Main Airborne Pollen Species and Characteristics of Allergic Rhinitis Patients with Pollen-Related Allergies in 13 Northern Chinese Cities.

Background: Pollen allergies have a high prevalence in northern China, whereas, the types of pollen allergens and population characteristics among different regions remain unclear. Objective: To study the species and temporal distribution of the main allergenic pollen, as well as the characteristics of patients with pollen-related allergic rhinitis (AR) in different cities in northern China. Methods: Pollen data were obtained from pollen-monitoring stations in 13 cities of northern China between 2020 and 2021. Questionnaire surveys and allergen testing were conducted in 494 patients with pollen-related allergies from Beijing in Central, Shenyang in Northeast, and Xi'an in Northwest China. Results: In 13 cities of northern China, the main sources of pollen were cypress, poplar, elm, pine, birch and ash in spring, and mugwort, goosefoot, hop and ragweed in autumn. In Northwest China, the spring and autumn pollen periods started earlier and lasted longer than that in Central and Northeast China, and the pollen counts in autumn in was significantly higher than that in Central and Northeast China. Furthermore, the nasal, ocular and respiratory symptom and quality of life scores of AR patients in Northwest China were significantly higher than that in Central and Northeast China. 69.32-73.28% of patients had annual cost of anti-allergic medication between 500-5000 yuan. However, 40.93-48.86% of patients reported minor control of symptoms. Conclusion: Our results can be used as a basis for developing effective prevention and management measures for patients with pollen-related allergy in these regions, including timely pollen monitoring, patient guidance on protective measures, early intervention, and specific immunotherapy, to improve pollen-related allergy management.

Intersecting planetary health: Exploring the impacts of environmental stressors on wildlife and human health.

This comprehensive review articulates critical insights into the nexus of environmental stressors and their health impacts across diverse species, underscoring significant findings that reveal profound effects on both wildlife and human health systems. Central to our examination is the role of pollutants, climate variables, and pathogens in contributing to complex disease dynamics and physiological disruptions, with particular emphasis on immune and endocrine functions. This research brings to light emerging evidence on the severe implications of environmental pressures on a variety of taxa, including predatory mammals, raptorial birds, seabirds, fish, and humans, which are pivotal as indicators of broader ecosystem health and stability. We delve into the nuanced interplay between environmental degradation and zoonotic diseases, highlighting novel intersections that pose significant risks to biodiversity and human populations. The review critically evaluates current methodologies and advances in understanding the morphological, histopathological, and biochemical responses of these organisms to environmental stressors. We discuss the implications of our findings for conservation strategies, advocating for a more integrated approach that incorporates the dynamics of zoonoses and pollution control. This synthesis not only contributes to the academic discourse but also aims to influence policy by aligning with the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. It underscores the urgent need for sustainable interactions between humans and their environments, which are critical for preserving biodiversity and ensuring global health security. By presenting a detailed analysis of the interdependencies between environmental stressors and biological health, this review highlights significant gaps in current research and provides a foundation for future studies aimed at mitigating these pressing issues. Our study is significant as it proposes integrative and actionable strategies to address the challenges at the intersection of environmental change and public health, marking a crucial step forward in planetary health science.

Magnetic chitosan/ZrO2 composites for vanadium(V) adsorption while concurrently being transformed to a dual functional catalyst.

Spent adsorbents for recycling as catalysts have drawn considerable attention due to their environmentally benign chemistry properties. However, traditional thermocatalytic strategies limit their applications. Here, we developed an enhanced photocatalytic strategy to expand the range of their applications. A magnetic chitosan/ZrO2 composites (MZT) for V(V) adsorption, which were prepared using chitosan, ZrO2 and Fe3O4 by one-pot synthesis. The spent MZT as a catalyst was used to synthesize 2-phenylbenzimidazole, yielding up to 89.7%. It also was implemented to photocatalysis reactions for recycle. The discolored rates of rhodamine B (RhB) were 72.3% and 97.4% by new and spent MZT, respectively. The new and spent MZT showed the forbidden bands were 251 nm and 561 nm, respectively. The result displayed spent MZT red shifted to the cyan light region. The mechanism of catalysis also has been studied in detail.

Enhanced remediation of PFAS-metal co-contaminated soil by ceramsite supported Fe3O4-MoS2 heterojunction as a high-performance piezocatalyst.

In this study, a novel piezoremediation system was developed to remediate an actual soil co-polluted by high contents of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, 5725 µg/kg soil) and heavy metals (6455 mg/kg soil). Two piezocatalysts, MoS2/ceramsite (MC) and Fe3O4-MoS2/ceramsite (FMC), were synthesized using a facile hydrothermal-coprecipitation method. These two materials were employed to treat the co-contaminated soil in soil slurry environment under sonication. FMC exhibited significantly higher piezoremediation performance than MC, wherein 91.6% of PFAS, 97.8% of Cr6+ ions and 81% of total metals (Cr, Cu, Zn and Ni) were removed from the soil after 50 min of the FMC piezoremediation process. FMC also exhibited the advantages of easy separation from the slurry phase and excellent reusability. In comparison with MC, the Fe3O4-MoS2 heterojunction in FMC can stabilize MoS2 particles on the surface of ceramsite granules, promote the separation of electron/hole pairs, accelerate charge transfer, therefore enhancing piezocatalytic performance. The electron spin resonance analysis and free radical quenching tests show that •OH was the dominant oxidative radical responsible for PFAS degradation. The count of bacteria and the bacterial community structure in the treated soil can be basically restored to the initial states after 30 days of incubation under nutrient stimulation. Overall, this study not only provides a deep insight on soil remediation process, but also offers an efficient and reliable technique for simultaneous decontamination of organic and metal pollutants in soil.

Mechanical effect of different patterns for preparation of orthodontic appliances: An experimental study.

Archwire bending is the key to orthodontic treatment, and multi-time bendings are inevitable during manual and robotic automated bending. The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical effects of the different preparation modes and to compare the mechanical properties of the orthodontic loops in one and multiple bends. Three types of typical stainless steel orthodontic loops (vertical loop, T-loop, and L-loop) were used to quantify the mechanical effect of patterns for preparation by experimental comparison between loops with different bending times by using an orthodontic force tester (OFT). The results were statistically analyzed by t-test. The fracture test of the stainless steel archwire was also carried out, and the bending times at fracture were recorded. Results of the tests indicate that one-time and multi-time bending have a significant mechanical effect on orthodontic appliances. Multi-time bending causes significant mechanical decreases and can damage the appliances.

Research on Deformation Prediction of VMD-GRU Deep Foundation Pit Based on PSO Optimization Parameters.

As a key guarantee and cornerstone of building quality, the importance of deformation prediction for deep foundation pits cannot be ignored. However, the deformation data of deep foundation pits have the characteristics of nonlinearity and instability, which will increase the difficulty of deformation prediction. In response to this characteristic and the difficulty of traditional deformation prediction methods to excavate the correlation between data of different time spans, the advantages of variational mode decomposition (VMD) in processing non-stationary series and a gated cycle unit (GRU) in processing complex time series data are considered. A predictive model combining particle swarm optimization (PSO), variational mode decomposition, and a gated cyclic unit is proposed. Firstly, the VMD optimized by the PSO algorithm was used to decompose the original data and obtain the Internet Message Format (IMF). Secondly, the GRU model optimized by PSO was used to predict each IMF. Finally, the predicted value of each component was summed with equal weight to obtain the final predicted value. The case study results show that the average absolute errors of the PSO-GRU prediction model on the original sequence, EMD decomposition, and VMD decomposition data are 0.502 mm, 0.462 mm, and 0.127 mm, respectively. Compared with the prediction mean square errors of the LSTM, GRU, and PSO-LSTM prediction models, the PSO-GRU on the PTB0 data of VMD decomposition decreased by 62.76%, 75.99%, and 53.14%, respectively. The PTB04 data decreased by 70%, 85.17%, and 69.36%, respectively. In addition, compared to the PSO-LSTM model, it decreased by 8.57% in terms of the model time. When the prediction step size increased from three stages to five stages, the mean errors of the four prediction models on the original data, EMD decomposed data, and VMD decomposed data increased by 28.17%, 3.44%, and 14.24%, respectively. The data decomposed by VMD are more conducive to model prediction and can effectively improve the accuracy of model prediction. An increase in the prediction step size will reduce the accuracy of the deformation prediction. The PSO-VMD-GRU model constructed has the advantages of reliable accuracy and a wide application range, and can effectively guide the construction of foundation pit engineering.

Study on the mechanism of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid in retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

PURPOSE: To explore the effect of 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) on retinal ischemia-reperfusion injury (RIRI) and the protective effect of N-hydroxy-N'-(4-n-butyl-2-methylphenyl)formamidine (HET0016) on RIRI. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into the normal control group, experimental model group (RIRI group), experimental solvent group (RIRI + solvent group), and experimental treatment group (RIRI + HET0016 group). RESULTS: The levels of 20-HETE, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) in the retina of rats at 24 h after reperfusion were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was used to observe the retinal morphological and thickness changes at 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days after reperfusion. The number and localized expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9-positive cells in the retina of the rats at 24 h after reperfusion and the activation and localized expression of retinal microglia at 48 h after reperfusion were measured using an immunohistochemical method. The nuclear metastasis of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB, p65) cells at 24 h after reperfusion was observed using an immunofluorescence method. CONCLUSION: Overall, 20-HETE might activate microglia to aggravate RIRI by the NF-κB pathway, but HET0016 has significant protective effects for the retina.

Unlocking the phytoremediation potential of organic acids: A study on alleviating lead toxicity in canola (Brassica napus L.).

Soil contamination with toxic heavy metals [such as lead (Pb)] is becoming a serious global problem due to the rapid development of the social economy. Organic chelating agents such as maleic acid (MA) and tartaric acid (TA) are more efficient, environmentally friendly, and biodegradable compared to inorganic chelating agents and they enhance the solubility, absorption, and stability of metals. To investigate this, we conducted a hydroponic experiment to assess the impact of MA (0.25 mM) and TA (1 mM) on enhancing the phytoremediation of Pb under its toxic concentration of 100 µM, using the oil seed crop canola (Brassica napus L.). Results from the present study showed that the Pb toxicity significantly (P < 0.05) decreased plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments, gas exchange attributes and nutritional contents from the roots and shoots of the plants. In contrast, toxic concentration of Pb significantly (P < 0.05) increased oxidative stress indicators in term of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and electrolyte leakage, increased enzymatic and non-enzymatic antixoidants and their specific gene expression and also increased organic acid exudation patter in the roots of B. napus. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that Pb toxicity significantly affected double membranous organelles while Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed an nveiled distinct peak variations in Pb-treated plants, when compared to control. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that Pb toxicity significantly affected double-membrane organelles, while Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy unveiled distinct peak variations in Pb-treated plants compared to the control. The negative impact of Pb toxicity can overcome the application of MA and TA, which ultimately increased plant growth and biomass by capturing the reactive oxygen species, and decreased oxidative stress in B. napus. With the application of MA and TA, the values of the bioaccumulation factor (BAF) and translocation factor (TF) exceeded 1, indicating that the use of MA and TA enhances the phytoremediation potential of B. napus under Pb stress conditions. This finding could be beneficial for field environment studies, especially when explored through in-depth genetic and molecular analysis.

Nanoparticles synergy: Enhancing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cadmium tolerance with iron oxide and selenium.

Nanotechnology is capturing great interest worldwide due to their stirring applications in various fields and also individual application of iron oxide nanoparticle (FeO - NPs) and selenium nanoparticles (Se - NPs) have been studied in many literatures. However, the combined application of FeO and Se - NPs is a novel approach and studied in only few studies. For this purpose, a pot experiment was conducted to examine various growth and biochemical parameters in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under the toxic concentration of cadmium (Cd) i.e., 50 mg kg-1 which were primed with combined application of two levels of FeO and Se - NPs i.e., 15 and 30 mg L-1 respectively. The results showed that the Cd toxicity in the soil showed a significantly (P < 0.05) declined in the growth, gas exchange attributes, sugars, AsA-GSH cycle, cellular fractionation, proline metabolism in T. aestivum. However, Cd toxicity significantly (P < 0.05) increased oxidative stress biomarkers, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants including their gene expression in T. aestivum. Although, the application of FeO and Se - NPs showed a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the plant growth and biomass, gas exchange characteristics, enzymatic and non-enzymatic compounds and their gene expression and also decreased the oxidative stress, and Cd uptake. In addition, individual or combined application of FeO and Se - NPs enhanced the cellular fractionation and decreases the proline metabolism and AsA - GSH cycle in T. aestivum. These results open new insights for sustainable agriculture practices and hold immense promise in addressing the pressing challenges of heavy metal contamination in agricultural soils.