Impact of nuclear fuel reprocessing on the temporal evolution of marine radiocarbon.

Radiocarbon (C) is broadly used in oceanography to determine water ages, trace water circulation, and develop sediment- and sclerochronologies. These applications require an accurate knowledge of marine C levels, which have been largely perturbed by human activities. Globally during the last century the above-ground nuclear weapon testings have been the primary cause of the increased atmospheric and marine C.

Unravelling 5 decades of anthropogenic U discharge from nuclear reprocessing plants.

Marine biogenic materials such as corals, shells, or seaweed have long been recognized as recorders of environmental conditions. Here, the bivalve Cerastoderma edule is used for the first time as a recorder of past seawater contamination with anthropogenic uranium, specifically U. Several studies have employed the authorized radioactive releases, including U, from nuclear reprocessing plants in La Hague, France, into the English Channel, and Sellafield, England, into the Irish Sea, to trace Atlantic waters and to understand recent climate induced circulation changes in the Arctic Ocean.

The potential role of an unregulated coastal anthropogenic activity in facilitating the spread of a non-indigenous biofoulant.

Despite an exponential rise in anthropogenically-mediated transfers of non-indigenous species during the last 150 years, several coastal anthropogenic activities remain unregulated under current legislation frameworks. This study investigates the potential role of commercial periwinkle (Littorina littorea) harvesting as an unregulated facilitator of both small- and large-scale geographic range expansion of an invasive oyster epibiont (Ostrea chilensis) within the Menai Strait (North Wales, UK) and beyond. The frequency of oyster-fouled periwinkles was greatest in areas of high adult oyster abundance and restricted to large, market-sized periwinkles (>20 mm) inhabiting the low shore.

Surface changes in the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the last millennium.

Despite numerous investigations, the dynamical origins of the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Little Ice Age remain uncertain. A major unresolved issue relating to internal climate dynamics is the mode and tempo of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation variability, and the significance of decadal-to-centennial scale changes in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation strength in regulating the climate of the last millennium. Here we use the time-constrained high-resolution local radiocarbon reservoir age offset derived from an absolutely dated annually resolved shell chronology spanning the past 1,350 years, to reconstruct changes in surface ocean circulation and climate.

Spatial and temporal evolution of imposex in dogwhelk Nucella lapillus (L.) populations from North Wales, UK.

Nucella lapillus imposex and organotin tissue contamination were assessed, during 2006, at twenty sites in North Wales, between Anglesey and Shell Island on the Lleyn Peninsula. Vas Deferens Sequence Index (VDSI), Relative Penis Size Index (RPSI) and the percentage of affected females (%I) were used to assess imposex levels which varied between 0.5 and 3.

Effect of combining naloxone and morphine for intravenous patient-controlled analgesia.

Background: An early study showed that a naloxone infusion decreased the incidence of morphine-related side effects from intravenous patient-controlled analgesia. The authors tested the hypothesis that a more convenient combination of morphine and naloxone via patient-controlled analgesia would decrease the incidence of side effects compared to morphine alone.

Methods: Patients scheduled for hysterectomy under general anaesthesia were enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.