Heavy metal intoxication

Although some debate exists with regards to the subject, elements which are classified under ‘heavy metals’ have come to be those which pose a threat to humans in terms of toxicity. Intoxication with heavy metals is not a typical diagnosis as it is fairly uncommon. This can impose a risk on people who fail to be diagnosed and removed from the source of exposure, increasing morbidity and mortality. For the purposes of this review, Cadmium and Mercury will be discussed. A brief introduction of each element’s chemical and physical properties will be given, as well as its sources in the environment and any uses. Each metal’s toxicity will be illustrated using actual cases of poisoning. Any treatments for intoxication will be explained at the end of each section.peer-reviewe

Heavy-metal binding affinity in metalloproteins: a computational approach

The use of biological organisms for removal of heavy-metal in situ brings down the production cost due to the lesser pre-treatment steps in the removal process. Initial assessments of the heavy-metal binding bacteria from wastewaters, indicates that Bacillus and Chryseomonas sp. exhibited positive growth response behavior when exposed to lead and cadmium [1]. This incorporation of the heavy-metal species leads to the increase in the molecular mass of the protein as shown in the SDS-PAGE result (Figure 1). In this research, two metal-binding proteins of B. subtilis 1C7I and 1P3J were analyzed and optimized using DFT method to look into the possibility of replacement of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Hg, and Pb) in its metal active sites

Demons, devils and witches: the occult in heavy metal music

Heavy Metal has developed from a British fringe genre of rock music in the late 1960s to a global mass market consumer-good in the early twenty-first century. Early proponents of the musical style, such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Saxon, Uriah Heep and Iron Maiden, were mostly seeking to reach a young male audience. Songs were often filled with violent, sexist and nationalistic themes but were also speaking to the growing sense of deterioration in social and professional life. At the same time, however, Heavy Metal was seriously indebted to the legacies of blues and classical music as well as to larger literary and cultural themes. The genre also produced mythological concept albums and rewritings of classical poems. In other words, Heavy Metal tried from the beginning to locate itself in a liminal space between pedestrian mass culture and a rather elitist adherence to complexity and musical craftsmanship, speaking from a subaltern position against the hegemonic discourse. This collection of essays provides a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary look at British Heavy Metal from its beginning through The New Wave of British Heavy Metal up to the increasing internationalization and widespread acceptance in the late 1980s. The individual chapter authors approach British Heavy Metal from a textual perspective, providing critical analysis of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics, images and performances. Rather than focus on individual bands or songs, the essays collected here argue with the larger system of Heavy Metal music in mind, providing comprehensive analysis that relate directly to the larger context of British life and culture. The wide range of approaches should provide readers from various disciplines with new and original ideas about the study of this phenomenon of popular culture

Reusable chelating resins concentrate metal ions from highly dilute solutions

Column chromatographic method uses new metal chelating resins for recovering heavy-metal ions from highly dilute solutions. The absorbed heavy-metal cations may be removed from the chelating resins by acid or base washes. The resins are reusable after the washes are completed

Heavy Metal Contents in Marine Sediments and Seawater at Totok Bay Area, North Sulawesi

The study area is located in north-eastern part of Tomini Bay, approximately 80 km south of Manado city, North Sulawesi. This area is closed to submarine tailing disposal system in Buyat Bay. Five marine sediment samples and four water samples from seawater and dig wells have been used for heavy metals (Hg, As, CN) analyses by using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS). This study is a part of research conducted by Marine Geological Institute of Indonesia on morphological changes of seabed in the Totok Bay. The result shows that concentration of mercury (Hg) in water samples taken from Ratatotok estuary is higher than standards stipulated Government Regulation (Peraturan Pemerintah/PP) No. 82/2001. Meanwhile, concentration of arsenic (As) is almost reaching its standard threshold, and conversely cyanide (CN) concentration is low. This value of mercury (Hg) concentration taken from Ratatotok estuary is much higher than water samples from of Buyat Bay estuary. Significant concentration of mercury (Hg) analysed from those particular sampling sites indicated high mercury contamination. Therefore, further examination on ground water of dig wells is necessary, especially for mercury analysis (Hg). Furthermore, comparing the formerly obtained data of mercury concentration in the sediment, this particular study concludes that the sediments in the Totok Bay had contaminated by mercury from gold-processing of illegal mining. Keywords: pollution, heavy metal, marine sediment, seawater, Totok Bay Daerah penelitian terletak di bagian timur laut Teluk Tomini, sekitar 80 km selatan kota Manado, Sulawesi Utara. Lokasi ini berdekatan dengan tempat pembuangan limbah tambang bawah laut di Teluk Buyat. Lima contoh sedimen laut, lima buah contoh air dari laut dan sumur telah digunakan untuk analisa logam berat (Hg, As, dan CN) menggunakan metode Atomic Absorption Spectrometry AAS. Studi ini merupakan bagian dari penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Marine Geological Institute of Indonesia tentang Perubahan morfologi dasar laut di Teluk Totok. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kandungan merkuri dalam contoh air yang diambil dari sekitar muara sungai Ratatotok lebih tinggi dari standar Peraturan Pemerintah/PP No. 82/2001. Sementara itu, konsentrasi arsen (As) hampir mencapai ambang batas standar dan konsentrasi sianida (CN) jauh lebih rendah dari standar ambang batas. Nilai kandungan merkuri di estuari Ratatotok lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan contoh air yang terukur dari muara sungai di Teluk Buyat. Kandungan merkuri yang tinggi ini menunjukkan adanya indikasi pencemaran logam berat, dan oleh karena itu air di sumur-sumur penduduk perlu dilakukan penelitian lebih lanjut, khususnya untuk analisa merkuri. Selain itu, berdasarkan perbandingan kandungan merkuri dalam sedimen pada penelitian sebelumnya, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Teluk Totok telah mengalami kontaminasi merkuri dari penambangan emas ilegal. Kata kunci: polusi, logam berat, sedimen laut, air laut, Teluk Toto

Thumb-bangers : exploring the cultural bond between video games and heavy metal

« Heavy Metal Generations » is the fourth volume in the series of papers drawn from the 2012 Music, Metal and Politics international conference (http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/product/heavy-metal-generations/).Heavy metal and video games share an almost simultaneous birth, with Black Sabbath’s debut album in 1970 and Nolan Bushnell’s Computer Space in 1971. From Judas Priest’s ‘Freewheel Burning’ music video in 1984 to Tim Schafer’s Brütal Legend in 2009, the exchanges between these two subcultures have been both reciprocal and exponential. This chapter will present a historical survey of the bond between video games and heavy metal cultures through its highest-profile examples. There are two underlying reasons for this symbiosis: 1) the historical development and popular dissemination of the video game came at an opportune time, first with the video game arcades in the 1970s and early 1980s, and then with the Nintendo Entertainment System, whose technical sound-channel limitations happened to fall in line with the typical structures of heavy metal; 2) heavy metal and video games, along with their creators and consumers, have faced similar sociocultural paths and challenges, notably through the policies set in place by the PMRC and the ESRB, and a flurry of lawsuits and attacks, especially from United States congressmen, that resulted in an overlapping of their respective spaces outside dominant culture. These reasons explain the natural bond between these cultural practices, and the more recent developments like Last Chance to Reason’s Level 2 let us foresee a future where new hybrid creations could emerge

Network of Steel: Neural Font Style Transfer from Heavy Metal to Corporate Logos

We introduce a method for transferring style from the logos of heavy metal bands onto corporate logos using a VGG16 network. We establish the contribution of different layers and loss coefficients to the learning of style, minimization of artefacts and maintenance of readability of corporate logos. We find layers and loss coefficients that produce a good tradeoff between heavy metal style and corporate logo readability. This is the first step both towards sparse font style transfer and corporate logo decoration using generative networks. Heavy metal and corporate logos are very different artistically, in the way they emphasize emotions and readability, therefore training a model to fuse the two is an interesting problem

Bioavailibility of Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn in Sediment in Garapan, Cibungur, and Ciliman Rivermouth

Garapan, Cibungur, and Ciliman Rivermouths are known as places for fishing. Those areas are surrounded by human activities such as human settlement, agricultural and industrial activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the bioavailibility of Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn in sediment for biota (clams) from related location. Bioavailibility was determined using sequential extraction technique consisted of residual and nonresidual fractions. Samples of sediments taken using Ekman grab, while clams Anadara pilula taken using “garo”. Heavy metals content was analyzed using AAS. Regression linear was used to see relationship between bioavalibility and heavy metal content in clams. Result showed that heavy metal content Cd, Pb, Cu, and Zn in sediment were highest in Garapan so were the content of Pb, Cu, and Zn in Anadara pilula. Result also showed that Cd and Pb were mostly bound to nonresidual fraction 100% and 54,65 – 64,69% respectively, while Cu and Zn were mostly bound to residual fraction 54,63 – 54,79% and 67,28 – 79,37%, respectively, except in Garapan for Cu. Relationship between each fraction of heavy metal in sediment with heavy metal content in Anadara pilula showed ascending pattern except, for Cd

An Assessment of Heavy Metal Concentrations in the Scleractinian Coral Tissues of Karimunjawa Archipelago, Indonesia

Karimunjawa archipelago, marine national park, has been considered to be a relatively pristine area that have more than 90 species of corals. This study was conducted to detect any concentrations heavy metal levels in the tissues of eight coral species. Based on life-forms, selected coral species are classified as massive (Porites lutea and Goniastrea retiformis), submassive (Galaxea fascicularis and Stylophora pistillata), foliaceous (Pavona decussata and Montipora foliosa) and branching/ramosa (Acropora aspera and Pocillopora damicornis). The concentration of heavy metals in the coral tissues were assessed using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) technique. The present experimental results demonstrated that metal in coral tissues were no significant difference between sites. Concentration levels of five heavy metals were found to be in the order of Pb>Zn>Cr>Cd>Cu. Relating heavy metal concentrations to life-form corals, there were no significant differences of all the metals (except Pb), the highest concentration of Pb were found in foliaceous type of corals. The high level of Pb in foliaceous coral life-form (Pavona decussata and Montipora foliosa), indicating that these coral species are usefull as potential candidates of biomonitoring material for this metal. However, the use of corals as biomonitors should be considered carefully in biological and local environmental factors