Significant Increase in Ammonia Emissions in China: Considering Nonagricultural Sectors Based on Isotopic Source Apportionment.

Isotopic source apportionment results revealed that nonagricultural sectors are significant sources of ammonia (NH3) emissions, particularly in urban areas. Unfortunately, nonagricultural sources have been substantially underrepresented in the current anthropogenic NH3 emission inventories (EIs). Here, we propose a novel approach to develop a gridded EI of nonagricultural NH3 in China for 2016 using a combination of isotopic source apportionment results and the emission ratios of carbon monoxide (CO) and NH3. We estimated that isotope-corrected nonagricultural NH3 emissions were 4370 Gg in China in 2016, accounting for an increase in the total NH3 emissions from 7 to 31%. As a result, compared to the original NH3 EI, the annual emissions of total NH3 increased by 35%. Thus, in comparison to the simulation driven by the original NH3 EI, the WRF-Chem model driven by the isotope-corrected NH3 EI has reduced the model biases in the surface concentrations and dry deposition flux of reduced nitrogen (NHx = gaseous NH3 + particulate NH4+) by 23 and 31%, respectively. This study may have wide-ranging implications for formulating targeted strategies for nonagricultural NH3 emissions controls, making it facilitate the achievement of simultaneously alleviating nitrogen deposition and atmospheric pollution in the future.

Neonicotinoid insecticides in waters of the northern Jiangsu segment of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal: Environmental and health implications.

Neonicotinoid (NEO) insecticides have been frequently detected in natural aquatic environments. Nevertheless, the distribution of NEOs in artificial environments is not clear. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the longest canal in the world. The northern Jiangsu segment of the Grand Canal was selected to study the spatiotemporal variation and source of eight NEOs in the canal water and assess their ecological and health risks. The total NEO concentration in the canal water was 12-289 ng L-1 in the dry season and 18-373 ng L-1 in the wet season, which were within the concentration range in other 11 natural rivers worldwide. The average total NEO concentrations were not statistically different between the seasons; only the concentrations of imidaclothiz, thiacloprid (THI), acetamiprid, and dinotefuran were different. At city scale, the total NEO concentration in the dry season showed a decreasing trend along the water flow from Xuzhou City to Yangzhou City. The total NEO concentrations were found to be positively correlated with the sown area of farm crops and the rural labour force, indicating the agricultural influence on the spatial distribution of NEO concentrations. In the wet season, relatively high NEO concentrations were distributed in downstream sites under the influence of artificial regulation. The primary contributor to the NEO inputs into the canal was the nonpoint source in the dry and wet seasons, with a relative contribution of 68 %. THI, imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxan would produce chronic ecological risks in both seasons. Further consideration needs to be given to the above four NEOs and NEO mixtures. The human health risks that NEOs posed by drinking water were assessed based on the chronic daily intake (CDI). The maximum CDI for adults and children was lower than the reference doses. This suggested public health would not be at risk from canal water consumption.

Occurrence, source, and risk assessment of neonicotinoid insecticides in the Huai River, China.

Neonicotinoids (NEOs) are the most widely used insecticides in the world. Nevertheless, the occurrence and distribution of NEOs in agricultural areas are not well understood. This study investigated the concentration, sources, ecological risks, and health risks of eight NEOs in the water of the Huai River, which flows through a typical agricultural area in China. The total concentration of NEOs in the river water ranged from 1.02 to 191.2 ng L-1, with an average of 64.1 ng L-1. Thiamethoxam was the dominant compound, with an average relative contribution of 42.5%. The average concentration of the total NEOs in downstream was significantly higher than that in upstream (p < 0.05). This may be related to the intensity of agricultural activities. The riverine NEO fluxes increased by approximately 12 times from the upper site to the lower site. More than 1.3 tons of NEOs in 2022 were transferred into Lake Hongze, the largest regulative lake on the Eastern Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Nonpoint sources were the major contributor to the total NEO inputs, and water use was the main output pathway. The risk assessment indicated that the individual NEOs in the river water presented low ecological risks. The NEO mixtures would produce chronic risks to aquatic invertebrates in 50% of the sampling sites, which were mostly distributed in downstream. Thus, more attention should be given to the downstream. Based on the Monte Carlo simulation, the health risks of NEOs via water consumption were estimated. The maximum chronic daily intakes were 8.4 × 10-4, 2.25 × 10-4, 1.27 × 10-4, 1.88 × 10-4 mg kg-1 day-1 for boys, girls, men, and women, respectively, which were approximately 2 orders of magnitude lower than the acceptable daily intake. Therefore, river water consumption would not be a concern for the public health.

Rapidly growing extensive polypoid endometriosis after gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist discontinuation: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Polypoid endometriosis (PEM) is a rare and unique type of endometriosis. To date, no article has provided a systematic report of this disease. The current article provides a complete report on rare PEM based on ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, intraoperative findings and postoperative pathology data. CASE SUMMARY: A 38-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital after complaining of "vague pain in the right lower quadrant with an aggravated menstrual period for 8 mo". The patient underwent laparoscopic exploratory surgery on January 7, 2022. The postoperative pathology revealed extensive PEM. CONCLUSION: PEM is a type of endometriosis that is a benign disease but has biological properties similar to malignant tumours.

Detection of various fusion genes by one-step RT-PCR and the association with clinicopathological features in 242 cases of soft tissue tumor.

Introduction: Over the past decades, an increasing number of chromosomal translocations have been found in different STSs, which not only has value for clinical diagnosis but also suggests the pathogenesis of STS. Fusion genes can be detected by FISH, RT-PCR, and next-generation sequencing. One-step RT-PCR is a convenient method to detect fusion genes with higher sensitivity and lower cost. Method: In this study, 242 cases of soft tissue tumors were included, which were detected by one-step RT-PCR in multicenter with seven types of tumors: rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor (pPNET), synovial sarcoma (SS), myxoid liposarcomas (MLPS), alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP), and soft tissue angiofibroma (AFST). 18 cases detected by one-step RT-PCR were further tested by FISH. One case with novel fusion gene detected by RNA-sequencing was further validated by one-step RT-PCR. Results: The total positive rate of fusion genes was 60% (133/213) in the 242 samples detected by one-step RT-PCR, in which 29 samples could not be evaluated because of poor RNA quality. The positive rate of PAX3-FOXO1 was 88.6% (31/35) in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, EWSR1-FLI1 was 63% (17/27) in pPNET, SYT-SSX was 95.4% in SS (62/65), ASPSCR1-TFE3 was 100% in ASPS (10/10), FUS-DDIT3 was 80% in MLPS (4/5), and COL1A1-PDGFB was 66.7% in DFSP (8/12). For clinicopathological parameters, fusion gene status was correlated with age and location in 213 cases. The PAX3-FOXO1 fusion gene status was correlated with lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis in RMS. Furthermore, RMS patients with positive PAX3-FOXO1 fusion gene had a significantly shorter overall survival time than those patients with the negative fusion gene. Among them, the FISH result of 18 cases was concordant with one-step RT-PCR. As detected as the most common fusion types of AHRR-NCOA2 in one case of AFST were detected as negative by one-step RT-PCR. RNA-sequencing was used to determine the fusion genes, and a novel fusion gene PTCH1-PLAG1 was found. Moreover, the fusion gene was confirmed by one-step RT-PCR. Conclusion: Our study indicates that one-step RT-PCR displays a reliable tool to detect fusion genes with the advantage of high accuracy and low cost. Moreover, it is a great tool to identify novel fusion genes. Overall, it provides useful information for molecular pathological diagnosis and improves the diagnosis rate of STSs.

Primary lipoblastic nerve sheath tumor in an inguinal lymph node mimicking metastatic tumor: a case report and literature review.

Lipoblastic nerve sheath tumors of soft tissue are characterized as schwannoma tumors that exhibit adipose tissue and lipoblast-like cells with signet-ring morphology. They have been documented to arise in various anatomic locations, including the thigh, groin, shoulder, and retroperitoneum. However, to our knowledge, this tumor has not been previously reported as a lymph node primary. We present herein the first case of a benign primary lipoblastic nerve sheath tumor arising in an inguinal lymph node in a 69-year-old man. Microscopic examination revealed a multinodular tumor comprising fascicles of spindle cells, as well as adipocytic and lipoblast-like signet-ring cell component in the context of schwannoma. Despite the presence of some bizarre cells with nuclear atypia, no obvious mitotic activity or necrosis was observed. Immunohistochemical analysis showed strong and diffuse expression of S-100, SOX10, CD56, and NSE in the spindle cells as well as in the signet-ring lipoblast-like cells and the mature adipocytes. Sequencing analysis of the neoplasm identified six non-synonymous single nucleotide variant genes, specifically NF1, BRAF, ECE1, AMPD3, CRYAB, and NPHS1, as well as four nonsense mutation genes including MRE11A, CEP290, OTOA, and ALOXE3. The patient remained alive and well with no evidence of recurrence over a period of ten-year follow-up.

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare, life-threatening malignant tumor. We present a report of a rare case of a 67-year-old male patient with MPM and severe abdominal pain, bloating, and bloody ascites as manifestations. The diagnosis was confirmed by cytology of ascites aspiration fluid and further verified by laparoscopic exploratory biopsy. The characteristics of signs and clinical manifestations in this case are less common. As everyone knows, asbestos exposure is usually associated with pleural mesothelioma, but only 6%-10% of malignant mesothelioma cases originate from the peritoneum, which is far less than pleural mesothelioma. Generally, its non-specificity provides a huge challenge to medical professionals in its diagnosis, and this is also the main reason for delayed diagnosis. Patients should be vigilant, even though no clear risk factor is observed.

Novel pyroptosis-associated genes signature for predicting the prognosis of sarcoma and validation.

BACKGROUND: Sarcoma is a rare mesenchymal malignant tumor. Recently, pyroptosis has been reported to be a mode of programmed cell death. Nonetheless, levels of pyroptosis-associated genes in sarcoma and its relevance to prognostic outcomes are yet to be elucidated. RESULTS: Sarcoma cases were classified into two subtypes with regards to differentially expressed genes. We established a profile composed of seven genes and classified the sarcoma patients into low- and high-risk groups through least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression. Survival rate of low-risk sarcoma patients was markedly higher, relative to high-risk group (P<0.001). In combination with clinical features, the risk score was established to be an independent predictive factor for OS of sarcoma patients. Chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity response analysis found 65 drugs with higher drug sensitivity in low-risk, than in high-risk group and 14 drugs with higher drug sensitivity in the high-risk patient group, compared with low-risk patient group. In addition, functional enrichment, pathway and gene mutation of the two modules were analyzed. Finally, we used qRT-PCR to detect the expression of seven pyroptosis-related genes in tumor cells, and human skeletal muscle cells, compared with human skeletal muscle cells, PODXL2, LRRC17, GABRA3, SCUBE3 and RFLNB genes show high expression levels in tumor cells, while IGHG2 and hepatic leukemia factor show low expression levels in tumor cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our research suggest that pyroptosis is closely associated with sarcoma, and these findings confirm that pyroptosis-associated seven genes have a critical role in sarcoma and are potential prognostic factors for sarcoma.

Evaluating the effects of ground-level O3 on rice yield and economic losses in Southern China.

Ground-level ozone (O3) pollution and its impact on crop growth and yield have become one of the serious environmental problems in recent years, especially in economically active and densely populated areas. In this study, rice yield and the associated economic losses due to O3 were estimated by using observational O3 concentration ([O3]) data during growing seasons in Southern China. O3-induced yield losses were calculated by using O3 exposure metrics of AOT40 and M7. The spatial distribution of these two metrics is relatively consistent, the highest areas located in the Yangtze River Basin. Under the current O3 level, during double-early rice, double-late rice and single rice growing seasons, the relative yield losses estimated with AOT40 (M7) were 6.8% (1.2%), 10.2% (1.9%) and 10.4% (2.0%), respectively. O3-induced rice production loss for double-early rice, double-late rice and single rice totaled 2.4 million metric tons (0.4 million metric tons), 4.3 million metric tons (0.7 million metric tons) and 11.0 million metric tons (1.9 million metric tons) and associated economic losses were 108.1 million USD (18.3 million USD), 190.2 million USD (32.4 million USD) and 486.4 million USD (82.9 million USD) based on AOT40 (M7) metric. This study indicates that regional risks to rice from O3 exposure and provide quantitative evidence of O3-induced impacts on rice yields and economic losses across Southern China. Therefore, the establishment of scientific O3 risk assessment method is of great significance to prevent yield production and economic losses caused by O3 exposure. Policymakers should strengthen supervision of emissions of O3 precursors to mitigate the rise of O3 concentration, thereby reducing O3 damage to agricultural production.

Dry deposition of reactive nitrogen to different ecosystems across eastern China: A comparison of three community models.

The assessment of nitrogen ecosystem loads mostly use the method of sampling observation combined with numerical model to estimate the spatial distribution pattern of nitrogen dry deposition flux. The selection of models is important which directly affects the reliability of the deposition flux results. In this study, the performance of three widely used models (WRF-Chem, EMEP, CMAQ) are compared. The dry deposition fluxes of typical active nitrogen components over eastern China showed uncertainties by a factor of 0.5 ~ 2 between the oxidized nitrogen (OXN) results of the three models and the observation network while the reduced nitrogen (RDN) simulation results are underestimated by a quarter of the observation reports. These three models show different results on four typical ecosystems: simulation of EMEP got the highest for OXN dry deposition flux on each ecosystem (urban 14.94 ± 4.92kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1, cropland/grassland 5.53 ± 5.11kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1, forest 4.75 ± 4.32kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1, water bodies 1.48 ± 1.53kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1); WRF-Chem has the highest value of RDN on the urban (8.91 ± 6.44kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1) and water bodies (1.01 ± 1.44kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1) while EMEP is highest in cropland/grassland (3.42 ± 3.43kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1) and forest (2.34 ± 1.94kgN â‹… ha-1 â‹… yr-1). CMAQ is in medium range for both OXN and RDN simulations on each ecosystem. Compare with the critical loads, CMAQ generates more exceeded critical load areas than WRF-Chem and EMEP on cropland/grassland and forests ecosystem. For water bodies, WRF-chem and CMAQ showed higher exceeding critical load areas than EMEP. In summary, EMEP generally underestimates while the CMAQ and WRF-Chem model would overestimate the impacts on the ecosystems. So, policy implementation needs special attention accounting the difference of simulation effect with different models.

[Long Term Variations of Ozone Concentration of in a Winter Wheat Field and Its Loss Estimate Based on Dry Matter and Yield].

Surface ozone pollution and its negative effects on crops and food safety have attracted the attention of many people. In this study, ozone concentration and meteorological parameters in a winter wheat field were measured from 2014 to 2016. We analyzed the variations in ozone concentration and AOT40 during the growing season for winter wheat. According to the revised stomatal model, the leaf stomatal conductance of winter wheat was simulated and verified by comparing with measured results. Based on the flux model, the leaf stomatal fluxes of winter wheat were calculated. In addition, we estimated the effects of ozone concentration on winter wheat dry matter and yield by using exposure-response relationships and flux-response relationships. The results suggested that the concentration of ozone gradually increased during the growing season for winter wheat and showed a distinct unimodal pattern of diurnal variation. The mean concentrations of ozone were 36.2, 37.7, and 33.6 nL·L-1, respectively, and the ozone AOT40 values were 17.08, 17.90, and 11.84 µL·(L·h)-1, respectively, during the growing seasons for winter wheat from 2014 to 2016. The Jarvis-type factorial model of stomatal conductance could be used to simulate the stomatal conductance of winter wheat in the region, and approximately 81% of the variation of measured stomatal conductance could be accounted for by the model. The leaf stomatal ozone fluxes of winter wheat were 9.36, 9.32, and 8.65 mmol·m-2, respectively, from 2014 to 2016. Winter wheat yield decreased about 18.03%, and its dry matter decreased about 19.31% under ozone stress during these three years.

[Influencing Mechanism and Spatio-temporal Pattern of Stomatal Ozone Flux of Winter Wheat Under Ozone Pollution].

As one of the main atmospheric pollutants over surface layer,researches on the increasing surface ozone concentration and its impact on main crops have become the focus of every government and the public.In this paper,based on the observations in Nanjing using the main local cultivars in China's major winter wheat producing areas,it was expected to obtain the data including ozone concentration,meteorological data and stomatal conductance by continuous observation.Stomatal conductance model was used and parameterized,combined with flux model,we analyzed the characteristics of stomatal flux in winter wheat under ozone pollution.At the same time,the stomatal conductance and stomatal ozone absorption flux of winter wheat were simulated in Jiangsu Province.The main results were as follows:Elevated ozone concentration could reduce stomatal conductance of winter wheat leaf and stomatal conductance decreased with the increase of ozone concentration.According to the observational data through the experiment,based on the boundary line technology,stomatal conductance model was parameterized to simulate stomatal conductance of wheat leaves from environmental factors.Approximately 90%,77% and 83% variation of measured stomatal conductance could be explained by the stomatal conductance model.In the experiment,the total ozone absorption flux in ozone concentration of CK (53.67 nL·L-1),100nL·L-1,150nL·L-1 was 6.42 mmol·m-2,12.27 mmol·m-2,13.90 mmol·m-2 respectively.The ozone concentration gradually increased from early period to late period during the period of winter wheat growth in Jiangsu area.The average stomatal conductance followed the order of the middle stage >the later stage >the early stage.Winter wheat ozone cumulative absorption flux was the highest during the middle stage.