Comparison of five in vitro digestion models to study the bioaccessibility of soil contaminants

Soil ingestion can be a major exposure route for humans to many immobile soil contaminants. Exposure to soil contaminants can be overestimated if oral bioavailability is not taken into account. Several in vitro digestion models simulating the human gastrointestinal tract have been developed to assess mobilization of contaminants from soil during digestion, i.e., bioaccessibility. Bioaccessibility is a crucial step in controlling the oral bioavailability for soil contaminants. To what extent in vitro determination of bioaccessibility is method dependent has, until now, not been studied. This paper describes a multi-laboratory comparison and evaluation of five in vitro digestion models. Their experimental design and the results of a round robin evaluation of three soils, each contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, and lead, are presented and discussed. A wide range of bioaccessibility values were found for the three soils: for As 6-95%, 1-19%, and 10-59%; for Cd 7-92%, 5-92%, and 6-99%; and for Pb 4-91%, 1-56%, and 3-90%. Bioaccessibility in many cases is less than 50%, indicating that a reduction of bioavailability can have implications for health risk assessment. Although the experimental designs of the different digestion systems are distinct, the main differences in test results of bioaccessibility can be explained on the basis of the applied gastric pH. High values are typically observed for a simple gastric method, which measures bioaccessibility in the gastric compartment at low pHs of 1.5. Other methods that also apply a low gastric pH, and include intestinal conditions, produce lower bioaccessibility values. The lowest bioaccessibility values are observed for a gastrointestinal method which employs a high gastric pH of 4.0.     

Microbial fuel cells: methodology and technology

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) research is a rapidly evolving field that lacks established terminology and methods for the analysis of system performance. This makes it difficult for researchers to compare devices on an equivalent basis. The construction and analysis of MFCs requires knowledge of different scientific and engineering fields, ranging from microbiology and electrochemistry to materials and environmental engineering. Describing MFC systems therefore involves an understanding of these different scientific and engineering principles. In this paper, we provide a review of the different materials and methods used to construct MFCs, techniques used to analyze system performance, and recommendations on what information to include in MFC studies and the most useful ways to present results.     

Efficient Total Nitrogen Removal in an Ammonia Gas Biofilter through High-Rate OLAND

Ammonia gas is conventionally treated in nitrifying biofilters; however, addition of organic carbon to perform post-denitrification is required to obtain total nitrogen removal. Oxygen-limited autotrophic nitrification/denitrification (OLAND), applied in full-scale for wastewater treatment, can offer a cost-effective alternative for gas treatment. In this study, the OLAND application thus was broadened toward ammonia loaded gaseous streams. A down flow, oxygen-saturated biofilter (height of 1.5 m; diameter of 0.11 m) was fed with an ammonia gas stream (248 ± 10 ppmv) at a loading rate of 0.86 ± 0.04 kg N m(-3) biofilter d(-1) and an empty bed residence time of 14 s. After 45 days of operation a stable nitrogen removal rate of 0.67 ± 0.06 kg N m(-3) biofilter d(-1), an ammonia removal efficiency of 99%, a removal of 75-80% of the total nitrogen, and negligible NO/N(2)O productions were obtained at water flow rates of 1.3 ± 0.4 m(3) m(-2) biofilter section d(-1). Profile measurements revealed that 91% of the total nitrogen activity was taking place in the top 36% of the filter. This study demonstrated for the first time highly effective and sustainable autotrophic ammonia removal in a gas biofilter and therefore shows the appealing potential of the OLAND process to treat ammonia containing gaseous streams.     

Neuroticism and extraversion in Turner's Syndrome.

Administered the Maudsley Personality Inventory to 5 groups of female Ss: (a) 13 Turner Syndrome Ss (mean age 19 yrs 2 mo) with karyotype 45X, (b) 18 Turner Syndrome (TS) Ss (mean age 26 yrs 11 mo) with other types of sex chromosomal abnormalities, (c) 16 sisters of Ss (mean age 24 yrs 2 mo), (d) 9 Ss with growth retardation and primary amenorrhea (mean age 22 yrs 4 mo), and (e) 19 nurses (mean age 22 yrs 8 mo). The results are compared to English and American normative values. The total group of TS Ss obtained a low Neuroticism (N) score compared to the control groups. When the total group was divided on the basis of their karyotypes, the low N score could be referred solely to Ss with karyotype 45X, who scored significantly lower than any other group tested so far with the MPI. TS Ss with chromosomal abnormalities other than 45X scored within normal limits. No variables other than karyotype 45X were related to an extremely low N score. It is concluded that exceptional emotional stability, as reflected in a very low N score on the MPI, is concomitant with the total absence of one sex chromosome, which is probably due to a developmental abnormality of the CNS. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secure access privilege delegation using attribute-based encryption

International Journal of Information Security - Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is widely used for a secure and efficient data sharing. The predetermined access policy of ABE shares the data with...     

Promises of industry 4.0 under the magnifying glass of interdisciplinarity: revealing operators and managers work and challenging collaborative robot design

Cognition, Technology & Work - The goal of this article is to propose a cross-perspective around Collaborative Robotics—seen as a remarkable example of technologies 4.0 in an industrial...     

An Enhanced Group Key-Based Security Protocol to Protect 5G SON Against FBS

Network operators are attempting many innovations and changes in 5G using self-organizing networks (SON). The SON operates on the measurement reports (MR), which are obtained from user equipment (UE) and secured against malware and userspace programs. However, the synchronization signal block that the UE relies on to measure the wireless environment configured by a base station is not authenticated. As a result, the UE will likely gauge the wrong wireless environment configured by a false base station (FBS) and transmit the corresponding MR to the serving base station, which poisons the data used for 5G SONs. Therefore, the serving base stations must verify the authenticity of the MR. The 3GPP has advocated numerous solutions for this issue, including the use of public key certificates, identity-based keys, and group keys. Although the solution leveraging group keys have better efficiency and practicality than the other two, they are vulnerable to security threats caused by key leaks via insiders or malicious UE. In this paper, we analyze these security issues and propose an improved group key protocol that uses a new network function, called a broadcast message authentication network function (BMANF), which validates broadcasted messages on behalf of the UE. The protocol operates in two phases: initial and verification. During the initial phase, the 5G core network distributes a shared secret key to the BMANF and UE, allowing the latter to request an authentication ticket from the former. During the verification phase, the UE requests the BMANF to validate the broadcasted messages received from base stations using the ticket and its corresponding shared key. For evaluation, we formally verified the proposed protocol, which was then compared with alternative methods in terms of computing cost. As a result, the proposed protocol fulfills the security requirements and shows a lower overhead than the alternatives.     

Pyryliumolate. III. Synthese anellierter Benzotropolone

Pyryliumolates. III. Synthesis of Annulated Benzotropolones Dirhodiumtetraacetate catalyzed nitrogen extrusion from diazocarbonyl compounds ( 2a – f , 19c , 23d – f , 25b ) yields benzopyryliumolates (3) , which were trapped intramolecularly in situ to give tetracyclic adducts (4a, 5a–d, 20, 24a–c, 26) . Starting with 5a and 5d annulated benzotropolones ( 12a, d ) are accessible.     

Non-oxide CMC fabricated by Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)

The present study introduces an approach to additively manufacture non-oxidic Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) by the Material Extrusion (MEX)-based Fused Filament Fabrication. Therefore, highly SiC particle filled thermoplastic filaments were developed containing short fibers and/or long fibers to maintain shape during the thermal treatment and exhibiting flaw tolerant behavior. Polymer Infiltration and Pyrolysis (PIP) was applied to densify the microstructure. It is shown that a low content of long fibers of about 5 % can already exhibit damage tolerance comparable to steel reinforced concrete. Thus, the mechanical behavior is different to conventional fiber composites with significant higher fiber volume content. Nevertheless, these results enable new opportunities for producing advanced complex CMC components by means of Additive Manufacturing (AM).