Eating phytochemicals as modulators involving human pregnane X receptor

This study investigated the effect of CaO2 pretreatment on sulfonamide antibiotics (SMs) remediation by Chlorella sp. Results showed that a CaO2 dose ranging from 0.05 to 0.1 g/g biomass was the best and led to higher SMs removal efficacy 5-10% higher than the control. The contributions made by cometabolism and CaO2 in SMs remediation were very similar. Bioassimilation could remove 24% of sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ), and accounted for 38% of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) remediation. Pretreatment by CaO2 wielded a positive effect on microalgae. The extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) level of the CaO2 pretreatment microalgae was three times higher when subjected to non-pretreatment. For the long-term, pretreatment microalgae removed SMs 10-20% more than the non-pretreatment microalgae. Protein fractions of EPS in continuous operation produced up to 90 mg/L for cometabolism. For bioassimilation, SMX intensity of the pretreatment samples was 160-fold less than the non-treatment one. It indicated the CaO2 pretreatment has enhanced the biochemical function of the intracellular environment of microalgae. Peroxidase enzyme involved positively in the cometabolism and degradation of SMs to several metabolites including ring cleavage, hydroxylation and pterin-related conjugation.Fuel cells (FCs) are a chemical fuel device which can directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy, also known as electrochemical generator. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are one of the most appealing FC systems that have been broadly developed in recent years. Due to the poor conductivity of electrolyte membrane used in traditional PEMFC, its operation at higher temperature is greatly limited. The incorporation of ionic liquids (ILs) which is widely regarded as a greener alternative compared to traditional solvents in the proton exchange membrane electrolyte shows great potential in high temperature PEMFCs (HT-PEMFCs). This review provides insights in the latest progress of utilizing ILs as an electrochemical electrolyte in PEMFCs. Besides, electrolyte membranes that are constructed by ILs combined with polybenzimidazole (PBI) have many benefits such as better thermal stability, improved mechanical properties, and higher proton conductivity. The current review aims to investigate the newest development and existing issues of ILs research in electrolyte and material selection, system fabrication method, synthesis of ILs, and experimental techniques. The evaluation of life cycle analysis, commercialization, and greenness of ILs are also discussed. Hence, this review provides insights to material scientists and develops interest of wider community, promoting the use of ILs to meet energy challenges.Knowledge of the geology and hydrogeology of the polluted site emblematize a key requirement for environmental remediation, through assembling and synthesizing findings from various sources of physical evidence. In an increasingly virtual era, digital and geo-referenced metadata may serve as tools for collecting, merging, matching, and understanding multi-source information. The main goal of this paper is to emphasize the significance of a 3D hydrogeochemical model to the portrayal and the understanding of contamination dynamics and decontamination mechanisms at a highly contaminated industrial site. Some remediation measures are active on-site, due to the evidence-based presence of chlorinated solvents in groundwater. These are attributable to a slow-release source of pollutants in the saturated zone associated with very low permeability sediments. Therefore, in this research, a new technique for the remediation of secondary sources of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) contamination was investigated for the first time on a full-scale application. The combination of groundwater circulation wells (IEG-GCW®) and a continuous electron donor production device was set up to boost in situ bioremediation (ISB). A multi-phase approach was followed handling and releasing data during various remediation stages, from site characterization via pilot testing to full-scale remediation, thus allowing users to monitor, analyze, and manipulate information in 3D space-time. Multi-source and multi-temporal scenarios reveal the impact of ongoing hydraulic dynamics and depict the decontamination mechanisms in response to the interventions implemented over time, by quantifying the overall performance of the adopted strategies in terms of removal of secondary sources of pollution still active at the site.An increase in the number of advisories issued for recreational beaches across south Florida (due to the fecal indicator bacteria, enterococci) has been observed in recent years. To evaluate the possible reasons for this increase, we reviewed weekly monitoring data for 18 beaches in Miami-Dade County, Florida, for the years 2000-2019. Our objective was to evaluate this dataset for trends in enterococci levels and correlations with various factors that might have influenced enterococci levels at these beaches. For statistical analyses, we divided the 20-year period of record into 5-year increments (2000-2004, 2005-2009, 2010-2014, and 2015-2019). The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to identify statistically significant differences between the geometric mean of different periods. When all 18 beaches were collectively considered, a significant increase (p = 0.03) in enterococci was observed during 2015-2019, compared to the prior 15-year period of record. To better understand the potential causes for this increase, correlations were evaluated with environmental parameters (rainfall, air temperature, and water temperature), global oceanic changes (sea level and Sargassum), community populations (county population estimates and beach visitation numbers), and wastewater infrastructure (sewage effluent flow rates to ocean outfalls and deep well injection). In relation to the enterococci geometric mean, the correlation with Sargassum was statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval (p = 0.035). Population (p = 0.078), air temperature (p = 0.092), and sea level (p = 0.098) were statistically significant at 90% confidence intervals. Rainfall, water temperature, beach visitation numbers, and sewage effluent flow rates via deep well injection had positive correlations but were not significant factors. Sewage effluent flow rates to ocean outfalls had a negative correlation.We analysed temporal variations of trace element concentrations in groundwater from a 101 m-deep borehole (HA01) in northern Iceland during 2010-2018 and compared them with seismic and volcanic events that occurred in the same period to identify potential hydrogeochemical precursors. An increase of B, Al, V, Li and Mo concentrations started from eight months to one month before the 2014 Bárðarbunga eruption (~115 km from HA01), a major rifting event in central Iceland, while Ga and V concentrations began to increase one day and one month after the onset of the event, respectively. We also found that concentrations of some trace elements (Li, B, Ga, Mo, Sr, Rb and Fe) significantly increased before an Mw 5.0 earthquake that occurred ~80 km from the borehole in 2018. However, other notable hydrogeochemical changes were detected during the monitoring period without apparent correlation with the seismic and volcanic events in the region. This study shows that the systematic long-term hydrogeochemical monitoring in seismic and volcanic areas is critical to advance the science of seismic and eruptive precursors. Furthermore, the use of statistical tools, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Change Point (CP) detection can help identify the most useful chemical elements and validate the trend variability of those elements in the time series, reducing arbitrary choices of pre-seismic and pre-volcanic hydrogeochemical anomalies as potential precursors.The COST Action 'European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility' (ERBFacility) aims to develop pan-European raptor biomonitoring in support of better chemicals management in Europe, using raptors as sentinel species. This presents a significant challenge involving a range of constraints that must be identified and addressed. The aims of this study were to (1) carry out a comprehensive review of the constraints that may limit the gathering in the field of raptor samples and contextual data, and assess their relative importance across Europe; and (2) identify and discuss possible solutions to the key constraints that were identified. We applied a participatory approach to identify constraints and to discuss feasible solutions. Thirty-one constraints were identified, which were divided into four categories legal, methodological, spatial coverage, and skills constraints. To assess the importance of the constraints and their possible solutions, we collected information through scientific workshops and by distributing a questionnaire to stakeholders in all the countries involved in ERBFacility. We obtained 74 answers to the questionnaire, from 24 of the 39 COST participating countries. The most important constraints identified were related to the collection of complex contextual data about sources of contamination, and the low number of existing raptor population national/regional monitoring schemes and ecological studies that could provide raptor samples. Legal constraints, such as permits to allow the collection of invasive samples, and skills constraints, such as the lack of expertise to practice necropsies, were also highlighted. Here, we present solutions for all the constraints identified, thus suggesting the feasibility of establishing a long-term European Raptor Sampling Programme as a key element of the planned European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility.This article presents a life cycle assessment of bio-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles with a cradle to grave scope and provides a comparison with petrochemical PET bottles for 13 environmental impact categories. Besides the baseline bio-based PET bottles, which are produced from Brazilian sugarcane reflecting status-quo, two alternative hypothetical bio-based product systems were considered European wheat straw and European crops market mix composed of maize, wheat and sugar beet. The land-use change (LUC) impacts were assessed based on a deterministic model. The end-of-life impact was assessed using the EASETECH model. Baseline bio-based PET bottles performed overall worse than conventional petrochemical PET bottles, offering only better performance (about 10%) in abiotic depletion (fossil fuels). Comparable performance is observed for climate change (2% difference without the LUC, and 7% with LUC impacts). Using European crops for ethanol production (alternative 1) instead of Brazilian sugarcane resulted in a worse environmental performance, due to lower yields attained compared to Brazilian sugarcane. When wheat straw was considered as biomass feedstock for ethanol production (alternative 2), similar environmental performance with petrochemical PET bottles was seen.
Most studies on associations between meteorological factors and tuberculosis (TB) were conducted in a single city, used different lag times, or merely explored the qualitative associations between meteorological factors and TB. Thus, we performed a multicenter study to quantitatively evaluate the effects of meteorological factors on the risk of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB).
We collected data on newly diagnosed PTB cases in 13 study sites in Jiangsu Province between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2019. SC79 in vitro Data on meteorological factors, air pollutants, and socioeconomic factors at these sites during the same period were also collected. We applied the generalized additive mixed model to estimate the associations between meteorological factors and PTB.
There were 20,472 newly diagnosed PTB cases reported in the 13 study sites between 2014 and 2019. The median (interquartile range) weekly average temperature, weekly average wind speed, and weekly average relative humidity of these sites were 17.3 °C (8.0-24.