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The features and causes of the leading intermonth modes of winter surface air temperature anomalies (SATA) over China are investigated, and associated prediction models are developed. The first three intermonth modes of winter SATA over China are obtained by extended empirical orthogonal function (i.e., EEOF1–3) analysis. The results show that EEOF1 represents consistent variations in the whole winter, with a variance contribution of 32.3%, whereas EEOF2 and EEOF3 show spatiotemporally inconsistent changes, and their variance contributions are 16.9% and 12.5%, respectively. EEOF2 has out-of-phase variations between December and January–February, and EEOF3 exhibits a temporal warm–cold alternating pattern, with spatially reversing changes over northwestern and southern China. However, the Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2) presents a limited prediction skill for winter SATA over China and their intermonth modes. Further investigations indicate that the September sea ice over the Barents–Laptev Seas, the November snow cover over western Europe and East Asia, and the November northern Atlantic sea surface temperature can be, respectively, adopted to develop prediction schemes for the consistent mode (EEOF1 scheme) and two inconsistent modes (EEOF2 and EEOF3 schemes) based on specific mechanisms. These schemes show effective performances in predicting both individual modes and the reconstruction field of SATA over China. The temporal correlation coefficients (TCCs) between cross-validation results and observations are 0.48, 0.51, and 0.31 for the EEOF1–3 modes, respectively (the 90% confidence level is 0.27). For the reconstruction field, the TCCs are 0.40, 0.27, and 0.45 in December, January, and February, respectively, which are much higher than those of the CFSv2 outputs (0.23, −0.16, and −0.09).

Both concentrations and emissions of many air pollutants have been decreasing due to implement of control measures in China, in contrast to the fact that an increase in emissions of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) has been reported. This study employed seven years continuous NMHCs measurements and the related activities data of Shanghai, a megacity in China, to explore evolution of emissions and effectiveness of air pollution control measures. The mixing ratio of NMHCs showed no statistical interannual changes, of which their compositions exhibited marked changes. This resulted in a decreasing trend of ozone formation potential by 3.8%/year (p 0.05, the same below), which should be beneficial to ozone pollution mitigation as its production in Shanghai is in the NMHCs-limited regime. Observed alkanes, aromatics and acetylene changed by +3.7%/year, -5.9%/year and -7.4%/year, respectively, and alkenes showed no apparent trend. NMHCs sources were apportioned by a positive matrix factorization model. Accordingly, vehicular emissions (-5.9%/year) and petrochemical industry emissions (-7.1%/year) decreased significantly, but the decrease slowed down; significant reduction in solvent usage (-9.0%/year) appeared after 2010; however, emissions of natural gas (+12.6%/year) and fuel evaporation (with an increasing fraction) became more important. The inconsistency between observations and inventories was found in interannual trend and speciation as well as source contributions, emphasizing the need for further validation in NMHCs emission inventory. Our study confirms the effectiveness of measures targeting mobile and centralized emissions from industrial sources and reveals a need focusing on fugitive emissions, which provided new insights into future air policies in polluted region.

ImportanceAlthough certain air pollutants have been associated with adverse obstetric outcomes, evidence regarding the association of ozone (O3) exposure with the risk of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) is limited and inconsistent.ObjectivesTo evaluate the association between gestational O3 exposure and HDP (ie, gestational hypertension and preeclampsia) risk, and to explore the window of susceptibility for O3 exposure during pregnancy.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cohort study recruited pregnant patients from the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, from March 2017 to December 2018. Participants were older than 18 years, had no infectious diseases or chronic noncommunicable diseases before pregnancy, were Shanghai residents with intent to participate in the study, and had plans to give birth in Shanghai. Gestational hypertension and preeclampsia were diagnosed according to the diagnostic criteria of the Chinese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology during the study period. Data on residential addresses, demographic characteristics, and household living environments were collected from participants through a questionnaire survey. Data were analyzed from December 10, 2021, to May 10, 2022.ExposuresA high temporospatial resolution model was applied to predict individual levels of daily O3 exposure during pregnancy.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe outcomes were gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, and data on these diagnoses were extracted from the hospital’s information system. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the associations between O3 exposure and risk of gestational hypertension or preeclampsia. Exposure-response associations were confirmed by restricted cubic spline functions. Distributed lag models were used to identify the O3 exposure window of susceptibility.ResultsAmong the 7841 participants (all females; mean [SD] age, 30.4 [3.8] years), 255 (3.2%) had gestational hypertension and 406 (5.2%) had preeclampsia. Pregnant individuals with HDP had considerably higher prepregnancy body mass indexes and lower educational levels. The mean (SD) O3 exposure levels were 97.66 (25.71) μg/m3 in the first trimester and 106.13 (22.13) μg/m3 in the second trimester. Each 10-μg/m3 increment of O3 exposure during the first trimester was associated with higher gestational hypertension risk (relative risk, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.04-1.57). However, gestational O3 exposure was not associated with the risk of preeclampsia. The restricted cubic spline function analysis revealed an exposure-response association between O3 exposure and risk of gestational hypertension.Conclusions and RelevanceResults of this study showed an association between increased gestational hypertension risk and O3 exposure during the first trimester. Furthermore, gestational weeks 1 to 9 were identified as the window of susceptibility for O3 exposure and elevated gestational hypertension risk. Sustainable O3 control is needed to reduce the disease burden of gestational hypertension.

Background It has been widely reported that gestational exposure to fine particulate matters (PM2.5) is associated with a series of adverse birth outcomes. However, the discrepancy between ambient PM2.5 concentrations and personal PM2.5 exposure would significantly affect the estimation of exposure-response relationship. Objective Our study aimed to predict gestational personal exposure to PM2.5 from the satellite-driven ambient concentrations and analyze the influence of other potential determinants. Method We collected 762 72-h personal exposure samples from a panel of 329 pregnant women in Shanghai, China as well as their time-activity patterns from Feb 2017 to Jun 2018. We established an ambient PM2.5 model based on MAIAC AOD at 1 km resolution, then used its output as a major predictor to develop a personal exposure model. Results Our ambient PM2.5 model yielded a cross-validation R2 of 0.96. Personal PM2.5 exposure levels were almost identical to the corresponding ambient concentrations. After adjusting for time-activity patterns and meteorological factors, our personal exposure has a CV R2 of 0.76. Conclusion We established a prediction model for gestational personal exposure to PM2.5 from satellite-based ambient concentrations and provided a methodological reference for further epidemiological studies.

Weak stratospheric polar vortex (WPV) events during winter months were investigated. WPV events were identified as being weakest in December, accompanied by the most dramatic increase in geopotential height over the polar region. After the onset of a December WPV event, the dynamic processes influencing Eurasian temperature can be split into two separate periods. Period I (lag of 0–25 days) is referred to as the stratosphere–troposphere interactions period, as it is mainly characterized by stratospheric signals propagating downwards. In Period I, a stratospheric negative Northern Annular Mode (NAM) pattern associated with the WPV propagates downwards, inducing a negative NAM in the troposphere. The anomalous low centers over the Mediterranean and North Pacific bring cold advection to northern Eurasia, resulting in a north-cold–south-warm dipole pattern over Eurasia. The zero line between negative and positive temperature anomalies moves southwards during days 5–20. Stratospheric cold anomalies at midlatitudes propagate downwards to high latitudes in the troposphere and contribute to the dipole structure. During Period Ⅱ (lag of 25–40 days), as downward signals from the stratosphere have vanished, the dynamic processes mainly take place within the troposphere. Specifically, a wave train is initiated from the North Atlantic region to northern Europe. The propagation of wave activity flux intensifies a cyclonic anomaly over northern Europe, which brings cold advection to Scandinavia and warm advection to central Asia. Therefore, a northwest-cold–southeast-warm dipole structure occupies Eurasia and migrates southeastwards during this period.

This study focuses on the month-to-month variability of winter temperature anomalies over Northeast China (NECTA), especially the out-of-phase change between December and January–February (colder than normal in December and warmer than normal in January–February, and vice versa), which accounts for 30% of the past 37 years (1980–2016). Our analysis shows that the variability of sea ice concentration (SIC) in the preceding November over the Davis Strait–Baffin Bay (SIC_DSBB) mainly affects NECTA in December, whereas the SIC over the Barents–Kara Sea (SIC_BKS) significantly impacts NECTA in January–February. A possible reason for the different effects of SIC_DSBB and SIC_BKS on NECTA is that the month-to-month increments (here called DM) of SIC over these two areas between October and November are different. A smaller DM of SIC_DSBB in November can generate eastward-propagating Rossby waves toward East Asia, whereas a larger DM of SIC_BKS can affect upward-propagating stationary Rossby waves toward the stratosphere in November. Less than normal SIC_DSBB in November corresponds to a negative phase of the sea surface temperature tripole pattern over the North Atlantic, which contributes to a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)-like geopotential height anomalies via the eddy-feedback mechanism, ultimately favoring cold conditions over Northeast China. However, positive November SIC_BKS anomalies can suppress upward-propagating Rossby waves that originate from the troposphere in November, strengthening the stratospheric polar vortex and leading to a positive phase of an Arctic Oscillation (AO)-like pattern in the stratosphere. Subsequently, these stratospheric anomalies propagate downward, causing the AO-like pattern in the troposphere in January–February, favoring warm conditions in Northeast China, and vice versa.

Long term measurements of air pollutants represented the footprints of emissions to some extent, which could provide useful and consecutive evolution of emissions. Both atmospheric concentrations and emissions of many air pollutants have been reported decreasing in the past decade due to the implement of various control measures in China, which were different for non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) with increasing emissions as reported previously. The present study employed the long-term (2009–2015) NMHCs measurements as well as the related social and economic activities data in Shanghai, a megacity in eastern China, to explore the evolution of NMHCs emissions during the periods. The meteorology and photochemistry which might impact the NMHCs measurements were tested as negligible effects on an annual scale. As a result, NMHCs mixing ratio showed no statistic interannual changes, of which compositions varied significantly. This resulted a statistically decreasing trend of ozone formation potential by 3.8 % yr−1 (p −1, −6.0 % yr−1 and −7.8 % yr−1 (p −1) and petrochemical industry (−9.4 % yr−1) presented a significant decreasing trend, but the decrease slowed down in recent years; some positive reductions in solvent usage (−8.0 % yr−1) appeared after 2010; however, emissions of natural gas (+9.2 % yr−1) and fuel evaporation (with an increasing fraction) became more important. Discrepancies between measurements and emission inventory, both in interannual trend and speciation as well as source contributions, emphasized the need for further validation in NMHCs emission inventory in future. Our study confirmed the effectiveness of strengthening emission standards of vehicles and key industrial sources, generally mobile and point sources, against the increasing vehicle populations and industries in the past. While, limited reductions were observed for the fugitive emissions like petrochemical industry which need more effective measures in future. Emissions of natural gas and fuel evaporation deserved more attention as the quick increase of natural gas and fuel consumption due to the policy of energy structure reformation in China.

Background Treatment strategies for various subtypes of breast cancer (BC) are different based on their distinct molecular characteristics. Therefore, it is very important to identify key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ER-positive/HER2-negative BC and ER-negative/HER2-negative BC. Methods Gene expression profiles of GSE22093 and GSE23988 were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. There were 74 ER-positive/HER2-negative BC tissues and 85 ER-negative/HER2-negative BC tissues in the two profile datasets. DEGs between ER-positive/HER2-negative tissues and ER-negative/HER2-negative BC tissues were identified by the GEO2R tool. The common DEGs among the two datasets were detected with Venn software online. Next, we made use of the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery to analyze enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genome (KEGG) pathways and gene ontology terms. Then, the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of these DEGs were visualized by Cytoscape with the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes. Of the proteins in the PPI network, Molecular Complex Detection plug-in analysis identified nine core upregulated genes and one core downregulated gene. UALCAN and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis were applied to determine the expression of these 10 genes in BC. Furthermore, for the analysis of overall survival among those genes, the Kaplan-Meier method was implemented. Results Ninety-three common DEGs (63 upregulated and 30 downregulated) were identified. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that upregulated DEGs were particularly enriched in the progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway. In addition, PGR might be a prognostic biomarker for ER-positive/HER2-negative BC. CCND1 is a poor prognostic biomarker for ER-positive/HER2-negative BC and ER-negative/HER2-negative BC. Moreover, TFF1, AGR2 and EGFR might be predictive biomarkers of node metastasis in ER-positive/HER2-negative BC and ER-negative/HER2-negative BC. Conclusions CCND1, AGR2, PGR, TFF1 and EGFR are the key DEGs between ER-positive/HER2-negative BC and ER-negative/HER2-negative BC. Further studies are required to confirm the functions of the identified genes.

A hybrid downscaling model for operational prediction of summer precipitation at 160 stations over China is proposed in this paper. The prediction model is conducted in February, and six predictors extending from the tropics to high latitudes with specific mechanisms are involved. Simultaneous sea level pressure over pan-East Asia and spring sea surface temperature (SST) over the tropical Atlantic Ocean are from the Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2). The others are observational predictors including winter SST over the tropical Indian Ocean, sea ice concentration (SIC) over the Hudson Bay–Baffin Bay–Davis Strait in winter and the Barents–Kara Sea in autumn, and winter outgoing longwave radiation over the tropics. Different predictors impact the summer precipitation of different regions in China. Validations for schemes based on individual predictors (IP-schemes) and all predictors (HD-scheme) indicate that downscaling schemes outperform CFSv2 in predicting summer precipitation over China, especially the HD-scheme. The temporal and spatial anomaly correlation coefficient, root-mean-square errors, and ratio of the same sign (RSS) are estimated. For RSS (Anomalous RSS), the results are improved from 27.8% (23.8%) for CFSv2 to 77.8% (61.9%) for HD-scheme. Notably, the RSSs of IP-schemes based on SIC are equivalent to that of HD-scheme. This partly emphasizes the importance of preceding Arctic sea ice to summer rainfall in China. Moreover, two cases from hindcasts and two from the operational application are chosen for further validation of the prediction skill of HD-scheme. The case studies confirm that the hybrid downscaling model proposed in this paper not only outperforms CFSv2 but can also be applied well to real-time forecasting of summer precipitation over China.

Proliferative myositis (PM) and nodular fasciitis (NF) are two diseases easily misdiagnosed as cancer, often promoting unnecessary invasive procedures. To make accurate diagnoses of PM and NF and for the differential diagnosis between them, we performed a retrospective study to evaluate the roles of the clinical, radiologic, and pathologic characteristics of PM and NF. With an emphasis on the clinicopathologic and radiologic characteristics, we conducted a retrospective study of 8 cases of PM and 64 cases of NF that were diagnosed between 2012 and 2018. According to MRI findings, the lesions of PM and NF appeared as homogeneous masses with homogenous hypointensity or isointensity on T1-weighted images and as moderately or markedly hyperintense signals on T2-weighted images compared to skeletal muscle. In terms of histopathologic features, the differences between PM and NF mainly consisted of the presence of ganglion-like myofibroblasts with vesicular nuclei and basophilic cytoplasm in PM. The areas abundant in myxoid stroma with inflammatory infiltration that did not have abundant ganglion-like cells suggest NF. Immunohistochemically, the spindle-shaped cells of PM stained positive for smooth muscle actin (SMA), while the ganglion-like cells were negative. The spindle-shaped cells of NF showed diffuse expression of SMA, calponin, and vimentin. Our comprehensive study further demonstrated that PM and NF had a wide clinicopathologic and radiologic spectrum. Correlation with the clinical, radiologic and pathologic characteristics may help clinicians and pathologists make accurate diagnoses.

It has been widely reported that gestational exposure to fine particulate matters (PMOur study aimed to predict gestational personal exposure to PMWe collected 762 72-h personal exposure samples from a panel of 329 pregnant women in Shanghai, China as well as their time-activity patterns from Feb 2017 to Jun 2018. We established an ambient PMOur ambient PMWe established a prediction model for gestational personal exposure to PM

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been reported to be associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases in pregnancy, but few studies have investigated its association with physiological changes in the cardiovascular system; furthermore, the possible effects of source-specific PM2.5 have not been explored. 176 pregnant women were enrolled from the Shanghai Maternal-Child Pairs Cohort (MCPC) in this study to assess the associations between source-specific PM2.5 and changes in the cardiovascular system. Personal PM2.5 exposure measurements and echocardiography examinations were carried out during two follow-up visits (second trimester: 17.3 ± 1.6 weeks and third trimester: 32.3 ± 2.2 weeks) from February 2017 to September 2018. Various chemical components in PM2.5 samples were then determined, including elements, ions, and organic/elemental carbon. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used for source apportionment of PM2.5, and linear mixed-effects models were developed to estimate associations between source-specific PM2.5 and the cardiovascular response. Nine pollution factors were identified, namely, secondary sulfate/nitrate, secondary organic carbon (SOC), coal combustion, motor vehicle emissions, residual oil combustion, cosmetics, sea salt, dust and industry emissions. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in residual oil combustion was associated with decreases in cardiac output [−5.25% (95% confidence interval (CI): −9.60, −0.69)] and cardiac index [−5.13% (95% CI: −9.38, −0.70)]. An IQR increase in dust was associated with decreased left ventricular ejection fraction [−0.65% (95% CI: −1.17, −0.11)] and left ventricular fractional shortening [−0.97% (95% CI: −1.69, −0.21)]. In addition, the total PM2.5 mass, cosmetics, and secondary pollution factors (secondary sulfate/nitrate and SOC) were also associated with changes in cardiac structure. The results indicated that short-term exposure to PM2.5 from residual oil combustion and dust appeared to be potential risk factors for decreased left ventricular systolic function in pregnant women. Further research is needed to confirm these preliminary findings.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) commonly exist in various kinds of environmental mediums and can migrant into plant food sources and bioaccumulate in the fatty tissues of human body. Traditional approach to evaluate POPs in multiple biofluids is based on targeted analytic chemistry. Recently, the development of sophisticated analytical instruments (e.g., tandem mass spectrometry, MS–MS) has provided the opportunity to quantify and identify chemical compounds to achieve good sensitivity and selectivity. In this chapter, we discuss the current assessment tools of chemical pollutants, including classic targeted approaches and novel untargeted methods. Targeted biomonitoring studies typically focused on a specific group of interest chemicals such as phthalate, bisphenol A (BPA), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Recent studies tended to use noninvasive or less-invasive bio-matrices which could be accessible in sufficient amounts for the analysis and do not pose a health risk for the donor. There does not exist an ideal matrix for universal situations, but depending on the toxicokinetic of the targeted chemical. Exposome includes a series of quantitative and repeated metrics of both endogenous and exogenous exposures that describe, holistically, environmental influences or exposure over a lifetime. At the current stage, the exposome is still in its infancy. Many technical and statistical challenges remain unsolved. Combined with data mining, via a series of statistical approaches, exposome shows great potential in identifying markers that can further lead to targeted analyses.

Although ambient PM2.5 has been linked to adverse health effects, the chemical constituents that cause harm are largely unclear. Few prior studies in a developing country have reported the health impacts of PM2.5 constituents. In this study, we examined the short-term association between PM2.5 constituents and emergency room visits in Shanghai, China. We measured daily concentrations of PM2.5, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and eight water-soluble ions between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2012. We analyzed the data using overdispersed generalized linear Poisson models. During our study period, the mean daily average concentration of PM2.5 in Shanghai was 55 μg/m(3). Major contributors to PM2.5 mass included OC, EC, sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium. For a 1-day lag, an interquartile range increment in PM2.5 mass (36.47 μg/m(3)) corresponded to 0.57% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.13%, 1.01%] increase of emergency room visits. In all the three models used, we found significant positive associations of emergency room visits with OC and EC. Our findings suggest that PM2.5 constituents from the combustion of fossil fuel (e.g., OC and EC) may have an appreciable influence on the health impact attributable to PM2.5.

Chamber experiments, exhaust collection, and in-situ sampling were employed to study the emission profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from solvent use, specifically indoor paint, auto paint, furniture paint, and print ink, which are of significant importance with regard to VOC emissions in Shanghai. The results showed that there were some differences among these VOC source profiles of the emissions associated with different solvents. On the one hand, for emissions from imported indoor solvents, ~50% of the total mass concentration was contributed by aromatics, and ~30% by alkanes. On the other hand, VOC source profiles from domestic indoor paint, furniture paint, and auto paint were similar in the sense that aromatics made a much larger contribution to total VOCs, specifically, 98% for domestic indoor paint, 80%–93% for the other two, and C8–C9 aromatics accounted for ~70% of total VOCs. For VOCs from printing, C2–C5 species dominated by more than 50%, followed by C8–C9 aromatics. VOCs from the use of different solvents presented different chemical reactivities. Among the four solvents listed above, the average OH loss rate constant (k-avg) and maximum incremental reactivity (MIR-avg) of VOCs from printing were the lowest, with values of 8.2 × 10 –12 cm 3 /molecule/s and 2.9 g(O3)/g(VOC), respectively. For VOCs from painting, the average reactivity was twice that of VOCs from printing, and its value of MIR-avg was 4.7–6.3 g(O3)/g(VOC). There are significant variations in the VOC source profiles related to solvent use in different studies. The representativeness of the solvents studied and the VOC samples collected should thus be more closely examined. The accuracy of VOC source profiles related to solvent use is highly dependent on location and sampling frequency.

Background Exposure to indoor VOCs is expected to link to a variety of negative health outcome. The popularity of decorations and refurbishment in homes in China has given rise to indoor elevated VOC levels, potentially posing health threats to residents. Methods In this study, concentrations of 101 VOC compounds and associated health risks were investigated in newly renovated homes in Shanghai. The potential excess inhalation health risks from home exposure of 17 health-related VOCs were estimated by the Inhalation Unit Risk (IUR) and Reference Concentration (RfC) proposed by US EPA. Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analysis were used to assess the uncertainty associated with the estimates of health risks. Results The dominant groups by mass concentration were oxygenated VOCs (o-VOCs), aromatics, alkanes and halogenated VOCs (x-VOCs) .12 VOCs with IARC's confirmed or probable carcinogens ratings were detected with a > 60% detection frequency in the total samples. The mean concentrations of BTEX (benzene, toluene, m/p-xylene, o-xylene, ethylbenzene) were 2.32 μg/m3, 200.13 μg/m3, 39.56 μg/m3, 32.59 μg/m3 and 26.33 μg/m3 respectively, generally higher than those in older homes reported in previous studies except benzene. The mean concentration of methylene chloride (47.43 μg/m3) and 1,2-dichloroethane (33.83 μg/m3) were noticeably higher than the levels reported in previous studies in Hong Kong, Japan and Canada. Whereas the mean concentration of 1,4-dichlorobenzene (5.53 μg/m3) were similar to the results of Canadian national survey but lower than those in Japan. The concentrations of 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, and methylene chloride, ethylbenzene presented a mean cancer risk at 7.39 × 10− 6, 1.95 × 10− 6, 1.62 × 10− 6, 1.04 × 10− 6 respectively, above the US EPA proposed acceptable risk level of 1 × 10− 6. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the VOC exposure concentration have a greater impact than the IUR values on the risk assessment. Conclusion This study highlights the characteristics of VOCs in recently renovated homes and has implications for the adverse health effects that result from exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbons in indoor air.

Osmotin plays an important role in plant response to low temperature and pathogen infection . To date l ittle is known on existence and full function of OSM genes in genome-wide. I n this study, based on an OSM expression sequence tag identified from a drought-treated subtractive library, StOSMs in the potato genome were identified and characterized in response to a water deficit gradient. BLAST and bioinformatic analysis revealed that there are at least eleven StOSMs in the potato genome . Among eleven StOSMs ,eight StOSM mRNAs accumulated in leaf at the drought-lethal critical point (DLP ) were at least 4-fold higher than in the control. The peak StOSM- 8E mRNA accumulation was 49-fold higher than the control. Three StOSM mRNAs in leaf at DLP were 9.2-f old lower than in the control. This result of qRT-PCR quantification was identical with the FPKM values of all eleven StOSMs examined in the the Potato Genome Sequence database (PGSD) . In conclusion, water deficiency does induce the regulation of the expression of the eleven StOSMs. Either up or downregulated by water deficiency, StOSM s play a positive role in enhancing potato tolerance to drought stress. Therefore, osmotins can be considered to be drought responsive molecules involved in withstanding water deficits. The result provides an evidence to reveal how potato adapts to drought stress.

Sorption and degradation behaviors of atrazine were investigated with packed and intact soil columns. The measured breakthrough curves from columns were fitted with CXTFIT model program. The high mobility and long persistence of atrazine indicated by experiment results confirm that atrazine application may cause potential groundwater pollution. It was found that the obtained sorption and degradation parameters from the packed column experiments were quite similar to those obtained from the intact column experiments. These results suggest that sorption and degradation behaviors in both experiments can be used jointly to model herbicide transport at a large scale if the soil is relatively homogeneous.

We show that a protein with no intrinsic inorganic synthesis activity can be endowed with the ability to control the formation of inorganic nanostructures under thermodynamically unfavorable (nonequilibrium) conditions, reproducing a key feature of biological hard-tissue growth and assembly. The nonequilibrium synthesis of Cu(2)O nanoparticles is accomplished using an engineered derivative of the DNA-binding protein TraI in a room-temperature precursor electrolyte. The functional TraI derivative (TraIi1753::CN225) is engineered to possess a cysteine-constrained 12-residue Cu(2)O binding sequence, designated CN225, that is inserted into a permissive site in TraI. When TraIi1753::CN225 is included in the precursor electrolyte, stable Cu(2)O nanoparticles form, even though the concentrations of [Cu(+)] and [OH(-)] are at 5% of the solubility product (K(sp,Cu2O)). Negative control experiments verify that Cu(2)O formation is controlled by inclusion of the CN225 binding sequence. Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction reveal a core-shell structure for the nonequilibrium nanoparticles: a 2 nm Cu(2)O core is surrounded by an adsorbed protein shell. Quantitative protein adsorption studies show that the unexpected stability of Cu(2)O is imparted by the nanomolar surface binding affinity of TraIi1753::CN225 for Cu(2)O (K(d) = 1.2 x 10(-)(8) M), which provides favorable interfacial energetics (-45 kJ/mol) for the core-shell configuration. The protein shell retains the DNA-binding traits of TraI, as evidenced by the spontaneous organization of nanoparticles onto circular double-stranded DNA.

We have used the FliTrx cell surface display system to identify disulfide-constrained dodecapeptides binding to the semiconducting metal oxides Cu(2)O and ZnO. Sequence analysis of the inserts revealed that the two populations exhibit similar, yet subtly different patterns of amino acid usage. Both sets of binders were enriched in arginine, tryptophan, and glycine with a higher degree of positional preference in the case of Cu(2)O binders. Tyrosine, proline, and serine were underrepresented in both populations. Peptides binding electrodeposited Cu(2)O or ZnO with high avidity could be subdivided into two classes based on pI and hydrophilicity. In the hydrophilic and positively charged Class I binders, the Arg-X-X-Arg tetrapeptide appears to be implicated in metal oxide binding, whereas Arg-Arg and Arg-Lys pairs allow for discrimination between Cu(2)O and ZnO. Molecular dynamics simulations of the disulfide-constrained peptides suggest that the aforementioned motifs are important to properly orient two basic residues that are likely to contact the metal oxides. The implications of our results in understanding the rules governing the interaction between peptides and inorganic compounds and in their use for the design of hybrid nanoarchitectures are discussed.

Explore the adverse impact of ambient particulate matter pollution on human health.Generalized additive model (GAM) extended poisson regression was used to examined the exposure--response relationship between ambient PM10, PM2.5 pollution and daily mortality in a district in Shanghai. Regression analyses was used for analysis with adjustment for controlling time trends, weather, season, the day of the week.A 10 micrograms/m3 increase in PM10, and PM2.5 were associated with 0.53% (0.22%-0.85%), 0.85% (0.32%-1.39%) increase in total daily mortality respectively.Ambient particulate pollution has potential acute adverse health effects on human.

Nickel hexacyanoferrate is a polynuclear inorganic ion intercalation material that loads (intercalates) and elutes (deintercalates) alkali cations from its structure when electrochemically reduced and oxidized, respectively. Nickel hexacyanoferrrate (NiHCF) is known to preferentially intercalate cesium over all other alkali cations, thus providing a basis for a separation scheme that can tackle DOE's radiocesium contamination problem. This program studied fundamental issues in alkalization intercalation and deintercalation in nickel hexacyanoferrate compounds, with the goal of (1) quantifying the ion exchange selectivity properties from cation mixtures, (2) enhancing ion exchange capacities, and (3) and understanding the electrochemically-switched ion exchange process (ESIX).