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Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have potential health risk to human. In this paper, human serum samples collected from Jiading District, Shanghai aged from 23 to 87 years old (12 male and 33 female) were analyzed for 17 perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). A novel method for the elimination of background contamination of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) generated from instrument by the modification of high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) has also been developed and validated. The limit of detection (LOD) for all monitored PFCs range from 0.02 to 0.18 ng mL−1. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) for PFOS and PFOA was 2.23 and 1.60 ng mL−1, respectively, and for other PFCs it ranged from 0.04 to 0.88 ng mL−1. Of the 17 PFCs analyzed in Shanghai serum, eleven were found. The dominating PFCs in all samples were perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and PFOA with a fraction of 49.5%, 34.2%, respectively. The median total concentration of each serum samples was 53.43 ng mL−1 with a range from

Fifty-two PBDE congeners in river sediments from Shanghai were analyzed in the present study. The concentrations of Σ51PBDEs (defined as the sum of 51 BDE congeners except BDE209) and BDE209 ranged from 0.231 to 119 ng g(-1) and from nd to 189 ng g(-1), respectively. The most abundant BDE congeners in surface sediments were BDE118, 207, 208, 99, 49, 75, 47, 71 and 209, with median values of 1.67, 1.81, 1.83, 1.87, 1.98, 2.52, 2.73, 4.62 and 45.7 ng g(-1) dw, respectively. The concentrations of Σ52PBDEs were significantly correlated with total organic carbon (TOC) content in sediments (p0.05). Weak correlations between all PBDE homologues and TOC (r0.32) suggest that TOC had a little influence on sediment PBDE transport and distribution patterns in river sediments of Shanghai. Correspondence analysis (CA) showed that PBDEs in sediments in the studied area originated from commercial BDE formulations, combustion emission sources, and debromination of highly brominated PBDEs by aerobic/anaerobic microbes or sunlight. Risk assessment based on risk quotients (RQ) showed that PBDEs in all river sediments collected from Shanghai posed a high potential ecological risk (RQ1) to the sediment dwelling organisms, and pentaBDE, decaBDE and tetraBDE were the major ecological risk drivers.

A comprehensive investigation was conducted to the urban (Pudong) and suburban soils in Shanghai. A total of 154 soil samples were analyzed for 26 PAHs including highly carcinogenic dibenzopyrenes (DBPs). The total concentrations ranged from 25.8 to 7380 μg kg(-1) for Σ26PAHs and 18.8 to 6320 μg kg(-1) for 16 USEPA priority PAHs (Σ16PAHs), respectively. The BaP toxic equivalent (BaPeq) concentrations were between 6.41 and 2880 μg kg(-1) for Σ24PAHs, 1.11 and 620 μg kg(-1) for Σ16PAHs and 2.72 and 2250 μg kg(-1) for Σ4DBPs. The high PAH contamination in green land soils might originate mainly from local road traffic and industrial activities, and sewage sludge application or waste water irrigation for soil. Seven sources of soil PAHs in Shanghai were identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. The mean risk quotient (m-RQ) values indicated that there were medium to high ecological risks in 9.10% of soil samples, pyrene (Pyr), benzo[b]fluoranthene (BbF) and benz[a]anthracene (BaA) were the major ecological risk drivers under agricultural use. The cancer risk (CR) values were within the acceptable range at 35.7%, 35.1% and 31.2% of sampling sites for children, youths and adults, respectively. The total lifetime carcinogenic risk (TLCR) values at 57.8% of sampling sites were within the acceptable range. Overall, cancer risks of soil PAHs in all sampling sites in the studied area were below the highest acceptable risk, suggesting that soil PAHs are unlikely to pose a significant cancer risk for population based on ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation exposure pathways.

In this paper, a novel DNA-length-dependent fluorescent sensor was constructed based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer. In the self-assembled multilayers (Quartz/GO/PDDA/Tx-DNA/PDDA/ZnO@CdS), ZnO@CdS and graphene oxide(GO) were employed as an energy donor and an energy acceptor, respectively. Single-stranded Tx-DNA (x represents different chain length of DNA) and poly(diallydimethylammonium) chloride (PDDA) were used as a linker. In the presence of complementary Px-DNA, the formation of double-stranded DNA leads to a change in chain length and achieves the purpose of changing the distance between ZnO@CdS and GO. Thereby, it enhances the efficiency of energy transfer between ZnO@CdS and GO resulting in the quench of fluorescence of ZnO@CdS, and thus different length DNA sequence was detected.

The polarization phenomenon occurs when the sunlight is scattered by atmospheric molecules. As a result, there is a polarization pattern in the sky. An amount of research shows that many nature insects can derive orientation information from this pattern, such as bees and ants. The fundamental polarization pattern in the sky is presented. The characters and the orientation mechanism of the nature insects are discussed. The basic principle of designing the polarization skylight navigation sensor is explained. The domestic and foreign relevant researches and application situation of this new navigation method are summarized in details. In the end, the characters of application fields and its application prospect are previewed.

3D face sample is an important data platform for model training, algorithm design. Subject to the constraint of data acquisition equipment the size of current 3D face databases are relatively small and insufficient. To solve this problem, this paper presents a modeling way for generating 3D novel samples based on surface stitching. First we use morphable model to build a global model. Then, we replace each patch of the global model based on surface stitching. We demonstrate that with appropriate choice of local models it is possible to reliably generate new realistic face samples.

The traditional craniofacial reconstruction methods construct the face shape according to the soft tissue thickness measured at a sparse set of landmarks on the skull. But the landmarks are difficult to detect and generally need human interactive assistance. The quantity and position of the landmarks lack for uniform definition. We propose an automatic craniofacial reconstruction method based on a dense deformable model. To construct the model, hundreds of skull and face samples are acquired by CT scanner. A dense mesh registration algorithm is proposed to build the point-to-point correspondences of the samples. Based on the aligned samples, the deformable model is constructed. For a given skull, the reconstructed face is obtained by a model matching procedure. Experimental results indicate that the deformable model has good performance for craniofacial reconstruction.

The occurrence and fate of 12 commonly used antibiotics, two fluoroquinolones (FQs), three sulfonamides (SAs), three macrolides (MLs), two β-lactams and two tetracyclines (TCs), were studied in four sewage treatment plants (STPs) and their receiving water, the Huangpu River, Shanghai. The levels of selected antibiotics in the STPs ranged from ngL(-1) to μgL(-1), while ofloxacin (OFL) was predominant (reach up to 2936.94ngL(-1)). The highest and lowest proportions were of FQs (STP 1, STP 2 and STP 3) and TCs (in four STPs) respectively in both influents and effluents. And the second-highest proportion was of FQs in STP 4 (only 2% lower than the highest). What could be inferred was that the usage of TCs were extremely low while the usage of FQs were larger than other antibiotics in our study area. The elimination of antibiotics through these STPs was incomplete and a wide range of removal efficiencies (-442.8% to 100%) during the treatment was observed. Based on the mass loadings as well as the per-capita mass loadings of target antibiotics in four STPs, OFL was considered the primary contaminant herein. In the Huangpu River, 3 antibiotics were not detected in any water samples, while the detection frequencies of 4 antibiotics were 100%. The highest concentration detected in the river was 53.91ngL(-1) of sulfapyridine (SD). The Spearman correlation analysis of antibiotics in STPs and the nearby water samples suggests that the antibiotics discharged from some STPs might influence the receiving water to some extent. Moreover, most of the hazard quotient (HQ) values in STP effluents were one order magnitude higher than those in their receiving water. However, there is no imminent significant ecotoxicological risk caused by any single compound in the effluents and receiving waters.

In this study, 14 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) congeners were investigated in soil and outdoor dust taken from Jiading District, Shanghai City. The concentrations of Σ13PBDEs (BDE-17, BDE-28, BDE-47, BDE-66, BDE-71, BDE-85, BDE-99, BDE-100, BDE-138, BDE-153, BDE-154, BDE-183 and BDE-190) and BDE-209 ranged from 0.37 to 32.9ngg(-1) and 4.31 to 141.8ngg(-1) dry weight (dw) in soil. Concentrations in outdoor dust ranged from 1.03 to 112.5ngg(-1) and 6.71 to 342.1ngg(-1) (dw) for Σ13PBDEs and BDE-209. BDE-209 was the predominant congener both in soil and outdoor dust, but the BDE-209 contribution was much lower in dust compared with that in soil. A significant correlation between PBDEs congeners and specific land use type was observed, and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the major source of PBDE in samples was associated with prevalent use of technical Deca-BDE, which also suggested the contributions from Penta-BDE and Octa-BDE mixtures. Canonical correlation analysis suggested the two sets of PBDEs data (soil and outdoor dust) were uncorrelated, and Spearman correlation coefficient matrix implied that the degradation pathways of PBDEs were different between soil and outdoor dust.

Retinoblastoma (RB) is a childhood malignancy caused by inactivation of the RB gene, with neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels considered as its diagnostic marker. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proven to play a significant role in multiple physiological and pathological processes and several miRNAs were identified as tumor biomarkers in recent studies. In the present study, 65 plasma samples were collected from RB patients and 65 samples from healthy individuals to serve as controls. The miRNA levels were measured via quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and their association with RB was assessed by statistical data analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves. Plasma miRNA (miR)-320, miR-let-7e and miR-21 levels were downregulated in the patient samples, the areas under the curves (AUCs) were 0.548–0.660, whereas the AUCs of combined classifiers were ≥0.990. The plasma miRNA levels, particularly of miR-320, were found to be of value in RB diagnosis and may be considered as novel diagnostic biomarkers.

The fertilized eggs of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) were exposed to estrone (E1) at 5-5000 ng L-1 for 15 d, and the hatched fry were exposed continuously to the same concentrations for the additional 15 d. Adverse effects on hatchability, time to hatching, and gross abnormalities occurred at 50 ng L-1 or above. Then the fry were divided into a continual exposure group, and a water recovery group. When the fry were exposed to E1 for another 60 d, there was a decrease in the hepatosomatic index (HSI) of males and the influence disappeared in the water recovery group. The gonadosonatic index (GSI) of females at 500 ng L-1 decreased significantly in another 60 d exposure. While the fry were maintained in dechlorinated tap water for 60 d, a significant decrease in female GSI was observed at 50 ng L-1 or above. An increased GSI was found in males in both continual exposure and water recovery groups at all E1 treatments. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that vitellogenin-I (Vtg-I) gene expressions in the female liver were significantly down-regulated at 50 ng L-1 in the continual exposure group, and at 500 ng L-1 in the water recovery group, while male Vtg-I genes were significantly up-regulated for all E1 treatments. In addition, all E1 treatments caused sex reversal of males. These results suggest that E1 at 5 ng L-1 or above have unrecoverable impacts on the gonadal growth and development of medaka, even if only early life stages were exposed to E1. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.