Measurements made in feces and urine of Wistar rats exposed to lead acetate (n = 20) in drinking water since the fetal period were compared with those obtained from a control group (n = 20) in order to assess the age influence on Pb excretion. The measurements were made in different collections of rats aging between 1 and 11 months. To determine the Pb content of the samples, total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) were used for the urine samples and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) was used for the feces.The results show high concentrations of Pb being eliminated from the organism by urine and feces in contaminated rats. Values vary from (600`140)mgl1 to (5 460`115)mgl1 in urine and from (4 500`300)mgg1 to (11 400`3 300)mgg1 in dry feces. The control rats show, in general, low lead concentrations or below detection limits. The fecal/urinary ratio was studied. It was shown to be about three to four orders of magnitude and positively correlated with time. It was verified in feces and urine that excretion decreases with the animal age and that this decrease is made by different levels of excretion. The excretions of Pb in urine and in feces are positively correlated.A good agreement was found between the results obtained with TXRF and ETAAS for urine samples. This work also stresses the suitability of these techniques in the study of Pb intoxication.

Inductive superconducting fault current limiters have already demonstrated their technical viability in electrical networks. Its architecture and robustness make them potentially adequate for distribution networks, and this type of devices is considered as an enabling technology for the advent of embedded generation with renewable energy sources. In order to promote the growth and maturity of these superconducting technologies, fast design tools must be developed, allowing simulating devices with different materials in grids with diverse characteristics. This work presents advances in the development of such tool, which, at present stage, is an effective alternative to software simulations by finite elements methods, reducing dramatically computation time. The algorithms are now compared with experimental results from a laboratory scale prototype, showing the need to refine them.

Following our previous study on spin–rotation and shielding constants of the SF6 molecule, the rotational g factor and the magnetic susceptibility are calculated here, using ab initio methods to evaluate the electronic contribution to the nuclear hyperfine constants, and compared with experimental results. It is shown, for the first time, that the electronic component of the rotational g factor is proportional to a constant, which is given by a sum over electronic states. We also evaluate for the SF6 molecule the indirect, or electron-coupled spin–spin interaction, theoretically described by Ramsey, and show that it gives non-negligible corrections to direct coupling constants d1 and d2. The contributions of the terms included in this interaction (DSO, PSO, SD and FC) are also analysed.

Barium zinc borosilicate glasses with a molar composition xBaO-(60-x)ZnO-30B 2O 3-10SiO 2, where x ranged from 0 to 60 mol%, were prepared using melt-quenching method. The effect of BaO substitution for ZnO on the sintering, crystallization, and dielectric characteristics has been investigated. The behavior of the studied barium zinc borosilicate glasses was mainly determined by the relative amount of the structural modifier oxides (BaO and ZnO) and the ionic size, and field strength of the modifying cations (Ba 2+, Zn 2+). Increased amounts of BaO decreased both glass transition temperature and crystallization temperature, while increasing the relative dielectric constant. Sintering occurred before crystallization for glasses where substitution of BaO for ZnO was up to 30 mol%, but for higher substitution levels, crystallization occurred during the sintering process hindering densification. © 2012 The American Ceramic Society.

The accumulation of lead in several bones of Wistar rats with time was determined and compared Q3 for the different types of bones. Two groups were studied: a control group (n = 20), not exposed to lead and a contaminated group (n = 30), exposed to lead from birth, first indirectly throughmother’s milk, and then directly through a diet containing lead acetate in drinking water (0.2%). Rats age ranged from 1 to 11 months, with approximately 1 month intervals and each of the collections had 3 contaminated rats and 2 control rats. Iliac, femur, tibia–fibula and skull have been analysed by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique (EDXRF). Samples of formaldehyde used to preserve the bone tissues were also analysed by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption (ETAAS), showing that there was no significant loss of lead from the tissue to the preservative. The bones mean lead concentration of exposed rats range from 100 to 300 mg g 1 while control rats never exceeded 10 mg g 1. Mean bone lead concentrations were compared andthe concentrations were higher in iliac, femur and tibia–fibula and after that skull. However, of all the concentrations in the different collections, only those in the skull were statistically Q4 significantly different (p o 0.05) from the other types of bones. Analysis of a radar chart also allowed us to say that these differences tend to diminish with age. The Spearman correlation test applied to mean lead concentrations showed strong and very strong positive correlations betweenall different types of bones. This test also showed that mean lead concentrations in bones are negatively correlated with the age of the animals. This correlation is strong in iliac and femur and very strong in tibia–fibula and skull. It was also shown that the decrease of lead accumulation with age is made by three plateaus of accumulation,

The enzymatic (tyrosinase) and chemical (NaIO4, Ag2O or Fremys's salt) oxidation of biologically relevant catecholamines, such as dopamine (DA), N-acetyldopamine (NADA) and the Ecstasy metabolites (alpha-MeDA and N-Me-alpha-MeDA) generates the corresponding o-quinone which can be trapped with nitrogen bionucleophiles such as N-acetyl-histidine and imidazole in a regioselective reaction that takes place predominantly at the 6-position of the catecholamine. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The C 1s and N 1s photoelectron spectra of gas-phase 5-aminotetrazole (5ATZ) were recorded using synchrotron radiation, with the aim of evaluating 1H/2H tautomer population ratios. The core-electron binding energies (CEBEs) were estimated from computational results, using the delta self-consistent-field (ΔSCF) approach. Simulated spectra were generated using these CEBEs and the results from Gaussian-n (Gn, n=1, 2 and 3) and Complete Basis Set (CBS-4M and CBS-Q) methods. Results reveal the almost exclusive predominance of the 2H-tautomer, with a 1H/2H ratio of ca. 0.12/0.88, taken from a gross analysis of the XPS C 1s spectrum, recorded at 365 K.