A meta-analysis highlighting the increasing relevance of the hair matrix in exposure assessment to organic pollutants.

Owing to a wide range of advantages, such as stability, non-invasiveness, and ease of sampling, hair has been used progressively for comprehensive biomonitoring of organic pollutants for the last three decades. This has led to the development of new analytical and multi-class analysis methods for the assessment of a broad range of organic pollutants in various population groups, ranging from small-scale studies to advanced studies with a large number of participants based on different exposure settings. This meta-analysis summarizes the existing literature on the assessment of organic pollutants in hair in terms of residue levels, the correlation of hair residue levels with those of other biological matrices and socio-demographic factors, the reliability of hair versus other biomatrices for exposure assessment, the use of segmental hair analysis for chronic exposure evaluation and the effect of external contamination on hair residue levels. Significantly high concentrations of organic pollutants such as pesticides, flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon were reported in human hair samples from different regions and under different exposure settings. Similarly, high concentrations of pesticides (from agricultural activities), flame retardants (E-waste dismantling activities), dioxins and furans were observed in various occupational settings. Moreover, significant correlations (p < 0.05) for hair and blood concentrations were observed in majority of studies featuring pesticides and flame retardants. While among sociodemographic factors, gender and age significantly affected the hair concentrations in females and children in general exposure settings, whereas adult workers in occupational settings. Furthermore, the assessment of the hair burden of persistent organic pollutants in domestic and wild animals showed high concentrations for pesticides such as HCHs and DDTs whereas the laboratory-based studies using animals demonstrated strong correlations between exposure dose, exposure duration, and measured organic pollutant levels, mainly for chlorpyrifos, diazinon, terbuthylazine, aldrin, dieldrin and pyrethroid metabolites. Considering the critical analysis of the results obtained from literature review, hair is regarded as a reliable matrix for organic pollutant assessment; however, some limitations, as discussed in this review, need to be overcome to reinforce the status of hair as a suitable matrix for exposure assessment.

Deep Learning for Noninvasive Assessment of H3 K27M Mutation Status in Diffuse Midline Gliomas Using MR Imaging.

BACKGROUND: Determination of H3 K27M mutation in diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is key for prognostic assessment and stratifying patient subgroups for clinical trials. MRI can noninvasively depict morphological and metabolic characteristics of H3 K27M mutant DMG. PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop a deep learning (DL) approach to noninvasively predict H3 K27M mutation in DMG using T2-weighted images. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective and prospective. POPULATION: For diffuse midline brain gliomas, 341 patients from Center-1 (27 ± 19 years, 184 males), 42 patients from Center-2 (33 ± 19 years, 27 males) and 35 patients (37 ± 18 years, 24 males). For diffuse spinal cord gliomas, 133 patients from Center-1 (30 ± 15 years, 80 males). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 5T and 3T, T2-weighted turbo spin echo imaging. ASSESSMENT: Conventional radiological features were independently reviewed by two neuroradiologists. H3 K27M status was determined by histopathological examination. The Dice coefficient was used to evaluate segmentation performance. Classification performance was evaluated using accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve. STATISTICAL TESTS: Pearson's Chi-squared test, Fisher's exact test, two-sample Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. A two-sided P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: In the testing cohort, Dice coefficients of tumor segmentation using DL were 0.87 for diffuse midline brain and 0.81 for spinal cord gliomas. In the internal prospective testing dataset, the predictive accuracies, sensitivities, and specificities of H3 K27M mutation status were 92.1%, 98.2%, 82.9% in diffuse midline brain gliomas and 85.4%, 88.9%, 82.6% in spinal cord gliomas. Furthermore, this study showed that the performance generalizes to external institutions, with predictive accuracies of 85.7%-90.5%, sensitivities of 90.9%-96.0%, and specificities of 82.4%-83.3%. DATA CONCLUSION: In this study, an automatic DL framework was developed and validated for accurately predicting H3 K27M mutation using T2-weighted images, which could contribute to the noninvasive determination of H3 K27M status for clinical decision-making. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2.

Human health and ecosystem impacts of China's resource extraction.

The throughput of materials fuels the economic process and underpins social well-being. These materials eventually return to the environment as waste or emissions. They can have significant environmental impacts throughout life cycle stages, such as biodiversity loss, adverse health effects, water stress, and climate change. China is the largest resource extractor globally, but the endpoint environmental impacts and the role of possible socioeconomic drivers associated with its resource extraction remain unclear. Here, we account for and analyze the two endpoint environmental impacts associated with China's resource extraction from 2000 to 2017 and quantify the relative contributions of various socioeconomic factors using structural decomposition analysis. The results show that the environmental impacts of China's resource extraction peaked in 2010. There was a significant decline from 2010 to 2017, in which human health damage decreased by 32.8 % and ecosystem quality damage decreased by 55.8 %. On the consumer side, the advancement in China's urbanization process led to an increase in the environmental impacts of urban residents' consumption, and the effect of investment on the environmental impacts decreased significantly after 2010. Decreases in the intensity of the environmental impacts in most sectors and improvements in production structure could reduce the impacts of resource extraction on human health and ecosystems.

Spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of the global material footprint.

Environmental pressures have rapidly increased in various regions worldwide due to globalization. Thus, sustainable consumption and production are crucial for sustainable resource development. The material footprint (MF) of 180 countries was calculated from 1995 to 2015, and spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted to investigate the spatiotemporal trend of the global MF. The results show that the global MF presented an upward trend from 1995 to 2015, increasing by 83%, and we find that the global per capita MF exhibits clustering, with an increasing trend during the study period. The findings indicate that resource consumption is similar in neighboring areas, especially in countries with a high MF surrounded by countries with a high MF (high-high clustering) and countries with low-low clustering. In addition, the number of countries with high clustering increased during the study period. We should take advantage of clustering, improve resource utilization, increase the technical carrying capacity, and develop energy-saving technologies. In African regions with low-low clustering, the economy of the surrounding areas should be stimulated to strengthen economic and technological clustering. In addition, advanced technology should be incorporated to improve the efficiency of using natural resources. This study can provide a reference for the spatial distribution of sustainable resource development.

Quantifying China's iron in-use stock and its driving factors analysis.

China is experiencing unprecedented industrialization and urbanization which promotes the rapid growth of iron resource consumption and in-use stock. The material flow analysis (MFA) model and the average use life method were applied to analyze China's iron in-use stock (IIUS), and the IIUS reached 7.07 billion tons in 2016 in the reference scenario. Three driving factors of the intensity of IIUS were analyzed. Among them, the per capita IIUS was rising, and it was 5.11 t/cap in 2016 in the reference scenario. In addition, the per capita crude steel output has stabilized, which was 0.58 t/cap in 2016. The intensity of crude steel use was declining and showed the inverted U-shape. The decoupling indicator was applied to analyze the relationship between IIUS and economic growth. The decoupling of IIUS from economic growth was later than that of actual iron consumption, and the IIUS did not decoupling from economic growth in recent years. The actual iron consumption has continued to decoupling from economic growth since 2010, and the decoupling indicator peaked at 1.76 in 2015. The future per capita IIUS was predicted in different scenario and the relationship between future IIUS and GDP was analyzed. The per capita IIUS will reach saturation in 2030-2040, and the intensity of IIUS also conforms to the inverted U-shape.

An efficient and atom-economical route to N-aryl amino alcohols from primary amines.

In this paper we reported a novel method for generation of N-aryl amino alcohols from N,N-disubstituted picolinamides through reduction/ring-opening reaction with NaBH4. The N,N-disubstituted picolinamides can be easily obtained from primary amines after convenient condensation with picolinic acid and coupling with cyclic ethers. The whole route proceeded under simple and mild conditions with high efficiency. Picolinic acid can be recovered in the form of piconol after reaction. It indicated an efficient and atom-economical route for the preparation of N-aryl amino alcohols from primary amines.

How Could Agronomic Biofortification of Rice Be an Alternative Strategy with Higher Cost-Effectiveness for Human Iron and Zinc Deficiency in China?

BACKGROUND: Iron and zinc deficiencies affect human health globally, especially in developing countries. Agronomic biofortification, as a strategy for alleviating these issues, has been focused on small-scale field studies, and not widely applied while lacking of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). OBJECTIVE: We conducted the CEA of agronomic biofortification, expressed as USD per disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) saved, to recommend a cost-effectiveness strategy that can be widely applied. METHODS: The DALYs were applied to quantify the health burden due to Fe and/or Zn deficiency and health cost of agronomic biofortification via a single, dual, or triple foliar spray of Fe, Zn, and/or pesticide in 4 (northeast, central China, southeast, and southwest) major Chinese rice-based regions. RESULTS: The current health burden by Fe or Zn malnutrition was 0.45 to 1.45 or 0.14 to 0.84 million DALYs for these 4 regions. Compared to traditional rice diets, the daily Fe and/or Zn intake from Fe and/or Zn-biofortified rice increased, and the health burden of Fe and/or Zn deficiency decreased by 28% and 48%, respectively. The cost of saving 1 DALYs ranged from US$376 to US$4989, US$194 to US$2730, and US$37.6 to US$530.1 for the single, dual, and triple foliar Fe, Zn, and/or pesticide application, respectively, due to a substantial decrease in labor costs by the latter 2 applications. CONCLUSIONS: Agronomic biofortification of rice with the triple foliar spray of Fe, Zn, and pesticide is a rapidly effective and cost-effectiveness pathway to alleviate Fe and Zn deficiency for rice-based dietary populations.

[Clinical Study of Rs-EPI DWI to Improve Imaging Quality and Assessment on Intracranial Mass Lesions].

OBJECTIVES: To explore the clinical value of readout-segmented echo planar imaging (Rs-EPI) sequence in the assessment of intracranial mass lesions compared to the standard single-shot EPI (Ss-EPI) sequence. METHODS: We included 21 patients with intracranial mass lesions who underwent both Ss-EPI diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and Rs-EPI DWI at 3.0T MR scanner with a twenty-channel head-neck coil. The quality of images was assessed by two experienced radiologists independently. The differences in image quality between two sequences were analyzed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Inter-observer agreements were analyzed using interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Kappa test. RESULTS: All objectives were completed on 3.0T MR. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in Rs-EPI DWI were higher than those in Ss-EPI DWI (130.46±49.10 vs. 71.58±30.43, P=0.000; 33.22±18.86 vs. 17.92±18.72, P=0.003). The scores of overall image quality, ghost artifact where next to the paranasal sinuses, mastoid air cells and frontal sinus of Rs-EPI DWI were significantly higher than those of Ss-EPI DWI. Meanwhile, the geometric distortion of anatomical structures of Rs-EPI DWI were significantly lower compared to Ss-EPI DWI sequence (0.016±0.021 vs. 0.037±0.069, P=0.00). The inter-reader and intra-reader agreements for the assessment of qualitative parameters were good [0.74≤Kappa value or ICC≤0.92]. CONCLUSIONS: Rs-EPI DWI sequence is a potential technique to improve the imaging quality in the diagnosis of intracranial mass lesions.

Optimization of industrial structure based on water environmental carrying capacity in Tieling City.

A system dynamics optimization model of the industrial structure of Tieling City based on water environmental carrying capacity has been established. This system is divided into the following subsystems: water resources, economics, population, contaminants, and agriculture and husbandry. Three schemes were designed to simulate the model from 2011 to 2020, and these schemes were compared to obtain an optimal social and economic development model in Tieling City. Policy recommendations on industrial structure optimization based on the optimal solution provide scientific decision-making advice to develop a strong and sustainable economy in Tieling.

[Exposure assessment on dietary lead and cadmium of residents in three areas of Zhejiang province from 2009 to 2010].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the safety of dietary lead and cadmium intake in 3 areas of Zhejiang province. METHODS: Using the total dietary study method, the study was conducted in 3 regions which represented coastal, city and rural areas in Zhejiang province from 2009 to 2010. The dietary survey was conducted on the residents (512 subjects) and the categories and volume of food consumption were obtained. The analytical food samples were obtained by food consumption survey, food aggregation, food sampling and preparation. The food samples were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The safety of dietary lead and cadmium intake was evaluated. RESULTS: The median dietary lead intake (P50) in Zhejiang province was 37.8 µg/d. The 97.5% dietary lead intake (P97.5) was 72.3 µg/d. The P50 dietary lead intakes of different age and gender groups ranged from 23.2 to 44.2 µg/d. The P97.5 dietary lead intakes of different age and gender groups ranged from 34.2 to 88.1 µg/d. The P50 dietary cadmium intake in Zhejiang province was 9.6 µg/d. The P97.5 dietary cadmium intake was 15.7 µg/d. The P50 dietary cadmium intakes of different age and gender groups ranged from 6.4 to 11.4 µg/d, accounting 15.6% - 42.6% of PTMI (provisional tolerable monthly intake, 25 µg/kg). The P97.5 dietary cadmium intakes of different age and gender groups ranged from 10.5 to 21.4 µg/d, accounting 27.5% - 77.6% of PTMI. Vegetable (11.3 µg), cereal (11.0 µg) and meat (9.8 µg) were the first three food sources which accounted for 84.9% of dietary lead (P50: 37.8 µg/d). Cereal (3.6 µg), vegetable (2.1 µg) and legume (0.9 µg) were the first three food sources which accounted for 68.8% of dietary cadmium (P50: 9.6 µg/d). CONCLUSION: Dietary lead and cadmium intakes of most residents in 3 areas of Zhejiang province as well as the average level are safe.

[Development of a low-cost single chamber microbial fuel cell type BOD sensor].

The principle of the detector is based on the effect of microbial toxicity of water sample on the electricity generation in microbial fuel cell (MFC). The performance of the MFC-type biotoxicity detector was evaluated with the synthetic water containing heavy metals of Cd2+ and Cu2+. The experimental results demonstrated that: (1) relative to the conventional methods, the MFC-type detector is easy to operate, and suitable for on-line measurements with high sensitivity; (2) it only requires 4 h to complete measurements, and can get ready for next measurement within 4 h; (3) there is a significant linear correlation between the concentration of toxic metal(s) and inhibition ratios in Coulombic yields of MFC. As the IC20 (concentration causing 20% inhibition) of Cd2+, Cu2+ and mixed metals (Cd2+ and Cu2+) were 0.6, 0.8 and 0.25 mg/L, the regression coefficients were shown to be 0.9960, 0.9744 and 0.9907.

[Development of a low-cost single chamber microbial fuel cell type BOD sensor].

The 5-d biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) test is the most conventional method to determine the concentration of biodegradable organics in wastewater. However, this method is time-consuming and usually requires experience and skill to produce creditable results, which is also not suitable for on-line measurements. This study described a single-chamber mediator-less microbial fuel cell (MFC)-type BOD sensor as an alternative method to BOD5. In such MFC, MnO2 was used as the cathode catalyst instead of Pt and the expensive proton exchange membrane was replaced with the cation exchange membrane. The factors including the external resistance, pH of anolyte, the reaction time and rinse time on BOD sensor were explored, and the results were compared with the values determined by BOD5. The experimental results showed that the optimal conditions are: the external resistance of 12 k omega, pH of 7.0, and the reaction period of 2 h and the rinse time of 2-10 min. The low detection limit is 0.2 mg/L and the precision is 0.33%. This study indicates that MFC-type sensor can be used as a reliable method to determine BOD in wastewater, supported by the good linear correlation between BOD concentration and coulombs generation (regression coefficient, R2 = 0.9992) and the small relative error of 4% between MFC-type sensor and BOD5. Such device provides a low-cost, easy-operated, fast-response, sensitive and reliable method to measure BOD in wastewater, and also is suitable for on-line measurements.