Total arsenic, inorganic arsenic, and other elements concentrations in Italian rice grain varies with origin and type

Rice is comparatively efficient at assimilating inorganic arsenic (As _i), a class-one, non-threshold carcinogen, into its grain, being the dominant source of this element to mankind. Here it was investigated how the total arsenic (As_t) and As_i content of Italian rice grain sourced from market outlets varied by geographical origin and type. Total Cr, Cd Se, Mg, K, Zn, Ni were also quantified. As_t concentration on a variety basis ranged from means of 0.18 mg kg^-1 to 0.28 mg kg ^-1, and from 0.11 mg kg^-1 to 0.28 mg kg^-1 by production region. For As_i concentration, means ranged from 0.08 mg kg^-1 to 0.11 mg kg^-1 by variety and 0.10 mg kg ^-1 to 0.06 mg kg^-1 by region. There was significant geographical variation for both As_t and As_i; total Se and Ni concentration; while the total concentration of Zn, Cr, Ni and K were strongly influenced by the type of rice.

Influence of a Single Grain Boundary on Domain Wall Motion in Ferroelectrics

Epitaxial tetragonal 425 and 611 nm thick Pb(ZrTi)O (PZT) films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition on SrRuO-coated (100) SrTiO 24° tilt angle bicrystal substrates to create a single PZT grain boundary with a well-defined orientation. On either side of the bicrystal boundary, the films show square hysteresis loops and have dielectric permittivities of 456 and 576, with loss tangents of 0.010 and 0.015, respectively. Using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), a decrease in the nonlinear piezoelectric response is observed in the vicinity (720-820 nm) of the grain boundary. This region represents the width over which the extrinsic contributions to the piezoelectric response (e.g., those associated with the domain density/configuration and/or the domain wall mobility) are influenced by the presence of the grain boundary. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images collected near and far from the grain boundary indicate a strong preference for (101)/(1-01) type domain walls at the grain boundary, whereas (011)/(01-1) and (101)/(1-01) are observed away from this region. It is proposed that the elastic strain field at the grain boundary interacts with the ferro-electric/elastic domain structure, stabilizing (101)/(1-01) rather than (011)/(01-1) type domain walls, which inhibits domain wall motion under applied field and decreases non-linearity. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Heterogeneity assumptions in the specification of bargaining models: a study of household level trade-offs between commuting time and salary

With many real world decisions being made in conjunction with other decision makers, or single agent decisions having an influence on other members of the decision maker's immediate entourage, there is strong interest in studying the relative weight assigned to different agents in such contexts. In the present paper, we focus on the case of one member of a two person household being asked to make choices affecting the travel time and salary of both members. We highlight the presence of significant heterogeneity across individuals not just in their underlying sensitivities, but also in the relative weight they assign to their partner, and show how this weight varies across attributes. This is in contrast to existing work which uses weights assigned to individual agents at the level of the overall utility rather than for individual attributes. We also show clear evidence of a risk of confounding between heterogeneity in marginal sensitivities and heterogeneity in the weights assigned to each member. We show how this can lead to misleading model results, and argue that this may also explain past results showing bargaining or weight parameters outside the usual [0,1] range in more traditional joint decision making contexts. In terms of substantive results, we find that male respondents place more weight on their partner's travel time, while female respondents place more weight on their partner's salary.

Using entropy based mean shift filter and modified watershed transform for grain segmentation

Life science research aims to continuously improve the quality and standard of human life. One of the major challenges in this area is to maintain food safety and security. A number of image processing techniques have been used to investigate the quality of food products. In this paper,we propose a new algorithm to effectively segment connected grains so that each of them can be inspected in a later processing stage. One family of the existing segmentation methods is based on the idea of watersheding, and it has shown promising results in practice.However,due to the over-segmentation issue,this technique has experienced poor performance in various applications,such as inhomogeneous background and connected targets. To solve this problem,we present a combination of two classical techniques to handle this issue.In the first step,a mean shift filter is used to eliminate the inhomogeneous background, where entropy is used to be a converging criterion. Secondly,a color gradient algorithm is used in order to detect the most significant edges, and a marked watershed transform is applied to segment cluttered objects out of the previous processing stages. The proposed framework is capable of compromising among execution time, usability, efficiency and segmentation outcome in analyzing ring die pellets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is effectiveness and robust.

Intellectual Property and the EU’s Deep Trade Agenda

The EU is considered to be one of the main proponents of what has been called the deep trade agenda—that is, the push for further trade liberalization with an emphasis on the removal of domestic non-tariff regulatory measures affecting trade, as opposed to the traditional focus on the removal of trade barriers at borders. As negotiations on the Doha Development Round have stalled, the EU has attempted to achieve these aims by entering into comprehensive free trade agreements (FTAs) that are not only limited exclusively to tariffs but also extend to non-tariff barriers, including services, intellectual property rights (IPRs), competition, and investment. These FTAs place great emphasis on regulatory convergence as a means to secure greater market openings. The paper examines the EU's current external trade policy in the area of IP, particularly its attempts to promote its own regulatory model for the protection of IP rights through trade agreements. By looking at the IP enforcement provisions of such agreements, the article also examines how the divisive issues that are currently hindering the progress of negotiations at WTO level, including the demands from developing countries to maintain a degree of autonomy in the area of IP regulation as well as the need to balance IP protection with human rights protection, are being dealt with in recent EU FTAs.