Just before the end of the 1990-1991 Gulf War, more than 700 wells in Kuwaiti oil fields were set on fire. Several international companies and scientific organisations were involved in extinguishing ...the fires and in assessing the impact of this major environmental incursion. Kuwaiti Oil Fires: Regional Environmental Perspectives summarises these effects. The topics covered include the application of remote sensing techniques to determine the location of wells on fire and plume movement; air quality and particulate monitoring by ground stations and aircraft measurements; organic and inorganic constituents in the air; use of modeling techniques to study dispersion characteristics of pollutants and deposition of soot; and the efforts by the fire fighters in extinguishing fires and capping the wells. A brief overview of the causes of the crisis and the role of regional and international groups in resolving the dispute is presented as well as some basic and useful statistics of the region covering general information on economic aspects and exploitation of oil resources in both Iraq and Kuwait. Problems faced by the fire fighting teams, the preparations made to overcome the problems, and technology used in extinguishing the well fires are also discussed. Numerous colour photographs are used to illustrate the problems encountered and the techniques involved in their solution.
Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft Institute of Medicine; Board on the Health of Select Populations; Committee to Evaluate the Potential Exposure to Agent Orange/TCDD Residue and Level of Risk of Adverse Health Effects for Aircrew of Post-Vietnam C-123 Aircraft
01/2015
eBook
Odprti dostop
From 1972 to 1982, approximately 1,500-2,100 US Air Force Reserve personnel trained and worked on C-123 aircraft that had formerly been used to spray herbicides in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch ...Hand. After becoming aware that some of the aircraft on which they had worked had previously served this purpose, some of these AF Reservists applied to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for compensatory coverage under the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The Act provides health care and disability coverage for health conditions that have been deemed presumptively service-related for herbicide exposure during the Vietnam War. The VA denied the applications on the basis that these veterans were ineligible because as non-Vietnam-era veterans or as Vietnam-era veterans without "boots on the ground" service in Vietnam, they were not covered. However, with the knowledge that some air and wipe samples taken between 1979 and 2009 from some of the C-123s used in Operation Ranch Hand showed the presence of agent orange residues, representatives of the C-123 Veterans Association began a concerted effort to reverse VA's position and obtain coverage.
At the request of the VA, Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft evaluates whether or not service in these C-123s could have plausibly resulted in exposures detrimental to the health of these Air Force Reservists. The Institute of Medicine assembled an expert committee to address this question qualitatively, but in a scientific and evidence-based fashion. This report evaluates the reliability of the available information for establishing exposure and addresses and places in context whether any documented residues represent potentially harmful exposure by characterizing the amounts available and the degree to which absorption might be expected. Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure rejects the idea that the dioxin residues detected on interior surfaces of the C-123s were immobile and effectively inaccessible to the Reservists as a source of exposure. Accordingly, this report states with confidence that the Air Force Reservists were exposed when working in the Operation Ranch Hand C-123s and so experienced some increase in their risk of a variety of adverse responses.
Solution-state NMR requires small membrane mimetic systems to allow for acquiring high-resolution data. At the same time these mimetics should faithfully mimic biological membranes. Here we ...characterized two novel fast-tumbling bicelle systems with lipids from two Escherichia coli strains. While strain 1 (AD93WT) contains a characteristic E. coli lipid composition, strain 2 (AD93-PE) is not capable of synthesizing the most abundant lipid in E. coli, phosphatidylethanolamine. The lipid and acyl chain compositions were characterized by 31P and 13C NMR. Depending on growth temperature and phase, the lipid composition varies substantially, which means that the bicelle composition can be tuned by using lipids from cells grown at different temperatures and growth phases. The hydrodynamic radii of the bicelles were determined from translational diffusion coefficients and NMR spin relaxation was measured to investigate lipid properties in the bicelles. We find that the lipid dynamics are unaffected by variations in lipid composition, suggesting that the bilayer is in a fluid phase under all conditions investigated here. Backbone glycerol carbons are the most rigid positions in all lipids, while head-group carbons and the first carbons of the acyl chain are somewhat more flexible. The flexibility increases down the acyl chain to almost unrestricted motion at its end. Carbons in double bonds and cyclopropane moieties are substantially restricted in their motional freedom. The bicelle systems characterized here are thus found to faithfully mimic E. coli inner membranes and are therefore useful for membrane interaction studies of proteins with E. coli inner membranes by solution-state NMR.
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•Bicelles with native E. coli lipids can be produced.•Bicelles lacking the major lipid PE can be made by using PE-deficient E. coli.•Lipid composition can be fine-tuned by adjusting growth temperature and growth phase.•The lipids in E. coli bicelles display complex dynamics on the ps–ns time-scale.
The paper describes the mesoscale seismic hazard zonation study carried out in the Central Seismic Gap of the Himalaya by integration of ground motion, site and earthquake-induced effects using GIS ...technique. Three indices, namely (i) earthquake hazard index, (ii) liquefaction susceptibility index and (iii) landslide susceptibility index were estimated for comprehensive seismic hazard zonation mapping in this area. The earthquake hazard index was estimated by integration of data such as lithology, faults, soil, landforms, Gutenberg–Richter parameter (
b
value), predominant frequency, amplification factor and peak horizontal acceleration using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Similarly, geology and topographic parameters were integrated using the AHP method to estimate the Liquefaction Susceptibility Index. A multivariate statistical technique was used to estimate the Landslide Susceptibility Index. The three indices were combined to prepare mesoscale seismic hazard zonation map of the area which was classified into low, moderate, and high seismic hazard zones. Validation of the mesoscale seismic hazard zonation map was done using the isoseismal data of past earthquakes. High seismic hazard zones are found in the foothills and Siwalik region of the Himalaya, which consist of alluvial sand and unconsolidated sediments, whereas moderate zones are identified partially in the foothills, Siwalik and the Lesser Himalaya. This map will be useful for earthquake hazard mitigation in the NW Himalaya.
This paper evaluates the radiometric accuracy of observations from the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) onboard Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership and Sondeur Atmospherique du ...Profil d' Humidité Intropicale par Radiométrie (SAPHIR) onboard Megha-Tropiques through intercalibration and validation versus in situ radiosonde and Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) observations. SAPHIR and ATMS water vapor channels operate at slightly different frequencies. We calculated the bias due to radiometric errors as the difference between the observed and simulated differences between the two instruments. This difference, which is often referred to as double difference, ranges between 0.3 and 0.7 K, which shows good consistency between the instruments. We used a radiative transfer model to simulate the satellite brightness temperatures (Tbs) using radiosonde and GPS-RO profiles and then compared simulated and observed Tbs. The difference between radiosonde and ATMS Tbs for the middle and upper tropospheric temperature sounding channels was less than 0.5 K at most stations, but the difference between radiosonde and ATMS/SAPHIR Tbs for water vapor channels was between 0.5 and 2.0 K. The larger bias for the water vapor channels is mainly due to several errors in radiosonde humidity observations. The mean differences between the ATMS observations and the Tbs simulated using GPS-RO profiles were 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.2, and -0.2 K for channels 10-14, respectively; and the uncertainty increases from 0.02 K for channel 10 to 0.07 K for channel 14.
Over the past decades, strong motion generation areas (SMGAs) have received significant attention in the modelling of high-frequency records. Herein, we propose the source model for a scenario ...earthquake (
M
w
8.5) in the central seismic gap region of Himalayas. On the rupture plane, three SMGAs have been identified. Further, SMGA parameters are evaluated using available empirical relations. The spatiotemporal distribution of aftershocks is utilised to locate these SMGAs on the rupture plane. Further, the modified semi-empirical technique (MSET) is used to simulate the strong motion records. It has been observed that the study area can expect peak ground acceleration of
>
100
cm/s
2
and its distribution is mainly affected by the location of nucleation point in the rupture plane. Furthermore, the estimated peak ground acceleration (PGA) values are comparable with the earlier studies in the region. This confirms the robustness of generated rupture model with three SMGAs and the reliability of MSET to simulate high-frequency records.
Three samples of volcanic ashes collected after eruptions of the volcanos Hudson in 1991, Chaitén in 2008 and Puyehue in 2011 were analyzed in order to define the solid speciation of arsenic and the ...dynamics of its release to the aqueous phase. The bulk chemical and mineralogical characterization of the samples was performed by ICP/OES, DRX, and SEM/EDS analyses. The chemical composition of the near surface region (first 2–10nm), along with the As and Fe solid speciation was performed by XPS. Batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the kinetics of the arsenic release under variable pH conditions. The integrated analysis of these data indicates that arsenic compounds are concentrated onto the ash surface in the form of As(III)–S and As(V)–O species. The As(III) species have been assigned to arsenian pyrite, while As(V)–O compounds have been assigned to adsorbed arsenate ions or Fe arsenate salts precipitated as thin coatings.
Although the main As carrier in the studied volcanic ashes is Al-silicate glass, this phase is stable at the neutral pH that dominates the aqueous reservoirs of the area affected by ashfall. Thus, its contribution to the pool of dissolved arsenic is minor. Higher contributions are clearly associated with the more mobile As species that concentrate onto the surface of Al-silicate glass. This more available arsenic represents less than 6% of the total measured arsenic.
•Volcanic ashes from South Andean volcanoes release As when exposed to water.•As-bearing phases are concentrated onto the ash surface.•As(III)–S species have been assigned to arsenian pyrite.•As(V)–O compounds correspond to arsenate adsorbed or precipitated.•As included within the glass structure is released under extreme pH conditions.
The authors assessed the long-term consequences of the SCUD missile attack in Israel on children as a function of their mothers' psychological functioning, family cohesion, and the event itself.
Five ...years after the Gulf War, the authors assessed the internalizing, externalizing, stress, and posttraumatic symptoms of 81 children aged 8-10 years whose homes were damaged in the SCUD missile attack, as well as general and posttraumatic symptoms, defensive style, and object relations in their mothers.
There was a significant decrease in severity in most symptom domains and an increase in avoidant symptoms in the children. Greater severity of symptoms was associated with being displaced, living in a family with inadequate cohesion, and having a mother with poor psychological functioning. The association between the symptoms of children and mothers was stronger among the younger children. Posttraumatic symptoms increased in one-third of the children and decreased in one-third over the last 30 months of the study. Severe posttraumatic symptoms were reported in 8% of the children.
Despite a continuous decrease in symptom severity, risk factors identified shortly after the Gulf War continued to exert their influence on children 5 years after the traumatic exposure.
Russia's Market Economy is a seminal account of Russia's transition to the market, its tortuous development as a fledgling market economy through the 1990s, right through to its spectacular collapse ...in August 1998. Rather than beginning with the economic collapse, the book traces the historical mismanagement of Russian wealth through to the Soviet command economy, and on to Gorbachev. Stefan Hedlund finally discusses what lessons should be learned from the damage inflicted on the Russian economy, as well as its social, legal and political infrastructure, by the race of reform.
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