Vertical profile of soil/sediment pollution and microbial community change by e-waste recycling operation.

The present study aims to assess the effect of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling on microbial community and the underlying modulation mechanism. Core soil/sediment samples were collected from an abandoned e-waste burning site and neighboring farmland/stream sites in Guiyu, China. High concentrations and health risks of toxic heavy metals, particularly, Sb and Sn, and halogenated flame retardants (HFRs), including decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE 209) and decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE) were mostly retained at the top surface layers of soils/sediments (0-30cm) after more than one year of natural vertical diffusion and microbe-facilitated biodegradation. Heavy metals, such as Ag, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sb, and Sn, played a critical role for the reduction of microbial diversity. This is the first study reporting the open burning of e-waste caused an obvious heat effect and enriched thermophilic/mesophilic microbes in local area. The acid washing during e-waste recycling process may result in the enrichment of acidophilic microbes. This investigation showed that e-waste processing operation resulted in not only severe pollution of the soils/sediments by various pollutants, but also reduction of microbial diversity that was difficult to self-store by the local ecosystem.

Biological risk, source and pollution history of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the sediment in Nansha mangrove, South China.

In the last century, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have been extensively used, especially in South China, to promote crop yield. In view of their toxicity, persistence and bioavailability, however, the Chinese government has attempted to regulate their production and use. We aimed to examine the biological risk, source and pollution history of OCPs in the sediment in Nansha mangrove which is located in the industrial region in South China. Results showed that HCHs and DDTs, mainly originating from lindane and technical DDT respectively, were the dominant OCPs, but their concentrations were too low to cause adverse effects on biota. In the last decade, the total concentration of HCHs showed a decreasing trend, whereas DDTs remained stable, despite their limited input. This suggests that management of HCHs was effective, while more management efforts should be put on DDTs, especially the use of dicofol and technical DDT, in future.

Heavy metal contamination of soil and water in the vicinity of an abandoned e-waste recycling site: implications for dissemination of heavy metals.

Illegal e-waste recycling activity has caused heavy metal pollution in many developing countries, including China. In recent years, the Chinese government has strengthened enforcement to impede such activity; however, the heavy metals remaining in the abandoned e-waste recycling site can still pose ecological risk. The present study aimed to investigate the concentrations of heavy metals in soil and water in the vicinity of an abandoned e-waste recycling site in Longtang, South China. Results showed that the surface soil of the former burning and acid-leaching sites was still heavily contaminated with Cd (>0.39 mg kg(-1)) and Cu (>1981 mg kg(-1)), which exceeded their respective guideline levels. The concentration of heavy metals generally decreased with depth in both burning site and paddy field, which is related to the elevated pH and reduced TOM along the depth gradient. The pond water was seriously acidified and contaminated with heavy metals, while the well water was slightly contaminated since heavy metals were mostly retained in the surface soil. The use of pond water for irrigation resulted in considerable heavy metal contamination in the paddy soil. Compared with previous studies, the reduced heavy metal concentrations in the surface soil imply that heavy metals were transported to the other areas, such as pond. Therefore, immediate remediation of the contaminated soil and water is necessary to prevent dissemination of heavy metals and potential ecological disaster.

Effects of compound danshen tablets on spatial cognition and expression of brain beta-amyloid precursor protein in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of Compound Danshen Tablets (CDST) on spatial cognition and expression of brain b-amyloid precursor protein (beta-APP) in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: The rat model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was established using D-galactose to cause subacute aging combined with Meynert nucleus damage. Rat behavior was monitored using the Morris water maze, and the expression of beta-APP in rat brain tissue was detected via immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: CDST significantly improved spatial cognition and decreased beta-APP expression in the cortex and hippocampus (P < 0.05, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: CDST can significantly improve spatial cognition in a rat model of AD. This observation is possibly related to a reduction in beta-APP expression in the rat brain.

False-Negative-Rate Based Approach for Selecting Top Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the First Stage of a Two-Stage Genome-Wide Association Study.

Genome-wide association (GWA) studies, where hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are tested simultaneously, are becoming popular for identifying disease loci for common diseases. Most commonly, a GWA study involves two stages: the first stage includes testing the association between all SNPs and the disease and the second stage includes replication of SNPs selected from the first stage to validate associations in an independent sample. The first stage is considered to be more fundamental since the second stage is contingent on the results of the first stage. Selection of SNPs from stage one for genotyping in stage two is typically based on an arbitrary threshold or controlling type I errors. These strategies can be inefficient and have potential to exclude genotyping of disease-associated SNPs in stage two. We propose an approach for selecting top SNPs that uses a strategy based on the false-negative rate (FNR). Using the FNR approach, we proposed the number of SNPs that should be selected based on the observed p-values and a pre-specified multi-testing power in the first stage. We applied our method to simulated data and a GWA study of glioma (a rare form of brain tumor) data. Results from simulation and the glioma GWA indicate that the proposed approach provides an FNR-based way to select SNPs using pre-specified power.

Tailoring the definition of the clinical schizophrenia phenotype in linkage studies.

The delineation of schizophrenia-related symptomatology is critical to informative clinical phenotyping in linkage studies. A minority of first-degree relatives of schizophrenia and schizoaffective probands (RelSZSA) qualifies for a clinical diagnosis in the schizophrenia spectrum. Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is a key component of this spectrum, largely because of its relatively specific familial aggregation in relatives. The criteria for SPD were not developed for the purpose of identifying RelSZSA, however, and SPD is not a homogeneous clinical disorder, potentially introducing false positives and false negatives into affectedness classifications. In this study we used logistic regression (LR) to identify the combination of clinical signs and symptoms that maximized the discrimination between nonpsychotic first-degree RelSZSA (n=241) and controls (n=161). Three variables contributed significantly to optimizing this distinction: no close friends or confidants other than family members, social isolation and irritability. The combination of deviant LR scores and schizophrenia-spectrum psychotic disorders had greater sensitivity for identifying RelSZSA, 23.7%, than SPD and schizophrenia-spectrum psychotic disorders, 16%. Importantly, the diagnosis of SPD and deviant LR scores were not significantly correlated. Most individuals with deviant LR scores did not meet criteria for a diagnosis of SPD and only a minority of those who were diagnosed with SPD had deviant LR scores. Since misclassification of gene carriers as non-gene carriers in linkage analyses increases the risk of false negatives, it may be advantageous to tailor the definition of the clinical phenotype to those aspects of social-interpersonal dysfunction that optimize the discrimination of RelSZSA from controls.

Reinforcement ambiguity and novelty do not account for transitive inference deficits in schizophrenia.

The capacity for transitive inference (TI), a form of relational memory organization, is impaired in schizophrenia patients. In order to disambiguate deficits in TI from the effects of ambiguous reinforcement history and novelty, 28 schizophrenia and 20 nonpsychiatric control subjects were tested on newly developed TI and non-TI tasks that were matched on these 2 variables. Schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse than controls on the TI task but were able to make equivalently difficult nontransitive judgments as well as controls. Neither novelty nor reinforcement ambiguity accounted for the selective deficit of the patients on the TI task. These findings implicate a disturbance in relational memory organization, likely subserved by hippocampal dysfunction, in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia patients show deficits in shifts of attention to different levels of global-local stimuli: evidence for magnocellular dysfunction.

Abnormalities of attention and visual perception are well documented in schizophrenia. The global-local task is a measure of attention and perceptual organization that utilizes visual stimuli comprised of large letters (global level) made up of smaller letters (local level). Subjects identify target letters appearing at either the global or local level of the stimulus. In this study, we used a version of the global-local task specifically designed to examine lateralized hemispheric processing and attention shifting in 30 schizophrenia patients and 24 normal controls. Global-local stimuli were presented in couplets (consecutive pairs). Reaction time for the second target in a couplet was compared under conditions in which the target remained at the same level (global-global, local-local) and when the target changed levels (global-local, local-global). Level-specific priming (ie, global to global and local to local) and the local-to-global level shift were similar in both groups. Schizophrenia patients were significantly slower, however, shifting attention from the global to the local level. These results implicate an impairment in shifting attentional resources from predominantly right lateralized magnocellular/dorsal stream processing of global targets to predominantly left lateralized parvocellular/ventral stream processing of local targets. Local interference effects in global processing provide further support for impaired magnocellular processing in schizophrenia patients.

[Effects of a novel gene NOR(1) on the protein expression of HepG2 cell line].

AIM: To investigate the mechanism of NOR(1) gene, a novel gene associated with liver cancer. METHODS: NOR(1) was introduced into HepG2 cells by liposome transfection. After staining and image analysis, 6 differential expression spots which were up-regulated in NOR(1) transfected cells were isolated and identified by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel eletrophoresis (2D PAGE) and MALDI-TOF. RESULTS: The proteins which included zinc finger protein, tumor necrosis factor receptor, and protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor were involved in gene transcription and signal transduction associated with cancer. CONCLUSION: NOR(1) gene may have some effects on liver cancer by up-regulating the expression of these proteins.

[Effects of cholesterol ester transfer protein Taq1B polymorphism on response of serum HDL-C to dietary factors in hyperlipidemia patients].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the effects of cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) Taq1B polymorphism on the response of serum HDL-C to dietary factors in hyperlipidemia patients. METHODS: All 141 hyperlipidemia residents in a community in Shanghai were investigated by a 3-day diet questionnaire. The serum lipids were analyzed, and the polymorphism of CETP gene was detected by PCR-RFLP method. The correlation between dietary factors and serum HDL-C in different genotype was analyzed when considering the effects of sex, age and body mass index. RESULT: The HDL-C of hyperlipidemia patients was affected by dietary factors and CETP gene Taq1B polymorphism. The strength of the correlation between dietary factors and serum HDL-C was different among the genotype groups. The relation was shown closer in B(2)B(2) subjects than in B(1)B(1). CONCLUSION: The Taq1B CETP gene polymorphism should be a strong determinant of HDL-C in hyperlipidemia patients, and might contribute to the heterogeneity in HDL-C response to dietary intervention.

[Association of gene polymorphism at cholesterol ester transfer protein locus with obesity and response to dietary intervention in obesity].

OBJECTIVE: To study the association of gene polymorphism at cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) locus with obesity and response to dietary intervention in obesity. METHODS: The PCR-PFLP method was used to detect the polymorphism of CETP gene of 340 adults in Shanghai. The levels of serum lipid profile, including TG, TC, HDL and LDL were analyzed. Obesity was selected to dietary intervention. RESULTS: (1)The genotype frequencies of CETP-TaqIB B1 B1, B1 B2 and B2 B2 were 35.6%, 47.9% and 16.5% respectively, which were in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. There was no significant difference in the distribution of genotypes between the obesity group and control group. The result was same after several influence factors controlled. (2) The levels of HDL were significantly different among genotype groups. Subjects for the B2 B2 genotype had the highest HDL levels. The relationship was steady after adjusting several influence factors. (3)Subjects for the B1 B2 genotype had higher HDL level after intervention, which was significantly different to other genotype groups. After adjusting baseline HDL level and gender, genotype didn't effect the change in HDL. CONCLUSION: CETP-TaqIB gene polymorphism influenced serum HDL level. But this gene polymorphism at CETP locus wasn't especial in adult obesity. Baseline HDL level influenced the change in HDL response to dietary intervention in three genotype groups.

[Advances on the research of the relationship between cholesteryl ester transfer protein and atherosclerosis].

Plasma cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) mediates the transfer of cholesteryl ester (CE) from high density lipoprotein (HDL) to apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. It plays a critical role in reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). Genetic CETP deficiency is the main cause of HALP. Mass research results demonstrate that Genetic CETP deficiency is relative to atherosclerosis. The current review focused on the relationship between cholesteryl ester transfer protein and atherosclerosis.