Synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) have gained high concerns due to their extensive usages and unintended environmental release via various routes. Their contamination in water system could pose ...potential threat to aquatic organisms, therefore, the studies on the aquatic toxicology of this kind of chemicals are of high importance. In this research, the developmental toxicities of four commonly used SPAs, including butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), tert-butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ), and 2,2′-methylenebis (6-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol) (AO2246) were investigated using the zebrafish embryo toxicity test (ZFET). The results showed that these four SPAs exerted different acute toxicities to zebrafish, and the toxic order, based on their 96 h LC50 values, was AO2246 > TBHQ > BHA > BHT, and decreased hatching rates were induced for the embryos in BHA, TBHQ and AO2246 exposure groups. Non-lethal exposures of BHA (≤20 μM), TBHQ (≤20 μM), BHT (≤200 μM) and AO2246 (≤2 μM) decreased the heart rates and body lengths of zebrafish in exposure concentration-dependent manners. Diverse morphological deformities, including uninflated swim bladder, pericardial edema, spinal curvature, severe yolk deformation, or abnormal pigmentation, were induced in zebrafish larvae upon SPA treatments. The transcriptional levels of the related genes, examined by quantitative PCR, indicated that the interferences of SPAs with hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis (HPT axis), GH/PRL synthesis and Hedgehog (hh) pathway contributed to their developmental toxicities in zebrafish. The up-regulation of pluripotency biomarker, Oct4, caused the developmental retardation during the early stages of zebrafish embryos in BHA and TBHQ exposure groups. The results obtained herein provided important information on the developmental toxicity of SPAs, which could be very helpful in guiding the risk assessment on their aquatic toxicology.
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•SPA exposures induced developmental toxicities in zebrafish embryos and larvae.•Diverse deformities were caused in zebrafish larvae by SPA exposures.•The toxicity order of SPAs to zebrafish based on their 96 h LC50 values was AO2246 > TBHQ > BHA > BHT.•SPAs caused dysfunctions of HPT axis, GH/PRL synthesis, and hh pathway in zebrafish larvae.•BHA and TBHQ caused early developmental retardation of zebrafish embryos.
Coking influences environmental quality and poses high risks to human health as large amounts of heavy metals and metalloids are emitted into the environment from coal during the coking process. ...Health risks depend heavily on multi-pathway and element-specific exposures, which have, unfortunately, been rarely studied. In this study, children's health risks and exposure levels to As, Se, and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Co, Zn, Cu, Mn, V and Sb) in the water, soil, dust, air and locally produced food were studied based on field sampling and questionnaire-based surveys around the largest coking area in China. Human blood samples were collected and analyzed to indicate the exposure levels. The non-carcinogenic risks to children mainly resulted from Cr, Mn, Pb, As and Sb, the levels of which were 3 to 10 times higher than the acceptable levels (1.0×10−6). The carcinogenic risks to children were 30 to 200 times higher than the safe level (1.0×10−6–1.0×10−4), which could be attributed to Cr, As and Ni pollution. The estimated risks mainly came from the pathway involving the ingestion of locally produced food, accounting for more than 85% in total for most elements. For As, the food ingestion and air inhalation exposure pathways both contributed approximately 50%, respectively. The high risks in this study highlight the attention paid to the health of children who live in the vicinity of coking activities and the importance of site-specific multi-pathway health risk assessments and food safety to protect potentially exposed children.
•The concentration of heavy metals and metalloids in environment and children's blood are observed around the Chinese largest coking plant.•The health risk assessments of children are analyzed.•Foods from the coking plant are heavily contaminated by As, Cr and Se.•Food Ingestion pathway contributes most to children's average daily dose for most heavy metals and metalloids.•Higher potentially non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks happen to the local children.
The advent of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) technology has revolutionized the landscape of wireless communication systems, offering promising opportunities for enhancing the performance of ...Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This paper presents a comprehensive performance evaluation of multi-agent IoT monitoring systems leveraging IRS technology. We focus on three criteria for selecting IRS units and assess the impact on system performance. Specifically, we analyze the system performance by deriving an outage probability expression for each criterion. Our study begins by introducing the concept of IRS and its role in IoT monitoring. We then present three IRS unit selection criteria: optimal selection (OS), partial selection (PS), and random selection (RS). For each criterion, we mathematically model and analyze the system outage probability, shedding light on the reliability and connectivity of IoT devices. The outage probability expressions derived in this work offer valuable insights into the trade-offs associated with IRS unit selection criteria in the context of IoT monitoring. Additionally, our findings contribute to the optimization of multi-agent IoT monitoring systems, enabling improved communication performance and enhanced reliability.
Dietary intake is one of the major exposure pathways of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), especially in Chinese people because foods are often prepared with grilling and/or frying that would ...produce high levels of PAHs. In this paper, we assessed daily dietary intakes (DDI) of PAHs, using a “duplicate plate method”, among 100 Chinese urban residents. The DDI of benzo(a)pyrene ranged from 0.06 µg per day to 13.5 µg per day with a median of 0.69 µg per day, varying largely across subjects. The median Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risk (ILCR) attributable to PAH dietary intake was 6.65 × 10−5 (4.41 × 10−5 to 1.02 × 10−4 as inter-quartile range). The contribution of several high-PAH containing foods like barbecued, smoked or deep-fried meats to the overall DDIs was about 13%. The use of raw foods may underestimate dietary intake of PAHs and associated exposure risk considerably. Results from foods sampled in different seasons suggested that seasonal variability within an individual may contribute notably to overall variability measured in a population and more future studies with longer-term investigation on food ingestion and pollutant exposure are needed. The study indicates that measuring actually consumed foods is more appropriate for dietary intake exposure assessment, and intra-individual variance should be taken into account during study design and data analysis.
•Duplicated plate method to estimate dietary intake exposure of priority PAHs.•Serious ingestion exposure risk associated with cooked food intake among Chinese residents.•Use of raw foods underestimates dietary intake dose and consequent exposure risk.•Within-subject variation contributes notably to the overall variation in dietary intake.•Risk due to dietary PAH intake is comparable to that from the inhalation exposure.
The metal(loid) pollution still is a great concern due to the effects from urbanization and industrialization. While, the health risks from the toxic metal(loid)s could decrease if strict pollution ...control measures were adopted. However, few studies to date investigate the health risks of heavy metal(loid)s in a systematic river basin for the dependent residents, after taking pollution control measures. Thus, the contents of metal(loid)s (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Mn, As) in surface water along a typical river basin were investigated in this study, and the potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks posed to the residents were assessed. Although the soluble contents of Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd exceeded the respective thresholds in two sites located downstream the mine area, they were greatly decreased in comparison with previous contamination levels, and the soluble concentrations of all the metal(loid)s were within the relevant thresholds in the sites far away from the mining area. Moreover, the closer to the mining area, the higher the pollution levels of metal(loid)s. The total hazard index for non-carcinogenic risks of metal(loid)s were basically lower than the threshold (1) for the local population. Whereas, although the content of metal(loid)s were low (such as As), they could pose relative higher non-carcinogenic health risks. The result illustrated that pollution levels, toxicity of the contaminants and exposure behavior patterns all could contribute to the potential detrimental health risks. Additionally, the non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks from ingestion exposure were ∼2–∼4 orders of magnitude higher than those from dermal contact. The total carcinogenic risks were basically lower than the maximum tolerable levels (1.0 × 10−4), indicating carcinogenic risks from most areas of the river could also be accepted. Among different population groups, heavy metal(loid)s posed relative higher non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks to the children in 0–5 years old. Fortunately, the surface water in most area of this basin is safe in usage for the local population and the health risks were basically acceptable in case exposed to the target metal(loid)s, after the river basin was in the charge of strict pollution control measures.
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•The contents of heavy metal(loid)s in various sites are observed along a typical river basin.•The health risk assessments of local children and adult are analyzed.•The water quality is not heavily polluted by heavy metal(loid)s.•Ingestion exposure is the predominant pathway for the local population exposed to metal(loid)s.•Health risks are generally acceptable, but risks were highest for the children (0–5 yrs).
Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from burning “smoky” (bituminous) coal has been implicated as a cause of the high lung cancer incidence in the counties of Xuanwei and Fuyuan, ...China. Little is known about variations in PAH exposure from throughout the region nor how fuel source and stove design affects exposure. Indoor and personal PAH exposure resulting from solid fuel combustion in Xuanwei and Fuyuan was investigated using repeated 24 h particle bound and gas-phase PAH measurements, which were collected from 163 female residents of Xuanwei and Fuyuan. 549 particle bound (283 indoor and 266 personal) and 193 gas phase (all personal) PAH measurements were collected. Mixed effect models indicated that PAH exposure was up to 6 times higher when burning smoky coal than smokeless coal and varied by up to a factor of 3 between different smoky coal geographic sources. PAH measurements from unventilated firepits were up to 5 times that of ventilated stoves. Exposure also varied between different room sizes and season of measurement. These findings indicate that PAH exposure is modulated by a variety of factors, including fuel type, coal source, and stove design. These findings may provide valuable insight into potential causes of lung cancer in the area.
Households in Xuanwei and Fuyuan, China, possess hazardous levels of fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <2.5 microns (PM2.5) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from coal ...combustion. Previous studies found that increased exposure to PM2.5 and benzoapyrene (BaP; a PAH) were associated with decreased mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn), a marker of oxidative stress. We further evaluated these associations in a cross-sectional study of 148 healthy non-smoking women from Xuanwei and Fuyuan. Personal exposure to PM2.5 and BaP was measured using portable devices. MtDNAcn was measured using qPCR amplification of leukocyte DNA that was collected after air measurements. Linear regression models were used to estimate the associations between personal exposure to PM2.5 and BaP, and mtDNAcn adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI) and fuel type. We found inverse associations between exposure to PM2.5 and BaP, and mtDNAcn. Each incremental log-μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 was associated with a significant decrease in mtDNAcn of -10.3 copies per cell 95% confidence interval (95% CI): -18.6, -2.0; P = 0.02. Additionally, each log-ng/m3 increase in BaP was associated with a significant decrease in mtDNAcn of -5.4 copies per cell (95% CI: -9.9, -0.8, P = 0.02). Age, BMI, fuel type and coal mine type were not significantly associated with mtDNAcn. Exposure to PM2.5 and BaP may alter mitochondrial dynamics in non-smoking Chinese women. MtDNAcn may be a potential mediator of indoor air pollution on chronic disease development.
Background Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is the severest form of pulmonary injury, is the leading cause of death in critical care. At present, the mortality remains high in ARDS. ...Partial liquid ventilation (PLV) using perfluorocarbon (PFC) has been proven to improve gas exchange and respiratory dynamics of the lungs during ARDS. However, PLV has not been shown to reduce the mortality of ARDS. Some studies have shown that mild hypothermia therapy can reduce lung injuries in animal models of ARDS by reducing inflammatory cytokine levels in lung tissues. However, hypothermia cannot produce a lung protection effect alone, and it may have a synergistic effect with other protective measures. To explore the possible role of PLV combined with mild hypothermia in the treatment of ARDS, in this study, we used PFC liquid ventilation to induce mild hypothermia in dogs suffering from ARDS and analyzed the effects of PFC liquid ventilation-induced mild hypothermia on the levels of inflammatory factors and lung histopathology in dogs with ARDS. The experimental dogs were randomly divided into conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV), normal temperature PFC liquid ventilation (NPLV), hypothermic PFC liquid ventilation (HPLV), and mechanical ventilation (MV) groups. After induction of ARDS, the CMV group was treated with CMV for respiratory support, the HPLV group was treated with PLV-induced mild hypothermia using 15 °C PFC and maintained the rectal temperature at 34–36 °C, the NPLV group was treated with PLV using 36 °C PFC and maintained the rectal temperature at 36–38 °C. The MV group served as the control group. Analyses of the pulmonary pathology, partial pressure of oxygen in the blood, and lung wet-dry weight ratio (W/T) of each dog revealed that PLV-induced mild hypothermia significantly increased the PaO2 values and attenuated lung injury, and there were no adverse effects on hemodynamics. Furthermore, treatment with PLV-induced mild hypothermia significantly increased the expression of the anti-inflammatory factor IL-10 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and attenuated the expression of interleukin (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in peripheral blood and in lung BALF. Moreover, the results showed that the expression of myeloperoxidase (MPO) and NF-κB p65 in lung tissues was significantly decreased by PLV-induced mild hypothermia compared with NPLV and CMV. Our results indicated that PLV combined with mild hypothermia can provide protection against oleic acid-induced ARDS in dogs.
Bismuth-rich Bi5O7Br is a promising photocatalyst for pollutant removal owing to its stability and appropriate band structure in comparison with bismuth oxybromide. However, bulk-phase Bi5O7Br ...suffers from poor light absorption and high charge recombination rates resulting in poor activity. Elemental doping is a powerful strategy to enhance photocatalytic activity. In this study, we prepared a series of Br auto-doped ultrathin Bi5O7Br nanotubes and explored the effect of Br doping on photocatalytic NO removal. The optimal doping content was determined via a photocatalytic NO removal experiment, which revealed the optimal ratio of Bi and Br was approximately 3:1. In situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (In situ DRIFT) and density functional theory (DFT) studies revealed that NO removal mechanism catalyzed by Br doped Bi5O7Br. Our work presents a new strategy for the enhancement of photocatalytic pollutant degradation by bismuth oxyhalide photocatalysts.
The property of photocatalytic removal NO is effectively enhanced by Br auto-doped into Bi5O7Br. Display omitted
This paper presents the crucial area of power load data acquisition with an integrated transmission system for precise calculation and detection of electric energy. With the advances in technology, ...management and optimization of energy has become critical for sustainability and economic reasons. Thus, we have targeted the cutting-edge methods for data gathering of power load along with its efficient transmission previously reviewed. We scrutinized the current methods and technologies used in power load data acquisition and identified their limitations along with areas of improvements. We followed advanced sensors and measuring devices for data collection employed an integrated transmission system with up-to-the-minute communication protocols and data processing algorithms. These were experimentally verified to improve the accuracy and reliability of the electric energy calculations. The real-world case studies were included for its practical implementations to provide an insight into its impacts. The results of this study provide a maturing outlook along with valuable analysis for electric energy calculation and detection. The system due to its potential for enhancing the energy management and efficiency can have a real-life and profound significance in sustainable and economic handling of the increasing load of energy.
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