Occurrence, Source and Dietary Exposure of Toxic and Essential Elements in the Indian Food Basket.

In this study, representative urban and peri-urban Indian food baskets have been studied for the presence of toxic and essential elements. The concentration of target toxic and essential elements was used to estimate dietary intakes (EDIs) and health risks. Across all food matrices, toxic elements like Cd and Pb were dominant.

Concentrations of Thirteen Trace Metals in Scales of Three Nototheniid Fishes from Antarctica (James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula).

In this study, we assessed concentrations of 13 trace metals in the scales of Notothenia coriiceps, Trematomus bernacchii and Gobionotothen gibberifrons caught off the coast of James Ross Island (Antarctic Peninsula). Overall, our results for scales broadly match those of previous studies using different fish and different organs, with most metals found at trace levels and manganese, aluminium, iron and zinc occurring at high levels in all species. This suggests that scales can serve as a useful, non-invasive bioindicator of long-term contamination in Antarctic fishes.

First data on uranium uptake in three nototheniid fishes from Antarctica (James Ross Island).

Recent studies have confirmed historic atmospheric deposition of uranium in Antarctica, with a steep and significant increase in levels deposited since the 1980s in Antarctic Peninsula ice core samples. To date, however, there has been little or no attention paid to uranium in the Antarctic food web. Here, we present results for uranium content in scales of three common nototheniid species (Trematomus bernacchii, Gobionotothen gibberifrons, Notothenia coriiceps) from coastal waters off James Ross Island (Antarctic Peninsula).

Distinct modulation of inactivation by a residue in the pore domain of voltage-gated Na channels: mechanistic insights from recent crystal structures.

Inactivation of voltage-gated Na channels (VGSC) is essential for the regulation of cellular excitability. The molecular rearrangement underlying inactivation is thought to involve the intracellular linker between domains III and IV serving as inactivation lid, the receptor for the lid (domain III S4-S5 linker) and the pore-lining S6 segements. To better understand the role of the domain IV S6 segment in inactivation we performed a cysteine scanning mutagenesis of this region in rNav 1.

Paracrossidius radekcervenkai (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae), a new species from China.

A new species of Paracrossidius Balthasar, 1932 (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae) from China is described and compared with similar species. Paracrossidius was originally described as a monotypic subgenus based on the type species Aphodius (Paracrossidius) instigator Balthasar, 1932 from Sichuan Province, China. Paracrossidius is currently considered a genus with 10 previously described species, most of which inhabit various parts of China (Dellacasa et al.