Casualties distribution in human and natural hazards

Catastrophic events, such as wars and terrorist attacks, big tornadoes and hurricanes, huge earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides, are always accompanied by a large number of casualties. The size distribution of these casualties have separately been shown to follow approximate power law (PL) distributions. In this paper, we analyze the number of victims of catastrophic phenomena, in particular, terrorism, and find double PL behavior. This means that the data set is better approximated by two PLs instead of one. We have plotted the two PL parameters corresponding to all terrorist events occurred in every year, from 1980 to 2010. We observe an interesting pattern in the chart, where the lines, that connect each pair of points defining the double PLs, are roughly aligned to each other.

(Un)suitability of the use of pH buffers in biological, biochemical and environmental studies and their interaction with metal ions – a review

The use of buffers to maintain the pH within a desired range is a very common practice in chemical, biochemical and biological studies. Among them, zwitterionic N-substituted aminosulfonic acids, usually known as Good’s buffers, although widely used, can complex metals and interact with biological systems. The present work reviews, discusses and updates the metal complexation characteristics of thirty one commercially available buffers. In addition, their impact on biological systems is also presented. The influences of these buffers on the results obtained in biological, biochemical and environmental studies, with special focus on their interaction with metal ions, are highlighted and critically reviewed. Using chemical speciation simulations, based on the current knowledge of the metal–buffer stability constants, a proposal of the most adequate buffer to employ for a given metal ion is presented.