Adsorption and release processes in estuaries

The release of metals and other elements from dental and orthopedic implants into the tissues has been a matter of numerous studies. However, the conditions that favor such a phenomenon have not been completely understood so far. PIXE microbeam technique has been applied to study the spatial distribution of the elements released from the implants. Subjects of interest have been implants made from commercially pure titanium, Ti -6 Al -4 V alloy and 316 LWM surgical steel. Block sections of five dental implants, as well as tissues surrounding one metal spine plate and two hip prostheses, have been examined. Rabbit bones containing copper inclusions have been taken for microbeam analysis to complete the study about the metal release processes. Samples from the tissues and bone slices have been analyzed using PIXE microbeam setup at National Laboratories of Legnaro, Italy. Traces of the implant metals, including titanium but with the exception of vanadium, were found in the surrounding tissues and maps of their elemental distribution at different distances from the contact surface with implants have been obtained. The origin and the differences of the release rate of the observed metals have been discussed.

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Predicting observational signatures of coronal heating by Alfvén waves and nanoflares

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s174392130801497x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (S247) ◽

pp. 279-287

Author(s):

Patrick Antolin ◽

Kazunari Shibata ◽

Takahiro Kudoh ◽

Daiko Shiota ◽

David Brooks

Keyword(s):

Power Law ◽

Alfven Waves ◽

Alfvén Waves ◽

Power Law Distribution ◽

Longitudinal Modes ◽

Heating Mechanism ◽

Set Up ◽

Power Law Index ◽

Power Law Distributions ◽

Release Processes

AbstractAlfvén waves can dissipate their energy by means of nonlinear mechanisms, and constitute good candidates to heat and maintain the solar corona to the observed few million degrees. Another appealing candidate is the nanoflare-reconnection heating, in which energy is released through many small magnetic reconnection events. Distinguishing the observational features of each mechanism is an extremely difficult task. On the other hand, observations have shown that energy release processes in the corona follow a power law distribution in frequency whose index may tell us whether small heating events contribute substantially to the heating or not. In this work we show a link between the power law index and the operating heating mechanism in a loop. We set up two coronal loop models: in the first model Alfvén waves created by footpoint shuffling nonlinearly convert to longitudinal modes which dissipate their energy through shocks; in the second model numerous heating events with nanoflare-like energies are input randomly along the loop, either distributed uniformly or concentrated at the footpoints. Both models are based on a 1.5-D MHD code. The obtained coronae differ in many aspects, for instance, in the simulated intensity profile that Hinode/XRT would observe. The intensity histograms display power law distributions whose indexes differ considerably. This number is found to be related to the distribution of the shocks along the loop. We thus test the observational signatures of the power law index as a diagnostic tool for the above heating mechanisms and the influence of the location of nanoflares.

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