Hair is increasingly used as a biological matrix of interest for the assessment of hormone secretion over extended periods of time. This study described the development and the validation of a ...sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous analysis of steroid and thyroid hormones in human hair. The gradient designed in this method enables to obtain a satisfactory separation of 9 hormones of interest: cortisol, cortisone, THE, THF, α-THF, triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4), estradiol, and testosterone. Several methodological parameters of extraction (such as the used of “cut hair” versus “pulverized hair”, the extraction time, the incubation solvent purification on SPE column and hydrolysis) that may influence the determination of hormones levels in human hair, have thus been tested here. Therefore, the results obtained highlighted the necessity of using a C18 SPE purification method for the determination of both steroid and thyroid hormones in hair. This method allows reaching suitable levels of sensitivity for cortisol and cortisone since the results obtained pointed out concentration levels of cortisol in hair of volunteers similar to those observed in the literature. This method could also offer an important impact in the field of hormone analysis since it allows, for the first time, the quantification of both T3 and T4 in human hair.
In studies investigating the effects of endocrine disruptors (ED) such as phthalates, bisphenols and some pesticides on human health, exposure is usually characterized with urinary metabolites. The ...variability of biomarkers concentration, due to rapid elimination from the body combined with frequent exposure is however pointed out as a major limitation to exposure assessment.
This study was conducted to assess variability of urinary metabolites of ED, and to investigate how sampling time and number of samples analyzed impacts exposure assessment.
Urine samples were collected over 6 months from 16 volunteers according to a random sampling design, and analyzed for 16 phthalate metabolites, 9 pesticide metabolites and 4 bisphenols. The amount of biomarkers excreted in urine at different times of the day were compared. In parallel, 2 algorithms were developed to investigate the effect of the number of urine samples analyzed per subject on exposure assessment reliability.
In the 805 urine samples collected from the participants, all the biomarkers tested were detected, and 18 were present in >90% of the samples. Biomarkers variability was highlighted by the low intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) ranging from 0.09 to 0.51. Comparing the amount of biomarkers excreted in urine at different time did not allow to identify a preferred moment for urine collection between first day urine, morning, afternoon and evening. Algorithms demonstrated that between 10 (for monobenzyl (MBzP) phthalate) and 31 (for bisphenol S) samples were necessary to correctly classify 87.5% of the subjects into quartiles according to their level of exposure.
The results illustrate the high variability of urinary biomarkers of ED over time and the impossibility to reliably classify subjects based on a single urine sample (or a limited number). Results showed that classifying individuals based on urinary biomarkers requires several samples per subject, and this number is highly different for different biomarkers.
Display omitted
•805 urine samples were collected over 6 months from 16 volunteers.•16 phthalate metabolites, 4 bisphenols and 9 pesticide metabolites were analyzed.•21 of the 29 fast elimination biomarkers were detected in >80% of samples.•No evidence to prefer a specific time of day for sample collection was observed.•High variability over time was observed for all the urinary biomarkers.
The first double diffractive cross-section measurement in the very forward region has been carried out by the TOTEM experiment at the LHC with a center-of-mass energy of sqrts=7 TeV. By utilizing ...the very forward TOTEM tracking detectors T1 and T2, which extend up to |η|=6.5, a clean sample of double diffractive pp events was extracted. From these events, we determined the cross section σDD=(116±25) μb for events where both diffractive systems have 4.7<|η|min<6.5.
Abstract The TOTEM collaboration has measured the elastic proton-proton differential cross section $$\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}t$$ d σ / d t at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13 TeV LHC energy using ...dedicated $$\beta ^{*}=90$$ β ∗ = 90 m beam optics. The Roman Pot detectors were inserted to 10 $$\sigma $$ σ distance from the LHC beam, which allowed the measurement of the range 0.04 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 ; 4 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 $$$$ in four-momentum transfer squared | t |. The efficient data acquisition allowed to collect about 10 $$^{9}$$ 9 elastic events to precisely measure the differential cross-section including the diffractive minimum (dip), the subsequent maximum (bump) and the large-| t | tail. The average nuclear slope has been found to be $$B=(20.40 \pm 0.002^{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.01^{\mathrm{syst}})~$$ B = ( 20.40 ± 0 . 002 stat ± 0 . 01 syst ) GeV $$^{-2}$$ - 2 in the | t |-range 0.04–0.2 GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 . The dip position is $$|t_{\mathrm{dip}}|=(0.47 \pm 0.004^{\mathrm{stat}} \pm 0.01^{\mathrm{syst}})~$$ | t dip | = ( 0.47 ± 0 . 004 stat ± 0 . 01 syst ) GeV $$^{2}$$ 2 . The differential cross section ratio at the bump vs. at the dip $$R=1.77\pm 0.01^{\mathrm{stat}}$$ R = 1.77 ± 0 . 01 stat has been measured with high precision. The series of TOTEM elastic pp measurements show that the dip is a permanent feature of the pp differential cross-section at the TeV scale.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Precise knowledge of the beam optics at the LHC is crucial to fulfill the physics goals of the TOTEM experiment, where the kinematics of the scattered protons is reconstructed with near-beam ...telescopes-so-called Roman pots (RP). Before being detected, the protons' trajectories are influenced by the magnetic fields of the accelerator lattice. Thus precise understanding of the proton transport is of key importance for the experiment. A novel method of optics evaluation is proposed which exploits kinematical distributions of elastically scattered protons observed in the RPs. Theoretical predictions, as well as Monte Carlo studies, show that the residual uncertainty of the optics estimation method is smaller than .
Humans are exposed to various anthropogenic chemicals in daily life, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). However, there are limited data on chronic, low-level exposure to such ...contaminants among the general population. Here hair analysis was used to investigate the occurrence of four polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), seven polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and two bisphenols (BPs) in 204 Chinese women living in the urban areas of Baoding and Dalian and 311 pregnant French women. All the PCBs and PBDEs tested here were more frequently detected in the hair samples of the French women than in those of the Chinese women. In both cohorts, PCB 180 and BDE 47 were the dominant PCB and PBDE congener, respectively. PCB 180 was found in 82% of the French women and 44% of the Chinese women, while the corresponding values of BDE 47 were 54% and 11%, respectively. A discriminant analysis further demonstrated the difference in PCBs and PBDEs exposure profile between the two cohorts. These results demonstrate that hair analysis is sufficiently sensitive to detect exposure to these pollutants and highlight differences in exposure between populations even at environmental levels. Although BPA and BPS were found in 100% of the hair samples in both cohorts, the French women had significantly higher levels of BPA and BPS than the Chinese women. The median concentrations of BPA were one order of magnitude higher than BPS in both the Chinese (34.9 versus 2.84 pg/mg) and the French women (118 versus 8.01 pg/mg) respectively. Our results suggest that both French and Chinese populations were extensively exposed to BPA and BPS.
Display omitted
•Hair analysis was used to assess exposure of two female populations to multiclass EDCs.•All PCBs and PBDEs analyzed were more frequently detected in French women than in Chinese women.•PCB 180 was detected in 82% of the French women and 44% of the Chinese women.•BPA and BPS were found in 100% of the hair samples from both female populations.•French women had significantly higher levels of BPA and BPS than the Chinese women.
In the present study, French women were more frequently exposed to all PCBs and PBDEs analyzed and more extensively exposed to BPA and BPS than Chinese women.
The TOTEM collaboration has measured the proton–proton total cross section at
s
=
13
TeV
with a luminosity-independent method. Using dedicated
β
∗
=
90
m
beam optics, the Roman Pots were inserted ...very close to the beam. The inelastic scattering rate has been measured by the T1 and T2 telescopes during the same LHC fill. After applying the optical theorem the total proton–proton cross section is
σ
tot
=
(
110.6
±
3.4
) mb, well in agreement with the extrapolation from lower energies. This method also allows one to derive the luminosity-independent elastic and inelastic cross sections:
σ
el
=
(
31.0
±
1.7
)
mb
and
σ
inel
=
(
79.5
±
1.8
)
mb
.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The TOTEM experiment at the LHC has performed the first measurement at
s
=
13
TeV
of the
ρ
parameter, the real to imaginary ratio of the nuclear elastic scattering amplitude at
t
=
0
, obtaining the ...following results:
ρ
=
0.09
±
0.01
and
ρ
=
0.10
±
0.01
, depending on different physics assumptions and mathematical modelling. The unprecedented precision of the
ρ
measurement, combined with the TOTEM total cross-section measurements in an energy range larger than
10
TeV
(from 2.76 to
13
TeV
), has implied the exclusion of all the models classified and published by COMPETE. The
ρ
results obtained by TOTEM are compatible with the predictions, from other theoretical models both in the Regge-like framework and in the QCD framework, of a crossing-odd colourless 3-gluon compound state exchange in the
t
-channel of the proton–proton elastic scattering. On the contrary, if shown that the crossing-odd 3-gluon compound state
t
-channel exchange is not of importance for the description of elastic scattering, the
ρ
value determined by TOTEM would represent a first evidence of a slowing down of the total cross-section growth at higher energies. The very low-|
t
| reach allowed also to determine the absolute normalisation using the Coulomb amplitude for the first time at the LHC and obtain a new total proton–proton cross-section measurement
σ
tot
=
(
110.3
±
3.5
)
mb
, completely independent from the previous TOTEM determination. Combining the two TOTEM results yields
σ
tot
=
(
110.5
±
2.4
)
mb
.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The TOTEM collaboration has measured the elastic proton-proton differential cross section
d
σ
/
d
t
at
s
=
13
TeV LHC energy using dedicated
β
∗
=
90
m beam optics. The Roman Pot detectors were ...inserted to 10
σ
distance from the LHC beam, which allowed the measurement of the range 0.04 GeV
2
; 4 GeV
2
in four-momentum transfer squared |
t
|. The efficient data acquisition allowed to collect about 10
9
elastic events to precisely measure the differential cross-section including the diffractive minimum (dip), the subsequent maximum (bump) and the large-|
t
| tail. The average nuclear slope has been found to be
B
=
(
20.40
±
0
.
002
stat
±
0
.
01
syst
)
GeV
-
2
in the |
t
|-range 0.04–0.2 GeV
2
. The dip position is
|
t
dip
|
=
(
0.47
±
0
.
004
stat
±
0
.
01
syst
)
GeV
2
. The differential cross section ratio at the bump vs. at the dip
R
=
1.77
±
0
.
01
stat
has been measured with high precision. The series of TOTEM elastic pp measurements show that the dip is a permanent feature of the pp differential cross-section at the TeV scale.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The TOTEM experiment at the CERN LHC has measured elastic proton–proton scattering at the centre-of-mass energy
s
=
8
TeV and four-momentum transfers squared, |
t
|, from
6
×
10
-
4
to 0.2 GeV
2
. ...Near the lower end of the
t
-interval the differential cross-section is sensitive to the interference between the hadronic and the electromagnetic scattering amplitudes. This article presents the elastic cross-section measurement and the constraints it imposes on the functional forms of the modulus and phase of the hadronic elastic amplitude. The data exclude the traditional Simplified West and Yennie interference formula that requires a constant phase and a purely exponential modulus of the hadronic amplitude. For parametrisations of the hadronic modulus with second- or third-order polynomials in the exponent, the data are compatible with hadronic phase functions giving either central or peripheral behaviour in the impact parameter picture of elastic scattering. In both cases, the
ρ
-parameter is found to be
0.12
±
0.03
. The results for the total hadronic cross-section are
σ
tot
=
(
102.9
±
2.3
)
mb and
(
103.0
±
2.3
)
mb for central and peripheral phase formulations, respectively. Both are consistent with previous TOTEM measurements.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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