RESPIRATORY COMPENSATION MECHANISMS IN THE UPPER AND LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACTS OF AN ANIMAL MODEL AFTER SUBCHRONIC INHALATION EXPOSURE TO FORMALDEHYDE: IMPLICATIONS FOR TOXICOLOGY RISK ASSESSMENT (DEPOSITION, DOSE RECEIVED, RESPONSE)

The potential for significant human populations to experience long-term inhalation of formaldehyde and reports of symptomatology due to this exposure has led to a considerable interest in the toxicologic assessment of risk from subchronic formaldehyde exposures using animal models. Since formaldehyde inhalation depresses certain respiratory parameters in addition to its other forms of toxicity, there is a potential for the alteration of the actual dose received by the exposed individual (and the resulting toxicity) due to this respiratory effect. The respiratory responses to formaldehyde inhalation and the subsequent pattern of deposition were therefore investigated in animals that had received subchronic exposure to the compound, and the potential for changes in the formaldehyde dose received due to long-term inhalation evaluated. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to either 0, 0.5, 3, or 15 ppm formaldehyde for 6 hours/day, 5 days/week for up to 6 months. The patterns of respiratory response, deposition and the compensation mechanisms involved were then determined in a series of formaldehyde test challenges to both the upper and to the lower respiratory tracts in separate groups of subchronically exposed animals and age-specific controls (four concentration groups, two time points). In both the control and pre-exposed animals, there was a characteristic recovery of respiratory parameters initially depressed by formaldehyde inhalation to at or approaching pre-exposure levels within 10 minutes of the initiation of exposure. Also, formaldehyde deposition was found to remain very high in the upper and lower tracts after long-term exposure. Therefore, there was probably little subsequent effect on the dose received by the exposed individual that was attributable to the repeated exposures. There was a diminished initial minute volume response in test challenges of both the upper and lower tracts of animals that had received at least 16 weeks of exposure to 15 ppm, with compensatory increases in tidal volume in the upper tract and respiratory rate in the lower tract. However, this dose-related effect was probably not relevant to human risk estimation because this formaldehyde dose is in excess of that experienced by human populations. ^

Sesquióxidos de hierro en bosques templado húmedos del estado de Hidalgo, México

Se estudian las formas de hierro extraídas con oxalato ácido de amonio, pirofosfato de sodio, ditionito-citrato-bicarbonato, así como el hierro total en disolución en suelos Alisoles en el municipio de Acaxochitlán, Hidalgo, México. Los suelos estudiados soportan distintos tipos de vegetación forestal: Pinus patula Schlecht and Cham (Pp), Pinus teocote, (Pt) y Quercus spp, (Q). El objetivo del trabajo fue determinar si la vegetación influye significativamente sobre las diferentes fracciones de hierro (Fe) en el suelo. Los contenidos de Fe total son significativamente mayores en suelos bajo vegetación de Pp (14,5% de Fe2O3), el mayor porcentaje de ferrihidrita (38,0% del Fe total en suelo) y de complejos organominerales de Fe y óxidos amorfos de Fe (20,9% y 16,3% respectivamente del Fe total en suelo, se dio en el bosque de Pt. En los suelos bajo bosques de Pp predominaron formas de Fe lábil (56,7% del Fe total en suelo) y formas cristalinas de Fe (goetita/hematita). La vegetación de Q mostró mayor alteración de los suelos y en el caso de Pt y Pp se presentó una mayor evolución en el proceso de organización estructural de los oxihidróxidos de Fe. El tipo de vegetación forestal influye en el grado de evolución del suelo, y en la distribución, contenido y formas de óxidos de Fe. En un orden de mayor a menor el contenido de Fe total en el suelo fue Pinus patula > Quercus spp > Pinus teocote.

Physical properties and geochemical pore-water analysis of sediment core GeoB16423-1

Several studies indicate that the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (Mw 9.0) off the Pacific coast of Japan has induced slip to the trench and triggered landslides in the Japan Trench. In order to better understand these processes, detailed mapping and shallow-coring landslides at the trench as well as Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) deep drilling to recover the plate boundary décollement (Japan Trench Fast Earthquake Drilling Project, JFAST) have been conducted. In this study we report sediment core data from the rapid response R/V SONNE cruise (SO219A) to the Japan Trench, evidencing a Mass Transport Deposit (MTD) in the uppermost section later drilled at this JFAST-site during IODP Expedition 343. A 8.7 m long gravity core (GeoB16423-1) recovered from ~7,000 m water depth reveals a 8 m sequence of semi-consolidated mud clast breccias embedded in a distorted chaotic sediment matrix. The MTD is covered by a thin veneer of 50 cm hemipelagic, bioturbated diatomaceous mud. This stratigraphic boundary can be clearly distinguished by using physical properties data from Multi Sensor Core Logging and from fall-cone penetrometer shear strength measurements. The geochemical analysis of the pore-water shows undisturbed linear profiles measured from the seafloor downcore across the stratigraphic contact between overlying younger background-sediment and MTD below. This indicates that the investigated section has not been affected by a recent sediment destabilization in the course of the giant Tohoku-Oki earthquake event. Instead, we report an older landslide which occurred between 700 and 10,000 years ago, implying that submarine mass movements are dominant processes along the Japan Trench. However, they occur on local sites and not during each megathrust earthquake.