Hunger and thirst have distinct goals but control similar ingestive behaviors, and little is known about neural processes that are shared between these behavioral states. We identify glutamatergic neurons in the peri-locus coeruleus (periLCⱽᴳᴸᵁᵀ² neurons) as a polysynaptic convergence node from separate energy-sensitive and hydration-sensitive cell populations. We develop methods for stable hindbrain calcium imaging in free-moving mice, which show that periLCⱽᴳᴸᵁᵀ² neurons are tuned to ingestive behaviors and respond similarly to food or water consumption. PeriLCⱽᴳᴸᵁᵀ² neurons are scalably inhibited by palatability and homeostatic need during consumption. Inhibition of periLCⱽᴳᴸᵁᵀ² neurons is rewarding and increases consumption by enhancing palatability and prolonging ingestion duration. These properties comprise a double-negative feedback relationship that sustains food or water consumption without affecting food- or water-seeking. PeriLCⱽᴳᴸᵁᵀ² neurons are a hub between hunger and thirst that specifically controls motivation for food and water ingestion, which is a factor that contributes to hedonic overeating and obesity.

This study aimed to determine the quality of drinking water supplied in different types of food stalls in Jashore Municipality, Bangladesh. A total of 35 water samples were collected from different tea stalls, street side fast food stalls, normal restaurants and well-furnished restaurants. The water quality was evaluated by determining the distinct physical, chemical and biological parameters. The results revealed that the water used in the food stalls and restaurants for drinking purpose was in desired quality in terms of turbidity, electrical conductivity, pH, total dissolved solids, nitrate (NO₃⁻), sulfate (SO₄²⁻), phosphate (PO₄³⁻), chloride (Cl⁻), sodium (Na) and potassium (K) concentrations. The values were within the permissible limit proposed by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the World Health Organization. Concentrations of calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) found in several samples were higher than the World Health Organization standard. Iron (Fe) concentrations were higher than the permissible limit of the World Health Organization. Only 46% exceeded the permissible limit of Bangladesh Bureau Statistics. The threatening result was that the samples were contaminated by fecal coliform, indicating that the people of Jashore Municipality may have a greater chance of being affected by pathogenic bacteria. The drinking water provided in the street side fast food stalls was biologically contaminated. The findings demonstrate that the drinking water used in food stalls and restaurants of Jashore Municipality did not meet up the potable drinking water quality standards and therefore was detrimental to public health.

A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method was developed to quantify cations in mineral water. The procedure was based on integration of signals from metal-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) complexes at δ 2.70ppm for Mg2+ and δ 2.56ppm for Ca2+. The limits of detection were below 0.5mg/L. Lack of precision did not exceed 5%. Linearity was between 1 and 500mg/L. Correlation between NMR and a reference chromatographic method was significant (p<0.0001, R2=0.99). PLS models were also established to estimate Na+ and K+ contents. R2 was 0.85 and 0.83, respectively. Root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV) were 8.0mg/L and 1.9mg/L for Na+ and K+, respectively. The method was applied successfully for the analysis of 31 mineral water samples. This method is a useful tool for quantification of important cations in mineral water and might easily be adapted to other food matrices.

This work demonstrates the properties of calcium-fortified potato starch prepared by immersion in natural mineral water containing an extremely high level of calcium (468 ppm) and its food application. The calcium content of the fortified potato starch produced by use of the original mineral water was as high as 813 ppm, while calcium content of the control potato starch was 99 ppm. Rapid visco-analyzer data revealed that the calcium-fortified potato starch had a markedly lower peak viscosity and breakdown and a higher peak viscosity temperature than the control potato starch. Furthermore, calcium fortification caused a significant decrease in starch swelling power. Pound cakes made from the calcium-fortified potato starch and wheat flour blends tended to have a higher specific volume and sensory score of appearance than those made from the control potato starch and wheat flour blends. These findings suggest that the use of calcium-fortified potato starch is critical for making pound cakes with good quality in appearance.

Humans and animals can be exposed to mixtures of chemicals from food and water, especially during disasters such as extended droughts, hurricanes and floods. Drought stress facilitates the occurrence of mycotoxins such as aflatoxins B₁ (AfB₁) and zearalenone (ZEN), while hurricanes and floods can mobilize toxic soil and sediments containing important pesticides (such as glyphosate). To address this problem in food, feed and water, we developed broad-acting, clay-based enterosorbents that can reduce toxin exposures when included in the diet. In this study, we processed sodium and calcium montmorillonite clays with high concentrations of sulfuric acid to increase surface areas and porosities, and conducted equilibrium isothermal analyses and dosimetry studies to derive binding parameters and gain insight into: (1) surface capacities and affinities, (2) potential mechanisms of sorption, (3) thermodynamics (enthalpy) of toxin/surface interactions and (4) estimated dose of sorbent required to maintain toxin threshold limits. We have also used a toxin-sensitive living organism (Hydra vulgaris) to predict the safety and efficacy of newly developed sorbents. Our results indicated that acid processed montmorillonites were effective sorbents for AfB₁, ZEN and glyphosate, with high capacity and tight binding, and effectively protected hydra against individual toxins, as well as mixtures of mycotoxins.

Global aquatic ecosystems are essential to human existence and have deteriorated seriously in recent years. Understanding the influence mechanism of habitat variation on the structure of the food-web allows the effective recovery of the health of degraded ecosystems. Whereas most previous studies focused on the selection of driving habitat factors, the impact of habitat variation on the food-web structure was rarely studied, resulting in the low success rate of ecosystem restoration projects globally. This paper presents a framework for exploring the effects of spatial variations in water quality and hydrological habitat factors on the food-web structure in city waters. Indices for the evaluation of the food-web structure are first determined by integrating model-parameter extraction via literature refinement. The key water quality and hydrological factors are then determined by coupling canonical correspondence analysis with partial least squares regression. Their spatial variation is investigated using spatial autocorrelation. Finally, fuzzy clustering is applied to analyze the influence of the spatial variations in water quality and hydrological factors on the food-web structure. The results obtained in Ji'nan, the pilot city of water ecological civilization in China, show that the Shannon diversity index, connectance index, omnivory index, and the ratio of total primary production to the total respiration are important indicators of food-web structural change. They show that the driving factors affecting the aquatic food-web structure in Ji'nan are hydrological factors (e.g., river width, water depth, and stream flow), physical aspects of water quality (e.g., air temperature, water temperature, electrical conductivity, and transparency), and chemical aspects (e.g., potassium, dissolved oxygen, calcium, and total hardness). They also show that the stability of the food-web is more prone to spatial variations in water quality than in hydrological factors. Higher electrical conductivity, potassium, total hardness, and air temperature lead to deteriorated food-web structures, whereas better transparency improves structure and stability. We found that water and air temperature are the most important factors in the spatial variation of the food-web structure in the study area, followed by total hardness. Transparency is the least important factor. Large disparities and varied spatial distributions exist in the driving effects of water quality and hydrological factors across regions attributable to differences in geographical environments, water salinity (fresh vs. sea water), and environmental factors (e.g., water pollution). The above methods and results serve as a theoretical and scientific basis for a high success rate of aquatic ecosystem restoration projects in the study area and other cities worldwide.

In this study, ultralayered Co₃O₄ adsorbent was synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface area of the solid material was found to be 75.5m²g⁻¹ by BET method. The ultralayered Co₃O₄ was used for the first time as an effective adsorbent for the preconcentration of the Pb(II) ions in various samples prior to flame atomic absorption detection. Analytical parameters affecting the solid phase extraction of Pb(II) such as pH, adsorption and elution contact time, eluent volume and concentration, sample volume and common matrix ions were investigated. The recovery values for Pb(II) were found to be ≥92% even in the presence of 75,000mgL⁻¹ Na(I), 75,000mgL⁻¹ K(I), and 75,000mgL⁻¹ Ca(II) ions. 10s vortexing time was enough for both adsorption and elution contact times. The elution was easily made with 2mL of 2.0molL⁻¹ HNO₃. The reusability (170 cycles) and adsorption capacity (35.5mgg⁻¹) of ultralayered Co₃O₄ were excellent. The preconcentration factor of the method and detection limit were found to be 175 and 0.72µgL⁻¹, respectively. The described method was validated with certified reference material (RM 8704 Buffalo River Sediment, BCR-482 Licken and SPS-WW1 Batch 111-Wastewater) and spiked real samples. It was also applied for the preconcentration of Pb(II) ions in various water (well water, mineral water, waste water and sea water), food (cauliflower and barley), street sediment and tobacco samples.

Since the 1990s, children of the Gbagyi tribe in Northern Nigeria have been suffering severe rickets with an incidence of up to 40% in the children’s generation. The disease seems to be prevalent in an area of approximately 100 km2 south-east of Kaduna. According to broad medical studies in that area, there is no evidence for a genetic disposition but for a nutritional cause of the disease. A lack of calcium was found in blood and was calculated to originate from diet. We therefore checked parent material, soil, maize cobs (Zea mays) and drinking water for their specific Ca contents from a region with rickets problem (study area A) and compared the results to Ca amounts in similar samples from a region where rickets is unknown among the Gbagyi population (study area B). It thereby became apparent that there are no differences in mineralogical composition of the parent material between the study areas, but that Ca contents in soil, maize cobs and drinking water are 47.6%, 26.6%, respectively, 79.1% lower in study area A compared to study area B. This result suggests that there may indeed be a nutritionally and/or environmentally influence on rickets disease. Nevertheless, further research on this topic is required.

It is important to explore the use of alternative ingredients for soybean and fishmeal in aquaculture feeds because the demand and cost for those ingredients are expected to increase in the near future and long-term. Meanwhile, the food processing industry produces large quantities of wastes that often contain organic solids and nutrients (e.g. nitrogen waste and phosphorus) which can be converted in microbial protein (bioflocs) using suspended growth biological reactors. Bioflocs that were collected from such a reactor that treats confectionary food processing effluent water were dried and in shrimp feed as a replacement for soybean and fishmeal. A control diet (without bioflocs) was compared to three diets that replaced soybean (10, 20, and 30% biofloc inclusion) and two diets that replaced fishmeal (10 and 20% biofloc inclusion). The control and biofloc diets were formulated to be equivalent for levels of crude protein, total fat, crude fiber, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium. Five juvenile shrimp were stocked per tank and each dietary treatment was tested using 8 replicates over a 35day feeding trial. Dietary treatments had some impact on shrimp performance. No differences (P>0.05) in shrimp performance were observed between the control and the diets that included bioflocs for survival (97.5 to 100%), growth (2.16 to 2.40g/wk), harvest biomass (687 to 732g/m2), or food conversion ratio (1.50 to 1.66). These results indicate the bioflocs harvested from a suspended growth biological reactor that treats food effluent water can successfully be used in shrimp diets.Alternative & sustainable protein source for shrimp culture.