scholarly journals Hypothetical Thresholds for Effects of Platinum Group Elements

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Gunnar Bengtsson
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Platinum Group Elements ◽  
Ecological Effects ◽  
Preliminary Assessment ◽  
Soil Concentration ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Platinum Group

The platinum-group elements are rhodium, ruthenium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. Together with rhenium and gold they form the highly siderophilic (“iron-loving”) elements. These are poorly known with respect to toxicity and ecotoxicity. The mobilization by man of the eight metals is about 100 times to 1 million times the natural mobilization. Mean soil concentrations in Europe may now be more than doubled for gold, rhenium and rhodium. The objective of the current work was to enable a preliminary assessment of the consequences of such high environmental levels. Thresholds for ecological effects found in the literature were divided by the element’s mean soil concentration and plotted against group and period in the periodic system. Thresholds for health effects were correspondingly divided by the mean dietary intake of the element over large population groups. For health effects, an upper limit of intake is commonly used. This was shown to be about 4 times the mean normal intake for most period 4 elements. For other periods, occupational exposure thresholds entail upper limits of intake in µg/day of: Ru 18, Rh 8, Pd 17, Re 60, Os 15, Ir 4, Pt 20 and Au 160. For ecological effects, the no effect thresholds for period 4 were 1-5 times the soil concentrations. Very scarce data suggest higher relative thresholds for periods 5 and 6. The current high contaminations of European soil by Rh and possibly Pd may be of concern. Since the estimates of risks are uncertain, further research is warranted.

scholarly journals Fractional polarization of extragalactic sources in the 500 deg2 SPTpol survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (4) ◽  
pp. 5712-5721 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Gupta ◽  
C L Reichardt ◽  
P A R Ade ◽  
A J Anderson ◽  
M Archipley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Galactic Nuclei ◽  
Weighted Mean ◽  
Full Sample ◽  
The Real ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Polarization Fraction

ABSTRACT We study the polarization properties of extragalactic sources at 95 and 150 GHz in the SPTpol 500 deg2 survey. We estimate the polarized power by stacking maps at known source positions, and correct for noise bias by subtracting the mean polarized power at random positions in the maps. We show that the method is unbiased using a set of simulated maps with similar noise properties to the real SPTpol maps. We find a flux-weighted mean-squared polarization fraction 〈p2〉 = [8.9 ± 1.1] × 10−4 at 95 GHz and [6.9 ± 1.1] × 10−4 at 150 GHz for the full sample. This is consistent with the values obtained for a subsample of active galactic nuclei. For dusty sources, we find 95 per cent upper limits of 〈p2〉95 < 16.9 × 10−3 and 〈p2〉150 < 2.6 × 10−3. We find no evidence that the polarization fraction depends on the source flux or observing frequency. The 1σ upper limit on measured mean-squared polarization fraction at 150 GHz implies that extragalactic foregrounds will be subdominant to the CMB E and B mode polarization power spectra out to at least ℓ ≲ 5700 (ℓ ≲ 4700) and ℓ ≲ 5300 (ℓ ≲ 3600), respectively, at 95 (150) GHz.

scholarly journals Observing AGN feedback with CO intensity mapping

2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (1) ◽  
pp. 260-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick C Breysse ◽  
Rachael M Alexandroff
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Gas Content ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Intensity Mapping ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Cosmic History

ABSTRACT Current models of galaxy formation require star formation in high-mass galaxies to be limited by poorly understood mechanisms of quasar feedback. Feedback processes can be studied by examining the molecular gas content of AGN hosts through the CO rotational ladder, but the complexity of these observations means that current data are limited to only extremely CO-bright objects. Upcoming CO intensity mapping experiments offer an opportunity for a less biased probe of quasar feedback. By correlating intensity maps with spectroscopic AGN surveys, we can obtain a measurement of the mean CO luminosity of a large population of quasars simultaneously. We show that experiments like COMAP, CCAT-prime, and CONCERTO have enough sensitivity to detect this cross-correlation if existing AGN observations are representative of the whole population, and to place interesting upper limits if they are not. Future surveys will be able to increase the precision of these measurements by orders of magnitude, allowing detailed studies of quasar properties across a wide range of cosmic history.

Vitamin-A-Exzess durch Pferdefleischprodukte mit hohen Leberanteilen

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (01) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
E. Kienzle ◽  
N. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin A ◽  
Eine Analyse ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Upper Limits

ZusammenfassungIm Rahmen einer Eliminationsdiät wird regelmäßig Pferdefleisch eingesetzt. Aus Gründen der Praktikabilität verwenden Tierbesitzer häufig kommerziell erhältliches Pferdefleisch aus der Dose. Aufgrund eines Berichts von Zervikalspondylosen bei einer auf Futtermittel allergischen Katze erfolgte eine Analyse verschiedener auf Pferdefleisch basierender Produkte hinsichtlich des Vitamin-AGehalts.In 14 Pferdefleischerzeugnissen wurde der Vitamin-A-Gehalt (Retinol) analysiert. Der Gehalt an umsetzbarer Energie wurde mithilfe von Schätzformeln auf Basis der Deklaration berechnet.In Produkten mit deklarierten Anteilen von Leber, Innereien oder tierischen Nebenprodukten konnten zum Teil erhebliche Vitamin-A-Gehalte festgestellt werden. Bei alleiniger Verfütterung eines dieser Produkte (Deckung des durchschnittlichen Energiebedarfs) würde die Vitamin-A-Versorgung nur knapp unter dem Safe Upper Limit der Katze sowie oberhalb des Safe Upper Limits beim Hund liegen.Bei All-Meat-Produkten sollte nicht nur die Deklaration, sondern auch der Inhalt näher betrachtet werden, um einen Hinweis auf eventuell hohe Leberanteile zu erhalten.Aufgrund der Ergebnisse ist eine exzessive Vitamin-A-Aufnahme bei langfristiger Verfütterung von Pferdefleischprodukten mit hohen Leberanteilen nicht auszuschließen.

scholarly journals Planetary Nebulae in M31: Abundances, and comparison with bright Planetary Nebulae in the LMC

1997 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 475-476
Author(s):  
M. G. Richer ◽  
G. Stasińska ◽  
M. L. McCall
Keyword(s):  
Planetary Nebula ◽  
Luminosity Function ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Wavelength Region ◽  
Planetary Nebulae ◽  
Surprising Result ◽  
Population Synthesis ◽  
Abundance Distribution ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean

We have obtained spectra of 28 planetary nebulae in the bulge of M31 using the MOS spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Typically, we observed the [O II] λ3727 to He I λ5876 wavelength region at a resolution of approximately 1.6 å/pixel. For 19 of the 21 planetary nebulae whose [OIII]λ5007 luminosities are within 1 mag of the peak of the planetary nebula luminosity function, our oxygen abundances are based upon a measured [OIII]λ4363 intensity, so they are based upon a measured electron temperature. The oxygen abundances cover a wide range, 7.85 dex < 12 + log(O/H) < 9.09 dex, but the mean abundance is surprisingly low, 12 + log(O/H)–8.64 ± 0.32 dex, i.e., roughly half the solar value (Anders & Grevesse 1989). The distribution of oxygen abundances is shown in Figure 1, where the ordinate indicates the number of planetary nebulae with abundances within ±0.1 dex of any point on the x-axis. The dashed line indicates the mean abundance, and the dotted lines indicate the ±1 σ points. The shape of this abundance distribution seems to indicate that the bulge of M31 does not contain a large population of bright, oxygen-rich planetary nebulae. This is a surprising result, for various population synthesis studies (e.g., Bica et al. 1990) have found a mean stellar metallicity approximately 0.2 dex above solar. This 0.5 dex discrepancy leads one to question whether the mean stellar metallicity is as high as the population synthesis results indicate or if such metal-rich stars produce bright planetary nebulae at all. This could be a clue concerning the mechanism responsible for the variation in the number of bright planetary nebulae observed per unit luminosity in different galaxies (e.g., Hui et al. 1993).

scholarly journals Search for π0 decays to invisible particles

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cortina Gil ◽  
◽  
A. Kleimenova ◽  
E. Minucci ◽  
S. Padolski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higgs Boson ◽  
Standard Model ◽  
Confidence Level ◽  
Branching Ratio ◽  
Standard Model Higgs Boson ◽  
Scalar Mixing ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Upper Limits ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Model Independent

Abstract The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports a study of a sample of 4 × 109 tagged π0 mesons from K+ → π+π0(γ), searching for the decay of the π0 to invisible particles. No signal is observed in excess of the expected background fluctuations. An upper limit of 4.4 × 10−9 is set on the branching ratio at 90% confidence level, improving on previous results by a factor of 60. This result can also be interpreted as a model- independent upper limit on the branching ratio for the decay K+ → π+X, where X is a particle escaping detection with mass in the range 0.110–0.155 GeV/c2 and rest lifetime greater than 100 ps. Model-dependent upper limits are obtained assuming X to be an axion-like particle with dominant fermion couplings or a dark scalar mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson.

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