Risk assessment and source analysis of trace elements in soils around county landfills in Tibet.

The ecology of the Qinghai‒Tibet Plateau is fragile, and the ecosystems in the region are difficult to remediate once damaged. Currently, landfilling is the mainstay of domestic waste disposal in China, and numerous, widely distributed county landfills exist. trace elements (TEs) in waste are gradually released with waste degradation and cannot be degraded in nature, affecting environmental quality and human health. To reduce the chance bias that exists in studies of individual landfills, we selected 11 representative county landfills in Tibet, total of 76 soil samples were collected, eight TEs (arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn)) were determined, and analysed for the current status of pollution, risk to human health, and sources of TEs to explore the impact of the landfills. The results showed that only a few landfills had individual TEs exceeding the risk screening value of the Soil Environmental Quality Risk Control Standard for Soil Contamination (GB 15618-2018) (pH > 7.5). Most of the soils around the landfills had moderate levels of pollution, but some individual landfills had higher levels, mainly due to Cd and Hg concentrations. Source analysis showed that Hg originated mainly from atmospheric transport; the other TEs came mainly from the weathering of soil parent material and bedrock. The potential risk from TEs to human health was low, and the risk to children was greater than the risk to adults. Among the three exposure routes, oral ingestion resulted in the highest carcinogenic risk and noncarcinogenic risk, with a contribution rate of more than 95%. Among the TEs, Ni had the highest carcinogenic risk, followed by Cr and As, and As had the highest noncarcinogenic risk.

Heat stress reprograms herbivory-induced defense responses in potato plants.

Climate change is predicted to increase the occurrence of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, which may thereby impact the outcome of plant-herbivore interactions. While elevated temperature is known to directly affect herbivore growth, it remains largely unclear if it indirectly influences herbivore performance by affecting the host plant they feed on. In this study, we investigated how transient exposure to high temperature influences plant herbivory-induced defenses at the transcript and metabolic level. To this end, we studied the interaction between potato (Solanum tuberosum) plants and the larvae of the potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) under different temperature regimes. We found that P. operculella larvae grew heavier on leaves co-stressed by high temperature and insect herbivory than on leaves pre-stressed by herbivory alone. We also observed that high temperature treatments altered phylotranscriptomic patterns upon herbivory, which changed from an evolutionary hourglass pattern, in which transcriptomic responses at early and late time points after elicitation are more variable than the ones in the middle, to a vase pattern. Specifically, transcripts of many herbivory-induced genes in the early and late defense stage were suppressed by HT treatment, whereas those in the intermediate stage peaked earlier. Additionally, we observed that high temperature impaired the induction of jasmonates and defense compounds upon herbivory. Moreover, using jasmonate-reduced (JA-reduced, irAOC) and -elevated (JA-Ile-elevated, irCYP94B3s) potato plants, we showed that high temperature suppresses JA signaling mediated plant-induced defense to herbivore attack. Thus, our study provides evidences on how temperature reprograms plant-induced defense to herbivores.

Acceleration of Zeolite Crystallization: Current Status, Mechanisms, and Perspectives.

Zeolites are important classes of crystalline materials and possess well-defined channels and cages with molecular dimensions. They have been extensively employed as heterogeneous catalysts and gas adsorbents due to their relatively large specific surface areas, high pore volumes, compositional flexibility, definite acidity, and hydrothermal stability. The zeolite synthesis normally undergoes high-temperature hydrothermal treatments with a relatively long crystallization time, which exhibits low synthesis efficiency and high energy consumption. Various strategies, e.g., modulation of the synthesis gel compositions, employment of special silica/aluminum sources, addition of seeds, fluoride, hydroxyl (·OH) free radical initiators, and organic additives, regulation of the crystallization conditions, development of new approaches, etc., have been developed to overcome these obstacles. And, these achievements make prominent contributions to the topic of acceleration of the zeolite crystallization and promote the fundamental understanding of the zeolite formation mechanism. However, there is a lack of the comprehensive summary and analysis on them. Herein, we provide an overview of the recent achievements, highlight the significant progress in the past decades on the developments of novel and remarkable strategies to accelerate the crystallization of zeolites, and basically divide them into three main types, i.e., chemical methods, physical methods, and the derived new approaches. The principles/acceleration mechanisms, effectiveness, versatility, and degree of reality for the corresponding approaches are thoroughly discussed and summarized. Finally, the rational design of the prospective strategies for the fast synthesis of zeolites is commented on and envisioned. The information gathered here is expected to provide solid guidance for developing a more effective route to improve the zeolite crystallization and obtain the functional zeolite-based materials with more shortened durations and lowered cost and further promote their applications.

RNAi-mediated knockdown of papilin gene affects the egg hatching in Nilaparvata lugens.

BACKGROUND: The brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens, is one of the most destructive pests of rice. Owing to the rapid adaptation of BPH to many pesticides and resistant varieties, identifying putative gene targets for developing RNA interference (RNAi)-based pest management strategies has received much attention for this pest. The glucoprotein papilin is the most abundant component in the basement membranes of many organisms, and its function is closely linked to development. RESULTS: In this study, we identified a papilin homologous gene in BPH (NlPpn). Quantitative Real-time PCR analysis showed that the transcript of NlPpn was highly accumulated in the egg stage. RNAi of NlPpn in newly emerged BPH females caused nonhatching phenotypes of their eggs, which may be a consequence of the maldevelopment of their embryos. Moreover, the transcriptomic analysis identified 583 differentially expressed genes between eggs from the dsGFP- and dsNlPpn-treated insects. Among them, the 'structural constituent of cuticle' cluster ranked first among the top 15 enriched GO terms. Consistently, ultrastructural analysis unveiled that dsNlPpn-treated eggs displayed a discrete and distorted serosal endocuticle lamellar structure. Furthermore, the hatchability of BPH eggs was also successfully reduced by the topical application of NlPpn-dsRNA-layered double hydroxide nanosheets onto the adults. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that NlPpn is essential to maintaining the regular structure of the serosal cuticle and the embryonic development in BPH, indicating NlPpn could be a potential target for pest control during the egg stage. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Gut microbiota facilitate adaptation of invasive moths to new host plants.

Gut microbiota are important in the adaptation of phytophagous insects to their plant hosts. However, the interaction between gut microbiomes and pioneering populations of invasive insects during their adaptation to new hosts, particularly in the initial phases of invasion, has been less studied. We studied the contribution of the gut microbiome to host adaptation in the globally recognized invasive pest, Hyphantria cunea, as it expands its range into southern China. The southern population of H. cunea shows effective adaptation to Metasequoia glyptostroboides and exhibits greater larval survival on Metasequoia than the original population. Genome resequencing revealed no significant differences in functions related to host adaptation between the two populations. The compatibility between southern H. cunea populations and M. glyptostroboides revealed a correlation between the abundance of several gut bacteria genera (Bacteroides, Blautia, and Coprococcus) and H. cunea survival. Transplanting the larval gut microbiome from southern to northern populations enhanced the adaptability of the latter to the previously unsuitable plant M. glyptostroboides. This research provides evidence that the gut microbiome of pioneering populations can enhance the compatibility of invasive pests to new hosts and enable more rapid adaptation to new habitats.

Correlation analysis between thromboelastography and liver injury related indexes in patients with heat stroke / 中国热带医学

@#Abstract: Objective To analyze the correlation between the thromboelastography (TEG) indexes and the indexes related to liver injury in patients with heat stroke, and explore the diagnostic value of TEG indexes for liver injury in patients with heat stroke. Methods A total of 95 patients with exertional heat stroke (EHS) admitted to 924 Hospital of the Joint Service Support Force of the People's Liberation Army of China from August 2020 to July 22 were selected, and divided into a non-liver injury group (55 cases) and a liver injury group (40 cases) according to whether there was liver injury. TEG instrument was used for the detection of thromboelastography to record the TEG parameters, including reaction time (R), agglutination time (K), α angle, maximum amplitude (MA value), and coagulation complex index (CI). The levels of glutamic transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total bilirubin (TBil), albumin (ALB) were detected by automatic biochemical analyzer. Pearson's method was applied to analyze the correlation between thromboelastography indexes R, K, α angle, CI and liver function indexes AST, ALT, TBil, ALB in patients with heat stroke after liver injury. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was applied to analyze the predictive value of thromboelastography indexes R, K, α angle, CI and combined detection for liver injury in patients with heat stroke. Results Compared with the non-liver injury group, the AST, ALT and TBil levels in patients with heat stroke in the liver injury group were higher (t=26.174, 16.923, 18.414, P<0.05), while the ALB level was lower (t=24.596, P<0.05); compared with the non-liver injury group, the R and K of patients with heat stroke in the liver injury group were higher (t=58.014, 52.862, P<0.05), and the α angle and CI were lower (t=46.853, 60.717, P<0.05); R was positively correlated with AST and ALT (r=0.532, 0.610, P<0.001), and negatively correlated with ALB (r=-0.551, P<0.001) in patients with heat stroke complicated with liver injury; K was positively correlated with AST, ALT and TBil (r=0.661, 0.531, 0.504, P<0.001); α angle was negatively correlated with AST and ALT (r=-0.473, -0.448, P<0.01), and positively correlated with ALB (r=0.539, P<0.001); CI was negatively correlated with AST, ALT and TBil (r=-0.458, -0.505, -0.549, P<0.001); the area under the curve (AUC) of thromboelastography indexes R, K, α angle and CI in predicting liver injury in patients with heat stroke was 0.807 (sensitivity of 70.0%, specificity of 81.6%), 0.831 (sensitivity of 77.5%, specificity of 85.5%), 0.747 (sensitivity of 67.5%, specificity of 74.5%), and 0.788 (sensitivity of 77.5%, specificity of 83.6%), respectively. The AUC of combined detection to predict liver injury in patients with heat stroke was 0.967 (sensitivity of 92.5%, specificity of 91.9%). Conclusions The thromboelastography indexes are correlated with the indexes related to liver injury in patients with heat stroke, and the thromboelastography indexes are helpful to diagnose liver injury in patients with heat stroke.