Heavy metal accumulation in Artemisia and foliaceous lichen species from the Azerbaijan flora

Artemisia plants and foliaceous lichens are known to be capable of accumulating heavy metals (HM) from soil and air. These plant species are widespread on polluted sites of Azerbaijan. However, so far their capacity to accumulate HM in their shoots and roots has not been tested. Three Artemisia and two lichen species were collected from different contaminated sites of Azerbaijan. Plant and surface soil samples were measured for Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni and Zn concentrations by ICP-AES.The results indicated that among the Artemisia species A. scoparia showed the best HM accumulation properties. Lichen species were also distinguished by very high amounts of HM in their biomass, while in surrounding soil samples HM concentrations had higher contents than the soils occupied only with Artemisia species.The results indicate that on contaminated sites Artemisia and lichens accumulated metals in their biomass without toxicity symptoms. Taking large biomass and high adaptation ability into account, A. scoparia represents a good tool for a phytoremediation approach on polluted soils

A note on T-folds and T3 fibrations

We study stringy modifications of T-3-fibered manifolds, where the fiber undergoes a monodromy in the T-duality group. We determine the fibration data defining such T-folds from a geometric model, by using a map between the duality group and the group of large diffeomorphisms of a four-torus. We describe the monodromies induced around duality defects where such fibrations degenerate and we argue that local solutions receive corrections from the winding sector, dual to the symmetry-breaking modes that correct semi-flat metrics

A case of successful orthotopic heart retransplantation in an 11-year-old child

Objective: to present a clinical case of an 11-year-old child who underwent repeat heart transplantation (HT) at Almazov National Medical Research Centre in St. Petersburg, Russia.Materials and methods. A case of successful heart retransplantation in an 11-year-old child with cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is presented.Results. The postoperative period after heart retransplantation had no significant differences with the postoperative period of primary heart recipients. The complexity of the intraoperative stage was determined by pronounced adhesions. As part of preoperative preparation, the patient underwent chest CT scan, which, in our experience, allows us to evaluate the heart syntopy and, in turn, is an important preparatory stage in planning repeat interventions.Conclusion. Our first experience of cardiac retransplantation in pediatric patients suggests that repeat HT is the most optimal treatment for pediatric patients with CAV and requires more thorough preoperative preparation

Evolution of Cenozoic basic rock volcanism in Lower Caucasus

Available from VNTIC / VNTIC - Scientific & Technical Information Centre of RussiaSIGLERURussian Federatio

Ricci-Flat Metrics on Vector Bundles Over Flag Manifolds

AbstractWe construct explicit complete Ricci-flat metrics on the total spaces of certain vector bundles over flag manifolds of the group SU(n), for all Kähler classes. These metrics are natural generalizations of the metrics of Candelas–de la Ossa on the conifold, Pando Zayas–Tseytlin on the canonical bundle over $$\mathbb {CP}^1\times \mathbb {CP}^1$$CP1×CP1, as well as the metrics on canonical bundles over flag manifolds, recently constructed by van Coevering.</jats:p