Hepatocarcinoma is one of the most prevalent gastroenterological cancers in the world with less effective therapy. As an oncofetal antigen and diagnostic marker for liver cancer, alpha-fetoprotein ...(AFP) possesses a variety of biological functions. Except for its diagnosis in liver cancer, AFP has become a target for liver cancer immunotherapy. Although the immunogenicity of AFP is weak and it could induce the immune escapes through inhibiting the function of dendritic cells, natural killer cells, and T lymphocytes, AFP has attracted more attention in liver cancer immunotherapy. By in vitro modification, the immunogenicity and immune response of AFP could be enhanced. AFP-modified immune cell vaccine or peptide vaccine has displayed the specific antitumor immunity against AFP-positive tumor cells and laid a better foundation for the immunotherapy of liver cancer.
Large amounts of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) have, and continue to be, released into the freshwater ecosystems of Pakistan. However, there is limited information available on the ecological ...risk of PTEs from sediments and fish consumption, for both the general population and fishermen, at the national scale in Pakistan. In this study, water, sediments and fish samples were collected from major rivers (Chenab, Upper Indus, Lower Indus and Kabul) across Pakistan and analyzed through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP–MS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy ICP–AES and Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (AFS), respectively. Ecological risk analysis of sediments revealed that Cd posed a high ecological risk in the Upper Indus and Chenab, a considerable risk in the Lower Indus, and moderate risk in the Kabul. The target hazard quotient of As through fish tissue consumption exceeded safety levels for fishermen at all the rivers, where Cd exceeded at Upper Indus and Chenab, and Pb for Chenab fishermen only. For the general population, PTE ingestion through fish tissues was within the safety limits at all rivers. Meanwhile, the total target hazard quotient in all three rivers exceeded the safety limit, representing a high risk for the fishermen of Pakistan. The results show that ecological risk and target hazard quotient assessment not only provides valuable information for future research in terms of PTE contamination in the major rivers of Pakistan, but also all the metal pollutants from rivers finally reach to Arabian Sea, therefore might pose a risk to marine ecosystem at national and international scale.
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•Water, sediments and fish of Chenab, Indus and Kabul rivers analyzed for toxic metals.•Ecological risk of PTEs from sediments and fish consumption was assessed.•The ecological risk index of Cd and As was higher than other elements.•Hazard quotient of As and Cd via fish ingestion exceeded safety levels for fishermen.•Total target hazard quotient also exceeded safety limits for fishermen in all the rivers.
•Emission factors of brown carbon from different emission sources are summarized.•Including the effects of photochemical brown carbon can improve models' skills.•Key factors influencing the radiative ...forcing of brown carbon were identified.
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Brown carbon (BrC), a carbonaceous aerosol which absorbs solar radiation over a broad range of wavelengths, is beginning to be seen as an important contributor to global warming. BrC absorbs both inorganic and organic pollutants, leading to serious effects on human health. We review the fundamental features of BrC, including its sources, chemical composition, optical properties and radiative forcing effects. We detail the importance of including photochemical processes related to BrC in the GEOS-Chem transport model for the estimation of aerosol radiative forcing. Calculation methods for BrC emission factors are examined, including the problems and limitations of current measurement methods. We provide some insight into existing publications and recommend areas for future research, such as further investigations into the reaction mechanisms of the aging of secondary BrC, calculations of the emission factors for BrC from different sources, the absorption of large and long-lived BrC molecules and the construction of an enhanced model for the simulation of radiative forcing. This review will improve our understanding of the climatic and environmental effects of BrC.
Food safety is a major concern worldwide and human beings are frequently exposed to potentially toxic metals (PTMs) through consumption of vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops grown in contaminated ...areas. The present study investigates the concentrations of PTMs such as chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) in the foodstuffs (fruits, vegetables, and cereals) collected from different markets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Samples of fruits (banana, tangerine, apple, and guava), vegetables (tomato, onion, potato, pea, and lady finger), and cereals (rice, kidney beans, and chick peas) were acid-extracted and analyzed using ICP-MS. The concentrations of Cr, Zn, Pb, As, and Cd in fruits (54, 50, 50, 45, and 4% samples, respectively), vegetables (53, 43, 63, 80, and 46%), and cereals (37, 62, 25, 70, and 25%) exceeded their respective permissible limits set by FAO/WHO (
2001
). The results showed that the highest mean concentration was observed for Ni (14.95 mg/kg), Pb (0.57 mg/kg), and Cd (0.27 mg/kg) in vegetables followed by fruits and cereals. However, the highest mean concentration of As (0.44 mg/kg) was observed in cereal crops followed by vegetables and fruits. The individual health risk of PTMs via consumption of fruits, vegetables, and cereals were found within safe limits for adults and children. Nevertheless, the total HRI values (fruits + vegetables + cereals) for Ni, As, and Cd for both adults and children were observed > 1 and may posed potential risk for the community consuming these foodstuffs on a daily basis.
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Mining activity releases toxic metals (TMs) into the soil ecosystem and creates serious problems for the environment and human beings due to their adverse eco-toxilogical impacts. Currently, several ...remediation techniques can be used to immobilize TMs within contaminated soil. The present study focuses on the application of different organic amendments biochar (B), farmyard manure (FYM) and peat moss (PTM) – at different application rates (1%, 2% and 5%) in mining-impacted agricultural soil to immobilize TMs (Ni, Cr, As, Zn, Cd and Pb) and minimize their bioaccumulation in pea (Pisum sativum) and chili (Capsicum annuum) and the associated human health risk. Among the organic amendments, the treatments at the 5% application rate of B, FYM and PTM significantly (p ≤ 0.001) reduced the bioavailability of TM concentrations in amended soil and increased pea and chili plants' and fruits' biomasses when compared with the control. Moreover, risk assessments showed that B, FYM and PTM decreased the daily intake and health risk associated with the consumption of vegetables effectively for individual TMs compared with the control. The highest application rate of 5% significantly (p ≤ 0.001) reduced the average daily intake of TMs and their health risk, as compared to 1% and 2%, for both adults and children. The health risk index (HRI ˂ 1) values were lower (and within safety limits) for adults and children consuming vegetables grown on organic-amended soils. The results indicate that the B5% treatment of this mining-impacted agricultural soil was the most efficient at increasing plant and fruit biomasses and reducing the bioavailability, bioaccumulation and daily intake of TMs and their potential health risk through consumption of vegetables such as pea and chili, as compared to FYM, PTM and the control treatment.
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•Mining activity contaminates agricultural soil with toxic metals (TMs) in impacted areas.•Biochar (B), farmyard manure (FYM) and peat moss (PTM) immobilize TMs within the soil ecosystem.•B5%, FYM5% and PTM5% restrict the entry of TMs into the food chain by reducing their bioavailability.•B5% is the most efficient at decreasing the bioavailability, uptake, daily intake and health risk of TMs in vegetables.
Due to their low temperatures, the Arctic, Antarctic and Tibetan Plateau are known as the three polar regions of the Earth. As the most remote regions of the globe, the occurrence of persistent ...organic pollutants (POPs) in these polar regions arouses global concern. In this paper, we review the literatures on POPs involving these three polar regions. Overall, concentrations of POPs in the environment (air, water, soil and biota) have been extensively reported, with higher levels of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) detected on the Tibetan Plateau. The spatial distribution of POPs in air, water and soil in the three polar regions broadly reflects their distances away from source regions. Based on long-term data, decreasing trends have been observed for most “legacy POPs”. Observations of transport processes of POPs among multiple media have also been carried out, including air–water gas exchange, air–soil gas exchange, emissions from melting glaciers, bioaccumulations along food chains, and exposure risks. The impact of climate change on these processes possibly enhances the re-emission processes of POPs out of water, soil and glaciers, and reduces the bioaccumulation of POPs in food chains. Global POPs transport model have shown the Arctic receives a relatively small fraction of POPs, but that climate change will likely increase the total mass of all compounds in this polar region. Considering the impact of climate change on POPs is still unclear, long-term monitoring data and global/regional models are required, especially in the Antarctic and on the Tibetan Plateau, and the fate of POPs in all three polar regions needs to be comprehensively studied and compared to yield a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the global cycling of POPs.
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•Levels and spatiotemporal distribution of POPs in the three polar regions are reviewed.•Influence of climate change on the transport and accumulation of POPs are addressed.•The fate of POPs in the three polar environments are synthesized.•Knowledge gaps and future perspectives regarding POPs over the three polar regions are discussed.
Current researches, knowledge gaps and future perspectives of POPs in three polar regions are reviewed.
Memristors are promising components for applications in nonvolatile memory, logic circuits, and neuromorphic computing. In this paper, a novel circuit for memristor-based multilayer neural networks ...is presented, which can use a single memristor array to realize both the plus and minus weight of the neural synapses. In addition, memristor-based switches are utilized during the learning process to update the weight of the memristor-based synapses. Moreover, an adaptive back propagation algorithm suitable for the proposed memristor-based multilayer neural network is applied to train the neural networks and perform the XOR function and character recognition. Another highlight of this paper is that the robustness of the proposed memristor-based multilayer neural network exhibits higher recognition rates and fewer cycles as compared with other multilayer neural networks.
We developed a facile technique to produce ethylene glycol based nanofluids containing graphene nanosheets. The thermal conductivity of the base fluid was increased significantly by the dispersed ...graphene: up to 86% increase for 5.0 vol % graphene dispersion. The 2D structure and stiffness of graphene and graphene oxide help to increase the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. The thermal conductivity of graphene oxide and graphene in the fluid were estimated to be ∼4.9 and 6.8 W/m K, respectively.
To prevent and control public health emergencies, we set up a prescreening and triage workflow and analyzed the effects on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In accordance with the requirements of ...the level 1 emergency response of public health emergencies in Shaanxi Province, China, a triage process for COVID-19 was established to guide patients through a 4-level triage process during their hospital visits. The diagnosis of COVID-19 was based on positive COVID-19 nucleic acid testing according to the unified triage standards of the Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (Trial version 4),4 issued by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China.
The screened rate of suspected COVID-19 was 1.63% (4 of 246) in the general fever outpatient clinic and 8.28% (13 of 157) in the COVID-19 outpatient clinic, and they showed a significant difference (P = .00).
The triage procedure effectively screened the patients and identified the high-risk population.
The memristor, a promising candidate for synaptic interconnections in artificial neural network, has gained significant attention for application to neuromorphic systems. One common method is using ...two memristors as one synapse to represent the positive and negative weights. In this paper, the synaptic behavior of a Ag/AgInSbTe/Ta (AIST)-based memristor is experimentally demonstrated. In addition, a neural architecture using one AIST memristor as a synapse is proposed, where both the plus and minus weights of the neural synapses are realized in a single memristive array. Moreover, the memristor-based neural network is extended to a multilayer architecture, and modified memristor-based backpropagation learning rules are implemented on-chip to achieve pattern recognition. The effects of device variations and input noise on the performance of a memristor-based multilayer neural network (MNN) are also described. The proposed MNN is capable of pattern recognition with high success rates and exhibits several advantages, such as good accuracy, high robustness, and noise immunity.
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