2,226 research outputs found
Investigation of taste tainting in salmon flesh in the Ribble catchment
This report presents the findings of the first phase of an investigation into the cause(s) of taints in salmonid fish in the River Ribble, commissioned by the North West Region of the Environment Agency. There have been reports of tainting in fish taken from both the estuary and the freshwater river for many years, but the contaminants involved and their source and transport pathway are unknown. Tainting by phenols has been of specific concern in the past.
The work programme comprised: examination of tainting reports; collection of salmonids; their submission for taste testing; literature review; analysis of fish flesh using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) and analysis of river bed sediments. From enquiries, three common descriptors of the 'taint' were identified: disinfectanty; diesely; and muddy. The incidence of taints appears transient/irregular and may therefore relate to
the incidence of discharges and specific threshold concentrations of pollutants. The literature review showed that a wide range of organic compounds including many industrial chemicals, and others which are naturally occurring, can taint fish flesh. Taste testing confirmed the presence of tainted salmon and trout in the Ribbie Catchment. It identified a low incidence of 'untainted' fish but demonstrated the 'taint' to be not specific to
one tainting substance. Differences were found both between the species and fish from different parts of the catchment. Overall, most fish exhibited an unpleasant flavour, though
this may have been influenced to some extent by the fact that most were sexually mature.
The worst tainting was found in trout from the river Calder: a soapy/chemical aftertaste. An unpleasant earthy/musty flavour distinguished the salmon from the trout. Phenol was shown to have been a minor issue during the present study, whilst no hydrocarbon taints were
identified.
Examination of tissue from the eight salmon exhibiting the worst taints revealed the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons, but no phenolic compounds. Other notable substances present in the fish were siioxanes and benzophenone. Data from sediment analysis is presented which shows the main compounds present to be aromatic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, that concentrations at two locations R. Darwen and R. Calder were significantly higher than at other sites, and that some phenolic compounds were detected at low levels.
A paucity of fish flesh taste descriptors linked to specific compounds prevented an obvious correlation to be made between the tastes observed and the organic compounds detected.
Descriptors frequently used by the taste testing panel (e.g. earthy, musty, astringency, chemical) cannot be linked to any of the compounds identified in the tissue analyses. No taste information was available from the literature on siioxanes. Aromatic hydrocarbons though present in tissue and sediments were not identified as tainting
Measurement properties of the UK-English version of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventoryâ„¢ 4.0 (PedsQLâ„¢) generic core scales
Background
Health related quality of life (HRQL) has been recognised as an important paediatric outcome measurement. One of the more promising measures to emerge in recent years is the Pediatric Quality Of Life Inventory (PedsQLâ„¢), developed in the US. Advantages of the PedsQLâ„¢ include brevity, availability of age appropriate versions and parallel forms for child and parent. This study developed a UK-English version of PedsQLâ„¢ generic module and assessed its performance in a group of UK children and their parents.
Methods
PedsQLâ„¢ was translated to UK-English. The psychometric properties of the UK version were then tested following administration to 1399 children and 970 of their parents. The sample included healthy children, children diagnosed with asthma, diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease and children in remission from cancer.
Results
Psychometric properties were similar to those reported for the original PedsQLâ„¢. Internal reliability exceeded 0.70 for all proxy and self-report sub-scales. Discriminant validity was established for proxy and self-report with higher HRQL being reported for healthy children than those with health problems. Sex differences were noted on the emotional functioning subscale, with females reporting lower HRQL than males. Proxy and self-report correlation was higher for children with health problems than for healthy children.
Conclusion
The UK-English version of PedsQLâ„¢ performed as well as the original PedsQLâ„¢ and is recommended for assessment of paediatric HRQL in the UK
A Cascade Neural Network Architecture investigating Surface Plasmon Polaritons propagation for thin metals in OpenMP
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) confined along metal-dielectric interface
have attracted a relevant interest in the area of ultracompact photonic
circuits, photovoltaic devices and other applications due to their strong field
confinement and enhancement. This paper investigates a novel cascade neural
network (NN) architecture to find the dependance of metal thickness on the SPP
propagation. Additionally, a novel training procedure for the proposed cascade
NN has been developed using an OpenMP-based framework, thus greatly reducing
training time. The performed experiments confirm the effectiveness of the
proposed NN architecture for the problem at hand
Impact of vertical mixing on sea surface pCO2 in temperate seasonally stratified shelf seas
A key parameter in determining the exchange of CO2 across the ocean-atmosphere interface is the sea surface partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2). Temperate seasonally stratified shelf seas represent a significant sink for atmospheric CO2. Here an analytical model is used to quantify the impact of vertical mixing across the seasonal thermocline on pCO2. The model includes the impacts of the resultant dissolved inorganic carbon, heat, salt, and alkalinity fluxes on the solubility of CO2 and the effect of the inorganic carbon sink created by the primary production fuelled by the flux of limiting nutrient. The results indicate that diapycnal mixing drives a modest but continuous change in pCO2 of order 1–10 µatm d−1. In quantifying the individual impacts of the fluxes of the different parameters, we find that the impact of the fluxes of DIC and nitrate fluxes dominate. In consequence, both the direction and magnitude of the change in pCO2 are strongly dependent on the C:N uptake ratio in primary production. While the smaller impacts of the heat and salt fluxes tend to compensate for each other at midshelf locations, the heat flux dominates close to the shelf break. The analysis highlights the importance of the accurate parameterization of the C:N uptake ratio, the surface-mixed layer depth, and the TKE dissipation rate within the seasonal thermocline in models to be used to predict the air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide in these regimes. The results implicate storms as key periods of pCO2 perturbation
Wearable device to assist independent living.
Older people increasingly want to remain living independently in their own homes. The aim of the ENABLE project is to develop a wearable device that can be used both within and outside of the home to support older people in their daily lives and which can monitor their health status, detect potential problems, provide activity reminders and offer communication and alarm services. In order to determine the specifications and functionality required for development of the device user surveys and focus groups were undertaken and use case analysis and scenario modeling carried out. The project has resulted in the development of a wrist worn device and mobile phone combination that can support and assist older and vulnerable wearers with a range of activities and services both inside and outside of their homes. The device is currently undergoing pilot trials in five European countries. The aim of this paper is to describe the ENABLE device, its features and services, and the infrastructure within which it operates
The Role of Friction in Compaction and Segregation of Granular Materials
We investigate the role of friction in compaction and segregation of granular
materials by combining Edwards' thermodynamic hypothesis with a simple
mechanical model and mean-field based geometrical calculations. Systems of
single species with large friction coefficients are found to compact less.
Binary mixtures of grains differing in frictional properties are found to
segregate at high compactivities, in contrary to granular mixtures differing in
size, which segregate at low compactivities. A phase diagram for segregation
vs. friction coefficients of the two species is generated. Finally, the
characteristics of segregation are related directly to the volume fraction
without the explicit use of the yet unclear notion of compactivity.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Growing Scale-Free Networks with Small World Behavior
In the context of growing networks, we introduce a simple dynamical model
that unifies the generic features of real networks: scale-free distribution of
degree and the small world effect. While the average shortest path length
increases logartihmically as in random networks, the clustering coefficient
assumes a large value independent of system size. We derive expressions for the
clustering coefficient in two limiting cases: random (C ~ (ln N)^2 / N) and
highly clustered (C = 5/6) scale-free networks.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A vortex description of the first-order phase transition in type-I superconductors
Using both analytical arguments and detailed numerical evidence we show that
the first order transition in the type-I 2D Abelian Higgs model can be
understood in terms of the statistical mechanics of vortices, which behave in
this regime as an ensemble of attractive particles. The well-known
instabilities of such ensembles are shown to be connected to the process of
phase nucleation. By characterizing the equation of state for the vortex
ensemble we show that the temperature for the onset of a clustering instability
is in qualitative agreement with the critical temperature. Below this point the
vortex ensemble collapses to a single cluster, which is a non-extensive phase,
and disappears in the absence of net topological charge. The vortex description
provides a detailed mechanism for the first order transition, which applies at
arbitrarily weak type-I and is gauge invariant unlike the usual field-theoretic
considerations, which rely on asymptotically large gauge coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, uses RevTex. Additional references added, some
small corrections to the tex
Microscopic Study of Slablike and Rodlike Nuclei: Quantum Molecular Dynamics Approach
Structure of cold dense matter at subnuclear densities is investigated by
quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. We succeeded in showing that the
phases with slab-like and rod-like nuclei etc. can be formed dynamically from
hot uniform nuclear matter without any assumptions on nuclear shape. We also
observe intermediate phases, which has complicated nuclear shapes. Geometrical
structures of matter are analyzed with Minkowski functionals, and it is found
out that intermediate phases can be characterized as ones with negative Euler
characteristic. Our result suggests the existence of these kinds of phases in
addition to the simple ``pasta'' phases in neutron star crusts.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, RevTex4; to be published in Phys. Rev. C Rapid
Communication (accepted version
Spin-phonon interaction and band effects in the high-T_C superconductor HgBa_2CuO_4
Band calculations show that a stripe-like anti-ferromagnetic spin wave is
enforced by a 'half-breathing' phonon distortion within the CuO plane of
HgBa_2CuO_4. This spin-phonon coupling is increased further by shear distortion
and by increased distance between Cu and apical oxygens. The effects from
spin-phonon coupling are consistent with many observations in high-T_C
materials. Spin-phonon coupling can be important for the mechanism of spin
fluctuations and superconductivity, although the effects are quantitatively
weak when using the local density potential.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
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