Variation in Rice Cadmium Related to Human Exposure.

Cereal grains are the dominant source of cadmium in the human diet, with rice being to the fore. Here we explore the effect of geographic, genetic, and processing (milling) factors on rice grain cadmium and rice consumption rates that lead to dietary variance in cadmium intake. From a survey of 12 countries on four continents, cadmium levels in rice grain were the highest in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, with both these countries also having high per capita rice intakes. For Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, there was high weekly intake of cadmium from rice, leading to intakes deemed unsafe by international and national regulators. While genetic variance, and to a lesser extent milling, provide strategies for reducing cadmium in rice, caution has to be used, as there is environmental regulation as well as genetic regulation of cadmium accumulation within rice grains. For countries that import rice, grain cadmium can be controlled by where that rice is sourced, but for countries with subsistence rice economies that have high levels of cadmium in rice grain, agronomic and breeding strategies are required to lower grain cadmium.

Optimization of FRT Active Power Performance of a DFIG during Transient Grid Faults

Optimal fault ride-through (FRT) conditions for a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) during a transient grid fault are analyzed with special emphasis on improving the active power generation profile. The transition states due to crowbar activation during transient faults are investigated to exploit the maximum power during the fault and post-fault period. It has been identified that operating slip, severity of fault and crowbar resistance have a direct impact on the power capability of a DFIG, and crowbar resistance can be chosen to optimize the power capability. It has been further shown that an extended crowbar period can deliver enhanced inertial response following the transient fault. The converter protection and drive train dynamics have also been analyzed while choosing the optimum crowbar resistance and delivering enhanced inertial support for an extended crowbar period.

Changes in quality and safety attributes throughout long term storage of tomato juice processed by high pressure.

Tomato is the second most widely grown vegetable crop across the globe and it is one of widely cultivated crops in Sri Lanka. However, tomato industry in Sri Lanka facing a problem of high postharvest loss (54%) during the glut coupled with heavy revenue loss to the country by importing processed products. The aim of this work is to develop shelf-stable tomato product with maximum quality characteristics using high pressure processing (HPP). Tomato juice with altered and unaltered pH was processed using HPP at 600 MPa for 1 min after blanching (90 oC/2 min). As a control tomato juice was subjected to thermal processing (TP) at 95 oC /20 min. Processed samples were stored under 20oC and 28oC for 9 month period and analysed for total viable count (TVC) and instrumental colour (L, a, b) value at 0,1,2 3, and 4 week and 2, 3, 6 and 9 months interval. The raw juice sample had initial 6.69 log10 CFU/ml and both TP and HPP caused a more than 4.69 log10 reduction in the TVC of juice and microbial numbers remained low throughout the storage period even at 3 months after storage irrespective of the storage temperature. Both TP and HPP treated samples had the redness ⤘a value’ of 14.44-17.15 just after processing and showed non-significant reduction with storage in all the treatments after 3 months. The storage study results and discussed in relation to the end goal and compared with the literature.

Bright Molecules for Sensing, Computing and Imaging: A Tale of Two Once-troubled Cities

The circumstances in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which led to a) the generalization of luminescent PET (photoinduced electron transfer) sensing/switching as a design tool, b) the construction of a market-leading blood electrolyte analyzer and c) the invention of molecular logic-based computation as an experimental field, are delineated. Efforts to extend the philosophy of these approaches into issues of small object identification, nanometric mapping, animal visual perception and visual art are also outlined.