High Percentage Inorganic Arsenic Content of Mining Impacted and Nonimpacted Chinese Rice

Two approaches were undertaken to characterize the arsenic (As) content of Chinese rice. First, a national market basket survey (n = 240) was conducted in provincial capitals, sourcing grain from China's premier rice production areas. Second, to reflect rural diets, paddy rice (n = 195) directly from farmers fields were collected from three regions in Hunan, a key rice producing province located in southern China. Two of the sites were within mining and smeltery districts, and the third was devoid of large-scale metal processing industries. Arsenic levels were determined in all the samples while a subset (n = 33) were characterized for As species, using a new simple and rapid extraction method suitable for use with Hamilton PRP-X100 anion exchange columns and HPLC-ICP-MS. The vast majority (85%) of the market rice grains possessed total As levels <150 ng g(-1). The rice collected from mine-impacted regions, however, were found to be highly enriched in As, reaching concentrations of up to 624 ng g(-1). Inorganic As (As(i)) was the predominant species detected in all of the speciated grain, with As(i) levels in some samples exceeding 300 ng g(-1). The As(i) concentration in polished and unpolished Chinese rice was successfully predicted from total As levels. The mean baseline concentrations for As(i) in Chinese market rice based on this survey were estimated to be 96 ng g(-1) while levels in mine-impacted areas were higher with ca. 50% of the rice in one region predicted to fail the national standard.

Vasorelaxin: A Novel Arterial Smooth Muscle-Relaxing Eicosapeptide from the Skin Secretion of the Chinese Piebald Odorous Frog (Odorrana schmackeri)

The defensive skin secretions of amphibians are a rich resource for the discovery of novel, bioactive peptides. Here we report the identification of a novel vascular smooth muscle-relaxing peptide, named vasorelaxin, from the skin secretion of the Chinese piebald odorous frog, Odorrana schmackeri. Vasorelaxin consists of 20 amino acid residues, SRVVKCSGFRPGSPDSREFC, with a disulfide-bridge between Cys-6 and Cys-20. The structure of its biosynthetic precursor was deduced from cloned skin cDNA and consists of 67 amino acid residues encoding a single copy of vasorelaxin (vasorelaxin, accession number: HE860494). Synthetic vasorelaxin caused a profound relaxation of rat arterial smooth muscle with an EC50 of 6.76 nM.

Making space for tourists with minority languages::the case of Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter

This article examines the role of tourism as a motive and mechanism for change in contemporary cities, considering how the theming of space with tourists in mind necessarily involves other kinds of spatial and social transformation, and asking what role actual and hypothetical tourists play in local contests over space and representation. Looking closely at Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter provides an insight into how global fashions in place marketing, tourism and minority language promotion intersect with the particularities of areas to which they are applied. This paper argues that the superficially value-neutral, internationally recognisable language of economic
development can be used both as a means of transcending, and a means of
strategically negotiating, intense struggles over space, identity and status.

Evaluation of in Situ DGT Measurements for Predicting the Concentration of Cd in Chinese Field-Cultivated Rice: Impact of Soil Cd:Zn Ratios

DGT (diffusive gradients in thin-films) has been proposed as a tool for predicting Cd concentrations in rice grain, but there is a lack of authenticating data. To further explore the relationship between DGT measured Cd and concentrations in rice cultivated in challenging, metal degraded, field locations with different heavy metal pollutant sources, 77 paired soil and grain samples were collected in Southern China from industrial zones, a "cancer village" impacted by mining waste and an organic farm. In situ deployments of DGT in flooded paddy rice rhizospheres were compared with a laboratory DGT assay on dried and rewetted soil. Total soil concentrations were a very poor predictor of plant uptake. Laboratory and field deployed DGT assays and porewater measurements were linearly related to grain concentrations in all but the most contaminated samples where plant toxicity occurred. The laboratory DGT assay was the best predictor of grain Cd concentrations, accommodating differences in soil Cd, pollutant source, and Cd:Zn ratios. Field DGT measurements showed that Zn availability in the flooded rice rhizospheres was greatly diminished compared to that of Cd, resulting in very high Cd:Zn ratios (0.1) compared to commonly observed values (0.005). These results demonstrate the potential of the DGT technique to predict Cd concentrations in field cultivated rice and demonstrate its robustness in a range of environments. Although, field deployments provided important details about in situ element stoichiometry, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the rice rhizosphere soils, deployment of DGT in dried and homogenized soils offers the best possibility of a soil screening tool.