Arsenic speciation in Japanese rice drinks and condiments

Rice has been demonstrated to be one of the major contributors to inorganic arsenic (i-As) intake in humans. However, little is known about rice products as additional source of i-As exposure. In this study, misos, syrups and amazake (a fermented sweet rice drink) produced from rice, barley and millet were analysed for total arsenic (t-As) and a subset of samples were also analyzed for As speciation. Rice based products displayed a higher i-As content than those derived from barley and millet. Most of the t-As in the rice products studied was inorganic (63-83%), the remainder being dimethylarsinic acid. Those who regularly consume rice drinks and condiments, such as the Japanese population and those who follow health conscious diets based on the Japanese cuisine, could reach up to 23% of the World Health Organization's Provisional Tolerable Daily Intake of i-As, by only consuming these kinds of products. This study provides a wide appreciation of how i-As derived from rice based products enters the human diet and how this may be of concern to populations who are already exposed to high levels of i-As through consumption of foods such as rice and seaweed.

Survey of arsenic and its speciation in rice products such as breakfast cereals, rice crackers and Japanese rice condiments

Rice has been demonstrated to be one of the major contributors to arsenic (As) in human diets in addition to drinking water, but little is known about rice products as an additional source of As exposure. Rice products were analyzed for total As and a subset of samples were measured for arsenic speciation using high performance liquid chromatography interfaced with inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS). A wide range of rice products had total and inorganic arsenic levels that typified those found in rice grain including, crisped rice, puffed rice, rice crackers, rice noodles and a range of Japanese rice condiments as well as rice products targeted at the macrobiotic, vegan, lactose intolerant and gluten intolerance food market. Most As in rice products are inorganic As (75.2-90.1%). This study provides a wider appreciation of how inorganic arsenic derived from rice products enters the human diet. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From an American Plantation to Interwar Poland: How Uncle Remus Became Bam-Bo the Negro

The article opens with the introduction of Joel Chandler Harris and his literary output. As one of “local colourists,” Harris depicted American plantation life in 19th-century Georgia and included many cultural as well as folk elements in his works. The following analysis of his stories about Uncle Remus focuses on (1) the levels of narration; (2) the linguistic complexity of the text (the stories abound in slang and dialectal expressions); (3) the form; and (4) the folklore value. These four aspects guide the discussion of the only Polish translation of the Uncle Remus stories. Prepared by Wladyslawa Wielinska in 1929, it was addressed to children. Therefore, the article aims to determine the profile of the translation as a children’s book, to consider it in relation to the skopos of the source text and to establish the extent to which it preserved the peculiar character of the Uncle Remus stories.

Reviewing child deaths - Learning from the American experience

Current systems for investigating child deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have come under intense scrutiny in recent years and questions have been raised about the accuracy of child death investigations and resulting statistics. Research has highlighted the ways in which multidisciplinary input can contribute to investigative and review processes, a perspective which is further supported by recent UK policy developments. The experience of creating multidisciplinary child death review teams (CDRTs) in America highlights the potential benefits the introduction of a similar system might have. These benefits include improved multi-agency working and communication, more effective identification of suspicious cases, a decrease in inadequate death certification and a broader and more in-depth understanding of the causes of child deaths through the systematic collection and analysis of data. While a lack of funding, regional coordination and evaluation limit the impact of American CDRTs, the positive aspects of this process make it worthwhile, and timely, to consider how such a model might fit within our own context. Current policy developments such as the Home Office review of coroner services, the Children Bill and related Department for Education and Skills (DfES) work on developing screening groups demonstrate that strides have been made in respect of introducing a multidisciplinary process. Similarly, the development of local protocols for the investigation and/or review of child deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland highlights an increased focus on multidisciplinary processes. However, key issues from the American experience, such as the remit of CDRTs/screening panels, the need for national coordination and the importance of rigorous evaluation, can inform the development of a similar process in the UK. Copyright ©2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparative study between African-American and Caucasian Normal Tension Glaucoma patients

Purpose. To evaluate differences in optic disc and visual field damage between African-American and Caucasian Normal Tension Glaucoma (NTG) patients. Methods. We retrospectively selected 33 African-American patients with the diagnosis of NTG and age-matched them with 33 Caucasian patients with the same diagnosis. Three masked observers graded disc photographs and visual fields as being normal, globally damaged or focally damaged for both eyes of the subject. Chi-square test was used to evaluate statistically significant differences between groups. Results. The results of the visual fields showed that in the African-American group, 24% were graded normal, 30% showed global damage, and 46% showed focal damage. This data was compared with the Caucasian group which showed 41% normal graded eyes, 22% with global damage, and 37% with focal damage (p = 0.28). The results of the optic disc photos showed that in the African-American group, 25% were graded normal, 45% showed global damage, and 30% showed focal damage. This data was compared with the Caucasian group which showed 43% graded normal, 32% with global damage, and 25% with focal damage (p=0.16). Conclusions. In our study there was no difference in the frequency of globally damaged, focally damaged, and normal graded discs or visual fields between African-American and Caucasian NTG patients.

Energy expenditure during activity in the American lobster Homarus americanus:Correlations with body acceleration

How animals manage time and expend energy has implications for survivorship. Being able to measure key metabolic costs of animals under natural conditions is therefore an important tool in behavioral ecology. One method for estimating activity-specific metabolic rate is via derived measures of acceleration, often 'overall dynamic body acceleration' (ODBA), recorded by an instrumented acceleration logger. ODBA has been shown to correlate well with rate of oxygen consumption (V ?o) in a range of species during activity in the laboratory. This study devised a method for attaching acceleration loggers to decapod crustaceans and then correlated ODBA against concurrent respirometry readings to assess accelerometry as a proxy for activity-specific energy expenditure in a model species, the American lobster Homarus americanus. Where the instrumented animals exhibited a sufficient range of activity levels, positive linear relationships were found between V ?o and ODBA over 20min periods at a range of ambient temperatures (6, 13 and 20°C). Mixed effect linear models based on these data and morphometrics provided reasonably strong predictive power for estimating activity-specific V ?o from ODBA. These V ?o-ODBA calibrations demonstrate the potential of accelerometry as an effective predictor of behavior-specific metabolic rate of crustaceans in the wild during periods of activity. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.

AcT-2: A Novel Myotropic and Antimicrobial Type 2 Tryptophyllin from the Skin Secretion of the Central American Red-Eyed Leaf Frog, Agalychnis callidryas

Tryptophyllins are a diverse family of amphibian peptides originally found in extracts of phyllomedusine frog skin by chemical means. Their biological activities remain obscure. Here we describe the isolation and preliminary pharmacological characterization of a novel type 2 tryptophyllin, named AcT-2, from the skin secretion of the red-eyed leaf frog, Agalychnis callidryas. The peptide was initially identified during smooth muscle pharmacological screening of skin secretion HPLC fractions and the unique primary structure—GMRPPWF-NH2—was established by both Edman degradation and electrospray MS/MS fragmentation sequencing. A. cDNA encoding the biosynthetic precursor of AcT-2 was successfully cloned from a skin secretion-derived cDNA library by means of RACE PCR and this contained an open-reading frame consisting of 62 amino acid residues with a single AcT-2 encoding sequence located towards the C-terminus. A synthetic replicate of AcT-2 was found to relax arterial smooth muscle (EC50 = 5.1 nM) and to contract rat urinary bladder smooth muscle (EC50 = 9.3 μM). The peptide could also inhibit the growth of the microorganisms, Staphylococcus aureus, (MIC = 256 mg/L) Escherichia coli (MIC = 512 mg/L), and Candida albicans (128 mg/L). AcT-2 is thus the first amphibian skin tryptophyllin found to possess both myotropic and antimicrobial activities.

Due North? Do American Theories of Legislative Committees Apply to Canada?

Several theories of legislative organisation have been proposed to explain committee selection in American legislatures, but do these theories travel outside the United States? This paper tests whether these theories apply to data from the Canadian House of Commons. It was found that the distributive and partisan models of legislative organisation explain committee composition in Canada. In many cases, committees in the House of Commons are made up of preference outliers. As predicted by partisan models, it was also found that the governing party stacks committees with its members, but this is conditional upon the strength of the governing party.