•The SS biochar produced at 450°C is the most suitable one for garlic cultivation.•The favourable C:S ratio drifted when the biochar production temperature changed.•General heavy metal accumulation ...in the garlic root & bulb occurred for the most enriched Zn and Cu in the biochar.•Heavy metal bioaccumulation increased with heavy metal leaching from biochars but did not increase with increased C:S ratio.
Applying biochar products from sewage sludge (SS) pyrolysis as soil amendment for plant cultivation was investigated in this study with special attention paid to heavy metal accumulation in the plants when pyrolysis temperature and biochar-to-soil mass ratio (C:S) were changed. Biochar obtained at four different temperatures were adopted as soil amendment for Allium sativum L. garlic plant cultivation. Experimental results revealed that biochars were rich in nutrient contents and they improved garlic yields. Although contents of heavy metals including As, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, Cr and Cu, etc. were elevated in the biochars compared to local soil, they fell within the acceptable limits for land application and SS is a suitable biochar resource, especially biochar produced at 450°C had rich micropores, relatively stable functional groups in structure and rugged surface to contact well with soil, conducive to its usage as a biochar. The garlic grew faster when planted in the biochar-amended soil and had higher final dry matter yields than those planted in the reference soil, especially biochar produced at 450°C corresponding to the highest final yields. The C:S ratio related to the highest garlic yields changed when the pyrolysis temperature was changed and this ratio was 1:4 for the biochar produced at 450°C. General heavy metal accumulation in the garlic occurred only for the most enriched Zn and Cu, and mainly in the roots & bulbs; in addition this bioaccumulation was increasing as leaching from biochar increased but not increasing with C:S ratio. The garlic planted in soil amended with biochar of 450°C contained the lowest level of heavy metals compared to other biochars. Those results indicated that heavy metal accumulation in plants can be inhibited through proper pyrolysis temperature choice and prevention of heavy metal leaching from the SS biochar.
Genetic polymorphisms of CYP2C9 significantly influence the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of some drugs, which might result in adverse drug effects and therapeutic failure. Several studies ...have been performed on CYP2C9 genetic polymorphisms in Han Chinese populations. However, these studies only focused on two commonly investigated alleles, *2 and *3, in relatively small sample sizes. To scale up the gene-scanning region and determine relatively precise data on the genetic distribution pattern in Chinese populations, unrelated healthy Han Chinese volunteers from Zhejiang Province (n=1127) and Hebei (n=1000) Province were recruited as subjects for the direct sequencing of all exons of CYP2C9. As a result, 14 previously reported alleles were detected in this work, and 8 of these alleles (*14, *16, *19, *23, *27, *29, *33 and *34) were described for the first time in Chinese populations. In addition, 37 novel mutations were also detected, of which 22 variants were non-synonymous, and 21 new alleles, *36-*56, were designated by the Human CYP Allele Nomenclature Committee. In vitro functional analysis of these 22 novel CYP2C9 variants revealed that 17 mutations had a significant influence on the protein's catalytic activity. Our study provides the most accurate data on CYP2C9 polymorphisms in Han Chinese populations and detects the largest number of novel allelic variants existing to date. These new alleles will greatly enrich the current knowledge of naturally occurring CYP2C9 variants in Chinese populations.
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions in and can be detectable out to the edge of the universe. They have long been thought to be able to extend the Hubble diagram to very ...high redshifts. Several correlations between temporal or spectral properties and GRB luminosities have been proposed to make GRBs cosmological tools. However, those correlations cannot be properly standardized. In this paper, we select a long-GRB sample with X-ray plateau phases produced by electromagnetic dipole emissions from central newborn magnetars. A tight correlation is found between the plateau luminosity and the end time of the plateau in the X-ray afterglows out to the redshift
z
= 5.91. We standardize these long-GRB X-ray light curves to a universal behavior through this correlation, with a luminosity dispersion of 0.5 dex. The derived distance–redshift relation of GRBs is in agreement with the standard ΛCDM model both at low and high redshifts. The evidence for an accelerating universe from this GRB sample is 3
σ
, which is the highest statistical significance from GRBs to date.
ABSTRACT
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), as a possible probe to extend the Hubble diagram to high redshifts, have attracted much attention recently. In this paper, we select two samples of GRBs that have a ...plateau phase in X-ray afterglow. One is short GRBs (SGRBs) with plateau phases dominated by magnetic dipole (MD) radiations. The other is long GRBs (LGRBs) with gravitational wave (GW) dominated plateau phases. These GRBs can be well standardized using the correlation between the plateau luminosity L0 and the end time of plateau tb. The so-called circularity problem is mitigated by using the observational Hubble parameter data and Gaussian process method. The calibrated L0 – tb correlations are also used to constrain Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) and w(z) = w0 models. Combining the MD–LGRBs sample from Wang et al. (2021) and the MD–SGRBs sample, we find $\Omega _{\mathrm{ m}} = 0.33_{-0.09}^{+0.06}$ and ΩΛ = $1.06_{-0.34}^{+0.15}$ excluding systematic uncertainties in the non-flat ΛCDM model. Adding Type Ia supernovae from Pantheon sample, the best-fitting results are w0 = $-1.11_{-0.15}^{+0.11}$ and Ωm = $0.34_{-0.04}^{+0.05}$ in the w = w0 model. These results are in agreement with the ΛCDM model. Our result supports that selection of GRBs from the same physical mechanism is crucial for cosmological purposes.
Mesenchymal cells expressing platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFRβ) are known to be important in fibrosis of organs such as the liver and kidney. Here we show that PDGFRβ
cells ...contribute to skeletal muscle and cardiac fibrosis via a mechanism that depends on αv integrins. Mice in which αv integrin is depleted in PDGFRβ
cells are protected from cardiotoxin and laceration-induced skeletal muscle fibrosis and angiotensin II-induced cardiac fibrosis. In addition, a small-molecule inhibitor of αv integrins attenuates fibrosis, even when pre-established, in both skeletal and cardiac muscle, and improves skeletal muscle function. αv integrin blockade also reduces TGFβ activation in primary human skeletal muscle and cardiac PDGFRβ
cells, suggesting that αv integrin inhibitors may be effective for the treatment and prevention of a broad range of muscle fibroses.
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