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AUSTRALIA – Cynata achieves major stem cell manufacturing milestone.
INDONESIA – Rice crucial to Indonesia's food security.
JAPAN – Japan joins Gates's Grand Challenge on tropical diseases.
JAPAN – On-farm system turns rice plants into biofuel and fodder.
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SINGAPORE – A*STAR researchers develop expert systems for identifying treatment targets for cancer and rare diseases.
SINGAPORE – NUS researchers pioneer novel strategy to prevent progression of inflammation-associated cancers.
THE PHILIPPINES – New biotech hub aims to nurture more rice researchers.
AFRICA – NAU researcher works to understand forces of abrupt climate change.
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AFRICA – Combining bednets, vaccines ‘good or bad for malaria’.
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EUROPE – Europe's first fully remote diabetes trial approved.
UNITED STATES – Scientists identify genetic variations leading to hearing loss in young cancer patients.
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Radiocesium (Cs-137, t1/2 = 30.2 years), a long-lived anthropogenic radionuclide, has been the subject of extensive research on soil-to-plant uptake factors due to the fact that it is widely released from global fallout and other nuclear catastrophes. However, other radionuclides in the environment are either anthropogenic (such as Sr-90 and Pu-239) or naturally occurring (such as 238U and 232Th), and their daughter nuclei in the natural radioactive decay sequence, as well as 40K, can be absorbed by plants. Due to their presence in the soil, they have a chance of spreading to plants and contaminating the food supply. The primary method by which plants absorb radionuclides is through root absorption, and the soil-to-plant transfer factor (TF) is typically used to simulate radionuclide transfer from soil to plants. The primary objective of the research is to calculate the activity concentrations due to natural and man-made radionuclides in some soil and rice crops, including their soil-to-plant TFs. A total of 15 soil and 5 rice plant/grain samples were collected for the measurements of 137Cs, 40K 226Ra (238U), and 232Th. A high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector was used to measure the activity of these radionuclides. The average radioactivity for 226Ra (range: 21.13–23.52 Bq kg−1), 232Th (range: 28.72–48.53 Bq kg−1), 40K (range: 274.78–374.52 Bq kg−1), and 137Cs (range: 0.19–1.23 Bq kg−1) were found to be 31.69, 38.79, 319.07, and 0.88 Bq kg−1, respectively. The total combined uncertainty (%) was found to be 15, 7, 8, and 10 for 137Cs, 40K, 232Th, and 226Ra, respectively. In general, these values are in good agreement with other literature or world average values. Multivariate statistical techniques, such as correlation matrices and cluster analysis, were applied to the radioactive datasets in order to comprehend the intricate correlations between the radioactive variables and their environmental categories. The following radiological indices were calculated: radium equivalent activity (Raeqv), absorbed gamma dose rate (Dg), yearly effective equivalent dose (Yd), yearly gonadal equivalent dose (Ygd), average yearly committed effective dose (Acd), external hazard index (Hext), internal hazard index (Hint), internal alpha radiation hazard indices (Ia), gamma radiation representative level index (Iri), and lifetime cancer risk (Lrc). The collected data are crucial for mapping naturally occurring radioactivity and serve as a baseline for assessing radiation risk in the future caused by changes in radio-activity levels brought on by nuclear, industrial, or human activity. In continuation of earlier research, the TFs in some rice plants/grains from soil radioactivity for anthropogenic and naturally occurring radionuclides are also assessed. The background, methods, ideas, radioactivity measurement, dose calculation, and future direction on the soil–plants– food cycle are all thoroughly discussed in this book chapter.