The evaluation of the chemical impact on human health is usually constrained to the analysis of the health effects of exposure to a single chemical or a group of similar chemicals at one time. The ...effects of chemical mixtures are seldom analyzed. In this study, we applied three statistical models to assess the association between the exposure to a mixture of seven xenobiotics (three phthalate metabolites, two phenols, and two pesticides) and obesity.
Urinary levels of environmental phenols, pesticides, and phthalate metabolites were measured in adults who participated in the U.S.-based National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2013 to 2014. Body examination was conducted to determine obesity. We fitted multivariable models, using generalized linear (here both logistic and linear) regression, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression, and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models to estimate the association between chemical exposures and obesity.
Of 1269 individuals included in our final analysis, 38.5% had general obesity and 58.0% had abdominal obesity. In the logistic regression model established for each single chemical, bisphenol S (BPS), mono (carboxyoctyl) phthalate (MCOP), and mono (2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (MECPP) were associated with both general and abdominal obesity (fourth vs. first quartile). In linear regression, MCOP was associated with BMI and waist circumference. In WQS regression analysis, the WQS index was significantly associated with both general obesity (OR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.21–2.20) and abdominal obesity (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.18–2.34). MCOP, bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol S (BPS), and mono ethyl phthalate (MEP) were the most heavily weighing chemicals. In BKMR analysis, the overall effect of mixture was significantly associated with general obesity when all the chemicals were at their 60th percentile or above it, compared to all of them at their 50th percentile. MCOP, BPA, and BPS showed positive trends. By contrast, MECPP showed a flat and modest inverse trend.
When comparing results from these three models, MCOP, BPA, and BPS were identified as the most important factors associated with obesity. We recommend estimating the joint effects of chemical mixtures by applying diverse statistical methods and interpreting their results together, considering their advantages and disadvantages.
•The joint effect of mixed exposure to seven chemicals on obesity was assessed.•High correlation between chemicals might lead to result distortion.•Results of three methods were interpreted jointly to yield a reliable conclusion.•MCOP, BPA, and BPS were identified as factors potentially associated with obesity.
Abstract
Obstacles to widespread deployments of direct air capture of CO
2
(DAC) lie in high material and energy costs. By grafting quaternary ammonium (QA) functional group to mesoporous polymers ...with high surface area, a unique DAC adsorbent with moisture swing adsorption (MSA) ability and ultra-high kinetics was developed in this work. Functionalization is designed for efficient delivery of QA group through mesopores to active substitution sites. This achieved ultra-high kinetics adsorbent with half time of 2.9 min under atmospheric environment, is the highest kinetics value reported among DAC adsorbents. A cyclic adsorption capacity of 0.26 mmol g
−1
is obtained during MSA process. Through adsorption thermodynamics, it is revealed that adsorbent with uniform cylindrical pore structure has higher functional group efficiency and CO
2
capacity. Pore structure can also tune the MSA ability of adsorbent through capillary condensation of water inside its mesopores. The successful functionalization of mesoporous polymers with superb CO
2
adsorption kinetics opens the door to facilitate DAC adsorbents for large-scale carbon capture deployments.
The construction of modern marine ranching is an important way to protect coastal ecological environment and efficiently produce marine fishery resources in China. This study analyzed the scale, ...nature and function of national marine ranching in 11 coastal areas from 2015 to 2019, and identified the problems of quantity and area mismatch and regional development imbalance in the current layout. Then the standard deviation ellipse was used to explore the spatial variation characteristics of marine ranching in China. Geographic detector were then used to detect factors affecting spatial distribution. The results show that the spatial variation presents an obvious flattening trend through time. From 2015 to 2018, the overall center of gravity of marine ranching moved to the southwest. The X-axis first decreased and then increased, while the Y-axis showed an increasing trend from northeast to southwest. Marine ranching construction in Liaoning, Guangdong, Guangxi showed an obvious increase on the long axis. In 2019, the average center moved to the northeast due to the fact that no new national marine ranchings were added in Guangxi, Fujian and other places, while the construction momentum was strong in Shandong and Liaoning. In terms of influencing factors, resource difference, scientific and technological input and economic development levels have a significant influence on the spatial variation of marine ranching, and social factors and policy factors need to interact with other factors to play the role. The conclusions of this study can inform China Government decision making for marine ranching construction in coastal areas.
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•.Descriptive analysis of national marine ranching is made on 11 coastal areas of region, nature and function.•.Spatial distribution characteristics and time evolution are revealed based on the longitude, latitude and area data.•.An index system is established to detect spatial differentiation pattern and driving mechanism.•SDE, PMC-index and GeoDetector are used in the research of the spatial distribution of national marine ranching.
The association between internal cadmium exposure and chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been investigated before. However, few studies have shown the association between dietary cadmium intake and ...CKD. In this study, we show the association between life-time dietary cadmium intake and CKD based on a follow-up study. At baseline, we collected blood and urine samples for assays of cadmium and renal effect biomarkers. A questionnaire and food survey was given to each subject to collect diet and lifestyle information for the estimation of cadmium intake. Dietary cadmium, cadmium in blood and urine were regarded as exposure markers. Life-time dietary cadmium intake was estimated based on an individual’s daily cadmium intake and exposure time. At follow-up, 467 persons (163 men and 304 women) were finally included. CKD at follow-up was considered if the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2. The eGFR level in subjects in the highest quartile of total dietary cadmium intake (>9.34 g) was significantly lower than in those with a moderate or low intake (p < 0.01). eGFR was negatively associated with total dietary cadmium intake (β = -0.42, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.77 to -0.07) after adjustment with confounders. Logistic regression further showed that the risk of CKD in subjects with a high total dietary cadmium intake (>2.2 g) was higher than in those with a low intake (odds ratio (OR) = 18.16, 95%CI: 1.75–188.85). A similar association was found between the baseline urinary albumin (UALB) level and CKD incidence. A predictive model based on UALB and life-time dietary cadmium intake showed an acceptable performance (the area under the curve was 0.77 (95%CI: 0.65–0.88)). Our data show that high dietary cadmium exposure was associated with CKD after controlling for renal tubular dysfunction and internal cadmium exposure.
•Life-time dietary cadmium intake (LCd) is correlated with cadmium in blood and urine.•Baseline LCd is negatively related with eGFR.•Baseline LCd is independently associated with incident of chronic kidney disease.
•Evaluation system of urban health development efficiency (HDE) was constructed.•Urban HDE from 2009 to 2019 was measured using the super-efficient SBM model.•Transfer probability matrix was ...constructed to examine the transfer status of HDE.•Spatial Markov chain model was used to identify the spillover effects of HDE.•Markov chain model was used to forecast the long-term evolution trend of HDE.
Construction healthy city is a global strategy advocated by the WHO to address the social and environmental problems brought about by urbanization worldwide, and is also an important grip for China to promote the strategy of Beautiful China and Healthy China in the new era. This study constructed an evaluation system for health development efficiency (HDE) of Chinese cities from an input–output perspective, evaluated the HDE of 284 prefecture-level and above cities in China from 2009 to 2019 using the super-efficient SBM model, and further explored the dynamic transfer characteristics, spatial spillover effects, and future development trends of urban HDE in depth using Markov chain model and spatial Markov chain model. The main findings were as follows. (1) From 2009 to 2019, the average level of HDE in Chinese cities generally showed a “W-shaped” fluctuating upward trend, increasing from 0.6106 to 0.6538, an overall increase of 7 %. However, the overall input–output efficiency was still relatively low, with only 27.11 % of cities in a high efficiency state in 2019. (2) The spatial distribution pattern of HDE of cities nationwide showed a gradually decreasing pattern with the urban cluster cities as the core, specifically “eastern cities > western cities > central cities” and “mega cities > super cities > large cities > medium cities > small cities”. (3) There was a significant spatial spillover effect on the HDE of Chinese cities. When a city was adjacent to a region with low HDE, the probability of its HDE type shifting downward increased, and when it was adjacent to a region with high HDE, the probability of its HDE type shifting upward increased. (4) In the long term, the distribution of urban HDE in China gradually shifted from intermediate (ML and MH) to high (H) or low (L) state over time, with the greatest possibility (27.40 %) of dynamic shift to high (H) states. After further classification and prediction based on spatial neighborhood states, heterogeneity in the future evolutionary impact of different neighborhood contexts on urban HDE was found. These findings can provide references for improving the quality of healthy cities work and optimizing healthy cities guidance policies.
Monochasma savatieri Franch. ex Maxim is a medicinally valuable herb. However, the collection and protection of the wild germplasm resources of M. savatieri are still insufficient, and their genetic ...diversity and population structure have been poorly studied. We collected and examined 46 M. savatieri individuals from Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces for genetic diversity and population structure, using 33 newly developed expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers. Applying these markers, we detected a total of 208 alleles, with an average of 6.303 alleles per locus. The polymorphic information content varied from 0.138 to 0.884 (average: 0.668), indicating a high level of polymorphism. At the population level, there was a low degree of genetic diversity among populations (I = 0.535, He = 0.342), with Zhejiang individuals showing the highest genetic diversity among the four populations (Fst = 0.497), which indicated little gene flow within the M. savatieri populations (Nm = 0.253). Mantel test analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between geographical and genetic distance among populations (R.sup.2 = 0.3304, p < 0.05), and structure and principal coordinate analyses supported classification of populations into three clusters, which was consistent with the findings of cluster analysis. As a rare medicinal plants, the protection of M. savatieri does not look optimistic, and accordingly, protective efforts should be beefed up on the natural wild populations. This study provided novel tools and insights for designing effective collection and conservation strategies for M. savatieri.
We used a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics approach to obtain the metabolic profiling of unexplained male infertility (UMI), and identified seminal plasma biomarkers ...associated with UMI by a two-stage population study. A robust OPLS-DA model based on these identified metabolites was able to distinguish 82% of the UMI patients from health controls with a specificity of 92%. In this model, 44 metabolites were found differentially expressed in UMI subjects compared with health controls. By pathway enrichment analysis, we identified several major changed metabolic pathways related to UMI. Our findings provide new perspective for the diagnosis of UMI.
Due to both anthropogenic and climate change impacts, precipitation and runoff in the Yellow River basin have decreased in the past 50 years, leading to more pressure in sustaining human beings and ...ecosystem needs. It is essential to evaluate the flow condition in the Yellow River basin and see whether it may satisfy its ecological flow in the future. Therefore, this study applied an entropy-based method to calculate the flow duration curves from both observed and simulated data to evaluate the impact of climate change on ecological flow in the Yellow River basin. The simulated FDCs from H08 and DBH models show good agreement with each other and fit observation well. Results show that the decadal FDC at each station is generally predicted to be higher or stay in the higher range under both RCP 2.6 and 8.5 scenarios, suggesting an increase in water amount in the future. It is found that the high flows increase much faster than the low flows, resulting in larger slopes than the references ones, which is due to the larger entropy and M values in the future. At most of the stations, the future values of Q95 and Q90 will safely exceed the threshold. It is found that at the Lanzhou, Wubao, Longmen, and Huayuankou stations, there will be no or little threat to future ecological flow. Still, at the Toudaoguai and Sanmanxia stations, the ecological requirement is not always satisfied. The water stress at the Tangnaihai station from the upper stream of the Yellow River may be threatened in the future.
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a common toxin in grains and feeds, and DON exposure triggers severe small intestinal injury and inflammation, which harms the health of humans and livestock. DON treatment ...leads to a decrease in Paneth cells, whereas the role of Paneth cells in DON-induced intestinal injury is poorly understood. We utilized dithizone (40 mg/kg) to keep murine Paneth cell number at a low level. The results showed that dithizone-mediated long-term disruption of Paneth cells aggravated intestinal injury, intestinal stem cell (ISC) loss, and microbiota disorder in DON (2 mg/kg)-treated mice. Unexpectedly, the number of goblet cells and proliferative cells was boosted in mice treated with dithizone and DON. After dithizone and DON treatments, the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio was reduced, and the increased abundance of Dubosiella and the decreased abundance of Lactobacillus were observed in mice. The functional recovery of Paneth cells by lysozyme (200 U/day) supplementation improved intestinal injury and ISC loss in mice after DON challenge. In addition, lysozyme also promoted the growth and ISC activity of intestinal organoids. Taken together, these results demonstrate the protective role of Paneth cells in DON-induced intestinal injury. Our study raises a novel target, Paneth cell, for the treatment of DON exposure.
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•Dithizone-induced Paneth cell disruption aggravates DON-induced jejunal injury.•Paneth cell disruption aggravates DON-induced stem cell loss and microbiota disorder.•Lysozyme ameliorates dithizone + DON-induced jejunal injury and inflammation.•Lysozyme protects stem cell niche from DON challenge in intestinal organoids.
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is associated with male reproductive disorders, but its targets and mechanisms are poorly understood. We used in vitro and in vivo models to explore the roles of ...Sertoli cells and the blood-testis barrier (BTB) in PFOS-induced male reproductive dysfunction. First, we used primary Sertoli cell to estimate PFOS-induced cytotoxicity, junction proteins expression, and the changes of barrier function. ICR mice were then administered PFOS (0.25-50mg/kg/day) for 4 weeks. Sperm count, ultrastructure and permeability of the Sertoli cell-based BTB, and testicular PFOS were estimated. Furthermore, the expression and localization of proteins related to junctions between Sertoli cells and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway were evaluated. Apparent decreases in sperm count were found. PFOS significantly increased vacuolization in Sertoli cells in seminiferous tubules and BTB ultrastructural disassembly, which subsequently increased BTB permeability and testicular PFOS levels, which was confirmed by in vitro results that PFOS decreased transepithelial electrical resistance between Sertoli cells. Additionally, PFOS decreased the expression of junction proteins in Sertoli cells, which was further confirmed by in vivo results that PFOS decreased or dislocated junction proteins (i.e., ZO-1, occludin, claudin-11, and connexin-43) and increased proteins related to the MAPK signaling pathway (i.e., Erk and p38), whereas basal ectoplasmic specialization proteins did not change. The results were confirmed by SB203580, a p38 MAPK selective inhibitor. Sertoli cells appear to be a new cellular target for PFOS. Together with disruption of BTB integrity and function, these cells play an important role in PFOS-induced male reproductive toxicity.
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