Total arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc in some salt rivers in the northern Andes of Antofagasta, Chile

Lake Velenje is located in one of the most polluted regions in Slovenia, the Salek Valley. The major source of pollution in the valley is the coal-fired thermal power plant in Sostanj (STPP, capacity 775 MW). It has five separate units. All units have electrostatic precipitators for fly ash removal. Unit 4 also has installed a wet flue gas desulfurisation system (FGD system). Total mercury (THg) concentrations were measured in lignite, slag and ash samples from the STPP. In flue gas, different mercury species (THg, MeHg, Hg2+, Hg0) were determined separately for unit 4 and unit 5 which use different flue gas cleaning technology. Mercury and methyl mercury (MeHg) concentrations were also measured in lake water at different depths, in inflow water, outflow water, rain, snow and lake sediments in order to establish the influence of the power plant on the lake. Most mercury emitted from the power plant is in the elemental form. The ratio between oxidised and elemental Hg depends on the flue gas cleaning technology. Mass balance calculations have been performed for the STPP. The results show that the major sources of mercury in Lake Velenje are wet deposition and lake inflows. Total and MeHg concentrations in the water column are very low and can be compared to other non-contaminated freshwater lakes in the world.     

Studies on acrylamide levels in roasting, storage and brewing of coffee

The content of acrylamide in coffee reaches a peak early in the roasting process, reflecting occurrence of both formation and destruction of acrylamide during roasting. Levels of acrylamide in the fully roasted product are a small fraction of the peak reached earlier. Glucose and moisture in green coffee do not show a significant correlation with acrylamide in roasted coffee. Pre-roasting levels of asparagine show a correlation only in Arabica coffee. The main factors affecting the level of acrylamide in roasted coffee appear to be the Arabica/Robusta ratio, with Robusta giving higher levels; time and degree of roast, with both shorter and lighter roasting at the edges of the normal roasting range giving higher levels; storage condition and time, with clear reduction at ambient storage. This storage reduction of acrylamide followed second order reaction kinetics with an activation energy of 73 KJ/mole. The acrylamide in roasted coffee is largely extracted into the brew and stable within usual time of consumption. As these four main factors also substantially affect the sensorial characteristics of the brew, and as modifications of the process have to comply with the consumer-accepted boundaries of taste profiles, only small effects on the acrylamide level are expected to be achievable.     

Memory effects on symptom reporting in a respiratory learning paradigm.

With odors as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and CO?-enriched air as the unconditioned stimulus, participants learned to exhibit respiratory responses and somatic complaints on presentation of only the odor CS+. Studied was whether complaints during CS+-only trials were inferred from the conditioned somatic responses or were based on activated memory of the complaints during acquisition. Participants (N?=?56) were either attentionally directed away or not from the complaints during acquisition, and the effects on somatic complaints during test were studied. Respiratory responses, heart rate, and somatic complaints were measured. No physiological conditioning effects were found. However, more complaints were reported to the CS+ than to the CS– odor, but only when the CS+ was foul smelling. This effect was modulated by the attention manipulation, showing that the learned complaints during the test phase were based on memory of the acquisition complaints and not on physiological responses during the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deconstructing the “energy weapon”: Russia's threat to Europe as case study

As the likelihood increases that Russia will dominate the European Union's (EU) energy supply, questions have emerged as to whether Russia would use the energy weapon to influence EU member policies and extract political concessions. Countervailing voices argue that Russia would be restricted by interdependence and market forces. As of yet, no one has analyzed the assumptions underlying the energy weapon thesis. Moreover, many scholars examining EU–Russian energy relations rely on non-Russian data. This article seeks to fill several informational and theoretical gaps by including Russian sources and first-hand data and by systematically analyzing the conditions that must obtain before an energy supplier can successfully convert its energy resources into political power. The resulting model can be utilized to analyze the capacity of a supplier to use the energy weapon—whether it be Russia, Iran, Venezuela or any other energy heavyweight—and to assess whether the deployment was successful. Five purported cases of Russian manipulation are analyzed in this article and the findings indicate that, more often than not, Russia failed to achieve political concessions. Looking to the future, the plausibility of Russia using the energy weapon to exploit Europe's dependence, particularly on gas, is also examined.     

Analysis of constructed E gene mutants of mouse hepatitis virus confirms a pivotal role for E protein in coronavirus assembly

Expression studies have shown that the coronavirus small envelope protein E and the much more abundant membrane glycoprotein M are both necessary and sufficient for the assembly of virus-like particles in cells. As a step toward understanding the function of the mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) E protein, we carried out clustered charged-to-alanine mutagenesis on the E gene and incorporated the resulting mutations into the MHV genome by targeted recombination. Of the four possible clustered charged-to-alanine E gene mutants, one was apparently lethal and one had a wild-type phenotype. The two other mutants were partially temperature sensitive, forming small plaques at the nonpermissive temperature. Revertant analyses of these two mutants demonstrated that the created mutations were responsible for the temperature-sensitive phenotype of each and provided support for possible interactions among E protein monomers. Both temperature-sensitive mutants were also found to be markedly thermolabile when grown at the permissive temperature, suggesting that there was a flaw in their assembly. Most significantly, when virions of one of the mutants were examined by electron microscopy, they were found to have strikingly aberrant morphology in comparison to the wild type: most mutant virions had pinched and elongated shapes that were rarely seen among wild-type virions. These results demonstrate an important, probably essential, role for the E protein in coronavirus morphogenesis.     

The effect of dewaxing of green coffee on the coffee brew

The two commercially most important mild treatments for green coffee are the steam treatment and the dewaxing process. In the former treatment the green coffee is just steamed. In the dewaxing process the waxy layer is extracted from the green coffee with an organic solvent, after which this coffee is also steamed to remove solvent residues. Some of the main constituents of the waxy layer are the carboxy-5-hydroxytryptamides (C-5-HT). What happens to these components during the roasting and brewing of the coffee is discussed. During roasting part of the C-5-HT decomposes, but during brewing most of the C-5-HT remains in the spent grounds due to its insolubility.Literature reports about physiological effects of both types of coffee in human and animal experiments are summarised briefly. For both types of treated coffee additional evidence seems to be needed before hard conclusions can be drawn about their digestibility.     

Biochemical profile of halophilous microalgae strains from high-andean extreme ecosystems (NE-Chile) using methodological validation approaches

The main goal of this work is to characterize the biochemical profile of three halophilous microalgal strains isolated from extreme ecosystems in northern Chile to assess their potential as possible sources of technological and commercial advantages. A procedure for the validation of a routine method for determining the total protein, carbohydrate, lipid and chlorophyll a (Chl-a) contents in Chlorella fusca, Dunaliella salina and Spirulina sp. has been developed. Detection limits of 10.8 μg/mg, 2.7 μg/mg and 5.6 μg/mg for total protein content and 3.5 μg/mg, 1.8 μg/mg and 8.8 μg/mg for total carbohydrate content were determined in C. fusca, D. salina and Spirulina sp., respectively. Most of the biological macromolecule levels measured in the microalgae were in accordance with the magnitude of previously reported data for other strains of the same taxa. However, lower levels than expected of lipids and Chl-a were measured in C. fusca and Spirulina sp., which may be associated with an imbalance between specific growth rates and the rate of macromolecule synthesis. The protein values measured in Spirulina sp. (52.3 ± 2.2 μg/mg DW) were close to the lower limit of the range reported in the literature for non-halophilous strains of the same genus. Except for the Chl-a quantification procedure, the analytical methods for macromolecules had a high degree of repeatability and reproducibility. The variability among repeated measurements of Chl-a was associated with auto-degradation processes during pigment extraction.     

Subjective symptoms and breathing pattern at rest and following hyperventilation in anxiety and somatoform disorders

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the diagnostic specificity of bodily symptoms and respiratory behavior at rest and after a hyperventilation provocation test (HVPT) in patients that were either grouped according to the DSM classification or diagnosed as suffering from hyperventilation syndrome. Nine hundred three anxiety and somatoform patients, showing symptoms supposedly caused by psychogenic hyperventilation, and 170 healthy subjects, were studied. Breathing pattern and end-tidal CO2 concentration were recorded during breathing at rest and following a HVPT. Subjective symptoms in daily life and after HVPT were measured. A principal-components analysis was performed on both the symptoms and breathing variables and their specificity levels were compared in the two classifications of patients. Some symptoms in daily life were grouped together with the same symptoms after the HVPT, other symptoms were not. This suggests that the HVPT elicited partly specific symptoms, and partly reproduced the symptoms experienced in daily life. Similar findings were observed with respect to the breathing variables. Patients with panic differed from other patients with anxiety disorders by an increased level of symptoms and a FETCO2 decline at rest. The HVPT may be informative for diagnosis because it provokes some of the typical somatic and psychological symptoms, and it identifies the breathing instability that is characteristic of both patients with HVS and with anxiety. The same symptoms and breathing variables characterized the patients, whatever their classification. Overall, the specificity of breathing variables is rather low.