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• Food losses and waste (FLW) mitigation should be prioritized on vegetables. • Vegetable FLW contributes 29% of total plant FLW-wasted blue water. • Vegetable FLW contributes 50% of total plant FLW-emitted carbon dioxide. • Vegetable FLW is mainly driven by urbanization, income, and gross domestic product. The United States (U.S.) aims to reduce half of food loss and waste (FLW) by 2030. To achieve this goal, the public, academic, and political attentions on FLW have been increasing, and a series of actions have been implemented. However, the actions lack consideration on the categorical priority of FLW mitigation in relation to environmental footprints. In this article, we compare the FLW of three main plant food categories (i.e., grains, vegetables, and fruits) and their water and carbon footprints during 1970–2017. The vegetable FLW doubled during the period, reaching 3.39 × 1010 kg in 2017, which was 5- and 2-fold higher than the FLW of grains and fruits, respectively. The FLW of vegetables, grains, and fruits contributed 29%, 47%, and 24% to the total blue water wasted through FLW. The total carbon dioxide emissions generated by plant FLW were contributed by vegetables with 50%, grains with 31%, and fruits with 19%. Canonical correspondence analysis indicates that vegetable FLW had a higher positive correlation with urbanization, household incomes, gross domestic product, and high-income population than grain FLW, whereas fruit FLW was not influenced by these socioeconomic factors. Therefore, we suggest that the FLW mitigation should be prioritized on vegetables. Specific strategies include local food sourcing, shortening food miles, building food belts, and developing controlled-environment agriculture. Our data-based comparisons provide valuable insights into food policy improvement for achieving the 2030 reduction goal of the U.S., but the insights could be improved by considering the influences of foods imported from other nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A good school design consists of a thermally comfortable school and schoolyard as well as a low energy consumption of the school building. The main contribution of this study is that it develops an integrated design approach to systematically evaluate and optimize school design parameters at different design stages for summer outdoor thermal comfort and building cooling demand. A typical school in northern China was selected to illustrate the simulation-based design framework. The three-dimensional microclimate model ENVI-met was used to calculate outdoor temperatures and the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) index as a measure of the outdoor thermal comfort condition. The ENVI-met results were then used as input for the thermal boundary conditions in the energy simulation software DesignBuilder. DesignBuilder, in turn, was applied to calculate the building cooling demand while taking into account the local outdoor thermal conditions. The integrated design approach proves to be effective for mitigating school heat stress and energy saving. By taking the school case as a reference, the integrated design method resulted in a high-performance design that reduced the outdoor discomfort time by 25% and the building cooling demand by 5%. Planting trees was found to be the most effective considering both the outdoor thermal comfort and building cooling demand. Other implications for planning and designing schools in terms of the school case are also presented in order to help architects in selecting strategies that enhance the thermal performance characteristics of both the school building and the schoolyard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mn(III) associated with the surface of MnO 2 contributes to BPA degradation. • Mn(III)- and MnO 2 -mediated degradation of BPA differ mechanistically. • Mechanistic differences lead to products with distinct toxicological profiles. • Mn(III)-mediated BPA degradation should be considered in natural attenuation assessments. Bisphenol A (BPA) is a high production volume chemical with potential estrogenic effects susceptible to abiotic degradation by MnO 2. BPA transformation products and reaction mechanisms with MnO 2 have been investigated, but detailed process understanding of Mn(III)-mediated degradation has not been attained. Rapid consumption of BPA occurred in batch reaction vessels with 1 mM Mn(III) and 63.9 ± 0.7% of 1.76 ± 0.02 μmol BPA was degraded in 1 hour at circumneutral pH. BPA was consumed at 1.86 ± 0.09-fold higher rates in vessels with synthetic MnO 2 comprising approximately 13 mol% surface-associated Mn(III) versus surface-Mn(III)-free MnO 2 , and 10–35% of BPA transformation could be attributed to Mn(III) during the initial 10-min reaction phase. High-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS) analysis detected eight transformation intermediates in reactions with Mn(III), and quantum calculations proposed 14 BPA degradation products, nine of which had not been observed during MnO 2 -mediated BPA degradation, suggesting mechanistic differences between Mn(III)- versus MnO 2 -mediated BPA degradation. The findings demonstrate that both Mn(III) and Mn(IV) can effectively degrade BPA and indicate that surface-associated Mn(III) increases the reactivity of synthetic MnO 2 , offering opportunities for engineering more reactive oxidized Mn species for BPA removal. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Gingivitis is evidenced by inflammation of the free gingiva, and still reversible. If left untreated, it may then progress to periodontitis. In the present study, the therapeutical effect of ketotifen fumarate on gingivitis was explored. Domestic cats with varying degrees of gingivitis naturally were enrolled in this study. Subgroups of animals were treated twice daily for one week with or without ketotifen fumarate (5 mg/kg). Effects of ketotifen fumarate were measured on gingival index, cells accumulation, mediators release, receptor-ligand interaction, oxidative stress, MAPK and NF-κB pathways, epithelial barrier and apoptosis. Ketotifen fumarate attenuated the initiation and progression of gingivitis, inhibited the infiltrations of mast cells, B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes, macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils as well as the release of IgE, β-hexosaminidase, tryptase, chymase, TNF-α, IL-4, and IL-13, influenced endothelial cells, fibroblasts and epithelial cells proliferation and apoptosis, and induced Th2 cells polarization, where ketotifen fumarate also might affect their interactions. Ketotifen fumarate reduced the oxidative stress, and inhibited NF-κB and p38 MAPK related with mast cells and macrophages accumulation. Ketotifen fumarate improved the aberrant expression of ZO-1 and inhibits the following apoptosis. On the other hand, these cells and mediators augmented functional attributes of them involving SCF/c-Kit, α4β7/VCAM-1 and IL-8/IL-8RB interactions, thus creating a positive feedback loop to perpetuate gingivitis, where an inflammation microenvironment was modeled. Our results showed a previously unexplored therapeutic potential of ketotifen fumarate for gingivitis and further suggest that, in addition to biofilms, targeting inflammation microenvironment could be new strategy for the treatment of gingivitis/periodontitis. Highlights • Ketotifen fumarate attenuates feline gingivitis. • Ketotifen fumarate affects gingival microenvironment. • A model is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]