Industrial exposure to arsenic

The normal levels of arsenic in human tissue are reported together with the arsenic concentrations found in the investigation of a large number of industrial exposure incidents. These results are useful for establishing that industrial exposure has taken place and for confirming arsenic poisoning but they cannot be used realistically to predict that any person or group will suffer a visible deterioration in health because no correlation between arsenic contamination and symptoms can be made. Industrial workers who are affected by arsenic exposure are often no more exposed than their co-workers.     

Reactions of O 3PJ atoms with halogens: The rate constants for the elementary reactions O + BrCl,O + Br2, and O + Cl2

Direct determinations of the rate constants (cm³/molec · sec) k₁, k₂, and k₃ from 298 to 299°K are reported, using atomic resonance fluorescence in discharge flow systems:

1 One standard deviation.

The rate constant k₁, which has not been determined previously, was found to possess an insignificant temperature coefficient (E_A = (0 ± 700) J/mole) in the range of 299 to 619°K. The present result for k₂ agrees well with reinterpreted values from the one previous determination. Measurements of O atom consumption rates and Br atom production rates in the O + Br₂ reaction are interpreted to give an estimate of the rate constant k₄, which has not been reported previously, at 298°K: k₃ has been measured at three temperatures between 299 and 602°K. The present and previous results for k₃ were combined to give the following rate expression:      

Performance of the updated inaa advance prediction computer program

This paper describes further development and experimental testing of the INAA Advance Prediction Computer Program (APCP). Copies of the APCP written in BASIC-PLUS are finally ready for distribution. Experimental tests with four reference materials are described. The program is extremely useful as a quide to optimum conditions, sample sizes, elements detectable, and INAA lower limits, of detection for any sample matrix of only approximately known major and minor elemental composition. Additional developments in progress are mentioned.     

Application of solution techniques for rapid growth of organic crystals

Single crystals of a pure hydrocarbon, 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene, with properties suitable for high-energy neutron detection were grown from toluene solutions using slow evaporation and temperature reduction methods with growth rates up to 10 mm/day. Application of the rapid growth technique developed earlier for growth of large water-soluble crystals shows that crystals of aromatic compounds can be successfully grown from solutions in large volumes required for their use as scintillator materials for radiation detection.     

Evidence for a role of glutamate as an efferent transmitter in taste buds

Background  

Glutamate has been proposed as a transmitter in the peripheral taste system in addition to its well-documented role as an umami taste stimulus. Evidence for a role as a transmitter includes the presence of ionotropic glutamate receptors in nerve fibers and taste cells, as well as the expression of the glutamate transporter GLAST in Type I taste cells. However, the source and targets of glutamate in lingual tissue are unclear. In the present study, we used molecular, physiological and immunohistochemical methods to investigate the origin of glutamate as well as the targeted receptors in taste buds.     

Finite time blowup of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-harmonic flow on <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-manifolds

In this paper, we generalize the no-neck result of Qing and Tian (in Commun Pure Appl Math 50:295–310, 1997) to show that there is no neck during blowing up for the n-harmonic flow as \(t\rightarrow \infty \). As an application of the no-neck result, we settle a conjecture of Hungerbühler (in Ann Scuola Norm Sup Pisa Cl Sci 4:593–631, 1997) by constructing an example to show that the n-harmonic map flow on an n-dimensional Riemannian manifold blows up in finite time for \(n\ge 3\).     

Precision branching ratio measurement for the superallowed beta+ emitter 62Ga and isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections in A>or=62 nuclei

A high-precision branching ratio measurement for the superallowed beta+ decay of 62Ga was performed at the Isotope Separator and Accelerator radioactive ion beam facility. Nineteen gamma rays emitted following beta+ decay of 62Ga were identified, establishing the dominant superallowed branching ratio to be (99.861+/-0.011)%. Combined with recent half-life and Q-value measurements, this branching ratio yields a superallowed ft value of 3075.6+/-1.4 s for 62Ga decay. These results demonstrate the feasibility of high-precision superallowed branching ratio measurements in the A>or=62 mass region and provide the first stringent tests of the large isospin-symmetry-breaking effects predicted for these decays.