Contamination status, partitioning behavior, ecological risks assessment of legacy and emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in a typical heavily polluted semi-enclosed bay, China.

The contaminant status, spatial distribution, partitioning behavior, and ecological risks of 26 legacy and emerging perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Laizhou Bay, China were investigated. The concentrations of ∑PFASs in surface and bottom seawater ranged from 37.2 to 222 ng/L and from 34.2 to 305 ng/L with an average of 116 ± 62.7 and 138 ± 93.8 ng/L, respectively. There were no significant differences in the average concentrations between the surface and bottom seawater (P > 0.05). Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and short-chain PFASs dominated the composition of PFASs in seawater. The concentrations of ∑PFASs in sediments ranged from 0.997 to 7.21 ng/g dry weight (dw), dominated by perfluorobutane sulfonate (PFBS), perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), and long-chain PFASs. The emerging alternatives of perfluoro-1-butane-sulfonamide (FBSA) and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTSA) were detected for the first time in Laizhou Bay. The ∑PFASs in seawater in the southwest of the bay were higher than those in the northeast of the bay. The ∑PFASs in sediments in the northeast sea area were higher than those in the inner area of the bay. Log Kd and log Koc values increased with increasing carbon chain length for PFASs compounds. Ecological risk assessments indicated a low ecological risk associated with HFPO-DA but a moderate risk associated with PFOA contamination in Laizhou Bay. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis revealed that fluoropolymer manufacturing, metal plating plants, and textile treatments were identified as major sources contributing to PFASs contamination.

High-accuracy protein model quality assessment using attention graph neural networks.

Great improvement has been brought to protein tertiary structure prediction through deep learning. It is important but very challenging to accurately rank and score decoy structures predicted by different models. CASP14 results show that existing quality assessment (QA) approaches lag behind the development of protein structure prediction methods, where almost all existing QA models degrade in accuracy when the target is a decoy of high quality. How to give an accurate assessment to high-accuracy decoys is particularly useful with the available of accurate structure prediction methods. Here we propose a fast and effective single-model QA method, QATEN, which can evaluate decoys only by their topological characteristics and atomic types. Our model uses graph neural networks and attention mechanisms to evaluate global and amino acid level scores, and uses specific loss functions to constrain the network to focus more on high-precision decoys and protein domains. On the CASP14 evaluation decoys, QATEN performs better than other QA models under all correlation coefficients when targeting average LDDT. QATEN shows promising performance when considering only high-accuracy decoys. Compared to the embedded evaluation modules of predicted ${C}_{\alpha^{-}} RMSD$ (pRMSD) in RosettaFold and predicted LDDT (pLDDT) in AlphaFold2, QATEN is complementary and capable of achieving better evaluation on some decoy structures generated by AlphaFold2 and RosettaFold. These results suggest that the new QATEN approach can be used as a reliable independent assessment algorithm for high-accuracy protein structure decoys.

Assessment of the ameliorating effect of sedimentary iron inputs on sulfide stress in eelgrass beds.

Iron is recognized as an efficient method to alleviate sulfide stress. This study tested the response of Zostera marina plants to different levels of sedimentary sulfides (100.0-818.7 µmol L-1) and iron inputs (590.0-825.3 µg L-1) in a field experiment performed over an eighty-day period. We measured plant responses in terms of shoot density and plant morphology and productivity. The relationship between the propagation effort (PE, in %) and sulfide content (S, in µmol L-1) was expressed as: PE = -14.01 × ln (S) + 86.86 (R2 = 0.99, p < .01), which indicates that the toxic limit of the pore-water sulfide concentration for the survival of eelgrass is 493 µmol L-1. The addition of iron can reduce the toxicity of sulfides to eelgrass beds, resulting in an increase in plant density and productivity, and can even reverse the decline of eelgrass beds exposed to high sulfide concentrations.

Spatial and temporal dynamics of agricultural residue resources in the last 30 years in China.

The availability and distribution of biomass resources are important for the development of the bioenergy industry in a region. Biomass resources are abundant in China; however, the raw material is severely deficient, which makes the Chinese bioenergy industry an embarrassment and a contradiction. Unclear reserves and distribution and changing trends of biomass resources are the reason for this situation. A collection coefficient model of Chinese agricultural residue resources was established and the spatial and temporal pattern dynamics of agricultural residue resources in the last 30 years were analyzed. The results show that agricultural residue resources increased in stages from 1978 to 2011, including a rapid increase from 1978 to 1999, a significant fall from 2000 to 2004, and a slow increase from 2004 to 2011. Crops straw and livestock manure are the main ingredients of agricultural residue resources with proportions of 53-59% and 31-38%, respectively. However, the former has gradually decreased, while the latter is increasing. This mainly resulted from the strategic reorganization of the Chinese agriculture structure and the rapid development of large-scale livestock breeding and agricultural mechanization. Large regional differences existed in Chinese agricultural residue resources, and three distribution types formed, including resource-rich areas in North China, Northeast and Inner Mongolia, resource-limited areas in Central and Southwest China, and resource-poor areas along Northwest and Southeast coasts. This pattern is a reverse of the distributions of climatic conditions, water resources, economic development, human resources, and technological levels. Finally, it can be predicted that livestock manure and biomass conversion technology at low temperature will play increasingly significant roles in bioenergy industry development.

Assessment of Ticagrelor Versus Clopidogrel Treatment in Patients With ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction Undergoing Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

AIMS: Ticagrelor improves the clinical outcomes in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). However, few studies have directly compared the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor against clopidogrel, an oral, thienopyridine-class antiplatelet drug. This study compared the efficacy and safety of ticagrelor and clopidogrel in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. METHODS: We enrolled 400 patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI at the Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University and the First Hospital of Qinhuangdao, China, between January 01, 2013 and April 30, 2015. All patients received 300 mg of aspirin and were randomized to receive one of the following treatments: (1) a loading dose of clopidogrel (600 mg) before PPCI followed by clopidogrel (75 mg once daily for 1 year) post PPCI or (2) a loading dose of ticagrelor (180 mg) before PPCI followed by ticagrelor (90 mg twice daily for 1 year) post PPCI. Some patients were treated by intracoronary bolus of a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GPIIb/IIIa) inhibitor [tirofiban (10 µg/kg) plus maintenance infusion (0.15 µg·kg·min) for 24-36 hours] in accordance with specified guidelines. The primary end points evaluated were major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular event (MACCE) [defined as a composite of overall death, myocardial infarction (MI), unplanned revascularization, or stroke], stent thrombosis, and the composite end point of CV death, nonfatal MI, and stroke. The supplemental use of GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors in the clopidogrel and ticagrelor groups was monitored as another study end point, although the secondary safety end point evaluated was the incidence of bleeding events. RESULTS: Compared with the clopidogrel-treated group, ticagrelor treatment significantly reduced the incidence of MACCE [5 vs. 14; odds ratio (OR), 0.341; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.120-0.964; P = 0.034] and the composite end points of cardiovascular death, nonfatal MI, and stroke (4 vs. 13; OR, 0.294; 95% CI, 0.094-0.916; P = 0.026). Fewer patients in the ticagrelor group received GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors after PPCI compared with those in the clopidogrel group (10 vs. 21; OR, 0.449; 95% CI, 0.206-0.979; P = 0.040). However, there were no significant differences between the groups in the incidences of all-cause mortality, nonfatal MI, unplanned revascularization, stroke, stent thrombosis (P = 0.522, P = 0.246, P = 0.246, P = 0.217, P = 0.246, respectively), or bleeding events (10 vs. 7; OR, 1.451; 95% CI, 0.541-3.891; P = 0.457). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI, ticagrelor reduces the incidence of MACCE and the composite end point of cardiovascular death, nonfatal MI, and stroke compared with clopidogrel. Ticagrelor also reduces the need for GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors. However, no significant difference was observed in the risk of bleeding between the 2 groups.