Recent studies on liquid mixtures involving xenon and the light n-alkanes have revealed that, in many ways, xenon behaves like a member of the n-alkane family. The observed behaviour can be interpreted at the molecular level in terms of size and intermolecular potential. In this work the extension of this analogy to other microscopic and macroscopic properties is discussed. Furthermore, this be...

The Scheldt River system is located in northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands and includes a dense network of rivers, which contributed to the urban and industrial development in this area. Three sediment cores, collected in the Upper Scheldt River (Helkijn) and two of its tributaries (the Lys River at Wervik and the Espierre Canal), were analysed for n-alkanes and polycyclic aromatic hyd...

The cuticular hydrocarbons of the Triatoma sordida subcomplex (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae) were ana-lysed by gas chromatography and their structures identified by mass spectrometry. They comprised mostly n-alkanes and methyl-branched alkanes with one-four methyl substitutions. n-alkanes consisted of a homologous series from C21-C33 and represented 33-45% of the hydrocarbon fraction; n-C...

The aim of this study was to compare the n-alkanes and the ytterbium (Yb)/faecal index techniques as two methods for estimating the herbage intake of dairy cows fed indoors on different herbage : supplement ratios and feeding levels. The supplement was a mixture of maize silage and soyabean meal (ratio of 87 : 13 on a dry matter (DM) basis). In all, four treatments were studied. The herbage : s...

Alkanes comprise a substantial fraction of crude oil and refined fuels. As such, they are prevalent within deep subsurface fossil fuel deposits and in shallow subsurface environments such as aquifers that are contaminated with hydrocarbons. These environments are typically anaerobic, and host diverse microbial communities that can potentially use alkanes as substrates. Anaerobic alkane biodegra...

Coverage-dependent desorption-kinetics parameters are obtained from high-quality temperature-programmed desorption data for seven small n-alkane molecules on MgO(100). The molecules, CNH2N+2 (N=1-4,6,8,10), were each studied for a set of 29 initial coverages at a heating ramp rate of 0.6 K/s as well as at a set of nine ramp rates in the range of 0.3-10.0 K/s. The inversion analysis method with ...

Ab&r&-Quartz crystals from calcite veins of unknown age in Precambrian metasedimentary rocks at Geiaus No. 6 and Aukam farms in South-West Africa contain both primary and secondary inclusions filled with one or a variable combination of: organic liquid, moderately saline aqueous liquid, dark-colored solid, and vapor. Analysis of these materials by microscopy and by gas chromatography and maas s...

Atmospheric aerosol particles were collected with a high-volume sampler in a Finnish coniferous forest during the field campaign Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer (QUEST) in March–April 2003. Four chromatographic techniques were applied to characterise the organic composition of the samples, and to study variations in the concentrations of identified compounds....