Handheld LIBS for Li Exploration: An Example from the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt, USA

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), which has recently emerged as tool for geochemical analysis outside the traditional laboratory setting, is an ideal tool for Li exploration because it is the only technique that can measure Li in minerals, rocks, soils, and brines in-situ in the field. In addition to being used in many products essential to modern life, Li is a necessary element for a reduced carbon future and Li–Cs–Ta (LCT) granitic pegmatites are an important source of Li. Such pegmatites can have varying degrees of enrichment in Li, Rb, Cs, Be, Sn, Ga, Ta>Nb, B, P, and F. We focus here on the LCT pegmatites of the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt (CTSB) situated in the Kings Mountain Shear Zone, which extends from South Carolina into North Carolina. The CTSB hosts both barren and fertile pegmatites, with Li-enriched pegmatites containing spodumene, K-feldspar, albite, quartz, muscovite, and beryl. We illustrate how handheld LIBS analysis can be used for real-time Li analysis in the field at a historically important CTSB pegmatite locality in Gaston County, N.C. in four contexts: (i) elemental detection and identification; (ii) microchemical mapping; (iii) depth profiling; and (iv) elemental quantitative analysis. Finally, as an example of a practical exploration application, we describe how handheld LIBS can be used to measure K/Rb ratios and Li contents of muscovite and rapidly determine the degree of pegmatite fractionation. This study demonstrates the potential of handheld LIBS to drastically reduce the time necessary to acquire geochemical data relevant to acquiring compositional information for pegmatites during a Li pegmatite exploration program.

EMPREGO DO SENSORIAMENTO REMOTO PARA ANÁLISE DO USO E OCUPAÇÃO DO SOLO NO PERÍMETRO IRRIGADO VÁRZEAS DE SOUSA-PB

EMPREGO DO SENSORIAMENTO REMOTO PARA ANÁLISE DO USO E OCUPAÇÃO DO SOLO NO PERÍMETRO IRRIGADO VÁRZEAS DE SOUSA-PB LEONCIO GONÇALVES RODRIGUES1; ANA CÉLIA MAIA MEIRELES2 E CARLOS WAGNER OLIVEIRA3 1Mestrando em Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável, Universidade Federal do Cariri-UFCA, Rua Ícaro Moreira de Sousa, nº 126, Muriti, 63130-025, Crato, Ceará, Brasil, [email protected]. 2 Professora titular do Programa de pós graduação em Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável, Universidade Federal do Cariri-UFCA, Rua Ícaro Moreira de Sousa, nº 126, Muriti, 63130-025, Crato, Ceará, Brasil, [email protected] 3 Professor titular do Programa de pós graduação em Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável, Universidade Federal do Cariri-UFCA, Rua Ícaro Moreira de Sousa, nº 126, Muriti, 63130-025, Crato, Ceará, Brasil, [email protected] 1 RESUMO O perímetro irrigado várzeas de Sousa (PIVAS) é um grande produtor de culturas como coco, banana, sorgo, algodão dentre outras. Tem grande importância para o desenvolvimento econômico da região do alto sertão da Paraíba. Possui características impares como a distribuição de água para todos os lotes por potencial gravitacional. Para a sustentabilidade do perímetro é necessário o monitoramento constante de suas áreas, para se poder desenvolver estratégias que auxiliam no desenvolvimento sustentável. Nesse sentido, o sensoriamento remoto é uma ferramenta ideal por permitir a obtenção rápida e precisa de informações sobre uma área, o que pode auxiliar na tomada de decisão. Partindo desse pressuposto, o objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um conjunto de técnicas de sensoriamento que possibilitem o monitoramento de áreas irrigadas ou ambientais. Para tanto foi determinado do uso e ocupação do solo, o índice de vegetação por diferença normalizada (NDVI) e o índice de vegetação ajustado ao solo (SAVI) para o PIVAS. Onde se observou que as técnicas de sensoriamento remoto auxiliam na compreensão de áreas no espaço e tempo. Palavras-chave: monitoramento, manejo, satélite. RODRIGUES, L. G.; MEIRELES, A. C. M.; OLIVEIRA, C, W. USE OF REMOTE SENSING TO ANALYZE THE USE AND OCCUPANCY OF THE SOIL IN THE PERIMETER IRRIGATED VÁRZEAS DE SOUSA-PB. 2 ABSTRACT The floodplain-irrigated perimeter of Sousa (PIVAS) is a major producer of crops such as coconut, banana, sorghum, cotton, among others. It is of great importance for the economic development of the upper wilderness region of Paraiba. It has unique characteristics such as water distribution to all lots by gravitational potential. For the sustainability of the perimeter, constant monitoring of its areas is necessary, to be able to develop strategies that help in sustainable development. In this sense, remote sensing is an ideal tool as it allows for quick and accurate obtaining information about an area, which can help in decision making. Based on this assumption, this work aims to present a set of sensing techniques that enable monitoring of irrigated or environmental areas. For this purpose, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) were determined for the PIVAS. Where it was observed that remote sensing techniques help understand areas in space and time. Keywords: monitoring, management, satellite.

Early detection of cyanide, organophosphate and rodenticide pollution based on locomotor activity of zebrafish larvae

Cyanide, organophosphate and rodenticides are highly toxic substances widely used in agriculture and industry. These toxicants are neuro- and organotoxic to mammals at low concentrations, thus early detection of these chemicals in the aqueous environment is of utmost importance. Here, we employed the behavioral toxicity test with wildtype zebrafish larvae to determine sublethal concentrations of the above mentioned common environmental pollutants. After optimizing the test with cyanide, nine rodenticides and an organophosphate were successfully tested. The compounds dose-dependently initially (0–60-min exposure) stimulated locomotor activity of larvae but induced toxicity and reduced swimming during 60–120-min exposure. IC50 values calculated based on swimming distance after 2-h exposure, were between 0.1 and 10 mg/L for both first-generation and second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides. Three behavioral characteristics, including total distance travelled, sinuosity and burst count, were quantitatively analyzed and compared by hierarchical clustering of the effects measured by each three parameters. The toxicity results for all three behavioral endpoints were consistent, suggesting that the directly measured parameter of cumulative swimming distance could be used as a promising biomarker for the aquatic contamination. The optimized method herein showed the potential for utilization as part of a monitoring system and an ideal tool for the risk assessment of drinking water in the military and public safety.

The Right to Science

That everyone has a human right to enjoy the benefits of the progress of science and its applications comes as a surprise to many. Nevertheless, this right is pertinent to numerous issues at the intersection of science and society: open access; 'dual use' science; access to ownership and dissemination of data, knowledge, methods and the affordances and applications thereof; as well as the role of international co-operation, human dignity and other human rights in relation to science and its products. As we advance towards superintelligence, quantum computing, drone swarms, and life-extension technology, serious policy decisions will be made at the national and international levels. The human right to science provides an ideal tool to do so, backed up as it is by international law, political heft, and normative weight. This book is the first sustained attempt at turning this wonder of foresight into an actionable and justiciable right. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Empowering Girls Through Sport: A Gender Transformative Approach to Life Skills?

From the Pacific Islands to Sub-Saharan Africa, development organizations have positioned sport as an ideal tool for building important life skills that can be transferred from the playing field to day-to-day realities. Sport has also been positioned as a key space for girls’ empowerment, especially in contexts where gender norms limit girls’ mobility and/or their opportunities to engage in activities stereotyped as being for boys. But an approach that solely focuses on empowering girls through sport by depositing in her useful life skills ignores the structural conditions that have disempowered her in the first place. This chapter examines the gender transformative potential of sport-based life skills programs by exploring the skills that are being targeted, especially for girls’ empowerment, by the sport for development (SFD) community. The chapter then examines the implications for our understanding of life skills approaches to gender transformative social change, particularly as it pertains to addressing the conditions that have held girls back.

To Discover the Efficient and Novel Drug Targets in Human Cancers Using CRISPR/Cas Screening and Databases

CRISPR/Cas has emerged as an excelle nt gene-editing technology and is used worldwide for research. The CRISPR library is an ideal tool for identifying essential genes and synthetic lethality targeted for cancer therapies in human cancers. Synthetic lethality is defined as multiple genetic abnormalities that, when present individually, do not affect function or survival, but when present together, are lethal. Recently, many CRISPR libraries are available, and the latest libraries are more accurate and can be applied to few cells. However, it is easier to efficiently search for cancer targets with their own screenings by effectively using databases of CRISPR screenings, such as Depmap portal, PICKLES (Pooled In-Vitro CRISPR Knockout Library Essentiality Screens), iCSDB, Project Score database, and CRISP-view. This review will suggest recent optimal CRISPR libraries and effective databases for Novel Approaches in the Discovery and Design of Targeted Therapies.

Sensitivity Analysis of Stochastic Calculation of SCC Regarding Aggressive Environment

Probabilistic procedures considering the durability with respect to corrosion of reinforcement caused by aggressive substances are widely applied; however, they are based on narrow assumptions. The aspects need to be evaluated both in terms of the search for suitable application of the various experimental results and in terms of their impact on the result of the stochastic assessment itself. In this article, sensitivity analysis was used as an ideal tool to prove how input parameters affect the results of the evaluation, with consideration of different types of concrete (ordinary or self-compacting with and without fibres). These concretes may be used in aggressive environments, as an industrial floor or as a part of the load-bearing bridge structure. An example of a reinforced concrete bridge deck was selected as the solved structure. The results show that in the case of a classic evaluation, a larger amount of fibre reports a lower resistance of concrete, which contradicts the assumptions. The sensitivity analysis then shows that self-compacting concrete is more sensitive to the values of the diffusion coefficient, and with the consideration of fibres, the effect is even greater.

Analysis of Modular Design Applicable in Prosumer Scope. Guideline in the Creation of a New Modular Design Model

Modular design is the design based on independent and connectable modules to achieve product variety. It is an ideal tool that could facilitate the inclusion of prosumers in the creative process. However, its evolution has focused on product development and not on end users. The creation of a new modular design model for prosumers could respond to their needs while exploiting the advantages of modularity. The present work analyzes the applicability of modular design in the prosumer scope and defines a guideline for the creation of the new model. To this end, prosumer and modular design methods are collected and analyzed throughout the previously defined design process. The intersection between both terms is analyzed through a series of real cases and design methods that show what the objectives of prosumers are and if the present products and methods meet their needs. These results will establish the current and potential link between modular design and prosumers. Finally, the objectives and stages to develop the design model based on previous results are presented. The paper presents relevant findings such as the lack of methods in the conceptual design phases and a guideline to ensure that the prosumer benefits from modular design.

Strong immunogenicity of heterologous prime-boost immunizations with the experimental vaccine GRAd-COV2 and BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-nCOV19

Here we report on the humoral and cellular immune response in eight volunteers who autonomously chose to adhere to the Italian national COVID-19 vaccination campaign more than 3 months after receiving a single-administration GRAd-COV2 vaccine candidate in the context of the phase-1 clinical trial. We observed a clear boost of both binding/neutralizing antibodies as well as T-cell responses upon receipt of the heterologous BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-nCOV19 vaccines. These results, despite the limitation of the small sample size, support the concept that a single dose of an adenoviral vaccine may represent an ideal tool to effectively prime a balanced immune response, which can be boosted to high levels by a single dose of a different vaccine platform.

Ultrafast Imaging of Molecules with Electron Diffraction

Photoexcited molecules convert light into chemical and mechanical energy through changes in electronic and nuclear structure that take place on femtosecond timescales. Gas phase ultrafast electron diffraction (GUED) is an ideal tool to probe the nuclear geometry evolution of the molecules and complements spectroscopic methods that are mostly sensitive to the electronic state. GUED is a passive probing tool that does not alter the molecular properties during the probing process and is sensitive to the spatial distribution of charge in the molecule, including both electrons and nuclei. Improvements in temporal resolution have enabled GUED to capture coherent nuclear motions in molecules in the excited and ground electronic states with femtosecond and subangstrom resolution. Here we present the basic theory of GUED and explain what information is encoded in the diffraction signal, review how GUED has been used to observe coherent structural dynamics in recent experiments, and discuss the advantages and limitations of the method. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, Volume 73 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.