Iron isotopes have been extensively used to trace the history of microbial metabolisms and the redox evolution of the oceans. Archean sedimentary rocks display greater variability in iron isotope ratios and more markedly negative values than those deposited in the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic. This increased variability has been linked to changes in either water column iron cycling or the extent...

BACKGROUND Accuracy in the clinical diagnosis of asbestosis has significant implications for the future health of affected patients as well as serious medicolegal implications for both patients and asbestos-associated industries. The radiographic gold-standard for diagnosis of asbestosis has been the plain chest radiograph, and in many asbestosis-screening clinics, chest radiograph abnormalitie...

Physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics of six bentonites were assessed and related to their elemental release to wine. Extraction essays of bentonites in wine at three pH levels were carried out. The multielemental analysis of bentonites and wines was performed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Bentonite addition re...

Ferruginous Duck Aythya nyroca (Güldenstädt, 1770) and Brown-headed Gull Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus (Jerdon, 1840), two high altitude wetland migratory birds, were recorded for the first time from Sikkim, eastern Himalaya. The importance of conservation wetlands Sikkim Himalaya is highlighted.

Lake Matano, Indonesia, is a stratified anoxic lake with iron-rich waters that has been used as an analogue for the Archean and early Proterozoic oceans. Past studies of Lake Matano report large amounts of methane production, with as much as 80% of primary production degraded via methanogenesis. Low δ(13)C values of DIC in the lake are difficult to reconcile with this notion, as fractionation d...

BACKGROUND An excess of mortality for malignant neoplasms of the pleura in Biancavilla, promoted an investigation for pleural mesothelioma, disclosing 17 cases. As the absence of known sources of asbestos exposure, a local stone quarry, located near the inhabited area, used for the extraction of building materials, was investigated. Amphibolic fibres were found in the quarry and identified as f...