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The transmission of viral infections via aerosol has become a serious threat to public health. This has produced an ever-increasing demand for effective forms of viral inactivation technology/processes. Plasma technology is rising in popularity and gaining interest for viral disinfection use. Due to its highly effectively disinfection and flexible operation, non-thermal plasma (NTP) is a promising technology in decontaminating bacteria or virus from air or surfaces. This review discusses the fundamentals of non-thermal plasma and the disinfection mechanisms of the biocidal agents produced in plasma, including ultraviolet (UV) photons, reactive oxygen species, and reactive nitrogen species. Perspectives on the role of catalysts and its potential applications in cold plasma disinfection are discussed.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been reported to be related to decreased bone mineral density, but the relationship with osteoporosis and fractures is less studied. This study aimed to investigate the risks of osteoporotic fractures in a Swedish population with long-term exposure to PFAS through drinking water.The Ronneby Register Cohort, including 61,504 individuals who had ever lived in Ronneby during 1985-2013, was used. Exposure to PFAS was assessed according to the yearly residential address with or without highly contaminated water supply and was categorized as 'never-high' and 'ever-high' exposure. The 'ever-high' exposure was further divided into 'early-high' and 'late-high' depending on if the exposure was before or after 2005. Inpatient and outpatient hospital diagnoses of fractures were retrieved from the National Patient Register. Major osteoporotic fractures (MOF, i.e., hip, vertebrae, proximal humerus and distal forearm fractures), and hip fractures were considered as the primary outcomes. Cox proportional hazard models with time-varying exposure were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs). Stratified analyses were performed in each sex and age group (50 yrs and ≥ 50 yrs).Elevated risks of MOF (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03-1.19) and hip fractures (1.12, 1.00-1.24) were observed when comparing 'ever-high' to 'never-high' exposure. The HRs were even higher for 'late-high' exposure (MOF: 1.29, 1.16-1.44; hip fractures: 1.22, 1.01-1.47). Further adjustment for highest achieved education slightly attenuated the estimates. Individuals above 50 years old showed even higher HR estimates. Similar patterns were found for all fractures.Our results provide further evidence supporting the adverse effects of PFAS on osteoporosis. A better understanding of dose-response relationships as a basis for risk assessment is warranted.

Adverse cardiovascular effects are associated with both diesel exhaust and road traffic noise, but these exposures are hard to disentangle epidemiologically. We used an experimental setup to evaluate the impact of diesel exhaust particles and traffic noise, alone and combined, on intermediary outcomes related to the autonomic nervous system and increased cardiovascular risk. In a controlled chamber 18 healthy adults were exposed to four scenarios in a randomized cross-over fashion. Each exposure scenario consisted of either filtered (clean) air or diesel engine exhaust (particle mass concentrations around 300 µg/m3), and either low (46 dB(A)) or high (75 dB(A)) levels of traffic noise for 3 h at rest. ECG was recorded for 10-min periods before and during each exposure type, and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) computed. Endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness were assessed after each exposure using EndoPAT 2000. Compared to control exposure, HRV in the high frequency band decreased during exposure to diesel exhaust, both alone and combined with noise, but not during noise exposure only. These differences were more pronounced in women. We observed no synergistic effects of combined exposure, and no significant differences between exposure scenarios for other HRV indices, endothelial function or arterial stiffness. Three-hour exposure to diesel exhaust, but not noise, was associated with decreased HRV in the high frequency band. This indicates activation of irritant receptor-mediated autonomic reflexes, a possible mechanism for the cardiovascular risks of diesel exposure. There was no effect on endothelial dysfunction or arterial stiffness after exposure.

Due to the high spectrum utilization of Nonorthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), it becomes one of the potential candidate technologies for future wireless communication systems. Meanwhile, in New Radio, Vehicle to Everything (V2X) has been proposed as a promising issue in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). This paper studies the resource allocation mechanism with power control strategy which makes full use of vehicles’ moving characteristics in the NOMA-based Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication system. Firstly, vehicles are grouped according to their moving characteristics by spectral clustering. Then, vehicles which are in the same group are allocated the same wireless resource with NOMA strategy. Two grouping methods have been designed for freeway and urban scenarios separately. After that, the transmission power of vehicles is adjusted based on the result of power control strategy utilizing Q-learning. The simulation results show that the performance of the V2V system in terms of Packet Received Ratio (PRR) can be evidently improved by the proposed joint NOMA resource allocation and power control mechanism compared to typical energy sensing-based resource allocation method.

Two new alkaline earth barbiturates, Ca(H3C4N2O3)2·H2O and Sr(H5C8N4O5)2·4H2O, were synthesized via the mild hydrothermal technique. For Ca(H3C4N2O3)2·H2O, the stacking (H3C4N2O3)- anions along the c axis are interconnected by CaO7 polydedra forming a three-dimensional structure. Also, for Sr(H5C8N4O5)2·4H2O, it has two-dimensional layers composed by SrO7 polyhedra and (H5C8N4O5)- anions. The (H5C8N4O5)- anions can be seen as two (H3C4N2O3)- anions connected each other via the N-C bond. Powder second-harmonic generation (SHG) measurements revealed that Ca(H3C4N2O3)2·H2O is a phase-matchable material with a moderate SHG response (ca. 1.15× that of KDP). Furthermore, the birefringence values of the two crystals were measured as 0.49 and 0.475 at 546.1 nm, respectively. The theoretical calculations showed that the SHG response and large birefringence were primarily caused by the (H3C4N2O3)- and (H5C8N4O5)- groups.

Chemical looping provides an energy- and cost-effective route for alkane utilization. However, there is considerable CO2 co-production caused by kinetically mismatched O2- bulk diffusion and surface reaction in current chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation systems, rendering a decreased olefin productivity. Sub-monolayer or monolayer vanadia nanostructures are successfully constructed to suppress CO2 production in oxidative dehydrogenation of propane by evading the interference of O2- bulk diffusion (monolayer versus multi-layers). The highly dispersed vanadia nanostructures on titanium dioxide support showed over 90 % propylene selectivity at 500 °C, exhibiting turnover frequency of 1.9×10-2 s-1 , which is over 20 times greater than that of conventional crystalline V2 O5 . Combining in situ spectroscopic characterizations and DFT calculations, we reveal the loading-reaction barrier relationship through the vanadia/titanium interfacial interaction.

Composite material brings many challenges in structural health monitoring (SHM), especially in internal damage detecting. CFRP-OFBG, using Optical Fiber Bragg Grating (OFBG) sensors embedded in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite structures, has been widely used in the field of structural reinforcement with smart sensing features. This work developed a real-time monitor system to detect internal damage by using dense arrayed fiber-optic sensor embedded in CFRP-OFBG. A classical triangulation procedure is selected and improved in damage location detection algorithm. Experimental results showed this design is an efficient and lightweight system in detecting internal damage for CFRP-OFBG materials.

This paper proposes a new dynamic algorithm based on simulation approach and multi-objective optimization to solve the FJSP with transportation assignment. The objectives considered in scheduling jobs and transportation tasks in a flexible job shop manufacturing system include makespan, robot travel distance, time difference with due date and critical waiting time. The results obtained from the computational experiments have shown that the proposed approach is efficient and competitive.

Contaminated drinking water (DW) is a major source of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at locations around PFAS production/use facilities and military airports. This study aimed to investigate quantitative relationships between concentrations in DW and serum of nine perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) in Swedish adult populations living near contamination hotspots. Short-chained (PFPeA, PFHxA, PFHpA, and PFBS) and long-chained PFAAs (PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, PFHxS and PFOS) were measured in DW and serum. We matched DW and serum concentrations for a total of 398 subjects living or working in areas receiving contaminated DW and in one non-contaminated area. Thereafter, linear regression analysis with and without adjustments for co-variates was conducted. This enabled to derive (i) serum concentrations at background exposure (CB) from sources other than local DW exposure (i.e. food, dust and textiles) at 0 ng/L DW concentration, (ii) population-mean PFAA serum:water ratios (SWR) and (iii) PFAA concentrations in DW causing observable elevated serum PFAA concentrations above background variability. Median concentrations of the sum of nine PFAAs ranged between 2.8 and 1790 ng/L in DW and between 7.6 and 96.9 ng/mL in serum. DW concentration was the strongest predictor, resulting in similar unadjusted and adjusted regression coefficients. Mean CB ranged from

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are widespread synthetic substances with various adverse health effects. A potential mechanism of toxicity for PFASs is via epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation. Previous studies have evaluated associations between PFAS exposure and DNA methylation among newborns and adults. However, no study has evaluated how PFASs influence DNA methylation among children of school age. In this exploratory study with school-age children exposed to PFASs through drinking water highly contaminated from firefighting foams, we aimed to investigate whether exposure to PFASs was associated with alteration in DNA methylation and epigenetic age acceleration. Sixty-three children aged 7–11 years from the Ronneby Biomarker Cohort (Sweden) were included. The children were either controls with only background exposure (n = 32; perfluorooctane sulfonic acid: median 2.8 and range 1–5 ng/ml) or those exposed to very high levels of PFASs (n = 31; perfluorooctane sulfonic acid: median 295 and range 190–464 ng/ml). These two groups were matched on sex, age, and body mass index. Genome-wide methylation of whole-blood DNA was analyzed using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip kit. Epigenetic age acceleration was derived from the DNA methylation data. Twelve differentially methylated positions and seven differentially methylated regions were found when comparing the high-exposure group to the control group. There were no differences in epigenetic age acceleration between these two groups (P = 0.66). We found that PFAS exposure was associated with DNA methylation at specific genomic positions and regions in children at school age, which may indicate a possible mechanism for linking PFAS exposure to health effects.

Developing safe and precise image-guided photodynamic therapy is a challenge. In this study, the hypoxic properties of solid tumors are exploited to construct a hypoxia-responsive photosensitizer, TPA-Azo. Introducing the azo group into the photosensitizer TPA-BN with aggregation-induced emission quenches its fluorescence. When the nonfluorescent TPA-Azo enters hypoxic tumors, it is reduced by the overexpressed azoreductase to generate a fluorescent photosensitizer TPA-BN with an amino group that exhibits fluorescence-activatable image-guided photodynamic therapy with dual-organelle (lipid droplets and lysosomes) targeting. This design strategy provides a basis for the development of fluorescence-activatable photosensitizers.

Air pollution is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but its role in the development of congestive heart failure (CHF) and the role of different pollution sources in cardiovascular disease remain uncertain.Participants were enrolled in the Malmö Diet and Cancer cohort in 1991-1996 with information on lifestyle and clinical indicators of cardiovascular disease. The cohort participants were followed through registers until 2016. Annual total and local source-specific concentrations of particulate matter less than 10 μm and 2.5 μm (PMAir pollution exposure levels (mean annual exposures to PMIn an area with low to moderate air pollution exposure, we observed significant associations of long-term residential NO

Background: Fish contains methylmercury (MeHg) which can cause oxidative stress and neurodevelopmental toxicity at sufficiently high doses. Fish also contains polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) which have both antioxidant (n-3) and oxidant (n-6) properties. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is sensitive to oxidative stress but has not been previously studied in relation to MeHg exposure or PUFA status. Objective: To investigate the associations between MeHg exposure and PUFA status during pregnancy with relative mitochondrial DNA copy number (RmtDNAcn) in mothers and their newborns. Methods: In total, 1488 mother-child pairs from the Seychelles Child Development Study Nutrition Cohort 2 were included in this study. Total Hg was measured in maternal blood collected at 28 weeks' gestation, maternal hair at delivery, and in fetal cord blood. PUFA (n-3 and n-6) were measured only in maternal blood. RmtDNAcn was measured by qPCR in both maternal and cord blood. Results: Increasing maternal blood Hg (β = 0.001, 95%CI: 0.000, 0.002) and n-3 PUFA concentrations (β = 0.183, 95%CI: 0.048, 0.317) were associated with higher maternal RmtDNAcn. Increasing maternal n-6 PUFA (β = −0.103, 95%CI: −0.145, −0.062) and n-6/n-3 ratio (β = −0.011, 95%CI: −0.017, −0.004) were associated with lower maternal RmtDNAcn. Increasing fetal cord blood Hg was associated with lower fetal RmtDNAcn (β = −0.002, 95%CI: −0.004, −0.000). Neither maternal blood Hg nor PUFA status was associated with fetal RmtDNAcn. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that MeHg and PUFA may influence mitochondrial homeostasis although the magnitude of these associations are small. Future studies should confirm the findings and explore the underlying mechanisms. Keywords: Mitochondrial DNA, Methylmercury, Mercury, Polyunsaturated fatty acids

CPU time has long been a remaining problem for large-scale batch mode based scientific computing applications. To address this time-consuming problem, a container-based private cloud was employed, and a novel task-resource mapping algorithm was developed. Firstly, the execution features of typical batch mode codes were extracted and then computing jobs were formulated as a coarseness acyclic DAG. Secondly, to guarantee both job makespan and resource utilization, a novel task-resource mapping algorithm, along with container pre-planning and worst-case-first task placement phases, were developed. Finally, a typical Computational Marine Hydrodynamics software, Rotorysics, with a different scale of input data matrix was used as benchmark software. To manifest the effectiveness of the proposed method, a number of numerical examples were given via CloudSim and a small-medium containerized private cloud platform was adopted with three practical study cases. The computational results show that 1) compared with the traditional HPC workstation computing solution, container-based cloud solution shows significant savings in makespan by more than 6 times. 2) the new method is scalable to address bigger size batch computing problem up to a run matrix 108.

Technological development and urbanization have increased municipal waste generation and pollution. Recycling becomes a popular way to treat solid waste for generating energy, and therefore protecting the environment. In this paper, we propose a mixed-integer programming model to formulate and solve multi-type bio-waste transportation as a two-echelon location-routing problem. The objective is to simultaneously determine the routes of transportation and the locations of new treatment facilities with maximization of the profit from bio-waste recycling. A case study of bio-waste management system in Normandy, France is planned to be applied to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Background: Diesel engine exhaust causes adverse health effects. Meanwhile, the impact of renewable diesel exhaust on human health is less known. In this study, nasal patency, pulmonary function, and self-rated symptoms were assessed in 19 healthy volunteers after two separate 3-hour exposures to renewable diesel (hydrotreated vegetable oil [HVO]) exhaust, and exposure to filtered air (FA) for comparison. The HVO exposures were generated with two modern non-road vehicles (2019) having either: 1) no aftertreatment system (HVOPM+NOx), or 2) an aftertreatment system containing a diesel oxidation catalyst and a diesel particulate filter (HVONOx). The exposure concentrations complied with current EU occupational exposure limits (OELs) of NO, NO2, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and future OELs of elemental carbon (EC) from 2023. Results: Exposure to HVOPM+NOx consisted of PM1 (≈90 µg m-3, 54 µg m-3 EC) and NOx (NO 3.4 ppm, NO2 0.6 ppm). The average total respiratory tract deposition of PM1 was 27 µg h-1. The deposition fraction of HVO PM1 was 40-50% higher compared to diesel exhaust PM1 from an older vehicle, due to smaller particle sizes of the HVOPM+NOx exhaust. Exposure to HVONOx consisted mainly of NOx (NO 2.0 ppm, NO2 0.7 ppm) with low level of PM1 (~1 µg m-3). Compared to filtered air, exposure to HVOPM+NOx and HVONOx caused higher incidence of self-reported symptoms (78%, 63%, respectively, vs. 28% for FA, pPM+NOx showed 40-50% higher eye and throat irritation symptoms. Compared to filtered air, a decrement in nasal patency was found for the HVONOx exposures (-18.1, 95%CI: -27.3 to -8.8 L min-1), and for the HVOPM+NOx (-7.4 (-15.6 to 0.8) L min-1). Overall, no change was indicated in the pulmonary function tests (spirometry, peak expiratory flow, forced oscillation technique), except a slight increase in FEV1/FVC after exposure to HVONOx.Conclusion: Short-term exposure to HVO exhaust below the EU OELs did not cause severe pulmonary function changes in healthy subjects. However, an increase in self-rated mild irritation symptoms, and mild decrease in nasal patency after two HVO exposures may indicate irritative effects from exposure to HVO exhaust from modern non-road vehicles below future OELs.

BACKGROUND: In December 2013, it was discovered that drinking water supplied to one third of the households in Ronneby, southern Sweden, was highly contaminated by PFAS (sum level >10,000 ng/L) originated from firefighting foams used at a nearby military airport.OBJECTIVES: To report serum PFAS levels of Ronneby residents participating in a biomonitoring program, and to describe the variation by age, sex and calendar period for residential exposure. In addition, a reference group living in a neighboring municipality without PFAS contaminated drinking water was examined.METHODS: Blood samples and demographic data were collected for 3297 Ronneby residents and 226 individuals from the reference group. Yearly residence addresses were available for 3086 Ronneby residents from the national population registry. Serum concentrations of PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA were determined in all participants, with additional PFHpA, PFNA and PFDA in subsets of the participants.RESULTS: The population geometric means for serum PFHxS, PFOS and PFOA were 114, 135 and 6.8 ng/mL for all Ronneby residents, i.e.135, 35 and 4.5 times higher than for the reference group. Ronneby residents who resided in the area with contaminated water supply during 2005-2013 showed much higher PFAS levels in 2014 than those exposed only before 2005. Ronneby residents who never resided in the area with contaminated water supply also had higher serum PFAS levels than the reference group. All three PFAS were highly correlated (rs > 0.9 for each pair). Serum PFAS levels were lowest in teenage years and then increased with age. Adult females had lower PFAS levels on average than males under the age of 60 but higher above 60.DISCUSSION: The results reveal high serum PFAS levels dominated by PFHxS and PFOS in the Ronneby residents highly exposed to PFAS originated from firefighting foams. The PFAS exposure in Ronneby permits studies of associations to a range of health parameters, as well as studies of the toxicokinetics of PFAS exposure. (Less)

Propylene is an important building block for enormous petrochemicals including polypropylene, propylene oxide, acrylonitrile and so forth. Propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is an industrial technology for direct propylene production which has received extensive attention in recent years. With the development of dehydrogenation technologies, the efficient adsorption/activation of propane and subsequential desorption of propylene on the surfaces of heterogeneous catalysts remain scientifically challenging. This review describes recent advances in the fundamental understandings of the PDH process in terms of emerging technologies, catalyst development and new chemistry in regulating the catalyst structures and inhibiting the catalyst deactivation. The active sites, reaction pathways and deactivation mechanisms of PDH over metals and metal oxides as well as their dependent factors are also analysed and discussed, which is expected to enable efficient catalyst design for minimizing the reaction barriers and controlling the selectivity towards propylene. The challenges and perspectives of PDH over heterogeneous catalysts are also proposed for further development.

Background Perfluorinated substances (PFAS) are chemicals with endocrine disruptive properties that may interfere with the female reproductive system. However, few studies have explored the association between benign gynecological diseases and high PFAS exposure. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the possible associations between PFAS exposure and subsequent diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), uterine leiomyoma (fibroids), and endometriosis in a cohort exposed to PFAS through drinking water. Material and methods In 2013, high levels (with sum of PFAS above 10,000 ng/L), dominated by perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), were found in the drinking water from one of the two waterworks in Ronneby, Sweden. The contamination came from firefighting foams used at a nearby airfield. Females of all ages (n = 29,106) who had ever resided in the municipality between 1985 and 2013 formed a cohort. Individual exposure was assessed based on municipality waterworks distribution data linked to annual residential address data; 27% of the females had ever lived at an address with PFAS-contaminated water. Gynecological health outcomes were retrieved from the Swedish National Patient Register. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the association between exposure and each diagnosis. Results There were in all 161 cases of PCOS, 1,122 cases of uterine leiomyoma, and 373 cases of endometriosis. In women aged 20–50 years (n = 18,503), those with the highest estimated PFAS exposure had increased hazard ratios (HR) for PCOS (HR = 2.18; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43, 3.34) and uterine leiomyoma (HR = 1.28; 95% CI 0.95, 1.74). No increased HR for endometriosis was found (HR = 0.74; 95% CI 0.42, 1.29). Conclusions Exposure to high levels of PFAS in drinking water was associated with increased risk of PCOS and possibly uterine leiomyoma, but not endometriosis. The findings for PCOS are consistent with prior studies reporting positive associations between PCOS and PFAS exposure at background levels.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread synthetic substances with various adverse health effects. A potential mechanism of toxicity for PFAS is via epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation. However, few studies have evaluated associations between PFAS exposure and DNA methylation among adults, and data is especially scarce for women. Furthermore, exposure to environmental pollutants has been associated with epigenetic age acceleration, but no studies have yet evaluated whether PFAS is associated with epigenetic age acceleration. Objectives: To investigate whether exposure to PFAS is associated with alteration of DNA methylation and epigenetic age acceleration among women. Methods: In this observational pilot study, 59 women (aged 20–47 years at enrollment in 2014) from Ronneby, Sweden, an area with historically high PFAS exposure due to local drinking water contamination, were divided into three PFAS exposure groups (low, medium, and high). Genome-wide methylation of whole-blood DNA was analyzed using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was used for in silico functional assessment. Epigenetic age acceleration was derived from the DNA methylation data using Horvath's epigenetic skin and blood clock. Results: 117 differentially methylated positions (q < 0.017) and one near-significantly differentially methylated region (S100A13, FWER = 0.020) were identified. In silico functional analyses suggested that genes with altered DNA methylation (q < 0.05) were annotated to cancer, endocrine system disorders, reproductive system disease, as well as pathways such as estrogen receptor signaling, cardiac hypertrophy signaling, PPARα/RXRα activation and telomerase signaling. No differences in epigenetic age acceleration between PFAS exposure groups were noted (p = 0.43). Conclusion: The data suggests that PFAS exposure alters DNA methylation in women highly exposed to PFAS from drinking water. The observed associations should be verified in larger cohorts, and it should also be further investigated whether these changes in methylation also underlie potential phenotypic changes and/or adverse health effects of PFAS. (Less)

UiO-66, as one of the most stable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), has attracted a lot of attention in the field of adsorption and photocatalysis. However, this application of UiO-66 is still limited due to either the low accessibility of micropores or the poor electron-hole charge separation capability. This study aims to promote UiO-66 accessibility of micropores and charge separation through the construction of oxygen vacancies (OVs) and mesopore defects as well as copper incorporation. Herein, mesopore Cu doped UiO-66 with rich OVs was synthesized by a one-pot method and demonstrated high efficiency for the removal of ciprofloxacin (CIP) from the aquatic system. First of all, denatured mesopore defects were produced in Cu doped UiO-66 which possessed a 58% increase in specific surface area compared to UiO-66, facilitating the adsorption of molecular oxygen. Secondly, e− was preferentially trapped by OVs under light irradiation. Electron (e−) reacted rapidly with the surface adsorbed oxygen to generate superoxide radical ( O2−). Meanwhile, copper incorporation increased the photocurrent and reduced the interfacial charge transfer resistance, thereby improving the charge separation efficiency. As a result, the adsorption efficiency and photocatalytic performance of mesopore Cu doped UiO-66 with OVs were 8.1 and 3.7 times higher than those of UiO-66, respectively. This study paved a way for the one-step synthesis of MOFs containing OVs and broadened the possibilities of practical applications for photo-induced removal of antibiotics from effluent.

Background The use of firefighting foams at a military airport resulted in high levels of perfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the drinking water distributed to one-third of households in the Swedish municipality of Ronneby between the mid-1980s and the end of 2013. Method The Ronneby Register Cohort, a large cohort comprising all individuals (N = 60,507) who ever lived in the Ronneby municipality during the period of drinking water contamination, was linked to the Swedish Cancer Register 1985–2016. Individual exposure was classified based on comprehensive data on yearly residential address and water distribution. External analysis explored standardized cancer incidence ratios (SIR) for residents never, or ever, residing in the contaminated water district, compared with those residing in other towns in the same county as reference population. Cox models provided hazard ratios (HR) for different exposure groups within the cohort. Results 5,702 individuals with cancer were identified. SIR for overall cancer was 1.04 for men (95%CI 0.96–1.12) and 0.89 for women (95%CI 0.82–0.96) who ever lived in the contaminated drinking water area. Kidney cancer, which was reported with increased risk in C8 study, showed somewhat elevated HR in this study (HR 1.27; 95%CI 0.85–1.89). The HR was modestly elevated for bladder cancer (HR 1.32; 95%CI 1.01–1.72), and reduced for prostate cancer (HR 0.83; 95%CI 0.71–0.98). In subjects who ever lived in the contaminated water area during 2005–2013, when exposure was estimated to be highest, higher risks for kidney cancer (HR 1.84; 95%CI 1.00–3.37) but lower for prostate cancer (HR 0.76; 95%CI 0.59–0.98) were observed. Conclusion Analysis of this large cohort exposed to high levels of PFAS, dominated by PFHxS and PFOS, revealed no evidence for an overall increased risk of cancer. A moderately increased risk of kidney cancer was observed, in accordance with previous findings after PFAS exposure dominated by PFOA.

Two new alkaline earth barbiturates, Ca(H

Firefighting foam-contaminated ground water, which contains high levels of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), is frequently found around airports. In 2018 it was detected that employees at a municipal airport in northern Sweden had been exposed to high levels of short-chain PFAS along with legacy PFAS (i.e., PFOA, PFHxS, and PFOS) through drinking water.In this study, we aimed to describe the PFAS profile in drinking water and biological samples (paired serum and urine) and to estimate serum half-lives of the short-chain PFAS together with legacy PFAS.Within 2 weeks after provision of clean water, blood sampling was performed in all 26 airport employees. Seventeen of them were then followed up monthly for 5 months. PFHxA, PFHpA, PFBS, PFPeS, and PFHpS together with legacy PFAS in water and biological samples were quantified using LC/MS/MS. Half-lives were estimated by assuming one compartment, first-order elimination kinetics.The proportions of PFHxA, PFHpA, and PFBS were higher in drinking water than in serum. The opposite was found for PFHxS and PFOS. The legacy PFAS accounted for about 50% of total PFAS in drinking water and 90% in serum. Urinary PFAS levels were very low compared with serum. PFBS showed the shortest half-life {average 44 d [95% confidence interval (CI): 37, 55 d]}, followed by PFHpA [62 d (95% CI: 51, 80 d)]. PFPeS and PFHpS showed average half-lives as 0.63 and 1.46 y, respectively. Branched PFOS isomers had average half-lives ranging from 1.05 to 1.26 y for different isomers. PFOA, PFHxS, and linear PFOS isomers showed average half-lives of 1.77, 2.87, and 2.93 y, respectively.A general pattern of increasing half-lives with increasing chain length was observed. Branched PFOS isomers had shorter half-lives than linear PFOS isomers. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6785.

Background Epidemiological associations between maternal concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and birth weight are inconsistent. There is concern that studies based on samples collected in late pregnancy may be confounded by kidney function but studies of the relation between pregnancy-induced changes in PFAS and kidney function are lacking. Our aims were to investigate changes in serum concentrations of perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) from early to late pregnancy and to explore relations to changes in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and glomerular pore size. Methods We conducted the study in a cohort of 73 pregnancies of normal-weight Swedish women without gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, enrolled 2009–2014. Blood was collected in median weeks 11 and 36, respectively, and analysed PFAS using liquid chromatography-tandem-mass-spectrometry. We estimated GFR based on creatinine and cystatin C and used the ratio eGFRcystatin C/eGFRcreatinine to indicate glomerular pore size. We used Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare early and late measures and partial Spearman rank correlations to explore relations between changes in PFAS and kidney function. Results Median concentrations of PFNA, PFOA and PFOS decreased by 15–21% but changes were uncorrelated to changes in kidney function (partial R = − 0.06–0.11). The observed increase in median PFHxS concentration of 69% was likely an artefact of systematic measurement error caused by coeluting endogenous inferences. Conclusions Serum concentrations of PFNA, PFOA and PFOS decrease during pregnancy but the magnitudes of change are unrelated to parallel changes in eGFR and glomerular pore size, suggesting that changes in these indicators of kidney function are not important confounders in studies of PFAS and birth weight in pregnancies without gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.

Background Exposures to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have shown positive associations with serum lipids in previous studies. While many studies on lipids investigated associations with perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), there are only a few studies regarding other PFAS, such as perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). The purpose of the current study is to investigate if associations with serum lipids were present, not only for serum PFOS and PFOA, but also for PFHxS, and if the associations with PFAS remained also in a comparison based only on residency in areas with contrasting exposure to PFAS. Methods 1945 adults aged 20–60 were included from Ronneby, Sweden, a municipality where one out of two waterworks had been heavily contaminated from aqueous fire-fighting foams, and from a nearby control area. The exposure was categorized based on either been living in areas with contrasting PFAS exposure or based on the actual serum PFAS measurements. Regression analyses of serum lipids were fitted against serum PFAS levels, percentile groups, smooth splines and between exposed and reference areas, adjusting for age, sex and BMI. Results Drinking water contamination caused high serum levels of PFOS (median 157 ng/ml) and PFHxS (median 136 ng/ml) and PFOA (median 8.6 ng/ml). These serum PFAS levels in the exposed groups were 5 to 100-fold higher than in the controls. In this population with mixed PFAS exposure, predominantly PFOS and PFHxS, PFAS exposure were positively associated with serum lipids. This was observed both when quantifying exposure as contrast between exposed and controls, and in terms of serum PFAS. Due to high correlations between each PFAS, we cannot separate them. Conclusions In conclusion, the present study provides further evidence of a causal association between PFAS and serum lipids, especially for PFHxS.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Formulas used to estimate relative GFR (mL/min/1.73 m2) by The Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration. Table S2. Formulas used to estimate relative GFR (mL/min/1.73 m2) by our laboratory. Table S3. Spearman rank correlations (p-value) between serum concentrations of PFAS and kidney function parameters in early pregnancy. Table S4. Spearman rank correlations (p-value) between serum concentrations of PFAS and kidney function parameters in late pregnancy. Table S5. Unadjusted Spearman rank correlations (p-value) between pregnancy-induced changes in serum concentrations of PFAS and parallel changes in kidney function parameters.

Additional file 1: Supplementary Material 1 Table S1. PFAS levels (ng/L) measured in outgoing drinking water from the two waterworks in Ronneby, Sweden on Dec 10, 2013. Table S2. Descriptive statistics on the study group for all adults age 20 years or more. Table S3. Spearman correlations of PFOS, PFHxS and PFOA in the control and the total exposed group. Table S4. Adjusted (for age, sex, BMI in quartiles) means of serum serum lipids in exposure groups among adults age 20 years or more. Table S5-S8. Serum lipids by ventiles (up to 20th percentile) and deciles of PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA and sums of PFAS with 95% confidence interval in all adults 20 to 60 years. Table S9-S12. Serum lipids by ventiles (up to 20th percentile) and deciles of PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA and sums of PFAS with 95% confidence interval in adults 20 to 60 years in total exposed areas. Table S13-S16. Serum lipids by deciles of PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA and sums of PFAS with 95% confidence interval in adults 20 to 60 years in recently exposed areas. Figure S1-S4. Smooth spline of total cholesterol on PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA, and the sum of PFAS. Figure S5-S8. Smooth spline of LDL on PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA, and the sum of PFAS. Figure S9-S12. Smooth spline of HDL on PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA, and the sum of PFAS. Figure S13-S16. Smooth spline of triglycerides on PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA, and the sum of PFASs. Figure S17-S20. Smooth spline of total cholesterol/HDL ratio on PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA and the sum of PFAS. Supplementary Material 2. Chemical analysis of PFAS.

A new polar iodate fluoride, PbFIO3, was designed via multisite substitution by taking BiO(IO3) as a prototype. It crystalizes in the polar space group Iba2. Similar to BiO(IO3), it has an Aurivillius-type cationic [PbF]+ layer. As regarding IO3 polyhedron in PbFIO3, they inherit the beneficial arrangement of IO3 polyhedron in BiO(IO3), which result in the strong second-harmonic generation (SHG) response about 8 times that of KH2PO4 (KDP). In addition, benefiting from the introduction of strong electronegative F atoms replacing the O atoms of 2D (Bi2O2)2+ layer, PbFIO3 exhibits a larger band gap about 3.87 eV compared to BiO(IO3) (3.3 eV). Besides strong SHG response and wide band gap, PbFIO3 possess a moderate birefringence of 0.06@546.1 nm as well. These superior linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties make PbFIO3 being a potential NLO crystal.

A computational hydrodynamics method was formulated and implemented as a tool from screw propeller propulsion to renewable energy performance prediction, design and optimization of horizontal axis turbines. As an example for tidal energy generation, a comparative analysis between screw propellers and horizontal axis turbines was presented, in terms of geometry and motion parameters, inflow velocity analysis and the implementation methodologies. Comparison and analysis are given for a marine propeller model and a horizontal axis turbine model that have experimental measurements available in literature. Analysis and comparison are presented in terms of thrust coefficients, shaft torque/power coefficients, blade surface pressure distributions, and downstream velocity profiles. The effect of number of blades from 2 to 5, of a tidal turbine on hydrodynamic efficiency is also obtained and presented. The key implementation techniques and methodologies are provided in detail for this panel method as a prediction tool for horizontal axis turbines. While the method has been proven to be accurate and robust for many propellers tested in the past, this numerical tool was also validated and presented for both tidal and wind turbines.

BackgroundControversy exists as to the health effects of exposure to asphalt and crumb rubber modified (CRM) asphalt, which contains recycled rubber tyres.ObjectiveTo assess exposures and effects on airway symptoms, lung function and inflammation biomarkers in conventional and CRM asphalt road pavers.Methods116 conventional asphalt workers, 51 CRM asphalt workers and 100 controls were investigated. A repeated-measures analysis included 31 workers paving with both types of asphalt. Exposure to dust, nitrosamines, benzothiazole and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) was measured in worksites. Self-reported symptoms, spirometry test and blood sampling were conducted prework and postwork. Symptoms were further collected during off-season for asphalt paving.ResultsDust, PAHs and nitrosamine exposure was highly varied, without difference between conventional and CRM asphalt workers. Benzothiazole was higher in CRM asphalt workers (pConclusionCRM asphalt workers are exposed to higher benzothiazole. Further studies are needed to identify the source of nitrosamines in conventional asphalt. Mild decrease in lung function in CRM asphalt workers and work-related eye symptoms in both asphalt workers were observed. However, our study did not find strong evidence for severe respiratory symptoms and inflammation response among asphalt workers.

Propeller as both propulsion and turbine device has been used for many marine vehicle renewable energy applications, especially for sailing boats and yachts. However, dual-mode propellers in these applications were mainly selected from off-the-shelf with little or no hydrodynamic performance optimization coupling propulsion and energy generation efficiency on the same rotor. To address this issue and provide some scientific evidence and data for the design of the towed propeller shaft alternator, a dual-mode rotor series, as an example, in terms of a balanced propulsion and energy generation were evaluated and optimized. Previous experimental data for these rotors was used for code validation, to ensure a reliable and accurate prediction of the effects of pitch and solidity on performance. The results obtained indicate that the optimized fixed pitch propeller could perform as propulsion and tidal/current turbine with a balanced efficiency in both modes for low speed ships, especially for yachts. The balanced relatively high power productivity and propulsive performance are achievable for low speed ships anchored in a current or a regular sail boat for which a propeller is used as a towed turbine.

The development of a simple, robust, and generalizable approach for spatially controlled growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) on diverse polymeric substrates is of profound technological significance but remains a major challenge. Here, we reported the use of adhesive bacterial amyloid nanofibers, also known as curli nanofibers (CNFs), major protein components of bacterial biofilms, as universal and chemically/mechanically robust coatings on various polymeric substrates to achieve controlled MOF growth with improved surface coverage up to 100-fold. Notably, owing to the intrinsic adhesive attributes of CNFs, our approach is applicable for MOF growth on both 2D surfaces and 3D objects regardless of their geometric complexity. Applying this technique to membrane fabrication afforded a thin-film composite membrane comprising a 760 ± 80 nm ZIF-8 selective layer grown on a microporous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) support which exhibited a C3H6/C3H8 mixed-gas separation factor up to 10, C3H6 permeance up to 1110 GPU and operational stability up to 7 days. Our simple yet robust approach therefore provides new insights into designing new interfaces for mediating MOF growth and opens new opportunities for constructing new MOF-based membranes and devices.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread synthetic substances with various adverse health effects. Not much is known about the modes of action of PFAS toxicity, but one likely mechanism is alteration of microRNA expression. Objectives: To investigate whether PFAS exposure is associated with altered microRNA expression in serum. Methods: We selected women from the Ronneby cohort, with high exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), emanating from drinking water contaminated by firefighting foam, and a control group of women from a neighbouring municipality without drinking water contamination. Serum levels of PFAS were analysed using LC/MS/MS. High coverage microRNA expression was analysed by next generation sequencing (NGS) in 53 individuals to screen for microRNAs associated with PFAS exposure. After verification by qPCR, associations between PFAS exposure and expression of 18 selected microRNAs were validated by qPCR in 232 individuals. In silico functional analyses were performed using Ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA). Results: Three microRNAs were consistently associated with PFAS exposure in the different steps of the study: miR-101-3p, miR-144-3p and miR-19a-3p (all downregulated with increasing exposure). In silico functional analyses suggested that these PFAS-associated microRNAs were annotated to e.g. cardiovascular function and disease, Alzheimer’s disease, growth of cancer cell lines and cancer. Seven predicted target genes for the downregulated microRNAs were annotated to PFAS in IPA knowledge database: DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3a), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR), nuclear receptor subfamily 1, group H, member 3 (NR1H3), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα), prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2), and tumour growth factor alpha (TGFα). Discussion: PFAS exposure was associated with downregulation of specific microRNAs. Further, in silico functional analyses suggest potential links between the specific PFAS-associated microRNAs, specific microRNA target genes and possibly also health effects. Keywords: Epigenetics, Environmental pollutants, Perfluoroalkyl substances

This paper proposes a modeling based multi-agent system to simulate a production workshop considered as a Cyber-Physical System (CPS). A Cyber-Physical Production System (CPPS) is a fundamental component of Industry 4.0, which strongly influences how workshops make production and how the entire supply chain is designed, managed and supervised. Indeed, the use of systems combining physical components with other devices of computing and data processing and storage offers intelligence to these organs and opens the field of studying several problems related to the modelling of these systems and their supervision process in production workshops. In this paper, we propose a multi-agent fractal architecture to represent the workshop and its components as well as its application to the transport task in flexible production workshops.

CPU time has long been a remaining problem for large-scale scientific computing. For some less computingintensive but many-task-computing codes, it may take several weeks or even months to run. With the increase of datasets scale, computing time grows dramatically - this hence can be more and more challenging. To address this problem, most solutions based on ongoing hardware and/or software investment. To address this issue, this research is to make the following contributions to literature: a new “Computing performance first” Computing as a Service (CaaS) model to support scientific computing and contribute as a novel high-performance private cloud computing (HPPCC) method. Efficiency of this approach is demonstrated by experiments with numerical simulation on both with End nodes and without End nodes.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are extremely persistent manmade substances. Apart from exposure through food and indoor air and dust, humans can be exposed through drinking water if the surface or groundwater is contaminated. In 2013 very high levels of PFOS and PFHxS were found in the drinking water from one of the two waterworks supplying the municipality of Ronneby, Sweden. A cohort was formed, including all individuals who had lived at least one year in Ronneby during the period 1980-2013 (ñ63,000). Each year, addresses that got their drinking water from the contaminated water works were identified. Through the Swedish personal identity number, each individual was linked to registers providing diagnoses and prescriptions for hyper- and hypothyroidism. In total, 16,150 individuals had ever been exposed. The hazard ratios did not indicate any excess risk of hyperthyroidism among those with contaminated water. For hypothyroidism, the risk of being prescribed medication was significantly increased among women with exposure during the mid part of the study period (but not men). However, the association with period of exposure was non-monotonic, so the significance is considered to be a chance finding. Our research was limited by the relatively simple exposure assessment.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can act as surfactants and have been suggested to be capable of affecting gut mucosa integrity, a possible factor in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). So far, only PFOA has been shown to have a positive association with ulcerative colitis. The present study aimed to investigate the association of PFAS and clinically diagnosed IBD in the Ronneby cohort, a population with high PFAS exposure (especially high PFOS and PFHxS) from Aqueous Film-Forming Foam through drinking water, using registry data. Additionally, to explore associations of PFAS with fecal zonulin and calprotectin, subclinical biomarkers of gut inflammation and permeability, in a sub-set of participants from Ronneby and Karlshamn (a nearby control municipality). The registry study included all people that ever resided in Ronneby municipality at least one year between 1980 and 2013. Yearly exposure to contaminated drinking water was assessed based on residential addresses and waterworks supply data, and the population classified by early, mid and late periods in ascending level of contamination. Diagnosed IBD cases were retrieved from the Swedish National Patient register and cause-of-death register. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to derive the hazard ratios (HRs) for diagnosed IBD. The biomarker study included 189 individuals who provided fecal samples. Serum PFAS were measured using LC-MS/MS. Fecal zonulin and calprotectin were measured using ELISA. Linear regression was used to assess the associations between measured PFAS and biomarker levels. In the registry study, no raised HRs for diagnosed IBD were found for cohort subjects with mid (1995-2004) or late period (2005-2013) exposure compared to never exposure. Early period exposure only (1985-1994) showed raised HRs for Crohn's disease (HR = 1.58, p = 0.048) and other non-specified IBD (HR = 1.38, p = 0.037). In the biomarker study, Karlshamn showed higher fecal calprotectin levels (median = 99.6 mg/kg in Karlshamn vs. 66.8 mg/kg in Ronneby, p = 0.04). A trend of decreased calprotectin with increased serum PFAS indicated higher PFAS was associated with lower degree of gut inflammation (p = 0.002). No association between serum PFAS and fecal zonulin was found. In conclusion, the present study found no consistent evidence to support PFAS exposure as a risk factor for IBD.

Wind turbine rotor failures have been reported that resulted in substantial damage and cost for maintenance and recovery. This work developed a wind turbine rotor blade design and optimization method to address a coupled energy generation efficiency and blade structural strength design issue, as a generic procedure applicable to both turbine rotors and propellers, in air and water. The optimization procedure was developed for optimum radial blade sectional thickness distribution with a prescribed constant safety factor across the span. While maintaining the required structural strength and integrity of the rotor blades, this procedure is to achieve the following objectives: (1) reduce material use to minimum and (2) obtain the optimum power generation efficiency with the optimum structural strength. A propeller-turbine rotor code coupling aerodynamic and structural properties was developed. For a given blade geometry and chosen material, performance prediction of the instantaneous loading acting on all blade sections and the strength of a local blade section was performed and optimized. A time-domain, three-dimensional unsteady panel method was implemented, developed, and used to perform the optimization. A wind turbine 10 m in diameter from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) (Golden, Colorado) was used as a base design example and for optimization based on an extreme wind speed of 100 km/h. The final result achieved a total savings of 18.72% in blade material.