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Elevated ground-level ozone (O3), which is an important aspect of air quality related to public health, has been causing increasing concern. This study investigated the spatiotemporal distribution of ground-level O3 concentrations in China using a dataset from the Chinese national air quality monitoring network during 2013–2015. This research analyzed the diurnal, monthly and yearly variation of O3 concentrations in both sparsely and densely populated regions. In particular, 6 major Chinese cities were selected to allow a discussion of variations in O3 levels in detail, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Shanghai, and Urumchi, located on both sides of the Heihe-Tengchong line. Data showed that the nationwide 3-year MDA8 of ground-level O3 was 80.26 μg/m3. Ground-level O3 concentrations exhibited monthly variability peaking in summer and reaching the lowest levels in winter. The diurnal cycle reached a minimum in morning and peaked in the afternoon. Yearly average O3 MDA8 concentrations in Beijing, Chengdu, Lanzhou, and Shanghai in 2015 increased 12%, 25%, 34%, 22%, respectively, when compared with those in 2013. Compared with World Health Organization O3 guidelines, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Shanghai suffered O3 pollution in excess of the 8-hour O3 standard for more than 30% of the days in 2013 to 2015.

This pilot study evaluated the potential effect of household environmental factors such as income, maternal characteristics, and indoor air pollution on children’s respiratory status in an Eastern Indonesian community. Household data were collected from cross-sectional (n = 461 participants) and preliminary childhood case-control surveys (pneumonia cases = 31 diagnosed within three months at a local health clinic, controls = 30). Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) was measured in living rooms, kitchens, children’s bedrooms, and outside areas in close proximity once during the case-control household interviews (55 homes) and once per hour from 6 a.m. to midnight in 11 homes. The household survey showed that children were 1.98 times (p = 0.02) more likely to have coughing symptoms indicating respiratory infection, if mothers were not the primary caregivers. More children exhibited coughing if they were not exclusively breastfed (OR = 2.18, p = 0.06) or there was a possibility that their mothers were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy (OR = 2.05, p = 0.08). This study suggests that household incomes and mother’s education have an indirect effect on childhood pneumonia and respiratory illness. The concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 ranged from 0.5 to 35.7 µg/m3 and 7.7 to 575.7 µg/m3, respectively, based on grab samples. PM was significantly different between the case and control groups (p &lt, 0.01). The study also suggests that ambient air may dilute indoor pollution, but also introduces pollution into the home from the community environment. Effective intervention programs need to be developed that consider multiple direct and indirect risk factors to protect children.

Due to the limited pixel numbers in single TDI CCD chips, some TDI CCD chips are combined in the focal plane to reach a sufficient swath width. Basic imagery is delivered as one image data file per strip and how to convert those sub-images to a larger, accuracy equivalent image is an essential problem in satellite images’ processing. Some key factors that affect the imaging quality of TDI CCD images are discussed firstly. It shows that discrepancies in the along-track direction which caused by different viewing angle and topographic relief are the main problem to improve the stitching accuracy. Three basic image-oriented stitching strategies are discussed. Experimental results show that the RMS of shift transformation, single affine transformation and piecewise affine transformation is 1.4 pixels, 1.3 pixels and 0.2 pixels. Piecewise affine transformation fully meets the requirements of further processing.

A potential novel fumarate reductase gene designated frd1A was isolated by screening a marine metagenomic library through a sequence-based strategy. Sequence analyses indicated that Frd1A and other putative fumarate reductases were closely related. The putative fumarate reductase gene was subcloned into a pETBlue-2 vector and expressed in Escherichia coli Tuner(DE3)pLacІ cells. The recombinant protein was purified to homogeneity. Functional characterization by high-performance liquid chromatography demonstrated that the recombinant Frd1A protein could catalyze the hydrogenation of fumarate to succinate acid. The Frd1A protein displayed an optimal activity at pH 7.0 and 28 °C, which could be stimulated by adding metal ions such as Zn2+ and Mg2+. The Frd1A enzyme showed a comparable affinity and catalytic efficiency under optimal reaction conditions: k m =0.227 mmol/L, v max= 29.9 U/mg, and k cat/k m=5.44 × 104 per mol/s. The identification of Frd1A protein underscores the potential of marine metagenome screening for novel biomolecules.

Proteases are typical key enzymes that hydrolyze proteins into amino acids and peptides. Numerous proteases have been studied, but the discovery of metagenome-derived proteases is still significant for both commercial applications and basic research. An unexplored protease gene sep1A was identified by function-based screening from a plasmid metagenomic library derived from uncultured contaminated agricultural soil microorganisms. The putative protease gene was subcloned into pET-32a (+) vector and overexpressed in E. coli BL21(DE3) pLysS, then the recombinant protein was purified to homogeneity. The detailed biochemical characterization of the Sep1A protein was performed, including its molecular characterization, specific activity, pH-activity profile, metal ion-activity profile, and enzyme kinetic assays. Furthermore, the protein engineering approach of random mutagenesis via error-prone PCR was applied on the original Sep1A protein. Biochemical characterization demonstrated that the purified recombinant Ep48 protein could hydrolyze casein. Compared with the original Sep1A protein, the best variant of Ep48 in the random mutagenesis library, with the Gln307Leu and Asp391Gly changes, exhibited 2.62-fold activity at the optimal reaction conditions of 50 °C and pH 9.0. These results are the first step toward a better understanding of the properties of Sep1A protein. Protein engineering with error-prone PCR paves the way toward the metagenome-derived genes for biotechnological applications.

Currently, there are no set standards or quantitative guidelines available in the U.S. for arsenic levels in rice cereal, one of the most common first solid foods for infants. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the detected levels of inorganic arsenic (As(i)) in rice cereal in the U.S. market are safe for consumption by infants and toddlers. A risk assessment was conducted based on literature reviews of the reported As(i) in rice cereal from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) survey and the recommended daily intake of rice cereal by body weight, for infants and toddlers between four and 24 months old. As a part of risk management, a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for Asi in rice cereal was computed considering overall exposure sources including drinking water, infant formula, and other infant solid foods. Hazard quotients (HQs) for acute and chronic exposures were calculated based on the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's (ATSDR) Minimal Risk Level (MRL)(acute) (5.0 × 10(-3) mg/kg/day) and MRL(chronic) (3.0 × 10(-4) mg/kg/day). A cancer slope or potency factor of 1.5 mg/kg/day was used to predict an incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR). Exposure assessment showed that the largest source of As(i) for infants and toddlers between four and 24 months old was rice cereal (55%), followed by other infant solid food (19%), and drinking water (18%). Infant formula was the smallest source of As(i) for babies (9%) at the 50th percentile based on Monte Carlo simulations. While HQ(acute) were consistently below 1.0, HQ(chronic) at the 50 and 75th percentiles exceeded 1.0 for both rice cereal and total sources. ILCR ranged from 10(-6) (50th) to 10(-5) (75th percentile). MCLs for As(i) in rice cereal ranged from 0.0 (chronic) to 0.4 mg/kg (acute exposures).

Traditional orthoimage mosaic methods do not perform well in computational speed and geometric precision. This paper proposed a fast orthoimage mosaic method for the application of grid. First of all, down-sample the original images and extracts feature, and adopt SANSAC to estimate the relative initial homography; second, refine homography matrix by Levenberg-Marquardt method and use the sparse bundle adjustment method to estimate the precise homography matrix; Third, passed the homography matrix to the original level of image by the homography relationship of the down-sampling and original image. Finally, synthesize the mosaic image. Our experiments showed that the method combined the down-sampling homography relationship of original image with sparse bundle adjustment organically, which effectively improved the speed and obtained geometric seamless mosaic.

The technologies of traffic information collection based on GPS equipped floating car have been become one of the main important means for real-time collecting traffic information in intelligent transportation system. So, the electronic map of route network is important to collect traffic information. As present, the link dividing methods can’t take into account the different conditions of traffic flow and the different attributes of the route. This paper presents a novel link dividing method: Firstly, the speed of the floating car history track is regarded as a stochastic and its frequency spectrum is obtained using Fourier transform; Secondly, the optimal sampling intervals of the link dividing are obtained using the frequency spectrum of speed and Shannon sampling theory; Finally, the novel link dividing model is founded based on the optimal sampling intervals and the attributes of the routes. This method not only considers the different conditions of traffic flow, but also distinguishes the different traffic flow of the different places of a link, which can improve application effect of the route traffic conditions and vehicle dynamic navigation.

Increasing evidence demonstrates that melatonin has an anti-apoptotic effect in somatic cells. However, whether melatonin can protect against germ cell apoptosis remains obscure. Cadmium (Cd) is a testicular toxicant and induces germ cell apoptosis. In this study, we investigated the effects of melatonin on Cd-evoked germ cell apoptosis in testes. Male ICR mice were intraperitoneally (i.p.) injected with melatonin (5 mg/kg) every 8 hr, beginning at 8 hr before CdCl(2) (2.0 mg/kg, i.p.). As expected, acute Cd exposure resulted in germ cell apoptosis in testes, as determined by terminal dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Melatonin significantly alleviated Cd-induced testicular germ cell apoptosis. An additional experiment showed that spliced form of XBP-1, the target of the IRE-1 pathway, was significantly increased in testes of mice injected with CdCl(2). GRP78, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone, and CHOP, a downstream target of the PERK pathway, were upregulated in testes of Cd-treated mice. In addition, acute Cd exposure significantly increased testicular eIF2α and JNK phosphorylation, indicating that the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway was activated by CdCl(2). Interestingly, melatonin almost completely inhibited Cd-induced ER stress and the UPR in testes. In addition, melatonin obviously attenuated Cd-induced heme oxygenase (HO)-1 expression and protein nitration in testes. Taken together, these results suggest that melatonin alleviates Cd-induced cellular stress and germ cell apoptosis in testes. Melatonin may be useful as pharmacological agents to protect against Cd-induced testicular toxicity.

Objective: the association between depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CES-D]) and subsequent cognitive function (Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]) is equivocal in literature. To examine the causal relationship between them, we use longitudinal data on MMSE and CESD and causal inference to illustrate the relationship between two health outcomes.Method: Data were obtained from the Hispanic Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly. Participants included 3050 noninstitutionalized Mexican Americans aged 65 and older followed from 1993-2001. Cognitive function and depressive symptoms were assessed using the MMSE and CESD at baseline and at 2, 5, and 7 years of follow-up. Independent variables were sociodemographics, CESD, medical conditions. Marginal structural causal models were employed to evaluate the extent to which cognitive function depend not only on depressive symptoms measured at a single point in time but also on an individual’s entire depressive symptoms history. Discussion: our results indicate that if intervention to reduce 1 points of depressive symptoms were made at two years prior to assessing cognitive function, they would result in average improvement in cognitive function of 0.12, 95% CI [0.06, 0.18],P

To investigate the expressions of CDX2 and β-catenin and their correlation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).Real-time PCR was used to examine the expressions of CDX2 and β-catenin mRNA in 92 de novo AML and 30 non-malignant patients (control), and Western blot was employed to detect CDX2 and β-catenin protein expressions in 26 de novo AML and 8 non-malignant patients.The positivity rates of CDX2 mRNA and protein expressions in AML group were 84.78% and 76.92%, respectively, but no CDX2 mRNA or protein expression were detected in control group (P0.01). The expressions of β-catenin mRNA and protein were detected in all the patients in both groups but its expressions in AML group were significantly higher (P0.01). The expressions of CDX2 and β-catenin mRNA were significantly correlated with WBC counts and LDH levels (P0.01). The expression of CDX2 mRNA was not detected and the expression of β-catenin mRNA was decreased to normal level in AML patients with complete remission, while the expressions of CDX2 and β-catenin mRNA were increased again in those with disease relapse. There were significantly positive correlations between CDX2 and β-catenin expressions at both mRNA and protein levels (P0.01).Up-regulation of CDX2 gene and activation of Wnt/β-catenin pathway co-exist in AML patients and the expressions of CDX2 and β-catenin are positively correlated.

Increasing evidence demonstrates that melatonin has an anti-apoptotic effect in somatic cells. However, whether melatonin can protect against germ cell apoptosis remains obscure. Cadmium (Cd) is a testicular toxicant and induces germ cell apoptosis. In this study, we investigated the effects of melatonin on Cd-evoked germ cell apoptosis in testes. Male ICR mice were intraperitoneally (i.p.) injected with melatonin (5 mg/kg) every 8 hr, beginning at 8 hr before CdCl(2) (2.0 mg/kg, i.p.). As expected, acute Cd exposure resulted in germ cell apoptosis in testes, as determined by terminal dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Melatonin significantly alleviated Cd-induced testicular germ cell apoptosis. An additional experiment showed that spliced form of XBP-1, the target of the IRE-1 pathway, was significantly increased in testes of mice injected with CdCl(2). GRP78, an endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone, and CHOP, a downstream target of the PERK pathway, were upregulated in testes of Cd-treated mice. In addition, acute Cd exposure significantly increased testicular eIF2α and JNK phosphorylation, indicating that the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway was activated by CdCl(2). Interestingly, melatonin almost completely inhibited Cd-induced ER stress and the UPR in testes. In addition, melatonin obviously attenuated Cd-induced heme oxygenase (HO)-1 expression and protein nitration in testes. Taken together, these results suggest that melatonin alleviates Cd-induced cellular stress and germ cell apoptosis in testes. Melatonin may be useful as pharmacological agents to protect against Cd-induced testicular toxicity.

Cadmium (Cd) is a testicular toxicant and endocrine disruptor. In the present study, we investigated the effects of maternal Cd exposure during the late pregnant period on testicular development and steroidogenesis in male offspring. Pregnant mice were injected intraperitoneally with CdCl2 (0.5 mg/kg) daily from gestational day (gd) 13 to gd 17. As expected, fetal weight and crown length were significantly decreased in pups whose mothers were exposed to Cd. Importantly, absolute and relative weights of testes were significantly decreased in male fetuses. In addition, maternal Cd exposure during pregnancy markedly reduced serum T level and downregulated the expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein, P450scc, P45017α and 17β-HSD in testes of male fetuses. Interestingly, the level of serum and testicular T at adulthood remained decreased in male offspring of Cd-exposed mice. Correspondingly, the expression of testicular P450scc was downregulated in male adult offspring whose mothers were exposed to Cd during pregnancy. Fertility analysis found that the number of live fetuses per litter in F2 generation was significantly decreased in Cd-treated group. Additional experiment showed that placental Cd level was increased about 750 folds in dams injected with Cd. However, only traces of blood Cd was measured in fetuses whose mothers were exposed to Cd during the late pregnant period. Taken together, these results suggest that placenta could deter most of Cd from passing from dams to fetuses. The impairments on testicular steroidogenesis in male offspring could not be attributed to a direct action of Cd on fetal testes.

Generally, traditional maps used in navigation are vector maps. This kind of map is rather poor in visual effects, and it’s updated quite slowly, which can not satisfy users’ requirement. This paper puts forward the concept of using remote sensing Images for navigation and does some research on the most critical Image management technology. We describe a new data organization method(Time-Quad-R-Tree) which is fit for the Image navigation. The experiments show that the method can satisfy the up-to-date demand of Image navigation.

Efficient and reliable map-matching algorithms were essential for vehicle navigation systems. Most existing solutions can’t provide trustworthy outputs when the situation was ambiguous (such as at road intersections). Put forward to map matching according to pseudo-Zernike moments. The new Algorithm leads, pseudo-Zernike moments to describe track curve into pseudo-Zernike moments on this foundation of shape, revised a mistake result further. Pass to imitate true and on trial express, the new calculate way has stronger usefulness and credibility under the complicated environment.