OBJECTIVE Blood lead (B-Pb), one of the most used toxicological biomarker all kind, has serious limitations. Thus, the objective is to evaluate whether plasma lead (P-Pb) is more adequate. METHODS A long-term follow-up study of five cases of lead poisoning. P-Pb was analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Kinetics after end of exposure was modelled. RESULTS P-Pb at severe ...

The existence of ancient rocks in present mid-ocean ridges have long been observed but received less attention. Here we report the discovery of zircons with both reasonably young ages of about 5 Ma and abnormally old ages of approximate 180 Ma from two evolved gabbroic rocks that were dredged from the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) in the Gallieni fracture zone. U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope analyses o...

Introduction Let C be a convex bounded body in the n-dimensional Euclidean space E, and let B be its boundary. We use Busemann's notations: E(a,b) for the segment {(1 — p)a + pb: 0 < p ^ 1} from a to b, and S(z, p) for the sphere {x: \\z — x\\ = p). We now recall the definition of Hammer's associated bodies C(r). Let Cb(r) be the set obtained from C by a similitude transformation with a ratio r...

We formulate and study a mechanical instability criterion for sudden hadronization of dense matter fireballs formed in 158A GeV Pb-Pb collisions. Considering properties of quark-gluon matter and hadron gas we obtain the phase boundary between these two phases and demonstrate that the required deep quark-gluon-plasma supercooling prior to sudden hadronization has occurred.

The fluctuations in pseudorapidity density are well described by Fritiof and IRIS, model for a bulk of the data at a few high multiplicity events remain unexplained. In these events, the estimated energy density is within the range of values predicated for the onset of the deconfinement phase transition. It is important to know whether fluctuations are, in fact, of statistical nature or geometr...

The problem of large-scale correlations of particles produced in high-energy collisions is discussed. Among them are, e.g., those correlations which lead to ring-like and elliptic flow shapes of individual high-multiplicity events in the polar+azimuthal angles plane. The wavelet method of analysis which allows to disentangle various patterns is proposed and applied to central Pb-Pb collisions a...

The hadronic particle production data from relativistic nuclear Pb–Pb 158 A GeV collisions are successfully described within the chemical non-equilibrium model, provided that the analysis does not include Ω and Ω abundances. We show that there is a subtle influence of the Coulomb potential on strange quarks in quark matter which is also seen in our data analysis, and this Coulomb effect confirm...

Trigger capability for dimuon events is discussed. The acceptance and low momentum reach are calculated. The rates of muon trigger caused by prompt muons, hadron decays and hadronic punchthrough are examined. A trigger strategy for Pb-Pb collision is proposed to ensure high efficiency for the signal and acceptable background rates. Possible modifications for lighter ions are briefly discussed. ...

The most abundant components of primitive meteorites (chondrites) are millimeter-sized glassy spherical chondrules formed by transient melting events in the solar protoplanetary disk. Using Pb-Pb dates of 22 individual chondrules, we show that primary production of chondrules in the early solar system was restricted to the first million years after the formation of the Sun and that these existi...

A wide research program provided by heavy ion collisions is ongoing at the Large Hadron Col-lider with the aim of studying the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperatures and densities. The large acceptance and high granularity of the ATLAS Detector is well suited to perform detailed analyses on bulk phenomena, jets and leptonic probes. Measurements of these observables provided by the 9 µ...