1,766 research outputs found

    Analysis of total arsenic content in purchased rice from Ecuador

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    Natural and anthropogenic sources contribute to arsenic contamination in water and human food chain in Andean countries. Human exposure to arsenic via rice consumption is of great concern in countries where this crop is the dominant staple food, and limited information is available on the arsenic contamination on rice in Ecuador. This work was to contribute to the lack of knowledge analysing total arsenic by hydride generation-atomic absorption spectrometry in the samples of white, brown and parboiled rice purchased in Ecuadorian markets and produced in the two main rice wetlands in Ecuador, Guayas and Los Ríos, were carried out. For the samples from Guayas, arsenic concentration in white, brown and parboiled rice were 0.174 ± 0.014, 0.232 ± 0.021, and 0.186 ± 0.017 mg/kg respectively, whereas samples of white rice from Los Ríos showed a total arsenic level of 0.258 ± 0.037 mg/kg. This last arsenic concentration exceeds recommended maximum permissible limit by the FAO/WHO. Obtained data have available to estimate the Ecuadorian dietary exposure revealing serious health risk for population.S

    Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

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    The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum
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