Narrow Results

Organic dyes and heavy metals are renowned environmental contaminants due to their hazardous, long life time in the environment, and capability to accumulate into the human body. Most heavy metals are accumulated naturally, however only some are derived from anthropogenic sources. In the recent decades, metal organic framework (MOF) and their most fashionable derivatives are extensively examined to eradicate heavy metals and organic dye substances from polluted water as powerful adsorbent materials. MOFs have forever exposed attractive applications in adsorption technologies and membrane separation, among which water-stable MOFs are predominantly important in wastewater treatment (WWT) relevance. MOFs like metal-organic polymers, hybrid organic–inorganic materials, organic zeolite materials and coordination polymers have increased awareness and many of the MOFs have been synthesized to eradicate heavy metals and organic dyes from waste water, because of their outstanding characteristics like large surface area, stability, greater porosity which make the MOF a strong and powerful adsorbent. In this paper, we discussed about the removal of hazardous heavy metals and organic dyes using MOF materials and their analogues as strong adsorbents for contaminated waste water.

Arsenic concentration in 13 well waters, 9 pond waters, 10 agricultural waters and a coconut juice taken in Comilla district, Bangladesh, where the problem of arsenic pollution is the most severe, was investigated. High-level arsenic is detected even in the well water which has been kept drinking by the people. Relatively high arsenic concentration was detected for some pond and farm waters even though the sampling was performed just after the rainy season and the waters were expected to be highly diluted. Clear relationship was observed in elemental compositions between the pond water and the coconut juice collected at the edge of the water. These results are expected to become the basic information for evaluating the risk of individual food such as cultured fishes, shrimps and farm products, and for controlling total intakes of arsenic. In order to solve the problem of transportation of water samples internationally, a simple method of target preparation performed at the sampling cite was established and its validity was confirmed. All targets were prepared at the sampling cites in this study on the basis of this method.

This study was carried out to investigate biological and statistical nature of arsenicosis risks on a severely arsenic (As) affected population in the Banglish village in Comilla district of Bangladesh. Subject's hair As and vegetables As levels were estimated by PIXE method, and arsenicosis status of the subject was examined by a physician. Arsenicosis was found in 45% female and 61% male subjects. Arsenic levels > 0.50 ppm showed greater arsenicosis risks that significantly varied with subject's sex and age. Unlike children, young (≥10 years) to middle aged (~49 years) population were significantly affected by arsenicosis. Logistic regression model analysis showed that arsenicosis risks are not only the devastating toxicity of As accumulation in human body through ingestion of contaminated drinking water, but the summation of all sources of As accumulation. Human hair As levels were found as the biomarker ranging from 0.03-8.3 μg/g in stage I arsenicosis patients, and from 1.1-56.9 ppm in the stage II patients up to 49 age. Hair As level was declined to 2.2-25.5 ppm at > 49 aged population. The findings inferred that groundwater As affecting the public health through contaminating total environment, that in turn posing an alarming situation in the study area.

A gigantic tsunami following Tohoku-Earthquake Disaster brought a large amount of sludge, which originated from the sediments pilling upon the bottom of the sea to the residential areas. As it is anticipated that the sludge contains a large amount of heavy toxic elements, its influence on the health of the suffered people will become a problem. In the present study, 72 sludge samples were taken from the stricken areas by the tsunami over the wide area; (Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures). These samples were treated on the basis of a powdered-internal-standard method and analyzed by means of PIXE with a specially-designed absorber. It was found that the sludge contains much amount of heavy elements such as arsenic, lead, zirconium, barium etc. in comparison with those in soils collected in the inland district of Iwate prefecture. Furthermore, 16 plant samples were gathered in the estuary area, on which the sludge deposited, and analyzed in order to evaluate the effect of the sludge on the ecosystem. These results were compared with those for 45 plant samples collected in the inland district of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. It was found that these plants contain lager amount of heavy elements in comparison with those in the inland plants.

Tungsten and copper, two metals of complete mutual immiscibility, show a variety of densification behaviors due to the processing condition in the sintering stage. In this regard, the presence of different impurities during the densification process, have different influences on the consolidation of the primary powder. In this work, the effects of impurities introduced to the powder by the precursor salt in a novel thermo-chemical homogeneous co-precipitation method were investigated. Addition of sodium tungstate to the aqueous solution of copper nitrate saturated in aqueous ammonia solution, will result in precipitation of CuWO₄·2H₂O which will float in a mass of wandering Na⁺ ions in the solution. Removal of these sticking ions by multi stage washing has a certain effect on the final density of the sintered powder. The density of the sintered product was evaluated both with and without the removal of the Na and the mechanism by which this impurity deteriorates the densification was discussed in this work.

Cleanliness control is one of the most important processes for final optics assembly (FOA) in high-power laser systems. In this paper, an “Ultra Clean Manufacturing (UCM)” concept is put forward for the first time to satisfy the cleanliness requirements for FOA. First, the challenges and requirements for cleanliness in FOA are introduced and the concept of UCM is proposed. Significant surface cleaning technologies for mechanical parts and optics are then expounded. Finally, surface cleanliness control techniques, such as “gas knife” and “laser cleaning”, are developed as online cleaning methods for the surface cleanliness in FOA.

Fonterra's Absolute Priorities – Food Quality and Consumer Safety

Contaminated Food from China: Perils of Industrialized Agriculture

INDIA – Lack of access to technology ‘hampers detection of substandard drugs’.

JAPAN – Daiichi Sankyo announces development of nucleic acid treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy utilizing proprietary technology.

SINGAPORE – IBN creates unlimited source of human kidney cells.

SINGAPORE – Dyesol and Singapore's NTU sign agreement.

THE PHILIPPINES – Global biotech/GM crop plantings increase 100-fold from 1996.

AUSTRALIA – Phosphagenics further expands pain portfolio.

AUSTRALIA – Primary Health Care signs Australia distribution agreement for iGeneScreen™ prenatal test.

AUSTRALIA – Folic acid in pregnancy linked with reduced autism risk.

AUSTRALIA – Phylogica and Bio-Link collaborate to commercialize anti-inflammatory Phylomers.

AUSTRALIA – ABRAXANE^® plus gemcitabine improves survival in Phase III study of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

CANADA – Verisante Technology, Inc. announces first sales of aura, a revolutionary medical device for the detection of skin cancer.

EUROPE – Project eyes robust medical technology for poor countries.

UNITED KINGDOM – Asthma sufferers have more lung fungi.

UNITED KINGDOM – Pioneering drug discovery gets major funding to move to next stage.

UNITED STATES – Gilead's sofosbuvir for hepatitis C meets primary endpoint in fourth pivotal Phase III study.

UNITED STATES – Eleven Biotherapeutics publishes data on EBI-005, a novel IL-1 inhibitor protein for topical treatment of dry eye disease.

UNITED STATES – Phase I/II trial of ADXS-HPV in anal cancer conducted by Brown University Oncology Group.

UNITED STATES – Scopolamine: An old drug with new psychiatric applications.

UNITED STATES – New bioengineered ears look and act like the real thing.

UNITED STATES – To trap a rainbow, slow down light.

UNITED STATES – AB SCIEX responds to milk contamination concerns with new method to detect dicyandiamide.

We propose in this paper a method for studying contact structures in 3-manifolds by means of branched surfaces. We explain what it means for a contact structure to be carried by a branched surface embedded in a 3-manifold. To make the transition from contact structures to branched surfaces, we first define auxiliary objects called σ-confoliations and pure contaminations, both generalizing contact structures. We study various deformations of these objects and show that the σ-confoliations and pure contaminations obtained by suitably modifying a contact structure remember the contact structure up to isotopy.

After defining tightness for all pure contaminations in a natural way, generalizing the definition of tightness for contact structures, we obtain some conditions on (the embedding of) a branched surface in a 3-manifold sufficient to guarantee that any pure contamination carried by the branched surface is tight. We also find conditions sufficient to prove that a branched surface carries only overtwisted (non-tight) contact structures.

Our long-term goal in developing these methods is twofold: Not only do we want to study tight contact structures and pure contaminations, but we also wish to use them as tools for studying 3-manifold topology.

In this article, we have demonstrated the investigation of scanning probe microscopy on the defects induced by slight iron contamination on p-type Si wafers with ultrathin thermal oxide layer. Using scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) associated with atomic force microscopy, it is revealed that iron contamination induces interface traps, which significantly perturb the depletion behavior of the silicon surface. Moreover, experimental results also indicate that iron contamination leads to the lifetime decrease and the density increase of minority carriers in the defect region. From the dC/dV–V profiles, the defect region with the highest density of the interface traps also has the highest density of the deep-level traps. At a proper dc bias, the defect region clearly exhibits an obvious contrast in the SCM images.

Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) represent 500–1000-bp-long sequences corresponding to mRNAs derived from different sources (cell lines, tissues, etc.). The human EST database contains over 8,000,000 sequences, with over 4,000,000,000 total nucleotides. RNA molecules are transcribed from a genomic DNA template; therefore, all ESTs should match corresponding genomes. Nevertheless, we have found in the human EST database approximately 11,000 ESTs not matching sequences in the human genome database. The presence of "trash" ESTs (TESTs) in the EST database could result from DNA or RNA contamination of the laboratory equipment, tissues, or cell lines. TESTs could also represent sequences from unidentified human genes or from species inhabiting the human body. Here, we attempt to identify the sources of human EST database contaminations. In particular, we discuss systematic contamination of the mammalian EST databases with sequences of plants.

Pretreatment equipment for food waste preparation is described at a laboratory and industrial scale. Small-scale methods include sonication, ultrasound, and microwave. The majority of industrial-scale installations rely on mechanical particle size reduction and heat treatment. Pretreatment equipment may be used not only to prepare food waste for anaerobic digestion (AD) but also to remove contaminants harmful to the AD process, enhance AD process performance, and achieve regulatory compliance: particularly in achieving product and process hygiene standards. The need for whole-life assessment of pretreatment technology is discussed, particularly in terms of energy consumption and environmental risks associated with the dispersal of plastic residues and microplastics.

The chapter deals with some important aspects of the relationship of lithium and nickel with the ecosystem, which consists mainly of soil, water, plants and air. Some aspects of lithium and nickel use in the energy industry are also mentioned. We begin by considering the fact that the metallic elements lithium and nickel, either alone or in the form of their chemical compounds, are currently considered potential energy materials whose applicability is increasing with the transition to the mass use of electricity and batteries for powering motor vehicles. Both lithium and nickel are commonly found in nature. Even in relatively low concentrations, their presence is very dangerous or even toxic to some animals and biological organisms. On the other hand, certain plants and animals are a natural part of ecosystems and are unable to survive with-out their presence because they are vital to them. This contradiction and its implications form the main content of this chapter. The most significant effects of lithium and nickel in the environment, particularly in soil, water and plant systems, are presented. The interconnectedness between soil, water and plants is shown in relation to each other. Some of the analytical methods used for the detection of lithium and nickel are also given. In addition, some specific results are presented, which are not intended to specify particular locations in the field, but rather to highlight the ability of researchers to monitor the presence of lithium and nickel in the environment and to create conditions for their removal and possible reuse.

The chapter summarises some essential features and findings related to the toxicities of lithium (Li) and nickel (Ni), which are always present in trace concentrations in food and the environment. These metal elements occur almost everywhere in nature, including in soils, rocks and the atmosphere. Therefore, due attention should be paid to their presence in various substances, including food, water and air. These materials can enter the human body through ingestion of food, drinking water and other routes, such as inhalation and skin penetration. The occurrence of Li/Ni in the environment has increased tremendously recently due to some human activities, especially specific technological processes, which have resulted in an increased presence of these elements in various products and goods. Recently, Li and Ni are gradually being used as main components in Li-ion and NiCd batteries. The first type of battery is mainly used in electric cars, while the less powerful NiCd batteries are primarily used in portable electronic devices and toys.

In addition, the chapter discusses the specific forms of toxicity of these metal elements and their occurrence in some foods. The processes and pathways by which these elements can enter the human organism are also described. They can have severely harmful effects at certain excessive concentrations and amounts. Because of these detrimental impacts, Li and Ni levels should be monitored to enable intervention when their presence exceeds regulatory limits or recommendations. Based on the results of such measurements, effective control mechanisms can then be implemented to minimise their effects on human health, including introducing appropriate measures to protect workers who come into contact with these elements in the workplace. This chapter also describes the actions necessary to regulate these elements’ presence and impose adequate controlling mechanisms and preparations, including those to respond effectively to possible emergencies.

Radioactive contamination of natural and anthropogenic landscapes has become a significant factor in radionuclide uptake by humans since 20^th century. Contamination of soils by radionuclides occurs as a result of nuclear weapon tests, major radiation accidents, waste deposition, and using phosphate fertilizers with a high content of natural radionuclides. Various methods of rehabilitation of radioactively contaminated lands, such as plowing, liming, addition of sorbents, and addition of mineral and organic fertilizers, as well as phytoremediation techniques, have been developed. Among them, elimination of the upper soil layer and phytoremediation allow decreasing the real activity of a soil but generate secondary radioactive waste, whereas the other methods are focused on suppression of radionuclide transfer from soil to plants. Plowing the upper soil layer to deeper horizons and using ferrocyanide sorbents result in the maximum decrease in radionuclide transfer to plants among the developed methods.

Cereals are economically very important in the food supply systems and imperative as raw material for feed production. Specific competent moulds of the Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium genera are able to produce mycotoxins that contaminate raw materials, feed or food. In this context were mycologically analysed 37 samples of corn according to official standard procedures (NP-3277-2, 2002). The study revealed that all samples were positives for fungal contamination. The mean contamination level of the corn samples was 3.9 log₁₀ cfu/g, ranging between 1.7 log₁₀ cfu/g up to 4.6 log₁₀ cfu/g. Yeasts were found in 4.6 log₁₀ cfu/g. The most prevalent fungi recovered from corn were Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. and A. flavus, with mean levels of 4.5 log₁₀ cfu/g, 4.3 log₁₀ cfu/g and 4.0 log₁₀ cfu/g, respectively. The higher frequency of Fusarium spp. could be an indicator of the possible presence of Fusarium toxins (zearelenone, T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol, diacetoxyscirpenol and fumonisins), very harmful to animals and humans.

Pesticide residues in drinking water have appeared as major challenge over the last few years. In this work efforts are made to assess the level of pesticides in public water supply resources in national capital territory i.e. New Delhi, India. A total of 16 different organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were identified from potable water samples. The majority of pesticides were isomers of HCH, DDT, endosulphan, endrin, aldrin, dialdrin and heptachlore. The concentration of pesticides varied from below detectable limit (BDL) to higher than maximum permissible limits. Results thus suggested that continuous consumption of contaminated can pose severe health threats to local residents of this area.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the hygienic and sanitary meaning of the occurrence of Fusarium spp. in cereal grains used for animal nutrition (corn, oats and barley) and compounded animal feeds (poultry, swine and bovine) traded in Portugal. Fusarium spp. were searched and enumerated in 295 samples of feed and cereal grains during 2007. Samples were analysed using an internal official mycological method, performed in a duplicated procedure. The general level of registered contamination ranged from 1.5 log10 ufc/g to 5.3 log10 ufc/g. Higher levels of contamination with Fusarium spp. were found in oats and corn. No positive sample of feed revealed contamination above 2.5 log10ufc/g. The small number of positive granulated feeds showed a very low level of contamination with Fusarium spp.