The hepatotoxic impacts of 2, 4, and 8 mg/L of Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles (31.4 ± 4.8 nm) were evaluated in
Oreochromis niloticus
after 7 days of exposure and 15 days of recovery periods. The biochemical ...analysis of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase in plasma showed significant increases in both 4 and 8 mg/L Al
2
O
3
NPs exposed groups. The antioxidant biomarkers showed concentration-dependent elevations in catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase activities, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances levels. Glutathione reduced contents showed significant reductions in both 4 and 8 mg/L Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles exposed groups. Several hepatic histopathological alterations were recorded ranging from adaptive responses (e.g. melanomacrophages aggregation) to permanent damage (e.g. necrosis). The recovery period using toxicant-free water led to an obvious reduction in the Al content in liver, liver and antioxidant enzymes in addition to regressive histopathological alterations based on the frequency of alterations occurrence and the extent of affected areas.
Increasing entrance of aluminum chloride (AlCl
3
) in many fields exposes human beings to its biotoxicity. Thereby, the present study assesses the potential ameliorative role of curcumin phytosome ...(CP) on AlCl
3
-induced hepatotoxicity. Rats were divided into four groups (
n
= 6): group 1 served as control; group 2 received CP (200 mg CP/kg b.wt) for 21 days; group 3 injected three doses of AlCl
3
(30 mg/kg/body weight) every 5 days intraperitoneally; group 4 received CP for 7 days prior to AlCl
3
and then received CP concurrently with AlCl
3
for another 14 days. AlCl
3
markedly increased (
P
< 0.05) the concentrations of AST, ALT, ALP, LDH, total bilirubin, and LPO as well as depleted (
P
< 0.05) albumin, GSH, SOD, and GPx stores in comparison to the control group. These biochemical alterations supported by the lesion observed in histological sections, increasing the expression of caspase-3 and decreasing the expression of Bcl-2. Treatment with CP modulates the hepatic dysfunction, boosting the endogenous antioxidant status, downregulating the expression of caspase-3, and upregulating the expression of Bcl-2. This hepatic ameliorative effect may be mediated by the ability of CP to repair the oxidant/antioxidant equilibrium rather than its ability to suppress apoptosis.
Fish were separately exposed to 1/2 LC50/96 h values of bulk-Zn and nano-Zn for 7, 14, and 28 days. The induction of micronuclei (MN) and other eight nuclear abnormalities in erythrocytes showed ...marked time and size dependence. The frequencies of all nuclear anomalies were progressively elevated (
p
< 0.05) with increasing the time of exposure to both bulk-Zn and nano-Zn. Throughout the study periods, fish exposed to nano-Zn showed the maximum elevation in all studied nuclear anomalies. Based on the fragmented DNA values, both Zn forms induced tissue-specific DNA damage as following gills > liver > muscles. Moreover, nano-Zn exposed groups revealed a maximum percentage of DNA damage among all studied groups, especially after 14 days. The percentage of DNA damage was decreased in all tissues on the 28th day, which reflected the presence of an effective repair mechanism. Finally, nano-Zn exhibited more genotoxic effects than that of its bulk counterparts.
Abstract
Host defense mechanisms are categorized into different strategies, namely, avoidance, resistance and tolerance. Resistance encompasses mechanisms that directly kill the pathogen while ...tolerance is mainly concerned with alleviating the harsh consequences of the infection regardless of the pathogen burden. Resistance is well‐known strategy in immunology while tolerance is relatively new. Studies addressed tolerance mainly using mouse models revealing a wide range of interesting tolerance mechanisms. Herein, we aim to emphasize on the interspecies comparative approaches to explore potential new mechanisms of disease tolerance. We will discuss mechanisms of tolerance with focus on those that were revealed using comparative study designs of mammals followed by summarizing the reasons for adopting comparative approaches on disease tolerance studies. Disease tolerance is a relatively new concept in immunology, we believe combining comparative studies with model organism study designs will enhance our understanding to tolerance and unveil new mechanisms of tolerance.
The increase in global energy consumption and the related ecological problems have generated a constant demand for alternative energy sources superior to traditional ones. This is why unlimited ...photon-energy harnessing is important. A notable focus to address this concern is on advancing and producing cost-effective low-loss solar cells. For efficient light energy capture and conversion, we fabricated a ZnPC:PC70BM-based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and estimated its performance using a solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS-1D). We evaluated the output parameters of the ZnPC:PC70BM-based DSSC with different photoactive layer thicknesses, series and shunt resistances, and back-metal work function. Our analyses show that moderate thickness, minimum series resistance, high shunt resistance, and high metal-work function are favorable for better device performance due to low recombination losses, electrical losses, and better transport of charge carriers. In addition, in-depth research for clarifying the impact of factors, such as thickness variation, defect density, and doping density of charge transport layers, has been conducted. The best efficiency value found was 10.30% after tweaking the parameters. It also provides a realistic strategy for efficiently utilizing DSSC cells by altering features that are highly dependent on DSSC performance and output.
To study the genotoxic impacts of Sabal discharges, three sites around Sabal drain were selected and compared to a reference site (site1). Site2 was at the southern part of the main canal, site3 was ...at the main canal outlet, and site4 at the northern part of the main canal. Compared to the reference fish, the recorded micronuclei and other nuclear anomalies showed marked (
p
< 0.05) increases with different frequencies in the studied sites. The induction of nuclear deformations was as following site3 > site4 > site2 > site1. The analysis of comet assay data showed that the DNA damage (based on the percentage of tail DNA) was significantly increased and the levels of damage were associated with the distance from the main discharge point. Moreover, DNA damages showed variable percentages among the studied tissues. The gills and liver tissues collected from site3 showed the highest DNA damage compared with low muscular DNA damage.
Metal oxide nanoparticles have wide applications, which have elevated serious alarms about their impacts on the environment. Therefore, we investigated the potential adsorptive capacity of rice husk ...toward Fe
2
O
3
and Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles to reduce their genotoxic effects. Fish were subjected to 10 mg/l of Fe
2
O
3
and Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles in single and combined doses with and without rice husk water treatment for 7 days. The genotoxic effects were evaluated using the micronucleus test in the peripheral blood and comet assay in liver tissues. Significant elevation of micronuclei induction in addition to eight nuclear and cytoplasmic abnormalities (
P
< 0.05) was observed in all fish groups compared to the control groups. Fish that exposed to Fe
2
O
3
nanoparticle showed the maximum induction of all recorded anomalies. Moreover, two indices of DNA damage were evaluated by the comet assay (comet score and % tail DNA) in liver tissues. The scoring of comet cells indicated that the highest frequencies of stage 0 (undamaged DNA) were in control and Al
2
O
3
exposed groups, while stage 4 (extensive DNA damage) was significantly elevated in Fe
2
O
3
exposed fish. The % of DNA damage was maximized in the Fe
2
O
3
nanoparticles exposed fish and minimized in Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles exposed fish. Based on the frequencies of nuclear anomalies, degree, and percentage of DNA damage, all rice husk treated groups showed a marked reduction in the genotoxic damage compared with untreated groups. Finally, both nanoparticles showed genotoxic potential and the rice husk had an efficient absorptive capacity for both of them individually or combined.
Abstract
The optoelectronic properties of the ternary Cd
0.25
Zn
0.75
Se alloy are reported under the influence of a high pressure ranging from 0 to 25 GPa, within a modified Becke–Jhonson potential ...using density functional theory. This alloy has a cubic symmetry, is mechanically stable, and its bulk modulus rises with pressure. It is observed to be a direct bandgap material with a bandgap energy that increases from 2.37 to 3.11 eV with rise in pressure. Pressure changes the optical and electronic properties, causing the absorption coefficient to rise and absorb visible green-to-violet light. The static dielectric constant, along with the static index of refraction, both increase under the influence of pressure. Optical constants, including dielectric constant, optical conductivity, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and reflection, are also investigated and discussed. This DFT forecast explores important research directions for the usage of the CdZnSe semiconductor alloys in the manufacturing of space photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices operating at different pressures.
The structural and electronic properties of zinc clusters (Znn) for a size range of n = 2-15 are studied using density functional theory. The particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to ...search the structure and to determine the ground-state structure of the neutral Zn clusters. The structural motifs are optimized using the density functional theory approach to ensure that the structures are fully relaxed. Results are compared with the literature to validate the accuracy of the prediction method. The binding energy per cluster is obtained and compared with the reported literature to study the stability of these structures. We further assess the electronic properties, including the ionization potential, using the all-electron FHI-aims code employing G0W0 calculations, and the G0W0Г0(1) correction for a few smaller clusters, which provides a better estimation of the ionization potential compared to other methods.
In this study, polycrystalline Fe1−xBixVO4 (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) photocatalysts were synthesized hydrothermally. The as-produced photocatalysts' morphology, crystal structure, chemical content, optical ...bandgap energy, electrochemical behavior, and interfacial characteristics were measured using the XRD, SEM, EDX, FTIR, XPS, UV–Vis-DRS, BET, and PL characterizations. The photocatalysis investigations were conducted to see whether the poisonous crystal violet (CV) dye could be decomposed over the Fe1−xBixVO4 composite. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) nature of Bi3+ can markedly raise the level of sensitivity to visible light, which would enhance the photocatalytic activity. By raising the electron population in Fe1−xBixVO4, the Schottky barrier that SPR produces at the interface between Bi3+ and FeVO4 increases the separation effectiveness of photoinduced charges. Various factors affecting the photocatalytic degradation of CV dye were examined in order to optimize the parameters. According to a radical trapping experiment, superoxide (O2¯) radicals are the most active species in the degradation of the anionic CV dye. In comparison to FeVO4 and BiVO4, these findings indicate that the Fe1−xBixVO4 composite possesses excellent photocatalytic and antibacterial activities. This work presents a novel approach to boosting light absorption, which encourages the development of effective photocatalysts for real-world uses. To observe the potential for additional applications, the antimicrobial and electrical properties of Fe1−xBixVO4 composites were also studied, and they exhibited good antimicrobial as well as electrical responses.
