China is one of the largest coastal countries in the world, which have all kinds of marginal systems. Studies have reported the sedimentary Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution status, ...including their concentrations, sources and risks, in localized marginal systems, which showed significant differences. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of their pollution in marginal systems along China Mainland is urgently needed on a national scale. In the present study, the concentrations of 16 priority PAHs in surface sediments from 62 different marginal systems along China Mainland were reviewed. Their sources were identified and apportioned, and the health risks and ecological risks were also evaluated. As a result, the total sedimentary PAHs varied in a wide range of 4–3700 ng/g, with the lowest values observed in Kenting National Park in East China Sea and the highest values observed in Daliao River estuary in Bohai Sea. Their concentrations suggested that they were not contaminated-weakly contaminated in most study areas, but were contaminated-heavily contaminated in some pollution hot-spots. Source identification and apportion suggested that the sedimentary PAHs were mainly originated from coal combustion, vehicular emission, natural gas combustion and petrogenic source, but the coal combustion and vehicular emission contributed most to their emission (>90%). Risk assessment suggested that the carcinogenic risks were lower than the upper limit of the acceptable range (10−4), which were acceptable at a large spatial scale. However, for sediments from Qinhuangdao coastal wetland, Daliao River estuary and Yangpu Bay, their carcinogenic risks were higher than 10−4, which will pose high carcinogenic risks for adults. The non-carcinogenic risks were acceptable in all marginal systems with values lower than the safety guideline (<1). In the ecological risk assessment, their concentrations in some pollution hot-spots were higher than the safety guidelines (effects range low, ERL), suggesting a higher potential ecological risk.
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•National-scale contaminations of 16 PAHs in different marginal systems were reviewed.•PAHs in Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea were higher than East and South China Sea.•Coal combustion and vehicular emission were the main sources with contributions >90%.•Carcinogenic and ecological risks in pollution hot-spots were higher than guidelines.
This paper reported the pollution status of the sedimentary PAHs in marginal systems along China Mainland and quantified their sources and risks.
•The SSD model can be used for the derivation of PNEC for nonylphenol.•We established the PNEC value of nonylphenol in both freshwater and seawater.•Nonylphenol occurs ubiquitously in coastal waters ...of China with RQ values up to 70.
Nonylphenol (NP) is an endocrine disruptor and causes feminization and carcinogenesis in various organisms. Consequently, the environmental distribution and ecological risks of NP have received wide concern. China accounts for approximately 10% of the total NP usage in the world, but the water quality criteria of NP have not been established in China and the ecological risks of this pollutant cannot be properly assessed. This study thus aims to determine the predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) of NP and to assess the ecological risks of NP in coastal waters of China with the PNEC as water quality criteria. To obtain the HC5 (hazardous concentration for 5% of biological species) and PNEC estimates, the species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) models were built with chronic toxicity data of NP on aquatic organisms screened from the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) ECOTOX database. The results showed that the PNEC for NP in freshwater and seawater was 0.48μgL−1 and 0.28μgL−1, respectively. The RQ (risk quotient) values of NP in coastal waters of China ranged from 0.01 to 69.7. About 60% of the reported areas showed a high ecological risk with an RQ value⩾1.00. NP therefore exists ubiquitously in coastal waters of China and it poses various risks to aquatic ecosystems in the country. This study demonstrates that the SSD methodology can provide a feasible tool for the establishment of water quality criteria for emergent new pollutants when sufficient toxicity data is available.
To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the diagnostic performance of computed tomography (CT) for small bowel obstruction (SBO), including diagnostic accuracy, ischemia, ...predicting surgical intervention, etiology and transition point.
PubMed/MEDLINE and related databases were searched for research articles published from their inception through August 2018. Findings were pooled using bivariate random-effects and summary receiver operating characteristic curve models. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to evaluate whether publication year, patient age, enhanced CT, slice thickness and pathogenesis affected classification accuracy.
In total, 45 studies with a total of 4004 patients were included in the analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of CT for SBO were 91% (95% confidence interval CI: 84%, 95%) and 89% (95% CI: 81%, 94%), respectively, and there were no differences in the subgroup analyses of age, publication year, enhanced CT and slice thickness. For ischemia, the pooled sensitivity and specificity was 82% (95% CI: 67%, 91%) and 92% (95% CI: 86%, 95%), respectively. No difference was found between enhanced and unenhanced CT based on subgroup analysis; however, high sensitivity was found in adhesive SBO compared with routine causes (96% vs. 78%, P = 0.03). The pooled sensitivity and specificity for predicting surgical intervention were 87% and 73%, respectively. The accuracy for etiology of adhesions, hernia and tumor was 95%, 70% and 82%, respectively. In addition, the pooled sensitivity and specificity for transition point was 92% and 77%, respectively.
CT has considerable accuracy in diagnosis of SBO, ischemia, predicting surgical intervention, etiology and transition point.
Excess emissions are pollutant releases that occur during periods of startups, shutdowns or malfunctions and are considered violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act. They are an important, but ...understudied and under-regulated, category of pollution releases given their frequency and magnitude. In this paper, we examine the demographic correlates of excess emissions, using data from industrial sources in Texas.
We conduct two complementary sets of analyses: one at the census tract level and one at the facility level. At the census tract level, we use a multinomial logit model to examine the relationships between racial, ethnic, and income characteristics and the incidence of excess emissions. At the facility level, we first estimate a logit model to examine whether these characteristics are associated with facilities that emit excess emissions, and then, conditional on the presence of excess emissions, we use ordinary least square regression to estimate their correlation with the magnitude of releases.
Across our analyses, we find that the percentage of Black population and median household income are positively associated with excess emissions; percentage of college graduate, population density, median housing value, and percentage of owner-occupied housing unit are negatively associated with excess emissions. We, however, have not found a clear and significant relationship between the percentage of Hispanic population and excess emissions.
Optical vortices, which carry orbital angular momentum (OAM), can be flexibly produced and measured with infrared and visible light. Their application is an important research topic for ...super-resolution imaging, optical communications and quantum optics. However, only a few methods can produce OAM beams in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) or X-ray, and controlling the OAM on these beams remains challenging. Here we apply wave mixing to a tabletop high-harmonic source, as proposed in our previous work, and control the topological charge (OAM value) of XUV beams. Our technique enables us to produce first-order OAM beams with the smallest possible central intensity null at XUV wavelengths. This work opens a route for carrier-injected laser machining and lithography, which may reach nanometre or even angstrom resolution. Such a light source is also ideal for space communications, both in the classical and quantum regimes.
Many observational studies have reported correlations between postoperative complications and prognosis after radical gastrectomy but the results are controversial. This meta-analysis was performed ...to investigate whether there is a correlation between postoperative complications and prognosis after radical gastrectomy.
Literature searches were performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. Studies that investigated the correlations between any postoperative complications and prognosis after radical gastrectomy were included. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for postoperative complications regarding overall survival (OS) or recurrence-free survival (RFS) was calculated by using RevMan 5.3.5. Subgroup analyses were performed within pathological stages I, II, and III.
Sixteen retrospective studies comprising 12,065 patients were included. The pooled HR (95% CI) for complications regarding OS was 1.79 (1.39, 2.30) and was 1.40 (1.06, 1.84) after excluding in-hospital mortality; the pooled HR (95% CI) for complications regarding RFS was 1.28 (1.10, 1.49). The pooled HR (95% CI) for infectious complications and leakage regarding OS was 1.86 (1.22, 2.83) and 2.02 (1.02, 4.00), respectively. The pooled HR (95% CI) for any reported postoperative complications regarding OS for stage I, II, and III diseases was 2.39 (0.77, 7.46), 4.35 (2.58, 7.35), and 2.84 (1.77, 4.56), respectively.
Postoperative complications correlate with poor prognosis after radical gastrectomy. Such correlations are found in stage II and III gastric cancer patients but remain to be determined in stage I gastric cancer patients.
Information disclosure has become a ubiquitous component of contemporary governance. This study examines how disclosure of information about the performance of regulated entities, which also ...implicates the performance of relevant government agencies, affects bureaucratic behaviors. In the context of the Clean Air Act (CAA)—the primary law that regulates air pollution in the United States—this study shows that regulators significantly increased CAA regulatory inspections on facilities that started to disclose relevant performance information to the public following the requirements of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which is a major environmental information disclosure program in the United States. Additional analyses suggest the increase was because of the disclosure providing new information to regulators instead of mobilizing citizen actions. The findings suggest that performance information about regulated entities can alleviate information asymmetry between bureaucrats and regulated entities and increase the accountability of regulated entities as well as relevant government agencies.
Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is a common clinical critical syndrome with substantial mortality. Extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO
2
R) has been proposed for the treatment of ARF. ...However, whether ECCO
2
R could provide a survival advantage for patients with ARF is still controversial.
Electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane database) were searched from inception to 30 April 2022. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies that examined the following outcomes were included: mortality, length of hospital and ICU stay, intubation and tracheotomy rate, mechanical ventilation days, ventilator-free days (VFDs), respiratory parameters, and reported adverse events.
Four RCTs and five observational studies including 1173 participants with ARF due to COPD or ARDS were included in this meta-analysis. Pooled analyses of related studies showed no significant difference in overall mortality between ECCO
2
R and control group, neither in RCTs targeted ARDS or acute hypoxic respiratory failure patients (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.32, p = 0.70, I
2
=0.0%), nor in studies targeted patients with ARF secondary to COPD (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.11, p = 0.19, I
2
=0.0%). A shorter duration of ICU stay in the ECCO
2
R group was only obtained in observational studies (WMD −4.25, p < 0.01), and ECCO
2
R was associated with a longer length of hospital stay (p = 0.02). ECCO
2
R was associated with lower intubation rate (p < 0.01) and tracheotomy rate (p = 0.01), and shorter mechanical ventilation days (p < 0.01) in comparison to control group in ARF patients with COPD. In addition, an improvement in pH (p = 0.01), PaO2 (p = 0.01), respiratory rate (p < 0.01), and PaCO2 (p = 0.04) was also observed in patients with COPD exacerbations by ECCO
2
R therapy. However, the ECCO
2
R-related complication rate was high in six of the included studies.
Our findings from both RCTs and observational studies did not confirm a significant beneficial effect of ECCO
2
R therapy on mortality. A shorter length of ICU stay in the ECCO
2
R group was only obtained in observational studies, and ECCO
2
R was associated with a longer length of hospital stay. ECCO
2
R was associated with lower intubation rate and tracheotomy rate, and shorter mechanical ventilation days in ARF patients with COPD. And an improvement in pH, PaO2, respiratory rate and PaCO2 was observed in the ECCO
2
R group. However, outcomes largely relied on data from observational studies targeted patients with ARF secondary to COPD, thus further larger high-quality RCTs are desirable to strengthen the evidence on the efficacy and benefits of ECCO
2
R for patients with ARF.
Key messages
ECCO
2
R therapy did not confirm a significant beneficial effect on mortality.
ECCO
2
R was associated with lower intubation and tracheotomy rate, and shorter mechanical ventilation days in patients with ARF secondary to COPD.
An improvement in pH, PaO2, respiratory rate, and PaCO2 was observed in ECCO
2
R group in patients with COPD exacerbations.
Evidence for the future application of ECCO
2
R therapy for patients with ARF. The protocol of this meta-analysis was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42022295174).
Racial minorities bear disproportionate share of pollution and environmental risk. A key solution to such disparities is to increase their participation in the environmental policymaking process. In ...this article, I test various theories of environmental attitudes and participation—with a special focus on risk perception and group consciousness—on Whites and Minorities and use them to explain the racial differences in environmental concern and participatory intentions. Using survey data, I find that risk perception is positively associated with environmental concern and participatory intentions for both Whites and Minorities. I also find that many theories of environmental attitudes apply to Whites and Minorities differently. While the traditional explanations of political orientation and social connectedness apply to Whites, their patterns are less clear for Minorities. Instead, group consciousness plays an exceptionally important role for racial minorities, and it accounts for much of racial minorities’ higher levels of concern and participatory intentions compared with Whites. This study provides new perspectives to understand the racial differences in environmental concern and participation and has important implications for the environmental justice research and movement and environmental public policy.
•Environmental attitudes of Whites and Minorities explained by different factors.•Risk perception matters for environmental attitudes of both Whites and Minorities.•Political orientation and social connectedness matter much more for Whites.•Group consciousness plays critical roles for Minorities' environmental attitudes.•Group consciousness explains much of the racial environmental-attitude differences.
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