Plutonium releases from the U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory in Livermore, California resulted in the contamination of sewage sludge. Two research models to address the potential public health impacts of plutonium-contaminated sludge distribution were undertaken. One model was a collaborative approach that emphasized incorporating local knowledge into the scientific analysis and fostering the gr...

Executive Summary Senegal is one of the lead producers of groundnuts, also known as peanuts, in the world. Since groundnuts are a cash crop and food crop in Senegal, their production contributes significantly to food security, poverty reduction, livestock feeding, and national trade development. In response to rising global food prices in early 2008, the Government of Senegal (GOS) supported in...

Respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREPs) were stimulated by brief (200-ms) oral pressure pulses (-10 cmH(2)O) applied at the onset of inspiration in 12 subjects. Scalp potentials were measured at 30 sites on a rectangular grid that encompassed the right side of the scalp overlying the somatosensory cortex (SSC). Concurrent and significant masseter EMG (mEMG) activity was evoked by the pres...

Aflatoxins, produced primarily by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, are among the most toxic and carcinogenic naturally occurring compounds. In an attempt to identify genes potentially involved in aflatoxin contamination of crops, and to better understand the biology of A. flavus, a large scale sequencing of A. flavus expressed sequence tags (EST) was conducted. The 5' ends of 26,110 cDNA ...

The safety of groundwater resources is a serious issue, particularly when these resources are the main source of water for drinking, irrigation and industrial use in coastal areas. In Italy, 85% of the water used by the public is of underground origin. The aim of this report is to analyze the main factors that make groundwater vulnerable. Soil characteristics and filtration capacity can promote...

Agricultural intensification is associated with the use of great amounts of agrochemicals that may result in the accumulation of metals in soils, and –subsequently—agricultural products and food chain. Nowadays, this is a major concern for many Iranian agricultural products, necessitating scientific researches on the issue. Therefore, the present study has been conducted to evaluate the level o...

This paper addresses the noticeable increase of 137Cs activity concentrations in soil and fallout in the area surrounding Zagreb (Croatia) that occurred at the time of the 2011 Fukushima accident. This topic is important for public health as 137Cs is highly toxic due to its long half-life of radioactive decay and chemical similarity to potassium. 137Cs concentrations in fallout were much greate...

Data collection in shallow water areas presents several challenges to the scientist. In addition to being redundant and time consuming, this task when performed manually has a high probability of disturbing the test area. Obstacles that are encountered in such environments include difficulty in covering large territories and the presence of inaccessible areas due to a variety of reasons, such a...

We explore the effect of contamination of intermediate redshift Type Ia supernova samples by Type Ibc supernovae. Simulating observed samples of Ia and mixed Ibc/Ia populations at a range of redshifts for an underlying cosmological concordance model (Ωm = 0.27, ΩΛ = 0.73), we find that even small contamination levels, 2− 5% may bias the derived ΩΛ and Ωm towards larger values. We thus emphasize...

law. This legislation clarifies the Superfund Act to ensure that the product of scrap recycling is not subject to Superfund liability if certain standards are met. S. 607 does not exempt from Superfund liability recyclers who operate contaminated facilities. Nor does it exempt from Superfund contamination caused in whole or in part by waste generated during the course of processing recycled mat...