text:
Research Volume 125 | 2017
Estimating Inorganic Arsenic Exposure from U.S. Rice and Total Water Intakes
1Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
2National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
3Independent Contractor, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
4Forensic Chemistry Center, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
5Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
6NERL, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
7National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), U.S. EPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
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- Background:
- Among nonoccupationally exposed U.S. residents, drinking water and diet are considered primary exposure pathways for inorganic arsenic (iAs). In drinking water, iAs is the primary form of arsenic (As), while dietary As speciation techniques are used to differentiate iAs from less toxic arsenicals in food matrices.
- Objectives:
- Our goal was to estimate the distribution of iAs exposure rates from drinking water intakes and rice consumption in the U.S. population and ethnic- and age-based subpopulations.
- Methods:
- The distribution of iAs in drinking water was estimated by population, weighting the iAs concentrations for each drinking water utility in the Second Six-Year Review data set. To estimate the distribution of iAs concentrations in rice ingested by U.S. consumers, 54 grain-specific, production-weighted composites of rice obtained from U.S. mills were extracted and speciated using both a quantitative dilute nitric acid extraction and speciation (DNAS) and an in vitro gastrointestinal assay to provide an upper bound and bioaccessible estimates, respectively. Daily drinking water intake and rice consumption rate distributions were developed using data from the What We Eat in America (WWEIA) study.
- Results:
- Using these data sets, the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation (SHEDS) model estimated mean iAs exposures from drinking water and rice were 4.2 μg/day and 1.4 μg/day, respectively, for the entire U.S. population. The Tribal, Asian, and Pacific population exhibited the highest mean daily exposure of iAs from cooked rice (2.8 μg/day); the mean exposure rate for children between ages 1 and 2 years in this population is 0.104 μg/kg body weight (BW)/day.
- Conclusions:
- An average consumer drinking 1.5 L of water daily that contains between 2 and 3 ng iAs/mL is exposed to approximately the same amount of iAs as a mean Tribal, Asian, and Pacific consumer is exposed to from rice. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP418
Received: 31 July 2015
Revised: 02 May 2016
Accepted: 18 July 2016
Published: 30 May 2017
Address correspondence to J.T. Creed, U.S. EPA, 26 W. Martin Luther King Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45268 USA. Telephone: (513) 569-7833. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Supplemental Material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP418).
The authors declare they have no actual or potential competing financial interests.
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Related EHP Article
Rice versus Drinking Water: Estimating the Primary Source of Arsenic in the U.S. Diet
The International Agency for Research on Cancer characterizes inorganic arsenic (iAs) as a Class 1 carcinogen (IARC 2004). Minimizing human iAs exposures has motivated guidance issued by the World Health Organization (WHO 1993) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 2001). Among nonoccupationally exposed U.S. residents, drinking water and diet are considered primary exposure pathways for iAs. In drinking water, iAs is the primary form of arsenic (As), while in food matrices dietary As speciation techniques are used to differentiate iAs from less toxic arsenicals.
Table S1 summarizes published probabilistic models that estimate U.S. iAs exposures (Meacher et al. 2002; Schoof et al. 1999a; Tsuji et al. 2007; Xue et al. 2010; Yost et al. 1998; Yost et al. 2004). Predicted iAs exposures from drinking water intakes range from 1.75 to 2.5 μg/day, while dietary iAs estimates range from 3.1 to 3.6 μg/day. Each of these assessments uses iAs drinking water concentration data collected between 1980 and 1998. The age of these data, given changes in treatment and water sources, and the relatively small sample size [n=500] utilities in one study (Meacher et al. 2002)] limit their usefulness for estimating current exposures.
In each of these previous iAs intake assessments, information regarding the As concentrations and species present in foods was based on samples collected from two U.S. cities in 1997 (Schoof et al. 1999b). Xue et al. (2010) and Yost et al. (2004) estimated that rice consumption contributes approximately 20% of the total estimated iAs dietary intake in the United States, while Yost et al. (2004) estimated that, for children at the 95th percentile, rice consumption contributes 50% of the total iAs exposure. A study of adult Michigan residents also underscored the importance of rice consumption to total iAs exposures (Meliker et al. 2006).
Because rice consumption contributes to total dietary iAs exposure in the U.S. population, the authors of the studies in Table S1 highlighted the need for collecting speciated As data from dietary samples to address this source of uncertainty. In response, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) measured speciated As levels in 1,300 samples of rice and rice-containing products (FDA 2013). Less stratified literature surveys of iAs species in rice suggest the ranges are 0.01–0.379 μg/g for iAS and 0.004–0.9 μg/g for dimethylarsenic acid (DMA) (Ackerman et al. 2005; Heitkemper et al. 2009; Heitkemper et al. 2001; Lamont 2003; Laparra et al. 2005; Meharg et al. 2009; Torres-Escribano et al. 2008; Trenary et al. 2012; Williams et al. 2005; Zavala et al. 2008; Zhu et al. 2008), with some reports of monomethylarsonic acid near the detection limit. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA 2014) recently developed an As exposure assessment based on 353 rice samples; the mean and standard deviation of the iAs concentration in brown, white, and parboiled rice were 0.152±0.05, 0.089±0.03, and 0.105±0.06 μg/g, respectively.
The bioavailability of ingested As species in rice also contributes to uncertainty in exposure assessments. While bioavailability studies have been conducted in swine (Brattin and Casteel 2013; Juhasz et al. 2006, 2008; Rodriguez et al. 1999) and mice (Bradham et al. 2011), the high cost of these studies has led to development of in vitro enzymatic gastrointestinal extraction (Ackerman et al. 2005; Alava et al. 2012; He et al. 2012; Laparra et al. 2005; Sun et al. 2012; Trenary et al. 2012) and human in vivo bioaccessibility (solubilized in the gastrointestinal tract but not necessarily absorbed) approaches (He and Zheng 2010) to estimate the physiological relevance of iAs intakes.
In this study, we used the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation (SHEDS) model (Xue et al. 2012) to estimate iAs exposures from drinking water and rice consumption in the United States, addressing concerns identified previously (Meacher et al. 2002; Schoof et al. 1999a; Tsuji et al. 2007; Xue et al. 2010; Yost et al. 2004). To improve drinking water iAs exposure estimates, we incorporated the Second Six-Year Review drinking water database (U.S. EPA 2010), which sampled approximately five times more U.S. drinking water utilities than any previous study and provides iAs estimates in 20 states not represented in previous studies (see Table S1).
To address concerns identified in previous studies regarding the levels of As species in U.S. rice, a collaboration with the USA Rice Federation was established to generate a grain- and mill-specific, production-weighted sampling protocol for developing rice composites that reflect the sources and types of rice eaten by U.S. consumers. We measured the iAs concentrations in production-weighted rice composites and incorporated the iAs from the drinking water used to cook the rice based on the Second Six-year Review data set. These data were used to estimate the distribution of iAs concentrations in cooked rice available to the U.S. consumer.
Next, utilizing an in vitro extraction procedure that simulates the human gastrointestinal tract, we estimated the bioaccessible iAs in rice and provided an upper-bound assessment available through a quantitative (complete speciation of all arsenicals in a solid rice sample) As speciation-based analysis using ion chromatography inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (IC-ICP-MS). Finally, using the rice ingestion rates from the 2001–2006 What We Eat in America (WWEIA) database (53,522 person-day) (CDC 2012), we compared iAs exposure estimates through rice consumption among various ethnicity- and age-based U.S. subpopulations.
Implications of Domestic/Import Statistics on Rice Sampling Design
The "Sampling" section of Figure 1 illustrates how data from the 2007–2008 USA Rice Federation's U.S. Rice Domestic Usage Report (USA Rice Federation 2008) were combined with import statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA 2015) to formulate our rice sampling protocol. Broadly, 81% of the rice intended for consumption in the U.S. is grown domestically, while the remaining rice is imported, mainly from Thailand. Figure 1 further delineates rice production based on grain type, with domestic white long grain representing a little less than one-half of U.S. rice usage. Because rice mills are the distribution sources of all wholesale and retail domestic rice in the U.S., their relative production reflects the consumer's grain selection within the U.S. marketplace after correction for exports and usage in pet foods. In 2009, 21 rice mills sent samples and provided their grain-specific annual production records (see Supplemental Material, "Rice Sampling Protocol"). The cumulative production from these 21 mills represented 108% of the production reported by the USA Rice Federation between August 2007 and July 2008 (USA Rice Federation 2008), indicating a broad-based participation in the sampling. The production-weighted, grain-specific composites were formulated by dividing the grain-type-specific production for a mill by the total production for all participating mills and then multiplying by 100 to obtain a percentage. Summation of these grain specific percentages for all mills is the basis for the pie chart in Figure 1. The individual mill- and grain-specific weighting factors were then used to create the domestic production-weighted composites for that grain type. For example, in the case of white long grain rice (WLG), 13 mills supplied samples, but several of the small production mills were added together to make one composite, while the eight weekly samples from a larger mill were split into two sets of four samples each to make two composites. When mills were combined, the relative weighting factors were summed for that composite. If a larger mill was split into two separate composites, the mill-specific relative weighting factor was halved. When multiple weekly samples were received from a relatively small mill, it was often necessary to equally weight these weekly samples into one sample before adding it to the grain-specific composites that were analyzed. These production-weighted composites (weighting factors are reported in Tables S3 and S5 and used in the SHEDS model) reflect the contributions of these larger mills to the mean levels of iAs in rice available to U.S. consumers. Rice production is assumed to provide a reasonable surrogate for consumed rice. If different grain types are disproportionately not consumed (e.g., wasted), then this would be a source of uncertainty associated with this sampling approach. Import rice samples were collected in seven different U.S. cities (Figure 1) and the 14 composites were weighted based on the USDA import data (USDA 2015). Seven city-specific composites were made from the two Thailand samples collected from each city, and the India basmati samples were analyzed without compositing.
Cooking, Subsampling, and Speciation of the 54 Rice Composites
The "Analysis" section in Figure 1 provides a block diagram summarizing the analysis of the composite rice samples. A 50-g rice composite was cooked in 18-MΩ water using a rice-to-water ratio (v/v) of approximately 1:2, which produced no residual water after cooking. Each of the 54 whole-grain, cooked, rice composites were then subsampled into nine 1.5-g portions for the in vitro gastrointestinal assay (Glahn et al. 2002; Glahn et al. 1998; Trenary et al. 2012), and each sample was then oven dried and ground prior to sampling for a microwave total digestion and a dilute nitric acid extraction and speciation (DNAS, quantitative speciation) (Huang et al. 2010). The iAs method detection limits (MDL) in the enzymatic and dilute nitric acid extracts were 0.2 and 0.09 ng/g, respectively, as determined by seven replicate analyses of a fortified blank (Glaser et al. 1981). The final weight of the gastrointestinal and the DNAS extracts were 17 g and 25 g, respectively. The microwave total digestion of the oven dried rice composites was completed as described by Heitkemper et al. (2001). The average digested solution-based detection limit was 0.029 ng As/g determined by analyzing 30 method blank preparations. All data were collected using a mass balance approach (with ICP-MS detection) to facilitate the comparison of extraction efficiencies and chromatographic recoveries associated with each rice composite. The data associated with the mass balance and a summary of the quality control results (laboratory reagent blanks, laboratory fortified blanks, laboratory fortified matrices, and the analysis of rice flour SRM 1568a) associated with these analytical procedures can be found in the Tables S2 and S3 for DNAS and Tables S4 and S5 for gastrointestinal. The DNAS procedure liberates all the As from the rice and thus provided a species-specific upper limit to iAs in rice associated with this exposure. The in vitro gastrointestinal assay was used to estimate the bioaccessible component of iAs in rice.
The flow injection total As concentration was compared to the sum of the chromatographic species to verify column recovery. The flow injected total was determined using standard addition and is determined in the chromatographic autosampler vial by using a chained sequence in combination with the column switching valve on the Agilent 1100 LC. A drift standard was also injected with each flow injection and chromatographic analysis using a postcolumn Rheodyne injection valve. This provided a means to correct for instrumental drift during the 18 hr of chromatographic analysis associated with an analysis batch. An Agilent 7700 ICP-MS was used for As detection at m/z 75, while m/z 77 was used to monitor the less abundant 40Ar37Cl and m/z 82 was used to evaluate the possibility of co-eluting Se on m/z 77. The use of HCl in the in vitro gastrointestinal assay dictated the use of the helium collision cell for the flow injection determination. On a daily basis, a 0.5% weight/weight (w/w) HCl solution was used to evaluate the performance of the cell and no more than a 100-pg/g interference 40Ar35Cl on 75As was observed using a typical helium flow of 2.6 mL/min. The ion chromatography (IC) system used in both gastrointestinal and DNAS speciation was an Agilent 1100, and the isocratic elution was accomplished using 10 mM NH4NO3/NH4H2PO4, pH-adjusted to 8.2 with concentrated ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH). The ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and NH4OH were purchased from Fisher Scientific while the ammonium dihydrogenphosphate (NH4H2PO4), was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. The chromatographic column was a Hamilton PRP-X100. The pH of 8.2 was chosen because it provided baseline resolution of AsIII (4.0-min retention time, SPEX CertiPrep), AsV (13.9-min retention time, SPEX CertiPrep), dimethylarsinic acid (DMA, 4.9-min retention time, ChemServices), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA, 7.0-min retention time, ChemServices), 40Ar35Cl (10.2-min retention time), and dimethylmonothioarsinic acid (DMMTA (Fricke et al. 2007), 15.2-min retention time). The stability of DMMTA within the DNAS approach was evaluated and the dilute nitric acid was shown to convert DMMTA to DMA (data not shown). The detection of DMMTA in the gastrointestinal extract has not been evaluated, but the detection in the extract indicates at least a partial preservation throughout this analysis procedure. Chromatographic peaks were integrated using vendor-based software, and integrated areas were used to calculate concentrations. The peak areas for AsIII and AsV were combined to produce iAs in order to compensate for the potential for interconversion of AsIII and AsV in the matrix. All arsenic standards were verified against NIST 1640 Trace Elements in Water based on total As. Finally, all autosampler vials were cleaned by soaking overnight in 10% HNO3 then rinsing them three times with 18 MΩ water.
SHEDS Modeling: WWEIA and Drinking Water As Concentrations from the Second Six-year Review
The "Modeling" section of Figure 1 identifies the databases used to estimate the intake rate parameters for the exposure equations in the SHEDS model. WWEIA data were used to estimate daily U.S. rice and total drinking water consumption rate distributions (CDC 2012). Total water consumption included direct and indirect (e.g., water used in food preparation) ingestion of tap water and other fluids, including bottled waters and beverages. The model assumed that for any individual, all drinking water was from a single source. The EPA's Second Six-year Review data (U.S. EPA 2010) were used to estimate the As concentration in the water used for both rice preparation and total water consumption by the U.S. population. These data were collected between 1998 and 2005 from 49,473 public water utilities in 45 states serving approximately 230 million people. Details regarding database censoring (0.7% of 224,035 records) and estimating the best iAs concentration for each utility (e.g., no detect equals one-half MDL) are provided in the Supplemental Material, "Censoring of the Second Six-year Review Database for Arsenic in Drinking Water." All exposure estimates are calculated using the best estimate of drinking water iAs concentration except where noted. In addition, all As reported in water samples is assumed to be iAs that is 100% bioavailable.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys 2001–2006 (Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies 1.0–3.0) data based on 53,522 person-days of dietary consumption were used to estimate daily rice intake rates. Food codes in the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (USDA 2014) were used to identify dietary sources of rice. In some cases, rice was a component in a food code of the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies, and recipe files associated with EPA's Food Commodity Intake Database (University of Maryland/FDA 2015) were used to estimate the fraction of that food code comprised of rice. Experimental details (a process flowchart, exposure equations, and examples of Food Commodity Intake Database conversions to raw agricultural commodity) for the SHEDS modeling can be found in the Figure S2. Xue et al. (2012) describes the SHEDS modeling of dietary data. In addition, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2006 two 24-hr recalls were treated as independent survey events. The survey sample size provides a robust distribution of single day rice consumption rates in the United States. Finally, the use of the word Tribal as a subpopulation designation encompasses both Native Americans and Native Alaskans (Eskimo) (Hightower et al. 2006).
Results and Discussion
As Concentrations in Drinking Water and Water Consumption Rates
Arsenic concentrations in U.S. drinking water were estimated using the Second Six-year Review (1998–2005), the most current and comprehensive data set for both utility and geographic coverage. Figure 2 presents the population-weighted distribution of drinking water iAs concentrations associated with the 49,473 utilities by partitioning the x-axis based on discrete (0<x≤1 ng/mL, 1<x≤2 ng/mL, etc.) iAs concentration intervals and listing the sizes of the populations corresponding to these concentrations below each interval. Approximately 196 million of the estimated 230 million people included in the Second Six-year Review are serviced by utilities with water containing estimated As concentrations of ≤3 ng/mL ("best estimate," see Supplemental Material, "Censoring of the Second Six-year Review Database for Arsenic in Drinking Water"). Approximately 4.5 million people are served by utilities with drinking water iAs concentrations between 10 and 40 ng/mL. Roughly 0.1 million people receive drinking water with concentrations of iAs above 40 ng/mL. For the 49,473 utilities, the utility mean and standard deviation of the iAs concentrations are 3.0 ng/mL±5.6, and 67% (33,191) of these utilities serve fewer than 500 people each. Finally, Figure 2 also compares raw rice (DNAS) and total water as exposure sources to iAs which will be discussed in a later section entitled "Comparing iAs Intakes from Drinking Water and Rice Exposures."
Figure S1 presents total (direct+indirect) daily drinking water consumption rates from the WWEIA survey for the whole U.S. population and for 1- to 2-year-old children. Drinking water iAs concentrations were randomly assigned, weighting each utility by the population served. In this study, the mean total drinking water consumption rate (1.54 L of water/day) was about 20% higher than the rates used in previous studies (Meacher et al. 2002; Tsuji et al. 2007) (see Table S1) and slightly higher than those reported in the Exposure Factors Handbook (U.S. EPA 2011). Finally, since water used in commercial processing (e.g., canned foods) is not captured in the Food Commodity Intake Database, iAs exposures from indirect water intakes are potentially underestimated.
Speciation of As: Comparing DNAS and in vitro Gastrointestinal Procedures
Measurement of total As determined after a hot mineral acid dissolution does not differentiate among forms of As and is a poor basis upon which to estimate potential risks, because of differential toxicity. Speciation improves this measure, but the type of extraction prior to speciation analysis should inform the exposure assessment. For instance, quantitative speciation provides an upper-bound (conservative) exposure assessment by extracting and speciating all the arsenicals in a matrix, but these types of extractions provide limited insight into the biological relevance of the exposure, which is essential to improved exposure characterization. In vitro gastrointestinal assays represent a step towards biological relevance.
Using a mass balance approach, Figure 3A compares the speciation-based techniques (quantitative DNAS and in vitro gastrointestinal assay) and the total As concentration for the 54 composite rice samples. The slope of 1.00 for the DNAS procedure indicates all the arsenicals (mainly iAs and DMA) were removed from the rice matrix, while the correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.96 indicates little variability across grain types, providing assurance that all the arsenicals present in each grain-specific composite have been removed and speciated. These species-specific concentrations are used to estimate the distribution of iAs in rice in the exposure model, based on the production-weighted approach for preparing the rice composites; these represent the iAs distribution in rice available to the U.S. consumer. The maximum sum of species reported in Figure 3A is approximately 300 ng/g, which is lower than the single-sample maxima reported previously (FDA 2013; Zhao et al. 2013) and is likely due to production-weighted compositing. Alternatively, the iAs distribution in U.S.-consumed rice can be estimated using the in vitro gastrointestinal assay data, which produces a slope of 0.63 and a R2 of 0.83 relative to the total digest. This slope indicates that the simulated in vitro gastrointestinal extraction liberates less As from the rice samples than the DNAS procedure, while the R2 indicates an increased grain-dependent extraction efficiency. The slopes in Figure 3A reflect the across-matrix average for the extraction efficiency reported in Tables S2−S5 for U.S.-produced and imported rice using both DNAS and in vitro gastrointestinal assay.
Figure 3B and Figure S3 provide species-specific comparisons between the two extraction protocols for iAs (slope=1.37 and R2=0.80) and DMA (slope=1.89 and R2=0.87), respectively. Figure 3B summarizes the grain-specific mean and standard deviations associated with the iAs; these means are consistent with the 2013 FDA rice survey (FDA 2013), while the maximum iAs (DNAS) concentration (∼140 ng/g) is consistent with previous U.S. rice studies (FDA 2013; Zhao et al. 2013). These grain-specific means compare well with the means reported by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA 2014), with a similar decreasing trend from brown through white long grain rice. The DMA concentrations (see Figure S3) are lower than in previous studies (FDA 2013; Zhao et al. 2013), which report concentrations above 180 ng/g, the highest observed concentration in our study. Again, the production-weighted sampling is likely responsible for this DMA difference.
Collectively, these figures and tables indicate that the DNAS procedure liberates and speciates all the arsenicals, while the in vitro gastrointestinal assay less efficiently removes the arsenicals from the rice matrix; on average, less DMA is extracted relative to iAs. This partial extraction is consistent with previous in vitro results (He et al. 2012), and reduces the iAs concentration estimate in rice used to formulate the iAs distribution within the model. The grain-specific iAs concentrations plotted in Figure 3B were statistically evaluated using a Holms test for both the DNAS and the in vitro gastrointestinal assay procedures. The comparison brackets next to the legend indicate grain types that are not statistically different (α=0.01). Such grain-specific differences have been reported (Meharg et al. 2008), and if the WWEIA survey provided grain-specific details, then that information was used by the model. Otherwise, the production-weighted (see Figure 1), grain-specific distributions of iAs concentrations in rice (both DNAS and gastrointestinal; see Tables S2−S5) was used to estimate iAs exposure from rice in the U.S. population. In this context, the fixed iAs concentrations in rice used by previous models (see Table S1) are replaced by the grain-specific, production-weighted iAs distributions (summarized in Figure 3B, both DNAS and gastrointestinal). These distributions allow the model to simulate the inherent variability of the iAs in rice available to the U.S. consumer, while providing a physiologically relevant estimate through the inclusion of the in vitro gastrointestinal assay data set.
Rice Consumption: Total Population, Ethnic- and Age-Based Subpopulations
Based on the WWEIA data, approximately one-half of the U.S. population did not consume rice on the day surveyed (see Figure S4). Tribal, Asian, and Pacific (X̄=41.6 g/day), and Other Hispanic (X̄=31.9 g/day) subpopulations exhibit elevated rice consumption rates relative to the overall U.S. population (X̄=15.7 g/day). Table S6 summarizes the rice-consumption rate estimates in both g/day and g/kg body weight (BW)/day for each subpopulation (X̄=12.7 –41.6 g/day) and for the children 1–2 years ears old in these subpopulations (X̄=4.8–19.7 g/day). If these consumption rates are normalized using BW, the 1- to 2-year-old children's exposures are roughly double those of the corresponding adults. Normalizing to BW also assists in identifying subpopulations likely to have higher iAs exposures. For example, the mean rice consumption rate for the 1- to 2-year-old Tribal, Asian, and Pacific subpopulation (1.55 μg/kg BW/day) is about six times higher than that of the all U.S. general population (0.27 μg/kg BW/day). The above discussion has focused on the more reliable mean consumption estimates, but Figure S4 and Table S6 also report the model's 1-day rice intake rate estimates for the 90th and 95th percentile. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA 2014) estimates the 95th percentile consumption rate for rice for an adult-only subpopulation at 175 g/day, which is comparable to the 169.3 g/day associated with the 95th percentile for the Tribal, Asian, and Pacific subpopulation. The upper percentile 1-day estimates in Figure S4 and Table S6 are also less statistically robust than the general population estimates although they were estimated using the largest available U.S. data set. Further, the short-term recall approach of WWEIA would likely overestimate the long-term consumption rates associated with the upper percentile consumers (i.e., infrequent rice consumers would have a higher estimated rate if they happened to consume rice on a survey day) and likely underestimate the total percentage of consumers (i.e., infrequent rice consumers are less likely to have consumed rice during the survey period, therefore their consumption may have been missed). While this manuscript does not estimate long-term rice consumption rate data, Table S7 compares single-day (direct+indirect) rice consumption estimates for age, gender- and ethnicity-specific subpopulations reported in the WWEIA to longer term daily (direct) rice consumption rates estimates based on long term oriented questionnaires used in the Nurses' Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study II and the Health Professional Follow-Up Study.
Estimating U.S. iAs Intakes from Rice and Water
The SHEDS model conducts a Monte Carlo−based exposure simulation integrating the iAs distribution in rice (determined by DNAS or in vitro gastrointestinal assay), the distribution of iAs in drinking water (Second Six-year Review database), and the distribution of U.S. rice consumption and total (direct+indirect) drinking water intake rates (WWEIA). These inputs are allowed to vary independently within the boundary conditions of each distribution to estimate iAs exposure. Figure 4A compares daily iAs intake rates (μg/day) from rice and total water for the entire U.S. population. The rice component of the exposure is estimated independently using the iAs distributions developed from the DNAS (upper-bound estimate) and the in vitro gastrointestinal assay. The estimated mean iAs rice-exposure rate for the U.S. population using the DNAS extraction protocol (1.4 μg/day) is higher than the mean estimates of both Tsuji et al. (2007) (1 μg/day, estimated from graph) and Xue et al. (2010) (0.6 μg/day, derived from reported 0.05 μg/kg BW/day, assuming an individual weighing 70 kg and that rice is 17% of total iAs in their diet). Using the distribution of iAs in rice based on the in vitro gastrointestinal assay, the mean exposure estimate for iAs was 0.9 μg/day for the U.S. population. Again the upper percentiles are reported, but water used to cook the rice is less important in the aggregate exposure from these sources (X̄=0.2 μg/day), while the mean exposure from total water (4.2 μg/day) is about a factor of 3 higher than rice using the mean estimated by the DNAS procedure. The mean iAs exposure from water is considerably higher than the 1.75−2.5 μg iAs means used previously (see Table S1). Part of this difference can be explained by the lower consumption rates (about 1.26 L/day) used by Tsuji et al. (2007) and Meacher et al. (2002), while the population-weighted geometric mean and standard deviation associated with the Second Six-year Review (1.76 ng iAs/mL±2.52) and the National Resource Defense Council (1.03 ng iAs/mL±4.06) (Xue et al. 2010) data sets contribute to the higher mean exposure for water. Both data sets calculate the best estimate by replacing all "no detects" with a value of one-half the method detection limit (one-half MDL). To estimate the effect of a growing number of utilities complying with the Arsenic Rule, Tsuji et al. (2007) compared a truncated (all utilities >10 ppb were set equal to 10 ppb) to an untruncated data set and reported a marginal change in the mean exposure from drinking water, with a more pronounced difference associated with the exposure estimates for the 95th percentile. Similar reductions would be predicted in the exposure estimates in Figure 4A as an increasing percentage of smaller utilities comply with the Arsenic Rule. Finally, the majority of this discussion of Figure 4A has focused on the mean estimates, while the upper percentiles reported should be considered less certain.
A sensitivity analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of replacing no detects in the drinking water database with ⅛, ¼, ½, ¾, and 1 MDL. This resulted in population weighted geometric means and standard deviations of 0.7 ng iAs/mL±3.9, 1.1 ng iAs/mL±3.1, 1.8 ng iAs/mL±2.5, 2.3 ng iAs/mL±2.3, and 2.9 ng iAs/mL±2.2, respectively. The cumulative density function plots for the ⅛, ½, and 1 MDL have been included in Figure 4A for the U.S. population and in Figure S5 for the 1- to 2-year-old U.S. subpopulation to illustrate the impact of this assumption on the total water exposure assessment.
Considering these potentially higher drinking water iAs concentrations, Figure 4A shows that the largest exposure source for the whole U.S. population is from total water. The total water exposure exceeds the DNAS rice exposure for the U.S. population when the no detects are replaced with as little as ⅛ MDL (see sensitivity analysis in Figure 4A). Only for individuals with rice consumption rates above the 90th percentile does rice (DNAS) exceed the mean exposure estimate (4.2 μg/day) associated with total water (no detects=½ MDL). A similar trend is observed for the children between 1 and 2 years of age, but the difference between the mean exposures from water and rice is reduced by a factor of about 2 (see Figure S5). The sensitivity analysis for the 1- to 2-year- old subpopulations indicates that the upper percentiles do experience a higher exposure from rice relative to water when the no detects are replaced with the ⅛ MDL. The mean exposure from rice (0.63 μg/day, DNAS) for the 1- to 2-year-olds is similar to the 0.63 μg/day reported by Yost et al. (2004) for 1- to 6-year-olds. In addition, the mean water exposure (1.2 μg/day) for 1- to 2-year -olds is slightly higher than the 1.0 μg/day estimate reported by Tsuji et al. (2007) for 1- to 6-year-old children using untruncated drinking water databases. Neither of these comparisons are corrected for BW differences across these age groups, and the small sample size of 1- to 2-year-olds increases the uncertainty of these estimates.
SHEDS Model: Predicted iAs Intake from Rice in Subpopulations
Using the in vitro gastrointestinal assay-based iAs distribution, Figure 4B and Figure S6 and Table S8 examine cooked rice as an exposure source for different ethnic subpopulations and different age groups. Figure 4B indicates that exposures in Tribal, Asian, and Pacific (X̄=2.8 μg iAs/day), and Other Hispanic (X̄=2.1 μg iAs/day) populations are elevated relative to the U.S. population as a whole (X̄=1.1 μg iAs/day), due to differences in rice consumption rates. Figure S6 presents a cumulative density function for 1- to 2-year-old children in each ethnic subpopulation, which roughly shows a 2-fold lower iAs exposure from rice relative to the same ethnic subpopulation. However, if these exposures are estimated on a per BW basis (see Table S8), the 1- to 2-year-old children have about two times higher exposure relative to the whole population from that same ethnic subgroup. The in vitro gastrointestinal assay-based exposure estimates for cooked rice are slightly lower than the DNAS exposure estimates for the same age- and ethnic-based subpopulations reported in Table S9. Finally, we note that there are fewer than 200 children aged 1–2 years sampled in some of the WWEIA subpopulations, increasing the uncertainty associated with both the mean and upper percentile estimates.
Comparing iAs Intakes from Drinking Water and Rice Exposures
Figure 2 compares the mean and 95th percentile iAs exposures from total water and rice for both the whole U.S. population and the Tribal, Asian, and Pacific subpopulation. The x-axis is partitioned based on iAs concentration range associated with the public water utilities from across the U.S., and the population served is reported below each discrete concentration range on the x-axis (e.g., 90.1 million people are provided water from a public utility with a concentration range of 0<x≤1 ng/mL). In Figure 2, the mean and the 95th percentile exposure from iAs in raw rice (distribution derived from DNAS) for the whole U.S. population is plotted as a bar above each discrete drinking water concentration range. On top of each rice exposure bar, the contribution from water used to cook the rice has been estimated using the corresponding consumption rate and the midpoint of the corresponding drinking water concentration range (i.e., 0.5 ng/mL for the 0<x≤1 ng/mL concentration range). In addition, the corresponding mean and the 95th percentile exposure from total water have been added for comparison, again using the midpoint of that concentration range to estimate the exposure for that discrete group. These estimates assume that every consumer will get all water from only one drinking water utility and that the rice and total water consumption rates estimated from WWEIA for the U.S. population as a whole apply to each subpopulation along the x-axis. With these limitations in mind, the lowest discrete drinking water concentration (0<x≤1 ng/mL, 90.1 million) is the only concentration subgroup (representing approximately 40% of the U.S. population) in which the iAs exposure at the mean 1-day rice consumption rate exceeds that of the mean total daily water exposure. For all subgroups above 1<x≤2 ng/mL, the mean and 95th percentile for total water exposure exceed the mean and 95th percentile associated with rice exposures, and total water becomes an increasingly dominant term in estimating the exposure.
Finally, the mean and 95th percentile for raw rice exposures for the Tribal, Asian, and Pacific subpopulation (based on the DNAS distribution) are presented (horizontal dashed lines) in Figure 2. This indicates the mean rice exposure for this subpopulation corresponds to a mean total water exposure for the 2<x≤3 ng/mL subgroup, and the 95th percentile rice exposure corresponds to a 95th percentile total water exposure for the 3<x≤4 ng/mL subgroup.
Rice consumption and drinking water intakes are important sources of iAs in the U.S. population. This research generated (DNAS and in vitro gastrointestinal assay based) grain-specific, production-weighted distribution of iAs in U.S. consumed rice that allowed the SHEDs model to better simulate the inherent variability of the iAs in rice available to the U.S. consumer while facilitating the inclusion of grain-specific differences into the exposure assessment when grain-specific consumption was reported by WWEIA. All rice composites contained quantifiable iAs concentrations while almost ⅔ of the drinking water data in the Second Six-year Review were below the minimum detection limit requiring data treatment assumptions within the SHEDS model. The mean daily iAs intake from total water for the U.S. population changes from 1.9 times that of raw rice (DNAS) for no detects=⅛ MDL data treatment to three times if the "no detects" are replaced with ½ MDL. This sensitivity analysis conducted using the Second Six-year Review, indicates a shift in the mean iAs from total water which is greater than the estimate associated with the mean iAs from rice (DNAS) for the U.S. population and points to the inherent benefits of a nationwide drinking water survey using only the most sensitive analytical methods.
Two subpopulations (Tribal, Asian, and Pacific and Other Hispanics) and all 1- to 2-year-olds subpopulations except non-Hispanic white have mean 1-day iAs intake rates from cooked rice (DNAS) which are two to six times the corresponding All U.S. (General Population) based on BW. These differences are further amplified for the 90th percentile consumer within these subpopulations relative to the mean All U.S. (General Population). This rice and water oriented assessment has sources of uncertainty embedded in it with implications across food groups in a more holistic dietary assessment. Therefore, research to develop longer term surveys or mathematical modeling approaches used to estimate longer term consumption rates based on survey data are essential.
Clearly, from an exposure assessment perspective, the elevated rice consumption rates for some ethnic subpopulations are predicted to increase iAs exposures. In this context, the mean daily cooked rice exposure (DNAS) for each ethnic subpopulation is less than 20% of the exposure associated with drinking 2 L of water at the 10-ppb maximum contaminant level while this percentage increases to 60% for the 90th percentile Tribal, Asian, and Pacific (General) rice consumer. In addition, these exposures are increased when this population also has elevated iAs in its drinking water source. In the United States, iAs in drinking water is predominantly a concern in small ground water systems; identifying members of sub-populations who consume such waters and eat high levels of rice is an important research need complicated by the small numbers of Asians residing in rural areas of the United States (U.S. Census Bureau 2012), which are typically served by small ground water systems.
Supporting Information
Detailed experimental results are provided in the Supplemental Material for the censoring of the Second Six-year Review database and for the use of recipes in the Food Commodity Intake Database, Tables S1−S9, and Figures S1−S6. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
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Clarivate Analytics released the 2018 Journal Citation Reports, which tracks citations for articles published in 2015 and 2016. EHP's new Journal Impact Factor is 8.31, with a 5-Year Journal Impact Factor of 9.81. (more…)
We are pleased to present new and improved author guidelines! (more…)


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-work in progress-
"Les états du Désir" (The States of Desire) is an order from Actress / Director Léna Paugam from Britanny, France.
I was hired to shoot Léna Paugam's installations, used to evoke the dreams of a young woman.
The image is on purpose over contrasted, dirty and slightly blurry, do avoid the cold sharp look of modern cameras.
The videos will later be edited and projected during a play.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cutting-Edge Tech: How Your Business Technology Shapes Your Efficiency
Back in the early days of print newspapers, publications would use a movable type machine to...Read More
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text:
Ten Sustainable Commandments
Our project won the first price in the international Post-Fossil City contest, competing with 250 other teams from 40 different countries.
The transition to sustainable cities needs a radical change in culture. The Ark of the Newest Covenant is a traveling source of inspiration, meant to bring such change.
In the Ark reside the Symbolic City and the Ten Sustainable Commandments. The upcoming forty years, the Ark will travel from city to city. In each city, inhabitants will interpret the Ten Sustainable Commandments. By doing so, they will add their local knowledge and wisdom to the Commandments and conceive new sustainable concepts.
In this way, the Ten Sustainable Commandments will cause a chain reaction of cities, bound through the same Journey, creating a web of locally founded, sustainable cultures.
The Ten Sustainable Commandments
1. See language as a tool to change reality.
2. Break the old covenants.
3. Reject infinity.
4. Fire is a gift of the sun, do not imitate it.
5. Remember, you once were an owl.
6. See death as a source of life.
7. Do not create future, reorganize past.
8. Kill only in full consciousness.
9. Species are wealth, honour them.
10. Create your own covenant.
Note 1: Articles about the Ark in NRC, Trouw, and Radio1.
Note 2: If your city is interested in receiving the Ark, download the Rules of the Journey here, and contact the current Giving City (Utrecht).


text:
Fireworks SEO's technique involves a mix of the most powerful SEO strategies employed by any firm in the country. Search engines rarely disclose detailed information regarding their algorithms, so using any one method will likely fail to produce the desired results. Fireworks SEO engineers tirelessly test every known method of visibility improvement, but we also realize that major search engines update their algorithms frequently, and as such, methods that are successful today may be weakened tomorrow. For this reason, Fireworks SEO's approach is to employ multiple methods of search engine optimization to ensure that desired results are achieved.
Our methodological approach to web marketing assumes that every website possess unique challenges and therefore requires a customize strategy to achieve optimal results. The varying dynamics of your industry segment, competition, business focus, brand, target audience, geographical location, and promotional budget proves difficult to devise a 'one size fits all solution. It is with this view that we have devised a flexible cost effective web-marketing program that can be tailored to your industry requirements.


text:
THRIVE™Make Every Exercise Your Time to THRIVE
You Were Meant to THRIVE™
Improve community wellness with high-quality composite fitness structures from GameTime. THRIVE fitness systems accommodate multiple users at once, reducing wait times and providing a wide range of training options at every station. THRIVE makes it fun and easy for people of all fitness levels to spend more time outdoors training for sports, races or everyday life.
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We combined all the features of the THRIVE 250 and 450 and added Gymnast Rings, Rope Ladders, and much, much more. It's a massive amount of outdoor fitness in a relatively small space - only 900 square feet required for installation!Shop Now


text:
Prime Hospitals is a private, full-fledged multi-speciality hospital with 250 beds of which 75 are ICU beds in Ameerpet and also 110 beds of which 30 are ICU beds in Kukatpally centers. The hospital has expert and renowned doctors, state of the art medical infrastructure which includes the advanced Cath Lab, CT Scan, Color Doppler, Ultrasound and other diagnostic services with fully equipped labs. All these combine to provide round the clock prompt and accurate treatment. As a leading healthcare provider, the hospital provides patients with the latest technological innovations for diagnosis and treatment of the most acute clinical conditions. This is made possible by the compassionate care and expertise of doctors providing the "Healing Touch" to the patient. The Hospital has trained staff including nurses; full time doctors and support staff to provide round the clock personalized attention and care leading to faster recovery of patient.
Prime Hospitals situated in Ameerpet and Kukatpally, are one of the pioneer corporate health care hospitals in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Since its incep


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Bahria Town has officially announced its arrival into the world of Pakistani media, inviting applicants from across the country to be a part of what appears to be a new media giant in the making.
By placing full page advertisements in newspapers on Sunday, the real estate company announced how it would be entering the media world with a network of newsgathering bureaus with offices in all major cities of Pakistan. "Bahria Town will provide comprehensive coverage of news, entertainment, sports and property from across the globe," said the advertisement, adding that the company would recruit leading journalists, entertainers, sports personalities, and technical staff to create content for the network.
Bahria Town all set to enter media
The media channel will also broadcast in HD formats. This announcement comes at a time when the industry is still recovering from the shock implosion of Bol TV that sank without a trace after the New York Times exposed its fraudulent practices.
Chairman Bahria Town Malik Riaz is widely acclaimed as the largest and most successful property tycoon in the country. Media industry insiders say Riaz will make a huge splash with the new channel by investing heavily in technology, human resource and international best practices.
"After the Bol TV fiasco, our industry needs a boost," said a senior TV journalist while requesting anonymity. "Bol TV hurt us badly and hundreds of us are now jobless. A new channel promising to deliver what Bol did will be a ray of hope for us," he says.
In recent months, the broadcast industry has seen the launch of many news channels but none have managed to dent the advertising revenue of the top channels. At present, the market is dominated by four or five channels which control the lion's share of advertising revenue.
However, with Bahria Town's deep pockets, there is potential for a new channel to gatecrash into the elite channels' club. With vast financial resources at its disposal, experts believe the Bahria channel could eat into the market share of the top channels and attract the best human resource, content and advertisement rupees.
"The TV industry should brace for some major realignments," says an industry insider. "Malik Riaz is going to make an impact. He intends to be a force to reckon with in the media," he added.


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but it's ok if you are! Anyone who is putting thought about what they are putting into their body is taking a step in the right direction!
For over 30 years of my life, I did not eat meat. At times I was ovo-lacto vegetarian, then pescatarian, and even dabbled in raw vegan. I never really liked having a label (still don't)
so I just said "I don't eat meat." But whatever I called myself, this was a big part of my identity.
I don't believe that there is one right way to eat. At IIN, where I earned my health coaching certification, they talk a lot about bioindividuality. This means there is no right diet that works for everyone all the time. In other words, we don't all have to eat the same way to feel happy, heathy and hot.
So here's my story:
I was extremely fortunate to grow up in a home where we ate pretty well. Even though it was the 70's, Tang and Wonderbread never made it through the door of 110 Glynn Lane. Neither did Frosted Flakes, Sugar Smacks, or Cap'n Crunch. If we were on vacation at the Jersey Shore we might have some sugared cereal, but only after my mom read the label to make sure there was not BHA or BHT. She bought fresh vegetables from a local co-op that smelled vaguely of patchouli, and organic bread from a wholesale bakery. So we were definitely ahead of the times. Since my grandmother lived on a farm, and raised sheep and occasionally pigs, we actually ate pastured meat before it became a "thing."
And that was a problem for me. Around the age of 11, I realized that the pork roast we were eating came from a pig that I had known. And for the next 30 plus years I stopped eating meat. At first it was just the animal lover in me. But then more and more I convinced myself that it was better for my health. And if your meat intake consists of fast food burgers and Lunchables, I'm pretty sure that it is better to skip the meat.
Throughout my life I've been pretty healthy. As in, rarely sick. But there were three underlying conditions that really affected me. The biggest was acne. It cropped up around the age of 11, and continued until I was in my mid-forties and figured out what to do. (Read I used to have terrible skin for more info.) I also struggled with my digestion off and on from the time I was a kid. And as an adult, I developed anxiety that could be pretty severe at times, although I hid it well. Ironically, at a time in my life when I was eating incredibly clean (practically raw vegan), my skin and anxiety were at their absolute worst. And my digestion wasn't so hot either.
When I realized that cutting out grains, dairy and sugar could clear my skin, it was amazing news. At that point the dairy was already out. But I needed more protein that I could get from nuts. So I started by adding eggs back into my diet, which tasted amazing to me. I realized that the eggs were not going to give me enough variety, so I made the decision to start eating some ethically raised, pastured meat. This took away most of my arguments against meat, since the animals were not raised in a feedlot, and the meat offered better health benefits (which I will detail in another post).
So here's the crazy thing…all I was trying to do was to clear up my skin. Because that's what bothered me the most. And it worked. I could honestly feel the inflammation going down in my face day by day. But a few weeks in, I noticed the digestive issues were gone. Not just better, but gone. And a few months after that, it suddenly dawned on me that my anxiety was pretty much gone too.
I'm not saying that eating meat is the magic bullet that changed everything. I've stopped eating foods that my body is sensitive to. And the meat I am eating is of the highest possible quality.
So do what works for you. Listen to your body and find out what helps you to feel happy, healthy and hot!


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Disappear Ink Tattoo Removal Contact Details
Email or call us on (02) 9587-8787
to book your FREE Consultation.
Every new Client will receive a FREE After-Care Pack following their first laser treatment.
Kogarah is a busy medical and commercial hub. Limited street parking is available on Montgomery Street for 1 hour and on Premier Street for 2 hours.
There are four public parking stations within 200 metres of our location :
- St George TAFE Car Park immediately opposite us (entry via Wicks Lane)
- Please note – The machine only accepts coins for payment
- Kogarah Town Centre (entry via ramp from Railway Parade)
- Kogarah Town Square (entry via Derby Street)
- St George Hospital Car Park (entry via South Street)
Click Where To Park in Kogarah's CBD to download a map of available parking
Public Transport
Kogarah is very well served by public transport. Kogarah Railway Station and the Bus Interchange are 200 metres from our location. Check with www.transportnsw.info for timetables and available services.


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Purple Foam Mattress Review
Let's face it: The last thing you want it to wake up in a puddle of your own sweat. There's no need to worry about that with the Purple mattress, though. It's specially designed to be the coolest foam mattress you've ever slept on, while still offering plenty of bounce and support for any type of sleeper.
The secret behind Purple's heat dissipating qualities is in its 2-inch top layer of hyper-elastic polymer. It has a "smart grid" design, meaning it's full of air channels that help keep you cool at night. This layer is appropriately responsive to pressure, too, so your spine says aligned no matter how you sleep. It's slightly more firm than most foam mattresses.
At $1,000, Purple is be slightly more expensive than the competition, but we think its smart grid is worth the extra bucks if you sleep hot. Fortunately, Purple offers a 100-day in-home trial, so you can experience how comfortable it is for yourself and make your own decision without risk. We think you'll agree that Purple is the best foam mattress for heat-sensitive sleepers.


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Research groups
Vasileios Eftychidis
Research Assistant
The central nervous system (CNS) has a crucial role in the maintenance of energy homeostasis by orchestrating a plethora of signals from peripheral organs about the state of energy stores and the current energy intake needed to match energy expenditure. These signals converge into the hypothalamic regions and its complex local circuitry.
CNS-derived cholecystokinin (CCK) at central level modulates energy balance by regulating neuronal activity of hypothalamic neurons that regulate food intake, energy storage and consumption. Moreover, our recent work has identified CCK neurons as a novel and critical cellular component of the HPA axis, and has shown a requirement for TrkB signalling in the transmission of glucocorticoid signalling (Geibel M. et al, (2014), Nat Commun). However, the source of endogenous CCK, the function of CCK neurons in the hypothalamus, as well as their potential role in the network dynamics regarding energy homeostasis has not been elucidated.
My project seeks to understand the role of CCK neurons in hypothalamic circuits by combining state-of-the-art mouse genetic tools with stereotactic intracranial delivery of adeno-associated viruses that results in cell-type specific synaptic silencing, or by chemogenetic inhibition of these neurons.


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The Charm of Children's Literature
A few weeks ago, I was craving comfort in a big way. I was getting over a lingering summer cold, and feeling neither interested nor able to deal with grown-up problems. I plucked Anne of Avonlea off the shelf, and for as long as I was flipping through those very old and faded rough-edged hardback pages, I did feel comforted. Anne's is not a world in which she wonders about the meaning in her life. Meaning is as sure and tangible a thing as Marilla's plum jam. The questions instead are how to extract oneself when you've fallen through the roof of a chicken coop and what to name a particularly enchanting place in the woods. There are scrapes, to be sure, but Anne snakes her way out of them.
I love ambiguity, questioning and grays, of course. But there is something deeply appealing to me about simpler worlds where families eat dinner together every night, self-worth and love are givens, and humans are replaced by bears and anteaters.
After turning the last page on Anne, I took myself to Books of Wonder and reacquainted myself with old friends like Mrs. Frisby and Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I pulled aside several different teenage female clerks and asked for recommendations based on my love of spunky, fierce heroines like Anastasia and Laura. They introduced me to Mary Alice and Sheila the Great.
I shelved Joan Didion and Annie Dillard. Enough darkness, rumination, and underbelly. I parted the curtains to let in some light. And in these last very happy weeks of time spent at reading level age 10 and up, I've learned that when life feels a bit clouded and the way is unclear, these scrappy young heroines remind me of everything I need to know. Adventure is where you find it. Smart girls are cool. Being kind is more important than being beautiful. Work for good. Follow your passions. Love yourself and love with another will follow. But in the meantime, we've got bigger fish to fry, like learning to write novels, befriending old ladies in stone houses, and finding our home on the prairie, our dreams in the tall sea grasses.
So, friends: I've got Anne of the Island on its way from a used bookstore in Michigan. A Wrinkle in Time is in the queue, and when it gets chillier, I plan to read through all the Little House books. What are your favorites? What childhood books do you visit again and again? Which heroines taught you what kind of woman you want to be?


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Twin explosions in Turkey's capital kills 20 people
Twin explosions have disturbed a peace rally in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. This incident caused multiple casualties, reports say.Turkish news agency Dogan said that at least 20 people have been killed. Photos posted on social media show a number of bodies at the scene. The blasts took place near the city's central train station.The target appears to have been a march calling for an end to the violence with the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK. An HDP rally in the city of Diyarbakir was bombed in June, ahead of general elections.Turkey is holding another election next month.
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|Eagles Nest Locations
|Clubhouse/Fitness Center
|Box in hallway near Pro Shop
|Activities Office
|Sports Center
|Box on the wall
|Eagles Nest Guard House
|Tuscany Falls Locations
|Toscana's Restaurant
|Wall between bar & restaurant
|Hallway outside ballroom
|Baseball field (during play)
|Checked out from Guard House
|Renaissance Theater
|Hallway outside theater
|Creative Arts Center
|In lobby at main door
|Sports Center
|Fitness Center& Pool
|First hallway left of lobby
|Fitness Studios
|End of hall to restrooms
|Pickleball Courts
|Inside ramada
|Tuscany Guard House
PebbleCreek Kare Bears
Kare Bears has purchased AED units for the protection of residents and guests at PebbleCreek. Please take the time to read through the list and become familiar with the locations in relationship to your personal activities.
Being able to make quick decisions in an emergency situation can mean giving a stricken person a much better chance of recovery.


text: Esa Carolyn Ahlson, nee Lindquist, 99, passed away May 3, 2005. Beloved wife of the late Burton William Ahlson; loving mother of Pat (Rainer) Schildknecht; adoring grandmother of Leah Schildknecht, Alex and Erick Taft and dear friend of Anne (Richard) Taft. Resident of Flossmoor, IL and member of the Flossmoor Community Church for 53 years. 1929 graduate of University of Chicago and was an art teacher in Chicago Public Schools for 32 years. A memorial service will held Monday, May 23, 2 p.m. at Three Crowns Park (formerly Swedish Retirement Assoc.), 2323 McDaniel, Evanston, IL 60201. Interment private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Three Crowns Park. Arrangements by William H. Scott Funeral Home, 847-251-8200.


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English is the second-most spoken language in the world behind Mandarin, but it is the most widely spoken. The official language of more countries than any other language, English is the language of business and government, and over half of all the websites on the internet are written in English.
As a global language, English opens doors for everyone to access a wealth of knowledge, a huge network, and numerous career and business opportunities. More and more, the ability to speak in English becomes paramount to effectively communicate and cope with the demands of everyday life. Students and professionals are all recognizing the importance of learning English as a second language. Without the ability to understand the language, students, especially at the university level, find it a challenge to pass exams. For companies, being competitive means speaking good English, which is now commonplace in a globalized world.
We have the resources, technology and the personnel to enable your organization or institution to start or enhance your English language learning program. With leading-edge technology and highly competent yet friendly faculty, we offer dynamic online learning solutions for any age and proficiency level.
In addition, we also provide the following English-related training programs:
Accent Neutralization
Our Knowledge Management (KM) Division's Accent Neutralization training program can help your foreign learners or employees reduce their native language accents and acquire a neutral American accent through drills in phonetics, intonation, word liaisons and free speech. This program is available either online or F2F and is customizable to suit individual client needs, time and resources. For trainer-led programs (5 to 10 learners per class), a pre-assessment is conducted to identify focus areas, and a post-training report will be given to each trainee. Despite their native accents, learners will be able to communicate in American English clearly, confidently, meaningfully and successfully in the classroom or workplace through KM's Accent Neutralization program.
"The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is a highly recognized standardized test by English-speaking academic and professional institutions specially in the US and Canada. It measures a person's proficiency in English and how well they can use their English language skills in an academic classroom.
Our Knowledge Management (KM) Division offers online and F2F TOEFL training programs that will immerse learners in high-quality English lessons in listening, speaking, reading and pronunciation through skill-building activities, grammar lessons, test-taking strategies, practice mock questions and simulation tests under the guidance of our expert TOEFL teachers."
"The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a widely accepted English language test for foreign-language speakers who want to pursue higher education in or immigrate to the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and other (British) commonwealth member-countries. It is recognized by over 9,000 organizations globally, including universities, colleges, employers, governments, immigration authorities and professional bodies. An IELTS exam measures a person's ability in the four skills of writing, speaking, reading and listening. It is available in two formats – academic and general training. The academic module is appropriate for learners who seek admission to undergraduate or post graduate courses to educational institutions where English proficiency is a requirement. The general training module is applicable for learners who are going to train, work or settle in a country where English is the official language.
Our Knowledge Management (KM) Division's IELTS Training will help prepare your learners to take the test with confidence. We will equip them with everything they need to achieve the best possible score by learning from our expert IELTS educators. We offer online and F2F learning sessions customized to your learners' needs and resources. IELTS Training offers comprehensive English lessons, practice tests and test tips to help your learners get access to education, immigration, employment or professional training opportunities in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand."


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|Final Paper Submission Deadline
|September 1st, 2015
|Notification of Acceptance
|September 14th, 2015
|Registration deadline (*)
|October 1st, 2015
|Conference Dates
|October 22-24, 2015
Only papers registered before October 1st will be presented at the GEBA2015 Conference.
The conference aims at bringing together academics and researchers from various fields with a keen interest in globalization challenges for higher education. At the same time, the conference will provide a venue for an interdisciplinary debate on economic globalization. The organizers hope that the contributors will provide a valuable overview of the current trends in academic research within a larger context of the global impact on society and economy. The presenters are encouraged to emphasize on the role of education and research in Economics and Business Administration in an attempt to offer a better and more insightful understanding of globalization.
Final Paper Submission Deadline: September 1st
Notification of Acceptance: September 14th,
Guidelines for participants
Participants are expected to submit papers (research papers, review papers, research notes, Ph.D. research in progress, case studies and essays) which have not been publicly presented or published before. All accepted papers will be presented at the conference. The official language of the conference is English.
1.The final paper must be submitted using the template form provided. Final papers will be written in English. The total length of the paper should not exceed 12 pages.
2. The template form of the Final Paper is available here:
|word format
1. For each accepted paper, at least one author must register to attend the conference.
2. Only papers registered before October 1st will be presented at the conference.


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Gallas dropped and stripped of captaincy - Report
William Gallas has been dropped and stripped of the Arsenal captaincy, according to reports.
France Football claim that the outspoken defender has paid the price for his verbal attack on his Arsenal team-mates and will not appear in Saturday's trip to Manchester City and will be forced to relinquish the armband to either Gael Clichy or Manuel Almunia.
While the reports have not been confirmed by the Gunners it would not come as a surprise if Arsene Wenger had run out of patience with the 31-year-old after a series of incidents have brought Gallas' leadership qualities into question.
On Thursday Gallas said the Arsenal side was ''not brave enough in battle'' and claimed the squad was being undermined by the attitude and actions of one unruly player.
The central defender followed that on Friday with a fierce critique of his international team-mates in his autobiography. Gallas reports unrest in the France camp during their disastrous Euro 2008 finals, singling out a player who he felt was disrespecting older members of the squad. It led to a training-ground confrontation between the pair.
''I was also 20 years old once. I would never have allowed myself to speak in this tone to a footballer who was older than me,'' Gallas wrote. ''The youngsters from the Euros seem cheeky, very sure of themselves. They think they know it all, but they don't know anything.
In October Gallas reacted angrily when Arsenal surrendered a 4-2 lead with just two minutes remaining in the north London derby and drew the game 4-4.
His histrionics were reminiscent of his behaviour at the end of last season's away game at Birmingham City when striker Eduardo broke his leg and the Gunners squandered the three points after conceding a late penalty to draw 2-2.
Former England manager Graham Taylor believes Wenger would be wrong to retain Gallas as his captain after his verbal attack.
''I would have thought by now a manager of Arsene Wenger's calibre knows what makes a good captain, and I'm somewhat surprised that he still has stuck with Gallas even after that Birmingham situation,'' said Taylor.
Meanwhile former Arsenal stalwart Nigerl Winterburn believes Wenger faces a difficult decision over Gallas' future.
''Wenger is very loyal, he protects his players because he believes in them. 'It's a difficult decision. If he takes the captaincy away he's almost saying he doesn't trust him as a player and then maybe he shouldn't be playing within the team.
''Behind closed doors he'll be very, very disappointed. Whether he'll let us know that is a different matter.''
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Fossilized woolly mammoth hair, SEM
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