Phase II testing of Xenon International on Mount Schauinsland, Germany.

Station RN33 on Mount Schauinsland near Freiburg, Germany, is part of the International Monitoring System monitoring radioxenon in air (Xe, Xe, Xe, and Xe) for verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Here, we present data from phase II testing of a new system, Xenon International at RN33, July 14th, 2021 to Jan 22nd, 2022, together with SPALAX data from the same time period. Radioxenon could be detected in 473 of 719 samples, among them many multiple isotope detections.

Half a century of Krypton-85 activity concentration measured in air over Central Europe: Trends and relevance for dating young groundwater.

For almost half a century weekly samples for the measurement of krypton-85 (Kr) activity concentrations in surface air have been collected by the Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (BfS), Germany. Sampling started at Freiburg (230m asl) in 1973, Mt Schauinsland (1205m asl) in 1976 and Mt Jungfraujoch in Switzerland (3454 asl) in 1990. Distinct maxima in the time series of atmospheric Kr activity concentration are caused by emissions from nuclear reprocessing plants in Europe, mainly the La Hague, France, and Sellafield, UK, reprocessing plants.

Cholinergic system function and cognition in mild cognitive impairment.

Evidence for cholinergic dysfunction in very early stages of neurodegeneration like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is inconclusive. Previous positron emission tomography (PET) studies based on small samples investigated if it is related to memory impairment. We examined whether cortical acetylcholine esterase (AChE) activity is reduced at this stage and correlated with cognitive function.