OBJECTIVE Objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the mineral intake by Chinese lactating women, 2) to explore the dietary source of minerals, and 3) the ratios between different dietary minerals. METHODS A total of 468 lactating women in 5-240 days post-partum participated in this study. Food intakes by participants were measured using one time of 24-hour dietary recall, and minerals...

Research on which NRC trace mineral requirements are based was done with inorganic transitional minerals and purified and semi-purified diets. Research with organic trace minerals and standard rations have demonstrated that requirements are much lower than the levels set by NRC, due to the greater availability of these organic minerals. Further, not all organic minerals are the same. Pullets fr...

Explosives in soils can present environmental problems for military installations. Fine, mobile particles represent the most reactive fraction of the soil and, therefore, are expected to adsorb explosives and potentially facilitate their transport. The objective of this study was to determine the relative significance of phyllosilicate clay, organic matter, and two forms of extractable iron in ...

Iron(III) (oxyhydr)oxides can represent the dominant microbial electron acceptors under anoxic conditions in many aquatic environments, which makes understanding the mechanisms and processes regulating their dissolution and transformation particularly important. In a previous laboratory-based study, it has been shown that 0.05 mM thiosulfate can reduce 6 mM ferrihydrite indirectly via enzymatic...

Using density functional theoryþHubbard U (DFTþU) calculations, we investigate how aluminum affects the spin crossover of iron in MgSiO3 perovskite (Pv) and post-perovskite (Ppv), the major mineral phases in the Earth’s lower mantle. We find that the presence of aluminum does not change the response of iron spin state to pressure: only ferric iron (Fe3þ) in the octahedral (B)-site undergoes a c...

Geomycology investigates the impact of fungi on geological processes, including the alteration and weathering of rocks and minerals, mediated both by biomechanical and by biochemical activities. Several functional groups of fungi are involved in mineral bioweathering, including saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungi. Serpentine sites provide interesting environmental cases for geomycology, because ...

The previously developed pH swing carbon mineral sequestration immobilizes the gaseous CO2 into a thermodynamically stable solid, MgCO3, using Mg-bearing minerals such as serpentine. This mineral carbonation technology is particularly promising since it generates value-added solid products: high surface area silica, iron oxide, and magnesium carbonate, while providing a safe and permanent stora...

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), like many legumes, are rich in iron, zinc, and certain other microelements that are generally found to be in low concentrations in cereals, other seed crops, and root or tubers and therefore are good candidates for biofortification. But a quandary exists in common bean biofortification: namely that the distribution of iron has been found to be variable betw...

The potential of microbial mediated iron plaque reduction, and associated arsenic (As) mobility were examined by iron reducing bacteria enriched from As contaminated paddy soil. To our knowledge, this is the first time to report the impact of microbial iron plaque reduction on As mobility. Iron reduction occurred during the inoculation of iron reducing enrichment culture in the treatments with ...

Iron is a necessary mineral for plants' biological redox system and an important component of many enzymes. In the present study, effect of iron on morphological, biochemical, and physiological properties of soybeanwere investigated. The experiments were arranged in a completely randomized design with three replicates. Analysis of the data was carried out using SPSS with multiple range Duncan t...