Essential nutrient element profiles in rice types: a risk-benefit assessment including inorganic arsenic.

Rice is consumed by nearly half of the global population and a significant source of energy and nutrients. However, rice consumption can also be a significant pathway of inorganic arsenic (iAs) exposure, thus requiring a risk-benefit assessment. This study assessed nutrient element (NE) densities in fifty-five rice types (white, brown and wild rice) marketed in the UK. Densities of essential NE were used to rank rice types in meeting daily NE targets under different consumption scenarios through a newly developed optimisation approach. Using iAs data from these rice types, we assessed the margin of exposure (MOE) for low (the UK) and high (Bangladesh) rice intake scenarios. Our results showed that brown and wild rice are significantly higher in many NE and significantly contribute to dietary reference value (DRV). Our modelling showed that switching to brown or wild rice could increase the intake of several essential nutrients by up to eight times that of white rice. Using rice consumption data for mid-to-high-consumption countries, we estimate that brown rice could provide 100 % adult DRV for Fe, Mg, Cr, P and Mo, and substantial contributions for Zn, Se and K. Our results show that the amount of rice primarily determines risk from iAs consumed rather than the type of rice. Therefore, switching from white to brown or wild rice could be beneficial, provided iAs concentration in rice is within the recommended limits.

New understanding of the direct effects of spectral balance on behaviour in Myzus persicae.

The study of insect responses to colour has mainly focused on flying species and morphs, however colour cues are likely to be important for insect positioning within the canopy. We examine the role of illumination colour in canopy positioning of apterous Myzus persicae (Sulzer) using both a field experiment, utilising various UV-manipulating optical filters, and a laboratory experiment using video tracking of individuals illuminated by a variable intensity UVA-Blue-Green LED-array. In the field experiment, approximately twice as many aphids were located on exposed leaf surfaces under UV-deficient environments compared to UV-rich environments. The lab experiment showed all three M. persicae photoreceptors were involved in a visually-mediated feeding/avoidance behaviour. Highly UV-rich, green-deficient environments were up to 3 times as likely to trigger an avoidance behaviour compared to UV-absent, green-rich environments such as those found below the leaf surface. We show that apterous M. persicae use this, in addition to other cues, in order to locate feeding positions that minimise exposure to direct sunlight. This has relevance to both the fundamental understanding of photoprotective behaviour in Hemiptera as well as to applied research of crop production environments that disrupt pest behaviour.

Interacting with Members of the Public to Discuss the Impact of Food Choices on Climate Change-Experiences from Two UK Public Engagement Events.

Food systems contribute to up to 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and emissions are increasing. Since the emissions vary greatly between different foods, citizens' choices can make a big difference to climate change. Public engagement events are opportunities to communicate these complex issues: to raise awareness about the impact of citizens' own food choices on climate change and to generate support for changes in all food system activities, the food environment and food policy. This article summarises findings from our 'Take a Bite Out of Climate Change' stand at two UK outreach activities during July 2019. We collected engagement information in three main ways: (1) individuals were invited to complete a qualitative evaluation questionnaire comprising of four questions that gauged the person's interests, perceptions of food choices and attitudes towards climate change; (2) an online multiple-choice questionnaire asking about eating habits and awareness/concerns; and (3) a token drop voting activity where visitors answered the question: 'Do you consider greenhouse gases when choosing food?' Our results indicate whether or not people learnt about the environmental impacts of food (effectiveness), how likely they are to move towards a more climate-friendly diet (behavioural change), and how to gather information more effectively at this type of event.

A method for real-time classification of insect vectors of mosaic and brown streak disease in cassava plants for future implementation within a low-cost, handheld, in-field multispectral imaging sensor.

BACKGROUND: The paper introduces a multispectral imaging system and data-processing approach for the identification and discrimination of morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species of the destructive crop pest, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. This investigation and the corresponding system design, was undertaken in two phases under controlled laboratory conditions. The first exploited a prototype benchtop variant of the proposed sensor system to analyse four cryptic species of whitefly reared under similar conditions. The second phase, of the methodology development, employed a commercial high-precision laboratory hyperspectral imager to recover reference data from five cryptic species of whitefly, immobilized through flash freezing, and taken from across four feeding environments. RESULTS: The initial results, for the single feeding environment, showed that a correct species classification could be achieved in 85-95% of cases, utilising linear Partial Least Squares approaches. The robustness of the classification approach was then extended both in terms of the automated spatial extraction of the most pertinent insect body parts, to assist with the spectral classification model, as well as the incorporation of a non-linear Support Vector Classifier to maintain the overall classification accuracy at 88-98%, irrespective of the feeding and crop environment. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that through an integration of both the spatial data, associated with the multispectral images being used to separate different regions of the insect, and subsequent spectral analysis of those sub-regions, that B. tabaci viral vectors can be differentiated from other cryptic species, that appear morphologically indistinguishable to a human observer, with an accuracy of up to 98%. The implications for the engineering design for an in-field, handheld, sensor system is discussed with respect to the learning gained from this initial stage of the methodology development.

Energy-dependent dynamics of keV to MeV electrons in the inner zone, outer zone, and slot regions.

We present observations of the radiation belts from the Helium Oxygen Proton Electron and Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer particle detectors on the Van Allen Probes satellites that illustrate the energy dependence and L shell dependence of radiation belt enhancements and decays. We survey events in 2013 and analyze an event on 1 March in more detail. The observations show the following: (a) at all L shells, lower energy electrons are enhanced more often than higher energies; (b) events that fill the slot region are more common at lower energies; (c) enhancements of electrons in the inner zone are more common at lower energies; and (d) even when events do not fully fill the slot region, enhancements at lower energies tend to extend to lower L shells than higher energies. During enhancement events the outer zone extends to lower L shells at lower energies while being confined to higher L shells at higher energies. The inner zone shows the opposite with an outer boundary at higher L shells for lower energies. Both boundaries are nearly straight in log(energy) versus L shell space. At energies below a few 100 keV, radiation belt electron penetration through the slot region into the inner zone is commonplace, but the number and frequency of "slot filling" events decreases with increasing energy. The inner zone is enhanced only at energies that penetrate through the slot. Energy- and L shell-dependent losses (that are consistent with whistler hiss interactions) return the belts to more quiescent conditions.

Near-Earth injection of MeV electrons associated with intense dipolarization electric fields: Van Allen Probes observations.

Substorms generally inject tens to hundreds of keV electrons, but intense substorm electric fields have been shown to inject MeV electrons as well. An intriguing question is whether such MeVelectron injections can populate the outer radiation belt. Here we present observations of a substorm injection of MeV electrons into the inner magnetosphere. In the premidnight sector at L ∼ 5.5, Van Allen Probes (Radiation Belt Storm Probes)-A observed a large dipolarization electric field (50 mV/m) over ∼40 s and a dispersionless injection of electrons up to ∼3 MeV. Pitch angle observations indicated betatron acceleration of MeV electrons at the dipolarization front. Corresponding signals of MeV electron injection were observed at LANL-GEO, THEMIS-D, and GOES at geosynchronous altitude. Through a series of dipolarizations, the injections increased the MeV electron phase space density by 1 order of magnitude in less than 3 h in the outer radiation belt (L > 4.8). Our observations provide evidence that deep injections can supply significant MeV electrons.