Sensitivity of the Australian summer monsoon to tilt and precession forcing

IEECAS SKLLQG

Triton-He-3 relative and differential flows as probes of the nuclear symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities

Using a transport model coupled with a phase-space coalescence afterburner, we study the triton-He-3 (t-He-3) ratio with both relative and differential transverse flows in semicentral Sn-132 + Sn-124 reactions at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon. The neutron-proton ratios with relative and differential flows are also discussed as a reference. We find that similar to the neutron-proton pairs, the t-He-3 pairs also carry interesting information regarding the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. Moreover, the nuclear symmetry energy affects more strongly the t-He-3 relative and differential flows than the pi(-)/pi(+) ratio in the same reaction. The t-He-3 relative flow can be used as a particularly powerful probe of the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy.

The experimental measurement of the relative biological effectiveness of carbon ions with different qualities

The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of carbon ions with linear energy transfer (LET) of 172 keV/mu m and 13.7 keV/mu m were determined in this study. The clonogenic survival and premature terminal differentiation were measured on normal human. broblasts AG01522C and NHDF after exposure of the cells to 250 kV X-rays and carbon ions with different qualities. RBE was determined for these two biological end points. The results showed that the measured RBE10 with a survival fraction of 10% was 3.2 for LET 172 keV/mu m, and 1.33 for LET 13.7 keV/mu m carbon ions. RBE for a doubling of post-mitotic. broblasts (PMF) in the population was 2.8 for LET 172 keV/mu m, and 1 for LET 13.7 keV/mu m carbon ions. For the carbon ion therapy, a high RBE value on the Bragg peak results in a high biological dose on the tumour. The tumour cells can be killed effectively. At the same time, the dose on healthy tissue would be reduced accordingly. This will lighten the late effect such as fibrosis on normal tissue.

Assessment of DNA damage of Lewis lung carcinoma cells irradiated by carbon ions and X-rays using alkaline comet assay

DNA damage and cell reproductive death determined by alkaline comet and clonogenic survival assays were examined in Lewis lung carcinoma cells after exposure to 89.63 MeV/u carbon ion and 6 MV X-ray irradiations, respectively. Based on the survival data, Lewis lung carcinoma cells were verified to be more radiosensitive to the carbon ion beam than to the X-ray irradiation. The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) value, which was up to 1.77 at 10% survival level, showed that the DNA damage induced by the high-LET carbon ion beam was more remarkable than that induced by the low-LET X-ray irradiation. The dose response curves of '' Tail DNA (%)'' (TD) and "Olive tail moment" (OTM) for the carbon ion irradiation showed saturation beyond about 8 Gy. This behavior was not found in the X-ray curves. Additionally, the carbon ion beam produced a lower survival fraction at 2 Gy (SF2) value and a higher initial Olive tail moment 2 Gy (OTM2) than those for the X-ray irradiation. These results suggest that carbon ion beams having high-LET values produced more severe cell reproductive death and DNA damage in Lewis lung carcinoma cells in comparison with X-rays and comet assay might be an effective predictive test even combining with clonogenic assay to assess cellular radio sensitivity

A correlation between radiation sensitivity and initial chromatid breaks in cancer cell lines revealed by Calyculin A-induced premature condensation

Three human malignancy cell lines were irradiated with Co-60 gamma-rays. Initial chromatid breaks were measured by using the chemically induced premature chromosome condensation technique. Survival curves of cells exposed to gamma rays was linear-quadratic while the efficiency of Calyculin A in inducing PCC of G(2) PCC was about five times more than G(1) PCC. A dose-dependent increase in radiation-induced chromatid/isochromatid breaks was observed in G(1) and G(2) phase PCC and a nearly positive linear correlation was found between cell survival and chromatin breaks. This study implies that low LET radiation-induced chromatid/isochromatid breaks can potentially be used to predict the radiosensitivity of tumor cells either in in vitro experimentation or in in vivo clinical radiotherapy.

High sensitivity beam phase measurement system for isochronous cyclotron

The beam phase measurement system in the HIRFL is introduced. Based on the double-balanced mixer principle using rf-signal mixing and filtering techniques, a stable and sensitive phase measurement system has been developed. The phase history of the ion beam is detected by using a set of capacitive pick-up probes installed in the cyclotron. The phase information of the measurement is necessary for tuning to obtain a optimized isochronous magnetic field which induces to maximize the beam intensity and to optimize the beam quality. The result of the phase measurement is reliable and the accurancy reaches +/- 0.5 degrees.

TRITON-(HE)-H-3 RELATIVE AND DIFFERENTIAL FLOWS AND THE HIGH DENSITY BEHAVIOR OF NUCLEAR SYMMETRY ENERGY

Using a transport model coupled with a phase-space coalescence after-burner we study the triton-He-3 relative and differential transverse flows in semi-central Sn-132 + Sn-124 reactions at a beam energy of 400 MeV/nucleon. We find that the triton-He-3 pairs carry interesting information about the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy. The t-He-3 relative flow can be used as a particularly powerful probe of the high-density behavior of the nuclear symmetry energy.

Determination of urinary oxidative DNA damage marker 8-hydroxy-2 '-deoxyguanosine and the association with cigarette smoking

8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG) has been widely used as a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage in both animal models and human studies. To evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on oxidative stress, we studied the levels of urinary 8OHdG from smokers and non-smokers and investigated the association with cigarette smoking. The urinary 8OHdG concentrations were determinated by capillary electrophoresis with end-column amprometric detection (CE-AD) after a single-step solid phase extraction (SPE), and then quantitatively expressed as a function of creatinine excretion. To increase the concentration sensitivity, a dynamic pH junction was used and the focusing effect was obvious when using 30 mM phosphate (pH 6.50) as sample matrix. The limit of detection is 4.3 nM (signal-to-noise ratio S/N = 3). The relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) was 1.1% for peak current, and 2.3% for migration time. Based on the selected CE-AD method, it was found that the mean value of urinary 8OHdG levels in the smokers significantly higher than that in non-smokers (31.4 +/- 18.9 nM versus 14.4 +/- 7.6 nM, P = 0.0004; 23.5 +/- 21.3 mug g(-1) creatinine versus 12.6 +/- 13.2 mug g(-1) creatinine, P = 0.028). (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Article: Overview of Analytical Methodologies for Sea Water Analysis: Part I-Metals

A comprehensive, critical and up-to-date review of analytical methods developed during the last decade for metals present in sea water is presented. Separate sections are devoted to singular and multimetal determinations. Furthermore, a critical comparison of relative merits or demerits of a particular procedure is made in terms of sensitivity, selectivity and precision. Various aspects of analysis of sea water samples for metals are summarized, and the future trends are discussed.

Ten Years of the Relative Risk Model and Regional Scale Ecological Risk Assessment

It has been 10 years since the publication of the relative risk model (RRM) for regional scale ecological risk assessment. The approach has since been used successfully for a variety of freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments in North America, South America, and Australia. During this period the types of stressors have been expanded to include more than contaminants. Invasive species, habitat loss, stream alteration and blockage, temperature, change in land use, and climate have been incorporated into the assessments. Major developments in the RRM have included the extensive use of geographical information systems, uncertainty analysis using Monte Carlo techniques, and its application to retrospective assessments to determine causation. The future uses of the RRM include assessments for forestry and conservation management, an increasing use in invasive species evaluation, and in sustainability. Developments in risk communication, the use of Bayesian approaches, and in uncertainty analyses are on the horizon.

氮磷营养对小麦水分关系的影响

比较研究了氮磷营养对春小麦水分关系影响的差异。结果表明 ,土壤干旱情况下 ,氮磷营养虽然皆增强了春小麦的渗透调节能力 ,但由于氮磷营养对作物地上地下部生长的不同进促作用而对作物的水分状况产生了完全相反的影响。氮营养增强了作物对干旱的敏感性 ,使其水势和相对含水量大幅度下降 ,蒸腾失水减少 ,自由水含量增加而束缚水含量减少 ,并使膜稳定性降低 ;而磷营养则明显改善了植株的水分状况 ,增大了气孔导度 ,降低了其对干旱的敏感性 ,增加了束缚水含量 ,并使膜稳定性增强