The search for potential molecular biosignatures on Mars is complicated by its harsh radiation environment that can alter or destroy the primary features diagnostic of an organic compound's origins. In this work, mixtures Mars-relevant minerals and material representing different types chemical states sedimentary common in terrestrial geologic record were irradiated with 200 MeV protons to simu...

Plants are known to bioaccumulate many contaminants. Petroleum-derived compounds, such as saturated hydrocarbons and PAHs are widespread persistent environmental contaminants. Deposition of soot and precipitation of black rain have occurred in the Shadegan Wetland. In this study, PAHs in plant parts of two prominent species of halophytes, Halocnemum strobilaceum and Suaeda maritima were determi...

Prioritized logic programming has illustrated its rich expres-siveness and exibility in knowledge representation and reasoning. However , some important aspects of prioritized logic programs have yet to be thoroughly explored. In this paper, we investigate several properties of prioritized logic programs in the context of answer set semantics. Specifically , we propose a characterization on the...

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) are one of the most important organic pollutants frequently found in the environment. in this experiment, the effect of phytoremediation as a cost effective method was studied on the concentration of anthracene (c14h10) which is one of pahs. the effect of sorghum (v1), hairy vetch (v2) and oat (v3) was studied under four concentrations of anthracene (s1, ...

Lignin is an energy-dense, heterogeneous polymer comprised of phenylpropanoid monomers used by plants for structure, water transport, and defense, and it is the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth after cellulose. In production of fuels and chemicals from biomass, lignin is typically underused as a feedstock and burned for process heat because its inherent heterogeneity and recalcitrance m...

Cyclohexanone and its derivatives are very important chemicals, which are currently produced mainly by oxidation of cyclohexane or alkylcyclohexane, hydrogenation of phenols, and alkylation of cyclohexanone. Here we report that bromide salt-modified Pd/C in H2O/CH2Cl2 can efficiently catalyse the transformation of aromatic ethers, which can be derived from biomass, to cyclohexanone and its deri...

This study is a prospective randomized double-blind controlled trial whose aim was to investigate the clinical effects of aromatic essential oils in patients with upper respiratory tract infections. The trial was conducted in six primary care clinics in northern Israel. A spray containing aromatic essential oils of five plants (Eucalyptus citriodora, Eucalyptus globulus, Mentha piperita, Origan...

[1] We investigate the utility of adding a 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) light source to the ExoMars panoramic camera (PanCam) scheduled for launch in 2013. The modification makes it feasible to monitor rover drill cuttings for aromatic organic molecules and provide constraints on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) as a function of depth to the 2-meter limit of the ExoMars drill. This non-destruc...