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As the primary atmospheric oxidant, the OH radical has a key role in the removal or production of major air pollutants, greenhouse gases and many ozone-depleting substances (1-3). A better [...], The hydroxyl radical (OH) is a key oxidant involved in the removal of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (1-3). The ratio of Northern Hemispheric to Southern Hemispheric (NH/SH) OH concentration is important for our understanding of emission estimates of atmospheric species such as nitrogen oxides and methane (4-6). It remains poorly constrained, however, with a range of estimates from 0.85 to 1.4 (refs 4,7-10). Here we determine the NH/SH ratio of OH with the help of methyl chloroform data (a proxy for OH concentrations) and an atmospheric transport model that accurately describes interhemispheric transport and modelled emissions. We find that for the years 2004-2011 the model predicts an annual mean NH-SH gradient of methyl chloroform that is a tight linear function of the modelled NH/SH ratio in annual mean OH. We estimate a NH/SH OH ratio of 0.97 ± 0.12 during this time period by optimizing global total emissions and mean OH abundance to fit methyl chloroform data from two surface-measurement networks and aircraft campaigns (11-13). Our findings suggest that top-down emission estimates of reactive species such as nitrogen oxides in key emitting countries in the NH that are based on a NH/SH OH ratio larger than 1 maybe overestimated.

Cadmium and cadmium compounds are water soluble, mobile in most soils, bio-available, and tend to bio-accumulate. A pot culture experiment was conducted on contaminated soil to study the influence of lime and organic matter on the mobility of cadmium in spinach and its rhizosphere soil. Application of lime (50% and 100% lime requirement) and organic matter (0.5 and 1% by weight of soil) to soil decreased the availability of Cd to the soil and plant throughout the crop growth. The highest diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid (DTPA) extractable Cd was 10.84 mg kg−1 in the treatment OM0 L0 (No application of organic matter and lime) at 20 days after sowing of spinach. Likewise, the highest Cd concentration in spinach roots and shoots were 19.80 and 17.0 mg kg−1 in the treatment OM0 L0 at 20 days after sowing. The Cd concentration in spinach roots and shoots were decreased by 63.23 and 71.88%, respectively, in the treatment OM1 L100 (application of FYM at 1.0% by weight of soil and lime at 100% lime requirement) after 60 days of growth. The lowest concentrations of Cd in the soil and plant after the harvest of the crop were 2.88 and 4.27 mg kg−1, respectively, in the treatment OM1 L100 and resulted in 65.75 and 71.55% decrease over control (OM0 L0). The highest total chlorophyll content of leaves was 2.19 mg kg−1 of fresh weight in the treatment OM1 L100 at 40 days of crop growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have applied the Mathieu potential model to photoemission calculations from metals. The case of a strong potential is considered to describe the wavefunctions which is used for the evaluation of photocurrent from tungsten, molybdenum, copper and silicon. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) are involved in the various orthopedic complications such as avascular necrosis, osteonecrosis and bone turnover, therefore genes coding for proteins, like BMP4, can be potential candidate for studying orthopedic disorders. Methods: A case–control study was conducted to examine the association between SNP T538C of BMP4 and orthopedic complications in sickling patients by employing PCR-RFLP. Results: A total of 200 cases and 172 control groups were studied from Indian population. T538C SNP has not been implicated in disease and doesn''t increase the risk (OR=0.89, OR=0.68). We observed no significant association between the T538C polymorphism and case group in the studied population. However, we observed significantly increased uric acid and LDH level in homowild (TT), heteromutant (TC) and homomutant (CC) in case group compared to control group ( all p =0.0001) and (p =0.0001, p =0.0001, p =0.015 and p =0.0001, p =0.0001, p =0.0001 respectively) in the studied population. Conclusions: The T/C polymorphism in BMP4 is not associated with case group and in view of present observation, we suggest that evaluation of LDH and uric acid level and its association with polymorphisms in the BMP4 may be considered to be reliable molecular and biochemical markers, and possess promising rational for diagnostic potential in clinical cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]