Arsenic Bioaccessibility in Cooked Rice as Affected by Arsenic in Cooking Water

Abstract: Rice can easily accumulate arsenic (As) into its grain and is known to be the highest As‐containing cereal. In addition, the As burden in rice may increase during its processing (such as when cooking using As‐polluted water). The health risk posed by the presence of As in cooked rice depends on its release from the matrix along the digestive system (bioaccessibility). Two types of white polished long‐grain rice, namely, nonparboiled and parboiled (total As: 202 and 190 μg As kg^?1, respectively), were cooked in excess of water with different levels of As (0, 10, 47, 222, and 450 μg As L^?1). The bioaccessibility of As from these cooked rice batches was evaluated with an in vitro dynamic digestion process. Rice cooked with water containing 0 and 10 μg As L^?1 showed lower As concentrations than the raw (uncooked) rice. However, cooking water with relatively high As content (≥47 μg As L^?1) significantly increased the As concentration in the cooked rice up to 8‐ and 9‐fold for the nonparboiled and parboiled rice, respectively. Parboiled rice, which is most widely consumed in South Asia, showed a higher percentage of As bioaccessibility (59% to 99%) than nonparboiled rice (36% to 69%) and most of the As bioaccessible in the cooked rice (80% to 99%) was released easily during the first 2 h of digestion. The estimation of the As intake through cooked rice based on the As bioaccessibility highlights that a few grams of cooked rice (less than 25 g dry weight per day) cooked with highly As contaminated water is equivalent to the amount of As from 2 L water containing the maximum permissible limit (10 μg As L^?1). Practical Application: Studies on As bioaccessibility are needed for determining human As intake from rice for use in accurate risk assessments to establish updated legislation regarding maximum level of As in food. High As bioaccessibility from parboiled rice (consumed by the majority of the people in South Asia), and the findings of high As levels in discarded rice gruel (fed to livestock), has implications for human and animal health.     

Depth-of-Interaction Compensation Using a Focused-Cut Scintillator for a Pinhole Gamma Camera

Preclinical SPECT offers a powerful means to understand the molecular pathways of drug interactions in animal models by discovering and testing new pharmaceuticals and therapies for potential clinical applications. A combination of high spatial resolution and sensitivity are required in order to map radiotracer uptake within small animals. Pinhole collimators have been investigated, as they offer high resolution by means of image magnification. One of the limitations of pinhole geometries is that increased magnification causes some rays to travel through the detection scintillator at steep angles, introducing parallax errors due to variable depth-of-interaction in scintillator material, especially towards the edges of the detector field of view. These parallax errors ultimately limit the resolution of pinhole preclinical SPECT systems, especially for higher energy isotopes that can easily penetrate through millimeters of scintillator material. A pixellated, focused-cut (FC) scintillator, with its pixels laser-cut so that they are collinear with incoming rays, can potentially compensate for these parallax errors and thus improve the system resolution. We performed the first experimental evaluation of a newly developed focused-cut scintillator. We scanned a Tc-99m source across the field of view of pinhole gamma camera with a continuous scintillator, a conventional "straight-cut" (SC) pixellated scintillator, and a focused-cut scintillator, each coupled to an electron-multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD) detector by a fiber-optic taper, and compared the measured full-width half-maximum (FWHM) values. We show that the FWHMs of the focused-cut scintillator projections are comparable to the FWHMs of the thinner SC scintillator, indicating the effectiveness of the focused-cut scintillator in compensating parallax errors.     

Study of performance parameter optimisation of resorption cogeneration utilising heat and mass recovery

In the present scenario, one of the global issues is energy crisis, and it is found that effective utilisation of low-grade waste heat energy as potential solution to this crisis, which could be easily used with the cogeneration plant. In this work, an attempt is made to implement a mass and heat recovery system with a basic resorption cogeneration unit. Low-grade solar energy is utilised by the expansion machine and ammonia resorption unit, and the plant produces a dual output of cooling effect and electricity. The problem of variation reaction rate is sorted out by introducing a buffer prior to the expansion machine; similarly, the deficiency of chemisorption is overcome by a pair of resorption cycles. Under various operating conditions, six resorption pairs were analysed and it was found that the SrCl₂–MnCl₂ pair to be the best pair. Exergy analyses were made using the equation solver.     

Recent progress in silicon-based solid-state solar cells

Silicon (Si)-based solar cells constitute about 90% of the photovoltaic (PV) market, and a drastic reduction in module cost and significant improvement in PV performance have been observed since its first inception in 1941. This article aims to present the comprehensive review of prominent advancements enacted in Si solar cells after the year 2000. Monocrystalline Si solar cell has been the matured technology with the record efficiency (η) of 26.6% achieved so far. As the drive to push η around 30% Schokley–Quiesser limit is foreseeable in the near future, PV community is actively striving to fabricate efficient yet cost-effective devices. Polycrystalline Si solar cells contain small-sized grains, and efforts are underway to enhance the η beyond 21.9% by controlling the recombination at grain boundaries, optimising the passivated interfaces and deposition process. Thin-film amorphous Si technology proffers low-cost fabrication process and η of 13.6% has been recorded for a multijunction solar cell. Employment of sophisticated nanowire-based light trapping schemes and dopant-free carrier-selective layers along with the development of hybrid solar cells of organic and Si materials are among the emerging research trends for Si solar cells.     

Bioethanol production from biomass: carbohydrate vs syngas fermentation

Environmental problems associated with the use of fossil fuels as well as their expected scarcity in the near future requires a search for new alternative fuels produced from renewable sources. Bioethanol is a biofuel that can be obtained from biomass and waste as feedstocks through fermentation. Two major routes allow conversion of the feedstocks to fermentable substrates, i.e. the hydrolytic route and the thermochemical route. In the hydrolytic route, the feedstock undergoes a pretreatment stage first, aimed at facilitating the subsequent hydrolytic treatment. Chemical, physical or biological pretreatments can be applied. Lignocellulosic feedstocks are mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The pretreatment attacks the lignin and hemicellulose polymers and makes cellulose more accessible in the next, hydrolytic, stage. The hydrolytic treatment uses enzymes to convert the cellulose polymer to simple, fermentable, sugars, mainly glucose. Simple sugars obtained from hemicellulose and cellulose are then fermented by yeasts to bioethanol. In the thermochemical alternative, the feedstock is gasified, yielding syngas – a mixture largely composed of CO, CO₂ and H₂ – which can be fermented anaerobically, usually by clostridia, to ethanol or other products. In both cases, downstream processes are then applied to recover and purify the biofuel. The different stages involved in both alternatives are described, and both processes are compared in terms of their main characteristics and development stage. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and characterization of iron(III) oxide/polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites

Polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) blended and iron(III) nanoparticle polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) nanocomposites were prepared by solution casting. The iron(III) oxide nanoparticles were prepared using a sol-gel procedure and their particle size was less than 200 nm. Scanning electron microscopy showed that no phase separation occurred and polyvinyl chloride and poly(methyl methacrylate) were miscible. Scanning electron microscopy also showed that the iron(III) oxide nanoparticles were dispersed well within the polymer blend. Thermogravimetric analysis showed three stages for the thermal degradation for polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) blend and the iron(III) oxide/polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate). The second degradation was possibly due to dehydrochlorination during the thermal degradation of polyvinyl chloride in the blend system. Young’s modulus of the iron(III) oxide nanoparticle filled nanocomposites was from 1987.7–2471.6 MPa, which was higher than polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) blend (1955.5 MPa). The stress yield (47.9–51.8 MPa) of the iron(III) oxide nanoparticle composites was higher than pure polyvinyl chloride/poly(methyl methacrylate) (47.0 MPa). The cyclic voltammograms of the pure blend and the nanocomposites were compared.     

Simulation of an efficient silicon heterostructure solar cell concept featuring molybdenum oxide carrier‐selective contact

Transition metal oxides/silicon heterocontact solar cells are the subject of intense research efforts owing to their simpler processing steps and reduced parasitic absorption as compared with the traditional silicon heterostructure counterparts. Recently, molybdenum oxide (MoO_x, x < 3) has emerged as an integral transition metal oxide for crystalline silicon (cSi)‐based solar cell based on carrier‐selective contacts (CSCs). In this paper, we physically modelled the CSC‐based cSi solar cell featuring MoO_x/intrinsic a‐Si:H/n‐type cSi/intrinsic a‐Si:H/n⁺‐type a‐Si:H for the first time using Silvaco technology computer‐aided design simulator. To analyse the optical and electrical properties of the proposed solar cell, several technological parameters such as work function and thickness of MoO_x contact layer, intrinsic a‐Si:H band gap, interface recombination, series resistance, and temperature coefficient have been evaluated. It has been shown that higher work function of MoO _x induces the formation of a favourable Schottky barrier height as well as an inversion at the front interface, stimulating least resistive path for holes. Utilising thinner MoO_x layer implies reduced tunnelling of minority charge carriers, thus enabling the device to numerically attain 25.33% efficiency. With an optimised interface recombination velocity and reduced parasitic absorption, the proposed device exhibited higher V_oc of 752 mV, J_sc of 38.8 mA/cm², fill‐factor of 79.0%, and an efficiency of 25.6%, which can be termed as the harbinger for industrial production of next‐generation efficient solar cell technology.     

Polychlorinated naphthalene levels,distribution, and biomagnification in a benthic food chain in the Baltic Sea

The scientific literature contains little information regarding bioaccumulation and biomagnification of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in food webs. Here we present new information on the food chain transfer of PCNs within a food chain in a subarctic environment PCNs (tetra- to hepta-chloro congeners) were measured in surface sediments and in a marine benthic food chain, comprising amphipods, isopods, and fourhorned sculpins. Samples were collected from five locations in the Gulf of Bothnia, northern Baltic Sea. PCN concentrations in the sediments were similar to background levels determined previously in sediments from the northern hemisphere. Measurement of the carbon content of the sediments allowed the calculation of biota to sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs). Tetra- and penta-CNs exhibited BSAF values greater than one, while BSAFs for the more chlorinated PCNs were less than one. This suggests more efficient assimilation, by amphipods, of the less chlorinated PCNs. A decrease in sigmaPCN concentrations from the lowest to the highest trophic level was demonstrated (amphipods: 10-69 ng/g lw, isopods: 3.9-16 ng/g lw; fourhorned sculpins: 0.54-1.5 ng/g lw). Biomagnification factors (BMFs) were calculated based on the concentrations of the congeners. These indicated that a few congeners biomagnified significantly: the highest BMFs (0.09-1.4) were found for 2,3,6,7-substituted congeners and those lacking adjacent hydrogen-substituted carbon atoms.     

Quality monitoring of a closed-loop system with parametric uncertainties and external disturbances: a fault detection and isolation approach

Due to aging and environmental factors, system components may either fail or not function as expected, which causes unprecedented changes in the quality of the system. A timely detection of the onset of a fault in a component is crucial to a quality monitoring of a process if costly failures are to be avoided. However, finding the source of the failure is not trivial in systems with a large number of components and complex component relationships. In this paper, an efficient scheme to detect adverse changes in system reliability and find the failed component is proposed in order to have an effective process quality monitoring. The monitoring scheme has been made effective by implementing first the techniques of fixed-parameter Shewhart, MEWMA and Hotelling’s T² control chart, and then the adaptive versions of Shewhart Chart, MEWMA and T² control chart for counter checking the precision of quality reports. Once detected, the fault isolation scheme uses a Bayesian decision strategy based on the maximum correlation between the residual and one of a number of hypothesized residual estimates to generate a fault report. By doing so, the critical information about the presence or absence of a fault, and its isolation, is gained in a timely manner, thus making the quality monitoring system an effective tool for a variety of maintenance programs, especially of the preventive type. The proposed scheme is evaluated extensively on simulated examples, and on a physical fluid system exemplified by a benchmarked laboratory scale two-tank system to detect and isolate faults including sensor, actuator, and leakage ones.