Lanthanum-calcium bimetallic-modified attapulgite- chitosan hydrogel beads for efficient phosphate removal from water: Performance evaluation, mechanistic and life cycle assessment.

Phosphorus is a critical factor in the control of eutrophication. We developed a three-dimensional porous, bimetallic-modified adsorbent La-Ca-CS/ATP to remove excess phosphate from water. Langmuir model showed that the theoretical adsorption capacity of La-Ca-CS/ATP was up to 123 mg P/g. The amount of La and Ca leached by La-Ca-CS/ATP was small, and the adsorption of 36.08 mg P/g was maintained during the five cycles of La-Ca-CS/ATP. The La-Ca-CS/ATP adsorption mechanism mainly involved surface precipitation, ligand exchange, electrostatic attraction, and inner-sphere complexation. Molecular dynamics demonstrated that La and Ca had complementary effects on binding sites and energy barriers within the range of 0.5-0.7 nm and 1.2-2 nm, enhancing the adsorption effect of La-Ca-CS/ATP. The life cycle assessment results showed that adding calcium could help reduce the environmental impact of lanthanum and chitosan. The production of La-Ca-CS/ATP adsorbed 73.88 P mg/g and emitted 24.73 kg CO2 eq, which was less than other adsorbents.

Inequality in historical transboundary anthropogenic PM2.5 health impacts.

Atmospheric transport of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the leading environmental risk factor for public health, is estimated to exert substantial transboundary effects at present. During the past several decades, human-produced pollutant emissions have undergone drastic and regionally distinctive changes, yet it remains unclear about the resulting global transboundary health impacts. Here we show that between 1950 and 2014, global anthropogenic PM2.5 has led to 185.7 million premature deaths cumulatively, including about 14% from transboundary pollution. Among four country groups at different affluence levels, on a basis of per capita contribution to transboundary mortality, a richer region tends to exert severer cumulative health externality, with the poorest bearing the worst net externality after contrasting import and export of pollution mortality. The temporal changes in transboundary mortality and cross-regional inequality are substantial. Effort to reduce PM2.5-related transboundary mortality should seek international collaborative strategies that account for historical responsibility and inequality.

Impact of goal-directed hemodynamic management on the incidence of acute kidney injury in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) remains high after partial nephrectomy. Ischemia-reperfusion injury produced by renal hilum clamping during surgery might have contributed to the development of AKI. In this study we tested the hypothesis that goal-directed fluid and blood pressure management may reduce AKI in patients following partial nephrectomy. METHODS: This was a pilot randomized controlled trial. Adult patients who were scheduled to undergo partial nephrectomy were randomized into two groups. In the intervention group, goal-directed hemodynamic management was performed from renal hilum clamping until end of surgery; the target was to maintain stroke volume variation < 6%, cardiac index 3.0-4.0 L/min/m2 and mean arterial pressure > 95 mmHg with crystalloid fluids and infusion of dobutamine and/or norepinephrine. In the control group, hemodynamic management was performed according to routine practice. The primary outcome was the incidence of AKI within the first 3 postoperative days. RESULTS: From June 2016 to January 2017, 144 patients were enrolled and randomized (intervention group, n = 72; control group, n = 72). AKI developed in 12.5% of patients in the intervention group and in 20.8% of patients in the control group; the relative reduction of AKI was 39.9% in the intervention group but the difference was not statistically significant (relative risk 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28-1.28; P = 0.180). No significant differences were found regarding AKI classification, change of estimated glomerular filtration rate over time, incidence of postoperative 30-day complications, postoperative length of hospital stay, as well as 30-day and 6-month mortality between the two groups. CONCLUSION: For patients undergoing partial nephrectomy, goal-directed circulatory management during surgery reduced postoperative AKI by about 40%, although not significantly so. The trial was underpowered. Large sample size randomized trials are needed to confirm our results. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02803372 . Date of registration: June 6, 2016.

Effects of the socio-economic influencing factors on SO2 pollution in Chinese cities: A spatial econometric analysis based on satellite observed data.

The research on SO2 pollution in China has been hotly debated over the past decades. Different from the existing studies, this work employs satellite observed SO2 columns from 2005 to 2016 and applies a spatial econometric approach to investigate the socio-economic influencing factors of SO2 pollution of 270 prefecture-level cities in China. The findings are as follows. (1) SO2 pollution over China exhibits a significant and positive spatial autocorrelation. (2) The most polluted area is concentrated on the North China Plain. However, SO2 pollution over China has been reduced gradually during the sample period, implying that overall environmental quality in China has been substantially improved. (3) Besides, the results of spatial econometric models are not in support of "pollution haven hypothesis". On the contrary, the pollution halo effect of foreign direct investment works well and contributes to reducing SO2 pollution in China. Moreover, we find that urban economic levels and innovative capability are negatively correlated with SO2 pollution, indicating that economic growth and an increase in innovation can help improve environmental quality. On contrast, the share of the secondary industry, urbanization and transportation are found to have positive impacts, indicating that they are three main contributors to SO2 pollution in China.

Carbon and health implications of trade restrictions.

In a globalized economy, production of goods can be disrupted by trade disputes. Yet the resulting impacts on carbon dioxide emissions and ambient particulate matter (PM2.5) related premature mortality are unclear. Here we show that in contrast to a free trade world, with the emission intensity in each sector unchanged, an extremely anti-trade scenario with current tariffs plus an additional 25% tariff on each traded product would reduce the global export volume by 32.5%, gross domestic product by 9.0%, carbon dioxide by 6.3%, and PM2.5-related mortality by 4.1%. The respective impacts would be substantial for the United States, Western Europe and China. A freer trade scenario would increase global carbon dioxide emission and air pollution due to higher levels of production, especially in developing regions with relatively high emission intensities. Global collaborative actions to reduce emission intensities in developing regions could help achieve an economic-environmental win-win state through globalization.

Facile, Rapid, and Low-Cost Electrophoresis Titration of Thrombin by Aptamer-Linked Magnetic Nanoparticles and a Redox Boundary Chip.

An aptamer-linked assay of a target biomarker (e.g., thrombin) is facing the challenges of long-term run, complex performance, and expensive instrument, unfitting clinical diagnosis in resource-limited areas. Herein, a facile chip electrophoresis titration (ET) model was proposed for rapid, portable, and low-cost assay of thrombin via aptamer-linked magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), redox boundary (RB), and horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In the electrophoresis titration-redox boundary (ET-RB) model, thrombin was chosen as a model biomarker, which could be captured within 15 min by MNP-aptamer 1 and HRP-aptamer 2, forming a sandwich complex of (MNP-aptamer 1)-thrombin-(HRP-aptamer 2). After MNP separation and chromogenic reaction of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) within 10 min, an ET-RB run could be completed within 5 min based on the reaction between a 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine radical cation (TMB•+) and l-ascorbic acid in the ET channel. The systemic experiments based on the ET-RB method revealed that the sandwich complex could be formed and the thrombin content could be assayed via an ET-RB chip, demonstrating the developed model and method. In particular, the ET-RB method had the evident merits of simplicity, rapidity (less than 30 min), and low cost as well as portability and visuality, in contrast to the currently used thrombin assay. In addition, the developed method had high selectivity, sensitivity (limit of detection of 0.04 nM), and stability (intraday: 3.26%, interday: 6.07%) as well as good recovery (urine: 97-102%, serum: 94-103%). The developed model and method have potential to the development of a point-of-care testing assay in resource-constrained conditions.

Double inner standard plot model of an electrophoresis titration chip for a portable and green assay of protein content in milk.

High portability and environmental safety ("green") are two of the most important objectives pursued by microfluidic methods. However, there remain many challenges for the design of portable and visual microfluidic methods (e.g., chip electrophoresis) due to use of a cumbersome pump, power supply and detector. Herein, a facile double inner standard plot (DISP) model of electrophoresis titration (ET) was proposed for portable and visual assay of proteins in test milk samples without use of a pump, power supply or detector based on a moving reaction boundary (MRB) chip. The DISP-ET model predicted that: (i) by setting the upper limit (UL) and lower limit (LL) of double inner standard milk protein contents, points U and L were, respectively, achieved in the relationship D = -aC + b (D: MRB motion distance; C: protein content); and (ii) the two points divided both the C-axis and D-axis into "poor", "eligible" and "superior" rulers scaled for quantitative assay of test samples. To demonstrate the model of DISP-ET, an original portable device (120 mm × 78 mm × 30 mm, 341 g) was designed, which had a chip (25 mm × 25 mm × 4 mm) of three channels (15 mm × 200 µm × 80 µm), platinum electrodes, a lithium cell and touch screen. A series of experiments were undertaken based on the developed portable device. The relevant experiments demonstrated systemically the validity of the DISP-ET model, theory and method. In particular, the experiments clearly showed the advantages of the DISP-ET chip: portability, visuality, green use, rapidity, and flexibility for real-life use. Finally, the device was applied for a portable and visual assay of fresh milk from a cow on a dairy farm. The DISP-ET model opens a window for designing portable and visual quantitative methods of food-safety control and clinical diagnoses.

Environmental taxation and regional inequality in China.

In order to combat environmental pollution, China enacted the Environmental Protection Tax Law in early 2018. Yet the impacts of the environmental tax on individual regions with different socioeconomic statuses, which are crucial for social justice and public acceptance, remain unclear. Based on a Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) table and a nationally regulated tax payment calculation method, this study analyzes the distributional impacts of an environmental tax based upon province's consumption from both inter-provincial and rural-urban aspects. The national tax revenue based on the current levy mechanism is estimated to be only one seventh of the economic loss from premature mortality caused by ambient particulate matter (PM2.5). The taxation may slightly alleviate urban-rural inequality but may not be helpful with reducing inter-provincial inequality. We further analyze two alternative levy mechanisms. If each province imposes taxes to products it consumes (rather than produces, as in the current mechanism), with the tax rate linearly dependent on its per capita consumption expenditure, this would moderately increase the national tax revenue and significantly reduce inter-provincial inequality. To better compensate for the economic costs of air pollution and reduce regional inequality, it would be beneficial to increase the tax rate nationwide and implement a levy mechanism based on provincially differentiated levels of consumption and economic status.