IARC's designation of crystalline silica as a “probable carcinogen” triggered the requirement to label products containing greater than 0.1 % crystalline silica. For perlite and other materials which may contain crystalline silica in levels close to 0.1% an accurate determination is critical from both legal and marketing considerations.

Existing analytical techniques for the determination of crystalline silica at levels of less than 1.0% were found to be inadequate to meet the new requirements. An improved technique based on x-ray diffraction has been developed specifically to analyze perlite for crystalline silica, which occurs largely in the form of quartz, at the 0.1%. level. The technique employs long counting times and improved sample preparation and mounting to increase both precision and accuracy, and to lower the detection limit to less than 0.1%.

The technique was tested on a large number of samples from a variety of sources and proven to give excellent results for all types of expanded perlites and perlite ores. The procedures developed are applicable to a wide variety of materials in addition to perlite.

Malnutrition remains a leading contributor to the morbidity and mortality of children under the age of 5 years and can weaken the immune system and increase the severity of concurrent infections. Livestock milk with the protective properties of human milk is a potential therapeutic to modulate intestinal microbiota and improve outcomes. The aim of this study was to develop an infection model of childhood malnutrition in the pig to investigate the clinical, intestinal and microbiota changes associated with malnutrition and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infection and to test the ability of goat milk and milk from genetically engineered goats expressing the antimicrobial human lysozyme (hLZ) milk to mitigate these effects. Pigs were weaned onto a protein–energy-restricted diet and after 3 weeks were supplemented daily with goat, hLZ or no milk for a further 2 weeks and then challenged with ETEC. The restricted diet enriched faecal microbiota in Proteobacteria as seen in stunted children. Before infection, hLZ milk supplementation improved barrier function and villous height to a greater extent than goat milk. Both goat and hLZ milk enriched for taxa (Ruminococcaceae) associated with weight gain. Post-ETEC infection, pigs supplemented with hLZ milk weighed more, had improved Z-scores, longer villi and showed more stable bacterial populations during ETEC challenge than both the goat and no milk groups. This model of childhood disease was developed to test the confounding effects of malnutrition and infection and demonstrated the potential use of hLZ goat milk to mitigate the impacts of malnutrition and infection.

The water-undersaturated melting relationships of an orendite (with 1.23% H2O as shown by chemical analysis) from the Leucite Hills, Wyoming, have been determined at pressures up to 30 kbar. The dominant liquidus and near-liquidus phases are leucite, olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and garnet. Leucite is stable only at pressures below 5 kbar, but at 27 kbar, minor olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and garnet crystallize simultaneously at or near the liquidus. The following reaction relationships occur with falling temperature in the orendite magma: (a) a reaction between olivine and melt to yield orthopyroxene at pressures above 12 kbar; (b) a reaction between olivine and melt to yield phlogopite at pressures below 12 kbar; (c) a reaction between olivine, orthopyroxene and melt to yield phlogopite and probably clinopyroxene at pressures above 12 kbar; (d) a reaction between leucite and melt to yield sanidine at pressures below 5 kbar. Electron microprobe analyses demonstrate that the ortho- and clinopyroxenes crystallized from orendite are aluminium-poor; the clinopyroxenes contain insufficient aluminium to balance sodium and titanium (Al < Na+2Ti) and these elements must either be partly balanced by (undetermined) chromium or ferric iron or be involved in substitutions which do not require trivalent ions for charge balance. The experimental results indicate that relatively silica-rich potassic magmas such as orendite form under water-undersaturated (essentially carbon dioxide free) conditions at pressures of about 27 kbar by small degrees of melting of phlogopite-garnet-lherzolite or by larger degrees of melting of peridotite which has been enriched in potassium and incompatible elements. The peralkalinity of some potassic magmas (such as orendite and wyomingite) could reflect a primary geochemical characteristic of the source rock, but could also result from the melting of phlogopite in the presence of residual pyroxenes. The association of silica-poor, mafic madupites and relatively silica-rich orendites and wyomingites in the Leucite Hills can be explained in terms of the relative effects of water and carbon dioxide on melting processes within the upper mantle.

Phase-equilibrium relations have been determined at 1000 kg/cm2 water pressure for compositions within the system NaAlSi3O8-KalSi3O8-NaAlSiO4-KAlSiO4 in the area adjacent to the temperature minimum. The composition and temperature of the minimum are Ne50Ks19Qz31 and 750° ± 7° C respectively. The compositions of 102 plutonic rocks and 122 extrusive rocks, from Washington's tables, that carry 80% or more of normative Ab + Or + Ne have been plotted; the areas of high density show a marked similarity to the positions of the low-temperature regions of the synthetic system and suggest that many undersaturated rocks are derived by fractional crystallization from a trachytic magma.

Impact data from the ULYSSES dust detector at 5 AU from the Sun have been interpreted as a flux of sub-micron interstellar dust particles (Grün et al, 1994) arriving from 252° ecliptic longitude and 2.5° ecliptic latitude. Following the motions of these particles under the influence of solar gravity, radiation pressure and electromagnetic forces, we present results from the modeling of the thermal emission from the resultant particle cloud, and conclude that the chances for the detection of such an interstellar signature in the COBE data are marginal at best.

Six streams of dust were unexpectedly detected by the Ulysses dust detector while this spacecraft was approximately within one AU distance from Jupiter (Grün et al., 1993). Stream durations ranged from hours to days for individual streams. It was clear that the dust in these streams (or bursts), from their directionality of approach to the spacecraft and from the nearness of stream occurrences to Jupiter, emanated from the Jovian system.

Following the original report, Baguhl et al. (1994) later relaxed the criteria for differentiating true dust impacts from “noise pulses” and found almost triple the number of dust impacts in the six streams already found. They also found 5 more streams that, except for one stream, clearly emanated from the Jovian system. The criteria were relaxed in such a way as to not introduce “noise events” into the data.

We examine whether the dark, orbitally-leading hemisphere of Saturn's satellite Iapetus might be coated by debris from low-albedo Phoebe, which orbits retrograde well exterior to Iapetus. Using simplified analytical models along with more complete numerical integrations, we follow the paths of various-sized particles launched gently off Phoebe following collisions with interplanetary and interstellar meteoroids. Micron grains can quickly reach Iapetus since (due to solar radiation) they trace elliptical orbits; larger grains may only hit after their more-circular orbits collapse due to Poynting-Robertson drag; few very large and very small Phoebe grains strike Iapetus. Despite some inconsistencies with observations, we conclude that Phoebe may possibly be the agent that has darkened Iapetus.