Microcalorimetric measurements of the metabolic activity by bacteria and fungi in some Brazilian soils amended with different organic matter

The effect of bacterial and fungal activities on organic matter degradation in Brazilian soils was studied by a microcalorimetric method. Bacteria and fungi isolated from tropical soils and added to: Rhodic eutrudox (R), Typic eutrudox (V) and Quartzipsamment (Q) soils amended separately with moisture (control) (A) and 25% of cattle manure (E), municipal refuse compost (L), earthworm casts (H) or 23 μg of trifluralin (T) were investigated. The number of colony forming units in soil suspension was quantified by microscopy and inoculated in respective soil. All processes were measured at intervals of 7 days over a period of 35 days. The exothermic thermal effect (μJ) per cm³ of bacteria or fungi per gram of dry soil, respectively, for each substrate was: [(9±1), (4±1)] RA; [(478±24), (105±5)] RE; [(121±6), (71±4)] RL; [(121±6), (71±4)] RH; [(8±1); (3±1)] RT; [(10±1), (9±1] VA; [(347±17), (261±13)] VE; [(71±4), (28±1)] VL; [(22±1), (33±2)] VH; [(7±1), (10±1)] VT; [(19±1), (12±1)] QA; [(1301±65), (46±2)] QE; [(89±4), (9±1)] QL; [(130±7), (11±1)] QH; [(32±2), (8±1)] QT. The calorimetric values are higher for bacteria than for fungi. In general, the results showed higher activities in the soil amended with cattle manure than with other additives.     

Elimination of man-made radionuclides from natural waters by applying a standard coagulation-flocculation process

We studied the effectiveness of potable water treatment processes that consist of the stages of coagulation-flocculation-decantation, using iron-based coagulants, in eliminating gamma-emitting man-made radioisotopes of cesium, strontium, and americium from two natural waters with different degrees of mineralization. The resulting decontamination was found to depend on the chemical behavior of each of the radionuclides considered, on the pH at which the process of coagulation is carried out, and on the concentration of the other stable cations present. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Recent advances in the analysis of steroid hormones and related drugs.

The development during the last 15 years and the state-of-the-art in the analysis of bulk steroid hormone drugs and hormone-like structures and pharmaceutical formulations made thereof are summarized. Other steroids (sterols, bile acids, cardiac glycosides, vitamins D) as well as biological-clinical aspects and pharmacokinetic and metabolic studies are excluded from this review. The state-of-the-art is summarized based on comparisons of monographs in the latest editions of the European Pharmacopoeia, United States Pharmacopoeia and the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. This is followed by sections dealing with new developments in the methodology for the fields of spectroscopic and spectrophotometric, chromatographic, electrophoretic and hyphenated techniques as well electroanalytical methods. The review is terminated by two problem-oriented sections: examples on impurity and degradation profiling as well as enantiomeric analysis.     

Book Review

Structural Chemistry -     

Moments of an exponential functional of random walks and permutations with given descent sets

The exponential functional of simple, symmetric random walks with negative drift is an infinite polynomial Y = 1 + ξ₁ + ξ₁ξ₂ + ξ₁ξ₂ξ₃ + ⋯ of independent and identically distributed non-negative random variables. It has moments that are rational functions of the variables μ _k = E(ξ ^k ) < 1 with universal coefficients. It turns out that such a coefficient is equal to the number of permutations with descent set defined by the multiindex of the coefficient. A recursion enumerates all numbers of permutations with given descent sets in the form of a Pascal-type triangle. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Generating cryptographically strong Boolean functions using partial information

Periodica Mathematica Hungarica - In our paper we study the usage of partially defined Boolean functions (PDBFs) for generating cryptographically strong Boolean functions. A PDBF can be considered...