Bottled Water Not Always As Clean As Advertised

美国是世界上为数不多的可直接饮用自来水的国家之一。美国市场上销售的瓶装饮用水更应该洁净而令消费者放心,可是,本文让读者大吃一惊！

Classification of Various Bottled Mineral Waters Marketed in Djibouti

In this study, nineteen different brands of bottled mineral waters (7 brands local and 12 brands imported) were collected from supermarkets and independent food stores throughout Djibouti. The chemical composition mentioned on the labels of the nineteen bottled mineral waters has made the subject of a first verification by Ionic Balance Error (IBE). It was found out of the nineteen brands selected, 12 brands (2 brands local and 10 brands imported) had acceptable charge balance error. Correlation Analysis (CA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) were used to analyze the data collected from the labels of bottled water. The obtained results showed that the 12 brands of studied waters can be grouped in 4 distinct classes with similar chemical characteristics. Two local and one imported brands have the same chemical composition but marketed under different names. It was observed that the chemical content local water brands were within the normal range prescribed by both WHO and USEPA except five imported water brands that have concentration values Ca, HCO3, Mg and SO4 beyond acceptable standards. Total hardness values classified most of the studied brands from moderate to very hard water.

High-Precision Direct Determination of the ^(87)Sr/^(86)Sr Isotope Ratio of Bottled Sr-Rich Natural Mineral Drinking Water Using MC-ICP-MS

Strontium has four naturally occurring stable isotopes,84Sr,86Sr,87Sr,and 88Sr,with abundances of 0.56,9.87,approximately 7.04,and 82.53 atomic %,respectively.The 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratio is variable due to the addition of radiogenic 87Sr produced by the beta decay of 87Rb with a half-life of 4.88 ± 0.05 Ga.Thus,

Evaluation of a user-friendly CSDS cage apparatus for studying depressive-like behaviors in rodents

Background:Previously,a chronic social defeat stress(CSDS)model has been widely-adopted for assessing depressive-like behaviors in animals.However,there is still room for improvement in the CSDS model to safeguard study accuracy and the wel-fare of lab rodents.Our study team developed a novel,standardized apparatus to induce CSDS in rodents and assessed the model's practical adaptability.Methods:An innovative CSDS cage apparatus and water bottle was designed.To evaluate the effectiveness of the newly developed tools,a variety of animal models,including the tail suspension test(TST),sucrose preference test,forced swimming test(FST),novelty-suppressed feeding test,female urine sniffing test,and open field test(OFT),were adopted to assess depressive-like behaviors in mice.Fluoxetine treat-ment was also administered to observe the reversal effect,as part of the validation.Results:The CSDS cage apparatus resulted in the manifestation of depressive-like behaviors in the model mice.Significant reductions in sucrose preference and urine sniffing time were observed,while the OFT revealed decreased central zone total distance,residence time,and frequency of entry.Moreover,increased immobility was found in the FST and TST.Fluoxetine treatment was found to successfully reverse the modeling effect.Conclusion:The CSDS cage apparatus was validated for enhanced usability and ad-dressed the previous challenges of water bottle leakage and lab rodent welfare is-sues.The consistent results from multiple behavioral tests also supported real-world application of the apparatus,offering researchers a promising alternative to conven-tional rodent cages.

Consumer Reaction to the Great East Japan Earthquake

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, the demand for bottled water increased sharply. In this paper, the authors analyze who purchased more bottled water after the earthquake using Quick Purchase Report data. The results are as follows： first, consumers who before the earthquake tended to purchase less bottled water tended to increase the volume purchased after the earthquake; second, the motives for purchasing bottled water after the earthquake differed between consumers in the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan districts.