Evidence for ozone formation in human atherosclerotic arteries

Here, we report evidence for the production of ozone in human disease. Signature products unique to cholesterol ozonolysis are present within atherosclerotic tissue at the time of carotid endarterectomy, suggesting that ozone production occurred during lesion development. Furthermore, advanced atherosclerotic plaques generate ozone when the leukocytes within the diseased arteries are activated in vitro. The steroids produced by cholesterol ozonolysis cause effects that are thought to be critical to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, including cytotoxicity, lipid-loading in macrophages, and deformation of the apolipoprotein B-100 secondary structure. We propose the trivial designation "atheronals" for this previously unrecognized class of steroids.     

Voyager 1 in the foreshock, termination shock, and heliosheath

Voyager 1 (V1) began measuring precursor energetic ions and electrons from the heliospheric termination shock (TS) in July 2002. During the ensuing 2.5 years, average particle intensities rose as V1 penetrated deeper into the energetic particle foreshock of the TS. Throughout 2004, V1 observed even larger, fluctuating intensities of ions from 40 kiloelectron volts (keV) to >/=50 megaelectron volts per nucleon and of electrons from >26 keV to >/=350 keV. On day 350 of 2004 (2004/350), V1 observed an intensity spike of ions and electrons that was followed by a sustained factor of 10 increase at the lowest energies and lesser increases at higher energies, larger than any intensities since V1 was at 15 astronomical units in 1982. The estimated solar wind radial flow speed was positive (outward) at approximately +100 kilometers per second (km s(-1)) from 2004/352 until 2005/018, when the radial flows became predominantly negative (sunward) and fluctuated between approximately -50 and 0 km s(-1) until about 2005/110; they then became more positive, with recent values (2005/179) of approximately +50 km s(-1). The energetic proton spectrum averaged over the postshock period is apparently dominated by strongly heated interstellar pickup ions. We interpret these observations as evidence that V1 was crossed by the TS on 2004/351 (during a tracking gap) at 94.0 astronomical units, evidently as the shock was moving radially inward in response to decreasing solar wind ram pressure, and that V1 has remained in the heliosheath until at least mid-2005.     

Magnetotactic bacteria at the geomagnetic equator

Magnetotactic bacteria are present in fresh water and marine sediments of Fortaleza, Brazil, situated close to the geomagnetic equator. Both South-seeking and North-seeking bacteria are present in roughly equal numbers in the same samples. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that the vertical component of the geomagnetic field selects the predominant polarity type among magnetotactic bacteria in natural environments.     

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopic Investigation of Trace Vanadium Sites in Coal

X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to probe the chemical and structural environment of vanadium in coal. It was found that vanadium exists in at least two environments, in both of which it was coordinated to oxygens. There was no evidence of vanadium in nitrogen (porphyrin) or sulfide environments. It was also found that the vanadium environments in the raw coal did not survive unchanged in a liquefaction process. These findings have implications for coal cleaning processes and for trace element release into the liquefaction process stream.     

Tidal vertical migration: an endogenous rhythm in estuarine crab larvae

Field-caught larvae of the estuarine crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii have a tidal rhythm of vertical migration when maintained in constant conditions. Laboratory-reared larvae do not show this rhythm. Endogenous tidal vertical migrations aid the retention of these planktonic larvae in estuaries near the parent populations.     

High Pressure X-ray Diffraction Studies on Barium

Simultaneous x-ray diffraction and electrical resistance measurements on barium establish, with certainty, that Bridgman's 78-kb resistance transition is identical with his 59-kb volumetransition. During this transition, the bodycentered cubic structure changes to hexagonalclose packed. Lattice parameters for the latter structure at 62 kb (volume scale) are: a = 3.90 A, c = 6.15 A, and c/a = 1.58. Compression (AV/Vo) at 62 kb is 0.359 + 0.005 compared to 0.345 previously reported by Bridgman. Below the transition, at 49 kb, compression is 0.300 +/- 0.005 compared to Bridgman's 0.288. Bridgman's 17-kb volume transition was not detected by x-ray diffraction.     

Band gap fluorescence from individual single-walled carbon nanotubes

Fluorescence has been observed directly across the band gap of semiconducting carbon nanotubes. We obtained individual nanotubes, each encased in a cylindrical micelle, by ultrasonically agitating an aqueous dispersion of raw single-walled carbon nanotubes in sodium dodecyl sulfate and then centrifuging to remove tube bundles, ropes, and residual catalyst. Aggregation of nanotubes into bundles otherwise quenches the fluorescence through interactions with metallic tubes and substantially broadens the absorption spectra. At pH less than 5, the absorption and emission spectra of individual nanotubes show evidence of band gap-selective protonation of the side walls of the tube. This protonation is readily reversed by treatment with base or ultraviolet light.