7,013 research outputs found
Effect of cooking on arsenic concentration in rice
This study assessed the effect of rinsing and boiling on total content of As (tAs) and of its inorganic and organic forms in different types of rice (polished and brown) from Spain and Ecuador. Rice was subjected to five different treatments. The results showed that the treatment consisting of three grain rinsing cycles followed by boiling in excess water showed a significant decrease in tAs content compared with raw rice. Regarding As species, it is worth noting that the different treatments significantly reduced the content of the most toxic forms of As. The estimated lifetime health risks indicate that pre-rinsing alone can reduce the risk by 50%, while combining it with discarding excess water can reduce the risk by 83%; therefore, the latter would be the preferable method.Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas-ESPE through Project 2015- PIC-017, Xunta de Galicia-Consellería de Educación, Universidades e Formación Profesional, Plan Galego IDT, Consolidation of competitive research groups (ref. ED31C2018/12), and Cross-Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS, AGRUP2015/02, ref. 2018-PG100). XLOP is grateful for the financial support from the Proyecto PROMETEO (SENESCYT Ecuador).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Early star formation traced by the highest redshift quasars
The iron abundance relative to alpha-elements in the circumnuclear region of
quasars is regarded as a clock of the star formation history and, more
specifically, of the enrichment by SNIa. We investigate the iron abundance in a
sample of 22 quasars in the redshift range 3.0<z<6.4 by measuring their rest
frame UV FeII bump, which is shifted into the near-IR, and by comparing it with
the MgII 2798 flux. The observations were performed with a device that can
obtain near-IR spectra in the range 0.8-2.4 um in one shot, thereby enabling an
optimal removal of the continuum underlying the FeII bump. We detect iron in
all quasars including the highest redshift (z=6.4) quasar currently known. The
uniform observational technique and the wide redshift range allows a reliable
study of the trend of the FeII/MgII ratio with redshift. We find the FeII/MgII
ratio is nearly constant at all redshifts, although there is marginal evidence
for a higher FeII/MgII ratio in the quasars at z~6. If the FeII/MgII ratio
reflects the Fe/alpha abundance, this result suggests that the z~6 quasars have
already undergone a major episode of iron enrichment. We discuss the possible
implications of this finding for the star formation history at z>6. We also
detect a population of weak iron emitters at z~4.5, which are possibly hosted
in systems that evolved more slowly. Alternatively, the trend of the FeII/MgII
ratio at high redshift may reflect significantly different physical conditions
of the circumnuclear gas in such high redshift quasars.Comment: Replaced to match the accepted version (ApJL in press), 5 page
The TNG Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer
NICS (acronym for Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer) is the near-infrared
cooled camera-spectrometer that has been developed by the Arcetri Infrared
Group at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the
CAISMI-CNR for the TNG (the Italian National Telescope Galileo at La Palma,
Canary Islands, Spain).
As NICS is in its scientific commissioning phase, we report its observing
capabilities in the near-infrared bands at the TNG, along with the measured
performance and the limiting magnitudes. We also describe some technical
details of the project, such as cryogenics, mechanics, and the system which
executes data acquisition and control, along with the related software.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, compiled with A&A macros. A&A in pres
Critical Endpoint and Inverse Magnetic Catalysis for Finite Temperature and Density Quark Matter in a Magnetic Background
In this article we study chiral symmetry breaking for quark matter in a
magnetic background, , at finite temperature and quark chemical
potential, , making use of the Ginzburg-Landau effective action formalism.
As a microscopic model to compute the effective action we use the renormalized
quark-meson model. Our main goal is to study the evolution of the critical
endpoint, , as a function of the magnetic field strength, and
investigate on the realization of inverse magnetic catalysis at finite chemical
potential. We find that the phase transition at zero chemical potential is
always of the second order; for small and intermediate values of ,
moves towards small , while for larger it moves
towards moderately larger values of . Our results are in agreement with
the inverse magnetic catalysis scenario at finite chemical potential and not
too large values of the magnetic field, while at larger direct magnetic
catalysis sets in.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure
Stellar and gaseous abundances in M82
The near infrared (IR) absorption spectra of starburst galaxies show several
atomic and molecular lines from red supergiants which can be used to infer
reliable stellar abundances. The metals locked in stars give a picture of the
galaxy metallicity prior to the last burst of star formation. The enrichment of
the new generation of stars born in the last burst can be traced by measuring
the hot gas in the X-rays. For the first time detailed stellar abundances in
the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy M82 have been obtained. They are
compared with those of the hot gas as derived from an accurate re-analysis of
the XMM and Chandra nuclear X-ray spectra. The cool stars and the hot gas
suggest [Fe/H]=-0.35+/-0.2 dex, and an overall [Si,Mg/Fe] enhancement by 0.4
and 0.5 dex, respectively. This is consistent with a major chemical enrichment
by SNe II explosions in recursive bursts on short timescales. Oxygen is more
puzzling to interpret since it is enhanced by 0.3 dex in stars and depleted by
0.2 dex in the hot gas. None of the standard enrichment scenarios can fully
explain such a behavior when compared with the other alpha-elements.Comment: APJ, in pres
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