-orbit coupling effects that appear when a wave carrying intrinsic angular momentum interacts with a medium. The Berry phase is shown to be a manifestation of the Coriolis effect in a noninertial reference frame attached to the wave. In the most general case, when both the direction of propagation and the state of the wave are varied, the phase is given by a simple expression that unifies the spin redirection Berry phase and the Pancharatnam-Berry phase. The theory is supported by the experiment demonstrating the spin-orbit coupling of electromagnetic waves via a surface plasmon nanostructure. The measurements verify the unified geometric phase, demonstrated by the observed polarization-dependent shift (spin-Hall effect) of the waves.     

A Bessel identity for the theta correspondence

We establish a spectral identity between global Bessel distributions with respect to generic cuspidal representations of an odd orthogonal group and the metaplectic cover of a symplectic group which are related by the theta correspondence. We also provide analogous local identities for square-integrable representations.     

On Homogeneous Standard Integral Table Algebras of Degree 4

In this paper we classify, up to exact isomorphism, the algebras in the title which contain a faithful element and in which every non-trivial table subset has dimension at least five.     

Excited-state intermolecular proton transfer of firefly luciferin V. Direct proton transfer to fluoride and other mild bases

We studied the direct proton transfer (PT) from electronically excited D-luciferin to several mild bases. The fluorescence up-conversion technique is used to measure the rise and decay of the fluorescence signals of the protonated and deprotonated species of D-luciferin. From a base concentration of 0.25 M or higher the proton transfer rates to the fluoride, dihdyrogen phosphate or acetate bases are fast and comparable. The fluorescence signals are nonexponential and complex. We suggest that the fastest decay component arises from a direct proton transfer process from the hydroxyl group of D-luciferin to the mild base. The proton donor and acceptor molecules form an ion pair prior to photoexcitation. Upon photoexcitation solvent rearrangement occurs on a 1 ps time-scale. The PT reaction time constant is ～2 ps for all three bases. A second decay component of about 10 ps is attributed to the proton transfer in a contact pair bridged by one water molecule. The longest decay component is due to both the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) to the solvent and the diffusion-assisted PT process between a photoacid and a base pair positioned remotely from each other prior to photoexcitation.     

Excited-state intermolecular proton transfer of firefly luciferin IV. Temperature and pH dependence

Time-resolved emission as well as steady-state UV-vis techniques were employed to study the photoprotolytic processes that d-luciferin, the natural substrate of the firefly luciferase, undergoes in both acidic aqueous solutions and ice. The emission spectrum of D-luciferin in a 20 mM HCl aqueous solution or higher has an additional emission band at 590 nm red-shifted with respect to the strongest emission band positioned at 530 nm of the deprotonated NRO(-*) form in a pH-neutral aqueous solution. We attribute this emission band to the zwitterion form designated as (+)HNRO(-). The time-resolved emission signals show that the NRO(-*) emission band at 530 nm and the zwitterion emission band at 590 are strongly quenched by a recombination process with a proton in an acidic solution and in ice. In ice, the quenching rate is 10 times faster than in the liquid state. We attribute the fast quenching rate to the high value of the proton diffusion constant in ice.     

Localized structures in dryland vegetation: forms and functions

Vegetation patches in drylands are localized structures of biomass and water. We study these structures using a mathematical modeling approach that captures biomass-water feedbacks. Biomass-water structures are found to differ in their spatial forms and ecological functions, depending on species type, soil conditions, precipitation range, and other environmental factors. Asymptotic spot structures can destabilize to form ring structures, expanding in the radial direction, or crescent structures, migrating uphill. Stable spot structures can differ in their soil-water distributions, forming water-enriched patches or water-deprived patches. The various biomass-water structures are expected to function differently in the context of a plant community, forming landscapes of varying species diversity.